The Doctor and Romana came out of the Time Vortex, the three battle TARDISes following. Before them was an immense fleet. Thousands of Sontaran warships, stretching on as far as the eye could see. The ships were ready for a fight, the TARDIS sensors picking up that their weapons were ready to fire at a moment's notice. The Doctor flipped a switch on the console, opening up a communication channel to the others.
"Mason, come up on my starboard. The rest of you, to port. Line up in a straight line. That's it…"
The TARDISes lined up with The Doctor, floating side-by-side. The monitor hanging from the top of the central console began blinking repeatedly, the words "INCOMING TRANSMISSION" appearing in big block letters. The Doctor pulled the screen down and turned a dial on the side, focusing the picture. Through the static haze, the face of a rather cross Sontaran appeared on the screen.
"And who do I have the honor of addressing this fine… er…" The Doctor looked over at the clocks spread across the wall of the TARDIS. "Evening. Right. This fine eveni-"
The Doctor was cut off by the Sontaran before he could finish, a deep, booming voice blaring out of the screen.
"You do not recognize the greatest Sontaran war leader OF ALL TIME? Puny, impudent TIME LORD! I am GRAND MARSHALL STRAAD! Great Commander of the almighty SONTARAN BATTLE FLEET!"
Bits of spittle flying out of Straad's mouth flecked across the screen on his side, Straad wiping them away angrily. The Doctor crossed his arms, looking over at Romana. She simply nodded. Motioning for him to continue.
"Well…" The Doctor cleared his throat, "Consider me regaled, Grand Marshall Straad, Great Commander of the almighty Sontaran Battle Fleet. I-"
Straad once again spoke up, interrupting The Doctor. "We care NOT! The Great Sontaran Empire desire entry into your WAR WITH THE DALEKS! The greatest war that HAS EVER BEEN! We will not be KEPT FROM IT! We desire THIS! We shall TAKE IT! We will BURN THE DALEKS ACROSS TIME! We will burn ALL WHO OPPOSE US! Sontar-HA! Sontar-HA! Sontar-HA!"
The raising of voices across Straad's ship was evident. His crew was cheering with him, losing themselves in their joyous chorus.
The Doctor considered his options. The Sontaran race was a race built on war. It was fundamental to their very existence. They would snuff out the stars themselves if it meant they could have a good fight, and the resulting chaos was not something that Gallifrey could afford to deal with. Whenever Sontarans had tried to get into the war before, they were always in smaller teams, more than manageable by even a single TARDIS crew. This was a different matter entirely. This was on a scale that had not yet been seen. Romana stepped up to the screen, The Doctor standing aside.
"Grand Marshall Straad!" Romana started, the Sontarans still chanting. "I am Romanadvoretrelundar. Lady President of Gallifrey. I implore you to see reason. I implore you to work with us to reach an accord."
The Doctor stepped forward in protest, but was stopped by Romana raising her hand.
"There will be NO ACCORD! We will DESTROY THE DALEKS! And we will DESTROY YOU! At the same TIME IF WE MUST! Then we will be the most POWERFUL RACE IN THE GALAXY!" Straad's words renewed the cheering of his men.
"Don't do this." The Doctor said behind grit teeth.
"Puny Time Lord… It is ALREADY DONE!" Straad immediately closed the channel.
Multiple alerts rang out through the TARDIS. "They're preparing to fire!"
On instinct, The Doctor bounded towards the console, his fingers flying over the controls. "Prepare to dematerialize!"
The Doctor's hand met the dematerialization lever and was ready to pull it down before Romana's hand fell over his, gripping it stopping him from pulling it. His arm jerked in reaction to the sudden contact, but he did not move. His hand tightened around the lever, his knuckles whitening.
"Belay that!" Romana's grip softened slightly. "Let me save us, this time."
She stepped in front of him, speaking into the comms. "Mason. Worchet. Percy. Blot out the stars."
There was a moment of hesitation before the comms finally ringed in reply. "Yes Lady President."
The three TARDISes around the Doctor and Romana vanished, seemingly leaving them alone.
"Blot out the stars?" The Doctor asked. Romana turned the dial on the side of the monitor, projecting a view of the entire Sontaran fleet on the ceiling. At the southernmost point, The Doctor's TARDIS was seen.
"Look at the edges" said Romana. One TARDIS appeared behind the fleet, with the two others appearing t the left and to the right of the fleet, creating a square of TARDISes around it.
"Deploying Temporal Tether! Be ready to latch on!" Romana's hands were a blur, moving at a pace even faster than The Doctor usually did.
"Romana, what are you doing?" The Doctor asked, obviously concerned.
"We're sending them far away." Before The Doctor could enquire deeper into her words, the other TARDIS operators spoke up.
"Ready, Lady President!" Romana nodded, hesitating before she spoke.
This was a hesitation that The Doctor knew all too well, something he had experience so many other times before. It was the hesitation that marked the precious few seconds before a moral compromise.
"Romana…?" He asked, his voice faltering, trying to take on some of the weight she was putting on to her shoulders. Romana spoke up.
"Do it." All of the TARDIS operators, Romana included, turned a dial on their consoles. Each TARDIS shot out two beams of blue light towards the two TARDISes parallel to them. The beams bounded through space towards each other, eventually colliding and creating a giant luminous square around the fleet.
"Begin circling them!" Romana's arm flew to a lever, pulling it down all the way. The four TARDISes moved in sync, spinning in a perfect circle around the fleet at dizzying speeds.
As they spun faster and faster, the beams of light shone so brightly that it was blinding. The light began to coalesce, creating a large bubble around the Sontaran ships. The Doctor watched the view screen, the Sontaran ships trying to steer out of the bubble. It was a useless endeavor, the ships were completely trapped. The Sontarans realized this as well, and began firing wildly at the beams, unable to hit the speeding TARDISes. The Sontarans began to fade from view before the Doctor's eyes, the bubble closing around them.
"Where are you sending them?!" The Doctor demanded.
"Far away. Far enough that it will take years before they find their way back. And when they do, if they're smart, they will never cross us again."
Romana's words were drowned out as space was ripped open for the briefest of instants, the Sontaran ships flooding into the Vortex. In that instant, it was as if they were never there. The space in front of them was empty.
"Close it!" Romana exclaimed, hitting the brakes and slowing the TARDIS down. The beams faded as all the TARDISes stopped moving.
Soon after, all was still and The Doctor stared at Romana in what seemed to be a mix of anger and confusion. She ignored his looks for the time being, addressing the others.
"Thank you, all of you. You are instrumental in this engagement and are now dismissed. I expect reports from all of you."
She turned back to The Doctor. "Oh no, I know that look." She extended a finger towards him, waving it vigorously.
"I won't have you preaching to me, today of all days."
The Doctor's nostrils flared as he considered his next words. They had won, had they not? A hostile fleet was coming down on them and they had beaten them back without any sort of bloodshed. Yet the question of where the Sontaran's had been sent ate away at his mind. Were they sent somewhere where they could do no harm? Or had Romana unwittingly doomed some poor race to some new war? Or even extinction?
The Doctor was torn in all directions, but for the moment, and this he could not argue, the day was saved. That was all he could hope for. He sighed deeply.
"Good job, Romana." He simply said, a small smile appearing on his face.
This smile was not an outright lie, because he was indeed impressed with what she had just done. Yet he was not especially proud of her either. Like so many times before this, The Doctor compromised.