Chapter Thirty-Eight

Reinstatement

Tolan was instantly on his feet, examining the device with a magnifying glass. "That's not a bug, Doctor. It's a homing device." He handed the glass to the Doctor, who scrutinized the inside of the scanner and nodded his agreement.

"This is very intricate work," the impressed Time Lord observed. "Not the usual hack job, wouldn't you say, Commander?"

Tolan nodded, turning to the appalled Dr. Spencer. "That would've taken quite a while to install, too. Who would've had the time to do it?"

"No one."

"You've never loaned it to anyone?"

"No. I never let it out of my sight. I've got some very specialized programs in it that could identify me. This is the first time it's been out of my possession since—" Catching her breath, Amanda's eyes grew wide as a horrifying thought struck her. Then she felt herself becoming very angry. "That bastard!" she hissed, snatching her prized possession from the Doctor. Realizing she was about to hurl it across the room, Tolan grabbed the unit with his free hand just as she was about to let it fly. "Amanda, what are you doing?"

"Curtis gave me that scanner," she exploded, her cheeks flushed with rage. "Don't you see? He's known where I was all along. He was just biding his time before he—" She broke off, a frightened look passing across her face. "I was going to say before he came to get me, but considering all that's happened, I rather think he was going to have me killed."

The Doctor and Tolan exchanged a knowing look. She would never learn from them the fate that awaited her had her abduction succeeded. The Commander returned his attention to the pulsing beacon, looking up sharply when Amanda said, "Tolan, he can still find me with—"

"You don't have to smash it to pieces to deactivate the device," he said mildly. "I can easily have that done for you. I can even have it removed if you like, but that'll take—"

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Amanda demanded suddenly.

Tolan closed his eyes and sighed heavily, causing the Doctor to intercede. "Good Lord, Amanda, can't you see he's trying to apologize?"

Dr. Spencer gave the Commander a searching look. "Are you?"

"Yes," came the calm reply. "I may do my job well, but that doesn't mean I always like what I have to do. It wasn't my decision to have you arrested. But it was my decision not to have it as total isolation." Drawing a deep breath, he asked, "Am I forgiven?"

Seeing how difficult this admission had been, Amanda said, "Alright, I'll accept that. So where does that leave me, if I'm no longer under arrest?"

Drawing himself to his full height, Tolan announced, "You are the Argonauts' Chief Medical Officer. And I think it's high time you went to see your patient." The reaction he got was not the one he expected.

"He's not my patient anymore," came the downcast reply.

"Rubbish," the Doctor said in a slightly irritated tone. "Why do you think Roxell's been bringing you all those updates?"

"Professional courtesy," Dr. Spencer countered firmly. Her tone changed dramatically when she admitted, "Doctor, I don't know nearly enough about Alterrans. I thought I did until I found out about—What's it called? Transmuting? There's no mention of it in any of the texts on Aegis. And believe me, I read them all."

Tolan gave a small, knowing smile. "No, there wouldn't be. It's not the sort of thing one broadcasts to outsiders."

"Outsiders?" Amanda repeated, her tone filled with contempt.

"He means humanoid lifeforms, like ourselves," the Doctor said quickly.

"What do you mean like ourselves? They're just like…" Her voice trailed off when she saw the Commander shaking his head. "Not even close," he said vaguely.

"My Lord, what else are you hiding?" she gasped.

The Doctor interceded yet again. "Amanda, if you only understand one thing about Alterrans, understand this. They have a predisposition towards concealment that goes back millennia. It's a deception, yes, but with no malice intended."

Dr. Spencer considered. Suddenly Jason's deceptive behavior of four years ago made perfect sense. A predisposition towards concealment. But concealing what? Before she could press further, the Doctor was leading the way out the door saying something about checking in with Roxell before going up to Jason's room.

Roxell found Amanda's misgivings about being brought in to treat Prince Jason amusing to say the least. She openly admitted the Medical Officer's surgical skills outmatched her own, it being her considered opinion that this was the only reason Jason had survived his surgery at all.

The real puzzle was the prince's post surgical recovery. Amanda learned of Muriel's intervention, as well as Jason's telepathic connection with Shadra, which, like the rest of him, did not seem to be working. Roxell reiterated her feelings that he may have suffered a stroke, but as yet could find no evidence of one.

"I'm still running tests," the Healer informed, "but the results aren't in yet. We'll know something definite then."

Seeing a strange look come to Dr. Spencer's face the Doctor said, "You have another theory, Amanda?"

Looking up sharply, she gave a brief smile. "Perhaps," she said evasively. "He hasn't spoken yet?"

"No," Roxell sighed heavily. "He just sits there and looks at you with those enormous blue eyes of his."

"And you're sure it's not due to his coma?"

"Considering he had no head injury, I'm ninety-nine percent sure."

"And he is fully conscious?"

"Oh, yes. Since yesterday."

The Doctor observed thoughtfully, "It's almost as if he's having trouble clearing his mind."

"He mentioned something like that in the Zero Room," Amanda said quietly. "Is it really that difficult?"

"It shouldn't be. But he's been through a lot. You can't expect him to deal with everything overnight."

Considering all she had to deal with herself, Amanda could sympathize. She also understood a great deal more about what Jason might still be going through than anyone else. "Perhaps he already has and—" Interrupting herself, she said, "No. I'm not going to start theorizing now. I need to examine him first." Her hand went automatically to her pocket and she cursed under her breath, having already forgotten that the Commander had taken her scanner to have the homing device deactivated. She borrowed one from Roxell before following the Doctor to Jason's room.

Constance came out of Jason's room just as Amanda got to door. The startled physician took a step back in alarm, not having expected to find her employer in the house. Or was she her former employer? "Constance, I—" she began hesitantly.

Holding up a hand, Miss Sorenson said, "Please, don't let me detain you. You see your patient first. We can talk about your secret identity later." Exchanging a knowing look with the Doctor, Constance continued down the hall.

A disconcerted Amanda watched her go. "She's as hard to read as Tolan sometimes," she muttered, turning to the Doctor.

"That's not surprising. She's Alterran, too," he informed.

Dr. Spencer blinked. "Are they all so stoic?"

The Time Lord could not help himself and laughed. "For the most part."

Shaking her head, she observed, "It's a wonder they want him back. Jason's so unlike that."

The Doctor smiled knowingly. This was indeed true. His friend's openly emotional, sometimes volatile un-Alterran nature was often what drew others to him. The true irony was that the rigid, unemotional side of his race was the one thing Jason had always yearned for, while many of his own people envied him his passion and spontaneity.

The Doctor led the way into the room. Jason was sitting up in bed with his eyes closed. He was listening as Shadra read all the letters of support he had received via computer. When the door opened, the princess looked up, smiling when the Doctor entered. Amanda peeked around the door, acknowledging the unspoken greeting. Shadra stopped reading causing Jason to open his eyes. Amanda quickly ducked out of sight when he followed his wife's gaze across the room.

"Doctor, I don't want him to know I'm here," Amanda whispered as she opened Roxell's scanner, which turned out to be a great deal more sophisticated than her own.

The Time Lord nodded, saying to Shadra, "Don't let me interrupt." Although puzzled, the princess went on reading. The Doctor smiled benignly, asking under his breath, "Well, are you getting anything?"

"Well, he's definitely conscious," the hidden physician observed softly as she scowled at the long-range reading of Jason's vital signs. Fine-tuning the readings, she could see he also had something else. Something that confirmed her theory that his immobility had a specific physical cause. A cause only she knew anything about.