The Doctor headed out of a cavern, mopping his face with a handkerchief. He was still on the ceiling, supported by the one remaining antigravity unit. The other three were on the ceiling of the cave he had just left, where they would stay until they ran out of energy, and the copper case of tritium bombs was in another cave several corridors away. Below him, on the floor, the dust was undisturbed, leaving no clues behind.
The Doctor looked around. This tunnel, too, was familiar, but everything looked different from this perspective. A vision nagged at his memory; great caverns, a stone door... something to do with aikido.
That was it. The aikido school. All of a sudden he knew where he was. Now, had good old Sarchas built his school in existing caverns, or had they been excavated for him? Only one way to find out. He headed off towards the tunnel that led to the great cavern under the lake.
-
Jamie was hustled into one of a row of ancient cells, barred on three sides and backed by the red tunnel wall. Tellisn was thrown into the cell on the right of Jamie's, and grids of bright, cheerful copper bars clanged shut behind them.
"Jamie!" cried Cerf, leaving the opposite wall of the cage on the left of Jamie's, where he had been conversing with some other prisoners through the bars. "Are you all right?"
"Right as you are, Alexander," whispered Jamie, winking. "You're supposed to know I've been traveling. I've been to England, Atlantis, Scotland, Tibet, Skaro, Telos, and the Moonbase, which isn't on a moon at all, it's just called that."
Cerf motioned toward Tellisn, who had seated himself in the rude bunk in the back of his cell, and was watching them. "What's he doing in there?"
"I dunno," said Jamie. "He asked me three questions and then his General came in, and I swear the man was mad. Called the subcommander there a traitor and told the guards to lock him up with us. Called us spies, too."
"Oh." Cerf almost laughed. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Imagine us being taken for spies. I suppose I'm the last person they expect in here. Listen, these are Tkar Elfik and Bar Kapik Shotith. They were two of my father's astronomers."
Jamie was getting an idea of the way Phestan names were used. Cerf spoke aloud: "Elfik, Kapik, my younger brother, James Robert McCrimmon. He prefers to be called Jamie."
The two astronomers were both in the same cell, the last in the row. Elfik was the taller of the two, perhaps in her forties, with her light brown hair in a loose bun. Kapik was younger, although not by much, and her black hair was cut short. They were both wearing white prison uniforms, and they looked awed to be in the presence of their Emperor, and puzzled about the strange company he was keeping. Jamie waved at them through the bars, and gave Cerf a nettled glare. Who'd said Jamie had to be younger?
"They know who I am," whispered Cerf. "They ended up down here the day Hron routed the royal family. That proves he's involved in this."
"Right," said Jamie. He counted on his fingers. "Now all we have to do is escape from here without raising all the alarms in the place, find Victoria and the Doctor, get out of the caves, break into the palace..."
"Yeah," said Cerf, completely missing the sarcasm. "Won't be easy, though. You can't dig at this floor, and we're deep underground anyway. Can't bend the bars. Can't squeeze between them, not even Kapik. My needler gun is no use except to stun people. The lock needs a key and I've got nothing to pick it with. The handcuffs are too strong for me. Did you try them?"
"Aye," said Jamie. He moved to sit on his bed. But Cerf said, "Wait a minute."
Jamie came back. Cerf looked nervous. He glanced at the two astronomers. "Jamie," he said. "You know how you said you came from a long ways off?"
"Yes."
"I thought that meant Krakor. You do know where Krakor is?"
Slowly Jamie shook his head.
"Well. It's the continent on the other side of the ocean. But you come from farther away than that, don't you?"
Cerf dropped his voice to a whisper. "Listen, Jamie, I've got to know. As the son of an Emperor, and as a man myself, I've got to know. Are you from this planet at all?"
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Short chapter -- sorry...