25,000 years away, my homeworld burns. As distant as it sounds, we are all scarred by what transpired on the day we looked up at the stars and saw each one burst, one by one. Throughout the universe, from the Milky Way to the Screaming Nebula, our land was already talked about, but only in hushed whispers. It was a derelict, barren, charred waste of the gods' time. Long before the rocket struck its core, my homeworld was already known, far and wide, as simply 'The Dead Planet'.
And when our saviour showed us beyond the stars, we left in search of the home he left for us. For our survival. No... Our rebirth. And he gave us, blessed us with, a message to guide us. The good word.
25,000 years away, this was the beginning. In the beginning, there was the word. And the word was 'Arecibo'.
-
Marching through the TARDIS console room authoritatively, the infiltrators came to an abrupt halt once they had the main console surrounded. The Doctor held his arm out in front of Sally, whilst the Master cautiously watched his own back, and the wild-eyed Larry held back his panic. Looming over him, the intruders were broad-shouldered and intimidating in their fully-cloaked secrecy. Under their hoods, their eyes were vaguely visible from the glow of the TARDIS interior, but they showed no emotion. Out of the corner of his eye, the Doctor noticed another figure stride out of the light outside and into view. Although clad in the same uniform as his counterparts, a noticeable difference was a sky blue visor shielding his eyes and boots of audible steel, rather than the simple cloth sandals worn by the others. He stopped at the open entrance to the TARDIS and raised his head, seemingly asserting superiority amongst the others of his kind, who bowed their heads in response. The TARDIS crew looked around and at each other, puzzled.
"If they were hostile," the Master whispered first to the Doctor, "they would've attacked us already."
"If they were friendly," the Doctor arched his head back, "they would've knocked first."
"So..." Sally asked the Time Lords, "what do we do?"
The Doctor and the Master looked at each other, neither one wanting to be the first one to make contact. The Doctor, because he didn't want to unwittingly provoke an attack which would harm Sally and Larry, and the Master, simply because he didn't want to. With a deep breath, the Doctor opened his mouth with trepidation.
"Ta-"
Suddenly, Larry jumped in front of him and, stretching his arms up, gave a pathetic roar to the visored figure before quickly retreating back behind Sally, the Doctor and the Master, who glared at him inquisitively.
"It... The Angels would..." Larry tried to explain his spontaneity to no avail as his fellow crew-mates looked even more confused. Shaking his head, the Doctor turned back to face their intruder.
"Okay," he began, grasping the Master's arm and yanking him in front, "men in white coats, quite aggressive with doors, not particularly talkative, smell a bit like hospital food, I know what's going on here. Intergalactic funny farm, and not a moment too soon!"
"Oh, they'll never take me alive!" The Master protested, laughing and reaching into his trouser pocket for his laser screwdriver. No sooner had he aimed it at the Doctor's arm than did the opposing figure snatch the weapon from him and begin to study it in his hands.
"A laser device," he spoke, slightly muffled from behind his surgical mask, "functional and versatile. An advanced aid in self-defence."
"In the right hands." The Doctor answered back, relinquishing his hold on the Master. "So... You can talk?"
"But it's in English." Sally noticed, curious.
"Actually it's an alien language, the TARDIS is translating it for you." The Doctor quickly explained, much to Larry's shock.
"You mean, this time machine is in my head?" He shouted back in a burst of worry.
"I'm sure one more voice in your head wouldn't hurt, Larry." The Doctor answered back with a wink, causing Sally to stifle a laugh and Larry to slink back into a sulk.
"Speaking of voices though," the Doctor continued, "I can hear your voice perfectly and it's a very ancient dialect. I don't mean to be rude, but how old are you?"
Rather than answer the Doctor, the figure walked over to Sally and raised a gloved hand in front of her face. As he let in a deep breath, his visor glowed intensely and a series of blips and bleeps could be heard. Sally felt no pain or fear during the practice until the visor dimmed and the figure pulled out a scalpel from within his cloak. Without hesitation, the Doctor dashed in front of a stunned Sally and stood face-to-face with their antagonist.
"Okay, I've seen enough! Breaking and entering is one thing," he challenged, "but I'm the Doctor and on this ship, my shift never ends, so if you're thinking of cutting someone open, you can go do it somewhere else and on somebody else's time! Got that?"
"You cannot expect the Sect to leave when we have only just reached our destination!" Another one of this intruders spoke up, with a more gruff tone to his voice. Peering outside the TARDIS doorframe from the corner of his eye, the Doctor noticed that they were still suspended above Earth, its atmosphere slowly recovering from the havoc that the Gap inflicted on the planet.
