1.2 million years ago…

The bang blew away about half the prison complex.

As the Doctor and Ace staggered to freedom, carrying Prosemo between them, and doing their best to weave out of the way of the soldiers who'd just opened fire.

"So you're Prosemo!" said the Doctor, as they ran. "Pleased to meet you. I'm the Doctor."

Prosemo didn't answer.

"Professor," Ace whispered. "Shouldn't we ask him…?"

"All in good time, Ace," the Doctor said.

They ducked into a nearby building, the Doctor sonicing the door shut. Ace set Prosemo down, then raced over to help the Doctor barricade the door.

Prosemo didn't say a word.

"Sit down," the Doctor said, after they were done. He pulled up a chair, helped Prosemo into it. "I've scrambled their communications and navigation equipment, so they won't be finding us for a while." He reached into his jacket, and brought out a thermos and some tea cups. "Plenty of time for some tea and a pleasant chat."

Prosemo still said nothing.

Didn't even take the tea, when the Doctor poured it for him.

Instead, he looked away. Stubbornly. Blocking out the world around him, as if it didn't matter.

"Trust the Doctor," Ace urged Prosemo, placing a hand on his arm. "Whatever's wrong, he can help!"

Prosemo still said nothing.

"The Great Warrior was your friend, yeah?" Ace guessed. "You want her back. The Professor can help with that!"

"Ace!" the Doctor chided.

Prosemo didn't look like he believed her. Didn't respond.

Just yanked his arm away from Ace, and stared pointedly at the far wall, away from them.

Ace sighed. Turned back to the Doctor. "It's no use, he won't talk," she said. "Both the rebels and the interrogators have been trying for almost two centuries, and he still won't say a word."

"He won't," the Doctor replied, sipping his own tea, "because no one would believe him, or care, if he did tell the truth." His voice lowered, eyes fixed on Prosemo. "The truth that the Great Warrior's main purpose, here, wasn't to bring down the Empire."

Prosemo jumped.

Snapping his head around to stare at the Doctor, directly, for the first time. Mouth forming words, but no voice coming.

"What?" said Ace.

The Doctor ignored her. Just looked deep into Prosemo's eyes, the way he did when he managed to get people to tell him everything. "I'm right, aren't I, Prosemo?"

A look of sheer relief passed across Prosemo's face.

"She's become a story," Prosemo said. His voice was cracked and crumbly from lack of use, and he had to swallow several times before he could continue. "A symbol. But they never knew her. The rebels, the government — no one ever listened to the truth. No one cared, and no one understood!"

Ace saw their chance.

"But we'll understand everything," she chimed in. Pulling up a chair, herself. "Won't we, Professor?"

"Certainly!" the Doctor said, with a smile. Pushing the tea closer to Prosemo. "So tell us, Prosemo. What did she want to do, before she was known as the Great Warrior? Tell us about her, back when she was the Speaker for the Forgotten."


Present Day…

The little boy in Seo's mind who wasn't really Steven dragged Jack after him. Racing through the gigantic space past the castle walls, as if he knew exactly where he was going. Jack couldn't get free. Had no idea who the child really was, or why it was here.

But the child knew where it wanted to go.

It grabbed at a door, yanked it, hard. Trying to get it open.

"You will not enter here!" shouted a voice from behind.

Jack glanced behind him, to discover Aragorn galloping forwards, sword drawn. Steven squeaked, and yanked on the door even harder.

The door gave way.

Steven tumbled inside, into the darkness, dragging Jack along with him. The door snapping shut and sealing them in.

For a moment, there was nothing but blackness surrounding them.

Then… Jack could see something. A pleasant-looking street, lots of big houses and happy children running around, playing. The whole place looked like a futuristic version of a suburban paradise, except there was something decidedly different about the architecture and layout of the planet. As if none of these people had ever even heard of an Earth-style suburbia, before.

"Is this the Irkoli Empire?" Jack found himself saying.

Except it wasn't his voice.

A female voice. Seo's voice. As he walked down the street, examining, a curiosity running through his mind.

Then the whole thing was gone. A fragment.

Skipping on to the next.

Which was when Jack realized… these were Seo's memories he'd raced into. He was seeing what she did and said and felt… as if he were her.

A million years ago.

Steven still stood beside him, clutching his hand.

Never letting go.

The memory shifted to show the inside of a family house, lime green and sloping walls, the mother serving her children dinner, as they teased each other and called each other "booger-brains".

"Evil?" the mother said, confused. "If the Empire was evil, we wouldn't be part of it. Would we?"

