Doctor Who and the Auton invasion of Gallifrey
Part 3 of this tale about an Auton attack on Gallifrey itself which in this case assumes that Gallifrey was never destroyed in NuWho. However, this means that it is now under a serious assault by the Nestenes with their Auton facemiles. To make matters more complex for the Doctor, he has just found out that the Nestene creature is not destroyed by his sonic screwdriver! It has evolved to survive it. And now he and Martha are surrounded by Autons about to blast them! Please R and R, Ham!
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The Doctor took a quick look at the approaching Autons. He replied to Martha, 'When I say run, run! Run!' and with a sharp turn of speed dodged through the Autons. They ran on but Martha had the feeling that they were travelling up in the caves. They were followed by Autons that occasionally blasted at them. After a while, they came to a window in the caves. Martha looked down, her impression of going up had been correct, they were standing on the edge of a drop down to the lake nearly fifty feet below. He looked back, the Autons were still relentlessly pursuing.
'Fancy a swim?' he asked Martha.
'And a dive!' she said. Fortunately she was adapt in water though she wished that she had bought more water-adapt outfit than what she was wearing, jeans and tea-shirt and jacket. 'Come on, then,' she suggested and the both of them leapt out of the caves and down into the lake and swam on as the Autons fired behind them, splashing the water with their rays. Martha and the Doctor swam for over a mile, once been fired on by an Auton on the edge of the lake, back to their motor vehicle which they sprang into and the Doctor drove away.
Though he did hold up his sonic screwdriver which was dripping wet after the swim.
'What's the matter with that?' Martha asked him.
'Water's got into it I'm afraid. It doesn't work. Oh, well,' The Doctor drove on.
The Doctor and Martha drove back to the Tardis. There they gathered some of the Gallifrey secret security council to them. The Castallin said, 'Well done Doctor nice work. Now we know where that chief Auton is. We will hit it with everything we have. I think we should make short work of that.'
'Be careful,' counselled the Doctor. 'That thing is tougher than you might think. It is well hidden and guarded in those caves. With special defences,' he told them of the force-field around the Nestene. 'Andrommedas won't work directly on it. Neither will most of the weapons you have. In fact, to have any effect you can't use anything less than a nuclear missile. And then it will take half of Gallifrey's store to worry the thing. Plus it does now have a network of Autons and they are growing. Powerful things as you well know. Still I expect you will launch an attack.'
'Your points are noted Doctor, and you are right we will be attacking soon,' The Castallin looked at a hand-shaped computer he was carrying. It contained data of what security forces could be available, 'We will have a strong as force as we can. We will strengthen the cordon around the lake. Also, there has been other activity,' the Doctor looked up interested, 'Around the timevaults. Seems that an Auton has been seen around there. I wonder why?' The Castallin frowned.
'The Timevaults. There's quite a lot of material in those tunnels. Plus some things from the Rassilon era. In the old days that was were they held the timegames. And were our old friend and your former boss Borussa spends his days, such as they are the poor chap. Yes, I know he had his moments and it was partly his own fault but I am still not sure that he deserved his current fate,' The Doctor was referring to the former head of the CIA and his former teacher and mentor in fact.
'Yes, it is a quite sad and revealing case. I often think we ought to do something for them but... they did ask for immortality after all. And we don't want to interfere with the Rassilon devices too much. It can be dangerous. But those people are one of the few who might actually benefit from the destruction of Timelord civilization! But to business, I need to get hold of Romana, we have to authorize a major assault. We will need to call some of the regular troops from the moonbase, hold on, who's this?'
Dan had just run in dressed in full running gear and rather sweaty and smelly. 'Taking exercise Dan?' the Doctor smiled at his assistant.
'Afraid so. I've been staring at that console of yours for a while. I tried printing pages off in order to spare my eyes, but your printer ran out of toner and I can't find anything compatible here. I've read lots of your old adventures though. I have even read one tale of an Auton one. Although in that one you didn't do much more than just stop one getting to Earth. I couldn't find any weakness. Save don't trust plastic flower selling people! Though that Jo Grant was quite nice your former assistant. I would quite like to ...'
The Doctor interrupted, 'Yes, I'm sure you would. Mind, she was a favorite assistant of mine for some time. You should show some respect. Plus she was with me around 30 of years ago in my time, I would say, she now would be old enough to be your grandmother! Well, get back onto it keep me informed of anything you find,' said he as Dan dashed back inside the Tardis. 'Actually, I don't think I will be joining your assault for now. Just bear in mind what I say. I think I'll take a little trip to the Timevaults.'
