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Book one - The end of time

Chapter one

At the edge of the Time Lock, during the last Great Time War, billions of years of Time Lord history hung in the balance. For here was Gallifrey, home of the Time Lords. While not the oldest civilisation, the Time Lords were the first to achieve hegemony. Mastery over time and space.

Just like the nuclear weapons and the missiles which carried them, which would characterise the period of the 20th century known as the cold war, having time travel enabled a temporal active species to have dominance over those that lacked it. If one was willing to use that power. Here the analogy with 20th century Earth history broke down. For while humans had rules of engagement, and managed to stop themselves from writing their own armageddon, the ancient Time Lords had no compunction against using their temporal technology.

Oh they started with good intentions. First they engaged in a race with the Crialans, a race of telepathic bacteria that infected other lifeforms to see who would first master time travel. The Crialans having mastered time travel hatched a plan to travel back in time and infect all races in the universe. An event which would have made the Time Lord position in the universe untenable. So the Time Lords excised them from history and took some of their innovations in temporal technology for themselves. So thorough and “easy” was the victory, the Time Lords didn’t consider this a proper time war.

During this period, the Time Lords would anchor the Web of Time, which ultimately was just the Time Lords’ name for the predominant timeline for our universe out of multiple possible timelines. In other words the Web of Time is the history of the universe as the Time Lords experienced. The Time Lords thus forbid their members from interfering with it, as they realised even the Web of Time could be shattered by the combination of time travel and a powerful enough force.

Then war broke out between the Eternals, beings who live outside of time and the Halldons. The Time Lords intervened to settle the matter, for at this point, they realise that another temporal power could threaten them. Next came the second time war with the Omicraven Uprising. Again the Time Lords involved themselves. It seemed at this point the Time Lords realised with the exception of the Guardians and the “higher” beings, there could only be one supreme power in the multiverse. They decided it was to be them. After all, it was in their interest to protect the Web of Time.

Other species would become victims of the Time Lords genocidal crusade. The Charon who could warp suns and twist the very fabric of the universe around their metadimensional mass. Another nameless species, would invent the reality bombs which attacked time vessels which travelled too close.. too little, too late. This “third time war” would be excised from Time Lord historical records, as later day Time Lords felt shame that for the first time, it was them who were the aggressors.

So the ways of war gave way to diplomacy. Instead of retroactively wiping out a species, the Time Lords would negotiate with them. For the People, the Time Lords signed a non aggression treaty in return for the People promising not to develop time travel. For the Navarinos, a race given to frivolity and not able to threaten Time Lord hegemony, the Time Lords taxed them for the use of time travel. Where negotiations failed, there was sabotage. Such was the fate of the Third Zone governments, sabotage through the use of a certain Time Lord agent ruined their time travel experiments.

As with all civilisations, even those that had hegemony, their influence will wax and wane. Thus it was with the Time Lords. New temporal active powers arose. The very fact that the Navarinos, another species could master time travel under the Time Lords watchful eye should have rang alarm bells. Next came the Monan Host, the Nekkistani and the Warpsmiths of Phaidon. And in the midst of this, the Daleks.

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The Time Lords should have time looped Skaro when we had the chance, Rassilon mused. Instead we sent an idealist, albeit one our more successful members to stop them. Unfortunately the Doctor only delayed their development, but did not end their existence.

Even then it was not too late to stop them. We still had technological superiority. Instead of waging war, under President Romana’s leadership, the Time Lords tried to negotiate with them. Doomed to failure. What fools the old High Council was. He wondered whether Romana regretted her decision before he had her impeached for treason for her failure to handle the third time war.

A time war involved conflict not so much for space and planets, or even the hearts and minds of sentients. It fought for the most valuable commodity there was . Cause and effect. The Time Lords of old knew the most important rule of such a conflict, having fought several themselves. Protect your own history. The other temporal powers which President, ex president Romana had tried to negotiate treaties with fell not so much from Dalek assaults, but to the rising tide of history, as it was being written and rewritten. If a planet was destroyed in the crossfire millions of years before your race evolved sentience, well then you ceased to exist in the present. Such was the fate of these other temporal powers which lacked Gallifrey’s transduction barriers to protect them.

At the beginning of the war the Daleks had the numbers, while the Time Lords had the technological edge. The entire Seriphia galaxy fell victim to the Dalek Apocalypse Element, ceding control of a galaxy four times the size of the Milky Way to a resurgent Dalek Empire. Coupled with their holdings in their own home galaxy, the Dalek industrial capacity dwarfed whatever the Time Lords - with only their homeworld Gallifrey, Shada the prison planet, Gryben the world which held unauthorised time travellers and few colonies; could field.

Whereas the Time Lords of the recent eras may have tried negotiation, under Rassilon the Time Lords rediscovered their fire. They fought back with a vengeance. Type 100 + War TARDISes filled the sky. Reality bombs mined the time vortex making the vast Dalek fleet pay for every act of time travel it did. Gallifrey withstood assault after assault. Its once beautiful fields gave way to craters as Dalek weaponry leaked through the Quantum forcefield. However the littered remains of Dalek saucers were testament to the high price they paid. All the while the Time Lord citadel stood. The same could not be said of Skaro, the Daleks home planet.

So the Daleks changed tact. Instead of trying to attack Gallifrey directly, they caused multiple temporal disruptions. History changed. The Web of Time threaten to unravel, hence forcing the Time Lords to put out these temporal bushfires. It wasn’t until later, that the Time Lords discovered their true purpose, the Daleks were planning to build their own version of the Web of Time. Thus ended the second phase of the Time War.

The third and final phase was the moment the war turned to hell. Now the Daleks were trying to build their own Web of Time, thus ensuring that the version of history or the timeline which becomes dominant would be one favourable to them. The Time Lords naturally returned the favour, and created their own bushfires for the Daleks to put out.

When one side changes history, say the outcome of an important battle, the other side then time travels and does the same. Eventually there will be no more time left to time travel to, every second filled with time vessels from different eras, all contesting cause and effect. So both sides simply added more time, if such a thing made sense to a non time travel capable being. This invention of zero time warped reality even more. The Eternals wept at such destruction and fled the universe altogether. But the consequences for the universe was devastating. The Reapers and other creatures of the vortex tried to repair the damage to no avail.

It is said that life will find a way. Oh it did. In this hostile environment the temporal paradoxes and the energies of the Time War created new monsters needing to be vanquished. The Skaro Degradations, The Horde of Travesties, and The Could-Have-Been King and his army of Mean-Whiles and Never-Weres. Even the Time Lords would be hard press to survive these litany of horrors. So Rassilon hatched a plan. At his hand will come the end of time. The Time Lords will ascend to become beings of thought, immune to the vagaries of cause and effect. Thus will end the Daleks and the horrors spawned from the Time War.

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“What news of the Doctor.”

“Disappeared my Lord President.” The Castellan was always prompt in his replies.

“But we know his intention. He still possesses the Moment, and he will use it to destroy Daleks and Time Lords alike.”

Rassilon glared at the Partisan. It was she who had continually protested against his final sanction.

“The Visionary confirms it.” The Partisan spoke matter calmly for someone who just announced she and her whole race was going to die.

“Ending, falling, all of it falling, the black pitch and screaming fire, so burning,” the mad woman muttered.

“All of her prophecies say the same that that this is the last day of the time war, that Gallifrey falls, that we die today.”

Seize the moment. That was certainly what the Doctor did as Gallifrey’s troubled son had absconded with a Doomsday weapon, which the Time Lords did not dare use for fear it would destroy them as well.

Rassilon’s thoughts were interrupted by more ranting from the Visionary.

“Perhaps its time. this is only the further edge of the time war, but at its heart millions die every second, lost in blood lust and insanity with time itself resurrecting them to find new ways of dying over and over again. A travesty of life. isn't it better to end it at last?”

“Thank you for your opinion,” Rassilon thundered. Stretching out his gauntlet he activated its powers and promptly disintegrated her with agonising pain.

“I will not die. Do you hear me. a billion years of Time Lord history riding on our backs. I will not let this perish. I will not.”

“There is, there is one part of the prophecy my lord. its rather difficult to decipher. It talks of two survivors beyond the final day. Two children of Gallifrey.”

“Does it name them?”

“It forsees them locked in their final confrontation. The enmity of ages. Which would suggest..”

Rassilon completed the Castellan’s sentence for him. “The Doctor and the Master.”

“One word keeps getting repeated. Earth.”

“Earth, Earth, Earth.”

“Planet Earth, indigenous species the human race.”

“Maybe thats where the answer lies, our salvation on Earth.”

“I don’t understand my Lord President.”

“How can two children of Gallifrey survive its final moments,” Rassilon intoned.

“The Doctor has the Moment. He only needs to activate it from a safe distance, presumably at the further edges of the Time War. The Master, well I suppose he could have hidden himself using a Chameleon Arch.”

“No. We resurrected the Master to fight this war. He is the perfect warrior. Such an act, to reduce himself to anything less than what he is will be too much humiliation. No he must have hidden himself where we cannot reach.”

“But why mention Earth.” The Castellan puzzled. “Earth is not beyond our reach.”

“Not unless it lies in a parallel universe.”

Slowly the understanding dawned on the Time Lord high council. The Time Lords were all too aware the possibility they might lose the war and had considered various contingency plans, including relocating Gallifrey elsewhere, build up their strength to renew the conflict later. The obvious choice had been to hide in the Great Void, the space between the universes. However engagements with some Dalek ships had already taken place there, ruling that option out. The second choice had been a pocket dimension created by Time Lord science, the so called “universe in a bottle”. Again not the most ideal choice for its inherent vulnerabilities.

“According to our intelligence, due to the nature of their time ships, the Daleks need the rare mineral Veganite to breach parallel universes. The only known source was destroyed by humans in the human Dalek war of the 51st century, human time scale. Since then a minor time lock plus reality bombs have been placed to prevent Dalek incursions.”

“Whilst we only need to travel sideways in time to reach parallel dimensions.”

“In theory the time lock should mainly impede travel forwards and backwards in time, but not sideways.” Even the Castellan could not keep the excitement from his voice.

“We are not the first to escape one universe by travelling through another. The legendary Celestial Toymaker is the sole survivor of his. While the Gods of Ragnorak survive theirs by hiding in their own space time continuum. We shall do the same.” Rassilon’s final statement brooked no argument.

Plans were set in motion. Travelling back in their own time stream, the Time Lords set about turning Gallifrey itself into a giant time ship, capable of transversing alternate dimensions. According to Rassilon’s interpretation of the prophecy it needed to be a universe where Earth exists. So TARDISes in the past were sent to scout parallel universes.

At the moment the Doctor activated the Moment, Gallifrey slipped across the dimensional barriers into another universe. One where Earth was a member of a coalition of planets which had united for mutual trade and protection. In this universe, the Time Lords would find that by the 31st century, humans would have also mastered time travel, and the Fourth Time War would begin.

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Neeris 6 tried to hide the annoyance from her voice. Since the appearance of this strange orange planet the Founders had ordered her to negotiate with these newcomers, and what the Founders ordered, the Vorta obeyed. Of course, the Founders only came to that decision because repeated Dominion assaults by a total over 10, 000 ships were repulsed and forced to retreat with near 100 percent casualties. Quickly Neeris forced that thought from her head. The Gods may settle for peace as they had in times past with the Federation 200 years ago, but they could not be defeated. No matter how many Jem’hadar lost their lives, the Dominion will prevail in the end.

“You must realise your technology will only buy you time. The Dominion can field thousands of ships. If necessary we will over come you with sheer weight of numbers. Why do you not join us? Under the guidance of the Founders we can come to peaceful cohabitation.”

“These Founders, you worship them as Gods?”

Neeris paused before answering. The genetic programming compelled her to praise the Changelings with unrestrained adulation, however she was wary of the Gallifreyan’s president. So she chose her words carefully.

“Some of our member worlds do see the Founders in that manner. As befitting the race which founded our civilisation which has produced stability through vast swathes of the Gamma Quadrant.”

“I will not worship your universe’s primitive version of Rutans as Gods,” Rassilon was shouting now.

Negotiations were not going well the Castellan mused. The Vorta did not seem to understand the concept of offering the carrot. She only understood how to use the stick. At this point the Castellan decided to intervene.

“What my Lord President meant to say is, that Gallifrey is a type 4 civilisation on the Kardashev scale. Various sentients prayed to lesser beings than ourselves. Since we have arrived as refugees from our own universe, the Dominion has continually attacked us. Given the wars that we have been through we were hoping for a less hostile universe.”

“One Dalek Warship is more powerful than the entire Dominion fleet,” Rassilon intoned. “Yet Gallifrey held off not thousands, but millions of them. Do you think your primitive civilisation scares us?”

“Then I am sorry it has come to this. Jem’Hadar.”

Immediately the Jem’Hadar pointed their weapons at the two Time Lords. “I had preferred that you come to see the Founders as I see them, but I see you are too arrogant and set in your ways to listen. Do not worry, it will be over soon.”

At that moment a Dominion ship hiding over the magnetic pole of a planet activated a powerful dimensional transporter. An improvement on the standard subspace ones Dominion ships utilised. In theory shields should not stop it. With a range of several light years the plan was to transport several matter – antimatter bombs rigged to detonate through the Gallifrey’s defenses, and deactivate the Quantum forcefield allowing a Dominion invasion force.

Rassilon sat impassively and waited. The first sign that things was not going well was when the Vorta received a communicate from the ship. The transporter failed to penetrate the planet’s shield. What they failed to realise was that once activated, Gallifrey’s shields essentially placed the planet in a separate dimension from the rest of the universe. The dimensional transporter by passes shields by transporting its cargo into a layer of subspace and then reappeared in normal space. Only problem was Gallifrey was no longer in normal space.

“Your attack seems to have failed.” Even at this point, the Castellan tried to maintain diplomatic niceties. Of course it helped that the Time Lords were in no danger of being over run by Dominion forces. “Your ship was detected despite your attempt to hide it in the planets blind spot. Its added mass gave it away.”

Neeris tried to keep calm. She still held the stronger hand here. “Transport the proto matter.”

In the event that the bombs failed to transport through, she had instructed Dominion forces to transport protomatter into the star Gallifrey currently orbited, causing it to go nova.

“Proto matter?” Rassilon enquired.

