The two people Braydon assigned to go with him, Morgan learned, were named Stavinler and Grodin. Grodin was the one who had questioned Braydon earlier about searching for other prisoners instead of just leaving. They led a straggling group of wounded and exhausted escapees to the evacuation pods. Some of them, to Morgan's eyes, looked fit enough to be still up above fighting along with the others, but he didn't say anything. It was a stressful time and he wasn't anyone's judge.
The three of them set about inspecting the capsules. By necessity, to allow the widely-girthed Daleks to fit, they were actually quite roomy, but since they hadn't been built for humans there were no means of strapping anyone in.
"As best as I can tell, we pull this lever here, lock it into position, and pull this switch," Morgan said after several minutes of examination. "But it's going to be a bumpy ride." He turned to the others and raised his voice. "I think we can fit about 25 to 30 people in one of these. It may sound sadistic, but I think if we literally cram people in from wall to wall, we'll all cushion each other, because believe me, otherwise we'll get thrown all over the place on the way down." He took a deep breath. "I can't give you any guarantees, but it's either this or go back and try to make friends with the Daleks."
Thirty-one people stepped forward and crammed into the escape pod. Morgan, Grodin and Stavinler stayed on board the ship as their job was to get the others to safety. "Here goes nothing," Morgan said and initiated the sequence. There was a brief flash of rocket burn and the pod fell towards Gallifrey.
"It works!" Grodin said, and he was breathing hard. Morgan wondered if he was hyperventilating. "Now we go, right?"
Morgan hesitated, wondering why Grodin was asking him. Was he looking for courage? Support? Or did he truly feel as if Morgan was in charge somehow? "Let's fill the next one," was all he could say.
He, Grodin and Stavinler quickly crammed the next pod full and sent it on its way. There were only eight prisoners left now, in addition to themselves. Morgan was about to key his gear and ask Braydon if any more were coming when a Dalek glided into the corridor and killed Stavinler.
Morgan frantically whirled around, his eyes wide, and shot the Dalek. To his own senses it seemed to take forever, that the Dalek would shoot him, too, while he was still trying to aim. But as he looked at the Dalek's smoking remains he realized he had reacted in less than a second.
He quickly advanced down the corridor, shaking so hard he felt as if his heart was about to give out. "It must have been a straggler, left behind from the earlier battle on this deck," he told Grodin, and ran back. "I'm an idiot, I should have posted some guards!"
"That clinches it," Grodin said, breathing hard with hysteria. "We can't wait for the others. We have to leave now! Come on!" He leaped into the next pod and frantically began operating its departure sequence.
Morgan hesitated just for a moment, looked back at the smoking remains of the Dalek, then leaped after him.
Braydon primed another explosive and lodged it through a door, then raised his gun and blew another Dalek away. Up ahead, more people were chasing the Daleks down the corridor, and they split at a T-junction. Braydon grimaced, wishing they would all stay together. They were getting overenthusiastic and ahead of themselves. He charged to the right and joined the others down that corridor. They were dispatching the last of the Daleks who were holding the final group of prisoners.
He despaired when he didn't see either Devon or Danziger among them. "Help us fight or go down two levels to the escape pods!" he shouted, and he ordered one of the fighters to go with them.
A few didn't want to go. They were handed spare weapons and they raced back along the corridor to join the others who had split up. They found them standing in the room where they had first arrived – the static gateway chamber. Everyone was cheering wildly.
"What's going on?" Braydon asked.
"We've practically taken the whole ship!" one of them exclaimed. "The bridge is through that door! There's only a handful of them left now. The only reason we stopped is that the explosives won't penetrate this wall. We're afraid to use any more because we don't want to blow ourselves into space."
"Good choice," Braydon said. "We've pushed our luck far enough. I think we can use the static gateway to get back to Gallifrey. Does anyone know anything about this machinery?"
"I think I do," a woman said. "I built something like it for a science project back at university."
"Is it still operational?"
She tossed a tool into the gateway and they watched it vanish. It partially reappeared seconds later, insubstantial, like a ghost image. After a few more seconds it materialized fully. "It's experiencing fluctuations, but I can stabilize it," she said.
