Doctor Who_ Timewyrm_ Exodus Part 23

"Regeneration therapy on Gallifrey is very advanced," said the Doctor.

"They could help you."

"At this stage, Doctor? I doubt it." Kriegslieter laughed. "Besides, what if they could? They would cure me - and then sentence me to death, or rather to temporal dissolution. Unbeing, which is worse than death."

"Which reminds me," said the Doctor suddenly. "That fellow I caught a glimpse of out there. High-collared black uniform and a built-in sneer."

"He was the caretaker at the Aryan Bureau," said Ace. "But down here he said he was a War Lord."

"Now he really was sentenced to temporal dissolution," said the Doctor.

"What's more, I saw the sentence carried out."

"Upon his father, Doctor," said Kriegslieter. "This is the son, his successor.

There is a strong family resemblance. Like me, he has no reason to love Time Lords."

"Tell me something," said the Doctor suddenly. "Why did you leave the Time Lords to join with the War Lords in the first place? What had you done?"

Kriegslieter laughed bitterly. "That is the final irony Doctor. I had done nothing, nothing at all - except rise so rapidly in the Time Lord hierarchy that Cardinal Borusa saw me as a rival. So, he had a quiet word with his friends in the Celestial Intervention Agency. Evidence of treason was manufactured and planted and found... I fled just in time."

The Doctor nodded. The story was all too believable. It had led a once-promising young Time Lord into a disastrous alliance with the alien War Lords. Ultimately, it had created the monster he saw before him.

"I'm afraid Borusa became quite ruthless in pursuit of his ambitions," he said sadly. "It was his downfall in the end, if it's any consolation."

"What happened?" asked Kriegslieter. "Did he ever become President?"

"For a time - then he tried for immortality as well, and got forced into permanent retirement. He's pretty inactive now - and likely to stay that way for some time." The Doctor rose and stretched. "Well, it's all very nice sitting here chatting about the good old days. But it doesn't explain what you're doing here and now."

"Gaining my revenge - on you, Doctor."

"I don't follow."

"I survived on the War Lord planet as a medical curiosity. I managed to convince them, in time, that I was not and never had been a traitor. I came to the attention of the new War Lord. I told him how his father had been destroyed - and convinced him that there was only one way to wipe out the shame of the defeat that you had inflicted on us."

"And that was?"

"The best, the only revenge, for him, as for me, was to come up with a plan for galactic conquest that would succeed."

"You could hardly be sure I'd turn up again to see it in action."

"Ah, but I spent years studying your record, Doctor - and it seemed very likely that ma.s.sive interference with history would bring you out of the spatio-temporal woodwork. So, we found a way to penetrate the barrier the Time Lords had placed about our planet. Then we made our plan."

"Now I suppose we're going to hear all about that too?" said Ace. She was getting tired of being a silent audience.

Kriegslieter turned away. "I intended to show you something of our operation here -but as you please. You have long hours before you and little to do with them. But if you prefer to stare at the walls until it is time to die. . ."

"No, no," said the Doctor hurriedly, taking Ace's arm and heaving her to her feet. "Come on Ace, let's not be ungracious. There's nothing to read and the telly's hardly been invented yet, we may as well take the tour."

The Doctor had motives of his own. For one thing he was genuinely interested. Knowledge was always useful, and prospects of escape had to be better outside their luxury cell.

Kriegslieter rapped on the door, and the guard unlocked it. As she followed the others from the cell, Ace was thinking of Kriegslieter's words. They were going to be shown all the enemy's secrets, told all his plans. Quite obviously, Kriegslieter wasn't concerned about what they saw, or how much they learned about his plans. It simply didn't matter.

Before very long they'd be dead.

CONQUEST.

Kriegslieter led them out of their quarters, down the stairs and across the main hall to the control centre where the War Lord stood brooding before his map screens.

"I have brought our guests, War Lord. I thought it might amuse you to explain your plans for the final conquest of the galaxy."

"Our plans, War Chief," said the War Lord. "You are too modest." He looked curiously at the Doctor. "This is a great pleasure, Doctor. I have been waiting a long time for a chance to meet you, and to repay my debt."

"Don't think of it as a debt," said the Doctor politely. "Spoiling your father's evil schemes was a pleasure."