“It is your own fault it has come to this. I tried to negotiate in good faith. The proto matter will cause your star to go nova. I doubt even your vaunted shields can withstand that.”

“We don’t need to.”

Despite herself Neeris ordered subspace communications turned on. She wanted to see the image of Gallifrey’s star. The sensors were detected the changes as expected, when suddenly they reversed. Within moments the star had the exact parameters it did before the proto matter injection.

“Omega, our greatest solar engineer mastered the arts of solar manipulation in ages past,” The Castellan explained in the same manner as a teacher would tell a child. Because that was exactly what the Vorta was, a child.

“Lavidia 3 is the nearest Dominion major planet to where we are is it not? Why don’t you contact them.” Rassilon’s tone held mild amusement, but it there was no mistaking the sinister undertones.

Unable to help herself Neeris contacted the government headquarters of Lavidia 3. There was no destruction, however a painting had appeared in the building. On it was a note saying it was a gift from the Gallifreyan high council as part of peace negotiations.

“But Lavidia 3 is thousands of light years away from your homeworld. Your transporters must be able to…” She quickly stopped herself. By being in awe to the two aliens she had already shown more weakness than she intended. “You forget, you are on a Dominion garrison world. All the Jem’Hadar here answer to me. If Gallifrey does not surrender I will have you captured and then executed, Mr President, despite whatever diplomatic protests Gallifrey or the Federation bring up.”

For a moment Neeris dared to hope that she had finally gotten the better of Rassilon. His face twisted in… was it revulsion or anger, she couldn’t tell. What she did notice was Rassilon waving his gauntlet. The effect was immediate.

The Jem’hadar guarding the two Gallifreyans immediately convulsed. It however was not confined to her personal guards. All over the planet millions of Jem’hadar were convulsing. Faster and faster, until finally… it stopped. However what remained was not the Jem’hadar but a new monstrosity. Bigger than the average Jem’hadar, the alien had the face reminiscent of Earth’s rhinoceross.

“The Juldoon? Sir?”

“The are loyal enough to whoever commands their service. Moreover they don’t have the weakness of being dependent on the Founder’s biochemical substance to keep them in line. Arrest the Vorta.”

Immediately the Juldoon moved to grab Neeris.

“Now my dear Vorta, tell me where the Founder’s homeworld is”.

The Castellan was about to point out that Rassilon’s gauntlet could transmute and override the genetic codes of billions of humanoids at a time, yet alone the mere millions of Jem’hadar on this world. It was just a matter of changing one additional Vorta into any species with loyalty programmed into them while keeping her knowledge base intact. There was no need to dominate the Vorta psionically. It was, almost cruel, watching Neeris struggle in vain against Rassilon’s mental powers.

Then he remembered the stories of Rassilon. How even his fellow Time Lords, those same ones who transported aliens into the Death Zone to fight for their own amusement couldn’t stand him. Thus the Castellan held his tongue. He remembered what had happened to the previous Time Lord that dared to challenged Rassilon’s authority. He supposed it was better this way. Rassilon could have unleashed N-forms or the Anarchitects.




Next Q pays a visit and a temporal cold war heats up.

Notes

The People appeared in the novel “The Also People”. Note the People are an obvious spoof of Iain Banks civilisation The Culture.

the Navarinos were from the classic seventh doctor story “Delta and the Bannermen”

The Third Zone governments are from the sixth doctor story “The Two Doctors”

The Apocalypse element came from the Big Finish audio of the same name

The destruction of Skaro was mentioned in one of the annuals, I think the 2006 one.

Dalek tactic of causing temporal disruptions forcing the Time Lords to fix up the mess was suggested as a tactic by Stark in a previous thread.

The other temporal powers were from the Gallifrey audios from Big Finish productions.

The idea of zero time was from Lawrence Miles Faction Paradox series.

The daleks building their own Web of Time was mentioned in one of the annuals

The Charon appeared in the seventh Doctor novel “Sky Pirates”.

Veganite was the mineral the Daleks needed in Dalek Empire audios to communicate with alternate timelines

The Time Lords are unaware of the Dalek Void ship from “Doomsday”. In any event the technology seems confined to the Cult of Skaro and maybe a few dalek ships (as per the sourcebooks), so the majority of Daleks aren’t going to escape the Doctor’s action by travelling to alternate universes.

N-forms were from the novel “Damaged goods” written by Russell T Davies before he became producer of NuWho. RTD certainly references N-forms in the DW annuals. Interesting enough RTD actually gave us a good description of their capabilities rather than his usual name dropping tactic he uses in NuWho.

The universe in a bottle was from various DW novels and was a potential hiding spot for the Time Lords in the face of extradimensional invaders. I wasn’t too keen on the idea, however I thought a little bit of name dropping for continuity wouldn’t hurt.

Chapter two

The woman kept her hands over her eyes like the Weeping Angels of old, as punishment for defying Rassilon’s orders. But she could still see. And she could speak. Speak of the future for she was one of the Visionaries. Thus the Time Lords still allowed her some leeway, her usefulness was still not ended.

“The builders of giant spheres shall come, but the humans shall oppose them. Victory shall come at a cost, but in the end humanity will be triumphant. Know that the devices left over shall come back to haunt us in the future, as well as those from our past.”

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26 th century

“Helmsman, is every one on board?”

“That’s all of them Captain. All embassy staff accounted for.”

“Alright, get us out of here Mr Pertwee.”

“Aye sir.”

“Hold Captain.” The figure confronting Smith was of average height, poorly distinguish features and dressed in Federation colours. It took Captain Smith a moment before he realised this was a Changeling.

“Ambassador Odo. The Gallifreyan ship is about to enter this solar system. The Gallifreyans cannot guarantee our safety.”

“I am aware of the dangers Captain. However I have to see them. I have to look into the face of those who had destroyed my people. I have to ask them, how can they do this?”

“Sir, an unknown ship has just appeared within sensor range.”

“Gallifreyan?”

“Unknown. Its made out of some sort of substance I am unable to identify. It doesn’t appear to be a neutronium based alloy or composed of any composite substance known to Federation science.”

“They call it validium, the living metal,” Odo muttered to himself. “Even the Dominion’s best scientists have failed to understand it.”

“Oh, and one more thing Captain. Its big.”

“How big?”

“The ship is a circular shape with a diameter of 7000 kilometres.”

“Magnify.”

On screen Matthew saw hundreds of Dominion “bug” attack craft ram themselves against the ship to no avail. Battleships twice the size of old style Galaxy class ships emptied their phase polaron cannons against it, and when that failed joined their smaller brethren in ramming the ship. But still the ship continued on.

“More warp signatures. Thousands of them.”

“Mr Zhou, shields up and identify them. Red alert.”

Zhou Dong Lai’s hands moved expertly at tactical as sirens blazed across the Enterprise. “Dominion ships sir. Orbital battle stations powering up, but the unknown ship is still out of range for them. Now it itself is powering up.”

Matt Smith watched detached as the finest ships the Dominion shipyards could produce crumbled in the blink of an eye, like candles to the wind as the energy wave from the Gallifreyan, it had to be Gallifreyan ship travelled inexorably towards them. “Time to impact.”

“Six seconds.”

“Get to slipstream now.”

The Enterprise powered up the quantum slipstream drive, technology brought back by the Starship Voyager in the 24 th century, mastered and improved by Federation scientists and disappeared into a subspace tunnel just as the wave passed where the ship was.

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2 months later

“What is it Mr Zhou?”

“Two cloak ships, likely Dominion ships, er ships of Gallifreyan empire moving to intercept. Time to weapons range 5 minutes.”

“According to my sources, Gallifrey has appropriated several planets in the former Dominion. A pittance considering the number of worlds the Dominion counted in its territory. Eight of them they have terraformed into duplicates of their homeworld, and a few other colonies. The planet we just passed is called Shada, their prison planet.” Odo paused, finding it hard to talk any further.

“However besides rewriting the genetic code of the Jem’hadar they have pretty much left Dominion worlds to run their own internal affairs but with suzerainty belonging to Gallifrey. Federation intelligence suspects that they will let the Dominion remnant develop their own technology, while their own people populate these new worlds and keep hold of their advance technology.”

Smith nodded. The Federation had come a long way since the Dominion war of the 24 th century. While most Dominion ships still relied on warp drive, all UFP star ships had moved onto quantum slipstream. While the Dominion managed to improve the matter – anti matter power generation to relying on singularities, the Federation had moved even better, a power source utilising Omega, the weird molecules which drew energy from subspace. Starfleet had predicted if another Dominion war was to erupt, Starfleet would win this one within 2 years. However he was under no illusion of the difficulty in beating the Gallifreyans should it come to that.

“Ships decloaking. Two old style Dominion battlecruisers. Armed with quantum torpedoes and phase polaron cannons. Slipstream capable.” As if an after thought, Mr Zhou quickly added “No match for the Enterprise.”

“Open hailing frequencies. This is Captain Matthew Smith of Federation starship Enterprise. We heading to Gryben as a part of a diplomatic mission agreed upon by your government. ”

“We are aware of your intentions. We are ordered to escort you Gryben. You are to travel at warp speed only.”

The face that greeted Smith was not the usual look of the Jem’hadar. Instead the Gallifreyans had genetically engineered a new race to serve as soldiers. It had the reptilian look with scales which all Jem’hadar possess, however it also had a carbon fiber exo skeleton and was much stronger. Its rumoured that they don’t eat nor drink, but sustain themselves after being plugged into an energy converter. They can also live on various hostile environments. It was also rumoured that they could renew themselves after being virtually killed, and at that time gain new phenotypic features which are passed onto their cloned offspring. In effect, the Gallifreyans had also added Lamarkianism to the forces of natural selection and mutations which drove evolution.

Smith nodded, “understood.” Soon the Enterprise was joined by more ships, in such numbers even Mr Zhou was afraid they wouldn’t be able to fight them off. Smith could understand why. Gryben was not protected by a forcefield like the Nine Gallifreys. The Gallifreyans would never let outsiders anywhere near their homeworld, or was that homeworlds. However they had assigned Gryben as a meeting place. As far as worlds go, it was relatively unprotected, however it would also make diplomatic staff more at ease.

“Are you ready ambassador?” Odo gave a curt nod.

Before long Captain Matthew Smith and Ambassador Odo were transported onto Gryben’s surface.


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Captain’s log supplemental. The Enterprise J has been diverted from our mission scouting the Procyon system to negotiate with the new Gallifreyan empire. In a matter of only 6 months the Dominion has fallen to them. Since they have taken over the old Dominion territories in the Gamma Quadrant they have expelled all Federation ambassadors to the former Dominion government.

Its funny. When an exploding supernovae caused the collapse of the Romulan government last century and the mysterious disappearance of the Borg 30 years earlier, we had thought only the Dominion would be our primary threat. Now we have two new powers to contend with, one which has already proven itself hostile.

This is a precarious time for the Federation. Even with the Klingons recently joining, victory over the extra dimensional Sphere Builders is not guaranteed. The Federation council has asked us to open negotiations with Gallifrey. It is their hope that at worse Gallifrey remains neutral or in a best case scenario, they aid us in our fight. A hostile Gallifrey would be unthinkable given the ease with which they dealt with the Dominion. I have been given this task to convey the Ambassador and help open negotiations, as I had some experience dealing with them.

I have reviewed the logs of the Enterprise and that of dozens of Federation starships which had been tasked with evacuating Federation embassy staff and citizens from the former Dominion territories. In my mind I can still recall the final battle, if that was the right word for it. Massacre would be more like it.

Information about the early stages was limited, however it seemed in a decapitating strike the Gallifreyans had done something to the Founder planet. The temporal distortions over the planet made readings difficult even for the Enterprise’s advanced sensors. With the Changelings out of the equation half the Jem’hadar committed suicide. The remainder rallied in support of the Vorta.

Gallifrey advanced at a leisurely pace. It was said that attacks on their homeworld ceased when they went on the offensive with a single super ship. Once a planet was captured the Jem’hadar was genetically altered to a new form, these “Lamarcks” which more servile to Gallifrey’s needs. The planet was encapsulated in a forcefield which Dominion assaults failed to penetrate. Thus slowly but surely, the Dominion was being beaten back.

Someone once said that quantity has its own quality. That was the strategy the Dominion adopted. Too bad it wasn’t as good as Gallifreyan ingenuity. I only hope the Federation does not have to face them yet.

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31 st century

“On behalf of Rassilon and the high council of Gallifrey we demand that Captain Braxton be extradited to face trial. Moreover we now demand that the prisoners from Shada who sought asylum in the Federation be returned to serve out their sentences.”

“Castellan, the Federation is fully aware of the crimes Captain Braxton committed, but we will not extradite a Federation citizen to a government which has the death penalty.”

“Mr Daniels, Braxton was a threat to both Gallifrey and your precious Federation. Not only that, his actions imperilled the entire universe. Not only through the Temporal Integrity Commission’s incompetence have you allowed this travesty to come about, you had the gall to blame us for your stolen worlds.”

“Until the Catrastrophe, there were only 3 civilisations the Federation was aware of that could move entire worlds. The Time Lords, the T’kon and the Q. The T’kon are extinct, the Q no longer involve themselves in this galaxy for the last 500 years, which leaves the Time Lords.” Daniel was positively fuming now, but even he secretly admitted the Time Lords were not without cause to be angry.

For Daniels the Federations defeat in the border dispute of the 29 th century was ancient history, but for Braxton it was only months ago. Months ago when the Gallifreyans proclaimed themselves Lords of Time within this universe as well as their home one. Months ago when Braxton could only watch helplessly as his family was killed in the brief war. A war which the Time Lords won. Hopefully this time it will be a different story.

Daniels decided to change tack. “Why do you want her back now? You have tolerated her presence among the Federation for almost 200 years. She has a family now and is assimilated into our society. She also helped us defeat Braxton. All the other Shada prisoners are dead. Grand Father Paradox killed by the Celestial Toymaker. Salyavin assassinated by Time Lord agents. Surely her actions here would offset what ever crimes she has done in the past?”

So it went on. The conversation going round in circles. Until finally the diplomatic relationship broke down between the United Federation of Planets and the Time Lords of the Gallifreyan empire. The temporal cold war ended when the Time Lords and the UFP combined to deal with more dangerous factions. However it seemed like the two most powerful factions left standing were themselves about to engage in their own temporal cold war.

