"Wow."
The word summed up all she saw.
"I thought when you said we were going to a medical establishment that it would look like a hospital...or something." She glanced about the place with a sigh. "But I hadn't had expected something this...grand."
"Hmm," the Doctor muttered. Peri heard him sigh and shift behind her. "Yes, well...in a human sort of way this is considered grand." She turned and watched him as he tilted his chin to look at the soaring arches. He puffed a breath. "It's quite run-of-the-mill in Gallifreyan terms."
She frowned. "Run-of-the-mill? There's more like it around here?"
The Doctor edged past her, his broad shoulders taking up her vision range. It was enough to draw her gaze away from the buildings. "Ah, well, Peri...this...IS...Gallifrey. There's quite a lot about it that's run-of-the-mill in Gallifreyan terms. Now stay close. We have a particular place to be."
"But...Tegan said that Gallifrey and you don't get along."
The Doctor looked back at Peri. His eyes were shadowed and didn't tell her much about his state of mind. But then again, the person that could tell more than she could was rather mute at the moment.
"They'll help her?" Peri continued before the Doctor could answer the first question.
"I hope so," he muttered. "I certainly hope so."
Before he turned away, ushering the mute Tegan by his arm at her back, Peri saw a flash of something like uncertainty in his eyes. And she knew that coming to Gallifrey was the last option in a basket empty of options for helping their friend. He wouldn't have brought them there if it hadn't been the only option that remained to them.
And that thought made her shiver.
She followed him down the steps. If her eyes weren't fooling her, she guessed they were marble, or at least something marble like. The steps descended and reminded her of a sweeping wave that settled on the shore of pale grey grass. That lawn, strange as it was in color, was properly manicured and stretched in perfect lines, like a grid, as far as she could see. They seemed even to continue after interruption by the buildings.
Her gaze turned upward to stare at the soaring structures that she assumed were buildings. Achingly tall, taller than anything she had seen in Chicago or New York, they stood in proud metallic splendor. Their sleek lines were only interrupted by grey and white vegetation that hung like jewelry. Gold and silver, copper and brass, the spires seemed liked spears pointed at heaven in defiance. And against the dark orange sky, they were objects of extreme utilitarian beauty.
The sight wasn't different from the other places they had been in the last few weeks. Those worlds had been vast and advanced. They had dealt with aliens, humanoids and a sort of weird cybernetic kin of the Gallifreyans. But something was different here; Peri thought it was the possibility that these Time Lords would be able to help Tegan more than the others had. And unlike the other places, Peri felt like a stranger here, an outsider.
She congratulated herself on her intuitive abilities, but she didn't have any idea why she felt uneasy in this instance. And that worried her.
She rushed down the rest of the steps and reached out to enclose Tegan's arm in her hands. The Doctor glanced over at her with a grimace.
"Where do we need to go here?"
He slowed and drew up short as two males approached them. Then with an explosive sigh, the Doctor responded. "Well, Peri...from here on in, we have places to be at definite times. And the Time Lords won't let us forget our schedules."
The past two weeks had made Tegan's silence a familiar, yet unwelcome presence. Peri felt even more alone as she slid into the comfortable, modernistic seat she had been offered. Tegan was lowered, dumbly, to sit in the seat next to Peri.
"I realize that I have certain...responsibilities..." the Doctor said strongly.
"I'm not quite sure you understand the depth of your responsibilities," Lady Thalia responded hotly.
"I assure you, I do," the Doctor stated as he slid his hands into his pockets. "But currently there are things that have a higher priority. And as I understood it from my negotiation to return to Gallifrey, there would be no talk, no discussion of my governmental involvement or indeed the lack thereof until Tegan here has been attended to."
Thalia's gaze traveled to Tegan. Peri moved closer to her friend and she also glanced at her. Out of the gentle Gallifreyan sunlight, Tegan looked normal. Her long hair Peri had washed and braided it down her back that morning. Her skin was as clear as usual, the freckles plain on her nose and dusting her cheek were quite visible without her makeup. But at Peri's touch, Tegan turned her head silently to look at her.
The brown of the iris looked dead; there was no recognition in the sight. She frowned and glanced up at the Doctor and then to Thalia.
Thalia sighed in response. "There are things that need to be attended to, Doctor."
"I won't argue that point."
"Not the least of which will be the information that was found in your TARDIS data banks upon approach to Gallifrey."
"Rassilon's beard, you still delve through private information?"
"It is procedure."
