The Doctor walked into the wood panelled control room and checked a few readings on the six-sided control panel. He was on course to his home-away-from-home, Earth. He had one more thing on his holiday wish list to do, and that was to spend some time on a lake and get some fishing in. It had been quite some time since he took out his tackle box and flies. He was pretty sure it was that week he spent with Izzak Walton...
Anyway, it had been a fine holiday. He took a few painting lessons with Leonardo Da Vinci, played cricket with the Australian National team in 1934, checked in on Peladon and Queen Tharila, and spent a charming night with Jo Grant and her husband at their commune in Wales.
The only interruption that had occurred so far was when Borusa actually met him on the holiday planet Florana, while the Doctor was getting in his fourth round of golf. Borusa had wanted him to return to Gallifrey and assume the presidency, but the Doctor turned him down:
***
"Listen, Borusa, I've never been one to settle down in one place for too long. I'm out of touch with current politics, and I'd end up breaking more rules than I'd enforce."
"Doctor, I think that the term would do you some good, and give you a larger purpose-"
"The one thing I've learned in my travels is my purpose. Besides, I've always worked better on the outside."
Borusa nodded, slightly upset that his favourite pupil wouldn't come home, but knowing deep down it was better this way. He asked the Doctor one last question.
"Are you a C.I.A. agent, Doctor?"
The Doctor gave Borusa one his huge smiles. "Ssshh, someone might hear you."
"Now, Doctor-"
"Not always their most willing, but possibly their most reliable. And that's all I'll say."
"Well, Doctor, I hope you'll come back one day."
"You know me, Borusa, I like to pop in every so often."
***
The Doctor always liked Borusa, and thought he should have invited him along for the holiday voyage after preventing the Master from destroying Gallifrey. Just as he wouldn't stay, Borusa wouldn't go. He was dedicated to Gallifrey, just as the Doctor was dedicated to his never-ending travels.
He was about to land the TARDIS when he saw an orange indicator light blinking on the control panel. The Doctor calmly flipped a switch next to it, and the orange light went off. He went to the landing controls and saw out of the corner of his eye that the orange light was blinking again. The Doctor walked back over and flipped a different switch.
"Listen, I'm on holiday and I don't wish to be disturbed." He flipped another switch, which turned off the orange light and went back to landing his TARDIS.
***
The Doctor had spent some time properly arranging his fishing gear next to the lake. His pole was resting on a forked stake and on the string was a simple bell alarm. Next to the pole was a folding chair, which the Doctor had sprawled onto. His battered wingtips were propped up on a stump, and his scarf and long grey coat were draped haphazardly on the back of the chair. His floppy brown hat was pushed over the front of his face. He was alone, resting comfortably and deep in thought about how he let Bobby Fischer beat him with an amateur chess fork.
A grinding, wheezing noise filled the air. The Doctor slid back his hat and glared. "Can't people take a hint," he snapped at no one. He looked at his TARDIS and saw a silver cabinet materialise next to his battered Police Box. A door opened, and out walked a young woman wearing a red blouse and long red skirt with paisley patterns on it. She had long red hair and bright green eyes.
"Did Borusa send you?" the Doctor said, annoyed.
"No. I tried to contact you with the temporal communicator, but you cut me off."
"I'm on holiday."
"Holiday? What does that mean?"
The Doctor let out a chuckle. "Wait, let me guess, it's the first time you've left Gallifrey and you lost control of your TARDIS, so you check your sensors and lock onto the closest one, which happened to be mine, right?"
"No, not at all-"
"What's your name?" the Doctor snapped, interrupting the Time Lady.
"I am Mondanatriumastramentalisoulia."
"You need a shorter name, how does Heather sound?"
"My name is-"
"It's either Heather, or Ralph!"
'Heather' stood there, in the doorway of her TARDIS, unsure what to say, or do next. She watched the Doctor put on his scarf and long coat. How could this man be the saviour of Gallifrey, the Champion of Time, she thought to herself. She tried to read the Doctor's mind while he packed up his fishing gear.
