Doctor Who_ Space War - Malcolm Hulke [5]
The Prince neither spoke nor looked at the General.
The President, to relieve the tension, asked General Williams if a rescue attempt had been set in train.
‘Unfortunately,’ replied the General, ‘I cannot answer that, Madam President. This note has only just been handed to me.’
‘Then I suggest you look into that matter right away,’ she said.
The General realised he was being sent from the room. ‘As you wish, Madam President.’ He inclined his head again to the silent Draconian Prince and left the vast white room.
The Prince waited until General Williams was out of earshot. ‘Your General is insolent, Madam. We know the hatred he has always felt for our people. Long ago he caused a war. Now he wishes to do so again.’
The President felt freer to speak her real thoughts without the General being present. ‘He is a soldier, Your Highness, and he is angry. The people of Earth are angry.’
‘So are the nobles of my father’s Royal Court,’ countered the Prince. ‘Anger and indignation are not the exclusive prerogative of the Earthmen.’
She let that pass. ‘I want you to take my personal appeal to your father the Emperor. He must order an end to these attacks. If Draconia has some grievance against Earth, this is not the way to deal with it.’
Again the Prince threw back his head, his snout jutting forward. ‘Many of our noblemen felt it was a mistake to make a treaty with Earth! Perhaps they were right. You attack our ships. When we protest you try to trick us with lies and evasions. Madam, I give you a final warning. The path you are treading leads only to war. And in war Draconia will destroy you!’
Having issued his threat, the Prince bowed stiffly and mumbled the meaningless diplomatic farewell of the twenty-sixth century. ‘May you live a long life and may energy shine on you from a million suns.’
The President rose and started to reply. ‘And may water, oxygen and plutonium be found in abundance—’ But the Prince had already turned his back on her and was walking out of the great room.
Slowly, thoughtfully, the President sat down. Though she had denied the Draconians’ allegations, it was hard to believe that such a proud people would have fabricated these claims that Earthmen were attacking their spaceships. She started to think about General Williams and wondered how much he really knew. The mass of the Earth’s people had elected her as President because she stood for peace and compromise. In the great political debate before the last presidential election, General Williams had made it known that he favoured an aggressive inter-stellar policy. After the election results were declared, the President was quick to invite General Williams to be her military aide, to heal political wounds and show there were no hard feelings. She also hoped that by having Williams working for her he would not set himself to work against her peace policy. Yet was he now secretly engineering these attacks on Draconian spaceships in order to bring Earth’s people to a war-like frame of mind?
She wished she knew the answer. Without thinking she opened the old-fashioned silver locket that hung from her simple necklace. The tiny photograph of General Williams, then a mere lieutenant and only twenty years old, looked up at her. She wondered if he, too, remembered back to when they were both young.
Hardy repeatedly prodded the Doctor in the back with the snout of his blaster gun as they went down the spaceship corridor.
‘You don’t have to keep doing that,’ complained the Doctor. ‘We’re going quietly.’
Hardy said, ‘I only have to squeeze this trigger and you’ll be a dead Dragon, so shut your snout.’
‘My snout!’ exclaimed the Doctor, aware that he was rather good looking. ‘I don’t have a snout—’
‘Stop here,’ Hardy ordered.
The trio stopped by a metal door. A grille with bars was set high in the door. ‘Pull that open,’ said Hardy. The Doctor gripped the grille and pulled the door towards him. It led into a very small compartment.
‘Now get in there.’
The Doctor stepped