"It is Hedin who has betrayed us," countered the Lord President. "He forced his way into my chambers with some preposterous story and demanded that I surrender my articles of office to him when I refused to accede to his requests!"
Hedin looked properly scandalised by this proclamation, and turned to appeal to their shared audience. "You see? Hysterical fabrications of a damaged mind! I came to visit the Lord President in his chambers, it's true, but when I questioned him regarding the search for the person responsible for the transmission of the Doctor's biodata, he became agitated and threatened my life."
Four of the five Chancellery Guards present drew their weapons and held them nervously at the ready, unsure of which man to trust. Andred alone kept his staser holstered, preferring to assess the situation before introducing another firearm to the mix. Leela stood warily at his side, the knife she normally carried in her boot held low in her hand.
"Summon the Castellan," Commander Andred ordered one of the Guards. The man left to do so quickly, privately relieved to be given an excuse to exit the room. He did not want to be responsible for accidentally getting the Lord President killed.
Andred stepped forward deferentially. "Lord President, we have the councillor surrounded; it's safe for you to lower your staser."
The elderly Time Lord wilted slightly and wearily dropped his arm, glowering at Hedin's serenely unperturbed expression as he did so. Andred moved closer, intending to take the weapon from him.
The tense scene might have ended peaceably, then and there, had they not been interrupted by the arrival of the Castellan with a handful of additional Guards, including Commander Maxil. The chief Gallifreyan policeman had already been on his way when Andred gave the order to send for him, and he came bristling with new information concerning the data breech.
"Lord President, I'm placing you under arrest," he announced imperiously to the stunned group.
"On what grounds?" asked the Doctor, mere seconds ahead of the Lord President and Andred's echoes of the same question.
"High Treason. I've been over the Matrix security logs myself since last night; there's no question about it, the Doctor's biodata was transmitted from Gallifrey, using the Lord President's authorisation codes!"
"That's preposterous!" Borusa bellowed, eyes flashing dangerously, a reminder that the old politician could still be a formidable figure when properly motivated. "It was Hedin, I say! He's as much as admitted the thing to me before you arrived!"
Hedin gave the Time Lord President a pitying look and shook his head slowly, as if he couldn't understand why his friend would accuse him of such crimes.
It was not lost on any of his very attentive audience that due to the disruption caused by the Castellan's arrival, the Lord President had retained control of the staser that he'd been holding Hedin captive with just a minute earlier. Borusa, however, was not as mindful of this fact, or rather the significance of it, and kept waving the weapon about casually as he continued to proclaim his innocence. The nervous energy in the room climbed to levels that had the two Trakenites gritting their teeth against the onslaught of emotional feedback and nearly everyone else sweating under their collars.
"Pardon me, Lord President, but how did you and Councillor Hedin come to be in the main Council chamber, I thought you said he'd accosted you in your private offices?" Nyssa's unexpected question silenced the Time Lord's outburst. He drew himself up, reasserting his dignity visibly.
"My dear, he wanted me to charge the transduction field, isolating the Matrix master control; I couldn't possibly do that! Access to the Matrix is guaranteed; only the gravest emergency would warrant such an act. When I refused him, he pushed past me, intent on doing it himself. I had to take action."
Hedin's reaction was again to appear suitably dismayed. "Quite the opposite in fact, I came in here to escape the Lord President when he became inexplicably belligerent. He followed, producing that staser to force me to remain."
Leela, who all this time had been watching the two men argue very carefully, spoke up. "You are lying," she announced firmly, eyes narrowed at Hedin. All attention in the room focused on her briefly before turning back to Hedin to catch his reaction.
The orange robed Time Lord stiffened noticeably, and he affected a wide-eyed expression of outrage at her accusation. "I most certainly am not!" he exclaimed. "You've got the evidence of Borusa's treasonous acts already; what further proof do you need?" While he spoke, he took a few hurried steps away from Leela, who had raised her blade and adopted a posture which indicated she was prepared to use it if necessary. The move put him nearest to the Castellan, to whom he addressed his question pleadingly.
The Castellan, who was rapidly beginning to feel he was being made to look a fool, but was unclear as to exactly whom was responsible, was irritated by this display. He had sufficient cause to make an arrest and despite the surplus of Chancellery Guards present, they were still just standing here arguing about it. "This is all fascinating, I'm sure, but this discussion can wait until the tribunal has been called. The Inquisitor will be more than willing to hear your explanations at length. Lord President, I shall have to ask you to surrender your weapon and -"
"She's right though," the Doctor interrupted him, sounding very grave. His gaze had never wavered from Hedin's face since Leela had spoken.
