Divided Loyalties

by Gary Russell

  Instead, he scanned the flower and looked at a massive blow-up of it on the screen. He sectioned it, rotating the image 360

  degrees. ‘Do you see? Millions of tiny atoms. Each one of astonishing complexity and beauty. Individually they are nothing, but put together they create something as beautiful as this.’

  ‘It’s a daisy, Doctor,’ Magnus grunted. It is white, yellow and green. Hardly beautiful.’

  The Doctor shook his head. ‘No, that’s the mistake I made. But look harder. The beauty is not in its outward appearance but in the sheer brilliance of what it represents. Why? Why do daisies exist? How did they come to exist in this way? Why not red? Why not three foot tall or a yard wide?’

  ‘Because that is the way of the universe, Doctor,’ Millennia said quietly. ‘The Academy teaches us that the intricate mathematics that cause creation have been examined and -’

  ‘Can’t you see, Millennia?’ the Doctor interrupted gently.

  ‘There’s more to life, to us, than this place. This Academy. This planet. I thought all that we, the Deca, could really do was dream. That it was our destiny to stay here and regret what we had been born into avoiding, just as it was our destiny to dream. But no. No, I see now we can change things. We can be as significant in our universe as each of these daisy molecules is in its. There is such beauty in this flower, so much depth. So much more than we ever see at a glance as we walk through the meadows near the hills.’

  ‘Or as we tread on the daisies as we walk on them to get back to the sands.’ Rallon was bored. ‘C’mon, Doctor, where is this taking us?’

  The Doctor started tapping at the computer, leafing through sheet after sheet of documented data. ‘It’s all here, you know. The secrets, the rumours, the legends and the facts.

  The Time Lords have access to it but are afraid to use it.’ His fingers breezed over the touch-sensitive keys as he used his natural skill for mathematics to upload terabytes of Information to his data pad.

  Rallon smiled slightly at a private memory - of Cardinal Borusa telling their class over and over again that the truth, the answers to all questions, could only be found in pure mathematics. The science of the legendary Logopolitans made real. That was what Millennia had referred to. But here was another kind of truth - the truth that there was more to life than maths. Science. There was a universe of life to be explored. Rallon suddenly understood, and shared, his friend’s haste.

  With a rather exaggerated flourish, the Doctor logged off the computer and tapped his data pad, now filled with the uploaded information. ‘We need to get the others to see all this, choose our target.’

  Magnus stepped back. ‘Our target? What do you mean?’ The Doctor looked hard at him and, for the second time in less than a day, Rallon saw that look in his eyes.

  A look of fire. Of danger. Or something not quite...

  Gallifreyan.

  Not normal.

  ‘Millennia wants an adventure. That’s what we’re going to have.’

  ‘I do?’ she mouthed at Rallon, but he just kissed her cheek and spoke softly.

  ‘Go along with it!’

  The Doctor grabbed his pad and almost ran out of the library. The others followed a few paces behind, smiling sheepishly at the angry looks from other students who wanted nothing more than to study in peace.

  Unseen by any of the departing students, or any of the library staff, was an extraordinary occurrence by the computer console at which the Doctor had been working.

  Unseen, because for just a few moments Gallifrey stopped.

  Totally and utterly stopped.

  Time, for the galaxy’s only beings who could really claim to understand the concept, simply ceased to exist.

  A piece of paper knocked off a desk by Millennia’s departing robes hovered immobile in the air. A red liquid being drunk by a librarian solidified as an unmoving lump between the edge of the glass and his throat.

  And in the corridor outside the four hurrying students simply didn’t move.

  Inside the library, the air shimmered and distorted until the effect was large enough for two black-and-white attired recorders to step out, as if the air were a door.

  Which, in a way, it was.

  Silently, they looked around and then one of them picked up the Doctor’s discarded daisy.

  ‘Definitely the one.’ He reached over to the console the Doctor had used and tapped on the keys. The shimmering air stretched with his arm and enveloped the computer, reactivating it. He made a few keystrokes and withdrew. The computer once more regained its frozen composure.

  ‘Erasure completed!

  And, daisy still in hand, the recorder stepped back into the air, followed by his compatriot.

  The air stopped shimmering.

  The librarian drank his drink, the piece of paper flopped to the floor and, outside in the corridor, the quartet of hurrying students continued their running.

  No one on Gallifrey was even aware that time had stopped.

  Except those who had made it happen.

  Later that night, it was obvious to Rallon that the Doctor had forgotten about his Kitriarch’s orders.