In the Timevaults was one Trevor. He was vaultengineer grade7. It sounded dramatic and exciting working in the Timevaults, but it wasn't really it was quite a repetitive and boring job. And he wasn't happy. Trevor liked things straight and tidy in his job. He was of a methodical mind and he liked it that way. Recently there had been some rather annoying changes. Staff had been moved out, some of the equipment had been altered and the department was been investigated. subtly, but it was. He himself had been interviewed by a Government bigwig. He got more information than the interviewer did. There seemed to be some kind of major crisis going on. This type of thing made Trevor nervous. Also his boss was been more annoying than normal and even contradictory. This sort of thing made Trevor annoyed, so he demanded a meeting as an explanation.
The meeting was to take place at around midday. So, he knocked on the boss's door and entered. What Trevor was expecting was either a ticking of or some kind of explanation as to the recent changes. What he actually got was quite extraordinary. His boss was a small, bald man. He smiled at Trevor. 'You don't think much of my changes, do you? Well, there are going to be changes in this department. Big things are happening. You could be a part of it. I can offer you promotion. More power, you can reverse the changes or make some of your own. If you would do me one small favour,'
Someone a bit brighter than Trevor might have found something suspicious about this. But Trevor wasn't aware of anything unusual until it smacked straight into him. 'What type of favour?' he asked.
'You remember that woman who interviewed you earlier this week? She is a major threat to what we are trying to achieve and to the Nestene conscience.' What a strange thing to say! 'I want you to eliminate her.' Trevor looked blank as though he hadn't registered what his boss was asking, 'Kill her,' the boss sighed, 'I can supply you with a Andrommeda. You know her now, you can perform this little task for me for all your rewards,' but Trevor was not a killer. He was about to reject the request when the boss added, 'And if you don't, these two will want a word,' opening the door and entering in...
Back near the Tardis, Susan and Dan were having the last of the store of tea. It was refreshing for him, but Dan was forlorn and a bit frustrated. He was wondering why the Doctor had given him such a task and said as much. 'The Doctor tells me that he has encountered the Autons before. But the notes of his are in such a haphazard order. And for someone with such advanced technology in some ways, his actual processor is pretty rubbish. I can't even do a proper word-search upon it! Must have a word with him about it. He gives no hints or categorization of were his adventures might have taken place,'
Susan took a sip of tea, 'Maybe he doesn't know himself.'
'And then I get one adventure which took me hours to decipher. I thought it quite dramatic and it seemed to contain hints to the information the Doctor wanted. And just as it got good, it turned out to be in another dimension. What a waste of time! I do wonder what good I am doing here. In the meantime, the Doctor and Martha are out having fun gallivanting about the place. Although they did have quite a close encounter I hear. Be interesting to see how the Doctor copes without that screwdriver of his. Oh, hello!'
Trevor had entered the room. But he didn't look well. 'You told me to come to see you if I could give you further help in your Auton investigation, I can,' he said, though Dan thought that Trevor was the one who was in need of help. He looked terrible, sweating, trembling and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He also seemed to be a pretty much Mr. Average, short, bald and distinctly unimaginative. So different to the Doctor, thought Dan which just went to show that in some ways the all-powerful Timelords were not that different from people of earth. Be that as it may, Trevor's next move came as a shock.
Trevor whipped out an Andromeda. This was a typical type of Timelord blaster, a reliable one, used by the militia and usually very dangerous. He pointed it at Susan saying, 'I'm sorry but I have no choice to eliminate you!' Susan and Dan stared in amaze. But he didn't fire instantly. His hands shock and he was sweating as though he was wrestling with his own conscience. Susan looked at him and spoke calmly, 'Now look, do you really want to do this? This is murder you know!' But Trevor did not put the blaster down. Time seemed to stand still as he looked at Susan seeming as though he would shot at any moment. Dan tried to intervene, but Trevor did shot at him, missing Dan but causing him to back away. But as Trevor hesitated, Susan moved quickly, knocking the blaster out of his hand. She then caught it herself and pointed it at Trevor.
Susan was not often angry, but then now she did have cause to be. 'Tell me a good reason as to why I shouldn't use this!' she screamed at the man. Trevor made no reply. He kept quite still as though accepting his fate.
'I'm sorry, I didn't want to kill you. I was told I would only get your one generation life. You would easily regenerate. My boss just wanted to keep you quiet for a while.
