Part 60 – End of an Era

I’m really bad at this.  I find putting pen to paper not nearly as rewarding as it was in my previous incarnation.  And certainly not as much so as Sen did.  However, I find myself having no one to speak with on something that has been….. gnawing at me.

I really hate this job.  I rarely get to speak with people one on one.  Ceremonies, meetings, signings.  No REAL interaction.  I’m one of the most powerful telepaths in 100,000 years to come out of the Academy, and I can count on one hand how many times I’ve been able to use that skill speaking with someone one on one in the past… oh… 300 years?

Kylie, of course, is the exact opposite.  She just wants to be a Seer and help guide her Sisters through this difficult period of reintegration into Time Lord society, and all she does is meet with Councilors and plan meetings.  People she doesn’t really like or care to interact with.

Rowan feels much the same, she has a flair for ceremony and ritual unmatched in my experience, and all she does is pass paperwork back and forth between the Dreamers and Kylie’s office.  Which is really quite silly if you think about it.

However, I am happy today.  All of us had been getting on each other’s nerves – to the extent that I was beginning to fear for the smooth governance of New Gallifrey.  Before things got to a boiling point, we met.  We were relieved and pleased to find that nearly all of us – with the exception of the steadfast and reliable Castellan – need a change.  So we hatched a plan.  A very good one, if I do say so.

Rowan has already resigned as Councilor of the Jade Dreamers and appointed Morphed.  He’ll do wonderful – this is just his style.  I sit here at my desk in my white robes after having just finished initiating Rowan as Gold Usher to the Lord President.  She seems positively giddy about the entire thing, as well she should be.

Immediately upon the conclusion of the reception, Rowan headed straight to her office to plan for her first major event.  My resignation, the announcement of my successor, and the inauguration. 

I realized as I stripped off Rassilon’s regalia and stood in just my gold adorned white robes, that this would be the last time I would do that.  The next time I take off the relics, I will be handing them off to…. well, you’ll find that out later. 

At said ceremony, which will technically be a formal meeting of the High Council, I will motion for my native Chapter – Patrexe – to be reinstated as a full voting seat on the Council.  I have been assured the vote will pass.  Upon seating their Councilor in the Panopticon, the full High Council will vote on accepting our new Constitution into Law. 

Progress on that front has gone well, and there has been surprisingly little politicking in the Constitution’s drafting.  I shared in private with the Councilors my plans for resignation before passing them the first draft of our new law-of-the-land.  I think the fear of a rough transition of power has spurred them all into swift action.  Good.

Then I will announce my resignation and state my successor.  After a ceremony and swearing in, Kylie will then announce her resignation from the seat of Chancellor and literally step around the new President to take her place as the new permanent Seer on the Inner Council.  Our new President will then make a motion to the High Council to nominate me as Chancellor.  I have been assured it will pass unanimously. 

There you have it.  What could possibly go wrong?

Part 59 - The Six-Fold Star

PART THREE

Narrative concluded by Councilor Thursday...

I will begin this last section of my narrative by briefly apologizing for the fulsome length which which I dwelled upon assorted technical minutiae in the previous section. While of little interest, perhaps, to anyone other than a specialist in T-T Capsule sentience, that very same was the passion of my youth, and the events of this night were perhaps both the last hurrah of my adventures in this field, and, indeed, from a perspective of predestination, perchance the very rhyme and reason that one destined to serve as a Seer and Priestess, should find herself so entranced with this field of study in her younger years.

I thank you for your indulgence.

At the point in our narrative which I had reached, our group- yourself; Phaon, Lady Kylie; the Chancellor, Lord Morphed Carter of the Jade Dreamers, Lord Shon Tempest of House Cerulean, and Dr. Markan M.D. of the Citadel- I have looked up his name and credentials in the Matrix, since penning the earlier sections of this missive, had been brought by prophecy along with myself, to the Six-Fold Star. We stood within Nereid's air and gravitational shell, and looked once more upon the remarkable phenomenon which had haunted my dreams for so long.

Scientific study of the Star is still ongoing, naturally, along with a comprehensive analysis of the results of that initial survey, and such data would doubtless come better from the mouths of those scientists assigned to study it, however, I may attempt to summarize what I understood of the preliminary results delivered that night; in the hope that you will correct me, if I err.

The Six-Fold star was named as it was, by the Seers such as myself into whose visions it manifested, for the distinctive six-fold pattern of particular vacuoles which orbit the central blinding white core, in an apparent hexagonal formation of unnatural irregularity.

According to the scientific reports, these conspicuous phenomena are micro-sized Charged Vacuum Emboitements- clearly artificial in nature, and likely generated and stabilised by the six smaller, fast moving luminescent entities observed further in. These are too close to the central mass for accurate observation to have been achieved so far; perhaps in time more precise data may become available.

These carefully placed and stabilized C.V.E.s perform a beautifully intricate gravitational and entropic inter-reactive dance, which appears to maintain in perpetuity what would normally be an extremely ephemeral phenomenon- a central white hole of immense size and force, pluming exo-matter and energy into SL-Space, and more, a hole without an apparent singularity- a tunnel, or gateway, to another dimensional realm entirely. Where that might be, we were very soon to discover.

The sheer scale of the macro-stellar engineering here is staggering; beyond our skills even at our creative peak, a majestic feat of engineering to an awe-inspiring design; truly the handiwork of the gods; a creation of the Titans themselves.

As we watched, not far from us, the SASTAP materialised; SEN now prepared to perform his own role in this long prepared moment, and from the very eye of the Six-Fold Star, first one, then another divine presence emerged.

Swimming free and seeming-invigorated in the tumult of the Six-Fold Star's Event Horizon, buoyed up by forces which would have torn apart any creature anchored in and off space and time; even their own saddled brethren, first one, then a second Titan- wild, untamed, *infant*, burst free from their unfathomable womb dimension in the first wonder, the moment of birth. Their scarce-formed sensoria dei field of telepathic understanding swept over all of us for a moment, even as each began its natal flight, crossing the inky night of SL-Space, the dimension they should, in their time, learn to master as each T-T Capsule before them has done, into the open arms- or, at any rate, open doors, of the SASTAP.

As the Prophecy of the Lighthouse declared, written so long ago, "The Children Shall Come".

SEN departed- midwife and foster-parent, bearing away his charges to a destiny already known to us; for some few weeks ago, by our linear count of time, he would come to us in the past and bring us briefly forward to this night- you, Kylie, and I, before those very children whose minds we had touched, in order that you might give up the last of him within you, to grant them the strength to be saddled, within our Hyperloom, first of a new generation of T-T Capsules.

Now, at last, the prophecy was fulfilled, and the circle complete- and for me the beauty and wonder of the event is to glimpse, to marvel, at the web of destiny which was woven, the cradle of time of which we have all been made part, to comfort and give succour to two newborn children of so high and terrible a destiny.

You, perhaps most of all, for they were given life by you and it was by SEN's design that you were brought before them so that they would know, and accept you, first above all of us- but I think that they will have a place in all our hearts, ever more, where ever their travels take them.

I urge that the temporal beacon at the Six-Fold Star be strengthened, and efforts made by Temporal Control to chart a stable route as soon as possible. Legitimate scientific research into this phenomenon should not be hindered, so long as it does not endanger the birth of further Titans- and I have no doubt that there will be more to follow, in the fullness of time.

As for myself, I find my eighth century taking advantage of my distraction, and creeping up on me quite without permission. While the Elixir's blessing and curse makes that mean rather less than it might otherwise do, I nevertheless feel the warning hand of encroaching middle age upon my hearts.

