"There is only one to rebut the evidence of the Matrix, Doctor," pointed out the Inquisitor, "and that is to produce witnesses who can support your version of events. Can you do that?"
"Well, of course I can't. You know I can't," professed the Doctor.
"Then we must accept the Valeyard's evidence," concluded the Inquisitor.
"Any witnesses I might produce are scattered all over the universe and all through time. How can I find them now?" protested the Doctor.
"Procrastination, my lady," stated the Valeyard with a smile, certain that victory of the case belonged to him. "The Doctor's only..."
But the Valeyard's words trailed off and the smile disappeared from his face as three familiar figures suddenly burst through the main entrance doors and into the courtroom, right next to the dock where the Doctor was placed.
"Doctor, there you are," exclaimed Peri in relief. "Where the heck have you been? What is this place?"
For a moment, the speechless Doctor could only stare. Then a joyous smile spread across his face at seeing his companion alive and well, albeit with no hair left on her head.
"Peri? Is that really you?" he finally managed to say. "And Melanie and Glitz as well? What are the three of you all doing here?"
"I was sent, wasn't I," grumbled Glitz. "Not my idea, mind."
"Same here. What have you been up to?" said Mel.
"Be silent. Who sent you?" demanded the Inquisitor, who was as taken aback by this turn of events as everyone-else in the courtroom.
"Oh come off it, we can't answer that question and be silent at the same time, can we?" said Peri cheekily.
Glitz turned to the Doctor and pointed at the Inquisitor. "That's the beak, is it? They all look the same, don't they? Carved out of something hard and nasty."
Ignoring the insult, the Inquisitor repeated her question. "You said you were sent here, Sabalom Glitz. By whom?"
"By me, madam," answered a charming, but menacing voice.
All heads turned towards the the direction of the voice, which came from the Matrix screen itself. On it could be seen the image of a sinister-looking man with a black beard, dressed in a fine black velvet outfit. A smug smile was on his face as he surveyed the startled occupants of the courtroom with amusement.
It was none other than the Doctor's arch-rival, the Master.
"Oh no, what's he doing here?" groaned Peri at the sight of the villainous Time Lord whom she and the Doctor had clashed with before.
"Who's that?" asked Mel in confusion.
"Just one of my oldest enemies," sighed the Doctor. "Now I really am finished!"
The Inquisitor glowered at the figure on the screen. "This is entirely irregular. Who are you, sir?"
"I'm known as the Master," replied the evil renegade, "and as you see, I speak to you from within the Matrix. Proof, if any be needed, that not only qualified people can enter here. Just as the presence of the delightful Miss Perpugilliam Brown here proves that not everything you have seen on the Matrix was as it seems."
"But you haven't the Key of Rassilon!" protested the Keeper, unable to believe that his earlier assertion that the Matrix could not be tampered with had been proven utterly wrong.
"I got a very good copy, Keeper, just as the Doctor said was possible," smirked the Master, as he held up in his hand what indeed looked like the same key that currently hung on the Keeper's collar.
The Inquisitor was furious. "This is an independent inquiry appointed by the High Council to investigate serious charges..."
"Madam, I know!" cut across the Master, clearly enjoying the disruption he was causing. "I've followed the trial with great interest and indeed amusement, but now I must intervene for the sake of justice."
The Doctor could not believe his ears. "Justice?! Pay no attention, madam. He has no concept of what justice is. He'd see me dead tomorrow."
"Gladly, Doctor, but I'm not prepared to countenance a rival," said the Master as he turned his gaze towards the Valeyard, who was now looking decidedly edgy and uneasy.
"My lady, I must propose an immediate adjournment," suggested the Valeyard hastily, like a naughty child who was about to be found out by a grown-up.
The Inquisitor shook her head. "I'm sorry, Valeyard. The evidence for the prosecution is completed and the presence of the Doctor's companion, Peri, has thrown that evidence into question. The ball, as the Doctor might say, is out of your court."
The Master turned his head to face his arch-enemy. "Doctor, I've sent you three star witnesses. I knew you'd need them."
"With due respect, Sagacity, the matter of witnesses is for you to decide," pointed out the Valeyard as he regained a bit of his composure. "We've seen enough to know that Glitz is an admitted criminal and for all we know, the Earth female 'Peri' might in fact be the Lord Kiv, leader of the disreputable Mentors. Any testimony from either of these two persons must therefore be considered dubious in the extreme."
"Hey, I don't have the brain of Sil's vile boss in my head!" protested Peri.
"And you can't say my testimony would be unreliable," chimed in Mel. "I'm as truthful, honest, and about as boring as they come."
"This court is not, for the moment, impugning your integrity, young lady," the Inquisitor said to Mel.
"Let Sabalom Glitz speak," prompted the Master.
The Inquisitor considered this suggestion for a moment, then turned to address the Valeyard. "Criminals have been known to speak the truth, Valeyard, especially when their own interests are not at stake."
"My point, my lady, is that this person who calls himself the Master, whoever he might be, should not be permitted to produce surprise witnesses," said the Valeyard, his eyes glaring towards the Master.
"You pretend not to know me, do you?" said the Master with an expression of mock surprise. "I'm surprised by the shortness of the Valeyard's memory."
"The Doctor may, in his defence, call witnesses to rebut your evidence, after which you may cross-examine them. That is the procedure, Valeyard," admonished the Inquisitor.
"My lady," accepted the Valeyard, bowing his head in obedience, though it was clear from his expression that he was not at all pleased with what was happening.
