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Chapter Text

The doctor stood firmly before the High Council of Gallifrey. The robed figures standing before him in a semicircle as his verdict was spoken: “Exile and forced regeneration.” The doctor had to hold back a gasp. Grasping the lapels of his suit tightly he declared: “You can't! This is cruelty! I just tried to help these people!”
“Your good intentions are duly noted, doctor.”, the Time Lord speaker explained coldly, not one change in his ominous tone, “Yet you have broken our sacred laws. You interfered with lesser species. Your ‘help’ could have done irreparable damage to the timeline. We will, however, look upon you leniently. You will be allowed to choose your appearance. Also, given your fondness of the world, we have chosen Earth as the location of your exile.”
“No”, the doctor objected, “If you already want to do me a favour in the location of my exile, there is another location I can be of far more use to. A civilisation that has very recently made an error remarkably similar to the one you're making right now. Exiling a man for being a meddler. Banishing him because he cares.”
The doctor smirked at himself for coming up with the suggestion. Exchanging a meddler for a meddler. He already imagined that the Chiss would be less than thrilled about that exchange, yet that was part of the fun. The other part, of course, is the sheer irony of that situation.
The Lord Speaker's brow furrowed as he grew impatient: “What is this civilization you speak of? Don't stall, doctor, for otherwise we will simply carry out this verdict without consulting you on anything.”
The doctor quickly responded: “The Chiss ascendancy. Exile me there, the day after they banished Mitth’raw’nuruodo from their ranks."
The council went back to convene about the suggestion. As they stepped out again the speaker declared: “The council is willing to accept your suggestion. However, in exchange, we will not allow you to choose your appearance. The Chiss are registered in our archives as being extremely xenophobic. If we let you choose your appearance you may choose one that looks like them to fit in. Yet we will keep having you have a human-like outside appearance. You are in exile and your appearance shall remind you of that every day. Every look in the mirror will be a reminder that you are an outsider to them as you are to us. Do you accept this offer?”
The doctor couldn't hold back his sigh anymore. Of course, the Time Lords would come up with a stupid deal like that. But if there was one thing he knew it was that the Chiss just made a grave error and that he was the only one who may save them from collapse. So the doctor stood straight up and answered: “I accept your deal, high council.”
Before he could say anything anymore he was already whisked away into the forced regeneration chamber. "Ahh! No! Not so fast! No!”, His screams blurted out as his body and face were forcibly contorted into a new shape. The regeneration energy painfully burns through his body. He was then teleported back into the TARDIS and dropped into his location of exile. With his last remaining power left, he staggered out of the TARDIS onto a grassy landscape and collapsed right in front of it, the doors closing behind him for however long his
exile may be.
…
The alarms of Chiss high command on Naporar flared up: “Alert! Unknown object came out of nowhere and dropped onto the Southern Woodlands. Cuboid. Roughly three by one and a
half by one and a half meters. Unknown origins and signature might be a bomb. Vigilant! You are the closest ship to it. Explore the crash site with caution. It might be a bomb for all we know.”
Admiral Ar'alani was caught off guard by the transmission. She'd just come to Naporar to get some cadets from the academy some practical training. Usually, she'd object to a mission assignment like that, the Vigilant was too important a vessel to have her do the kinds of safe missions they usually get assigned with Cadets on board. But right now she could use some easy assignments. She even slightly doubts that her judgment was up to speed after the events of the past few days.
“Acknowledged”, she called back to Central Command, “Dispatching a probe over the area of impact.” The probe was soon sent out and remotely piloted to the location, standard procedure with unknown impacts by strange objects.
As the probe brought back visual information from the site of the impact Ar'alani’s eyes narrowed: “Senior Captain Wutroow, are you seeing what I'm seeing?” Wutroow responded, unable to hold back her surprise: “If you're seeing a lesser-space-human-looking man lying unconsciously in front of a blue box made of… Wood then yes, Admiral.”
Ar'alani raised one of her brows: “If that was wood it wouldn't have survived the impact.” Senior Lieutenant Almikho, the sensor officer who piloted the drone, responded a few seconds later: “Sensors confirm the object reads as wood.”
Wutroow tapped her chin before responding: “Maybe that's an advanced kind of cloaking system. From the high command transmission, it sounded as if this escape pod had come out of nowhere. Implies whoever made it knows a thing or two about cloaking tech.”
“You think it's an escape pod?”, Ar'alani asked. Wutroow shrugged and noted: “It's a small object that crashed on the nearest habitable planet, and an unconscious man is lying in front of it. This is either an escape pod or this man vastly overestimated his ability to conquer a planet by himself.” Ar'alani escaped a chuckle, the first in a while she had to admit to herself. She then ordered:
“Alright. We'll send a shuttle to the location and bring him as well as his box onto the Vigilant. As soon as he's conscious again I'll interrogate him myself.” Wutroow asked: “Don't you want Chiss high command to interrogate him? This doesn't seem like it would be part of our mission.”
“Our mission was to find out what the thing that crashed here was”, Ar'alani responded, “And
this man is the only one who knows the answer to that. Besides, this may be the last good mystery we'll get to investigate in a while, considering we're gonna do training trips with
cadets over the next few months. I wouldn't miss this for anything.” “Alright ma'am”, Wutroow responded, “Shuttle dispatched with equipment to haul in the box. Secure sickbay bed prepared to allow the prisoner to recover.” “Very well”, Ar'alani nodded, “I want to talk to that guy the second he's awake.”
...
The man and the box were hauled in. Senior medic Chaf’eni’alor immediately tied him down to one of the beds. She didn't want him to start trouble when he woke up. She hooked all the monitoring devices she had onto him, yet something was strange. Some of the readings were remarkably… inconsistent with others. She played around with the equipment until she got a halfway sensible reading.
A few hours later she could hear it. “Mirror”, the mystery man said, in a purer Cheunh than most officers on board spoke, “Mirror. I need a mirror.” Fenia keyed the com: “Admiral. He's conscious now.”
Admiral Ar'alani stormed into the sickbay, tall in her usual authoritative stance. She went over to the seemingly confused prisoner and didn't hesitate: “Why are you here?” He took a few seconds to gather himself until he could respond: “Exile.” The word almost stang in Ar'alani’s heart. She wasn't sure whether she could ever hear it the same way again, especially not now. Especially not a mere two days after.
Ar'alani’s tone grew stricter: “What do you mean exile? Were you exiled here or do you know of someone who was just exiled by us? Answer!”
“Yes.”, the doctor responded, the look on his face still the one of a man who had a bit too much spice in his system, “Exile. For interfering in other people's issues. Meddling around.”
He passed out again.
Ar'alani scowled, still not knowing whether he meant himself or Thrawn. Thrawn was unlikely, since he was an ascendancy-internal issue. Still, this couldn't be a coincidence, not so soon
afterwards. She grits her teeth and growls to herself: “What in the chaos kind of sick joke is this?”

