Doctor Who_ Placebo Effect Part 13

Still wearing his wide-brimmed hat, Reverend Lukas was positioned in the centre, his followers and Sam (seated next to Kyle Dale) in a circle looking in on him. He was smiling, but there was something wrong with him, Sam was sure of that. It was the eyes: they didn't smile - they just stared.

Probingly. Perhaps it was the shadow cast by the hat.

G.o.d, travelling with you, Doctor, is making me paranoid, she decided, relieved no one could hear her thoughts. Unless Reverend Lukas was telepathic...

More paranoia, Samantha. Stop it now.

Kyle tipped his head towards her. 'Reverend Lukas asked me earlier if you would care to stay for the night. He thinks it might be a bit dangerous to try to retrace your steps at this time of night. If there are other Klepton groups out there they might be looking for revenge.'

Sam nodded. "That'd be great,' she lied.'I really appreciate it.'

Oh Doctor, you are going to pay for this.

One of the young men - Jolyon, Sam remembered - brought some trays of fruit into the circle and they all began handing them to one another. It was strange. Every person took one fruit but pa.s.sed it to the person on their left.

A curious ritual, Sam decided, and tried to remember if any of the tedious scripture lessons at school made mention of it...

'Do you believe, Miss Jones?'

The Reverend Lukas's question caught Sam off guard. She noticed he was not eating, either. Weird guy. Before she could answer, he asked another question, again with a smile betrayed by the lack of humour in his eyes.

'I a.s.sume that is your real name. It's a bit archaic and you don't dress like one of the retro-movement brigade.'

like Lukas and Jotyon weren't positively medieval names?

'No, it's mine. The Doctor once suggested we called ourselves Kid Curry and Hannibal Hayes, but I realised no one would get the joke.' Sam noted with some satisfaction no one here did, either. She'd remind him of that later. 'I think he spent too long in America, watching bad TV Reverend Lukas just nodded, as if he, and only he, understood exactly what she was saying.

'You are nervous, Miss Jones. Deflecting my questions with flippancy. I apologise if the Church unsettles you. Our belief is very important to us and my questions are out of genuine curiosity, not malice.'

'Unlike your adventures at Stacy's wedding,' snapped Sam.

She expected everyone to 'oooh' at that, or at least look warningly at her.

But no one seemed to notice apart from Kyle and Reverend Lukas.

Reverend Lukas smiled again. 'As I say, you are not obliged to understand our motives. I will not force them upon you.'

Sly git wants me to ask. That way he can spout off legitimately, like the Jehovah's did every Sunday morning on the doorstep back home. G.o.d, were they flummoxed when Sam had countered one of their house calls by discussing her latest copy of Humanist News . And they ended up paying her fifty pence for it before skulking away. They never came back.

G.o.d, I hope Mum didn't turn to them when I vanished...

'No. No, I don't believe, I'm afraid. Of course, I respect your desire to believe, but for me G.o.d's just not, well... well, I don't really know him, I suppose, but I have a job seeing where he's coming from at times.'

Reverend Lukas nodded slowly.

Still smiling. Weirdo.

'We follow the G.o.ddess, not the traditional Earth G.o.d you are familiar with.'

Sam decided to try to look interested. It was only polite - after all, these guys were feeding her. And the Doctor had asked her to find out what they were doing on Micawber's World...

'So, who is the G.o.ddess? If that's not too impolite.'

Reverend Lukas laughed, and a couple of the others joined in. 'You have been in seclusion for a long time, Miss Jones.'

'Sam.'

Reverend Lukas ignored that.'You see, the G.o.ddess is the beauty that is the Universe. She is the one true power of creation.'

Sam thought about this. 'Are we talking some kind of Gaia hypothesis here? Mother Earth, G.o.d is a woman? Or are we talking someone totally...

different?' Sam almost said 'totally new' but realised that might further complicate her time of origin if it came up. Which it just might if she showed any further ignorance about religious cultures in the fortieth century.

Jolyon interrupted.'You see, Miss Jones -'

'Sam.'

"The G.o.ddess is far more than just a deity. She is a total way of life. We are out here, amongst the stars, seeking her divinity, and spreading the word as we do so. Older religions on Earth have become embroiled in a sociopolitical rut, bound by the whims and wishes of whichever government has control of the planet. The Church of the Way Forward is exactly that.'

'Seeking out new paths, new angles,' Phillipa added. 'And if people join our campaign en route, then that is all the better.'

'As I did,' put in Kyle.

Reverend Lukas just stared hard at Sam.

And everything else in the room seemed to melt away. All Sam could see were his eyes, blinking suddenly, filling her entire range of vision. Tiny, bloodshot eyes that seemed to be boring into her... her soul? Looking for something.

Sam was suddenly somewhere else. In a windswept desert -Sansom Plains on Ha'olam - and around her she could feel, without seeing, the presence of the I.

A flash of white.

She was on the Mu Camelopides moon, with Anton.

A flash of white.

Seeing the Doctor through the eyes of a Jax...

A flash of white.

