The Twist in the flame
By Graeme Hanson
Prologue:
With a snarling crack of a roundel, thought to be firmly placed in the wall, shattered pieces of glass sat on the salty, white ground of the TARDIS floor. No one even noticed the destructive action, but with good reason. With bruises on the body and regret on the soul, the crew of the most sophisticated vessel in the universe was easily mistaken to be dead. That is not where our story starts, though. But this is where we begin to learn of these events, with two young adults and an impossibly old alien on the floor, thought to be dead. The broken roundel I mentioned is the least of the worries of this poor ship. The console was wrecked, pulled apart would be a better explanation, fire was seamlessly spreading into rings, involuntarily. The only reason any of these events I just mentioned just happened was for accused impersonation, jocularity, and thought to be complete guilt, founded by the court. When caught escaping the cell assigned to the prisoners, they were followed to the craft I am speaking about at this moment. Using surprising amount of strength for this race of life, they apprehended the three humanoids and caused all the injuries with a snap of the wrist and left them there. Gracefully bringing a silver disc to its head, the main being sent a thought several meters away from its location and caused the roundel to crack from the vibrations. The flames were being thrown and twisted worse than they had ever been on the planet. After sending the message, the conscious assailant received a response and quickly told its accomplice with a hoarse voice,
“The Elder of the Sense-Sphere says to let our prisoners rot in here. I agreed and said we would return immediately.” With a brittle face and telepathic communication, the two Sensorites went on to do better things and left our heroes to rot, just as they were told to do, not even noticing the deep voiced, maniacal laugh.
Episode One: The Mistaken Call
Chapter One: Inside The Spaceship
(7.36 Hours Before The Previous Occurrences)
“Doctor, where are we going, I was really looking forward to maybe seeing a Beatles concert and you just pushed buttons and said we’re going to some ‘Knowledge-Circle’?” Polly said this brightly and energetically as always, but didn’t hide the disappointment of her not seeing a concert since they had announced they weren’t touring anymore just before she left with the Doctor.
“In due time, Polly; plus, it isn’t a “Knowledge-Circle”, it’s called the Sense-Sphere. I got a distress call and knew I needed to answer.” The Doctor was sad at disappointing Polly, but he knew a distress call centered at the TARDIS meant something incredible happened, it didn’t matter bad or good. He started pulling levers and pulling switches when an extremely familiar cry came from down the hall.
“Oi, Doctor, how does this food machine work again?” Ben said again after several dozen times over the past few weeks they had traveled with the Doctor.
“It’s simple, Ben,” said the Doctor as he impishly scurried down the hall “, All you do is throw this switch, push that button, keep this meter level, turn that switch, line up the lights, throw that lever, wind the mechanism, and then put in the code for your desired food item.” He said this at his usual impossibly fast speed and did it while throwing his hands at every part of the machine with the ability to move. Even though the Doctor hid his joy, he loved it when Ben would ask because it allowed him to show how complicated his machines and gloat about the TARDIS. Duly noted that he never would be able to figure the machine out, Ben just decided to ask the Doctor to use the machine and get the thing he wanted.
“Can you just get me water?”
“Fine,” said the Doctor while chuckling to himself, with Polly chiming in from the console room “, I’ll just push the big button in the middle that reads ‘WATER’, and that will quench your thirst.” With the blank stare of Ben, wondering how he missed that button, the Doctor and Polly just laugh as he walks back to the console to finish the sequence for materialization. Polly was silently sad and tried to conceal the emotions she had about missing the concert for some distress signal. The Doctor could notice this and slowly went over and cautiously assured her of his promise.
”We can go to the concert after, I’ll probably be helping out some old friends and we will be on our way, I promise.”
“I know, Ben and I can just stay in here until you come back and then we can rock out,” Polly said to her older friend and they were off.
“But Polly,” the Doctor quietly exclaimed “, we could always watch it now.” He then pushed a few buttons on the materialization panel while flipping switches on the monitor panel and a concert was instantly playing on the screen, as if it were a live event. With the Doctor and Polly dancing to the music in the console room and Ben getting frustrated at the food machine, everything was normal. Something was wrong, though, it was the Doctor. Yes, something was happening down at the Sense-Sphere, but something to sinister for him to ever imagine. The most evil thing in the universe was crawling along, tampering with the lives of the planets population. It will be long, strenuous, and completely trying. They will lose lives, sanity, and what could’ve been a friend. With one last smile and flick of the wrist, the Doctor pulled the lever and the ship was transporting itself through time and space towards the Sense-Sphere.
Chapter Two: The First Sonic Ever
A crowded venue in the middle of the city was lively with humanoids that looked like old men with hair all over their faces. Happy and prosperous was there civilization, no one had contracted the disease from the water, all the human prisoners underground were found and returned home, and most importantly, City Administrator had been dealt with and was no trouble. They were all setting up for their annual festival to celebrate the Doctor’s appearance that saved their civilization. With the whole of the conglomeration happy and prosperous, they even started trading with other planets in separate solar systems. With open arms, they had let in the universe they had sheltered themselves in for millennia. Tables layered with food and post of fire high in the sky, everything was fantastic. The only oddity in the situation was an unusual movement in the flames. After several raises of the silver disc to their head, communication was over and the imports were eaten to celebrate. No one was expecting anything more than a normal day, a strange thing for a Sensorite to do, but it was shattered when an unfamiliar heaving noise took place. A few seconds later, a navy blue box appeared on stage , next to the Elder, who was giving a ‘Goodbye and Good Luck’ speech with disc held high. Everyone was shocked at the sudden appearance, except for the people inside.
“Doctor, are we here?” asked Polly innocently “, we have been traveling for ages.”
“Yes, Polly, we’ve arrived. Oh, it seems like they’re having a festival, how nice, I love parties. I better take my recorder.” With one flashing leap, the Doctor grabbed his recorder, opened the TARDIS doors, and started playing on it before Polly or Ben could breathe.
“Polly, what do ya’ reckon the Doctor was in such a hurry for?” Ben quizzically asked in Polly’s direction, hoping there would be something her explanation that would allow them to leave the spacecraft’s interior.
“I‘m not sure, he said he’d been here before in a time of need and he got a distress message from these things.”
“Can we look through the scanner to see them?”
Polly understood his vaguely hidden request to see the aliens the Doctor was friends with quickly flipping the switch, also interested in the unusual friends of the alien in her life. The monitor in the wall gleamed on and showed an unexpected image. The stage they were on was huddled with men with scabby, oval heads covered in hair, huddled near a pole in a few meters way away from the time/space vessel. It was hard to see through the crowd of grey skin, but the two passengers could just make out a small man in black coat and bow-tie forced and held with mental energy around said pole.
“What’s happening to the Doctor?” exclaimed Polly at a surprisingly high voice that everything in the venue stopped for a few seconds. The after everything resumed, Ben realized a small technological error that could help.
“Polly, turn the sound on,” Quite plainly and condescending he said it, but it was obviously understandable because Polly immediately hit a button next to the Monitor switch. The screen beckoned:
“You are not the Doctor; he was an old, white-haired man who saved us from a deadly disease. You are a puny little black-haired man who stumbled from a box with a deadly sonic probe.” With no remorse, the citizens of the Sense-Sphere were questioning and hurting the Doctor, trying to find out if who he was, a fact not known to them, even though he was telling them the truth.
“I AM the Doctor, I did help your civilization and was hoping to help; I got a distress call from these exact coordinates on this planet. Oh, and my recorder isn’t a sonic probe, it is a musical instrument, I thought it would go with your celebration.” The Doctor was livid about the misunderstanding, he forgot he had regenerated and was unrecognizable. Pulling and pushing against the mental bonds of the Sensorites, the Doctor was exhausting himself and was becoming easier and easier to hold down.
“Struggling won’t help you now, impersonation is the highest penalty of the Sense-Sphere, and if you were the Doctor, you would remember that. Also, assaulting an entire public gathering with your device just adds to your sentence. ” The Doctor guessed that all this was said by the policeman of the city, but he was confused.
“Sentence?”
“Yes, sentence, as in you’re going to prison. We also never sent you a distress call from anywhere; it would drain all of our energy supplies and would only be in a dire crisis. As you can see, we obviously are doing quite fine. ” Dazed and confused by the recent revelation that he must have been lead here by an external force, the Policeman mentally forced the Doctor to get up and walk to the Prison Building, several meters away. As all this happened, the TARDIS was silent, as Ben and Polly waited for the Doctor to come back, unharmed. This is a request that they wouldn’t get from waiting.
Chapter Three: Closed Cells
Stone as cold as Mars, chains colored so violently that you could easily sense the punishment that has happened in these dark, distant corridors of the prison. A musty smell and a miniscule, fire-lit torch were all that welcomed you, the only lives there were some strong souls and the alien equivalent to rats and bugs (but they prefer the title ‘Terkim’ for some reason). The jailor Sensorite was happily jostling the Doctor down the stairs into a bedraggled cell.
“Wait a minute, these are the old sewers, I remember from last time. The only difference is you redecorated. You know, I don’t like it.” The Doctor said this humorously to ease the tension, but it only hurt his chances.
“What is wrong with you, we all know you’re not the Doctor and knowing these are the sewers isn’t astounding, it’s a story in the next few galaxies? Every time we trade with someone knew, they ask, "Do you really use sewers as prisons?”, and I just show them the way and let them see for themselves.” The Doctor could tell this being was not like the Sensorites he had met before. They were involved in only their own race, not trading. They also were timid and peaceful people with no need for prisons or courts; afraid he had accidently done this by some accident in the past, he didn’t speak another word to the jailor, he only let him quietly show him to his cell. Suddenly, just after being placed in his cell, the Doctor sensed a channel being opened on a low frequency network, subsequently causing the jailor to raise his disc high on his oddly shaped head and respond. The Doctor, who was looking around for something to entertain him, noticed that the torch he noticed when he walked was doing something strange. The flame, which was incredibly meager, was slightly dancing, it would seem; twisting and turning like Ferris wheel, with no explanation of an open window or ending flame. After a terminal time with the channel used for communication, the jailor lowered his hand and disc and relayed the conversation.
“They were asking me what we should do with that blue box you came out of. I said to put it into the boiler and let it burn, they said open it and see what could be done about it. They obviously liked their suggestion better and are opening as we speak.”
***
Outside the doors of their only security, the aliens were pounding and thumping at the door to open it. Ben and Polly both knew that even with the key, only people the Doctor allowed could open the TARDIS doors, but for some reason, that held no security. From the exterior, the Sensorites were just gazing across a navy blue box that at the top read to them in (their language) ‘Police Box’ and a sign that said ‘Pull To Open' Using brute force, hammers, metal hand-jaws, and even fire to burn their way in, they just couldn’t penetrate the doors.
“Maybe we should just get the man who came out, this thing isn’t large enough to hold more than one person, and he’ll be the only one who knows how to open it.” A junior Sensorite in the government suggested this and looked slightly proud of himself for the idea.
“What a stupid idea,” exploited an elder who was not fond of the junior “, he is a criminal and an impersonator who chose to come this day of all days and you want to give him the pleasure of roaming free to help us.
“Not roaming free, incarcerated and guarded from the cell to the door, we free his hands only at that point for him to unlock it, then we enter with him still held and taken back to the prison.”
“And how do you expect him to agree”, said the same elder “, when he is given no ultimatum. Even if we do give him an ultimatum, the only one he’ll accept would be freedom in which case he would only run back into this contraption and fly away.” Ben and Polly happily let out an unanimous sigh of relief when they heard that, after hearing these two bickering for an hour, almost, they knew when ideas would be used or shot down. Polly was sitting on the floor, next to Ben, lying against roundels. They had spoken about several topics they had thought about and were letting out several emotional occurrences from falling off a bike as a child to almost sinking an entire ship by hitting the wrong button; ironically, neither occurrences are who you’d think would’ve done them.
“Is it sad that we have been traveling this long together and we barely know anything about each other?” Polly partially wept while she said this and was beginning to cry at the influx of emotions happening at the moment.
“Not at all, it just means we both are more personal than others. Just think of it this way, if we never saw each other at Inferno, or you didn’t work at the Post Office Tower, none of this would’ve happened to either of us and we both would’ve passed silently by each other on the sidewalk without knowing each other. It is our fault for not knowing, it’s our fault we didn’t want to know.” Ben deeply and emotionally used this as a reassuring way to cheer up Polly, and it seemed like it worked.
“Thank You, Ben, I think I’ll go get something to eat from the machine.”
“Can you get me something, too; I still don’t understand the blasted thing?”
“Sure, I’ll get you something.” Polly leisurely got up and walked down the corridor towards the food machine. Not wanting to sit alone, Ben got up and looked around the console.
“Hey Polly, see, I can work this thing like the Doctor.” Ben said this happily while he pretended to push buttons while listening to the oral brawl just outside. While laughing at the show he was performing to impress Polly, his hand was inching incredibly close to door switch. Polly, who had a view of the console room from where she was standing, saw where his hand was about to go and started to run. He put his hand down on the switch and accidently pushed. As soon as this happened, Polly appeared, as if from nowhere, and pulled the switch back to close.
“Do you know how stupid that was? You could’ve let them in when you did that! Thankfully, I got here in time to shut it before they could come in! Now what do you have to say for yourself!” Ben looked dumbstruck and couldn’t say anything out of fear of Polly at the moment. The good thing was, Ben didn’t need to say anything; the bad thing is, it wasn’t because Polly was understanding. With a hoarse voice and long fingers, the Elder Sensorite stood in the open doorway and happily exclaimed with all the Sensorites behind him:
“Ah, so your friend won’t be lonely any longer?”
Episode two: THE Reaper Chapter Four: The Skeleton Of The Room
Pacing his cell, the Doctor was thinking allowed.
“Why are the flames moving strangely? There is no explanation for it? I don’t know why? You know, it doesn’t make it easier to be unappreciatively thrown in a sewer used for prison, thank you very much!” The Doctor screamed, hoping the jailor heard.
“Trust me, the flames are the least of your worries, my friend,” said a groggy voice from an enlarged shadow in the corner.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know I was sharing this prison,” said the Doctor, sheepishly as he didn’t know what made the sound or where from.
“It’s fine,” was said be an almost skeletal figure which crept from the corner “, I’m never really noticed. I am known as Romdast, Romdast Roe.” He said this slightly happily; just the thought of no longer being alone warmed his shriveled heart. With a slightly sour feeling in his stomach, not knowing whether to trust or ignore this stranger, the Doctor responds.
“Well, hello Romdast, I’m the Doct…” Almost instantly cut off.
“No, you’re not!” screamed down this jailor with a vicious tone.
“Don’t mind him, he just loves his job to much,” replied Romdast. The Doctor was thrown by this strange man’s appearance, he was almost skeletal from his arms to his face, but he had a certain fullness to him that the Doctor could sense, but he was feeling stranger than usual.
“You don’t seem right; sit down while I explain myself.” Helping the Doctor down onto a smoothed rock, he then asked him a question.
“Are you alright, you just seem very tense and almost senile?”
“You can talk, you could be mistaken for a dead body in a mortician’s office,” quietly exclaimed the Doctor, jocularly, at his fellow incarcerate.
“Yeah, not far off, but the stories this place has are definitely keeping me going. There is one about a reaper who lords over the land at night to scare little children. Some people say they know when he has come because the lights are flickering and the candles’ fires start to move unnaturally.”
“Ah, so that is the legend about all these fire occurrences.”
“Yes, completely untrue, but effective. I would love to go on, but I want to tell you a little bit about myself. I was born and raised on the planet of Yeltragh in the galaxy of Kasterborus. It’s a miniscule galaxy on the edge a few light years away from the Milky Way. Have you heard of it?