"What do you want with Earth?" Sally asked the tallest figure, who kept his focus on the Doctor.
"For thousands of years, we have followed the message leading us to this planet and adhered to the instructions within." The intruder explained, raising his arm and pointing to the Earth, "before the war, we were so very close. But then, the words were lost and the Earth could not be found."
"You called yourselves a 'sect'," the Doctor pressed, "maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions, but isn't that a bit, I don't know, ominous-sounding for a scavenger hunt? And what message was this anyway?"
"My apologies Doctor." The intruder continued, with a gracious bow of the head, "my name is Professor Jhiaxus, leader of the Arecibo Sect and keeper of the Arecibo Message."
Suddenly, a trio of colossal metal clamps slammed onto both sides and the top of the TARDIS door. Before they could react, the anonymous members of the Sect drove slender sharp needles into the crew members' necks. In an instant, their muscles became numb and their brain signals were distorted. As Sally Sparrow hit the ground, her final blurred sight was of Professor Jhiaxus, directing his colleagues to raise the TARDIS. She saw a collection of vivid neon lights behind him and then, darkness.
-
When Sally awoke, she was greeted by the Doctor talking at a very rapid pace whilst doing a handstand against a pale blue, cushioned wall. Initially impressed, Sally was somewhat less-enthralled when she noticed that the Doctor's ankles were chained to the wall. Her feelings quickly shifted to one of utter confusion when she noticed that she was tied up in a straight jacket, bound by steel clasps and wired straps. As she shifted and squirmed, Professor Jhiaxus knocked on the wall-spanning window parallel to the wall.
"It would be unwise to struggle my dear," he advised, coldly, "your restraints are highly charged with a strong electrical current. Any constant attempts to break free will only result in your internal organs being scrambled and hence, useless to our cause."
"What did you do to him?" Sally shouted back, settling down, "what have you done to the Doctor? And where's Larry?"
"We have merely secured your friend with shackles. He seemed headstrong and could cause a disturbance in the ward." Jhiaxus explained, his voice full of calm, "his incessant talking however..."
Sally turned back to the Doctor and listened carefully. His speech was little more than jargon and waffle. Full of names, places and moments that she'd never heard of.
"... Draconia, Meglos, The Watcher, The Candyman, The Neutron Flow, Tobias Vaughn, The Lost Moon of Poosh, Klom, Klom, Klom, Cult of Skaro..."
And some she had.
"... Jelly babies, Weeping Angels, Totter's Yard, The Loch Ness Monster, Dinosaurs, Mummies, Maggots, Maggots, Maggots, Master..."
"As for the other two," Jhiaxus interrupted, "the ward's now far too full, but we found space in the cargo bay for them."
"Cargo... bay?" Sally repeated, concerned. Larry was in no fit state of mind for this kind of situation and with the Master down there with him, they were certainly more likely to cause trouble for Professor Jhiaxus than a babbling Doctor ever could.
And yet, as concerned as she was about Larry and the Master, the Doctor's sudden stream of word vomit had her thinking she'd already lost any chance of escaping the ward.
-
"About time! I've been knocking for ages here!" The Master moaned, looking through the peephole of the cargo bay door at one of Jhiaxus' men, "I believe I'm entitled to a phone call?"
"NO CALL!" The surly surgeon barked back from the other side of the door, inadvertently spitting on the peephole, causing the Master to jerk back suddenly in a rare moment of disgust. The guard then turned away and ignored the Master's attempts at grabbing his attention.
"At this rate," the Master let himself drop against the wall, "we'd be lucky to get our last supper."
"NO SUPPER!" The surgeon bellowed, overhearing the Master's bleating.
"Well then, how about a little privacy?" The Master shouted back, kicking the door with his heel.
"Do you... really think we'll die here?" Larry croaked, crouching in a corner of the cargo bay against a steel crate and rubbing his eyes. He was in desperate need of a good night's sleep, but then he had been sleep-deprived for a while. If he slept back on Earth, the nightmares would haunt him. And if he slept here, he was sure something would kill him. A solitary lightbulb flickered above him, swinging from side to side, each other knocking a second off of his life expectancy now that he'd been left for dead with a madman for company.
"No Larry Nightingale," the Master replied with a chilling, self-satisfied smile, "I think that you will die here. I think your precious girlie housemate will die here. But the Doctor and I? Oh, we're the personification of 'forever', Larry. When people talk about eternity, they're talking about people like us."
"Wh... Wh..." Larry stammered, on his hands and knees, scared to stand in case he was leaving himself wide open from a shot with a laser gun or a screwdriver or something.
