The TARDIS groaned into reality on an icy plain, cold wind whipped around it, and the frosted-glass window panes acquired a coating of real frost.
The door opened.
"This is naff, Professor! Why'd you bring us here?" the charming young girl asked. Ace was wearing a furry wrap over her usual bomber jacket ensemble. She stepped out first, looking very disappointed at their surroundings.
"Because," a strong Scottish burr replied from within, "It's time I exposed you to some cultures besides human and human-dominated." The Doctor stepped out and closed the TARDIS door behind him, locking it. He was wearing his second incarnation's fur coat over his usual battered cream linen suit. "The Ice Warriors (he trilled the r's of course) are a fascinating species, worthy of viewing without human allies or enemies."
"What, the Martians?"
"Yes, but they don't like to be called that. They prefer to be called Ice Warriors, apparently. Sounds more noble to them. Anyway, this is an Ice Warrior colony in the far future, when the Galactic Federation has taken over and Human brutalities against other races are almost forgotten."
"So they'll welcome us?"
"I don't know about that, but they won't shoot us on sight."
"How reassuring," said Ace, rolling her eyes.
They headed towards the green towers and domes of the nearest Ice Warrior city. According to the TARDIS databank, Zaxarr was a moderately prosperous colony, noted for both its mining and entertainment industry.
What the Doctor hadn't told Ace, and had prevented the TARDIS databanks from revealing, was that the city of Drizzt -- which they were now approaching -- had been evacuated for reasons unknown. The Doctor wanted to know.
Therefore, he wasn't surprised when the ground bucked and a groaning alarm began to emanate from the city. He only swayed a little, while Ace went down in a heap of flailing limbs.
"What is it?" she gasped, as he helped her up.
"I don't know," he said, "Come on!" taking her hand, he led her towards the city at a run.
It was a short run, but by the end of it, Ace was out of breath. The small Martian city was in chaos. Unarmored civilians scrambled around in confusion. Ice Warriors in their bulky armor tried to direct the flow of traffic out of the city, with little success. Ice Lords tried to get peoples' attention, to calm them down, with even less success.
The Doctor accosted an Ice Lord. "I'm the Doctor, can I help your people?"
Even through the red eye-lenses, Ace could tell the Martian was annoyed. "No alien can help us now, least of all a human, however fluent in our language they may be."
"I'm not human," said the Doctor. "Is there some sort of catastrophe?"
"Some scientist's pet project is going to overload. Now out of my way!"
The Doctor raised his hat, and moved on.
"How we going to find this project, Professor?" Ace asked.
"Well Ace, they may not know where to run to, but you can be sure they won't be heading towards this 'project.' So all we have to do is find the one place they're not running to.
"Oh, is that all."
"Come on." He took her hand again, and led her into the milling green flesh.
Ace was buffeted by Martian civilians, knocking her back and forth, dazing her. Only the Doctor's firm grip on her hand kept her from falling.
The Doctor easily saw the patterns of traffic, and led them through without too much difficulty.
He saw the similarities and differences between Martians and Humans in a crisis situation, by observing the behavior of the Martians in this instance. Like Humans, they were panicking. Unlike Humans, they maintained a facade of calm; they were running haphazardly, but they were not yelling or shouting; instead, their faces were grimly set and they were silent. Even the children.
More Ice Warriors were showing up on the scene now, and beginning to force the crowds into milling, orderly groups. Unlike Humans, the Martians took these orders easily, and without fuss. They were slowly being shepherded out of the city. The Doctor knew they had to find their way to the disturbance itself, or be forced out too.
They finally burst through the crowd, and came to a small, unimpressive green dome. The air was shimmering around the dome, and it clearly was not heat haze.
"Temporal distortion," the Doctor said. There was no trill in his r's now, and his voice was like a pronouncement of doom.
They tried the door, but of course it would not open for them.
"Ace?" he said, grinning at her.
She smiled back, and pulled out a can of nitro. And placed it by the door. They scuttled back out of the way. There was a loud, hollow BANG, and the door blew in. They charged in, like commandos.
