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Return of the Doctor Part 3 of 6
The Doctor's Return
Chapter III
The Fleet Leader
The central column began its oscillations as the Doctor, reunited with his
"old girl," piloted the well-used vehicle toward the flagship of the Devastator
Fleet. Andred, the Gallifreyan who had once married the Doctor's "savage"
companion Leela, watched in awe as his "uncle" maneuvered the controls of the
TARDIS. The viewscreen showed them moving toward the curiously glistening
starship at the head of the fleet which had defeated the galaxy's greatest
warrior race and the Sontarans' eternal enemies.
"Obviously three space fleets controlled by three megalomaniac races like
the Daleks, Cybermen, and Sontarans must be controlled at a central point. I'm
willing to bet that central point is in that ship. Well, let's pay the old
chap a visit, shall we?" The Doctor's two companions made no attempt to
disguise their concern, neither did they attempt to voice their differing
opinion; when the Doctor gets in one of his "Let's-do-it,-shall-we?" moods,
there would be no talking him out of it.
The viewer closed as the TARDIS made its final approach. Instead of the
smooth transition into materialization on one of the decks of the flagship,
however, the control room lurched as the TARDIS exterior entered "some sort of
temporal turbulence. How curious." With no further words the Doctor's hands
once again twisted a dial here, flipped a switch there, his eyes constantly
scanning the console registers. Andred and Romana under normal circumstances
were quite able to assist their friend and husband and planetary hero; a
constant struggle to keep oneself from colliding with a control room wall,
though, is far from being included in anyone's list of "normal circumstances."
The Doctor, on the other hand, somehow managed to remain standing as he made
the final adjustments that allowed the TARDIS to pass through the turbulence
and materialize inside the flagship. The center column lurched, remained
almost undecisively at the top of its cycle for a moment, then settled down to
its resting place in the hexagonal main console. Warning lights in the column
and around the console began to blink off as the TARDIS stabilized itself, even
as its three passengers stabilized themselves.
"We've landed."
"Husband, your way with words when stating the obvious is as underwhelming
as always."
Romana was helped up from the floor by Andred as the Doctor operated the
main door control. The doors opened and the Doctor stepped outside the
TARDIS. He was greeted by dim though ample lighting illuminating a long
hallway. The low thrum of the flagship's propulsion systems could be heard,
even felt, through the walls and floor. Andred and Romana stepped out of the
blue police box as the Doctor brushed his fingers over one of the hallway's
walls, muttering to himself how "vaguely familiar" the setting was. "Andred,
you take that passage," the Doctor ordered, pointing to a corridor opening off
the main hall, "and Romana and I will take this way."
Andred began his trek down his path. He mused at how naturally the Doctor
still fit into adventure, and how ill at ease it made him. Even after Leela
encouraged him to become involved with the Intervention Agency, the more active
arm of Time Lord activity, even after he trained himself at the Academy, even
after earning the title of Time Lord, even after avenging his slain wife, he
still felt he would never become the bold vigilante of time and space that the
Doctor had become. He paused for a moment, thinking about how easily his
beloved Leela would fit into this situation ... he shook the thought out of his
head. She was dead, killed at the hand of some unknown enemy, her body even
taken away from him. No amount of tears, of pleading, of cursing whatever gods
held sway in this universe, could bring her back. He steeled himself as he
always had, letting his anger grow as he imagined beautiful Leela standing in
front of him once again, her life being taken away by whatever lay at the end
of the passageway he now carefully but determinedly strode through.
The young Time Lord finally came to the end of the hall, his continued
passage blocked by a door. Trying to make as little noise as possible, he
tried the latch; he wasn't surprised when it refused to turn. He took from a
pocket a thick-barrelled instrument. Although the tool had been improved
several times over since his older friend had lost his own to the Terileptils,
Andred assumed that a sonic screwdriver was still more than a match for even
the most stubborn lock. He held the silver implement near the door latch and
activated it. It only took a few moments for the high-pitched sound waves to
vibrate the lock into disengaging itself. He quickly pocketed the screwdriver,
operated the latch, and carefully opened the door.
