The First Ones. Part Two.
It had been an hour after the Doctor, the Rani, Romana and Susan had turned on their scanners. In that hour they heard the voices of not one, but at least 18 Time Lords, and that was only on Earth, and more voices were being heard. For the Doctor, this was a dream come true after spending so many years alone. The sound of voices, some familiar and some not, was disorientating for him.
It wasn't long before a TARDIS materialised in the Hub. The Torchwood members whipped out their guns, but they holstered them again when they realised what the sound was.
A little man wearing overalls stepped out once the machine had fully materalised. His round race looked around, taking everything in with interest. When his eyes caught those of the Doctor and Rani and Romana, his face split into a massive grin.
" Ello, Thetey. Urshas, Romana. How've ya been?" the man chuckled.
The three Time Lords in question sighed happily when they realised who this was. Drax. Before they could greet him properly, another 2 TARDISes materalised in the hub, their engines turned to siphon energy off from the rift for fuel. The doors opened, revealing an old man and a young girl from one, and a square jawed man with a rumpled suit from the other. The girl locked eyes with Susan and squealed with joy.
" Susan!" She cried, rushing to hug her friend. Susan gasped when she recognised the other Time Lady, " Pandora!"
The two girls hugged each, both speaking a thousand light years a minute. This gave the older Time Lord the opportunity to recognise the Doctor.
" Hello, Doctor. Miss Romana," he greeted.
" Salyavin!" The Doctor and Romana gasped.
Drax walked forwards, " Thought you was dead, Sal. What happened?"
Salyavin nodded, " I nearly was," he replied in his reedy voice. Like Pandora and Drax, the old Time Lord hadn't changed much. They'd obviously managed to keep themselves from regenerating. The Doctor turned his attention over to the other Time Lord.
" Spandrell?" He gasped.
Spandrell nodded with a grunt, " Pleasure to see you too, Doctor." Whilst the old Castelan was surly, there was a gleam in his eyes.
Both men clasped hands in delight. When Spandrell turned his attention towards Romana, he bowed, " Milady, it's good to see you are here and safe."
Romana smiled back, " Thank you, Spandrell. You escaped the war safely then?"
Spandrell nodded wearily, " I did, I didn't like the grief that Rassilon was giving everyone. He and the rest of the council hindered any investigation into their disappearances, no offense," he broke off, looking at Romana. The Time Lady nodded, " It's alright, the council were idiots."
Spandrell looked into the grinning face of Drax, " Oh, I might've known you'd be here." Spandrell was fond of the Doctor and Drax in his own way, but he believed they were troublesome.
Drax nodded, the grin still on his face, " Yep, bet ya thought I weren't gonna come back." Drax sobered up, " Seriously, Span, it's good ta see ya."
Spandrell grunted. Susan and Pandora giggled at the byplay between them. The Doctor walked over to Salyavin, " I can't believe you're still alive, and with Pandora."
" I know what you mean, Doctor. I wasn't expecting to still be alive, especially after my TARDIS was wrecked by the Daleks. I bumped into Pandora, and we managed to get away before our bodies were saturated by the radiation. The TARDIS was flung into the vortex by the shockwave of Gallifrey's destruction, forcing the TARDIS to place our minds in fob watches, and put us into Earth's society." Salyavin said, then he asked the question the Doctor had been dreading.
" What happened, Doctor? What happened to Gallifrey?"
The Doctor sighed, " Let's wait for the others to arrive, then we can have a meeting."
Romana looked at the third TARDIS where a family came out. Wearing human clothes, they looked surprised and stunned by the lack of telepathic contact of other Time Lords. She went over to them and introduced herself, " My name's Romana," she pointed at the Doctor, " That's the Doctor, Susan and the Rani. We brought you back. What's your names?" She asked.
The family looked at one another, then a small girl stepped forward, " I'm Amazonalia,"
Romana smiled at the girl, " Hello, Amazonalia,"
The mother stepped forward, " I'm sorry, it's all unusual. You see we ran for a TARDIS before the shockwave hit us, forcing me and my husband to regenerate. The TARDIS went into self repair mode, forcing us into fob watches."
