Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own anything, nor do I get paid anything for it.
A/N Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter and I apologise for the wait between chapters. Real life is a pain sometimes.
Here's the final part of #11 The Deadly Auction. It is a bit sombre, but I hope you like it just the same.
Happy Reading!
The Deadly Auction: The Peylix
"So, what exactly does the scanner do?" asked Fitz, looking at the thing that looked like an ordinary silver chain with a pendant shaped like an infinity symbol.
"It's used by medics to quarantine certain patients. It isolates their molecular structure and prevents it from transmitting the pathogen," explained the Corsair. "We have to get this on Lady Hilbert's person, and before we know it, the security key will be nullified."
"Right, so I'm guessing we are doing that before we break into the vault, right?" asked Fitz.
"Well, I am," said the Corsair with a smirk. "You get a much more important job."
Fitz looked at the Riix scanner that she was holding up and sighed. "I have to get it on Lady Hilbert, haven't I?" he asked resignedly.
The Corsair smiled and gave him the scanner. "Cheer up, Fitz," she said with a bright smile. "Could be worse. The security key could have been a huge guard with an equally huge gun."
"...and now here we have a classic Sumatran era vase with the distinctive rusty orange colour. Ladies and gentlemen, trees and multiforms, the bidding starts at fifty thousand credits…" announced Jermaine.
Rose tried not to fidget as the auction droned on and on. They were only on the fourth item yet, and she was already bored. The Doctor had told her that Fitz and the Corsair had changed their plans after learning that Lady Hilbert's molecular structure was being used as a security key. For the time being, she and the Doctor were stuck yet again while those two revised the plans.
She glanced at the Doctor who shot her a reassuring smile. He was still surprisingly calm about this whole thing, though Rose was feeling antsy. It was a feeling she got every time before the Doctor turned to her and said that there was nothing wrong yet, but they might have to start running very, very soon.
The vase was auctioned off to a curator from the Aresian collection and polite applause followed as the vase was handed off to her. It was when Jermaine started auctioning off a series of coins that Rose noticed that the wait staff was looking more and more worried.
The Doctor had told her that they were a race called Abrugines, who resided in outposts just beyond the solar system. Following a territorial dispute, there had been a war and the Abrugines had lost. As part of the surrender, many of their people were enslaved though the humans did not use those words. The whole thing was smoothed over, but the tensions between the two races ran high.
Gladys Scarlet, the Head of wait staff, returned to the auction chamber but left just as abruptly, and the feeling in Rose's gut deepened. She looked at the Doctor, who seemed to have noticed it too. She opened her mouth to ask what they should do, when the Aresian curator picked up the priceless vase she had just acquired mere minutes ago, and lobbed it at the head of an Abruguine waiter.
"MURDERERS!" she shrieked, picking up her chair as a shield in front of her as she glared viciously at the Abrugines in the room. "Stay away from me!"
The Doctor and Rose jumped to their feet at the unwarranted act of violence but to their enormous surprise, the remaining life forms in the room were regarding the Abrugines with hostility rather than the Aresian curator.
"What the hell is going on?" asked Rose, looking at the Doctor. She was feeling a bit faint, and her hand kept reaching towards a chair as if to grab it for protection.
The Doctor noticed it and caught her wrist. "Rose, focus," he whispered sharply. "Something's influencing all the life forms in here."
Rose swayed lightly but the Doctor's grip on her wrist kept her grounded. She blinked twice at her own hands and nodded slowly. "'Kay, how do we fix it?" she asked.
The Doctor's fingers rubbed at her wrists slowly, as if to calm them both down. "Come on, we have to find the Corsair and Fitz. I think I know what the Peylix might be."
Fitz crept along the hallways, hoping that the shielding on that ridiculously tight suit he was wearing was holding. He had a device strapped to his wrist where an orange beacon showed the location of Lady Hilbert.
He was almost near the last hallway, when someone grabbed him by the throat and pinned him to the wall.
"Who the hell are you?" demanded the man who had seized him. "Are you one of them? Are you an Abrugine spy?"
Fitz gasped for breath and shook his head frantically. He had no idea what the man was even talking about. Suddenly, his captor's grip slackened and he fell to the floor, eyes wide and mouth open in a silent scream. He was dead.
"Talk, unless you want to be next," said the woman who had just shot the guard at their feet. She was unlike any alien Fitz had seen before, with purple skin and bright red hair.
"Look, I don't know what you want," said Fitz, raising his hands to his side.
The woman trembled, the gun in her hand shaking slightly. "I did everything right, but they are just going mad," she said. "They are killing us."
Fitz glanced at her and then at the man on the floor. "Are you an...Abur...Abrugine?" he asked, stumbling slightly over the word.
The woman stared at him as if he was mad. "Of course I am," she said. "What else would I be? Now, tell me who you are and what you're doing here or you'll end up like him," she threatened, pointing at the floor.
"Calm down," said Fitz, suppressing the sudden unnatural urge to grab her gun and shoot her instead. "My name's Fitz and I'm here to find my friends."
