FIVE

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is in-distinguishable from magic'

Arthur C Clarke

"Aliens?"

Martin was still in his seat. He hadn't dare moved, if he was honest. The whole room was literally shaking slightly and the noises coming from the 'control area' wheezed and groaned ominously.

"Do you mean to tell me that 'God' was an alien?" This was all starting to get a bit too much for Martin.

"Well," The Doctor began, "It depends what you are calling 'God'. If you're calling 'God' the universe itself and the 'one' entity I was talking about earlier… then no." He returned to stare at his computer. "Where as if you are saying that 'God' is the being that Moses met on that mountain… then yes… that is exactly what I mean".

Martin was too stunned for words. He'd just never thought in these terms before. Or, at least, he didn't think he had…

After a couple of seconds he spoke again. His croak was worse, "So are you also saying that 'aliens' created mankind itself?"

The Doctor threw his head back and craned around to look at Martin, "Ah well," he said, "You see that's a bit more of a 'yes' and a 'no', I'm afraid. It's…." he looked around in the air for the word, "… Complicated."

"Yeah, it would be" Martin laughed and felt himself ease slightly. He hadn't realised but he had been gripping the chair really quite tightly.

And then a thought struck him.

"Are you an alien?"

The Doctor looked down through his nose at his computer, "Errr…" He looked around at Martin suddenly, "… Yeah." He shrugged his shoulders almost apologetically.

Martin sank back further in his chair shaking his head as if his brain was refusing to accept the information.

"Oh come on Marty, where's your sense of wonder?" The Doctor strode towards him, his hands back in his pockets. "Do you know how big the universe is? Do You? Imagine 'massive' times it by 'infinity' and multiply is by 'colossus' and you'd still not have any idea just how brain splatteringly gigantic it is!" He opened his arms out wide and spread his fingers out as far as they'd go "Its huuuggggggggggge!" His eyes were wide and bulbous, his lips sucked together in a 'kiss me quick' pose. "Your world… your solar system… is but a drop in a gigantic ocean. There are countless worlds out they're full of life and there always has been and always will be." He sucked in his breath through his teeth sharply. "Well… you know… that is until all of time and space fall back in on themselves and the whole thing implodes into…" He stopped suddenly and looked at Martin's confused and worried face, "But we don't have to worry about that right now, do we?" He relaxed in to a comfortable stance and carried on. "But life on other planets? Yeah, of course." He spun on his heal and began walking around the console area of the ship, flipping switches as he did so. "Wouldn't it be a waste of space if all there was in the universe was you lot? Do some of mankind still think the universe revolves around them and them alone? How typically human! I mean, how more egotistical can you get?"

Martin's face was a complete blank.

"There are billions of habited planets out there…. Trillions… Quadrillions. Some of them evolve to the point where the inhabitants can leave their own worlds and travel to the stars. Other worlds don't reach that point as they simply destroy themselves in primitive and petty wars before they get that far". He turned back to the control panel, rotated a dial and then looked up at Martin. "Sound familiar?" He asked eyebrows raised.

Martin remained silent.

"Now some of these older more advanced races travelled the stars years ago. They came here… to your world. They were worshipped as Gods because that is what they appeared to be. And, to be fair, they did bring with them much knowledge and brought a certain degree of order to a chaotic world. They were also teachers, many of them. Some spoke of metaphysical truths and introduced their own take on morality and discipline. They became lords of their own kingdom and made disciples of the entire nations" He nodded to himself as if pleased with his summing up. He had tried not to use too many big words…

He looked around at his little screen. "Ah.. Here we go" He looked pleased. "It's 1430BC. We're 112 kilometres left of Egypt, somewhere between what the locals call Paran and Midian in an area known as the Sinai wilderness…" He tapped away at his keyboard taking in the information on the screen. "And the TARDIS seems to be locking on to a load of particle emissions coming from some sort of fusion reactors… which shouldn't really exist in this time period" He put a finger to his nose and tapped it gently "I wonder who that could be?" He suddenly ran around to the other side of the console and turned a huge lever. "Right, we're coming in to land!" He grabbed hold of the console with both hands. "Hold on tight, Marty! This one could be rough!" he shouted through clenched teeth.

Martin panicked and gripped his chair even tighter. He prepared himself for some sort of crash. He closed his eyes tightly and clenched his teeth together.

