THE DOCTOR HAD watched helplessly as a spinning cube of white light appeared from nowhere, forming around Romana, K-9 and Chris. A moment later the cube had disappeared again, taking his three friends along with it. He was alone in the airlock.
There was another electronic hum, and the inner door irised smoothly open to reveal Skagra.
The Doctor faced him, and spoke in a level, serious tone. ‘What have you done to them?’
‘They will not be harmed, Doctor,’ said Skagra in the same bland, emotionless way he expressed everything. He added, ‘For the moment’, but it was not the threat of a madman or dictator, the types the Doctor was used to encountering and besting. It was a simple, untrammelled statement of fact, as if Skagra was passing casual comment on something of no consequence at all.
‘I’m not very impressed by the party tricks, Skagra,’ said the Doctor.
‘These “party tricks”, Doctor, are purely functional. Their purpose is precisely defined, as is mine.’ Skagra indicated a long curving white corridor that led from the airlock into the heart of the Ship. ‘Come with me, Doctor.’
‘First, where have you taken my companions?’ The Doctor advanced menacingly on Skagra. ‘It’s just the two of us here now. I knew you couldn’t hide behind that overgrown billiard ball of yours for ever.’
Skagra held up a hand. ‘I am undefended at present. But should you attempt a physical assault, I will order the immediate deaths of your friends.’ He gestured down the corridor once more. ‘Now come with me.’
The Doctor followed Skagra down the corridor.
‘What have you done with the Professor’s mind?’ he asked.
‘It has been put to a more useful purpose,’ Skagra replied.
The Doctor seemed about to explode with anger. He restrained himself and instead said quietly and threateningly, ‘I would argue that it was serving a very useful purpose where it was.’
‘Possibly,’ said Skagra. ‘But not to me.’
The Doctor snorted. ‘You realise the Professor is dead?’
‘Only his mind was of use to me,’ said Skagra. ‘Not his body.’
They had reached the far end of the corridor and another large white circular door. ‘It seems to me that you take a very proprietorial attitude towards other people’s minds,’ said the Doctor.
For the first time, Skagra seemed to react. His full, sensual lips twitched in a micro-expression that mixed amusement and contempt. It wasn’t much, but the Doctor caught it. ‘It seems to me, Doctor,’ said Skagra, ‘that the Time Lords take a very proprietorial view towards the universe.’ He paused. ‘They are your people, aren’t they?’
The Doctor pressed his face very close to Skagra’s, looking deep into his cold blue eyes. ‘Just exactly who are you, Skagra? And what do you know of the Time Lords?’
‘That knowledge will be of no use to you,’ said Skagra coolly.
‘Then I think you may as well tell me,’ pointed out the Doctor.
‘And I think I may as well not,’ said Skagra. He activated a control on the left of the door and it irised open. ‘We have more important matters to discuss.’ He waved the Doctor through ahead of him.
The Doctor looked around the spartan command deck of the Ship. There was a bank of controls on each side, and a large white leather padded chair, angled back. Next to the chair was a tall grey cone, with the mind-sucking sphere resting on the top, apparently inert for the moment. Up ahead was a large screen, presently covered by white shutters. The room displayed no trace of individuality or even of having ever been occupied. It was, thought the Doctor, rather like a showroom model. ‘Functional and precisely defined, indeed,’ he said. ‘I don’t like it.’
Skagra moved to a white cabinet and pressed a button. A panel on the front of the cabinet slid back, revealing a collection of books, meticulously arranged in order of size, largest to smallest.
The Doctor stepped forward and stooped to examine the contents. ‘I take it back. Quite a collection you’ve got here.’ He recognised the worn gilt lettering on the spines of the books. It was a slightly archaic form of Gallifreyan, from several thousand years ago. ‘The Chronicles of Gallifrey,’ he said, trying not to sound impressed. ‘I thought these were out of print.’
‘These titles have helped bring me to my greatest acquisition,’ said Skagra. He crossed to a clear plastic bubble, presumably some kind of scanner, on a nearby workstation. He slid the bubble open and took from inside The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey. The Doctor noted how Skagra handled the book, delicately, at arm’s length in his white-gloved hands. ‘This book, Doctor.’
‘What book, that book?’ The Doctor snatched it from him at lightning speed, flicked through the pages, and handed it back. ‘I’ve read it, it’s rubbish.’
If he suspected such a move would unsettle Skagra, he was wrong. Without a trace of reaction, Skagra calmly passed the book back to him.
