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.