The courtroom was again filled to capacity the next morning. Andred, still playing the part of the harsh prosecutor, refused to look in the direction of his friends across the aisle. Reilly sat behind him, pleasantly relaxed, obviously enjoying himself. Ferain sat two rows behind him. Many Time Lords of important rank, even a couple from the High Council, were in attendance. Many of them sensed the Doctor's blood at last (and possibly Romana's by association) and wanted to be in on the kill. Nesbin and Rodan sat near the back, conferring in whispers.

Andred could sense the crowd behind him, desperate to see someone taken down a few notches. No true Time Lord would ever admit it, but they loved a good, bloody hunt just as much as any other being in the universe. If they had to hide it inside a mask of bureaucracy to make themselves feel more civilized, then so be it. But with his low-level telepathic senses, he could feel the urges of the spectators in the courtroom, wanting to see him rip the Doctor to shreds and the judge to pass the sentence. It made him sick, knowing he would have to cater to that.

The Doctor sat next to an empty chair. As Konran had predicted, no one from the Castellan's office had been eager to step forward and defend the Doctor, against their own superior, for charges they weren't enthusiastic about defending. Castellan Andred had deferred the selection of the new defense counselor to the judge, as dictated by tradition.

The members of Andred's legal staff sat two rows behind him, each hoping the judge would choose someone else.

K9 Mark I was on the floor next to Bess, whose transformation into Leela, aided by some Time Lord cosmetic styling, was astonishing. After the meeting in the hospital room the previous evening, the real Leela had been taken to the abandoned station in the vortex, where a team of specialists was tackling the problem of removing the nanites from within her.

K9 Mark II was next to Romana, who sat with the Edenites along one row behind the Doctor, as they had the day before. Konran and Savil sat with them.

As they all sat waiting for the trial to begin, Captain Harrigan and the Citadel Guard were quietly, methodically combing the entire capital from one end to the other. It was the largest dragnet Gallifrey had seen in living memory. Teams of guards, each armed with stasers and enough tracking equipment to spot dimensional hideouts and quantum shielding, had been scouring the capital since the previous evening, and they were under orders to keep searching until they had results. More guards were quietly checking the identity of everyone in the courtroom. Andred had told them that there would be no rest for any of them until the mysterious enemy was found.

It had been a superfluous threat. His guards knew very well that their foe had killed two of their comrades and had attempted to destroy the transduction barrier. To a typical Time Lord, killing another Time Lord was a heinous crime, and the Citadel Guard were enraged. Andred wasn't worried about their perseverance. He was more worried that they would disobey his orders to capture him alive. He knew most of his guards were hoping the assailant would put up a fight when he was found...

He glanced at his wrist monitor, trying to will the numbers to move across the graph. Harrigan was coordinating the search and feeding the results through. At the moment it told him that only seven percent of the capital had been searched. And the numbers were moving so slowly.

Andred knew it was too late to worry about it now. His only job now was to play for time, to give the appearance of attacking the Doctor and pressing forward relentlessly, all while stalling as much as possible.

It was the Doctor's life versus that of his unborn child, all on the whim of a madman.

He closed his eyes and thought of Leela.

Bess was desperately trying to play her part, but she found it hard to keep from constantly turning around to look for Morgan. He was the only one not there, and she was beginning to regret the argument they'd had yesterday.

He hadn't returned all night long. She had told Romana, and Romana had told Andred, who had told the guards to look for him as well. Bess was beside herself with worry. She wanted to believe that he was angry about their fight. She couldn't bear to think about the possibility that their mysterious enemy had, for whatever reasons of his own, decided that Morgan was "in the way."

She offered up a little prayer for her husband.

The bell sounded, heralding the entrance of the judge. Everyone stood.

The judge bowed to Romana, then accepted a bow from Andred. The man with the parchment stepped forward and they repeated the same ceremony as they had the day before.

When it was finished, the judge said, "I note with sadness the untimely death of Parillon. I hope, Castellan Andred, as I'm sure we all do, that justice will be satisfied in that affair."

"It shall be so, your honor," Andred said, standing up. "Parillon was a good man, and he will be sorely missed. When I catch the man who killed him, he will regret the day he even conceived of the idea."

"Castellan, I offer you again the opportunity to postpone this trial, in lieu of this tragedy," the judge said.

