Category: The Specials

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings The Specials

Gallifrey’s Rebirth: Part 10

“…No!” breathed the Master in disbelief. “No, you’re all dead! The singularity bomb went off and you were at ground zero! That is categorical fact!”

“Therefore all elephants are pink,” replied the Doctor. “Let’s just say Rassilon’s paranoia played in our favor.”

“…So it really IS you, Doctor!” hissed the Master.

“I stand here before you,” said the Doctor. “Come on, Master. Give it up. You’ve lost.”

“I’m not beaten yet, Doctor!” The Master had his finger over the button. “If you don’t back off and allow me to take control of Gallifrey, I’ll wipe the Matrix of every single Time Lord! Gallifrey will never come back!”

“Master, you can’t do that! It’s inhuman!” urged Rassilon.

“No one in this room is human, Rassilon!” snarled the Master. “Spack off or Gallifrey’s death is a permanent one!”

“You’ve forgotten one thing, Master,” chuckled the Doctor.

“And that is?!”

“…Where’s Amy?” The Master blinked at the Doctor’s question, then realized Amy was missing.

“Wait, where’s the hedge-?!” He got his answer as Amy rang his bell with her hammer. He spun a few times before falling to the ground. At that moment, Rassilon and the Doctor got to work.

“Feeding in all data concerning those that wish to come back!” reported Rassilon.

“Transferring data to the Looms!” replied the Doctor.

“Grandfather, the Eye-!” warned Susan.

“Oh, blast!” hissed the Doctor. She quickly finished what the Master did in connecting the Eye. “Romana! Lurra Rus! Energy output!”

“Initial run is stable!” replied Romana.

“Flux comparative’s running at 4.6!” reported Lurra Rus.

“As the original did when it was connected!” replied Rassilon.

“4.9…3.2…8.6…9.5…4.6 again!”

“NOW!” called Rassilon as she pulled the switch. The new Eye glowed brightly.

“First one’s coming!” called the Doctor as she looked on the monitor giving her a view of the Looms.

The Looms, one of Gallifrey’s methods of reproduction outside of the natural way, weave strands of Time Lord DNA together and give a Time Lord a full set of 13 lives. Ordinarily, they would start as children, but Rassilon circumvented that bit and out stepped a portly adult with short, thin, gray hair and a goatee. He looked sternly at his surroundings, then checked himself out, making sure his limbs were working. He then spotted a gold helmet with a feather on top and tucked it under his arm. He then activated a communicator. “Chancellery Guard Commander Maxil, reporting,” he said in crisp military fashion. “Adult looming successful. Full set of lives confirmed. Awaiting orders.”

“MAXIL?!” protested the Doctor. “Why was HE the test subject?!”

“He volunteered, Doctor, when no one else did,” replied Rassilon. The Master then groaned and looked around.

“…NO!” he shouted as he leapt at the controls, but it was no good! He was still too dizzy from that hammer blow and was easily tripped up by Susan’s leg.

“Going somewhere, my dear Uncle?” she asked.

“You little-! That was my victory, Doctor, and you stole it from me!” snarled the Master as he was roughly pulled up to his feet by Romana and Lurra Rus.

“You pretty much stranded me and my companions on Gallifrey, so there’s your consolation prize,” replied the Doctor.

“THAT’S NOT EVEN A MERE PARTICIPATION TROPHY!” roared the Master. He then whirled out of Romana and Lurra Rus’ grasp and pointed a black rod with a hemisphere on top at Lurra Rus while wrapping an arm around her neck. “Now, I will be leaving Gallifrey! I will be taking the formula with me! And I will become the sole Lord of Time!”

“How?” asked the Doctor.

“You forget, Doctor! The Sontaran Temporal Scout Ship!” He was then clubbed in the back of the head with a staser pistol. Maxil then kicked away the rod and put handcuffs on the Master.

“I saw an explosion where the Temporal Scout Ship was,” he reported. “The Sontarans must have noticed the singularity bomb’s detonation and guessed that everyone died in the temporal fallout, so they cut their losses.”

“Let me just check,” said the Doctor as she worked the nearby console. “…Confirmed. The Sontarans fled. And we can rebuild unmolested.”

“I’ll organize rebuilding teams immediately,” said Maxil. “Just as soon as I get this one to the cells.” He dragged the Master away.

The restoration of Gallifrey was taking several months. Thankfully, all the Gallifreyans that wished to come back were restored. The Doctor was busy working on something in the Lord President’s office. Speaking of the Lord President, a Time Lady in white and gold robes with a white and gold Time Lord Collar and a white and gold skullcap entered the office. “Still working, Grandfather?” asked the Time Lady. The Doctor looked up to see that it was Susan wearing the Presidential Robes.

“No, just finishing up one job,” sighed the Doctor.

“And looking to find another, hm?” guessed Susan.

“You know me,” replied the Doctor. “Without the TARDIS, I have to keep busy somehow, otherwise the grief will kill me.”

“Grandfather, there IS a reason I was looking for you,” said Susan. “It also connects to why I’m wearing these uncomfortable things.”

“I’m not a fan of parties, Susan. That hasn’t changed.”

“No, no, just a small ceremony. One I came up with, the Chesterton Ceremony.” The Doctor smiled.

“He’d be honored to know his favorite student named a ceremony after him.”

“Come on, Grandfather,” urged Susan. “We’re waiting for you in the Panopticon.”

The Doctor and Susan made their way to the Panopticon. The Doctor saw Rassilon, Romana, Amy, and Lurra Rus alongside several Time Lords in the robes of the heads of the Great Houses of Gallifrey. In the center of the Panopticon was a tall, silver cylinder with a door in front. “A new TARDIS?” the Doctor asked Susan.

“As a thank you for saving Gallifrey,” replied Susan.

“…It’s going to take some getting used to,” remarked the Doctor. “…Thank you, Susan.”

“Step inside, Doctor, Amy, Lurra Rus,” directed Rassilon. She handed the Doctor a set of keys.

“…Hang on, these are the keys to a Type 40,” said the Doctor.

“Try them out,” replied Romana. The Doctor inserted one of the keys into a keyhole and the TARDIS door opened.

“…You’ve made a newly built TARDIS work on Type 40 keeeee…” The Doctor blinked when she saw the console room. “…That’s a standard Type 40 Console!” she said. She rushed to the console and examined it. “…I don’t…I mean, this feels like…one second!” She then put her hands on the telepathic circuits and…memories of a certain Type 40 flooded her brain! Memories of the greatest moments in the Doctor’s life in the original TARDIS! …In THIS TARDIS! “I don’t believe it!” she whispered. “This isn’t A TARDIS! It’s THE TARDIS! MY TARDIS! But she feels like she was just newly built! Like she just rolled off the assembly line!”

“Technically speaking, Grandfather, she is,” replied Susan. “As we were taking the original ship to be scrapped respectfully, I noticed something under the console. I bent down and saw a new TARDIS heart, then it greeted me like an old friend! It was the TARDIS’ Heart, but newly grown! The original Heart had grown a fragment of crystal inside the console and made a new singularity for its core, then it accepted its fate to become the new Eye of Harmony! The new Eye won’t remember you anymore, but it didn’t want you to be alone, so it made itself a new body and we dusted off the plans for the Type 40! That’s why it took several months! We needed it to be a top of the line Type 40! Behold, Grandfather, your TARDIS reloomed like the Time Lords!” At that moment, the Doctor wrapped Susan in a hug, happy tears rolling down her eyes.

“…Thank you, Susan,” she said, “for making this stupid old buffer a very happy Time Lord!” She released Susan from the hug. “…Are you sure you’re okay? With me running off like that?”

“You do your best work for the universe when you travel, Grandfather,” replied Susan. “And you’ve put in enough repair work for Gallifrey. We’re all quite sure.”

“In that case, I must be off,” said the Doctor. “Amy, we still have a small paradox to resolve and Lurra Rus, we need to find you a new home!” The Doctor began working the controls, then gave a smile to Susan as she was leaving the TARDIS. “…Call me when Gallifrey is threatened, you hear?” she directed.

“Naturally, Grandfather,” replied Susan as she departed. “Goodbye!” The TARDIS door shut behind Susan. With that, the Doctor pulled on the take-off lever!

The Time Vortex swirled in its usual manner. As it carried on, a strange object appeared. It looked like it was from Earth, specifically 1960’s London. Upon closer examination, it was a London Metropolitan Police Public Call Box with the lamp on top flashing as the box spun. Reloomed and returned to her preferred shape, the TARDIS spun through the Time Vortex, ready to bring the Doctor to who knows where and when!

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings The Specials

Gallifrey’s Rebirth: Part 9

The Doctor and her friends made their way to the underbelly of the citadel with Trev and his firing squad waiting. “Now, Trev,” chided the Doctor, “we’re unarmed. Where’s the fight in shooting unarmed people? Where’s the honor?”

“Doctor, you’re known for using your brain, a very useful weapon,” replied Trev. “I’d hardly call you unarmed.”

“…I’m…flattered?”

“You should be, because it means I intend to have you executed swiftly! Squad, present arms!” The shooting party presented arms.

“WAIT!” called Lurra Rus’ voice as she joined the group.

“Ah, the last non-Gallifreyan target,” chuckled Trev. “All that’s left is our puppet.”

“General, he’s got worse plans than you! I beg you to listen!” urged Lurra Rus.

“Worse plans? But he-!” protested Rassilon.

“Lady Rassilon, whatever he is, the Master is worse!” insisted Lurra Rus.

“…I can’t believe I’m feeling generous to a member of a species that’s extinct,” scoffed Trev. “What is it?”

“Yes, what is it?” asked the Doctor. “How is the Master’s plan worse?”

“The Master is planning to destroy us!” replied Lurra Rus.

“…He couldn’t even if he tried!” grunted Trev. “I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeves. And accusations are not evidence.”

“Not us personally,” explained Lurra Rus. “Our economic systems! General Trev, do the Sontarans have a stock market?”

“Of course we do,” replied Trev. “I have stock in Imperial Armaments. They make the best weapons.”

“Imperial Armament shares will become worthless with what the Master has planned,” said Lurra Rus.

“He told you this?” asked Amy.

“He was trying to recruit me and the Doctor by proxy,” replied Lurra Rus.

“Why would he do that?” quizzed Trev.

“He claimed that he needed me,” answered Lurra Rus.

“Why?” asked the Doctor.

“Yes, why?” repeated Trev. “I’d love to know.”

The Master smirked as he approached a console and opened a communications channel. He held a crystal similar to the Heart of his TARDIS. “That is not credible!” scoffed Trev’s voice. “He can’t sum up the economy of a single planet on a mere computer drive, much less any intergalactic economy!”

“The Master’s a genius!” replied the Doctor.

“He’s an engineer like you, Doctor! Not an accountant!”

“You can’t take the risk, General,” urged Lurra Rus. “The Doctor’s right. He’ll destroy every single economy.”

“I was under the impression, given your story,” remarked Trev, “that such a goal is what you want.”

“Look, the corporations are bad, but what the Master is planning is far worse.”

“Don’t tell me,” muttered the Doctor, “he sees time and space as one big concentration camp with him as the commandant.”

“Yes,” replied Lurra Rus.

