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The Trial
of a Time Lord
by Philip Martin
Part Seven
A party consisting first of a guard, then the Doctor and Peri, and then
a rear guard pass by a corridor junction. Around the corner are Dorf and
King Yrcanos. They watch the passing party, and Dorf recognizes the Doctor.
He asks if they will attack, and Yrcanos tells them, "Of course. That dreg
helping the Mentors _is_my_enemy!"
The first of the party of guards stops before the cell door and bends down
to input a security code on the door.
Peri looks at the Doctor and asks what has happened to him.
"Why do you hate me so?"
"I must do what I think it best," answers the Doctor with a hint of assurance
in his voice.
"I used to think that you were different," says Peri, trying to hold back
angry sobs, "that you cared for justice and truth and good. I can't bear
to look at what you are now!"
Suddenly the rear guard is attacked by the enormous frame of King Yrcanos,
shouting "Sohraantaap!" The first guard and then his fellow is attacked
and both are felled.
Yrcanos bends down and picks up one of the guard's CD phasers. He points
it straight at the Doctor and makes it clear what he's about to do. . .
"Now, Doctor. . . It is your turn to die!!!"
The Doctor's look of fear flickers from a strobe of blue light from the ceiling.
Suddenly Peri screams, "No!" and leaps out to strike at Yrcanos' arms. His
planned shot never fires as his aim has been spoiled, and the Doctor runs
away and around a corner.
Yrcanos is furious, and asks his "Lady" why she did that as because of what
she's done, that vermin still lives. To drive the point home, he lifts her
bodily into the air.
Peri can only answer that she couldn't help it as the Doctor never used to
be like that.
Yrcanos puts Peri down in frustration and then sets off the way the Doctor
went with Dorf and Peri following, though Peri stands and waits a moment
in confusion at events.
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"I suggest that you always were _just_like_that_," says the Valeyard,
stopping the evidence replay. He goes on to accuse the Doctor of being
a coward, turncoat, and toady. "You were afraid that Crozier wanted to
transplant the brain of the alien Kiv into your head. You said as much
yourself." He is referring to the interrogation scene to which the Doctor
objected to earlier, saying that the scene didn't happen the way they'd
seen it.
The Doctor returns to his earlier statement that all they're watching is
a ploy he was using to fool the Mentors, but he is clearly now very
uncertain of what he says. He is certain, however, that he would never
want to harm Peri, and he appears very shaken at having seen himself
behaving in this way towards her.
The Valeyard scoffs at this and reminds the Doctor that he has no clear
memory of events on Thoros Beta.
The Doctor somewhat lamely says that he can now recall some of it and that
bits of it were beginning to bob back into his mind.
The Valeyard seems to almost laugh as he asks the Doctor, "Oh really? And
does any of your sudden and convenient recall agree with anything that the
Court has already seen?"
The Doctor says no. Then he says yes, but that the emphasis ia all wrong.
The Valeyard asks him what that means, and the Doctor answers that the
events did take place, but they weren't quite as they've seen them here
in the Court.
The Inquisitor looks at the Doctor with a sort of professional pity and
suggests to him that his current mental state is making his own defence
difficult, and she suggests an adjournment.
The Doctor immediately tells her he doesn't want such a thing, and that
he refutes any implication that he is balmy.
The Inquisitor has to ask what balmy means, and the Valeyard again, as he
did once before, demonstrates his conversance with Earth slang when he
translates it for her.
The Inquisitor thanks him, and turns back to the Doctor and tells him she
is not suggesting his sanity is at fault but rather that is his memory
that is not connecting.
The Doctor replies that he would like the Trial to go on nevertheless.
The Inquisitor also suggests to him again that he change his mind about
getting a Court Defender to represent him as a trained legal mind would
offer a more constructive and less emotional presentation of his case.
"If the Time Lords of Gallifrey want my head," answers the Doctor, "You
don't think I'd entrust my defence to one of their _august_ number, do you?"
The Inquisitor notes this and has the Valeyard resume the evidence.