"No, your honor, I would press forward with all haste," Andred said. "The sooner we get this unpleasant business over with, the better. It would make the investigations into Parillon's murder easier if I did not have the burden of this trial on my shoulders at the same time." He sat down.

"Very well, Castellan Andred." She turned to the Doctor. "Do you have a replacement counselor as of yet, Doctor."

"No, your honor," the Doctor said.

"Castellan Andred, do any of your legal staff wish to enter a defense on behalf of the Doctor?"

Andred stood up again. "Unfortunately, your honor, everyone on my staff...feel too humbly about themselves to offer themselves up as defense counselors in a trial as prestigious as this." He turned and gave his staff a withering look. They all stared at the floor, the walls, the ceiling, or each other. "Therefore, I defer to your wisdom and judgment to appoint defense for the Doctor."

"Very well-"

The judge was interrupted by a commotion in the back of the courtroom. Everyone turned around to see two men coming down the central aisle. One of them was Morgan. The other was an elderly man, huffing and puffing, waving his arms and trying to get Morgan to stop.

"You can't do this!" Amberton said desperately, but Morgan wasn't listening. He strode right up to the front of the courtroom and said, "Your honor, may I have permission to enter myself into the court's proceedings?"

Amberton said, "No you may not enter yourself in the court's proceedings-"

"Silence!" the judge snapped furiously. Amberton clamped his mouth shut. Murmurs of curiosity swept the courtroom.

"What is the meaning of this?" she asked. "What's going on?"

"Your honor," Amberton said, "this off-worlder has the impertinence to disrupt your court proceedings. He disrupted my research library, too! I tried to stop him from coming in here, but he wouldn't listen-"

"All right, enough!" the judge snapped, facing Morgan. "Is this true?"

"Uh, no your honor," Morgan said, and bowed once. "As I said, I came here simply to enter myself into the court's proceedings. Amberton here is the one causing the fuss."

"What?" the librarian shouted. "I-"

"That will be enough, Amberton!" the judge shouted. To Morgan, she asked, "Why should I allow you entrance into the proceedings?"

"Because if it's not too late, your honor, I would like to offer myself in the service of Gallifrey as the Doctor's defending solicitor."

There was a general uproar throughout the courtroom at this and a lot of confused looks among the members of Eden Advance. The judge banged her gavel several times. "On what grounds do you make this offer?" she asked.

"Your honor, I have taken both the Examination of the Law of Rassilon and the Examination of the Law of Time," Morgan said. "I passed them successfully, and I am a fully qualified Gallifreyan attorney as of 30 minutes ago."

"It's true, your honor," Amberton sputtered. "He stayed up all night long in my library studying, hardly pausing for any breaks, and this morning he took the automated exams right before my very eyes!" He looked at Morgan as if he didn't know what to make of him. "He scored pretty well, too."

Andred stood up. "Your honor, this is absurd. First of all, this man has been called as a witness for this trial, not its solicitor. Second, he is an off-worlder, and that speaks for itself."

"Actually, it doesn't matter," Morgan said smoothly. "There is no law on Gallifrey which says that a person has to be a Gallifreyan citizen, natural or otherwise, to be a Gallifreyan attorney."

"Merely an oversight, simply because such a situation was never foreseen," Andred said, acting very haughtily. (Morgan didn't know that Andred was, in fact, quite amused.) "It is an oversight I'll be sure to correct at the first opportunity."

"I thought you'd feel that way," Morgan said. "So just to make absolutely sure of my credentials, I also took the Examination of the Protection of Time." There were more gasps from around the courtroom. "So I now hold a dual citizenship of both G889, colony of Earth, and of Gallifrey."

Astounded, the judge looked at Amberton, who nodded. "I saw him take that one, too. I administered his oath personally. Mr. Martin is a citizen of Gallifrey, with all the rights of anyone else. And all the responsibilities."

After a few moments, the judge finally found her voice. "Well, Mr. Martin, that is quite impressive. I have never encountered such a bold move before, from anyone. But tell me, how is it that you could study our law so quickly, when it takes several years for most people?"