“Heard of it, I lived in it, my planet is the center of that galaxy, but the funny thing is, I’ve never heard of Yeltragh before?” The
Doctor felt his suspicions growing with every single syllable of this man’s dialogue.
“No worries, we only found out about ourselves about a quarter of a century ago. Some intergalactic surveyors came accidently when they scanned in the galaxy’s south-western region and explained that we were actually not the center of the Universe, which we thought we were, but a minute fragment on the edge of one. Primitive and secular from everything else, we knew nothing of anything before they came. We had exceptional minds on our planet, though, we mastered engineering and manufacturing in less than a decade. Another decade later, we mastered star-travel. I must say, I’m proud to be one of the first of my people to be a star-traveler. I would like to hear about your people now, if you’re okay about it.” With his brief explanation over, Romdast was waiting for the Doctor to do the same. The Doctor still couldn’t trust this man and didn’t know. One thing he did know, nothing this man just said was true.
“You know, one good thing about living in the galaxy someone else is lying about, you know almost everything about it. There are no intergalactic surveyors or south-western segments of a galaxy. My people knew every inch of Kasterborus and there never was a planet called ‘Yeltragh’. So I think you better tell me who you really are and where you came from,” said the Doctor, quite unmenacingly, pretending it was. With a slight snicker, Romdast sneered at his equal and spoke.
“I am telling the truth, but you fail to see that. I will give you one more piece of evidence. I told you that on Yeltragh we had great minds, and with that, we also have the ability of psychic manipulation.” He then stared directly at the Doctor’s eyes and made an almost perfect line between the two points. Trying to shut his eyes, the Doctor was starting to scream in pain, knowing that this person was about to do this with evil intent. Unknowable scrutiny and agony were the two feelings the Doctor was feeling at that moment. The last thing he remembers until he woke up was Romdast saying these words:
“Everything I just said, you will believe, if anyone asks you, it is true. I also have a final assault plan on the Sense-Sphere. I need help with this plan and when you wake up, no matter how much your self will tells you not to, you will aid me in my mission to destroy the Sensorites, and in turn, you also.”
Chapter Five: The Man With Two Faces
Polly stumbled and tripped countless times over the clutter in the streets from the abandoned festival; being thrown about was wearing her down by the second and she would collapse if the entrance to the prison wasn’t a few steps away. The last few moments played back in her mind clear as distilled water: The Sensorites flooded in, raising discs to their foreheads for some odd reason, and plundering the TARDIS. When they tore the two companions out of the only sanctuary on the planet, it was in ruins and destroyed beyond recognition, almost. A widened sewer cap with stairs was open and was obviously the way their overlords wanted them to enter.
“Ah, so you found his accomplices, he’s already struck up a conversation with that other human in the cell. Lock them in and give them their rations.” Swiftly, he was off, up the stairs and into the unknown while Ben and Polly were thrown in a dark cell, lit only by a flame that was livelier than everyone in the prison combined.
“Here are your daily rations for the four of you, don’t waste them.” Throwing a packet of pill shaped proteins through the poles; the Doctor quickly welcomed the familiar faces.
“Ben, Polly, where have you been, I thought I told you never to leave the TARDIS until I came back?” Ben was about to answer with a look of shame on his face, but Polly quickly interjected to save a friend.
“I wanted to get some fresh air and didn’t think about it, they just came in and everything was destroyed by them. I’m sorry.”
“Oh Polly, it is understandable, but next time, please listen to my orders. It might save your life one day.” With a reassuring smile two hearts of gold, the Doctor believed and understood the ploy and went on to introduce his friend. Secretly and quickly, Ben turned his head and whispered “Thanks” to his comrade and they went on to listen about this man.
“Well, this man’s name is Romdast Roe; he is an astronaut from the planet Yeltragh, he came here for exploration but was imprisoned. Sorry for his appearance, but he has been trapped down here for quite some time I believe.” The Doctor motioned to Romdast and let him speak.
“Yes, all that is true, I am one of my planet’s first men in space. I have been waiting for company for months and not one, but three people is a true blessing. I, too, apologize for how I don’t appeal to the normal eye. I have, as the Doctor said, been down here for several months.
“It’s okay, a little grime on your face never hurt, it has happened to me several times when I went sailing abroad with my fleet,” was what Ben related with a calm and leisurely voice, not even noticing the man’s skeletal appearance.
“Whatever do you mean, Ben, he looks like he’s a skeleton.” The Doctor was astounded by his companion’s total disregard of the prisoner’s face.
“No, he doesn’t, he just is a little dirty; other than that, he is in better shape than we are, actually.” Ben was befuddled by the fact he was the only one who could see a healthy, bearded man who could run a mile at that moment, the same way his friends were befuddled by the fact that everyone but him could see a sickly, degrading husk of a man who could keel over any second. With a quick change of the conversation, Romdast started asking where the two new cell mates were from.
“Well, Ben and I are from London and have been traveling with the Doctor for a couple weeks and have seen quite a few surprises since.” Polly started going on about several adventures they’d had with the Doctor from meeting pirates in Cornwall, to a Dalek ploy, even about the time they found ten dead aliens on an asteroid. She went on about Cybermen, WOTAN, the Beatles, several things until she honestly had hardly anything else to say. The Doctor and Ben both had a nap during her amazingly long explanation about and Romdast enjoyed every minute of it, growing unknowably wiser by the second. By the time we got to the point of Polly not thinking of anything else to say, it was pitch black outside and everyone wanted to go to sleep, even the Doctor and Ben who had already slept.
“Well, those are all amazingly fascinating stories, maybe tomorrow, in exchange for all those tales, I can tell you the full tale about the Reaper, a Sensorite campfire tale,” Romdast happily responded to Polly intricate tales.
“I would love that, Romdast, I can’t wait, let’s go to sleep and talk again tomorrow.” Romdast nodded in agreement while Ben and the Doctor were already among the dead of the night and snoring almost as if they were trying to drown out music in the next galaxy. All four of them were lying parallel from each other on the floor and were taking advantage of the soft, dirt floor, opposed to the alternative stone floor, just outside the cell. Polly was dreaming about getting out of this mess tomorrow and seeing a Beatles concert, thinking this whole thing was just a misunderstanding that the Doctor could fix; Ben was only dreaming about a calm sea and the smell of salt which both came from sailing. No matter how much he loved traveling with the Doctor, he could never give up his love for being with his one true love; tomorrow, he might actually ask the Doctor if they could go sailing, not that they’d actually end up on a sailing ship until the hundredth try. The Doctor always slept with ears open and all senses alert, just in case of anything that went wrong. Romdast didn’t sleep at all, slowly and sluggishly, pushing on the soft soil to lift himself up, Romdast silently glided across his three acquaintances towards the cell door where he was able to see the jailor fast asleep and segmented from everything. The Doctor, sensing that someone was up, turned his head to see who was up. Romdast, not even paying the slightest attention to his fellow prisoner moving, didn’t even notice that it happened and kept on with his business. He checked his surroundings on the exterior of the cell and then pulled out a cylindrical rod, about an inch thick and 5 inches long with a black ball on the top. Pressing a button and making it emit a low humming sound, the ball suddenly opened to four equal slices and, subsequently, the door magically opened a crack, leaving the rest to be pushed open. He then did so, and walked down the hall, opposite the direction of the way out. Further and further, you could hear his footsteps suddenly growing fainter and fainter until….They stopped completely. After a few seconds of being silent, the Doctor was about to get up to check when he heard an all too familiar wheezing sound. Inhaling and exhaling until, again, silence. The Doctor then noticed an important discover; the lit torch stopped flickering the second the noise bellowing noise of Romdast’s escape finished.
Chapter Six: The High Council Of The Sensorites
At the Town Hall of the Sense-Sphere, every accent of detail was polished gleaming white. The statues were magnificently carved to depict venues of Sensorite history in the most extraordinary way. Quickly and soundly, much like rat colonies to a food source, the high councilmen were scurrying through the long and vast, gleaming white corridors. Doors taller and wider than the Heltagrofenes’ skyscrapers were open and being flooded inward by old men. As the court occupied their velvet-clad seats and became comfortable, they then started to address the situation.
“Here we are,” started the Elder of the Sense-Sphere with a long, drawling voice “, to consider the charge of the accused,” He then pulled out a slip of paper from the silk robes that clung to his body. He then continued and read:
“‘Impersonating the Doctor and assaulting a crowd of fellow Sensorites’ are the charges of this individual and his accomplices. We are here to consider if these are true events that will be able to convict the man. The three fugitives will not be present at this time, not until they are needed for their own statements. Before I continue, does anyone wish to object?” A long silence filled the incredibly spacious room. After a small retelling of the question to make sure everyone had heard, the decision was final.
“We shall continue. With eye witness accounts filled out and the sentence created, I will relay the events for those who did not experience it. I quote, ‘A large navy blue box appeared on the stage during the festival of health, accompanied by a low frequency bellowing. After a few minutes of silence and only abiotic appearances, a tiny little man ran out with a sonic probe hanging from his mouth. This dangerously violated our communication frequency and harmed several citizens severely. After this, he claimed to be the Doctor and using said device as a musical instrument to go along with celebration. He was convicted and taken to prison and is still there now. Several hours later, when a group of citizens tried to open the box, it would not open, no matter what we used. Suddenly, the two young accomplices had accidently activated the door to open, thus letting them in to explore the machine and convict the two juveniles. They, too, are also in the prison as we speak.’ These are the accounts of the events as far as we can tell from our present knowledge. We are now at the point in court where we must call for the witnesses for their statements. This court is adjourned until they can be retrieved, you may leave.” All the Sensorites immediately leapt from their velvet-clad chairs and happily drained from the court room into their own worlds of the mind. As the Elder of the Sense-Sphere walked down the steps from his podium, he noticed an odd flickering of the lights that illuminated the room entirely.
“Now that’s peculiar, they had been completely fine a minute ago. Must be the power again, somebody can be sent tomorrow to check the sewers.” He then walked out a door, hidden by his podium stand, and didn’t think anything of it. Yet another peculiar thing happened after that, though. Suddenly, the same bellow that was said to come from the box when the man arrived could be heard. Inhaling and exhaling, over and over again. As this happened, a long, cloaked figure stole away into a row of velvet-clad seats, laughing a truly sinister laugh of pure evil. After the seats dispensed from the room, the lights were completely normal and functioning, as they were supposed to. As this happened, a long pipe suddenly appeared in the sewers under the city, emanating the same noise heard in the council room. As this happened, the long cloaked figure came from behind the pipe, as though he was a child who was hiding. He walked further and further down until he reached the cells to the Sensorite jail. He then wistfully and in one graceful move, threw his cloak off to reveal his appearance. Romdast now stood in the corridor with an evil sneer and the same rod-and-ball device that he used before, and headed towards his cell door.
Chapter Seven: A Secret Revealed
Romdast, briskly striding through the damp, radiant corridors of the sewer system, was hoping to get back before anyone noticed. Before the Doctor arrived, he had no need of staying in that cell at all. Now, he would have to only fool the citizens of the Sense-Sphere by night. The Reaper was the fun part of his plan, but if the Doctor got in the way at a sooner than calculated time, everything would be ruined. Finally pulling himself up to the door and priming his device in hand, he noticed the door was opened more than he left it and livelier breathing was occurring. As soon as he started to slowly back away, a tangled mess of metal chains and old rope were thrown against his back and were being tied to constrain him. Slowly, with his head nodding and eyes getting heavy, he was knocked unconscious and was almost lifeless; leaving the skeletal face slowly degrading while he slept. As time went by, he woke up within a few minutes and left to stare at the glaring faces of the three time-travelers.
“So, Romdast, I’d love to do something with you, but you just seem completely tied up at the moment,” boyishly laughing, the Doctor appreciated his own humor and Polly quickly tapped his shoulder from behind to remind him of the task at hand “, Romdast, you have been very confusing all these hours and when you left an hour ago in the dead of the night, it grew our suspicions even more. We thought of all the data we’ve collected, and just figured something out.”
“I tell you, I am a simple man named Romdast Roe from the planet Yeltragh in the galaxy of Kasterborus. I’m one of the first space travellers and I'm proud to serve my planet.” Romdast was crying out in pain as he said this, showing true emotion.
“Funny you should mention Yeltragh because, as I told you before, there is no such place in the galaxy called Yeltragh. It is also funny that you tried to hypnotize me yesterday to try and make me believe you, because it didn’t work. I just pretended that I was under your influence until I could come up with evidence to show who you really are.” Completely melting away, his face was much less of a skeleton, more of a handsome, bearded man.
“Please, I’m sick, my flesh is flowing off as if it were water, let me go!” He cried in such a way that Sontarans would have pity, but The Doctor saw right through his bedraggled and emotional façade.
“Your world isn’t real, you tried to hypnotize me into believing you, but most of all, I heard you leave in a TARDIS; can you explain that? By the sound of it, a Type 45 with a Mark Two dematerialization circuit. How can you explain that?”
“Well…I…I...I,” under pressure and realizing his act wouldn’t hold up for long “, Oh well, Doctor, I might as well surrender.” Romdast was no longer sounding like a worn out squeaky toy, he was now a charismatic, deep voice gentleman. The final bits of fake flesh fell off to reveal a smooth faced man with a stiff beard and eyes that could melt away all hardships and trials if you let them. Lights started streaming from his dark complexion to finish off the decomposition process and fully complete the regeneration. Polly and Ben cowered behind the Doctor, who didn’t move a muscle, now sure that his suspicions were right. Gleaming lights of all the colors of the rainbow were going into the flamed torch, which was now no longer flickering and twisting like it had before.
“Doctor,” Ben said in a loud tone as the lights were reaching the climax of their power “, what is happening?”
“Ben, meet somebody that will grow to be a galaxy conquering demon, one who can kill on a whim and then take his victim’s blood to a hospital just to laugh, one man who will become my greatest enemy through all of time!” The Doctor was now screaming at the top of his lungs with wind being thrown through everyone’s hair and the blinding light settling down. The image of a smooth-faced, bearded man was now cemented as this man’s final appearance. Hearing every word the Doctor said, he looked and laughed.
“Oh Doctor, you are to kind for any villain to appreciate. You have now figured out my identity and will now suffer because…,” he suddenly paused and started staring directly into his eyes, as he done before “, I am the Master, and you shall obey me.”
Episode Three: The Master Plan Chapter Eight: The Romdation Paradigm
“Where is the Messenger, he was sent 10 minutes ago and still hasn’t brought the prisoner. I think we should send out a patrol,” said a very tense and worried Sensorite who was standing next to the Elder, both shielded from the public’s eyes by the lower level of the podium stand. Nervously pacing through the 8 foot length the bottom withheld from view, he kept looking for advice in the Elder’s direction.
“I’m sure he is fine, it takes about 10 minutes to get to the prison from here, he only would’ve gotten there by now. The prisoners will not harm him, from the accusation on their report, they were not hostile. When imprisoned, the first one didn’t resist arrest. When we found the other two, they both quietly followed the jailers orders and none of them have even tried escaping their cell. I think they might be innocent on the account of ‘Hostile and Dangerous’.” The Elder of The Sense-Sphere was slightly proud of himself at what he had just said, he was there when the man arrived and could not sense any hostile intent on his higher brain frequencies.
“But sir, you are forgetting that he did use that long, sonic probe to assault the citizens at the celebration. That was obviously hostile and incredibly evil.”
“I am not sure. I examined every piece of evidence before calling this trial and saw that is was a stick made of wood with holes that when covered, altered the sound of said “probe”. Our ears are highly tunes to high and low frequency communication, it is possible that he was telling the truth and it was a musical instrument for the celebration. It is not the first time where a criminal was wrongfully convicted.”
