It slowly touched down on the beach and a uniformed man got out. “You the three who called?”
“We are,” said Anna.
“We don’t usually send government ships in for rescue missions,” said the gruff man, his eyes flicking from Alice to Ivy to Anna and back again. “What makes you three so special?”
“Because I was stranded on this island for a reason,” said Anna, looking up at the man.
“Go on.”
“And I can help you to stop the Eyeglass.”
“How?”
“Because I’m General Helix’s daughter.”
The Doctor stood on the platform, two of the kindest and most respectable people he’d had the fortune to meet, standing on the edge of death. He shivered in the cold November air and forced back a cough from the thick grey smoke that was coming from down below.
“I can’t kill them,” said the Doctor. “They’re my friends.”
“Let me put it another way, Doctor,” came the General’s voice. “Either you cooperate with me, or I’ll burn out little Alice’s mind.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You know that we have an agent inside of her head. All it takes is the flick of a switch and Alice is gone forever.” There was a pause. “So, it’s up to you, Doctor. Either you kill one or I’ll kill them both.”
The Doctor didn’t know what to say. He looked at both Saraxx and Dennington.
“Doctor,” began Saraxx, “choose me. We must avert this war.”
“I can’t,” said the Doctor. “I just can’t.”
“You must,” said the General.
Dennington looked down into the smoke and then back to the Doctor.
“What are you thinking Mark?” said the Doctor, worriedly.
“Whatever happens, a war will begin,” said Dennington, tears welling in his eyes, “but maybe if one of us sacrificed ourselves, both races would see.”
“Mark, no.”
“Doctor, there’s no way out of this,” he said, shaking his head. “And besides, I want to be with Julie again.”
“Mark, no!” said the Doctor.
Dennington turned and faced the nearest camera. “There will be no war. I will not die to cause a war. I will die to bring about peace.”
“Mark, no!” said the Doctor, stepping forward.
But it was too late, Dennington leapt from the platform.
The Doctor ran to the edge and peered over. Dennington tumbled slowly through the air, his arms still tied behind his back. He looked quiet and serene as he disappeared into a huge plume of smoke, giving one final smile to the Doctor. Then there was a flash and he was gone.
All was silent. The guards fidgeted uncomfortable and Verash and Paragrim didn’t know what to do.
“Bring them inside,” came the General’s whisper-like voice.
On the trip back to England, Anna had explained a few things to the soldier, Alice and Ivy. Her father was General Helix. He had met and fallen for a young scientist called Paula Clarke. The relationship was short-lived, however, but Paula had fallen pregnant and the General had helped her to raise her.
However during her childhood Anna had learnt more and more about the job her father was doing and had grown to resent him and her mother.
Against her mother’s wishes, Helix had abandoned their daughter on the island, leaving her with enough provisions to live out the rest of her life.
“God, that was harsh,” said Alice as she gazed out of the window, watching the ocean zoom past below.
“You can say that again,” said Ivy. “And what a coincidence, eh?”
“What do you mean?” said Anna.
“That our escape pod lands right next to you.”
Anna smiled. “Don’t mistake coincidence for fate.”
Suddenly Alice sat bolt upright in her seat. Her eyes were white and her lips quivering.
“Alice!” yelled Ivy, unbuckling herself from her seat and sliding over to her. “Alice, what is it?”
Alice and Tylaya were standing opposite each other. They were in Alice’s cottage back in Little Pebbleford.
Tylaya looked stern whereas Alice looked confused.
“What’s happening?”
“You could call it a psychic phone call.”
“Oh god…” said Alice, putting a hand to her head and sitting down quickly in the arm chair.
“Take it easy, Stokes,” said Tylaya. “It took me a long time to tune myself into this.”
“So I’m still back on that futuristic helicopter?”
“Yes, of course you are. This is all in your head. I chose a place that was safe and comfortable for you.”
“Safe? Last time I was here some big guy made me black out.”
“Yes,” said Tylaya, “that was my fiancé, Quinn Maxus. He was checking up on me.”
