Doctor Who: Same as it ever was

She wakes up; the soft cream light soothes her eyes but not her mind. Everything was as it should be; the morning routine more like a ritual honed to perfection: callisthenics for the soul; but through it all she still feels empty, as if she as missing a vital part of her existence.

Twenty minutes later she is at the breakfast line alongside the other drones; always in the same order for the queue. In front of her, a man slightly taller with sandy blonde hair and a kind, travel worn expression. Travel worn and weary; but with something else; a knowing, perhaps; a sadness –not that it was possible to maintain anyone’s gaze for eye contact was strictly forbidden.

The lad behind her had a sterner expressions; ginger hair and freckles. There was something odd about him; he was unquiet; the way he moved; his rhythm was slightly off; alien almost; but that didn’t make sense. There were no such things as aliens: all that existed was the factory and the Great Ones that controlled all. But was that really true?

Was she so different from all the rest, so unpure? She sounded so different to everyone else; her voice raw, almost harsh, that alone marked her as unpure and it was a sign of the Great Ones love that despite being processed and reset so many times, she was still welcomed back in to the fold, when so many had been absorbed.

She had no knowledge of any of this, of course, part of the processing meant that her memories were wiped; as had everyone’s: this happened during the rest time at the end of the day; every day. All that remained was the importance of serving the Great Ones, and the knowledge needed in order to run their daily routines.

But something else marked her as unpure; something that no amount of processing could erase. Two things, to be exact: the dreams of other times and places (most involving the two people next to her in the queue) and the voice that she heard constantly from the blue squared pillars that stood out so vividly from the cream backgrounds.

Everything was cream: the floors, walls and ceilings; the work surfaces and the machines –even the things that they manufactured. All except those navy blue pillars, all with the same recessed squares that she found strangely comforting.

And those pillars spoke to her, inside her mind. They said seven words to her. The only seven words that anyone spoke to her. She paid them no heed at first; the Great Ones warned about such thoughts –they were to be supressed or reported, but they were too familiar, too comforting to report; and as the days became one they gradually moved to the forefront of her consciousness. “Wake up, Tegan; you must wake up.”

Then the headaches began. At first they were just a niggle, a presence. Each day they became more painful and it became harder and harder for her to block them out. She was not aware of having them before; the processing blotted out the memories of the other days spent in pain though it was unable to detect anything untoward.

One day the pain became too much for her to handle; it affected everything she did and it was noticed by the Great Ones. At the end of her shift it stabbed at her as she walked in the corridor and she screamed; blindly lashing out around her, trying to find something or someone to lean on. Her hand struck one of the blue pillars and to her horror she fell straight through it and landed on the other side in an environment that made her weep with joy and fear at the same time.

She was inside the TARDIS, knowing she was finally safe.

Outside everything had stopped; immobile like waxwork statues… waiting.

“What the hell is going on? Where are the Doctor and Turlogh?” She demanded, her voice shrill and afraid; angry at the uncertainty that surrounded her. Suddenly the central column flashed and became opaque; in the middle she could see a perfect hologram of the Doctor facing her.

“I can’t explain what’s happened to you, Tegan. I can only assume that if you’re seeing this now then my worst fears have been realised. You must listen to me for more than our lives are at risk. We have been captured; brainwashed –our memories systematically erased every night. This is the TARDIS herself talking to you now; it forms part of the symbiotic feedback which only kicks in during dire emergencies. I don’t know who has done this, I can not penetrate their defences yet, but I do know that we have been here for … 75 years; we have been kept in an almost zero state so whatever is behind it has almost unimaginable power now. You are the key to our rescue –you always were the stubborn one and thanks to your nature a part of you refused the brainwashing. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Doc.. I think…”

“Now, you must listen, Tegan; this is of vital importance. I will give you a pill to swallow; it will help you remember. Inside are thousands of nanobots which will keep your neural pathways open despite the processing; they will foil the Great Ones long enough for you to find a way to drag me inside here.”