“But sir, even if you make the court believe that ridiculous statement, then how are you going to change their minds on the impersonation of a famous figure. We take impersonation seriously ever since the City Administrator deceived the entire town. It is now the worst crime of the Sense-Sphere and other planets in this galaxy alike.” The young alien was not taking this lightly, he was just sure this man was guilty, but the man he looked up to was just going to let him walk for the most ridiculous reasons.
”Do not worry, the truth will prevail, it always does.” The Elder, looking plain in his robes and alone with his distant thoughts, was being questioned.
“The truth only prevails once the right man can find it,” he then walked away to another part of the room and then continued the conversation with himself “, and that man shall be me.”
***
With a solid line between the two equal’s eyes that wouldn’t be broken by the city falling, was simply whisked away by the Doctor:
“No I won’t, and you know why, because I’m the Doctor,” he then took a brief pause, like his parallel did,” and you have no power over me. Really Master, did you think you actually could hypnotize me. I might have failed every subject at the academy and never could get along; mental blockage was my strong suit.”
“Mental blockage Doctor, that makes sense since you never can seem to choose the right side to fight on.” Ben and Polly were both standing there, to the side, with mouths that could touch the floor at the moment. The combination of a man whose face exploded from a skeleton to a gorgeous romantic who could make a Dalek melt and then still try to kill their friend. The past few hours were completely arbitrary now, Polly had grown to know this man and hear his stories to keep her mind off of the cruel events of the day. Even after that, the only thing that was still bugging her was why after the lights started bursting, the light on the torch above stopped flickering instantaneously. Ben was severely dehydrated, the hair on his head was limp, and the usually dark skinned sailor was now a pale specter of a man who was too ill to even speak. Not one person noticed this because of the events that were transpiring in front of his despair. The Doctor was confidently looking at this menacing individual, apparently named the Master, and didn’t flinch.
“So Master, why are you here, what do you want on the Sense-Sphere?” spoke the Doctor in a deep voice that showed that he was obviously trying too hard to scare his opponent.
“Oh Doctor, I’m on the planet where telepathic communication was invented, that power is too much to pass up a chance to try and steal. I’d love to tell you everything, but you are also needed for the plan.” The Master was gleefully smiling at his own genius, until he was derailed by Polly.
“Why is the torch out, it kept flickering and twisting until you changed and now it is normal? Why did it do that?”
“To put it simply, my dear, my disguise takes several watts of mental, telepathic, and dimensional energy just to stay on, even more to be believable. With all that energy and much more, it uses more atoms and molecules than the atomic bomb. With all that flooding through my body, it vibrates the atoms. When atoms vibrate, they begin to heat and flame. But on a universal scale that uses heat from the torches as a power source, it makes the fire react physically just as it does microscopically, it is often referred to as the Romdation Paradigm. The vibration of the molecules can make several stomachs toss and turn like yours did, Doctor, when you entered the cell. The same thing is happening to your little friend over here.” By motioning towards Ben, Polly sprang up and rushed the few feet to help her friend. The Master was happily laughing and strolling towards the other corridor that led towards his TARDIS. The Doctor, also at the ad of Ben, noticed his peer’s presence no longer there.
“Polly, the Master left and I need to go after him before he does anything. Call the jailor, the Elder, a civilian, anyone who can help Ben. At the moment, I need to catch him.” Polly, tear stained and unaware of the universe around her at the moment, understood the Doctor and nodded in agreement. The Doctor ran off in his infamous way of occasionally tripping oddly hobbling to keep stability. He was panting by the time he could hear the adversary he was pursuing. Finally, catching up to him, the man slid behind an average construction pipe. The Doctor obviously knew better and followed behind the pipe, so quickly that the man couldn’t even throw the lever that would deadlock the door from any intruders. The interior of this pipe was infinite and was almost entirely a mirror image of the Doctor’s. Other than some obvious visual differences like a black color scheme to the walls, the slightly updated console controls, and more than one door leading away from the console room, there were only two real differences. The console was a slightly altered version that had different functions for each control and the dematerialization was smoother and less noisy. With a snicker and a satisfied side glance towards him, the Doctor realized a hugely significant detail in the event that just took place. This was the Master’s TARDIS, his domain, and the Doctor had just fallen into his trap.
Chapter Nine: The Messenger’s Dilemma
Pacing wildly through the long, sparkling clean streets, the messenger was only a few steps away from the prison. Turning the last corner, he gazed upon the open-mouthed entrance to the underground prison of his planet. The fairly young and energy-filled Sensorite stopped to breathe for a few seconds to overlook the situation. For all he knew, the prisoners could be savage murderers without a soul, or they could be nice, gentle people who were wrongfully accused. He was at the celebration when the event happened and he sensed no ill-will on the man’s frequency fields, the two others convicted did not put up a fight or argue when they were convicted. These people could possibly be innocent bystanders who landed on the wrong place at the wrong time. Slowly light-footing the mildew encrusted stairs, he came across a crying female humanoid lying over what seemed to be a dead male humanoid.
“What are you doing out of your cell?” was the standard and obvious thing to say in this situation, but not to come across as heartless, he quickly replied back with “, is he alright?”
“He’s sick and there is nothing I can do, please help,” said the cowering girl over her friends body, who now from a closer look, was still breathing. Thinking as a peaceful being and not a heartless merchant, he leaned over to help. The girl was slightly smiling now at the thought of someone being nice to her after today’s events and helping her. Taking the disc from the resting plate on his shoulder, he then put it to the sick ones head to take a medical scan. He then raised the disc to his own forehead to receive the results.
“He has suffered severe damage to the frequency fields of his mind and is in a conscious coma where he can feel the pain. It is easily treatable, but not common. He must have been experiencing major dimension distortions and not done anything about it. I will now help.” He said this as he pulled the disc slowly down from his forehead and back onto the sick-one’s. After replacing it on the man, he moved it over his body at a painfully slow speed, every move followed by either a moan or screech from the person being treated. After this for almost 5 minutes, the disc was then raised approximately 1 foot above the man’s stomach and the messenger then turned his head to the girl.
“I am now in the final stage of the process and will need to encase him in a psychic dome to fully heal. I hope that is okay. By the way, what is your name?”
“I’m Polly, and this is Ben.” Now knowing their names and informing Polly about the final phase, he then pushed his finger against a small, grey-colored button on his disc and immediately and swiftly, a blue light started emanating from the plate of it. The alien with the grey, leathery skin was curing Ben at an amazing speed with this light. It eventually began to flood over his body at half a foot above him and it started to encase itself like a dome, surrounding his body in a blue egg-like shield. With a few minutes gone by, the dome then started to sluggishly retract into itself, like a snail going into its shell, the reason Ben would live was fainting away into thin air.
“P…P…Pol…Polly?” said a whispery voice near the ground. Polly was flamboyant with excitement and then pulled Ben up to hug him. After doing that she then turned to the alien who cured her best friend.
“Thank you, sir, I honestly thank you for saving my friend. By the way what is your name?” She was hugging this man tightly as she exclaimed this and he looked back at her.
“Messenger”
“Messenger is your name?” Polly was slightly taken aback by this statement of the person.
“Yes, here on the Sense-Sphere, our position in the government is our name. That reminds me, I was sent here to retrieve the three prisoners. Where is the third?” Ben answered this question, meekly and painfully he relayed:
“The Master escaped and he tr…tri…tried to catch him before he es…esca…escaped.” He then fell unconscious and pale.
“What just happened, is he okay?” Polly screamed in a questioning tone at the Messenger.
“Patients who received that treatment have to rest for hours at a time before they can fully interact again; he tried to speak to us before he was ready.” The Messenger was sympathetic in his saying of this and was truthfully sorry for Polly’s trials over the day.
“We need to take him Ben and you to the High Council for your trial, I was sent here to get you guys. We’ll need to carry him.” Polly reluctantly agreed with this and took his head and arms, while the messenger took the legs and feet. They carefully waded up the sinkhole of an entrance to the gleaming streets. While carrying him to the court house, Polly wondered how such an amazing city and civilization could ever do this. After a few minutes of walking, they reached the palace of a court house and went through the doors into the main room where the High Council was meeting. As they came through the doors with Ben in hand, Polly suddenly noticed, the torches on the wall were twisting; she suddenly noticed a skeletal Romdast on the witness stand and the Doctor on the prisoners stand. Just as everything clicked in Polly’s mind, she could tell they were to late when she heard the Elder declare:
“The court finds this man guilty on all charges. He is now to be given the punishment of execution delivered now. Prepare to fire.”
Chapter Ten: Trial By Appearance
(Before The Events Of Chapter 9)
Looking the adversary squarely in his sculpted face, he felt no fear or anger, only confusion. Several questions sprinted through the Doctor’s mind at once, and he wanted answers.
“So, Master, I have already figured out that you sent the distress signal, so why?”
“Really Doctor, even though the revelation of my sending the call was simple to work out, even someone who knew that could work out the answer to your predicament. Are you testing me, or are you really that naïve?” The Master, briskly and carefully, glanced at the Doctor in the eyes again to fully embrace his answer.
“Well, I would guess that you want the fall of the Sense-Sphere to control all mental energy in the universe.”
“Yes, good, keep going.”
“The reason you sent the call to me was to have me either help you in the plan or be destroyed by the results of your plan.
“Getting warmer, almost there.”
“And that you hid as both Romdast and the Reaper to scan the Sensorites’ brains to complete the information on your plan.” The Doctor stood there, extremely proud of his own cleverness.
“No, that last part was all wrong. I need nothing of these puny primitives. I could complete my plan in the next 5 minutes if I really wanted to, but I won’t. You see, I need the minds in small doses. Like you guessed, my plan is to control the Sense=Sphere’s mental energy reserves and rule the universe as everyone as my slave, one cannot simply do that at once. No, I would need to slowly absorb doses of the power and have my mind and body cope with the effects.” With no feeling, he looked down and finished setting the controls that he started when the Doctor entered.
“But you could blow yourself to smithereens before you could gain any power, even in miniscule doses over time. How could you have been so...so…so?
“Genius, you may not see it now, Doctor, but I have an incredible mind and can bear more mental influence and energy that you ever could possibly imagine. I am stronger, smarter, less attached to primitives for company,” suddenly the dry heaving noise stopped, and the center column stopped moving “, and more cunning, too.” The lever for the door was thrown down instantly and the Doctor was pulled, by an incredibly mighty, disembodied strength out the door. Finally able to raise upwards, the Doctor noticed how sparklingly clean the room was and how many old men were in the room with him. Looking behind himself, he noticed that, to the normal eye, he had just fallen through a large crack in a column behind him. Followed less than immediately by the Master, the Doctor heard a dry, heaving voice from a silver robe-clad Sensorite, who read:
“On the accusations of assaulting citizens of the Sense-Sphere and impersonation of a highly placed political figure, how do you plea?”
“Not guilty,” said the Doctor who was overly confident that he could win the trial and walk free. Hearing the following statement, though, made his hearts drop.
“You were tried previously and were founded guilty, the question was only to ease the transition. You will be punished for your actions on the charges of imperso…” Suddenly the doors of the court house swung open with an almighty thump to reveal a young Sensorite and Polly, grime-and-soot covered from the prison, carrying Ben who was unconscious and slightly more skin-colored than the Doctor had last remembered him being. Angered by being interrupted and wanting to finish the trial, the speaker yelled:
“This court finds this man guilty on all charges. He is now to be given the punishment of execution delivered now. Prepare to fire.” As he said this, several rows of leathery, faced aliens stood up and discharged their weapons in the Doctor’s direction.
Chapter Eleven: Three To Doomsday
“No, sto…stop it!” screamed a very loud Ben who had been sleeping in the arms of his comrades only a few seconds before “, no one is gu…guil…guilty for anything. That man behind the Doctor is the cause of all this.” Stunning the court and making most of the executioners lower their weapons, Ben started to now pull himself away from Polly’s arms and try to stand up. After a few painfully failed attempts, he finally succeeded and continued with his speech.
“The Doctor and us were in the TARDIS when we heard a noise that the Doctor said was a distress signal and we followed it here. When he left the door to check if it was safe, he was thrown in jail for assaulting the people there. After waiting for a while, I accidentally opened the doors and we were captured, too. After meeting that skeleton up there,” Ben at that point, pointed at the Master, not so cleverly disguised as Romdast “, we learned he was a bad guy and he tried to kill us. By that point, he ran off and the Doctor followed and I collapsed. Next thing I know, I’m in here with all you blokes and I just want to get home at this point. So don’t be pointing fingers at us, we got a full confession from this guy and we are innocent.” Ben was astounded at his own words, along with the several dozen numbers of Sensorites that stood in front of him. The Doctor and Polly, parallel to Ben in position, had both jaws on the floor and joined the painfully quiet silence that was collectively with every person, except the Master. With a sneer of joy on his face and a slight menacing chuckle on his lips, he began walking off the podium that he had joined the Doctor on and went towards the young sailor. Before he could get near him, though, the Elder spoke with a booming, yet still wispy voice.
“Is what this boy saying is true? If it is, strange looking-man, than you will be given this man’s sentence. I sense low-frequency vibrations of evil intent on your mental fields.” The Master again started chuckling like a clown and couldn’t stop.
“Seriously, you think I would ever do anything like this. These people, or whatever they are, are escaped convicts and will lie about anything or anyone to save themselves. I would say that this was a carefully planned, but not very well executed ambush on the Sense-Sphere that will most likely end in your ultimate destruction.” The Sensorites were buying everything that the bearded lawyer was saying, as if he had them under his control.
“But no, none of that is true, not one single line. What happened was as Ben explained it, we are not convicts, we are simply travelers who received a distress signal which this man admitted he sent for the intention of using me for a plan to destroy the Sense-Sphere.” The Elder and the community that was the court all had blank expressions on their plain-bearded faces. The Master, admiring the polished pearl columns that he would soon destroy, noticed the door behind him were open and ready for him to use as an escape route. As he ran through them, the Doctor leapt from the confession stand and started running, pulling Polly and Ben behind him.
“If you leave this courtroom, you shall not be imprisoned anymore, but executed and have your bodies thrown to the outer lands! Do I make myself clear?” was what the Elder screamed as the Doctor left. Turning around and peaking his tiny head through the door, not wishing to be rude, he responded with a cheery:
“Perfectly, yes, absolutely perfect in every way were your instructions. The thing is, I don’t want to follow them.” Running again in his infamous way, the Doctor hardly missed the gunfire of the trigger happy executioners as they chased after him. As they had lost hardly any time in the hunt for the skeletal imposter, the Master was in clear sight the whole time they were chasing him. The TARDIS was left in the street as it had been when it landed, right at the opportune place for the Master to steal it. Coming up to the battered wooden doors, the Master plunged his hand into the pocket of his jacket and took the generic TARDIS key from it. Forcefully and quite happily, he put the key in the lock, turned it the accurate 45 degrees, and pushed on the door.
“Doctor,” he said screaming the direction of his assailant “, lucky that they were so decided that they wouldn’t interfere that they didn’t even make the locks different.” Cackling all the way through the short corridor of the door and into the console room, the then noticed his make-up was starting to fall. Pulling up his Tissue Compression Eliminator, he pushed it against his face and pushed the button. The entire light system of the TARDIS was now fluttering and blinking. Even from the exterior, the light on top was flashing on and off, as if in Morse Code. The Doctor, Polly, and Ben were gazing upon this as it happened while running up to the door. Zombie minded Sensorites were walking down the cloud colored streets, shooting their guns and hoping to hit the heroes.
“Oh no you don’t, Master, I will not let you steal my TARDIS. I will kill you before you take her!” The Doctor was absolutely fuming as he plunged his key into the lock and threw his way in. As he came in, the mask was reapplied now and the Master was in the middle of the room, pointing the T.C.E. at them.
