'Why not?' asked Peri. 'If he's willing to let them live '

'Morbius doesn't take prisoners, Peri. Surrender to him means that instead of dying in battle you get yourself executed probably after some rather unpleasant preliminaries.' He looked round the little group. 'I'm sorry to have brought you all to this.'

'Our choice, I reckon, Supremo,' said Ryon laconically.

The Cyberleader said, 'It has been an excellent battle.'

'No need for apologies, Supremo,' said Streg. 'The next best thing to a glorious victory is a glorious death in battle.'

'We shall fight to the last,' said Aril enthusiastically. 'We shall be legends!'

'Swell,' thought Peri. 'The only trouble with being a legend is you have to be dead first!'

Echoing her thought, Azanyr hissed, 'It will be a great honour to die with you, Ssupremo!'

Vogar, the Ogron chief said, 'Better kill Morbius first!'

Suddenly Peri said, 'Look! More of them!'

More battlecruisers had appeared in the sky, more a.s.sault craft were drifting down.

'Not taking any chances, is he?' said Peri.

'Well, as one of your countrymen said in the American Civil War, "What matters is who gets there fustest with the mostest!"

Besides, it won't make any real difference now. You can't be more outnumbered than outnumbered.'

'Where are they going?' asked Peri.

Instead of trying to land close to Morbius's other a.s.sault craft, the new ships were dropping out of sight lower down the mountainside.

'No landing room round here any more,' said the Doctor casually. 'There's a plateau not too far down, they can touch down there.'

'It'll take them some time to climb back up here and join in,'

said Peri.

'Not that it matters,' she thought to herself. 'Morbius doesn't need them. By the time they get here it'll all be over.'

An elegant little silver scoutship drifted down out of the sky and landed on the strip of no man's land, dangerously close to Morbius's men. The landing ramp came down and Morbius appeared, gorgeous in bright blue, scarlet and gold. Peri thought she caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure lurking in the doorway behind him.

The mercenaries raised a cheer and Morbius waved a hand in gracious acknowledgement.

He surveyed the scene with immense satisfaction. Victory was clearly his even without the tardy reinforcements whose late arrival had mildly surprised him. Still, better late than never, he thought, dismissing them from his mind.

Morbius strode majestically down the ramp. The shadowy figure, whatever it was, stayed in the ship.

At the bottom of the ramp his captains cl.u.s.tered around him and Morbius gave each one a gracious word. Then, waving aside would-be bodyguards, he began walking across the neutral ground between them alone.

It was a piece of theatre of course. Morbius knew that he was in no danger, that the Doctor wouldn't harm him during a ceasefire. But, thought Peri, it was quite effective. The rays of the late sun glinted on his scarlet sash and gold epaulettes as he strode towards them.

'Really, Doctor,' said Peri severely, 'you might have made an effort.'

He looked down at his dusty black uniform and grinned. For a moment he was the old Doctor again.

'Sorry, Peri, been a bit busy. Besides, it's hopeless trying to keep up with Morbius in the sartorial department.'

Morbius came to a halt and surveyed the battle-worn group on the castle steps.

The Doctor, Peri beside him, was flanked by his Ogron bodyguards.

Grouped around them, the tall, elegant form of Aril, the squat shape of Streg, the towering figure of Azanyr, the tall silver Cyberleader and the lean, shabby Ryon.

Morbius shook his head. 'A motley a.s.sortment all the odds and ends of the galaxy. Apart from the girl there's only one respectable humanoid in the lot.'

'Puts us ahead of you, Marshal,' drawled Ryon. 'Ain't none of your collection of sc.u.m could rightly be called human.'

Morbius's eyes flashed with anger, but he made no reply.

He turned to the Doctor. 'So we meet again, Smith! I beg your pardon Supremo!' He bowed elaborately.

'Greetings, Morbius! I beg your pardon Marshal Morbius, no, Emperor Emperor Morbius.' He bowed even more elaborately than had Morbius and added, 'Marshal of a pack of mad dogs, and Emperor of nothing!' Morbius.' He bowed even more elaborately than had Morbius and added, 'Marshal of a pack of mad dogs, and Emperor of nothing!'

Morbius looked round the battlefield, at the strewn rubble from the ruined castle, the dead and dying, the wounded being carried away.

'Empires lost can be re-conquered but death is final.

Victory is mine, Smith, admit it.'

'Your victory has cost you dear, Morbius. It will cost you dearer still before this day is over.'

'Nothing that I am not willing to pay,' said Morbius confidently 'Between ourselves, what does it matter how many of these sc.u.m I lose? I can always buy more. And with the Elixir of Life in my hands the greatest bribe in the galaxy my empire will soon rise again.' He looked arrogantly at the little group around the Doctor. 'The rest of you haven't much to say.'

'The Supremo speaks for all,' said Aril.

Morbius stared insolently at Peri. 'You seem remarkably uninfected.'

'I always was,' said Peri. 'That was a lie to trick a fool.'

'I think I'll order you taken alive,' said Morbius thoughtfully.

'It will please my men. Once I tire of you, you'll enjoy a remarkably active social life.' His glance swept around the little group. 'I want your Supremo's head on a pole at the castle gate. As for the girl, I want all of her. The rest of you I am prepared to offer quarter if you and your troops surrender now.'

n.o.body moved or spoke. After a moment, Morbius said, 'Very well. But I advise you not to be taken alive. Those that die will be the lucky ones.'

'I think you've spewed out quite enough filth for now,' said the Doctor. 'Just go away, Morbius. The ceasefire ends when you reach your lines.'

Morbius turned and walked away from them.

