Doctor Who - Past Doctor Adventures - 44 - Byzantium (1st Doctor) by Keith Topping

Author:Keith Topping
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Istanbul (Turkey), Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9780563538363
Publisher: BBC Pubns
Published: 2001-07-01T07:00:00+00:00

Again Iola tried to say something but all that would emerge was a few isolated noises.

`What manner of talk is that?' the legionnaire asked both of them. 'Cat got your tongues?'

`Leave her alone, you big bully,' continued Vicki. 'Pick on someone your own size.'

The legionnaire was rendered momentarily speechless himself before grabbing Vicki by the arm again and pulling her closer to him. `Your tongue will have you hanged, girl,' he said. As his hand clasped her back, Vicki shouted with pain and tried to get away from him. Instantly the legionnaire dropped her like a piece of hot coal. Ì have not touched you.

Yet,' he said.

`Nor shall you;Vicki replied, looking him directly in the eyes. ‘I'd sooner die first'

Behind them, on the hill, the Zealots had routed the Christians, several of whom lay bleeding to death. The Romans, meanwhile, continued to hold a casual disinterest in the entire battle. The legionnaire cast a nervous glance towards the crucifixion. Vicki followed it and understood.

'Deserting your post for a quick rape?' she suggested.

'What will they give you for that? Public castration? Broken on a wheel? Hung, drawn and quartered?'

The soldier looked worried, but said nothing.

Òne decent scream from me,' Vicki noted, 'and I'll bet half a dozen of them come running. That's if the Zealots don't get to you first. And I'd hate to think what they'd do to you if there aren't any of your Roman mates around to save your life.'

She clutched her back, and winced with pain. 'See, the thing is, I got the beating of a lifetime this morning from my new mummy. One false move and I could be in the most terrible agony.'

`Why did she beat you?' the soldier asked, backing away.

`Why? Oh, obviously a criminal desperado who has nothing to lose. So, what do you say then, you and me behind the wall?'

The legionnaire took a final glance at Vicki. `You and I shall have a date one day at the gallows pole, my kitten,' he said before breaking into a run, leaping over the dry-stone wall and sprinting up the hill.

`Men,’ Vicki told an astonished Iola. `Predictable in any age. Come on, we'd better get back to your mother before she decides I've corrupted you enough.'

He had faced the fifty-eight terrors of the universe with bravery and a philosophical shrug that suggested that beneath his exterior of befuddled compassion was one of nature's true fatalists.

The Doctor watched the sun setting over Byzantium and the sea beyond from yet another cave mouth overlooking the city. He could feel nothing but a numb indifference to everything.

The TARDIS was gone. Nothing else mattered.

Memories flooded back to the Doctor. In the sixty years since he had hurriedly abandoned his home and fled in terror into the universe, he had stared death in the face on numerous occasions. In France and Mexico. On Skaro and Mondas and Cassuragi. After a while, the adventures tended to merge into a giant conglomeration of escape-capture-escape-capture-escape. How many metallic corridors had he

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