I have an obligation to the universe. The Doctor stared past her dangling legs to the dark expanse below. Something tightened in her chest. I always have, and I think I always knew I did. All my life, I sought the truth. She laid down and rested her head upon her hands. Darkness overcame the golden glow from inside the TARDIS.

From that darkness, three figures emerged. The Doctor recognised them as past incarnations of herself.

"You do have an obligation to the universe," said her most recent incarnation. "But you do not have to go alone."

The Doctor sat up and knew what the vision meant. She must find a companion, as the incarnations before her had. What about Milo, my ancestor? The Doctor recalled how she met him on Earth's moon. No sooner than she considered him, she dismissed the option. I rewound time. Those who descended to the lunar surface would surely all be dead. But I will find someone. She stood, having noticed a ringed planet in the distance, and drew the TARDIS doors closed before she walked toward the console. I don't often visit Saturn. The Doctor pulled around the screen, which provided the year: 2942. Perhaps I'll take a stroll in the cloud gardens there – maybe visit a city or two.

With careful precision of the controls, she landed the TARDIS and stepped outside. Ammonia crystals from the clouds in the upper atmosphere were fashioned into clean shapes like topiaries. Stars twinkled overhead, barred by the planet's wide, arcing rings. Somewhere up there, she also knew, was the palace of the Earth Empire's Divine Empress.

"Who are you?" demanded a hostile female voice from behind.

The Doctor, with all deliberateness, turned. She recognised the woman who aimed a pistol at her. Mae? Waves and braids appeared in her styled black hair; geometric shapes patterned the elaborate two-toned dress she wore. There was an obvious difference between the tired and dishevelled woman she met in the other reality, but both faces were identical. Is she like Clara? Am I meeting another echo?

"Who are you?" Mae jerked the pistol as though threatening to shoot. "What do you want with me?"

Her voice caused the Doctor to blurt, "The Doctor."
"Doctor who?"

Every time. "Just the Doctor." Mae refused to holster the weapon. "What's the danger here?"

Mae furrowed her brow. "What danger? Crews maintain these gardens hourly; there is no danger here."

"Well, most people don't wave a gun around for fun. Though I have met a few like that before." The words came quickly. "But you don't seem like you belong with that lot, being dressed as you are." She could not say: I met an alternate version of you not so long ago and you didn't seem hostile then. "So what are you so afraid of?"

Mae blushed, but she concealed the weapon in a secret pocket sewn into her dress. "I heard this – this rustling sound. Four times today. I thought it was – it might be – following me." Her eyes met the Doctor's. "Attempts have been made on my life before, but I suppose my imagination got the better of me today." Mae extended her hand, and the Doctor shook it. "Mehadi Sarkar."

"Where did you hear this rustling sound?"

"A few dozen metres back," Mae replied as the Doctor set off in the direction she specified.

"You said attempts were made on your life?" Mae trotted to catch up to the Doctor and came up on her left side. Her large, ornate jewellery tinkled as they walked.

"Well, much as one might try to please everyone as a Countess, it is impossible to do so." She sighed. "I came here to convene with the Divine Empress. My overcities seem more restless than usual, but I find the same is true here. Trouble brews everywhere in the Empire, it seems."

Does she know how soon it will collapse?

"Best not to worry a great deal about it." The Doctor attempted to sound nonchalant. Alerting people to future catastrophe produced a host of problems. "Troubles come and go, but you humans always sort it out in the end."

Mae puffed out her chest. "We are renowned for our resiliency."

But the Doctor scarcely heard her. Cloud hedges to the right rustled; wisps of ammonia floated upward, disturbed by the sudden movement. The Doctor withdrew her sonic screwdriver from her pocket and approached the hedge. "I know you're in there. Come out, whatever you are." More movement, then a sturdy shape erupted from the opposite end of the hedge, fled across the crystal path like a silver blur and disappeared into the adjacent hedge. Is that what I think it is? How's that, though?

"It looked like a dog and rat hybridised, whatever it is," Mae commented with a shudder. "But I don't know of any dog with that many legs. What do you think, Doctor?"

