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In his bedroom, what used to be Nick was on the floor, his mushy arms wrapped about his body in a vain attempt to hold his form together. Nick now longer felt pain. He felt nothing. He could not even feel the floor he was resting on. The ADNA had been steadily gnawing away at his body, destroying nerves and flesh alike. With a gargantuan effort Nick lifted his hand so he could see it in the murk of half-light given off by the odd roundel. He wiggled his fingers and gasped as bits of skin flew off like drips off a melting ice cream. It seemed oddly familiar. He swallowed hard. Soon there would be nothing left of him. Where was the bloody Doctor? He slammed his fist hard against the TARDIS bulkhead with a sickening squelch. Nick looked at his squashed hand in disbelief. Suddenly he recalled where he had seen the effect before. The rapidly deteriorating figure sat beneath the statue of the Time Lord. It - he could not think of the clone as a he - stole a quick glance at him, but quickly returned its attention to the floor when Nick just glared back… Nick shoved the clone with his foot. 'Why did you lie to me?' The clone looked up. Nick almost pulled back at the sight, but he held his ground. The right side of the clone's face was suffering the most. The skin hung like ribbons, revealing the bone underneath. It shook its head. 'I don't remember.' 'Yeah, right, and I'm supposed to believe that.' Nick narrowed his eyes. 'You could have told me. You could have told me you were a copy!' What an unfeeling bastard he had been! How could he have taunted his friend like that when his body was falling apart? Nick felt waves of remorse tinged with nausea lapping at his soul. I'm so sorry, Doctor, he thought. I had no idea what you were going through… The Doctor returned Seth's smile and considered the outstretched hand. He did not trust Seth, but it was gratifying to have confirmation that he was not the last of his race. Finally he took the cool palm in his oversized grip. 'I have so many questions,' began the Doctor. Seth indicated the console. 'It may be a little difficult to explain without the scanner, but I shall try my best.' 'Be wary of this man, Doctor,' growled Kovalis. 'Maret, he is one of my own people. I am sure that he intends no deception.' 'Indeed not.' Seth paused as if collating his story for the telling. ''I presume that you have already identified the dimensional anomaly centred on this planet.' 'Its readings are what drew me here,' replied the Doctor. 'Of course. They do bear remarkable similarities to those of a TARDIS, so your mistake is justifiable.' 'Mistake?' boomed the Doctor. 'It was a supposition. Not a mistake.' Seth ignored the outburst. 'When I arrived, the anomaly was quite different. It was a violent obstruction in the vortex - a sort of temporal sleeping policeman, if you will.' He cast a quick glance at Kovalis. 'Anyway, the effect it had on my TARDIS was catastrophic. We fought the tempest for some time before I was forced to abandon ship.' The Doctor raised an eyebrow. 'We?' 'On your evidence that Yahanis was the epicentre of the Nexus, the Time Lords dispatched two of us from the CIA to investigate. Alas, my partner gave her life in an attempt to save the ship. You could say that she became one with the anomaly.' Seth smiled enigmatically. 'What do you mean by that?' the Doctor demanded. 'As I say, the effect on my TARDIS - and poor old Obia - was catastrophic. But out of the ashes rose a new dimension - one that warped the reality of both the crystal heart of the TARDIS and my companion's flesh.' 'The crystalline creature…' The Doctor whispered, shaking his head. 'This is unthinkable.' 'Oh what I say is true, Doctor. I had planned to visit the dimension under my own steam using a drug I created. However, the Wasi put paid to that.' 'But how do you know what happened in the dimension?' 'I have seen it with my own eyes, Doctor,' Seth placed his index fingers at his temples to empahsise the point. 'I managed to create a primitive space-time visualisation device using what little advanced technology was available to me. Fortunately the same technology alerted me to your presence here, which is what led me to Nick.' 'Nick?' The Doctor moved round the console to face Seth. 'If you've harmed him….' 'You are hardly in a position to issue threats, Doctor.' 'I have never let that stop me in the past,' replied the Doctor icily. 'And I see no reason to make an exception in your case.' 'I warned you,' Kovalis hissed. 'If he makes one more sound, kill him,' Seth ordered his guards. The Doctor frowned. 'Very well, you can have your precious companion.' Seth turned to the door leading to the rest of the TARDIS. 'Rasa!' he shouted. 'Bring the prisoner.' After an uncomfortable silence the door opened and, in the gloom, the Doctor made out a silver android bearing the almost lifeless figure of Nick in its arms. 'You have been busy, Seth,' said the Doctor. 'Not only a trans-dimensional drug and a spce-time visualiser, but a Raston Warrior robot to boot. I'm impressed' 'Sarcasm really does not become you. Doctor,' Seth replied. 'I have been stuck on this retarded planet for decades,' he hissed, bringing his face within spitting distance of the Doctor's. 'Whey you find yourself in a situation like that, time is the one thing of which you have plenty. Both the visualiser and Rasa are the product of the data I managed to save from the ITASE. Besides, what could be better as a bodyguard?' Seth gave a smile that seemed to indulge his own perceived brilliance. 'ITASE?' 'Interim Time And Space Escape Craft - an ITASE. Oh yes, I forgot. Yours is a type 40. Well, if we'd had one of these old things, I'd be dead now.' 'You'll wish you were unless you revive Nick right now!' the Doctor said through clenched teeth. 'I will have Rasa administer the antidote as soon as you re-activate the TARDIS.' 'When the TARDIS is restored, I take it you wish me to return you to Outpost Gallifrey?' 'Oh no. But I do intend to return. And when I do it will be with something that will restore our people to their rightful place in this crooked universe that idiot friend of yours - the Master - created.' Seth fixed the Doctor with steel-hard eyes. 