“How do I do that, Doc?”

“You’ll find a way, Tegan.”

“What about Turlogh?”

“Not yet… it is of vital importance that you rescue me first; together we’ll find a way through. Now, swallow this pill. Good; you must leave now or all else is lost. Let them do what they must – they will process you deeper this time but don’t fight it. You will still remember; use your hatred, your indomitable will and also… brave heart, Tegan.”

The column became dark again; the light faded and she was alone. Part of her wanted to stay in the TARDIS; she knew that she was safe there, but Turlogh and the Doctor were still at the mercy of the Great Ones… but who were they? 75 years? She couldn’t believe that she’d been trapped for that long! It was monstrous, but in her gut she knew it was true. She had to save them.

She had barely stepped out from the TARDIS when she was seized and moved to the processing area; interrogated by the machines for hours; but the nanobots prevented anything from being discovered. She felt relaxed and answered only what she had been programmed to and the computer could find nothing untoward had happened to her; its enemies were still here and the girl was of no consequence. The memory blocks were still in place but she would be watched closer from now on.

She woke up in the cream coloured light as she had done countless times before but something was different; she was no longer alone. Just below the threshold of consciousness was a comforting presence telling her what she must do; but she had to be careful. If she made a move too soon then the reprisals would be swift and the resistance would be over before it had a chance to begin.

Three words comforted her, gave her the strength and patience that she needed: “Brave heart, Tegan.”

Almost a month went by before she felt that she could act. The Great Ones knew such patience but it also mistakenly believed that she was incapable as she was still under its control.

It was at the lunch line when she made her move; when she passed one of the blue columns. She knew that the Doctor was in front of her and had to be quick; luckily she knew that she was strong enough to push him into the TARDIS. As she hoped, both the guards and the Doctor had been caught completely unawares by such an action and it was comparatively easy to manhandle him into the TARDIS.

“Tegan!” He exclaimed when he found himself sprawled on the TARDIS floor. “Not so rough, please!” It then dawned on him that something was very wrong.

“We never stood a chance, Doc; I don’t know what it was that took us but it’s been controlling us for years.”

“How did you managed to escape? I know that you’re stubborn, but…”

“The TARDIS; it… spoke to me.”

“The telepathic circuitry, of course. It used your sense of injustice and pig-headedness… it caught me totally unprepared; still in shock over what I’d done to the Sea Devils and Silurians; the senseless waste… I just wasn’t prepared for the force of the blast and it used that sense of guilt against me.”

“Just what the hell is it, Doc?”

“I don’t know, Tegan. I can’t even begin to imagine what could be that powerful.”

“You’d be surprised just how powerful one can become over time, Doctor.” The voice was instantly familiar even though it had been many years since he had encountered it; it was now coming through the TARDIS speakers.

“I suppose it was wishful thinking that I’d seen the last of you.”

“The Great Intelligence can never really die; you just managed to dissipate us. We’ve been biding our time until you were at your lowest ebb… You’re ours now, Doctor; until the end of time. There is no escape.”

“No? You forget; I’m inside the TARDIS. You have no power in here.”

“And you can not leave here.”

“No? Well, we’ll just see about that.”

Tegan said one word to the Doctor which made him realise what was at stake. “Turlogh” The colour drained from his face as he realised that Tegan was right.

“Go now, Doctor, and we will not hesitate to inflict such torments on his soul and throughout every day, every hour he will know that you were the one who deserted him.”

“It seems I have no choice.”

“None whatsoever.”

The Doctor sighed. “There is still a chance for you to end it now; release all the slaves and return them to their times and spaces. It doesn’t have to end this way.”

“Your bravado hasn’t diminished even when you clearly hold the weakest hand.”

“Remember that I offered you this.” He turned to Tegan. “Trust me?”

“Always, Doc.” He placed his hand on her shoulder and pressed on a nerve cluster rendering her immediately unconscious. Placing his hand on her forehead he said one word “Forget” before carrying her out of the TARDIS.

