Post by Fitz Kreiner on Jun 4, 2010 19:31:41 GMT
Day five, The Doctor’s Gamble.
Tom and I followed the Doctor down the corridor to Theodihad’s throne room. Well, I say it was a Throne Room; it was more than just that. We did fall behind a little as the Doctor was steaming off and I was walking at a fast but steady pace, still holding on to Tom. I was impressed with the Throne Room when we got there. As well as the massive gold thrones at one end, there were large holographic images everywhere.
I’d noticed that there were a distinct lack of cats here, whereas they’d been everywhere on Intheop. There were quite a few Anubians in the Throne Room here; I could see Rameso and Theoris on the other side of the room. I waved to Theoris and she nodded back to me. I was wondering about Tuchaneth, who’d met us when we arrived in Intheop, had he escaped with the Doctor and Rameso? He hadn’t said anything about him.
I looked at Tom, he looked as confused as me; the Doctor hadn’t said much since he’d met us outside the TARDIS. He was fiddling around with something that looked like a couple of forks stuck into a cork from a wine bottle with paper clips and pins added. When I’d asked him about it, he’d just said it was ‘a little something I made at school’. If he was talking about his school days, then considering if he’s as old as he says he is, then that’s going back a long time. I had no idea how whatever it was he was making would help.
Tom was still looking rather confused, even more so now that the Doctor had pulled a wine bottle out of one of his inside jacket pockets and balanced the bizarre contraption on top of it. He stepped back and I finally got a good look at it. It was even more bizarre than anything I’ve ever seen in the Tate Modern. I watched, wondering what the hell he was up to, when he pulled something else out of a pocket. Compared to everything else, it turned out to be an anti-climax; it was a pencil.
He licked the tip in that thoughtful manner I’d seen actors do when they’re playing journalists in the old 1930’s American films. He then carefully used the eraser tip to push at one of the forks. The odd contraption slowly revolved in a wobbly manner.
“Oh,” I heard Tom say loudly beside me as if he’d suddenly remembered something. “It’s a twirly thing,” he added rather sarcastically.
I found myself chuckling to that, despite the fear that I was already feeling from knowing we were surrounded by a war fleet.
“Something’s missing,” the Doctor said quietly tapping his lips again.
Tom and I both looked at him; I think Tom was expecting something rather in the way of an explanation as well. Instead the Doctor clicked his fingers and cried out; “Ah-ha!” and started patting his pockets down. I’m used to the Doctor pulling all sorts of random stuff out of his pockets, so somehow it didn’t surprise me when he pulled out a tea bag. What did surprise me was what looked like a china cup which followed the tea bag.
“Water,” he called over to one of the Anubians, who carried a jug over to him. “Hmm, ideally it should be warm, but beggars can’t be choosers,” he said.
I watched as he ripped the tea bag open and tipped the tea leaves into the cup and then poured some water over the top. He then carefully balanced it on top of the contraption he’d made and stood back grinning as though he’d just completed some masterpiece.
“Well, are you going to tell us what it is that you’ve just made?” I asked.
“It’s a thing,” he said looking almost confused.
“Yeah, we can see that,” Tom replied. “What sort of thing?”
“Something we used to make in my academy days. We used to make them to interfere with each other’s time experiments,” he said proudly.
“Time experiments?” Tom asked before I had a chance to say anything. I think we were going to say the same thing. “What time experiments?”
“Yes, well, I’ve adapted it a bit. It should send out some vestigial temporal waves that would show to the Drachnith and make them think that I’ve got something here which is actually a lot more than it really is,” he explained.
I was trying to understand why the Doctor was doing this. After all he’d said earlier about the Time Lords, his little history lesson was rather unsettling; his talk of N-forms (whatever they are) and D-Mat guns sounded rather foreboding. It was like he was trying to talk an attack up. Or scare monger or something. It almost felt out of character for him.
“So what, you’re going to bluff them to running away?” I asked. It was the only real explanation I could think of.
“Brinkmanship,” he winked smiling.
I could remember doing enough work about the Cuban Missile Crisis at GCSE’s to remember the brinkmanship there and know what brinkmanship meant.
“Are you sure?” Tom asked.
I could hear the uncertainty in his voice. I think I shared it; there was a chance that the Drachnith would call the Doctor’s bluff, and if they did that we’d be in trouble. I doubted that a wine bottle and cutlery would hold off a war fleet. I’ve seen the Doctor pull some remarkable tricks to stop invasions before, but this one I really doubted.
