Trial Of A Time Lord _ Mindwarp Part 10

Crozier and Sil exchanged uneasy looks. 'Are you certain the new skull will be large enough, Crozier?' Sil asked. His voice was anxious and trembling.

'The capacity is only a little larger in volume than that of the Lord Kiv. The operation will give us a little more time to find a permanent host.'

The door to the laboratory opened. The Doctor entered with a guard who had guided him back to the centre for experiment and investigation.

Sil turned to the Doctor, his gaze flickering over the size of the visitor's head speculatively. 'We must make every effort to find the right head on the correct body.'

'I have some possibilities to explore. Have you come to a.s.sist me in the consciousness transfer, Doctor?' asked Crozier.

'Yes, thought I might.'

'You can monitor the BTV.'

'I would be pleased to.'

Kiv suddenly could remain stoical under the pressure of his expanding brain crus.h.i.+ng against the unremitting structure of his skull. 'Let us begin!'

'Yes, my Lord.' Crozier helped Kiv on to the operating table. Kiv lay back and squinted up into the glare of the white lights above. He wondered if this painful light would be the last thing he would ever see. He felt the sting of a needle. A drowsiness began to creep over him. Summoning enough energy he managed to jerk out a final threat, 'Should this transfer not work and brain death occur, my bearers have orders... orders to liquify all who failed to...

save... my... life...'

Crozier took his hands from the decontamination box.

He glanced around at the agglomeration of technology linked to the cerebral transference units all buzzing and glowing in readiness for the most challenging operation of his life. He watched the Matrona place the donor body on another table alongside the now unconscious Kiv.

'I am ready,' Crozier said calmly.

The Matrona came to his side, carrying a box of surgical instruments. 'Check antilymphocyte drip,' she ordered.

'Checked,' the Doctor answered. 'Active.'

'Laser scalpel.' Crozier felt the instrument slap into his hand. There was no option left. Out of the side of his eye Crozier could see the guards with their phaser weapons poised to punish any slip, any failure. Then the scientist blanked everything from his mind except the intricate task in hand. He made an incision at the base of Kiv's skull and as the spurt of green blood stained the white surface of the table he guided the helmet of the brain transference support system across to hover over the two fawn-coloured reptilian bodies.

'Where exactly are we going?' Peri was tired of marching behind Yrcanos.

The King halted his purposeful stride. 'As with all corrupt dictators.h.i.+ps, there are bound to be pockets of resistance working and plotting to overthrow the Mentor cla.s.s.'

'Suppose there is such a group, what good would that do us?'

'My belief is that all they await is a great leader.'

'Like who?' asked Peri.

'Like me. I am he.'

Peri was not quite certain how to take the boast. 'I'm sure you would be very effective. But do these resistance fighters know that?'

'They will learn.'

'Maybe they'd prefer to remain ignorant, worse still they might see our interference as a threat and kill us. I've got a better idea. Let's get back to the TARDIS.' Peri began to move off.

'Wait!' Yrcanos bellowed after her. Peri halted in her tracks.

'These resistance fighters will only be Alphans. They will need leaders.h.i.+p if they are ever to triumph.'

'Mm... my great King is right...' the Lukoser spoke haltingly.

'But how will he find these people?' Peri said, her voice filled with doubt.

'They will find us. I sense it.'

Yrcanos looked so determined, so convinced of his destiny, that Peri weakened a little. 'All right but let's rest first, then march.' She smiled at the King, gave his bush of a beard a gentle tug, 'There's a good Warlord.'

The Lukoser whined agreement and squatted with his back to the wall. Peri joined him, splaying her tired legs out in front of her.

'Agreed; said Yrcanos, reluctantly, 'but only for a moment...' Then he joined his army of two in resting against the wall of the rock. The Lukoser whined mournfully.

'He sounds hungry,' said Peri.

'I'm not surprised, so am I, Yrcanos, famished.'

The Warlord reached into a pouch hanging from his broad studded belt. 'Here...' Peri took what looked like a strip of dried wood. 'Go on, try it, eat, my lady...'

With some trepidation the girl put the morsel into her mouth and closed her teeth on to it. The taste was wild and startingly strong. Too Too strong. 'Ugh!' She spat out the strip of dried provision. Before the food had reached the floor the Lukoser had caught and swallowed the sc.r.a.p of food. strong. 'Ugh!' She spat out the strip of dried provision. Before the food had reached the floor the Lukoser had caught and swallowed the sc.r.a.p of food.

'What was that!' Peri choked, still recovering from the shock to her palate.

Yrcanos pulled out a strip for himself and began chewing on the piece with much relish. 'Flay fish, it sustains your body, fuels your fighting spirit.'

'But doesn't delight your taste buds.'

'What are they?'

'Never mind.'

While Yrcanos continued to chew, the Lukoser stretched out alongside Peri and with his head on his paws went into an immediate sleep. Without thinking Peri scratched between his fur-covered shoulders. In his sleep the Lukoser began to whimper pitiously.

'Stop it!' Yrcanos pulled Peri away from stroking the Lukoser. 'Dorf is, or was, a warrior. He has no use for gentleness and pity.'

