Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you're having an amazing holiday, but this is for everyone as a Christmas present. As usual I don't own Doctor Who, though if I did the Monk would be around more, as would Romana and the Rani.
As always, I don't own Doctor Who, but please leave feedback.
Enjoy.
Beginning of the Master.
He was leaving Gallifrey today, he'd had enough though he knew that it was not down by choice; his political decisions had made him more than a few enemies than even he could handle, and to be honest the Master no longer felt safe on his own planet anymore. He was going to go after his friend (though whether or not the Doctor really was a friend or not, he didn't know anymore), and they were going to travel through time and space. But the Master was furious and understandably hurt by the Doctor's actions. Instead of taking him along for the ride as well as with his granddaughter (the Master doubted the validity of the girl's role in the Doctor's life since he knew only too well the Doctor did not have children), the Doctor had just sauntered away from Gallifrey without him.
As he hurried through the Capitol corridors, the sound of echoing footsteps (boot steps, technically), the Master could not help but feel angry towards the Doctor for making him rush through the corridors of the TARDIS repair shops while he tried to find a TT capsule that was workable enough for him to steal. It was alright for the Rani. She had recently been exiled from Gallifrey, but thanks to her cleverness she had managed to send a TARDIS towards the planet where the Time Lords had planned to exile her to in the first place. But for him that same luxury was impossible since there had been enough confusion for the Rani to use one of her mind-control drugs to 'persuade' one of the guards to let her go to the TARDIS bays where she could find one of the more advanced models, gain control over it somehow, and send it ahead.
He wasn't so lucky because the guards were chasing him through the corridors, meaning he would need to steal the first TARDIS he could lay his hands on. But the Capitol guards were making it difficult for the Master to even make it to one. It was strangely paradoxical; the Capitol guards were a more ceremonial police force on Gallifrey, meant to look impressive instead of actually efficient, and yet when they had found him here trying to break into a Type 52, they had managed to chase him away from the TARDIS before he could actually enter the time machine and get away. Now they had locked down the facility and there seemed to be guards everywhere.
The Master growled angrily as he turned around another corner and found himself being faced by two more helmeted idiots who called themselves guards, and he turned around and rushed away. One of them called out after him.
"Halt! Get back here, you're under arrest!"
The Master almost laughed. They were trying to arrest him, did they really think he'd want that? He ignored them and pushed those annoying voices out of his head while he ran as fast as he could, cursing the guardsmen for driving him to this part of the Capitol in the first place. As he ran through the Capitol, the Master could not help but wonder what he was going to do when he found a TARDIS. There was no 'if' to the matter in the Master's mind, he was going to find a TARDIS, he was going to escape. But as he thought about it, the Master realised that once he was beyond the Transduction Barriers he had no real desire to do anything, he would arrive on a planet and stay if he really enjoyed it, but if he felt he could build a power base on the planet, then so be it. In the meantime, the Master was content to just leave his home world and put this so-called 'adventure' behind him. There was plenty of time for him to have different adventures, though of his own making, when he left Gallifrey-
A Staser pulse thudded into the wall only a few inches from the Master's head. The Master yelped in surprise, resisting the urge to swing round as he increased the speed to his legs, using a Time Lord trick to accelerate the blood flow through to his legs while he concentrated on using his mental training to take in as much air around him as possible to keep his blood oxygenated as he ran. There was a flash as another Staser blast impacted on a wall to the right, but the pulse was so far from him that he was unharmed. It was a passing reassurance only; the blast impacted against the wall at around head level. If it had connected to his head….. He couldn't believe the Capitol Guard were using their Stasers, but he was relieved the guard only had a basic training with using the weapons. The Time Lords were so pacifistic that only a few of the guardsmen actually bothered to practice with their weapons, learning how to actually use them and how to aim them instead of just taking them out of their holsters and firing at random. The moment the thought registered in the Master's brain, the Time Lord desperately hoped one of those particular guardsmen were not behind or even in front of him. They would be able to kill him without any trouble.
