Hi Guys – Next update here – Ta for reading!!Polly
"Ok. Seeing as we don't have a lot of time I'll summarize, instead of going through every detail of the history of the Time Lords with this race" An odd expression crossed the Doctor's face; he blinked twice, then a slight grin took hold of his features.
"Something amusing, Doctor?" asked Odo who was leaning against the wall, arms folded.
"Unrelated…" replied the Doctor, "bit of a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern moment actually".
"So, the Cyriani?" Kira continued, not allowing this to digress onto yet another tangent.
"Yes! The Cyriani! Right, first a bit of context. As you've probably gathered from the broken record currently residing in our basement, I'm a Timelord. You don't really need to know too much about that except for the following; Firstly, my people travelled in space and, surprisingly enough, time. Secondly, we did so in what we call TARDIS's – as you know, mine's currently on your lower decks. It stands for time and relative dimension in space."
"Why do you travel around space and time in ships disguised as police boxes?" Jadzia asked.
The Doctor grinned even wider.
"We didn't…well… I mean I do. They were designed to blend in to their surroundings using what we called a chameleon circuit – kind of like a cloaking device. Mine got stuck. In the sixties…um…the nineteen-sixties. On Earth that is. I kind of like it – retro chic. Each TARDIS is alive, by the way. We shared, and I still do share, a symbiotic relationship with them…"He glanced at Jadzia, "Not as profound as a trill joining, but present nonetheless. Right, now we've established that – the Cyriani."
He paused; remembering how this had all began relative centuries previously.
"When my people were young they were tested, and the best and the brightest got chosen for the academy. Here they learned the usual stuff. temporal mechanics, quantum manipulation, physics, cookery, P.E. After graduation they were given their first TARDIS, and sent on 'The First Test'. And that is how this got started. The first test was rather a big moment for my people. You were told to enter your TARDIS, choose a destination anywhere or anywhen, and then return to the academy and give a short presentation. We were never set a question, just told to go, do something interesting and come back. Unfortunately it got out of hand."
"How so?" asked Sisko, dreading to think of the implications of what the Doctor was describing; He imagined both Dulmer and Luxley from the department of temporal investigation having a fit of apoplexy.
"You know how the graduating classes at Starfleet academy usually try to perform some daredevil stunt at the end of their final flight exams, trying to out do the previous year? Well…hang on…"
He reached first into his left then his right pockets, fiddled around…
"Aha – there it is" He produced a gleaming ornate dagger with a fantastic sapphire set in the pommel, and runes along the blade. He placed it on Sisko's desk, and the Starfleet officers gathered round to inspect it.
Dax was the first for it to click.
"That's not…" She said incredulously.
The Doctor wiggled his eyebrows at her flirtatiously.
"No...It can't be…" She burst out laughing.
Again with the wiggling.
"I don't understand" admitted Sisko. He'd never seen it in his life.
"Benjamin- that is the royal dagger of the Osiriet. It belonged to Balthus the redeemer"
Now Sisko, understood, and looked in awe at the Doctor.
"Would you mind telling the major and I what that is?" requested Odo.
"It's the seat of office for the twin planets of Osiria and Sidon. It's been missing for four-hundred years."
"So?" asked Kira, "it's old – and that proves…?"
Jadzia took up the story.
"Four hundred years ago, the two planets were locked in a bloody war. Osiria was ruled by puppet kings at the mercy of the royal council who believed that the Osirians, deemed superior by themselves, should rule both planets. Baltus was young when he ascended the throne and, like his father, had his head was filled with superstition and religious zeal – the method of control favoured by the councillors. At the dawn of his eighteenth birthday he was to declare a war of extermination against the Sido. Millions would have been obliterated, leaving Sidon's resources for the council, but it never happened."
"Why not?" queried Odo.
"Legend has it on the eve of his birthday, Baltus went to the temple and prayed for guidance. It's believed that there was a small part of him at that time which had not been fully brainwashed. He asked his gods whether what he was about to do was right, and asked for a sign. He then went to his chambers, the dagger left in a secure vault in his antechamber. It was guarded by the elite and totally impregnable. Baltus rose the next morning to find the dagger gone. The first thing he did after discovering the loss was have the entire council executed, and began peace talks with the Sido. The peace has yet to end."
They all looked at the Doctor, who had adopted a very sheepish expression-
"Funny thing is, I never intended that to happen. I just thought Baltus was extremely annoying, and that the loss of the dagger would upset him to no end. Hey – I was young. I found out about the praying thing later. Funny old universe,eh?"
