"The Doctor." "Do we attack?" "Of course." "That dreg helping the Mentors' warriors is my enemy." "What's happened to you, Doctor?" "Why do you hate me so?" "I must do what I think is best." "I used to think that you were different, that you cared for justice, truth and good." "I can't bear to look at what you are now." "Now, Doctor, it is your turn to die." "No!" "My lady, what have you done?" "Because of you that vermin still lives." "I couldn't help it." "The Doctor, he wasn't always like that." "I suggest you always were just like that, my dear Doctor." "A toady, a coward, a turncoat!" "You were afraid that Crozier wanted to transplant the brain of the alien Kiv into your head." "You said as much yourself." "The thought of that made you panic." "I've told you it was a ploy." "I would never want to harm Peri." "But you've also admitted that you have no clear memory of the event." "Well, I can recall some of it." "Bits of it are beginning to bob back into my mind." "Oh, really?" "And does any of your sudden and convenient recall agree with anything that the court has already seen?" "No!" "I mean, yes, but..." "But the emphasis is all wrong." "And what does that mean?" "The events took place but not quite as we've seen them." "It occurs to me, Doctor, that your current mental condition makes it very difficult for you to defend yourself." "I would therefore suggest that this court be adjourned." "No, and I refute any implication that I'm barmy!" "Barmy?" "A rather imprecise Earth slang word, Sagacity, implying psychiatric instability." "Thank you, Valeyard." "No one is impugning your sanity, Doctor, merely suggesting your memory is a little faulty." "Nevertheless, I would like this trial to continue." "I was also about to suggest that you might change your mind and consider availing yourself of a court defender." "A trained, legal mind would offer a more constructive and certainly less emotional presentation of your case." "If the Time Lords of Gallifrey want my life, you don't think I'd entrust my defence to one of their august number, do you?" "Very well." "Let us continue." "Ah, I appear to have lost my way." "I was looking for Crozier's operating room." "Thank you, most kind." "That is to become my new body?" "The coastguards found him adrift off the islets of Brak." "He is of the same branch of mutation and almost certainly" "from your home mire, my lord." "He looks like a younger me." "Not quite so handsome, Magnificence." "Be quiet, Sil." "The features are similar." "There is, however, one small addition." "He has retained his primeval sting." "His tail contains venom enough to kill." "Fascinating." "I could perhaps sting all my assistants to death." "More importantly, are you sure the new skull will be big enough?" "The capacity is only a little larger in volume than that of Lord Kiv." "The operation will give us a little time to seek a more permanent host." "We must make every effort to find the right head on the correct body." "I have someone in mind." "Ah, Doctor, you've come to lend a hand." "Yes, thought I'd strop the odd scalpel, mop a brow or two." "That won't be necessary, but you can monitor the BTU." "The BTU." "Oh, bliss!" "Thank you." "Then let us begin." "Should the transfer not work and brain death occur, my bearers have orders to liquefy all who fail to save my life." "Check lymphocyte serum drip." "Active." "Laser scalpel." "These tunnels look the same to me." "Where precisely are we going?" "As with all corrupt dictatorships, there are pockets of resistance planning and working to overthrow the evil of Kiv and the other Mentors." "Great, but how does that help us?" "My belief is that they await a great leader." "I am he." "But do these resistance fighters know that?" "They will soon learn." "My great king is right." "But how will we find these people?" "They will find us." "Yes." "Yes." "Yes, yes." "Their footsteps are guided towards me." "That is their destiny and mine." "Destiny?" "Isn't that just a fancy name for blind chance?" "Blind chance?" "Destiny?" "If that were true, our lives, my majesty, would be meaningless!" "It's merely a point of view." "A pompous and empty one, my lady." "We all live for a purpose." "And for me, that is to die a hero." "I do wish you wouldn't keep going on like that." "I'm starting to believe you mean it." "I do!" "All right, all right." "Let's rest first and then march." "There's a good warlord, huh?" "Agreed, but only for a moment." "He sounds hungry." "Don't blame him." "So am I. Famished." "Here." "Here." "What is it?" "It's Flayfish." "Sustains the body, fuels the fighting spirit." "Well, it doesn't do much for your taste buds, huh?" "That's all right, don't cry." "No, stop that." "Dorf is, or was, a great warrior." "Jealous, he