Andred paced back and forth anxiously outside Delta Wing 487. He turned when he saw K9 approaching. "What kept you?" he snapped.

"Apologies, master," K9 said. "I had to deviate from course to resolve a potentially violent dispute. The resolution was successful."

"All right, but let's get on with it, then," Andred said sulkily. "We don't have much time."

They entered a laboratory and Andred took a seat. Around him were various tools he was obviously familiar with. "We'll start where we left off. Continue analyzing those readings."

"Query," K9 said. "What is the purpose of this exercise?"

"What do you mean?" Andred snapped. "You know perfectly well what it is!"

"Affirmative and apologies," K9 said. "I meant, what are the ideal results we are looking for, and what is the exact objective? You had previously stated several different solutions. I merely seek clarification as to the path by which to proceed."

Andred flicked a few switches on some complex machinery. He had taken his helmet off and lain it on the desk. He looked very tired. "My first thought was to use a transmat beam to remove all the nanites from Leela's body." He peered into a microscope, only half listening to what he was saying. "But I can't get a fix on so many and they would each need to be removed at the same time. My next thought was to introduce a second nanite system which would combat the first, but that blasted polymorphic network stands in the way of every idea I can think of."

"Query," K9 said again. "How were the nanites originally introduced into the mistress?"

"I have no idea," Andred said wearily. Then he slumped back in his seat. He looked old and beaten. "You might as well know what we're doing, K9, because I no longer know what to look for. I've got to tell someone, and I suppose a robot dog is about as good as I can get right now. And maybe you have some ideas, left over from your time with Professor Marius."

Then he was silent again, not moving, as if the whole world was on his shoulders.

"Master," K9 chirped. "Please continue."

Andred sighed. "Two days ago, I received a communication in my office. It came over the computer network, but the computer says it has no record of this message. It stayed for one minute, then disappeared.

"This message said that a system of nanites had been secretly injected into Leela's blood stream, and they were poised to kill the child within her unless I did as I was told. I don't know who sent the message. I only know that it told me to press charges against the Doctor as vigorously as I possibly could, and to make life as difficult for him as I possibly could. If I didn't, the nanites in Leela's body would be given a signal to attack.

"I made Leela a bracelet which emits a jamming field, hoping that if the nanites were sent any kind of signal it would be blocked. I took a sample of her blood one night while she was sleeping and I analyzed it. The nanites were there."

He suddenly exploded. "And the worst part is that they are all in constant contact with each other!" He stood up and paced along the length of the room once. When he returned to his equipment, he slammed his fist down on the counter, then brought his arm back to sweep the machinery violently onto the floor, but managed to stop himself from doing it. He closed his eyes and forced himself to breathe slowly. His whole body trembled.

"If the number of nanites inside her falls below a given percentage," he said quietly, "then the remaining nanites will assume something is wrong and they will attack. So we can't do a blood transfusion. We can't pick them out of her with a teleportation beam. We can't attack them one by one. We can't do anything at all, because by the time we got the first half of them out, the other half would detect the drop in numbers and it would be all over in seconds. I've tried to fight the nanites. I've tried to remove them. I've even tried to genetically strengthen Leela's cell structure. Nothing works! And if I try to remove the child to an incubator," his shoulders slumped, defeated, "they'll kill Leela."

"Query," K9 said. "Why withhold this information from the mistress?"

Andred snorted. "You wouldn't understand, K9. I couldn't tell Leela this. I can't tell anyone. As long as those nanites are inside her my hands are tied, and Rassilon help me, I'll sacrifice all of Gallifrey if I have to, to save her. And it may come to that." Andred's voice was a low whisper. "I love her, K9. She means everything to me. I can't let her worry about this. I can't let her know."

Then Andred whirled as the lab door opened. Leela and Walman stood in the doorway, staring at Andred in horror. At their feet was the other K9.

No, Andred realized with shock. No, it wasn't the other K9. It was his. His and Leela's.

