Chapter Thirty-Three

Inner Boundary

"Shadra!" the Doctor gasped once he recovered from the shock. "When…? How did you…?"

A small smile came to the princess' regal face but she did not respond directly. "Roxell tells me Jason's doing better than expected."

The Doctor invited her in with an outstretched hand. She went to the bedside, stroking the prince's face and kissing him tenderly. The Doctor brought her a chair and she sat down, taking hold of her husband's limp hand. She started to cry softly and the Time Lord decided it was time to respectfully withdraw from the room. "We'll leave you two alone," he said gently, waving for Turlough to follow. He stopped short when Shadra called after him.

"No, Doctor, wait. Before you go, I need your help. I wanted to thank Amanda for all of her help. I've been traveling since she last contacted me, and now I can't find her. And everyone I ask gets this odd…" The princess blinked. "You're doing it, too. Doctor, what's happened? She's alright, isn't she?"

"Tell her, Doctor," Turlough said sternly.

"This isn't the time," the Time Lord hissed.

"Tell me what? Doctor, please. I've talked to her nearly every day since Jason was found. She's become a friend, not just his doctor."

The Doctor was silent too long for Turlough's liking and he blurted out, "Tolan arrested her!"

Shadra was horrified. "What! Why?"

The Doctor gave his companion an angry scowl before saying, "We found out that Amanda Spencer is, in reality, the daughter of Curtis Legrand."

"I don't believe it," Shadra gasped. "She seemed so genuinely concerned…"

"That's because she was," Turlough injected forcefully. The Doctor took him by the arm in an obvious warning but he was not to be silenced and pulled away in anger. "Amanda saved Jason's life more than once since this whole mess started. Even Tolan can't deny that."

"But…when he finds out who she is…"

"He already knows who she is. He's the one who sent her to Starbridge in the first place."

The amazed Princess Shadra looked inquiringly at the Doctor, who said, "It's true. I checked with Roxell."

"I still can't believe it," Shadra whispered.

Then something happened that none of them believed. Jason, very briefly, opened his eyes.

After his short conversation with the Doctor, Commander Tolan arrived at a rendezvous point where he joined the Imperial task force on its way to the Outer Boundary.

As the Alterran fleet neared the satellites, a prerecorded priority message from Prince Jason suddenly came through on Commander Tolan's personal security channel warning him to stay away from the frontier. The prince explained about the program he had entered changing the numeric override in the security system. It would be triggered by the transponder's verification protocol. The invasion fleet would be allowed to pass through the security net, but upon reaching a specific distance, what he called his own Inner Boundary, it would be destroyed. For safety sake, the prince begged the Imperial forces to stay well clear of this Inner Boundary lest they be destroyed, as he had been unable to completely debug the program.

Not wanting to trigger a disaster, the Imperial fleet stayed well beyond the new Inner Boundary. Orders were given that they do nothing unless the enemy reached a point beyond the danger zone. If they made it that far, then the program had failed.

Then they waited.

Despite the fact that all the outer planets were virtually unguarded, the Dalek forces ignored them, their target being the vast resources of the Alterran home world. They would take over the outer planets upon their return.

As soon as they were in sensor range, the Dalek Supreme hailed the Imperial forces issuing the usual demands that they surrender or be exterminated. The Alterrans quite naturally refused going on to issue their own demands that the invaders withdraw or face their own extermination. The Fleet Commander made as though uncertain of his forces abilities, hoping to bait the enemy into increasing its speed.

The Daleks took the bait, their fleet passing en masse through the Outer Boundary. The Dalek Supreme was in the middle of ordering its ships to attack when the entire invasion force was vaporized, Jason's program and the satellites having done their job.

Less than ten seconds after the destruction of the invasion fleet, a second prerecorded message was transmitted from Prince Jason. He prefaced it by expressing his delight that they were hearing it at all, since it meant his questionable efforts had not failed. He went on to explain that a secondary program was in the process of countermanding the first. Once this was done, an all clear would sound, paving the way for the laborious task of changing all the transponder codes.

