CHAPTER 54
AUDIENCE
Just as Jason predicted, the moment the Doctor arrived on Alterrous he was greeted with suspicion and searched—several times, much to his annoyance. Before each search, he laid the collar on whatever surface was available in order to allow the scans to be taken. Eventually, he was taken to a holding room in the Security center of the Imperial Palace while his Imperial seal was scanned and verified—again!
"The least you could do is offer me a cup of tea!" he called indignantly through the door.
The Doctor sighed heavily and turned, taking stock of the room; a table, two chairs and a locked door. He carefully placed the gold collar he was carrying on the table, smoothing it out as if to make certain is was undamaged.
The door opened and the Doctor turned to see the head of Imperial security standing on the threshold, his face, as always, unreadable. "You really have a gift for turning things upside down, Doctor," Commander Tolan observed knowingly.
The Time Lord regarded him a moment. "So I've been told," he replied mildly. "I'm not here to cause an intergalactic incident, Tolan. I'm here to deliver a message."
"As I understand things, you shouldn't be here at all," the Commander replied. "The last message we received from Gallifrey said that you'd been abducted by Prince Jason."
"That's quite true. He lured me into his ship and then used the TARDIS to escape."
"And you were completely unaware that he was going to do this?"
"Of course I was!" the Doctor replied defensively. "Tolan, he's frightened and desperate."
A pained look came to the Commander's usually unreadable features. "That's a dangerous combination, Doctor."
The Time Lord gave the officer a sympathetic look. Tolan owed a great deal to Jason, and the Doctor could see the current situation was tearing him apart, dividing his loyalties in ways the officer never dreamed they would be. "He didn't harm me, if that's what you're worried about," he said mildly. "He just wanted access to the TARDIS. He didn't know my companion was aboard. If it hadn't been for her, I'd still be his hostage."
Tolan's eyes moved to the collar on the table. "And this?"
"Ah! This is the message." The Doctor turned, holding out a hand. "Before Jason decided to bolt, he asked me to return his Ambassadorial seal to the Emperor. He said, 'If he doesn't want me to have it, I don't want it either,' or words to that effect." He gave an apologetic look. "The thing is I've no idea which insignia is which. So I brought the whole thing."
Tolan reached for the collar. "I'll see that his Majesty gets it."
The Doctor held out a hand, stopping the officer before he could remove anything. "No, Tolan. If you don't mind, I think I should be the one to do it. In many ways I'm responsible for all this." He picked up the collar and draped it over one arm. "I think if anyone is to take the brunt of your Emperor's wrath, it should be me."
The Commander's eyes flickered, his only visible reaction.
"Can you arrange a private audience for me?" the Doctor then asked.
"Yes." The officer opened the door. "Come with me. I'll take you to a more comfortable room where you can wait. As soon as the Emperor learned you were here, he contacted the High Council. He's been in conference with them and his advisers ever since."
The Doctor gave him a quizzical look but did not reply.
o
The Doctor's wait was not as long as he feared it might be. After only an hour, a page appeared to escort him to the Imperial throne room. Two enormous carved doors were pulled open as he approached, closing behind him the moment he stepped inside. He looked around the lavishly decorated room. At the far end of the room, Emperor Quinton sat upon the throne, looking no different from the last time the Time Lord had seen him; a regal figure in every sense of the word. He was a large, imposing man with red hair and beard, and dark chiseled features. His garments were equally impressive: robes of blue and purple velvet trimmed in gold and jewels, and hanging from a gold collar around his neck was the Great Seal of Alterrous, the symbol and source of his Imperial power and authority—its power radiating from him.
The Doctor had known Quinton almost as long as he'd known Jason and felt a twinge of guilt at having to deceive him in this way. He gave a slight bow and started toward the throne, only to stop when the collar he was carrying suddenly spoke. After so many hours of silence, he had almost forgotten it was Jason in disguise. "He knows I'm here."
Before the Doctor could reply, the collar suddenly started to shimmer. He was startled and dismayed when he heard the Alterran give a painful moan at the same time. A split second later, Jason was standing beside him in human form, clinging to him to keep from falling. "He forced me…" he said in a quiet, shocked voice. "I didn't think he could."
