Here's the first of hopefully many DW stories written by members of Doctor Who Columbus. Enjoy!
Doctor Who
Battle
By Daniel Milks (email doctorwhocolumbus-owner @ yahoogroups.com (remove the spaces to send email)).
He’d never heard explosions like this before. Of course, he should be one to know, having witnessed battle after battle, war after war through all his adventures. He never thought he’d become embroiled in a war that would be so deeply personal and strike at his home. It was difficult to imagine it under attack. After all the years of traveling and wandering, he’d thought of his ship as home. But he still remembered his past, though he’d often wanted to forget it.
The sounds he’d heard weren’t quite explosions in the sense that humans would think of them. As a Time Lord, he was able to sense disturbances in time and had some power over them. But here, he could sense histories being rewritten and the outcome of battles being changed as they happened in front of them. To an outsider, they wouldn’t understand what was going on. But he could.
He sensed the structure of time being perverted, being bent out of shape to suit the needs of the enemy.
I can’t believe I’ve become a soldier in a war, he thought.
The war had been going on for what had seemed an eternity in his eyes, with all of time hanging in the balance.
He was drawn back into his concentration on the battle. He used his mental focus to compute time equations to predict and outmaneuver the enemies’ time plans. This was the final battle, he had thought. Most of his people had been wiped from existence in the course of this war.
Now, his people had gathered their forces together for a risky gambit that could end in a staggering amount of lives lost.
But there was no choice.
He looked at his monitor screen. He saw the space around his world surrounded by the all too familiar ships of the Enemy. There were so many that the twin suns of his world appeared to be blotted out. A battle fleet, the like of which he’d never seen before.
His sworn enemy. Daleks.
The Daleks was shaped Time using the secrets stolen from the Time Lords. To think that he had helped create the beginnings of this war…..
Long ago, the Time Lords had taken him out of time and sent him to change the Daleks’ evolution. He hadn’t done all he could to wipe out the enemy, knowing that their existence would lead to a greater good among alien civilizations. Entire civilizations would band together out of fear producing allies and peace.
But now he was beginning to think that he may have made the wrong choice. All the choices he had made had led him here…
Once the Daleks had discovered the Time Lord plan using their scavenged time technology, they focused all their power towards the extermination of the Time Lords and establish themselves as the new Lords of Time.
An arm touched his shoulder, while he was lost in thought.
“Are you ready, Doctor?” said the female voice.
It was Romana. She was leading the final battle as the head of the High Council.
“Yes,” said the Doctor, with a hint of sadness in his voice.
As he turned to face Romana, she could see the past Doctor that she knew from the past captured in his eyes, though they had become more focused since the war. The scars of the war left a visible impact on his aura. He had thick and curly hair and a great sadness in his eyes. Even now, he still wore a trademark anachronistic Edwardian fashion.
They walked arm in arm towards the Temporal Battle Room.
The inside of the Temporal Battle Room would appear to sparsely decorated to a non-time sensitive creature. But not to the Time Lords. They saw endless displays of information and past, present, and future histories changing as the Dalek Emperor had made its progress towards its goal of wiping out the Time Lords.
“So, it’s come to this,” said the Doctor.
“Yes, I’m afraid it has,” said Romana.
“Even if this works, someone will have to destroy the abandoned Dalek temporal facilities so no one else tries to take advantage of them.”
“I know. Many civilizations are desperate, with their entire planets being transformed into worlds that are only suitable for Dalek life.”
“The Nestenes have already made use of abandoned temporal technology and headed for Earth. I’d hate to see what my other enemies would do with it.”
“You’ll stop them, Doctor. You always do.” She smiled at him.
He sighed and half smiled back at her.
*
Aboard the Dalek warship, the enemy began executing its plans. Battle computers calculated move after countermove and predicted the outcome of the Time Lords. The worst case prediction was losses of 85.24% of its forces if the battle was successful. Those losses were acceptable for them to gain control over Time.
*
The Doctor and Romana were sealed in the Battle Room in the Gallifreyan Security Complex to avoid any interruptions and to focus on the battle.
He glanced behind him at his trusty TARDIS. He was glad to have it so close to him, especially now. He took a locket from his pocket. A series of images flashed over it, in four dimensions.
Trafalgar Square. Meteblis 3. The House of Lungbarrow. Susan. Vicki. Jo. Peri. Anji. Fitz. Liz. Mike. Alastair. Leela. The Death Zone. And his TARDIS, his home for so many years….
He sat there, lost in thought, lost in the past.
Then his silence was broken by a voice from behind.
“Isn’t it too late to be reminiscing now, Doctor?” said Romana as she stepped toward him.
“I suppose you’re right, but being Time Lords, time is what makes us what we are, our past, future, present, and futures not to be,” said the Doctor.
“So you think our plan will work?” asked Romana.
