Part Two - The Tardis is forced to land on a lush, seemingly friendly planet, as the locals greet the Doctor and Andrea like guests. But when they are taken away from the parking structure where the Timelord's craft sits, they soon find out that they are prisoners in and forbidden to leave the planet. To make matters worst, The Rani, a renegade female Timelord and nemisis of the Doctor, soon reveals her presence to him as he learns of his new captivity. " The Rani....", he says softly in a defiant tone. The Rani stands there laughing at him, " I bet you didn't expect to see me here hmmm? ", she says to the Doctor, smiling away and slowly walking towards him. " Not really.......but then again, I was concerned that I hadden't seen you in awhile. But then again.....it looks as though you've changed your appearnce again. Not sure I like the hair....", he playfully says to her, but underneath his joval voice, a sence of distrust and anger. Rani just gives him a random look and moves her eyes over to his new companion. " Funny Doctor....I was going to say the same thing about you. And who is this? Picking up more strays from earth.....tsk tsk, Doctor. Didn't anyone tell you? You might get nasty germs from them! ", she says rather nastily at Andrea. Of course, Andrea doesn't take that verbal abuse very well, and gives back her own cat like remark. " I'm amazed you picked that outfit yourself......I didn't know hags could where leather! ", she snaps back at her. The Rani hates that smug glib, and gives Andrea a stare that would send a man running for the hills, but she soon calms herself and turns back to the Doctor. Probably to communicate on a more superior level with a fellow Timelord, she strolls over to him and caresses his maroon smoking jacket arm. The Doctor just flinches his arm away from her, looking bothered by her being there in the first place. " Tell me Rani, what's in it for you? Hmm? Why drag me to this place....in there hands? ", the Timelord says to the redhaired woman, " What do you want of me now you deranged bitch?! " She hates being called that, a word that no woman likes to be spoken towards her person, she walks over to the gaurds, pauses for a moment and faces him again. " I don't want anything with you! Still the pompus twit after all these regenerations, I'm as much a prisoner as you are! ", she says with contempt at him. The Doctor laughs, " Oh yes......I'm sure you are...." Kelarr, standing with his gaurds behind him, finally speaks up again, " She's telling the truth, Doctor. The Rani is another guest of the Shalarians, as are all time travellers from now on.....", the green scaled creature reveals to him. His red eyes peer out to the oddly dressed traveller that his words ring true, and with a sudden wave of realization that it might be all really happening, the Doctor finally gives in to that panic. " Oh dear.....", is all he can mutter out, ".....Why are you people really doing this? ", he asks Kelarr. " Doctor....for far too long, your people have governed the cosmos, they've become decadent and unreliable. We the newly formed Shalarian Empire, have now begun to take our rightful place as the new gaurdians of Time. ", Kelarr says to him in a serious voice. Grabbing hold of the Rani's arm, he places her back into the center of the room with the Doctor and Andrea, and then walks back to his gaurds. His slow, confident turn back to look at them makes it seem that all hope is fading fast for him and the others. " The Rani was most cooperative in helping us locate your Tardis, when she was first brought here....she gave us alot of trouble. So we had to detain her in a much more.....secure area. ", the creature implys with a smile, " Naturally it took some doing.....but we gave her certain liberties, a lab to work in, free time to spend out in the city and soon she did help us to locate your exact dematerialization code. ", the green skinned mans finishes. The Doctor looks over at the Rani and rolls his eyes at her, " Of course.....I'm sure it took......all.....of her strength not to tell you. " The Rani looks at the Doctor and looks at him in a ugly manner, hearing him say that hidden insult to her, made her very cross. But who can blame the Doctor, he's been spurned by the Rani before and shes always telling lies to gain in her favor, why would this situation be any different. As the Timelord finishes his little comment, the Shalarian leader points to his gaurds to open the doors, as he is now ready to leave. " In time Doctor......you will exept your fate here, as she has done. This is now your new home, and our people will soon be the new Timelords of the Universe. You have free roam of the entire city, and of every other corner of the planet......but rest assured.....There is no escape from us, or