Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 1, 2023 13:48:46 GMT
The Catar Horror - Part Three. Ian, Barbara, Susan and the Doctor climb into the rear of the air-raft. It was clearly a military vehicle, lacking much in the way of comforts, but the seats were padded and fitted with harnesses. The interior space is take with equipment lockers but there is ample space for the eight of them¹.
Cillian heads to the front, racks his rifle, and takes a seat next to the pilot, the unseen Yakov, before starting to type at a console. He ignores the others, seemingly engrossed in the instruments and readouts. In the rear Laverna and Achel strap themselves in and the TARDISeers follow suit. Ian notices that there are already backpacks stowed next to the seats taken by the ‘Time Agent’ and her companion, obviously they were preparing for their own operation.
“Ready for take-off whenever you want boss”, the voice of the yet unseen pilot comes from the front of the craft. A moment later Cillian chimes in “Systems are nominal, base security engaged. I have a lock on the approximate location of the temporal energy signature”.
Laverna turns to the Doctor and asks, “Do you want to return to your TARDIS for anything? Or should we head straight on?” The Doctor is suspicious, is the Time Agent angling for access to his TARDIS²? Anyway he’s fairly sure they have everything they’ll need. Including cannon fodder. He politely declines the agent’s offer.
Bored and also keyed up Ian asks “Does anyone know where we’re going, and what we’re like to find there?” Laverna replies “Not sure what we’re likely to find. Certainly some sort of temporal effect, possibly a natural weak-point in space-time, or perhaps someone is experimenting with temporal technology”.
“As long as it’s not another damned Oscillator³”, Cillian’s voice comes back to them.
The Time Agent snorts, amused, “Yes I think we can all do without that contraption again. Though it’s probably a bit early for that. Barrlyght is still a student about now”.
Ian is puzzled, “What’s this ‘oscillator’, a time machine?” “Not exactly a time machine in the sense of a vehicle, more of a device that can alter the flow of time in an area. Very dangerous and unstable” the Time Agent’s tone is unusually serious.
Barbara, worried by events around her is also curious “I’ve never heard of Catar, what’s it like?” It’s Cillian that answers, “No real idea. There’s not a lot about it on the ‘weave⁴. It seems to be a small village, originally fishing, with historical connections to Norse raiders. Had a railway station up to about fifteen years ago when it was demolished for some reason. It seems to date back to pre-Roman times, one of the trading places for the Iceni, there capital wasn’t that far away. The Roman procurator who triggered the Iceni revolt, Catus Decianus, had a villa there was there before he fled. Probably no more than a couple of hundred people at most, if even that. It does seem associated with rather a lot of people disappearing Oh, and by the 1911s census there was only a dozen or so people there⁵”.
Achel speaks for the first time, “Very Zale⁶”. “It is a bit. Which worries me”. Cillian replies. "Everything worries you". "True. Usually with good reason".
Laverna takes charge, “Enough speculation. Let’s go”.
The craft took-off with barely a sound, and even the sensation of motion was somehow muted. Ian popped the magazine from his carbine and checked the lips and tension before re-inserting it. He was nervous this time. Something was nagging at him.
The flight took only a couple of minutes. Something that Barbara appreciated. Walking six miles at night didn’t appeal to her, especially carrying a backpack. She looked beside her at Susan; the alien girl looked calm but there were signs of tension there. Barbara thought to herself, might this be a good spot to jump ship and start a new life? She’d packed a few supplies, including gold coins and synthetic gemstones, in her pack. How would the Doctor react? It was something to keep in mind, just in case.
Susan was trying to force away the slight headache that she’d been feeling since they left the TARDIS. It still niggled at her, there in the back of her mind.
“OK, we’re here. We’ve done a loop over the area of Catar and it’s on the screen” Cillian spoke from the front of the craft. Immediately a picture, like a film projected in the air, popped into existence in the empty space between the rows of seats, startling Ian and Barbara. It showed a small village clustered around the end of a river with a few roads and a railway line to one side. “The scale is about five kilometres by three. Catar is the scattering of houses and buildings around the bridge in the centre of the screen. The river is the Maven and it’s a tributary of the Wensum, emptying into the same estuary. The island is unnamed but has a ruined church, Saint Julian, on it. There are a few boats at anchor out to sea for some reason, and more tied up ashore”.
“If we switch to thermal”, the map turned to shades of red and black, “We see around a hundred and fifty people, mainly dispersed in clusters houses and a few buildings in the village. Probably a couple of pubs. There are a few more scattered around the outskirts of the village but basically no-one outside”. Cillian turned his seat to face them, “And what does that make you think of?”
It was Ian who spoke, reminded of his time in the peripheries, “They’re scared of something. Huddling together for protection”. Cillian smiled, “Exactly. They’re afraid of the dark, or something in the dark”.
Laverna responded, “Interesting. Is there any sign of the temporal energy source?” “Nothing I can narrow down. There are faint traces in the village. If was forced to speculate” Cillian paused and Laverna snorted, “I’d suggest the area around the church in the south east of the village”. “Your speculation is usually pretty good”. The agent turned to the Doctor, “Shall we set down and investigate on foot?”
The Doctor nodded in agreement, “As reasonable place as any to start looking”. Ian piped in “Perhaps we could find a local or two and ask them if they’ve seen anything strange?” “Also an option” Laverna conceded. “OK, Yakov, put us down somewhere discreet, near the church”. Their pilot laughed and replied, “Aye, aye cap’n.
1. The air-raft is basically a paramilitary APC. Lightly armoured, by the standards of its time, and lacking in frills.
2. It’s the kind of thing he’d do….
3. The Barrlyght Oscillator is a kind of steampunk time manipulator. Extremely dangerous and the reason there are parts of Glasgow where it’s still yesterday.
4. The “internet” as we’d call it.
5. Yes Cillian is the sort of person who carries around an offline copy of the Wiki equivalent.
6. Barnabas Zale, writer of weird fiction and loose equivalent of HPL.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 1, 2023 13:51:33 GMT
A few notes on various alien races.
The Sensorites. As I've mentioned the Sensorites will return, and without RTD's connection to the Ood. In galactic terms they're a medium rank power within the Milky Way, a stable, isolationist and old race. They keep to themselves, manage their population and resource usage efficiently and have a "communistic" mindset that is rather alien to humans. They're an old and advanced civilisation, one of the Temporal Powers and very capable, if not necessarily individually powerful, psionicists. Rational and controlled but that does not mean pacifistic. If you meet a group of them away from home then it's either a diplomatic mission, daring explorers studying something strange or else something is about to go terribly wrong. As in horrors from the Dungeon Dimensions or from the early universe erupting to eat your souls..... And they will have a plan to deal with the problem¹.
The Dominators Another medium rank power, based on careful planning and optimum use of resources. Heavily reliant on robotics, though not truly artificial intelligence. Can be confused and beaten if out-thought or sufficient random elements thrown in their way. Can also be rather vindictive. Technologically middle ranked², they rely more on weight of metal. Psychologically arrogant and over-confident. Would really like to acquire time travel capabilities but have been warned off by the Great Powers.
The Dals. The Dals are not-quite-cyborgs, combining an organic aspect (the mutated remnants of a race who suffered serious genetic damage in a devastating war employing radiological and genetic weapons) and a mechanised ‘travel machine’ incorporating life support, mobility, protection and other features. Today the organic Dals are grown in tanks, with limited genetic diversity. Their 'travel machines' are³ cylindrical, about 1.8m high, with a slight taper from the 80cm diameter base. The body has six sections; the base, the two sets of sensor domes (each with two rows of twelve 'bumps'), the central section with the manipulator arms (which bulges out slightly and can rotate independently), the upper section (with slats) and the top (with eyestalk and sensors). Their arms are somewhat and capable of extension from 50 to 200cm, tipped with a six pincer claw. Most Dals are timid and peaceful, usually a small number are armed (replacing one of their arms).
After their expansion into space, and a few encounters with aliens, they created a dedicated military force with better armoured casings and mounting a weapon as standard and have upgraded their travel machines generally. They are later developed time travel technology. In their home galaxy they're a leading part of an anti-Dominator (and anti-Thalek, though that's a lower priority) alliance. The contact with humanity is limited for many centuries due to the distance and the closure of the Osirian wormhole connecting their respective galaxies⁴.
The Thaleks. The second intelligent race on Skaro, the generally evil, race-purity obsessed, Thaleks. Both they and the Dals are the descendants of the survivors of a lengthy war centuries ago. They would eventually be forced from Skaro by the Dals. Expanding slowly, they had limited FTL capability, they found a cache of Osiran remnant technology, and used an Osiran wormhole to drastically shorten the trip from their home galaxy. This led they to attempt a daring gamble to acquire the God Engine⁵,
The Thaleks demonstrate an unpleasant fondness for biological weapons and cybernetically controlled 'zombie' servitors used as expendable shock troops. Later, severely weakened by biological warfare (an experiment gone wrong) and the unpleasant consequences of a Master Plan does awry, they experimented with time travel, mind control, organic duplication, mass cloning and humanoid robots while attempting to keep their slave labour driven empire together.
The Drahavins. Minor players and a threat only to smaller and less sophisticated civilisations the expansionist Drahvins are less technologically capable⁶ but rely on quantity, mass cloning short lived soldierettes as shock troops. Probably destined to be absorbed or obliterated by one of the major players. Or to split into different factions....⁷ Not capable of time travel but would really like to acquire such capability⁸.
The Cybermen. It really wasn't their fault. The decisions they made, after their planet was sent careening into interstellar space⁹ by the GodEngine were quite logical. Resources needed to be conserved, waste minimsed, efficiency promoted. Racial survival was more important than the individual. Population reduced and managed. As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
There are actually various models, even sub-species, of Cybermen. The chain of colonies seeded from Mondas during it's travels haven't coalesced into a single group ye, many have developed their own societies.
'Cybershells', androids made from Cyberman armoured suits but without the "organic components" are sometimes used to augment their numbers. They're also a moderately popular minion among certain people, often rebuilt from battlefield salvage.
Slabs. 'Slab' is a generic and definately pejorative term for a certain type of force grown clone; 'meat slab' is one variant. At the opposite end of the minion scale from high capability androids are these generic, quick grown biological slaves. They are usually geneered for desirable traits¹⁰ but rarely augmented much; they're mentally conditioned for obedience and a limited skill set¹¹. Obedient, decorative and useful. And utterly expendable. They don’t tend to live long, a side effect of the force-growth process leaves them prone to really nasty tumours. Available in various body plans, ethnicities and gender options. More expensive models are available, specialised in the fields of labour, security, technical or personal service roles. Sold at any of the numerous flesh-fairs of the galaxy, most notably Toros Alpha.
1, Your survival is probably not part of that plan however. They do regret that.
2. Solidly Technology Level 6 in AITAS terms.
3. There are other models for specialised purposes.
4. This will become a plot point in due course.
5. Ditto.
6. Early TL 6. Interstellar capable but stuff tends to be bigger and slower.
7. Then again at least one faction does manage peaceful coexistence and is best known for "Clone Love" a rather eerie and off-putting six-way harmony of identical clones, with heavy sexual overtones. Banned on several worlds due to homophobia, clone prejudice, lingering resentments from the old days of Drahvin conquests or being really rather creepy. Also later pop up as mercenaries, usually several sets of clones and one or more members of the Leader Caste.