Somewhere out there, Q the younger smiled at the turn of events. Father you will soon have your revenge. Even Time Lords can die.

* * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
26 th century

The diplomatic mission had gone quite well all things considered. The Gallifreyans had delineated their territory and also areas within their sphere of influence. Fortunately for the Federation it was well away from UFP territory. Moreover they had agreed to a permanent embassy on Gryben.

In regards to the threat of the Sphere Builders, it seemed their “religious” Visionary had predicted a Federation victory, so they felt no need to send more than observers to the battle. If only Smith had shared the same confidence. However getting Gallifrey to remain neutral was a victory of sorts, and Matthew was happy to take any one he could get.

Odo excused himself while Rassilon gave Smith a diplomatic tour. Smith couldn’t blame him. It took an immense effort for Odo to compose himself when talking to the man who had brought about the virtual genocide of the Changelings. Odo wanted to bring up sentient rights for the ex Dominion subjects, however that was a lesser priority compared to convincing Gallifrey to stay neutral. To be fair to them though, as long as law and order didn’t break down locally on subjugated worlds, the lives of the citizens would be the same as always. If it did, Gallifrey wouldn’t interfere as long as they still held suzerainty.

“This is my personal TARDIS.” Rassilon gestured towards the strange box. There was something not right about this human captain. There was a taint about him, a presence Rassilon had felt before since coming into this universe.

“TARDIS?”

“Come now Captain Smith. The Federation wanted us to fight with them not just because it all but guarantees victory over the Sphere Builders. You wanted to see our ships in action. To gather intelligence on us. Now I offer you a tour of my ship. It is only a civilian ship of course.”

Smith could hit himself. He never thought of it that way, that the Federation would want the opportunity to spy on their newest neighbour.

Rassilon led him into the box. The first thing Smith noticed was that it was bigger on the inside than the outside. However the Federation captain had the presence of mind not to stare with his mouth agape.

“Aren’t you going to say its bigger on the inside than the outside?”

“I am sure you get tired of hearing that.”

“A jovial fellow. I look forward to establishing friendly relationships with the Federation. In the answer to the question you are thinking but too polite to ask, is that the TARDIS is dimensionally transcendental”

“How big is it?” Smith asked. Not that Rassilon’s explanation helped at all.

“Very big.”

So Rassilon gave Smith a tour for an hour before the Federation Captain excused himself. With diplomatic relations established with Gallifrey the Enterprise needed to get back to the Procyon system. Rassilon waited for Smith to take his leave, ordering the Vorta Neeris to escort him back out. “You can come out now whoever you are.”

“Ah, so you can sense my presence. So there is more to you than being an ape above your station,” Q smirked. “I can tell I am going to have fun with you people, more so than Picard ever gave me.”

* * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“Perhaps, although we did not evolve from apes.”

“Whats the difference? You mortals all look alike.” Q was deliberately being provocative here.

“Who are you?”

“The name is Q at your service, Mon Presidente. With a clicking of his fingers Q was suddenly dressed in a mockery of Time Lord garb.”

“Where you the one spying on us before?”

“Well I don’t like to brag, but its not every day an advanced extradimensional race comes to visit.”

“Yet you only spy on us at Gryben or at the peripheral worlds. Even hiding within that Federation captain. Perhaps you should come to Gallifrey where we can have this conversation in more comfortable environs.”

“I am afraid your planet, so drab and weary not really my thing.” Unbeknownst to Q the door of the TARDIS had started to close.

“Are you sure its not because our Quantum Forcefield and Transduction Barriers keep even you out.”

Rassilon could tell he had guessed correctly with that one as a look of annoyance crossed Q’s face.

“To tell you the truth, you aren’t the first Q I have encountered since setting foot in this universe.”

“Oh really.”

“Yes really. Negotiations have been … fruitful” With a touch of a button a hologram appeared. Q recognised his fellow Q. He had chosen to take the form of an old human. A human during the American civil war period of the 19 th century.

“Hello traitor.”

“Q, you have to quit holding a grudge just because your side lost the civil war. Its unsportsmanlike. I am starting to think you are a sore loser.”

“We only lost because you brought humanoids into the continuum, armed them with our weapons and had them fight for you.”

“Well of course I had them fight for me. Did you think I was going to tell them to fight against me?”

The older looking Q scowled. “I think I will return the favour. With you out the way my faction will again be predominant. Don’t worry, your offspring will be judged fairly to see if he is worthy of being Q.”

“Hang on a minute, you are getting these extradimensional aliens to take care of me. Were you too gutless to do it yourself so you hired someone to do it for you.”

“That sums it up,” the older Q spoke wryly in a mock American accent.

“Aren’t you forgetting something? I am a god and he is just an ant. Less than the smallest microbe compared to me” With that Q gestured imaging Rassilon being turned into a dog. Nothing happed. He tried clicked his fingers again, this time imaging Rassilon screaming in unimaginable agony. Again the same result. “How?”

So engrossed in shock Q failed to notice Rassilon coming over and hitting him in the face. It had been a long while Q felt pain. Pain followed by fear as Rassilon stomped on him. “Where is your vaunted powers now Q?”

“How? How can you take away my power?”

“Your fellow Q told me the source of your powers. You draw energy from the Q continuum. That’s why during your civil war Q stuck in this universe had trouble returning to the continuum. The war damaged your link to the source of your power. It was not a problem within the Q continuum, but outside in the wider universe, the link weakens. ”

“That still doesn’t explain how you can do this.”

“Inside my TARDIS it is a separate universe. Once its sealed and defences are activated even Sutekh the Destroyer needs to expend enormous effort to breach it. Weren’t you listening? I told Captain Smith the TARDIS is dimensionally transcendental. It is not surprising the human would fail to understand, but I expected better from you.”

Too late Q realised he had fallen into a trap. He realised he most probably wasn’t going to be able to take any torture. Not in this frail human body he now occupied. Fortunately Rassilon was feeling merciful today.

He killed Q quickly by a use of his gauntlet. No need to torture him. Simple and efficient disintegration.

“I have kept my end of the bargain. Now I expect the Q to keep theirs.”

“If the Time Lords promise not to ascend to the higher dimensions and become beings of consciousness,” Q began.

“The the Q promise not to interfere in the lower dimensions and allow us freedom to roam and do to it as we see fit,” Rassilon continued.

“Then the two sides sphere of influence shall never meet,” both men spoke the final phrase completing the deal. A deal signed in the blood of a Q. With that a new civil war would begin anew in the Q continuum.


* * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Chapter 3 – Immortals gather

“They did something to him. I am sure of it.” Q the Younger paced around outside the prisoner’s cell. “He said he was snooping around this new Gallifreyan empire, and now he has gone. To make matters worse the continuum is in an uproar. The conservatives are demanding a return to the old ways. Worse than that, they are now asking us to leave this dimension alone. What will I do for fun?”

“Gallifrey. As in the Time Lords?” The being who spoke was dressed in the clothing worn by Qing emperors, however he was neither Chinese nor Manchu. In fact he wasn’t even mortal. He could have altered his appearance to reflect the myriad of human and alien cultures he had toyed with, but he always returned to this one.

“I wouldn’t know about being Lords of time, but they do have some nifty temporal technology. They did something to the Changeling homeworld. I haven’t seen such temporal manipulation since the Krenim time ship.”

“I would beware of the Time Lords if I were you, they are a most troublesome race.”

“Oh, what did they do to you. Kill your dog?” Q found that joke funny in the way only teenagers could.

“One of their number was known as the Doctor. I brought him here twice to play my games. The first time he escaped, the second time he imprisoned me here using my own technology.” Pointing to the invisible barriers keeping him confined he continued. “This will keep my imprisoned as long as I live. Since I cannot die... can you imagine the agony I go through living like this for the last few millennia?”

“Hey must be boring. Maybe you should have gotten a new hobby.”

“I am what I am,” the man replied simply.

“But I can’t hide.” Q received only a blank look from the man. “Its an Earth song ok. I am what I am, I do what I want but I can’t hide. Never mind. But the song was right about one thing. I can’t hide. I have to find out what happened to father.”

“You see this place as a hiding place?”

“Well you have to admit, a pocket dimension bordering two universes. One which even the continuum doesn’t knows about.”

Suddenly a bright white light appeared and Q found himself looking at another Q.

“It seems they just found out about your hiding spot.”

But Q the younger wasn’t listening. He was too busy staring at the newcomer. Looking at himself.

“Q. You are hurt.”

“Never mind me Q. Civil war in the continuum. Both sides have agreed to limit their weapons of mass destruction so that it doesn’t spill over into the wider universe, not that it makes much difference to me. I think I am going to die.”

“Let me help you Q.” Drawing upon his powers, the younger version tried to heal his future self but to no avail.

“It won’t work. We immortals can come up with great ways to kill each other huh? Look, Q was responsible for planning father’s death. Teamed up with Rassilon. Trapped him inside one of their time capsules, severing his link to the continuum. They routed our forces and then they taunted me, told me what they did to father. But I managed to escape. They won’t think of looking for me here as they never knew about this pocket dimension. Plus they don’t think we would cross our own time line. All that is necessary is to trust yourself.” With that the future Q died and passed along his knowledge, and the younger Q saw.

How he had spied upon Q, reassuring other Q that Father would be out the way. That he had taken care of it. Without a charismatic leader, the progressive faction of the continuum found themselves outmatched by the more numerous conservative sides. Until finally they were forced further and further back until there was nowhere to run.

“Does that happen to you often?” The Toymakers question was left unanswered as Q was lost in his own thoughts.

“They killed father. The bastards. I need to get back at them, but I have to beat them at their own game. Subtlety. I can’t let them know what I know.” Q the younger was almost frantic. “I can’t confront Q without proof, his supporters are too many, otherwise I would just end up like this. I can’t confront Gallifrey because Q is pushing for us to not to interfere in the lower dimensions. And I can’t deal with Q because he has too many supporters.”

“Perhaps I can help with your conundrum?”

“No doubt you want me to free you so you can torture more lower life forms with your sadistic games Toymaker?”

“As I said, I am what I am. It is in my nature. To answer your question no, I don’t expect you to release me. However I have played games via proxy. Is not vengeance just another game?”

“What’s the catch?” Q was wary of this immortal. Initially their relationship started off well, since both of them enjoyed toying with mortals. However the relationship soured once Q found out what other proclivities the immortal enjoyed. Particularly what he did to mortals whether they won or lost. “I know you. You want something from me.”

“I have in my collection of those who failed to defeat me, some beings who have had dealings with the Time Lords. Not pleasant ones. I believe they may be of assistance.”

“At what price?”

“Oh the usual one. You need to send me some people to play my games. If they defeat me I will spare them and let them keep these beings. The knowledge they possess will no doubt be useful.”

Q thought about this slowly. He realised he already had the perfect people to challenge the Toymaker as well as the perfect proxy to fight the Gallifreyans. “Yes, that’s right. In the future the humans became masters of time travel. Bet the Gallifreyans didn’t expect that huh. Lets see how well they fight against someone else who can travel through time.”

* * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“So in the midst of Q’s pain and grief, a deal was struck with the Celestial Toymaker, who like the Time Lords was a refugee from his own universe. However the knowledge Q the younger will eventually gained would change the power structure of the universe forever, and the Gods themselves will die. For the past will come back to haunt the Time Lords, but it will not be them who will die this day.”

If anyone heard the murmurings of the Visionary, no one gave any sign. For she was an outcast, forced to cover her eyes at the edict of Rassilon.

* * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
22 nd century

The distress call from the Tandaran colony told of archaeologist trapped after an earthquake, 7 on the Richter scale. That was two hours ago. Archer had ordered the Enterprise diverted to help with humanitarian operations. Fortunately despite the devastation, casualties was minimal.

“We are preparing to beam you up now.” Archer was about to give the command when he was interrupted by the archaeologists.

“Not yet. Take our artefacts first.”

“With respect, artefacts can’t be worth as much as your lives, Mr...”

“Grat.” The Tandaran answered back “You don’t understand. These artefacts belong to the ancient civilisation which lived here long ago before we Tandarans colonised this world. As far as we know, they died out before we arrived. However genetic tests of one of the bodies reveal not only traces of Tandaran DNA, but that of another species. Don’t you see, this could rewrite the history books.” The scientist could barely keep the excitement out of his voice.

Deciding it was better not to argue Archer ordered the artefacts beamed up. It was apparently a difficult beam up, T’Pol needed to compensate a bit, but finally both scientists and artefacts were on board Enterprise.

Archer was preparing to retire after ordering Enterprise to alter course to Tandar Prime when T’Pol interrupted him. “Sir, there is something you should see about the artefact.”

“What is it?” Archer had already started walking towards the turbo lifts.

“Archaelogists tell us that this artefact was from a time before Tandaran historical records show their colonisation of this world. That was hundreds of years ago.”

“So?”

“According to Enterprises scanners, this tomb is only a few months old.”

“A fake?”

“May be,” T’Pol cautioned. However there is something else you should know. “It emits tachyons.”

“Whats in it?”

“Unknown. We cannot scan beyond the hull.”

Archer suddenly had an uneasy feeling of déjà vu. “We have seen this before T’Pol. When the Suliban attacked the ship.”

“You have to be more specific Captain. The Suliban have attacked Enterprise on numerous occasions.”

“It also involved the Tholians.”

“There is a way to be sure.”

“Open the tomb.”

* * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“I must protest this desecration of our cultural heritage.” Grat was positively fuming.

“And I told you this thing is not the tomb of some ancient civilisation, its only a few months old.” Archer was fast losing patience with the Tandaran.

“So you say. I must insist you leave it alone until we verify it on Tandar Prime.”

Meanwhile Malcolm was attempting to open the tomb. With a phase pistol.

“Look, your incompetent crew is trying to destroy a priceless artefact with a weapon.” Grat had had enough of the mostly human crew. It was like a horrible script being played out. “You don’t use cutting tools or a torch, you use a gun. Are you humans crazy?”

“He does have a point Malcom.”

“Trust me Captain, it worked the last time.” Before anyone could stop him, Malcolm had fired the phase pistol. “It looks its working this time as well.”

Slowly but surely the “door” was giving way. Opening it up Archer was not surprised by what he saw. Grat could only gasp in shock. “Do you still think its your cultural artefact Grat?”

T’Pol had moved so that she too could see inside. Inside the tomb it was much bigger than the outside.

