MadCap's Fiction Corner - Jenny Journeys: "The Ghost of the Warlord" (Chapter Seven)

"Emergency power is up." Dah-Regg said, having been fighting with the controls of the ship for some time. "Really glad you put the reserve tanks nearer the bow, Captain."

"Does that mean we have control of the ship back?" Jones asked, likewise having been working at what was left of a terminal.

"Unfortunately, no." Dah-Regg said. "I do have the censor grid up and running, though."

"What have we got?"

"Well, we're entering Milax Five's atmosphere again."

"Really? I couldn't tell." Jones replied dryly, glancing through the front viewport as their trapped ship was being dropped in the Reformation's gravity well toward the planet. "I suppose, even if we could, we couldn't break free of the shields, could we?"

"Afraid not, no." Dah-Regg said. "It also might be interference, but I can't pick up the Cook anymore."

"Probably were shunted off into the black, if their controls were in as bad shape as ours were." Jones sighed. "Poor bastards."

"There's traces of artron energy."

"Artron?"

"Uh... chronoton radiation, Captain. At least what we can measure of it."

"Must be Time Agents running around."

"No, this is from the planet, Captain..." Dah-Regg tapping his fingers against the screen nearest to him. "Like... a lot of it. You couldn't generate this much energy with a vortex manipulator. You couldn't generate this much with a thousand of them." Jones came over, looking at the screen and examining the readouts from his pilot's scans. Sure enough, that was a ridiculous amount of artron energy.

"Why?"

"I don't know, but it's coming from the planet. From within the planet." It was, needless to say, odd. As the two began to muse on it, however, both of them were lurched forward. Both grabbing onto something as the remnants of the Champlain began to fall toward the planet.

"IF YOU CAN HEAR THIS, BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Jones yelled into the comm system.

"The crew of the Cook are taken care of?"

"They have been dropped back through one of the rifts, yes." Bishop said.

"Wha-What?" Andrew coughed.

"Oh, you didn't realize?" Morbius asked. "The brigands earlier on the surface. They were what remained of the crew of the Cook. Yours would have joined them, but you managed to save them..." Her hand grabbed Andrew's chin, forcing him to look up at her. "Annoying humans. Why he has such a fondness for you, I'll never understand."

"Who?"

"The Doctor."

"The Doctor..." Andrew had a thought occur to him. "Jenny, your father. Remember him! You have to-" Another slap sent the young man falling to the ground, picked up by the two thugs Bishop had had bring him in.

"She's gone." Morbius' face twitched, turning back to Bishop. "Is the lander prepared?"

"Yes," Bishop intoned, "and the terraforming devices have already been deployed."

"Excellent. Milax Five will be alive for the first time in twenty thousand years." Morbius said. "Consider it my gift."

"Of course." Bishop said.

"Then let's prepare for descent." Morbius intoned. "Bring the boy with us."

"The boy?"

"Yes, you ingrate! The boy!" The Time Lady snapped at him. She turned, her robes swishing behind her as she stepped toward the other end of the room. Bishop gestured to the two men, who took Andrew up under his arms once more and carted him through the various corridors leading down into the docking bay. They dropped him just before they got onto the ramp leading up into the lander, Andrew rising just in time to have a pair of cuffs secured him at the wrists.

"Is this really necessary?" He grumbled.

"Shut up." The reply came coupled with a hard smack to his back, urging him onto the lander.

"Really, Mr. Caitlinson, I'm not sure why you're so insistent on defiance." Bishop said.

"Because I don't like your face, Bishop." Andrew said snidely.

"Really, now. You don't have to suffer the same fate as the rest of your crew." Bishop said as the pair made their way up the ramp and into the lander. "Morbius wants them dealt with, but there's still a future for you with the Company. I said it before, you have an exemplary record before this little... incident."

"So you said." Andrew said. "I'm still not ratting out the rest of my crew."

"Oh, their fates are already sealed. There's no changing that." Bishop said. "What you can do is save yourself?"

"No deal." Andrew said.

"How disappointing..." Bishop said, gesturing to the seat within a small holding cell, which Andrew took. Bishop pressed a button next to it, a mechanical door started to lower. "You would have been a great asset." Andrew suddenly dropped to the floor and rolled forward, narrowly avoiding the falling door. Getting up, he revealed his hands to be unrestrained as the cuffs clattered to the floor. With a right hook, he managed to knock Bishop down. The businessman looking stunned just before the lights went out.

