Part 13 (2/2)

'I must try and rectify it Matrona, increase the severin.

Inject to four micro-sentiles.'

While the Matrona bent to make the adjustment to Kiv's life support system, Sil voiced his worries. 'There is an imminent summit meeting over which the Lord Kiv must preside. Our business partner from Sondlex might find it fishy should Lord Kiv be missing, gone insane.'

At the sound of his name Kiv opened his eyes. 'Have my briefing tapes and expansion strategy options been baited?'

'Er, not yet Magnificence.'

'Do it, or you shall be the first to sample the power of my new sting, Sil... I'm told... told...' Kiv's yellow eyes began to dose. 'Told even a touch can... kill.'

'One micro-sentile more,' Crozier ordered.

The Matrona added a small increase of the life-giving fluid that alone was sustaining the existence of Kiv and everyone in the lab. The Mentor's edict that all should perish should he die still stood as an instruction to the armed guards who watched the rise and fali of Kiv's chest and gills as intently as those whose survival depended on keeping Kiv alive.

Sil addressed Crozier and his helpers. 'The Lord Kiv must not only be present at the meeting with our business partners but also be able to make sane decisions. If he cannot, you will all suffer.'

Crozier nodded with a show of confidence. 'He'll be there. Though whose body he will inhabit isn't yet certain.

We must transfer Kiv's brain to someone else without delay.'

'Whose body?' Sil asked. There was no answer, though Crozier's eyes flickered in the direction of the Doctor for a brief moment.

The corridor that contained the punishment cells rang with the opening and closing of the iron grilles.

Gradually all the Alphan prisoners were confined, leaving only Yrcanos, Peri, Tuza and the Lukoser to be marched towards a cell that was double-barred.

'My head still aches,' Tuza remarked to no one in particular.

'Be grateful you still have a head,' Frax said from just behind.

A guard pulled the door open. It took three others to subdue Yrcanos but eventually he was thrust inside. Peri and the Lukoser could not see the point of resisting, as the corridor was by now full of guards. They stepped into the cell to join the King who glared with hatred at his captors through the bars of the cell.

'Scrrsongebrate!' he threatened.

As Tuza was about to enter the cell Frax tapped the Alphan on the shoulder. 'Not you.'

Before Tuza could ask why, he was hurried away under guard with Frax striding along behind. As Tuza was hustled along past the other cells cries of defiance began to be heard.

'Silence!' Frax yelled but the hubbub continued until a couple of guards set their phasers to stun and sent force bolts streaming into the crowded cells.

In the end cell Peri tried to squint down the corridor in an attempt to see what was happening. 'Why do they want Tuza?'

'Execution,' Yrcanos said, his tone was grim. 'One at a time, that's how it will be.'

'Oh.' Peri turned and leaned against the bars. She made a forlorn figure. Sensing her mood of dejection the Lukoser began to whine in sympathy which brought a swift kick from Yrcanos. The Lukoser yowled and rubbed his ribs before crouching down.

'What is it, my lady?' the King asked.

'Oh, it's just ever since we came to Thoros-Beta I've been homesick, not so much for a place, but a time. I want to be back in my own time with people I love.'

'What is that? Love?'

Peri considered. 'When you care for something or someone more than yourself, I guess.'

The Lukoser lifted his head from where it was resting on his paws.

'M... more than yourself?'

'I know it sounds silly but sometimes more than life.'

'I care nothing for mine,' Yrcanos said.

'How can you say that, you're crazy as a loon!'

'I do not know what a loon is. On my planet of Krontep, if we die well our spirit is returned to life by being born into a more n.o.ble warrior.'

Peri could not follow the logic in the King's philosophy.

'Until what? Where are you going to end after all your brave deaths?'

'You become me a King!' Yrcanos thumped his breastplate. 'After my next death, I will join the other Kings on Verduna, home of the G.o.ds.'

'To do what?'

'Why, fight, what else?'

Peri began to laugh. 'That figures.' Then the laughter turned to tears.

Under the laboratory lights Tuza tried to remain calm.

Steel restraining bands were fitted to his neck and forehead. The Doctor placed measuring calipers to various parts of Tuza's skull while the Matrona attached sensors to his templos.

Crozier looked at the resultant readings on the persona printout. 'These Alphan neural patterns are most unsuitable for Lord Kiv,' he said crossly.

The Doctor straightened, after completing his examination with the calipers, and said, 'The skull capacity is too great.'

Their disappointment was obvious to Frax who had been watching the various tests with interest.

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