They both spent the best part of a minute crawling round hammering at the floor, but with no discernible effect.
‘Are you sure, Doctor?’ Prion asked at last.
‘Sure?’ The Doctor was annoyed. ‘Of course I’m sure.’ To punctuate his point he leapt to his feet and stamped heavily.
With a low grating of stone on stone, the section of floor suddenly started to lift rapidly upward, taking the Doctor with it. With a yelp, he leapt clear, landing beside Prion and grabbing his arm for support.
‘Yes,’ the Doctor said as he regained his composure, ‘well, there we are then.’
Cruger was startled for only a moment. Then his face was composed once more. ‘Thank goodness,’ he said, his voice low and breathless. ‘This soldier is insane. She has destroyed your commander.’
VL9 said nothing for a while, looking from Cruger to Haden. Then the massive metal creature whirled round with surprisingly speed and strode back into the Banqueting Hall. ‘Follow me,’ his voice carried back to them.
‘I destroyed –’ Haden started angrily.
‘Silence,’ VL9 roared. He was standing in the doorway waiting for them. ‘We are computing courses of action.’
‘Then I suggest you do it quickly,’ Cruger said. ‘She’s a dangerous woman.’
Haden was about to reply to this, but as she turned to face Cruger, a slight movement caught her eye. She froze, watching, hardly daring to turn back to see properly. On the gallery above them, Darkling was clearly visible looking down into the hall. Looking down at her. Just for a second, then he was gone, back into the shadows.
‘VC5 was destroyed by a malign data toxin,’ VL9 said. ‘He isolated his systems before the toxin could escape into the network.’
Cruger nodded. ‘A noble gesture.’
VL9 stepped forward, his hand snapping out so that it was an inch from Cruger’s chin. ‘You forget, General Cruger –’ his voice was quieter now – ‘the network is the Legion.’
Cruger blinked. And in that moment, Haden could see raw fear behind his eyes. For the first time he was afraid, really afraid.
‘Until he detached, VC5 was the network controller. But I am the backup unit,’ VL9 was saying. ‘We were as one. The same. What he saw, I saw. What he felt, I felt.’
Cruger took a step backwards, but Haden was blocking his way.
VL9’s huge fist closed on Cruger’s throat. ‘I saw you give VC5 the toxin – give us the toxin.’ The hand squeezed around Cruger’s neck. His eyes were bulging, he was coughing for breath. ‘I felt his systems rupture as the infection spread.’ The voice was uneven now, as if the robot was biting back its approximation of tears. ‘We felt pain.’ VL9 pulled Cruger closer towards him.
Then suddenly Cruger was flying across the room. He crashed into the table, rolled, fell to the floor. Victoria and Helana both screamed. Sanjak was on his feet. Haden watched, petrified, rooted to the floor, hand to mouth.
Cruger was lying on his back, gasping for breath and clutching his throat, staring up at the VETAC legionnaires who clustered round him, reaching down for him.
The section of floor had slid upward until it was above the Doctor’s head. Beneath it there was a large cabinet full of wires and electronic equipment. The whole thing pulsed with energy, lights glowing from deep within.
‘Is this what you wanted, Doctor?’
‘Oh yes. Yes, this will do very nicely, thank you.’ The Doctor was already pulling several long cables from inside his coat, squeezing the large crocodile clips that were attached to the ends. ‘Now all we have to do is connect you up.’ He handed one end of each of the cables to Prion. ‘Now if you could just attach those to whatever it is you use to provide energy to your, er…’ His voice trailed away as he concentrated on the cabinet. ‘We can – you know.’
Even before Prion had undone his tunic and pulled it back from his internal circuitry, the Doctor was burrowing his way into the machinery in the cabinet, pulling at wires and tapping at components.
‘What now?’ Prion asked, the cables clipped to various points under his tunic.
‘Well,’ the Doctor began, mumbling through teeth that were clenched on several wires, ‘we light the blue touch paper and –’ He broke off. ‘That is,’ he continued slightly more slowly and coherently, ‘we make sure we establish a good, safe connection to the power stored in here.’ He pulled at a couple of wires. ‘What do you think, then? Red or yellow to begin with?’
