The Final Flight of The Time Lords
Author: Ash's Boomstick
Distribution: ,
Spoilers: Small number for the new series
Authors notes: British Words and Spelling,
For ease of use the Doctor mentioned is 8th incarnation- Paul McGann, Romana is in her forth and looks like a slightly older version of Sarah Carter and sounds more like Servalan from Blake's seven
Dedication: AJW, Tyr, LC, Shinikami and the rest of Team Tardis.
Date: One Hundred Billion Years Ago/Yesterday/Tomorrow/End of All Time.
Location: Capital City of Gallifrey
Place: Panopticon Home of the Eye of Harmony.
Never before had such a critical time come for the people of Gallifrey, every member of those that called themselves Time lords had been recalled to their homeworld, for the entirety of time and space the Time War had raged and now finally the war reached its climax.
The invasion of Gallifreian space by the race known as the Daleks.
In the chamber of the presidium the Lady President of Gallifrey had assembled the one thousand remaining Time Lords within the very centre of the panopticon. The lady Romana sat at the dias of the speaker's podium. Her newest regeneration had been a success and she now sat in her forth body since her elevation to Time Lady of Gallifrey.
The recall had returned every single remaining Lord to their home, from the high lords, to the creators right through to those whom had long ago been removed from their society or become outcasts through their actions. It seemed that even with their hatred or jealousy of their brothers and sisters, the rogue Lords were not willing to watch and allow their home to be destroyed by the immense Dalek invasion force bearing down on Gallifrey.
Ten million Dalek ships were approaching the outer chronoshield, a massive time/space field that protected the entire star system from the ravages of time and space, from a million timeframes and a thousand directions the enemy were coming. The Daleks had plundered every planet they had and used every available resource to create a mass of ships, a mass that the great time lords could never hope to stop.
Time and again every combat equipped Tardis, warship, carrier and planetary defence satellite had been dispatched, over ten thousand of the most powerful and capable time machines ever built had been blown out of the skies over as many planets. Debris stretched across time and space and every Tardis lost took hundreds of thousands of the enemies with them, be they Dalek, Nestine, Racnoss, Shadow Dancer, or any of the dozens of races that flocked to the Dalek banner.
The toll taken by the Lords and their allies had been immense, outnumbered and outgunned they had nonetheless erased entire species from existence, yet more were displaced or dying. One race alone had detonated their homeworld taking almost one million Dalek warships with them, yet more had fallen to the guns of those beholden to the Lords. Immense battles across the cosmos would always be won in favour of the Gallifrey forces, billions of vessels had been completely destroyed by the immensely capable Time Lord ships.
But with the loss of so many of the best and brightest as well as the oldest and wisest in their numbers, the lords of time had been crippled by their enemies, even the use of their most dangerous and prohibited weapons were unable to stop the encroaching enemy, devices developed over millennia by renegades and creators of worlds were deployed and destroyed by the hordes.
Now it seemed that with the inevitable fall of the temporal defences around their world that the very literal centre of time and space would be destroyed, worse yet with the destruction of what was left of their defence forces both Gallifrey and its Eye of Harmony would be at the mercy of the evil Daleks. Even now the massive screens on the walls of the chamber showed the Dalek attack incoming, the few remaining defences trying to keep the enemy fleet at bay.
"So they made it this far." A voice said from behind Romana.
Spinning around she looked at the face of a young man with long dark curly hair, his face and demeanour unfamiliar as was his clothing. Clothes that had an appearance of a time frame from a planet she was indeed fond of, such a combination of appearance and a time lord's her ability to read the temporal 'Aura' of another person led her to one conclusion.
"Doctor." She exclaimed hugging him hard around the waist, he gently smoothed down her long blonde hair, she had changed a fair amount from the almost carbon copy of the long lost princess she had taken the form of so many years ago.
"Hello Romana, It's good to see you again." he smiled
"You were the last, the only one not to make it to the summons."
"I had a hell of a time correcting some problems the Master had made back on Earth, and trying to get through the timelines when you're trying to get around Dalek patrols is not easy."
"We did a full recall, everyone turned up even the rogues."
"I saw, Rani seems to be running ragged trying to reinforce the shields. Was surprised to see old man Azmael though, thought he was dead."
"Not yet, but he may soon be."
"It's that bad?"
"Five million ships Doctor, the entire Dalek race verses us. Virtually the entire defence fleet is gone, all but a handful of Tardis have been destroyed in battle. Everything we had was sent against them in the last battle, every ship, every Tardis and every warrior."
"So they finally allowed us to build warships, only took them the entire span of Time Lord existence to figure that out. Wait, every Tardis?"
"There's maybe half a dozen left in existence now, everything else is dead or dying." Romana sighed as she looked at the screens "We knew something was coming, the entire temporal matrix was starting to fluctuate as we watched, the disruptions meant we couldn't tell when the attack was coming. We were forced to rebuild every Tardis we could get our hands on into battleships, multi person crews and temporal weapons across the fleet. The council even opened the sealed archives and dragged out Omega's old war plans and designs for all kinds of combat ships, over ten thousand of both were ready by the war's start Doctor. The last of the fleet groups were destroyed a week ago."
"Word of Rasillon, isn't there anything left?"
"We're down to the chrono defences and a few dozen ships that weren't ready for the battles." She whirled around to face her old friend, "We can't let them take this planet Doctor, not if we have any way in the universe to stop them."
"Then what do we do?"
"I don't know." She drooped back obviously exhausted, "We tried to send someone back to destroy the entire Dalek race before they could be created and especially before they left their world."
"Are you insane, I was in that timeframe."
"I know." Romana shouted back, she composed herself and explained. "I know you were, your previous incarnation was the first of those attempts. The guardian knew what was coming and ordered your help, the other attempts may have been against the rules that we govern the timeline by. But we ultimately had no choice in the matter this was to save our very race from total extinction."