He keyed his gear. "Morgan, this is Braydon, are you there?"
"We're here," he answered. "What's going on?"
"I've sent a final batch of prisoners to you. The rest of us are going through the gateway."
"All right. How will we meet you again?"
"I've no idea," Braydon said. "You might end up anywhere on the planet, so do the best you can. Good luck."
"And you...Braydon," Morgan said.
"You'll get us all killed!" Grodin yelled, tears of terror streaming down his face as Morgan signed off. He dabbed at the cut on his cheek which he'd received when Morgan had tackled him against the pod's control panel.
Morgan licked his lips nervously and his eyes were wide, but he didn't move his gun, which was aimed at Grodin's stomach. He kept thinking of Bess, wondering what she would have wanted him to do. The other escapees huddled nervously in the corridor outside the pod, watching uncertainly.
"I told you," Morgan said, his voice rising in pitch and cracking slightly, "we're waiting for the others! They'll be frightened, they'll expect us to be here, and they'll need someone to help them use the pods."
"But another Dalek might come along at any moment!" Grodin shrieked.
"That's all the more reason we need to stay," Morgan said. "Someone has to hold this position. The others are depending on us."
"You can't-"
"We're not leaving!" Morgan yelled, and the sudden power in his voice silenced Grodin. Morgan stared at him, breathing hard. "I made a promise once, and it's a promise I intend to uphold. We're not leaving."
Grodin could do nothing but stare helplessly back at him.
The besieged bridge of the Dalek battleship was in a state of controlled chaos. Several gray Daleks, standard shock troops, stood by the door, waiting for the order to counterattack. Red and gold Daleks bustled about the room trying to contain the situation. The black Dalek surveyed everything and made decisions.
A red Dalek said, "Assault Ships 1 and 2 report two escape modules have been launched from this vessel."
"Order Assault Ships 1 and 2 to stand by to destroy all such escape modules," the black Dalek announced. "They are to hail the ships for Dalek operators. If they receive no answer, the escape modules are to be assumed in control of enemy forces and are to be destroyed."
"The prisoners have control of the static gateway chamber," a gold Dalek reported. "We would have been able to stop them if our reserves had not been ordered to the surface."
"The order to send our reserves to the surface came from the Supreme Dalek and is beyond question," the black Dalek said. "It would not have been necessary to send our reserves to the surface if the first wave of attack squads had not let one of our drop ships fall into enemy hands!"
"The armed prisoners outnumber our forces," the gold Dalek said.
"They outnumber the forces on board this battleship, but they do not outnumber all Dalek forces," the black Dalek said. "There is an entrance into the gateway chamber which the prisoners have not taken into account. Order Ground Assault Groups 78 and 79 to return to static gateway 5 immediately. They are to enter the gateway, return to the ship and retake the gateway chamber from the prisoners. Tell them we will open the door and attack just before they arrive, to provide a diversion."
"I obey," the Dalek replied and relayed the orders.
A new crowd of people streamed down the corridor. "Is this everyone?" Morgan asked. When he received a few exhausted nods he bustled as many of them as he could into the next capsule and sent them away. The rest of them, including himself – about 15 in all – piled into the last evacuation pod.
"Find something to hold onto!" Morgan announced. To himself, he muttered, "I can't believe I'm doing this again!" He squeezed his eyes shut, held his breath and pulled the switch.
The bottom dropped out of the universe.
"Whoooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!" was all he could say as they started falling towards Gallifrey.
"I've stabilized the gateway as best as I can," the woman said.
"All right," Braydon nodded grimly, then picked up the tool she had used earlier and turned to the man beside him. "You and I will go first in case there are any Daleks at the other end. If it's all clear or if we need help, I'll throw this back through the gateway. When you come through, be ready to fight. If you don't see anything return, don't come down."
"What's the alternative?" one of them asked wryly.
Braydon actually smiled at that. "You'll have to think of something yourself. But if I don't send this back through, assume it's worse down there than it is up here. Denner, will you bring up the rear?"
She nodded.