"What we are isn't important Larry Nightingale. Not anymore."
Suddenly sounding quite reflective, the Master walked over and sat himself down next to Larry, but didn't look at him. Instead, he looked up at the ceiling, at the light, almost entranced by his own memories.
"What matters is who we are. Both of us, the last of the most ancient species in the universe. Gods, to a degree. Warriors, to a greater degree. But more than anything."
The Master grasped Larry's face tightly, clenching his shuddering jaw and looked directly into his eyes and uttered his next word without any sense of deception or remorse. Just the cold truth that Larry had suspected, but feared wouldn't be as true as his nightmares had shown.
"Murderers. Of the highest count." Larry's strained eyes began to release tears as the Master continued. "Two of the most powerful races massacred at the Doctor's hand. A thousand and one other races, unwilling victims of the ensuing chaos. Blood soaked hands and burned out suns, throughout time and space. War cries and weeping children. Fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, creatures, demons... Even lovers. Dead. And all in the name of a war he couldn't... even... win."
The grip on him relinquished, Larry clicked his jaw in and out of place for a few moments whilst running his hands through his hair. Murderer? Two of the most powerful races? A war throughout time and space? The Master looked at the floor, solemnly.
"And... what about you? What did you do that was so bad?"
"Wiped out two-thirds of the human race, beat up my hypnotised wife and had a statue of myself." The Master half-heartedly recalled with a shrug, "not that anyone remembers it, thanks to the Doctor and Martha Jones."
"And... who's Martha Jones?"
"Until I met you, the most annoying human I'd ever had the displeasure of speaking to." The Master muttered with a frown before feigning sleep on the floor, as cold as damp concrete and just as uncomfortable. Larry looked back up at the lightbulb and counted down the seconds once more.
-
At the front of the Sect's vessel, The Hub was a suitably sterile environment. The interior was filled with lightly tinted plastic walls and doors. A dainty piano could be heard from a nearby speaker, giving the control area all the ambience and silent tension of a surgery waiting room. Professor Jhiaxus made himself comfortable in a rounded stool and looked around at his brethren, fully aware of why there was so much tension in the air. Beneath their feet, the cargo that would rejuvenate their species dwelled. Frozen in refrigerated captivity, it was their last hope for survival.
Following his race's fall from the stars, Professor Jhiaxus was charged with research and development. That is, research into survival methods and developing clean methods of attaining such a goal. Bringing up a flat-bed panel from under his stool, Jhiaxus watched the culmination of his long search brood in the ship's chambers. Unaware of their new destiny because, quite simply, awareness was no longer a factor. Neither was morality.
Jhiaxus too was tense. Beneath his gloves, his hands were becoming clammy, even in the chilled temperature of The Hub. Would he be welcomed as a hero? Or would his epitaph read something far more sinister?
Running his finger along the edge of the panel, the monitor changed to an image of the TARDIS, still docked at the side of the comparatively gargantuan ship. After all these years, they were returning home.
"Professor Jhiaxus sir!" One of his men saluted, "the results have returned from the analysis of the spacecraft. They prove most fascinating."
"How so?" Jhiaxus responded, standing up out of his stool and marching over to another panel with his comrade. The panel lit up and whirred, almost with excitement, as the specifications of the TARDIS scrolled in small text across the screen. Even from behind his veil and visor, Jhiaxus could hardly contain his shock.
"Remarkable!" He exclaimed, as the full details of the TARDIS' time and space travel capabilities were unveiled.
"I would advise that you save your elation for the results of the scans we ran on the ship's crew, Professor Jhiaxus."
"You mean... They were conclusive?"
"Most conclusive, sir!"
The monitor switched to detailed physical analysis of the Doctor and the Master. Every detail about them from their hair colours and writing hands, to their blood types and genetic ancestry. As one person's bloodline flashed before Jhiaxus, he felt a renewed destiny overcome him.
"Prepare to release the cargo! Bring the prisoners to the Surgery!" Jhiaxus ordered, and as his crew began to scramble excitedly, he could see his epitaph clearly. So proud. So perfect. Professor Jhiaxus. Saviour.
-
As quickly as the lightbulb in the cargo bay abruptly burned out, the temperature in the hull dropped. Left in the dark, Larry stumbled around, searching for the Master until a foot slammed down on his hand. Gritting his teeth in pain, Larry looked up and saw the laser screwdriver hum and ignite in standby. Pointing it directly at the human's petrified visage, the Master raised the light back up to his face and grinned.
"Like I warned you Larry Nightingale; murderers."
