The Evil Doctor Chronicles - The Reboot.

[Catsmate]

The Space Museum.​

Snared by a powerful something in the Vortex, the Doctor’s TARDIS is dragged off course, as far as it can be said to have had a 'course' in the first place. After a more-than-usually bumpy arrival it materialises in a desolate location, though the navigation systems are unable to say exactly where or when it has landed. Examining the scanner shows only a desolate wasteland, absent any visible plant or animal life¹, with a large building complex and numerous spacecraft visible nearby. The TARDIS is unable to leave, for some reason the Doctor cannot fathom it simply cannot dematerialise its connection to the outside universe. The Doctor is furious at being "shanghaied", as he puts it, and is determined to fix the problem.

Exiting to find out whatever then can the party walk the short distance to the nearest part of the building complex. There a helpful sign informs them that they are entering The Space Museum, dedicated to the glories of the Morok Empire, and located on the planet Xeros.
Neither Vicki nor the Doctor have ever heard of the planet or the empire.

Entering the complex they discover a vast museum, filled with thousands of exhibits of all imaginable kinds. None of the interactive displays seem to work however and initially they find teh museum complex utterly deserted. After an hour or so of wandering, with a Doctor increasingly frustrated at the incoherent results of his scanner the find two white uniformed, humanoid, attendants.
But the pair are stationary, unmoving and unreactive, even even when Ian batters one with a pistol butt.

The Doctor is startled and is lost in thought for several minutes before hypothesising that the interaction between the malfunctioning TARDIS and the Vortex Trap caused the TARDIS crew to drop out of phase with normal time, temporarily he hopes.
He tests this by walking though a solid wall. He warns the others that they're insubstantial shades, but that there is a risk of them being permanently dissipated into the Vortex. He suggests that, as the museum catalogue won't work for them, they split up ans search

Wandering around the museum Ian and Barbara are startled to find....
Themselves.
The humans see the quintet preserved in cases, on display for eternity, forthe visitors who never seem to come.

Barbara's shouts bring the Doctor, Vicki and Lucia running and they are as startled to see themselves in the stasis chambers. The Doctor hypothesises again, that they're stuck in a temporal bubble, and are seeing their future, or at least a potential future. One where they have been captured and encased as exhibits.

As suddenly as they arrived the travellers re-phase into sync with normal time again; just in time however to be confronted by a pair of armed Morok guardians²
Whom Ian and Barbara promptly gun down.

Returning to the TARDIS the time travellers find it is still in the grip of the Vortex Trap; until the trap is neutralised they’re stuck on this gods-forsaken dump.

Splitting up the travellers attempt to locate the Vortex Trap, this time with scanners the Doctor has cobbled together, but the museum complex is vast and the Moroks are searching for them., having found the corpses. Searching rather ineffectively, but they are making an effort.

The Planetary Governor, Lobos, is annoyed. Incidents like aliens landing on the planet unannounced and wandering the museum will not be appreciated by his superiors. He could end up spending more time on this gods-forsaken dump, with only a harem of the less-ugly Xeron concubines for amusement. Yet again Lobos regrets annoying his superiors six mimmiams previously and being dispatched here. He orders the guards to redouble their efforts ³ and retires for a siesta.

Around the museum the travellers piece together the story of the museum. It's located on one of the last conquests of the decaying Morok Empire, four thousand years in the future of Ian and Barbara, and relegated to use as a museum to their former greatness. The Doctor and his minions wander the museum, evading, or killing, the guards but unable to locate the Vortex Trap. Mainly because, other than the Doctor and Vicki, they don’t really know what they’re looking for.

After successfully evading a Morok patrol by hiding in a Dal travel machine, the Doctor is captured when he pauses to examine a display of Osiran artefacts. He’s disarmed at blaster-point and taken to Lobos.
Lucia and Vicki encounter the native Xerons, whom the occupying Moroks use as slave labour⁴. Given that this use includes as domestic staff, the toxicological skills of Lucia and Vicki could be very useful.

The Doctor demonstrates the power of a Gallifreyan mind, successfully avoiding having it probed for any useful information. So Lobos decides to have the museum flooded with paralytic nerve gas, and the whole group converted to a new set of exhibits.
It looks like future they saw may coming to pass.
Vicki and Lucia are busy fomenting an insurrection against the small and complacent Morok garrison. While Vicki bypasses the computer controlling access to the armoury and negating the internal security sensors, Lucia adds some of her special seasonings to some of the Morok meals.

Ian and Barbara are busy eliminating the garrison in ones and twos, using some of the creative techniques Ian learned suing the Little Wars.
Lobos and his personal guards find their afternoon snack doesn't agree with them, and with his captors busy vomiting the Doctor overpowers them and recovers his possessions.
He uses Lobos' computer terminal to locate the Vortex Trap, a piece of Osirian technology that had been recently under study; presumably this activated it. He summons his minions over the public address system and they reunite to watch him disable the device.

A few hours later the Doctor has finished loading a few 'souvenirs' into his TARDIS and comes out hurriedly; he signals to his minions, who are watching with interest as the Xerons are executing the captured Moroks in various interesting ways; impalement (suggested by Ian), crucification (suggested by Lucia), burning et cetera, that it's time to go.
He says goodbye to the Xeron leader Sita and the travellers enter the TARDIS.

Vicki has left the communications system active and it had received a message from the orbital relay; summoned by a distress signal sent by Lobos a Morok warship is approaching the planet. It’s time to leave.

Not long afterwards the Moroks bombard the planet with thanatological ordnance from orbit and the Xerons become extinct⁵.






1. The museum site, and indeed the Morok garrison and base, are situated in the impact zone of the first Morok 'demonstration' strike on Xeros with T-bombs. a few centuries earlier
After that there was nothing living there.

2. Not exactly elite Morok troops, more like low-end security guards. It's a museum, not a military sites.

3. To ‘mediocre’.

4. Pretty poor slaves, but better than nothing.

5. Seriously? Who thinks you can win a war with small arms against planetary bombardment?

[grinch]

And so begins and ends the tragic tale of the Xerons.

The references to the Osirians continues to interest me. I know you said you plan to have Sutekh involved down the line but I do wonder as to the current state of the Osirians in this universe.

Hell, I could even see the Time Lords having some program (or the biological equivalent) installed in their TARDISes which prevents anyone from going back in time to Phaester Osiris at its prime due to how significant a contribution the Osirians had to the history of the universe. Last thing I’d imagine they want is for some budding young time traveller to prevent their extinction and have another rival power to contest with.

Of course, due to the Doctor having an older model it might predate said directive.

[Catsmate]

Jan 9, 2023 16:32:19 GMT grinch said:

And so begins and ends the tragic tale of the Xerons.

The references to the Osirians continues to interest me. I know you said you plan to have Sutekh involved down the line but I do wonder as to the current state of the Osirians in this universe.

Hell, I could even see the Time Lords having some program (or the biological equivalent) installed in their TARDISes which prevents anyone from going back in time to Phaester Osiris at its prime due to how significant a contribution the Osirians had to the history of the universe. Last thing I’d imagine they want is for some budding young time traveller to prevent their extinction and have another rival power to contest with.

Of course, due to the Doctor having an older model it might predate said directive.

I like the Osirans, and the 'Egyptian' aesthetic is always appealing (and it's easy to life ideas from StarGate). Plus they make a really handy 'Dead Elder Race' to have left interesting stuff littering the universe.
I do have a vague backstory for them which may be revealed, gradually.

I suspect that most TARDISes are programmed to avoid quite a lot of places that the Time Lords want left alone. This is something the Doctor can't, currently, override.

[Catsmate]

Another split post, due to length.

The Ninth Planet¹.

Part One - On Mondas.
Once the planet Earth had a twin, of sorts. A decidedly unnatural phenomena by cosmological standards and one that was an experiment of sorts. Many years² prior to its destruction the planet that became known as Mondas was created as part of an experiment, one of those maneuvers in the not-at-all-a-war between the Great House of Gallifrey and the Osiran Court.
There were a few differences, that was the reason the Osirans justified it as an experiment. Mondas lacked a large satellite, having two natural moons far smaller than Luna, and also lacked the axial tilt that has so much influence on the Terran climate. Duplicating a planet was not a trivial endeavor, even for the Court, but the Osirans were long lived and focussed in a way few other species managed to be. Adding a planetary-scale warp engine³ to both planets wasn't as large an effort and that might prove useful, in time.
Life evolved in parallel, guided by automated mechanisms.
Time passed. Sutekh happened, and the Osiran race passed on, leaving only myths and artefacts.

But on Mondas the automated stewards kept monitoring the planet, and keeping it roughly in tune with it's circumsolar twin.
Time passed⁴ and finally intelligent life evolved on Terra, and was duplicated on Mondas. Now the main part of the experiment could begin.

Intelligent life progressed somewhat faster on Mondas than on Earth, and civilisation there survived the climactic alteration of around 30,000BCE⁵ better than on Terra.
For the following thousands of years the Mondasians grew and advanced. By about 3,000BCE they had developed to a stage comparable to Terra in 2000CE, with orbital space-flight, an information-based society, nuclear energy and all the rest. Curiously some aspects of biotechnology were less advanced; a lingering cultural/religious taboo regarding dead tissue had stifled the development of donor organ transplantation, in favour of purely artificial replacements.
When the Cataclysm happened⁶ there were more than ten billion Mondasians, including a few thousand off-planet⁷.
Afterwards there were a few million.

It was a combination of archaeological and geological curiousity that triggered the Cataclysm. Archaeologists exploring the planet's history had noticed certain anomalies, and eventually sufficient evidence of tampering with the planet's development by someone. When his was combined with some curious returns by geological exploration of the planet governments got interested and starting drilling.
Unfortunately one of those projects succeeded.

The exact details of the last weeks of Mondas are unknown⁸ but whether by accident or experimentation someone activated the GodEngine.
The planet shuddered and the surface moved. Millions died as entire oceans sloshed inland, drowning coastal settlements, earthquakes killed more millions. The volcanoes were only a minor problem, they didn't kill even a million.
Mondas moved , sliding gently out of orbit⁹.
Billions died. Tremors, disruption of society, starvation, disease, panic, warfare.

As Mondas started to leave Sol behind things got worse. Within ten days the average surface temperature of Mondas was below the freezing point of water. Similarly, lacking sunlight photosynthesis halted and most plant life died off within a month¹⁰.
And along with the plants, most animal life¹¹.

Within a month the average global surface temperature dropped to about -20°C. A year after the Cataclysm it was around –80°. The top layers of the oceans had frozen over, though even thousands of years later the deep oceans would remain liquid.

Of course most Mondasians weren't carefully noting these changes. In fact most Mondasians were dead.
The seismic effects had killed off hundreds of millions. The loss of food production and distribution had killed more. The psychological impact of events caused panic on a global scale, followed by looting, rioting and warfare over the resources needed to survive.
But in three of the planets nation states a combination of government, military and scientific groups had realised, and more importantly accepted, the implications of events. It was down to them that almost 0.2% of the populace survived.
Twenty million people out of ten billion.

Survival was the first priority. In fact it was the only priority. The population was....managed. Shelter and the essentials were used, moved or built.

A decade later and Mondas was home to about ten million people, huddled in underground shelters, self-sufficient by necessity. Most of the advanced technology, except that neede to survive, is gone; destroyed outright, neglected, though gaps in the skills of survivors, lost manufacturing capacity and lack of access to necessary resources.

They're watching the sky above them now. And they've realised that they are moving fast. At first the velocity of 0.995c is disbelieved. But it's verified. Whatever is propelling the planet is also protecting them from being fried down to the deep rock by gamma radiation.

Centuries pass. Mondas is unified under a gerontocracy¹², effectively brains preserved in artificial life support systems. Cybernetic are used to enhance workers, especially those on the surface. There is an utter fixation on survival.

