#328 - Regenesis of the Daleks
Episode 1 by Nix Nada
Episode 2 by James Stewart
Episode 3 by Eric Bakke
Episode 4 by James Stewart
Episode 5 by Mark Simpson
Episode 6 by Eric Bakke
Episode 7 by Mark Simpson
Completed
Episode 1
by Nix Nada
Thick smoke curled in low, languid ribbons across the scored and rocky landscape in which the Doctor found himself.
As he turned, trying to get his bearings, a man stepped from the billowing smoke. He was an old man, with a tired, almost resigned look on his face. He wore a bronze robe and matching skullcap.
The Doctor stepped towards him and grabbed the front of his robe in both hands. "What have you done with Martha?" the Doctor yelled. "Why have you brought me here? What is this place?"
He stopped and looked down at the fabric in his hands and then back at the man's face. "Wait a minute - you're a Time Lord? That's impossible."
The man lifted his hands and, with a surprisingly firm grip, took the Doctor's hands off his robe.
"I am not a Time Lord," replied the man, with heavy, weary sadness, "not any more. My being here means that I am simply… dead."
"You're not making any sense," complained the Doctor.
"I am a message, Doctor, a tiny fragment of the Matrix of Gallifrey, cast adrift into the vortex of time until the time was right. Clearly, the conditions have now been met."
"Conditions? What conditions?"
"Only these two: Something catastrophic must have happened to Gallifrey, leaving most, if not all, of the Time Lords dead or gone and the connection to the main body of the Matrix severed."
"And the other?" The Doctor had a sickening feeling that he already knew the answer.
"You must be ready and able to fulfil your duty to your people. The duty that was asked of you many years ago, but could not complete."
"I'm back on Skaro, aren't I?" said the Doctor. "Back at the beginning again."
"Indeed so," replied the old man. "The program based in the Matrix sliver has been watching you from the vortex and has judged you ready."
"Ready?" exclaimed the Doctor. "I'm no more ready to commit genocide for the Time Lords now than I was then, no matter what has happened between those times."
The old man cupped his hands before him. In the space between his hands, an image took shape, an image of the Doctor fending off an attack from a tall alien figure with a mask of bone by hurling a piece of fruit at a button that sent to the attacker plummeting to his death.
"No second chances," said the tiny figure of the Doctor. "I'm that sort of a man."
"I said that? I didn't…" stuttered the Doctor. "Did I say - I did say that, didn't I? But I had just regenerated, I wasn't properly me yet!"
The old man nodded and the picture changed to show the Doctor shouting an ultimatum at the massive arachnid creature, the Empress of the Racnoss. When it was not met, the Doctor caused several explosions that sent a torrent of water down on the Racnoss' newly hatched children.
"Okay," admitted the Doctor, "that was me, but they would have killed every living thing on the planet Earth!"
"I am not here to judge you," replied the man. "On the contrary. I need you to use your newfound - how should I put this - unwillingness to accept the existence of iniquity."
The man's face softened a little. "Our original offer still stands. You need not destroy the Daleks if you can divert their evolution into a less destructive future."
The Doctor took a few steps away, his face clouded with dark thoughts, and he stared out into the thick clouds of smoke.
"What about Martha?" asked the Doctor. "Is she here somewhere - out there on the battlefield?"
"No, Doctor," replied the man, his voice turning hard again. "She has been converted to energy and stored in the Matrix sliver, until such time as you have completed your task."
The Doctor whirled around, his face ablaze with fury. "You're using her to blackmail me?" he snarled.
"Yes," replied the man, candidly. "She will be unharmed. If you prove unsuccessful she will be returned to the relative time and spatial location of her origin."
The Doctor gave a guttural yell and launched himself at the old man, who promptly disappeared.
"Do your duty, Time Lord Doctor," said the old man's voice from somewhere in the air.
The Doctor's reply was lost in the sudden howling of the wind.
Episode 2
by James Stewart
The twisted and horrid landscape was as familiar to the Doctor as the back of his hand well, it would be if the patterns on his hand did not regenerate along with the rest of his body so he had little problem with finding his way around. Just as they had done all those years ago, when he had been forced here by the Time Lords in his Fourth Incarnation, his hearts sank at the devastation that had robbed the once vibrant Skaro of everything that had made it good.
Where there had once been leafy evergreen trees, exotic flowers in all the colours of the spectrum plus a few that human eyes could not perceive and spring water trickling through the hills, there was blasted and burnt terrain, the stench of death understandable, as the simplest way of disposing of a body was to leave it outside, to be eaten away by the radiation or the cannibalistic mutants and gas-masked patrols, hands clutching machine guns.
The Doctor picked his way carefully along the terrain, mindful to take the anti-radiation drugs that he habitually kept in the breast pocket of his dark brown jacket. Even with the drugs and his enhanced metabolism, it was still dangerous to remain exposed to the poisonous atmosphere for too long; fortunately, the lights from the dome grew more intense. He was almost there.
There were two domes, spaced miles apart; one contained the remnants of the Kaled race, the other the survivors of the Thals. Each dome was essentially a self-contained city, on the order of ten miles across. In between was a no man's land: minefields, hagra beasts vicious creatures, the mutation of Skaro's domestic pets and, of course, the mutants. Both the Kaleds and Thals were being deformed due to the radioactive weapons employed in the beginnings of the War.
All of this the Doctor knew from his last visit, he was more concerned with Martha's safety at the moment. Without the TARDIS and his companion, he only had himself and the contents of his pockets to rely on.
A growling made him pause in both his tracks and his thoughts.
The Doctor turned slowly, hoping not to alert the hagra beast which he knew to be standing mere meters behind him. He was reminded of the time he had been stranded in Alaska and had hidden from the roaming packs of wolves; however, whereas the wolves were often recalcitrant in seeking out prey, hagra beasts had no such compunctions.
While it was vaguely dog-like in basic shape, it was at least twice the size of a Great Dane; its muzzle was open, bearing rows of razor-sharp incisors which could shred through skin and bone easily; the fur was patchy and matted with dirt; the skin was pockmarked with ugly wounds, from teeth and weapons. Hagra beasts were notoriously difficult to kill due to their armour-like skin. Blood and saliva dripped from its muzzle.
Frantically, the Doctor searched through his pockets, hoping to find something that would get the beast away from him; he came upon a small brown bag, filled with jelly-babies. Jelly-baby? asked the Doctor, throwing the multicoloured sweets to the creature.
The animal sniffed the sweets curiously, licked one experimentally and then retrained its brown eyes on the Doctor.
"Too much sugar, eh?" asked the Doctor, hoping against hope that if he kept talking the creature would not attack him. "I should really cut down on them, especially with my sensitive teeth."
As if to shut the rambling Doctor up, the creature let out a ferocious growl and then pounced. The Doctor knew that even with his reflexes he would not get out of the way before the animal collapsed on him, so he merely hoped that death would be swift and that Martha would be returned home.
I'm not going to close my eyes, I want to see Death coming.
A shot rang out, echoing horribly off the surrounding mountains, forcing the Doctor to cover his ears. The hagra beast slumped to the ground in front of him, brownish-red blood pouring from a wound in its lower back. The Doctor studied the creature pitifully, almost blanching at the twisted shards of spinal column sticking out of its back. It yelped pitifully at him and the Doctor could not help but reach down and try to offer whatever comfort he could to the animal as it drew its last breaths.
"More will come," said a strange voice, "they will be drawn by the smell."
"Thank you for your assistance," replied the Doctor, standing up, noting that the rifle was now being pointed at him. "You're a Thal, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"I can help you defeat the Kaleds," said the Doctor. Just saying the words felt like a betrayal of every principle he believed in, but the Daleks had to be stopped, had to be changed. And there was Martha to think about.
"You may very well be a Kaled spy, or a mutant," retorted the Thal, "why should I trust you?"
"Because I'm the Doctor, that's why."
The Thal indicated that the Doctor should follow him.
The walk to the dome was a short one; howls filled the permanent blackness, but no more hagra beasts attempted to attack the Doctor or his Thal guard. He had learnt the man's name, Stahn, but not much else. Stahn was much too reserved to let slip any important information. When they arrived at the dome, the Thal guard punched in a code that revealed the entrance. While the dome was completely smooth, except for the entrenchments where missile launches were located, the ground underneath their feet shuddered as a hidden elevator shaft brought them underground.
The dome was much as the Doctor remembered it: smooth white walls, readouts spilling from computers, scientists and technicians running around to their action stages. The Thals were all dressed in green-and-gold jumpsuits.
