#18 - Microverse
Episode 1 by The White Guardian
Episode 2 by esherrouse
Episode 3 by The White Guardian
Episode 4 by esherrouse
Episode 5 by Lord Soldeed
Episode 6 by esherrouse
Episode 7 by Lord Soldeed
Episode 8 by esherrouse
COMPLETED
Episode 1
by The White Guardian
It was all Simon could do to maintain his questionable equilibrium as the ancient timeship lurched and sputtered its way through the continuum. He knew he should never have stowed away, but the old bald man in the suit hadn't protested when he found him shortly after the last departure. Of course it was clear that the man, who kept calling himself the Doctor, was not well.
In a posh British accent he had ordered Simon, "Close that door, whoever you are! And sit down and talk to me so I don't die!" Clearly that battle with the Salakian invaders had taken a lot out of him. That's when he'd gone into that trance, muttering to himself about someone named Ace and someone named Tegan and someone named Harry Sullivan. There had been a moment there when Simon thought the old man had died. He actually left the TARDIS console room in search of a shovel so he could bury his body on the next planet. When he returned, spade in hand, there was a young boy, maybe about ten years old in appearance, standing at the console. The old Doctor's suitcoat and black trousers were draped over the boy ridiculously.
"What in blue blazes are you looking at?" said the boy, running his hands over his freckled face. "Stop gawking and help me land this damned machine!"
The boy proceeded to rant and rave for several Earth minutes, making Simon wish for the first time that he'd just set the control panel to take the stowaway back to the 32nd century and have done with it. And it was everything, positively everything that infuriated Simon about him: his all-but-falsetto voice; his insistence that he was the Doctor, albeit the Doctor in his eleventh incarnation, whatever that meant; even his deep blue eyes, which seemed to give away a powerful alien intelligence in a way the old Doctor's hazel eyes hadn't.
"This regeneration has got to be faulty!" the Doctor complained. "Perhaps, dear boy - what is your name again? - aw, no matter. Perhaps I can use the TARDIS's recuperative powers to balance this regeneration out. This body could simply be a momentary anomaly." The Doctor cleared his throat and stormed off to the wardrobe room to find something more suitable for his altered physical state.
Simon stepped up to the TARDIS console, which he sometimes had the impression didn't like him somehow. It was this aura he sensed when he walked past it, as though the timeship actually thought he was a threat to the - Ludicrous notion, he thought suddenly, and began hitting buttons labelled in some cryptic alien language. As he pressed a tiny blue button, located inconspicuously near the time rotor on the console, the Doctor screamed.
Simon ran into the corridor, where the boy was on his hands and knees on the pristine-white floor. He was in tears.
"Please don't do that again," he sobbed.
And with a terrifying suddenness, Simon found his own body beginning to shrink. The feeling was not unlike being cryogenically frozen while still conscious - but Simon had no idea how he knew what that felt like. He turned to face the Doctor, whose alien eyes were wide with horror. The boy said in his high-pitched voice, "Normally I know what to do to help you, but right now I can't remember." He wiped away a tear, still blubbering.
Simon was panicking now. "What do I do? What the hell is happening?"
The Doctor looked away. "You pressed the blue button, didn't you?" Simon nodded. "You're about to be sucked into a microverse. But don't worry - I'll try to remember what to do. I'll just get Romana to help me." He glared down at Simon's rapidly-reducing form. "When you get there, do nothing. Wait for me to reverse the microverse's effects and restore you to your old self. Reverse the microverse... reverse..."
The Doctor stopped crying. His eyebrows creased. He stretched out on the TARDIS corridor floor and fell asleep, thumb in mouth.
Episode 2
by esherrouse
Simon heard the last words of the Doctor. He had said,"Do nothing." He watched as the little boy curled up and seemingly fell asleep. The little boy was actually becoming much larger in terms of size in relation to Simon. He was still shrinking into nothingness.
"What do you mean do nothing?!" He cried out to the boy appeared to be asleep in front of him.
The floor began to extend around him as if it were a new land. Simon began to notice that there was an horizon forming with the floor and what was becoming a blurred sky. It extended forever now in all directions. It were as it he had just been teleported to a new planet. He could feel that he was still growing smaller but the distinctions were not as great now. The boy, or Doctor was no longer visible. He had vanished in the blurry sky. "Do nothing?" Simon echoed the words in his head. "How does he expect me to do nothing? Who the Hell is he anyways? He is certainly not the Doctor."
Simon looked around him again and noticed various bolts of what looked like lightning jumping. One even shot through his chest and he felt a little charge, but nothing much. He thought to himself he should have never hidden in this ship. There was something about this man though that reminded him of his childhood. He could not quite place it though..
The Doctor was curled up with his thumb in his mouth. "Still weak from the regeneration", he thought.
The sleep brought dreams. Images of past lives and friends. They all danced around him. He awakened with a fright screaming, "No!" He then looked around the corridor and saw no one. He looked down at his clothes. They fit. He then looked at his hands and they were wrinkled with age. They were almost bones. He looked around again and called down the passage way, "Polly!" There was no response.
He struggled to his feet by holding the roundels on the side wall. "Something is terribly wrong here. I must stabilise this regeneration or I will die." He mumbled a bit more to himself about Daleks and invasions as he slowly made his way down the hall. "Where am I?" He looked up and down the seemingly neverending corridor and then saw a door at the end of the passageway. "Ah."
He opened the door and inside he found a very dishevelled room with trinkets from all over the universe. He looked down at one and then noticed a small mirror on the bed. He picked it up and looked at his ancient face. He had sunken cheeks and his eyes were deep in his head. It was merely a skeleton of a body. He then looked up from the small mirror and noticed his reflection on a wall mirror...
Episode 3
by The White Guardian
In sudden, mindless anger the Doctor raised a liver-spotted fist and smashed the mirror. Tiny drops of blood instantly appeared on and around his knuckles. The drops coursed down and specked the pristine-white floor until it began to resemble a Picasso painting.
Picasso... The Time Lord knew he'd met him once, but when? Picasso. And DaVinci, of course, and Michelangelo. Good painters, all, but also fantastic men in their own right... Suddenly, experiencing a moment of clarity, he wondered where Simon was. He was beginning to consider shrinking the TARDIS down so he could find Simon's microverse when the ghost appeared next to the TARDIS console.
Simon was standing in the midst of a large forest. At least, it vaguely resembled a forest. More accurately, it was a forest the way it would look through a camera lens that had been sneezed on. Large green and brown shapes stretched upward from the green ground below to the blue sky above. He kept feeling those little charges within him, like tiny lightning bolts, but he saw no sign of their source. He was wondering where they came from when he was surrounded by something in the region of fifteen to twenty natives.
They were slightly taller than Simon, and had dull gray skin from head to toe. Each of them had only one eye placed just above a long, pointy nose. They had three arms each, and four legs. They carried large stick-things. The look in their Cyclopean eyes was one of terror mingling with rage. Simon ran.
They did not follow him. He ran through the forest until he reached a village. The village was filled with small blurry huts. Its boundary was a river of bright blue water. Simon walked to it, bent down, and scooped water with his hands into his eager mouth. He'd never tasted anything so good.
He heard a noise, turned around. It was one of the strange villagers, an old man exactly the same height as Simon. The old man wobbled from side to side, and his mouth opened. He uttered a string of inarticulate, garbled speech, and pushed Simon into the river.
He ran away (much faster than old men Simon knew from his universe), each of his four feet taking its turn hitting the ground gracefully and with ease. Simon decided not to go to the village. Instead, he snuck back to the forest, carefully avoiding the group of villagers who were returning. Back at the forest, he stepped up to a berry bush and picked one of its berries. He didn't know if it would kill him or make him stronger, but he ate it anyway. It was delicious.
He lived there for the next three months. One day Simon awoke in his makeshift leaf-thing bed on the ground to see a girl standing above him. She had the same features as the rest - one eye, three arms, four legs - and yet there was something different about her. Something alluring.
She spoke in that other language. She actually smiled, beckoning Simon to follow. She brought him back to her family's hut. Simon gathered that the man who'd pushed him into the river was the girl's father. The old man laughed a loud, garbled laugh as he told the girl's mother, brothers and sisters about that day three months ago. They all laughed and pointed at Simon. Simon lowered his head and started to leave, but the girl stopped him. She hugged him.
The others joined the hug. The villagers had accepted him.
Episode 4
by esherrouse
The Doctor stared at the ghostly image in front of the TARDIS console. He appeared to be programming something into the systems. The Doctor walked over closer to the figure and then noticed that they both were wearing the same outfit. The other figure looked up at the Doctor and smiled momentarily. The Doctor approached and suddenly found himself being drawn into the figure. He reached out and his hand seemed to melt into the ghosts body. He then could not pull his hand back out, nor did he want to.
It had to be completed. The figure at the console stood calmly by with eyes closed as the Doctor merged with his ghostly presence. The two became one and then the Doctor found himself at the console punching in co-ordinates for Simon's location.
In a few moments the Doctor looked over at the console and noticed that he had arrived. The monitor revealed several layers of life outside. There seemed to be a massive amount of electrical energy shooting by while at the same time there appeared to be an order underneath the chaotic veil. A village was hidden in the chaos. Or at least that is what it appeared to be. The Doctor owed Simon this much. He activated the door lever and exited.
Outside the world was a blurred version of another world. The Sky was shaking with life and the ground appeared to have motion in all directions but never went anywhere. The Doctor approached the village and soon noticed a small group of villagers emerging from various houses. Each one stared at him with a look of curiosity as well as fear. The males of the households seemed to be looking back and forth at one another until finally a small group collected in front of the Doctor.
"I am looking for a friend of mine. He is known as Simon." The Doctor looked around hoping that they understood him. A garbled weaving of sounds was the reply. They seemed to speak both incredibly fast and incredibly slow at the same time. One then pushed the Doctor on the shoulder. The Doctor stepped back momentarily and then looked at the others. They were approaching slowly.
"He is about this tall" the Doctor tried to communicate with hand gestures illustrating Simon's height, but it did not effect the next move. They charged him and he soon found himself elevated over there heads as they carried him toward the same river that Simon had been baptised in.
Episode 5
by Lord Soldeed
The h'Garian named Davyn bel Karesh ordered his ship to slow as the target microverse shimmered into view. He could see a verdant landscape, not solid yet but translucent, like a stained-glass window. He ordered his ship, the Volor'kash, to stop and station itself in temporal orbit.
Any anomalous readings? he asked the ship's telepath, Aylissa alt Toras. She was young and quite lovely. She had a slim, lithe body, striking purple eyes and long, flowing silver hair. It was a rare combination among his people. He had always appreciated her beauty, just aesthetically of course, he was too old to fool around. And what had always struck him most about her was how her beauty had come from the random chance of genetics, how it was not deliberately formed and Loomed. His people, unlike the accursed Rassilonites, preferred the old-fashioned method of reproduction - he had, in his youth, joked that the reason that they had rejected the Looms was that it was more fun the other way.
