The General smiled deprecatingly. "Forgive me. I didn"t come here to make speeches about my own petty concerns.
They must seem trivial indeed to those who are responsible for such a great inst.i.tution as the Hospice of Karn. I trust your affairs are prospering? And what of this mysterious Sisterhood?
Are they as powerful as legend would have us believe? Their fame has reached even such remote planets as Darkeen... Is it not strange that the Sisterhood and the Hospice should occupy the same planet?"
"Not at all," said Lord Delmar. "One stems from the other.
Over the years, the planet Karn acquired a strange reputation as a place of healing. An intergalactic medical a.s.sociation set up a hospice here, feeling that there must be something beneficial in the air or the waters." He smiled. "They soon discovered that it was not the climate but the Elixir that was producing miracle cures! They reached an accommodation with the Sisterhood, and the two inst.i.tutions flourished together."
"Fascinating," said the General. "Absolutely fascinating!"
He went on talking to Delmar and Hawken in low, deferential tones. Gradually the normal buzz of conversation filled the room. It was easy to guess what, or rather who, everyone was talking about.
Peri turned to the Doctor. "Talk about charisma! Who is he?"
"I don"t know," said the Doctor slowly.
"The way he looked at you when he came in I thought you knew each other."
"I thought so myself. Now I"m not so sure."
Peri studied the Doctor"s face. He was staring into s.p.a.ce. "Is he another Time Lord?" she asked.
"Perhaps."
"I thought you guys had ways of recognising each other?"
"We do. There"s a brief mind-touch, just a kind of courtesy.
It"s rude to probe, but there"s always a moment of acknowledgement."
"And that didn"t happen this time?"
"Our minds touched," said the Doctor slowly. "But his was shielded barred. So I shielded mine."
"So you"re none the wiser?"
"Not really. He"s hiding something hiding a great deal. But he"s someone very powerful, very important. I"d like to know what he"s doing on Karn."
"Arranging a peace conference, surely?"
The Doctor nodded towards the General"s companions.
"With that lot? Just look at them."
Peri looked. Making no attempt to mingle, the a.s.sociates were standing in a corner, backs to the wall, scanning the room, and methodically emptying any food or drinks tray that came within range.
Peri studied the group. They were all dressed in tattered finery, furs and leather and gleaming steel buckles and breastplates. They were all human, or at least humanoid, though of wildly differing physical types. One was ma.s.sive and bearlike, one squat, almost a dwarf. One was tall, thin and gaunt, another grossly fat with wobbling chins. The fifth member of the group was the nearest to normal, and the most frightening, a tall, thin man in black with a white face and cold, dead eyes.
They were all different yet they all had something in common.
"They"ve all got the Look," said Peri.
The Doctor looked mildly puzzled. "What look is that?"
Peri"s mind went back to her early days on Earth.
"It"s something you see in American cities in the dangerous parts. Places where everyone who looks at you seems to be thinking, "Do I mug this one, or that one? Who"s carrying the most cash, who"ll put up the biggest fight? Who"ll fall for a con, or a sob story?""
The Doctor nodded. "Predators, Peri. You"re describing predators. That"s what these people are. Gaztaks."
"Gaztaks?"
"s.p.a.ce pirates. So, what"s a man like the General doing with a bunch like that?" The Doctor answered his own question.
"Starting at the bottom, that"s what!"
"Why would he do that?" asked Peri. "He said he had power on his own planet and gave it up."
"I think that was a half-truth. He had power all right, but he didn"t give it up. It was probably taken from him."
"So now he"s making a comeback?"
"Exactly. And he"s using the sc.u.m of the galaxy because that"s all that"s available to him."
Peri looked dubious. "That"s a pretty sizeable piece of guesswork based on absolutely no evidence."
"It"s not a matter of guesswork," said the Doctor. "It"s a process of deduction or rather, induction. The thing is, what"s he up to? That"s what we"ve got to find out!"
"Doctor, we"re leaving, remember? Possibly tomorrow."
"Yes, of course," said the Doctor guiltily. "I"ll have a quiet word with Hawken before we go. Don"t worry, I"m not going to get involved..."
"You, get involved?" said Peri. "In some dangerous affair that"s none of our business? Of course not!"
"Now, Peri," said the Doctor, and then broke off.
Commander Hawken and the General were coming across the room towards them.
"The General has asked to be introduced," said Hawken.
"General, may I introduce Miss Miss Brown, a patient of the Hospice, soon to be leaving us and her " he stopped, raising an eyebrow at the Doctor.