A jumble of images - cracks in a wall forming letters; a military woman trapped; the Doctor; a strange wasplike insect, chittering away, gazing around with bulbous brown eyes; a Spider Dalek, blasting down Thais; the Doctor; an Earth dominated by Tract.i.tes; a man blurring, becoming a Zygon; Carolyn; the TARDIS. in Sh.o.r.editch; the Doctor...

'Get out of my memories, you thieving b.a.s.t.a.r.d!'

Sam was back with the others, in the circle. She was sweating, her clothes sticking to her sodden back. But no one seemed to notice the change. They clearly hadn't heard her outburst either.

She could see Reverend Lukas watching her, but for the first time the smile had gone. His face was now a picture of astonishment and something else.

Something almost predatory...

Sam stood up.'Look, guys, thanks and everything, though, but I think I ought to try and get back to the TARDIS, you know. The Doctor will be worried.'

'Kindly sit down, Miss Jones.' That was not a request. That was an order.

Instinctively, Sam started to sit.

'Hey, I'm not at school nowadays, Reverend.' She straightened up again.

'Oh, please sit down, young lady!'

Sam sat. The others broke the circle, quietly clearing away the food things.

Reverend Lukas waved to one of them, who sat down beside Sam. It was Kyle Dale.

Oh, great.

Reverend Lukas leaned forward. 'You seem to be a very interesting and - how can I put it? - well-travelled young woman, Miss Jones.'

'Sam.'

'I think you could make a very valuable contribution to the Church.'

'Is this where I get brainwashed and join a cult? Were you David Koresh in a previous life or something?' Sam eased back a little.

That's it, Sam, keep the one-liners coming. A good defence mechanism.

Make out you're c.o.c.kier than you are. Don't let them know how scared you feel, OK?

She glanced around the essentially bare room. Two doors, one either end.

The one she'd come in by and the untried one.Which was nearer.

'You are free to leave, Miss Jones. I would suggest the door by which you came in. The other leads to the toilet area. It's a very long drop through a very small window. You wouldn't survive.' Reverend Lukas smiled once again. 'It is not my intention to brainwash you, intimidate you or frighten you. I am merely... curious. I sense an aura around you, an emission of general goodness that the G.o.ddess would appreciate.'

'You read my mind, my memories.'

'A gift from the G.o.ddess,' Reverend Lukas said. 'It's more a psychic impression. I imagine you saw far more of your actual memories than I did.

I just received an impression, a feeling if you will. An intuitiveness that you have travelled a very long way to be here on Micawber's World. Have you?'

Sam shrugged.'We came for a wedding, which you b.u.g.g.e.red up, frankly.'

"The G.o.ddess does not approve of interracial marriages,' said Kyle. "The resultant offspring cannot be of an entirely whole soul.' He was obviously speaking some kind of Church doctrine from memory. Or at least Sam hoped so, because otherwise it meant he most likely genuinely believed in that.

'Stacy and Ssard can't have kids,' Sam said. 'Not that it's any business of yours, frankly. But besides which, what you're spouting is tantamount to racism.'

'How so?'

Sam just stared at him. 'You really don't see it, do you? lake so many religious hypocrites, you hide your own personal philosophy and bigotry under some great meaningful crusade.' She leaned forward, feeling Reverend Lukas's breath on her face. "Throughout history, more people have died, been persecuted or hounded simply because of religion. In the name of G.o.d.Yahweh, Allah or whoever, everyone who doesn't fit some nice, neat, tidy ideal of perfection has been abused and denigrated. You ask me why I don't believe in anything, Reverend Lukas. Well, I cannot follow or believe in any so-called supreme being who so wantonly allows people to be persecuted that much.'

Reverend Lukas nodded, and then looked across to Kyle.

The younger man took Sam's hand, but she s.n.a.t.c.hed it back. Undaunted, he began to talk quietly. "Throughout history, you are quite correct. From the Roman violations against the Christians through the Spanish Inquisition, witch hunts, right up to the Second American Civil War when the Christian Right-Wing Fundamentalist movement attempted its coup, people have used their religion as an excuse to dominate.'

Sam nodded. 'And let's not forget the Muslims, the Hindus - I mean, it seems to me they're all as bad as each other. G.o.d, Buddha, Mohammed...'

'Mohammed and Buddha are not, strictly speaking, the same as G.o.d,'

interrupted Reverend Lukas. "They were good people who ascended to Divinity. But I'm splitting hairs. Do go on.'

Sam wondered if he was taking the p.i.s.s. But so what? She was on a roll. It was like being back home again, arguing with her parents. 'My point is that G.o.d, in a variety of forms and denominations, causes more war and suffering than anyone could think possible.'

Kyle shook his head.'People use religion not as a reason for war but as a weapon in war. Just as many people stay at home, praying that the fighting will end. And you are rather forgetting all the positive things that religion can do.'

Sam raised an eyebrow.'Oh yeah? Like what?'

