"No," he replied.
"No, we don"t go free?"
"No, you don"t survive," he explained. "It"s a death sentence." He stepped into the flitter. "I"d wish you luck," he said, "but you"d have no use for it. The best you can hope for is a quick shot in the back of the head."
The flitter rose, humming, into the scarlet sky, scattering flocks of reptiles in all directions. Within seconds, it was gone. The background noises of the 81jungle, the hisses and clatters, the cries and the rustles, slowly filled in the silence left behind.
s.p.a.ceport Five was suspended on the tops of five huge towers. They reared above the parkland of the Overcity, casting a disc of shadow on the towers beneath that gave the Overcity dwellers a taste of what the Undertown must be like.
Cwej stood at the edge of the s.p.a.ceport, watching the ships come and go.
A Draconian warship was just taking off, its turquoise fins unfurling as it rose, the sun glinting from the inlaid insignia that decorated its flanks. The s.p.a.ce that it left was only empty for a few seconds before a Thanatosian freighter lurched unsteadily in to land, venting coolant fumes from its engines. Two Antonine a.s.sa.s.sins sat, side by side, on the edge of the field, their sharp lines and impressive armaments drawing an admiring crowd of ship-spotters. Craft of a thousand different designs and types of propulsion jostled for position in the skies above, turning the air into a rainbow haze of warped s.p.a.ce and shifted probabilities.
"Got it!" Forrester trotted up to his side, waving a centcomp printout. "The scheduler didn"t want to give it over, so I had to threaten to fine him for being uncooperative."
"You can"t do that," he said, wondering how she could get away with flouting the rules so flagrantly, time and time again. "We"re on leave."
"Yeah," she said, not in the least defensive, "but he didn"t know that."
Cwej sighed, and ran his tongue across his sharp predator"s teeth. "So what"s the story then?"
"According to centcomp, they bought tickets to Purgatory."
He blinked in surprise. "Purgatory? But that"s "
"The Landsknecht planet. I know."
He gazed out across the field again. He"d always wanted to leave the Earth, but this this . . . . . .
"So we follow them?" he whispered.
"They"re our prime suspects," Forrester said. "Of course we follow them. I booked two tickets on a Falardi pa.s.senger liner. They can drop us off at Goreki X. We pick up a supply shuttle from there. It"s the quickest way, and its also the least likely. If Adjudicator Secular Rashid wants to recall us, she"ll have to find us first, and she"ll be expecting us to take the tourist shuttle."
"She"ll just ask centcomp where we are," Cwej murmured, trying to convince himself that this was a bad idea.
"I thought of that." Forrester was short-tempered. "I pulled in a favour: got my sister to book the tickets. Difficult to trace."
Cwej frowned, and ran a paw through the fur on his forehead.82.
"But what about the price?" he asked. "Isn"t it expensive? I"m only on a basic salary, you know?"
"Don"t worry," she said neutrally. "It"s covered."
"But don"t we . . . ?"
"Look!" she snapped, "I don"t necessarily want to do this any more than you do, but we both took the Adjudicator"s oath, and I still remember something about swearing to do everything in my power to uphold justice. So, like it or not, I"m getting on that Falardi ship. Coming?"
There was something about her tone of voice that caught his attention. He turned to look at her. She was looking away from the s.p.a.cecraft with her arms folded across her chest. Her knuckles were white.
"What"s the matter?" he asked.
"Nothing," she snapped.
"Come on, what is it?"
She looked sideways up at him. Her lips were a thin line, and two bright spots of colour burned in her cheeks. "I hate aliens," she said quietly. "Especially the Falardi."
He couldn"t believe what he was hearing. "But . . . but they"re just like you and me. I mean "
She shook her head. "You don"t understand," she said. "A Falardi killed Fenn Martle, my partner. I"ve hated them ever since."
Bernice"s heart was pumping, and she felt faint. She didn"t mind facing death; she"d done it often enough before. It was the fact that she didn"t know why that hurt. It was the fact that she might die in ignorance.
"Bright ideas?" the Doctor asked.
Bernice sat down in the centre of the clearing. She could feel eyes watching her from all around. The knowledge that they were up against the armed might of an entire planet weighed her down; she felt like crawling into a ball and going to sleep. For ever, if necessary. She just didn"t want to move.
"Give up?" she ventured.
"I"m over a thousand years old," the Doctor said, looking around. "If I"d given up, where would I be now?"
"Well," she snapped, "you wouldn"t be standing in the middle of a killer jungle, with an expanse of acidic ice on one side and a ruined city full of mind-sucking wraiths on the other, waiting for a load of gun-toting morons to blow your head off."
