Chapter 5 (The Darker Ages)
Lilly finished her porridge and leant back in the chair. “Okay,” she said, pointing the spoon at the Master, “I admit it, it was a little bit reckless of the Doctor to do that.”
“Hmmm,” he said, nodding. “Yes, that incarnation of the Doctor was a little impulsive. A little reckless, but his hearts were in the right place.”
Lilly’s attention was drawn away as Craig emerged holding a large, cardboard box.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“A present for you,” he said, smiling. “Thank you, Craig.” He took the box from Craig and placed it on the ground in front of Lilly. He opened the box and inside was a long, red dress with golden and black lining. He carefully lifted it out of the box and draped it over his arms to show Lilly.
“A present? For me?” she asked, looking it up and down.
“Don’t look too shocked, Illithia,” he smiled.
She took the dress from him. It was a beautifully designed dress. The material was some kind of silk and it looked like genuine gold woven into it. She looked up at her estranged father and then threw the dress back down towards the box.
“I see,” said the Master, nodded sagely at her.
“It’s a beautiful dress,” said Craig.
“I have no desire to hear your opinions, robot,” snapped the Master.
“Leave him alone,” said Lilly. “Yes, it is a beautiful dress, but I’m not taking it. You can’t buy your way into my hearts.”
“Illithia-”
She hissed at him.
“Very well, if you insist…Lilly…I am not doing this to buy into your hearts. I’m doing it because I genuinely care for you.”
“Then why did you leave me, hmmm? Come on. I want some answers.”
“Because you needed to become the woman you needed to become. You needed to be strong. You needed to be like me.”
“What? A psychopath?” She realised her hearts were beating fast and she was getting angry. She swallowed the anger and thought of Holly. “Well, you certainly created your own, little psychopath. I killed my own brother!”
“You see that’s the problem with people. They assume that because I do things that are questionable that I’m a psychopath. That’s not the case.”
“Decent people shouldn’t have to justify what they do.”
“I have done terrible, terrible things,” he said, kneeling down in front of her again - almost pleading, “but I have changed!”
“Crap,” said Lilly.
The Master closed his eyes, looking deflated. “What can I do to convince you?”
“Nothing,” said Lilly. “You will never have my love and you will never convince me to believe in you. You are the Master and I will not obey you.”
He got up and walked over to the console. He idly punched the palm of his hand with his right fist and then span around on the spot to look directly at her. “What if I told you your mother was alive?”
“You killed her at Mount Cassius. Caleb told me. She ran back into the castle to stop you.”
“I loved your mother,” said the Master. “I would never have done anything to hurt her.”
“Just frighten her? I guess that makes it alright.”
“She is alive and well and I can prove it.” He flicked a few controls on the console and the TARDIS time rotor began to move up and down.
“Where are we going?”
“Where do you think?” he asked. “Jacarthia - where all the pieces of the jigsaw will finally slot into place for all of us.” He knelt down in front of her again and took her hands. “And we will all be happy again.”
Many, many years ago…
Louisa awoke from her sleep with a sudden jolt. An alarm was sounding from somewhere towards the console room. But it wasn’t like a normal alarm. It sounded like a repetitive, continual beeping sound. Like some kind of alert.
She changed into her white dress and hurried down the corridor to the control room where the Doctor and Atom were already standing over the console.
“What’s going on?” she asked, fastening her belt.
“It’s a distress call,” said the Doctor. He looked upset with something.
“From who?”
“Stakran.”
“Well we’ve only been gone, what, six or seven months?”
“It appears Mr Stakran has run into a few problems,” said Atom calmly
“I told Stakran I’d return, but I didn’t think he’d run into problems this quickly,” said the Doctor, tugging on his braces.
“Maybe we should land, sir,” suggested Atom.
“Yes,” said the Doctor. “But let’s be careful, eh?”
The TARDIS had materialised beside the stone bridge.
