Trial Of A Time Lord _ Mindwarp Part 17

The Matrona, peering out fearfully, saw Sil and Kiv and came anxiously to meet them. 'Anarchy has broken out,'

she said as Crozier came out of the laboratory to join her.

'What's happening out there?'

Sil grimaced. 'Just a few thousand servants going mad!

And good riddance I say! All they do is eat you out of house and home!' Kiv, from behind Sil, began to sob uncontrollably.

Crozier went to examine the leader of the Mentors.

After a moment of deliberation he reached his decision.

'Kiv is deteriorating. I must operate. Prepare Kiv and the girl at once!'

After their moment of liberation, panic then made the ma.s.s of Alphans want to escape from the underground world of the Mentors. Trying to reach the laboratory of Crozier, in order to free Peri, the Doctor and his group found it difficult to progress against the tide of Alphan servants and workers who were running under a desperate compulsion to reach the open air.

'Clear the way... I must find my lady!' Yrcanos shouted, thrusting bodies aside as he headed through the stream of fleeing Alphans.

Tuza, sheltering behind the king as much as he could, a.s.sumed the Doctor was dose up behind him. But, unnoticed by Tuza or Yrcanos, a baffling phenomena was taking place an unremitting force was dragging the Doctor backwards. Try as he might the Doctor could do nothing to resist the mysterious power that swept him away from the main throng and into a side pa.s.sage.

With a sudden trumpeting sound the TARDIS appeared; the door opened. The Doctor, helpless to resist, was drawn inside. The door closed. The TARDIS began to dematerialise. Soon the pa.s.sage was empty of the TARDIS which, taken out of time, was spinning down a white shaft of light.

In the courtroom the Doctor, like the rest of the Time Lords, averted his eyes from the brilliance of the light that shone from the Matrix screen. 'I remember now... I remember!' The flood of light pouring from the screen lessened. The words burst on the a.s.sembled Time Lords.

'Whatever made you take me out of time when you did? I remember it all! How I only pretended to help the Mentors. I was on my way to save Peri!'

The Inquisitor spoke authoritively. 'Things had gane too far, you had released chaos and allowed your companion to take part in an experiment that would affect all future life in the universe!'

'I did try to stop it,' the Doctor said, his voice bitter and stubborn.

'But you could not succeed. It was too late and therefore necessary, under the direct order of the High Council, to prevent the consequence of Crozier's experiment.'

The Inquisitor turned to the screen. 'I suggest you watch this final sequence most carefully, Doctor.'

The Matrix activated and the final act of the tragic adventure began.

'A perfect transfer,' the Matrona completed her final neural readings. Crozier nodded. He seemed dazed at the accomplishment of his life's dream.

'I believe we have altered the basis of all future life.'

Sil was staring at the two inert bodies that lay on adjoining tables. Both Peri and Lord Kiv both seemed dead to him. 'Kiv's brain is inside the head of that repulsive Earth being?'

Crozier smiled at Sil's lack of understanding. 'No. I have achieved much more than that I have transferred only the contents of Kiv's mind into the brain of the woman.'

'Sir...' The Matrona indicated that the body of the girl was beginning to stir.

'Thank you, Matrona. We will soon see if we have been over optimistic.'

'What of the Earth woman's mind?' Sil asked.

'Quite gone. Mentally she no longer exists.'

A slow dawn of understanding began to glimmer inside the crafty brain of Sil. 'And you can transfer any mind into any body?'

'Yes. When the Earth woman's brain ages, I can transfer the mental energy and consciousness of Lord Kiv on to yet another body. He need never die!'

Sil bounced up and down; from his mouth bubbled a froth of excitement at the prospect stretching before him.

'Immortality!' he cried in ecstasy.

Tuza and Yrcanos looked up and down the mist-shrouded corridor. 'Now where?' the Warlord asked.

'Around the next corner.'

'Good.' Yrcanos checked the automatic phaser he was carrying it was a more developed model with greater fire capacity and range than the usual hand weapon. 'I shall enjoy destroying Crozier.'

Tuza was not paying attention but kept glancing behind him as if expecting someone to join them. 'What are you looking for, Tuza, phantoms?'

'Do you not have the feeling something's missing?'

'No.' Yrcanos began to move off.

Tuza hurried to join him. 'It was as though there was someone else here just a minute ago... that there were three of us.'

Yrcanos clapped Tuza on the shoulder and grinned.

'You sense the presence of Milda, the great G.o.d of war.

That is good. It seems I will make a warrior out of you yet... wait!' Through the mist a figure loomed. Yrcanos thrust the automatic phaser out ready to blast away.

'Wait!' Tuza said as a bewildered Alpha woman servant tottered toward them.

'What must I do?' she beseeched Tuza.

'Go and find others like you go with them soon you will see the world clearly again.'

'Thank you... thank you...' the woman said and wandered away.

Yrcanos nodded in approval. 'A leader must care for his people while he lives. He must also be prepared to die for them look!'

Tuza peered round the comer. Down the next corridor a red light glared above the entrance to Crozier's laboratory.

Two guards stood on sentry both outside.

'Only two guards the G.o.ds are with us.'

'What do we do?' Tuza breathed.

Yrcanos grinned. 'Two guards two of us. We engage in combat like true warriors!'

Tuza stared uneasily at Yrcanos whose eyes were ablaze with the onset of fighting madness. 'What exactly does that... ?' Tuza started to ask but Yrcanos erupted into action.

'Frontal attack! Naardra!' The charge of Yrcanos was launched with a less enthusiastic Tuza being dragged along in the tail of the hurricane. But inexplicably, the attack did not maintain its savage momentum. Instead of bounding down the corridor to death or glory, the movements of the two attackers became slower and slower until they finally became two statues frozen in static time.

