CHAPTER 24

CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Considering the Inquisitor's current mood, the Doctor was uncertain how his next presentation would be taken and drew a deep breath. "My lord, I'd like to ask the court's indulgence a moment. The record indicates that at the time of his arrest, Prince Jason accused Cardinal Wythe of being the author of this conspiracy…"

The gallery immediately started murmuring again. Eustis banged his gavel for order and turned to address them. "My lords and ladies, you are in this court strictly as a courtesy. If you cannot observe in silence, I shall have the gallery cleared," he reproved sharply. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Way to go, Eustis," Jason said under his breath. The Doctor gave him a quelling look and he made a show of clamping his lips together.

Oblivious to this by-play, the Inquisitor commanded, "Proceed, Doctor."

The Doctor drew himself to his full height before going on, "I met with the Cardinal this morning and told him I would be entering those charges into the record. I asked him to be present to give his side of the story." As he was speaking, the Cardinal slowly made his way to the front of the room. The Doctor turned, waving to one of the bailiffs to bring forward the chair he had arranged for the still recuperating High Councilor use.

"Thank you for coming, Cardinal," Eustis said politely as Wythe took a seat.

"I must confess, I'm more than a little curious as to the Doctor's newest theories," Wythe replied cheerily. Jason was surprised to see that he actually seemed to be enjoying himself.

The Doctor smiled knowing. "As I stated before, it was Prince Jason's contention that Cardinal Wythe perpetrated the conspiracy in which he was involved. Last night, I viewed the security archive aboard the ARGO and discovered something interesting." He pressed a button and the screen at the back of the courtroom came to life.

oOo

The interior of the conference room on the ARGO appeared. A moment later, Jason entered and turned, holding out a hand. "This will do, I think, Cardinal. Please, have a seat."

The person to whom he spoke stepped through the door. It was Cardinal Wythe. As he looked around the room, the Doctor froze the image.

oOo

"I object!" Fitzhugh cried, practically jumping to his feet. "This is clearly an attempt to smear the name of a highly respected member of the High Council. I ordered the Matrix thoroughly searched in the time reference this meeting allegedly took place. This recording was not there."

"No, it wouldn't've been," the Doctor replied mildly, surprising everyone in the room.

Eustis blinked. "Doctor, are you admitting this recording is a fake?"

"No. The recording is genuine," the Doctor replied to the further surprise of all present.

"That's impossible!" Fitzhugh practically exploded. "The Matrix records everything in a sector where a TARDIS is present."

"You're the expert, Cardinal Wythe," the Doctor said suddenly, turning to the surprised High Councilor. "Is there a way of shielding a vessel against the Matrix of Time?"

"Doctor," Eustis broke in quickly, "have you asked the Cardinal here as an expert? Or to answer these specious accusations?"

The Doctor grinned unabashedly. "Both. Before he was appointed to the High Council, the Cardinal was a Keeper of the Matrix of Time."

"That was a very long time ago, Doctor," Wythe replied in a wistful voice. "Before I taught at the Academy, in fact."

"But you were a Keeper at one time?" the Doctor asked.

"Oh, yes. For a good many years."

The Doctor gave a triumphant smile, looking over at the Inquisitor. "I should think that qualifies him as an expert in these matters."

"Agreed," Eustis replied, going on to ask, "Cardinal, is there a way of shielding against the Matrix as the Doctor alleges?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, there is," Wythe replied startlingly. "The presence of a temporal dampening field would be more than effective in blocking out…er, unwanted observation."

"And could someone carry a temporal dampening unit on their person?" the Doctor then asked.

Fitzhugh gave a startled noise. "Doctor, are you suggesting that Cardinal Wythe carried such a unit onto the ARGO, hatched out this conspiracy and then returned to his hospital bed where his several broken limbs could finish healing?" he asked sarcastically.

There were snickers from the gallery in response this.

"The prosecutor raises a valid point, Doctor," Eustis injected coldly, ignoring the assembled observers behind him.

"Indeed," the Doctor agreed. "However, everyone seems to be overlooking one single fact that is glaringly obvious."

"Then pray, Doctor," Fitzhugh said smugly, "enlighten us."

"Time."

Eustis exchanged a puzzled look with Wythe. "Time?" he repeated.

"Yes. Or more accurately, time travel. How difficult do you think it would be for a Time Lord, a member of the High Council, an expert in temporal dynamics, to jump forward in time?" the Doctor asked logically.

"To perpetrate this conspiracy, return to the Capitol and then throw himself down a flight of stairs," the prosecutor injected derisively. "For a man intelligent enough to arrange all this, as you allege, Doctor, one would think he could find a less painful way of establishing an alibi."

There were more amused titters from the gallery in response to this observation. The Doctor gave Fitzhugh an appraising look. The man seemed to be playing to his audience of influential individuals very handily.

At that moment, Wythe cleared his throat. "If I may, my lord Inquisitor?"

Startled, Eustis turned to the Cardinal, who had been remarkably silent during all this. "You have something to add?"

"Several years ago," Wythe said calmly, "at the request of Emperor Quinton, I had occasion to oversee the installation of a temporal damper in Prince Jason's shuttle. It was my understanding that he was being sent to a sector of space heavily saturated with tachyon particles, a temporal distortion, some such thing…and this necessitated the installation to protect the ship's vital systems."

The Doctor was thunderstruck and turned an accusing look in Jason's direction. To his surprise, the Alterran seemed just as shocked. Either this too had slipped his memory, or he had never been told it had been done.

"So the ARGO is perpetually shielded from the Matrix," Eustis concluded.

"Not quite," Wythe replied with a knowing smile. "The presence of a Time Lord overcomes this…er, flaw."

"In other words, unless a Time Lord is onboard, anything that happens on the ARGO is shielded from the Matrix?" Fitzhugh said in a triumphant tone. He turned to the Doctor, asking, "Do you still maintain that these recordings are genuine, Doctor?"

Apparently forgotten, Jason had been staring at the frozen image on the screen. He crept to the controls and zoomed in on the man's facial features. Then he scowled, looking from the image, to Wythe and back several times. Suddenly he caught his breath. "Doctor!" he gasped, gaining the attention of everyone in the room.

The Doctor hadn't even realized the Prince had come up beside him. He turned, seeing him at the controls, transfixed by the image on screen. "Not now, Jason!" he hissed between his teeth.

The Prince ignored the reprimand. "Doctor, his eyes!"

"What about them?"

"Look at his eyes! They're blue. Cardinal Wythe's eyes are brown." Jason turned the Doctor and then made an announcement that stunned everyone. "That's not him."

"What?"

Everyone turned along with the Doctor to look at the screen. The man in the frozen image did indeed have blue eyes, sapphire blue eyes; a trait indicative of the Alterran Royal Bloodline. The significance of this suddenly dawned on the Doctor and he turned sharply back to Jason, having reached the same conclusion the Alterran had already.

"Set up by an expert," he observed quietly.