“Why don’t you get out of my head and go back to your own body?”
“That’s just it. I don’t think I can. Well, not this far away anyway.”
“Then how?”
“We need to go to the Nautilus, the General’s ship. That’s where my body is.”
“Uh-uh,” said Alice, shaking her head, “no way. We’re on our way with the General’s daughter to put an end to your lot.”
“And believe me, Alice, I’m getting out of Eyeglass too. Maxus and I are going to get married. We just need to give it one more year to make sure we have the funds and then we’re out of it.”
“You and your boyfriend killed my Head teacher.”
“Not us. It was other members who killed him. We didn’t want it this way.” Tylaya stepped forward and knelt down in front of Alice. “Look, I know we’ve made mistakes. We’ve made terrible mistakes, but I want this over as much as you do, Alice. Try and convince your friend to get you to the Nautilus and this can all be over.”
Alice stood up from the chair and walked over to the front door. She turned back to Tylaya. “We need to stop Eyeglass first.”
Alice awoke in the seat.
“Are you okay?” said Ivy, her face a little too close for Alice.
“I’m fine,” she said. She was frustrated. She wanted to get this Tylaya woman out of her head, but she knew she had to get Anna to Central City. She was the only one who might stand a chance of putting a stop to the General, and even that was riding on a lot of if’s and buts‘.
“But you-”
“I zoned out,” said Alice. “I’m fine.”
“Look, if you need to be somewhere else,” said Ivy noticing the frustration in Alice’s voice, “then maybe we can-”
“I’m fine,” snapped Alice. “Let’s just get to Central City, yeah?”
The Doctor was once again sat in the office of the General. This time, however, he didn’t have any tea.
The General was stood with his back to the Doctor, his arms folded as he gazed out through a screen overlooking the still-burning Houses of Parliament.
“Really,” said the Doctor, breaking the silence, “what did you expect?”
The General turned to face him. “What I expected, Doctor, was for you to do your job and push one of them. For you to be my tool.”
“The only tool in here is you,” said the Doctor.
“I can still take this ship to all the Martian colonies and wipe them out.”
“Nobody will follow you to war now,” laughed the Doctor. “Mark sacrificed himself to save an Ice Lord. The only thing both races will see is Eyeglass being the trouble causers. They’ll rally together and defeat you.”
The General stared at the Doctor, his eyes full of what the Doctor could only assume was confusion. “What do I do?” he said.
That question surprised the Doctor. “What do you do? You surrender to the Earth government. All of you.”
“No,” said the General, shaking his head. “I’ve already despatched Paragrim on another mission. He’ll make sure you never even come here.”
“What do you mean?” said the Doctor. The General was becoming more and more confusing.
“I’ve sent him back in time. He’ll stop you from ever coming here.”
“But I am still here,” said the Doctor, his arms outstretched. “Whatever you got Paragrim to do this time didn’t work. Again.”
The General brought his fist down on the table. “Damn you!” He flicked a switch. “Verash, any sign of Paragrim?”
“No,” said Verash. “He hasn’t returned. We’ve lost his time trace.”
“It’s over, General,” said the Doctor.
The General leapt over the table and launched himself at the Doctor who fell back and crashed to the ground. The General was on top of him, his hands clasping the lapels on his coat.
“Do we really need to do this?” said the Doctor, trying to struggle from under him.
“Every time I try and create a better world, you’re there.”
“That’s because all you create is darkness and fear. People like you can’t be allowed to continue.” He managed to pull himself from under the General and whacked him on the arm with the handle of his cane.
The General winced in pain and backed himself up against the bottom of the desk. “I hated your people, you know. When I fought in the Time War. I was just a soldier. I rose through the ranks to General.” He laughed. “I almost threw a party when Gallifrey was destroyed.”
“Gallifrey wasn’t destroyed.”
“I know that now!” he yelled. “And I saw what you had become. That secret part of you that you tried to hide away.”