As all turn to face the Matrix screen once again, the picture resolves to
show the Doctor walking down one of the Thoros Betan cavelike corridors.
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Prosecution Interface Two "Mindwarp"
Continued
The Doctor stops at a corner in the corridor before a uniformed guard who
immediately points his CD phaser at his face. The Doctor looks at him with
a cheerful face and tells him that he's become lost and needs directions
to Crozier's laboratory. The guard shakes his phaser in the direction of
the correct direction, and the Doctor thanks him.
The Doctor sets off down the corridor casually but swiftly, and the guard
follows him at a march with the phaser drawn all the time.
Crozier's cave-carved lab has a new patient. Two bearers carry in an
inanimate Mentor body that looks much the same as Kiv except that it is
of a pale yellow color and seems to have a longer tail ending in a
bud-like protrusion.
Kiv looks over from the bed he is seated on and asks if this is to become
his new body. (Also in attendance are Sil on a bearer couch, Crozier,
and Matrona Kani. Crozier and Matrona are now wearing red-colored
surgical gowns and gloves)
Crozier tells him that the coast guards found this body adrift off the
Islets of Brak, and that he appears to be of the same branch of mutation
as Kiv and he is even almost certainly from Kiv's home mire.
Kiv agrees and says he looks like a younger version of himself.
Sil pipes up that he doesn't look quite as handsome. Kiv tells him to keep
quiet.
Crozier does point out that the features are slightly different, but there
is one small addition. He bends over to look at the end of the body's
tail and pulls it to where Kiv can see the tip better. He explains that
this Mentor has retained his primeval sting, and that the tip contains
venom enough to kill.
Kiv seems to like this, suggesting that he could perhaps sting all his
assistants to death.
Sil looks extremely nervous at this and squirms a little in his seat. He
tries changing the subject, and he asks Crozier if the new skull will be
big enough.
Crozier says that the volume is only a little larger than that of Kiv's
own, but this operation will give them time to seek a more permanant host.
At this point the Doctor strides in happily, though still with the guard
following him. Sil is saying that they have to make certain they make
every effort to find the correct head on the correct body.
Crozier looks up at the Doctor and says he has someone in mind, and then
tells the Doctor he's come to lend a hand in the operation.
The Doctor looks around cheerily and answers that he's come to swab the
odd scalpel and mop a brow or two.
Crozier unconsciously rhymes and asks the Doctor to monitor the BTU.
The Doctor looks extremely pleased to have such a job and calls it bliss.
Kiv tells them to begin.
Crozier crosses around to Kiv's side and begins to slowly inject a clear
syrum into Kiv's arm. Kiv begins to lose consciousness as he reminds
everyone that if the transfer doesn't work, his bearers have orders to
liquefy all who fail to save his life.
Kiv is asleep, and Crozier crosses to his back, near the BTU machine.
He has Matrona Kani check the IV drip, and she replies that it is active.
Crozier puts a surgical filtration mask over his mouth and nose and
calls for a laser scalpel.
One of his eyes grows slightly larger than the other as he makes the first
incision.
"All these tunnels look the same to me," says Peri for the only-the-Great-Morgo-
knows-how-many time.
King Yrcanos is leading the way down a more natural-looking cave. He
stops and adjusts his headress' position on his head. Peri asks him
crankily where precisely it is that they are going.
Yrcanos explains that as with all corrupt dictatorships, there must be
pockets of resistance plotting to overthrow the evil of Kiv and the other
Mentors.
Peri asks how this helps them, and he answers that his belief is that all
they are awaiting is a great leader. "I am he," he says without reservation.
Peri asks if these resistance fighters know that, and Yrcanos quite
confidently says that they will soon learn.
Dorf agrees with his King, telling Peri in his raspy slobber of a voice that
he is right.
Peri asks how they're going to find these people, and Yrcanos suddenly
closes his eyes and stands as though praying or listening to a spirit,
and he quietly and confidently says that they will find them.