He looked down at the K9 inside the lab and only then could he see the faint differences between the two models. He had just poured out his innermost secrets to Romana's Mark II model, not to his own Mark I.

"Apologies, master," the other K9 said as it rolled in. "They overpowered me with an ionic field and pulled the substitution to learn what you were doing."

No one was listening. Leela ran past K9 into Andred's arms. Andred could only hold her, feeling like his life was turning upside down.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Leela asked.

"I couldn't," Andred whispered. "You're a warrior. Your first instinct would have been to tear the citadel apart, looking for whomever did this, and it would have been the worst thing to do. And I couldn't tell anyone else, because I'm breaking every oath I ever made as Castellan by submitting to terrorism. I was in an impossible situation." He held her by her arms. "And now that you've found out, I don't know what's going to happen!"

"Suggestion," K9 Mark II said. "Both robots present create an extensive jamming field around the mistress, and return the mistress Leela with all possible speed to the mistress Romana."

"That's what I was going to say," K9 Mark I agreed.

"Do you really think that's the wisest course of action?" Andred asked.

"Look, we were listening to everything you just told K9," Walman spoke up. "And you just admitted to not having any answers. If you're out of options, then maybe it's time you let others try to help."

Andred looked at him for a long moment, then nodded.

That's when the alarms started going off.

 

"How are you feeling?" Romana asked.

Yale looked around himself at the hospital room. Like everywhere else on Gallifrey, it was big, but at the moment it held only himself, Romana and a medical robot.

"Well, considering I'm getting presidential treatment, not too bad." He smiled, and Romana found herself smiling with him. In the distance, the alarm was still sounding. "What happened?"

"We were hoping you could tell us," she said. "A fire broke out near some very important machinery beneath the citadel. The emergency sensors found you alive and teleported you away."

"I've been teleported?" Yale asked.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Romana asked with a smile.

Yale raised his eyebrows. "My only regret is that I wasn't awake to enjoy the experience."

"Well, we'll let you teleport yourself to your heart's content, later," she said. "But right now, there's an escort of armed guards outside this door. They're hopping mad about two of their comrades getting murdered, and the only one in the vicinity of the crime was you, Yale. I know you didn't do it, but they don't know that. Please, tell me what you were doing down there."

The alarm shut off. Silence permeated the room.

Yale calmly told her about their plan to switch the K9s and follow Andred, how he had followed a stranger whom Andred had surreptitiously met, and how that stranger had tried to kill him.

"And you never got a look at his face?"

"Never," Yale shook his head.

"Well, at least it's something to go on," she said. She walked to the door and opened it. "Captain, where is Castellan Andred?"

"Unknown, my lady," a guard said.

"Find him immediately and tell him to meet me here. Also detail some guards to search the lower levels for the assailant. He's still on the loose. He's armed and extremely dangerous, and apparently he doesn't show up on our sensors. Also contact Castellan Associate Konran and have him meet me here, as well."

"Yes, Madam President," the guard saluted.

Romana closed the door and paced anxiously, biting her thumbnail.

"I don't know why, but I feel I should say I'm sorry," Yale said. "I could have done a better job of stopping that man, perhaps even prevented him from killing those guards."

"You've done more than enough, Yale," Romana said. "You were brought here to be a witness in a trial, not to go chasing armed killers into the depths of the citadel on our behalf." Her face softened. "But it was very brave and very kind of you. Thank you."

Yale shrugged. "I had some training in the Elite Services long ago on Earth," he said. "I wasn't completely in the dark."

Romana sat down beside the bed. "You're a cyborg tutor, aren't you?"

"Used to be," he said. "Most of the conditioning has lost its hold on me, although very few of my memories have returned. I...I was accused of a crime I didn't commit, and they made me into a Yale series tutor."

"So your name hasn't always been Yale," she said.

"No." He smiled weakly. "No, my name was Braydon Croy. But that was a long time ago."

