"I am General Ch.e.l.lak, Commander of all Federal Forces on Androzani Minor."
The Doctor couldn"t resist mocking the pomposity of this announcement. "Well done sir! I suppose you started in the ranks?"
Ch.e.l.lak stared coldly at him. "Under Emergency Regulations, anyone caught supplying arms to the android rebels faces summary execution."
"But we weren"t supplying arms," protested Peri. "We were well, we just found them there..."
"... sir sir," completed the Doctor.
"However," Ch.e.l.lak continued, If you co-operate, I am prepared to extend clemency. If you do not co-operate, you will be shot. Is that clear?"
The Doctor said, "You couldn"t have put it more plainly.
Exactly how do we co-operate?"
"... sir sir," reminded Peri in turn.
"Thank you, Peri," said the Doctor politely. "How do we co-operate, sir sir?"
"Do not provoke me," shouted Ch.e.l.lak.
Suddenly the Doctor decided that the joke had gone far enough. "Sorry."
"I want to know your names, and the names of all your confederates. I want full details of all armaments deliveries, where and how they are brought in. I want to know who supplies you with the arms back on Major. And what your communications arrangements are with Sharaz Jek."
Well, I"m generally known as the Doctor, and my young friend here is called Perpugilliam Brown Peri for short."
"Go on."
"I"m afraid that"s it! That"s all we can tell you!"
"Don"t waste my time!"
"If we could just sit down and talk about this little misunderstanding in a civilised manner," pleaded the Doctor. "My young friend here has been suffering from pains in her legs. You can sec for yourself, she"s suffering from some form of urticaria..."
He indicated a spreading rash on Peri"s legs.
"Silence," snapped Ch.e.l.lak.
The Doctor ignored him. "Come to that, I don"t feel too well myself."
There was a bleep from the com-set on Ch.e.l.lak"s desk.
"Yes?"
"Signal for you, sir. Trau Morgus is on vid. He wants to speak to you immediately, General."
Ch.e.l.lak frowned. "Very well, I"ll take it." He nodded towards the door. "Take them away."
As the soldiers herded them out, Peri turned to the Doctor and said sadly, "I don"t think he likes us very much."
The soldiers bustled them away.
Chairman Morgus was in top-secret conference with a thin, sharp-faced man wrapped in a black cloak. "Now remember, I want the operation at Northcawl completed by the morning."
The stranger nodded silently.
Morgus touched a desk-b.u.t.ton and a section of wall slid back, revealing a lift. "Take my private lift, and rnake sure you"re not seen on the way out."
"Yes, Trau Morgus," said the thin man softly.
He stepped into the lift, and the door slid closed behind him.
Morgus touched a control and his picture-window darkened and became a vidscreen. Ch.e.l.lak"s features appeared.
Without preliminary, Morgus snapped, "These captured gun-runners... what information have you obtained?"
"Nothing as yet, sir. Only their names."
"And what are their names?"
The man calls himself the Doctor, and the girl"s name is Peri."
"A girl?" said Morgus curiously. "Bring them to the screen."
General Ch.e.l.lak gave an order to someone out of view.
He turned back to Morgus. "I"ve only just begun the interrogation. I hope to get enough out of these two to round up the rest of the gang."
"I hope so too, General Ch.e.l.lak, for your sake. Your operation so far has been a dismal failure."
Ch.e.l.lak"s face darkened with anger. "With respect, sir, I don"t believe you understand the difficulty of conditions here "
Morgus interrupted him. "All I understand is this you are supposed to be trained soldiers, yet one renegade and a handful of mindless androids have been dancing rings round you for six months."
"May I remind you, Trau Morgus, we captured the spectrox refinery on our very first a.s.sault."
"And allowed Sharaz Jek to spirit away the entire stock-pile from under your very nose. I warn you, General Ch.e.l.lak, people here are not prepared to suffer your blundering for much longer..."
In his workshop deep beneath the cave system, Sharaz Jek, the subject of this discussion, was sitting before a bank of video screens. One screen showed Ch.e.l.lak, the other Morgus, and the sound of their wrangling came over quite clearly.
It seemed to be giving Sharaz Jek considerable pleasure, if one could judge by the gleam of interest in his eyes. The rest of Sharaz Jek"s face was concealed by a skin-tight leather mask. He leaned forward, following the discussion.
Ch.e.l.lak was saying angrily, "I"m sorry, Trau Morgus, but I simply will not accept such criticism from a civilian, however highly placed..."
