Chapter 34 - Moments Past
Guinn had managed to reach the outer walls of the Doctor's defenses and then he stopped, staring up at them in a horrified wonderment.
"Oh, Doctor," he whispered, feeling a sorrow so deep that it nearly wrung a sob from him.
The last time he'd been in the Doctor's mind, the barriers around him hadn't been so scarred and broken. The once smooth, unblemished fortress was now a blasted wreck. The War had been hard on the Doctor, he'd known that, but what he hadn't known, hadn't seen, hadn't wanted to see, was just how bitterly broken and disfigured the Doctor had been by it.
The Valeyard had looked like this.
The fear that went through him, just thinking about it, almost made him withdraw. He had a moment where he wondered if it was safe to bring the Doctor back. Was he well on his way to that dark future, or was the very fact that the Master was different now, that they were there for him, was that enough to change everything? Did Rose alter that future? She hadn't been there with the Valeyard in that timeline. Could she alone be enough to save him? He didn't know.
Susan wouldn't understand though, if he let the Doctor die.
He also wasn't sure that he himself could do it. Throughout his life Theta had always been there. Best friend, worst enemy, it didn't matter, he was a constant. The Doctor was the one thing that the boy Koschei, the man who had become the Master, and now the half-crippled, barely-healed Guinn, could always count on. He was always there. Anything else was unthinkable.
No matter what happened.
Guinn took a deep breath and plunged into the burning wreckage of the Doctor's psyche.
Tomoko nodded towards the next floor down, peeking over the railing and then withdrawing quickly.
"They should be down this staircase," she whispered to Dar. "I count four patrols, passing at four minutes apart. Down the stairs, take a left, run to the end of the hallway, down the next set of stairs."
"I'm ready when you are," Charlotte assured them both.
They took the hallway at a full sprint, skidding to a halt on either side of the doorway. Dar kept watch down the hallway, but nodded at Tomoko, while the camera bot drifted over to peek into the doorway.
"I see Gaige," Charlotte murmured, as Tomoko blinked to bring up the image the camera bot was sending them.
"But where's Adie?" Tomoko asked with a frown.
Gaige's trolley was shoved in a corner, far from the center of the room.
"There," Dar pointed, his spy face firmly in place, his voice perfectly cool, even though she could sense his distress.
Tomoko looked and spotted Adie's trolley. She hadn't noticed it at first, because it was off to one side and the area around it seemed rather dim. A closer look, by way of the camera bot, showed that it wasn't shadowed, rather that the walls around her were scorched.
"Looks like she caught fire," Dar commented, his controlled expression at odds with the concern she could sense from him.
"She's not a pile of ash though, so it couldn't have been too bad," Tomoko soothed him, trying to make them both feel better. He nodded grimly.
"There's Moira," pointed Tomoko, seeing a glimpse of plaid tartan among the bookshelves.
"Charlotte, we're a go," Dar murmured and far above them the sound of another fire alarm began to wail. Tomoko nodded at Dar and headed straight for Moira, while Dar ran for Gaige's trolley.
The oldest of the Mashas lay still and rather gray upon her trolley, while her equipment beeped and wailed mournfully, its screen alternating between the words "ICU Mode" and displays of struggling lifesigns. Despite her slug and all the other factors that made the Mashas so resilient, Moira had fallen victim to the one thing she wasn't protected against. She had died in the dream and her own mind had tried to kill her. Tomoko hoped that Susan would wake up and be able to help Moira soon. She didn't look to be in good shape at all.
Dar wheeled Gaige's trolley over and Tomoko lay out the transmat pad. They quickly shoved both Gaige and Moira onto the pad and Charlotte whisked them away to safety.
"Two down," Dar muttered.
"One slightly crispy one to go," Tomoko replied and they exchanged grim looks.
Stepping up to Adie's trolley, Tomoko brushed ash off of her face gently. Adie's long glorious hair lay burnt and blackened on the charred sheets and her right arm was blistered and red.
