Chapter 1 – There's No Place Like Home
Tegan leaned on the console, her head in her hands, and sighed as she watched the time rotor move up and down. Finally she spoke.
"OK Doc, someone's got to make a decision here or I'm going to go stir crazy!"
The Doctor looked up from his calculations. "Hmmm?" He peered at the young Australian woman over his half-moon spectacles. Tegan strode around the console towards him. "For cripe's sake Doctor! A decision! You tell me there's an infinite universe out there, so let's go and see some of it! I may only have been an air hostess for five minutes, but even I know that every flight needs what is commonly known as a destination…..?"
The Doctor put down his pad with a flourish. "Quite right Tegan! A destination!" He thrust his hands in his pockets and turned suddenly towards Adric, who looked up, startled.
"Adric! Where would you like to go?"
Adric thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Anywhere, as long as it's not Earth again!"
"And what's wrong with Earth?" asked Tegan, rounding on Adric. The Doctor stared at the ceiling in exasperation. 'Not another argument…' he thought, before deciding that a distraction was required. "What do you think Nyssa? Any ideas?"
He turned around, but the young Trakenite was nowhere to be seen. He looked back at Tegan, a puzzled expression on his face. "Where's Nyssa?"
Tegan folded her arms and leaned back against the console. "In her room Doctor, where she's been ever since we left the Scientifica planet." She rolled her eyes. "Don't you notice anything that goes on around here?"
"She's probably missing Cwej," muttered Adric under his breath – "they seemed to be getting very close before we left," he added, sarcastically.
"And what do you know about it?" asked Tegan, hands on hips.
The Doctor intervened between the two once more. "Alright, Tegan, alright! I'm sure Adric wasn't implying anything, um, untoward." He turned to face her. "Has Nyssa spoken to you about what's upsetting her?"
Tegan sighed. "Not really Doc. She's just, well, I don't know, a bit down I guess. I've tried talking to her, but she just clams up, or sticks her nose in a book. Maybe she's just not feeling well?"
Adric looked up – "Could it be that thing that happened to her on Deva Loka again?"
The Doctor seemed deep in thought. "Mmm? Oh no, I don't think so. The Delta Wave Augmenter should have cured that. No, I think it's probably something much simpler than that."
"What do you mean, Doctor?" asked Tegan. The Doctor sighed heavily.
"Well, think about it. Nyssa's been through a lot since she found us on Logopolis – her father murdered, his body taken over by the Master, and her whole world destroyed. I'm surprised it's taken this long really."
Adric frowned. "What's taken this long?"
"Oh, depression, post traumatic stress disorder, call it what you will. No-one can go through so much tragedy and not be affected by it, sooner or later. The classic symptom of course is withdrawal." The Doctor studied a readout on the console.
"So how do we snap her out of it, Doc?" asked Tegan, concerned.
The Doctor smiled. "Well, I think your first suggestion would be an excellent starting point, Tegan!"
Tegan and Adric exchanged puzzled looks.
"A destination!" The Doctor grinned, as he began resetting the TARDIS controls. "Somewhere to cheer Nyssa up, begin the healing process!"
"Serenity."
The small voice came from the doorway to the TARDIS interior. The three travelers turned to see Nyssa standing there, dressed as usual in her burgundy trouser suit, her normally smiling face marred by dark circles under her eyes.
"I want to go to Serenity," she said quietly. "I want to go home."
- o O o -
It had been a quiet night on Foster Novak's round – a stray animal had knocked over some bins in the residential area, two lovers had been caught out beyond curfew – the usual suspects. Nothing out of the ordinary. He sighed as he walked past the Remembrance Gardens. 'Not that anything out of the ordinary ever happens around here,' he thought. In fact, he struggled to remember anything momentous that had happened to this settlement in the last three centuries. Sometimes, in moments of weakness, he wished for just a little excitement, maybe even an actual crime to investigate. But these moments were few and far between, and usually ended in repentant prayers to the Lady, hand on brow, requesting absolution for his wicked thoughts. He was, after all, a dedicated devotee, and took his job of securing the Lady's Peace very seriously.
