"I have no alternative, Doctor." "To this charge, the laws of Peladon allow of no defence, and only one punishment." "Death." "But there was no sacrilege intended, sir." "Only the alien's death can purify the holy temple of Aggedor." "I had no idea that the tunnels would lead there." "Tunnels?" "I know of no tunnels!" "Hepesh?" "Surely your majesty must know that beneath the citadel," "there is a network of secret passages." "He is lying, Your Majesty." "There are no such passages." "King Peladon, I swear to you that I am telling the truth." "I am innocent!" "Your Majesty, I..." "You've got to believe him!" "His ignorance of the law," "at least it deserves consideration." "No, his crime is too great!" "A royal pardon would count highly with the Federation." "The Federation cannot override our holy laws." "It is forbidden by its charter!" "That is correct." "Galactic Articles of Peace, Paragraph 59, Subsection 2." "Then we are powerless to interfere!" "But you can't just let him be killed!" "You cannot prevent it." "No." "But a king can." "You asked me once if I believed in you." "I want to believe in you." "And here is your opportunity to show that you are a civilised king." "He can do nothing." "This is ancient law!" "Hepesh is right." "I am powerless to save him." "I'm begging you!" "Please." "There is one alternative." "Trial by combat." "But the Earth's delegate is not of noble blood!" "That's barbaric!" "It is all I can offer." "He cannot be given an honourable alternative." "You forget, Hepesh, he is a man of rank, and as such, an honorary nobleman of the citadel." "What do you say, Doctor?" "Very well, Your Majesty, I accept the challenge." "But who do I fight?" "You will be held captive in your room until dawn." "Then you will be lowered into the pit beneath the citadel, where you will engage in combat to the death with the King's Champion, Grun." "Yes, you're a wily, old bird, aren't you, Hepesh?" "But you do realise, don't you, that my death would cause a major interplanetary scandal?" "Consider the consequences, Hepesh." "How can I ever believe in you now?" "I'm sorry, but there are some things I cannot change, even for you." "Did you even want to?" "What do mercy and compassion mean to you?" "You need someone to die to justify" "your own stupid superstition!" "I want no one to die!" "Can't you see?" "I've done all I can." "He means a great deal to you." "Yes." "Princess," "I'm helpless." "Don't hate me for that." "I don't hate you." "Both Torbis and my father died before they could break the traditions that bind us." "But my mother taught me all she could of justice, compassion and love." "She knew the time would come." "Then make it now!" "Be the king she wanted you to be." "Be the king I want you to be." "Oh, there's so much I could do if I had someone by my side to help me." "Oh, Princess, will you not give your royal agreement to an interplanetary alliance" "by marriage with me?" "You know, I just don't understand you." "I really don't." "One minute you're condemning the Doctor to death, and the next minute you're proposing to me." "Josephine, the matters are completely separate!" "I had to condemn the Doctor." "That was my duty as a king!" "What I'm trying to say to you now, that comes from my feelings as a man." "And there's no..." "No connection between the two?" "But of course not." "How could there be?" "The door of your room will be left open." "There'll be no one there to stand in your way." "I see." "Killed while trying to escape, is that it?" "I don't want your death, trust me." "The facts point to one thing, a unilateral blood alliance between Peladon and Earth." "It's unusual to celebrate such an event with an execution." "That possibility is obviously intended to confuse us." "I do not understand!" "What is happening?" "This is a conspiracy to destroy Federation unity and we are to be the victims." "There lies your route to freedom." "Take it, leave our planet and live." "I'm afraid I can't." "Well, not without my space shuttle." "A large blue box was found on the lower slope of the mountain." "Yes, that's it." "Where is it now?" "It is being brought to the citadel." "Oh, that's splendid." "And what about Princess Josephine?" "She will be allowed to leave with you." "Hepesh?" "Why do you go to so much trouble?" "You could simply have me killed." "I do not mean to have this planet destroyed in retaliation by the spaceships of the Federation." "Yet you slap the Federation in the face by sabotaging the commission." "Why?" "Because I'm afraid." "Afraid?" "Afraid of what?" "The Federation is your safeguard." "That is not true!" "I know the Federation's real intent!" "The Federation's real intent" "is to help you." "No." "They'll exploit us for our minerals, enslave us with their machines, corrupt us with their technology." "The face of Peladon will be changed, the past swept away and everything that I know and value will have gone." "The progress that they offer, that we offer, isn't like that." "I would rather be a cave dweller and free." "Free?" "With your people imprisoned by ritual and superstition?" "We need Aggedor." "You can hardly expect your pet ghost to take on the