Part 12 (2/2)

'Behind there.'

'Where?'

'Someone has blocked the entrance with a fall of rocks.'

'Or an accident,' Peri said.

Tuza shook his head. 'If so, it's a very convenient rock slip. It covers the only entrance to our weapons store.'

The Lukoser and the Alphans arrived.

'Wh... what's happened?' the Lukoser asked.

Yrcanos pointed. 'Our enemies may have brought the rocks down. A woman's way of fighting.'

'Thanks a lot,' Peri said.

'If there Mentors were anything but cowards they would show their banners and fight in the open!'

'Let's get away from here,' Peri suggested. 'Wait for the other Alphan guys to turn up.'

'She has a point,' Tuza said.

Yrcanos pounded his breastplate. 'I am Yrcanos, King of...'

'We've heard all that!' Peri yelled with sudden exasperation. 'Whereas it terrifies me, I'm not certain it will have the same effect on whoever caused that fall of rock.'

The Lukoser began to speak. 'There is vic... victory to be had, great King but let it be in pru... prudence this day.'

'You are a great dog of war... I mean...' Yrcanos corrected himself. 'A great soldier whose advice I trust and value. So, for today, prudence will be our watchword.

Tomorrow, however, I shall soak the land in blood.'

Peri relaxed. 'I'm glad we've got that sorted out.'

Yrcanos smiled condescendingly down upon her. His hand reached and touched under her chin. 'Let us withdraw, my lady. You and I will find a pleasing way to spend the time before the rest of Tuza's warriors arrive.'

'It would please me if you weren't so patronising...' A s.h.i.+ft in the jumble of rock interrupted Peri. 'What's happening...?'

'Look!' Tuza pointed to where an arm had appeared between two boulders.

Quickly Tuza darted to the rockfall and began heaving and scrabbling at the tumble of boulders, trying to free the body whose arm had appeared. Yrcanos and the Alphans also ran to a.s.sist in the clearance.

Peri was about to join them when the Lukoser caught her arm. 'Wait, there could be da... da... danger.'

Cautiously they looked about them, the Lukoser sniffing the air. Nothing seemed amiss. If they were being watched, their enemies were well hidden. Peri and the man-wolf joined the group at the rocks in time to see an ancient lined face revealed.

'Ger, it is Ger!' Sure enough, when they all looked closely the young Alphan sent to a.s.semble the supporting rebels was now a husk of an old man crushed beneath the weight of the rocks.

'No!' Tuza tried to pull his friend from the burial pile.

'Leave him!' Yrcanos reached to restrain Tuza.

'Do not move, anyone!' a sharp voice ordered from behind the group. Frax appeared on a ledge above them.

Below his guards appeared, armed with phaser weapons.

'Stand still and you live. Resist...'

The threat did not need to be completed. The Alphan group was surrounded completely.

'That isn't my fault!' In the courtroom of Galifrey the Doctor could stand no more of what the Matrix was inexorably showing of his time on Thoros-Beta.

'You can't blame me for that...' his finger jabbed towards the screen that was frozen into stillness with the Alphans, Yrcanos, Peri and the Lukoser at the mercy of Frax and his heavily armed guards. 'I wasn't even at the weapons store!'

'All that has taken place you are indirectly responsible for,' the Valeyard said, firmly.

'No! Please, my lady...' the Doctor pleaded to the Inquisitor. 'The death of Ger and the other freedom fighters wasn't my fault!'

'Your presence on that planet did influence events.

There isn't any way that can be denied.'

The Doctor sat down. He put his head in his hands.

'Doctor,' the Valeyard's mocking voice drifted lazily across the courtroom. 'Look at the screen, Doctor, don't miss the tragic results of your folly!'

The screen activated with the Mentor guards dispossessing the Alphans of their weapons and tossing them into a pile in the centre of the cavem. Yrcanos glowered at Frax, fixing him with an unnerving stare. 'You are nothing more than trash from the sewers of Skulnesh...' Yrcanos began.

'Shut up!' Frax said nervously.

Yrcanos took a step nearer to the officer. 'You bring to the field of battle that which robs great warriors of their youth and virility. That is a crime against honour!'

Frax fingered the panel on his phaser. 'It was an experiment conceived in the plague halls of Mogdana! And only a snivelling excuse like you would dare to use it as a weapon of disgrace against ali that is n.o.ble... Vroomnik!'

Yrcanos flung himself at Frax but the officer was too quick and the phaser spat a charge of energy that stopped Yrcanos in his rush. Silently the great warrior became transfixed, then crumpled into a lifeless heap. Seeing Yrcanos charge, Tuza had attempted to reach the arms pile, but then he, too, was gunned down.

Peri and the Lukoser tried to run but the weapons of the guards cut them down without mercy. They lay together, the girl and the Wolfman, a s.h.a.ggy arm thrown across her in a futile last effort of protection.

'Are they dead?' the Doctor cried out across the courtroom.

'What does it look like?' the Valeyard said, his voice filled with cruel satisfaction.

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