The Doctor and Tegan Jovanka are property of the BBC – you know the drill. Kimoto Takita and most everybody else are my creations!
The princess should have listened to her finely tuned instincts, but in stead she and Tegan ate and drank, having a good time. And while they continue to do that, the Doctor finds himself in a most unpleasant situation.
Part eight
The Doctor was made from a sturdier stuff than most humans and that was probably why he came round while still lying on a gurney, just as it was brought to a stop. He was lying on his back, head askew so that his face was turned to his right side from which several people could be heard.
"So this is the expert?" The voice, heard through as the Doctor quickly regained his full consciousness without showing any sign of it, was scornful and stressing the word 'expert' in such a fashion as to make it clear how he disdained it.
"Yes, Ashim sama," another voice replied. It was the voice of the samurai who had accosted him in the corridor. "I asked him his name and rank, but he referred only to himself as 'doctor' and denied having any military rank."
"I see. Do you have any idea where he entered the palace?"
"No, Ashim sama. But I shall continue to make enquiries."
"Do that. I want the name of the guard who let him in. His imperial majesty will be very disappointed about this. Very. I need hardly stress his concern regarding his daughter?"
"No, Ashim sama."
"Well, leave us now and try and find out about his entry."
"Yes, Ashim sama."
The Doctor, eyes still closed, heard quiet footsteps of several people leaving the room.
"Oh, and Fawcett?" the scornful voice called, making one pair of footsteps halt.
"Yes, Ashim sama?" The voice of the same samurai.
"Make sure that your men have the other woman fully under surveillance. I shall want to hear everything new about her. The princess seems to have taken a liking to her and she may prove herself useful."
"Yes, Ashim sama."
The sounds of footsteps faded away and the Doctor heard a sliding door being closed. He chanced to open an eye, just a little, to look around.
If he had expected to be alone with his captor in the room, he was disappointed. Along the wall he could see from his position, several samurai-clad men stood guard, armed with both traditional and modern weapons and obviously noticing that his eye had opened.
Sighing ever so slightly, the Doctor opened his eyes entirely and sat up on the gurney.
"You are awake, Doctor?" the voice from before sounded and the Doctor turned to see the man named Ashim. He was wearing traditional garments and had a stoic Asian face, and his almond shaped dark eyes were surveying the Doctor with somewhat less contempt than he had expected from his comments just before.
"Yes, thank you for asking," the Doctor said. Swinging his long legs off of the gurney and not being told otherwise, he got up standing. "Am I to assume I have the honour of addressing chancellor Ashim sama of the imperial court?"
"Yes." The chancellor gazed at the Doctor, trying to read him. "And uncle of her imperial highness, Kimoto sama. Are you well?"
"Yes, everything considered, I am," the Doctor said, hiding his surprise at the unexpected concern.
"Good. Please do sit down and have a cup of tea," he continued, gesturing towards a table set for two. "It will help you get over whatever pain you may feel after my men so hastily struck you down. I can assure you that their over eagerness has been noted and will have consequences."
"The chancellor is most kind," the Doctor said appreciatively and went to sit down on the cushions in front of the low table.
"I would have offered a new guest a tea ceremony," the chancellor remarked. "But time does not allow for such ceremony and we shall have to take our tea as it is."
"That will be just fine, I am sure," the Doctor assured his host.
"Good, I appreciate your kindness."
The chancellor took the small teapot on the table and poured them both steaming green tea into small earthenware cups. Then he methodically sat down the pot and took his own cup in both hands, turning it and sipping the scalding liquid. The Doctor, not unfamiliar with Japanese tea customs, did likewise, smacking his lips appreciatively at the characteristic taste of really good green tea.
"Doctor?" the chancellor asked, putting down his cup almost reluctantly. "Is that your title or your name?"
"A little of both, actually," the Doctor replied.
"I see. This is also what I have been told by the chief engineer." He looked at the Doctor. "Please do not be upset about her openness, she is required to report to me if anything strange occurs within the princess' quarters."
"I understand."