Let that touch of sobriety guide me, thus, and I find myself reflecting that after this last, great adventure and the culmination of so much of my life's endeavour, I shall turn myself more to the occupations befitting a Priestess and High Councillor; the study of ancient lore and prophecy, to scry and seek the future in visions yet to come, to teach the old skills and histories to the new generation, to continue as our House's advocate in the High Council, and, perhaps, a little of the decadent indulgence due to the ecclesiastical and political upper echelons in middle age.

I shall See; henceforth though, I think, I shall let younger, and newer hot-heads seek to bring these prophecies to fruition. With no pun intended, I shall see how long that resolution lasts!

Yours in friendship,
Lady Thursday, Councillor.

Part 58 – Nereid

Narrative continued by Councilor Thursday...

It was perhaps some seven hours later, by my own sense of time, that I awakened, cold and stiff, tangled where I had fallen inside the still-open doors of Nereid, and to cold clarity. The Vision had not left me; indeed, I knew precisely what it was I must do, and why, but rather than clouding my thoughts with sensory input, I was now left calm, the knowledge assimilated during my enforced sleep, and ready to act as its instrument.

The lapse of time I mention will seem strange, perhaps, to those who were present that night, and who will doubtless attest that little more than a minute or two elapsed, between my falling across the threshold into my ship, and their following therein, at the Pythia's urging; no stranger than it appeared to me: first, to have been left unconscious, tumbled upon the metaphorical doormat, untended for so many hours, and second, to behold through the open door the seeming frozen tableau of my friends and colleagues, poised like unthinking statues outside.

It took several moments' observation, both of Kylie and the rest of you and, through the eyes of a time sensitive, of the threshold of the ship itself, for me to realise the truth.

I apologise here for a brief digression into T-T Capsule mechanics, the passion and metier of my youth. While I am aware the technology is wholly familiar to you and the remainder of the Inner Council, it is with a view to rendering this report comprehensible to the wider audience and to posterity that I would clarify this:

What we, four-dimensional and linear symbiotes, perceive as structured four dimensional space within the hull of a T-T Capsule, is effectively an environmental metaphor - I deeply dislike the childish and belittling Terran cultural contamination of dubbing this a 'desktop' which came into vogue among certain barbarous cliques during the War - but I digress from my digression, and will return to the point of my initial digression post haste.

This metaphor, both integral to and enveloping the technology of the saddle, generated through the sentient consciousness of the Heart and mapped on to interior space via the time vector generator, houses both the crew and habitation decks, and the technological elements of the instrumentation, engineering, and power harnessing systems, as well as forming a dimensional buffer zone between the Heart and the capsule's dimensional extrusion of the Prime Eye, and maintains the crew of the vessel in a state of temporal grace, by the Titan, between the raging tumult of the Time Vortex outside, and the searing truth of the Heart of the machine.

All time, all dimensional structure in fact, inside a T-T Capsule, especially in regard to its interface with the "real world" beyond the doors, is, essentially, by grace of the vessel herself, and here it had become clear that Nereid had interceded, altering the flow of the Time Vector Generator in such a manner that apparent time, within the environmental metaphor inside the spaceship, passed at a very different rate to relativistic time beyond the main doors outside. For what seemed from my perspective inside to be a matter of hours, mere fractions of a second passed in the real world beyond: Nereid had given me time to work.

Though attenuated, time still passed, however, and I was very conscious that the time for our window of opportunity was rapidly slipping away. With the clarity of sleep, I was aware of the rightness of my earlier instincts, concerning the Abbot- we would be passing into a region of space already subject to immense temporal distortion and interaction with strong dimensionality forces quite alien to the [REDACTED] of SL-Space. Given the innate vulnerability of that which we had been summoned to witness, to add in the additional factor of [REDACTED] at this particular time would have been unfeasible and reckless in the extreme.

Thus, with the SASTAP unavailable, and Implacable... impractical, I had been manoeuvred to my own ship's control room for the only potential alternative. Nereid is neither the fastest, strongest, nor any most advanced ship of the fleet by any measure, but she has one great strength - she is adaptable.

The Six-Fold Star is not, in real-space terms, that far from New Gallifrey, though cut off from it by the temporal and gravitational riptides surrounding the phenomenon which render travel there by T-T Capsule difficult and dangerous, and travel through conventional space almost impossible; even if we were able to ascertain in which era of our planet's history it resides. When last we travelled there, SEN, you and I had been able to use my gifts, your telepathy, and SEN's ability to safely interface a Gallifreyan and Seer mind with his Heart, to navigate the paths and frequencies ridden by the creatures of the vortex, reaching the destination safely, if after considerable turbulence. I am not SEN, however, and nor is Nereid you, and this time we were not just to reach the Star, but to plunge into its milieu even as it disgorged matter and energy, and twisted the time dimensions about itself to give birth to ... but I am getting ahead of myself. Fortunately,on our initial trip, you had been able to set that navigational beacon at the Star, for us to home in on when we had entered its range, but even so- and with the tacit remote support of SEN and the Abbot, to navigate the time field to this destination would require a Seer and T-T Capsule dancing as one, in defiance of a most fundamental law.

As SEN, then in his form as your predecessor in the wearing of the Presidential millstone, most emphatically and didactically declaimed, during the saga of the Abbot, for a Lord of Time; engineered over aeons by the Titans to have the beginnings of sense perceptions akin to theirs, but without their breadth and depth of mind or power, to gaze long into the abyssal Heart of the Titan, is to invite certain disaster- for both Gallifreyan and Titan.

Without an apparatus of mediation, such as the sentient computer uniquely configured configured for the former Chariot of Rassilon, the Gallifreyan mind will soon break apart, unable to resist the awful pull of that Titanic mind, and be consumed, sinking and dissolving and diffusing through that awesome consciousness like milk into coffee, until nothing but a hollow vessel for the Titan remains- and even that body will not long endure the colossal artron energies now tearing through it.

For a seer, or any receptive or adept to have recently consumed the Elixir, as the man who would be Deimos had, that awful night, and as I so often have, the peril and the certain doom is greater still. Such is the metastabilising agency of the Breath of Kronos, that body and soul will endure and linger whole a little longer. Not long enough; whether he is sensible of it or not, Deimos' survival at all may come in time to be accounted by those of my faith as a veritable miracle and first manifestation in his divine aspect, of SEN, Guardian of the Moment. Saving such miracles, not long enough for salvation, yet long enough to wreak great harm.

Rent and torn into madness, the mind of the seer has yet the power to see the cosmos as it turns to a Titan, and to think in the path of their thoughts, and thus two minds should writhe, inseparable and poisoning one another, in one conjoined soul. All but the most enlightened perfect ideal and the most bestial of passion in the one, incomprehensible, incoherent madness in the mind of the other, such that, caught between Gallifreyan id and Titan super-ego, the ego, the very self of the undivided single being as they now would be, would wither and shatter, in the twisting wilderness of a tormented and distraught mind.

Thus; the Abbot, as we first knew him; a savage, demented thing, driven by the passions of a beast beseiging the mute soul of an entrapped god.

Now it is a sure and certain thing that our Guardians, as they now are, will not permit such a thing to transpire ever again.

