Genesis Of The Doctor - A Doctor Who Story

37 - Node

The younger version of the Master took in the entrance chamber to the Northern Time Node and was surprised at how little had changed since his first visit so long ago.  It was still cold and eerily silent, its walls and ceiling made of the same oily black tendrils.  As he reached the control panel on the wall and attached his data pad to it his companion arrived on the transmat platform behind him.

"And here we are," the Doctor said.  "Are you sure you know what you are doing?"

"Yes, yes don't worry, it's just as before, nothing's changed, nothing at all.  What a tiresome stagnant lot we are, no one innovates, nothing grows."  He palmed a row of sensors, one after the other, "Comms off, security off, lights on, air on, heating... on.  Easy peasey."

"Door open?"

"Ah yes, open sesame!"  The door in front of them opened with a hiss, revealing an elevator chamber beyond, its walls bedecked with more tendrils.  They entered the lift and it started to glide upwards.

The Doctor speculated, "It's not going to take him long to find us.  Was there really no way to get straight up to the top of the Node?"

"There is a transmat pad up there but it's outgoing only - meant for emergency evacuations.  I tried to find a way to bypass the security on that the last time but it's completely locked up, there's no way in other than how we're doing it."

"Yet you've hacked pretty much every other system built into it with an old compad and a screwdriver."

"I did a lot of research last time and as I said nothing's changed.  I was so slick on my last visit that I didn't leave a trace, nobody has thought to change the locks."

"Fortunate for us," mused the Doctor.

"Very.  And here we are."  The lift doors opened onto a wide spiralling staircase corridor leading upwards.  The pair proceeded to run up the stairs.

At the top they came to a heavy metallic door with a flat pad beside it embedded within the tendril covered wall.  The Doctor put his palm on the pad hopefully but there came a clunking sound and the door remained resolutely closed.  His friend pushed him aside. "Out of the way, I'm the one with the magic touch," he said.  The door clanged open and they strode into the vast room beyond.

The Master had got there before them; his putrefying nightmare form stood in the middle of the room, hands aloft.  Above him a gaping wound in the ribbed domed roof indicated the more direct route that he had taken to get there.  "Hello boys," he cackled.  "It is so kind of you to join me."

The Master stretched out a bony hand and drew his younger self the full length of the room towards him as if he were attached by invisible threads.  The Doctor stared in disbelief and horror.  As he started to move to intervene, the Master's other hand shot out and projected a stream of darkness from his fingers, smashing the Doctor over towards the edge of the room.  The Doctor fell to his knees, stunned.

With his left arm around his captive's neck, the Master tore the white wand from his pocket and stabbed it against his younger self's head.   The younger man pleaded, "Why are you doing this? What do you want with me?"

"You mean he hasn't told you?" asked the Master, incredulous.  "He hasn't told you who I am?  No matter, in a few seconds it will no longer be of any interest to you."  As he said this he pushed at the wand and his younger self screamed, his face contorted in pain.

At the edge of the room the Doctor was on his feet and was hacking away at a console with a sonic lance.  He glared deviously at the Master as he pulled down a large red-topped brass lever and the room filled with a deafening klaxon alarm.

The Master whirled around to face the Doctor and shouted, "What have you done?"  He fired a blast of darkness in the Doctor's direction, taking out most of the console that he had been hiding behind.  The Doctor ran for cover as the Master attacked again, sending multiple blasts of darkness his way and laying waste to the room around him.

Just as it looked like the Doctor had run out of places to hide, the Master's attacks began to miss their target.  The arm that he had been using to make his assaults swung and jerked around, being pulled upwards towards the ceiling as if he were performing a salute.  The Master looked towards the Doctor in apparent bewilderment as his entire body began to be pulled upwards.  His free hand scrabbled for purchase on an instrument panel as he tried to resist the upward pull and to retain his grip on his captive.

As the Master's body rose upwards he held onto his younger self who was anchoring him to the ground.  He was pulled into a bizarre handstand position while his cape which was draped around him was seemingly unaffected by the forces pulling at his body.  He screamed with rage while his prisoner yelled out in pain; the Master's bony arm still around his neck, the wand still at his temple.

The Master roared at the Doctor, "Whatever this is stop it, stop it or I kill him here and now!"

"Sorry, I can't do that I'm afraid.  You're going to kill him anyway, nothing I do will make any difference.  Plus you've completely destroyed the Node Shield controller during your attempts to kill me so that shield is coming down, it's inevitable."

The Master screamed with rage again as the Doctor continued, "All that time-travelling you've done, you're a seething mass of chronon particles and artron energy.  The energies from the Eye are pulling at you like a magnet and as the shield weakens that pull can only get stronger."

The Master's young captive realised that he had nothing to lose.  He twisted his body down and around loosening his older self's grip and then followed this with a roar, punching out at the dark form and releasing himself.

The Master shouted, "No! You can't do this to me again!"  He shot upwards with increasing speed, hitting the top of the chamber's wall before disappearing through the shattered dome above towards the Eye of Harmony and oblivion.