She concentrated her energies, extending the reach of her mind out throughout the microverse, searching for life. No, just the usual indigenes, replied Toras. Except... wait. I'm getting two anomalous readings. Two sentients, both from Above. This was interesting, thought bel Karesh. Apparently, there was someone here who had come from the universe the h'Garians were originally exiled from.
What species? asked Karesh.
One of them is human, except... something's strange about the quality of his thoughts. Maybe his biodata's been altered somehow? The other... She paused. The other is one of our species.
A Rassilonite? said Karesh, quite startled. This was the only explanation. There were no followers of the Old Gallifreyan way remaining in the Above - Rassilon had made sure of that. So this must be one of the followers of Rassilon, who had for some reason come from Above. Karesh was excited, for himself and for all the others. For millennia upon millennia, the h'Garians had been imprisoned here, far from their ancestral home of Gallifrey. They had carved out a small empire among the Microverses, but many of those who were originally imprisoned wished to return. Over the centuries, Gallifrey had become a distant promised land, an ancient Eden from which his people had fallen - and perhaps to which they would soon return. Perhaps this man could somehow be the h'Garians' ticket back to Above! Obviously, he had gotten here somehow, and perhaps it was a process that could be reversed. If he found a way to return the h'Garian Imperium from their prison in the Microverses to their ancestral home Above, it would bring honor to his name, and he would be remember for all generations!
Send a strike team down. Have Lieutenant Perad lead them, and send Toras down with them. I don't expect much resistance from the natives, but I do expect resistance from the Rassilonite. I want him alive.
Soon, he thought, Gallifrey would be theirs, and with it the power to time travel. And the Old Gallifreyan Empire, the militant nation that presided before Rassilon, would stand astride the Universe once more...
***
The aliens picked up the Doctor and carried him toward the same river that they had baptised Simon in.
Put me down! cried out the Doctor. I'm not in the mood to swim here!
Then, someone stepped forward. The Doctor saw that it was Simon! He said something in a strange language that the Doctor didn't recognise - he was away from the TARDIS, and so the translation circuits wouldn't work - and the aliens put him down.
Simon! said the Doctor, quite glad that he was alive. Are you alright?
Simon just looked, uncomprehendingly.
Are you alright? the Doctor repeated, more slowly.
Sorry, responded Simon, slowly and hesitatingly. It's just that I haven't used English in a long time. But I am alright. In fact, I've never felt better.
Good, said the Doctor. We have to leave.
No, said Simon, I don't want to go back.
***
Being a telepath had its difficulties, but it also had its rewards. Aylissa alt Toras remembered being tested for psychic talent as a child, remembered being trained rigorously at the Academy on the use of her powers once it was found that she indeed had that talent. She remembered being Awakened, having the potential of her mind fully unleashed by interfacing with the Stone of Kalroth after a long and difficult rite of passage. She remembered her pride at being finally accepted as a telepath on a scout ship, going on missions to the unknown to seek out new lands for the h'Garian Empire. Now, she was standing at the cusp of the most important mission of her life, about to go into this newly-discovered microverse, to find a way back into their own universe.
Strike force shuttle ready to materialise. Awaiting orders, came the voice of Private Voral alt Kanaor. She could feel Private Kanaor's thoughts, how much she anticipated the mission and its consequences. She could also feel a similar feeling of anticipation from those around her. It was still a little disconcerting, after all these years, to be able to know to the letter the thoughts of all those near her.
Exit temporal orbit, materialise on the count of three. That was the voice of Lieutenant Mator bel Lartek, the officer placed in command of the strikeforce. She could feel his thoughts too, and his emotions. But they seemed to centre more on his personal future after this, his promotion and fame, and not at all on the future of his race. She didn't like the texture of his thoughts. It was true that all h'Garians were violent, that they were born and bred to violence, but Lartek was unusually so. She could also feel his lust for her - he was strongly attracted to her, as many of the young men were, but she didn't like his attentions. Many of the young men were slightly nervous around her, as they were attracted to her, and knew full well that she knew that. But Lartek wasn't. He was brazen, and he often hinted at his wish for her to respond, although that was utterly unnecessary, as she knew what his thoughts were. And she knew he was fully aware of that. She didn't like him. But she had to work with him. Duty came first.
The count of three rang out, and the shuttle exited metaspace and materialised. The group exited the shuttle. She reached out with her mind, searching for the mind of the Rassilonite. She found it. He was near. He's over there, she said, pointing in the direction the Rassilonite was in. Lartek led the group in the direction she was pointing. She could feel his thoughts getting nearer, stronger. Soon, she would find whether this Rassilonite could bring her back Above. If he refused to help them, of course, the Rassilonite would have the information forced out of him. The h'Garians were a violent people...
Episode 6
by esherrouse
The Doctor looked around at the natives. Each of their individual eyes seemed to focus on him. They had obviously not meant any real harm to him, but this was certainly not a place either of them could remain.
That is not an option my friend. The Doctor proclaimed with arrogance. This world, this universe is far too unstable for the likes of us. There is no telling what might become of us or these beings here. He gestured at the crowd around them. His purplish jacket rippled in the sudden gust of wind. The natives responded by taking a step back. There was a strange hum, perhaps a whisper coming from each of them. They were chatting amongst themselves.
Simon stared at the Doctor with a determined glance. Never had he felt so at home than he had since he had been here. He had thought over the last few months about his past and all the places he had been as a child. It was all meaningless. His mother had been so domineering when he was young. She had always known what was best for him. But that was just it. He had never really lived. That was the cost for what was best'. He did still love her, but the bitterness still lingered. The Doctor had shown him what it meant to be alive in just one adventure together. They had fought side by side to save the dying planet from the invaders. He knew what it meant to be true to one's own nature now. The Doctor, well the one he had met at least, had taught him that much. And now, now she had showed him what it was like to be loved as well as alive. He looked at Deteni, or Destiny as he like to think of her. She was the one who had taken care of him and taught him how to be a part of the tribe. He was now more than just a part of the tribe. He was one of their most loved. Even in such a short amount of time he had proved his worth and assisted them in gathering food every day and night. She had loved him for the last few months and he loved her. He looked over at the Doctor. He could tell it was the same man, even though his face was much different and even his mannerism was quite changed. The essence was there. It had always been there. He had seen the Doctor's aura when the first met and knew he was a good man. This was certainly the same man. Perhaps first met was the wrong word. They had met years ago, when he was a child. Again the Doctor had proven to him that the right was the only way. There was something else about this microverse which seemed to amplify the Doctor's core self. He could actually see the same Doctor at times. Each of them seemed to be reflected in that aura. It was odd, he thought, as he looked straight into the Doctor's eyes.
I do not know if you can safely remain in this world. Our being here might very well corrupt it's whole existence. He looked around erratically. His new body had a new found energy. It gave the image of not being completely stable. The natives began to chatter in a low humming noise again as they tried to understand this alien creature..
Simon held out his had for Detini, who readily offered two of her three.
I have found someone Doctor. I thank you for your concern, but I think we are willing to risk it. Besides, I have been here for months now. Wouldn't I have noticed an anomaly by now if there were one going to occur?
I refuse to accept the possible destruction of a universe just for a little trifle as this. He was obviously distraught and his new face revealed the stress of the situation. Though he had a new body and certainly a new vitality, his physical appearance was much more deceiving. He looked like a man in his mid to late 50's with the confidence of the same. He had the look of someone who had seen a lifetime of excitement. The wrinkles on his face were ones that had been rooted in both laughter and tears. He looked into Simon's eyes trying to reach in and make him realise what the potential consequences were. To be honest, he did not know what the consequences would be. He merely had fears. Fears of something dark and sinister plagued him here. It was almost as a nagging in the back of his mind. The boy was a good one and he knew he could take care of himself, but at the same time, this was a very selfish move for him to attempt. The simple fact was that something was wrong here and it was more than post-regenerative qualms.
I am sure there is something we can do to prevent my existence here from harming things. That is even if it does harm things. Simon was determined to stay with his loved one. Again, his eyes were determined as he stared down into Detini's.
As well the Rassilonite would know. Bellowed a voice from behind the crowd of natives.
The crowd parted quickly in a muffled hum. Behind them entered a party of heavily armed humanoids. They looked much like Simon and his alien friends, but they carried the face of death on their battle armour. Lartek seemed to not even notice the audience around him. They were merely animals, potential pets even. He focused on the Doctor as he traversed the parted crowd.
Or perhaps the Rassilonite would seek to exile you hears as they did us. He came within inches of the Doctors face. He sought to evoke fear in the Rassilonite. It was a fear built upon years of hatred for their enslavement in this microverse by his elitist class. They would be free again. He would be free again. And the universe would again bow before them, before him.
Episode 7
by Lord Soldeed
The Doctor looked Lartek in the eye, shocked. He felt as if he had seen a ghost. Those suits of battle armour looked a bit different, the aspect changed by centuries of technological change, but they were clearly Old Gallifreyan.
Lartek sneered. Surprised, Rassilonite? Didn't expect this, did you? Your people may have forgotten us, but we have not forgotten you. Well, they will not forget us for long. Now, we will return to Gallifrey, and you will bring us there!
And why should I listen to a swaggering military idiot like you? The Doctor looked him in the eye. His shock had dissipated, and only steely, determined courage remained.
Because if you do, we may find a use for you in the new order we will bring to Gallifrey. But if you don't, we will kill you, and your pet human and his alien friends with you!
A murmur of fear flowed through the group of aliens. Simon clasped Detini's hand, reassuringly. He looked into her eyes, his fear showing through, but his compassion, also. He had said more than words could ever convey.
He looked at the Doctor, pondering. He could pull through. Somehow, he would. He always did. And even if he didn't, Simon would find a way to stop these invaders, somehow. He would not let them destroy the only home he had ever had, destroy his new-found friends and family, destroy Detini.
The Doctor frowned. For a moment, he was silent. No, he said. I can't. Gallifrey isn't around anymore. It was destroyed some time ago.
The H'Garians were all shocked. Lartek felt anger course through him. His visions of his own impending glory, of the honours he would receive, were fading away. This couldn't be happening! He must be lying, said Lartek. He's bluffing. If you think that can stop us, Rassilonite, than you are wrong!
Aylissa frowned. Was this Rassilonite bluffing, or could he somehow be telling the truth? She shuddered at the though of the latter possibility. Could it be, indeed, that Gallifrey was no more, that her people would never return to their true home? It seemed so shocking that it couldn't possibly be true. And she could hear a voice in the back of her head, telling her that it wasn't true, the Rassilonite was bluffing, their home existed, she didn't need to examine his mind...
Aylissa suddenly realised something was wrong. The voice was speaking to the inner desires and emotions of her mind, but it wasn't coming from her. It felt like somehow it was coming from without...
She definitely needed to examine the Time Lord's mind, she decided. She entered it
--and hit a wall of mental energy.