“He became a good man,” said the Doctor, remembering his hidden self, bred for war. In some ways the General reminded him of that lost incarnation, but more bitter and twisted, and without reason.
“But what he did during the war…oh, that wasn’t good, was it?”
The Doctor looked at the handle of his cane. There was blood on it and a trickle had started to pour from a cut on the Generals face.
The General put his hand to the cut and then smiled. There was a faint, orange glow and the cut healed itself.
The Doctor’s hearts ached. He wished he could regenerate, then maybe he’d be able to put a stop to the General. Maybe he’d be fit enough to fight him and be the man he used to be.
The door to the office opened and Verash walked in. He frowned at the General and the Doctor, both of them sat on the floor opposite each other. “Are you-”
“I’m fine,” said the General as he got to his feet and set the chair back in its place. “What is it, Verash?”
“It’s Carpathia. He’s issued us a warning.”
“Oh?”
The General stood with his hands on his hips as he stared at Carpathia’s stern face on the view screen. He had issued the General - and the whole of Eyeglass - with a warning: to surrender now, or have their ships blasted out of the sky.
Various stations around Earth had trained nuclear warheads on the five ships in orbit, and the Nautilus, with battle ships already being prepped to go after the rest of the Eyeglass fleet.
“You wouldn’t dare launch nukes,” said the General.
“We would,” said the President.
“But the fallout would devastate Earth.”
“But we’d be rid of you, and you are more devastating to this planet than any nuclear weapon.”
The General stood there for a moment, his eyes transfixed on Carpathia’s. The man was telling the truth. He didn’t want it to be the truth, but he was certainly telling it.
“I can’t surrender,” said the General.
“Then maybe we can twist your arm a little more.”
Helix stood in the cargo bay as the Heli-jet entered through the bay doors and touched down on the metal floor.
The side door opened and three people emerged. Firstly Alice Stokes, the woman who was now carrying one of his officers consciousness inside of her head. Secondly was Ivy Coldstone, the woman whose death he had faked to trap the Doctor, and thirdly was a blonde girl of about 18. He didn’t recognise her, yet there was something there. Something at the back of his mind.
“What is this?” said the General. All Carpathia had told him was that he had a visitor to see him.
“Have you really forgotten?” said the blonde girl.
“You’re going to have to be a little more clearer on this one, my dear.”
“My name is Anna.”
“Anna.” There was the memory. It was more than a memory. It was a huge part of his life that he hadn’t thought about for six years. “Surely not.”
“Grown up, haven’t I?” said Anna, trying not to cry. It was more anger than anything else.
“How?”
“These two kind ladies rescued me. Rescued me from that Hell.”
“You were a rebel, Anna. You could have joined us.”
“I hated Eyeglass. Ever since I learnt the things you and Mum used to do. It made me hate the both of you.”
“I had no choice. I had to abandon you.”
“Most normal parents would have given me away to a foster family or something.”
“You were too dangerous,” said Helix. “You knew far too much about me.”
“And my where’s my Mum?”
“Your mother is dead,” said the General flatly. “It was a mistake with her. You were a mistake. You should never have been born.”
Alice leant over and whispered to Ivy. “I thought this was supposed to fix things. I thought he would have broken down with guilt.”
“Obviously not,” said Ivy.
Anna unsheathed her sword and pointed it at the General. A cluster of guards went for their guns, but the General motioned for them to lower them.
“Go on then. Kill me.”
Anna walked towards him and pressed the tip of the sword to his chest. She dearly wanted to drive it through his heart, but she knew it would do no good. He’d simply regenerate and be stronger than ever.
“You see,” said the General, chuckling at his daughter, “you’re just like your mother. Weak and pathetic.”
Anna cried out, raised her sword and swung it at the General.
“Anna, no!” yelled Alice.
Anna stopped, just before the sword hit her father’s neck. “He won’t die anyway!” she said, shaking on the spot.
“But you’re not a killer,” said Alice. “You’re better than that. You’re better than him.”
She stood in front of him shaking, trying to will herself to carry through with the mock execution. Alice was right; she wasn’t a killer. She hadn’t killed anything in her life.
