Chapter 5
The entire void shimmered. The Doctor found herself standing in an elaborate laboratory. Everywhere she looked there were desks piled with projects, some complete, others half-finished. All of the walls were covered with blueprints, equations, and other papers. It was incredible for The Doctor. She felt quite at home here, just as she had felt when she worked with Nikola Tesla. Part of her wanted nothing more than to run to the nearest workstation and start tinkering. Another wanted to meet the lab's owner, to discuss ideas with a fellow scientist.
"Where are we?" she asked with new-found curiosity.
"Ancient Gallifrey," answered The Master. "Long before the founding of the Time Lords."
Suddenly, someone entered the lab. The Doctor took in the new arrival. It was a woman. She had the appearance of someone in their mid-forties, but exact age has always been hard to determine on Gallifrey. She had long dark hair with small hints of grey, blue eyes that appeared in a state of constant focus, and almost pale skin, most likely from lack of sunlight. She made her way to one of the tables, muttering incoherently as she did.
The Doctor approached, eager to introduce herself.
"Hello, is this your lab?" asked The Doctor.
But the woman did not answer. Instead, she turned and passed right through The Doctor, as though she didn't exist. Confused, she looked at The Master.
"That is Tecteun." explained The Master. "One of Gallifrey's original indiginous species, The Shobogans. What you are viewing is a memory. We are merely observers, nothing we say or do can affect the world we see."
As he spoke, the scene shifted. The lab was replaced by a landing pad. On that landing pad was a spaceship. A crude model by Time Lord standards, but then again very few things compared to a TARDIS.
"She was the first Shobogan to discover space-travel. Rough, unsophisticated, space-travel. Shortly after, Tecteun left her home world in search of other worlds. Several worlds she visited, recording all she could about them. And on one of these distant, deserted worlds at the edge of the universe she found something...impossible."
The location changed yet again. The Doctor recognized this place. It was the same structure in her visions, underneath what looked like a purple storm cloud. The Doctor recognized it as a gateway, some kind of boundary into another dimension or universe. And at the base of the monument, there was a child. Abandoned. Alone. The child was roughly seven or eight years old, female, and had dark skin. She wore an elaborate yellow robe, her curly brown hair had been placed in a bun, her deep brown eyes stared as Tecteun approached.
"Tecteun realized that the child must have come from the other side of the boundary, abandoned for unknown reasons. She had a choice to make: abandon or save the child. She chose to rescue the foundling, and adopted the little girl as her own. They explored the universe together. Until finally, the pair returned to Gallifrey."
The Doctor once again found herself in Tecteun's lab, only this time, part of the lab had maps of worlds hanging from the walls. Tecteun had spent some time charting her route through space. The child sat atop one of the desks as Tecteun took some samples of blood.
"Tecteun studied her new daughter, hoping to understand the child. What she was, where she came from, her species, anything that could be of use. But her research did not yield any results. So Tecteun abandoned the research, deciding to focus on raising her new child. And so the child remained a mystery...until...one day…"
The Doctor now stood at the top of a cliff. She saw Tecteun's child playing with another young boy with a toy spaceship. Suddenly, the boy tried to take the ship away from the child. They both got dangerously close to the edge. The girl lost her footing. The Doctor reached out for the child out of instinct. But as with Tecteun, the child's hand passed right through hers. The Doctor could only watch as the child fell from the cliff. Horrified, she ran down to the base. She found Tecteun, cradling her fallen child. Suddenly, the child's skin began to glow, and she exploded with a light all too familiar to the Doctor. When the light died, the child's whole body had changed. Her curly, brown hair was now straight and black. Her skin had become lighter, more Asian in appearance. And she was now slightly taller than she was before.
Tecteun stared at the child, unsure of what just happened.
"Mama?" asked the child. "Why are you crying?"