The rippling effect was worse here. The Doctor felt himself ageing and de-ageing by a few hours.
"I feel funny, professor," Ace groaned.
"It's the time distortion. It'll get worse unless I stop it."
Just then, an Ice Warrior charged through a bulkhead at them. Ace tripped him up, and he went sprawling. They charged through the bulkhead.
Before them, several Martian scientists were frantically working the controls of a pulsating, glowing green machine. It was huge, filled half the room, and had a lot of fluid components.
"Wicked," Ace breathed.
The Doctor was also impressed, but in a different way entirely. He sucked in his breath, sharply.
He grabbed the nearest scientist. "How did you build this time machine?"
The Martian glared back at him. "How dare you ..."
The Doctor's eyes changed from blue to grey, and his voice dropped to a snarl. "How???"
The Martian seemed to slump. "It ... it's not a time machine....we were ... trying to ... to ... use a new dimension for our faster than light ... drives ... other than hyper ... space."
"And instead you breached the Time-Space Vortex," the Doctor said. "Wonderful." He let the scientist go. The Martian dropped to the floor, looking dazed.
"Can you fix it, Professor?" Ace asked.
"Yes, but I'll need you to keep any guards that show up at bay."
Ace grinned, and pulled the Hand of Omega-powered baseball bat out of her rucksack. "No problem."
The Doctor nodded. "No killing."
She pouted at him. "You know me better than that."
"Yes, but accidents happen."
Ace nodded solemnly, then turned to the door.
"Everybody out," the Doctor said.
The scientists all stared at him. "We will not allow ..." one of them began.
The Doctor's eyes changed again. "I said out."
They all stopped and stared at him; even Ace flinched. Then, one by one, they filed out, the one the Doctor had interrogated first.
The Doctor still hadn't recovered his sonic screwdriver, but he had compensated in some other ways. He took a laser cutter, an ether generator, and a power modification circuit, out of his pockets, and got to work.
"How long?" Ace asked, never taking her eyes from the door.
"Twenty minutes, maybe less. I can't dismantle it; too risky. It could punch a permanent hole into the vortex. The leakage would be terrible. So all I can do is shut it down."
An Ice Warrior came in with disrupter pointed at Ace. She knocked his arm skyward, and the sonic blast discharged into the ceiling. The Warrior tried to aim again, but Ace brought her bat down on his helmeted head. There was a crack, and the Warrior collapsed. "Hurry up, Professor!"
"I am hurrying!" He attached the ether generator to the power modification circuit, and slotted it into the engine's core. "Now they won't be able to reactivate it." He hunted for the off switch.
An Ice Lord, backed by two Warriors, burst in. "This is unacceptable!"
"Your mismanagement of this project is what is truly unacceptable!" The Doctor shot back. "Don't make messes you can't clean up!" He pulled a lever, pressed a switch, and the device shut off with a slowly fading whine.
The Ice Lord stormed up to him. "We need that engine!"
The Doctor nodded. "I don't doubt it. But I need for you to not damage the time-space vortex. And that's what you breached with this thing."
The Ice Lord seemed to freeze for a moment, then became defiant again. "Why should I believe you?"
"You saw those distortions. You knew enough to evacuate the city. You know that you can't control what you're dealing with here."
The Ice Lord sucked in air. "Very well; we can always build another. But I insist you leave that here."
Surprising everyone, the Doctor nodded. "Taking it with me would be a bad idea anyway. But you'll have to keep the city evacuated for decades. The residual chronon distortions will take years to fade."
The Ice Lord considered this. "How many years?"
"Thirty at least, perhaps as many as sixty. You'll be able to detect the distortions."
The Ice Lord thought a moment more, then bowed, and left. Ace and the Doctor followed.
"You're really gonna leave it here, Professor?" Ace asked.
"I have to," the Doctor said. "The distortions of that thing could damage the TARDIS itself."
"What about us?"
"As long as we get out of here, our exposure will have been short enough."
They were mostly silent for the trek back to the TARDIS. When they reached it, Ace said:
"Surely you'll keep an eye on this?"
