Doctor Who_ The Infinity Doctors - Lance Parkin [78]
‘Once, as an arrogant young man, I thought I could change the universe. A common belief amongst those just starting out in life. A few of my contemporaries thought as I did: your father, Hedin, your mentor, Lady Zurvana, even our beloved President… although he was merely a Chancellor back then. Come to think of it, that was before you were awarded your doctorate, so you wouldn’t have called yourself the Doctor. No. Hedin was still a Hedin.
‘Mid-day, in the Panopticon. The banners and sunlight were streaming. Was that before or after your wedding?
What about the children? It was before the grandchild. Of course it was… you were much younger, standing at your father’s side. You… you looked much as you do now. We played chess, I beat you, and you almost cried. No one had ever beaten you before. As we played, the adults discussed astronomy, You displayed your knowledge of the Chandrasekhar Limit. Just that morning you had been studying black holes. The others were impressed, and I cooed my own platitudes.
‘But I was planning to do more than study black holes and learn their names.
‘Two million years ago, Omega, Rassilon and the others took their starbreakers to Qqaba. Omega was lost, of course, but the others survived. The time energies infused them, made them into Time Lords. Rassilon captured the black hole, led it back through the streets of the Capitol in the greatest victory parade the universe had yet seen. Infinite power, time travel, incredible advances in science and technology, the banishment of all its enemies. Gallifrey had it all. But Omega was lost. Oh, the Time Lords never forgot him, they honoured his name. But Rassilon took most of the credit, and all of the spoils.
‘I planned to do more than remember Omega: I planned to rescue him.
‘Gallifrey has lost its way. For twenty thousand centuries we have squandered our great inheritance, we’ve been content to watch from our private utopia. We don’t serve, but neither do we rule. Oh, you think I’m just another Morbius, intent on raising an army and conquering the universe, or a Marnal off on some impossible crusade. No. You think as I do, Doctor, although you won’t admit it. You want the universe to change, and change begins at home. That’s why you came back: you sense what is coming. Your father felt as we do, and so did the President back then. You think we are on the brink of a new golden age. I sense from her thoughts that Lady Larna agrees.
‘It was simple enough. Remember what you told me about black holes, all those years ago? That’s right: “nothing can escape a black hole”. Well, you know now that isn’t true. All you need to do is travel faster than light, although in practice the intense gravity warps hyperspace as it warps normal spacetime, so spaceships can’t just fly faster than light to break a black star’s hold.
‘Yes… well done, Larna. They told me that you showed promise. A TARDIS. I was the one who would pilot my TARDIS into the black hole. I would rescue Omega, and I would bring him back to Gallifrey, where he would take his rightful place as Lord High President of the Time Lords. It would be so easy, and why had no one thought of it before?
‘Oh yes, Doctor, your father knew of this. Did he approve?
At first. But when it came to it, he merely stayed in his high tower. He watched, at least, as long as he could. Not even the Time Lords can see past the event horizon of a black hole. I passed through it in my TARDIS. He didn’t see what happened to me after that, and I never saw what happened to him.
‘After a time travelling through the darkness, I saw a doorway. It led into another universe, one with brighter colours and sweeter smells. It led into a garden. My TARDIS
came to rest, and – suitably protected, of course – I stepped from him and onto the stonework of this gate that divided