The Doctor scowled. "It looked like something that doesn't belong here."

"And what would that be?"

"A woprat," the Doctor answered with a glance at Mae. "They come from my home planet, though they'd been extinct for some time before I was born. I saw one once, but that was a long time ago." When the Doctor saw Mae's brow furrow as though she wanted to ask the Doctor to define 'a long time ago,' she changed topics without a pause. "Did you see how silver its fur was? It must be old." She chuckled. "I remember that much from school."

Mae propped one hand on her hip. "Saturn does have a zoo of exotic and formerly extinct species from across the Milky Way. Perhaps someone managed to recreate your woprat. I've never been, but I suppose it could have escaped its enclosure."

The Doctor shook her head. "No. My species is gone. It has been gone for millennia." She was glad that her memories of the Time War no longer felt raw. "By the time you reached the stars, Gallifrey had long since disappeared from the sky."

"Not us. Another species."

"One with technology capable of manipulating time." A question formed in the Doctor's mind. The Time Lords are separated from the rest of time. Who stole our technology before the Time War and delivered it to a third party? Her stomach churned. What will they do now? Is this the first step in a much larger plot?

More rustles arose from the hedge. The woprat must be burrowing deeper into the hedge.

"Doctor," Mae hissed, "I think it might be on the move."

"Good."

"What?"

"This is an extinct species, Mehadi; whoever's resurrected it isn't going to let it go so easily. They're bound to come looking for it sometime. The sounds will let them know it's here, so the woprat's going to lead us directly to the responsible party." The Doctor ducked around the hedge, and beckoned to Mae. "Well? Are you hiding or not?"


Admittedly, this was a poor plan. Both the Doctor and Mae had crouched behind the cloud hedge for hours. The sky paled from black to indigo as the sun rose. They had migrated down the hedgerow when the scuffling sounds of the woprat grew fainter. But I won't admit that. I need to know how this woprat arrived here.

Mae ran her fingers through her hair; more greasy black strands unravelled from her tight bun and headdress. Earlier she had removed her stilettos, complaining of discomfort. "Do you know what time it is?" Dark circles ringed the underside of her eyes; she had rubbed at her painted lids and complained that they ached. "I scheduled a meeting with the Divine Empress for sometime this morning."

"Go, then. I can't know when they'll come."

Mae half-stood. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I really wanted to help you."

As she brushed ammonia crystals from her black-and-white dress, three figures entered through a simulated wrought iron gate. The Doctor seized Mae's wrist and pulled her down.

"Ow!" Mae hissed. "What, are they here?"

One of the three was a reptilian; two were human males. All were clad in formal attire, but they parted ways soon after they entered. Each prowled along the imitation cobblestone path, eyes hungrily scanning the hedgerows and flowerbeds.

The reptilian produced a small wooden object and blew into one end. A prolonged chittering note came from the object which ended in a sudden yip. He's using it to communicate with the woprat like a birdwatcher might use a birdcall.

Squeaking, the woprat burst from the hedge. One of the humans, who had withdrawn a burlap sack from the inside pocket of his tuxedo jacket, lunged and the woprat vanished beneath the mouth of the sack. The Doctor wanted to rescue the woprat; she tensed all her muscles so as to prevent herself from confronting the three strangers. Fifteen tiny paws scrabbled at the sides of the bag; squeals of panic split the silence as the woprat panicked in its confined space.

"This is horrible, Doctor!" Mae gasped. "What can we do to help?"

The Doctor tersely responded, "Wait."

All three strangers leaped into the nearest hedgerow. No sooner than they disappeared, the Doctor stood and raced to the hedge, Mae on her heels. Compacted clouds blinded the Doctor but she pressed forward until she cleared the tattered hedge. Now, she stood on a narrow ledge. Beyond, the cloud layer ended and presented a precipitous drop. The Doctor glanced left, then right. Parked at the right end of the precipice was a red spaceship. I can't let them get away! The Doctor sprang into pursuit, but her trainers sank into the soft clouds below. Already, the hatch clicked open and the strangers clamoured inside the small craft. Once inside, the hatch began to close and the spaceship began its ascent.