Chapter Text

Ar'alani’s eyes gazed over the man lying in front of them contemplatively. “Senior Medic Fenia”, the Admiral asked, “I know that you pride yourself in your meticulousness but don't you think that having two biomonitors check the prisoner’s vitals is a bit excessive.”
“One would think so,” the medic replied, “But whatever species this man is has two hearts. I was confused by that at first, too, until I found that out. And since we have no equipment for two-hearted species I have to use two monitoring devices.”
Admiral Ar'alani nodded in acknowledgement and placed a finger on her chin: “So he's not human?”
“Doesn't seem so, ma'am,” the medic replied, “No human or even near-human species in our database has two fully functioning hearts; DNA tests also give weird results and don't even get me started on brain waves.”
Admiral Ar'alani sat down beside her prisoner. He sure looked human enough. Tall, skinny, with two arms and two legs, with white skin and a curly, full head of grey hair. She sighed internally before asking: “So, what do we know?”
“Before you arrived he only asked for a mirror.”, Fenia answered, “Maybe he wanted to check himself for injuries after the crash.”
“Perhaps,” Ar'alani replied, hoping that the word wouldn't become a habit she picked up from Thrawn, “Speaking of injuries, how bad are his?”
Fenia went over to a scanner monitor and showed the results: “As far as I can tell he didn't sustain any crash damage. Whatever that strange ship of his is, it must have some good inertia dampeners. As for why he's been unconscious for the better part of a day, I can only guess. It may have something to do with the fact that his body temperature was twice that of what's healthy for a normal humanoid when he came in. And it's been consistently decreasing ever since he came in. If we assume that he's going to be up and running once his body temperature is within normal humanoid range and the decrease continues at a consistent rate then he's going to be fully awake in four to six hours.”
Admiral Ar'alani nodded: “Very well. Let's allow him to rest some more and then question him properly. And don't unbind him yet, who knows what he'll do once he's at full strength.”

…

Just as predicted the man awoke four and a half hours later. “Mirror,” he asked once again as he looked over at Fenia, “Could you please give me a mirror?”
Fenia, who was currently filling out something on her Questis, was startled at first as she heard him again. “Oh, of course.” She said after she composed herself and looked over at her patient. She'd already prepared a mirror next to his bed and held it up to his face: “Don't worry, you don't seem to be injured.”
“Could be worse”, the mysterious man commented on his own face as he looked at it carefully. He moved around his face in various grimaces, almost as if he were testing it: “Quite flexible. Could be useful on the planet Delphon, where they communicate with their eyebrows.”
Fenia was fascinated and immediately scribbled something into her Questis notes like a good student: “Planet Delphon, people communicate with their eyebrows.” She didn't know if she'd ever be there or would need to communicate with someone from there, yet the information fascinated her regardless. “Oh, right,” Medic Fenia murmured to herself before keying her com, “Admiral Ar'alani. The prisoner is awake and ready for questioning.”
“Thank you. Will be there shortly.” was the response.
“Prisoner?” the man asked with a rather amused look on his face, “Well, that explains why I'm tied to this bed. But please, believe me, I mean you no harm.”
“Just a safety measure,” Fenia explained, “But Admiral Ar'alani will be in here any minute now. If you manage to convince her you're no threat then you'll be untied in no time.”

…

Just as she said that the Chiss Admiral already strode in, her commanding presence could be felt immediately. By her side was another Chiss woman, pacing along with quicker steps to compensate for the fact she was shorter. She looked at the doctor with a neutral expression, which on her face already looked threatening, and asked: “I am Admiral Ar'alani of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet. This is my first officer, Senior Captain Wutroow. Who are you and what is your intention?”
“I am the Doctor,” the Doctor introduced himself, with as much dignity in his tone as a man tied to a bed could muster, “And I intend to protect the Chiss ascendancy.”
“I don't think so,” Senior Medic Fenia said, “I am the highest-ranking medical officer in this sickbay. Meaning I am the doctor here.”
Wutroow also objected: “And we are the expansionary defense fleet. Meaning that protecting the ascendancy is our job.” The Senior Captain tried to make the strictest face she could, clearly trying to intimidate, yet her face didn't allow her to look even half as threatening as Ar'alani did without trying.
Ar'alani grew impatient and asked him again: “What is your name and what did you want on Naporar? And now don't claim to do the job of everyone else in the room.” The words almost sounded like a hiss.
The doctor kept his composure and answered calmly, not showing any sign of either officer's intimidation working: “You may be a doctor, I am the doctor. The one and only, some may even call me the original. My people, the Time Lords, had me exiled here because I interfered too much in other species’ affairs. Protecting them, nurturing them, and aiding their growth. So I am to remain in the ascendancy as long as they seem proper. And I believe my skills can be used to help you in the meantime.”
Senior Medic Fenia couldn't quite hold back a giggle, did this man really just claim to be the original doctor? Ar'alani found his claims less amusing: “And what makes you think the ascendancy wants your skills? You're an outsider. Why shouldn't I just drop you off at the next uninhabited ascendancy colony where you can fend for yourself until your exile is complete?”
“Because I have skills,” The Doctor responded immediately, his face as stoic as ever and unimpressed by the threat, “And if they dropped me off at the right time then the ascendancy just lost an individual of great skills. I can offer you my skills to compensate for the loss of his.”
Ar'alani’s breath hitched. So he did know about Thrawn. Her gut feeling was right after all. Thinking about it still stung, so this man claiming that he could be a replacement for Thrawn
was like rubbing salt in the wound. She tried to keep neutral, but the hurt and anger managed to slip through in her voice: “Do you seriously claim you can match Mitth’raw’nuruodo’s strategic and tactical brilliance? And even if you could, why would we put an outsider, who even admits to having the same faults Thrawn did, in a position of enough power to use it?”
The doctor recognized the change in her attitude and concluded that she must have been friends with Thrawn. With sincere compassion and understanding, he explained: “I am by no means a warrior, especially not one like Thrawn. I am a scientist, and I don't like seeing people hurt. I offer my scientific expertise to the Ascendancy. I can advise you when dealing with species that I know but you don't yet; I can work at maintaining and improving the technology you use, and research strange phenomena you encounter.”
Before Ar'alani could respond her com activated: “Admiral, we have new orders. You should come to the bridge; these are for your eyes only and are a high priority.” The Admiral started to walk out of the sickbay.
“Will you at least let me out of these bindings?” the Doctor objected with a sigh as she was already almost out the door, “By now you should know that I'm by no means a maniac intent on trashing your ship.”
“Very well,” Ar'alani admitted begrudgingly, “I'll send two guards down here, they will unbind you but remain stationed outside.” She then went on her way to her ready room.