-
"Ood... Styre... Perivale... Clapham..."
Sally sat cross-legged on the floor as the Doctor's rambling began to slow down. She had lost count of how long he had been talking to himself. Quite honestly, she was starting to get so comfortable she barely even noticed him. The padded walls were soft enough to sleep on and Sally found herself struggling to stay awake. Letting out a frustrated groan, she allowed her head to fall back into the wall and looked around. Not that there was much else to see, besides the other side of the caged door and the Doctor, still balancing upside down.
"The Master... The War Lord... Gallifrey... Exile... The 1970s..."
All of a sudden, there was silence.
Silence swiftly drowned out by an exasperated gasp of 'Eureka!' from the Doctor, startling Sally and waking her from her lucid state with a start.
"W-What, Doctor? Are you okay?"
"Better than okay!" The Doctor announced, "over 900 years and that was the first time I've ever collected my thoughts! Never really had a reason to re-organise, but now that I've done some spring cleaning, I know..."
"Know what?" Sally asked, confused as the Doctor squinted at her with a doubting look.
"Sorry Sally, could you move your head so I'm not staring up your nostrils?" He requested and Sally, rubbing her nose with her index finger just in case something was there that shouldn't be, tilted her head upside down and faced the Doctor.
"Any easier?"
"Thank you," the Doctor confirmed, "but anyway, the answer was in there somewhere but it's been so long since it happened and really, nobody in their right mind expected anything to come of it!"
"Come of what?" Sally asked again, laughing at the hypocrisy of a man who spent ages waffling to himself, talking about anyone 'in their right mind'.
"The Arecibo Message." The Doctor explained, "beamed out into space from planet Earth in the 70s for little more than kicks and giggles. It'd take 25,000 years for it to reach any form of alien life, much less get a response, but the message was simply humanity saying, 'Hello, here we are, fancy a cuppa?' Not that they really needed to get alien attention in the 70s mind you, plenty of them running around back then."
"Including you." Sally interrupted, eager again to display her recently discovered knowledge of who the Doctor was. The club meetings, internet forums and stolen government data files she'd been e-mailed by other 'fanatics' told her so much, that no introductions to the likes of long scarves and Lethbridge-Stewarts were necessary. The Doctor was left open-mouthed for a moment, before continuing.
"I just let them get on with it back then," he reminisced, "if I knew that it would just encourage a bunch of interstellar nutters with needles to come calling, I would've tried to cover it up or stop it somehow."
"But this Sect," Sally pondered, "how could they receive this Arecibo Message now? It's only 2007, you said it'd take at least 25,000 years. They'd need to come from the future or something, right?"
"Well at least initially, yes."
"'Initially'?" Sally repeated, but before the Doctor could reply, the cage door gradually opened and a pair of guards stood before them. Sally turned her head upright again, as the Doctor slowly, yet awkwardly, tumbled onto the floor.
-
"Professor Jhiaxus sir, we're ready to enter the Earth's atmosphere. Shall I accelerate?"
"Hold our advance," Jhiaxus instructed his helmsman as a giant screen revealed the serene sight of the world from a distance, "there is little point in approaching the planet until we have extracted the antidote. And besides, we are now carrying medical waste that must be disposed of properly first."
-
"Please!" Larry snivelled, clutching as much of his body as he could as he curled up in the brace position, "Please!"
The Master sneered with glee. 'If only all humans were as weak and quick to surrender as this one', he said to himself, full of delight at what he was watching.
"Wrong answer, Larry Nightingale." He spoke with a chilling fragility to his voice, as if it was seconds away from escalating into a scream, "one more chance."
The Master waved the laser screwdriver gracefully around Larry's shaking head like a magic wand, able to strike him at any second. He didn't have to threaten Larry at all. The malevolent grin, the watch of a cobra, the subdued psychosis. The sheer physical presence of the Master told Larry that, at any moment, he could cease to live and Sally would be left alone with two murderers in deep space. He couldn't allow that. He knew he had to stop him. But the Master wasn't his foe here. The sense of danger in the air and fear in his gut was. And Larry couldn't fight either of them.
"F... Fo... For th... the love..."
"I spy, Larry Nightingale, with my little eye, something beginning with 'M'." The Master taunted Larry, who swallowed hard and looked up.
"M... Master."
The former Harold Saxon gave a slight chuckle, before striking Larry furiously with the back of his closed fist. His face stinging, Larry felt death's finger press against the back of his skull.
"The correct answer," the Master told him, "was 'Masterplan. Still, you were half-right, so whilst I'm still going to kill you, it's only fair that you receive a consolation prize."
