8. To Nolland or not to Nolland?

"I was just about to go to Nolland to view his operation there," Crystelle says. "I believe there's a hotel there now, so it will be easier for me to blend in if I need to."
"You may not need to," Chloe says. "We found mining for Pyroxium, Lanthanides and ... something else."
"Indium," the Doctor completes her list.
"I guess that's what's there on Nolland," Crystelle says uncertainly.

"Where's the Master based just now?" the Doctor asks. "Not on Alphon Three?"
"Oh, no!" Crystelle says. "This operation seems to have at least some class about it. He's on Backer B One D." .
"I bet that's hard to find," Chloe guesses. The name seems to have a familiar ring to it, though. .
"Hard to find and right out of the way," the Doctor says smiling. "Thanks!"
"Shall we go there while we know the Master's on Nolland?" Chloe asks.
"No point," the Doctor says. "He's got a time machine, too, you know. He can easily be there before us to greet us all."
"Not if I track this rightly," Crystelle says. She presses the blue Voice Control button. "Tardis, can we go to Nolland, about an hour ago, please?"

The Tardis zizzes...

The Mansion House Security Room.

The Tardis Console monitor screen shows the Master in a security room with screens all around him.
"I should appear on one of those screens shortly," Chloe says.
The Tardis obliges their wait by fast-tracking Tardis Internal Time until Chloe appears.
At that point the Master is busy writing a proposal to the PointAndGo company on a thin machine, and he misses seeing Chloe outside placing her tracker box, and shortly afterwards retrieving it on a remote camera, and also when she places it in a bag poised for filling. But shortly after, when the Doctor and Chloe start talking inside the building, he glances up to see what the noise is.
Immediately the Master gets up and strides to the door, leaving the room to go and challenge them.

"Can we read what he's written?" Chloe asks.
"Yes, I'll get it," Crystelle says.
She steps quickly from her Tardis to the desk and retrieves the Master's work. Back in the Tardis, with beautifully slow Tardis Internal Time, they read and Crystelle re-writes some of the Master's proposal before replacing the thin machine.
"Wow, what did you change, Mum?"
"Just the sense in the proposal. If they read that they'll jettison the proposal forthwith."
"Wow, Mum, that's neat!"
"It's only what I'd have done without you being here," Crystelle says. She knows the plan to avoid changing things matters a lot to the Doctor. Doubtless the Doctor has his reasons for trying to engage her services to avert something.
"Is that it?" the Doctor says. "Have you done all that needed to be done to avoid the Master succeeding?"
Crystelle consults the timelines again. "Yes, all done!"
"When I look at the timelines they can take ages to settle down again. Why are your timelines settled almost immediately?" Chloe asks.
"Ah, but I set my mind not to need to go back and interfere again," Crystelle says. "So, the timelines can settle much faster. But tell me, what was it all about?"
The Doctor glances at Chloe. "Technology transfer. The Master was going to transfer technology to people who might well have developed the same thing anyway, but ... ought not to have had that technology dumped on them quite so early."
"What would have happened that brought you so urgently here to ask me to help?"
"We didn't know you were already on the case, Mum," Chloe says carefully.
It doesn't answer her question, but what she's done does seem to have completed their task. Crystelle's used to the Doctor not answering her questions - he's had millennia of practice. She relents of asking further.
Crystelle goes to Chloe and hugs her. "Any time you need me, I'm here for you. Even if you have to wake me. But how did you get here?"
"My Tardis is parked just there," Chloe points, hoping she's accurate as the cloaking is too good for her to see just where it is.
"Your Tardis? Not the Doctor's Tardis? Can I see? Why is it cloaked?"
"I didn't want to distract you if you were in the middle of something."
"See you in a moment," the Doctor says, disappearing from view into Chloe's Tardis. He approaches the Console wondering how best to disguise it being the same Tardis as Crystelle's.

Crystelle decides she wants to see Chloe's Tardis for herself and finds the cloaked door exactly where the Doctor had touched it.
Chloe watches. Will it matter if her mother sees the same Tardis interior?
"That's drab!" Crystelle says as she enters Chloe's Tardis.
Chloe comes running. "What's up Mum?"
Chloe's Tardis just looks like an old barn. A wooden bench along one barren wooden wall and the Console being a black table with no apparent screen (ref. 50). .
"I'm unsure why you like it this way," Crystelle says. "I did design an old barn for my Tardis once, but never needed it. . Ah, well, thanks for showing me."
Chloe looks around in surprise. "You're very welcome, Mum! Bye!"

Crystelle looks at where Chloe's Tardis had been for a long time after the zizzing of their departure.

She longs to know so much about their mission and how she'd helped.
What was the Tardis she saw? Was it using her Old Barn design? . She has so many questions!

"Doctor, what was the Master doing?" Chloe asks.
"He was destabilising the future of Humankind!" the Doctor says. "External help can have its downsides, particularly when time travel has been used to procure it! Everyone working on it might suddenly find they've been working in vain – at the Master's say-so!"
"And where is Backer B One D when it's at home? I can't find it on my Tardis Console."
The Doctor laughs. "What's just in a name? It's the Back Of Beyond! A remote place - one well out of the way!" .

"Doctor, what did you do to my Tardis?" Chloe wants to know. The barn they're now standing in feels so drab and inadequate in comparison to her usual enlivening jet airliner interior (ref. 50).
"Oh," the Doctor says casually, "I just asked it for a change of scenery."
"You mean you used Voice Control?" Chloe laughs. "After all you said about it!"
"I needed it to be quick!" .

THE END

The previous episode in this series is called "Empress of the Universe" (ref. 52).

The next episode in this series is called "Destiny with Robots."

I hope to add further episodes soon.

Sparse References.

Reference 12 Episode Crystelle Growth in this series,
where Chloe's mother, Crystelle, had acquired a Tardis from below the destruction of Gallifrey.

Reference 33 Episode Rescuing Nolland in this series,
where Chloe last saw the Bicx Captain Throng,
where Captain Throng had forgotten the Doctor's name and just said "the Something",
where Simeon had bought the planet Nolland accidentally using a Box Transfer payment the Doctor had provided,
where Chloe and Simeon had been on Nolland when mining started.

Reference 40 Episode Chloe's Day in this series,
where Chloe's mother, Crystelle, died from an incomplete regeneration capability.

Reference 46 Episode MUDdling Through in this series,
where Chloe had summoned her Tardis on an earlier occasion, but Crystelle was using it.

Reference 50 Episode Alyssa's Tardis in this series,
where Alyssa had needed to suddenly disguise the Tardis interior, previously usually only looking like the inside of a jet airliner.

Reference 52 Episode Empress of the Universe in this series,
where Chloe had learnt how to use some of the powers of a ring the Doctor had given to her mother.

At points in the story where there is humour, an additional full stop is added. .

ANOTHER END