Once it was free of its brackets Keefer had no problem moving the machine in a reasonably controlled way and he took it with him as he went looking for the pseudo-grav generator.
He thought about hiding the corpses in the storage silo where he had been held but decided it was not worth the bother. It would take whoever they sent to check less time to find the dead hakai-warriors and the bits of crewman than it would have taken him to hide them in the first place.
Pulling from handhold to push point, with the machine behind or out in front of him, he searched the weightless utility zone for something that might possibly be the generator. Following scents and sounds he found the recycling system easily but the difficult thing about the pseudo-grav unit was that he had no idea what it might smell, sound or even look like. Somehow he doubted that it would have an identifying plate attached to it and form would not follow function, it wouldn’t look like what it did, because he didn’t know what it did. He knew the effect of what it did but that wasn’t the same thing.
So what to do? Pick a unit at random? Use a process of elimination and pick a unit he didn’t recognise as something else? His plan had been to use the machine to damage the pseudo-grav generator but as things were going he’d probably end up just blocking the scuffling drains. He floated motionless at the edge of the ship’s utility zone, looking at the haphazard maze of unattended machines while he tried to reason his way through the problem. He found himself wondering what Jerro would do.
Behind him the android said, ‘The Lady Hakai waits to see you.’
Never be too proud to ask kid, the memory of Jerro Fanson murmured in his mind. You’d be amazed what they’ll tell you if they can’t think of a reason not to.
Without turning round Keefer said, ‘Pseudo-grav generator: which one is it?’
Ronick shouldered his way through the hakai-warriors who were still guarding the doorway and shambled and stumbled his way into the chamber followed by Sita. Finbar, looking slightly crestfallen, brought up the rear.
‘How come you get preferential treatment?’ Ronick asked the Doctor. ‘What have you got that we haven’t?’
The Doctor smiled his most wolfish smile. ‘Modesty forbids,’
he said.
‘I’m serious,’ Ronick said.
‘I haven’t named my price yet.’
Ronick’s eyes narrowed and almost disappeared. ‘And that’s why we’ve been standing around out there?’
‘No, that’s why you’ll be standing around in here,’ the Doctor said.
‘Is that her?’ Sita did not look directly up at the woman in the high-backed chair. She was obviously awestruck. ‘Is that the Lady Hakai?’
Strangely predictable, the Doctor thought, that what Ronick called an officer-class type should be the most impressed by the wealth and power of this superficially young-looking old woman. ‘That is Hakai,’ the Doctor said.
‘She’s my new best friend. She wants me to have whatever my hearts desire.’
‘And that’s Leela,’ Ronick said, noticing her for the first time. She was standing with her arms folded, glaring up at the woman who was not deigning even to acknowledge her existence.
‘She and Hakai haven’t really hit it off, I’m afraid,’ the Doctor confided cheerfully. ‘Leela did try to kill her of course, which may have soured their relationship slightly. People can be very touchy about these things I find.’
‘Is this about a duel?’ Sita said. ‘Has she been brought here to fight?’
The Doctor nodded. ‘To fight Keefer, that’s my guess. I’m here to negotiate terms it seems. Underneath that viciously youthful exterior, Hakai is a just sweet old-fashioned traditionalist.’
‘Well I’m not,’ Ronick growled. ‘And that’s not what I’m doing here.’
‘I know,’ the Doctor said. ‘We both know what you’re doing here, don’t we.’
‘So where is he?’ Sita asked. ‘I’ve come a long way to find this Keefer character.’
Ronick stepped forward to confront the Doctor. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ His eyes were wide open and glaring.
Before the Doctor could answer him the pseudo-grav generator abruptly stopped functioning and weightlessness hit. The immediate effect was most obvious on people and things that were in motion but everyone, even the most firmly seated, was aware at once that there was something odd happening.