Prion’s answer was drowned out by the sound of the blast as the floor at the base of the cabinet exploded. Long cracks laced out across the marble floor, cutting through the inlaid circles and markings. Across the room, the VETAC patrol was already running towards the Doctor and Prion, following through with their attack.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHECKMATE
THE DOCTOR’S FACE emerged from within the spaghetti tangle of wires and cables for long enough for him to cry out, ‘Oh my word!’ Then it disappeared again, several components flying out in its place.
Prion had turned at the first hint of sound. He stood facing the running VETACs, feet apart, braced against the recoil as he raised his arm. A small nozzle clicked up from the top of his wrist, standing proud of his battle armour. A moment later a trail of fire lanced out from it, dripping flame as it spouted across the chamber at the advancing VETACs.
The first of the legionnaires was engulfed in the stream of fire. For a few seconds it continued running, battling through the flames that splashed across its chest and face. Then the head seemed to lift from the body as it exploded. Orange lightning blazed out from its joints, erupted from its neck as the VETAC was blown to bits.
The other three VETACs paused, then moved swiftly to positions of cover. They fired almost in unison. The first burst caught Prion across the chest, tearing his tunic away from the circuitry and components beneath, scarring and scorching the metal casing. The cables attached to his power source were dripping plastic from their casings, but they held steady.
Prion twisted slightly under the force of the attack, protecting the cables and their connections.
The fire from the other VETACs caught him across the side of the head. The synthetic flesh peeled away, shrivelled under the heat, exposing the dull metal skull beneath. One side of his hair was a frazzled, blackened mess. His cheek blistered and burned as he dropped to one knee, firing back.
‘Hurry, Doctor.’ Prion’s words were slightly slurred, slightly broken. Almost mechanical.
Inside the cabinet the Doctor held three wires, the ends of each stripped back to the metal. One was red, one yellow, one blue. The yellow wire was sparking alarmingly, and he was hard put to hold it away from his body without touching any of the components within the cabinet.
‘Oh dear, oh dear,’ the Doctor said, shaking his head. ‘Now, red to blue or red to yellow?’ He looked closely at each wire in turn, blinking and coughing as the yellow wire sparked again, right under his nose.
‘Hu-rr-y.’
The cabinet rocked slightly under the force of an explosion close by. The Doctor tried crossing his fingers, but dropped the blue wire. He scrabbled desperately for it, grabbed it, held it close to the yellow. ‘Blue and yellow makes –’ he muttered. Then his face twisted into a look of anguished horror. ‘Green! No, no, no. That can’t be right.’ He dropped the blue wire again, closed his eyes so hard his face crumpled round them, and jammed the yellow and red wires together.
Cruger twisted and turned, trying to push himself away as the metallic fingers of several VETACs reached down at him. Behind them, through the fingers, he could see VL9 standing close by. Haden was beside him.
A hand closed on Cruger’s throat. It gripped tight. Tighter. Then, abruptly, the pressure was released, the hand sagged. The VETACs themselves sagged, falling slightly forward from the waist, as if the life had suddenly deserted them. Through the forest of fingers stretching down for him, Cruger could see VL9 also standing lifeless and still.
Without pausin
g to wonder what had happened, Cruger scrambled out from under the VETACs.
Victoria watched in amazement as everything stopped. Froze.
For a split second time stood still. Then the main doors to the Banqueting Hall burst open. In a blur of motion she was aware of running figures. Trayx and another soldier were racing across the room, negotiating the VETACs, which stood like statues. And with them was Jamie.
‘Jamie!’ she called out. ‘Oh, Jamie.’
‘Victoria, thank goodness you’re all right.’ He was breathless. ‘Come on.’ Beside her, Trayx was embracing Helana. The other soldier was grinning at Sanjak.
Then they were running again. Jamie was dragging Victoria back across the room. ‘They’ll wake up again soon,’ he was warning her.
Trayx was half dragging, half carrying his wife. Sanjak and the other soldier were close behind them.
Cruger scrambled after the others, on his feet and running. But then a hand grabbed at his shoulder, dragged him back. He cried out, turned, tried to break free.
‘You!’ he screamed in rage.
