Dr. Who: The Master's Bane part 2
PART TWO
The TARDIS-ship link materialized on target...only to find itself surrounded by hundreds of armed Mutag warriors.
“What do we do now, Doctor?” Jo asked, hoping the Doctor would have some brilliant plan.
“Surrender,” was all her Time Lord friend had to offer.
“They’re not taking me without a fight!” Captain Sarma drew his pistol and charged out of the link…only to be blasted down. The Doctor and companions followed with hands high in the air.
The Master’s sinister laughter resounded again. “No doubt you expected to catch me unawares. Foolish and predictable, my dear Doctor. Of course I knew you would try to stop me.”
“Whatever it is you’re up to, I won’t let you get away with it!”
“Ah but you don’t know what it is I’m up to…and you won’t. Not until it’s too late! Take them away.” The Mutag warriors complied, and led their captives to a subterranean prison. Not a prison per se, but more like an oubliette. A hole in the ground 6 feet deep, with an invisible barrier for a roof.
“How is he,” asked a concerned Tanis of his captain.
“He’ll be alright” the Doctor replied, “He was only stunned. I’m sorry I got you all into this. I should have realized the Master would be waiting for us.”
“What are you going to do now, Doctor?”
“I really haven’t the vaguest idea.”
This didn’t sit well with Jo. The Doctor always had an idea. So she decided to draw one out of him, much like Socrates did his interlocutors: by asking questions. “How does the invisible barrier work?”
“I imagine it operates on an anihexrian channel, which would be canceled out with a concentrated sonic wave, but unfortunately I left my sonic screwdriver in the TARDIS.”
“We’re in luck,” Tanis exclaimed. “The Mutag warriors took our weapons but not our communicators.
“Excellent,” the Doctor rejoiced. “No doubt they thought the communicators would be useless to us being 35 years in the past.” He made the necessary adjustments abd made a large hole in the ‘ceiling’ and they all climbed out, including a now revived Sarma. They moved with the utmost stealth through the building which was the Parliament of the Federation of the Hendrian Galaxy. It was here, the Doctor surmised, that the Master was manipulating things so that war would break out. As yet the Doctor did not know what the Master was up to but his first priority was to restore the timeline to its proper course. Unfortunately, he did not know where to begin. But instinct and experience told him that he would gain his answer by observing the situation “We’ll hide in the ventilation system. I want to hear the proceedings. That should give us some clues into how to fix the situation
The Doctor and company listened, hidden away, as the Chancellor of the Federation talked to the Senate. The Doctor noticed that he seemed to be under some kind of post-hypnotic suggestion. “His eyes give him away,” the Doctor mused.
The hypnotized Chancellor was intimating a threat from the Mutag system. On cue, the Master’s hired Mutag mercenaries entered the scene. One of them was about to assassinate the Chancellor, clearly the Master’s plan, but Sarma dove from the ventilation shaft and knocked the Chancellor out of the way.
“Now’s our chance, the Doctor said to the others. The Doctor, having found the exact moment that started the war and prevented it decided to contact his own people to pick up the pieces. He closed his eyes and sent a telepathic message to Valden, who emitted a Temporal Arrest wave to stop time, so he could remove the time-displaced Mutag mercenaries, while the Doctor reversed the Master’s hold on the Chancellor. He admitted to all that he was under the Master’s control and that the treat was contrived by him. Thus the war was averted.
“Well that takes care of your time distortion problem, Doctor,” Sarma remarked “but we still haven’t dealt with the culprit.”
“Nor do we know why he was manipulating time,” the Doctor added. As he finished this sentence he was overtaken by an external force.
“Help us, Doctor! Help us!!!” cried the voice in his head.
“What is it, Doctor,” asked a very worried Jo.
“Tekepathic message…” was all the Doctor could managed as he gasped for breath.
“From whom,” Tanis asked, who was equally worried.
Recovering his strength and composure slowly, the Doctor said: “A friend. His name is Brother Logash. He’s a Sedic Monk whose Order is charged with protecting a powerful Talisman. In the wrong hands it could be devastating to all of creation. Jehoshaphat!!! That’s what the Master was after all along. This was but smoke-screen. What a blind fool I’ve been. I played right into his hands. If he gets that Talisman, there’ll be no stopping him. We must be off at once!!!”