8. Something pretty much every Temporal Power is agreed would be a Bad Idea. That said at least one Drahvin officer, Jinjur, dis acquire a time-ship and now pursues an obsessive vendetta against another time traveller.
9. Archaeologists can be among the most dangerous scientists. Sensible people, when encountering a vast alien machine buried deep in their home (and only) planet don't start fiddling with it.
10. What constitutes 'desirable' is in the mind of the purchaser.
11. A very limited skill set in the base models. These are not usually skilled technicians.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 1, 2023 13:53:09 GMT
The Catar Horror - Part Four - The Church.
Outside the lit, if spartan, comfort of the air-raft the night was cold, wet and very dark. Their small force had landed in a hollow, about two hundred metres from the decaying structure of the church that Cillian had identified as that of Saint Walstan. Ian vaguely remembered the name from his time in Norfolk but couldn’t think of any details. He concentrated on his surroundings, the ground was uneven. Beside the hollow the ground rose to about thirty feet above the woodland, giving a useful vantage point.
He, Laverna and Cillian stood there in the shadows of the trees looking for…..well anything really. The church and the area seemed deserted to the human eye. However they weren’t relying on the naked eye.
“There are several mobile heat sources in the church, including a couple in the tower. They don’t appear to have seen us but they do appear to be lookouts. I can find no-one in the church grounds or graveyard”. Cillian reported quietly. Laverna scanned the area through some sort of binoculars before passing them to Ian. Bringing the set to his eyes he was surprised by its lightness and more so by the view; the scene was quite clear, light was obviously amplified, and in the image hotspots appeared as bright blobs. Ian surveyed the area, seeing nothing else apart from his companions.
The three observers dropped down into the hollow and reported to the others. The Doctor nodded, “It would seem that the old church is the centre of things. Shall we investigate?” Laverna recommended sending Achel as their scout, saying he had the most “sneak and peak” experience with she, Cillian and the Doctor following and the others in reserve and this plan was accepted.
With a grin at the other Achel checked his headset and pulled a hood out of the collar of the suit he wore and fitted it over his head. Passing his pack to Yakow he tucked the baton he carried into a chect pocket and tapped at a device on his right wrist. He shimmered and then wasn’t there. Barbara inhaled suddenly, the noise audible in the silence and the Doctor’s eyebrows rose before he spoke, “Photo-deflective camouflage. Very useful”.
Cillian rummaged in his pack and took out four more of the headsets he and his cohorts wore. Handing them to Ian, Barbara, Susan and the Doctor he gave them a brief lesson in their use, allowing everyone to communicate. Ian noticed that despite the dark glasses he wore the older man had seemingly no difficulty with seeing his surroundings.
With a quite ‘Right, I’m off” over the radio links Achel was gone. He could be heard climbing the mound but soon had disappeared into the night. “I suggest we give him about ten minutes and then take the path by the graveyard wall, we can get through the wall and approach the church from the east end, where the main door is” Laverna spoke quietly but was clearly audible over the radio.
About half-way through their wait Cillian started and spoke suddenly, “Alert. Several of the people in the church have disappeared. There must be another way out”. “Achel how far are you from the church?” Laverna asked. “Just outside now. The main door is locked tight and still solid but I can see through the windows. Sending feed now”, came the reply. Cillian drew a cylinder from a jacket pocket and unrolled it. The surface flickered into light and shows a shaky picture of the inside of the church. The interior was old and dirty, with cobwebs and signs of long dereliction. But also inside were five human figures, illuminated by a few candles and three bluish-white globes that Ian and Barbara recognised as Kell lights¹. Two of the people, a man and a woman, were arguing while the third man paced nearby. Standing stock still by the wall were two more.
"I think they’re moving out. Let’s go”, Laverna spoke before scrambling up the mound. She continued over the radio even as Cillian and the others followed her. ”Cillian you and the Doctor find the entrance to the church, or make one. Yakov, take out those sentries. You others follow us”.
At a rapid jog they took only a few minutes to reach the church. In the graveyard Barbara heard a noise and looked up, to see something fly through the air to hover beside the glassless windows of the church tower. A couple of minutes later she and Susan re-joined the others. Cillian was pulling a clumps of brambles that had grown against the side wall while the Doctor and Ian watched. Soon a side door, into the vestry she presumed, was visible.
With a crunch of feet on gravel Yakov dropped to the gravel and reported. “The sentries are down but I can’t get in that way, the windows are far too narrow. I’d need to smash my way in”. Achel shimmered into visibility and spoke, “The people inside have also gone. I couldn’t get an angle to see where they went”. Laverna looked at Cillian and Ian, “Get the door open, now”.
Ian examined the door. It was solid, iron banded oak, and the fittings were intact. It was also locked. Cillian ‘hmmmed’ and produced a short rod that he inserted into the keyhole. A moment later the door pulled open and the tool disappeared back into Cillian’s jacket. He gestured to Ian, as if you say you first. Ian cocked the Whiting and led the way.
Inside the vestry and church were deserted and dusty, though there were signs of activity, including traces of still damp soil. The travellers spread out, weapons ready but there is no-one there to see them. Barbara suddenly has an idea, “The crypt. The traces of soil lead the group to another heavy door in surprisingly good repair. And also locked.
Behind it is a narrow spiral staircase leading down. Over-head a Kell lamp is wired to a nail and illuminates the first part of the way down. At the back of the group Susan gasps and holds her head. At first Barbara thinks it’s the stench coming up to them, and overwhelming smell of decay and rotten meat, but it’s more than that. The Doctor goes to Susan and holds her head in his hands, asking “What do you feel?” She replies, he voice low and slurred, “Time, shifting”.
Cillian examines his scanner and confirms, “Temporal energy levels increasing. Something is happening”. Laverna’s tone is urgent, “Down there now. Barbara stay with Susan. Yakov you’re rearguard”
She leads the way down the staircase, a large pistol in one hand, moving quietly but quickly, watchful. The crypt is only a few metres down, a small rocky chamber with a few alcoves and sarcophagi. Incongruous on one wall is a common house door. Laverna pulls it aside to reveal a tunnel, cut from the native stone. She rubs the smooth wall of the tunnel and remarks, “This wasn’t dug, it was cut with a high energy device.”
The tunnel is barely more than a metre wide and two high, roughly a figure of eight in shape, and lit by a few more Kell globes. As they advance if anything the stench actually gets worse. Ian is reminded of one of the village clearances in Africa.
After about fifteen metres the tunnel turns, widens, and a large cavern is visible.
1. Cold light sources that use a synthetic radioactive to excite a phosphor coated globe.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 1, 2023 13:54:51 GMT
The Catar Horror - Part Five - Background. Once, long, long, ago⁰ a time machine crashed to Earth not far from what will once become Norwich, not far indeed from the then existing village of Caistor¹ (which long pre-dates it’s larger neighbour and was once the Roman capital of East Anglia, much of which was then swampy fens. “Caistor was a city when Norwich was none, Norwich was built of Caistor stone”, as some of the locals say.
The craft had been badly, fatally, damaged in a war that might never have happened and soon after crashing into the soft ground the machine imploded in a spectacular burst of energy; electromagnetics, gravitics, tachyons, neutrinos, chronons and real exotica. Other than some curious effects on a few local families, and sending a rude hut plunging hundreds of metres into the air, the craft’s destruction didn’t have much effect.
But deep under the ground those weird energies had caused a small rupture in reality, a temporal rift. Down there nothing could see to even be effected by the rift, though perhaps the Earth might eventually have been menaced by a species of intelligent, giant, earthworms, and mainly the leakage of chronons simple dispersed into the environment, fairly harmlessly. But close to the remains of the ship was a natural deposit of Carneilian³ and gradually the crystals trapped the stray chronons, forming chronos crystals⁴.
Centuries past. The village became a town, though never a particularly important one. Crops were grown, sermons preached, fish caught, people were born, married and procreated, died, life went on a a bucolic pace.
But there was something odd about these crystals, something only discovered more than three thousand years after the time-ship crashed down. During the indeterminate wars between France and Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (culminating in Napoleonic wars and the invasion panic), East Anglia was a hive of smuggling with the continent⁵ (as it had been for centuries⁶). Not as much as better known, and more convenient, towns like Rye, but it still happened.
A clergyman, John Adam Stanton, the rector of St. Walstan, was deeply involved in the smuggling, using the church, rectory and tithe-barn to store contraband. The rector also discovered some of the crystals, dabbling in mineralogy as a hobby, and noticed their odd properties. Being connected to othr clerics and academics he mentioned these oddities in passing. Across the channel events in France went from tumult to tumult; the Revolution, the Directory and Napoleon followed in quick success. Many people fled and a couple of then ended up in Catar. The effect that Stanton had discovered had been catalogued across the water, with a few of the crystals having been polished and gifted to smugglers, and noticed by a small group of mainly French occultists and exiles, several of whom had been associated with, or even operatives of, the Shadow Directory⁷.
The crystals resembled those found on a far distant island, one of France's scattered colonial possessions in the Pacific, an island that disappeared before the crystals; power could be tapped. Coming to Catar and using a combination of threats, blackmail and promises of immortality, they managed to corrupt the weak Stanton. And, after experiments in a natural cave not far from the church's crypt, they discovered that killing a human within a circle constructed of such crystals allowed them to ‘harvest’ the psychic energy and absorb it themselves⁸ granting them lengthened life. At a price.
The psychic residue from the killings, and other experiments in using the crystals in other ways, contaminated the area around the church. Malign influences, madness, and all the negative emotions humans possess came forth, slowly at first but in an ever increasing cloud of evil. Catar was gradually suffocated by a miasma of evil. That’s why Catar is now (1896) a dying, nearly deserted village; anyone sensitive to the influences long since fled, others became apathetic and stopped engaging in the activities needed to keep the village going. A few suffered a different fate; more aligned to the psionic influence they were changed. And a few ended up dying down in the cave.
Party the village was isolated by the outside world; visitors noticed the 'smell' and acted to keep the evil quarantined and away from other people. Of course no-one believed in witchcraft or such nonsense. Not openly anyway.
Within Catar the small group who used the crystals continued, more-or-less. A few died by unnatural causes, a couple departed or were forced out but a small core kept performing the ritual in the cave for decades, referring to themselves as the Loop, and kept on living. Their minds damaged by the psychic effects they descended into cruelty and debauchery, but them maintained contacts outside their fiefdom.
Now, one of the disadvantages of chronos crystals is their susceptibility to resonance; a temporal vehicle passing ‘near’ to them can cause the crystals to drain energy from the device⁹, especially if it’s a primitive one, lacking proper shielding. This can be disastrous. And eventually such a disaster happened.
A time traveller arrived, her small time-glider badly damaged by the resonance and the materialisation in the cave during a sacrificial ritual. Injured she was no real match for her killers, but she still managed to kill two of them before being slaughtered¹⁰. Her time-glider drained the chronal charge from the crystals, potentially leaving the Loop unable to maintain their youth. But one of them, Averline Lambert, who'd preserved most of her sanity¹¹, had contacts with other private groups experimenting with forbidden and dangerous powers. She developed a plan.
