by Cour M.
“There is a great difference between being a protector and a murderer. Just like there is a great difference between being a preacher and a hypocrite.”
“Excuse me?”
“We’ve carried guns! What about ourselves are you remembering? Only the better sides? In our past, we have both carried guns to protect those around us. Or we had companions who carried them and we expected them to use the weapons. And do me a favor. Look at me. I can tell when you’re lying because I know our ticks when we lie. You’re telling me that you never once hurt anything or killed anything in your incarnation? And just because you didn’t have a gun, doesn’t make it better. Look into my eyes and tell me that.”
Ten continued to look into the Eye of Harmony.
“That’s right, you can’t. I may not know much, but I know how you turned Martha into a warrior, and now you’re blaming her for it. You’re placing your ideals on my companion, when I let go of idealism long ago. I protect those that need protecting. And I don’t judge my companion for thinking she has the right to protect herself—especially from a robot. Did you forget that we’ve destroyed droids before? You remember the android invasion; we did what we had to do. My TARDIS will not be a place of double standards. As long as my companion doesn’t kill something that’s alive or innocent, then she is doing her best. And her best is good enough. It’s less hypocritical than us, isn’t it?”
“I just don’t want Martha thinking that behavior is ever the answer and that there is no such thing as mercy.”
“No, you would just have me fight for you and then blame me for being a fighter afterwards,” Martha interrupted, walking down the corridor. Both Doctors started when she appeared, but she was not angry. “Don’t worry, I’m not upset. I had a funny feeling that you both would be talking about it. Now come on, Satsuki and I are in her room and we are wondering what is our next course of plan.”
“Glad to come,” Eight remarked. “Come along, Jones and older me.”
Eight walked forward, and Ten walked beside Martha.
“You’re upset with me,” Ten whispered to her.
“I’m not surprised at things you say anymore. That’s all.”
“I can’t tell if that’s a good or bad thing. But Martha, I just… I don’t want you to ever believe in shooting first and all that. I know that the droid was never technically alive, so Satsuki didn’t kill anything. But still, I just don’t want you thinking that violence is the first solution.”
“I don’t, and nor does Satsuki. But nor am I going to believe that there is no sense of justice in the world. Besides, don’t you have any faith in me? Faith to trust me for a moment. Come on.”
“Yes, but you must have faith in me too. You must understand that I don’t want you to be a killer first, and I have to worry.”
“Doctor, when do I not have faith in you? Again, what are you remembering? All I ever did was have faith in you. You often let me down, you hurt me, but I never lost faith. And I never will. It was you that took your faith in me for granted.”
Ten wrapped his arm around Martha’s shoulder as they walked.
“I never took it for granted, Martha. I just never said anything.”
“Same thing.”
“I know.”
⌛
“The way that we see it,” Satsuki reasoned when they were in her room, and she was sharpening her knife, “the protestors are getting more and more active in the communities. Other planets are getting involved and beginning to realize that their people are in danger. But the only way that the games will be shut down because of it, is if the Mecrellan government has evidence that the Clockwork droids are trying to invade.”
“Yeah, General Vander won’t take our word for it,” Martha acknowledged.
“Precisely, therefore what we need to do is capture a droid,” Ten planned.
“Once grabbing one, Satsuki, you can order it to confess its plans to the government.”
“But if we capture one and the droids are re-programed to not listen to me anymore, what do we do?”
“We can re-wire its circuitry perhaps,” Ten offered, “as long as it’s properly subdued.”
“But getting ahold of one is tricky,” Eight commented. “because there is the chance that they will know that Satsuki may be guarded by us. They may suspect a trap.”
“Believe me, they will want to come back,” Ten replied.
“And then there’s me,” Martha pointed out.
“What?”
“I’m your companion, and now they want me dead. Place Satsuki and I at different spots where a Clockwork droid is bound to turn up and it will find one of us.”
“It won’t return to the theatre,” Satsuki replied, “but it might turn up at the puppet exhibit that I have to attend next week.”
“That’s as good a time as any.”
“Are either of you too tired right now?” Eight asked.
“I’ve got some energy left in me,” Martha commented.
“Good, because I’m about to fast-forward us to next week.”
Eight rushed out.
“Okay, I lied,” Martha followed him, “I might be a little tired.”
“Brave heart, Martha!”
“Sorry to be scared, but those droids were bloody creepy!”
Ten was left alone briefly with Satsuki where they stared at each other awkwardly.
“I know what you’re about to say,” Satsuki replied, putting on a sweater, “you’re upset with me. I saw it in your face before.”
“I’m proud of you,” Ten announced simply.
This took her by surprise.
“What?”
“I’m proud of you.”
“Oh,” Satsuki voiced, surprised, “well, I’ll be buggered! I never would have thought that you would have said that. I mean, it was a droid, of course, and you’ve had your share of similar actions…”
“Yes, but that’s not how I want you to think. Just promise me, Satsuki. Promise me that you believe in giving second chances, or your first impulse should be to listen, and not to hurt.”
