The Doctor's Return

                                   Chapter IV
                               The Master's Secret

     The Doctor entered the room, the Master behind him, his shrinking device 
aimed at his back.  Inside the room a plastic bubble reclined on the wall, its 
side lined with various wires and tubes.  The plastic was only slightly 
transparent, but it was clear to both Time Lords that Colonel Andred was 
inside, apparantly unharmed but unconscious.
     The Master broke the tense silence.  "It seems the Cybermen have gained a 
cruel streak from their meetings with you, old friend."  That term made the 
Doctor cringe, since indeed his worst enemy was once a good friend.  The Master 
continued.  "It was fortunate for them that I was ... that I joined their 
cause.  Behold, Doctor, a Time Lord's torture chamber."  With this the Master 
moved toward a control console, his attention still on the Doctor, his arm 
still holding his weapon.  The Master operated several controls, and the cocoon 
began to glow.  The screams from inside told the Doctor that his friend had 
been given quite a rude awakening.  Through the semi-transparent plastic the 
Doctor could almost make out the flashes of artificial lightning lashing out at 
the young Time Lord within.
     The "demonstration" lasted for several minutes, at the end of which the 
Master deactivated the device.  The cocoon became dark to the point that the 
Doctor could not see inside it.  This situation was remedied when the Master 
threw a switch near one side of the cocoon.  The bubble opened, revealing a man 
unconscious yet again.  The Time Lord was no longer young, however.  His 
clothes tattered and smoldering, they still looked like they no longer fit 
well.  Indeed they didn't, for the body inside was of a much older man than the 
one who had summoned the Doctor and his wife out of their retirement to combat 
the combined forces of his three greatest enemies.  Yet, it was Andred.
     "Forced regeneration, Doctor," the Master interjected.  "The machine is 
designed to precisely damage a Time Lord's body nearly to the point of death, 
at which time our own physiologies take over.  Oh, it took quite an amount of 
computation to fine-tune it so it wouldn't kill instantly.  I think, though, my 
two experiments with it have been quite successful."
     "Two?!" the Doctor said, hoping against hope he did not know who the other 
experiment was.  His worst fears were confirmed, however, when the Master 
pointed to a screen behind the Doctor's back.  The woman on the screen was also 
unconscious, but still apparantly alive.  Her face and figure were rounder, 
fuller.  Her hair was now a dark brown, shoulder length crown on her head, but 
the clothes were one of two indicators (the other being that unknown way Time 
Lords can recognize each other even after a regeneration has occurred) that the 
woman was Romana!
     The Master approached behind the Doctor, his weapon still drawn, as though 
his arm had never moved.  "Your darling wife came through her ordeal far better 
than your friend there, Doctor.  I wonder how she will take another treatment?"
     At this the Doctor spun around and landed a fierce chop on his adversary's 
gun hand.  The sheer force of the Venusian Aikado move was enough to wrench the 
gun from his hand, but the Doctor noted that the arm was indeed made of tougher 
stuff than he anticipated.  Grimacing with pain he nonetheless managed to stomp 
on the shrinking gun, breaking the internal workings into several unrepairable 
pieces.  The Doctor turned, grabbed Andred's now frail body, and bolted from 
the room.  The form of the Master moved as if to pursue him, but stopped 
short.  He stood motionless for several seconds, then turned and walked back 
into the control room.  He operated the scanner-on control.  The only response 
was a dark screen with a slightly lighter shape in the foreground, followed by 
a rasping voice.  "No, my servant.  You are needed to lead our troops to 
Gallifrey."  The screen blanked, and the Master directed his TARDIS toward his 
home planet.  Almost as an afterthought he directed a group of Daleks on board 
to search for the two escaped prisoners.
     The Doctor roamed the corridors of his enemy's TARDIS with the old man who 
was Andred.  Several times Andred wanted to get his old friend to return to his 
TARDIS and let him, with still several regenerations left, continue the search 