Romana nodded, " Yeah, that seems to be the running theme of the TARDISes at the moment."
The mother nodded, slightly surprised by the lack of etiquette from her fellow Time Lord, " My name's Allia,"
The father was looking around the hub with a look of interest before he turned his attention back to Romana, " I'm sorry, my name's Azman. These are my son's Junel and Rasel."
The other two girls of the family were like typical human teenagers, but they introduced themselves as Astoria and Casset. Romana thought they were definitely teenagers. She turned her attention back to Allia. Whilst Romana and Allia had their conversation, someone else appeared, this time without a TARDIS.
In the middle of the hub, a man wearing the habit and robes of a Tibetan monk appeared, making Susan and Pandora, who'd introduced themselves to Astoria and Casset, who themselves had been starved of other Time Ladies near their age - 400 to 500 that is. Emaciated, ancient he may have appeared, but everyone could see the strength in the man's body, his sheer will.
" I am sorry to have startled you, my dears," the monk said calmly but soothingly to the four Time Ladies.
The Doctor couldn't believe it, " K'anpo?"
The Time Lord nodded slowly, " Hello, Doctor. It's good that you have done as I've predicted."
" You predicted? You mean, you've been alive all this time?" When K'anpo nodded again, the Doctor whispered, " Why, why did you hide?"
" I didn't," K'anpo replied simply, " I immersed myself in the vortex, using my mind to search the cosmos for other Time Lords, and also to see the future in ways even you cannot."
Azman shook his head scornfully, " That's impossible. You can't immerse yourself in the vortex."
" We can't, but K'anpo can. He's a vortex leaper." The Doctor explained for the benefit of the other Time Lords, who now looked at K'anpo with varying emotions like fear, awe and suspicion.
When time travel had been researched and debated back on Gallifrey, there had been a number of people who felt time travel should be done in various ways. Time rooms with massive time portals that shifted one section to another point in time and space, time ships that acted like ships like those used by the Daleks, the Sontarans etc and simply passed through time, TARDISes and lastly, implanting a gene sequence similar in many ways to the Rassilon Imprimature and adjusting it so then the Time Lord wouldn't simply feelfixed and flux points in time, but also be able to move freely in time and space with will alone.
Research had been done in all of them, of course, but as time passed various practicality issues cropped up - for time ships it was because of the stress time travel in the vortex had on organic tissue, for Time rooms it was because the devices were static, and also because they were immobile and could, in theory and practice cause massive damage to the timeline. For vortex leapers, on the other hand, it wasn't because of fear. Even the Time Lords, with all their ordered morality, weren't exempt from prejudice. Theoretically the Time Lords were above that, but if they didn't like something then they regarded it the same way the Daleks regarded those that weren't like themselves.
Vortex leaping wasn't a highly regarded art. It was actually considered to be one of those abilities that was feared and frowned upon in Time Lord society because the talent clashed with the Time Lord's ability to restrict, regulate and control time travel. Vortex leaping wasn't like TARDIS travel, the leaper didn't need to refuel with rift energy, the leaper couldn't be contained by transduction barriers, nor could it be restricted. There were many advantages to leaping, something the Doctor had wished he'd inherited when he'd been born, but unfortunately leaping was rare, and it was more than likely that K'anpo was the last leaper in the universe, and when he died then the art would die with him.
Time Lords like Spandrell and the family had probably been told that vortex leaping was officially dead, but experienced Time Lords like the Doctor and the Rani would know enough not to be too sure.
The advantages to leaping were incredible, and they matched in some ways those of the TARDIS. A leaper can move freely through space - time, not hampered by technology, the leaper can see and perceive time like a painting that continuously changed. The leaper had powers over time and matter, something even normal Time Lords didn't have without the aid of gadgets.
The leaper's gene had been perfected by the time Rassilon came around, and with his typical desire to control, he purged the gene, forcing the researchers to put it in the Time Lord gene pool, where it was lost, until it found members like K'anpo. K'anpo's family had had a leaper, who'd managed to travel freely through time before he passed the gene on to his descendent.
