SKAGRA STOOD LOOKING up through the observatory at the infinite stars. Romana, still under the guard of a pair of watchful Kraags, wondered what was going on in his head.
The Kraag Commander stomped through the mass of his fellows towards Skagra. ‘First wave of generations is complete, my lord,’ it said.
‘Good,’ said Skagra. He tapped the book in his hand. ‘I have found the key, as anticipated. You will make all necessary preparations for the entry into Shada, and then begin second generation for the activation of the Universal Mind.’
‘My lord,’ said the Kraag Commander. It stomped away.
‘The Universal Mind,’ scoffed Romana.
Skagra turned to her. ‘Exactly.’
Romana believed she still had one option available to her. It was something she had learnt from the Doctor. Irritating the enemy, exposing any weaknesses of their psychology. ‘Why don’t you just kill me, Skagra?’ she said.
‘Your reaction will interest me,’ said Skagra.
‘My reaction to what?’
Skagra tapped the book again. ‘Your reaction to meeting one of the greatest criminals in your history.’
‘Salyavin?’ Romana shook her head. ‘Salyavin died thousands of years ago. And even you can’t fly the TARDIS back across the Gallifreyan time stream to meet him.’
‘Tell me how Salyavin died,’ said Skagra.
Romana considered. ‘I don’t know.’
Skagra nodded. ‘A Triple Alpha-plus graduate of the Prydon College in the Academy on Gallifrey, and you don’t know? How peculiar.’
Romana thought back to Skagra’s earlier boast about the book and the role it had once played in the administration of Gallifreyan justice. Nowadays – or at least in the last few thousand years – the very few evil renegades about, such as Morbius and Zetar, had been sentenced to vaporisation. But she had no idea what had befallen the criminals of earlier generations on Gallifrey. For some reason, the impulse to wonder about it had never crossed her mind, and even now she felt a vague sense of apprehension at the question.
‘Perhaps,’ said Skagra, ‘the Time Lords wanted to forget. To assuage their consciences. They wanted to obliterate all memory of what they had done, wipe it from their history.’ He gestured to his collection of Gallifreyan texts. ‘But it was all in there, still intact, on Drornid.’
‘What was there?’ Romana felt an almost overwhelming impulse to fight her own curiosity, as if this was a question that should never be answered.
‘Can’t you work it out for yourself?’ asked Skagra.
‘The book of the law sentenced Salyavin,’ said Romana slowly, each word sounding a death knell deep in the back of her mind.
‘But what was his punishment?’ Skagra coaxed her.
‘Imprisonment?’ suggested Romana.
Skagra nodded. ‘Correct. In Shada, the ancient prison of the Time Lords!’
Romana shuddered. The words hit her like a physical attack. If this was true – and somehow she just knew it was – she could at last begin to guess at the ultimate nature of Skagra’s great scheme.
She pointed to the sphere. ‘The Universal Mind,’ she gasped.
Skagra nodded. ‘My mind.’