It has been awhile since I could write and now I have something of a project here. For as long as I have had memory there is one show that has been close to my heart and that is Doctor Who. I am freely admitting I am nervous about stepping into this world but an idea just refuses to die and despite a lot of written material I will be sticking with televised shows.
I will be stepping back a bit into a televised story but then quickly hopping into my own with the Eleventh Doctor.
I very firmly do not own any form of the Doctor or any of his stories...but sign me up if any blue police boxes show up from 1963...
Warrior's Gate
The fourth Doctor and Romana accidentally left their own universe and slipped into an exo universe, or known simply as E-Space. After picking up another companion, Adric, the two Timelords are faced with the choice of getting home and abandoning a race of Time sensitives to slavery and abuse, or parting ways. With very little time before the possibility of escape closed, the fourth Doctor wishes Romana the best and leaves her with K9 MII. The Doctor and Adric dematerialize and witness the exodus of the Time sensitives from the slave ship in E-Space.
The hum of the control room usually left him with a sense of home. The white washed walls and roundels enclosed the main console as the Doctor hung up his coat and scarf with the central pillar rising and falling in rhythm to the engines.
His ship felt hollow in this moment. Like so many friends before he was left behind, but this time by one of his own. One of the consoles beeped rather louder than is should and feeling the mop of curls bounce on his head the Doctor covered the distance in one stride as he looked at the source of irritation.
Blasted telepathic circuit has a message from Gallifrey. I do not have her anymore, surely they can feel that! With a tad more vehemence than he intended, the Doctor sent a curt report that Romana was gone, far beyond the reach of the TARDIS or the High Council. The groan from his ship had him instantly brushing the console gently.
There there old girl, not you I am mad at...just me...getting too old for this I think. The thought was not new, even in his first body he had begun to regret coming out into the universe. Now so many friends gone or left behind and he still moved on. Good lord I am becoming depressing in my middle years. Move on Doctor, time to see what is out there!
His ship was not fooled, nor was it surprised. Another wound in her pilot's hearts was expected but unlike all the others there was still a chance of finding Romana again one day. The comfort it could send it did and the Doctor smiled his toothy grin as he set course for the horizon and wondered what he would find with Adric out there.
Shortly afterward, as Timelords measure their lives, the Doctor himself had to regenerate on Earth with Adric, Tegan, and Nyssa by his side. He has ensured the universe would keep growing, keep changing but any thought of finding Romana was long gone with the knowledge that the universes now had to keep stable and separate.
Journey's End
The Tenth Doctor faces his oldest foes, the Daleks, and their creator he thought long dead in the Last Great Time War, Davros. They have created a reality bomb that threatens to end all Existence and has already begun in different time streams to breakdown the barriers between realities. With the help of Rose and all his recent companions, plus Sarah Jane Smith and the unexpected birth of the Doctor-Donna, the Timelord once again defeats the Daleks and ends the threat of the Reality Bomb.
As the universe heals it is temporarily possible for the TARDIS to return Jackie Tyler, Rose and the Human Doctor to an alternate Earth from the one the Doctor lives with. Parting with the human girl that set him back on the right path and sadly having to erase Donna's memories to save her life the Doctor wanders alone through Time and Space.
I have not been down here in ages! The Doctor gleefully runs into the sunlight of his garden in a room on his home. His long coat and sneakers seem very fitting in this room of daylight and life than in the coral lined room of the console. Time and Space called him but he enjoyed this room a great deal. No Daleks, Sontarans, or any of the myriad enemies or problems that always seemed to creep up wherever he landed.
His wide smile and childish enjoyment cut short as a memory intrudes. His curly hair and unending scarf are with him in his old body. Adric was working through the complicated basic equations to explain how the TARDIS was so small on the outside yet large on the inside. It was something to distract him from the heartache as this room was. Romana was gone and for reasons he could not pin down it was harder than even Sarah Jane or even Susan had been for him. In the quiet and greenery the Doctor began to feel tears fall down his face...
"Naive fool I was, I loved Romana didn't I?" the Doctor quickly shut away the memory of Jenny before it could begin. Three times now he had walked away from family and love of his own kind and now no other chance would ever come. He had hoped so much that Jenny would regenerate but when she didn't...it was like a hope had flared and died before he completely grasped it.
The curse of his species was that brief glimpse of possibility he had looked at when she was already gone. Jenny and Romana, two Timeladies he could never see again. Alone in the TARDIS the Doctor once again wept at opportunities lost.