The Doctor turned to Tom and held his hand out, “Sonic Screwdriver?” he asked.
Tom put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the silver tool and passed it over to the Doctor.
“Cover your ears, everyone,” the Doctor shouted, looking round to the Anubians. “You two won’t have to,” he added looking and me and Tom.
I was about to ask him what he meant when he tapped one of the forks stuck out of the cork with his screwdriver and then activated it. I could just hear a high-pitched whine start to come from the strange device. I could see all the Anubian’s flinch from the sound. Of course, as dogs, they must have a higher pitch of hearing. There was a small, fat plastic tube between the cork and the cup which seemed to pulse with a red light. Where that had come from, I don’t know.
The Doctor seemed absolutely thrilled with what he’d done. He was grinning as he put his sonic screwdriver in his inside coat pocket and then rubbed his hands together. Tom was leaning in to see the device closer, as if that was going to make it easier to understand. I don’t think however close I got I’d be able to understand what it was.
The red light stopped flashing as the strange thing stopped spinning. I don’t know whether the wine bottle was meant to be a part of the thing, or whether it was just something for it to spin round on. I still couldn’t see how something cobbled together with what looked like things you find in a kitchen was meant to stop a war. I think the Doctor could see my reaction because he looked at me and smiled.
“Trust me,” he said with a wink. “We’re ready for them when they want to talk.”
“What makes you think they want to talk?” Tom asked straightening up.
I could see what he meant there. “Yeah, they didn’t seem to be too up for it on Intheop,” I said.
“They did at first,” the Doctor replied.
“But you said that was a delaying tactic, they were scouting it all out before they attacked,” I said.
The Doctor spun round to face me and held up his index finger crying; “Ah!” It surprised me and made me take a step or two backwards.
“But they still spoke,” he said. “There’s a very good chance they’ll do the same here. Don’t forget, there’s a Time Lord or two down here who may very well have access to very advanced technology which could cause untold damage to them.”
“But they have a war fleet in orbit and could destroy every city on the planet before you even have a chance to bluff them,” Tom said.
I really wished he hadn’t said that. Of all the things I didn’t want to hear, that was pretty much at the top of the list at that moment in time.
“Trust me, they’ll talk,” the Doctor said. He gave me and Tom another of his winning smiles before turning and going to talk to Theodihad.
“I bloody hope he’s right,” I said to Tom.
Tom smiled and nodded and gave me a brief hug. It was the little things like that which made me feel safe. Whatever happened, I knew that Tom would stick by me; we were best friends and he’s never let me down yet. In the last week he’d made sure I got out of Intheop safely and then rescued me from the Drachnith.
I became aware of a light coming from the centre of the room, just beyond where the Doctor was talking to Theodihad. I wasn’t going to pay much attention to it until Tom nudged me gently in the ribs. I looked round to see what the light was; it was a large holographic globe and I could clearly see the image it was of; the Drachnith Prime.
“Ah, there you are,” the Doctor said walking towards the globe. “I was wondering how long it would take for you to call. I was starting to think you’d stood us up. This is the Doctor, former president of the High Council of Time Lords, Keeper of, well, let’s forget about all that shall we? It’s rather dull stuff anyway.”
“You care to jest Time Lord?” the Drachnith Prime replied.
“Yes, I suppose I do. When in a tight spot, I find a good joke to keep up morale is always a good thing,” the Doctor replied.
He’s often a bit jokey when it comes to being in a tight spot, and I don’t think he does it for defensive reasons. It’s just how he is; it’s like he laughs in the face of danger. It’s kinda endearing, as long as he doesn’t push it too far one day and end up getting himself killed. It seems the Drachnith Prime had the same thought.
“Your jesting will be your demise. The Assemblage will not sit idle and let the Time Lords supply arms to the Anubians so they can destroy us,” he growled.
The Doctor sighed and walked closer to the globe. I could see him silhouetted against the large see-through image of the Drachnith Primes big head.
“Do you really think that’s what’s going on here?” he asked eventually.
I was slightly confused; I thought he was going to try to bluff them into surrender. I guess that he must have had a slightly different idea of bluffing them to how I did.
“The Assemblage Council knows about your wars and your weapons. They can cause destruction on a scale never before seen in our sector of the universe,” the Prime said.
“Yes, they can,” the Doctor replied rather simply.
