"Not unless you want to."
Jason thought about that. "I don"t," he said.
"Well, then." The cat turned away and sniffed at one of the lower shelves nonchalantly. "So, what brings you out here this late? You"re a long way from the living quarters."
"I know," said Jason. "I couldn"t sleep. There was a bit of unpleasantness before. We accidentally blew a planet up."
"Oh dear."
"Well, it was the Trods" fault really. They"d built this giant megatomic nuclear device, you see, and they were blackmailing -"
"You don"t need to explain," Power Puss cut in. "It all sounds unfortunate to be sure, but I expect you"ve learnt from the experience."
"Oh yes," said Jason, nodding vigorously. A sly smile spread across his face. "And it was kind of fun. I mean, we beat the Trods after all. They were still on Arcalis when it blew. I don"t expect they"ll get out of that in a hurry." His attention was taken by a row of books behind him. Pulp crime fiction from the United States, early twentieth century. How come he hadn"t noticed them before?
"You see? There"s always a bright side. What did your new friend think?"
"He seemed a bit bothered at first," mused Jason. He pulled out a book and flicked through it. It was almost, he thought, as if the TARDIS had antic.i.p.ated his tastes and placed the novels in reach. "Now, I think he"s forgotten about it. I expect he"s more concerned with our mission."
"Oh yes?"
"You remember how he caught his arch-enemy this morning?"
"You have told me," the cat said. "An evil megalomaniac, I believe, determined to destroy you."
"That"s right. But he can"t now. We took him to Galactic Prison this afternoon."
"It sounds very dangerous."
"Oh, not really. Well, I wasn"t here actually, not for the fight 17 itself." Jason put the book back, deciding he liked the televised version better. "But I"m sure I"d have been okay, I mean I"m sorry I missed it. I"m hoping to be in on the next big adventure."
He turned, and frowned when he saw that the cat was no longer in sight. He wondered when it had left.
"Be careful what you wish for," its voice purred, as if the animal had not moved but rather become invisible. "In your case, it might well happen."
Kat"lanna spoilt the moment.
She felt the cold, clammy texture of Thruskarr"s scales; she realized exactly what she was doing; she flinched involuntarily; and the hurt returned to his eyes.
"Go home," he told her, his voice low, his back turned.
"No!"
"You never wanted this, Kat. You don"t want anything from me. Just an opportunity to defy your family and your rulers, to show how rebellious and free-thinking you are by flirting with a "slimy lizard"."
Kat shook her head, tears welling. She couldn"t say anything.
His back was an impenetrable barrier, the dusty blue of his soldier"s uniform masking a body made erect and immobile by the strength of resolution.
"Go home," Thruskarr said again. He left in silence and, still speechless, Kat made no move to stop him.
For a long time after Thruskarr had gone, she stared unseeingly at the closed door of the hut. She wondered if what he had said might just be true. She didn"t want to go home that night.
She lay back on the mattress and stared up through the hole and grieved at the mess that her life had become. The Miracle was directly overheard, hanging impossibly, alone in the black sky. Its crystal peaks twinkled with its own internal light and Kat still thought it was the most wonderful thing she had ever seen.
The Miracle had brought light to her planet. It had brought a vital source of power and provided oxygen, allowing the Detrians to leave their shelters. It had ended the centuries-long 18 Great Darkness and brought new life to those who had thought themselves doomed.
But it had brought little heat. The Detrians were still suffering - and the cold-blooded lizard people especially so. They couldn"t step onto the surface without thick layers of additional clothing, and even then the temperature sapped their strength and made them vulnerable to human enemies. "This is your Miracle, not ours," Thruskarr had once said. "It doesn"t help my people."
Kat gazed up at the crystal tonight and wondered again where it had come from. The scientists had been unable to explain it.
Some still worked on the problem, whilst others had long since torn up their doctorates and joined Enros"s Cult of the Undying.
She was unconvinced by either school of thought. But she hoped that, whatever the origins of the construct, it should not prove to be unique.
Kat"lanna had already seen one Miracle come to Detrios.
Now, more than ever, it needed another.
For some, at least, that second Miracle might just have arrived.
It manifested itself elsewhere on the planet, in a place where bright lights shone on blue water and reflected off crystal and gold trim; where the squalor of the lizards" quarter and the poverty of Kat"s home were but statistics to be bandied by those who remained unaffected. For this was the Citadel, and here the future lay. For those who could afford one.