Ronick’s steps pushed him up into the air and left him clutching desperately at the Doctor for control. Sita found herself grabbing at the Doctor’s coat. The three of them floated away in a hapless, helpless cluster. To one side of the doorway Finbar snatched for a handhold. All around hakai-warriors left the deck and drifted about like plump flightless birds in an irresistible updraft.
Hours of practice in her cell on the speeder yacht made Leela’s response fast and virtually instinctive. She kicked herself off and flew upwards, aiming for the woman in the high-backed chair. Startled, Hakai pulled the two handguns from the chair’s ornamental holsters and fired them at her.
The reaction to the cartridges’ small explosive charges made it impossible to hold the handguns firmly and they flew backwards and sideways in the woman’s grasp. One of the shots killed a floating hakai-warrior and the other smashed a hole in the opaque glass dome and shorted out the artificial lighting rig. Leela’s leap had now carried her almost to the level of the seating tier and she was ducking away from the desperate sabre slashes of the seated bodyguards and reaching towards Hakai, who was trying to bring her handguns to bear again.
And then everything changed once more when the pseudo-grav abruptly came back on.
The android had been tasked to bring him to its mistress. It had seemed to Keefer that the instruction must include not hurting him since the thing was reluctant to manhandle him in any way despite being physically stronger than he was.
Perhaps the dead Fat Boys and the chopped up crewman had similar instructions he had thought. Perhaps they were all sacrificed to keep him alive and in one piece. But why would that be? It made no sense. Why send an android to kill him and then send another with instructions not to hurt him? He had shaken off the thought. Now was not the time for questions, now was the time to give himself a fighting chance.
The android was a powerful machine and subtle in its operation but lying and the possibility of being lied to did not seem to be part of its understanding. In its efforts to reason him into following directions to where it said the Lady Hakai was waiting, the thing had been quite prepared to show him the pseudo-grav generator. He had told it that his life’s ambition was to see one up close and that he would follow whatever instructions he was given as soon as he had. He also told it that, as part of his culture and religion, he was required to take trophies from winning fights and hold them briefly and that was why he was keeping close to him, for a sacred period, the machine he had taken from the dead crewman.
All this nonsense had been accepted without question and when Keefer thrust his trophy into the guts of the generator the android had seemed genuinely surprised by what had happened. He had left it trying to remove the obstruction and repair the damage.
By the time Keefer reached the mock courtroom it was, as he expected, in chaos. What he did not expect was the strange group of people involved in the general mayhem. As well as the Fat Boys flapping around, there was a weirdly dressed, curly-haired man who seemed to be wrestling with a slim woman and an angry fat man. He recognised the figure of Melly Finbar clinging to a light fitting and wondered fleetingly what he was doing there. Most unexpected though was the girl in the animal skin tunic, who was flying at the Lady Hakai. Shots from the woman’s ceremonial handguns tore into a Fat Boy and the ornamental glass dome. Keefer watched as the girl skilfully dodged the Fat Boys and reached for the Lady Hakai.
And then everything changed once more when the pseudo-grav abruptly came back on.
The Doctor, Sita and Ronick collapsed to the deck in an untidy heap. As the Doctor extricated himself he was r
elieved to see Leela back on the deck as well. He didn’t know what she had been planning to do if she had got her hands on Hakai and he was fairly sure she didn’t know either. It looked as though she might be planning another try, however, and all around in the half-lit confusion he could see hakai-warriors picking themselves up, alert for danger and ready for orders. Hakai had only to give the word, he thought, and Leela would be sliced and diced.
He looked up at the woman, who was still sitting in the high backed chair, still brandishing the two handguns. It occurred to him that if she chose to start firing now the shots would be a lot more accurate. It was definitely time to get themselves back to Finbar’s ship and leave. Where was Finbar? He glanced around and that was when he noticed the young man armed with a hakai-warrior’s short sabre. He was moving to thwart Leela’s pending attack. For a moment the Doctor thought he was a crewman but then he simply put a restraining hand on Leela’s arm and glared up at Hakai.
