Doctor Who: The Also People Read Online Free PDF Page A

the wine. It had a light flowery bouquet and tasted like summertime in the high Alps. 'I wonder what it's made from?'
    The Doctor picked up the bottle and examined the label carefully. 'I haven't got the faintest idea.'
    'If I could see through the walls of the sphere, what would I see?'
    'Stars, constellations, galaxies, the usual sort of thing.'
    'Would I recognize any of the stars?'
    The Doctor thought about this for a moment. 'No.'
    'Not a single constellation?'
    'Perhaps,' said the Doctor. 'But what you think of as Human Space is a very long way away.'
    'But you've been here before?'
    'Actually,' said the Doctor, 'I don't visit this place very often. Nothing particularly interesting ever happens here.'
    'Stagnant?'
    'Peaceful,' said the Doctor. 'Terribly well organized.'
     
    'Efficient?'
    'Totally.'
    'Prosperous?'
    'Disgustingly so.'
    'Boring?'
    'Very.'
    'People?'
    'About two trillion.'
    Bernice put the wine glass down, very carefully. 'Two trillion as in two thousand billion?'
    'That's a G-class main sequence star up there,' said the Doctor, 'just like Earth's sun. The radius of this sphere is nearly one hundred and fifty million kilometres and it has an interior surface area of two point seven seven times ten to the power of seventeen square kilometres.
    That's roughly six hundred million times the surface area of Earth.'
    'That's a lot of lebensraum .'
    'And you don't have to invade Poland to get it.'
    'Just how technologically advanced are they?'
    The Doctor scratched the back of his neck. 'Benny, as an archaeologist you more than anyone else should know that technology is not simply a matter of linear progression. There are twists and turns, branches and cul de sacs, pools and rivers –'
    'Your metaphor is wandering.'
    'That's what happens when you try to describe the indescribable.'
    'Or try to avoid a question.'
    'Let me put it this way,' said the Doctor. 'They have a non-aggression pact with the Time Lords.'
    Bernice picked up her glass and swallowed the last of the wine. Quickly she poured herself another glass and swallowed that with a single gulp. Poured another glass but left it on the table.
    There wasn't any point; there wasn't enough alcohol in existence to cope with that.
    'Do they have time travel?'
    'Strangely enough they don't,' said the Doctor. 'They just can't seem to get the hang of the technology. They get close but for some reason it never seems to work properly.'
    'Really?' said Bernice. 'That is peculiar, isn't it?'
    'It is, isn't it?' said the Doctor. 'I can't imagine why they have so much difficulty with it, since they have the theoretical capability.' He grinned. 'I suppose either you have what it takes, or you don't.'
    'And if you have it, you make damn sure no one else gets it.'
    The Doctor frowned, as if remembering a bereavement, then he brightened again. Bernice felt he was making an effort.
    'These two trillion people,' she asked, 'are they human?'
    'Ah,' said the Doctor, 'that rather depends on your definition of human.' He gestured vaguely off to the left. 'There's a small town called iSanti Jeni an hour's walk up the coast. You could stroll up and ask the people there what they think.'
    'Would they recognize me as human?'
    'That depends,' said the Doctor, 'on whether they talk to you before or after you've had your morning cup of coffee.'
    The Doctor knew the storm was coming long before the first clouds became visible through the atmospheric haze. He said it was going to be a gigantic one and insisted that they all gather to watch it in the living room. He said nothing beat a good storm for entertainment.
    There was no horizon inside the sphere, nor was the curve perceptible; with a radius of one hundred and fifty million kilometres it was far too gradual for that. Sea and sky appeared to go on for ever until they both merged into the atmospheric haze. Despite this, Bernice found that her mind insisted on creating a sort of virtual horizon where none existed, an invisible line of