I have been asking myself an odd question recently. Do the Laws of Time really apply here? We are obviously in a pocket universe of some kind, one independent and removed from the N-Space Web of Time. We do not, as of yet, have the grand technological superiority here that the Timelords had in N-Space.
If we not capable of the level of interference that we once were, if there any reason to still be afraid of it? I was created by Rassilon as a TARDIS – to observe and learn about the universe, for sure. But it is obvious to me that I was also created for a higher purpose than to just watch.
As much as I respect my father and creator, I am beginning to think that The Other had a point all those eons ago. I’m just not sure how to apply his teachings here without us causing as much damage in our rise to power as the Timelords of ancient times did.
Thursday
Part 11 - Lost Time
I have been feeling somewhat reflective lately. For eons I lay dormant, deactivated, call it what you will. Everything went dark for me just as the greatest civilization ever borne of our universe began to reach maturity. And I awoke just as it was destroyed.
That goes far beyond not being fair. The Timelord race kept the peace on a scale unconceivable by most races, let along achievable. I was designed to be an instrumental part of that peace, and yet it all literally passed me by.
And yet I can not help but think that the word “coincidence” and the name Rassilon seldom appear together. How did I end up in the Panoptican being poked and prodded in some lab? Who knew about me and transported me there? And why did the presence of those Timelords not raise me from my slumber, but Phaon did?
Somewhere buried inside my mind are sensor readings and matrix communications from thousands of generations of dormancy. Stored outside of my consciousness somewhere. If I am to rebuild Gallifrey here, then I need to know the details of the one that came before. I need unfettered access to my databanks. And to do that, I need to be a computer again.
Part 10 - Zenobia
Out of bored curiosity, I nosed around the Zenobia station the other day. Victor seems to have things well in hand there, and our relations with him seem to be on a positive track. The security in that place is tight, but thankfully not even the CIA scientists who designed it had any idea that I existed. Breaching station security and poking around was child’s play.
What I found was quite disturbing. It seems the death throws of the Altera station’s sister – Zenobia Major – bear a quite disturbing resemblance to the attack on myself and the destruction of Solis’ TARDIS.
Whether this sheds much light on the issue is still unclear. It does suggest, however, that TARDISes were tracked not with technology, but with inside intelligence. The Zenobia stations were the most secret of secret, untraceable by even the Daleks and other Timelords. Which suggests that tracking information was given to someone.
An inside job. Great. We can only hope that whoever it was isn’t around anymore. Somehow, I don’t favor our chances of that being the case.
What I found was quite disturbing. It seems the death throws of the Altera station’s sister – Zenobia Major – bear a quite disturbing resemblance to the attack on myself and the destruction of Solis’ TARDIS.
Whether this sheds much light on the issue is still unclear. It does suggest, however, that TARDISes were tracked not with technology, but with inside intelligence. The Zenobia stations were the most secret of secret, untraceable by even the Daleks and other Timelords. Which suggests that tracking information was given to someone.
An inside job. Great. We can only hope that whoever it was isn’t around anymore. Somehow, I don’t favor our chances of that being the case.
Friday
Part 9 - A Sunday drive
When I said earlier that I nabbed the Hand of Omega from Gallifrey’s death throws, that is true. In the spirit of political openess, I did not exactly tell the whole story. Here it is.
We must have a functioning Eye of Harmony, at whatever the cost. There are several components needed to make this happen. The Transduction Barriers are already in place on New Gallifrey. It was relatively simple to construct this technology by recreating any TARDISes dimenional stabilizer.
We need to be able to get the Eye into place. We do not have a Sash of Rassilon, but Oolon and I think that we have a plan forming for making that work. However, here’s the big hitch. We need to blow up a star. In fully functioning form, I could do that. But not even I have the computational power to *control* that explosion. We must have the Hand of Omega.
So I took it. I went back to our realm and “borrowed” the Hand that The Doctor “borrowed” from Gallifrey. I have a bit of a repour with technology of that era, and was able to track it down on Earth. Burried in a… grave. That Doctor always was a bit on the odd side.
