anging moodily over the main console,
Turlough unconsciously fiddled with his tie and rubbed a hand through
his close cropped auburn hair. Humming out of tune he seemed mesmerised
by the winking lights and multi-function uni-stabilisers. He glanced to
his left, unmoved by the quiet efficiency of the TARDIS and noticed the
visi-screen holding a mute conversation with the rest of the circuitry
littering the craft. Unrelenting figures toiled a mournful path across
its blinking screen; looking out on the world as if begging for someone
to watch it.
Turlough did.
Suddenly the abstract symbols were erased from the screen to be replaced
by a chattering array of letters, racing backwards and forwards, each
line trying to out run the other. Then it happened, the TARDIS lurched
from side to side, the main time rotor juddered, screeching its protests
unseen antagonists.
Turlough was flung in a highly undignified manner, across to the main
doors where he scrambled desperately, like a spider on the side of a
bath, for a handhold. Almost immediately the console room steadied out.
The TARDIS had retained its balance.
A very concerned Time Lord launched himself at the console a few seconds
later, and with a flurry of hands deactivated, activated various
functions before fixing the alien youth with a steely stare. Face grim,
the Doctor spoke: 'You didn't touch anything, did you?'
Numbly, Turlough shook his head and began to recite utter gibberish as a
means of asserting his innocence. Babblings the Doctor chose to ignore,
until the youth asked tactfully, 'What's wrong?'
'Something or someone has, or did, take control of the TARDIS for at
least a minute. To use that amount of energy they must be desperate.'
Turlough sneered. 'And just how do you know they're desperate?'
|
The Doctor beamed and replied, 'Because they have just activated a
system called co-ordinate override. We are now on a locked and fixed
course to wherever they want us.' His brow creased; the Doctor
thoughtfully studied other readouts, his face grew graver and graver.
'Oh dear...oh dear, dear, dear. Someone is making holes, very big holes
at that, in the Temporal Vortex.'
'What? What does that mean?' asked Turlough, puzzled by the Doctor's cryptic exhortations.
'Doomsday!' summed up the Time Lord in one chilling word.
~~~~~
cross the Time Lines, at the very epicenter
of time itself, sat the Lords of Time; Lords of Space and Lords of
Eternity. Lords upon Lords were assembled within the confines of one
singularly important and, dependant on which view point was taken,
insignificant planet. They had come from all time and space, and all
planets from within the infinite universe; together in a common bond to
share and experience each other’s knowledge. With all the most brilliant
creatures in the universe here, a solution could be found, or could it?
The planet was Gallifrey. The location was the Capitol. The time,
immaterial. The function: to discuss a threat that touched all creation
and dirtied it with its foulness. To isolate and eliminate that threat.
Only one problem existed - the threat came from within and outside time
itself. The threat could not be traced to anywhere; it kept moving,
always covering its tracks but leaving behind it the most destructive
force known to the entire universe - Time. Time was of the essence and
time is not what the Lords had.
Time was running out everywhere and once it stopped flowing the dissolution would
follow and that would be the end of everyone’s troubles, forever or
never, for they had no time and could not say whether it had happened
once or even twice...?
The Capitol, heart of the Time Lords was little more than a debating
chamber at this moment. They had sworn never to interfere and they still
held to this policy.
The Lord of Mortality took the stand in the centre of the Panopticon.
The echoes of discontent were quickly stifled, because every Lord
realised they had little time to argue.
'My Lords and Ladies. I, as representative of the race known as Mortals,
am not one to speak of such concepts as Time because we have little
time ourselves to live. Our life spans are short in most of your terms,
sometimes we go past a century but...still, I will press on.' Abruptly
he was cut short by a chuckle.
'About time too!' screeched a voice mockingly,
nudging his companion, also a Lord of Eternity. They had very little
respect for mortals. |