“Can you imagine it, Trev?!” urged the Doctor. “All the factories of time and space producing weapons, warships, armies of combat robots, and tanks! Every skyline full of smoking chimneys, every worker a slave-!”

“Doctor, you’re describing heaven to us,” interrupted a Sontaran Trooper. “The only wrinkle in that plan is that the primitive known as the Master intends to be at the top of the heap.” The Master wasn’t taking that lying down! He allowed for two-way communication.

“I think you’ll find, Sontaran,” he hissed, “that YOU are the primitive, not me!”

“Master?! Where’s that voice coming from?!” yelped the Doctor.

“Twi’lek, what is that in your hand?” asked Trev.

“You mean this?” asked Lurra Rus. The Master guessed that Lurra Rus was showing off the weapon.

“What in the name of the Sash of Rassilon-?!” spluttered Romana.

“I fitted a radio link in that little…gift I gave you,” chuckled the Master.

“What is that device?” asked Trev.

“It’s a weaponized TARDIS heart!” replied Rassilon. “A crude singularity bomb!”

“What in Sontar’s name-?!” yelped Trev. “Where did you get that cowardly weapon?!”

“From the Master, believe it or not,” replied Lurra Rus. “He claims that Romana ripped it out of his TARDIS to act as a deterrent against you lot.”

“So, a President of the High Council of Time Lords decides to play the coward!” hissed Trev.

“I haven’t been anywhere near the Master’s TARDIS!” insisted Romana. “That kind of weapon is immoral, illegal, and Rassilon over there never thought of such a weapon even at her maddest because, like you correctly said, General, it’s cowardly! What use would I have for that kind of weapon?!”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll find it to be VERY versatile,” purred the Master. “With this one, I plan to kill a whole multitude of birds with one stone!”

“I knew it! You haven’t changed a bit!” snarled Amy.

“I can’t, Miss Rose! I see that now! Listening to everyone has confirmed that the universe MUST pay for my madness!”

“There’s still the matter of that weapon Romana constructed!” hissed Trev.

“I doubt she built such a thing,” replied Rassilon.

“She didn’t, Lurra Rus,” confirmed the Master. “I’m afraid I built it while everyone was running around like headless chickens. I faked the evidence against her. I believe people in your galaxy call it a…smoking blaster!” He then laughed.

“There’s no reason to panic,” soothed Lurra Rus. “It’s useless without the trigger.”

“Lurra Rus,” interjected the Doctor, “do you know what the trigger to that kind of singularity bomb looks like?”

“…Well, no,” replied Lurra Rus.

“Well, give me that! See, here? Trigger!” At the Doctor’s declaration, the Master cackled.

“Don’t imagine you can defuse it in time, Doctor!” he warned.

“Master, whatever you want, we can talk!” insisted the Doctor.

“You’ve always known what I want, Doctor!” replied the Master. “I tried to change on numerous occasions! I really thought I could, but you were right!”

“Scant consolation!” argued the Doctor.

“It wasn’t meant to be ANY kind of consolation. …I will miss you, Doctor.” He then keyed in a command. “That singularity bomb, on the other hand, well, it CAN’T miss you at that range!”

Below the citadel, the singularity bomb beeped as the Master laughed. “HE’S ACTIVATED THE DETONATION SEQUENCE!!” warned the Doctor. “GIMME!!”

“We can’t outrun that kind of blast, Doctor!” replied Rassilon as the Doctor took the device from Lurra Rus and ran.

“YOU STAY THERE!!” called the Doctor.

“What is she doing?!” demanded Trev.

“She’s going to one of the old temporal mine shafts,” replied Romana. “She probably intends to drop the bomb down there. I hope she drops it far-!” That was when the explosion ripped through the caverns.

The computers warned of a massive explosion and release of temporal radiation. As the alarms sounded, the Master cackled. He then got to work and headed to the vault of the Eye of Harmony.

Thankfully, the Doctor’s allies survived, but there was still the matter of the Doctor and the Sontarans. The group was surrounded by an energy field. Rassilon checked the device that was deploying the energy field. “There,” she said. “That should keep the temporal radiation from affecting us.”

“But the Doctor-!” yelped Amy.

“The field should surround her too,” assured Rassilon. “We’ll find her.”

“How far do the mines go?” asked Susan.

“Pretty far,” replied Romana, “but the temporal radiation will reach the capital before we get there. That’s sure to affect the Eye of Harmony!”

“That’s if the Master didn’t think to seal the Vault in time,” remarked Rassilon. “And I’m betting he’s there with the heart of the Doctor’s TARDIS.”

“…You think he’s taken the TARDIS’s heart?” asked Amy.

“Won’t that-?!” asked Lurra Rus.

“Strand you, yes,” replied Rassilon. “That is until we deal with the Master and make a new TARDIS for the Doctor, but I doubt it’s going to be a Type 40 like hers.”

“What do we do, then, Rassilon?” asked Romana. By now, everyone was looking to Rassilon for guidance.

“What do you think we do?” replied Rassilon. “We’re protected from the temporal radiation, but the Sontarans aren’t. So, we find the Doctor, confirm her survival or death, and stop the Master!”

“Sounds like a good plan, let me help speed that along!” called the Doctor’s voice.

“Doctor!” called Amy.

“Just a second,” interjected Rassilon as she pulled out a device. She waved it over the Doctor, then sighed in relief. “Sorry about that, Doctor.”

“Making sure I’m not an illusion as a result of the explosion, very wise,” replied the Doctor.

“Grandfather, how will we be getting into the citadel?” asked Susan. “The temporal radiation will surely affect things and the Master will have locked himself in there!”

“True, but we have three people that have presidential codes,” replied the Doctor.

“Three?” asked Susan.

“I was made President until Romana was elected to the position,” explained the Doctor. Susan tried to hold back laughter.

“You?” she snickered. “Grandfather, when were you elected?”

“Oh, after that business with the Death Zone,” replied the Doctor.

“…The High Council really ISN’T infallible,” chuckled Susan.

“OI!”

The Master continued his work. With the old Eye now disconnected, he had to use alternative power sources to continue. The Type 40 Heart had grown to the size of the original Eye of Harmony and was now being connected up. “Perfect!” he said. “Thank you for your sacrifice, Doctor! You never understood! It is everyone else that is to blame for my madness! The only cure is to sieze power! Laws will be MINE to create! Not to follow! All of time and space, in the palm of my hand! I shall be a wise and tolerant dictator. Swift but fair in retribution. I shall be the new Lord President Eternal! Gallifrey will be the center of an empire that shall span throughout eternity! And once all is finally under my total control, I shall sieze the next universe and the next! The whole of creation will be MINE to command! And all the Gallifreyans wishing to come back need merely swear an oath of loyalty, then they shall be reloomed into my servants!”

“Thank you for discussing your master plan as usual, Master,” came the Doctor’s voice. The Master turned to see everyone standing there.

“Ah, temporal illusions,” he scoffed. “Well, I’m quite happy to have illusions to be the last images of my old friend. Admit it ‘Doctor’, you’ve lost! I shall be the savior of Gallifrey! I shall rule the Eternal Time Lord Empire!”

“Oh, very good, very good,” mocked the Doctor. “…Just one problem.”

“And what’s that, ‘Doctor’?” asked the Master. The Doctor then slugged the Master in the jaw.

“NOW!” shouted the Doctor. Rassilon, Romana, and Susan quickly took over the controls as the Master readjusted his jaw and realized something; temporal illusions CAN’T slug someone in the jaw!

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings The Specials

Gallifrey’s Rebirth: Part 8

The Sontarans still marched through the capital. “Continue searching, my warriors!” called Trev. “We must locate the Eye of Harmony so that we may dissect it!” At that point, his adjutant received a message.

“…Oh, you have got to-! Sir!” called the adjutant.

“Report,” ordered Trev.

“It’s the Doctor,” replied the adjutant. “She’s doing her usual parlay trick.”

“Parlay trick?”

“Yes, you know how she does it. She spots us, pretends to surrender, plays on our egos, then BOOM! She enacts a plan she devised and we’re blind-sided enough that she defeats us!”

“Ah. I’ve taken to calling it the Doctor’s White Flag Maneuver,” said Trev. “DWFM, for short. Adjutant, prepare a party. Minimum number of Sontarans. We’re going to have the Doctor executed.”

“Immediately, Sir,” replied the adjutant.

The Doctor and her friends and allies had to split up for a while to make the plan work. Somehow, Lurra Rus ended up with the Master. As they waited for their signals, the Master spoke to Lurra Rus. “Miss Rus,” he began, “you used to be involved in that quaint little Project: Necromancer, yes?”

“…Yes, but I think you’d be hard-pressed to call it quaint if you saw it,” replied Lurra Rus.

“What were you doing before Dr. Hemlock kidnapped you?” asked the Master. Lurra Rus didn’t know where he was going with that question, but still found herself answering.

“I was talking to a reporter from an independent news service,” she said. “He was working on a story, uncovering evidence that the Emperor was involved in wrongdoing.”

“And, presumably, he couldn’t publish that evidence?”

“No. The Empire killed him, erased all his records, and destroyed all his evidence and notes.”

“As absolute rulers tend to do. …What if I were to tell you that Romana is involved in wrongdoing?”

“…I’d ask for evidence,” replied Lurra Rus.

“Here,” said the Master as he handed over an object. Lurra Rus accepted it, but arched an eyebrow.

“…Wh…What is it?” she asked.

“What does it look like?” replied the Master.

“A green crystal with some sort of ring gadget around it.”

“Look within the crystal,” directed the Master. Lurra Rus did so.

“…There’s something swirling around inside it,” she said.

“A star permanently collapsing, but never fully turning into a black hole,” explained the Master.

“…Wait, isn’t that what the Eye of Harmony is?” asked Lurra Rus.

“That’s correct,” confirmed the Master.

“…And the smaller ones are a TARDIS’s heart, if I recall right.”

“Very good.”

“So what’s the deal with the machinery? It looks like it…can…can split the crystal open!” Lurra Rus finally yelped.

“Calm yourself, Miss Rus, it’s not armed,” soothed the Master.

“I hope not!” shuddered Lurra Rus.

“But it IS illegal. It’s the heart of my TARDIS, a Type 75. Romana never trusted me. The Great Houses of Gallifrey signed a treaty to never weaponize the heart of a TARDIS like that.”

“Romana would just say,” said Lurra Rus, “that its purpose would be used to deter the Sontarans.”

“She would, yes,” replied the Master. “At which point, you tell her that a deterrent would be designed to have no ill effect. But this device is now a powerful explosive and its main purpose is to spread temporal radiation over a wide area!”

“It’s a weapon,” remarked Lurra Rus. “It was turned from engine and computer core into a weapon!”

“Far more effective on people than on rocks.”

“…And you want ME to have it?!” asked Lurra Rus.

“Without the trigger, it’s useless,” replied the Master.

“What do you want in return?” The Master smirked.

“Miss Rus, you had serious reservations about the economic system of your home galaxy and time.”

“Y-Yes?” said Lurra Rus, unnerved that the Master knew that.

“I would be interested to hear what those reservations are. Believe it or not, many think like you, from what I’ve seen. People that command legions of Stormtroopers are clearly the lucky ones, but there ARE citizens dying of diseases.”

“That’s right,” replied Lurra Rus.

“Diseases which HAVE a cure,” continued the Master.

