THE BROKEN KEY
By P. Ingerson
Romana watched the Doctor give another grin before he quickly reached out a hand and operated the new randomiser. A familiar wheezing-groaning sound filled the room as the TARDIS departed the system of Atrios and Zeos. "Now no-one knows where we're going. Not even the Black Guardian."
"Not even us," sighed Romana.
If the Doctor had heard the weary resignation in her voice, he showed no sign of it. Instead, he turned his attention to the mechanical dog on the floor. "It'll take us some time to get to wherever we're going, so I might as well take a look at K9. He was pretty badly hit by the time-winds when I broke the Key." He knelt down for a closer look. "You know, I'd swear this was laryin-"
He was cut short by the return of the wheezing-groaning sound. Romana glanced at the time rotor in the TARDIS console. It was slowing to a halt.
"Take some time?" she asked. "We must've barely moved at all. Are you sure the Black Guardian won't find us?"
"Nonsense!" By now, the Doctor was back on his feet, checking the console displays. "Whatever did that, it wasn't the randomiser."
Despite herself, Romana shivered. "The Guardian?"
"Well, one of them anyway."
Before Romana could ask if the Doctor meant what she thought he meant, the TARDIS doors swung silently open. A bright light flooded in through the open doorway, and for one brief moment she could almost swear she heard a heavenly choir singing.
The Doctor said nothing but stepped outside, beckoning for Romana to follow. Romana paused for a second to gather her nerve, then quickly headed after him before the light totally swallowed him from view.
Once outside, her eyes adjusted surprisingly quickly and she saw that they were in a flat, brown land that stretched in all directions with the odd patch of grass growing here and there. There was something odd about the horizon though. It looked fake, unreal, somehow and it took Romana a while to work out why. It wasn't a caused by the planet's surface curving away in the usual way. Instead, the ground stretched off to infinity, flat and level as far as sight itself could see.
The only things to break the monotony were a wicker chair and matching side table beside a small tree with windchimes hanging from it. A gentle tinkling sound came from the chimes even thought they were motionless in the still air.
"Welcome," said the man in the empty chair.
He was an old man with a calm, dignified face and dressed in an elegant white suit. In one hand he held a china teacup which he raised and took a sip from. Romana was surprised to recognise the scent as Darjeeling; travelling with the Doctor had taught her more about tea than she realised.
Brushing such irrelevant thoughts to one side, she took another step towards the Doctor and whispered, "Is that…?"
"Yes," he whispered back. "The White Guardian."
"Quite so." The man in question placed his cup onto a saucer on the side table, and looked up at Romana. "My dear, I do hope you can forgive me for the little deception I played on you the first time we met. As you can see, it was for the best. My preferred form is hardly what you would call imposing."
She nodded. "It's quite all right. You never know, perhaps if you tried a feathery robe or something like that in future?"
The Doctor raised a hand. "Uh, sir. About the Key to Time?"
"Ah, yes." The Guardian smiled at the Doctor. "Excellent work there. You'll be pleased to know that as a result of your work, the Conjunction of a Million Spheres was able to go smoothly. Balance has been restored."
"Good. And the segments of the Key are all back in place now, are they?"
"No."
"What?" gasped the two Time Lords in unison.
The Guardian took another sip of tea, then explained. "The segments did briefly return to their old places, but they didn't stay there. That would be far too risky. Instead they have been assigned new places."
"Where exactly?" asked the Doctor. After the briefest of pauses, he added, "If you don't mind me asking."
"Not at all," the White Guardian replied. "Neither of you will even remember this conversation when you leave here, so there's no harm in telling you. They have all been sent to another universe, a very distant one, where they have taken on the form of powerful gems. There's little chance of the Black Guardian finding them there before the next Conjunction."
"And Princess Astra?" asked Romana, "What about her? Has she been turned into a gem too? I suppose you're just going to say that it's 'regrettable', like your Black counterpart did!"
"Regrettable? Certainly not. It's for the best. What kind of a life would she have had as herself, now that she's been exposed as a part of the Key to Time? Every mad scientist and would-be dictator in the multiverse would be trying to capture her and dissect her in their quest for power. Would you wish that life on her?"
"At least it would've been a life! She doesn't even have that now!" Romana spat the words out. She had only known Astra briefly but, in that short time, the princess had impressed her as an intelligent, capable and compassionate young woman.
"But as the Soul Stone, she will play a vital role in ensuring trillions more people keep their lives in the future." His voice grew colder and a hard, steely glint stared out from his eyes. "Like I said, this is all for the best."
Then his chair really was empty again.
"Wait!" Romana called out, then she felt the Doctor's hand on her shoulder.
"Leave it, Romana." His voice was heavy with sorrow. "There's nothing we can do. Not now, anyway. Some points in history just can't be changed. Didn't they teach you that at the Academy?"
"I know. But why does this have to be one of them? And why did he have to be so insufferably calm about it?"
It was strange. On a purely intellectual level, she had come to understand the Doctor's contempt for authority figures, but this was the first time she had actually felt it herself. It felt odd, but also good. Better than the Guardian's cold indifference anyway.
"Astra, you will not be forgotten," she muttered to herself as they headed back to the TARDIS. "I will make sure of that."
Once inside, she left the Doctor to fiddle with K9, and headed straight for her bedroom. There, hidden at the bottom of the wardrobe, was a blaster she had secretly brought back from their adventure on Zanak, the pirate planet.
"Astra," she said to herself. Already the memory of the conversation with the Guardian was fading. She had to concentrate to keep her mind on the task. "Must remember Astra."
Romana put the blaster up to her head. Its cold metal pressed against her temple, helping her to focus her thoughts.
"Astra will live again, through me!"
She squeezed the trigger. For a split second, nothing happened and she wondered if the Doctor had repaired the TARDIS's state-of-grace circuits after all. Then Romana felt the barrel warm up. The energy shot out into her head, to be joined by more energy welling up from within her as the regeneration began.
"Must become Astra," was this Romana's final thought, although she no longer remembered why.
This story was loosely inspired by the epic crossover fanfic "Infinity Crisis" by Michael Weyer. That's what the strange mention of the Soul Stone was referring to.
Doctor Who is the property of the BBC. The Conjunction of a Million Spheres is from the novels of Michael Moorcock. All other characters and concepts are the property of their respective owners. Anything else is mine.
And, yes, I do know that this contradicts several books and audios that have Romana I travelling with the Doctor after the Key to Time arc. But I don't care. Sometimes a story just demands to be written and won't give you any peace until it is. This was one of those times.