Things are developing. Kim and Tegan seem to speak the same language, and not only due to the TARDIS – and the Doctor is relaxing into a firm belief that he will have his missing parts soon.
But isn't it dangerous to relax?
Author's mutterings: Consider this an interlude before things turn hectic…
Part six
It took only the briefest orders to a discreet servant to make sure there were plates and room for two guests at the breakfast table and without much hesitation, the three sat down at the table. Kim noted that she had long ago abandoned traditional Japanese cushions for real chairs when it came to eating in a relaxed manner and quietly, Tegan agreed with the attitude.
Kim had not overestimated the impression made by the table of food. The serving was indeed made to accommodate just about every taste and culinary desire that a human – or a feline – could have. Kim said it herself, thus saving Tegan the lame joke, as she observed that nobody had ever served her mice, neither raw nor cooked.
The dishes were roughly divided into two kinds; the Japanese and the more continental kinds, as Tegan saw it.
The Japanese breakfast was the classic style with various fish, vegetables and rice, and Tegan briefly hesitated when she saw how Kim poured a raw egg yolk over a bowl of rice and started to scoop up the mixture with glee. But then her attention was attracted by a plate with various smoked game and lamb, sitting challenging next to a basket with still warm bread and a plate of butter.
Soon after, her mouth full of delicious food, Tegan observed that the Doctor had endeavoured into the Japanese food and was showing off an extraordinary good control of the chopsticks. Kim also had a natural grip on them, but Tegan felt safer with good old knife and fork and was happy to discover that such utensils were also available.
"So, what is so bad about this place that makes you want to leave then?" Tegan asked between mouthfuls of food. "I mean, if this is a normal breakfast, it's pretty good."
"You want the true or the polite answer to that?" Kim asked, her emerald eyes revealing no sign of offence. "Your choice."
"Erh... Well, if you don't mind," Tegan said hesitantly as she munched on a slice of smoked lamb and tried to ignore the admonishing looks from the Doctor. "Well, the Doctor has told me that you are in for an arranged marriage to some old man."
"Count Matsudaira Nobunaga," Kim replied, balancing some vegetables on her chopstick and speaking in a light tone. "He has been a great man in Honshuan politics and his family is a very old and honoured one in our world."
"What's the problem then?"
"That my father is having me marry him because I cannot bear children and Matsudaira has both wives and concubines, both having produced lots of heirs," Kim explained, also ignoring the tense glances from the Doctor. Her tone was still a disinterested and calm one. "And he likes to own pretty things."
"Oh."
"Yeah, and it also solves my fathers problem about having me running about, trying to escape from my palace and my destiny. Highly improper, I think."
Tegan cast a sidelong glance at Kim and noted that she was not looking subdued at all. In fact, she was smiling. "You are taking it pretty well," she observed. "I'm not sure I could."
"Hmm, no. I am not taking it well, not at all in fact," Kim replied, still smiling, but Tegan noted that the tail was lashing gently again. "I have learned about the world only to be cut off from it, forever a prisoner on an island with a dirty old man. And I expect to be attempted conditioned into submission before the marriage is to take place. That, I think, would be a nasty fate for most anybody. But I have a chance now to escape, thanks to you two."
"Oh, don't mention it," Tegan said with an insecure smile. "I think it's the Doctor you'll have to thank."
"And I will be taking that cord in return for services rendered," the Doctor said with another little smile as he deftly tossed some piece of meat into the air and catching it again with his chopsticks before stuffing it into his grinning mouth.
"In other words, everybody stands to win," Kim said. "So why wouldn't I be happy?"
"No, why not. But still, this is great food." Something about the way, Tegan pointed this out, made it clear that it was better than the food she had on a daily basis.
"So," Kim said, trying to mimic the Doctors attempt with the chopsticks. "When the tech-guy comes, you can explain what it is that you need. Then he will most likely supply it and then you can fix that craft of yours, the, uhm, tahdeece. And within a few hours, maybe a few days, we are off from here, right?"
"Something like that," the Doctor murmured, looking slightly uncomfortable. "But we cannot leave before I have used the cord to repair the TARDIS. It may take a little time."
