Doctor Who Online - Features - Time Tales - 4D 1.7: The Victory of Sek'Ral

Welcome to the Time Tales section of Doctor Who Online. Time Tales are Doctor Who dioramas (picture stories), based on characters and worlds inspired by Doctor Who, and written and shot by Malcolm Orr.

Syelon III, Sector Seven, The Sek’Ral Empire

1-56-U-12.7 – Sek’Ral Empire timescale

Twelve small fighter ships sped towards the cover of an asteroid belt, their scarred and burned hulls creaked as every last reserve of engine power strained to propel the rag-tag ships to the tantalising nearby safety. Huge bursts of cannon fire slammed into the outskirts of the asteroid belt just as the ships disappeared into the spinning maelstrom of rocks.

Captain Marshuk was a highly decorated officer of the Sek’Ral Seventh Fleet, and he could feel his pride being challenged by the audacity of the fleeing rebel ships. He commanded a fleet of eight Devastators – huge space battleships that allowed King Sek’Ral to rule his four star systems with an iron fist. He hesitated for a moment before he gave the order to enter the asteroid belt – sense may have warned him to stand his fleet down and reassess the situation, but Marshuk was a warrior and warriors did not gain victory by sitting down and talking about what to do next. He was determined to crush the rebels once and for all and haul the broken ships back to King Sek’Ral himself. The eight Devastators barged their way into the asteroid belt, smashing huge rocks out of their path. Marshuk’s stern face melted away as a tactician warned that there was no longer any sign of the rebel ships – just twelve sensor buoys masquerading as the ships they had pursued. Marshuk paniced and ordered an immediate withdrawal, but it was too late. The entire asteroid belt exploded, and consumed the fleet, destroying them utterly.

From behind a small moon, the twelve resistance ships emerged. Onboard the lead ship, Maelstrom, stood Timor, the leader of the resistance in this area. He smiled as the Sek’Ral Seventh Fleet tried to turn from the booby trapped asteroid belt. He triggered the remote explosives loaded in the asteroid belt, a plan that had been several months in the making now coming to fruition. The asteroid belt was consumed in a huge explosion and as it cleared, the mighty ships of the Seventh Fleet drifted in space. Timor asked for a scan of the ships. There were no life signs onboard the ships, but the ships themselves were functional. Timor ordered them to close in and asked for the team of hackers to move in and recode the ships controls so that they could use them against the rest of Sek’Ral’s forces.

Three weeks later...

Karonia

Sek’Ral walked through the corridors of his central palace dribbling left and right as rubble fell close to him. The walls were shuddering around him as the palace of eternity crumbled away. His aide, Bromax, was at last able to catch up to his master. Sek’Ral asked what had happened. It appeared that the resistance had used the ships captured from the Seventh Fleet and had built confidence and organisation in the resistance forces.
They had attacked at weak points in their defences and now were using the Seventh Fleet ships to lay waste to Sek’Ral’s power base. Sek’Ral screamed in anger at the turn of events. The pair descended to the bunker room where the war cabinet had been convened. Sek’Ral’s presence quietened the cabinet. The situation looked grim, but the entrance of Sek’Ral’s lead scientist, Omas, attracted the tyrant’s attention. He reported that he had made some breakthroughs with his temporal messaging equipment. He felt that they could test the equipment and it could warn the forces in the past about possible threats from the present. Sek’Ral asked him whether they could send a communication through time to warn the Seventh Fleet. Omas said that he could. He said that the equipment was in the main lab, and only that room would be protected from changes in the timeline. Sek’Ral, Bromax and Omas decided to go to the main lab.

Sek’Ral was determined that he would be victorious, and not only that, but if he could alter time, correct mistakes, then his victory could be eternal.

Syelon III, Sector Seven, The Sek’Ral Empire

1-56-U-12.7 – Sek’Ral Empire timescale

Twelve small fighter ships sped towards the cover of an asteroid belt, their scarred and burned hulls creaked as every last reserve of engine power strained to propel the rag-tag ships to the tantalising nearby safety. Huge bursts of cannon fire slammed into the outskirts of the asteroid belt just as the ships disappeared into the spinning maelstrom of rocks.

Captain Marshuk was a highly decorated officer of the Sek’Ral Seventh Fleet, and he could feel his pride being challenged by the audacity of the fleeing rebel ships. He commanded a fleet of eight Devastators – huge space battleships that allowed King Sek’Ral to rule his four star systems with an iron fist. He hesitated for a moment before he gave the order to enter the asteroid belt – sense may have warned him to stand his fleet down and reassess the situation, but Marshuk was a warrior and warriors did not gain victory by sitting down and talking about what to do next. He was determined to crush the rebels once and for all and haul the broken ships back to King Sek’Ral himself. A message is suddenly shown on the main viewscreen, warning them to leave. The ships realise that it has come from Sek’Ral himself. Marshuk turns the ship around, and the others follow.

