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Doctor Who: Lungbarrow - Chapter Two

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A Long Shadow

The Castellan's office, from which all security matters in the Capitol were controlled, was sparsely furnished; an impartial place with no views or windows of its own. It sat at the heart of the great Citadel, wedged like an afterthought into the ancient masonry of that august and sprawling edifice.

Castellan Andred sat at his desk, irritably tapping one finger on a stack of pending reports. The confirmation of a top-security visitor to the Capitol was overdue and at present there was nothing he could do about any of it.

Andred had been elevated to his post over a year ago, but still he felt like a novice. The shadow of his predecessor had a long reach.

There seemed to be an army of elderly Time Lords, largely indolent high-benchers, who gravitated in to see him with such regularity that he was growing suspicious that they had worked out a rota. Could he attend to a faulty service lift in Tower 3? How long before the Panopticon antechambers were refurbished? Standards in Chancellery Guard full-dress uniforms had become very lax - webbing scruffy, honours arrayed in the wrong precedence. None of this would have happened in Spandrell's day.

Most of these friendly observations were nothing to do with security at all. Andred was sure that the Brotherhood of Kithriarchs was keeping a more than wary eye on the new boy.

At the moment, he was deeply uneasy as to why the latest in this parade, the venerable Almoner Crest Yeux, had chosen such a particularly awkward time to pay him a cordial visit.

'I tried only this morning to see the President,' droned Yeux, 'and I was told she was unavailable until further notice. They tried to fob me off with that dreadful Chancellor Theorasdavoramilonithene woman, but I wasn't having any of that. I mean, it's all women on the Inner Council now. They seem to be taking over.'

'I'm on the Inner Council,' said Andred curtly.

'Yes, but forgive me for saying this, but you're the token ordinal, aren't you?'

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Andred bit back any discourteous retort. He had been trying to remember what the Almoner Crest's function actually was. The title was probably too steeped in heraldic tradition for anyone to recall. 'The President does have an immensely busy schedule,' he said.

'Oh, that's as maybe.' Yeux shifted bulkily in his seat. 'But I ran into Cardinal Perundeen immediately afterwards in the Causal Archive Record Office and he had exactly the same experience three days ago. And he still hasn't seen the President. She wasn't even at the reception for the Chelonian envoy. I mean, nobody knows what she's up to.'

To his relief, Andred saw a small light flicker on his desk. He rose from his seat. 'I'm sorry, Almoner, but I do have some pressing business of my own.'

Yeux eyed him with no apparent intention of moving. 'I mean, you of all people must know her whereabouts, Castellan. Otherwise there'd be no point in you running security at all.'

The door slid open, affording a view of the outer office where a young guard was waiting with a tall lady in a dark green robe.

Andred's hearts sank. The one person he most wanted to see was the last person he could entertain at the moment.

'Come in, Captain,' called Andred. He turned back to Yeux to find that he was already up. The Almoner Crest was staring at the lady who had followed Jomdek into the room. The captain was carrying a glass cube in front of him as if it was one of the ceremonial relics from the Panopticon museum.

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'The transduction order, sir, as you instructed,' he announced with a sideways glance at the onlooker.

'Thank you, Jomdek!' Andred snatched the cube out of his gloved hand.

Yeux, a smug grin on his face, nodded to Andred. 'Thank you for your time, Castellan. I'll leave you to your pressing business.' He gave the lady a cold stare and departed.

Captain Jomdek stayed standing to attention, his face a pool of deep embarrassment.

Andred snapped, 'I assume everything was in order at the Accessions Bureau.'

'I delivered the item. Yes, sir.'

The Castellan dabbled a finger on the communicator link and then thought better of it. 'Thank you, Jomdek. Dismissed.'

Jomdek tried to come to attention, found that he was already there, nodded his head awkwardly and left.

The Lady Leela watched the door slide shut. She was tall and proud; her red-brown hair was braided and woven up around-her head. Today she had threaded two sorts of coloured beading into the plaits that Andred had never seen before - red and dark blue.