“Not everyone can afford the drugs needed to help them overcome those diseases,” said Lurra Rus. “People like the Emperor or Vader would say that the galaxy is overpopulated anyways. It’s good if there’s something that eases that pressure.”

“…Emperor Sheev Palpatine has said that?” asked the Master.

“Not publicly, but I’m sure he would say that behind closed doors,” replied Lurra Rus.

“He wouldn’t say that if it was HIS life at risk, would he?”

“No, he wouldn’t. Miss Ta…Master, as you said, there are millions like me who hate the Empire and the corporations, people who think they’re synonymous with greed. They destroy whole planets, strip them bare, and for what?! Just to fuel more growth?! To generate more money?! Just look at my home planet of Ryloth! We’ve been exploited to fuel corporations and corrupt regimes!”

“The economic system of your galaxy like others throughout time and space is fundamentally flawed,” remarked the Master. “The corporations COULD be a force for good, but they’re compelled to fight one another.”

“That reporter I talked to,” said Lurra Rus, “his news service tried to highlight all that, but no one’s come up with a better system.”

“Oh, I’m sure they have,” replied the Master, “but the Emperor and his corporations had bought them off or disappeared them like they did with you or through mere killing. That is what absolute rulers do.”

“Changing the economy of my galaxy just couldn’t happen,” sighed Lurra Rus. “There have been scandals and crises, but the corporations always survive or new ones take their place as do the ones pulling the strings.”

“…Are all Twi’leks such defeatists?” asked the Master.

“We can’t beat the Empire through economic means!” insisted Lurra Rus. “Their corporations control everything! Employ everyone! Silence all dissent!”

“I have the means to destroy them!” declared the Master. “Do you know how the stock market works?”

“…Well, a barebones idea, yes,” replied Lurra Rus. “People with money invest that money in companies they think will do well. People take risks, sometimes they’re rewarded, the other times are ruinous.”

“But it’s the element of risk that is important,” remarked the Master.

“Yes,” agreed Lurra Rus. “My father always said it’s like pod-racing; gambling with people’s lives, but in more sinister and subtle ways.”

“A very good analogy.” The Master grinned. “And if you knew the outcome of each race beforehand, would that be gambling? I can predict the stock market!”

“You can?”

“With one equation! I have checked the records for all the possible points in space and time where there WAS a stock market! The formula holds! I can predict the price of any stock at any point in space and time!” Lurra Rus was in awe.

“That power would set a person up for life! It would make you the richest person in the universe!”

“If I was the only one to have the equation,” replied the Master.

“Of course. I mean, you wouldn’t share it, would you?” The Master smirked at Lurra Rus’ question.

“…Why not?”

“Well, because if everyone had the formula,” replied Lurra Rus, “Then the whole…system…would collapse!” Her eyes widened as she realized what would happen to the Empire if the Master enacted his plan.

“Precisely!”

“You CAN do it!” breathed Lurra Rus.

“I WILL do it!” declared the Master. “But I need your help!” He pulled out an external computer drive. “This drive contains the equation, how it was devised, and a small program that would run on even a household computer! Your job is to convince the Doctor, the only Time Lord with a functioning TARDIS, to take you back to your old home and disseminate this information! All news services need to run the equation!”

“But there’ll be chaos!” yelped Lurra Rus.

“No!” replied the Master. “There will be a new order! A new economic model that I have designed for that galaxy and all others! I alone shall be prepared for the collapse of the corporations! I will be able to use the Imperial infrastructure to impose the new system!”

“I imagine it will have to be based on a loose grass-roots system,” replied Lurra Rus. “A network of communes committed to the environment of each world in the galaxy and eventually each point in space and time. Self-sufficient planets but bartering goods if they have a surplus.”

“I have been searching throughout history to see if there is a precedent for what I am doing,” said the Master.

“Not on this scale. In my galaxy, the main problem will be reeducation. We’ve gotten so used to commerce that a switch to the post-economic system, where people only take what they need, will be difficult, but not impossible, to adjust to.”

“No,” replied the Master. “The new Universal Economy will be a war footing! Criminals and undesirables will be put to work as laborers! Those with particular aptitudes will form the Elite! The citizens will provide a work force! The women will produce new children! The men will work in new factories and in the armies! And all surplus production capacities will go into armaments!”

“WHAT?!” shrieked Lurra Rus. “NO! That’s what the Empire is all about! I won’t be party to that!” Just then, a chime rang. “That’s the signal! Master, we’ll discuss this-!” Lurra Rus tried the door, but it wouldn’t open. “Dank Farrik!” she hissed. “This kriffing door won’t open!” She looked to see the Master keeping his hand on a button and correctly guessed what that button was linked to. “LET ME OUT!”

“Lurra Rus,” said the Master, “you are resourceful and intelligent, like any Twi’lek. I had hoped you would be in my new Elite. Please…don’t disappoint me.”

“…Let! Me! OUT!” snarled Lurra Rus.

“…As you wish,” replied the Master. “But please think about my offer.” He released the door lock and Lurra Rus left to enact her part of the plan.

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings The Specials

Gallifrey’s Rebirth: Part 7

The Sontarans marched out of their ship as everyone looked on in horror! “How is this possible?!” asked Rassilon.

“Doctor, when do the Sontarans learn how to make their ships bigger on the inside?” quizzed Amy.

“Their Martial Year 76,000,” replied the Doctor. At that moment, the glowing Miss Tarae stood up.

“You…cutthroat…over-microwaved…skulking…potatoes!” she hissed. “You’re supposed to be…desperate Thanakians!”

“I will admit, acting like someone who is desperate is NOT the Sontaran way,” said Trev, “but the securing of Gallifrey is of top priority! Now, with Gallifreyan technology and science at our disposal, WE shall be the new Lords of Time!”

“THAT’S MY POSITION, YOU ANTS!” shrieked Miss Tarae as she thrust her arms forward, channeling the destructive power of her regeneration energy into various Sontarans. As she continued, her face changed. She grew, her chest became masculine, her hair darkened, and she grew a goatee as her shriek became a male roar. After Miss Tarae spent it all, a new man wearing her Lolita outfit collapsed to the floor.

“DESTROY THEM!” ordered Trev. As the Sontarans fired, Romana and Susan picked up Miss Tarae, now a male again, and carried him into the Citadel with the Doctor covering the retreat and locking the doors behind them.

After a few minutes, the group found a place to set the masculine Miss Tarae down and hole up. “Well, this is a fine kettle of fish!” hissed the Doctor. “The Sontarans duped Miss Tarae, excuse me, the Master, into giving them access to Gallifrey!”

“But why again?” asked Rassilon. “They already tried to invade Gallifrey once!”

“They still crave our mastery over time travel,” mused Romana. “It would make sense that they would try when Gallifrey is so weak.”

“Oooouughh,” groaned the Master as he sat up.

“Ah, the ‘hero’ of the hour awakens,” scoffed Rassilon. The Master ran his hand over his face, then realized he felt a beard.

“…I’m a male again, aren’t I?” he asked no one in particular.

“Gotta say, while I’m fine with men in dresses,” remarked the Doctor, “that outfit doesn’t suit you.”

“We’ll rerobe him later,” said Rassilon. The Master face-palmed as he recalled what happened to cause him to regenerate.

“I can’t believe I was so foolish!” he growled. “I KNOW the Sontarans had developed dimensional transcendentalism and their own Chameleon Circuit in that time! No wonder their Thanakian disguise was so ready to accept my terms!”

“How did you find them anyways?” asked the Doctor.

“My TARDIS picked up a distress signal and I followed it,” replied the Master. “I should have known! The Thanakians never bothered learning Time Lord communication frequencies! That should have been my first clue!”

“The Sontarans, knowing your reputation,” said Rassilon, “and correctly guessing that the Master and Miss Tarae are the same Time Lord, simply showed you what you desired most, Master! Like a CIA agent, you acted on your own agenda!”

“With what little respect I have for you, Rassilon,” hissed the Master, “we are beyond recriminations!”

“YOU OVERREACHED YOURSELF AS USUAL!” shouted Rassilon. “I DRAW ANY BOUNDARIES WE MAY CROSS! I AM THE FOUNDER OF TIME LORD SOCIETY! SWORN TO DEFEND MY WORLD! …Barely to have started fixing the crisis with the Eye of Harmony, then we lurch into this new one with the Sontarans! I save the recriminations for myself for not turning you away from Gallifrey!” As they argued, Romana found current live security footage of the Sontarans entering the citadel.

“THERE is our real enemy!” she shouted, ending the argument for now. “A Sontaran brigade swarming through the capital’s ruins! And above our heads, a Sontaran time fleet just waiting for the moment we switch off the transduction barriers!”

“Even with reduced power,” remarked Susan, “the transduction barriers are strong enough to repel any invasion force…well, any invasion force outside the barriers. We need to repel Trev and his men. But how can we win?”

“The Sontarans are master tacticians, second only to the Daleks,” remarked Rassilon. “What must they think of us now? Mere fools! Desperate, greedy children that would sacrifice their safety for quick advantage!”

“What’s done is done, Rassilon,” said the Doctor. “Now we must deal with the current situation. As you said, they’re tacticians. Even with their failure, Stor and his men must have transmitted valuable data about Gallifrey’s defenses. Then they used that data to concoct various plans to try again. By chance, the Master inadvertently helped them put one of their long shots into action.”

“There’s so much happening at once!” sighed Rassilon.

“Grandfather, there’s something I need to tell you,” said Susan.

“Susan, I hate to say it, but it will have to wait until we deal with all these crises.”

“Grandfather, it’s about the Eye!” insisted Susan.

“Susan-!”

“Hold on a minute, Doctor, let’s hear her out,” said Romana. “Let her cook, I believe 21st century humans would say. Susan, the floor is yours.”

“As us Time Lords are well aware,” began Susan, “the Eye of Harmony is the main source of power. The transduction barriers, time vortex monitoring equipment, and a TARDIS heart, are all linked to the Eye. But the connection between the Eye and a TARDIS heart is different. In order to handle the temporal energies, the link is established via the Main Eye and a smaller version of the Eye inside a TARDIS.”

“Hold on, there’s a star in each TARDIS permanently about to collapse?” asked Amy.

“That’s right,” confirmed Susan. “But there was something Gallifreyans after Omega overlooked. A TARDIS heart has to remain small in order to keep a TARDIS functioning.”

“Of course! That safety measure was built into the first TARDIS!” realized the Doctor.

“I get it!” gasped Rassilon. “Remove a TARDIS heart, allow it to grow-!”

“And hey presto, a NEW Eye of Harmony to power Gallifrey!” finished the Doctor.

“So who will sacrifice their TARDIS’s heart?” asked the Master.

“No one needs to!” replied the Doctor. “Rassilon, lead us to Banza’s TARDIS! Maybe we can convince it to let its heart become the new Eye!” Rassilon flinched.

“That’s…not possible anymore,” she said. “Banza’s TARDIS went through the full shutdown sequence. Its heart is…unavailable.”

“Why mention that fool of a general’s TARDIS?” asked the Master.

“He survived,” explained the Doctor.

“But he used his last life to save New Earth from Rita Repulsa and the Toymaker,” continued Amy.

“And we sent his TARDIS back to Gallifrey to be respectfully scrapped,” finished the Doctor. “And if it went through the full shutdown sequence, then its smaller Eye collapsed on itself with no damage.”

