Doctor Who_ The Infinity Doctors - Lance Parkin [21]
I’ll stop now, send the fleets home. It took a year of negotiation and TARDIS diplomacy just to agree which fleet would appear over which pole of Pazithi. But I’ll abandon it all. I’ll do it if my fellow Time Lords agree that is the best course of action. Speak now, or hold your peace. If we proceed, we’ll proceed to the bitter end, whatever the cost, whatever the consequence.’
‘Well, I for one object,’ Voran said after a pause. ‘This is nonsensical. This mere Doctor is a halfwit if he thinks he can change anything.’
‘He is a Time Lord,’ the Magistrate warned. ‘A member of the Supreme Council.’
‘He barely scraped his PhD, as I recall. Not one college wanted him for post-doctoral work. Yet he wears that badge of academic failure as his name. Do you really feel the need to parade your ignorance, Doctor?’
The Doctor smiled. ‘No. But nor do I need to quantify it, Senior Lecturer Professor-nine‐times-over Voran.’
Pendrel clapped his hands together. ‘This Doctor has my vote!’ he squeaked. The look that Voran flashed him stopped him dead.
‘During the course of the war, how many have died?’
another Councillor asked.
‘We could ask the Matrix to compute the death toll,’ the Co-ordinator informed them. ‘An immense task, even for us. I estimate it would take a day or so to get the precise casualty figure.’
‘And would it bring back a single one of the dead?’ the Doctor asked.
‘You know that it would not.’
‘Then we don’t need to count them. Let us change the future.’
A number of Time Lords murmured their assent.
The President turned to him. ‘You really think that we can end this war?’
‘Yes.’
‘These races have nothing in common.’
‘Wrong. Wrong. There’s a rule of combat that not even the Time Lords have forgotten. Know your enemy. The strategists and scientists on both sides have come to understand each other. At the moment they only use this knowledge to kill, but it is a common bond. It is a place we can start to look for solutions.’
The President laughed. ‘Only you could see an opportunity amongst such total war, old friend. Very well.’ He turned to the assembled Time Lords.
‘Do any of you have a reason or the courage to object?’
None spoke.
The President raised his hand. ‘Then in the name of Rassilon and Omega: proceed.’
Chapter Three
The Enemy Within
Larna still wasn’t used to having a maidservant, and was surprised every time she returned to her chambers to find her there, in the middle of some domestic task.
Vrayto was an old woman, quiet and wizened. They had known each other only for a matter of weeks, and neither was yet comfortable with the other. Vrayto had been in service for a long time, and knew better than anyone how to remove the ceremonial collarpiece, placing it to one side so that she could help her mistress out of her robes. Larna didn’t even need to unbraid her hair, untie her shirt, pull down her petticoats or unbutton her breeches, that was done for her as well. She drew the line at the undergarment, removing it herself behind the shower screen and handing it over.
Through the crack in the panels, Larna could see Vrayto standing patiently with the robes over her arm.
‘Thank you,’ Larna said, ‘you may go now.’
Vrayto’s head was bowed a little as she left the washroom, the maid was apparently embarrassed by something. Larna wondered what she had done to offend her this time.
Perhaps there had been an arcane breach of etiquette. Was it not the done thing to thank your servant?
Vrayto would be stowing the robes away in their locker, ready for the next ceremony. That would be next week: the Feast of Rassilon the Lamp. The robes were millennia-old, and although they had been altered for her, they had originally been tailored for a man. It was the same with all the ritual garments. There were only a handful of female Time Lords, and the petty considerations of the flesh were felt to be unimportant. No concessions were made for her. It was one of the paradoxes of society here within the Citadel.
Everyone knew that women were the equal of men – such