"You understand, I am sure, the importance of keeping her highness safe and secure, sheltered from outside harm?"
"But of course."
"Good." Chancellor Ashim sat for a moment, contemplating his teacup and sipping it carefully again before looking straight at the Doctor. "Then you understand that it is my duty to find out what this little affair is all about? And that I have the authority to act on behalf of his imperial majesty, the emperor of Honshu II?"
"Yes." The Doctor responded more carefully now, quietly sipping the tea and contemplating the man before him.
"The princess is not well. As a doctor, are you aware of this?"
"I am," the Doctor replied, noting that Ashim did not seem pleased about this.
"Has she told you about her ailment?"
"She has told me of her predicament," the Doctor said, meeting Ashim's look without blinking.
"I see. And what has she told you about it?"
"I am not at all sure I should be discussing this with you," the Doctor replied, putting down his cup with a forced calmness. "I don't think she would like that."
"She is sick!" Ashim exclaimed, his calmness leaving his voice. "She has a mental condition, delusions, manic behaviour, and you speak about what she would and would not like?"
"It is my impression that she is quite capable of having a personal opinion." The Doctor met the angry eyes of Ashim with calm dignity. "I really think that you should stop trying to persuade me that she is ill, milord Ashim. Considering that we both know better."
"And this is your medical opinion?" Ashim hissed, the warning evident in both his tone and his demeanour.
"It is my conclusion, yes," the Doctor said, getting up. "And now, if you don't mind, I think I should like to return to the company of her highness."
"I mind," Ashim said, also getting up. "Now, we can do this in two ways, the hard way or the easy way. The easy way, which you just seem to have passed on, is that you cooperate with me. The hard one is that I use the authority granted to me."
"I don't see in what way I have failed to cooperate," the Doctor said while several of the samurais came over, summoned by a gesture from Ashim.
"You have questioned the diagnosis declaring her highness' condition."
"I must have missed something."
"Indeed you have, Doctor."
"Yes," the Doctor agreed. "I failed to realise that you did not want an educated opinion. You just wanted another person to accept what you so profoundly misname by calling it a diagnosis and a treatment. When all you really do is to try to brainwash that poor child into submission. But I refuse to call it anything else than what it is."
"How dare you!"
"No, how dare you?" the Doctor spat back. "You, who have reached such a position of trust in a system well liked by a vast majority of the people of Honshu II. Trusted by an emperor who has grown old and weak but who has also done so much good for his people. What is it you achieve by this? Personal gratification? Wealth? You are right, I am missing something. Your behaviour does not make much sense to me."
The chancellor had grown quite pale under the onslaught of the Doctor's words. Now he frantically gestured to his guards, who immediately seized the Doctor none too gently.
"I'll have you regret this!" he yelled, spittle flying from his lips. "I'll have you take back those words and crawl before me, begging my forgiveness for your impudence!"
"How?" the Doctor asked, his voice not rising despite the guards grip and the anger in Ashim's red face. "By submitting me to the same so-called treatments as those you offer your emperor's daughter? Does he even know that they are little more than sophisticated electric and chemical torture?"
"Silence!"
"People like you always fail in the end," the Doctor went on. "What is it that makes you insist on this? Do you not have enough power? Enough wealth? Why must you-" He was interrupted as one of the samurais backhanded him across his face, a blow that would have sent him sprawling if he had not been held by two others. As it was, he tasted blood.
"Make him quiet and then have him placed in one of my private cells," Ashim ordered, turning his back on the Doctor.
"I really wouldn't do that if I were you," the Doctor tried. "We could still negotiate this situation, you know."
But the sliding door was closed behind Ashim and the samurais turned towards the Doctor. At least they didn't look as if they took any pleasure from their job as the two forced the Doctor onto his knees and a third raised a baton, aiming it carefully…
o o o
"He sure is taking his time," Kim muttered as she almost casually removed the final two Mikado-sticks. "Oh, and I win. Again."
"This is getting boring," Tegan moaned back. "You're good at it. Too good."
"Admit defeat, milady Jovanka san," Kim grinned. "And I shall show mercy."
