Part 6 (1/2)

'I prefer not to spoil the secrets of the Matrix.'

'Do not bait the accused, Valeyard.'

The Valeyard bowed before the Inquisitor. 'My apologies.'

The Inquisitor looked enquiringly at the Doctor who was frowning with the effort of recail. 'Anything further to add, Doctor?'

Abstractedly the Doctor shook his head, looking a little like his image that still stared vacantly from the Matrix screen.

'Very well. Proceed.'

The screen switched abruptly back into the wreckage of Crozier's laboratory. Kiv and Sil watched Crozier trying to untangle a jumble of wires that had erupted from the Brain Transformer.

Kiv's dry testy voice grated out. 'We must have the Transformer operational; how can we rule without its influence?'

Crozier sighed impatiently. 'Everything will be restored before your slaves realise their situation.'

'Never mind them. What of my predicament? The pain in my head increases.'

'Your brain will continue to grow until...' Crozier shrugged at the obvious conclusion to his diagnosis.

Appalled, Kiv stared at the scientist. 'What?'

'Your skull, Kiv, is not designed to allow for increase of brain size and power. That's the trouble with mutations and hybrids like you. Your cranium is too thick. It lacks elasticity, hence the pain.'

Kiv knew just what Crozier meant for at that moment the pressure within his skull was causing him increasing anguish. 'Yes...' he moaned. 'Yes...'

Crozier regarded Kiv coolly. 'Unless I can operate, you will suffer fatal brain compression in a few days at most.'

Through a film of pain Kiv tried to concentrate on the scientist whose knowledge alone might save his life.

'You were brought here to give me new life!' the voice of Kiv wavered reedily. Crozier began to speak to him as if to a backward child.

'The Doctor has the answers I need. If the Raak did attack, my intended experiment of cerebral transfer must also fail when attempted on you. You would enjoy a few weeks of relief then you would revert to the base instincts of whoever was the donor.'

Kiv could stand no more. 'Words!' he screamed.

'Excuses! This is a conspiracy to stop my life being prolonged!'

Sil, alarmed at his master's growing hysteria, began to babble a mixture of flattery and empty promise. 'The intruders will be caught all I want is to share in the light of your intelligence and profit from its s.h.i.+ning wisdom...'

For Kiv this rivulet of inanity was worse than Crozier's condescension. 'Enough, Sil, do you want to talk me to death?'

'I will pray to the Great Morgo for your immediate recovery, Magnificence.'

'You will do better than that. If the Doctor has the answer Crozier needs you will find him!' Kiv paused, wincing under the onslaught of another compression of agony. When it paused a peak he continued, 'You will find him or you will both share my death with me. I can only stand this suffering for one more day. One day, that is all you both have...' Kiv gathered all his remaining strength and spat out a final imperative. 'Do something or die!'

Sil signalled for his bearers to lift him. 'We will act, Magnificence. Bearers, bear me away!'

Driven by Sil's panic the husky bearers charged enthusiastically for the door, causing a tidal wave inside Sil's tank.

'Not that fast, you Alphan oafs!'

The bearers slowed and carried the irate Sil away in search of the Doctor, while Crozier returned to the repair of his beloved consciousness adjustment and transference systems. Kiv watched him work for a moment than wearily indicated to his servants that they could convey him back to the Profit Room. One day, he thought, I can stand this agony, for one more day but after that, no more. After tomorrow all those who have failed me will be no more.

The decision made his spirits lift and Kiv leaned back and closed his eyes. The careful sway of his water tank soothed him a little. A memory came to him; a memory of his home mire before his brain had started to develop. He remembered how the awakening had commenced, how the world of swamp and slime had become not home and safety but just the mire from which every embryo Mentor must crawl. When Kiv had eventually reached the caves of the Mentors he was welcomed by other mutant arnphibians whose intellects and bodies had developed further into enlightenment than had his own. All Mentors were due to perish after a few brief years of brilliant ac.u.men that wrested a living for their planet from the universal stock and futures markets.

Now was it his turn to die, Kiv wondered. Yes, unless Crozier could avert the fate of all Mentors whose expanding volume of brain came up against the restriction of an unyielding skull. Tomorrow would decide, Kiv told himself as the rocking of his carrying poles lulled him into a few moments of blessed sleep.

Seven.

Peri had been staring at the huge back of King Yrcanos for what seemed like hours. They trudged on and on deeper into the caves. The Doctor stumbled along behind.

'Quiet,' Yrcanos held up a hand.

'What?'

'Listen...'

All Peri could hear was the slow drip of water falling somewhere within the shroud of mist ahead. Then the mist thinned as the glare of search lamps began to cut through the pink vapour.

'Back. Retreat, move!' Yrcanos shepherded Peri and the Doctor back the way they had just travelled until they reached a cleft in the rock that might hide them from the probing lights of a patrol of guards. Crouching down, Peri and Yrcanos realised that the Doctor was making little attempt to hide from the approaching lights of their enemies.

'Doctor...'

'Wha...?'

'Get down!' Peri pulled him down next to where Yrcanos crouched on the floor of the natural alcove. Light blazed above them but only momentarily the sound of the guards' steps continued their progress without breaking stride.

When the patrol had gone, Yrcanos stepped out into the pa.s.sageway and helped Peri to step clear of the rocks that littered the floor of the entrance to their hidey hole.

Slowly the Doctor emerged to join them, his eyes dull and devoid of his usual intelligence. Worriedly, Peri pa.s.sed her hand before his unblinking eyes. Not a flicker of response came from her movement.

'Yrcanos, you must help me get the Doctor back to the TARDIS.'

'This is not the time to run away but to fight. We should follow the guards. Annihilate them one by one just as I did on my long march to Kronwart.'

'How? What with?' Peri demanded. 'We're unarmed!'

Yrcanos shrugged casually. Peri tried again, 'What would be the point?'

'Victory!'