Into the Fire

888

For months the two had been circling each other, destroying colonies on their peripheral territory, crushing resistance of any in-between. Billions had died, and an untold number more experienced worse. Neither side was willing to engage the other, except for in brief meaningless sorties, instead launching strikes on proxy targets and warping reality as they went. Sherista was tired of it. On the view port of his ship he saw the fleet amassed around him. Thousands, millions of ships of every major race in Mutter's Spiral were arrayed behind him. Draconians, Tellurians, Aresians, Antaresians, Alpha Centaurans, Raxicoricofallapatorians, even the Rutan Host sent vessels away from their vaunted frontline with the Sontaran Empire to the fleet. And dotted amongst the great fleet were older, more ancient things, great leviathans of the Monan Host, Phasic Shade Carriers from the Warpsmithes of Phaidon, the great cruisers of the Sunari and the alleged last battalion of Nekkistan. It was the largest fleet ever assembled in the history of Mutter's Spiral.

Beyond the fleet were both ends of the fury. It was a massing of Time Lord and Dalek warships. Tactical saucers and great bowships cut the space in half in front of them. WarTARDIS and Gothic Engines burned in the interstitial. Great forms moved in the darkness, weapons of indescribable form discharged, the entirety of the battlefield shifted and changed moment to moment and many more and many less before and after. Sherista walked forward, the communication channels were open.

"This ends now!" Sherista called out to the great fury before him. The ships ignored him, their combat intensifying.

"The spatial field in this region of the spiral is collapsing, if this continues…." An officer reported sharply.

"Are the dimensional charges still in place?" Sherista asked, folding his hands behind his back.

"Yes."

Sherista stepped to a chair central to the command deck and sat down. A control panel revealed itself on the arm of the chair.

"Transfer detonation control to my command." Sherista said. He narrowed his eyes as the system chimed to the order. Buttons were pushed.

Across the vista, great blazing light flared falling to darkness. The fury stopped in stunned silence. First one of the great bowships swung is massive form towards the fleet, and then a saucer peeled itself away from the stunned battle. The two moved smoothly, silently, lividly directly towards Sherista's command ship.

"I am glad to have your attention." Sherista said as he braced in his chair on his elbows, his hands gently forming a platform for him to rest his chin as he look in derision at both of the forms looming in front of him.

There was a hazy transition in the front of the command deck. Two forms materializing out of nothing their shapes shifting slightly as the photons aligned. A pair of holographic projections formed at the fore of the command deck. One was roughly humanoid, in crimson robes with a great frill unfurling behind his head. The other a tank, covered in etheric beam sensors, a large bulbous 'head' a single eyestalk, armed with a single gunstick and a manipulator appendage.

"Leave - now!" said the tank with a shrieky warble, or a warbly shriek. The eyestalk locking onto Sherista and the blue camera light narrowing as it did.

"The Third Zone and its – associates, have no right to interfere in this battle." The man said his icy blue eyes glaring at Sherista.

"No right!?" Sherista growled standing up. "Mutter's Spiral is shattered, the universe is burning. You have launched attacks on worlds immaterial and insubstantial, billions of lives mutilated and destroyed. We and the rest of the civilizations in this galaxy have every right to see this end NOW!"

"You – will – o-bey!" the tank replied.

"Why?" Sherista growled, narrowing his eyes. "For what purpose?"

"Your – time is not yet come." The tank said, its head swiveled and it looked at the man. "Ras-sil-on's time is now. Yours will be la-ter."

Sherista smirked, shook his head. "Exterminate now, exterminate later, still is extermination…or are you still feeding us that old chestnut of you protecting us from Rassilon?"

The Dalek's eye turned to Sherista. "You – do not – under-stand."

"Oh I think we understand perfectly well." Sherista snorted.

"Then you will allow us to finish this in our way." The man said, darkly. "It is not for you. You will understand when it is over how much we have protected you from the Dalek threat…."

"Yeah, I think I understand that, too." Sherista's eyes turned to the man. "I understand it to the sum of five hundred and eighty-three billion sapient life forms, and the untold numbers who have been mutilated in the onslaughts you have waged against innocent civilians." Sherista stood tall and looked at the two in front of him like some kind of supreme barrister. "You have manipulated us, changed us, shaped us; tried to compel us into your war, one way or another. Our biospheres warped, our histories changed, our galaxy on the brink….NO MORE!"

The Dalek and the Time Lord moved back. Both in their way narrowed their eyes into a murderous glare.

"We're not doing it anymore." Sherista said as he spread his arms outwards. "The entire galaxy is here, to fight you. You can't force us to take a side anymore, can't ignore us anymore."

"The les-ser races will o-bey or they will be ex-term-in-ated!" The Dalek snarled in retort.

"You have no right to infringe on Gallifrey's responsibility to protect the web of time!" The Time Lord said his fist clenching as he did.

"We have every right!" Sherista shouted. "Exterminate us, you're going to do it anyways, kill us all, we're not going to take it lying down though, not standing to one side to be put in a different line for the charnel house. We see through your bluster, we see through your bombast and your declarations and your politics. You aren't gods or demons or 'superior'; you're childhood bullies and elitist snobs. You see, I understand this war very well now, it's not about territory, or resources; it's about dominance, it's about superiority, about who is better. But how will you measure your victory if there is no one else around to gloat to, to be superior to? Hmm?" Sherista shook his head in disgust and then looked to the Time Lord and the Dalek. "We're sick of it, and we're getting rid of you. Get the hell out of our galaxy!"

The two figures looked at each other, it almost seemed as if they were being sheepishly ashamed and cowed for a second, before the man and the Dalek turned and looked to Sherista, and together said.

"Survival will measure our victory."

The two figures disappeared into the air. The view screen beyond where they were was fully enveloped by their respective ships, as their weapon ports glowed with building energy.

The ship rocked hard as the saucer and the bowship opened fire on Sherista's ship. By the end of that day, all were dead, Sherista, his Androgum consort, the great fleet smashed like a wicker boat against the diamond reefs of Corsusk. But it went further than one galaxy, in one corner of the universe. In the great eternal distance the host of eternity watched and wept as the universe convulsed. In a great library the last of eternity blessed her hero of time, dressed in green, before retreating into the halls of howling. This was the day when the war in loud screaming thrusts, fell to hell, and would for many centuries not rise and only at great cost.

888

AN: A dark reprise…of a very optimistic story told by a better writer than I.