Author's note - I hope you're enjoying the story.
Trials and TARDISes.
Inside the roundelled control room with the ever present hum, two Time Lords were speaking in conference.
"Well, is it done?"
"It is."
"Good, the copy held out?"
"It did," there was a second of hesitation in the voice of the first Time Lord. "Are you sure this plan is what you wanted?"
The second Time Lord sighed and turned away, only just managing to hide his sneer of disgust. "Look, you and I will get what we wanted the whole time; I get revenge on Theta for humiliating me during our time in the Academy. You, however, get to have her for yourself."
"This was not what I had wanted," the first Time Lord replied, "I didn't want her hurt."
The disgust in the second Time Lord's voice became noticeable now, though the first Time Lord had already known about it beforehand, and had been curious inwardly about what would lead his fellow conspirator to try to hide his feelings.
"What do you see in that little whore?" he spat.
The other Time Lord instantly bristled. "I love her. I think she is perfect for me," he replied darkly. "But she was infatuated with that fool, Koschei-"
"And you can have her, but only when my business is concluded."
"Theta Sigma, once heiress to the House of Lungbarrow, you have been charged with the murder of Anzor, the son of one of our most respected councillors. And on a minor charge, you have been charged with the theft of many pieces of jewellery, some of them family heirlooms. How do you plead?" The Lord President of the High Council said to her gravely.
Theta closed her eyes and wondered how many more times she should say it before it sank into their heads. Theta was standing in the middle of the Panopticon itself, and knew that this was going to be really bad. The Time Lords holding a trial was a very rare event, normally they didn't conduct a trial except once every few hundred years. At the moment the Panopticon wasn't even filled to full capacity - the High Council were definitely here as were the Time Lords and Ladies who had been at the party as witnesses to the trial. Part of her wondered if the council were doing this to show the population that, instead of being tried in the normal Chancellery hall, they were telling everyone justice was being served.
"I have already given my statement," Theta replied, her head held high despite her haggard appearance and the state of her clothes. "I plead not guilty."
She may have tried to sound imperious, but Theta knew it would do little good since Anzor's father had told the President she was guilty of murder. But she had no other option than to protest her innocence and hope that at least one Time Lord would have the sense to realise she was telling the truth. Unfortunately, so far no one had come forward to raise even an exquisitely gloved finger in protest.
Theta had had a rough night. She had been thrown into a holding cell that you could tell was barely used, and very rarely hosted a Time Lord or Time Lady. Her robes from last night had been removed for forensic evidence since it was covered with Anzor's blood, revealing her thefts, for evidence. The recovery of the jewellery had been added to the charge of murder so that was another reason why everything had gone down the drain. The Castellan had taken a squad of guards and had them strip her rooms at the Academy and at home to pieces while they looked for other signs of her crimes, and although he hadn't said it to her outright yet Theta wondered how long it would be before the Castellan actually put 2 and 2 together, and linked her with the burglar that had been giving him so much trouble.
"Very well," the Lord President said, his cold face not giving away how he was truly feeling, "we shall hear the evidence presented against you."
The Court Usher sounded the call for the trial to begin. As Theta listened to the court proceedings she realised that her trial would probably not last that long. With crisp efficiency, the Castellan told everyone of the investigation so far, and how they had discovered the pieces of jewellery on her person after they had removed her robes from the party from the night before and the investigation into her relationship with Anzor.
Theta wondered how much of this trial was for the benefit of the family, but she wasn't going to ask.
Her Academy professors were also given centre stage and told everyone about her misdemeanours but also her intelligence and skill, but they also told the court how Theta had risked her life against Anzor's galvaniser weapon which had caused great pain to her, and to other students in her year at the Academy. While their testimonies described Anzor as a pretty mediocre student and a bully when the truth of his violent crimes came to light, Theta doubted very much that they would change the minds of everyone here. Anzor was dead and she was accused of his murder. After the academy professors stepped down, the Chancellery guard captain gave his testimony about discovering the pieces of jewellery and dropping in the fact that on many occasions the Lungbarrow family had had events, many of their guests later discovered their jewellery pieces missing.
