3. The Terminator. .
A young boy has entered the Visitation Room.
"I'm sorry, I've come to the wrong room." .
"That's alright. What's your name?" Simeon asks, relaxing rapidly.
"My name is Eroden," the young boy says.
Simeon's surprised. He knows plenty of good things about Eroden in his future life, and he's only just seen him – just a lot older! .
"You're fine! Keep up the good work!" Simeon says.
Young Eroden turns and leaves the Visitation Room, and Simeon turns back towards the table.
He finds his great-grandparents have gone. He fears the worst - have they been whisked away for interrogation or mind correction? All these things magnify in his young mind. . He sees a door in the far wall still closing slowly. Might he yet see them being dragged away? .
Quickly, he races to that door and sees his great-grandparents heading to a rest room! .
He breathes again. All is still okay! Maybe he hasn't messed things up too much! .
Returning out of the Visitation Room where he had come in, he sees the reception desk again. He guesses that he will be in line to see his great-great-grandparents next.
After a brief visit to a rest room, Simeon queues and presents himself at the reception desk. The receptionist scans his badge and re-instructs him.
"This time, when you emerge from the Time Room, proceed to Visitation Room Five.
Simeon's keen to check if he had infringed any boundaries in his conversation earlier.
"Could you tell me if everything went alright in my last meeting?"
The receptionist is aware that people say silly things but checks for him.
"Result ... pending ..." she says slowly. "Sometimes an outcome can take a while to come through." She seems somehow evasive, but at his age he has no idea how to manage that! Initially, it just puzzles him, but then his mind races. .
Simeon now worries that he has definitely said too much, and nothing will be the same again for his ancestors, and maybe for himself! Will he even be allowed to return to his own time?
He hurries to the Time Room to get away from that era before he's blocked!
Emerging from the Time Room corridor, young Simeon makes his way to Visitation Room Five. The floor layout remains the same, but the entranceways look newer and smarter, maybe they've only been made recently?
As he steps into the Visitation Room, he recognises who it is there to meet him with horror!
Suddenly, he wishes he hadn't stepped quite so far into the room.
A loud thud behind him confirms that the door has been slammed shut, probably mechanically, certainly denying him any possibility of leaving this interview.
Tecteun sits before him at the table. The Doctor's nightmare stepmother! One of the 'Founders of the Time Lords'.
He knows she is so powerful; a dictator to be feared. At first, he feels frozen, but he breathes in deeply and this passes as he grounds himself rapidly.
He guesses that to turn and try to flee would be not only bad form, but it might also incriminate him. She would know that he knows something of interest to her and she will undoubtedly extract it from him!
Young Simeon decides that he must act as nonchalantly as possible and pretend that everything is normal. Surely that must be his best tactic?
"Tecteun, I wasn't aware I was so directly related to you." He can not bring himself to greet her. .
"In a way, we are all related, back to the earliest Shobogans," she says slickly, as if she referred to Adam and Eve. .
"Am I to meet my great-great-grandparents?" He wonders how long this potentially nightmarish interruption by Tecteun will last.
Tecteun meanly avoids a direct answer to keep him on his toes and maybe force him to answer some of her questions.
She smiles to try to put him at his ease, but the strain looks like a grimace.
"What's the future like for Gallifrey?" she asks as casually as she can. She knows about the Master annihilating Gallifrey in her future (TV episode The Timeless Children) but is fully aware that further generations are still coming to visit their ancestors, continuing their traditions. Yet she has found that her Tardis is not permitted to visit their time and the Time Room refuses to take her there.
Simeon recognises that he mustn't give any information to her. He decides he must pretend to be younger than he is and to not know much.
"I imagine it's much like it always has been," he says, hoping this might suffice.
Tecteun notices his evasiveness.
"Tell me, what Gallifreyan year you're from?" This time there's a sterner tone to her voice. She might track the future from the answer to this question.
Young Simeon finds himself put on the spot. He decides to try to keep the time information purely personal.
"I'm just seven years old." Actually, he's eight, but maybe he can evade at least some of her questions.
"Your other peers refused to tell me," she snaps. "You're from after the Master destroyed Gallifrey. Tell me so I can see it for myself!"
Simeon can easily tell that she means harm, rather like a certain Herod in a school play imported from a place called Earth. He wishes he had a quiet place like Nazareth to escape to! .
Instead he hangs his head, pretending not to know and being overwhelmed by her verbal attack.
Without having to resort to an outright refusal, he seems to win the day.
Tecteun recognises that he won't or can't tell her.
"Bother you! I thought all inductees had to be eight years old! Alright! You can meet your ancestors!"
She rises and angrily leaves the room by the far door.
A button on the table attracts Simeon's attention. "Cleanse", it says on it. It seems a most opportune moment to use it to cleanse the air of her foul presence.
A slight dewy drizzle briefly fills the room. It evaporates after only a few moments leaving the room with a pleasant odour.
Simeon goes to the far door, ready to peer out, but hears footsteps and he runs back to the chair on his side of the table.
He recognises his great-great-grandparents from photographs as they enter.
"We're sorry to keep you waiting, we were delayed," James says.
"We were ousted!" Jane says. "I hope you're alright?"
"Yes," Simeon says. "I managed to evade her questions."
"Then you did well!" James affirms. "I'm pleased with you!"
Simeon smiles. He's unsure if the Visitation Meetings are recorded at this earlier Gallifreyan year and might be checked by Tecteun for his further responses.
Having survived Tecteun, he relaxes.
Time travel can have its uses ... and it's pitfalls!