The Ghosts of N-Space - Barry Letts [103]
The Doctor reached out for the switch; but dropped his hand again.
‘Quite right, Doctor,’ boomed Maximilian. ‘Once more you are too late.’
He lifted his hand, his only hand, and pointed it at the Doctor.
‘Goodbye,’ he said.
359
Twenty-Eight
‘Stop!’ cried the Doctor. ‘I can help you!’
Maximilian did not move. ‘Help me? You who have done your best throughout the centuries to destroy me? Why should you help me now?’
Behind him, the chattering, snarling, howling cacophony coming from the mass of N-Forms died away almost as if they were listening, or maybe waiting for orders.
‘You have felt my power,’ replied the Doctor. ‘But you have defeated me. You have proved that you are the mightiest of the mighty; you are the liege lord of the world.
Would you have only serfs to rule?’
Maximilian lowered his arm.
‘Continue,’ he said.
‘You asked me once to tell you who I am. I tell you now, I am the only one living on this paltry planet who knows the secrets of the Universe. I have visited many of the inhabited worlds across the Galaxy.’
‘So?’
‘Make me your consigliere, Lord.’
A frown, an expression of doubt almost, crossed the great face as if King Maximilian found it difficult to accept 360
the reminder that he had so recently been Max Vilmio of the Mafia.
‘What’s he doing?’ hissed Jeremy. ‘He’s not really changing sides, is he?’
‘Don’t be silly,’ whispered Sarah.
‘Quiet, both of you!’ said the Brigadier through his teeth.
‘Why should I give you my confidence?’
‘You are powerful, Majesty. There is nobody to challenge your might on the puny world of Earth. But in the Galaxy –’
He’s done it again, thought the Brigadier. He s trying to make him feel small!
Maximilian was angry. ‘I am the Emperor!’ he said. ‘I am the Lord of All!’
The Doctor shook his head regretfully. ‘Just as the Godfathers share amongst the Families the territory they control, the Lords of the Galaxy have parcelled out the worlds they rule. I’m afraid that you’ll have to come to terms with it – and with them. I can –’
Again the giant man interrupted. ‘Never! The Supreme Being of this great Earth shall never bend his knee to another. Are they invulnerable, these so-called lords?’
‘This is why you need me by your side, Master. You need my knowledge and my advice.’
361
Maximilian smiled contemptuously. ‘Advise me then, Doctor.’ The word sounded like an insult. ‘Why should Maximilian not become the Emperor of the Galaxy, of the Universe?’
Only the Brigadier, who knew him so well, could have recognized the flicker of satisfaction in the Doctor’s eyes.
‘You do not have the power.’
‘What!’
‘Just now, you could have killed me with one blast from your finger. I tell you, there are those beyond the skies who could incinerate the Earth with a look.’
For a moment it seemed that Maximilian was nonplussed. But then his face cleared.
‘If you wish to see my power, look around you. You tell me I need more?’
With an imperious gesture he summoned the nearest of the N-Forms, a savage creature with the hide of an alligator but having the body and the teeth of a jaguar. It crawled up to Maximilian crouched low on its belly snarling and spitting.
‘Come,’ he said.
With a hair-raising roar, the creature leapt upon him.
But instead of knocking him to the ground, or burying its fangs in his unprotected throat, it melted into his body and was gone.
362
‘You see?’ he said to the Doctor and beckoned to another of the fiends.
‘No, Lord!’ said the Doctor, anxiously. ‘You don know what you are doing!’
‘Do I not, little man?’ said Maximilian as the amoeba-like jelly swarmed up his leg to vanish as the other N-Form had.
He turned to the waiting multitudes of fiends and lifted his arm. ‘Come, good sirs. Your Lord awaits you. Why do you tarry?’
At his words, they started to swarm forward. He turned back to the Doctor, his face full of arrogance.
‘Have the Kings of the Galaxy such power as this?’ he cried.
At first the N-Forms melted into his body one by one, but soon, as they neared Maximilian, they were melding with