"Sir!" Stahn called to a distinguished-looking technician. "I found this man roaming around outside close to the dome. He claims to be a Doctor and also says he has a way to defeat the Kaleds."
The technician walked over to the Doctor and examined him. "You do not have any of the obvious signs of being a mutant."
"That's because I'm not. I was sent here by my people to help you," explained the Doctor.
"How can one extra man help us?" asked the technician, eyeing the Doctor warily.
For a brief instant, the Doctor looked uncomfortable before regaining his composure. "I know the molecular formula of the metal used in the Kaled dome; with my help, you can design a missile to breach its defences."
"How can we trust you?" asked Stahn.
"Do you know of the Kaled chief scientist, Davros?" asked the Doctor.
"We know of his intelligence and insanity," replied the technician.
"Very soon, if he hasn't already, he will invent a machine that will be both a life-support unit and unstoppable war machine to house the creatures that the Kaleds are mutating into. In the future, these creatures, called the Daleks, will destroy my people," explained the Doctor. "I've been sent here to do everything possible to stop them."
Episode 3
by Eric Bakke
For next few days, the Doctor worked with the Thal science team to design a rocket to destroy the Kaled dome. The Doctor took no joy in designing such a terrible device, but he was determined to save his people from destruction. The Doctor was going over the plans for the rocket's guidance system when a messenger from Glack, one of the remaining Thal generals, interrupted his work.
"Yes, what is it?"
"Doctor Caligari, Davros has sent a formula for a chemical that he says could be used to destroy his people's dome," reported the messenger. "He says that he's betraying the Kaleds because the war must be stopped before all life on the planet is destroyed. However, General Glack doesn't trust Davros for a moment, so he thought that you had better have a look at the formula for yourself."
The Doctor nodded thoughtfully. "Do you have the formula with you?"
The messenger handed him a piece of paper. While the Doctor had no need to do so, he studied it. The formula that Davros had designed was as brilliant as it was destructive. Of coarse, what else would one have expected? After a few moments, he handed the messenger back the paper. He said, "You can tell General Glack that the formula is actually genuine. We can use our rocket to deliver it, and see the Kaleds destroyed."
"Thank you," said the messenger, and then he left.
The Doctor almost smiled. His plan seemed to be working, so far. Fairly soon, the Thals would start taking prisoners to build the rocket he was currently designing. One of those future prisoners would be none other than his dear friend Sarah Jane Smith. Sarah would ultimately escape, and she would be there when his fourth self would pass up the opportunity to finish off the Daleks. So all the Doctor had to do now was wait for the flow of history to put Sarah into Thal hands. Then he could simply hypnotize Sarah into destroying the Daleks herself when the opportunity presented itself.
In the meantime, the Doctor returned to the plans for the rocket's guidance system. While the Daleks would all have to die, maybe some relatively innocent Kaled lives could still be saved.
Episode 4
by James Stewart
The golden saucers traversed the infinite reaches of the Space / Time vortex within a matter of moments; upon reaching their destination, a blinding white flash enveloped the fleet and they reappeared in normal space. Now only mere millions of kilometres away from their target, the beings within the saucers activated offensive and defensive implements. Today, the final battle in the Time War would be fought over the very home world of their enemies. Excitement fought with nervousness in the minds of the crew as they went about their duties with practised ease. They had rehearsed this moment so often, the movements were automatic.
The tiny, burnt-orange coloured globe hovered slowly into visual range. With powerful sensing equipment, they detected the fleet of ships ringed around the planet in a defensive formation. One such ship - a small, blue box - moved out of formation and approached the saucers.
"General Drakh, the occupant of the TARDIS moving towards us is requesting we open a channel," reported a young Thal soldier.
Drakh, stern and powerful looking, replied, "Oblige him."
"To commander of the Thal vessels, I am the Doctor. I am in charge of this task force and, one way or another, I will not allow you to approach Gallifrey. Temporal warheads are locked on to your vessels and we will fire at will should you come any closer."
"Doctor, this is General Drakh of the Thal Imperium," replied the General, "your race has committed acts of aggression against our race. We have no choice but to destroy you in order to protect ourselves."
"Acts of aggression?" replied the Doctor, a note of derision entering his voice. "You have been raiding time-active species for years, building up your little empire in order to challenge the Time Lords."
"Your race is stagnant, weak, Doctor," growled Drakh, "with the Thals as the new Lords of Time, we will impose our own order upon the universe."
"An order of death and destruction if they don't agree with you," the Doctor bit back angrily.
From the cavernous, Gothic control room of his TARDIS, the Doctor silently sent a message to the thousands of war-TARDISes arranged around Gallifrey. It consisted of one work: "Attack."
The Thal-Kaled vessels were powerful; protected by forcefield generators that rivalled those of a TARDIS, armed with weapons every bit as devastating as Temporal warheads, they were more than a match for even the mighty war-fleet of the Time Lords. Ship after ship - on both sides - exploded as fireballs of every colour imaginable struck home. Only razor-sharp reflexes and an affinity for piloting saved the Doctor and his TARDIS from meeting a fiery end.
On board his own flagship, Drakh barked orders to his crew. They were a mixture of Thals and Kaleds; once upon a time, they had been enemies - locked in an unwinnable nuclear war - until they had agreed a peace, rebuilt their ravaged world and finally conquered space. Once they had got out there, though, they had met many races who wished to conquer or destroy them. Becoming increasingly insular, they eventually went back to their aggressively military ways: powerful warships left Skaro on a campaign of terror; all who opposed the Thal-Kaled Imperium were destroyed, the natural and artificial resources of their planet consumed to build the next wave of warships.
They had become one of the major temporally-aware powers within a matter of decades. This had brought them under the scrutiny of the Time Lords, who sought to destroy or contain any threats to their domination of the Time Vortex. Open hostilities had broken out, leading to the declaration of the Time War: though the Shadow Proclamation forbade Time itself to be used as a weapon, it did not restrict the use of time travel. Continuous back and forth journeying between certain points and time had destabilised those regions, turning them into nothing more than temporal wastelands. Any ship materialising there would be trapped within a void of constantly shifting time streams, no escape possible.
The Doctor was suddenly thrown off his feet - it saved his life, as the console suddenly erupted into flames, sending glass and plastic showering everywhere - as a stray warhead collided with the TARDIS. The forcefield generators held out for as long as they could, but they quickly overloaded and exploded. Another hit and the ship would be destroyed. With her pilot unconscious, unable to make any decisions, the TARDIS initiated her emergency protocols and fled into the Vortex.
Minutes later, Gallifrey itself was destroyed in a cataclysmic fireball. A few TARDISes managed to retreat to safety, but they were quickly pursued by the Thal-Kaled saucers.
It brought a lump to the Doctor's throat to see Sarah this way again; the last time he had encountered her, at Deffrey Vale High School - so many light years and so many thousands of years away - she had been older, wiser, but still the same old Sarah Jane. He knew that she would soon be taken to work on the missile that the Thals would launch against the Kaled dome, so if he was to put his plan into effect it would have to be now.
"Excuse me," the Doctor said to the guard currently roughly manhandling the woman, "your supervisor asked me to talk to this particular mutant."
"Mutant?" Sarah said angrily.
"Silence!" The guard raised his rifle, but found his motion interrupted by the Doctor grabbing his arm.
"There is no need for that!" yelled the Doctor. "She has been near the Kaled dome and has useful information."
The guard looked as though he was about to protest, but thought better of it and stalked off, annoyed.
"Thank you," Sarah Jane said.
"I'm sorry."
"There's no need to ..."
She was cut off in mid-sentence by the Doctor removing a fob-watch from his pocket and waving it back and forth in front of her eyes. "Sarah Jane Smith," he spoke quietly, almost soothingly, in sharp contrast to the words of destruction he uttered, "a few hours from now the Doctor is going to pass up an opportunity to destroy the Daleks in their infancy. I need you to press the two wires together, whatever the cost, when he decides not to."
The Doctor snapped his fingers, bringing Sarah Jane to full attention again. She shook her head, as if trying to knock a loose memory into place. "I'm sorry, what did you want?"
"Oh, nothing," replied the Doctor. He motioned to the guard to take her to the missile. "You just reminded me of someone I once knew."
When both the guard and his old friend were gone, the Doctor cradled his head in his hands. He had betrayed his principles, used his oldest and dearest friend as an agent of destruction, and was now about to seriously alter history. "This better be worth it," he said to the ceiling.
Episode 5
by Mark Simpson
Sarah watched Gharman, who had just brought the news of Davros' surrender, head back down the corridor. The Doctor, relieved at having been spared the decision to destroy the Daleks completely, followed him, with Harry trailing behind. Hesitating, something clicked in Sarah's mind, a command she couldn't explain or disobey.
