Chapter Nine

Theories

Turlough was more worried than ever when he and Asta eventually arrived at the console room. They found Jason relating his suspicions to the visibly recovered Doctor, who had returned to normal the instant he entered the console room.

Juris came over and was surprised to see Asta was trembling. She was in no mood to be fussed over, however, and waved off his inquiries, taking a seat just inside the door.

"But Ormril was destroyed when he tried to cross the gateway after it was closed," the Doctor protested.

"We don't know that for a fact," Jason countered. "We only hoped it at the time, remember? Juris said he was disoriented. What if he didn't even try? What if he had to generate more power? We can't be sure of anything when it comes to the workings of that dimension, can we?"

The Doctor was puzzled at his friend's blatant disregard of Asta's extensive knowledge of the workings of the alternate dimension, which only served to confirm his suspicions that all was not as it should be with his Alterran friends. "Asta, is what Jason says feasible?" he asked. "Could Ormril have survived an attempt to cross the threshold without you?"

"Yes, he could, but…" Asta threw the glowering monarch a quick sideways glance before saying, "I doubt he would've even tried without—"

"What!" Jason sprang to his feet. "And you never said anything! You must've known he'd try again." His voice hardened as he added, "Or was that the plan?"

"Father, how can you say that?" Juris protested angrily. "Asta would no more hurt the Doctor than you would."

As father and son locked eyes, the Doctor thought, for just an instant, that he could actually feel their anger moving like sparks between them.

"You never have trusted her, have you?" the Prince went on bitterly. "You think it's all been a trick."

"Well, we're all back together again, aren't we?" his father countered sharply. "And I sup pose it was just a coincidence the Doctor's life force was extracted at exactly the same moment she turned up."

"Alright, that's enough!" the Doctor snapped impatiently, putting himself between them. "This isn't getting us anywhere. We don't even know if it is Ormril or not."

"Yes we do," Asta said quietly. "During the extraction, I felt…him." Giving way to an involuntary shudder, she confessed, "I didn't know myself until that moment that he'd survived."

The Doctor found this intriguing as well as unsettling. "You didn't happen to get any indication as to what he's up to, did you?"

Asta nodded slowly. "He wants to alter history. Your history. He's trying to destroy you at a time before you stopped him from reentering this universe."

The stunned silence that followed was broken by Ace. "Excuse me. Do you think somebody could tell me what all this means?" she said sharply. "I wasn't in on any this, you know."

"Neither was I," Turlough chimed in. "In fact, it isn't even supposed to have happened for me yet."

The Doctor exchanged glances with the Royal Alterrans before taking his companions aside, telling them of the alternate dimension, Ormril's attempt to escape captivity, and of his creation that had extracted Prince Juris' life force and held it captive for nearly a year.

"When his plan failed, the entity was supposed to kill Juris," the Doctor explained, "but in stead he managed to convince it to return him to this dimension and then follow with him, leaving Ormril behind."

Turlough threw an astonished look in the Prince's direction. "Why on earth would he want to do that? Why not just leave it there too?"

The Time Lord gave a brief smile. "Because sometime over the centuries, the entity had attained sentience. Juris is Alterran and the thought of leaving the creature enslaved to Ormril went against his very nature."

"So…what happened to it?" Ace wanted to know.

"Well, thanks some brilliant manipulation of the power station's energy output by yours truly," the Doctor said in a self-satisfied tone, "it became Lady Asta." He turned his gaze across the room.

Ace and Turlough exchanged an astonished look before following his gaze.

"And I've no doubt Ormril wants her back," the Doctor went on. "Although I seriously doubt he realizes she's sentient. He may think she passed through the portal while he was dazed and got trapped here when the gateway was closed. For all he knows she's just waiting for instruc—" Cutting himself off, he struck his forehead with an open palm as a sudden thought struck him. "Of course! I'm a fool! Jason, it was Asta who controlled the power, not Ormril. He just gave the orders. He must've tried to control it and ended up botching the whole operation."

"Not quite," the King countered firmly. "He still managed to extract the majority of your life force. And none of us has the power it takes to cross the rift in order to retrieve it." Turning pointedly to his ward, he said sharply, "None of us but Asta, that is."

Juris was incensed. "Father, you're jumping to conclusions again! Any one of us could—"

"Could what? Cross it?" his father cut in sharply. "How? Answer me that? We don't possess that kind of power."

"Neither does she!" the Prince snarled.

Asta put a restraining hand on Juris' arm. "No, Juris, he's right," she said softly.

Before Jason could declare victory for finally having extracted this confession, Tur lough broke in. "Hang on a minute. I know this is going to sound cold-blooded, but if Ormril is that powerful, why didn't he just kill the Doctor here? Why drag him through time and then into an other dimension?"

It was Asta who replied. "Because his power is limited here. He's only working through a dimensional fissure, not a true gateway. He can't cross over physically without enormous amounts of power. He can only take mental control, as he did with Juris."

Jason's eyes grew wide. "Do you mean he can take control of the Doctor?"

"He could have had he not made the mistake of crossing the Doctor's time stream." Asta turned to Ace's Doctor, saying, "Your very presence here is preventing him from controlling or taking possession of your other self."

"Taking possession!" Turlough gasped. "You mean he can trade places with someone here?"

The young woman nodded. "Temporarily, yes. He did it with Juris. He could do it again. That's why I have to go back."

The Doctor's face darkened. "Asta, you realize the risk you'd be taking? The bend in my time line might cause you to revert back to—"

"Not if you help me," Asta said quickly. "All I need is a bridge to stay free of his control."

"And how do you propose setting up this bridge?" Jason asked coldly.

His ward met his accusing gaze steadily. "Ormril's already done that for me. One Doctor here, another there."

"No!" Prince Juris objected, his voice suddenly cold and sharp. "I won't allow it! I won't let you go back!"

"You can't stop her, either," the Time Lord pointed out. "In case you've forgotten, you're the one who gave her her freedom."