0. In a manner of speaking, time being relative.
1. About 8km from the current city of Norwich, more-or-less. Caistor was the capital of the Iceni tribe and (according to legend) where the Christian apostle Simon the Zealot, was martyred² by Catus Decianus (who also was blamed for triggering the Iceni revolt).
2. He wasn’t. What was killed was not really human. But that, and the connection to Boudicca’s revolt against Roman authority, is a story for another day.
3. Carnelian is a generally dark red form of the mineral chalcedony coloured by iron oxide. It does occur in Norfolk.
4. Chronos crystals are basically any crystalline material that has developed a chronal charge due to chronons trapped in the crystal lattice . They can be manufactured synthetically, with access to a suitable chronon source, but are sometimes formed naturally. They are useful in a variety of temporal technologies. They often manifest odd properties; unusual density or temperature, reacting to time travellers, time machines and displaced objects by emitting light and so on.
5. As a curious historical aside the involvement of smugglers with the Napoleonic system, and their importance to it, was enormous. Gathering intelligence, rescuing prisoners and transporting them to France, moving spies and agents in both directions, and proved an immensely lucrative trade. The smugglers were sanctioned and assisted by the Napoleonic state, with a ‘tolerated zone’ allocated to that in Dunkirk.
6. The history of smuggling, along the channel coast and in East Anglia, is a long, murky, and fascinating one.
7. A French ‘Investigating Agency; i.e. one of those secret bodies who study and deal with “the weird stuff”. Originally created during the Revolution it continued into the twentieth century, in different guises, until it was absorbed by LONGSTOP and ESCRO. Or possibly not…. After Napoleon’s ascension there was something of a split in the Directory and after some agents were ‘retired’ others fled.
8. Think of Greel’s ‘organic distillation’ system but less Steampunk brass fittings and knife switches, and more ‘New Age crystal’ themed. Or the ‘steaming’ that featured in King’s Doctor Sleep.
9. Vaguely analogous to piezo-electric crystals or ferromagnetic materials being magnetised by nearby lightning strikes. But not really.
10. Who goes armed to a ritual sacrifice?
11. Though that doesn't mean she was sane by any objective standard.. Or nice.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 1, 2023 13:56:14 GMT
The Catar Horror - Part Six – In the Cavern. Even in the gloom the cave was surprisingly large, Ian thought, perhaps fifty feet across and fifteen high, with a mix of ragged edges, where it seems to have been laboriously chipped away, and smooth curves that looked like the result of advanced technology. It was cold too, there was clearly a route for the frigid air of the night to enter the space. Curiously the smell seemed rather less, or perhaps he was getting used to it.
But it was the altar that grabbed his attention. An actual stone slab altar, straight out of one of the dodgier horror pulps that he'd confiscated from the boys, and beaten them for bringing to school, before perusing himself. It even had rings set into the stone, and channels for blood.
He almost laughed aloud.
Near the altar was a contraption that looked like the bastard progeny of a motor trike and a small helicopter, minus rotors. And a helicopter that’d had one too many rough landings and was being repaired, or stripped. Panels had been take off, cables stretched from the craft to chunks of wire frame, studded with dimly glowing crystals and other objects. Scattered around were various boxes and crates.
But around him the others were less amused and more focussed on the other contents of the cave. There were seven people, starting to react to the entry of Ian and the others, all dressed in Victorian style, though mixing high fashion with a couple in mechanics overalls working on the mysterious devices. Most of the work was being directed by a tall woman, her face pock-marked by smallpox, with a decisive manner.
Despite his experiences since meeting the Doctor and entering the TARDIS Ian was still distracted by the weirdness of it all.
Beside him Ian heard a sharp intake of breath from Cilliam. The older man had attached his scanning device to the top of the rifle he carried and was focussed on the display, clearly apprehensive of what he saw. That noise, quite though it was,
One of the men, in clerical dress complete with stole over cassock, was going red in the face as he comprehended the intruders. “Blasphemers¹!” He screamed. “You dare interrupt us!” Ian was reminded of one of the chaplains during school assemblies, whats-his-name, the one who got frothy about the dangers of self-abuse and “counselled” the boys in his study.
But it was a well-dressed man in his thirties that drew his attention as the man’s hand pulled a revolver from the Gladstone bag resting on a crate next to him. Ian bright the Whiting to bear but before he fired there was a flash from Laverna’s weapon, accompanied by a smell of ozone, and the man dropped, much of his chest just gone.
The man’s death was the sign for a general fight to start. As the cleric ran at them, arms raised and expression maniacal, Cillian cut him down with a burst of his rifle. The two people in coveralls took cover and fired back and the woman continued to direct the resistance. Ian and the other scattered and took cover, the Doctor remained behind them using the tunnel for cover. Ian, Laverna, Cillian and Achel too was cover was available and returned fire.
As he dropped to the ground Cillian shouted “Don’t hit the equipment”. That was, Ian thought to himself, easier said than done. He estimated there were five people firing at him and the others, all with handguns though one person had used a magazine shotgun of some kind as well. A fire-fight at this range was, he knew from experience, likely to get everyone killed
He took aim at the stack of boxes that the leader of the, well cultists he supposed, was using for cover and opened fire. The stutter and kick of the Whiting triggered memories and he grinned, reminded of younger days. While he changed magazines the woman stuck her hand around the crates and a distinctive Broomhandle Mauser was visible. She obviously hadn’t expected him to be so fast to reload² and the burst hit home. She screamed and the pistol dropped to the rocky floor.
Pulses from Laverna’s pistol had destroyed another of the piles and one of the people in coveralls tried to escape, firing as she dodged, only to fall to the bullets of Cillian’s rifle. No casings, Ian noted, his mind working automatically as he tracked the carbine around in search of further targets.
His attention was briefly attracted by Laverna tapping on her com-set and tried his own to no result. Was something up? Then Ian has more to worry about as the second mechanic came out of cover and started firing a pair of Mausers at them. Rather accurately too. Fragments of rock were knocked from the wall around them by the gunfire as the intruders dove back into cover and the man advanced to the altar, keeping low and shooting accurately Ian noticed.
Another of the cultists tried to making it to the solid cover of the altar, working the action of a Winchester shotgun as he moved, until he suddenly stopped and screamed, dropping the gun. Ian watched as the heat bubble of the Doctor’s burner reduced him to charred meat.
“Two left, three if the leader is still alive”, Achel reported coolly. Ian was impressed by the man’s calm air.
“Bugger” said Cillian, loud enough to be heard over the occasional gunshot, “He’s trying to activate the machine”. Laverna stared at him, “Why? What could that achieve?” Cillian shrugged and replied, “I have absolutely no idea. I do think we should stop him though”. Easier said than done, Ian thought.
“Cillian, deploy a few flash-bangs”, Laverna ordered. "Aye, aye, captain” was his response before he started taking some disc shaped devices from his jacket pockets. These he placed on the ground while he rummaged in his pack. “Right, everyone out of the cave for the moment” Laverna ordered. Back in the tunnel Cillian handed her two pairs of sunglasses and two sets of earplugs which she passed t the Doctor and Ian. “Put these on, things are going to get bright and loud”. Donning the protection, Ian crouched down and readied himself.
Cillian held the discs in his left palm while tapping on them. “Right” he said, looking at Laverna. She nodded and Cillian flicked the discs around the cavern. A second later the whole cave was lit up by a series of immensely bright flashes and eardrum popping bangs. Even with the glasses and earplugs Ian felt the effects. The unprotected cultists would be easy meat. He, Laverna and Achel rushed out and the last two enemies died in a hair of weapons fire.
But of the leader there was no sign; a trail of blood led from her hiding place into a dark corner of the cavern and thence along another tunnel to a gap in the wall of a well shaft. Iron staples hammered into the shaft showed how she’d escaped.
“Self-fucker” Laverna swore, “How the cruk did she get out, injured like that? Anyway we can hunt her outside”. They returned to the cave where the Doctor and Cillian were examining the altar.
“They’ve definitely been killing people here. For some time too, there are traces of old blood and too many example to isolate easily”. Cillian’s tone was surprisingly detached for someone reporting on mass murder and human sacrifice Ian thought. “I do believe they’ve been using he chronos crystals to drain, store, and release psychic energy”, the Doctor’s tone was interested, almost appreciative. “The crystals resonate at the appropriate frequencies for this to work. Most ingenious”. He harrumphed, “Very inefficient, though it could be used to preserve life, for a while”. “And at a price”. Laverna’s tone was less detached. “Indeed”. The Doctor’s smile as disturbing. “Anyway they seem to have been attempting to re-energise the crystals using that rather crude time machine”. He gestured at the partially stripped contraption Ian had seen earlier.
“So, what now?” Ian wasn’t interested in the technicalities. The fight had been fun but he was tired and adrenalin fatigue was starting to hit. He examined the bodies and souvenired the pair of Mausers and as much ammunition as he could find.
“We destroy the crystals, and everything else. Take the roof down and bury everything” Laverna’s voice was determined, and brooked no contradiction. The Doctor nodded. There was nothing for him here, just crude experimentation.
“OK, I’ll set the charges” Cillian agreed and collected his backpack. “I suggest the rest of you find out what’s happening up top. The comms are being jammed by something and I have a bad feeling”. Leaving him to his work the other four started back into the tunnel, wearily preparing their weapons.
1. It’s Traditional….
2. It's all in the wrist action, and lots of practice.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 1, 2023 14:00:22 GMT
Right, that's the cross-posting caught up to date.
Next will should be the finale of The Catar Horror and then normal service will (hopefully) be resumed. Lined up are
- World's End.
- Kingdom Come.
- Desperate Measures.
- All Roads Lead to Rome.
followed by a small interlude into the television and films of the EDC Earth,
Comments, ideas and suggestions are welcome, as are questions. And tyop notifications....
Finally, may I wish everyone a Happy 2023.
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Post by grinch on Jan 1, 2023 21:17:48 GMT
I can understand the reasons for not including the events of Planet of Giants in this alternate Whoniverse. But as a hypothetical I do wonder what happened with the DN6 formula in this universe. Maybe someone else accidentally stopped the release of it in this universe forgoing all the necessary shrinkage? Or maybe it was accidentally released and the government silenced it?
Alternatively, I could see it being used as a means of crowd control by the government or a means of assassination.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 1, 2023 22:01:22 GMT
I can understand the reasons for not including the events of Planet of Giants in this alternate Whoniverse. But as a hypothetical I do wonder what happened with the DN6 formula in this universe. Maybe someone else accidentally stopped the release of it in this universe forgoing all the necessary shrinkage? Or maybe it was accidentally released and the government silenced it? Alternatively, I could see it being used as a means of crowd control by the government or a means of assassination. Probably added to the CW arsenal. Historically several nerve agents, specifically GA [Tabun], GB [Sarin], GE [Ethylsarin] and VG were developed from pesticide research. In fact VG was actually marketed by ICI as a pesticide for a while, despite being somewhat more toxic than Sarin/GB.
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Post by grinch on Jan 2, 2023 14:13:34 GMT
I like the little reference to the good Doctor Meyer in the footnotes.
