CHAPTER14

KING TERRAN

Jason came up behind the king, not quite believing what was happening. He watched in mute astonishment as the guards took the Doctor firmly by the arms.

"May I ask why I'm being arrested, your Majesty?" the Time Lord said calmly.

"Conspiracy against the Crown, kidnapping and murder," Terran replied succinctly. "We already have a full confession from your fellow conspirator, so you can stop this pretense of surprise. He warned us you'd be making an attempt on my life."

"Indeed?" The Doctor fixed Jason in an accusing gaze. "Did this fellow conspirator happen to mention that I'd be with Lord Krystovan, by any chance?"

Jason returned the icy stare with an injured look; finally realizing the Time Lord had never trusted either him or his motives. Considering the current situation, he could hardly blame him.

"No, as a matter of fact, he didn't," the king said coldly. "We were led to believe Lord Krystovan had been murdered."

Jason caught his breath, his immediate thoughts being of his father. News like this would kill him, he thought fearfully. He'd pine away to nothing...

"I'm really quite innocent, you know," the Doctor said mildly.

The monarch snorted, waving a hand to the guards. "We shall see. Take him to security. And tell the Commander he's authorized to use the mind probe, if he doesn't cooperate."

The guards started to drag the Doctor from the room. He was already being less than cooperative.

Finally, Jason came out of his daze. "No, stop! This is all wrong!" he cried, finding his voice at last. He dashed to the Time Lord's side, physically halting the guards.

"Lord Krystovan..." the monarch began reprovingly.

"No, Terry, this is no time for protocol," the aristocrat said insistently. "You have to listen to me. I don't know who you've been talking to, but I do know that I'd be dead now if it weren't for the Doctor. He saved my life!"

Jason saw a glimmer of uncertainty in the eyes of his childhood friend and went over to him, speaking in a low voice. "My dear Terran, please, you've known me all your life. I know you have no reason to believe him, but you know you can believe me. We came to tell you, to warn you. There's a great evil at work."

"Evil?" Terran was taken aback. The word was so cliché‚ he could not quite believe hearing it spoken with such gravity.

"Yes. And someone's obviously trying to discredit us before we have a chance to warn you."

"Discredit me, dear boy," the Doctor injected pointedly. "You're supposed to be dead."

Jason shot him a quick sideways glance and straightened, his voice suddenly completely formal, "Your Majesty, may we, please, speak with you privately?"

King Terran considered a moment, looking pointedly at the Doctor and then back. Before he could speak, his friend replied to the unspoken question, "He's not armed. He's a Time Lord."

The affect of this announcement was magical, thought the Doctor. The guards at his sides immediately released their grip and fell back a step.

The king also seemed momentarily overcome as he took in the Doctor's very non-Gallifreyan clothing. He was definitely unlike any other Time Lord he had ever encountered. Dismissing the guards, the king then led the way into the next room.

"Why didn't you tell him that in first place?" the Doctor asked indignantly.

"I didn't think of it until now," Jason replied guiltily.

The Doctor grunted his disapproval, following the monarch in to the next room where he told him of the true identity of Lord Masters and what Jason had discovered in the lab.

Feeling his input would be unnecessary; Jason wandered over to an open balcony overlooking a square courtyard. He looked at the room below, absently munching some candy from the table beside him. Things had changed considerably since his last visit. The room below was no longer a room, its walls having been knocked out and replaced with archways that met at the corners in large triangular columns. The fountain in the center was also new. It looked like someone had taken blocks and jammed them onto pipes that stuck out and sprayed water in all directions. It was a hideous monstrosity, in Jason's opinion.

Behind him, Jason heard the Doctor suddenly interrupt himself. "I'm curious, your Majesty," he was saying. "Who was the fellow conspirator you mentioned earlier? As far as I know, the Master doesn't know who I am, and only Jason knows of our past history."

Thinking his integrity was in question yet again, the young Lord turned angrily away from the balcony. Before he could protest his innocence, however, the king replied, "Actually, this all started when Lady Kyska reported Jason missing this morning."

Jason caught his breath. "Kyska! Good Lord, she must be worried sick about me."

As if on cue, Kyska came through the door. In spite of the fact that her missing cousin was only a few feet away, she failed to notice him. In fact, she failed to notice anything but the Doctor whom she glared at with an expression he thought looked strangely like unbridled hatred. An odd response from someone who had gone out of their way to beg him for help.

"You!" she snarled at the bewildered Time Lord." You thought I wouldn't find out, didn't you?"

"My dear girl," the Doctor replied, "I haven't the faintest idea what—"

"Murderer! Jason saved your life and you killed him!"

Kyska bore down on the mystified Time Lord, suddenly taking him by the throat. In spite of her diminutive size, her hands were astonishingly strong and he barely managed to break free.

"Kyska, what are you doing!" Jason exclaimed.

Ignoring him, she made another lunge at the Doctor, but having lost her element of surprise, he was able to sidestep her attack with ease. "She can't hear you!" he called. "Her mind's being controlled by the Master."

Jason took hold of his cousin's arm and was promptly doubled over as an elbow slammed into his stomach. He gasped and dropped to his knees.

"You murdered Jason. Now you must die," Kyska announced in a cold, matter of fact voice. Her body shimmered and the Doctor found himself staring into the eyepiece of a Dalek. "Exterminate the Doctor," it squawked in the metallic voice that made the hair stand up on the back of his neck.

The Doctor threw himself sideways as the Dalek fired, the blast blowing a hole in the wall behind him. Scrambling to his feet, he dove out of the way as another blast was fired.

"Exterminate," the Dalek bleated, continuing unrelentingly.

The Doctor got to his feet and tried to evade only to discover he had backed himself into a corner. With no means of escape, he braced himself for the final lethal blast. It was all too obvious now that the Master knew who he was. Only his archenemy would know of his private crusade against the Daleks in order to devise this incident.

"No!" Jason screamed, interposing himself between the Doctor and the deadly ray gun. "No! Kyska, stop! I'm not—"

"Jason, get out of the—"

The Doctor's warning was cut off when the ray gun fired. The Healer took the blast full in the chest yet, miraculously, remained on his feet. "I'm not dead," Jason said in voice that was unnaturally calm. Then he promptly collapsed. The Doctor caught him as he fell, lowering him gently to the carpet.

The Dalek let out a deafening shriek and the Doctor looked up in alarm. Suddenly Kyska was standing before him. She stared dazedly at Jason, slowly lifting her gaze to the Doctor, who saw her eyes glaze over before she staggered over to the wall, where she slid gently to her knees.

This entire incident had taken place in a matter of minutes and the young king had been transfixed the whole time, not quite believing what was happening before his very eyes. It was only when Kyska fainted that he finally came to his senses and rushed over to her. He then discovered she had not fainted at all but seemed to have completely withdrawn into herself.

The Doctor looked mournfully down at Jason's inert form and then over to Terran, who was at a loss for words. "Well, now you know what we're dealing with, your Majesty," he said angrily.