On further examination the crew discovered more mysteries. “There are more bodies here.” Malcom mentioned. Indeed, since the “tomb” was bigger on the inside than the outside it could potentially fit entire families in it.

“It’s a freaking colony ship.” Trip exclaimed.

“Unlikely,” T’Pol chimed in.

“And why do you say that?”

“There are no children among the dead.”

T’Pol was correct. Inside the ship there was plenty of research equipment, several of which T’Pol had no idea what they were, or what they did. “Given the contents of the ship, logic would dictate they were scientists.”

“A research station?”

“Possible,” T’Pol concluded.

“You know what this means? Archer could feel a sense of foreboding. “The Suliban will be looking for this. This technology is panacea to them”

Suddenly the Enterprise was set upon by several Suliban ships which had appeared out of nowhere.

* * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
29 th century

No one knew why Time Fleet had commissioned a meeting of most of its captains. It was rumoured that Star Fleet was doing the same, but it didn’t take a genius to guess the cause. Gallifrey. Relationship had been good with them since the Gryben treaty signed by Captain Smith 300 years ago. However disputes were starting to flare up again.

“Captain Ducane, pleasure to see you.”

“Likewise Captain Braxton.” Ducane kept the handshake short. They weren’t friends. Ducane had once served under Braxton on the starship Relativity. That was before he was forced to take command after Braxton went on his own personal crusade to wipe Kathryn Janeway from the time line. Braxton pleaded insanity from temporal psychosis and was sent to rehabilitation. In the last few years he had again made it to the rank of captain.

Both men took their seats. “May I have your attention captains.” The speaker was a Bajoran. Jeffro Wich one of the chief diplomats and former ambassador to Gallifrey. Before he became an ambassador he was also one of the most decorated captains in Time Fleet.

“As you know our relationship with Gallifrey has been strained over the past few years. Officially its because of the border dispute where the Alpha meets the Gamma Quadrant. Unofficially this is the real reason.”

A holographic projection activated showing scans of Gallifrey. It was the standard display format for all temporal scans so Ducane had no problems interpreting it. “What is that?” The image showed multiple temporal energy and timelines converging on the planet, like a giant web.

“That is a good question captain.” Jeffro paused, letting the image sink it. “This was taken by the Time ship Tempus Fugit before it was forced to flee when Gallifrey attempted to time scoop it.”

Ducane nodded. He was aware of how the Gallifreyans were now starting to call themselves Time Lords. Their time scoop technology was similar to the Federations temporal translocation devices, only their range was remarkable. Much higher than anything the Federation so far came up with.

“We had no idea what it is, what its purpose is, nor has Gallifrey been forthcoming . Instead they have again expelled our ambassadors from Gryben. As I said we had no idea of its nature until recently. One of our agents in the economic liberalisation zones was contacted by someone on the other side with information regarding what this thing is.”

Ducane frowned. While he accepted their would be a degree of spying by any of the greater powers, such economic zones were set up by the UFP to improve the standard of living of the average citizen of the Gallifreyan empire. It wasn’t so much that Gallifrey was a cruel master, rather an indifferent one. Some ex Dominion worlds thrived, others faltered. Gallifrey did not care as long as there was no rebelling against their centralised authority. The economic liberalisation zones was the idea of humans descended from the Gamma Quadrant colonies lost to contact after the closure of the Bajoran wormhole, and later assimilated by the Dominon.

Any spying would likely prompt the Time Lords to retaliate and close such zones. The only people affected would be the average citizens.

“What we have heard is frankly frightening. This structure, they call it the Web of Time. It represents a time line out of the many alternate timelines that exist. However once the Time Lords anchor it, it becomes the predominant one. We suspect that this time line would be one favourable to them. We have no idea where we fit in this one, however the Time Lords aren’t talking.”

“What evidence do you have for this?” Someone asked. Ducane didn’t recognise him.

“So far our informant has described the features of this structure will take correctly even before the Time Lords have finished it. What the Federation wants from Time Fleet is to be ready. We may be approaching a conflict with Gallifrey soon.” With that the Captains were dismissed.

Ducane was about to join the others for refreshments when Jeffro approached him. “One moment captain. We have a task for you.”

* * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Captain Ducane, this is Luther Sadler. He works for section 31.”

Ducane shook the man’s hand despite himself. Section 31 was a necessary evil he reminded himself. They were standing in the stations astrometics lab.

“Captain Ducane,” Sadler began, “Our agent in the Gallifreyan territories is a Betazed named Sabin Suder. He was contacted by a telepath. A particularly strong one. We have known the Gallifreyans are telepathic for a long time, but never this strong.”

“Did this telepath give a name?”

“No. He communicated telepathically the whole time. We have no idea what he looks like. We didn’t even know his location until recently. Computer activate maps.”

Immediately Ducane found himself standing in the midst of numerous stars and planets. He recognised some of them as being within Gallifreyan territory. “So the informant is at least male.”

“That is unknown. I only use the He pronoun for convenience sake. A week ago our informant refused to divulge anymore information unless we give him asylum within the Federation. This is his location.” Sadler gestured to a small planet located deep within Gallifreyan space. Very risky to launch a raid. “Do you recognise it Captain Ducane.”

“Shada.” The word was a whisper from Ducane’s lips. The legendary prison planet of the Time Lords.

“That’s right Captain. After much consideration the President has authorised us to steal the captive from right under the Time Lords noses. If Captain Kirk could sneak into Romulan space and steal a cloaking device then by all that’s Holy we will take this prisoner.”

“How do you propose to do that? We don’t even know what the prisoner looks like.”

“Who said anything about kidnapping one sentient. We plan to steal the entire planet.”

Gallifrey Rises!

Though I can't see how anything but 'gods' (and TBH, they're nothing special in DW terms) could challenge the Lords of Time. 31st Century Feds' known abilities are pitiful in comparison in every known respect. Braxton(okay, 29th in his case)'s lot couldn't even travel back more than a few times without risking some kind of temporal cancer. Sadism par excellance.

Take the best possible interpretation of Trek, include treknology of the week, wank of it until your bleed and then you might have a contest.

We all remember vivftp and his pro trek interpretations. I don't want to attack another poster here, but he argued on SB.com that certain trek wank tech was a match for the Culture. So if take this type of interpretion, lets assume that by the 31 st century "wank tech of the week species" had join the UFP, extrapolate a bit and we have something which isn't a total curbstomp by the Time Lords.

I have also given a few hints on how to limit the brutality.
1. The TL only keep their technology to a few worlds, letting the rest of the ex Dominion worlds do their own thing. I have already stated that by the 26th century the Dominion had fallen behind to the UFP quite a bit, so by the 31st century without TL giving their subjects a leg up, the disparity will worsen.

2. Other third parties fighting the TL as well (ok thats hinted at in the next chapter when we find clues as to why Gallifrey was pissed off at Captain Braxton)

3. the UFP are more likely to get allies. By this stage they would have the reach the maturity of have beings like the Metrons talking to them. Add in some awesome Trek "gods" like the Douwd and then you get the epic feeling of a vast Trek alliance. By contrast the Time Lords are generally insular. I think the only time in the EU they allied was 1) in the horrible Quantum Archangel where the author just name dropped every single Who race he could into an alliance and 2) sort of cooperation with the People in the Benny adventures.

31 st century Feds don't seem that much more impressive than 29th century feds, except for their TARDIS clone which Malcolm cut open with a phase pistol.

If any one is interested for my references

1. Some of the names I chosen for Federation crew are either characters from novels, actors or combination names of characters and their actors. So section 31 head is a combination of Luther Sloane and William Sadler the actor who played the section 31 head in DS9.

2. The song Q the younger references is by UK singer Dido. It was the theme song for the sci fi teenage drama Roswell, which despite myself I found engrossing.

3. The Celestial toymaker has appeared in the classic series and certain Who novels. I am sure someone interested can google him and his capabilities. He will still have a part to play in my story.

You know I'm kinda expecting a Dalek and/or rebel Time Lord to show up and state the only posible way for the UFP to win is not to actually present themselves as a threat so the Time Lords don't get off thier asses, stroll down to a control room and select one of thier many "I Win" buttons

Xon wrote:You know I'm kinda expecting a Dalek and/or rebel Time Lord to show up and state the only posible way for the UFP to win is not to actually present themselves as a threat so the Time Lords don't get off thier asses, stroll down to a control room and select one of thier many "I Win" buttons

That runs the risk of making the story a big self indulgent. Like those SW vs ST stories where it becomes more than OMG Wars is so much tougher so the UFP takes an almost defeatist attitude. While a realistic scenario in SW vs ST is that the UFP surrenders, it looks really silly when you have them take a defeatist attitude and fight at the same time. If you are going down that route either have the UFP think they have a chance of victory or have them surrender outright (in which case the story would be somewhat different).

I am of the mind that the UFP thinks they can win. Part of that is from their ignorance of Time Lord capabilities, so they don't realise how outmatch they are until the Time Lords pull out their wank tech. After wards the UFP will almost bankrupt their economy trying to develop countermeasures.

The Time Lords are remarkably good at hidning some of the crazier examples of thier wank-tech, but an the implication of what I was saying is there is no way for the UFP to really know how over thier heads actually are and how you are approaching it shows that they are unaware.

The higher the technological level, and the higher the integration between technology and life the harder it is for people to write about. You are doing a great job so far w.r.t that.

No doubt they are. The TL are very insular so all an outside race is going to see is the giant forcefield protecting Gallifrey.

On another note, chapter 4 is almost ready. Since I am working 3 night (shifts) in a row, in the interim I work a bit on the story.

In it we find out who the Time Lords imprisoned in Shada and the Time Lords plan for retaliation when they find out who stole their prison planet.

How are the UFP going to steal Shada? I always got the impression that it was heavily defended "This planet is restricted. Unauthorised landings will result in destruction. There is no authorised access..." or something was the message on approach. Unless the Cult of Skaro got the Genesis Ark there or something and left the defences switched off or destroyed, I'm having trouble imagining the UFP taking it.

Well, which Star Trek power, now extinct, at its height was said to possess the technology be able to move entire stars? What happens if the technology is still around waiting to be discovered? Once you figure out the answer to the first question you can work out the second.

mr friendly guy wrote:Well, which Star Trek power, now extinct, at its height was said to possess the technology be able to move entire stars? What happens if the technology is still around waiting to be discovered? Once you figure out the answer to the first question you can work out the second.

Are we talking about Iconians, Tkon, or the Voth?

CaptainChewbacca wrote:

mr friendly guy wrote:Well, which Star Trek power, now extinct, at its height was said to possess the technology be able to move entire stars? What happens if the technology is still around waiting to be discovered? Once you figure out the answer to the first question you can work out the second.

Are we talking about Iconians, Tkon, or the Voth?

1. Well the Iconians have awesome gate technology, which according to memory Alpha allowed them to travel distances of 70,000 LY which is impressive when you consider that the Milky way is around 100,000 LY in diameter. However I don't remember them having the ability to move stars, but I will check that out.

2. The Voth can move stars? They are extinct in Trek canon? Well I supposed I could make them extinct by the 29 th century, but I wasn't planning to.

3. Yeah, the Tkon do have star moving tech. I once read one of the Q novels which gave added insight into their technology. Plus they are all but extinct circa 24 th century when Picard encountered the remains of their civilisation.

Oh, I should point out as impressive as the Iconian gate is, Gallifrey as per the 1996 movie was stated to be 250 million LY from Earth. In the Five Doctors Borusa managed to time scoop people from the comfort of his citadel. There have also been other instances were Time Lords teleported stuff to Earth presumably from their own home world (since they rarely leave) eg Spearhead from space, The Three Doctors etc. That gives TL teleportation at least 250 million LY vs a mere 70,000 LY for the iconian gate. Wow.

Chapter 4

24 th century – Bajoran wormhole

Something wasn’t right. There was a presence there which had breached the Celestial Temple. Immediately (well as much as the word “immediately” made sense for the Prophets) he thought it was an incursion by the Pah Wraiths. However the presence was different. Quickly Sisko focussed his senses. The Prophets had taught him much. The temporal signature of the first intruder showed he was not from this time. He had brought friends. The quantum signatures of the others showed they were not from this universe. There weren’t that many of them.

“So this is the Celestial Temple of the Prophets. I had always wanted to see this, but history records it disappeared in the 24th century. Little did I realise I was responsible. It makes the perfect hiding spot.”

Sisko attempted to probe the human, but it was clear he was mad. “Who are you?”

“I was Captain Braxton of the Federation Timeships Aeon and Relativity.” The man paused trying to compose himself. “I am sorry it has to come to this Captain Sisko. You were one of my heroes, along with Kirk and Spock when I was a boy. However I have done more than travel through time. I have travelled other realities and seen much. It has its price. The madness spreads. Oh the burning, oh the burning so bright.” The maniacal laughter was starting to irk Sisko, he had heard it all before from the Dominion’s Vorta representatives.

Sisko gathered his strength, preparing to expel the intruder, however he was interrupted by Braxton’s ranting.

“The ancient enemies will gather at the gates of the Celestial Temple. On that day the Gods themselves will die.”

It was then that Sisko detected an increase in chroniton radiation. Radiation which was fatal to the prophets. Braxton had brought a time ship into the Celestial Temple, and it was big. Before he could act the chroniton radiation levels reached fatal levels and the Prophets fled their ancient home in fear, dragging Sisko with them.

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From the Federation station Deep Space Nine the inhabitants will see the wormhole flare up. At first no one was concern. The worm hole did that consistently. However this time it was different. Instead of the usual blue light, it was like red fire in the depths of space. Only of course fire can’t be lit in the airless void.

Panic quickly erupted on the station. Shields were raised. The needn’t have worried. As quickly the phenomena occurred it finished. However any ships attempting to pass through the wormhole now found only empty space.

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This wasn’t the first time the wormhole had disappeared. Gul Dukhat had previously desecrated the Celestial Temple, and it wasn’t until the intervention of the Emissary that the wormhole was restored. However the wormhole’s disappearance was a huge blow to the morale of the locals. Worse was some hot shot Starfleet strategist saying it wasn’t such a bad thing as it denied the Dominion access to the Alpha Quadrant. Never mind that the UFP also lost access to its Delta Quadrant colonies.

