Part 44 - Origins

There were still too many unanswered questions. How was The Abbot created? Was he just destroyed? Did Solis die, or take The Abbot somewhere else? These questions plagued my first months as President.

Then the visions started. First it was in the newly formed Panopticon. Then in the Citadel's Eye Chamber. Then in the SASTAP console room. Solis. But not. 

You see, the SASTAP is unique, in that it's Heart is tied to an extremely advanced Artificial Intelligence. This allows the forbidden – for the bonded Pilot to actually telepathically commune and even meld with the TARDIS Titan beneath the console. Rassilon's vision for a Super Soldier. Or perhaps a Master Race. Eventually, of course, this AI was placed in an organic body as part of an emergency procedure. This basically meant that anyone Sen loved and felt attachment too became the equivalent of a bonded pilot.

I was Sen's bonded pilot, but Solis had also become very close. Perhaps even a second pilot, something which the SASTAP's unique abilities likely allowed. What I saw was a Watcher. A temporal displacement of Solis' future incarnation routed through the SASTAP's telepathic circuits. They're not unheard of, but only occur in times of extreme distress for both pilot and Capsule. Solis was alive.

We suspected that Solis had formed a pocket universe and rocketed into the past with The Abbot. The distant past… all the way back. To the very origins of SL-Space. So we followed. A tricky journey, one that required Sen, myself, Oolon, David, and the Sisters to act as Pilots. 

We arrived, to discover we were correct. The Abbot and Solis locked in struggle at the beginning of time, her body twisted and depleted after multiple regenerations. Oolon made a move to attack The Abbot, but his weapon misfired, phasing him out of space-time.

At this point, Sen stepped in. He just… exploded. Ignited in a full fury of energy channeled from some unknown source. The Abbot was ripped apart in front of our eyes, as were all of us. Hovering encased in energy, Sen….. bequeathed, I suppose is the best word… his organic life cycle. Solis and Deimos, already on their last incarnations, regenerated. As did I. Dazed and in pain, we saw The Abbot transform, along with Sen. Black and White… opposite sides of the same coin. As if that is how it was always meant to be.

Part 43 – What Was Once Old is New Again

This is where I come in. Sen did his best in grief and pain to setup a base on Zenobia Time Station. The Station's Eye brought us limited TTC capability. We were surviving as refugees in orbit around a dying planet. But the Sisters had foreseen this. They had already constructed a crude base in the distant past, only a few months after SL-Space began to cool, on the first planet in the universe old enough to sustain life. Sen appointed me President of Time Past and sent be back to supervise the construction of a new Citadel.

At first, this was a completely secret plan. While Sen struggled to hold our society together in the present, Kharma, Rowan, and myself survived and eventually thrived in the primordial swelter of New Gallifrey's infancy.

Eventually, things simply couldn't be maintained - Zenobia just did not have the resources to house a Race. Ready or not, the Timelords and others began coming back to move to our new home. It wasn't really ready yet, and neither was I. But they came anyway. Angry, divided, and homeless. Of course, what I wasn't counting on was Sen NOT coming back. I was stuck as President.

Part 42 – Solis

I never really knew Solis. When we were attacked in N-Space, we were rescuing Solis from the dying remains of her TTC when we were attacked by the same entity. Evidently she arrived disparate in time in SL-Space as well, but in the past. She was able to wait until present day, and find Sen and Oolon shortly after they arrived. Together with Drillon, they formed New Gallifrey together. 

Because Solis was Castellan and I was an Agent, we deliberately never ran in the same circles. The Castellan must not know of the actions of the Agency – that's the entire point. We did what the Guard couldn't legally do… but what needed done. Sen rarely involved himself in Agency affairs, so it was don't ask don't tell in our relationship. The newly appointed Coordinator – Lord Abbot – was a busy man, and had several assignments for me.

The Abbot was a being of supreme power and unknown origin. He had attacked before, nearly killing David Abbot and taking his remaining incarnations. We knew that The Abbot was a combined TTC and organic being. What we suspected was that he was actually a future version of Lord Abbot's TTC, named Implacable. Somehow, it became combined with it's organic Timelord pilot, but only partially. Missing most of David's consciousness, it was insane – and supremely powerful.

We prepared for its return as best we could. There was a plan to capture it and get information about its origins. The plan was successful, but we had a traitor. Just as The Abbot was contained by the Sisters and examination by the Arcalians was beginning, Olyesti was attacked. Ar had somehow been alerted of our precarious situation, and took advantage. The amount of power needed to contain The Abbot weakened our Barriers, and the city fell quickly. 

