Here we are at the second segment I should say.

So let's continue.


Chapter 1: The Quest Begins

Five years later (not for the Doctor and Martha though)

Several light years from Earth, the silence of the depths of space was about to be interrupted. Behind a lone drifting meteor, an aperture opened in space and a small blue police box shot out like a pea from a peashooter.

Inside the box, the Doctor was a flurry of excitement. "YESSS! 670 million miles an hour and a bit! Rock on!"

Martha carefully let go of the control console and beamed at her friend. "You're just a boy racer, aren't you?"

The Doctor laughed in reply and Martha couldn't help chuckling too. It seemed like forever ago that she first entered this impossible vessel that's bigger on the inside and can travel through time and space. But since then, she had been invited to join the Doctor on his adventures as 'more than just a passenger'. Now they had just left the Time Vortex and she couldn't wait to see what happened next. But neither of them was prepared for what did happen.

Without warning, the TARDIS came to an abrupt halt. Martha stumbled back onto the railing and grabbed on before she could fall over while the Doctor was slammed into the console and thrown back into the seats.

"What was that?" Martha breathed. "Emergency stop?"

"Search me," the Doctor groaned. "It wasn't in the flight manual."

Martha could feel that the TARDIS was still moving but slower than usual. She staggered over to the Doctor and did a quick examination. She checked both his hearts were still beating and his limbs weren't damaged, but fortunately he only suffered a bruised chest and chin. She was about to tell him to take things easy when the TARDIS gave a loud thump and stopped.

"Come on then," the Doctor said, jumping to his feet and grabbing his overcoat. "We've landed. Let's see where we are."

Martha rolled her eyes as she followed her friend out the doors and took in the area ahead. They had landed on a balcony on top of a tall spire which overlooked a huge sky dotted with similar spires. A loud metallic squawking rang out and a large flock of bronze birds swooped past the spire. "I think I've died and gone to Bill Oddie heaven," she murmured.

"Bill Oddie heaven, Bill Oddie heaven!" a voice said from behind them.

The Doctor and Martha turned and saw another large metallic bird perched on top of the TARDIS, staring down at them with its glowing green eyes. "Hello there," the Doctor called up. "You must be the cause of our unforeseen detour. I have to say, it takes skill to grab a TARDIS in midflight."

"Grab a TARDIS, grab a TARDIS," the bird repeated, rotating its head 360 degrees.

Then Martha approached it closely. "Hey, I know you," she realized. "It's Caw, isn't it?"

The bird turned and craned his head down to look at her. "Welcome to Pheros, Doctor, Miss Martha," he replied. "It's Caw's home."

Martha smiled and rubbed her hand against the polished metal of Caw's beak. "How are you doing, Caw?"

"I like you, Miss Martha. Hold out your hand."

As Martha obeyed, he let out a loud cough and something small dropped out of his beak and onto Martha's hand. She let out a gasp of delight as she looked at it. It was a small metal brooch with a bird several times smaller than Caw in its centre, wings spread and little blue eyes staring intently ahead.

Caw nodded his head at Martha. "That's for saving Caw's life all them years ago."

"Thank you, Caw. It's really lovely," Martha said as she pinned the brooch onto her jacket.

"Don't I get anything?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes, of course," Caw replied. He jumped down from the TARDIS and spoke in a hushed voice. "Caw's got some news for you, Doctor, about Baltazar. He's recently been let out of Volag-Noc."

"Volag-Noc!" the Doctor cried out. "I was right, wasn't I, Martha?"

"Yeah, never doubted you," Martha replied with a chuckle. "Caw, why would they release him from prison?"

"Governor says he's 'reformed'," the metallic bird rasped, "but Caw reckons he's as bad as ever he was. He'll be coming for Caw soon, cos Caw sold him out for a bar of gold… or three."

"What do you need gold for?" Martha asked.

"He, um… eats it," the Doctor whispered. When Martha gave him a look of alarm, he quickly explained. "Caw's kind is powered by a special fusion reactor built inside their bodies. Every bar of gold they eat helps power them for a few weeks. If their reactors burn out or they don't find enough gold, then they shut down forever."

"Baltazar won't rest, Doctor," Caw cried out, bringing the conversation back on topic. "He seeks his heart's desire and knows how to get it."

"He does?" the Doctor asked curious. "How?"

"By locating…" Caw glanced over his shoulder then concluded, "THE INFINITE!"