"All right. Let's go."
He and the man he'd chosen stepped into the gateway and found themselves on a deserted, gutted-out avenue in the capital of Gallifrey. They could hear Dalek voices in the distance, getting nearer.
Braydon tossed the tool back into the gateway and peered around him. They had been very, very fortunate that no Daleks were about. However, it was night and his eyes were going to take several minutes to adjust. He cursed his cybernetic eye, wishing it could do something for him in a situation like this. Or wishing he didn't have it at all.
Two more people stepped through the gateway, then two more. They slowly set up a defensive ring around the gateway. The Dalek voices were getting closer. Braydon gritted his teeth as he heard them, willing everyone to move faster.
Finally Denner stepped through. She was carrying about 15 of the explosives carefully cradled in the lower part of her shirt.
"Let's go," Braydon said.
"Braydon," Denner said. "If one of these were to go off would the rest go off with it in sympathetic detonation?"
He nodded.
She dumped them into the gateway, primed one, and watched them disappear. "This is for my grandfather," she whispered. "Happy regards, you monsters." Then Braydon grabbed her hand and they took off after the others, disappearing into the night.
A split second after they left, Dalek Ground Assault Groups 78 and 79 appeared around the corner in the opposite direction and approached the gateway. "We must retake the gateway chamber from the prisoners!" one of the assault leaders screamed in a frenzy, and sent a message to the Dalek battleship. "We are preparing to enter the gateway chamber now."
"Attack acknowledged," the operator on board the battleship responded, and it turned to the black Dalek. "Assault groups preparing to enter the gateway."
"Attack!" the black Dalek ordered. The remaining Daleks on the bridge opened the door and stormed through.
There was no one there.
One of the Daleks rolled up to the gateway and looked down at the curious pile of objects lying on the floor. A second later, it realized what they were.
"Emergen-!"
The explosion ripped through the Dalek battleship, annihilating the static gateway chamber in a great plume of fire and taking out half the bridge. Those Daleks not destroyed in the explosion were hurled into space.
On the surface, Ground Assault Groups 78 and 79 stood puzzled as the static gateway did not operate and they received no more response from the battleship.
"What do you mean, the 'imminent destruction of the Time Lords?'" the Doctor asked. "Kronos, what have you done?"
"I may have done only what was always destined to be," Kronos answered. "The dimensions of the universe stretch for some 100 nonillion years, give or take a few trillion. Do you really think that the beings of Gallifrey will be Lords of Time for that entire span?"
"No, of course not," the Doctor said, trying to relax a little, remembering that Kronos was talking about a much larger viewpoint. "In fact, I know we won't."
Devon was amazed. "I thought you said the Time Lords weren't allowed to know the future of their own civilization!" she said.
"We're not," Romana answered. "But we have been able to discover hints of what will happen to us by investigating the future records of other races. The future of our galaxy, and that of the entire universe, can sometimes give us clues and vague hints as to our own future. And it's not a pretty sight."
"All we know is that we will one day be involved in a war," the Doctor said. "A war with an enemy who is so powerful, so devastating, that they will either destroy the Time Lords or scatter us across the winds of time."
"You think this war might be the one?" Danziger asked.
The Doctor scoffed and waved his hand. "The Daleks have some hefty technology and delusions of grandeur, but they couldn't knock off the Time Lords. Even with the Master's help. No, whatever Gallifrey's future great war will be, it won't be with the Daleks. It will be with some enemy we've never heard of, someone who has the same degree of time technology." He turned back to Kronos. "And I've certainly never heard of any great cataclysm foretold by Rassilon."
"You presume much, Doctor," Kronos said. "You assume that Rassilon's prediction and Gallifrey's mysterious future war are related."
"Are they?"
"They might be," Kronos said evasively. "By your own request, I will not tell you more than you need to know."
"Please explain whatever you can," the Doctor said.