She lowered the weapon and backed away from the General.
Verash’s voice came over the comms. “General, the President wants to know our answer.”
“We refuse.”
“What?” said Verash, surprised at what he was hearing.
“You heard, Verash. We refuse.”
“But sir, I’m sure most of our employees would agree that it’s suicide to carry on.”
“I don’t care what they think,” growled the General, his face getting redder and redder. “Turn the weapons on the Central Column and level it to the ground.”
A pause.
“No,” came Verash’s voice.
“I beg your pardon?”
“I said no,” he repeated. “None of us want to die. It‘s gone too far now.”
The General looked across to the group of guards who were busy edging towards the exit door.
“All over is it, Sebastian?” laughed Ivy.
The General hissed at her and then turned, running for the exit.
In the medical bay Finn was stood beside the cubicle containing Tylaya’s dead body. His hand was shaking as Maxus watched on.
“Are you sure about this, Quinn?”
“I’ve never been so sure of anything else in my life.”
“But if I press this button, she will remain stuck in Alice Stoke’s body forever.”
“Yes, I know that. And if she leaves Stoke’s body then she dies.”
Finn shook his head. “But it will destroy everything that Alice Stokes ever was. It’ll burn out her mind and she’ll be gone. Tylaya will be the only thing left filling that void.”
“Yes,” said Maxus through gritted teeth, “I know.”
“Even I can’t condemn an innocent woman to death.”
“It’s Stokes or Tylaya,” said Maxus calmly. “And I cannot live without Tylaya.”
Finn shook his head again. “I can’t do it, Quinn, I’m sorry.”
“Then I will,” said Maxus. “She’s in range.”
Maxus’s finger hovered over the button. It was the only way.
Further forward in the ship the red alert sirens had begun to blurt out. The crew were scrambling, each of them abandoning their posts and heading for escape pods. They had known the game was up. Eyeglass was worth working for, but it wasn’t worth dying for.
The General made his way through the confused crowds, berating them all for being cowards as he made his way towards the bridge. If he was going to go down, he was going to take Carpathia with him.
Somewhere back down in the corridor, Anna was quietly following him.
Alice and Ivy, meanwhile was running through the corridors, looking for the Doctor. They were about to give up hope when the Doctor and Saraxx burst out of the holding cell room and collided with the Doctor’s two companions.
“Doctor!” yelled Ivy.
“Miss Coldstone,” he said, grinning from ear to ear. “Good to see you alive again! The guards let us out.”
“That’s fantastic!” said Alice.
“Alice,” said the Doctor, suddenly looking so sad. “I’m so sorry you got dragged into this.”
“Really, Doctor, it’s not your fault.”
“But we’ll get that Tylaya out of you. We need to get to the medical bay. The equipment is in there.”
Alice nodded. “Okay.” She smiled at him and then they embraced. “Thank you, Doctor.”
And then Alice went rigid, her eyes white again as she began shaking uncontrollably.
Alice was back on Mars in the church with Dennington and the Doctor, staring out at Ivy’s coffin. And then the flames appeared and everything burnt away.
Then she was in Owensby in front of a large mirror…and the flames burnt it all away.
Then she was on Issenttii. And then in Little Pebbleford facing the Daleks. And then at school, in the park, at the butchers, in the bath, in the hospital, in a car, at university, at school, with her sisters, playing in a sandpit.
And the flames continued to burn it all up. Every memory. Every moment that had made Alice Stokes.
And then nothing. All was silent. Blackness. Everything that Alice Stokes ever was had gone.
The General had found his way to the bridge. It was now empty, the crew having fled to the escape pods. The ship was still holding it’s position level with the Central Column. The Column had also been evacuated - the General knew that - but he needed to make a bigger statement. The only way he was going to begin Eyeglass’s takeover of the planet was by taking down the power seat of the government. It was the only way.
He made his way to a tactical station and readied the torpedoes.
“Dad,” came a voice.
The General turned. Standing there was his daughter, Anna, looking sad.
