Part 12 (1/2)

'Old age.' Yrcanos shrugged.

'Wait...' Tuza pushed between them and knelt alongside the dead man. 'Linna. Is it Linna?'

'You knew him?' Yrcanos asked.

Tuza did not reply but stared down at the wizened face in disbelief.

'He was a spice trader back home on Thoros-Alpha. I can't believe what I see.'

Yrcanos could not understand the fuss.

'Death comes to us all. He has lived a long life.'

'Linna was no older than I am. Twenty years old, not a hundred. How has he turned into an old man?'

'Maybe through this...' Peri pointed at a patch of blood on the base of the dead man's skull. A small dart protruded from the wrinkled skin of the deceased.

'Don't touch,' Peri warned Tuza. 'That could be responsible for his rapid ageing!'

'This is the work of the Mentors!'

Tuza clenched his fists in helpless rage.

'What was the dead warrior's function?'

'He was one of the guardians of our weapons store.'

'I smell trickery, betrayal!' Yrcanos scowled fiercely and glared in the direction from which Linna had appeared.

'I'll scout ahead,' Tuza said and started to move away, Yrcanos grabbed the leader of the Alphans. 'We'll all scout ahead.'

'No. There could be much danger.'

'Good. Then we will advance on it together!'

The small group began to advance towards whatever was waiting ahead. Peri, marching along with them, could not keep from her mind the thought that they were involved in a futile mission against forces who possessed an a.r.s.enal of frightening weapons. Peri held out her hand. It was brown, shapely and young. She imagined it wrinkled, spotted, old.

A fur-covered paw appeared and stroked her hand comfortingly 'Thanks,' said Peri grateful for the touch and the Lukoser's presence beside her. He was a walking testament to the Mentor's ruthless regime. Peri decided that she had no choice but to support Yrcanos in his ambition to overthrow the evil rulers of Thoros-Beta.

'Why has Lord Kiv not yet returned to life?'

'It takes time,' the Doctor said.

'You are allowing the Lord Kiv to die!'

Alerted by the shrill panic of Sil the guards moved in, phasers ready to liquify Crozier and his helpers.

'Wait.' Crozier held up a hand. 'Doctor, the severin drip.'

The Doctor knew this was Crozier's last throw. The dial showed five. The Doctor adjusted the flow of the adrenalin-based stimulant 'A movement!' the Matrona called from beside Kiv.

'A reaction here,' the Doctor confirmed a strengthening neural wave on the Personascan.

Crozier saw Kiv's eyelids flutter open then dose. 'It's going to work!' he said exultantly.

Sil bounced up and down on his carrying frame. 'Lift me, lift me! My face must be the first civilised thing he sees!'

The bearers obeyed their master and raised Sil so that he could look down on Kiv.

The eyes of the patient opened. He saw a world of distorted images, blurred colours. Yellow, red, blue. Then a slow focus began that became first a large blob of green, then Kiv's eyes saw a leering face, his ears heard a grating voice. 'My Lord,' it said. 'Welcome back.'

Kiv screamed. 'Have I died and gone into the belly of Sanscrupa?'

'Magnificence, it's me Sil.'

Kiv began to weep.

'Why do you cry, my Lord?'

'I dreamed I was lost in the Sea of Longing.'

Crozier intervened. 'Dreams were to be expected. Side effects of the sedation. Nothing to worry about.'

'I feel only a little different. An ache in my... I suppose I can say my skull.'

Crozier smiled, elated with the success of his coup.

'That will be your skull until we can find one that will be a permanent home for your intellect.'

'The Great Morgo be praised...' Sil began to intone.

Kiv shut him off by attempting to rise. 'I must to work.

There is a future commodity deadline for the Sondlex crop on Wilson One.'

'It will be attended to,' Sil smirked. 'The Doctor and I have struck up a profitable partners.h.i.+p.'

'Oh?' The yellow eyes looked with suspicion from one to the other. 'Nothing... not speculation, I trust.'

The Doctor bowed to the new body that now contained the brain and spirit of the financial genius. 'Merely conserving resources until you return to your rightful place as Supreme Master of us all.'

Crossing a small cavern Yrcanos, Peri and Tuza approached a rockfall that seemed to block the tunnel completely. Yrcanos noted the crevices and alcoves that ran in both directions from either side of the obstacle.

'My other men have yet to arrive,' Tuza said.

'No matter. Where are the weapons?' Yrcanos asked.