Chapter Eighteen

More Surprises

Jason was oblivious to the fact that an intruder had entered his room, having been asleep the entire time. The sound of raised voices woke him and he tried to sit up, only to fall back, a hand going to his spinning head. "Turlough, what's going on?" he asked groggily. Closing his eyes, he shook his head, wondering why he felt so strange. He opened his eyes just as Amanda appeared at his bedside and his mouth dropped open in astonishment. Then he did something she did not expect. He flew into a rage. The first words out of his mouth were in a language she did not understand, but by his tone, she knew it was not complimentary.

"Calm down, calm down! I'm on your side!" Dr. Spencer admonished, taking hold of his wrists as he came up at her.

The Alterran continued to curse in several languages.

"Look, if you're going to swear at me, at least do it in a language I understand so I can respond in kind."

"How about you damn bitch?" Jason snarled.

"Not original, but it'll do," Amanda replied. She was still struggling to control him and had to get partially onto the bed to keep him down. "Oh, stop it, will you," she scolded. "You're going to pull all your monitors out again."

"What do you care!" the prince spat venomously.

"I'm your doctor, you Royal Pain. I'm supposed to care."

At this point, some of the staff arrived and made to help, only to be waved off. "No, never mind me, see to Turlough. It looks like somebody gave him a face full of chloroform."

Commander Tolan was the next to arrive and was taken aback by the sight of Dr. Spencer practically sitting on top of the struggling Crown Prince.

"Oh, Tolan, thank goodness!" Amanda cried delightedly. "Help me get him tied down before he hurts himself."

"Himself?" the Commander observed dryly. It was all too obvious the prince was more intent on hurting the Medical Officer.

"Tolan!" Jason cried in a desperate voice. "Don't just stand there, help me! She's Xandora Legrand."

The Commander gave the woman he knew as Amanda an amazed and inquiring look. Across the room, the dazed Turlough gave an amused grunt. "The family's growing. Last time, I was Curtis Legrand," he said as he was helped from the room.

"So was the Doctor," Tolan reminded.

Attempting to take advantage of the momentary diversion, Jason gave a mighty heave and almost succeeded in sending Amanda tumbling to the floor. To his astonishment and horror, Tolan took him in an iron grip and held him down as the restraints were fastened over him.

"Tolan, what are you doing? Let me go!" Jason exclaimed. He continued to struggle but in his weakened condition he was no match for the powerful officer. "How could you betray me like this? After all I've done for you? She's going to kill me! And you're going to let her!"

Tolan tried to ignore the stinging protests, turning to the disheveled Dr. Spencer. "What happened?" he demanded.

"I don't know. I haven't had the chance to check him over." Pulling out her medical scanner, she held it over the squirming prince. "Well…" she said softly, her eyes fixed on the unit, "in case you hadn't guessed already, he's been drugged again."

"How much danger is he in?" Tolan wanted to know.

"None, really," Amanda said in a puzzled tone.

The Commander heaved a sigh of relief. "I was afraid he'd been poisoned this time."

Shaking her head, the Medical Officer replied, "No, nothing like that. He's going to be really out of it for a while." Pausing, she added, "Odd, though. You'd think they'd've used one of the drugs they were using when they were trying to drive him mad."

"What do you mean trying?" Jason interrupted sharply. "I'm pretty mad now! In fact, I'm… I'm…" Bursting into a fit of laughter, he exclaimed, "I'm fit to be tied!"

Tolan shifted uncomfortably on his feet before asking Dr. Spencer to tell him exactly what had happened.

Amanda apologized before telling him what little she knew, everything having happened so fast. The point Tolan found interesting was the absence of the Aegin guard on the door, which was the last straw.

"That does it. Red tape or no red tape, I'm taking over security as of now. Prince Jason is under the protection of the Alterran Imperial Military." With a rare smile, he added, "And right now, that means me."

"You do love a good battle, don't you?" Dr. Spencer grunted knowing of the ongoing fight between the Commander and the Aegin authorities since the Argonauts started operating.

