Shada Read online

  ‘No way,’ said Chris. ‘They would probably have come and torched the place anyway.’ He frowned. ‘You know, before today I always thought Earth was a safe kind of a planet.’

  The Doctor raised his other eyebrow, as if Chris had said something incredibly stupid. ‘Anyway, not to worry,’ he said, getting to his feet. ‘Thanks to me, the ship is safe, and we’re on our way.’

  ‘I can’t accept that, Doctor,’ said the Ship. Her voice was tremulous, as if she was on the brink of bursting into tears. ‘My lord Skagra is infallible. If he wished me –’ She paused, gulped, and gathered herself. ‘If he wished me, his truest servant, to be – destroyed… Well then, I must have been destroyed.’

  ‘If that’s the way you want to see it,’ said the Doctor cautiously.

  ‘It’s the only way I can see it,’ said the Ship bravely. ‘You were already dead of course, Doctor. Now we all are.’

  ‘This is ridic—’ began Chris, but when he saw the Doctor’s hand raised as if to clamp over his mouth again he stopped.

  ‘I’ve exploded,’ said the Ship.

  The Doctor patted the open panel. ‘Of course you have, dear. There, there.’

  Chris looked grimly out of the forward screen and into the vortex. ‘Worrying, isn’t it?’

  ‘Which it in particular?’ asked the Doctor.

  ‘Well,’ said Chris, nodding upwards, ‘what else isn’t she telling us?’

  In the small generation chamber deep in the bowels of the ship, the newly formed Kraag stirred.

  One rocky claw clasped the edge of the tank and it hauled itself upright.

  Chapter 42

  KRAAG AFTER KRAAG after Kraag marched from the generation chamber into the observatory. Romana, her head bowed, stood beside Skagra, who was manipulating controls at the central console. The sphere sat on top of the cone, burbling to itself.

  ‘Now,’ said Skagra, ‘you shall see that though the Doctor is deceased, his mind lives within the sphere.’

  A holo-screen flickered into life above the console. Romana looked up despondently, and to her astonishment she saw herself. She was smiling brightly, leaning against the door of the TARDIS.

  ‘You see what was uppermost in his mind,’ said Skagra. ‘He was very –’ he searched for the word – ‘fond of you.’

  Romana looked around at the gathering Kraags. ‘That’s hardly important now,’ she said flatly. ‘You were right. I’ve no choice but to accept your dominion over me.’

  Skagra turned his head slowly to look at her. ‘I wonder if you are telling me the truth.’

  ‘What could I possibly hope to gain by lying to you?’ she asked. She looked up at the stars. ‘You spoke about entropy, the long dark nightmare at the end of the universe.’ She turned back to Skagra. ‘Have you really found a way to stop it?’

  ‘I have,’ said Skagra. ‘The ultimate answer. I will bring purpose and order. I will save the universe from itself, from chaos.’

  ‘I’m trying to understand you, I swear,’ said Romana. ‘But how can I begin to believe it if I don’t even know who you are?’

  Skagra relinquished his place at the controls. ‘You are familiar with the planet Drornid?’ he said stiffly.

  Romana nodded. ‘It was the scene of an incident in Gallifreyan history.’

  ‘An incident,’ said Skagra. He tilted his head to one side. ‘I admire your understatement. It is an excellent quality.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Romana. ‘Many thousands of years ago there was a schism in the College of Cardinals on Gallifrey. Cardinal Thorac fled to Drornid, declared himself President of the Time Lords, and established a rival court there.’

  ‘Where he became known as the Heresiarch of Drornid,’ Skagra continued. ‘Eventually Thorac returned to Gallifrey.’

  Romana nodded, thinking back to her history lessons. ‘The High Council forced him to return by simply ignoring him.’

  Skagra’s eyes narrowed. ‘And do you know what happened on Drornid, Time Lady, both during and after the reign of the Heresiarch?’

  Romana searched her memory. ‘There was no mention of that on my history syllabus at the Academy.’

  Skagra grunted, and his hands flew over the controls. The holo-screen shifted to show another image. ‘Then it is time for me to expand your learning. This was Drornid during the reign of the Heresiarch.’