"It's barbaric," the Doctor grunted. "Ah, well, then again, the lack of honor for privacy is more than expected. Gallifrey hasn't changed in several millions of years, why should I have expected change in the last few hundred?"
Thalia's eyebrows arched in response. "The questions of what you have researched..."
"Do need to be addressed," the Doctor said hotly. "But it remains that my first priority here is my companion."
"Look," Peri interjected. "Tegan's been nearly unresponsive for a couple of weeks. The Doctor's taken her everywhere he knows to; this is the last place he has."
"Peri-" the Doctor sighed. He rubbed at his temple. She could tell that the Doctor didn't have his heart in making her stop.
"We haven't even had a diagnosis," Peri continued. She shook her head. "Hell, we don't have a clue what is going on. We've tried everything. Can't we set aside this governmental business and get down to the bottom of what's going on with her?"
"And you are?" Thalia said quietly. It was a warning tone. Peri reacted by giving a grin. The older blond woman responded by tilting back her head to look down her nose at the girl.
"Ah, this is my other companion, Peri Brown...from Earth, like Tegan," the Doctor stated. He flashed a wide boyish grin. "And she is quite right in describing the situation. Lady Thalia, you are still acting in my stead as President of the High Council. As I have been informed, you have done a quite excellent job in all matters governmental. I have no qualms of having you remain as you are until the situation with my..."
Thalia turned and swept out of the room in a wake of gold and amber material. Peri watched her leave the room with stunned silence. Once the door shut on the guards and the President, the Doctor blew out a powerful breath and rocked back on his heels to stare at the ceiling.
Peri groaned. "Well, that went well, didn't it, Doctor?"
He bit his lip. "Spectacularly, if you must know, Peri. It worries me. However, Thalia is rather empathetic at times, and it might not be that hard for us to get Tegan what she needs."
Peri sighed. "And if they can't..."
The Doctor squatted by Tegan and tilted her head back so that he could look at her face. He smiled and touched her cheek. "Chin up, Tegan...Peri...we'll figure this out."
"The silk is just to die for, don't you think, Tegs? That bed last night was heavenly."
The Doctor walked at Tegan's side, his arm about her waist and her hand in his. Peri walked easily next to them. Peri had kept up a constant conversation since they had left their suite that morning. Tegan had been unresponsive, as usual, until they passed a man in full headdress. She had winced as if in pain and had hit on the Doctor's arm.
"Tegan?! What is it?" The surprise was clear to hear in his voice; Peri reacted in the same manner. Tegan hadn't looked to recognize either one of them for nearly two weeks. "Tegan?"
She hadn't responded to her name. The same blank, painless, fathomless expression inhabited her face, making her look childlike and lost. She simply kept patting the Doctor's arm rhythmically until he caught the hand in his. Then she moved closer to him.
His demeanor had changed, Peri thought as she slipped behind them to allow another Time Lord to pass. In the last few days, he had become protective of Tegan. Their last port of call had yielded no answers. He had carried her from the last physician. Where he had been clipped previously, he was almost gentle.
And hilariously, she knew that if Tegan had been coherent, she wouldn't have allowed that complete reliance. The Doctor must have understood the thought in her head for he turned to contemplate her. "Don't worry, Peri, Tegan will be back quite as she was: arguing with me constantly."
"Of course she will," Peri voiced confidently.
The Doctor gave her a grin as they stepped through the arches and into the medical establishment. Here as out in the courtyard, marble was the main fixture. But additionally, there were crystalline walls and half-walls. Everything was a cool and light beige color with hints of gold peeking out everywhere. "Jeez, talk about monochromatic," Peri said quietly. "Tegs, you'd better start talking soon and tell these Time Lords they need color."
A woman stood from behind the largest crystal pedestal in the middle of the room. She was dressed in a red and orange dress that reminded Peri of a school uniform. In the overall golden hue of the room, she was a shock of color that drew a glance. "Ah, Doctor! You've arrived."
"Yes, yes, Kiran, we have," the Doctor responded as he shook her hand. "And this newest regeneration suits you, I might add."
"Thank you! The physicians are ready for you and your companion."
"Companions," Peri corrected. She shifted her weight and stared at the woman as she fought the urge to cross her arms over her chest. She was damned if she was going to let any Time Lord physician around Tegan without her being there. A small voice in her head told her not to trust her hosts. It was only a slight uneasiness, but she didn't want to take any chances.
Kiran looked down at the listing while the Doctor frowned. "No, they have only allowed the afflicted and the Doctor to be in the room."
"That's..." Peri began in a hot voice.
"That's unexpected," the Doctor interjected.