“Well, I haven’t done anything like it, oh in, well a couple centuries, with a stroke of luck, it’ll work.”
“I know, luring the enemy to our planet, turning it into a black hole, and escaping via a time tunnel powered by the Eye of Harmony isn’t the most rational choice in the universe.”
The Doctor finished her thought. “But it’s the only choice we have. They’ve been exterminating our race, tampering with the past, and altering the natural course of history among countless races. Evil things like these have to be fought. To the death. We are the Guardians of Time.”
Romana paused. “Yes, you’re right Doctor. I am sorry that you’ve had such a personal loss, your companions, Fitz and Anji and Charley.”
The Doctor looked deeply hurt, sadness in his often whimsical eyes. “They were killed because of me. They hunted them down, tortured them, and killed them only because they traveled with me. I thought they would be safe, where I left them, but the Daleks knew. They took pleasure in exterminating them all. Just because they knew me. They sent me a message etched in blood.”
Romana put a hand on the Doctor’s shoulder.
“Of course, the Daleks captured you once too, Romana. I’m sure their treatment of you wasn’t gentle,” said the Doctor.
Romana had a look of anguish on her face.
Changing the subject, the Doctor interjected, “No sense in putting this off, let’s get things in motion, shall we?”
“I agree. I’m sure you’ll defeat them just like you put their army on the planet Spiridon into a time loop,” said Romana.
“I’m sure I will.” The Doctor moved to the control panel. He began to initiate the time weapon on the control panel.
But distractedly, he turned around to face Romana.
“Wait a moment, I never told you about that,” said the Doctor.
“Oh, you didn’t?”
“No. There was too much at stake to tell anyone the location of a massive army of Daleks. The Daleks themselves didn’t know the location of the planet after I was done moving it to the farthest corner of the universe.”
Romana had taken a staser from her side and pointed it at the Doctor.
“Or so I thought,” said the Doctor.
The Doctor stared at her in surprise.
“What are you doing?”
“Haven’t you guessed by now, Time Lord?”
“Time Lord? Who are you? What have you done to Romana?”
Romana twisted her face into an expression of arrogance and hatred.
“There is no Romana.”
Romana’s voice disappeared, replaced by a deep booming tone. “WE MEET AGAIN, DOCTOR.”
“The Emperor. Of course.”
“YES, DOCTOR. I AM THE EMPEROR OF THE DALEKS. WE ALTERED YOUR ROMANA WHEN SHE WAS CAPTURED BY OUR FORCES LONG AGO. WE KNOW ALL SHE KNOWS.”
The Doctor looked at Romana, enraged. He looked at Romana and saw no trace of the woman he knew. If he could reach the control panel and activate the plan, there was a hope for the survival of his race.
“YOUR PLAN WILL FAIL.”
“THE DALEKS WILL CONQUER AND DESTROY GALLIFREY AND BECOME THE NEW LORDS OF TIME.”
“Never!” screamed the Doctor.
He could reach the control panel, if only he could keep the Emperor distracted. Was there a way he could reach Romana? Or was she lost forever?
“What will you do when you are the New Time Lords?”
“WE WILL PURGE THE UNIVERSE OF THE FILTH THAT IS NOT DALEK.”
“Is that all? What about art? Beauty? The miracle of life? Mysteries to be solved?”
“THOSE IDEAS ARE ONLY WEAKNESSES. THE DALEKS HAVE NO WEAKNESSES.”
“What will you do when there is nothing left, aside from Daleks?”
“WE WILL CONQUER.”
“But what then?”
“WE WILL MAKE THE COSMOS INTO A PARADISE FIT FOR THE DALEKS.”
Was there a way he could reach the control panel and activate the temporal weapon in time? He had to risk it, even though a staser at its deadliest setting could prevent him from regenerating.
“I want to speak to Romana.”
“SHE NO LONGER EXISTS,” said the booming voice. Her eyes were vacant and he could see no signs of the person he knew.
Still, he had to try to reach her.
“Romana, don’t you remember the time you fixed K-9 on the beach? The time we celebrated you becoming President? The time that I was right about piloting the TARDIS?”
“YOUR ATTEMPTS TO REACH HER WILL BE OF NO USE.”
The Doctor edged slowly towards the control panel.
“YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED.”
The Doctor broke into a run.
Romana’s gun fired and shot the Doctor in the back. He absorbed the blast full force. His body spasmed as he slumped to the floor.
“AS YOU CAN SEE, THE DALEKS HAVE WON.”
“THE ENEMY OF THE DALEKS IS NO MORE.”
The Doctor wasn’t breathing.
“GALLIFREY WILL BE BECOME OUR NEW HOMEWORLD. OUR OWN WAS DESTROYED BY THE TIME LORDS. NEW SKARO WILL BRING ORDER TO THE UNIVERSE.”
