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The Service became concerned. Still believing Sabbath to have been the root cause of all the trouble, they started speculating that the whole thing was an attack on King and Country. They hardly would have been reassured if they’d known that Sabbath considered King and Country to be gloriously irrelevant

No reliable account of the Doctor’s first conversation with Sabbath exists, but what follows is an approximation. It’s been assembled from Rebecca’s tales, from the Doctor’s own recollections (as they’re recorded), and from things known about Sabbath. Rebecca related that during the encounter, the Doctor constantly paced the hall, making the decks ring out as he examined the icons and the alcoves and Sabbath regarded him with cool interest. Rebecca herself remained silent.

DOCTOR: I can’t say I think much of your crew, by the way. It must be hard finding the staff.

SABBATH: Finding staff isn’t difficult. Finding staff who are capable of discretion, however…

DOCTOR: Hmm. You trained them yourself?

SABBATH: By proxy. The process isn’t reliable.

DOCTOR: Yes. But you’re not the one responsible, are you?

SABBATH: ‘Responsible’?

DOCTOR: You’re not the one causing the attacks. Scarlette thinks you are, but she’s, ah… not unbiased.

SABBATH: I should imagine. Might I ask how she is?

DOCTOR: She sends her love.

SABBATH: I’m sure. Well now. You seem convinced of my innocence. I’m gratified.

DOCTOR: You’re riding the wave. For some reason, the ape elementals are being summoned to Earth. Or at least, they’re just bubbling under the surface. You think you can control them. You’ve been calling them deliberately, then binding them. But you’re not really in control at all. You’re just trying to turn the situation to your advantage.

SABBATH: That’s something of a narrow perspective. But I’m the host here, it’d be bad manners for me to argue.

DOCTOR: You can’t control all of them. There must be thousands waiting out there.

SABBATH: Millions, I should think.

DOCTOR [some of the conversation may have been lost here]: But it strikes me we’ve got very similar aims. I don’t want to see the babewyns overrun the Earth. I don’t know what your agenda is, but I’m fairly sure you don’t either.

SABBATH: I see. Why do I feel, Doctor, that you’re about to suggest an alliance?

DOCTOR: There are more important things to think about than your private army. If we’re going to achieve anything, we’re going to have to find out the truth. We need to work out who’s really responsible for all this. Who’s letting the apes come into the world.

SABBATH: Really? I would have thought that was perfectly obvious.

DOCTOR [presumably surprised]: You know?

SABBATH: Of course I know. It’s not difficult to work out.

DOCTOR: Who, then? Who’s behind all this?

SABBATH: You are. Why do you think I invited you here?

What happened next is obscure. The Doctor apparently reacted badly to this, and began arguing with Sabbath in a flustered manner, but all Rebecca could later remember was that the two men spent some time discussing (or arguing about) technical matters. They may have talked about the contours on the peculiar map, though whether Sabbath fully explained his strange accusation against the Doctor is unknown. What’s known is that after a while the Doctor fell into an uneasy silence, and ceased pacing the bridge-room.

This is when he reached into his jacket pocket, took out a bright red envelope, and handed it to Sabbath.

That the Doctor invited Sabbath to the wedding ceremony is remarkable in itself. It was the envelope marked out for the Mayakai: with the race almost extinct, the Doctor may have seen Sabbath as the last guardian of the Mayakai’s heritage. Or maybe he felt that as one of only two Mayakai known to survive was in Sabbath’s employ, the invitation might as well have gone to Sabbath as to anyone. By this time Tula Lui had already embarked on her mission of revenge against the Service, and if the Doctor had known of its bloody consequences