Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart was stood looking over another battle field.
"Report Mr Yates", he called
The young Lieutenant stood in front of him looking dazed. The top button of his shirt undone and his tie askew, blood spatter on his face.
"Tie, Mr Yates" the Brigadier snapped! "
The young officer pulled himself together, adjusted his tie and snapped a salute.
"Twenty two dead, sixteen wounded and the enemy wiped out, Sir!" he reported
"Very good Mr Yates, carry on!"
The Brigadier took out a handkerchief, wiped the blood off his face and hands and checked his own tie was straight."
He turned around to face his remaining troops. Nodded decisively in their direction, "Well Done men!" he barked, Then turned and walked towards his Land Rover . .
"Sargent Major Scott" he called.
"Dead Sir!" came a voice.
The Brigadier didn't falter. "Sargent Benton" a young man saluted and marched up.
"Get the men to the transport and back to base for debriefing." The Brigadier said returning the salute
The Sargent saluted again and marched off.
A tall man with a shock of curling white hair was stood near by. The cloak he wore was flapping in the wind,. He had watched all this with mounting rage! "The man's insufferable" he muttered "A Pampering Peacock!"
As the Brigadier walked past him the Doctor stepped out in front of him blocking his path.
"Don't you care, are they so easily disposable? Use then up and throw them away. " He snapped indicating the dead bodies littering the battle field. You're a Bloody Pompous, Arrogant, Fool! What makes you think your way is the right way!"
The Brigadier looked at him puzzled, then he tapped that stupid cane on the brim of his cap and said "Good Day, Doctor." Before walking away.
Six hours later. Liz Shaw was sat listening to the Doctor ranting about the battle and the Brigadier's actions.
"He didn't even give me a chance to negotiate. No, let's have another jolly battle! I may get another pretty medal to impress my friends in the mess!"
"I think you are being a bit hard Doctor, he was ordered to eliminate the enemy base." Liz said
The Doctor snorted his derision!
"The men love him, he always leads from the front, he doesn't have to at his rank!" Liz added.
"Empty headed and gung-ho as well the Doctor." murmured scornfully.
"Twenty two dead and he didn't even care, I can't work for a man who has so little regard for other people's lives."
"I expect even now he's off for a Jolly time with the boys in the mess," the Doctor said scornfully.
Liz smiled at him as she got up to go, "Well don't disappear without saying good bye."
The Doctor screwed up his fourth attempt at a letter of resignation and tossed it in the bin.
An hour later the building was all but deserted and the Doctor finally had a letter he was willing to submit. It listed his reasons for leaving without the insults.
He walked determinedly towards the Brigadier's office, he'd leave the letter on his desk tonight then at least there wouldn't be a slanging match.
As he turned the corner of the corridor leading to the glass fronted office he stopped. Lethbrige-stewart was sat in his shirt sleeves writing letters.
The Doctor was about to walk away when the Brigadier picked up his revolver, spun the cylinder and before the Doctor could react put the muzzle under his chin and pulled the trigger. There was just a click as the firing pin met an empty chamber.
The Doctor watched in disbelief as the man in the chair calmly put the gun down, took a drink of Whisky and then pulled another piece of paper towards himself.
The Doctor dashed forward and opened the glass door.
The Brigadier raised tired eyes toward his face and after a minutes seemed to recognise him.
"Sorry Doctor, can I do something for you.?" He asked coldly
The Doctors eyes were drawn to the gun. Five bullets lay on the desk, he could see the sixth one in the cylinder. He sat down in the chair opposite and looked at the man across the desk. If it wasn't for the evidence of the gun he would have thought he'd dreamed the whole incident ."I thought I may be able to help you the Doctor said sliding the gun to his side of the desk.
The Brigadier rubbed his chin with his glass then took a swig of his drink.
"l know you don't like me Doctor, so why do you want to help me. I'm not worth your time, 'I'm just a Bloody Pompous, Arrogant, Fool! "
"So change my view of you!" the Doctor said.
The Brigadier shrugged, "Where to begin." the Brigadier muttered.
"Tell me why you lead from the front" The Doctor said.
"That's easy the Brigadier answered. If you're at the front you can't see those behind you being killed! I learnt that trick young, I saw ten of my men shot to pieces in front of me, I was Mr Yates ' age. I nearly turned and ran from the battle! My commanding officer shout at me for having my collar button undone, that got my mind back in focus. Otherwise I could have kissed my career and my self respect goodbye"
That explains that why you told Yates off about his tie. The Doctor mused
"From that day I decided to lead the charge. Following up from the rear, you see them die. Of course there is the hidden advantage to being at the front , you are an easy target with luck you'll be killed, then you will not have to turn around and count the bodies left in your wake. " As you can see I've not been lucky in that respect."
The Doctor pulled one of the letters the Brigadier had finished forward and read it. He read several more, each one gave some personal information about the deceased, some crumb of comfort for the family. These weren't just a standard letters. These letters were written by someone who knew the deceased. "You know your men well!" the Doctor remarked."
"Too bloody well,." the Brigadier said reaching for the gun. The doctor slid it further away. So the Brigadier just picked up his glass and took another sip of Whisky.
How many of these have you written? The Doctor asked.
Lethbrige-stewart looked puzzled ," Twenty, just Two more to go!"