The important thing is, we have a Stellar Manipulator. With it, we can create an Eye of Harmony.
Oolon, Dalek, even Solis… there is something very important they don’t understand. I am a Timelord. But I also am a TARDIS. A Child of Rassilon. We have a High Council, we have a home. Our TARDISes have no power. They are barely alive. I have every bit as much of a duty to them as I do the other Timelords I call friends and family here.
We must have a functioning Eye of Harmony, at whatever the cost. There are several components needed to make this happen. The Transduction Barriers are already in place on New Gallifrey. It was relatively simple to construct this technology by recreating any TARDISes dimenional stabilizer.
We need to be able to get the Eye into place. We do not have a Sash of Rassilon, but Oolon and I think that we have a plan forming for making that work. However, here’s the big hitch. We need to blow up a star. In fully functioning form, I could do that. But not even I have the computational power to *control* that explosion. We must have the Hand of Omega.
So I took it. I went back to our realm and “borrowed” the Hand that The Doctor “borrowed” from Gallifrey. I have a bit of a repour with technology of that era, and was able to track it down on Earth. Burried in a… grave. That Doctor always was a bit on the odd side.
The important thing is, we have a Stellar Manipulator. With it, we can create an Eye of Harmony.
Oolon, Dalek, even Solis… there is something very important they don’t understand. I am a Timelord. But I also am a TARDIS. A Child of Rassilon. We have a High Council, we have a home. Our TARDISes have no power. They are barely alive. I have every bit as much of a duty to them as I do the other Timelords I call friends and family here.
Thursday
Part 8 - A quick, and disturbing thought
I was rereading my older entries in this memoir today. I just realized something disturbing. Solis’ specialty at the academy was Observational Telepathy. Her mission when we were attacked was to telepathically monitor a remote civilization for Matrix archival.
Phaon’s specialty was telekinetics. Granted, I assume that during the eons, Timelord’s mental abilities have evolved considerably, but I have never met a Timelord with telekinetic abilities even approaching Phaon. He was on the verge of actually being able to manipulate matter at the molecular level.
My own shell is constructed of Arton energy, the essence of the conscious mind.
Now, Oolon was the odd one out here in the attacks we know about. Then it hit me…. the target wasn’t Oolon. It was Terry. She’s a Shidhe. The Shidhe can project a telepathic image of themselves into the mind of any sensory observer. I have heard of Shidhe more advanced than Terry, but even she can “fake” an image at first glance into a Timelord.
Telepathy. That’s the common link. Whoever this… being… is, it is systematically eliminating any Timelord or Timelord’s associates with telepathic abilities of any kind. TARDISes are also a common link. Every attack happened in a TARDIS. I have no idea if the attacker tracks telepathic energy through a TARDIS, or if the victims were tracked some other means, and the TARDIS is simply the method of attack.
One good thing, this realm were are in is not harmful to the interior structure of a TARDIS as our home third dimension is. If this being came here with us, his main method of attack has lost its teeth.
I, however, have not.
Phaon’s specialty was telekinetics. Granted, I assume that during the eons, Timelord’s mental abilities have evolved considerably, but I have never met a Timelord with telekinetic abilities even approaching Phaon. He was on the verge of actually being able to manipulate matter at the molecular level.
My own shell is constructed of Arton energy, the essence of the conscious mind.
Now, Oolon was the odd one out here in the attacks we know about. Then it hit me…. the target wasn’t Oolon. It was Terry. She’s a Shidhe. The Shidhe can project a telepathic image of themselves into the mind of any sensory observer. I have heard of Shidhe more advanced than Terry, but even she can “fake” an image at first glance into a Timelord.
Telepathy. That’s the common link. Whoever this… being… is, it is systematically eliminating any Timelord or Timelord’s associates with telepathic abilities of any kind. TARDISes are also a common link. Every attack happened in a TARDIS. I have no idea if the attacker tracks telepathic energy through a TARDIS, or if the victims were tracked some other means, and the TARDIS is simply the method of attack.