Sek’Ral stood in the Time Room and could feel the rush of power over time. Noone would ever be able to stand in his way, he thought.

Timor saw that the fleet was withdrawing much earlier than they should. The weapon would not work, they were out with its range. Timor realised that the fleet were scanning the nearby area. The fleet appeared to locate them and closed in on them. Timor ordered an immediate evasive withdrawal, but the ferocity of the attack of the seventh fleet was without equal. The resistance ships were systematically destroyed. Timor’s ship was the only one able to escape into the asteroid belt.

Marshuk felt determined to follow the last ship into the belt, but was warned against it – somehow the belt was booby-trapped. The resistance had been all but destroyed, and they were ordered to move on to their original aim – destroying the rebellion on Yaddis Prime.

Othertime

Robyn was looking at the feint image on the scanner – a strange gaseous shape that the Doctor explained was a sentient life form. Suddenly and violently the TARDIS shuddered. The Doctor realised that there was a massive distortion in the time-space vortex, caused by indiscriminate interference. K9 rolled over to the central console and interfaced with the TARDIS. He and the Doctor located the source of the disturbance – an area near Syelon III. The Doctor set the coordinates to materialise the TARDIS near that location.

Sek’Ral Empire

Timor looked out at the scene of devastation. The huge battleships of the Seventh Fleet had now left, intending to regroup. Marshuk was sheepish, having realised that the warning from Sek’Ral had saved his fleet from being wiped out. Timor hung his head, their entire plan was ruined. Timor was convinced that someone must have passed information on to the Seventh Fleet – someone onboard this ship. That might also explain how their ship was the only one that had survived.

The Doctor, Robyn and K9 exited the TARDIS and looked around. The Doctor recognised that this was the hold of a small freighter, although it looked very much like the ship had been extensively modified to incorporate weaponry. They decided to explore further.

Timor and his first mate, Hadi, were walking down a corridor towards the mess when they saw the Doctor, Robyn and K9. He pulled his blaster from his side and pointed it at the strangers. The Doctor appeared both charming and disarming, but Timor had spent too many long years fighting in guerrilla wars to have much trust left in him. He demanded that the strangers were taken into custody. Robyn rolled her eyes and tutted at the Doctor.

The Doctor was trying to explain that he and Robyn couldn’t possibly have been the spies that Timor suspected they were – for one thing he never told lies. He tried to explain how and why they arrived here, even getting into the finer points of dimensional transcendentalism when the whole ship jolted. Hadi tried to access a maintenance panel to see what had happened, but the Doctor had realised already (with a little help from a certain tin mutt) – another ship has sent a scrambler – a device designed to scramble the control programs of the target ship, leaving it defenceless. Timor pointed his blaster at the Doctor, considering that an admission of guilt. ‘No-one likes a smart-arse, Doctor,’ commented Robyn.

Marshuk looked at the smaller ship and prepared to fire his pulsar cannons to destroy the ship in his view. The last of the rebels would soon be destroyed. He ordered the cannons to be charged and ready…

The Doctor said that unless he stopped the scrambling cascade program the ship would be destroyed. Timor realised that he had no choice, and the Doctor seemed genuine. Mad, but genuine. He pulled out the sonic screwdriver as K9 rolled over into a a computer panel. The ship shuddered as the first volley of the pulsar cannons smashed against its hull. The Doctor asked K9 to assist him in reversing the scrambler program affecting the ship. Within a few seconds the Doctor had restored the engines and navigational controls of the freighter. Hadi ordered the bridge to initiate evasive manoeuvres.

Marshuk was surprised to learn that the freighter had regained its engines – such a thing was impossible. The ship immediately headed towards the atmosphere of the nearby planet and into cloud cover. Marshuk was angry at the way they had been caught out. By the time the battleship was prepared to move, the smaller freighter had gone.

Timor thanked the Doctor for his help, but said that he still hadn’t bought his respect. The Doctor once again detailed the story of his arrival, and Timor still found it hard to believe. He explained to Timor that this reality was part of a history that has been altered somehow. Someone was using a very crude way of altering the timelines. This altered reality was not perfectly integrated into the main time stream, and that could cause irretrievable damage to the local areas of space. The Doctor asked for any information on recent history. Robyn looked at the slightly bewildered Timor and explained that they deal with this sort of thing all the time.

Sek’Ral looked at the reports of the three temporal alterations so far. They had now stopped the collapse of the empire on two occasions and routed a resistance assault once. Bromax said that Marshuk had allowed the escape of the resistance freighter, and was worried that the resistance would grow with it as a figurehead – the ship was captained by Timor, the person behind the original defeat of the Seventh Fleet in timeline 1. Sek’Ral ordered the use of the temporal messaging system to compensate for Timor’s escape. Omas looked concerned about the continual use of the temporal messaging system, but Sek’Ral gave him a fearsome look, convincing Omas to comply.