"You"re being defeatist," he chided. "Come on."
He held out a hand. After a few seconds, she reached out to take it.
"Never say die," he said, pulling her to her feet.
"Even if everything inside you wants to say it?" she asked.83.
"Especially then," he smiled.
She breathed deeply, then pulled the diminutive Time Lord to her and hugged him tightly. "Doctor . . . ?"
"Yes," he said, a smile crossing his face. "I know."
Somewhere above them, Bernice could make out a descending whine.
"Flitter," said the Doctor. "That"ll be the troops. There"s only one chance."
"What"s that?"
"I don"t know yet, but there"s always one chance. Let"s try and find out what it is."
Taking her hand, he led the way into the jungle. Within moments, the fleshy foliage had closed around them. Bernice couldn"t see more than a few feet in any direction. The leaves were warm to the touch, and flinched as she pushed her way past.
A sudden whine in her ear made her jerk her head away. A dartlike shape whizzed past her, so close that she could feel the breeze of its pa.s.sage. The insect halted in mid-air a few feet away, eyes glittering as it studied her.
"Don"t move," the Doctor hissed.
"I wasn"t intending to," she hissed back. "Not unless it comes back this way."
"Look at that proboscis."
"That what?"
"That oh, never mind."
The thing suddenly flashed towards her, too fast for her to see. She tried to duck, but knew she would be too late. Her heart seemed to stop as she waited for the impact.
Nothing came.
She opened her eyes. For a moment she thought she had gone blind, then she realized there was a dark shape blocking her vision.
The Doctor"s hat.
He lowered his hand, carefully squashing the hat closed. Something within it buzzed, and the hat shook slightly.
"Fast," he said. "But not fast enough. Good thing this hat is made from something more than just cloth."
"Doctor . . . " she said shakily. There was another whine nearby, and her head jerked involuntarily. Sweat p.r.i.c.kled across her back. This place was deadly.
"We need to disguise ourselves," he said. "We"re alien in this place. Too noticeable." He looked around thoughtfully, brightening as his gaze fell upon a large blue flower shaped like a bucket.
"Is there any liquid inside that thing?"
Bernice walked carefully over to check.
"Yes. And some of those flying things Looks like they"ve drowned." She looked closer. "And they"re dissolving."84.
"Thought so. Don"t put your hands in the liquid."
"I have no intention of putting my hands in the liquid. What is it?"
"Digestive fluid," he said. "Probably gives off a scent that the things find attractive."
"Fine. Does this help us?"
"It does. Interesting how evolution converges on so many planets. Where you get insects, or some equivalent, there"s usually some kind of plant that lures them to it somehow and kills them."
He walked over to join her and tugged experimentally on the leaves that made up the bowl.
"Quite tough, too."
Bernice listened, trying to block out the sound of the jungle. The flitter seemed to be circling overhead.
"They"re trying to track us," she said.
"They won"t have much luck," the Doctor murmured, still testing the strength of the plant. "The jungle is about the same temperature as our bodies. We should be shielded." He smiled. "However, the military mind being what it is, they have to run through all the usual checks first. Ultra-violet, infrared, boson count, pheremonic trackers. Once they discover they don"t work, they"ll land and track us on foot."
"And our one chance do we know what it is yet?"
He smiled sunnily.
"We go on the offensive," he said. "Now, one of us has a little sewing to do, and the other one will have to catch some more of those flying things. Shall we toss a coin for it?"
From his elevated position, Baron Heddolli took a deep breath, and launched into another subordinate clause to a digression that he had started some twenty minutes before. Tiny camerabots with the words The Empire Today The Empire Today on their side stalked around him on long, multi-jointed legs, desperately looking for his best side. Behind him, the shuttle that had brought the Hith amba.s.sadors to Earth lurched from the ground, causing acrid dust to swirl around the greeting party of minor n.o.bles and the Landsknecht Honour Guard, covering silk robes and armoured uniforms alike. on their side stalked around him on long, multi-jointed legs, desperately looking for his best side. Behind him, the shuttle that had brought the Hith amba.s.sadors to Earth lurched from the ground, causing acrid dust to swirl around the greeting party of minor n.o.bles and the Landsknecht Honour Guard, covering silk robes and armoured uniforms alike.
". . . and it was Duke Marmion himself," the baron proclaimed in his dry monotone, "Lord Protector of the Solar System and its Environs, who, in his definitive marshalling of the sovereign degrees of honour, a.s.signed the premier position to the Condirotores Imperiorum Condirotores Imperiorum, founders of the Empire, without whose august and ever-vigilant hand . . . "
Dweller In Sorrow Abandoned And Lost ran a pseudo-limb up her eyestalks, trying to perk them up a bit. "How much longer is that d.a.m.ned hu-85man going to prattle on for?" she whispered to her aide. "If I can"t get some time alone in a mucus bath soon, I"m going to go mad, and to Jakkat Jakkat with the diplomatic consequences!" with the diplomatic consequences!"