Quences gave his testimony, looking anywhere but at his former daughter, speaking about her as though she was somebody else he had the displeasure of meeting. He described how Anzor had wanted to meet her, and yes he knew of their history, but he had genuinely believed that Theta and Anzor had grown up. He also expressed regret it hadn't happened. Once Quences was finished with his testimony, other guests came forward and gave their own testimonies.
"We heard this terrible telepathic cry," one Time Lady said, sneering haughtily at Theta; the Time Lady was well rested, her skin made up, and she was wearing a splendid and neat set of robes compared to the haggard figure of Theta. "We heard the poor young man, Anzor, said Theta Why? And then there was fear, pain, and horror, and then nothing. When we arrived we found her covered in blood."
"If I may, my Lord President," Theta suddenly interrupted, hoping to set the record straight.
The President didn't look happy by the interruption, but he nodded so she could say her piece.
"Thank you, sir," Theta said, then she turned to the Time Lady, "You said I was covered in blood, did you see anything nearby that would give the impression the blood was thrown onto me?"
Something in Theta's serious voice made the Time Lady pause. "No."
"Did you see anything like a small tub or a bucket that looked like its contents had been thrown?" Theta asked, hoping that her line of questioning would provoke some thought.
"No."
"Is there a point to these questions?" One of the councillors asked impatiently, , Theta recognising him as one of the lower level councillors that Anzor's father had coveted as one of his little gang of sycophants, but on this occasion he was merely voicing the thoughts going through the minds of everyone in the panopticon.
They didn't believe her. They were too blind to see it. Taking a deep breath Theta said, "When I was near Anzor's body, something threw his blood onto my robes. I wanted to know if there was any sign of a tub or a bucket that could have been used."
Theta hadn't even finished her statement before she realised she was wasting her time. The Time Lords throughout the panopticon didn't believe anything she was saying
Theta wondered and not for the first time how she could have heard something like "Theta why?" and yet hadn't felt those other emotions when she had been so close to Anzor. It made no sense to her, but what upset her the most was how the Time Lords weren't even trying to believe her.
"And you found her covered in blood?" The Lord President clarified.
"Yes, my Lord," the Time Lady replied, shuddering at the thought of the blood she and everybody else had seen covering the floor and Theta's robes.
The President turned to face the Castellan. "Have you matched the blood found on the robes to Anzors?"
"Yes, sir. The blood is definitely Anzor's."
Theta almost snorted. Someone was setting her up, had managed to go to all the trouble of setting her up, so it was very likely they would have gone to the trouble of getting hold of Anzor's blood and not made the mistake of not using Anzor's blood. She still couldn't believe he was dead, but she didn't understand why someone would go to the trouble of framing her. Had someone discovered her identity as the burglar in the Capitol? Everyone now knew she was a thief, and it was likely that at some point the Time Lords would realise what she had been doing.
With a shock she realised the Lord President had begun speaking with the councillors and his aides, including Anzor's father and her own, and then the Castellan.
"Theta Sigma, you have been found guilty of murder and theft," he announced. "Fortunately for you, we are not cruel. We do not kill minors, and as you are still young for a Time Lady, the danger of vaporisation need not apply to you. You shall be exiled from Gallifrey, like your friend Ushas, now known to all as the renegade referred to as the Rani."
Exile. Like the Rani. The thought of having a legitimate reason to be away from Gallifrey filled her with pleasure, but Theta shivered at the thought of vaporisation, and her inside chilled at the thought she could very well have been killed by her own people simply because they couldn't be bothered looking deeper into a case like this. But the thought of exile….. Theta had always wanted to leave Gallifrey, travel through time and space, and begin her criminal career as a pirate out in space.
But not like this.