Exasperated, the Castellan rounded on him. "Doctor. I would think you, of all people, should be pleased to see the guilty party brought to justice. After all, it was your life which was nearly forfeit. What possible grounds do you have to support this claim?"
The Doctor's expression became uncomfortable. How to explain to a roomful of Time Lords that he'd sensed his former friend's deception via borrowed empathic abilities? He hardly wanted to believe that the traitor could be Hedin, but he was as sure as he'd ever been that the man was hiding something.
"I have the utmost faith in Leela's powers of observation," he stated confidently. "And, as you may recall, my biology has been temporarily reconfigured; I could sense for myself, as I'm sure Nyssa can confirm, that Councillor Hedin has not been honest with his replies." He regarded the councillor with disappointment in his eyes. "Why, Hedin? I've always considered you a friend."
Caught and exposed, with little recourse left to him if there was to be any hope of success for his plans, Hedin lunged suddenly, seizing the Castellan from behind and using the startled Time Lord's own weapon against him. "You've left me with no alternative, nothing must interfere with transfer," he said breathlessly, pressing the staser against the Castellan's throat. His hostage squawked indignantly. "Cooperate or I shall be forced to kill you," he warned and the captive Gallifreyan ceased his protests.
All of the assembled Chancellery Guards now had their stasers firmly pointed at the pair, but Hedin wisely kept the Castellan between himself and the guards as a shield.
"There can be no transfer; the creature hasn't a valid biosignature to lock on to," the Doctor said logically.
Hedin dismissed this concern casually. "Your unorthodox use of that antiquated technology did present an added difficulty, I'll admit, but not an insurmountable one; yours is hardly the only biodata available within the Matrix."
The Doctor shook his head. "Give it up, Hedin. You're only making things worse for yourself by doing this. Help us locate this creature so that we can stop it before any further damage is done."
"You don't understand. This is no alien creature, it's one of us! A Time Lord, the first and greatest of our people. The one who sacrificed all to give us mastery of time and was shamefully abandoned in return!" Hedin's voice rose with the devoted admiration of a religious zealot.
"Omega?" The Doctor and Borusa uttered the name in near-unison.
"Omega!" The word was said triumphantly.
"But he died - I was there myself the last time he attempted to return to our universe." There'd been barely anything of him left even then, the Doctor recalled.
"No, he exists, and wants only to live amongst us again. And with the power of the Matrix at his command, he shall have his wish soon."
"Omega is insane. You cannot mean to give him control of the Matrix; he'll destroy us all," the Doctor replied.
Hedin was too committed to his cause to listen to reason. "The power he brings is for the good of all, you'll see. For too long we've allowed ourselves to remain stagnant, squabbling amongst ourselves over petty things like children, aloof from the rest of the universe. Omega will return Gallifrey to her former glory."
Borusa spoke as if addressing a disobedient student. "Listen to yourself, Hedin. Omega is dangerous. Even if he weren't, the Matrix is far too powerful to entrust to any one being, no matter how significant their contributions might have been to our history."
Hedin laughed, but the sound was not a happy one. "Enough talk. There's work to be done. Castellan, order your men to stand down." Reluctantly, the Castellan did as he was told and the guards lowered their weapons. "Lord President, if you would bring the Crown and accompany me? Leave the staser." His tone might have been pleasant in other circumstances. Hedin began backing out of the room, toward the rear entrance which lead directly to the President's official chambers. Borusa handed his weapon to Commander Andred and followed with the requested device.
"Any attempt at interference, and I will not hesitate to kill them both. Harm me, and you'll also be putting your own lives in peril." Hedin made the threat just as the doors swept closed.
The stunned silence that fell over the chamber lasted only a moment before Maxil began issuing orders to everyone present, preparing to do exactly what Hedin had warned would result in dire consequences. Andred stepped in and asserted his authority to stop the other man from making a mistake.
"I wasn't aware that you were assigned to Executive Sector at this time," Maxil sneered, irritated at the encroachment of what he considered his territory. They were of equal rank, though technically Andred did have seniority, if it came to it.
"Oh for Rassilon's sake, stow it, Maxil. We haven't time for a pissing match over who's in charge here. I'm sure before this is over, there will be enough tarnish to sully everyone's armour; and when the hammer blow comes, you'll be glad not to be the only man standing at the top."
Maxil glowered, but couldn't argue that point. "What do you suggest we do then, Commander? While we argue, the Lord President and the Castellan are alone with a madman."
