60 - Allons-y!
I cling to my necklace, fiddling with it. The Doctor nods, and pulls out his specs and the sonic, getting to the power setting panel. I keep looking outside, something shoots across the sky, fast, towards planet Earth.
"Doctor!", I call him back. He stands up, looking at it too. He turns, looks at my hand, inquisitively. I shake my head.
Wilf comes back from his exploration of the ship while I crouch down to help the Doctor at the control panel. "Aye, aye. Got this old tub mended?".
"Just trying to… fix the heating", the Doctor says.
"Oh. I've always dreamt of a view like that. Hee, hee. I'm an astronaut.", Wilf says, giggling. He sits down on the step looking over outside. "It's dawn over England, look. Brand new day".
He stays lost in thought. "My wife's buried down there. I might never visit her again now. Do you think he changed them, in their graves?".
The Doctor stops, looks at him.
"I'm sorry", I tell Wilf.
"No, not your fault", he says. Always so kind.
"Isn't it?".
Wilf drops it, keeps staring at the planet. "Oh, 1948, I was over there. End of the Mandate in Palestine. Private Mott. Skinny little idiot, I was. Stood on this rooftop, in the middle of a skirmish. It was like a blizzard, all them bullets in the air. The world gone mad".
The Doctor stops, quietly puts his specs away to listen to him. "Yeah, you don't want to listen to an old man's tales, do you?", Wilf continues.
"I'm older than you", the Doctor says.
"Get away".
"I'm nine hundred and six".
Wilf can't believe it. "What, really, though?".
"Yeah".
"Nine hundred years… We must look like insects to you".
"I think you look like giants", the Doctor says, smiling proudly.
"Listen, I, I want you to have this", Wilf says, offering his revolver to the Doctor. "I've kept it all this time, and I thought-".
"No", he says, without letting him finish.
Wilf looks at me for encouragement, but I can't give any. "No, but if you take it, you could-".
"No", the Doctor repeats. Wilf draws it back, looking at it. "You had that gun in the mansion. You could have shot the Master there and then".
"Too scared, I suppose", Wilf admits.
"I'd be proud".
"Of what?".
"If you were my dad", the Doctor explains. Yeah. Me too.
"Oh, come on, don't start", Wilf says, deflecting. The Doctor smiles. "But you said, you were told he will knock four times and then you die… Well, that's him, isn't it? The Master. That noise in his head? The Master is going to kill you".
"Yeah", the Doctor says.
"It's not going to be him", I say. "He won't kill you". After all we just said, how is he just assuming that?
The Doctor shoots me a look. "Who else then?".
"Then kill him first", Wilf says, offering the revolver again.
"That's how the Master started", the Doctor says, warily. Wilf retracts his hand again, looking down. The Doctor keeps talking, slowly, pensive. "It's not like I'm an innocent. I've taken lives. I got worse… I got clever. Manipulated people into taking their own. Sometimes I think a Time Lord lives too long", he looks at me. I can't stand his gaze, so I look away. "I can't. I just can't", he refuses the gun again.
"If the Master dies, what happens to all the people?", Wilf asks.
"I don't know". Liar. He hears that, or knows me too well, and shoots me an apologetic look.
"Zoe. What happens?", Wilf asks, and even if I'm still trying to figure out a way to save humanity and the Master, I can't lie to him.
"The template snaps", I admit, quietly.
"What, they go back to being human?", Wilf asks. The Doctor looks at me, and nods.
"They're alive, and human", Wilf repeats. "Then don't you dare, you two. Don't you dare put him before them. Now you take this. That's an order, Doctor. Take the gun. You take the gun and save your life. And please don't die. You're the most wonderful man and I don't want you to die".
He's crying now, and he takes the Doctor's hand and places it on the revolver. I feel the Doctor cringe, and for an instant, I really think he's considering it.
"Never", the Doctor refuses again.