" So that's it, Rassilon was going to destroy the universe?" Pandora summarised sadly.
The Doctor, Rani, Romana and Susan had spent the past hour telling the Time Lords, whose numbers now included Flavia, former president of Gallifrey, The Queen, another renegade, and part of the meeting that warned Romana what Rassilon was intending. The Priest, another traveller who hadn't fought in the early stages of the war, and had in fact tried to avoid it was present. Two surprises were Morganna and the Mistress, two renegade Time Ladies, and cousins. The Saint, a Time Lord who acted like an intertemporal robin hood, and finally, Iris Wildthyme, a very old friend of the Doctor.
The Rani nodded, " Rassilon was insane," she said bluntly, " He was doing it all for himself."
The Priest sneered. He wasn't a very well known for very well liked Time Lord. He was a thin faced man with a long narrow face, his lips were thin and pinkish, his eyes were grey. His hair was thin.
" So a renegade took it upon himself to destroy our homeworld?" he asked snidely.
The Doctor looked away, the Priest's cutting words slicing through him like a laser beam through steel. Romana shot up angrily, " Oh, and where were you? What would you have done?"
The Priest looked around the faces, many of them were angry with him. The Priest had listened to the way Rassilon's plan would've worked, but the Priest wasn't like the Doctor and the other mavericks. He'd been on an authorised exploratory mission when the war broke out, but he'd ignored the call to fight. The Priest had never liked the renegades, he was one of those Time Lords had did things by the book. Now Gallifrey was gone, the Priest had no choice but to work with this bunch.
" I don't think Rassilon would do anything like that," Priest said, ignoring Romana's questions and making the Doctor angry in turn. " I think you're exaggerating." He finished pompously.
" Then how do you explain the deaths, Time Lords who fought in the war? How do you explain the lack of action on Rassilon's part?" Rani asked coldly.
The Priest waved a dismissive hand, " Lies, rumors. They weren't killed, they must've ran away."
" No, they didn't." Susan put in.
The Priest turned his sneer to her, " Who asked you?"
" That's my granddaughter you're talking to," The Doctor snarled.
The Priest ignored him, his mocking voice turned to Susan, " Your granddaughter?" he said, referring to the Doctor's statement. " A renegade too? Well, as they say on Earth, the apple never falls far from the tree."
Drax glowered at the Priest, " Listen, mate. I watched as the Daleks destroyed the defence grid I built with me two hands," he held out his hands before he carried on, " The council did nothing, they sat back and let the Daleks destroy it, they sat back and let worlds die. Arcadia, the Monan Host, the Nestene consciousness and the Gelth. What would you have done?"
" I wouldn't have fought the Daleks. I was conscripted into fighting them, I had no choice. We're Time Lords, we should've negotiated with the Daleks." The Priest said pompously.
The Time Lords around the table looked at one another, then they burst out laughing. The Priest looked at his fellow Time Lords, " What's so funny?"
Pandora chortled, " You never fought the Daleks face to eye stalk, did you?"
" No."
" So, you never saw them kill people. People that couldn't fight because they were injured." Pandora stated.
The Priest said nothing.
" Tell us, Priest, what did you do?" Queen asked scornfully; she'd lost her brother because of Rassilon, and she wasn't in the mood for someone to spout off the madman's propaganda.
" I was an advisor. I told the council to negotiate with the Daleks."
The Doctor shook his head scornfully, " The Daleks don't accept terms. They were going to slaughter the Time Lords no matter what we did. Any negotiations would've been a waste of time."
" You don't know that!"
" I've known the Daleks for centuries," The Doctor replied softly, " They didn't accept the Thals surrender, they wiped the race out after thousands of years of war. The Thals tried to surrender when they lost the ability to fight, but the Daleks killed them all." The Doctor looked grimly into the face of the Priest, " What makes you think the Daleks would've let us surrender?"
The Priest said nothing, and was ignored for the rest of the meeting. Flavia looked around the table, " Does everyone agree that the Doctor had to do what was needed?"
Drax nodded, " I do," He looked at his old classmate, " I've known Thete since the Academy. I know that he wouldn't do this unless he had no choice, and Rassilon had certainly given him no choice."
