Second Interlude (Part Two)
In the bowels of Temperlost, Pengallia leaned over the ornate alabaster balcony that overlooked the Crucible Chamber she had had crafted for the next phase of her plan. Belicurax, the great sword that had once been part of her ship's exochronoplasmic shell, dangled beneath the vast dome of the chamber. It hung in the grip of a great manipulator arm which held it fast above a boiling pit filled with rare and unique Tardis metals. Validium and mercury, chronodyne and argonite, vibranium and lead. These and a dozen more elements and compounds bubbled and hissed as technicians surrounded the crucible, monitoring temperatures and force fields; waiting for the optimal moment to lower K'thannid's prison into the mix, melting and changing its form forever.
Forty feet below her the senior engineer, Forge Master Pendar, turned to give his President the thumbs up.
The Crucible was ready.
With a satisfied nod, Pengallia watched as the manipulator arm lowered her sword into the seething furnace below. As it made contact and glowed white-hot, she imagined she could hear K'thannid's wail as the atoms separated and drifted apart.
At Pendar's station there was a flurry of activity. Lights flashed across the consoles and the technicians reacted, making fine adjustments and initiating the next stage of the process. Six small golden globes, each the size of a fist, rose from the edges of the pit. As they did so the force field flickered and grew brighter, rising from the crucible before contracting into a perfect sphere. The liquid metals were lifted with it and, with the shift in heat and pressure, they ionised. Within moments there was a free-floating ball of plasma hovering above the pit.
The Forge Master turned towards Pengallia and called out to her. "We're ready to jettison."
"Excellent." She stared at the newborn sun she had created. As she did so, the plasma shifted, pushing against the powerful force field in a vain attempt to escape. As it did so it appeared to take the shape of a great eye – K'thannid's eye. It stared back at her defiantly, and she flinched.
"Release the sun!" Pengallia ordered, standing back from the balcony as the engines of the six small spheres began to wheeze and groan. Within moments the chamber had darkened, and the sun was gone.
Overhead, the chamber's vast dome began to shimmer. Configured to resemble the orrery from the Infinity Chamber back on Demos, it formed a new holographic image. Above her Pengallia saw the recursion she had created. The sun enveloped the planet of K'thannid and the spacetime which surrounded it. And inside the planet, where there was once an inner ocean, there was now a bright and stable sun. The same sun. The Eye of K'thannid. The Oculus.
"My Lady?" The address was accompanied by a polite cough. It was Troop-Sergeant Malthus, one of her Myrmidon. He was holding out a glowing white card.
"Thank you, Sergeant," she said, taking the device. "You're dismissed."
Staring into the gentle white light, Pengallia closed her eyes and allowed her mind to focus on the ansible as it unfolded. She allowed its dimensions to open up inside her mind, constructing a psychic bridge across the higher dimensions. A moment later she made contact with another mind.
Pengallia opened her eyes and found herself standing in another room, half a galaxy away. Captain Panaki's office, on Demos.
"Majestrix?" Focusing on an ansible of his own, Panaki's face was filled with joy and expectation.
"I have good news Captain. K'thannid is contained, and the planet is secure." She looked around at the psychic analogue of Demos. "How are things at home?"
"The people are overjoyed, Majestrix. Here, on Gallifrey, and across the Empire. News of your victory is being broadcast on every channel across the public network, and the Alliance worlds have already started celebrating."
"Good," she relaxed. The politics had been a little… tense when she had departed. "With the fall of the k'thellid my crusade is over, Panaki. A solid empire, a stable peace. This is what we've worked for all of these years."
The Captain agreed. "The name of Pengallia will live forever alongside heroes of the Old Empire like Rassilon and Omega."
The Silver Queen smiled. In two centuries she had risen from off-world priestess to become one of the greatest Heroes of Gallifrey, overcoming issues of race, birth, and gender. All without the help of her so-called political advisers.
"How has the High Council reacted to the news?"
"Favourably. They've even agreed to commission a statue to celebrate the victory. It's to be forged from validium, and will bear the aspect of the Goddess Nemesis."
"Hah." Now that, she thought, was a turn up for the books. "I bet Pandak didn't like that. Teyamat's doing, I presume".
Panaki nodded. "She's already arranged for it to take pride of place on top of a column in the middle of Founders' Square…"
"Excellent. Has the biodata from the Myrmidon been assimilated into the Matrix?"