"If I might intercede?" said the Master, leaning forward to address the Inquisitor.
"You have no part in these proceedings, sir!" snapped the Inquisitor.
"Corporeally, of course not, but I'm present, and enjoying myself enormously."
With an exasperated look, the Inquisitor addressed the Doctor, desperate to bring some sense of order back into the proceedings. "Doctor, please examine your witnesses."
"Yes, madam," said the Doctor before turning towards Glitz, who was busy examining the golden panelling on the jury panel next to him.
"This is real machonite, you know. Worth a few grotzits today, Your Honour," Glitz said to the Inquisitor.
"Er, Glitz," said the Doctor, trying to get the conman's attention. But Glitz was not paying the slightest bit of attention.
"I could make you a fair offer on a job lot, do you a very good deal," continued Glitz, eager to make a quick bit of cash.
"Glitz!" persisted the Doctor, at last getting the crook's attention.
"What?" asked Glitz in irritation.
"You were sent here by the Master," stated the Doctor.
"Yeah, well, he's a business partner, so to speak," explained Glitz shiftily. "We've had a few nice little tickles together..."
"This court is not interested in your sordid business deals, Glitz," said the Doctor.
"Very good, Doctor. Keep him to the point," said the Inquisitor approvingly.
The Doctor resumed his questioning. "When we last met, you expressed interest in a box."
"Right?" asked Glitz, waiting for the real question the Doctor was coming to.
"What was in that box?"
"Well, I don't know. Scientific stuff, so he said," shrugged Glitz, gesturing to the Master. "Stuff the Sleepers have been nicking from the Matrix for years."
"The Matrix? My Matrix?" gasped the Keeper in disbelief, adding to his earlier shock that the Matrix had been infiltrated.
"Right," confirmed Glitz. "Well, it seems the Sleepers had found a way to break into the Matrix, and they were creaming off all this high-tech info to take back to Andromeda."
"But their main hideout was on Earth, wasn't it, huh?" said Peri, as she remembered the underground bunker that she and the Doctor had discovered on Ravalox.
"Of course. That was their cover, wasn't it?" said Glitz as though this was patently obvious. "They knew that the Time Lords eventually would trace the leak."
"He's lying, my lady!" snarled the Valeyard with an expression of rage.
"I don't think so, Stackyard! It all begins to make very good sense," the Doctor shouted back triumphantly.
"That's it, Doc! Now we're getting at the dirt," enthused Mel as she punched the air excitedly.
"Doc?" winced the Doctor, prompting an amused expression from Peri. He turned back to Glitz. "Carry on, Glitz. What happened next?"
"Well, eventually the Time Lords did suss out the leak," continued Glitz, "so they wanted to wipe out all the Sleepers, and they used this er, magno... Magno..."
"Magnotron?" completed the Doctor.
"That's it!" confirmed Glitz with a snap of his fingers.
The Doctor looked appalled. "But that can only be done by order of the High Council!"
"Of course, Doctor," confirmed the Master with a smile. "To protect their own secrets, they drew the Earth and its constellation billions of miles across space..."
"Causing the fireball which nearly destroyed the planet!" added the Doctor in disgust.
The Master shrugged. "Of little consequence in the High Council's planning. The robot recovery mission from Andromeda sped past Earth out into space. Gallifreyan secrets were saved, except that at the first intimation of the coming fireball, the Andromedans were able to set up a survival chamber for the Sleepers."
"So that's why Earth was renamed Ravalox," cried out the Doctor, his expression becoming more angry by the second. "That sanctimonious gang of hypocrites were covering their tracks!"
"Exactly!" said the Master, like a teacher whose star pupil had finally solved the equation set to him. "It takes time, Doctor, but eventually you get there."
"But that's barbaric!" exclaimed Peri, feeling almost as angry as the Doctor was. "They tried to destroy the whole Earth and all the people on it just for a load of secret documents?!"
"Well, there's a big market for scientific advances like those, Peri, at least so the Master said," explained Glitz, unable to see what all the fuss was about. "Worth a lot of grotzits."
The Doctor regarded the court with a look of utter rage. "In all my travellings throughout the universe I have battled against evil, against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed here. The oldest civilisation, decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core. Ha! Power-mad conspirators, Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen, they're still in the nursery compared to us. Ten million years of absolute power, that's what it takes to be really corrupt!"
"Take it easy, Doc," said Mel consolingly. She was as upset at what the High Council had done as the Doctor and Peri were, but she knew the Doctor's outburst might not do him any favours regarding the trial's verdict.
The Inquisitor, likewise, tried in her own way to get the Doctor to calm down. "Doctor, these unseemly outbursts..." she began to rebuke.
"UNSEEMLY OUTBURSTS?!" bellowed the Doctor furiously. "If I hadn't visited Ravalox, as I then thought of it, the High Council would have kept this outrage carefully buried, as presumably they have for several centuries!"
"I must agree," said the Master quietly. "You have an endearing habit of blundering into these things, Doctor, and the High Council took full advantage of your blunder."
"Explain that," demanded the Inquisitor impatiently.
Once again, the Master directed his attention to the Valeyard. "They made a deal with the Valeyard, or as I've always known him, the Doctor, to adjust the evidence, in return for which he was promised the remainder of the Doctor's regenerations."
The Valeyard furiously sprung from his seat. "This is clearly..."
"Just a minute!" interrupted the Doctor, his look of anger giving way to one of pure shock. He stared at the Valeyard, trying to take in what the Master had just said.
"Did you call him... the Doctor?"