Part 37 (2/2)

A bare ten minutes later the judges returned and took their places.

President Saran spoke for the first time. In his reedy old voice he said, 'Morbius, this bench of judges has found you guilty of a whole series of appalling crimes. Have you anything to say?'

Morbius maintained a contemptuous silence.

'The only possible sentence is death,' said Saran. 'Your body will be placed in the vaporisation chamber at midnight tonight.

Take him away.'

As Morbius rose, there came wild screams from outside the court and the erratic sounds of random blaster-fire.

The doors were flung open and a ghastly apparition shambled into the Great Hall. It was a soldier, or rather the remnants of several soldiers, roughly st.i.tched together.

Fragments of rotting uniform covered rotting flesh, and dead eyes stared blankly from the dead face. It carried a rusty blaster which it waved unsteadily, firing random shots about the hall.

More zombie-like apparitions followed, lurching into the hall, while the seated spectators flung themselves away from them amongst the sound of cras.h.i.+ng chairs.

Arms had been banned in the hall but not everyone had obeyed. One or two spectators produced blasters, but their fire had no effect.

A grimy, white-coated figure appeared at the back of the hall.

'Run, Master, run!' it screamed. 'We can reach your s.h.i.+p.'

A sudden flare of hope in his eyes, Morbius leapt up, chains jangling.

One of the zombies lurched into him, nearly knocking him over. Morbius grabbed its arm to steady himself and the arm came away in his hand. With a scream of horror, he flung the arm away from him and cowered back in the box.

The Doctor grabbed a chair and swung it at the nearest zombie. It struck the apparition's head and the head flew from the shoulders like a golf-ball from a tee. The creature staggered about headless, firing wildly, then its leg came off and it fell.

'Never mind blasters,' shouted the Doctor. 'You can't kill them, they're already dead! Chairs! Use the chairs.'

The bolder spectators grabbed chairs and swung them, and there was a brief and horrible combat. Under the chair-blows the zombies disintegrated, arms, legs and heads flying in all directions.

Soon it was over, the floor littered with limbs and torsos.

Horribly, some of them were still twitching, but eventually they became still.

Peri shuddered. 'That was worse than the battle!'

By now Hawken's castle guards were in the hall. They took charge of Morbius and seized Solon as he tried to flee.

As they dragged him past Morbius, Solon sobbed, 'Forgive me, Master. I tried, I tried.'

'Get away from me, you filthy little corpse-monger,'

screamed Morbius. 'I never want to see your face again.'

The Doctor glanced at the dais where the three Time Lord judges sat rigid with shock.

They saw Hawken escorting a clearly shaken Lord Delmar from the hall.

'Come on, Peri, let's get out of here.'

Picking their way between the litter of fast-decaying body parts, the Doctor and Peri made their way out of the Great Hall.

They pa.s.sed a number of white-faced Capitol Guards.

'Those fancy-dress soldiers of yours weren't much use,' said Peri.

'The Capitol Guard?' The Doctor smiled. 'You must forgive them, Peri, they're not used to violence.'

They went outside the castle and stood on the steps, breathing in the crisp, cold night air.

'So what do we do now, Doctor?'

'Wait till midnight. Soon after that it will all be over and we can leave.'

'Are you attending the execution?'

'I don't want to Peri, but I must.'

'Why?'

'To make sure that everything goes precisely as it should.'

Chapter Eight.

Execution It was eleven o'clock and the Doctor was moving quietly along the darkened castle corridors. He wasn't sure how he was going to do what he was going to do. He only knew that he had to do it. To be precise, he had to set Solon free.

A little earlier he had sought out Hawken and casually asked him where Solon had been imprisoned.

'In your old cell, Doctor,' said Hawken cheerfully. 'Morbius had it for a while, but I was asked to move him closer to the execution chamber.'

'I didn't know you even had an execution chamber.'

'We didn't, but we do now. Your Time Lord judges brought it with them. Their technicians are setting it up now. Were you thinking of going to see him? Solon, I mean.'

'I might.'

'Well, be careful along those corridors. I lost a couple of my patrolmen last night.'

'Mercenaries hiding out in the ruins?'

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