"How many?"
"Twenty attempts, all failed. The Daleks perfected their newest prototype DARDIS not long before we tried; they killed every operative we sent back plucked directly from the time stream. The new design doesn't time travel but it stops time-based weapons and can at least some of the time capture a Tardis if it's in the area. With time shields the majority of our weapons became useless against their weapons. We had to hit them with anything we could find, every weapon in the ancient arsenals were used en masse against them."
"And now they are here."
"Every three ships we destroyed they built one in its place, they didn't care about the losses."
"What about the Hypraxis, the Gallitons, hell the Vegans?"
"Dead, every ally that could gather a fleet were smashed by the Daleks, planets were invaded, stripped and then destroyed. Their march crushed every world that stood against them, Dalek fleets were wiped out in detail, but they just used the debris to rebuild what had been destroyed. One million planets Doctor, One trillion beings wiped out across the galaxy simultaneously in one single attack, there's nothing left on either side but us and them and they are winning. Two days ago we received a message from your granddaughter; she'd managed to get a transmission through the blockade. Earth's gone."
The bottom of the Doctor's world fell out, next to his home planet Earth meant more to him than anything else in the universe and beyond. The Daleks weren't just blowing planets apart, most they were breaking down into their component atoms and reusing. But some planets were being removed from space time, with each world lost to the void like that the web was changing.
Time shifts and temporal quakes rippled through the universe as worlds disappeared from existence, entire races ceased to exit whilst other changed radically and totally into creatures unrecognisable from those they had been. Only a few worlds could possibly defend against the changes in time and space, those that shielded themselves from the waves created even more ripples through reality changing once again races that once would have existed side by side in monstrous empires bent on destruction.
For some the prevention was worse than the attack as planets fell to outside forces attacking the protected planets for no other reason than they could, where the chrono defences of so many planets could take the change in the fabric of reality the normal mundane weapons of these changed races simply annihilated the planets breaking them into rubble.
Earth's removal from history was a critical loss for the forces opposing the Daleks, with knowledge and conflict between humans and the Daleks stretching from the 20th century through to many billions of years into the future as new versions of the human race started to expand and prosper. Each successive race had taken on the Daleks, merging alien and human alike into alliances that headed off and destroyed the Daleks time and again.
The loss of the humans from time and space would have been disastrous for the Galaxy and the Time lords themselves, the Doctor himself would have ceased to exist a week ago if he hadn't already been in the time streams protected by the shields of the Tardis and the Panopticon.
"Oh hell." The Doctor said, "Jamie, Tegan, Grace… Sarah Jane."
"I'm sorry Doctor, I truly am."
The doctor trembled slightly under Romana's touch, he had been willing to die to save Earth so many times, had been willing to return and see Gallifrey die and he and his people along with it. He had never thought Earth would disappear, destroyed as though it had never existed and with it all but a handful of those he had loved as family, almost all humans and almost all dead or thrown into the void of non existence.
"We have to stop them and now, we can't let them take down any more of the worlds that have shaped the universe." the Doctor said.
"I agree that's why we called you back, when the all ships, all Lords call went out we knew that a number of our people would come and they would know how to." Romana looked at him.
"I'm not sure whether to be thrilled or annoyed that you think so highly or lowly of me Romana, there's plenty of ways to kill a planet but not this one. We've built in every defence we can think of to make sure that Gallifrey stays intact against any enemy force. Even those using time travel." The last war the Time Lords had fought had been a precursor to the Great Time war; the defences had help against the onslaught of so many races attacking from so many eras. It had been fortunate that at least two races with that technology had joined the Lords by their side.
The Doctor still thought that 'Time Agency' had been a little bland as a title
"The fact is that the only real way to stop the Daleks even getting a foothold on this planet is to remove it from time before they get here, separate ourselves from space and wait until we can rebuild…." He paused and looked at his former companion, she had bowed her head and he stopped, "But that's not the idea is it, it's not enough to stop the Daleks from destroying anything else that gets in the way, but the time we rebuild it'll be too late."
She looked up in silence her face composed, "We have to remove anything that could damage the timeline completely, without the Daleks and the Time Lords the youngest of the races will have to protect themselves. We can't interfere anymore, and we can't survive either."
"So that's why I'm here, to find a way to take down every Dalek and every Time lord left in the Galaxy." The Doctor stared at the screen, "There is no way to get through the outer shields not even with Chrono weapons, even detonating every bomb, every weapon and every Eye in the system wouldn't break them. But those shields are weakening at a hell of a rate, something that not even five million Dalek heavy cruisers could do…. That's why you want me here as well; if I find a way to take down Gallifrey then we can take down the Daleks."
"I'm sorry Doctor but we already know how to destroy Gallifrey and how to take the Daleks with us."
"Final Warship wave is ready for deployment Madam President." A voice came from the side, a tall redheaded woman walked up to the two of them before nodding her head deeply to her old adversary "Hello Doctor, it's been a while."
"I'm surprised to see you here Rani, last time you went before the time lords council you tried to kill three of them, succeeded on destroying every one of Gallitorain's regenerations."
"I've been here for quite a while Doctor, the full council or the Time Lords pooled their power to recall me. You of all people know that is impossible to resist that kind of power let alone deny them." She turned back to the President, it is time my Lady, you must give the order."
"I know, is it worth it?"
"We need the Daleks to believe in their own superiority right to the end my Lady, their overpowering belief that they are the dominant racer in the Galaxy will mean they believe everything as the shield comes down. Once they have entered between the fields they will be unable to escape and will be unable to stop the destruction of Gallifrey. That is of course if the Doctor is capable of following through on his side of the plan."