Chapter Text

Admiral Ar'alani stood in her office tensely. The screen in front of her lit up in flashes of red with the notification of a top-secret mission. Without hesitation, she spoke into the Questis: “Voice authorization Ar'alani, Admiral, identification code 3472.” A small smirk graced her lips, these kinds of missions were usually the most interesting.
On the screen was a recorded video message by Supreme Admiral Ja'fosk. In it, the older Chiss explained her orders with his usual air of calm seriousness: “Admiral Ar'alani. This message contains the coordinates for a top-secret Chiss research station not far off from your current patrol course. Scientists have disappeared from that station without a trace. Take a shuttle with you and only as many people as you need and trust. Rejoining the Vigilant via jump-by-jump should be possible with how relatively stable space is in the area and how little off your course that base is, so a Sky-walker will not be required. Find out what kidnaps scientists from one of our most well-secured bases and do whatever is needed to stop it. Ja’fosk out.”
Ar'alani sighed in thought. The coordinates that were contained in the message were on their route, but well within Ascendancy territory. Why would they send her from the Expansionary Defense Fleet and not someone from the regular defence fleet? Was it just due to the convenient location of their patrol route? Was the defense fleet stretched far more thinly than she expected? She didn't know, but she had orders, and she'd carry them out.
…
“Senior Medic Fenia,” the Admiral suddenly appeared on the viewscreen in sickbay, which startled Fenia. After she caught her breath, she stood in front of the screen and answered: “Y-yes, Admiral. At your service.”
Ar'alani simply nodded and continued: “You are to meet me and Wutroow in the launch bay, half an hour from now. I don't know how long this will take, so use the time to pack some basic things.”
Fenia was shaken. Was she asked on a mission right now? She inquired: “Admiral, what use could you possibly have for me on a mission? I'm just a medic.”
Ar'alani’s eyes narrowed: “The mission details are secret. Let's just say we'll need your scientific expertise. But I can find another if you don't feel up to the task.”
Fenia instinctively snapped and stood as if standing to attention at what she thought was a thinly veiled question of her dedication to the Ascendancy. With an apologetic near-whimper in her voice, she said: “No, ma'am. I am ready to take on the mission. I merely ask myself if the kind of scientific expertise medicine gives one is the best choice for whatever the mission parameters are.”
Ar'alani’s face and voice softened as she didn't intend to make Fenia insecure like that: "Well, you are the only person on board with this level of expertise in any field of science. Who else could it be?”
Fenia relaxed a bit again and put her index finger to her chin as she had an idea. She stepped slightly outside the view of the camera that was attached to the viewscreen and pointed at the doctor. He was currently pacing up and down the other side of the room like a caged tiger. Likely out of earshot of the conversation. The Senior Medic explained: “He said he was a scientist, didn't he? Why don't you use this mission for him to prove himself?”
Ar'alani immediately grew tenser again and her voice sharpened: “The prisoner? No chance! This is a Chiss mission for Chiss officers. Besides, this mission seems to be very important. I haven't seen his supposed skills yet, so I wouldn't let him join anyway where he could potentially sabotage the whole mission.”
Fenia sighed: “Yes ma'am. I'll get prepared.” She keyed the com off.

…

The Doctor walked up to Fenia immediately afterward, a sympathetic smile on his face: “Not too fond of the idea of an away mission, I presume?”
Fenia flinched. Whatever species he was, they sure had some good ears. She tried to remain stoic, but a hint of concern could still be heard: “I am an officer of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet. I will go on whatever mission my commanding officer tells me to.”
“I didn't ask that, did I?” the Doctor retorted with his sympathetic smile growing, “I asked whether you were comfortable with the mission.”
“I've never been comfortable with the idea of having to kill. And these kinds of missions often have you do that,” Fenia admitted. She tensed up, why did she do that? He was a mystery prisoner from chaos-knows-which species and she just admitted something extremely personal to a potentially dangerous stranger.
The Doctor's eyes opened wider in surprisee, and his sympathetic smile turned slightly into an amused one: “Now I don't mean to intrude, but a Chiss Nightdragon Man-of-War isn't exactly the place I expected to find a pacifist. Although I admire your principles.”
Fenia sighed. Since she already told him that much, she thought she might as well tell him the whole deal. Besides, having someone to talk to about it felt good. She started explaining: “I've always loved learning things. As soon as I knew that by studying medicine I could help people with the knowledge I gathered, I wanted to do just that. And I was good at it, the youngest to graduate from Jamiron med school. That's why you see me being in charge of the mid and junior medics here even though many of them are older than me.” A hint of pride could now be heard in her voice.
The Doctor nodded, clearly impressed by her: “Alright. And why don't you use these skills elsewhere where the likelihood of you having to engage in combat is lower?”
Fenia’s smile dropped again; with a sigh, she said: “I was only able to go to med school in the first place because the Chaf merit adopted me. I used to be Mual’eni’alor. The Mual, however, aren't even a great family and thus I wouldn't have gotten any opportunities with them. And as the fleet requested me to become one of their medics my local family official enthusiastically told me to accept it. I was, of course, less enthusiastic about the whole thing, but as a merit adoptive you have to swallow your pride sometimes to stay on the good side of the family. I haven't even taken the trials yet, so my position is still very shaky.
The Doctor nodded along as she explained, his face hardened slightly. He knew that the Chiss were an oligarchic society, but seeing it affect someone this way just really made him realize just how bad it was. There was a young, talented woman who would have never been able to use her talents if some powerful family bureaucrats hadn't realized that she had them. This really rubbed him the wrong way. He then asked: “Then why don't you tell Ar'alani? She seemed to consider your feelings earlier. Maybe she understands.”
Fenia just shook her head: “No, it's too risky. If she doesn't understand I'll get disciplinary measures at best and dishonorably discharged at worst, which would make the Chaf want to rematch me
back to some no-name family immediately. It's just not worth it.”
The doctor put a hand on her shoulder and looked at her: “Fenia. In my experience, standing up for your beliefs is always worth it. However, this is your decision and I have already interrupted you long enough. So why don't you let me help you pack your things to make up for the time you spent talking to me now?”
Fenia nodded and smiled softly again, something about talking to him about it did make her feel better. He may be a stranger, but in her case, that's safer than to discuss that with a fellow Chiss anyway. So they packed her things, and soon afterward, she was on her way to the launch bay.

…

In the launch bay Ar'alani and Wutroow were already ready. A pair of low-ranking warriors were loading supplies onto the shuttle for the mission. “What's in these things? Lead?” one of them asked as they put a particularly heavy box into it. Ar'alani smirked and replied: “Just whatever we could need. We don't know exactly how long our mission will take or what they already have in supplies where we're going. So we're just taking everything along.” The warriors simply nodded and left as everything was loaded onto the shuttle.
Fenia soon arrived and stood at attention as soon as she saw Ar'alani: “Senior Medic Chaf'eni'alor reporting for duty.”
“At ease.” Ar'alani nodded with a soft smile, “I think we have everything here. Unless you have anything more you need we can go now.”
Fenia nodded and packed her backpack into the shuttle: “I got everything I might need. We can go.” She still didn't feel well about going on an away mission, but her talk with the Doctor at least made her manage to collect her thoughts. She took one deep breath and took her seat as they went off to wherever they were supposed to go. Ar'alani keyed in the coordinates from the message and off they were.

…

After another half hour, they found themselves near what many Chiss bases looked like. A field of asteroids with one large one roughly in the centre, slowly spinning around its axis to allow for sensor sweeps without moving parts on the outside. This one just had one massive difference: these asteroids were vibrant. Crystals inside and on them in a myriad of colors. Each asteroid simmered in a kaleidoscope of colours brighter than the last. It was incredible.
Ar'alani, Wutroow, and Fenia all couldn't contain their stunned expressions at the sheer beauty of this asteroid field. “It's beautiful!” Ar'alani exclaimed in a rare display of overt emotion.
“Are you sure this is the super secret research lab our mission talked about,” Wutroow asked jokingly, “And not the Syndicure’s super secret jeweler?” Ar'alani and Fenia both snorted at the comment.
The Senior Medic took a closer look at the crystal formations. Her chin dropped slightly as she realized: “This is a research lab, alright. These formations are kyber crystals.”
Ar'alani put a finger on her chin: “Kyber Crystals? I think I've heard about them. Can't they generate energy?”
“Actually, they just channel it.”, the muffled voice came from one of the boxes the warriors carried onto the shuttle earlier. Wutroow pulled out her Charric and went to the box the voice came from. She pointed the Charrick at the box before carefully opening the lock. As the box was open, she saw the Doctor in there, curled up and smiling at her, seemingly unbothered by the Charric pointed straight into his face. With an amused tone, he said: “Oh, thank you so much for opening. It was getting a little stuffy in there.”

Chapter Text

"How did you-", Admiral Ar'alani glared at the Doctor as he slowly got out of the box. She thought that no man his age and size should be able to huddle himself into that small space. Her glare moved over to Fenia as she scoldingly asked: "Is this your doing? Did you smuggle him on board?"

