Footsteps, Part 1

[James J. Dibenedetto]

The following story is intended for submission to the Trenchcoat
fanzine, and it stars the ninth Doctor and his American companions,
Sue and Ryan. Any and all comments are welcomed; please email
them to me. Part 2 should follow in two or three days, and parts 3 and
4...well, hopefully soon. Enjoy...

"Footsteps"
by James DiBenedetto

He watched. Nothing much to see in the scrapyard, not now.
Soon, though. He knew exactly what to expect, but it would be
new, in a sense. It was confirmation, and a look back. He'd
never done that before, watched himself. This was just
aftermath; he'd lost that battle, and the winner would be here
soon. But that would change soon. And then? Who knew? Expert
as he was, he didn't know, couldn't know, what the results would
be. No one could know. But he would find out.

***

In another time, on another world, an itinerant Time Lord walked
on a beach. It was nighttime, and the view was breathtaking.
Nowhere in the galaxy was there a view like the one from the Eye
of Orion. And the smell of the salty air, and the positive ions.
It could be the greatest tourist attraction in the galaxy, and
the Doctor laughed to himself. When they'd landed here, his
companions had mentioned that very idea. "Talk about a great
location for a health spa", Sue had said. "The first
interstellar Club Med." Ryan didn't say anything, but for a
moment, he was thinking about it. How much would a Club Med
franchise cost?

As the Doctor contemplated the possibility of interstellar
group tours, his companions swam a few hundred yards off shore.
Both relished the exercise, although neither was in dire need of
it. Travelling with the Doctor certainly provided ample
opportunity for running, climbing, and all manner of other
aerobic activity. But it was nice to do it just for the fun of
it. No chases, no threats, nothing. Just a pleasant nighttime
swim under the glorious light of the Eye of Orion.

***

In the scrapyard on Totter's Lane, in the darkest night
under the gray skies of London in March, something extraordinary
was happening. A loud, wheezing sound filled the yard, and
something - at first only a ghost, then becoming more
substantial, began to appear. It took several seconds, and then
it was fully materialized. In an especially dark corner of the
yard, where there had been nothing before, stood a Police Box.
The door opened slowly, hesitantly, and a face inched its way
out. It was an old face, and weary. It bore scars; not
physical, but the eyes, and the almost-frown, bore witness to
psychic scars that were still fresh. The face pushed out
further, and the body followed. Slowly, carefully. Not
frightened, but wary. The eyes darted about. Was he followed?
Was the battle truly ended?

Outside the yard, he watched and listened. His old
adversary had arrived, fresh from their first - no, not really.
Their second battle. The first was fought on their homeworld,
and it had been a draw, or, to be more fair, both had lost. He
had been forced to flee, which he had known was likely to happen
sooner or later; and he had lost his followers, and his influence
and seemingly, all his power. And his opponent had lost just as
much. More, possibly. But the second battle, his opponent had
won a clear victory there. And now that opponent was just
venturing forth from his TARDIS. He wondered idly if the girl
was with him. Back when they had fought that terrible battle,
back when they were both in their first lifetime, he had spared
the girl. Now, though. Now it would be different. He was the
Master, and nobody would be spared.

The Doctor looked around the scrapyard. It was blessedly
quiet. He motioned into the TARDIS, and Susan came out. She
gingerly stepped around the debris on the ground, casting a
concerned look at the Doctor. "He's not here, Grandfather, is
he? He wouldn't follow us, right?"

The Doctor looked cautiously about. He certainly wasn't in
this little junk yard. But he could be anywhere on this world,
or any world, for that matter. If he had survived, which the
Doctor was skeptical about. "I don't believe so, Susan. I think
we'll be safe here, at least for a time," the Doctor answered.
"But we will have to return home. I don't know when, but we will
return. I promise you that," he said, and there was just a hint
of steel in his voice.

Susan considered that. She didn't know much about what had
happened on Gallifrey. But when Grandfather got that tone, he
meant what he said. "I know," she told him, smiling. "But until
then, until you're ready, can we stay here? I don't enjoy all
this running and fighting."

The Master listened to that conversation and laughed to
himself. When he was finished, Susan wouldn't have to worry
about running and fighting. She wouldn't even exist, and neither
would the Doctor - not now, or in any of his other incarnations.
He could do it now, kill them both right there. They'd have no
warning, no chance to escape. He thought that over for a moment,
decided against it. The plan was better, and it might even save
him all those regenerations. To have his original body back,
with 12 regenerations, thousands of years of life, that would be
extraordinary.