The War Lord said coldly, "The basic idea of that first plan, the one you interfered with, Doctor, was as you know, to kidnap soldiers from Earth's different time zones, set them fighting what they thought were still their own wars, and to select an elite force from the survivors. It was, to say the least, a little over-complex."

"Let's be honest," said the Doctor cheerfully. "It was a madman's flytrap, a dog's breakfast of a plan. It was starting to go wrong even before I turned up."

"There were certain problems," admitted the War Lord stiffly. "The difficulty of brainwashing and keeping brainwashed so many men, the consequent growth of resistance movements in the different time zones. . . "

"Precisely," said the Doctor cheerfully. "A dog's breakfast."

Ace wondered if it was wise of the Doctor to annoy the War Lord so much.

But then again, what had they got to lose?

Gritting his teeth, the War Lord went on with his lecture. "However, we were still convinced that Earth was the best planet for our purpose, that the human race had the best characteristics to form our army of killers."

"They're a bloodthirsty little species all right," agreed the Doctor, with a thoughtful look at Ace. "Often said so myself."

"So we made use of the time-scanning equipment provided by our friend the War Chief to study Earth's history and we found all this!"

With a sweeping gesture the War Lord indicated the ranks of SS men, the swastika banners on the wall. "A nation, a government, dedicated to the same ends as ourselves. And within that nation a chosen elite, even more dedicated than the rest. Most of our work was done for us already."

The Doctor nodded. "I see what you mean. Unquestioning obedience, total ruthlessness, naked aggression - this lot are pretty well brainwashed already."

"Exactly," said Kriegslieter. "Do you realize, Doctor, that these men all undergo two years of brutal training before they are permitted to call themselves members of the SS? When we take them over they are preconditioned. A very slight adjustment, and the process is complete." The War Lord raised his voice. "You there!"

One of the blond giants doubled across and came to attention before them.

Ace looked at him in fascination. He was a hunk all right. Six foot three, stern handsome features, close cropped fair hair, blue eyes. Yet somehow she didn't fancy him, couldn't even think about fancying him. It was the eyes that were the problem, she thought. They were totally expressionless.

The man was no longer human.

As if answering her thought the War Lord said, "There is so little humanity left in them when we take them over, it is a simple matter to remove the rest." Looking up at the giant towering above him he snapped, "Helmet.

Grenade."

The man marched over to an alcove set in the tower wall, next to the weapons section. At a gesture from the War Lord, they all followed. They watched the man take a steel helmet from a rack and put it on, and select a grenade from a wooden crate. Then he stepped inside the alcove. A thick transparent shield slid across the front.

"Watch closely," said the War Lord. He nodded to the SS man.

Unbelievingly, Ace saw the man pull the pin from the grenade, balance the grenade on his helmet, and stand to attention. Seconds later, there was a m.u.f.fled explosion and the alcove filled with smoke. The shield slid back, the smoke cleared, and there was the SS man. The helmet was mangled by the blast, blood trickled from his nose and ears, and his face was bleeding from a deep gash in the cheek. But he still stood rigidly to attention, blue eyes staring blankly ahead.

"Quite a party trick," said the Doctor.

Kriegslieter laughed. "Believe it or not, that is a standard SS training exercise. But for us, he would do it without the helmet. Would you like to see, Doctor? I a.s.sure you, he would obey."

"No, no," said the Doctor hurriedly. "Waste not, want not, you know."

"Medical section," said the War Lord, and the bleeding giant marched away. The War Lord led them back to the control area. "They do not fear pain or death any more, you see."

"Well, why should they?" said the Doctor reasonably. "After all, they're not really alive. And what do you plan to do with your zombie army?"

The War Lord tapped the map. "We shall rewrite Earth's history, Doctor.

First we shall ensure that Hitler wins this war."

"And how do you propose to do that?"

"Adolf Hitler is a flawed genius," said Kriegslieter. "A man with great talents - and with enormous weaknesses. We have accentuated the talents. . . "

"By boosting the powers of oratory?" asked the Doctor.

"Quite so - but how did you know?"

"I saw you doing it at Nuremberg. Psychic amplification, isn't it?"

Kriegslieter nodded. "He has an extraordinary power to arouse raw emotion in a crowd. If that power is boosted - the technology is relatively simple, as you know -the results are quite amazing."

"We saw," said Ace.