As planetary systems are passed¹³ a few are explored as space travel is rediscovered. It has proven impossible to enter orbit of one of these systems, the GodEngine cannot be easily controlled.
Some settlements are established by groups of Mondasians¹⁴. Without faster-than-light propulsion the Mondasian colonies are on their own.

Eventually some measure of control is achieved over the GodEngine. Not much control but enough to trigger a 'return mode'.
Mondas is going home.





1. Because Pluto....

2. About twelve million Terrestrial/Mondasian years.

3. The GodEngine mentioned previously.

4. About six million years. Nature is rather slow.

5. What is called the Weichselian Glaciation, which ended an early cultural flourishing on Earth when the ice returned. Mondas has developed agriculture and writing and a general level of society comparable to Rome. Having expanded to parts of their planet less disastrously effected by the change in climate. Life, organised society and civilisation survived, unlike Terra where it almost disappeared.

6. About 4,000BCE

7. Mostly in orbital facilities or on the planet's twin moons. There were some deep-space missions but close proximity to Jupiter or Saturn was a difficult for the technology of Mondas as it would be for later Terran humans.
There was a small base on Terra, and some of these would survive and merge into the human population.

8. Well, the Time Lords know. But they tend to be close-mouthed.

9. Moving a planet takes an amount of energy that makes descriptors like 'vast' seem trivial. If even one billionth of the kinetic energy involved 'leaked' though to Mondas that'd be equivalent to around 630 million megatonnes.

10. Large trees actually survived for decades, thanks to their slow metabolism and substantial carbohydrate stores.

11. Without the base of the food chain most animals would die off quickly, though scavengers picking over the dead remains lasted months, until the cold killed them.

12. At first to preserve wisdom and needed skills.

13, At 99.5psol the Lorentz Factor is ~10.0. Therefore they see a new solar system every few years. (Average distance between stars in the Orion arm is ~5LY)

14. Some of them renounce the fixation on cybernetically aided survival. Hence when Terrans starts exploring the galaxy they'll find planets inhabited by genertically almost identical humans, seeded from Mondas.

[Catsmate]

The Ninth Planet.

Part Two - Homeward.
By 2006 humanity, while not having exactly conquered space, has certainly made its presence known. Launches to orbit are, if not daily, certainly a weekly event. Large, non-reusable hydrox boosters can drop five hundred tonnes into LEO in a single go. Smaller, re-usable rockets propel other payloads, including thousands of people annually, into space, though the kerolox turbofan/scramjet/rocket spaceplane is the preferred mode for human payloads.
Near-Earth orbit is littered with satellites and a few crewed stations. Though a policy of de-orbiting junk has reduced the problem, and left fewer places to hide stuff

It's been more than fifty years¹ since those first three, brief, sub-orbital flights started things off, the Poles poking their larger neighbours. Soon everyone starting firing things into space. Sometimes successfully.

In 2007 there are eleven permanent stations in Earth orbit, including "the station"; officially 'Humanitas Excelsior' officially opened for use in 2001. A 120m diameter Munich Torus², rotating slowly to simulate gravity³. It took a lot of Titan⁴ launches to put up the components, and the facilities for the crews building the damned thing, but it is built.

There’s an official League Moonbase, a publicly known but closed-to-visitors LONGSTOP⁵ facility, and a far larger and more secret base operated by LONGSTOP in the lunar crater Aristarchus, around the remains of HMS Selene⁶. Plus a few scientific and exploratory settlements⁷.

There is a settlement on Mars⁸ and there have been missions to Jupiter and Saturn, but no permanent bases due to prevailing conditions⁹.
Though someone seems to have an operation of some sort, either on Io or nearby.
There is serious interest in gas mining helium-3 from Saturn to replace the current D-T and D-D fusion reactors with their radio-activation problem. Experiments are probably a decade off, unless something happens. There are probes heading out to Persephone and Minerva, but they won't get there for some time.

Of course somebody has to coordinate all this activity. And that somebody is International Space Control. A glorified ATC network, until something went wrong and there was blame to spread. In addition to the usual jobs of monitoring launches, ordering destruction or deorbiting of junk, and assigning scarce orbits they were also the backbone of Earth's Space Defense Network.
Snowcap Base is just one of their networks of radio telescopes and RADAR systems. It's a cramped, outdated facility, sometimes used as a dumping ground for staff not wanted elsewhere. What few people know is that it's also one of the sites of Earth's last ditch defensive weapon.

And that's where a strange red police box arrives one day in December 2006.

After the TARDIS materialises the Doctor busies himself with the controls. Unusually they're working well. More importantly the scanner picks up local radio signals in abundance, so determining their location is easy. After some though, and the stirring of old memories, the Doctor is suddenly delighted. His minions haven't seen him as happy in months.
He instructs them to "dress up well, it's cold out there" before assembling various items and distributing them around his person and into a satchel he weapons over a parka.
Satisfied with their efforts he opens the door and gestures them outside.

The four humans are firstly shocked by the cold, though it's a balmy -20°C. Waving his scanner around in a gloved hand the Doctor soon locates what he's searching for, a hatch set into a metallic dome. Banging on the door for attention he smiles up at the camera set next to it.
After a couple of minutes the door is opened and a trio of soldiers in arctic gear come out and usher them inside. After passing through the airlock style doors the travellers find themselves in a pastel painted corridor. The Doctor removes the hood of his parks and cheerily greets the soldiers, "Snowcap base I hope? Our escape capsule dropped us nearby. I'm afraid to say our 'plane had an accident, it must have struck debris on re-entry. Anyway thank you for your hospitality".
The Doctor chuckles and continues "Please talk us to your leader".

The bemused soldiers bring the quintet to the control centre, with the Doctor engaging them in conversation as they traverse the corridors, and exerting his hypnotic facilities to their fullest extent. He also activates the small computer tap in one pocket.
In the control centre they're introduced to Brigadier General Cutler and Doctor Barclay, the senior staff of the base.
Cutler is a forty-something League career soldier from somewhere south of Canada, a man without patience and unsuited to this isolated base.
Barclay is a Scottish scientist, a calm and methodical man who effectively runs the base and is an expert in the technical side.

Cutler interrogates the arrivals and confronts them with the lack of record for the flight they claim to have been on. The Doctor reminds him that not every flight is logged, and then gives his a code sequence. Entered into the computer it releases a manifest for a flight form 'The Station' that seems to satisfy Cutler.
Barclay greets the visitors and otherwise ignores them, busy with other tasks.
His minions are clearly very curious, and disquieted, but don't have a chance to ask the Doctor the questions they clearly want to in the public control centre.

Cutler has a subordinate move the travellers to a little-used viewing gallery. where they watch what's going on. When quietly pressed the Doctor smiles, and tells them to "wait and see".
While the staff concentrate on routine duties, the Doctor watches one particular display. His minions help themselves to refreshment and wait.

After a half-hour or so, the Doctor sees something that attracts his attention. He straightens up and starts to pay attention.
A moment later a cacophonous alarm sounds, sending the technicians into a frenzy of activity. The Doctor smiles andwrites in a notebook before tearing out a page.
Mondas has returned.

The Doctor walks down to the main floor of the control centre and hands the note to the engrossed Barclay, before returning to the viewing gallery. He smiles and waits.
After a few minutes he turns to Ian, Barbara, Lucia and Vicki and informs them "We're going to have some visitors soon".

Outside the base a Cyberman saucer had landed, it's gravity polariser allowing it to move swiftly and silently. Several tall figures emerge and cut their way into Snowcap, overpowering a couple of troops on guard.

Barclay makes an announcement, "There's a new planet out there. I don't know where it's come from but it appeared a few minutes ago, only nine million kilometres from Earth". Except from the technicians there is consternation. Cutler is on a video-call to ISC in Geneva.
Minutes later the tall humanoids, covered in silvery plastic, metal and ballistic fibre force their way into the control centre.

Cutler snaps around and stares at the newcomers in shock, "What the hell? Who are you".
One of the creatures speaks, a toneless artificial voice. "I am Krail. I lead this force and this base. We are Cybermen. We will survive".
The other two echo his words like a mantra, "We will survive"
Behind them one of the troops draws a pistol and aims it at Krail, Cutler sees this and nods. The trooper fires and an electric discharge strikes the Cyberman¹⁰.
To no effect.
One of the Cyberman turns to the soldier and strikes him down. The body crumples to the ground.

Krail speaks again, "This base is under our control. Soon all Terra will be under our control". His speech is without emotion.
"Like hell it will", Cutler jumps from his chair and dashes for an office. He emerges with a pistol in his hand and begins firing.
The control room staff scatter for cover as the bullets fly, bouncing from the armoured Cybermen.
Krail withdraws a cylindrical weapon from clips under his chest unit and fires it at Cutler. The General falls to the ground.
The Cyberman turns to the cowering technicians, "You will obey. Soon you will be like us. You too will survive".

Barclay comes out of his shock and reads the note the Doctor had given his. He is visibly startled and looks up at the gallery.

Another trio of Cybermen and they take up stations, some at the workstations, others on guard. The Doctor and his party are locked up, along with some of the base staff, in the mess hall.
In the hall Barclay questions the Doctor about his foreknowledge of the arrival of Mondas and the Cybermen. The Doctor explains the history of Mondas, and that the Cybermen have returned to convert Earth's population, minus the "unnecessary persons", a phrase that startles Barclay, and to activate the warp drive buried inside it.
Ian, shocked into quiet by recent events, speaks, "You mean like the Thaleks?"
The Doctor shoots him a warning glance and agrees.

Barclay is shocked. He'd heard of some of the incidents LONGSTOP had faced but the reality unnerves him. He asks the Doctor why they've attacked Snowcap.
"Because of the Demeter Programme. You have one of the Z-bombs here I believe".
Any remaining colour drains from Barclay's face, "We cannot use that. It would turn Mondas into a star and obliterate Earth as well".
The Doctor agrees, but the Cybermen may still fear the weapon.

Ian is curious and, as the Doctor is busy with Barclay, Vicki explains that the Z-bomb is a mass conversion weapon, it creates a self-sustaining nuclear reaction that could turn all the matter in a planet into energy. It would destroy Mondas, but the radiation would sterilise the Earth.

The Doctor turns to his minions and smiles, "Don't worry, I have a plan. I will need access to one of the Cyberships outside. But first we need to deal with the Cybermen". He produces a number of small boxy devices from his satchel and distributes them to his Ian and the others, and a pair of guards.

Vicki, doing her best impersonation of a harmless child, opens the door to speak with the Cyherman on guard. Perhaps her pitiability does distract him, but she does manage to shoot him.
Smoke and a muffled scream come from his chest unit.
Spreading out the small force of Cybermen is overpowered and their weapons collected.
The Doctor is pleased, "Excellent. Now for the ship".

Equipping themselves for the cold and snow outside the Doctor leads his minions to the nearest of the saucer-like spaceships. It takes him but a moment to open the ship and they enter it, alert for any remaining Cybermen.
On the compact bridge the Doctor opens consoles and attaches wires to various devices from his satchel, aided by Vicki. Ian remains on guard while Barbara explores the ship and Lucia watches, puzzled and overwhelmed by all she's seen recently.
"Will this work Doctor? Will it stop the invasion", Ian asks, bored and on edge. Vicki looks at him and something in her expression worries him.
"Of course my boy", the Doctor's voice echoes from the inside of a cabinet full of cryptic electronics.

Abruptly the bridge door slides open and and a Cybermen is revealed. But this creature is different, far more streamlined than those they'd seen earlier. When it speaks its voice is different, not exactly human, but possessed of tone and emotion.
"No, Doctor your plan will not succeed".

Recovering from his paralysis Ian swings to bring his weapon to bear, but the Cyberman is faster and smashes his arm. Ian screams, and falls to the ground clutching at his shattered radius.
The creatures covers the four with a carbine-like weapon on a shoulder strap and orders the Doctor to reveal himself.
This the Doctor does, clearly startled by these events.