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'The captain had magenta juice all down his tunic,' she said. As always, she managed to invest the most banal events with an inherent wonder all of her own. It always floored him.

'Shoddy discipline,' Andred grumbled weakly. He allowed himself a tiny smile. 'It isn't funny. And I told you not to come here when I'm working.'

She sat on the edge of his desk and flicked at a stack of reports. 'You do nothing else but work when you are here.'

He reached for her hand. She leant across the desk and kissed the frown on his forehead. 'You are troubled,' she observed.

'You know I can't tell you about it.'

'I know. The headman carries the secrets of his tribe on his shoulders.'

He grinned and squeezed her hand. 'If you say so.'

'Don't laugh.'

'Laughing's good for me.'

'If you are too busy, I shall speak to Romana.'

'Good,' he said. 'Then she can put you in charge.'

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She slid down to his level and met his eyes. 'I am in charge.'

'Yes, please.'

They jumped quickly apart as the door slid open.

'Mistress?'

A knee-high metallic shape was trundling into the office.

'He always does that,' groaned Leela.

Andred sat back in his chair. 'He's your dog.'

'Our dog.' She turned to look at the robotic retriever and it wagged its metal tail. Its angular bodywork had got a bit battered during its time on Gallifrey.

'K9, don't you ever knock?' said Leela.

The machine's synthetic voice had a sing-song prissiness that was by turns endearing or irritating. 'Apologies, Mistress and Master. Please resume your canoodling.'

'Never mind,' Leela intoned.

Andred sat back in his chair. 'Did you bring him or did he just follow you?'

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'News, Mistress,' K9 interjected.

'Wait, K9.'

'Our discovery.'

'I was working up to it,' she protested.

'Working up to what?' enquired Andred.

'I think it'll have to wait until...'

'It is about your Family,' she said quickly.

He tutted and looked awkward. 'Now what have they done? I know they annoy you, but...'

'Nothing, Master. They have done nothing,' interrupted K9.

'Well, that's a relief.'

Leela shook her head. 'No. That is the problem.'

He sighed. He had so much work to do. 'You'd better tell me,' he said.

She sat crossed-legged in the seat of the chair that Yeux had occupied. 'We were bored,' she began. 'There is no one to talk to. Rodan has been sent on a cross-cultural liaison course. Romana is away.'

'The President is not available,' he corrected.

'She is away.'

'Yes, but you're not supposed to know that.'

'She told me.'

No wonder Spandrell retired, thought Andred. Romana is a security nightmare.

'She did not tell me where,' added Leela.

'Good,' he said, much relieved.

'I forbade her to do so.'

'You are in charge, aren't you?' Andred declared. 'So what have you been doing?'

'I decided that I must learn more about your Family.'

'That's a bit sudden?'

She gave K9 a sidelong glance and said quickly, 'It is your heritage. Each of us should know our ancestors.'

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He nodded. He understood that her roots were far away on some benighted, primitive world that she did not even have a sensible catalogued name or number for.

'My ancestry is not very exciting,' he said. 'Just a long line of military ordinals. Several squads full. Must be something in the Loom.'

'But we have discovered a mystery.' She looked very grave.

'Affirmative,' K9 chimed in. 'An anomaly with considerable repercussions.'

'Six hundred and seventy-three years ago, one of your Cousins was a captain in the Prydon Chapterhouse Guard.'

'His name was Redred,' added K9. Castellan Andred stayed silent.

'And this Redred was sent on a mission to the House of Lungbarrow in the mountains of the South.'

'Never heard of it. Or him.'

'Because he never returned,' Leela said. 'He vanished.'

'That's not possible,' Andred insisted. 'There must be records.' He began to turn the cubes on his desk port.

'I have checked all available data,' announced K9. 'All records of this mission have been expunged by order of the Prydon Chapterhouse.'

'How can you know then?' Andred scanned his plasma screen for relevant information. There was no mention of any House of Lungbarrow.

'K9 is very wise,' said Leela proudly.