Kyle shrugged and began counting off on his fingers. "The abolitionist movement which ultimately resulted in the formation of the Galactic Federation was started by church leaders back in the mid-twentieth century. Hospitals were started by the Church. Look at the mission work that various saints did on a variety of worlds. The whole of the G'narlan civilisation was saved due to the interference of missionaries, despite the wishes of the military junta that ruled Earth at the time. All the charities that have been run by a variety of faiths and denominations all over the cosmos. Religion has done a lot of positive things as well. I think that may be something you have chosen not to think about.'

Sam was about to reply when she realised she couldn't actually think what to say. Sure, all those things were great, and no doubt run by well-meaning individuals and organisations, but there were equally a number of things destroyed by people's insistence on slavishly adhering to a religion, no matter how it affected other peoples' rights and basic dignities. She said so, once she'd got her thoughts unjumbled.

And was then surprised to find Reverend Lukas agreeing with her. 'And that is the important distinction, Miss Jones,' he said, waving a finger just like Dad always did. Does. Whatever. 'It is always a handful of people who use religion as their pennant, because it attracts people. It is convenient and easy. Torquemada was the greatest exponent of faith in G.o.d and used this to influence the court of Queen Isabella. He tortured and murdered hundreds in G.o.d's name - according to him. But had he been a real follower of his G.o.d, he could never have done the things he did. The same with Hitler's obsession with religious artefacts, the Knights Templar in medieval France and the Islamic Ayatollahs of the thirty-second century.

They did what they wanted and abused the name of G.o.d. By telling people you are doing G.o.d's will, people quickly come to accept that indeed you are.'

Kyle shrugged at Sam, clearly hoping she was getting Reverend Lukas's meaning. 'But saying you are doing what G.o.d wants and actually following his lessons have very rarely gone hand in hand; he said quietly.'Few people understand the words of the Bible.'

'Few people consider the Bible to be much cop,' countered Sam.'After all, it's just a series of notes written and rewritten over the centuries based on a load of second-hand oral information. It wasn't written down at the time in any great detail, and what was has been interpreted in a number of different ways by whoever was doing the writing and translating. They all had the chance to add their own opinions, bigotries and adaptations. No one can truly say what the Bible really is any more.' She looked at Kyle, daring him to argue.'Besides, what if I say G.o.d doesn't exist? What proof do you have that he does?'

'What proof do you have that he doesn't?' countered Kyle. 'I mean, you could point at the book of Genesis and say the whole Adam and Eve story is rubbish. You could point at the dinosaurs and Darwinism and say science has proven that evolution created mankind, not G.o.d and his magic clay or a reshaping of Adam's rib. But I could go through the whole so-called proof of evolution and punch fist-sized holes in every argument.

People often talk about the 'missing link' but there are far more than just one. Evolution is a convenient theory, but relies just as much on supposition, unproven theory and a bunch of scientists telling you it is fact as the Christian Fundamentalists of the twenty-first-century crusades telling you the attempted genocide of h.o.m.os.e.xuals was G.o.d's will.'

'Go on then,' said Sam. 'I'll enjoy this.'

Kyle nodded. 'OK. Let's start with cell structure. Evolutionary theory works on the premise of the simple cell - Darwin's evolutionary theory was started long before cells were being looked at under electron microscopes. In fact, there really is no such thing as the simple cell with the membrane, nucleus, and cytoplasm. There are tons of complex organelles - mitochondria, Golgi apparatus, chloroplasts, et cetera.'

She thought about this. Her grasp on science wasn't as good as the Doctor's (bet he'd give a good refutation of this) and so she didn't fancy b.u.t.ting in yet. Wait until Kyle said something she could trip him up over.'Do go on,' she said.

Kyle did, throwing a look to Reverend Lukas, who nodded encouragingly.

'Evolutionary theory states that from just a few species, a vast number of subsequent species evolved. However, the fossil records on many planets, including Earth, show that this is not the case. If this were true, there would be huge amounts of species today compared with billions of years ago - one branching off into others. However, the fossil record shows many, many types of past species with much more variety than today. It actually seems that out of many, only a few remained.'

'Maybe we've wiped them all out. I mean, here we are embarking on the fortieth century. How many millions of species have become extinct over the last billion years or so?' Sam realised that this was actually irrelevant to Kyle's argument, but she needed to say something. G.o.d, she hated being lectured.

'Evolutionary theory also says that out of the oft-quoted 'primordial soup'

and chaotic conditions, mere chance had it that mutations from radiation developed that made certain animals more adept at surviving. These evolved into other things and thus created this ordered ecosystem. Two things counter this theory, I'm afraid. Firstly, all shown mutations are neutral at best, while most mutations are at least detrimental to the organism's chance of survival, if not lethal. Survival of the fittest is a true concept but the idea of these "lucky" mutations is pretty much based on guesswork and wishful thinking. Plus, the Second Law of Thermodynamics - please remember, Miss Jones, that this is one of your Scientific Laws as opposed to just a theory - says that things tend towards chaos and destruction.'

Sam nodded. 'Yeah entropy. As a good friend of mine once said, "the more you put things together the more they keep falling apart."What of it?'