Chapter 3 (Louisa and Atom)
“Do you think you’re safe?” asked Stark, refilling his glass.
“Safe as you can be with the Doctor,” said Holly.
He shook his head and took a sip. “You’re never safe.”
“Oh, come on. He’d never let anything happen to us.”
“He’d never let it,” said Stark, sitting back down at the desk, “but that doesn’t mean that he can always stop it. Sometimes things just happen. Sometimes the people he promises to keep safe just get hurt.”
“What does that mean?” asked Richard. “We’ve been pretty safe so far.”
“You haven’t been with him long enough.” Stark went into his drawer and pulled out a file. He pulled out two black and white photographs. On one was a stunning, tall, blonde girl with red streaks lining her hair. She was dressed in a white dress with a black belt. On the other photograph was an equally tall man. He wore some sort of grey overalls. His hair was slicked back but his skin had a silver sheen to it. Almost like he was painted.
“He was an android,” said Stark, as if reading Holly’s mind. “Hydraulic arms and legs with a positronic brain all wrapped up in silver skin. His name was Atom. Or to be more exact, A.T.O.M. It stood for Autonomous Terror-Operation Man.”
“Who was he?” She looked back to the woman. “Who were they?”
“Her name was Louisa Jenson. She was very beautiful. Well, you can see that.” He smiled. “They were companions to the Doctor a few incarnations back, when he looked different.”
“Wow,” said Holly, narrowing her eyes and looking at both photos. “He never talks about them.”
“He never will do,” said Stark. “He’s buried them away at the back of his mind because it’s too hard to talk about them.” He picked up the picture of Atom. “He was an android from 2933. He was being used by a group of terrorists called the Fort, who believed in returning Earth to it’s basic roots without technology.”
“Hang on,” said Richard, tapping the photo of Atom, “this guy was technology.”
“Yes, they used technology to achieve their goals. A means to an end I suppose,” said Stark. “Anyway, that’s all academic and it doesn’t have any impact on what happened to them. The Doctor liberated Atom.” He picked up the picture of Louisa. “Louisa was a soldier fighting against the Fort. She came from the planet Hexicon, but lived on Earth. She was half Human and half Hexicon. She joined the Doctor when he defeated the Fort.”
“I’m glad you said he defeated them,” said Holly.
“As always the Doctor won,” said Stark, his mouth curling into a wry smile. “And they were very happy together. They travelled together for many, many years. Until Jarcarthia.”
Holly looked at Stark. He was pausing for dramatic effect again and this annoyed her. One of her college tutor’s used to do it. The students would sit their at their desks looking at each other, and before one of them would ask if he was okay, he’d start to talk again.
“Go on,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Well, Jacarthia is where it all went down, as you kids like to say. Jacarthia is where the Doctor killed Louisa and Atom.”
“What?!” said Holly and Richard in unison.
He nodded and smiled. “Do you need a drink yet?”
Many, many years ago….
“I do not understand,” said Atom, the frown on his face looking permanently welded onto his silver face.
“That’s the whole point,” said Louisa, her palms outstretched.
“But it was a mythical land. There should have been no opportunity for modern police units to attend.”
“It’s a Monty Python film,” said Louisa. “It’s called humour.”
“But there was no end to the film.”
Louisa threw her head back and sighed. “How long have we been travelling together now, Atom?”
“Five years, two months, three weeks, four days, 21 hours, 15 minutes and 44 seconds.”
“And in all that time you haven’t yet grasped humour?”
“I got the knock-knock joke.”
She sighed and got up from the sofa, laughing to herself.
“Leave him, Louisa,” came a voice from the back of the cinema.
“Were they time police?” asked Atom as Louisa got up.
“Forget it, Atom. I don’t think you’re ready for the Python yet.” She turned and smiled at him. “Come on.”
“You’ll get it one day,” said the dark-skinned man known as the Doctor. He had his arms folded. He had short, black hair and a dark, short beard. He was dressed in a tweed jacket and green, corduroy trousers, which were held up with braces over an open-necked, white, stripy shirt.
“Probably the day he dies,” said Louisa, with a laugh.
“Barring accidents,” said the Doctor, “Atom will never die.”
“Then perhaps that means,” said Atom, joining them at the cinema exit, “that I am never destined to understand the humour of the Monty Python.”
“Perhaps not,” said the Doctor.
“Are we about to land?”
“Yes,” said the Doctor, holding out his arm for them to pass.
The cinema exit led into a narrow corridor indented with round, circular shapes. The corridor wound around and around until it led to a large, hexagonal control room. In the centre of the room was an eight sided console with a glass tube running right through the centre of it and up to the high, wood-beamed ceiling.
Louisa was wearing a long, white dress with a black belt, the dress swishing as she floated into the room. She sat down on a leather seat near the console and Atom stood next to her. Louisa strapped herself in.
“Where are we going?” she asked, watching the Doctor dance around the console.
“Home,” he said, flashing her a perfect, white-toothed smile.
“Earth or Hexicon?” she asked, looking a little concerned. She wasn’t quite ready to face either of her home planets yet.