  There was to be no visit to Lungbarrow tonight.

  Instead most of the members of the Deca were in Jelpax’s room, watching as he, the Doctor and Mortimus – their history expert - assimilated the Doctor’s procured data.

  Drax wasn’t there, nor Ushas. Both were finishing an Academy project. If the Doctor even noticed their absence, Rallon could see it mattered little to him.

  Vansell was apparently disinterested, hovering by the door.

  Rallon thought he looked very preoccupied - perhaps he was already rather behind with his assignments and another night spent with the Deca would make him even further behind.

  Vansell had always been the most dedicated.

  In fact, come to think of it, he was an odd one to have become involved with the Deca.

  But then Millennia and Magnus weren’t very typical secret-club types either. Nor were Ushas or Jelpax...

  Anyway, whatever the Doctor, Jelpax and Mortimus were up to now, Vansell was clearly disinterested.

  Rallon caught a look from Koschei that said it all: the three with the data pad were like time-tots with new Otherstide gifts.

  Mortimus, in particular, was enjoying ploughing through the records.

  ‘This planet is fascinating,’ he said.

  ‘Which one?’ asked Jelpax.

  ‘Earth,’ interrupted the Doctor.

  ‘Oh...’ chorused some of the others, well used to the Doctor’s love of this rather primitive planet. No one quite understood why he studied it in such detail. ‘A remarkable place,’ he continued, addressing just Mortimus as if giving a lecture. ‘A very violent world, but very civilised at the same time. Unlike most planets, it rises and falls regularly.’

  Mortimus was pointing at the data. ‘According to these notes, Time Lords have been known to visit other planets to observe them first hand...’ he trailed off. ‘Time Lords leaving Gallifrey?

  But that’s... that’s...’

  ‘Enough to blow the lid off their precious perfect society,’

  Koschei said grimly.

  The others all looked at him, so he smiled. ‘Hey, just an observation.’

  But Magnus seemed to be considering his comment carefully. Perhaps he was remembering the stories about the Alien planet, the force fields and the threats of time erasure.

  ‘What do you make of this then?’ The Doctor was tapping at the data. ‘Ever heard of Minyos?’

  Over the next couple of hours, the Deca ploughed through the various secrets of the past.

  After some time, Vansell sardonically observed ‘Has it occurred to any of you that these supposed deep, dark secrets just happened to be very easy to get hold of?’

  The Doctor was indignant. ‘I had to look very hard, actually. It took a lot of code breaking to get past the APC Net security devices.’

  Vansell shrugged. ‘OK, but it st
ill strikes me as a bit too easy. Almost as if they wanted them to be found.’

  Millennia shot Vansell a filthy look. ‘Oh, you are just so boring, you know? The Doctor worked jolly hard to get this.’

  Jelpax sucked in his breath. ‘I have to say, however, that there is something in what Vansell says. I mean, we may be stumbling on something top secret here.’

  ‘Good,’ said Koschei. ‘Fewer secrets would be better for everyone. Come on, keep going. Let’s see what else is buried in the files of the Time Lords.’

  Mortimus was scanning. ‘A race of people in suspended animation as a result of a gamma war... two identical planets on different sides of the universe, neither knowing about the other but with identical populations and culture... a water planet in which life exists in huge cities floating in the skies, kept there by the mental powers of its inhabitants... a city built around a vast weapon to hide it...

  Cybermen... Daleks... the Giant Vampires...

  ‘Well, obviously the Vampires would be in there,’ Vansell said. ‘this is very tedious. Is there nothing interesting to be found?’

  ‘Oh, so we’re interested now are we?’ said Magnus.

  Vansell shrugged and began examining the door, trying to find a scratch or blemish to keep him occupied.

  ‘The Elders of the Universe...’

  The Doctor tugged the data pad away from Jelpax and Mortimus and began reading:

  THE RECORD OF RASSILON: THE GUARDIANS OF THE UNIVERSE. THE UNIVERSE

  IS IN A CONSTANT STATE OF FLUX - AND IS ESSENTIALLY BALANCED BY THE

  COSMIC POWERS OF THE GUARDIANS. BEINGS SUPERIOR

  TO EVERYONE.

  ‘―Everyone‖. Well, that’s helpful I must say.’