Making sure the Doctor and Harry had gone, she retrieved the spool of wire the Doctor had discarded after he had pulled it free of the detonator inside the incubation chamber, and made her way to the chamber door…
***
Inside the Thal dome, the Doctor placed his forehead against the cold metal of his locked laboratory door, his shoulders slumped. The sounds of energy weapons and screaming came through the closed door, all too familiar. The Daleks were claiming their first victims and there was nothing he could do about it. Again.
A different sound, running footsteps, approached down the corridor. Determined to save at least one life, he swiftly unlocked the door and poked his head through.
A small figure, dressed in green, was running past the door. Without a second thought, the Doctor grabbed an arm and dragged the figure into the laboratory, locking the door with a flick of a finger.
It was only then that he recognised the young Thal woman before him. He had met Bettan on his earlier visit, when he had been imprisoned by the Thals. She had become a friend and ally by the time he left.
Wide eyed with fear, she was about to speak when the Doctor placed a hand over her mouth. Seconds later there was a sound beyond the door, an energy discharge and the noise of a falling body, followed by a screeching cry of triumph.
"Exterminate all Thals! Exterminate!"
The harsh voice faded as the Dalek moved away. The Doctor removed his hand from Bettan's mouth.
"Do you remember a man you met earlier today?" he asked her urgently. "A former prisoner, freed when the rocket struck the Kaled dome?"
Bettan nodded. "Yes. He spoke of strange machines Davros was creating to wipe out all humanoid life." He face changed as she finished speaking, the realisation dawning.
"He's called the Doctor. You must find him again. He'll be able to help. Can you do that?"
Again she nodded.
"Good. It should be safe now."
The Doctor opened the door and peered out. In the corridor there was a still smoking body of a fallen Thal, but not other sign of the Daleks.
"Go, quickly," the Doctor instructed.
Bettan paused in the doorway. "You saved my life," she told him simply, reaching up and kissing him lightly on the cheek. Then she turned and sprinted off down the corridor.
The Doctor smiled grimly as she went. "Let's hope you're not the last person I save today," he muttered, as a headache started to build behind his eyes.
***
How did it come to this? Ian Chesterton thought bitterly as he dragged his damaged body across the ground. His mind went back over the events of the last couple of days as he sought a vantage point.
After he and Barbara Wright had gone to confront Susan Foreman's grandfather, they had stumbled across something truly amazing. Susan and the Doctor were time travellers, their ship disguised as a London Police Box. Not wanting his secret revealed, the Doctor had set the ship in motion, taking them back to Neolithic times, where the four of them had barely escaped with their lives.
Promising to take Ian and Barbara home, the Doctor's ship had instead landed here, on the seemingly paradise world of Skaro. Investigating the shining city they had seen from the edge of a leafy forest, the time travellers had been captured by the Kaled/Thal Alliance, humanoid military rulers of this world. During an attempted escape, Ian had been hit in the legs by an energy beam weapon which fried his nerve endings, causing permanent paralysis. The four travellers were imprisoned, awaiting execution.
With all hoping seeming lost, they had been freed by Temmosus, leader of a small band of rebels opposed to the Alliance. Fleeing the city, Temmosus had been killed by Alliance soldiers, though the rest of the small group had got away, two rebels carrying Ian between them. However, the alarm had been sounded and soldiers would no doubt be on their trail before long.
Barbara had stayed by Ian's side throughout the escape, but as Ian considered their chances of getting away and decided action had to be taken, he knew he couldn't allow Barbara to come to harm. So it was that he told her a lie, said that Susan, who was near the head of the group with her grandfather, had wanted to speak to Barbara about something important, and also that his 'bearers' needed to rest. Reluctantly, Barbara left Ian.
Left with Alydon and Ganatus, who were taking their turn carrying him, Ian suggested his plan. The three of them would wait in ambush for the Alliance soldiers, giving the other members of their party time to get away. The two Thal rebels looked doubtful that Ian could help, but he assured them he was a crack shot on the rifle range, so they gave him a spare energy pistol.
Now the three of them were crawling through the lush undergrowth of the forest, seeking a place for their ambush.
Sadly, they were too late. Alliance soldiers were not to be taken for granted, or by surprise. Finding themselves suddenly pinned down by heavy fire, first Alydon, then Ganatus were gunned down.
Ian looked up into the face of the blonde woman who stood over him, gun in hand. Her face would have been beautiful, but for the cruel smile on her lips.
"For the glory of the Alliance," she said, and Ian knew no more.
***
The Doctor clutched his temples as pain lanced through his brain. This was more than just a headache, this was something far, far worse. As the pain faded slightly, a memory surfaced.
Barbara Wright, weeping uncontrollably over the charred body of Ian Chesterton, while he and Susan tried to drag her into the TARDIS. Eventually she gave in and the three travellers entered the ship at a run, before a group of humanoid soldiers surrounded the ship. With a roar, the TARDIS dematerialised.
"That never happened," the Doctor whispered. Or had it? If he recalled it, it must have happened.
Pain returned, causing him to fall to his knees. Somewhere, someone screamed. And it might have been him.
***
"Brigadier, you must evacuate the conference!"
"Doctor, do you have any idea how long it took Sir Reginald Styles to bring the Chinese delegates to the peace table? Months! I'm not going to throw that into disarray without good reason."
"Then how's this for a good reason? If you don't get those delegates out of Styles house right now, a battalion of alien mercenaries from the future, led by storm troopers of the Thal/Kaled Alliance, will surround the house and exterminate everybody within it!"
The Brigadier looked shocked. "Why would they do a thing like that?"
"Because their history books tell them that's what happened on this day, at this time. The Alliance rules Earth in the 22nd Century, and has done since the world was plunged into nuclear war. A war that started right here."
"I'll get the men mobilised right away," Lethbridge-Stewart promised. He looked around. "Where's Miss Grant?"
The Doctor looked around too. "She was here a moment ago…"
"Sir, look!"
The call came from Captain Mike Yates, who was pointing towards the house. Around the building, huge ape-like creatures were appearing, gunning down the UNIT troops with ease. Among them were humanoids, directing the alien soldiers.
Then the Doctor spotted Jo Grant, standing by the front door of the house. He knew he had to warn her!
"Jo! Get away from there!" he shouted.
Turning at the sound of his voice, Jo found herself face to face with an Ogron wielding an energy pistol. Without a second thought, the alien shot Jo and she crumpled to the ground.
The Doctor ran. Somehow he got through the lines of Alliance soldiers without getting shot, arriving at Jo's broken body. Kneeling, he cradled her lifeless form in his arms, as around him the Ogrons and Alliance forces smashed their way into the house. He heard none of the terrified screaming of the delegates, the roar of forced energy particles or the slump of bodies hitting hard flooring.
He didn't even look up until he saw a pair of shiny black boots step into his eyeline. Expecting one of the Alliance officers, he was startled to find himself looking up into the face of his favourite Academy lecturer and friend, Hedin.
Seeing something blue from the corner of his eye, the Doctor turned to see the TARDIS standing a few feet away. He was back on Gallifrey!
"You've been recalled, Doctor," Hedin told him softly. "Your exile has been deemed a failure due to the immanent nuclear catastrophe about to befall Earth." He saw the look of anguish on the face of his friend and added, "I'm sorry."
The Doctor, usually so gregarious, was suddenly lost for words.
***
What was happening to him?
Shaking his head to try and clear it, the Doctor forced himself back to his feet. Leaning against a wall for support, the pounding in his brain gave way briefly to another memory.
He watched an image on a monitor screen of the planet Earth. Even from space, mushroom clouds could be seen roiling in the upper atmosphere as nuclear destruction rained down upon the world. Beside him, Hedin hung his head in sorrow.
"That's not right," the Doctor spat through teeth gritted against the pain in his head. "Earth can't have been destroyed. Rose grew up there, so did Martha. So it can't have happened. Unless…"
An idea was forming in the Doctor's mind. Maybe these events had happened…in the timeline he was about to create through his hypnotism of Sarah Jane.
Another flash of pain. Another memory.
Sarah Jane Smith, in the Kaled Bunker. She had reconnected the detonator wire to the explosives the Doctor had placed in the incubation chamber. Now, before the Daleks could start up the automated process, using the creatures within the chamber to pilot Dalek casings, she had to destroy it. Taking a deep breath, she touched the wires together.