One good thing, this realm were are in is not harmful to the interior structure of a TARDIS as our home third dimension is. If this being came here with us, his main method of attack has lost its teeth.
I, however, have not.
Part 7 - The missing link
I have been working recently to piece together the huge gap in my memory/databank between the end of the battle with the Great Vampire and my arrival here. Solis, another of the stranded Timelords here, has been using her substantial telepathic abilities to assist me in this recovery. Here is the story so far…
After the attack by the Great Vampire, I awoke from my slumber of many millennia to the presence of a dying Timelord mind. His body was burned, battered. Some deeply buried system inside had awoken me from the hibernation that Rassilon himself had induced to assist a Timelord through his first regeneration.
As I reached into his mind, I took a look at my exterior surroundings at the same time. Gallifrey. But a very different Gallifrey. Amid what appeared to be a revolt or revolution of some kind, I saw evidence of the great civilization my father had envisioned. Revolution. Not safe – must protect the Timelord, so I dematerialized.
Orbiting in the vortex, my new charge, named Phaon, had completed his regeneration. And as Rassilon nor any of the scientists who worked on my construction had seen fit to imprint themselves as my operator, Phaon was my very first Timelord telepathic bonding.
We traveled together for a time. Then everything changed. We received a distress signal from a TARDIS. We managed to save the ship’s only occupant, a Timelord named Solis, before the ship’s death. I could feel it’s pain, it’s confusion. TARDISes should not die. Ever.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to mull this fact for long. An alien vessel (and I wish I could describe it better than that – but it was somehow shielded from my sensors) materialized, almost TARDIS like, directly in front of me. It seemed to morph briefly, then tendrils reached out from its slick, rocket like structure and grabbed my exterior.
The pain was instant, and unimaginable. I had the most powerful set of computer components every created, and I had to focus just to keep myself together. I was being ripped out of my dimension – this being was using the exterior as a grapple, pulling my interior out into the third dimension and certain death.
I barked at Phaon and Solis, who were frantically punching barely functional controls on the console in an attempt to assist me. As my exterior was constructed of pure energy, it was possible to literally dissolve it. They obeyed, and I felt the grip of the attacker relax. But it was too late. I was dying, I could feel it. My systems were too badly damaged to regenerate, and ejecting the exterior cut off my connection to my Eye and the power I needed to survive.
Deep inside, I heard a voice. An emergency system. The voice was growing louder. I listened, and initiated the program. The flickering image of my holographic interface in the console room suddenly solidified, as the last energy reserves of my systems set into motion a last ditch effort of survival. As the program initiated, I gave a brief thanks for Rassilon’s paranoia.
I was confused, disoriented. Suddenly, I couldn’t feel the rest of… myself. But I could feel my new organic body kicking into panic mode. The program was almost complete. I grabbed Phaon and Solis, and we began to transmat. It was slow, labored. The ship was dying, using the last of its energy to get us off before moving the interior structure to the closest place of safety it could find.
Then I awoke. Apparently I had been injured during transmat and regenerated the instant I arrived in this place. Solis and Phaon were nowhere nearby. Eventually Solis found me. Now that she helped me open up parts of my memory, she is off again, trying to find Phaon while I do my best to restore myself and the Timelords who are here with us. We have no idea if Phaon survived the transmat. Since it initiated a regeneration in both myself and Solis, we have no way of knowing if enough of him survived to complete a regeneration. Apparently Solis arrived some half a millennium before me, and had been looking for me every since. So Phaon could already be here. Or he may not arrive for centuries.
Now it seems complete. I know who I am, where I came from. And while I am not yet completely restored, a plan is beginning to form on the Council for how to achieve that end.
There are just a few things that deeply concern me. Is Phaon still alive, and did he make it here with us? And who attacked me in the first place? One can only hope that whoever this being was, he was destroyed when the Daleks took our civilization from us. However, I somehow doubt that.