"Oh yes," the Doctor nodded. "I'll be back soon enough." His eyes got that distant look Ace always found disturbing. "Soon enough ..."
They went into the TARDIS, which dematerialized.
Thirty-five years passed. The Martians detected the chronon radiation, and stayed out. Political tides rose and fell, Martians were born and died, and the Doctor went through much that can't be discussed here.
Unfortunately, chronon radiation travels far and races more technologically advanced than the Ice Warriors detected it.
A silver ship glided silently towards the Martian colony, after that thirty-five-year interlude. The ship's inhabitants had no remorse, or guilt, or doubt, or fear.
On the ship's bridge, a gleaming silver skinned giant turned to its superior. "The source of the radiation has been detected, Leader."
The CyberLeader stepped forward. "Excellent."
Fitz Kreiner dozed comfortably in the Doctor's favorite chair. He hadn't been in the TARDIS long; and the recent events of dealing with a mad Paradox cultist during World War I had left him bushed.
"Wake up, Fitzy."
Reluctantly, Fitz opened his eyes, and started into a pair of blue ones. Sam Jones, blonde haired, blue eyed, and absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, she was also hopelessly idealistic, and fixated on the Doctor. And how could he hope to compete with a thousand year old romantic?
"Don't call me Fitzy," he said, sitting up. "What is it?"
She jerked her head towards the console. "Ask the Doctor; he's all excited."
The Doctor, in his Eighth incarnation, was indeed excited. He was bouncing around the Jules Verne-esque console, long chestnut hair flying, crushed velvet frock swaying, blue eyes gleaming.
Fitz stood up, wishing for a cup of coffee, and made his way over. "Well?" He rain a hand through his own scraggly brown mane, and tugged the black trench coat he'd found in the TARDIS wardrobe -- it seemed to suit him -- more tightly around himself.
The Doctor was not cheerful; he was agitated, nervous. "The Cybermen are about to make an old problem worse."
Fitz flinched. He had yet to meet the Cybermen, but the Doctor and Sam had told him of many horrors in the few weeks he had been aboard. "What problem?"
"Something I dealt with a lifetime ago," the Doctor replied, with a distant look in his eyes. It was the same distant look that had disturbed Ace so long ago, and Fitz and Sam liked it no better than she had.
"Well, don't keep us in suspense," said Sam. She was wearing green today, Fitz noticed. Nothing environmental, no save the whales logos. Just plain green. He liked it.
"In my immediately previous incarnation, I stopped an experimental Ice Warrior warp engine from breaching the Time/Space Vortex," said the Doctor, interrupting Fitz's examination of Sam. "I shut it down, but I couldn't take it with me, because the resonance frequencies with the TARDIS' link to the Eye of Harmony would ..."
"Would what?" Sam asked.
"Well, let's just say if we were really lucky, only Mutter's Spiral would be destroyed.
"Only?!?" Fitz gasped.
"Par for the course, Fitzy," Sam said, but inwardly, she was a little shaken.
"So how do you know these Cybermen are after it, and how do you plan to stop them?" Fitz said.
"When I shut the engine down, I attached an ether power generator to it. Amongst other things, it's a long range scanner. And it's detected a Cybership approaching the Zaxarr system."
"Might they just be coming to conquer and dominate et etcetera?" said Sam.
"They might," agreed the Doctor, "But although they can convert Ice
Warriors into Cybermen, they're not a first choice candidate. Humans
are much better. And besides, why this remote, if prosperous, colony?
Too much coincidence. As for my plan, well, I'm working on it." He
punched some buttons and their destination came up on the screen.
The TARDIS materialized in one of the Cybership's corridors. No Cybermen were around to notice, nor did the ship's internal sensors go off.
The Doctor was rummaging in one of the drawers on one side of the vast console room. "I should never have let Chang Lee keep all that gold dust, I need some of it now! Ah well. There are other ways to best Cybermen.
"Such as?" Fitz asked.
