Doctor Who: The Time Destroyer
By Paul D'Arcy
Based on the Original Role Playing Game Developed By Ryan Blake
Episode 2
The Doctor unwrapped his extra-long scarf from around his neck as he scanned the horizon. He noticed the acrid stench of smoke in the morning air. From their vantage point, it seemed as if the entire valley was aflame. He could see dead bodies lying all over the valley floor amidst the burnt-out husks of what used to be Daleks.
'Great balls of fire!'
He turned to see his former self staring out at the carnage.
'It looks as if the Time Lords never regenerated. That suggests some kind of cellular decay weaponry.'
'Hmm. It may be simpler than that. These Time Lords may have reached their last regeneration.'
The fourth Doctor surveyed the war-torn landscape.
'That's possible, I suppose. Still, seems unlikely.'
Suddenly, there was a familiar wheezing noise from behind them. Both men whirled around to see the Tardis disappearing into nothingness. It was replaced by a desolate moor. Dark clouds lay overhead like a horrible white-grey blanket.
And in the distance, was a stark, pointed tower.
The tomb of Rassilon.
As the Tardis grew fainter, another machine appeared beyond.
'Well, hello, old girl!' the third Doctor's lip curled.
'Now, there's a sight I haven't seen in a regeneration,' the other Doctor smiled at him.
A pristine yellow roadster gleamed in the Gallifreyan sunlight, ready and waiting. Bessie was the only welcome sight in the foreboding landscape.
'Cosmic hobo? Scruffy? Scarecrow, indeed? Who do those two fools think they are?' the second Doctor wondered aloud. To be fair, it didn't really matter. They weren't supposed to be in this Tardis.
His Tardis.
The moment both of them had stepped outside, the lights grew in intensity. The background hum of the Tardis engine sounded infinitely better. It still wasn't at a hundred per cent, though. As if the Tardis must've had something left over from one of the other time streams. He'd immediately keyed for a scan and began checking the interior of the Tardis.
'There has to be something belonging to the other time streams,' murmured the Doctor. 'Now, what could it be? No…No…There!'
I'll just set the controls like so and…
As the Tardis took off, the engine spluttered, coughed and battled back its natural, resonant tone. The Time Column moved up and down.
Up and down.
But there was no way he could escape Gallifrey. The vortex would just force him back down again. He set the spatial controls for a quick jump and, for once, the Tardis didn't argue. The Time Column continued its rhythmic movement, and then stopped as the Tardis landed.
The Doctor brought the wall scanner online again, and frowned curiously at the picture. It was a darkened antechamber, with a wall-sized window revealing a building in flames. The red-orange glow gently bathed the room in a low light. No life signs appeared on the scope, which turned the Doctor's frown into a worried scowl.
So, what happened to his fellow Time Lords?
He knew that the only answer to that question lay outside the Tardis. He grabbed at his large, furry overcoat that hung on the coat stand and pulled back on the lever that opened the door. Reluctantly, he stepped outside.
The Tardis had appeared right in the middle of the room. On both sides were narrow corridors that led to other rooms. The corridor to the Doctor's left opened out every twenty metres down the hallway. It held a strange sense of foreboding.
He wasn't at all sure that he wanted to go down that route.
The corridor to his right ran straight down to a grey metallic doorway, a light blinked beside it and there seemed to be a small control panel underneath. He wasn't certain he wanted that one, either. Suddenly there was a strange noise from behind the corridor to his left. Somewhere down there, something stirred. Or was it his imagination?
He pushed his hands deep into his coat pockets and fished around for a few seconds. He pulled out a tennis ball and threw it overarm down the lengthy corridor. The ball sailed through the air, striking the floor once as it reached the next opening along the hallway. Without warning, a green bolt of deadly energy vaporised it into nothingness.
The Doctor felt a sense of pure fear grip his hearts like ice. He ran down the corridor to his right. He made it to the door and slapped at the switch beneath the blinking light. Then, he heard another sound behind him. A blood curdling electronic voice echoed from down the corridor.
'It-is-the-Tardis.'
The Doctor ignored the Dalek and swiftly returned his attention to the control panel. There was a small retina scanner above the blinking light. Once again, delving into his pockets, he fished out his trusty sonic screwdriver. He bent to place his left eye before the scanner, and flicked the screwdriver on as a golden beam of light washed over his entire left eye.
'The-Tardis-is-the-property-of-the-Doctor!'