"Grom Grom Sabaloonah," intones the King, who then whistles again with a
long, low note. He smiles as though he can see them coming and says
their footsteps are guided towards them, and that this is their destiny
and his.
"Destiny," scoffs Peri. "Isn't that just a fancy name for blind chance?"
Yrcanos opens his eyes in disbelief and looks at Peri like he's heard
blasphemy. "Blind chance?!! Destiny?!?! If that were true then our
lives, my Majesty, would be meaningless!!!"
Peri tells him its just a point-of-view, and Yrcanos insists that her
thought was an empty one, as they all live for a purpose, and for him,
it is to die a hero.
Peri asks him to stop going on like that as she's starting to thin he means
it.
"I DOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" shouts Yrcanos.
Peri calms him down with some "alright"s" and then asks him if they can
rest first and then march.
Yrcanos puffs a little as he's still worked up. "There's a good War Lord,
huh?" asks Peri.
Yrcanos frowns at her reluctantly and says, "Agreed, but only for a moment."
The three of them sit down at the base of the tunnel wall, with Peri
in between Dorf and Yrcanos. Dorf starts to whimper a little, and Peri
says she thinks he sounds hungry, and she can't blame him as she is famished
herself.
Yrcanos fumbles around in his pockets and produces a loosely wrapped paper
package which he unwraps to reveal a substance reminiscent of a cross
between cheese and a freshly cleaned fish.
He offers this delicacy to Dorf and Peri, and she asks what it is.
He explains it is flayfish that sustains the body and fuels the fighting
spirit. He eats some happily as Dorf and Peri sample it.
Peri grimaces like she's tasted half-cooked ground beef and notes that
this doesn't do much for your tastebuds. She doesn't eat anymore.
Dorf puts his head down on Peri's shoulder and starts to whimper again.
She scratches him behind the ears and tells him not to fret.
Yrcanos grumbles for her to stop this as Dorf is, or at least was, a great
warrior.
Dorf manages to stammer the word "jealous" at the King, who then gets
to his feet in a rage and shouts things like "Me a king?!?! Jealous!?!?!"
Dorf and Peri get to their feet as well, with Peri trying desperately
to keep the two from tearing into each other especially as Yrcanos is
now threatening to tear off Dorf's head and is calling him a dog.
She shouts in her high-pitched whine and this seems to slice even Yrcanos'
shouts in two and he falls silent.
She angrily tells him that its bad enough that they have the whole planet
against them that they don't need them tearing lumps out of each other.
Yrcanos says she's right and blames it on the flayfish, rebuking himself
for not saving it for their next battle.
He stands straight again and takes charge again, saying they must go and
locate their allies and then be prepared to "march unto Death!!!!"
Peri reminds him to take things one at a time, like first find their
allies, convince them they're on their side, and then march to their
destiny.
Yrcanos smiles down at her at says she is right. Peri leads the way
down the tunnel. Dorf and Yrcanos look at each other with a gleam in
their eyes and then place their hands on each other's shoulders.
Crozier is examining the donor body while Matrona, now also wearing a
surgical mask, stands at a console and monitors its activity. The
Doctor, also masked, is watching and adjusting the overhanging BTU
apparatus. Observing are Sil and several bearers and guards, all of
whom are unmasked.
Crozier announces that the donor brain is now in position. The Doctor
confirms that the EEG reading in the recipient is now level, and Crozier
thanks him for that information.
Sil demands to know what is taking so long, and the Doctor looks down at
him and suggests he go for a walk or something. "You're like an anxious
parent."
"The wealth of the whole planet depends on that lump of mud-colored tissue
there," gargles Sil, gesturing at the yellow donor body. "I haven't
learned all his secrets yet!!"
Crozier angrily asks Sil to stop gyrating his throat, and then announces
that he is ready to "attempt transference of brain tissue."
Sil looks up at the ceiling and prays to the Great Morgo for them to
succeed.
Crozier looks around and with a note of actual anxiety in his voice tells
everyone to prepare for independent support mode. He says the readings
should reach 21.56.