<Surprised?> said the Doctor, telepathically. <Didn't expect a mere Rassilonite to have that much mental control, did you?>
Aylissa practically jumped in her shoes. <How? Rassilonites have no telepathy, only the ability to mind meld! Telepathy was taken out of the Time Lord gene pool!>
<I'm not *just* a Time Lord, my dear...> He entered his mind. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't stop him. <Aylissa, is that it? Anyway, Aylissa, I don't use this ability often, unless I need to. And I will let you into my mind enough for you to see that I'm telling the truth.>
Suddenly, the barriers around his mind dropped and Aylissa was inside. There was something quite dizzying about the Doctor's mind, so complex and full of so many strange memories. But she could tell two things. First, that he was feeling incredibly smug, but she already knew that. Second, that he was indeed telling the truth.
She shook off the disorientation of having been in the Doctor's mind. He's telling the truth, she told Lartek.
You're lying! Lartek yelled. His eyes blazed with pure animal rage. Aylissa could feel that the anger had utterly consumed his mind, and there was something strange about his thoughts too, the same altered quality she had glimpsed in the human. You're lying because you hate me. You don't appreciate my advances, and want me out of the way. Is that it? Well, you won't succeed! Kill her! he ordered to the other soldiers.
They obeyed, raising their guns at her. She could see that whatever power was controlling Lartek was controlling them too.
The Doctor grabbed Aylissa and ran. Run for it! he yelled to Simon and the natives.
The natives and Simon ran after him into the forest. The h'Garians ran after them. What do we do now? asked Aylissa.
Hide in the bushes, said Simon. Indeed, the Doctor and Aylissa saw that there were blurred green things that did, indeed, look vaguely like bushes. They did as Simon said.
The h'Garian troops entered the forest. Lartek and his troops searched with all their might, but they couldn't find anything. After a tense period that felt like a day, although it could have been only hours or even minutes, the h'Garian troops gave up and left.
***
That Captain Davyn bel Karesh was angry was a mind-staggering understatement. Lartek and his taskforce had returned without the Rassilonite, without the human, and most importantly without the ship's telepath.
Where's Toras? was the first question Captain Karesh asked.
She deserted, answered Lartek. She turned traitor.
Karesh was shocked. Something just seemed wrong about that. Toras was one of the most loyal officers he had, certainly more loyal than Lartek. What exactly did she do?
She turned on us, said Lartek. When the Rassilonite tried to bluff us, she supported him and told me that he was right.
Karesh frowned. What exactly did the Rassilonite say?
He tried to tell us that Gallifrey was no more. And Toras actually supported him.
Karesh was shocked. If Toras, the ship's telepath, had supported something, surely it was true. And yet, it seemed that this couldn't possibly be true. Was their ancestral home really gone? How could fate possibly be so cruel to them? I'm sorry, but what she said is has to be true. Toras wouldn't lie about what she read in someone's mind.
She lied! said Lartek. She lied because she hates me. She wanted me to look like a fool. Well, now we shall see who the fool is.
Something very strange was going on here, Karesh thought. Lartek was being very insubordinate, very haughty and overbearing, very hateful much more so then normal. It's true, he normally was rather insubordinate, haughty, overbearing, and hateful, but he was much more so than usual, as if these qualities had been somehow amplified. Toras wouldn't allow herself to be swayed by petty personal disagreements. Unlike some people, Karesh thought.
Lartek's face twisted with rage. I was afraid you would take her side. You have misjudged her, Karesh. You are a weak man, not fit to be captain. This ship needs a strong man, like me. And before anyone could stop him, he pulled out a gun and vaporised Karesh.
The people who had been in Lartek's boarding party turned their guns on the rest of the crew. I am the captain of this ship now, said Lartek. We shall hunt down and kill Toras for her treachery, and then we shall force the lying Rassilonite to take us home! And no one shall oppose me, unless they want to end up like the late Captain Karesh.
***
It was a small miracle that the Doctor, Simon, Aylissa, and the microverse natives had been able to escape without any loss of life. Not an unexpected one, though as the natives were much more well acquainted with the forest than the h'Garians were. They were excellent hunters, and knew how to conceal themselves so that their prey could not detect them. Those same skills came in very handy. And the h'Garians' sensors, on which they were far too dependant, didn't work very well in the chaotic environment of this Microverse.
But how long these miracles would hold up, the Doctor didn't know. He was sure the h'Garians would come back, with a larger search party. More importantly, though, he still felt a strange sense of foreboding, even more so after the h'Garians arrived. He was sure that the h'Garian commander wasn't himself - after all, although the Doctor didn't know much about current h'Garian ships protocol, shooting at an important officer was hardly normal behaviour.
Something was very wrong here. But what?
They were deep in the forest, very far from the village. The microverse natives were surviving well - they were able to hunt well, and the river flowed nearby so there was no shortage of water - but were very afraid. The Doctor didn't blame them. Foreboding was very thick in the air.
The Doctor heard a twig crack behind him and turned around, but it was only Aylissa. Are you alright, she asked.
Not really, no. I have the sense that something's terribly wrong here.
I can certainly identify with that, said Aylissa. She frowned. If someone had told her a week ago that her people's long-wished-for home of Gallifrey was no more and that she would be siding with a pack of animals and a Rassilonite against her own crew, she would have told him that he was insane. But here she was. The Doctor was hardly your typical Rassilonite, though. There was something very intriguing about him. And he seemed to care about people, not like most callous Rassilonites.
And as for the human and the natives... she took a brief look at Simon's mind and couldn't help but be impressed by the strength of his love for his mate and the other natives. She had told herself for so many years that lesser beings didn't really have emotions the way h'Garians did, that they weren't as genuine, even as she felt them in her own mind. But now, she was starting to wonder.
Tell me, Aylissa, said the Doctor, what exactly was Lartek like before he went mad?
Exactly what he was like after he went mad, only slightly less so. Obsessed with his own glory, callous, tyrannical, and nasty.
I take it from what you said that the relationship between you two was rather strained?
That's an understatement. She smiled. He was interested in me, and made no bones about it. I told him in no uncertain terms that I didn't reciprocate. He doesn't like that - he's used to being obeyed.
So basically, he did what he would have already done if what was left of his conscience and sanity hadn't restrained him?
That's about it. A painful look came over Aylissa's face. There's something else, too.
What?
When I found out that Gallifrey had been destroyed, I felt something inside me, something very powerful, telling me not to examine your mind to see if that was true. I was grasping at straws, trying to tell myself that this couldn't possibly be true. You have to understand how Gallifrey is to my people Doctor - for centuries we've hoped to take it back from the Ras - from your people.
They're not my people, by any means, said the Doctor.
But there's something else too. When I felt that, it was as if although it was coming from me, it was being stimulated by something outside of me.
The Doctor frowned. Then, Simon arrived.
We're going to hold a meeting, said Simon. A council. To decide what to do next. You should come.
No, said the Doctor, I think we three should discuss this away from the natives, for now, said the Doctor.
Why? said Simon.
Because there's something very strange going on, said the Doctor. What exactly do *you* think we should do next?
We should find some way to drive the h'Garians out. We can't leave these natives at the mercy of the h'Garians.
I'd worry more about leaving the h'Garians at the mercy of these natives, said the Doctor.
What? said Simon.
I think they're Xorin.
Aylissa was shocked. What?!
Simon was confused. What?
I'd better explain, said the Doctor. The Xorin are ancient immortal evil beings, who are to Gallifreyans as demons are to your people, Simon. The legends say that they were possessed of many powers - shape-shifting, great energy powers, and such. But their most deadly ability was mind control. They could perceive the deepest desires in a person's heart and play on those to control them.
Once, they ruled the universe. The only beings more powerful than they were were the Guardians and the Gods of Gallifrey, who weren't associated with Gallifrey at that point. And the Xorin were set on developing weapons which could destroy the Guardians and Gods themselves.
For many centuries the Gods searched for a being who was strong enough to defy the powers of the Xorin. And eventually, they found one, in a man called Kalroth on Gallifrey. Kalroth was given special telepathic gifts by the Gods.
He was the first telepath, venerated by all later generation. Kalroth was the most powerful telepath ever to walk the universe, and he was even powerful enough to break the Xorin's hold on some people. With a small army of Gallifreyans, and a few brilliant scientists, he devised a plan. He created a device that could transport people into microverses.
He led the Xorin into a trap, and imprisoned them in a microverse, which the Gods and the Guardians then sealed. Ever since then, the Gods chose Gallifrey as their special place of residence.
And that's the end of the story, said the Doctor, or at least we thought it was. I suspect that these natives are the Xorin. Consider this. And he explained what had happened so far. There is obviously a force here, a force that is playing on people's inner desires to control them. And, all the legends describe the Xorin in their true forms as creatures with three arms and four legs.
I suspect that what's happening is something like this. When I regenerated, the unstable regeneration unleashed temporal energy that weakened the boundary of the Xorin's microverse. When Simon pushed the blue button, it broke the boundary. The arrival of both of us here weakened the boundary enough for the h'Garians to get through. They probably somehow called Simon and I and the h'Garians here - they probably have enough power to get people to do trivial actions at a near distance, and considering the confusion you were going through at the time, Simon, you would have been rather vulnerable.
"The Xorin don't have all their powers right now, as something in the microverse is putting a dampener on them, and they can only use their mind control very effectively. I wouldn't be surprised if they can't even fully control someone who's just outside of the barrier who hasn't already met them. But the longer that we stay here, the weaker the barrier gets, and the weaker the barrier gets, the more powerful the Xorin get. They're keeping you here to keep the gateway to the real universe open, and they're trying to use the h'Garians to get us to open it. If they have their way, the h'Garians will take them as pets, then force us to go to the real universe - taking their pets with them, of course.
Aylissa was horrified. Simon was stunned. You can't be right, Simon said. These people aren't demons, they're some of the most caring, loving people I know. They don't have a malevolent bone in their body.
That's what they want you to think. Said the Doctor. The Xorin are excellent hunters. They know how to conceal themselves so that their prey cannot detect them. Think, Simon. You didn't want to leave the Microverse. Even when I told you that our presence here could destroy it, you still refused. If you really cared about these people, would you be so selfish as to stay here?
No - no, said Simon. He seemed to be struggling with himself. Part of him knew that what the Doctor was saying was true, but the other part refused to accept it. My presence wouldn't threaten anything. This is my home. These people love me, care about me, the way that no one before them ever did. And I love Detini like no woman I've ever met before.
At the mention of the name Detini, a look of shock came over Aylissa's face. She made a sign to ward off evil. According to legend, said the Doctor, Detini was the name of the most evil and feared of the Xorin, the Mistress of Illusion and Deceit. Simon - the Xorin are influencing you - you have to fight it. It may feel genuine, and in a sense it it, but you have to realise you're being manipulated, used. These people don't care about you at all!
A look of rage came over Simon's face. No, Doctor. You're the one who doesn't care about me. You're trying to take me away from the only home I have. You're the one who's evil. It took me so long to realise it, but now I do. The Doctor suddenly realised that Simon had a knife at his belt. He drew it, and before anyone could stop him he lunged at the Doctor...
Episode 8
by esherrouse
The Doctor jolted to the side as Simon lunged forward. Aylissa started in amazement as Simon became consumed with anger and hatred. She could visualise his emotions around him. Small particles of energy seemed to come alive and spark as his hatred grew. Then she saw something else, something in his mind.
