"I'll miss you too savage," the Doctor said, leaning against the double doors of the TARDIS as if his most recent companion would try and force her way in. He then crossed quickly to the console and set random co-ordinates. The time rotor began its rhythmic rise and fall.
The Doctor blew a heavy sigh of relief. "I thought I'd never leave." He looked around the console room, as if wondering who he was talking to. "You really should stop talking to yourself Doctor. It is the first sign of madness, you know."
Coming to a decision, the Doctor shoved his hands into the pockets of his overcoat and walked through the door into the inner part of the TARDIS.
A short time later he returned, pushing a large cardboard box with K9 Mk II stencilled on the side. He grinned.
"Well, we all need someone to talk to," he said to himself as he began unpacking the box.
As he did so, he thought back over the events of his most recent adventure on Gallifrey. He had faked his amnesia after the final battle with the Sontaran Stor. It stopped people asking awkward questions.
It had all begun when he had heard that the Vardans were looking for a Time Lord willing to betray their heritage. The Doctor had known of the Vardans for some time, though he didn't know much about their origins. He hadn't expected that their ambitions were so far reaching either.
The unfortunate thing about Time Lord society was that it bred quite a few malcontents. Some people would class him among them, but the Doctor had always liked to think he just had a wanderlust. But there were a number of his peers who would be quite willing to throw in their lot with the Vardans if it meant getting back at the Time Lords.
The Master would do it for a laugh, while the Rani would do it out of spite and petty revenge. Mortimus would do it for the same reason little boys pulled the wings off flies. Just to see what happened next. Either way, one of them had a pretty good chance of succeeding. So the Doctor had come to a decision. He would approach the Vardans and offer his services.
It was fairly well known that he had had his run-ins with the High Council over the centuries. They had even exiled him to Earth during his previous incarnation. So playing the rebel intent on revenge hadn't been so hard. No, the hard part had been keeping the Vardans from reading in his thoughts that he intended to turn the tables on them.
There had been moments when he thought everything might fall down around his ears. Borusa had been typically obstinate at first, until he realised what the Doctor was up to. Then of course there had been Leela.
His plan had been to have Leela banished, for everyone's safety. She had faith in him to do the right thing and that might have put the Vardans on their guard, had they looked into her mind. He knew she would be safe in the wastes of Outer Gallifrey. The Outsiders, a group of Time Lords who had rejected technology would look after her. Or she would look after them.
They had pulled it off in the end. They had vanquished the Vardans. That had been when things really fell apart. What the Doctor hadn't realised was that the Vardans were just a cover, cannon fodder for the real invasion force. The Sontarans.
But he and his friends had thwarted them too, using the knowledge of the Demat gun he had found in the Matrix, along with hints about the Great Key.
Much as he loathed the use of guns, he knew there was no reasoning with the Sontarans. He had used the Demat Gun, the most powerful handheld weapon ever imagined, just in time to prevent Stor detonating a grenade that would have destroyed Gallifrey and taken half the quadrant with it.
The blastback had destroyed the Demat Gun and knocked him unconscious. It would have killed him outright, but he was wearing the Sash of Rassilon, which absorbed most of the blast. Then all he had to do was fake his amnesia, give Borusa the Great Key back, say his goodbyes and leave before Leela had chance to change her mind. Because the only reason she had left him was he had willed her to leave him!
Knowledge of the future can be a terrible thing, the Doctor reflected as he connected the power storage cells of K9 Mk II into the underside of the TARDIS console. The cells would take an hour to charge, and then the little fellow would be up to full capacity.
Nobody should know too much about their own personal future. Even a Time Lord. Especially a Time Lord. The Doctor didn't know much about his own personal future. But he knew more now than he had before he had become one with the Matrix.
The Matrix was a large database and prediction engine, created by Rassilon, as so many things on Gallifrey had been. The old chap had certainly been busy throughout his regenerations.
When a Time Lord died, the symbiotic nuclei built into his or her cell structure sent a brain print into the Matrix, from wherever in the Universe they had happened to meet their end. The Matrix stored the brain prints of every Time Lord that had ever lived. Hence the power of the device.
When a President of the High Council was sworn in, they became one with the Matrix. It was an awesome experience, the Doctor could attest to that. For some reason, during his recent ordination, the Matrix had rejected him. Maybe it had known he was screening his thoughts from the Vardans, and therefore from the Matrix also. It was, after all, more than just a device.
In the few moments he was within the complex structure of the Matrix the Doctor learned many things. The correct temperature for serving Arcosian wine. Exactly how many steps there were inside the Omega Memorial. All the feast days of the planet Elinox. The existence of the Demat Gun. And Leela's role in the future of Gallifrey.
That had been a shock. Knowing that Leela had to stay behind on his home planet, whether she wanted to or not. Whether he wanted her to or not. And given that this was the Matrix, the way he found out was bizarre too.
***
He was dressed in his white ceremonial smock, with the circlet of the Matrix on his head, the Sash around his neck and the Rod of Rassilon in his right hand. He seemed to be floating, upright, in a white void. Then, suddenly, he was standing in a meadow.
The sights and smells told him it was springtime, on Earth and probably the mid 20th Century. Birds were twittering in the nearby trees, buttercups were pushing through the ankle length grass and near the hedge to his left, two chestnut coloured horses were peacefully grazing.
