The Doctor hurled the chains he was carrying at the serpent.
They tangled around its fat body, catching under one stunted arm.
The Doctor pulled backward as hard as he could, just barely enough to loosen the thing"s grip.
The Duke got his balance back and put three shots into the snake"s body. Blood puffed out in a cloud of vapour as the Marquess fell back, jerking the chain from the Doctor"s hands, crushing the monsters beneath her.
It had taken the Imperial Guard thirty seconds to respond.
Doors opened all around the room, and soldiers and Adjudicators started pouring in. They took one look at the monsters and opened fire.
Genevieve ducked. The Duke leapt to safety. One of the monsters tore itself loose from the crowd and the hail of plasma fire and landed squarely on the Doctor.
It had been a woman. Now she had an exaggerated jaw, heavy enough to hold the sabre teeth she"d been given, muscles bulging 178 in her neck as she panted. Her claws s.n.a.t.c.hed at his coat and arms as she tried to climb over him.
"Wait," he said. "Listen to me."
Her green eyes stared at him in panic. She grabbed his jacket and pulled and pushed, sharply, so that his head ricocheted off the hard edge of the seat.
The Doctor woke up on board a shuttle. "You were dreaming,"
said Genevieve.
"Was I?" he sat up.
"Your eyes were moving, and you kept muttering things. I couldn"t understand them."
The Doctor sat up. He could see clouds out of the window.
"The Duke," he said. He shut his eyes. "Am I remembering rightly? Were we attacked in this timeline?"
"The Duke is well. He had some minor injuries. Are you sure you"re all right?" Genevieve shrugged uncomfortably. There was an inflatable cast on her arm.
"It doesn"t go with what you"re wearing," said the Doctor.
"It"ll come off tomorrow," she said. "We were a lot luckier than the people who... changed. How"s your head?"
The Doctor put his hands on top of his head. "Round," he said.
"Where are we going?"
"The Duke"s offices. A few thousand miles from the Imperial Palace. We"ll be there in an hour. Try to get some sleep. There"ll be a lot to do."
The Doctor looked out of the window. "Have you ever noticed," he said, "that the clouds on terraformed worlds have a slightly geometric look?"
Genevieve knocked on the door. She waited patiently, then knocked again.
"I"m in the bath!" called the Doctor.
"I know," said Genevieve. "You weren"t answering the terminal. I thought you"d drowned."
"You could have checked this very embarra.s.sing security camera... oh," he said.
179.
"Bubble bath"s wonderful, isn"t it?" she called. "Very popular throughout the Empire."
"Madam," said the Doctor, his voice distorted by echoing around the tiles, "can I a.s.sist you in some way?"
"The Duke is anxious to speak with you," said Genevieve. She sat down, leaning against the door, unable to keep a mischievous grin off her face. "There"s a great deal to discuss."
"I"m not coming out there," said the Doctor. "Someone will execute me."
"Actually, that"s pretty unlikely. For the moment, at least. The Duke has demanded that the Council what"s left of it, anyway hold a full investigation into both the Empress"s death and whatever happened in the courtroom."
She waited, but all she could hear was splashing. "Doctor?
What did did happen in the courtroom?" happen in the courtroom?"
"I"m not completely sure," he said. "Tell me the people who changed. Were they all registered psis?"
"Yes, they were," said Genevieve, impressed. She"d just sneaked a look at that report half an hour ago, while the Duke was sleeping. "Though few of them had measurable powers. The Psi Registry tracks recessive genes as well as actual powers. If there was a conspiracy, it was a very serious one. The Imperial surgeons say that none of them could have survived the changes to their bodies."
"I thought you needed Quoth to do that," mused the Doctor.
"Quoth?"
"A subatomic life form with the power to alter matter. They can be enslaved to produce all sorts of unlikely results. But I don"t think the Quoth have anything to do with this."
"You"ve seen something like that before, then," said Genevieve.
"That"s true of an alarmingly large number of things," said the Doctor. "Sometimes my life is like a series of repeats."
"We"re very lucky to have you, Doctor," she called. "Now of all times, the Empire needs expert advice."
"Flattery will get you everywhere," said the Doctor. "Except perhaps into this bathroom. Just remember not to let anyone cut off my head, please."
180.
"I wouldn"t worry. A full Council investigation ought to give you five years at least."
"You ought to get anyone with psi powers away from the Duke," he said.
"That"s being arranged now. Most of them will be keen to go once they realize the danger they"re in."
"It"s obvious that whoever"s behind this was after Duke Walid.
They were quick to move once the Empress was dead."
