"Not if he thinks I can still be of use to him. Come on, Merdeen, there isn"t much time..."
Drathro stood swaying in the centre of his malfunctioning control room. Lights flashed wildly on the consoles and electricity arced across them.
"The black-light system will soon collapse in on itself,"
he said in a blurred, dragging voice. "Then we shall all cease to function."
As Drathro moved away, Tandrell whispered, "We must leave here, Humker."
"Where could we go?"
"I don"t know. But Drathro says there will be an explosion and we shall all be killed. So, the logical course is to leave."
Humker glanced up at the monitor and saw a ragged-looking group of armed men pounding down the corridor, a red-haired woman leading them.
"The wild ones!" said Humker. "We are too late."
"I"ve always said you talked too much," said Tandrell.
"Come on!"
He led the way to the door.
By now Katryca and her little army were literally battering at the Castle doors. But their gun b.u.t.ts and spear handles made no impression.
"The gates will not yield, Katryca," said Broken Tooth gloomily. "They are of iron."
"Then we will cut down the walls," said Katryca, undeterred. "Fetch tools!"
"Wait," called Balazar. "The Castle gates open."
As they watched the gates swung slowly open.
Katryca turned to rally her reluctant warriors. "Come, the Immortal is dead. We have nothing to fear!"
She led them across the anteroom towards the inner doors. When the warriors had all pa.s.sed through, Humker and Tandrell slipped out from behind the doors and disappeared down the corridor. As the little army crossed the anteroom, the inner doors opened also. Excitedly they hurried into the control room, Katryea and Broken Tooth in the lead.
Drathro was waiting for them. They stand up at the gleaming, metal figure with its strange sickle-shaped head in horrified amazement.
"It can"t be," whispered Katryca.
But somehow they all knew that this was the true Immortal.
"Why have you entered here?" boomed Drathro in his slurred, dragging voice.
Katryca"s courage did not fail her. "The guns, Broken Tooth!"
"Lay aside your useless toys," ordered Drathro. "I ask why have you entered here?"
"We are the tribe of the Free."
"You are va.s.sals," said Drathro contemptuously, "Outside the law, outside the Plan. You have brought disorder where order reigned."
Broken Tooth raised his gun, and Drathro lashed out and shattered it in his hand.
"I am Katryca. Queen of the-"
Drathro"s clamplike hand fastened about her throat, For a second or two the whole robot pulsed with power.
Katryca writhed and twisted for a moment. then her charred body dropped to the ground, face blackened and hair scorched away, Broken Tooth launched himself at the robot in a mad frenzy, Drathro"s other hand clamped about his throat. Seconds later his twisted body dropped beside that of his Queen, his features scorched beyond all recognition.
"You cause me to waste energy," said Drathro reprovingly. "Wait outside all of you. You will be Culled in accordance with the Plan."
"Oh great Immortal one," cried Balazar, Drathro dismissed him. "Go. Do not attempt to hide.
My guards will track you down."
Balazar led the defeated army from the control room.
Humker and Tandrell hurried along the corridors.
"I remember these subways from my childhood," said Humker.
"Is this then the way to the surface?"
"I said I remembered the subways, Tandrell - not where they led!"
"If we do not find the surface. Drathro"s guards will find us." "First we must deal with the wild ones, Then if there is an explosion..."
They turned a corner and ran straight into the Doctor, Peri and Merdeen.
"Tumker and Handrail," said the Doctor. "Where are you two off to?"
"We are leaving, Doctor," said Tumker.
"Drathro says there is going to be an explosion." said Tandrell, "I know," said the Doctor ruefully.
"It is a mechanical fault," said Tandrell, "Electronic," insisted Humker.
Tandrell said worriedly, "There is a constant electrical discharge from one pole to another."
"Then I may only have minutes," said the Doctor worriedly. "Come on!"
The Doctor and his party hurried away.
Sitting back in the Courtroom the Doctor said, "I didn"t appear to be hurrying there, did I? But that deceptively easy gait of mine covers the ground at amazing speed."
"I did not interrupt the evidence to compliment you on your athleticism, Doctor," said the Inquisitor coldly.
