The Fusion Mill of China.
Romana and Martha were presently looking into a massive valley. It had once held a massive industrial facility for making cars, but now the Master used it for making a small amount of his weapons. The people of China had spent the time they'd been conquered been rounded up and forced to build this place up. It now had a few things added on, one of them was an airport.
The airports of the industrial facilities were the only places that were allowed for flights around the world, but Romana was curious about why the Master had done this to this virtually unimportant factory. From what the local resistance said the factory was manufacturing weapons, but they couldn't say what sort were being made.
" Remind me again, why are we doing this ?" Martha panted as they both slid down a hill.
Romana sighed; Humans really irked her sometimes.
" The Master has done something to this factory, I want to know what it is." Romana said, brushing the loose soil and leaves off her trousers.
" But we're supposed to be spreading the word of the Doctor," Martha protested, pointing out the obvious, and putting an image into Romana's mind of her whacking Martha over the head with a club to stop her pointing out the obvious.
Romana stopped and moved so close to Martha that the human backed away, " Thanks for reminding me, Martha. But let me tell you something, right now I'm in charge. I want to fight the Master, but I want to know what other things he has planned. We both know what he's doing in those bloody shipyards. But I want to know what he's doing here. If you don't like that, then go away."
Martha was stunned by the abrupt way Romana had spoken to her, she knew that Romana got easily exasperated by Martha's constant questioning of her actions. She shuddered as she recalled the shipyards, massive docks with millions of people, women and children being forced into building the Master's space fleet.
Martha saw that the Time lady was walking away fast, she ran to catch up. Martha looked into Romana's perfect visage, how could she beat that ? In Martha's eyes, Romana was a goddess compared to her. She knew she would never be able to beat that.
" I'm sorry, I know I have a problem with questions. But I just want to know." Martha said.
Romana stopped, and let out a sigh, " Martha, there's nothing wrong with asking questions. But please, try and see things from my perspective. You think that just because the Master's conquered the world. Your world, your people. You think that that makes me unsympathetic, you're wrong. You seem to forget I am one of the last of my people, I have no planet, my family are dead and gone, my people forgotten by the cosmos. On top of that, one of the survivors of my race is a madman, someone who wants to conquer the universe and rule it with an iron fist, don't ever think for one instant you are alone, if we fail, then the Master will win. If we don't investigate this plant, the Master's weapons will cause more destruction than this insignificant planet will ever endure."
Martha was furious, " My planet's not insignificant !"
Romana had a sneer on her face, " And the others aren't ? You think your primitive race is worth more than the others ?" she gestured furiously at the plant, " That factory sends out 50 planes a day. 50. Martha, get your head out of the sand. If not, then stay here, and give me the vortex manipulator. I'll carry out the Doctor's plan on my own. I'd probably get the job done faster."
Martha's voice was faint, " Do I slow you down ?"
Romana closed her eyes and groaned, " No, you don't. I enjoy your company. But your problem is, like the rest of your narrow minded generation, you never, ever, think that there's more to a situation than your stereotypical thoughts lead too."
" What does that mean ?"
" It means, that when someone says something to you, you automatically assume something instead of deducing something else. " Romana took a deep breath, " I'm going inside that plant, whether you like it or not. It's up to you if you want to come or not."
Romana walked inside the backdoor their contacts had revealed, Martha followed but at a distance. Creeping inside wasn't a problem, the plant was virtually deserted. The workers, if you could call starving people workers, were in a dormitory. They had no loyalty to the state leader, which was what the Master called his agents in charge of the regions he controlled.
Romana had no intention of staying inside and preaching, not just yet, besides some of the people went outside and managed to go into towns and what remained in the cities, but Martha might need to be restrained. The factory might be a good time to actually tell people about the Doctor, but that didn't have to be tonight.
Martha managed to catch up with her. Romana was examining a piece of hardware that was massive. It resembled a cylinder and a sphere, connected to black cables and thick pipes.
