Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to various persons and corporations that are not me or associated with me. This piece of fanfiction is written with the admiration and respect for the original work. I claim no ownership of Doctor Who's creations. No profit is made from this material, now or in the future.
A/N: I think there will be only two or three more parts to this story. Also, the mode of punishment discussed in the later part of this chapter is influenced from a similar procedure in Babylon 5.
Thanks to Armity for beta-read.
Entered into Evidence:
Personal Log:
Doctor Melian
Time Stamp: 82-26-5107/22.51.34
Hello? . . . Is anyone receiving this? I know our personal logs are still being transmitted to the Great Guild. The Master is making us record and send them every day, like normal. Of course he is, if we break communication, it might raise an alarm. He's not afraid. I don't think he's capable of fear. Certainly not from little creatures like us. Even if all the clergy descended on him right now, I don't think they'd be able to save us. I don't think anything can stop him. However, he obviously doesn't want to be interrupted. He can't be bothered. So we make our recordings every night before bed, wondering if tomorrow will be the day he kills us all. Hoping it will be.
Today, I don't know what came upon me, but I could take it no more. I told the Master that this was cruel and he should at least have the decency to do away with us quickly. This suffering, this horrible knowledge, it's driving us insane. Every day, the physicians are forced to heal those who can't take it anymore and try to end their own lives. Every day, there are more trying.
I expected him to strike me down on the spot. I expected to die. I welcomed it. Instead, the Master laughed and turned to Doctor Song. I remember the conversation so clearly even now. It's ringing between my ears like reverberations from a great drum. I don't think I will be able to sleep tonight from the sheer sound of it.
"What do you think, pet?" he asked her. Pet, he always calls her that. From the very beginning, when he first saw her. It was like he saw through her and decided to keep her. At first I wondered why she allowed it. Doctor Song is not the kind of woman to just accept authority. But now I understand. It's for what's in that box and in his head. She wants it at any cost. We all know that now.
The Master asked her, "Should I put them out of their suffering?"
"Just one more day," Doctor Song said and the Master rolled his eyes before chucking her under the chin with a finger. Like a fond father. Like I do with my daughter. It made me sick.
"She just doesn't want me to undo all her hard work," the Master said to me. His smile twisted into a sort of snarl of disgust, but he quickly hid it back again. But I know what I saw; for a second his true face was revealed. He is in every sense of the word a monster.
"My Scherherazade," he called her and she smiled.
"I would never imagine to outwit you, Master," Doctor Song replied. "After all, we share the same goal."
"And don't you forget it," he told her. "Still, you always beg for one more day for them."
"They're useful," she said. It was the same tone of voice she once used on me on those occasions I lost my temper with the clerics. Calm and always reducing emotion to facts.
Then the Master turned to me and he looked me in the eye until I couldn't take it anymore. I had to look away because his eyes were like poison. I don't know what I saw there but I didn't see a man. I saw a plague and I was afraid I might be infected. I looked in Doctor Song's eyes instead and I tried to focus all my hate there. I didn't say a word, but I imagine she understood it the same. She wouldn't look away from me and I cannot tell whether I think more of her for that or less.
The Master told me, "You're asking the wrong person. If it were up to me, I would have disposed of you all days ago. She's the one who wants to keep you suffering. Personally, I think she gets off on it, the dirty girl. I had planned to kill the whole lot of you a week ago. But you know, we flipped a coin and she won. I promised she'd get to choose when to euthanize you. If you want to die, you should ask her."
So I did. I asked Doctor Song to kill me. I got down on my knees and I begged for my colleague, for my friend, to just let me die. She listened to it all and when I was done, all she said was, "No."
Just . . . no.
I think I actually hate her more than the Master. He's a monster, but she's a human. Somehow, that makes it worse, everything she has done. I don't see the Master as either evil or good. He is a force of nature. I don't think he has any choice in the matter. He cannot help his cruelty. But Doctor Song. She chooses. She understands. I once thought she was a decent person. I thought she was a good person. Now I see, River Song is evil.
So this is what I am reduced to, sending off yet another personal log, knowing that it helps keep this torture going. I have filled my messages with pleas for help for days, but no one's listening, because there is no change in the log schedule to alert the automatic screens. Only when we all stop sending reports will anyone check. Only when we're all dead will anyone read what we have to say. Then it'll be too late.
Still, I can't stop myself from hoping.
Is anyone out there? Is anyone reading this? Please. Help us.
Hello?
entered into evidence:
Excerpt from:
Interrogation of River Song
Session: 6
Agent 3099: Tell me about Doctor Melian, River.
River Song: What do you want to know?
A. 3099: Was he a good man?
RS: He was a very good man.
A. 3099: Why did you kill him?
RS: I didn't. The Master did.
A. 3099: You chose the time and place. Isn't that the same thing?
RS: No. It's much worse.
See attached document: Letters from the family and friends of Doctor Melian
See attached document: Full Psychological Profile of Doctor River Song
From: Doctor Dorris Holaday, The Great Guild
To: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Message Content:
Any particular thoughts on mercy and demons, father?
From: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
To: Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Message Content:
Always, doctor. Yet, in this case, my mind lingers on one fine but incredibly important point.
From: Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
To: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Message Content:
Please, share your thought processes with us, father, so that we might weigh your insights and preserve them here for posterity.
From: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
To: Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Message Content:
Gladly, madame. You see, I cannot help but linger on the crucial fact that we still have not been told what actually happened on 82-29-5107. We have not been told how Doctor Song unlocked and reordered Time. We have not been told why she would then go to such trouble to undo it. After all, it ruined everything she worked for. It destroyed the Doctor and the Master. It cost her soul.
I cannot believe she is evil. Though it is obvious she is damned.
From: Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
To: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Message Content:
The specifics of what happened on 82-29-5107 are a Top Time Secret and must not be disclosed for matters of Empire security. It should be enough that the Time Agency assures you these crimes did take place. We will willingly provide you with testimony, such as that already provided from River Song, detailing Doctor Song's culpability for those crimes.
From: Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
To: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Message Content:
Patriarch Thaddeus' concerns are valid. We cannot make an uninformed decision based purely on edited transcripts and emotional letters from a dead man's family. We cannot rely simply on the word of the Time Agency.
Doctor River Song is charged with capital crimes in our shared jurisdictions. If we are to allow her memories to be wiped and her personality rewritten for what she has been accused of doing, we must actually be told what she has done.
From: Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
To: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Message Content:
There has been a break-through in the interrogation efforts with River Song.
From: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
To: Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Doctor Holaday, The Great Guild
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Message Content:
I cannot help but think the timing a miracle. I must assume it has not been shared with us directly because we are waiting for it to be properly edited, to preserve Empire secrets.
From: Doctor Dorris Holaday, The Great Guild
To: Patriarch Thaddeus, Our Church of Supreme Authority
Servant Dmer Kotte-Ta, The Shadow Proclamation
Overseer Gamma, The Time Agency
Message Content:
God has answered your prayers, father. The proof you have been waiting for. Speak of the devil.
TBC
If you enjoyed the piece, or if you didn't, please take the time to leave me a review. No matter how short, I really appreciate the feedback. Thanks.