The Sacred Garden

Chapter Three

"Maxell!" barked Andred.

"Commander, I could scarce credit it."

"What are you doing? This is treason! Are you mad?"

"What am I doing, sir? What are you doing?"

"I have every right to be here, you lunatic! I have security clearance, I am the second-highest ranking security officer...."

"Sir, I could scarce believe it. Phantom security assignments. Tampering with the scheduling matrix and the security cameras. Relieving the guard only to abandon the post. What madness is this, sir? Come quietly, now, and perhaps there will be leniency, perhaps you can get help. ..."

Andred's breath started coming out in great gulps. "I have no idea what you are talking about, Maxell. This sounds like some – mad fairy story!"

Leela swallowed. She knew what she had to do. She only hoped Maxell's gun was also set to stun. Gallifreyans were a bit naïve and inexperienced in actual danger situations, she had found, but this one felt different.

She slumped back with all her weight against Maxell's chest, sliding so that he was obliged to catch her by the elbows. She flung Andred's stacer back at him and hoped that the noise of surprise he made did not mean he was caught off guard. A couple of flashing lights and suddenly she was falling down on top of Maxell, but not nervelessly. She had not been hit.

She looked down at him, crumpled up on the floor. He had a shock of curly blonde hair that seemed to glow in the darkness, and his baby-smooth face looked peaceful and untroubled. This was the relation of the Doctor, then, the one who had given Andred all the trouble.

"Fabulous! Fantastic!" said Andred. "That point, Leela? That point is crossed, I think."

As they dragged Maxell's limp form around the desk, Andred felt the need to vent some more. "I knew it – knew it! I swear to you, he read my mind. There's something off about him."

"Be fair, though," she replied. "He'll make a good security officer."

"That I also knew."

They went quickly back over to the south wall, where K9 was still waiting. In the space between one of the TARDISes and the wall, he had blasted a neat square opening between this room and the adjoining one – Guest Residence A, which had originally been assigned to Morga of Kastria. Leela peered into the other room. There were two crates – one opened, one firmly shut. Their luggage was in the latter crate, K9 had been in the first.

Andred pulled open a door in the pale white column-shaped TARDIS nearest the blast in the wall. "You unlocked it already, K9. Good work. OK, then," he added, as Leela pulled the crate through the hole with a belt she had wrapped around it earlier that day for the very purpose. "Let's get that in."

They dragged the crate inside, K9 following.

Leela smiled. The interior of the TARDIS was not quite the same as that of the Doctor, but it was considerably more familiar than the exterior. The walls and the roundels were silver. The main console was circular, as was the viewing screen opposite the doors. The room was dark and all the console lights were blank, but, strangely, Leela could sense a hum of life throbbing from deep within the vessel.

K9 rolled over to the console and immediately plugged himself into it. Leela and Andred looked at each other, knowing that the next step depended on K9's abilities versus the security systems of the most advanced civilization in the universe. Andred caught Leela's smile and returned it with laughter.

"I've never flown a real one, before," he said. "Only simulations. This is – amazing! Leela – find the time rotor."

"What's it look like, exactly?" she said, looking around for a lever.