The Master walked off, pleased with himself. Time to get to
it, he decided. To his TARDIS, and then to handicap a fight.
After that, without the Doctor to trouble him, anything would be
possible. Anything.

The Doctor paced around the scrapyard, thinking about the
situation. Perhaps they could remain for a while. Susan did
need stability. He didn't at all like her idea of trying to fit
in with the Earth people. And her attending one of their
schools? She was the right age, and it wouldn't do to have her
wandering about London all day. Questions would be asked. She
couldn't stay cooped up in the TARDIS all the time, either. No
matter what she did, there would be questions. They'd have to
discuss it further. But they could certainly stay for a little
while. "But we just have a bit of business to take care of
first, Susan.", he said, and went back into the TARDIS.

***

On the Eye of Orion, the same TARDIS, battered by hun
dreds of years of use and misuse, stood proudly a few hundred
yards from the beach. The Doctor patted the ship fondly, waiting
for his companions to return. They walked up, still dripping
from their swim. "Where to now, Doc?", Ryan asked.

The Doctor considered that for a moment. "Honestly, I've not
decided yet. Any ideas?", he asked them. He did have a couple
of ideas, truth be told. A trip to see the moons of Trallen IV,
or maybe Ethel Merman's debut performance on Broadway, or the
third cycle of Fire Songs on Brachea II. Nothing pressing,
though. No appointments, no problems.

Ryan and Sue gave it some thought. "Maybe we could take a
quick trip home?", Sue said. "Just to see if everything's still
there, you know?" Ryan nodded in agreement. It was always good
to see that Earth was still in one piece, especially with all the
invasions and whatnot.

"Yes, we could do that," the Doctor answered. "1993, right?
Perhaps we could see that strange fellow with the telly program.
The one you met in school, Sue." What was his name? Almost a
thousand years of memories, little things got lost sometimes.

"David Letterman!", Sue shouted.

"You never told me you met him. How could you hold
something like that back?", Ryan asked in mock annoyance.

"It never came up."

"Alright. To Earth it is, then.", the Doctor decided,
opening the TARDIS door. "All aboard!"

***

The Master fingered a remote control and the door to his
TARDIS slid open. The irony was incredible; it had disguised
itself as a police box, a clone of the Doctor's TARDIS. He'd
have to look at the chameleon circuit, reprogram the entire
subsystem, probably. But that could wait. There were more
important things to be done, starting with a very precise bit of
coordinate setting. It had to be exactly right. He could feel
the power of his ship as he entered commands on the main console,
the immense energies. There! The course was set, the trap was
laid, the prey unawares. With only the slightest sound, the
mighty engines drew on the power of the Eye of Harmony, filled
the TARDIS with the energy to break through the barriers of time.
The police box exterior faded and vanished, and the ship was at
home in its natural element, cruising through the Vortex, on a
journey that would take it half a millennium in time, and 5,000
lightyears in space.

Had he waited just a few moments more, the Master would have
seen a sight that would have made him throw out all his carefully
calculated plans. The Doctor's TARDIS dematerialized, and
reappeared less than a kilometer away, and it was no longer a
police box. The appearance had shifted to become a statue. The
door opened, and the Doctor came out holding a palm-sized device,
and Susan followed, carrying a larger, more complicated device.
The Doctor touched a control, and a box floated out of the
TARDIS. It moved a few meters away, in response to the Doctor's
commands. Susan attached a tiny sensor to the box, and activated
her device, a miniature transmat controller. The Doctor smiled
at her. "Go ahead, Susan. No need to stand on ceremony."

Susan nodded, fingered a control, and the controller buzzed.
"How deep should I go?", she asked.

"5 meters should be enough.", the Doctor replied.

Another adjustment to the controller, and the ground shook
for just an instant, and several cubic meters of earth appeared
in midair. "I had to empty out the space, Grandfather. Can't
put it in the ground when there was all that dirt there taking up
the space, right?", Susan told the Doctor, forestalling his
question.

"Of course. My mind was elsewhere."

"Are you still worried about him?"