this planet. ", the alien creature dictates to them all. Kelarr then leaves and as the gaurds follow behind, they close the doors. Now all three of them stand alone in the lounge room, a silence among them all hangs in the air, until the Doctor tries to lighten the situation. " Well......looks like more room service for you Andrea, shall I ring for tea? ", he says in a light hearted remark. Andrea folds her arms and plumps her self down on the chair behind her, the look of utter disbelief now sits on her face. Prisoners, for all time, on a planet that now thinks its going to be the center of the universe. The Rani finds the Doctor's comment typical of his character, always trying to cut in a joke, a rather human sentimentality she never understood, nor cares to understand. As far as she's concerned, humans are just another herd of lab animals that are to be used in experimentation. She's a scientist first and formost, but a very extreme one at that, feeling that her kind, Timelords, are far above such weak little creatures. " Always joking Doctor......you never change. ", she snarls at him in a grim tone. " And you Rani.......", the Doctor quickly retorts back to her, " ....you'll never change at all. You'd still turn in your grandmother for any chance to save your own miserable hide. Tell me.....just how on earth did these creatures get thier hands on such technology? Hmm? I think you gave them more then just my little dematerialization code....", he suggests to her. Rani sighs and crosses her arms, " I gave them whatever they wanted......I was a prisoner Doctor....", she sucks in her cheeks and stares him down, a rather nasty look if he had to guess, "...So when they captured me.....I gave them the plans I stole from Galifrey to barter for my life." The Doctor rests his shoulders back and lowers his eyes at her, " The time scoop...." Andrea looks up at the Doctor, " What's that? ", she enquires him with great interest. " The time scoop device is something my...", he looks at the Rani, "...our.....people use sometimes, to bring Timelords back to Galifrey. They only use it of course for certain emergancies only, most of the time its forbidden to use. I wasn't even aware the detailed blue prints for the machine where still avalible.....last I heard it was destroyed before the days of Rassilon. ", he says as he looks at the Rani again. She looks up, smiles at him, and flops down on another couch across the room, " Oh no Doctor......I found them, infact I was on Galifrey searching the old city ruins. I stayed hidden from our people, when I visited that is......can't have them arresting me for coming back now can I. Thats when I searched in the bed chambers of Rassilon himself, the fools never looked in certain areas.....the clues where all around. Old Rassilon was very sneaky, he found the prints and managed to squirrel them away from the others, making them believe they had been lost for the ages.....and of course to make sure the only working Time Scoop device was the only one of its kind. Do you want to know where I found them Doctor? ", Rani taunts at him. The Doctor shakes his head in curiousity, for years his people had believed the very drawings for making another device where burned in the great revolt, Rassilon was the leader of the Timelords back then, and his rule was a rather cruel and terrible. But nothing is absolutely certain about those days, or about Rassilon himself, the fact remains that he did eventually turn on his fellow timelords. He ended the corruption that most of them had embraced and made the radical change that the Timelords of today still live out to this day. For they are now the responsible overseers of Time and Space, for eons they have done so, but during the Doctor's time, things had changed. The Timelords have grown too bureaucratic, pompus and now become isolationist from the rest of the universe. Which is why the Doctor left so long ago. The Rani finally explains how she found the item, " On his bed there was an engraved scripture....' Look to the star of time, and the stones of our space....for there you shall see that I am the truth. '....", she looks at the slightly older Timelord to see if he catches on, " .....you've heard of this, yes? " The Doctor nods, " Every one of us on Galifrey remembers that scripture, but thought he was refering to his greatness in the Universe. The ' stars of Time ', was the vortex that would take us, the ' Stones of our space ' was the planets in the universes, and the ' I am the Truth ' was refering to his greatness. Ego was always his main characteral flaw I believed. " The Rani laughs at the obsurdity of his translation, here she thought the Doctor was a scholar of the teachings of Rassilon, but he didn't even clue in to what the scripture really