The group returned to the TARDIS-ship link and made their way to Orshak,where
the Sedic clerics lived in the Great Forest guarding the Talisman of Orshak. The TARDIS crew arrived and the Doctor was not pleased with what he found. The Clerics’ temple had been ransacked and there wassigns of a struggle and worse…..shrunken bodies, victims of the Master’s Tissue Compressor. The Doctor cursed the Master in Venusian under his breathe, and himself for his tardiness. He was roused from his defeatist thoughts by a familiar voice. It was faint but audible nonetheless.
“Doctor…”
“Logash, are you alright?”
“Doctor…he has taken the Talisman…”
“Then we are too late,” the Doctor sighed.
“No…,” Logash began. “No, the Master has the Talisman but he needs a rare mineral to unlock its full power.”
“Where can we find this mineral? Where is headed?”
“On a volcanic world called Venok,” answered Logash. “You must make haste…find him…stop him…stop him…” These were the last words of the noble Brother Logash.
The Doctor and friends didn’t like the idea of leaving the dead unattended, but they knew time was of the essence. They set a course for Venok hoping to catch up with the Master. They had been one step behind him the whole time and they meant to change that. As they approached Venok, the TARDIS indicated that another TARDIS was near.
The scanner screen opened and the Master appeared once again. “Congratulations, Doctor. You nearly had me, but it is time to say goodbye.”
Once again the Master tried to gain control of the Doctor’s TARDIS but the Doctor was ready for him this time. He reversed the polarity of the neutron flow and wrested control from the Master, and in turn took control of the Master’s TARDIS, forcing them both to crash into Venok. The Master clammered out of his TARDIS with his Tissue Compressor and Talisman in his hands.
The Doctor was waiting for him and they got into a struggle on a mountainous ridge, the other side of which no one could see. .The Doctor knocked him to the ground, and grabbed the Talisman from him. But the Master still had his Tissue Compressor. He got to his feet and grabbed the hapless Jo.Grant, and pointed his weapon at her saying: “Stalemate, my dear Doctor. Either hand over the Talisman, or say goodbye to Miss Grant!”
“Don’t do it, Doctor,” Jo cried.
The Doctor was deeply conflicted. Of course he couldn’t sacrifice his friend and companion, but could he hand over the Talisman to one who would gladly use it to end so many other lives. One life to many. He’d faced this problem many times before and t never got easier.
What neither the Doctor nor the Master knew was that Sarma and Tanis were also at the ridge, hiding behind a large rock. Also unknown to any of them was that behind the ridge was a stream of molten lava.
The Doctor’s conscience told him to give in to the Master and accept responsility for the consequences. Slowly he approached the Master, holding out the Talisman, which was taken but the Doctor let go of it prematurely. The Master retained his hold on Jo. He laughed villainously, but just then, as he was distracted in evil glee, Tanis ran and took Jo from his grip. Simultaneously, Sarma threw himself at the Master, sending them both over the ridge…into the lava stream. Their screams of agony were blood-curdling. Jo began to cry, and the Doctor looked away. Such are the evil ways of the universe, he thought.
The Doctor and company walked back to the link. “Where am I to go now, Doctor,” said a near despondent Tanis..
“Well, I could use your help repairing my TARDIS.”
“No need, Doctor!” It was Valden. “Our technicians have already seen to it. Thanks for your help with the Master.”
“Yes..well..” the Doctor searched for appropriate words but he needn’t have bothered. Valden dematerialized. “Come in Jo, Tanis. I think we can all do with a rest. Have you ever been to the Eye of Orion, Tanis?” With that, they departed.
From the stream of molten lava, a severely burnt hand pulled an even worse body. The body, indistinguishable in its appearance, being so badly burnt, collapsed on the rocks. It was the Master. The Talisman kept him alive…barely. The Talisman itself disintegrated. The Master’s body attempted a regeneration. It convulsed violently but the result was not much better. Again he convulsed and his features altered but he was still disfigured and in great pain. He only had one regeneration left but this too would not save him. He was doomed to this husk to the end of his days.
“Curse you, Doctor……….CURSE YOU!”
