CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

UNEASY

As the Doctor and Jason related their story, the Emperor noticed the Time Lord seemed uneasy and he eventually asked him the cause. Surely he should be more relaxed with the danger past?

The Doctor gave a small smile, but his eyes were troubled. "Call it my natural pessimism, Majesty," he replied thoughtfully. "But I can't help thinking it was all too easy."

"Easy?" The Emperor was taken aback. "If that is what you consider easy, I'd hate to see what you call difficult."

Jason would have readily agreed had he not known the Doctor so well. The Time Lord's instincts in such matters had kept him alive for nine centuries. If he felt there was more to come, then they were well advised to be prepared for it.

"I'm not usually one to revel in victory," the Doctor went on to say, "but I can't help feeling this one came a bit too quickly. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"I think you're looking for complications where none exist," came the amiable reply.

"I hope so."

Jason drew a deep breath. The Doctor had never been one to openly court disaster, but disaster did have a tendency to pursue him—frequently! "God, I'm getting tired of being manipulated!" he exclaimed. "Being moved about like pawns on a chessboard. Just once I'd like to know what was going on ahead of time!"

The Doctor turned sharply to this friend, the scene with the Guardians returning vividly to mind. The Game, wasn't that what they were talking about? The White wanting the Black to concede The Game? The Doctor wondered if he had actually succeeded in ending it. Or were they still caught up in the Black Guardian's grand design? What was he forgetting? Something else the White Guardian had said…

"What do you think, Doctor?" Jason asked, breaking into the Time Lord's thoughts.

"I think it's time we got back." Realizing he had answered too quickly, the Doctor added gently, "We're not supposed to tire your Uncle, remember?"

Jason went as far as the door and then stopped; saying in a low voice, "Wait for me in the antechamber, would you, please, Doctor? I'll be right there. I want to do my own check on his condition, just to satisfy myself his Healers aren't killing him with kindness."

The Doctor smiled impishly. "You should've stayed in medicine, Jason."

"Like I had a choice?"

Fane was still stationed outside the door and Jason asked him escort the Doctor to the antechamber. To his amusement, he heard the Time Lord congratulating the officer on his promotion, going on to inquire after his parents.

After completing the majority of the work on his program revisions, including the ethics changes suggested by Juris, Reed had the TARDIS computer run a diagnostic on them. At the same time he ran an internal diagnostic on his own systems. When the latter was completed, he looked at the Prince, who said simply, "Well…?"

Shaking his head, the android replied, "Nothing. As far as I can tell, there are no alterations to any of my programs."

"And you're satisfied with that?"

"Normally I would say yes. But this is hardly a normal circumstance, is it?"

"No." Pausing, the young man said, "Pity you won't let my father have a look at you. He's a programming wizard. I've seen him read program readouts as if they were the Sunday paper."

Reed gave him an odd look but did not comment. Instead, he startled the Alterran by admitting the only way to be completely sure the analysis was accurate was to run an independent test.

The two made the preparations, all the comings and goings as they collected the necessary equipment gaining Ace's attention. She came out to see what all the activity was about, expressing her doubts as to whether the Doctor would approve of what they were doing.

"We're just going to let the TARDIS run the diagnostic," Juris said breezily as he plugged a cable into the control console. The other end was plugged into an access panel in the back of Reed's head, the sight of which made Ace shudder. It was unnerving to see the animated face of the android at the front, while the back of his head was hinged open with wires hanging out of it.

"I still say you should wait for the Doctor," she said again. They took no notice of her.

The Doctor did not have to wait in the antechamber long. In less than a quarter of an hour, his friend reappeared. It took the Time Lord a few seconds to realize Jason was already in his human form when he entered the room. He did not remark on this, however, having learned long ago not to pry too deeply into the Alterran's psyche. He asked after the Emperor's health, receiving an odd look in reply.

"He's well on the road to recovery," Jason replied with a knowing smile.

The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "You used the Seal to heal him, didn't you?" he said accusingly. To his surprise, his friend did not blush vividly as he had on the hundreds of other occasions when he had been caught out. Instead, he looked at him through his eyelashes. "Well…at least now I know his Healers won't be making him worse."

"Come on, let's get back to the TARDIS and see what progress Reed's made with that progra—" The Doctor broke off, stopping in mid-stride. Program, of course! That was what the White Guardian had said. His friends didn't need outside programming. But Reed did!

"Doctor, what's wrong?" Jason asked, bringing Time Lord out of his trance.

"I'm a fool!" the Doctor cried. "The game! It's still being played!" So saying he dashed through the door, sprinting the short distance to the TARDIS, Jason at his heels.

With the last of the connections made, Juris looked at the nervous Reed. "You should probably sit down," he suggested. "Just in case…" He left the sentence unfinished, as they both knew, if the TARDIS computer did find any anomalies, it would deactivate Reed immediately.

A minute later, they had taken their places, Ace standing nervously at the inner door, Reed in a chair beside the console, and Juris at the console, his hand poised above it. This was the scene the Doctor burst in on. Seeing the Prince's hand at the switch, he screamed, "NO!"

It was too late. Juris threw the switch—and all hell broke loose. The lights in the console room immediately went out, plunging the room into darkness, the only light coming through the exterior doors, which promptly swung shut on their own. Jason was behind the Doctor and had to push him into the room before the doors crushed them. They fell to the floor as the TARDIS dematerialized, the only light in the room now coming from the time column. The room rocked and swayed violently as the TARDIS fought its way through some great external force, throwing everyone but Reed to the floor.

The Doctor crawled to the console and tried to haul himself up, only to be rewarded with a jolt of electricity that sent him flying. Then, just as suddenly as it began, the violent shaking stopped and the room went deathly still. "Well, wherever we're going," he said dryly, "we seem to've arrived."

The shutters on the scanner opened as if in reply, revealing the black emptiness of space. Or was it the black emptiness of somewhere else? The Black Guardian slowly appeared, his face a twisted combination of arrogance and satisfaction.

"Now, Doctor," he said smugly, "we finish the game."