I saw him take his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and gently start to spin the device on top of the wine bottle. I could just hear the high pitched tone again and saw the Anubians all cover their ears and start to cower away.
“If you check your equipment, you’ll see that I’ve got some high powered temporal machinery down here, and I can very easily train it on your location,” he said.
“Then you admit it,” the Drachnith Prime shouted out of the globe at him.
The Doctor wagged his finger at the globe as if he was scolding a child. It almost made me giggle at the sight. “Ah, ah, ah, I never said that,” he said. “My friends and I came here as independent travellers, no agenda, no arms deals. However, I have access to technology that can remove your entire species from history, to a point where you will never have existed. I could trap you for infinity in a second of unbearable agony, you living that single second until the very end of time.”
I was shocked by the coldness and callousness in the way the Doctor delivered that speech. I could feel the Goosebumps’s rising on my arms and found a shudder working its way from the bottom of my spine.
The Drachnith Prime’s head seemed to shrink on the globe and I could see things behind him. It had to be the bridge of the spaceship he was on. I didn’t know whether he was on the mother ship, maybe he’d come ahead with the war fleet.
“You are bluffing,” I heard him laugh. I nearly fainted from shock when he said that. I felt myself almost detach from everything around me. “You forget we spoke at the conference on Intheop. You do not strike me as a killer. I can believe you bring weapons for the Anubians for them to wipe us out, but you would not do it yourself.”
“Do you want to take that risk?” the Doctor asked just as coldly as before. “I’m the Doctor; I’ve faced legions of the worst creatures this universe has ever spawned, creatures that make you look like mewling newborns. I’ve faced them and beaten them, sent them running in fear. Do you really want to take that chance with me?”
“Then the Drachnith will go down in legend as those that killed you, destroyed our enemies before they could destroy us with superior weapons. We would be feared throughout the universe,” the Prime growled.
“Do you really think you’re the first to try that?” the Doctor asked.
The Drachnith Prime didn’t reply. I didn’t have to see his face to know that he was smiling and had an eyebrow raised. I saw him very subtly nudge the spinning device to keep it moving. I winced when I heard the high pitched sound get higher. It was starting to bother me now. I wondered whether it was a last desperate attempt by the Doctor to try to trick the Drachnith.
“If you really believed that, then we wouldn’t be having this little chat, would we?” he asked eventually.
He had a point. It seemed that the Drachnith were trying to find out how things were and what the Doctor was up to here, otherwise they wouldn’t have contacted us. I was aware of Tom beside me. He’d reached out and gently squeezed my hand for reassurance. Maybe I was showing that I was worried. But I was starting to feel less worried since the Doctor had last spoke. The Drachnith were suddenly rather quiet. It seemed that the Doctor had hit a sore spot, and they seemed to know that he knew that.
“You wanted to know what I was doing here. You couldn’t do that if I were dead, now, could you?” he asked after another silence. “Well, I’m giving you this warning; leave Anubian space right now. While I’m here your presence is not welcomed until you are willing to talk. As soon as you’re gone, I, my friends and all Time Lord Technology will leave this planet. These are my terms, if you break them then so help you. If one of your ships so much as even targets any Anubian city, if one of your soldiers teleports onto the surface of this planet, I shall erase your entire species from existence. Is that understood?”
“What assurance do we have that you will keep your word?” the Drachnith Prime asked.
The Doctor pulled himself up to his full height and gripped the lapels of his frock coat. He still had his sonic screwdriver in one hand, there was still a shrill sound coming from it.
“I am a former president of Gallifrey, my word is my bond. I am sure you can understand that as the leader of your race,” he said.
The Drachnith Primes head filled the globe again. “The deviousness of the Time Lords is known to me. You have already sided with my enemy,” he said.
“I have sided with no one,” the Doctor replied. “I landed on Intheop of my own accord. I left for here after you yourselves destroyed Intheop. It is you yourself who has fuelled your paranoia of my siding with the Anubians. It is because of you I am here. I told you once, and I’m telling you again; leave now, and you need not fear me, or any Time Lord Technology. This galaxy will be left alone by us, you have my word.”
I found that I was holding my breath. I breathed out in what sounded like the loudest sigh ever. I looked back at the Doctor and saw that he was checking his pocket watch before he put it back in his pocket and looked back at the globe.
“I made my initial offer two minutes ago. It’s only valid for another one. Take your chance and leave now,” he said.
