It was a relief not to have to pretend to be ignorant any more.
They had reached Kedin’s quarters. The soldier on guard at the door turned to stare at Ace. His eyes lit up and he gave her a leering grin, which disappeared immediately when Madok glared at him.
Madok gestured impatiently at the door. The soldier rapped on it with the butt of his rifle.
A muffled voice called from beyond the sealed door. Madok shouted his name. The voice replied indistinctly. Madok tugged on the emergency door release handle.
They really need someone to tell them how to use this place properly, Ace thought.
‘So this is the captain’s cabin,’ Ace said as she stepped through the doorway.
It was a suite of rooms. The main chamber was big, in Ace’s opinion: accommodation was cramped on every other space station she’d visited. Despite not being able to use the colour and texture controls that Ace was sure were embedded in the grey walls, Kedin had succeeded in importing his personality and taste. The floor was covered in a carpet woven with a complex pattern; animal skins were laid here and there over the carpet. Tapestries covered most of the walls: a hunting scene, a troop of cavalry on animals that weren’t horses, and a huddle of naked nymphs bathing near a waterfall. The furniture was large, heavy, generously upholstered, and well supplied with cushions. A vast, polished desk dominated the room.
Kedin wasn’t in sight, but Ace could hear him moving in one of the other rooms.
Madok had followed Ace through the doorway. ‘Kedin Ashar,’ he called out. ‘It’s Madok. I’ve brought Ace to see you.’
‘Excellent.’ Kedin’s voice came through one of the doors.
‘Ace, please accept my apologies. I’m in the middle of a shave.
I’ll be able to give you my total attention in just a moment.’
Ace caught a glimpse of him through a doorway. The glint of a cut-throat razor; his naked torso. God, he had some muscles on him. Sinewy, she thought: that was the word.
Ace wandered about the room. She admired the jewelled scabbard and hilt of Kedin’s sword. She heard Madok’s indrawn breath as she picked up and inspected a delicate model of an old-fashioned rocket with swept-back fins and a bulbous nose.
Probably priceless, she thought.
Madok seemed ill at ease. He paced back and forth with his hands clasped behind his back. Several times Ace thought he was about to speak to her.
Kedin bounded into the room. He was dressed now, but not in full uniform: he had on soft suede boots, tight black trousers, and a brilliantly white shirt. Ace stole a glance at Madok. As she had expected, he was open-mouthed with shock. She supposed he considered Kedin almost indecently under-dressed. As for her, she was particularly happy with the tight trousers and the open shirt. Even the boots were sexy.
Kedin took her hands in his and stared into her eyes. ‘Ace,’
he said, ‘can you find it in your heart to forgive me? I can’t believe I was so incompetent. I endangered your life. I can’t express my relief at finding you unharmed. I trust you’ve had sufficient time to rest and recuperate.’
He looked up, and seemed to notice Madok for the first time.
‘Still here, Madok?’ he said. He didn’t release Ace’s hands.
‘At your service, my lord,’ Madok said.
Kedin glanced at Ace. Their eyes met. His seemed to twinkle as he gave her a surreptitious smile.
‘It’s all right, Madok,’ Ace said. ‘I don’t need a bodyguard any more. I’m sure I’ll be safe with Kedin.’ She couldn’t stop her fingers trembling. She was sure Kedin would notice.
‘My lord?’ Madok said.
‘I don’t need protection either,’ Kedin said. ‘I’m sure Ace won’t hurt me.’ He tightened his grip on her hands. ‘I can manage, Madok.’
Ace didn’t hear Madok leave. Her heart was thumping, and she couldn’t pull her eyes from Kedin’s hawk-like face.
‘Allow me to show you around my small domain,’ Kedin said, retaining his hold on one of her hands. ‘I’ve decorated the place as best I can. It reminds me of home. I hope you’ll like it.’
‘It’s neat,’ Ace said. She didn’t trust herself to say much: she was afraid her voice might come out all wobbly. She couldn’t pretend to be an expert on men: that was the trouble with growing up in the TARDIS and spending her time battling evil aliens. But she sensed that behind Kedin’s casual elegance and carefree banter he was concealing a deep and tragic pain. It was all just too romantic.