As he ran through the corridors, the Master cursed as he felt the pain in his legs from all the running and the effort he was putting his hearts through, but he ignored the strain through sheer willpower as he tried to put distance between himself and the guards. He needed to put enough distance between them or he would never be able to escape. Maybe he could find a way out of the TARDIS repair shops and back to the areas where he could find a more advanced model and make his escape-
But just as he was trying to come up with a plan, he began to slow down as he came to a T shaped crossing, and ignoring the rapid double-pulsing through both of his hearts as he tried to take deep breaths, the Master saw a doorway down the path to his right. It was hidden behind a small corner. The Master studied the door carefully for a moment, seeing it didn't look guarded. He did wonder if some of the guard were pretending to hide to lull him into a false sense of security, but he doubted it. The guard had not bothered with those tactics and while Time Lords were highly intelligent, they didn't think in those terms. Some of them might, of course, but the Master was sure if they were around in this case, he would have seen signs of it by now. When the Master heard the rapid thudding of the boots rushing towards him, sounding like the rapid fire of machine-gun bullets, he realised he didn't have much option but to risk it.
The Master rushed towards the doorway, trying to be as quiet as he could while he kept his senses focused in case the guards came too close, and he opened the door and quickly shut it, knowing it wouldn't be long before the Time Lords realised he was inside. The door used a genetic lock and they were monitored by the Castellan and since the Master was being tracked through this particular part of the Capitol, the tripping of the lock would give the Time Lords his position. But when he passed through the threshold of the door, thoughts of the Time Lords disappeared. In front of him, surrounded by a number of Time Lord tools that weren't necessarily part of the same tool-kits usually used by his people, was a TARDIS.
As he studied the ship, a Type 45 if his senses were accurate enough, the Master realised there was something definitely wrong with this TARDIS.
The time machine was standing tall like a cylindrical statue while it stood inside a temporal restraining cage. Hmm, not the best environment for a TARDIS, the Master thought to himself, hesitating slightly as he wondered what the Quadriggers, the technicians who worked on TARDISes, were doing with this particular model….
As he studied the TARDIS in front of him, the Master was torn. He was desperate to get away from Gallifrey, but he had no idea what the problem was with this Type 45. Once more he cursed those guard idiots for chasing him away from that fully operational Type 52. He cast a wary look at the tools scattered around the floor of the room in an untidy way. He recognised them all of course, but he didn't know what in Rassilon's name was going on.
The Master stood outside the TARDIS for a few minutes. He didn't want to go inside. He was afraid if he walked through the door and into the console room, the interior dimension would fall apart. He did not like the look of what was going on here….The Master made up his mind. He turned his back on the TARDIS (it wasn't even the latest model or one of the most recent ones in any definition of the word, and it looked like a lot of work was being put on it), but as he was about to leave the room he heard something outside.
"Message from the Castellan; a genetic lock was bypassed a few minutes ago by the Master," someone was saying outside. "The lock has not been touched since. The Master is here in this part of the building."
Another voice spoke up, but this one was older and didn't ring true to the type of people hired by the Castellan for guard duty. "But this is the Intensive Repair Facility," the voice said, "myself and the other Quadriggers wouldn't recommend anyone taking one of the TARDISes here. They've not been Time Clamped, there's no reason too. The TARDISes here are simply too dangerous to steal!"
Tragically the Master only heard the first part of this statement. If he had overheard the rest of it he would have tried to escape in some other way, but because the Chancellory Guard were outside the room he was in with this old TARDIS, he didn't have much choice in the matter. The Master quietly padded over to the TARDIS and opened the door. The Quadriggers hadn't seen the point in closing and locking the doors, so the Master easily slipped inside the time machine.
When he found himself inside the TARDIS, the Master didn't bother looking around the console room, though he noted the desktop theme was set to basic default. He wrinkled his face in disgust when he took in the state of the console, but his trained eyes quickly noticed the control systems were still operational enough. Quickly, the Master operated the controls of the TARDIS, setting the destination controls to random before he pushed enough power into the dematerialisation for the TARDIS to leave Gallifrey.
The sounds of dematerialisation were heard quickly outside while the old Quadrigger was being questioned. The old Time Lord, ancient in both age and in body, was bored and exasperated by all of the questions being thrown his way by these idiotic young upstarts who pounded up and down the corridors and disturbing the work of numerous other Quadriggers in the place.
As a senior member of the order responsible for the maintenance of Gallifrey's time fleets, the Quadrigger had confronted the idiots disturbing the work of the day. He had been outraged the guard were rushing about in the first place, but the news another TARDIS was about to be stolen so soon after a number had already gone was nearly too much for the old Time Lord.
But what truly frustrated and annoyed the old Quadrigger was the obstinance he was getting from the guardsmen. The Quadrigger could easily see that they were excited at finally being given something to do after spending who knew how long doing virtually zilch for so many years since they had joined the guard organisation. The Quadrigger had tried to get them to leave before he received the full story, but now he was doing his level best to help the guard. He wasn't doing it out of the goodness of his heart. He simply wanted them all to leave.