Andred stepped closer to the other Guardsman. "We need to protect them, and secure the Matrix, but we need Hedin alive…"
While this heated conversation was taking place, the Doctor had turned to Damon. "If we could get to the Matrix computer room in time, do you think we could lock out access to the biodata archives from there?"
"We'd need the presidential access codes to do that, and even then, I'm not sure; he has Borusa with him," Damon replied.
"We'll have to hope they haven't changed them all since my brief tenure then, won't we?" The Doctor flashed a dangerous grin. "Come on, quickly!" He made for the door.
"What about the hostages?" Nyssa asked, looking over her shoulder worriedly.
"I trust Andred has the rescue operation well in hand; and he has Leela with him," he answered. "If we don't act swiftly, it may not matter whether they're able to save them and capture Hedin. If Omega seizes control of the Matrix, we're all in serious trouble."
"Try it now."
The Doctor input another sequence on the keypad. The computer terminal chirped and data began scrolling across the monitor.
"That's it!" Damon cheered and hurried to begin implementing lock out commands. The procedure was routine enough for an experienced technician like himself, but the high stakes situation made him nervous of forgetting something critical. "Alright. I need you to enter the code again, please." The Doctor complied and, after tapping a few more keys, Damon breathed a sigh of relief when a confirmation of his request appeared on the screen.
"I've no idea if we were fast enough, but I've reset the master code for that archive. It's not impossible to break the encryption, but it should take longer than Omega has to do so," he said, pleased with himself.
"Good work," the Doctor meant the compliment sincerely, though his voice sounded distracted. He was busy checking the database for further evidence of Hedin's clandestine affairs that might offer them a clue as to Omega's whereabouts. Without the Crown, there was little they could do to block access to the Matrix entirely; they just had to hope the physical intervention taking place in the Lord President's chambers was successful. Nyssa stood at his elbow, watching an adjacent monitor for off-world transmission traffic, and growing more concerned.
"Doctor," she said warningly as there was a sudden spike in activity on the screen.
He raised his head from a rather interesting shipping manifest he'd located to see what had roused her attention. "No," he breathed and nearly swore as all of the screens in the room cleared and were filled with a single image - that of a sinister helmeted figure in black and gold. "We're too late. Omega has control of the Matrix."
It is not a widely advertised fact, but for security reasons, several important offices in the Citadel had multiple non-public entrances. The Lord President's office was no exception to this rule and it was via one of these undisclosed passageways that the Chancellery Guards staged their attack. Wearing protective filter masks and infrared lenses, they waited until the power could be disrupted to the lights before opening the door, tossing in a canister of a mild chemical irritant, and pouring into the room after it.
The altercation which resulted was not executed as cleanly as desired. Though Andred had insisted on non-lethal staser settings to ensure the safety of the hostages as well as the only person with definite knowledge of the whereabouts of Omega, there was, of course, a limit to how many "non-lethal" blasts a Gallifreyan body could withstand and at least one lethally-tuned weapon in play. In the scrum, it was hard to say how exactly it happened, but when the lights came up again, Hedin lie on the ground, unconscious and twitching with regeneration energy.
Borusa and the Castellan were hastily evacuated to the Council Chamber while Hedin's body rearranged and restored itself. His new form was hardly given an opportunity to settle before the Time Lord was hoisted up and dragged roughly out of the office to endure the remainder of his regeneration sickness in a security cell. Maxil escorted him personally.
In the Council Chamber, Borusa refused all offers of medical treatment, despite his streaming eyes and shaky limbs, insisting that he be given the Crown that Hedin had stolen. "Omega must be stopped!" he kept repeating until Andred brought him the artefact. "I shall do what I can to keep him distracted," the elderly Time Lord said, voice clear with authority. "We must locate him before he is able to attempt transference. See that the remainder of the Council are informed."
Andred turned to his wife, who had been permitted to supervise, but not participate in, the raid. She'd been annoyed by the decision but understood the need to limit the number of combatants in the small room to those best trained with the equipment they would be using. Leela had for some time served as an instructor in unarmed combat techniques at the Chancellery Guard Academy, but had never grown comfortable with energy weapons. "Leela, I need you to find the Doctor and tell him what has happened. I must see to matters here." She nodded and left him to the task of finding another guard to relay the Lord President's message to the other councillors.
When the messenger arrived, Chancellor Thalia had only just bid goodbye to the clever junior cardinal who had generously offered a few well-placed pieces of information and demurred politely when she'd inquired as to their source and price. Thanks to this advance warning, she was already gathering her prototype and tools. The elegantly robed Time Lady nodded knowingly as the panting Guardswoman delivered the news in succinct bullet points.