He shouldered his weapon, and was just turning to head for home when he heard a strange, wheezing/groaning sound coming from the depths of the Gardens. The noise reached a crescendo, then as it faded Novak noticed a momentary flashing light coming from deep within the foliage.
"What the…..?" he gasped. This was most definitely extraordinary! Foster Novak took a deep breath, before shakily grasping his energy rifle, offering up a silent prayer, and creeping through the gates into the dark, overgrown garden.
- o O o -
The four travelers watched in silence as the time rotor came to a stop.
"Well, we're here," said Adric, unnecessarily. He consulted the console. "Serenity. Furthest settlement of the Traken Union. We've arrived approximately 300 years after the, erm….." his voice trailed off as he looked awkwardly at Nyssa.
"After the destruction of Traken," she finished, matter-of-factly. She looked at Adric and smiled warmly. "It's all right you know," Nyssa said. "I'm not going to fall apart at the mere mention of what happened."
The Doctor stepped forward, put his hands on Nyssa's shoulders and peered at her intently. "Are you sure this is what you want, Nyssa? I know this is a Trakenite colony but it may be significantly different from the homeworld you knew, particularly given the loss of the Keeper…."
Nyssa took his hands in hers and nodded, her chestnut curls bouncing around her pale, aristocratic face. "I've thought about this a great deal Doctor, ever since I heard of Serenity's survival. And while I haven't regretted a moment I've spent on board the TARDIS, I realize it can never truly be home." She sighed and looked down at the floor. "Serenity may not be Traken, but it's the closest I'm ever going to get." She looked across at Tegan and Adric and smiled. "Tegan, you've been desperate to get home from the first moment we met." Tegan folded her arms and smiled ruefully. Nyssa shifted her gaze to Adric.
"And Adric – you're an orphan like me. I know you'd give almost anything to find the way back to E-Space and the Starliner, in the hope you can find a home, a family there. You both must understand why I have to give this a chance." She looked back at the Doctor, who smiled warmly and sighed in resignation.
"Well, as my old teacher on Gallifrey used to say: 'there's no timestream like the mutually agreed current continuum'". He operated the door control, deftly shook out his panama hat, placed it on his head, and strolled through the doors.
Tegan looked confused. Adric gave her a cheeky grin and explained: "no time like the present!" before following the Doctor outside.
Tegan rolled her eyes, then held her hand out to Nyssa, smiling. "Shall we?"
Nyssa took her friend's hand, and pulled her into a tight hug. "No time like the present," she echoed, before taking a deep breath and walking outside.
- o O o -
'Perfect!' thought Foster Novak, as he crawled through a tangled mess of weeds and foliage - '5 minutes before shift-end, and here I am face down in dirt. I should have known better than to wish for excitement - this is the Lady's doing.' He stopped and wiped the sweat from his dirt streaked brow. By his estimation he was a few feet from where the disturbance had happened. It was probably nothing (he told himself), but he needed to be prepared. With trembling hands he rechecked his communicator, adjusted his armour and tested his rifle's charge level, before quieting his breathing and offering up a silent prayer to the goddess. It was then that he heard the voices - soft at first, coming from an area to the right of where he had anticipated. Holding his breath, he turned and listened intently: there were definitely two, he thought, at least one male and one female. He was struggling to make out the conversation when they were joined by a third voice - another male, he thought, higher-pitched than the first but definitely male. None of the voices were familiar to him, but whoever they were, they were curfew-breakers. Not only that, they were trespassing in the Remembrance Gardens, which was expressly prohibited. However, he was one and they were at least three, so he'd have to call for backup to help him round them up.
Novak began to quietly maneuver himself back towards the entrance so he could make the call without alerting his quarry. As he did so, something caught his eye through the bushes to his left. 'What in the Lady's name is that?' he thought - it was something standing in the middle of the Grove of Tranquility, where it was forbidden for any but the tending Fosters to set foot. 'Now they're really in trouble...' thought Novak. His view of the object was still partially obstructed by foliage, so he decided to move position to get a closer look.