"Wait one second." The Doctor interrupted, "I've just got here, and I've just been told the last member of my family has been killed by this war. That I now have no one left, and that I've been recalled to find a way to destroy the strongest most fortified world in creation, excuse me if I'm not exactly enthused at this idea right now."
"The plan is foolproof, it will remove the Daleks from the universe and protect those that need to be." Rani replied
"I should have guessed it was one of yours Rani, simplistic and graceful yet monstrous. Very much your style." The Doctor snarked, "I can destroy Gallifrey if I choose to, but it will take time."
"That Doctor is something we have plenty of." Rani snarked back, "Madam president, the ships are ready to go."
"Send them up, and ready the shields."
"Yes Ma'am."
Approaching her Dias Romana brought up the screen, the assembled time lords in the room watched as the last few dozen refit beweaponed Tardises streamed out to meet the Dalek forces. The destruction of these last ships would leave the skies open for the millions of remaining Dalek ships, possibly enough for them to the only world remaining that they could use to perfect their own time travel technology- Gallifrey
All that would remain after that would be the immensely powerful shields that encompassed the lunar orbit of Gallifrey's moons, one of two shields that had kept out any attack that had been capable of breaking through to the woulds of the Time lords. The shields had weathered attacks for the entirety of time, attacks sent from the past the present and the future by the Daleks.
"Carrier Seven nine nine four launching." She heard the Rani say, "Breaching the shields, Carrier is free and clear. Black hole torpedoes away."
Romana stared at the screen as she watched a half dozen of the most powerful weapons ever created impact on the forward ships of the Dalek battlegroups, thousands of ships were swallowed by the brief explosions of the black holes into realspace.
"Reducing power to the external shielding, down to sixty percent strength."
A continuous salvo of torpedoes came from the carriers slamming into the vanguard of the Dalek fleet, hundreds of thousands of Dalek cruisers and Battleships disappearing into the ether as they were literally vaporise by the power of exploding black holes. The last few War Tardis' followed through the wakes of the carriers their crews overtaking the lumbering warships, their weapons ports pumping out massive disintegrator beams larger and broader than entire cruisers, temporal and dumbfire black hole torpedoes erupted from launches by the score. The massive explosions blotted out the counterfire heading for the Time Lord warships, Dalek assault ships ploughing through the immense explosions heading for the assembled Time lord armada.
Dalek torpedoes slammed into the missile carriers piercing the temporal displacement shields and detonating within the confines of energy field, the superior engineering of the Gallifrians holding up against the onslaught long enough to unleash a second salvo of weapons fire destroying ships that had been crippled or rendered helpless by earlier fire. Retaliation against the Tardis' and missile carriers was overwhelming, over a million Dalek vessels had finally come into range of the Time lord ships, as one every weapon on those ships fired on the dodging targets. The damaged carriers came apart as their shielding finally fell against the overwhelming firepower; each Tardis was blown into fragments as the heavy cruisers focused their main weapons on each of the immensely powerful time machine.
As the debris was blown away the Daleks moved forward again, those same ships began a systematic bombardment on the temporal shield encompassing the Gallifrey system and its people. Slowly the shield began to weaken even more as the power was reduced to the outer layers, billions of torpedoes, millions of energy weapons and dalekanium mass drivers pounded the shields forcing the shield to weaken faster.
From her position Romana could read the information coming across the boards as the greatest minds of her race tried to find a way to keep the enemy at bay. Rani had continued to lower the shield power concentrating the combined energy of both secondary and primary shields in one layer, the Eye's full power flowing from the planet to the orbital shields.
"Dalek casualties at fifteen thousand ships, all Gallifrey forces destroyed." Rani said, "And that doctor is what has happened in every battle since the war began, we do immeasurable damage and they keep coming, they can absorb the losses we can't."
"Any survivors?"
"No, every crew we sent out there knew it was a one way mission, over three hundred Time lords just ceased to exist."
"Lady Rani." They were interrupted.
"My Lady?" the former rogue looked to her former adversary
"Follow with your plan, drop the primary shield and let them come to us."
"Are you sure my lady?" Rani asked, "There is a very real danger of us losing the orbital shields at that rate of fire, it they decide to ram the shield we could be looking at feedback and damage to the shield generators. The planetary shields have not been used in a very long time.
"Very sure Rani, it's the only chance we'll have to take them with us." Romana said, "Bring the out shields down but be ready to transfer power back to them when I order."
"As you order, shields dropping. Power outputs to minimum."
"Outer System Temporal Field has been compromised, numerous hostile ships on approach. All Time Lords report to the Panopticon, repeat hostile ships are now in the system."
"That's it my lady, Dalek ships are en route, eight hours to orbital insertion."
"That's it then? We hold the Daleks in between two shields, they just sit there?"
"Of all things Doctor, my speciality is the sciences. Every version including psychology, the Daleks are arrogant and their belief in their superiority has allowed us to manoeuvre them right where we want them. We lacked the military and technological edge to take down the Daleks so we used what we have left, intelligence and experience. The Daleks can not be allowed to like and it will take the time lords to shut them down once and for all."
Romana spoke up "There is nothing else we can do, Doctor. Finally after all this time the rule of the Time Lords of Gallifrey is at an end, we have become too complacent and too spiteful to those that the Time lords see as below them. Only a very few like you have kept our people strong, feared, respected. For us and for the universe the time of Gallifrey has to come to a close old friend. The gates between the universes have already been sealed and the links to the timelines are being closed off from Gallifrey as we speak, the destruction of our world won't damage the rest of the multiverse."
"Those damned seals won't hold against a explosion the magnitude of the Eyes closing down, it'll blow chronotic energy throughout the multiverse. We can't possibly know what will happen when we destroy the planet, destroying every last trace of our people and our heritage, everything we are and everything we have been is here on this world. Detonating the Eye might work but it might also cease us from ever existing, the Daleks would not have anything to hold them back all this time."