"So why do you still answer to the name, 'Yale?'" Romana asked.

Yale stared at the ceiling, thinking hard. It was a good question. Why did he continue to use the name 'Yale?'

"I suppose it's because they changed me too much," he said. "Going through the conversion process made me into something different. They did things to my brain, Romana. They suppressed memories. I still can't remember any family, any hobbies I might have had, or what my interests were." His voice grew very quiet. "Whether or not I had a wife. And they didn't just change my brain. They..." he glanced down briefly, biting his lower lip, and he took a deep breath. "They castrated me, Romana," he whispered. "It's standard procedure for all artificially rehabilitated criminals. They took my brain, they took my life, and they took my manhood. Can you tell me any reason why I should go back to being called the name I used to know?"

"Yes, I can," Romana said. "Every time you use the name 'Yale,' it's an admission that they've won." She held his hand tightly. "And you also have the good fortune to be a friend of a Time Lord. Here on Gallifrey we have extensive knowledge of genetic manipulation. So Yale – Braydon – if you want, we can read your DNA and induce a regrowth of any parts of your body that you lost. We can give you some things back again."

"You would do this for me?" Yale asked.

"Absolutely," Romana said. "And maybe even try to reach some of your blocked memories. We can do many things here on Gallifrey."

"May I ask one more favor of you, then, if it's possible?" Yale asked.

"Anything."

"Everyone associated with the Eden Project was implanted with microchips in our brains to allow the Council to monitor us," Yale said. "These chips are linked into the Council's computer. They killed Eben, and almost killed the rest of us. If we are to be free, we must have them removed!"

Romana nodded. "Brain surgery is trickier, but I'll look into it."

Yale squeezed her hand. "We would all be very, very grateful."

The door opened and Andred walked in, holding Leela's hand. Behind them were Walman and both K9s.

"Lady President," Andred said. "I have a confession to make."

"Most people do, if you dig deep enough," the Doctor said, breezing into the room, Bess right behind him. The Doctor grinned at everyone present. "Is it my imagination, or are we having a busy day?"

"I think it's just your imagination," Danziger said, walking in also. With him were Devon, Julia, and Alonzo. "We heard there was a man in here playing sick to get out of some work." He smiled at Yale, who smiled back.

Within minutes, the remainder of Eden Advance, along with Konran and Savil, also came into the hospital room.

"We've really got to stop meeting like this," Cameron said.

The Doctor looked at the Edenites in confusion. "This makes twice today you were all scattered throughout the capital, and yet you all found each other very quickly. How?"

Magus pulled a communicator out of her belt. "Gear sets," she said. "You didn't think we left them behind, did you?"

The Doctor just made a face. He hadn't thought of that.

"Has anyone seen Morgan?" Bess asked. The others shook their heads. He was the only one not present.

"Lady President," Andred said in consternation. "Leela is in danger, and so is our child!"

The others listened in horror as Andred explained to them about the nanites in Leela's body, and the threat that they would be activated if he didn't do exactly as the terrorist said. Yale also told his story a second time, detailing his fight with the stranger.

"Was that the person you met down in the lower levels?" Walman asked.

"Yes," Andred said. "He demanded to meet me in person, but it didn't seem to be for any specific reason. He said I wasn't pressing my case against the Doctor hard enough, that I had been too weak during the hearing. He wanted to remind me again what would happen to my child if I failed. He also told me to start hampering investigations into Parillon's murder, and to do nothing to interfere in his plans."

"What plans?" the Doctor asked.

"He didn't say," Andred replied wearily. "But I got the impression that they would be evident for all to see when they came to fruition."

"Do you have any idea who it was?" Baines asked.

"No. He made sure of that."

"Why did two of your men show up this afternoon to accuse us of murder?" Devon asked. "Was that part of your smokescreen, too?"

Andred shook his head and gave a weary, half-hearted smile of desperation. "No. Those two acted without my authority. They were trying to make their service records look good, and they thought it would impress me, because it certainly seemed to impress Captain Harrigan. I've already reprimanded both of them."

