Weeks passed. Jenny was tended to by Foreman the best he could. She was nauseous, riddled with nightmares. Every creak and sound of the ship made her jump. She would sit for hours in the pilot's seat, staring at the console and into the black abyss. She wanted to die.
"How can you live like this?" Jenny asked Foreman with a croak. She heard him approach behind her as quietly as he could.
"Live like what?" Foreman replied.
"I'm sure you felt like this, for betraying the other Daleks. This empty… sinking feeling. I feel dirty, I can't get Tham's touch off of me! Was it like this when I made you come? You wanted to die for freeing me, and I forced you onto the ship with me. I thought I was saving you… oh, you must despise me…"
"Yes… at first" Foreman said. "I didn't understand… new emotions? All I know is anger… fear… hate… I knew of kindness… love… compassion but never… felt?. I have secretly read about them at great risk to myself. I fight… every day not to… fall back. If I ever hurt Jenny…"
Jenny smiled to herself and wiped away her tears. It was time to get back to business at hand. She was going to help Foreman!
"Ok, lets go." Jenny said, and flipped some switches.
"Go where?" Foreman asked.
"Where it all started." Jenny said with a smile. She flipped the switches and the ship faded into the time streams.
Planet Skaro shone like a jewel, there were no signs of war, the air was clean and free of industrial waste, It was pristine and beautiful. Foreman was beside her, and looked at his untouched homeworld. Jenny gave the metal chassis a pat, and flipped a few switches.
"You added some cloaking tech on here right?" Jenny asked.
"Affirmative," Foreman paused. "We're cloaked from all forms of radiation. Visible light as well."
"Lets go orbit the planet a few times and look for a place to…"
"I wish to go to Dal." Foreman interrupted. "I… want to see my people, their art… music… dance… I want to see Dals before… this." Foreman moved his plunger, to indicate himself.
"Is that really a good idea?" Jenny asked, but she knew the answer. She'd do whatever Foreman asks. He saved her from Tham. Jenny felt sick just thinking about him, and diverted her thoughts on locating the capital city of the Dals.
They landed just on the outskirts of the city. She worried about being attacked again, but Foreman didn't fly off the handle this time. If she was any judge of his personality, he seemed to be in a more somber attitude.
"So… how are we going to explain you? Want to just stay here and I'll go in and get the sample?
"It doesn't matter what you say about me… I am never leaving your side." Foreman said and activated the bay doors. he rolled out into the open air and spun the dome in a full 360 degrees. "No hostiles detected."
"Hey Fore' turn down your lasers, we are in your past, so if you shoot someone it may cause you not to exist." Jenny said. Foreman trained his eyestalk on her and rolled out of view. She grabbed the DNA scanner Sister Katlin gave her, attached her sidearm and ran after him.
The hike to the city was a good hour through dense foliage. They landed in a clearing in the forest just outside Dal
"Ok I got to ask… you're on wheels! I'm having a hard enough time walking this trail without spraining an ankle. How are you just rolling along without getting stuck."
"Since my… upgrade. The base of my encasing was given microgravity emitters. I'm able to levitate on uneven surfaces. Forward momentum is still achieved through the motorized wheels. It has vast power consumption, So I do not use it unless I have to."
Jenny grinned back at Foreman when they came into a clearing. the city of Dal was beheld in all it's majesty.
It's a thousand years younger than the last time they were there. The walls were gone, and it's more cobble and concrete. Jenny was awestruck with the designs of the city itself. It was a small communal lifestyle. There was farmlands and houses scattered, but Dal was a central hub. There was no drastic sprawl of growth in a thousand years.
"Foreman, why is the city this size… the same size as it was a thousand years from now?"
"The war, killed many. The Dals never needed more room to expand, The city had never been full. Thals raided and took what they wanted. Dals used the war to expand their technology."
"Wars have been known to be the catalyst of advancement. I'm just surprised the evolution of your people is so… slow compared to say, humans. It only took them a hundred years and two wars to get into space from the point these people are at."
"I do not know... " Foreman said mournfully. "Our histories are kept from us. Those who look into it are exterminated. I have a theory, that the constant fighting with no breaks have kept each population from expanding."
"I see," Jenny said and dropped the conversation until they reached the main gates.
"So… what's the plan?" Jenny asked. "We just knock someone out and take a sample?"
"It really should be from a direct ancestor." came a smooth, cool voice that sent Jenny's neck hairs on edge.
Jenny and Foreman spun around and saw Tham dressed in local clothes holding a rather scared Dal in front of him, using him as a human shield.