Darnak was a low-level politician, entrusted with a small measure of responsibility but no more than was good for him. His eyes were sparkling and he rubbed his pudgy hands together with glee as he took in the incongruous sight by the marble fountain.
"And you say this thing just . . . appeared?" he asked the Captain of the Guard for the seventh time. The answer was positive, and thus no different to the first six. Darnak didn"t hear it.
His mind had taken off on one of its frequent flights of fancy.
He was dreaming of what the Superior - or even, dare he hope, the Undying One? - might say to him when it became known that his discovery had brought Detrios"s salvation. He certainly wouldn"t find himself on call for the night-shift again!
19.To Darnak, this blue box, with its indecipherable but obviously alien lettering, spelt "Promotion Prospects" with two capital Ps.
When Kat slept, she lived in a different place.
The crystal still glittered above, but its surface was shot through with red and yellow and it radiated glorious warmth in which the humans and the lizards basked side by side. The heat evaporated the stagnant oceans; great white clouds formed, nudged across the sky by a gentle, fresh breeze. It started to rain and flowers sprouted in the desolate ruins of the Old Time.
A fierce crack shook her from her doze. She was of the mattress in seconds, springing into a defensive posture. There was no need for alarm. Her visitor - who had barged open the hut"s uncooperative door - was Mortannis, her brother. The one she trusted, the one she had told about this place. The only one who hadn"t rejected her. Even so, she was glad that Thruskarr had left.
"You startled me," she said, relaxing slightly though her body was still shaking.
"Sorry. I thought you might be here. There"s an emergency meeting."
"What, now?"
"As soon as we can a.s.semble. We need to be ready." Kat nodded, her heart pounding. Mortannis could always excite her like this. He was not much older than her, but she admired him none the less. She admired his courage, his strength and his resolve; the way in which he"d determined the course of his own life, walked out on the family and pulled the rebel group together. He was a natural leader, inspiring hope in his followers despite the hopelessness of their situation. He was everything they could want from a hero. He was muscular, upright, square jawed . . . and black.
Their grandmother had had skin like Mort"s. Black like obsidian; smooth, sleek and glossy. Kat"s parents had claimed they could see their reflections in grandma"s skin, and despite the exaggeration of such claims, there was no hiding one fact: that, with each generation spent underground, the Detrian 20 humans had become paler, weaker and smaller. Mortannis, almost a throwback to the Old Time, had become the family"s prodigal son. Kat"lanna, quite the whitest child ever born, was scorned. She had hated her brother for that, resenting the attention he received at her expense. But when she had left her parents through necessity, he had followed by choice, and she had loved him since.
He was halfway through the door now, but Kat stopped him with a shout. "You can"t go without telling me. What"s happening?"
"It"s been brought forward," Mort threw back over his shoulder. "The lizards are gathering now, to attack at dawn. I"ll tell you the rest later."
He was gone then, but his words had pierced Kat"s stomach like ice shards. The lizards were about to make their final stand, fight their last battle. And Kat knew that Thruskarr, young rebellious Thruskarr, would be amongst them.
She felt cold as she sank back onto the mattress, pulling her knees to her chest. She ran her long fingers over the smooth dome of her head, as though that could calm the cyclone of thoughts raging within. And, although Kat was no religious woman, she offered a small prayer to the Miracle: that, from this long-augured conflict, some good might come. That, somehow, the battle might serve to end the tension and hostilities on Detrios forever.
Kat thought of the place in her mind: that world of heat and rain and flowers and peace. She prayed that today"s events might help bring that world into existence.
But Kat"lanna knew that was only a dream.
Fairly shaking with pent-up antic.i.p.ation, Darnak led his two honoured guests back into the fountain square. "And that, my friends, brings us full circle. Of course, we only started building once the Great Darkness ended and we reclaimed the surface.
The Citadel is not yet even half completed."
The shorter, older man nodded graciously. "I"m sure it will be even more splendid when it is."
The other seemed oblivious. He was gazing about him, his 21 eyes wide with wonder. A strange one, this Jason: he seemed to be a young adult, and yet he was dressed in short pants and a black jacket, and he acted as if he were half his physical age.
