Doctor Who_ The Mysterious Planet Part 5

'Resume patrol.'

Grell glared angrily at him for a moment, but Merdeen's authority came direct from the Immortal.

Summoning the remainder of his guards he took his seat on the little train, which slid silently away.

Merdeen beckoned Balazar. 'You - come with me.'

Balazar recoiled. 'Me, sir?'

'You have spoken with the stranger. If he dies, the Immortal may wish to question you.'

Balazar shuddered, but followed Merdeen obediently away.

Peri was dragged through the village, hauled into the great but and thrown down before an ornately carved throne.

From it a barbarically dressed middle-aged woman was staring impa.s.sively down at her.

'Hi,' said Peri weakly.

'Welcome, girl,' said Queen Katryca. 'Rise!'

Peri got to her feet, looking around her. She was in a gloomy chamber, decorated with hideous-looking masks.

Before the throne was a huge round altar, on top of which burned some kind of sacred flame.

Masked spear-carrying warriors and ornately robed Councillors formed a guard of honour about the barbaric throne.

Katryca studied her captive for a moment.

'You are not from the place of the underground. Where do you come from?'

'It's difficult to explain.'

'My name is Katryca. I am the leader of the Free people.

Do you have a name, girl?'

'Perpegillian Brown - but my friends call me Peri.'

Katryca studied her approvingly. 'Peri... Not many girls come to join the Free, Peri. I shall provide some excellent husbands for you.'

'Husbands,' asked Peri feebly. 'In the plural?'

'Such women as we have must be shared,' said Katryca impa.s.sively. 'Think about it. Put her with the other prisoners. Keep her guarded.'

A guard took Peri by the arm, but she pulled away. 'All right, all right, I can walk!'

The guards led her away.

The dazed Doctor was being half-dragged, half-walked, along the endless corridors by the guards.

Behind them Balazar and Merdeen strode side by side.

Balazar was recovering a little from his fear, and his ever-present curiosity was surfacing once more.

'Tell me, Merdeen, you serve the Immortal. Is he as men say?'

Merdeen gave him an ironical smile. 'What do men say?'

'That he is taller than two men, with arms of steel.'

'The Immortal is never seen. He stays in his Castle.'

'Then how does he give you his commands?'

'He talks to me through the air, and he watches me with... boxes, such as this.'

Merdeen pointed one of the omnipresent slave cameras mounted on the wall.

'I think that is called a camera, Merdeen,' said Salazar importantly. 'The men of ancient times used such things to make pictures of the sacred Canadian Goose.'

Merdeen looked curiously at him. 'How do you know this?'

'It is my task to study the ancient texts,' said Balazar proudly.

The Doctor had more or less recovered consciousness by now. He had a bad headache and he was in a filthy temper.

'As you continually boast,' he snarled, looking over his shoulder. 'That's the trouble with pallid little swots like you, Balazar. You can't even organize an efficient stoning!'

'It was only half over,' said Balazar defensively. 'If Merdeen and his Train Guards had not saved you...'

The Doctor stopped, bringing the little procession to a halt. He struggled to free himself, and Merdeen signalled to the guards to release him.

The Doctor said, 'I am grateful to you, Merdeen.'

'It was on the orders of the Immortal.'

'Well, please convey my thanks to him.' The Doctor noticed a flask at Merdeen's belt. 'I say, is that water?

Could I have some?'

'It is my ration for the next two days.'

A voice boomed in Merdeen's ear. 'Give it to him.'

'Of course,' said Merdeen instantly. He reached for the flask, but the Doctor waved it away. It was a very small flask, he thought.

'I'm sorry, I'd forgotten how important that stuff is down here.'

Ever-curious, the Doctor peered up into the camera. 'A mono-optic system... interesting. Is the Immortal on the other end of that?'

The Doctor's inquisitive face filled the monitor screen in Drathro's control room.

The robot switched off the screen.

Incongruous beside Drathro's towering metal form, two small fair-haired youths stood ranked beside him. They wore white coveralls with yellow s.h.i.+rts and scarves and both had identical expressions of almost palpable smugness. After all, were they not the chosen ones, the elite, superior to all in the undergrounds, servants to the Immortal?

They had a tendency to get above themselves.

One was called Tandrell, the other Humker: apart from that they were pretty much identical.

Tandrell turned away from the monitor screen with relief. He hadn't cared for he look of the Doctor at all.

'He's extremely ugly.'

'Hideous,' agreed Humker. 'In the extreme.'

'Physiognomy is irrelevant,' boomed Drathro.

'In so far as' began Tandrell.

'Appearance has no function,' went on Humker.

'But function has an appearance,' Tandrell pointed out.

'Which is irrelevant to the function,' concluded Humker triumphantly.

'Perfect!' said Tandrell.

Humker clapped his hands. 'I must write that down.'

'I shall make an equation of it,' said Tandrell.

'Cease your prattle!' roared Drathro.

The robot studied them through its sensors. They had been chosen to serve the Immortal because theirs were the highest intellects available. Unfortunately they took their roles and their importance far too seriously, and insisted on intellectualizing everything. They enjoyed nothing more than demonstrating their own cleverness. Sometimes Drathro wondered if there was something wrong with the selection procedures.

'Activate the service robot,' he ordered.

'Of course, sir,' said Humker.

'Immediately, sir,' said Tandrell.

They scuttled to the console.

Peri was thrust into a very much smaller hut, with straw on the floor and bars on the windows. Its other occupants were two gaudily dressed but villainous-looking men.

The smaller and gaudier said, 'We seem to have a pretty visitor. I'm beginning to feel better already.' He bowed.

'My name is Sabalom Glitz, my dear. This fellow with the vacuous expression and single-track mind is Dibber.'

Peri decided she wasn't exactly crazy about her new room-mates. She also decided it might be safer to be polite.

'I'm Peri.' She studied them for a moment.

'You're obviously not from round here.'

'Merely visiting, like your good self,' said Glitz airily. 'I hope my visit's going to be a very short one.'

She peered through the barred window at the towering metal obelisk.

'That doesn't look as if it's from round here either.'

'It's a light convertor,' explained Glitz.

'It funnels black light energy down to the L3 robot,'

explained Dibber earnestly.

Glitz silenced him with a look. 'I'm sure our friend Peri isn't interested in our professional problems, Dibber.'

'Yeah, of course... you're right, Mr Glitz.'

Resuming his smarmiest smile, Glitz turned back to Peri. 'When we first saw you, you weren't alone.'

'Yeah, that's right,' said Dibber. 'You were with some dilly in a long coat. But you dropped out of sight before we could'

'Before we could leap out and make your acquaintance,'

interrupted Glitz hurriedly.

'Yeah, that's it,' agreed Dibber.

'Er - where is your friend now?' asked Glitz casually.

'The Doctor? Oh, he's probably still down there somewhere - underground. For a Time Lord he's not very good at keeping time.' Dibber and Glitz exchanged glances.