For a brief moment the Doctor would be faced with the return of Gallifrey, not the home he had fled so long ago, but the war crazed insanity he himself had to stop. For a time the Master was with him again, and this time they parted as allies, not enemies. Once again regeneration claimed the Doctor in the wake of his loss and the threat to Time from his own TARDIS and the Silence drove all remorse far from him for a long time.
The Wedding of River Song
Forced to accept the fixed point of his death, the Doctor narrowly escapes through the use of the mimic timeship to live passed April 2011 at Lake Silencio. While Amy, Rory, and River know the Doctor is alive, the rest of the universe believes its protector is gone. Some may hold to the truth, but by and large the Doctor has retreated from his "loud" antics and dashingly public heroics. Once again the mysterious traveler thwarts alien invasions and holds the line against the myriad woes in the universe.
The TARDIS hums in standby mode quietly awaiting the return of the Doctor. No more than an eye-blink goes by before the doors swing inward and the Timelord stumbles in, his tweed jacked smoking slightly from singes where the energy discharge had scraped passed the shields.
"Never again, no more distress calls near the Sontaran battle zones. Blimey they are still good shots but boring conversationalists," draping the jacked over the rail the Doctor runs his right hand through his wild hair and then flexes his suspenders up and down as he smiles smugly to no one.
The Sontarans had overrun a colony in the 65th century thinking the Rutans were based there. In the annals of adventures it was nothing too bad, especially as the entire battle group was nice enough to fall into his trap. The humans were shipping the little guys off to a prison station for trial but the Doctor had gotten a close shave or two before it was all said and done.
"Where to next...hmmmm...yes, the Verillin Nebula...never been there, could be fun..." the bright eyes belie the bubbly excitement of the voice. The Doctor knows he is talking to himself and wishing Amy and Rory were here. The few humans he had met and had learned of him had no wish to join him and frankly he did not want a companion right now. What he wanted, desperately, was another Timelord to talk to, but as had become increasingly clear and emphatic, was that he truly was the last one.
The Doctor continues his travels and even renews his connection to the Ponds, but the desire to just find another of his kind as the twilight of his life approaches never leaves him anymore. It often just takes a backseat to the more immediate concerns of the present, or future, or past as the case may be.
The Medusa Cascade
A legend began here, the Doctor sealed a rift here. Unusual for a Timelord so young to accomplish the task yet that was not the legend. Supposedly this was the battle ground for all of Existence, and the Doctor had once again been there to stop an evil the universe thought long gone. So few knew of what occurred, fewer still could make others believe. For a brief moment Existence itself had been threatened, the dimensions collapsing, but the Doctor had saved them all. Legend had it the rift remained still, agitated and disrupted but healing as the rest of the universe.
What no one knew, not even the Doctor, was that a rift used once by Daleks could be used again.
The light show is space is far different than on a planet. Light still emits similar colors but atmosphere distorts and changes it, also there is not the option of moving closer. The Medusa Cascade was one of the wonders to behold if you travel the stars. All the black nothing between trips broken up by planets, suns, or other bodies floating through space paled in comparison to a nebula.
Vibrant blues, sharps yellows, and flaring reds mixed and flowed and ever so slowly shifted over time. At the heart of this glory the laws of physics were being turned on their head.
A storm began first, faster and faster it moved. Unlike the storms of planets, a storm in space goes in all directions, and the energy can be anything from electrons to cohesive beams of power not possible by man made machines. The colors began to swirl as the universe groaned under a strain until finally the rift parted infinitesimally and sealed again.
A groaning sound would have been heard had a medium existed to pass it along. A wheezing as of a dying beast in a story accompanied the slow but steady materialization of the impossible...a TARDIS. Currently in the shape of human statue, the figure twirled in space. Unlike a more well known version, this TARDIS had a fully functional chameleon circuit. Its pilot also had far better skills than the one that taught her.
The console room hummed with power as the woman inside smiled wide. She had done it! After all the careful calculations she thought she might have been wrong and put a great many people in danger just for the sake of coming home. The main dais was smooth and surrounded in a circle of polished wood broken at two points, one to the entrance the other to another door.
The room was larger than the original one she had trained in, with a lower section for easy access to repair or modify the ship in flight. The neat bundles of cables and well labeled panels on her console spoke of planning and well thought out maintenance. Her only companion whirred to life slowly. For all her ability with the TARDIS she was sorely lacking in some areas. Still she had succeeded where the Doctor had not.