Well, Darnak thought, perhaps these people matured slowly.
They were certainly alien, after all; their skin tones betrayed that. It seemed fitting that, after centuries of myth, the first offworld visitors to Detrios since before the Great Darkness should be, quite literally, "little pink men".
"Well," said the first man, clapping his hands together, "thanks for the guided tour. It was interesting."
Darnak breathed in sharply, his imagined accolades endangered. "But . . . you could surely stay a while, Doctor . . .
erm, Doctor . . . ?" What was his confounded name again?
"I"m afraid not. We have a mission to complete, right Jason?
Dangerous galactic criminals to catch. In fact, we came here quite by accident."
Darnak laughed uneasily. "Of course. No dangerous criminals here, eh?" The stranger laughed with him, then made a move for the blue box. Darnak panicked and grabbed his hand without thinking. "However," he said, voice measured, mind racing, "we do have problems of a different nature."
"Oh?"
"Rampaging lizard men, no less."
"I"m not sure we can help."
"No, wait!" The unexpected interruption came from Jason, suddenly interested. "Let"s hear more."
"We do have work to do," his companion reminded him sternly.
"But this is what I joined you for!" said Jason. "Hideous monsters, innocent aliens, hopeless situations, escape plans . . ."
Darnak nodded enthusiastically. "I can promise all that!"
"We must help!" Jason said firmly. "It"ll only take a couple of hours, won"t it?"
"Okay," his colleague finally consented. "If you feel that strongly, we"ll stay. But only until the lizards are dead."
Darnak grinned like a lunatic and wondered whether the Vice-Head of Operations post had been filled yet.
22.
3.Bad Dreams (2)
Dawn was approaching.
Outside, of course, it wouldn"t be marked. The Miracle stood firm, shining on the settled portion of Detrios regardless of the dictates of time. Inside, however - in the underground cities the standard forty-segment day of the Old Sun would be observed. The lights of the indoor streets would gradually fade up to white. The Day of Reckoning would begin.
On the plains, a faint breeze was beginning to blow stronger.
Kat blinked specks from her eyes and focused again on the Citadel, which rose from the hillside in the mid-distance. White walls and gleaming spires, to hold back the grey dunes; they couldn"t have built a more obvious monument to privilege if they"d tried.
It had taken so long to get this far.
The lizards were ma.s.sing in the valley below her. Most wore the blue uniforms of the outlawed Reptilian Liberation Movement. Long, prehensile tails flicked nervously; lipless mouths drew back to reveal razor teeth and thin tongues, slavering in antic.i.p.ation. Kat shivered, remembering the proud military background of this suddenly alien race. She wondered if they were doing the right thing.
She saw Thruskarr in the melee and moved instinctively towards him. But the crowd shifted and he was gone. Mortannis emerged instead and took his sister"s shoulder, looking her in the eyes, his expression serious.
"I want you to know," he said, "if anything happens today -"
She moved his hand and nodded awkwardly. "I know."
He seemed to accept that. He looked at the gathering troops and Kat saw he was worried. Mortannis would never have made 23 anyone else aware of that. "There aren"t many, are there?"
"There"s a hundred or more." she said, trying to lighten his spirits. "And they are the stronger race."
Mort nodded. But he wasn"t convinced. Kat knew he was speaking to rea.s.sure himself. "The element of surprise, that"s the main thing. If they storm the Citadel whilst the rulers are sleeping, occupy it before the state thugs can arrive . . ."
"And with the rebels running interference for them, what can go wrong?"
Mortannis smiled at her enthusiasm. "Let"s hope we don"t find out."
A creeping mist hovered over black water, restricting distance vision and creating fuzzy orange patterns from the fading radiance of the rad-globes. The Undertown was a numbingly familiar place to be: a world of poverty and despair, the festering foundations over which Earth"s empire was built.
Chris Cwej had not been sorry to say goodbye to it. He wasn"t at all pleased to be back.
With a yell and a dull crump of blaster fire, the wiry form of his partner crashed through the haze and vaulted into the idling flitter. "Move it!" Chris didn"t need telling. He pulled the open-topped vehicle into a steep climb, heading almost suicidally for a narrow gap between two hovering Overcity buildings. "Not up there," squeaked Roz, breath stolen by the acceleration.