At some point during my writing of the past few chapters, I realized, what General Kir did was pretty heinous, and what he threatened to do to Martha... I can't really imagine the Doctor forgetting about that, can you? Too personal, too disgusting. But he's the Doctor, so he walks a fine line. A repugnant villain's comeuppance is always a slippery slope...
Enjoy!
THIRTY-THREE
Three men walked out of the General's quarters, and down long and winding hallways, until they reached the bizarre Gallifreyan control room, capable of packaging blocks of time into neat little, destructive, capsules.
But only with the proper know-how, of course.
And the only man in the universe with the proper know-how was there, Converse squeaking against the floor, as he moved about, pulling levers, adjusting dials, and pressing buttons.
"Doctor! I thought you'd escaped!" Agent Pym said, before he could stop himself.
"Oh, hi guys," the Doctor chirped, still flipping switches and turning knobs. "Nah, I didn't escape. Been here the whole time. What, didn't you see me?"
"Come clean, Doctor! Where the hell have you been?" demanded Kir.
"That is neither here nor there," the Doctor said. "Heh – d'you see what I did there?"
"How did you escape?"
"That, General, is in the past, and if anyone knows what sorts of things to leave in the past, it's me. What's important now is the future. Where do we go from there? That is the real question."
"What are you doing?" the General asked.
"Calibrating," the Time Lord replied, squinting at a small screen and adjusting a toggle.
"Calibrating what?"
"Substantive parameters of the altitudinal and longitudinal frontier of the helically-oriented snare I'm building, which has to do with an oscillating signature, employed by a particular entity," he answered. After a pause, he looked at the General. "Glad you asked?"
"Does that mean you're isolating a time-block?"
"Indeed it does," said the Doctor. "Yes. No. Well, sort of. I mean, I'm isolating something."
The General watched him for a few moments with confusion. The Doctor didn't look at him, but could feel the man wondering at him, if he'd really been here the whole time, and just managed to outsmart them… or had he gone away and come back? And why?
"Where's Martha Jones?" was all he could articulate right now.
"In an undisclosed location, General. You gave her quite a scare – she won't come near you," the Doctor reported. "Because honestly, she's afraid of what she'll do to you if we give her half a chance."
"Oh, this is ridiculous!" the General finally spat. "What's the matter with you two idiots? Grab him!"
Oly lurched forward, and Pym did as well – though only half-heartedly – before the Doctor said, "I wouldn't, if I were you," with one finger pointing up, knowingly.
Both Agents stopped.
"Grab him!" the General shouted. "What the hell are you waiting for?"
"They're waiting to hear the consequences of doing so, General," the Doctor said, with an eyeroll.
"There's no fucking consequences!" Kir continued to cry out. "Get him into cuffs, you idiots!"
The Doctor strode forward, walking between Oly and Pym, and approached the General directly. "Two points, Kir," he said. "One: why don't you do it yourself? Eh? Just grab me if you want to! Go ahead, big boy, I might like it!"
"What?"
"And two," the Doctor continued. "Well, actually… point one-A: I know why you won't grab me. Because you are also afraid of what will happen if you do. Which brings me now to point two: this room has some fearsome power in it. I'm vulnerable, I'm clever and I'm the only one who knows how any of this stuff works. So yeah, there are fucking consequences. Your words, not mine."
"All right then," Kir said, silkily, sarcastically. "Enlighten us."
"For one thing, I've got Dr. Jones on standby with multiple contingency coordinates set. All I'd have to do is give her the word, and she'll materialise the TARDIS around all of us. Then I'll be the one in charge and making threats. But, you know, I don't want to be guilty of kidnapping. I mean, honestly, who would?"
"Interesting."
"And the TARDIS could get you into her dimensional field before you even know it's happening," the Doctor boasted. "And once you're in… well… I might just hand you over to Martha. I might forget to feel compassion for you, as well."
The General laughed. "Compassion for me. Right."
"Why are you laughing?" the Doctor asked. "Clearly, you haven't done your homework if you don't think I could have compassion for someone like you. Just because you can't understand feeling a gut-level empathy and sorrow for a person who has a different point of view than you, doesn't mean it doesn't happen."