The explosion ripped through the chamber, destroying the embryos within. Sadly for Sarah, she had been standing too close. The force of the blast caught her and hurled her against the wall of the corridor, hard enough to shatter most of the bones in her body. That was how the Doctor and Harry found her a couple of minutes later, barely alive. She didn't remain that way for long.
"NO!" the Doctor howled. Tears stung his eyes as he screwed them shut against the images he was forced to replay in his head.
The headache was easing, but didn't leave him completely. Now he knew it for what it was, a warning from the future. What would happen if he allowed the events he had set in motion to continue, a glimpse of his own history, re-written for the worse.
"What have I done?" he groaned. Glancing at his watch, he calculated the time he had left to stop Sarah exploding the incubation chamber. He just hoped it was enough.
His course set, the Doctor left his laboratory in the Thal dome for the final time, setting out for the Kaled bunker and his one chance to set history back on course.
Episode 6
by Eric Bakke
After a time, the Doctor realized that he had no hope of reaching the Kaled bunker soon enough. All seemed lost. Then the Doctor remembered a time during his sixth life when he had been able to deliberately contact his second self by way of the astral plane. He could do so again with his fourth self, which would bring his astral self in proximity to Sarah Jane Smith. It might just then be possible to use his rather modest psychic abilities to undo the post-hypnotic suggestions that he had given Sarah earlier.
To say the least, it was long shot. It was also profoundly dangerous. He remembered warning Peri and Jamie not to touch or even come near him while his mind was out of his body, and with good reason: any kind of disturbance to his body could well sever his astral link and kill him. War-torn Skaro was obviously a terrible place to leave his body unattended. Nevertheless, he had to try.
The Doctor found a deeply-shadowed crater, and gingerly lowered himself to the ground. He closed his eyes, and willed his essence outside of his body. As cautiously as possible, he searched for the mind of his fourth self. He kept his psychic touch as subdued as he possibly could, determined not to let his earlier self detect his presence. He had no desire to mess up his history any more than they it already was!
With the speed of thought, the Doctor's intangible essence raced toward Kaled bunker, pulled onward by the presence of his earlier self.
The Doctor arrived in time to see Harry and Sarah struggling to free his earlier self from an aggressive mutant tentacle. Ultimately, his two old friends managed to free the fourth Doctor. While his past replayed before him, the Doctor struggled to reach out for Sarah's mind and undo what he had done earlier. He has no idea if his efforts would work or not. He could but watch and hope.
The Doctor watched his younger self hesitate to touch together the two wires that would blow up the incubation room. Sarah asked why he had stopped. For a brief moment, the Doctor despaired, but then he remembered that Sarah had originally questioned him. The Doctor allowed himself to hope that maybe there was still hope. Perhaps what he was doing now had always been part of the original timeline. After all, his effort to save the Kaled Dome had failed. Only time would tell.
In response to Sarah, the fourth Doctor questioned his right to wipe out the Daleks. For her part, Sarah argued that if it were a virus or a disease that he wouldn't hesitate. Completely unseen, the tenth Doctor starts to relax a little; things were going as they had before. Still, the danger to history had not yet completely passed.
The fourth Doctor argued that if he did destroy the Daleks that he would become just like them. Unknown to the fourth Doctor, his words tormented his future self. The tenth Doctor reflected on just how fortunate it was that his younger counterpart had no idea just how much trouble and tribulation and suffering lay before him. Perhaps due to the tenth Doctor's meddling, Sarah remained unmoved. She insisted that he must complete his mission for the Time Lords. Despite Sarah's pleas, his earlier self still hesitated.
The danger to history finally passed completely when Gharman arrived and announced that Davros had lost. The fourth Doctor pulled out the wires. Bitterly, the Doctor remembered how grateful he had been to have been spared having to touch the wires together. Of coarse, when Davros had turned the tables later, his fourth self had been unable to complete his assignment. Part of the Doctor wondered if he was an even greater fool now than he had been then.
An instant later, the Doctor returned to his body, and rose to his feet. For better or worse, he had returned history to its original coarse. Now he just had to figure out a way to save Martha. He had failed to complete his mission, putting her in terrible danger.
Episode 7
by Mark Simpson
"Halt! Do not move!"
The harsh, grating voice from behind him stopped the Doctor cold as he climbed out of the shell crater. Turning slowly, he found himself confronted by a Dalek.
With a dispassionate eye he took in the differences between this early Dalek and the efficient killing machines he had become used to over his last few regenerations. The grey and black colour scheme was more muted than later Daleks, the eyestalk less robust, the manipulator 'hand' less adaptable. And the Daleks he knew were much more cunning, devious and clever.
The Dalek eyed him. "You are a Thal. You are an enemy of the Kaled race. You must be exterminated!"
"Do I look like a Thal?" the Doctor demanded of the Dalek. He ran a hand through his hair. "See? Not blonde. And look at my clothes. I'm no more a Thal than you are, you stupid creature!"
For a moment the Dalek hesitated. "Who are you?"
"I'm an important Kaled scientist," the Doctor improvised. "An associate of Davros himself."
"What are you doing in the wasteland?"
The Doctor sighed theatrically. "I was captured by the Thals. But now you've killed them all, I was able to escape. I was heading back to the Bunker before you stopped me. Now, are you going to keep me chatting all day, or have you got more killing to do? Hmm?"
The Dalek was silent for a few moments while it came to a decision.
"Proceed," it said eventually.
"Thank you," the Doctor replied, offering it a sarcastic salute. But the Dalek had already turned away.
The Doctor stuck his hands into the pockets of his trousers and mooched off through the fog. "Stupid tin cans," he muttered to himself.
The fog swirled and thickened as the Doctor trudged through the mud, his trainers making small sucking noises. Then suddenly the fog parted.
Standing in the clearing of the mist was the elderly Time Lord amalgam that had confronted the Doctor when he had first arrived back on Skaro. The figure shook its head sadly.
"You have failed in your mission Doctor. I now have no choice but to return your companion to her proper temporal/spatial location, her memories of your travels wiped from her mind."
"Wait!" the Doctor demanded. "I haven't failed."
The Time Lord raised an eyebrow. "Really? You've managed to destroy the Daleks? Affect their development in a positive way?"
"No," the Doctor admitted.
"Then you have…"
"I haven't failed!"
"Then perhaps you could tell me how you have succeeded?"
The Doctor countered the question with one of his own. "What is the over-riding mission of every Time Lord, since the days of Rassilon himself?"
A brief pause. "To protect and uphold the Web of Time."
"Ten points to Team Matrix! That is exactly what I have done. Preserved the Web of Time exactly as it was by not interfering in my previous incarnation's mission."
"But that is not the mission…"
The Doctor interrupted again. "And I've managed to prove that had my previous self destroyed the Daleks, a much worse threat would have emerged, in the shape of the Kaled/Thal Alliance!"
The Time Lord paused, his eyes seemingly turned inward. "There was a Matrix projection that predicted an alliance between the Kaled and Thal races."
"And that Alliance would have brought about the destruction of Earth in a nuclear holocaust during the late 20th Century. The same Earth that, according to the Web of Time, becomes a major player in the Galactic Empire in the 31st Century. So had I meddled here, I would have done more harm than good to the timeline."
"All this is irrelevant Doctor," the Time Lord told him gravely. "You were given a mission. You failed to complete the mission. Therefore your companion will be returned home."
"Wait!" the Doctor shouted again.
The Time Lord sighed. "What is it now?"
"You're a sliver of the original Matrix. Correct?"
"Correct."
"Do you know what became of the Matrix, Gallifrey and the Time Lords?"
"Yes," the ersatz Time Lord replied. "They were destroyed in a war against the Daleks. A war you could have prevented by destroying the Daleks here and now."
"Irrelevant!" the Doctor snapped. "Now, you agree that I am the sole survivor of the Time Lord race?"
"I agree," the sliver said cautiously.
"Then by default I hold the office of Lord President of the High Council of Time Lords, a position I have held twice in the past. And as such, you obey my orders. Correct?"
There was a long pause while the Time Lord amalgam considered what the Doctor had said.
"Your logic is…impeccable," it finally conceded.
"Then I order you to return Martha to me, put us both back in the TARDIS and let us be on our way."
"I obey," the sliver said.
The Doctor frowned. "I wish you had found a better way to phrase that."
Martha Jones shook her head. For a moment there she had experienced a buzzing in her ears and a brief wave of dizziness. But it passed quickly.
She glanced across the console at the Doctor. His face seemed pensive, his eyes clouded by sadness and a hint of regret. Then he looked into her eyes and he grinned, the sadness dissolving as quickly as Martha's dizziness had.
"Where to next, Martha Jones?"