"The Castellan's Office confirmed the transfer three spans ago."
"Good. So now only the Time Lords have access to K'thannid's power. Now that the k'thellid's link to their god has been severed I can arrange for the Well to be reopened."
"There is one thing, Majestrix."
"Yes?"
"The High Council is anxiously awaiting the return of their President. They want to know when they can meet with you."
Pengallia couldn't contain the sneer that crossed her face.
"If they need to meet they will have to come here. There's too much to do. I'm having the Temperlost converted into a new city, and it will be several months before the ecosystem is stabilised. Which reminds me, have Teyamat bring a world-seed with her when she comes and …"
"Forgive me, but is that really a job for the President?"
"Oh, yes. This planet is unspoiled by all the temporal pollution that Gallifrey and the Alliance worlds have suffered in recent millennia. And with access to the Well of Deep Time it's perfect for chronoforming into a new throne world."
"Throne world?"
"For the Empire. The High Council never wanted it, and Gallifrey is hardly the shining jewel that it once was. But this planet… it's the perfect place to transfer the seat of power to. It will be an eternal symbol of rebirth following the darkest period of our history."
"I'm not sure the High Council would see it that way."
"After what I've achieved, I'm not sure the High Council will be in a position to argue. Gallifrey will still be a key player, but K'thellid… Rendulix… will be the true heart of the Empire."
From her vantage point at the top of the newly-christened Mount Madronal, the Silver Queen looked up into the Eye of K'thannid. The Oculus. Her own eye shed a single tear as she bathed in its burnt orange glow.
"Majestrix, are you alright?" It was Teyamat.
"Just thinking," she said, turning to the priestess, "about what might have been."
"Treachery is Pandak's true nature," said Teyamat. "He betrayed you just as his namesake betrayed Rassilon."
Wiping the tear from her eye, Pengallia shook her head. "Pandak was just the instrument. It took the full power of the High Council to do that. And me, of course. My pride was the catalyst."
"You're being unfair to yourself. You brought them peace. Raised them up among the Gods. And you did it without risking their precious aristocracy. You took the risks; you raised the armies. You're a great…"
"Hero," she finished for her. "Yes, I know. I should have listened to the lessons of history. Sometimes, in the eyes of their rivals, heroes become a greater threat that the enemies they vanquish. I should have returned to Gallifrey straight away. It would have been the perfect time to appoint a new High Council, after all."
"So, what next?"
"I'm tired." Pengallia sighed, looking out at the lush new world they had grown around them in the last couple of days. She had made the devotional to Nemesis and planted the World Seed herself, down by the shore of the great ocean that now lined the planet's interior. "And whatever we did to this planet, it's beautiful place."
Teyamat was incredulous. "You're giving up?"
"No. Just taking a break." Turning to Teyamat, she looked her mentor and friend straight in the eye. "The Time Lords think they've imprisoned me here for all eternity, and that's how long I've got to wreak my revenge. I think its best to rest, rebuild, make this world the home we meant it to be. Then, when we're ready, we go back."
"How? You time-looped the planet and they have the key. If K'thannid couldn't escape, how…"
"Thanks, Teyamat," Pengallia snapped. "So glad you have faith."
The attack on K'thellid had been the culmination of years' experience. She had personally commissioned the Cremasters that spun their forced-matter cocoons around the system. It was with her own codes that they had been sealed inside. She was the gaoler, not Pandak.
"I didn't mean…"
"First, we broker peace with the last of the k'thellid. Turn our enemies into our allies. They're at our mercy right now, so we can work with them. Rebuild this planet together."
"And then?"
"Then we reconstitute the Temperlost and return through the Well of Deep Time to Gallifrey. There's still a fleet out there in the periphery. Pandak was kind enough to imprison me with my army. He'd never have made a General."
"But he didn't give you all of your weapons. The Empire's forces would outnumber us a dozen to one."
"Why? They have no enemies left. Give it a few years and the High Council will probably break up the Empire and disband its forces. Besides, we've got enough resources here to grow an even bigger fleet."
Teyamat smiled. Her assumption that Pengallia had lost the will to fight could hardly have been further from the truth.
"Your betrayal was foretold you know," the old priestess said, "but I ignored it. I mistook Pandak's first betrayal for his last."
"If that's the case, you're saying that I'll still return in victory?"
Teyamat frowned. "I think so. I'll have to revisit the prophecy."
Pengallia smiled. "It wouldn't be the first time."