Henson clapped his hands across his ears.

'It's protocol protocol,' he snapped.

'Whether you like it or not, it's the way an Empress is addressed.'

'NEWS?'

'Oh, very well.' Farlander sighed. 'Where do you want to start?'

'MEMORY PROBLEMS.'

'Well . . . ' Farlander hesitated. The Empress was direct, brutal even when it came to plain facts, but Farlander was uneasy about discussing her frailties.

Even in the Imperial Court, rumours spread fast.

Even in the Imperial Court? Especially Especially in the Imperial Court. in the Imperial Court.

'The technicians believe that someone else has gained access to centcomp,'

he said finally, taking a deep breath. 'To you. They believe that this person has the ability to alter your memories. They think that '

'FIND THEM,' the Empress said. 'KILL THEM.'

'Find them?' Farlander raised his eyes to the inhuman form that hung above him. 'How, if we can't trust centcomp?'

'ISOLATE MEMORIES. COMPARE WITH MONTHLY BACKUPS FOR PAST TEN YEARS. LOOK FOR ALTERATIONS. PUT RIGHT.'

When the Divine Empress had to speak at that length to the man who was supposed to be able to take one word of hers and translate it into complex actions, Farlander knew that she wasn't happy.

'Yes, your most Supreme and Puiss'

'NEXT.'

'Your Surgeon Imperialis seems to have discovered that the violence and the riots sweeping the Empire are connected to body-bepple. Apparently every violent event can be traced back to a person who has undergone the process.'

'STATISTICALLY INSIGNIFICANT,' the Empress scoffed.

'A message has been pa.s.sed on by the Imperial Landsknechte. One of their provost-majors has intelligence that seems to back up the theory. He claims to have discovered a connection between the violence, body-bepple and some obscure form of radiation.'

'REWARD. CROSS-REFER TO SURGEON IMPERIALIS. NEXT.'

187.'The Hith delegation are down in an anteroom. They've been waiting for three days to see you.'

'KEEP ALIENS WAITING. NEXT.'

Farlander felt sweat beading his forehead. There were five hundred points on the agenda. He might be there for some time.

The ship wasn't in any condition to fly; Cwej could see that from the other end of the catwalk. The distorting effects of hypers.p.a.ce, and the lack of any referents to aid perspective, meant that the ship alternated between being a huge shape millions of miles away and a small object hanging just in front of him. Despite the tricks his eyes were playing on him he could see that large areas of its almost organic hull plating had been removed to reveal its skeletal frame, leaving it like a gutted fish. Small bots were crawling over it, dismantling the plates with bright plasma lances. The area at the front the c.o.c.kpit, judging by the bulbous transparent canopy was almost complete, as was the engine compartment at the rear. The ship's middle the cargo area and weapon emplacements had been stripped away, leaving only the central backbone like main spar. The catwalk led to an open hatch in the c.o.c.kpit area.

'I hope those bots aren't watching out for intruders,' Forrester muttered.

Cwej nodded absently. He'd seen something like it before, he was sure of it. The smooth, spavined surfaces were terribly familiar. Was it a Dravidian design? Shlangiian? Antonine?

'Of course!' He slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand as the memory came to him. Forrester whirled around, gun at the ready, then cast him a dirty look as she gradually relaxed. 'It's a Hith ship!'

Beside him, Powerless Friendless bobbed his eyestalks in agreement. 'The Skel'Ske Skel'Ske,' he said, awed.

' Skel'Ske Skel'Ske?' Cwej tried out the unfamiliar syllables.

'Skel'Ske is the sound made by the wings of JakkatKajjat, the twin-headed G.o.ddess of Justified Retribution, as she pa.s.ses overhead at dawn, tearing the souls of her enemies from their bodies.'

'What's wrong with Rosebud Rosebud?' Bernice muttered.

'I used to have a model of a Hith battleship,' Cwej said. 'I made it myself.

Big thing, it was, with these spike things jutting out of the front.' He waved his arms around, trying to convey to Powerless Friendless some impression of the size and sheer spikiness of the ship as if the Hith didn't already know. 'Big, big big hyperdrive motors in a ring around its middle. I had it hanging above my bed for years. The cleaning bots used to hate dusting it.' hyperdrive motors in a ring around its middle. I had it hanging above my bed for years. The cleaning bots used to hate dusting it.'

Powerless Friendless just nodded sadly.

188.'The Gex Gex,' he sighed. 'Flagship of the Hith Cosmic Fleet. Destroyed by the Imperial Landsknecht Fleet while defending Hithis during the Great Patriotic War. Fifteen thousand Hith dead. Less than twenty survivors.'