Such raw power, adrift in ungoverned madness, cannot be countenanced and, as such, I have every confidence that were any pair, of Titan and Gallifreyan symbiote, to ever cross that threshold again, the Guardians' wills would combine, and with that unparalleled totality of power, scour any such new abomination from time itself, casting it beyond the confines of SL-Space, henceforth to lay, chained and hewn, beyond the very walls of night, until the end of all things. This doom I have foreseen, should any in folly, pride, or avarice break the compact, ere the time of becoming.

Returning now to the business of the night, and my sensible apologies for yet another digression from the point, that is not a fate I was prepared to chance, nor would it have served our purpose.

Fortunately, and this is why I have chosen to dwell at what the Castellan will doubtless consider immoderate length upon the circumstances of the Abbot's creation, we have all had some opportunity to observe our Guardians and their peculiar natures. Unlike SEN, Nereid and I had no need here of an all-purpose ongoing intermediary process, merely a single function empathic relay which would allow us to function as one, without actually merging into one another, for one flight.

Nereid and I have always shared a complementary, rather than a contrasting bond, and her primary function has always been as a systems emulator. My own molecular structure being largely [REDACTED], and the block transfer schematics of my neural pathways already stored within her grey banks, while I make no pretensions of even moderate expertise in cybernetics, it was not overly difficult to utilise her architectural configuration systems to generate an accurate, if crude, hard copy of my nervous system. She had, after all, already completed the task, to a far higher degree of finesse, twice before.

Thus the situation when Kylie, yourself, and the rest of the party entered the console room; mere seconds later from your perspective, perhaps a few weeks later, from mine.

I will apologise here for my somewhat bedraggled appearance at that time. When one is entangled and enmeshed with somewhat poorly insulated live cybernetic grafts, bathing, washing and colouring one's hair and so forth are somewhat impractical.

Perhaps this is one reason our esteemed Co-Ordinator opted for his distinct hairless cranium during his last "incarnation". I really don't think the look would be "me", though, and the Holy Pythia would probably throw seven fits over it, into the bargain.

However, I have strayed from the point. I'm a Seer and Prophetess, Phaon; I can foresee you muttering "again..." as you read this, right from back here.

The point was that now Nereid and I were connected; but separate, both joined and insulated from one another via an inductive link. My neurological state, emotions, impulses, instincts, sensory responses, would be reflected in my nervous system, and thus precisely detected and mirrored- emulated- in the artificial neural net I wore, part of Nereid, and thus instantaneously perceived by herself as part of her own self. In turn, her instincts, impulses, emotions and so forth would be reflected in her own aspect of the nervous system we now, in a sense, shared, and as such passed to me - without direct mental contact.

If it sounds too good to be true, it nearly was. I very much doubt the process would have worked at all, were it not for the unique circumstances of both of us; certainly, for one not of Seer blood and training, the impressions received would have been meaningless, and for a Seer, even that ersatz, almost-connection drew my mind perilously close to the seductive boundaries of that forbidden ground. The urge to yield, to submit to and sink into that fatal embrace like the return to the blissful oblivion of the womb - or Loom, if you prefer, was still close to overpowering. It is not an experience I would dare to repeat.

I believe the party thought me entranced, controlled, or possibly merely rude, when you all entered the control room to find me non-responsive; in truth, I was desperately locked in concentration, striving to maintain my focus upon the blue crystal from Metebelis III in front of me, which I had liberated from Kylie's desk drawer to help me at this time. My commendations to Sister Ninyala, of our Order, who brought it to her; I fancy it was not the use for which she had intended it, but, the loom of Destiny oft weaves disparate threads.

Once all appointed were aboard- yourself, Kylie, Lord Carter, Lord Tempest, and the medical man, I/We dematerialised, locking our coordinates to the Six-Fold Star and altering the engine phase, modulating and remodulating by aggregated instincts, shared memories of our encounters with the Beasts of the vortex, and our earlier journey with yourself and SEN, to traverse the unique vortex about our path.

Our flight was headlong, even with the assistance of the Guardians. Without Kylie's empathic aid to calm my thoughts, and the rest of the crew's expertise it is unlikely we should have reached the destination alive, but once we grew close enough to detect it, and you were able to instruct Lord Tempest to lock on to the navigational beacon, we successfully materialised, and Nereid, somewhat the worse for wear and almost drained of power, shut down to recover herself- and firmly separate me from the perilous connection.

Once again, a T-T Capsule of New Gallifrey orbited the soon-to- be solved enigma of the Six-Fold Star.

To Be Continued…

Part 57 – Lethe

A report from Councilor Thursday on recent events – part one of three.

Dear Lord Phaon,
I am sure my conduct over recent days has raised some questions, and while I suspect you and the others have guessed most of it, it is probably appropriate- for the record if nothing else, that I try to set down my own account.

========================================

PART ONE

I will make clear to you that I myself had little understanding of what was happening, before I entered Nereid's control room, on the night of the 27th [relative time]. The visions and prophecy relating to the Six-Fold Star had, of course, been with me for some time, since the founding of the New Eye of Harmony, in fact, and these had led me to take a special interest in the creatures detected in the vortex, creatures which certain prior reports have clearly identified to be [REDACTED], aspects of the [REDACTED], which prophecy rightly indicated would lead us to the Six-Fold Star, at a time when most dismissed these as being in some way connected with the recent terrorist atrocities against our nation. Our recent trip to the Star there confirmed its existence, and location, but while our forces were preoccupied with Tethseram there was little opportunity for a scientific investigation , and the visions did not subside, in fact, they seemed only to grow more in intensity.

The night your last incarnation died, and SEN brought to us the gift of two Titan young- two Hearts as you call them, SEN spoke to me, in the language of Time- micro adjustments of the causal flow, dancing threads upon the tapestry of vision. At the time, I was not to remember it, but, as is the way with the Titans and we, their Seers, we gaze upon the Sea of Time and they reach out from the Deeps, guiding our eyes.

As prophecy comes to those with the Sight, Sen and his companion had held up the Vision Entire to my eyes back across my timeline, from the new dawn of Lethe where first I beheld it, to that night where the full pattern stood finally before my eyes. I was to await the moment- a time when the clearest waters under the winds of time would stretch between New Gallifrey and our destination, and then to remember.

A few nights ago, as I write this, and as you write this, that vision came to me.

I'm afraid I have little memory of where I was, or what I was about, at the time. Secular and worldly concerns were driven from my thoughts- which is, of course, a fancier way of saying that the brain of a Seer is designed - and I use the word advisedly- to perceive space-time on a transdimensional level, and such perceptive faculties, when in use, rather disrupt the normal observational and memory processes.

I believe that I was in the wilderness, south of the forest, talking with one of the Outsiders who SEN or the Abbot had seen fit to bring through from the last days of the old planet, to this world in SL-Space, but the remainder is more or less a blank. I have no idea how I got back to the Citadel, or of little else in the interim, until I found myself seated in a chair, in the Castellan's front office, surrounded by a buzzing of voices, and underlying it all, the murmuring minds of the Titans in the landing bay across the hall.

It was SEN's presence, and empathic conversation with his symbiote; yourself, Phaon, which roused me. The sense of that mind, in the immediate present, and above all the pervading aura of smugness seemingly common to any proud parent- or foster parent- of any species, recalled to me my mission in both the general and the very specific sense, and- with some difficulty; the presence of the vision is quite profound and this body deceptively frail, pursued yourself and Kylie into the landing bay- myself pursued by Lords Tempest and Carter, and some medical personage appertaining unto the City.