Or rather what was left of it. About three metres over the lake the bridge just ended, it’s crumbled ends threatening to drop further into the sea. On the other side of the lake the remains of the bridge were also in a damaged state.
The town beyond had fared even worse. The white, outer buildings were blackened with smoke and in the distance they could hear the sound of explosions.
The ground shook and a plume of smoke and fire erupted from somewhere in the vicinity of the white palace - nearly the only building left untouched and standing.
“What happened?” asked Louisa, shielding her eyes against the sun to try and take in the carnage in front of her.
“It appears to be a disaster,” said Atom.
“State the obvious why don’t you, Atom?” said Louisa.
The Doctor walked to the edge of the stone bridge, his face grim. “This is impossible. We weren’t gone long enough for it to escalate like this.”
“What do you mean by escalate? What caused this?”
“I’ll tell you what caused this,” came a voice from behind them. “You did.”
The three of them turned to be confronted by a young man with short, blonde hair, a salt-and-pepper beard and a mucky, sweat-soaked face. He was wearing burgundy armour of the local guard unit.
“And you are?” asked the Doctor.
“Takmos,” he said. He looked like he wasn’t going to stay standing long. “Come back to see your handiwork, have you?”
“The Doctor didn’t do this,” said Louisa.
“Maybe not directly.” Takmos staggered forward a little, clutching at his right forearm.
The Doctor stepped forward to help.
“Get away from me,” said the soldier, frowning at the Doctors attempt to help him.
“You’re injured. Let me help you.”
“You’ve done enough to help Jacarthia.” He sat down on the ground and looked up at them. “Why did you leave Gallifrey all those years ago?”
The Doctor looked uncomfortable at being asked such a direct question. He didn’t answer.
“Because you didn’t like order, did you? You liked chaos. At least that’s what the history books said.”
“I don’t like chaos, believe me,” said the Doctor, his voice sombre and low.
“No, but you can’t stay in one place too long because it becomes too normal.”
“I’m not about to debate the reasons for my leaving Gallifrey when there’s a town burning behind me.”
“Jacarthia was normal. Normal and boring.”
“You were struggling,” said Louisa. “Stakran told us-”
“He failed us. Instead of negotiating with the Capitol, he thought we could stand on our own.”
“You should have been able to,” said the Doctor. “You have rich, fertile land. You could grow your own crops and easily sustain yourselves.”
Takmos shook his head. “We were isolated. Cut off from everything - from the rest of Gallifrey.” He shook his head and looked to his side, gazing at the mountain in the distance. “It was our punishment for not towing the line. For not obeying the laws. For being a rebel town.” He looked at the Doctor.
The Doctor looked away. He had been punished in the early days for being a rebel. He had been exiled to Earth and cut off from his people. In time the Time Lords had grown to tolerate his ways, but had he gone too far this time?
“Jacarthia needed help,” said Louisa, stepping forward and putting a hand on the Doctor’s shoulder. “Don’t you see that? Your mayor did.”
“And now he sits up in the white castle, ignoring the riots.”
“Maybe we should go and speak to Mayor Stakran,” said Atom.
“He won’t let anyone in. When Jacarthia began to riot he called in the security services.” Takmos shook his head. “The farmers began to realise that they could charge more for their crops. Everyone started to take care of themselves instead of each other.”
“So Stakran sent in the security service to break up the riots and bring order?” said the Doctor, his face a look of grim defeat.
Takmos laughed. “It didn’t work. There was chaos. Women and children were caught in the middle. After a few hours some of the more aggressive members of the community broke into shops and began to steal once they knew Gallifrey had cut them off. Those that tried to escape Jacarthia were forced back by the guards from the next town.” Takmos looked up at the Doctor, fury in his eyes. “Gallifrey turned against us!”
The Doctor turned away. He could scarcely believe what he was hearing. It had never been his intention to isolate Jacarthia, merely show them how to survive without the domineering influence of the High Council and the Capitol.