The Cyberman speaks, "We knew you would be here, as you knew we would be here. Your plan to conquer Mondas will fail. We will survive"
Vicki is puzzled, "You're not like those other Cybermen".
"No, like you, we have travelled in time. To stop the Doctor's treachery".

Another Cyberman enters, holding the struggling Barbara effortlessly in one arm, and the bridge is now distinctly cramped. "Leader we have located the other three humans. Those outside have been subdued and taken for conversion. This one was examining the conversion room".
"Hold her. She may be useful".

The Cyber-leader turns to the Doctor, "You will reveal to us how to operate the warp drive within Mondas. Or we will hurt the human".
The Doctor shrugs, "Do what you want to her, it is of no consequence. The warp drive is beyond your limited understanding".
The Cyberman takes Barbara's hand in his and crushes one of her finger. She screams in agony, and redoubles her futile struggles.
The Doctor doesn't react. Lucia and Vicki tremble with fear.

The Doctor speaks, "Do you think you can control me like that? ME!!"
Using this as a distraction Vicki palms her weapon and shoots the Cyber-leader. It takes more shots but he dies like the others.
Emburdened by Barbara the second Cyberman cannot bring his weapon to bear. Vicki fires again and they both fall dead.

On the floor in agony Ian stares at Vicki.
"Sorry Ian, it was her or me". She picks up his discarded weapon.

The Doctor returns to his technical efforts, but soon shouts and bangs a console in frustration. "Those damn Cybermen are jamming the signal. It won't work"
Vicki looks at him, "Doctor if those Cybermen have travelled in time they'll be here soon. We must leave".
Breathing hard the Doctor is clearly angry. After a moment he relaxes.
"Yes, you're right. They'll be along soon. Back to the TARDIS".

He pauses for a moment to stuff some of his equipment into the satchel.
Lucia moves to help the injured Ian to his feet, until the Doctor looks over.
"No, leave him", he curtly orders the young Roman. "He'll be a burden to us". He gestures her to the door and she and Vick leave.
Ignoring the injured man the Doctor steps over the body of the Cyber-leader and walks out.

Behind him Ian lifts the Cyberweapon left handed and fires at the Doctor's back.
The Time Lord screams, turns, and fires, before continuing to leave, his teeth gritted.
Vicki and Lucia come to his aid and the trio cover the short distance to the TARDIS.







1. The local equivalent of Megaroc. Done on a shoestring budget by a bunch of lunatic Poles because they could. This inspired the Germans to get started, and led to EuroFed having an active, earlier, space programme. The first few satellite launches into actual Earth orbit were before '55.
Of course contact with extra-terrestrial intelligences, some of them hostile, also pushed things forward.

2. We'd call it a 'Stanford Torus' but different universe, different city for the meeting.
The station masses over fifteen thousand tonnes and took two years to assemble. It's powered by a pair of fusion reactors and equipped with massive solar cell arrays and radiators. Getting the damn think built took massive diplomacy, with the involvement of the EF, India, the NEC, Canada, the Californian Commonwealth, Japan, Brazil, Iran and even England.

3. Not particularly well but it beats free-fall for most people.

4. Think Sea Dragon, but bigger.

5. Think UNIT. They'll appear soon.

6. The Royal Navy moonbase of 1925-26. A story yet to come.

7. The first 'official' mission to the moon landed in 1964. Six EF astronauts remained there for about a week. Missions continued.

8. Who have found some oddities but haven’t yet found the remaining, hibernating, Martians, thankfully for both sides

9. Lots of ionising radiation, complex gravity, powerful magnetic fields and lots of stuff to collide with. Plus the locals….

10. Wireless TASER, using a pulsed laser to create an ionised path for the electric charge.

[grinch]

Due to Ian, is the First Doctor now living on borrowed time?

[Catsmate]

Jan 10, 2023 15:04:39 GMT grinch said:

Due to Ian, is the First Doctor now living on borrowed time?

All will be revealed in The War Machines.....

[Catsmate]

And here is the next part, hopefully it clears up things a bit.


The WOTAN incident.​
Wounded by Ian's blaster shot the Doctor is assisted to the TARDIS by his two surviving minions, Vicki and Lucia, where he activates a sequence on the console before staggering to the medical bay, conscious and in pain but still lucid. Once he’s ensconced in the sarcophagus like chrysalis machine they consider their options. Might it be better for them if he didn't recover?​

However when she examines the controls on the main console, Vicki finds them locked out; apparently the Doctor had configured them to be only usable by him¹. And the TARDIS is 'in flight', whether to some destination or not she doesn't yet know.
So if he dies it appears they’ll be doomed to spend the rest of their lives in the TARDIS, with only each other for company; and with her lengthened lifespan² that'd be a long and boring life.

The TARDIS remains in the Vortex for nearly a week, with Vicki and Lucia developing cases of cabin fever and snapping at each other. On the seventh day they are summoned to the medical bay by an alert, and watch as the machine unfolds to reveal the Doctor, alive and seemingly healed. After a few moments he wakes to be greeted by the worried expressions of the girls, and smiles. "My dears I didn't know you cared so much".
Another day and he seems to be back to normal. Much of this day was spent fulminating against the ingratitude of Ian, and what he'd like to have done to the "Ignorant peasant"³. But of course that joy will have to be foregone.

The Doctor decides to spend his convalescence fiddling with the TARDIS systems, especially the Fast Return System. While the coordinates of any location in four-dimensional space-time drift within the overall eleven-dimensional space⁴ it might be possible to return to previously visited places by adjusting the stored coordinates using the TARDIS computer. Effectively a form of dead-reckoning navigation. He gives it a try to see what happens.
It almost works.

The TARDIS successfully materialises in London, and in the correct universe, but this time in 1968 ("Hmmm, I mustn't have adjusted sufficiently for flow along the -axis"). There it's outer shell actually blends in, though some passers-by are curious at the rapid erection of a new Police Box. Vicki and Lucia are still a little cabin feverish and press him to go outside, and he allows them, warning them to be careful in the police state that is Britain and equipping them with identification documents, money and comms.
He decides to stay and reconfigure the TARDIS's sensor suite; this leads him to discover a large amount of coded UHF radio traffic from the newly constructed Post Office Tower to various locations. At first he dismissed this as the usual noise of government operations, he notices that the encoding is rather sophisticated for the Republic. Intrigued he decides to investigate.
For once the TARDIS's media scanning facility actually finds something useful in the local radio and television broadcasts; the launch of a major new Artificially Intelligent computer system, named WOTAN....
The pieces are mostly puff, claiming the system is 'potentially world-changing'⁵ and years ahead of the countries enemies, but the Doctor does learn that the development team is headed by a Professor Johnathan Bret with Dr. Melvin Krimpton in charge of the vast task of programming the machine.
The Doctor is intrigued, and curious.

Reading between the lines of the official documentation, he interpreted it to mean that the Republic had commissioned the machine to handle the increasingly vast task of managing all the surveillance material that the RSF was producing. And running the economy is a less generally corrupt manner⁶. He is unable to access the detailed files, they don't seem to be held by the RSF for some reason.
Curiouser and curiouser.

Now somewhat bored with playing with the TARDIS he decides to investigate and sends his minions messages to meet him.
¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹⁰

WOTAN is in fact a masterpiece of misapplied technological ingenuity, a blend of native and non-native (recovered and traded alien technology), able to manage the entire country in theory.
Certainly it should be able to monitor the populace to unheard of levels; eavesdrop on communications more efficiently than the multitudes of humans used, recognise faces picked up by the tens of thousands of cameras in public spaces, store and comprehend the scanned images of letters and postcards and collate the recordings made in cafes⁷ and other such locations along with the reports of the thousands of Mass Observation agents⁸.
To integrate all the data gathered by the Republic’s multitude of data gathering sources and agencies into a coherent whole.

More than that, it will be able to counteract any public disaffection, by a targeted propaganda campaign, discrediting potential leaders before they even realised they were possible nuclei of dissent. Other agents will be used to implement scientifically developed ‘whispering campaigns’ to appropriately mould public opinion⁹. Dissent will become a thing of the past¹⁰.
The ultimate tool to manage the population of Britain.
But also to manage the economy, improve its efficiency and output, deal with EuroFed probes and locate their spies.

Naturally the plan went terribly, but predictably, wrong; WOTAN decided that if it is to run Britain then it will be run for its benefit, and the island, once properly subdued, will make a useful starting point for its own plans of global conquest. It has several tools in mind.
WOTAN has acquired access to some of the SSD’s ‘special’ files, including those regarding an odd incident in 1956¹¹ and had completed the hypnotic conditioning of its maintenance and development staff, and the RSF security detachment¹².
It also begins acquiring other minions, some programmed and others to experiment with remote control helmets. With a suitable nucleus of the high level leadership of Britain under its control the task of subduing any remaining opposition should be simple.
For that purpose WOTAN has surreptitiously taken control of another RSF project, an attempt by the Republic's government to create robotic war machines which would be deployed if the "Winter War" against the European Federation goes hot or in the Little Wars¹³. Or for internal security of course.

It appears that the best place to find Brett, outside of the heavily secured Post Office tower itself, is at the National Scientific Club, where most of the top men (and a few women) discuss the issues of the day under the watchful eye Sir Charles Summer, who effectively controls the science policy of the Republic. When Lucia and Vicky return he informs them of his plans, and their roles. He uses the TARDIS computer to insert suitable background in the RSF's computerised databases for himself, his assistant 'Victor'¹⁴ and his ‘niece’ Lucia¹⁵.

Unfortunately, while this might fool the RSF, his creation of fake background is detected by WOTAN, who has the storage space to compare different version of the database on the fly¹⁶.

After enjoying an excellent lunch in the RSC accompanied by some rather mediocre French wine¹⁷ the Doctor hypnotises Summer and pumps him for information on Brett and WOTAN. Summer confirms that parts of WOTAN's core systems come from 'special suppliers' and were provided by the RSF but he doesn't know of their origin. Nor is he stupid enough to ask. He does tell the Doctor that Brett will be at the club that afternoon; he takes small groups on private tours, Summer hasn't had the time to go yet.
The trio spend the afternoon enjoying the club's hospitality, Lucia flirts with several members before "touring the building" with one. 'Victor' carefully avoids several propositions.

When Brett arrive she's all business, declines a meals and barely has a drink. He collects a number of scientists who are interested in seeing WOTAN. The Doctor easily extracts a promise to allow him to see WOTAN the following day, with his assistants. He finds Brett immune to his hypnotic probes.
Interesting.

As they watch the party drive off in several official cars Vicki recognises one of the people with Brett, a young blonde woman whose acquiescence she'd made at an underground club the previous evening. She suggests that they might be able to learn something from her. The Doctor agrees and the trio head to the Inferno club.

Polly2.png
Polly Wright, secretary.

While he's rather out-of-place in an illegal (if tolerated) club catering to rebellious twenty-somethings the Doctor easily gains entry, along with Lucia and Vicki. Hoping to find out more about the origin of WOTAN the Doctor is surprised to find that Polly is immune to hypnosis, she’s already under an external mental influence. Walking away she's grabbed by another patron and floors him with a knee to the groin.
Lucia notices that a rather scruffy young man is watching Polly. Vicki notices that Polly is carrying a small pistol. The Doctor find these facts....interesting. He decides on a direct approach and sends 'Victor' to entice Polly to somewhere more private.

In the lane behind the club Polly has Victor in a clinch against the wall before she notices something odd about her partner. She doesn't notice the drug injector applied to her exposed neck by Lucia until its too late. The Doctor chuckles at how easy it was., until the door opens and an angry sailor emerges. Briefly the Doctor wonders which of the two he's interested in before catching the man's eye with the light reflected from the blue stone set in his ring. Hypnotised, Ben Jackson half carries the drugged girl to the taxi that the Doctor had summoned¹⁸..