"Oh," Morgan said. "Ah, well, you see, I'm an attorney back on Earth. And as I once mentioned to Parillon, your culture and mine don't seem all that different, all things considered. Your laws are similar, and they exist for the same reasons. You have similar values, a similar system of government, similar crimes, and similar punishments for those crimes, all of which I've already studied in detail. So I didn't have to study it again. All I had to learn were the differences, and the rest was easy."

"Very commendable," the judge said, smiling. "And no, I had not yet assigned anyone to defend the Doctor. If you wish the post, it is yours."

"I would be honored, your, um...honor," Morgan said.

"In light of this sudden turn of events, I declare a five-cycle recess," the judge said. "We will reconvene at cycle six-seven." Her gavel swung down and the matter was decided.

Morgan turned to find his fellow Edenites still stunned. The Doctor was smiling at him in admiration, and, oddly enough, so was Leela, that weird warrior woman.

Looking over the group, he asked, "Um...where's Bess?"

 

The group retreated to a private anteroom during the recess. As soon as the doors closed, Morgan got the shock of his life when Leela squealed and gave him a gigantic hug that took his breath away.

"Let go of me, you crazy woman!" Morgan shrieked.

Then Leela whipped off the wig and smiled hugely at him.

Morgan just stared, blinked, stared some more, decided he didn't understand and sat down.

Bess hugged him again, then kicked him in the shins. "You might have left a message telling me where you were!" she snapped.

Morgan just sat there, his palms up and out, sputtering out explanations and apologies, whatever she wanted to hear.

"You better watch it, Morgan," Danziger said with a smile. "She's got a knife, now!" Danziger's grin was just a little too mischievous for his liking.

They eventually filled him in on what was going on and Morgan just sat there, listening while the others told him about the nanites in Leela's body, the threats Andred had received, the mysterious stranger below the citadel, Yale's narrow escape, and the bomb found on the transduction barrier generator.

It took a while for it all to sink in. In the end he just decided it was all beyond him. He was now a Gallifreyan attorney, and being an attorney was what he did best. So he decided to concentrate on his part of things and to leave the universe-saving to the others.

The Doctor quickly pulled Morgan aside just before going back into the courtroom. "Remember that it's all a show!" he said. "The important thing isn't to get me a verdict of innocent or guilty. The most important thing is to keep up the appearance of a trial, to give the technicians time to remove the nanites from Leela and to give the guards time to search the citadel. Above all else, stretch this trial out, and make it look like you're bitter enemies. Once Leela is safe, we can squeeze the answers out of Reilly at our leisure. But we need time!"

Then the recess was over, far too quickly, and they were filing back into the courtroom. The Doctor's words still echoed around Morgan's head. The courtroom's lofty heights and ornate designs, the pressure of his dual role, his exhaustion, and the furious pace at which everything was happening made Morgan feel like he was in a dream world. He wondered why he didn't pass out. He made sure he had a pitcher of water and a glass brought to his table. He had a feeling he would need them.

The judge entered the courtroom. She received bows from both Morgan and Andred and the trial resumed.

"We have heard the charge against the Doctor," the judge stated. "Castellan Andred, you may call your first witness."

"I only have one witness," Andred said. "I call Joseph Reilly, representative of the Council, the ruling government of the planet Earth, to the stand."

Reilly stood up and amiably walked to the witness stand, appearing not to have a care in the world. He was administered an oath, then sat down.

"Councilman Reilly," Andred said. "Would you please state for the record your position, vocation, and reason for being on G889?"

"Certainly. G889 is a colony world claimed for Earth by the Council. I am employed by the Council, and I hold the title of Planetary Overseer. I'm in charge of all on-site colonization matters, including planetary study, colonial safety, and ensuring peaceful coexistence with G889's native population."

The Edenites were silent. Morgan had warned them beforehand to be perfectly quiet while Reilly was on the stand, no matter what he said. Any outburst would achieve nothing for their cause.

"Thank you," Andred said. "Tell me, do you know this man, the Doctor?" Andred motioned to him.

"Yes," Reilly answered.

"And did you witness the crime for which he is accused?"

"Yes, I did."

"Please tell the court what you witnessed."

"Certainly. The native population of G889 mainly consists of a race called Terrians. Although they are primitive, they do have a special gift of being in tune with a metaphysical plane that permeates the planet. I'm aware that some people call this the 'dream plane.' Although that is not an accurate term, I will use it for the sake of ease.

