Doctor Who - New Adventures - 26 - Theatre of War by Justin Richards

Author:Justin Richards
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780426204145
Publisher: London Bridge
Published: 1994-06-14T07:00:00+00:00

Aronholt stopped his pacing and joined the Doctor by the table. ‘Doctor, you are a clever and intelligent man.’

‘And you’re an excellent judge of character. Now can we stop the machine?

Change the plan?’ He was getting tense, shuffling from foot to foot while his hands played with the handle of his umbrella.

195

But Aronholt shook his head. ‘But I fear you may have rather missed the point. Perhaps you had better tell me what, exactly, you think the plan is –

what the machine is for.’

The Doctor took a deep breath, sat on the edge of the banqueting table and began his story. ‘Many years ago, a thriving civilization existed on the planet Menaxus. It was a civilization which placed great store in its admiration for the theatre and for dramatic art. It was a civilization which built a great theatre in which to present the very best of drama to a huge audience.

‘I don’t know how long the civilization lasted. I must confess I had never heard of it until recently. But Menaxus was a society with enemies. One in particular devised a plan to invade and lay waste the planet. Why the plan was so complicated, I also don’t know, but perhaps it was difficult to penetrate the Menaxan defences any other way. But what they did was to build a machine, a machine that presented drama – plays – as a projection.

‘The technique was not technologically innovative. The attraction lay in what plays the machine could perform. The Menaxans were given the machine, or perhaps it was contrived that they should find it. But whatever, they discovered that this machine could present one play in particular – Osterling’s lost masterpiece, The Good Soldiers. So, predictably, the Menaxans arranged a great perlormance.

‘I imagine everyone of any importance, and a great deal of other people, were present when the play was performed. And I imagine they loved it.

Right up until the end.

‘You see, the machine – this machine – is more than just an image projector.

The plays, the characters and situations actually exist inside it. And with the inclusion of a real-world interface and a crude dimensional osmosis damper it is possible for people from the real world to get inside the machine. And for characters from the plays within the machine to escape into the real world.’

Aronholt nodded. ‘Go on, Doctor.’

‘We both know how The Good Soldiers ends.’ The Doctor pointed to the door they had come through earlier. ‘The machine destroyed the entirety of the civilization on Menaxus. And its job done, the machine slept. Until now.’

‘And now?’

‘The machine has been woken. Probably by Lannic’s excavations. It has survived undisturbed on Menaxus perhaps for thousands of years, and in that time I think the dimensional osmosis damper has de-phased. As a result we’ve had some bleed-through from the plays within the machine. Elements of The Good Soldiers and Death Bane have appeared within the real world, have in-teract with it. And now the machine has started its program again. And a performance of The Good Soldiers is scheduled for tonight.

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