“One more move, Doctor, you and your company will be no more alive than your mind already is.”
“Really Master, why do we need to play these petty ga…?” He said this as he stepped forward and the Master casually flicked his finger against the button and rendered the Doctor unconscious, falling to the floor.
“What was that for, he was tryi…?” Again, he zapped it at the dumbfounded Ben, making him falling to the floor, also.
“Please don’t hurt me,” cried the sobbing Polly, just before he used the device on her, too. After the final blast, a spark flew off the end of his weapon, then two sparks, then four. Suddenly, the sparks just flew off into the floor and onto different devices. Flames sprang to life in a few seconds and, immediately, they started throwing and twisting themselves until you could be sick of the sight. The Master, dashing away like the coward he was, hid in the hallway that lead to the food machine. As he did this, two zombie Sensorites came in and did their duties and thought the three travelers to be dead. Sending and receiving messages for about a minute, they left and the Master got up. Getting out of the corridor and seeing all the destruction he had done from the twisting flames to the enslaving of the strongest population mentally, he didn’t feel bad, or sad, or even sorry. All he did was laugh, and laugh, and laugh. Episode four: stillness Chapter 12: A Defense from the Grave
Laughing, dreaming, self-congratulating, all these things were happening inside a blue box on a pearl white, stone street. So much emotion was too much, even for a box of that size and importance. Even the zombified Sensorites at the court house could understand the evil of the voice that was laughing.
“Oh, this make-up just won’t do anymore, I must change,” joyously exuberated the Master while looking at his skeletal and scabby hands “, at least it isn’t permanent.” Looking for a last time at the twirling and twisting flames on the floor of the magnificent device he was in, he laid his head, gently, against the air. Waiting for another second for his own suspense, he flung his arms out, enough to bruise a man, and the rainbow configuration of color began. Slowly, the flesh and bone bits were falling off as they had several times before, just pulsating off at a precarious rate. Not a total change, but enough to rejuvenate anything that would’ve happened. As soon as the last vestige went to the cutting room floor, the Master was now the man he truly was underneath, a hollow hearted megalomaniac with the sole purpose in life just to conquer the universe, and he was just fine with that. With the flame now still, a screech suddenly became audible, one that would tear your eardrums to pieces, a high enough frequency to not only release the Sensorites from trance, but to do something else. Suddenly, the Doctor, groggy and wounded, but still alive stood up. The screech emitted itself from the console, just under a light that was flaring on and off at a faster speed that thought.
“No, Doctor, no, please. I beg of you, don’t.”
“Time to take a nap, Master.” The Doctor lunged downwards against the wrecked control unit, and threw his fist on the light. Suddenly, the Master was bellowing out in pain, pain like he never experienced before, like no one had experienced before. As the pain grew more intense, he started to fade, fade away like a drawing on sand when the tide comes in. First his hands, then arms, feet went next, followed by the legs, stomach, chest, and shoulders.
“Please Doctor, it is not too late to reverse the sequence, I will help. As long as I can ge…” was all he could say as the Doctor seamlessly flicked his wrist against the switch next to the light, increasing the power, leaving nothing but an even more dramatic and painful scream from the Master. Now that he was not the problem of the moment, the Doctor flipped the door switch and left the still unconscious and incredibly bruised Polly and Ben to rest. Striding sadly through the miniscule corridor that had to be entered before leaving the TARDIS, the Doctor stopped and started to wonder how much devastation, how many losses, how many deaths or mortally wounding events did he have to face to realize that this life may be too dangerous for everyone, his friends, the universe, and even himself. But then, he also realized, not nearly enough to make him stop now. He then ran out the battered, navy blue, wooden doors of his ship and headed towards the court house. After all, the sonic pulse was meant for this type of emergency, but he then realized another viably important thing.
“That sonic pulse isn’t the most pleasant thing ever, yet another thing added to my sentence.”
Chapter 13: An Almost Final Farewell
Exactly as the Doctor thought, the Sensorites were waking up, and it didn’t feel that great. Rubbing their leathery scalps and staggering upwards onto their circular feet, they sat back down and waited for him to return. After a few seconds, the flood gates flew open and the greatest mind that ever will be, the legendary name that will send armies away at the mere mention, the man who will never die, came through the doors and promptly said:
“I’m the Doctor, and I feel like I have some explaining to do.” Walking up to the witness stand, the old looks were bearing on him.
“You came back for your trial,” gruffly exclaimed the Elder of the Sense-Sphere “, you are gaining our respect even more. Where is that man you called the Master gone to?”
“Oh, he is just taking a nap. That signal that woke you men up, it is a small defense that I added to my TARDIS. If a person or thing is in my TARDIS that I don’t want and it does anything that could potentially harm my companions or the machine, it is allowed to rip the said thing out of its position in space and can reapply it in a holding cell in the TARDIS. The patch is very small that it will close itself; the noise was to not only alert anyone that it was happening, but also to awake all of you chaps since it could sense that the Master had done something horrible. It hurts a lot, incredibly and irrefutably, but he won’t feel anything when he wakes up. So, if I remember correctly, we are here to convene a court case.”
“Yes, thank you for your explanation. One thing that we Sensorites can also do is override signals and talk during mental control.”
“Oh, really, I didn’t know that, that is handy for those situations. “
“Yes, very ‘handy’. But also, the jury talked during that control and we officially decided that your sonic device wasn’t for hostile reasons and that charge will be dropped.” Leaping up in joy, the Doctor smiled and secretly wished the Master was there to see his triumph.
“Thank you, Elder; I really want to thank you for tha…”
“Yet the charge of impersonation still stands, how do you plead?
“Not guilty, I’ve told you this before.”
“Well, unless you can prove you are a person that was completely different, we have to convict you.”
“But I can, when I was here before, you gentlemen had to scan my mind daily to make sure I wasn’t plotting anything. If I was a different person, then my wavelengths and psychic plane will be different. Check, just check.” All the Sensorites in the room unanimously raised their discs in the northeast direction of the Doctor to scan him, everybody coming up with the same results:
Two hearts, no ill-will on the psychic fields, wavelengths perfectly match the Doctor, 100% match
“Well, Doctor, it seems we have an apology to make.”
“Oh, not at all, I just really want to leave after these past several hours. I just need to go back to the TARDIS and check on Ben and Polly. The Master, I can leave somewhere else, he’ll find his way back to me, he always does. Goodbye.”
“Doctor,” said the Elder as a final farewell “, we’ll send some guards with you. Farewell Doctor, may your journey be a safe and joyous one.” The Doctor waved his hand back to say the same, and left the unknowably high, white doors for the last time with two Sensorites following. Again, they walked back to the ship with hopes the Doctor could leave. Reaching the door, he bid goodnight and goodbye to the two guards that he was escorted by, and went inside. Sure it was torn apart, partially on fire, dirty and smoky, but it was still home to him. Going over to the former console, he looked upon the unconscious bodies of Ben and Polly, hoping they were enjoying their dreams with great delight as he stuck pieces back into themselves and slowly rebuilt his home. As he was doing this, almost as if on cue, a distant and almost painful moan came from down the corridor. Pushing a few buttons and pulling some levers, he started hearing the familiar heaving noises and then walked several rights and lefts and straights, until he finally saw the door. Opening it, he saw two things: a cylinder that went from the ceiling to the floor, holding the Master, and a control pad that will transfer the prisoner to the person’s desires.
“You see, the problem with type 45s is that their captivity cells are in the console room and not back here. By having them there, your prisoner can see everything that you do and if they break out, they can easily see the exit and escape. Did you have a nice nap?”
“Oh, I hate you right now, but not enough to ask one last time if you will join me in my quest to destroy the Sensorites and rule the universes reserve of mental energy. What do you say?”
“You still don’t understand, I am not evil and will not destroy a race of intelligent beings for power I don’t want or need. Why can’t you just watch the universe go by, not shoot everything that moves?”
“You, Doctor, also will never understand. The universe is just a thing that people think they live in, not as an amazing creation that needs to be ruled so all the repulsive primitives can learn.”
“Looks like you’re stuck in this thing until I let you leave, so why don’t you just admit defeat.”
“Oh, Doctor,” smirked the Master as he pulled a small box with a blue button on it “, I never admit defeat.” Pressing the button with enough force that the box slightly warped from pressure, the Master released his final assault.
“What have you done, Master?”
“Doctor, I’ll never have a plan without a final resort. This button just activated a satellite orbiting the Sense-Sphere to start arming its missile to destroy the Sensorites. There is no timer, no trigger, just the random will of space. You lose Doctor, I will never admit defeat.”
“You know, these tubes allow you to transport your prisoner anywhere in time and space so they can be easily left where they need to be. I was thinking that I would leave someplace nice where you could relax and maybe forget your ways, but I’ll just set the coordinates on random and let you land on any cesspool that it chooses. Goodbye Master.”
“Please Doctor; I beg of you, I could end up anywhere.”
“Actually, that is the point.” Pressing buttons on the keypad and setting it to random coordinates, he hit engage and the process began.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh,” was all the shear agony of the transport could allow as the same thing as before happened. The Master was feeling unbearable pain as, one by one, his arms, legs, and everything else faded away to who knows where.
***
Suddenly reappearing on the floor of the capsule of the spearhead, the Master was shivering in a ball because of the low temperature. Crawling around, he could barely see what was happening as though the darkness was self-induced. After a few seconds of crawling, a light burst into life to reveal the gray, metallic interior of the spacecraft he was in. Then another light went to reveal the bottom steps of a throne, then another light, then another, until every single one was on. As the Master realized the lighting difference and waited for his eyes to adjust, he looked up and saw living mannequins gaining on him, as if to attack, but the attack was shortly postponed when a deep booming voice spoke:
“Why have you appeared on our ship, our invasion plan on Earth has failed and now we have a stowaway? Explain yourself.”
“W…We…Well I was sent here by transmit by accident and would love to leave.”
“The Nestenes do not do people favors, we just rule over people, what can you say to stop us from ruling you?
“Well, you said your invasion plan was had failed, was this to any fault of a man named the Doctor?”
“Yes, why is that important?”
“Oh, your majesty, it means we have a common enemy and I think I could help you by getting rid of this man. What do you say to that?”
Chapter 14: The Missile
Flustering out to the white hallway, now wishing he had his cell in the console room, the Doctor couldn’t waste one more second on anything else. Unfortunately, there was no way of telling if the seconds wasted were too many. After less than a minute of traipsing the corridors of his miraculous machine, the Doctor was now inside the central hub of his personal operations. Pushing and pulling and doing anything and everything on the console, Polly and Ben started to wake up.
“Oh my head, I feel like a herd of cows trampled me,” moaned the head-ache suffering Ben.
“You’d be lucky, that would hurt much less than the alternative of this situation,” quickly witted the Doctor back at him.
“But what do you mean, Doctor?” sifted Polly as she dizzily stood up and joined the sailor and alien at the console.
“Well Polly, the Master just sent a rocket to destroy the Sense-Sphere,” was the thought he verbalized without lifting his head from the controls. Punching different colors and almost ripping the levers from the sockets, the Doctor was trying to do to miracles at once.
“What are you doing Doctor?” said the benign Polly.
“I’m trying to first locate the missile and also make a psychic link between the TARDIS and the Elder of the Sense-Sphere, both of which are extremely hard tasks to complete.”
“But Doctor, can’t you just…”
“Shhh… Polly, I’m getting through to him.” The monitor suddenly flickered onto existence, showing a still line, as if it were a heart rate monitor hooked onto a dead man, but then, it sprang to life with the simplest words of the Elder.
“Doctor, what seems to be the problem?”
“Elder, the Master has just set up a missile to come into impact on your planet and I am trying to find it. Try to move your people underground in case I fail.”
“But Doctor, most of my people are High Councilmen; they will simply refuse to lower themselves to the depths of the sewers at all, even less at someone they think guilty.”
“But I thought it was a unanimous vote that I was wrongfully convicted?”
“In a court of law, the majority is who wins. We had most, but not all think you were innocent.”
“Oh, well I’ll just have to take them off my Christmas card list, haven’t I.? But still, I don’t care just get them underground.”
“Okay, Doctor, I’ll get as many as are willing.” The line then went still again and the monitor turned black, both confirming that the line was closed. The Doctor, now just looking at his navigational controls, was doing the most important thing at hand to save them.
“Yes, oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”
“What Doctor?”
“I just located the satellite, I just need to find the wavelength the signal is acting on and then I can cancel it. Let us see, just decode the first one and we’ll be…” was the last thing the Doctor uttered before the deafening blast. The satellite had suddenly disarmed itself and had a hurtling missile sent straight for the center of the Sense-Sphere.
“Wait, no, that can’t happen, it can’t destroy the planet, the Master cannot win. I just have to think of something really clever,” speaking at speeds unheard of, the Doctor continued for a couple seconds until, “I’ve got it, I materialize in the way of the missile.”
“But that will kill us Doctor,” said Polly and Ben, almost together in timing.
“No, we won’t. I will also dematerialize at the exact millisecond it would hit us so that it will still hit the TARDIS, but we also won’t be there to be hit.”
“But that makes no sense,” screamed Polly.
“Maybe not, but it will most likely work.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“Well, if we are a millisecond to early, it will miss us and go straight on to the planet, but if we are a millisecond to late, it will hit us had on and we will be blasted into several billion pieces and shall die painfully. You see Polly, Ben, that is the worst that can happen.” Smiling what he said off as if it was the most pleasant and effort-free thing in the universe. Pulling himself to every one of the six sides of the console, every second counted as he threw more switches and more levers, just until the missile was at its closest.
“Okay guys, it will be here in 3…2…1…wish me luck!” as he pulled the last switch for dematerialization, the missile collided, and everything went black.
Chapter 15: Scotland Ahoy
The city was quiet and still when a dull heaving noise filled the city. When the noise stopped itself, a blue box was standing in its place. Not awkwardly, like it belonged there, like it belonged anywhere and everywhere in the universe. The only difference from before was that it had a small crack in one of its windows and a small circle of removed paint. As the quiet continued, it was abruptly extinguished by a door squeaking on its hinges and a small man walked out explaining:
“Oh Polly, just see reason, I was only a nanosecond off, the inconvenience was barely noticeable.” A slightly taller, but still short girl followed him and opened her small mouth, but not fast enough for a deep, disembodied voice inside the box.
“Doctor, we were all flung two meters off our feet, that wasn’t noticeable?” The man the voice belonged to came out last, but the arguing continued. It could surely have continued for hours if not for an old, raspy that called out:
“Thank you Doctor, thank you very much,” were the Elder’s words as the throne he sat on was elevated over everyone to show his dominance.
“You too, Elder, you too. I think we should be leaving now, if you don’t mind.” Not really waiting for an answer. The crew walked into their ship again and shut the doors for the final time on the Sense-Sphere.
“Doctor, what did happen to the Master?” quizzically asked Polly.
“Oh, I had him in a cell and transported him to random coordinates, most likely nowhere he can do me any more harm; well, you two should go get some rest while I choose a new destination,” were the nimble man’s words as he pulled the lever to dematerialize. As this happened, the crew was again thrown to the floor with a jolt and the ship started to spiral out of control, not knowing what would happen next.
“Doctor, what’s happening?”
“That missile must have done more damage than I thought; I can easily fix it, though,” the Doctor pulled himself upwards with amazing strength unto the console. As he did this, he pressed several buttons and read several computer read outs until, *shoom*, the ship was stabilized.
“Are we okay?” said Polly as she was very worried “, was it the Master?”
“No, Polly, it was the damage from the missile, the only damage is the computer says we are now on a fixed location. Let me look at the screen to see where.”
“What is it?”
“Scotland, the computer says we’re headed for 18th century Scotland. What will we ever find in 18th century Scotland?”