Beneath his feet he felt a tiny jolt, like an elevator casually arriving at its destination. He kept his eyes closed expecting a more serious shudder at any moment. When it didn't come and the room seemed to quieten down Martin opened one eye slowly and saw The Doctor stood right in front of him grinning inanely.

"You should have seen the look on your face" he beamed. His jacket was back on, yet his hands were still refusing to leave their pockets.

"I thought we were going to crash?" Martin said gingerly.

"No, sorry, it was just me having a bit of fun. I don't do bumpy landings any more. It's been great since I changed the dilethium coil last week," he said brightly, "Or was it last year?" He shook his head and strode towards the door. "My bumpy landing days are well gone" He said proudly as if that explained every thing. "C'mon then, Marty" he said as his hand reached the door handle. "Just be careful out here."

"What do you mean?" Martin asked worryingly

"I mean don't get sand in your eyes." The Doctor responded with a smile. He pulled at the door handle and light streamed in. The Doctor raised a hand to his eyes and moved outside.

As best he could from his position on the chair near the middle of the room Martin craned his neck to look through the doorway. He could see sand and sky. Really blue sky. And really blowing sand. The last time he had looked out of those doors there was a lush, green wood outside them. That was all gone.

Now they were somewhere completely different.

His stomach turned as he realised that all of this was true. The blue box had moved. Which meant that all that The Doctor was saying was true also. They had travelled in time and outside those blue doors was Mount Sinai and, in all probability, Moses was there with his people.

Which also meant that, if The Doctor had timed this all right, then 'God' would be there too.

Martin staggered towards the door. He gripped both sides of the frame as he stepped through. He held his breath as he took in the impossible truth before his eyes.

He was on the top of a large, sand covered hill. Mountains stretched out as far as he could see and the sun shone dramatically through the tiny dust clouds that were scattered in the sky. The air was blowing thick and humid yet smelled fresh and musky. No birds flew in the sky at all and the sound of thunder rumbled very close by.

In fact, it sounded like it was coming from behind him

"You might want to come around here, Marty." The Doctor's voice was more of a shout and came from behind the time ship.

Martin kept his hands on the outside of the TARDIS as he followed its edges round to where The Doctor's voice had come from.

The view that he saw made him fall to his knees.

About a mile or maybe even two miles in front of him was a huge mountain. In the vast sky above it was a huge black and grey cloud that seemed filled with fire and flashes of lightning. Yet inside the dark cloud Martin could also see what looked like metal… metal and lights.

They were the edges of some huge, curved craft that hung suspended above the mount.

The terrifying mass must have been at least two kilometres across and was almost like a mountain itself suspended in the air. Water vapour dripped from the sides of the ship and the whole craft was rotating slowly as the dark clouds bellowed and followed loyally behind.

Martin could feel every hair on his body stand to attention as the air around him was charged with static. He gasped heavily as he looked downwards and realised that thousands of people were by the foot of the mountain and in the valley below him.

It was the Israelites; they were Moses' people. He focused in on them and realised he could hear their wails and cries even from where he was standing. He could see masses of hands pointing skywards as cries of 'Fear God' rang out frantically and chaotically. Children were crying uncontrollably as Mothers clutched them to their breasts in the vain hope that it would comfort them. They were clearly terrified.

And why wouldn't they be? Their God's 'heavenly chariot' was there right in front of them… right in front of Martin. It was undeniably and physically there before their very eyes.

To Martin the scale of the scene was majestic and terrifying all at once.

Suddenly he jumped and shook with fear as a loud, deep klaxon like noise cut through the air and the whole ground vibrated to it's sound.

"That's the 'trumpet blast' of the Angels" The Doctor shouted above the wind.

Martin turned to look at The Doctor. His coat was flapping so much he was holding it tight to his sides. His face was serious and dark with shadow and his eyes were looking straight at Martin.

He looked sad, Martin thought, but not at all surprised.

The Doctor returned to look skyward and nodded up to the metallic craft "And that there is the Mother Ship of Yahweh: The mighty God of Israel."

Martin looked back at the giant spacecraft one more time. Flames shot out of the side of the ship and clouds of black smoke bellowed close behind them. This was what was meant by fire and brimstone, Martin realised. This majestic show of power was literally the fear of God made manifest.

Martin's whole body shook from head to toe. The knot in his stomach tightened to the point where he thought it might explode.

And then slowly, and uncontrollably, he lowered his head to the sand and sobbed with all his heart.

"On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast… Mount Sanai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire.

And the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain… To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain."

- Exodus 19:16 –24:17, The Bible