jealous." "Jealous?" "I'm jealous?" "Me, a king!" "Jealous, you say I'm jealous!" "Yrcanos, stop it!" "I'll tear your head off!" "You're nothing but a mongrel!" "He's a dog, he's a dog!" "Stop it!" "Look, it's bad enough we've got this whole planet against us without you two trying to bite lumps out of each other." "You're right." "It's the Flayfish, my fault." "I should've saved it for our next battle." "We must go, locate our allies, and then prepare to battle unto death!" "One thing at a time, huh?" "Let's find this Alphan resistance and convince them we're on their side." "And then on to our destiny, huh?" "You're right." "Donor brain in position." "EEG reading in recipient now level." "Thank you, Doctor." "Why is this taking so long?" "Why don't you go for a walk or something, Sil?" "You're like an anxious parent." "The wealth of the whole planet depends on that lump of mud-coloured tissue there." "I haven't learnt all his secrets yet." "Sil, stop gyrating your throat." "I'm ready to attempt transference of brain tissue." "Please, Morgo, let them succeed." "Prepare for independent support mode." "The reading should reach 21.56." "21.56, ah-ha." "Approaching 20, dead." "Dead?" "Don't say that." "20.50, 20.75, 21.20, 40," "21.56... now!" "There's nothing." "No heart, no brain readings, nothing." "We've failed." "No, it is a joke!" "Admittedly in bad taste, but it is a profitless, humourless quip." "Tell them!" "Half my fortune if you give me a five-minute start." "All right, you profitless knaves." "All my money." "I think his chest gills moved." "Did the lexifier unit register its input?" "The link was difficult to test." "Nothing." "Reserve, quickly..." "Try the endrodiotone now!" "One last chance." "He's breathing." "You see, as I said, strange, witless humour." "Thanks for the moral support, Sil." "Yes, nice to know that you can be relied upon to be your usual treacherous self." "I endeavour to maintain a certain continuity." "Hi." "I told you they would find us." "I have come to lead you to freedom." "Hold your tongue!" "This way, unless you wish to die here." "Success, Doctor." "After a decade of hard work," "I can transform the evolutionary process and conquer death." "The possibilities are endless." "You sure?" "Aren't you worried about tissue rejection?" "Ah, I've perfected a serum for just that." "As from today, Doctor," "I can put any brain in any body anywhere." "Now that you've assisted in a miracle of science, Doctor, perhaps you would like to witness a similar feat of commerce?" "From you, Sil, why not?" "I could do with a laugh." "So much for your foresight, huh?" "Tell them again we're on the same side, Yrcanos, please." "Me, a king, beg to that rabble?" "You must understand, we can't allow your bodies and skulls to be retrieved undamaged." "Otherwise the Mentors will use brain surgery to create creatures like this." "No, wait, look!" "Look, we're on the same side." "Nobody likes brain alteration." "Do 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 as well as his people." "And even I was held captive." "You kill us and you do nothing but please the Mentors." "The Mentors?" "She speaks truth." "I do not beg." "Pulverise 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." "I have heard of Yrcanos, King of the Krontep." "If you are he, then you will have a plan." "Untie us and you will hear." "Crozier, something's wrong." "What?" "He was fine a moment ago." "Cardiac arrest." "His body's reacting to the drugs." "You'll not die on me, you fish-faced monster." "Your plan is a sound one but our men are untrained." "Ha!" "Under my leadership they will fight like demons." "Come on now, boys." "Let's not get carried away." "I have seen him inspire disheartened rabble into acts of heroism." "But how many of them survived, huh?" "That's a minor consideration when there is glory to be had." "In his way, he's right." "We have nothing to lose." "At the moment, all we do is hide like vermin." "All right, King Yrcanos of the Krontep, we'll fight." "My hand hasn't touched honourable steel for what seems like an eternity." "Find Verne and his men." "He'll know where to meet us." "Tell him the day of reckoning has come." "Now hurry!" "Interested, Doctor?" "Money, money, money, money, money!" "All the stock and commodity markets of the universe are available to us via the warpfold relay." "See there?" "An application for credit." "Search-Conv-Corp?" "Who are they?" "Ah, nothing much." "Just a bunch of burnt-out space rangers who search for wrecked spaceships." "They request funding to purchase another retrieval craft," "which we will...deny." "Wait." "Planet of Tokl, 24th 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?" "If they have the equipment." "How useful to have a Time Lord in one's