-8-
Solo Explorer.
The universe was a truly beautiful place, Thasia reflected, running a hand through her long red hair. She had recently regenerated after her discharge from the army, and she could honestly say she didn't miss the planet or the other Gallifreyans, and most of all she didn't miss the army. Decades of fighting, made worse by how many lives they had lived, and how long they had struggled against the wars…now all over.
Thasia had recently regenerated, and she had left Gallifrey during the 'victory celebrations.' She had regenerated during the last battle of the wars, and she had been recovering slowly; when she had returned to Gallifrey, she had been so angry with how extravagant the celebrations were, how sickened she was that so many races had been wiped out, or made homeless, or forced to rely on Gallifreyan relief efforts that didn't deserve such a lofty title, and she had left her homeworld.
She didn't care about her discharge papers, or getting official notice about leaving.
She didn't care if the Gallifreyans in command condemned her for leaving without official leave.
She didn't care about Gallifrey in general.
Gallifrey and its people sickened her right now. They had spread across the galaxies like a disease, conquering dozens of worlds, shattering peaceful species without caring about the lives and ways of the civilisations they were conquering and then exploiting as Gallifrey expanded her empire through the universe.
And Thasia had had enough. She had found a ship and stolen it, and she had fled out into the universe. With her ship currently slipping sideways through different realities, Thasia was left gaping at the beauties around her.
Why did she feel that all of this was familiar to her?
She had seen different stars, moons, and planets, of course. When she was with the other troopers, she had looked through the exo-glass panels and gaped in awe at the awesome beauty of the cosmos; for a time, she had almost put out of her mind that she was a soldier, sent out into the stars to subjugate and destroy whole worlds.
But at the same time, she had the sense she had seen it all before, but she had never left Gallifrey before then. Oh, she had studied like all the students at the Academy, but there was something not quite right when she had gotten out into space. She'd had the strangest feeling she had been out here before.
Mystified by the feeling, Thasia had decided to keep travelling, all the time listening for signs of pursuit from Gallifrey. The last thing she wanted was to answer irritating questions, or to be stopped and recaptured and then sent back. She had another reason for fleeing Gallifrey.
Shame, she was ashamed by the Gallifreyans enslaving whole races. It disgusted her, but she was so mentally exhausted she had decided on a long-term plan, to get out into the universe, find the worst places where slavery was running rampant, and then return to the planet and start an underground railroad and stop the Gallifreyans from enslaving more races. But to do that, she would need to bring awareness of what was going on, but would it make any difference?
Thasia hoped so.
-8-
With her ship and its communications array, Thasia was able to find the worlds where the Gallifreyan empire had spread. A bit of hacking into their hyperspace communications protocols, and she had logistics of slave movements, and where the most distant ships and outposts were. Calmly she made notes and began making her plans, at the same time she made secret and discreet contact, through proxies as it was too dangerous for her to interact directly and even she wasn't stupid enough to let herself be seen speaking to the slaves even if it went against her nature when all she wanted to do was to loudly protest, with the groups trying to revolt, but against the Gallifreyans' virtually impossible technology, and she knew it.
-8-
But while she travelled through the empire, Thasia also travelled to other star systems and even jumped to other galaxies.
Gallifrey's Empire had spread through a wide galactic group, and even slightly beyond. Cities and temples built to commemorate Gallifrey where people could worship them had been built, making her physically sick. If it was not for the consequences that would be felt by the slaves, who were forced to work on their worlds for their masters/oppressors, Thasia would quite happily have blown them up, so it was a joy to have fun on worlds where Gallifrey was unknown and had never been heard of, but since her people had spread out so far, finding worlds like that were truly, surely, and vanishingly rare.
But she didn't stop herself from speaking to them, especially as they started on the long roads of technology and science. As she arrived and made contact, Thasia showed them evidence of what Gallifrey was doing. Most often they believed her, not having the means of denying it, but sometimes not everyone listened to her, much to her frustration and annoyance.
And all the time, Thasia moved on, exploring further and further out into the universal void. One day, she would return to Gallifrey, just not yet.