A stunned silence greeted the Master's question. The three men exchanged glances and then looked at Lazarrn. They could see that he was as astonished as they were.

Finally Morvva said,"Bless my soul, sir; you speak as though the Doctor were still alive."

"Of course the Doctor is still alive," the Master said. His little audience stirred with excitement.

Lazarrn put a hand lightly on the Master's arm. "Almost 150 years ago, the Doctor happened by our planet and helped us through a time of great trouble. We've honored him ever since in our speech and our dress and had ardently hoped for his return. But he must be dead many, many years now."

"Believe me, Lazarrn; the Doctor is still alive." Despite my best efforts to the contrary. Unobtrusively, the Master moved his arm out of Lazarrn's reach and brushed at the nap of his black velvet sleeve.

"And you know him?" Reserakk sounded insultingly disbelieving.

"We grew up together. I'm his oldest friend in the universe," replied the Master with a faint curve of his lips. Few things pleased him more than to be able to tell the exact truth in a totally misleading way.

There was a collective gasp, "You honor us by your presence," Lazarrn said.

The Master tried to look suitably modest while his mind sorted through various ways to take advantage of the situation. Then he remembered that he was on holiday. I said no trouble, and no trouble it is, he decided resolutely to himself. Aloud he said, "No, no; I'm simply a weary traveller, stopping by your planet for a brief, restful sojourn."

"How did you come to our planet?" inquired the Councillor named Lynedd.

"In my TARDIS," the Master answered casually. He knew they were testing him.

Reserakk, the youngest member of the group, had been glowering through most of this. "Lazarrn, you don't really expect us to accept that you, a Believer, just happened to pick up the Doctor's oldest friend on the main highway?"

The Master looked inquiringly around the group. "A 'believer'?" he asked.

"No one alive on this planet today has ever met the Doctor," replied Morvva. "In fact, there are some who do not believe there ever was a Doctor." He looked meaningfully at Reserakk.

"It is more than that," Reserakk broke in earnestly. "It has to do with our society, which has not changed since the day the Doctor left. Our way of greeting, our dress, all come from the time the Doctor was here. It has become impossible to effect any change in our way of life, because it is felt if we did not have it at the time this Doctor was here, we do not need it now. We will not make any forward strides until we can purge ourselves of old legends and…"

"Enough," Lazarrn interrupted firmly. "We can debate this issue in Council Chamber, Reserakk. In the meantime, let us take our guest into the Capitol Building. Perhaps he will want to see our display of the Doctor's Sacred Relics."

"I wouldn't miss it for anything," replied the Master blandly, and he followed the men up the steps. Several guards standing by the doors came to attention as the little group entered the building.

The Master learned some marginally interesting facts about his hosts as they escorted him through the lobby of the Capitol Building. Lazarrn told him that the quarterly meeting of the Planetary Council would take place the next day. Lazarrn was a senior Council member, on his way to the meeting when he offered the Master a ride. Morvva was the President of the Council, and Lynedd was also a senior member. Reserakk was the most junior member, newly elected to his seat by the growing faction of "non-believers" in the society at large. The Master noted that the three senior Council members were about the age the Doctor had appeared to be in his fourth incarnation. The Yyrikkites probably considered that to be the prime of life. He wondered idly what they would have done had they known the Doctor was over 700 years old at the time of his visit!

Lazarrn was still chattering away. Did the man never run out of breath? Now he was explaining that the meeting would take three days, during which time all the Council members would remain sequestered in the Capitol Building. Rather diffidently, he asked if the Master would like to stay with them for the three days, observing the meeting.

The offer was irresistible to the Master. It would be amusing to observe the law-making body of a society which based its ways on the erratic behavior of a goody-two-shoes like the Doctor. Such a society would certainly be based on democracy, liberty, and all those other pathetic notions the Doctor held so dear. The Council would probably debate every issue into the ground and never be able to resolve anything. "Thank you so much, Lazarrn; I would be delighted," he replied with alacrity. I can use a good laugh.

"And now we come to the Council Chamber, the seat of government for the planet of Yyrikk," Morvva was saying as he opened the large, heavy doors to the chamber. "This is also where ... " his voice trailed off as he saw the room was not empty. Two women, both with long straight hair and long white scarves, were sitting at the enormous table which dominated the chamber. "Ah, Orenn, Rikkir, lovely day."

The women stood to greet him, then hesitated uncertainly when they saw the Master. "Master, this is Orenn and Rikkir, the final two members of our governing body," said Morvva. "Madame Councillors, this is the Master - a friend of the Doctor's, here to ... "

"A friend of the Doctor's?" interrupted the woman addressed as Orenn. "I don't understand." With excited words and gestures, Morvva and Lazarrn explained the situation to the two women.

The Master had stopped listening to Morvva the moment they entered the Council Chamber. His total attention was focused on the area of the large table. Hanging on the wall above the table was an oil painting of the Doctor in his third regeneration. The Doctor was smiling toothily. This, the Master barely glanced at.

But on the table was a small glass reliquary, and in the reliquary were two objects: a piece of orange candy and a small, shining metal object. To the people of Yyrikk they were precious souvenirs of the Doctor, but to the Master they were obviously a very stale jellybaby and a Temporal Regulator in mint condition.

The Master reached out to raise the reliquary lid, but it was locked. Lazarrn hurried up to him, a worried look on his face. "No, friend," he said, "to touch the Holy Relics carries a penalty of death. This is all the Doctor left to us, and we must protect it for our posterity." The Master dropped his arms to his side, but his mind was racing.

When the Master originally acquired his TARDIS (actually, he had stolen his TARDIS, but he rarely described it that way), the first thing he had done was run a complete equipment inventory check. The time machine itself was in excellent condition, but the spare parts cabinet had been somewhat deficient. The Master had, over time, gradually restocked the spare parts inventory, concluding that he was keeping the time capsule in much better condition than the previous owner. It was obvious he'd done the TARDIS a favor when he picked it out for his own use.

However, some components were not easily replaced. The Temporal Regulator was an excellent example. Its technology was purely Gallifreyan, but he couldn't just go back to Gallifrey and ask them for a new one. This might be his only chance to replace the missing piece of equipment! If his Temporal Regulator ever went out, he would not be able to direct the TARDIS to specific temporal coordinates.

The Yyrikkites had no use for the Temporal Regulator, but he did. The Master wondered if fate had led him here just for this reason. If so, how could he turn down such a wonderful opportunity?

The Master cancelled his holiday on the spot. The Yyrikkites could keep their stale jellybaby, but the Temporal Regulator was his.