Author's Note:

Here is Chapter 12, corresponding nicely with the delivery of episode 12 of series 10 this weekend. Enjoy!


Truth is what stands the test of experience.

-Albert Einstein


"At last, Doctor. I thought you'd never come."

The Doctor found himself in an elaborate gilded great room. He glanced up at the vaulted ceiling, where an immense crystal chandelier dangled elegantly.

A large banquet table was well appointed with rich silken sashes on the Doctor's right. An ornate hearth graced the back wall with a collection of lavish chairs arranged around it.

Along each wall stood heavy wooden tables sporting large vases of aromatic flowers and grasses. The Doctor noted that they were all indigenous to his home world. Likewise, the fruit in the bowl on the sideboard at the entrance of the hall was of Gallifreyan origin.

In the center of the room stood a throne. Upon the throne sat a man.

He wore the fur-collared cloak of a Gallifrey long gone, before the separation of the classes into orders. The man's hair was long, as was the custom in ancient Gallifrey, with an elegantly trimmed goatee.

"Omega. My, how you've changed."

"The last time we met you demanded that I recreate my body as evidence of my power. What do you think? You will have noted by now that I am not drawing power from the Eye of Harmony."

Like the last time they met, rather than speaking aloud, Omega spoke into the Doctor's mind.

"I really wish you'd stop that. Get out of my head. Talk about ear worms! If your body is so great, let me hear your voice." Omega conceded and spoke aloud, though the Doctor still felt him as a presence in his mind.

"Speech is still unnecessary, and you should save your strength. You are still weak from bohrium exposure. " The Doctor grimaced inwardly. He had hoped his current condition would go unnoticed.

"You can hide nothing from me, Doctor. I learned much from you the last time we met. You cannot trick me again."

The Doctor slid a chair away from the wall and placed it at a safe but casual distance from the throne. He was very tired, indeed. The power transfer to the TARDIS and the conversation with Kate, Bill, Nardole and the Osgoods had used up what little energy he'd regained during the healing trance.

"I am curious about the bohrium, Omega. Am I right that it exists only at the rift between the two universes? How is it that I was not affected when I was transported here just now?"

"I would have thought you would be more interested in my power source, Doctor." The Doctor sighed. Megalomaniacs. They're all the same. Let's start with a little ego stroking, shall we?

"Fine. Omega, how did you manage to find an independent power source? When I was last here, this place was nearly an empty void."

"That's better. First, let's get our terminology straight. This isn't just another universe. It is a new universe in another dimension. The dimension of thought."

"Nonsense. There is no 'thought dimension.'"

"Of course you would think that." The Doctor felt Omega's amusement. "You are from the old universe. Yet I created this universe and everything in it with only my mind. I created this flesh and blood body out of the elemental matter that I also created. Anything I conceive of will come to be if I want it to."

The Doctor had another look around the room. Was it all real, or just a mental projection?

"Go ahead – touch me! Go over there and take a piece of fruit. Bite into it. Savor the taste. All real, Doctor."

The Doctor had considered doing something like that already, but decided it wasn't worth the effort. A really good mental projection could still fool the senses, especially right now, when he was weak.

"I will take your word for it for the moment, Omega. Now tell me about your power source." The Doctor's head swam with sudden dizziness. He breathed in and hoped that it would pass before Omega noticed.

"You are weak, indeed, Doctor. How frail your body is, compared to mine."

"Yes, well, I like mine, thank you." The Doctor breathed a moment more until he felt less like he was going to pass out. "The power source."

"That's the beauty of being in the thought dimension. I conceived of an infinite supply of pure plasma. And so it came to be that a new sun was born. And from there, I got all of the building blocks of matter."

A servant entered the hall carrying a tray with two glasses and a bottle. The Doctor watched, dumbstruck, as the woman set the tray on a nearby table to pour a golden liquid into each glass. She departed after placing one glass beside Omega and the other on a small table that suddenly appeared next to the Doctor's chair.

He turned his attention back to Omega, who picked up his glass and sipped the beverage, eyes crinkling closed as he enjoyed the taste.

"Drink, Doctor. It's a restorative cordial that was popular on Gallifrey in my time. I promise, you will feel better."

After hesitating for another moment, the Doctor finally picked up the glass and sampled its contents. The glass was smooth and cool under his hand. The liquid had a pleasant taste, not unlike honey and fermented fruit. His tongue and throat went pleasantly numb as he swallowed. Within a few moments the aching in his joints was noticeably lessened and he felt more clear-headed.

"And where did your servant come from?"

"Ethelbel is a charming girl. I created her, of course, and several others. You could say she is of my conception."

"You created her through sexual intercourse? With whom? Or what?" The Doctor was being purposefully obtuse.

"This body can do that, and believe me, it has. I have many wives and children. But I conceived of her, rather than conceived her."

The Doctor knocked on the table. It echoed hollowly, the crystal of his glass shivering slightly at the vibration.

"You created this table just moments ago. You conceived of a living being to come serve us. You produced this room, that wine, those flowers, out of matter you created by thinking up a source of pure plasma. That's impressive, Omega.

"So, why bring me here? You've got this perfect world, with an independent energy source. You're not alone anymore. Why bring in an outsider?"

The Doctor sensed a hint of unrest in the being in front of him and the consciousness in his mind.