"How did Reilly get involved in all this?" Danziger asked.

"The official story is that Reilly contacted us," Andred said, "although I know it was our mysterious enemy who actually first contacted him and brought him to Gallifrey. I don't even know what Reilly's testimony was to have been. I was just told to accept him as a witness and to put him on the stand. The usual threats followed."

"So Reilly's in on it," Alonzo said. "Let's go get him and wrap this up." He stood up.

"No," the Doctor said, stopping Alonzo. "Our enemy's methods, motives, and the ease with which he is operating here on Gallifrey all lead me to believe with every fiber of my being that he's an old acquaintance of mine."

"The Master?" Devon asked.

"If not him, then someone very like him," the Doctor replied. "Even if it isn't, I'd be willing to bet everything that Reilly is just a pawn in this entire scheme. I'll bet he doesn't even know where our mysterious enemy is, much less what he's gotten himself into. We would be showing our hand to catch the small fish, and the larger one would be tipped off and still free to wreak havoc. Reilly isn't capable of destroying Gallifrey. This other person is. For now, we should leave Reilly alone. The other is the one we need to get."

"And what about Leela?" Andred asked.

"I will find this monster!" Leela said. "I will cut out his heart for a trophy and display it in the Panopticon for all to see!"

"You will do nothing of the kind!" Romana said. "We need to get you off of Gallifrey. I don't know what signal the nanites are prepared to receive, but we need to get you some place far away."

"The time vortex," the Doctor said. "There's an abandoned Time Lord research station called Omega's Heir. It's still drifting in the vortex near the edge of Andromeda. It has laboratory equipment. A team of specialists can go with her and work on getting the nanites out."

Andred nodded his head resignedly. "I suppose that is the best course of action. I should have come forward with all of this at the very start." He then turned to Romana and stood at attention, his face working with emotion. "Lady President, I have broken most of my oaths as Castellan of Gallifrey and as a member of the High Council of Time Lords. I have compromised the security of Gallifrey and placed many people in danger. Parillon and two of my guards are dead because of me. I formally submit my resignation to you and I place myself into custody. To you, Doctor, I can only offer my most humblest apologies. All charges against you are dropped forthwith."

"Shouldn't you be dropping charges first, and then resigning?" the Doctor asked mischievously.

Romana looked at Andred haughtily. "All these things you say are true." Then she turned to the Doctor. "If Flavia were still President, she would boil him alive."

"Oh, yes," the Doctor shuddered. "But just think if Borusa were still President. The torture exhibits at the Museum of Ancient Warfare would be reopened for a live demonstration. One exhibit in particular, which turned a person inside out, always fascinated Borusa."

"Ooh, and imagine if Crinathia were still President," Romana said, horrified, and the Doctor nodded somberly in agreement. "He would have Andred stuck inside a space suit and slowly sent towards the sun, with just enough food and water to keep him alive so he could suffer a slow death by heat and radiation."

The Doctor and Romana looked at Andred, who was shaking all over and almost in tears. Only when they started to smile did he realize they were having him on.

"Andred, you were placed in an impossible situation," Romana said. "Whoever is doing this isn't just threatening your child, he's threatening the future of all Gallifrey."

Romana explained to the Edenites. "We don't have any real children here on Gallifrey. We Time Lords are created fully grown from genetic looms, and we grow up in houses specifically built to educate us until we are mentally ready to become adults. That's why there are no other children for you to play with, True. We had to adopt this system of procreation because, millennia ago, an extra-dimensional creature cursed Gallifrey to be forever sterile."

When the Edenites looked at her in amazement, she just shook her head. "Please don't ask me to explain the mechanics of it, just accept that it's true. We're sterile due to an extra-dimensional curse. This curse comes from a dimension we haven't penetrated yet, and until we do, we can't fight it. Even though Leela is a human, the fact that she is pregnant with a real child of a Gallifreyan gives us hope for the future of our race."

