Yudnick looked at the view screen. They shot through the wispy white clouds at terminal velocity and the ground was rapidly resolving itself at an alarming rate. "Do something!"
Husswah hit the stalled engine once more with the oversized spanner. "It's no good, it's packed in. Cheap Sontaran surplus materials, maybe I can jump-start it. I think I press this green button..."
"Press it!" Yudnick shouted before covering his large black shiny almond shaped eyes with his thumbless hands.
***
"Target sighted, bearing 124 degrees west at mach 27."
***
Bill McDonald watched as a fiery trail of light slammed down onto his land. He dropped his pitchfork and ran back into the house. "Get the guns Bobby. Mary Jane the Government is attacking us with their stealth helicopters."
***
"Send out search and capture team. I will command this mission personally."
***
"Oh my head." Yudnick pulled the pieces of crash foam from his grey mottled skin. He looked around but all he saw was open sky, blue sky. "I guess we can forget about the insurance Husswah, I think the ship's a write off."
Husswah looked down at his arm. "Oh great, I'm bleeding." He lashed a makeshift bandage to stop drops of his green blood getting everywhere. "Why did we get a red carpet? You know how easily it stains if you get even a drop on it."
***
"Target is down, we have a fallen angel sir."
***
Bill, Bobby and Mary Jane McDonald advanced towards the smoking crater with shotguns ready to shoot the fascist government troops. However when they got to the rim of the crater, and discovered the two creatures inside of it, they didn't know what to do.
"Howdy," Bobby ventured. "This here's my Pop's farm, ain't that right Pop?"
"You feller's don't look like you's from 'round here. I'm thinking maybe's you're illegal immigrants..."
***
Yudnick looked at the three primitive life forms. "Hey I wonder if they have a spare NCC1701D engine. How can we communicate with them though?"
"Try walking around making bleep-bleep sounds," Husswah recommended. "Then ask them to take us to their leader. It's all pretty standard really." He put down his book. "Here, read this."
"An idiot's guide to dealing with human beings? Sounds pretty comprehensive. Don't you think I should just switch on the Universal Translator?"
"Yeah, might as well. Anything for a laugh." Husswah looked at the three humans. "Greetings Earthlings, we have travelled many, many space miles to get here. We come to give you gifts of wisdom and peace."
"Yes, take us to your leader," Yudnick smiled.
"You see, I told you aliens had made contact with the shadowy Government elite." Bill aimed his shotgun at the funny looking varmint's head. "Reach for the sky boys."
Mary Jane swung around as a convoy of jeeps drove into view. "Pop, them's soldiers I reckon."
"I reckon's you're right Sis," Bobby exclaimed. "Real soldiers too."
General Stamer stepped out the lead jeep and walked over to the three yokels. "Okay sir, well take over from here."
"I knew the army was in cahoots with aliens, I knew it. Wait 'til I tell the others about this." Bill looked at his two kids. "We may even get on television."
"Really Pop?" Bobby asked. "I always wanted to see all those TV people."
"Me too," Mary Jane said. "I'll have to get my hair fixed and I suppose I'll have to wear a fancy dress too."
General Stamer drew his service revolver. "I'm afraid I can't allow you to tell anyone about this incident sir. These creatures never crashed here, you never found them and we were never here."
"What do you mean?" Bill asked cautiously.
The General shot the farmer through the head with his revolver. "No witnesses, standard policy."
"Pop!" Mary Jane rushed forward and cradled her father's body in her arms. "Why did you shoot my Pop?"
"Take them both back to the Hanger, we need subjects for Project: Lucretia. Dispose of this body. Such a tragedy really, a light aircraft landed on his house his body was the only one found."
Bobby struggled but a soldier knocked him out with a rifle butt, seconds later his sister was rendered into a similar state by another soldier.
***
Peri wandered into the console room of the TARDIS. Somehow she wasn't shocked to see the Doctor pouring over a large heavy book and readjusting the controls. "I see you've finally gotten around to doing some actual work then. I was wondering when you were going to fix the lighting, the medical centre, the restaurant, the swimming pool and the squeak on my bedroom door."
The Doctor looked up and rolled his eyes when his saw his companion's choice of outfit, a clingy white top and baggy pale blue shorts. "My dear girl, I am trying to recalibrate the most vital components of a type 40 time machine and all you're concerned with is a slight squeak?" He put the book down on the flat upper surface of the time rotor. "Tell you what, once I've fixed the internal geometric stabiliser, why don't I take you somewhere so you can relax and unwind?"
"Not the Eye of Orion again? Doctor, you can never get the co-ordinates right and we always end up somewhere with psychotic madmen who try to turn me into all sorts of hideous creatures!"
The Doctor held up a piece of paper with some numbers scrawled upon it. "Not this time Peri, I tracked down the real co-ordinates. I bumped into one of my future selves and she gave me the directions."