"It must have been pretty intense, whatever it was," Dar mused and Tomoko nodded.
"She's not too badly hurt though, that's good, right?" she asked, seeking reassurance from him. She knew so little about the Arkytior and what dangers Adie faced. She hated her ignorance, but had the consolation that she wasn't alone in it.
"Yeah," Dar agreed, though he didn't seem very sure.
"There's another patrol coming through," Charlotte told them. "Even with all my diversions, they seem to be trying to make their rounds." She sounded disgusted and Tomoko couldn't blame her.
"Right, let's be quick with Adie and then get a move on," Dar replied, already suiting word to deed.
"Intruders!" shouted a voice, just as they were reaching the transmat pad. Tomoko turned, covering Dar while he pushed the heavy trolley. The Sontaran ducked back behind the corner, her shots missing him by inches. There was the sound of many more boots approaching and she knew that they had only seconds before they were overrun.
"Charlotte!" Tomoko called. "You ready to fry the pad?"
"Ready when you are!" called Charlotte, sounding excited.
"Give us a count of five, then hit it!"
Dar punched the button and, ten seconds later, when the large group of Sontarans came pounding down the hallway, all they found were the fried remains of an emergency transmat pad, still smoking and sparking.
Captain Fremkin-Lay looked up as her second in command made a querulous grunt and then pushed to his feet suddenly.
"What?" she asked and the giant reptilian figure turned and stared at her.
"We have movement! On the surface! There are bots in motion!" the saurian exclaimed, his eyes gleaming.
"Fantastic!" Fremkin-Lay exclaimed and then paused. "Is that fantastic? I mean... what does it mean?"
"I haven't the faintest clue," he replied with a sinuous shrug. "I'm hoping that it means things are improving."
"Or...it could mean that they are deteriorating," she grumbled to herself. "We just don't know."
"It's likely to be Tomoko," Diana commented, from where she was leaning against the bulkhead. Jake was sitting at her feet, cross-legged on the floor, watching everything silently.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because they're controlled by computers, of course," Diana explained in a tone that indicated that the answer was patently obvious. "Hasn't been a computer built that Tomoko couldn't hack," she announced proudly and grinned at the officers' rather disgruntled expressions.
"That is true," Jake agreed, looking more sympathetic towards the Shadow Proclamation's officers. "She does use her powers for good, though," he assured the Captain with an earnest expression.
She ignored the mischief that lurked in the back of his gaze and merely nodded.
"I'll make a note of that," Fremkin-Lay murmured dryly. "Pass the readings along to the brass," she ordered. It occurred to her that the less she knew about the methodology utilized by the Valkyries to achieve their ends, the better off she probably was.
Black Ops wasn't really something she aspired to, after all.
Guinn was deep in the Doctor's mind, tiptoeing past landmines, and it reminded him strongly of the battle of wills between himself and Susan, so very long ago. He froze at that thought, suddenly terrified that the same outcome would occur.
He forced a deep breath and let it out again. He was being silly. This wasn't him coming in to destroy and then falling in love. This was a rescue mission. Plain and simple.
"Oi!" called a voice and he turned to see Rose. She was perched on a blasted wall, her eyes aglow with the fires that burned around them. Her clothes were odd, just tattered white strips bound around her and some netting. She cocked her head at him and there was something strange and almost predatory about her.
"Rose?" he called.
"Sure, if you like," she replied, a mysterious smile teasing her lips.
"Okay..." Guinn paused, curious. This was Theta's psyche, a realm created by his mind to allow him to protect himself, to function through his damage. Whatever he had created here to heal himself, it wasn't any of Guinn's business. He needed to find the Doctor's core and bring him back.
Period.
End of statement.
"Oh, come on, you know you want to ask," Rose teased him.
"It's rude. An invasion of privacy," he murmured and she laughed.
"Privacy? You two have been inside each other's heads for centuries!" she snorted. "A bit late for that!"