It was all Kira Nerys could do to keep the station running. She was however determined to do the job despite the difficulties.

Some Bajorans prayed to the Prophets to send another emissary. When that went unanswered they set about excavating for ancient artefacts, hoping to find a clue to the wormhole’s fate. Among the artefacts discovered, which weren’t plundered by the occupying Cardassians was several tombs. That in itself wasn’t out of the ordinary. What was is that they were emitting tachyons.

“So you think this is some clue the Prophets left in case the wormhole ever disappeared again,” Kira asked.

“I would like to.” Laira remarked. She had been among the next batch of Bajorans accepted into Starfleet and she was also among the volunteers working with Bajors archeologists, even before the wormhole disappeared. “However the Prophets don’t use holograms.” With that she pressed a button on her tricorder and the tomb was replaced by a plain grey cabinet.

“You know Temporal Investigations will be here shortly to take charge right?”

“Kira, this isn’t the first artefact we found with a hologram. There are others. I have researched the matter carefully. According to historical records the Enterprise under Jonathon Archer also discovered a similar device. We can open it before those bureaucrats get here.”

“Well it is against Starfleet regulations, however it does appear to be a Bajoran artefact and our agreement on joining the Federation allows us control over our own cultural icons…”

Quickly Kira ordered more Bajoran staff to open it. Inside the first thing they notice was that the inside was bigger than the outside. The second thing they notice was a man. Human according to the scan, in some sort of suspended animation. Suddenly the man woke up.

“My name is Daniels. We have much to do if the Federation is to defeat our Enemy.”
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29 th century

The Timeship Relativity made its way through the Delphic expanse. Its modified scanners allowed it to navigate with a high degree of clarity. In the 26 th century the Sphere Builders had modified this region of space. It was known that they could not survive for long in our universe in their current state, so rather than transform themselves, they attempted to the universe at large to suit themselves.

Such an action could not be tolerated and Captain Smith of the Enterprise J led a Federation fleet and destroyed their spheres. However the properties of the Delphic expanse was permanently changed. It not only made scanning difficult, transporters even subspace ones didn’t necessarily work as normal. This was the spot Section 31 had thought to hide Shada. Away from prying eyes, inside Federation territory.

Ducane’s ship was chosen as it was one of the few ships to have the modified scanners and navigational system installed. Fearing that the Sphere Builders may one day return, Time Fleet had begun to investigate the Delphic Expanse hoping to learn how to reverse the Sphere Builder’s effects. So far better scanners were the only result.

The plan had audacity, Ducane thought. He would give them this much. While the Federation technology had not advanced to the point of moving entire worlds, the T’kon’s had. Since Captain Picard encountered the strange life form known as the Portal, Star Fleet had left the remnants of the T’kon empire alone. That was until 100 years ago. By the early 28 th century the Portal had ceased to function, so archaeologists moved in.

There they found the remnants of advanced transporter grid the T’kon were planning to use to transport their dying sun with minute precision and replace it with a new younger sun. Obviously the plan failed. However after close to 100 years of reverse engineering, Star Fleet was confident they could work the device and if necessary build their own.

In theory, inside the Delphic Expanse Gallifrey would not be able to detect Shada. Various starships and timeships were deployed to jam any transmissions the prison planet might make. Ducane had his doubts about the plan. Oh he didn’t doubt Star Fleet would manage to work the device, he wondered what would Gallifrey’s response be. Sadler had assured him that Gallifrey lacked equivalent technology. So even if they suspected the Federation was responsible for their missing planet, UFP diplomats could likewise threaten them with the technology. What was Gallifrey going to do, pull a few planets out of orbit in retaliation?

Regardless, Gallifrey’s reach was vast and the capacity for cruelty reached the same extremes the Dominion once did. Ducane like most Federation officers was aware of the last time Gallifrey had a dispute with the UFP. The rumour went that a certain Gallifreyan had developed a liking for spending time with their Vorta servants. So much so that he gave their subjects hyperspace travel. Not as fast as the Time Fleet’s current FTL drive, but certainly more than a match for quantum slipstream. So early in the 28 th century, A Karemma merchant ship reached the Delta Quadrant hoping to open up trade routes. Before too long they had suffered mysterious illnesses. They barely made it back.

It turned out they were experimented on by aliens with phase cloak technology. The most damning thing was, the aliens were unrepentant. They justified the experimentations as for the greater good. Enraged the Vorta begged Gallifrey for the means to retaliate.

What they got was sensors capable of detecting out of phase objects, as good as the Borg implants of old and certainly better than even current Time Fleet standards. Within a few months most Lamarck ships were upgraded with hyperspace travel, and like the Jem’hadar they replaced, the Lamarcks decimated the Delta Quadrant species reducing them to a pre warp civilisation. To add insult to injury, they created a biogenic weapon which would caused 90 % of the remainder adult population to die in their early 30s.

UFP member worlds protested the cruelty. Earth called it extreme, while Vulcan said it was irrational. For their part, Gallifrey ignored protests. When Star Fleet attempted to send humanitarian aid, Gallifrey fearing its Vorta servants and Lamarck soldiers would be no match for the pride of the Federation, sent their own ships, their so called TARDISes into the fray. The result was the proverbial Mexican standoff, before finally the Federation relented.

For hawks like Sadler, that period in history was considered a humiliation. The Federation was much bigger than the Gallifreyan empire. It encompassed the old Romulan territories, Klingons had joined, the weaken Cardassian union had been incorporated, the Borg were no more and Delta Quadrant colonies were being set up. Meanwhile the Gamma Quadrant power was only slightly bigger than the days of the Dominion, whilst most of the advance technology was confined only to the 9 Gallifrey’s and 3 colony worlds. Gallifrey would back down in the face of Federation superiority, he was sure of it. Ducane was not. Unlike the Changelings, the Time Lords did not give their soldiers their latest technology. He was sure the Time Lords were confident that they had the means to defeat the Lamarcks should they ever turned against their masters. Which made their own technology impressive, even if they rarely put up a display of power since they took over the Dominion.

Ducane’s thoughts were interrupted with sensors giving off an alarm to indicate a power spike. In the Alpha Quadrant Federation scientists had activated the old T’kon device. With the exact coordinates programmed in, within moments Shada had appeared in the Delphic Expanse.

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“Shada appears to have been transmated out of its solar system.” The Castellan gave his report with trepidation. Not since the days of the third Time War had Gallifrey suffered such a loss.

“So its not magnetron technology then. At least the Daleks haven’t returned.” The female speaker was a new member of the high council, chosen to replace the previous one Rassilon had killed all those years ago. Thalia had the presence of mind to not cross Rassilon’s path.

“No, definitely not Dalek. They used an advanced dimensional transporter. Very powerful, likely capable of moving entire stars. By focussing it only on a small planet, they managed to overcome even its shields.”

“Can it be done to Gallifrey?” Thalia asked.

“Unknown, however they would need much more power. Gallifrey’s shields are not only stronger, she has more mass and size.”

“Where is it now?” Rassilon tone was dangerous as usual. The President was given to mood swings and periods of unbridled rage. Even Gallifrey’s “triumph” in the Third Time War had failed to dent it.

“We have traced the destination signal to the Delphic expanse. Even our sensors have difficulty scanning through the spatial anomalies there from this range.” Then almost apologetically the Castellan added “We could send a TARDIS to scout. One ship could not be interpreted as an act of war.”

“If we do that and the Federation protests, we could invite sanctions and even war from the Metrons, the Douwd and even the Edo God as per the treaty of Involved Civilisations. Is it wise to do so before we have completed the Web of Time?” Thalia paused as she realised what she had just said.

“If necessary we will fight all of them and win. For Gallifrey, For Victory.”

Rassilons pronouncement was followed by an echo within the High Council.

“Perhaps it is unnecessary to fight them all at this stage,” The Castellan interjected. “While Shada has been transmated to the Delphic Expanse, the source of the theft appears to be here.” Immediately a hologram was projected. “This was once the T’kon empire, an advance culture with the ability to move entire stars. They died out long ago, however the Federation has been exploring the ruins of their civilisation. Also it is..”

“Neutral territory,” Rassilon completed. “Have the Celestis send a squad of war TARDISes to explore. Have several Lamarck ships accompany them.”

“It shall be done.”
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“The prisoners have been liberated, sir.”

“Good. Now cover our tracks,” Sadler ordered.

Within moments Section 31 had activated the red matter, the mysterious substance Spock had tried to use to save the Romulan Star Empire years ago when a giant star went nova. Unfortunately it failed, however the technology now allowed them to cause the formation of a black hole which would swallow up all evidence of the T’kon transport grid.

“Now that’s how its done in the 29 th century. No stealing about in Romulan space asking to be captured. This is how we take initiative.” For the first time Sadler smiled, he had just shown up the Gallifreyans.. He was confident this will not be the first time. The humiliation of last century would be reversed starting from today.

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“Elements of the Federation were undoubtedly involved my Lord President,” Maxil head of the Celestis, formerly the Celestial Intervention Agency remarked. “They attempted to mask their tracks by creating a singularity, gambling that the extreme gravity would make time travel difficult. Perhaps for lesser races.”

“How..”

“They utilised an old T’kon transmat device as we suspected. Once we backtrack their presence we simply froze time and found out their complicity. I had thought about altering history, but I thought I better check back with you. Some of the council of Involved Powers may not take such an action kindly.”

“You were right. Already the Federation is accusing us of undermining the rules of the Temporal Accord. Discreetly of course. Saner elements don’t want to provoke a war yet.”

“Your orders.”

“Inform the other Involved Powers about the prisoners the Federation has liberated. Tell them of Grandfather Paradox the man who killed his own grandfather and survived. Whose Faction of time travellers behaves like a cult whose purpose is to delight in creating chaos throughout the universe. Tell them of Salyavin whose mental powers could dominate entire worlds. Tell them of the Hoothi, who lives within the dead and steals their code of life for their own means. Tell them of the Legion, the 4 dimensional beings who would break the rules and conventions of time travel. Do not mention her.”

“The diplomats will carry out your orders Lord President.”

“There is more Maxil. Do not tell the Federation this and ensure that the Involved Powers agree to do the same. To keep their silence we will offer to deal with these dangers ourselves if the Federation is unable to.”

“Understood.”

“One more thing Maxil.”

“Yes.”

“Fear will get the Involved Powers to take our side even if we do not have absolute proof. Once they have digested the news and turn against the Federation, we will retaliate. Have the Magnetron pull 5 border worlds out of orbit, but keep them in the same solar system. Select one world to be pulled into its sun. This one.” Rassilon pointed to a world consisting of large deserts and mountain ranges, along with scattered small seas.

“Vulcan. Indigenous race of the same name. Why that one?”

“In various alternate timelines Vulcan was destroyed a few hundred years ago. It is time for history to take its proper course.”

“There is a certain irony in that sir. They pull our worlds from its solar system, we demonstrate we can do the same.” Maxil couldn’t keep the predatory smile from his face.

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24 th century

Captain’s log. Voyager is exploring a spatial anomaly that has suddenly appeared within Deneva system. So far it doesn’t seem to be causing any harm. However despite our sensors we have been unable to get decent readings. I have ordered us in closer.

Voyager had already been scanning the anomaly for hours and were no closer to figuring to learning any more. Seven theorised it emitted some sort of null field. Chakotay had just gotten out of the sonic shower unprepared for what greeted him. “Kathryn? I mean Admiral.”

Janeway only managed one word. “Q.” Suddenly Voyager was pulled into the anomaly.

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Inside the anomaly where time has no meaning

It had seemed like an hour since Voyager was pulled inside, however the Intrepid class ship’s internal chronometers were not moving at all. The ship did not appear to have suffered any damage. The scans were frankly puzzling. Outside the ship appeared to be a giant carnival fair. Whole hordes of clowns and other characters one expected to find at American carnivals in the 20 th century, were coming towards the ship. They were pointing to it and talking about themselves, like Voyager was some type of curiosity.

“The atmosphere appears to be the same as most class M worlds.” Harry Kim’s eyes took in the multitude of data Voyager’s scanners were taking in. “The main power source is located one kilometre away.”

“Can we leave?”

“Negative Captain. Some energy drain is occurring. Voyager has enough for life support and limited functions only.”

“Q. It has to be one of his infernal games. I have read about how he once played tricks on the Enterprise crew.” Chakotay was none too pleased with the turn of events.

“Q. Come out.” Kathryn pleas went unanswered for several minutes. “Chakotay. Q, I mean the younger Q visited me in my office earlier. He said he needed me to do something for him. I don’t think this world is his doing. If it was he would have already appeared even if only to gloat.”

“The question is, where is here?” Tuvok always got to the point. One of the features Janeway liked about her Vulcan ex crew mate.

“Only one way to find out. Assemble an away team,” Chakotay ordered.

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“The crowd appear to be assembled from several different species. That one appears to be human, the others are of species not in the Federation medical banks.” The EMH waved his medical tricorder. He was suddenly accosted by the carnival strong man. “Hey stop that.”

“Raaar.”

“Rar to you too. Unfortunately your alpha male method of intimidation won’t work on me.”

The strong man tried to hit the EMH only to have his hand passed through the EMH’s holographic body. Quickly he was subdued with a hypospray. At the turn of events the rest of the Voyager away team consisting of Janeway, Tuvok, Paris and Lieutenant Andrews from security pulled out their phasers. The effect was immediate. The crowd backed away.

Slowly one of the crowd moved forward. She was dressed in an oversized red dress, with immaculate hair. Paris would have fallen for her back in the day, but he reminded himself he was married now. “Two hearts and there is more to her genetic structure than I recognise. I haven’t seen anything this complicated since Species 8472.”

“You are the leader?” Even the woman’s voice was beautiful.

“I am Admiral Kathryn Janeway of Star Fleet, an arm of the United Federation of Planets. You are..”

“If you are dying from hunger and thirst and the only way was to condemn to death an innocent, someone who has not done you any harm, would you do it?

The crowd had quietened down. Janeway could sense her answer would be important. She thought about her decision those years ago, where she had sacrificed Voyager’s way home by destroying the Care taker’s array rather than let it fall into the Kazon’s hands. She had done it to protect the Ocampa, fearing what the Kazon would do with the technology of the being which had stymied them for so long. In hindsight, Janeway realised she could have set timed explosives, transport Voyager home and still have the array destroyed. However it was pointless now crying over spilt milk as the saying goes.