THE END
The TARDIS-ship link materialized on target...only to find itself surrounded by hundreds of armed Mutag warriors.
“What do we do now, Doctor?” Jo asked, hoping the Doctor would have some brilliant plan.
“Surrender,” was all her Time Lord friend had to offer.
“They’re not taking me without a fight!” Captain Sarma drew his pistol and charged out of the link…only to be blasted down. The Doctor and companions followed with hands high in the air.
The Master’s sinister laughter resounded again. “No doubt you expected to catch me unawares. Foolish and predictable, my dear Doctor. Of course I knew you would try to stop me.”
“Whatever it is you’re up to, I won’t let you get away with it!”
“Ah but you don’t know what it is I’m up to…and you won’t. Not until it’s too late! Take them away.” The Mutag warriors complied, and led their captives to a subterranean prison. Not a prison per se, but more like an oubliette. A hole in the ground 6 feet deep, with an invisible barrier for a roof.
“How is he,” asked a concerned Tanis of his captain.
“He’ll be alright” the Doctor replied, “He was only stunned. I’m sorry I got you all into this. I should have realized the Master would be waiting for us.”
“What are you going to do now, Doctor?”
“I really haven’t the vaguest idea.”
This didn’t sit well with Jo. The Doctor always had an idea. So she decided to draw one out of him, much like Socrates did his interlocutors: by asking questions. “How does the invisible barrier work?”
“I imagine it operates on an anihexrian channel, which would be canceled out with a concentrated sonic wave, but unfortunately I left my sonic screwdriver in the TARDIS.”
“We’re in luck,” Tanis exclaimed. “The Mutag warriors took our weapons but not our communicators.
“Excellent,” the Doctor rejoiced. “No doubt they thought the communicators would be useless to us being 35 years in the past.” He made the necessary adjustments abd made a large hole in the ‘ceiling’ and they all climbed out, including a now revived Sarma. They moved with the utmost stealth through the building which was the Parliament of the Federation of the Hendrian Galaxy. It was here, the Doctor surmised, that the Master was manipulating things so that war would break out. As yet the Doctor did not know what the Master was up to but his first priority was to restore the timeline to its proper course. Unfortunately, he did not know where to begin. But instinct and experience told him that he would gain his answer by observing the situation “We’ll hide in the ventilation system. I want to hear the proceedings. That should give us some clues into how to fix the situation
The Doctor and company listened, hidden away, as the Chancellor of the Federation talked to the Senate. The Doctor noticed that he seemed to be under some kind of post-hypnotic suggestion. “His eyes give him away,” the Doctor mused.
The hypnotized Chancellor was intimating a threat from the Mutag system. On cue, the Master’s hired Mutag mercenaries entered the scene. One of them was about to assassinate the Chancellor, clearly the Master’s plan, but Sarma dove from the ventilation shaft and knocked the Chancellor out of the way.
“Now’s our chance, the Doctor said to the others. The Doctor, having found the exact moment that started the war and prevented it decided to contact his own people to pick up the pieces. He closed his eyes and sent a telepathic message to Valden, who emitted a Temporal Arrest wave to stop time, so he could remove the time-displaced Mutag mercenaries, while the Doctor reversed the Master’s hold on the Chancellor. He admitted to all that he was under the Master’s control and that the treat was contrived by him. Thus the war was averted.
“Well that takes care of your time distortion problem, Doctor,” Sarma remarked “but we still haven’t dealt with the culprit.”
“Nor do we know why he was manipulating time,” the Doctor added. As he finished this sentence he was overtaken by an external force.
“Help us, Doctor! Help us!!!” cried the voice in his head.
“What is it, Doctor,” asked a very worried Jo.
“Tekepathic message…” was all the Doctor could managed as he gasped for breath.
“From whom,” Tanis asked, who was equally worried.
Recovering his strength and composure slowly, the Doctor said: “A friend. His name is Brother Logash. He’s a Sedic Monk whose Order is charged with protecting a powerful Talisman. In the wrong hands it could be devastating to all of creation. Jehoshaphat!!! That’s what the Master was after all along. This was but smoke-screen. What a blind fool I’ve been. I played right into his hands. If he gets that Talisman, there’ll be no stopping him. We must be off at once!!!”