“Right now, Doctor,” sighed Rassilon, “the only active TARDIS’s are the Master’s Type 75…and your Type 40.”

“Oh? …Oh. …OOOOOHHHOOHOAHAHAHA!” The Master started cackling. “Oh, this is just too rich! You’re asking the Doctor to sacrifice her only means of escaping Gallifrey!”

“There’s still YOUR TARDIS!” hissed Amy.

“Not a chance!” laughed the Master. “Doctor, you want to help Rassilon? You’ll have to sacrifice your TARDIS!” Those words echoed in the Doctor’s mind, proving how insane the Master really is.

Meanwhile, Trev and his men were still swarming through the capital. By now, the scout ship was empty. Trev took in a breath. “…Fear,” he sighed with a wicked grin. “The citadel is rank with it!”

“Perhaps singing will amplify it,” suggested his adjutant.

“Do you have a song in mind?” asked Trev.

“Just the old marching song at the Academy.” Trev grinned at the suggestion.

“Set the beat, Adjutant! I feel like singing that glorious marching anthem!” ordered Trev. The adjutant obeyed and set a marching beat, then Trev began to sing.

“Sontar, Sontar! We march for Sontar!

The Light of Sontar is why we march!” By now, other Sontarans were joining in!

“Sontar, Sontar! We fight for Sontar!

The Glory of Sontar is why we fight!

Sontar, Sontar! We die for Sontar!

The death of our enemies is why we live!

Sontar, Sontar! We live for Sontar!

Sontaran troopers are bred for war!”

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings The Specials

Gallifrey’s Rebirth: Part 6

The Thanakian ship arrived outside the ruined capital. It simply faded in without fanfare, unlike a TARDIS. “You’re making the right decision, Madame President,” purred Miss Tarae, always eager to get a word in. “We’ll put their secrets to good use.” She was lightly caressing one of Romana’s shoulders. Romana decided to show Miss Tarae that such an act was a no-no by grabbing Miss Tarae’s fingers and squeezing tightly.

“I make the decisions on what to do with another race’s secrets, Miss Tarae,” she reminded, “not you.” The Thanakian ambassador then appeared in the doorway. “Greetings, Ambassador,” said Romana. “We welcome you to Gallifrey, such as it is.”

“We appreciate what hospitality you can give us, Lord President,” replied the ambassador. “We just hope the Rutan Host cannot penetrate your barriers.”

“No worries,” assured Rassilon. “The Transduction Barriers are still in operation.”

“We pray they will hold. We heard the Daleks tried to-.”

“The barriers have been strengthened,” assured Romana. “No one can get in without our knowledge.”

“We shall stay here to plan our campaign,” said the ambassador. “We ARE grateful for the hospitality you can provide.” The ambassador retreated back into their ship and the door shut.

“…Something just isn’t adding up!” muttered the Doctor.

Inside the Thanakian ship, the ambassador smirked. “Fools,” they remarked.

“Sir, how much longer?!” complained another Thanakian. “My fingers ache to pull the trigger-!”

“Calm yourself, Trooper,” replied the ambassador. “This is a necessary part of the plan. Once the Time Lords figure out what’s going on, THEN we drop the act. Until then, the disguise is to be maintained. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Sir,” replied the Thanakian.

The Time Lords returned to the citadel and rejoined with Amy and Lurra Rus. “…Rassilon,” said Amy.

“Hm? Yes, Amy?” asked Rassilon.

“You said something about making a new Eye of Harmony?”

“Ah, the contradiction in my earlier statements,” Rassilon sat down.

“The Doctor twigged to that earlier than I did,” explained Amy.

“Did she send you to gather information?” asked Rassilon.

“She doesn’t know I’m asking,” replied Amy.

“Everyone has their secrets, I suppose. Perhaps I had best spill mine. The original Eye was found, yes. But it had suffered damage. Recall how we said the Eye was made?”

“Yeah, using the potential time energy of a star trying to collapse into a black hole, only it can’t,” replied Amy.

“Well, the energies keeping that time field alive are starting to transform into something else,” explained Rassilon. “Something that can’t maintain the field around the singularity.”

“…And the collapse into a black hole will happen,” realized Amy.

“Omega left copious notes on the creation of the Eye of Harmony, but I need to find them within the Matrix,” continued Rassilon, “but every use of the Eye accelerates the moment it collapses!”

“How much of a strain was it in using the time scoop?” asked Amy.

“Not as much as the transduction barriers,” replied Rassilon. “And there’s a lot the current Eye is running. The barriers, communications, security, all of it, even when I’ve set it to reduced power.”

“Then we’re on a time crunch.”

“Romana has spent a few lives being an archivist,” explained Rassilon. “That’s why I need her newfound research skills.”

“To find Omega’s notes faster,” realized Amy. “And hopefully before the Eye collapses in on itself and takes Gallifrey and the people on it with it.”

“Precisely.”

“…Well, Lurra Rus is a mechanical engineer. I’m just the muscle.”

“Come now, the Doctor sees something beyond that,” soothed Rassilon.

“She’s right, Amy,” agreed the Doctor’s voice. Amy and Rassilon yelped as they turned to see the Doctor approaching a nearby console.

“Must you do that?!” protested Rassilon.

“Amy, you’re an empathetic woman,” said the Doctor as she started working the console. “A big hint of that is you making the offer to find a home for Lurra Rus and reignite her hope.”

“…She’s not wrong,” agreed Rassilon. Her curiosity then took over. “Doctor, what ARE you doing?”

“Let’s just say the math isn’t mathing here,” muttered the Doctor. She keyed up visual footage of the ships over Gallifrey.

“…Those ARE what Rutan ships look like,” remarked Rassilon. Then she blinked. “Hang on a minute, those ships belong to the Rutans at an earlier time. Before they started fighting the Sontarans. But that Thanakian ship is from…”

“From a later point in the Sontaran/Rutan war, far later,” finished the Doctor.

“A time loop?” guessed Rassilon.

“And from what you told Amy about the strain on the Eye, I daren’t run a full temporal scan.”

“We’ll have to risk a small one,” replied Rassilon. “If that IS a time loop, then there’s an illusion being played on us. And whoever is making that hypothetical illusion-.”

“Probably has nasty designs on Gallifrey,” finished Amy. “But Miss Tarae probably has nasty designs of her own.”

“Yes, so who would backstab who first?” mused the Doctor. “As you say, we’ll have to risk a cursory scan. Monitor the strain on the Eye, Rassilon.”

“Naturally,” replied Rassilon as the Doctor began her scans. The Doctor’s brow furrowed.

“There IS a form of temporal energy,” she remarked. “And it’s looping. It’s a recursive time loop of events that happened BEFORE anyone arrived on Gallifrey. Months before I dropped you off here.”

“But that would take an impressive amount of power,” replied Rassilon. “Power that we currently don’t have what with the Eye decaying.”

“I think there’s something else with our Thanakian friends,” mused the Doctor.

“…If they ARE Thanakians,” muttered Amy.

“Yes, I was rather hoping you DIDN’T reach the same conclusion I did.”

“Doctor, you can’t seriously believe they’re camouflaged?” asked Rassilon. “The only ones who are capable of that are…are the Daleks!”

“Not entirely true,” replied the Doctor. “There ARE a few races that developed time machines like ours, but their versions of the Chameleon Circuit are more short-term disguises instead of long-term ones like the ones installed in a TARDIS. …Then again, there are two that developed Chameleon Circuits that function like ours.”

“Doctor, do you think the Daleks-?!” yelped Rassilon.

“Well, they DO have that DARDIS,” remarked Amy. “But would they use the Thanakians as their disguise or use the Rutans as part of their time loop?”

“…No, they wouldn’t!” realized the Doctor.

“Doctor?” asked Rassilon.

“The Daleks view the Rutans as the least deadly threat to their supremacy, unlike the humans!” explained the Doctor. “But there’s one race in particular that WOULD use them as part of a disguise!”

“…No!” realized Rassilon. “They wouldn’t dare! Not again!”

“Why not?!” asked the Doctor. “They’ve already developed methods of time travel, like the Osmotic Projector!”

“And it was on those grounds that both us and the Daleks forbade them from fighting in the Time War,” recalled Rassilon.

“Doctor, Rassilon, who are you-?” asked Amy.

“Doctor,” called Romana’s voice as she, Lurra Rus, and Susan entered the room, “have you seen Miss Tarae?”

“She was right behind me a minute ago,” replied the Doctor.

“Sir!” called the Thanakian Trooper. “They’ve detected the Time Loop of the Rutan Fleet!”

“Excellent!” praised the ambassador. “And knowing their intelligence, they’ll figure out it was an illusion!” The ambassador keyed in a command on a nearby communications console. “Scout Party 1 to Temporal Mothership, confirm that Gallifrey has detected the time loop!”

“Gallifreyan time loop detection: confirmed,” replied a gruff, male voice.

“Then deactivate it! It’s time to put all our power into weapons! We go to a war footing!”

“Sir,” called another Thanakian trooper, “our Time Lord dupe is approaching our ship.”

“Get me my flag and meson rifle!” ordered the ambassador.

Inside the citadel, the console beeped. Susan checked it. “Grandfather, the time loop’s dissipating,” she said.

“What?” asked the Doctor. She checked the console and goggled in horror. “Oh god, they duped Miss Tarae!” she said. “Everyone, outside now!” Everyone ran to the citadel’s exit.

Outside the Thanakian ship, Miss Tarae approached it. “Come on, my dear little Thanakians,” she purred. “Time to serve your master.”

“MISS TARAE, GET AWAY FROM THAT SHIP!” called the Doctor as she and her friends approached.

“Not this time, Doctor!” cackled Miss Tarae. “With the Thanakians as my slaves-!”

“Those aren’t Thanakians!” argued Amy. “They’re Son-!” She was interrupted by someone inside the ship opening the door and shooting Miss Tarae in the back. The ambassador stepped out with a smoking gun and a flag.

“Oh, drop the illusion!” scoffed the Doctor. “We know you’re not Thanakians, Corporal!”

“That’s GENERAL to you, Doctor,” replied the ambassador as it tore off something from its collar. As Miss Tarae started glowing, the ambassador’s illusion dispersed and in its place was a Sontaran General waving his flag! “In the Martial Year 76,042,” he laughed, “I, Trev the Temporal Terror, General of the 14th Sontaran Time Fleet, hereby claim Gallifrey, its moons, and satellites for the greater glory of the Sontaran Empire!” He then planted his flag, unfurling it to reveal the symbol of the Sontaran Empire as the ship he was using shimmered until it assumed the familiar spherical shape. Sontaran soldiers then stomped out of the ship, more than what the external dimensions would allow.

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings The Specials

Gallifrey’s Rebirth: Part 5

As Rassilon and Romana went to greet the Thanakians, Miss Tarae saw the Doctor talking with Amy, Lurra Rus, and Susan. “Grandfather,” said Susan, unaware of Miss Tarae’s presence, “I still don’t understand why she’d do that!”

“Well, she justified it as the Lie Gallifrey was Built on,” replied the Doctor. “As humans of the 21st century are wont to say ‘cool motive, still murder’.”

“Telling your granddaughter about what happened to our home?” asked Miss Tarae, startling everyone.