"I'm trying to change," he pointed out and she threw back her head and laughed. Her derision hurt and he frowned. "What's so funny?"
"You don't have to change! You just have to figure out who you are," she retorted with a roll of her eyes. "You act like you really were 'the Master' for all that time, when you were so not!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Is a puppet his strings?" she demanded and he frowned even more deeply.
"I don't think the two things are at all the same," he replied stiffly, feeling aggrieved at her mockery of him.
"I can see inside of you, down the very bottom of your soul. You know what I see?" she asked him, eyes twinkling.
"No..." he answered, his voice nearly a whisper.
"I see a good man," she told him, and when she smiled, it was blinding.
Something inside of him loosened. It was as though an invisible weight had been levered off of his shoulders.
"I...," he began and then fell silent. "I need to find the Doctor," he finally said, none of the words he'd wanted to say coming out.
"I know," she told him and jumped off of the wall to land beside him, an impossible creature of fire and power, clothed in Rose Tyler's body. He didn't know who or what she was, but she was something very powerful indeed.
"How... what...?" he trailed off, not knowing how to even ask.
"I am a weapon. The Weapon, really," she explained. "I'm the Moment."
Guinn stared at her in sudden comprehension. Using the Moment, getting that close to that level of power, had literally etched itself into the Doctor's psyche. Having done what he'd done, it had changed him forever.
"Oh Doctor," he sighed again. "Omega, I am so sorry."
"For what?" the Moment asked him, head cocked and eyes on his suddenly both very ancient and very wise.
"For what he had to do," Guinn explained. "For his being driven to the very end of his rope, until he had no other choice than to destroy Gallifrey and the Daleks."
"Whatever makes you think he did that?" she laughed.
"Well, he told me..." Guinn began and then his voice faltered at the look of amusement in the Moment's eyes.
"That's the problem with meeting your own future self, you know," she whispered into his ear. "You never can remember exactly what happened, can you?"
Guinn stood there, shock rippling through his entire being, as he suddenly understood what she was telling him.
"Are you... are you saying...?" He couldn't get the words out. The hope was so strong in him, so powerful that it was choking him.
"Gallifrey Rises!" she informed him, her voice solemn, but her face wreathed in smiles.
Guinn stood there, surrounded by the blasted wasteland inside of the Doctor and wept, his tears falling onto the ash-covered ground and watering the tiny blooms of plants and flowers, that were trying to push their way up through the arid earth.
Tomoko and Dar popped back into existence only a nose's length away from Moira's trolley.
"Oops!" Charlotte exclaimed as Dar bumped into it. "Calculated that one on the fly, must have dropped a decimal point. You okay?"
"No harm done," Dar assured her.
Susan stirred nearby and raised her head, blinking owlishly at them.
"Dar?" she croaked and he nodded, walking swiftly to her side.
Tomoko peered at Moira's readouts and frowned.
"Come on, Susan, I think Moira's in need of some Time Lord medical help, here," Tomoko told her and Susan sat up, looking drained and tired, but already moving.
"Here, let me help," Tomoko said, taking her arm. "You have all these guys at the clinic and yet it seems that you're the only doctor every time we are out anywhere… well, except for the Doctor. Who is currently out," she frowned at him thoughtfully.
"The Doctor won't let me bring Martha," Susan grumbled. "He keeps telling me it never turns out well for her." She leaned heavily on Tomoko and then straightened, grabbing her gray satchel and moving forward.
"Hm, well, there must be someone we can bring," she said thoughtfully. She grinned mischievously. "I could always make Tomoko Construct into a robot for you," she winked.
"No thank you, K-9 is more than enough," Susan refused with comical alacrity.
Tomoko grinned, but then her face was solemn again.
"Moira was an original. I don't think I ever told you that."
"I don't think I'd understand what that meant, anyway," Susan replied, her tone absent, already at work on Moira, checking her vitals and scanning her.