He turned back to the Doctor, who was watching for his next move. He looked at the Doctor with disgust. "You are trying to kill us all, just like before!"
The Doctor's eyes narrowed as he looked at Simon, "Before?"
"You destroyed my people, my world! You!" He was literally foaming at the mouth as he continued. "Just like all of the other poor pathetic souls that have crossed your path!"
"What are you talking about, Simon?" The Doctor said calmly.
Aylissa could see the destruction in Simon's mind. She could see the Doctor, not in this form, but a previous one, looking out over a devastated city. The dead were all that remained. He was laughing. It was a loud laughter, one that echoed within her mind. Then she saw yet another Doctor. This time he was shorter and carrying an umbrella.
"I remember..." Simon muttered. "What about Hoffman and all of his kind?"* Simon continued to stare into the Doctor's eyes. He was waiting for the moment to strike.
Aylissa was becoming nervous. She could see the pain the boy had suffered. She could see what the Doctor had done.
The Doctor looked at Simon intensely, "None of this is true, Simon. You know that. You were there." He looked at Aylissa and noticed her reaction. "They are feeding his mind with false memories."
Aylissa looked to the Doctor and then entered his mind. She could see another reality. Was the Doctor feeding her these images? She could not be sure. He was more powerful than she had ever expected. He could be manipulating the images. The boy certainly couldn't do this.
"We saved your planet, Simon. And Hoffman, we both know..."
"Lies! Stop it!" Simon grabbed his head as he seemed to be losing control.
"Aylissa, help me shield his mind. They are feeding his mind with altered pasts."
Aylissa looked at the Doctor and then back to Simon. She then felt another presence. It was near and getting nearer. She complied with the Doctor's request. Simon looked around him and then down at the knife in his hand. He dropped it to the ground as he fell to his knees sobbing.
"What is going on?" He mumbled as he looked up at the other two.
"What have they done to you, my love." Came the voice of Detini as she emerged from the shadows. She looked at the Doctor and began to cry as she fell to the ground with Simon. She held him as he continued to mumble incoherently. "What have you two done to him?" She looked at them as she held Simon.
The Doctor and Aylissa exchanged glances. Then Aylissa spoke,"The stress is getting to him. He was becoming delusional." She looked to the Doctor for support.
"I think that the best thing for him now is a nice rest." He looked into Deteni's eyes. They echoed the microcosm around her. It was as if they were one.
"It is you who have brought evil to this place." She looked up from her position near Simon. "You and your alien friends!" Her voice rose until other Microversians began to appear around them.
"This is not looking good." The Doctor muttered to Aylissa who looked at him with amazement at his gift of understatement.
Detini then stood up and said, "I wonder if the invaders would leave if we gave you to you." Before the Doctor could respond a series of hands were around them both.
***
Lartek had quickly established control over the ship. The promise of returning to their homes far outweighed any loyalty that many of them had for Karesh. There had been a few who resisted and most of them had been killed. A few had escaped into the wilderness. Lartek looked at the navigational officer, "Is there any way we can encode Aylissa's biodata into the tracking system?"
"With a little work we should be able to use her medi-samples to construct a rudimentary tracking system." He replied.
"Excellent. Then the game is about to get exciting." He then looked over at another officer and smiled, "Take a party down to the primitive's village and destroy it. They will understand what it means to ally with the Rassilonite."
The officer saluted as Lartek continued, " And make an example of any of the primitives that happen to be in the area." He continued to smirk as he looked back at the navigational officer. "Get to work!"
He then looked out over the console at the vast microverse before them. He would be free of this place. They would all be free of this place. ALL of them! The thoughts echoed in his head. It was as if multiple voices were pulling him in many directions. He closed his eyes and gripped the console tightly. "We shall be free!" He exclaimed.
***
Simon awoke. He was back at home, Detini's home. He looked around and only saw her standing by the window staring out at the night sky.
"What happened?" He said as he stood and went to approach her.
"Your friend and the other Alien have betrayed us all. They have betrayed you."
"What?" Simon had faint memories of the last few hours. It was as if he had been seeing things through another person's eyes. He could see his home devastated. He could see the dead bodies of thousands at the feet of the Doctor, but he knew it wasn't true. Or was it. What was going on? He approached Detini. She turned.
"We have to give them over to the others, before they destroy every thing we have here." She spoke with such despair. Simon held her.
"The Doctor would not do anything to harm your... our people." He was confused by the conflicting images in his head. "If anything, he is the only person that might be able to save us all from them."
"Simon, you are so naive. Look into your soul. You have known this man in many forms and each time has not destruction engulfed those who were around him? How many more must suffer before you realise?" She hung her head on Simon's shoulder.
As she did this, Simon could see through the window and witnessed the Doctor and Aylissa being carted off in a makeshift cell. "What are you doing to them?" He was concerned.
"We must turn them over to the aliens. It is the only way to save us all."
Simon watched as the cell was rolled down the hill side. They were taking them to the river side, where they had first encountered the H'garians. "This is all wrong." He shook his head and then looked at Detini. "I love you, but the Doctor is a good man. I have to stop this."
Before she could say anything, Simon was out the door and trying to catch up with the prison caravan that had formed around the Doctor and Aylissa's delivery to the H'garians.
"Wait!" Simon attempted to call to the crowd as it pressed forward.
***
The squadron's commander looked out at the village from his position on upstream.
"It looks as if we have a little celebration in our honor occuring." He smiled as he passed a scanning unit over to his advisor.
"It looks like they have a gift for us. They probably think we are Gods or something." The water ran passed them and failed to offer any reflection of their sizeable egos as they smiled at the recent events.
"Our orders were to destroy that village and any primitives. I say we notify Commander Lartek of the festivities while we join the event."
"Commander Lartek..." He crackled over the communications unit.
"We are approaching the Rassilonite now. Destroy the primitives." Came the immediate response.
"Does not waste any time does he?" Smiled the officer as he brandished his weapon. The others did the same.
Within minutes the village was being torn to pieces by laser assaults from the hillside. Many of the villagers seemed to shimmer in and out of phase as the scurried around looking for cover. Detini made a move to follow Simon.
Simon had just now caught up with the imprisoned Doctor and Aylissa. He struggled through the crowd as they began to panic over the sound of the assault behind them.
As Simon grew nearer the Doctor and Aylissa he could feel the shadow over him. The natives we all looking to the sky, many of them with multiple hands gesturing this way and that. He turned and looked up at the sky and saw the H'garian Battleship. It was looming closer and closer. He looked back at the Doctor and Aylissa by the riverside. They were trapped within the makeshift cage.
A brilliant beam hit the ground behind him as earth and bodies were vaporised. Screams erupted from everywhere. He looked back and saw Detini running after him. He then looked around and could see that the ground seemed to be shimmering. He could see electricity sparking around him. It was as if a curtain was being lifted from his eyes. He could see particles shooting around him. They were like oversized atoms whirling about. He looked back and Detini was still running forward, but the Microversians had all dissolved into nothingness. They seemed to have become part of this new microverse of atoms that was swarming around him.
"Simon!" He heard the Doctor calling for him. He turned and even the Doctor and Aylissa's cell had dissolved into a series of electrons, protons and neutrons zooming about. They were running toward him.
The H'garians were just as discombobulated as Simon. They had one minute been firing at villagers and destroying buildings and then the next minute they were standing in the middle of an electron soup. Lartek's Ship still loomed overhead and continued to fire at what was once the earth.
Lartek looked over the monitor at the changing events and refused to accept it. "They are manipulating our images. Destroy any non-Rassilonite! We shall have our freedom!" With that the ship began ripping into it's own troops. Their bodies were obliterated.
The Doctor grabbed Simon as he stood dumbfounded looking at Detini who seemed to be swimming toward him. She was so much pain. He could hear her screaming for release in his head. He loved her. He had to save her. "Help me!" The voice echoed in his head.
"I have to save her, Doctor." He started to go toward her but both Aylissa at the Doctor grabbed his arms.
"Wait. Look at her." The Doctor said sternly.
Detini was still swimming in the see of atoms, but she was also absorbing them. The Microversians were becoming part of her.
"They are returning." Aylissa said calmly.
"What?" Simon stared on.
"This entire place was Detini. She created this facade to ensnare us and the H'garians. She wanted a free passage back to our universe."
Simon looked at both of them as he pulled his arms free. "This was all a dream?"
"Welcome to Oz, Dorothy." The Doctor responded whimsically.
Another bolt fired from Lartek's ship as more of his troops were engulfed in screams of momentary pain.
Lartek was growing increasingly mad with the current events. The entire world was falling apart around him... quite literally.
"We have to get out of here!" Aylissa looked at the Doctor and Simon. "Your TARDIS, Doctor?"
"This way." He started to go as he noticed Simon's confusion. "Simon, Not everything is as it seems. Detini is consuming everything here. We have to leave, now!" With that he tugged on Simon's arm. Simon followed half-heartedly.
Lartek grimaced as he witnessed the Doctor approaching his TARDIS. If I can not escape this prison then neither shall you, Doctor! Destroy them ALL!"
Bolts of energy ripped through what remained of the world. The atoms seemed to be charged and zooming about as they rejoined Detini. She was growing stronger and was no longer struggling in the sea of neutrons. She was navigating through it as a falcon might a wind current. She fixed her eyes on her prey. The three of them were racing toward the blue box... the bait, she thought to herself. Her body was becoming energy as she swooped toward her victims.
The Doctor arrived at the TARDIS and ushered everyone past him as he looked into the air and noticed Detini's approach. As he looked into her eyes a jolt of energy encompassed her and she screeched in pain. Her body seemed to demolecularize right before him. She turned her head toward him and let out one last gasp of energy which threw him into the TARDIS.
Simon closed the door quickly as the Doctor fell on the floor. He and Aylissa had witnessed the shot fired from Lartek's ship. It had hit Detini dead centre.
The Doctor stood up and brushed off his purple jacket.
"That about does it for me." He smiled.
"Is she dead, Doctor?" Simon asked with a hint of depression.
"I seriously doubt it. But even Detini would have to regroup after a blast like that. Thanks to Lartek, we may have made it out of here."
"May?" Aylissa noticed the discreet clause in the Doctor's statement.
"With a few adjustments to the TARDIS, we should be fine, but...."
The monitor came to life as Lartek's angry face looked down at them. "You can not desert us, Aylissa. He is a Rassilonite. They are our betrayers, our wardens. How can you?"
"Until the H'garians learn more... effective communications methods, I think it is best that they remain in a microcosm where the damage they can cause is limited."
"You will be an exile to your own people, Aylissa. It will haunt you for the rest of your days."
"It's not all that bad, trust me." The Doctor muttered to her with a smirk.
"And you, Rassilonite! I shall find a way out of this prison and I shall make you pay for your sins and those of your forefathers. The H'Garians shall be avenged!"
"I am terribly sorry, but you seem to be breaking up." With that the Doctor flipped a switch turning the monitor off.
"Besides, we have places to be going..."
He smiled at Simon and Aylissa as the console came to life and they dematerialised.