"Have Hedin's private quarters been searched yet?" she asked.
"I don't know," the guard answered her. "The investigation is ongoing." The standard reply of the trained law enforcement officer came easily to her lips.
"Take me there. We haven't much time," Thalia's demeanour made it clear that this was not merely a request, but an order.
The Doctor was pacing the floor of the computer room, while Damon laboured over one of the terminals, trying everything he could think of to wrest control of the system away from Omega. Nyssa and Leela watched the Doctor; all three of them attempting to piece together the meagre clues they'd accumulated as to Omega's whereabouts. The transport of an experimental fusion booster element just prior to his scheduled execution that the Doctor had located in the archives before his access had been revoked seemed to be their best evidence so far. Borusa's authorisation codes had been used for it as well.
"Why Earth, of all places?" the Doctor wondered aloud. "Surely there were plenty of other sources of liquid water closer to the Arc of Infinity than Earth."
"Perhaps it's something to do with Omega's attempt to bond with you," Nyssa suggested. "He wasn't able to complete the process, but might it be possible that his brief contact with your mind influenced his choice of planet? You are very fond of Earth."
The Doctor paused mid-step and raised an eyebrow at her. It was hardly the least plausible theory any of them had proffered thus far though. He sighed. "I'm afraid if you're right, that doesn't really help us narrow it down to a particular location."
Their conference was interrupted by the noisy arrival of the Castellan, accompanied by Chancellor Thalia. The pair of councillors were arguing as they walked in.
"You've no guarantee that what you're suggesting will work," the Castellan was saying.
"We can't afford to wait to see if Borusa can overpower him," she replied. "The magnetism shielding his antimatter signature will have decayed to the point that we ought to be able to locate his ship, but that means he's also dangerously close to losing containment. Transference is Omega's only option at this point. We must prevent that."
She turned her attention to the other occupants of the computer room. "Omega has managed to charge the transduction barrier, isolating Gallifrey and the Matrix from any outside influence, save his own. Thanks to your remarkable solution to the bonding quandary which bought us valuable time, I've had several spans to work on a method of tracking the antimatter creature. I believe the device I've designed will reveal his location, but it needs to be outside the barrier to operate. How many of the Matrix subsystems were you able to sequester before the incursion?"
"Only the biodata archives, I'm afraid," Damon answered. "It's not clear from the logs whether Hedin was able to transmit anything before we secured it though."
The Doctor addressed the Castellan. "You were with Hedin; do you know if he did?"
The Castellan shook his head. "I don't think so. He said he planned to offer up another renegade as an alternative to your corrupted biodata, Doctor, but his priority seemed to be giving Omega access to the master controls. Having to relay instructions to the Lord President rather than enter the Matrix himself slowed the process considerably." His tone was more acid than usual; he was feeling rather savage toward Hedin and Omega at the moment. The post of Castellan was an elected position; once the story of his capture became public knowledge, he'd be lucky to retain his seat against an even mildly competent challenger. He was lucky the man most likely to try to unseat him had been there as well, and was just as guilty of allowing the Lord President to be taken hostage in front of several Guardsmen as he was.
Thalia's expression grew more concerned. "All the more reason for haste. If Omega cannot achieve transference safely, he'll become unstable. We must act immediately." She glared pointedly at the Castellan, who seemed to understand what the look meant.
He frowned back at her and then turned to Damon.
"We're going to need to get a TARDIS through the barrier undetected. Have you tried the emergency bypass procedures yet?" he asked.
"That was the first thing I tested when the terminals froze. Omega has cut us off," Damon replied. "Anything beyond read-only access to public files is restricted. There's no way for us to assign new transduction codes for travel off-world."
Nodding as if that was what he'd expected to hear, the Castellan withdrew a golden authorisation disk from his robes and held it out to Damon. The technician stared at it in confusion for a moment before taking it with a cautious smile. Damon fitted the disk into the appropriate slot on the console. He grinned when the computer terminal registered the disk and a command line appeared, blinking on the screen. Everyone gathered round to peer at the small monitor.
"What does this mean?" Leela asked.
"It means," said the Castellan, sounding slightly smug, "that we have a way to get a TARDIS off Gallifrey."
"The Doctor's TARDIS didn't arrive of its own accord," Damon explained, "it was recalled with special authorisation from the Lord President. That means it wasn't assigned normal transduction clearance to land; with a bit of work, I should be able to reverse the recall order without needing to request any additional travel codes."