“It’s still not too late.” He said to the Great Intelligence before he was mind-blasted. He writhed in agony.

“You will suffer as no one else has ever suffered, Doctor. Every day your mind and body will endure torture; every day you will be brought back to physical perfection before it starting again and all but one small part of you will be wiped. But that one part will be made aware thereby compounding your helplessness and torture. For all you have inflicted on us, so you shall suffer far worse.”

And so the Doctor suffered; for 30 days and 30 nights the Doctor underwent the most unimaginable torments from the Great Intelligence; and had he not become linked to the TARDIS then he might very well have been driven insane.

Each day he created his personality from scratch, drawing on the information from the TARDIS databanks to create a simulacrum which was absorbed into the Great Intelligence every evening during the processing; including portions of a virus. If it had been uploaded too quickly the Great Intelligence would have spotted it and purged the system, but this was hidden in false memories and at the end of the thirty days all that was left was the final command.

At evening meal, when both Tegan and Turlogh were behind him the Doctor suddenly stopped; took them both by the scruff of the neck and shoved them into the TARDIS, shouting: “This sentence is finished!”

All around the TARDIS the scenery rippled; all the people blinked before starting to fade. All around the colours faded to black as the Great Intelligence felt the effects of the virus now spreading fast through its system.

“What… have… you .. done?”

“The only thing I could.. I gave you the chance to reconsider. I know why you’re so powerful; you’ve leached all your energy off those poor souls, but now you’re sending them back to where they came from before erasing their data completely.”

“Spare me, Doctor, I beg of you.”

“I gave you every chance to show mercy but you spared none; and considering what you’ve done to all of us I’d say that you’re still getting of lightly. Anyway… must dash!”

He stepped into the TARDIS where Tegan and Turlogh were waiting for him, visibly shaken by what had happened.

“Is it over, Doctor?” Turlogh asked.

“Yes; the Great Intelligence won’t trouble us anymore.”

“But what about us, Doctor?” Tegan asked now. “What happened to us when we were part of it, did we really stay there 75 years?”

“We’ve been kept as part of the Great Intelligence databanks; held in digital suspended imagination; forced to go through several decades of life in only a few hours of physicality. You haven’t actually aged but your minds will have the memories.”

“I can’t deal with that, Doctor.” Tegan replied; shocked by what she had lived through. “Can’t you do something about it?”

“Yes; can’t you supress them or erase our memories of what happened?” Turlogh agreed.

“No… “

“But you’ve done it before, Doc.”

“Tegan; you have both gone through so much psychic trauma already; I’m not sure your mind could undergo anymore.”

“It’s a chance we’re willing to take, Doctor.”

“Well… if you’re sure, Turlogh… Tegan?”

“Brave heart, Doctor… Isn’t that what you always say?  I can’t live with this anymore, if you can do something about it then please do.”

“Ok.. if you insist… I’ll remember though, Tegan; remember that it was you that truly rescued us. This time we owe our lives to you. Now, both of you; lay on the floor and close your eyes.”

They both complied and the Doctor knelt between them, a saddened expression as he placed a hand on each of their foreheads and closed his eyes. When they opened them again all was as it had been; all memories had been erased of what had happened.

“What happened?” Turlogh asked.

“Turbulence.” The Doctor replied.

“Where are we going now?” Tegan asked, perplexed at the strange look in the Doctors eye.

“Where would you like to go?”

“I don’t know why; but I want to see Earth again; it feels like eternity since I last saw it… I want to see my Grandfather again…”

“Not Earth again, Doctor…”

“Just indulge her, Turlogh… just the once, yes?” Turlogh looked at her and somehow understood what the Doctor meant, even though there was no earthly reason why. For some reason he needed to see the green fields of Earth again too.

“Right.. Earth it is…Where does your Grandfather live, Tegan?”

“Little Hodcombe; and just this once… please make it the right year, Doctor? NOT in the Civil War or something like that.”

“I’ll try, Tegan.. I’ll try.”