Part 23 (1/2)

'Everyone wants to know who I was working for. They've asked a lot of questions about Duke Walid.'

'I'm not surprised. He's very high on the list of possible successors.'

'I'd advise him not to take the job, if I were you,' said the Doctor. 'You don't have to be crazy to work here... She suppressed the security systems while we were talking. I expect they came back on automatically after she died, which is when the guards realized what was going on.'

'Did they attempt resuscitation?'

He used a fire extinguisher to shatter the thick plastic of the globe. The Empress had been pounding uselessly on it from the globe. The Empress had been pounding uselessly on it from the inside, jerking and thras.h.i.+ng in her supporting fluid. The signals inside, jerking and thras.h.i.+ng in her supporting fluid. The signals travelling into her withered body were turning into chaotic travelling into her withered body were turning into chaotic pulses. She hung in tubes and wires, half strangled, her flesh pulses. She hung in tubes and wires, half strangled, her flesh coming apart at the seams. When he broke the gla.s.s she was coming apart at the seams. When he broke the gla.s.s she was pushed out in a rush of green fluid, her limbs ripping on the pushed out in a rush of green fluid, her limbs ripping on the plastic. plastic.

'No.'

'G.o.ddess knows how many of them would have done it themselves, given the know-how,' said Genevieve. 'Come to think of it, why didn't she just kill herself?'

172.

'A very good question,' said the Doctor. 'Perhaps she couldn't.

Perhaps she couldn't work out how. Perhaps she couldn't bring herself to do it. I don't know. I do know she couldn't bring herself to order someone else to kill her. It had to be given. Like a gift.' He took off his hat and turned it around in his hands, looking as though there were a lot more to say. 'I haven't told any of the others this, you know.'

'Why are you telling me?'

'Why are you asking me?'

'Perhaps I want to help you,' said Genevieve.

'You'll lose your bet,' said the Doctor.

'Perhaps I'm just curious. I met another Doctor recently, another the the Doctor. I wondered if there was some relations.h.i.+p.' Doctor. I wondered if there was some relations.h.i.+p.'

'Where was this?'

'Earth.'

'I'm so spread out.' said the Doctor, cryptically. 'Even that far.

I wonder...'

'I suppose it was an omen. The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.'

He wasn't listening. 'I wonder what she expected to happen.

What she meant to happen to me.'

'Ever have the feeling that you're missing something?' asked Genevieve.

'Have you ever woken up,' said the Doctor, 'and looked out of the window at the world, and thought, today anything could happen, today I could be anyone, today everything is possible?'

'You are are him,' said Genevieve. him,' said Genevieve.

'At the moment,' said the Doctor, 'I'm just one of me.' He put his hat back on. 'She's not finished with me yet.'

I love you. Come dance with me. Let's make history.

The Imperial Supreme Court was like a cross between Parliament and an amphitheatre. Concentric circles of high-backed black seats, solemn (but comfortable), arranged around an oval s.p.a.ce at the bottom. Seats for Supreme Judges and Cybertranscribers looked down on the lowest point in the courtroom, a brightly lit square.

173.

The Doctor was marched into the courtroom, in heavy chains he suspected had been recreated from records of the Middle Ages. He couldn't quite march with his legs shackled, but he did manage a cheeky, casual amble, looking around the courtroom.

Despite the dimness, he made out Duke Walid, recognizing his face from the homework he'd done aboard the Hopper, sitting in front of news reports with a tub of b.u.t.terscotch swirl. The Duke had dark hair, a moustache, and one blue and one brown eye.

Very high up the list of successors indeed, as Genevieve had said.

There she was, sitting beside him.

Europe's Duke Armand would be there somewhere as well, and every member of the Imperial Council, eager to be part of this historic (though tragic, of course) occasion. According to Genevieve, they weren't even broadcasting it. Everything was being kept hushed up until they'd got a verdict and a sentence.

After that the media would have open slather.

The Doctor looked up into the fierce white beam. It was supposed to hide their faces from him, he supposed, so that he could see only outlines.

A voice boomed out from somewhere in front of him.

'Doctor. On this day, the fourth of June 2982, you are hereby charged with the malicious, deliberate and wilful murder of Helen the First, Divine Empress Gloriana, Ruler of the High Court, Lord of the Inner and Outer Worlds, High Admiral of the Galactic Fleets, Lord General of the Six Armies and Defender of the Earth. What plea do you wish to enter?'

The Doctor glanced up at the Absolute Imperial Bailiff.

'Sorry,' he said. 'Could you repeat that? I was miles away.' A pleasing scattering of gasps and angry mutterings. The Doctor decided to push it. 'I was just admiring the architecture it's so wonderfully intimidating.'

'Doctor,' said the Bailiff, 'you've been accused of the worst crime this court has seen in its lengthy history.' Scattered cries of 'hear, hear'. 'How do you plead?'

'I refuse to plead,' said the Doctor. 'I don't recognize this court.'

'This is the highest court in the Empire,' someone called out.

'How can you fail to recognize it?'

174.

'I've never seen any of you before in my life,' said the Doctor.

'It might help if I didn't have that wretched light in my eyes.' He looked up to the beam's source. 'Shut that off!' he yelled.

After a moment, and the light obediently snapped off. More mutterings from the court. Remarkable the effect a bit of shouting could have on people. 'That's much better,' he said. 'Now I can see you all properly. I'd like to thank you for coming here tonight. I '

'Doctor!' thundered the Bailiff. 'You must enter a plea!' He was an absolutely enormous man, wearing Adjudicators' robes and bearing a huge ceremonial sword, signing with sharp gestures of his great hands.

The voice was coming from a balloon-shaped drone. Three gun nozzles emerged from the metallic shape, covering every corner of the room. 'If you continue to obstruct these proceedings, a charge of contempt will be added to your record.'

'Regicide and and contempt of court? I'll never get a job with a record like that.' contempt of court? I'll never get a job with a record like that.'