Gripping his victim by the hair and yanking him back, the Master whispered to Larry with pure venom in his voice.
"I'll kill you now, so you don't have to watch me kill her!"
-
Thrust through the Hub's main doors, the Doctor and Sally took a second to take in its clinical appearance, before taking in a few more seconds for the surprise of the warm welcome from Professor Jhiaxus, tray in hand.
"I trust my guards looked after you well, Doctor? Miss Sparrow?"
"About as well as I'm used to when it comes to scavengers, Professor Jhiaxus." The Doctor responded, waving away the offer of a glass of sparkling something-or-other, "although trying to loosen my tongue with whatever that stuff is, that's a new one."
"It's for both celebratory and medicinal reasons," Jhiaxus explained, "we can't have the two of you decay before our victory."
"Decay?" Sally interjected, "why would we decay? We've lasted this long on your ship and if you're heading for Earth, global warming's hardly that severe!"
"Then consider yourself blessed Miss Sparrow," Jhiaxus retorted with a wry chuckle, "at least you won't suffer much longer from the ironic causes of your own planet's death. Neither of us will. Except, of course..."
"When did you figure it out?" The Doctor asked, grim in the face and in his mind. Memories of Gallifrey's destruction beating away at his conscience, as they had done time and time again since the end of the last great Time War.
"At first, we heard a whisper and then the gates were opened for us. I knew it could only be a Time Lord who could release us from our... hibernation, shall we say?"
"Doctor," Sally turned to him, putting the pieces together in her mind, "the Sect appeared just after..."
"Just after I closed the Gap," the Doctor finished, "you were time-locked? Since when?"
"We lost track of time, shortly after we departed, we..."
Jhiaxus turned his back to the Doctor and Sally. The agony of the memories was torture enough, but the inability to cry, to grieve properly, for the lost was too much.
"Jhiaxus?" The Doctor spoke, knowing that something was wrong. Sally motioned to go and comfort their captor, but the Doctor held her back.
"For a while... We... counted the fallen, as they fell. But it was too depressing... tracking the passage of time by the number of corpses on my ship."
Jhiaxus threw down the drinks tray, capturing the sudden attention of his crew.
"Under my command!"
"I'm sorry," the Doctor consoled Jhiaxus, who was struggling for breath, "I'm so sorry."
"Disease. Hunger. Paranoia. Fear. And eventually, madness." Jhiaxus continued, close to choking on each word he uttered as the list of the dead raced through his brain, crippling his already faded conscience, "they trusted me to believe in the word of Arecibo. To lead us to the land that was promised to us."
"But your followers were dying around you," the Doctor concluded, "there was no way you would all survive the 25,000 years needed to reach the Earth. So you took your ship into natural stasis."
"The Gap was our sanctuary and now, just as it was foretold, we have reached the birthplace of Arecibo. The planet Earth. The world of survivors. And our new motherland!" Jhiaxus' words escalated into a triumphant cry, complemented by roars of approval from his crew. Striding away from the Doctor's arm, Sally took steps towards Jhiaxus, defiantly.
"Leave my world alone!" She shouted and as she did, Jhiaxus' arms, raised in pride, began to lower, "I'm sorry for what happened to your people Professor Jhiaxus, we both are, but the Earth is my race's planet, the human race. And we're not going to stand by and let cowards, who hide behind masks and veils and visors and whatever else, take it! Right, Doctor?"
"Ah..." The Doctor began, scratching his head, "yes, absolutely, what she said. There are a million worlds out there, Jhiaxus. And this Arecibo message, it was only ever more of a 'Let's meet the neighbours' rather than an invite to an overcrowded house party. I can take you all to a vacant planet, you can live there in peace, but the second you step on that planet's soil, you might as well declare war, and I will stop you before the first shot is fired!"
"Yeah!" Sally delightfully seconded the Doctor's speech, pointing at Jhiaxus, who still had his back turned. After a deep sigh, Jhiaxus began to give a scratchy laugh.
"Oh fear not Doctor, there will be no war. But there will most certainly be a vacant planet."
With that, Jhiaxus lifted a hand to his face, leading to quiet chatter amongst his crew and then a collective gasp as he threw his veil, visor and surgical mask to the floor, the visor shattering upon impact.
"As for you Miss Sally Sparrow, feel your fear thrive!"
