Doctor Who_ Halflife - Mark Michalowski [23]
‘We have no history here,’ Javill said flatly. ‘Or didn’t your research tell you that?’
‘Everyone has history, Your Highness. Just because it doesn’t go back to the dawn of time doesn’t invalidate it. Your father is very. . . brave. . . ’
Javill turned.
‘Brave?’
‘When the leaders of Espero’s other nations make such a play of looking to the future, the Imperator must be applauded for his determination to celebrate the past, wouldn’t you say?’
Trove was staring at him, one eyebrow raised fractionally, a hint of a smile on his full lips. What was he saying?
‘Father has always had a thing about the past. There are many Saiarossans who think that it’s unhealthy. The whole of Esperon culture, the origins of the colony, were based on making a new start – building a new future out here among the stars, not repeating the mistakes of the past. Some would say that he’s foolish, not brave.’
‘And what would you say, Your Highness?’ Trove gestured towards the pantomime in the courtyard. ‘Do you venerate the past? Or do you see Espero’s destiny, as you put it, out among the stars?’
This stranger was sailing very close to the wind, Javill thought, his interest piqued. He’d hardly been here two minutes, and already he was questioning Father’s beliefs.
‘Espero is the poor cousin,’ he answered. ‘We have been abandoned by the other colonies, left to our own devices. Every month brings news of the advance of other worlds – new technologies, new beliefs, new alliances formed.
The Catholic heritage on which we were founded has become a liability.’ Javill paused and looked Trove in the eye. ‘Father will not live forever. And his successor, believe me, will have very different ideas.’
Trove nodded thoughtfully.
‘I’m pleased that Your Highness thinks as I do,’ he said, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a tiny, glittering sphere, the size of a tangerine, and carelessly tossed it over the balcony. Javill’s gaze darted to follow it: it fell a few yards and then exploded in brilliant, polychromatic light, like a burst rainbow. Hovering above the heads of the people below, it shot out shafts of light of all hues, and the crowd fell silent, their eyes raised heavenwards in amazement. For a minute, the sphere rotated, and the people in the courtyard began oohing and ahhing at the spectacle. Even Javill was impressed.
41
And then Trove clicked his fingers and the sphere fell dark and returned to his hand and thence to his pocket.
‘Very impressive,’ Javill said.
‘A toy,’ replied Trove dismissively. ‘It is nothing that you couldn’t have access to, Your Highness.’
Did Trove mean the Esperons, or him personally? As far as Trove was concerned, it probably was nothing more than a toy. And as a demonstration of offworld technology, it was hardly cutting-edge. But Javill couldn’t deny that it had him hooked.
‘And at what price?’
Trove smiled and straightened up.
‘Things are only worth what people will pay for them,’ he answered cryptically. ‘Maybe we’ll speak about it later. If you’ll excuse me, Your Highness, I have a few things to attend to.’
Trove started to walk away, but Javill stopped him gently.
‘Why are you here, Mr Trove?’
‘A treasure hunt, Your Highness.’ He moved to go, and then paused and removed the rainbow device from his pocket. He pressed it into Javill’s hand.
‘And believe me – I intend to be the winner.’
Javill watched him leave, turning the sphere over and over in his fingers.
The oasis, as Trix thought of it – despite the fact that it was little more than a copse of trees and bushes set in a shallow hollow in the woodland – was eerily quiet. The first stars were glimmering and twinkling as they watched her and Fitz blundering about. They’d brought torches from the TARDIS, but Trix couldn’t help but think they were being dangerously naive to think that they could find the Doctor in the dark without coming across whatever it was that had attacked Fitz. She stopped as she felt something hard crunch and crack under her foot. It was the Doctor’s tracking device. She raised it