Oh G.o.d! All the G.o.ds! GET ME OUT OF HERE!

Don't you understand? I've been in here so long! No no, not just the last month, but for years! YEARS!

Don't you understand? They put me in here because of my brain! Because of the way my brain works! When they found out I could move things with my mind, they put me in here! 'Nothing more dangerous than a slave with a weapon,' they said, even though I could barely lift a coin with my mind, a speck of dust with my mind. They put me in here WHERE IT'S COLD!

Ican'tmovel'mlockedinherelcan'tgetoutlcan'tspeak ALLICANDOISTHINK!

THINK! And everything's so jumbled, none of it makes any sense. I can't get anything to work! Don't you understand? This thing is supercooled! A life-support capsule! It ought to be dark in here, it ought to be silent in here, I ought to be asleep in here, but instead MY BRAIN IS WORKING FOUR THOUSAND TIMES FASTER THAN IT OUGHT TO!.

I don't care who you are or what you are! JUST GET ME OUT!

I keep reaching out to you, and you don't understand! I keep trying to protect myself, and you still couldn't work it out! GET ME OUT FOR G.o.d'S SAKE!.

YES I'm a Kapteynian! Of course I'm a Kapteynian! Nothing more dangerous than a slave with a weapon! Nothing more dangerous than a slave who IS A WEAPON! Don't you understand? The daimyo can't open the pod they'll try to use me as a weapon! The Caxtarid won't open the pod she'll want to use this strange new supercooled psychokinetic weapon! GET me OUT!

I don't care if you don't know how! I don't know how! If I knew how I WOULD HAVE RELEASED MYSELF! You've got to listen to me! You've got to do something! It was their law, you see, any slave with psychic abilities had to be segregated, had to be safely stowed for the voyage, had to be locked away. You can't leave me in here! Every minute is like a month! It's like being 183 locked in a prison cell forever, a slave cell, with no way to open the doors from the inside, no doors at all! If you let me out, I'll be back to normal, harmless, helpless. I won't bother anyone, I promise. All of this mess fuss will be over, I promise! I won't be any more trouble!

Out!

OUT!.

GET ME OUT OF HERE!.

184.

20.Half a cat is better than none

One of Gufuu's doctors had prised the dead child from the Doctor's arms and taken the poor creature's body away. Another doctor was sitting beside the strange foreigner, trying to clean some of the dirt from his face and clothes so that he could examine the man's wounds.

The foreigner pushed his hand away. 'Go and attend to someone who needs you,' he grumbled. The physician glanced up at Gufuu, who nodded. The man bowed, gathered his dignity, and walked away.

'How did you enter my camp?' Gufuu demanded. 'Didn't my guards try to stop you?'

'They were distracted,' said the Doctor. 'So sorry. What's your plan, Gufuu-sama? Has there been sufficient slaughter, or do you still have your heart set on possessing the pod?'

'I am an inch from victory,' said Gufuu mildly. 'Umemi lies slain, his army destroyed. And the monastery has no warrior monks. The pod will shortly be in my grasp, as it rightfully should be.'

'You've got what you truly wanted,' said the Doctor. His forthrightness was still admirable, as infuriating as it was! 'Umemi's power is shattered. You can easily take over his estates. Why bother with the pod? It's of no use to you.'

'Doctor,' said Gufuu, 'before, you were concerned that war might break out over ownership of the pod. Now that it's too late to worry about that, why are you still encouraging me to avoid the object?'

'Because the superior warrior knows when not to fight, as well as when to fight,' said the Doctor. 'And now is not the time to fight. You need risk nothing.

Talk to the monks. Find out what the pod truly is I'll help you.'

They were wise words, it was true. But what motive was the Doctor hiding?

'Why ought I to take your advice?'

'Because I came back from the dead to talk to you,' said the Doctor, brushing soil from his sleeve.'

'How'd you like to go back where you came from?'

185.

The Doctor looked up. 'Oh no, not you again.'

The demon woman, Te Yene Rana, was leaning over the cloth wall, grinning. 'I'm pleased to see you again.' She ducked under the curtain and came into the enclosure. 'Are you going to answer his question?'

Gufuu looked between them, mildly. The Doctor said, 'She knows what the pod is. She owned it once, and now she wants it back again. That's why she joined forces with Umemi-sama '

' who's now extremely dead,' she said. 'And so I've offered my services to the winning side.'

'And what have you told the daimyo his prize actually is?'

'It's a weapon, of course,' said Te Yene Rana. 'Or will be, with adjustments and experimentation.'

The Doctor looked at Gufuu. ' O-daimyo O-daimyo,' he said, 'she has no intention of allowing you to use the "weapon" she only wants your help in recovering it for herself, and in taking revenge on her enemies.'

Gufuu-sama smiled. 'Perhaps,' he said, 'I want her help in recovering it for myself, and in taking revenge on my my enemies.' enemies.'

With a movement as simple as a flick of the wrist, he slid his katana his katana from its sheath and slipped it through the Caxtarid's neck. Her head bounced, once, its expression of surprise almost comical. from its sheath and slipped it through the Caxtarid's neck. Her head bounced, once, its expression of surprise almost comical.

The Doctor looked up at him. Something flickered over his face, but he wisely kept his thoughts to himself.

Gufuu-sama carefully wiped the blood from his sword and replaced it in its sheath. He bent to pick up the alien's weapon. 'Some allies are far too dangerous to keep,' he commented. 'Mintsu, come here.'

Joel detached himself from a wounded samurai and scurried over. He made a quick, inelegant bow, not sure where to put his eyes.

'Do you know how to operate this weapon?' said Gufuu. He held out the laser rifle.