There also seem to be rumblings of a political force here maneuvering to form power against us. Thankfully, we were able to diffuse most of the tension between our allies of Artificial Isle and Caledon, but I can’t help but be left with a feeling of dread. I have a feeling those two great governments were being used as pawns in a game whose scope seems of… Timelord proportions.
After the attack by the Great Vampire, I awoke from my slumber of many millennia to the presence of a dying Timelord mind. His body was burned, battered. Some deeply buried system inside had awoken me from the hibernation that Rassilon himself had induced to assist a Timelord through his first regeneration.
As I reached into his mind, I took a look at my exterior surroundings at the same time. Gallifrey. But a very different Gallifrey. Amid what appeared to be a revolt or revolution of some kind, I saw evidence of the great civilization my father had envisioned. Revolution. Not safe – must protect the Timelord, so I dematerialized.
Orbiting in the vortex, my new charge, named Phaon, had completed his regeneration. And as Rassilon nor any of the scientists who worked on my construction had seen fit to imprint themselves as my operator, Phaon was my very first Timelord telepathic bonding.
We traveled together for a time. Then everything changed. We received a distress signal from a TARDIS. We managed to save the ship’s only occupant, a Timelord named Solis, before the ship’s death. I could feel it’s pain, it’s confusion. TARDISes should not die. Ever.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to mull this fact for long. An alien vessel (and I wish I could describe it better than that – but it was somehow shielded from my sensors) materialized, almost TARDIS like, directly in front of me. It seemed to morph briefly, then tendrils reached out from its slick, rocket like structure and grabbed my exterior.
The pain was instant, and unimaginable. I had the most powerful set of computer components every created, and I had to focus just to keep myself together. I was being ripped out of my dimension – this being was using the exterior as a grapple, pulling my interior out into the third dimension and certain death.
I barked at Phaon and Solis, who were frantically punching barely functional controls on the console in an attempt to assist me. As my exterior was constructed of pure energy, it was possible to literally dissolve it. They obeyed, and I felt the grip of the attacker relax. But it was too late. I was dying, I could feel it. My systems were too badly damaged to regenerate, and ejecting the exterior cut off my connection to my Eye and the power I needed to survive.
Deep inside, I heard a voice. An emergency system. The voice was growing louder. I listened, and initiated the program. The flickering image of my holographic interface in the console room suddenly solidified, as the last energy reserves of my systems set into motion a last ditch effort of survival. As the program initiated, I gave a brief thanks for Rassilon’s paranoia.
I was confused, disoriented. Suddenly, I couldn’t feel the rest of… myself. But I could feel my new organic body kicking into panic mode. The program was almost complete. I grabbed Phaon and Solis, and we began to transmat. It was slow, labored. The ship was dying, using the last of its energy to get us off before moving the interior structure to the closest place of safety it could find.
Then I awoke. Apparently I had been injured during transmat and regenerated the instant I arrived in this place. Solis and Phaon were nowhere nearby. Eventually Solis found me. Now that she helped me open up parts of my memory, she is off again, trying to find Phaon while I do my best to restore myself and the Timelords who are here with us. We have no idea if Phaon survived the transmat. Since it initiated a regeneration in both myself and Solis, we have no way of knowing if enough of him survived to complete a regeneration. Apparently Solis arrived some half a millennium before me, and had been looking for me every since. So Phaon could already be here. Or he may not arrive for centuries.
Now it seems complete. I know who I am, where I came from. And while I am not yet completely restored, a plan is beginning to form on the Council for how to achieve that end.
There are just a few things that deeply concern me. Is Phaon still alive, and did he make it here with us? And who attacked me in the first place? One can only hope that whoever this being was, he was destroyed when the Daleks took our civilization from us. However, I somehow doubt that.
There also seem to be rumblings of a political force here maneuvering to form power against us. Thankfully, we were able to diffuse most of the tension between our allies of Artificial Isle and Caledon, but I can’t help but be left with a feeling of dread. I have a feeling those two great governments were being used as pawns in a game whose scope seems of… Timelord proportions.