Now they were in danger of destroying themselves.
There was another explosion.
“What are they?” asked Louisa.
“Explosions,” said Atom.
“What did I say about stating the obvious?” asked Louisa.
“Pockets of looters. They’ve been raiding the town for the last few months. Most people lock themselves away in their homes. The looters prey on them and take whatever they can’t fight for.”
The Doctor turned back to Takmos. “May I ask what you’re doing out here?”
Takmos looked up and got to his feet. He winced at the pain in his arm. “I heard your TARDIS arriving.”
Louisa looked a little worried and edged closer to Atom.
“We can’t escape the town the normal way, but we can in your TARDIS.”
The Doctor straightened himself up. “When you say “we” who do you mean?”
Takmos gestured towards the town. “I mean everyone. The innocent residents that you left behind. The entire town of Jacarthia.”
Now…
“You coward,” said Holly, straight-faced.
“You think so?” asked Stark, folding his arms and looking down his nose at her.
“You sat in your palace while all those people rioted and innocents got hurt.”
“So you think I sat there idly biding my time and not doing anything, do you?”
“That’s what it seems like,” chipped in Richard.
Stark smiled, got up and crossed to the large, arched window that overlooked the street outside. It was a busy, Friday afternoon and in the middle of rush hour. He could see Café Zinc across the road. Faith was no longer there, but the Doctor was. He sat staring out at the world go by and it made Stark smile. He was a different man now, but Stark was still the same. The Doctor had changed three times since Jacarthia, but he had remained in this body.
Was it because he was more careful? He suspected so. The Doctor had always been a reckless person, but even he felt like this body was slowly nearing the end of it’s life. He had come from a farming community and moved to Jacarthia to head up the Farmers Union there. He had been recognised for his negotiating and had become a part of the small council.
He’d had an accident a few centuries back during a mountaineering hike and had regenerated into this incarnation of himself. Not long after than, Stark - or Stakran as he was known - had ascended to the top of the council to become Mayor.
The Doctor was in Rassilon-knows what number incarnation now, and yet Stark felt older than him. He felt like he was at the end of his life. He closed his eyes and imagined himself as a dashing hero travelling through space and time in his own TARDIS, being granted additional regenerations. Being given chance after chance to continually save the universe.
“Stark,” came Holly’s harsh voice.
Stark opened his eyes and turned to face her. “I’m sorry, Miss Dangerfield.”
“You were talking about biding your time in the palace?”
“Yes, well I didn’t,” said Stark, going back to his seat. He reached for his whiskey decanter, thought better of it and instead poured himself some tepid water from an old, cracked jug. “Myself and the councillors spent many a month trying to negotiate with the rioters. It didn’t work.”
“Couldn’t you have just backed down?” asked Richard.
Stark smiled. “One of us thought of that and even attempted it - much to my disdain - I’d never back down! - and the High Council simply refused and said we had to be punished.”
“So how did you end up here? On Earth?” asked Holly.
Stark held out a finger. “Like your friend, Mr Hicks, do you also skip to the end of books, Miss Dangerfield?”
“No,” said Holly, realising she had done once or twice, especially when she worked in the library. “But negotiating…”
“Well we soon realised we were getting nowhere. The security forces had failed in keeping everyone in line and not long after that the Doctor and his friends returned.”
The Doctor was sat in Café Zinc, slowly turning a teaspoon around and around his cold coffee. Faith and he had chatted - not about much - and she had excused herself as she had to go back to work. Now he was sat here, all alone with neither Lilly, Holly or Richard.
He had glanced up at UNIT:X HQ momentarily and see Stark looking out, a wistful look on his face.
Probably revelling in my failure, he thought to himself.
“You haven’t thought or talked about Jacarthia for a long time,” came a familiar voice.
The Doctor jumped. Sitting there in front of him in a dark blue silk shirt was Caleb. His face was pale, but he was smiling. “Hello, uncle.”
To be continued...
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