"Well, for one thing, the ship is Shrouded. My scanner detected it, but the Ice Warriors won't have. So the first thing to do is shut off the Shroud, and let the Martians know that company's coming."
"And then?"
"And then I think it'll be the usual 'take me to your leader' bit."
Sam and Fitz exchanged a weary glance.
The Cyberleader turned to his subordinate. "Time to arrival?"
"Forty minutes, Leader."
The Ice Warrior patrols did not detect the Cybership as it passed them. Visual scanners showed nothing but space. But all of the Martians, even the brashest warriors, felt uneasy, as if a large predator was near.
They were right.
The Doctor poked his head out of the TARDIS door, looked left, looked right. "Clear," he whispered.
In a row, The Doctor, Sam, and Fitz scuttled out of the TARDIS, Fitz locking the door behind him.
They reached a two way junction and split up; the Doctor and Fitz going left, Sam going right. Cyberships had moved the Shroud system around over the years; atypically, it was not in the engine room. No doubt the Cybermen thought this "tactically logical".
The Doctor and Fitz came to another junction, and split again; Doctor left, Fitz right. Fitz wasn't happy about this -- he wasn't the conquering hero type -- but nevertheless took his appointed path.
Each of them had the necessary jamming equipment for the Shroud system; the Doctor had cobbled these together in the TARDIS, bringing the Cybership that much closer to Zaxarr. Only about twenty minutes were left until landing now.
Sam opened a door, and walked into the Cybermen's hibernation alcove.
There weren't many hibernation chambers, not many Cybermen. But there were enough.
More than enough.
"Cruk," she breathed, viewing more than twenty hibernation chambers, a Cyberman staring out of each one.
They're asleep, she told herself. Just remember, they're asleep. She moved to the hibernation monitoring console. The jamming equipment was adaptable to different systems, and the Cybermen tended to design all their systems similarly. Remembering the Doctor's instructions, she got to work.
Fitz found the Shroud System, a set of nodules and knobs against one wall. The Cybermen didn't feel the need to defend any of their systems -- they didn't expect infiltrators. Their previous clashes with the Doctor should've taught them better.
However, Cybermen were also designed to handle unshielded power systems better than humans. Sam had better luck with the hibernation vats, since the Cybermen were still asleep, and that system was on low power. The Shroud, on the other hand, was active. Fitz grimaced, and pulled out the insulation gloves the Doctor had given him.
The Doctor strode purposefully down the ever-widening corridor. He was more shaken that he had let his companions realize, when the ether generator had signaled to him that it had detected the Cybership. As far as he knew, the Cybermen had become extinct by now.
He was hoping to find either the Shroud system, or failing that, a power conduit, but what he found instead was the door that led to the bridge.
The door hissed open, and six Cybermen -- four normal troopers plus the Cyber Lieutenant and Leader -- looked up.
"Doctor," said the Cyberleader, completely deadpan.
"You recognize me?" asked the Doctor.
"Even by human standards, your garb is extremely illogical," said the Lieutenant. "Who else would it be?"
"True enough," the Doctor agreed, then look puzzled. "Aren't you going to shoot me, or throw me in prison, or something like that?"
"I am already covering you," said the Lieutenant, and now his blaster was clearly visible, "But that should be sufficient for our needs."
"Computer logic indicated the engine below was being held in check by a technology both more advanced and less organized than that of the Ice Warriors," said the Leader. "There was an 85% chance that you were responsible. Even if you were not, there was a 98% chance you would intervene, and attempt to stop us. We do not need to imprison you. All we need do is keep you here at gunpoint, and force you to watch while we incorporate the engine into our vessel, making the victory of the Cyber Race complete."
"I thought your vaunted race was extinct," the Doctor said, playing for time, as always.
"We were, for all intents and purposes," said the Leader. "But the Controller had anticipated all contingencies, even extinction of our race. So some hibernation chambers were placed in a remote area, outside our sphere of influence. Every thirty-five years, a ship came to inform the chamber computers all was well. Then, one thirty-five year cycle, no ship came."
"And you awoke," the Doctor said. "I should have anticipated this. But in any case, it doesn't matter. You haven't factored in my companions."