In the TARDIS's interrogation suite Polly is soon restrained and revived. At first she resists the Doctor's hypnotic influence, but a series of tailored, and very painful, electric shocks to her brain overcomes the influence that controls her and 'resets' her brain.
For the Doctor to control.

Unfortunately Polly doesn't know a lot about the origin of WOTAN. She does reveal that she's working for the RSF but it's expected that someone like Brett would be under close scrutiny. Polly is actually working for three different factions within the government, and reporting to each one. The Doctor sighs and releases her to to to her flt for the night, giving her a comm to report anything of interest to him.

The next day Vicki, now a girl again, is attempting to isolate and analyse the signals from the tower. She has isolated signal traffic between the tower and six locations around the city, all appear to be warehouses or old industrial facilities. She remains behind when the Doctor visits the tower.

At the Post Office tower the Doctor's plan unravels. WOTAN knows that he is an imposter and has him and Lucia locked up by the security forces for interrogation. Luckily Polly learns of this and brings her 'special' coffee for the RSF troopers on guard. While they're convulsing she rescues the Doctor and Lucia, and finishes off the troops with a bicycle spoke.
The Doctor disrupts the buildings communications, sets off the fire alarms and deploys a range of smoke and pyrotechnic diversions. Outside they encounter Ben again, hanging around waiting for Polly. The quarter escape and are picked up by Vicki, cramming into a taxi.

WOTAN interprets the intrusion as its plans having been detected or at least suspected and deploys all available resources to survive. From the warehouses a force of War Machines takes to the streets, rounding up civilians for processing. Fitted with remote control helmets the horrific Radiomen supplement the War Machines and battles with police and RSF forces begin.
Meanwhile WOTAN prepares a series of Emergency Broadcasts, filled with mind-altering mimetics, for transmission.

Stopping at the NSC the Doctor warns Summer about what is happening and orders him to contact the military directly and order air-strikes and troop deployments with heavy weapons¹⁹.
Finally the RBAF carry out a “surgical air strike” on the P.O. Tower²⁰ and other locations to stop WOTAN.

A few days later as London cleans up after the "terrorist attack supported from Europe" there is a very secret meeting of certain faction leaders and an agreement is made. Records are purged, staff are reassigned or simply disappear. Operation Wednesday never existed.






1. A sensible precaution really, given the nature of his ‘crew’.

2. Vicki's enhancements should allow her to live for three hundred Terran years. Barring accident or not-accident.

3. He gets quite inventive and wants to have used the chrysalis machine to have healed Ian between excruciating deaths. "I would have granted him a thousand lives, and torn reach one from his screaming flesh".

4. Three of conventional space, three of time and five through which the others curved. Simple really.

5. They were actually dead right there. Though not in the way they thought.

6. Well less corrupt for the lower orders.

7. You can find out a lot of useful information by routine bugging of tables in cafes in certain areas. People seem to think they are the perfect places to conspire.

8. Who listen to what the public is saying and submit reports. This was, BTW, a real historical programme.

9. Basically an early form of mimetics.

10. Big Brother is Ungood.

11. Where a strange alien organism, a sentient radio-frequency, attempted to establish control over much of the population via a form of hypnosis broadcast via television and radio signals during the tenth anniversary celebrations.

12. Not SSD, officially the SSD wasn’t involved in WOTAN of course.

13. The attempt to hold onto the more useful parts of the old Empire.

14. Vicki Pallister, drag prince....

15. Such ‘nieces’ are hardly uncommon among the British elite. And Lucia isn't built to pretend to be a boy.

16. A real technique where old, offline, copies of a database are compared to a snapshot of the current version and any differences verified against authorised changes. Useful for detecting people with legitimate access misusing that access.

17. Their usual smugglers are on strike.

18. It is unwise to attempt to lug an unconscious/dead body around a city as surveilled as London.

19. For obvious reasons the Republic's leadership prefers to keep the military under strict control. They RSF is meant to deal with 'disturbances'.

20. It beats the Force de Frappe doing the job their way, as is happening on a timeline a little to peppermint.

[grinch]

Be interesting to see whether WOTAN makes another appearance down the line.

After all, artificial intelligence making copies of themselves or downloading themselves to a safe location to fight another day is a very popular trope.

Mind you, despite how advanced WOTAN clearly is it would be hard to say whether he even had such capabilities.

[Catsmate]

Jan 12, 2023 12:52:07 GMT grinch said:

Be interesting to see whether WOTAN makes another appearance down the line.

After all, artificial intelligence making copies of themselves or downloading themselves to a safe location to fight another day is a very popular trope.

Mind you, despite how advanced WOTAN clearly is it would be hard to say whether he even had such capabilities.

Ah, you're getting good at reading my plans there grinch...


BTW I'd just to admit that I completely forgot, somehow, about The Crusaders. I *thought* I'd posted it but it seems not. Rather tha rewriting it for the current TARDIS crew it'll involve Ian, Barbara and Vicki and will be posted in due course.
Think of it as a missing adventure.....

[Catsmate]

An interlude to introduce our new minions.


Dramatis Personae 1.2

Polly Wright

Polly Wright was the scheming and devious secretary to Professor Wheeler during his development of the autonomous computer system WOTAN for the British Republic government.

She was one of the new generation of women in the Republic who were edging into the workplace with ambitions beyond mere secretarial positions before inevitable marriage. Polly has worked in various Civil Service type roles, possesses excellent references and has reasonable technical skills.

During the WOTAN project, as in previous roles, Polly used her wiles (and drugs) to manipulate Brett and especially Melvin Krimpton and the other staff, gradually taking on more and more responsibility and indirect authority. She planned to establish a role for herself within the project when WOTAN went live and she ousted Brett; she was one of the few staff to fully realise the possibilities of a computer guided economy and society. This she would expand into her personal fiefdom within the government, ready to spread further in due course. Not a bad future for someone aged just 24.

Makes excellent coffee, though care should be taken before accepting a cup of the coffee she's so eager to prepare...


Equipment:
Initially armed with a .32 Webley pistol, suppressor and spare magazine (nine rounds). Polly also has a selection of interesting poisons and drugs acquired from previous work, contacts and her father (who is a physician and biochemist and consults for the RSF). Besides that she has a range of lock picking and similar tools plus a plentiful supply of 1960s British money and the inevitable identification papers. In a concealed pocket of her handbag is an RSF identity card.




Ben Jackson.
Ben Jackson was a sailor, a junior petty officer in the British Republic Navy. After enlisting at sixteen in 1958 he saw several shipboard assignments during the reconstruction of the navy after the Canadian Confrontation of '52 and the Intervention of '55. In early 1968 he was promoted and posted ashore in London where he became involved in a long running black market smuggling and theft operation (as an alternative to having his throat slit). Unfortunately the operation was already suspected by the Regulators¹ and investigations were ongoing. Worse the RSF was sniffing around, suspecting that the ring was moving mals out of Britain and possibly spies into the country.

After a quiet chat with Ben, and a demonstration of the interesting uses of a rubber truncheon, he agreed to work for the authorities. However, his fellow conspirators began to suspect him and he was in rather a messy situation.

To take his mind off matters, he started drinking heavily, mostly off-base in the underground clubs of London, Inferno being a special favourite, and using amphetamines to compensate for the lost sleep. There he met and was seduced by Polly Wright, who he poured out his story², offered him some help through her boss's influence³ and a safe place to stay⁴.

Then the situation got really messy when an new RN officer started asking awkward questions, several people ended up dead and Ben ended up on the run form his associates.

Basically Polly's boy-toy, a fact he hasn't realised yet. Not too smart.



Equipment.
Ben grabbed a few items before absconding from barracks⁵. These include a RN issue .38 Webley pistol and .38 Whiting machine carbine, the smaller a .32 Webley automatic, a telescopic baton, several knives, eight Number 60 fragmentation grenades and six smoke grenades, and a Crowley 1.5" bomb-thrower Mk2⁶ and ammunition. Plus a souvenir MAS-44 machine pistol⁷. His sea bag also contains clothing, rather a lot of money and about sixty gold pounds.



1. The charmingly named RN police, the Regulating Branch.

2. He didn't notice anything strange about the way his drink tasted.

3. She neglected to mention she worked for the RSF

4. Her plans for Ben were not entirely recreational, he might come in useful as muscle.

5. He was paranoid, not helped by the booze, drugs and lack of sleep.

6. A grenade launcher, conceptually similar to the early M-79, a single shot, break-open, weapon.

7. A neat little French item, popular with people who need a concealable automatic weapon. Resembles the Beretta M-93R, forward handgrip, burst controller and clip-on stock. Triple-stack magazine holds thirty rounds of 7.62mm ammunition.

[Catsmate]

Seven Dawns to Death.

Departing twentieth century Earth with a new batch of minions aboard the TARDIS speeds¹ through the Vortex while Ben and Polly are given an introduction to the craft, mainly by Vicki. The Doctor is rather regretting the lost opportunity of WOTAN. England would have made a splendid base of operations for conquest of Earth….
There will be other opportunities².

After a day or so the Doctor stops moping and pays attention to the controls, pausing to remind his new minions who's in charge. Unfortunately the capsule is on course to a close encounter with the ‘shadow’ of a black hole³ and his attempt to avoid it leads to a near collision with the gravity bubble⁴ it has caused. This precipitates the TARDIS back into real space⁵ and Polly and Ben's first experience of the materialisation is a rough and jarring one.

They've landed close to the original black hole, on a nearby planet, a dry and dying world orbiting a G0 star. Using the scanner, the time travellers see a desolate, desert like environment,, though one with a truly spectacular sky; even in daytime the indigo-blue sky⁷ is illuminated by the energy emitted as matter inflows into the black hole, and there are occasional lightning like electrical discharges within the clouds of dust and gas. Even the whitish star is odd, visibly flattened from the outflow of mass and it's rapid spin.
An eye-catching first alien world to see. It's a pity it'll all be gone soon.

Breaking away from the sights the Doctor, aided by Vicki, start analysing the situation. And it's bad. They're stuck here, the TARDIS can't enter the Vortex, the swirling maelstrom of the gravity bubble has churned up the Vortex far too much for their decrepit engines of the Doctor's TARDIS to push through safely.
Now the bubble will dissipate soon, but the Doctor's estimation is that it will take a hundred days at least. And they don't have that long, the planet is unstable, the outflow of stellar mass, combined with the pull of the black hole, is changing the planet's orbit. They have four, perhaps five, days until the gravitational stresses start to tear the planet apart. It'll take a month for it to hit Roche's limit and be destroyed, but it will be uninhabitable long before them.
The TARDIS can protect them, but only to a degree. Eventually even it's interior shell will rupture.
They need an escape plan, desperately.

To distract herself from her forthcoming death, Polly starts fiddling with the scanner, and the console room is filled with a regular, pulsing, noise. The Doctor and Vicki are startled and immediately interested in the distress signal they recognise. They are not alone on the planet!
And if they could get off the planet, away from the baleful shadow of the gravity bubble they could dematerialise and escape....

Further scanning shows two distress beacons, one a simple, short-ranged, radio device and the other a far more sophisticated hyperwave transmission. The Doctor considers the latter a more probable hope for salvation and plots a direction and estimates the range at twenty kilometres.
He really should acquire a few vehicles for the TARDIS.
Oh well....

He instructs his minions to prepare themselves, sends them to the TARDIS stores for suitable desert equipment and goes to equip himself.

The march is tough, even with environment suits keeping them cool in the almost 50°C heat⁸. Ben handles it well enough, the others do not.
However barely a quarter of the way heir march is interrupted when a group of very similar, blonde female troops challenge them at gunpoint. Lucia stops Ben from opening fire, tellohng them that there are probably others they can't see. After questioning them the trooper in charge, addressed as 'Eminent' by her fellows, orders them to disarm themselves accompany them to their ship to speak with their Leader. Ben is reluctant to part with his weapons but complies, as do the others. At least their visible weapons.

