A/N: This chapter features a good deal of exposition. Everyone wants to show how friggin' clever they were.
Tegan spent the next two days flat on her back in bed under the care of a doctor, or as they called them here, medtechs. Most of it was spent unconscious. They purged the radiation from her body then performed extensive microsurgical repairs to restore the integrity of her cell structure and gene pattern. She was occasionally aware of the Doctor's presence, of his assurance that she was safe and would be well again soon.
Pronounced convalescent, and advised to be careful of her nutritional intake and rest cycles, Tegan left hospital only to be escorted straight to a hearing of the Council of Time Lords. The Doctor was present, and smiled at her, but said nothing. He sat to the side, and let the council proceed. Lady Flavia was in charge.
She gave testimony about where she'd originally got the lift belt. Then they asked how it figured in her departure from Keludar's confinement quarters. To her relief, they asked no questions about her elder Time Lord companion. She hadn't the least idea how she could explain Professor Omicron without sounding daft. The whole experience seemed like a dream now. Then she was taken from the hearing to a special gallery where she could listen, but not communicate with those in the courtroom.
The next to testify was Keludar. He looked well enough, but different. In a human, it would be the difference between appearing in their mid-thirties instead of their mid-twenties. She wasn't so sure it was physical. He didn't mock or use his lazy, cynical pose, but spoke directly and to the point. He didn't say anything she didn't know, until he started testifying about the technical details of his use of the link belt for that pogo-stick maneuver. Tegan lost the thread of what he was saying two sentences in, and dozed in her chair. When he was taken out, she hoped he might be sent to join her, but he did not come in.
A medtech testified about the effects of the radiation, Tegan and Keludar's recovery, and the treatment of others who had been less severely affected. Tegan smirked on hearing Martusan had got a strong dose, and was relieved to hear that Leela was only slightly exposed.
Lord Martusan himself appeared next. He testified that he had detected them using unauthorized transport within his sphere of authority, had intercepted them, and offered them shelter to gain their confidence before notifying the authorities.
Chancellor Flavia was chairing the council committee hearing. "We understand," she said, "That you challenged Keludar to toog stick combat."
"That is correct. He considered himself Lady Tegan's champion and was trying to persuade her to leave. I couldn't allow that to happen, so I attempted to influence events using his paradigm."
Tegan, lacking anyone on whom to vent her spleen, stamped her foot. She had to admit she couldn't catch Martusan out in a lie, but she was sure she'd guessed his real motives. A weasel he was and remained.
"Is this the toog stick with which you fought?" The toog stick was passed to Martusan for his examination, and he confirmed it was his.
"May I speak to the witness, Lady Flavia?" Receiving permission, the Doctor stood. "I'd like to thank you for the care you took of Lady Tegan. It is much appreciated on my part. However, if you consider the matter, I think you will see that particular toog now belongs to me."
There was murmuring from the council table. Martusan's hands tightened on the toog stick.
"If you contest my right, you may have to answer to Leela as well. She informs me that her challenge to you was never resolved, but that she is willing to yield in my favor."
"Permission to rise, madam?" Martusan's voice came through gritted teeth. Lady Flavia granted it. Martusan walked over to the Doctor and offered the toog stick. The Doctor took it, tucked it into his robes, and then sat down. Martusan was escorted out. No one heard Tegan cheer.
The next witness was Turlough, who testified as Chancellor Flavia's agent. She had assigned him to work with Commandant Maxil and keep her personally informed of all developments. He testified that Lady Lithasomralirdan had contacted Maxil and volunteered her personal assistance. She had made use of a device that allowed her to track the locator beacon on the lift belt. This had been less effective than her initial claims, as the signal was distorted by force screen interference while Keludar was Outside. Once they had re-entered the Citadel, she had been able to direct the search to the Environmental Systems headquarters location before they received Lord Martusan's message.
One of the councilors remarked, "By personally attending to the matter, Lady Litha exposed herself to the radiation. This is not the action of a knowingly guilty party."
Lady Flavia stomped on him. "Your ability to divine Lady Litha's thought process at a remove of time and distance reveals greater telepathic ability than I knew you possessed, Councilor. However, unless you care to take the stand and add your witness testimony to the record, I recommend we on this committee restrict our activities to taking statements." The councilor didn't say another word the entire hearing.
Turlough was dismissed from the stand and was followed by Leela. She made tracking them sound like child's play. Having quickly found the snow-free terrace, she had seen no traces of dirt or water had been tracked inside at the door on that level. She had asked the Outer Guard commander on duty where the platform led, gone down to the Environmental Systems facility, and found Tegan's boot. After that, she had simply assumed they were with Martusan, since she knew he desired Tegan.