The Doctor read of the plan to disable the Seventh Fleet, but the plan had failed. Timor felt that the Seventh Fleet were warned by spies, but they had not uncovered the source onboard the ship. Robyn realised that they could have been warned by someone – someone from the future. The Doctor thought that there could be evidence to back this up. The TARDIS readings had shown that the trigger for the chronon flux was a very small temporal distortion. This could have been a message as it occurred ten seconds prior to the withdrawal of the seventh fleet, and K9 agreed with this hypothesis, though with a few technical corrections. Timor realised the implications of this – his plan succeeded initially but the timeline changed to prepare the Seventh Fleet for it.

Sek’Ral pounded the table in anger. Omas said that the equipment should have been able to send the latest message. Sek’Ral wanted to know why the attempt didn’t work. Omas thought he as found the answer – the equipment could only alter changes in this timeline locally. There must be an object or person from outside the timeline present there. Sek’Ral murmured, ‘a Time Agent’.

Timor said that they could fight this war over and over again and still lose – no matter how well they fought. The Doctor said that the crude technology used could threaten the web of time, and he needed to put the equipment out of commission. Timor agreed, although admitted that his motives were different. The Doctor asked Timor to give him the coordinates of the heart of Sek’Ral’s empire. He had to go there, but agreed to leaving K9 here to help keep the ship protected from further disabling weapons.

The TARDIS materialised with its characteristic wheezing-groaning sound in Sek’Ral’s huge palace complex. The Doctor, Robyn, Timor and Hadi exited and looked around. The Doctor saw that the palace was centuries old, but had obviously been heavily adapted over the years. Neither Timor nor Hadi had ever been here before and did not know their way around. The Doctor was about to lead the group down one of the corridors when they were surrounded.

Robyn, Timor and Hadi were all in small cramped cages. The Doctor was sitting in a comfy chair, surrounded by four guards. Tea and scones were lavished on a table next to him. Sek’Ral entered the room and slowly walked towards the Doctor. He welcomed him to his palace and said that he had never met a time agent before. He was keen to hear everything the Doctor knew…

Sek’Ral asked the Doctor why and how he had come here. The Doctor tried to evade questioning, but it was difficult. Sek’Ral was very persistent in his questioning and he said that he knew that the Doctor was a time agent. He added that if the Doctor didn’t start talking to him about how and why he was here, his companions would die. The Doctor put his scone down and agreed to talk.

The Doctor explained that he and Robyn were sent here by the New Universal Temporal Society, or ‘N.U.T.S.’ for short (the Doctor grinned). He said that the society had noted that Sek’Ral’s interference in time was causing echo effects on the rest of the time-space continuum and so he was sent here as an adviser to help improve Sek’Ral’s temporal equipment so that it didn’t affect the continuum as a whole. The Institute was only interested in the preservation of the continuum, not to judge whether the interference itself was just or not. Sek’Ral asked why the two rebels were with them. The Doctor said that he misled them into bringing him here, and needed to ensure they didn’t make the situation worse. He asks where his ‘field equipment’ was – the TARDIS. Sek’Ral said that he would keep Robyn, Timor and Hadi safe as hostages. If the Doctor tried to destroy their equipment, the hostages, and then the Doctor, would be killed. The Doctor protested that the New Universal Temporal Society might not like that.

The Doctor looked at the equipment that Omas had created. Several guards had blaster rifles pointed at him, making the Doctor nervous. The Doctor realised that the equipment was very basic indeed. He talked to Omas about his equipment, but his explanations served only to confuse and intimidate Omas more and more. Omas was convinced that the Doctor was an expert on temporal engineering, but Sek’Ral was more suspicious. The Doctor said that the system didn’t actually correct the changes in time Sek’Ral wanted to, it just created a new reality by overwriting the old one. As this happened more and more, the whole of reality would start to break down as each time small errors escaped through. Sek’Ral said that he was convinced that the Doctor was lying. He ordered the immediate death of the Doctor and hostages. Laser guns were pointed at the Doctor and hostages, ready for the execution command. Suddenly everything shimmered…

The TARDIS materialised in Sek’Ral’s huge palace complex. The Doctor, Robyn, Timor and Hadi exited and looked around. The Doctor saw that the palace was centuries old, but has obviously been heavily adapted over the years. Neither Timor nor Hadi had ever been here before and did not know their way around. The Doctor pulled the rebels down a corridor, thus avoiding their previous capture. He led them to a safer area of the palace.

Sek’Ral was furious. Omas could not understand how the Doctor escaped. He must have sent a covert message back to himself in the past, but he was inside the temporal dampening field, which would normally protect him from the changes he had made. Sek’Ral realised that the Doctor had learned a way to bypass that limitation too. He was dangerous and a threat to their plans – but his knowledge would prove invaluable to Sek’Ral.