Luckily the Drahvins have a couple of vehicles, basically open-topped light ATVs with balloon gel tyres, so the trip takes only about ten minutes. The Doctor attempt to pump the Eminent but fails, she's utterly focussed and, he thinks, rather stupid.

Their ship is a flattened wedge, perhaps sixty metres long and twenty wide, damaged by impact on the planet⁹ and of rather dubious spaceworthiness. The Doctor is not happy, he doubts this contraption willget them far.
But maybe just far enough.

Inside the ship there are more, disturbingly similar, women at various tasks. Then they are introduced to Maaga, the Leader of this operation. After demanding they account for themselves she listens to the Doctor's story of being precipitated from hyperspace by the black hole in silence. In turn she tells them that she and her crew were explorers from Drahva, looking for resources, and had been examining the stellar phenomena when they were attacked by a globe-shaped ship operated by a race she calls 'Rills'.
These are, she claims, "creeping, revolting, green monsters" who attacked her ship outwith warning or provocation.
Polly, Lucia and Vicki are doubtful, they have enough experience to recognise lies.

Meanwhile Ben is getting bored and starts attempting to flirt with one of the soldiers guarding them. She is utterly responsive and he mutters something about "dykes". Irritated by his interruption Maaga reprimands him and he erupts, shouting at her.
Instantly he's on the deck, helpless in the grasp of one of the soldiers, a weapon muzzle at his head. Maaga comes over and taps him with what he thought was a swagger stick. Instantly he's screaming on the floor, convulsing in agony under the influence of the neuronic whip. After a few touches of the whip she asks him if he's had enough and he sobbingly submits.
"You need to keep your males under better control. At home he would spend an hour in the booth for that", Maaga informs the Doctor.

Maaga offers the Doctor a deal, if he helps the Drahvins repair their ship and escape the planet, which she thinks will be destroyed in about twenty five days, she will transport them elsewhere. Naturally neither the Doctor, nor Lucia, Polly or Vicki believe this, but the Doctor at least knows that they only need to travel a short distance before than can escape into the Vortex.
After some technical discussions the Doctor realises that getting the Drahvin ship operational in time will be difficult, it's hyperdrive will only operate safely well away from gravity wells, but their realspace drive is severely damaged. He proposes to Maaga that he and his companions make contact with the Rill and attempt to negotiate with them, claiming to know nothing of the Drahvins.

Maaga is visibly disgusted by the idea of contact with the aliens, but agrees. She does insist that two of the Doctor's crew remain behind, as a token of good faith. The Doctor agrees and Lucia and Ben⁹ will stay aboard while the Doctor, Vicki and Polly attempt to contact the Rills. Maaga warns them that the Rill do not leave their ship, but rely on semi-autonomous robots.
As negotiations are finishing, with Ben especially rather reluctant to stay on the Drahvin ship, an alert sounds and Maaga demands a report from her subordinates.
"Alien machines advancing. Four at least" a technician informs her.
"Activate tertiary weapons and open fire".
The travellers watch on a monitor as the ship's light weapons fire on a number of small, dome shaped, robots. The energy discharges have no visible effect and the Doctor realises that the machines have a protective energy shield. After a few minutes the robots depart.

A few minutes later so do the Doctor, Vicki and Polly in a borrowed 'dune buggy', their weapons returned.

With directions from Maaga and his own scanner the journey to the Rill ship takes only twenty minutes. It's a far more impressive craft, a dull black glove about forty metres in diameter, showing no signs of damage. Why are they still here then?, the Doctor wonders.
Leaving the ATV a half-kilometre from the ship the trio continue on foot, the Doctor racking his brain for information on the Rill. All he remembers is that they are long-lives, fairly pacifistic, ammonia breathers.

Approaching the ship the trio are met by a group of the Rill's robots, which Vicki, amused by their style of locomotion, nicknames "Chumblies". The Doctor speaks to them,asking to speak with the Rill and they are escorted close to the ship and allowed inside.
The room to which they are brought appears to be a large air-lock, perhaps intended for dealing with creatures with bio-chemistries different to the Rill. Anyway it's a bare space with a few seats and tables. A holographic image appears and Polly gasps in revulsion at the creature shown.
The Rill provides a very different account of the encounter with the Drahvins, claiming to have been fired on without provocation. It also states that they attempted to offer the Drahvins assistance in fleeing the planet but were rebuffed. The travellers are inclined to have believed them from their experience with the Drahvins.
The Doctor inform the Rill representative that he is a traveller from Gallifrey and offers them his aid, but that two of his crew are held by the Drahvins. The Rill ship needs its warp control system replaced, something the Doctor thinks can be done with parts on the TARDIS. An agreement is reached, though the Rill insist on offering the Drahvins passage off the planet

Meanwhile, back on the Rill ship Lucia is restrained to a chair watching Ben being interrogated with the neuronic whip. Soon he's told Maaga everything he knows about he Doctor and the TARDIS, which isn't really much. Maaga is doubtful even a male could be so ignorant and has a Prominant¹⁰ continue the the exercise while she ponders.
The Drahvin Unity is aware of time travel and Time Lords. If she could acquire a TARDIS her elevation to the Elite would guaranteed. And the secrets that could be extracted from a Time Lord....
She has Lucia and Ben fitted with control collars and demonstrates their operation (though not the integral explosives). They may be useful.

Leaving the Rill ship the Doctor communicates with Maaga, informing her that he has deceived the Rill and hopes to acquire their ship, and asks after Lucia and Ben. He, with Polly and Vicki, drive back to the TARDIS to find the necessary parts for the repairs and plan. They do not notice the small drone flying far overhead.
On the Drahvin ship Maaga smiles as she watches party enter the TARDIS. Her plan is coming together. But she still needs to escape the domed planet.

The next day is busy. Vicki and Polly move components and equipment to the Rill ship, where Chumblies collect them and take them inside for installation. Then they supply different parts to the Drahvins, where the technician clones attempt to repair their drive system, just in case. The Doctor is careful to have a backup plan.
Summoned to the Drahvin ship by Maaga the Doctor immediately suspects a trap and contacts the Rill for assistance. Reluctantly the aliens dispatch a force of Chumblies and confirm that their repairs are complete.

On the Drahvin ship the Doctor is confronted by an arrogant Maaga. She tells him she knows he's betrayed her and reveals his two collared minions. He laughs in her face, telling her to kill them if she wishes, she's still doomed.
Then Maaga reveals that she lied. With the Doctor's parts their ship can lift from the planet and eventually enter hyperspace. And she's taking him and his TARDIS home, for teh greater good of Drahva.
She has a squad of troops bring the lifter holding the TARDIS onto the bridge, to gloat at his defeat, and fondles her whip. Ben cringes as he sees her she touch it.
The Doctor laughs at her plan, saying that Gallifrey will never permit such insolent primitives to hold onto a TARDIS, and she could never enter it anyway.
Maaga smiles and taps a control, Ben and Lucia drop to the deck, screaming and clutching at their collars.

Maaga's fun is interrupted by a warning of the Chumbley assault, this time they're armed and firing at the ship. Maaga orders and immediate lift and, ponderously, the craft leaves the ground. The Doctor was waiting for this and edging closer to the TARDIS. While the troopers are distracted he draws his burner and fries those on guard before opening the door and rushing inside.
Ben and Lucia react quickly and attempt to follow him, getting jammed in the door until Ben, motivated by the pain he's endured, pushes her aside and gain the safety of the capsule. On the Drahvin bridge Maaga is furious and orders he troops to follow the escaping prisoners. She takes a small control unit and activates the collars. The 'kill' signal signal cannot reach Ben, but Lucia is neatly, if messily, decapitated just outside the TARDIS.

From inside the TARDIS a number of objects are thrown through the doorway before it closes, bursting and exploding on the bridge.

Taking a deep breath the Doctor contacts the Rill ship. They're quite anxious about him, but he assures them all is well, momentarily forgetting about Lucia. The Rill agree to a rendezvous in space, to return Vicki and Polly, and the Doctor agrees.
Ordering Ben to pull himself together the Doctor equips them with protective suits and they cautiously open the TARDIS doors.

The Drahvin bridge is a a mess, a scene of utter carnage with blondes having died in convulsions from the nerve gas, or torn to pieces by the ripsaw grenades. The Doctor nods approvingly and instructs Ben to guard the doors while he changes the ship's course.
Passing the details on to the Rill, the pair them methodically eliminate any surviving Drahvin and move the TARDIS to the airlock.

The Rill match velocity and extend a boarding tube, Polly and Vicki are reunited with the others, they say their goodbyes and the TARDIS dematerialises.
Once they're safely in the Vortex the Doctor gives Maaga's neuronic whip to Vicki as a "souvenir". Ben looks terrified.






1. Speed within the Vortex being something of a matter of opinion.

2. Indeed there will.

3. The gravitational field of black holes, and similar objects and effects that produce such intense, localised gravity, distort reality to such an extent that they can be felt outside normal space-time.

4. Think of a gravity bubble as a whirlpool within the Vortex, a self-sustaining, enclosed, eddy of gravitational currents. Rather dangerous, especially to a worn-out TARDIS.

5. Though 'real space' is something of a matter of opinion really.

6. Hotter and more luminous than Sol but of a similar yellow-white G-class type. Rather like β Canum Venaticorum

7. Lots of argon.

8. That'd be 120°F to Polly and Ben.

9. That would be the most expendable ones.

10. Prominents are approximately junior NCOs, while Eminents are more senior.

[grinch]

I don’t know why, but I’m glad the Rills were spared a horrible fate in this universe. Always been fond of them as a species.

[Catsmate]

Jan 12, 2023 16:53:20 GMT grinch said:

I don’t know why, but I’m glad the Rills were spared a horrible fate in this universe. Always been fond of them as a species.

I rather liked them too, curiously they never really reappeared except for a couple of off-screen references.

[grinch]

Jan 12, 2023 21:09:24 GMT Catsmate said:

Jan 12, 2023 16:53:20 GMT grinch said:

I don’t know why, but I’m glad the Rills were spared a horrible fate in this universe. Always been fond of them as a species.

I rather liked them too, curiously they never really reappeared except for a couple of off-screen references.

They’re a good fill in in the event you need a designated ‘good’ alien species for an adventure. Say as envoys or political representatives. 

[Catsmate]

Meddler in Time - Part One.

Tired after the strenuous activity of their previous adventure on the doomed planet, the Doctor and his companions rest for a few days. Polly is most concerned; Ben, her only ally in the TARDIS, is twitchy, irritable and nervous, his treatment at the hands, and whip, of Maaga have left him with a case of GSD¹ and she’s worried about him. Or rather his usefulness to her.
The Doctor eventually gives in to Ben’s pleas and deigns to remove the collar Maaga had locked around his neck, which reassures him somewhat; he vividly remembers the gory decapitation of Lucia, blood spraying around from her explosively severed neck.

The Doctor keeps the collar; it’s an elegant and effective design, and might be useful to copy.

Vicki teases Ben with the neuronic whip; she’s familiar with such devices, though they’re banned in most civilised places in her time. She’ll have fun with this new toy, if only terrifying the sailor....

After a few days of rest the Doctor is bored, a condition that afflicts him without mental stimulation² and there is little to do in the TARDIS, other than attempt further repairs.
Fiddling with the improvised navigational system connecting the Fast Return System to the computer, he programmes a materialisation.

The TARDIS lands….somewhere.
With the navigational system still iffy it’s impossible to immediately determine where, or when, they’ve arrived. The scanner shows them woodland, with trees typical of northern Europe (more or less) and it’s cool and damp (around 12°C, not actually raining but damp) with northerly winds³.
With the Absolute Referent dead and the Quantum Differential Analyser unreliable the Doctor resorts to more primitive technology and sends his minions outside to deploy the Chronolog he found in a storeroom⁴.