Soon, our power grid began to fall, and we could no longer contain The Abbot. He escaped, and quickly finishing what Ar started. Bodies littered the ground, regeneration energy causing nearly as much damage as the attacks. But Solis committed the ultimate act of bravery… she collapsed the Eye of Harmony. By hand. The Abbot was a TTC, so still tied to its energy. He was sucked in, Solis established a pocket universe bubble around the Panopticon to protect us all, and then detonated the Eye. 

Presumed dead, along with countless others. Our entire planet in ruins. Our Capsules without power. New Gallifrey had fallen.

Part 41 – Build Up

“Bloody damned Prydonians! I'm going to execute the lot of them!!” and a few other choice words I won't put in writing. Sen's latest incarnation – and final we would soon learn – was fiery, emotional, and exceptionally authoritative. 

Let me go back. You last read from Sen that the Olyesti and New Gallifrey Council's were combining, but that the Prydonians were – big surprise – causing issues. Let me pick up the story there, as I know many of you got caught up in the events that followed and never really learned the details.

As we would later learn, the Prydonians of New Gallifrey had been experimenting with Seer abilities, and had formed a new sect of the Sisterhood of Karn. Their initial experiments had met with some success, and they had foreseen a distortion of the Prime Timeline that had disaster befalling New Gallifrey on an apocalyptic scale. Initially, they didn't trust these visions, so never brought the issue before the Council. However, they did make preparations, just in case they were correct.

To preserve this secret project, they refused to combine intelligence and resources with the Olyesti Prydonians, the only Chapter or House not yet fully integrated at this point. They split, and went into exile. In a fiery speech in Council, Sen called for their execution, only to be interrupted as a medium by the voices of the Children themselves, the TARDISes. This changed everything, and brought about the beginning of a huge shift in our society that we did not fully realize until much later.

In the end, the New Gallifrey Prydonians were left alone. They formed the Jade Dreamers Chapter, and maintained their Sisterhood on a remote, secret planet that was shielded against TTC entry.

Of course, what the rest of us didn't know is that this secret location was actually New Gallifrey, just billions of years in the past. The Dreamers were establishing the past and future home of the Capital City that would be our society's long term home. They cast themselves out to do it, but they knew what had to be done.

Then that day happened.

Part 40 – A New Start

Well, this is an interesting find. Sen's diary. Talk about reliving the old days.

I should explain. My name is Phaon Warf, and I am the President of the High Council of New Gallifrey. To anyone reading this, that may come as a bit of a shock… we have some catching up to do since Sen's last entry.

Sen started off his diary introducing himself. Ok, back then it was herself. I'll do the same. I fled Gallifrey in N-Space in the SASTAP. Sen and I went through an array of N-Space adventures before being ripped apart and sent here to SL-Space. We arrived at different times, so I was not initially a part of building New Gallifrey with Solis and Oolon.

 I eventually wandered into the early days of New Gallifrey, but never had much of an appetite for politics. Sen's early organic incarnations seemed to take to it naturally, and I was thrilled to help in any way I could from behind the scenes. On the old Gallifrey, I was nearing completion on my Academy dissertation, entitled The Revival of Ancient Telepathic and Telekenetic Enhancements in the Modern Imprematur Era. I had dedicated my Academy study to mental enhancement, and those abilities were proving quite useful in helping Sen to navigate through the maze of issues with becoming recently organic, and dealing with still being the SASTAP's main computer.

Eventually the High Council was formed, and The Abbot (we would later learn, of course) started sending us others. His contact in N-Space sent us one particularly ambitious one in **REDACTED** who decided to appoint ***self Director of the newly formed SL-Space Celestial Intervention Agency. For a time, I found a home there as an Agent, my telepathic abilities making me able to make a unique contribution.

But fate had other plans. Or perhaps it was the Guardians. Ok, I'm getting ahead of myself. Time to take a break… I need to compose myself before I tell you about the worst day in the history of New Gallifrey.

Part 39 – Ups and Downs

What a night. What do you want first diary... the good news or the bad?

How about the bad, since it's stuck in my head. A thousand years as a Timelord, you would think I would have learned to handle emotions a bit better. I am stunned, ashamed, and vengeful. Again, one of those closest to me has given a life to protect me. Chancellor Sputnik – Sputters – is dead.