Episode 1 by The White Guardian
Episode 2 by esherrouse
Episode 3 by The White Guardian
Episode 4 by esherrouse
Episode 5 by Lord Soldeed
Episode 6 by esherrouse
Episode 7 by Lord Soldeed
Episode 8 by esherrouse
COMPLETED
Episode 1
by The White Guardian
It was all Simon could do to maintain his questionable equilibrium as the ancient timeship lurched and sputtered its way through the continuum. He knew he should never have stowed away, but the old bald man in the suit hadn't protested when he found him shortly after the last departure. Of course it was clear that the man, who kept calling himself the Doctor, was not well.
In a posh British accent he had ordered Simon, "Close that door, whoever you are! And sit down and talk to me so I don't die!" Clearly that battle with the Salakian invaders had taken a lot out of him. That's when he'd gone into that trance, muttering to himself about someone named Ace and someone named Tegan and someone named Harry Sullivan. There had been a moment there when Simon thought the old man had died. He actually left the TARDIS console room in search of a shovel so he could bury his body on the next planet. When he returned, spade in hand, there was a young boy, maybe about ten years old in appearance, standing at the console. The old Doctor's suitcoat and black trousers were draped over the boy ridiculously.
"What in blue blazes are you looking at?" said the boy, running his hands over his freckled face. "Stop gawking and help me land this damned machine!"
The boy proceeded to rant and rave for several Earth minutes, making Simon wish for the first time that he'd just set the control panel to take the stowaway back to the 32nd century and have done with it. And it was everything, positively everything that infuriated Simon about him: his all-but-falsetto voice; his insistence that he was the Doctor, albeit the Doctor in his eleventh incarnation, whatever that meant; even his deep blue eyes, which seemed to give away a powerful alien intelligence in a way the old Doctor's hazel eyes hadn't.
"This regeneration has got to be faulty!" the Doctor complained. "Perhaps, dear boy - what is your name again? - aw, no matter. Perhaps I can use the TARDIS's recuperative powers to balance this regeneration out. This body could simply be a momentary anomaly." The Doctor cleared his throat and stormed off to the wardrobe room to find something more suitable for his altered physical state.
Simon stepped up to the TARDIS console, which he sometimes had the impression didn't like him somehow. It was this aura he sensed when he walked past it, as though the timeship actually thought he was a threat to the - Ludicrous notion, he thought suddenly, and began hitting buttons labelled in some cryptic alien language. As he pressed a tiny blue button, located inconspicuously near the time rotor on the console, the Doctor screamed.
Simon ran into the corridor, where the boy was on his hands and knees on the pristine-white floor. He was in tears.
"Please don't do that again," he sobbed.
And with a terrifying suddenness, Simon found his own body beginning to shrink. The feeling was not unlike being cryogenically frozen while still conscious - but Simon had no idea how he knew what that felt like. He turned to face the Doctor, whose alien eyes were wide with horror. The boy said in his high-pitched voice, "Normally I know what to do to help you, but right now I can't remember." He wiped away a tear, still blubbering.
Simon was panicking now. "What do I do? What the hell is happening?"
The Doctor looked away. "You pressed the blue button, didn't you?" Simon nodded. "You're about to be sucked into a microverse. But don't worry - I'll try to remember what to do. I'll just get Romana to help me." He glared down at Simon's rapidly-reducing form. "When you get there, do nothing. Wait for me to reverse the microverse's effects and restore you to your old self. Reverse the microverse... reverse..."
The Doctor stopped crying. His eyebrows creased. He stretched out on the TARDIS corridor floor and fell asleep, thumb in mouth.
Episode 2
by esherrouse
Simon heard the last words of the Doctor. He had said,"Do nothing." He watched as the little boy curled up and seemingly fell asleep. The little boy was actually becoming much larger in terms of size in relation to Simon. He was still shrinking into nothingness.
"What do you mean do nothing?!" He cried out to the boy appeared to be asleep in front of him.
The floor began to extend around him as if it were a new land. Simon began to notice that there was an horizon forming with the floor and what was becoming a blurred sky. It extended forever now in all directions. It were as it he had just been teleported to a new planet. He could feel that he was still growing smaller but the distinctions were not as great now. The boy, or Doctor was no longer visible. He had vanished in the blurry sky. "Do nothing?" Simon echoed the words in his head. "How does he expect me to do nothing? Who the Hell is he anyways? He is certainly not the Doctor."
Simon looked around him again and noticed various bolts of what looked like lightning jumping. One even shot through his chest and he felt a little charge, but nothing much. He thought to himself he should have never hidden in this ship. There was something about this man though that reminded him of his childhood. He could not quite place it though..
The Doctor was curled up with his thumb in his mouth. "Still weak from the regeneration", he thought.
The sleep brought dreams. Images of past lives and friends. They all danced around him. He awakened with a fright screaming, "No!" He then looked around the corridor and saw no one. He looked down at his clothes. They fit. He then looked at his hands and they were wrinkled with age. They were almost bones. He looked around again and called down the passage way, "Polly!" There was no response.
He struggled to his feet by holding the roundels on the side wall. "Something is terribly wrong here. I must stabilise this regeneration or I will die." He mumbled a bit more to himself about Daleks and invasions as he slowly made his way down the hall. "Where am I?" He looked up and down the seemingly neverending corridor and then saw a door at the end of the passageway. "Ah."
He opened the door and inside he found a very dishevelled room with trinkets from all over the universe. He looked down at one and then noticed a small mirror on the bed. He picked it up and looked at his ancient face. He had sunken cheeks and his eyes were deep in his head. It was merely a skeleton of a body. He then looked up from the small mirror and noticed his reflection on a wall mirror...
Episode 3
by The White Guardian
In sudden, mindless anger the Doctor raised a liver-spotted fist and smashed the mirror. Tiny drops of blood instantly appeared on and around his knuckles. The drops coursed down and specked the pristine-white floor until it began to resemble a Picasso painting.
Picasso... The Time Lord knew he'd met him once, but when? Picasso. And DaVinci, of course, and Michelangelo. Good painters, all, but also fantastic men in their own right... Suddenly, experiencing a moment of clarity, he wondered where Simon was. He was beginning to consider shrinking the TARDIS down so he could find Simon's microverse when the ghost appeared next to the TARDIS console.
Simon was standing in the midst of a large forest. At least, it vaguely resembled a forest. More accurately, it was a forest the way it would look through a camera lens that had been sneezed on. Large green and brown shapes stretched upward from the green ground below to the blue sky above. He kept feeling those little charges within him, like tiny lightning bolts, but he saw no sign of their source. He was wondering where they came from when he was surrounded by something in the region of fifteen to twenty natives.
They were slightly taller than Simon, and had dull gray skin from head to toe. Each of them had only one eye placed just above a long, pointy nose. They had three arms each, and four legs. They carried large stick-things. The look in their Cyclopean eyes was one of terror mingling with rage. Simon ran.
They did not follow him. He ran through the forest until he reached a village. The village was filled with small blurry huts. Its boundary was a river of bright blue water. Simon walked to it, bent down, and scooped water with his hands into his eager mouth. He'd never tasted anything so good.
He heard a noise, turned around. It was one of the strange villagers, an old man exactly the same height as Simon. The old man wobbled from side to side, and his mouth opened. He uttered a string of inarticulate, garbled speech, and pushed Simon into the river.
He ran away (much faster than old men Simon knew from his universe), each of his four feet taking its turn hitting the ground gracefully and with ease. Simon decided not to go to the village. Instead, he snuck back to the forest, carefully avoiding the group of villagers who were returning. Back at the forest, he stepped up to a berry bush and picked one of its berries. He didn't know if it would kill him or make him stronger, but he ate it anyway. It was delicious.
He lived there for the next three months. One day Simon awoke in his makeshift leaf-thing bed on the ground to see a girl standing above him. She had the same features as the rest - one eye, three arms, four legs - and yet there was something different about her. Something alluring.
She spoke in that other language. She actually smiled, beckoning Simon to follow. She brought him back to her family's hut. Simon gathered that the man who'd pushed him into the river was the girl's father. The old man laughed a loud, garbled laugh as he told the girl's mother, brothers and sisters about that day three months ago. They all laughed and pointed at Simon. Simon lowered his head and started to leave, but the girl stopped him. She hugged him.
The others joined the hug. The villagers had accepted him.
Episode 4
by esherrouse
The Doctor stared at the ghostly image in front of the TARDIS console. He appeared to be programming something into the systems. The Doctor walked over closer to the figure and then noticed that they both were wearing the same outfit. The other figure looked up at the Doctor and smiled momentarily. The Doctor approached and suddenly found himself being drawn into the figure. He reached out and his hand seemed to melt into the ghosts body. He then could not pull his hand back out, nor did he want to.
It had to be completed. The figure at the console stood calmly by with eyes closed as the Doctor merged with his ghostly presence. The two became one and then the Doctor found himself at the console punching in co-ordinates for Simon's location.
In a few moments the Doctor looked over at the console and noticed that he had arrived. The monitor revealed several layers of life outside. There seemed to be a massive amount of electrical energy shooting by while at the same time there appeared to be an order underneath the chaotic veil. A village was hidden in the chaos. Or at least that is what it appeared to be. The Doctor owed Simon this much. He activated the door lever and exited.
Outside the world was a blurred version of another world. The Sky was shaking with life and the ground appeared to have motion in all directions but never went anywhere. The Doctor approached the village and soon noticed a small group of villagers emerging from various houses. Each one stared at him with a look of curiosity as well as fear. The males of the households seemed to be looking back and forth at one another until finally a small group collected in front of the Doctor.
"I am looking for a friend of mine. He is known as Simon." The Doctor looked around hoping that they understood him. A garbled weaving of sounds was the reply. They seemed to speak both incredibly fast and incredibly slow at the same time. One then pushed the Doctor on the shoulder. The Doctor stepped back momentarily and then looked at the others. They were approaching slowly.
"He is about this tall" the Doctor tried to communicate with hand gestures illustrating Simon's height, but it did not effect the next move. They charged him and he soon found himself elevated over there heads as they carried him toward the same river that Simon had been baptised in.
Episode 5
by Lord Soldeed
The h'Garian named Davyn bel Karesh ordered his ship to slow as the target microverse shimmered into view. He could see a verdant landscape, not solid yet but translucent, like a stained-glass window. He ordered his ship, the Volor'kash, to stop and station itself in temporal orbit.
Any anomalous readings? he asked the ship's telepath, Aylissa alt Toras. She was young and quite lovely. She had a slim, lithe body, striking purple eyes and long, flowing silver hair. It was a rare combination among his people. He had always appreciated her beauty, just aesthetically of course, he was too old to fool around. And what had always struck him most about her was how her beauty had come from the random chance of genetics, how it was not deliberately formed and Loomed. His people, unlike the accursed Rassilonites, preferred the old-fashioned method of reproduction - he had, in his youth, joked that the reason that they had rejected the Looms was that it was more fun the other way.
She concentrated her energies, extending the reach of her mind out throughout the microverse, searching for life. No, just the usual indigenes, replied Toras. Except... wait. I'm getting two anomalous readings. Two sentients, both from Above. This was interesting, thought bel Karesh. Apparently, there was someone here who had come from the universe the h'Garians were originally exiled from.