“Always,” Satsuki replied, “I promise, I will always understand the difference.”
“Well, I shall believe you.”
“You better,” she laughed, “besides, you are technically not my Doctor.”
“Yes, I am,” Ten replied with ease, “of course I am. It doesn’t matter that I’m from the future. You were once my companion. And therefore, I shall always be your Doctor.”
Ten smiled to her and left.
Chapter 19
The Only Solution
After Satsuki’s puppet store idea was fruitless, they had to think of other options. Letting herself be used as bait, Martha planted herself in a puppeteer shop, that proved unsuccessful. Looking for other locations, Ten developed the idea that mannequin shops were a good possibility. Therefore, she got a small position in a factory that produced them, merely as a maintenance worker. To keep contact with the Doctor, Eight gave her an earpiece to have on always.
Eventually, it proved fruitful, and as she was sweeping one floor, she was come upon by a small host of walking mannequins, and she began to run away from them. She spoke into her earpiece, Eight materialized around her, and Ten emerged with a freezing gun. He froze three of the Clockwork droids while the rest of them scattered.
“There, you see,” Ten smiled triumphantly to Satsuki as she emerged with her sword, “Look, not one droid destroyed yet, and not even a real gun or blade! Ha!”
Suddenly a Clockwork droid emerged behind him, still looking like a mannequin. It raised its blade and was about to strike it down across Ten’s neck, Satsuki raised up her gun and shot it dead. It fell behind Ten, deactivated.
“You were saying?” Satsuki asked.
“Oh, shut up.”
“Never.”
“We can argue double standards later,” Eight emerged from the TARDIS with Martha. “Now help us get them in, thanks.”
“Right, step lightl
y,” Ten replied, “because we only have a few minutes before they defrost and are dangerous again.”
They got the droids inside of the TARDIS and took them to the Halls of Justice.
⌛
“What do you mean that this means nothing?” Ten roared to General Vander.
They had taken the droids to General Vander and the Clockwork droids were being analyzed as they were speaking. The Doctors even saw part of the interrogation where the droids were questioned. They had to be, because this time, the Clockwork droids only answered to Martha. Yet after the interrogation, the droids were merely deactivated, because they simply ran out of time and their parts ceased to move. What was painfully unexpected was that General Vander would immediately remove any faith in the veracity of what the droids admitted.
“I mean,” General Vander responded to the Doctors and their companions as they were sitting in a great hall, “that I do not believe it. And nor does the rest of the council.”
Around him, at a table, there were seven other joint chiefs and military officials who nodded their heads.
“You all saw it with your own eyes,” Eight retaliated, “the Clockwork droids are planning to invade for the sake of taking advantage of your space windows. You have the technology to link two different coordinates of space and time, and the droids will want that. Why can’t you see what’s in front of you?”
“The answer is in one place,” General Vander responded, “and that place is your solution. Tell me, if we believe you, and there is some invisible force somewhere of invading droids, what is your solution?”
“A full shut down of your window-bridges,” Satsuki demanded.
“And therefore creating a full shut down of the games?” another military official clarified.
“Precisely,” Martha concurred.
“And there is the real objective,” General Vander pointed out, “the one that places a logical seed of doubt in our minds of everything you just mentioned. How convenient that you give us four damaged droids that only answer to one of your companions, and each of those droids’ state something that is in alignment with your directive.”
“We can’t believe you,” another military official interjected, “Because you gave them to us. Four clockwork droids who just happen to be a threat where the main way that they can be demolished is if we shut down the very thing you want us to shut down. How do we know that you both did not hack into their technology and reprogram them to become a threat? And then that threat would bring home your objective the entire time.”
“You really think that we would go that far?” Eight asked.
“You have gone that far before.”
“You have some lie detection software and machinery here. Hook me up to it. You shall see that I’m not lying. The droids intend to invade, eventually, to gain control of your space window-bridges. They did plant scouts to attack and kill both our companions, and they will be successful if you continue to ignore this problem.”
“And where would we have gotten four droids from?” Martha asked, “the technology inside one of them is not able to be purchased in any part of this galaxy.”
“Yes, but you have a time machine, and I know a thing or two about the modeling of a TARDIS. I know it can construct whole rooms, create machinery, and other special applications.”
“You think the Clockwork droids are a creation of the TARDIS?” Satsuki objected. “It’s not built to replicate or originate any such intricate clockwork or programming.”
“You would wish for us to believe that,” another military official asserted.
“Besides,” General Vander asserted, “where are these invading forces that you speak of? If the Clockwork droids wished to invade, then they would have some legions in space, but we have an expert security system that surveils every quadrant of sky around us. And I can assure you that we have detected nothing. Therefore, it can be concluded that there are two enemies to our games, who are the same man. Presenting four droids that he tampered with before bringing them to us is not a reliable source.”
Eight leaned forward, menacing.
“General Vander, I detest you even more than you dislike me.”
“I don’t think that’s possible.”