"By the way, don't bother to try to read my thoughts," the Doctor said, stowing his items in his TARDIS. "Now, unless you have something to tell me that will change my mind, I'm off to a place to continue my fishing."
Finally, Heather spoke. "I am an agent for the Celestial Intervention Agency. And I'm asking you for help."
"A C.I.A job. Hmm. what's the mission?"
"The time stream has changed on a planet in the remote reaches of Mutter's Spiral. A race thought to be destroyed managed to overcome a flaw in their plans by successfully going back and changing their personal history. The ripples have started to spread, and events are changing rapidly."
"Which planet?" the Doctor asked quietly.
"Mondas."
***
The Doctor marched into Heather's TARDIS. He walked over to the six-sided control panel and pressed a few buttons. A small keyboard with arcane symbols on the keys popped out. The Doctor typed in a series of keystrokes with blinding speed.
Heather entered and watched the Doctor with a learned eye. Without stopping his keystrokes, he tossed one end of the scarf behind him. After a few minutes, he stopped, and pressed the scanner button. The scanner opened up, revealing a series of data streams.
"Aha!" the Doctor shouted.
"What did you do?"
"Tapped into the Matrix and managed to place things in a holding pattern for a moment."
Heather stared at the Doctor. "How, what-"
"I've done enough C.I.A work over the years to know that their TARDISes have a few extra toys." The Doctor pointed at the console. "Set the coordinates for Mondas, Earth Year 1984."
Heather busied herself at the controls. The Doctor pushed a couple of buttons and the keyboard disappeared back into the console.
"This is a top of the line model, right?" the Doctor asked, seemingly knowing the answer already.
"This is a Type 90 capsule-"
"Good, which means," the Doctor said with full certainty, "This is the button I'm looking for." The Doctor pushed a button, and his TARDIS materialised into the main control room.
Heather finished programming the coordinates and sent her Type 90 on its course to Mondas. She then noticed the blue box in her control room, and walked around the Doctor's TARDIS twice before exclaiming, "It's a Type 40! This should be in a museum."
The Doctor glared briefly at the young Gallifreyan, before walking up to the police box and saying, "take no notice of her, my dear old thing." He walked back to the console, pushed another button and a leather chair appeared in the control room. He walked over and crashed down into it, placing his wingtips on the end of the console.
"So, Heather," the Doctor announced, "Do I need to tell you about the Cybermen?"
"No, Doctor, I have been briefed on them."
"Good." The Doctor stood up and walked into his own TARDIS. He came out a moment later with two glass bottles. "Ginger Pop?"
***
The Type 90 TARDIS continued on its flight, while the Doctor and Heather, sipping on their ginger pops, examined the data coming off the scanner.
"I can't understand any of this information," Heather said, keeping one eye on the Doctor. "It doesn't make sense at all."
The Doctor ignored her and kept reading. "Hmm," was the only thing that came out of his mouth for the next ten minutes. Finally, he pulled off his hat, said "aha!" and placed his hat back on at a jaunty angle.
"Well, what is it, Doctor?" asked Heather.
"Hmm, they didn't go for the obvious this time," the Doctor said, quietly.
Heather looked at him. "What is that supposed to mean?"
The Doctor just smiled and muttered something about future history.
Heather grabbed the Doctor by the arm and spun him so she could look him in the eye. "Have you broken the First law of Time?"
"What do you think the C.I.A does?" The Doctor took a long swallow of ginger pop. "And it's not just the First Law either."
"They only do it in the case of extreme emergency-"
"Or when it's deemed appropriate, which is a very vague term. C'mon, mainly what your branch does is do the dirty work of the High Council-"
"Doctor, I cannot believe you just disparaged-"
The Doctor broke loose of Heather's grip and stared back at the screen. He rubbed the spot that Heather grabbed on his arm. A large bruise would be forming shortly. He turned quickly and locked onto his companion with serious eyes.