"Success Mistress, I can confirm we are now in N-Space," the wagging tail brought a smile to the woman's cream complexion. Her dark shoulder length hair framed a tan face with bright blue eyes and well grooved dimples. Her clothes were a mix of leather and cloth, and a coat of dark cloth hung on the handlebar by the door. All of it was full of storage pockets and and some surprises, but like her teacher she rarely carried anything lethal. Even the sonic probe was merely adapted to an all purpose tool, unlike the Doctor she had never had to face the Daleks again and again.
Romanadvoratrelundar had come home. Circuits long ago built as part of the blueprint but never used were now the focus of the Timelady. A nervousness she had not expected crept into her as she awaited the call from home to no doubt be reprimanded and/or punished as the High Council saw fit. Hopefully the Doctor could help her, assuming he was not already in trouble himself.
She smiled as a memory of him on Tara going off to fish on his "allowed" vacation. She wondered if he would approve of her new body, her fifth since she last saw him. Freeing the Time sensitives and teaching them self reliance had not been easy. Romana shook herself as she blushed wondering if she had already missed the call.
The telepathic circuits remained cold. Frowning slightly, thinking she had done something wrong she leaned down and pried open one of the six panels directly under the overhand of the console. The dark metal moved away easily to reveal the complicated circuits of the TARDIS. Unfortunately all the connections blinked happily and correctly. Frowning deeper she replaced the panel.
"K9 scan the local area, see if you can tell me where we came out," while he was impressive she was merely using him to confirm what her own eyes pulled from the hanging view screen above the console. The Medusa Cascade, roughly 500 years in relative time from when she left N-Space.
"We are currently at the Medusa Cascade mistress, the time rift sealed perfectly as planned. There are residual excited particles as well as remnants of of some artificial structures. Analysis points to origins of Dalek design," long experience made the machine dog pause as the expected jerk and flaring of eyes occurred in his mistress.
"Explain K9, what were Daleks doing way out here?" Romana could well imagine many nightmare uses a time rift could be to the despicable creatures. She remembered all too well her time on Skaro in one of their mining operations. Davros had been far from pleasant either.
"Analysis indicates unusual readings mistress. Recommend use of TARDIS connection for confirmation please," K9 did not sound pleased. Strictly speaking his high pitched voice could carry many emotions but usually she could identify them, this time he seemed disturbed. Flipping a few switches on the appropriate panel, he rolled forward with his red sensor between his vision plates extended.
The swiftly flickering lights on the console and the access panel on her faithful friend's backside showed both machines thinking furiously. Over the centuries Romana had found the interaction very useful and eye opening where each alone could miss something the two machines together could be quite remarkable.
"Confirmation mistress. Dalek remains indicate construction of a device to breakdown electrical bonds in atoms. Theoretical extrapolation would indicate that detonating said device in the Medusa Cascade would result in cataclysmic annihilation of all known universe and alternate dimensions," the horror on Romana's face made the mechanical voice pause, but obviously she could see this did not happen. "Final analysis indicates Dalek power systems overloaded, logic suggests Doctor master most probable cause." Tail wagging the dog awaited further instructions.
"How could they have gotten so far? Why didn't the Timelords stop them?" Admittedly the Daleks and Davros had shown remarkable intelligence, the Doctor had told her of his first encounter and near disaster with the creator of those monsters. The Timelords surely would have stopped anything like this long before it became a threat. What is going on?
Typing in coordinates seared onto her hearts, Romana hit the flight sequence for home. Nothing happened, the TARDIS continued to sit in relative position to the Cascade. Verifying that all was working, Romana tried three more times to no effect. Frustrated and confused the Timelady leaned against the hand rail surrounding her console platform.
This does not make sense! First no signal from the High Council and now I cannot reach Gallifrey. What is going on? Left with few answers and not sure what might be looking, Romana resisted the strong impulse to try and find the Doctor. Even without exact coordinates she could make a guess but if was gone or unreachable as well...she did not want to think about that.
"K9, we need to find a local space station or planet with sufficient technology we can update ourselves. Something is wrong and we need to find out what," with a new plan to focus on Romana left her frustration behind, but not the worry. Nothing could block Gallifrey from detecting a new and very unauthorized TARDIS operating in the Time/Space vortex. So why weren't they trying to contact her?
Full of questions and no answers the Timelady programmed her TARDIS to home in on the nearest planet with the requirements she needed. She also took the step of silencing her arrival and making sure the chameleon circuit was fully functional.
The statue in the Medusa Cascade vanished back into the vortex, traveling to the nearest hub of information and hopefully answers for Romana and K9.
A little long for a start but I promise not to overload passed this one! Reviews welcome.