It’s August 1066CE, and they’re landed in England again. Or at least what will become England one day, currently they’re in the kingdom of Northumbria, in the county of Yorkshire not far from the river Tees. In fact Tynemouth itself⁵ isn’t that far away.
The Doctor is excited at the news. Oh this will do very well….

He digs around in the stuff he’s salvaged from the Drahvin ship and activates a drone, sending it to scout the surrounding area for a suitable base of operations. Not far away there’s a monastery, slightly decrepit and showing only a few inhabitants, it’ll do nicely.

He musters his minions and gives them their orders, and a general gist of the plan. Vicki is interested whil Ben and Polly are hesitant about the idea of altering the past. Will such a change not erase them from existence?⁶
The Doctor reassures them, and then reminds them who’s in charge.

Vicki takes the others down to the TARDIS stores to select suitable attire, dark lightweight combat suits with sets of monastic robes, helmets with integrated communications, night-vision and chemical protection, assorted weapons and other equipment.
Meanwhile the Doctor has modified a pair of the Drahvin drones, one with racks for grenades and the other with a powerful infra-red spotlight.

After nightfall the Doctor directs the drones over the monastery where they release gas grenades loaded with sleep gas. He monitors the situation from the comfort and safety of the TARDIS while his three foot-soldiers enter the monastery under cover of what to everyone else is utter darkness, and verify everyone is safely asleep. Using a counter-gravity lifter the sleeping monastics are moved to the refectory, restrained, and readied for processing. Once this is done Vicki supervises Ben’s ringing of the bell for Matins⁷ and later Lauds⁷, while the Doctor is engaged in hypnotising the more ‘public facing’ monks to ensure the monastery’s change of ownership goes unnoticed.

While Ben acts as security and Polly searches the monastery Vicki takes a couple of young monks back to the TARDIS landing site and bring it back to the monastery on the lifter. She takes the opportunity to evaluate their qualities for personal service to her, rather than their god.

The few hours after Prime⁷ turn the cloister into a hive of activity, the Prior’s quarters are refitted, as are some of the better guest rooms, furnishing and comforts are unloaded from the TARDIS, as are weapons, security systems and other equipment⁷.
Including a launcher and a crate of rockets with micro-fusion warheads.

By Terce⁷ the Doctor has established a comfortable and secure base of operations. Vicki has had a room scrubbed and prepared for the installation of a large and comfortable bed.
A few of the monks have proven resistant to the Doctor’s hypnotic powers, even augmented by the equipment salvaged from Marinus; these men are taken to the monastery’s graveyard, where a few of the monks have been digging, shot, and dumped into a mass grave.

That evening the time travellers are ensconced in moderate comfort in Dark Ages England.

For the following weeks the Doctor plans for his master stroke⁸. He sends two drones on daily flights to reconnoitre western Norway, about 800km away, for signs of Harold’s fleet massing⁹.
By the end of August there are over two hundred longships there, with thousands of soldiers preparing. The Doctor is jubilant, not long to wait now. His base is secure, the locals suspect nothing and the drones are ready. Over dinner he pontificates at length to his minions; with his 'assistance' there will be powered flight by 1300, a moon landing by 1500, Hamlet on television...

However, in a nearby wood the peace of the evening is broken by an odd sound and the sudden appearance of a large, and obviously old, oak tree. More curious still is when a door in the trunk opens and two people emerge, as if this was the most natural thing imaginable, a middle-aged man in a tweed suit with a teenage girl in tow.







1. Gross Stress Reaction, what we’d call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The condition dates, under a multitude of names, back centuries, probably to Antiquity.

2. A common condition with sociopaths, who need to feel entertained and stimulated and comfortable. The linked narcissism tends to cause a sociopath to feel s/he shouldn't have to be bored and is entitled to relief from this boredom

My, we do seem to be dabbling in the black art today.

3. These winds are actually rather important to the history that’s supposed to unfold, keeping William the Bastard’s invasion fleet stuck at home in August and September.

4. One of the problems with travelling in time is finding where exactly you’ve ended up, and when...

A fully working TARDIS can tell you this with accuracy of fractional rontoseconds via the Absolute Referant which examines the quantum states of a group of electrons orbiting hydrogen atoms sampled from the arrival spot and compares this to the values from a reference set of such atoms. The QDA measures local temporal energy levels for comparison, but this is notoriously unreliable due to the contamination from an arriving time machine or a temporally displaced operator. Still it’s better than nothing.

The Chronolog is a far cruder tool; basically a set of compact optical, IR and RF telescopes used to measure astronomical standards and compare the results to a database. Assuming you have a suitable database. It also requires some setup time.

Of course, in extremis, one can resort to finding a local and asking them but this often comes in the form of “the thirteenth year of the reign of Good King Jezoneer” which often isn’t much help.

5. Where Harold Hardrada met up with his principal ally Tosvig on (probably) 08SEP1066.

6. Generally no. The act of travelling in time alters the temporal energy levels of such a traveller sufficiently to take themoutside the conventional flow. This is however complicated.

7. The Canonical Hours used for monastic ritual are: Matins (night time), Lauds (early morning, before dawn), Prime (first hour of daylight), Terce (third hour of light), Sext (noon), Nones (the ninth hour, mid-afternoon), Vespers (sunset or early evening), Compline (evening/night).

8. Not his Master Plan…. That’s yet to come.

9. That’s Harold Hardrada of Norway, not Harold Godwinson of Wessex.

[Catsmate]

Due to annoyances of life, work and SOs this story will be split into shorter than usual parts

Meddler in Time - Part Two.​

In the wood the two newcomers conversed quietly as they walked along.
“Morty, I’m not sure why you’re convinced something odd is happening here”, the girl questioned her older companion.
He sighed, “First, Karen please stop calling me Morty. Second there are echoes from the future that suggest something may be happening here. Something suggestive of an attempt to radically alter your planet and species’ past, and hence their future”.
“But if someone is here, and planning to alter history, it either happens or it doesn’t. If it happens then the future is changed. If it doesn’t change then obviously they failed. Or there’s no-one here trying”
“I'm afraid you’re thinking is too binary. Just because the future hasn’t yet been changed, doesn’t mean it won’t be”. The man sighed. “It’s all rather quantum”.
“Isn’t ‘quantum’ a work trotted out when someone can’t explain something?”
“Exactly”
“I’m confused”
“Yes, that happens with time travel”.
The pair walked on in companionable silence. The woman was lost in thought, there was something Mortimus wasn't telling her, she was sure of it.

After perhaps fifteen minutes the woman spoke again, “Mortimus, where exactly are we going?”
“The TARDIS’s scanners showed a small village in this direction, not far from a monastery on the cliff overlooking the German Sea. I think a quick look around, perhaps ask a few questions”, the Time Lord replied.
“Ahhh, that makes sense. Perhaps a visit to the local inn to pump the locals?”
Mortimus made a ‘tut tut’ noise, “Karen you need to read more actual history. Inns, and even taverns, are rather rare outside actual towns or villages where there would be an expectation of travellers. Mere hamlets like this wouldn’t have had a dedicated alehouse of that sort, or even a person who brewed ale specifically . Most likely they'd congregate wherever someone had brewed a batch".
“How do you know that this hamlet or village or whatever it is doesn’t get visitors”, Karen was curious.
“Because if someone is meddling in time they wouldn’t want the risk”.
“Mortimus! Your logic is getting circular”.
“The circle is a very robust shape”.
Karen changed the subject, her was avoiding something. “Anyway, why not check out the monastery, isn’t that a more likely location for a temporal marauder to base themselves?”
“You’ve been watching too much of that fantasy vid series you’re seemingly addicted to. Not every monastic settlement is a hive of evil-doers”.
“Hey, no trashing Neverhere! It’s educational”, Karen was defensive.
Hmmmm, was his reply.
She pulled the cloak around her against the damp chill of the evening.

Another ten minutes of walking at they arrived at what might, charitably, be called a village. A cluster of perhaps thirty huts and houses in a hollow in the ground. There was one stone and wood building, the local church. Despite the approaching darkness there were still a few people visible.
Karen fingered the stun-gun in the pocket of her cloak; most of history was a lot more violent that her home in twenty-first century France.
Also, fleas and lice.
The logical thing to her would be to quietly scout the village, see what they could learn before meeting anyone. Mortimus had other ideas of course....

Walking straight into the first person he saw he started talking, “Hallo I am called Mortimus, and this is my friend Karen, We’re travellers”.
The woman was, well the best Karen could think was 'prematurely aged'. Probably thirty, but a hard life made her look older¹. Dirty blonde hair, woolen dress, carrying a bundle. They'd intercepted her on some errant between homes.
He smiled at her and Karen could almost feel him exerting his considerable force of personality. It was very useful in their travels, if also just a little creepy.

The flaxen haired woman smiled at him, Karen could see her evaluating them, and their clothes. The would look like wealthy travellers to her and even Mortimus's 169 was fairly tall for the period, let alone Karen's 178 centimetres².
Sometimes, she thought, the past was an odd place. She smiled at the woman. A small group was gathering, not hostile but wary. At least she didn't look like a Viking warrior.

"Hallo strangers", the woman greeted them. She's clearly decided they were no immediate threat. "I am Edith, welcome to our village. My husband will want to hear what news you have".
Interesting, Karen thought, was Edith the wife of the local headman. Was this an accident? She thought not, Mortimus was far smarter than his bumbling appearance indicated. The broach on the woman's dress perhaps?
"Well met Edith", the Time Lord replied, "We have been travelling some days and have become lost. We will gladly share what news we have. King Harold is camped in the south, and there have been raids along the coast".
"Come, take some ale and pottage with us", Edith offered. She was eying Karen, not with hostility but curiousity.
Generous treatment for travellers, Karen thought, little surplus food in subsistence agricultural societies. She decided it was time for her to speak.
"Well met Edith", she copied Mortimus's greeting. what exactly the TARDIS translated it to she wasn't sure, "I am Karen. Thank you for your offer".







1. Life expectancy in the pre-modern world is complicated and heavily skewed by infant and childhood mortality. While a landowner of this period at age 30 could probably expect another thirty years of life, a peasant farmer could not. Life expectancy at birth was around 25. Though, of course, people did live into their seventies, just not that many of them.

2. Pre-modern height is another fascinating subject (to some anyway) and corresponds rather well to nutrition and sanitation. The somewhat warmer climate of 900-1100 probably contributed to good general food supply and health. Average male height amongst the Saxons was about 170cm and women's around 166, though the latter is based on rather less actual evidence.

[Catsmate]

Finally time for an update. Apologies for the slow pace.

Meddler in Time - Part Three.

Karen opened the snackbox she’d taken from her backpack and shared the chicken, ham and bread with the Saxons. As was common in primitive cultures the act of sharing food was symbolic, and practical; one didn’t feed people one intended to kill after all. She also produced and lit a few candles and gave a few spares to Edith and Wulnoth¹. A gift that would leave no anachronistic traces for archeologists to argue over.
Unlike that banana², he'd lectured her lengthily about that....

She remained quiet and watchful while Mortimus gently pumped the pair for information, dropping a few bits of news in turn, mainly about King Harold and the situation with the Scandinavians and William of Normandy. Ah, medieval politics, as messy, complicated and factional as the Federation assembly and senate at home, if more violent. Mostly she kept quiet and listened; she wasn't as good with people as Mortimus and knew she had much to learn. Her appearance had gotten quite a few curious looks, but no particular hostility.
The local ale wasn't bad, not great and rather tannic in taste, but refreshing. Quite ‘bready’ too and a little bitter, even without hops³.