‘Why did you pay to have me dead?’ he demanded. ‘What was the reason?’
To the Doctor’s surprise the woman smiled benignly down at him. ‘I want to see you fight,’ she said. It was a statement of fact, not a request or an explanation, the Doctor realised.
She did not think of the young man as being the same as her in any way at all. It was like listening to a very young child talking to a toy. ‘I want to see you fight her.’
‘Why did you send an android to kill me?’
So that was it, the Doctor thought. This is Keefer and that was what brought him and them here.
‘You do not ask me questions.’
‘It’s Keefer,’ Sita whispered. That must be Keefer.’
‘Of course it scuffling Keefer,’ Ronick muttered.
‘I don’t fight for your personal amusement,’ Keefer declared.
‘Why did you want me dead?’
More to the point, the Doctor thought, why doesn’t she just give the word to have you killed now?
The woman waved the pistols. ‘You refuse a challenge. You know the penalty for that.’
‘It is you who have refused a challenge,’ Leela shouted.
There is no challenge,’ the Doctor said loudly and firmly.
‘There has been no challenge.’
‘Keep silent. This is not your business.’ The command was dismissive.
‘Of course it’s my business. I’m the Guild-registered agent for these fighters. Leela and Keefer are both clients of mine.
You, as it turns out, are merely a wealthy fan.’
The woman pointed both pistols in the Doctor’s direction.
He had her attention, he could see, but not her full attention as yet. ‘Get ready to head back to ship,’ he murmured at Sita and Ronick as he walked forward to stand between Leela and Keefer. ‘Not that I have anything against wealthy fans,’ he said loudly. ‘But it does fundamentally alter our relationship.’
‘You imagine we have a relationship?’
The Doctor pointedly ignored the withering comment. ‘Our negotiations must now be in private,’ he went on imperturbably. ‘You may be wealthy but rules are rules, I’m afraid.’ He turned to Keefer. ‘If you and Leela would like to go with my associates.’ He nodded towards Sita and Ronick.
‘Now if you don’t mind. You cannot be present while I discuss the arrangements for this private match.’ He smiled encouragingly at Leela. ‘Leave this to me. Please.’
Leela hesitated. The Doctor was almost sure she was going to be her usual uncooperative self but then she turned and strode across the deck to where Sita and Ronick were waiting. ‘I don’t know who you are,’ Keefer said quietly, ‘but Jerro Fanson’s my agent.’
‘He sent me after you,’ the Doctor said. ‘Don’t make me regret doing this for him.’
Keefer hesitated and then he too strode across the deck and joined the others and they all headed for the doorway.
‘Wait,’ Hakai commanded.
Hakai-warriors moved to block the doorway.
The Doctor smiled up at her. ‘I have explained the situation but if you want me to go over it again more slowly... with shorter words perhaps?’ He paused to see if the insult would penetrate the woman’s arrogance and when it didn’t he said,
‘We could go to your private quarters if you’d prefer. I can understand your embarrassment at having to admit your ignorance of the rules in front of your friends.’ Still the woman sat unmoving and he realised that she hadn’t been listening to him. It appeared she was thinking, and, the Doctor thought, it appeared she was slow of thinking.
In the doorway Ronick tried to bull his way through the hakai-warriors but made no progress. Frustrated he turned round and noticed Finbar in the shadows. ‘What are you skulking there for?’ he demanded.
Hakai finally stirred and gestured for the doorway to be cleared.
As the group moved on through, Ronick snarled at Finbar,
‘Get yourself over here. You’re with us.’
Finbar hung back. I’m in this for the money,’ he said.
Nothing else.’
Ronick moved towards him menacingly. You’ve been paid.’
‘Not enough. Not enough for what I’ve done.’
‘Who is that?’ Hakai asked of no one in particular.
‘I’m the pilot,’ Finbar shouted. ‘I’m the one who brought them to you.’