“Leave me alone,” he growled, turning back to the tactical readout.
“Do you really want to do this?”
“Oh,” said the General, turning with a spiteful look on his face, “don’t try and play the father/daughter card.”
“I’m not,” said Anna. “I couldn’t care less about you. You abandoned me - you and mum - and you didn’t care. You were too…focused on this damn company.”
“You could have been a part of it.”
“Rubbish!” she said. “That’s why you killed her. That’s why you killed my mum.”
His eyes flicked away from her gaze. “How did you know?”
“I checked the records on my way up. You executed her. Two blaster shots through the heart.”
“Anna, your mother was many things, but committed she was not.” He sat down on the chair opposite the tactical station and gazed into the middle-distance. “All she ever did was talk about why we needed to get you back.”
“So you killed her?”
“I killed her because I found out she was selling Eyeglass secrets to one of those protest groups in Germany.”
A flash of pride lifted Anna’s heart. So her mother hadn’t been completely bad.
“I killed her because she had betrayed me and she had betrayed all of us.”
“You really were bred for war, weren’t you?”
Helix sighed. “My heart has always been in combat. And in combat I will die.”
She walked over to him and crouched beside him. For the first time ever he seemed almost broken. “It doesn’t have to be like this.”
“It does.”
“Eyeglass is finished,” she said. “I know it’s hard for you to accept, but you took it too far. They’ve all left you.”
He sat there in silence. His head swayed slightly backwards and forwards. He felt himself shutting down. The world melting away and the voice of his daughter becoming just a murmur behind the sound of the red alert siren.
And then he made a decision.
He stood up, turned to the tactical display and cancelled the torpedoes.
Anna breathed a sigh of relief and whispered “Thanks,” to the heavens.
And instead the General got up and walked to the navigation console. He sat down and began typing in a few digits on the readout.
Anna was confused. She wasn’t sure what he was doing.
And then realisation dawned on her. “No!”
“I can’t give in, yet I can’t win. So this is the only way. And I’ve locked the coordinates in so I can’t override them now.”
He hit a button of the readout and the ship began to tilt forward. Anna wasn’t sure what to do. She hesitated and then ran up behind him, drawing her sword.
The General laughed. “You’ve never killed anything in your life, Anna. You’re not going to start now.”
“No,” said Anna quietly. “There’d be no point.”
She sheathed her sword and turned to leave.
“Goodbye, Anna,” said the General, but there was no affection in his voice. “Maybe thing’s might have been different if you’d have only understood.”
She shook her head. “I’ll never understand evil.”
A few minutes later the ship was heading towards the top of the Central Column. The building had already been evacuated, but the General didn’t care. He was going to go out making a statement.
On the bridge the General had his eyes closed. Impact was imminent.
“For the good of the Human race,” he murmured.
And then the Nautilus smashed into the steel and glass of the Central Column. Screams could be heard from down below as the top of the Column was sliced off. Then there was an almighty explosion as the Nautilus’s engines gave way, obliterating the top 100 floors of the Column.
Eyeglass had fallen. The General was gone.
One Day Later
A transport shuttle had managed to recover the TARDIS from Mars and had lowered it next to the ruins of the Central Column, still smoking and smouldering from the attack the previous day.
Nearly all of Eyeglass had surrendered and it’s ships had been seized. Both the Martian and Human governments had joined together to help each other out, and Carpathia had vowed to bring anyone who still sided with the Eyeglass to justice.
The Doctor emerged from the TARDIS and locked the door. Standing next to the box was Alice and Maxus. The Doctor eyed them up with disdain and then walked over to Ivy and Anna who were sat on a bench nearby.
Ivy smiled sadly at him.
“Well, I’m glad you’re not dead,” he said.
She nodded. “Me too.”
“What will you-?”
“I’m off to help Anna try and get her life back on track. She may still have family out there.”
“Preferably not deranged super soldiers,” said Anna.
The Doctor managed a chuckle.
“Thank you for being with Mark at the end.”