Fenia's eyes shot wide open at the accusation, her heart racing as she apologetically stated: "No ma'am. I'd never take anyone on a mission without your explicit permission. Besides, how did he get here anyway? All the boxes are scanned before they're loaded onto a shuttle."

It was time for the subject of the discussion himself to talk, his smirk grew a little more even though Wutroow still held a Charric to his forehead: "I offered Fenia to help her pack her things before she left for the launch bay. I slipped one of her handheld medical scanners into my pocket because I knew they used the same type of radiation that the scanners for food crates would use. So I modified it to neutralize some electromagnetic waves that were projected onto the crate and enhance others, and voila, one Doctor looks like 200 packages of MREs." He took the scanner out of his pocket and gave it back to Fenia with a chuckle.

Ar'alani's eyes narrowed on the stranger further: "How did you get past the guards stationed outside the sickbay doors?" "Easy," the Doctor remarked with a nod, "Venusian aikido. The Venusian nuns I learned it from were experts at pressure points of all humanoid species. A slight one-finger touch on each of their shoulders and they sleep for enough time for me to slip away."

The Admiral remained stern, but she couldn't fully hide how impressed she was: "So you stowed away in our food crate. And what exactly are we supposed to eat while on our mission?"

The Doctor simply stated with confidence that, in Ar'alani's ears, sounded more like recklessness: "Oh, I'm sure that a secret outpost this size has some food in it. And with me on board, we'll probably solve whatever there is to solve in a short enough amount of time that we'll be back on the Vigilant in time for tea."

"What makes you think that we'll take you with us onto the station?", the Admiral asked with barely disguised anger in her voice, "This is a Chiss mission on a Chiss secret base. No chance we'll take a stranger with us on it."

"I mean, he has proven himself scientifically capable now, to be fair," Wutroow admitted and even put her Charric back into the holster. "And in all honesty, if he gets on board here that easily, what makes us think he won't get off board just as easily? Better we take him with us instead of letting him be an ungimbaled laser all on his own."

"Fair point," Ar'alani admitted, Wutroow's point and the humour she put into it calming her down somewhat, "We'll let you come with us, but don't you dare do anything to jeopardize the mission."

The doctor gave a firm nod with a bright smile: "You won't be disappointed. We'll get this problem solved in no time. What even is the problem?"

"I've been asking myself the same thing," Wutroow added, nodding while tapping herself onto the chin, "How exactly are we gonna do a secret mission if it's so secret we don't even know it?"

Ar'alani took a breath and started explaining: "People disappear under mysterious circumstances at this research station. And we're supposed to stop whatever takes them away."

Wutroow's eyes widened at what could just take people from such a Well-hidden and likely also well-defended research station. Fenia just nodded along while trying to do a neutral face, in reality, she was even more worried than before. The Doctor's smirk meanwhile lit up even more brightly: "Ahh. A good old missing person mystery. Exciting, isn't it?"

Without another word, they continued to the research station.

...

At the station, they were greeted by a Chiss man with a neutral expression, although he couldn't quite hide his worry: "Greetings, Admiral. I'm Senior Commander Wuproma, head of station security at Trenim Advanced Energy Research Base. This is Professor Takomin, our head of research." "Wait, why in the stars have you brought along a human?" His voice grew immediately more hostile as he saw the Doctor step out of the Shuttle.

"First of all, I'm no human, I'm a Time Lord," the Doctor objected firmly and raised his head confidently, "Second of all, I'm your best chance of getting this problem fixed, so it shouldn't matter in the slightest what my species is."

Wutroow raised her brow at the term 'Time Lord', wanting to ask whether he was serious but deciding against it. It sounded more like a pompous title to the ninth factorial than a species to her, but she knew he had to make a point so that the average Chiss would accept him. If nothing else he was an interesting change of pace, so she'd not stand in his way.

Ar'alani wanted to ram her forehead into the nearest bulkhead but held back and instead explained diplomatically: "The Doctor is a very skilled scientist. I am sure he will be a valuable asset to this investigation."

Wuproma sighed but nodded: "Very well. If he has your trust he shall also have mine. Come along, I will show you the security recordings of the disappearances." Meanwhile, Ar'alani suppressed a sigh of her own, it still rubbed her the wrong way to have a perfect stranger along for the mission. For a split second, she even considered if shoving the Doctor out of the next airlock would be the best option, but he was simply too interesting a mystery to discard like that.

At a display on the wall, Wuproma showed them the recordings from the most recent disappearance. "Every hour and a half a new crew member disappears," he explained with a furrowed brow, "And this is the only thing that the cameras show while it happens." He clicked on the screen a final time to play the recording. A young woman was seen on the recording, putting one of the Kyber crystals under a scanner and starting to use a device that filed off pieces from it. Suddenly, the footage started to get static, and it just got worse and worse. After a while, no one could see anything on the screen anymore, then it went back to normal. The only thing different was that the small, cylindrical electrical file the woman used was lying on the floor while she was nowhere to be seen.

Wuproma's head sank as he explained: "Every hour and thirty minutes on the dot. Another person is missing. We are the only officers left. All others remaining are just a few junior warriors and scientists. Whoever is doing this went for the higher ranking crew members first, with few outliers."

"Few outliers, you say?", The Doctor asked, the emphasis being on few, "I always find that the outliers usually reveal the most interesting parts of someone's or something's intentions."

The Chiss officer shrugged: "We couldn't find any discernible pattern except for higher-ranking people generally disappearing sooner. I don't know why we are still here, being the very most high-ranking, nor do I know why some junior crew members met this mysterious fate sooner."

"We're forgetting something even more important here", Ar'alani cut in, "You claimed that these disappearances happened every hour and a half. When will the next one be?"

"Excellent question", Takomin admitted and hastily reached for his chrono, his face growing pale as he looked at it, "Exactly… Four minutes and two seconds on the dot." The thought terrified him. The fewer and fewer people were at the station, the more likely whatever took the rest took him next.

"No worries, Professor.", The Admiral tried to reassure him, firmly grasping his shoulder, "The Expansionary Defense Fleet is here now. We will deal with whatever there is." The professor took deep, deliberate breaths and calmed once more.

"Wutroow, Wuproma." Ar'alani called out the order, "Defensive positions. Whatever wants to get us is going to get the fight of a lifetime." The officers she called out to nodded. Ar'alani, Wutroow and Wuproma went into a triangular formation, charrics pointed outward. Takomin stood in the centre; since he had neither a sidearm nor military training, he couldn't really help there. Fenia felt massively out of place and didn't know where to stand. She had a charric on her, but Ar'alani didn't call on her to join their formation, nor did she have the level of military training the others had. Thinking about it, why didn't the Admiral tell her to join? Did she because she knew that she had little training in that, or did she already suspect her qualms about killing?

The Doctor, meanwhile, leaned against one of the crystal-clad walls lazily and swept the room with his scrutinising gaze. "That's typical, isn't it?" He stated sarcastically, "Oh, there's an unknown thing that takes people away; let's try to shoot it. No imagination." He then turned to Takomin: "If you want us to help, we'll need information. What exactly is the nature of the research done here?"

"All kinds. Most of it is partially classified even to me." the Professor admitted, "Research here is so secret that no one person is allowed anything beyond a need-to-know basis. Even me as the head researcher. However, all focus on crystals in the asteroid field. Weapons, defences, drive systems. Who knows? Rather much can be done with crystals that actually generate energy!"

"Channel", the Doctor corrected again, in a rather surprised, d tone "I didn't think I'd have to tell a scientist like you that."