She appraised him with slightly frightened eyes though her posture remained staunch. "Gladys Scarlet," she introduced herself. "Who are your friends?"
"That would be us, I think."
Gladys whirled around at the Time Lord's voice and Fitz took the chance to knock the gun out of her tenuous grip. The gun clattered to the floor and skidded towards the Doctor who deliberately kicked it away from them.
"I knew it," said Gladys, her trembling becoming worse. "I knew that your people knew something was wrong here."
Rose's face melted into concern and she moved towards Gladys, only to have her shrink back like a spooked deer. "It's alright," said Rose gently. "We're only here to help."
"Rose is not wrong," said the Doctor, looking at Gladys speculatively. "Run us through what exactly has happened here, would you?"
Gladys looked between them and nodded slowly. "He told me it would be okay, that I only had to get the diamond and I could liberate my people in the colonies. Everything was supposed to be fine, but ever since I took the diamond out of the box, everyone except the Abrugines...started going mad. They attacked us, and the guards were executing them left and right," she sobbed. "I barely managed to escape. Please don't let them find me, they'll kill me."
"Who?" asked Fitz. "Who put you up to this whole thing?"
Gladys' sobs became worse. "It was him. It was Lord Hilbert," she cried.
"I suppose it is true what they say," said Lord Hilbert, as he emerged from the shadows, holding the gun that the Doctor had kicked away. "Never trust an Abrugine as far as you can kill them," he sneered with disgust.
"Put the gun down, Warren," said the Doctor as he looked at the man coldly.
Lord Hilbert ignored him and pointed the gun at Rose. "Come on, all of you. Down to the vault," he said. "Unless you want me to shoot her," he added when they didn't move.
"You know what the consequences will be if you ever hurt a Time Lord," said the Doctor, his jaw clenching in anger.
Lord Hilbert barked out a laugh. "She's no more a Time Lord than that filthy Abrugine who's cowering behind you. It was a good disguise, I admit, but her one heart gives it away," he said, jabbing his gun towards Rose, who glared at him. "Now, move!"
Glaring at the man, the Doctor, Rose and Fitz started walking towards the elevator at the end of the hallway. However, Gladys was gripped with fear and made a run for it. Without even blinking, Lord Hilbert aimed the gun at her back and shot her dead.
Fitz yelped as the Doctor and Rose looked at Lord Hilbert with pure loathing. "You didn't have to do that," said Rose, fury radiating from her. "She was just scared."
Lord Hilbert ignored her. "Keep moving, unless you three want to be next," he said.
"What's the bloody big deal with the diamond anyway that everyone's going mental over it?" asked Fitz, feeling disgusted that he'd seen two people just blatantly murdered in a matter of minutes.
"I don't think he planned this, Fitz," said the Doctor shrewdly as the elevator started descending to the level with the vault. "No doubt he wanted to steal it, but the paranoia that's seizing everyone? It's something else entirely."
"Then you tell me what it is, Doctor," said Lord Hilbert. "If you know so much about it."
The Doctor looked at him coldly. "You are dealing with something far beyond your petty understanding. If you know what's good for you, you'll destroy that thing at once," he said.
"Likely story," said Lord Hilbert as they entered the vault that had been left wide open by fleeing security guards. All the artefacts inside had remained untouched; it was as if the single-minded paranoia about the Abrugines had removed all other traces of intelligence from the life forms aboard Platform Zephyr.
The Peylix was sitting next to its box, glowing a brilliant blue, and as they approached it, Fitz and Rose started feeling a little faint. The intense feeling of paranoia and bloodlust grasped them again, and it was only the frantic arrival of Lady Hilbert that knocked them out of the stupor.
She looked dishevelled, her dress was torn at the hem and her hair was escaping the stylish do that it had been in before. She seemed just as taken aback to see them as they were to see her. "Warren, what's going on?" she asked, looking at her husband holding the Time Lords and an odd young man dressed in a skin tight suit at gunpoint.
Lord Hilbert shook his head quickly. "Listen to me, Mina. I'm doing this for us," he said.
"How exactly is setting a war in motion something you do for your wife?" asked the Doctor sardonically.
"Warren," gasped Mina, tears gathering in her eyes. "Please, please tell me you didn't do all of this."
"It wasn't supposed to go this way!" he shouted. "The idiotic Abrugine was going to steal the diamond and then I was going to catch her and hand her over to the authorities. Not only would an artefact that was considered to be worth stealing auction off for a lot more, but the stock would have fallen in Abrugine trading if it turned out that one of them tried to steal something so valuable at an event this prestigious."
Mina was looking at him, like she was seeing him for the very first time. "More money? You did all this for more money?" she asked, aghast. "People are dying, Warren, and you are telling me it was because you wanted to make more money?"
"Listen to me, both of you," interrupted the Doctor urgently. "The Peylix is not an ordinary diamond. Look at it, did you ever see it glow like this before?" he asked, pointing towards the Peylix which was glowing brighter than ever.
"What is it?" asked Rose, trying not to look too directly at it since it gave her a headache.