"With the exception of the companion you had at the time you denied us the Validium Statue, your companions have been mostly useless." the Lieutenant said dismissively.
The Doctor only grinned in reply.
"Leader!" said one of the other Cybermen. "Shroud system is powering down!"
"Hybernation systems failing!" said another.
"You know, the term 'mostly' is open to loose interpretation," said the Doctor, grin widening even as he spoke.
"Kill him," said the Cyberleader.
Alarms resounded all over Zaxarr as the Cybership shimmered into visibility in orbit. Three warships closed in for the kill.
The Cybermen would not be easy to take, however. The Cybership opened fire, ripping open the hull of one of the Ice Warrior Ships.
The Doctor half-lunged, half-fell to the side as the Cyber Lieutenant fired. The blast blew a hole in the door behind him, keeping it permanently open.
The Cyberleader continued to command the ship against the Ice Warrior vessels, and the Lieutenant moved forward, trying to target the Doctor. The Doctor scurried between various banks of instruments, keeping his head down; he knew the Lieutenant would hesitate, trying to shoot him without damaging vital circuitry, especially in a combat situation like this.
At this point, Sam came skidding to a halt in front of the blown out door. She took in the situation at a glance. "Yoo-hoo, tinhead!" she called cheerfully. "Your mother was the Exxon Valdez!"
The Lieutenant turned towards her, bringing his gun to bear. The Doctor lunged, grabbing the gun, and tried to wrest it from the Lieutenant's grasp. The Cyberman was far too strong, of course; but the Doctor managed to turn the gun just enough for the blast to miss Sam, and blow out some of the computer circuitry at the back of the bridge instead.
The Cybership succeeded in taking out two of the Ice Warrior vessels; and they exploded in soundless explosions of light and heat. But the third was closing in fast, disrupters firing.
The Cyber Lieutenant and the Doctor continued to struggle for the weapon. The Cyber Leader finally ordered one of the other Cybermen to aid the Lieutenant, taking over its station whilst still commanding the battle. The second Cyberman advanced on Sam, but then Fitz turned up. He had managed to rip part of the Shroud circuitry away from the system, once the sabotage device had done its work, and now he threw this at the Cyberman. It flew through the air, sparking nastily, and impacted with the thing's chest unit. The Cyberman was not killed, but it was knocked back, and staggered on its feet, allowing Sam to get away.
The Doctor managed to alter the Lieutenant's aim again, and the next shot went into the station where the Leader was working, ruining it and damaging the Cyberleader. The console was for weapons, and that left the ship unable to fire.
The Cybership could no longer fire, and the last Ice Warrior ship scored several direct hits. The Cybership lost control. No longer able to compensate for the planet's gravity, it began to fall towards Zaxarr.
The hull began to heat up as the Cybership entered the atmosphere.
"Activate heat shieldssssss," slurred the Cyberleader, "P-p-p-prepare for crashhhhh land-d-dinggg." The voice was distorted, blurred; and it was fused to the inert weapons console, but it did not surrender. Say what you will about the Cybermen, the Doctor mused, They are indomitable, determined to survive.
He released the Cyber Lieutenant, and as he expected, it ignored him and helped the other Cybermen carry out the Leader's commands. "Now's our chance, go!" he shouted to Sam and Fitz, and dashed out of the bridge.
They pelted down the corridor together, the Doctor leading. Wall panels exploded and the corridor shook, as the ship fell towards the planet. They turned, running a branching hallway, as the air began to shimmer in the heat. The heat shields were failing too quickly; if they didn't get out fast, crashing would not be a problem. They would be roasted first.
Finally, the Doctor rounded a corner, and the reassuring blue shape of the TARDIS became visible. He crashed into the door, and jammed his key in the lock. The door opened, and he charged in, Fitz and Sam stumbling after.
The door closed behind them, and the two companions collapsed, panting. The Doctor dashed to the console, and began his usual dance around it. "Just a short jump," he said, "As close to the engine as we can safely get."
"Why?" Sam managed to gasp.
