The weather in the province of Kimor on the planet of Ktt had been oppressively heavy, as was the Doctor's mood, Ace thought. The visit to Kimor had been an intense one. The Doctor had not meant to come here, but the old girl (as he called the Tardis) from time to time had one of her moments; a spontaneous dematerialisation off-course and in the midst of some situation. So far the Doctor had not done anything but Ace was ready, for the sixth time that week, to hear the Doctor unravel his psyche to her over a pint of Kimorian ale.
"Hello", said Ace, keeping her voice colourless, as she tapped the Doctor's forehead.
"Ah, Ace, yes." The Doctor spoke; well it was almost the beginnings of a conversation, like a car starting on a cold morning.
"I'm meeting Tibron later, need to bow out soon Professor."
"Ace, yes, nice lad, for now." The Doctor's comment, as Ace was well aware, was not meant nastily but had the burr to it that followed what he had been thinking about all week.
"Doctor, they haven't done it yet, who's to say they will do it? It doesn't feel that sort of place. If these were the Daleks, then fine I would probably help you blast the lot of them away, but the Kimorians, they just seem so nice. Well perhaps not nice, but normal, it's like being in Perivale in summer and the gang's all here."
"Daleks, I'm not sure Ace, but you realise I could regret my actions on several occasions with the Daleks, they were evil but they banded people together against them, the sum of the Daleks existence in the universe was an interesting one, Evil on the one hand and Good stood up against it, strength together where some cultures may have even died out if the Daleks hadn't risen. Here it's different."
"How different can it be, you get involved, we know that, but you get involved in small ways that normally just push things a little in the right direction, you get involved Professor, but here there's nothing to get involved in."
"Not now, not at this moment, but I've always avoided Ktt because at the end of the day I knew that I would have to think long and hard." The Doctor bowed his head in his hands. Every night this week he had done this, worked through the arguments, but he had also experienced the culture of the Kimorians as it was now, the laughter, the tears, poetry and sport, work and leisure, the day to day lives that they led and invited Ace and he into. It was unbearable to believe that the Kimorians could change so within a single generation, that within three generations they would be among the stars, the curse of a complete star system, beyond that, it was fearful, a whole galaxy would be under the Kimorian expansion.
"Professor," Ace smiled dolefully, the Doctor smiled back, doleful was not in Ace's normal facial range.
"Ace, I avoided this place because the Kimorian's are the most ardent users of eugenics in the universe. An illness hits the planet and they develop a eugenic solution that initially makes them strong against it and is voluntary. From there it spirals, in strength the Kimorians find they are forcing the population to have additional genetic changes, the race becomes anything but what it is at the moment. They conquer the planet and at the same time defeat themselves. " The Doctor spat out the last sentence with a passion. "Ace, we have got to go, I have to leave."
Ace had been prepared for this, she had made friends here and they were for a time, that was the only problem with travelling with the Doctor, friends were only ever for a time. "Okay, but I need to see Tibron to say goodbye."
***
As the Doctor reached over the console heavily, she could see that he didn't want to leave but he had to. Ace looked across at that moment, grabbing her rucksack, "Professor, give me a moment, I want a momento of this place."
The doors opened and Ace strode out picking up a Kimorian orchid, as she did so she broke a vial over a stone nearby, a yellow gas smoked and melted into the air. Ace smiled as she looked at the busy village, the air born antidote would save Kimor and for now the Doctor didn't need to know a thing. She was getting good at this, she thought. Ace returned into the Tardis to join her friend.