Tolan's brown eyes flickered, his amusement flashing ever so briefly. Then he was all business once again. "Amanda, I'd feel a lot better if you stayed with HH until I get security sorted out. I've already sent for some of my people, but they won't arrive until tonight."

With a curt salute, the Medical Officer said, "Don't worry, Commander. I'll take good care of him."

The drugged Jason was appalled at the idea but his protests availed him nothing. He struggled wildly the moment the door was closed. "No, not again! I won't go through that again! Just kill me and get it over with."

"Jason, I'm not going to hurt you," Amanda said gently.

The prince was less than convinced. "Not going to hurt me! No, you're going to let someone else do it, aren't you?"

Amanda listened in an appalled silence as he began rambling about the horrors he had endured during his captivity. When he finally passed out, she crossed to the desk, intending to get some of her backlog of work done. Instead, she found Turlough's notes on the extract and touched the keyboard. The terminal screen came to life indicating that it had finished correlating all the data. Another touch of a key brought up a menu of several different categories, each ready to be indexed. Intrigued, the Medical Officer began reading some of the extracts, becoming more and more impressed as she read on.

After being given a clean bill of health, Turlough called the isolation room to inquire after Jason's condition. Amanda assured him the Alterran was in no danger, going on to scold him for having sweet-talked his way out of bed. The Doctor appeared at the door at that moment and his companion seized the opportunity to break off the conversation.

"How is he?" the Time Lord asked concernedly.

"High as a kite, apparently," Turlough said gloomily, "but otherwise unharmed."

"And how about you?"

"I'll be alright. Just a bit of a headache."

The Doctor's face darkened and he took a seat across from his sullen companion. "I'm sorry I got you into this, Turlough," he said at last. "You've taken the bad end of things twice now."

"Three times, if you count being thrown across the room."

The Doctor sighed. "If I hadn't insisted—"

"If you hadn't insisted, I would've done it anyway," his companion cut in sharply. "Jason's my friend, too, Doctor."

The Time Lord smiled briefly. "What happened?"

"That's what I'd like to know," came Commander Tolan's voice from the door.

Turlough thought a moment, only to shake his head, admitting that he could recall very little. He had been dozing at the time and only vaguely remembered hearing someone unlock the door.

"They had a key?" Tolan said in surprise.

The young man nodded. "I heard them jangling. That must be what woke me up. I rolled over to see who it was and the next thing I knew I had a towel of chloroform or something in my face. I don't know what happened after that."

"Male or female?" the Commander asked suddenly.

"What?"

"The intruder. Male or female?"

Turlough thought a moment, shaking his head. "I don't know."

"Did Amanda get a look at them?" asked the Doctor.

Tolan shook his head. "No. But she seems to think it was a woman. Other than that, she doesn't know any more than we do."

"If it was a woman, then she's as strong as an ox," Turlough observed darkly.

The Doctor grinned. "Lifting all those patients, I should imagine." His companion gave him a blank look and he sighed heavily. "Who else but a member of the medical staff would have access to the drugs and a key to the isolation room?"

"Good question," Tolan stated firmly. "Unfortunately, I've just learned that idiot Thorson lost his keys this morning and forgot to tell anyone."

"Great," Turlough groaned.

"I'm checking a few leads, but so far…"

"Any luck on Xandora Legrand?" the Doctor asked.

"Not yet. HH told me Amanda was this Xandora just now."

"Amanda?" the Doctor repeated. "Good grief."

"Maybe it really was a woman," Turlough injected. "That woman. And Jason just got them confused because of the drugs."

Commander Tolan sat stone-faced as he considered this. "It's possible. So far we haven't been able to trace her any more recently than three years ago. It's as if she fell into a black hole." Rising to his feet, he excused himself and left.

Turlough turned to the Doctor, who had an odd, faraway look in his eyes. "So what do we do in the meantime?"

"We finish up on a more secure change of venue for Jason," the Doctor announced.