"Tham!" Jenny screamed and pulled her side arm. Foreman raised his laser arm to target The Master. "What are you doing here? "
"Ahhh, lover, I wouldn't... " Tham said with a grin and prodded the man in front of her. "I have taken the liberty of killing the rest already. This is the last one… He will mate and proceed to spawn like a good little Dal that will give the genetic lineage to Foreman here. But, if you decide to forego this, I'll kill him right here and destroy his timeline, yours, and even mine. This one has strong connections. I think it will irreversibly break most of it… but I can't be sure and I'd love to find out what the new timeline would look like."
"How did you even know?" Jenny whispered. She was trying to keep her calm, but seeing his coy smile and cocky swagger was almost too much.
"I am… The Master. It should be painfully obvious, Doctor." Tham said with a grin. he waved the stump of his hand in a dismissive gesture and prodded the terrified Dal forward.
"You ejected me mid timestream, doing damage to my TARDIS, I of course had to repair it over the course of a few years. In that time, I had mapped out your timeline, and wondered why you went to New New York. I saw the lovely mess you made in there Foreman, and overheard that cat nurse talk to you about the plan you kept from me."
Tham looked genuinely hurt. "I trusted you, love. I thought you would share all your secrets with me, but to pick a Dalek over me?"
"What do you want?" Foreman said and trained his laser on Tham. "I disengaged your Dalek protocol. I can exterminate you before you before you harm my ancestor. You hurt Jenny… that is unforgivable."
"So, you are more than a walking puppy." Tham sneered. "Always following her around, pining away at the unobtainable. You think she'd love you? You're her pet."
"Tham…" Jenny said, raising her sidearm, her hand still as a surgeon's.
"The Dalek is correct, I do want something and I'll offer you a trade. The good Doctor does love his pets and doesn't like to see them hurt."
"Go to hell" Jenny choked.
"I'm sure I've seen far worse than that place." Tham grinned. "Now, I don't want to really muck up the timeline, so drop your gun, and follow me. Once we get to my ship, we'll be off and I'll leave this creature to breed."
"Jenny…" Foreman said, but she shook her head and lowered her side arm.
"What is it you want?" Jenny whispered.
"Why… you!" Tham said flatly. "You are all I've thought about those years I was gone. I miss our conversations, our laughter and the coy back and forths we had… and you know how to break the time lock on Gallifrey, and I wished to have a conversation with our good friend Rassilon and some of his writings. My scrolls are incomplete, and if I'm to re-create Gallifrey in my own image and rule all of the Time Lords… I need the key inside your head."
"You'll let the Dal go?" Jenny said.
"You have my word of honor. You know me well enough that I never go back on a promise." Tham said with a sly grin.
Jenny was shaking all over. To be with him again… was too much. But all that Foreman's done for her, she needed to save that Dal.
"Fine… I'll go." Jenny said and dropped her pistol
"NO!" Foreman screamed and rolled forward. Jenny put out her hand to stop him, and the Dalek obeyed.
"It's okay Foreman, We'll come back for him after we help Tham." Jenny said placatingly. She looked back at Tham. "Let the Dal go."
With a smile, he opened his arms and the terrified Dal ran as fast as he could into the foliage of the woods.
"Quite the little rabbit isn't he?" Tham chuckled. "Oh, and you seem to have made a minor grammatical error… there will be no 'we' coming with us."
Before Jenny could react, Tham pointed the rodlike device at Foreman. A green laser erupted, landing on the golden chassis. It turned red hot, and melted away, piercing through to the other side. Jenny screamed as the plunger, laser arm, and eyestalk dropped, all signs of activity gone.
"Foreman!" Jenny screamed. She ran over to him, but he was too hot to touch. "Foreman! Oh god you killed him!"
"I told you I would not destroy his ancestor, he was fair game." Tham said politely and grabbed her wrist. "There, there. He's just a Dalek."
"I will never forgive you for this…" Jenny sobbed. "I will kill you in your sleep. I will scatter your ashes across time so there's no way to revive your dark, twisted heart."
"Yes, yes, you always say such nice things to me, Doctor." Tham said, grabbed her wrist and yanked her away from the smoking husk of the Dalek.
"Lets go to our new home and have some tea… my dear."
Jenny sobbed as she was led away by Tham and into the cloaked Tardis that was shaped like a marble column.
From the edge of the foliage, the captured Dal watched the strange pillar disappear, leaving the cooling husk that would be his descendant.