The group returned to the TARDIS-ship link and made their way to Orshak,where
the Sedic clerics lived in the Great Forest guarding the Talisman of Orshak. The TARDIS crew arrived and the Doctor was not pleased with what he found. The Clerics’ temple had been ransacked and there wassigns of a struggle and worse…..shrunken bodies, victims of the Master’s Tissue Compressor. The Doctor cursed the Master in Venusian under his breathe, and himself for his tardiness. He was roused from his defeatist thoughts by a familiar voice. It was faint but audible nonetheless.
“Doctor…”
“Logash, are you alright?”
“Doctor…he has taken the Talisman…”
“Then we are too late,” the Doctor sighed.
“No…,” Logash began. “No, the Master has the Talisman but he needs a rare mineral to unlock its full power.”
“Where can we find this mineral? Where is headed?”
“On a volcanic world called Venok,” answered Logash. “You must make haste…find him…stop him…stop him…” These were the last words of the noble Brother Logash.
The Doctor and friends didn’t like the idea of leaving the dead unattended, but they knew time was of the essence. They set a course for Venok hoping to catch up with the Master. They had been one step behind him the whole time and they meant to change that. As they approached Venok, the TARDIS indicated that another TARDIS was near.
The scanner screen opened and the Master appeared once again. “Congratulations, Doctor. You nearly had me, but it is time to say goodbye.”
Once again the Master tried to gain control of the Doctor’s TARDIS but the Doctor was ready for him this time. He reversed the polarity of the neutron flow and wrested control from the Master, and in turn took control of the Master’s TARDIS, forcing them both to crash into Venok. The Master clammered out of his TARDIS with his Tissue Compressor and Talisman in his hands.
The Doctor was waiting for him and they got into a struggle on a mountainous ridge, the other side of which no one could see. .The Doctor knocked him to the ground, and grabbed the Talisman from him. But the Master still had his Tissue Compressor. He got to his feet and grabbed the hapless Jo.Grant, and pointed his weapon at her saying: “Stalemate, my dear Doctor. Either hand over the Talisman, or say goodbye to Miss Grant!”
“Don’t do it, Doctor,” Jo cried.
The Doctor was deeply conflicted. Of course he couldn’t sacrifice his friend and companion, but could he hand over the Talisman to one who would gladly use it to end so many other lives. One life to many. He’d faced this problem many times before and t never got easier.
What neither the Doctor nor the Master knew was that Sarma and Tanis were also at the ridge, hiding behind a large rock. Also unknown to any of them was that behind the ridge was a stream of molten lava.
The Doctor’s conscience told him to give in to the Master and accept responsility for the consequences. Slowly he approached the Master, holding out the Talisman, which was taken but the Doctor let go of it prematurely. The Master retained his hold on Jo. He laughed villainously, but just then, as he was distracted in evil glee, Tanis ran and took Jo from his grip. Simultaneously, Sarma threw himself at the Master, sending them both over the ridge…into the lava stream. Their screams of agony were blood-curdling. Jo began to cry, and the Doctor looked away. Such are the evil ways of the universe, he thought.
The Doctor and company walked back to the link. “Where am I to go now, Doctor,” said a near despondent Tanis..
“Well, I could use your help repairing my TARDIS.”
“No need, Doctor!” It was Valden. “Our technicians have already seen to it. Thanks for your help with the Master.”
“Yes..well..” the Doctor searched for appropriate words but he needn’t have bothered. Valden dematerialized. “Come in Jo, Tanis. I think we can all do with a rest. Have you ever been to the Eye of Orion, Tanis?” With that, they departed.
From the stream of molten lava, a severely burnt hand pulled an even worse body. The body, indistinguishable in its appearance, being so badly burnt, collapsed on the rocks. It was the Master. The Talisman kept him alive…barely. The Talisman itself disintegrated. The Master’s body attempted a regeneration. It convulsed violently but the result was not much better. Again he convulsed and his features altered but he was still disfigured and in great pain. He only had one regeneration left but this too would not save him. He was doomed to this husk to the end of his days.
“Curse you, Doctor……….CURSE YOU!”
THE END
posted by The Doctor at Saturday, July 07, 2007
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