The Doctor looks over his equipment and notes that.
Matrona looks up from her console and says they are approaching twenty dead.
"Dead?" asks the Doctor. "Don't say that."
Matrona looks at him in disapproval for an instand and returns to her
monitor. She counts off numbers at intervals.
The Doctor takes over the count at 21.20 and shouts "Now!" when 21.56 is
reached.
Crozier quickly operates some switches, looks over the readings and with
actual fear in his voice says that there are no brain or heart readings
at all. "We've failed!" He runs around the beds to reach some other
equipment.
The bearers and guards nearest Sil draw their phasers and point them at
Sil's face. Sil smiles weakly and in panic tries to explain what Crozier
said as being nothing more than a profitless, humorless, quip.
The guards look at him impassively.
"Half my fortune if you give me a five minute start?" asks Sil.
The guards look at him impassively.
"Alright, you profitless knaves, all my money?" squeels Sil.
The guards look at him impassively.
The Doctor is looking at the new body's chest and notes a brief movement.
He tells everyone he thought the chest gills moved and then asks if the
lexifier unit registered its input as the link was difficult for him to test.
Matrona looks up and says it did not.
"Reserve quickly!" yells the Doctor. He calls for Crozier to operate a
certain unit. Crozier says they have one last chance and pulls a very
large red handle on the side of the BTU.
The BTU emits a squeal of power and suddenly the new body begins to breathe
slowly but steadily, and an EEG beep begins beeping rhythmically.
The guards slowly put away their phasers and Sil tells them he was right
all the time. It was strange, witless humor.
Crozier sarcastically thanks Sil for the moral support, and the Doctor
adds he thinks its nice to know Sil can be relied upon to be his usual
treacherous self.
"I endeavour to maintain," trills Sil, "a certain continuity!"
King Yrcanos leads the way into a darker passage of tunnel when he and
the others are cut off by a small party of young men in yellow robes.
Peri says, "Hi!"
Yrcanos tells her that he told her they would find them. He raises
his voice and announces to everyone that he has come to lead them to
freedom.
The leader of the party, a young man of about average height and possibly
Asian descent, shouts for Yrcanos to hold his tongue unless he wishes
to die here. He looks at members of his own party and several of them
seize Yrcanos and the others.
Crozier examines Kiv, then looks up and starts taking off his surgical
mask. The Doctor is also removing his surgical overgarments as Crozier
tells him of his success and that after a decade of hard work he can now
transform the evolutionary process and conquer death.
The Doctor skeptically asks about tissue rejection, and Crozier tells
him confidently that he has perfected a syrum for just that problem.
"As from today, Doctor, I can put any brain in any body, anywhere."
Sil pipes up from his bearer couch and asks the Doctor if that now that
he has assisted in a miracle of science if he would like to witness a
similar feat in commerce.
"From you Sil?" smiles the Doctor, "Why not? I could do with a laugh!"
He sets his cloak down with a flourish and begins to leave as Sil's
bearers lift him from where he his couch was sitting near the new Kiv's
body.
Peri, Yrcanos, and Dorf are tied up back to back on the floor and in the
center of a clearly natural and somewhat dark cave.
Peri scoffs about Yrcanos' foresight and gets no answer. She asks
Yrcanos to again tell them who they are, and Yrcanos replies that he
will not as he is a king and will not beg to this rabble.
The resistance leader enters with another member who is carrying a very
large and heavy-looking stone. He seems to sound apologetic as he
explains that they are going to crush their bodies with this stone as
a means of preventing the Mentors from retrieving their bodies and skulls
undamaged so that they can use brain surgery to create creatures like the
Lukoser. Dorf growls in response.
Peri desperately looks around and tells the young man that they're on
the same side. "Nobody likes brain alteration! You think Dorf wants
to be the way he is? He was used by the Mentors. King Yrcanos was held
hostage so they could exploit him and his people! And even I was held
captive!" The young man seems to be considering her words carefully
and is beginning to reluctantly wonder if she's telling the truth.