By Graeme Hanson
Prologue:
With a snarling crack of a roundel, thought to be firmly placed in the wall, shattered pieces of glass sat on the salty, white ground of the TARDIS floor. No one even noticed the destructive action, but with good reason. With bruises on the body and regret on the soul, the crew of the most sophisticated vessel in the universe was easily mistaken to be dead. That is not where our story starts, though. But this is where we begin to learn of these events, with two young adults and an impossibly old alien on the floor, thought to be dead. The broken roundel I mentioned is the least of the worries of this poor ship. The console was wrecked, pulled apart would be a better explanation, fire was seamlessly spreading into rings, involuntarily. The only reason any of these events I just mentioned just happened was for accused impersonation, jocularity, and thought to be complete guilt, founded by the court. When caught escaping the cell assigned to the prisoners, they were followed to the craft I am speaking about at this moment. Using surprising amount of strength for this race of life, they apprehended the three humanoids and caused all the injuries with a snap of the wrist and left them there. Gracefully bringing a silver disc to its head, the main being sent a thought several meters away from its location and caused the roundel to crack from the vibrations. The flames were being thrown and twisted worse than they had ever been on the planet. After sending the message, the conscious assailant received a response and quickly told its accomplice with a hoarse voice,
“The Elder of the Sense-Sphere says to let our prisoners rot in here. I agreed and said we would return immediately.” With a brittle face and telepathic communication, the two Sensorites went on to do better things and left our heroes to rot, just as they were told to do, not even noticing the deep voiced, maniacal laugh.
Episode One: The Mistaken Call
Chapter One: Inside The Spaceship
(7.36 Hours Before The Previous Occurrences)
“Doctor, where are we going, I was really looking forward to maybe seeing a Beatles concert and you just pushed buttons and said we’re going to some ‘Knowledge-Circle’?” Polly said this brightly and energetically as always, but didn’t hide the disappointment of her not seeing a concert since they had announced they weren’t touring anymore just before she left with the Doctor.
“In due time, Polly; plus, it isn’t a “Knowledge-Circle”, it’s called the Sense-Sphere. I got a distress call and knew I needed to answer.” The Doctor was sad at disappointing Polly, but he knew a distress call centered at the TARDIS meant something incredible happened, it didn’t matter bad or good. He started pulling levers and pulling switches when an extremely familiar cry came from down the hall.
“Oi, Doctor, how does this food machine work again?” Ben said again after several dozen times over the past few weeks they had traveled with the Doctor.
“It’s simple, Ben,” said the Doctor as he impishly scurried down the hall “, All you do is throw this switch, push that button, keep this meter level, turn that switch, line up the lights, throw that lever, wind the mechanism, and then put in the code for your desired food item.” He said this at his usual impossibly fast speed and did it while throwing his hands at every part of the machine with the ability to move. Even though the Doctor hid his joy, he loved it when Ben would ask because it allowed him to show how complicated his machines and gloat about the TARDIS. Duly noted that he never would be able to figure the machine out, Ben just decided to ask the Doctor to use the machine and get the thing he wanted.
“Can you just get me water?”
“Fine,” said the Doctor while chuckling to himself, with Polly chiming in from the console room “, I’ll just push the big button in the middle that reads ‘WATER’, and that will quench your thirst.” With the blank stare of Ben, wondering how he missed that button, the Doctor and Polly just laugh as he walks back to the console to finish the sequence for materialization. Polly was silently sad and tried to conceal the emotions she had about missing the concert for some distress signal. The Doctor could notice this and slowly went over and cautiously assured her of his promise.
”We can go to the concert after, I’ll probably be helping out some old friends and we will be on our way, I promise.”
“I know, Ben and I can just stay in here until you come back and then we can rock out,” Polly said to her older friend and they were off.
“But Polly,” the Doctor quietly exclaimed “, we could always watch it now.” He then pushed a few buttons on the materialization panel while flipping switches on the monitor panel and a concert was instantly playing on the screen, as if it were a live event. With the Doctor and Polly dancing to the music in the console room and Ben getting frustrated at the food machine, everything was normal. Something was wrong, though, it was the Doctor. Yes, something was happening down at the Sense-Sphere, but something to sinister for him to ever imagine. The most evil thing in the universe was crawling along, tampering with the lives of the planets population. It will be long, strenuous, and completely trying. They will lose lives, sanity, and what could’ve been a friend. With one last smile and flick of the wrist, the Doctor pulled the lever and the ship was transporting itself through time and space towards the Sense-Sphere.
Chapter Two: The First Sonic Ever
A crowded venue in the middle of the city was lively with humanoids that looked like old men with hair all over their faces. Happy and prosperous was there civilization, no one had contracted the disease from the water, all the human prisoners underground were found and returned home, and most importantly, City Administrator had been dealt with and was no trouble. They were all setting up for their annual festival to celebrate the Doctor’s appearance that saved their civilization. With the whole of the conglomeration happy and prosperous, they even started trading with other planets in separate solar systems. With open arms, they had let in the universe they had sheltered themselves in for millennia. Tables layered with food and post of fire high in the sky, everything was fantastic. The only oddity in the situation was an unusual movement in the flames. After several raises of the silver disc to their head, communication was over and the imports were eaten to celebrate. No one was expecting anything more than a normal day, a strange thing for a Sensorite to do, but it was shattered when an unfamiliar heaving noise took place. A few seconds later, a navy blue box appeared on stage , next to the Elder, who was giving a ‘Goodbye and Good Luck’ speech with disc held high. Everyone was shocked at the sudden appearance, except for the people inside.
“Doctor, are we here?” asked Polly innocently “, we have been traveling for ages.”
“Yes, Polly, we’ve arrived. Oh, it seems like they’re having a festival, how nice, I love parties. I better take my recorder.” With one flashing leap, the Doctor grabbed his recorder, opened the TARDIS doors, and started playing on it before Polly or Ben could breathe.
“Polly, what do ya’ reckon the Doctor was in such a hurry for?” Ben quizzically asked in Polly’s direction, hoping there would be something her explanation that would allow them to leave the spacecraft’s interior.
“I‘m not sure, he said he’d been here before in a time of need and he got a distress message from these things.”
“Can we look through the scanner to see them?”
Polly understood his vaguely hidden request to see the aliens the Doctor was friends with quickly flipping the switch, also interested in the unusual friends of the alien in her life. The monitor in the wall gleamed on and showed an unexpected image. The stage they were on was huddled with men with scabby, oval heads covered in hair, huddled near a pole in a few meters way away from the time/space vessel. It was hard to see through the crowd of grey skin, but the two passengers could just make out a small man in black coat and bow-tie forced and held with mental energy around said pole.
“What’s happening to the Doctor?” exclaimed Polly at a surprisingly high voice that everything in the venue stopped for a few seconds. The after everything resumed, Ben realized a small technological error that could help.
“Polly, turn the sound on,” Quite plainly and condescending he said it, but it was obviously understandable because Polly immediately hit a button next to the Monitor switch. The screen beckoned:
“You are not the Doctor; he was an old, white-haired man who saved us from a deadly disease. You are a puny little black-haired man who stumbled from a box with a deadly sonic probe.” With no remorse, the citizens of the Sense-Sphere were questioning and hurting the Doctor, trying to find out if who he was, a fact not known to them, even though he was telling them the truth.
“I AM the Doctor, I did help your civilization and was hoping to help; I got a distress call from these exact coordinates on this planet. Oh, and my recorder isn’t a sonic probe, it is a musical instrument, I thought it would go with your celebration.” The Doctor was livid about the misunderstanding, he forgot he had regenerated and was unrecognizable. Pulling and pushing against the mental bonds of the Sensorites, the Doctor was exhausting himself and was becoming easier and easier to hold down.
“Struggling won’t help you now, impersonation is the highest penalty of the Sense-Sphere, and if you were the Doctor, you would remember that. Also, assaulting an entire public gathering with your device just adds to your sentence. ” The Doctor guessed that all this was said by the policeman of the city, but he was confused.
“Sentence?”
“Yes, sentence, as in you’re going to prison. We also never sent you a distress call from anywhere; it would drain all of our energy supplies and would only be in a dire crisis. As you can see, we obviously are doing quite fine. ” Dazed and confused by the recent revelation that he must have been lead here by an external force, the Policeman mentally forced the Doctor to get up and walk to the Prison Building, several meters away. As all this happened, the TARDIS was silent, as Ben and Polly waited for the Doctor to come back, unharmed. This is a request that they wouldn’t get from waiting.
Chapter Three: Closed Cells
Stone as cold as Mars, chains colored so violently that you could easily sense the punishment that has happened in these dark, distant corridors of the prison. A musty smell and a miniscule, fire-lit torch were all that welcomed you, the only lives there were some strong souls and the alien equivalent to rats and bugs (but they prefer the title ‘Terkim’ for some reason). The jailor Sensorite was happily jostling the Doctor down the stairs into a bedraggled cell.
“Wait a minute, these are the old sewers, I remember from last time. The only difference is you redecorated. You know, I don’t like it.” The Doctor said this humorously to ease the tension, but it only hurt his chances.
“What is wrong with you, we all know you’re not the Doctor and knowing these are the sewers isn’t astounding, it’s a story in the next few galaxies? Every time we trade with someone knew, they ask, "Do you really use sewers as prisons?”, and I just show them the way and let them see for themselves.” The Doctor could tell this being was not like the Sensorites he had met before. They were involved in only their own race, not trading. They also were timid and peaceful people with no need for prisons or courts; afraid he had accidently done this by some accident in the past, he didn’t speak another word to the jailor, he only let him quietly show him to his cell. Suddenly, just after being placed in his cell, the Doctor sensed a channel being opened on a low frequency network, subsequently causing the jailor to raise his disc high on his oddly shaped head and respond. The Doctor, who was looking around for something to entertain him, noticed that the torch he noticed when he walked was doing something strange. The flame, which was incredibly meager, was slightly dancing, it would seem; twisting and turning like Ferris wheel, with no explanation of an open window or ending flame. After a terminal time with the channel used for communication, the jailor lowered his hand and disc and relayed the conversation.
“They were asking me what we should do with that blue box you came out of. I said to put it into the boiler and let it burn, they said open it and see what could be done about it. They obviously liked their suggestion better and are opening as we speak.”
***
Outside the doors of their only security, the aliens were pounding and thumping at the door to open it. Ben and Polly both knew that even with the key, only people the Doctor allowed could open the TARDIS doors, but for some reason, that held no security. From the exterior, the Sensorites were just gazing across a navy blue box that at the top read to them in (their language) ‘Police Box’ and a sign that said ‘Pull To Open' Using brute force, hammers, metal hand-jaws, and even fire to burn their way in, they just couldn’t penetrate the doors.
“Maybe we should just get the man who came out, this thing isn’t large enough to hold more than one person, and he’ll be the only one who knows how to open it.” A junior Sensorite in the government suggested this and looked slightly proud of himself for the idea.
“What a stupid idea,” exploited an elder who was not fond of the junior “, he is a criminal and an impersonator who chose to come this day of all days and you want to give him the pleasure of roaming free to help us.
“Not roaming free, incarcerated and guarded from the cell to the door, we free his hands only at that point for him to unlock it, then we enter with him still held and taken back to the prison.”
“And how do you expect him to agree”, said the same elder “, when he is given no ultimatum. Even if we do give him an ultimatum, the only one he’ll accept would be freedom in which case he would only run back into this contraption and fly away.” Ben and Polly happily let out an unanimous sigh of relief when they heard that, after hearing these two bickering for an hour, almost, they knew when ideas would be used or shot down. Polly was sitting on the floor, next to Ben, lying against roundels. They had spoken about several topics they had thought about and were letting out several emotional occurrences from falling off a bike as a child to almost sinking an entire ship by hitting the wrong button; ironically, neither occurrences are who you’d think would’ve done them.
“Is it sad that we have been traveling this long together and we barely know anything about each other?” Polly partially wept while she said this and was beginning to cry at the influx of emotions happening at the moment.
“Not at all, it just means we both are more personal than others. Just think of it this way, if we never saw each other at Inferno, or you didn’t work at the Post Office Tower, none of this would’ve happened to either of us and we both would’ve passed silently by each other on the sidewalk without knowing each other. It is our fault for not knowing, it’s our fault we didn’t want to know.” Ben deeply and emotionally used this as a reassuring way to cheer up Polly, and it seemed like it worked.
“Thank You, Ben, I think I’ll go get something to eat from the machine.”
“Can you get me something, too; I still don’t understand the blasted thing?”
“Sure, I’ll get you something.” Polly leisurely got up and walked down the corridor towards the food machine. Not wanting to sit alone, Ben got up and looked around the console.
“Hey Polly, see, I can work this thing like the Doctor.” Ben said this happily while he pretended to push buttons while listening to the oral brawl just outside. While laughing at the show he was performing to impress Polly, his hand was inching incredibly close to door switch. Polly, who had a view of the console room from where she was standing, saw where his hand was about to go and started to run. He put his hand down on the switch and accidently pushed. As soon as this happened, Polly appeared, as if from nowhere, and pulled the switch back to close.
“Do you know how stupid that was? You could’ve let them in when you did that! Thankfully, I got here in time to shut it before they could come in! Now what do you have to say for yourself!” Ben looked dumbstruck and couldn’t say anything out of fear of Polly at the moment. The good thing was, Ben didn’t need to say anything; the bad thing is, it wasn’t because Polly was understanding. With a hoarse voice and long fingers, the Elder Sensorite stood in the open doorway and happily exclaimed with all the Sensorites behind him:
“Ah, so your friend won’t be lonely any longer?”
Episode two: THE Reaper Chapter Four: The Skeleton Of The Room
Pacing his cell, the Doctor was thinking allowed.
“Why are the flames moving strangely? There is no explanation for it? I don’t know why? You know, it doesn’t make it easier to be unappreciatively thrown in a sewer used for prison, thank you very much!” The Doctor screamed, hoping the jailor heard.
“Trust me, the flames are the least of your worries, my friend,” said a groggy voice from an enlarged shadow in the corner.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know I was sharing this prison,” said the Doctor, sheepishly as he didn’t know what made the sound or where from.
“It’s fine,” was said be an almost skeletal figure which crept from the corner “, I’m never really noticed. I am known as Romdast, Romdast Roe.” He said this slightly happily; just the thought of no longer being alone warmed his shriveled heart. With a slightly sour feeling in his stomach, not knowing whether to trust or ignore this stranger, the Doctor responds.
“Well, hello Romdast, I’m the Doct…” Almost instantly cut off.
“No, you’re not!” screamed down this jailor with a vicious tone.
“Don’t mind him, he just loves his job to much,” replied Romdast. The Doctor was thrown by this strange man’s appearance, he was almost skeletal from his arms to his face, but he had a certain fullness to him that the Doctor could sense, but he was feeling stranger than usual.
“You don’t seem right; sit down while I explain myself.” Helping the Doctor down onto a smoothed rock, he then asked him a question.
“Are you alright, you just seem very tense and almost senile?”
“You can talk, you could be mistaken for a dead body in a mortician’s office,” quietly exclaimed the Doctor, jocularly, at his fellow incarcerate.
“Yeah, not far off, but the stories this place has are definitely keeping me going. There is one about a reaper who lords over the land at night to scare little children. Some people say they know when he has come because the lights are flickering and the candles’ fires start to move unnaturally.”
“Ah, so that is the legend about all these fire occurrences.”
“Yes, completely untrue, but effective. I would love to go on, but I want to tell you a little bit about myself. I was born and raised on the planet of Yeltragh in the galaxy of Kasterborus. It’s a miniscule galaxy on the edge a few light years away from the Milky Way. Have you heard of it?