"Because if any Cybermen survive the crash, they'll head for it."
The Cybership smashed into the planet's surface, hard. Shrapnel scattered everywhere. Those few Martians in the area were killed.
In the distance, a Martian alarm began to howl. But it would be a long time before any Martians could arrive, and besides, it was within the radiation zone.
For about five minutes, there was silence, save for the faint wail of the alarm. The wreckage was burning, but did not explode. There was a small impact crater around the wreckage, not to deep.
The TARDIS groaned into reality not far from the abandoned city that still housed the time-warping engine.
The Doctor scanned the instruments. "The Cybership crashed not two kilometers from here."
Fitz snorted. "Figures."
The Doctor nodded. "That's how our luck runs."
"Maybe no Cybermen survived," said Sam.
"Like he said, we're not that lucky," said Fitz.
A clenched fist erupted from the still-smouldering wreckage. Slowly, a long figure struggled to its feet. With difficulty, it limped out of the crash zone. It was the Lieutenant. Badly damaged, power systems flickering, it nevertheless headed for the time engine. The fact that there was now no way to procure it was irrelevant. The Doctor would be there. And the Doctor would finally be destroyed.
The Doctor opened the TARDIS door, and led them towards the domed city. He knew what was coming, yet he feigned surprise when the Lieutenant managed a weak, buzzing "Szztop."
Sam and Fitz dived for cover. The Doctor slowly turned around. He eyed the Lieutenant coldly. "You've no transport for the engine now, and no weapon."
"I can szzteal an Ice Warrior szhip."
"Your logic is faulty. No longer being second fiddle must have gone to what passes for your head."
The Cyberman's head was indeed dented, and steaming. The silver armor was blackened in several places, and it limped. "You have alwayzzz undereztimated uzz. But no matter. I still have my helm weapon."
"Damaged in the explosion, no doubt."
"No."
"Prove it."
The Doctor was hoping the helm weapon would blow up, but he was disappointed; it only fizzled and buzzed. "Oh dear, now what you will do?"
For an answer, the Lieutenant lunged for his throat. But it was damaged, weak and slow. The Doctor stepped back, and it tripped, falling on its face in front of him. He took out his sonic screwdriver and activated it. There was a sparking from the Cyberman's armor, but it still got up. The Doctor adjusted the control, and the screwdriver's pitch heightened. The Cyberman collapsed.
"Is it dead?" Asked Fitz.
"No," said the Doctor. "Merely powered down."
"Why?" asked Sam.
"Because," said the Doctor, "He's going to make sure nobody else comes looking for the engine. With a little help from the Ice Warriors."
The Ice Lord came to the edge of the radion danger zone, where the TARDIS was. He had come at the Doctor's signal. He was clearly older; the armor had been grown thicker around the legs to support him, his skin was wrinkled. But he was still full of vitality and command.
"You are not the one I met before," he said bluntly. The voice was almost the same, slight deeper and stronger.
"No," agreed the Doctor, "I am his successor."
The Ice Lord drew back somewhat. One of the Ice Warriors supporting him moved forward, but the Lord waved him back. "Successor?"
The Doctor's eyes turned grey, as he looked into the Ice Lord's timeline. "I know you, Lord T'lazir. You're honorable. You followed my ... my predecessor's suggestions, even though it cost you power and prestige. Because you knew he was right."
T'lazir stepped back again. "How do you know ... never mind. But why must it be moved now?"
The Doctor's eyes returned to normal. "Because the Cybermen won't be the last ones to come looking for the engine. It must be moved to someplace where no one will find it."
"Your predecessor said the radiation will die out in time."
"And so it will," the Doctor agreed. "But if the Cybermen detected the residual radiation at such long range, others can as well. Daleks, Humans ..."
"So what do you suggest?" Lord T'lazir asked.
"A small shuttle, containing the engine, and a pilot. Taking the engine beyond known space, forever."
"Why not destroy it?"
"For he same reason I can't take it with me. The chronal backlash would destroy everything we've ever known."
"Many of my pilots would accept the honor, but I need them here."