The room beyond the door was as dimly lit as the corridor he now left.
Crouched low, Colonel Andred moved into the room. The room appeared empty,
although the dim lighting could allow even the most massive of attackers to
hide in the shadow of a corner. He stopped, silencing his lungs, intently
listening to the room. The only sound he heard was the rhythm of his two
hearts pounding blood into his temples. He slowly rose to a standing position,
still alert to his surroundings. He began walking toward the end of the room
opposite the door through which he entered. When he was but a few feet away
from the wall he noticed the circular patterns embedded in it, just like ...
The thought was thrown from his mind as he spun on his heels. The door
had quietly closed by itself. His mind raced through the possibilities. The
breeze of air recirculation ... no, he could feel no air movement, hear no wind
in the room. An automatic closure ... possible, he supposed, but there didn't
seem to be enough resistance for that when he first opened it. Of course,
there was always the possibility that someone else in the room closed it.
The sudden mechanical rasp behind him made him spin around and jump toward
the door. When his eyes focused on the source of the noise, he beheld for the
first time a Cyberman. He turned and ran for the door, but was stopped by
another one, his hand closing painfully about his shoulder. Andred yelped at
the pain. The first Cyberman raised his arm, prepared to end the Time Lord's
most recent regeneration with the well-placed chop near the neck that Cybermen
were notorious for. "Do not kill him," rang the voice inside their heads.
"Bring him to me. You may render him unconscious, if you wish."
Andred saw the metallic arm raise again, then drop. After that, the
lighting in the room seemed to dim all the more.
The corridor that the Doctor and his wife followed ended not in a dimly
lit room hiding a Cyberman ambush. It instead terminated at the foot of stairs
leading upward. The duo were about to begin their climb when a scream of pain
drifted down the hall. Romana acted immediately, racing back down the way they
had come. The Doctor shouted after her, but she quickly disappeared in the low
light. He furrowed his brow, then stoically turned and began his climb.
The spritely Time Lady ran back to the intersection where she last saw
Andred. Realizing the scream must have come from him, she turned and was about
to continue her dash down the intersection when she heard something rolling
toward her from the direction of the TARDIS. She bolted down the straight
passageway, quickly looking back at the form of a Dalek coming after her, its
voice grating the familiar, "Halt, or be ex-ter-mi-na-ted." Realizing she
could never outrun the Dalek's blaster in the straight passage, she located a
door located on one side and threw it open. The Dalek's blaster sizzled into
the metal, but the barrier held.
The Dalek stopped at the door, aimed its blaster appendage at the charred
section which took its first release, and fired again. The door was forced off
its hinges and banged to a stop down the corridor. The Dalek moved into the
open jamb, eye stalk scanning the infra-red light that illuminated the entire
surroundings quite brightly, if one is equipped to detect infra-red. Like the
other room which had housed the Cyber-ambush, this cubicle was empty, although
small enough to allow no place to hide. Convinced that the intruder had somehow
escaped, the Dalek backed out of the door jamb, turned, and proceeded down the
corridor, passing another door, this one ever-so-slightly opened. From behind
it, Romana peered out the tiny crack and watched the Dalek move away from her.
She opened the door, stepped out of the room, and closed it again, prepared to
go back the way she had come and catch up with the Doctor. She was greeted,
upon closing the door, by another Dalek, its weapon levelled at her
mid-section. "You are an in-tru-der," the mechanical voice droned. "Intruders
must be ex-ter-mi-na-ted." Romana closed her eyes tightly, not wanting to
watch her belly blasted away by the creature, when she heard from inside the
machine, "Do not kill her. Bring her to me."
"You will come with me. Obey. Obey the Daleks."