The meaning of the Vision which had blossomed in my mind since the restoration was now clear to me, and urgent. Though we profess ourselves masters of the fourth and fifth dimension, still, like the early space travellers, for some journeys we must even now abide by certain laws of conjunction, and thus, I knew from the Sight, to reach the place and time ordained, we - you, Kylie, myself, needed to depart almost immediately.

The SASTAP could not convey us this time; SEN had another part to play in the events that were to unfold, I perceived that readily,and my instincts railed against calling on the Abbot. Guardian he may be, and worshipful, but I fear that in the duality of our theology he is very much the cold fire of the long, dispassionate view; and such things burn, by way of nurture. Then, too,of the times in which he has taken a hand, once, he amused himself by biting and burning off assorted pieces of one of my friends, and latterly of devastating an entire planet. The Abbot has my respect and loyal obedience, but I will not call his hand to the cradle.

This left a third, desperate option, the one which I now saw it had always been my destiny to come to, but, even as I moved toward my own Capsule, the Nereid, the medical man injected me with a sedative, setting the short term needs of the health of one Seeress above the long-term path of necessity. Perhaps some subtle chiding, at Destiny's hand, toward my own earlier rejection of the Abbot's embodiment of the cold continuum, against the emotional immediacy of the moment? Perhaps not, no matter.

In any event I was scarcely in a position to consider the moral lessons at the time, barely having the presence of mind to step forward and throw myself against Nereid's doors - fortunately she was alert, and willing to forgo the usual megum pod and yorrow seed routine with keys, and simply open, letting me fall inside as the classified of the drug overwhelmed me, washing away all Vision and thought.

To Be Continued...

Part 56 – Diplomacy

Our negotiations with New Babbage have finally concluded. Last evening, after approval by all other parties, I signed into law in a small ceremony the first treaty between New Gallifrey and a lower Zoned species. Below is the contents of this agreement.

Cultural Preservation Treaty Between New Gallifrey and New Babbage

The Parties to this Treaty,

Reaffirming their mutual good relations and commitment to respect the cultural traditions and individual aspirations of its citizens,

Desiring to maintain the rule of law both binding and cultural in both home States,

Agreeing that nothing in this agreement shall supersede existing laws in either New Babbage or New Gallifrey,

Have agreed as follows,

Article I

The Parties agree to settle any disputes as may arise that are not explicitly outlined in this document via their respective Plenipotentiaries, while emphasizing the importance of cultural preservation in the City-State of New Babbage, and preservation of cultural tradition in the State of New Gallifrey.

Article II

This Treaty grants authority to New Gallifrey to exercise enforcement of the First Law of Time on the sovereign soil of New Babbage, only insofar as it threatens the cultural and historical sovereignty of the City-State of New Babbage.

Article III

For the purpose of Article II, enforcement of the First Law of Time on New Babbage sovereign soil may only be carried out by the Celestial Intervention Agency (hereafter designated as the C.I.A.) under direct joint written authorization of the Director of the aforementioned C.I.A. and the New Babbage Plenipotentiary.

Article IV

For the purpose of Article III, in the event of a conflict of interest of the aforementioned parties, the Castellan of the Chancellory Guard of New Gallifrey (herein designated as the Castellan) and the New Gallifrey Plenipotentiary shall sign in stead of the C.I.A. Director.

Article V

Any violation on the sovereign soil of the City-State of New Babbage by a legal citizen(s) of New Gallifrey of the First Law of Time shall result in, pending authorization by aforementioned parties, immediate arrest by authorized members of the C.I.A.

((“Citizen” of New Gallifrey is defined as any SL Avatar who is a member of the New Gallifrey SL Group))

Article VI

Upon extradition, any and all citizens of New Gallifrey shall be immediately rendered by authorised C.I.A. personnel into the custody of the Castellan of New Gallifrey, so as to avoid further cultural contamination of the State of New Babbage.

Article VII

For the purposes of Articles I – VI, sentence for violation of the First Law of Time on the sovereign soil of the State of New Babbage be,

Subsection I

The aforementioned offending Citizen(s) of New Gallifrey, on their first violation, shall have their Capsule(s) recalled by the Castellan and be placed in said Capsule(s) for a period of no less than sixty days, and no more than one hundred and twenty days under house arrest.

((For the aforementioned time, the offending Citizen(s) of New Gallifrey shall be removed from the New Gallifrey group, banned from the New Gallifrey region(s) and the New Babbage region(s), and suspended from all Roleplay activities in both the New Gallifrey and New Babbage region(s)))

Subsection II

The aforementioned offending Citizen of New Gallifrey, on their second violation, shall have their Capsule recalled by the Castellan and be placed in said Capsule for a period of no less than one year, and no more than two years, beginning with the termination of the aforementioned citizen's current Incarnation.

((For the aforementioned time, the offending Citizen(s) of New Gallifrey shall be removed from the New Gallifrey group, banned from the New Gallifrey region(s) and the New Babbage region(s), and suspended from all Roleplay activities in both the New Gallifrey and New Babbage region(s)))

Subsection III

The aforementioned offending Citizen of New Gallifrey, on their third violation, shall have their Capsule recalled by the Castellan, wherein its mechanism will be destroyed, and the aforementioned citizen shall have all of their remaining Incarnations terminated and receive the sentence of Execution.

((The offending Citizen(s) of New Gallifrey shall be removed from the New Gallifrey group indefinitely, banned from the New Gallifrey region(s) and the New Babbage region(s) indefinitely, and suspended from all Roleplay activities in both the New Gallifrey and New Babbage region(s) indefinitely.))

Article VIII

The City-State of New Babbage agrees to not hold the State of New Gallifrey accountable to violations of the First Law of Time on their sovereign soil by any being(s) who do not hold legal citizenship in the State of New Gallifrey.

Article IX

For the purpose of Article VIII, the State of New Babbage reserves the right to request assistance from the State of New Gallifrey for the preservation of their culture, insofar as all legal and cultural violations of the State of New Gallifrey occur.

Article X

This Treaty shall remain in force indefinitely. Only by unanimous vote of the New Babbage Plenipotentiary and the present quorum of the New Gallifrey High Council may this Treaty be terminated.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned Plenipotentiaries have signed this Treaty.

Lord Victor Mornington (retired), Plenipotentiary for New Babbage

Lady Ambassador Bernicenastorabedulan, Plenipotentiary for New Gallifrey

DONE in on this 15th Day of July, the New Babbage year of 2015

Ratification advised by the High Council of New Gallifrey on the 19th Day of July, the New Babbage year of 2015

Ratified by the Lord President of the High Council of New Gallifrey on this 27th Day of July, the New Babbage year of 2015

Phaon, Lord President of the High Council of Timelords of New Gallifrey

Part 55 – The Will of Omega

We don't often get big names here in SL-Space. As a matter of fact, we never do. The Abbot chooses his selections carefully, as did the Timelords who exiled the first few here. Missing a big name from the timeline would cause people to look for them, find us, and ruin the entire plan.

Sure, we get “ghosts.” The Watcher type images shunted through reality when The Doctor helped to shove Zenobia Station here from N-Space. That station's telepathic circuits cast shadows of his personality and form from time to time. But this one was different. You see, we've actually had the Will of Omega with us for quite some time.

Lord Gears came here much like all the others. He had with him an ancient piece of Timelord Technology called “The Instance” that survived the transition into SL-Space. None of us knew of this tech at the time. As it turned out, The Instance was a snapshot of a mind. Evidently built before the APC Net, it stored the image of a mind, and could imprint itself onto another mind with just a touch.