‘Not so fast, sir.’ Haden was facing him now, her expression dark, her eyes hard.
‘Let me go.’
‘No. You’re staying here.’
Cruger shook his head. ‘Have you forgotten your brother so soon?’
‘It wasn’t the Republicans who killed my brother.’ Her jaw was set, her teeth all but clenched. ‘It was the war itself. The senseless war.’ Her grip on his shoulder tightened. ‘The war which you started. If anyone killed him, you did.’
Cruger was still now, not fighting her. His voice was quiet. ‘Your problem, Haden, is that you haven’t worked out whose side you’re really on.’
‘It’s not me who has the problem,’ she said. Her stare was piercingly hard.
‘Oh yes it is.’ His movement was sudden, taking her by surprise. He smashed her arm away from his shoulder, and grabbed her round the neck. She was strong and determined, but he was stronger. Her eyes were less hard now, bulging in their sockets as he squeezed. And squeezed. She sank to her knees, her hands pulling at his wrists, but with increasingly less strength or effect.
He was standing over her now, holding her body up from the floor even as he throttled the life out of it. Still she stared up at him, the accusation and disgust deep in her eyes. Then they glazed over, her head sagged slightly, and he dropped her to the ground. He stood over her for a moment, breathing heavily.
The huge, inert form of VL9 stood close by, as if watching him. Cruger spared it a quick glance as he crossed to where the bodies of several soldiers lay against the end wall. Their weapons were close by, where they had fallen when the VETACs killed the soldiers. He picked up a small hand blaster, weighed it in his palm, and strode from the room. His confidence grew with every step.
Darkling had watched from the gallery. His elation at seeing the rescue of Sanjak and the others rapidly changed to horror as Cruger grabbed Haden. He considered leaping down at them from the gallery. But they were too far away. At best he would achieve nothing worse than two broken legs.
So instead he ran, racing for the stairs, leaping down them three – four – at a time.
The doors to the hall were still open. The VETACs still stood in silent vigil. But Cruger was gone.
And Haden was lying face down on the floor.
Darkling was at Haden’s side in a moment, pushing his way through the mass of VETACs standing between them. He knelt beside the body. He reached down, feeling for a pulse in her neck as he slowly turned the body over.
He drew in his breath sharply as the pale, contorted face rolled into view. Darkling clasped the inert form to his chest, rocking backward and forward on his knees as he cradled his lover in his arms.
Then, without warning, there was movement. Slowly, as if moving through thick viscous liquid, the VETACs were reactivating, coming back to life. Arms swung slightly, heads moved fractionally. VL9 drew himself upright as a fail-safe timed out inside his parallax-comtronic brain and automatically rerouted the legion’s command functions through the backup frequency.
Urgency and passion combined as Darkling pressed his lips to Haden’s. ‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered. ‘So sorry.’ Then he ran from the room, barely noticing the waking metal hands that clutched at him as he passed.
Sanjak had joined Lanphier and Felda at the shutters. The sound of the VETACs trying to break through was back, louder than ever now. They were through the first two shutters, and now the final one was denting outward, buckling under the onslaught.
‘We hold them as long as we can,’ Lanphier said. ‘Then we fall back to Kesar’s quarters.’
‘As long as we can?’ Sanjak asked. ‘How long do you think that will be?’
‘A few seconds,’ Felda said. ‘If we’re lucky.’
Lanphier shrugged. ‘I’m only telling you what the Doctor said.’
‘So he’s in command now, is he?’ Felda snorted.
Lanphier’s reply was quiet, almost to himself. ‘Perhaps he always was.’
At first Cruger thought the room was empty. The door from the living area through to Kesar’s sleeping quarters was closed. The chess set – his chess set – was on the table in the corner, the pieces in position for the start of a game.
‘I thought you might drop by.’
He whirled round at the voice, peering into the red gloom by the chess table. It took him a moment to make out the figure sitting behind the table.
‘Doctor. What a pleasant surprise.’ He crossed to the table.
‘Yes, isn’t it?’ The Doctor picked up one of the pieces – a rook fashioned in the shape of the asteroid fortress. Santespri in miniature. ‘These are very good, you know.’
‘Thank you.’