The colour intensity of the Matrix screen became harsher.

'They are caught in a time bubble,' the Inquisitor explained to the jury. 'Everything had to be perfect before they could be allowed to drive home their final attack.'

The Doctor pointed at the Inquisitor accusingly. 'You're using Yrcanos as an a.s.sa.s.sin!'

'It was judged by the High Council as the most acceptable way to resolve matters, Doctor. Yrcanos will never know that he was used.'

The Doctor looked with disgust at the Inquisitor, the jury and finally at the Valeyard. His look was contemptuous, his voice was bitter. 'And so they took it upon themselves to act like second-rate G.o.ds!'

The body of Peri raised itself to a sitting position. The shaven skull reflected a sheen from the lights above. A voice came from between the lips although it was recognisable as a female voice, there was a resonance that hinted at the alien presence. The tone of the voice was expressive of a sense of wonder. Crozier, the Matrona and Sil began to listen with a sense of growing awe as Kiv began to experience the sensations of his new body.

'Warm, not cold... the body is warm... wonderful! Toes wriggly toes. Legs. Trunk. Neck. A neck strong... a head free of pain. Eyesight. Colours. I like this. Warm blood inside. Now I am she... alive within this so wonderful warm frame.' The eyes that had once belonged to Peri glanced sidewards and down on to the crumpled reptilean shape on the next table.

'Ugh! That cold blooded reptile... must die!'

'It already has, my lord, welcome to your new body.'

Crozier said.

Sil wrinkled his nose as he contemplated his master's new appearance. 'I wish you could have found a more attractive carca.s.s for my lord to occupy.'

The bubble of time that held Yrcanos and Tuza began to dissolve and the duo began to move slowly at first but then, within two strides, the King gained momentum. The guards heard the pounding feet, turned and started to level their guns. They were a beat of time too late. Yrcanos was upon them, scattering both with successive jabs of the phaser b.u.t.t. With his ultimate warcry, 'Shoomvwy!' he thrust open the door of Crozier's laboratory.

Sil's bearers rushed to protect their master but Yrcanos fired and brought them down immediately. Another force bolt smashed Sil's water tank, sending the terrified Mentor cras.h.i.+ng down from his throne to thresh about in a paroxysm of utter terror. The body that Yrcanos thought was Peri rose imperiously from the table.

Her voice was harsh and brutal with command. 'Protect me! I am your lord and master!'

Confusion and disbelief chased across the face of Yrcanos. He looked first at Peri then at the body of Kiv beside her. Then horror of the truth penetrated to the soul of King Yrcanos. 'No!' he cried with anguish before he made himself point the nozzle of the phaser at what had once been the woman he loved. The phaser began to fire incessantly until the travesty of life was no more.

'You killed Peri!'

The Inquisitor was stunned by the carnage they had witnessed a moment before. She took some time to manage a reply. 'We had to act,' she said, finally. 'With the discovery Crozier had made the whole course of natural evolution throughout the universe would have been affected.'

'You killed Crozier, too?'

'It was necessary.'

The Valeyard rose to his feet, an austere ascetic figure wrapped in black robes. 'But Peri died, Doctor, because you abandoned her. We had to end her life because your negligence had made it impossible for her to live.'

'Lies!' The Doctor tried to hold on to his composure.

He could best serve Peri by exposing the conspiracy that was ranged against him. 'The High Council had no right to order Peri's or anyone else's death.'

'Please, Doctor.'

'I was taken out of time for another reason.. and I have every intention of finding out what it is!'

The Valeyard smiled sardonically. 'That is something for the final section of the prosecution the future. Doctor, we have seen you active in the far past. As to your recent activities we have just witnessed your inept.i.tude. We had no choice but to extract you from the consequences of your dangerous meddling.'

The Doctor ignored the Valeyard and addressed an appeal to the Inquisitor. Waves of grief were coursing through him at the loss of Peri. have seen my errors, my Lady, I will change. I promise.'

'No, Doctor, you do not not change.' The Valeyard interjected before the Inquisitor could respond. 'Sagacity, I will demonstrate that in a possible future the Doctor continued to be the same interfering destroyer of the delicate fabric of time.' change.' The Valeyard interjected before the Inquisitor could respond. 'Sagacity, I will demonstrate that in a possible future the Doctor continued to be the same interfering destroyer of the delicate fabric of time.'

The Inquisitor sighed. 'Will this take long, Valeyard?'

'Yes, Sagacity, I'm afraid it will.'

'Then I will declare a recess. After which the trial of the Doctor will continue.'

Seventeen.

The court had emptied, leaving the Doctor alone with only the court bailiff for company. The Doctor stared blindly ahead trying to come to terms with the death of Peri. He had no way of knowing, then, that the High Council had exercised mercy and distorted the timeflow of the Matrix and extracted Peri and Yrcanos before the brain transfer operation. The odd pair had been transported through time and s.p.a.ce back to Earth in the early part of the last decade of the twentienth century.

Peri was delighted to be back in her native country.

Yrcanos, though happy enough to be with Peri, often complained that life in California was endlessly perplexing; to which Peri would reply that yes, it was, but he coped better than most barbarians who lived on the west coast of America.

When last seen Yrcanos had embarked on a career as an all-in wrestler, fighting under the t.i.tle of Yrcanos, 'King of the Krontep', with Peri as his manager. His all-action style soon attracted a growing army of fans. Taking their name from his favourite warcry, his followers styled themselves 'Vroomniks' and were a most enthusiastic throng. Sitting in the crowd, Peri sometimes wondered what had befallen the Doctor; fortunately, her memories of Thoros-Beta were now mercifully vague and her future with Yrcanos, in her own time and country, made her quite content with the destiny the Time Lords had decreed for her.