"Disappointing. Right." Andrew quipped before re-opening the door to the little cell and, with some effort, tossing Bishop in it. Taking Bishop's side arm - an old Alpha Meson blaster - Andrew then left him in the cell and closed the door. "Sleep it off, you'll be fine." Gun in hand, he made his way toward the bridge and, he hoped, Jenny rather than Morbius.

The thoughts continued to stir in her head.

"The Doctor. You have to remember... the Doctor..."

"You're an echo, that's all. A Time Lord is so much more!"

"You're a child of the machine. You're on my side!"

"C'mere. Listen, and tell me where she belongs."

"...two hearts."

"Listen to me. The killing. After a while, it infects you. And once it does, you're never rid of it."

"NO!" Morbius balled her fist up a bit, willing the shakes to stop. She had erased Jenny, buried her beneath so much psychological debris that she would have no chance of re-assuming control. Even if she did, it would be far too late. With her TARDIS back, Morbius could draw upon the Eye of Harmony and could force a regeneration. A temporary measure until she could configure a more permanent solution. Perhaps with the Company's fantastic progenation machines. They had worked so well with Time Lord DNA before, after all...

She punched in the coordinates, causing the lander to lift off from the docking bay and head out of the cruiser. Soon, it was descending toward the planet.

"You know I can see you, Andrew." Morbius said, having been watching on one of the monitors as Andrew had subdued Bishop and taken his weapon. "You won't need that."

"I'm hoping I don't have to use it." Andrew said, standing in the hatchway. Morbius spun around, gazing at the young man. She could see no small amount of trepidation in his glance, his posture. This was not a warrior.

"You won't. After all, if you shoot me, then you lose your precious Jenny. Don't you?" Morbius asked.

"You said that she was gone." Andrew said.

"Not gone, dormant." Morbius shook her head. "On the planet, there is an item that I need. Once I possess it, I can extract myself from Jenny and we can all go about our separate ways. Simple as that."

"You're lying." Andrew said, hand still shaking.

"If I am, then shoot me." Morbius sat up straighter in the chair, giving him a large target of the midsection. "Just remember the price if you do." She could not help but smirk, seeing the clear worry and panic in the boy's face. She knew he wouldn't pull the trigger.

"If you are lying," Andrew said, "I will kill you."

"And perhaps, one day, you'll believe that." Morbius said, spinning her chair back around to take the controls again. "You may wish to take a seat. It's going to be a bumpy ride." Andrew grabbed the back of the chair nearest Morbius, gun still trained on her. She, however, did not look back. Instead she watched through the viewpoint as they entered the atmosphere of Milax Five.

"...how interesting." Morbius commented. Andrew's eyes bugged out of his skull as he looked down upon a rich, verdant landscape where once had been poisonous wastes.

"What the hell-?" He began.

"Bishop had said they had sent down terraforming devices." Morbius said. "I hardly expected them to be working at this speed, however..."

"What do you mean?" Andrew asked.

"There's an overabundance of artron energy here. The background radiation of time travel. Interesting." Morbius said. "My TARDIS must have been here for so long that it radiated out..."

"Your what?"

"My time machine, Andrew. Try and keep up." Morbius tutted. "My time machine has been buried here, all because of the machinations of the Lord President of the Time Lords - Rassilon. However, he isn't here to stop me. At last. Milax Five will become a lush paradise in a sea of fire and hell."

"Why?" Andrew looked terrified. "Why would you do this?!"

"Because the Time Lords were wrong!" Morbius snapped. "Sitting in their domed citadel, gazing down upon the lesser races of the universe and never interfering! Never touching! And what did that get them? Piles and piles of ash, crushed and thrown into the wind! Madness! No, it is time that the Time Lords take their place as the rightful rulers of the universe! Even if I am the last one!"

"You... you..."

"Lunatic? Monster? Madman?!" Morbius asked, laughing. "I've heard them all, Andrew. Up until the moment they scattered me to the nine corners of the universe! But no more! No, no more..." The lander came to rest upon the ground, just outside of one of the now open mine shafts. "Destiny awaits. Come, my companion... we have work to do." Another push of a button and she opened the landing ramp. Andrew still remained with the gun trained on her, but she ignored him. Instead, Morbius journeyed down to the holding cell and opened it up. "Wake up, Bishop! Now!" Her foot gave a sharp kick into the man's side, causing him to audibly groan.

"What are you doing?!" Andrew protested.

"Why does he have my gun?! What is this, Morbius?!" Bishop demanded, now without his horn-rimmed glasses.

"Silence, both of you!" Morbius snapped at both of them, then returned her attentions to Bishop. "Mr. Bishop, it is time for you to receive your Company's benefit in this endeavor. Mr. Caitlinson is coming along with us."