The Doctor stared at Joel, who swallowed hard, taking the gun from his new leader. 'Um,' he said. 'No. I mean, maybe. I need to take a look at it.'

Then do so,' said Gufuu-sama. 'Isha-san, will you remain here as our guest?'

'Of course,' said the Doctor. 'I didn't come all this way just to leave again.'

'Good,' said Gufuu, 'because I am about to send a page to the monastery, with the suggestion that we make an equitable exchange.'

Talker was furious.

'Pluck me! I can't believe you did that!' she squawked, stalking the courtyard in a rage. 'I still can't believe you did that!'

Chris looked helplessly at Dengon. The young monk said, 'Please, Niwatori-san. There are people trying to sleep, including your own comrades.'

186.

Talker folded her legs under her and bristled. 'My heart nearly jumped out through my beak,' she grumbled. 'I could have shot her, you know. It's just that I'm a gardener. I don't have any reflexes except when it comes to aphids.

So just count yourselves lucky.'

Chris turned his back on the griping bird and knelt down again beside Penelope. The young woman was still leaning against the pod, on her knees, her arms flung over its metal surface. The moon was high now, so she was a dull silhouette against the silver, her gla.s.ses highlights in her empty face.

'Penelope?' Chris said again. 'Can you hear me?'

There was still no response. He had been trying for quarter of an hour, but she had just clung to the side of the machine, shivering.

G.o.ddess, what had he done?

'Dengon,' he said, 'could you find out if there's any sign of movement from the samurai?'

' Hei Hei, Kuriisu-san.' He moved off into the blackness.

'I would have advised you against it,' said Talker, 'had you asked me.'

'Shut up, Talker!' he snapped. He put a hand to his head.

'Sorry. Listen, it's done, all right? If you can't tell me something that will help Penelope, then please just be quiet while I try to think of what to do.'

Talker pecked the ground.

Chris turned back to Penelope, and risked stroking her hair. 'What's it done to her?' he whispered.

'He doesn't want to let her go,' said Talker.

Chris looked at the bird. Talker said, 'He's scared. Trapped in there. She's the first contact he's had with the outside since he was sealed in. He doesn't want to let her go. Probably.' She pecked at the ground, agitatedly. 'I'm trying to imagine what's going through his head.'

'He? Who is he?' Chris looked down at the pod. 'There's someone inside it,'

he breathed. 'Isn't there? Is it a Kapteynian?'

'Yeah,' said Talker. 'It was because of him that we had to escape. Technician was supposed to let him out, once we were safe.'

'What is it, exactly?' said Chris.

'It's a cryogenic capsule,' said Talker. 'They didn't find out about him until we were in flight, so it was the only way they could safely store him.'

'What's his name?'

Talker stood up and crouched beside Penelope, on the other side. 'Psychokinetic!' she shouted into Penelope's ear. 'Stop it!'

Penelope's body twitched.

'Can we have our human back now, please?' said Talker, even more loudly.

Chris shouted, 'If you want us to help you, you have to let her go!'

'Let her go!' insisted Talker.

187.

Penelope s.n.a.t.c.hed her hands away from the machine, breathing frantically, looking around the darkness in confusion. Chris took her arms, gently. 'It's all right,' he said. 'I've got you. Relax.'

'Dear G.o.d,' she gulped, as though she'd almost forgotten how to breathe, how to speak. 'Oh G.o.d! We have to open that device immediately! Every minute is another day in h.e.l.l for him we cannot let it go on!'

Chris took her hands. 'Miss Gate,' he said. 'Tell us what the matter is.'

'I don't know if I understand what he told me. Not fully.' Her breathing was slowing as she calmed down. 'He says his brain is supercooled. That the galvanic messages that are his thoughts are travelling too rapidly.'

Talker said, 'That could explain a lot. Psychokinetic could hardly lift a rock.

That's why we weren't expecting the Caxtarids to realize he had psychic powers. It's illegal, for slaves. They kill you or do experiments on you. Or sell you back for more slaves without the brain power!'

'All he cares about is getting out of that thing,' breathed Chris. 'That's what this has all been about. Penelope, does he know any way out?'

She shook her head. 'No, or he'd already have used it. He's trapped.'

'That's an industrial life-support pod,' said Talker. 'Meant for animals. It's down near absolute zero in there. If we try to open the pod and we muck it up, we'll either kill ourselves, or we'll kill him.'

Chris reached down and pulled the Yakko Warner fridge magnet off the pod.

'He might have been better off if we had blown him up,' he said.

Someone shouted. They looked up.

For a moment, time was frozen, as the single arrow arced over the monastery wall. Everyone stopped what they were doing, pausing for the three seconds it took the shaft to curve, peak, fall, and finally embed itself in the wooden wall of the main hall.

Chris ran to the arrow. There was a scroll wrapped around it. He opened it, glanced at the j.a.panese writing, waved it about in exasperation, and handed it to Dengon.

The monk quickly scanned the lines, and looked up at Chris in astonishment. 'Isha-sama is alive,' he said.

'Do you know how to use that?' asked the Doctor.

Joel jumped so violently that he almost dropped the laser rifle. He was sitting cross-legged on the ground with the heavy weapon in his lap, fiddling with the safety catch.

He adjusted his gla.s.ses. 'I can probably work it out,' he said. 'It's a pretty basic design.'

'It ought to come in very handy for Gufuu's a.s.sault on the monastery,' commented the Doctor. A page had brought him a helmet full of water from the 188 stream, and he was cleaning himself up as best he could, using a now very muddy Paisley scarf.

'I can't give him a futuristic weapon,' said Joel dully. In his bewildered eyes the Doctor could see the young man he'd met in Little Caldwell, thirteen years of Joel's life ago. 'It seemed like such a good idea at the time, you know?'

'What are you going to do now?'