"But you have a granddaughter!" Bess quickly whispered to the Doctor.

The Doctor ran a hand over his brow and shook his head. "It's a long story," he whispered back. "Some other time."

"Andred, you really should have informed someone," Romana continued. "However, it is easy for me to say that in retrospect. Our enemy is someone who obviously knows what is going on, and you showed great resourcefulness in trying to fight the nanites in Leela's body on your own. Your resignation is rejected, and no mention of this matter will ever be made outside of this room – on one condition."

"My Lady," Andred said.

"You find this person, Andred," Romana said, and her voice cut crystal clear across the room. "Find him, dead or alive. The security of Gallifrey must not be compromised."

"Lady President, I cannot accept that condition," Andred said. "I'm obviously not fit to hold this command."

To everyone's surprise, it was Julia who spoke next. "Take it, Andred," she said. "All of life is about second chances. Sometimes third and fourth ones. When you're offered a second chance, sometimes the hardest part is believing that you deserve it, and believing that it's real."

The Doctor said, "And we still need you, Andred. You've still got a trial to prosecute."

"Didn't you hear me, Doctor?" Andred asked. "All charges are dropped. I don't care about an accidental meeting on a mysterious metaphysical plane between two of your past selves on some backwater planet! I only pressed charges because my child was under threat!"

"And we can't afford to let our enemy think we're doing anything other than what he wants us to," the Doctor said. "I want you to press charges against me, Andred. Do so to the best of your ability. Make it look as if you're still carrying out this person's plan, and don't hold back for any reason, not even our friendship."

Andred stared at him. "You realize that it will still be a valid trial under Gallifreyan law, and so will the verdict. If I win, you could still be put to death."

"Romana could pardon the sentence," Yale pointed out.

"No," she said, looking very somber. "I can use my position to shield the Doctor from his accusations, but once a Time Lord has been convicted of a crime against the First, Second or Third Law of Time, there is no reprieve." She looked at the Doctor. "The sentence might not be death, but it would still be harsh."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," the Doctor said. "What we need now is time, and lots of it. Continuing with the trial will give us that time! What's more, if we can force Reilly to answer some questions on the witness stand, we may find out the clue we need!"

"Very well," Andred said, not looking entirely convinced. "But just keep in mind that while in the courtroom, I will be an enemy to the rest of you, for all practical purposes, and I will attack you all and grill you as hard as I can. I will also have to oppose your every move, and do my best to protect Reilly." The bitterness in his voice was plain to hear.

"As long as you take your time doing it, that's all right," the Doctor said. "We can take a few harsh words. Also, it will not be the oddest trial I've ever attended."

"But what will happen when our enemy discovers that Leela is missing?" Andred asked. "He'll figure out what happened, and he doesn't seem the type to give up easily."

"He won't know she's gone," Bess suddenly spoke up. "Leela and I are about the same height. I can make my hair darker and wear her clothes. I can pretend to be her."

Everyone in the room was taken aback by this bold suggestion. "Are you sure you can imitate my wife?" Andred asked.

Bess reached down and took Leela's knife from its boot sheath. She crouched down slightly, held the knife in front of her, and said, "I will cut out his heart for a trophy and display it in the Panopticon for all to see!"

If Bess had surprised everyone with her first remark, the entire room was now looking at her in utter astonishment. Baines started grinning in admiration.

Devon turned to Danziger. "I think Morgan better start watching his step," she said, and he nodded.

"That is very good, Bess," Leela said. "But you need to hold the knife, like so." She shifted her grip slightly. "There. Now you are a warrior of the Sevateem."

"I don't think I could really use it," Bess said, suddenly herself again.

Leela looked her in the eye, and her gaze was of steel. "If you and those you love were in danger, you would be able to," she said quietly.

Walman spoke up. "If Leela's going to a space station many light years away, why bother having a duplicate of Leela in the courtroom?"

