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of what they have done to us. I am going to call myself Homeless Forsaken
Betrayed And Alone, because I am. If you ever need me, that s the name I ll be
living under on Oolis.
He slithered away, leaving nothing behind him but bad memories and a box.
Daph s pseudo-limb hovered indecisively over its lid before reaching out to flip it
open. He gasped, and flinched as . . . the time tank hissed open and Dantalion s
soggy face loomed over him.
Powerless Friendless, he said, my friend, how do you feel? Hold nothing
back, describe every ache and every pain.
I . . . He paused, thinking So much information. So many memories. He
extruded a fine pseudo-limb and traced the pattern of scars along his side,
remembering every cut, every burn, every last inch of pain.
How stupid could he have been? All that time spent hiding down in the
Undertown. All that money so carefully saved up so that Dantalion could
rip out the memories of his humiliation like human dentists would remove a
rotten tooth. All for nothing. Time and time again he d busked outside the
Spaceport Five Off-world Zoo, not knowing what residual memory drove him
there. Time and time again he had crept into the INITEC building through the
unlatched window in the lower level to clean himself, not knowing that it was
from there that he had escaped in the first place. He had a score to settle. Oh
yes, by the Gods of Hithis, he had a score to settle.
My name isn t Powerless Friendless, he said quietly. It s . . . The knowledge
welled up within him: familiar, yet new. It s Daph Yilli Gar!
Dantalion nodded, unsurprised.
I will have to ask you to remain quiescent for the nonce, whilst I perform
numerous but painless checks upon your newly restored psyche. However, I
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would be interested to ascertain what your intentions might be once you leave
my humble abode?
Powerless Friendless lay back, settling into his personality as he might slip
on an old but much loved tunic.
I have some unfinished business, he said.
While Bernice tried to make Cwej more comfortable, Forrester hot-wired an-
other flitter. Bernice could see she didn t have Cwej s skill at it, managing to
lock the security systems on five of them before she hit on the right combi-
nation of wires, keys and brute force. The canopy on a dark grey company
rental model sprang open.
Come on, she said eventually, let s get him in.
Finding an area of unburned skin to pick Cwej up by was almost impossible.
In the end Bernice slid her hands under his shoulders and Forrester grasped
his half-melted boots. He groaned. His skin was feverishly hot and sticky, and
smelled of roast pork. Bernice felt her stomach churn.
Do you have any destination in mind? she asked as they manoeuvred Cwej
across to the flitter s open door, or are we just winging it from here?
There s a medic down in the Undertown. Dantalion s his name. He s an
alien: a Birastrop. I ve pulled him in on umpteen occasions for unauthorized
brainwipes and unlicensed beppling, but he s under the wing of one of the
crime lords so there s always plenty of witnesses to say he was somewhere
other than where we say he was. He used to be Surgeon Imperialis, so the
rumour goes, despite the fact that the Empress hates aliens. The rumours
don t say why he s down here now. He s a juke addict, but he s good.
They laid Cwej down in the back of the vehicle, accidentally smearing the
covers with blood and flakes of burned skin.
And we re going to him?
You have a better idea?
Loads, Bernice muttered to herself, but this is your century.
Forrester took the flitter up on a spiral path that would bring them out of
the upper entrances. Daylight streamed in like the beam of a searchlight. Ber-
nice shut her eyes against the glare, suddenly realizing how tired she was.
She couldn t remember the last time she d slept; even on the Imperial shuttle
to Earth she had lain awake, staring at the ceiling, worrying about being sep-
arated from the Doctor and the TARDIS. The moment when she knew things
were getting on top of her was when she realized she was missing Ace.
Whose stupid idea had it been to come to Earth in this era in the first place?
Oh yeah. Hers.
The flitter emerged into a rainstorm at the bottom of an immense inverted
cone. Clouds diffused the sunlight into a pearly glow. Forrester angled their
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path to hug the block s sides as they headed downwards. Within moments
they were clear of the block and heading down towards the darkness, the
canals, bridges, old buildings and perpetual rain of the Undertown.
Forrester took them down as fast as she could, plummeting like a hawk after
a mouse until she was barely ten metres from the surface of the canal. Just as
Bernice was about to suggest that it might be a good idea if they levelled out
NOW! thank you very much, she pulled them out of the dive and screamed
left into an alley perpendicular to the one that they had been heading for.
Should shake off anybody watching, she shouted over her shoulder.
Fooled me, Bernice yelled back, and I was sitting here.
The walls of the alleyway were buildings that Bernice dated to the late
twenty-first century. It was a shame her first close-up view of the Undertown
was under circumstances where she couldn t really stop to sightsee. A domed
church that must have been seventeenth-century at the latest flashed past,
followed by a stretch of transparicrete webbed with fine cracks. This place
was an architectural archaeologist s vision of heaven.
How s Chr Cwej?
Bernice forced herself to look down. His exposed skin was blistering almost
as she watched, and the cracked areas were weeping a clear fluid. She didn t
dare remove any of the ragged remnants of his robes or armour they looked
as if they d melted into his flesh.
I ve seen worse, she replied, and then, quieter, but not recently.
Not long now.
The flitter was skimming so close to the surface of the water that it was
throwing up arcs of silver spray. Privately Bernice wondered if that wasn t
likely to draw attention to them, but Forrester seemed to know what she was
doing. Of course, the Doctor always seemed to know what he was doing, but
Bernice knew how deceptive that was.
The flitter slowed, settling onto the water. Forrester coasted up to a metal
jetty that projected out from a brick walkway beneath an arched bridge. She
opened the canopy. Keeping the engine running, she said, Quick, pull him
out. I want to set this thing going as fast as possible.
Look, he s inju
I know what he is, but if you don t get him out fast then we ll all be dead.
Would that improve his condition?
It couldn t make it much worse, Bernice muttered as she carefully lifted
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