"As part of my ongoing studies, I have been monitoring a group of Terrians who are hibernating at the moment. While these Terrians are in hibernation I am free to enter their cave and study their habits, and I can access the dream plane through them by touch.

"It was while on the dream plane one day that I discovered that it provides the means to travel in time, although in what capacity, I'm not aware. I went exploring, if you will, and I witnessed many events throughout the history of G889. History is recorded in the dream plane, if you know where to look. One of the events I witnessed was two different incarnations of the Doctor meeting himself on the dream plane, apparently many thousands of years ago."

Devon leaned over to Ulysses. "Could that be true?" she asked. Uly just shrugged.

"And how did you know it was the Doctor, or indeed that the man you saw was even a Time Lord?" Andred asked.

The Edenites held their breaths.

"Because I had seen photographs of the Doctor before, in all his previous incarnations, and I recognized him," Reilly said.

"Objection!" Morgan shouted, standing up. "There is no way a human like Councilman Reilly could have possibly known anything about the Doctor, or had any prior contact with the Time Lords."

"Are you calling my witness a liar, sir?" Andred asked.

"Mr. Martin, your objection is without merit, and is overruled," the judge said, giving him a look of disappointment. "Proceed, Castellan."

"Thank you, your honor," Andred said, and Morgan sat down. "Indeed, my next question was going to be along those very lines to establish credibility. Councilman Reilly, how did you recognize the Doctor?"

"I have acquaintances who are Time Lords, and I have spent some time with them," Reilly answered. "Since the Doctor is known to be a renegade of your race, I was once warned by one of my acquaintances to watch out for him, and I was given an informal dossier. When I witnessed two different incarnations of the Doctor meeting face to face on the dream plane, I knew enough about your laws to know that they were being broken. Naturally, I contacted one of my acquaintances to report it, and he duly passed the information on to your office. That leads us to here."

Danziger leaned over to Baines. "Do you believe that?"

"Not in a month of Sundays," Baines answered, never taking his eyes off Reilly even once.

Andred said, "Your honor, I wish to state for the record that Councilman Reilly personally witnessed the crime for which the Doctor is charged, and the Doctor has never denied that the meeting took place. As far as I'm concerned, the case is open and shut." He turned to Morgan. "Your witness."

Morgan stood up and approached Reilly, who regarded him with cool amusement. "Councilman Reilly, may we know who these Time Lord acquaintances of yours are?"

"Objection," Andred said wearily, standing up again just as he had been sitting down. "The question is entirely irrelevant, and for reasons of privacy, the crime was reported to the Castellan's office on condition of anonymity."

"And I would rather not reveal details of my private life or relationships, if I can at all help it," Reilly said.

Yeah, Danziger thought. I'll just bet you wouldn't.

The judge nodded. "Castellan, if you are satisfied with the veracity and credibility of the one who made the report, then the objection is sustained."

"I am satisfied, your honor," Andred said, but only the Edenites could detect the slight tic in the side of his mouth as he said it. They knew that in fact, Andred had no idea who Reilly's mysterious "acquaintance" was.

Morgan said, "Your honor, the question is relevant because I believe my client has been set up by people who are carrying out a specific agenda against him."

"Is that the best defense you can come up with?" Andred asked. "A conspiracy theory? If so, we ought to be done with this trial by mid-day."

"The objection has been made and sustained, Mr. Martin," the judge said. "The Castellan, a member of the High Council of Time Lords, has verified the credibility of the report made to his office, a report made on condition of anonymity, which is something his office is entitled to honor. Do you have any other questions for the witness?"

Morgan took a deep breath and looked at Reilly, who was still smiling at him coolly.

"No," Morgan said. "No, I have no questions for the Councilman regarding the Castellan's line of questioning. However, I may want to call Mr. Reilly later as a hostile witness for the defense."

"Thank you Councilman Reilly," the judge said. "You are excused for the moment. Castellan, do you have anything further?"

"No, your honor," Andred said. "The prosecution rests."

Andred then checked his wrist monitor. It was up to 11 percent.

"Very well," the judge said. "Mr. Martin, you may present your case for the defense."

Morgan let out a long, concentrated sigh, and looked back at the others.

It was showtime.