So it was that Omega – or at least most of his memories and personality – were reborn here in SL-Space. For a time, he yelled and paraded around, assisting at times with his exceptional scientific knowledge, resisting authority and being trouble at other times.

There came a time, however, that only his unique knowledge could help us. I left out earlier that Omega came along with us on the journey back to the birth of SL-Space. Because of the nature of this space, ***REDACTED***, Rowan's ability to help navigate was in fact more limited than she cared to admit. Omega helped guide us when the Sisters could no longer see. Between the two of them, we arrived safely.

Why did I leave this next part out? Omega is such a polarizing figure in Timelord history. He is a hero to many, and the ultimate villain to just as many. Switching the poles on villains and martyrs can be a dangerous thing in a society, especially when the dominant political force in one of our Council seated Chapters is called the Cult of Omega.

However, I am committed to not repeating the mistakes that ultimately lead to the end of our N-Space brethren. So, transparency, much to Deimos' dismay.

Inside the Abbot's console room, Omega stepped in front of Sen as be began to discharge energy. His own body diverted energy to others in the room. Whether or not this was part of the plan on Sen's part, I suppose we'll never know. At the time, Omega just vanished – we thought him destroyed. Relegated to the pile of Agency Classified files.

As it turns out, he received a “gift” as well. Omega woke up in his console room back at the Citadel, in an actual body. A real, organic body, and not one that he was displaced from. Now still a brilliant mind, but one out of his time and universe, he must learn to live like the rest of us day to day.

Part 54 – A Renewal

New hands, new voice. Regeneration. The first time was when I entered SL-Space. I was unconscious before and after for some time. My second was initiated by Sen, and I got his body. This time it actually felt like a real regeneration. I'll fill you in, because the events surrounding are quite important to all of us.

Some time ago, the Council began constructing an orbital facility. In a time of crisis, this would serve as a backup Citadel. Our lead tech – a Mr. Schumann, was in charge of construction. I had been contacted by the Guardians and informed that we would be having a new addition. The first Titan born in SL-Space. The young soon-to-be TTC would need a Hyperloom to graft the TARDIS block transfer construct onto its form. We also decided to begin construction of our new Loom technology on board the orbital as well. With our dimensional technology, having the ability to shift our most valuable facilities out of normal space-time at a moment's notice was too secure to not take advantage of.

And then it happened. I was rearranging books in the library in the SASTAP, and I just collapsed in pain. I headed for the medical bay, and the readings said my body was flooded with artron radiation. The cells in my body had begun to break down, releasing artron energy that had apparently been there all along. This body clearly not been what it seemed. I sent out a telepathic distress call to the Council, and fell unconscious on the med table.

When I woke up, Kylie and Rowan were standing over me, a distinct look of mild panic on their faces. They had responded to my call, and when they stepped into the console room to find me unconscious, The SASTAP had automatically dematerialized and landed again somewhere unknown. I had not initiated the flight, evidently Sen had. I told the Sisters to go meet their idols, and speak with the Guardians.

I watched on the scanner screen as the Sisters listened to Sen and The Abbot explain the origin of Lady Ambassador Bernice and her Capsule. If you remember, this soon-to-be complete Capsule and the infant Lady Bernice will soon be grabbed by The Abbot and taken back in time to be trained and raised. I could hear Sen in my mind as he spoke to them, his voice thundering through the SASTAP's telepathic circuits as he spoke to them.

The Sisters came back inside. I was feeling somewhat better, and piloted the SASTAP myself to the orbital facility. I needed some help departing, and left the console room to find a panicked Mr. Schumann – the lead tech or the orbital facility, as apparently the infant Titan at the Hyperloom chamber was in considerable distress.

At the critical juncture where the new mechanical TARDIS components are to take over control of basic autonomic functions of the Titan, there was insufficient energy to complete the process. Normally, other Titans assist in this process, but there aren't enough here in SL-Space to accomplish this. Our first baby was dying.

Then it all made sense. As soon as I made the connection in my head, the regeneration began. Energy poured out of my body, rocketed out of the room, and straight for the baby Capsule. You could hear the shift in energy, as the infant felt its strength grow. Lights starting blinking wildly in the monitor room, warning sounds stopped. Mr. Schumann had a smile on his face – which I didn't believe was biologically possible for him. Then again, a technical engineer had just met the Pythia, the Chancellor, seen the President regenerate, and helped give birth to a universe's first new Time Travel Capsule.

Part 53 – Ambassador

In N-Space, we had assigned labels to various tiers of development with regards to lesser civilizations we encountered and observed. First zone are us – Timelords. Only a handful of races are in this category – Timelords and Daleks are the only native races to the meta-verse. These are races with mastery over temporal technology. Second zone races have very advanced technology, including some limited temporal abilities, and intergalactic travel. The Cybermen fit in this category, as do later humans. Non-intervention policies are often difficult to interpret with these races, and they are aware of our existence due to their level of technology.

Third zone species have interstellar travel, and no temporal technology whatsoever. Some of these races are aware of us, some are not. Interference is handled on a case by case basis here.

Fourth zone species are post-industrial revolution, pre-warp cultures. They are generally unaware of alien life whatsoever, and certainly have no knowledge of Timelords. Fifth zone species are pre-industrial revolution, and have little knowledge of anything. Involvement in any way other than observation is strictly forbidden with these races.

In SL-Space, the ground rules are different. Interstellar travel is much easier, so many lower zone species are not only capable of such travel, but became aware of First Zone technology well before they are culturally ready. We have been forced to take on a much more active role here, which brings about the need for something rather new to us – a diplomatic corp.

Lady Bernicenastorabedulan has just been assigned as Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the High Council of New Gallifrey. Her origin is rather interesting. Normally, The Abbot seeks our additions to New Gallifrey based on our needs, or a mounted rescue. In this case, Lady Bernice was indeed brought to us by The Abbot, but this time from our own future right here in SL-Space.

Various Chapter's research divisions have been working on recreating Loom technology here in SL-Space for some time. Many are close, but not quite there yet. At some point, all will likely succeed. Clearly at least one does, and the result will be Lady Bernice. After her birth, The Abbot took her and crossed her own time line to send the infant back with Deimos to the early days of the new Citadel, deep in the planet's past.

There Bernice was trained by the Agency. Now a young Timelady still in her first incarnation, she has already made quite an impression. Negotiations are currently underway with three governments in SL-Space. The first is one we are all quite familiar with.

Part 52 – A Gruesome End

It came as no surprise to any of us that Deimos was not only alive inside Implacable, but both his mechanical implants and his TTC got an upgrade out of the deal. Immediately upon his return to active duty, the Agency and Guard solidified our plans to wrap up and deal with Tethseram.

 

Between the undercover intel and Gothess, we knew who Tethseram was, what his motives were, and most of the details of his invasion plan. Deimos locked down the flow of information tight, and we began slowly leaking indications of just how desperate and in the dark we are. The joys of propaganda.

When the time and day came, we were ready. Here's how one of New Gallifrey's best days went.

We knew that the rift at the Eye of Orion would be the Chronarch's entry point. So Lord Rasa, an up and coming Arcalian scientist and Chapter Ordinal, went to investigate. Since we had the end game planned, Agency medic and research Dr. Markan went along. I just so happened to be on my semi-regular shift in Temporal Control that day. What a coincidence.

