The Space Museum by Glyn Jones

Author:Glyn Jones [Jones, Glyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780426202899
Publisher: W.H. Allen
Published: 1987-06-14T07:00:00+00:00

The Doctor gazed around the room.

‘Perhaps its inclusion in our museum might bring the visitors flocking back,’ Lobos suggested. ‘It must be something of a rarity. If we were fortunate enough to be able to include the crew, that would be novel.’

‘Grotesque, I’d call it.’ The Doctor said. ‘When they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian.’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Quoting - from another master,’ the Time Lord said.

Lobos got up from behind his desk and paced the floor, hands clasped behind his back. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m afraid admission charges have nothing to do with the lack of interest. Our civilisation rests on its laurels’ - now where had he picked up that expression? ‘Galactic conquest is a thing of the past. Life now, it is said, is purely to enjoy.’

‘The decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Yes, it has happened before in galaxies far beyond your reach.’

Lobos looked suddenly interested. ‘Tell me about it.’

‘What?’

‘This Empire.’ He waved his hand in a circular motion, trying to recall the name.

‘Rome?’ the Doctor prompted.

‘Rome.’

‘What’s to tell?’ the Doctor asked. ‘History repeats itself, that’s all.’

Lobos reseated himself and leaned forward on the desk.

‘No, I want to know,’ he insisted. ‘What happened to it?

This Empire.’

‘It grew, it conquered, it fed on - and off - those it conquered. It got too big for its boots.’

Lobos laughed. ‘Too big for its boots! I like that. Too big for its boots!’ And he chuckled merrily. The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘Rather like your - what did you call it? -

Morok? Rather like your ‘’Torok Empire I would think.

Then it declined and fell.’

Lobos stopped laughing. ‘How?’ he asked.

‘Well, now,’ the Doctor placed his fingertips together.

‘That, as they say, is the sixty-four thousand dollar question, isn’t it? And there were probably as many reasons as there were dollars. Am I going to sit here in this chair for the next twenty-four hours giving you a potted history of the Roman Empire?’

‘If I feel like it,’ Lobos said.

This time the Doctor raised both eyebrows. ‘Well, let’s see if we can’t put it in a nutshell, keep it to the kernel as it were. There was a revolt by slaves led by one Spartacus.’

‘What!’ Lobos stiffened.

‘But that was crushed.’

Lobos relaxed.

‘There was trouble in the colonies.’

‘There always is,’ Lobos said.

‘Political backstabbing.’

‘Ah, yes,’ Lobos said, thinking of his own exile. ‘There’s always that too.’

‘Dissention, schism, uprising, rebellion. Finally Rome herself was invaded. There are some who attribute the whole thing to lead poisoning sending them all mad. The Romans were great engineers. They built a water system with marvellous aqueducts of which, I am sure, they were inordinately proud. But, unfortunately, the channels were lined with lead. I suppose it could have been something as simply as that, but it seems to be the way of all empires: sooner or later the conquerer is conquered.’

Lobos sat for a while, thinking, then: ‘So why did you come here?’ he eventually asked.

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