Not sure if you have anything planned for him at all (as I said before, you're more than welcome to) but I imagine he's an example of what I want to explore in a future writeup of a Multiversal Recurrent. Basically, select individuals who are basically the exact same (bar a few choice universes) in terms of personality and M.O. across the Multiverse. Others would include Irving Braxiatel and Sutekh.
Doubt he'd last long against any of the Evil Doctors though.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 2, 2023 17:33:38 GMT
I like the little reference to the good Doctor Meyer in the footnotes. Not sure if you have anything planned for him at all (as I said before, you're more than welcome to) but I imagine he's an example of what I want to explore in a future writeup of a Multiversal Recurrent. Basically, select individuals who are basically the exact same (bar a few choice universes) in terms of personality and M.O. across the Multiverse. Others would include Irving Braxiatel and Sutekh. Doubt he'd last long against any of the Evil Doctors though. Thanks! I don't plan to bring him on-stage just yet, but maybe to annoy a future Doctor. There are actually a few time travellers due to appear soon (i.e. within the First Doctor era): Evander Tolle and his crew, Mortimus and companions, and the Thaleks, plus Lavern and company who've already appeared.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 2, 2023 21:30:06 GMT
The Catar Horror - Part Seven – Finale.
Cautiously the group of time travellers retraced their steps, through the tunnel and into the crypt. There they paused and Cillian used his scanner to probe events above them. “Jamming field in operation. No comms or detailed sensor readings. Signs of energy weapons and CPR¹ slugthrowers having been fired”. His words were clipped and terse. Ian was sure he was worried.
“All right” Laverna replied, “I’m going up”. The Doctor hung back, while the other three covered the Time Agent as she climbed the stairs, weapon ready.
About a minute later her voice echoed down into the crypt, “OK, you can come up. Green as grass”. Cillian and Achel relaxed slightly. Ian assumed that ‘Green as grass’ was an all-clear code phrase.
The climbed the stairs out of the crypt and entered the main body of the church. Laverna was speaking quietly with Yakov while Barbara was near one of the windows, pistol in hand and a short rifle on a pew. Susan was also armed, and looking much better.
Ian and the Doctor stood close to Laverna and Yakov and listened to the conversation. “About ten minutes ago someone tried to break through the church door. When I challenged them, at least two people fired in, rather ineffectively. Since then they’ve lurked around outside” Yakov finished and took a deep breath. “Something landed about two minutes ago, some kind of single-seat grav scooter. He sighed and continued, “Boss I have a bad feeling about this. I think it’s Tolle and his crew again”.
Laverna swore vehemently, stressing each syllable “Fel’taak’clon’Na!² What is that crukking tofgar doing here?”
“Probably much the same as us” Cillian replied to the rhetorical question. “Dragged here by those idiots messing around trying to re-energise the chronos crystals and get their little vampire rig working again”. He sighed “The only question is can we avoid a firefight. If there were only two shooters then he hasn’t deployed his troopers. It’s probably just those psycho girls of his”. He inclined his head, thinking, “For the moment”.
Cillian looked at Laverna directly, “Is the remote working?” “Yes. But not the transmat link” was her cryptic reply.
“Then I suggest we use the air-raft as a diversion and depart. Even if he follows we can evade him and get back to the ship”. He grimaced, “Though we might need to abandon the tower”.
The Doctor interrupted “Who is this ‘Tolle’ person who seems to be besieging us?” It was Yakov who replied, “Time traveller. A psychic vampire. He enjoys killing people slowly and painfully to drain their psychic energy. Says it improves the flavour”. Ian was nonplussed. First an actual cult, of sorts, who sacrificed people. Now a psychic vampire who did the same. This was getting weird. Yakov continued, “He has a bunch of underlings, mainly robots or mind-controlled”.
The Doctor considered the situation. “If I tell him I’m a Time Lord, would that deter him?” “Not for a second. He’d probably enjoy killing and draining you several times over”, Laverna answered.
She stretched and assumed command effortlessly, “OK, converge at the side door and I’ll bring the air-raft down. Cillian, see if you can access his comms”. The older man nodded and tapped at his scanner.
All eight of them stood tensely at the church’s small side door. Achel and Yakov led, both tensed and armed, night-vision glasses worn. Achel carried the baton they’d seen him with earlier while Yakov has a carbine similar to the one Barbara carried. Behind them were Cillian and Laverna, the former still tapping at the scanner mounted on his rifle, though the screen was dark. Laverna had produced a short rifle like energy weapon from her pack and carried it Barbara and Susan were in the centre, the teacher still had the carbine she’d been given, as well as her pistol, while Susan brandished a handgun. At the rear Ian kept close to the Doctor, Whiting ready. The Doctor had his burner in hand, ready for trouble.
From the other side of the church they heard a loud ‘whoosh’ as the remotely controlled air-raft came in at tree-top height, running lights bright and a couple of spotlights traversing the ground. It circled the church, about twenty metres out, before the night was lit up by blindingly bright flares and loud ‘bangs’.
“Let’s go” Laverna ordered, and the group crossed the gravel path, careful to be quiet, and broke into a jog as they headed for a gap in the churchyard wall.
A few minutes later they recovered their breath, crouching behind a hummock. Cillian grinned and spoke, “Fire in the hole”, as he tapped at the scanner. The ground rumbled. Cillian gestured at the church and the watched as one side of it collapsed. The charges he’d set had brought down the cavern, and part of the foundations with it.
Two minutes later the air-raft arrived, silent and dark. It seemed that the ruse had worked. They clambered aboard in relief Only another couple of minutes elapsed until they’d reached the tower where they’d met Laverna and her companions. Yakov cautiously circled as Cillian tapped rapidly at the sensor console. “All clear”, he reported. “OK then. Doctor do you want us to drop you at your TARDIS?”, Laverna offered. “Unless you preferto walk”.
The Doctor considered her offer. He was not enthusiastic about a long walk in the damp night and he was fairly sure he had the measure of this do-gooding Freetimer. “Thank you, that would be most gracious”. Next to him Ian sighed in relief. He certainly hadn’t been looking forward to a night march
The vehicle dropped to the ground and Cillian and Achel dropped out. Barbara watched as they collected the poles surrounding the tower and carried them inside. A moment later she was astonished yet again as the tower disappeared and Cillian picked up a small object from the ground
The two me re-entered the air-raft and reported to Laverna. “All packed away”. She nodded, mind elsewhere. “Excuse me” Barbara spoke, “What just happened?” Cillian laid the object he was holding in his left palm and the teacher looked at it. It was a tiny replica, perhaps two inches square and five high, of the tower they’d seen earlier. “Dimensional engineering” was his reply to her unspoken question. He grinned and continued, “I never had the light packing gene”. Barbara nodded. It was no madder than the rest of tonight’s events.
Another couple of minutes flight and they were in the cold, dark, wet night yet again. But the TARDIS was only forty feet away. “Good-bye Doctor. I’m sure we shall meet again” was Laverna’s cryptic farewell.
Ian, Barbara, Susan and the Doctor trudged over to the TARDIS and the Doctor opened the door.
1. ‘Chemically Propelled Round’, i.e. projectile weapons using chemical combustion, such as black powder, the various nitro powers used today, or moderated explosives, to launch projectiles, rather than compressed gas, steam, electro-thermal plasma, electro-magnetics or gravitics.
2. A Talmiran profanity the use of which is a capital offense on nine planets.
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Post by grinch on Jan 2, 2023 21:33:15 GMT
Interesting. Why do I get the impression Tolle is going to be responsible for the Doctor regenerating down the line?
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 2, 2023 21:46:47 GMT
Interesting. Why do I get the impression Tolle is going to be responsible for the Doctor regenerating down the line? That could indeed happen. Especially as The Ninth Planet is a 'mid-season' story rather than a finale.....
Evander Tolle is a recurring antagonist from our gaming. He appeared previously in the vignette The Tough Girl.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 3, 2023 16:20:58 GMT
Kingdom Come.
The TARDIS arrives in London, England in 1963. In the afternoon of November the 29th to be precise. Perhaps it was the lingering influence of the chronos crystals, or more effects of the Doctor’s attempts to fix the TARDIS, but things have gone a little awry, and while the TARDIS arrives in the correct time and place, they've arrived in the wrong universe⁰. They've been displaced sideways to a parallel Earth¹.
After arriving in a strangely familiar, but deserted, junkyard, the travellers soon encounter soldiers of the Intrusion Countermeasures Group, bearing unfamiliar weapons² and behaving rather more pleasantly than the RSF³. The troops aren't expecting civilians and hustle them out to meet their leader. When the Doctor hypnotises a corporal he learns that they are investigating an alien incursion. Suddenly there is gunfire from inside the junkyard and energy weapon discharges. Investigating they witness the killing of a dozen troops by something. When the thing comes into view the travellers are shocked find an oddly familiar cyborg is responsible...
As Group Captain Gilmore⁴ and his troops distract the Dal, quick thinking on Ian's part, and some explosives, smashes the travel machine, leaving the mutated creature inside to die in Earth's atmosphere.
The Doctor and the travellers are brought to a commandeered, and eerily familiar, Cole Hill School, now being used as the ICG’s headquarters. There they meet the other RAF officers on loan; Group Captain⁵ John King⁶, technical officer Wing Commander Arthur Clarke⁷, and their boss Air Marshal Sir Robert Victor Goddard⁸, head of the ‘Special Group’⁹. In this strange, almost-but-not-quite-the-same, world Britain wasn't a Republic but a 'United Kingdom', complete with Queen, decades after the monarchy was ended¹⁰ back home, and also included a part of Ireland. Stranger still, instead of the Winter War¹¹ between Britain and the European Federation, this United Kingdom was a member of a peaceful ‘European Concord’ and a military alliance directed against Russia, and had been an active participant in the second Global War, only a couple of decades in the past.
Eavesdropping on the aliens' communications the Doctor learns that these Dals call themselves 'Daleks', there are two factions of them fighting in London, both of whom have travelled in time. And these ‘Daleks’ are not nearly as peaceful as their counterparts back home.
Finding his TARDIS has disappeared, he Doctor and his minions are forced to assist ‘Chunky’ Gilmore¹³ and his RAF Regiment troops, plus their scientific contingent from UCL, and find themselves enmeshed in the machinations of two factions of these homicidal creatures, and the local military. The Daleks are fighting between themselves, and hunting for a immensely powerful artefact that they believe is in the area. Something called The Hand of Omega.
A complex web of alliances and betrayals ensues as the Doctor betrays the Special Group, a bunch of local fascists and both Dalek factions and their mind-controlled agents, to acquire the ‘Hand of Omega’, before unleashing it to obliterate the Daleks and create a wormhole back to their home universe. During the multi-sided struggle London becomes a battleground, partially evacuated as the Shoreditch area is there are still heavy civilian casualties. Worse, the once clandestine fight against aliens becomes very public with RAF Lightnings and Kestrals battling Dalek assault shuttles and Hoverbouts in the air over London. And being massacred. Though they have some more success in ground strike.
And, in the midst of the chaos the Doctor recovers his TARDIS, after betraying an ICG sergeant who'd betrayed the group in favour of a group of fascists who'd aligned themselves with one of the Dalek factions, is betrayed in turn. Susan has grown tired of travelling, plotting and killing, and wants some peace and stability. She was never really that interested in the whole 'conquering the universe' thing. In the midst of the pandemonium she quietly returns to the TARDIS, grabs a few things from the stores, leaves the Doctor a note and disappears into the disorder.