"About many things, Susan. Finish this, and I'll worry
about one less.", the Doctor said, and Susan nodded. She touched
the execute control, and the box shimmered for a millisecond and
disappeared.

"Safe and sound, 5 meters below the ground, Grandfather. No
one will know it's here."

"Except us," the Doctor said heavily. "Remember it well,
Susan. That terrible device is one of the reasons we are here
now. No one should have such power.", he continued. He felt
Susan's fear, the same fear he had. He knew. Someday, someone
would come looking for it, and he would have to fight them.

"Yes, Grandfather. I saw what the Hand did. I'll always be
there to stand by you when you have to fight.", Susan said, in
answer to the Doctor's thoughts.

The Doctor took Susan's hand and let her back to the TARDIS.
"You are a credit to all the Time Lords, Susan. If only there
were more like you, we could have stayed." he said. But in the
very darkest parts of his mind, where Susan couldn't see, where
even he couldn't always look, he knew. She wouldn't be there
when that fight came. And he would be a far different person. A
person he didn't like the looks of at all. He banished the
thought; nothing to be done about it now. "But for now, put it
out of your mind. Never think about it. It's better that we
both forget." And with that, they entered the TARDIS, and it
groaned and wheezed and disappeared, and returned to its spot in
Totter's Lane, and its police box form.

***

He was confused. Lost. Different. There were voices, but
they were too far away to be understood. He was standing in the
same spot, looking at the same controls, but they were different.
And then he felt the connection - it was him. Him as he had
been, lifetimes ago. But was he reaching out to the past, or was
the past reaching out to him? A bell sounded, the ringing coming
from all around. It brought realization: he was the Doctor, he
had regenerated eight times. And another realization. There was
no contact. The TARDIS was trying to warn him, using its
memories of who he had been to give him a message. But he never
remembered sending a message, certainly he didn't remember
meeting himself. Not then, not at that crossroads. He analyzed
the memory, replaying it in his mind. It was - when? Just
before he landed on Earth, before the six months of healing and
rest, before Barbara and Ian and the Daleks and everything else.
The space between two lives.

Sue and Ryan stared at the Doctor with concern mixed with
frustration. He was somewhere else, and they knew no way to
bring him back, no way to help. "Change in plans!", the Doctor
suddenly said, immediately changing the settings on the main
console.

"What was that all about?", Ryan asked.

"And what kind of change? Where are we going?", Sue added.

"I got a warning. Didn't you hear the Cloister Bell?", the
Doctor asked. The ringing was still in his head.

"We didn't hear anything," Sue answered. "We all came into
the TARDIS, you set the controls, and you zoned out."

"Zoned out? Lovely expression, Susan."

"Susan? You've never called me that, Doctor.", Sue said.

"I'll call you whatever name I please, granddaughter!", the
Doctor growled, and immediately realized that something was
wrong. But what? He was losing himself again.

"Doc!", someone shouted, and then someone grabbed his arms
and shook him. And he was back again, staring at Ryan. "I think
you need to explain some things."

"When I left Gallifrey, with Susan. When I first came here.
My granddaughter. The Master. Something's - ah, I've got it
now!", the Doctor said, his mind beginning to clear. "The TARDIS
is somewhat telepathic, and it gave me a warning. There's a
problem with my first self. I was travelling with my
granddaughter Susan."

Sue looked relieved at that. "I didn't think we were
related, Doctor."

"What kind of problem? And how could the TARDIS know?",
Ryan asked. There were still some things about time travel that
were a little confusing. Like everything about it.

"I haven't any idea. Something's wrong. Something to do
with the time just before I came to Earth. There was the trouble
on Gallifrey, and I left with Susan, and then we fought the
Master, and after that we landed in London. It must be - it's
him!", the Doctor explained. "But he wouldn't - the fool! The
consequences could be - ", he said, trailing off as he examined
the more appalling scenarios in his mind.

His companions were lost again. "What are you talking
about, Doctor? Who's this Master you're talking about?", Sue
asked.

"A Time Lord. And my 'best enemy', I believe I used to call
him. As I said, just after we left Gallifrey, we fought. He was
trying to alter history out on the Galactic Rim, and I stopped
him. We've encountered one another many times since then. What
I think he's up to now is going back and changing what happened
in that first encounter.", the Doctor said with a disgusted shake
of his head.

