Previously…..

He sat up and rubbed his earlobe as he thought over her statement. Suddenly, he opened his mouth and stared at her for a second. "NO!," he blurted out, disbelief in his voice. "Of course! I should have seen it." He turned to Donna and explained, excitedly. "Matromna. Mater Omnia! Mother of All!"

Chapter Four – Of Time Lords and Dragons

At the sight of Donna's shocked face, Kyla laughed, her voice ringing through the room. "Well," she said, "That's a bit of an exaggeration. There were five of us! But my family had always tended toward multiple births, twins and triplets and the like."

Donna spoke for the first time. Without thinking, she blurted out, "Well, I guess that explains all the gingers!" And promptly covered her mouth with her hand, blushing with embarrassment. The Doctor grinned and patted her arm in support.

Kyla chuckled at her reaction. "Aye, it seems I have rather persistent genes." She refilled her glass and continued her story. "Anyway, when we set out to build our little colony, Reg, being the captain, was naturally chosen as the leader and I, as his wife, became the Matriarch, socially as well as physically. I'm not really sure how the title came about. I think Basmatharel, the ship's doctor, came up with the Latin after my fourth set of twins. It was meant as a bit of a tease, but somewhere along the line, it stuck and gradually got distorted."

She sipped her liqueur and smiled softly at her memories. "As I said, we had everything we needed to start a colony: building materials, seeds for planting, a fuel-powered generator. We even discovered some cryo-frozen embryos of food animals. It was hard going for a while, but we got things going and, after the first year, we were beginning to be self sustaining. My experience working with my father on your estate came in quite handy, and the fields and vegetable gardens flourished. One of our engineers had raised hounds for the ceremonial hunts back on Gallifrey, so he was able to work out the best ways to breed those animals we were able to salvage from the cryo, and how to interbreed with some of the native species. So we built and grew and expanded. Our children had children, and the crops and herds multiplied."

A loud knock interrupted Kyla's tale. The door opened and a woman of apparent middle age with the predominant dark copper hair entered and strode over to her chair. "Mother," the woman said, with a touch of impatience. "Dallaria is pitching a right fit in the kitchens. She says, if you don't come to table this instant, the meal will be ruined and she won't be held responsible." She glanced over at the two sitting with her mother with a look of annoyance.

Kyla put down her glass and smiled indulgently at the woman. Taking her hand, she turned and said, "Doctor, Donna. This magnificent but impertinent thing is my youngest, Kataria. Kat, meet the Time Lord and his companion, Donna Noble," Kyla stated, proudly.

Kat had the look of someone who was not easily impressed. She nodded in their general vicinity with a mumbled 'Please to meet you' and then turned back to her mother. "Really, Mother. You know how she gets."

Kyla said to her guests, "I think we'll have to continue this conversation over supper. I've learned that one should never, ever, upset the cook." She patted her daughter on the arm. "Go tell Dalli that we'll be in presently. And make sure she understands that I do not want to be served in the formal dining room."

Kataria groaned. "She'll not be happy about that," she warned.

"Ya just tell her that the Matromna wishes it. That'll keep her quiet! The sun room will do quite nicely, I think," Kyla mused. "Have them retract the shades over the dome. I'd like to see the night sky."

Kataria bowed again to the Doctor and left, muttering to herself as she went. Kyla smiled as she watched her walk away. "My Kat tends to be a bit of a worrier, as you could probably tell. But she's a good girl and takes the best care of me."

Again, Donna could not resist the urge. "You said she was your youngest. How many children do you have?" The Doctor sat up straight, also very interested in her answer.

Kyla finished the last of her liqueur before responding. Putting down the glass, she looked, not at the Doctor, but at Donna, with a twinkle in her eye. "I have thirty sets of twins and fourteen triplets, with nine single births. Kat is the last of the singles."

Donna's eyes grew wide and her mouth opened in astonishment. "But, but, that's..." she sputtered. "You've had one hundred and eleven children?!"

The Doctor let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding, whistling softly. "Well, it's no wonder they call you the Mater Omnia, now is it? But how is that possible?" he pondered.

Kyla stood up and replied simply, "I'll explain it all. Now, come." She gestured for them to follow her. "It won't do to keep Dalli waiting any longer." Threading her arm through the Doctor's, she led them out of the lounge and down a long hallway.

Donna watched with some amusement at the Doctor's reaction to Kyla's claiming his arm. He had immediately looked back at Donna, almost as if he were apologising. She winked at him and nodded encouragingly.

Kyla opened the last door on the right when they reached the end of the hallway and ushered them into what she had called the sun room. At this hour, with the sunshades retracted, the dome overhead revealed the most glorious display of stars, bathing the room with the soft glow of moonlight. A table and chairs had been placed in the centre of the room, and a plump but stern-looking woman waited, her arms crossed in front of her.

