Zeta Major by Simon Messingham

Author:Simon Messingham [Messingham, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780563405979
Publisher: BBC Books
Published: 1998-07-04T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Excerpt from ‘THE WATCHTOWER’ – underground manuscript broadsheet printed and produced by unknown subversive elements at the Sorenson Academy. Document seized: 19.02.99 New Church Calendar.

THE SIS FILES!!!

Yes!! We’re back! Some of you young folk on campus won’t remember us but now we’ve met we guarantee you won’t forget us.

We had a little trouble with the authorities some time ago.

A slight matter of the seizing of a printing press… nothing serious, nothing that a few choice executions (we mean expulsions) didn’t sort out.

But, like a bad smell beneath a student’s habit, we linger on.

The Watchtower is the friar in the ointment, the pain in the cloisters, the witness in the woods, keeping our beady eyes open for all the to-ings and fro-ings here for you privileged folk of the esteemed Sorenson Academy, where everything is always holy and pure – until we lift the cassock!!

For instance, let’s talk about why the Special Investigations Service have just arrived to administrate what they’re calling an extraordinary audit in the Academy. As is well documented, the SIS is nothing but a reactionary imperialist puppet organisation dedicated to spreading sedition within the structures of the Church. Indeed, this very periodical, your very own Watchtower, was once accused by our masters of being a subversive propaganda vehicle funded by that very same organisation!!

Hopefully, our investigations into this matter should prove to all just where our loyalties lie in this year of the Great Fulmination.

So, dear reader old or new, we will uncover the truth. We will find out why the auditor is here. And why the auditor is a woman!!!

‘This is where it all began,’ said the Dean. His words were a litany, worn smooth with overuse. ‘Two thousand years ago, Professor Sorenson, upon his return from the Planet of Evil, gave his name to this Academy. It was the dawn of the New Age. Since then we have laboured day and night to find the solution to the Great Scheme: the harnessing of kinetic energy derived from the movement of planetary bodies, as spoken of by the Prophet Doctor himself. It took a hundred years for the concept of Torre del Oro to emerge and another nineteen hundred to build it. This very year our work will be complete. The Morestran Empire will live once more. Ah, these are interesting times.’ He eyed Nyssa slyly, gauging her reaction. She remained impassive.

‘And how are you finding our Academy, Lady Nyssa?’

They were strolling through the campus grounds. This was her first evening here.

Nyssa concealed a smile. Actually, it was very different from what she had expected. For the Morestran Empire this was almost civilised. The Academy reminded her of some of the schools of learning on Traken. The buildings were low, light and modern. Carefully maintained lawns created an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity and the facilities were excellent. A gentle breeze from the nearby sea kept the air fresh and stimulated both her body and her mind. But she had to remember what Harwood had taught her.

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