" A fusion accelerator, literally pumps fusion energy into the plant." Romana explained.
" Why would the Master have it ?" Martha asked puzzled.
Romana didn't answer, she just walked on. Martha sighed and hurried after her. Romana found the answer to some of her questions when she reached the factory floor.
The room had once held a production line for cars, now it held massive devices that resembled clay urns, but Romana recognised fusion moulders when she saw them.
" Fusion moulders, no wonder these plants make so many of …whatever they make." Romana whispered.
Martha hated the idea of sounding like an ignorant fool, but she couldn't help but ask, " What's a fusion moulder ?"
Romana didn't seem to mind the question, " A fusion moulder is like moulding clay, except matter is manipulated using a fusion reactor and magnetic fields. With this, manufacturers wouldn't need to worry about creating mistakes with their materials."
Martha frowned, " What does the Master want them for ?"
Romana was still examining the moulder, " If you had a deadline, if you wanted to manufacture weapons or other pieces of hardware, then you'd want to make them in quite a hurry."
The two girls moved on, for most of the way they found more fusion moulders, only some of them were much larger, or smaller for different components. The deeper they walked, the more Romana wondered what sort of technology the Master would have in mind. There were so many possibilities, but since Romana didn't know the Master that well and only by reputation, there was no way for her to know.
It wasn't until they reached a massive warehouse Romana found her answer. Massive crates were packed neatly into the room in stacks. On each stack was the area the consignments of crates would be sent too - the ship yard of Russian, shipyard No.1, basically, one of the largest shipyards on Earth. Australia, New Guinea, Britain, parts of Europe, Africa and so on.
Romana went to one of the crates, one that was sitting more or less alone in its own, taking a slim silver device from her pocket, Martha watched as Romana used the device on the crate. It made a humming sound, one Martha recognised at once.
A sonic screwdriver.
" I didn't know you had one of those." Martha whispered. She didn't want to irritate Romana any more than she already had done.
Romana didn't look up from her work, the crate was nailed down really tight and it was giving the screwdriver a lot of work.
" There's a lot about me you don't know," the Time lady said, concentrating hard on her work.
It took Romana another 3 minutes to open the case, and when she did she stepped back and gently lowered the lid off and laid in down on the floor. Romana looked inside and gasped, " No, not that, surely. "
Martha looked inside the box. Inside was a sphere. It was silvery coloured with a red ring around the centre, most of it was made of black plastic, or something like plastic. There was another component, a black block connected by servos and cables.
" What is it ?" Martha whispered.
Romana's voice was grim, " A black hole converter. It manipulates gravity around an object, its possible to create a black hole by tracking matter from one point in space, and collapsing it into singularity. This device does that with remarkable precision. Black hole converters were used in the war, albeit with more advanced materials."
" I still don't understand about the black hole converters," Martha said to Romana, holding herself against the cold, just keeping close to the fire Romana and her had set up. " Why would the Master make them ?"
Romana was sitting cross legged across from her, her face grim as she drank some boiled water, " Because the Time lords became what they were with black holes. Their the symbol of Time lord supremacy."
Romana leant forward into the light, her voice and face almost reverent, " Thousands of years ago, the early Time lords, back then known as Gallifreyans, were studying time and time travel. We'd already created small machines, basic ones, but they put us on track for creating the TARDISes we use today. The experiments meant our energy infrastructure at the time was having to cope with the demand, meaning we needed a more powerful and everlasting form of energy.
" Two of our greatest minds came together to do this. Omega and Rassilon. Omega was the foremost stellar engineer."
Martha interrupted, " Hold on, stellar, you mean stars ?"