‘I insist that you tell me all about yourself,’ Kedin said,
‘now that we’re alone together at last.’ He stopped suddenly and turned to face her. He lifted his hand to her face and touched her cheek. ‘I could make you talk, you know.’ His expression was anxious - almost grim. ‘I won’t. I couldn’t bear to do that to you.’
‘It’s OK,’ Ace said. She put her hand over his. ‘You won’t have to get out the thumbscrews. I’m going to tell you.’
‘Ace,’ he murmured. And then his lips were touching hers, and she pressed herself against him and returned his kisses.
‘Um - oh dear,’ Kedin said after some time had passed.
‘You’ve bewitched me, Ace. I don’t intend - that is, I have no desire to compromise you, lady.’
Ace placed a finger on his lips. ‘Hush. You were showing me round, remember. Which one of these doors leads to the bedroom, for instance?’
‘Ah. It’s this one. Would you like to -?’
He was even more kissable when he was looking confused.
Hardly believing what she was doing, and with her legs feeling like jelly, Ace made for the doorway he had indicated.
She entered a bedroom that was sumptuous and dark with velvet and gold.
She glanced over her shoulder to make sure that Kedin was following her. She wanted to feel his hands touching her again.
He was standing in the doorway with his eyes closed.
‘Tevana, forgive me,’ she heard him say.
‘Kedin,’ she said, ‘who’s Tevana?’
Kedin’s face broke into a grin. ‘She’s my personal goddess,’
he said, and scooped Ace up in his arms. ‘I think she’ll forgive this transgression. I hope so.’ He kissed her, and hugged her so tightly that she struggled for breath. ‘I think you’d better say a prayer to your own deity, young lady.
You’re about to sin.’
Madok sat and stared at the endless rows of glowing lights and flickering numbers. He had thought that if he shut himself in the station’s control room and concentrated on trying to understand more of the bewildering array he would be able to stop himself thinking about Ace. And Kedin. In Kedin’s quarters.
He cursed himself for being a fool. The station’s controls were almost entirely indecipherable: the winking lights mocked him and refused to give up their secrets. Kedin’s campaign would just have to proceed with the technology he and Tevana had already researched, resurrected and refined.
Unless, of course, it turned out that Kedin could coax some useful information out of Ace.
And there she was again, occupying the centre ground of Madok’s thoughts. Her face seemed to be floating only inches in front of his. Her large, dark, laughing eyes. Her broad, sensuous mouth.
She was with Kedin.
The same thoughts marched round and round in his head.
He shook his head. He had to pull himself together.
I’m not fit to be a soldier, Madok told himself. Still less an officer. I’m moping over a girl. I’m jealous of Kedin Ashar, a nobler man than I’ll ever be, the lord to whom I’ve pledged my service. I’m ungrateful and disloyal. No one could have worked harder than Kedin, and still he strives and struggles, despite the terrible threat hanging over him.
I can’t even help him to comprehend this station.
Madok could have wept with frustration and self-loathing.
He closed his eyes and slammed his fist into the nearest bank of controls.
Wh
en he looked up one of the large, flat, blank areas was alive with lights. Madok thought it must be a picture, although he had no idea what was represented by the convoluted lines.
And I don’t know how I created it, either, he said to himself.
He heard one of the doors slide open. He composed his face before he swivelled his chair, but he couldn’t keep a note of surprise out of his voice.
‘Kedin! Are you all right?’
Kedin Ashar was leaning against the door. He was holding his tunic slung over his shoulder, and his face was drawn.
‘The things we have to do, Madok.’ He covered his eyes with his hand. ‘I stayed with her as long as I could. It was as though Tevana was in the room with us. I said I had duties to attend to. I hope I wasn’t too abrupt.’
There was only one thing that Madok wanted to know. ‘But Kedin, did you -?’ he began, and then realised that he couldn’t possibly ask the question. ‘I’m sure you acted with your usual courtesy and charm,’ he said.