ment, " You....You fool...", she laughs out loud at him, " ....you are truly narrow minded. All those years hanging around these lesser creatures. No Doctor.....it was refering to his picture on the stone wall behind him. He is the ' star of time ', his picture is painted on the space of the stone wall, and the truth.....well.. the truth is.....that if you look very carefully at the detail in the painting itself...you'll see the microscopic drawings of the device and how to assemble it. The whole painting on the wall is the blue print.....disgused as his very own mural. ", she says to him with a over confident purr in her voice. The astonished Timelord smacks his head in realization, " Damn......of course! Good old Rassilon, still up to his old tricks to this very day.........and here I was thinking he was into himself......Still...it was a nice picture of him. Now I see why the artisans where denied removing it from the ruins. ", he mutters onto himself. Andrea looks terribly confused by the whole conversation, " Who's Rassilon....what's all this about his picture? " " hmm? ", the Doctor says to her as he snaps out of his usual deep thinking, " Oh....its a long story my dear. I shall have to tell it to you at another time.", the Doctor says placing his hand on her shoulder. He then turns to the Rani quickly as another thought strikes his brain, " If they have the time scoop, that means there are other Tardis here.......like the ones in the parking lot. ", his posture soon eases as the new revelation becomes clearer to him now, " Time ships.....thats all that parking structure is filled with. Other races and creatures that have made some form of time machines themselves. But why? Why collect them? Why have them sitting untouched when they could be pulling them apart for their own gain? Something is very wrong about all this.....", he looks out from the room's main window over looking the valley outdoors, " They must have a reason for doing all this.....not just to be the new Timelords......but something for something else.....Or.....for some one.", the Timelord stares out from the window as he finishes his thought. Andrea walks over to him and wraps her arm around him for comfort, he seems so disturbed by the thought of a hidden agenda by these beings that his mind is now full of unanswered questions. The Rani remains sitting, watching the two of them standing there as the sun sets down, causing a warm earth like sunset in the distance. A smile slowly cracks on her face, more like a smirk really, and a quite chortle that almost can't be heard by anyone. The face of evil shows on her, like she does know more about whats going on then her two captures do. Back in the main building, where they maintain watch over the timestreams, Kelarr returns to the command center, where the large screens monitor the spacial grids. The room is full of computers, and Shalarians operating each one of them. Some are moving back and forth and giving information to their fellow workers, one enters the room and heads towards Kelarr. " My lord, our Patrons are calling again. ", the man says to his leader, " They want to make sure that all is prepared before they land. " Kelarr heads to a door that leads off to a private room, " I shall contact them myself, keep an eye on the Doctor and the others, I want to know where they go at all times. ", he orders his subordinate. The mans bows and does what his leader commands. Kelarr then enters the private room, which looks more like his personal office. He walks over to a screen, and pushes a button that is flashing yellow. As he does that, a multi-coloured pixelated image pulsates on the main viewer. As it talks, the pixels randomly shift at the sound of its voice. " Report on status of the Doctor! ", the image says to Kelarr, the voice sounds electronic and very distorted, almost like it was made so the person at the other end of it couldn't be identified. Kelarr responds to the voice, " He is here, and under watch. I've made sure no harm will come to him until your arrival, how soon will you be here my patron? ", the inquiring man asks. " We will soon be in orbit of your world. What of the other vessels you have captured? Did you carry out our instructions? ", the strange voice asks again. " Yes, everything is done. As you requested, all the operators of those machines have been eliminated. I hope we can finish our agreement and finally conclude this transaction......", the man pauses for a second and looks up at the screen again, " I dont' trust the Doctor.......or the Rani.......what will you do of them when you arrive? " The voice soon becomes more sinister as it fortells their fate, " The Rani will be delt with in due time.......but as for the Doctor.....he will be the first to die! " End of Part Two