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The Rani paused and listened again as the laughter echoed through her mind. She knew that laugh, after spending quite some time in a derelict TARDIS trying to get it fixed. She had really loathed it by the time they were done and time had not improved it.
"Of all people, he has to survive!" she said angrily. Donna looked up from her welding and gave her an inquiring look. "The Master," The Rani said and then grabbed Donna as the memories nearly broke through the walls of her mind.
"I remember him," Donna said and looked at the Rani with the old, old eyes of the Doctor. "I remember Logopolis as well," she added and then seemed to concentrate. "But I remember him dying," she added and frowned. "Last year, he was Harold Saxon." The Rani blinked and then nodded in understanding. "He refused to regenerate," the Doctor went on. "He had lost and I had captured him but he was shot and he decided to die rather than be my prisoner." The Rani could hear the pain in her voice easily and she hugged her old/new friend.
"He's coming back," the Rani said finally. "I don't know how, but I can sense it." Donna laughed dryly.
"I'm not exactly surprised," she admitted and rolled her eyes. "He's survived dying more times than any Time Lord I've heard of – including Rassilon." She shook her head and bent over her work again, her shields held firmly in place. "Do you know when?" she asked and the Rani shrugged.
"I think that it will be around Christmas," she said and tapped in several commands. "We'll have this done by Christmas Eve," she said with a smile. "And if you alone were able to beat him before, we should be able to deal with him." She paused as she had another thought. "If we can get him alive then we can harvest some genetic tissue for diversity." She saw Donna's puzzled expression and shrugged. "Well, I think we could do without it but a nice wide diversity in our species will help and since we aren't related to each other that will help things."
"Are you suggesting that we use the Master of all people as a sperm donor?" Donna looked rather uncomfortable.
"Well, considering I could make the facilities for artificial wombs, we can probably eliminate psychosis in the children quite easily and they would likely have to be a mixture of the three of us."
"You're talking about rebuilding the Time Lord race," Donna said and frowned. "On Earth?" she asked cautiously.
"Considering how many times Earth has been invaded, I think that we would need to find a better location," the Rani pointed out. "If we can find where you left your TARDIS, we can use that at first and find an empty world to put them on." She smiled suddenly. "Of course, you are the only one who has experience in parenting," she said ruefully. "But it might actually help the Master to have children."
"I'm not sure about that," Donna said in the dry voice that the Rani remembered from the Doctor's first regeneration. "Considering how my children nearly drove me insane." She grinned at a memory and then closed her shields. "It's getting harder and harder to concentrate," she said and shook her head. "Good thing this is almost done. One more week and I won't have to worry," she said longingly. "Even so, I think we could safely ask for a few of my friends to help us there," she added and the Rani realized she had slipped back to the former topic.
"That would help," she agreed. "Of course, we still don't know what he is trying to do, so we shouldn't count our chickens before they're hatched." Donna looked at her in bewilderment. "A human saying," the Rani explained. "I wish we could talk to UNIT but until you are restored they will be very suspicious of us."
"We'll just have to wing it," Donna said and chuckled. "Like I usually do, I seem to remember."
"UNIT is trying to figure things out as well," the Rani said thoughtfully. "We may even end up in the same place. That would make things easier but I doubt it will be so simple."
"It never is," Donna said and turned off the welding torch. "That should be that," she said in great satisfaction. "All that remains is the software configuration. Afterwards, this will be ready to be activated, at last." She gave the recalcitrant machinery a glare and then turned to the Rani. "We'd better take care of the backlog now."
UNIT headquarters were busy, the peculiar dreams that everyone was having being a fairly clearly indication that something bad was about to happen. Martha had recognized both the laugh and the face but she had been unable to reach the Doctor. That had been very worrying and she had called Sarah Jane Smith, who had also had problems with contacting him. She was getting very worried. Then she eyed the documents she had been saving for the Doctor and smiled. From all accounts, Dr Rachel Anne was at worst neutral and she seemed to be friendly. She picked up the phone and rang the number.
