'Good,' snarled Morbius. 'They'll stay on-planet for a while performing their usual humanitarian aid nonsense, sentimental swine. By the time they realise we've gone, it'll be too late.'

'Aren't you worried?' persisted Grimoire. 'They're not all that many planets behind us now. They'll catch up soon and we'll be back where we started.'

Grimoire was the only member of Morbius's entourage who dared talk to him like this. Sometimes it seemed he enjoyed provoking the Time Lord into one of his ungovernable outbursts of anger. In fact, Grimoire's icy soul drew a little warmth from the Time Lord's fiery rages. Morbius had threatened to kill him several times, but Grimoire had no fear of death.

He was dead already.

Morbius responded as predictably as usual.

'No need to remind me of that, you moronic ghoul!' he screamed. He stalked towards Grimoire and glared menacingly up at him. 'But they're not going to catch up with us, are they?

We're going to smash them, just as we smashed that city out there!' He pointed a quivering finger at the fiery remnants of Electra on the scanner screen.

'We are?' said Grimoire sceptically. 'According to Intelligence, they've a.s.sembled a pretty powerful battle fleet by now!'

'We still outnumber them!' howled Morbius.

'Yes, but for how long? They're getting stronger all the time, and we're getting weaker. Every time they liberate a planet, they gain new recruits. Every time we conquer one, we have to detach men and ships to hold it down and '

'Shut up!' screamed Morbius. Controlling himself with a mighty effort, he stalked across to a desk, grabbed a sheaf of scrawled orders and thrust them at Grimoire. 'There, does that calm your pettifogging fears?'

Grimoire studied the orders, his burning red eyes widening a little in surprise.

'You're sure?'

'Of course I'm sure.'

'All of them?'

'All of them!'

'You realise what that means?'

'Just do as you're told. Now, get to the control room and give the general order for lift-off and send those orders! Send them as soon as we leave the planet.'

As he stalked along the corridors towards the control room, Grimoire reflected, almost admiringly, that Morbius, ever the great gambler, was staking everything on one last throw of the dice. It would be interesting to see how it turned out. Not that it mattered, of course.

Nothing did.

'Evil!' said old Maren. 'Evil approaches. Destruction and death! I sense it!'

She stood at the mouth of the cave that led to the Temple of the Flame, Ohica at her side. A semicircle of Sisters stood behind them in the cave mouth.

'Who comes, Reverend Mother?' asked Ohica.

'A thief! An army of thieves. The day I have always feared has arrived. They come to steal the Elixir of Life.'

'What must we do?'

'Wait!' ordered Maren. 'At present they are in distant s.p.a.ce, at the very edge of the reach of my senses. I can do no more than detect them. When they are closer they shall feel my power.'

She turned to the little group of acolytes behind her.

'Form the Circle, Sisters! Begin the Chant of Death!'

Soon a low rhythmic wailing arose from the cave mouth, echoing eerily through the mountain gorges. A mountain eagle flew within range of the sinister sound, checked and twisted for a second, then plummeted dead to the ground.

The chanting went on.

'Why?' screamed Morbius, in yet another of his rages. 'Why did you bring the fleet out of hypers.p.a.ce so far from Karn?'

Beside him Grimoire suppressed a smile, enjoying the Marshal's latest tantrum especially since, for once, someone else was the target.

The fleet navigator, a scrawny, red-faced man with the broken-veined nose of a drinker, was a cashiered Denali s.p.a.ce fleet officer. His navigational skills had never been first cla.s.s, and decades of determined drinking hadn't improved them. When calculating the hypers.p.a.ce jump to take them to Karn he had played it very, very, safe.

'It's a tricky business, Marshal, hypers.p.a.ce navigation,' he whined. 'One tiny error and you can finish up millions of light-years beyond your target. Either that or in the middle of a planet.

Didn't want to risk losing your fleet for you, did I?'

Morbius knew that what the navigator was saying was true hypers.p.a.ce navigation was was tricky and hideous accidents had occurred. But he also knew that a better navigator would have come out of hypers.p.a.ce much closer to Karn. tricky and hideous accidents had occurred. But he also knew that a better navigator would have come out of hypers.p.a.ce much closer to Karn.

The trouble came, he thought, from having to work with an army of mercenaries. There were plenty of experienced killers available. More technical and scientific skills were hard to come by. He'd approached the Denali, but they'd refused to have anything to do with him, something about a conflict of interest.

He'd had to make do with this drunken ex-Denali wreck.

Still, there was nothing to be done now. Although further from Karn than the Marshal wanted, they were still far too close to risk another jump.