What species? asked Karesh.
One of them is human, except... something's strange about the quality of his thoughts. Maybe his biodata's been altered somehow? The other... She paused. The other is one of our species.
A Rassilonite? said Karesh, quite startled. This was the only explanation. There were no followers of the Old Gallifreyan way remaining in the Above - Rassilon had made sure of that. So this must be one of the followers of Rassilon, who had for some reason come from Above. Karesh was excited, for himself and for all the others. For millennia upon millennia, the h'Garians had been imprisoned here, far from their ancestral home of Gallifrey. They had carved out a small empire among the Microverses, but many of those who were originally imprisoned wished to return. Over the centuries, Gallifrey had become a distant promised land, an ancient Eden from which his people had fallen - and perhaps to which they would soon return. Perhaps this man could somehow be the h'Garians' ticket back to Above! Obviously, he had gotten here somehow, and perhaps it was a process that could be reversed. If he found a way to return the h'Garian Imperium from their prison in the Microverses to their ancestral home Above, it would bring honor to his name, and he would be remember for all generations!
Send a strike team down. Have Lieutenant Perad lead them, and send Toras down with them. I don't expect much resistance from the natives, but I do expect resistance from the Rassilonite. I want him alive.
Soon, he thought, Gallifrey would be theirs, and with it the power to time travel. And the Old Gallifreyan Empire, the militant nation that presided before Rassilon, would stand astride the Universe once more...
***
The aliens picked up the Doctor and carried him toward the same river that they had baptised Simon in.
Put me down! cried out the Doctor. I'm not in the mood to swim here!
Then, someone stepped forward. The Doctor saw that it was Simon! He said something in a strange language that the Doctor didn't recognise - he was away from the TARDIS, and so the translation circuits wouldn't work - and the aliens put him down.
Simon! said the Doctor, quite glad that he was alive. Are you alright?
Simon just looked, uncomprehendingly.
Are you alright? the Doctor repeated, more slowly.
Sorry, responded Simon, slowly and hesitatingly. It's just that I haven't used English in a long time. But I am alright. In fact, I've never felt better.
Good, said the Doctor. We have to leave.
No, said Simon, I don't want to go back.
***
Being a telepath had its difficulties, but it also had its rewards. Aylissa alt Toras remembered being tested for psychic talent as a child, remembered being trained rigorously at the Academy on the use of her powers once it was found that she indeed had that talent. She remembered being Awakened, having the potential of her mind fully unleashed by interfacing with the Stone of Kalroth after a long and difficult rite of passage. She remembered her pride at being finally accepted as a telepath on a scout ship, going on missions to the unknown to seek out new lands for the h'Garian Empire. Now, she was standing at the cusp of the most important mission of her life, about to go into this newly-discovered microverse, to find a way back into their own universe.
Strike force shuttle ready to materialise. Awaiting orders, came the voice of Private Voral alt Kanaor. She could feel Private Kanaor's thoughts, how much she anticipated the mission and its consequences. She could also feel a similar feeling of anticipation from those around her. It was still a little disconcerting, after all these years, to be able to know to the letter the thoughts of all those near her.
Exit temporal orbit, materialise on the count of three. That was the voice of Lieutenant Mator bel Lartek, the officer placed in command of the strikeforce. She could feel his thoughts too, and his emotions. But they seemed to centre more on his personal future after this, his promotion and fame, and not at all on the future of his race. She didn't like the texture of his thoughts. It was true that all h'Garians were violent, that they were born and bred to violence, but Lartek was unusually so. She could also feel his lust for her - he was strongly attracted to her, as many of the young men were, but she didn't like his attentions. Many of the young men were slightly nervous around her, as they were attracted to her, and knew full well that she knew that. But Lartek wasn't. He was brazen, and he often hinted at his wish for her to respond, although that was utterly unnecessary, as she knew what his thoughts were. And she knew he was fully aware of that. She didn't like him. But she had to work with him. Duty came first.
The count of three rang out, and the shuttle exited metaspace and materialised. The group exited the shuttle. She reached out with her mind, searching for the mind of the Rassilonite. She found it. He was near. He's over there, she said, pointing in the direction the Rassilonite was in. Lartek led the group in the direction she was pointing. She could feel his thoughts getting nearer, stronger. Soon, she would find whether this Rassilonite could bring her back Above. If he refused to help them, of course, the Rassilonite would have the information forced out of him. The h'Garians were a violent people...
Episode 6
by esherrouse
The Doctor looked around at the natives. Each of their individual eyes seemed to focus on him. They had obviously not meant any real harm to him, but this was certainly not a place either of them could remain.
That is not an option my friend. The Doctor proclaimed with arrogance. This world, this universe is far too unstable for the likes of us. There is no telling what might become of us or these beings here. He gestured at the crowd around them. His purplish jacket rippled in the sudden gust of wind. The natives responded by taking a step back. There was a strange hum, perhaps a whisper coming from each of them. They were chatting amongst themselves.
Simon stared at the Doctor with a determined glance. Never had he felt so at home than he had since he had been here. He had thought over the last few months about his past and all the places he had been as a child. It was all meaningless. His mother had been so domineering when he was young. She had always known what was best for him. But that was just it. He had never really lived. That was the cost for what was best'. He did still love her, but the bitterness still lingered. The Doctor had shown him what it meant to be alive in just one adventure together. They had fought side by side to save the dying planet from the invaders. He knew what it meant to be true to one's own nature now. The Doctor, well the one he had met at least, had taught him that much. And now, now she had showed him what it was like to be loved as well as alive. He looked at Deteni, or Destiny as he like to think of her. She was the one who had taken care of him and taught him how to be a part of the tribe. He was now more than just a part of the tribe. He was one of their most loved. Even in such a short amount of time he had proved his worth and assisted them in gathering food every day and night. She had loved him for the last few months and he loved her. He looked over at the Doctor. He could tell it was the same man, even though his face was much different and even his mannerism was quite changed. The essence was there. It had always been there. He had seen the Doctor's aura when the first met and knew he was a good man. This was certainly the same man. Perhaps first met was the wrong word. They had met years ago, when he was a child. Again the Doctor had proven to him that the right was the only way. There was something else about this microverse which seemed to amplify the Doctor's core self. He could actually see the same Doctor at times. Each of them seemed to be reflected in that aura. It was odd, he thought, as he looked straight into the Doctor's eyes.
I do not know if you can safely remain in this world. Our being here might very well corrupt it's whole existence. He looked around erratically. His new body had a new found energy. It gave the image of not being completely stable. The natives began to chatter in a low humming noise again as they tried to understand this alien creature..
Simon held out his had for Detini, who readily offered two of her three.
I have found someone Doctor. I thank you for your concern, but I think we are willing to risk it. Besides, I have been here for months now. Wouldn't I have noticed an anomaly by now if there were one going to occur?
I refuse to accept the possible destruction of a universe just for a little trifle as this. He was obviously distraught and his new face revealed the stress of the situation. Though he had a new body and certainly a new vitality, his physical appearance was much more deceiving. He looked like a man in his mid to late 50's with the confidence of the same. He had the look of someone who had seen a lifetime of excitement. The wrinkles on his face were ones that had been rooted in both laughter and tears. He looked into Simon's eyes trying to reach in and make him realise what the potential consequences were. To be honest, he did not know what the consequences would be. He merely had fears. Fears of something dark and sinister plagued him here. It was almost as a nagging in the back of his mind. The boy was a good one and he knew he could take care of himself, but at the same time, this was a very selfish move for him to attempt. The simple fact was that something was wrong here and it was more than post-regenerative qualms.
I am sure there is something we can do to prevent my existence here from harming things. That is even if it does harm things. Simon was determined to stay with his loved one. Again, his eyes were determined as he stared down into Detini's.
As well the Rassilonite would know. Bellowed a voice from behind the crowd of natives.
The crowd parted quickly in a muffled hum. Behind them entered a party of heavily armed humanoids. They looked much like Simon and his alien friends, but they carried the face of death on their battle armour. Lartek seemed to not even notice the audience around him. They were merely animals, potential pets even. He focused on the Doctor as he traversed the parted crowd.
Or perhaps the Rassilonite would seek to exile you hears as they did us. He came within inches of the Doctors face. He sought to evoke fear in the Rassilonite. It was a fear built upon years of hatred for their enslavement in this microverse by his elitist class. They would be free again. He would be free again. And the universe would again bow before them, before him.
Episode 7
by Lord Soldeed
The Doctor looked Lartek in the eye, shocked. He felt as if he had seen a ghost. Those suits of battle armour looked a bit different, the aspect changed by centuries of technological change, but they were clearly Old Gallifreyan.
Lartek sneered. Surprised, Rassilonite? Didn't expect this, did you? Your people may have forgotten us, but we have not forgotten you. Well, they will not forget us for long. Now, we will return to Gallifrey, and you will bring us there!
And why should I listen to a swaggering military idiot like you? The Doctor looked him in the eye. His shock had dissipated, and only steely, determined courage remained.
Because if you do, we may find a use for you in the new order we will bring to Gallifrey. But if you don't, we will kill you, and your pet human and his alien friends with you!
A murmur of fear flowed through the group of aliens. Simon clasped Detini's hand, reassuringly. He looked into her eyes, his fear showing through, but his compassion, also. He had said more than words could ever convey.
He looked at the Doctor, pondering. He could pull through. Somehow, he would. He always did. And even if he didn't, Simon would find a way to stop these invaders, somehow. He would not let them destroy the only home he had ever had, destroy his new-found friends and family, destroy Detini.
The Doctor frowned. For a moment, he was silent. No, he said. I can't. Gallifrey isn't around anymore. It was destroyed some time ago.
The H'Garians were all shocked. Lartek felt anger course through him. His visions of his own impending glory, of the honours he would receive, were fading away. This couldn't be happening! He must be lying, said Lartek. He's bluffing. If you think that can stop us, Rassilonite, than you are wrong!
Aylissa frowned. Was this Rassilonite bluffing, or could he somehow be telling the truth? She shuddered at the though of the latter possibility. Could it be, indeed, that Gallifrey was no more, that her people would never return to their true home? It seemed so shocking that it couldn't possibly be true. And she could hear a voice in the back of her head, telling her that it wasn't true, the Rassilonite was bluffing, their home existed, she didn't need to examine his mind...
Aylissa suddenly realised something was wrong. The voice was speaking to the inner desires and emotions of her mind, but it wasn't coming from her. It felt like somehow it was coming from without...
She definitely needed to examine the Time Lord's mind, she decided. She entered it
--and hit a wall of mental energy.
