Lieutenant Adventures Series 17 Episode 8, 16 August 2023. The Lost Patrol Part 1.
16th Lieutenant: So, at this point, I had been travelling through time and space for centuries. exploring new worlds and meeting strange and wonderful creatures. But as I grew older, I began to consider my own mortality.
I knew that as a Time Lord, I had a limited number of regenerations, and I had already lived through many of them. The thought of my eventual death weighed heavily on me, and I wondered if there was any way to break the rules and extend my life beyond the 13th incarnation.
This is the story of my 8th incarnation.
8th Lieutenant: The Lieutenant sat in a big, gothic, red armchair in the TARDIS library, with his feet up on the desk, glasses on, deep into reading a book. It was a book detailing Time Lord regeneration, the different types and limits.
The Lieutenant had been deep in thought a lot about how many regenerations he'd had and how many he had left and has started to prepare for life after the end, if that was possible, or maybe he had time to mellow to it and accept it when he got round to it, he wasn't sure. He was aware of a few illegal ways of getting around the limit but he did not want to act illegally if he did not have to.
One of these illegal ways of survival was to use an Elysian Field, this would get him a new cycle of regenerations but there was a condition, his first new incarnation would have to be evil and for a lifetime, he was not sure how he felt about abandoning his good life for an entire lifetime.
Another illegal method of survival was to do a partial conversion to Persh Vampire, who, themselves, have thirteen regenerations, fourteen incarnations, but he would no longer be fully-Time Lord.
Another illegal method would be to hijack another Time Lord's existence and steal their remaining regenerations, but he was not sure how much he wanted to do that, he would hate for someone else to hijack his existence.
Another was to steal a small piece of regeneration energy from each of his past selves, collect it together and then use that to regenerate a thirteenth time but that would only be one regeneration.
Another was to inhabit the bodies of the recently-deceased to survive longer but this would only be a temporary fix.
Amongst the legal methods were to obtain a new cycle of regenerations from the High Council of the Time Lords but he was not sure what he would do to deserve such an award.
Another was to obtain a new regeneration from the High Council of the Time Lords but, again, he was not sure what he would do to deserve such an award and, again, that was only one regeneration.
He snapped the book shut and stood up. He was getting nowhere. He stood stretching for a moment and then stood, listening hard. He could hear a faint beeping. He followed the sound out to the corridor. It was coming from the control room!
When he got to the control room, the Lieutenant strode to the console and looked at the scanner. It was a distress signal! 'They're going to kill us, please help.'
The Lieutenant stood staring at the scanner for a moment, then he grunted and punched in co-ordinates to the Navigation Panel and locked onto the distress signal, pulling the Master Level.
The TARDIS attempted materialising but shuddered.
'No, no, no!' exclaimed the Lieutenant, punching in slightly different co-ordinates and pulling the Master Lever again. Whoever was causing trouble here was clever and was aware of the Time Lords and the fact the TARDIS had just bounced of their shield would, no doubt, alert them to the fact he was attempting to materialise.
The TARDIS finally materialised.
As the TARDIS stopped, the Lieutenant just stood and listened for a moment. He was sure someone would now be either after him or panicking about him. He heard nothing. He turned the scanner back on. There was no-one to be seen anywhere outside. Nothing stirred.
The Lieutenant turned off the scanner and reached across to the door control and pulled it and strode across to the door. He stepped out, pulling the door shut behind him. He stood, looking around himself for a moment. He breathed in. Then he looked left. 'Ah, that'll be it,' he said, looking up at a large, multi-story building. He briefly caught someone peering through a blind at him.
The Lieutenant stood, hands in pockets, staring up at the window he'd seen the movement in for a moment and grinned. 'Aha, bingo! Gotcha!' he exclaimed, looking down at the front door to the building. Taking his hands out of his pockets, he dashed forward to the door and kicked it until the glass broke. He, then, did not need to bust the door open, he could get through where the windows used to be. He climbed carefully through a window and got into the building.
Once inside the building, the Lieutenant moved quickly, trying to find something that looked out of the ordinary. An alarm went off and a voice spoke in a familiar-sounding voice, 'Alert! Alert! Intruder!'
The Lieutenant looked all around as he continued his search and rescue mission. 'Yep, that'll be me!' he exclaimed. 'Come on, then! Show yourselves!' He ran through the corridors for some time before running past a room with people in it.
Realising what he had seen, the Lieutenant stopped dead and slowly walked backward until he was level with the door again and peered through the window. Sontarans! Sontarans had taken humans hostage! The humans saw him but he put a finger to his lips to tell them not to exclaim. The Sontarans had not seen him.
Dreadfully aware time was running out and he could be caught any moment, the Lieutenant took a step towards the door when someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind. He stopped dead, not daring to look around.
'It's OK, I'm human,' whispered a voice behind him.
The Lieutenant turned around slowly to see the person.
'I'm Odin,' he said, 'Odin Hartley.' He held out a hand for the Lieutenant to shake. 'Nice to meet you,' he beamed.
'The Lieutenant,' said the Lieutenant, 'i followed a distress call, "They're going to kill us, please help."'