“It is the duty of all Star Fleet officers to hold a certain level of behaviour. Star Fleets reputation is known throughout our region of space, not because every officer is perfect and does not break the rules, but because people know that those who do will be punished.” Janeway paused remember the crew of the Equinox. “As such I would like to think that if I had to make that choice, I would rather die than kill that innocent.”

The response was not what Janeway expected. The crowd started wailing. “Then you condemn us all as well as yourselves.”

“Enough.”

The crowd backed away as a man wearing a long hat and wielding a walking stick approached. “Do not bother our honoured guests,” he admonished to the crowd.

Something was bothering Paris the moment he saw the man. The knowledge was just at the edge of his tongue. “Something wicked this way comes.”

“What was that Mr Paris?” Janeway was puzzled by the reference.

“Something wicked this way comes. It was a film of the 20 th century, based on a horror novel. I have a thing for old movies.

“I gathered as much.” Whispering Janeway asked “What was the film about?”

“In the film a carnival comes to a mid western American town. Lets just say they weren’t nice people. That man is the splitting image of Mr Dark, their leader. It used to give me nightmares as a kid.”

“Well he can’t be because he is an android.” The EMH was again busy waving the tricorder around.

“Honoured guests, did Q not warn you what to expect.”

“No.” Janeway decided to try an experiment. “And you are …”

“Mr Dark.”

“Well the plot thickens.”

“What is the purpose of our being here?” Tuvok asked.

“Why its to play my Master’s games. Q should have told you the stakes you are playing for. “If you win, my Master will give Q what he wants, which you will be charged with delivering to him. If you lose…” Mr Dark made a dramatic pause and gestured to the crowd. At his movements the crowd kept their faces down, unable to look at the away team in shame.

With that Mr Dark turned around and walked away. “I take it we follow him?” Lieutenant Andrews asked.

“What choice do we have?”

The away team followed Mr Dark towards his mysterious Master. “Mr Dark, what is your master’s name” Tuvok asked.

“He is from a race of dreamers, those who weave dreams. His name is lost to antiquity.”

“What does your master do?”

“He makes toys. Beautiful and lifelike ones as you have seen.”
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Notes

1. ability to detect phase cloak objects was demonstrated in the Colin Baker story “Timelash”.
2. Salyavin was the Time Lord who appeared in the Tom Baker story Shada.
3. Grand Father paradox is of course from Faction paradox, a renegade time lord faction.
4. The Legion appeared in the novel the The Crystal Bucephalus
5. The Hoothi appeared in the novel “Love and War”.
6. Something wicked this way comes was a novel by Ray Bradbury. In the Disney version ee was played by actor Jonathon Pryce who also played the Master in the DW parody “The curse of fatal death.”

Rassilon you billion year old Vorta molesting dog you.

Actually the idea of the Time Lord spending time with the Vorta servant came from the brain bug starting from Robert Holme's era that the TL were becoming decadent. Obviously the Time War snapped them out of this complacency but now that they are again the top dog in this new universe then the risk of becoming decadent flares up again. Although I confess the old series had them becoming obsessed with rituals rather than innovation as a way to showcase their decadence, I thought in the creative environment of NuWho having one of two enjoying the company of servants would be more what RTD would do. Just so the viewers get the message this isn't your daddy's Doctor Who.

Although I had just planned to have some random member of the council (not even in Rassilon's inner circle) be the token decadent Time Lord, rather than Rassilon per se. Rassilon is too busy being bad ass ; killing Q, using his gauntlet to screw over the Jem'hadar, creating the web of time and now planning to show the 29 th century Feds who is boss etc. He is just too busy to enjoy the company of servants.

Lies, after a billion years in that tomb, you know he'd want whatever variety of tail he preffers. He's also James Bond after all.

Chapter 5 – Channeling the right wing

“On in 3, 2, 1..”

“Welcome back folks it’s the Greg Beck show. For those who just joined us we have Bill Henderson from the Braga think tank and Guinan from the Roddenberry institute of political science.”

Ducane watched passively. For some strange reason he found the Greg Beck show strangely engrossing. Apparently so did a lot of people given its ratings. Beck was a Neanderthal plain and simple. He was uneducated but somehow felt his opinion was worth more than the experts in their field. Like Henderson he was of a political faction in the Federation which advocated more intervention and doing away with the Prime Directive. Perhaps it was the way Beck spoke, so sure of himself. There was almost a hypnotic rhythm in his words.

“As I was saying Greg, we have been negotiating with The Devore Imperium for six years and what has it got us, nowhere. Slowly but surely they will have a working Genesis matrix within 18 months. With that they will have a strategic advantage over their Delta Quadrant neighbours, including some of our friends in the region like the Brenari and the Talaxians.”

“I agree wholeheartedly Bill. I don’t care what they say about it being for peaceful terraforming purposes. The Devore are a xenophobic authoritarian telepath-phobic undemocratic government. The gall of them to even demand that we negotiate without any preconditions.”

Even Ducane winced at the number of adjectives Beck used. It seemed like the man just had a bunch of talking points which he repeated ad nauseum. Fortunately for him, his target audience, usually members from less developed agrarian worlds loved him for it. Here was one of them, who spoke simply and not with technobabble jargon they said.

“Even if they have a Genesis matrix, its no match in its level of destruction to weaponised red matter.” This time it was Guinan who spoke. The ex bartender had served upon the Enterprise D under the legendary Jean Luc Picard. Even for an El-Aurian she was old.

“Its not about whether they are so much a threat to us,” Henderson chipped it, “But to our allies in the region. If we don’t stop them having a Genesis Matrix the Brenari will go to war.” The Brenari were a race of telepaths, once persecuted by the Devore. However since the Federation provided them with logistic and financial support, they had managed to hold onto their home systems and even seized a few from the Devore. The legal situation with the Brenari was unique. They were on the so called waiting list of worlds to join the UFP, which allowed them to send students to Federation universities, with access to non military technology. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, they had never gotten around to signing on to membership, so they were free to engage in their own foreign policy to an extent. There was only so much the pro Brenari lobby in the Federation could do for them, however their effect was not small. At the end of the day, the Brenari received the best of both worlds, an arrangement they were only too happy to keep.

The debate between Guinan and Henderson raged for a few more minutes before the producer indicated to Beck it was time for the main attraction. Gallifrey. It had been one month since Shada disappeared and Gallifrey had for the first time openly accused the Federation of being complicit in its theft. The question is, did they have sufficient evidence?

“Gallifrey despite being allegedly a civilisation which counts its age in billions of years, may be old but they are definitely not mature. Just look at their form of government. A few million elites ruling over trillions of sentients. Until they become a democracy they cannot claim to be mature.” Henderson was hitting his stride now.

“However despite their undemocratic nature, they are generally popular. I hear large chunks of the population worships them as Gods. Plus their legacy of intervention in the Delta Quadrant last century ensures their popularity up to the present day.”

Greg thought he should intervene at this stage. “I don’t know about you Bill, but this attempt by Gallifrey is just grandstanding. If they really thought we had the technology, their diplomats wouldn’t be so aggressive, because if I was them, I would be worried about us doing the same thing to their other holdings.” When Beck spoke in a certain way, you could his sarcasm dripping out.

“Yeah Greg, I mean oh what a crime if a few political prisoners are freed? If you ask me, its better than these poor prisoners are free and if some of them seek asylum in the Federation they can now enjoy the benefits of life, liberty and democracy.”

“The problem is Mr Henderson no one asked you. Like it or not Gallifrey is a sovereign government. A secretive one maybe, and as such we have no idea who or what those prisoners are?”

“With respect Guinan, that is a load of rubbish. Gallifrey came from another universe. They overthrew the existing Dominion government. A government who seizes power like that cannot be considered legitimate.” This got a cheer from the less educated members in the crowd, but most people realised that history contained numerous examples of governments falling and a new one taking its place. Of course, Henderson had chosen to ignore the fact that the UFP signed several treaties with this “illegitimate” government.

“Even if we accept your ridiculous premise Mr Henderson, what price are you willing to pay going to war with them. Its easy for you to support a war you don’t have to fight in.”

Ouch, Ducane thought. He was glad that age had not dimmed Guinan’s wit or her mental sharpness.

“Gallifrey is a paper tiger.”

“A paper tiger who fought great wars from their home universe. A paper tiger which you yourself admit overthrew a power in 6 months which at the Dominion’s height could challenge the Federation.”

“Yes, yes. We all heard the stories.” Henderson waved his hands dismissively. “These Daleks they fought. We at the Braga think tank believe they are just fairytales for Gallifrey to justify its behaviour. Where there are Gods there are devils. I mean talking pepper pots. Couldn’t they come up with a more scary adversary.”

“Well lets see how fearsome these Daleks really are.” Beck had ordered a satirical cartoon to be placed on the screen. It showed a facsimile of the Daleks holding out some Calixi sticks to some children with someone exclaiming - look, call Gallifrey, the Daleks are spreading death and destruction again. Under the cartoon a caption read : SMOKING KILLS. This was greeted by vacuous laughter from the crowd.

“There you have it.” Beck couldn’t help smirking. “The Daleks, so scary that after running up some stairs and they can’t hurt you.”

At this point Henderson couldn’t help joining in. “Remember folks, the Daleks were supposed to have fielded ships in the millions. What did they do, count their shuttle craft as ships?” This was greeted with more applause.

Suddenly Beck motioned for the crowd to silence while he touched his ear communications device. “Folks we have just received news. Rassilon the president of the Gallifreyan empire has just sent a visual message to the Federation. We are patching it to you now.”

Immediately Ducane sat upright. The fact the Time Lords were sending a message directly into the public eye rather than behind close doors signalled a change in their strategy.

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The man had an unmistakeable aura of dread. His presence signified death and destruction and the life of an ancient power. If the stories were to be believed Rassilon was the first Time Lord and for all intents and purposes immortal. That would make him older than humanity. He certainly appeared no older than when he met Captain Matthew Smith a few centuries ago. He was flanked by two Lamarck soldiers, the tallest Ducane had seen, easily standing seven feet tall.

“At this time exactly one month ago, elements of the United Federation of Planets accessed an old T’kon transmat grid and used it to transport the planet Shada from Gallifreyan territory into the Delphic expanse.” Holding up his hand an image appeared of unmistakenbly Star Fleet personnel working on a giant machine which Ducane knew only too well.

“Such action by the Federation constitutes an act of war and interference in Gallifrey’s internal affairs.” Rassilon paused letting the words sink in. “By unanimous vote of the High Council Gallifrey demands that if Shada is not returned intact to its proper place and time with its occupants, we will retaliate against the Federation and its colonies.” This time another image flared up showing numerous worlds. “The Federation has one week to comply. Failure to do so will ensure the Time Lord fleet move against the following worlds, Vulcan, Proximus 3, Vega, Deneva, Terra Nova 4 and New Earth.”

With that Rassilon raised his hands and shouted “For Gallifrey, for victory.” The President’s cry of war was echoed by the unseen Time Lords.

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“I will say one thing for them, Gallifrey has good holosonography technology.” Henderson waved his hand dismissively.

“You don’t believe their claim then?”

“Of course not Guinan. But even if it was true, so what? How dare the Roddenberry institute suggest the Federation cannot look after its own interest. If it is in our interest to do so, and I am not saying we did, it will still be acceptable to me. And Gallifrey can complain all it likes, because that’s all they can do. Complain.”

“Ooooy, scary stuff that,” try as he might Beck couldn’t keep his trademark smirk under control. “For the Federation, for victory.” Beck made a poor imitation of Rassilon’s movements. Whereas the latter conveyed with it a sense of nobility and danger, Beck’s movements looked like those of a drunken comedian. “Well I say to Mr Gallifreyan President, bring it on.”

“I think we shouldn’t underestimate Gallifrey,” Guinan spoke, for the first time some trace of worry creeping in. “Gallifrey isn’t some barely warp capable insurgents fighting asymmetrical warfare. They are a category one civilisation on the Involved Powers scale.”

“You know what Guinan. You have been rubbing it in to us that Bill and myself don’t have the courage to back our convictions with actions. Well I am going to broadcast my next show on Vulcan. See you in a week and let us see if Gallifrey has the stomach for war.”

At that point Ducane’s communicator activated. He didn’t need to look to know who was calling. All of Time Fleet and Star Fleet would be aware of Rassilon’s ultimatum. It was time to get to work.

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Greg Beck yawned. That was hard work educating his viewers. It took a lot of self control not to strangle that Guinan woman. How dare she insinuate he was a coward. He vowed to get even with her one day. After the day’s work as always, sleep quickly claimed him.

It was perhaps fortunately that Beck had never married. If he did his wife would have to witness the shock of a hand suddenly stretching out from his head, followed by another then a head and then the whole body. Q the younger looked at the human with disgust. Beck was an imbecile even for a lower lifeform. Briefly he wondered whether he could lose intelligence subsuming himself inside the human, then decided he was being paranoid. However Beck did have his uses. His arguments did appeal to the lowest common denominator as the humans say, and with the power of a Q at his command Beck’s words touched and influenced many.

Now that he had stirred the pot Q only had to wait and see the result. From a safe distance of course. Gallifrey had managed to kill a Q so they weren’t a weak power puffing themselves up. Back in their own universe they were a force to be reckon with. For a moment Q considered teleporting himself one week into the future to see the result of Rassilon’s ultimatum, but decided he needed to conserve the energy. Since the civil war erupted anew in the continuum, his side had been hard pressed and every erg of energy was vital.

For now he would rest. By a week’s time he would watch the fireworks. Fortunately for him he didn’t need to wait a week.

* * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Ladies, gentlemen and others, we are gathered here today to work out our appropriate response to Gallifrey.” Jeffro Wich gestured and immediately replicators went to work producing chosen beverages for the guests which included both Star Fleet, Time Fleet and Section 31 personnel.

“A pre emptive strike right at the Time Lord homeworld. I doubt their TARDISes are a match for a Wells class Time Ship. Once we hit them with weaponised red matter they will be eager to negotiate.” Sadler was always one to go straight for the jugular. “By threatening 6 of our worlds including a founding member of the Federation, they have given us just cause to defend ourselves.”

“Except we did steal their prison planet.” Jeffro reminded him.

“If we admit to that, we not only lose face, but our alliances with the other Involved Powers would falter.”