<Surprised?> said the Doctor, telepathically. <Didn't expect a mere Rassilonite to have that much mental control, did you?>
Aylissa practically jumped in her shoes. <How? Rassilonites have no telepathy, only the ability to mind meld! Telepathy was taken out of the Time Lord gene pool!>
<I'm not *just* a Time Lord, my dear...> He entered his mind. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't stop him. <Aylissa, is that it? Anyway, Aylissa, I don't use this ability often, unless I need to. And I will let you into my mind enough for you to see that I'm telling the truth.>
Suddenly, the barriers around his mind dropped and Aylissa was inside. There was something quite dizzying about the Doctor's mind, so complex and full of so many strange memories. But she could tell two things. First, that he was feeling incredibly smug, but she already knew that. Second, that he was indeed telling the truth.
She shook off the disorientation of having been in the Doctor's mind. He's telling the truth, she told Lartek.
You're lying! Lartek yelled. His eyes blazed with pure animal rage. Aylissa could feel that the anger had utterly consumed his mind, and there was something strange about his thoughts too, the same altered quality she had glimpsed in the human. You're lying because you hate me. You don't appreciate my advances, and want me out of the way. Is that it? Well, you won't succeed! Kill her! he ordered to the other soldiers.
They obeyed, raising their guns at her. She could see that whatever power was controlling Lartek was controlling them too.
The Doctor grabbed Aylissa and ran. Run for it! he yelled to Simon and the natives.
The natives and Simon ran after him into the forest. The h'Garians ran after them. What do we do now? asked Aylissa.
Hide in the bushes, said Simon. Indeed, the Doctor and Aylissa saw that there were blurred green things that did, indeed, look vaguely like bushes. They did as Simon said.
The h'Garian troops entered the forest. Lartek and his troops searched with all their might, but they couldn't find anything. After a tense period that felt like a day, although it could have been only hours or even minutes, the h'Garian troops gave up and left.
***
That Captain Davyn bel Karesh was angry was a mind-staggering understatement. Lartek and his taskforce had returned without the Rassilonite, without the human, and most importantly without the ship's telepath.
Where's Toras? was the first question Captain Karesh asked.
She deserted, answered Lartek. She turned traitor.
Karesh was shocked. Something just seemed wrong about that. Toras was one of the most loyal officers he had, certainly more loyal than Lartek. What exactly did she do?
She turned on us, said Lartek. When the Rassilonite tried to bluff us, she supported him and told me that he was right.
Karesh frowned. What exactly did the Rassilonite say?
He tried to tell us that Gallifrey was no more. And Toras actually supported him.
Karesh was shocked. If Toras, the ship's telepath, had supported something, surely it was true. And yet, it seemed that this couldn't possibly be true. Was their ancestral home really gone? How could fate possibly be so cruel to them? I'm sorry, but what she said is has to be true. Toras wouldn't lie about what she read in someone's mind.
She lied! said Lartek. She lied because she hates me. She wanted me to look like a fool. Well, now we shall see who the fool is.
Something very strange was going on here, Karesh thought. Lartek was being very insubordinate, very haughty and overbearing, very hateful much more so then normal. It's true, he normally was rather insubordinate, haughty, overbearing, and hateful, but he was much more so than usual, as if these qualities had been somehow amplified. Toras wouldn't allow herself to be swayed by petty personal disagreements. Unlike some people, Karesh thought.
Lartek's face twisted with rage. I was afraid you would take her side. You have misjudged her, Karesh. You are a weak man, not fit to be captain. This ship needs a strong man, like me. And before anyone could stop him, he pulled out a gun and vaporised Karesh.
The people who had been in Lartek's boarding party turned their guns on the rest of the crew. I am the captain of this ship now, said Lartek. We shall hunt down and kill Toras for her treachery, and then we shall force the lying Rassilonite to take us home! And no one shall oppose me, unless they want to end up like the late Captain Karesh.
***
It was a small miracle that the Doctor, Simon, Aylissa, and the microverse natives had been able to escape without any loss of life. Not an unexpected one, though as the natives were much more well acquainted with the forest than the h'Garians were. They were excellent hunters, and knew how to conceal themselves so that their prey could not detect them. Those same skills came in very handy. And the h'Garians' sensors, on which they were far too dependant, didn't work very well in the chaotic environment of this Microverse.
But how long these miracles would hold up, the Doctor didn't know. He was sure the h'Garians would come back, with a larger search party. More importantly, though, he still felt a strange sense of foreboding, even more so after the h'Garians arrived. He was sure that the h'Garian commander wasn't himself - after all, although the Doctor didn't know much about current h'Garian ships protocol, shooting at an important officer was hardly normal behaviour.
Something was very wrong here. But what?
They were deep in the forest, very far from the village. The microverse natives were surviving well - they were able to hunt well, and the river flowed nearby so there was no shortage of water - but were very afraid. The Doctor didn't blame them. Foreboding was very thick in the air.
The Doctor heard a twig crack behind him and turned around, but it was only Aylissa. Are you alright, she asked.
Not really, no. I have the sense that something's terribly wrong here.
I can certainly identify with that, said Aylissa. She frowned. If someone had told her a week ago that her people's long-wished-for home of Gallifrey was no more and that she would be siding with a pack of animals and a Rassilonite against her own crew, she would have told him that he was insane. But here she was. The Doctor was hardly your typical Rassilonite, though. There was something very intriguing about him. And he seemed to care about people, not like most callous Rassilonites.
And as for the human and the natives... she took a brief look at Simon's mind and couldn't help but be impressed by the strength of his love for his mate and the other natives. She had told herself for so many years that lesser beings didn't really have emotions the way h'Garians did, that they weren't as genuine, even as she felt them in her own mind. But now, she was starting to wonder.
Tell me, Aylissa, said the Doctor, what exactly was Lartek like before he went mad?
Exactly what he was like after he went mad, only slightly less so. Obsessed with his own glory, callous, tyrannical, and nasty.
I take it from what you said that the relationship between you two was rather strained?
That's an understatement. She smiled. He was interested in me, and made no bones about it. I told him in no uncertain terms that I didn't reciprocate. He doesn't like that - he's used to being obeyed.
So basically, he did what he would have already done if what was left of his conscience and sanity hadn't restrained him?
That's about it. A painful look came over Aylissa's face. There's something else, too.
What?
When I found out that Gallifrey had been destroyed, I felt something inside me, something very powerful, telling me not to examine your mind to see if that was true. I was grasping at straws, trying to tell myself that this couldn't possibly be true. You have to understand how Gallifrey is to my people Doctor - for centuries we've hoped to take it back from the Ras - from your people.
They're not my people, by any means, said the Doctor.
But there's something else too. When I felt that, it was as if although it was coming from me, it was being stimulated by something outside of me.
The Doctor frowned. Then, Simon arrived.
We're going to hold a meeting, said Simon. A council. To decide what to do next. You should come.
No, said the Doctor, I think we three should discuss this away from the natives, for now, said the Doctor.
Why? said Simon.
Because there's something very strange going on, said the Doctor. What exactly do *you* think we should do next?
We should find some way to drive the h'Garians out. We can't leave these natives at the mercy of the h'Garians.
I'd worry more about leaving the h'Garians at the mercy of these natives, said the Doctor.
What? said Simon.
I think they're Xorin.
Aylissa was shocked. What?!
Simon was confused. What?
I'd better explain, said the Doctor. The Xorin are ancient immortal evil beings, who are to Gallifreyans as demons are to your people, Simon. The legends say that they were possessed of many powers - shape-shifting, great energy powers, and such. But their most deadly ability was mind control. They could perceive the deepest desires in a person's heart and play on those to control them.
Once, they ruled the universe. The only beings more powerful than they were were the Guardians and the Gods of Gallifrey, who weren't associated with Gallifrey at that point. And the Xorin were set on developing weapons which could destroy the Guardians and Gods themselves.
For many centuries the Gods searched for a being who was strong enough to defy the powers of the Xorin. And eventually, they found one, in a man called Kalroth on Gallifrey. Kalroth was given special telepathic gifts by the Gods.
He was the first telepath, venerated by all later generation. Kalroth was the most powerful telepath ever to walk the universe, and he was even powerful enough to break the Xorin's hold on some people. With a small army of Gallifreyans, and a few brilliant scientists, he devised a plan. He created a device that could transport people into microverses.
He led the Xorin into a trap, and imprisoned them in a microverse, which the Gods and the Guardians then sealed. Ever since then, the Gods chose Gallifrey as their special place of residence.
And that's the end of the story, said the Doctor, or at least we thought it was. I suspect that these natives are the Xorin. Consider this. And he explained what had happened so far. There is obviously a force here, a force that is playing on people's inner desires to control them. And, all the legends describe the Xorin in their true forms as creatures with three arms and four legs.
I suspect that what's happening is something like this. When I regenerated, the unstable regeneration unleashed temporal energy that weakened the boundary of the Xorin's microverse. When Simon pushed the blue button, it broke the boundary. The arrival of both of us here weakened the boundary enough for the h'Garians to get through. They probably somehow called Simon and I and the h'Garians here - they probably have enough power to get people to do trivial actions at a near distance, and considering the confusion you were going through at the time, Simon, you would have been rather vulnerable.
"The Xorin don't have all their powers right now, as something in the microverse is putting a dampener on them, and they can only use their mind control very effectively. I wouldn't be surprised if they can't even fully control someone who's just outside of the barrier who hasn't already met them. But the longer that we stay here, the weaker the barrier gets, and the weaker the barrier gets, the more powerful the Xorin get. They're keeping you here to keep the gateway to the real universe open, and they're trying to use the h'Garians to get us to open it. If they have their way, the h'Garians will take them as pets, then force us to go to the real universe - taking their pets with them, of course.
Aylissa was horrified. Simon was stunned. You can't be right, Simon said. These people aren't demons, they're some of the most caring, loving people I know. They don't have a malevolent bone in their body.
That's what they want you to think. Said the Doctor. The Xorin are excellent hunters. They know how to conceal themselves so that their prey cannot detect them. Think, Simon. You didn't want to leave the Microverse. Even when I told you that our presence here could destroy it, you still refused. If you really cared about these people, would you be so selfish as to stay here?
No - no, said Simon. He seemed to be struggling with himself. Part of him knew that what the Doctor was saying was true, but the other part refused to accept it. My presence wouldn't threaten anything. This is my home. These people love me, care about me, the way that no one before them ever did. And I love Detini like no woman I've ever met before.
At the mention of the name Detini, a look of shock came over Aylissa's face. She made a sign to ward off evil. According to legend, said the Doctor, Detini was the name of the most evil and feared of the Xorin, the Mistress of Illusion and Deceit. Simon - the Xorin are influencing you - you have to fight it. It may feel genuine, and in a sense it it, but you have to realise you're being manipulated, used. These people don't care about you at all!
A look of rage came over Simon's face. No, Doctor. You're the one who doesn't care about me. You're trying to take me away from the only home I have. You're the one who's evil. It took me so long to realise it, but now I do. The Doctor suddenly realised that Simon had a knife at his belt. He drew it, and before anyone could stop him he lunged at the Doctor...
Episode 8
by esherrouse
The Doctor jolted to the side as Simon lunged forward. Aylissa started in amazement as Simon became consumed with anger and hatred. She could visualise his emotions around him. Small particles of energy seemed to come alive and spark as his hatred grew. Then she saw something else, something in his mind.