for the third member of their party, but every time he saw that angry look in 
the Doctor's face, he quietly turned away and continued on as fast as his new 
body could carry him.  Being an old man physically, Andred was forced to make 
frequent rest stops, and the Doctor stayed with him, ever anxious to find his 
beloved Time Lady.  After the third rest stop in an hour, Andred was sent back 
to the Doctor's TARDIS while the Doctor continued on.
     The Doctor cautiously strode through corridor after corridor, searching 
for the room he had memorized from the viewscreen, the room that held the 
regenerated body of his wife.  Anger and despiration, though, many times 
override caution, as the Doctor was about to find out.  He passed an 
intersecting hall and was about to continue on when he felt a metal hand pull 
him violently into the intersecting corridor.  He was about to lash out with 
the Venusian martial art he had used frequently during his third incarnation 
when the metal arm pushed him against the side of the wall.  In the darkness of 
the hall the passing Dalek patrol took no notice of the Time Lord nor his 
strange rescuer.  The Doctor felt the arm taken away from his chest, and he 
turned to his rescuer, whispering, "You are rather friendly for a Cyberman, 
aren't you?"  But the Cyber-rescuer was gone.  After checking to ensure the 
Daleks had safely passed by, he continued his search, this time more attentive 
to any sound his ears could pick up.
     The Master had finished his communique to the Supreme Dalek, the 
Cyber-Leader, and the Sontaran fleet commander insructing them of the invasion 
plans.  He then set his TARDIS in motion, making sure not to dematerialize so 
that his troops could follow.  This done, he glanced at a chronometer on the 
console.  "Time to recharge again.  Blast this body."  Operating a lever on the 
console, a section of the control room wall slid away, revealing a room with a 
strange table at its center and electrical generators around the walls.  The 
Master turned a switch near the foot of the table, sat down on the table, and 
reclined.  When he had fully laid down the machinery surrounding the table 
began to hum.  His body was bathed in a slight glow.
     The Master slept.  As he slept, he dreamt.  He dreamt of his early life on 
Gallifrey, of the fun he and his best friend used to have, of the mischief he 
would cause, many times with his friend's help.  In his dream time passed 
quickly.  He saw himself change.  He grew a goatee, which spread into a slight 
beard, pointed almost demonically at its end.  He saw his friend change, too.  
He was soon dressed very formally, almost like a dandy.  His hair was fluffy 
and white.  He had become the Doctor, his worst enemy.  This was the Doctor and 
the Master as they had first met after both had left Gallifrey.  Time continued 
to pass in this vision, and the Master envisioned himself in the shell of a 
body that was his last incarnation, the end of his dozen regenerations.  He saw 
himself merge with Tremas of Traken, stealing his body, usurping his will.  
Then he saw the end of that body as well.  He experienced once again the pain 
caused by the reawakening of Tremas' psyche within their shared body, 
desperately trying to free itself from the Master's grip.  Despite the Master's 
once-indominable will, Tremas reversed the merging, and the two separated.  
Tremas, an ancient man himself, died instantly.  The Master had been returned 
to the burnt-out husk of himself that he had been when he first attempted to 
take over Traken.  He saw himself retreat to his TARDIS, desperately searching 
for the key that would allow him continued existence.
     In his slumber he imagined the mysterious one.  He saw his unknown 
benefactor cloaked as himself, in black, for that is how he had always seen 
him.  The being lifted the dying shell of the Time Lord and carried him off.  
The Master once again experienced his first glimmer of consciousness after the 
ordeal.  He could feel that the body he was now inside was more powerful than 
he could have ever imagined.  He heard the voice inside his head, demanding 
subservience for the price of the new body.  He felt again the pain the other 
inflicted when he arrogantly refused, and he again felt the relief when the 
pain stopped with his vow of loyalty.  His dream showed him the surroundings of 
his salvation ... a room filled with the best Cyber-technology, Sontaran 