As planned, the Chronarchs came streaming through a portal that ripped open within the rift at Orion. They instantly shot Rasa, as planned. Markan was ready, and set off an emergency transport device that took him and Rasa directly into Rasa's console room and automatically initiated an emergency demat. As Rasa's capsule dematerialized, the final sensor readings registered another portal opening directly to the surface of New Gallifrey, as expected.

I gave the “go” order in Temporal Control, which set in motion a number of Executive and Inner Council orders to both the Castellan and Agency Coordinator. Number one authorized Rasa's Capsule to breach its own time stream and arrive on New Gallifrey with the injured Lord Rasa and Dr. Marken approximately twenty minutes before it left Orion.

Upon arrival, every available Arcalian, Chancellory Guard, and anyone else in the Citadel moved to intercept the Chronarch portal, which had been carefully and subtly diverted by Control to a pre-determined “last stand” location.

The next thing set in motion was the Incursion mission to Vanishing Point, Tethseram's HQ station located in a reality bubble between Madspace and SL-Space. A few seconds after my “go” command, I heard Deimos at the station next to me in Temporal Control lean into his own comm and whisper to code word to “go” for his team. Commander Dovgal, Agent ***REDACTED***, Agency mission specialist ***REDACTED***, and The Madman departed from the TTC bay, their arrival carefully timed with events on New Gallifrey.

Earlier in the week, Madman had been arrested by the Castellan and placed under house arrest inside his capsule – Bifrost. The key to that arrest was to secure a special weapon in Madman's possession in such a manner as to not arouse suspicion by Tethseram. The weapon was developed during Madman's time as House Castellan of the Jade Dreamers, and was the result of an open project from the days of raw hostility between the Sisterhood and the High Council back in N-Space. You'll see why this is relevant later.

As the Timelords and Guards gathered on the surface of New Gallifrey, the Sisterhood passed out carefully brewed elixirs to each of the Arcalians present. The rift opened, Chronarchs began streaming out, and a series of carefully orchestrated events took place.

One, Castellan Allen initiated a localized Transduction lock down around all the invading Chronarchs. Two, Rasa's delayed regeneration began. Three, all of the Arcalians mind linked with Rasa. Four, everyone present from the Citadel telepathically assisted in stabilizing the mental link between the Arcalians. Five, Rasa's regenerative energy poured forth, captured by the genetically similar House Arcalians, routed through their elixir enhanced bodies, and directed at the barrier surrounding the Chronarchs.

Here I need to stop and share some Arcalian history. One of the founders of the Arcal Chapter was Tepesh, a Great Vampire disguised as a Timelord. This is ancient history, and long since dealt with by the N-Space Council, but very relevant. Our intel revealed that Tepesh had not been killed all those eons ago, but escaped to Mad-Space. There his DNA was utilized by Dalek Drillon to build the Chronarchs.

This is relevant because this means the Chronarchs and the Aracalians share enough genetic material for Rasa's regenerative Imprimatur to latch onto them. With the exponentially magnified energy of the Arcalian Chapter and the temporal characteristics of the barrier surrounding them, it didn't just vaporize the Chronarchs on New Gallifrey. The energy tore through the rift straight through to Vanishing point, clearing the station of all Chronarch guards. Just in time for Commander Dovgal and her team to arrive…

The Incursion

Upon arriving on the Vanishing Point, Commander Dovgal and her team proceeded to sweep the station. Their mission was two fold. The primary objective was a carefully planned assault directly on Tethseram. The secondary objective of the mission was to find and rescue Dracony, the Patrexe abducted by Tethseram some time ago.

They found Dracony first. After sweeping through the station, thankfully void of Chronarchs as planned, they found Tethseram. Or rather, he found them.

Based on our intel, we knew that Tethseram was a future incarnation of the Madman. In order to exist off Vanishing Point and not be affected by the manipulation of his own past, Tethseram must have a Paradox Machine. One very close, likely worn. The only device known to us Timelords that can shield a paradox on that scale is a TTC itself. Tethseram's armor suit must be a TTC, or at least pieces of one. The sword back in Madman's possession that had been so carefully guarded was a weapon designed to cut through the outer skin of TTC's. The project was revived in order to penetrate the skin of a Dalek Capsule, if that need ever arose.

The team threw down covering fire while Madman sneaked in and sliced a gaping hole in Tethseram's plasmic shell exosuit with his sword. Commander Dovgal and Agent ***REDACTED*** reacted quickly, grabbed Tethseram and held him down while ***REDACTED*** stepped forward with a special weapon and stabbed Tethseram through both hearts. He began to regenerate. ***REDACTED*** stabbed him again. He regenerated again. And again. And again.

When the substantial energy field of the opened paradox machine and the multiple regenerations died down, what was left was the mangled and burned body(s) of the final three incarnations of Madman, a.k.a. Tethseram, fused together on the floor in a grotesque visual of Timelord biology at its most disturbing.

The body was brought back to the Panopticon. Unknown to us, Cardinal Maltheus had arranged with the Sisters for a special elixir to ensure that he would loose an incarnation instead of Rasa. His regeneration had happened during conclusion of the incursion, and seemed touch and go. But he was alive. New Gallifrey was saved, Tethseram was dead, what was left of the Chronarchs in Madspace stranded behind a sealed portal.

A gruesome end, but a good day.

Part 51 – Theta Protocol

Theta project was complete and ready to roll out, but we were interrupted. The Sisters had been having prophecies for some time about something profound entering our area of time and space. Finally, it seemed the time was at hand. Several Arcalian scientists were in pursuit of six unidentified… somethings... through the SL-Space Time and Space Vortex.

They couldn't keep up, so Deimos was summoned by Temporal Control to pursue in Implacable, the experimental Agency Capsule that already contained much of the technology incorporated into the Theta Protocol. The objects seemed to be in a spiraling orbit around Gallifrey, moving outwards at a rate unprecedented before in SL-Space. Temporal Control realized the objects were headed for an anomalous area of space that we had been scanning for some time, an area which appeared to have just ruptured into a Charged Vacuum Emboitment (CVE) into another universe.

While Implacable is fast, its standard issue plasmic shell can not withstand crossing out of SL-Space without unacceptable risk. We quickly concocted a plan where I would land the SASTAP aboard Implacable as it passed on the interior apex of its orbit around New Gallifrey, and Implacable would then slingshot the materialized SASTAP out of its interior as it passed close to the CVE. The plan worked. Rowan had been assisting with navigation and accompanied me. We landed close to the CVE and stepped into an oxygen shield generated by the SASTAP. We weren't sure what we were looking at, but we were close enough to place a navigational beacon that would assist science Capsules from the Arcalians in returning later.

The slingshot maneuver had seriously damaged the SASTAP, and we discovered a newly rebuilt console room upon reentering from the oxygen shield. A default type Theta desktop theme. Sen had apparently gotten the memo. Now that one established Capsule had the Theta, it could be communicated between all the Hearts automatically. While the look itself is, as always, superfluous, the enhancements to the mechanics are vital.

Evidently, the SASTAP had clipped the inner shell of Implacable on our slingshot out. We returned to the Citadel to evacuation alarms as Temporal Control was broadcasting that Implacable had materialized just below the Transduction Barriers and was screaming in like a missile towards the Citadel. Deimos is a better pilot than that though, and Implacable plunged itself into the hillside just outside the Silver Forest.

There sat Implacable smoldering in the hillside. It's door welded shut by the impact, and Deimos still inside. Alive, we hoped.

Part 50 – Theta Project

Before becoming a Guardian, Sen had long been working on solidifying the physics of Capsule technology in SL-Space. There were huge successes, but still gaps. Many capsules sent from N-Space were extremely difficult to refit, their existing mechanical components being all but impossible to make work here.