"She?" Peri laughed. "I can't wait to see that incarnation of you!"
"Sarcasm is not an attractive feature Peri. You'd get on very well with her friend Hannah though I think." The Doctor scowled before returning his attention to the console. "They say the bombardment of positive ions is very strong this time of year, so it may do even you some sort of good. I have no idea what this card is for though." The Doctor held up a green credit card sized piece of plastic. "She said it would destroy the architecture of aggression and stop the countdown to extinction."
Peri couldn't help but giggle. "Sounds like she's having you on Doctor, your other self I mean."
***
Mary Jane screamed as the surgeons took yet another chunk of her skin from her arm. Then they injected her with more of the green stuff, which just made her insides feel tired and sore. They did something to her arm, which made it numb and lifeless, they had cut it off she realised dimly before passing out yet again.
"Return her to her cell. Bring in the next specimen."
The surgeon deftly removed Bobby McDonald's eye without even needing to administer anaesthesia until afterwards. Then he attached the alien eye in its place and connected the nerves and veins up.
Bobby cried out as his brain refused to properly process the ultraviolet range of light it was receiving from his new eye.
"Return him to his cell, bind his hands to prevent him trying to cause any damage to himself. We'll fit cybernetic mind control later."
PART TWO - SYMPHONY OF DESTRUCTION
The Doctor emerged from the TARDIS, his body a blaze of colour against the dreary blue metal walls of the place they had landed inside. "This isn't right Peri. This isn't right at all. I think I'm going to have a very strong word with me the next time I meet me and I'm not going to like it."
Peri walked into the Doctor's back. "Hey, mind where you're going, and I do wish you wouldn't keep mixing your pronouns up like that."
"It's all a matter of perspective Peri, I'm me, she's me, and we're both me."
"Isn't that the words to a Beatles song Doctor?" Peri laughed, until she saw the stern look on old poe-face, then she stopped.
The Doctor looked around. "This way I think." He set off in a random direction. "I wonder what sort of place this is?"
"What sort of place could it be Doctor?" Peri asked. "Why would your future self send you here?"
"What if I told you that she's a meddlesome manipulator in the affairs of others?" the Doctor said casually.
"Really?" Peri asked.
"No, not really. She's more a sort of wandering nosey-parker who always sticks her nose into other people's affairs."
"That sounds more like another version of you," Peri muttered under her breath.
"Yes, I thought I used to be like that too. Fortunately I think this me is the definitive Doctor, don't you think so?"
Peri shook her head and stayed quiet; sometimes a polite silence was worth more than a hundred words.
***
Red lights flashed inside the control room, a dozen technicians worked frantically to find the source of the intrusion. Atop a metal podium General Stamer looked down at the small but highly dedicated group. These were true patriots he mused; they had given over their lives for this project. Each one was certified dead and their families had mourned for their losses and buried identical looking corpses of their loved ones. These true patriots would never leave their positions because they knew that they would be shot to maintain absolute security. No one knew they were here and no one would miss them, they were his to command, they belonged to him body and soul. They existed only to serve his orders, they were nothing but independent acting extensions of his will. Those who hadn't agreed willingly had been forced and those who resisted had been broken and their rebellion replaced with robotic obedience. Those who followed willingly didn't suspect that this fate would await them, but it was for their own good.
"Found them sir, level seven," Corporal Judy Townsend intoned in an electric monotone via her artificial voice box and speaker. "Shall I send a team to capture them?" She had resisted giving the General her complete and total obedience but they had taken her body and brain apart and rebuilt her to be the very model of efficiency and dedication. Now her sole function was to obey the Generals orders at all times, not that she had a choice in the matter as there was nothing else in her mind now except a continual diagnostic of her circuits.
"At once Corporal, I want to know how those two got inside a sealed military base so easily."
"Scanners indicate one of them isn't human, they're too far away to make an accurate determination but I think it's the man sir."
"An alien? How curious, show me the picture." The general gasped when he saw it resolve into a tall, overweight blond curly-haired man in terrible clothes and a drippy looking young woman in a white top and pale blue shorts. "Capture them both, total priority." He stroked his bearded chin thoughtfully. "Why is he here?" he asked himself. "Can they suspect?"
***
Heavy footsteps resounded on all sides of the corridor. Peri held onto the Doctors arm as a dozen heavily armed soldiers came into view. "Don't shoot," she called out. "We're unarmed."
"Shut up and lie down on the floor, both of you."
"Better do as he says Peri, we don't want to upset anyone as insecure as him." The Doctor lay down on the floor next to his frightened young friend. "Don't worry Peri, if they were going to kill us they would have done so already."
"I said be quiet, scum." The soldier pushed the barrel of his gun into the gaudily dressed idiot's back.
Peri yelped as a soldier pulled her hands roughly behind her back. She was about to give him a piece of her mind regarding her treatment but thought better of it when her wrists were handcuffed together. Then they were hauled to their feet and frog marched to separate rooms.