Kedin grinned. ‘Oh yes,’ he said. ‘I think our pretty visitor is satisfied with our hospitality. I’m no savage, Madok. I made her welcome.’
Madok’s felt his heart sink into his stomach. Somehow he managed to smile. ‘And did your pillow talk with Ace include any information that we can put to practical use?’
Kedin’s eyes lit up. ‘You wouldn’t believe the science that’s locked away behind the walls of this space station, Madok. It makes everything we’ve done up to now seem like - I don’t know - crude building blocks piled up by children.’
As usual Madok found himself refusing to be swept along by his lord’s enthusiasm. ‘We can fly the ships we found here,’ he pointed out. ‘They are propelled by rockets much like the engines you and Tevana designed on the planet. The people who built this station were not so very far ahead of us.’
‘You know that’s not so,’ Kedin said. ‘You remember those old data cores we used to study? All those technical terms that were meaningless to us? Madok, there are whole universes of physics that we haven’t dreamt of. There are particles, smaller than atoms, that obey different physical laws.’ He strode to the banks of controls and stretched out his arms. And these lights and numbers and dials are speaking to us, Madok, if we could but understand them.
They are the speech of the minds that control the station.
Yes, Madok, my sceptical old friend: artificial minds, made of wires and as complex as a human brain.’
‘The voices,’ Madok said. ‘The warning voices that the men say they hear. That I heard in the escape pod.’
‘Ace says that the station will speak to us. And that we can speak to it. It will understand our instructions. She thinks she can communicate with it and make it obey my commands.’
This was too much for Madok to find credible. ‘Can you be sure of this, Kedin? After all, we know nothing of Ace. How can she know the workings of devices that have defeated me, and you, and our best technicians?’
‘I believe her,’ Kedin said. ‘Although I confess that I have been unable to discover any more about her origins, or her reasons for being here. But she is, ah, enamoured of me, Madok. I’m sure you’ve noticed it. She’ll help us.’ He stooped in front of Madok’s chair and lowered his voice, as if there were a danger of being overheard. ‘She knows about weapons, my friend. She says there must be weapons stored on the station. Weapons that make our guns and bombs look like toys.’
‘That would certainly be useful,’ Madok said. He always preferred to go into battle with every possible advantage. ‘It’s one thing to scare the wits out of those poor farmers on the other planet; quite another to invade our home world and overthrow its ruler.’
‘Indeed.’ Kedin’s face once again showed the strain he was under. ‘But we must do it, and soon. It’s the only way to stop this vile trade and to rescue Tevana. And Ace will help us.’
Madok put his hand on his lord’s shoulder. ‘Then we had better be sure that she has no opportunity to find out what we’re doing here,’ he said.
The mule was grazing on the hillside, not far from the ferny hollow in which the Doctor and Bep-Wor were lying on their stomachs. They had crept and slithered down the slope, and were now close enough to the invaders to be able to see clearly what they were doing.
It came as no surprise to Bep-Wor that the prisoners were being herded into the cavernous belly of the domed machine.
The Doctor, however, seemed outraged.
‘That’s a cargo pod,’ he spluttered. ‘It’s not meant for passengers. Perhaps,’ he added pensively, ‘they’re just using it as a prison. A holding pen. A refuge, even.’
‘I don’t know, Doctor,’ Bep-Wor said. ‘The invaders just take us away. All of us, except the very old and infirm.’
‘But where, Bep-Wor? Where are the prisoners taken?’
Bep-Wor didn’t know. And the rumours he’d heard were not believable. ‘I spoke to an old woman a few days ago,’ he said.
‘One who was rejected and turned away. I don’t know if her words can be relied on. She was confused and frightened.’
‘That’s not surprising,’ the Doctor said. ‘What did she say?’
‘She heard two of the soldiers speaking. They speak our language, apparently, but strangely. She thought she could understand them. They were joking about taking prisoners away in the big machines - like that one, the one you call a cargo pod. And she said they spoke of taking the prisoners up into the sky.’
‘But did she find out the destination, Bep-Wor? Where are the cargo pods taking your people?’
