4. The Taking of the Power Crystal.
It isn't long before the Console screen shows a different planet. The external cameras are all showing close-up rock in each direction, though, and a black stone pillar stands in the middle of the Tardis, indicating they've encapsulated it! .
"Why can't we go out?" Chloe asks, trying the door and finding a rock face totally blocking any chance of exit.
"I think I know," Chloe One says gently. "This moment is far too sensitive for the Tardis to risk any interference! So, we've materialised inside a rock formation to stop us going anywhere and interfering!"
She chips off some rock from the pillar and lets it fall to the floor.
"You'll need gloves to touch it; then bag it! It can be useful in the Tardis." .
Chloe's eyes open wide as she contemplates the sensitive nature of just where they might be. She's excited! The cautious approach that the Tardis is taking tells her this is important, and likely the most important moment she knows about Tecteun.
"The finding of the Doctor?" she asks, enthralled.
"Doubtless!" Chloe One confirms, smiling calmly. "Can we observe, please, Tardis?" She knows her original Chloe will want to see this for real, just as much as she's already observed the moment using her Time Continuum viewer (ref. 48).
"Why can't we see the name of the planet we're on?" Chloe asks.
"Far too sensitive." Her experience since being cloned has taught her a lot.
The Console screen shows Tecteun walking along a track carrying a small geologist's pick hammer. She stops at a distinctively coloured rocky outcrop and hacks off a piece of rock. She puts on a glove, picks it up delicately and places it carefully in a bag she's carrying. Then she starts to retrace her steps.
After a few hundred yards she passes an ancient water feature with pillars and a balustrade.
She sees a young girl wearing primitive clothes walking along the top of the balustrade, jumping between pillars. She's on her own but seems happy.
Tecteun appears suddenly concerned for the safety of the young girl.
"Get down from there before you fall in the water!"
Then she recalls this is a now uninhabited planet! The child must have come from somewhere.
The child jumps down to the promenade level.
"Where are you from?" Tecteun almost scolds the child, her shrill tones cut through the air.
The child looks around as if expecting her parents to arrive. Then she looks concerned. This strict-looking person might not be what she wants at all! .
"This is no place for you to hang around!" Tecteun says, grabbing hold of the child firmly by the wrist and taking her with her to the waiting spacecar. She seems quite aware that the child needs removing from here but callously totally unwilling to wait for even a moment to see if her parents appear!
Chloe and her clone stand transfixed watching the scene unfold on the Console screen.
"That's the Doctor," Chloe says. Her clone nods - they both know the child is the Doctor! .
Not being able to do anything about it is a blessing - they know they mustn't disturb that meeting - anything might have disturbed the finding of the Doctor, the discovery of regeneration, and their whole existence, and not just them, the whole course of Gallifrey and all the injustices that the Doctor had sought to rectify all over the universe. All would be lost!
The Gold Bullion.
Later, Chloe's standing in her Tardis Console room alone. Her clone has returned to her previous tasks and Chloe's wondering what to do next.
Her thoughts wander...
It seems the gold might be hers to keep and use on her travels, although it's not in a suitable form - gold bars aren't as tradeable as coins or notes! . Besides, the Tardis appears to have plenty of notes from all eras in all places.
But ought she to return it to Gallifrey? New Gallifrey, that is! Old Gallifrey had far too much dominance and corruption! The gold came from Old Gallifrey originally, doubtless, and someone else might do the research where and when it was from, as she hadn't got anywhere earlier! .
Chloe fully recognises that the gold doesn't belong to her, bounty or not - she hasn't earned it, she hasn't worked for it, so it isn't hers! If she kept it, she would always feel guilty that she'd taken it for herself, and she values her conscience!
"Tardis, could we go to the High Council chamber on New Gallifrey, please?"
She goes to the gold storeroom in her Tardis to get just one bar of gold to show the beginnings of what she's found.
As the Tardis zizzes and lands, she feels as if donkey ears are growing from her own ears. Surely this is a dumb thing to do? But she knows she will never be at peace if she takes it for herself; her conscience would never be totally clear. That's worth so much more! Besides which, she has some of the most valuable equipment in the universe at her fingertips!
She steps out of the Tardis. A guard steps forwards, blocking her from approaching the New High Council table where six of the current High Council, including Eroden, have paused their debating due to her intrusion.
Chloe decides she must address the High Council before she's hustled away by the guard.
"Eroden and the High Council of Gallifrey, I am Chloe, the girl in the Time Continuum who you honoured in the past. Today, I have discovered a treason committed by Tecteun in Old Gallifrey that has left a considerable amount of gold in my Tardis. I would be obliged if you could have it removed for me." (Ref. 40.)
She holds up the bar she's brought with her and smiles. "I believe this ought to be yours!"
Eroden rises, steps towards her and takes the gold bar, freely given, and examines it.
"I have heard of this bullion," he says. "It is Gallifreyan. It disappeared early in Gallifreyan recorded history. Tecteun, you say? You must relate your story to us. Please join us at the debating table!"
Review.
"What happened when Tecteun evaporated?" Chloe asks. "How did she do that?"
"Ah, that's an old Gallifreyan trick! Only a very few actually know how to do it, though; even I don't know that." Eroden laughs briefly. "I've never expected to need that!"
"Then what happened after Tecteun evaporated?" Chloe asks.
Eroden relates what they now know on Gallifrey.
"She went straight into the Judoon from the Gallifreyan jewellery and reconstituted her body from the dust on the floor, another old Gallifreyan trick! We now know that she then took that Tardis to Skaro and failed some negotiation with the Daleks. Then she went to Juicy to negotiate some power crystals in return for - as she put it - some help ... against Gallifrey! What that was going to be we don't know. She was always trying to outsmart everyone for her own selfish ends! Then she went somewhere we don't know to get a power crystal and found the Doctor."
"Then where did Tecteun go?" Chloe asks.
"Straight back to Gallifrey in that Hyperspace Spacecar. Then she noticed the Doctor regenerate and spent all her time trying desperately to discover and develop a regeneration that could be controlled. She wanted to be able to grant or revoke regeneration and so control everyone! But most of all she wanted to live longer and wield more power for longer! Her treason would have been for her to find a way to get ahead of others to lead Gallifrey in her own awful way!"
Chloe has another question. "Why did my Tardis double-park?"
"I think it found a neat way to solve an ancient anomaly," Eroden says. "She was known to arrive back at Gallifrey in a small spacecraft, not a Tardis. That always puzzled us."
What else might be in that Tardis, left over from that era?