Part 24 (1/2)

'You traitor!' he hissed.

Vap Oppat Pol was standing just inside the cell door, holding a box with rough holes punched in the lid. holes punched in the lid.

'Call me all the names you wish,' Vap said. 'Pull my eyestalks out by the roots.

Tear my sh.e.l.l from my tail. You cannot do worse than I would do myself My shame could obliterate an entire Guild of sacrificial scapegoats.' shame could obliterate an entire Guild of sacrificial scapegoats.'

'Why?' Daph shook his head in disgust. 'Can you tell me? Do you know why you betrayed your own race?' you betrayed your own race?'

Vap Oppat Pol shrugged: a long shudder that ran the length of his body.

'Money, my friend. What else is there?'

'You did this for money money !' !'

'We were losing the war. The Skel'Ske Skel'Ske would have staved off the inevitable for would have staved off the inevitable for a month, perhaps two. We would have been wiped out. Hithis was lost, whatever a month, perhaps two. We would have been wiped out. Hithis was lost, whatever I did.' Vap Oppat Pol looked away. 'I wanted to survive, so I offered the humans I did.' Vap Oppat Pol looked away. 'I wanted to survive, so I offered the humans a deal. What was wrong with that?' a deal. What was wrong with that?'

'And now? Have you come to watch me bleed for them too? Isn't the knowledge that you have betrayed Hithis enough?' that you have betrayed Hithis enough?'

Vap glanced around, furtively. 'I've been betrayed too!'

'Really?' Daph ladled his voice with irony, but Vap didn't seem to notice.

'Yes! I overheard a conversation. They've just been stringing me along. They have no intention of paying me at all. They're going to torture me!' have no intention of paying me at all. They're going to torture me!'

'How terrible.' This time, even the thick-skinned Vap must have realized that he wasn't being taken seriously. he wasn't being taken seriously.

'I'm getting out,' he said. 'I've booked pa.s.sage on a s.h.i.+p leaving Earth with the little money that they did pay me. I'll make a new life for myself somewhere out little money that they did pay me. I'll make a new life for myself somewhere out in the galaxy. There's a planet named Oolis I've heard about. I could make a life in the galaxy. There's a planet named Oolis I've heard about. I could make a life there.' there.'

Hope washed through Daph's body, was.h.i.+ng away the pain and the weakness.

'And me . . . ?' he whispered, hardly daring to hope.

Vap Oppat Pol handed him the box.

'There's an electronic key here that will open all the doors between here and freedom, and a map of how to get from here to the Undertown. You'll be safe freedom, and a map of how to get from here to the Undertown. You'll be safe there.' there.'

'I can't stay on Earth!' he said, shocked. 'They'll spot me instantly. I'm a Hith!

We're at war!'

148.Vap shook his head sadly.

'The war's over, my friend,' he said. 'They don't like us, but they tolerate us.'

He laughed mirthlessly. 'Humans are magnanimous in victory. They can afford to be.' to be.'

'Does that mean . . . I can go home? To Hithis?'

Vap Oppat Pol opened his mouth to answer, but his skin flushed grey with shame and he turned away. shame and he turned away.

'Good luck,' he said, and slithered towards the door. Before he reached it, he turned his eyestalks to say: 'Three last things. Firstly, I've rescued the control turned his eyestalks to say: 'Three last things. Firstly, I've rescued the control nexus and put it in the box with the key and the map. They can't operate the nexus and put it in the box with the key and the map. They can't operate the Skel'Ske Skel'Ske properly without it. Keep it safe. Secondly, if I'm ever back on Earth, I'll properly without it. Keep it safe. Secondly, if I'm ever back on Earth, I'll leave a message for you written on the wall outside the s.p.a.ceport Five Offworld leave a message for you written on the wall outside the s.p.a.ceport Five Offworld Zoo. Remember that: the s.p.a.ceport Five Offworld Zoo. Thirdly, I'm changing my Zoo. Remember that: the s.p.a.ceport Five Offworld Zoo. Thirdly, I'm changing my name. Word has gone out that all Hith must do the same, to remind the humans name. Word has gone out that all Hith must do the same, to remind the humans of what they have done to us. I am going to call myself Homeless Forsaken of what they have done to us. I am going to call myself Homeless Forsaken Betrayed And Alone, because I am. If you ever need me, that's the name I'll be Betrayed And Alone, because I am. If you ever need me, that's the name I'll be living under on Oolis.' living under on Oolis.'