Peri adds, "You kill us, and you do nothing but please the Mentors!"
The young man says, "The Mentors?!?" suddenly and then spits on the floor
as though the word left a bad after-taste in his mouth.
Yrcanos pipes up in a metzo-forte and tells him she is speaking truth,
but he is not begging. "Pulverize my skull and you slay an ally, but
supply me with weapons and a good band of fighting men, and I'll bring
triumph against our enemies."
The young man looks down and tells them that he has heard of Yrcanos,
King of the Krontep, and that is he is who he says he is, he'll have a
plan worked out already. Yrcanos promises to tell him as soon as they
untie them.
The young man appears to consider this carefully.
Matrona Kani brings Crozier a steaming cup of coffee or tea with a proud
look on her face. Crozier accepts it and begins to drink it.
Suddenly Kiv's EEG blips start to become erratic and then turn into
one steady beep. Matrona tells Crozier that something is wrong, and
he asks what could be wrong as he was fine a moment ago.
Crozier walks over with his tea and looks over the instruments. The EEG
beep is now a solid code-blue-style beep, and Crozier says it is cardiac
arrest.
"His body's. . . " he stops to take a sip of his tea, ". . reacting to the
drugs." He puts the tea down carefully and then starts pushing on the
new Kiv's chest as though he were performing CPR but was unsure where the
heart was.
"You'll not die on me, you fish-faced monster," he sneers.
Yrcanos, Peri, and Dorf have been released and Yrcanos has just finished
explaining his plan to the rebels' leader. The leader tells him that
the plan is a sound one, but that his men are untrained.
Yrcanos tells him that under his leadership, adding a few ooh-oohs,
they will fight like *deemons*.
Peri tells the boys not to get carried away, but Dorf tells her that he
has seen Yrcanos on occasions before this inspire disheartened rabble
into acts of heroism.
Peri asks how many of those people survived their acts of heroism, but
Yrcanos brushes this off with a joyful smile, saying its a minor
consideration when there is glory to be had.
The rebel leader says that Yrcanos is right and that they do have nothing
to lose as at the moment all they're doing is hiding like vermin.
He slaps Yrcanos on the shoulder heartily and tells King Yrcanos of the
Krontep that they will fight.
"Vroomnik!" shouts Yrcanos, who then looks at his black-gloved hand and
tells Dorf and Peri that his hand has not touched honorable skin for
what seems like an eternuty.
The leader turns to another one of the rebels and tells him to find Vern
and his men and tell him to meet them (Vern will know where) and that
the Day of Reckoning has come.
Yrcanos smiles and moves jaw in anticipation at Dorf.
Sil is seated in Kiv's usual place in the Great Commerce Room and is
operating Kiv's usual console. The Doctor is bending over the console
and looking to see what he's doing.
Sil asks if the Doctor is interested, and shows him the console.
"Money! Money, money, money, money!"
The Doctor begins to look over the rest of the room as Sil explains that
all the stock and commodity markets of the universe are available to them
via a warpfold relay.
On one screen is a logo in magnetic-font lettering that says "Search-Conv
Corp." Sil points it out and explains it as an application to the Mentors
for credit.
The Doctor repeats their name and asks who they are.
Sil looks up from his/Kiv's console and says they aren't much of anything
except a bunch of burnt-out space rangers that search for wrecked
spaceships. He looks over an actual piece of tickertape and says they
are requesting funding to purchase another retrieval craft.
"Which," smiles Sil, "We will deny!"
"Wait!" says the Doctor. He considers for a moment and then says,
"Planet of Tokl? Twenty-fourth century? I seem to recall there were a
great many wars around the Rim Worlds at that time. There should be a
large amount of battle-cruiser debris floating around there soon."
"For this company to retrieve?" asks Sil with a surprised smile.
"If they have the equipment," adds the Doctor with *hint* written all over
his face.
Sil smiles and says it is very useful to have a Time Lord in one's employ.
He decides he will allow their application for credit and presses a switch.