"Let me go," grunted one of his Warrior escorts, stepping forward. "I will preserver the honor of our race."
"No," said T'lazir, "I cannot afford to lose you."
"That will not be a problem," said the Doctor. He turned around. "Ready, Fitz?"
"Here he comes, Doctor," Fitz's voice responded from within the TARDIS. A moment later, the Cyber Lieutenant came clumping out.
The Ice Warriors raised their arms, the sonic guns built into the armor pointed straight at the silver figure.
The Doctor jumped between the Warriors and the Lieutenant, waving his hands. "No! I have him under my control!"
T'lazir put his hands on the raised Warrior's arms. They lowered, reluctantly. "Under your control?"
"Well, my control, to be more exact," said Fitz, coming out of the TARDIS, with an improvised control device in hand. It was cobbled together out of old computer circuit boards and a video game joystick; to T'Lazir, it looked like a child's toy.
"I'm working on a more detailed one, capable of taking more specific commands," said the Doctor. "The bottom line is, he'll make the perfect pilot for you."
"How do we know he'll stay under control?" one of the Warriors asked. He eyed the Lieutenant suspiciously.
"Because there's not enough left of him to challenge you," the Doctor replied. "He'd die without the support system the control panel regulates."
Sam wandered out of the TARDIS. "You seem almost sad about it," she said.
"All death is tragedy," the Doctor replied, closing his eyes.
"Surely you know that as a Cyberman, the important parts of it were dead already," T'lazir said.
"I know," the Doctor agreed. "But that doesn't mean I like it."
Lord T'lazir shrugged. "In any case, it will serve our needs."
Four days later, the Ice Warriors launched a small, fast cruiser. It had no weapons, minimal life support, and was designed for high speed transport. Its old name had been Sword of Tuburr; its new name was Pride's Consequence. Within were the engine and the Lieutenant.
The Doctor, Sam, and Fitz watched the launch on the small monitor in the TARDIS control room, already having made their customary quick exit. None of them spoke as they watched the ship fly up into the atmosphere, and shrink to the point of invisibility.
The Doctor performed a short hop, and the TARDIS materialized just outside the Zaxarr system's gravity well. The ship passed them slowly, then engaged its faster than light drive. In a burst of multicoloured light, it vanished.
"It's on a course that does not encounter any of the major star systems," the Doctor said. "It will leave the Milky Way in a matter of months, and will not encounter any other galaxy in its travels. It will keep going until it reaches the red shift limit of the Universe. It's drive will fail before then, of course, but momentum will carry it onward. It can't pierce the Universe's edge -- the physics of reality mean it doesn't have a proper edge, anyway -- so it will simply come to rest at the outer reaches of known space in several million years. It will stay there, not moving, until the blue shift, the inward collapse, begins, and it will be destroyed in the Big Crunch that ends our Universe and gives rise to the next. Its own chronal destructive power will be like a drop in the bucket of that event."
"Are you sure no one will find it?" Fitz asked.
"Reasonably. But just in case, the ether generator is still running, so if anybody comes close, I'll know about it."
"Another job well done," said Sam.
"Well done?" the Doctor echoed, turning to look at her. "Well enough, I suppose, considering it took me two lifetimes to take care of it. Then again, I have left loose ends longer than that before."
"C'mon," she said, grinning. "Don't brood now. Let's decide what next."
"Yes," he agreed, grinning. Even Fitz cracked a smile. The Doctor moved the console. "What next indeed ..."
The Cyber Lieutenant stared out of the forward viewport. There was nothing to see, of course; hyperspace wasn't much in the way of visual attractions.
There was no remorse, but the Lieutenant did find failure unacceptable. The only reason it was still alive was to fulfill the Doctor's plan. Owing its existence to the Doctor was something it found highly illogical.
The Lieutenant knew that other ships had been awakened at the same time its own expedition had set out. But so far the Doctor had defeated them at every turn, and would probably do so again.
The worst part was, the Lieutenant would never know, one way or the other.
The ship flew on, in the endless night that was the void between galaxies.
END