***
General Stamer watched the young lady as she tried to get comfortable despite the obvious pain of her restraint. Then he turned to the next security channel and watched the clown's cell. His head jerked back when the man's face appeared suddenly and filled the whole screen. "Why are you here?" he asked himself. "Why now? I shall have the answers for myself."
***
Peri was taken out of her cell, after three hours of intense boredom, with a black cowl-like bag over her head. She quickly lost track of her journey as they took numerous left and right turns until finally she was inside a room filled with echoes and distant voices.
"I think we can make her feel more at home, remove that." General Stamer pointed at the bag.
Peri saw the Doctor standing next to her and she rushed over to him and threw her arms around his broad waist. "What's going on Doctor?"
"I suspect we're about to receive the answer Peri." The Doctor looked straight into the General's eyes. "Why don't you drop that ridiculous disguise?"
General Stamer laughed coldly. "My dear Doctor, I can see you still have your intelligence if not your sense of fashion."
"Sticks and stones Master, do take off that disguise, it's just not convincing."
The Master pulled off the latex mask to reveal his true countenance. "You never had much imagination did you Doctor? Killing you is going to be such fun."
"Do spare me the exposition, or are you going to bore us to death this time?"
"What do you want?" Peri summed up the courage to speak.
The Master looked at the Doctor's brash companion. "Why Miss Brown I want you to serve me for all of eternity."
"Fat chance of that," Peri replied. "I've had enough of you to last me a lifetime."
The Master laughed again. "My dear Miss Brown you have no idea of what a lifetime truly is. I've created a way of extending your life indefinitely and I'm more than eager to share it with you. In fact I insist on it, you scream most beautifully my dear. You shall be my most obedient Automata."
The Doctor shook his head. "No, I won't let you lay a finger on Peri."
"What makes you think you can save your little pet Doctor?" the Master asked. He clicked his fingers and two of his Automata grabbed Peri's arms.
The Doctor tried to free Peri but the cybernetic mixture of man and machine was too strong. "Peri!" he called out as they dragged her out of the room. "No, I will not allow this. I'll bring your operation to an end." The Doctor fished around inside his pockets, pulling out a catapult, a Big Mac, a large collection of alien coins and the green plastic card his future self had given to him. "I wonder what this does?"
The Master saw what the Doctor was holding in his hand. "No! You can't, you can't have that. I have the only copy." He pulled out an identical green coloured card.
The Doctor smiled at the Master. "Snap." He rushed over to a large red card reader and pushed the card into it.
"This facility will self destruct in five minutes," a monotonous robotic voice called out. "General Stamer to room 7a."
The Master looked at the Doctor before turning and running towards the only other door in the room.
The Doctor ran after Peri.
***
Peri stood there, suspended in mid air by the two goons. "I said let me go you big gorillas!" She saw a blur of colour and seconds later she was back on the floor.
"Are you okay, Peri?" the Doctor asked.
"Yes, I'm fine. What the hell's going on Doctor?" Peri demanded.
"I'll tell you once we're back inside the TARDIS." The Doctor took hold of Peri's hand and they rushed back to where they had left the ship.
PART THREE - BLACK CURTAINS
The Doctor wrung the peach coloured flannel out and pressed the water-cooled cloth onto her old friend's forehead. "I did as you asked. I sent one of my past selves to stop you. I stopped your insane plan to create an army of obedient slave cyborgs. They all perished in a huge fireball, nothing survived at all."
He winced at that last sentence. "I did so many bad things Doctor." The Master managed to speak despite the searing pain in his lungs. "I cannot atone for my evil, it would be an affront to all those lives I destroyed to say I'm sorry. I can't cheapen their memory with a deathbed confession can I?"
The Doctor smiled at the Master, putting a brave face on things. "You tried to put things right, you even helped me to stop the Black Guardian from dragging the Universe into his vile clutches."
"Look at what he did to me though, after I betrayed him. There's no cure for the Tozzian Plague, you shouldn't even be here Doctor. You'll catch it too."
The Doctor put her index finger on the Master's lips. "Save your energy old friend, while there's life there's hope."
"I'm scared Doctor. I've never admitted it to anyone before, not even to myself. I don't want to die but I'm even more afraid I'll survive somehow. How can I face them? How can I ask them for forgiveness?"
The Doctor dipped the flannel back into the bowl of cold water. "You have to forgive yourself first." She reapplied the flannel over the Master's forehead.
"Doctor? Where are you Doctor?" The Master couldn't see the Doctor's face.
"I'm here." The Doctor held the Master's large but weak hand in her slender yet strong grip. "I'm here." She looked down into his eyes but they stared up lifelessly at hers. "Goodbye my friend, may you find the peace in death you never found in life." She leaned forward and softly kissed his forehead in one final and personal act of grief, before taking his body home to Gallifrey.