  The holo-screen showed the wide vista of a city that nestled in a large valley. Towering over the buildings was an enormous statue of a hook-nosed man in the robes of a Time Lord President. ‘The Heresiarch controlled the planet from the statue. He set up a pacification beam from his court within, quelling any unrest or resistance from the native populace.’

  The image shifted again as Skagra manipulated more controls. Now Romana saw the crowded streets of the city from ground level, with the statue looming down from on high. The citizens of Drornid shambled happily along the streets, dumb smiles on their faces. ‘Drornid at this time was an advanced civilisation, late level nine, early level ten,’ continued Skagra. ‘But the day came, after several hundred years, when Thorac, as you say, left to return to Gallifrey.’

  The screen now showed an aerial view of the city. Tiny figures teemed through the streets. ‘The pacification ray was switched suddenly off,’ said Skagra. ‘The people of Drornid suffered a severe psychic feedback. The centuries of quiet subservience were over, and all the accumulated aggression and unrest spilled back into their minds. They tore their own planet apart.’

  Romana watched as the view changed back to the wide view of the city, now sparking with flames. Burnt-out buildings toppled, there were distant cries of anger and terror. Finally the great statue of Thorac itself was dragged over, smashing into the city below with a colossal crash.

  Romana put a hand to her mouth. ‘That’s terrible,’ she said. ‘I am so sorry for your people.’

  Skagra’s nostrils flared. ‘They are not my people, nor should you be sorry. This is merely historical background. It happened, as you say, thousands of years ago.’

  ‘So what does it have to do with you?’ asked Romana.

  Skagra adjusted the controls again. ‘When I was born, this is what Drornid had become,’ he said gravely.

  Romana turned her eyes back to the screen, expecting to see some hellish, blasted wilderness. Instead she saw lush, tropical beaches, and wide tree-lined boulevards through which people in shorts and sandals walked happily.

  ‘It looks quite nice,’ said Romana.

  ‘Nice?’ said Skagra. ‘This is the sick, degenerate, purposeless world I was born into. Drornid, the so-called top holiday destination of Galactic Quadrant 5. Primary export, beachwear. Primary import, ice cream. The Planet of Fun.’

  ‘It must have been awful for you,’ said Romana.

  Skagra searched her face. ‘Do you mock me?’

  ‘Of course not,’ said Romana.

  ‘Nobody was interested in the past,’ Skagra went on. ‘Nobody was interested in anything but their mindless, futile diversions. It was I who unlocked the secrets of the planet’s history. I who excavated the site of the great Statue of Thorac. I who discovered the abandoned papyri in the ruins and restored them.’

  The holo-screen switched again, to show a grainier image. Skagra, presumably accompanied by the remote video camera that had captured these pictures, was clambering over dusty rubble in a deep, dark cavern.

  With a mighty effort, he pushed aside a huge chunk of rock and revealed beneath an almost perfectly preserved lower chamber.

  Romana saw the Seal of Rassilon, the emblem of the Time Lords, carved into one wall. The chamber was filled with books and scrolls. It had obviously been the library during the reign of the Heresiarch. The image of the younger Skagra skipped forward almost eagerly down into the chamber.

  ‘So that’s how you know so much about the Time Lords,’ said Romana.

  Skagra nodded. ‘And from that information, I formed my plan. I made my preparations over long years. I established this as
teroid as my command station. I obtained the sphere. I had almost everything I needed.’

  ‘Except the book?’ prompted Romana.

  ‘Except the book,’ said Skagra.

  ‘How did you know that Chronotis had stolen it from Gallifrey?’ asked Romana. ‘Surely only he knew that.’

  ‘At first I intended to steal the book from the Panopticon Archives,’ said Skagra.

  Romana blanched. ‘Gallifrey is very well defended.’

  ‘I know that,’ said Skagra. ‘There is no conventional method to gain entry. So I chose an unconventional method.’

  He adjusted the controls and the image of a thin, hysterical-looking young woman in tattered red robes appeared on the holo-screen. Her face and hands were covered in henna tattoos, a mystical scrawl.

  ‘A visionary?’ Romana guessed.

  ‘One of the Sisters of Karn,’ said Skagra. ‘A powerful seer. I used the juice of the Lethe flower, an anti-telepath drug known as synaptrol, to drain her powers and steal her away. When she awoke she was my prisoner.’