"Her guardian," said the Doctor.
" her guardian, Mr John Smith. I"ll leave you together."
As Hawken moved away, the General nodded briefly to the Doctor and gave Peri a long and comprehensive look. "You look to be in excellent health to me, Miss Brown. An outstanding physical specimen if I may say so."
A warm and friendly smile robbed the compliment of offence. "Thank you, General," said Peri demurely. "I"m almost better now. I hope to be leaving soon."
"I am desolated," said the General. "I"d hoped to improve our acquaintance very considerably subject to your guardian"s approval, of course."
Peri had the strangest feeling that, despite the flow of extravagant compliments, it was the Doctor who was really engaging the General"s attention.
The General turned to the Doctor now. "And what do you do in life, Mr Smith?"
"I travel and I observe."
"Admirable. One could occupy many lives in such a pursuit.
Observation is harmless and commendable. It is interference which is so dangerous." The General turned to Peri. "If you will forgive me, I must pay some attention to my colleagues. They"re a little uneasy here fish out of water, you know. ."
"Tigers out of the jungle?" suggested the Doctor.
The General smiled. "If they are tigers, I have tamed them, Mr Smith."
He seized a champagne gla.s.s from a pa.s.sing tray and raised it to Peri.
"To our future acquaintance, Miss Brown."
He drained the gla.s.s and strode away. Almost regretfully, Peri watched him go. There was something very attractive about the General.
She turned back to the Doctor who was also staring after the General.
"What were all those enigmatic exchanges about observation and interference?"
"He was warning me off. He didn"t expect to find a fellow Time Lord here, and he doesn"t like it."
"So he is a Time Lord, then?"
"Oh, I think so, Peri. A mysterious renegade Time Lord with many secrets to hide."
Peri grinned. "Who does that remind me of?"
"We"re two of a kind in that way," admitted the Doctor. "But in all other ways we"re completely different."
Which was true enough, thought Peri. She knew that her mild-mannered Doctor had unexpected resources. But he had none of the arrogance, the strength and drive that made the General so appealing.
The Doctor looked across the room and saw the General and Solon talking quietly in a secluded corner. He wondered what they could have in common.
"You see, Solon," said the General. "I have come, just as I promised."
"At last," whispered Solon. "It seems an age since we met and you first told me of your great plan."
They had met at an intergalactic medical conference of which the General, in another role and under another name, had been a patron. Solon, confused, uncertain and insanely ambitious, had instantly fallen under his spell.
"I have been labouring in your service," Solon went on.
The General strove to remember what mad scheme Solon had proposed to him. "And how goes your project?"
"Slowly," admitted Solon. "There are many hindrances in my way. But I have recently obtained a fresh supply of Elixir, and my hopes are high. By the time you return in triumph I hope to be of real help. An invincible army, unkillable because they are already dead!"
The General smiled indulgently. "When I return in triumph, old friend, I hope to need no help. But continue with your project. Science must be served, and there are always more galaxies to conquer..."
He put a friendly hand on Solon"s shoulder and moved back towards his colleagues, leaving Solon gazing worshipfully after him.
One of the General"s greatest gifts was his power of attracting useful devotees and binding them to his cause. Solon, for one, would have died for him.
The General and his a.s.sociates had left, and the reception crowd was thinning out when Commander Hawken appeared at the Doctor"s side.
"So, what do you make of our General?"
"A very impressive character," said the Doctor. "A man of great powers. The question is, what does he intend to use them for?" "In the cause of peace, so he says."
"Exactly," said the Doctor. "So he says."
"You don"t believe him?"
"I"m not sure that I do."
"Why not?" asked Peri.
The Doctor didn"t feel that he could reveal the most important reason in front of Hawken his conviction that the General was a renegade Time Lord. (Another renegade Time Lord, he thought wryly.) But there were reasons enough without that one.
"First the General himself. There"s an enormous amount of ego under all that charm, a tremendous vanity. All that stuff about abandoning power and taking up service just didn"t ring true."
"I quite agree," said Hawken. "Go on."
"This whole peace conference business is odd. Why should a handful of primitive planets suddenly decide to form an alliance and why should someone like the General care enough about it to help them? Finally, his fellow delegates. They just don"t strike me as really peace-loving types."
Hawken smiled. "So to sum up..."
"He"s a dangerous customer with some very dubious friends, and he"s up to no good."
"My own conclusions exactly. I"d like to pack him off back to where he came from, but it"s too late for that."
"Why?"
"The Governor won"t have it. Bad public relations."