While we still hadn't figured out a way to grow new Titans here in SL-Space, two young new additions to our growing capital city named Zaros and Kea were finally successful in creating a uniform mechanical tech protocol that seemed effective for every old TTC that was brought to SL-Space by The Abbot. We called it the Type Theta. We blew through the first few Marks in testing and field trials, by the time I write this every TTC in SL-Space is now fitted with Type Theta, Mk VI mechanical components. In order for any of this to make sense, we need some TTC back story. I'll dig into Sen's ancient memories here, and do you up a nice lecture on Gallifreyan Time Travel Capsules.

A Time Travel Capsule is actually a careful melding of technology and a living being. Titans are extra-dimensional beings of supreme age and wisdom, who have been linked to Gallifrey in some unknown way since the dawn of the metaverse. Supremely powerful and wild, these beings are so much more advanced than us that even basic communication is beyond most Timelords.

The ancient Gallifreyans harnessed these Titans by “saddling” then with mechanical technology we know as a machine of Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. At this point, the saddled Titan was refereed to as the “Heart” of this constructed TARDIS.

The first full production run of TARDISes were referred to as Type 10's. After some refinements, the Type 11 was produced. Note that these are simply enhancements to the mechanical portions of the Capsule that are melded with the living Heart.

As Type 11's entered into service, Type 10's were returned for refit – their mechanical portions replaced and upgraded. These crafts were then referred to as Type 10, Mark I. This made them equal in specifications to the new Type 11's. This process continued. Type 12's were issued, meaning Type 11 Mk. 1's amd Type 10 Mk. II's still performed along side them.

At some point, the technology simply became too outdated, and the mechanical portions were scraped completely and replaced all new. This is when the Type designation increased to the next decade. The introduction of the Type 20 meant that all TTC's between Type 10 and Type 19 were decommissioned. The Heart stripped of all its mechanical components and completely refitted. Often, given the age of the Titan at that point, it was “retired” and return to the wild for breeding stock.

When I fled Gallifrey with Sen, the Type 65's had just been issued. Timelords who have come to SL-Space during or after the Time War speak of Type 90 War TARDISes, and extremely advanced Agency crafts in the Type 80 series. All of this is now ancient history. The mechanical portions of the Capsule are rendered as little more than pretty life-support chambers upon arriving to SL-Space, no longer able to connect and function with the Titan now injured and severed from its saddle.

Part 49 – Gothess

As far as villains go, Tethseram is pretty small fry. His ambitions are somewhat unclear, as his end came about...ok, I get ahead of myself. Tethersam's first official act in SL space went unknown to the Council for quite some time. After piecing together the puzzle, here's what we know happened.

Shortly after the destruction of the Panopticon, Madman was pulled to a space station located in what can only be described as a reality “bubble”. An area of nothing between two universes – in this case SL-Space and Madspace – the pocket universe contained in the Eye of Harmony of Madman's Capsule.

Madman was held there for over a century, all the time being brainwashed by Tethseram. The influence was subtle – Tethseram wasn't going for complete control. Just influence. Upon returning Madman to SL-Space and wiping his conscious memory of the incident, Tethseram began exerting his control over which voices in Madspace found their way to Madman's mind through his Capsule's telepathic circuits.

Madman slowly began to distrust authority in any form as his mind struggled with what had happened. When Tethseram's ego got the better of him and he began taunting New Gallifrey, Madman saw an opportunity, not realizing he was hunting his own oppressor.

He sent in Gothess as an agent undercover into Madspace, unaware that the Agency already had someone inside. Gothess largely succeeded in her mission. Unknown to anyone else at the time, another young Timelord named Dracony had grown suspicious of Gothess and followed her into Madspace. Eventually, both were discovered and captured.

Upon learning of their disappearance and being completely unaware of Gothess' mission, the Council ordered the Agency to activate the Recall on both Timelord's Capsules. However, instead of returning them to New Gallifrey, both Capsules were used as advanced sensor probes to map and record as much of Madspace for the Matrix as possible.

Between the Capsules' scans and Agent ***REDACTED*** undercover report, the Agency had enough intel to mount a rescue. The incursion was a partial success, with only Gothess being discovered and returned. She had been brainwashed by Tethseram and was going to be returned to SL-Space as a double agent.

After being interrogated by the Agency and her memories and mind restored by the Sisterhood, a chilling truth was revealed. Tethseram was in fact a future incarnation of the Madman himself.

Part 48 – Mad Space

The following is a redacted report by a Celestial Intervention Agent upon returning from an undercover mission to Madman's pocket universe, code named Madspace -

Official Report – Agent ***REDACTED***

re: Undercover incursion into Bifrost pocket universe

Physics -

The pocket universe is quite small, containing only one hypo-spiral galaxy with approximately 5000 star systems. Exactly 510 of these contain inhabited planets. Obviously, these numbers are not by random chance.

What appears to be the requisite singularity at the center of the spiral is, in fact, a “bridge” to SL-Space. For now, this bridge is only one way, as the gravitational forces to approach it are far too intense for any of the technology possessed by races inside the universe to navigate.

As physics in this universe appears identical to that of SL-Space, it is reasonable to assume that it is an alternate to SL-Space, and was engineered artificially and split off from us.

Local government structure and culture -

The ruler-apparent of this universe is, of course, the Great One. A Great Vampire brought from N-Space, he oversees around 500 of the 510 inhabited worlds. More later on the other 10. The worlds ruled by this creature all follow a very simple pattern that we have seen before.

Upon arrival to the pocket universe, I found myself on a small planet orbiting a blue-supergiant called Ansular. The people of Ansular are humanoid (their N or SL-Space planet of origin is unknown). Because of the unstable star Ansular orbits, seasons are brutal, extreme, and often fatal.

To add to the instability, once a year the planet passes within three light minutes of a brown dwarf star that used to be Ansular Major's twin. This dead star still gives off considerable heat and gravitational forces. As the dwarf star passes by the planet each year, the gravitational and heat stresses turn most of the equatorial region into a boiling mass of volcanic eruptions, hurricane force winds, and Earthquakes.

Most of the slave inhabitants of Ansular live close the poles, where the effects of this unique phenomena are more… manageable. At the exact equator and apex of the dwarf star's passage by the planet, is located the Capital Citadel. It is a relatively simplistic ship based on – you guessed it – a Timelord Bowship design, but appears to have been originally constructed in house. The ship hovers some 200 feet above ground level, with simplistic walkways connecting it to the ground. For about 11 months of the planet's 14 month year, the ground is passable for shipping and commerce, albeit extremely harsh and unforgiving conditions.

Inside the Capital, I ingratiated myself with the ruling Vampire (named Dantus) and ***REDACTED***. At first, I acted as his voice to the People, traveling from one village to another to force payment of “gratitude.” Of course, the entire planet is being strip mined by a culture of suppressed slave labor held in the Middle Ages culturally and technologically. All resources – including an annual culling of ten percent of the population for vampire food – are being ripped from the planet.

Once I became a trusted… friend... of Dantus, I began inquiring as to how the planet's resources are shipped offworld. During the annual passage of the dwarf star, various shipping vessels arrive to dock with the Capital ship and move cargo. Of course, they are using the cover of planetary upheaval (an event shrouded in religious ritual to the locals) to hide their arrival and departure from the local populace.