'Oh, that was me, I said I needed to pop out for water, I said I was about to faint, I wasn't, found some of their technology and used it to send out a distress signal. I didn't know if it would work or not but it was a last act of desperation, I suppose, thank you so much for answering it!' he whispered.
'OK, Odin, plan of action. They know I am here because when I was trying to lock on, I bounced off their shield and I smashed the windows on the front doors to get in, there was an alarm going off as I got here, so they know I am here, it is a matter of time until they find me, if they get to me before I get to put my plan into action then I'm sorry, I can't save you, let's hope someone else can answer your cry for help, but assuming it does go to plan, you cannot let on that you met me at all, go back in there, pretend your head is spinning and you really needed that drink and follow all commands they give you, if you give me away, all lives here are lost, I will then come in and try to intervene and I may well end up a hostage after that but I live longer, I am harder to get rid of, all OK?' asked the Lieutenant.
'Not at all, great plan,' said Odin.
'Great, in you go,' said the Lieutenant, stepping aside.
Odin clutched his glass of water and, reaching the door, pushed it and re-entered the room, acting faint.
'Good man, Odin,' whispered the Lieutenant to himself, 'don't let on.' He stood there, waiting for his chance, biting his lip, listening for anyone approaching him. He watched them for a while before taking a few more steps toward the door. He heard someone approaching but he would be in the room by the time they got to him. He watched them a small bit longer then, tidying himself up a bit and standing up at his full height, he took a deep breath in, footsteps getting ever-louder, and pushed the door, giving it a loud bang, entering the room.
Everyone in the room looked flabberghasted.
'What is going on here?' yelled the Lieutenant in a loud, angry, booming voice. 'What right have you to hold people hostage like this?'
'You must be the intruder!' exclaimed a Sontaran.
'Excuse me!' exclaimed the Lieutenant. 'You lot are the intruders here, not me!'
'This building is now under Sontaran control!' exclaimed the Sontarans.
'Illegally, it very much is not your building,' said the Lieutenant, 'you are the intruders here, the building is now under my control and these people are now under my protection,' he said.
'You can't save them,' said a Sontaran, swinging a gun around to point it at the Lieutenant.
The Lieutenant did not even slightly flinch. 'Why's that?' he asked.
'Threaten us and we will kill you all!' yelled a Sontaran.
'You see, that's not what I think is going to happen,' said the Lieutenant. 'I think I am going to bring these people to safety, unharmed, I think I am going to re-secure this building and chuck you off this planet. Any questions?' taunted the Lieutenant.
'Kneel,' seethed a Sontaran.
'I don't think so,' said the Lieutenant.
'Lieutenant, please!' exclaimed Odin.
The Lieutenant spun round, annoyed. 'What did you do that for?' he almost yelled at Odin.
'You're going to get us all killed!' exclaimed Odin, defensively.
'Odin, I have done this before, I am not as young as I look. I am not human!' exclaimed the Lieutenant.
Odin looked a bit taken aback. 'Against those things?' he gasped.
'They're called Sontarans,' said the Lieutenant, 'and no, not against them, but against plenty of other species.'
'Lieutenant!' exclaimed Odin, pointing past the Lieutenant.
The Lieutenant spun round just in time to be shot directly in the middle of the chest. He was thrown backwards from the force, flew against a wall and slid down it to the floor.
'No!' exclaimed Odin, about to rush to the Lieutenant's side.
'Stay still, boy, or you'll be next,' seethed a Sontaran.
Odin stayed where he was, looking over at the Lieutenant.
The Lieutenant groaned and felt his chest. One heart had been taken out. He was in a lot of pain but he heaved himself to his feet. Sounding very hoarse, he said, 'Now, you're going to be sorry you did that.' His hands glowed with golden energy. He turned quickly to the humans. 'Get down,' he wheezed, 'stay as close to the floor as you can, shallow breaths, no-one panic, I'll try to miss as many of you as I can,' he said as he positioned his hands towards Sontarans and, tilting his head back, regenerated.
The regeneration took out many of the Sontarans and set fire to the building they were in. Fire alarms all around went off. The humans screamed but did as the Lieutenant had said.
Straightening back up, the newly-regenerated Lieutenant seemed briefly dazed and then collapsed to the floor, not fully unconscious, clutching his stomach and breathed out golden regeneration energy.
TO BE CONTINUED
NEXT TIME
Well, we meet again, don't we?
At the end of the previous episode, we saw my eighth incarnation regenerate in a hostage situation.
This is the story of the beginning of my ninth incarnation.
The Lieutenant and Odin made their way back to the TARDIS cautiously, in search of adventure, the unexpected and the unknown.
The Lieutenant
Liam Hickey
Mark Camel
Odin Hartley
Timothée Chalamet
Sontarans
Dan Starkey
Other Humans
Dev Patel
Ty Sheridan
Asa Butterfield
Tom Holland
Nicholas Hoult
Ansel Elgort
Justice Smith
Lucas Hedges
Jack Lowden
And introducing Steven Clark as the Lieutenant.
Director
Darwin Meads
Writer
Liam Hickey
Producer
Caitlin Parker
Executive Producers
Darwin Meads
Liam Hickey
M/S 2023