The screen with Search-Conv Corp's logo on it switches to a flashing
"Credit" emblem, and Sil begins chowing down happily on a fresh batch of
green, slimy, marsh minnows.
He offers some to the Doctor, and he obliges by taking one.
Sil rocks back and forth in glee and rolls a minnow around on his tongue
with his mouth open while the Doctor begins to eat his. At first he
seems to like it.
Sil gleefully tells the Doctor that the Lord Kiv will be most pleased
with him for this foresight, and that he must be sure that he is the
first thing that he sees with his new eyes.
The Doctor seems to be becoming sick to the stomach and says he thinks
that'll be comforting for Kiv, with a little sarcasm, but only a little
as the marsh minnow now has some serious disagreements with his stomach
and the Doctor leaves on the excuse that he should see how the patient
is getting on.
The rebel leader, one of his fellow rebels, Yrcanos, Peri, and the
Lukoser known as Dorf are running down a corridor when suddenly
Yrcanos shouts for everyone to get down and hide behind a mound of
boulders.
Everyone does so and they observe cautiously as a man who looks extremely
old comes slowly down the corridor from the direction they were headed
and collapses in front of the rock they're hiding behind.
Peri gets up along with everyone else and asks what's happened.
Yrcanos somewhat obviously says, "Old age."
The rebel leader looks at the man in disbelief and calls him by the name
Linna. He picks up Linna's head in his arms and the old man quietly
tries to say, "Help me" and is only partially successful. He slumps
back and seems to die in the leader's arms.
The young man gets up and says he can't believe what he sees. Yrcanos
asks if he knew him, and the young man says he did. Linna had been a
spice trader back home on Thoros Alpha.
Yrcanos doesn't understand the rebel leader's disbelief as death comes
to everyone and this man seems to have lived a long life.
"Linna was no older than I am!" says the leader angrily. He explains
that he was twenty years old as he himself is and now he looks a hundred.
He asks how he's been turned into an old man.
Peri sees something on Linna's neck and points it out, but warns the
leader not to touch it as it could be the thing responsible for his
premature ageing.
"This is the work of the Mentors," says the leader angrily as he sees
the implant in Linna's neck and slowly gets to his feet.
Yrcanos somewhat warily asks what this man's function was, and the
leader says he was one of the guards on their weapon's dump.
"Oh no," sighs Peri.
"I smell treason, treachery, betrayal!" whispers Yrcanos.
The leader says he'll go and scout ahead, but Yrcanos disagrees and says
they will all scout ahead.
The leader disagrees as there may be danger, and Peri tries to convince
Yrcanos as well, calling the young man by the name of Tuza.
Yrcanos insists that spying is not the way of the warrior, and that if
one goes, they all will go. He shouts, "Come!" and quickly leads the
party down the tunnel in the direction that Linna had come from.
The new body of the Lord Kiv is deathly still and the EEG pulse sound is
still a steady whine. Matrona Kani listens to his chest with a
plunger that amplifies sounds.
The Doctor and Sil have just entered, and the Doctor looks over at Sil
and says, "See what happens when I leave the room?"
"He must live!" cries Sil.
Crozier instructs Matrona to increase the severin drip as though nothing
worrying were going on. Matrona Kani slowly adjusts the IV stand until
Crozier says when.
Sil notes there still isn't a flicker, and wails, "Why has the Lord Kiv
not yet returned to life?"
The Doctor looks at Sil in disbelief and tells him this takes time and
that they are doing their best.
Matrona looks up and says there is no response and that the brain pulse
is still dormant.
Sil accuses Crozier of conspiring against his wealth and allowing the
Lord Kiv to die. One of the guards draws his phaser and points it right
at Crozier's face.
Crozier looks at it worriedly and tells the guard to wait.
"A movement!" shouts the Doctor, noticing a shake in the body.
Matrona looks up from her console and says there has been a reaction.
Crozier asks to what degree it registered, and she enthusiastically
answers that it was almost a complete wave.
Crozier proudly says this is going to work.
