Part 10 (1/2)

'Baylock's palsy. Premature ageing. Those afflicted never live a year beyond p.u.b.erty. He was a serf, one of my family's people. The treatment was expensive and in its infancy. I took it upon myself to do what I could. Believe me, his family were only too relieved.'

Forget that image of those greedy peasant parents grabbing at the pittance he paid them, shoving the screeching child into his carriage, dancing with joy as he drove away. You are telling a lie, it didn't happen. If you're saying it's true, it is a lie.

'Really,' Romana says, but she is uneasy.

'I'm sure you wish to find your friend,' he continues, easily.

'You know, one of these days you really are going to have to tell me who you are.'

Romana smiles back. 'One of these days. Am I a prisoner here?'

'Oh no. I have no claim on this palace. I am merely a tenant. The real owners, well, who knows... ?'

'Indeed, the riddle of Valdemar and the disappearance of the Old Ones is one of the ten great mysteries of the universe,' says Romana. 'Number six as I recall, from those on my planet who were obsessed with lists.'

'You want the Doctor.'

'Please.'

'You realise, of course, that this palace is nothing more than the control centre of a jumped-up particle accelerator,' says Romana after Neville has left her and the Doctor together in the library. It is evening now, not that it makes much difference on Ashkellia, but somehow the dim palace lights have dimmed even further. Shadows loom large in this repository of the Old Ones.

The Doctor grunts. He has been tinkering with one of the data-storage cylinders. Slowly, he lowers it on to the carved table. Oh dear. Romana realises she has made a big mistake.

'Of course I know,' he replies, patiently. 'Now, undoubtedly, so do they.'

'Ah. Sorry.' She tries to spot the recording devices. 'Which is why Neville was so helpful in bringing me here. How do you think he is observing us?'

'It doesn't matter. Nano-bugs, cameras, telepathy for all I know.'

'I'm sorry Doctor.' She is still painfully aware of the gap between intelligence (the understanding of the purpose of the palace) and experience (knowing when to keep one's mouth shut).

'Don't worry. He would have worked it out in the end.'

Romana paces the huge hall. 'But applied on such a scale.

Even Gallifrey... What could they possibly have hoped to achieve? These Old Ones.'

The Doctor's face is in shadow, but she could swear the lines on his face had deepened. He seems older, old as his years. 'To breach the higher dimensions,' he says.

Romana is shocked. Really shocked. 'But... but that's impossible. The whole idea, that's ludicrous.'

The Doctor laughs, but without humour. 'Why are you so upset? Because the Old Ones did it? Or that they achieved an engineering miracle not even the Time Lords could manage?'

'The experiment was closed down. The Dimensional Ethics Committee...'

'Banned any such experimentation. I know. The consequences would have been appalling.' The Doctor sits back in his chair, furiously twiddling his thumbs. To Romana, it was as if he had been there, as if the experiment had been taken from him. A personal insult.

'Why, Doctor?' she asks. 'What would happen if the higher dimensions were breached?' She is on familiar ground the debate, the discussion of evidence.

'Reality would begin to change,' he muses, looking up at the data cylinders lining the walls. 'Or more strictly, appear to change. The higher dimensions are are reality, just a greater reality than we can perceive. Even Time Lords, with their occasional insights into the fourth and fifth dimensions, aren't immune to their effects.You recall that poor man inside the tomb?' reality, just a greater reality than we can perceive. Even Time Lords, with their occasional insights into the fourth and fifth dimensions, aren't immune to their effects.You recall that poor man inside the tomb?'

Romana shudders. She remembers all right. 'And K-9?'

'The mind and body adapt to exposure to the higher dimensions. Organs in the brain, dormant for centuries, begin to grow. The eyes...'

'Yes, I know about the eyes.'

'Ah!' He is suddenly awake. The air pops with the sound of snapping fingers. His own wide eyes gleam in the dying light.

'Of course! How could I have been so stupid?'

'I don't know. What are you talking about?'

'Telepathy. Nano-whatever, cameras, telepathy, that's what I said, isn't it? Don't you see?'

'No. What's all this got to do with Valdemar?'

'Telepathy! That's what this has got to do with Valdemar.'

Romana frowns at him She thinks she understands what he means. She remembers a rather fanciful paper on this very subject at the Academy. 'Doctor, that was only supposition.'

'Supposition? Superst.i.tion? It's fact and the Time Lords knew it! Valdemar. Of course. It has to be.'

'That certain individual forms of life are more adapted to perceive the higher dimensions? It's a childish conceit. Like the idea that certain privileged families could control and master some universal force...'

'It's undemocratic, I'll grant you. But I think it's true. The Old Ones must have had great quant.i.ties of psychic energy.

Enough even to instil their computers with that knowledge.'

'Doctor. This is speculation.'

'Is it really?' He is up and pacing now 'Even on minimal power, the sensors could interpret your psychic energy and recreate an environment you felt a deep empathy towards.'

'My room?'

'What else would you call it? Magic?'

Romana doesn't want to be convinced. She doesn't want to believe she is trapped inside a giant living computer that can read her mind. '”It knows”, Huvan said. A frightening thought.'

The Doctor spreads out his arms. 'Frightening, indeed.

Imagine. A million years ago, the Old Ones breached the higher dimensions. The effect would have been catastrophic.

But not for everyone. Certain individuals, perhaps only one, were sufficiently psychically evolved to control its influence.

To shape reality to its own ends. With that kind of power, it could do anything. And in the end, millennia later, when even the universe itself has changed beyond recognition, the memories of this time still live on.'