judge his expression behind the mask.
'We'll get it,' Amy said. 'I know we will. Most followers of
tournaments like this say we're the favourites.' She grinned.
'And I have a good-luck charm from the Bubbly Boys!' She
tapped her necklace making the spheres rotate. She was
showing off, she knew, and silently admonished herself. She
was 21 and still behaving like a kid.
Captain Cornelius returned her smile. 'But you're two
key players short. Your entire Second Fifteen is gone. Yes. I
eavesdropped. If you'll forgive my presumption, you sound
a little desperate, Mile Pond. Even with a good-luck charm
from Abberley and Co. What is it, by the way?'
Automatically she covered it with her spread hand. 'A
very strange bit of jewellery,' she said, glaring at him. 'Some
beads, which they pinched, as far as I could tell, from that
horrible Captain Quelch. And gave to me. We have plan B.'
She added, changing the subject so violently it left skid marks
in the air.
Captain Cornelius's attitude had changed subtly. He
seemed at once more alert and more relaxed.
'And if we fail,' put in the Doctor, 'what will happen to
you in particular, captain, when dark tides run across the
entire galaxy sucking out the light?'
'I rarely leave my ship, even when we reach our island
port in the Dwarf.' The pirate shrugged. 'Without light we
are nothing. We long ago let our auxiliaries run almost to
empty. All that colour was dangerous on a ship of our kind.
No doubt we'll freeze and die. The heat death of a star clipper,
eh?' And he laughed. 'But the multiverse will die soon after,
and I would hate to witness that. Only General Force is mad
enough to crave that experience. I think we do have interests
in common.'
'So you're proposing a compact of some kind?' The Doctor
stood up and warmed his back against the fire before stepping
politely aside.
'You seem to understand me pretty well, Doctor. I suppose
you should. What do you say, Mile Pond? Should we all join
forces? It would be the end of me if the light went out. The
end of us all, I'd guess. And what if we survived the end of
the universe - the destruction of the multiverse, even - would
we not be even more bored than we are now?'
'Perhaps.' The Doctor was thoughtful. 'I'm surprised
that you, of all people, are seriously proposing we form an
alliance.'
'It might be the only solution to any future difficulties.
That arrow could be the oldest artefact in existence. Or it was
stolen from our future and the ripples come all the way back
to our here and now, mm?'
The Doctor lifted a sceptical eyebrow. 'Now we're getting
into the realms of the supernatural, captain.'
'My scientists suggest the materials which constitute it are
the key to understanding it, not the form i t s e l f . . . '
Impatiently, Captain Snarri stood up. 'If I could have your
word that this is not a diversion to hold our attention while
your pirates board our ship...'
'Certainly, captain,' The tall man put a forefinger under his
Arlecchino mask and scratched his nose. He took a pull on his
pipe. 'At some point, long ago, your Roogalator was removed
from the very Hub of our cosmos and carried off. The thief
who took it was an adventurer with no special motive except
curiosity, the ability to negotiate an environment which would
destroy the likes of us, and a greed for the power his curiosity
brought him. He had discovered a kind of map which in turn
led him to the regulator. He knew he had something crucial
to the fundamental mechanics of the multiverse. So he tried
to exert his own will upon it. By doing that he caused it to
evade him by, of course, changing its shape.
'Because it was never replaced, the multiverse became less
and less stable. Either Frank/Freddie Force is the original
thief or he learned about the object from the original thief.
Either way, he still believes he can use it to gain total power
over Creation. And that, I fear, is the sum of what I know or
have guessed.'
The Doctor rubbed his jaw. 'I can see how it is in our
mutual interest. What do you say, Captain Snarri?'
'I say we've little choice and if the pirate wants neither
blood, souls nor treasure, I'll cooperate to do what's in the
best interests of my passengers.'
'Perhaps,' said Cornelius, 'we should settle details when
we discover the Regulator and work out how to re-establish
it at the centre of the multiverse? Assuming that's still
possible. So let's agree to travel on together, at least for the
time being. I have a small but up-to-date hospital aboard my
ship. We can treat your injured. Save a few lives, with luck.
And we have bots who could help you make some running
repairs. If anything, the Paine is even better equipped than
the Gargantua.'
'So. Let's talk practicalities. What's your price, Captain
Cornelius?' Snarri was anxious to get the pirate off his ship.
'One thing now.' The masked man looked towards Amy.
Again she felt that unfamiliar frisson. 'That's what I want for
my assistance.' He pointed directly at Amy.
'What?!'
Unconsciously the Doctor took a step back, as if from a
ticking bomb. 'You can't—'
'That necklace. My price.'