The EEG pulse sound begins to beep again and starts sounding like a normal
sinus rhythm.
Sil waves his arms gleefully and motions for his bearers to carry him
over to Kiv so that his face can be the first thing he sees.
The new body of the Lord Kiv slowly starts to wake up. He is looking
towards his left.
His eyes open, and he sees something. . . a giant green blob!
Kiv blinks in fear, and his eyes focus.
Sil's smiling green glob of a head looks at him and he cries, "Myyyyyy
Loooorrdddd!"
Kiv pulls away in fear and the EEG reading almost stops again.
Kiv asks if he has died and gone to the Great Plain Hordes of Magdala.
Sil is taken aback and he explains who he is.
Kiv begins to cry.
King Yrcanos has outpaced everyone else and is well ahead.
Peri turns and asks Tuza how much further they have to go. He answers
that he hopes they're not too late.
Yrcanos turns back and tells them all to keep together.
"This is a great day for battle!! A great day to die!!"
He bounces down the corridor with Dorf following. Tuza asks Peri if
Yrcanos always goes on like this, and she tells him she's afraid so.
They follow.
Crozier looks over the equipment and announces Kiv to be totally stable.
"You said that last time!" accuses Sil, unsure of Crozier's competence.
The Doctor tells Sil that as long as he stays away from Kiv, he should
be alright.
Sil praises the Great Morgo and tells the Lord Kiv how he has been
returned to them safe and well.
Kiv tells them all how he dreamed he was lost in the Sea of Despair and
Longing.
Crozier looks down at him as though he'd just heard a complaint, and he
explains that dreams were the expected side effects of sedation and nothing
to be worried about.
Kiv explains that he feels hardly different. His voice is hardly different
too, though with perhaps a little less of the aqueous-sounding trill in
his voice that was present and is present in abundance in Sil.
He says he feels an ache in what he supposes he can call his skull.
Crozier looks at him and says that this will be his skull until they can
find one more suitable.
Kiv immediately wants to get back to work, and a little dazedly tells
Sil there is a deadline for a futures commodity on Wilson One.
Sil nods and says that this will be attended to, and that he and the Doctor
have struck up a profitable partnership.
"Oh?" asks Kiv in disapproval. "Not speculation, I trust?"
The party arrives at a large cave and Tuza says that Vern and the others
haven't arrived yet. He sets off for the end of the cave.
Yrcanos looks around enthusiastically and asks where the weapons are.
Tuza cries, "No!" suddenly as he examines a pile of rocks at the end of
the cave. He exclaims that this rockfall he's looking at is new.
Peri asks if it could be seismic activity, and Tuza says that if it is
its a very convenient one as its covered up the entrance to their
weapons dump.
"Ah!" cries Yrcanos. "Ambush! A woman's way of fighting!"
"Thanks a lot," says Peri.
"If these guards of the Mentors were real men," shouts Yrcanos loud enough
for anyone twelve caves away to hear, "they would show their banners and
fight to the outcome!!"
Peri suggests worriedly that they get away from this place and find the
other resistance members.
Tuza thinks she has a point and begins to leave.
"Retreat!?" shouts the king, and then in his best fortissimo, "I AM KING
YRCANOS!"
He shakes as he shouts this, and Peri puts her arm on his to calm him
down, telling him that these are words that terrify her but she's afraid
they won't have the same effect on whoever caused the rockfall.
Dorf adds his weight, telling his king that there is glory to be had but
that it should be had in prudence this day.
"You Are A Great Dog Of WAR!!" bellows Yrcanos. He corrects himself
with a shake of the head and tells Dorf he is a great warrior whose advice
he trusts and values. He very reluctantly changes his mind and tells
them that today prudence shall be their watchword. "Tomorrow, I shall
soak the land in blood!! Vroominick!!"
He begins to lead the way back the way they came when suddenly they hear
the sound of shifting rocks, and Tuza turns back to look at the rockfall.
Some of the rocks are moving, and beneath the pile is another man who
seems to have been prematurely aged.