cloning equipment, and Dalek machinery which once turned humans into Daleks, 
modified to implant the soul of a Time Lord into a hybrid body, a cross between 
Cyberman and cloned Gallifreyan.
     As the Doctor searched for Romana, Andred took up another search ... the 
search for the familiar police box that brought the trio to the Master's 
TARDIS.  After shuffling down a flight of stairs he was able to dimly recognize 
the corridor he now entered.  He could just barely remember that this was the 
way to the TARDIS.  He froze in his tracks as a Cyberman appeared in front of 
him.  Realizing that his now aged body had no hope of overcoming such a 
creature, his first thought was to attempt to flee.  He whirled to see the 
Dalek search party approaching.  Looking frantically, the newly regenerated 
Time Lord realized there was no escape.  He turned back toward the Cyberman and 
noticed it frantically motioning toward him.  Andred cautiously approached the 
silvery figure, which quickly seized his hand in a cold grip, firm but 
deceptively gentle for a Cyberman, and dragged him down the corridor.  Andred 
felt himself quickly tiring, but gave one final burst of speed when he saw the 
blue shape in front of him.  The Cyberman produced an oddly-shaped key, fitted 
it into the door lock and turned.  The TARDIS doors opened, and the two figures 
raced inside.  The doors closed just as the Dalek patrol came into view.
     Inside the more pleasant control room Andred could just stop and stare at 
the metallic man.  Surely Cybermen wouldn't spare a Time Lord.  Then he noticed 
that the creature was a bit shorter than he had imagined his kind to be.  His 
doubts that this was indeed a Cyberman were confirmed when two hands lifted a 
fake Cyber-mask from the head of a young woman.  She placed the helmet on top 
of the stationary central column and looked about in wonderment.  Andred could 
just barely hear her ask herself where the scanner was.  Obligingly the Time 
Lord moved toward the control and activated the viewscreen.  The two witnessed 
the Daleks move past the police box and continue their search down the 
corridor.  They both stood there, realizing how lucky they had been to reach 
the safety of the TARDIS.  Andred noticed that the woman couldn't have been 
older than her early 20's.  Her reddish-brown hair flowed freely down the back 
of the Cyberman shell she wore.  Her eyes shown both the curiosity of a little 
girl and an intelligence that would rival his own, indeed perhaps even the 
Doctor.  Without a word she gathered her flowing hair up and fitted the helmet 
about her head again.  After making sure it was secure she went to the TARDIS 
doors and attempted to open them.  Realizing that they would not open by 
pushing at them, she turned once again to the aging Andred, who opened the 
doors for her.  The erstaz Cyberwoman walked out of the TARDIS and down the 
corridor from which they had come earlier.
     The Master awoke, refreshed, from his recharge/sleep to the sound of 
failure from his Dalek patrol.  "Dalek commander reporting.  The Doctor and his 
com-panions have not been located."
     "Well FIND THEM!" the Master roared.  He turned off the communications 
channel just as the pain inside his head began again, only this time it wasn't 
a dream.  The voice inside his head seemed to echo inside his organic-metal 
skull.
     "YOU HAVE FAILED ME AGAIN, SERVANT!"  The Master winced in pain at the 
volume and tone of the voice.  The voice grew softer, but perhaps even more 
firm.  "You were supposed to be my second in command, my figurehead leader, so 
I would not have to enter the frey myself.  Useless, bumbling fool!"  The 
Master began to defend himself, trying to keep his anger down, when the voice 
continued on.  "Go to the cell housing the woman Time Lord and lock yourself in 
with her.  I am taking charge personally."  The Master tried feebly to resist 
the command, but felt his manufactured body respond almost against his will.  
Realizing he could not fight it, he walked out of the control room, headed for 
the cell now occupied by Romana.  As he left the room, the controls began 
moving of their own accord, almost as if an invisible hand operated them.

                                    Next Time
                                    Chapter V
                             "Who is the Commander?"

Story (c) 1986 Joe Sewell
Melbourne, FL

Doctor Who and related material (c) 1986 BBC
England