Captain Snarri burst out: 'This won't do. She's just an
individual. She can't... she shouldn't—'
'Don't worry.' Grimly Amy removed her 'celestial
necklace' and placed it into the captain's outstretched hand.
'There. Now you'll keep your word.'
He bowed.
Amy continued sharply. 'And there's a small price for
giving you that A personal price, you could call it.'
He waited.
'Captain Cornelius, would you let me see your ship? Not
her secrets or anything. Just the ship. She's so beautiful!'
The captain's laughter was spontaneous. 'Why, of course,
my dear. I was forgetting my manners. And you, Doctor -
you will visit us, too, I hope?'
The Doctor sighed, smiled, and gave in to temptation. He
told himself it was to keep a watchful eye on Amy.
Chapter 20
Happy Ships
WHILE HIS NANO-BOTS REPAIRED the big liner's wireless links and his
engineering-bots crawled all over the battered brass and
silver hull, taking charge of the major damage to the ship's
superstructure and plates, Captain Cornelius followed
at a distance, ready to help if the Gargantua got into any
further difficulties. Amy, meanwhile, had been taken by
the noncommittal Peet Aviv on a tour of the black clipper,
marvelling at the system of pulleys and counterweights used
to manipulate the sails, at her lockers full of exotic treasure,
her galleys and pantries, her instruments designed to work
entirely on reception of certain vocal codes, her guns, her
crew made up of every form of intelligent life, half-flesh, all-
flesh or metallic.
The Paine was familiar, in that she resembled an old-time
clipper, and unfamiliar in that the far-future technologies
were almost impossible to understand, but Amy remained
fascinated with the life forms: long-necked ostriches with
simian heads, large saurians, the strange, alien beauty of
snake-faced women. She saw little that seemed significant
to their particular interest but she couldn't help noticing
the restless atmosphere aboard. The crew seemed generally
terrified. These weren't the people she had expected to find,
full of mocking confidence, anticipating the great wealth
every creature of flesh or metal would take home with them.
She almost felt sorry for them, especially when she realised
they feared the dark tide with a superstitious credulity Amy
found unpleasantly infectious.
She was led past buzzing gun bubbles full of blinding
multicoloured energy, workshops, repair rooms and every
kind of laboratory, where blinking lights and eerily coloured
liquids mingled. But the atmosphere was horribly oppressive.
Eventually she felt she could take no more and was glad when
Peet Aviv escorted her back to Captain Cornelius's quarters
where the Doctor was ready to return with her to their own
ship.
Captain Snarri still didn't trust Cornelius. The Doctor
convinced him that, whatever his many crimes, Cornelius
followed his own strict code and was always as good as his
word. Cornelius knew what had happened on Pangloss.
'Force, in short. Either deliberately or by mistake, the
Antimatter Men attracted a dark tide. The storm destroyed
everything except the core of the planet itself. They're lucky
the star didn't go, too. That's Frank/Freddie for you when they
lose their temper.' There was a chance, thought Cornelius,
that some had survived below the planet's surface, but it was
unlikely.
Amy returned with the Doctor to the Gargantua full of
the wonders she had witnessed on her tour of the great
starjammer. She kept quiet about her feelings concerning the
atmosphere on board the Paine.
'It seems almost as big as the TARDIS inside,' she told
Bingo, who had been waiting nervously for her to return.
'But then you don't know what the TARDIS is, do you?'
'The Paine is a big ship, then?'
'Not as big as this one, but still pretty big. Sails that are
miles across. Well, you've seen them. They just don't look
as big as they do when you're standing right underneath
them, looking up. Captain Cornelius is...' She was going to
say 'dishy' but she guessed this might confuse Bingo and
hurt his feelings, so she said: 'Very tall. Mysterious. Probably
pretty ruthless.'
'That's what I heard, too. Bit of a swordsman, I gather.'
Bingo was an expert fencer.
'I'm sure he is.'
'But why did he let you two look around his ship just like
that and come back here without giving us terms or anything?
I mean, he's a bally pirate, isn't he? I thought you were mad
to go in there with the Doctor. I was afraid I'd never see you
again!'
'He's as worried about the dark tide as we are. He wanted
to join forces. He's hoping that if we stick together well have
a better chance of surviving. Apparently those tides are even
worse out near the Rim.'
'I'd guess so. What with one black hole pulling our star
systems one way and being pulled by an even more powerful
one the other and this bally dark tide stuff all over the place,
I'm getting a bit baffled, actually.' Bingo didn't think this was
that much of an admission. He'd been rather baffled most of
his life. 'I say, Amy, I was awfully worried about you while
you were hobnobbing with that pirate johnny. Next time you
take it into your head to do something like that, you'd better
take me with you, you know.'
