Free Doctor Who: Shining Darkness by Mark Michalowski Page A

for safekeeping,’ Ogmunee said.
    ‘Let’s hope so,’ trilled Mesanth, but Donna could hear the concern in his voice.
    Had the Cult of Shining Darkness done a bit more research on the Jaftee, they’d have discovered that they collected religions like other people collected china ornaments or pictures of the Queen.
    In fact, they often had two or three on the go at once, quite often mutually incompatible. It wasn’t that the Jaftee actually
believed
any of them – oh no, they were too smart, too rational for that. They knew that it was nonsensical to believe in some mysterious, invisible, all-powerful being (or beings) that, despite all the evidence to the contrary, were actually interested in the lives of such tiny and insignificant beings as themselves.
    But – so the Jaftee reasoned – the pinnacle of sophistication and cleverness was to believe in something totally and utterly
without
proof.
    Anyone, they thought, could believe in something when there
was
proof: anyone could believe in gravity when they saw things fall to the ground; anyone could believe in the power of a sun when they saw how it warmed and burned; anyone could believe in the ferocity of the temple beast when you saw it gobble up your best friend for not getting out of the way quickly enough. No: it took a very special kind of person to believe in something when there wasn’t the teeniest shred of evidence for it.
    And so, considering themselves pretty special people all round, the Jaftee were always on the lookout for new religions, new things to worship, new rituals, new nonsense .
    So when, two years ago, four creatures from another world appeared and announced: ‘We are your new gods – you will worship us!’, the Jaftee almost wet themselves with excitement.
    ‘We have heard,’ said the aliens (three rather dull ones with just two legs and arms each and a more interesting one with
three!
), ‘that the Jaftee are most hospitable to their gods.’
    This declaration – made in the central meeting pit of the Jaftee underground city – was greeted with whoops of joy and excitement. Just think, the Jaftee whispered to themselves, for once
we
don’t have to come up with new gods to worship. These gods (although they knew they weren’t really gods, but they didn’t like to say anything in case it made them go away again) had come to
them
.
    (There had been much debate about whether these new gods could
really
be gods: by the Jaftee’s own logic, they could only believe in things for which there was no proof. And surely the actual
appearance
of them was all the proof needed for the Jaftee to
not
believe they were gods. Others pointed out that just because the newcomers
called
themselves gods, it didn’t prove they
were
. The debate had raged for all of a week before someone had decided that it was an exciting enough development that the ‘gods’ should be given the benefit of the doubt. For a while, anyway.)
    ‘And,’ continued the gods, trying to sound all deep and powerful and, well, godlike, ‘we have come to bring the Shining Darkness to you all!’
    There was a chorus of shouts from the Jaftee. They had no idea what it meant, but it sounded terribly exciting: Shining Darkness. Darkness, they muttered in awe, that
shone
! Cool!
    ‘So what must your followers do?’ asked Enchikka, High Priest of What We Believe Today, doing the low-bowing and abasement thing that seemed to meet the approval of these Gods of Shining Darkness. ‘How can we make you happy?’
    ‘The Gods of Shining Darkness need your help, oh faithful followers,’ said the three-legged, three-armed one. He raised an arm and pointed upwards, towards the ceiling. ‘In Heaven, we are at war with the forces of evil,’ he said. ‘A war for the very survival of organic-kind.’
    There was more cheering and shouting from the Jaftee. They didn’t know what ‘organic-kind’ meant, but it seemed awfully impressive. And there was mention of a war – and wars were