"I mean in your Career" the doctor said,
"One Hundred and eighty three" he said without having to think about it. Broke my century tonight for UNIT, you're holding is the 100th pack of lies I've had to write to deceased UNIT personnel's families telling them their loved one was killed fighting terrorists instead of aliens. In the last 18 months UNIT has lost 102 people. Not since WW1 has the commanding officer of a Brigade managed to get so many of his own men killed!"
The Doctor, slid the gun off the desk and into his pocket. The Brigadier just refilled his glass.
"Do you know I envy those Brigadiers of old, At least they could go into the mess and brag about their achievements. Not me,.. UNIT's security clearance is so high there are only three people in the UK I'm cleared to talk to about UNITs missions. One is the Queen and the other two are politicians and I wouldn't trust either one as far as I could throw them. I can't talk to the base Doctor. I can't even talk to a priest, even if I still believed in a God, the confessional is out of bounds for me!"
He paused and then continued "My home life is falling apart! My wife... My wife thinks I'm having it away with every bloody woman on the base! Why else would I be sleeping on base six out of seven nights a week.. When I am at home I get called out at 2 a.m., not to reappear again for a week or more. I can't even say 'Sorry Dear the Daleks were invading'. Sorry love, I'm going to have to miss Kate's Birthday party, because the Cybermen are on their way!"
He took another drink and seemed unable to stop talking.
"Me, being Army, was difficult enough for Fiona, being UNIT... is impossible."
"So why don't you leave?" the Doctor asked.
The Brigadier snorted, " I do wish you could remember your previous lives!" He snapped at the Doctor, his anger briefly surfacing. He stopped took a long pull of his drink and swivelled his chair to face the wall before carrying on.
The last you was a bit of a clown, I didn't believe him when he told me Earth needed to protect it's people from Alien invasion. So you / he, took me for a ride in that contraption of yours. I saw what would happen if I didn't set up UNIT."
The Doctor blinked, that forced regeneration had left gaping holes in his memories.
The chair swivelled back and the Brigadier slammed his empty glass on the table.
"It was 2001, Earth is a waste land, the people were working as slaves to the Darleks. Some of us were fighting a gorilla war, trying to keep some form of Humanity alive."
The Doctor saw the anguish in the man's face, saw his hands trembling, he now knew what drove the man in front of him to fight. Time Lords should never lay the burden of Knowledge of the future on other species.
"Drink that!", the Doctor urged filling the Whisky glass and putting it in the Brigadier's hand.
"So you set up UNIT. And you fight off any attempt at invasion whilst not allowing people to know what is happening "
The Brigadier nodded.
"Why not tell people? "
The Brigadier shook his head, "that was my second trip in the TARDIS, I saw the world tear itself to pieces rather then uniting to fight off invasion "
"And when I'm not fighting aliens I have to fight to stop politicians from shutting us down! The Brigadier muttered dejectedly."
"over the next couple of years he gave me ...gave me some hope, he helped us fight off many different enemies. When I hit the wall, when I couldn't see the way ahead, when I couldn't seem to get 'The Mask' right he turned up to save the day."
"The MASK?"
"My poker face!" He snorted. "Troops need to feel confidence in their leader. The world's falling apart around their ears but the good old Brigadier's still confident he can get them through it. Nothing fazes the Brig! Even being told his only real friend, the man who has fought by his side for 20 years is... Dead!"
"Sargent Major Scot?" Asked the Doctor
Lethbridge-Stewart took another pull of his drink and nodded.
"I thought, when we found this you and you were stuck on Earth, that we had a chance, that may be I had someone to help ...someone to talk to, to advise me, .. someone I didn't have to wear the Mask for.. But' This You', doesn't remember and doesn't understand the situation!"
I was confused by what you said on the battle field. I'd thought that maybe something had changed! Maybe I was now the problem. Perhaps you couldn't tell me that outright, because of that Time Lord rule. So I got to thinking maybe I needed to eliminate Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and then there would be no invasions, no battles and no more deaths!"
The Doctor's face registered shock. He shook his head "I'm ..sorry I..."
The chair swivelled back to face the wall. "I know you've written your resignation, just leave it on my desk and ... please put the revolver back."
"I don't think..". the Doctor started.
"I will not use it for that reason Doctor, what would be the point? By the laws of probability I should be dead by now. 19 attempts and I'm still here so, maybe I'm still needed in this world."
The Doctor felt like he'd been kicked in the stomach. In taking a high moral stand, in judging this man on no real evidence he'd caused him to try and take his own life! He stood up collected another glass filled it from the Brigadier's bottle and took a large drink!
The Brigadier was sat in his chair exhaustion visible in every line of his body.
Foot steps could be heard approaching the corridor. The Doctor turned to look through the glass at who was coming , it was young Lieutenant Yates, he turned back towards the Brigadier. The man behind the desk had changed, he looked once again like an invincible leader of men. "Well timed Mr Yates, I was telling the Doctor of your excellent work today" the Brigadier said a smile on his face.. The Doctor saw the effect these words from the Brigadier had on the young officer. Get to your bed Yates, I'll stand as Duty officer tonight."
Yates saluted smartly and left buoyed up by the praise."
Once Yates was out of sight the Brigadier's mask slipped.
"Brigadier" the Doctor said softly. When the Brigadier looked up the Doctor held up his resignation, tore it in half and dropped it in the bin!
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