- Nina
Regeneration. You never knew what you were going to get. But that
was jumping ahead...
Oneenejpenlumbra ducked as the Dalek trained it's gunstick on her.
“EXTERMINATE!”
Too late. The Dalek's beam hit her...
She was in her second incarnation when the Time War had gone 'hot',
with the Daleks attacking Gallifrey itself, having found a way to
neutralise the Transduction Barriers. Therefore she thought she knew
what regeneration was like. She was wrong
The Beam hit her, and she fell. Her memory went into overdrive as the
regeneration started. She nearly lost conciousness.
“ALERT! REGENERATION IN PROGRESS!” the Dalek was still there.
She stood up. “I'll take you with my current incarnation!” she
said.
“EMERGENCY RETREAT!” the Dalek moved backwards as it attempted to
retreat.
“No!” the Time Lady said as she redirected the regeneration
energy towards the Dalek.
“UNABLE TO RET...” the Dalek was interrupted as the regeneration
energy overcame the Battle Unit's defences, blowing it up, along with
the creature inside.
She then retreated herself, back towards her TARDIS, which she had
landed close by...
She entered the ship and collapsed. “No!” She crawled to the
console, stood up and set the ship in motion, back to Gallifrey, and
collapsed again as the regeneration continued.
One never knew what they were going to get.
Something was wrong. She crawled away from the console room. “Must...
get... to... Zero... Room!”
She would later reflect that she got to the Zero Room with hardly any
time left, certain that the TARDIS had ensured that the route was as
straight and short as possible.
One never knew what they were going to get.
She awoke and looked around the Zero Room. She was relaxed in the
simplistic environment. 'But I need to check if I'm back on
Gallifrey,' she thought. However, as soon as she exited the room it
started. She could hear that Dalek in her mind.
EXTERMINATE
It caused her to look around the corridor. Her hearts were racing
even as the TARDIS tried to calm her. “Stop!” she said, her hands
at her temples. She started running through the corridors, back to
the console room. However, she only got so far, before she turned
back to the Zero Room in a panic.
She closed the doors and breathed heavily. Something was definitely
wrong. She reopened the doors, and felt the TARDIS' presence in her
mind. The ship was pensive, clearly worried about her pilot. “OK,
I'm going to run to the console room.”
She ran though the corridors, trying not to think, but anxiety
rising. However the TARDIS was making it easy. The corridors weren't
a maze, but rather more-or less a straight line, between the Zero
Room and the Console room. She entered the console room in a panic.
She breathed deeply and looked at the instruments. She could see that
the TARDIS had landed. She was back on Gallifrey.
There was a TARDIS, another Time Lord had arrived, bringing news of
the ongoing defeat. But he or she hadn't yet come out.
“Not again!” There had already been many instances of Time Lords
returning to Gallifrey with their minds affected by trauma related to
fighting the Daleks. With their more complex brains, psychological
issues were more complex than in other species.
“Do we know who's TARDIS this is?” another of the Time Lords
asked.
“Checking,” a third Time Lord said. There was a beep.
“Oneenejpenlumbra. She was defending an outpost in Sector 27.”
“I see,” the first Time Lord said. He was interrupted as the
TARDIS door opened and Oneenejpenlumbra stumbled out.
“Home!” she said, in a tired sounding tone. But suddenly she
shuddered and placed her hands on her temples as if trying to ward
something off.
The three Time Lords could see that something was wrong with her.
“Are you OK?” the first Time Lord asked.
“No! I've just regenerated, of course I'm not alright!”
“There's something more...”
“Can you get me to a Zero Room?” Oneenejpenlumbra asked, before
she fell into one of the Time Lord's hands.
“You need more than a Zero Room.”
Oneenejpenlumbra awoke. It was the second day after she had returned
to Gallifrey. She looked around, she could see that she was in a Zero
Environment. “Lay out the worst,” she said to the person next to
the bed.
“The Regeneration went wrong. It intensified the trauma of your
previous incarnation's final moments, rather than suppressed it,”
the medical technician said.
“Is there anything you can do?” she asked. She shuddered as the
memory stirred in her concious thoughts.
“It has become firmly embedded into your memory,” the technician
explained.
“So, I need therapy, is that it?” Oneenejpenlumbra asked, with
some sarcasm.
“Wit,” the technician commented, quietly “As good as a coping
mechanism as any other.” He raised his voice, and answered “Yes.”
“Great!”
“Sarcasm is a good way to deal, but you do need help.”
Oneenejpenlumbra nodded.
Some
time later
The Time War waged on. More Time Lords were incapacitated
psychologically. Oneenejpenlumbra was merely one of the first.
The news wasn't good. Oneenejpenlumbra wanted to go back out and
help, but even the thought of confronting a Dalek was enough to bring
on an anxiety attack, so she wasn't allowed to. At least she was
helping others who were in similar predicaments. She came to a room,
where one of those she was helping was assigned to. She opened the
door, and found it, empty. Empty? “Where is he?” she asked
herself. He had to be somewhere.
She looked for him, but he was missing. There had been rumours, of
Time Lords fleeing, but she didn't expect this. 'How many have fled?'
she wondered, not for the first time.
One thing was certain, she had to report his disappearance. As with
everything, Time Lord society didn't want to hear of the
disappearances.
“Oneenejpenlumbra? What is it?” the Administrator asked.
“Hilsdrellan,” she said, referring to the client she had tried to
visit earlier, “He's missing.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I'm sure!”
“Hisdrellan would never run!”
“Went to check on him. He wasn't in his room. Nor was he anywhere
in this facility,” Oneenejpenlumbra explained.
The Administrator sighed. “He's far from the first one.”
“So the rumours are true?”
“Yes!”
“So, I just record that he's missing?”
“Yes. There won't be reprimand on your record,” the Administrator
said.
“Good,” Oneenejpenlumbra said in subdued tone.
“But if people ask, officially there is no one missing.”
“Understood,” Oneenejpenlumbra said with a sigh.
As the Time War progressed, more Time Lords fled from it, especially
from the facility Oneenejpenlumbra was assigned to. But most, it
seemed, never returned to Gallifrey...
Oneenejpenlumbra entered the Administrator's room. “A new decree,”
he said.
“There are always decrees,” Oneenejpenlumbra stated.
“Not like this one. It's from Lord President Rassilon himself!”
“Rassilon! What does he want?”
“An order for all Time Lords who have fled Gallifrey and the War to
be returned without delay,”
“Is that all?” Oneenejpenlumbra asked.
“He wants people to go out and find them. I told him that I have
been investigating, but once they had stolen a TARDIS there is
nothing I could do.”
“I see where this is going...”
“Yes, Oneenejpenlumbra. You have to flee yourself.”
“Why?”
“Otherwise Rassilon may choose you to search for the others. It
would be better for you to flee on your own terms, rather than leave
Gallifrey at Rassilon's direction and be tracked where-ever you go.”
Oneenejpenlumbra considered this. “You have encouraged them to
flee. Including Hisdrellen.”
“No. I didn't start encouraging them to flee until much later.”
“Why.”
“Because we are losing! The High Council, and especially Rassilon,
are getting desperate.”
“I know the war hasn't gone well...”
The Administrator interrupted her again. “I have access to more
information. The Daleks are closing in. There are many things
Rassilon can do that wouldn't be good for the universe at large.”
“Are you saying to flee this universe?”
“It is possible. I have data on various CVE's that have been
detected.”
Oneenejpenlumbra thought for a few moments. Then she made her
decision...
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