Chapter Twenty
Tellisn stood in the center of the control room, hands resting on the console.
"Everyone had better hold onto something," said the Doctor. "This could be rough." To Tellisn, he added, "Are you sure about this? As a natural telepath you could be the most severely affected."
"I am sure, Doctor. Whenever you're ready." Tellisn closed his eyes and faced the eastern wall. The air in the console room seemed to stop moving, and even the hum of the instruments quieted, as if in anticipation.
"All right." The Doctor looked around at the others, and his hands ran over the controls.
He pressed the final switch home, staggered, and yelled, clutching his head. Gamra and Alendar sagged against the walls. Victoria fell to her knees and moaned. Jamie almost collapsed, and ended up clinging to the hatstand. Cerf looked around in bewilderment. He could feel nothing.
Tellisn's knuckles went white on the edges of the console. He arched his back and screamed.
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On the Chip, Seven's head snapped up.
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"One... here at Palace..." Tellisn's voice was almost inaudible, but simply saying the words helped his concentration. His head rang with the message Surrender. Sweat ran down his face. "Extreme emergency. Under attack by..."
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Seven's mouth moved with the words. Her hands entered coordinates into the targeting computer and Forty-Two, acting slowly as if entranced, armed the missiles.
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The TARDIS was resisting. Blue lightning blazed around the cell. A soldier, touched by the lightning, fell soundlessly to the floor.
The blue fire roared in the glowing voids through which Sode's heart had once surveyed his strange world. He whispered, "Surrender."
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"Fire." The word grated horribly, and Tellisn collapsed. Blue lightning played around his head. Cerf darted to the console and keyed in the sequence the Doctor had showed them.
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Sode howled in fury and the dungeon filled with blue fire.
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Above the atmosphere the beam, now concentrated solely on the TARDIS, became almost visible. Then five rays lanced from a point inside the atmosphere and coalesced at another point just inside the ship's hull. There was a slow, silent explosion, perfectly spherical in the vacuum.
The telepathic beam winked out.
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Around the palace Phestans were sitting up and blinking in the sunlight, wondering what had happened. Untethered dragon floats bobbed in the breeze.
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In the TARDIS, Jamie and Victoria helped the Doctor to his feet. "Doctor? Are you all right, Doctor?"
"Yes, yes, thank you," said the Doctor, mopping his head with his handkerchief. "And how about you?"
"We're fine," said Jamie.
"Speak for youself," said Victoria. "It was awful."
"Well, a' dinna say it wasn't," said Jamie.
"Of course it was," said Victoria. "But we're all right now, aren't we, Jamie?"
Jamie mimed exasperation. "That's what I said!"
The Doctor had moved over to the other side of the console, where the Guards, now somewhat recovered, had helped Tellisn into a chair. Cerf, having located a first-aid kit, was busy rebinding the telepath's arrow wound.
Jamie, seeing he wasn't needed, went outside. The Onemind's victims were unconscious where they had fallen, and Sode was sprawled half on the stairs and half on the floor, with his eyes closed. There was a strange smell in the room, like lightning.
Jamie prodded the nearest soldier with his foot and, recieving no response, poked his head back into the control room. "Well, it's gone, all right, whatever it was."
"Oh, splendid," said the Doctor.
Tellisn nodded weakly, looking up at the ceiling. "It is, isn't it," he said. "It's gone now." His eyes closed.
"There's some rubbish outside, Highness," said Jamie, jerking his thumb back over his shoulder. "D'you want to do anything with it?"
Cerf came out, followed by everyone who could stand. Victoria shrank away from the fallen Phestans. "Are they dead?"
"I don't think so," said Cerf, checking the pulse of the man in the T-shirt. "No, just knocked out."
"The whole business was probably hardest on Tellisn," said the Doctor.
"Will he be all right?" said Victoria.
The Doctor glanced back at the TARDIS and nodded. "I'm sure he will. Remember, he was trained for this sort of thing."
Gamra and Alendar, having located another giant padlock, three sets of handcuffs, and assorted lengths of chain, were having a quiet arguement over which items would be best applied to Sode. Cerf, seeing the dilemma, settled it by using everything. The others watched the operation in silence, and then Jamie whistled. "You're no takin' any chances, are you?"
Cerf surveyed his handiwork. "What do you bet he'll just break out again?"
"Shouldn't think so," said the Doctor. "That extra strength was probably just another effect of his possession by the Onemind."
There was a clatter from the stairs and Elfik and Kapik tumbled into the dungeon, chorusing, "What happened this time?"
"His Highness can tell ye," said Jamie. "What are you going to do now, Cerf?"
"Hmm," said Cerf. "First I'm going to lock Sode in one of these cells."
"Chains and all?" said Tellisn from the TARDIS doorway, and everyone started talking at once. The big Phestan was standing unsupported and looked much improved.
"Yes, chains and all," laughed Cerf when order had been restored. "After that I'm going to call the Thane and negotiate the independence of the Ten Thousand Islands. Then I'm going to have the space program stepped up. It's too bad about Sode. I mean Hron -- you know what I mean. He's going to be in deep water, especially after the Thane hears about what's gone down. It might have been kinder for the Onemind just to kill him."
"Does he not deserve whatever he gets?" asked Jamie.
"Oh, sure," said Cerf. "It's only that justice is such a difficult thing to pin down. If we can get rid of the threat he's created completely but without rancor, I'd say that's probably a good start. And after that..." He looked uncertainly at Tellisn.
"Continue your father's tradition," said Tellisn. "Rule as he would have done -- as he wanted to do. The people are to the Emperor what the Emperor is to the people." He walked towards the stairs and, without further ado, vanished into thin air.
"Sound advice," said the Doctor.
"He quoted my father again," said Cerf. Then he shook his head. "What about you? What are you going to do? Something that involves staying here, I hope?"
"Oh no, we really must be off," said the Doctor, patting the side of the TARDIS proudly. "Next stop, the Pleadies."
"Or wherever," said Jamie. Victoria giggled.
Cerf eyed the battered old police box. "Shall I have some men come and move your ship out of the dungeon?"
"Oh, I don't think that'll be necessary," said the Doctor.
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