‘I wondered where you got the materials. But then I realised that Remas probably brought them in for you. No doubt Warden Mithrael knew about that, turned a blind eye.’
‘What of it?’ Cruger sat opposite the Doctor, facing him across the board.
‘Oh nothing. I imagine he was providing all sorts of material. Am I right?’ The Doctor set the piece down. ‘So that you could signal your VETAC friends, for example.’
‘Friends?’ Cruger smiled, his teeth stained red by the emergency lighting. ‘Oh no, Doctor. You have it all wrong. I merely smoked them out. Brought them into the open so that I could destroy them with the toxin.’
‘Really? That’s jolly good.’ The Doctor leaned forward, across the board. ‘As an excuse, I mean. As a plan, it leaves a lot to be desired, I must say. Pretty stupid, wouldn’t you agree?’ His eyes were glinting in the red light, acquiring a depth Cruger had not noticed before. ‘And you’re not stupid, are you, General Cruger? Anything but, I would say.’
‘You say a lot of things, Doctor.’
The Doctor sat back, laughing suddenly. ‘Do I?’
‘But words are cheap.’
‘Aren’t they?’ The red glint was back now. ‘But then life is very cheap to you, isn’t it? The life of Remas, once he was no further use to you. Sponslor’s life, too. The lives of your VETAC troops, if life they have. It seems to me that you have no conception of the real value of these things. And that’s a pity.’ He lifted another piece from the board – the white king. ‘What does matter to you? Not life, except your own. So how about power?’
‘Power?’
‘Yes. That’s what all this is about, isn’t it?’ The Doctor held out the white king. ‘The face left unfinished. That’s not a philosophical point, now is it? You left it unfinished so that nobody else would know it’s meant to be you. Axell Cruger, Emperor of Haddron. Has a certain ring to it, I suppose.’
Cruger was on his feet now, his voice a snarl of pent-up emotion. ‘I shall yet be Emperor, Doctor.’
‘Oh really?’ The Doctor gave a disdainful snort, returning the king to its position on the board. ‘You – Emperor? Running the whole of Haddron?’ He was looking directly at Cruger now, deep into his eyes. ‘You can’t
even play a decent game of chess.’
Cruger took a deep breath. For a moment it seemed he was about to shout back at the Doctor. But then he relaxed slightly. The trace of a smile was on his face as he reached down and started moving the chess pieces.
‘If you’re such a grand master, Doctor,’ he said quietly, ‘try this.’
‘Try what?’
‘A simple chess problem. It should pose no great difficulty to a man of your undoubted talents.’
‘Oh really?’ The Doctor was suddenly enthusiastic, watching closely as Cruger positioned the last pieces. ‘Got to make checkmate in a single move or something, have I?’
‘That’s right.’ Cruger’s smile was almost a grin now. ‘You have the black pieces.’ He was backing slowly away from the board, watching carefully as the Doctor reached out for the black knight. ‘Just one move, Doctor. That’s all you get.’
The Doctor’s hand was on the knight. ‘Well, it’s simple, isn’t it? Hardly in the league of Kasparov or Capablanca.’
‘Then play the move, Doctor.’ Cruger’s voice was barely a whisper as he watched the Doctor lift the knight. He had him now.
He kept to the shadows out of instinct and habit as much as from thought and decision. He had no plan as such, had not thought through what he should do or how he would achieve it. For the moment, he headed for the Secure Area. That was where they would be taking refuge, all of them.
The tears were dried on Darkling’s cheeks. His face was a mask of determination as he pulled back into an alcove and watched VL9 and several other VETACs march past him. It must be close to the end now, he thought. He quickened his pace as he followed them.
‘Simple,’ the Doctor repeated as he lifted the knight. Then his hand froze. Slowly, carefully he replaced the piece. ‘Or is it?’
Cruger also paused. He had been backing slowly away from the board. ‘What’s wrong, Doctor? Lacking the courage to play your move?’
‘No. No, I don’t think so.’ The Doctor leaned back, tapping his finger tips together in front of his chin as he thought. ‘A little too simple, perhaps. And chess is such a dangerous game.’
Doctor Who: Dreams of Empire: 50th Anniversary Edition Page 25