"A star… fell from the sky", the Master's voice echoes through the ship. "Don't you want to know where from? Because now it makes sense, Doctor".
"It's an open broadcast", Addams says, then gestures at Rossiter. "Don't reply, or he'll know where we are".
"The whole of my life, my destiny", the Master continues. "The star was a diamond. And the diamond… is a Whitepoint Star".
The Doctor gets increasingly terrified with each word. And so am I.
"And I have worked all night to sanctify that gift".
A Whitepoint Star… Gallifrey. I don't understand, and I can't ask. Is this the Time War again?
"Now the star is mine. I can increase the signal and use it as a lifeline. Do you get it now? Do you see? Keep watching, Doctor", the Master keeps going. "This should be spectacular. Over… and out".
A lifeline. Oh, no. Oh, this is so messed up and… unnecessary. Should I tell him? Should I tell the Master? Wouldn't he know already if he's in my head?
"What's he on about? What's he doing? Doctor, what does that mean?", Wilf asks.
"A Whitepoint star is only found on one planet. Gallifrey. Which means it's the Time Lords. The Time Lords are returning". He looks at me, and he's almost crying again. Broken, terrified.
"Well, I mean, that's good, isn't it? I mean, that's your people".
And then the Doctor does something that really scares me: he takes Wilf's revolver.
I follow him as he runs to the navigation deck, as we start to hear a signal.
"It's coming from Earth. It's on every wavelength", Addams says.
The Doctor rushes around, working on bits and pieces.
"But you said your people were dead. Past tense".
"Inside the Time War. And the whole War was time locked". I roll my eyes to the ceiling. "Like, sealed inside a bubble- it's not a bubble, but just think of a bubble". Yep, also possibly really a bubble, a very thin, unreliable bubble. "Nothing can get in or get out of the Timelock. Don't you see? Nothing can get in or get out, except something that was already there".
"The signal", Wilf says.
"Since he was a kid", I whisper, bitterly.
"If they can follow the signal, they can escape before they die".
"Well, then, big reunion. We'll have a party", Wilf says.
"There will be no party", the Doctor shakes his head, still tinkering about the commands.
"But I've heard you talk about your people like they're wonderful", Wilf insists.
"That's how I choose to remember them, the Time Lords of old. But then they went to war. An endless war, and it changed them right to the core. You've seen my enemies, Wilf. The Time Lords are more dangerous than any of them".
"Time Lords, what lords? Anyone want to explain?", Addams asks.
"Right, yes, you. This is a salvage ship, yes? You go trawling the asteroid fields for junk?".
"Yeah, what about it?".
"So, you've got asteroid lasers!".
"Yeah, but they're all frazzled", Rossiter says.
"Consider them unfrazzled", The Doctor says, throwing a lever that opens up two gun alcoves on either side of the flight controls. "You there, what's your name? I'm going to need you on navigation. And you, get in the laser-pod", he instructs the Vinvoccis, then calls for Wilf. "Wilfred".
"Yeah?".
"Laser number two. The old soldier's got one more battle", he says, softly. He nods, pats his arm and stands up.
"This ship can't move. It's dead!", Addams says.
"Fix the heating?", he smiles, smugly, then throws two levers forward, and the ship powers up.
"But now they can see us".
"Oh, yes!", he screams. "Now, Zoe. You've noticed I didn't give you instructions. Didn't forget", he says, then turns to me, grabs the base of my neck ad pulls me to him until our forehead touch. "Get down there and do what you can to save him before it's too late".
He pulls his sonic out. I stare into his eyes, he nods encouragingly.
"This is my ship, and you're not moving it. Step away from the wheel", Addams warns him.
"There's an old Earth saying, Captain. A phrase of great power and wisdom, and consolation to the soul in times of need", he says, looking ahead.
"What's that, then?". Addams says.
He points the sonic at my ring, looking sternly into my eyes, then pulls the navigation levers. "Allons-y!".