"Hello is this Dr Rachel Anne?" she asked into the mouthpiece. "I need to talk to you about some odd dreams that quite a few people are having, of a certain person that you might know, called the Master. I think we might need to talk about some things." The response was quick and to the point.
"Tomorrow, about ten a.m," Dr Anne said in a quiet voice that sounded cranky. "I'll be over there anyway, with the stuff you have ordered from me, and we can talk then. Be seeing you," she added and rang off. Martha wondered a little at the tone and then looked at the clock. It showed that it was past midnight and she flushed as she realized what she had done.
"You really need to break that bad habit," Colonel Mace said from the doorway. "I take it you are going to grill her?" he added questioningly.
"Possibly, but what I want to know is if she can help us shield against the dreams," Martha said. "I might grill her a bit but that is a secondary objective." She held up a disc. "This was from last week,' she said and shook her head. "I must say, it was quite informative." She handed it to the Colonel.
"I'll watch this," he said and looked at her desk. "You seem to have dealt with all the paperwork, I'm impressed." Martha smiled wryly.
"Frankly I don't really want to go to sleep," she admitted. "I'd rather muddle through paperwork than dream." She shuddered. "I still have nightmares about him even without the inducement."
"I'd advise a bottle of scotch but you'll need your head about you tomorrow." Colonel Mace shrugged and then smiled. "On the plus side, I believe Brigadier Leithbridge-Stewart is coming in tomorrow."
"He is?" Martha stared at him and then grinned. "That makes me feel a lot better. I just wish we were in touch with the Doctor but I suspect that he will have the good timing as always." She sighed in faint irritation. "I just wish we knew for certain."
"I believe the Doctor once said that not knowing was what made traveling so much fun," Colonel Mace said with a wry smile. "Go get some rest, Commander. I can't make it an order but I would strongly advise it." Martha nodded and almost collapsed on the couch.
"I don't think I can make it to my bed," she said sleepily. "Close the door behind you please." The Colonel nodded and left, taking the disc with him.
The next day dawned bright and early; the light from the opened window blinds striking Martha in her eyes. She looked blearily at the clock and then the time registered. It was 9 o'clock and she had to make it to her office and get cleaned up and showered, not to mention breakfast, before Dr Anne came to see her. She jumped up and nearly cannoned into her desk in her haste.
The Rani arrived at the UNIT building at precisely 9:30 a.m and was done with her business in less than a quarter of an hour. She had been working on the air scrubber in the ATMOS device and had to admit it was a lovely complex puzzle, but she had cracked it for the humans. She wasn't sure why Martha Jones had wanted to see her but she did suspect that she had let something slip. She walked into her office and saw a billowing cloud of steam before her. From inside it, she could hear someone pulling clothing on. Then Martha Jones emerged from the cloud and the Rani couldn't help the smile.
"Did I come at a bad time?" she asked politely. Martha shook her head and gestured for her to be seated.
"I have been having a hard time sleeping and so I only woke up a short while ago," she explained.
"Ah, the sleeplessness is hardly surprising given the dreams most people seem to be having," the Rani said with a sympathetic smile. "But you wanted to see me?"
"I want to know how a Jedi can be on Earth," Martha said flatly and the Rani blinked, then smiled.
"It took this long to analyze it?" she asked politely. Martha shook her head in annoyance.
"It was put on the backburner," she admitted and saw the look of offense on Dr Anne's face. Clearly she did not like the idea of being the low priority. "Sorry," Martha added with a smile. Dr Anne gave her a glare but her lips twisted up at the corners. "So how did a Jedi get here?"
"I'm not exactly a Jedi," Dr Anne said and then hesitated. "I have some training but no ability to wield the Force, I'm afraid." She looked at Martha Jones, Commander of Operations for UNIT and took a deep breath. "I am a Time Lord. My name is the Rani."
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