“…Well, she deserves to know the truth,” remarked the Doctor.

“What is the truth but a mere interpretation of the facts?”

“That may be,” remarked Susan, “but the truth is an interpretation worth upholding.”

“Oh? So you know about what the Doctor did? What sparked the Time War?”

“I still hold that it was that mission during the last days of the Thousand Year War on Skaro that sparked the Time War,” remarked the Doctor.

“Oh, come now,” chuckled Miss Tarae. “Giving your own granddaughter an incorrect interpretation of the facts? We both know it was Skaro’s destruction.”

“Destruction?” asked Amy. “But we were ON Skaro.”

“A rebuilt Skaro, yes,” replied the Doctor. “The Daleks managed to restore it thanks to their time travel capabilities. But I DID turn Skaro’s sun into a supernova.”

“What?! How?!” asked Susan.

“Through the Hand of Omega,” explained the Doctor. “I knew a wicked race of time travelers would try to use it, so I had the Hand turn the sun of the offending race into a supernova.”

“And that race of wicked time travelers turned out to be the Daleks,” guessed Susan. “But where does Miss Tarae fit into all that?”

“Further along into Skaro’s past,” replied Miss Tarae. “What if I were to tell you that the High Council used me as a sacrificial lamb?”

“What?”

“Not entirely a correct interpretation,” remarked the Doctor. “But the High Council DID make a metaphorical deal with the Devil.”

“I’d hardly call it metaphorical, considering the Daleks ARE the Devil,” scoffed Miss Tarae. The Doctor drew in a breath before continuing.

“When she was the Master,” she said, “Miss Tarae had used up all 13 of her regenerations. She wasn’t technically a Time Lord. She possessed the last Keeper of Traken. To top that off, she was dying, infected with a cheetah virus that was slowly turning her into an animal. Romana and the High Council saw this as an opportunity. She called it the Act of Master Restitution; a bid to try and stop a war between us and the Daleks.”

“I was at the end of my tether,” interjected Miss Tarae, “and the High Council saw me as the ideal man for that suicide mission!”

“No!” argued the Doctor.

“Yes,” countered Miss Tarae.

“It wasn’t as clear-cut as that! I know Romana-!” insisted the Doctor.

“DON’T LIE TO ME, DOCTOR!” Miss Tarae grabbed the Doctor by the collar of her coat and pulled her close. “I was expendable! Some sugar-coated promise of a new regeneration cycle for ‘helping the cause’! But all they really wanted was to kill two birds with one stone! Romana told you every single detail of the plan! You knew I wasn’t going to be walking away from Skaro alive, didn’t you?!”

“…Yes,” admitted the Doctor.

“And the deal was struck!” hissed Miss Tarae. “Go on, Doctor. Tell them all! Tell them the details of that failed deal!” She flung the Doctor to the ground. Lurra Rus helped her up. The Doctor adjusted her coat and continued.

“Miss Tarae was sent back to a period before Skaro’s destruction to broker some form of peace treaty with the Daleks, to try and avert any of the future events from happening and starting a war.”

“But that’s breaking the cardinal rule of time travel!” protested Susan. “The High Council would never allow something like that! They’re not Earth politicians!”

“My dear Susan, whether from Earth or Gallifrey,” said the Doctor, “politicians are a stuffy bunch who will stop at nothing if it means not getting their hands dirty, even if it meant breaking a rule or two. After I destroyed Skaro, the Time Lords knew that any surviving Daleks would see it as an obvious act of aggression and would come here to destroy us.”

“Why didn’t they send you?” asked Amy. “You’re the one that knows the most about the Daleks.”

“They would have killed her on the spot, and the High Council knew it,” replied Miss Tarae. “No, I was considered expendable, and I already had dealings with the Daleks. President Romana felt that would play in Gallifrey’s favor. Doctor, do you know what happened on Skaro?”

“You were executed and somehow transferred your consciousness into a Deathworm Morphant,” answered the Doctor.

“Oh, how naïve,” remarked Miss Tarae. “Although, I suppose I should be grateful for their lack of morality. If only they just killed me. No, the Daleks wanted to know how we work.”

“How we work?” asked Susan.

“Regeneration, my dear,” explained Miss Tarae. “And our sensitivity to time! They must have learned a lot from me.”

“Experimentation!” shuddered the Doctor.

“They did things to me that even YOUR nightmares could not conceive, Doctor! Thank goodness I plucked a jarful of Deathworm Morphants from the swamps of Skaro. They spliced my DNA with other creatures and subjected it to different forms of radiation while I experimented on the Morphants. Only one impossibly strong Morphant could house my consciousness! …On the subject of Dalek experiments, even I learned some things I didn’t think were possible. For instance, did you know that gamma radiation accelerates the regeneration process?”

“But Grandfather just said,” interjected Susan, “that you were possessing a non-Gallifreyan.”

“Yes, and that’s what prompted my execution,” remarked Miss Tarae. “For the crime of stymying their scientific efforts, I was sentenced to vaporization. But the last surviving Deathworm Morphant managed to hold onto my consciousness. After a stint with the Doctor after he freshly regenerated into his eighth incarnation, I was brought back to life.”

“And after several plots,” remarked the Doctor, “she was drafted into the Time War like I was.”

“But that whole incident burned in my mind!” hissed Miss Tarae. “The High Council called it the Act of Master Restitution! And it failed! The Daleks still went to war against us! All because of the Doctor selfishly destroying their homeworld!”

“No, Miss Tarae, the war started when I was sent back in time to avert their creation!” insisted the Doctor.

“Avert their creation?” asked Susan.

“So that’s when you first met Davros?” asked Amy.

“Exactly, Amy,” replied the Doctor. “And to answer your question, Susan, the Time Lords foresaw a time stream where the Daleks would destroy all other forms of life in the universe. So they sent me into Skaro’s past, during the nuclear war we heard about. I had learned that the Daleks’ humanoid ancestors were actually called Kaleds and they produced a madman called Davros. In a bid to win the war with the Thals, Davros accelerated the mutations of his people and slapped them into a metal war machine, the means of locomotion based on his old chair.”

“You mean this Davros character was a halfway point between the Kaleds and the Daleks?” quizzed Susan.

“Exactly.”

“Hold on, I saw him with legs,” said Lurra Rus.

“He didn’t used to have legs, or hair, or a left arm,” replied the Doctor. “A Thal shell packed with radioactive isotopes ruined his body, but he was alive. His chair acted as life-support, but his hatred kept him alive up until he stole some of my regeneration energy.”

“So he’s got two legs these days?” asked Miss Tarae. She then realized something. “Wait a minute-!” she snarled at the Doctor.

“Miss Tarae,” interrupted the Doctor, “unlike you, I don’t force others to fix my insanity, even if they started it in the first place. Rassilon and Romana have weightier concerns, callous though I may sound. Weightier concerns, I might add, that YOU plopped on our doorstep! We’ve all confessed our sins to you numerous times and offered constructive solutions. YOU are the one that refuted them in favor of conquering the universe. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to puzzle out a new tangle Rassilon left us.”

“Something about this Eye of Harmony?” asked Lurra Rus. She and Amy then realized something.

“Didn’t Rassilon say she used the Eye to power the time scoop and bring Romana and Susan here?” asked Amy.

“She did,” confirmed the Doctor.

“So why make a new one?” asked Susan. “…Unless…” She trailed off in thought.

“Susan?” asked Amy.

“Grandfather, perhaps we should assist our presidents in greeting the Thanakians,” suggested Susan. The Doctor caught onto her granddaughter’s plan.

“I do believe you’re right, Susan. Let’s go, everyone.” The Doctor led the way with Miss Tarae snarling.

“Distract everyone by going off on a tangent, Doctor!” she hissed to herself. “How gutless! And the universe WILL pay for my madness one way or another!”

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings The Specials

Gallifrey’s Rebirth: Part 4

“You don’t understand, Miss Rose!” hissed Miss Tarae.

“Understand what?” asked Amy.

“I spent 90 years alone with my thoughts after our last encounter, thanks to Ganondorf’s magics! Many more years after that, after my prison was destroyed throughout Hyrule’s many temporal resets as I drifted in space-!”

“And now that you’ve had a little think about it, you’ve decided to mend your ways.”

“A little think?! …Ninety years! Do you have ANY idea?! You must think death impossible for a Time Lord! You most likely believe 90 years must be nothing to us! Believe me, when you’re a Time Lord stuck in a crystal prison without the ability to time travel, it is a lifetime unable to move! I was in complete sensory deprivation! I wasn’t breathing! I couldn’t even feel my hearts beating! I stood utterly alone…I thought I would go insane!!”

“No comment,” remarked Amy.

“…I wondered if I really HAD died after all. How would I know? …I started hearing voices!” By now, Miss Tarae was looking fearful at what she was forcing herself to recall. “I started imagining things out there in the darkness! Terrifying things! Larger than me! All around me! It was like I had been cast adrift on a raft in the middle of the ocean! I heard all my former allies there! The Cybermen! The Autons! The Daleks! Every one of them calling out my names in unison! All the names I had, even my birth name! …They sounded so faint.”

“It feels like you’re demanding an apology for what YOU used them for,” said Amy.

“Then I saw the face of the Timeless Child! Tormenting! Sneering! Cruel! Cowardly! Just as it is now! Just as it had always been! Their true face! Not the one they happen to be wearing today as the current Doctor! …Then there was nothing. …A near…century…of nothing. …I turned inward. My mind, consumed by memories, forced me to live and relive every single experience from the moment I was born! Maybe even before that! I was LOCKED in my past! Unable to change my mistakes! Condemned to relive them over and over and over! Every death, every failure, every lie, every betrayal! Even those I thought I had completely erased from my memory, like-!”

“…Like?” ventured Amy.

“…Every one of the foul deeds I thought I had buried…rose up…taunting me! …I felt so ashamed…so naked. The process stripped me of everything. It showed me how small I was! How insignificant my achievements had been! I was NOTHING! The mere dreams of a Time Lord who should have died millennia before! I passed through eternity! Imagining every possible theory! Every possible book! Every possible idea! And then, as I had exhausted every combination in that moment…I felt myself transcending! I felt myself starting to lift away from my body to join with something greater than me! Greater than ALL things! …And then…I felt my hearts beat. …That had just been the first second of my imprisonment. …And I was back at the beginning! Utterly trapped! Cursing those who had imprisoned me! A mere deformed, unfinished mind! Before the next hearts beat, the process was repeated in every detail! The third second was the same! As was the next! AS WAS THE NEXT!”

“As I only have a watch synced to Mobius and the TARDIS,” said Amy, “and I don’t have the life-span of a Time Lord, maybe you should skip to the end.”

“…The end?” asked Miss Tarae. “…Very well. I came to realize that I could count myself the queen of an infinite universe were it not for my bad dreams! That there was more in heaven and on Gallifrey than was ever dreamt of in YOUR philosophy, Amy Rose!” By then, the Doctor announced her presence by laughing in the doorway, causing Miss Tarae and Amy to yelp in surprise.

“Eternity?!” asked the Doctor between giggles. “And the best you could manage is to misquote Shakespeare?! Any non-Mobian monkey with a typewriter could do that! At least THEY would have managed to write something down!”

“My point precisely, Doctor!” hissed Miss Tarae.

