Chapter Twenty-Five

A Shocking Discovery

Before Turlough could come to any conclusions, the prince jolted awake and started to struggle. "Jason, it's alright," he soothed, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder. "It's over. You did it."

The familiar voice immediately calmed the dazed Prince Jason and he blinked hard to clear his vision. "Over? Oh yes…the program, of course." He leaned back to relax only to jolt up again, pulling impatiently at the bindings. "Turlough, hurry up! Get me out of this thing! There's an invasion force on its way to Alterrous."

"What!"

There was too much to tell and no time to explain. Jason gave an annoyed growl, closing his eyes and doing something that Turlough did not think he could. He transmuted, releasing himself from his bonds instantly. Sliding to his feet, the Alterran reached up to the implant caps protruding from his scull and, to his friend's revulsion, proceeded to pull the probes from his head, embedding them like knives into the extraction couch. The look of unbridled hatred on his face sent a chill down Turlough's spine. "Transmission codes," Jason growled angrily, stabbing the probes into the material to punctuate his words. "They couldn't get anything worth blackmailing someone for, so they settled for the transmission codes for the security satellites at the Outer Boundary. What am I? Some great celestial code book?" Once he finished removing all the implants, Jason ruffled his hair and it instantly changed from white to black. Turning on his heel, he stormed over to the computer, still muttering to himself.

Turlough was glad the prince knew what he was talking about, because he was not following a word. He was, however, following behind his friend and caught him as his legs suddenly seemed to weaken. "Here, you sit down before you fall down."

The Alterran did not argue and allowed himself to be helped to a chair at the computer. He suddenly felt completely drained from having transmuted twice in such a short period of time with low energy reserves. He pulled the energy cylinder from his pocket, giving it a gentle squeeze, his body lighting up momentarily in response. Closing his eyes, he drew a deep breath, the energy within the tube flooding into him once again.

"Look, you rest a minute," Turlough said quickly, going over to another terminal station. "Just tell me what you want done. I can work one of these, you know."

Jason smiled weakly. "Okay. See if you can patch into one of Aegis' communication satellites. I was able to connect the radio link in Legrand's office into the main system." Looking down at the keyboard in front of him, he said, "While you're doing that, I'll see if I can write a program that'll stop that invasion fleet without alerting them that we've discovered their secret."

An involuntary squeak escaped Turlough. "Oh, that shouldn't be too hard," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You just let me worry about that," Jason snapped. "Am I in charge of this operation or not?"

"Oh, you're in charge all right," the young man replied in the same sarcastic tone. "Because this is one lunatic scheme if ever I heard one." The Alterran said nothing, giving him a reproving glare before turning his full attention to the computer. Turlough finished within minutes and decided to continue his search for the missing extracts.

"They might be in Legrand's office," Jason suggested without looking up. "I'm not sure where exactly, but An—Amanda—said something about the Doctor reviewing them here."

"Are you kidding?" Turlough grunted. "He spent the first couple of weeks after we found you pouring over all that stuff."

Looking up, the prince asked forcefully, "Then where is all that stuff? After that android showed up, they never came back here. For all we know, Legrand came back and got them. He might even've translated them, since Tolan was kind enough to patch the system through to the Foundation. And now that he doesn't have to turn them over to anyone, he can sell each one off to the highest bidder." Seeing the obvious question on his friend's face, Jason held up his hands. "It was all in the comput—" He broke off when the main view screen suddenly flickered into life. It showed the enormous invasion fleet amassing near the Outer Boundary of the Alterran system. The two friends stared at the image in awe.

"There must be hundreds—thousands—of them," Turlough breathed, bringing the prince back to his senses.

"This had better work," Jason said as he returned his attention to the keyboard.

"Jason, if you don't tell me what you're doing, I'm going to go crazy."

The prince flashed an amused smile before explaining that the Outer Boundary was simply a barrier of satellites that safeguarded the Alterran home world against invasion. It allowed only those ships transmitting the proper transmission codes (all of which he knew) to pass. If the codes were not sent, a warning message was triggered automatically. If the warning was ignored, the satellites destroyed the ship.

"And now that's not going to happen," Turlough concluded. A sudden thought struck him and he asked, "Why wait so long?"

"What?"

"They've had the codes for…what? Two months, maybe longer."

"You can't carry off an invasion overnight," Jason replied astutely. "We're just lucky we found out before the Imperial fleet had to get involved."

"Your people can't hold them off?"

"I'm not even sure who they are. And if I can finish this program, I'll be able to get the satellites to destroy them for us." The radio suddenly crackled and Jason turned a knob, catching his breath when Commander Tolan's authoritative voice suddenly came through the speaker, "...sure of that location? Legrand's Research Center?"

"Yes, sir. There's no doubt. The sensors indicate one silicon-based lifeform inside."

Jason cursed his own body chemistry upon hearing this.

"Do not enter," Tolan ordered. "Repeat. Do not enter. Will arrive your location within the hour."

The transmission signed off sending Jason into a flurry of activity, his hands flying over the keyboard. "We've run out of time. You'd better get out of here, Turlough. No use both of us getting killed."

"Killed! Jason, what're you talking about? That's Tolan."

The prince grunted. "Somebody has tried to kill me three times since I got out of this place. And right now, neither of us is safe until this program does its job."

"I'm not leaving until I've found those disks," Turlough announced. He turned on his heel and made for the door.

"Carefully," his friend called after him. "We still don't know if we're the only ones in the building."

Because of the time constraints, Turlough took the direct approach in his search and ransacked Legrand's office. He dumped out drawers, overturned furniture, looked for hidden panels and pulled down paintings in search of a safe. He was in the storage closet dumping out files when the building started to shake. Turlough knew this meant Tolan had arrived and he had run out of time and decided to finish up with the room before returning to fetch the prince. With any luck, they could escape in the TARDIS before the Commander found them.

Outside, the Aegin patrol was getting a quick briefing from the Alterran Commander, who had brought the Doctor and a few of his own men with him. A few minutes later, the entire group stormed the building. By this time Jason had been able to scramble their sensors, making it appear as though he were in several places at the same time. Then, once they were well into the building, the lights went out.

"Well…it's obvious someone knows we're here," the Doctor observed dryly.

"What's she up to?" the Commander of the Aegin forces asked, having wrongly assumed Xandora Legrand to be the one behind the prince's return to the Center.

"Nothing spectacular," the Time Lord replied mildly. "Just playing with us."

"Terrific. Searching a building this size in the dark is always my idea of fun," the officer moaned before ordering, "All right, everyone, spread out. And be careful. She's already got two hostages. Let's not make it more."

Tolan was about to voice an objection but was forestalled by the Doctor, who took hold of his arm and pulled him back telling him to wait. As soon as the Aegin forces were gone, he said, "I think you and I should search together, Commander."

"Don't you think we should stay with the others to see they don't start shooting at shadows?" Tolan replied.

"I'd rather they didn't start shooting at Jason. You and I know this building better than any of them. And," the Time Lord added calmly, "I've a notion I know where he is."