• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Beltempest stood up. ‘Beltempest, Montmorency,’ he snapped. ‘Provost-Major third class, nine oh one five five seven. And that’s all you’re getting.’

‘Sit down.’ The female Hith with the gun squelched forward. ‘I told you before: you’re unimportant.’

The Doctor put a hand on Beltempest’s arm. ‘I think it’s me they want,’

he said quietly, standing as Beltempest slumped back into his seat. ‘I am the Doctor,’ he announced to the elderly Hith. ‘You’ve gone to a lot of trouble to find me. I hope it’s worth your while.’

The female Hith guard sighed. ‘The arrogance of you humans appals us,’

she said. ‘Sit down, will you?’

173

The elderly Hith turned to Pryce. ‘Then you must be Professor Zebulon Pryce,’ it said.

He nodded slightly. ‘I am.’

‘I am Hater of Humans And Leader Of Hith. This unworthy one –’ It indicated the younger male Hith by its side, the one that stood beside the box.

‘– is my scapegoat, Hopeless Itinerant Taking The Blame. May we talk?’

As Beltempest and the Doctor gazed on, openmouthed, Pryce smiled. ‘Nothing would please me more,’ he said. Turning to the Doctor, he murmured, ‘I really should start charging for my time.’

‘Well?’ Bernice said, ‘what have you found?’

Powerless Friendless looked around the cupboard. It was getting a little tight, what with him, Bernice and the two Adjudicators. He wasn’t very good at reading human expressions, but the dark woman with the close-cropped grey hair didn’t look happy about being in close proximity with him Shame.

Her companion – the one who had been covered in golden hair the last time Powerless Friendless had seen him, assuming that wasn’t another spurious memory – was playing with Krohg: tickling him around the cilia while the little bastard rolled around as if he was enjoying it.

For a moment, after the dark-skinned Adjudicator had kicked the door of the cupboard in, he had thought he was finished. A feeling of relief had washed over him. No more struggle. No more pain.

And then he had seen Bernice’s face, heard her voice, and had known that the struggle was going on.

‘Well,’ he said, ‘let’s start with what I’ve remembered.’ He took a deep breath, trying to sort the memories out. At the moment it was rather as if somebody had dropped them all and scooped them up into a pile, like dead leaves. ‘I was a navigator, during the Great Patriotic War –’

‘He means the Hith Annexation during the Wars of Acquisition,’ Forrester murmured.

‘I know what I mean,’ he hissed angrily. ‘You took our planet and poisoned it so that we couldn’t live there any longer. You –’

‘You were a navigator,’ Bernice prompted.

‘Yes,’ he sighed, ‘I was a navigator. We had a ship – an experimental ship.

Two-Hith crew. We knew that we could devastate the Empire’s fleets with it. It was our last great defence against humanity.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘What we didn’t know was, our captain had sold out. We made a jump through hyperspace on our first flight and ended up in the wrong spot. The traitor must have fed the wrong coordinates into the navigation computer. We emerged surrounded by Landsknecht ships.’ He shivered. ‘The ship and I were taken to a planet named Purgatory. They started to disassemble the ship, and torture 174

me. They were going to torture him as well, just in case he had been holding back on them. Humans –’ He looked at the three warily. ‘– just can’t be trusted.

For some reason, we were both moved here to Earth. To this building. I don’t know why, but they brought the ship with us. The captain and I escaped with the control nexus for the ship. He managed to get off Earth while I hid out in the Undertown. I knew the people who had tortured me would still be searching. I had Dantalion make a new identity for me, and erase the memories of my old life. That way, I could never give myself away accidentally.

That way, I didn’t have to wake up screaming every night, remembering the way they sliced strips from my flesh.’ Powerless Friendless hung his eyestalks ashamedly. ‘I lost the nexus, of course.