“I think its already too late for that.” The speaker was a Star Fleet captain, Grace Jones descendent of the legendary ambassador Miranda Jones. “The Medusans have already hinted that the Metrons and Douwd are taking the Time Lords’ side. Whatever their ambassador said it certainly spooked them.”

“What was the nature of the conversation?” The new speaker was Vulcan, T’Pau. One of Time Fleet’s finest as captain and now admiral.

“The Medusan believed the Time Lords have convinced the others how dangerous the prisoners are.”

“Are they?” Jeffro turned to Ducane. Since the liberation of the prisoners Ducane had been in charge of them, trying to sieve through the mountains of data the prisoners gave in the hope of finding useful information.

“Initially there are 14 prisoners. Ten of them were some type of 4 dimensional beings. They disappeared into the time vortex the moment Shada’s shields were breached. These are the remainders.” Ducane gestured as a hologram of an old man came into being, virtually indistinguishable at first glance from a normal human. “This is Professor Chronotis. He refuses to give any other name. We believe he is a Gallifreyan. Two hearts and complex triple helix DNA which will take years for our doctors and medical researchers to piece together. Since his liberation he has provided us with a wealth of information on Time Lord culture and some of their capabilities, which is disturbing to say the least.”

“Yes I read the report. The same one where Chronotis claims that the Time Lords had mastered temporal incursions when the universe was half its present age, with transporters capable of range at least in the millions of light years. The legendary Iconian gate was thought to only have a range of 70,000 light years. This Chronotis is puffing up the power of the Time Lords so that he becomes more important to us.” Sadler was outright dismissive of the possibility that the Time Lords was so advanced.

“Continue with you presentation Captain Ducane.” Wich interjected.

“This second person,” immediately the hologram disappeared to be replaced by that of a lizard like humanoid “we call the Wight, after the legendary undead creature. While he is undoubtedly alive, all medical scans read him as dead. He doesn’t have a pulse, respiration and if he had a central nervous system in the past it has long since atrophied. He claims to be the telepath which contacted Mr Suder our agent, however his telepathic powers have now weaken because of the strain. He is pyrokinetic but his strength lies in strategy and tactics. He has defeated several Zakdorn and computers at Strategema.”

“Now that’s someone we can use.”

“The proper utilisation of the ex prisoners will be discussed in due time Mr Sadler,” Wich admonished. “Continue on Captain.”

“This is the only female prisoner. Human. We believe descendent from various lost Gamma Quadrant colonies. The Gallifreyan secret police mindwiped her for reasons unknown. She picks scientific concepts up quickly, however has very limited memory of her time in Gallifreyan space. Her name is Mary. She doesn’t remember her surname, so since she has effectively become a ward of the state she has adopted the name Mary Ward.”

“Why would Gallifrey wipe her memory?” Jeffro mused. “Can it be restored?”

“Any attempts with drugs, Vulcan mind melds or Betazed telepathic probes have been ineffective. She only remembers bits and pieces of information. Certainly nothing we can use yet.”

“Go on.”

“This last person. Is frankly a liability and raving mad. Nickname the Grandfather.” The image changed to an old man with one arm. “Race unknown. However he claims to be potentially anybody. Well anybody who has created a temporal paradox. In his particular case he supposedly made a temporal incursion in his past and killed his grandfather and survived.”

“The existence of paradoxes are well known in temporal mechanics.” T’Pau stated matter of factly. “Both the pogo and predestination paradox while counter intuitive are logically consistent within themselves. The Grandfather paradox is not, and cannot occur without the creation of an alternate time line.”

“Didn’t you read the report? The Gallifreyans can build a magical paradox machine to negate the effects of paradox.” Everyone ignored Sadler’s pointed jibe.

“What do they gain by announcing where they are going to attack.” President Talas asked allowed. The female Andorian twitched her antennae in agitation.

“Its obvious so to divert our forces from their true target. All the more reason we attack them first, their chosen target could be any world, making it too difficult to protect all.” Sadler again pressed for his first strike.

The debate continued. Sadler and the hawks preferred an all out strike on Gallifrey. More cautious elements preferred to play it defensively where the Federation had the advantage. The Hawks ridiculed the notion arguing attack was the best form of defense. The others’ counterargument was that offense was only likely to succeed after Gallifrey had been bled dry.

Finally all eyes turned to the Federation president Talas, an Andorian female who was asked to make the final decision. “We will deploy both Time and Star Fleets to the defense of the threaten worlds, reinforcing the ships already there. Have other fleets protect vital worlds in case the Gallifreyans mean to attack those instead. Hopefully this show of strength would be enough to deter Gallifrey from unwarranted aggression.”

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“Alright handsome. I on the next ship out from Vulcan.” Amanda Braxton smiled at her husband. Since Gallifrey’s declaration they were going to attack Vulcan panicked citizens had left on the nearest available flight out. This practice dampened down with the arrival of the first and fourth star fleet and the third time fleet. Surely with such ships protecting us an attack by Gallifrey would be repulsed they reasoned?

“Good.” Braxton loved this woman more than life itself. When he had his breakdown from temporal psychosis and his obsession to destroy Janeway, it was this woman who helped put him back together. It was with her inspiration that he again reached the rank of captain of a Time Ship. He wanted desperately to be with her, however his ship was assigned to the defense of Earth. “How are the others?” He asked.

“Myself and others of the North American symphony orchestra are fine. The Vulcans may be too stuffy for my taste, but they however do appreciate fine music.”

Suddenly the ground rocked. “What was that?” Braxton asked.

“Must be an earthquake, but there is no report of any.” The shaking got worse and abruptly the communication screen went blank.

All throughout Vulcan the tremors would increase in intensity. To the Admirals commanding the first, fourth Star fleets and the third time fleet the view of the planet itself moving out of its orbit and towards its sun was one of shock. Desperate Captains tried to combine their tractor beams to hold the planet in its present position. Close to a thousand strained against the force moving Vulcan, but it was a losing battle. Slowly but surely Vulcan was breaking free.

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“Patch my through to the USS Hourglass.” Braxton ordered. He still had some friends in Time Fleet and one of them was with the fleet guarding Vulcan.

Through the jumble haze and confusion Braxton could only watch as parts of Vulcan broke off due the stress between the various tractor beams and whatever force compelling the planet. At some point the ships had given up trying to hold the planet in position but were simply trying to beam up as many survivors as they can.

Amanda desperately tried to reactivate the communicator with her husband. The geological disturbance had knocked out the power source rendering her device inactive. “No, damn you.” The Time Lords had said they weren’t supposed to attack in another 48 hours. Amanda Braxton would try many things in her final minutes of life. She would hit the communicator, scream in rage and even pray to a forgotten god. However it made little difference in the end against Time Lord might as Vulcan flew into its sun.

Moral of the story - don't underestimate Time Lords. Good story so far, and one I'm enjoying reading.

As for "Mary Ward", I wonder who that could possibly be.

I must be the only author who wanks Trek up and have no one complaining.

Ok, maybe Graeme Kennedy made Trek look powerful but strictly speaking he powered down the SW Empire rather than pump Trek up.

Oh, the next chapter is for Necron Lord.

Chapter 6 – The Braxiatel clique

The response to what historians would later call the Vulcan incident were as varied as there were many. The Devorre Imperium remarked that the Federation had bought it on themselves because of their sheepboy behaviour. As political commentators noted, the fact that they couldn’t get the term cowboy correct seem to hurt all the more. Today the term sheepboy is now used synonymously with weakling. Elsewhere the Breen planned to open up negotiations with the Vorta, hoping to claim vast swathes of Federation territory in return for letting their space be used as a staging ground for invasion. The Brenari fearing that the Federation would no longer be able to protect them pushed for a peaceful settlement and called for calm. While in the Delphic Expanse, the response of two of the prisoners was predictably fear.

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“You have seen Gallifrey’s response?” The creature the humans were calling the Wight spoke in a lispy voice. In truth the Wight was not one being but many. The Hoothi were a fungus like race, master tacticians and strategists in their universe. Their mistake was thinking they could oppose the Time Lords. Attempting to possess a Time Lord ambassador their plan was doomed to failure, for Time Lords were immune. Gallifrey’s retaliation was quick and thorough. Most Hoothi colonies were destroyed, but trying to destroy a lifeform which could hide inside the dead was not easy. Whereas many colonies were destroyed, others still survived in hiding.

“They will come for us” Salyavin signed. The plan he and the Hoothi had come up with may very well come to nought. Gallifrey’s terms would no doubt include repatriation of the prisoners. Salyavin had vast mental powers, but even he could not overcome the other Time Lords nor the specially designed cells keeping him imprisoned on Shada. So he combined his psionics with that of the Hoothi and together they made contact with a Federation agent Sabin Suder. Impressed with the level of temporal active technology, Salyavin had thought the UFP could protect him. He was so wrong, and now billions of Vulcans had lost their lives to demonstrate the point. Already the Federation base was in an uproar when news hit.

“We must hide.”

“I agree.” Salyavin replied. Together the two walked towards the guards blocking their way.

“I am sorry Chronotis, we have our orders.”

“Yes of course you do. What are they now?” Salyavin focussed his powers on the guards. It was wise of the Hoothi to suggest that he hid his true strength, while letting the Hoothi claim credit for being the informant.

“To let you and your friends through.”

Salyavin would have smiled but the fear of failure and the need to escape killed any sense of satisfaction. In an objective way he did note that while human technology had come a long way since the 20 th century where he hid out, their minds had not. They were almost just still as easy to dominate. “What of the Grandfather? What about her?”

“All master strategems require sacrifices. Leave them to face the Time Lords’ wrath.”

With that the collective consciousness of the Hoothi and Salyavin escaped their prison. Salyavin’s mind touched all those sentients guarding them, reducing them to slaves. He disliked doing that, but realised it was a necessary evil. “Here we part ways.”

“Agreed. But first,” taking a phaser the Hoothi fired killing a random human.

“Was that necessary?”

“You know what we are.” With that the Hoothi touched the dead human. If Salyavin could see microscopic lifeforms, he would see the Hoothi migrating into the corpse, and with that migration came he took over not just the man’s DNA, but also the knowledge he had in life. “I now know how to pilot their vessels.”

Before too long Salyavin and the Hoothi consciousness were in separate ships escaping from the Delphic Expanse. Shortly after mind controlled technicians would destroy all evidence of their imprisonment and wipe out surveillance logs of their escape.

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Luther Sadler was never one for speeches. He spoke to the point without the charisma required to motivate people. He wondered whether this was why President Talas refused to contenance first strike against Gallifrey. “Mr Fable, search your data banks for great speeches in history and fiction. We are going to rouse the troops.”

Fable served under him as his first officer when he commanded ships for Section 31, before Fable became his own captain. The newer Cravic class android had much larger memory space, computing power than his predecessor, the Soong class androids. Fable looked like the man in the iron mask, or more accurately circuitry sheathed in durilium. The Cravic class androids were deliberately made to not resemble humans to avoid the uncanny valley effect.

“How much of the Right Wing do you intend to mobilise?”

“All available ships.” Sadler answered without hesitation. It was said that the Federation defense forces was composed three armadas. Starfleet at the centre, Time Fleet on the left and Section 31 on the right. Unfortunately that left Section 31 fleet with the nickname of the Right Wing, its allusion to politics in the early 2 nd and 3 rd millennia was not lost to Sadler.

“By now you have all witness the destruction of Vulcan.” Sadler began.

Murmurs of ascent and outrage could be heard. “Unfortunately we have lost contact with the central command due to the volume of hyper subspace communications going on. Even old style subspace radio is over stretched dealing with this disaster.”

The lie would hold, Sadler thought to himself. Most Captains of Section 31’s only space fleet would eventually figure out what he had just done. However by then it would be too late. For the good of the Federation, he would do what needed to be done. If his reading of President Talas psychological profile was correct, she would more likely surrender in the face of seemingly overwhelming superiority, caving under the pressure and not authorise a full retaliatory strike given the ease with which the Gallifrey had humiliated the Federation’s finest. At least not without someone first demonstrating to the citizens of the Federation that they can win. Grudgingly he admitted Rassilon had played his hand well. But if there was a lesson history had taught, it was underestimate the Federation at your peril.

Fable stood up. It was his turn to speak now. “Gallifrey has sent us a message. They told us which worlds would be attack, and then challenged us to protect them if we can. Unfortunately we failed.” Fable paused letting the words sink in, letting the hatred build up. While Section 31 was not directly involved in the defense of those worlds, the defeat stung nevertheless. Moreover Section’s intelligence failure partly contributed to underestimating the Time Lords. “The message they wanted us to receive was clear. They can attack us anywhere, anytime, and we will not be able to stop them. Well now we will send them a message. That today the Federation will fight. That we will not go lay down and die, that we will not go quietly into the night. That for every Federation world that is destroyed, one of theirs will suffer the same fate. Today the line is drawn here.”

The android’s speech was greeted by loud applause from the crowd. Sadler expected no less, all Section 31 members were true patriots. He then activated a hologram.

“Over here is the Eighth Gallifrey. Its still deep within their territory, but with modern faster than light travel it should post no problem. As such we plan to pull all one hundred and twelves ships from Section 31’s fleet to destroy this world. As you can see, the Eighth Gallifrey is much larger than Vulcan. Compared to what we will do to them, what happened to Vulcan and the minor colonies will seem like a slap on the wrist, and we will force Gallifrey to the negotiating table” Sadler paused. Had he misjudged the crowd? It could be construed as insensitive describing the near genocide of Vulcans in such terms.

“For the Federation, for victory.” One of the captains on the spur of the moment lifted his hands in salute. This cry was echoed by the other captains. Since Greg Beck had made his mocking gesture to Gallifrey, it had spread like some type of meme across the hyper subspace communication networks. Sadler expected with Beck’s death during the attack of Vulcan it would only become more popular.

I have them, Sadler thought. He nodded for Mr Fable to continue. “According to intelligence, the governor of the Eighth Gallifrey neglects his duties, preferring to spend time cavorting with their Vorta servants. After all, why not? There he is worshipped as a god. Well today, they find out that even Gods can die, that the twilight of the gods is upon them.”