"Don't!" Mae shrieked. "Don't do it! We'll find some other way!"

The Doctor jumped from the edge of the cloud and caught hold of some landing gear. Too late. She located her sonic screwdriver in her jacket pocket and pointed it at the hatch, which promptly flew open. The Doctor released her grip on the landing gear and landed on the first step. "Jump!" she shouted down to Mae. There was a high probability that the whistle of the wind and the grinding of the engines would mask her voice. "I'll catch you!"

Will she trust me? Mae grimaced, but obeyed. The Doctor caught her outstretched hand. For a moment, Mae screamed as she dangled over nothing but clouds. Pieces of her gilded headdress came loose and plunged into the abyss below. There's nothing below that would break her fall. But I won't let her fall. The Doctor doubled over and pulled Mae up by her forearms. While Mae lay, panting, on the steps, the Doctor used her sonic screwdriver to close the hatch.

"What do we have here?" wondered the reptilian aloud.

One of the humans paced forward and bared his teeth. "Stowaways, I should think."

"Funny thing for a thief to say. Do you even know what you have in that sack?"

The humans and reptilian exchanged glances. "Of course we do," growled the reptilian. "I suppose you must be the Doctor, if you care so much about the beast that's in this sack."

The second human snorted. "That ain't the Doctor. The Doctor's a man."

"Shush!" hissed the reptilian. "Don't you know the legends? Time Lords can change gender."

Though the second man rolled his eyes in response, the Doctor decided to seize the opportunity to ask questions. "Who do you work for? Who gave you Gallifreyan technology? How do you intend to use it?"

"Gave? We wasn't given nothin', lady."

"He's right," chimed in the first man. "But why should we tell you anything else? You both trespassed on our ship, and so you both will be meeting someone special for due punishment."


"This way." The reptilian gestured for the Doctor and Mae to follow him after they disembarked. Both woman proceeded down a narrow, grimy corridor that opened into a vast chamber. Inside the chamber were piles of gold and other assorted treasures. Old and new TARDIS models filled the space between bulging red-brown columns.

Mae gasped. "That crown belonged to the past Empress of the Earth Empire! No one knew its fate!"

What concerns me more is the amount of Gallifreyan technology here. Look at the amount and variety of TARDIS models here. Who acquired this many, and from where? Could it be the Master?

Heavy footsteps resounded against the metal floor; a figure cloaked in shadow approached the Doctor and Mae. "Is what my men tell me true, Doctor?" boomed the figure before he stepped into the blue cast from a dimmed light somewhere overhead. The Doctor thought she ought to recognise his face but struggled to do so. "Are you a Time Lord?"

"Yes, and what are you?"

He spoke over her question. "And you are the very last of your kind, are you not?"

"If I was, would you include me to your hoard like you've done with the woprat?" Anger rushed heat through her veins.

The stranger snorted. "Delyah has been my pet for millennia. I treat her as best I can." As he spoke, the burlap sack rustled. The Doctor and Mae turned to see it rise from one man's clenched fist and open. The woprat emerged from inside and floated across the room before landing softly beside the stranger's right foot.

"You are a Gallifreyan from before." The Doctor understood now. Before the rise of Time Lord society, some Gallifreyans exhibited psychic powers.

"Before your kind destroyed the planet with your science, yes." His jaw muscles tensed. "I swore to kill every last one of you. And that's exactly what I'll do to you before I go back to destroy all the rest of the Time Lords." A knife broke from one of the treasure heaps; the stranger directed the blade to rest against the Doctor's throat. "Our resistance may have failed before, but it will not now that we turn their own weapons against them."

Could this be Egalim? As perhaps the most trusted of the Pythia's generals, his massacres of technologists and civilians alike became infamous. I thought I read once that he had telekinesis too. Those memories were so ancient that she could not be certain. And didn't they imprison him somewhere on Gallifrey?

"Humour me before I die, Egalim. Tell me how you escaped your prison and the time lock."