“Good night, Sweet Prince,” countered the Doctor. “I need to check on something. The bio-data induction channel is very fragile. Amy, I trust-.”

“She didn’t lay a finger on it,” assured Amy.

“Good to know. Now, let’s see-.” The Doctor was interrupted by someone approaching. That person was Romana.

“Doctor, we need to give the Thanakians sanctuary,” said Romana.

“What?” asked the Doctor. “But with so many inconsistencies-!”

“A Rutan fleet was discovered making their way to Gallifrey!” replied Romana. “They’re in attack formation!”

“…The Rutans aren’t so ham-fisted!” argued the Doctor.

“I’d say the Rutans are desperate for a win,” remarked Miss Tarae.

“I have discussed this with Rassilon,” said Romana, “and it’s agreed that the Thanakian flagship may land, but that ship only.”

“What about the other-?!”

“The Thanakians have ship-to-ship teleportation, Doctor. They’ve already beamed over those that haven’t stayed behind. However, they are to stay in their time ship until proper accommodations can be made.”

“I don’t like this,” muttered the Doctor. “Everything is happening so fast!”

“Doctor, we’re still in a position to dictate terms,” said Miss Tarae. “Perhaps I should explain my deal with the Thanakians fully.”

“Yes, perhaps you should!” hissed Romana.

“As you know, the Thanakians have considerably primitive time-travel capabilities. Their power source is a more wasteful one compared to the Eye of Harmony.”

“What IS the Eye of Harmony?” asked Amy.

“Rassilon and Omega created a star,” explained the Doctor, “then suspended time around it as it exploded in the act of becoming a black hole, harnessing the potential energy of a collapse that would never occur. That energy was then imprisoned in a crystal that was connected up to all of Gallifrey and all the TARDIS’ ever made, including my own. It was lost during the Time War.”

“Then how-?” asked Amy.

“Rifts in space-time can refuel a TARDIS,” explained Miss Tarae. “The Doctor’s favorite rift is in Cardiff, Wales on Earth!”

“Let me guess,” muttered the Doctor, “you think a new Eye of Harmony can be created.”

“I know it will,” replied Miss Tarae. “And the Thanakians can observe how it’s done.”

“That’s entirely dependent on if Rassilon can pull up how she and Omega did it in the first place,” remarked the Doctor.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Miss Tarae.

“Come on, how long has it been since she and Omega made the Eye?”

“Rassilon can’t just forget something like that!”

“Well, she probably did and maybe the notes are in the deepest recesses of the Matrix,” remarked Romana. “I haven’t seen those notes when I was trapped in that dimension.”

“Oh, for the love of-! Are you REALLY going to make me look like a liar in front of Thanakians?!” complained Miss Tarae.

“What, did you give them a timetable?” asked the Doctor. “Come on, you can see the state of Gallifrey, the Matrix is probably at dial-up speeds right now.”

“And I’ll need to tell them that you, Miss Tarae,” said Romana, “jumped the gun as you forgot that the Eye is a proprietary secret.”

“But-!”

“But nothing! My decision is final!” said Romana. As Romana left, Miss Tarae snarled.

“Who does she think she is?!” she hissed.

“The current president of the High Council of Time Lords,” remarked the Doctor. “Currently consisting of you, me, Susan, her, and Rassilon. …Coincidentally, we make up the current population of Gallifrey.”

“And you have to admit, you DID promise them something that doesn’t exist right now,” remarked Amy.

“Gallifrey to Thanakian ship,” Romana said over the call she was setting up. “Thanakians, come in please.” The Thanakian ambassador appeared.

“Lord President,” said the ambassador fearfully, “the Rutans are moving in for the kill!”

“I sympathize with your plight and I wish we could save every Thanakian,” replied Romana, “but we can’t have every ship in your fleet landing on Gallifrey. Have your people evacuate to your flagship. We will lower the Transduction Barriers for that ship only. And until accommodations can be made on Gallifrey, I must ask that you stay aboard the flagship. Only then can we help you formulate a plan of campaign against the Rutans.”

“We are grateful for what you can realistically offer,” thanked the ambassador. “These terms are acceptable.”

“I’m sending you coordinates,” said Romana as she keyed in the coordinates for a landing site outside the capital. “There will be a beacon there to guide you to the landing site.”

“Thank you, Gallifrey!” replied the ambassador. The call ended. At that moment, Miss Tarae entered the room.

“What is this supposed to be?” asked Miss Tarae. “Your act of undoing the Master Restitution?”

“Keep silent about that, Monster!” hissed Romana as she stormed away to collect Rassilon and greet the Thanakians. Miss Tarae smirked.

“You can’t anyways,” she chuckled to herself. “Soon, I shall be in control of Gallifrey. I already wounded Rassilon, but never had the pleasure of wounding YOU, Lord President Romana!”

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings The Specials

Gallifrey’s Rebirth: Part 3

“I don’t like this,” muttered Amy at one point.

“Do any of us?” asked the Doctor.

“Should we really trust the same person that gave Eggman the means to split the universe apart?” asked Amy.

“Okay, to be fair to Miss Tarae,” conceded the Doctor, “we BOTH told him how bone-headed it was to roboticize a TARDIS.”

“Gallifrey calling Thanakian Ship,” Romana said to a screen. “Thanakian Ambassador, come in please.” A horrifying monster appeared on the screen. “Ah, there you are. This is Romanadvoratrelundar, Romana for short, Lord President of the High Council of Time Lords and duly elected spokesperson for Gallifrey. It is my understanding that Miss Tarae told you that we can accept refugees.”

“That was the impression,” replied the monster, the Thanakian Ambassador, “but, forgive me for saying this, all we see is rubble and ruin. Under better circumstances, we would help you rebuild your world.”

“Yes, well, that’s thanks to one of our number learning the truth about our past and throwing a tantrum. I understand the Rutans are after you lot?”

“They have ravaged our planet! We cannot hold against them! If the Rutans are not shown that the universe will stand together, they will commit worse atrocities than the Daleks just to destroy the Sontarans!”

“That doesn’t sound like what we saw of their timeline,” said Romana, “but, then again, we haven’t been able to see ANY timeline as of late. …I sympathize with your plight, but, as you see, we’re not in a place to accept refugees.”

“Gallifrey, we beg you! All we ask is a place for our chief executive so that we may coordinate a plan of campaign!”

“…I’ll see what can be done if anything CAN be done,” sighed Romana.

“We are grateful,” replied the Thanakian Ambassador. Romana switched the call off and went off to find Rassilon. Much as she hated the former Lord President Eternal right now, Romana needed the advice of a previous ruler.

As the call went on, Miss Tarae and Amy were in a room alone. The Doctor and Lurra Rus had just gone for a cup of tea. “…What ARE you doing here, Miss Rose?” asked Miss Tarae once the silence was uncomfortable for her.

“Helping Rassilon restore Gallifrey, like the Doctor promised,” replied Amy. “Gotta admit, the work’s coming along nicely…although, I’m not an engineer, more of a muscle-.”

“You want to see me destroyed,” observed Miss Tarae.

“…I don’t want you to pull a Toymaker,” corrected Amy, “and turn the universe into your playground. There IS a distinction. And, given what few interactions we’ve had, well…not the best first impression, gotta say.”

“…Even if Gallifrey were restored, I’d still be alone,” muttered Miss Tarae. “An outcast from my people.”

“Only because they probably know your nature, probably not as well as the Doctor, granted.”

“…Indeed. …Miss Rose, do you know who is the nearest non-Time Lord that I have to a friend?”

“Nope.”

“…You.”

“Me?!” Amy was taken aback at that! “But-!”

“We have been through a lot in our few interactions, have we not?” asked Miss Tarae. “We are both women forging our own destinies. You said so yourself, you’re not an engineer, but your intellect lies not in that! It lies in bringing peace and prosperity to everyone! We have that much in common!”

“We’re not friends, Miss Tarae,” reminded Amy.

“No, we’re not,” conceded Miss Tarae. “…But I often think that, in some strange branch of history, we might have been. Fate has made us allies, Miss Rose! Imagine what we could achieve together!”

“You’re dangerous.”

“All beings of destiny are!”

“Beings of what?” laughed Amy. “Destiny? Before I met the Doctor, I was a heroine that lived her life in a linear pattern. Maybe I have a different perspective on fate and destiny.”

“You do, yes,” replied Miss Tarae. “But you are one of the Elite of Mobius! It was YOU that organized a successful resistance against Dr. Eggman when he was playing with the Phantom Ruby! The same resistance that freed Sonic from prison and led to the final victory in that campaign! The Doctor doesn’t pick her friends from the Rabble! I think Rassilon and Romana are like us! We CAN achieve great things!”

“You can’t have four supreme beings, Miss Tarae, by definition.”

“I always thought it was a question of destruction! …But I see now that the constant fighting just cancels out any gains. If we can work together-!”

“To what end?” asked Amy. “Like I said, I don’t know you as well as the Doctor, but I know you well enough! I know your nature!”

“…Your people had abandoned the death penalty long before your birth, yes?” quizzed Miss Tarae.

“…Yes,” replied Amy, not sure where Miss Tarae was going with this.

“…Why?”

“…Well, because, deep down, we all hold life to be sacred. We believe that even the worst criminal could be rehabilitated.”

“Precisely!” Amy blinked as she realized what Miss Tarae was driving at.

“You…think you’re a reformed character?” she asked.

“Not yet, Miss Rose,” replied Miss Tarae. “But I HAVE been given a new chance and I intend to take it!”

“The Doctor introduced me to a saying the humans have; a Dalek can’t change its bumps.”

“I am not a Dalek!” snarled Miss Tarae. “Unlike those monsters, I have always been in control of my destiny!” Her face softened and she looked away, holding her forearm. “I have…misused that power. …Done terrible things.”

“…But now you’re going straight?” asked Amy.

“…I understand your skepticism,” replied Miss Tarae. “All I ask is that you judge me by my actions.”

“Don’t worry, we all will,” snarked Amy.

As Amy and Miss Tarae talked, Susan approached the Doctor. “Ah, Susan!” greeted the Doctor. “Excellent! I’ll need some with-.”

“Grandfather, I just learned why Miss Tarae did what she did,” interrupted Susan.

“…She did a great many things, Susan,” replied the Doctor. “You’ll have to-.”

“I’m talking about the Timeless Child, Grandfather! About you!” The Doctor paused her labors. Susan wasn’t going to let this go. “…They didn’t change your original bio-data, did they? Rassilon and her former friends?”

“…No, they didn’t,” sighed the Doctor.

“Then there’s a very real chance that…”

“…Yes, Susan, barring any fatal damage between regenerations, you very well could have endless lives like me.”

“…Does this mean that, even if and when we restore Gallifrey, we’ll live beyond its final end?” The Doctor didn’t want to hear that question, but it was one that played in her mind. She already hated the fact that she would outlast her companions, but this…this was far more horrible. An immortal among immortals. And with Susan having the potential to regenerate endlessly like her grandfather…

“…Susan…I don’t know,” the Doctor finally sighed. “…But this time, we’ll be there for each other if and when that time comes.” The Doctor finally gave Susan the long-overdue hug she needed.

“They’re still waiting,” Rassilon said to Romana.

“Well, Rassilon? Your advice?” asked Romana icily. Lurra Rus sighed.