"It's a quantum crystalliser," said the Doctor. "Or an early version of it, anyway. Omega must have made a prototype."
"What's it do?" asked Fitz. "And why's it making my head hurt?"
"It's because it is becoming unstable," said the Doctor. "Quantum crystallisers can shift timelines and manipulate events to guarantee an outcome. You and Rose, despite being human, are time travellers and the Peylix is preying on your Artron energy. Because, unless I'm much mistaken, it is set to guarantee a very specific outcome."
"And what's that?" asked Rose, rubbing her head as she tried to stave off the headache.
"Victory and dominance of the Time Lords," said the Doctor.
"That'll do, Doctor," said the Corsair as she walked into the vault. Lord Hilbert swung his gun towards her but with a deliberate flick of her laser screwdriver, the gun was rendered useless. Before he could try and retaliate, the Corsair aimed the screwdriver at him and Lady Hilbert and the two of them collapsed to the ground unconscious.
"What did you do to them?" asked Fitz, looking horrified.
"They're stunned, and their memories of this day have been wiped," said the Corsair calmly as she picked up the Peylix and put it inside the box.
"You can't take it back to them," said the Doctor furiously.
"I must, Doctor," said the Corsair gravely. "It is a valuable and important bit of technology. I know that the current setting is rather drastic but destroying it is out of the question."
"Excuse me, but what the bloody hell is that thing?" demanded Fitz loudly. "If it's about Time Lords and their dominance or something, then why are the people here killing Abrugines?"
"This is a time of peace for the humans," realised Rose. "If that thing changes timelines and things, then it must have wanted to change what happens here."
The Doctor shot her a look of pride. "Yes," he said. "It fed into the paranoia of life forms here so that the war between the humans and Abrugines could start again."
"But why?" asked Fitz. "How can humans be a threat to Time Lords?"
"You underestimate your species, Fitz," said the Corsair with a small shake of her head. "Time Lords watch humans rather closely because even for a lower life form, they are the only ones who ever managed to touch every star in the sky."
"So, that was Omega's plan?" asked Rose. "To watch any progressive race crumble so that Time Lords could go on as they were?"
The Corsair looked at her sadly. "I am sorry, Rose, but that is the way things are. I have my orders, as do you. I am taking the Peylix back to Gallifrey."
"And what happens here?" asked Fitz, disgust evident in his eyes.
"I have wiped the memories of the survivors," said the Corsair calmly. "What they do next is up to them. A war could break out tomorrow, or they shall go on as they always have. Our interference is at an end."
There was silence as the Corsair delivered that bit of information. Rose suddenly felt revolted by everything, from the gown she was wearing to the Corsair's presence. "I'm going back to the TARDIS," she said, wanting to get back into her own clothes and away from Platform Zephyr and objects that manipulated timelines.
"I'll come with you, Rose," said Fitz, looking like he was feeling much the same. The Doctor nodded at his companions to go on and they left with hurried steps, without sparing the Corsair a glance.
The Corsair smiled sadly as they left. "They hate me," she stated.
"No, my dear Corsair, they hate everything that you are standing for," said the Doctor, shaking his head. "As do I. I hoped you were better than this."
The Corsair looked at him speculatively. "Do you remember the first time I met you? You were what eighty? Eighty-five? A boy who wanted to see the stars before he'd even finished the first part of his education at the Academy. I remembered seeing so much of myself in you," she said.
The Doctor thought back and remembered the tall, lanky man that the Corsair had been in her first incarnation. Young Theta Sigma had been fascinated by the man who had his own TARDIS and could go away from Gallifrey whenever he wanted. "You were my hero, Corsair," he said.
"I am sorry, Doctor," said the Corsair regretfully. "Perhaps one day we can be friends again."
The Doctor smiled bitterly. "I wish you the best, Corsair. You and the Time Lords," he said. He turned to go, feeling shame, anger and sorrow welling in his hearts.
"Doctor?" called the Corsair and he turned around briefly. "I know it isn't my place, but please hear me out. Tell Rose about the bond."
The Doctor turned around sharply at that. The Corsair continued, undeterred. "I can see that it's hurting you and soon it will start hurting her as well. It is also leaving you both vulnerable to telepathic attacks. You will have to complete it soon," she said.
The Doctor was quiet for a moment. "You're right," he said finally, straightening up. "It isn't your place, Corsair. Farewell."
With those words, the Doctor turned around and left his old friend behind.
A/N End of #11 The Deadly Auction. Thanks for reading. Let me know what you thought.
This chapter gave me so much trouble because I was a bit reluctant to have them fall out with the Corsair. But I am actually happy with the way it turned out.
The quantum crystalliser appeared in the Big Finish audio 'Human Resources' with the Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller. It is meant to alter timelines to fulfill the set outcome. Basically, Time Lord interference at its worst.
The next story is called 'The Venetian Tragedy' and is following a rather different style of story-telling. It is my first time writing something like it, but I hope you will enjoy it just the same.
Part 1 will be up soon. See you then!
~ Phoenix