I don't own any of the rights to Doctor Who except for the concept of 'The Republic' and my own characters. Enjoy.

A god. The murder of millions of innocent souls, who never killed anyone. A man forged in the heat of battle, whose anger and capacity for revenge was boundless as was his infinite kindness. An impossible man, surrounded by impossible people. A man who could never die. A woman who was trapped away from her one true love, no matter how wonderful the substitutes. All these figures haunted my dreams, hurtling through time and space in my mind's eye, yet when I awoke they would be gone, little more than phantoms.

I could never understand the source of these dreams, there was no precedent in my life to explain any of them, nor any inspiration that would lead to their existence. They just... existed in my mind's eye, ready to be called up whenever I wanted them. Always a different adventure, always a different planet and yet one golden thread that ran throughout. The doctor for the evils that filled my head and made my dreams so uncomfortable.

That was what he always called himself, a doctor. The Doctor, in fact, a label where everyone else had names. Of all my wondrous characters it was only he that I struggled to place, that managed to hide his true nature from me. I would feel his anger sear through me, feel his abilities and realise his huge strength and yet he never used it. He never bowed to his anger, never accepted the evil that was held within him and instead fought it as hard as he could. He knew his nature and rejected it totally.

It was a school day when I woke, emerging from my dreams of Krax disorientated and lost. I snuggled deeper into the sheets as the alarm blared louder and louder, warning me of dire consequences if I didn't obey its instruction. Finally I felt the cover begin to lift off me and I rolled out of bed and stumbled hazily towards the shower, looking out through the window as I did so. Stars greeted me, there orientation telling me that we had twisted our course slightly during the night.

The shower always felt good after a long rest, the red hot water coursing off my body as I rubbed the ointment in my hair. Beneath my feet I could feel the engines slowly throb, there vibrations coursing through the whole ship like the slow eruption of a supernova. Slowly I dressed, placing my pocket watch in my jumpsuits top pocket before concealing it with my waistcoat. Something that valuable would surely be against the rules as private property, so instead I chose to keep it concealed and on me at all times.

The clock ticked its oppressive beat onwards as I made for the door, just about reaching the shuttle in time. The cleaners where already starting their rounds as we headed past the thousands of doors. that made up the living quarters of this ship, the banter of the early shuttle fluttering over my head.

We were heading for the main hub, where all the administrative and civic buildings where held, students on our way too work experience. One by one we were dropped off, the crowd slowly growing sparser as we headed upwards and inwards till there were just two of us left. We had both got the most prestigious assignment; the bridge, though for totally different reasons. She, Jane, had got it through her father's insistence while I had gained my position through grades. We both held each other in barely disguised contempt, she for my low birth and lack of parentage, while I dislike the nepotism that had gilded her path so far.

WE both attended the highest rated school in the area, the Platonic Academy, but she was the daughter of a Guardian and thus an automatic entry into their class while I was the presumed orphan of a working class member. I had only had the good fortune that my heart contained a shred of gold, that I had the ability to be considered a potential Guardian or Auxiliary. Her aura was black with jealousy.

Finally we approached the Chrystal tower, ancient and carved with ritual figures of good luck. I'd never entered it before, and though Jane seemed the approach it without any sense of foreboding I could feel a pit of nervousness curl up in my stomach. My aura was flashing in front of my face, pink laced with points of green, showing me my nerves in visual form. We rose quicker and higher than before, passing a thousand levels of teeming anxiety before finally settling on top, right beneath the dome. I could see a thousand light-years from here, as though they where little more than a inch away, so close I could grab the stars with an open fist.

It was here that the real power of the Republic lay, the thirteen philosopher-kings held there seat and their houses here, served by hundreds of guardians who attended there every need. We slowly wandered through the ivory arch into the great open space where there thrones where housed and it was then that I first laid eyes on them.

The first thing I noticed was how young some of them seemed to be, twelve or thirteen year old bodies suspended in vats of liquid oxygen, a thousand wires protruding from every orifice and free segment of skin. I had always known the theory behind their existence, to slow the aging process and isolate the great leaders from every distraction to running the great republic but it was still a shook to actually see it in action. These... well, they where little more than children really, who had sacrificed all in order to serve our great republic. The great lawgiver had said that in order to be a true ruler one must give all, to prevent greed and they had done precisely that, forgone all human pleasures in order to serve their fellow man.

I can still remember when the last Philosopher-king died, and the great funeral that followed. Thousands lined the streets, throwing gold as his withered corpse floated down the street towards being burnt in a great pryer. Then came the selections for the new philopsher king, the endless examinations and selections till finally one from my class, a quiet boy I barely knew, was taken away to become the new king. He was feted, wrapped in gold leaf during a great carnival before being taken away for his fate.