- o O o -
Nyssa's eyes brimmed with tears and her heart swelled as she stood in the centre of the Grove and breathed in the humid night air. On exiting the TARDIS the Doctor and Tegan had moved off to look at some particularly striking orchids, and Adric's attention had been caught by a tree bearing a number of promising-looking fruit, leaving Nyssa alone to take in her new surroundings.
She hadn't expected this. Serenity was a different planet, a completely different ecosystem to Traken, and yet... the rich, intoxicating fragrances she was now experiencing were so utterly, heart-rendingly familiar. Culture, clothing, language - these she had expected to be similar to, or at least vaguely recognisable as, a world from within the Union. The rest, she was prepared to adjust to. But this...this was an immediate, intuitive, sensory recognition that struck her right to the core of her soul. It was like stepping into the faint childhood memory of being in her mother's arms, like...like home. Her legs failing her, Nyssa sank to her knees in the middle of the clearing, and let the tears flow into the lush grass.
"Nyssa!" Tegan ran to where her friend sat and, on seeing her tears, pulled her into a protective hug. "Are you hurt? What is it?" Nyssa, momentarily unable to speak, buried her face into the Australian girl's shoulder. Tegan looked round to find the Doctor and Adric close behind her, alerted by Tegan's cry.
"Give her a moment, Tegan," said the Doctor quietly. "It can sometimes be quite overwhelming to return home after so long, especially when you thought you'd never see that home ever again. And I do believe I know whereof I speak." He sighed.
Tegan looked at him quizzically. "But I thought you said Serenity would be completely different to Traken? How can a planet that Nyssa's never been to affect her in such a way?"
Nyssa looked up, having managed to compose herself somewhat. "This garden, Tegan," she sniffed, "these plants and fragrances, they are from the Traken I knew. Everything feels so familiar. I'm sorry, I just didn't expect it to be like this." She shakily got to her feet, with Tegan's help, and wiped her eyes. "Doctor - as far as I know Serenity wasn't terraformed in any way to replicate Traken - how can the ecology be so similar?"
The Doctor smiled, relieved that his young companion was unhurt and back to her scientifically inquisitive self. "You're quite right Nyssa. The TARDIS databanks indicated that Serenity's climate and ecosystems are subtly different from Traken's in a number of ways. I suspect then, that what we are standing in is an isolated pocket of plant life that has been carefully cultivated from stock taken from your homeworld centuries ago." He bent down and picked up some soil, rubbing it between his fingers before giving it a cursory sniff. "They've probably chemically altered the soil in some way to replicate Trakenite conditions."
"So this could be some sort of memorial then, a way of keeping a bit of Traken alive?" asked Adric.
"Exactly!" The Doctor beamed, putting his arm around his Trakenite friend. "It's almost as if they knew you were coming, isn't it Nyssa?" He gave her shoulder a brief, cheery squeeze and took stock of their surroundings. "Now then, what do you say we explore a bit more of Serenity, hmm? This way, I think!"
The Doctor set off in what appeared to the others to be a completely random direction, Adric hot on his heels. Tegan and Nyssa hung back momentarily.
"You sure you're ok?" asked Tegan, eyeing her friend with concern. "You don't have to do this if you want, you know. It's OK to change your mind if you don't feel this is right."
Nyssa took her hand and smiled. "Thank you Tegan. I'm sure I'll be fine now I've gotten over the initial shock. Now let's catch up to the Doctor before he manages to lose himself in here!" And with that they ran off into the trees after their companions.
- o O o -
Foster Novak's energy rifle clattered to the ground as he staggered slowly backwards, his face a mask of shock. "No...!" he gasped - "It can't be...sweet Lady, help me...!" He stumbled over a tree root and fell backwards, still scrabbling away in terror from the large object confronting him. Finally he managed to tear his eyes away and, scrambling to his feet, he ran through the foliage as fast as his panic-stricken legs would carry him, branches tearing at his clothing.
- o O o -
The Doctor and his companions emerged from a particularly dense thicket into an open area more obviously cultivated than where they had landed. The lawns were neatly trimmed, the borders tended, and pathways running through led to an ornate central fountain that murmured quietly in the night air.