“Heard of it, I lived in it, my planet is the center of that galaxy, but the funny thing is, I’ve never heard of Yeltragh before?” The
Doctor felt his suspicions growing with every single syllable of this man’s dialogue.
“No worries, we only found out about ourselves about a quarter of a century ago. Some intergalactic surveyors came accidently when they scanned in the galaxy’s south-western region and explained that we were actually not the center of the Universe, which we thought we were, but a minute fragment on the edge of one. Primitive and secular from everything else, we knew nothing of anything before they came. We had exceptional minds on our planet, though, we mastered engineering and manufacturing in less than a decade. Another decade later, we mastered star-travel. I must say, I’m proud to be one of the first of my people to be a star-traveler. I would like to hear about your people now, if you’re okay about it.” With his brief explanation over, Romdast was waiting for the Doctor to do the same. The Doctor still couldn’t trust this man and didn’t know. One thing he did know, nothing this man just said was true.
“You know, one good thing about living in the galaxy someone else is lying about, you know almost everything about it. There are no intergalactic surveyors or south-western segments of a galaxy. My people knew every inch of Kasterborus and there never was a planet called ‘Yeltragh’. So I think you better tell me who you really are and where you came from,” said the Doctor, quite unmenacingly, pretending it was. With a slight snicker, Romdast sneered at his equal and spoke.
“I am telling the truth, but you fail to see that. I will give you one more piece of evidence. I told you that on Yeltragh we had great minds, and with that, we also have the ability of psychic manipulation.” He then stared directly at the Doctor’s eyes and made an almost perfect line between the two points. Trying to shut his eyes, the Doctor was starting to scream in pain, knowing that this person was about to do this with evil intent. Unknowable scrutiny and agony were the two feelings the Doctor was feeling at that moment. The last thing he remembers until he woke up was Romdast saying these words:
“Everything I just said, you will believe, if anyone asks you, it is true. I also have a final assault plan on the Sense-Sphere. I need help with this plan and when you wake up, no matter how much your self will tells you not to, you will aid me in my mission to destroy the Sensorites, and in turn, you also.”
Chapter Five: The Man With Two Faces
Polly stumbled and tripped countless times over the clutter in the streets from the abandoned festival; being thrown about was wearing her down by the second and she would collapse if the entrance to the prison wasn’t a few steps away. The last few moments played back in her mind clear as distilled water: The Sensorites flooded in, raising discs to their foreheads for some odd reason, and plundering the TARDIS. When they tore the two companions out of the only sanctuary on the planet, it was in ruins and destroyed beyond recognition, almost. A widened sewer cap with stairs was open and was obviously the way their overlords wanted them to enter.
“Ah, so you found his accomplices, he’s already struck up a conversation with that other human in the cell. Lock them in and give them their rations.” Swiftly, he was off, up the stairs and into the unknown while Ben and Polly were thrown in a dark cell, lit only by a flame that was livelier than everyone in the prison combined.
“Here are your daily rations for the four of you, don’t waste them.” Throwing a packet of pill shaped proteins through the poles; the Doctor quickly welcomed the familiar faces.
“Ben, Polly, where have you been, I thought I told you never to leave the TARDIS until I came back?” Ben was about to answer with a look of shame on his face, but Polly quickly interjected to save a friend.
“I wanted to get some fresh air and didn’t think about it, they just came in and everything was destroyed by them. I’m sorry.”
“Oh Polly, it is understandable, but next time, please listen to my orders. It might save your life one day.” With a reassuring smile two hearts of gold, the Doctor believed and understood the ploy and went on to introduce his friend. Secretly and quickly, Ben turned his head and whispered “Thanks” to his comrade and they went on to listen about this man.
“Well, this man’s name is Romdast Roe; he is an astronaut from the planet Yeltragh, he came here for exploration but was imprisoned. Sorry for his appearance, but he has been trapped down here for quite some time I believe.” The Doctor motioned to Romdast and let him speak.
“Yes, all that is true, I am one of my planet’s first men in space. I have been waiting for company for months and not one, but three people is a true blessing. I, too, apologize for how I don’t appeal to the normal eye. I have, as the Doctor said, been down here for several months.
“It’s okay, a little grime on your face never hurt, it has happened to me several times when I went sailing abroad with my fleet,” was what Ben related with a calm and leisurely voice, not even noticing the man’s skeletal appearance.
“Whatever do you mean, Ben, he looks like he’s a skeleton.” The Doctor was astounded by his companion’s total disregard of the prisoner’s face.
“No, he doesn’t, he just is a little dirty; other than that, he is in better shape than we are, actually.” Ben was befuddled by the fact he was the only one who could see a healthy, bearded man who could run a mile at that moment, the same way his friends were befuddled by the fact that everyone but him could see a sickly, degrading husk of a man who could keel over any second. With a quick change of the conversation, Romdast started asking where the two new cell mates were from.
“Well, Ben and I are from London and have been traveling with the Doctor for a couple weeks and have seen quite a few surprises since.” Polly started going on about several adventures they’d had with the Doctor from meeting pirates in Cornwall, to a Dalek ploy, even about the time they found ten dead aliens on an asteroid. She went on about Cybermen, WOTAN, the Beatles, several things until she honestly had hardly anything else to say. The Doctor and Ben both had a nap during her amazingly long explanation about and Romdast enjoyed every minute of it, growing unknowably wiser by the second. By the time we got to the point of Polly not thinking of anything else to say, it was pitch black outside and everyone wanted to go to sleep, even the Doctor and Ben who had already slept.
“Well, those are all amazingly fascinating stories, maybe tomorrow, in exchange for all those tales, I can tell you the full tale about the Reaper, a Sensorite campfire tale,” Romdast happily responded to Polly intricate tales.
“I would love that, Romdast, I can’t wait, let’s go to sleep and talk again tomorrow.” Romdast nodded in agreement while Ben and the Doctor were already among the dead of the night and snoring almost as if they were trying to drown out music in the next galaxy. All four of them were lying parallel from each other on the floor and were taking advantage of the soft, dirt floor, opposed to the alternative stone floor, just outside the cell. Polly was dreaming about getting out of this mess tomorrow and seeing a Beatles concert, thinking this whole thing was just a misunderstanding that the Doctor could fix; Ben was only dreaming about a calm sea and the smell of salt which both came from sailing. No matter how much he loved traveling with the Doctor, he could never give up his love for being with his one true love; tomorrow, he might actually ask the Doctor if they could go sailing, not that they’d actually end up on a sailing ship until the hundredth try. The Doctor always slept with ears open and all senses alert, just in case of anything that went wrong. Romdast didn’t sleep at all, slowly and sluggishly, pushing on the soft soil to lift himself up, Romdast silently glided across his three acquaintances towards the cell door where he was able to see the jailor fast asleep and segmented from everything. The Doctor, sensing that someone was up, turned his head to see who was up. Romdast, not even paying the slightest attention to his fellow prisoner moving, didn’t even notice that it happened and kept on with his business. He checked his surroundings on the exterior of the cell and then pulled out a cylindrical rod, about an inch thick and 5 inches long with a black ball on the top. Pressing a button and making it emit a low humming sound, the ball suddenly opened to four equal slices and, subsequently, the door magically opened a crack, leaving the rest to be pushed open. He then did so, and walked down the hall, opposite the direction of the way out. Further and further, you could hear his footsteps suddenly growing fainter and fainter until….They stopped completely. After a few seconds of being silent, the Doctor was about to get up to check when he heard an all too familiar wheezing sound. Inhaling and exhaling until, again, silence. The Doctor then noticed an important discover; the lit torch stopped flickering the second the noise bellowing noise of Romdast’s escape finished.
Chapter Six: The High Council Of The Sensorites
At the Town Hall of the Sense-Sphere, every accent of detail was polished gleaming white. The statues were magnificently carved to depict venues of Sensorite history in the most extraordinary way. Quickly and soundly, much like rat colonies to a food source, the high councilmen were scurrying through the long and vast, gleaming white corridors. Doors taller and wider than the Heltagrofenes’ skyscrapers were open and being flooded inward by old men. As the court occupied their velvet-clad seats and became comfortable, they then started to address the situation.
“Here we are,” started the Elder of the Sense-Sphere with a long, drawling voice “, to consider the charge of the accused,” He then pulled out a slip of paper from the silk robes that clung to his body. He then continued and read:
“‘Impersonating the Doctor and assaulting a crowd of fellow Sensorites’ are the charges of this individual and his accomplices. We are here to consider if these are true events that will be able to convict the man. The three fugitives will not be present at this time, not until they are needed for their own statements. Before I continue, does anyone wish to object?” A long silence filled the incredibly spacious room. After a small retelling of the question to make sure everyone had heard, the decision was final.
“We shall continue. With eye witness accounts filled out and the sentence created, I will relay the events for those who did not experience it. I quote, ‘A large navy blue box appeared on the stage during the festival of health, accompanied by a low frequency bellowing. After a few minutes of silence and only abiotic appearances, a tiny little man ran out with a sonic probe hanging from his mouth. This dangerously violated our communication frequency and harmed several citizens severely. After this, he claimed to be the Doctor and using said device as a musical instrument to go along with celebration. He was convicted and taken to prison and is still there now. Several hours later, when a group of citizens tried to open the box, it would not open, no matter what we used. Suddenly, the two young accomplices had accidently activated the door to open, thus letting them in to explore the machine and convict the two juveniles. They, too, are also in the prison as we speak.’ These are the accounts of the events as far as we can tell from our present knowledge. We are now at the point in court where we must call for the witnesses for their statements. This court is adjourned until they can be retrieved, you may leave.” All the Sensorites immediately leapt from their velvet-clad chairs and happily drained from the court room into their own worlds of the mind. As the Elder of the Sense-Sphere walked down the steps from his podium, he noticed an odd flickering of the lights that illuminated the room entirely.
“Now that’s peculiar, they had been completely fine a minute ago. Must be the power again, somebody can be sent tomorrow to check the sewers.” He then walked out a door, hidden by his podium stand, and didn’t think anything of it. Yet another peculiar thing happened after that, though. Suddenly, the same bellow that was said to come from the box when the man arrived could be heard. Inhaling and exhaling, over and over again. As this happened, a long, cloaked figure stole away into a row of velvet-clad seats, laughing a truly sinister laugh of pure evil. After the seats dispensed from the room, the lights were completely normal and functioning, as they were supposed to. As this happened, a long pipe suddenly appeared in the sewers under the city, emanating the same noise heard in the council room. As this happened, the long cloaked figure came from behind the pipe, as though he was a child who was hiding. He walked further and further down until he reached the cells to the Sensorite jail. He then wistfully and in one graceful move, threw his cloak off to reveal his appearance. Romdast now stood in the corridor with an evil sneer and the same rod-and-ball device that he used before, and headed towards his cell door.
Chapter Seven: A Secret Revealed
Romdast, briskly striding through the damp, radiant corridors of the sewer system, was hoping to get back before anyone noticed. Before the Doctor arrived, he had no need of staying in that cell at all. Now, he would have to only fool the citizens of the Sense-Sphere by night. The Reaper was the fun part of his plan, but if the Doctor got in the way at a sooner than calculated time, everything would be ruined. Finally pulling himself up to the door and priming his device in hand, he noticed the door was opened more than he left it and livelier breathing was occurring. As soon as he started to slowly back away, a tangled mess of metal chains and old rope were thrown against his back and were being tied to constrain him. Slowly, with his head nodding and eyes getting heavy, he was knocked unconscious and was almost lifeless; leaving the skeletal face slowly degrading while he slept. As time went by, he woke up within a few minutes and left to stare at the glaring faces of the three time-travelers.
“So, Romdast, I’d love to do something with you, but you just seem completely tied up at the moment,” boyishly laughing, the Doctor appreciated his own humor and Polly quickly tapped his shoulder from behind to remind him of the task at hand “, Romdast, you have been very confusing all these hours and when you left an hour ago in the dead of the night, it grew our suspicions even more. We thought of all the data we’ve collected, and just figured something out.”
“I tell you, I am a simple man named Romdast Roe from the planet Yeltragh in the galaxy of Kasterborus. I’m one of the first space travellers and I'm proud to serve my planet.” Romdast was crying out in pain as he said this, showing true emotion.
“Funny you should mention Yeltragh because, as I told you before, there is no such place in the galaxy called Yeltragh. It is also funny that you tried to hypnotize me yesterday to try and make me believe you, because it didn’t work. I just pretended that I was under your influence until I could come up with evidence to show who you really are.” Completely melting away, his face was much less of a skeleton, more of a handsome, bearded man.
“Please, I’m sick, my flesh is flowing off as if it were water, let me go!” He cried in such a way that Sontarans would have pity, but The Doctor saw right through his bedraggled and emotional façade.
“Your world isn’t real, you tried to hypnotize me into believing you, but most of all, I heard you leave in a TARDIS; can you explain that? By the sound of it, a Type 45 with a Mark Two dematerialization circuit. How can you explain that?”
“Well…I…I...I,” under pressure and realizing his act wouldn’t hold up for long “, Oh well, Doctor, I might as well surrender.” Romdast was no longer sounding like a worn out squeaky toy, he was now a charismatic, deep voice gentleman. The final bits of fake flesh fell off to reveal a smooth faced man with a stiff beard and eyes that could melt away all hardships and trials if you let them. Lights started streaming from his dark complexion to finish off the decomposition process and fully complete the regeneration. Polly and Ben cowered behind the Doctor, who didn’t move a muscle, now sure that his suspicions were right. Gleaming lights of all the colors of the rainbow were going into the flamed torch, which was now no longer flickering and twisting like it had before.
“Doctor,” Ben said in a loud tone as the lights were reaching the climax of their power “, what is happening?”
“Ben, meet somebody that will grow to be a galaxy conquering demon, one who can kill on a whim and then take his victim’s blood to a hospital just to laugh, one man who will become my greatest enemy through all of time!” The Doctor was now screaming at the top of his lungs with wind being thrown through everyone’s hair and the blinding light settling down. The image of a smooth-faced, bearded man was now cemented as this man’s final appearance. Hearing every word the Doctor said, he looked and laughed.
“Oh Doctor, you are to kind for any villain to appreciate. You have now figured out my identity and will now suffer because…,” he suddenly paused and started staring directly into his eyes, as he done before “, I am the Master, and you shall obey me.”
Episode Three: The Master Plan Chapter Eight: The Romdation Paradigm
“Where is the Messenger, he was sent 10 minutes ago and still hasn’t brought the prisoner. I think we should send out a patrol,” said a very tense and worried Sensorite who was standing next to the Elder, both shielded from the public’s eyes by the lower level of the podium stand. Nervously pacing through the 8 foot length the bottom withheld from view, he kept looking for advice in the Elder’s direction.
“I’m sure he is fine, it takes about 10 minutes to get to the prison from here, he only would’ve gotten there by now. The prisoners will not harm him, from the accusation on their report, they were not hostile. When imprisoned, the first one didn’t resist arrest. When we found the other two, they both quietly followed the jailers orders and none of them have even tried escaping their cell. I think they might be innocent on the account of ‘Hostile and Dangerous’.” The Elder of The Sense-Sphere was slightly proud of himself at what he had just said, he was there when the man arrived and could not sense any hostile intent on his higher brain frequencies.
“But sir, you are forgetting that he did use that long, sonic probe to assault the citizens at the celebration. That was obviously hostile and incredibly evil.”
“I am not sure. I examined every piece of evidence before calling this trial and saw that is was a stick made of wood with holes that when covered, altered the sound of said “probe”. Our ears are highly tunes to high and low frequency communication, it is possible that he was telling the truth and it was a musical instrument for the celebration. It is not the first time where a criminal was wrongfully convicted.”