Well, now, that's not quite true, he thought absent-mindedly as the scanner whirred and clicked. The Doctor felt a trickle of sweat drip down his forehead as he waited silently for the computer to do its work. He glanced behind, noticing the Tardis and a familiar, nightmarish shadow fall across it.
The Dalek was heading this way.
'Good morning, Mr. President,' the computer answered, and the door slid aside smoothly.
'The-Doctor-must-be-destroyed!'
Quickly, he stepped inside as the menacing Dalek rounded the Tardis to bear down on him. The Doctor punched at the door controls, and it swiftly closed.
'Door locked. Defensive force fields in place,' the computerised voice responded.
'That should keep them out for some time,' the Doctor said to himself. A quick glance around revealed no other exits, though.
For the moment, at least, he was trapped.
'While you were held in the vortex, the Scarecrow, the ancient fellow and I entered the tower.'
The third Doctor drove his beloved roadster, Bessie, down the tarmac track towards the tower of Rassilon, as he recounted previous events to his future self.
'Of course, I met Sarah-Jane out here, you know.'
'Sarah Jane? Out here?'
'Well,' he considered, 'More to the south-east, I think. She was stumbling her way through the fog and fell down a hill when I came along.'
'That was certainly fortuitous. Frankly, I can't believe she was brought here,' he replied.
The Doctor took his eyes briefly off the road to stare at his future self. Teeth, curls, and that awful scarf! Personally, he preferred his own sense of style and dreaded the moment when he'd have to become…that thing.
'She always was a headstrong sort of girl.'
He ignored his future self's observation and returned his attention to the tree-lined road. There was a sharp curve ahead. He gently turned the wheel, and Bessie responded beautifully. She drifted through the corner smoothly, and the Doctor caught a glimpse of the road ahead.
There was a towering cliff at the road's far end, and on either side the treeline broke, revealing open countryside.
And several silver humanoids scattered throughout.
'Cybermen!' cried the Doctors together.
'Get down.'
The white-haired Doctor floored the accelerator and Bessie zoomed down the road. The Cybermen raised their weapons and fired. Laser bolts zapped everywhere, firing into the air, the ground, even one of the Cybermen who exploded and fell backwards.
One bolt struck Bessie's spare tyre, resulting in a frightening bang. The shot tore a gash through the middle of the back seat. Its yellow exterior was covered in moist cauterised rubber as the car started to veer from one side of the road to the other. Somehow, the Doctor valiantly kept the car under control.
At the far end, the road veered sharply to the right. Beyond, the turn was a sheer cliff over a hundred metres high. The Doctor powered Bessie for all she was worth. They zoomed their way to the corner, laser bolts dogging them all the way.
"I don't think we can take much more of this!" shouted the curly man next to him. As Bessie sped towards the corner, the Cybermen concentrated their fire on the retreating vehicle.
'You're going too fast, Doctor!' his future self shouted over the hail of laser fire. 'You'll never make that corner!'
In truth, he was going too fast.
'I'm not taking the turn,' the Doctor replied as he flipped up the top of the gearshift lever and pressed a small circular blue button.
The car rose off the ground, the wheels tucked in under the car's body and the car's rear brake lights slid aside to reveal two igniting thruster exhausts. He pulled back on the steering column, and the car zoomed up the side of the cliff face.
'You forget, I won the zero-gee Olympics!' he grinned.
Laser blasts tracked them as they raced upwards. Cascading rock and dust fell to the ground as Bessie roared like an angry behemoth. Once they reached the top of the cliff, the car leapt into the air. The Doctor pressed a button on the dashboard, and control rockets brought them back to horizontal flight.
Bessie fell forwards, diving for the ground. The anti-grav field beneath the car cushioned their initial landing as the car settled into horizontal flight, a metre above the ground. The third Doctor pressed the gearshift lever's button again, and the wheels unfolded back into their usual position and the anti-grav field dissipated, allowing the wheels to touch down.
Both men lurched forward as the car returned to its original configuration. The third Doctor grinned and patted the steering wheel.
'Good old Bessie!'
He stared at his future self and noticed that he looked a little green.
'Pull over!' he barked.
'What? But we're almost there!'
The fourth Doctor scowled at him.
'I don't care. Pull over!' he replied more forcefully.
The third Doctor couldn't keep the smile off his face as he shrugged his shoulders and hit the brake, slowing the car to a halt. His future self was already preparing to jump out before Bessie had come to a stop.
'Great…big…yellow…death trap! That's what this thing is!'
'You're making a big mistake, you know?'
The Doctor gestured towards the distant tower.
'We can reach the main entrance in minutes.'
