Lieutenant Adventures Series 16 Episode 4 22 July 2022. Chaos Part 8.
The TARDIS rocketed through the Time Vortex, eventually, after managing to dematerialise.
The Lieutenant kept an eye on the navigation panel as the TARDIS rocketed but he noticed the TARDIS was going easier. This was nothing to do with the TARDIS, he was aware, it was to do with the Universe. He was realising the extent of what he had done in the Netherlands. Not only had he briefly become one with the Universe, the Universe had briefly become one with him, it had picked up some of his regeneration energy and so, not only was re-sealing the Gates contributing to the healing of the Universe, the Universe was now, ever so slightly, regenerating.
The TARDIS shook as she attempted to lock onto her co-ordinates but failed.
The Lieutenant had been watching the navigation panel, but he made an executive decision. He cancelled the course for the Moon in 2008 and re-set the co-ordinates for Gallifrey during the Time War.
The TARDIS, recognising the co-ordinates, made the special effort and locked onto them and materialised in the TARDIS repair shop under the Capitol.
The Lieutenant looked up, taken aback. 'That was the most certain materialisation you have made in a while,' he said aloud.
The TARDIS sighed.
The Lieutenant strode to the door and stepped out into the TARDIS repair shop. As soon as he stepped out, he was taken aback by the emotion of the place. The repair shop was filled with broken TARDISes and the room was filled with dust and smoke. He listened, the sounds of the Time War raged overhead, mingling with the Universal War he had created. He knew there were other versions of himself here somewhere and he decided he did not want to meet them; it was time to go. He turned to face the TARDIS and closed the door. 'Sit tight,' he said. 'Wait for me, I won't leave you here.' He turned back to face the repair shop, which buckled just then, the Lieutenant losing his footing and tripping, dust further falling from above.
The Lieutenant examined the TARDISes in front of him. He regretted what he was about to do, the first time in four hundred years. He picked a particularly poorly looking TARDIS and entered it. He walked into a small, old, plain console room, looking sickly. He sighed and looked around, then examined the console. 'I'm the Lieutenant, nice to meet you,' he said, getting no answer. 'What happened to you, then?' he asked, more to himself, amongst his own thoughts. 'How much of you still works?' Just then the console room buckled again and the Lieutenant gripped the console. It was time to go. Sick or not, he appreciated having a working TARDIS, even if just for one journey. He made his way to the steering panel and pulled the Master Lever.
The TARDIS dematerialised, sluggishly.
The Lieutenant heard the struggle and placed a hand on the panel. 'It's OK,' he said, with tenderness, almost fatherly. 'It's just this one journey,' he said. In flight, he examined the console again, all the parts of the console he had missed using, and located the comms. He made his way to the Telepathic panel and briefly dabbed in his fingers, giving this TARDIS enough to go on to access recent memories.
Reacting to the Lieutenant's recent memories, the TARDIS objected sluggishly.
The Lieutenant looked at the central column and said, 'I know what you're thinking, I know, but it has to be this way, we both do.'
The TARDIS reluctantly accepted it and materialised sluggishly on the Moon in 2008.
The Lieutenant had one last look around the TARDIS which was about to be re-purposed. He moved to the Navigation panel and said, 'One more flight, but you won't be moving.' He put his hand into a pocket of his trench coat and took out small crystal, glowing golden, and he placed it into the Telepathic Circuits panel. It was his own TARDIS' control crystal; he had removed it before departing her. 'Now,' he said, looking at the crystal, not blinking, 'you know what this is. You know better than me how this works. I need to access my TARDIS, I have only read about doing it this way before, I've never done it before. I need to bring her here, please help me.' He felt lost.
The TARDIS was hesitant but then the crystal glowed brighter, and the sound of a sluggish dematerialisation filled the console room though the TARDIS did not move.
Even remotely, the Lieutenant took his opportunity to fly his TARDIS the way he had done once before. He punched in co-ordinates for the Moon in 2008 and made his way around to the scanner, which he powered up, informing him his TARDIS was in transit. He then went around to the Steering panel and flicked a switch, confirming the co-ordinates. The scanner flickered and informed him his TARDIS was now landing. Sparks flew out of the console and then the TARDIS materialised nearby. The scanner showed the Lieutenant that his TARDIS had materialised and showed him a view of the Moon. The control crystal in the Telepathic Circuits panel dimmed down, mission complete. The Lieutenant went to the Navigation panel and apologised before he programmed the TARDIS for her new purpose, to self-destruct on no longer protecting the Universe from the Cybermen she would imprison. When he had done this, he took the control crystal from the Telepathic Circuits panel and slipped it back into a pocket in his trench coat and activated the door control. He stood in the door, looking back at the console room one final time. 'Thank you,' he whispered as he departed the TARDIS.