The Doctor looked up. "We just want to talk!" he said firmly, continuing slowly toward the throne, supporting his visibly shaken friend.
"By means of deceit?" the Emperor replied coldly as he rose to his feet and came forward.
"By whatever means necessary," the Time Lord retorted sharply. "Quinton, we came to you for help."
The monarch stiffened when the Time Lord called him by name, his face turning to stone "You take liberties, Doctor," he replied coldly.
"Yes, I do, don't I?" came the unrepentant reply. "You know me well enough to realize I wouldn't be here, like this, risking betraying your trust, if there were any other way."
"You're not the one who disappeared without a trace, Doctor," the Emperor replied coldly.
"I can explain that, my lord," Jason said meekly.
"Can you also explain why you abandoned the assignment you were given? We feared you'd been abducted again," the Emperor went on, his anger growing. "Then security informs me that you're aboard your ship, apparently unharmed, and in a completely different section of the quadrant." His voice hardened further as he added, "The same section we suspected the person behind the information leak to be operating from. This was quite illuminating, considering we hadn't given you this information as yet."
The Doctor immediately intervened. "Quinton, Jason didn't betray your trust. We betrayed his. He's only guilty of believing he was being sent on a secret mission that you authorized."
"That I authorized?" came the stunned reply. Quinton studied the Time Lord's set expression a moment and then turned, leading the way to his office. "I think you should tell me about it."
o
The Emperor took a seat behind his desk. The Doctor helped the still shaken Prince to a chair and then turned to address the monarch. "Majesty, this whole incident was meticulously planned and stage managed by an expert. He capitalized on Jason's loyalty to you to get him to agree to a secret, emergency mission and then manipulated the events once he was there. Even I believed the illusion."
"And do you know who this expert is?" Quinton asked.
It was Jason who replied, "We believe it's former Mission Coordinator Trevor, majesty."
"Trevor!" the monarch gasped. "You can't be serious. He had a complete mental breakdown years ago."
"Majesty," the Doctor broke in, "we utilized the Matrix of Time to review what happened. As far as we can determine, he acted alone and is the person behind everything. And according to Jason, he has the expertise."
"This is unbelievable," the Emperor replied, sitting back in his chair.
"The only thing we have yet to determine is how he learned of your investigation," the Doctor added.
The Emperor turned questioningly to Jason, who met his skeptical gaze unflinchingly. "Sir, the Doctor didn't believe me either. Trevor had him believing I had turned my back on…well, everything and that I wanted to kill him. He even told him that we'd been partners. Once the initial illusion was planted, everything I said or did just seemed to confirm it."
"It wasn't until I viewed the Matrix archive that I realized how completely I'd been manipulated," the Doctor informed. "And how horribly I had misjudged Jason. He truly is innocent."
"Indeed," the Emperor replied thoughtfully, mulling this over in his mind. From the outset it had been extremely difficult for him to believe that his nephew could have been working as a double agent. Selling the secrets he learned while leading one of the best teams of investigators the Empire could offer. Many had speculated that the Prince's kidnapping had caused him to snap, that he was not the same idealist he had once been. Then all the evidence from Gallifrey started to arrive, forcing the monarch to strip Jason of his Ambassadorial status. To his further regret, he had waved Alterran jurisdiction, allowing Gallifrey to carry out its inquiries and impose any sentence they saw fit. Now, suddenly, he was being told it was all a lie. A deception created by another very skilled Alterran agent. Perhaps they were training their people too well.
"The only way I can prove my innocence to you is if you read my mind," Jason said challengingly. "Take my memories. You'll know if I'm lying or not."
The monarch could easily take the Prince's thoughts, with or without his permission. For him to offer them willingly did more to point to his innocence than anything else he might have said. "Are you sure?" he asked calmly.
"Yes, sir."
The Emperor placed a hand on the Great Seal and it flared as telepathic contact was made. Jason had a hand on the Doctor's arm and his friend felt his grip tighten as the link was established. All the details surrounding Eldeberon, the subsequent inquiry and trial were pulled from the Prince's mind. It was an overwhelming experience and he was grateful he was already sitting down, thinking he would very likely have fallen to the floor.