"What's that 'san' you keep saying?" Tegan asked, getting up from her chair and stretching.
"It is a polite form of address to add to a person's name," Kim explained. "And if it is a superior, one can honour him or her by adding 'sama' instead. It's tradition, even if many here seem to have forgotten precisely why we say it."
"So, you'd be Kimoto sama then?"
"To you, I would be something like 'your most gracious and superior imperial highness and mistress of the Mikado sticks'," Kim said, bowing her head gracefully. "But how about we go to see where the Doctor has gone. I know, you said that this here TARDIS is a lot bigger on the inside, but that doesn't mean that he should take two hours finding his way, does it?"
"Two hours?" Tegan gasped. "Has it been that long?"
"One hour, forty seven minutes," Kim said with a glance onto her wristwatch. "We should go and look for him."
"Hmmm, knowing him, I say he might just have come across something vastly interesting to study in the TARDIS," Tegan observed. "I mean, he can hardly get himself lost within the corridors between here and the storage room."
"You're probably right," Kim nodded. "So, up for another game of mikado?"
"No way, then I'd rather listen to gagaku again."
"Aw c'mon, it wasn't that bad, was it?"
"What, the gagaku or the mikado?"
They were interrupted by a soft knock on the door. Kim called for the person to enter and Allindra came in, bowing first to Kim, then to Tegan. Then she turned to the princess again with worry etched into her Asian features.
"Your highness, I had heard it said amongst the staff that you had company?"
"Yes, I do. This is Tegan Jovanka, rapidly becoming a good friend," Kim introduced the young stewardess.
"And… there is another?" Allindra asked.
"Yes, the Doctor. A man in a bright attire, blond, lean."
"It is as I feared," Allindra said in a hushed voice. "I have heard that such a man was apprehended by chancellor Ashim's personal guard a few hours ago. He was taken to the chancellor's quarters and nobody I have talked to know what has happened there."
"Oh crap!" Kim exclaimed, jumping to her feet, ignoring the slight pain from her foot.
"What do we do?" Tegan asked anxiously. "Can't you just order him to let the Doctor go or something?"
"I wish I could," Kim said, her tail flailing and her ears curved back along her head. "But Ashim wouldn't have done this if he wasn't certain that I would be helpless even if I heard about it."
"I am so sorry, your highness," Allindra said, her head bowed. "I should have told you earlier, but I just didn't know."
"It's okay," Kim said though her every feature seemed to indicate otherwise. "How were you to know?"
"Can't you have your father order that Ashim free the Doctor?" Tegan suggested.
"My father?" Kim spat bitterly. "Hah! He hangs by Ashim's lips and would not change one of his orders for the world. And if he knew that it was an order that I would appreciate the change off…" She let the rest fade and Tegan understood.
"We are on our own in this," the Australian sighed.
"More or less so," Kim nodded. "But not helpless. Not at all helpless."
"What would you suggest we do?"
"For one thing, let's stop feasting and prepare for battle," Kim said tersely. Then she turned and smiled at Tegan. "Sorry, I just couldn't resist the urge to talk like some action movie hero. After all, this may well be that final showdown we all have been waiting for."
"I am, as always, at your service," Allindra reminded them both. "If there's anything I can do."
"As a matter of fact, I think there is," Kim said, a real smile slowly spreading on her feline face.
o o o
The Doctor was placed in a cell somewhere within the palace. He had been out of it for some time and had lost all sense of direction, but the sound of the door slamming had him regain his senses somewhat.
He was on the gurney again. Obviously he had been brought here, rolling on it, and unlike so many of his earlier captors, Ashim's men had not thrown him onto the floor but rather rolled the gurney into the cell and slammed the door shut. Someone had even covered him with a blanket.
Despite the comfort, the Doctor was angry. He had briefly allowed the civilised manner of chancellor Ashim to persuade him into a conversation when in fact it was quite obvious that the chancellor would not allow anything or anyone to change his mind.