"When he says a little time, prepare for a month or more," Tegan warned Kim with a grin.
"A month?" Kim repeated dumbly, looking anything but pleased and suddenly making it obvious to the two guests that she really did have whiskers as they stood out from her face. "The wedding is in five weeks time," she continued nervously. "I have to be out of here by then!"
"And you shall be," the Doctor said calmly. "Don't worry."
"Easy for you to say," Kim muttered, trying to regain her dignity. "You won't be forced into a marriage like that."
"No, but if we are still here when that time comes, we could be in a spot of trouble as well," the Doctor pointed out. "So you see it is in everybody's best interest that our problems are solved before that time."
"I wouldn't worry one bit," Tegan informed Kim. "The Doctor always saves the day!"
"I really hope so," the feline said, regaining a smile and then turning to the Doctor. "So, what are you a doctor off anyway? Medicine? Science?"
"Ah, some of this, a little of that," the Doctor replied airily.
Before Kim could enquire further, there was a faint knock on the door. Even if most of the place was in a distinct Japanese style, the doors of Kim's quarters were not sliding doors.
"Yes?"
A woman in a grey uniform entered, carrying a small case and bowing deeply to the princess and immediately after for her guests.
"Good morning, your imperial highness," the woman said, her face kind but stern. "I am Mrs Connie Walken, the chief engineer of the palace, you have sent for me?"
"Yes, chief engineer Walken," Kim said, suddenly with an air of authority that added several years to her appearance. "I have some requirements for supplies in order to pack the electronics that I need to bring to the Matsudaira castle."
"Very well, your imperial highness," Mrs Walken said. "Please just let me know what to do."
"This," Kim said, indicating the man next to her, "is the Doctor. He is a specialist who has accepted to aid me in my packing. He will instruct you about the parts needed."
"Ah, yes," the Doctor said, immediately accepting his part. "Perhaps we could go next door and settle the matter while the imperial highness takes her breakfast with her friend? There is really no need to disturb them."
"With your permission," the chief engineer arched an inquisitive eyebrow at Kim.
"Granted," the sheerar said. "Please do. And when you're done, please have the Doctor return here."
"Very well, your imperial highness," Mrs Walken said again. Then she bowed and left the room, beckoning the Doctor to follow, which he did.
The door had barely closed when Kim seemed to deflate slightly. Then she looked at Tegan and burst out laughing.
"What?" Tegan asked, swallowing her food.
"Oh, I just love that over inflated imperialistic super-ego crap! Did you see that poor thing crawl along the floor boards?" Kim made a gesture as if wiping her eyes from mirth. "It really makes no sense at all. How the majority of the population can be so eager to accept this kind of high-and-mighty, I really have no idea. One would suspect they like it that way…"
"Guess so."
"Yeah. Beats me, though. But the Doctor was pretty apt at accepting his role as my advisor. Bark at somebody here and they'll jump and wag their tails!"
"Like I said, this place does have advantages," Tegan said, leaning back heavily into her chair. "Hell's teeth, I am so full. I could burst…"
"Doesn't he feed you? The Doctor?" Kim asked.
"Not really, if I want something, I'll have to cook for myself. He doesn't do that much."
"Cook?" Kim asked, also seeming to give up on eating any more. "Where? In your taah… Craft?"
"Oh, it's bigger on the inside than on the outside," Tegan admitted airily, trying not to look too smug. "There's plenty of room."
"I see," Kim said, obviously not realising that it was the actual truth.
"Really," Tegan grinned.
"Well, then it's just opposite of this palace then."
"How's that?"
"It's much more claustrophobic on the inside than on the outside!"
Tegan laughed at that and the two girls found each other communicating as if they were old friends. Soon Tegan was telling Kim about some of her more recent adventures with the Doctor, including the sad tale about how they had recently lost a friend named Adric.
Now they were three people travelling together in the TARDIS; the Doctor himself, Tegan and a woman named Nyssa, but the latter was currently staying on a planet named Valaron to take part in a scientific conference. Before Kim really came around to ask more about this, Tegan began to explain as best she could about the Doctor. Kim listened with fascination, only interrupting to admit that she had never heard of Gallifrey.
