CHAPTER 4
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Peri walked back to the castle by herself as she prepared to stall as long as she could before she actually signed the planet over to the Tetraps. She hoped that she could buy her two new friends and Koschei enough time to come up with a plan before it was too late.
She reached the throne room as agreed upon and was immediately met by a part bat part boar looking creature that she assumed must be Urak. He kept looking at her with the smile of a predator looking at its prey in anticipation of its coming meal. Peri had to steel herself against the nervousness that she felt creeping through her at the sight of the evil creature leering at her.
"Ah, you must be Queen Peri. I am Urak, the leader of the Tetraps and the future co-ruler of Krontep," Urak said with that evil grin still on his face.
"Co-ruler?" Peri asked.
"Oh, yes. I have reached an agreement with another of this world. He will rule here in my name and take care of all the menial tasks in maintaining it that I have no interest in doing while my people get to partake of some of the resources of your world to solve our food shortage crisis. It's a good deal for both of us," Urak said with a chuckle.
"By resources, you mean drink the blood of the people," Peri said with disgust.
"You've been talking to the mistress Rani. Yes, that is exactly what we want. We will take a small percentage of the people here as food. They will be picked by my new partner. We won't kill them. We will keep them alive and use them as a blood bank. We will allow them time to replenish their blood supply before we use them again," Urak said as if he were being magnanimous to his intended victims.
"That's even worse. You're just keeping them in a permanent state of suffering until they die," Peri said in anger.
"It's either them or your daughter. Take your pick," Urak threatened.
"You're a monster. You're worse than the Rani ever was," Peri said.
"We will agree to differ, Queen Peri. Now, sign the planet over to us or watch your daughter die!" Urak said as he made a signal to some of the other Tetraps.
They brought a shaking, frightened little girl about ten years old out of another room. She seemed to brighten some as she saw her mother, but she was still very afraid.
"It'll be okay, Janine. I'm going to get you out of here," Peri said as she smiled reassuringly at her.
Janine just nodded and said nothing. She was scared stiff. Seeing her usually talkative child act like that made Peri even angrier than she already was. She had to keep reminding herself to keep her cool and not blow the hopefully forthcoming rescue by losing her temper and making things worse.
That struggle was made even harder in the next minute as the traitor in their midst was revealed. Urak smiled at his new partner as the Captain of the Guard appeared and slapped the Tetrap's back in friendship.
"Are you surprised, oh wonderful Queen?" the Captain said with a smirk.
"Not really! I think that someone like you is capable of doing anything," Peri said as her eyes burned holes into him.
"The throne needs to be reclaimed by a real citizen of Krontep. For too long, our planet has been sullied by having a foreigner rule it!" the Captain said with disgust.
"So you make deals with more foreigners to oust the other foreigner? What makes you think that they'll really let you run things here? You'll just be a puppet to them, Captain Orton. You'll be next to nothing. Just food with delusions of grandeur," Peri said to him.
"Lies! We will only leave an occupational force behind to assist Orton with the governing of this world. Most of the major decisions will be made by him," Urak said.
Orton's eyes widened at this information. This was news to him!
"Most of the decisions?" Orton said in irritation.
"Yes, I will have to reserve the ultimate authority and final say in the major matters for myself, of course," Urak said with a wicked grin.
"You never said anything like that before!" Orton protested.
"You never asked," Urak said with glee in his voice.
Peri was enjoying Orton's comeuppance and was glad that this was prolonging matters and buying time, but she was also sickened by how stupid and corrupt that Orton was. With people like him in top positions here, no wonder her rule had been so rough.
If she had had people like Oswin and Mari in charge, her job would have been so much easier, and the whole planet wouldn't have fallen into such a miserable state as it was now. Maybe Yrcanos would still be alive too. He had fallen in battle protecting the planet from an invasion. Maybe with a better trained guard that wouldn't have happened.
The King before Yrcanos had filled the top positions with all kinds of corrupt toadies, and it was now coming back to haunt the whole planet now. Peri felt overwhelmed in trying to run such a disorganized mess of a world. Now that a TARDIS was here, she was very tempted to get in it with her daughter and leave for Earth for good. It seemed that no one here would miss her if she did.
"I refuse to take part in this. I will not hand my planet over to an even worse foreigner than the other one," Orton said in a fury.
"I'm starting to look very good right now, aren't I?" Peri said with a mirthless laugh.
Orton glared at her, and she quickly butted out of the argument. She would just let the two of them go at it without further interruptions and hope that it would buy the others more time to arrive.
As it turned out, she didn't have to wait that much longer. A Dalek army suddenly appeared in the middle of the room and the Tetraps and Krontep soldiers alike ran at them.
