Cold Fusion - Lance Parkin [119]
There were thirteen of them, more or less fully materialized. They were advancing towards the door of the observation dome, not worried by the line of rifle-bearing Adjudicators. Their height and stiff cloaks made their physical presence all the more commanding.
‘What are they?’
‘They’re probably other incarnations of the Doctor, too,’
Forrester observed acidly.
The Doctor leant against the grey wall of the observation dome. He couldn’t see anything outside, only his former self and companions reflected in the perspex.
They looked pale and insubstantial, like ghosts. He spoke softly. ‘In a billion years’ time, on a distant planet, a race of humanoids will have evolved to a point where they have become the most advanced race that the universe has ever known. These are the Ferutu. Their lives are governed by what humans would call magic. By scratching runes in the air and by performing rituals, the Ferutu were the first race to discover the secrets of Time. Because time and space are linked, this means that they can control matter and energy.
This power makes their frail humanoid bodies immortal, it allows them to travel anywhere in the universe, at any point in time.
‘The Ferutu stepped between the stars, oblivious to such mundane restraints as “distance” and “causality”, and they discovered that it was teeming with life. Some of the races the Ferutu encountered – those so primitive they still used spacecraft to travel between stars – thought of them as sorcerers, or gods. They are the Lords of Time.’
‘That’s the ancestral role of Gallifrey,’ Roz noted.
‘Ah, but there is one difference: the Ferutu use their great powers. They equip the forces of good, supplying them with advanced technology and weapons, they intervene in history, gently bending the course of time.
Wherever or whenever the forces of evil threaten a helpless people, a Ferutu arrives from nowhere and beats them back.’
‘There’s one small flaw in all this,’ the fifth Doctor noted. ‘It’s just not true. You know the policy of the High Council: time experiments above a certain level are absolutely forbidden. If the Ferutu are intervening on this sort of scale, then why haven’t the Time Lords tried to stop them?’
‘I asked the leader of the Ferutu that same question as he showed me their history. He simply looked at me with a puzzled expression. He had never heard of Gallifrey. Then he recalled that he had once heard the name Rassilon. He showed me the starless gulf called Rassilon’s Rift on the edge of the galaxy. Some travellers speculate that in the distant past there was some great catastrophe that destroyed all matter in the area.’
‘An alternative timeline,’ the fifth Doctor whispered.
‘They come from a version of history where Gallifrey was destroyed.’
The seventh Doctor nodded. ‘Somehow, the damage caused to the crashed TARDIS has broken down the structure of time and allowed hints of their alternative timeline to appear in our universe. When the Machine was activated, the gap between the two domains was so narrow that you could walk between them.’
‘The ghosts?’
‘That’s right. They are almost shadows of the Ferutu, merely crude flickerings compared to their true form.’
‘Like the TARDISes on Mars?’ Forrester asked. The Doctor nodded, but didn’t have time to explain the reference to the bewildered Whitfield and Adric.
‘I’ve been to their universe, that’s where their leader took me. Ferutu rule is absolute. Darkness remains on the fringes of the cosmos, where the War still rages. There are Daleks and Vampires there, and worse. But the rest...’ his voice trailed off for a moment. ‘Mile-high palaces of gold and crystal, set in lush parkland surrounded by unspoilt forests and seas that teem with life. Eternal summer, entire galaxies where poverty, greed and want have been unknown since the dawn of time.’
‘All under the watchful eye of the Ferutu?’ Roz said.
‘No. They are a solitary race, as a rule, and