“But sir, even if you make the court believe that ridiculous statement, then how are you going to change their minds on the impersonation of a famous figure. We take impersonation seriously ever since the City Administrator deceived the entire town. It is now the worst crime of the Sense-Sphere and other planets in this galaxy alike.” The young alien was not taking this lightly, he was just sure this man was guilty, but the man he looked up to was just going to let him walk for the most ridiculous reasons.
”Do not worry, the truth will prevail, it always does.” The Elder, looking plain in his robes and alone with his distant thoughts, was being questioned.
“The truth only prevails once the right man can find it,” he then walked away to another part of the room and then continued the conversation with himself “, and that man shall be me.”
***
With a solid line between the two equal’s eyes that wouldn’t be broken by the city falling, was simply whisked away by the Doctor:
“No I won’t, and you know why, because I’m the Doctor,” he then took a brief pause, like his parallel did,” and you have no power over me. Really Master, did you think you actually could hypnotize me. I might have failed every subject at the academy and never could get along; mental blockage was my strong suit.”
“Mental blockage Doctor, that makes sense since you never can seem to choose the right side to fight on.” Ben and Polly were both standing there, to the side, with mouths that could touch the floor at the moment. The combination of a man whose face exploded from a skeleton to a gorgeous romantic who could make a Dalek melt and then still try to kill their friend. The past few hours were completely arbitrary now, Polly had grown to know this man and hear his stories to keep her mind off of the cruel events of the day. Even after that, the only thing that was still bugging her was why after the lights started bursting, the light on the torch above stopped flickering instantaneously. Ben was severely dehydrated, the hair on his head was limp, and the usually dark skinned sailor was now a pale specter of a man who was too ill to even speak. Not one person noticed this because of the events that were transpiring in front of his despair. The Doctor was confidently looking at this menacing individual, apparently named the Master, and didn’t flinch.
“So Master, why are you here, what do you want on the Sense-Sphere?” spoke the Doctor in a deep voice that showed that he was obviously trying too hard to scare his opponent.
“Oh Doctor, I’m on the planet where telepathic communication was invented, that power is too much to pass up a chance to try and steal. I’d love to tell you everything, but you are also needed for the plan.” The Master was gleefully smiling at his own genius, until he was derailed by Polly.
“Why is the torch out, it kept flickering and twisting until you changed and now it is normal? Why did it do that?”
“To put it simply, my dear, my disguise takes several watts of mental, telepathic, and dimensional energy just to stay on, even more to be believable. With all that energy and much more, it uses more atoms and molecules than the atomic bomb. With all that flooding through my body, it vibrates the atoms. When atoms vibrate, they begin to heat and flame. But on a universal scale that uses heat from the torches as a power source, it makes the fire react physically just as it does microscopically, it is often referred to as the Romdation Paradigm. The vibration of the molecules can make several stomachs toss and turn like yours did, Doctor, when you entered the cell. The same thing is happening to your little friend over here.” By motioning towards Ben, Polly sprang up and rushed the few feet to help her friend. The Master was happily laughing and strolling towards the other corridor that led towards his TARDIS. The Doctor, also at the ad of Ben, noticed his peer’s presence no longer there.
“Polly, the Master left and I need to go after him before he does anything. Call the jailor, the Elder, a civilian, anyone who can help Ben. At the moment, I need to catch him.” Polly, tear stained and unaware of the universe around her at the moment, understood the Doctor and nodded in agreement. The Doctor ran off in his infamous way of occasionally tripping oddly hobbling to keep stability. He was panting by the time he could hear the adversary he was pursuing. Finally, catching up to him, the man slid behind an average construction pipe. The Doctor obviously knew better and followed behind the pipe, so quickly that the man couldn’t even throw the lever that would deadlock the door from any intruders. The interior of this pipe was infinite and was almost entirely a mirror image of the Doctor’s. Other than some obvious visual differences like a black color scheme to the walls, the slightly updated console controls, and more than one door leading away from the console room, there were only two real differences. The console was a slightly altered version that had different functions for each control and the dematerialization was smoother and less noisy. With a snicker and a satisfied side glance towards him, the Doctor realized a hugely significant detail in the event that just took place. This was the Master’s TARDIS, his domain, and the Doctor had just fallen into his trap.
Chapter Nine: The Messenger’s Dilemma
Pacing wildly through the long, sparkling clean streets, the messenger was only a few steps away from the prison. Turning the last corner, he gazed upon the open-mouthed entrance to the underground prison of his planet. The fairly young and energy-filled Sensorite stopped to breathe for a few seconds to overlook the situation. For all he knew, the prisoners could be savage murderers without a soul, or they could be nice, gentle people who were wrongfully accused. He was at the celebration when the event happened and he sensed no ill-will on the man’s frequency fields, the two others convicted did not put up a fight or argue when they were convicted. These people could possibly be innocent bystanders who landed on the wrong place at the wrong time. Slowly light-footing the mildew encrusted stairs, he came across a crying female humanoid lying over what seemed to be a dead male humanoid.
“What are you doing out of your cell?” was the standard and obvious thing to say in this situation, but not to come across as heartless, he quickly replied back with “, is he alright?”
“He’s sick and there is nothing I can do, please help,” said the cowering girl over her friends body, who now from a closer look, was still breathing. Thinking as a peaceful being and not a heartless merchant, he leaned over to help. The girl was slightly smiling now at the thought of someone being nice to her after today’s events and helping her. Taking the disc from the resting plate on his shoulder, he then put it to the sick ones head to take a medical scan. He then raised the disc to his own forehead to receive the results.
“He has suffered severe damage to the frequency fields of his mind and is in a conscious coma where he can feel the pain. It is easily treatable, but not common. He must have been experiencing major dimension distortions and not done anything about it. I will now help.” He said this as he pulled the disc slowly down from his forehead and back onto the sick-one’s. After replacing it on the man, he moved it over his body at a painfully slow speed, every move followed by either a moan or screech from the person being treated. After this for almost 5 minutes, the disc was then raised approximately 1 foot above the man’s stomach and the messenger then turned his head to the girl.
“I am now in the final stage of the process and will need to encase him in a psychic dome to fully heal. I hope that is okay. By the way, what is your name?”
“I’m Polly, and this is Ben.” Now knowing their names and informing Polly about the final phase, he then pushed his finger against a small, grey-colored button on his disc and immediately and swiftly, a blue light started emanating from the plate of it. The alien with the grey, leathery skin was curing Ben at an amazing speed with this light. It eventually began to flood over his body at half a foot above him and it started to encase itself like a dome, surrounding his body in a blue egg-like shield. With a few minutes gone by, the dome then started to sluggishly retract into itself, like a snail going into its shell, the reason Ben would live was fainting away into thin air.
“P…P…Pol…Polly?” said a whispery voice near the ground. Polly was flamboyant with excitement and then pulled Ben up to hug him. After doing that she then turned to the alien who cured her best friend.
“Thank you, sir, I honestly thank you for saving my friend. By the way what is your name?” She was hugging this man tightly as she exclaimed this and he looked back at her.
“Messenger”
“Messenger is your name?” Polly was slightly taken aback by this statement of the person.
“Yes, here on the Sense-Sphere, our position in the government is our name. That reminds me, I was sent here to retrieve the three prisoners. Where is the third?” Ben answered this question, meekly and painfully he relayed:
“The Master escaped and he tr…tri…tried to catch him before he es…esca…escaped.” He then fell unconscious and pale.
“What just happened, is he okay?” Polly screamed in a questioning tone at the Messenger.
“Patients who received that treatment have to rest for hours at a time before they can fully interact again; he tried to speak to us before he was ready.” The Messenger was sympathetic in his saying of this and was truthfully sorry for Polly’s trials over the day.
“We need to take him Ben and you to the High Council for your trial, I was sent here to get you guys. We’ll need to carry him.” Polly reluctantly agreed with this and took his head and arms, while the messenger took the legs and feet. They carefully waded up the sinkhole of an entrance to the gleaming streets. While carrying him to the court house, Polly wondered how such an amazing city and civilization could ever do this. After a few minutes of walking, they reached the palace of a court house and went through the doors into the main room where the High Council was meeting. As they came through the doors with Ben in hand, Polly suddenly noticed, the torches on the wall were twisting; she suddenly noticed a skeletal Romdast on the witness stand and the Doctor on the prisoners stand. Just as everything clicked in Polly’s mind, she could tell they were to late when she heard the Elder declare:
“The court finds this man guilty on all charges. He is now to be given the punishment of execution delivered now. Prepare to fire.”
Chapter Ten: Trial By Appearance
(Before The Events Of Chapter 9)
Looking the adversary squarely in his sculpted face, he felt no fear or anger, only confusion. Several questions sprinted through the Doctor’s mind at once, and he wanted answers.
“So, Master, I have already figured out that you sent the distress signal, so why?”
“Really Doctor, even though the revelation of my sending the call was simple to work out, even someone who knew that could work out the answer to your predicament. Are you testing me, or are you really that naïve?” The Master, briskly and carefully, glanced at the Doctor in the eyes again to fully embrace his answer.
“Well, I would guess that you want the fall of the Sense-Sphere to control all mental energy in the universe.”
“Yes, good, keep going.”
“The reason you sent the call to me was to have me either help you in the plan or be destroyed by the results of your plan.
“Getting warmer, almost there.”
“And that you hid as both Romdast and the Reaper to scan the Sensorites’ brains to complete the information on your plan.” The Doctor stood there, extremely proud of his own cleverness.
“No, that last part was all wrong. I need nothing of these puny primitives. I could complete my plan in the next 5 minutes if I really wanted to, but I won’t. You see, I need the minds in small doses. Like you guessed, my plan is to control the Sense=Sphere’s mental energy reserves and rule the universe as everyone as my slave, one cannot simply do that at once. No, I would need to slowly absorb doses of the power and have my mind and body cope with the effects.” With no feeling, he looked down and finished setting the controls that he started when the Doctor entered.
“But you could blow yourself to smithereens before you could gain any power, even in miniscule doses over time. How could you have been so...so…so?
“Genius, you may not see it now, Doctor, but I have an incredible mind and can bear more mental influence and energy that you ever could possibly imagine. I am stronger, smarter, less attached to primitives for company,” suddenly the dry heaving noise stopped, and the center column stopped moving “, and more cunning, too.” The lever for the door was thrown down instantly and the Doctor was pulled, by an incredibly mighty, disembodied strength out the door. Finally able to raise upwards, the Doctor noticed how sparklingly clean the room was and how many old men were in the room with him. Looking behind himself, he noticed that, to the normal eye, he had just fallen through a large crack in a column behind him. Followed less than immediately by the Master, the Doctor heard a dry, heaving voice from a silver robe-clad Sensorite, who read:
“On the accusations of assaulting citizens of the Sense-Sphere and impersonation of a highly placed political figure, how do you plea?”
“Not guilty,” said the Doctor who was overly confident that he could win the trial and walk free. Hearing the following statement, though, made his hearts drop.
“You were tried previously and were founded guilty, the question was only to ease the transition. You will be punished for your actions on the charges of imperso…” Suddenly the doors of the court house swung open with an almighty thump to reveal a young Sensorite and Polly, grime-and-soot covered from the prison, carrying Ben who was unconscious and slightly more skin-colored than the Doctor had last remembered him being. Angered by being interrupted and wanting to finish the trial, the speaker yelled:
“This court finds this man guilty on all charges. He is now to be given the punishment of execution delivered now. Prepare to fire.” As he said this, several rows of leathery, faced aliens stood up and discharged their weapons in the Doctor’s direction.
Chapter Eleven: Three To Doomsday
“No, sto…stop it!” screamed a very loud Ben who had been sleeping in the arms of his comrades only a few seconds before “, no one is gu…guil…guilty for anything. That man behind the Doctor is the cause of all this.” Stunning the court and making most of the executioners lower their weapons, Ben started to now pull himself away from Polly’s arms and try to stand up. After a few painfully failed attempts, he finally succeeded and continued with his speech.
“The Doctor and us were in the TARDIS when we heard a noise that the Doctor said was a distress signal and we followed it here. When he left the door to check if it was safe, he was thrown in jail for assaulting the people there. After waiting for a while, I accidentally opened the doors and we were captured, too. After meeting that skeleton up there,” Ben at that point, pointed at the Master, not so cleverly disguised as Romdast “, we learned he was a bad guy and he tried to kill us. By that point, he ran off and the Doctor followed and I collapsed. Next thing I know, I’m in here with all you blokes and I just want to get home at this point. So don’t be pointing fingers at us, we got a full confession from this guy and we are innocent.” Ben was astounded at his own words, along with the several dozen numbers of Sensorites that stood in front of him. The Doctor and Polly, parallel to Ben in position, had both jaws on the floor and joined the painfully quiet silence that was collectively with every person, except the Master. With a sneer of joy on his face and a slight menacing chuckle on his lips, he began walking off the podium that he had joined the Doctor on and went towards the young sailor. Before he could get near him, though, the Elder spoke with a booming, yet still wispy voice.
“Is what this boy saying is true? If it is, strange looking-man, than you will be given this man’s sentence. I sense low-frequency vibrations of evil intent on your mental fields.” The Master again started chuckling like a clown and couldn’t stop.
“Seriously, you think I would ever do anything like this. These people, or whatever they are, are escaped convicts and will lie about anything or anyone to save themselves. I would say that this was a carefully planned, but not very well executed ambush on the Sense-Sphere that will most likely end in your ultimate destruction.” The Sensorites were buying everything that the bearded lawyer was saying, as if he had them under his control.
“But no, none of that is true, not one single line. What happened was as Ben explained it, we are not convicts, we are simply travelers who received a distress signal which this man admitted he sent for the intention of using me for a plan to destroy the Sense-Sphere.” The Elder and the community that was the court all had blank expressions on their plain-bearded faces. The Master, admiring the polished pearl columns that he would soon destroy, noticed the door behind him were open and ready for him to use as an escape route. As he ran through them, the Doctor leapt from the confession stand and started running, pulling Polly and Ben behind him.
“If you leave this courtroom, you shall not be imprisoned anymore, but executed and have your bodies thrown to the outer lands! Do I make myself clear?” was what the Elder screamed as the Doctor left. Turning around and peaking his tiny head through the door, not wishing to be rude, he responded with a cheery:
“Perfectly, yes, absolutely perfect in every way were your instructions. The thing is, I don’t want to follow them.” Running again in his infamous way, the Doctor hardly missed the gunfire of the trigger happy executioners as they chased after him. As they had lost hardly any time in the hunt for the skeletal imposter, the Master was in clear sight the whole time they were chasing him. The TARDIS was left in the street as it had been when it landed, right at the opportune place for the Master to steal it. Coming up to the battered wooden doors, the Master plunged his hand into the pocket of his jacket and took the generic TARDIS key from it. Forcefully and quite happily, he put the key in the lock, turned it the accurate 45 degrees, and pushed on the door.
“Doctor,” he said screaming the direction of his assailant “, lucky that they were so decided that they wouldn’t interfere that they didn’t even make the locks different.” Cackling all the way through the short corridor of the door and into the console room, the then noticed his make-up was starting to fall. Pulling up his Tissue Compression Eliminator, he pushed it against his face and pushed the button. The entire light system of the TARDIS was now fluttering and blinking. Even from the exterior, the light on top was flashing on and off, as if in Morse Code. The Doctor, Polly, and Ben were gazing upon this as it happened while running up to the door. Zombie minded Sensorites were walking down the cloud colored streets, shooting their guns and hoping to hit the heroes.
“Oh no you don’t, Master, I will not let you steal my TARDIS. I will kill you before you take her!” The Doctor was absolutely fuming as he plunged his key into the lock and threw his way in. As he came in, the mask was reapplied now and the Master was in the middle of the room, pointing the T.C.E. at them.
