Dr. Who: The Master's Bane part 1

Doctor Who: The Master’s Bane


Featuring:

The 3rd Doctor
The Master
Jo Grant
Captain Sarma
Flight Engineer Tanis
Brother Logash



PART ONE


A TARDIS is a Time Lord’s means of traversing through time and space. When working properly, it can take its passengers wherever and whenever they desire. That is, when it is under one’s control…

The Doctor was planning on taking his companion, Jo Grant, to the Eye of Orion, but as he was about to operate the controls to materialize, the TARDIS met with turbulence.

“Jo,” the Doctor struggled to say, “hang on!”

“Wh- what’s happening, Doctor” she replied.

“I don’t know. I seems as though we are being pulled off course. Hang on, I’ll try to get us out of what ever it is.”

Just then, the distinctive, sinister laugh belonging to the Master resounded as the TARDIS scanner screen came to life.

“Jehoshaphat,” the Doctor spat, “I knew a jackanapes like you would be behind this!”

“I bid you farewell, Doctor. And you too, Miss Grant. You have been worthy adversaries, but the time has come to put an end to your meddlesome ways. Goodbye, Doctor, Miss Grant!!”

With that, the screen shut close again and the turbulence got worse. A red light flashed on the TARDIS console.

“What does it mean, Doctor?”

“We’re being drawn into a sun! Great balls of fire!!”

“This is no time to joke, Doctor”

“Shh! I need to think!”

The Doctor began a rigourous attempt to wrest control of the TARDIS away from the Master, banging away at this panel, flicking switches violently, all the while cursing in Venusian under his breath. With a violent thrust, the TARDIS broke free, but not without a small explosion on the TARDIS console.

“Good grief,” the Doctor exclaimed and extinguished the fire.

“What’s happened, Doctor,” Jo asked. “Are we free from the Master’s control?”

“Yes, but unfortunately, it’s taken its toll. The poor girl’s stellar drives are damaged.”

“What does that mean,” asked Jo, dumb-founded.

“It means that while we can still travel through time, traveling hrough space is all but impossible. That imbecile!”

“What are we going to do,” Jo queried with much concern.

“The only thing we can do is materialize and pray I can repair the damage.”
With that, the Doctor operated the controls. A familiar wheezing and groaning sound resounded as the TARDIS materialized.

“Where are we, Doctor?”

“Titerius III. A small moon in the Mustag solar system. Breathable atmosphere, and… What’s this?”

“What is it, Doctor?”

“The TARDIS is detecting a time distortion. Someone is interfering with the local history!!”

“The Master,” exclaimed Jo

“A most plausible assumption,” the Doctor remarked. “But why? What’s he after?”

The Doctor puzzled to himself for a few minutes and then operated the scanner and positioned it so he could see the open space. At first the void was empty but for the bright, distant stars. But then something seemed to manifest. Then a number of somethings likewise materialized until the sky was littered with them.

“Battleships,’ breathed the Doctor.

“But where did they come from,” asked a surprised Jo.

“To them, they’ve been here the whole time.”

Jo was confused, so the Doctor explained. “Remember what I said about the time distortion. We arrived here before the Master, or whoever, altered history. Reality is conforming to the changes in the past.”

“But why aren’t we being affected?”

“You forget that the TARDIS transcends the dimensions of time and space…well…most of them.”

The Doctor walked to one of the circular shapes on the wall and opened it like a cupboard. From it, he produced some sort of hand-held gadget. Jo asked him what he was doing.

“I’m just going to step outside and take a reading. I need to determine the precise location of the source of the time distortion…and this handy little device will do just that. Won’t be a moment.”

With that, the Doctor exited. The device in his hand beeped and chirped as the Doctor manipulated its controls.

“Aha, there it is. Titerion Major, relative date 2134. Relative to now that makes it 35 years. Someone has created enough tension to create a large war of attrition in what has always been a peaceful system. But who and why?”

“That’s what we want you to find out, Doctor” said a disembodied voice from behind him. The owner of this voice materialized gradually. It was Valden of the Gallifreyan secret service.

“Well, of course we can answer the first for ourselves. It is the Master. I told you not to underestimate him, Doctor. As to his intensions, we are at a loss.”

“So I suppose you want me to risk my neck finding out, is that it,” said the Doctor, his bitter resentment barely in check.

“Your talent for thwarting him is nearly equal to your facetiousness, Doctor. We cannot afford to be as…direct…as you. That is why we need you.”

“Have you noticed he’s damaged my TARDIS!? Am I supposed to flap my arms and fly there?”

“A solution will present itself to you,” responded Valden cryptically as he dematerialized.

“No wait!!! You can’t go yet!!! Blast! I hate it when they do that.”

Just then, out of the sky came a large flaming object.

“Great balls of fire!” The Doctor leapt out of the way as a small spacecraft crashed on the asteroid surface. When it settled, the Doctor approached it gingerly, calling out to any survivors.

“In here,” came a weak voice from inside the ship. The Doctor pried open the door to the control room and walked inside. The ship itself was not terribly damaged but the crew of four was sprawled out in various positions. Two of the men were clearly dead. One was unconscious, and the other was shaken up but conscious. The latter was helped up by the Doctor.

“Easy does it, you’re alright now.”

“Wh-who are you?”

“A friend. I am generally known as the Doctor. I’m here to help you.”