'All right, set course for Karn, maximum warp. Try not to miss it. Let me know when we're in cannon range.' He scowled at the trembling navigator. 'And if the Supremo gets there before us, I'll have your head!'

'Not long now, Peri,' said the Doctor.

They were in the control cabin of the Supremo's flagship.

The cigar-shaped room was quietly busy, with white uniformed crewmen tending the complex banks of instruments that ran along the two sides of the room. At the narrower front end of the cigar was the command seat for the pilot/navigator. The Doctor and Peri were in two seats just behind him.

There was a feeling of controlled tension in the air. They were about to make the jump into hypers.p.a.ce that would eventually take them close to Karn.

'Is it dangerous?'

'Not going in. Coming out can be a bit tricky.'

'Why?'

'Well, you might not be where you want to be. Worse still, you might be where there's something else already.'

'What happens then?'

'When two objects try to occupy the same s.p.a.ce,' said the Doctor solemnly, 'the inevitable result is total annihilation for both!'

'Oh, swell!' said Peri faintly.

'Don't worry. It won't happen. Not with the finest pilot/ navigator in the galaxy at the helm.'

The pilot, a handsome young Denali officer called Taro, turned and smiled, highly delighted by the compliment. 'Thank you, Supremo, I'll try to justify your confidence.' He turned back to his controls.

Peri was suddenly aware of the Doctor's instinctive gift for leadership.

'Young Taro would die for him,' she thought. 'They all would!'

Taro's voice rang out. 'Stand by for jump.'

His voice echoed from loudspeakers throughout the flagship.

'Entering hypers.p.a.ce now!'

'Brace yourself, Peri,' said the Doctor.

Peri gripped the sides of her seat and suddenly everything shifted shifted. She had a terrible sensation of having been turned inside out. Then, just as suddenly, everything was normal again.

'Was that it?' she asked.

'It was,' said the Doctor. 'Look at the scanner.'

Peri looked. Not long ago the big screen had been showing the planet Sylvana dropping away beneath them. Now all it showed was a swirling greyness.

'We are now in hypers.p.a.ce,' said the Doctor.

'How long for?'

'That's a difficult question. There'll be a sense of subjective time pa.s.sing, but it hasn't got much to do with time in normal s.p.a.ce.' He lowered his voice. 'It's a bit like travelling in the TARDIS, but without the time-travel factor.'

'Does it feel as bad when we come out of hypers.p.a.ce?'

'Worse,' said the Doctor cheerfully. He saw Peri's stricken face and said, 'Not really. Same but different.' He leaned forward to speak to the navigator. 'When we do come out, I'd like to be not too near and not too far. Near enough to reach Karn pretty quickly, far enough to a.s.sess the situation if Morbius is there before us.'

'Very good, Supremo,' said Taro confidently. 'I'll bring her out at the extreme limit of scanner range.'

The Doctor sat back. 'Won't be long now, Peri.'

They settled back to wait.

'Planet Karn on scanner screens, Marshal,' said Morbius's navigator. With considerable relief he added, 'No sign of any other ships.'

'As well for you. Take the fleet into close geo-stationary orbit above the Castle of Karn. Send for the a.s.sault craft commander and his number two.'

Minutes later, a huge bearded mercenary hurried into the room, a smaller scrubbier one at his heels.

'Right, Gorgo, Nate, here are your instructions. As soon as we're in range, you take the a.s.sault craft and a squad of picked men and capture the Temple of the Flame. Here's a map: it shows you its position in relation to the Castle.'

'Right, Marshal, leave it to me and Nate.'

'And watch yourselves with those d.a.m.ned women they're dangerous. The last squad I sent after them never came back.

Kill the lot of them no, keep one or two alive, we may need information.'

'Right, Commander.'

As they hurried down the corridor, Gorgo said, 'We're in luck.'

'We are?'

'Soft option, taking out a bunch of old women.'

'May not all be old neither,' said Nate with his usual leer.

'Might be time for a bit of fun before we kill 'em.'

Gorgo gave him a punch on the shoulder that nearly knocked him over.

'You wouldn't care if it was after, you randy little b.u.g.g.e.r.'

Chuckling, they went on down the corridor.

Neither had very much longer to live.

Minutes later a hatch in the bottom of the flagship opened. The stubby silver a.s.sault craft detached itself and drifted down towards the rocky surface of Karn.

Morbius and Grimoire watched it on the scanner.

'Sure you sent the right two?' asked Grimoire, half-hoping to provoke another explosion of rage. 'Nate and Gorgo aren't too bright.'

But Morbius only shrugged. 'Killers don't need brains.