Quinton turned his unwavering gaze on the Doctor. "Would you tell me your side, Doctor?" he asked, his voice having softened considerably.
The Time Lord gave a slight bow. "Just take it slowly," he replied calmly as he sat down. He closed his eyes, clearing his mind of all thoughts. Then he concentrated on Eldeberon, the inquiry and the Matrix extracts. Within seconds, the information was flooding out of him. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes. While not completely overwhelmed by the experience, he was still visibly shaken by the enormity of the power the link utilized.
The Emperor sat thoughtfully a moment and then held out a hand. Jason was suddenly frozen into place, looking as if he had turned to stone. "There's something more that you're not telling me, Doctor," the monarch said firmly.
The Time Lord blinked, looking over at his motionless, seemingly petrified friend. "What did you do?" he practically demanded.
"I've suspended him so he can't hear our conversation," the monarch replied calmly.
The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "Why?" he asked suspiciously.
"There's something more to this. Something from the past. Something you believe Jason still holds against you," the sovereign stated firmly. "What is that something?"
"It isn't important," the Time Lord said dismissively, waving a hand in the air.
A ghost of a smile came to the Emperor's face. "If it weren't important, you wouldn't've tried to conceal it from me."
The logic was inescapable and the Doctor sighed heavily. He explained that when he and Jason had last encountered one another, he had been pulled through several layers of his own alternate timelines. An alternate self managed to break through and went on to physically attack Jason, who at the time was in a physically weakened condition and extremely vulnerable. The only reason he had not been killed was because the timelines reverted at the last second, returning the Time Lord back to his proper place and sending the alternate back from whence it came.
For reasons he could not explain, the Doctor had retained the memories of what his alternate self had done. The incident quite naturally traumatized Jason who found the story difficult, if not impossible, to accept. The Doctor feared he had completely lost his friend's trust forever. It was this act—this mistake—that he assumed was the driving force behind the Alterran's unbelievably violent behavior towards him and was the root cause of his own misinterpretation of the facts.
"Doctor," the Emperor said mildly, "he never would've attempted something this dangerous if he didn't trust you implicitly."
"I know," the Doctor replied sadly. "I misjudged him in the worst possible way. I should've known better. Instead, I hurt him immeasurably. I don't think I can ever make it up to him."
Quinton gave him a steady look. "Doctor, don't mistake his passionate nature with condemnation. Despite his protestations to the contrary, he'd forgive you anything. You're his best friend, his mentor and his guide to mental stability. He loves you, deeply, fervently." The monarch could not help smiling at the astonished look this announcement produced.
"You can't've seen all that in the mind link, surely?" came the amazed reply.
"You trained Jason well, Doctor, but he still can't shield his thoughts as you can. Or perhaps he didn't want to," the Emperor replied mildly. "He isn't angry with you for misjudging him. He's angry with Trevor for causing it."
A pained look came to the Time Lord's face. "He could've died on my account, and how did I thank him? I abandoned him."
"It would appear, Doctor, that it's you who must learn to trust."
The Doctor glanced in Jason's direction and sighed heavily. "Apparently so." Then he turned an annoyed and accusing look in the Emperor's direction. "Why is it, Quinton, whenever I see you you give me these deep and unsettling insights into Jason's psyche?" he asked in an irritated tone.
The Emperor gave him an amused half smile. "You're still his guide, Doctor. That hasn't changed," he stated firmly. "Time to bring him back." He held out a hand and his nephew immediately came back to life, having no idea that any time had past. Jason glanced over at the Doctor before asking, "Do you believe us? Do you believe me, my lord?"
"Jason, up until now, you've never broken my trust—" the monarch began firmly.
A small cry escaped the Prince and he dropped to his knees. "Forgive me! My deception wasn't meant to offend!"
Quinton sighed heavily. "My dear nephew, please, don't grovel. It's undignified," he said in an almost embarrassed tone. He came around his desk, pulling Jason to his feet. "And let me finish before you start throwing yourself on my mercy," he reproved mildly. "I was trying to say that up until now you've never broken my trust, nor have I yours."
Jason blinked, throwing a bewildered look in the Doctor's direction. What the Emperor said next stunned them both. "Can you forgive me?"
oOo END PART FIVE oOo