"He can't do that, can he? Changing your own past - ", Ryan
started, unable to even imagine the consequences.

"Leaving the ethical implications aside, which is a courtesy
I will certainly not extend to the Master, it's certainly
possible for him to do it, although I don't know what might
happen. If he meets himself, it could be disastrous."

"Haven't you done that, Doctor? You told us yourself about
that," Sue told him. "When you were brought to Gallifrey, and
you met all your past selves."

"Yes, Sue. But that was the Time Lords doing. They
manipulated the time streams. I've never met myself because of
my own actions."

"What happens if you do, Doc?", Ryan asked, and the Doctor
explained about the Blintovich Limitation Effect, and the bizarre
business when the Brigadier met himself on board Mawdryn's ship.
"What you're saying is, basically, a really big 'boom', right?"

"If you must, yes. Or it could be worse. There could be
permanent damage to all of spacetime. Or he could just destroy
me, the old me, and wipe out all the rest of my regenerations.
And then he'd be free to do whatever he wanted throughout the
universe. I can't allow it. That's exactly what the warning
was," the Doctor said, getting back to the controls. He
remembered exactly where and when it was. That first battle -
but was it the first battle? He'd always suspected the Master
had had a hand in the troubles on Gallifrey. It didn't matter.
The coordinates were set, time and space. Go back a day or so
before he'd first arrived at the battleground. And it was done.
The Doctor fingered the dematerialization switch, hesitated.
"This will be extremely dangerous. If you don't want - "

"No chance.", Sue said, and looked at Ryan. She wasn't
leaving, and she saw in his eyes that he wasn't about to abandon
the Doctor either. "We're with you."

"Besides, how much worse can it be than everything else
we've been through?", Ryan added.

"So be it," the Doctor said gruffly. "Don't say I didn't
warn you," he continued, frowning, but his eyes betrayed him.
Ryan and Sue saw the gleam there, and they knew he wanted them
there. And he knew they knew. The Doctor pushed the switch, and
the TARDIS vanished from the Eye of Orion, and into the Vortex.

***

The Galactic Rim. Far out past the core worlds of the Earth
Empire. A stellar desert, virtually devoid of suns, and entirely
empty of habitable worlds. But human ingenuity, or maybe
stubbornness, had triumphed here. Space Station Alpha-9 hung
suspended in the night, a beacon shining alone in the darkness.
It was the farthest outpost the human race had built, a staging
point for those whose wanderlust was so great that their entire
galaxy was too small to contain it; and a hiding-place for those
who were hiding out from enemies or creditors, or any of a
thousand other things; and anyone else who needed to "get away
for a while." Alpha-9 was the last frontier of human space, and
it had the same motley collection of heroes and villains and
parasites and explorers and lunatics and burnouts and every other
kind of person there was that every frontier attracted. And it
was about to attract several more visitors.

The Master's TARDIS dematerialized in space, a few thousand
kilometers from Alpha-9. It disguised itself as an asteroid, and
it even spun and bobbed in space. Extremely convincing. The
Master had certainly fixed the chameleon circuit. Perfect. He
paced about his control room, staring at the viewscreen. The
station was quite impressive, given the humans' present level of
technology. The architecture was most pleasing. He stared for
several minutes. Time to act. He checked the chronometer. 1305
hours, local date 27 March 2677. Exactly a day before he would
arrive here so many lifetimes ago. The Master gathered himself,
gave himself one final chance to leave. No. No. Whatever the
risks, the possible rewards were too great. To have his lives
back, that was worth anything. And the little asteroid faded
away.

"1440 hours, March 27, 2677," the Doctor said, activating
the viewscreen. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

Ryan and Sue both stared at Alpha-9. They were stunned by
the size of the space station. "Sure beats the hell out of those
little jobs the Russians were putting up in orbit, doesn't it?",
Ryan asked.

"Certainly does," Sue answered him. Then, to the Doctor she
asked, "What's the population over there?"

"A few thousand, more or less," he started, concentrating on
the controls. After a few seconds, the temporal field monitor
went haywire. "And one more. He's there."

Ryan and Sue exchanged nervous glances. "Are you sure?",
Ryan asked, thinking about the Doctor's sometimes imprecise
control of the TARDIS.