The Doctor looked crestfallen. "Oh well, you can if you like. All compliments gratefully accepted."
"May I remind you yet again that this is a serious trial?"
The Doctor sprang to his feet. "It is not serious, it is a farce," he said furiously. "A farrago of trumped-up charges."
"You will have the opportunity in due course to rebut any or all of the Valeyard"s charges, Doctor."
The Doctor laughed scornfully. "The Valeyard"s charges! I always thought Valeyard meant Learned Court Prosecutor."
"And so it does," said the Valeyard stiffly.
"Not in your case, sir," said the Doctor witheringly.
"Your points of law are spurious, your evidence weak, verging on the irrelevant, and your reasoning quite unsound. In fact, your point of view belongs in quite another place. Perhaps the mantle of Valeyard was a mistake. I would therefore suggest that you change it for the garment of quite another sort of yard - that of a knacker"s yard! Your arguments are as tried and worn out as the poor unfortunates that end up there."
Having got all this off his chest the Doctor sat down again, feeling very much better.
The Inquisitor was furious. "You will apologize at once, Doctor!"
The Doctor leaped to his feet again. "For telling the truth? Never!" He sat down again.
The Valeyard rose. "The Doctor is well known for his childish outbursts. I do not find the ramblings of an immature mind offensive."
"Immature?" the Doctor was outraged.
"It is that particular state of mind that has made it necessary for you to be brought before this Court."
"Immature!" said the Doctor again. "I was on Ravolox trying to avert a catastrophe - the death of several hundred innocent people. Surely not even in the eyes of the Time Lords can that be deemed immature - or a crime!"
"The crime was in being there, Doctor," said the Valeyard. "Your immaturity lay in not realizing that you had broken a cardinal law of the Time Lords. Your presence initiated the whole chain of events which we have witnessed."
"Thank you, Valeyard," said the Inquisitor. "It was just that point concerning the relevance of the evidence that I had intended to raise."
The Valeyard bowed. "My pleasure, Inquisitor."
The Doctor threw himself back in his chair. "Oh this is ridiculous!"
"May we continue?" asked the Inquisitor pointedly. "I tire of this empty banter."
The Valeyard bowed again. "Of course, My Lady."
The Doctor and Peri hurried up to the Castle gates - and stopped in astonishment at the sight of the sorry-looking group of warriors, now disarmed, bunched under guard outside.
The Doctor went up to Balazar. "What happened?"
"Alas, Doctor, these are woeful times for the Tribe of the Free. The Queen is dead! The Immortal struck her down with a bolt of lightning."
"Where is he now?"
"The All-Powerful One is in his Castle."
"Why did he let you go?" asked Peri.
"We are waiting to be Culled," said Balazar sadly.
"You"ll be Culled all right," said the Doctor grimly. "And so will everybody else around here if I don"t get into that Castle." He marched up to the gates. "Drathro, this is the Doctor. Let me in at once, do you hear me?"
"It"s no good Doctor," said Merdeen. "You can only speak to the Immortal through the communication box."
The Doctor sighed. "I forgot. Doesn"t exactly entertain a lot, does he? Right, quickly Merdeen, take me to the nearest one."
Dibber and Glitz came creeping around the corner of the tunnels, bowed down by the weight of their multi-blasters.
"When we find this Castle," began Dibber.
Gasping, Glitz put down his multi-blaster. "Dibber, I must rest. I am exhausted."
"If we find this Castle," Dibber went on, "and knock out the L3 robot - how are we ever going to find these secrets you keep on about?"
"Dibber, would I have spent all this time and effort - not to mention a small fortune - if I wasn"t certain on that point?"
"Yeah, but even if we do find "ern they might not be worth anything. Not after five hundred years."
"Do me a favour, Dibber," said Glitz wearily. "The Sleepers found a way into"
On the Courtroom screen, Glitz"s final words had been carefully bleeped out.
The Doctor sprang to his feet. "What is going on?"
"That question had formed in my own mind, Doctor,"
said the Inquisitor. "Well, Valeyard?"