With that, Jhiaxus spun around and revealed his face to Sally. Frozen to the spot, her lips trembling, the Doctor rushed to her side and even felt a slight sense of horror at what he saw. Slender shards of steel, tape and string were all that were holding Professor Jhiaxus' face together. Ripe with the stench of raw meat, his face was devoid of fat, muscle or any definition. His cheeks had been sliced and through the openings, Sally could see how paper-thin his skin was. His lips were crusty and dry, and his eyes lifeless and grey. Where his nose once was, a small metal panel had been placed. As Jhiaxus spoke, he showed eroded teeth and a dry, shrivelled tongue.
"Look, Sally Sparrow! See the price paid for survival!"
Sally wanted to look away, but couldn't take her eyes off of it. It was too terrifying. And the smell... It was unbearable.
"25,000 years. And you had to survive. And you knew, Jhiaxus." The Doctor told his snarling adversary, "you knew there was only one way to relieve yourself of the guilt that came with so many of your crew dying on your watch. That was to take them with you to the promised land, in the most unholy way."
"I carry the DNA, the flesh, the essence, of 42 of my kind, Doctor! Soon the organs, the bones, the blood of the human race will make us all whole again! I am their saviour, the Arecibo messenger! And the two of you, will help guarantee survival for the rest of the loyal, or die resisting!"
As his crew cheered their leader on, the Hub's doors were blown open by an instantaneous blast of furious energy. Through the resulting hole, the Master marched onto the deck, clutching an unconscious Larry by the back of his neck with one hand and wielding the laser screwdriver with the other. He strode towards Jhiaxus, twitched slightly at his appearance and dropped Larry in front of him.
"Breaking doors seems to be becoming a habit with you," the Doctor told the Master, who faced him with a cocky smile, "probably shouldn't bother asking, but I'm hoping that sacrificing humans... Habit, too?"
"Not a habit no, believe it or not" the Master answered, confidently, "it's just that this one wouldn't stop moaning and crying and frankly, it was a little bit sad, so I decided it'd be best to put him out of his misery." With that, Sally ran at the Master and pounded on his chest, warm tears streaming down her face.
"But to kill him? What for? Tell me, what for?"
With a hard shove, the Master sent Sally stumbling back into the Doctor's waiting arms. He then stood beside Jhiaxus and handed him the laser screwdriver.
"Why let my hands get so dirty on someone so worthless?" The Master coldly replied, "this is just a small token of my appreciation for my client, Boris Karloff here!"
"You two... know each other?" Sally asked, almost surprised that she was doing so out of disbelief, given what she's seen and knows of the Master.
"Oh, we go back a long way, Professor Jhiaxus and I! Or rather, we will go back a long way in, say..."
"25,000 years time." The Doctor stopped the Master in his tracks, "someone had to open the Gap for Jhiaxus to enter it. One of your sudden departures from the frontline of the Time War, I presume?"
"Everyone needs a break sometimes, Doctor!" The Master irreverently protested, "some have a Kit-Kat, some have a decaff, I... Well, I just like to help out those in need."
"But what for? You're hardly the good samaritan type! And this... it's barbaric!" Sally yelled, furious as the Master simply looked at her with disdain.
"I've been doing this for more years than you can contemplate, blondie," he chastised, "To pansy fangirls like you, it's barbaric. To people like Jhiaxus and myself, men who dream of conquest, it's a means to an end."
"That doesn't answer her question, Master," the Doctor challenged, "if this plan is masterful enough to live up to all this hype of new worlds and such, why aren't you bragging about how it eluded me for so long?"
"And ruin the fun of watching you find out for yourself?" The Master mocked, "why hasn't your curiosity killed you yet?"
All of a sudden, the Hub shook violently as everyone other than Jhiaxus struggled to keep upright. The thrusters of the ship roared as the Doctor held Sally close to him and Larry started to awake from unconsciousness. Ecstasy all over his visage, the Master stood at the helm and watched as the Earth came ever closer. Jhiaxus barked for the cargo to be released and saluted the resulting debris. The Doctor stared, mortified, whilst Sally held back nausea at the sight of humanoid entrails and remains began to drift off into space.
"We have made plenty of room now for the human race Doctor," Jhiaxus proclaimed, victorious as his ship approached Earth, " and your Time Lord body will provide useful for research into further survival!"
"You're not talking about research Jhiaxus, this isn't even experimentation!" The Doctor shouted over the engines, "this is butchery!"
"For survival!" Jhiaxus announced, raising his fist to the admiration of his peers and the Master, who applauded the giant. As the Doctor looked down at Sally, who was tending to the disorientated Larry, he became immediately aware of the folly of his ways. Not only as a supposed 'renegade', but as a responsible survivor himself. The last of the Time Lords. He took Sally and Larry in without a second thought, a day after the year that never was. He took them into the TARDIS with a psychopath. Another Time Lord, another renegade, and another survivor. But far from responsible. The Doctor watched him win once already. And that was once too many, even for a Time Lord's lifetime. In a moment, the Doctor darted to Larry's side, reached into the young man's pocket and pulled out...