Part 6 - Finding myself
I still don’t remember what happened after that. Only that I was here. No longer a great ship of time, but somehow a Timelord. As the day grows near, I am almost fearful of the knowledge that will open up to me if/when I am able to restore myself to my former greatness.
Oolon filled me in recently on the rest of the story of the Great Vampires. I had apparently killed their king/father/creator. A being of such great power that he had survived the death of his own universe and existed outside the laws of physics in our own.
In typical political fashion, Rassilon had apparently buried the knowledge that one of the Vampires had escaped through some kind of… void. However, The Doctor (a name I have come to recognize in connection with many events of recent Timelord history) found the being. Barely alive in a pocket universe called E-Space, this renegade Timelord – along with our future President Romana – finished the job that we had started all those millennia ago.
In Timelord news, there is a new Matrix. Sort of. We do not have the resources here to construct a true APC Net, but our Kryptonian ally Kalel also seemed to have sneaked technology from his once great race into this realm. Brainiac seems to be quickly becoming a repository of all that is in this place. My hope is to continue our partnership with this band of heroes in a more formal, diplomatic fashion as Lord President.
Perhaps the role of the Timelords is destined to take a different path here. Instead of the all-powerful overseers, perhaps our technology will suit us better as diplomats and facilitators in this place. I have seen evidence of Asgard, OAns, Kryptonians, Ancients, even future humans from the era of the Federation. Obviously, this place has rifts of some kind that open into all parts of the universe, from all points in history.
Convincing the others of this will be a challenge. I know that Oolon and Drillon, especially, enjoy the behind the scenes, cloak and dagger routine of the Timelord intervention into the rest of the universe. But I have seen the results of that philosophy. An E-Space race imprisoned and enslaved for thousands of years because Rassilon insisted that my partial failure be buried.
It seems that other Timelords foresaw this as well. The Rani and The Doctor, it seems, have all but given one our race’s greatest artifacts – the Zenobia Station – to a non-Timelord. We will have to work with Victor and Kalel at the very least if we are to rebuild Gallifrey. Seems once that door is opened, there is no closing it.
Oolon filled me in recently on the rest of the story of the Great Vampires. I had apparently killed their king/father/creator. A being of such great power that he had survived the death of his own universe and existed outside the laws of physics in our own.
In typical political fashion, Rassilon had apparently buried the knowledge that one of the Vampires had escaped through some kind of… void. However, The Doctor (a name I have come to recognize in connection with many events of recent Timelord history) found the being. Barely alive in a pocket universe called E-Space, this renegade Timelord – along with our future President Romana – finished the job that we had started all those millennia ago.
In Timelord news, there is a new Matrix. Sort of. We do not have the resources here to construct a true APC Net, but our Kryptonian ally Kalel also seemed to have sneaked technology from his once great race into this realm. Brainiac seems to be quickly becoming a repository of all that is in this place. My hope is to continue our partnership with this band of heroes in a more formal, diplomatic fashion as Lord President.
Perhaps the role of the Timelords is destined to take a different path here. Instead of the all-powerful overseers, perhaps our technology will suit us better as diplomats and facilitators in this place. I have seen evidence of Asgard, OAns, Kryptonians, Ancients, even future humans from the era of the Federation. Obviously, this place has rifts of some kind that open into all parts of the universe, from all points in history.
Convincing the others of this will be a challenge. I know that Oolon and Drillon, especially, enjoy the behind the scenes, cloak and dagger routine of the Timelord intervention into the rest of the universe. But I have seen the results of that philosophy. An E-Space race imprisoned and enslaved for thousands of years because Rassilon insisted that my partial failure be buried.
It seems that other Timelords foresaw this as well. The Rani and The Doctor, it seems, have all but given one our race’s greatest artifacts – the Zenobia Station – to a non-Timelord. We will have to work with Victor and Kalel at the very least if we are to rebuild Gallifrey. Seems once that door is opened, there is no closing it.
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