“Neither,” he said, winking.
“The factory on Mars? Where I was built? My home?” queried Atom.
“You’re both wrong,” said the Doctor. He pulled a large lever and stood with his hands behind his back as the TARDIS engines signalled its landing. “We’re going to my home. We’re going to Gallifrey.”
The TARDIS had landed in a clearing of red and orange grass. Behind the blue box, which stood out amongst the red tones of the environment, was a forest of silver-leaved trees. Further beyond that were huge, snow-capped mountains. The clearing ended at the edge of a cliff and gave way to an expanse of low, fluffy-white clouds.
“Wow,” said Louisa emerging from the box. “In all the years we’ve been with you I never thought we’d get to see this place.”
“In all likelihood,” said Atom, following Louisa out of the TARDIS, “the Doctor would never have taken us here. Outsiders are generally not welcome.”
“Unless under extreme circumstances,” said the Doctor, locking the door and jamming a floppy, wide-brimmed straw-hat onto his head. “Phew, it’s warm today.” He checked his watch. “Late afternoon.”
“You said the capitol was in the middle of a desert in a big, glass dome,” said Louisa, spinning around her, taking in the view.
“We’re not at the capitol,” said the Doctor, making his way to the edge of the cliff and peering over the edge. A staircase had been cut into the side of the mountain and far, far down below was a lake. On the other side of the lake a great metal city rose from the ground. All of the buildings seemed to circle around a larger, metal tower-like building in the centre. Beyond the main building, towards a more open area of flagstones was a large, white palace with blue and yellow flags raised high into the sky.
“Where are we then?” asked Louisa, gazing down at the spectacle below.
“This is a town on the other side of the planet. This is the town of Jacarthia.”
Now…
Lilly was sat on a deckchair in the centre of the Masters console room. She looked down at the bowl of porridge in her lap and then looked back at him. He was concentrating on some readings on a computer screen.
In the corner of the room Craig stood watching her, unblinking and unmoving.
The Master looked up at her and nodded to the bowl. “You need to eat.”
“You made the TARDIS explode, didn’t you?”
He stood up, put his hands in his pockets and nodded. “Yes. I planted a device in the time rotor when you were parked on Gandra. Just enough to overload the power systems.”
“Why?”
“Because the Doctor is my enemy.”
“But he’s my uncle,” said Lilly.
“Not technically,” said the Master. He walked around the side of the console and half-leaned/half-sat on it. “And you didn’t care for Mr Hicks.”
“But Holly-”
“Ah, yes, your little girlfriend.” He smiled. “I am pleased that you’ve found someone to…fall in love with.”
“What do you know about love?” asked Lilly.
The Master chuckled to himself and then looked at Craig. “Go and bring the package.”
“Yes, Master,” said Craig, who left the room.
The Master walked over to Lilly and then crouched down in front of her. “I love you.”
Lilly burst out laughing at the incredulity of it all. “Don’t make me sick.”
“Is it so hard to believe?”
She stopped laughing and stared straight at him, her piercing eyes unblinking. “You’ve spent your entire life being cruel and evil and hurting people. I don’t think your hearts have the capability of loving anyone.” She jabbed a finger towards his chest.
“People can change.”
“You took me away from my mother when I was a baby, let her think I was dead and then abandoned me with a cruel family. If your idea of love is visiting every now and then to make sure they were still being cruel to me then you’re as deluded as the Doctor always said you were.”
The Master continued to crouch and look at her. He looked away and then got to his feet. He scratched his chin as he walked back to the console. “I’ve been the old me for so long now. There comes a point in life were you realise that perhaps the way you are doing things is not the best way to live your life.”
“So you’re an angel now? One of the good guys?”
He turned around to face her again and smiled. “Oh, come now, my dear daughter, I will never be one of the good guys.” He chuckled. “In fact in all of this universe I have never met someone who is whiter than white. I have never met one of these fabled good guys.”
“The Doctor is good.”
“Is he now?” He smiled again. “The Doctor - like everyone - is just a shade of grey. He is lighter than most, and I have been darker than most, but we’re all still the same. We’re all still grey.”
“I’d rather have the Doctor’s shade of grey than yours.”
He shook his head and lowered it.
“Last time we met I asked you why you let me live that life for 24 years on Earth. You said you couldn’t tell me. If you really, honestly care about me then you’ll be truthful with me.”
His head snapped up. “Oh, I intend to be Illithia.”
“Don’t call me that,” she snapped.
“But it’s your name. Lilly is just a fake name that I concocted for you so you would fit in.” He straightened his tie. “If I am to tell you the truth you must first learn the truth of the Doctor.”
“More lies?”
“No.” He smiled. “He’s never told you about Jacarthia, has he?”
“Only a few basics,” she said. She didn’t want to hear this, but she had a feeling she wasn’t going to get a choice. “When he’s ready he’ll tell me.”
“He’ll never tell you. Let me enlighten you. And once you’re suitably enlightened you might decide to give me a chance.”
To be continued...
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