Sadler activated another hologram. “These will be our primary weapon. Two time ships modified to appear in normal space inappropriately, utilising the Starling effect.” Henry Starling was a 20 th century entrepreneur who used technology salvaged from a crashed 29 th century time ship to become one of most richest men in history. His downfall was when he tried to time travel to the future, where his ship would explode due to his failure to understand the finer points of temporal physics, in effect dooming the entire solar system. He was fortunately stopped by the time travelling starship Voyager. For years the Federation did speculate about possibly utilising this effect for military purposes, however eventually decided weaponised red matter would be sufficient for their needs. Unfortunately Section 31 was forbidden the use of red matter so it had to develop its own arsenal.

“If that isn’t enough we will have the latest Druoda warheads plus Xindi war spheres to finish the job. The Fleets task is to escort the weapons to the Eighth Gallifrey and if by chance its still standing we will use orbital bombardment on it.”

“Prepare your ships. We leave within the hour.”
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Irving Braxiatel wondered for the millionth time why he didn’t go out and saved various life forms more often. The Vorta was attractive by the standards of their race and she smiled at his every description of all the myriads of cultures he had encountered and whose relics he had preserved over the eons. Sure his friend the Doctor enjoyed protecting lesser species, but what did that ever get him? Distrust from the very people he saved. He brings death they would whisper behind his back. Maybe the Doctor should have just done what the Time Lords had done. Use overwhelming force to protect their charges. Then bask in their praise and adulation.

Braxiatel recalled the outrage when the Vorta had brought with them a captive which had been found onboard a Karemma ship. The female from a species known as the Srivani had been experimenting on the crew. During the interrogation the woman had arrogantly described their techniques are "as benign as we can make them", unmoved by the dead Karemma. However Braxiatel was not impressed by the barbarism, and the female Vorta as Braxiatel remembered, looked majestic when she was outraged. What would the Doctor have done, he had asked himself? Well his friend would have travelled to the Srivani homeworld, demonstrate his superiority and then stopped the aliens when they inevitably and predictably refuse to cease their experiments.

It was at this time that Braxiatel thought he could do one better. Defeating the Srivani militarily would not have helped his subjects (and Braxiatel did take his guardianship over his subjects seriously) to defend themselves next time some other phase cloak scientist experimented on the crew. The Time Lords were already aware of the Voth, another species that utilised similar technology. So his solution was to uplift the species. What was that old Earth saying again? Give a man a fish and he won’t be hungry for one night. Teach a man to fish and he won’t be hungry for life.

Braxiatel thus petitioned the High Council to upgrade the technology of their subjects, after all most species in their home universe already had hyperspace travel and any Gallifreyan child could create a device from chronoton crystals which could see through phase cloak anyway. After some convincing, (Rassilon may have been a great inventor and military man, but he seriously failed to understand the benefits of public relations), the High Council agreed. The rest as they say was history. The Srivani were no match for the Lamarck fleet and public anger had been sated.

Before, only the Vorta who had already looked upon the Time Lords as replacement gods for the Founders they had defeated and displaced. Now other species of the former Dominon colonies started seeing them in the same way. But it was the Vorta who showed their appreciation the best.

“Sir. Several time vessels are approaching us. They identify as Federation.” The Time Lord tried not to look at the scantily dressed Vorta. He was aware that in some areas similar dressed Orion Animal Women made the rounds. While he thought such behaviour strange, it was not to his place to admonish Braxiatel. After all, Braxiatel had friends in high places.

“Well lets see what we can do about that shall we.” Braxiatel gently removed the Vorta from his lap. “I won’t be long. Just until after I dealt with them.” With that Braxiatel prepared to defend his charges.

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The problem with Time ships was, it was difficult to intercept them. Oh you could hit them just before they created their artificial graviton disruption or you could attack just as they come out of their vortex. Otherwise there weren’t that many opportunities to stop them. At least for the Federation it was. However for Irving Braxiatel it wasn’t that difficult.

The Time Lords had long ago develop technology which allowed them pull time vessels out of the vortex or redirect them elsewhere. Against Dalek ships it was difficult but not impossible. Of course the Daleks had individual fleets in the thousands out of an armada of millions. Sadler’s task force only numbered 112 ships with dozens of weapon platforms. A few ships going of course here and there, some materialising inside another, some crashing into each other until finally the modified timeships themselves exploded taking most of the fleet with them. Only 3 ships made it out with a few Xindi war spheres. Sadler’s was not one of them.

Braxiatel allowed them to fire against the planetary shields for several minutes before ordering the Xindi war spheres to be encapsuled into forcefields. One of the time ships attempted to open up a portal but Braxiatel had it time jammed by a war TARDIS which promptly destroyed it. The other two fell back to quantum slipsteam and escaped. He decided not to give chase. Someone needed to spread word to the Federation not to attack Gallifreyan territory. “Now where was I, oh yes..” With that Braxiatel went back to enjoy the company of his Vorta subjects.

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The protest like others had sprung up since the destruction of Vulcan and the decimation of the Right Wing fleet. So far Gallifrey had not made further attacks seemingly content to watch the Federation self destruct. For every 10 protest crying for blood there was one preaching peace. Among the latter there were a small minority of people who advocated total surrender.

“For the good of all we should surrender to Gallifrey.” What made this protest different was the speaker. Ryan. A member of parliament in the Paris, the Federation capital. So far the member worlds had formed a government of national unity, however people wondered how long until differing agendas fractured the union.

Daniels looked at his PADD pulling up data on Ryan. If the Federation was to defeat Gallifrey in the 31 st century, he needed to learn from their defeat in the 29 th. Today he was focusing on the psychological aspects. He was aware that the military analyst of this day and even up to the 31 st century, described Gallifrey as a planet of high technological achievers, but lacking the will to withstand prolong war. After all, they had fought a long war in their home universe, why would they want to fight another? The problem was, in the 29 th century the citizens of the Federation also chose not to go into a prolong fight with Gallifrey. He should be thankful for that. He was sure that Gallifrey would have won convincingly. However a conflict in the 31 st century would not be just a quick “border war”, but a prolong one. Daniels wanted to find out what will it take to make the Federation citizens gained the resolve to continue fighting.

According to his PADD, Ryan was born in what used to be called Canada. A minor politician of note until he became the first person diagnosed with what psychiatrists of the future will call Vulcan Syndrome, whereas citizens were awed by the superior technology displayed by Gallifrey that they advocated becoming subjects to their empire. He was nicknamed “Thunder” because of his loud voice, however his opponents ridiculed him as a village idiot. At this point Ryan had finished speaking, and was inviting questions, so Daniels decided to oblige.

“Ryan. You advocated during negotiations with the Devorre Imperium that they should just.. how should I put it, shut up and take their lumps because the Federation is militarily, economically, and numerically superior and if its not in the Federation’s interest for them to develop a Genesis Matrix then they very well shouldn’t. Your policy seems to essentially be might makes right so why are you backing down now? Despite Gallifrey’s early successes the Federation still has a larger economy and a higher population.”

“My philosophy is actually much more nuanced than you give me credit for. I want a galactic hegemony because astral-political entropy results in duplication of effort, atrocity, and is totally not conducive to allocating resources where they're needed most, because there is no single source of authority.” Ryan paused letting the crowd take in his argument. “As long as the galaxy stays that way, as long as enforcement of galactic wide policies amounts to diplomats asking nicely and hoping the other side complies, nothing will ever get done about any pressing issue, and even something is done, it probably won't get done right.”

“Why support Gallifrey? After taking over the Dominion territories they have shown little enthusiasm for expansion. How does this help with the creation of your hypothetical galactic hegemony?”

“You may not like it, but Gallifrey has the most advance technology and their territory isn’t exactly small. So they are a good starting point. We have the largest industrial base and population. I don’t know what you call that where you are from, but I call it a partnership.”

“I see.” Daniels did see. Ryan was an opportunist who hoped to escape Gallifrey’s wrath by offering them something he thought they would want. However from all historical readings Gallifreyan society with the exception of the Braxiatel clique was generally insular. Ergo they most likely would reject what Ryan was offering.

At this point, Daniels took his leave. Nothing further could be learned here.

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“You have read the reports from the Right Wing Fleet?” Tala’s voice was weary. The pressures of the past week were starting to catch up with her.

Everyone nodded their silent assent. “So far Gallifrey has not pushed forward further. Lamarck ships are massing on our borders in the Gamma Quadrant but have done nothing so far. We believe they will attack once Gallifrey gives the orders.” Jeffro still maintained his business like demeanour when speaking. “The purpose of the meeting is to make suggestions on where to from here.”

One of the hawks at the previous meeting immediately spoke. “How about we make a temporal incursion at the moment Gallifrey appeared in this universe and wipe them out with weaponised red matter?” Ducane could not believe the nods of assent given to that suggestion.

“Not only will that violate the temporal accords, we believe they also have to means to protect against such incursions. Even if we succeed we don’t know what will happen to the universe at large with such a huge paradox, especially now that they have finished building their Web of Time. And there won’t be a magic paradox machine to protect us from our own actions.” There, Ducane had said it.

“Captain Ducane is correct. I don’t think we should consider that except as a last resort.” Jeffro at least still remembered the lessons on temporal physics and paradox he had while with Time Fleet.

The hawks however was not deterred. Another one simply tried a different tract. “Gallifrey is too powerful to confront directly, so I propose we don’t. Each time we did that has ended in disaster. We can hide the fleet using subspace cloaks. Subspace has infinite layers, even Gallifrey can’t scan them all. In the interim we launch hit and run attacks against peripheral worlds. Gallifrey doesn’t have the stomach for prolong war, we will simply wait them out until they will withdraw back to their space.”

Madness, Ducane thought. Has every one gone mad? “What do you think Gallifrey would be doing while you use your Fabian tactics on them? Twiddling their thumbs?” Ducane could see the hawk eyes narrow and he looked like he was going to come up and hit Ducane. “They have the means to move entire worlds and hurl them into a star. We can’t compete against that.”

Fortunately the Vulcan admiral T’Pau saved Ducane from another outburst. “Unfortunately Gallifrey would not be simply sitting back and tiddling their thumbs as Captain Ducane puts it. Even if they destroy 5 planets per week, within a year there will not be much of the Federation left fighting for. Any attacks on protectorate worlds will only inflame tensions without affecting significantly their ability to wage war. ”

“Is there any way to counteract their planet moving technology? What about the T’kon transmat grid.” Even President Tala’s voice sounded weak. Gone was the confident manner of a week ago.

“Unfortunately that is not practical.” All eyes turned to the android, Fable, one of the few survivors of the failed assault on Gallifrey. It would take us years to build another one, moreover it nearly failed just to steal Shada. Their major homeworlds will have much stronger shields.

“My chief engineer does have a suggestion on how to theoretically counteract such a device.” All eyes turned to Captain Barca of the USS Cannae. “With your permission.” Barca motioned for his engineer Lieutenant Ying Xiong to step forward.

“As you know, the Time Lord’s device must generate immense amounts of gravitic disturbance to move an entire world. In theory we could do the same with a large mass, for example a space station made of neutronium alloys.” Quickly Lieutenant Ying forstalled the questions which would come. “The station would need to generate its own static warp field, once under the weight lightening effects of the field it will not drag an asteroid yet alone a planet towards itself. However once the field is turned off the full effect of the station’s gravity would be felt, and it could hold the target planet in position.”

On the face of it, it wasn’t such a bad idea. Unfortunately the engineering problems would likely take years to overcome. To gather that much neutronium alloy for even one such station would take time, which was a commodity in short supply. The station would also need to generate a gigantic warp field capable of reducing its weight. It was well known that the USS Enterprise in the 24 th century generated a warp field to try and allow it to move a small moon. It nearly succeeded if it wasn’t simultaneously attacked by the Calamarain. However the mass difference between Mr Ying’s proposed station and a small moon were vast.

“Again we don’t have time, but it may be useful for the future. Can we appeal for aid? Maybe the Organians or the Metrons?”

“Unfortunately Mr President we would likely be refused. Not to mention the Breen are already siding with Gallifrey, albeit not openly.”

“I may have a suggestion.” Ducane suddenly found all eyes on him. “As you know I have been working with the Shada prisoners. While two of them did escape they did provide us with valuable insights. The third prisoner, Mary Ward may now be the key to our salvation.”

“Go on.”

“I have shown her footage of Rassilon and various historical archives on the Time Lords taken by Gryben diplomatic staff. She remembers one of these Time Lords. His name is Irving Braxiatel. By her accounts before migrating to our universe, he collected works of arts from thousands of species in an attempt to preserve their culture. If our agents in the economic liberalisation zones could arrange an informal meeting, he may be willing to listen to our peace overtures in a sympathetic light.”

“How much influence does he have over the High Council?” Someone asked.

It was the android Fabel who answered. “He supposedly has friends in high places and is not without influence himself. Intelligence believes it was him who convinced the council to upgrade Lamarck with hyperspace capable ships during the Srivani crisis.”

“What choice do we have?” When no one answered Talas continued. “We will maintain defensive postures, however we must make every attempt to contact this Braxiatel.

“There is only one problem madam President.” Fable interjected.

“What is that?”

“He is also the governor of the Eighth Gallifrey. The very world the Right Wing Fleet attacked. We just tried to kill him.”

* * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * **

The Cravic class androids were deliberately made to not resemble humans to avoid the uncanny valley effect.

um that would make it a Robot. Otherwise, awesome story!

Yes very good, keep up the good work.

Ah, Brax you devil. I'm always amazed by how likeable he comes across despite being a total murdering bastard.

I disapprove somewhat of Rassilon overthrowing Romana. I like to imagine she died in battle with the daleks, and then the High Council punched 'break glass in case of war' in the Death Zone.

I thought that The Master filled that role

Do the Time Lords have any control or understanding of what comes after death? I'm wondering what are the limits of their technology.

"What's life? Quirk of matter, nature's way of keeping meat fresh, nothing to a nanogene"

Dr Who is essentially a rational setting, there is no afterlife, barring those made with science (as in Silence in the Library) - As such, there is no answer for there is no afterlife. Torchwood has ressurectees having memories of something terrible coming to get them in cold darkness (yay, grimdark) but it's surely part of the ressurection technology, which is (very) imperfect.

The Time Lords have access to an immortality serum, but it's a major social taboo to them, and it's used only for medical use. Rassilon turned President Borusa to a stone carving for trying to become immortal (the irony is palpable). Their normal lifespan (EU material hoy) seems to be seven thousand years or so, living through thirteen bodies.