"Ah, now this looks promising!" breathed the Doctor, and headed off up the main walkway towards an arched gateway in the near distance.
"Thank God for that!" muttered Tegan, as she reached up to pick bits of leaf and twig tangled in her hair – "I feel like I've been dragged through a hedge backwards!"
"You look like it too!" said Adric, a cheeky grin playing across his lips, then he jogged to catch up to the Doctor before Tegan could retaliate. She set off after him as fast as her airline-issue high heels could carry her.
"Hey, wait a minute you!" she hissed, before her tirade descended into muttered threats and insults as she picked her way through the neat rows of flowers and onto the walkway in hot pursuit.
Nyssa hung back for a moment and leaned against a tree, her brow furrowed and head held to one side. Since moving off from the TARDIS and following the initial shock and subsequent elation of her new surroundings she had begun to feel increasingly ill at ease, for reasons she couldn't quite put her finger on. There was a niggling pressure at the back of her mind, and the odd feeling that she could hear someone softly whispering. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, trying to focus on the faint, indistinct murmuring, but as she concentrated it ebbed away, drowned out by the babbling water and birdsong. Opening her eyes, she shook her head and looked back through the trees, but there was no-one in sight. 'Maybe it was an isolated event,' she thought, ever the scientist, and resolved to tell the Doctor should it happen again. Satisfied that this was the best course of action, she set off in pursuit of her rapidly disappearing friends.
- o O o -
Prime Consul Varden sat at his paper-strewn desk and rubbed his eyes wearily. Yawning, he turned and checked the large grandfather clock in the corner of his study – when his bleary eyes eventually focussed he was surprised to see that it was well past curfew. He sighed and shook his head. There just didn't seem to be enough hours in the day to complete the business of the Colony, and as Prime Consul the lion's share of civic and democratic responsibility fell upon his fatigued shoulders. He sat back in his ornate chair and thoughtfully stroked his lengthy beard, frowning on noticing an increasing number of grey strands nestling within the dark hairs. "And I'm not getting any younger," he grunted to himself as he got up, shuffled across the floor and returned a leather-bound tome to its place in one of the many bookcases that surrounded the room. His eyes came to rest on an object on one of the shelves at head height. It was a scale model of a Source Manipulator, a device that had operated many centuries ago on the Homeworld to regulate the Source and allow it to be beneficially controlled by the Keeper, who ensured the peace of the Union. 'A simpler time,' he thought wistfully. Indeed much of his responsibilities as the chief official on Serenity would simply not have existed in that glorious era known as 'Keeper-Time', as the all-pervasive power of the Keeper, unerringly guided by the Source, preserved the tranquillity of the entire Union in so many ways, both subtle and monumental, so as to render the need for such things as a security force or a penal system unnecessary.
His fingers tenderly stroked the opaque white orb at the centre of the device. Those halcyon days were long gone. Following the loss of the Keeper and indeed the rest of the Union to the Darkness almost three centuries ago, Serenity had been thrown into chaos. It was only through the dying efforts of the Source, reaching out to protect the place of its birth, that his homeworld had survived, and following the anarchy of the subsequent years it was only through the forceful imposition of a restrictive penal code that Serenity as a society had continued to survive. There was also the moral subjugation imposed by the followers of the Lady of course, but that had taken decades to come to fruition, and the intervening period had necessarily been one of repressive brutality. In any case Varden was not a believer - a fact that he kept quietly to himself. The grotesqueness of his own position had made it increasingly impossible for him to believe in such a kind, benevolent deity, but he recognised the advantages of the faith in terms of the self-imposed moral restraint that it required. He returned to his desk, sat down heavily and picked up his stylus to sign his last death warrant of the night.
This task was suddenly interrupted by the calamitous entry of a highly agitated Foster Novak, who came crashing through Prime Consul Varden's heavy study door and ran up to his desk, where he leaned panting, covered in dirt and glistening with sweat.
"What in the Lady's name is the meaning of this, Foster?" thundered Varden, vexed at the sudden intrusion to his inner sanctum.