He lay in front of me now, his body pale and taunt seeming not too have aged a day in the four years he'd been away. I wondered what it must be like for him, to have the whole of the Republic weighed upon twelve year old shoulders, every computer in the republic downloaded into his head. IT was said that it was the greatest honour and bliss any of us could ever wish for, but it seemed more like hell to me.

A gold clad guardian was approaching us, his bejewelled crown revealing him as the head of all the guardians, the fourteenth most powerful man in the Republic. He was also Jane's father, and he greeted her with a smile and a hug before turning towards me and sticking out a hand, "Ah, the young genius. We meet at last, Jane's told me a lot about you and your potential. A record breaker huh," I took his hand.

"Only occasionally, sir" I responded, "When the gods allow it." He smiled and nodded.

"I'll show you around." And so he did, showing us the great computer systems through which every decision the Philosopher-Kings made was transmitted and enacted, the ancient relays that kept the kings alive and the Republic on course. "Of course," He said, as he took us round yet another bank of machines, "We have no idea how they actually work. We have lost so much since the first great work was completed, but we don't actually need to know that sort of information. What we need to know is how to make them work and how too keep them working, and that has been passed down from Guardian to Guardian for centenaries." I could see him drawing up too deliver a great speech.

"We are the servants of eternal knowledge, carrying out the tasks laid down by our forbearers in order to keep the Republic on course for Arcadia. We are the very finest of the guardians here. Most of your classmates will go on to become Auxiliaries and to keep the peace, or lower level Guardians who will keep the very basic systems running. Here we need the best, so, let's see how good you are." He clapped us both on the back, leading us too our respective work stations.

Jane he kept working with him, manning the computers that kept track of the republics trajectory and structure while I was ordered to man the boards that monitored the Philopsher-Kings wellbeing. I was, I discovered after the first hours excitement, boring and tedious work. You watched the readouts slowly come in; heart rate, brainwaves and the rest and acted when they either dropped too high or too low. If they needed food you hit the button that fed them and if they needed to excrete then you hit the button for that and the automated systems did the rest.

Too keep my interest, then, I began to slowly explore how the rest of the system worked, looking through sub-relays and systems that hadn't been used in centauries. I realised pretty soon that there was much more here than just basic systems for looking after the Philosopher-Kings, far more. My screens streamed with data, telling me about a hundred and one things, most of which I didn't have a clue about.

I immersed myself in the data, reaching further and further into the mound of data that lay before me. I found that parts of the data slowly decoded themselves for me, seeming to change at my minds command, without even touching the keyboard. I was navigating through the Republics mainframe in my mind, walking into psychedelic rooms which bombarded me with information.

Finally I pushed against one door, in deepest darkest heart of the Republic. It resisted at first, giving way slowly like a wellington boot being hauled out of mud. Finally it gave way and I stumbled into a room of pure darkness, unable to see what was contained within. A light flickered and for a brief moment I got a glimpse of what lay beyond, images of a high vaulted roof that stretched far into the distance. It flickered again, hovering somewhere in the mid distance before finally spluttering into full life, joined by twelve more such lights.

Finally the room was lit and I could see the great hall that lay before me, colonnaded with walls that where lined with thousands upon thousands of books, a great library reaching into the sky. Bones littered the parched floor, lying in perfect skeletons where there owners had been felled. I moved forward, gliding above the bones till I had almost reached the place where the lights hovered.

They each hovered above a body, which lay flat out upon the bones of those that had come before. They had not decomposed, and even as I looked I could see a slight pulse at the throat of the one who was closest. He was an old gentleman and had a long mane of grey hair that pooled around naked shoulders. He just lay there, eyes wide open as one would imagine a dead body would lie; neither life in the eyes nor any movement from the limbs.

The others were just the same, all men of varying ages who lay naked on the floor of bones with a light hanging above them. I moved onwards, for they were spread across the floor, till I finally came to the last in the line of light, which hovered above a smaller figure. Even as I noticed that face I sped up, having already guessed who it would be. It was the youngest of the kings, lying in the same all but dead state as the others.

I reached down, too touch him, to try and revive him and then...

Blackness, fire and heat. Laughter and wisdom, a thousand deaths and a thousand lives encapsulated in a second and the entire knowledge of the republic thrown into my head. I collapsed back, back into my body and back into the world of heat and life and love. Toppling backwards to fall at the feet of the Chief guardian, a pair of words emblazoning themselves upon my consciousness.

"Help us."

It was at this point things began to go wrong.

Hi guys, I hope you enjoyed that and trust me, the Doctor and his companion will come in at some point....

Just a few requests, firstly, read and review please. I really does help and provide encouragement for me and other writers. Ta. (who knows, there may be cookies in it for you.)

Secondly, Beta readers. As you may guess from some of the syntax and spelling I'm dislexic and I do struggle to get the writing into readable form. If you could do this vital job for me, please just send me a message.

Thanks.

BrooklynRed x