"So," the Doctor said, calmly, "Who's in charge these days?"
"What?!?" Heather sputtered. She felt a sharp pain in her head, then a feeling of calm.
"Come on now, who's in charge?" the Doctor snapped a second time, a righteous anger dominating his voice.
Heather backed away from the Doctor and slowly made her way back to the console.
"You know what I think," the Doctor said, his voice growing dark, "I think you really don't work for the C.I.A."
Heather turned around and pushed several buttons on the console.
The door leading out of the control room opened. The room was filled with the sounds of mechanical breathing. In walked a Cyberman, a cybergun in its metallic hands.
"Do not attempt to move, Doctor," the Cyberman said. He pushed a button on his chest unit, and Heather collapsed to the ground.
"Do you know you're interrupting my holiday?" the Doctor asked.
"That is immaterial. You are to be taken to the Cyber planet of Telos and converted into our race. Once that has been accomplished, your knowledge of time travel will be part of the Cybermen."
"I really hate it when you assume things not in evidence." The Doctor calmly reached into his pocket. "So, are you the only tin soldier in here?"
"I am the only active unit. However, there are enough parts contained for an army of 10,000 units. Once you are left on Telos, the Gallifreyan will pilot the ship to Earth so that we may take over before Mondas arrives. We will change history."
The Doctor smiled. "That's quite fascinating." He pulled his hand out of his pocket, carefully, his fist closed. "Do you mind if I finished my ginger pop before you tie me up? I'm assuming that's what will be happening."
"No. You will be silent," the Cyberman hissed.
"Have it your way, then." The Doctor smiled and then brought his arm up quickly and opened his fist. A spray of gold dust flew through the air and hit the Cyberman in his chest unit. The Cyberman knees buckled and the chest unit sparked and smoked. It collapsed on to the floor of the control room, dead.
The Doctor moved to the control panel and checked the ship's architectural configuration. After finding the rooms that contained the parts for the to-be-built Cyber Army, he jettisoned them into the vortex with a push of a button.
***
The Doctor smiled as he looked over the Type 90 controls. There were some nice features, but he decided to raid a few components from the stores, rather than take the new TARDIS. He felt loyal to his old thing.
He heard a low moan of pain coming from Heather, who was curled up in the chair.
"Well, how are we feeling?" the Doctor said, flashing his trademark grin.
"My head is pounding, but otherwise okay, I think." Heather sat up in the chair and massaged her temples.
"Wait, let me guess, you landed on the wrong planet."
"I'm sorry Doctor. I'm actually a field observer for the High Council. Chancellor Borusa sent me to watch over you. It should have been easy to track you, but..." Her voice trailed off.
"Here, finish your ginger pop." The Doctor handed Heather the bottle. She took a long drink.
"Anyway, I landed on Telos, completely by accident, in the main Cyber control area. They drugged me and when I came to, I was in the Chancellor's TARDIS. The coordinates were preset." Heather finished the rest of the bottle in a very unladylike gulp. "I saw that I was on a direct track to you, and tried to make contact-"
"Which brought you back under the influence of the Cybermen," the Doctor stated, while pulling out his yo-yo. "I've been around long enough to know that: 1, the CIA only uses seasoned agents; 2, I've travelled long enough to feel any disturbance in the time stream acutely; 3, I noticed Borusa's TARDIS right away. Only the Chancellor and the President have access to the latest time capsules. So, I wanted to see what exactly was happening," the Doctor said triumphantly. He proceeded to complete some very complicated tricks with his yo-yo.
"What about the Cybermen?"
"The parts of the army have been jettisoned. You can keep that one as a trophy, if you'd like," the Doctor said, pointing to the dead Cyberman on the floor.
"No thank you." Heather stood up and staggered over to the controls. "Where are we heading?"
"I'm going back to my lake, so I can finish my holiday." The Doctor smiled and asked, "do you fish, Heather?"