“Perhaps,” interjected the Twi’lek, “you two could fill me in on what’s going on between you two? This feels like unresolved trauma and the engineer in me wants to get that out of the way before it turns into something that ends badly like it did between me and my parents.”

“…To begin,” said Romana, “the Time Lords were at war with a race called the Daleks. It was known as the Last Great Time War at its conclusion.”

“You fought those monsters across time and space?” asked Lurra Rus.

“Exactly,” replied Rassilon. “And I went mad with power, deeming myself a god as the Emperor Dalek did.”

“And it was because of her madness that I crafted an assassination plot,” continued Romana. “It failed and I was exiled into that pocket dimension with all of Gallifrey’s archives to be an archivist. So, why DID you bring me back, Rassilon? Needed to set yourself up as a god again and needed a historian?”

“…Atonement, somehow,” replied Rassilon.

“Atonement?!” scoffed Romana. “What, do you regret being a madman?!”

“Well, after travelling with the Doctor on a quest for the Key to Time, wouldn’t you?!” snapped Rassilon.

“You’re lying!” accused Romana.

“Ask the Doctor or Amy! Look it up in the TARDIS! You’ll see I’m telling the truth!”

“She is, Romana,” called the Doctor’s voice. Everyone turned to see the Doctor and Susan approaching. “Before Miss Tarae did all this to Gallifrey, I exiled Rassilon. She managed to make it time travel capable, but bumped into the Black Guardian, ordering her to retrieve the Key to Time.”

“The Guardian said that order was overrunning the universe, making it stagnate and eventually fall into chaos,” continued Rassilon.

“Something you’d think the Guardian of Chaos and Destruction would want,” said the Doctor, “but, apparently, the Guardian needs to dictate how that’s supposed to go down.”

“And if I didn’t get the Key within six incarnations, I’d be her plaything forever,” Rassilon went on. “I wasted five incarnations to make my bowship time travel capable, then I found the Doctor.”

“After that, we went on a hunt for the segments, found them all…and Rassilon grew along the way,” finished the Doctor.

“…I learned that just because the rest of the universe is not temporally sensitive,” said Rassilon, “it doesn’t mean its suffering is less real. …But it’s a struggle every day. I still don’t know if I’ve fully changed.”

“So how did you get out of that situation?” asked Romana.

“Well, remember the end of our quest for the Key to Time?” quizzed the Doctor. “Where the Black Guardian posed as the White before we figured it out and stopped him?”

“Yes, that’s why we had a randomizer installed in the TARDIS,” replied Romana.

“Well, the White Guardian was doing the same,” explained the Doctor.

“Turns out it was the WHITE Guardian that sent me on that quest to teach me a lesson,” explained Rassilon. “At least, according to her, I passed her test, but…”

“But you’re not sure if you fully believe that,” said Romana.

“No,” admitted Rassilon lamely. “I suppose that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing, to restore Gallifrey.”

“You could just start over elsewhere,” remarked Romana.

“I don’t have a choice!” retorted Rassilon.

“…You do, actually. But you chose an option that served Gallifrey over you.” Romana drew herself up to her full height. “Understand that I have not forgiven you for your past sins, but I can see you’re attempting to repent as best you can.”

“…Whose idea was it to clear the air now?” asked the Doctor.

“Lurra Rus,” replied Rassilon. “She correctly figured that not addressing it would be bad for Gallifrey in the long run.”

“Good work, Lurra,” praised the Doctor.

“Well, I didn’t want the mistakes of my past to be repeated,” replied Lurra Rus.

“…Speaking of resolving things for the good of Gallifrey, we’d better make sure Amy and Miss Tarae don’t kill each other,” said the Doctor as she headed off.

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings The Specials

Gallifrey’s Rebirth: Part 2

“…Miss Tarae, will you kindly release Amy?” hissed the Doctor.

“Oh, please yourself,” sighed Miss Tarae. “Her death will actually complicate things.” She put her TCE away and Amy rushed to the group. Miss Tarae then saw Susan and smiled. “Well, if it isn’t Susan! Come give your great-aunt a big hug!”

“That’s the Master,” the Doctor explained to Susan.

“Oh,” muttered Susan.

“State your business and begone, Miss Tarae!” demanded Rassilon.

“And I was hoping for something more cordial, especially from the Founder of Time Lord Society,” remarked Miss Tarae.

“Founder of-? That woman can’t be Rassilon!” laughed Susan.

“No, no, it is,” replied the Doctor.

“…WHAT?!” protested Susan. “Grandfather, what is going on here?!”

“It’s a long story,” said Amy. “Doctor, mind if Lurra Rus and I fill her in?”

“Yes, you do that,” replied the Doctor. As Amy and Lurra Rus led Susan away, introducing themselves in the process, the Doctor and Rassilon turned to Rassilon.

“I don’t recall sending the Call to YOU, Miss Tarae,” remarked Rassilon.

“You didn’t, but you DO lack a bit of technology,” replied Miss Tarae. “Engineering dimensions is hardly a one-person effort, even you must admit that.”

“…You found help on that front?” scoffed Rassilon. “I admire your cheek at that blatant lie.”

“It is no lie. I requested the aid of the Thanakians.”

“The Thanakians?!” laughed the Doctor. “I like them well enough, but their most advanced time travel technologies barely reached our most primitive!”

“They DID outpace us in dimensional engineering, Doctor,” replied Rassilon. “But why should I believe that? Let’s just say, Miss Tarae, your arrival and willingness to help is a little…convenient.”

“Oh, come now, Rassilon!” cackled Miss Tarae. “We’re all Prydonians here! We need to make Gallifrey-!”

“Don’t!” snapped the Doctor. “…Just don’t.”

“…Well, now you force a confession from me,” grumbled Miss Tarae. “The truth is that I offered them sanctuary as this world was allegedly still dead.”

“On what grounds?!” protested Rassilon.

“The Thanakians are losing a war,” replied Miss Tarae. “A war against the Rutan Host.”

“The Rutans?!” asked the Doctor. “But they’re still engaged in that interminable war with the Sontarans!”

“War has defined their culture much like it has the Sontarans,” remarked Rassilon.

Susan had to sit down when she got the story. It was a lot to take in. “…Grandfather…” she muttered.

“I know it’s a lot,” soothed Amy. “I still haven’t figured her out.”

“…I have to admit, I didn’t expect the Doctor to be some sort of chosen one,” remarked Lurra Rus.

“Grandfather always poo-poo’s the idea,” said Susan.

“That hasn’t changed,” replied Amy. Susan breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well, so, that’s us all caught up to Gallifrey’s present,” declared Susan, “let’s go see what they’re up to.” The three headed up to the Doctor and her group.

“I sympathize with the Thanakians’ plight,” said Rassilon, “and you DID invite them, so that DOES satisfy my recent edict, but we’re not in a state to accept refugees!”

“If I heard what Amy said correctly,” interjected Susan, “the current state of Gallifrey was a mess YOU, Miss Tarae, had caused!”

“You heard her correctly, my dear,” replied the Doctor.

“Did she tell you about what the Doctor is, Miss Foreman?” asked Miss Tarae.

“She has, but finishing what the Daleks started wasn’t the way to go!” hissed Susan.

“In any event,” said Rassilon, “like I used to be, you’re just a tyrant, Miss Tarae. We need a proper politician, a President of the High Council of Time Lords and while the Doctor HAS shown me what proper morals are, she’s a terrible politician. Her running away from being the Lord President is proof enough.”

“…While true, you didn’t need to go THAT hard!” grumbled the Doctor.

“So who are you retrieving, if not electing any of us?” asked Miss Tarae.

“I presume you’re familiar with Lord President Romanadvoratrelundar?” quizzed Rassilon.

“That weak-willed imbecile?!” snarled Miss Tarae. “She’s the one that sent me to Skaro to stand trial in the first place! She’s the one who signed my death warrant!”

“A death warrant YOU circumvented,” reminded the Doctor. “But I do have to agree, Romana is one of the High Council’s better Presidents. She’ll be able to look at this objectively.”

“Will you need my help, Grandfather?” asked Susan.

“I could use your mathematics skills to check our work, if you don’t mind,” replied the Doctor.

“Well, what about me?!” asked Miss Tarae.

“YOU,” declared the Doctor as she shoved Miss Tarae out of the room, “can wait outside!” She then shut the door. “Amy, could you stand guard?”

“Will do!” chuckled Amy as she summoned her hammer.

“…How is she-?” Susan asked Rassilon.

“Not even your grandfather has figured it out,” replied Rassilon. “And she’s known Miss Rose longer than I have.”

“If Miss Rose can teach Grandfather how to maintain long-term relationships!” muttered Susan.

“OI!” protested the Doctor.

“All right, let’s not get bogged down by who’s terrible with what kind of relationship,” said Rassilon. “Let’s just focus on getting Romana and all that knowledge with her out of that pocket dimension. Let me just make sure I recall how to access it correctly.” She keyed in some figures. “…Aha! That’s it! Doctor, prepare the flux feedback generators. Make sure they stabilize at 4.7.”

“Give me the hard job of stabilizing flux, huh?” chuckled the Doctor.

“Grandfather, that’s supposed to be division,” corrected Susan.

“Oh! So it is!” said the Doctor.

“Miss Rus, how fares the loop engine?” asked Rassilon.

“Climbing to 8.0,” replied Lurra Rus.

“Tell me when it reaches 14.0,” directed Rassilon.

“Still climbing,” reported Lurra Rus. “9.0. 10.0. 11.0. …11.7?”

“That’s a normal variance,” assured Rassilon.

“12.4,” continued Lurra Rus. “…13.7. …Maintaining 13.7. …14.0! NOW!” Rassilon then switched on the Time Scoop and everyone awaited the results. The triangular shape appeared again, then dissipated into a woman with African features. Outside the Time Scoop, piles of books appeared.

“Retrieval complete!” cheered Rassilon. “Madame President, are you all right?”

“Romana? A new bit of cosmetics?” asked the Doctor.

“…May I ask which of you is the Lord President Eternal?” asked the woman, Romana. Rassilon winced.

“Erm, that would be me, Lord President Romana,” she admitted. “Or, at least, that WAS my ti-!” Romana then punched Rassilon square in the nose. Rassilon fell to the floor, clutching her face and crying out in pain.

“Couldn’t you have waited until later?!” protested the Doctor.

“Trust me, she has another one coming,” replied Romana. “…You sound familiar.”

“Romana, it’s me! You know, Princess Astra? You regenerated into her? France? E-Space?”

“Doctor?!” yelped Romana as a smile crossed her face. “Oh, thank goodness!” She then hugged the Doctor. “Still got that quaint Type 40 working?”

“Kind of says something about that class of TARDIS,” interjected Susan, “when it managed to survive all sorts of things, even the loss of Gallifrey.”

“…Oh, that’s right! You’re the Doctor’s granddaughter!” recalled Romana. “She talked about you when I traveled with her, or rather HIM.”

“I’d love to reminisce,” said the Doctor, “but we DO have a matter of some delicacy. Amy, you can let her in now.”

“Right!” replied Amy. She opened the door. “Your presence is required!” she said to Miss Tarae in mock-politeness.

“How kind,” muttered Miss Tarae.

“All right, let me just warn you, Romana,” said the Doctor. “Miss Tarae right there is actually the Master.”

