The Doctor bluffs, grabs a random object and announces it's a detonator. He tells the Sontaran that he has rigged the memory palace to blow up if he or the Draconian is killed. The Doctor demands the Sontarans retreat immediately.
The Sontarans hesitate. The Draconian, terrified, vouches for the Doctor's threat. The Doctor appears absolutely serious.
From a local communications unit, the Heart and Diamond's voices come, pleading for help. The Doctor redoubles his demands.
The Sontaran Commander withdraws all his troops, but remains behind. Speaking into his microphone, he orders his forces not to blow the elevator into space but to stand by for his command.
With satisfaction, the Sontaran Commander tells the Doctor that they have a stalemate. But the Commander has the advantage, his forces have mobility, the Doctor's forces are trapped. Inevitably, he will be destroyed.
The Draconian tells the Commander that he will be destroyed as well. The Doctor, however, says that the Commander isn't afraid to die, no Sontaran is. The Commander congratulates the Doctor on his insight.
The Doctor asks why the Memory Archives are forbidden. The location is not precisely forbidden, it is explained, it is just that Sontarans prefer not to go there. It's not sacred, because the Sontarans worship nothing.
The Doctor learns that it is a reliquary - the Memory Archives: the repository of all of old Sontaran culture - their art, their literature, their music and songs, their stories and jokes, their history, their dreams. In order to fight the Rutans, the Sontarans were forced to turn their back on their culture, to become a completely militarized civilization. What they gave up, they preserved in reliquaries throughout their empire. The Sontaran Commander reveals that all Sontarans believe that when the Rutans are finally defeated, they will be free to reclaim their old culture.
The Sontaran Commander, however... And by extension, all Sontarans are not sure that they want their old civilization back. When the war is over, perhaps they will simply be free to abandon the last trace of their past, destroy the Memory Archives and be forever what they are now. They are made for war, they can no longer imagine being anything else.
The Doctor announces that he's heard enough, and tosses the fake detonator to the Commander. The Draconian protests. The Commander exults. The Doctor announces that he has won the game.
The Commander protests that he has the detonator, the Doctor has no more leverage. The Doctor reveals that the detonator was a fake, a bluff, that he fooled the Sontarans.
The Commander demands to know how he can declare victory. The Doctor announces that he knows the identity of the killer, the Rutan spy, and can deliver him. The Commander demands that he disclose the identity. The Doctor has his own demands....
************
Heart is returned to the Tardis, and Diamond taken prisoner, is brought to the Doctor.
The Sontaran Commander, the Draconian, the Doctor and Diamond are taken under guard to the High Council of the Sontarans, where the Doctor announces he will expose the Rutan spy.
The Doctor reveals that the action taken against them means that the Rutan must have been monitoring them. The two acts of monitoring and setting the deathtrap allows the Doctor to triangulate the signals, with Heart's assistance in the Tardis, producing only a single, possible result. The third member of the Council.
The Doctor produces a complex instrument and waves it at the Council member. The Councillor for a moment deforms into green goo, and then reforms. The guards in the chamber point at the Rutan.
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The New Doctor! A Doctor Who Alternate History Story
FanfictionThis is a Doctor Who fanfic, like you've never seen before. Not a Doctor Who story, not quite, although it contains Doctor Who stories. It's an alternate history story about the making of Doctor Who... Or about a particular version of Doctor Who...
