CHAPTER 16

THE VISITOR'S VISITORS

Mel did not realize how incredibly tired she was until she woke up the next morning. She discovered the Doctor had already gone when she came out of her bedroom, his coat still on the back of the chair where he'd hung it the night before. There was a note on the kitchen table telling her that someone from UNIT had come at six o'clock to take him to a meeting that was prior to a briefing of all UNIT personnel scheduled for eight o'clock. Since he did know how tired she was, he had chosen not to wake her.

It was nearly eight o'clock when Mel arrived at the Critical Care Unit. She found a great deal of activity going on and Dr. Miller at the nurse's station with a couple of orderlies. Mel could tell by the look on his face that he was not pleased to see her, although she did not know why. "Please don't wake him, Ms Bush," Miller said sharply as she opened the door to Jason's room.

"I wasn't going to," she replied defensively. "Why? What's going on?"

"Nothing." Realizing he had answered too quickly the physician gave an ingratiating smile. "The Visitor is being transferred from the Critical Care Unit to another room, that's all."

From his tone Mel suspected that this was not all, but kept this thought to herself. She went into Jason's room, finding he was not asleep and had been watching the exchange through his altered eyelids. "So I'm being moved, am I?" he said quietly. Seeing Mel's startled expression, he added, "Act casual. I'm asleep."

Mel's back was to the door and a conspiratorial smile crossed her face as she moved casually toward the monitors, acting as if she were checking the readings. "How did you know that?"

"My hearing is more acute than a human's. You may also think I'm more paranoid but I'm sure he's planning something. I just don't know what yet."

"Well, if you're paranoid, so am I. I got that impression too," Mel confirmed. "There can't be more than a couple dozen rooms in this so called hospital."

"Colonel Hildebrand dropped in last night for another chat. He's very keen on getting me on his side. Wants to help me in my mission as much as possible."

"An alien Ambassador in his pocket?"

"Yes. But he's not—" The suspicion that had been whispering in the back of Jason's mind suddenly screamed out an answer. "Did you see anyone from UNIT out there?"

"No…." Mel turned slowly to look out the glass-front of the room.

"Aren't they supposed to be in charge of me?"

Mel turned back to hide the stunned expression on her face. "There's a meeting of all UNIT personnel going on right now. The Doctor left me a note about it. The only reason I'm not there is because he didn't want to wake me." Her eyes narrowed as she realized, "But he did set my alarm so I'd be here by eight o'clock."

"What do you suppose he suspects that he's not telling us?"

Before Mel could reply Dr. Miller came in, followed by the orderlies. The Alterran opened his eyes making it appear as though this had awakened him. He smiled weakly, his eyes seeming to have difficulty staying open. Mel took in this performance in a combination of amazement and amusement. She was also impressed at how debilitated he suddenly seemed to have become in five short seconds.

"Good morning, Mr. Ambassador," Dr. Miller said grandly. "You'll be pleased to know you're making excellent progress."

Jason gave him an unfocused smile of greeting. "I…I…" He swallowed hard. "I hurt."

Nodding, Miller came over to the bedside. "That's to be expected. You still have a lot of healing to do yet." He had a syringe in his hand and injected its contents into Jason's I.V. "That should help. You're due for a pain killer."

Having suspected something untoward from this man, Jason had already taken the precaution of rerouting the I.V. through his system so it was not absorbed. As soon as the injection was made he scanned the incoming solution, verifying his suspicions when he detected a powerful sedative.

"Just relax and let that work," Miller was saying. "You'll feel better in a—" To his horror, his patient started to gasp for breath, reaching out a hand in his direction. Before the physician knew what was happening, Jason had pulled the I.V. stand over, sending it crashing to the floor. Miller grabbed the flaying extremity, held it down, and started fastening a restraint around the wrist.

"No!" Mel exclaimed. "He's terrified of being tied down!" An orderly held her back as Dr. Miller continued to work.

Jason's monitors started squealing for attention as one alarm after another was triggered. For a brief instant, his eyes locked with Mel's. To her astonishment, they seemed to glow fiercely, their intensity startling her. "I'm sorry, Mel," Jason said firmly. A second later, he was convulsing violently. The bed shook to such an extent that the ropes holding his suspended arm and leg were released, wrenching a scream of agony from the flailing form. Then, as suddenly as the fit started, it ended and the Alterran went completely limp. The same instant another monitor screamed for attention and Miller looked at it in a panic.

"Code Blue!" he yelled. "Get a crash cart in here, stat!"

Mel watched in horror as a medical team worked for forty-five minutes on the motionless Alterran. They did everything but open his chest and pump his heart by hand but could do nothing to save him. By nine o'clock it was all over and the exhausted Dr. Miller was forced to pronounce the Visitor dead.

"This is all your fault!" Mel screamed accusingly at the physician. "If you hadn't made him panic—" Unable to go on, she collapsed into tears and ran from the room, her only thoughts being to find the Doctor.

Blissfully unaware of what was happening in the hospital, the Doctor had just arrived at Mel's quarters and was placing the box of additional notes from UNIT's NASA team onto the kitchen table. His distraught companion suddenly burst through the front door, her face red from crying.

"Mel, what on earth—?" he gasped.

"They killed him!" she blurted out. "Doctor, they killed him! He's dead!"

"What? Slow down, Mel. They killed who? Who's dead?"

The Doctor was unprepared for the answer. "Jason! Doctor, they killed Jason." Mel burst into tears and hugged him tightly. The Doctor stood staring into space as he held his distraught companion, not quite believing what he was hearing. He waited until Mel got control of herself and sat her down, very calmly asking her to tell him exactly what had happened.

After relating the whole appalling story, Mel looked the Doctor in the eyes. "He seemed so much stronger last night. And this morning…."

The Doctor reflected on all this. It had been more than eighteen hours since he had given Jason the energy tube, and that was more than enough time for the Alterran's energy reserves to normalize. This could only mean that there was more going on than met the eye. An elaborate deception, perhaps?

"Mel, you said Jason said something to you before—" He broke off when his companion looked as though she were about to burst into tears again. "What did he say? Exactly."

"It didn't make any sense," Mel replied, wiping tears from her face. "He looked right at me and said, 'I'm sorry, Mel.' What would he have to be sorry about?"

To her astonishment and horror, the Doctor actually started to laugh. "Doctor, it's not funny! I thought he was your friend!" she admonished sharply.

"It is, and he is," the Time Lord replied happily. "My dear Melanie, Jason isn't dead. He faked it. That's why he said he was sorry. He knew how it would upset you and apologized in advance." He got to his feet and headed for the door, searching his pockets for the keys to the Jeep as he went. "Come on. If we hurry, we'll get there in time."

Mel was still reeling from the incredible news. "Time for what? Where are we going?"

"To the morgue, of course. I've an autopsy to prevent." He triumphantly produced the keys and vanished through the door, leaving his thoroughly confused companion staring after him.

A subdued K'ell'k had returned to his seat, saying nothing as his brother frantically worked at the controls. They had come so far and might even be close to succeeding in what he had originally thought was a ridiculously foolhardy scheme. Now it could all be ruined by his instant of carelessness.

The globe had changed color several times, displaying numerous planets and sections of space, none of which were the correct ones. Suddenly the image of the Mel's quarters swirled into being and l'X'el was about to make a triumphant announcement when Mel burst in and blurted out the story of the Ambassador's death.