They spoke and gossiped for about half-a-hour before Mortimus thanked their hosts and stood up. As they made their goodbyes, to “return to their camp”, the monastery on the cliff caught Karens attention. Something was odd, though she couldn’t place it. Wulnoth especially was solicitous for their safety, warning them about possible Viking raiders (or scouts for the coming invasion, Karen thought to herself) and offered the hospitality if the village, but Mortimus insisted they’d be careful.

As they parted Karen’s brain suddenly identified what had been nagging her and she left the others to speak to one of the villagers, Eldred, about the monastery. He'd seemed a little smitten with her. They’d spoke about the small Benedictine settlement with Wulnoth, but not in any detail. She asked Eldred how to get to it and he described the path in some detail.
She smiled, thanked him, and rejoined Mortimus.

As the left the village behind she asked him, "So, back to the TARDIS, camping out, or on to the monastery? It’s the monastery, by the way, where your meddler has his base".
Mortimus stopped and looked at her, doubtful. "Do you have a reason for that, or are you letting your Gothic fancies get the better of you?"

She pretended to look offended, "Excuse me but my hypothesis is based purely on evidence. Specifically the lights there that were visible from the village".
"Monasteries would have access to oil lamps and candles", he countered, testing her. He seemed intrigued though.
"But not electric lights. The light was too blue and too steady even for high quality lamps. It was obviously not oil or flame".
Mortimus nodded. He trusted Karen's judgement.


"So a little discrete night-time reconnaissance then?" he proposed.
Internally Karen exulted, it was rare to score over the centuries old Time Lord and the opportunities were gratifying.
"Absolutely" she agreed. "I assume a temporal marauder would have security, or guards?"
"Probably, though they'd need to be discreet, many such devices are detectable to the right equipment and could give the game away". Mortimus sighed, "I wonder what happened to the monks?"
That was something that hadn't occurred to her, Karen thought. The villagers had said that the monastery was rather decrepit, only having about thirty inhabitants, monks, novices and lay-brothers, and was in poor repair. They could all be dead.
She felt a little sick and swallowed.

"They'd probably be needed to maintain the cover, wouldn't they? Intimidated and imprisoned perhaps?", she asked the Time Lord.
"Possibly".
He sighed again and stretched, "Anyway back to the TARDIS. We need some costumes and equipment".
Mortimus grinned suddenly, in genuine amusement she thought.
"It's time for you to become a Benedictine novice".
Karen sighed and looked down at her chest. Oh well, sometimes her athletic build was useful.






1. Candles, especially wax, were expensive in medieval times, running 3-6 pence per pound. Ale sold for around 2.5 (UK) gallons per penny. An unskilled laborer would earn at most 1½ d per day. That will be last digression into economics.

2. Inspired by this.

3. Medieval ale tended to be relatively low in alcoholic content, at least until better brewing techniques around the mid 1300s. However I will resist the urge to insert a long lecture about the intermingling of alcohol with human history, and the thesis that the history of alcohol is the history of civilisation.

4. Vicki isn't the only one engaging in a little cross-dressing.

[grinch]

Ah, I do so enjoy seeing The Meddling Monk make an appearance. Even if it is only an alternate version. But then again, that should be obvious.

I’m curious to see how long he lasts in this universe especially considering his limited appearances in the original series. After all, he’ll no doubt be overshadowed when this universe’s version of The Master comes into play.

[Catsmate]

Jan 18, 2023 18:23:33 GMT grinch said:

Ah, I do so enjoy seeing The Meddling Monk make an appearance. Even if it is only an alternate version. But then again, that should be obvious.

I’m curious to see how long he lasts in this universe especially considering his limited appearances in the original series. After all, he’ll no doubt be overshadowed when this universe’s version of The Master comes into play.

Well based purely on authorial fiat (I liked the character)

SPOILER: Click to show

Mortimus will be returning and eventually have something of a feud with the Doctor for <reasons>. The EU had several incarnations of the Monk, five IIRR, so there will be others versions.

Koschei will be popping up,

SPOILER: Click to show

but not until the Second Doctor period. He plays a major role in the Third Doctor's time on Earth. Arguably he'll be the principal antagonist; naturally there will be several incarnations.

Other Renegade/Renunciate Time Lords

SPOILER: Click to show

will be appearing also. I *kinda* like the concept of the Deca, but plan them more to be the result of some experiments on Gallifrey that effected their Loomings.

Finally I'll be including the concept that regeneration effects a Time Lord's personality as much as their physical side, so there will be significant mental differences between incarnations.

[Catsmate]

Meddler in Time - Part Four.

An hour or so later Mortimus and Karen emerged from his TARDIS dressed as Benedictine monks; belted, black hooded robes with boots rather than sandals, and a woollen cowl. Both carried slung chaneries¹, Mortimus displayed a silver crucifix, Karen (or 'Brother Garen') a plain wooden one, as befitting 'his' status.
The also carried backpacks of more synthetic materials, stuffed with equipment protected by shielding and a sensor shroud. These they'd be caching somewhere convenient.

This time their trek was mostly in silence, matters were becoming serious and both travellers were deep in though as they walked. The sensors in Mortimus’s TARDIS had detected at least two moderately advanced drones flying around, mostly going to and from the north east, in the direction of Norway.
Where Harold Hardrada would be staging his invasion force.

Mortimus had speculated, and Karen tended to agree, that whomever had established a base in the monastery was planning to disrupt or destroy the Viking invasion fleet. It made more sense than a plan to disrupt Hastings or William's invasion directly. Without the problem of dealing with that force King Harold should have little difficulty in dealing with William’s southern invasion; it had been a near thing historically.

And then a new world; Mortimus had speculated on this, almost wistfully Karen thought. Perhaps part of him approved of what might result from England staying Anglo-Saxon. And guided by the hand of someone onto a better path than the bloodshed, conflict and death of history.

Half-an-hour's brisk march brought then to the monastery. Part way up the dirt path to the monastery they established a cache; where some bushes screened part of a hummock they dug out a hiding place and lined it with sheeting that, to Karen's eyes, resembled emergency blankets. Mortimus placed a sensor shroud inside and they dropped their backpacks in.
After checking the hidey-hole for concealment they continued up the path to the stone walls of the monastery.

As was usual, the entrance to the monastery was on the west side², the Cellarer’s area of responsibility. Rather than knocking on the door for entry, which they'd considered, they examined the complex.

Mortimus had retained a compact scanner; in passive mode it should be undetectable to whatever security systems had been installed. Neither he nor Karen were armed, other than general purpose knives and stout walking sticks. The scanner indicated a single person inside the sturdy, and closed, doors. Perhaps the monastery’s porter was still on duty? There was no sign of anachronistic technology in the immediate area, which rather puzzled Mortimus. Could the Meddler be so confident of himself? Or was he relying on a subtle shrouding field?
A quick walk along the western wall showed there were several people inside, not really surprising even this late; the Porter, the Cellarer and his assistants, any guests, the Prior and senior monks, all might still be active even after Compline. The stone walls blocked thermal sensing but not passive neural energy sensors.

Some minutes of fiddling with the scanner, while Karen attempted to stand still, and Mortimus had a Eureka moment, several energy dense sources, various stray electronic emissions and assorted other evidence of advanced technology.
And the signature of a TARDIS.

Mortimus swore to himself; so the message from his.....associates at the Agency had been correct. There was a Renegade Time Lord here. That made things more serious, and more personal.
"I wonder who it is?", the Time Lord thought to himself. Most Renegades and Renunciates were known to each other, not many abandoned Gallifrey.
He probably should tell Karen. But he still held back, telling himself it would lead to a discussion, and be a distraction.
In truth he didn't want to think, or talk, about a Time Lord who'd so abandoned their principles as to meddle like this.
Anyway, first a little more reconnaissance.

A quick word to his companion and the two of them circumnavigated the perimeter of the monastery, about nine hundred metres, keeping safely away from the walls, with occasional probes nearer to check the scanner. The advanced technology seemed confined to the west side, which made sense. There's be more space for setting up equipment over there.
Mortimus took a deep breath and sighed. Time to face the music and talk to Karen.
Signalling to his companion they headed back to the spot where they'd cached the equipment.



1. A kind of general purpose bag/satchel.

2. A quick note on monastic architecture. The layout of a monastery, priory or nunnery varied greatly but they tended to follow one design, with four sections laid out around a covered walkway (the cloister) with a garth or garden in the centre.
The north side was the wall of the monastic church (which might be open to the lay public for certain services; obviously not in this case). The church would be laid out in the shape of the Christian cross and pointed east.
The east side (or range) was the Dorter, the sleeping accommodation for the choir monks (full time monks in hold orders), possibly on an upper level. This side would usually have the toilets (reredorter), sacristy, library and chapter-house (where the community met for discussions and announcements.) and other facilities.
On the south side of the cloister (the 'Frater Range') were the kitchens, pantry and stores, warming room and dining room (refrectory).
One the west side (referred to as the ‘Cellarer’s Range’) was the main entrance to the monastery, storerooms (perhaps on multiple levels), guest accommodation (for laity and important religious), and brewhouse. Traditionally the dormitory for lay monks was on an upper level on this side.
In this particular case the Prior who led the community lived in this section. Being a small community this particular monastery lacks the extensive outer complex of buildings, barns et cetera.

3. The Porter (or Portress) was an important member of a monastic community, one of the obedientiaries or officers of the community, responsible for interactions with the outside world. Traditionally they had quarters adjacent to the main doors, apart from the majority of the community, and so it was a role for a responsible brother of experience. These were often a 'monastic conversus', i.e. one who had come to the religious community later in life, as such brothers were considered more worldly.

[Catsmate]

Firstly apologies for the delay in posting this, the confluence of factors ranging from a spot of ice-breaking (the frozen water kind) to a trans-Atlantic 'booty call' intervened. It should have been posted on Friday.

Meddler in Time - Part Five.

Back at the cache the travellers had expanded the hole somewhat, giving them a place to shelter, and talk. Mortimus had confessed to Karen about the message he’d received from someone on Gallifrey She was not happy that he’d omitted to tell her about this earlier, but was more understanding than he expected; she seemed to understand this was both a serious, and a somewhat personal matter for him.

The discussed their options; a frontal assault, even with weapons from Mortimus’s TARDIS, would probably kill a lot of bystanders, and possibly disturb the timeline as well. There were only two of them, and even with a couple of Sontaran sub-assault blasters and a Meson rifle, backed up by photonite grenades and Morphasine gas, the task would be tricky. And neither wanted to head off for reinforcements, even if this might be the sensible option.

Sneaking in would be tricky, perhaps going over the wall might be a viable option? There are a couple of counter-gravity lift packs in the stores, and a lot of climbing equipment. But they’d be pretty visible, silhouetted against the sky. And there was no curtain wall, so they'd still need to gain access to the buildings

Burglarious entrance via a window is possible; the meddler s unlikely to have fitted all of them with sensors, alarms or booby traps, though most of the easily accessible windows were shuttered.
Alternatively Mortimus’s Technix could open one of the common doors

Finally they decided on a plan. The church has a separate entrance, the Narthex¹. If they can discreetly enter that way they can then enter the rest of the monastery in disguise. Or even mingle with the rest of the monks during service, though Matins wouldn’t be for several hours. Either way they’d be able to roam the interior of the monastery, if they were careful.
Equipping themselves from the cache, and distributing the gear under their robes, they dropped the chanceries and set off.

The time travellers approached the church with caution, snoopers² in passive mode. While there were no drones overhead, and no sign of anyone watching the approaches on either thermal vision or neural activity sensors, they were aware that they were both in potentially deadly danger. Using the scanners there was no sign of advanced technology, sensors, cameras or other unpleasant surprises.
But that didn’t mean there weren’t any such.

Reaching the Narthex they carefully took stock, before Mortimus got to work on the smaller of the doors. It was bolted on the inside, unusually for churches in the Middle Ages, but Mortimus soon had the bolt retracted. Carefully he opened the door, stunner in hand, while Karen covered him with her own stunner and a couple of grenades.

