Tegan and Keludar have a long philosophical discussion about sex, but without a bed. More action next chapter, I promise. And you'll find out what the Doctor's doing when Tegan finds out.
"It f-f-fell when we landed. D-d-d-on't shout at m-me. I c-c-couldn't help it."
"Even if you had both, we still couldn't stay out here. It's far too cold for you." Keludar had his arms around her; she was huddled against his chest. Her bare foot was tucked up under her gown. The still booted foot was not much warmer.
Tegan made a deliberate effort to control her chattering teeth. "I wish this garden would obey me like the Presidential garden does."
"What are you talking about?"
"The Doctor said it was my garden as long as I was on Gallifrey. I can even keep him out if I like, short of an emergency."
Keludar rubbed her back. After a moment of silence, he said, "Repeat after me."
"What?"
"Just do it. I, the Lady Tegan Jovanka, by the authority invested in me by the Lord President of the High Council of the Time Lords of Gallifrey, command the environmental systems of this garden to respond to my orders."
Tegan got the idea by the time she was done repeating the formal phrases. "Warm the path where I'm standing to a safe temperature for a human."
A billow of steam rose around them. The snow melted. Tegan felt heat radiating up under her robe, and put her foot down. "Ahhhhh," she said, as the warmth crept upwards.
"We won't freeze to death before they catch us. That's an improvement." Keludar let her go.
"I wonder if any of these terraces are connected. System, if there's a path to terraces on other levels, please indicate it by removing the snow in that direction." Tegan felt frankly smug when the path melted away before them.
"They'll see where we've gone," Keludar objected mildly.
"I have got a plan for that." She grinned at him.
"You're the Outside expert. I defer to your superior knowledge."
"Ohh, yeah. I don't hear that one often." Tegan took off her one boot and walked barefoot along the warm path. It led to a little platform on the edge of the terrace.
"It's a lift." Keludar leaned over the edge. "It had better work. The lift belt is burnt out."
"Pity, it came in so handy. I don't know how you did that hop. It felt exactly like we were falling."
"We were. I turned on the belt at the last second and, mmm, reversed our inertia, or close enough."
Tegan stared at him. "And if your timing had been off?"
He raised an eyebrow at her. "It wasn't. Now, what is your trick for covering our tracks?"
"I think it will work. The Professor did it once." She cleared her throat. "System, erase our tracks." For a minute, nothing happened. Then all the snow melted. "That's not quite what I had in mind," Tegan sighed. "All system functions return to normal."
"Our tracks are gone. Let's go." Keludar activated the platform controls and they sank slowly down. Cold wind blew up under Tegan's robes and stole her warmth away. She put the one boot back on and shivered miserably.
"Say something, Kel. Help me get my mind off this blasted chill."
"I've been thinking about Lord Azanghrell. I don't think he called the guards on us. I think they were already on their way. He may have actually helped us by making sure we were alert and ready to run. I was watching: when they did show up, they first went to the door of the Professor's hideout, and only one of them looked at the guide tool I jammed in Azanghrell's door."
Tegan felt cold for entirely different reasons now. "So how did they know to check the hideout? Do you think they got it out of the Professor? With that… mind probe?"
"They need authority from the High Council to use it. Of course, if they don't cavil at murder, why should they care about regulations?"
"You like him, don't you?"
"He's one of the least boring people I know. I suppose I've spent more time with him than any other student. There are only a handful of us who know there's a person behind the legend. He likes it that way." Keludar leaned back against the rail, looking quite unmoved by the cold. "You know, despite his message, I didn't need him to manipulate me into pursuing you. It came naturally, which I suppose is the problem."
"Pursuing me might be perfectly natural, but betting about it was rotten thing to do."
"I know. I did my best to atone."
Tegan snorted white vapor. "What, by nearly getting my mind wiped?"
Keludar straightened up. "The Doctor brought that up. They would have a hard time doing it to you against his wishes, even if they enforced that part of the regulations. Indeed, his bringing up the issue would have compelled them to operate on you. It seemed to be a sore point with him. You'll have to ask him why he added that jeopardy to your plight." He turned his back on her and looked down.
"Don't think I won't," she said. He didn't seem to be paying attention.
"Tegan? I think we're going back inside. Whether we want to or not."
Walls closed around them. Tegan looked up to see a roof sliding across the tunnel. Whatever course they were on, they were committed to it now.
- o - O - o -
Five minutes later:
"I can't believe we're going through a long passage in the dark, again. It's so Freudian."
"Freudian?"
Of course, she couldn't expect him to know about Freud. Tegan was bored, scared, and irritated enough to explain. "Freud studied the way people think and how language and visual symbols contain a lot of sexual metaphor."
"Going through a dark passage relates to sex? That's… disconcerting. Tegan, our relationship has been all about dark passages." He sounded amused.
Tegan glared in the direction of his voice. There were occasional lights, but right now, it was pitch black. "For instance, that trip up the Spire: when a man takes a woman up the highest tower available with artificial assistance, the metaphor couldn't be more obvious."
"A tall tower? I begin to see. It is true that I took you up there hoping to continue my seduction in privacy. Therefore, the Spire symbolizes my ultimate intent to engage in intercourse with you. At least I'm ambitious. What do the lift belts represent?"
"You needed help getting up," Tegan explained, vowing she'd kiss a psychotherapist if she ever got back to Earth. Keludar's answering silence was music to her ears. If only she could do this to the Doctor, but he'd probably had met Freud in person.