He turned back to the Doctor, who was watching for his next move. He looked at the Doctor with disgust. "You are trying to kill us all, just like before!"
The Doctor's eyes narrowed as he looked at Simon, "Before?"
"You destroyed my people, my world! You!" He was literally foaming at the mouth as he continued. "Just like all of the other poor pathetic souls that have crossed your path!"
"What are you talking about, Simon?" The Doctor said calmly.
Aylissa could see the destruction in Simon's mind. She could see the Doctor, not in this form, but a previous one, looking out over a devastated city. The dead were all that remained. He was laughing. It was a loud laughter, one that echoed within her mind. Then she saw yet another Doctor. This time he was shorter and carrying an umbrella.
"I remember..." Simon muttered. "What about Hoffman and all of his kind?"* Simon continued to stare into the Doctor's eyes. He was waiting for the moment to strike.
Aylissa was becoming nervous. She could see the pain the boy had suffered. She could see what the Doctor had done.
The Doctor looked at Simon intensely, "None of this is true, Simon. You know that. You were there." He looked at Aylissa and noticed her reaction. "They are feeding his mind with false memories."
Aylissa looked to the Doctor and then entered his mind. She could see another reality. Was the Doctor feeding her these images? She could not be sure. He was more powerful than she had ever expected. He could be manipulating the images. The boy certainly couldn't do this.
"We saved your planet, Simon. And Hoffman, we both know..."
"Lies! Stop it!" Simon grabbed his head as he seemed to be losing control.
"Aylissa, help me shield his mind. They are feeding his mind with altered pasts."
Aylissa looked at the Doctor and then back to Simon. She then felt another presence. It was near and getting nearer. She complied with the Doctor's request. Simon looked around him and then down at the knife in his hand. He dropped it to the ground as he fell to his knees sobbing.
"What is going on?" He mumbled as he looked up at the other two.
"What have they done to you, my love." Came the voice of Detini as she emerged from the shadows. She looked at the Doctor and began to cry as she fell to the ground with Simon. She held him as he continued to mumble incoherently. "What have you two done to him?" She looked at them as she held Simon.
The Doctor and Aylissa exchanged glances. Then Aylissa spoke,"The stress is getting to him. He was becoming delusional." She looked to the Doctor for support.
"I think that the best thing for him now is a nice rest." He looked into Deteni's eyes. They echoed the microcosm around her. It was as if they were one.
"It is you who have brought evil to this place." She looked up from her position near Simon. "You and your alien friends!" Her voice rose until other Microversians began to appear around them.
"This is not looking good." The Doctor muttered to Aylissa who looked at him with amazement at his gift of understatement.
Detini then stood up and said, "I wonder if the invaders would leave if we gave you to you." Before the Doctor could respond a series of hands were around them both.
***
Lartek had quickly established control over the ship. The promise of returning to their homes far outweighed any loyalty that many of them had for Karesh. There had been a few who resisted and most of them had been killed. A few had escaped into the wilderness. Lartek looked at the navigational officer, "Is there any way we can encode Aylissa's biodata into the tracking system?"
"With a little work we should be able to use her medi-samples to construct a rudimentary tracking system." He replied.
"Excellent. Then the game is about to get exciting." He then looked over at another officer and smiled, "Take a party down to the primitive's village and destroy it. They will understand what it means to ally with the Rassilonite."
The officer saluted as Lartek continued, " And make an example of any of the primitives that happen to be in the area." He continued to smirk as he looked back at the navigational officer. "Get to work!"
He then looked out over the console at the vast microverse before them. He would be free of this place. They would all be free of this place. ALL of them! The thoughts echoed in his head. It was as if multiple voices were pulling him in many directions. He closed his eyes and gripped the console tightly. "We shall be free!" He exclaimed.
***
Simon awoke. He was back at home, Detini's home. He looked around and only saw her standing by the window staring out at the night sky.
"What happened?" He said as he stood and went to approach her.
"Your friend and the other Alien have betrayed us all. They have betrayed you."
"What?" Simon had faint memories of the last few hours. It was as if he had been seeing things through another person's eyes. He could see his home devastated. He could see the dead bodies of thousands at the feet of the Doctor, but he knew it wasn't true. Or was it. What was going on? He approached Detini. She turned.
"We have to give them over to the others, before they destroy every thing we have here." She spoke with such despair. Simon held her.
"The Doctor would not do anything to harm your... our people." He was confused by the conflicting images in his head. "If anything, he is the only person that might be able to save us all from them."
"Simon, you are so naive. Look into your soul. You have known this man in many forms and each time has not destruction engulfed those who were around him? How many more must suffer before you realise?" She hung her head on Simon's shoulder.
As she did this, Simon could see through the window and witnessed the Doctor and Aylissa being carted off in a makeshift cell. "What are you doing to them?" He was concerned.
"We must turn them over to the aliens. It is the only way to save us all."
Simon watched as the cell was rolled down the hill side. They were taking them to the river side, where they had first encountered the H'garians. "This is all wrong." He shook his head and then looked at Detini. "I love you, but the Doctor is a good man. I have to stop this."
Before she could say anything, Simon was out the door and trying to catch up with the prison caravan that had formed around the Doctor and Aylissa's delivery to the H'garians.
"Wait!" Simon attempted to call to the crowd as it pressed forward.
***
The squadron's commander looked out at the village from his position on upstream.
"It looks as if we have a little celebration in our honor occuring." He smiled as he passed a scanning unit over to his advisor.
"It looks like they have a gift for us. They probably think we are Gods or something." The water ran passed them and failed to offer any reflection of their sizeable egos as they smiled at the recent events.
"Our orders were to destroy that village and any primitives. I say we notify Commander Lartek of the festivities while we join the event."
"Commander Lartek..." He crackled over the communications unit.
"We are approaching the Rassilonite now. Destroy the primitives." Came the immediate response.
"Does not waste any time does he?" Smiled the officer as he brandished his weapon. The others did the same.
Within minutes the village was being torn to pieces by laser assaults from the hillside. Many of the villagers seemed to shimmer in and out of phase as the scurried around looking for cover. Detini made a move to follow Simon.
Simon had just now caught up with the imprisoned Doctor and Aylissa. He struggled through the crowd as they began to panic over the sound of the assault behind them.
As Simon grew nearer the Doctor and Aylissa he could feel the shadow over him. The natives we all looking to the sky, many of them with multiple hands gesturing this way and that. He turned and looked up at the sky and saw the H'garian Battleship. It was looming closer and closer. He looked back at the Doctor and Aylissa by the riverside. They were trapped within the makeshift cage.
A brilliant beam hit the ground behind him as earth and bodies were vaporised. Screams erupted from everywhere. He looked back and saw Detini running after him. He then looked around and could see that the ground seemed to be shimmering. He could see electricity sparking around him. It was as if a curtain was being lifted from his eyes. He could see particles shooting around him. They were like oversized atoms whirling about. He looked back and Detini was still running forward, but the Microversians had all dissolved into nothingness. They seemed to have become part of this new microverse of atoms that was swarming around him.
"Simon!" He heard the Doctor calling for him. He turned and even the Doctor and Aylissa's cell had dissolved into a series of electrons, protons and neutrons zooming about. They were running toward him.
The H'garians were just as discombobulated as Simon. They had one minute been firing at villagers and destroying buildings and then the next minute they were standing in the middle of an electron soup. Lartek's Ship still loomed overhead and continued to fire at what was once the earth.
Lartek looked over the monitor at the changing events and refused to accept it. "They are manipulating our images. Destroy any non-Rassilonite! We shall have our freedom!" With that the ship began ripping into it's own troops. Their bodies were obliterated.
The Doctor grabbed Simon as he stood dumbfounded looking at Detini who seemed to be swimming toward him. She was so much pain. He could hear her screaming for release in his head. He loved her. He had to save her. "Help me!" The voice echoed in his head.
"I have to save her, Doctor." He started to go toward her but both Aylissa at the Doctor grabbed his arms.
"Wait. Look at her." The Doctor said sternly.
Detini was still swimming in the see of atoms, but she was also absorbing them. The Microversians were becoming part of her.
"They are returning." Aylissa said calmly.
"What?" Simon stared on.
"This entire place was Detini. She created this facade to ensnare us and the H'garians. She wanted a free passage back to our universe."
Simon looked at both of them as he pulled his arms free. "This was all a dream?"
"Welcome to Oz, Dorothy." The Doctor responded whimsically.
Another bolt fired from Lartek's ship as more of his troops were engulfed in screams of momentary pain.
Lartek was growing increasingly mad with the current events. The entire world was falling apart around him... quite literally.
"We have to get out of here!" Aylissa looked at the Doctor and Simon. "Your TARDIS, Doctor?"
"This way." He started to go as he noticed Simon's confusion. "Simon, Not everything is as it seems. Detini is consuming everything here. We have to leave, now!" With that he tugged on Simon's arm. Simon followed half-heartedly.
Lartek grimaced as he witnessed the Doctor approaching his TARDIS. If I can not escape this prison then neither shall you, Doctor! Destroy them ALL!"
Bolts of energy ripped through what remained of the world. The atoms seemed to be charged and zooming about as they rejoined Detini. She was growing stronger and was no longer struggling in the sea of neutrons. She was navigating through it as a falcon might a wind current. She fixed her eyes on her prey. The three of them were racing toward the blue box... the bait, she thought to herself. Her body was becoming energy as she swooped toward her victims.
The Doctor arrived at the TARDIS and ushered everyone past him as he looked into the air and noticed Detini's approach. As he looked into her eyes a jolt of energy encompassed her and she screeched in pain. Her body seemed to demolecularize right before him. She turned her head toward him and let out one last gasp of energy which threw him into the TARDIS.
Simon closed the door quickly as the Doctor fell on the floor. He and Aylissa had witnessed the shot fired from Lartek's ship. It had hit Detini dead centre.
The Doctor stood up and brushed off his purple jacket.
"That about does it for me." He smiled.
"Is she dead, Doctor?" Simon asked with a hint of depression.
"I seriously doubt it. But even Detini would have to regroup after a blast like that. Thanks to Lartek, we may have made it out of here."
"May?" Aylissa noticed the discreet clause in the Doctor's statement.
"With a few adjustments to the TARDIS, we should be fine, but...."
The monitor came to life as Lartek's angry face looked down at them. "You can not desert us, Aylissa. He is a Rassilonite. They are our betrayers, our wardens. How can you?"
"Until the H'garians learn more... effective communications methods, I think it is best that they remain in a microcosm where the damage they can cause is limited."
"You will be an exile to your own people, Aylissa. It will haunt you for the rest of your days."
"It's not all that bad, trust me." The Doctor muttered to her with a smirk.
"And you, Rassilonite! I shall find a way out of this prison and I shall make you pay for your sins and those of your forefathers. The H'Garians shall be avenged!"
"I am terribly sorry, but you seem to be breaking up." With that the Doctor flipped a switch turning the monitor off.
"Besides, we have places to be going..."
He smiled at Simon and Aylissa as the console came to life and they dematerialised.
The End
Read the next adventure for the 11th Doctor, Simon and Aylissa: Destroyer of Worlds