"It means she made it through, beginning to end. There were nine sixes, you know. We kept track. There are four of us that are originals: Moira, Devorah, Serenity, and Shell." Tomoko was trying not to look as worried as she felt, and wasn't succeeding very well.
"Not a great mortality rate," Susan bit out. "I still want a piece of Rassilon's hide for that." She frowned, pulled out a small silver tube and held it up. She shook it, listened to a series of beeps of varying intensity and then she nodded and broke it open with her fingers. A swarm of grayish mist swirled out and coated Moira, before it sank into her skin, vanishing away.
"There, that ought to kick start her slug, get her healing factor back in gear," Susan murmured. "Now, you were saying?"
Tomoko was looking thoughtful.
"We'd all like a piece of his hide, really," Tomoko agreed. "After that though, we need something more. I'd like to have a memorial, someday, for the ones who didn't make it."
"I think that's something we should certainly do," Susan agreed.
"Afterwards... I guess I haven't thought about that nearly enough. I mean, I know now that I want to win," she said and then paused suddenly, her eyes wide, feeling surprised at herself. "I hadn't realized that before." She felt that anger inside of her, how it had shifted away from Guinn and fallen on Rassilon, the real author of all of their suffering. "I want to beat him," she repeated in a firmer voice. "To… I don't know, become more than what he thought we were. To make all of the Mashas into something more than he thought they could be. I never fully realized that until this moment."
"Funny, I thought that was the whole point of everything you've been fighting for these last two centuries," Susan replied, looking at her with interest. She was very much like the Doctor, Tomoko noted, the same assessing look, with that undertone of 'impress me'. "What was the point, otherwise?"
"It was tae beat the Master," Moira's eyes weren't steady, but she was already looking ferocious. "To win our freedom. Winning against Rassilon'll take longer." She tried to sit up, slumped back, then managed it with Tomoko's help.
"Are you all right?"
"Nae. I feel like I was run over by an elephant," Moira growled. "What happened? The last thing I remember is walking down the hallway and then…" She frowned, suddenly seeing Susan. "Be ye all right?"
"I'm fine, but we have a library full of Sontarans to deal with," she told Moira with a shrug. There wasn't really time for her to worry about herself just then.
"Which is really strange," Koschei murmured, leaning on Dar, his eyes half-closed and looking bruised in his face. "This whole plan in not like them at all. They haven't even laid waste to the place."
"Give them time," Dar protested. "They'll get there!"
"Maybe this is the remedial class for Sontaran children?" Koschei suggested, as Susan moved on to Gaige's trolley.
"I don't know, setting up people on trolleys, hooked to life support units, seems a bit more like the advanced class," Tomoko snarked.
"Maybe they are testing some new equipment?" Susan suggested, pointing at the life support system. "This is Sontaran design. Maybe they are trying to upgrade their cloning technology."
"Aye? Why would they do that?" Moira's eyes were sharp.
"The Sontarans are all clones," Susan explained. "The whole race. They churn them out by the thousands. Their entire purpose is to wage war. They are created for that purpose only." She paused. "Rather like you were, actually. Though, they seem to revel, rather than rebel."
"Have ye seen any clones?" Moira demanded and Tomoko shook her head.
"Thus far I haven't witnessed any of the library patrons being duplicated."
"No, but cloning technology includes the life support systems for the clones, as they are being grown," Susan reminded them with a patient tone. "It's not just about growing them, you have to have a lot of support equipment."
"All of which is in use," Tomoko pointed out. "There's thousands of library patrons from hundreds of races. How do we unhook them all without hurting them?"
"We'll need help, I'm afraid. The Shadow Proclamation will have to handle most of it, honestly." Susan shrugged. "I've only got so many hands."
"So, now what?" Koschei asked.
"Now what?" Dar asked. "Really? You can't be standing there, without a brilliant plan to take out the entire Sontaran force and find out what's going on?"
"Well..." Koschei murmured. "I did have one or two ideas..."
"That's more like it!" Dar applauded and they put their heads together.