As Beltempest and the Doctor gazed on, openmouthed, Pryce smiled. "Nothing would please me more," he said. Turning to the Doctor, he murmured, "I really should start charging for my time."
"Well?" Bernice said, "what have you found?"
Powerless Friendless looked around the cupboard. It was getting a little tight, what with him, Bernice and the two Adjudicators. He wasn"t very good at reading human expressions, but the dark woman with the close-cropped grey hair didn"t look happy about being in close proximity with him Shame.
Her companion the one who had been covered in golden hair the last time Powerless Friendless had seen him, a.s.suming that wasn"t another spurious memory was playing with Krohg: tickling him around the cilia while the little b.a.s.t.a.r.d rolled around as if he was enjoying it.
For a moment, after the dark-skinned Adjudicator had kicked the door of the cupboard in, he had thought he was finished. A feeling of relief had washed over him. No more struggle. No more pain.
And then he had seen Bernice"s face, heard her voice, and had known that the struggle was going on.
"Well," he said, "let"s start with what I"ve remembered." He took a deep breath, trying to sort the memories out. At the moment it was rather as if somebody had dropped them all and scooped them up into a pile, like dead leaves. "I was a navigator, during the Great Patriotic War "
"He means the Hith Annexation during the Wars of Acquisition," Forrester murmured.
"I know what I mean," he hissed angrily. "You took our planet and poisoned it so that we couldn"t live there any longer. You "
"You were a navigator," Bernice prompted.
"Yes," he sighed, "I was a navigator. We had a ship an experimental ship.
Two-Hith crew. We knew that we could devastate the Empire"s fleets with it. It was our last great defence against humanity." He shook his head sadly. "What we didn"t know was, our captain had sold out. We made a jump through hypers.p.a.ce on our first flight and ended up in the wrong spot. The traitor must have fed the wrong coordinates into the navigation computer. We emerged surrounded by Landsknecht ships." He shivered. "The ship and I were taken to a planet named Purgatory. They started to disa.s.semble the ship, and torture 174me. They were going to torture him as well, just in case he had been holding back on them. Humans " He looked at the three warily. " just can"t be trusted.
For some reason, we were both moved here to Earth. To this building. I don"t know why, but they brought the ship with us. The captain and I escaped with the control nexus for the ship. He managed to get off Earth while I hid out in the Undertown. I knew the people who had tortured me would still be searching. I had Dantalion make a new ident.i.ty for me, and erase the memories of my old life. That way, I could never give myself away accidentally.
That way, I didn"t have to wake up screaming every night, remembering the way they sliced strips from my flesh." Powerless Friendless hung his eyestalks ashamedly. "I lost the nexus, of course. With my memory gone, I didn"t know what it was. I still can"t remember where I left it."
Bernice had a strange expression on her face. Strange for a human, anyway.
"Your pilot," she said, "the one who turned traitor. What was his full name?"
Powerless Friendless thought for a moment, feeling his way through the shards of memory. "His. .h.i.th name was Vap Oppat Pol, but all Hith changed their names after we lost Hithis. The name he chose was Homeless Forsaken Betrayed And Alone."
Bernice"s face tightened, and she glanced away.
Powerless Friendless thought he heard her say, "b.a.s.t.a.r.d," but he might have been wrong.
Beltempest watched impotently as Hater Of Humans And Leader of Hith rotated an eyestalk to face one of the two Hith guards. The guard immediately pushed a chair over from the side of the tent. Hater of Humans sank into its curves. The Hith referred to as its scapegoat stood erect by its side, next to the metal box with the air holes in the lid.
Hater Of Humans"s eyestalks turned towards Zebulon Pryce.
"We have been waiting for years, hoping that you would find a way off Dis,"
it said. "We debated whether to attempt to rescue you, but we could find no gaps in security, no weaknesses, nothing that we could use. Finally, you are here. If you can help us, we will set you free. You will never have to return to Dis."
"What makes you think I want to go free?" Pryce asked. "I had everything on Dis that I needed." Somewhere, deep inside his dark eyes, a small red spark seemed to glow.
Hater Of Humans"s eyestalks drooped. "Whatever you want will be provided," it said.
"I need victims. Lots of them."
"Men they will be provided."
Beltempest could see that Pryce was ignoring the Doctor"s appalled expression. "You must need my help badly," he said.
175."The future of the Hith race depends upon it," Hater Of Humans replied with heavy dignity.
Beltempest couldn"t contain himself any longer. "The Hith race hasn"t got a future," he shouted. "You"re just a ragged bunch of scavengers skulking around the universe, finding homes wherever you can, and yet you dare "
The stunner beam caught him without warning as he was breathing out. He tried to catch his breath, but couldn"t. A red haze settled over his vision and pins and needles tingled through his limbs. He slumped back into his chair, trying desperately to breathe.