Before the sound of the Type 45 reached them from one of the Intensive Repair workshops, the Quadrigger had been busy arguing with the officer of the Chancellory guard. The Quadrigger had been leading them through the corridors while he himself tried to think of the right place where this 'Master' could be hiding. The Quadrigger had never understood the need for titles since names were more appropriate and made you more approachable. That was when the guard suddenly received a priority one communication from the Castellan himself. The Quadrigger had listened with worry when the Castellan, who was little more than a senior guard himself, informed his men about the activation of a genetic lock with the Master's bio-data print attached to it.
But what worried him was the room number mentioned, knowing there was a TARDIS inside that room, under extensive repair. The Quadrigger was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the officer speaking to him. The old Time Lord turned to him questioningly. "Sorry, what was that?" the engineer asked.
The younger Time Lord rolling his eyes only served to annoy the senior Time Lord greatly.
"I said I received a message from the Castellan; a genetic lock was bypassed a few minutes ago by the Master," he repeated for the Quadrigger's benefit, the patronising and almost slow tone the young whippersnapper was using nearly made the old Time Lord swing for him; it was hardly a reaction from a Time Lord, but he was annoyed.
The guard went on, unaware of the senior Time Lord's thoughts. "The lock has not been touched since. The Master is here in this part of the building."
The Quadrigger was too surprised when he heard that, but what surprised him the most was hearing just how reckless this so-called 'Master' was. "But this is the Intensive Repair Facility," the voice said, "myself and the other Quadriggers wouldn't recommend anyone taking one of the TARDISes here. They've not been Time Clamped, there's no reason too. The TARDISes here are simply too dangerous to steal!" The Quadrigger almost cried in outrage and horror.
"Be that as it may, sir," the guard said, and the Quadrigger groaned out aloud. Why was it nearly every Time Lord who came here seemed to treat him and his staff like some prehistoric relic? "The Castellan would never have sent that message on to me without proof. And as for not Time Clamping the TARDISes-"
"I don't care what your Castellan thinks," the old Time Lord snapped. "I am telling you, the TARDISes don't need to be clamped aside from those which are just about functional. Some of them are inoperative anyway; some of their Main-Space time elements have been removed, a few have nearly burnt out dynamorphic generators so even if they could move, they would probably only get a few metres away, while only moving through time a few days. If this Master tries to steal the TARDIS, from that room," the Quadrigger gestured towards the little door nearly tucked away by the corner, making the guards surrounding him stiffen and head towards it. He followed them, speaking along the way, "then it will fall apart."
"Fall apart?"
The Quadrigger rolled his eyes. "The TARDIS is an old Type 45. It suffered extensive damage to its structure, and it needs to be re-hauled. It was a nightmare bringing the TARDIS into the shop; when we transported the TT capsule into the repair shop, the ship almost fell apart."
"I didn't think TARDISes did that through a simple transmat beam?" Another guardsman said.
"They don't, but the internal shielding was badly damaged, making it nearly fall apart even when it passed through the wormhole. The internal shielding acts like an inertial dampener, and there are multiple layers of shielding inside a TARDIS. They're used to shield the TARDIS and anyone inside from the effects of the Vortex, but they also protect the ship from planetary instabilities as well," the Quadrigger said, shaking his head as he remembered the scale of the task presented to himself and his fellow Quadriggers when the Type 45 came back from a field trip with extensive damage to its interior structure.
The guard officer frowned and he was just about to ask the older Time Lord a question when they suddenly heard the sound of dematerialisation from the room ahead.
The elderly Quadrigger stopped in shock and then he cried in outrage.
"NO!" he cried in shock and horror before he rushed towards the door ahead of the guardsmen, faster than they would have expected as he tried to get to the door. They followed as well, rushing to the door which the Quardigger opened with his own bio-data print, and they found themselves staring at the disappearing form of a TARDIS. The guard officer could hear for himself the time machine was in a bad way even if he had only the expected level of knowledge of how the TARDIS worked like everyone else did though the Quadriggers had a higher knowledge, but you didn't need to be an Academy graduate with a quadruple first to tell the dimensional stabilisers were badly damaged.
Indeed, it looked as though the time machine was having trouble just taking off. One half of it was partially gone while power was obviously being pumped into the engines to dematerialise the rest of the TARDIS to get it inside the Vortex.