“I’m Flight Engineer Geran Tanis from Titerian Major…for what it’s worth.”

“Well, Tanis, I’d better get you to my ship for medical attention.”

Tanis was about to follow his new acquaintance when his eyes met his fallen comrades. “Captain Sarma…..Lt. Faron….Oh, Ensign Coss.” There was more sorrow in his voice over the latter as the boy could hardly have been over 18. The Doctor put a sympathetic hand on Tanis’ shoulder. He looked over to one of the bodies before him. Slowly the captain came to life.

“Wh-wha-what-what’s going on here” said the not-so-dead captain.

“Captain Sarma! You’re alive sir,” Tanis said with genuine joy.

“You better believe it, Mr, Tanis! It’ll take more than a Mustag cluster bomb to take me out!! Now who the devil are you,” the captain said, noticing the Doctor for the first time.

“A friend,” the Doctor offered.

“He calls himself the Doctor, sir” Tanis added.

“Do you indeed. Well, ‘Doctor” would you mind telling me what you’re dong here?”

Another surly human, the Doctor thought. Why can’t they accept help on faith and not ask so many difficult questions. “If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me,” he said after a long pause.

“Try me,” the captain said.

How much of this should I reveal, the Doctor wondered.

“For a start, I am a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey.”

“A Time Lord, eh? Ha!”

“You’ve heard of us?”

“Only from superstitious space travelers.”

“Well, I can assure you, my good man, we are quite real. I’m pursuing a very dangerous Time Lord criminal known as the Master. He’s damaged my ship so I am stuck on this rock.”

The captain still looked skeptical but said nothing.

“If you don’t believe me, let me take you to my ship.”

“We might as well do that, sir,” Tanis suggested. “Our own ship isn’t going to take us anywhere at the moment. We might as well pool our resources.”

“A splendid idea, young man,” the Doctor cheerfully replied. This may well be the solution that Valden alluded to, thought the Doctor but he did not dwell on this thought. He did not like the idea of being manipulated by the Time Lords, one way or the other.

“Very well, Doctor,” the captain said, “but no tricks…or you’ll regret it.” The captain tapped the pistol at his side with a smirk. Surly and trigger-happy, thought the Doctor, a dangerous combination. He led them to the TARDIS.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” the captain said as they approached the vessel in the shape of a Police Box..

“How are we going to fit in there, asked Tanis.

“It’s Time Lord technology; dimensionally transcendental”. The Doctor grinned playfully.

“What does that mean?”

“You’ll see when we get inside,” the Doctor replied.

As the two men entered the TARDIS, they gasped. It is always a breath-taking experience to enter a small box and find yourself in a big room.

“Doctor,” Jo exclaimed, “you were gone so long. I was beginning to worry.”

“Well I’m here now. May I present Captain Sarma and Flight Engineer Tanis.

“Where did they come from,” Jo asked.

“From a crashed spaceship, Jo,” the Doctor said.

“We were leading an attack on the Mustag when a cluster bomb struck us,” Tanis explained.

“And it’s about time we returned to the battle,” interjected Sarma impatiently.

“Let me propose a deal, Captain Sarma,” began the Doctor.

“Name it,” said Sarma, “but it better be good.”

The Doctor had to be careful what he promised. He needed their ship to pursue the Master but how would he make it worth their while. For it was clear that if the Master was to be stopped, their very existence would be changed if not utterly negated. Unless… “Help me pursue the Master, and I will take you anywhere in space and time you want.”

“I would prefer to get back to my unit,” the captain said. The Doctor was afraid he’d say that. I suppose it’s time for the truth, the Doctor thought. The truth he’d been avoiding upon meeting these people.

“This isn’t going to be easy to hear but you have a right to the truth.”

“What truth?”

“This war which has been going on for 35 years was caused by the Master. In effect…he’s changed history. And I need to stop him and restore things to the timeline’s proper course.”

After a long pause, Tanis realized what this meant. “You mean… in order to stop him from changing history, our own history has to change?”

“I know how you must feel,” the Doctor sympathized, “but if you travel with me, you have no fear of the changes in your own history…but you can never go home.”

After a long pause, Tanis agreed.

“What of you, Captain,” the Doctor asked.

“I don’t like being manipulated but if this Master character is behind the atrocities I’ve seen in this war, then I say we make him pay!”

The Doctor was relieved. “Splendid. I propose we merge our two ships. Tanis, I’ll need your help.”

The Doctor and Tanis set out to their task. The Doctor linked the Time Vector Generator and dematerialization circuit with the navigational system, and engines of the Titerian ship, which were expertly repaired by Tanis, would be used to propel the TARDIS-ship link through space. The whole process took 2 days with intervals for rest. Not bad when you consider the centuries it took to grow a TARDIS. When they were finally finished, the Doctor said “Now, I’ve reversed the polarity of the neutron flow on your navigational circuits, so they should work in coordination with the TARDIS. I will now set the temporal coordinates. Tanis, I’ll need you to simultaneously set a course for Titerian Major. Jo, Sarma, I will need you both to act as communication liasons between myself and Tanis. This operation must be done with superlative precision.”

The four got into position and the Doctor announced that the time was now. The TARDIS-ship link dematerialized. Almost miraculously, they arrived exactly on target. That was the good news. The bad news was that hundreds of Mustag warriors awaited them……

To be continued…