At once, the Doctor's face became serious, the most serious that Martha had ever seen him. "Oh, that's just a legend."

"What is?" Martha asked.

"Baltazar thinks different," Caw countered. "He claims he knows how to find it."

"Find what?" Martha pressured.

The Doctor bowed his head and turned away before answering in a hushed voice, "The Infinite."

"Yes, I got that," Martha replied indignantly. "But what exactly is the Infinite?"

The Doctor walked up to the edge of the balcony and stared into the sky for a while. "Well, let's just say there are things out there in space, Martha… things that predate our reality, relics of the Dark Times…"

"Oh, like a fairy tale," she realized.

"Oh, far, far more than that." The Doctor turned round and Martha saw a sinister glint in his eyes that she'd never seen before. "There was a time so long ago when the universe was so much smaller than it is now, a darker older time of chaos when creatures like the Racnoss, the Nestenes and the Great Vampires ravaged the Void. Even the Time Lords never ventured into that time period."

"And this Infinite," Martha ventured. "That's one of those relics from the Dark Times?"

"Oh yes," the Doctor nodded. "The Infinite was a vessel of incredible power. It had the ability to grant the wishes of its crew… up to a point, of course. Then one day, the Infinite simply disappeared and people have been looking for it ever since."

"Why would anyone want to look for a rusted old ship?" Martha asked.

"Because it's said that if anyone were to find the Infinite, they would receive their heart's desire." The Doctor let out a breath. "And frankly, that's quite a thing to receive."

"Well, yeah," Martha agreed, "but how's Baltazar gonna find it?"

Caw looked round then gave another loud cough which spun his head round before spitting out another small something at their feet. "That's how."

The Doctor picked it up, put on his glasses and examined it. The thing was a small round device like a miniature tag; on one side was printed a symbol that looked like an upturned number eight. "What is it?" Martha asked.

"It's a data-chip," the Doctor replied. "Part of a black box recorder. This is Dark Time technology! How did you get this, Caw?"

"Baltazar found it some time ago," Caw replied. "He gave it to Caw for safe keeping. There should be four of them in total. You need to use each data-chip to locate the next."

"And find all four, you find the Infinite," Martha finished. "Does that mean we're going on a quest then?"

"No," the Doctor snapped, closing his fist over the chip. "The Infinite stays lost, nothing more than a legend. And as the last custodian of all the secrets in the universe, it's my duty to see it stays that way."

With that, he dropped the data-chip on the ground and raised his foot to crush it. But Caw let out a terrified squawk of alarm. "No, you mustn't, mustn't! He's had a copy made in case the original was lost."

The Doctor started at that and lowered his foot. "I can't let someone like Baltazar, someone as corrupted and twisted as he is, have access to that kind of power." He picked up the chip again and whipped off his glasses. "All right, Caw. We'll stop Baltazar from getting the Infinite, but you'd better be right about this! My TARDIS should be able to read this thing so let's get going. Come on, Martha. We're going on a quest!"


Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor plugged the data-chip into his flight computer while Martha watched. "You're really worried that Baltazar's going to find the Infinite, aren't you?"

"Remember the last time we met him?" the Doctor reminded her. "He tried to destroy Earth just to become the richest man in the galaxy. If he gets his heart's desire, he won't just stop at Earth, he'll have the power to turn every planet in the universe into diamonds… and he could get his revenge on us for stopping him."

Martha gulped at the thought. "Then we really have to stop him."

At once the computer flashed up the image of a small brown planet orbiting three suns. "Here we are," the Doctor said. "Hmmm, the planet Bouken. Ok." He set the controls and grabbed the take-off lever. "Here… we… GO!" And he thrust it down, setting the TARDIS towards its destination.


Caw watched as the TARDIS faded into non-existence then he turned to the gas-masked figure emerging from behind where the box used to be. "The tracker's in place?" Baltazar asked.

"Tracker's in place," Caw replied.

"And they didn't suspect a thing?"

Caw chuckled and repeated Martha's words, "'Thank you, Caw, it's really lovely.'"

"Excellent." Baltazar chuckled with glee. "Then the Doctor's going to find the Infinite, he'll find my heart's desire for me…"

"Heart's desire," Caw gloated. "Heart's desire."

"And soon," Baltazar finished. "I will have my revenge!"

"Revenge, revenge!" Caw repeated, laughing with his master.