'I will not be diverted from my ambitions, Doctor. Your choice is very simple. Re-activate the TARDIS or Nick dies.' 'Very well' growled the Doctor and started moving round the console flicking switches before pausing at the last button in the re-activation sequence. He looked at the pile of flesh and bone on the console room floor that used to be Nick and hit the switch. Slowly a pleasing hum began to fill the room. As the lights came up, the Doctor felt a surge of Artron energy as his link with the TARDIS was properly re-established. Seth nodded to the Raston Warrior robot. Rasa placed Nick on the floor of the console room and a small, proboscis-like appendage shot from its hand and into what remained of Nick's arm. 'He will recover in time,' Seth said. 'Now I…' The Time Lord was interrupted by a shrill bleeping emanating from his wrist. Seth tutted and drew the arm of his emerald robe up from his hand to reveal a Gallifreyan communicator. Seth pressed a button and spoke. 'What is it Askaris? I am very busy!' 'I am sorry, Si'id.' The voice sounded tired. 'I thought you would like to know that we have captured a member of the Wasi and after some unpleasantness he has revealed much of interest.' 'I doubt that. Events have moved on since this morning.' 'The individual was actually an officer in the Surti called Brakis. He has informed us that Sontaris is the leader of the Wasi, but that he has far grander plans than we imagined.' 'So do I,' hissed Seth. 'I really am not interested.' 'But Si'id, it is Sontaris who masterminded the hijacking of the emphazine.' 'Unimportant, Askaris!' 'Please. There is much worse. Sontaris plans a military coup using an army of clones taken from his own DNA. Brakis says he will be ready to make his move in less than…' The transmission was cut off abruptly. Seth shook his wrist in a half-hearted attempt to get the device working again. 'Problems?' asked the Doctor. The villa was a picture of tranquillity. Welcoming, warm lights showed in some of the windows and insects chirruped in the cool of the evening. The pleasing smell of tarquir filled the air and every now and again the passing conversation of the guards wafted over to where the Sontaran attack squad lay in wait. Sontaris had studied the architectural plans of the villa in great depth. Using the holo-table in his War room, he had made his troops memorise the layout including where surveillance devices were most likely to be found. He knew that the villa had a back-up generator, so when they cut the power to the house, a missile team would take out the building housing the secondary power source. The Sontaran helmets were fitted with infra-red, night vision and thermal imaging systems, putting them at a distinct advantage. The few counter measures the villa had that were self-powered would do little to stop the immanent assault. Sontaris spoke into the microphone housed in his helmet. 'Cut the power and begin the attack.' Immediately there was a wailing from the house indicating its security systems were alerted to the blackout. As the auxiliary generator cut in a second sound filled the air. With a 'woosh' a well-aimed ground-assault missile was released. There was a dazzling explosion as the outbuilding housing the generator was laid waste. The 50 Sontarans emerged from their hiding places and covered the ground to the house with surprising speed. Sontaris smiled to see his genetic enhancements in action. A couple of troops fell to the Xerxes-Sykes autofire sentry posts, but these were swiftly despatched by fragmentation grenades. Within two minutes the Sontarans had gained entry to the villa and pitched battles started to rage inside between Seth's infamous 'Bezerker' guards and the clones that bore the genes of Sontaris. As he emerged from his small command position with Laal barking orders to the troopers, the General knew which side would prevail. 'Problems, Doctor?' replied Seth. 'Not for me. My old operations are of no consequence to me now. Sontaris can have his clone army and this miserable dustball. You should look to your own situation if you want problems.' 'What do you intend?' There was a tinge of desperation in the Doctor's voice - as if he already suspected the answer. 'I didn't finish my story about the anomaly, did I?' Seth fiddled with the controls and the scanner opened to reveal a strange landscape of pinky-brown interspersed with what looked like vast bones jutting from the ground. 'The creature you refer to is a temporal derivative of griqualandite.' Seth let the information sink in. 'So it is Tiger's Eye,' breathed the Doctor. 'What the bloody hell is Tiger's Eye?' asked a voice from the floor. 'Nick! You're all right!' The Doctor bent down to help his friend up. 'I wouldn't go that far,' Nick said. They shared a smile nonetheless and a brief moment of empathy passed between the travellers before the Doctor answered Nick's question. 'Tiger's Eye is the nickname given to a state of kontron crystal theorised by ancient Time Lords; it postulated that, given the right dimensional conditions, the crystals could achieve a form of consciousness. No one ever really believed they could exist because the conditions necessary were far too unstable. It was a hypothetical. Nothing more.' 'A hypothetical no more,' Seth corrected the Doctor. 'You cannot mean to give them intelligence?' asked the Doctor. 'They should be left well alone and never disturbed again. It's bad enough that one has managed to cross over to this dimension already.' 'I mean to do far more than that, Doctor. The Tiger's Eyes will become the Time Lord's new army. We will once again become the most powerful race in the universe, and sweep those child-like Millennium People aside.' The Doctor looked horrified. 'I knew this would not be a vision you would share, which is why we must part company at this juncture.' Seth turned to his guards. 'Take them outside and kill them.' 'Please, Seth!' shouted the Doctor as he was dragged away. 'Reconsider! These creatures would be the most deadly force ever imagined if they are loosed on this universe with the knowledge of trans-dimensional travel!' 'Exactly! I am glad you finally grasp the magnitude of my plan.' Seth's mouth twisted into a grotesque approximation of a smile. 'Goodbye, Doctor...' |