I looked at his face. All jokiness had gone and it was serious. I knew that if the Drachnith called his bluff we’d be in trouble. The seconds seemed to last forever. It’s funny how seconds can last so long when you’re in situations like this.
“And you promise you will leave after we do?” the Prime asked.
“On my oath as president, you are free to carry on as normal as long as you leave this planet alone. I shall go if you do, is that understood?” the Doctor said.
I felt as though he was beating them. I didn’t want to congratulate him too quickly though, even when the Drachnith finally spoke.
“Very well. All but one ship shall withdraw to the edge of this system. We shall monitor Anubis until we are satisfied that you have gone, then that ship will withdraw. That is my counter offer. Do you accept?” the Prime said.
I wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing. That one ship could probably do a lot of damage before the Anubians got a chance to do anything. I could tell the Doctor knew it, but he was bluffing. I hoped that he wasn’t called up on it. My fingers were crossed behind my back.
“Very well,” the Doctor said deactivating his sonic screwdriver. “Pull out of this system. You have five minutes and we will be gone.”
I couldn’t believe it. He’d done it, with a load of stuff he probably had pulled out of some of the drawers of the TARDIS kitchen. The globe flicked off and we were left in silence.
“They are withdrawing,” one of the Anubians said.
A howling cheer went up from the Anubians around the room. I’m sure even Theodihad and Theoris were involved. Theodihad walked up to the Doctor, grinning so wide it looked to me like his teeth were bigger than they really were. The Anubian patted the Doctor on the back so hard I thought he was going to fall over.
“You have done it, they’re retreating. Tonight’s festivities will be larger and grander,” he said. He almost roared the last bit, spreading his arms to look at everyone in the room.
“I’m afraid that we shall have to decline,” the Doctor said starting to pull his device apart.
“We’re going already?” I asked.
“I gave the Drachnith my word,” the Doctor said. “That last ship won’t leave until we do.”
It seemed like we were going for another quick departure. We never seem to hang around when we’ve had adventures like this. As soon as it’s all over, we bundle back into the TARDIS and we’re off again. Sometimes it can be a bother, but other times, we can’t wait to get away. This time was a bother, the Anubians were really nice people and I’d have loved to have been at that party. Although I’m sure they had some grieving to do over the loss of Intheop.
The Doctor was putting things back in his pockets as Theoris came over and said goodbye to me and Tom. I was rather upset to be leaving. I’d grown rather close to Theoris, but from what it seemed, I wouldn’t be able to have a long goodbye. We still had that last Drachnith ship in orbit.
Finishing putting his things in his pockets, the Doctor turned to Theodihad. “From this point on, you’re on your own, both your species. You can’t accept any help from me or anyone else. I can’t tell you your future; it’s for you to decide. It’s up to you to make it the best future you can,” he said.
“I understand Doctor. You have been of great help to my people. You will not be forgotten, none of you. We are honoured to have met you,” Theodihad said.
He bowed to all three of us in turn. I was rather moved by the leaving, and both the Doctors and Theodihad’s words seemed to be good departing sentiments, the Doctor’s especially. I made sure that I waved to everyone as I left the Throne Room and followed the Doctor back to the TARDIS. Toms goodbyes were a lot quieter than my own and the Doctor’s.
I couldn’t believe that we’d finished it so quickly. I asked the Doctor why he couldn’t always hold alien invasions off like that. It seemed like he’d save a lot of lives and trouble. He told me that it was because most times, it wouldn’t work, it was only due to the Drachnith’s paranoia and the old legends of the Time Lords that it worked this time. It seemed a feasible excuse to me. I guess it wouldn’t work against the Master, who knew as much as the Doctor it seemed.
“I told you, the Drachnith’s paranoia helped,” he said. “What happens after we go is up to them. The Drachnith may come back, I don’t know, and I can’t stop them, whatever will happen will happen. It’s history, and it should be allowed to make its own course through time.”
“So, where to now?” the Doctor asked once we were back in the TARDIS.
It seemed that I wasn’t going to get to wear the dress for a ball. I looked over at Tom who raised his eyebrows. He was suggesting that it was up to me to pick the destination this time. There were two suggestions in my mind;
“Well, somewhere I can make full use of this dress” I said looking down at the dress. After all, I’d dolled myself up, and it seemed a shame to waste it.
The Doctor looked up at me and Tom and smiled. “I know the very place,” he grinned and activated the controls.
