Doctor Who - The 8th Doctor - 62 - The Domino Effect by David Bishop

Author:David Bishop
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Comics & Graphic Novels, General, Science Fiction, Adventure, Doctor Who (Fictitious Character), Fiction
ISBN: 9780563538691
Publisher: BBC Worldwide
Published: 2003-10-06T07:00:00+00:00

Nobody knows if he’s even still alive.’

The Doctor shook his head. ‘He committed suicide in 1954, unhappy and alone. I remember him during the war. He seemed so alive, so full of hope. . . ’

Hannah was perplexed. ‘If you believe the legends, he’s been held prisoner in the Tower of London since the war.’

‘So what has all this got to do with a shroud?’ Anji asked.

Hannah smiled. ‘The name started out as a joke among undergraduates.

They said the schematic’s importance in proving Turing’s work was akin to a holy relic, like the piece of cloth said to show a bloody imprint of the face of Jesus Christ. So they called the schematic the –’

‘The Turing Shroud,’ the Doctor said. He slapped a hand to his forehead.

‘Of course! Turing was crucial to the genesis of the modern computer. He developed key concepts like artificial intelligence. His notion of the universal machine revolutionised scientific thinking for generations to come. The work he did from 1936 onwards would change history. . . ’

Anji quickly grasped the essence of what the Doctor was saying. ‘But if he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment, that work could never happen. So, no Alan Turing, no computer? Could 1936 be the point where reality diverged?’

‘I’m not sure I understand what you’re talking about,’ Hannah said, but the Doctor and Anji were already racing ahead in their thoughts.

‘Surely taking one man out of history would not be enough to prevent the computer being invented?’ Anji asked the Doctor.

He nodded. ‘No, but it would delay that invention significantly.’

Anji turned to Hannah. ‘You said the Government has been deliberately suppressing people who favour scientific progress and new ideas?’

‘Yes. Anyone who speaks out publicly is threatened, or discredited, or simply just disappears,’ she replied.

‘Or they get called terrorists, pull up against a wall and executed,’ the Doctor added. ‘Incidents like that soon become a powerful disincentive to all but the most determined. Remove a few key thinkers like Turing and the process of scientific development is slowed to a crawl around the world.’

Anji had seen the evidence of what the Doctor was saying. ‘Wouldn’t scientists in other countries also be developing similar ideas?’

The Doctor pressed his index finger against his lips, deep in thought. ‘Yes.

So whoever is behind all this must have some foreknowledge of events, en-Friday, April 18, 2003

100

abling them to prevent, suppress or destroy such developments. But how?’

His eyes rolled back into his head and his hands clutched at his chest.

Anji crawled across the truck to him. ‘Doctor! What’s wrong? What is it?’

Something’s –

– happening –

Doctor –

‘Another. . .

dizzy spell. . . ’ he said between gasps for breath. ‘Don’t worry. . . about me, I’ll be. . . fine. . . ’ Then he fainted dead away, his head lolling to one side. Anji pressed her left ear against his chest, listening for one heartbeat, then the other.

‘Still beating,’ she muttered to herself. ‘That’s something.’

Hannah was just as concerned as Anji, but was also curious. ‘Why

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