Suddenly two figures appeared on Ch.e.l.lak"s screen, a slender fair-haired man and a dark-haired girl.
"Tempers getting a little frayed, are they?" said the man cheerfully.
Morgus said, "I take it you are the one who calls himself the Doctor? I am Morgus, Chief Director of the Sirius Conglomerate."
"I know and we have to address you as "sir"."
Their discussion held no interest for Sharaz Jek. He touched a control and suddenly Peri"s face alone filled the screen.
Sharaz Jek leaned forward eagerly, caressing the face on the screen with a black-gloved hand.
Morgus stared coldly at the two figures on his vidscreen.
Better if you do not address me at all," he was saying. "I merely wished to inspect you, to see the kind of creatures capable of betraying the golden vision of our glorious pioneers." His face twisted with distaste. "Already I feel contaminated. Get rid of them."
Soldiers hustled the Doctor and Peri away, and Ch.e.l.lak took their place on the screen.
"You have done well, General Ch.e.l.lak," said Morgus smoothly. "I am sorry if my earlier remarks appeared intemperate. It is just that I long to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you in the struggle. All right-thinking citizens must feel the same." Morgus paused. "And so to boost morale, I want your two captives executed immediately."
"Executed? But I"ve already told them their lives will be spared if they collaborate."
Morgus shook his head. "No. No collaboration, General, no deals with traitors. The public will not stand for it."
"If we shoot them out of hand, we lose the chance of getting valuable information out of them "
"That may be true, but it is not of prime importance.
These people are the lowest type of human being. One has only to look at them to realise the full extent of their depravity. Get rid of them, General, and we shall all feel a lot better." Morgus"s voice hardened. "The prisoners are to be executed immediately!"
3.
The Execution Stotz and his band of gun-runners had chosen their position very carefully. They were hidden behind a jumble of loose boulders at the point where the cave system emerged into one of the ravines called narrows.
They had a longish wait, but eventually their patience was rewarded. The patrol of Federal troops appeared, moving slowly, burdened with the crates.
"Here they come," whispered Stotz. "Masks."
The gun-runners pulled up the masks that hung around their necks.
As the troopers emerged into daylight they stopped for a moment, putting clown the crates, stretching their aching backs, mopping their brows and grumbling to each other.
It was a natural enough reaction, and it was exactly what Stotz had been counting on. "Now!"
Slipping a gas-grenade from his cross-belt, Stotz tossed it towards the unsuspecting patrol.
At the sight of the red cylinder arcing towards them the troopers reacted instantly, grabbing for their weapons.
The grenade exploded at their feet with a soft plop, and greasy yellow fumes swirled through the ravine.
As the soldiers staggered back choking there came another grenade and then another. Soon the ravine was filled with swirling clouds of gas.
The soldiers got off one or two wild shots, but one by one they choked and fell. A few minutes later their scattered bodies were strewn across the floor of the ravine.
Krelper tapped Stotz on the arm and gave a triumphant thumbs-up sign. Stotz grinned wolfishly, and signalled his men to move forwards.
The Doctor and Peri meanwhile were arguing for their lives, though with very little success.
Calmly and logically the Doctor had pointed out all the facts in his own and Peri"s favour. Their alien appearance and manner of dress whatever they were, they clearly weren"t citizens of Androzani Major. The fact that they were unarmed, and had made no attempt to escape or to resist. Surely, the Doctor pointed out, the two of them made a most unlikely pair of gun-runners.
General Ch.e.l.lak listened to the Doctor"s arguments with surprising patience, even seemed to be influenced by them.
But finally he shook his head and said gloomily, "I"m afraid you"re wasting your time, Doctor. You heard Morgus. He wants you executed."
Peri just couldn"t take it in. "But that"s barbaric!"
The Doctor tried an appeal to Ch.e.l.lak"s military pride.
"You take orders from a civilian? Weren"t you just telling us you you command the Federal forces here?" command the Federal forces here?"
"I could appeal the order, I suppose, but it would be useless. Morgus has the Praesidium in his pocket."
The Doctor began to despair. "We"re quite innocent, you know. This is all a mistake."
"I think I"m beginning to believe you, Doctor. But in time of war sometimes the innocent die too."
"Is that all you"re going to say?" Peri burst out.
"We"re going to be killed "
She was interrupted by the entrance of Major Salateen.
"A message from Captain Rones, sir. His men are under gas attack."