"Absolutely. It's him. The 'later' Master, our Master, if
you will. The signature matches the readings from our last
meeting exactly. If I recall, the first time, he arrived about
when I did, in just around a day from now. So we've that much
time to stop him before things get very unpleasant."

The Doctor returned to examining the console, tapping a
control here and there occasionally grunting in annoyance. Sue
and Ryan watched this with some concern. "Sue, I think this
isn't going to be much fun.", Ryan said in a low voice.

She agreed. She had every confidence in the Doctor, but
this situation looked terrible. They had a strict deadline,
against a deadly enemy, and the possibility of heaven only knew
how much damage not just to them, but possibly to the entire
universe. Sue considered all that, and she laughed. "Don't
worry, Ryan. It's no worse than any of the other messes we've
gotten into with the Doctor.", she said, putting her arm around
her friend. "We'll pull through this one, too." I hope.

On Alpha-9, an automated foodvender that hadn't been there
90 minutes before slid open, and the Master exited. He admired
his TARDIS with pride. The detail was perfect, right down to the
delivery slots and the fingerpads. He touched one pad
experimentally, and to his shock a cup slid into position in a
delivery slot and filled immediately with a clear liquid. The
Master removed the cup, sniffed the liquid within, and slowly,
uncomfortably took a sip, and spat it out with a grimace. He
looked at the pad he'd touched. It was a vile concoction the
humans called lemonade. As this was going on, a tech dressed in
the uniform of Station Housekeeping came by. He was mumbling to
himself, trying to decide what he wanted for a snack. The Master
looked at the human with contempt. "Here, have this. You humans
all love your lemonade, don't you?", he said with a sneer,
handing the cup to the tech and walking off.

Annoyed as he was, the Master had enough presence of mind to
marvel at the new chameleon circuit. It could actually function
as whatever it was disguised as. Even if it did make terrible
lemonade. No matter. It was time to set the trap and wait for
the prey to be caught.

The Doctor opened the door of the TARDIS and found himself
in a cargo bay. Not again, he thought to himself. It's always a
cargo bay. Poorly lit, cold, very untidy. The one constant of
the universe, cargo bays.

Following the Doctor out, Sue had much the same reaction.
She hadn't been travelling with the Doctor all that long, but
already she'd seen her share of cargo bays. She looked around in
the dim light, saw nothing but transport pods stacked randomly
around the bay, with no apparent regard for neatness, or any sort
of pattern.

In the TARDIS, Ryan watched the Doctor and Sue make their
way through the cargo bay. The Doctor had asked him to stay
behind and watch the temporal field monitors, and both he and Sue
were wearing miniature commsets. If another TARDIS appeared,
they, especially the Doctor, needed to know immediately. He
didn't dare chance running into himself, or the earlier Master.
He'd calculated that they had a whole day, but it didn't hurt to
be safe. Ryan approved of that. It was one of the first truly
prudent things the Doctor had done in their travels together.
Meeting yourself must really be terrible, if the Doctor was
willing to exercise this kind of caution. And he'd taken other
precautions, too. The Doctor had changed his usual outfit for
something more appropriate: a sort of jumpsuit that was popular
among the rsidents on the space station. And he'd found an
official Imperial Intelligence uniform for Sue. He wasn't taking
any chances - well, less chances than usual, anyway. And then
there was his asking if he and Sue wanted to stay behind. The
very fact that the Doctor had asked made Ryan think about taking
him up on the offer.

As Ryan watched his companions wander out of the cargo bay
and into the corridors of the station, the TARDIS began beeping
at him. The viewscreen shifted to an empty corner of the cargo
bay, and something began to appear there. The temporal field
monitor began to fluctuate wildly. And then the something went
from a ghost to a more solid form, to a cargo pod. The Doctor
needed to know about this. Ryan tapped his commset. "Doctor!
Another TARDIS just landed!"

The Doctor's voice rang out in the control room. "Just
now?"

"Yes. The monitors started going crazy, and then a cargo
pod appeared out of nowhere," Ryan told him. As he watched, the
pod swung open, and someone - no, two someones came out. A man,
old, white-haired, holding a girl's hand. "Doctor, I think - I
think it's you! The other you!"

--
James John DiBenedetto (jj...@po.cwru.edu) | "You can really be yourself
also j...@ubunix.buffalo.edu | in a room full of hogs."
SUNY at Buffalo Law School Class of 94 |
Western Reserve College '91 |