Takomin shook his head: "No. That's precisely what's so perplexing about them. They violate all of thermodynamics. If you put energy into them, they evidently spit out vastly greater quantities."

The Doctor's brows furrowed. He thought about the things he read about this particular galaxy before he got there. Suddenly, he smirked from an epiphany: "Aha! The Force. I've read about it. A rather peculiar feature of this galaxy. An energy field surrounding everything here. If you pump enough power into one such crystal, it might start to channel it alongside the power put in. Thus making it appear as if there were more output than input!"

"The Force?", Ar'alani asked, her attention now fully on the Doctor. She narrowed her eyes again: "Senior Captain Thrawn said that's what some people in Lesser Space could harness. He assumed it was connected to… Another phenomenon of importance to the Chiss Ascendancy." She bit her tongue before mentioning Third Sight in front of a stranger. Still, she took a mental note of it. This elusive 'Force' had its hand in too many situations over the past few years for her to ignore.

"'Lesser Space'?", The Time Lord chuckled at the term, "Now that's just peak Chiss xenophobia, isn't it? This space is easier to navigate! What shall we call it? 'Practical Space'? 'Convenient space'? No! We aren't in it, so let's call it 'Lesser Space'!"

Wutroow couldn't hold back a snort. He was kind of right, she thought. This was exactly the kind of hubris she'd usually call out with her sarcasm. But she'd never thought about it, she was always raised with the terms 'Chaos' and 'Lesser Space'. There was no more time for her to think about this anymore as the Chrono rang, the signal that another person was about to be taken.

Ar'alani saw it. "Here!", she shouted. A light coming from the walls. Swirling. A semi-translucent blob of light in all colours of the rainbow and then some came through the wall. The entity came closer. All three Chiss warriors shot at it, to no avail. Fenia also briefly reached for her sidearm but decided against it seeing as it was useless anyway. The supercharged microwave radiation of their charrics blew through the entity without even holding it back as it crept towards them. Ever closer.

Chapter Text

The Doctor knew he had to think and do it quickly. The mysterious entity crept ever closer towards them, its glowing swirls menacingly closing in on the Chiss, who still helplessly shot at it with their charrics. He looked around, seeing a cable nearby connected to a small, portable fusion generator, which likely produced a high-voltage alternating current. Finally, he had an idea.

In the meantime, Admiral Ar'alani had her crew and the scientists it protected fall back, away from the wall the entity emerged from, to get themselves more time. She didn't know what to do. In a last desperate attempt to scare it away, she took one of the spare power cells of her charric from her belt, set it to overload, and threw it toward the creature. The explosion was bright and blew away the wall the creature, or whatever that was, had come from, but it didn't do anything to the creature itself, as it slowly came closer.
The Doctor ran to one of the crystal-clad walls that crossed through the entire asteroid base. He took a hammer nearby and struck at them. One strike, two strikes, three. Finally, a large, green crystal, about the length of his hand when extended and the width of three of his fingers, broke off. Quickly, he jolted back to the generator and cut through the cable with a knife from the tools that were scattered across the room. He connected one wire from inside the cable to one end and one to the other. Frantically wrapping them around protrusions in the crystal at opposite ends. He had done it. Lastly, he switched on the generator.
The energy immediately pulsated out of the kyber crystal in waves, like green walls crashing through the entire room. Fenia noted that they had a sizzling feeling to them, like electricity but surprisingly pleasant. The other Chiss all didn't notice the feeling at all, only noticing the painful thunder that came with them, a deafening noise echoing throughout the room and the base as a whole. “What in the name of all good things in the Chaos are you doing?” Ar'alani wanted to shout, but the noise from the device that the Doctor built drowned out even her impressive yelling.
Still, the entity seemed to find the energy even less pleasant than Ar'alani did. It grew smaller, its vaguely round outer edges growing bulbs and becoming less defined. Eventually, it went away without taking anyone with it. The Doctor switched the generators back off.
“What in the world did you just do?” The Admiral asked the doctor, still some venom in her voice. “Apparently, saving our behinds”, Wutroow noted with a shrug and her typical deadpan tone.
Fenia panted, still in shock from the experience. Eventually, after she caught herself through slow and deliberate breathing, she got a fascinated and awed smile: “That was an energy-based life form, wasn't it?” The Doctor's nod confirmed it to her, after which she immediately opened the notes on her Questis again to scribble something down: “Amazing! They've always only been thought of as theoretical. To actually see one? This has to be a one-in-a-million event!” As the realisation truly sank in, everyone else in the room could see her face and voice shift from concerned to fascinated to absolutely awe-struck and strangely happy: “I have to send this to the biological university at Naporar immediately. The Physics department, too. They will love it.”
“Your enthusiasm is noted, Senior Medic”, Admiral Ar'alani said while holding back a smile, “But may I remind you that this facility is top-secret, as is everything that happens here.”
Fenia's smile sunk again, but she simply gave an acknowledgement nod: “I can still put it into my personal notes, right?” Ar'alani nodded, her smile growing more visible to reassure her: “Yes. That you may do at your own discretion.” Ar'alani then turned to the Doctor, still stern but far less on edge than she'd ever talked to him before: “I'd still quite like to know what exactly you did to that thing.” Fenia turned to the Doctor as well, curious about the whole situation.
The Doctor explained, an unmistakably satisfied smirk plastered across his face. Satisfied that he could save them, satisfied that the Admiral now seemed to trust him a bit more, and satisfied that Fenia still remained curious despite everything that happened. He began to explain: “That entity was indeed an energy-based life form. Probably feeding on the energy coursing through the kyber veins. Asteroids bumping into one another, cosmic rays hitting the crystal structures. All these energies are channelled through the kyber crystals and enhanced, making them the ideal food source for such a being. I used this generator to channel an alternating current through a crystal. The quickly changing directions of the
current destabilising the creature and the sheer amount of energy, coming at it in concentrated form from a singular crystal were likely not pleasant for it either, so it was shooed away”
Fenia snapped her fingers and smiled brightly as she understood: “So you spoiled its food source and overfed it all at once to scare it off!” The Doctor nodded firmly to confirm she understood it, and Fenia's summary also made the officers understand what had happened.
“Scared it off?” Ar'alani inquired, one eyebrow raised, “Not killed? Not destroyed? Not made the base uninhabitable for it? Just scared it off?”
The Doctor nodded, now with a displeased edge to his expression: “Yes, exactly. I'm not all that fond of killing.” Ar'alani’s brow raised further: “Then it's still a threat to this base. We have to find a way to destroy it. Permanently.”
The Doctor's dissatisfaction grew visibly. Wutroow saw and tried to diffuse the situation through a casual remark: “You don't have to help us with that part, of course. Now that we know its weakness, we can certainly find a way to do that. We're the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet; killing enemies of the Ascendancy is our speciality.”
The Doctor's displeasure on his face was replaced by a disapproving eye roll: “How do you know that it is your enemy?”
“It kidnapped or killed scientists and officers of the Chiss Ascendancy”, Ar'alani retorted, “Makes it an enemy in my book.”
The Doctor suppressed a sigh and looked at her with a neutral expression: “Admiral, I know of creatures with 52 stomachs who communicate by puking at your feet. This could be a misunderstanding of epic proportions.”
Admiral Ar'alani grew tenser again, the venom back in her voice: “Dozens of scientists and warriors are gone. Quite frankly, I don't care if it just wants to play. It's threatening a secret Ascendancy base. That makes it an enemy of the Ascendancy. Which, in turn, makes it my job and the job of my crew to get rid of it.”
The Doctor sighed again, trying one last time: “From what we know, this creature won't show up again for another ninety minutes. If you would just give me these ninety minutes so I could do my own studies into the motivation behind these supposed attacks, I might be able to find a solution which is beneficial to all sides.”
The Admiral just rubbed her temples softly and breathed through before responding reluctantly: “Fine. You've at least proven yourself capable now. Have a look around. Fenia, you accompany him, if he does anything he's not supposed to, shoot him immediately. And try to find out more about him in the meantime. Wutroow, Wuproma, Takomin, you stay with me and look for a way to kill that thing in the very likely scenario that the Doctor doesn't find a solution that includes everybody holding hands.”
The Doctor smiled faintly: “Thank you.” Ar'alani turned to him, her face hardening again: “And if you try to actively interfere in any way, shape or form with our attempts to kill this thing, I will throw you out of the airlock myself.” The Doctor nodded, his smile not faltering.
“Come on, Fenia”, the Doctor turned his head to the Senior Medic, a firm smile even though he was just threatened with a horrific death, “We've got a creature to study.” Fenia just saluted to the Admiral before following the Doctor. Officially to make sure he didn't do anything against the Chiss and to find out more about him. In the depths of her mind, however, she preferred the Doctor's invitation to study the entity with her over the official reason she followed him.
…
“You actually let him wander off on his own?” Senior Captain Wutroow asked, brows raised in surprise.
“He did prove himself just now. So whatever he is or wants, he seems to be willing and able to be an ally”, Ar'alani responded with a tone that admitted how unusual that was, “Besides, he's not on his own. He has Fenia with him to make sure he doesn't do anything that could harm us.”
“Fenia, who also isn't exactly someone who I'd expect a killer mentality from either.”,
Wutroow retorted.
“Another advantage of letting them go”, the Admiral explained, “By having them be elsewhere, we ensure they can't distract us by singing ‘Kumbaya’ while we want to fight the entity. I wouldn't expect Fenia to actively interfere with our attempts. But this Doctor? I'm not so sure.”
Wutroow shrugged: “Fair enough. Then let's go figure out a way to defeat this energy thing.”
The Admiral nodded, now with a slight smirk: “I agree. Wuproma, Takomin. Come closer, let's brainstorm ways to get rid of that thing once and for all.”