Stymied by the short lifespan of the parachronal wormhole that'll allow the TARDIS to return to their own universe, the Doctor and his remaining minions don't have much time to search for her, even if Barbara and Ian were willing. Susan had befriended the trio of scientists involved with the ICG; Rachel Jensen, Ann Travers and Allison Williams¹³ who arrange for protection and help her escape the Doctor and establish herself in this new world.
So, reluctantly, the Doctor leaves her behind, postponing his revenge for another day. Reluctance not based on fondness, he's furious at being balked and frankly homicidal towards Susan. He vows a painful and prolonged vengeance. She, and the Earth, are going to need all the help they can get in the years to come.
0. Depending on how you measure space-time, within the eleven dimensional framework, this could count as his largest navigational error so far.
1. About fourteen points to peppermint in fact.
2. The FAL not existing in their universe.
3. That is they don't immediately beat and shoot everyone.
4. Who is not carrying an obsolete revolver. Seriously...
5. Which, and I'd like to emphasise this, is never shortened to 'captain'.
6. A fictional character who'll reappear.
7. Yes, that Arthur Clarke. In this universe he stayed in and is more concerned with RADAR than satellites. Though this universe has seen several geostationary satellites launched by 1963.
8. A fascinating character who I've mentioned before; he historically claimed to have seen ghosts, had prophetic dreams and travelled in time. As well as working in intelligence and writing about UFOs and psychic phenomena. The ideal person to head up an organisation dealing with the weird stuff.
9. That would be the organisation dealing with the 'weird stuff'. Especially since that business in Wales in '59. They think they're prepared. They are, in fact, way out of the depth.
10. In the Republic ‘the chimney was swept’ in 1946.
11. The local (EDCverse) term for the Cold War between Britain, and its remaining allies, and, basically everyone else. Began in 1955 when the Federation began the Intervention in America to eliminate the New Confederacy and demonstrated that the period of isolationism and rebuilding after the Autumn War was well and truly over. The development of nuclear weapons in Britain led to the “Policy of Negation”, i.e. the planned social, political, economic and military isolation of Britain until the country fell apart from internal stresses. This will continue until The Thaw of the early seventies. The term ‘Winter War’ comes from a seminal history text, On Modern History, of the 1960s which popularised the terms Spring Wars (Frühlingskriege) for the late nineteenth century wars that established modern Europe (mostly Germany); Summer War (Sommerkrieg) for the Great War of 1915-16; and Autumn War (Herbstkrieg) for the Eastern War against Russia. It’s one of those ponderous works that establish a standard within an academic discipline, with subsequent materially generally either being support of it, or refutation of it.
12. Nickname from the novelisation of Remembrance of the Daleks.
13. They'll be back, as will Susan.
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Post by grinch on Jan 4, 2023 0:02:31 GMT
You know, as understated as it is I do like this ending for Susan.
And maybe it's just me offering my own interpretation or misreading it, but I always got the impression that Susan was the least psychotic of the TARDIS Crew. Her biological enhancements may have made her a killing machine but all the deaths she has caused (and again, maybe I am misremembering) all appear to be reactive or purely instinctual. Mainly because someone attacked her first.
Of course, that could all change once she gets a few years on this Earth under her belt.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 4, 2023 9:32:16 GMT
You know, as understated as it is I do like this ending for Susan. Thank you! And maybe it's just me offering my own interpretation or misreading it, but I always got the impression that Susan was the least psychotic of the TARDIS Crew. I'm glad, because that's rather what I was aiming for. She's immature and had a (for want of a better word) sheltered upbringing, controlled by a psychotic megalomaniac, but ian't really that interested in power herself. For the moment..... Her biological enhancements may have made her a killing machine but all the deaths she has caused (and again, maybe I am misremembering) all appear to be reactive or purely instinctual. Mainly because someone attacked her first. Agreed. Unless you push her buttons she's fine, quiet and a little shy by most human standards. Now as I think of her she's a bit like Kadiatu in the New Adventures series. Trigger her instincts and you're dead. But a cleaner death than several of her companions. Of course, that could all change once she gets a few years on this Earth under her belt. Ah yes. Especially given what this particular Earth has in store for it......
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 4, 2023 11:03:39 GMT
Desperate Measures. Desperately in need of a little respite after their fraught time on not-Earth, and something to soothe the Doctor’s still shaky temper, the travellers are initially happy when the TARDIS lands on the primitive and seemingly idyllic¹ planet Dido. After a few hours of rest and exploration they find a crashed lifeboat from the passenger liner Delphinus which had exploded in deep space. a couple of months earlier. The lifeboat is home to a small party of mainly human survivors, harasses by the local inhabitants. Among the survivors was Vicki a teenage girl who radiates cuteness and innocence and who was travelling on the liner alone to meet her parents.
Initially believing that the craft was in fact under siege from monstrous native animals directed by the remnant intelligent native population² , the travellers assist the survivors to slaughter many of them, though a few of the survivors are also killed. While the Doctor and Ian are taken in by Vicki’s innocent persona, Barbara is less taken in and starts to investigate, piecing the truth together from talking to the survivors.
Finally they discover that Vicki is using a combination of pheromones and ultrasonics to attract the creatures to cover her own killings, performed with the aid of the besotted surviving engineer of the Delphinus.
Annoyed at being fooled the Doctor and Ian tie the girl to a chair and interrogate her.
Vicki is not what she seems. Her parents paid for an expensive medical procedure that retarded her aging; normally, and ethically, this life-extension treatment is only applied well after physical maturity, but her parents had special plans for her. She’s actually a killer, specialising in poisons but also a manipulator, mass murderer and bomb maker; an ideal Minion in fact…. Her parents taught he well³.
One of her favourite tricks is playing the ingénue and sexually manipulating older men (and women) with a taste for young and seemingly innocent partners. Exploitation, theft, blackmail and murder usually follow. Vicki had been plying her trade, seducing passengers on the Delphinus, appealing to their desires and supplementing this with synthetic human pheromones and a neural stimulator, and stealing from them, drugging them to gain access to bank accounts or taking small valuables. When one of her victims was more resistant to the drugs than she expected Vicki killed him. Unfortunately the liner's medical officer was unusually competent and detected the traces of the poison she'd used. The investigation was getting too close when another of her conquests, a besotted engineering officer, gave her access to the control centre. Twenty minutes later she, and her valuables, were safe in a lifeboat while the remain of the liner disintegrated behind her.
Landing on Dido, she was annoyed to find a couple of the survivors were crew-members who'd known about the murder. Concerned about the possibility of eventual discovery when they were rescued, she fabricated the monster attacks; the sensation of having the power of life and death over the other survivors amused and excited her.
Intrigued by her ability, the Doctor offers to take her away from Dido. Given the alternative is being left for the rescue party, and inevitable rehab, she accepts, hopeful of manipulating hi as she had so many others; with a TARDIS the universe will be her mollusc, just waiting to be cracked open......
Initially Ian has a more than companionable interest in the young girl, but when she smiles at him his ardour cools abruptly.
1. At least in that part of the planet’s complex orbital cycle. Being shared by both stars in a binary system means the planetary mechanics are complicated.
2. Well not actually native to the planet, more survivors of a colonisation attempt to exploit local resources. Planets orbiting two stars in an hourglass orbit don't generally inspire life.
3. Too well given their unfortunate deaths at the hands, and cutting devices, of a juvenile malco gang.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 4, 2023 22:24:41 GMT
And a teaser for tomorrow...... (With thanks to Graeme Dawson)
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 5, 2023 11:34:51 GMT
World's End
After their last, alien, sojourn the TARDIS party find themselves back on Earth again, and rejoice, at least some of them, at the familiar surroundings of the nineteen sixties. But the scanner shows a deserted, decrepit and partially ruined urban landscape outside. While Ian and Barbara believe they’ve arrived in the London of their own time, ruined by some war, complete with the remains of familiar propaganda posters and even another red Police Box on the street. However the streets are utterly deserted. Anxious, the pair quiz Vicki about this but she remembers little; she didn’t study pre-modern history in depth and knows as much about the era as most of their contemporaries do about the Hundred Years War. Venturing outside the TARDIS and exploring their surroundings reveals more contradictions in this London, subtle differences initially, but it’s soon apparent that the ‘rail¹ is a single loop rather than the network they knew, and there is little sign of the massive rebuilding after the Disaster of ’52².
Actually they have arrived in ‘Old London Town’, a theme park, constructed outside the city proper³ after the abandonment of much of London during the climate ‘adjustments’ of the twenty-first century and the effects of the Thousand Day War⁴ (hence the two St. Pauls’ domes visible, there was a little confusion and originally two competing attractions). This becomes really obvious when the travellers find flyers⁵ advertising the attraction and manage to leave the site through the damaged perimeter fence. There they find more destruction and abandonment, and posters rather different from those of the 1960s, carrying various cheery messages.
Soon the travellers encounter some familiar faces, the blonde Thaleks they’d left behind on Skaro, now heavily armed and sporting cybernetic implants; evidently the Dals had been less than efficient in their elimination⁶. After a brief gun-battle they hide in an abandoned building the Doctor improvises a sensor masker to hide them from Thalek response teams, which seem to be searching for the TARDIS. Exploring the building the travellers find a corpse, a human fitted with a helmet-like device that has connections directly into her brain.
Dodging the Thalek patrols the travellers are found by a small group of surviving human fighters and learn what happened. Earth had been invades two years before, after a wave of plagues, blamed on alien contacts⁷, had weakened the planet. Several colony worlds had been attacked as well, and the whole Sol system was somehow blocked from hyperspatial travel. Intruding ships are easy prey for the Thalek saucers.
The Thaleks had achieved space travel a few (Earth) centuries earlier; after they were forced from Skaro by the Dals. Initially they had used crude slower-than-light craft, hollowed asteroids turned into NAFAL generation ships, to leave the Skaro system. Expanding slowly, they found a cache of remnant technology from the old days of the Osiran Court; this allowed them to leapfrog directly to warp-drive (albeit at the cost of a few messy accidents). Learning of one of the great artefacts of the heyday of the Osirans, the Thaleks used an Osiran wormhole to drastically shorten the trip from their home galaxy to their target. Earth.
Why Terra? Because deep inside it is a piece of Osiran experimental planetary engineering; the immensely powerful GodEngine. A warp-drive able to move an entire planet. Just like the one inside Mondas. The barrier around the Sol system is another piece of scavenged Osiran tech, generating strange Icarons to inhibit hyperspace systems and keep the Sol system isolated from the human colonies and humanity’s allies during the assault.
The Thaleks hope to tap the power of the GodEngine buried deep inside the Earth, and steal the entire planet, creating a mobile base for themselves in Mutter's Spiral. But in the meantime they’ve staked an awful lot on one throw of the die; they are low in resources and facing determined harassment attacks across the Sol system. Worse there are rumblings from the nominally neutral Martians, and several surviving human bases inside the Icaron barrier still remain.