"Murder!" Larry screamed, uncontrollably, "the murder weapon!"
Jhiaxus and the Master turned to the Doctor, who simply slapped his forehead at Larry's outburst. Whilst Sally kept her housemate quiet, the Doctor stood up and aimed the sonic screwdriver directly at Jhiaxus.
"Let me guess – So useless and so pathetic, you didn't even bother to check his pockets?"
"Your weapon is harmless Doctor," Jhiaxus sneered, "your head will be my victory trophy!"
With that, Jhiaxus went to fire the laser screwdriver! However, the Doctor did not even flinch. Nor did he the second time Jhiaxus attempted to activate the Master's weapon. Or the third.
"I've already tried it Jhiaxus," the Doctor advised him as the Master slyly stepped away from the confused professor, "the Master's pretty selfish when it comes to his gadgets!"
The Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver at a control panel and after a fit of vivid sparks, the Earth began to shrink on the monitor at a rapidly increasing pace!
"What have you done?" Jhiaxus roared at the Doctor, helping Sally and Larry to their feet, whilst the ship jolted violently.
"Rule of thumb for an ugly baddie with a spaceship, Jhiaxus," the Doctor said as the three of them staggered to the damaged doors of the Hub, "never turn on your thrusters when someone with a sonic screwdriver is looking!"
With a wink, the Doctor led Sally and Larry through the doors as Jhiaxus cursed his name. Looking around for directions to the docking bay where the TARDIS was kept, Sally tried to speak to the Doctor as she ran.
"When did... you slip... Larry... your sonic screwdriver?" She asked, gasping for air.
"On the TARDIS, second I realised they'd be more interested in something a bit more rare than a human! They'd scan a Time Lord, but why waste time with a human when they've got billions of them below already?" The Doctor replied, in arrogant jest.
"Ah... so you're... just that special?" Sally answered back with a laugh.
"You joined my fan club, you tell me!" The Doctor laughed back, as they finally walked straight into the TARDIS, secured as any other ship would be, not that it proved a problem as the Doctor dashed around the controls.
"Must admit though," Sally began, "I was hoping for a bit more epic conclusion to my first trip in space than the old sonic screwdriver switcheroo."
No sooner had she finished her sentence did a barrage of explosions rampage down the corridor, prompting the Doctor to slam his fist down on the panel and allow the doorless TARDIS to dematerialise seconds before the flames reached it.
"No, no, no, no, no!" The Doctor repeated in frustration, "I sent them in reverse gear, but they're going too fast, the ship's structure won't hold!"
"Is that such a bad thing?" Sally asked, as the Doctor looked up at her, startled, "I mean, Jhiaxus... He was evil, right?"
"No Sally," the Doctor told her, "there's nothing evil about wanting to survive. His methods were just misguided. Time for one stop though!"
-
As he, along with his shipmates, writhed in the agony of the flames, Jhiaxus reached up to the Master, who towered above him. Jhiaxus' legs were too fragile for the fire, and it quickly spread up to the professor's torso. Expressionless, the Master just stared down at him.
"Please!" Jhiaxus begged, the pain pulsating through his frail form, "we need to survive!"
The Master got down on his knees and took back his laser screwdriver from Jhiaxus' hand. He shrugged his shoulders and smiled as he stood back up and the TARDIS materialised behind him.
"Only the strongest." The Master said as he stepped backwards inside the blue police box. As Jhiaxus watched him go, he heard a familiar whisper in the air that was soon disturbed by his own scream. And then, there was peace.
-
"Jhiaxus?"
"Doctor?"
"Don't try to open your eyes, Jhiaxus!"
"Sally Sparrow?"
"I'm sorry Jhiaxus. Your vision is the one thing the Sisters of Plentitude say they can't repair." The Doctor explained, as he and Sally stood over Jhiaxus' ward bed. His entire body was wrapped in bandages, with a small opening for his lips, and arms and legs of steel were being constructed by the anthropomorphic nurses.
"My... My crew! Where are they?"
"We only had so much time Jhiaxus, your ship was crumbling into ashes from the flames when we saved you, but as for the rest..."
"The mission... I failed them." A solemn Jhiaxus croaked.
"You misunderstood the mission, Jhiaxus," Sally consoled him, "the Arecibo message was an invitation to meet the human race, not to invade it."