"We Time Lords can send signals throughout the universe in a matter of seconds, with the right equipment," Andred said. "All that's needed is a transmitter and a receiver which are partially phased into the time vortex. The nanites inside Leela have receivers such as these, so even if we took Leela to the edges of the universe, our enemy could still send the signal to kill my child, and he would succeed. Our only hope is to be prepared to block the signal, and to persuade our enemy that he has no reason to send it in the first place. We have to convince him that nothing has changed."

Andred's two-way wrist monitor beeped. "Yes?" he said, looking into it.

"Sir." It was Captain Harrigan's voice. "We searched the area around the fire and discovered an explosive attached to the transduction generator."

Andred's face went white, as did the Doctor's and Romana's. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes, sir. There's no mistaking it," Harrigan said. "We haven't found any evidence of anyone else occupying the lower levels."

"Very good," Andred replied. "Keep searching."

"Someone's playing for keeps," the Doctor whispered in awe.

Romana said, "Andred, have surveillance teams run a thorough sweep around Gallifrey, extending to a radius of 15 parsecs. Send manned TARDISes to monitor the area hidden behind all spatial objects within the same area. If someone was trying to destroy the transduction barrier, it was for a reason."

"My Lady," Andred said. He lifted his wrist communicator and gave the orders.

"What's the transduction barrier?" Mazatl asked.

"It's the force field that surrounds Gallifrey," the Doctor said. "Our technology is so advanced, the only thing that prevents us from conquering the universe is the fact that we just don't want to. But our worst fear is that another race who does want to conquer the universe will breach our defenses and steal our secrets. Any race which did that would be literally unstoppable!"

Everyone in the room was quiet as the full implication of the Doctor's words sunk in.

Suddenly, they were playing for the stakes of the entire universe.

"President Romana," Yale said. "I don't feel any adverse effects from my ordeal, and I am anxious to get up again. Must I stay here?"

Romana looked at the medical robot, which had been silent the whole time. "Is the patient well enough to be discharged?"

"Yes, President Romanadvoratrelundar," the robot said. "The patient is well."

As Yale swung his feet over the side of his bed, Bess said, "Well, I guess I'd better learn how to be a warrior of the Sevateem. Andred, I'll need your help, and some of Leela's clothes."

"What about the fact that you're scheduled to be a witness?" Cameron asked. "You can't be Leela and yourself at the same time, and people will expect Leela to be there."

"I suspect that lowering the witnesses from 16 to 15 won't make much difference," the Doctor said. "We can always say that Bess is in her room due to a human illness."

"But what's the point of doing all this?" Magus asked.

"Whoever our enemy is, he'll be watching the trial," Andred said. "You can be certain of that, after all the trouble he's gone through."

"And while he's watching the trial, he won't be watching his back," the Doctor joined in.

"Exactly," Andred agreed. "While the trial is going on, my men will be scouring the capital, using the most sophisticated tracking devices we've invented. By going forward with the trial, we give ourselves about one extra day. And as the Doctor said, we might get some answers out of Reilly if we can get him on the stand." The beeping of his wrist communicator interrupted him. "Excuse me. Yes?"

"Castellan Andred, the sensor sweep of surrounding space detected no alien activity," Captain Harrigan reported. "I took the liberty of extending the search to 25 parsecs, and I still found nothing. Not in third-dimensional, fourth-dimensional, or fifth-dimensional space. All TARDISes have reported back that no one is hidden behind any of our moons or nearby asteroids. If there's a fleet of spaceships out there about to attack us, they're either more advanced than we are, or they're too far away to be a real threat."

"Very good," Andred answered, obviously deflated. "Continue full monitor sweeps every 5 cycles."

"Yes, sir," Harrigan said.

Andred looked grimly at Romana. "The motives of our mysterious enemy remain a complete puzzle, and we still can't find him. I think one day is all we may have, Madam President."

"Here's hoping we use it wisely," the Doctor said.