"Listen, I don't need your compassion, all right?"
"Sure you do. Come on, General, anyone who would do the things you did… d'you know, orchestrating a systematic impersonation of the Galactic Council could get you thrown in the real prison of the Inner Sanctum for a decade in and of itself! And then, using their name to commit a dual kidnapping, attempted coercion, collusion to imprison a level-5 planet, tampering with temporal spheres and fibres, and abuse of power with intent to commit level-7 acts of cruelty on the Orlingus scale…" the Doctor laughed mirthlessly. "You've got issues. With power. With self-image. And, probably with your parents."
General Kir rounded on Agent Pym. "Do you have any idea what he's talking about?" he asked, angrily.
"Yes, sir," said Pym.
"Then tell me."
Pym cleared his throat, then hesitated for a second, before saying, "You kidnapped and imprisoned a sentient being in order to try and coerce him into doing what you wanted. Attempted coercion under duress carries a hefty fine."
"In addition," the Doctor added. "You tried to coerce me into tampering with temporal spheres and fibres, which I have the right to do, according to the Galactic Council, but you do not. If I did it because you forced me, you would be guilty of that tampering. Another hefty fine. Tell me, General, do you think the Heimat Squad would pay two penalties of six million credits, and allow you to keep your job?"
"I've heard enough," the General said, again with anger. He barely made a move toward the Doctor.
The Doctor reached out to a switch on the control board where he'd been working, and touched it lightly. "Give me a reason, General. I've been in this room fiddling with time, space, the Vortex, all sorts of fun things for about a half-hour. You have no idea what this switch will do. I have compassion, but I will protect my interests."
"Coward."
"Mm-hm," the Doctor grunted. "Continuing on… Earth is a level-5 planet, which means that the human race has protections, particular to a sentient, intelligent species. I don't care what the Time Lords said – I rarely ever did – but humans are level-5 beings… at the very least! And they have more determination and compassion than any other level-5 species! And you, General, you attempted to imprison it. Or at least, you participated in collusion to imprison it! That's another decade in the Inner Sanctum, if you're lucky! And then… then, there's the Orlingus scale! Oh, my…"
Again, Kir addressed Pym. He seemed to be overwhelmed by the Doctor just now. "What do you know about the Orlingus scale?"
"You committed a level-4 act of cruelty, with intent to commit level-7 acts," Pym told him calmly.
"Which means?" Kir asked, frowning hard. The Doctor could see he was rather worried now.
"The things you said you would do to Dr. Jones. Issuing threats to incite abject bodily fear, even if you don't follow through, is a level-4 cruelty. Rape is level-6, and torture is level-7."
Kir scoffed. "I wouldn't have followed through."
The Doctor took a couple of steps forward again. "If I asked Colonel Rax whether or not he'd actually put the branding kit on stand-by, on your orders, for Dr. Jones, what would he say? Or better yet, if a Galactic Council Interrogator, with their particular abilities asked him, what would he say?"
Kir remained in a seething silence, which spoke volumes.
"And if they asked him whether you'd mentioned to him the prospect of sharing a harried and unwilling Dr. Jones with him, what would he say?"
Again, Kir's eerie silence.
"That's what I thought," the Doctor said quietly. He took a deep breath and began to walk around in a large circle as he continued talking. "So, you see, you're definitely worthy of my pity. I see that very clearly – inside that starched green uniform, there is a very scared, vulnerable man, who has no idea how to handle his emotions, other than through aggression."
The General laughed. "Very enlightening, Doctor, thank you."
"Or, at least, you were worthy of pity," the Doctor went on. "You know, I've got to tell you, General, most of this Galactic Council, time loop, conspiring rubbish, it's all just law-breaking. It's destructive and annoying, and it's the kind of crap I've dealt with all over the universe for almost a millennium. It gets old, but I cope with it."
"Well, aren't you the benevolent angel," the General sneered.
The Doctor stopped and faced him then. "No. Not without limits, anyway. Because when you were talking to Martha, threatening her, subjugating her… that was more than just annoying and destructive law-breaking. That was personal. That betrayed in you a certain despicability. That displayed a choice to handle your issues in a way that forces other people to their knees, and I won't have it. You lost my goodwill with that little episode, General Kir."