"Ironic thing is, the universe would probably get along so much better with Earth if the Arecibo message was understood better." The Doctor stated, "but you let someone corrupt it for you Jhiaxus, even though your heart was in the right place."
"I... Why did you save me?"
"We're both survivors. I couldn't let you go down at the hands of a screwdriver, could I?" The Doctor chuckled, as Jhiaxus managed a weak laugh before wincing in pain, "just get some rest. You brought you to a perfectly good place for that... Well, for the next few thousand years anyway. I think you'll like it."
"Where am I, Doctor?"
"New Earth, Jhiaxus. A couple of light years off, but you've reached your new home. Rest up, and make the most of it." The Doctor smiled, as did Jhiaxus.
"Welcome to the promised land!" Sally called to the professor, as she turned and headed out of the ward. The Doctor began to walk after her, but Jhiaxus called him back.
"I can't... undo my sins, Doctor."
"Nobody would ask you to Jhiaxus," the Doctor reassured him, "it was more the Master's fault in the first place."
"Doctor..." A weary Jhiaxus whispered in a low voice, "the Master only opened the Gap. He didn't deliver the message."
Briefly, the Doctor stopped, trying to contemplate what Jhiaxus had said. He considered pressing the issue, but as he watched Jhiaxus in his current state, he saw the millions of wounded from the Time War, and how they had to keep on fighting for survival regardless. Finally, someone didn't need to fight for it. The Doctor gave a nod to the Sisters and pulled the curtain on Jhiaxus.
-
"I'm going to ask you one more time!" The Doctor ordered, "what in the name of all things great and small was that entire situation about?"
Ignoring his nemesis, the Master instead opted to whistle and spin his laser screwdriver around in his hand. Leaving Larry rocking in a corner next to the newly-repaired TARDIS doors, Sally stepped over to join the Doctor, arms folded.
"And what was the point in giving Jhiaxus your screwdriver, when you knew he couldn't use it anyway?"
"I just needed him to hold the emo kid hostage for a few minutes!" The Master retorted, rolling his eyes, "It's hardly my fault if he decided he'd rather play with fire instead... Shame he had to get burned though, isn't it?"
Suddenly, noticing the sonic screwdriver on the console, the Master flipped his laser screwdriver once and with a crackle, the Doctor's screwdriver burst into a diminutive flame and sizzled on the console, destroyed!
"What'd you do that for?" The Doctor shouted, "for heaven's sake, first the TARDIS doors and now you owe me a new screwdriver! What's wrong with you?"
"Just showing Miss Sparrow how to handle it like a pro." The Master answered back, with a wink at Sally who immediately recoiled in disgust.
The Doctor's response to the Master's cheeky grin was a solitary raised eyebrow and a monotonous murmur, before he began flicking a series of switches.
"Can we be done with the third degree now?" The Master demanded, "I've got some places I'd like to visit, people I'd like to meet, I mean I've never even been to Barce-"
"Lor." The Doctor interrupted, leaving the Master open-jawed.
"I... beg your pardon?"
"The prison planet. They've wanted your head on a silver platter for a while now. And after these last few little incidents, I'm going to hand you over at last."
"To... Lor?" The Master stammered with a nervous laugh, "aren't you being... hasty?"
"I don't think so, no." The Doctor replied, keeping his eyes on the controls, "a place you've never been before, people you have yet to meet, and all the raw meat dinners your stomach can handle!"
"Well if we're going to Lor, Doctor," The Master said, leaning close to the rival Time Lord, "I want it on the record that it was your decision to do so!"
With that, the Master slammed his fist on the panel and sent the TARDIS on its way. As the Doctor wondered about the cryptic remarks he'd heard over the last few hours, Sally was overcome with concern for Larry. Ever since the Arecibo incident, he had only gotten worse. Biting his nails and muttering to himself, Larry's head was pounding to a different beat than any he'd heard before, but to one who sat on the sofa and stared at him thoughtfully, it was all too familiar.
-
Next Time
-
"Remember when I said Lor was a 'prison planet'?" The Doctor confessed, "well by 'prison planet', I meant the tenth level of Hell."
-
"An immeasurable death count can only lead to one sentence!" The judge proclaimed as he slammed down his fist on the podium, "a death, most gruesome."
-
"How did that get here?" The Doctor and the Master both asked, knowing that nobody in the universe could possibly answer.
-
"Seems we have a cellmate..."
-
"An even bigger turncoat than you!" The Doctor said to the Master, "and just as good at hiding."
-
"Which betrayal hurt more I wonder," she whispered into the Doctor's ear, with a seductive chill, "that of your hearts, or that of the Time Lords?"
-