…

“Uhm, so, Doctor”, Fenia asked awkwardly, thinking of things to ask, “This whole ‘Time Lord’ thing. You mentioned it twice now. Is that actually what your people are called?”
“Yes, they are”, the Doctor confirmed, “Or more so, it's what a subsection of the population of my home planet, Gallifrey, is called. That subsection that graduated from the Time Lord Academy. The Academy changes you a lot. Literally. So we may as well be another species.” He then smirked at Fenia: “And please don't hesitate to ask me more questions. I don't mind being interrogated at all. I am subject to interrogation quite often. Gives me a feeling of home now that I'm in exile.” As he remembered that he was, in fact, in exile, his smirk dropped for a split second. However, he composed himself soon enough that someone less perceptive than Fenia wouldn't have seen it.
Fenia, however, was very perceptive. She recognised that pain. The pain that Admiral Ar'alani also showed ever since Thrawn had been sentenced to exile. It seemed that people felt similarly after being exiled and after a friend getting exiled. Not exactly surprising. She also recognised that both the Doctor and the Admiral tried to hide it and probably wouldn't want to talk about it. So,instead, she tried to get his mind off it. She clasped her hands together and stated with a determined smile: “Alright. Let's go find out what's going on here.”
The Doctor's smirk grew more genuine again as he nodded and softly grasped her shoulder: “Now that's the spirit, Fenia. Let us proceed.”

…

The other Chiss, meanwhile, worked out a way to kill the being. Ar'alani immediately got to work: “Alright. Let's summarise. What do we know about its weaknesses?”
“It's an energy being”, Takomin stated quite matter-of-factly, “I doubt physical impacts would impact it at all. Your charrics didn't seem to be able to make a dent either. We probably have to find the correct type or frequency of energy to harm it.”
“I mean, it certainly didn't like the stunt that the Doctor pulled”, Wutroow added, “Tho that didn't kill it either. But at least we know that by sending electricity through a crystal, it at least feels something.”

The Admiral nodded: “Yes. Charrics didn't hurt it. And that the Doctor didn't just directly electrocute it suggests to me that electricity in itself wouldn't have hurt it either. He also said it feeds here because of the concentration of kyber crystals. Is it possible that this entity only interacts with energy sent through a Kyber Crystal? That, if we want to kill it, we will have to do it via Kyber energy as well. Takomin, you're the expert. Could this be the case, or am I imagining things?”
Takomin nodded: “That is very well possible.”
Wuproma asked the obvious next question: “Well, then the next question is which type of energy we have to channel through the crystals to kill it?”

…

Meanwhile, the Doctor started to quiz Fenia as they walked through the corridors. It was eerie, seeing all these rooms and corridors made for dozens of scientists and warriors so empty. The Doctor was used to such things, but the young woman felt terrible. Not just because of the generallyeerie feeling that came from empty liminal spaces, but also because she knew that all these people had to be either killed or kidnappers by the energy-based life form.
The Doctor smirked, asking a first question to distract her from that feeling: “Alright, Fenia. Let's summarise what we know so far.”
The Senior Medic placed a finger onto her chin, tapping it as she remembered everything: “It's an energy being, feeding off the energy coursing through Kyber Crystals. You shot a current through a crystal to scare it away. It comes every ninety minutes to take someone. And it takes those of highest rank first.”
“Does it?” The Doctor asked and raised a brow while smiling faintly, clearly testing her.
Fenia thought about it again, scrunching her name in the process. As she suddenly got it, her eyes grew wide, and she smiled as if she were back at med school and figured out what the instructor wanted: “Oh! Takomin himself said that it goes for the higher ranks first, with few exceptions. Not none. And every good scientist knows that the outliers are the most interesting parts of a dataset. And I already have two outliers in mind that are very relevant. Takomin and Wuproma themselves!” Fenia shut her mouth quickly with both hands, fearing that what she said may have come across the wrong way. She then quietly added in an apologetic tone: “By which I, of course, don’t wish to insinuate that they have anything to do with it. I just thought that it was interesting that a being, which goes for the most high-ranking officers first, would leave the two leaders almost last.”
“Good thinking, Fenia”, the Doctor nodded approvingly, “And I don’t want you to apologise for your correct observation. I would even say it is a possibility to keep in mind. Imagine if they were involved in it, and nobody said anything. Then, this mystery would never be uncovered.”
The young woman breathed in and out deeply to regain her confidence: “You’re right, Doctor. I’m just not used to questioning people with more authority for me.”
The Doctor placed a hand on her shoulder with a bright smile: “Then let me tell you that, for someone who doesn’t do it often, you’re very good at it.”

They walked further along the hallway, looking for clues as to what exactly was going on.