  The image changed again, to show the young woman inside the zero prison of Skagra’s ship. ‘I ordered her to take me, undetected, into Gallifrey,’ said Skagra. ‘But she taunted me. Said I would not find the book there.’

  Romana took a deep breath. ‘What did you do to her?’

  Skagra nodded to the screen. ‘I withheld food and water until she told me where to find the book.’ The screen showed the young woman, writhing on the floor of the prison. The image was silent but Romana could see the visionary was railing up at Skagra, cursing him. ‘Of course,’ said Skagra, ‘she was protected from death by the elixir her sisterhood so jealously protect. But I am a very patient man. I waited for years until the pain became unbearable to her. Eventually she told me how Chronotis had stolen the book, how it was hidden in an obscure place called Cambridge. And then, I disposed of her.’

  ‘How?’ asked Romana.

  ‘It is not important,’ said Skagra.

  ‘How?’

  ‘I merely ejected her into space.’

  Romana shuddered. ‘I suppose you had no further use for her,’ she said steadily.

  ‘Correct,’ said Skagra. ‘I needed her only to find the book. And with the book I shall find Shada.’

  ‘What is Shada?’ asked Romana. ‘And what’s the book got to do with it?’

  ‘You really don’t know, do you?’ said Skagra, looking almost amused. ‘Another historical item that dropped off your syllabus.’ He turned back to the screen, touched the sphere, and the image reverted to the smiling face of Romana.

  ‘Somewhere in the Doctor’s mind, buried so deeply perhaps even he is unaware of it, is the secret,’ he went on. ‘I am convinced he knows the code.’

  ‘I wish I could help you,’ said Romana. ‘But I need to know more.’ She stood closer to Skagra and put an arm on his shoulder. ‘You have been so alone. Perhaps I can share in your great purpose.’

  Skagra flinched as she touched him. ‘I would like that to be so,’ he said eventually. ‘You are not the same as other people.’

  Romana touched him gently on the cheek. ‘I am like you.’ She held out her hand.

  Skagra’s gloved hand took it.

  Suddenly, with all of her considerable strength, Romana swung Skagra’s hand around until it hovered over a large button on the control console. From the corner of her eye she had seen it, and worked out that it was the entry-coder for a self-destruct sequence, undoubtedly keyed only to Skagra’s touch.

  She forced his hand down towards the button.

  Skagra fought back, wrenching his hand free. He took a step back and with a snarl, froth foaming at the corners of his lips, he smacked her across the face. ‘Duplicitous time-witch!’ he shouted.

  Several Kraags advanced. ‘Shall we destroy her, my lord?’ asked the Commander.

  ‘Yes!’ cried Skagra, wiping flecks of spittle from his mouth.

  Romana screwed up her eyes as the Kraags surrounded her, their arms outstretched – burning auras of heat formed at the tips of their claws…

  ‘No!’ shouted Skagra.

  The Kraags lowered their hands.

  Skagra shook himself, returning to his normal self. ‘She may still be of use. Guard her well.’ He turned back to the controls. ‘I must find the code,’ he said. ‘I will find the code.’

  Chapter 43

  THE GRINDING ENGINE noise made by a TARDIS was now almost familiar and reassuring to Chris. He stared out of the forward screen as the swirling patterns of what the Doctor had described as the space-time vortex dissolved back into a vision of the endless stars.

  The ship was slowing to a halt alongside a huge, dark multi-decked structure, roughly circular in shape. The detail of the hull of the space station, if that was what it was, was picked out as it revolved slowly in the light of a nearby red sun. It looked shabby and deserted.

  ‘Commencing docking procedure,’ said the Ship. ‘Though I don’t know quite why, as we’re all dead anyway. Though I suppose I was technically never alive. Hey-ho.’

  Chris felt the ship turn around, presumably to align itself with a docking port on the side of the space station.

  ‘Well, wherever it is, we’re here,’ said the Doctor.

  ‘While Skagra is presumably going in the opposite direction,’ said Chris.

  ‘Worrying, isn’t it?’ said the Doctor. ‘But it’s the only thing we can do.’

  ‘Haven’t you any idea what he’s after?’

  ‘Shada,’ said the Doctor, looking out at the stars as the ship continued its manoeuvres. ‘It would definitely help if we knew who Shada was.’