Episode 1 by Nix Nada
Episode 2 by James Stewart
Episode 3 by Eric Bakke
Episode 4 by James Stewart
Episode 5 by Mark Simpson
Episode 6 by Eric Bakke
Episode 7 by Mark Simpson
Completed
Episode 1
by Nix Nada
Thick smoke curled in low, languid ribbons across the scored and rocky landscape in which the Doctor found himself.
As he turned, trying to get his bearings, a man stepped from the billowing smoke. He was an old man, with a tired, almost resigned look on his face. He wore a bronze robe and matching skullcap.
The Doctor stepped towards him and grabbed the front of his robe in both hands. "What have you done with Martha?" the Doctor yelled. "Why have you brought me here? What is this place?"
He stopped and looked down at the fabric in his hands and then back at the man's face. "Wait a minute - you're a Time Lord? That's impossible."
The man lifted his hands and, with a surprisingly firm grip, took the Doctor's hands off his robe.
"I am not a Time Lord," replied the man, with heavy, weary sadness, "not any more. My being here means that I am simply… dead."
"You're not making any sense," complained the Doctor.
"I am a message, Doctor, a tiny fragment of the Matrix of Gallifrey, cast adrift into the vortex of time until the time was right. Clearly, the conditions have now been met."
"Conditions? What conditions?"
"Only these two: Something catastrophic must have happened to Gallifrey, leaving most, if not all, of the Time Lords dead or gone and the connection to the main body of the Matrix severed."
"And the other?" The Doctor had a sickening feeling that he already knew the answer.
"You must be ready and able to fulfil your duty to your people. The duty that was asked of you many years ago, but could not complete."
"I'm back on Skaro, aren't I?" said the Doctor. "Back at the beginning again."
"Indeed so," replied the old man. "The program based in the Matrix sliver has been watching you from the vortex and has judged you ready."
"Ready?" exclaimed the Doctor. "I'm no more ready to commit genocide for the Time Lords now than I was then, no matter what has happened between those times."
The old man cupped his hands before him. In the space between his hands, an image took shape, an image of the Doctor fending off an attack from a tall alien figure with a mask of bone by hurling a piece of fruit at a button that sent to the attacker plummeting to his death.
"No second chances," said the tiny figure of the Doctor. "I'm that sort of a man."
"I said that? I didn't…" stuttered the Doctor. "Did I say - I did say that, didn't I? But I had just regenerated, I wasn't properly me yet!"
The old man nodded and the picture changed to show the Doctor shouting an ultimatum at the massive arachnid creature, the Empress of the Racnoss. When it was not met, the Doctor caused several explosions that sent a torrent of water down on the Racnoss' newly hatched children.
"Okay," admitted the Doctor, "that was me, but they would have killed every living thing on the planet Earth!"
"I am not here to judge you," replied the man. "On the contrary. I need you to use your newfound - how should I put this - unwillingness to accept the existence of iniquity."
The man's face softened a little. "Our original offer still stands. You need not destroy the Daleks if you can divert their evolution into a less destructive future."
The Doctor took a few steps away, his face clouded with dark thoughts, and he stared out into the thick clouds of smoke.
"What about Martha?" asked the Doctor. "Is she here somewhere - out there on the battlefield?"
"No, Doctor," replied the man, his voice turning hard again. "She has been converted to energy and stored in the Matrix sliver, until such time as you have completed your task."
The Doctor whirled around, his face ablaze with fury. "You're using her to blackmail me?" he snarled.
"Yes," replied the man, candidly. "She will be unharmed. If you prove unsuccessful she will be returned to the relative time and spatial location of her origin."
The Doctor gave a guttural yell and launched himself at the old man, who promptly disappeared.
"Do your duty, Time Lord Doctor," said the old man's voice from somewhere in the air.
The Doctor's reply was lost in the sudden howling of the wind.
Episode 2
by James Stewart
The twisted and horrid landscape was as familiar to the Doctor as the back of his hand well, it would be if the patterns on his hand did not regenerate along with the rest of his body so he had little problem with finding his way around. Just as they had done all those years ago, when he had been forced here by the Time Lords in his Fourth Incarnation, his hearts sank at the devastation that had robbed the once vibrant Skaro of everything that had made it good.
Where there had once been leafy evergreen trees, exotic flowers in all the colours of the spectrum plus a few that human eyes could not perceive and spring water trickling through the hills, there was blasted and burnt terrain, the stench of death understandable, as the simplest way of disposing of a body was to leave it outside, to be eaten away by the radiation or the cannibalistic mutants and gas-masked patrols, hands clutching machine guns.
The Doctor picked his way carefully along the terrain, mindful to take the anti-radiation drugs that he habitually kept in the breast pocket of his dark brown jacket. Even with the drugs and his enhanced metabolism, it was still dangerous to remain exposed to the poisonous atmosphere for too long; fortunately, the lights from the dome grew more intense. He was almost there.
There were two domes, spaced miles apart; one contained the remnants of the Kaled race, the other the survivors of the Thals. Each dome was essentially a self-contained city, on the order of ten miles across. In between was a no man's land: minefields, hagra beasts vicious creatures, the mutation of Skaro's domestic pets and, of course, the mutants. Both the Kaleds and Thals were being deformed due to the radioactive weapons employed in the beginnings of the War.
All of this the Doctor knew from his last visit, he was more concerned with Martha's safety at the moment. Without the TARDIS and his companion, he only had himself and the contents of his pockets to rely on.
A growling made him pause in both his tracks and his thoughts.
The Doctor turned slowly, hoping not to alert the hagra beast which he knew to be standing mere meters behind him. He was reminded of the time he had been stranded in Alaska and had hidden from the roaming packs of wolves; however, whereas the wolves were often recalcitrant in seeking out prey, hagra beasts had no such compunctions.
While it was vaguely dog-like in basic shape, it was at least twice the size of a Great Dane; its muzzle was open, bearing rows of razor-sharp incisors which could shred through skin and bone easily; the fur was patchy and matted with dirt; the skin was pockmarked with ugly wounds, from teeth and weapons. Hagra beasts were notoriously difficult to kill due to their armour-like skin. Blood and saliva dripped from its muzzle.
Frantically, the Doctor searched through his pockets, hoping to find something that would get the beast away from him; he came upon a small brown bag, filled with jelly-babies. Jelly-baby? asked the Doctor, throwing the multicoloured sweets to the creature.
The animal sniffed the sweets curiously, licked one experimentally and then retrained its brown eyes on the Doctor.
"Too much sugar, eh?" asked the Doctor, hoping against hope that if he kept talking the creature would not attack him. "I should really cut down on them, especially with my sensitive teeth."
As if to shut the rambling Doctor up, the creature let out a ferocious growl and then pounced. The Doctor knew that even with his reflexes he would not get out of the way before the animal collapsed on him, so he merely hoped that death would be swift and that Martha would be returned home.
I'm not going to close my eyes, I want to see Death coming.
A shot rang out, echoing horribly off the surrounding mountains, forcing the Doctor to cover his ears. The hagra beast slumped to the ground in front of him, brownish-red blood pouring from a wound in its lower back. The Doctor studied the creature pitifully, almost blanching at the twisted shards of spinal column sticking out of its back. It yelped pitifully at him and the Doctor could not help but reach down and try to offer whatever comfort he could to the animal as it drew its last breaths.
"More will come," said a strange voice, "they will be drawn by the smell."
"Thank you for your assistance," replied the Doctor, standing up, noting that the rifle was now being pointed at him. "You're a Thal, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"I can help you defeat the Kaleds," said the Doctor. Just saying the words felt like a betrayal of every principle he believed in, but the Daleks had to be stopped, had to be changed. And there was Martha to think about.
"You may very well be a Kaled spy, or a mutant," retorted the Thal, "why should I trust you?"
"Because I'm the Doctor, that's why."
The Thal indicated that the Doctor should follow him.
The walk to the dome was a short one; howls filled the permanent blackness, but no more hagra beasts attempted to attack the Doctor or his Thal guard. He had learnt the man's name, Stahn, but not much else. Stahn was much too reserved to let slip any important information. When they arrived at the dome, the Thal guard punched in a code that revealed the entrance. While the dome was completely smooth, except for the entrenchments where missile launches were located, the ground underneath their feet shuddered as a hidden elevator shaft brought them underground.
The dome was much as the Doctor remembered it: smooth white walls, readouts spilling from computers, scientists and technicians running around to their action stages. The Thals were all dressed in green-and-gold jumpsuits.
