Chapter Fourteen

I yawned. It had reached that stage in the proceedings.

Xznaal cocked his head.

'The Victorians exaggerated all that,' I informed him. 'There aren't quite as many dungeons and torture chambers here as they would have you believe.'

'I know that,' Xznaal replied, 'but thiss iss sstill the place where many human nobless were executed. The Princess in the Tower, Lady Jane Grey... '

I was impressed by the level of the Martian's research, and told him as much. He accepted the compliment.

Behind us, silently, the Martian shuttle began rising into the air. It passed overhead, arcing up towards the warship. A hatch was opening up to welcome it. Neither Martian ship seemed concerned by the prospect of a surface-to-air attack, and none came.

Xznaal watched the two vessels converging in silence. The shuttlecraft rotated on one of its axes, rising the last few metres into the body of the warship. Above it, hydraulic clamps rattled out of their housings and locked into place. I realised that I needed to keep talking to Xznaal.

'How goes the battle?' I asked after a slightly awkward moment.

Xznaal licked his lips, the Martian equivalent of a smile. 'The human ressisstance forcess are brave, their tacticss show intelligence.'

'But they don't have the firepower to get in here and they don't stand a chance against the warship?'

'No.'

' "It's bows and arrows against the lightning, anyhow," ' I said in an attempt at a Cockney accent.

Xznaal looked down at me.

'A quotation from an Earth book,' I told him, although I didn't tell him which one. He didn't seem to care. 'Why aren't you using the sonic cannons?' I asked.

'They are unnecessssary.'