They went through a lit area. Keludar looked distinctly peeved. "I suppose that's a coded reference to the tumescence of the male genital organs?" he inquired at last.
"Freud was an early researcher. There are other opinions. However, he did have some interesting ideas about the dangers of unhealthy repression of sexual urges that could apply to this whole bloody planet." Tegan snarled the last words, then wondered where her anger had come from.
"I'd like to point out," Kel's voice said from the darkness, "That I was the one who was willing to continue the encounter and you were the one who ran away. I was repressed against my will."
"You've got ha–" Tegan stopped right there. "I couldn't be what you wanted. If you visited Earth, you'd find any number of volunteers for the job. It's easy for some people, for many people, to indulge. I'm not good at doing anything the easy way." What could she say to him about emotions that wasn't a cliché? The words were dust in her mouth. He was Gallifreyan. The heart was a circulatory organ.
"It's not easy with the Doctor?" Tegan didn't answer, not sure if she wanted to discuss this with Keludar. He went on by himself. "Watching you dance with him taught me more about kissing than our kiss. You moved together as though connected below the level of conscious thought. You gave yourself to him with the look on your face. Anything I could want from you he already had, but had not claimed. I knew he'd never kissed you, because if he had, you would never have kissed me."
They sat in silence, while the platform moved down at an angle. It wasn't fast, but Tegan's ears kept feeling the change in pressure. They were going deep.
"It's not easy. It's mostly my fault, I think. He knows a lot about humans, but that's not the same as knowing about me. I'd got it in my head there was no chance…" Tegan shook her head. Keludar had surprised her with his insight, but there were things she couldn't discuss with him. He didn't belong inside that privacy.
"Whatever you did in the dance seemed to work fine for him."
His words hung in the darkness like stars being painted onto the sky. A chill ran up her spine.
"It was an interesting contrast to see you dance with Lord Martusan. There's someone who thinks you're merely a pet."
"Oh, my God. That's where we're going. Down into the environmental systems core. I've been down there, in the hydroponics facility. I hope someone heard me yelling for help in the Panopticon, because no one's going to hear us down here."
"No one but a few nutritechs, and Lord Martusan. Do you think he'd turn us in?"
"He'll try to play the situation for his own benefit."
- o - O - o -
The platform came to a halt. A door panel slid open. Tegan blinked in the sudden light. It only took a moment for her eyes to adjust. It did look like the area she toured: infrequent pools of light with shadowy areas in between. "How much attention do they pay to monitoring down here?"
"Not much, I hope. I don't know this area. We'll have to look for signs."
"At least we won't starve. Speaking of which, I'm hungry."
"I've got some food pills in my pocket, if you like."
"Clever you, thanks!" She accepted a couple of pills. By now Tegan was used to them, though she preferred to wash them down with water or juice.
"You're welcome. You know what we need to do is get taken into the custody of the Outer Guard. Andred wouldn't let anything untoward happen to us."
"That's brilliant! Turning ourselves in voluntarily will count in our favor, surely?"
"The problem is we have no proof of the plot. About the only thing dodgy is that we were shot at while having merely escaped from confinement. That offense does not call for violent apprehension. Probably it will all be covered up."
"Hmph. I wish Leela were here. I hate political intrigue." Tegan skirted an area of light. She and Keludar were moving side by side.
"Is it the same on your world? Surely politics function much the same everywhere a culture places value on governmental power."
"The politics are the same, only with more bloodshed. And sex." Tegan slapped her boot against her thigh.
"Why are you still carrying that?" Keludar asked idly, before resuming the conversation. "Sex appears to be a time intensive activity. How do they manage to fit it into their schedules?"
"It would be leaving a trail? I can't just leave it lying around." Tegan shrugged. "Sex can be very quick, especially if you don't care about your partner. And it's not all that, you know. Plenty of humans don't have sex. There's some famous saying about the position being ridiculous and the pleasure fleeting."
"Whoever said that must have a narrow view of sexual activity. I find that the sex act can be prolonged for the extent of one's ability to concentrate on it." Lord Martusan stepped into the light that shone down on a cluster of shrubbery. His green robes harmonized with the foliage.
"Uh, good evening, Lord Martusan," Tegan said, wretchedly aware that she was wearing a dressing gown and carrying one boot. Acting casual was not in the cards.
"I've observed you have a taste for older men, but an Elder?" He surveyed Keludar, who looked back at him with far less civility. "Ah, I see it is your young Champion. I believe your name is Keludar. Welcome to the domain of my keeping." Martusan looked back to Tegan. "When I was notified that I was receiving a shipment from the President, I did not guess that it would be such a delightful surprise, or two fold."
"What–"
"You used some kind of Presidential override on the environmental systems and activated a transport mechanism that hasn't been used for many centuries. I am notified of unusual events that occur within my purview. Now I reap the good fortune of my forethought." Martusan gestured down an avenue between plantings. "I think you would do well to accompany me." He added with the cool edge of a Time Lord, "Look to your charge, Champion. She is chilled to the bone."
Keludar took her by the elbow. They didn't discuss it, only followed Martusan. The pause to speak to him had made Tegan aware of the lingering cold that she hadn't managed to shed in the relative warmth inside. The boot started to slip from her numb fingers, and instead of tightening her grasp, Tegan impulsively let it drop into a planter. The thought of leaving a clue of where they were before they gave themselves into Martusan's clutches comforted her.
tbc