'You reach the main entrance, you rotten… blackguard! I'll try another way.'
'You realise there are only two other…'
''Whoever to Rassilon's tower would go, must choose above, between, below.' Yes, I remember the old nursery rhyme.'
'And the potential dangers? There's a reason it's called the Death Zone, you know.' The third Doctor stared seriously at his future self, but his fourth incarnation flashed a winning smile.
'That's what makes it more fun, don't you think? Wish me luck.'
The Doctor harrumphed disinterestedly as his next regeneration slapped the side of the car and stepped back. Then he glanced upwards, and dived away from the car as a bolt of green lightning struck the exact spot where he'd been standing.
The third Doctor experienced a momentary sense of déjà vu. Bessie had been struck by a similar bolt the last time he'd been here. He shook the memory from his mind, threw the car into first gear and slammed the accelerator.
The awesome energy struck all around him, but thankfully, they didn't touch the car this time. He quickly glanced over his shoulder and caught sight of his future self. He was dashing for a nearby group of trees, one end of his ridiculously long scarf trailing behind him, while lightning bolts dogged his footsteps.
The last time he saw the curly-haired man, he'd dived between two tall trees. He had no idea if his next regeneration had survived.
Did that mean that he wasn't going to meet any of his other future selves? That their futures had been wiped from existence?
Did he just see his own death?
There simply was no way to tell.
'Good luck, Doctor,' he said quietly as he gunned the engine.
The Presidential office was spartan. There were only a single desk with a computer terminal off to one side, and three chairs. There was a conference table and behind that, a series of large sprawling windows revealing the horrifying carnage of burning buildings outside.
The second Doctor peered down onto the war-ravaged streets. Dead bodies and the blackened, burned out hulks of Dalek machines littered the area. Sickened by the sight of so much devastation, he turned away. Bile rose in his throat at the thought that after centuries-old conflict, the Time Lords and the Daleks had destroyed each other.
But how?
How could the Daleks have possibly managed to break through the long-established defences and destroyed Gallifrey?
The Doctor frowned and turned his attention to the desk. He sat in the chair, facing the computer. He coughed once to clear his throat.
'Voice identification, please,' the computer's no-nonsense female voice was cold, insistent.
A typical bureaucrat if ever there was one, he thought.
'Yes, well, this is the Doctor speaking. I'm looking for some information…'
The computer whirred away to itself
'Ready, Mr. President.'
The Doctor's eyebrows rose in surprise.
'Mr. President, indeed? I'm obviously going up in the world!'
Better not tell old Fancy-Pants!
His lip curled at the thought.
'Describe the events leading to the Dalek invasion of Gallifrey.'
The computer chatted away to itself in electronic beeps and clicks for a few seconds.
'There is no information in the databanks,' it replied.
'Well, that was a waste of time. I don't suppose you'd care to tell me what-!'
Something whooshed by, mere inches from his head.
He ducked under the desk instinctively, half expecting whatever it was to start hurling laser fire at him.
But nothing happened. After a few seconds, he poked his head out just enough to see a silver orb, not much larger than an Earth football. It floated two feet above the desk.
"Ah, hello there,' he smiled pleasantly. 'And what might you be, my friend?'
No reply came; it merely floated lazily above the desk. The Doctor rose slowly and peered at the object. All he could see was a strangely expanded view of his own reflection in it.
'So, you're not going to talk, hmm? Well, we'll see about that!'
He fished into his pockets and pulled out a small, white paper bag. Mischievously, he delved into it and pulled out a small, green object and offered it to the orb.
'Jelly Baby?' he smiled.
The sphere made no other movement, apart from slowly bobbing up and down. He hadn't really expected it to do anything. He dug into his pockets again and pulled out a Galactic Glitter.
'Oh, what good is that?' he asked himself as he tossed it disdainfully onto the desk and put his hand back into his pocket. He pulled out a table tennis bat.
Very useful!
He discarded it and kept on looking through his pockets. Then, finally, he felt the cold hard metal of his sonic screwdriver in the palm of his hand.
'Aha! At last!'
He pulled it out and activated it. It hummed quietly as he passed it close to the orb.
'Hmm. Some kind of transmat device,' he mused.
The sphere was obviously able to transport a person or object to another place.
Could this have been the President's escape plan? Would he have had enough time to activate such an escape route? Was it his last resort?
Perhaps the most important question of all was:-
Where did it lead?
With a sense of dread, the Doctor reactivated the screwdriver, searching for signs of temporal displacement.
But there was none.