"Very well," Kronos answered. "When Rassilon created the Time Lords, he knew that they were the most powerful three-dimensional race in existence – at that point in time. But that wasn't enough for Rassilon. He was paranoid. He calculated the odds that another race would duplicate his experiments and attempt to become Lords of Time, as well, and he found that the odds were great. He was frightened that these beings would attempt to overthrow the Gallifreyans. So he set in motion a series of events which would eventually lead his people to a place where another time-active race could no longer attack them."
"'Lead my people to the promised land?'" the Doctor quoted. "How noble of him. So even ten million years after Rassilon's existence, he's still pulling our strings. Deciding our fate. Looking out for us."
"If you wish to put it that way," Kronos said. "That is what I meant by Rassilon's prediction of the imminent destruction of the Time Lords."
The Doctor finally caught on. "You meant, destruction of the Time Lords as we know them!"
"Correct, Doctor," Kronos said. "Rassilon has long planned for a series of events to come about whereby a new element would be introduced into the genetic structure of the Time Lord race. This gene would accelerate the Time Lords' evolution and allow them to live in another environment. An environment in which they would truly become, in every sense, the Lords of Time. The Lords of all Time."
"The time vortex," the Doctor breathed.
"Yes, Doctor," Kronos said. "This new genetic mutation would allow the Time Lords to ascend to a higher dimension and live in the time vortex permanently, safe from attack forevermore."
"But we already know that there will one day come a war which will destroy us, far in the future," Romana said. "That knowledge is incompatible with what you have just told us."
"Is it?" Kronos asked. "Perhaps the other civilizations you study recorded that the Time Lords were destroyed because they think that is what happened, while in reality your race follows the Great Plan of Rassilon and ascends into the vortex."
Romana bit her lip. It could be true, she thought. And it did make a certain amount of sense. Or was she just grasping at straws for the future of her people?
"All I can tell you at the moment," Kronos continued, "is that I have a certain amount of interest in seeing Rassilon's plan come to fruition."
"Why?" Danziger asked.
"I have my reasons," Kronos replied.
"What, exactly, is Rassilon's plan?" the Doctor asked.
"I only know a little of it," Kronos admitted. "The gene which will accelerate the Time Lords' evolution will be introduced into the Gallifreyans from another race. I do not know what that race is. I do not know anything about the genetic template. I only know that Rassilon discovered it during one of his exploration missions and realized its potential. His prediction is that a time-sensitive being who carries this genetic template will appear to the Time Lords during a period of great strife. During this time, the gene will be passed to the Gallifreyans, and it will subsequently lead them to victory."
"Why didn't Rassilon simply utilize this genetic template when he first found it?" the Doctor asked.
"The Gallifreyan race was not ready at that time," Kronos said. "Gallifreyan tissue rejected the genetic enhancement. But in the millions of years since Rassilon you have evolved sufficiently to make it possible. So his prediction goes."
"And this mysterious savior who will bring the genetic template to us," the Doctor said. "Was it to be a Time Lord?"
"That I cannot tell you," Kronos said. "Only that it is someone already time-sensitive."
The Doctor thought about this. "And what information do you want from me?"
"I discovered the Master floating in the vortex," Kronos said.
"You did?" the Doctor asked. "How did he get there?"
"He had evidently just been expelled from the inner workings of your TARDIS after another of your battles. He mentioned something about a failed body transfer in San Francisco."
"Ah!" the Doctor's face brightened. "I wondered how he survived."
"Since the Master had once imprisoned me and abused my powers, I thought it would be a nice amusement to torture him for a few millennia," Kronos continued. "I thought it was good fortune on my part to discover him in such a vulnerable state. But he knew of Rassilon's prediction – don't ask me how he found out about it – and he insisted that he was the being who was foretold in the prophecy."
"And you believed him?" Danziger asked.
"I am unsure," Kronos replied. "Whether or not the Master is the one who carries the gene I cannot say. But I probed the Master's mind enough to know that he himself truly believes that he is the one, and I couldn't take the chance that he is mistaken. So I let him go. I reunited him with his TARDIS and gave him enough artron energy to sustain his life force until he could find more help."
"He found it, all right," the Doctor said. "In the form of a human named Reilly."
"My dilemma, Doctor," Kronos replied, "is whether or not I did the right thing by releasing the Master."