'I think we'd better have a long talk about security and what you are and are not allowed to access.'

'There is more,' said K9.

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'Later,' he snapped and immediately felt a need to apologize. 'Look, why don't you go down to the House at RedLooms and visit my Cousins? Get out of the Capitol for a while. You won't be bored down there. You like them really.'

'They do not like me.'

'Of course they do.'

'The House does not like me either.'

'What rot.'

'It is true.'

'Just because one table...'

I will stay here at the Capitol, where the furniture does not argue if I want to sit on it.'

He looked at her with deep affection. 'I like the beading in your hair. Does it have some meaning?'

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She stared at the floor. 'The blue is for the memory of your Cousin.'

'That's kind, and you are wonderful,' he said, genuinely touched. 'And what about the red?'

'Master Andred, there is more,' interrupted K9 again.

Plainly there was no escape. K9 only ever really kept quiet for Leela, and she was fielding that look of earnestness that always forewarned of sleepless nights until he gave in. 'Go on then.'

K9 pulled closer to the desk as if he intended to whisper, which he did not. 'According to the records of the Matrician Bench of Ordnance Surveyists, the House of Lungbarrow itself no longer stands on the side of Mount Lung in the Southern Mountains. It has vanished without trace.'

Andred started to laugh. 'What? A House can't just vanish! That's ridiculous.'

'Then where are your records?' demanded Leela.

Sometimes she was so exasperating. 'I'll sort it out later,' he protested.

'You have no sense of your Family's honour,' she said coldly.

'Not at all. I'm just too busy with security to deal with ancient history now. As soon as I have time, then we'll find out what happened. We'll do it together. Just don't go interfering on your own.'

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'There is still more,' she said.

There was a bleep from his screen port. He had an incoming communication at last. Gold-coded from off-Gallifrey.

'Tell me later,' he said gently to Leela.

She nodded indignantly. Then she turned and swept out of the office with K9 trundling faithfully behind.

Andred's port bleeped again. He activated the screen and watched as the angry face of President Romana appeared. He noted that she was attired in her full white and gold-collared ceremonial regalia.

'Castellan Andred? Where in blue blazers is that transduction order I gave you?'

Taken aback, he picked the crystal cube out of its courier case and held it up for her to see.

'It's here, Madam. I've just had it returned from Accessions.'

'Then why hasn't the transduction been completed?'

He had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. 'But it has. I was waiting for confirmation from Chancellor Theora.'

'Our Guest hasn't arrived.' There was an uncustomary hint of panic in her voice. 'You know I can't deal directly with the situation myself. Not now. If the Agency find out what's going on...'

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'I'll follow it through immediately, Madam,' he said calmly. It was no surprise that Romana was up to her neck in clandestine intrigues, mostly of her own making. And she styled herself as chief advocate of the new open-government policy. Sooner or later the truth would out. Andred had arranged the security for these secret off-Gallifrey talks himself, but he was not attending them and had no idea whom they involved. He simply followed instructions from the Chancellor. The trust they invested in him was appreciated. But even so...

'It would help if you could tell me exactly who or what Our Guest is,' he ventured.

She shook her head. 'I can't tell you, Andred. Security, you know.'

'I am security, Madam President.'

'Yes, but you won't like it.'

'As you wish.'

She sighed audibly. 'Andred, in my term as President, there will be nothing more important than these negotiations. Actually, there's been nothing so important for thousands of years. Thousands and thousands. Everything depends on them. We can't afford mistakes. So please, just find out what's happened to that transduction beam.'

'Very good, Madam.'

'Thank you.' Her grave demeanour lifted a little and a studied smile broke the gloom. 'How's Leela?' she said in a careless sort of way.

'Very well, thank you,' he responded slowly.

'Oh, good.' She sounded greatly relieved.

Andred paused for a moment. 'Why?' he asked, puzzled.

She laughed nervously. 'Oh, no matter. Just asking.'

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'Your tunic is covered in fruit stains,' observed Almoner Crest Yeux over his glass of tea. 'Castellan Spandrell would have had your eyeballs for epaulettes over that.'