  ‘Keep going,’ laughed Millennia, ‘this is such fun!’ The Doctor continued reading aloud:

  RASSILON ONLY KNEW OF TWO GUARDIANS - LIGHT AND DARK, GOOD AND EVIL, BLACK AND WHITE. BUT RASSILON WAS AWARE THAT THERE MAY BE OTHERS. BEINGS

  FROM ANOTHER UNIVERSE, COME TO EXPLORE, INVADE OR COLONISE OUR OWN. HE

  DEFINED THEM AS SUB-GUARDIANS - FOR MANY WERE THE CREATURES THAT CAME

  UNTO OUR UNIVERSE AS IT WAS BORRN, OR AS THEIRS EXPIRED.

  AND RASSILON NAMED THE SUB-GUARDIANS ’THE GREAT OLD ONES’, SPECULATING

  THAT MAYHAPS THEY WERE TIME LORDS FROM THAT OTHER UNIVERSE, FAR MORE

  ADVANCED, FAR FURTHER EVOLVED. AND RASSILON GAVE THE GREAT OLD ONES NAMES

  AND WARNED ALL FUTURE TIME LORDS TO BE ON THEIR GUARD AGAINST THEIR EVIL, THESE MALEFICENTS:

  HASTUR

  YOG-SOTHOTH

  SHUB-NIGGURATH

  CTHULU

  MELEFESCENT

  TOR-GASUKK

  GOG AND MAGOG

  LLOIGOR NYARIATHOTEP

  DAGON AND FINALLY THE THREE CHAOS-BRINGERS WHO SOUGHT

  EQUIVALENTS IN OUR UNIVERSE: RAAG, NAH AND ROK, WHO TOGETHER

  WOULD ONE DAY CAUSE THE END OF THIS UNIVERSE AS THEY HAD

  THEIR OWN, AND MAYBE COUNTLESS OTHERS BEFORE.

  BUT, RASSILON QUESTIONED, DID ALL THOSE GREAT OLD ONES HAVE

  A ROLE TO PLAY IN OUR UNIVERSE?

  AND WERE THERE MORE GUARDIANS?

  A GUARDIAN OF JUSTICE?

  A GUARDIAN OF MORTALITY?

  A GUARDIAN OF IMAGINATION?

  AND SO RASSILON BEGAN TO ASK QUESTIONS OF THE TWO

  GUARDIANS. WHERE DID THEY COME FROM? WHAT CREATED THEM? WERE

  THEY TRULY A PRIMEVAL FORCE? HOW COULD THEY ASSUME A SHAPE

  FAMILIAR TO THOSE WHO ARE GRANTED THE RIGHT TO SEE THEM? DID A SILICON LIFE FORM SEE THE BLACK GUARDIAN AS A MONOLITH? WOULD A MACHINE SEE THE WHITE GUARDIAN AS A BOX?

  AND THE GUARDIANS REFUSED TO REPLY AND CAST RASSILON DOWN

  FROM THEIR REALM - TAUGHT HIM HUMILITY. TAUGHT HIM THAT AMONGST

  EPHEMERAL BEINGS, THE TIME LORDS OF GALLIFREY WERE SUPERIOR, BUT THERE WERE THOSE MORE SUPERIOR THAN THEM. AND FROM THIS, RASSILON LEARNED TO RESPECT LIFE IN ALL ITS FORMS, FOR HOWEVER

  POWERFUL ONE MIGHT CONSIDER ONESELF TO BE, THERE IS ALWAYS

  SOMETHING SUPERIOR.

  ‘Rubbish,’ said Mortimus. ‘What can be more advanced than the Time Lords?’

  Vansell chipped in from the doorway ‘No wonder they don’t teach this at the Academy. Imagine if Delox discovered she’s not the highest form of evolution in the cosmos?’

  The others laughed, but the Doctor, Mortimus and Jelpax were engrossed in scrolling through the data pad’s information.

  ‘Look at this.’ The Doctor was pointing furiously.

  LATER TIME LORDS REFER BACK TO THIS LIST WHEN DISCUSSING A BEING, OR BEINGS - THE DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS ARE INCONSISTENT

  - KNOWN AS THE TOYMAKERS.

  Mortimus was nodding excitedly as he read on. ‘Yes, yes, yes.

  A being - or beings, if you like - of vast mental powers, who could build and destroy entire realms with his mind.’ He turned and grabbed the Doctor’s shoulders. ‘Find out about them, Doctor, and Delox won’t ever be able to criticise you again.’

  ‘What?’ Vansell was incredulous. ‘You think that the ten of us, neophyte Time Lords, will be able to do what Rassilon, the Dark Lords, the Time Lords and the CIA, probably, haven’t been able to do? How conceited are you, Doctor?’

  The Doctor was on his feet in an instant, and crossed over to Vansell, his fists balling.