"Of course you didn't!" Danziger said. "That man has caused more havoc than we can say grace over!"
"What does that mean to me?" Kronos asked plainly. Danziger scowled. "My only concern is whether or not the Master is the one intended. If he is, I would not harm him."
Danziger took a deep breath and tried to ignore Kronos's lack of compassion. "But you said you can see our lifelines," he said. "Can't you just look at the Master's lifeline and see whether he's this 'chosen one' or not?"
"The Master's lifeline leads to Gallifrey right now," Kronos replied. "Beyond that, it tells me nothing."
"Why would the Master think he was the chosen one?" the Doctor asked. Then he drew in his breath sharply and he actually slapped his forehead. "Of course! The Master isn't just a Time Lord any more, he's part Trakenite and part Cheetah-person!"
"Huh?" Danziger asked.
The Doctor explained quickly. "The Master once took over a man from the planet Traken and stole his body, just to extend his own life past his twelfth regeneration. He also became infected with the genetic mutations of the Cheetah people when he was stranded on their planet for too long. His original Time Lord DNA has become overwritten with at least those two other genetic templates, and possibly even more that I don't know about."
"And now, he is part human, as well," Kronos said. "He mentioned something about taking over a human from Earth for the same reason while in San Francisco."
Devon spoke up. "Kronos, why would you worry about whether or not the Master is the one Rassilon foretold? You don't care about the petty wars of the lower dimensions. Good and evil obviously mean nothing to you."
"They are puzzling, abstract concepts," Kronos said. "And you are correct, I care nothing for the doings of beings such as yourselves, except where they might affect me."
"How could all this affect you, other than to make the time vortex a little more crowded?" the Doctor asked. "And not even that should worry you, it's a big enough place."
Kronos thought for a moment, then said, "I see no choice but to tell you this, Doctor, and I can only hope I am not damaging your causality."
The Doctor nodded for him to continue.
"Please think about it for a moment, Doctor," Kronos said. "Here in the vortex time is spatial, not linear. Therefore, if your people escape into the vortex in your own future..."
"Then they'll already be here," the Doctor breathed. "You've already met them. That's how you know that Rassilon's plan will succeed."
"I haven't just met them, Doctor," Kronos said. "You're talking to one."
The Doctor and Romana stared. "Chronovores..." the Doctor whispered, awed beyond belief. "You're our future. You're what we'll become."
"Rassilon knew that if his plan of integrating the alien gene ever succeeded, he would already find the result waiting in the vortex," Kronos said. "So he came here searching for that result, and he found me. I didn't speak with him for very long, but I told him all that I knew about my own origins."
"And after speaking to you, Rassilon went back home and established his great prediction," the Doctor said, still barely able to believe what he was hearing. "And you agreed to help the Master because whoever the chosen one is, he needs to live long enough to deliver the alien gene to Gallifrey to ensure your own existence." He shook his head. "Oh, what an incredible, paradoxical web we weave."
"It is only incredible from your point of view," Kronos said.
The Doctor started pacing around furiously in the nothingness, his mind whirling with this new information. "The Master wants to become the leader of Gallifrey by setting himself up as the one foretold by Rassilon. He's a time-active being, and we know that his body is infused with the DNA of at least three other races, any of which could possibly carry the genetic template needed to help us evolve. And at the moment, Gallifrey is indeed facing a crisis."
"But it was the Master who brought about the crisis in the first place!" Devon exclaimed.
"It doesn't matter who caused it," the Doctor said, waving his hand quickly while still pacing. "The crisis's existence is enough to make the prediction come true." Then he stopped suddenly and stared ahead of him, his eyes wide. "Enough to make the prediction come true," he whispered, then said aloud, "Of course! Romana, remember we were wondering why the Master bothered allying himself with the Daleks at all?"
Romana realized where the Doctor was going with this. "He was just using them to cause a crisis on Gallifrey! He was trying to force Rassilon's prediction to come true!"
