Part 19 (1/2)

'You haven't got it, have you?'

'No.'

'Oh, dear. And I thought we were doing so well. I tell you what, let's talk later. It's dark now and Aysha will be after us.'

'Or Lotuss.'

146.

'Which is a very alarming thought indeed. Yes. Now, Adoon, can you find us some clothes? We look a bit strange dressed like this, don't you agree?'

Adoon certainly did, and suddenly saw what he needed.

Without a word of explanation he dived into the darkness and hoped the Great Djinn and his Royal Prince would wait.

The stench was terrible. Had these pitiful creatures never heard of sanitation? Even the most primitive ancestors of the Cat-People knew how to use a litter area and keep their lands clean. Germs and airborne diseases must be in plentiful supply. No wonder anthropoids were so easy to invade.

Lotuss stopped and stared. Most of the anthropoids had long since scurried back to their stone dwellings to escape the cold air - but she thrived on it. Low temperatures kept her senses clear, her brain alert and her adrenalin running.

Memories of previous campaigns for her mother came back: the uprising on Kalidon, when they had been employed to eradicate an entire reptilian species, or the skirmish with the Gargar rebels on the frontier world of the Maskill system.

There, Lotuss had fallen victim to a rebel land-mine. Her first-litter-mate Ramuth had been literally shredded apart and Lotuss had lost her eye and blistered her paws.

The medics had offered any number of grafts or prosthetics, but Lotuss would have none of it. Her diminutive size had saved her life then, just as Ramuth's bulk had cost her hers, and after years of ridicule - most notably from her own mother and litter-mate Chosan - she could use her size and wounds to make a statement. And what a statement it had been, as she battled her way through war after war, battle upon battle, killing and maiming wherever possible. She recalled a victim who had been whimpering in a trench once - a pale-blue anthropoid, splattered with copper-coloured blood and green mud. It had asked her something that she had never forgotten. 'Have you no mercy? No pity or compa.s.sion? Is there anything you love more than killing?' Lotuss smiled as she remembered 147 the three answers she had given. A flat, unquestionable negative to all three questions. Then she had blasted his head into oblivion. Chosan had been forced to present Lotuss with a medal after that campaign, much to her chagrin.

Those were good days, before the Queen had become obsessed with power - literal power. Their s.h.i.+ps were still the most powerful in the galaxy, capable of years of travel without refuelling. Yet of late, Aysha, her mother, had kept reiterating the need for better, newer forms of energy - this magnetic explosive variety found in the molten cores of worlds like Earth. Lotuss could not see any point in such pursuits. Where was the death and glory in that? If Lotuss was to die, it should be in battle, not searching for fossil fuels.

'Excuse I,' said a voice next to Lotuss. She turned. There was an old female anthropoid, hobbling about, hiding its probably disease-ridden face under a red shawl. 'Excuse I,' it croaked, 'but I cannot see. Which way is the market square?'

'Where I come from, old creature, you would beg for death rather than live a fruitless life unable to contribute to your community.' It occurred to Lotuss to vaporize the creature where it stood, but Chosan had ordered that only the Doctor and his anthropoid companion were to be shot.

Lotuss also hoped to encounter the anthropoid-mewling that had escaped her earlier - slaughtering that would be satisfying if not exactly following orders.

'You . . . you are a stranger, yes?' The old woman hobbled a bit nearer, reaching forward.

'Touch me, creature, and you lose your arm,' Lotuss hissed, letting her fur rise, although the old woman clearly could not see it.

Her head still bowed, her face still hidden under the shawl, the woman stopped. 'You have travelled far. I sense weariness in you.'

'Only in your conversation, creature. Leave before you die.'

148.

'As you request, precious lady. But beware the traitor in your midst. She will destroy you all.' The old woman hobbled away, obviously terrified of Lotuss.

Lotuss smiled. Traitor indeed - who amongst the Cat-People would consider treason apart from Lotuss herself?

Unless . . . could she mean Thorgarsuunela? Lotuss shrugged, she had heard threats and warnings from experts - some smelly anthropoid was hardly going to hurt her.

Smell!

The anthropoid did not smell like an anthropoid. No it was . . . the Doctor!

Lotuss hefted her blaster and prepared to fire after the 'old woman' but 'she' had vanished. As Lotuss relaxed she knew something was wrong - her blaster! The power pack was missing. The Doctor had managed to steal it during that charade. Lotuss would return immediately to Queen Aysha and tell her that. . .

Of course, she could not. Returning to the shuttle, having encountered a disguised Doctor and lost her weaponry - the shame would be unbearable. Lotuss could picture Chosan's gleeful face at her discomfort. 'Very well, alien, the chase is on. I will have my firepower back, and your head on a stick.'

She slowly walked into the shadows, tracking the Doctor.

Adoon stared open-mouthed at the shambling figure coming towards him.

'I be glad of our little chat, Cat-Person,' croaked the 'old woman', and then it threw the shawl off.

'You are indeed a great djinn, to disguise your voice so.'

Adoon wanted to bow to the Dok-Ter but thought that might be considered a bit silly. Certainly neither Dok-Ter nor Prince Ben-Jak had requested such obedience or servitude from him. Dok-Ter threw something to Ben-Jak.

'Is this what I think it is?' he asked, turning it over.

All Adoon could see was a silver box with a gla.s.s top.

'Yes,' said Dok-Ter, 'and if we can slip that to Thor-Sun without her knowing, friend Lotuss will be a trifle upset.'

149.

'Good.' Ben-Jak pointed to the sky. 'What about the rest of them?'

'Back in 1994, Ben. Or should that be forward? Anyway, we only have our six here to worry about.'

'And the destruction of Baghdad,' Adoon muttered a little louder than he meant. Dok-Ter turned to him and Adoon expected to be turned into a rat on the spot. Instead, the great djinn knelt in front of him.

'No, Adoon. I'll try to explain.' He coughed to clear his throat. 'You see, when Thor-Sun and her cohorts arrived here, Earth looked very different. There were no seas separating the continents as there are now. When she laid her . . . lights, they were in one place, but years later the lands slowly drifted apart. Over a long time.'

'Did the djinns push them apart to keep the evil spirits away from good men?'

'Yes, if you like. Anyway, Thor-Sun, your sand-demon, hadn't realized that this thing occurred. She's mistaking her line of twenty thousand years ago for the line as it would be in twenty thousand years' time.' Adoon did not really understand anything Dok-Ter said, and he was glad to see that Prince Ben-Jak was clearly as confused.

'But what's this all about, Doc?'

Dok-Ter looked right and left, apparently checking that no one could see them as he stuffed the old woman's clothes under a nearby market-stall awning. 'Basically, I understand this much.' He held his fingers up, very close together.

'Oh,' said Prince Ben-Jak. 'That's encouraging.'

Dok-Ter shrugged. 'So, what we have are two groups of alien invaders. Group One, who I guess are the fabled Euterpians who died out centuries ago, must have arrived here about forty thousand years ago - Australia by what Thor-Sun has said. Now, they came looking for a power source to fuel their s.h.i.+p - the still cooling Earth's core would be a marvellous supply of magnetic energy which they needed -'

150.

'But forty thousand years ago isn't quite the hundreds of millions of years ago when Earth was created,' argued Ben-Jak. 'What good would it do them?'

'Well, Ben,' said Dok-Ter, 'in cosmic terms, a few million years is a blink of an eye. The core energy would still be powerful enough way back, or when the Euterpians arrived, now or in 1994. The lessening of power would be negligible. Satisfied?'