"One more sound from you," the female Hith said, reholstering her weapon, "and I"ll kill you."
Beltempest listened against his will as Hater Of Humans continued speaking.
"Yes," it said in apparent sadness, "our race is scattered around the universe.
Our warriors serve in restaurants on half a hundred planets; our diplomats clean urinals; our scientists and industrialists beg on the streets. Our most sublime artists clean shoes for a living. We are forced to congregate together, even though we hate company. Even here, in our most secret base, we have to hide. We are destroyed as a civilization. And yet " The Hith sighed deeply.
" we still have our pride."
"The technology on this ship," the Doctor"s voice prompted, from outside Beltempest"s field of view.
"Ah." Hater Of Humans nodded, its eyestalks bobbing. "Yes. Without re-course to our factories and stockpiles, with our home world taken from us, we have found other ways to keep our race intact. The Hith who are scattered across the accursed human Empire pay a proportion of whatever they can earn or beg to us in taxes. These taxes paid in various ways, in various currencies are being used to rebuild our fleets, our weapons, our pride. We will buy from anybody humanity, the Draconians, the Daleks, the Usurians, the Ook. Even the Cimliss."
"To what end?" the Doctor asked.
"To regain our world," Hater Of Humans said simply.
"By war?"
Beltempest managed to shift his head slightly so that he could see along the table, past the Doctor"s head to where Pryce was sitting.
"By whatever means necessary," Hater Of Humans said, and glanced at Pryce.
"And that is why we need your help."
"You realize," the Doctor persisted, "that this man is a murderer?"
"He killed other humans?" Hater Of Humans sounded amused. "And you think that we should disapprove of that?"
176."He would kill you, if you gave him a chance." The Doctor scowled at Pryce, who smiled slightly and closed his eyes.
"Indeed I would," he murmured.
The guards shifted slightly by the tent flap.
The Doctor sighed in exasperation. "Professor Pryce has been driven mad by icaron radiation. Whatever you want from him, he isn"t in any condition to provide it."
"You are mistaken." Hater Of Humans"s voice held the unmistakable tone of command. "It is Professor Pryce"s knowledge of icaron radiation that we need.
That is why we have been waiting for him."
Pryce"s interest was aroused. Beltempest watched as his fingers began to scratch the surface of the table. "Please explain," he said.
Hater Of Humans continued: "In the dark days towards the end of the War, as the Empire sent in its terraforming ships while we were still on our planet"s surface, our scientists made a breakthrough. They learned how to harness the power of icaron radiation, and how to use it in a new generation of ships that could outrun and outgun anything the Imperial Landsknechte had got.".
Beltempest felt a tension growing in his chest. Nothing could outgun the Imperial Landsknechte.
"But icaron radiation is extremely dangerous!" the Doctor protested. "There are laws prohibiting its use! The Fourteenth Resolution of the Armageddon Convention clearly states "
"Icaron radiation is only dangerous to life-forms whose body chemistry is based upon carbon," Hater Of Humans snapped, "and even then, there have to be certain specific modifications. I suspect it is this degenerate human habit of "body-bepple" that has made them vulnerable; but, to be frank, we didn"t care about any risk to humans."
The Doctor"s expression was thunderous as he prepared a verbal broadside, but Hater Of Humans interrupted him.
"Save your misplaced concern, Doctor," Hater Of Humans said, shaking its head in sorrow. "Before we could build a fleet capable of defeating humanity, Hithis was destroyed for us, and we were dispersed. We were a race without a home, but we still had our pride. We had to rebuild our fleets, regroup our forces, reclaim our heritage. Apart from a few old cargo ships, all we salvaged from Hithis was one craft with the new power source: the Skel"Ske Skel"Ske. It was to be the flagship of our new fleet. Sleek, fast, armed and armoured, it was to spearhead our attempts to regain our home and defeat the Empire."
"What happened?" the Doctor asked.
"It was stolen," Hater of Humans spat, a grey flush spreading across its skin.
The male Hith beside it, the one who had been introduced as its scapegoat, suddenly extruded a pseudo-limb and began to tug upon one of its eyestalks 177in penance. "On its test flight, it was hijacked. The captain one of my most trusted aides and the navigator vanished along with it. Perhaps they were paid to take it and are now living in luxury somewhere. Perhaps they were killed. It took years for my people, scattered the length and breadth of the galaxy, to determine who was responsible."
"The Earth Empire," Pryce murmured.
"As you well know," Hater Of Humans said, drawing itself up. The Hith scapegoat, sensing the change in emotion, ceased its self-flagellation and subsided, panting, to the floor. It curled up around the metal box, inside which something shifted slightly.