"As interesting as that is Doctor, what does it have to do with the Cyriani?" Sisko enquired. Any other time he would have relished discovering the truth about a four-hundred year old mystery, but the current situation warranted haste.
"I'm just illustrating the sort of things my people did during the final test. It's really a show-off thing; The Cyriani came to this universe because of it. It's why it was discontinued. Upon graduation, one of our young timelords whose name I forget decided he wanted to do something to outdo all of the previous presentations. In doing so he broke the fundamental law of travelling in the vortex; that one can only travel through what is possible."
"I don't understand – what is impossible for someone who can travel through space and time?" asked Kira.
"Nothing - through space and time. The whole universe was our playground, and not just this universe. We used to cross realities the way most people go out for chips…before…well anyway. This particular Timelord decided to do the impossible. He entered his TARDIS and dematerialised. What happened next is speculation, but it's believed he strengthened his link with his TARDIS further than any other had. He instilled in it, against the very nature of any TARDIS to believe what is impossible, and to take him there. And apparently, it worked. He travelled outside of the universe…somewhere…else, I dunno. And when he returned he brought something with him, or maybe something brought him back – the Cyriani. We never found out what their true name is by the way. They never told us we didn't ask. I'll give them this though; they were the least melodramatic of the threats we encountered. They hadn't given themselves a name, like the Beast, The One, The mast…"
He stopped.
"What happened when he returned?" – Kira voiced the question they all had in mind.
"It's what stopped them really. You see, most beings having possessed someone with a craft like the TARDIS would travel to the beginning of time and claim everyone. The Cyriani wanted more agents; they have this desire to have as many bodies as possible in one place, making them harder to defeat. This one returned to the academy posing as the Timelord, meeting and greeting all who would say hi. That's where it went pear shaped. The academy had installed sensors to monitor who and what was there due to the sensitivity of what it contained. TARDIS's, forbidden libraries, weapons deemed to destructive for any race to possess. The silent alarms engaged and the council was alerted. Within moments the fleet had been recalled, all of us, and we stopped them."
"How Doctor – How did you stop them?"
The Doctor looked more serious than they'd yet seen him.
"We surrounded the academy – our TARDIS's – in every direction through space and time. Creating an insurmountable barrier. We had them contained, the timelord's taken by the Cyriani, and the few TARDIS's belonging to them. It travels by touch in this dimension you see. So anybody within the box was assumed to be infected. Our president asked it to leave, to free those in it's thrall and return to it's place of origin. In response it slaughtered a number of those infected. Totally. The president knew we couldn't hold our barrier indefinitely, it would allow our other enemies to creep up on our other front which was defenceless. The president asked for a solution…" His expression darkened, "and I provided it. I asked it one final time to leave, which it refused, commenting upon the desperation of our situation, that we couldn't contain it forever and survive. I did what I had to. I linked my TARDIS to all of the others and we created a perpetual moment covering the whole academy. Still within the universe, but frozen in a moment, just like we are now. Everyone in the box was sacrificed. The timelords taken were innocent in the matter, having been possessed for lack of a better word. To make the prison permanent, we translocated it to a part of space in orbit of our world; with no oxygen" They could see tears in his eyes again.
"It was all I could think of. We had to ensure it never escaped. Funny, that never seems to work for me…In the end it was contained, and I was a hero. I didn't feel like one then, and deep down, I never will."
"How does this help us Doctor?"
"Nothing I've said does really, but it helped refresh what I knew about them. You see, the phased neutrinos you picked up earlier exist within the heart of the TARDIS. Talking helped me put two and two together. The Cyriani never had possessed a TARDIS, which would have been any easy way to escape our barrier around the academy – in fact would have allowed all of us to be taken. But it hadn't. Now. In the bar earlier I heard talk of the Orb of prophecy being brought back. The Bajoran people worship the wormhole, where obviously the Orb came from, and the Cyriani itself said that the wormhole tried to burn it. I don't mean to offend you Major", he looked at Kira, "but wormholes do not sit in space and think' I'll invite the Cyriani here under the pretence of breakfast and then burn it from existence. Therefore it's the particle's it fears.It fears the Orb; that's why the temple has been given such a wide berth-"
"How can that helps us Doctor?" asked Jadzia, "we barely understand what the Orbs are, let alone how to weaponize one…"
"Oh I don't intend to weaponize it Jadzia" the Doctor said, shooting to his feet, " I intend to detonate it!!" He turned to all around him, to see them understand his brilliance; Dax looked thoughtful, Sisko looked wary, Odo looked conflicted, and Kira…
"THE HELL YOU ARE, DOCTOR!!"
The Doctor sighed. Why was there always someone to make his life difficult…..