Doctor Who_ The Infinity Doctors - Lance Parkin [109]
The most important thing was to rescue Omega, and to do that, Gallifrey would have to find a way to re-establish the link with the future and then to defeat the inhabitants of the Needle. Restoring contact with the Station was simply a technical matter, and the science teams were confident that they would succeed by nightfall.
A way to get past the defences of the Needle existed, the Castellan was sure of that, but it was a matter of finding that way. The Time Lords had fought wars before, and a number of times those wars had been waged and won against opponents a great deal more powerful than themselves. But this was the first time since Marnal’s day that such a show of force had proved necessary, and the key to victory had always been preparation. The Time Lords had always been careful to collect intelligence reports. They’d never allowed themselves to fight without knowing their enemy. That had been Marnal’s Error.
However, there weren’t many enemies who could survive being hit by a blackstar, and there were plenty of other tricks up Gallifrey’s sleeve.
The Castellan only hoped that the Doctor hadn’t doomed the Time Lords to extinction. With the timegate closed, there was no way of knowing what was happening in the far future.
The Station’s batteries must surely have run down by now.
The Magistrate was a resourceful man, and would have found a way to preserve his crew, the Castellan sure of that.
But they would be defenceless out there on their own. With a full day to prepare and the Effect at their control, whoever was on the surface of the Needle would have the Station at their mercy. If that was the case, they could locate the Station’s planet of origin, and launch a attack of their own, hours before the blackstar could be launched.
The man who had stabbed the President, Lord Savar, was in custody but was saying nothing sane, merely his usual rants and raves.
The source of all Gallifrey’s problems, the Doctor, had vanished, leaving behind an almost-full city Morgue. A Technician called Waym. A pair of minor noblemen working in the power rooms and the Lady Larna. The Technician had been the member of a powerful eastern family. His Senior Cousin had come over from Olyesti by rail, arriving in full mourning dress with her retinue of servants and robots. The Castellan had met her at the terminus and gone to the morgue with her, seen them all lying there, ceremonial clothes draped over the faces of the three Time Lords.
Waym’s face was uncovered, as befitted his status, His Senior Cousin conducted a short ritual and then her assistants had placed the corpse in an iron coffin. They would take the body home and bury it, which was the custom in the east. Out of respect, the Castellan had got someone from his office to arrange all the necessary permits in advance. The Cousin had perhaps spoken a dozen words in the whole hour she had been in the Capitol.
The three Time Lords were being matriculated now, their mind being processed so that they would join the vast collective consciousness of the Matrix. When Larna’s mind emerged from the datascape, perhaps it would prove possible to solve the mystery of the Doctor’s disappearance.
Constable Sapro’s report into the affair was sitting on Voran’s desk half-read. The Doctor had left the Temporal Monitoring room with the Lady Larna during the investiture. He had deactivated the timegate and sabotaged the power links.
Larna had been stabbed, presumably because she had refused to co-operate with his plan. The Watchmen had broken down the door, but the Doctor had gone. Sapro offered no explanation as to where he might have gone. His men were continuing their search of the catacombs, ventilation ducts and sewers.
Voran’s secretary, Pendrel, came bustling through the door.
‘Couldn’t you knock?’ the Castellan asked irately, holding up the sheaves of Sapro’s report.
‘Apologies, Acting-President. It’s rather urgent, sir.’
‘Have you noticed,