The old Quadrigger was standing in front of the TARDIS. He had been trying to activate the shields that would hold the TARDIS into place and bring the ship back out of the Vortex, but he had given up when the TARDIS just pushed more energy into the dematerialisation, realising the majority of the TARDIS was already gone so there was nothing to snatch back.
Instead, the old Time Lord began shouting at the TARDIS, though what the guardsmen thought he was trying to accomplish they had no idea.
"GET BACK HERE, YOU STUPID WHIPPERSNAPPER!" he shouted at the disappearing TARDIS. "THAT TARDIS IS BEING RE-HAULED! IT WILL FALL TO BITS!"
But it was too late, the TARDIS had vanished.
The Quadrigger loathed inquisitions, especially by idiots like the Castellan who didn't have anything better to do. It had been three hours since the Type 45 time ship had been stolen from Gallifrey by the Master, and now the Castellan had arrived at the repair shops to find out what had happened and what had gone wrong. The Quadrigger had stood to the side, hands in his pockets while he ignored the Castellan talk to his guards (well, of course, he would speak to his guards first) until he came to speak to him.
"Alright," the Castellan said slowly while he let loose a long drawn out sigh. "I have heard from my guardsmen the Master was foiled from taking a Type 52-," he said but the Quadrigger interrupted.
"You should have let him take that one. It was many times safer than that old Type 45," the Quadrigger said bluntly without any kind of polite decorum.
The Castellan closed his eyes. He was not in the mood for backtalk, but he absolutely loathed it whenever someone else interrupted him. He was in a bad mood already. Not only had a known political enemy escaped Gallifrey, but he was also one of a growing number of people turning renegade, and the High Council would be demanding reports from him later, something he was not looking forward to in the least. He took a few breaths, mentally counted to a thousand in the span of three seconds, and reopened his eyes to focus on the old engineer. "What, precisely," he began as patiently as he could while he didn't necessarily feel it, "was wrong with the capsule?"
"The TT capsule was badly damaged. I don't know the full details, but it nearly fell apart while it was inside the Time Vortex, heading back to Gallifrey for repairs. The crew had to work hard to keep the ship from falling apart. Its internal structure was severely crippled."
"How long was the TARDIS in the repair shop?"
"Ten years. We were just getting around to working on the ship when that idiot stole it."
"That long?"
The Quadrigger shrugged. The lack of formality annoyed the Castellan. He was used to Time Lords being more orderly than this ancient individual. "Our policy," he remarked shortly. "We work on TARDISes that are on the top of our critical lists and work our way along. Besides, that old Type 45 had been superseded by more advanced models, and there were time ships owned by other Time Lords which had more serious damage."
"I see," the Castellan nodded, finally accepting the logic. "What were you trying to do when the TARDIS was stolen? My guards reported seeing you trying to work on the controls near the time cage."
"Ah, those controls were meant to control the shields around the chamber. Every single part of this facility has one in each room, backed up with the power grid to ensure the TT capsules remain on Gallifrey. It's part of the Time Clamping system. But the reason they weren't online when the Master stole the Type 45, in case you're about to ask me, is because they put a lot of pressure on the internal structure without the shielding. That type of pressure can only increase the damage to the capsule. When the Master escaped, I didn't see much alternative."
The Castellan accepted the explanation though he was still concerned about the lack of Time Clamping in this facility. The rules stated the TARDISes needed to be Time Clamped when they were under repair on Gallifrey to prevent incidents like this. After making a mental note to bring it up later though he was definitely going to re-address the security procedures on Gallifrey later, he carried on, "What has happened to the Master?"
The Quadrigger sighed. "I don't know, really," he shook his head, "this Master probably realised just as the TARDIS dematerialised how badly damaged the ship is. He pushed a lot of power into dematerialisation; that in itself isn't even really necessary even with the Transduction Barriers on. That in itself will cause a lot more damage to the TARDIS."
"What will happen to the TARDIS in that case?" the guard officer asked.
"It's possible the TARDIS will break up," the Quadrigger replied bluntly, taking the Castellan and everyone else by surprise by just how blunt he sounded, so brutal… "So unless we see the Master again, the chances of him surviving and repairing that TARDIS are not extremely high."
Author's note - Well, of course, we all know that the Master does survive. This is a kind of prequel to the First Doctor audio story The Destination Wars. I hope you enjoyed it.
Happy Christmas. Please feel free to tell me what you think.