Novak made a vain attempt to calm his breathing before replying. "It's here Sir, I saw it in the Gardens! He's here! We've got to do something! We haven't got much time!"
Varden's face descended into a deeper level of purple as he tried to decipher the feverish rantings of the Foster. "What ishere? For Keeper's sake, what are you drivelling on about man?" he blared, as he rounded the desk towards Novak. Novak's face in contrast turned several shades whiter, but he could not let even the formidable wrath of the Prime Consul deter him from raising the alarm.
"The Blue Box, Sir!" he cried. "I saw it! The Herald is here!"
- o O o -
Adric jogged in an effort to keep up with the Doctor's fast paced stride as he headed past the fountain and towards the gate. "Doctor?" he asked, "How is it that Serenity survived the entropy that destroyed the rest of the Union?"
The Doctor stopped suddenly, taking both Adric and Tegan – who was following closely behind – by surprise. "Well, I'm not absolutely certain to tell the truth." He sighed, looking up at the stars overhead. "I was a tad preoccupied with my regeneration at the time to fully assess the extent of the devastation caused by the Master's actions on Logopolis." He turned to face his companions just as Nyssa caught up to them. "Of course, we were reliably informed by young Mr Cwej that Serenity owes its survival due to the fact that the Source was engineered here – isn't that right Nyssa?"
Nyssa opened her mouth to answer but was interrupted by Tegan.
"'Engineered'? I thought this Source thing was some sort of all-powerful, mysterious 'energy'? Are you saying it was man-made?"
Nyssa smiled proudly. "Of course it was Tegan! The Source was all-powerful, but it was simply a sentient sun, manufactured millennia ago by the scientists here on Serenity. For a while it functioned independently, until a Keeper was appointed to channel and direct its effects." She laughed good-naturedly at her friend's bewilderment. "Did you think it was some kind of god?"
"I don't know what I thought really," answered Tegan, slightly put out at being reminded once again how technologically advanced her alien friends were in comparison to herself. "I've seen enough in these past few weeks to think that anything's possible!"
"My people outgrew the need for religion thousands of years ago," said Nyssa, rather smugly. "We simply advanced beyond the need for that particular emotional crutch."
"Oh, I don't know about that, religion has some good points, Nyssa!" The Doctor smiled. "I for one can't resist a good Christmas pudding…. now, shall we head off?" He resumed his brisk walk towards the gate, followed closely by his young friends.
The hinges of the time-worn gates protested noisily as the Doctor forced them open and passed through. "Right!" he said cheerfully, as they emerged into a large square surrounded by low level buildings, the centre of which was dominated by a large monument, topped by a statue of a female figure clad in flowing robes. "Let's see what Serenity has to offer, eh?"
"STOP RIGHT THERE!"
The shout shattered the stillness of the night and halted the group in their tracks. From behind the monument emerged a number of armed guards, each grasping an energy rifle as if their lives depended on it and shakily pointing it in the direction of the Doctor.
The Doctor sighed in exasperation as he raised his arms in the air. "Not again…" He sighed.
Tegan shot him an accusing look as she copied his gesture. "I'm beginning to wonder if you're actually welcomed anywhere you go, Doctor!" she hissed through gritted teeth.
One of the guards stepped forward, brandishing an energy pistol in the group's direction. "State your name and purpose here on Serenity, in the name of the Lady!" he shouted, the obvious waver in his voice betraying his apparent fearfulness.
Nyssa had decided enough was enough – these were after all her people, and there was no difficulty in the Union that could not be resolved by peaceful discussion. Before the Doctor could speak, she took a couple of paces forward, her arms spread wide and a warm smile on her face. "Please, we intend no harm here. I am Ny-"
Tegan screamed as a bolt of energy erupted from one of the guards' weapons and hit Nyssa full in the chest. The Trakenite was hurled backwards by the force of the blast. The Doctor leapt forwards and caught his young friend as she crumpled towards the ground. Tegan and Adric, oblivious to the weapons trained on them, rushed to the Doctor's side as he sat on the cold, hard floor and cradled Nyssa in his arms.
"No!" cried Tegan, as she stared at Nyssa's motionless form.
"You've killed her!"