The Doctor said that he had managed to examine much of Sek’Ral’s equipment, and had managed to link the sonic to it remotely, and he and Robyn were now part of a new superimposed reality. He needed to destroy the power source of Sek’Ral’s equipment to prevent a catastrophic breakdown in the time-space vortex.

Omas said that the Doctor’s theorising about the superimposition of the realities being a flaw in their system was true. However it had given him an idea about how to manipulate the conflicting realities.

The Doctor and Robyn led the others towards the lower parts of the palace. Timor saw that the whole palace was on high alert – they were looking for them. The Doctor said that when they destroyed the power source of Sek’Ral’s equipment, the original reality that remained suppressed should emerge as the true reality. The Doctor shimmered as he was talking and faded away...

The Doctor reappeared in front of Sek’Ral. Sek’Ral grabbed the Doctor and hoisted him into the air. He said that he had beaten the time agent at his own game, and this time he would not escape…

Sek’Ral said that they had discovered a way to manipulate parts of the superimposed timelines, and that was how they altered the Doctor’s location. They sent a message back to themselves to tell them how the Doctor planned to escape, thus preparing themselves for it. ‘So you warned your past self about me warning my past self to stop me from allowing anyone to warn their own past selves?’ the Doctor clarified. Sek’Ral and Omas nodded in agreement. ‘Well I’m glad you’re both following this,’ he admitted. The Doctor warned Sek’Ral that he was playing a dangerous game, and warned him to stop his temporal interference because soon there wouldn’t be an empire for him left to rule – they did get the Doctor back, but the others hadn’t been affected by that change – the time line was now more like a mosaic. He chided Sek’Ral saying that his empire was lost already – he had been defeated three times already. Sek’Ral said that his team of temporal engineers, led by Omas, had agreed with the Doctor’s opinions about the damage to the space-time continuum. However, they also knew that the Doctor was a time traveller, and that he must have equipment that was far more sophisticated. Therefore he would either tell them how to correct their equipment, or he would give them access to his time machine. If he did not, Sek’Ral would continue to use his own machine, and he would not care if it destroyed everything – it was better than defeat.

Robyn realised that the Doctor had been removed from this timeline. Timor did not understand how. Sek’Ral must have discovered a way of refining the timeline changes. Timor said that they should continue towards Sek’Ral’s power supply as the Doctor had planned.

Sek’Ral ordered the TARDIS to be brought to the room. Sek’Ral knew that this was the Doctor’s time machine and asked him to open it. The Doctor did and led Sek’Ral, Bromax and Omas inside. The trio were all astounded at the size of the time machine inside. The Doctor said that it was dimensionally transcendental. He closed the doors of the TARDIS and flipped the dematerialisation switch. Bromax pointed his gun at the Doctor and fired, but no beam was projected. The Doctor said that energy weapons did not work inside the TARDIS due to the state of temporal grace. The TARDIS materialised.

Robyn, Timor and Hadi could see a huge series of power cables leading from the underside of the palace. Timor warned that he could hear the sound of Sek’Ral’s troopers approaching.

The TARDIS had rematerialised inside the broken shell of Sek’Ral’s palace, four days after the original attack. The Doctor said that this was the correct version of the reality. They were stable here only because they hadn’t met their own counterparts. Even the Doctor could travel back and forwards in his native timeline. Sek’Ral was angry at this and said that he would therefore force the Doctor to make the changes to his equipment. The Doctor refused to do this and said that the equipment was holding the changes together – once it was destroyed the chances would cease to exist. Bromax raised his gun towards the Doctor and asked him again.

Robyn, Timor and Hadi had sneaked through the security barrier and made their way towards the power relay stations. Timor blasted the first station and it ignited. Sek’Ral’s forces had followed them in and they could see that the power stations were exploding sequentially. The guards were about to execute Timor and Hadi when they shimmered out of existence. Around her, Robyn can see a crater forming where the underground areas of the palace had been. She realised that the original timeline has become predominant.

The Doctor stood next to TARDIS in the ruins of Sek’Ral’s palace. The whole area was full of resistance members who had been trying to restore power to their new bases set up inside Sek’Ral’s ruined palace. Robyn approached the Doctor, and informed him that the mission had been successful and she had found herself in the same physical location, but in the original timeline. The Doctor smiled and they entered the TARDIS, planning on finding where K9 was – almost certainly floating in space somewhere.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor looked at the scanner and saw a man approaching. The Doctor realised that it was Timor, with Hadi following behind him. Timor asked Hadi what the blue box was, but she didn’t recognise it either. The TARDIS faded from sight, much to the surprise of the resistance leaders. But they had enough to think about. Sek’Ral had fallen in battle, his body found in an empty room in the palace. The victory of Sek’Ral had now come to an end...