Cwej could almost feel the weight of the model in his hands. It had taken him almost a week to paint the concentric yellow and red Hith battle colours on the complex curves of the hull. He'd been so proud of that ship. 'And what about the little things,' he said excitedly, 'the ones that looked like needles with hyperdrive engines? I always loved those ones.'

'The flickerships?' Powerless Friendless said. 'Our frontline fighters? I trained on one of those.'

'They were brilliant! They looked like they could run rings around anything.'

'That's what we thought,' Powerless Friendless said bitterly, and slid off along the catwalk towards the ship.

Cwej watched him go, wondering what he had said to depress the Hith.

'Ever considered a career in the diplomatic service?' Forrester asked as she walked past Cwej, clapping him on the shoulder.

Cwej felt a flicker of anger, and bit down on it before he said something he might regret. Shaking his head, he followed Forrester along the catwalk. He didn't usually get annoyed at her banter. He must have been more tired than he had thought, despite his subjectively long rest in the time tank.

Bernice's long stride brought her up to his side as he walked. She was looking around at their surroundings. Cwej, after his initial wide-eyed reaction to hypers.p.a.ce, had been trying to ignore it. There was something about it that reminded him of a large blind spot; he felt that if he looked at it for too long, he would want to throw himself off the catwalk.

He looked backwards, but that was worse. The entrance doorway hung unsupported in hypers.p.a.ce at the end of the catwalk. What would happen if it closed? Would it vanish? Leave them stranded?

He shuddered, and gazed resolutely back at the approaching ship, trying not to wonder how he was managing to breathe in hypers.p.a.ce.

'I wonder how they keep this tunnel from drifting off,' Bernice said. 'I mean, anchoring something to one spot in hypers.p.a.ce must be quite an engineering feat. There are tides, whirlpools and all sorts of things. Presumably the air just hangs around here on the basis that it hasn't got anywhere else to go.'

'Haven't got a clue,' he said, gulping.

'I prefer you without the fur and the pointy ears, by the way.'

He smiled at her. 'Thanks,' he said, touched. He could feel a blush spreading up from his neck, and walked faster, hoping that Bernice would mistake it for signs of his exertion. Joining Forrester and Powerless Friendless by the 189k.n.o.bbly hull of the ship, he gazed up in wonder at the brightly coloured spikes and spines and the smooth curves of its hull.

'It's incredible,' he murmured.

Powerless Friendless extruded a pseudo-limb and caressed the ship's skin.

It seemed to bend slightly under the pressure of his tentacular fingers.

'No sign of any power,' he said. 'I was half afraid that they might have found a way to turn the engines on, but without the nexus '

'The nexus?' Bernice asked, but Powerless Friendless turned away.

Cwej ran his hand over the hull as well. Turning to Powerless Friendless, he asked, 'What was it armed with?'

'Klypstromic warheads,' the Hith said softly, 'quark projectors, high-power masers and long-range transdyne impellers. All the energy we saved by using the new power source was diverted to weapon systems. It was our last, best hope.'

Cwej's breath hissed out in a long impressed exhalation.

'Incredible,' he murmured. 'This ship could've won the war.'

'Tell me about it,' the Hith murmured.

'Powerless Friendless,' Bernice said, 'you mentioned that this ship had a new power source. What was it?'

'Something called an icaron ring,' he said. 'That's what the engineers called it. Apparently these icarons are particles that prefer to be in hypers.p.a.ce.

That's their natural habitat. The icaron ring kept them circulating inside a magnetic Klein bottle. The theory was that if enough energy was pumped in, they started to slip into the real universe.'

Icarons. That word was familiar. Cwej scratched his head, trying to recall what it meant. He could see from the puzzled expression on Forrester's face that it was familiar to her as well.

'Icarons,' Bernice mused. 'The Doctor mentioned them.' Her face suddenly brightened at the same time that Cwej remembered where he had heard the word before.

'Purgatory!' they exclaimed together.

'The things that drive people mad,' Forrester added. They all gazed up at the jester-coloured bulk of the Skel'Ske Skel'Ske with something approaching dread. with something approaching dread.

'Look,' Bernice said eventually, 'offhand, I can't think of any good reason to go in there.'

With no warning, fire suddenly bloomed across the hull of the ship. The three of them recoiled in the sudden heat.

'What the . . . ?' Bernice started to say as she turned, but the words dried in her mouth at the sight of the three bots pounding along the walkway towards them. They were tall, sleek, four-armed and terribly familiar.

'I can,' said Forrester, and dived through the hatch.

190.Hater Of Humans's eyestalks perked up, then dropped slowly.