During their attack the Thaleks demonstrated an unpleasant fondness for biological weapons⁸ and using crude, mind-controlling, cybernetics to turn living, and freshly dead (there isn’t a lot of difference to the process), humans into zombie servitors; these 'Robos' are used as expendable shock troops and straw bosses.
Worse for the Doctor and his minions, the Thaleks have acquired technology that allows them to detect the TARDIS and trap it. Unable to leave the Doctor has to abandon his initial plans for a rapid departure and get involved, if only to recover his TARDIS. He assists the human resistance forces in their fight, in an attempt to locate his TARDIS and disable the Vortex Trap, and escape, convincing them that he has special knowledge of the Thaleks and their weaknesses. Meanwhile a elite Thalek squad are hunting him; their Supreme Command wants revenge for past encounters and to extract the secrets of time travel from him. It takes the profligate expenditure of human allies for the Doctor to survive and slowly make his way to north-east England to the main Thalek base.
Fortunately for humanity the Dals have followed their ancient enemies. They arrange an alliance between themselves, the human colonies, various allies (including Mars), and other local powers who don't want the Thalek presence in the Orion Arm. The massing fleets cause the Thaleks to move forces away from Earth to address the greater threat; this gives the resistance an opportunity. Using this good fortune the Doctor and his minions infiltrate the drill site near Whalley in Lancashire to recover his TARDIS. Unfortunately it is too well guarded, so he inspires a revolt of the human slaves and turns the Robos against the Thaleks. Meanwhile, nearly a light-year from Earth, the Alliance has broken the Icaron Barrier and strikes against the Thaleks. With the aid of the Dal sphere ships the Thalek fleet is smashed and ships flood into the system to take the fight to Earth, though fears of a scorched-Earth deters an immediate attack.
In Lancashire the battle turns into death and destruction on an epic scale, and the revolting humans are massacred. Discovering his TARDIS is stored aboard one of the Thalek saucers the time travellers sneak aboard, disguised as newly created Robos. The Doctor rigs the overload of a gravitic excavator at the drill site as a final distraction and uses a group of Robos fitted with suicide bombs to eliminate the gunship's crew as it hovers above the site. Finding the TARDIS the travellers are captured by the Thalek Supreme Commander Lareen and her personal guard. Cloned from the genes of one of the Thaleks who died during the Doctor's visit to Skaro she has plans for him...
As Lareen soliloquises, and the countryside below the ship experiences an unusual volcanic eruption, a a clever Dal ruse comes to fruition. In front of the travellers the Thals suddenly drop their weapons, grab their heads and scream as blood erupts from their eyes. The Dals developed a method of overloading the Thalek communication implants with a powerful signal, killing almost all their force on Earth quite spectacularly⁹.
The Doctor and minions watch the fireworks from the commandeered Thalek gunship for a while and then depart in the TARDIS before the Dals investigate and catch up with him.
1. The London Monorail, constructed in the early 1950s and expedited in the aftermath of the disasterous explosion/fire that devastated the Underground and much of the city.
2. One of the problems with endemic corrupt cronyism is not listening to experts, i.e the people warning about the dangers of old and poorly maintained infrastructure and corner cutting. This became very obvious, though not of course publicly, after the events of Friday 05DEC1952 when much of central London was damaged, the Underground network devastated and vast amounts of infrastructure crippled by the ignition of an enormous amount of gas that had leaked into the tunnels. This will come up again, you can be sure.
3. Partially inspired by the matte error in the film. Partially by the ludicrous lack of change in the city in almost two centuries. Obviously they landed in a theme part that simulated London of the 1960s. Probably created by one of the corporate execs of the period, assisted by British Nationalists nostalgic for the days of the Republic.
4. Or the First Martian War; from the attempt to subvert the transmit network to deliver Martian commando parties and blitzkrieg ecological weapons, through the destruction of the Martian fleet and the 3rd TRB (the ‘Zen Brigade’) dropping on Olympus Mons, through the Paris Rock to the final evacuation. Yes I have read Transit….
5. Actual paper! Well bacteria grown printing plastic really but Iand and Barbara don’t know the difference.
6. A little efficient genocide could have saved everyone a lot of trouble.
7. Adroit propaganda to distance humanity fro potential allies, playing on bigotry.
8. And a variety of BW agents, ranging from the merely communicable and deadly to those causing brain damage and idiocy, or extreme homicidal violence, and a partially successful ‘Hostage Virus’ that killed slowly unless a counter-agent is periodically administered.
9. Screaming, clutching at their heads, blood spurting from eyes, ears, nose and mouth, et cetera. Messy. A little Deus ex machina, But it beats having them conveniently congregating in one place and being sucked into a mineshaft….
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Post by grinch on Jan 5, 2023 14:14:02 GMT
What? No Slythers? 0/10 😉
Only joking I do like how you’ve made the Thals of this universe very distinct from the Daleks when it comes to their invasion process.
And with all this talk of Osirians it does make me wonder what Sutekh is going to be like when he inevitably shows up. Is it possible he’ll actually be a force for good in this universe?
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13th Incarnation
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 5, 2023 14:19:35 GMT
What? No Slythers? 0/10 😉 Only joking I do like how you’ve made the Thals of this universe very distinct from the Daleks when it comes to their invasion process. And with all this talk of Osirians it does make me wonder what Sutekh is going to be like when he inevitably shows up. Is it possible he’ll actually be a force for good in this universe? I never liked the Slyther I'm afraid.....
Thank you. With the Thaleks I'm aiming for a society that's heading in the Borg/Cybermen direction, but on a different path.
The Osirians were terribly underused in the canon series, IMO. And yes Sutekh will appear, though that's a while off...
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Post by grinch on Jan 5, 2023 15:31:55 GMT
What? No Slythers? 0/10 😉 Only joking I do like how you’ve made the Thals of this universe very distinct from the Daleks when it comes to their invasion process. And with all this talk of Osirians it does make me wonder what Sutekh is going to be like when he inevitably shows up. Is it possible he’ll actually be a force for good in this universe? I never liked the Slyther I'm afraid.....
Thank you. With the Thaleks I'm aiming for a society that's heading in the Borg/Cybermen direction, but on a different path.
The Osirians were terribly underused in the canon series, IMO. And yes Sutekh will appear, though that's a while off...
To be honest, until I remembered you had already written up your notes on the Cybermen I thought this was implying they were to be this universes’s version of the Cybermen! Mind you, the Thaleks are probably a trifle more aggressive than the Cybermen of this universe who strike me more as misguided but unable to break away from their desire to survive. One could argue the Osirians were rather under-utilised in the EU as well. At least outside of Sutekh.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 5, 2023 16:12:59 GMT
I never liked the Slyther I'm afraid.....
Thank you. With the Thaleks I'm aiming for a society that's heading in the Borg/Cybermen direction, but on a different path.
The Osirians were terribly underused in the canon series, IMO. And yes Sutekh will appear, though that's a while off...
To be honest, until I remembered you had already written up your notes on the Cybermen I thought this was implying they were to be this universes’s version of the Cybermen! Mind you, the Thaleks are probably a trifle more aggressive than the Cybermen of this universe who strike me more as misguided but unable to break away from their desire to survive.One could argue the Osirians were rather under-utilised in the EU as well. At least outside of Sutekh. I plan on emphasising that aspect.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 6, 2023 15:34:46 GMT
Today's story will be split due to exigencies of life and work.
All Roads Lead to Rome.
Part One.
Finally the TARDIS arrives somewhere the Doctor actually wanted to visit; just outside Rome in 64CE, late in the reign of Emperor Nero. A man with vision, whom the Doctor plans to make his puppet. With a few 'improvements' the Rome Empire will never fall¹ and will conquer the entire planet, and spread outwards expanding through space. With him as the power behind the throne²....
But first he'll need a base of operations, a plan and a way to infiltrate himself into the local power structure. He equips himself and his minions from the TARDIS stores and soon finds a suitable base; a nearby villa has been vacated by its owners, while the master of the house is off campaigning in Gaul. So the Doctor commandeers it, using a mix of force and hypnosis, and incinerating a couple of slaves, pour encourager les autres, and prepares to implement an actual plan.
His minions barely have a chance to relax and be waited on hand and foot by a bevy of servants and slaves, before they're set to work. Though all three of them appreciate the judgement of the owners in acquiring quite an attractive bunch... The TARDIS is loaded onto a cart by a group of sweating slaves, supervised by Ian, and taken to the villa, to keep it safe and handy.
The Doctor questions the staff about the locality and puts a few hypnotically dominated slaves to work producing sulphur from the nearby springs and extracting Sal Petra from the stable’s dung heap, work where Ian and Barbara's knowledge is actually useful. But the Doctor soon realises he's short of basic resources and a labour force. A visit to the Eternal City is indicated, to acquire iron, lead and more slaves.
Having the villa's carriage cleaned and serviced, and a proper suspension installed, the quartet of travellers head off to visit the greatest city in the world, with a few slaves in tow for the heavy carrying.
And Rome is impressive; a million people in one city, the bustling, crowded centre of government and commerce for the greatest society of the era. It abounds with beggars, influential patrons followed by their entourages of hopeful clients, craftsmen skilled in many trades, innumerable street performers, street urchins reminiscent of Dickens, innumerable fortune tellers, soothsayers and quacks, a wealthy Senatorial lady carried in a litter with an escort of armed slaves, and multitudes of slaves going about the masters’ business.
While the Doctor and Vicki seek out a suitable location in the city to operate from, and sellers of metals, minerals and slaves, Ian and Barbara explore and play tourist, with a soupçon of shopping.
After a barely an hour's wandering and buying (for once the Doctor was generous with local currency) the two teachers seek out refreshment; breast of peacock in orange and juniper sauce, with a garnish of larks tongues and baked pomegranates. Preceded by ant's eggs in hibiscus honey. It's a far cry from cod'n'chips as Ian laughs. Later they seek refreshment and find that the popina³ of ancient Rome aren't that much different from the East End pubs of their own time; Barbara is taken for a prostitute to her annoyance and Ian's amusement. And they're unimpressed by posca⁴. After an argument over dice escalates, and knives are produced, the popina is raided by a detachment of the Vigiles⁵ and the pair have to flee, using their stunners liberally to clear a path.
Meanwhile the Doctor's Patrician manner (and dress) coupled with hypnotic influence, mixed with Vick's charm and quite a lot of coin, has established useful contacts and arranged the supply of Sal Petra, sulphur⁶, iron, lead and other materials. He's also rented a space in a horreum⁷ in a quiet area near the southern end of the Circus Maximus and arranges for the material to be delivered there.
Next he and Vicki are off to a slave dealer (there's no public auction that day) for a dozen general labourers and a few body servants, a transaction supervised by a quaestor⁸. They visit the Doctor's new premises, have it secured, and set up some equipment, including a transmat link to the villa based on the devices the Doctor has acquired on Marinus. That way he'd keep his use of the villa a secret. He arranges sleeping accommodation in his rented space for a couple of the slaves, and fits them all with collars carrying his mark. He also liberally demonstrates the effect of a neural whip.
The travellers meet up late that afternoon and head for home, accompanied by the newly purchased (and terrified) slaves. Ian is appreciative of the pair of teenage girls Vicki chose for him.