Hakai fired both handguns and went on firing. Even the hakai-warriors were ducking for cover but the shots were much more accurate, as the Doctor had thought they would be. ‘Run!’ he shouted and set off after the others as they rushed out though the doorway. The Doctor reached Finbar, caught him as he fell and bundled the skinny young man out into the corridor where the others were waiting. Finbar had been hit three times and was already dead.
‘We’re scuffed,’ Ronick said. ‘What do we do for a pilot?’
A fusillade of shots spattered into the corridor. ‘I shouldn’t worry about it,’ the Doctor said and smiled his best smile. ‘If we get to the ship in one piece it’ll be a major achievement.’
He could see immediately that his attempt at humour was about to misfire when Leela and Keefer both tensed and turned, clearly ready for a last ditch battle. ‘Come on, come on,’ he said, setting off down the corridor. ‘Stop hanging about. Miles to go and promises to keep.’
He did not look back as he strode away. If he looked back it would give them a chance to hesitate, to question the action; this way there was no room for doubt about what they should be doing. Of course he was going to look pretty silly if they weren’t following him...
Chapter Seventeen
They reached the ship without serious challenge, and with everyone on board the Doctor put his theory about top-of-the-range navigation programs to the test. As he expected it was a simple enough matter to instruct the system to recalibrate, reset and return to base, after which the ship functioned automatically. He had been vaguely tempted to make it look more complicated than it was and pretend to be concentrating constantly. That would have given him the chance to think rather than answer questions he wasn’t ready to answer, or ask questions that other people weren’t ready to answer. But in the event there seemed to be nothing else for it.
‘What did you mean we both know why I’m here?’ Ronick asked in a lull in the conversation that followed the introductions and general explanations.
‘The price on our heads,’ the Doctor said, aware that he was back in the area of the technically true. ‘That is what you told me isn’t it.’
‘It sounded like an accusation.’
The Doctor shrugged. That’s because it was an accusation, he thought, and said, ‘What did you mean when you said Finbar had been paid?’
‘Did I say that?’
‘You said that,’ the Doctor said, and thought, that sounded like an evasion and...
‘You’d agreed to pay him, that’s what I meant,’ Ronick said.
...and that is because it was an evasion. ‘I see.’
‘Doctor?�
� Leela had been rummaging around in the small equipment lockers and was holding her knife and the carrying pouch she used. She looked by turns puzzled and delighted. ‘Did you know these were here?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘I didn’t.’ More puzzlingly he knew that they hadn’t been there when they had chartered the ship and its cocky young pilot and left the Hakai Orbital Transfer Station.
They got back to the OTS to find rumours about the approach of the fabled Ultraviolet Express were already dominating the news. When he set about booking the return flights to the planet’s surface the Doctor found that his VIP
status was still intact and there still seemed to be no sign of arrest warrants for him or for Sita Benovides.
He thought he noticed a new interest from people though.
It seemed to be different, more guarded somehow. He even noticed some casual bystanders actually moving to try and avoid getting too close. Perhaps their motley little group appeared threatening. Perhaps Leela’s fame had continued to grow in her absence and she was now so huge that everyone was overawed. Perhaps he really was getting paranoid.
He tried smiling and nodding at someone waiting nearby.
‘Has anyone any idea what this Hakai woman is up to?’ he asked, conversationally. ‘Any theories? What do you think?’
The man looked surprised and then slightly embarrassed. ‘I think it’s time for a change,’ he said. ‘People break the law, the police should handle it. I think the whole Court of Attack thing is...’
‘Barbarous?’ the Doctor suggested, pleased to find someone who agreed with his opinions. ‘That’s exactly how I feel.’
‘I can understand that,’ the man said. ‘And I wish you and the others the best of luck I really do.’
‘Thank you, I appreciate it,’ the Doctor said as he watched the man’s hasty efforts to manoeuvre himself away from the immediate vicinity. Weightlessness was a disorientating environment, but was that all it was? he wondered.
Match of the Day Page 26