"And without Gallifrey the Daleks may well not become the power they are, it's our influence that pushed the Daleks into their current form. For every action we took they copied us and changed it, seems that the one constant in the universe is that law." Rani replied, "Whatever changes happen it will be for the best as without us and without the Daleks the universe may be able to survive what is coming. If we don't do this then the Daleks will simply destroy everything else out there then come back for us."
"Don't you think I know that." the Doctor shouted, "But without us then a single paradox would unravel every universe in existence, there are a dozen time scavenger species out there just waiting for their chance. The humans were the only other chance the universe had of policing the temporal eddies, their destruction has left the entire timestream in flux."
"You give too much credit to the humans Doctor, your own genealogy not withstanding." Rani smirked.
"If you think that Rani then you never knew me or the humans at all." He snarked back, "Almost every crucial nexus in time since their twentieth century has had the humans at the very center, the number of human offshoots and evolutions over the billions of years of their existence has proven that the humans are hardy and won't be kept down. We've seen them evolve from the beginning of time to the end of time and I am willing to bet beyond anything that the humans will the last surviving beings in existence when the universe collapses into itself."
"You have such a romantic notion of a notoriously violent and disturbed people Doctor."
"And you Rani know nothing about the humans."
"Both of you quiet." Romana ordered, "I don't know if you've noticed but we are in the middle of the biggest battle the Time lords have ever had to take a hand in and now we're possibly going to cease existence across half the universe. Whatever problems you have with each other can wait, preferably when theres no one around to listen to it."
The Doctor sighed, he knew his old friend was quite right but the fact that one of his greatest enemies was co-ordinating the defences of his world was galling, Rani was one of the most unprincipled and disturbed people he had ever known, his own history with the beautiful time lord notwithstanding. But he also knew that Romana had weighed up every option available to her people, she wouldn't have put the rogue in charge unless she had had no other choice.
Now with the final defences coming under attack he knew that whatever plans that could have been enacted already have, the fact Romana was even willing to contemplate destroying Gallifrey and its entire history meant that there were no more choices to take.
"So now i have to find a way to take down the entire defensive structure of the most powerful galactic civilisation, destroy the most powerful energy source ever built and destroy two entire races in a single instant. So no pressure there then, Shit when did this get so bad?"
"Maybe it always was and we never realised Doctor." Rani said softly, "I have to get back to the defence command center." She turned and walked away, reaching the threshold of the council chambers she turned back, "For what it is worth Doctor, it is good to see you and I do hope that you find a way to stop the Daleks once and for all, we've let this go too far."
With that the Rani left the two time lords together, neither really sure of what to say to the other. Romana knew that she had asked her dearest friend to risk the universe in order to destroy all of Gallifrey and the mutilated denizens of Skaro, Genocide on a scale that no person should have to even imagine let alone do.
The Doctor, feared by the evils of the universe and paragon of all that was good and fair and saviour of reality as they knew it. A man beyond reproach that would now go down in history as the cruellest warmonger that history had ever known, a single person that would wipe out two entire races and possibly more as the timelines converged destroying others and allowing others to survive.
"I'm sorry Doctor."
"For what?"
"For forcing you into this, for making you the final weapon in our arsenal."
"Romana I have done a lot in my life that I'm not proud of, I could have prevented everything that has happened by destroying the Daleks before they became a threat. I couldn't do that back then it wasn't in me, now… now I think that I have to, I won't like who I'll become when I do so but I won't be around to worry about it will I." He replied smirking, his face turning solemn he exhaled a long breath, "I can do it."
"What?"
"I can do it, I can destroy Gallifrey, the entire system and everything caught in-between. Every Time Lord, every Dalek and every piece of their existence erased in a single instant. I've done it before, I can do it again."
"What?"
"A few years ago I destroyed Skaro, it hurt the Daleks, I though it might even send them scurrying to regroup. It just sent them into a frenzy, I'm responsible for this attack because of everything I did back then."
Romana looked at him quizzically, the Doctor was a hard man if pushed but the destruction of such a powerful and fortified world should have been far beyond his abilities. Only a few weapons had ever been created capable of erasing an entire system from history, let alone one such as Skaro and indeed heir own.
"The hand, oh lords you've got the hand."
"Come on." He led her away from the room into a landing bay just adjacent of the panopticon, standing there as unobtrusive as ever stood the Doctor's old friend and something that Romana had some kind memories of. "I thought you had repaired the chameleon circuit?"
"I have, the old girl likes the image and whom am I to argue with a lady."
"I'd reply to that but I'd be afraid of the Tardis' reaction." She smiled sadly, "It's good to see you too old girl."
Entering the massive gothic looking interior of the Tardis the two Time Lords approached a hidden sealed door, waving his hand across a keypad set into the wooden panelling a spiral staircase appeared within the doorway dropping into the depths of the Tardis.
Within the interior of the Tardis, rooms could move and change at the whim of its operators or the Tardis itself but the heart of the vessel was always its link to the great eye of Harmony, the power source of the entire Time Lord race. Since his most recent run in with the Master he had been putting safeguards and defences in place, he had allowed himself to get too overconfident and arrogant in his dealings with others. Now he had begun putting some of the most dangerous creations he had access to within the sealed vaults at the very centre of the eye.
Ahead of them within the churning eddies of the Tardis' eye a single door appeared floating in mid air, a bridge fading into view between the outside and the inner depths of the conduit. Gesturing to Romana to step through the Doctor escorted her to the edge of the Bridge.