Thalia stepped around the corner of the wall with a physician in tow. Kiran scrambled and tightened and to Peri looked like she was standing at attention. With a frown, she opened her mouth. Thalia held up her hand to head off the exchange. "It is what is necessary. We have questions, Doctor, and based on your previous tenures on Gallifrey, we know that you will more than likely leave without answering them."
"I gave my word," he bit out.
"And your word has been questioned in the past, Doctor. Either you or your companion may accompany Tegan into the physicians but the other must remain here to answer our questions. Or she may not be attended to. The choice is yours."
Peri sighed agitatedly. "Are these people always like this?"
The Doctor grimaced. "Always, I'm afraid. Still..." he winced as Tegan's hand squeezed his. He glanced over at Peri. "Would you like to go with Tegan into the physician?"
"After last time? After the terrors she had?" Peri responded. "I was able to calm her, but you were the only one to get her out there. And I didn't have a clue what they were talking about, not that it was really an answer." She frowned and shook her head. "I want to go, but I wouldn't know the first thing of what they were talking about."
"Hmmm," the Doctor said as he released Tegan's hand and slipped his hands into his pockets. "Lady Thalia? Would I have your word that Peri would not be coerced? That she would be asked questions and if she has no answers, it will be left to me to address them?"
"We aren't torturers," Thalia responded as she lifted her chin.
"I can handle them," Peri reassured the Doctor. She leaned close and gave her friend a wide smile. "I've handled worse...remember our last adventure."
The Doctor cleared his throat. "Yes, well...I can guarantee that the Lady President will not address your marital status."
"Yeah, and she doesn't have tentacles like that last guy. You go ahead with Tegan. I don't much like it, but you're up on the medical stuff. I'm not. I'll answer what I can."
The Doctor smiled. "That's it, Peri. That's the spirit. And I'll be back as soon as possible with Tegan."
"And I'll deal with these guys."
The Doctor nodded and reached for Tegan, gently leading her down the corridor behind the physician. Peri slowly turned to address the Lady Thalia. The Lady President sighed and extended her hand to show her down the corridor in the opposite direction. Peri quickly caught up with the President as she moved down the hallway, avoiding the guards as they marched along side.
"Will she be all right?"
Thalia glanced over at Peri in surprise. "Do you think us barbarians, child? I assure you that your friend will receive the best medical attention that our culture can give. If we cannot find out the source of her illness, no other race will be able to either. You will see. We have the best medical knowledge in the known universe."
With a sigh, she tried to fight down the feeling of intimidation and remembered how Tegan would respond. It put a smile on her face and lifted her chin. "You Time Lords don't do anything by halves, do you? Except maybe fashion design..."
She was no sooner comfortable in the chair she was given then a pile of plastic, reminding her of the communiqués from Sylvana and on the Doc's ship during their military experience. It made a loud splat in the sterile quiet of the conference room. In agitation, she glanced up at the guard that had slapped it down. "Is that in English or at least Italian? I can't read anything but those....oh and a smattering of Slyvanian..."
Thalia grimaced. "It has been translated to your native tongue, girl."
Peri slowly slid the material over to where she could see it.
Pertaining to the knowledge of the Federation and it's existence beyond the second expansion, a dissertation.
With a low whistle, Peri frowned. She had seen something very similar to this on the computer console in the TARDIS a month ago. It was the information that the Doctor had been compiling for the past few months. She didn't know what was so problematic about it; the Doctor had said that societies followed the same paths that species did in evolution. The origins of neither the Federation nor any other society were implicated in the existence of the scripts, but the Doctor hadn't been overly comfortable with the possible evidence concerning his own race, his own language, his own existence. So, like everything else he was curious about, he studied the situation into exhaustion.
She didn't tell this to Thalia, though. Instead, she simply said: "Yeah, interesting, isn't it?"
"What do you know about it?" Thalia asked politely. "The Doctor has compiled quite a bit of information. I understand that he found information about this Federation, the Hydronian Federation on Sol 3."
"He found..." Peri began. She wanted to cautiously give out information to these people. There was the possibility that the Doctor didn't want anyone to know anything. But then again, why was he putting together all that information? "He found some written texts back...in ancient history...on my planet." She glanced at the guards.
Thalia frowned and then waved her hand. The guards backed out of the room to stand outside the glass partition. When the door had shut, Thalia swept her gown back and sat down in the chair across from Peri.
"You don't like the guards," Thalia stated.
"I don't like people with guns when I don't have one myself," Peri responded lightly. "And quite frankly I don't understand why they have them anyway."