Chapter Text

Admiral Ar'alani thought about the creature quietly. Her left hand held her chin between her thumb and index finger while her right held her charric. “These things contain crystals for focusing, don't they?” she pondered as she focused her gaze on the weapon. “If we somehow replaced those with the kyber crystals, would we be able to attack the creature with them?”
“That's… actually a good point”, Professor Takomin agreed, “These crystals seem to be how the being interacts with and consumes energy. And charric bolts are concentrated, high-energy microwave radiation. If we focused it through a kyber crystal instead, we may be able to overload the entity permanently or perhaps cut through it. We already know that too much energy can be a problem for it. If we focus enough energy on a small spot suddenly on the creature, we may be able to kill it finally.” He then added with a sigh of desperation for normalcy: “And I can finally just get on with my work.”
Wutroow chimed in with a smirk: “Ohh, we're tinkering with our charrics? I didn't know it was my star day already!” She originally studied at Taharim Academy for a starship engineering track. It was only after she proved herself as a capable leader during her time as a chief engineer that the fleet decided she was suited for an educational program that brought her on the tactical command track. She still loved upgrading everything she came across if she had an idea how to. So she enjoyed the idea of exchanging her charric’s focusing crystal for something better, or at least better suited for the present mission, very much. With her smirk not faltering, Wutroow looked at Ar'alani: “Admiral, permission to begin modifying a charric?”
Ar'alani’s lips compressed into a thin smile as well: “Permission granted, Senior Captain.” She was aware of her technical enthusiasm and especially glad that it existed at moments like this. Wutroow saluted quickly and immediately unholstered her charric, then used a screwdriver to open up the casing of the barrel at a pace that even the drill sergeants at Taharim wouldn't have been able to admonish. With a nod, she declared, “This modification will be done quicker than Octrimo is eating lunch!” Ar'alani had to hold back a snort.
…
The Doctor and Fenia, meanwhile, walked down the corridor they had entered previously. All the doors seemed to lead to now-empty rooms full of bunk beds. Probably the quarters for the lower-level crew, simple security grunts and university students doing their internships. “And, simple room with four bunks number five”, Fenia commented with thinly veiled frustration as the two opened the next door. “Doctor, are you sure that we will find anything interesting by snooping around?” She sighed as she looked back at him.
The Time Lord quickly gave her a reassuring smile as he responded: “Well, we certainly won't find anything by not snooping around.” He then turned towards a nice, green velvet jacket with a frilled shirt, a bow tie, and brown suit pants: “Like this nice outfit here. It should even be about my size.” He then went behind a curtain on one of the beds and started putting these clothes on.
The young woman couldn't believe it: “You're not actually going to steal someone's clothes, are you?” She was shocked he would do such a thing. Before she could protest more, he had already stepped out again in the clothes he had just found. With a shrug, he remarked: “Not like a missing person is going to miss their clothes, right? Besides, as you must have already seen, my old ones didn't fit anymore.”
“But still, you”, Fenia was about to protest more, before her expression turned into a contemplative glare, “Why yes, those clothes were too small for you. A lot too small. I first thought it was something…cultural.”
The older man immediately chucked: “What? You thought that I was from some savage non-Chiss culture too uncivilised to understand proper sizes of clothing?”
“That's not what I meant”, Fenia pouted slightly, a huff escaping her mouth. “Anyway, why did you wear something so much too small then?”
The Doctor tilted his head and explained. A hint of sorrow now in his voice: “Before I was exiled, my people forced me to regenerate. It's a process by which we can survive an otherwise lethal injury. However, we change our appearance and sometimes also secondary personality traits afterwards. So, in a sense, my previous self was executed”
Now that got Fenia’s attention. Her eyes widened, and she immediately pulled out her Questis again. Not only out of curiosity but also because the Admiral ordered her to gather information about the Doctor: “Fascinating. Is this ability naturally evolved, or did your people modify their genome to achieve it?”
The Doctor's face grew brighter again: “Actually, it developed due to long-term exposure to the time stream. On my home planet, Gallifrey, there is a hole in the space-time continuum called the Untempered Schism. It allows us to look at time itself. And this hole also leaks the kind of energy our cells use to undergo such regeneration.”
Fenia nodded, frantically scribbling the information into her Questis. She then looked up again and immediately grew sour as she remembered something: “AND YOU'RE STILL WEARING SOMEBODY ELSE'S CLOTHES!”
The Doctor raised his hands softly in a calming motion: “If we can get the people who are missing back, I will give back the clothes. They just happen to match my size and my personality. I'm lucky that there are even Chiss with my sense of aesthetics. If that happens, I will simply photograph the outfit with a Questis before putting it off again and tell Admiral Ar'alani to get me something similar to this for my regular clothes when working with her.”
The Chiss woman calmed down, but still raised an eyebrow: “And what makes you so sure that the Admiral will want to work with you?” The Doctor responded with his left lip sheepishly twitching upward: “I have my means.” Fenia sighed and decided to give in on the matter: “Fine. But you'll carry your old clothes with you. I don't want you to end up being half-naked on our trip back to the Vigilant.”
“No problem at all”, the Doctor said and pulled small, silver devices out of his old clothes’ pockets, then put them into his new clothes. He was then able to stuff his old clothes inside
one of the pockets of his new clothes, seemingly without any resistance. “Bigger on the inside pockets", He explained.
Fenia sat down on one of the bunk beds and sank her face into both her hands. She then declared with a sigh that grew into more irritation: “This is even more ridiculous than the whole hole-in-space-time thing. Like, what does it even mean? A hole in space-time. That makes exactly zero sense. I thought you were just pulling my leg. But right now, you just violated all laws of space in front of me.” Her curiosity had clearly reached its limit with the Doctor casually making her think everything she'd ever been told about space-time was wrong. For a brief moment, she sounded like she was angry at the universe itself for delivering the Doctor to her.
The Doctor sat down next to her and put a reassuring arm around her shoulders with the most sheepish of smiles: “Don't worry. You'll get used to the impossible happening with me around.”
Fenia looked back up at his reassuring smile. A small snicker escaped her: “It's alright. It's just a bit much, I guess.”
The Doctor got up and offered her a hand so she could do likewise. With the feeling of all laws of nature around her being turned upside-down subsiding, a thin smile returned to her lips as she got up: “Alright then, Doctor. I guess we should continue snooping around then.”
The Doctor nodded: “That we should. But you were right in that our search so far has been inefficient. I'll see if I can get us a map of this base.” He then sat down at one of the computers.
“Doctor, this is a secret Chiss base. The encryption on all these computers is top-notch, even for something as simple as ordering food from the synthesiser. I doubt you'll be able to hack into…”, Fenia was cut off by the signature ping of a computer accepting a request, followed by a smug Doctor turning the screen towards her and showing a full map of the base. With concentric circles, switching between habitation and research areas, and the doors and hallways connecting each of them.
“How did you…?”Fenia asked the Doctor, but cut herself off, “Alright. Expect the impossible. Got it.”
The Doctor chuckled: “You think that in seven hundred years of travel, I never picked up any hacking skills? Anyway, let's see. This layout is quite clever, I must say. The more secret and relevant the project, the more central, so that if anyone tries to enter, they have to fight their way through less secret projects first before getting to the really juicy part. Although I'd say we should check out every level of laboratories. Alright then, the next lab area is three doors down to the left.”
The Doctor headed off immediately, forcing Fenia to follow him and write the next incredulous fact into her Questis while going after him: “Apparently, age over 700 years.”
…
Wutroow, meanwhile, had not only fulfilled but exceeded her promise of a swift modification of the Charric. She smiled as she screwed the final piece of the casing back on, not even ten minutes later: “Ta-da! Brand new, upgraded Charric, which will hopefully overload the hostile entity!”
“Well done, Senior Captain.”, Ar'alani commended her and took the weapon. She turned her head towards Wuproma and asked: “Where can we test this thing safely?” The Commander nodded: “Yes. We have a shooting range for the security personnel directly adjacent to this room. I'll lead you to it.” Once arrived, the Admiral allowed herself a tight smirk. A series of targets that automatically moved in different, pre-programmed patterns, at various distances in all three dimensions. Perfect.
