ith
an effort, President Pandak, the First of Gallifrey, tore his gaze away
from the window of his office. The office was in the highest tower on
the planet and looked out over the Citadel beneath; sprawling out like
some huge termite's nest to the horizon and further. Eighty percent of
the planet was covered by the Citadel and Pandak often stood for hours
gazing out upon it. He could afford no distractions now, however, he
turned to the man standing before him and with an elegantly manicured
hand gestured to the visi-screen set on the wall, upon which a small,
red star was visible.
'There it is, Cardinal Rassilon, the Mylean system; about to be detonated by your solar engineers. I hope noting will go wrong.'
'My Lord,' said
Rassilon, a reproving tone in his voice, 'if even the slightest thing
were wrong you would have been notified. Do you think that I would risk
both the destiny of Gallifrey and the new power-source in any way? The
new Time Travel facility is my life, I would do nothing to jeopardise
it. Everything that could go wrong has been anticipated and dealt with.
Nothing has been left to chance.'
Pandak's hand
slammed down on the desk. 'Rassilon, we cannot afford any mistakes. I
know how hard you and Omega fought to get this project ratified by the
High Council. We both know that it may be the salvation of Gallifrey,
but there are people who have opposed it from the start; Councillors
Tian, Tomoas and Pitron in particular. If just one thing were to go
wrong we would be finished...'
Pandak
dropped his gaze. He continued hesitantly as if he were searching for
the best way to put what he had to say. 'I have been checking over your
calculations using the APC network, Rassilon. I know the layout of the
energy collectors positioned around the star. I realise that the random
stellar fluctuations mean that the cobalt bombs must be detonated by
hand to ensure an optimum blast pattern. I understand that, due to his
experience, Omega is the best choice to do this.' He raised his eyes to
meet Rassilon's and with a voice half accusation and half plea asked:
'I have
discovered that the shockwaves from the exploding star will travel
through hyperspace faster than Omega's retreating ship. If that bomb is
launched by hand, Omega will die, Rassilon?'
'There is no 'why' about it. It is fact.'
'You know what I mean; why did you tell no-one? Why did you continue with the project? You must have known!'
Rassilon was
well into his eleventh regeneration and at that moment he looked every
century of it. He passed a weary hand over his brow and said resignedly,
'If the bombs had been launched by a robot ship, then the star would
not have received sufficient