"With my gun?"

"With your gun, yes." Morbius said, fixing Andrew with a glance that made the young man visibly flinch and step back a half step. "If you harm Mr. Bishop, I will completely erase Jenny's consciousness, and then I will spend every last millisecond of your existence making sure you suffer in ways your primitive mind cannot conceive of. Do I make myself clear?" Andrew still stood, gun still pointing out, moving between the two men. "Come along, Bishop." Morbius made her way down the ramp. Andrew turned back to Bishop just in time to be punched firmly in the nose and knocked down.

"Your punches could use some work, Mr. Caitlinson." Bishop said, retrieving his Alpha Meson and now training it on the young man. "Now march!" Andrew, holding a bloodied nose, held up his other hand in a surrender gesture and moved along. Morbius did not look remotely surprised to see the pair had had their circumstances changed, nor did she comment on it, instead heading into the mine shaft. An electro-cart system had been set up.

"Bishop. Your code clearance, please." Morbius said.

"12-47-Apple-Jay-5-1-3-6-Slash-Rutabaga." Bishop recited from memory, still staring intensely at Andrew, keeping watch for even the slightest sign that he would fight or flee. Morbius punched the numbers into the control pad and soon a mechanical whirring sent an overly large mine cart along a lengthy, metallic line toward them.

"How did this place survive the bombardment?" Andrew asked, still holding a bloodied nose.

"The craft work of the 60th century apparently holds up well enough for our purposes." Morbius said, examining a small screen on the control pad. "I am detecting no faults in the line. 98% efficiency rate."

"That is acceptable." Bishop said, gesturing with his blaster toward Andrew. "You first."

"If you insist..." Andrew said, walking to get in the cart. The thing was massive, meant for an entire mining crew of twenty to thirty, so with only a tenth of that it was a little ridiculous. However, they were soon all aboard and the outer door sealed, the three moving off to their destination. "Where are we going, exactly?"

"A point five hundred meters that way." Morbius pointed in the direction the cart was moving. "It's where the artron radiation is at its strongest. That is where we will find my TARDIS."

"And you're okay with this?" Andrew asked, looking over to Bishop. The man was still pointing his gun firmly at him. "You know what he's going to do, right? The damage that he's going to cause?"

"Morbius has made it clear that he will not harm Company interests." Bishop said. "In fact, he'll be helping us do more business than we ever have before."

"What?!"

"Weapons, of course." Bishop said. "And every conquered world will need supplies to rebuild, to feed their masses, to clothe them... all of that."

"You're... you're going to let him commit genocide... for... greed?!" Andrew almost yelled in exasperation.

"Profit, Mr. Caitlinson. Something you would have been a part of if-"

"You're as much a lunatic as he-she is." Andrew cut him off then and there, turning back to Morbius. "Jenny, I know that you're in there! Please! Please hear me! Some part of you had to be able to hear me!" Morbius laughed.

"Bishop, lower the gun."

"What?" Bishop stared at her.

"Did I stutter? Lower the gun." Morbius said, eyes narrowing at the man. Bishop did as told and Morbius rose up from her seat and walked over to Andrew. With lightning speed, her fist struck him across the face. "Jenny can hear you, Andrew. She can hear you right now. Talk to her."

"J-Jenny..." Andrew, his head spinning, barely managed out as he took another punch to the side of the head.

"She can hear every word you're saying, Andrew." Morbius' teeth were gritted, staring down at the young human with eyes full of hatred. "And she's going to hear me when I beat every. Last. Breath. Out of your body and snap your neck. And there is nothing that can stop me-" Morbius was suddenly cut off as the entire cart shook in time with a large explosion from above.

"Alert: Mine integrity compromised, fallen to...87%... 75%...63%...51%."

"What is happening?!" Morbius growled, grabbing a safety rail as Bishop was making his way to the computer terminal.

"Just what it says," Bishop said, reading the screen. "Something is causing the mine to collapse!"

"But what?!" Morbius yelled just before the railing snapped and she fell over, the metal striking her on the back of the head. Andrew, fighting to remain conscious after the strikes across the face and the explosions that were still rocking the cart, witnessed it.

"Jenny! No!"

"Jenny! No! Jenny! No! Jenny! No! Jenny! No!" Somewhere in the corridors of the Time Lady's mind, the voice of Andrew Caitlinson echoed. On that Gallifreyan field, in the ruins of the citadel, the rubble began to give way and the debris fell as a hand forced its way upward and into the air once again...