With this crisis behind him, Tolan returned to Alterrous, reporting directly to the Lord Emperor. After a lengthy and personally rewarding audience, he set course for Aegis. Along the way he contacted several of his command posts, clearing up the considerable backlog of official communications that had accumulated in his absence. Once he had waded through the majority of them, he signed off his security line, finding several urgent messages from Constance on his personal one.

"Tolan! Where have you been?" Constance scolded the instant he made contact. "I've been trying to reach you for days."

The Commander smiled amusedly. "Sorry, Connie, I've been a bit busy sorting out every-thing that's piled up while I was with the Argonauts." Pausing, he added as if it were an after-thought, "Oh, yeah! And I've had an invasion fleet to deal with."

Constance was appalled. "What! They don't actually think they can cross the Outer Boundary, do they?"

"Well…they do have the transponder codes," Tolan said blandly. "Or so they thought. The satellites took care of them. I can't go into it just now, more cloak and dagger stuff."

Constance gave him a sideways glance before saying, "Now for my news. I got the comparison tests back and you were right, that radioactive material in HH's blood was nuclear waste water."

Tolan opened his mouth only to be cut off.

"And you're lucky Amanda recorded its signature or we never would've been able to trace it."

"Not you, too," the Commander groaned. Before the woman on the screen could chastise him further, he said in an annoyed tone, "Look, I'm not the bad guy here, okay? I'm only doing my job."

"Yeah, I remember all about that," Constance replied darkly, recalling the time she had been his prisoner.

"Now, don't you start that with me," he said warningly.

Holding up her hands in mock surrender, Miss Sorenson said, "Okay, truce." Looking down at a paper on the desk, she went on to say, "There was only one person on your list who was on duty each time HH was drugged and when that android showed up."

"And it wasn't Amanda," the Commander said knowingly. "Who was it?"

"Jolene Hyde, one of Thorson's aides. They arrested her when she showed up for work the day after we found out."

"Did she confess to anything?"

Constance nodded. "She's spilling everything she knows in exchange for a shorter sentence. Corporal Lenn has been staying with it. I'll have him contact you as soon as he gets back to the house."

"No, don't bother. I'm on my way to Aegis now. Hang on—" Tolan turned from the screen, calling to the flight crew on the intercom and then turning back. "My ETA is fifteen hours."

"I'll have Lenn prepare his report for you, then."

The Commander grinned. "You keep this up and I'll have to give you a commission."

The woman on the screen scoffed. "I think your Emperor might have other ideas on that."

"Oh, I don't know." Tolan held up a clear sheet of plastic with the Alterran Imperial seal embossed in gold in its center. "He gave me a present for you. In gratitude for your assistance, financial and otherwise, with the Argonauts."

"I don't suppose it's a reprieve, is it?"

"No, actually, it's an unlimited pass to visit HH." With a grin, he added, "Think you can be ready by the time I get there?"

As Muriel predicted, Prince Jason's recovery was less than smooth. After his brief flirt with consciousness, he sank back into oblivion, unable to rise past the surface. It was a few days later before he finally managed to break the surface and stay there. He opened his eyes and was surprised to find himself still alive. Then he noticed he was in his old bedroom, his wife at his side. I'm dreaming. I must be.With Shadra so close at hand, he should have been able to communicate telepathically, but this proved impossible. Usually he could initiate the link without a second thought but could not seem to keep his thoughts together properly. To his further dismay, Jason found he could not move or speak. Sighing heavily, he looked longingly at the woman curled up beside him, desperately wishing he could put his arms around her just one more time.

Shadra awoke with a start, her husband's inner turmoil reaching her in a vague sort of way. Sitting up, she stretched and yawned. She saw Jason watching her and caught her breath. "You're awake," she gasped happily, kissing him tenderly. When he did not kiss back, her smile dissolved into an anguished expression as she realized he was unable to respond beyond blinking his eyes. She could tell he was trying to touch her mind, but could only understand disjointed words, most of which made no sense. It was at that moment Shadra wished she had been more attentive when Jason had tried to teach her how to fine-tune her telepathic skills. He had always been the one to initiate the mind-bond and she had seen no reason why she should bother. Looking into her husband's pleading eyes, she saw the best reason she could think of. Only now, it was too late.