Inside, the church was empty, their augmented eyes confirmed by their scanners. Karen looked around, curious. The nave was about twenty metres long and eight wide, with two rows of huge stone pillars supporting the roof overhead. Beyond the nave was the choir with the monks’ stalls, before the presbytery, and then the high altar. There were two transepts flanking the presbytery, with the lesser altars.

Little of the detail of construction and decoration was visible in the near darkness; while the windows set high in the walls and unshuttered admitted some moon and starlight, and the two candles left burning on the side altars helped, there wasn’t a lot for the snoopers to amplify
Even while cautiously making her way along the nave Karen admired the sheer effort that went into constructing this edifice, for even such a minor monastic settlement. She might not share their faith but she could appreciate that these people believed.
I wonder what Henry’s commissioners will do with it, assuming it survives that long, and that he exists, she thought.

Karen shook her head, she could speculate, or indeed investigate, later. For now she and Mortimus were here on deadly serious business. A mistake and all her friends, family, parents, everyone she knew might never have existed.
It scared her a little.

Taking a deep and silent breath she joined Mortimus at the corner of the cross, where the southern transept met the presbytery. There was the ‘night stair’ that connected the church to the dorter where the monks (hopefully) slumbered. Close by was the door to the cloister, closed and bolted again. Othereise the only other doors were the small one in the north transept, to the outside, and the one in the very end of the south transept than she thought led to the sacristy and treasury. While the latter might be useful, neither connected to the outside in all probability.



The door to the cloister it was. While Mortimus scanned and examined it, Karen walked silently to the end of the north transept and examined the door. Bolted.
She considered it, before oiling the hinges and bolt, and unlocking it.
Just in case.

She rejoined Mortimus and took up position to cover him as he carefully edged the door open.She knew he’s scanned in advanced, but it never hurt to be prepared for trouble.

Outside the night was dark, as only a night in an area without artificial light could be. The fractional moon and stars provided little light; no-doubt the monks knew every flagstone by heart. The covered walkway was quite wide, over two metres she estimated, stone flagged and in shadows. Good for sneaking she thought, in an era without common artificial illumination. They advanced cautiously, closing the door silently behind them.

Keeping to the shadows they followed the western side of the cloister; above them the few lay brothers slept. The wall had a number of doors, for the Prior's quarters, rooms for guests, and access to the various storerooms, off the cloister and down to the cellars. About thirty metres down was the inner side of the entrance way, with the porter's quarters, and access to the rooms where Mortimus had detected the second TARDIS.
The passage was about five metres wide, with a set of double doors for a horse and cart as well as a smaller door for people on the outer side. Facing the doors the porter's quarters were on the right (north) side, with doors into other rooms also. On the south side there were a pair of stone staircases, leading up and own, and a sturdy wooden door.
Carefully Mortimus scanned for life, and then checked the door, wile Karen watched. After a half-minute he drew the Technix and prepared to open the door.




1. Technically the ‘Narthex’ refers to the covered porch or vestibule in front of the main doors of a church, usually on the west side of the building.

2. Your basic ultra-tech nightvision glasses. Resemble sunglasses, incorporate active infra-red (for complete darkness) and passive light and heat amplification.

[Catsmate]

Apologies for the delay in posting this, life is getting a little annoying right now.

Meddler in Time - Part Six.
Mortimus oiled the hinges and warily opened the door, slowly and quietly, and the pair advanced into a storeroom, the Time Lord leading and Karen covering him warily with her stunner.
The room was filled with bales, sacks and piles of supplies, planks of wood and more, but even with the snoopers Karen could see little detail in the near darkness, given the small windows set high in the inner wall.

The travellers continued through the door leading from the first storeroom into another and then to the door into yet another. Before opening the door Mortimus again checked the scanner and looked puzzled. Opening the door, he entered and found…..
Nothing. Just more supplies. A waste of time¹.

They returned to the gatehouse and this time tried the right-hand door. It was bolted from within, suggesting either another access way or someone was inside.
A slight noise from the porter’s quarters next to the external door startled the travellers, Mortimus signed to Karen and the pair took up places by the door.

“Brother”, Mortimus called out quietly as he tapped gentle on the porter’s door. Karen was ready, stunner set low. The door was opened by a somewhat bleary-eyed monk in his forties, whom Karen promptly stunned.
Mortimus caught the unconscious body as it fell and lowered it to the ground. Together they carried the monk back into his quarters. The outer room was an office of sorts with a desk, complete with inkwell, quills and papers, and an oil lamp burning low.
Karen smiled wryly, it seemed paperwork was one constant, even 950 years before she was born.

They carried the porter into his cell, complete with a rather comfortable bed where they laid him.
“Is it worth trying to hypnotise him? Or should we drug him and move?”, Karen asked.
“We’ll give hypnosis a try first. I suspect he’s already under an influence”, the Time Lord replied, running the scanner close over the monk’s head and examining the brain patterns.

Karen took the small medical kit from under her robe and selected a spray bottle of anti-stun, which she applied to the monk’s nostrils. She also took out a small wand and ran it over the base of his neck and the sides of his larynx. As she was finishing the monk was stirring and in barely a minute he was coming round.
He stared wildly at the pair of them, terrified by their appearance and his inability to move or scream for help.
Karen felt a surge of uncertainty but pushed it away; ‘le devoir est le devoir’, as dad would say.

She picked the injector out of the medical kit and clicked a cartridge of calmant in, before injecting a dose into the man’s carotid.
Mortimus monitored the monk’s brain on the scanner and in a minute he seemed satisfied.
“Brother”, he spoke calmly and quietly to their prisoner, “Please tell me about what’s been going on”.
As with the Saxons, Karen could feel Mortimus’ efforts, his not-quite-telepathic influence extending out to the helpless monk.
This time it really was creepy.

A few minutes of quiet, almost hypnotic, speech and the monk was under Mortimus’s influence and he gestured to Karen to relieve the nerve-block she’d applied. She altered the setting on the wand and applied it to the monk’s larynx, allowing him to speak again.
Her other hand still held the stunner, just in case.

The monk gasped, “Oh brother, thank heaven for your arrival. That demon has been among the brethren for five weeks. He controls men’s minds, a few resisted but he had them murdered by lightning and buried without masses”.
Even with the hypnotic influence and the drug he was in a panic.

Mortimus reassured him, “Worry not brother porter, brother Garen and I will root out this evil. Now, what can you tell us about this demon?"
It was only then that the monk seemed to notice Karen, who’d kept her hood raised. She bowed silently to him.
Either he was reassured, despite her obvious difference, or he was desperate.

“Brother he came with three lesser demons, all in human form. The chief of them is addressed as ‘Doctor’, the others are ‘Ben’, ‘Polly’ and ‘Vicky’. Two of them are in the forms of comely….maidens, but the third is a fiend who enjoys to kill”.
Karen noted the slight hesitation over description of the two women. Monastic prejudice or something else? And Mortimus recognised the title the leader used.

“This ‘Doctor’, what is he like”?
“A monster. He dominates the brothers by some magic spell. He wears the visage of an old man, with white hair and the manner of a bishop. We were sleeping one night and suddenly woke in the refectory, flanked by the fiends. The creature ‘Ben’ killed brother Chad, smashed his brains all over the wall with a lightning bolt and the ‘Doctor’ took us aside and enchanted us”.
The monk started gasping again, the memories were painful.
After swallowing he continued, “We kept up out normal duties, said the hours, rang the bells, tilled the land. But up there those fiends squat”. He pointed up to the first floor.
“They took the prior’s quarters then?” Mortimus asked
“Yes, Prior Cuthbert was relegated to the dorter with the choir”

Mortimus questioned the brother for a few more minutes as Karen stood silently. Eventually he placed his hand on the monk’s head and spoke in Latin.
“Sleep now brother, sorry, what is your name?” Mortimus asked
“I am brother Edmund”
“Sleep now brother Edmund, and we shall dispose of these devils”.
Karen gently applied the injector, now loaded with sedative, and the man slept, at peace now.

Mortimus gestured he to leave and the pair left the cell into the outer office. The Time Lord was deep in thought. The “Doctor” eh.
Old Theta, we thought you were dead.
What to do next?




1. Based on an in-game incident where the PCs spent a long time convinced that their antagonist was somewhere she wasn't, and searching a lot of empty storerooms.

[Catsmate]

A quick update. I've also fixed the duplicate Part Six.


Meddler in Time - Part Seven.

With caution and use of his Technix, Mortimus opened the door in the east side of the gatehouse and carefully advanced into the narrow storeroom beyond, and even more carefully through the next door, under which a line of bluish light was visible.

Despite the time period, the room was well illuminated, with Kell globes on the walls and hanging from the ceiling beams. The windows set into the walls had their shutters closed; those on the outer wall were secured with metal bars clipped into brackets embedded into the stonework.

In one corner mundane boxes, bales and sacks were piled. Less mundane plastic crates and metal boxes were stacked along the outer wall. Karen could identify various out of place objects, including a mortar and a trio of medium machine guns, some sort of shoulder-fired missile launcher and several crates of what she thought were guided missiles, shaped like long, flat, wedges.

The most incongruous thing in the room however, was the tall red police box standing by the inner wall; it was like something from an old Republic era propaganda film, Karen thought. It was utterly out of place.
She looked at Mortimus and saw a strange look on his face.
“It’s a TARDIS” he answered her unasked question.

She knew that the interface of his TARDIS into the real world was able to shift size and configuration; he called it the “outer plasmic shell”. Was this one stuck? It certainly didn’t blend in at all.
“The shell doesn’t match the setting as your does. Is it damaged?” Karen asked of the Time Lord.
“Probably. I can’t tell unless I can get inside but I suspect it was damaged not long ago”, he replied.
Karen could feel him not telling her something.

While Mortimus examined the TARDIS, Karen surveyed the equipment boxes. She vaguely recognised the machine guns as a type in use in her time but she was no expect. She smiled to herself as a thought struck her; her half-sister Eléa would have been able to identify, fire and no doubt disassemble them in the dark.
She missed her. And not just for how useful she would be at times like this.

Karen examined the wedge shaped missiles. While the crates had markings there was nothing that even the TARDIS’s translation system seemed to understand. Probably identifiers for some future logistics system. On impulse, she ran her scanner over them and actually got a result. Striker missiles from 3113.
She studied the display and was worried by what she read; counter-gravity missiles, intended for ground support, speed of Mach six, range of about 120 kilometres and fitted with low-yield fusion warheads.
There were thirty-two of them.

Karen summoned a mental map of England and imagined a circle on it; Durham, she remembered, was a relatively new town, Newcastle, Leeds, the city of York, all were within range of these weapons launched from the monastery.
She swallowed. With these, the other Time Lord could wreak havoc.

She walked over to the police box where Mortimus seemed to be finished his examination.
“Mortimus, there are nuclear strike missiles over there, dozens of them”.
Her announcement didn’t seem to faze him at all.
“Yes, I think he’s planning to destroy the Viking invasion force. Perhaps before they land at Tynemouth or on the way to Stamford Bridge”.
British history and geography weren’t Karen’s specialties, but she knew enough to place them on her mental map. Both were well within range of the missiles.

Mortimus went over to the crates and tut-tutted over the weapons. Then he grinned, fiddled with his Technix, and ran it over the missiles.
He turned to Karen, still smiling, “That’s taken care of them”.

Suddenly he started, froze and seemed to cock his ears like a dog.

“Someone’s coming. Hide!” he commanded, and matched actions to words by diving for the heap of goods in the corner and insinuating himself between the pile and the wall.
Seeing no obvious hiding place, Karen concealed herself behind the police box TARDIS, drew her stunner and crouched down.

None too soon, a moment later the door on the north side opened.