The Lady President leaned forward on the table and speared her with a strong stare. "What has the Doctor said about these Scripts?"
Peri glanced at the pile in front of her and then back up at the woman across from her. "He's written it in this paper of his, I'm sure."
"But what has he said?"
Peri sighed. "Look, he's said a great many things in the last year and a half. A lot of them I take with a grain of salt...he's a hell of a name dropper."
Thalia's face tightened. "Peri..." she lowered her voice. She sighed and then folded her hands as if in prayer in front of her lips. "What the Doctor has related, or failed to relate and has simply written in this report puts me in a difficult and possibly dangerous position."
"You're looking for cover your ass protection?" Peri asked as she tried to not smile.
"I'm looking, as you have so eloquently put it, Peri, for what sort of information is out about this particular societal evolution that the Doctor has and probably will be discussing in the future. It involves and could possibly debase most of Gallifreyan history."
"You'll have your eyes opened?" Peri responded. "The Doc has a habit of doing that to people."
Thalia leaned forward. "The eyes of society will be opened and questions will be asked. In most instances this is an encouraging and edifying situation. However, the last time something like this occurred on Gallifrey, my dear girl, there was a bloody revolution. Gallifreyans don't like to have their world and self-view altered. Intellectual arguments combined the philosophical thoughts about the origins of our society lend themselves to coups here. The last time this happened, many were killed. It is, I believe, the sole reason the Doctor left Gallifrey."
"Gosh," Peri breathed.
Recording of patient number 20303
Patient: Terran female, aged 26 standard Sol 3 years
Name: Tegan Jovanka
Overall health: Very Good, physical symptoms Nil
Observations:
Appears psychological in origin.
Non-responsive to most stimuli, including name, and familiar surroundings
Eyesight appears effected. Patients optical cortex is operational, possible interpretative issue of neural input.
"Yes," the Doctor agreed as the physician read what was recorded. "Ah, she's been steadily decreasing in the amount of external visual stimuli to which she is responsive."
The physician nodded as he recorded that fact. "What about physical responses? Reflexes?"
"Hmmm," the Doctor said as he tapped Tegan on the knee. Her leg moved slightly. "Yes, yes...that hasn't changed it seems. She has been giving the same amount of response to the physical world in a physical manner now for two weeks."
"No rigidity?"
"None."
"Body processes?"
The Doctor looked up into Tegan's eyes and smiled gently. "She still has the ability to eat and to eliminate waste. That hasn't been affected. She sleeps, she moves..."
"But there is no..."
With a sigh, the Doctor looked over his shoulder at the physician in agitation. "Yes, yes...as I have been telling you for the past hour. The only thing that seems truly affected is Tegan's...psychological...make-up. She is almost catatonic in nature. As if in a fugue state constantly..." he looked back at Tegan and shook his head slowly. "And has been for the past two standard weeks."
"Yes, we understand that, Doctor..." the physician continued. "Though the questions I'm asking, if answered honesty and completely, could help us to find an answer in conjunction with the results of her psychological exam. Which we shall undergo momentarily..."
The Doctor stood and moved around to stand behind Tegan. Her spine straightened and he laid a gentle hand on her shoulder.
The man nodded and then turned to the keyboard again. "She is mentally uninvolved?"
"Nearly constantly. She reacts to very few stimuli and there is no set pattern to that which she does."
The physician nodded. "And what was the last action she had where she seemed mentally involved as well as physically?"
"Ah..." the Doctor cleared his throat. "That would be when she was involved in a standard greeting action from her planet approximately a week ago."
"A handshake?" the physician asked.
"A kiss."
The physician hummed and tapped away. "Humans do have rather interesting interactive measures, don't they? Did you confer with the party with whom she had been interactive? To what extent was she involved? Superficially?"
"No," the Doctor muttered. "She wasn't involved superficially at all...the kiss was rather..."
"Yes?"
"Yes, well...it was wonderful."
The physician stopped and glanced up at Doctor and then frowned. He returned to typing when he received only an open and vacuous expression from the other Time Lord. "I see. Very well, I think that ends the question process. If you would, please slip the connectors on her head over the occipital lobe. Thank goodness humans have similar brains to Gallifreyans, even if they only have explored a small part of it."
The Doctor placed the electrodes on Tegan's head and then gently cupped her cheeks in his palms.
"This will take a few minutes and then I shall take this interview material, the results of the psychological and physical examinations to the Board..."
"And we'll possibly have our answers in the morning," the Doctor stated. "Yes, well...things haven't changed here at all in years, have they?"