Doctor Who: Big Finish - Short Trips [004] - The Muses by Jacqueline Rayner

Author:Jacqueline Rayner
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
Publisher: Big Finish
Published: 2003-08-30T22:00:00+00:00

URANIA

The Muse of Astronomy

The Astronomer’s Apprentice

Simon A. Forward

Astronomy. Astrology. One letter this way, six letters that. Stand them side-by-side and, like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, they are too commonly confused. Not exactly light years apart, phonetically speaking, but two different worlds all the same.

On the one hand, the observation of the lives of the stars and the planets; on the other, the idea that the stars and planets play with people’s lives. One is a fantastic study, ranging from the creation of the Universe to its very end, from the subbest of atomic particles to the limits of infinity; the other a fantastic notion, born of the human imagination. Both encompass many lifetimes.

Both of which can be said of me, in fact; which, whenever I think of it, is more than a bit of a giggle.

And something of a distraction when I’m confronted with the rather more serious question of how, where and when to begin my tale. Since my story concerns a marriage of diverse concepts, I suppose I could do worse than to start with something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue…

Now there’s a recipe to feed the imagination.

Victoria was beginning to get very tired of sitting by the TARDIS on the riverbank; once or twice she had peeped over the Doctor’s shoulder at the book he was reading, but it was all profoundly confusing, despite his patient attempts to explain. Not altogether surprising, given that the volume was the work of Neverglade, who it seemed – to Victoria at any rate – was above many heads, in more ways than one. To her, the alien suggested an intelligence to rival the Doctor’s, but with little of the accessibility.

It was just when the Doctor was licking his finger to turn another page, that Jamie came galumphing up the hill, huffing and puffing like the Flying Scotsman having made the run to the Highlands. ‘Hurry up, you two! We’ll be late!’

The young man’s commotion had the Doctor glancing up, but in the meantime his moistened finger had stuck to the precious old page. In a panic he tugged the digit loose, while struggling to keep his place in the book, and somehow the weighty tome, far too big for the little fellow’s lap, put an end to the matter by slamming closed.

The Doctor snatched his forger free and sucked at it, sparing a wounded glare at Jamie. ‘Now look what you made me do!’ he moaned like an old granny.

Jamie slowed his approach and stood there, catching his breath. ‘Oh, you can still find your place, Doctor. That wee flap of paper is sticking out.’

The wee flap of paper was worryingly ragged along one edge.

‘Oh dear! Now look what you made me do!’ the Doctor moaned again, this time very much more like a giddy aunt. Wincing at the damage and the pain in his finger, he teased the pages apart to examine the extent of the tear. By no means disastrous, it was unfortunately magnified by the fact that it was alone in the entire book.

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