whole Federation single-handed, can you?" "We do not stand alone." "Oh?" "Who stands with you?" "Take your chance, while you still can." "It will soon be dawn." "But, Princess, we must leave, if only in order to avoid violence!" "But you can't just scuttle off and leave the Doctor." "What will the Grand Council say?" "That you have no power to cancel a mission just like that!" "The Princess is right." "Federation authorisation would be required." "If we stay, we risk being taken as hostages." "We must leave, while we have the chance!" "We're in terrible danger!" "But so is the Doctor." "This is a very delicate political situation." "But it'll be even more delicate if the Doctor is killed." "Yes." "That will amount to a declaration of war." "An interesting problem." "And the Federation would totally destroy Peladon." "Yes, it would!" "Therefore, we must do nothing." "Oh, great." "Thanks a lot!" "Princess!" "Wait." "Well, what do you want?" "Delegate Izlyr must talk with you." "Will you enter?" "Please?" "Well?" "You left the meeting in anger." "Not much else I could do once you lot had ganged up" "to leave the Doctor stranded." "We have not, as you say, "ganged up. "" "Arcturus is a coward by logic and Centauri is a coward by instinct, but they will not leave the Doctor stranded." "Then why the sudden change?" "Because Federation law allows only unanimous decisions" "and I voted to stay." "You?" "Why would you do that?" "You remember when the statue fell?" "The Doctor saved my life." "Now I intend to save his." "You really mean it?" "You'll help me save the Doctor?" "Yes." "It is essential that the Doctor escapes." "You go and get the Doctor and meet me at the tunnel." "He'll show you where it is." "All right?" "Right." "Come, Ssorg." "Gather all our men, Captain." "Search the catacombs and the dungeons, and remember, the alien is dangerous." "If he resists, kill him." "My lord." "Yes." "I rather hoped I'd meet up with you, old chap." "Our ally has plotted well, Grun." "Whatever the Doctor does now, he'll be discredited." "Oh, I know you wanted to kill him yourself, to fulfil your oath as King's Champion, but never fear." "He is moving into ever greater danger." "I promise you, the King's honour will be maintained." "Trust me." "It seems that the Doctor has escaped without our help." "Or he has been eliminated." "If that is so," "Hepesh and this planet will have much to answer for." "Well, I must say you seem quite partial to old Venusian lullabies, don't you, Aggedor, old chap, hmm?" "Well, let's see how friendly you really are." "Right, take it easy." "There, that's it." "There's a good chap." "Oh, Sorry!" "Not quite under!" "Hang on, Doctor!" "No, Jo!" "Keep back!" "No, Jo, keep back!" "Jo!" "I'll scare him off!" "Get back!" "Back!" "You all right?" "Oh, Jo, you idiot." "I'd just started to get through to him." "How?" "By a kind of technical hypnosis." "You weren't..." "Talking to him?" "No, not exactly." "Merely..." "Merely empathy." "Empathy?" "Yes, it's a kind of telepathic understanding, Jo." "Jo?" "Oh, good grief." "Jo, snap out of it." "What?" "What happened?" "Well, you just ruined a very promising experiment, that's what happened." "I'm sorry." "I thought you were going to be killed." "I only wanted to help you." "Yes." "Yes, of course you did." "And very brave you were, too." "Come on." "Let's see if we can find King Peladon." "Where is the Doctor?" "And where is the Princess?" "It seems they have escaped." "A coward admitting his guilt." "His life is forfeit." "He will be hunted and killed like an animal." "I'm sorry to disappoint you, Hepesh." "Guard!" "Wait!" "Your Majesty." "I bring you a message." "From Aggedor." "He commits ever greater sacrilege!" "No one sees Aggedor and lives!" "Well, we just did." "And I must say, he's quite pleasant company, for an animal." "He didn't even seem to mind when I scratched him behind the ears." "He defiles everything that is sacred." "He must be silenced!" "Let us hear what he has to say!" "No!" "We shall hear him, Hepesh!" "Doctor?" "Aggedor is no spirit, Your Majesty, but a truly noble beast." "But his power is being used falsely, however, to prevent any chance that you may have of entering the Galactic Federation." "You lie!" "The spirit of Aggedor will take his revenge!" "His manifestation is holy!" "Rubbish." "His manifestation, as you call it, is solid, hairy fact." "It's true!" "It's no ghost, I've seen it as well!" "Then produce this creature, if you can." "He lives in the tunnels," "beneath the city, sir." "Tunnels." "You spoke of them before, Doctor," "yet I know nothing of them." "There are no tunnels, Your Majesty." "The entrance is hidden, Your Majesty." "Then we must organise a search." "No!" "This is merely a device to postpone the trial by combat!" "Once I have proved what Aggedor really is, the trial by combat, sir, will hardly become necessary." "So, you want us to spend a lifetime searching for these mythical tunnels!" "A coward's devious excuse." "Take him to the pit!" "No!" "Let him face his challenge." "Peladon, you can't!" "Peladon!" "Take him away." "Grun!" "All right, live, Grun." "I would not kill the King's Champion."