Commerce -

After spending three years as Dantus' ***REDACTED***, I was finally able to secure passage on one of the cargo vessels to oversee the arrival of slave-food offerings to the Great One. We headed to a small system called Turatta. Once we landed on Turatta, the image was of a very different culture. This planet was a thriving technological hub, with what appeared to be a very militaristic feel. Advanced cargo shipping tech, what appeared to be an extremely busy port, but without any culture. All business.

What was most disturbing was who was controlling security and the workforce. While the planet appeared to be typically run by two Vampires, the rest of the workers and security were Racnos. Huge shipping crates full of mined resources were being moved, along with thousands of humanoid slaves. Approximately one out of every ten slaves were sent to a separate building… I discovered later they were meant to head to the Great Vampire as food. The other nine stayed on the planet to become Racnos food.

Having abandoned Dantus' mission, I set out on Turatta to find a group of people I had heard whisperings about from slaves. They called themselves the Chronarchs, and believed them to be the salvation of their suffering. To the backwards and suppressed slaves, they were little more than legend, but I felt confident there was a basis in fact.

History -

Of course, all discussion, writings, and rituals surrounding history are forbidden on all 500 vampire controlled worlds. Upon arriving on Turatta, I was able – after a couple months of delicate searching and talks – to find a vampire named Beo. Beo claimed to be a Chronarch. I spent a great deal of time with Beo from there on out. First, his history of the universe proved to be extremely interesting.

He spoke of the universe being created by a great warrior from nothing. A being from another existence who brought the burden of a great War with him. After analyzing the language evolution of several ancient texts, I came to the conclusion that this being was none other than our own Dalek Drillon.

Beo said that Drillon came here to build a great army. He brought many of his enemies here, but used his great intellect to turn them into beings who would be forced to work for him, or instantly die. Here I presumed that Beo was referring to some sort of genetically imbedded “kill switch.”

The people of Pretium (the name given by the Chronarchs to the entire pocket universe) lived in a virtual paradise at this point in history. They had advanced technology and culture, and the democratic rulers traveled between planets to form a great Congress that served at the pleasure of Lord Drillon.

Nine of the remaining ten planets were set aside as research facilities, with each planet containing one particular race that Drillon was investigating as utilizing for a “final solution” to what could only be the N-Space Time War. Obviously, Racnos and Vampires were two of the races. ***REDACTED***. The other six – if they had yet to be implemented – remain a mystery to me.

Beo then spoke of the arrival of another “like our Creator and great Ruler.” He must have been referring to another Timelord. This being possessed great mental ability, and evidently took control of the Great Vampire being held on one of the research planets. He brought the Vampires and Racnos army down upon the final planet – the Great Capital of Pretium. Drillon was killed, the Great Vampire installed as supreme ruler, and the mystery Timelord was never seen again.

Drillon's research team, the surviving members of the Congress, and Drillon's closest advisers went underground. They continued their research, and set about forming a rebel army to – one day – take on the Great Vampire.

The Chronarchs -

The Chronarchs are basically biological Timelords created by Drillon. Their biological makeup relies much more heavily on Vampire genetic material than Rassilon's Timelord retro-virus, giving them a biology ***REDACTED***. They are capable of nearly infinite regeneration, considerable telepathic abilities, and very advanced healing and strength.

However, their bodies are deficient in several key enzymes, which they are forced to manufacture. Their retro-virus is also contagious, meaning blood-to-blood contact with a Chronarch would result in being “turned” into one of them. After thousands of years of exposure to the “thirst”, as it's called, the Chronarchs are also rather…. harsh.

They appear to have constructed very basic SIDRATS. As of yet, these are not capable of breaching the barriers to SL-Space in any sort of reliable or predictable way. But several attempts have left high-energy ruptures in the Vortex where our two universe's are close.

The goal of the Chronarchs is quite clear. They believe that the Timelord who killed Drillon and basically destroyed Pretium is indicative of the entire race. They mean to take the ***REDACTED*** – after killing the Great Vampire that now inhabits the city – sweep into SL-Space, kill all of us, and take our Eye of Harmony. Then they will breach into N-Space, and finish the job Drillon started.

Supposition -

Now, here's the bit that is perhaps the most… disturbing. Vampires are telepathic, more so than Timelords. At least with each other – they tend to hear each others thoughts at the surface much more randomly than Timelords. Timelords and the Chronarchs have a level of control that typical Vampires do not, but thoughts still tend to “leak.”

Throughout my time in Pretium, I could hear a profound voice. It seems to permeate nearly every consciousness to a certain extent. I am confident that my own abilities have shielded me from its gaze, but its reach is impressive.

At first, I thought it was the Great Vampire itself. But then I realized it could not be. No simple vampire could control the flow of thought coming from a Timelord, nor even a Chronarch (I am a Timelord of moderate ability, and I had little difficulty shielding myself). Clearly, this being is responsible for the “voices” that the Madman hears, controlling which voices his own telepathic centers pick up on from the pocket universe. If this being were a Vampire, the Madman would clearly hear the Chronarchs. Given his recent actions, it would seam he does not.

Which means the controlling voice has to be a Chronarch. And a powerful one. I would assume their leader, whom I have yet to meet. If that is indeed the case – and I realize there is a lot of supposition in my previous statements – then the leader of the Chronarch is also the leader of the Vampires. The same man who killed Drillon, setup the Madman, and brought this universe to its knees is also the one leading the rebellion to save it.

Playing both sides is a dangerous game, and one to which I do not see an end game. Perhaps you have learned something that could shed light on this from the SL-Space side.

At the time I received your recall signal, this is the information I have.

Part 47 – The Madman

I know that some Timelords feel that their Loom names are too pompous, to elitist. I have no Timelord name, as I hadn't been granted a TTC yet. I was still in my first regeneration when I fled Gallifrey in Sen, just having finished all my academic work at the Academic and awaiting graduation. Most people don't realize that all Gallifreyan's get a “normal” name upon birth.  For the Patrexe Chapter, the super-long Timelord name added on the end is actually the name of their Titan, the organic being under the mechanics of a TARDIS. It is granted to a Junior Timelord upon Academy graduation when they receive their TTC. Sen was never given a proper name for me to take, as he was never officially commissioned.

Back on topic… often Timelords will take a title to better illustrate their personality. The Madman chose well. Before I go into the events surrounding how he pretty much drove all of US mad, I should give you some background on him.

Madman is one of only a couple Timelords to not enter SL-Space per The Abbot's good graces. He basically broke in. He was shot in, really.

Madman's origins are somewhat fuzzy. It's presumed that he fought in the Time War and somehow escaped the Last Day, but not without loosing his memory of everything before. His first awareness was of being in a dying TTC with virtually no power, and Gallifrey was gone. In the shake up surrounding the last days of the War, the barriers between universes started to break down. Madman took advantage of this to create a somewhat unique power source.

His power source was actually the inspiration for Sen to create what would eventually become our own Eye of Harmony. Madman has a compressed pocket universe inside his TTC. Super-compressed in both time and space - it's virtually a restrained Big Bang. The energy flowing from it is intense, even by Timelord standards. But it's not the energy that is the issue. It's the fact that this universe is active. With life… entire civilizations actually. Billions of sentient lives. And they're all tied into the telepathic circuits of Madman's TTC – right into his head. He calls them the Narwhals. A Timelord going slowly more and more insane from the constant din of a universe's worth of minds.

This is a problem for him, but not really anyone else. Until someone decided to take control of those civilizations and invade the pocket universe. That someone was called Tethseram.