"Ah, there you are. Would you like to sit down, take the weight off your feet?"
The Doctor turned at the sound of the familiar voice. He was only slightly surprised to see himself, sitting in a deckchair with his impossibly long scarf trailing in the grass behind. There was another deckchair on the opposite side of a small table set with teapot, two cups and saucers, sugar and milk and a plate of coconut macaroons.
"I don't mind if I do," the Doctor replied, seating himself in the empty chair. His doppelganger grinned hugely.
"Would you like a cup of tea, Doctor? Coconut macaroon?"
"I would love one, Doctor. Of each." He placed the Rod of Rassilon carefully beside his deckchair and accepted the offered cup and cake.
His host looked him over. "Ah, you're being invested as President. The Vardan crisis, I take it."
The Doctor nodded, swallowing his first bite of macaroon. "That's right. These are excellent, by the way."
"I know," said the other Doctor, grinning again. "I found a good recipe on Marston's Planetoid."
"I've been meaning to visit there for a while," the Doctor replied. He took a sip of his tea. "Now, I assume you have something important to tell me."
"I have indeed," the other Doctor said. "It is important, no, vital to the future of the Time Lords that Leela remain on Gallifrey when you leave. And you must make sure she does!"
"Why?" the Doctor asked simply, draining his tea.
The other Doctor looked thoughtful. "Our people have become jaded, stale. They need new ideas, new blood, if they are to grow as a culture."
"Gallifrey has been stagnating for centuries, even before we were at the Academy. Why the need for a fresh outlook now?"
"Because the Time Lords face a number of difficult and dangerous challenges. Leela will play a pivotal role in some of these. And she will also pass her skills and knowledge onto a new generation."
"Children?" the Doctor echoed, surprise etched onto his face. "Who with?"
The other Doctor smiled. "There is a young guard Captain, by the name of Andred. There is a mutual attraction there already, all you have to do is give nature a little nudge."
"And how do I manage that?" the Doctor asked, accepting a refill of his teacup.
"Come now, Doctor. The Master isn't the only Time Lord capable of hypnosis, now is he? A little suggestion under the influence is all it will take."
"How do I know all this is true?"
"Because I'm you, and I would never lie to me, would I?"
"But you can't be me," the Doctor said. "I'm me and I'm in the Panopticon on Gallifrey."
"No you're not, you're in the Matrix. Anything is possible here, as you should remember from last time."
"That was just a fleeting visit."
"As is this. Your tea is getting cold, by the way."
"Thanks." The Doctor finished his second cup. "So it's vital to the future of Gallifrey that Leela marries this Andred and has children?"
"Absolutely," the other Doctor said, sitting forward slightly in his deckchair.
"Fine. When she's ready to leave of her own accord, I'll bring her back."
The other Doctor shook his head sadly. "It doesn't work like that. She must stay behind. Now."
"Give me one good reason," the Doctor challenged.
His other self sighed and sat back in the chair. "I'll give you a good reason. If you leave Gallifrey after this little adventure with Leela, you will arrive next on the planet Contasia. There Leela will die. Is that reason enough to leave her on Gallifrey?"
The Doctor was stunned. He had lost companions before. Katarina and Sara Kingdom were never too far from his thoughts. He had also lost many good friends. But Leela? It didn't really bare thinking about. He had come to admire her skill and courage in the face of anything the Universe could throw at her. He would certainly be sorry to see her go.
He nodded his head slowly. "I suppose that is an excellent reason," he told his other self. "Providing you are telling me the truth."
"Scouts honour," said the other Doctor, holding up three fingers together.
"Very well. I shall miss her though."
"I know we will. But they all leave eventually."
"How true."
They sat in contemplative silence for a few moments. The Doctor reached for another coconut macaroon.
"I don't think you'll have time to eat that, old chap," the other Doctor said. Around them the meadow was beginning to fade into a white void.
"Time I was getting back, it would seem," the Doctor commented, rising to his feet and retrieving the Rod of Rassilon from beside his seat.
"It was so nice to meet me," the other Doctor said, extending his hand.
"Likewise," the Doctor replied, shaking the offered hand.
The other Doctor was starting to fade from view now, as was the background. "Well, good luck Doctor. Oh, one other thing. Watch out for the..."
But whatever the warning was about was lost as he faded completely and the Doctor found himself back in the Panopticon, doubled over in agony as the Matrix rejected him.
***
The Doctor pulled himself out of his reverie with a jolt. That was all in the past now. He had done what the other him in the Matrix had suggested and influenced Leela to stay on Gallifrey. It hadn't taken as much effort as he thought it would. Maybe there was a mutual attraction at work after all.
The surprise had been when K9 had decided to stay as well. The Doctor had considered taking the robot dog with him anyway, as the Matrix Doctor hadn't mentioned him. But that might have seemed petty and hard to explain.
The Doctor looked down at the Mk II K9 at his feet. The power indicator on his back panel showed a full charge, so he disconnected the leads from the TARDIS console.
"How are you, K9?" he asked the robot dog.
K9's head lifted and his tail antenna wagged. "All circuits operating at maximum efficiency," K9 reported.
"Good," the Doctor said. Then he remembered something else his other self had told him.
"K9, how do you fancy a trip to Marston's Planetoid? I hear there's an excellent recipe for coconut macaroons to be found there."