“Believe me, it is. You don’t have two hearts. That gives me twice as much room for emotion. And I swear now, that if you don’t listen to us, the wars and conflict that you imitate so much will come to you. The Clockwork droids might be planning an invasion, or they are just trying to cause strife between you and other planets, who will blame you for what they have done. They are kidnapping your tourists. And then years from now, your society will be able to imitate itself, because thousands of people will die.”
“Get out of our hall.”
“Gladly,” Martha stated, “come on, Doctors.”
Bitter, they all left.
⌛
Later that evening, Martha was sleeping in her room, while Satsuki was taking a shower. Now that the Clockwork droids were a threat to their companions, Eight refused to allow Satsuki to return to her home, for fear that they would attack her. Yet, feeling as if the eleventh hour was being reached, Ten and Eight had concluded that something had to be done.
Both were together, in the command room, and there was a somber feel in between them.
“And you know the source behind the windows?” Ten asked.
“Yes, I do. But the problem is the number. It’s not just one window that is placed around the planet. No, they have four.”
“Four window-bridges?”
“Yes, placed at different coordinates.”
“Disabling one will be hard enough.”
“But we have to be successful. If not, then not only will the games continue, but then they will have a full war on their hands, where thousands of people will die. There’s an invisible force out there, and we don’t know where it will strike next.”
“How ironic is the just desserts that might save them all,” Eight pointed out.
“And what does that mean?”
“The Mecrellans are a civilization that fuels on a caste system that regards either the poor or the criminals as cannon fodder for their amusement. If the Clockwork droids do start a war, then the Mecrellans will learn that a real war is not that funny.”
“That would mean that you want us to stand by and do nothing?” Ten asked, critical.
“Of course not. Because if we did stand by and just observe, but never interfered, then we would be the Timelord that our society tried to forge us into. Or to think we had the right to decide and let thousands die just so that their society can learn a lesson, well, that would make us a vengeful God. And we wouldn’t want that, now would we?”
Ten was silent.
“If we do this,” He voiced at last, “I will let Martha down.”
“And like I said, she will forgive you.”
“Yes, but you don’t understand.”
“What?”
“I’m tired of letting her down. I’m tired of failing her.”
“That’s not how she will look at it.”
“But it’s how I will.”
“Then suck it up.”
Both Doctors looked at each other.
“It’s now or never, right?” Ten asked.
“Yes, it is.”
“Right, here we go.”
Eight and Ten stood up and both went to the other side of the consul unit.
“I’ve programmed the TARDIS to land at coordinates 34.27.198, which is the direct position between all the windows, yet that’s not enough. We then must materialize in the Acropolis of the city—it’s the main control center. When landing in there, we must disable the shields that are around the windows. They are controlled in the Acropolis. If we hack into the system and disable the shields, they will be compromised.”
“And you have discovered the amount of time for a contingency plan?”
“Yes. If we don’t return to the TARDIS in twenty minutes, then it will d
ematerialize and relocate.”
“Good. Satsuki and Martha will be safe.”
Ten rubbed his face.
“This might very well end in failure.”
“Yup, and I can’t wait to find out.”
Ten smirked.
“Me neither.”
Chapter 20
Things Fall Apart
BOOM!
Martha woke up to a crash as she fell out of her bed. She rolled around the room as everything shook. Her first impulse was to think that there was an earthquake, and then she recalled that it was nonsense, because she was on the TARDIS. There was only one thing to assume: the TARDIS was under attack. She continued to roll around her room, her arm gathering a severe cut on it when she was pushed against the metal wiring under her bed.
Eventually, all was put to rights, but her room was completely a wreck and her cut was bleeding profusely. She crawled to her desk, pulled open a drawer and found a white handkerchief. She ripped off her shirt so that the red of it wouldn’t infect her wound, and in her camisole, she wrapped the handkerchief around her arm and tied it tightly to stop the bleeding.
Once she was prepared, she attached her guns to her waist, she crawled over everything in her room, then she emerged into the hallway. As she did, Satsuki was running along.
“What happened?” Martha cried out to her.
“No idea, but my room is ruined.”
“Come on. Let’s go to the command room.”
They ran along the rooms and headed into the command room and on the consul unit, there was a note. Martha and Satsuki rushed up to it and read it.
“Press me,” Satsuki read, and they looked at the button that the message was on. Martha pressed it and ten feet away from them, a hologram of the Eighth Doctor emerged. It was a voice interface.
“Satsuki and Martha,” Eight’s recording began, “this is a recording on the voice interface. This message is only meant to begin if we have not returned to the TARDIS in the time that we have planned. At this point, you should have felt a disturbance in the TARDIS. This was a direct result of the releasing of our spare Eye of Harmony connection matter into space, where it was broken up into four parts, and are now travelling to the space windows set up around Mecrellas. Our second course of action was to land the TARDIS into the Acropolis of Draconis, which is the main center that controls the shields around the windows. Therefore, at present, you are still in the Acropolis sub-chambers.