Constellation 07

[scienceandgod.livejournal.com]

[Arthur sits at his desk, hunched slightly forward, his head resting somewhat on his hand. He's got a history book opened up in front of him, several more stacked around him. Its opened to one of the chapters regarding World War II.

His expression is hinted with confusion, sadness, and anger. But mostly, he just looks very tired. In his left hand is the pocket watch, and h keeps flipping the face open and close, never really looking at it]

Comments

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[The Doctor ends up leaning against the desk, glancing down at the pages.]

Have you already read through them all?

[scienceandgod.livejournal.com]

[shakes his head] Only about half of them so far.

Religious, economical, and political causes. Death tolls, estimated scale of destruction, how many wounded. Military strategies, extermination camps, memorials......[He trails off, closing is hand around the watch]

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[Gently.]

I think you should stop reading, just for a bit. That's a lot to take in all at once.

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

[sort of flops over to where Arthur is, sitting on an unoccupied corner of the desk. he picks up one of the history books and flips through it]

This is all a bit ahead of your time, isn't it?

[looks up from the book to Arthur, and his brow furrows in concern]

You all right?

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

You shouldn't be reading that, Arthur. It's a fair bit against the rules.

[scienceandgod.livejournal.com]

Just a little longer won't hurt.


[quietly]I....I read about Einstein. And the Manhattan Project, and the atomic bomb, and Japan. He wa- is, he is anti-war.I don't understand.

[scienceandgod.livejournal.com]

I'm only reading a few years ahead, nothing more.

[scienceandgod.livejournal.com]

[Looks up, still not closing the book] But you've already told me about part of it, and so has someone else.

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

Only a few years ahead is a few years too many by most accounts. Should never know the future, takes all the fun out of the present.

[scienceandgod.livejournal.com]

Ah well, a bit late for that. I probably won't live to see most of it, regardless.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[He leans a bit heavier on the desk.]

He was. Erm, is. He...it's complicated, Arthur. Especially at the time.

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

That's the worst sort of positive thinking. That's not even positive thinking.

[looks at the WWII pages open on his desk]

Don't just fill your head up with facts and figures on all the negative things if you're going to do that. There's a load of good things that are ahead as well.

[scienceandgod.livejournal.com]

The Great War, they called it. The War to end all War. Twenty seven years later, there's sixty million dead.

[scienceandgod.livejournal.com]

I just thought I'd fill in the blanks, from what I'd already been told.

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

And what exactly have you been told?

[scienceandgod.livejournal.com]

The war, Einsteins involvement, and some of what's happened afterward.

'After fanatical resistance, including a mass suicide leap of surviving Japanese soldiers and civilians from "Suicide Cliff" on Saipan, the major islands of the Marianas fell to the U.S. attackers in July and August 1944. With these unsinkable aircraft carriers now available, virtual round-the-clock bombing of Japan began in November 1944.'

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

Well, if we're looking at the future let's go ahead some, too.

[grabs one of the history books and opens it up to a passage from the sixties]

"At 02:56 UTC on July 21 (10:56pm EDT, July 20), 1969, Armstrong made his descent to the Moon's surface and spoke his famous line "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" exactly six and a half hours after landing. Aldrin joined him, describing the view as "Magnificent desolation."

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

You really can't blame people for having hope that it wouldn't repeat. Most people hope every war will be the last.

[scienceandgod.livejournal.com]

I don't- I understand why it happened, what led up to it. I don't see why it had to. 40 million civilians dead.

40 million people that had nothing to do with the fighting. Didn't get drafted or volunteered or went out to fight. They simply died in the cross fire. And the extermination camps....

[His voice is still quiet, but shaking] How is that fair, Doctor? How is that right? To think that God would allow such a thing.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

It remains against the rules.

[scienceandgod.livejournal.com]

We....landed on the moon, really?

[scienceandgod.livejournal.com]

But I needed to learn, Master. I needed to understand why.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

It isn't. There's nothing right or good or just about the deaths. [He puts his hand over the book, resting it on the pages.] There isn't one simple answer for 'why.' That's part of what makes it so terrible.

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

Quite a few times. The Americans did, but it was quite momentous for the world at large. For good reason, too.

[scienceandgod.livejournal.com]

[He nods, bringing the watch close. Silently, almost as if the Doctor weren't there, Arthur opens it and runs his fingers over the face slowly. He's still holding it like that when he speaks]

We're very stupid, humans. For all the brilliance, we can do such stupid, stupid things for the sake of pride.