  Magnus was quickly between them, while Koschei eased the Doctor back, gently but thinly.

  ‘Listen you two,’ said Magnus quietly. ‘Stop getting at each other. You,’ and he addressed Vansell, ‘should not be in the Deca if you don’t believe that we can achieve something. And you, Doctor, you should concede that he may have a point. If Rassilon couldn’t find the answers, why should we?’

  ‘Maybe,’ said Millennia quietly, now crouched beside Mortimus, consulting the data pad, ‘because he didn’t look far enough.’ She began accessing information drawn from all the different sources. She clicked her fingers and both Rallon and Jelpax passed her their pads, to give her as much data space as she could get.

  Magnus felt the Doctor relax as he became distracted by Millennia’s efforts. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘Creating a multiplane interactive data base, using every cross-reference that exists about the Toymakers. Now wait and watch.’

  Seconds ticked by as, in silence, the eight of them saw terabytes of information correlated from aeons of research, legend, truth, and hearsay. Finally the Doctor’s data pad flashed up three sets of co-ordinates.

  ‘You know,’ breathed Rallon, ‘you are very gifted, my love.’

  Millennia winked at him. ‘Sometimes I amaze myself. But to amaze you, now that takes a genius.’

  The Doctor snatched up the pad, mentally running the co-ordinates through his head.

  ‘May I?’

  It was Koschei. ‘Cosmic science is my speciality,’ he said by way of an explanation.

  After a beat, just long enough, the Doctor nodded and gave him the pad.

  Koschei laughed. ‘Well, I don’t know how reliable this is, Doctor. I mean, these co-ordinates put you at the heart of a star in Orion. But these other two - well, they could be anywhere. Take your pick.’

  Vansell snorted. ‘You people are mad. On the say-so of one of Millennia’s lash-ups, you’re going to break every law of Gallifrey, leave the planet, and end up where? Dead, probably.’

  The Doctor’s eyes flashed in fury. ‘No one is asking you to join us, Vansell.’ He turned to the rest of the group. ‘Yes, I’m proposing breaking the law. Yes, I’m proposing something risky. But if we stay here, if we don’t prove to those dormice who call themselves Time Lords that there’s a Universe out there which needs to be explored - not just watched, observed and recorded but participated in - then we might as well die now.’

  ‘And if we are caught?’ ventured Magnus.

  ‘If we are caught, we take the blame. But with any luck, even if we are caught it’ll shake them up a bit, do a little damage to their cosy li
ttle world. Look at those records. There was a time when Gallifrey explored. Look at Minyos. Look at the Death Zone. Look at the early days of Gallifrey when explorers in nothing more than scaphes ventured into the vortex. They had a sense of adventure then. Those genes are still within us.’

  ‘Within you, it seems,’ said Vansell quietly.

  The Doctor stopped.

  Mortimus was eyeing him carefully, but still scrolling through the data pad’s information.

  Jelpax was determined not to catch the Doctor’s eye, and stared at his feet.

  Koschei was furiously scratching his arm, as if the itch was suddenly the most important thing in the world.

  Millennia was tugging at a loose thread on her robes. Only Rallon was nodding at him, eager to go.

  ‘And you, my friend?’ The Doctor was addressing Magnus.

  Magnus wanted to say yes, he wanted to explore, wanted to know why the Time Lords had so much power, so much technology and squandered it on philosophical debate and little more than spying on other planets.

  But he wanted to finish his course at the Academy. To understand the energies necessary to harness time travel, to understand not just that a TARDIS could work but why it worked. How to build one. If he went with the Doctor and Rallon, he would probably be sacrificing his future.

  ‘I’m sorry, Doctor. But I will ensure that you can get a TARDIS. It’s the most I can do.’

  The Doctor looked crestfallen. ‘I’d say it’s actually the least you can do, but still, I am grateful.’ He turned to the others.

  ‘Koschei? Mortimus? Jelpax?’

  They all shook their heads.

  ‘Rallon?’

  ‘Oh yes, count me in.’

  ‘Vansell?’

  Vansell just laughed. ‘Oh, right, like I’m going to throw my future away for you. You are a fool, Doctor. You too, Rallon.’

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ said Millennia, rather quietly. Then she nodded furiously and spoke more loudly. ‘Yes, yes I want to see what’s out there.’ She walked over to Vansell. ‘The others here, they’ve discussed this, made their decisions based on the facts. But you, Vansell, what have you done except make caustic remarks? Staying here might well be safer, but it won’t be more interesting.’