On seeing his TARDIS, he smiled slightly. It was good to have been able to fly her properly again and to have her here, at his side, as she always had been throughout time. His smile faded on seeing a Cyberman corpse nearby. He had seen many dead Cybermen, but this was not any old dead Cyberman, this was a past companion, one who had accompanied him before his recent regeneration. He strolled over to the corpse and stood, looking down at it. 'Xhisiss,' he whispered to himself. 'I'm sorry you ended up this way.' He laughed to himself, realising he sounded like a completely different person. 'I wasn't sorry at the time, no, I definitely wasn't, but I was quite literally a different man back then. If I'd been me, I would never have had a Cyberman onboard, but I'm not sorry we met, we had a great time. This really wasn't my doing, you know, I wasn't messing with you, I didn't put these Cybermen here, I wasn't trying to drive you to suicide, I'm sorry that it seemed that way but I am about to imprison here the second, and hopefully final, time, so in light of your legacy and the impact it will have on me for the rest of my life, I am sorry that I would have eventually driven you to suicide anyway if I hadn't got you killed first.'
There was suddenly an explosion right beside the Lieutenant and he leapt away from it and out of the way, travelling further than he meant to because of gravity on the Moon and eventually landing in Moon dust, covering him. He stood up, brushed himself off and looked up towards space to see where the blast had come from. He saw Cyber ships descending towards the Moon.
'The Lieutenant is detected,' boomed a voice.
'That's what that was about!' yelled the Lieutenant, angrily. 'I was having a moment with my late companion, but you couldn't even allow me that, could you? You disgust me!' he screeched at the ships, blood pressure rising.
'Negative,' boomed his reply.
'Come on, then, come and get me, I have no defences, no-one's with me, it's just me and Xhisiss and Xhisiss is quite literally dead to the world, it's never been easier, come on, come and get me!' exclaimed the Lieutenant, making his way back towards the stolen TARDIS.
Two doors opened on the ship and tens of thousands of Cybermen came hovering out and flying down towards the surface of the Moon.
The Lieutenant ran back inside the stolen TARDIS. He had not closed the door. He ran down into the depths of the TARDIS, running down unfamiliar corridors and past rooms. He was only looking for the secondary control room, nothing else mattered.
'Escape is not possible, Lieutenant,' boomed a voice outside the TARDIS has the tens of thousands of Cybermen followed him into the TARDIS.
'It is possible, and it is happening, right here and right now!' exclaimed the Lieutenant, almost maniacally. Finally, he found the room, not labelled, at the end of a dark, dingy corridor and he ran straight for it and slammed the door behind him. The door was open, and he ran straight out of it and out of the TARDIS, slamming the TARDIS door behind him. He had not turned on the internal microphone and so could not hear the Cybermen inside the TARDIS, but he imagined they were realising they had been tricked and were now angry. Once again, he looked at the sick TARDIS and sighed. 'I'm really sorry but thank you so much, the Universe and I appreciate your sacrifice,' he said, as he turned around and walked slowly over to his own TARDIS.
The Lieutenant opened the door of his TARDIS and entered it slowly, closing the door behind him. He took off his trench coat and threw it over one of the nearby railings. He went around to the Navigation panel and stood staring down at it for a bit. There was smoke coming out of it and not a single light showed, and he knew he had lost the Navigation panel. He rubbed the panel softly and sadly, and a tear came to his eye. 'Not long now,' he said, 'you're doing really well, and I really do appreciate it,' he said, as he straightened up and made his way to the Telepathic Circuits panel and stuck the tips of his fingers into it, gently. He waited for the TARDIS to read him and his thoughts.
The TARDIS recognised the thought she had to focus in on, but she tried to resist it.
The Lieutenant looked up at the blackened, burnt, charred central column. 'Don't resist it, you and I know we can't,' he said. 'I don't know how many lives we'll shed in doing this but I am going to hazard a guess and say it's less than I've cost in the last four hundred years. Engross, come on, if you're there, there's a tear in the fabric of reality in Florida, a massive crater, probably with plenty of people falling into it by the day, we have to seal it, you know we do,' he said.
The TARDIS, finally, reluctantly agreed and struggled, very sickly, to dematerialise. With all her might, she held onto the Lieutenant's memory and hurtled towards it, through the healing Time Vortex.
The Lieutenant
Liam Hickey
Xhisiss and Cybermen
Nicholas Briggs
Series Director
Darwin Meads
Writer and Showrunner
Liam Hickey
Producer
Caitlin Parker
M/S 2022