Genevieve frowned. "The House Armand?"
"Possibly. I doubt it."
"Duke Armand is the other surviving contender for the throne.
There are a few others, but no one with a really strong case. If the vote goes against Walid, Armand will be the next Emperor."
"Hmm..." Genevieve had a mental image of the Doctor sinking further into the tub, the water coming up over his ears as he thought deeply.
She glanced up at Walid, who was standing against the opposite wall, his arms folded. The Duke smiled, his mismatched eyes twinkling with amus.e.m.e.nt.
Genevieve got up. "Enjoy your bath, Doctor," she called. "I"ll leave you in peace."
181.
2.
Tethys 13 June 2982 Chris spent thirty minutes in the fresher, a real hot-water shower, using up two bars of guest soap. After weeks of travel on cargo freighters and pirate ships, economy cla.s.s in a standard pa.s.senger transport was luxury.
He emerged from the cubicle into the steamy bathroom, scrubbed pink and humming "I Heard a Rumour". He filled so much of the tiny room that he kept knocking his elbows against the walls and the sink when he tried to dry himself.
He put his head around the door. "Um, Roz?"
She was sitting at the terminal with her back to him. "Was that banging noise you?"
"Yeah. Do you mind if I finish drying off out here? I won"t take a minute. It"s just that there"s not much room "
"Get out here. I"ve busted scarier things than you in a towel,"
she said, still without turning around.
He stepped out and frantically dried himself off, tugging on his boxers and the nondescript blue suit he"d bought from the on-board duty-free. Roz didn"t turn around. He lay down on the bed, his feet dangling over the edge.
"Anything interesting?" he said.
182.
"Here and there," said Roz, turning in her seat. "I"m just reading the news. While you were in the shower, someone killed the Empress."
"What?" Chris stared at her.
"There are a lot of garbled reports coming out of Ja.n.u.s. Some of the Council were killed, too."
"Is it a coup?"
"Not quite," said Roz. "The Council are still in charge. They"re debating who the successor will be."
"Heck. The Empress. Do they know who did it?"
"One report said they"d caught the a.s.sa.s.sin, but that his or her ident.i.ty was being kept tightly under wraps. That might be another way of saying they have no idea who did it."
"Mom"s going to hate this. She was always keen on the royals.
Jeez, the Empress Empress. What are we going to do?"
"Nothing. Nothing to do with us. We keep looking for Zatopek."
"I wonder what the Doctor"s doing."
Roz"s mouth twitched. "He"s probably on Ja.n.u.s, taking tea with the Council and offering to solve their murder mystery for them."
A chime sounded softly. Roz"s terminal said, "Ladies and gentlemen, we will shortly be pa.s.sing over Odysseus Crater on our way to Ithaca City. For an excellent view of the Crater and the Temple of the G.o.ddess, please take a seat in the port-side viewing chamber. Thank you."
"Do you want to see?" asked Roz.
"Sure. I"ve never been to the Temple." Chris sat up and started tugging on his shoes. It was then that he realized he could see the whole room reflected in the terminal screen.
There were a dozen pa.s.sengers in the viewing chamber. It was a thick bubble protruding from the ship"s hull, giving them a wide view of the landscape moving below. Sharp lines and shadows, details emerging from the pattern of light.
There was a strange feeling in the small crowd, a kind of camaraderie. They were all thinking the same thing, all thinking about the Empress, wondering how life was going to change.
183.
The ship had already pa.s.sed the lip of the crater when Roz and Chris came in. There were two rows of seats. They sat at the back. Chris found he had a vague urge for popcorn.
"It"s huge," said Roz. They were looking out over the vast, worn plain of the Odysseus Crater, four hundred klicks across.
The Temple of the G.o.ddess was a glittering collection of lights, precisely in the centre of the crater, easily visible in the airless night sky.
"You know what it reminds me of?"
"Aulis Crater," said Roz.
They both shifted in their seats, uncomfortable.
It took fifteen minutes for the transport to get close enough to the Temple for a good look. A circular building with four spokes, a tall, sharp cone rising from the centre.
All the holograms and sims didn"t compare to the building itself, real and stark against the starry sky. The largest religious building in the solar system. The home of the G.o.ddess, the heart of the Adjudicators. Chris felt a chill down his spine as they pa.s.sed almost overhead, the tip of the cone pointing up at them like a finger.
"Blasphemous," murmured Roz.
"What?"
"I was just thinking," she said. "If there was... another Nexus.
Under the Temple. If this was another fake crater."
"I didn"t think you were a believer," said Chris.