"How will we prevent Omega from noticing?" Nyssa asked.
"The system is kept separate from the rest of the Matrix for security reasons," the Castellan answered. "Unless Omega is specifically monitoring for recall traffic, it won't register on the primary grid. The Lord President is currently doing his best to keep Omega occupied while we develop a plan."
"Doctor," said Thalia, tone prim and formal. "You've faced Omega before. I can provide you with the tracking unit I've devised. Can we rely on you to seek him out and do what is necessary?"
The Doctor nodded. If Thalia hadn't asked him, he would've volunteered. Provided they'd successfully thwarted his second attempt at transference, Omega had to be getting desperate. Outside of a small number of renegades and temporal spooks, very few Time Lords had any meaningful experience with true peril. That alone probably made the Doctor the best man for the job; running headlong into certain danger was practically something he did recreationally.
"How long will it take you to reverse the circuit?" he asked Damon.
"Nearly done now. Get to the security compound and prepare for departure," his friend advised.
Thalia presented the Doctor with a palm-sized rectangular gadget with a retractable antenna and simple touch interface panel display. "I'm not certain of the range, but it ought to be able to provide approximate coordinates for Omega's ship as soon as you're clear of the transduction barrier. The sensitivity can be adjusted once you've landed for more precise navigation." She demonstrated the features briefly and handed it to him.
He pocketed the device and turned to leave. Nyssa and Leela followed him. He raised an inquiring eyebrow but wasn't given the chance to speak.
"I'm not letting you face Omega alone, Doctor," Nyssa said firmly. "Especially while you can't regenerate if something goes badly."
"You will require an escort to access the security compound," Leela added with a tight smile.
He didn't argue and led the way down the corridor toward the TARDIS.
They left Leela at the entrance to the security compound, where Andred had been coordinating the Chancellery Guard's response to the public fallout from Omega's takeover of the Matrix. An emergency curfew had been instituted in the Citadel, otherwise the Doctor and Nyssa would have had to fight through a much larger crowd to get to their ship. Andred wished them luck in passing when they explained what they intended to do, returning quickly to the queue of people vying for his time.
When they entered the TARDIS, the Doctor frowned as he examined the console; Damon had assured him that he and Andred had seen to the installation of a fresh space-time element, but he bent to check it anyway. It was a good thing he did, because he discovered that Damon had included an override switch for the recall circuit - they'd need the circuit active to make this plan work. He made the adjustment quickly and stood to make sure it was registering properly with the computer.
The ship looked different somehow and it took him a long moment to realise that it was because he was viewing it with Trakenite eyes, rather than his normal Time Lord senses. He'd been too distracted to notice the change earlier when Maxil had marched them to the Council Chambers. Now that he was aware of it, he felt strangely off-balance and he missed his ship's subtle presence in his mind; his transformation had severed a centuries-long connection. Fortunately, Nyssa's people were not entirely without telepathic sensitivity; when he touched the panel in front of him, he could re-establish contact. She recognised him, but seemed annoyed by the communication impediment between them he'd unwittingly caused.
"Sorry old girl," he said and moved to check that the pre-flight systems were set correctly.
Atop the primary navigation monitor, where he was sure to notice it, weighed down by a shiny £1 coin, he found a folded slip of paper. Puzzled, he opened the note discreetly, read the contents, and then hastily pocketed it, face going marginally pinker than normal.
The note read, in exactingly precise handwriting: Dear Doctor, I concede I may have underestimated my esteemed colleagues' capacity for self-deception and delusion. I shall endeavour to bear this incident in mind the next occasion a similarly perplexing situation presents itself. In any event, the culprit has been found and rooted out without requiring any intervention on my part, which is just as well. I've found it's best to preserve one's political capital for only the most dire circumstances. I have, however, taken the liberty of ensuring that certain other information regarding your association with that delightfully direct young woman does not come to light. I hesitate to point out the obvious, but surely you must have realized that a diplomatic apartment would be under surveillance? It was unsigned, its author all too obvious, leaving the pointed question to needle at him as he prepared the TARDIS for dematerialisation.
Noticing his sudden burst of discomfort, Nyssa gave him a curious look. He kept his gaze trained on the instrumentation.
"Ready here, Damon," he said, accessing the communication panel to transmit directly to the computer room.
"Right. Activating the recall circuit now," came the reply.
The time rotor activated on his mark, sending the TARDIS back through the time vortex toward the Arc of Infinity.