"EXTERMINATE THEM! EXTERMINATE!" the Daleks shouted as they opened fire.
With everyone distracted, Oswin slipped into the throne room unnoticed by anyone due to having her perception filter make her appear invisible to the others as long as she brought no attention to herself. She quickly stunned the Tetraps holding Janine with her gauntlets on a silent setting so as to not make any noise.
Oswin quickly made her way to first Janine and then Peri and grabbed ahold of both of their arms. As soon as Oswin touched Janine and Peri, the perception filter started to work on them too; and they became invisible as well.
They slowed began to walk past the Tetraps and soldiers together so as to not be noticed by them. Everything was going well until one of the Tetraps accidentally fell while trying to run, and a 'Dalek' went right through him.
"It's an illusion!" Urak shouted.
The Daleks disappeared to reveal Koschei and Marissa standing there instead. Koschei had been blasting them with his laser screwdriver in the guise of the Daleks. The two of them had anticipated that the Dalek illusion cast by their own perception filter might be seen through and decided to go through with their back-up plan of holding the attention of the others by themselves until Oswin could get Peri and Janine out safely.
"Kill them!" Urak yelled.
"You can try, Bat Boys. You can try!" Koschei taunted them as he began to laugh his maniacal laugh in an attempt to unnerve them with it.
Koschei blasted all of the Tetraps in front at once with the wide beam setting of his screwdriver. Several of them fell unconscious at once, but there were still plenty of them left standing, and they all started to rush at the two Time Lords at once.
Marissa then blasted some dust out of the bracelets on her wrists just before they got to them, and the Tetraps all started to scream in horror as they started to shrink and transform instantly. In a matter of seconds, the Tetraps had all been changed into babies!
Urak had managed to keep away from the dust so he was the only Tetrap unaffected. He looked at his men in horror and pointed a gun at Marissa with shaky hands.
"What have you done to them? Change them back!" Urak demanded.
"Sorry! It's permanent. They'll have to live their lives over again. Maybe they'll do better this time and avoid people like you," Marissa said.
"You haven't won! I'll still take over this world. I just have to get Peri to sign it over to me, and there will be nothing that you can do about it," Urak said.
"Go ahead if you can find her," Marissa said with a smirk.
Urak looked around him frantically and saw no trace of Peri or Janine anywhere. He turned back to Marissa in a furious state.
"You tricked me! You spirited them away while you distracted us," Urak shouted.
"You're a little slow on the uptake, aren't you?" Koschei said as he started laughing at him.
"Neither of you will survive to tell the tale of how you outwitted me. If nothing else, at least I will have killed two Time Lords today," Urak said as he fired two shots at them in rapid succession.
Neither of the shots reached their targets as they both were absorbed by the force field of Oswin, who had suddenly teleported in front of them. Urak fired again and again at her, but her force field absorbed each shot effortlessly as she steadily walked towards him at a slow but steady pace.
"Why don't you fall?" Urak shouted at her in desperation.
Oswin said nothing until she was less than a foot away from him; then she said, "Exterminate!"
She used her perception filter to change her appearance to that of a Dalek; and she said once again, "EXTERMINATE!"
"No! It's just an illusion again like before. I won't fall for it this time," Urak said as he shook in terror.
He fired once again, but the blast had no effect on Oswin's shield. Oswin had had enough of this petty being. She fired a stun blast at Urak and instantly knocked him out cold. Then she turned to face the guards under the command of the Captain.
"DOES ANYONE ELSE QUESTION THE RIGHT OF THE QUEEN TO RULE?" Oswin asked as a Dalek.
"I surrender. I just wanted to protect my planet from alien rule, but I almost handed it over to an even worse alien instead," Orton said as he laid his sword on the ground and lowered his head in shame.
"Was I really that bad?" Peri asked.
"You are not one of us. You have no idea what it's like to be one of us. You don't know anything about the average life of a citizen of Krontep," Orton said.
"I know that none of them wanted to become the food supply of the Tetraps. I'm pretty sure of that," Peri said.
"I went too far. I was too blinded by my zeal to replace you to even see what I was doing. I let my hatred for you turn me into a monster," Orton admitted.
"You mean your blind xenophobic hatred of anyone different from you," Oswin, with her perception filter now turned off, said accusingly.
She knew all too well how people treated those who were different. She had experienced it herself when she was a Dalek, and the Daleks themselves were the ultimate example of such hatred. Such hatred could and often did inspire such horrendous things as Orton was contemplating doing to his own people.