Susan sighed. 'This is a first-grade Andromeda. On full power. Shooting that thing at me would make me dead. Properly. With no further re-generations. Anyway, think about it! What good would just killing one generation of mine, which is a bad thing to do anyway, would have done your masters? I would have been just as much of a threat to them in a further generation as I would have been with this one. You know, I think I should just kill you for been an idiot!' she shrieked.
'Oh, I didn't think of that,' said Trevor looking even more miserable.
It was now Susan's turn to hesitate. 'On the other hand, though I am cooling off now and I don't wish to kill someone in cold blood. But then again, some revenge could be necessary. You could do it again! Oh, I don't know I think I need a second opinion and quick. Trevor, yours will have to do. It would be justice to kill this man outright now. But should I? What do you think?' she turned around seeking advice from the astonished Dan who didn't expect to be asked for advice.
But the boy took a moment to think about it. 'Well, yes he did commit a heinous act. If you did blast him, no-one would blame you and it would be your right. On the other hand he did say something about having information about Autons in the Timevaults. It might be wise to listen to him. And somehow I don't think that the Doctor would approve of a needless cold-blooded execution. I suggest we give him to the militia!'
Susan agreed and bounded Trevor for safety. Then she called the Castallin and he took Trevor away for questioning. Before he went, Castallin said to Susan, 'You are fine for the attack against that Nestene? You said you would volunteer to come, we could use you. The Doctor is away at the moment, he's sitting this one out isn't he? He does seem a bit skeptical about our attack, but then what else are we supposed to do? We can't have an alien controlling an army of dummies in this world!' Susan nodded her agreement.
Dan was still been kept busy, but Martha was taking part in the assault. Though she was nervous about re-visiting the place were even the Doctor had been forced into a retreat by the Nestene which she was one of the few people to have actually seen. She was on a patrol boat that was travelling across the water of the lake to the cave where the Nestene dwelt. There was a splash in the water from an Auton which had spotted them from the shore. The Nestenes were aware of their coming!
It was a dull and cloudy day, Martha had dried off since her last swim but was now wearing gear she could swim easily in. The boat was metal and traveling at quite a speed across the lake. Martha could see the rocky caves were the Nestene had dwelt. This time she was traveling with a large group of crack, well-armed Timelord troops so in theory anyway she had plenty of protection. But she did remember that those Autons were tough creatures, a fact witnessed by the struggle taken place on the shore. And now they were behind Auton lines!
But here fellow crew members were quite confident. This was a boat of cruiser size, well-armed and protected. There was a squad of Timelord soldiers with the crew on board. They were all checking their guns, looking around, exercising, making jokes and sounding very confident. Certainly not scared or nervous. Their Lieutenant raised a large and heavy blasters in the air some more rifle-like than an Andrommeda,and said, 'Don't worry miss! We can take on anything. This thing will wish it had never heard of Gallifrey by the time we have finished with it!'
But Martha was still apprehensive. She heard more explosions and some shooting from the shore. The militia were moving in on land as well. There was a wide area around the lake cordoned off from the general public for the attack. As the boat moved forward she was strangely concerned about. It was the heating control of the boat. A large plastic rectangular device. She could have sworn it had moved and not with the ship. She was about to mention this to Susan who was with her. But Susan was up on deck. Up on deck was within range of the Auton blasters so not the safest place to be. but Martha just had an instinct and moved up. She also remembered the Doctor's statement about plastic and she had traveled with the Doctor long enough to listen to him.
It was a good thing she did. Inside the boat there was a bang and an explosion. The heating device had come off. As with a lot of other plastic things! Material shot out of the walls, the pipes moved and threw themselves at the militia, even the windows were made of plastic and came away in large bits. To make matters worse, one of the militia turned out to be an Auton in disguise and fired at the others. Chocking methane gas from one of the pipes filled the boat lower deck...
The Doctor, meantime, was taken a look in the command building were Susan had worked. He was looking at some strange data about activity in the Orion sector. Timelord activity. This was been kept very secret. He wondered if the CIA was doing something a bit dodgy. He would have to ask Romana next time they met. His mobile phone was on the table behind him. But something odd was happening to the plastic device. It seemed to switch itself on and its receiving antennaes waved as though they were alive. Two of them, small ones, circled around and hardened like claws. It moved itself upright and crawled like a plastic crab. He heard this, and turned around. The device moved and leapt to his face. It attached itself onto his face like glue and try with all of his considerable Timelord strength, he could not dislodge it. The Doctor writhed and fell to the floor with his hands on the creature which was under the control of a Nestene signal. It was only a facsimile phone! The claws scratched at his skin. It was starting to inject deadly poison into him...