"You have to understand Romana that for years I've been forced to take things and hold them for safe keeping, I allowed myself to get complacent in my dealings with the universe. I always win, the Master, Rani, Daleks, Cybermen, Yeti, the Black Guardian, I never lose." The Doctor pulled out a key, "Now It comes to the greatest ending and I can't win but I can't lose. Total Stalemate."
Within the structure a number of dais stood to either side of a wide pathway, numerous relics of his past, scattered all around some gathering dust in the dark corners with others standing proud on the lit podiums. However at the very end of the amphitheatre a single plinth sat shrouded in overlaying layers of light and dark, as if space itself was unsure of the true status of the object. A weapon that had once thought to have destroyed the Daleks, the greatest creation of Rassilon and Omega, and the single piece of equipment that had formed the power source for the entire Time Lord order.
"I thought it was still on Earth." Romana said
"After the destruction of Skaro I brought it back here, leaving it on Earth was too risky once it had been activated, so I brought it into the Tardis it's been here ever since. I was lucky that The Master didn't find it when he was down here a while ago, if he had found it I couldn't have stopped him."
"Where was it?"
"Propping up a shelf in my bedroom." The Doctor smirked, "Or was it being used as a coffee table?"
"Planetary Temporal Field under attack, hostile ships are in orbit. All Time Lords report to the Panopticon, repeat hostile ships are now in orbit. Planetary defences have been compromised."
"Looks like Rani wasn't able to hold the Daleks back with the orbital weapons." Romana said, "The surface to space weapons were decommissioned tens of thousands of years ago, another oversight that we should have seen before it got this far."
"It's not your fault Romana, you've been handed a raw deal. No one could have been asked to do anything more than you have, there was too little to use too late, none of us could have seen this coming not even with all our power. The Daleks are unpredictable at being predictable, or predictable and being unpredictable. Either way… what was I saying?"
"I get it, I get it." She smiled sadly, "We need to get this thing to the Eye as soon as possible."
"I'd prefer not having to get it there at all but it's not as if I have much of a choice in the matter." He stared at the Box, "The last time I used this thing it almost went up, Lords know what will happen this time."
Manipulating the controls on the outside the bulky weapon dissolved into a smaller easily carried version, the Tardis like capability of the Eye answering the requests of its one and only authorised operator.
"Well then shall we go?"
The Door
Beneath the President's Chambers
Panopticon
"Welcome to the Door Doctor."
In front of them a clear glass door separated the outside world from a massive conglomeration of energy currents that sat behind it, circuits of light and electricity flew from side to side mingling and separating a thousand times a second. A tunnel could be seen forming through the lines of light to a darkened room beyond, the energy currents slammed into the shielded tunnel spins around creating an almost pure white barrier around them.
"This is The Matrix, the total and combined knowledge of the Time lords. I thought it was tied into the Looms and the presidium." The Doctor gasped, "How…."
"No those were merely annexes to the main system itself, The Matrix itself has always been under the control of the president of the time." Romana replied, "You weren't in power long enough to know everything, besides most thought you were a traitor to begin with so can you blame them?"
"I suppose not, The Matrix is part of the eye isn't it?" The Doctor supposed, "You would need an insane amount of power to run this, more than a Tardis can put out in a thousand years."
"It's the control system of the Eye, the computers that we usually use including the Tardis' themselves were insufficient back when the Matrix was built. These days we could have rebuilt it but like so much of our existence many of us thought why bother we have plenty of time to do so."
"Now you don't."
"No, follow me." Romana ordered strolling through the opening door into the tunnel beyond.
Chamber of Harmony
Planetary Core of Gallifrey
The Eye of Harmony was quite literally a timeless piece of antiquity, a massive construct crafted and tamed by the first of the time lords. Omega and Rassilon, the two whom the residents of Gallifrey owed their existence and their power to. It was unknown when and where that the eye had been created, laws forbidding travel into Gallifrey's past and future had been put in place throughout their existence to safeguard their past, present and future.
A tiny but immeasurably powerful black hole was kept in a temporal field, the tidal energy and coronal radiation powered all of Gallifrey's technology and linked the eye to the thousands of time machines built over the eons by the great smiths of Gallifrey, the truth about the Eye was shrouded in mythology and legends. It could have been created at the very dawn of time by Omega and Rassilon or at the very end of time as the universe collapsed in on itself, a way to preserve history before it was annihilated in the final destruction of space and time. No-one knew the absolute truth, not even those time lords whom had spent entire lives and so many regenerations studying the world itself.
The massive cavern that held the black hole itself was simply a perfectly carved rock sphere, thousands of gantries and generators circled it, projecting the temporal fields holding it in place. Tunnels branching into the rockface sealed by eruptions and doors physically phased into the surrounding stone, the gantries linking by stairs and ramps reaching from the floor to the celing, to the sides of the cavern. A giant ball of metal surrounding the eye.
Even after everything he had seen in his nine hundred plus years the sight of the fabled Eye of harmony awed the Doctor.
"That's a big hole." He mused.
Smirking at his reaction Romana gently took the Doctor's arm and walked him across to the closest gantry that connected the concentric rings of the superstructure with the edge of the Temporal fields. The gantry barley touched the outer field but it was enough for small flares to run through the clear time bubble, wires of energy spilling around the metal edges of the platform.
"I have to leave you here Doctor, I need to get back to the Panopticon."
"You want me to let you know when I'm going to set this to go off?"
"Just long enough for us to trap the Dalek fleet between the shields." Romana turned to her friend, gently cupping his cheek she turned his face towards her. He pressed his cheek into the curve of her hand, reaching out he gripped her free hand to the space between his hearts, Romana held her hand in place until he finally let go reluctantly breaking the contact between them/
"We're really not who we used to be are we." He said rhetorically.
"No we're not, not since that last day."
"You better return to the Panopticon, let them know what's happening. Have Rani begin powering up the system shields."