'Hmm. Curious little thing, aren't you?' the Doctor he said, scratching his head. The screwdriver definitely detected spatial displacement only. He blew out a long breath. At least he didn't have to worry about what time the President had escaped to.
Presumably, the President had escaped from the Dalek invasion force on the other side of the door. But how?
Instinctively, he tapped it with the end of his screwdriver, but the floating ball ignored his touches. He rested the screwdriver head against his lips as he considered his alternatives.
The screwdriver's sonic waves obviously couldn't do anything. Touching metal against it hadn't produced any results either.
'So, what else can I do?' he wondered.
Frowning curiously, he pointed a finger at it and tapped it once. The moment he did so, he felt a tremendous bolt of energy shoot throughout his entire body like a thunderbolt.
He felt his body involuntarily jerk. Then, every cell in his body just evaporated. A heartbeat later, there was no sign of the Doctor in the President's office. It was as if he had never existed.
'Hey, old thing. You're pulling a little to the left, aren't you?'
The Doctor corrected Bessie's course once again as he sped towards Rassilon's tomb. The road ahead was slowly turning into a gravel track, with bumps and small hillocks for the car to clamber over. Bessie was a tough little car, but she wasn't really built to go off-road. Since he'd already used the limited anti-gravity generator, he doubted whether it would last long enough to reach the tower.
As it turned out, he reached the building with little difficulty. He circled around to stop right in front of the steps leading to the main entrance, turned off the engine and jumped out. He saw a golden bell on a stand in front of a large, similarly coloured gate.
There was silence for a moment. Then, his blood froze as he heard the sound of footsteps. He squinted into the distance, and saw two lines of grey mechanical men stomping their way towards him in unison. He'd never seen creatures like that before.
Or had he?
They seemed very menacing, and caught the impression that he'd battled against these metal creatures at one time or another. Out of all the species he'd fought against throughout his lives, one word kept creeping into his consciousness.
Cybermen.
These were obviously more technologically advanced than the ones he'd encountered previously. And every time he'd seen them, they'd wanted to destroy him.
'You will be deleted!' The Cybermen shouted at him.
Same difference, thought the Doctor grimly.
Swiftly, he turned to look at the intricately carved golden gate, and the bell-stand before him. He flipped the lid up, revealing a red keypad underneath. He tapped at the entry coder, hoping that it would raise the gate quickly. The keypad chirped once, and the huge monstrous door lifted upwards slowly.
Very slowly.
He glanced behind, realising the Cybermen were still advancing.
Bracing himself, the Doctor dived under the rising gate. As he did so, with the ominous footsteps of the Cybermen pounding in his ears, a thought struck him.
At least I didn't have to slide across a chasm to get in this time!
'I sense your presence.'
The second Doctor glanced around, seeing no one approaching him through the darkness. Nevertheless, he could feel the cloak of anger and revulsion waiting to tear into his soul. It was like being forced to wear a coat made of human skin.
The very idea made his blood freeze in his veins.
He was in a small darkened antechamber, basically a more gothic version of the President's office he'd just left. There was a desk, but with no computer. Otherwise, the entire room was empty, except that on one side of the room was a flaming torch mounted on a stand. Opposite was a familiar, large circular seal.
The seal of Rassilon.
'Well, I've a feeling that I've been in this building before!'
'Indeed, you have, Doctor. You are in the Tower of Rassilon.'
'Why have you brought me here?' the Doctor asked the disembodied voice. 'I mean, you obviously control those spheres, don't you?'
'As you may recall Doctor, it was you who touched the transmat device that brought you here.'
'Oh, yes…Well…'
The Doctor looked down at the black stone floor, feeling rather sheepish
'What about the Capitol building? What happened?'
'Surely it's obvious, isn't it? The Daleks penetrated Gallifrey, and in the ensuing battle they and the Time Lords wiped each other out. But that's not the immediate question on your mind, is it Doctor?'
'That's true enough,' he replied.
'Then, ask it, Doctor. Ask the most burning question in your heart.'
He frowned and glanced around. It seemed as if the voice came from every direction.
'Who are you, and what do you want?'
'That's more than one question,' replied the voice with gleeful malice.
'I have more than one heart! The Doctor answered.
A quiet, malevolent cackle echoed throughout the antechamber.
'Touché' Doctor! I am the most intelligent member of your species. I am the leader of your people, and I will control you, to gain what I want.'
Something invaded the Doctor's mind in that instant. A dark presence, striking with so much anger, that he was forced to his knees.
Then, he felt pain.
Only pain.