‘Then perhaps you would read it to me?’
The Doctor shrugged. ‘I have a very boring reading voice. By the time I’d got to the bottom of the first page you’d be asleep, I’d escape, and then where would you be?’
‘Read it to me,’ said Skagra.
‘I presume you can’t read Gallifreyan, then?’ said the Doctor.
‘Like a native,’ said Skagra, indicating the other books in his collection. ‘From the Old High Gallifreyan of the Rassilon Era down to the scrawlings of the Sheboogans. But as you know, the book is not written in any form of Gallifreyan.’ He nodded. ‘Read it to me, Doctor.’
‘All right,’ said the Doctor affably. He flipped open the first page and coughed. ‘Are you standing comfortably?’
‘I am,’ said Skagra.
‘Then I’ll sit down,’ said the Doctor, leaping into the padded white leather chair. He was uncomfortably aware of the sphere, sat atop the cone right next to him at head height. He concealed his apprehension, crossed his long legs, coughed again, and began.
‘“Squiggle squiggle”,’ said the Doctor. ‘“Squiggle, wavy line, sort of an eye I think, squiggle, squiggle…”’ He stopped and smiled up at Skagra. ‘I’m paraphrasing wildly, of course.’
Skagra’s lip trembled slightly. ‘Doctor,’ he said warningly, ‘let me remind you that your friends—’
The Doctor held up a hand. ‘Shhh, this is a good bit. “Squiggle squiggle wavy line, wavy squiggle!”’ Suddenly a look of mock worry came over his face. He flipped through the book again. ‘Skagra, do you realise this book doesn’t make one bit of sense?’
‘Doctor,’ said Skagra, composed again. ‘Any fool would realise that the book is written in code.’
The Doctor stared at the book for a good ten seconds. Suddenly he sat bolt upright in the chair. ‘Skagra!’ he exclaimed.
‘What?’
‘This book is written in code!’ He winked. ‘How am I doing?’
‘I believe that you know the code,’ said Skagra.
The Doctor shrugged. His eyes kept turning between Skagra, the book and the uncomfortably close sphere. ‘Who, me? Oh no no no.’ His tone changed suddenly, becoming less flippant. ‘I’m afraid I’m very stupid. Very stupid. I am very, very stupid.’
It was almost as if he was trying to convince himself of that fact.
‘Doctor,’ said Skagra patiently, ‘I believe that you, as a Time Lord of some experience, know this code. Unlike the Professor’s, your mind is relatively young and strong. You will decipher the code for me. Immediately.’
‘There’s no point in giving me orders,’ said the Doctor, looking up at him with an oddly vacant expression. ‘As I keep telling you, I’m very, very stupid.’
‘That was not an order,’ said Skagra.
‘It wasn’t?’
‘It was a statement of fact.’
‘Ah,’ said the Doctor. ‘How stupid of me not to realise.’
Skagra raised his hand in a sharp, up-cutting gesture.
The sphere buzzed into life. Gently it left its position on top of the cone.
The Doctor made to leap from the chair. Skagra barked out, ‘Ship, restrain him!’
A warm, female voice said, ‘Certainly, my lord.’
Suddenly the Doctor cried out. He found that he could not move from the chair. A searing pain surged through his body, pinning him back.
‘You will give me the code because you have no choice,’ said Skagra.
The Doctor grimaced and spoke through gritted teeth, fighting the pain of the chair’s force field. ‘I don’t know about that, Skagra,’ he managed to say, beads of sweat running down his forehead. ‘I don’t know about anything, in fact.’ He closed his eyes and gasped in pain. ‘I am an… appallingly stupid person…’
‘That, Doctor, will soon be very true,’ said Skagra. He gestured to the sphere.
The sphere attached itself to the Doctor’s gleaming forehead. He let out a long cry of terrible pain, and his whole body shook in a series of agonised spasms.
Skagra watched the process, unmoved. He considered using up a smile but decided against it.
Finally the sphere detached itself from the Doctor and moved gently into Skagra’s outstretched hand.
The Doctor lay still and slumped, eyes staring open.
‘Scan for life signs,’ ordered Skagra.
A melodic electronic burble sounded as the Ship carried out a sensor sweep. ‘My gracious lord,’ it reported finally. ‘I am pleased to confirm that your enemy the Doctor is dead.’
Skagra reached out and took the book from the Doctor’s lifeless, unresisting fingers.