"We can't evacuate Doctor, not with them so close." Romana sniffled, "But if you can, get to your ship. I can't promise anything but I will try to open a hole in the shield for you."
"I can't leave, not when everything else is going to hell."
"You really do spend too much time on Earth."
"Don't change the subject Romana, the era of the Time Lords are over I have to be here at the end."
"No you don't, it doesn't matter what happens if Gallifrey goes up Doctor, if one of us survives there's always a chance for the rest of the universe. This is an order from the President and a request from the woman that you taught so much to old friend. Please if you can do so get out and continue on, for those of us who can't and won't make it."
Leaning forward she gently pressing her lips to his, Romana pulled away and stepped away from the field and into the corridor outside of the hidden chamber. Passing by the security console she let it be, there was no longer any need to reset the security that had been the only door between the outside and the core of the world. Halting in her stride she turned around to look at her friend one last time, the Doctor felt her eyes on his back, he turned around to stare into her eyes for the final time.
"Maybe in another time." She said.
"Maybe, I wish we could have found out." He responded, smiling sadly he watched as Romana disappeared into the tunnel of light folling the slight figure of his friend until she disappeared into the ether. Returning his attention to the box in his hands he settled it close to the overlapping energy fields.
There was one thing left to do.
Main Conference Arena
Panopticon
Twin moons that had once orbited the planet shattered as thousands of ships converged blowing the massive planetoids into rubble, a simple side effect of the concentrated bombardment that had begun to began to encompass Gallifrey, five million ships began concentrating on just one area of shielding. The others hammering on perceived weak spots across the entire globe, debris from the two planetoids collapsed against the immensely powerful shield doing little but scaring the men and women on the planet.
From her position at the top of the highest podium in the arena Romana could read the information coming across the board as the greatest minds of her race tried to find any way that they could hold the Daleks back until they could counter attack. Rani had returned to her place with the defence command, concentrating the power of both secondary and primary shields into one single layer, the full power of they eye of harmony flowing from the planet to the shield.
Even the immense power of the Dalek fleet would be unable to cut through the shields for now, with her world safe for the moment Romana continued watching the information scrolling across the holographic displays on her own dias. The defences of Gallifrey were still holding the Daleks back but she was under no real illusions that they could stop the attack or prevent the Daleks from eventually taking down the shields in some way.
Walking down from the Dias she strode to the doors of her personal quarters within the panopticon, securing the doors she walked through what seemed to be a large mirror within her office, Romana slipped though the chameloeonic visage and into an expansive circular velvet curtained room, walking into the middle of the room she the approached a blue box much like one she had spent many years aboard during her first incarnations. Romana's own Tardis now stood unused and alone, approaching it she pulled out an old human style metal key slipping it into the lock in the door.
The main doors swung open allowing her to walk inside, however the inside of the room was very different to any of the internal desktop configurations that the Doctor had favoured, a reflection of Romana's own thoughts and wants more than the Doctor's.
"Hello old friend."
Like most Tardises the one given to Romana was somewhat empathic, the brush of the Tardis' consciousness that slipped across her mind was as familiar as her own mind. A feather touch across the back of her mind was enough for her to know that the sentient machine was as happy to see her as it ever had been.
Words were unnecessary to the time machine as it absorbed the knowledge of the fall of the Time Lords for the mind of its owner/operator/companion. As the last orders from Romana to the Doctor filtered across other connection it finally understood what was to happen, the loss of every other of its kind a painful thought.
"I know, I know." Romana replied to the thought, "We've lost all but a handful of the Time Lords and we have only a small number of Tardises left, we can't run from the Daleks and we can't fight them. But we can stop them now and forever."
A brief feeling of rightness drifted across her mind, the mind of her ship agreeing with what had to be done. A questioning brush filtered through the link between them, Romana laid her hands across the sensitive instrumentation around the control panel, her plans laid bare throughout her mind.
"You know what I want you to do, you and the other remaining ships."
Question again.
"The Doctor needs to able to escape, he has to get away from Gallifrey at all costs. He is the last of us and the one who can protect the universe once we are all gone, I wouldn't ask you to do this unless there was any other choice. I know you don't want to leave, I need you to. The loss of the time lords will hurt the universe, but even though the Doctor is just one man, he is maybe someone we can trust to do what needs to be done."
Acquiescence"Thank you." Romana sniffled, tears streaming from her eyes. "All other ships will be sent out with you the second the gap in the shield is created. Whatever happens, thank you for everything we've shared and been through, I wouldn't change it for anything.""
Understanding.
"Goodbye old friend."
Goodbye/Sadness/Pain/Anger/Love/ResignationLeaving her Tardis for the final time she closed the doors sealing the Tardis shut for the final time, refusing to look back at the Police Box, the last President of the Time Lord Race left the room the mirror/door disappearing behind her. Rushing from her offices she made her way to the Presidential podium and stood before the assembled Gallifreyan survivors. Already reports of damage to the ecosphere of the world were coming in. The blanking out of the sun by the millions of Dalek ships in orbit and the destruction of the moons high above them were crippling the planet itself, already the dark forest was alight and the hidden islands including the Tower of Rassilon had toppled into the sea.
"My fellow Time lords." She called out.
Almost as one every set of eyes assembled in the room locked onto her where she stood. "My fellow Time Lords… I hoped that this would never happen to us, we have seen so many worlds lost to the Daleks but never thought it would happen to Gallifrey. I am truly sorry my friends, every plan and every tactic has failed to stop our enemies and now they stand at the gates of our world. Our defences can and will keep us safe for the rest of time, until the stars burn out and darkness reigns, but we can't simply sit here and watch the Daleks destroy all existence. Because of the danger inherent in leaving the Daleks free to do as they wish drastic measures have been taken. Today will be the last time that the Time Lords will be called together on this the last day of Gallifrey's existence. Several hours ago I authorised the deactivation of the shielding holding the Eye of Harmony in place. In addition I have also authorised the final and total destruction of the Eye." Silence reigned, "With the destruction of the eye the Planet of Gallifrey, the solar system and everything in it will be destroyed. This will be the last and maybe only chance that the universe will have against the evil of the Daleks and their new emperor. The destruction of the Eye and the links between our world and the universes will cause ripples throughout time, the backlash may cause unforeseen problems to occur but that is something that we will no longer be able to help with..."