"Yes," the Doctor said. "I see his plan now. I see it so clearly, it's breathtaking. He infiltrates Gallifrey, betrays the Time Lords to the Daleks, and hopes they kill the President and the Castellan. He hides during the initial battles and emerges from the aftermath with a quick plan which disposes of the Daleks and saves everyone who is left. He then moves into the power vacuum, emerging as a strong voice amidst the chaos. He casually announces that if the Time Lords want to ensure that our race is never attacked again – and he can use the knowledge of our future war as a scare tactic – then all they have to do is adapt a genetic sample from him and make him their leader. They do so, Rassilon's prediction is fulfilled...and the Master becomes the new President of the Time Lords."
The Doctor and Romana stared at each other in horror. "It could work," Romana said. "It's plausible."
Kronos spoke up again. "My only concern is that if the Master is not the chosen one, then I may have aided him in bringing about the premature destruction of the Time Lords instead of their salvation."
"Which would cause you to no longer exist," the Doctor said. "Because not even Chronovores are immune to paradoxes. So now we're all in a fine pickle, and you need our help"
"Indeed, Doctor," Kronos said. "It seems that all our futures hang in the balance."
The Doctor just scowled. "Well, thank you for the information, and for your confidence in me. Now if you don't mind, we need to get back to work."
"Doctor," Kronos said, "I know that you have great animosity towards the Master, and that you and he are involved in an eternal battle for domination. But keep in mind what will happen if you oppose him and he turns out to be the one foretold. You may have to let him win this time."
The Doctor sighed. "If the Master is the one foretold by Rassilon, I will not stand in his way," he said.
"What?" Devon exclaimed.
"Don't argue, Devon," he said. "Into the TARDIS, quickly. Good-bye, Kronos. Let's not do this again."
They all hurried back into the Doctor's ship and shut the doors. Within seconds they were in flight again and the Doctor was back at the console, deep in thought.
"Doctor, are you serious about not trying to stop the Master after all he's put us through?" Devon asked incredulously.
"Absolutely not," the Doctor said. "I don't care about Rassilon's great plan. I grew tired of playing Rassilon's little games long ago. That's one of the reasons I left Gallifrey in the first place. All I care about is putting a stop to the destruction."
"Then why were you afraid to tell Kronos that?" Danziger asked.
"If I'd said anything different, Kronos would have destroyed all of us in an instant," the Doctor replied, still making adjustments to the console. "He would have erased us from the time continuum, made it so that none of us had ever existed in the first place. In his realm, he has that kind of power." The Doctor looked up gravely. "So I told him anything he wanted to hear."
Danziger shivered and Devon sighed with exhaustion. Oleander, for his part, had witnessed everything in silence and didn't seem to be all that concerned.
"So what's next?" Danziger asked.
"It's time we were getting back to normal space," the Doctor said. "I'm going to try to bypass Central Control and gain access to the Eye of Harmony and the Matrix using my TARDIS." He let out a long breath. "Cross your fingers. We're going back."
He pulled the lever to trigger materialization.
Alonzo struggled back through the rising water, trying not to panic. He made it to the one of the walls which had stopped them earlier and slapped his hand against it. "Can anyone hear me?" he shouted. "Please help us! We're trapped!"
Bess and Mazatl were supporting True and Ulysses, trying to keep their heads above the water, but the ceiling was approaching fast and it was almost impossible to see. Cameron and Baines were desperately trying to clear away the rubble trapping them in, but it wouldn't come out.
The water grew more turbulent the closer to the ceiling it rose as people began to panic and thrash uselessly against the walls, and the streams from the pipes had less area to lose themselves in. Then something caused an unnaturally large wave to wash through the tunnel and Bess went under for a second, losing her hold on True and leaving her gasping for air.
True began making her way towards the pipes so she could at least have something to hold onto when a hand grabbed her ankle and pulled down hard. She didn't even have time to make a sound, it had happened so fast. She disappeared instantly.
Several moments later the same thing happened to Ulysses. Mazatl started to shout out in surprise when another wave washed through the tunnel and he breathed in a lungful of water.
As Alonzo banged on the walls for help and the others dug at the rubble, the space between the water and the ceiling dwindled to a meter and continued to close.