The Lord Presidents next words were like a death sentence regardless of how he worded them, "However if you ever return to Gallifrey again, you will be vaporised. Castellan, take her away. She shall be exiled later when we have found a suitable TARDIS to take her away."
The Castellan and the guards led Theta away from the Panopticon and away from the High Council, and the young Time Lady didn't feel any pleasure in being in their presence anyway. There weren't many of them, just four guards including the Castellan himself. None of the guards needed to point her towards the cells or usher her on her way, Theta was smart enough to know there wasn't anything she could do to stop them and besides she wanted to be as far from the High Council as she could. As they trudged back to the cells where she was going to be locked up again, Theta pondered the future she was going to have now, the future that was before her. She wasn't sorry that she was leaving Gallifrey when she'd had plans to become a renegade in the first place, but she hadn't planned or expected it to go like this.
But the exile left her feeling cold - personally, she didn't feel anything for the sentence, but she did feel angry that she was being accused of a murder that she'd stumbled upon. She knew she'd been framed, knew someone had gone to a lot of trouble to telepathically select what they wanted her to hear, and what they wanted the other witnesses to hear themselves.
Theta had just expected that she would one day snap, pack her stuff, take the first TARDIS she could and then leave to become a renegade. In a way becoming an exile would ensure the Time Lords left her alone, unfortunately she hadn't expected the crime to be something like this. Murder wasn't the type of crime the Time Lords regularly dealt with, and there were very few options available simply because the Castellan and the President rarely had to deal with that type of crime. So, Theta could see their logic behind her sentence.
As they walked onwards, Theta paused when she heard something in her mind, a telepathic tug on her mind that she could not ignore. Keeping her face clear of expression, Theta studied the mental signature prodding her mind. It was warm, comforting, and for the Time Lady it was the best feeling she had felt in hours since before and after the trial.
Theta burst into action, swinging her arms behind her to grab the guard behind her, using their unmasked telepathic signatures to work out where they were so she didn't make a mistake. The two guards had been bored by the trial before despite the excitement that something was happening on their watch, but that excitement had atrophied. Theta viciously punched one of the guards in the stomach, grabbing hold of his staser pistol while using him as a shield, and quickly checking the setting and switched it to stun, she fired at the guard before turning the weapon to the Castellan and the final guard. Both had their weapons out and pointed directly at her.
"Think about what you are doing, Theta," the Castellan said warningly. "You claim you're innocent, but if you kill others then you will be even more guilty in the eyes of many."
"He's not dead, he's just stunned," Theta replied. "Besides, I'm already exiled. All I want to do before I leave is find the proof of who killed Anzor, going through all the trouble of setting me up. Don't you find it odd that I didn't run off, that those guests to the party last night heard more than I did?"
Theta had been moving the weakened guard to cover her as she turned him around since there was a corridor leading away from them. Throwing the guard towards the Castellan and the other guard, Theta ran down the corridors.
Theta pounded down the corridors away from the Castellan, using the telepathic voice to guide her through the Capitol's corridors. Already she could hear the sounds of the alarms. Ducking inside a small, empty anteroom, Theta closed her eyes and used her training to shield her mind from the other Time Lords; it wasn't easy to hide you mind from your own species, but it was possible to fool them for a while. The moment's rest also gave her the chance to focus on the voice calling to her. It wasn't another Time Lord, she could tell that much, but she was pleased there was someone or something out there in the Capitol that was there for her.
It was a dangerous thing for her to do, but she concentrated and focused her mind to see if there were other Time Lords nearby. There weren't any, and so it was safe for her to leave her hiding place and resume her search for the mysterious presence inside her head. As she walked down the corridors, Theta realised she was still holding onto the pistol she'd taken from the guard earlier.
She had never carried weapons on any of her heists in the past; too noisy, the potential for murder even if it might have been an accident would be too great, and there was risk someone else might find it. Theta was tempted to just drop it, but she didn't dare. The pistol might be her only way of getting to her destination without being killed. She didn't see the point in taking the moral high ground at this stage, not with the Castellan's guards hunting her down like this. They knew she was armed, and if they caught her there was a chance one guard would get trigger happy and then shoot her in the back. Besides, the pistol was set to stun, so if she did come across any guards they'd soon recover.