Over the following weeks the Doctor flits between villa and warehouse, assisted by Ian, Vicki and Barbara, working on various inventions. He also uses a mix of trickery and a few advanced gadgets to build a reputation as a wizard and clairvoyant⁹. His sale of certain drugs, and poisons, is lucrative and gives him an entree into the higher echelons of Roman society. He plans to meet Nero and demonstrate his 'pilum fulminata'. Then there are a few further 'improvements' that the Doctor is also planning; Horse collars, better crop rotation, a steam engine, the potato, wood-pulp paper, movable type printing, Arabic numerals...
However his sale and use of poisons and drugs attracts the attention of the notorious poisoner Locusta¹⁰, who is intrigued and annoyed by this rival, and dispatches her star pupil, the teenage Lucia, to spy on him.
1. A classic trope. If somewhat overused.
2. Also a classic trope.
3. A decidedly plebian, and indeed Plebian, establishment regarded by the middle and upper classes as wretched hives of scum and villainy. So definitely like the East End pubs of '63.
4. A rather noxious mix of cheap wine, wine vinegar, water and herbs. Very much a bottom of society drink.
5. Vigiles are basically beat cops and firefighters. They keep the the peace, and keep the city's notorious gangs under control, and fight fires. Tend to lack patience.
6. Both used in local medicine. Saltpetre was also used as a refrigerant.
7. A warehouse, often (as in this case) mixed with ground level shops and other businesses.
8. A Roman, primary fiscal, official. There are taxes to be paid and records kept after all. They also supervised the sales to ensure the legal requirement to declare if a slave was diseased or otherwise 'defective' in any way was complied with, and arbitrate disputes on what constituted a disease or defect. So part Trading Standards, part tax collector.
9. Tiny surveillance devices giving him an insight into the goings on of the great and the good.
10. A real person. A poisoner of note (she dispatched the Emperor Claudius and his son Britannicus.) and favourite of Nero. She operated a discreet school teaching both professionals and amateurs the ways of poison, and training assassins. She maintained a network of informants and agents throughout Rome, at all levels of society.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 6, 2023 22:11:37 GMT
And here is the second, and final, part. No more epics....
All Roads Lead to Rome.
Part Two.
Lydia comes to the Doctor (who has erected the usual brightly coloured tent of the mystic¹) in the guise of a young Roman wife in need of a potion to "cool the ardour" of her husband. Permanently she implies discreetly. The Doctor is intrigued, but cautious; the poisons were just a sideline to build relations with influential Rome. He gives her one of the broaches he'd prepared to monitor his customers and suggests she return in a day or two, when he might have something suitable prepared.
He has Vicki use the broaches tracking signal to follow Lydia.
Meanwhile the Doctor has his own issues. There's a shortage of Sal Petra, imports are limited and the Doctor can't start commandeering the municipal waste. Yet.
But he has manufactured more than a hundred kilogrammes of good quality black powder, enough for around fifteen thousand musket charges. And had produced slow match in quantity². He's also finished forty rather basic muskets, plus four with rifled barrels and flintlock mechanism, Enough for a very effective demonstration for Nero, combined with some simple bombs. And a fine pair of pistols, chased in gold, for the Emperor's personal use.
Very satisfactory.
Later that day Vicki reports back. She tracked Lydia to a discreet but well appointed town house. At first Vicki thought it was her husband's property but a few discreet inquiries (aided by Vicki's charm) and she learned it was the house of Locusta, the notorious poisoner. It took a little more effort, and some drugs, to find out any more; that Locusta was effectively Court Poisoner, is under Nero's protection, and is said to run an academy for poisoners and assassins. Plus other, salacious, gossip....
The Doctor is intrigued. Might Locusta be a way to Nero? Hmmm...
Meanwhile, back at the ranch villa, Barbara and Ian are taking a walk in the countryside after a morning enjoying the attentions of their body slaves. And stumble over a body dumped in the undergrowth near the high road. After the usual "Why us?" they inform the Doctor via comm and are instructed to have the body brought to the villa.
When he arrives the Doctor examines the body. He immediately pooh-pooh's the suggestion that the murder was the result of a simple robbery; the corpse still has cash, rings and an excellent quality lyre, as well as the common pugio³.
The Doctor has a sketch prepared of the man's face, and the body disposed of. The possessions be retains.
The next day he decides on a direct approach, to Locusta not Nero. He's getting impatient. He prepares for a confrontation the following day, marshalling his minions and salves, and preparing his resources.
The following afternoon, at the hour of sexta, he bangs on the door of Locusta's house, demanding entry. When a pair of muscular slaves attempt to refuse him entry he stuns them and uses a laser cutter to open the door. Forcing his way inside he demands to speak with Locusts, tossing a couple of small black powder flash-bangs ariound to terrify the trainee assassins and servants. The Doctor strides off into the central courtyard to await her arrival, keeping in contact with his loitering minions, just in case.
After a few minutes Locusta arrives, the sigil of Nero prominently displayed on a pendant at her neck. The Doctor smiles, rises from his seat in the shade, and offers her some wine. The poisoner is taken aback at his audacity, in her own house, surrounded by her staff.
The Doctor displays, and demonstrates, another pair of his grenades; the explosion, flash and sulphurous smoke over-awe Locusta, but when he produces a pistol and shoots dead one of her slaves even she is scared.
The Doctor reassures her, with psychological domination and hypnosis, and instructs her to contact the Emperor and tell him of what he's shown her, and the potential for Rome in these new weapons. Armies killed far beyond pilum range, city walls demolished.....
Locusta agrees, and promises to arrange a meeting between Nero and 'Doctor Smith'. As a token the Doctor gives her one of his broaches, elegantly made of beaten red gold and well cut jewels. He also demands she sent Lydia to his base, she'll be useful.
The next day a messenger arrives at the warehouse, informing the Doctor that the Emperor will see him. He's summoned to the DomusTransitoria on the Palatine Hill that evening to attend a feast and demonstrate his alchemy. The Doctor accepts but can barely contain his glee.
He and Vick spend the day preparing, having slaves pack some samples, and dressing and equipping themselves. Given the company Vicki disguises herself as a boy⁵ and will go as his assistant and page.
That evening the Doctor's slaves accompany him and his page to the palace complex, bearing several heavy boxes. Before the feast the time travellers demonstrate the alchemical weapons to Nero and his friend and ally, the brutal Praetorian prefect Tigellinus. A first the flash-bangs, then a couple of fragmentation grenades are shown. Nero arranges for a number of Christian prisoners to be tied to stakes for the second test, and find the destruction intriguing.
Finally the muskets are fired at a new batch of prisoners, with Nero and Tigellinus trying their hand at shooting.
The Pilum Fulminata will revolutionise warfare. And the Doctor promises more wonders.
Nero is exited at the possibilities, and offers the Doctor any support. He will be away for a few days, travelling to Antium to avoid the late summer heat, but the Doctor can use his authority.
But first the feast.
Reclining on their couches the Doctor enjoys the feast, though abstemiously by local standards. Vicki serves him in conjunction with several slave girls chosen for their charms. During the meal the Doctor is intrigued by the mediocre playing of one of the entertainers, who seems less than proficient with his lyre.
Suddenly realisation hits him and he stuns the man, shouting a warning to the Emperor.
Nero is surrounded by the Praetorian Guard almost instantly. A search of the lyrist reveals hidden vials of poison. The Emperor is especially grateful for the Doctor not killing the assassin; his torturers will make the man speak, and name his employers. Nero offers the Doctor any reward, which the Time Lord declines, saying he was merely doing his duty. Then Nero looks at 'Victor' and laughs, perhaps the youth, on the cusp of manhood, would like a gift? He grants the 'boy' the pair of slaves he'd been working with....
Granted a suite of room in the palace that night the Doctor is satisfied; his plan is working brilliantly! Soon Rome will restart expansion, break the power of the Germanic tribes, and expand like then old days. In a chair he closes his eyes and dreams of conquest and power as he dozes.
Vicki gets less sleep, after swearing the girls to secrecy...
The next day, as Nero and his entourage depart from the hot and humid city, the Doctor issues orders in his name. Shipments of Sal Petra and sulphur are ordered, commandeered from other customers, to be stored for his exclusive use. He inspects a metal-works, planning for mass production (as far as possible) of muskets, initially for the Praetorians, but in the future for the Legions.
He returns to his warehouse-workshop, too distracted to notice he is being followed.
The Doctor has made two fundamental mistakes. Firstly to assume that the Emperor was the sole authority in the city; in fact Roman politics were complicated, with the Plebeians, Equestrians and Senatorial classes playing their part, along with the influential families. Like the one that has tried to have Nero poisoned. A family who realise that he may soon learn who was responsible.
Secondly Rome has guardians, people who know of the strangeness of the world, the odd creatures and extraordinary visitors. People sworn to protect Rome.
People who've been watching, since that odd incident in a popina was passed on to them.
The Vigiles Umbrum⁶.
Late in the afternoon the Doctor alone is inspecting a cargo of Sal Petra and arranging for it to be stored until his powder-works can be converted. Also to be stored is good quality cord. Just after dark there is a bang on the door of the Doctor's workshop. When a slave opens the door he's thrown back as a group of soldiers, of the Urban Cohort, force their way in, swords drawn. Their officer demands the Doctor surrender "By the authority granted to the Vigiles Umbrum".
The Doctor is startled. And vulnerable. His minions are absent, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki are at the villa; Lydia is with Locusta. And both Nero and Tigellinus are away from Rome. Very convenient.
But he has the support of the Emperor, if he can survive until Nero's return he can have these insolent fools crucified. Then he can heal them and repeat the process.
Quickly the Doctor formulates a plan (and vows not to remove the transmat bracelet again). He screams an order to his slaves to protect him. As the obedient humans throw themselves at the troops he grabs a few of his grenades and lights the fuses. First a trio of flash-bangs are lit from the desk lamp and hurled but has he darts into the inner room he throws the heavy fragmentation bombs as well.
Soldier and slave scream and die.
In the inner room the Doctor feverishly gathers his possessions; as the door is broken in he fires indiscriminately with the burner and transmats back to safety.
A few kilometres away the Doctor's minions are enjoying themselves, until his abrupt arrival puts an end to the festivities. He gathers them in a council of war and they discuss the situation. Barbara is strangely silent, until suddenly she speaks, reminding them of the 'incendium magnum'. The Doctor is both horrified at what this means to his plans, and furious that she didn't bring this up sooner. She responds that she assumed that his changes would have negated the fire already.
The Doctor goes quiet and the others leave him to think. Several hours pass.
As Ian and Barbara take the night air, and attempt to avoid both the heat and the Doctor's fury, Ian notices stealthy movement outside the villa and grabs his Whiting to challenge them. It's Lydia who'd left Locusta to warn them. The city is in flames, riders have been sent to fetch Nero. The Doctor's stores have been destroyed.
And on her way she passed a detachment of troops moving at a fast march.
When the Doctor is told of this he realises the game is up. Whoever these 'Vigiles Umbrum' are, they have him beaten. This time.
He orders his minions to pack and prepares a Volatiliser as a parting gift. And to kill the slaves and servants, no point risking his secrets.
Soon after the TARDIS dematerialises.
An hour later the villa, and it's surroundings, are obliterated.
