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By Root 406 0

was a quite beautiful place, thought the Doctor. Struggling to break free of a technological timewarp, Espero had kept a certain charm – although he doubted that all of its citizens felt the same. Calamee, for one, was surprisingly bitter about the decisions that had been made centuries before her birth, condemning her to a life without all the technological flim-flammery that most other Earth colonies of this era took for granted. He almost wished he could take her with him, give her a whistlestop tour of some of the other outposts of humanity, let her see that the grass wasn’t always greener. Always hungering for what they didn’t have, humans. Maybe that was why he liked them so much, why they’d spread themselves to the stars, established dynasties and empires, made the universe their home – the desire to have more, to have different. He understood the mindset that had motivated the original Esperons to do what they’d done –

how could he not? – but he had a sad sympathy for those who now had to live by the consequences of those actions. And it always came down to consequences, didn’t it?

The levicars, to the Doctor’s disappointment, had been less than impressive. Coppery-orange lozenges, designed in what he imagined was some sort of retro-style – with swept-back fins and tarnished chrome trimmings – they were surprisingly large, and one took the five of them without difficulty. With a wry grin, he remembered Sensimi saying that they were the Imperator’s pride and joy: he must have been something of a boy-racer in his youth. Nessus scuttled to the edge of the passenger well and peered out in wonder as the Doctor fired up the engine and the car shakily lifted from the ground. It wobbled uncertainty as he experimented with the controls, pitching the occupants around – much to the amusement of the parking attendant, who dashed off as soon as the rear gate had been opened. Clearly, Sensimi seem to have succeeded in getting the word out about the wave approaching the city, and the attendant was in something of a hurry to get back upstairs. As the car sped out into the road behind the Palace, Fitz pointed out that he could hardly feel the wind, despite the car’s being open-topped.

‘That’ll be the repulsor field,’ said the Doctor knowledgeably, slewing the car around a corner and throwing them all up against the side of the vehicle.

‘Hopefully, even if we can’t get high enough to clear the wave, it’ll give us a bit of added protection. Now hang on!’ He cracked a grin at them. ‘Let’s see what this baby can do!’

155

Chapter 18

‘You wanted to see my toys, did you?’

The streets were eerily quiet. A few stragglers ran for the shelter of their homes or other buildings where they could gain enough height to avoid the wave. The Doctor wondered how far from the city it was now, but realised that he didn’t have enough data points to make any kind of useful calculation.

The others in the levicar clung on for grim life – shrieking and (in Fitz’s case) whooping joyously as he took corners at much too great a speed. The standard altitude of the car was about four feet, but the Doctor had been able to push that to about twelve before the motors began to whine in protest and he’d had to drop back down. Nessus, like a dog, stuck his head over the side to take in the breeze.

Javill rather liked the Palace at night. He liked the vast expanses of empty corridor, the soft hush that fell over the place. He liked the way he could creep about without running into some member of staff or other every ten minutes. He liked the dim night lights that burned in the corridors, lending everything a deep-shadowed gloom. At night, he could almost believe that the Palace was his. Now, with this weird warning that everyone had to stay in their bedrooms because of some freak electrical storm, it seemed that the ground floor actually was. He’d checked with the weather bureau, just in case Mother had got it all wrong – but it seemed she was right: he had another hour or so before it would reach the city, though.

He didn’t know where Sensimi was. Mother