Romana sharply retorted, " Yes, stellar. He did engineer stars. Let me finish. Omega developed a device called the Hand of Omega, not his actual hand, it was just called that. The Hand of Omega was, in fact, a remote stellar manipulator. A truly powerful piece of technology. Back then it was considered a breakthrough. Omega used it to blow up a sun, the bang was so loud it was heard across the galaxy. The sun, already dying, became a supernova, but the stress on space time was tremendous. The nova collapsed into a black hole, and it was through that black hole Omega vanished. I wont go into details, but Rassilon managed to collect the black hole, placing it inside a containment unit and managed to harness its energy.
" Since then, black holes have become a symbol of the Time lords. With a bit of work, the black hole collected enabled us to create the TARDISes and provide a power source for them. You didn't really think we used space time rifts, did you ?" Romana asked Martha, who didn't respond.
Romana carried on, " The Master knows that story, just like every other Time lord did. He knew the destructive properties, like I do. I know that making a black hole weapon is easy. The Master's black hole converters are primitive, but they're more easy to construct than the others."
Martha looked into Romana's eyes, the lesson in Time lord history giving her a more profound respect for the alien race. The fact they'd become what they had with such an experiment based on teamwork amazed her, if only Humans would do that for something other than war….
" What do we do ?"
" Nothing."
The guard captain was examining the fence, " You see, sir The fence was cut here."
The commandant was a fat, nervous little Chinaman, the last thing he wanted was to inform the state leader of what had happened here. If he found out any workers had escaped, and if the news got back to the Master…..
" Double the guard on the fences, search the factory. But make it quick. It's going to be dawn in 3 hours." the commandant said, looking nervously up in the air.
The guard captain nodded, making a mental note to bring this to the attention of the state leader. The commandant's carelessness would be his downfall.
Romana's reply had stunned Martha, the Human didn't understand why the Time lady was willing to stand back and watch.
" But, why not ?"
Romana lost her patience, " Oh, use your brain Martha. If we sabotage the plant, then the Master will simply build another. If we leave it alone, then we can use one of the planes here to leave for Japan. I saw the consignment roster, in a few hours time, a plane will leave for Japan. We're going to be on it. But before that, we tell the workers about the Doctor, and do it quickly. We'll get some rest on the plane."
Martha and Romana were just finishing their time with the workers, who promised them they'd spread the word of the Doctor. Romana wished they wouldn't need to use such wording, it made the other Time lord sound like something he just wasn't.
Both girls were inside a massive packing crate, one of hundreds. It had been the only way they could get inside the plane. It was a tight squeeze, both girls were relatively tall, and then there was the fact the guards in the factory were trying to find them. It never occurred to them that the people they were looking for was in a crate, it was one of the oldest tricks in the book.
Romana looked at Martha, and took out her perception filter. She held hers out in front of Martha, and mouthed, Put it on, and activate it. They wont bother looking in the box.
Martha accepted the logic.
The guard captain was trying hard to stop himself from shooting the panicking commandant. The little pig was jumping up and down, squalling for reports. The two people that broke inside his plant would go against him, the Master would hear of it, and when that happened…..
The commandant knew he wasn't popular; he was a cowardly man, whose only hold on power was the fact he had been selected by the state leader.
The guard captain was trying hard not to smile at the pig, and fantasised about controlling the plant in the future, and enjoyed the image of the present commandant as a slave worker.
Whilst he was dreaming up fantasies, it slipped his mind to search the packing crates. There were so many that such a thing would slow down the deliveries. The Master didn't like delays, if one happened at the weapon plants then he was in trouble. They all were.
Martha and Romana had been inside the crate for over 3 hours in China, and it took another hour for them to be loaded on the plane. Both girls were silent inside the crate, Romana was reading a book she'd managed to pick up from a shop in Beijing, Martha's eyes were closed as she tried to get something resembling sleep.
Romana knew that soon they'd be in Japan, and then they would try to carry out the Doctor's plan. They'd had some good progress in spreading the word in China, but Romana hoped that their word would be more than enough to spread their word.
5 hours after they'd hidden themselves inside the crates, both girls were flying, first class, for Japan.