'Oh, no?' said Peri as the drowsing animal nudged up to her.

'Huh... he... je... jealous,' the Lukoser said sleepily.

'I am not!' Yrcanos jumped to his feet, raised a foot ready to aim a kick at the ribs of the man-wolf.

'C'mon boys! What's the matter with you two? We've enough guys against us without you two needing to kick lumps out of each other!'

The words of the girl prevented a clash but King and Equerry continued to glower at each other. Then Yrcanos laughed. 'You are quite right, it is the flay fish. My fault. It makes one want to do battle, I should have saved it for our next skirmish.'

'Good.' Peri started to relax, which was a mistake, for Yrcanos was already stamping up and down, his mind feverish with plans for fierce encounters.

'We must move, my lady, locate our allies and prepare to do battle unto death!'

'One thing at a time, huh?' Peri tried to slow him down.

'Let's see if we can find this so called Alphan resistance and let them know we're on their side.'

'Yes,' was all the King said before he marched away.

Peri and the Lukoser began to follow. They felt like a very meagre army but the King seemed to have little fear of achieving his ambition of freeing all the slaves who had fallen in thrall to the Mentors.

Eleven.

'Donor brain in position,' Crozier made a final adjustment above the body that would soon, if all went well, play host to the brain of Lord Kiv.

'EEE readings in recipient conjunction.'

'Thank you, Doctor.'

'Why is this taking so long?' Sil's voice interrupted.

'Go for a walk, Sil, you're like an anxious parent,' the Doctor said, his eyes never leaving the neural readings on which all their lives depended.

Sil pointed a stubby finger at the open brain of Kiv.

'The wealth of the whole planet depends on that lump of green tissue there... I haven't learned all his secrets yet...'

Crozier became aware of someone talking needlessly.

His pale eyes darted to Sil. 'Stop gyrating your throat. I'm about to attempt reactivation of brain tissue.'

Sil looked upwards into the lights set in the ceiling of the laboratory and began to babble. 'Please, Great Morgo, let them succeed!'

Crozier was oblivious once more to everything but the brain transference operation. 'Doctor, prepare for independent support mode. The reading should reach twenty-one point five six.'

'Twenty-one point five six.'

Carefully the Matrona brought up the impulse balance between Kiv and the donor. She called out, 'Approaching twenty dead...'

'Don't say dead...' Sil groaned, unable to look now that the critical point was approaching. Surrept.i.tiously he indicated that his bearers should move towards the door.

They were well bribed to make a dash for freedom with him should the worst happen. Could he trust them? Sil was not sure. He regretted the bullying and abuse he had heaped on them in the past.

'Morgo, let Lord Kiv live and I will sacrifice seven Alphan rejects in thanks.' Sil breathed his fervent prayer and closed his eyes in trepidation as the critical phase of the transplant approached.

'Twenty-one... three... five-six!' Simultaneously the Doctor and the Matrona levelled their input power balancing the electronic line that should have registered heartbeat on Kiv's screen. The link remained incomplete; of respiratory function there was none.

'There's nothing, no heart, no brain readings, nothing!

We have failed...' The Matrona began to panic. The guns of the guards came up.

Sil began to gabble. 'They joke, bad taste, a profitless humourless quip... tell them, Crozier!'

Crozier looked drained of all emotion. Sil turned to his unmoving bearers. 'Half my fortune... five minutes start...'

'Look!' the Doctor pointed at Kiv's chest. 'His chest gills lifted. Matrona, did the oxygen unit register its input?'

The Matrona tested a switch. 'Nothing.'

'Reserve quickly...' Crozier ordered, hope returning frantic energy to his actions.

'Switch to the endoradiotine, Doctor!'

The Doctor did as Crozier suggested. Still no sign of further life from Kiv in his new body. The Mentor stretched out, lifeless, on the table unmoving except for a slight drawing of breath. The sh.e.l.l of his former being lay dead on the table nearby.

The Doctor decided to gamble and boosted the antilymphocyte drip tenfold. The effect was as startling as it was dramatic. The readings of neural activity waves streamed across the screen in long curving fines that soon settled into a steady looping wave. On another unit, the heartline on the cardiograph pinged strongly. Kiv stirred.

Sil clapped his hands madly, the guards lowered their guns.

'Strange witless humour... like I said,' Sil said, weakly.

'Thanks for your moral support, Sil,' Crozier said, bitingly.

'Yes,' the Doctor added, 'nice to know you can always be relied on to be your usual treacherous self.'

Sil smiled. He cared only about one thing he was alive.

'I endeavour to maintain a certain continuity of behaviour just like you, Doctor. Now attend to the Lord Kiv, see that he stays alive in his beautiful new body!'

Peri thought something was different about the corridor they now found themselves trudging down. Smell? No...

though there seemed less tang of the sea. Less vapour.

Sound? There was no sound apart from the clump of Yrcanos and the pad-pad of the Lukoser. What then? Peri could not decide but there was certainly something different. Behind her, a panel slid open in the rough hewn wall. An Alphan, dressed in tan poncho and yellow and red headband of a tribal chieftain, stepped out and waved to his companions to join him. Soon a small group began shadowing the trio ahead.