"Doctor, millennia ago, when I was on Gallifrey, I was a scientist. I'm still a scientist today.

"I've grown bored, Doctor. And even with all of my creations, I am lonely. No matter what I do, the people I conceive of all end up being subsets of me. They have no free will. No creativity. Not even one original idea. Of all people, I think you'd understand what it's like to be surrounded by supernumeraries."

It was at this point that the Doctor realized he'd brought along a hitchhiker.

[So, what he needs is a good old-fashioned archenemy!]

Missy? Her presence in his mind felt clear and sharp, as if she was in the room with them, but he knew that was not possible.

[Of course. Wouldn't miss this for the world.]

"Think of the possibilities. If only I could get back to your universe and bring the qualities of this dimension with me. How powerful I would be."

"And I'm sure you would go straight to Gallifrey and share your miraculous power with the time lords. I can see it now, Omega, the worlds you would salvage from war and ruin. The civilizations you would save from the perils of starvation, ecological catastrophe, cataclysmic events. You would truly be a god."

[Where are you going with this, friend?]

Shut up.

It was feeling decidedly crowded in the Doctor's head at the moment, but he did feel a bit more hopeful with Missy along for the ride. He also felt a little less exhausted, probably thanks to the cordial. Whether it really had restorative properties or he was experiencing a placebo effect was irrelevant.

He sensed that Omega was a bit taken aback.

"Well, not quite like that, no. But I could do – I will do many great things after I settle a few old scores."

[What makes him think he's the only one that can manipulate things in this universe? Some nerve, thinking he's all that and a bag of crisps. You should take him down a peg.]

The Doctor had been thinking along the same lines. He ignored Omega's heavy presence and also Missy's cheeky background noise and focused all of his attention on one barren stem in a vase of flowers placed on a table outside of Omega's view.

"It took a while to formulate an approach that seemed viable. It started with a set of planned experiments. If I send matter created in this dimension into the universe, will it show up? Will beings in that universe be able to see it, feel it, touch it? Or, will it explode upon contact with the stuff of the universe, like anti-matter and matter?"

After a few seconds of intense concentration, the stem had formed several buds. The Doctor felt the spike of a nasty headache. Even with the discomfort, he worked to keep his features neutral and offer no telepathic evidence that might give him away.

[Nice work. Never knew you had a green thumb.]

With a little more effort, three of the buds bloomed into achingly rich scarlet flowers. Now the spike of pain had grown tentacles that squeezed his brain alarmingly. The Doctor felt beads of sweat on his brow and reeled with sudden nausea.

"You look pale, Doctor. You're neglecting your cordial." The Doctor sensed a sliver of doubt in Omega's consciousness. He raised the glass in a salute to Omega and downed its contents in one gulp. He waited until he felt he could speak without sounding breathless.

"The round objects. That was an experiment. Why did you send them to Earth, of all places?"

"Because you were there. I could sense you there, on the other side of the rift. You always end up on Earth through your sentimental attachments."

"You wanted my attention."

"Of course. I wanted to share my work, one scientist to another."

[How dare he put himself in our class!]

Shut up, Missy. I mean it.

"Imagine how surprised I was when earthlings started randomly appearing in my nice neat hall! I didn't expect that, and I wasn't prepared for it."

"The people who came in contact with the objects came to your dimension. But before that, they hallucinated. What's in those objects?" The Doctor felt a twist of irritation coming from Omega.

"I'm coming to that. Let me tell things in their proper order."

[OCD as ever.]

Shut up!

"Maybe back on Earth it looked like they were hallucinating, but they were actually traveling here and I kept trying to send them back. Time moves differently here."

"They saw creatures made of fire." Omega bellowed laughter.

"They're apes! No psychic ability whatsoever. It was a psychic slingshot reaction, and they didn't have the cerebral architecture to deal with it. On your end it probably looked like they were hallucinating, but they were actually seeing their world from my dimension.

"Finally, I gave up and created a containment area for them."

"They're still alive? Take me to them!"

"In good time, Doctor. I have more to tell."

[Windbag.]

The Doctor ignored Missy.

"Interestingly, other objects began appearing, as well. I surmise they had all been in contact with my spheres."

"UNIT sent missiles to intercept the second batch of objects, but they vanished into the rift. What did you do with them?"

"I decided they didn't exist. And they didn't, once they passed through the rift.

"But what I found particularly fascinating was how long it took you to end up here, Doctor. I could sense that you interacted with the spheres, and fully expected you to show up on my doorstep through the boomerang affect. I even tried to pull your TARDIS in when you so thoughtfully returned my second batch of spheres in such a clever way. Finally, I had to send you an engraved invitation and literally pull you into this dimension. Very frustrating!"

"Well, I try."

"Why weren't you susceptible to the boomerang affect of the spheres?"

[Ooh ooh - I know this one!]

So did the Doctor, but he played coy.

"I've been wondering that myself. Have you got a theory?"

"Of course. Only beings with little or no psychic ability are susceptible. The more psychic you are, the weaker their affect."

"Which leads us back to my question. What's in them? The outer shell is a composite of the hardest substances known, but what's inside?" The Doctor sensed Omega's narcissistic pride.

"Well, that's for phase two of my experiment – bringing my matter to your universe. If I can do that, then I, too, can return."