Doctor Who: BBC Past Doctor Adventures [018] - Salvation by Steve Lyons

Author:Steve Lyons
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780563555667
Publisher: BBC Books
Published: 1999-01-02T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

STAR STRUCK

Heard the latest from across the Atlantic? Americans are flocking to New York, to see six men who claim to be the Gods of Myth come to Earth in a spaceship.

How can they be so gullible?

Some people, it seems, will believe anything.

The Bulldog (editorial), Sunday March 28, 1965

Dodo saw little of the journey into the city. The only windows were those in the back doors of the truck, and she became tired of peering through their bars at receding stretches of road and at the convoy of vehicles behind her. She knew, though, when they had reached the church. She knew it because the truck’s progress slowed to a crawl and because she could no longer see the rest of the convoy, but mostly because a crush of people had appeared at the windows.

Unhappy people. They shouted and cursed and hammered on the doors and on the side of the truck with fists and sticks.

Dodo was horrified to fmd herself at the focal point of such hatred. She realised that the army were blamed for having driven the gods away once. Nobody wanted it to happen again.

The hatred seemed to go on for ever, but the truck fmally juddered to a halt. Several more minutes passed before General Marchant appeared through the bars and unlocked the doors. The Doctor climbed out first, making sure that Dodo was safely behind him. People were shouting and screaming, but no violence had broken out. Yet.

Marchant was jostled. He responded indignantly, threatening arrests. The Doctor raised his voice to assure everybody that the group was here at the gods’ invitation. ‘I am right, am I not, General?’ he asked pointedly. Marchant glared at him, and seemed startled and guilty.

Dodo saw now why it had taken so long for the truck to plough through the crowd. Since last she had seen it, it had grown enormous. From here, she could not see its edges.

The Doctor’s words had calmed things – but still the short trek to the church door, with Marchant and the Doctor before her and Smythe, Carter and Emerson behind, was an interminable struggle.

They left the crowd behind as they mounted the steps. The guards had taken up their positions again, but they parted to allow the delegation through. Dodo remembered what the Doctor had said. They had been invited here? How could it be so?

Inside, the church was more beautiful than she remembered. A stream flowed across one corner, and sunlight danced on its surface. Dodo caught herself smiling.

The gods awaited them.

They formed a line atop the step to the altar: Jennifer, Max, Dennis, and, to Dodo’s delight (although the emotion surprised her), Joseph. A short way behind, the Patriarch sat upon another new addition to the building: an elevated throne, with royal blue velvet cushions. One god was missing. Dodo could not recall his name.

No words were exchanged. Marchant strode briskly up the central aisle, and the rest of the group straggled along in his wake. The general halted smartly, some ten feet from the lesser gods.

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