1. Though his has the benefit of synthetic dyes and other trickery.
2. Nitrate cord used as fuse for bombs and pyrotechnics and the igniter in early firearms.
3. The standard Roman dagger, think of a metal version of an old0style glass Coca-Cola bottle.
4. The sixth hour, half-way through the day. The time for a siesta, or 'riposo'. It was not the hour for social or business calls.
5. It beats being molested and perhaps raped.
6.. The Guardians in the Shadows. Rome's extremely secret protectors.
7. Basically a Gendarmerie compared to the Vigiles as beat cops. They handled riots and similar problems in Rome. That'd make the Vigiles Umbrum Special Branch....
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 7, 2023 21:25:27 GMT
Television and Films.
The Men from Interpol¹ A curious, very long running, and culturally important television series, involving (in its initial iteration) two seemingly mis-matched partners² from the International Criminal Police Organisation countering various local and global threats (some rather outré) for a trans-national organisation. Went through several iterations of central cast, plus spin-offs and films. The most noted spin-off was Special Department which dealt with supposedly insoluble mysteries hinting of the supernatural. With various supporting characters, often national stereotypes. Noted for the first same-sex and inter-racial kisses on mainstream television.
Nightshade! British Republic television series in the "spy-fi" genre with the eponymous professor (a total of six actors) fighting various Sinister Alien Invaders, Mad Scientists and general Foreign Scum³ with designs on Britain. Occasionally filming was used as a cover for the SSD’s odder activities. Noted for the frequency of the appearance of the Esperanto Institute as a clandestine agency for European hegemony or outright World Domination, complete with no-quite-Jewish stereotypes, usually with Irish sidekicks. Considered to be the originator of the common conspiracy trope. Ran from 1966 to 1976 (ending rather abruptly for obvious reasons).
An attempt to revive the series in 2006 (updated of course for the post-Revolution days) failed disastrously when a set fire (blamed on pyrotechnic problems³) killed eleven people.
Nightshade was the codename of a heroic scientist who defended Britain and the Republic against all manner of alien and foreign threats. But that was just a TV series back in the sixties, wasn't it?
But now, forty years later, there are plans for a revival of the old Nightshade! show, updated for these post-Revolution days. Fans of the cult show are dubious, and there are some weird things happening in the English countryside at the old air-base where recording has commenced. What is the secret held by a now elderly actor? How is the woman who no longer calls herself Jo Grant involved? And who is the new "Technical Advisor" on the production?
Vanguard⁴. A very long running, 1965 to present, science-fiction series. Initially created as one of the launch vehicles for the EBN colour television network. Noted for, in addition to its longevity, ensemble cast (allowing for changes in crew) and replacement ships, multiple spin-offs, immensely loyal fan-base and and willingness to confront controversial issues.
One of the first forays into pan-European television (and later films) this long running science fiction series centred initially around the crew of the Commonwealth exploration ship Pathfinder. In addition to its longevity the series is notable for its use of an ensemble cast (allowing for changes in crew), replacement ships, multiple spin-offs
Fans endlessly debate its complex continuity, especially given the occasional involvement of time travel.
Seven Days to Noon. Charming English comedy (with black comedy elements) about a London couple due to get married at midday, seven days hence. Many obstacles are thrown in the way of their happiness, bureaucracy, supply problems, paperwork, a house fire, family strife and the outbreak of the Revolution of ’76, leading to the full-scale evacuation of central London and the subsequent insurrection and the descent of Britain into chaos and anarchy.
As the church they are planning to get married in is in the centre of the evacuation area, and in the midst of fighting between the insurrectionists and the loyalists, it looks like the wedding might be cancelled until a former army chaplain turned revolutionary steps in. But he has secrets of his own...
Passport to Pimlico. Tense drama that records the brief existence of the Pimlico commune during the winter and spring of 1976-7. What started so inspiringly, promising a new era of peaceful living, turned into a bloodbath as the various factions in the London borough turned against each other until the post-Revolution interim government was forced to use the militia to end the brief existence of the micro-state within London.
Noted (and awarded for) its unflinching historical accuracy, and for the lack of opportunities to actually see it in England (until its first television airing in 2006) due to the producers managing to outrage pretty much every faction in the new, post-Revolution, state by portraying them accurately. In the run up to xmas 1999 train trips to Scotland were organised to combine viewings with shopping opportunities, something that led to occasional clashes with Scottish Nationalists.
Monday in Montgomery. The early days of the neo-Confed crackdowns in the early 1950s. Told from multiple viewpoints and noted for it’s excellent depiction of the sheer banality of mass murder and those who carry it out.
The Longest Day. Revolutionaries at the Glasgow barricades as the Revolution of ’76 begins. Noted for its quiet, understated, opening, high body count (only two of the seven viewpoint characters would survive to the end) and it's shocking ending.
London's Burning. Historical television mini-series produced for ITV in 2002 depicting the Underground gas explosions and fires of 1952 and the aftermath. Noted for sudden segues from optimistic heroism and ordinary people saving their fellows, to showing the brutal crackdown on regime opponents scapegoated for the disaster. Features a non-speaking cameo from actor John Miller, famous for his portrayal of the Fallen Angel in the EBC television series.
The Land of Sad Songs. A history of Scotland from 1916 to 1986 told through its revolutionary and resistance music, usually played over a montage of silent images and footage.
The Autumn of London A bleak historical novel, written in 1999, about the last days of the Populist government in the run-up to the Revolution of ’76. Notes for its speculation about other paths that history could have taken, which inspired a single season television series.
All Quiet on the Eastern Front. The story of a group of pan-European troops during the Eastern War, told through the eyes of a French soldier, his squad and a couple of hangers-on, trapped behind Russian lines during a major counterattack.
Seven Days In May. Seven days in the life of a Swedish soldier fighting on the Northern front during the Eastern war. Many were shocked at the twist ending.
Back to the Future. Part of the ‘Fifth Wave’ of North American film-making, this tense science fiction thriller depicts the events when a mad scientist and his kidnapped teenage assistant travel back in time to the 1950s and the European Intervention. The sequels had the travellers visiting the 1930s to frustrate a plan to stop the breakup of the USA (having seen the terrible consequences of a united America) and getting involved in the Black Holocaust. The latter has the heroes visited by their descendants to reassure them that things will indeed get better.
The French Connection. A EuroFed 2010 documentary series about the eventual construction of the Channel Tunnel, and the previous attempts.
Battle of Blair Mountain A 2012 alternate history mini-series about a different ending to the Insurrection of ’21, considered to one of the first hints of the eventual break-up of the United States. The series has the 1921 coalition of thousands of Great War veterans and armed coal miners occupy Charleston and succeed in sparking a violent revolution in America, leading to a new constitution and a socialist government, rather than the violent suppression of the insurrection.
The Butler Did It. Loose film adaption, with added comedic elements, that tells the true story of Archibald Hall, who started as selfish jewel thief but drastically changed personality after witnessing elements of The Troubles (having been released from prison to fight for one of the fascist militias) at first hand. With a good, though almost entirely false, 'war record' Hall spent most of his life working as a butler to various Establishment facilities. He used his trusted servant status to undermine the establishment, acquiring blackmail material for more than thirty influential people and passing it to the SSE via an old lover. He also saved the lives of at least two hundred 'Mals' and arranged their escape to Ireland or mainland Europe. The film is sometimes accused of glorifying Hall, glossing over the numerous killings he committied, and criticised for the inaccuracy of the portrayal of his relationship with Lady Fidelity Hope, with whom he went on his eventual murderous rampage.
Patrol Boat. Irish television series that ran initially for seven seasons from 1970 to 1976 centred on the LE Áine, a Bay class offshore patrol ship operating in the Irish Sea, and the multitude of missions it faces including preventing (and occasionally assisting with) smuggling, espionage, rescues and skirmishes with British ships, spies, subs and aircraft, plus “cooperative” operations with EuroNav.
Noted for it's coverage of the inclusion of women on Irish warships for the last two seasons, the balanced coverage of environmental issues such as fishery limits and their impact on families ashore, and the rapidity which which a seemingly boring scene of military administration could segue to shocking violence.
Revived in 1985 when the missions of the new ship (the LE Aileen) was complicated by the new nations, new problems and new relationships.
An East Wind Blew. Television mini-series produced in New England in 2009 based on the diaries and speeches of author, social activist and politician Lyman Baum during his work with the migrant farm families after the triple disasters of the Black Wind, the Big Slump and the Okie ‘flu hit. Incorporates several segments based on Baum's published and unpublished stories and novels, most notably Children of the Land, his study of four groups of Okies as they try to establish a new life in California.
Shortie. Cult Scottish police procedural/detective drama that debuted in 1991 and continued for more than thirty years, following the cases of Detective Chief Inspector (later Superintendent) Janice ‘Shortie’ MacVitie a tough Glasgow detective negotiating her war through the murky world of post-Revolution Scottish politics, investigating murders and other serious crimes and sometimes dealing with the aftermath of Scotland’s break from post-Republic Britain and the complex web of factions within the city, many of which were prone to violence. This blended with her complex personal life and the personalities of the numerous junior detectives who assisted her. One of the principal themes was her constant search for justice, or at least the law, despite the efforts of her superiors, politicians, criminals and former Republicans and assorted Nats to frustrate her.
The most famous storyline, mainly due to the coincidence of its first broadcast coinciding with the discover of the Banknock mass grave, dealt with a network of former RSF members lying low within Scotland and the multi-sided battle for justice.
1. Similar thematically to The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
2. Originally pairing a suave and debonair but excitable Frenchman and a rather stolid, ingenious German.
3. Utterly connected no doubt to the presence on the abandoned RBAF airbase of a Mysterious Stranger and some associates.
4. Star Trek, with more pan-Europeanism.
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Post by grinch on Jan 8, 2023 18:52:58 GMT
As always, I’m loving the level of detail in this setting fluff.
Will the tale of the Nightshade revival be covered in a future entry for the Evil Doctor universe?
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 8, 2023 20:32:53 GMT
As always, I’m loving the level of detail in this setting fluff. Thank you! I'm glad my 696 pages of notes are proving interesting....Will the tale of the Nightshade revival be covered in a future entry for the Evil Doctor universe? It will. It (Nightshade!) is currently penciled in for the Seventh Doctor, with Ace, Roz and Chris. Though this might change.
Next up, tomorrow (hopefully), is Space Museum. Which should be followed by The Ninth Planet.
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Post by grinch on Jan 8, 2023 20:57:03 GMT
Blimey, is the First Doctor about to regenerate already?
Or is that deliberate and he was always one of the shorter lived incarnations?
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,768
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Jan 8, 2023 22:50:37 GMT
Blimey, is the First Doctor about to regenerate already? Or is that deliberate and he was always one of the shorter lived incarnations?
Oh dear me no. The Ninth Planet is more of a "mid-season break" than the end. I'm playing around with the sequence. I plan on (around) thirty two First Doctor stories (the TV series had 26 excluding Mission to the Unknown¹ and I've omitted four² so that means ten from the EU or elsewhere to be added) and we're not half-way through.
1. A nice title which I do intend to use.
2. The Edge of Destruction, Planet of Giants, The Web Planet and The Chase. Though the last of these has just been moved.
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