But the princess was intrigued to learn that Tegan was from Earth – and from the past, having travelled for some time with a Time Lord. The Doctor.
o o o
The two withdrew to an adjacent room where their talk continued as Kim now told her story while discrete servants cleared out the breakfast table.
"So you see," Kim finished. "If I hadn't had the good fortune to have Maryah as a teacher for almost four years, I would not have learned about the alternatives to this life. Perhaps I would have submitted more willingly to the will of the emperor, but I really doubt that. Maryah was a free-willed woman and she showed me much that she was not supposed to before the emperor discovered. And by then," she added with a feral grin, "it was too late!"
"What happened to Maryah?" Tegan asked.
"Oh, she was exiled," Kim sighed. "Directly punishing her would have been too embarrassing for all, and admitting that she had placed dangerous thought in my head. But she was sent to teach in one of the colonies. She writes from time to time, and even if the letters are monitored, I really think she has a good life there. She married about two years ago and last I heard she had become a mother."
"So the point was," Tegan said, popping another delicate chocolate flower into her mouth, "that you were supposed to be a well educated thing to be wed away by this father of yours then?"
"Something like that. But then I learned that those rules do not apply for the masses. For the people. And, well, I was jealous." Kim only just beat Tegan to the last of the delicious chocolates. "Gotcha! Well, but Maryah's bad education has made me an obstinate child. Very sad for the emperor. Very nasty, very improper."
"Too bad for him," Tegan said, watching as the last chocolate disappeared.
"Yeah, like I said-"
"Hello, ladies," the Doctor's arrival interrupted Kim as he entered, looking very satisfied.
"I know all about you now!" Kim said, gazing levelly at him.
"Oh you do, do you now?" the Doctor did not seem bothered. "That is a lot to know."
"Undoubtedly, milord gallifreyan."
If the Doctor took any offence from Kim knowing this, he didn't say. In stead he helped himself to one of the crisp rice biscuits on the table and beamed at the two of them. "She is quite a capable person, that imperial engineer, Mrs Walken. And I just think that she can provide the cord needed for the old girl."
"That would be the TARDIS?" Kim enquired, now finally having the word right.
"Precisely. She can have the cable ready within a few days and then, shortly after, the TARDIS should be ready for take-off again."
"In other words, everything is on route to a happy ending," Kim suggested, proffering the tray with the last biscuits.
"With a little luck, yes."
"Care for some entertainment, a game or some such while you wait?" Kim asked. "After all, this is an imperial palace and I can summon some of the artists who usually play the gagaku."
"Gaga what?" Tegan asked.
"Gagaku, it is an old Japanese term for music played for the court," the Doctor helpfully informed.
"Very good, Doctor," Kim smiled. "It is. Is speaking Japanese also one of your seemingly endless abilities?"
"Not really, no," the Doctor replied, looking smug. "But I was told by princess Okiko of Japan somewhere in the early sixteenth century."
"That was the princess who later became regnant empress?" Kim asked, impressed. "You have seen her? She is said to have been very beautiful!"
"She was a very nice person, as I recall," the Doctor conceded. "And she taught me much about Japanese tradition, including the gagaku."
"You've seen the world, huh?" Kim said, smiling. "One of the fringe benefits of being a Time Lord with his own TARDIS, I suspect."
"Something like that, yes."
"So, would you like to experience some contemporary gagaku?"
The Doctor seemed more interested than Tegan, but the princess seemed so delighted at the prospect of the traditional music that they both decided to join her in one of the small gardens after she had summoned the musicians.
o o o
Elsewhere in the huge palace, there was a soft knock on a door.
"Come", came the short reply.
A woman in a grey uniform entered, carrying a small case and bowing deeply to the man behind the desk. "Your Excellency wished to see me?"
"Yes, Mrs Walken," Chancellor Ashim said levelly, scrutinizing the woman before him. "I should very much like you to tell me everything you know about the two guests in the princess' wing!"
o o o
To be continued…