Tuza shouts that its Vern, and goes to try and unbury him from the rocks.
"Give up, and you live!"
The voice is that of the guard's chief officer, who stands behind them
all with several phaser-armed guards.
"Resist, and you die where you stand!"
Additional guards arrive and the resistance party is completely encircled.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"That isn't my fault!" shouts the Doctor. He gets to his feet and asks how
they can blame him for this as he wasn't even there.
"All that has taken place you are indirectly responsible for," answers the
Valeyard from his seat.
The Doctor turns to the Inquisitor. "Please, Madam. The death of Vern
and the other resistance fighters was not my fault!"
The Inquisitor says that his presence did influence events and that there
is no way that can be denied.
"Watch, Doctor," invites the Valeyard. He reaches and presses the Matrix
controls.
"See your folly."
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Prosecution Interface Two "Mindwarp"
Continued
Yrcanos and the others stand as a group facing the guard leader.
Yrcanos asks without a tremor in his voice if they are to die withered and
aged or like true soldiers.
The guard leader tells Yrcanos that he is obsessed with dying and that
he doesn't know what's the matter with him.
Peri asks if he'd rather they begged to live.
"To be honest," he answers, "I'd prefer it if you all kept quiet!"
"_You_ are nothing more than trash!" accuses King Yrcanos, "From the
sewers of Skulnesh!"
The guard casually tells Yrcanos to shut up.
Yrcanos does nothing of the kind and shouts on. "You've been to the field
of battle, that which robs great warriors of their youth and virility, and
_that_ is a crime against honor!"
The guard looks defensive and cries, "It was an experiment for Crozier and
the Mentors!"
Yrcanos bellows, "It was an experiment conceived in the Plain Hordes of
Magdala! You scum! Vroomnik!!!!"
Yrcanos raises his arm and runs to attack the guard leader. One of the
other guards fires his phaser and Yrcanos drops to the floor in a heap.
Tuza too runs, and is fired on and cut to the floor.
Dorf tries to escape, and is fired on and cut to the floor.
Peri runs and is shot. She cries in pain and collapses.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"No!" shouts the Doctor. "No, no, NO, I won't believe it!"
The Valeyard stands and smiles in anticipation of triumph.
"You still continue to ignore the truth!"
"I am not responsible for that!" cries the Doctor as though trying to convince
himself.
"In your mind, perhaps not," answers the Valeyard, "But in reality it is
somewhat different, Doctor!"
The Doctor
COLIN BAKER
Peri
NICOLA BRYANT
The Valeyard
MICHAEL JAYSTON
The Inquisitor
LYNDA BELLINGHAM
King Yrcanos Crozier
BRIAN BLESSED PATRICK RYECART
Sil Kiv
NABIL SHABAN CHRISTOPHER RYAN
Matrona Kani Frax
ALIBE PARSONS TREVOR LAIRD
Tuza The Lukoser
GORDON WARNECKE THOMAS BRANCH
Incidental Music Special Sound
RICHARD HARTLEY DICK MILLS
Production Manager Production Associate Production Assistant
KEVAN VAN THOMPSON ANGELA SMITH KAREN JONES
Assistant Floor Manager Visual Effects Designer Video Effects
ANNA PRICE PETER WRAGG DANNY POPKIN
Technical Co-ordinator Studio Camera Supervisor
ALAN ARBUTHNOTT ALEC WHEAL
Vision Mixer Videotape Editor
JIM STEPHENS HUGH PARSON
Lighting Director Sound
DON BABBAGE BRIAN CLARK
Costume Designer Make-Up Designer
JOHN HEARNE DORKA NIERADZIK
Script Editor
ERIC SAWARD
Desinger
ANDREW HOWE-DAVIES
Producer
JOHN NATHAN-TURNER
Director
RON JONES
(C) BBC MCMLXXXVI
First transmitted on 18 October, 1986.
This synopsis by Steven K. Manfred
Synopsis copyright July 25, 1994.
Permission is given to all to copy this synopsis as long as it is not for
reasons of profit.
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