'Listen, all of you,' said the Doctor urgently. He issued rapid orders and the staff officers hurried away.

Morbius strolled insolently slowly across the open s.p.a.ce and was eagerly greeted by his mercenaries.

'What happened, Marshal?' one of them asked.

'Nothing. I offered some of them quarter, but they refused.

We'll kill them all anyway, but it's easier if they surrender '

Morbius broke off as he realised the man wasn't listening.

He was staring over his shoulder.

'Look, Marshal,' said the mercenary hoa.r.s.ely.

Morbius turned and saw the ma.s.sed forces of the Alliance charging straight towards him.

Chapter Five.

Victory Rea.s.sured by the fact that they had just been reinforced, with, apparently, still more reinforcements on the way, Morbius's mercenaries felt the battle was as good as over. The Alliance's desperate charge hit them like a hammer blow. Three hammer blows in fact since, following the Doctor's orders, the charge had split into three, driving wedges into the ma.s.s of the enemy, splitting them up into smaller, more manageable groups.

If the battle had ended as it was expected to, the Alliance's last fight would indeed have become a legend.

Ice Warriors. .h.i.t the ma.s.s of the enemy like living tanks, driving them apart by sheer weight, blasting them down with their sonic weapons.

Streg's Sontarans fought in small, compact units, sending a withering blaster-fire all around them, so they seemed unstoppable from any angle.

Aril and his Draconians weaved in and out of the battle like phantoms, never where you expected them to be, always returning fire with deadly effect.

Cybermen, uninspired but unstoppable, drove straight through the enemy, turned and drove back again.

Ryon and his hunters crawled from place to place, using every sc.r.a.p of cover, dropping a mercenary with every shot.

Vogar's Ogrons rampaged through the battle like creatures from a nightmare, shooting down their enemies with ma.s.sive blasters. When the power-packs failed they used the blaster-rifles as clubs, or snapped necks with their enormous hands.

The courage and dash of the Alliance forces should have won them the battle, but of course it didn't.

The reinforced mercenaries were just too many, and however many you killed, there were always more and more behind them.

Gradually the old situation re-established itself. The Alliance troops in a tight cordon around the castle, and the mercenaries pressing ever closer.

The Doctor was considering tactics for a fight through the ruined castle. There would be Hawken and his guards for reinforcement. Hawken had refused to commit his men to the general battle, insisting that his duty was to defend Lord Delmar and Castle Karn. Well, the battle would move inside the Castle quite soon.

The Doctor was also considering, quite dispa.s.sionately, methods for killing both Peri and himself before the final collapse. It was inconceivable to let either of them be captured alive by Morbius. The Doctor realised he had gone through the battle without a weapon. He stepped over the body of a dead mercenary and saw a fighting knife on the man's belt. He wrenched the knife from the belt and tucked it carefully inside his tunic. He looked around. Where was Peri, anyway? Perhaps she had already been killed.

It suddenly struck him that he'd literally forgotten the TARDIS, still here in Hawken's custody. He realised how much he'd changed. If he could regain the TARDIS, he could save Peri and as many of his troops as could reach it...

Filled with new hope, the Doctor returned to the battle.

Peri was very much alive. She had disappeared into the fighting, but suddenly she was back at his side.

'Doctor, something's happening on the far side of the battle, beyond the mercenaries' perimeter. I can hear shouting and shots, blaster-fire and projectile weapons. Some of the mercenaries are turning and shooting the other way.'

The Doctor stared at her. Then he said, 'Come on!' and sprinted for the ruins of the west tower. Only half of it had been blown away, and the Doctor shinned up the surviving half like a chimpanzee. Peri followed and the Ogron bodyguards swarmed up behind them.

Perched on the highest possible vantage point, the Doctor and Peri surveyed the battlefield. They could see over the heads of the Alliance troops, over the mercenaries to the very edge of the rocky plateau on which the castle stood.

Something extraordinary was happening. Men were scrambling over the edge of the plateau, hordes of them. Some wore formal city clothes, others the rough working garments of hunters or farmers. There was an a.s.sortment of uniforms, militiamen, police, territorial units. Peri even thought she saw the grey uniforms of the Freedonian troops who had hunted her on Sylvana. But surely Freedonia was allied with Morbius...

The newcomers' arms were as varied as the clothes they wore. Those in uniform mostly had up-to-date laser-rifles and blasters, but the others carried blasters of old-fashioned design or projectile weapons. Some only had swords and pikes and even scythes. And they kept on coming, row after row of them hurling themselves on the astonished mercenaries from behind.

The effect was devastating. Caught between the swarming newcomers and the still-formidable ranks of the Alliance, the mercenaries panicked, broke and fled.

Some made for their a.s.sault craft, and one or two ships even managed to take off. Looking up, Peri saw that Morbius's battlecruisers had vanished from the skies. Their crews had seen their Master's defeat and made off.

Peri started to go down, but the Doctor put a hand on her arm. 'Let's watch from up here, Peri. Best seats in the house.'

'Shouldn't we go down and help?'

'They don't need our help now. It's as good as over.'

He saw the disappointed faces of the Ogrons and said, 'You two can go if you like, I don't need guarding any more. You might as well get in a bit of fighting before it's all finished.'

The Ogrons showed their yellow fangs in a savage grin and bounded gleefully down the side of the tower. The Doctor and Peri watched the end of the battle. It didn't take long.

Outnumbered and overwhelmed, the mercenaries fled, died or surrendered.

It was over.

As they started to climb down, Peri brushed against the Doctor and felt something hard and angular beneath the Doctor's dusty black tunic.

'Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?'

The Doctor looked baffied. 'What?'