Suppressing a smile, Amy promised to let Bingo know
next time she decided to take off after a pirate. She felt rather
pleased by his solicitousness. It was an odd feeling. She
wasn't altogether used to it.
'Well, young lady, did you pick up any dues?' The tone
took her between the shoulder blades. She stiffened. She had
almost forgotten that sound.
'Hello, Mrs Banning-Cannon.' Amy turned. 'Clues?'
'About my hat,' she announced with what might almost
have been pride. 'It has been stolen again! From my cabin!'
'Oh, really? Must have happened during the storm, yes?'
Bingo was doing his best to sound concerned. Only a few
weeks ago he had been watching a V, where it turned out the
crook committed the crime unknowingly having been struck
on the head and hypnotised by the person who didn't want
to be caught. Bingo wondered if the knock he had received
on the head during the storm had stunned him in the same
way. He was beginning to suspect himself of the robbery.
But if so, puzzled the hapless earl, what had he done with
the swag?
The Doctor was giving him suspicious looks. Or so it
seemed to poor Bingo who, with a strangled word of goodwill
to the baffled Love of his Life, did his best to disappear while
Mrs B-C continued with her tale of the Second Theft of a hat
which, even she had to admit, was no longer worthy of the
name. There was, after all, a new and better hatter supplying
her with exotic headgear.
Why, the Doctor wondered, was anyone still concerned
about that hat? 'Is there any chance,' he suggested hopefully,
'that the hat could have been sucked out into space and is
even now circling our hull?'
'Not according to the crew.'
The Doctor ran his hand through his already well-tousled
hair. 'Nobody spotted a pirate lurking about, I suppose?'
'It's possible one came aboard in disguise, but unlikely,'
murmured Bingo.
'Besides which, Captain Cornelius gave his word he
wouldn't let his men bother us,' Amy reminded them. 'I
think it's a matter of pride with him. Crooks have principles
like that. It probably makes them feel virtuous.'
'So we'll have to search the ship, I suppose.' Mrs B-C
looked as if she was about to roll up her sleeves there and
then.
'There are rather more important issues, mother,' suggested
Flapper, who had turned up in time to hear most of the
exchange, 'than hunting for hats. We are being shadowed by
the most notorious and feared pirate in the known universe
and our ship is in serious danger of popping half her plates
and plunging us all into the depths of space!'
'Jane!' declared her mother. 'I never thought to hear such
disloyal words from you, of all people.'
'I'm being practical, mother.'
With anyone else Mrs Banning-Cannon might have
escalated such an exchange to Code Red, but hearing these
words from the apple of her maternal eye stopped her pretty
suddenly in her tracks. Her jaw dropped. Her eyes widened.
Her nose froze in m
id-flare. A strangled sound came out of
her throat. She said something like: 'Roospikentamee?' which
others would later try to interpret, the general consensus
being that what she thought she had said was 'Are you
speaking to me?'
'Oh, really, mother!' her daughter answered and, turning
on a heel which seemed specifically designed for such a
manoeuvre, she exited the hall with an almost professional
sweep of her skirt, closely followed by Mrs Banning-Cannon,
who was followed at what he considered a slightly safer
distance by Hari Agincourt.
The silence they left behind them was filled with a
collective sigh from the Doctor, Amy Pond and Bingo, Earl
of Sherwood.
The hat was, as far as any reasonable search could determine,
well and truly gone. Every one of the Gargantua' s vast decks
had been searched as thoroughly as possible by passengers
and specially adapted crew bots. It was even established that
the hat had not been hidden on the outside of the ship's hull.
Mrs Banning-Cannon had talked Urquart Banning-Cannon
into offering an extraordinarily large reward for its return.
In Captain Snarri's firmly held opinion the hat was even
now drifting in space some light years behind them. He had
even sent a skiff back to check for any remains, but they had
found only a few smears of organic body parts. And now,
as they approached the Ghost Worlds, the search had been
abandoned. The massive gravitational pull of the black hole
required considerable energy from the Gargantua simply to
stay on course. For the Paine it was all but impossible to resist the power of the so-called Little Rock.
Miggea's strange qualities, which permitted her to circle
the Shwarzschild Radius without being drawn in and
allowed her four planets Earth-like gravity could only be
counteracted by the extraordinary engines of the Gargantua.
The 'Shifter' system, the Ghost Worlds, should not logically
have existed at all - and wouldn't have, if it hadn't been for
their peculiar independence.
Amy did her best to recall what the Doctor had explained
to her about their nature, though she knew as well as he did
that even if he had written it all out as an equation, as he
had tried to do once when discussing variable time speeds,
it would have made her head ache. There came a point in
descriptions of certain multiversal phenomena when not