'No, Doctor,' it said. 'I appreciate your efforts to help, but our agents work as cleaners in every major corporation on Earth, including INITEC. If the Skel'Ske Skel'Ske was there, we would have known about it.' was there, we would have known about it.'

'Not,' the Doctor said, 'if it was held in hypers.p.a.ce.'

There was silence around the table as they all digested the idea. Even Zebulon Pryce's eyes opened in interest.

'Explain,' Hater Of Humans snapped.

'Unlike ordinary ships, the Skel'Ske Skel'Ske was designed to be able to stay in hypers.p.a.ce with a zero power output.' The Doctor waved his hands in the air as if clutching at pa.s.sing thoughts with which he was building his theory. 'All the Interstellar Nanoatomic ITEC had to do was to leave it there, and build some kind of hypers.p.a.ce portal in their building. That way, they could get to the ship easily while still keeping it isolated from Hith s.p.a.ce. That's why your predictions were wrong about the levels of madness that should have swept the Earth by now. The particles only emerge, beaming like a searchlight across s.p.a.ceport Five, when the door is opened.' was designed to be able to stay in hypers.p.a.ce with a zero power output.' The Doctor waved his hands in the air as if clutching at pa.s.sing thoughts with which he was building his theory. 'All the Interstellar Nanoatomic ITEC had to do was to leave it there, and build some kind of hypers.p.a.ce portal in their building. That way, they could get to the ship easily while still keeping it isolated from Hith s.p.a.ce. That's why your predictions were wrong about the levels of madness that should have swept the Earth by now. The particles only emerge, beaming like a searchlight across s.p.a.ceport Five, when the door is opened.'

'A ship in hypers.p.a.ce on Earth!' Beltempest said, stunned. 'It's never even been attempted before. The amount of power required to keep it there, so close to a planetary core, would destroy the planet entirely!'

'Not with this ship,' the Doctor said. 'Remember: it likes being in hypers.p.a.ce. It prefers prefers it. With the engines off, it's almost impossible for it to be anywhere else.' it. With the engines off, it's almost impossible for it to be anywhere else.'

'But the icaron radiation is still escaping,' Hater Of Humans said. 'Our predictions may have been wrong, but humans are still going mad. If the ship was in hypers.p.a.ce . . . '

'Whoever is in charge of taking it apart has to get to it,' the Doctor persisted.

'The portal has to be opened in order to get the workers to and from it, and to get components back and forth. If they'd known about icarons driving people mad they could have fitted a double door at least, but they obviously haven't, despite ' He glanced over at Pryce. ' despite the evidence. If your ship is in the INITEC building on Earth, then the urgent thing is to switch the icaron power source off. Can you do it?'

In reply, Hater Of Humans beckoned to Hopeless Itinerant, who picked up the box at his feet and slithered forward, placing it on the table in front of Hater Of Humans, who said: 'In this box is a control nexus for the Skel'Ske Skel'Ske.

As with much of our technology, it is a living being, genetically engineered for its task.'

'Is it intelligent?' the Doctor asked, intrigued.

'To a certain extent,' Hater of Humans replied. 'These mechanisms require some measure of self-determination in order to carry out their tasks. This one 191is more intelligent than most, as it has to control the functions of our most advanced craft.'

'A spare, I presume?'

'The original was on board the Skel'Ske Skel'Ske,' Hater of Humans admitted, dipping its head. 'We must presume that either the pilot or the navigator stole it.'

'And their names were Homeless Forsaken Betrayed And Alone and Powerless Friendless And Scattered Through s.p.a.ce,' the Doctor said quietly.

'How did you know?' Hater Of Humans was incredulous.

The Doctor just shook his head. 'It's a small universe,' he said. 'I met one of them on '

He was interrupted by Zebulon Pryce, who calmly leaned forward and picked up the box.

'Put the nexus down!' Hater Of Humans screamed.

'Am I right in thinking,' Pryce said casually, 'that this organic device is the only thing that can switch the icaron generator off?'

'Put it down down!'

Pryce's long fingers flicked the lid of the box up. Something shifted inside, and he reached in. A thin, piercing shriek filled the room, making Hater Of Humans, Hopeless Itinerant and the two guards flinch.

'Am I right?' he repeated, his voice calm and level.

'Yes,' Hater Of Humans said tightly. 'It is our last hope. Put it '

'And if it is destroyed, then thousands, if not millions of people will go mad and kill each other?' He withdrew his hand from the box. He was holding a small creature shaped rather like an Earth cuttlefish. Its skin was slimy and orange, and its three stalked eyes had a nasty gleam in them. It twisted in Pryce's hand and sank its cogwheel teeth into his palm. He smiled slightly as the blood trickled down his arm.