The journey through the Capitol seemed to take forever. There were Chancellory guards everywhere looking for her as she headed to wherever the voice was coming from, and more than once she had needed to duck and hide whenever she realised someone was nearby or coming closer to her. There were quite a few Time Lords around in this part of the city. Some of them were technicians, others were just nobles. All of the Time Lords knew she'd escaped, and her face and description was posted onto every billboard, every thought screen, and posted on the communication net of the Capitol. Theta had also needed to think a few moves ahead of the curve to avoid the Chancellory guards who were doing their jobs better than she'd ever given them credit for. They were searching every room, every apartment, every nook and cranny and so Theta had to think laterally to get to where she needed to be.
It took her a while but she soon found herself close to where the telepathic feeling in her mind became more clearer. Somehow she wasn't surprised that it was the TARDIS cradles. For a moment Theta was hesitant. She had no idea if this was some kind of trick where the Time Lords would just get rid of her by making her think there was a way out, only to exile her properly without ceremony. But she decided to see how this panned out, so she walked through the entrance into the cradle areas.
The TARDIS cradles were huge, larger than the entrance hall of her home. No, she corrected herself, former home. Pushing aside the residual pain in her hearts about the way her parents had treated her, how her father had spoken about her as if she wasn't even there and her mother had just simply turned her back, Theta stepped inside, letting the telepathic feeling draw her nearer. After seeing one or two technicians in the cradles, Theta concentrated on hiding her mind from them, and darted from one TARDIS to another so she could find one. The problem she had was with so many TARDISes in the cradle, it was hard to find which TARDIS the tug was coming from. She walked down the line, past a few Type 45 capsules and past what appeared to be an old Type 30 when she came to the TARDIS the feeling was coming from. Eventually Theta found the TARDIS where the feeling was coming from, and she read the Type and Mark numbers on the small board above the capsule.
"Type 5-3-3," she whispered.
It was a Type 53 Mark 3 TARDIS, and according to the board no one had yet formed a symbiotic link with it yet. Theta blinked in surprise that the most state of the art modern TARDIS at the moment had been calling out to her, but she pushed that aside and headed for the capsule. Like all other TARDISes, the uncamouflaged state of this capsule was a tall, white/silver/grey cylinder with a door in it. Theta pushed on the door, noticing the main locking exterior sensor plate, and she recalled the Type 53 was the first capsule to have such a feature, so instead of just shoving a key into a keyhole you just pressed the key against the plate and the door would open.
But like all the other TARDISes, the Type 53's door was open and unlocked; it was no wonder really why the renegades had such an easy time leaving Gallifrey in a stolen TARDIS if they were left unlocked, but in this case it was clear the TARDISes were just on display.
Theta chuckled when she realised something just as important with that other revelation about the sad state of her people's security procedures. I could have left this planet whenever I wished, she thought to herself, I could have just walked into the cradles, found a TARDIS, bonded with it and then left Gallifrey.
Oh well. She walked inside the TARDIS. The first thing Theta noticed was the smaller main door when she entered, but she pushed that aside as inconsequential, it shouldn't cause any problems for her on her travels unless she stole something really big, but in that case she could simply materialise the TARDIS around it. She sighed when she saw the console room, and she closed her eyes at the beauty of the ship before opening them again in awe. It had been a long time since she'd walked inside a TARDIS, and she could tell this one wanted her to become its pilot.
Theta walked to the console, her eyes running over the gleaming new controls laid out neatly on the top. Like all new TARDISes, the interior was set to default with its white roundelled walls, white console, and sparse decorations. Theta walked over to the console, and she prepared the ship for the linking. It took only a few minutes before the symbiotic relationship circuits analysed her Rassilon Imprimature to set up the bond with the TARDIS. As soon as she was finished she felt the presence of the TARDIS inside her mind. The previously foggy telepathic feeling deepened and became clearer within her mind.