Egalim scoffed. "I heard how you used the Moment. Everyone feared you then, but you've always been a coward. You're afraid to die, so you want to bait me into talking while you form a plan!"

Mae began to unholster her pistol. "Put that away, please," urged the Doctor.

Compliance, however, was not on Mae's mind; she began to raise the pistol. "I won't allow you –!" the Countess shrieked as the reptilian tackled her, though a grunt ended her sentence as the breath was driven from her lungs.

A single shot ricocheted around the walls and floors after the pistol clattered to the tarnished floor. It struck something flammable behind Egalim, which promptly exploded. The force knocked down the ancient Gallifreyan and disrupted his mental connection to the knife, which fell away from the Doctor's throat.

More explosions rocked the chamber. The Doctor pulled Mae to her feet – the reptilian had already fled and she had partially sat up whilst rubbing her sore chin – and both bolted from the nearby danger. Neither stopped running until they reached the red spaceship. Its hatch was closing, and so they both clamoured up the narrow stairs.

While Mae doubled over and panted, the Doctor approached a port window in the ship's curving hull. Orange flames licked from the mouth of the narrow corridor into the docking station. That means everything inside the chamber should be destroyed. Egalim and all those TARDIS models should be gone. However he managed to escape, Gallifrey should be safe now. A few niggles of doubt stirred within her, but she attempted to disregard them.


"Let me come with you." Mae pleaded. Both she and the Doctor stood outside the TARDIS after their recent escape from the henchmen's spaceship. "I know that as a Countess, I have responsibilities, but surely someone would assume I went missing after I didn't show for my consultation with the Divine Empress this morning. I could vanish."

The Doctor frowned. Though she did not object taking Mae as a companion, she did object to the excuse. "Doesn't your empire monitor movements with cameras?"

"Yes." Mae sighed. "But anywhere in time and space? I would be a fool not to seize that opportunity. What few vacations I've had aside, I hardly left my family's overcities since my childhood. I almost wanted the trouble." The Countess clenched her fists. "I hated myself for that."

The Doctor pushed open the door. "Come inside then. Your people shouldn't have a leader who doesn't want to lead."

Mae squealed, "It's bigger on the inside! How's that possible?" and pushed past the Doctor, who suspected her excitement overwhelmed any offence she might have taken from the comment. "Do you have a telephone? I need to contact someone about my decision."

"Over there." The Doctor gestured to the console with one hand and shut the door with the other. "It's rather small and looks like a black rectangle." Mae nodded and headed in the indicated direction; the Doctor called after her, "Make sure you select the correct date. There's no historical boundaries to it, provided the person you're trying to contact has a mobile on them."

Mae did not respond, though the Doctor overheard her mutter, "One of my brothers or sisters must want my position."

Where to take her first? Earth before the solar flares, perhaps? She moved to the console and began to input the desired destination. I'll place the TARDIS in orbit. It'll be like seeing it from an overcity – if humans had built them now, in 1832.

Mae set down the phone. "It's done. My brother will take my position." She paused. "Where are we now?"

"Open the doors and see."

"But won't we be sucked out into space?"

"The TARDIS has an air bubble around it. You can look out safely." Mae approached the doors. "Oh, and another thing. Mae. Do you mind if I call you Mae?"

Her brow furrowed but she replied with a deliberate voice, "It might complicate things to keep my name, wouldn't it?" Mae then turned and continued toward the doors. When she opened them, she gasped. "That's Earth, isn't it? Before the flares? It's beautiful!" Mae glanced back over her shoulder. "Thank you so much for bringing me here!"

The Doctor smiled, but a small blip returned her attention to the console. An onscreen alert read: TARDIS in the vicinity.

Egalim escaped the fire somehow. The Doctor refused to recognise the possibility of a glitch. "Get inside!" she ordered.

Mae slammed the doors shut. "It's him! He's opened the door and has got something large with him!"

The Doctor yanked levers and flipped switches as she ran around the console. We need to escape. A large object rammed against the TARDIS doors. What weapon has he got? All the cloister bells began to ring and the controls froze. The TARDIS descended toward the Earth's surface in a tailspin.