"Oh, really?"
"Really."
"No compassion left?"
"I wouldn't say none, but… you can't push me, and someone I love, to the edge of sanity, and expect us to come back with a totally sane response, now, can you?"
Teeth clenched, Kir asked, "So what areyou going to do, Doctor?"
The Doctor indicated the large switch which he'd pointed out earlier. "This lever is set to do something fairly wicked. It might re-isolate 1938 for you, or it might not."
"What?"
The Time Lord smiled. "You've no way of knowing what it will do… you have no context for predicting my actions."
"Haven't I?"
"No, you haven't. Because, you can't understand me on a personal level, and you left it up to Agent Pym to do all the homework, so… I'm afraid you're buggered."
"Oly," the General barked. "Inspect that control panel. Find out what the switch does."
Agent Oly looked at the General quizzically, and then shook it off, and moved forward to study the buttons and bobs surrounding the switch.
The Doctor laughed. "Really?" he asked Kir. "Have one of your agents inspect it?"
Oly, knowing full well that he wouldn't be able to glean anything from it, turned around and faced the Doctor and the General again. His face seemed to be asking both of them, "What do I do next?"
After a long pause, the General said, "I'll risk it. Grab him!"
This time, neither agent moved. The General, however, was not particularly surprised.
"Wise decision," the Doctor said to both Oly and Pym. "See, you don't employ halfwits, do you? They know there's no telling what could happen if I flip that switch. This whole building could get sucked into a black hole! This entire outpost!"
"You wouldn't."
"Or better yet, and far more likely," the Doctor said, poignantly, almost with exaggerated mock-amazement. "The entire Kyriarch System could get lost in time. I could take this entire corner of the universe in this entire century, and squish it into a theoretical space the size of a coffin! In which case, time stands still and meaningless here forever, unless and until someone opens it up, and then it all goes splat across the cosmos, and everyone dies. Inside, outside… anything in its path."
"Is that what you've poised to do?" the General asked. He indicated the switch. "With that? Wipe the Kyriarch system off the map completely?"
The Doctor fluttered a crooked eyebrow at him. "Call me irresponsible."
"Why would you do that?"
"You try imprison my people (and try to make me help you, no less), so I imprison yours. A fairly straightforward eye-for-an-eye scenario. Only I'm a lot cleverer, so I can do it bigger and better and faster."
"Your people?" the General scoffed.
"Yes," the Doctor spat. "The Time Lords were stodgy, dodgy, and too big for their britches. Gallifrey was beautiful, but it was, more often than not, stifling for me. Outside of my TARDIS, Earth is where I belong, these days, General. Humans? They're amazing! I love their ingenuity – that same ingenuity that you lot, and the Time Lords, find objectionable enough to squelch for all eternity. I love their indomitable spirit, and that inborn curiosity. I've loved individual humans more than I ever loved any Time Lord – with one possible exception.
"In fact, Kir, I love a human – a secretary, and a damn good one, who's done more than anyone else, in helping to take you down. She is currently convalescing in my TARDIS, and may or may not make it, because she tried to save her planet. She decided to give her life to foil your plan, and I think that's chuffing brilliant. Sad, terrifying, and rage-inducing, but brilliant.
"And, as you know, there is a human who works as an A&E physician in central London, with whom I've uncompromisingly fallen in love," the Doctor continued. "I love her... so much I can't think straight sometimes. And you knew that, didn't you? When you threatened to torture and use her, you knew it would rattle me to the point of breaking."
"I did," Kir said. "Though, I have to admit, you are not the only reason I'd have for wanting to keep company with Dr. Jones."
The Doctor smiled indulgently. "I've got the upper hand now, so you're trying a cheap trick to rattle me again. Well-done, sir."
There was a long standoffish silence, and then General Kir said, "I think you're bluffing. Not five minutes ago, you talked to me about compassion."
"I also talked to you about losing my goodwill and patience with you."
"I'm still not worried," the General shrugged, but the Doctor could see that he was.