"He"s clocked up two hours so far," Avenging Injustice And Burning With Ire sighed, edging slightly away from his superior. "As welcome speeches go, it"s impressive. I"m not enjoying this any more than you are. Just retract your eyes and pretend you"re alone."
"Impressive my basal foot," Dweller In Sorrow growled. "That sun"s drying my skin out like leather."
". . . we would be in a position diametrically opposed to the one we find ourselves in now," Heddolli continued pathetically. "Truly the strength of humanity is its ability to build up from the discordant elements of our nature the pa.s.sions, the interests, the opinions of the individual human, the rivalries of family, clan, tribe and caste, the influences of climate and planetary position, the accidents of peace and war acc.u.mulated for ages to build up from those oft-times warring elements a well-compacted, prosperous and powerful empire . . . "
The two Hith stared forlornly at Baron Heddolli"s plump form. In the con-voluted hierarchy of ranks and positions that made up Earth"s peerage he was relatively unimportant, controlling only a three-hundred-level slice of s.p.a.ceport Ten, but the Hith diplomatic mission had to be welcomed at the s.p.a.ceport by him before they could see the Viscount of s.p.a.ceport Ten, and they had to see the Viscount before they could pet.i.tion for a meeting with the Countess of s.p.a.ceports One to Ten, and they had to pet.i.tion for a meeting with the Countess before the Marquesa of Earth would deign to receive them, and the Marquesa had to receive them before they could attend the court of the Duke of the Solar System, and they had to attend the court of the Duke before they could be granted an audience with the Divine Empress herself. And an audience with the Empress was the only way that the Hith could ever hope to regain Hithis.
Mathematics had never been Dweller In Sorrow"s strong point, but she had a terrible feeling that they were trapped in an infinite regression of petty offi-cialdom.
". . . an empire whose benign and controlling hand extends to friend and foe alike," the baron pressed on, regardless of the increasing restlessness of the petty n.o.bles in the welcoming party, not to mention the two Hith dignitaries.
"To human and alien, to those who, in their turn, reach out to grasp its tender embrace and to those who spurn its overtures. And yet, were that effort to be accomplished by one effort in one generation, it would require more than . . . "
"What"s that shuttle pilot doing?" Avenging Injustice murmured, extending 86an eyestalk to where the s.p.a.cecraft that had taken off moments ago was turning and heading back towards them.
"I don"t know and I don"t care!" snapped Dweller In Sorrow. "I just want to get to a decent hotel and dive into a pool of hot mucus."
The craft was getting nearer now, weaving erratically through the sky towards them. A number of the Landsknechte had noticed it too, and Dweller In Sorrow watched in disbelief as they reached for their weapons. What was this: an a.s.sa.s.sination attempt? And if so, against whom?
Baron Heddolli"s voice was almost drowned out by the roar of the ship"s jets now. Irritated, he turned around, still talking. Dweller In Sorrow didn"t know much about human body language, but even from behind she could spot the shock, outrage and fear that pa.s.sed through the baron"s plump frame.
Around him, the glue of tradition and custom that was holding the various minor peers and dignitaries together suddenly failed. The crowd scattered in every direction.
The shuttle was close enough that Dweller In Sorrow could see the human pilot the woman that had brought them down from their orbiting ship. There was no expression on her face.
"Diplomacy or no diplomacy," shouted Avenging Injustice over the roar of the engines, "I think that we should get out of the way!" Extending a pseudo-limb, he dragged Dweller In Sorrow to one side.
He was only just in time. The shuttle ploughed into the ground some ten feet in front of the baron"s podium. Tentacles of flame spread out across the s.p.a.ceport, carrying with them the sweet smell of protonic fuel rods.
Dweller In Sorrow almost caused a diplomatic incident by laughing out loud, but managed to stifle her reaction before anybody saw her. After all, who would believe that the baron had still been reciting his speech when he fried?
The bot walked towards Powerless Friendless with small, precise steps. Rain-drops trickled down its metal sides, pooling in its joints and waterfalling to the wooden slats of the walkway as it moved. There was something about its stance and the light that glowed in its visual sensors that made it look as if it knew something that Powerless Friendless didn"t. Which, Powerless Friendless reflected, was almost certainly true.
Powerless Friendless glanced quickly round. The walkway behind him was empty. The question was, if he made a slither for it, could the bot catch him?