This can’t be the end, he thought. He felt the world spinning, out of control, the feeling that he had in the past before he regenerated, but it wasn’t the same this time. He couldn’t do that now.
He began to hear voices. He saw his past fluttering ahead of him. His family – his real family – appeared in front of him. If only things with them could have been different, he thought.
No. This can’t happen, he thought.
The shell of Romana was working at the control panel, lowering the transduction shields around the planet, allowing the Dalek force into Gallifrey’s sector of space.
The Doctor’s awareness came back to his body. He noticed that she – no that wasn’t right, he thought -- it – had not disabled the temporal weapon yet as it was focused on opening the shields. He wondered if his own people knew what was happening. The evacuation plan was narrowly timed to the destruction of Gallifrey, since it would use the energy created by the Black Hole to allow his people to escape.
He was the Doctor. He was not going to let it end like this. He crawled to the control panel.
It turned around.
“FOOLISH DOCTOR. YOU WERE EXTERMINATED.”
He was almost at the console.
It shot him again and he fell face down on the console, still. The Romana shell went back to its work of lowering the transduction barriers.
The entire Dalek fleet was almost through the shields. The Dalek host continued its work. It noticed an alert. It went through the system to determine its location.
The Time Weapon had been activated.
“I think,” the Doctor stammered, “that the phrase you’re looking for is you’ve been exterminated.”
“THIS CANNOT BE CORRECT. THE DALEKS WILL SURVIVE.”
“WE WILL TAKE YOUR TARDIS AND TRAVEL IN TIME TO PREVENT THIS DISASTER.”
“No, you won’t,” said the Doctor and he struggled to take his sonic screwdriver from his pocket. “I’ve set my TARDIS to self-destruct when I press this button. Here”
He didn’t have a chance. The shell of Romana lifted him up in the air and broke his hand.
The Doctor screamed in pain.
“WE WILL DESTROY YOU DOCTOR. YOU ARE THE HEATHEN TO MY RACE.”
The displays in the room showed the Dalek fleet begin to decay and fade out of all time. The planet shook with explosions.
Gallifrey was in its death throes.
The shell of Romana reached to his throat and began choking him.
The room spun around him.
At least I’m taking the Daleks with me, he thought.
It’s been a good life, he thought. A good eight lives.
*
“Doctor?”
He thought he was hallucinating as he heard Romana’s voice. He looked into her eyes and noticed that she was back.
She held up his limp and bloodied body and was dragging him into his TARDIS.
“I set the staser to a lower setting, Doctor. Otherwise you’d have been dead. I have to stay here, there’s no telling what else the Daleks have done to me. I don’t trust myself anymore.”
She kissed him on the cheek and smiled.
“As long as you survive, the Time Lords survive, “ she said.
“Romana, this isn’t the way…..” He could barely speak.
Romana pushed the Doctor inside, slamming the door shut. He fell to the floor and he heard the familiar sound of his TARDIS dematerializing.
The TARDIS shook with the explosions. His planet was dying. He could feel it. Feel the disruption of time and space. His people fading out of existence.
And then he felt nothing.
*
He awoke in the TARDIS. There was no pain. He moved his hand experimentally. He had trouble remembering where he was and what had just happened. He felt confused, renewed, energized, but sad for some reason. Well, no time to waste, he would figure out what just happened soon….
He stood up quickly.
He looked down at his clothes.
“Blimey! These won’t do at all. Too fancy.”
He opened the door to the TARDIS. It was daylight and there was a department store just across the street.
“Fantastic!” he exclaimed.
He entered the store and grabbed the clothes from of the first mannequin he saw in the window. No time to waste, he thought. For once, he would blend in with his surroundings. No more frilly shirts for him!
Just as soon as he grabbed his new wardrobe, he heard a scream from the basement.
“Never a moment’s rest eh, Doctor?” he said.
He went downstairs to investigate, opening door after door. At the end of the hall, he found some poor soul that he couldn’t help. He had died in terrible agony. The Doctor closed his eyes.
He noticed that this room was lined with mannequin after mannequin in a wide variety of poses. Very strange indeed…
“Nah, it couldn’t it be,” he mused.
One of the mannequins moved. And then another. And another.
“No rest for me eh, universe?” said the Doctor to no one in particular.
*
One day he would grieve and acknowledge he was the Last of the Time Lords. But not today. He was back and there were monsters to fight. Wrongs to be righted. No time to stop.
For now, the tale of the war was over and a new tale had begun. A new dimension in the Doctor’s life….
Many thanks to Marie for encouragement, Russell T Davies for making it so good, and the BBC for coming to their senses for bringing it back.
Doctor Who and its wonderful world are copyright BBC and no infringement is intended. Oh, and apparently the estate of Terry Nation owns the Daleks.
So there.