"I've heard rumors," came Seo's voice, from Jack's mouth. "About how the Irkoli Empire rules through fear. Throws planets into black holes, if those planets become a threat. Extinguishes suns, makes people disappear off the streets, tortures and degrades and inspires terror in its followers."

The mother seemed completely at a loss.

Jack could feel Seo's mind churning, like crazy, trying to make sense of it.

"Who've you been listening to? Conspiracy theorists?" The mother shook her head. "It doesn't even make sense."

"It doesn't?"

"The Empire's governed by a small handful of people," said the mother. "That's it. Most laws are made by local world governments. We run our own police and military. The Empire basically just steps in to help with diplomacy."

"Really?"

"Really," the mother agreed. Then, with a laugh, added, "The Empire doesn't even have a central army — unless the worlds under their protection decide to lend it troops."

Seo's mind grew extremely curious, at this.

Thinking through possibilities and implications, even as the mother frantically tried to stop her children from starting up a food fight.

From what Jack was hearing, the Empire sounded less like Star Wars and more like… NATO.

"Listen, I know the threat of mutually assured destruction is real," said the mother, after she'd settled her children down. "It's why the Empire was formed in the first place. But the Empire's given us safety and prosperity in other ways, too. Empire technology has supplied us with medicines that expand life exponentially, vanquish practically all disease at little cost to us, and… well… the Empire's transit systems have provided an underlying framework for our lives."

"How so?" said Seo.

"My husband works in the Ormedo Cluster, seventy thousand parsecs away," said the mother. "I work only forty thousand parsecs away, around the Corow Nebula. But we're still able to live here, next door to our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents, in a place where our kids can get an excellent education and traditional upbringing — for a very reasonable price." She crossed her arms. "That's thanks to the Empire."

Once again, Seo's mind whirred with intrigue. Trying to figure out how the accounts had all gotten this so wrong. And — if every myth had a grain of truth — where that truth was coming from.

And what did she mean — mutually assured destruction? Just what else was going on in this galaxy?

"Besides, they've eliminated poverty," the mother said, getting back to her children. "What more could you ask for?"

That struck at a chord in Seo's mind.

"Eliminated… poverty?" Seo asked. "What? You mean completely?!"


1.2 million years ago…

Ace listened to Prosemo's cracked, strained voice.

As he told the Doctor his story.

"She never wanted to hurt anyone," said Prosemo. "She first came to the Empire because she thought it was evil. But she landed in the Outer Worlds. Saw the peace and prosperity there. Empire technology. Empire transit. And… the lack of poverty. "

The Doctor nodded.

"She told me… their story didn't make sense to her," said Prosemo. "Poverty doesn't just disappear. Economically, in a capitalist system like this one, that'd make everything fall apart."

"Yes, I see," the Doctor muttered. "Very clever."

"Then she saw the technology," said Prosemo. "And she knew the amount of energy it would require was vast. Too vast. There was no way the Empire could possibly function the way everyone thought it did."

"And so your Speaker for the Forgotten put two and two together," the Doctor guessed. "Went to the source of the energy used by the Empire's technology, and found herself… here."

Prosemo nodded.

"The Powerhouse Worlds, where those their home worlds deem 'too poor' are shipped," Prosemo confirmed. "We're put to work. And then… forgotten."

"What did she call herself, when she first arrived?" said the Doctor. "The Speaker?"

Prosemo gave a cracked laugh.

Didn't answer.


Present Day…

Steven tugged at Jack's hand, leading him through the blackness and into another of Seo's memories.

This one of Seo checking readings on Oliver's console. Realizing she had gotten this right and traced the source of the energy, she turned and raced out of her ship. Stepping out onto the surface…

And seeing that huge swirling sun in the sky.

Its light sucked into the heart of a black hole.

"Black hole energy," Seo mused. "My sister mentioned something about that."

Jack knew it, just as Seo knew it. Could think the way she'd been thinking. About the time when they'd been on the world with the Totos, and she and her sister had both been healing, and chatting idly about anything they could think of.

Jenny had started talking about harnessing energy from black holes. Time Lords used to do that, Jenny explained, but she couldn't quite work out how. She had some ideas, of course.

And so she and Seo had begun brainstorming. Thinking outside the box.

All that came to Jack, in an instant, as he stared through Seo's eyes and Seo's memories, at the sun that swirled in orbit around the black hole. Crackling with red energy.

Then his eyes fell to the city, ahead. Beneath the dome. At the poorly built houses and unhappy workers trudging through the streets. Free from hope, free from dreams, just living one day to the next and not sure what to do about it.

"The Empire's underbelly," said Seo.