Kriegslieter lifted a complex-looking piece of equipment from a table. "What you saw, or rather felt, was the effect of Hitler's natural powers, boosted by me, sitting in close range, wearing this - a simple psionic amplifier." He smiled wryly. "This cloak can cover more than my deformities when necessary."

The War Lord took up the story. "We shall also correct the disastrous errors of judgement. France will be overrun, just as before, but this time there will be no fatal delays in following up the victory. Britain will be swiftly overwhelmed as well."

"What about America?" asked the Doctor.

"If England is conquered quickly, America will accept the fact. There is a strong isolationist party there as it is."

"And Russia?"

"The treaty will be kept. There will be no attack on Russia, not yet. That was the second mistake. We consolidate our grip on the continent. We move carefully one step at a time, Asia, Africa, the Far East. We provoke war between Russia and America, so the two giants destroy each other, and we take over what remains. It will take time, Doctor, but we shall achieve our goal - a n.a.z.i Earth."

"And even that is only the first step. We shall force the pace of Earth's scientific development - atomic weapons, a star-drive, a s.p.a.ce fleet. When we are ready, we shall conquer the galaxy!" said Kriegslieter.

"A n.a.z.i galaxy," said the War Lord. "In time, a n.a.z.i universe."

"A War Lord universe," said the Doctor. "With you lot pulling the strings.

How do you plan to work it, exactly?"

He sounds genuinely interested, thought Ace. Perhaps he is.

The War Lord frowned. "That is not finally decided. The most obvious way was to work through the man Hitler. He has remarkable powers. He is the focal point of the whole regime. But he has become strangely unreliable, and we are finding it harder and harder to control him. We fear complete breakdown."

"Won't that put a crimp in your plans?"

"Not at all. We shall simply replace him with Himmler," said Kriegslieter.

"Since he already controls the SS, it will be even simpler."

"And Goering?"

"Too individualistic. He will be disposed of."

"How much does Himmler know about all this?" asked Ace, gesturing around her. "The brainwashing, all the hi-tech stuff?"

"Very little," said Kriegslieter. "He accepts this tower as a sort of inner sanctum and stays away. He prefers to think of our a.s.sistance as being supernatural rather than scientific. I have more to show you, Doctor. With your permission, War Lord?"

The War Lord nodded dismissively and went back to his map screens.

Kriegslieter led them across the hall to the staircase, which continued downwards. With a gesture, he summoned two SS guards to follow them.

"Don't even think of escape, Doctor," he said as they went down the stairs.

"You are in a fortress within a fortress, with guards everywhere. You have only the illusion of liberty."

He paused at the vaulted doorway of a huge chamber. "Our chapel, my dear," he said, giving Ace a ghastly smile. "This is a side entrance, the main door is at the rear."

They looked through the doorway. The huge vaulted chamber was hung with swastika flags. High-backed stone seats, each decorated with carved SS insignia, were grouped in semicircles around a great stone slab of an altar. There was a swastika banner behind the altar, and a flanking pair of candle holders with huge black candles. The altar was carved with strange esoteric runes. Ace saw with horror that its surface was dark with the stains of old blood.

Kriegslieter caught the direction of her gaze. "Chickens," he said. "One or two cats, the odd lamb. Tomorrow will be our first attempt at the real thing, so to speak. Since the war has finally begun, I felt something more impressive was in order. We were going to use one of our young SS men, but you arrived so opportunely. . ."

"Yeah, just my luck," said Ace.

He led them from the chapel, still further downwards, to a point where the gloom of the staircase was replaced with a blaze of light. Opening a steel door he took them into a small, brightly lit control room. There were rows of dials and switches and a gla.s.s window that looked out over a much larger area, a vast underground chamber filled with great gleaming metal tanks, linked by walkways and gantries and overhead cranes.

It meant nothing to Ace, but the Doctor seemed to recognize it. He looked at Kriegslieter, genuine shock in his face. "That isn't. . ?"

"It is indeed, Doctor," said Kriegslieter triumphantly. "A fully automated atomic reactor. When the time comes, the Fuehrer's rockets will have nuclear warheads."

The Doctor was appalled. "You'll destroy the planet!"

"We'll only use them on the larger countries," said Kriegslieter rea.s.suringly.

"Russia, China, America. They're big enough to soak up a bit of radiation.