The Priest couldn't remain silent, " I can't believe this!" He shouted furiously, " I can't believe you're letting him get away with destroying our world!"
Flavia looked down her nose at the Priest, " Then he can redeem himself by finding more of us, and rebuilding our homeworld."
The Rani cleared her throat, " I have an announcement to make," When everyone's attention was turned towards her, she carried on, " Just in case something happened to our race and our planet, I secreted on board my TARDIS 8 race banks containing pure Time Lord DNA. I didn't tell anyone because I wanted more of our people to be found for genetic diversity."
Rani looked around the faces, faces showing disbelief and in some cases - the Priest - that she would do this. But Rani didn't care, she left nothing to chance.
" Inside my TARDIS are the design plans for numerous pieces of our technology and our sciences, but I want to do more." She said.
Susan narrowed her eyes at her grandmother, " What do you wanna do?"
" Speak properly," The Priest snapped, but Susan waved him off dismissively, and focused on the Rani.
The Rani took a deep breath, " I want to make more than one Time Lord race. I want to mix our DNA with that of other races, like the Monan Host, the Chula, and Humans."
" You want to pervert our races purity?" The Priest said scornfully.
The Saint for the first time spoke up, " Our race hasn't done much good in the last few thousand years, has it? We need change in order to survive."
" But not at the price of losing our purity," Priest snapped.
Spandrell hadn't been Castelan of the Guard on Gallifrey for nothing, and he smelt trouble in the form of the Priest, " You sound like a Dalek."
The Priest was stunned into silence, and the Rani carried on like she hadn't been interrupted, " My contempt for the Time Lords began long before my exile. I travelled the universe and saw the various races, and granted I experimented on them, something I now regret. But they possessed incredible potential. That's why I wish to make subspecies of Time lords, each one with our knowledge and the ability to change and become more than we ever were. Our race lost it's way centuries ago, and the Time War was slowed down because of our lack of vision. It's time to change that."
" I agree," Salyavin spoke in his reedy voice.
" It sounds like a good idea," One of the family said.
" Yeah, I can see the advantages of a number of Time Lord races." Drax added thoughtfully.
The Priest got up, " I've had enough of this, I'm leaving." The Time Lord marched for his TARDIS and in a few moments the time machine dematerialised.
" Aren't we going to do anything?" Susan asked.
" No," The Doctor shook his head. " He'll come round eventually, or he might simply avoid the rebuilding of our race."
The Rani looked around, " So what do we do about my plan?"
The Doctor nodded, " I like the idea, but I think you should also take Human DNA from this era, and use that as a template to clone new Time Lords. This plan, the pocket watches, and the race banks, the new races, should help us rebuild the Time Lords. Any problems?" He added.
No one said a word. The Doctor nodded, " Then we're in agreement."
The meeting went on for hours, and it was decided to link all TARDISes to the rift and add to the already potent energy looking for other Time Lords. The Rani spent the next day looking for suitable worlds in her TARDIS's stellar cartography laboratory, a list of potential worlds was found with the right minerals.
But there was one world where a temporal rift ran all the way through it. The Rani thought it would be perfect for refueling TARDISes before a replacement power source for the Eye of Harmony appeared. Flavia and Spandrell with Salyavin and The Queen left for the planet with an army of robot drones to build a city on the planet, which was going to be called New Gallifrey. The Time Lords, and K'anpo, spent the next 3 days looking for new Time Lords before they moved to the planet. With two telepathic conduits in two points in the cosmos working side by side, the two parties found hundreds of Time Lords in the next month.
The Rani had taken samples from 1 million human beings for their DNA, and found that 50,000 of them had the compatibility to become clones of Time Lords. Then Rani found that by creating a virus she could turn Humans into Time lords without weeks of work. She used this on all the samples, and had more taken and mixed them into a massive genetic bank. This bank would be used to recreate the Time lord race.
In that time, the Rani was growing new Time Lords from the race banks. The Rani's plan was to use one bank at first, before she used a second and used the others to mix other DNA strands to create new races with different and varying talents.