The Doctor shook his head. “He was a good man. He didn’t deserve-”
“I know,” said Ivy. “But he did it because he believed in you. He believed in doing the right thing. Some of those Eyeglass survivors could take a page or two out of his book.”
The Doctor nodded, glancing back at Anna and Maxus.
“What are you going to do?” asked Anna.
“I don’t know. Maybe there’s a way.”
“Alice is gone, Doctor,” said Ivy sadly. “There’s nothing left of her in there. Just Tylaya.”
“I refuse to accept that,” said the Doctor. “Such a bright light can’t be so easily put out.”
“Just be careful, yeah?”
Saraxx walked up. “Good afternoon, ladies. Doctor.”
The Doctor bowed his head a little to the Ice Lord. “And what about you, Saraxx? What now for my favourite Ice Lord?”
“Carpathia’s putting together a new joint government. I’m going to represent the Martian side of affairs.”
The Doctor smiled. “I couldn’t think of anyone better to do it.”
“It’s funny really,” said Saraxx, gazing up at the wreck of the Column, pieces of the Nautilus still intertwined with the steel of the skyscraper, “the General ended up uniting our races.”
“For the good of the Galaxy,” smiled the Doctor.
“Indeed.” Saraxx held out both arms. “Come, ladies. You can show me around this Central City of yours.”
Anna and Ivy laughed as they took Saraxx’s arms and led him away from the ruined site.
The Doctor watched them go. That way was light and hope…and life. Behind him was only the unknown.
Alice winced as the clamp tightened around her ankle. Maxus rubbed her arm and then rubbed his own ankle. The Doctor had fitted both of them with the devices to keep them in check. He had told them that if they didn’t cooperate he would activate them.
Maxus daren’t ask what that meant. All he cared was that he had Tylaya back.
“Just remember,” said the Doctor, as he punched in some coordinates on the console, “that the only reason you, Maxus, are coming with me is because I allowed you to.”
“And the only reason I’m coming, Doctor, is to be with Tylaya. No matter what you do, I’m not going to leave her side again.”
Alice - or rather Tylaya as the Doctor was now having to call her - smiled. “Thank you.”
The Doctor walked up to them, hands deep in his coat pockets. “She’s still alive, you know.” He pointed at Tylaya’s head. “Alice is still in there somewhere.”
“Doctor,” said Tylaya, “she’s gone. I’m sorry it had to be this way, but she is and she’s never coming back.”
“We’ll see,” said the Doctor, turning back to the console. “We’ll see!”
Somewhere…
Mark Dennington awoke with a start. Was he in Heaven? If so why did everything feel cold and dark, with only the faint humming of power just to his side.
He was aware of movement next to him.
“Hello?” said Dennington, trying to focus on something…anything.
“Ah, you’re awake,” came a calm, Scottish accent.
“Where am I? Where’s Julie?”
“I’m afraid you’re not dead yet, Mr Dennington.”
“Then what -?”
“Remember the guards back on the Nautilus? The one’s with the visor-covered helmets?”
“Yes,” said Dennington, his head starting to pound.
“Well, one of them was me,” said the man. His face came into focus. He had long dark hair and an untidy beard. He was wearing a black suit and a gold ring with an emerald ruby on his finger.
“I don’t understand.”
“I’ll explain as we go,” said the man, “but suffice to say I knew that somehow you’d end up falling off that platform. Stands to reason either the Doctor did it, you jumped or the General pushed you. So I fitted you with a teleportation device when I moved you into position. Then, when you fell into the smoke I activated it. It brought you here.”
“Here? Where’s here?”
“On my TARDIS.”
“What? You’re a Time Lord? What do you want with me?”
The man smiled. “I need to help the Doctor.”
“Of course,” said Dennington. “But I don’t even know who you are.”
The man smiled again and chuckled. “You can call me the Master.”
THE END
Next time: We find out exactly where Paragrim went when we meet the Doctor and some old friends in "A Switch in Time", a special one-part story, coming May 31st 2014.
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