There was nothing but silence in the room as the President continued her impassioned speech to her fellows, as the seconds ticked by some of the survivors clasped hands while others huddled together. A very few left the room altogether for their privacy, but for all this there was not one of them that spoke up to stop the destruction of their home and their lives throughout time.
"Rani?" Romana asked
"I am here Madame president."
"Activate the outer shields and increase power to both sets. Corral them in."
"Yes Ma'am."
With the entire Dalek fleet within the confines of the Gallifrian solar system it was a simple effort to shift power from the planetary defence systems into the long range shield emitters. Phased and hidden relays systemwide powered up linking together into a complex web of Temporal fields, within a split second the entire array activated enclosing the planets and the Dalek fleet completely,
"Shields are operational, all power has been diverted to the emitters."
"Then all we can do is wait and see." Romana whispered quietly. "May the light of the universe be with you Doctor, don't forget me."
Eye Of Harmony
Planetary Core.
"Well when I got up this morning I didn't think this would be what I was going to be doing before dinner." The Doctor mused, the Hand had been activated only twice that he knew of. One had created the eye and one had destroyed a solar system, he knew how to program and control the ancient technology but was unsure of the effect that an out of control Black hole would do to the box if it was unable to detonate it first.
"So this is it." The doctor said to himself, reaching into the open box he began to manipulate the machine's controls, a dim light began to grow brighter within the hand's mechanism as it powered up. Energy pulled directly from the eye unfiltered and undiluted by the conduits, pooled inside the greatest creation of Omega. Activating the last of the controls, the final sequence began to pulse more and more energy draining from the event horizon of eye itself.
"Primary Temporal Field has been re-established, hostile ships remain in orbit. All power is being redirected immediately."
"And so it ends." The Doctor activated the weapon and standing up strolled from the chamber and out of the Matrix towards the almost empty Tardis hangers of the capital city, he had a promise to keep for a lady and he always kept his promises.
Tardis Hanger
Panopticon Lower levels
The Doctor walked out of the lift and out into the main hangers of the Panopticon, once thousands of all types of Tardises and numerous other ships had occupied a hundred floors in all forms and functions. Now barely a handful of ancient and prototype stood within the hangers, his own still hooked up to the repair and recharging systems.
Slapping a button on the machinery the entire setup disconnected and swung away from the exterior of the Tardis, sparing the building a final look the Doctor walked through the doors of his ship and began a full start up of the ship's systems. Checking the power systems and the recently repaired equipment on board he looked up at the shining blue cylinder that was the heart of his vessel. Slamming the levers down the Tardis faded out crash diving into time and space, sending his ship hurtling out of the system.
Activating the Tardis' chameleon circuit he found it offline, meaning that he was still stuck in the blue box that he'd had for almost one hundred years. He grinned at the fact that even though he had repaired the circuit again and again it never seemed to work right.
"Repair the time/space circuits, put a power modifier in and hoover the Tardis room but the bloody chameleon circuit never seems to work. Alright old girl we'll forget about that circuit for now."
All around him thousands of Dalek ships were closing in on his hemisphere of planet, their temporal shields interfering with his ship's time drive. As his Tardis escaped, the last order of the President of the Order of the Time lords was initiated. From the hangers within the Panopticon and the president's office, every remaining Tardis in existence faded from sight
Following the Doctor's trail the armed time machines fired, Dalek attack ships and cruisers exploded under the fearsome firepower of the armed vessels, leading from the front, the president's Tardis emptied it's heavy weapons into the hull of a hulking Dreadnaught blowing it to pieces. Spinning around the Blue Box shaped Tardis dived through a small gap in the phalanx of Dalek ships, dodging enemy fire by the salvo forcing Dalek ships to destroy their own ships through friendly fire.
Already expecting an attack from whatever Gallifreian ships may have been left the Dalek ships concentrated their fire on the madly jinking Tardis', shrapnel and energy bursts blowing apart the closest vessels and forcing yet more into the firing arcs of Dalek dreadnaughts and carriers.
One by one the final flight of the Time lords began to wane and die, each vessel snuffed out in a blaze of light keeping the secrets of time travel out of the 'hands' of their greatest enemy.
PanopticonWithin the most heavily shielded part of the planet, the Time Lords watched as the phalanx of Time Machine blocked enemy fire keeping the Daleks away from the last manned Tardis. From time to time one of the lords would collapse as the almost instinctive link with their ships ceased to exist. The remaining population of the planet, Time lord or not were safely cocooned in the massive bunkers and chambers built years before the time war forced to observe their own world as they had for so long to so many others. They watched at the entire surface of the shields shimmered massive heavy gravity bombs and energy blasts thrown from the orbiting war fleet, energy enough to vapourise the planet a thousand times over..
Romana looked at the screen, she watched as the last vessels passed through the thickly clustered Dalek ships, blowing through the blockading ships and out into space, staring at the clock face of the Panopticon she watched as it hit local planetary midnight.
A pain stronger and more debilitating than any she had ever felt before ripped through her body, an all encompassing agony that dropped her to her knees for a split second before passing leaving an aching hole in the center of her being. Painfully climbing to her feet she looked through the sensor records and watched as her own Tardis was finally overcome by the Daleks, one of two identical blue boxes disappearing as it's shields failed under a thousand energy beams.