"Sir!" Stahn called to a distinguished-looking technician. "I found this man roaming around outside close to the dome. He claims to be a Doctor and also says he has a way to defeat the Kaleds."
The technician walked over to the Doctor and examined him. "You do not have any of the obvious signs of being a mutant."
"That's because I'm not. I was sent here by my people to help you," explained the Doctor.
"How can one extra man help us?" asked the technician, eyeing the Doctor warily.
For a brief instant, the Doctor looked uncomfortable before regaining his composure. "I know the molecular formula of the metal used in the Kaled dome; with my help, you can design a missile to breach its defences."
"How can we trust you?" asked Stahn.
"Do you know of the Kaled chief scientist, Davros?" asked the Doctor.
"We know of his intelligence and insanity," replied the technician.
"Very soon, if he hasn't already, he will invent a machine that will be both a life-support unit and unstoppable war machine to house the creatures that the Kaleds are mutating into. In the future, these creatures, called the Daleks, will destroy my people," explained the Doctor. "I've been sent here to do everything possible to stop them."
Episode 3
by Eric Bakke
For next few days, the Doctor worked with the Thal science team to design a rocket to destroy the Kaled dome. The Doctor took no joy in designing such a terrible device, but he was determined to save his people from destruction. The Doctor was going over the plans for the rocket's guidance system when a messenger from Glack, one of the remaining Thal generals, interrupted his work.
"Yes, what is it?"
"Doctor Caligari, Davros has sent a formula for a chemical that he says could be used to destroy his people's dome," reported the messenger. "He says that he's betraying the Kaleds because the war must be stopped before all life on the planet is destroyed. However, General Glack doesn't trust Davros for a moment, so he thought that you had better have a look at the formula for yourself."
The Doctor nodded thoughtfully. "Do you have the formula with you?"
The messenger handed him a piece of paper. While the Doctor had no need to do so, he studied it. The formula that Davros had designed was as brilliant as it was destructive. Of coarse, what else would one have expected? After a few moments, he handed the messenger back the paper. He said, "You can tell General Glack that the formula is actually genuine. We can use our rocket to deliver it, and see the Kaleds destroyed."
"Thank you," said the messenger, and then he left.
The Doctor almost smiled. His plan seemed to be working, so far. Fairly soon, the Thals would start taking prisoners to build the rocket he was currently designing. One of those future prisoners would be none other than his dear friend Sarah Jane Smith. Sarah would ultimately escape, and she would be there when his fourth self would pass up the opportunity to finish off the Daleks. So all the Doctor had to do now was wait for the flow of history to put Sarah into Thal hands. Then he could simply hypnotize Sarah into destroying the Daleks herself when the opportunity presented itself.
In the meantime, the Doctor returned to the plans for the rocket's guidance system. While the Daleks would all have to die, maybe some relatively innocent Kaled lives could still be saved.
Episode 4
by James Stewart
The golden saucers traversed the infinite reaches of the Space / Time vortex within a matter of moments; upon reaching their destination, a blinding white flash enveloped the fleet and they reappeared in normal space. Now only mere millions of kilometres away from their target, the beings within the saucers activated offensive and defensive implements. Today, the final battle in the Time War would be fought over the very home world of their enemies. Excitement fought with nervousness in the minds of the crew as they went about their duties with practised ease. They had rehearsed this moment so often, the movements were automatic.
The tiny, burnt-orange coloured globe hovered slowly into visual range. With powerful sensing equipment, they detected the fleet of ships ringed around the planet in a defensive formation. One such ship - a small, blue box - moved out of formation and approached the saucers.
"General Drakh, the occupant of the TARDIS moving towards us is requesting we open a channel," reported a young Thal soldier.
Drakh, stern and powerful looking, replied, "Oblige him."
"To commander of the Thal vessels, I am the Doctor. I am in charge of this task force and, one way or another, I will not allow you to approach Gallifrey. Temporal warheads are locked on to your vessels and we will fire at will should you come any closer."
"Doctor, this is General Drakh of the Thal Imperium," replied the General, "your race has committed acts of aggression against our race. We have no choice but to destroy you in order to protect ourselves."
"Acts of aggression?" replied the Doctor, a note of derision entering his voice. "You have been raiding time-active species for years, building up your little empire in order to challenge the Time Lords."
"Your race is stagnant, weak, Doctor," growled Drakh, "with the Thals as the new Lords of Time, we will impose our own order upon the universe."
"An order of death and destruction if they don't agree with you," the Doctor bit back angrily.
From the cavernous, Gothic control room of his TARDIS, the Doctor silently sent a message to the thousands of war-TARDISes arranged around Gallifrey. It consisted of one work: "Attack."
The Thal-Kaled vessels were powerful; protected by forcefield generators that rivalled those of a TARDIS, armed with weapons every bit as devastating as Temporal warheads, they were more than a match for even the mighty war-fleet of the Time Lords. Ship after ship - on both sides - exploded as fireballs of every colour imaginable struck home. Only razor-sharp reflexes and an affinity for piloting saved the Doctor and his TARDIS from meeting a fiery end.
On board his own flagship, Drakh barked orders to his crew. They were a mixture of Thals and Kaleds; once upon a time, they had been enemies - locked in an unwinnable nuclear war - until they had agreed a peace, rebuilt their ravaged world and finally conquered space. Once they had got out there, though, they had met many races who wished to conquer or destroy them. Becoming increasingly insular, they eventually went back to their aggressively military ways: powerful warships left Skaro on a campaign of terror; all who opposed the Thal-Kaled Imperium were destroyed, the natural and artificial resources of their planet consumed to build the next wave of warships.
They had become one of the major temporally-aware powers within a matter of decades. This had brought them under the scrutiny of the Time Lords, who sought to destroy or contain any threats to their domination of the Time Vortex. Open hostilities had broken out, leading to the declaration of the Time War: though the Shadow Proclamation forbade Time itself to be used as a weapon, it did not restrict the use of time travel. Continuous back and forth journeying between certain points and time had destabilised those regions, turning them into nothing more than temporal wastelands. Any ship materialising there would be trapped within a void of constantly shifting time streams, no escape possible.
The Doctor was suddenly thrown off his feet - it saved his life, as the console suddenly erupted into flames, sending glass and plastic showering everywhere - as a stray warhead collided with the TARDIS. The forcefield generators held out for as long as they could, but they quickly overloaded and exploded. Another hit and the ship would be destroyed. With her pilot unconscious, unable to make any decisions, the TARDIS initiated her emergency protocols and fled into the Vortex.
Minutes later, Gallifrey itself was destroyed in a cataclysmic fireball. A few TARDISes managed to retreat to safety, but they were quickly pursued by the Thal-Kaled saucers.
*
It brought a lump to the Doctor's throat to see Sarah this way again; the last time he had encountered her, at Deffrey Vale High School - so many light years and so many thousands of years away - she had been older, wiser, but still the same old Sarah Jane. He knew that she would soon be taken to work on the missile that the Thals would launch against the Kaled dome, so if he was to put his plan into effect it would have to be now.
"Excuse me," the Doctor said to the guard currently roughly manhandling the woman, "your supervisor asked me to talk to this particular mutant."
"Mutant?" Sarah said angrily.
"Silence!" The guard raised his rifle, but found his motion interrupted by the Doctor grabbing his arm.
"There is no need for that!" yelled the Doctor. "She has been near the Kaled dome and has useful information."
The guard looked as though he was about to protest, but thought better of it and stalked off, annoyed.
"Thank you," Sarah Jane said.
"I'm sorry."
"There's no need to ..."
She was cut off in mid-sentence by the Doctor removing a fob-watch from his pocket and waving it back and forth in front of her eyes. "Sarah Jane Smith," he spoke quietly, almost soothingly, in sharp contrast to the words of destruction he uttered, "a few hours from now the Doctor is going to pass up an opportunity to destroy the Daleks in their infancy. I need you to press the two wires together, whatever the cost, when he decides not to."
The Doctor snapped his fingers, bringing Sarah Jane to full attention again. She shook her head, as if trying to knock a loose memory into place. "I'm sorry, what did you want?"
"Oh, nothing," replied the Doctor. He motioned to the guard to take her to the missile. "You just reminded me of someone I once knew."
When both the guard and his old friend were gone, the Doctor cradled his head in his hands. He had betrayed his principles, used his oldest and dearest friend as an agent of destruction, and was now about to seriously alter history. "This better be worth it," he said to the ceiling.
Episode 5
by Mark Simpson
Sarah watched Gharman, who had just brought the news of Davros' surrender, head back down the corridor. The Doctor, relieved at having been spared the decision to destroy the Daleks completely, followed him, with Harry trailing behind. Hesitating, something clicked in Sarah's mind, a command she couldn't explain or disobey.