Kyla released the Doctor and gestured to them toward the table. She then walked over to the woman and placed her hands on her arms. "Dalli, I'm so sorry we've kept ya waiting. Ya know how I forget the time when I'm telling tales."

Dallaria huffed a bit. "My lady, I fear the meal is ruined. I tried the best I could, but there is only so much a person can do under these circumstances."

Donna, hearing this, went over to the cook and said sincerely, "I'm sure that's not true, Mistress Dallaria. From what I hear, you are a right marvel in the kitchen and nothing you prepared would be anything less than miraculous."

The cook blushed at the words coming from the stranger before her. Kyla was impressed at Donna's consideration, and the Doctor smiled to himself, hearts bursting with pride for his friend. She continued to chat quietly with the cook, who finally went back to the kitchen after shaking Donna's hand vigorously. Donna returned to her seat at table with Kyla and the Doctor.

Kyla sat at the head of the table, with the Doctor on her left and Donna on her right. "Well, now," she said, when Donna returned. "I still have a bit to tell ya, so I'd best be getting to it." She paused as three young girls entered the room, each carrying a bowl of chilled cucumber soup. After placing the bowls in front of them, they bowed to Kyla and retreated silently back to the kitchen. As they ate, she continued her tale.

"I know ya have to be wondering why, after six hundred years, not only am I still alive, but not showing my advanced age."

The Doctor nodded. "I had noticed, but, being the gentleman that I am, refrained from commenting."

Donna almost choked on her soup. She looked at him, rolling her eyes, but said nothing. He raised his eyebrows at her and smiled sheepishly.

Kyla noticed the interplay between the two and grinned to herself behind her serviette. "Well," she continued. "We were working away at building up the colony. After about fifty or sixty years, we began to notice the fact that none of us were aging. So Basmatharel, our ship's doctor, decided to take blood samples and compare them to our previous records, to see if he could find any changes or organic explanation."

The Doctor cut in. "But I thought you said you lost the computers and most of the technology in the crash."

The young girls reappeared to take their soup bowls and deliver the main course. Kyla explained to Donna, "I asked Dalli to prepare something in the traditional Gallifreyan style. This is a simple dish using native tubers, vegetables and meat from what might be equivalent to porcine mammals from Earth."

Donna looked at the plate in front of her, picked up her fork and took a bite. She savoured the taste and then exclaimed, "It tastes like shepherd's pie! It's really good, too." She stared at the Doctor sitting across from her. "Well, that explains your obsession with shepherd's pie! Why didn't you tell me it reminded you of home? I would have made it more often. Or at least not complained so much when you begged for it."

He shook his head. "I didn't even make the connection. Honestly, Donna. It's been a very long time since I had Gallifreyan food. I just really like your shepherd's pie!" Donna made a mental note to look for a Gallifreyan cookbook in the TARDIS library.

Kyla laughed and said, "To answer your question, then. Aye, our computers and all the data in them was either lost, corrupted or irretrievable. However, Bas was rather unique person. He had always had a deep mistrust of technology, so much so that he secretly kept separate, hard copy files on all of the crew. He also had a collection of antique medical and scientific gadgets, microscopes and scalpels and the like. So he was able to run comparisons between our files and the blood tests he conducted."

Kyla gestured to the Doctor fill their glasses from the decanter of pomegranate wine, which was light and a curious blend of sweetness and tang that brought a smile to Donna's face. Kyla continued. "What Bas found astonished everyone. As you know, Time Lords have an additional set of chromosomes that other Gallifreyans lack. At least that was what we were always taught.

"Bas discovered that this was not the case. The chromosomes exist in all Gallifreyans, but are only viable in Time Lords." She turned to Donna. "Think of it like an appendix. It's there but doesn't really do anything." She sipped her wine and continued. "Bas came to Reg and me with his findings. It seemed that something, either in the ion cloud or here on the planet, had activated this chromosome set."

"So you all became Time Lords?" Donna asked, noting the stunned look on the Doctor's face.

Kyla shook her head slowly. "No, not exactly. Our life-spans were augmented tremendously, and we have the advanced healing abilities of the Time Lords. But we never grew the second heart. We can't regenerate. We just live a very long time. We can die, and have. Mostly due to accidents."

A shadow of pain crossed her face. The Doctor saw this and put his hand on hers. "Reg?" he asked softly.

"Aye," Kyla replied. "About twenty years ago. A mining accident." And that was all she said. He squeezed her hand gently and leaned toward her, sympathizing without words, remembering his own losses.

The maids returned with a platter of cheeses and sliced fruit. Donna spoke with them quietly to give the two Gallifreyans their private moment. She regaled them with a story about the time, when she was eighteen, she took a job at a local cafe and lasted only one day. They left the sun room with the empty dishes, giggling at her description of broken crockery, rude patrons, and the wrath of an upset ginger.