He slithered away, leaving nothing behind him but bad memories and a box.

Daph's pseudo-limb hovered indecisively over its lid before reaching out to flip it open. He gasped, and flinched as . . . open. He gasped, and flinched as . . . the time tank hissed open and Dantalion's soggy face loomed over him. the time tank hissed open and Dantalion's soggy face loomed over him.

'Powerless Friendless,' he said, 'my friend, how do you feel? Hold nothing back, describe every ache and every pain.'

'I . . . ' He paused, thinking So much information. So many memories. He extruded a fine pseudo-limb and traced the pattern of scars along his side, remembering every cut, every burn, every last inch of pain.

How stupid could he have been? All that time spent hiding down in the Undertown. All that money so carefully saved up so that Dantalion could rip out the memories of his humiliation like human dentists would remove a rotten tooth. All for nothing. Time and time again he'd busked outside the s.p.a.ceport Five Offworld Zoo, not knowing what residual memory drove him there. Time and time again he had crept into the INITEC building through the unlatched window in the lower level to clean himself, not knowing that it was from there that he had escaped in the first place. He had a score to settle. Oh yes, by the G.o.ds of Hithis, he had a score to settle.

'My name isn't Powerless Friendless,' he said quietly. It's . . . ' The knowledge welled up within him: familiar, yet new. 'It's Daph Yilli Gar!'

Dantalion nodded, unsurprised.

'I will have to ask you to remain quiescent for the nonce, whilst I perform numerous but painless checks upon your newly restored psyche. However, I 149would be interested to ascertain what your intentions might be once you leave my humble abode?'

Powerless Friendless lay back, settling into his personality as he might slip on an old but much loved tunic.

'I have some unfinished business,' he said.

While Bernice tried to make Cwej more comfortable, Forrester hot-wired another flitter. Bernice could see she didn't have Cwej's skill at it, managing to lock the security systems on five of them before she hit on the right combination of wires, keys and brute force. The canopy on a dark grey company rental model sprang open.

'Come on,' she said eventually, 'let's get him in.'

Finding an area of unburned skin to pick Cwej up by was almost impossible.

In the end Bernice slid her hands under his shoulders and Forrester grasped his half-melted boots. He groaned. His skin was feverishly hot and sticky, and smelled of roast pork. Bernice felt her stomach churn.

'Do you have any destination in mind?' she asked as they manoeuvred Cwej across to the flitter's open door, 'or are we just winging it from here?'

'There's a medic down in the Undertown. Dantalion's his name. He's an alien: a Birastrop. I've pulled him in on umpteen occasions for unauthorized brainwipes and unlicensed beppling, but he's under the wing of one of the crime lords so there's always plenty of witnesses to say he was somewhere other than where we say he was. He used to be Surgeon Imperialis, so the rumour goes, despite the fact that the Empress hates aliens. The rumours don't say why he's down here now. He's a juke addict, but he's good.'

They laid Cwej down in the back of the vehicle, accidentally smearing the covers with blood and flakes of burned skin.

'And we're going to him?'

'You have a better idea?'

'Loads,' Bernice muttered to herself, 'but this is your century.'

Forrester took the flitter up on a spiral path that would bring them out of the upper entrances. Daylight streamed in like the beam of a searchlight. Bernice shut her eyes against the glare, suddenly realizing how tired she was.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd slept; even on the Imperial shuttle to Earth she had lain awake, staring at the ceiling, worrying about being separated from the Doctor and the TARDIS. The moment when she knew things were getting on top of her was when she realized she was missing Ace.