Captain Jomdek smiled.

'The Castellan is not my commanding officer, sir.'

'No, of course not. Whichever way Andred regards his elevation, he's been reduced to the level of a functionary among Madam President's army of lackeys. The Council are just pawns in her wretched open diplomacy schemes.'

'Yes, sir.'

'It was all right when we merely observed the aliens, or made the occasional necessary adjustment to their development. But having to actually talk to them over supper... well, that's an entirely different tray of condiments. Omega knows where it'll all end.'

'Will that be all, sir?'

Yeux waved a weary hand. 'Yes, yes, Captain. I'll pass your report up immediately. No doubt our superiors will be suitably grateful.'

'And the subject of the transduction order?'

Yeux scrutinized the ambitious young man with renewed admiration. 'She had to be killed,' he said flatly.

'To extract the information we needed? Will that be enough?'

The Almoner Crest refilled his tea glass from the pot on his samovar. 'Enough about what, Captain?'

'Information on the ex-president, sir. The Doctor.'

'We'll see,' said the old man and sipped his tea.

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Leela sat back in a chair on the balcony of Andred's quarters and sulked. She longed to get out. She had filled the rooms with plants and flowers until Andred sneezed, but they were only a gesture against the grey view of turrets and towers that the balcony overlooked. It was too cold at the 119th level of the Citadel for the balcony to be open. Looking down through the glass partition, you could see the clouds below in the valley between the buildings.

Since K9 was absorbed in some calculation of his own, she flicked idly through a catalogue of ancient weapons that Andred had brought her from the Capitol armoury museum. The Time Lords regarded the weapons as barbaric creations, but she was intrigued by their designs. She had visited the museum once and upset an old man called the Curator by removing a spin-bladed dagger from a display and testing its throwing power. After that, Andred had banned her from handling weapons in the Capitol.

With no Rodan or Romana to visit, she wondered about visiting the House of RedLooms again. For Andred's sake, she would endure his Cousins for a day and then go off on her own, out into the forest beyond the Family Estate. She had done it several times before, even sleeping out several nights and bringing back bunches of plants or animal skins for Andred to see and learn from. He even joined her on one occasion, and they had lain together under the stars that burnt in the ochre sky.

The Gallifreyan forest was very different from that on the world where she had grown and learnt to hunt. Some trees had leaves like clear water, others like silver. There were flowers that glimmered in the dark like tiny candles.

Once when she was hunting alone, a forest beast like a striped pig-bear had attacked her and tried to drag her up into a tree. It had torn her arm badly, but she had slain it with her knife and struggled back to the House of RedLooms with its ears as a trophy.

None of Andred's Cousins knew how to treat the wound, because it refused to heal naturally in a day, the way Gallifreyan injuries do. A Hospitaller-surgeon was summoned from the Capitol, but Leela refused to see him. She said he was not a Doctor at all. Instead, she treated herself with a diffusion of berries and leaves, boiled over an open fire - something which alarmed his Family and the House too.

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'Mistress?' said K9.

'What is it?'

'The information that we did not give to Master Andred.'

'Yes?'

'The files at the Bureau of Loomographic Records.'

'Yes?'

'They have been withdrawn.'

'You mean someone else is looking at them.'

'Negative. Withdrawn meaning wiped, erased, destroyed.'

Leela beat a fist against the side of the chair. 'Then someone else has also made our discovery.'

'So it would appear.' K9 paused. 'One moment, Mistress.' His ears waggled. Leela could hear a high-speed stream of data warbling inside his computer body.

'Who are you talking to?' she said.

The data abruptly stopped. 'Apologies, Mistress.'

'Who were you talking to, K9?'

'Myself,' he quipped brightly.

'We should have told Andred,' she complained. 'We should have told him everything about the House of Lungbarrow. Then he might have listened.'

'The House of Lungbarrow is missing,' said K9. 'Wiped, erased, destroyed.'

'Yes,' she said sadly.

'And it was the home of the Doctor.'