"Harmony Shields destabilising, breach is imminent." The automated voice of the main computer spoke, "Energy systems offline, Primary and secondary shields offline, all defensive systems offline."
"Goodbye Doctor." Romana whispered.
"Breach in progress."
As the last of the protective sheaths of the Eye of Harmony collapsed the Hand of Omega detonated, the ancient device erasing the defences around the now massively expanding black hole. Within half a second the planet had consumed by the Black Hole, gravity waves propagating at speeds faster than light accelerated by the split second detonation by the Hand of Omega.
Less than a second later the entire Dalek fleet was caught in the erupting singularity's gravitic pull, tens of thousands of ships a second began to disappear into the Event horizon. The wave accelerated again and again destroying the Dalek fleet as it lay trapped too close to the gravity well to jump out. Several of the furthest Dalek ships tried to run from the wave to no avail, one by own or in groups of hundreds of thousands the largest, most dangerous fleet in existence was destroyed. Within six seconds every sign of Gallifrey, the time lords, the Daleks and the system itself had been wiped out. However unseen and unheeded by anyone two tiny ships, each one carrying the last member of each of the two great enemies escaped into the ether.
For the Time Lords of Gallifrey and the Daleks of Skaro, the war was not over not by a very long shot.
Timestreams
The prediction of the Doctor came to pass as the cascade of distortions tunnelled their way through the timestreams and vortexes created and sealed by the Time Lords over the trillions of years of recorded time. Eruptions of chronoic energy flowed throughout time and space, history rewritten at the very beginnings and very ends of reality meeting in the center and expanding outwards again and again with every eruption.
A billions timelines existed within a billionth of a second always distorting and overlaying realities, merging and destroying entire races, entire histories one into the others until none were recognisable as the original. Entire races simply disappeared as if they never existed, other sprung up in their places only to be erased anew replaced by versions of themselves changed immeasurably by the untamed temporal distortions rolling through the infinite universes tied together by the exploding black hole once at the very heart of Gallifrey.
A final burst of energy rippled through the timelines displacing the entire multiverse exchanging reality and the very fabric of time and space over each other separating and recombining the remnants of the trillions of timelines that had existed and forming around a single fluid time. Single members of dead species became entire races. Destroyed planets re-emerged changed with insignificant changes within their history, others were recreated more powerful than before whilst others led crusades against those that had been brothers or allies.
The stabilised timestream settled within an infinitesimal moment of its destruction and recombination, for the first time in all of known history the time vortexes were empty and silent. For the first time there were no guardians of the timelines to defend existence from scavengers and carrion eaters, the younger races of the universe would be on their own for a very long time.
Tardis Mark 40
Timestreams
Heading for Earth sector
The Doctor watched as the timelines rearranged around him, the powerful shields of his Tardis the last remaining piece of technology created by the people of Gallifrey. Energy spears and lightning clouds slammed into the Tardis a thousand times a second, waves of reality crashing against the sides straining the shielding to the maximum forcing it off course tumbling around whilst it's single occupant could only sit and watch.
"It's over." He mumbled to himself, "It's finally over."
A slight itch began to work its way into the Doctor's brain, multiplying and irritating across the inside of his skull. Growing stronger and stronger the itch began to become painful, agony rippled through his very being. His link to the Tardis echoing the pain within the doctor, wave after wave slammed against his psyche throwing him to the ground in unimaginable anguish.
The Tardis held for all of a second against the scream before the psychic shields collapsed completely, with no defence between the mind of the last time lord and the final psychic echo of his destroyed race he was left wide open to the full force of the wave. Before the leading edge of the wave had fully englobed the vessel the energies had already begun filtering through the mind of the Doctor.
Blood began rushing from his ears, his nose, his eyes and mouth as his very being was assaulted by the dying agonies of his people, a cacophony of anger, relief, happiness, fear, every emotion they were capable of bombarded the Time Lord in single overwhelming cry. His own agony was drowned out as if indignificant by the others, and for the first time in a great many centuries the Doctor screamed.
Unable to defend itself or it's operator the Tardis itself crashed out of the Timestreams and into realspace, all across the vessel circuits exploded as the energy surges blew through the eye of harmony and the time vortex. Control panels slagged and crystals exploded across the console, the massive column that was the heart of the Tardis dimmed and faded out completely leaving the Time Machine powerless as more and more currents of energy pulsed through both it's own systems and the humanoid form of the Doctor.
As the Tardis shut down the last link between the Time lord and the outside world was severed, unable to contain the minds running through his psyche the Doctor's body gave out. Closing his eyes he allowed the wave to subsume him and simply lay back to die, possibly for the last time.
The 'mind' of the Tardis re-emerged for the non existence it had been forced into by the external attack by the combined minds of the Daleks and the Time Lords, a few moments had passed since the wave had hit and dissipated a few moment that for the Tardis was the equivalent of many millions of years in silence and alone. Emerging from the Darkness the central column and the main consoles began to power up some erupting in sparks whilst others simply failed to work.
Worst of all lying in a puddle of blood around his head the Doctor lay motionless and alone, after the time that had passed the regeneration instinct should have kicked in automatically. Unlike the last he had not been operated on by a primitive world nor had he been shot through the hearts, all that the Tardis could do was wait and hope that the Doctor could revive himself, eternity alone would be a hell worse than being the last of its kind.
A flicker of light began to form around the Doctor's head, growing as it encompassed his entire body. The light became brighter as the seconds passed covering every inch of the body lying on the ground, as the regeneration power began to rearrange his very essence the body jerked around on the floor flailing around morphing as the body grew taller, slimmer, hair receding from the long curls to a thinning crew cut and his features sharpening.
His eyes opened.
"Ok now that I wasn't expecting."