HOPE REGENERATED – PART FOUR by David Hogan

A few seconds pass. Both The Doctor and Rebecca were still gripped to each other in fear, but nothing had happened. Suddenly the Null put his hand down and stood firm, then walked slowly towards the Time Lord and his companion.

'What are you doing?' The Doctor asked, 'Look, do what ever you want with me, just leave the girl out of this!'

The Null were emotionless as one grabbed Rebecca and put her on its shoulder. Rebecca started screaming, The Doctor moved to help but was grabbed by the second one and put on its shoulder. The Doctor, more surprised at what's happening than afraid, offered little resistance, knowing he wouldn't be able to overpower the tall powerful alien. The Null started walking side by side with their prizes and so The Doctor and Rebecca looked at each other.

'What's going on, Doctor?' Rebecca asked with a whisper, as if to not alert the aliens that are carrying them.

'You know, I have no idea….' The Doctor replied, 'By all accounts they should have killed us on sight. It's very fascinating…'

'Only you could find being carried on the shoulder of a large alien killing machine fascinating!' she barked back.

'What do you mean "only me", we've only known each other for less than a day.'

'Yeah well, it feels like a lifetime.'

'Charming.' The Doctor replied, as if genuinely insulted, 'Have you ever been horse riding? This isn't very different…'

'What?' Rebecca shouted in surprise, 'This is completely different!' Rebecca grunted as if to give up arguing, then cracked a brief smile.

Suddenly a shadow engulfed the two of them as they went under the massive alien ship. The Doctor tried to get a look at it, but he couldn't move around on the Null's shoulder. Soon they were in the ship, the walls green and jagged as if they were moss-covered cliffs. Metal beams connected the steel floor to the equally metallic ceiling. The Doctor looked confused. Finally they reached a room and were put back on their feet, but the Null stayed directly behind them. In front of them was a large machine with an equally large console, surrounded by small TV screens, as if it were a directors editing suite for a major movie. An old man walked in through a door, white hair and connecting beard, and wearing a red and white robe. He sat down in a chair in front of them.

'Well, here you are at last.' the old man said, 'I wondered if you were dead.'

The Doctor looked around and then points to himself, 'Who? Me?' he asked.

'Yes, you, Time Lord.' The old man replied.

'You know my race?' The Doctor asked, surprised, 'How is that possible?'

The old man leaned back in his chair, 'Only the lower races will forget the Time Lords and The Daleks. Time lock or no time lock, my people are well aware of what happened.'

'Your people?' The Doctor replied, 'Who are you?'

'I am Mane, from the planet Altus.'

The Doctor was surprised, 'Altus?' he said, 'I though you never left the planet, for fear of alerting more powerful military races to you existence.'

'Correct.' Mane replied, 'but one thing may have slipped your mind. We were promised the ability of time travel from the Time Lords in exchange for our vast mineral deposits. It seems that once the Time War started, all you did was take more minerals and ignore our plea for time travel technology.'

'Well, we were a bit busy…' The Doctor replied, 'Not that at this moment I want to stick up for the people who governed the planet during the war…'

'Quite.' Mane replied, amused by The Doctor's honesty, 'but still, we were promised something and I was given the task of retrieving it… by any means necessary.'

'Wait a minute.' The Doctor said, getting angry, 'Are you saying you've been attacking this planet, destroying its people, all the while looking for a piece of Time Lord time travel technology? There isn't any here! Why would the Time Lords deal with a small Earth colony?'

Mane rose to his feet with an angry look on his face, 'Do you take me for a fool?' he said, 'We detected a TARDIS machine being ejected from the time lock and tracked that it crashed on the planet's surface. The thing about a TARDIS though, as I'm sure you're aware, is that its dimensionally transcendental and can blend in to whatever scenery in lands on. The fact that you, a living Time Lord, is here means you were that TARDIS's pilot and therefore, can tell us where it is!'

'If he tells you, will you leave us alone?' Rebecca asked, finally gaining the courage to step into the conversation between two higher races.

'What?' Mane wondered, 'Who are you?' Mane looked at the Null who brought her, 'Why did you bring this primitive Human on board?'

'We detected that the Time Lord was near death,' the Null said, slowly with a distinct echo, 'therefore no threat could convince him to help us. He has an emotional attachment to this human, therefore could be persuaded to help with a threat to her life.'

The Doctor was in shock, 'What have you done?' he wondered, 'How did you program the Null to be so calculating?'

'Simple, Time Lord.' Mane replied, 'It was my people who created them.'

The Doctor was once again surprised, 'What?' he wondered, 'How?'

'How?' Mane was amused, 'You mean the Time Lords didn't know? Ha, excellent. I did always wonder why our people didn't get judged by your divine rulers and destroyed, like so many others. Yes, the Null were a pathetic race, they were only barely 100 alive, skulking around a lake on some backwater planet. My people invented a way to wipe their minds clean and then enter information like a computer. No harm was to come from it, though that all changed when one of ours took them in a ship and tried to start a war. Sad case, really…'

'No harm to come from it?' The Doctor said with growing anger, 'How about harm to the innocent race you destroyed?'

'Don't be foolish, Time Lord.' Mane replied, 'They were on the verge of extinction, only roughly 100 males survived, and therefore they were unable to reproduce.' An evil smile came across Mane's face, 'Still, they were better off than you, weren't they?'

The Doctor looked both angry and disgusted, 'Do you think I'm going to surrender my TARDIS to the likes of you?' he shouted.

'Oh you will, Doctor. You will…' Mane said, 'Null, put your arm around the human's neck.'

It carried out the order, 'Not too tight now,' Mane added, 'At least, not yet.'

Rebecca was in a state of panic, The Doctor was rightfully worried, and grabbed his chest in pain once more. The Doctor started to speak, in the middle of some deep breaths.

'Look… Mane…' he struggled to catch his breath, before continuing, 'The time travel technology we use is powered by a source called the Eye of Harmony. It was destroyed along with Gallifrey and my people at the end of the war. What little of our technology exists is useless now.'

The Doctor managed to stand up right and gave Mane a stern look, 'Let her go and I can give you a more rudimentary time travel system, but only under my terms.'

'Terms? Terms?' Mane was furious and insulted, 'You speak to me about terms? If you won't cooperate with me, she dies. If you still don't cooperate, then I'll just find another Time Lord who will.'

'Sorry Mane,' The Doctor said, 'I'm the only one left. The entire race of the Time Lords was burned and locked away. Soon, I'll burn too, and then your chance is lost, and I can guarantee you one thing, if you harm one more innocent person, I'll never say a word.'

Mane sat back down, eyes closed and started to think to himself, then the Null behind the Doctor interrupted, 'He is bluffing, Master.' it said, bluntly, 'If you subjected the human girl to pain, he will emotionally breakdown and tell you.'

Mane opened his eyes, 'Tell me,' he asked 'was he telling the truth about being the last of the Time Lords?'

'Yes, Master.' it replied, 'He was answering truthfully.'

'Very well then.' Mane said, 'You' he looked at the Null who still had Rebecca, 'break… one of her fingers.'

The Null began to reposition Rebecca while The Doctor tried to run to help her, but he was being held back by the other Null.

'NOO!' The Doctor shouted, 'Don't!'

Rebecca screamed as the Null got ready to do as asked.

'Fine! I'll do it!' The Doctor said, knowing he'd been beaten.

'Good.' Mane said, 'You can stop now, Null.'

The Null went back to just grabbing Rebecca, who was nearly unconscious due to shock and panic.

'Now Doctor,' Mane said triumphantly, 'How shall we begin?'