Donna turned back to find Kyla describing the varieties of the cheeses while the Doctor nibbled on an apple slice. Whatever intimacy they had shared had passed. Kyla smiled at Donna and then sighed. "I know you're probably getting tired of hearing me talk, but there's just a bit more ya need to know."

She fingered a small pendant that was partially hidden beneath neckline of her gown. It was in the form of a dragon, wings partially unfurled, its tail curled around an egg, wrought in a dark copper. "The dragons," she began. "They are actually the most important part of the story."

The Doctor sat up a little straighter. "Yes," he said quickly. "I was going to ask you. They are indigenous, right?"

"Aye, they are," she replied. "But we didn't know about them for a long time. It wasn't too long after we found out about the 'Time Lord gene'." She smiled, as the Doctor sniffed in reaction to the term. "Late one night, I was having trouble sleeping." She chuckled at the memory. "Reg was snoring away to beat the band, and I decided to take a walk. It was early autumn, so the nights hadn't turned cold yet. I got dressed, grabbed a wrap, and started out. I really didn't have a destination in mind; I was just wandering. As I did, something, I couldn't really tell what, was urging me to go in a direction I hadn't ever been. It was like I was being pushed, but not physically. Emotionally. I know that sounds daft, but it's what I felt at the time.

"After a while, I found myself at the base of some cliffs. We have never explored out this far, and I had no idea why I was drawn there. As I got closer, I found that the cliff face was riddled with small caves. As I stood there, I got this overwhelming feeling, a pull, if you will, to go inside one of them. Well, I always was a bit impetuous." She smiled at the Doctor, who responded in kind, with a knowing nod.

She continued. "I hadn't taken but a few steps when I heard what sounded like a baby crying. It was faint, as if at a great distance, but the cave was not really that big. As my eyes adjusted to the dimness, I heard the cry again, but this time it was stronger. And I realized something else. The sound was not echoing off the stone walls. I stopped and listened more closely, closing my eyes and really concentrating. That's when I knew."

"Knew what?" Donna asked. She looked over at the Doctor, and saw he had on his aha face.

"She was hearing the sound in her mind," he explained. Kyla nodded. "Another gift of the 'Time Lord gene', I take it?"

"Aye," she answered. "I knew Time Lords had various forms of telepathy. So I assumed I was hearing another Gallifreyan. I thought someone had been hurt and crawled into this cave for shelter. I stood still and tried to send out my thoughts, to locate the poor dear. I heard a response clearly and turned in the direction it seemed to come from. What I found was not at all what I expected. Not more than five steps to the side, I found, sitting on a shelf of rock, a small copper-coloured lizard, about the size of a house cat. She cried out again and this time, in my head, reverberated one word: Kylarath. And I understood that this was her name. She had read my mind, imprinted on me, and named herself using a form of my name."

The Doctor jumped in. "Imprinting," he explained quickly to Donna, "is a kind of intense bonding."

"I pretty much got that, Time Boy," she shot back at him. She turned to Kyla and asked, "What was it like, hearing the little thing in your head? Did she talk to you in words, or was it more like impressions?"

The Doctor spoke up in reply. "Imprinting is usually done psychically, but sometimes, in extreme cases, the bonded pair can feel physically what the other feels."

Donna reached across the table and smacked his arm smartly. "Have you ever imprinted on a dragon? No? Well, then, Mr. I-Know-Everything, let the lady talk!"

Kyla stifled a grin at this exchange. "It began as just a sound in my head, but the longer I stood there, the clearer the thoughts became. It was as if she were learning our language from scanning my mind. I reached over and picked her up, cradling her in my arms. Oh, she crooned with such joy, and began to make the most wonderful rumbling in her throat."

"Yes," Donna cried. "Korsarion told me it was called thrumming. Korioth did that when we first met."

"Did he now?" Kyla asked, looking at the ginger-haired woman thoughtfully.

"Yes. They said it was unusual, but I'm sure it happens all the time," Donna was quick to point out.

Kyla caught the Doctor's brief expression of irritation at Donna's words. She filed that, along with many other little things, for future consideration. She continued with her tale. "I carried her back to the settlement and woke Reg. Soon everyone was taking a trip out to the caves. So many of them came back disappointed. It seemed that the dragon chose its partner, not the other way around. And the most amazing thing was, as the bond grew, so did the dragons! Not all lizards imprinted, mind, but those that did began to slowly increase in size as the years went on. It took about fifty years, but eventually, they all developed into the magnificent creatures we have today. It took another hundred years before they fully attained flight."

"Can we see her sometime? Kylarath?" Donna asked shyly.

Kyla smiled and answered, "Of course. She's well advanced in years, so she doesn't get around much. But I'll be happy to take you to meet her." She grew solemn. "In fact, that's why I sent for ya, Theta. The dragons are dying."