“One more move, Doctor, you and your company will be no more alive than your mind already is.”
“Really Master, why do we need to play these petty ga…?” He said this as he stepped forward and the Master casually flicked his finger against the button and rendered the Doctor unconscious, falling to the floor.
“What was that for, he was tryi…?” Again, he zapped it at the dumbfounded Ben, making him falling to the floor, also.
“Please don’t hurt me,” cried the sobbing Polly, just before he used the device on her, too. After the final blast, a spark flew off the end of his weapon, then two sparks, then four. Suddenly, the sparks just flew off into the floor and onto different devices. Flames sprang to life in a few seconds and, immediately, they started throwing and twisting themselves until you could be sick of the sight. The Master, dashing away like the coward he was, hid in the hallway that lead to the food machine. As he did this, two zombie Sensorites came in and did their duties and thought the three travelers to be dead. Sending and receiving messages for about a minute, they left and the Master got up. Getting out of the corridor and seeing all the destruction he had done from the twisting flames to the enslaving of the strongest population mentally, he didn’t feel bad, or sad, or even sorry. All he did was laugh, and laugh, and laugh. Episode four: stillness Chapter 12: A Defense from the Grave
Laughing, dreaming, self-congratulating, all these things were happening inside a blue box on a pearl white, stone street. So much emotion was too much, even for a box of that size and importance. Even the zombified Sensorites at the court house could understand the evil of the voice that was laughing.
“Oh, this make-up just won’t do anymore, I must change,” joyously exuberated the Master while looking at his skeletal and scabby hands “, at least it isn’t permanent.” Looking for a last time at the twirling and twisting flames on the floor of the magnificent device he was in, he laid his head, gently, against the air. Waiting for another second for his own suspense, he flung his arms out, enough to bruise a man, and the rainbow configuration of color began. Slowly, the flesh and bone bits were falling off as they had several times before, just pulsating off at a precarious rate. Not a total change, but enough to rejuvenate anything that would’ve happened. As soon as the last vestige went to the cutting room floor, the Master was now the man he truly was underneath, a hollow hearted megalomaniac with the sole purpose in life just to conquer the universe, and he was just fine with that. With the flame now still, a screech suddenly became audible, one that would tear your eardrums to pieces, a high enough frequency to not only release the Sensorites from trance, but to do something else. Suddenly, the Doctor, groggy and wounded, but still alive stood up. The screech emitted itself from the console, just under a light that was flaring on and off at a faster speed that thought.
“No, Doctor, no, please. I beg of you, don’t.”
“Time to take a nap, Master.” The Doctor lunged downwards against the wrecked control unit, and threw his fist on the light. Suddenly, the Master was bellowing out in pain, pain like he never experienced before, like no one had experienced before. As the pain grew more intense, he started to fade, fade away like a drawing on sand when the tide comes in. First his hands, then arms, feet went next, followed by the legs, stomach, chest, and shoulders.
“Please Doctor, it is not too late to reverse the sequence, I will help. As long as I can ge…” was all he could say as the Doctor seamlessly flicked his wrist against the switch next to the light, increasing the power, leaving nothing but an even more dramatic and painful scream from the Master. Now that he was not the problem of the moment, the Doctor flipped the door switch and left the still unconscious and incredibly bruised Polly and Ben to rest. Striding sadly through the miniscule corridor that had to be entered before leaving the TARDIS, the Doctor stopped and started to wonder how much devastation, how many losses, how many deaths or mortally wounding events did he have to face to realize that this life may be too dangerous for everyone, his friends, the universe, and even himself. But then, he also realized, not nearly enough to make him stop now. He then ran out the battered, navy blue, wooden doors of his ship and headed towards the court house. After all, the sonic pulse was meant for this type of emergency, but he then realized another viably important thing.
“That sonic pulse isn’t the most pleasant thing ever, yet another thing added to my sentence.”
Chapter 13: An Almost Final Farewell
Exactly as the Doctor thought, the Sensorites were waking up, and it didn’t feel that great. Rubbing their leathery scalps and staggering upwards onto their circular feet, they sat back down and waited for him to return. After a few seconds, the flood gates flew open and the greatest mind that ever will be, the legendary name that will send armies away at the mere mention, the man who will never die, came through the doors and promptly said:
“I’m the Doctor, and I feel like I have some explaining to do.” Walking up to the witness stand, the old looks were bearing on him.
“You came back for your trial,” gruffly exclaimed the Elder of the Sense-Sphere “, you are gaining our respect even more. Where is that man you called the Master gone to?”
“Oh, he is just taking a nap. That signal that woke you men up, it is a small defense that I added to my TARDIS. If a person or thing is in my TARDIS that I don’t want and it does anything that could potentially harm my companions or the machine, it is allowed to rip the said thing out of its position in space and can reapply it in a holding cell in the TARDIS. The patch is very small that it will close itself; the noise was to not only alert anyone that it was happening, but also to awake all of you chaps since it could sense that the Master had done something horrible. It hurts a lot, incredibly and irrefutably, but he won’t feel anything when he wakes up. So, if I remember correctly, we are here to convene a court case.”
“Yes, thank you for your explanation. One thing that we Sensorites can also do is override signals and talk during mental control.”
“Oh, really, I didn’t know that, that is handy for those situations. “
“Yes, very ‘handy’. But also, the jury talked during that control and we officially decided that your sonic device wasn’t for hostile reasons and that charge will be dropped.” Leaping up in joy, the Doctor smiled and secretly wished the Master was there to see his triumph.
“Thank you, Elder; I really want to thank you for tha…”
“Yet the charge of impersonation still stands, how do you plead?
“Not guilty, I’ve told you this before.”
“Well, unless you can prove you are a person that was completely different, we have to convict you.”
“But I can, when I was here before, you gentlemen had to scan my mind daily to make sure I wasn’t plotting anything. If I was a different person, then my wavelengths and psychic plane will be different. Check, just check.” All the Sensorites in the room unanimously raised their discs in the northeast direction of the Doctor to scan him, everybody coming up with the same results:
Two hearts, no ill-will on the psychic fields, wavelengths perfectly match the Doctor, 100% match
“Well, Doctor, it seems we have an apology to make.”
“Oh, not at all, I just really want to leave after these past several hours. I just need to go back to the TARDIS and check on Ben and Polly. The Master, I can leave somewhere else, he’ll find his way back to me, he always does. Goodbye.”
“Doctor,” said the Elder as a final farewell “, we’ll send some guards with you. Farewell Doctor, may your journey be a safe and joyous one.” The Doctor waved his hand back to say the same, and left the unknowably high, white doors for the last time with two Sensorites following. Again, they walked back to the ship with hopes the Doctor could leave. Reaching the door, he bid goodnight and goodbye to the two guards that he was escorted by, and went inside. Sure it was torn apart, partially on fire, dirty and smoky, but it was still home to him. Going over to the former console, he looked upon the unconscious bodies of Ben and Polly, hoping they were enjoying their dreams with great delight as he stuck pieces back into themselves and slowly rebuilt his home. As he was doing this, almost as if on cue, a distant and almost painful moan came from down the corridor. Pushing a few buttons and pulling some levers, he started hearing the familiar heaving noises and then walked several rights and lefts and straights, until he finally saw the door. Opening it, he saw two things: a cylinder that went from the ceiling to the floor, holding the Master, and a control pad that will transfer the prisoner to the person’s desires.
“You see, the problem with type 45s is that their captivity cells are in the console room and not back here. By having them there, your prisoner can see everything that you do and if they break out, they can easily see the exit and escape. Did you have a nice nap?”
“Oh, I hate you right now, but not enough to ask one last time if you will join me in my quest to destroy the Sensorites and rule the universes reserve of mental energy. What do you say?”
“You still don’t understand, I am not evil and will not destroy a race of intelligent beings for power I don’t want or need. Why can’t you just watch the universe go by, not shoot everything that moves?”
“You, Doctor, also will never understand. The universe is just a thing that people think they live in, not as an amazing creation that needs to be ruled so all the repulsive primitives can learn.”
“Looks like you’re stuck in this thing until I let you leave, so why don’t you just admit defeat.”
“Oh, Doctor,” smirked the Master as he pulled a small box with a blue button on it “, I never admit defeat.” Pressing the button with enough force that the box slightly warped from pressure, the Master released his final assault.
“What have you done, Master?”
“Doctor, I’ll never have a plan without a final resort. This button just activated a satellite orbiting the Sense-Sphere to start arming its missile to destroy the Sensorites. There is no timer, no trigger, just the random will of space. You lose Doctor, I will never admit defeat.”
“You know, these tubes allow you to transport your prisoner anywhere in time and space so they can be easily left where they need to be. I was thinking that I would leave someplace nice where you could relax and maybe forget your ways, but I’ll just set the coordinates on random and let you land on any cesspool that it chooses. Goodbye Master.”
“Please Doctor; I beg of you, I could end up anywhere.”
“Actually, that is the point.” Pressing buttons on the keypad and setting it to random coordinates, he hit engage and the process began.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh,” was all the shear agony of the transport could allow as the same thing as before happened. The Master was feeling unbearable pain as, one by one, his arms, legs, and everything else faded away to who knows where.
***
Suddenly reappearing on the floor of the capsule of the spearhead, the Master was shivering in a ball because of the low temperature. Crawling around, he could barely see what was happening as though the darkness was self-induced. After a few seconds of crawling, a light burst into life to reveal the gray, metallic interior of the spacecraft he was in. Then another light went to reveal the bottom steps of a throne, then another light, then another, until every single one was on. As the Master realized the lighting difference and waited for his eyes to adjust, he looked up and saw living mannequins gaining on him, as if to attack, but the attack was shortly postponed when a deep booming voice spoke:
“Why have you appeared on our ship, our invasion plan on Earth has failed and now we have a stowaway? Explain yourself.”
“W…We…Well I was sent here by transmit by accident and would love to leave.”
“The Nestenes do not do people favors, we just rule over people, what can you say to stop us from ruling you?
“Well, you said your invasion plan was had failed, was this to any fault of a man named the Doctor?”
“Yes, why is that important?”
“Oh, your majesty, it means we have a common enemy and I think I could help you by getting rid of this man. What do you say to that?”
Chapter 14: The Missile
Flustering out to the white hallway, now wishing he had his cell in the console room, the Doctor couldn’t waste one more second on anything else. Unfortunately, there was no way of telling if the seconds wasted were too many. After less than a minute of traipsing the corridors of his miraculous machine, the Doctor was now inside the central hub of his personal operations. Pushing and pulling and doing anything and everything on the console, Polly and Ben started to wake up.
“Oh my head, I feel like a herd of cows trampled me,” moaned the head-ache suffering Ben.
“You’d be lucky, that would hurt much less than the alternative of this situation,” quickly witted the Doctor back at him.
“But what do you mean, Doctor?” sifted Polly as she dizzily stood up and joined the sailor and alien at the console.
“Well Polly, the Master just sent a rocket to destroy the Sense-Sphere,” was the thought he verbalized without lifting his head from the controls. Punching different colors and almost ripping the levers from the sockets, the Doctor was trying to do to miracles at once.
“What are you doing Doctor?” said the benign Polly.
“I’m trying to first locate the missile and also make a psychic link between the TARDIS and the Elder of the Sense-Sphere, both of which are extremely hard tasks to complete.”
“But Doctor, can’t you just…”
“Shhh… Polly, I’m getting through to him.” The monitor suddenly flickered onto existence, showing a still line, as if it were a heart rate monitor hooked onto a dead man, but then, it sprang to life with the simplest words of the Elder.
“Doctor, what seems to be the problem?”
“Elder, the Master has just set up a missile to come into impact on your planet and I am trying to find it. Try to move your people underground in case I fail.”
“But Doctor, most of my people are High Councilmen; they will simply refuse to lower themselves to the depths of the sewers at all, even less at someone they think guilty.”
“But I thought it was a unanimous vote that I was wrongfully convicted?”
“In a court of law, the majority is who wins. We had most, but not all think you were innocent.”
“Oh, well I’ll just have to take them off my Christmas card list, haven’t I.? But still, I don’t care just get them underground.”
“Okay, Doctor, I’ll get as many as are willing.” The line then went still again and the monitor turned black, both confirming that the line was closed. The Doctor, now just looking at his navigational controls, was doing the most important thing at hand to save them.
“Yes, oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”
“What Doctor?”
“I just located the satellite, I just need to find the wavelength the signal is acting on and then I can cancel it. Let us see, just decode the first one and we’ll be…” was the last thing the Doctor uttered before the deafening blast. The satellite had suddenly disarmed itself and had a hurtling missile sent straight for the center of the Sense-Sphere.
“Wait, no, that can’t happen, it can’t destroy the planet, the Master cannot win. I just have to think of something really clever,” speaking at speeds unheard of, the Doctor continued for a couple seconds until, “I’ve got it, I materialize in the way of the missile.”
“But that will kill us Doctor,” said Polly and Ben, almost together in timing.
“No, we won’t. I will also dematerialize at the exact millisecond it would hit us so that it will still hit the TARDIS, but we also won’t be there to be hit.”
“But that makes no sense,” screamed Polly.
“Maybe not, but it will most likely work.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“Well, if we are a millisecond to early, it will miss us and go straight on to the planet, but if we are a millisecond to late, it will hit us had on and we will be blasted into several billion pieces and shall die painfully. You see Polly, Ben, that is the worst that can happen.” Smiling what he said off as if it was the most pleasant and effort-free thing in the universe. Pulling himself to every one of the six sides of the console, every second counted as he threw more switches and more levers, just until the missile was at its closest.
“Okay guys, it will be here in 3…2…1…wish me luck!” as he pulled the last switch for dematerialization, the missile collided, and everything went black.
Chapter 15: Scotland Ahoy
The city was quiet and still when a dull heaving noise filled the city. When the noise stopped itself, a blue box was standing in its place. Not awkwardly, like it belonged there, like it belonged anywhere and everywhere in the universe. The only difference from before was that it had a small crack in one of its windows and a small circle of removed paint. As the quiet continued, it was abruptly extinguished by a door squeaking on its hinges and a small man walked out explaining:
“Oh Polly, just see reason, I was only a nanosecond off, the inconvenience was barely noticeable.” A slightly taller, but still short girl followed him and opened her small mouth, but not fast enough for a deep, disembodied voice inside the box.
“Doctor, we were all flung two meters off our feet, that wasn’t noticeable?” The man the voice belonged to came out last, but the arguing continued. It could surely have continued for hours if not for an old, raspy that called out:
“Thank you Doctor, thank you very much,” were the Elder’s words as the throne he sat on was elevated over everyone to show his dominance.
“You too, Elder, you too. I think we should be leaving now, if you don’t mind.” Not really waiting for an answer. The crew walked into their ship again and shut the doors for the final time on the Sense-Sphere.
“Doctor, what did happen to the Master?” quizzically asked Polly.
“Oh, I had him in a cell and transported him to random coordinates, most likely nowhere he can do me any more harm; well, you two should go get some rest while I choose a new destination,” were the nimble man’s words as he pulled the lever to dematerialize. As this happened, the crew was again thrown to the floor with a jolt and the ship started to spiral out of control, not knowing what would happen next.
“Doctor, what’s happening?”
“That missile must have done more damage than I thought; I can easily fix it, though,” the Doctor pulled himself upwards with amazing strength unto the console. As he did this, he pressed several buttons and read several computer read outs until, *shoom*, the ship was stabilized.
“Are we okay?” said Polly as she was very worried “, was it the Master?”
“No, Polly, it was the damage from the missile, the only damage is the computer says we are now on a fixed location. Let me look at the screen to see where.”
“What is it?”
“Scotland, the computer says we’re headed for 18th century Scotland. What will we ever find in 18th century Scotland?”