Bep-Wor hesitated. It seemed such a stupid thing to suggest. He extended his arm. ‘You see that point of light, just above the horizon? Far away in the skies. It glints like a jewel. A daytime star.’
The Doctor simply accepted the notion. In fact, it seemed to confirm his worst fears. ‘The space station,’ he said. ‘And that’s where I left Ace. I shudder to think what danger I’ve placed her in.’
The Doctor turned on to his back and stared up into the skies. ‘Bep-Wor,’ he said, ‘I am an incompetent, bungling Time Lord. So far I have done nothing right. I must try to make amends. And I must rescue Ace.’
He sat up, placed his hat on his head, and scanned the hillside for the mule. He put two fingers into his mouth and emitted a piercing whistle. The mule’s ears twitched, and it began to pick its way toward the hollow.
‘Doctor,’ Bep-Wor hissed urgently. ‘The invaders will hear you. Keep down, out of sight.’
‘No, no,’ the Doctor said. He stood up, and waited for the mule to reach him. ‘I’m going to turn myself in. If I hurry, I’ll be able to join that batch of prisoners and get a ride to the space station.’
He hoisted himself on to the mule’s back and nudged the animal’s flanks with his knees. Bep-Wor watched him as he began an ungainly descent into the valley. He looked absurd.
He shifted from side to side with each step that the mule took. He kept one hand on his head, to stop his hat blowing off. He was small and defenceless, and he was heading towards certain imprisonment. The invaders had no mercy.
As the Doctor rode away, Bep-Wor’s sense of purpose evaporated. His home and his village were in ruins. Kia-Ga had been taken. He had nothing to live for. But perhaps, if he could reach the little jewel in the sky, he would be able to find Kia-Ga. It was a tiny, futile hope, but it was the only hope he had.
‘Doctor,’ he called out. ‘Wait. I’m coming with you.’
Ace was feeling very, very pleased with herself. She suspected that if she looked in a mirror she would find her face wearing a stupid, smug smile.
She hugged herself. I’ve definitely been too long in the TARDIS, she thought. Too long with that grumpy old Gallifreyan. I’d forgotten how much fun you can have with an ordinary human male.
Suddenly restless, she began to wander through the suite of rooms. Already she was missing Kedin: she found herself wondering when he’d return.
She pulled aside a brocade curtain, s
tepped through the doorway which it had been covering, and was in a small room whose walls consisted of blank monitor screens. There was just room to walk between the well-padded seat and the control panels that surrounded it.
Now that’s more like it, Ace said to herself. This must be an auxiliary control room. Not surprising, really. Kedin would have the best quarters on the station, and I suppose the guy who was in charge of the place when it was being run by TAM
would have had these rooms.
She settled herself in the chair and began studying the banks of switches. There was a drawer below the console in front of her. She pulled it out and found a QWERTY keyboard and a mouse.
Blimey, she thought, that’s primitive. Emergency use only, I should think, in case the interactive systems fail. She touched the dusty plastic, and was assailed by a wave of nostalgia for Earth.
She shook herself, and experimentally pressed a few keys.
The monitor in front of her crackled and hummed, and displayed the same holding screen as she had been able to call up on the comms console in her cabin.
Now then, she thought, let’s kick some life into these communications. I must be able to get into the system from here.
It was disappointingly simple. Ace had only to press a red button, conveniently labelled Reset, for the station’s soothing female voice to ask her, ‘Do you wish to reset the control configuration?’
It took a little longer for Ace to persuade the computer that she was the acting director of the space station, but once she’d pointed out that several hundred years had passed since the death of the previous director, the computer realised the futility of requiring the previous director’s authorization of Ace’s appointment as his successor. After several minutes of conversation, the computer reluctantly agreed to recognise Ace’s voice pattern as a sufficient password to gain access to all security levels.
Ace grinned and punched the air in triumph. Wait till Kedin sees this, she thought. This’ll knock his socks off. Now: what shall I get on-line first? I know: let’s get those cameras working.
Independence Day Page 7