Making sure the Doctor and Harry had gone, she retrieved the spool of wire the Doctor had discarded after he had pulled it free of the detonator inside the incubation chamber, and made her way to the chamber door…
***
Inside the Thal dome, the Doctor placed his forehead against the cold metal of his locked laboratory door, his shoulders slumped. The sounds of energy weapons and screaming came through the closed door, all too familiar. The Daleks were claiming their first victims and there was nothing he could do about it. Again.
A different sound, running footsteps, approached down the corridor. Determined to save at least one life, he swiftly unlocked the door and poked his head through.
A small figure, dressed in green, was running past the door. Without a second thought, the Doctor grabbed an arm and dragged the figure into the laboratory, locking the door with a flick of a finger.
It was only then that he recognised the young Thal woman before him. He had met Bettan on his earlier visit, when he had been imprisoned by the Thals. She had become a friend and ally by the time he left.
Wide eyed with fear, she was about to speak when the Doctor placed a hand over her mouth. Seconds later there was a sound beyond the door, an energy discharge and the noise of a falling body, followed by a screeching cry of triumph.
"Exterminate all Thals! Exterminate!"
The harsh voice faded as the Dalek moved away. The Doctor removed his hand from Bettan's mouth.
"Do you remember a man you met earlier today?" he asked her urgently. "A former prisoner, freed when the rocket struck the Kaled dome?"
Bettan nodded. "Yes. He spoke of strange machines Davros was creating to wipe out all humanoid life." He face changed as she finished speaking, the realisation dawning.
"He's called the Doctor. You must find him again. He'll be able to help. Can you do that?"
Again she nodded.
"Good. It should be safe now."
The Doctor opened the door and peered out. In the corridor there was a still smoking body of a fallen Thal, but not other sign of the Daleks.
"Go, quickly," the Doctor instructed.
Bettan paused in the doorway. "You saved my life," she told him simply, reaching up and kissing him lightly on the cheek. Then she turned and sprinted off down the corridor.
The Doctor smiled grimly as she went. "Let's hope you're not the last person I save today," he muttered, as a headache started to build behind his eyes.
***
How did it come to this? Ian Chesterton thought bitterly as he dragged his damaged body across the ground. His mind went back over the events of the last couple of days as he sought a vantage point.
After he and Barbara Wright had gone to confront Susan Foreman's grandfather, they had stumbled across something truly amazing. Susan and the Doctor were time travellers, their ship disguised as a London Police Box. Not wanting his secret revealed, the Doctor had set the ship in motion, taking them back to Neolithic times, where the four of them had barely escaped with their lives.
Promising to take Ian and Barbara home, the Doctor's ship had instead landed here, on the seemingly paradise world of Skaro. Investigating the shining city they had seen from the edge of a leafy forest, the time travellers had been captured by the Kaled/Thal Alliance, humanoid military rulers of this world. During an attempted escape, Ian had been hit in the legs by an energy beam weapon which fried his nerve endings, causing permanent paralysis. The four travellers were imprisoned, awaiting execution.
With all hoping seeming lost, they had been freed by Temmosus, leader of a small band of rebels opposed to the Alliance. Fleeing the city, Temmosus had been killed by Alliance soldiers, though the rest of the small group had got away, two rebels carrying Ian between them. However, the alarm had been sounded and soldiers would no doubt be on their trail before long.
Barbara had stayed by Ian's side throughout the escape, but as Ian considered their chances of getting away and decided action had to be taken, he knew he couldn't allow Barbara to come to harm. So it was that he told her a lie, said that Susan, who was near the head of the group with her grandfather, had wanted to speak to Barbara about something important, and also that his 'bearers' needed to rest. Reluctantly, Barbara left Ian.
Left with Alydon and Ganatus, who were taking their turn carrying him, Ian suggested his plan. The three of them would wait in ambush for the Alliance soldiers, giving the other members of their party time to get away. The two Thal rebels looked doubtful that Ian could help, but he assured them he was a crack shot on the rifle range, so they gave him a spare energy pistol.
Now the three of them were crawling through the lush undergrowth of the forest, seeking a place for their ambush.
Sadly, they were too late. Alliance soldiers were not to be taken for granted, or by surprise. Finding themselves suddenly pinned down by heavy fire, first Alydon, then Ganatus were gunned down.
Ian looked up into the face of the blonde woman who stood over him, gun in hand. Her face would have been beautiful, but for the cruel smile on her lips.
"For the glory of the Alliance," she said, and Ian knew no more.
***
The Doctor clutched his temples as pain lanced through his brain. This was more than just a headache, this was something far, far worse. As the pain faded slightly, a memory surfaced.
Barbara Wright, weeping uncontrollably over the charred body of Ian Chesterton, while he and Susan tried to drag her into the TARDIS. Eventually she gave in and the three travellers entered the ship at a run, before a group of humanoid soldiers surrounded the ship. With a roar, the TARDIS dematerialised.
"That never happened," the Doctor whispered. Or had it? If he recalled it, it must have happened.
Pain returned, causing him to fall to his knees. Somewhere, someone screamed. And it might have been him.
***
"Brigadier, you must evacuate the conference!"
"Doctor, do you have any idea how long it took Sir Reginald Styles to bring the Chinese delegates to the peace table? Months! I'm not going to throw that into disarray without good reason."
"Then how's this for a good reason? If you don't get those delegates out of Styles house right now, a battalion of alien mercenaries from the future, led by storm troopers of the Thal/Kaled Alliance, will surround the house and exterminate everybody within it!"
The Brigadier looked shocked. "Why would they do a thing like that?"
"Because their history books tell them that's what happened on this day, at this time. The Alliance rules Earth in the 22nd Century, and has done since the world was plunged into nuclear war. A war that started right here."
"I'll get the men mobilised right away," Lethbridge-Stewart promised. He looked around. "Where's Miss Grant?"
The Doctor looked around too. "She was here a moment ago…"
"Sir, look!"
The call came from Captain Mike Yates, who was pointing towards the house. Around the building, huge ape-like creatures were appearing, gunning down the UNIT troops with ease. Among them were humanoids, directing the alien soldiers.
Then the Doctor spotted Jo Grant, standing by the front door of the house. He knew he had to warn her!
"Jo! Get away from there!" he shouted.
Turning at the sound of his voice, Jo found herself face to face with an Ogron wielding an energy pistol. Without a second thought, the alien shot Jo and she crumpled to the ground.
The Doctor ran. Somehow he got through the lines of Alliance soldiers without getting shot, arriving at Jo's broken body. Kneeling, he cradled her lifeless form in his arms, as around him the Ogrons and Alliance forces smashed their way into the house. He heard none of the terrified screaming of the delegates, the roar of forced energy particles or the slump of bodies hitting hard flooring.
He didn't even look up until he saw a pair of shiny black boots step into his eyeline. Expecting one of the Alliance officers, he was startled to find himself looking up into the face of his favourite Academy lecturer and friend, Hedin.
Seeing something blue from the corner of his eye, the Doctor turned to see the TARDIS standing a few feet away. He was back on Gallifrey!
"You've been recalled, Doctor," Hedin told him softly. "Your exile has been deemed a failure due to the immanent nuclear catastrophe about to befall Earth." He saw the look of anguish on the face of his friend and added, "I'm sorry."
The Doctor, usually so gregarious, was suddenly lost for words.
***
What was happening to him?
Shaking his head to try and clear it, the Doctor forced himself back to his feet. Leaning against a wall for support, the pounding in his brain gave way briefly to another memory.
He watched an image on a monitor screen of the planet Earth. Even from space, mushroom clouds could be seen roiling in the upper atmosphere as nuclear destruction rained down upon the world. Beside him, Hedin hung his head in sorrow.
"That's not right," the Doctor spat through teeth gritted against the pain in his head. "Earth can't have been destroyed. Rose grew up there, so did Martha. So it can't have happened. Unless…"
An idea was forming in the Doctor's mind. Maybe these events had happened…in the timeline he was about to create through his hypnotism of Sarah Jane.
Another flash of pain. Another memory.
Sarah Jane Smith, in the Kaled Bunker. She had reconnected the detonator wire to the explosives the Doctor had placed in the incubation chamber. Now, before the Daleks could start up the automated process, using the creatures within the chamber to pilot Dalek casings, she had to destroy it. Taking a deep breath, she touched the wires together.