The council didn't actually squirm, but they would have if they hadn't been Time Lords. Only Lady Flavia remained truly stoic. "You challenged Lord Martusan. Did you believe he meant to harm either Keludar or Lady Tegan?" she asked.
"Tegan did not want his protection. I did not trust him to treat her with honor."
"Yet you did not fight."
"She was ill, and Keludar was sick and injured. It was not the time to fight. Martusan gave her into my care while he summoned medtechs."
"Did you ask him to conceal your presence?"
"No. Either he would speak, or he would not, as did him most good."
There was an amused stir in the hearing room. Tegan chuckled.
"Why did you not announce yourself to Commandant Maxil?"
"I heard the voice of Litha, and I count her an enemy." Leela's eyes flashed. "She attempted to make trouble between me and Andred, on Otherstide. She has a cruel tongue and a bitter heart. I knew she was not there to help my friends. I wished to see what she would do while she thought herself unwatched."
"Yet you remained hidden when the President arrived."
"She was waiting for something. She kept consulting the tool she carried. I wished to discover her plan. When the Doctor said that everyone was being poisoned by radiation, she was not surprised. She closed her hand around the tool so that it could not be seen. When everyone else was watching the Doctor, she began to use the tool where it was hidden. She did not know that I was there. I knew that whatever she did would betray her evil if found out, so I stopped her."
Leela was dismissed. The next witness was a forensic technician who testified that Litha had attempted to enter a command to wipe out previous commands she'd made in the memory of the device and the computer it was linked to.
Leela was let into Tegan's gallery. Tegan threw herself at Leela and hugged her. "I don't know why they don't have you run this place. You were smarter than the lot of them."
"I am good at hunting," Leela chuckled. "Listen to the Doctor. I have wished to know what he was doing."
Tegan saw the Doctor taking the stand. She settled down to watch: she wanted to know what he'd been up to as well.
- o - O - o -
"I had engaged a healing trance. Lady Tegan was resting in the same room. While I was in trance, I was aware of her unexpected departure, but not the cause. On coming out of the trance, I was informed of the incident regarding Lady Tegan's visit to the detainee, and that she and he were now missing. Since the search was already in progress, I decided that I would best use my efforts by consulting the Matrix to form an overall picture of the situation."
"The data stream included Lady Litha's involvement. She stood out as an indeterminate figure in the equations. I traced her communications for more information. As Director of Celestial Harmonics, she has charge of systems capable of tracking any form of physical energy on this planet. The lift belts possess full remote maneuvering functionality as well as the locator beacon. The Director was able to trace the specific lift belt and communicate with its systems. The power pack was drained. She sent commands to disable the safety regulators and cause the residual energy to be released."
"You claim these were deliberate actions?"
"I've entered the Matrix record into evidence. The council members can review the data for themselves. I cannot testify as to her intent, only as to the result of her actions."
"And your actions? You took a detachment of the Presidential Guard. Normally, their duties consist solely of security of the Presidential apartments."
"I felt it most prudent to work with Guards accustomed to answering directly to my authority. I am entitled to a bodyguard, as one of the perquisites of my office."
"Why did you go in your own person?" Chancellor Flavia's voice finally took on an identifiable quality–exasperation. Tegan had to sympathize.
"To make sure that lives were protected, I wanted to be able to bring all the authority I had to bear. The results bear me out: no one was killed by the radiation, and the detainee is in custody. I am satisfied."
Chancellor Flavia glanced at the rest of the Council. "Does anyone have any further questions for the witness?" They conferred quietly. Flavia nodded, then returned her attention to the Doctor. "The Council wishes to know if you find the work of the Guard forces involved in this incident to be of acceptable standard."
"I have full confidence in the competence of Commandant Maxil to manage the Guard. I suggest you ask him for an efficiency evaluation, if you find it necessary to pursue this issue. Maxil has my complete support." Some of the council members looked surprised, to say the least.
"I thought they hated each other," Tegan said, astounded.
"Andred says that Maxil is loyal to Gallifrey," Leela volunteered.
Turlough came in. "You can come out now, Tegan. The hearing's over."
"What? Isn't Lady Lithasomir… Litha, going to testify?"
"No, she submitted a statement to the council. Denying everything, I believe."
"So why was I stuck up here in the first place?"
"To keep you separated from the other witnesses, of course."