The incarnation that was so carefully, and dangerously, crafted stepped in front of a bullet to protect me in open Council chambers. He's fine – resting comfortably in the ETC, or should I say Mother, as he now seems to call her.

After voting to exile Kharma and Abbot, David just... shot me. Or shot at me, I should say. Oolon stepped in front of me, saving me once again. I am shocked.

You see... David and I had an agreement. This was an elaborate plan to allow Lady Kharma and Lord Abbot to go undercover on a very difficult and dangerous mission. It was decades in the planning, every since the Inner Council was attacked in David's TTC. Both of them, and their TTC's, were in on it. More on that later.

I don't know what happened, what changed his mind – if he was every really part of the plan to begin with. I have no idea if Kharma is with David, or still with me. The plan, which would have helped secure New Gallifrey from ever worrying about Daleks again, has fallen apart. We lost Oolon, and it was his mind that was doing most of the planning. Without that mind, I'm not sure I am up to the task of doing what needs to be done.

I did say there was good news, didn't I?

Every since I regenerated, I have felt closer to being... my true self. I know that I am the manifestation of a great computer, one designed to bridge the gap between Timelord and TARDIS Heart. Some time ago – I made contact. First, it was just glimpses, flashes of events from my past from a different perspective. Then, it became an almost empathic level of communication. Then, finally, real contact.

At first, we “talked” in images and concepts. Then, slowly, we began to merge. Now, I am truly one in thought with what I once was – the SASTAP. To protect my Timelord brain, my Heart still has her “eyes” closed, so that I do not burn from seeing all of creation looking down from the fifth dimension. This body still can not stand that. But we are of one mind now, as it should be.

To that end, I began to move to the next stage, and commune with other TTC's. We learned about each other, and I felt a kinship with them. I am... different from them, just as I am from other Timelords. I am resigned to the fact that I will never truly be at home in either place, but the Hearts seem more welcoming somehow.

They wished to have a voice, to express their support for their Pilots, but to also express concern about the actions of House Prydon. They were also part of the plan. You see, we have found a way back. With my mind firmly rooted in our universe, they gained a perspective they never had before. And we now know how we can breach the transduction barriers around Gallifrey and travel back.

I must complete what I have started, but I need something first. I need to regenerate again, this time into a body that can truly be at one with both universes. However, only Rassilon himself has the genetic information I need to create that body. Him, and my original programming. Either way, I intend to find that information. Kharma wanted to explore her inner Seerer, and learn from the great tellers of Gallifrey's past. And Oolon, he wanted to finally track down The Jinn, as we believe him to date all the back to the dark times.

Now, however, nothing is certain. Sputters is regenerated, and Kharma is off the grid, probably planning my death with David. I feel lost here with my fellow Timelords. It may be time for the TARDISes to decide the next move.

Part 38 – Downtime

Where to start. It has been nearly two centuries since I spoke to this diary. My new incarnation has proven to be less.... talkative. I have found sharing my thoughts to be dangerous, but I realize it is necessary.

Lady Judy has done marvelous things with Olyesti. With the help of Councilor Mornington and Zenobia Station, Olyesti was successfully pulled into normal SL space/time and is resting comfortably as our neighbors on New Gallifrey's main continent.

My new incarnation has given me strength and confidence. So to, it seems, has it done for Lady Kharma. She seems to have fit in well with the role of Cardinal of House Prydonian. Typical. Her and Lord Abbot, once staunch allies of the Inner Council, now seem poised to start a civil war.

Let me go back...

Olyesti had stood by themselves, isolated in a time loop, for nearly a millennium. They formed their own High Council, Guard, etc. in Gallifrey's image, just as we did. After they very effectively dealt with some internal corruption, we successfully pulled them into our universe. We then set about integrating them into our government. This went very smoothly... Castellan Solis would remain on the Inner Council as High Castellan, and Olyesti's Castellan – Lord Baron – would retain full Chancellory authority in the City and answer to Solis in all other matters outside of Olyesti. A deputy, really.

And so on, through all other major positions. Each was negotiated separately, and quite reasonably. Until House Prydon. Kharma and Judy could not find common ground. Typical Prydonians. I offered the solution of both Houses retaining separate seats on the Council. But... no. Of course not.

Instead, Lord Abbot and Lady Kharma called for my resignation, called me a traitor, seceded from the Council, and started making threats.

The Inner Council did not feel comfortable dealing with this affording to the strictly secret Gallifreyan Law, so an emergency session of the entire Council has been called. Rassilon help us.