“Madame President,” greeted Miss Tarae.

“…Charmed,” replied Romana.

“Now, let’s all have a nice telepathic conference on our predicament, hm?” suggested the Doctor as she helped Rassilon up.

“All right,” said Romana. “Contact.”

“Contact,” replied Rassilon.

“Contact,” said Susan.

“Contact,” said the Doctor.

“Contact,” finished Miss Tarae. The five Time Lords shut their eyes and concentrated.

“A telepathic-?” asked Lurra Rus.

“It’s a quick way for Time Lords to fill one another in on what’s going on,” explained Amy. It took a while, considering the amount of Time Lords and details, but, eventually, the telepathic conference ended.

“As I said,” remarked Rassilon, “I sympathize with the Thanakians’ plight, but we’re not in a position to accept refugees.”

“Ordinarily, I’d agree with you,” replied Romana, “but consider the reputation we’d build if we accepted allies.”

“Romana, wait a minute,” protested the Doctor, “Miss Tarae here is the one that brought them here and most likely has an ulterior motive for that!”

“You wound me, Doctor,” said Miss Tarae.

“I’ve known you since the Academy.”

“Might I make a suggestion?” offered Susan. “Let’s hear out what the Thanakian Ambassador has to say.”

“Susan’s quite right,” agreed Romana. “Thanakian ships always have at least one ambassador on board.”

“Well, their diplomatic skills ARE the finest in the galaxy,” recalled the Doctor.

“Which galaxy?” asked Lurra Rus.

“Mutter’s Spiral,” replied Rassilon. “What the humans call the Milky Way.”

“…Okay, when this is over, I gotta learn how many names that galaxy has from all the species that live in it.”

“In any event, unless Miss Tarae fatally shrunk her-,” said the Doctor.

“Hang on, my TCE is NOT as overused as your Sonic Screwdriver!” protested Miss Tarae.

“It is,” replied Rassilon and Romana.

“Sonic Screwdriver?” asked Susan.

“And the Thanakian Ambassador insisted on staying on the flagship,” continued Miss Tarae.

“Rassilon, do we have communications?” asked Romana.

“We do. That’s how I got the Call through to the Doctor.”

“Then I’m calling the Thanakians,” declared Romana.

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings The Specials

Gallifrey’s Rebirth: Part 1

Drifting far off in space and time was a planet. It looked to be volcanically active if seen from space, but going down to the surface would reveal it to be rust-brown with brown lakes and gray clouds against a permanent sunset orange sky. On the continent the locals called Wild Endeavor, in between the Mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood a massive citadel with what looked like a broken snow globe suspended over a pit. This was the Citadel of the Time Lords, the capital of the planet of Gallifrey. Right now, a woman in a blue flamenco dress with a blue rose pinned to her long, wavy, brown hair was connecting wires together in the Panopticon, the main hexagonal chamber of the Capital that, ordinarily, would be green but rubble and ruin took it away. The woman mopped her brow, then heard what sounded like a wheezing, groaning noise that many would liken to “VWORP VWORP”. She made her way to the noise as quick as she could, given her dress. The noise then changed to a single thud and the woman turned a corner to see a 1960’s London Police Box. While the sign said to pull to open, the doors swung INTO the police box rather than to the outside. From the box came a woman in a blue coat and green skirt, a pink furred woman in a black dress, and a blue skinned woman with two headtails sprouting from the back of her scalp. “Doctor!” greeted the woman in the flamenco dress. “And Amy! And…a new companion, I see.”

“Hello again, Rassilon,” greeted the woman in the blue coat, the Time Lord known as the Doctor. She closed the police box, her TARDIS. “I presume,” she said as she locked the TARDIS, “you’re wondering about Lurra Rus here.”

“We JUST finished an adventure involving Project Necromancer and Davros,” explained Amy. “Suffice to say, he tried to make himself Force-sensitive, but failed, and now he flew away in a DARDIS.”

“I have to admit,” said Lurra Rus the Twi’lek, “I much prefer a TARDIS.”

“Told you!” chuckled Amy.

“…Then Dr. Davies has left?” asked Rassilon.

“He went back home after I dropped you off,” explained the Doctor. “But Lurra Rus is an engineer, although if I’m reading this right, she wants to be a model.”

“And find a new home away from my old galaxy,” said Lurra Rus.

“I see. Well, I do apologize for thrusting you into our problems, Lurra Rus,” replied Rassilon. “However, I do appreciate your promptness, Doctor.”

“And I think we’re due for an explanation, Rassilon,” remarked the Doctor.

“Yes, the reason for why I called you, Doctor. …I need your help in wiring the Time Scoop to the Eye of Harmony.”

“The Time Scoop?! What on Earth for?!”

“To rescue two Time Lords I believe you know, Doctor,” explained Rassilon. “Do the names Susan Foreman and Romanadvoratrelundar mean anything to you?”

“…Susan and Romana? What about them?” asked the Doctor.

“Doctor, I have a radical idea of using the Looms to restore Gallifrey’s people and I’m referring to ALL of her people, not just us Time Lords, but I need Romana’s experience as the President of the High Council and Susan’s learned humanity to help make the new Gallifrey better,” elaborated Rassilon.

“But isn’t Romana in some alternate dimension?” asked the Doctor.

“She is, but I know a way to get her and all the knowledge I initially put in there back onto Gallifrey, right here in the Capital,” replied Rassilon.

“And I presume that’s going to be done via the time scoop.”

“That’s the idea.”

“Right then.” The Doctor then turned to her confused companions. “Susan and Romana are both Time Lords. Romana was my companion and Susan…well, she’s my granddaughter.”

“YOUR GRANDDAUGHTER?!” yelped Amy.

“That can’t be! You’re nowhere near old enough!” protested Lurra Rus.

“Well, that point, I’m not too terribly worried about,” remarked Amy. “Time Lords live longer than us anyways. But still, you were married and had kids and grandkids?!”

“My first marriage ended in a divorce,” replied the Doctor. “Didn’t do so well with Susan’s parents.”

“…Doctor, it sounds like you’re terrible with long-term relationships,” remarked Rassilon.

“OI! Get off your high horse, Miss Lord President Eternal!” snapped the Doctor.

“Okay, fair enough. In any event, Doctor, I need your help because, after I use the Time Scoop, I need it deconstructed.”

“Not going to risk someone using it to put people in the Death Zone? I can get behind that. You’ll need Susan’s coordinates.”

“What can we do to help?” asked Amy. Rassilon looked embarrassed.

“Well, unless one of you is an engineer…” she said.

“I am, as the Doctor pointed out,” answered Lurra Rus.

“That she did! I do beg your pardon!” replied Rassilon. “Amy?”

“Nope, that’s still not my forte,” sighed Amy. “Well, that DOES make me a-.” Her ear twitched as she heard a noise. “…Everyone.”

“I hear it too!” replied the Doctor. “That’s a Type 75!”

“Oh no!” complained Rassilon.

“Oh, not her!” realized Amy. “PLEASE tell me not her!”

“I did NOT call her!” Rassilon said to the Doctor.

“Erm, what’s-?” asked Lurra Rus.

“It’s Miss Tarae,” explained Amy. “She’s a Time Lord.”

“Oh, like Rassilon and the Doctor?”

“No, not like us!” replied the Doctor. “She’s a petty dictator.”

“…Doctor, I was a petty dictator,” reminded Rassilon. “Still working on it.”

“Yeah, but SHE’S not. So what is she up to? …Amy, I hate to ask, but-.”

“You want me to go greet her?” asked Amy.

“Use your hammer if you need to,” replied the Doctor. “You know, in case she gets a little racist.”

“Oh, yes please!” chuckled Amy as she summoned her hammer. She then followed the noise with a wicked grin on her face.

“…Where does that-?” asked Lurra Rus.

“No clue,” replied the Doctor and Rassilon.

“Now, Doctor, Miss Rus,” said Rassilon, “let me brief you on the idea.”

Amy entered a hangar. There were berths meant for something to rest in. Right now, only ONE berth was being used. In it was a silver cabinet. A tall compartment inside the cabinet then slid out and out stepped the familiar blonde, pink Lolita outfit wearing Miss Tarae, usually known as the Master. Miss Tarae blinked when she saw Amy. “Welcome home, Miss Tarae!” greeted Amy. While she had the façade of being cheerful, Amy’s voice was venomous.

“Miss Rose, what, pray tell,” hissed Miss Tarae, “are YOU doing here? Did the Doctor decide to take you on a field trip?”

“Well, believe it or not, this is my second visit,” replied Amy. “That’s thanks to Rassilon saying that alien friends of Time Lords are welcome after the Doctor lifted her exile. As for why I’m here now, well, Rassilon needs the Doctor’s help.”

“I’m smarter than the Doctor,” remarked Miss Tarae.

“You’re also more treacherous than her and Rassilon needed someone to trust.”

“Trust. BAH!” scoffed Miss Tarae.

“I’m surprised you’re not rotting in Ganondorf’s dungeon,” remarked Amy.

“No primitive cell can hold me,” replied Miss Tarae. “As for why I’m here, well, I need to speak with Rassilon immediately.”

“Well, she’d love to have a chat,” said Amy, acting like a secretary, “but she’s up to her eyeballs in paperwork. Perhaps if you could make an appointment for next week?” She suddenly found herself staring at a heart-themed wand. “…Is that a magical girl wand or that Tissue Compression Eliminator I heard about?”

“It’s the latter, I assure you,” replied Miss Tarae. “Now, perhaps if you could see your way to getting me an audience with the Lord President Eternal?”

“…Well, if you’re begging me,” said Amy. “This way.” She led the wicked Time Lord away from her TARDIS.

“Induction channel steady,” reported Lurra Rus.

“Flux Comparative at proper flux,” said the Doctor.

“Feeding in the power from the Eye,” called Rassilon. “…Time Scoop activated. Coordinates confirmed. Retrieving now.”

“I certainly hope it’s after her partner’s death,” sighed the Doctor. Inside what looked like a closet, a strange, shimmering, triangular shape appeared. The shape then dissipated to reveal an old woman with short, wavy hair and a naturally bewildered expression.

“What in-?! Where am I?!” yelped the woman. “Who are you?!”

“Miss Foreman, easy,” soothed Rassilon. “It was a Time Scoop, but I needed your expertise on humanity to-.”

“A Time Scoop?!” said the woman. “You plucked me out of my home with a Time Scoop?! And is this Gallifrey?!”

“It is, Susan,” replied the Doctor. “Specifically, we’re in a room outside the Panopticon. We’re home, after all this time.”

“…Home?” asked Susan as familiarity crossed her features. She then gasped.

“Yes. It’s me,” said the Doctor. “That stupid old buffer that left you on Earth after the Dalek Occupation.”

“…Grandfather!” whispered Susan.

“Well, GrandMOTHER, if you-.” Susan interrupted the Doctor with a hug as tears rolled down her face.

“I thought you died!” she sobbed. “The messages stopped and I thought you died!”

“…I lived, Susan,” soothed the Doctor as she hugged her granddaughter. “But the rest of Gallifrey didn’t.”

“What do you mean?” asked Susan.

“Oh, yuck!” complained a voice. Everyone whirled to see Miss Tarae pointing her TCE at Amy.

“…Announcing the presence of Miss Tarae,” muttered Amy.