Peri ordered that Orton and all of the guards that had been loyal to him be locked up immediately to await a trial, and then she did something that shocked everyone. She walked up in front of everyone and announced, "I hereby abdicate the throne of Krontep. I'm taking myself and my daughter and leaving here immediately. I feel that I am no longer suited for the leadership of this planet since it seems that so many people here are unhappy with my rule. I ask that you vote for all of your future leaders with democratic elections instead. That way you will get someone who will best represent the will of the people."
"Are you sure about this, Peri?" Oswin asked her.
"Yes, I am, Oz. I just want to go back home to Earth. That is if you guys will take me back after the way that I treated you," Peri said.
"Oz?!" Oswin said with a grimace.
"Of course you can come, Peri. I owe you that much at least," Marissa said.
"Mum, this is my home. I don't even know the Earth. Will I even fit in there?" Janine asked worried.
"Of course you will, sweetheart. You're going to love it there. I'm afraid to stay here after what just happened here. I just don't feel that this planet is a safe place anymore for you," Peri said.
"I guess you're right," Janine said; but her facial expressions said otherwise.
"I'll help you all that I can, Janine. I know what it's like not to fit in," Oswin offered.
"Thanks. I'm probably going to need it," Janine said with an appreciative smile.
Oswin hoped that the two of them could become good friends. She already felt that she had started up a friendship with Peri despite that horrible Oz nickname that she was trying to stick her with.
They all went back to Marissa's TARDIS except for Koschei, who decided to leave in his own TARDIS as he didn't want to be in a confined space with Peri for too long for fear that they would both soon be at each other's throats. He was also taking the infant Tetraps and Urak back to the Tetrap home world for adoption and trial respectively.
Marissa took the TARDIS into the Vortex as they quickly and gratefully left Krontep behind, and Molly was introduced to Janine. Janine seemed to like Molly right away and vice versa. Peri wondered to herself if she would ever be available to be a babysitter for her in the future. Janine never liked anybody that quickly usually after all.
It was then that she realized that she didn't want to go back to Earth. She wanted to travel with Marissa in her TARDIS. She didn't know whether she would want her and Janine here or not though. She also wasn't sure that that kind of life was safe for her daughter.
"She'd let you do it you know," Oswin said to Peri as if she could read her thoughts.
"What?" Peri asked surprised.
"She'll let you and Janine travel with her if that's what you want. Molly will probably help take care of Janine too and keep her safe here in the TARDIS. After this little adventure, I'm not so sure that Molly wants to leave it anymore anytime soon anyway. If she ever does, then Janine will be safe here in the TARDIS. The TARDIS will make sure that nothing happens to her," Oswin said.
"How on Earth did you know that I was thinking about all of that?" Peri asked in disbelief.
"I could see that look of wanderlust on your face. I've seen at on a lot of faces before of the people that I know. I see it a lot on Rose's face," Oswin admitted.
"Rose?" Peri asked.
"The Doctor's wife," Oswin explained.
"The Doctor got married?" Peri asked in disbelief.
"Apparently she was his wife from Gallifrey from a long time ago, but then she became human and lived as one for twenty years until he found her again by accident. She's very nice and the friendliest person that you'll ever meet," Oswin said with a fond smile.
"I have to meet her sometime. Whoever can put up with the Doctor without killing him must be a saint," Peri said with a laugh.
"She's the closest thing to one that I've ever met. She would never admit to such a thing though," Oswin said.
"You can stay, Peri. I'd love to have both of you travel with me," Marissa said.
"Thank you, Mari. That's so good of you especially after the way that I treated you," Peri said.
"I can't blame you at all. I was horrible back when you knew me. I'm much better now though thanks to Oswin," Marissa said.
"What?" Oswin asked in complete surprise.
"You don't even realize just how much you helped me, do you?" Marissa asked her in all seriousness.
"I just told you to stay human and not to let the tragedy of your parents' deaths change you," Oswin said.
"Yes, and that advice to stay human in the face of everything that life threw at me has stayed with me ever since. It helped me to stay as Marissa once I found out that I was the Rani. I think that if I hadn't have met you that I would have just reverted back to my old self once more. You gave me an example to live by that changed my life, Oswin," Marissa admitted.
Oswin was deeply moved by this admission; and she said, "I don't know what to say except that I'm so glad that I could help. I think that you give me too much credit though."
"Oh, you're just like Rose. You can never see yourself as everyone else does. We all know how special you are, Oswin. I hope that someday that you can see that too," Marissa said with heartfelt words.
The two of them embraced then and a lifelong debt that Marissa had always felt that she had owed to Oswin was at last acknowledged. The two of them would always be the closest of friends now from this moment onward.
Next: Oswin, Marissa, and the rest of their TARDIS crew come back to Earth for a visit as Peri reunites with the Doctor and meets Rose.