employ." "Yes, I will allow their application for credit." "Marsh minnow, Doctor?" "The Lord Kiv will be most pleased with me for my great foresight." "I must be sure that I am the first familiar face he sees with his new eyes." "Well, that should be comforting for him." "I..." "I think I better see how the patient's getting on." "What's happened?" "Old age." "Linna?" "Help me." "It can't be." "Linna?" "What is it?" "You knew him?" "He was a spice trader back home on Thoros Alpha." "I can't believe what I see." "Death comes to us all." "He has lived a long life." "Linna was no older than I am!" "He was 20 years old, not 1 00 as he looks now." "How has he been turned into an old man?" "Look." "No, don't touch it." "It might be responsible for his premature ageing." "This is the work of the Mentors." "What was this man's function?" "He was one of the guards in our weapons dump." "Oh, no." "I smell treason, treachery, betrayal." "I'll scout ahead." "We'll all scout ahead." "No, there could be danger!" "Let Tuza find out what's going on first, huh?" "Spying is not the way of the warrior." "If one goes, we all go." "Come!" "See what happens when I leave the room?" "He must live!" "Increase the sevrin drip." "Enough." "Not a flicker." "Why has the Lord Kiv not yet returned to life?" "It takes time." "They're trying their best." "No response." "Brain pulse still dormant." "You are conspiring against my wealth." "You are allowing the Lord Kiv to die." "Wait!" "A movement!" "A reaction here." "To what degree?" "Almost a complete wave." "It's going to work." "Lift me." "Take me nearer." "My face has got to be the first civilised thing he sees." "My lord!" "Have I died and gone to the great Plague Halls of Mogdana?" "Magnificence, it's me, Sil." "How much further?" "I only hope we're not too late." "Hey, keep together." "This is a great day for battle." "A great day to die!" "Does he always go on like that?" "Afraid so." "He's totally stable." "You said that last time." "Well, as long as you stay away from him, he should be all right." "The great Morgo be praised!" "You have been restored to us, O Great Kiv, safe and well." "I dreamed I was lost in the Sea of Despair and Longing." "Dreams were to be expected side-effects of sedation, nothing to worry about." "I feel hardly different." "An ache in my..." "I suppose I can say my skull?" "Yes, that will be your skull until we can find one more suitable." "I must to work." "There is a futures commodity deadline for the Sondlex crop on Wilson I." "It will be attended to." "The Doctor and I have struck up a profitable partnership." "Oh?" "Not speculation, I trust?" "Verne and the others haven't arrived yet." "No matter." "Where are the weapons?" "No!" "What's the matter?" "The rockfall, it's new." "Seismic activity?" "If so, it's a very convenient one." "It's covered up the entrance to our weapons dump." "Ambush!" "A woman's way of fighting." "Thanks a lot." "If these guards of the Mentors are real men, they would show their banners and fight in the open!" "Let's get away from here and find the others, huh?" "She has a point." "Retreat?" "I am King Yrcanos!" "Yes, I know." "Whereas it terrifies me, I'm just not so sure it's gonna have the same effect on whoever caused that rockfall." "If there is victory to be had, great king, it would be imprudent to stay." "You are a great dog of war!" "I mean, a great warrior whose advice I trust and value." "Oh, very well." "Today prudence shall be our watchword." "Tomorrow, I shall soak the land in blood." "Come with me!" "What's happening?" "Wait." "There could be danger." "It's Verne." "No!" "Give up and you live." "Resist and you die where you stand." "That isn't my fault." "You can't blame me for that." "I wasn't even there." "All that has taken place, you are indirectly responsible for." "Please, madam." "The death of Verne and the other resistance fighters was not my fault." "Your presence did influence events." "There's no way that can be denied." "Watch, Doctor." "See your folly." "Are we to die withered and aged, or like true soldiers?" "You're obsessed with dying, Yrcanos." "I don't know what's the matter with you." "And you rather we beg to live?" "To be honest, I'd prefer it if you all kept quiet." "You are nothing more than trash" "from the sewers of Skulnesh." "Shut up!" "You've been to the field of battle, that which robs great warriors of their youth and virility, and that is a crime against honour!" "It was an experiment for Crozier and the Mentors." "It was an experiment conceived in the Plague Halls of Mogdana, you scum!" "No!" "No, no, no, I won't believe it." "You still continue to ignore the truth." "I am not responsible for that." "In your mind, perhaps not." "But in reality, it is somewhat different, Doctor."