  ‘Who, or what,’ said Chris.

  The Doctor ruffled his fingers through his mop of curly hair. ‘Shada… Shada… there’s something at the back of my mind…’ He held up a finger. ‘Wait a moment. Shada! Isn’t she a singer?’

  K-9 burbled. ‘Suggest the master is confusing Shada with Sade.’

  The Doctor’s face fell. ‘Oh yes,’ he said. ‘Never mind.’

  ‘I’ve never heard of her,’ said Chris. ‘Not that that counts for much.’

  ‘She is an Earth singer from your future, young master,’ said K-9 helpfully.

  ‘Well, that’s all right then,’ said Chris. ‘That means everything’s all right.’

  The Doctor glared at him. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘Well,’ said Chris, ‘if there’s a future, we know, don’t we?’

  ‘We know what?’

  ‘That everything’s going to be all right.’ Chris rubbed his hands excitedly. ‘Whatever happens to us, at least the Earth and the universe are safe. If there’s a future, where people can sing and be famous.’

  The Doctor looked sadly across at him. ‘I wish it worked like that.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Chris. ‘You mean it doesn’t?’

  ‘No,’ said the Doctor. ‘Anyway, never mind about the future. Whatever Skagra’s up to we have to stop him. Mind control is the most terrible thing. Any physical threat you can fight, but once someone has control of your mind you’ve lost everything.’

  He stopped, as if surprised by his own words. ‘That’s very odd.’

  ‘What is?’ asked Chris.

  ‘Why did I say that? It’s as if my subconscious mind was trying to push something up to the surface.’ He blinked. ‘Now it’s gone.’

  ‘Don’t think about it,’ Chris advised him. ‘Then maybe it’ll come back to you.’

  ‘I should know the answer!’ said the Doctor loudly in one of his sudden explosions. He tapped his head. ‘Perhaps, somewhere in the back of my mind, I do know the answer…’

  The ship rumbled along the side of the hull.

  A hidden doorway in the long corridor outside the command deck swung smoothly open.

  The Kraag emerged.

  It heard voices from the command deck.

  ‘It’s about time I worked out the answer!’ one of the voices was saying.

  It turned
and trod slowly and heavily towards the source of the voices.

  Chapter 44

  ROMANA STOOD ENCIRCLED by her Kraag guardians. Skagra was at the control console, accessing the Doctor’s mind. The holo-screen showed rapidly flickering images of the book and recent events. She saw herself, Chris, K-9, the Professor, a young woman who must have been Chris’s friend Clare.

  Romana rubbed her cheek. It was still tender from Skagra’s attack. She looked sadly at the screen, and saw herself and the Professor sipping tea in his warm, comfortable study. It seemed inconceivable that that had been only a few hours ago. Now the Professor, and possibly the Doctor too, were dead.

  ‘Concentrate,’ said Skagra, his hand on the sphere. ‘Your great minds can discover the answer. Let your minds be guided. Concentrate.’

  The holo-screen fixed on an image of the open book as the Doctor flicked through it.

  ‘What’s so important about the book anyway?’ asked Romana.

  Skagra shot her an impassive glance. ‘It is The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey. What does a Gallifreyan judge say when passing sentence?’

  Romana thought. ‘“We but administer. You are imprisoned not by this Court but by the power of the Law.”’

  Skagra reached inside his tunic and held up the book in his white-gloved hands. ‘That used to be quite literally true.’

  Romana frowned. She was trying to formulate a response when the sphere burbled and Skagra’s interest returned to the screen. The image had frozen on the open pages of the book, and a single word was flashing at the bottom of the picture again and again:

  INSOLUBLE.

  INSOLUBLE.

  INSOLUBLE.

  Skagra thumped his fist on the console. ‘No!’ he cried. ‘The code is insoluble!’

  He stepped back from the console, looking shattered and drained. Sweat poured from his forehead. ‘My plan cannot proceed,’ he said at last, seemingly suddenly like a lost little boy.

  ‘I’m glad you realise it,’ said Romana. ‘It’s about time.’

  Skagra turned on her. ‘You are a Time Lord,’ he said, a cunning glint coming into his eye. ‘Somewhere in your mind you know the answer. I shall not use the sphere this time. I shall dissect your living consciousness, pluck it apart. Cell by cell—’