The explosion ripped through the chamber, destroying the embryos within. Sadly for Sarah, she had been standing too close. The force of the blast caught her and hurled her against the wall of the corridor, hard enough to shatter most of the bones in her body. That was how the Doctor and Harry found her a couple of minutes later, barely alive. She didn't remain that way for long.
"NO!" the Doctor howled. Tears stung his eyes as he screwed them shut against the images he was forced to replay in his head.
The headache was easing, but didn't leave him completely. Now he knew it for what it was, a warning from the future. What would happen if he allowed the events he had set in motion to continue, a glimpse of his own history, re-written for the worse.
"What have I done?" he groaned. Glancing at his watch, he calculated the time he had left to stop Sarah exploding the incubation chamber. He just hoped it was enough.
His course set, the Doctor left his laboratory in the Thal dome for the final time, setting out for the Kaled bunker and his one chance to set history back on course.
Episode 6
by Eric Bakke
After a time, the Doctor realized that he had no hope of reaching the Kaled bunker soon enough. All seemed lost. Then the Doctor remembered a time during his sixth life when he had been able to deliberately contact his second self by way of the astral plane. He could do so again with his fourth self, which would bring his astral self in proximity to Sarah Jane Smith. It might just then be possible to use his rather modest psychic abilities to undo the post-hypnotic suggestions that he had given Sarah earlier.
To say the least, it was long shot. It was also profoundly dangerous. He remembered warning Peri and Jamie not to touch or even come near him while his mind was out of his body, and with good reason: any kind of disturbance to his body could well sever his astral link and kill him. War-torn Skaro was obviously a terrible place to leave his body unattended. Nevertheless, he had to try.
The Doctor found a deeply-shadowed crater, and gingerly lowered himself to the ground. He closed his eyes, and willed his essence outside of his body. As cautiously as possible, he searched for the mind of his fourth self. He kept his psychic touch as subdued as he possibly could, determined not to let his earlier self detect his presence. He had no desire to mess up his history any more than they it already was!
With the speed of thought, the Doctor's intangible essence raced toward Kaled bunker, pulled onward by the presence of his earlier self.
The Doctor arrived in time to see Harry and Sarah struggling to free his earlier self from an aggressive mutant tentacle. Ultimately, his two old friends managed to free the fourth Doctor. While his past replayed before him, the Doctor struggled to reach out for Sarah's mind and undo what he had done earlier. He has no idea if his efforts would work or not. He could but watch and hope.
The Doctor watched his younger self hesitate to touch together the two wires that would blow up the incubation room. Sarah asked why he had stopped. For a brief moment, the Doctor despaired, but then he remembered that Sarah had originally questioned him. The Doctor allowed himself to hope that maybe there was still hope. Perhaps what he was doing now had always been part of the original timeline. After all, his effort to save the Kaled Dome had failed. Only time would tell.
In response to Sarah, the fourth Doctor questioned his right to wipe out the Daleks. For her part, Sarah argued that if it were a virus or a disease that he wouldn't hesitate. Completely unseen, the tenth Doctor starts to relax a little; things were going as they had before. Still, the danger to history had not yet completely passed.
The fourth Doctor argued that if he did destroy the Daleks that he would become just like them. Unknown to the fourth Doctor, his words tormented his future self. The tenth Doctor reflected on just how fortunate it was that his younger counterpart had no idea just how much trouble and tribulation and suffering lay before him. Perhaps due to the tenth Doctor's meddling, Sarah remained unmoved. She insisted that he must complete his mission for the Time Lords. Despite Sarah's pleas, his earlier self still hesitated.
The danger to history finally passed completely when Gharman arrived and announced that Davros had lost. The fourth Doctor pulled out the wires. Bitterly, the Doctor remembered how grateful he had been to have been spared having to touch the wires together. Of coarse, when Davros had turned the tables later, his fourth self had been unable to complete his assignment. Part of the Doctor wondered if he was an even greater fool now than he had been then.
An instant later, the Doctor returned to his body, and rose to his feet. For better or worse, he had returned history to its original coarse. Now he just had to figure out a way to save Martha. He had failed to complete his mission, putting her in terrible danger.
Episode 7
by Mark Simpson
"Halt! Do not move!"
The harsh, grating voice from behind him stopped the Doctor cold as he climbed out of the shell crater. Turning slowly, he found himself confronted by a Dalek.
With a dispassionate eye he took in the differences between this early Dalek and the efficient killing machines he had become used to over his last few regenerations. The grey and black colour scheme was more muted than later Daleks, the eyestalk less robust, the manipulator 'hand' less adaptable. And the Daleks he knew were much more cunning, devious and clever.
The Dalek eyed him. "You are a Thal. You are an enemy of the Kaled race. You must be exterminated!"
"Do I look like a Thal?" the Doctor demanded of the Dalek. He ran a hand through his hair. "See? Not blonde. And look at my clothes. I'm no more a Thal than you are, you stupid creature!"
For a moment the Dalek hesitated. "Who are you?"
"I'm an important Kaled scientist," the Doctor improvised. "An associate of Davros himself."
"What are you doing in the wasteland?"
The Doctor sighed theatrically. "I was captured by the Thals. But now you've killed them all, I was able to escape. I was heading back to the Bunker before you stopped me. Now, are you going to keep me chatting all day, or have you got more killing to do? Hmm?"
The Dalek was silent for a few moments while it came to a decision.
"Proceed," it said eventually.
"Thank you," the Doctor replied, offering it a sarcastic salute. But the Dalek had already turned away.
The Doctor stuck his hands into the pockets of his trousers and mooched off through the fog. "Stupid tin cans," he muttered to himself.
***
The fog swirled and thickened as the Doctor trudged through the mud, his trainers making small sucking noises. Then suddenly the fog parted.
Standing in the clearing of the mist was the elderly Time Lord amalgam that had confronted the Doctor when he had first arrived back on Skaro. The figure shook its head sadly.
"You have failed in your mission Doctor. I now have no choice but to return your companion to her proper temporal/spatial location, her memories of your travels wiped from her mind."
"Wait!" the Doctor demanded. "I haven't failed."
The Time Lord raised an eyebrow. "Really? You've managed to destroy the Daleks? Affect their development in a positive way?"
"No," the Doctor admitted.
"Then you have…"
"I haven't failed!"
"Then perhaps you could tell me how you have succeeded?"
The Doctor countered the question with one of his own. "What is the over-riding mission of every Time Lord, since the days of Rassilon himself?"
A brief pause. "To protect and uphold the Web of Time."
"Ten points to Team Matrix! That is exactly what I have done. Preserved the Web of Time exactly as it was by not interfering in my previous incarnation's mission."
"But that is not the mission…"
The Doctor interrupted again. "And I've managed to prove that had my previous self destroyed the Daleks, a much worse threat would have emerged, in the shape of the Kaled/Thal Alliance!"
The Time Lord paused, his eyes seemingly turned inward. "There was a Matrix projection that predicted an alliance between the Kaled and Thal races."
"And that Alliance would have brought about the destruction of Earth in a nuclear holocaust during the late 20th Century. The same Earth that, according to the Web of Time, becomes a major player in the Galactic Empire in the 31st Century. So had I meddled here, I would have done more harm than good to the timeline."
"All this is irrelevant Doctor," the Time Lord told him gravely. "You were given a mission. You failed to complete the mission. Therefore your companion will be returned home."
"Wait!" the Doctor shouted again.
The Time Lord sighed. "What is it now?"
"You're a sliver of the original Matrix. Correct?"
"Correct."
"Do you know what became of the Matrix, Gallifrey and the Time Lords?"
"Yes," the ersatz Time Lord replied. "They were destroyed in a war against the Daleks. A war you could have prevented by destroying the Daleks here and now."
"Irrelevant!" the Doctor snapped. "Now, you agree that I am the sole survivor of the Time Lord race?"
"I agree," the sliver said cautiously.
"Then by default I hold the office of Lord President of the High Council of Time Lords, a position I have held twice in the past. And as such, you obey my orders. Correct?"
There was a long pause while the Time Lord amalgam considered what the Doctor had said.
"Your logic is…impeccable," it finally conceded.
"Then I order you to return Martha to me, put us both back in the TARDIS and let us be on our way."
"I obey," the sliver said.
The Doctor frowned. "I wish you had found a better way to phrase that."
***
Martha Jones shook her head. For a moment there she had experienced a buzzing in her ears and a brief wave of dizziness. But it passed quickly.
She glanced across the console at the Doctor. His face seemed pensive, his eyes clouded by sadness and a hint of regret. Then he looked into her eyes and he grinned, the sadness dissolving as quickly as Martha's dizziness had.
"Where to next, Martha Jones?"
The End
