Part 5 (1/2)

'Age has not improved you since Varos.'

Peri curtsied. 'From you, that's a compliment. What can we do for you, Si!?'

Sil scowled. 'Tell us why you had to murder our most promising experiment.'

'The Raak...' Crozier interjected.

'He attacked us,' Peri said.

Crozier shook his head. 'That I doubt very much.'

An idea became blindingly obvious to Sil. It made him bounce up and down, forcing his bearers to brace themselves to keep their balance. 'Doctor, we have the means here to instill co-operation.' The stumpy fingers pointed towards the operating table threateningly. 'There is the technology that allows us to control the way brains think. Would you like to try the helmet on for size, Doctor?'

'Now just now, thanks,' the Doctor said.

'But I insist. Our warrior King must have completed his advancement cycle. You must replace him so that we may coax the truth from your devious brain. Take him!'

Sil motioned to the guards who grabbed the Doctor while the others a.s.sisted Crozier to unhook Yrcanos and lift him on to an adjoining table. Struggling, the Doctor was carried to take the Warlord's place. Strive as he might the combined strength of his captors was too much and soon the Time Lord found himself with the pacification helmet clamped on to his skull.

'No!' Peri tried to bar Crozier's way towards the impulse power switch but it was a futile gesture. She was pushed aside and the scientist made for the switch that would pour the power of the Cell Discriminator into the brain of the Doctor. At the last moment Crozier hesitated.

'Use the power!' Sil screamed across at him. 'We must find the truth of how they killed the Raak!'

'I've never tried the Discriminator for this purpose. It could well be fatal.'

'Never mind,' Sil said. 'Do it. I will take the responsibility.'

Crozier shrugged: he was exonerated by Sil's order. He tumed the dial and depressed the CD switch. A wave line jumped to show that the current was being transmitted into the brain of the helpless Time Lord.

Peri cried out as the body of the Doctor convulsed with shock, her moans of despair drowned by the gloating cackles of laughter of Sil as the Doctor succ.u.mbed to the insidious invasion of his mind.

Six.

The Doctor's legs kicked frantically as the Cell Disintegrator began to work on the network of personality structure within his brain.

'Stop it!' Peri shouted as Sil continued his wild outburst of manic laughter which was cut off abruptly by the sight of King Yrcanos sitting up with a sudden violent movement.

'Sanvanloomah!' The warcry startled Sil into a cowed silence. Yrcanos picked up a jar of preserving fluid and hurled it at the guards. Seeing Frax levei his phaser weapon before discharging it into the Warlord's ma.s.sive body, Sil yelled. 'Don't shoot, we need him alive to sign contracts!'

'Slug!' Yrcanos picked up the table and ran with it held horizontally before him, smas.h.i.+ng the guards and Frax up against the shelves of sample jars and causing much debris and damage particularly to the unforturiates sandwiched between table and shelves with a bombardment of pickled brains falling upon them. Nimbly dodging the rush of the King, Peri ran to the transference panei and switched off the power to the helmet that enclosed the Doctor's cranium.

Crozier, horrified at the destruction of his beloved laboratory, watched helplessly as Sil screamed orders but cowered away from Yrcanos in a corner. Groggily, the Doctor began to stir.

Yrcanos stopped cracking the skulls of two guards together and called to the Doctor. 'Fear not, my friend I have had the brain purge and survived!'

Yrcanos turned his attention to smas.h.i.+ng the brain transference system. Peri lifted the helmet from the head of the Doctor, then began a.s.sisting him to sit up.

'Where...?' The Doctor started; his voice was thick with confusion.

'Never mind. C'mon, Doc, let's get out of here.' With a minor explosion and a burst of sparks, Yrcanos yanked out a transformer and used its cable to swing an arc of destruction amongst his foes. Following in his wake Peri supported the Doctor and headed for the door.

They arrived as Yrcanos hurled a guard back among his fellows. 'After you!' Yrcanos aiowed Peri and the Doctor ahead of him, then, with a roar of triumph, slammed the door and tied the cable around the locking arm with a quick flourish. 'Come,' he ordered and thrust out a brawny arm to help propel the Doctor away down the tunnel.

Inside the lab Sil raged at Frax and his defeated guards.

'Fools, fools, why didn't you fire!'

'You said...' a guard started.

Sil pulled a phaser from the holster on the guard's belt, adjusted the force setting and pointed the gun. 'Could you not do this, stupid?'

Sil squeezed the trigger control. The bolt hit the guard in the chest. He somersaulted, hit the wall then slumped down on to the floor. The other guards shrank away from the angry Mentor.

'Don't worry. He isn't dead. And even if he was there are plenty more oafs available from Thoros-Alpha!

Creditless cretins, leave him and get that door open!'

Sil gave out the orders authoritatively but incide he had a sickening feeling that Lord Kiv would demand a reckoning for this latest blunder.

'Can we rest for a moment?'

'All right.'

Yrcanos propped the still barely conscious Doctor against the wall of a silent empty tunnel then immediately went off to explore. Peri tried to rouse the Doctor by slapping his face on either side.

'Doctor!'

'Uh?'

'It's Peri...'

'Yes,' came the dull reply. 'So far away... up above myself on the table below.'

'Open a vein, let out the evil those devils have put into him.' The deep voice of Yrcanos growled from behind them. Having completed his scouting foray he had returned to stare down at the Doctor.

'Sorcerers! Evil demons! Soul stealers! They have my equerry, Dorf, in a dungeon somewhere. We will release him or die in the attempt! Were you captured by the slugs who rule this ball of mud and slime?'

Peri nodded.