The Doctor lay quite still, not opening his eyes. His keen senses told him that he was likely alone in the cell, and even if the guards had administered their 'calming down' with considerable skill, it was still a blow to the head. And the second of its kind in one day.
The Doctor carefully flexed his fingers and then ran them along his scalp, searching out the sore spot where the rifle butt had hit him earlier. It was a dent, there was even a small cut with a little dried blood, but it was not by any standards a serious injury. Then the other bump on the head, the carefully aimed one. Not much of a bump and no cuts.
Good.
Then he opened his eyes carefully and took a brief survey of his surroundings. The cell was empty, save for a bunkbed and a lidded bucket with an obvious purpose. There was no water, no food and nothing else.
Having met Ashim, he felt uncertain what to expect from the chancellor and when to expect it. All he did know was that Ashim was the one in need of treatments, not Kim.
The Doctor doubted that he had a concussion, but he chose to close his eyes, drag the blanket more closely around his slender form and rest while he could.
o o o
Kim took the proffered outfit and donned it quickly. She also put on a scarf, tying it around her head so that it hid the tabby hair from view.
Tegan also put on a uniform. The suit was grey, decorated with the crest of the Takita clan on the one shoulder: A purple bird with wings spread, face forwards in front of a huge red sphere. Tegan guessed correctly that it was supposed to be the sun.
"This way we'll look like part of the maintenance staff," Kim needlessly explained. "It would still be nigh on impossible to get out from the palace, but then, that is not our goal this time. All we need to do is to find our way to wherever the Doctor is kept."
"You make it sound easy," Tegan murmured, taking the broom offered by Allindra.
"It isn't, I know," Kim said. "But at least you don't have to worry if they catch us. I would be at the mercy of Ashim, and he doesn't show mercy easily."
"What would happen to me then?" Tegan asked.
"Either you'd disappear conveniently, getting killed immediately," Kim said nonchalantly, "or you would be discretely taken elsewhere so that the scandal can be contained. But Allindra will tell trusted employees of the emperor about this if we are caught, and that should pretty much ensure your survival."
"And you?"
"Well, have you ever heard of electric boogie?" the feline said lightly. "Do you know how to use this?" she continued, handing Tegan what looked like a small, stubby handgun.
"A gun? Yeah, I think so."
"It's a stunning device," Kim explained. "If we have to fight, I would hate to accidentally kill innocents. It shoots out small darts with electric charges and will keep anybody down for a while. Long enough for us to move on, anyway."
"Like a stun gun?"
"Nope," Kim replied. "Not precisely. This one can be put to use at a distance. You have eight charged darts, which allows for eight targets. Use it up close and you'll be fine."
"Right," Tegan muttered, watching as Kim scooped up a variety of small items and hid them under her garments. "And what are you carrying? It looks like a small arsenal."
"Amongst the emperor's biggest mistakes, second to hiring uncle Ashim," Kim said with a feral grin, "was to allow me to be trained in the martial arts. I think the idea was that I should be able to defend my husband to be. Well, I can do that, and more."
It occurred to Tegan that Kim, even in the dull uniform, seemed much more like a predator than a human. Her eyes were glistening and the tail had been lashing continuously until she hid it inside the legs of her trousers with a dissatisfied grunt.
"Let's go," Kim said in a decisive voice. "I think I know where to begin."
"Good luck, your highness, lady Jovanka." Allindra's quiet voice carried all of her sympathy and both the young women appreciated her support and thanked her before they left the room.
"Where would you begin? This place is huge!" Tegan said as they went down the corridor.
"Yeah, but I know my enemy well. I know what piece of low life scum he has working here as a spy. And I'm sure that he would know where we should go next."
"A spy?"
"Yeah, a servant who has been telling Ashim everything since day one. I didn't think he'd noticed you two," she added grimly. "But it would appear that he did and that he reported you to the slime ball chancellor. Making that mistake makes whatever happens to the Doctor my fault."
"Don't blame yourself," Tegan offered.
"I don't, not yet," Kim responded softly. "But if it turns out that he is hurt, then I will."
o o o
To be continued…