Pryce nodded. "Yes, I know," he said.
"I don"t," the Doctor piped up.
Pryce gazed at the Doctor, the black wells of his eyes reflecting nothing. "It was when I was at the University of Sallas," he said finally. "I was approached by the Landsknechte. They offered me a job. They told me that they had . . .
found an alien s.p.a.cecraft, drifting through human s.p.a.ce. They thought that it was powered by an icaron generator, and they wanted me to help them take it apart. After all, if they could get icaron technology working safely, it would mean a vast leap in human technology. I agreed, and they took me to Purgatory, where they had taken the craft for a.n.a.lysis."
A cold hand seemed to be squeezing Beltempest"s heart. He hadn"t known anything about this! There was nothing on the files about it. Nothing. Could this be the break in the case he had been waiting for?
"The cover story," Pryce continued, "was that I was working on icaron weapon systems." He smiled. "They gave me a laboratory, an inflated bud-get and all the attention an overinflated ego could require. All they wanted was results. I was young, naive. I took risks."
"You went mad," the Doctor said.
"I"ll always regret that I didn"t get the chance to finish what I started," Pryce continued. "Others, no doubt, will try, but not as well as I would have done."
"Others have have tried," Hater Of Humans said. "The ship was taken from Purgatory after you . . . you failed to find out its secrets. It was moved elsewhere. tried," Hater Of Humans said. "The ship was taken from Purgatory after you . . . you failed to find out its secrets. It was moved elsewhere.
Our agents all over the galaxy have been searching for it with no success.
Until now."
It was all becoming clear to Beltempest now. There was a conspiracy at the heart of the Landsknechte, and it involved this ship. What else? He remembered the message that had been sent to to the man who had been Provost-Major Beltempest. "Earth," he mumbled, trying to get his lips to work.
"It"s on Earth, isn"t it?"
The guard stepped forward, but Hater Of Humans waved her back.
178."Yes," it said, "the ship is on Earth, but we don"t know where. Our agents can find no trace of it."
"That"s why people are being driven mad," the Doctor said. "Whoever has it is slowly dismantling it to get at the power source. The fools! They probably don"t even know the risks! We desperately need to get to that ship."
"We agree," Hater of Humans said.
Beltempest was surprised. "Why?" he asked.
"Because, after so many years, the Empress has finally deigned " It almost spat the word. " to receive a Hith diplomatic mission. Dweller In Sorrow Abandoned And Lost one of our most persuasive diplomats who, until now, has been working in a fast food restaurant on Alpha Centauri is currently on Earth awaiting an audience with the Empress. We believe that the Empress is sympathetic to our cause. It is possible that we may get our home world back again. However, if it became public knowledge that a Hith device was driving humans mad . . . "
"I see the problem," the Doctor said. "May I ask a completely unrelated question?"
Hater Of Humans nodded.
"I"ve been examining the landscape outside the tent," the Doctor continued.
"And I must admit, I"m confused. If your world was destroyed by the Earth Empire, where are we now? This world distinctly resembles the description of Hithis given to me by another member of your race."
Hater Of Humans"s answer was directed at the Doctor, but it was looking at Beltempest as it spoke.
"We have established a secret base in the midst of the only remnant of Hithis left to us: a sanctuary in the midst of our enemies. We are in one of their training areas on the Imperial Landsknecht planet Purgatory."
Forrester paused in the doorway. Cwej could tell that she wasn"t happy, but she flicked the switch anyway.
"Good luck!" he hissed, and gave her a quick thumbs up. She shot him a dirty glance, then the door opened and she stepped inside the room.
"She"s in," he told Bernice and Powerless Friendless, who were standing behind him.
"We know," Bernice said. "We saw."
He was just about to explain that he knew knew that they knew but was just making conversation when a voice snarled, "Whaddya want?" from inside the room. that they knew but was just making conversation when a voice snarled, "Whaddya want?" from inside the room.
"I hear you"ve been abusing one of my staff," Forrester snarled louder.
"Whaddya mean?" The guard sounded suspicious. Cwej reached for the rea.s.surance of his gun.
179."I mean that I"ve had a complaint from one of my cleaners. He said you verbally abused him."
Beside Cwej, Bernice shook her head. "Not trying very hard, is she?"
"Give her time," Cwej said defensively, "she"s not trained in undercover work." He remembered the incomprehension on Forrester"s face when Powerless Friendless suggested the plan. "But you"re an alien!" she had said. "You should expect abuse. And why should a human supervisor be concerned? The guard"ll never buy it."
"All you have to do," Bernice had explained patiently for the third time, "is get the guard where Cwej here can come in and lay him out from behind."