"If you're going to be sarcastic at me, I'm not going to thank you." Tegan smiled at him. "Thanks, by the way, for helping. I knew it would turn out all right when you and Leela showed up."
"How else was I going to find out what you were doing bouncing across the Panopticon? I was down at the Academy when I saw that. What an uproar that caused! I bet there are still people passing the recording around. Keludar will never live it down."
"I'll never live it down," Tegan snorted.
"It was very funny when the Time Lord picked up your boot. He looked so confused." Leela broke into a rare, broad grin.
"Never, ever," Tegan sighed. "So where's Professor Omicron?"
"What's he got to do with this?"
"He went with me to visit Keludar. He used the name Lord Azanghrell."
Andred came to meet Leela and she left with him.
Turlough shrugged. "I don't know. I came in late, it seems. Let's find the Doctor. The hearing was about Lithasomralirdan's actions, not Keludar's escape. He's not important enough to rate a council hearing."
"He might be glad of that for once."
- o - O - o -
After a certain painful and turbulent period in her life that Tegan did not like to dwell on, she had spent a few months performing community service in a hospital. She'd worked some of the time in the geriatric wing. Many of the old people never had visitors. Some were far enough into dementia that they didn't notice, but the heartbreaking ones would talk about their children and how they looked forward to seeing them on the holidays. The children seldom came.
Now she sat vigil by the bedside of a man who claimed to be as old as recorded human history. He was listed under the name Omicron, as the real Azanghrell had bitterly protested that someone had stolen his identity. The occupant of the bed had not been able to stay awake long enough to lay claim to that or any other name.
"He engaged his respiratory bypass," the Doctor said, "and there was no discernable brain damage, though we haven't got a scan to compare before to after. He has had a few minutes of consciousness, and was lucid during them. He asked for you."
Azanghrell meant to die alone. He'd leave his massive corpse as a horror and shame to Gallifrey. This was a planet where routine health was just that. No one had to have an imperfect body unless they chose to keep irregular teeth or eccentrically shaped noses. The Doctor could have his mild shortsightedness corrected if he wanted. Tegan suspected he enjoyed fiddling with those glasses he occasionally wore.
Azanghrell was fat by choice. It was a political and philosophical statement: his judgment on his entire planet. There was neither enjoyment of food or eating for comfort involved. He magnified his malevolence. Tegan didn't care if he'd helped them as Keludar said. She was sure that like Martusan, he'd done it to advance his own agenda. He would die alone in a room and make of himself a gruesome proof to some unfortunate maintenance worker or security guard that Gallifreyans were indeed still flesh and blood.
The Professor had asked for her. She'd be there for him, no matter how long she had to camp out. Tegan had been there three hours without a sign, and she was wondering whom she'd have to pester to get a bed brought in.
Dedication or not, she was bored and cranky. She got a medtech to let her borrow a datapad, and diverted herself by drawing on it. The stylus was not as satisfying as a pencil. She missed the glide of graphite over the subtly toothed surface of virgin paper. On the other hand, it was its own eraser. Experimenting, she found that she could produce pen and ink style drawings. The stylus even had a brush mode, normally used for highlighting.
"My dear young lady, what are you doing?"
She looked up from the pad in her lap. "I wondered when you would wake up. I've been drawing. Does this look familiar?" Tegan held up the data pad. She'd drawn Azanghrell.
"Certainly I know him. So you have been in Azanghrell's lair."
"Yes, me and Keludar, and we were glad to get out. He let you use his name?"
The Professor chuckled softly. "It's more complicated than that. Azanghrell was my name. I transferred it to him. It's easier to stay hidden when someone else is being you in your place."
Tegan stared at him. "So neither of you is going by your real name?"
"Is it so important? It's only a label affixed at the beginning of life. If I knew that Gallifrey would prosper but my name be forgot, I could not ask for a finer place in her history."
"Gallifreyans," Tegan muttered. "How are you feeling, Professor?"
"Well enough for the moment. How is it with you and Keludar?"
"We both escaped with whole skins, but it was a near thing."
"'Whole skins.' What vividly alarming metaphor your culture produces." He closed his eyes and Tegan leaned forward, worrying he'd passed out or simply died on the spot.
"Professor?"
"It's difficult to predict how long the final incarnation will last. My grip on life is failing. I should like to see Keludar and your President before I pass. Will you ask for them to come to me?"
Tegan bit her lip. He was so calm that she couldn't find the tears. "I don't think you'll get one without the other."
"I shall sleep now. Don't worry, I shan't die before time." He closed his eyes.
tbc