"You haven't changed a bit, have you?" Romana realized humor was
completely wasted on such an emotionless being as the Daleks had become, but
she took only the slightest comfort at her light remark. Arms raised, she
turned and walked down the corridor toward the Dalek she had tricked before.
The Doctor had waited at the top of the stairs, hoping he would hear two
pairs of feet quickly climbing after him. Instead he heard the smooth tones of
one he thought he could not be hearing. "Welcome, Doctor. I wondered when you
would show up. Please, let my ... escort ... guide you to my command
central." The Doctor turned to look down the stairs from which he heard
footfalls. Those footfalls, though, were too heavy for either Romana or
Andred. He knew even before he could fully see the owner of those feet the
nature of the voice's "escort." He quietly stood as the Sontaran appeared at
the top of the stairs, motioning him onward.
The Doctor was "led" ("pushed would be the better word," he later
commented) deeper into the flagship, here and there climbing stairs. "Almost
as convoluted as my TARDIS ... and no wonder," he thought as he noticed the
same circular pattern his fellow Time Lord had noticed earlier. He was
commanded to stop while the burly Sontaran moved ahead of him and opened the
door. From the other side of the entrance the brighter light shone into the
dimly lit passage he and the Sontaran had been travelling. He was pulled into
the room by the escort and left there with the pilot of the ship.
After hearing the familiar voice the Doctor was hardly surprised to see
the control room of his enemy's TARDIS. Standing at the other side of the
central console was an equally familiar man. His appearance had changed, but
the slight black beard and vile grin left no doubt in the Doctor's mind that,
somehow, his oldest enemy had managed to find yet another body. "Getting into
organizations now? Hardly your style," the Doctor quipped.
"I think you'll find many things are my 'style', Doctor," the Master
replied. He moved toward his fellow Time Lord, his eyes staring into the
Doctor's own. The Doctor felt the entrancing gaze as usual, but he couldn't
help noticing something distinctly different about the Master's eyes, about his
movements, almost as though he were...
"You haven't remarked on the brilliancy of my latest endeavor, old
friend. You must admit, it takes quite a bit of skill and wisdom to bring
together such warriors as I now command. You must admit, it takes quite a bit
of greatness in strategem to enable my army to conquer their natural enemies.
You must admit," continued the Master, his voice now lowered to an evil
whisper, "it takes quite a bit of courage to plan an attack on Gallifrey
itself."
"You're mad! You'd have to get through the force shields first. There is
no possible way they'd let them down so your and your motley crew could just
set down and take over."
"Ah, but they would let them down for the hero of Gallifrey."
"I would never let those shields down while you're in twelve parsecs of
Gallifrey!"
"Ah, no, you wouldn't for me. You wouldn't for your own life. But the
lives of your wife and friend..."
"You have no right!" fumed the Doctor.
"Rights, Doctor, are crutches for the weak. The strong man takes what he
deserves."
"Just like you tried to take Logopolis? You deserved to have the entire
universe collapse into a mass of chaos around you?" The Doctor didn't expect
such minor taunting to bother the Master. For some reason, however, he could
see his enemy's fist clench tight.
"If it weren't for your foolish meddling, I would have had the galaxy in
my pocket! But you stopped me. Oh, I cost you one of your precious
regenerations, but you stopped me." The Master whipped his hand out of his
pocket, revealing the shrinking gun which was his trademark. He took aim at
the Doctor and moved his finger toward the trigger mechanism. He quickly
stopped, his eyes going blank, as though he were receiving orders from
somewhere. The Master stayed like that for several seconds, then calmly
lowered the weapon. "There are better ways to deal with you, old man. Your
friends are through that door." He indicated a second entrance to the control
room.
The Doctor opened the door, aware that the Master had once again raised
his weapon and pointed it at the Doctor's back. "Enter, and see what awaits
you," the renegade Time Lord sneered behind him.
Next time: Chapter IV
The Master's Secret
Story © 1986 Joe Sewell
Melbourne, FL
Doctor Who and related material © 1986 BBC
England
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