Theta pulled her hands away from the console, and then she screamed and jumped in the air and then ran around the TARDIS - her TARDIS - in happiness. She had a TARDIS, she could leave Gallifrey. She could do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. Theta grinned as she stretched her hands out towards the console, prepared to set the space/time coordinates, knowing that the Time Lords would not really care since she had been exiled.
But her grin disappeared and she paused. Even if she ran away now, she was still accused of murder, and if she left then she would still have that over her head even if the Time Lords left her alone. Theta ran a hand over her face as she tried to work out what she could do and how she could find the murderer; she couldn't go back in time and see whoever it was who killed Anzor and then framed her. Theta had already been accused of murder and theft and exiled because of those two crimes, she didn't want to make things worse by violating the first law of time. If she went back into the past where her past self was then she'd risk the Blinovitch Limitation Effect, two versions of her in the same point in time. That was a temporal paradox and she didn't dare risk having a paradox, not now, not on top of everything else.
So how could she find the real murderer?
Theta turned a thoughtful look over the TARDIS console. Maybe there was a way the TARDIS could help her after all since the TARDIS could see things she couldn't. She moved over to the telepathic circuits and took hold of the contacts and she concentrated.
I want to find the murderer who's set me up for the murder of Anzor. But I can't travel back into my own timeline, especially here on Gallifrey despite the transduction barriers. Do you know anything? Theta asked the TARDIS.
TARDISes couldn't communicate since their matrixes didn't allow it, but the TARDIS could send impressions back to their pilots, and Theta had the feeling that the TARDIS did know something about the murder. With the telepathic circuits, Theta set the coordinates of her new TARDIS and compelled the ship to dematerialise.
Dematerialising the TARDIS using the telepathic circuits wasn't a problem since they had just linked to one another, but it was something no other Time Lord would really want to do. Shrugging her shoulders, Theta pushed it away though she would try to develop a few experiments she now had in mind that she wanted to try out on the TARDIS's navigational systems.
It was a very short trip through the vortex but the TARDIS had problems rematerialising in the new location. Theta frowned and checked the controls, and then she realised that the TARDIS couldn't land since the landing zone was another transcendental area. What? Quickly pushing the implications which had suddenly entered her mind, Theta checked the dimensional frequencies between the landing zone and her new ship, and made an adjustment before materialising.
The TARDIS had landed in another TARDIS. Theta looked around the console room, which was virtually identical to the one she had just left and she ran a casual eye over the console before nodding, recognising it as a Type 49. Theta ran a hand over the console before heading over to the computer system and she accessed it. Theta silently checked the computer system and nodded.
She had worked it all out. Now all she needed to do was to check the laboratory, and then she'd find the answers. Walking over to the architectural reconfiguration system, she adjusted the systems so then the laboratory was brought closer to her location in this TARDIS's console room. When she checked the inner door which led to the rest of the TARDIS and saw it did lead to the laboratory, she ran over to her TARDIS, slipping out her key and pressing it against the plate.
After a few minutes, she came back out again and headed for the laboratory. All TARDISes featured a fully equipped laboratory, and this one was as big as one of the classrooms at the Academy. Dominating one of the worktops were three massive glass tanks. Theta walked over to them and examined the purple liquid inside before she nodded. She pulled out a small scanner that she'd taken from her own TARDIS and pressed a few controls before she left and walked back into the console room.
There was someone already there, someone familiar that she stopped but not in surprise.
"So, you've found my TARDIS, then?"
"Anzor," Theta said wearily.
Author's note - As you've noticed, I want my alternate Doctors to have a more advanced TARDIS. Indeed, the Doctor in reality, according to the Fifth Doctor's audio story Prisoners of Fate, the main enemy is the Doctor's first TARDIS, a Type 50. Understandably, she was angry he'd spurned her for a Type 40. I'm not going to do that.