The Doctor sauntered up very close to Kir, and in low, tense tones, said, "You poise to plunge the planet I love into an endless, hellish nightmare. One of my best friends nearly dies trying to stop you. You kidnap me, try to force me to commit atrocities against innocents. And then, when I say no deal, you force the woman I love to her knees, threatening to torture and rape her if I don't comply."
"And?"
"I'm a Time Lord," said the Doctor, growling now. "I fought in the war that destroyed Gallifrey, and it wasn't my first rodeo. I was a soldier, a man of combat, just like you."
"Congratulations."
"So, with all of the rubbish you've put me through, and with my knowing that you could and would perpetrate the same crimes all over again, you tell me, what's more likely: that I would squeeze some vestige of compassion out of one of my hearts, and let you continue on in some semblance of life and some semblance of dignity, or that I would put your world on the edge of disaster, and give it a push?" As he said this, he reached out and touched the switch.
The General was breathing heavily, and his eyes were switching back and forth between the button and the Doctor's face.
After what seemed an eternity, Kir asked, "What do you want?"
"I want you to leave the Earth alone," the Doctor responded. "I want you to let the twentieth century carry itself forward as normal, into the twenty-first, then the twenty-second, and then the twenty-third and twenty-fourth, and so on, ad infinitum. Stand down, General, or, well… you know the consequences."
"If you swallow the Kyriarch system with a time-squish, or whatever, you'll die too."
"Yeah, but that's not new to me," the Doctor dismissed.
And that was when the air filled with the sound of ethereal grinding. Neither Pym, nor Kir, nor their colleague Oly, had heard the noise before…
…although Agent Pym had a good idea what it was. And it made his heart pound.
The TARDIS. Here, in this room!
"Right on time," the Doctor quipped.
The blue box appeared about twenty feet away from them, and Martha Jones opened the door. "Hiya. How are things?" she asked.
"Brilliant," the Doctor answered. "Nice job aiming."
"Pff. You said press the button, so I pressed the button," she shrugged, then seemed to notice the other men in the room. Impassively, she said, "Hello, Agent Pym. General."
"I knew it," the General sneered. "You scared weakling, Doctor! You've summoned your vehicle and your girlfriend, and now you're just going to turn and run, aren't you?"
The Doctor approached the TARDIS. "I've done what I came here to do, so yes, I'm leaving."
"With your tail between your legs!"
"Call it whatever you like. I call it a fail-safe."
"What, that switch?"
"Erm… yeah. I thought that was what we'd been talking about… thought that was clear."
Kir laughed out loud. "You're running away to save face! That switch doesn't do what you said it would do!"
"Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't," the Doctor said, stepping into the TARDIS.
Again, Kir eyed the switch. "Lightweight. Liar," the General growled. "I'll get a crew to begin dismantling this machinery - we'll work it out for ourselves."
"General, trust me. You do not want to tamper with that equipment, nor find out what that switch will do."
"Doctor, may I ask you a question?" Everyone in the room was surprised to hear Agent Pym pipe up at this stage.
"Of course," answered the Doctor, from just inside the doorjamb of the TARDIS. Martha stood next to him, with the left-side door slightly open, peering out.
"Is it true that the interior of the TARDIS is in another dimension?"
"Yes," said the Doctor, patting the wooden frame round the entrance. "This doorway is a dimensional compression field that allows one to pass from one layer of reality into a compacted space."
"It travels through time, and the interior is immune to the jostlings of the Vortex and whatnot?"
"Well, we still feel the impact, but… well, more or less, yeah."
"Pym, shut the hell up," the General whined. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm making sure the Doctor and his Companion are safe, sir," said Pym.
"From what?"
"From this," Pym answered, lurching to his left, toward the switch with his hand out.
"Pym, no!" everyone cried out.
Pym pressed his palm against the lever, and said to General Kir, "I've had enough of you. I've had enough of the Kyriarch System. I've even had enough of me. Just… bloody enough. I want to find out what the switch does."
He braced himself for a second or two, then pressed down on the switch.
As the General disappeared into a swirling mass of orange light inside of one second, his voice echoed across the space, yelling in anger, in terror… in vain.
"So that's what it does," Pym mused.
Whaaa?
I love when the Doctor talks the bad guy's ear off. It's so much fun to write! What do YOU think?
Thank you for reading!