Ar'alani looked at her Charric, then back at the targets, and gave a nod to activate the motion for the targets: “Setting highest difficulty.” Her Charric switched to the lowest setting at first, just in case.
The targets began to float in the room in various patterns. Some zig-zagged up and down while following a general path; some spun around while staying in the same general location, and some dashed across the room in a straight line. Ar'alani knew that she just needed to test the charric. However, with such an advanced training facility available, she might as well test herself, too. She was going to enjoy this.
She started by shooting a target that spun in place, then rolled to dodge one that zoomed towards her. After the roll was completed, she hit another three targets consecutively that
followed one another in formation. She spun around, then hit another target that zig-zagged past her square in the centre. She then turned up the setting of the Charric, making the beams stronger, seeing what the modified weapon was really capable of. The Admiral skillfully sniped away a target passing her by at a distance, then turned to shoot another one that almost hit her in the face if the Charric hadn't pushed it off course.
Finally, only one target was left. Calmly moving left and right like a pendulum at the other end of the room. Ar'alani set the Charric to maximum and focused on the target, having one of those thoughts that she only allowed herself in the privacy of her mind. She imagined the target as Patriarch Thurfian's head. The man who, more than anyone else, was responsible for Thrawn's exile. The thought made her tight smirk widen into an almost grin. She closed one eye and precisely shot its centre. Bullseye. The shot was so strong that the 25% Nyix-alloy target actually got a hole shot through it. She walked out of the training room, looking at Wuproma: “We've learned something interesting now.”
Wuproma raised an eyebrow: “That you are one of the best shooters in the fleet?” Ar'alani remained composed, although the compliment certainly didn't leave her cold. She had always been proud of her skills at the charric. “Not that, Senior Commander”, she simply responded, “Charrics usually use microwave radiation. That can't blast a target away, and certainly can't blow a hole into one. Means these crystals turn it into an entirely different type of energy. Further confirming that perhaps these creatures really only interact with that specific type of energy.”
Professor Takomin concurred: “Indeed, Admiral. Studying and describing kyber energy is one of the primary tasks we have set for ourselves. And your assumption that we're dealing with another type of energy once it flows through a crystal was already confirmed by experiments some of our scientists made with modified weapons, although we used a ship’s lasers instead of anything handheld. As far as I know, at least. As I've told you, our research is on a need-to-know basis even to me.”
Ar'alani nodded, then gazed over at Wutroow: “Senior Captain, modify the other Charrics as well. I want to have as much capability as possible to blast that entity from here all the way to the Rishi Maze the next time it shows up.”
“Yes, Admiral”, Wutroow stated and immediately got to it.
…
Fenia and the Doctor arrived at the first laboratory. The door required only basic identification, which the Doctor had taken from his stolen clothes, so it was likely not one of the more sensitive ones. But it was still better than looking through the nth private quarters if one wanted to find out what was going on. The door slid open, and the Time Lord and the Senior Medic walked inside. “What are we even looking for, Doctor?” the young woman asked as she pressed the button to switch on the lights. She had thought about this for a while. She also would prefer this entire ordeal to end peacefully, but there wasn't an obvious answer as to how searching the station would help with that, either.
The Doctor smiled back at her as he was already looking through the things in the lab: “Oh, all kinds of things could be useful. Maybe knowing what provoked the entity, or perhaps something it misunderstands, or even better, some means of… Ha! Communication.” He emphasised the last part, as he had just discovered what this particular laboratory worked on. He held up what looked to be a standard Chiss com link and held it close to Fenia’s eyes: “You see this? This uses a tiny kyber crystal to enhance the range of this comlink.”
Fenia’s eyes narrowed on the spot the Doctor pointed at until she saw the tiny, green crystal at the end of the antenna. Slowly, her lips widened into a smile again as she nodded: “And you think this could help us to communicate with it?”
“Yes. Or at least, we could.” The Doctor returned the smirk, which soon faltered and dropped, “If we had enough time to learn its language. That is if it even has a language. So, with the time pressure we have now, it's pretty much useless.”
Fenia’s smile dropped too now, and her face hardened: “So not the solution?”
The Doctor nodded solemnly: “Not the solution. Even worse, it doesn't even have a physical brain. So we can't just talk to it.”
The woman’s right eyebrow rose: “What does the presence of a physical brain have to do with our ability to communicate with it?”
“My TARDIS. The blue box I arrived in”, the Doctor explained, “It has telepathic translation circuitry. She can read the minds of beings, translate it into what conveys the meaning of the words best, and then project it into the minds of the recipients.”
Fenia’s head tilted and her eyebrows shot up in surprise: “But we left it back at the Vigilant. How far is the range of that thing?”
“Far", the Doctor stated quite matter-of-factly, “As the pilot, I can also choose who else to extend this ability to. And as I intend to work with you all, I have chosen to let you, the Admiral and the Senior Captain share my ability as long as I'm in the vicinity. If you ever do need to see what someone speaking another language actually says, or what is written somewhere without translation, then you have to say ‘no translation’ in your head before listening to or reading whatever it is you wish to examine without the intermediary of translation.”
Fenia quickly wrote down the instructions. That was the kind of information she lived for. Actually helpful and not entirely contrary to literally everything she believed about the nature of time and space itself. Essentially just a neural interface with excellent range. Now she also knew why his Cheunh sounded almost too perfect. She then concluded: “But you are right. That helps us little with energy beings. So, better keep looking.”
The Doctor nodded sternly and sat down at the next computer terminal: “Yes. Although I think I have an idea how we can speed up the process of choosing where to look.” He logged in using a combination of his newly acquired access card and his hacking skills and looked through the personnel logs. He made a table of when which crew member’s signature was last detected on the sensors. A slight tug at his lips suggested he had a hypothesis. He swivelled the screen to Fenia and instructed her: “So, tell me what you see.”
The medic’s eyes narrowed, and she read the data: “Hmm. These are the disappearances. As we were already told, they usually go by rank. Higher ranks disappear early, then lower. There are periods in time when only people of the same military rank or equivalent civilian contractor clearance disappear, then there's a random remaining person of higher rank here and there or someone from the lower ranks disappearing early. But these seem random. I can't find a pattern in the points of time when someone was taken or remained despite the general trend. They just show up here and there.”
“We've already talked about the time-space continuum today”, the Doctor said as he slowly guided her to the correct conclusion, “You must know that patterns don't only exist in time.”
Fenia’s brows furrowed as she started to think about it. For a second, she thought she was back at the academy for an oral exam. Her eyes narrowed onto the screen in thought: “So it's space then? But the question was always why it tended to go for higher ranks first. And ‘first’ is about time. What could space have to do with…OH.” Fenia’s mind raced. She had an idea now, and she quickly followed it to a conclusion: “Of course. The layout! Doctor, can you mark the location of disappearances, with their number in order of which one came first, over a plan of the station layout?”
“Thought you'd never ask!” The Doctor declared as he proudly pressed to change the tab, where he had already prepared the exact thing she requested. His face now showed obvious satisfaction that she had come to the right conclusion. When ordered that way, the disappearances all stemmed from a common centre, relatively close to the centre of the station itself. The Doctor smirked as he confirmed, “It seems as if it was never about the rank. The entity snatched people from that point close to the centre, and because the most secret and clearance-requiring stations were there, it seemed as if it was just abducting people based on rank.”
“Then we just need to find that point and we will know what is happening there!”, Fenia declared, pride still in her voice. She quickly toned it down again and blushed in a slight purple: “Tho, you thought of it first, of course… And had to give me hints.”
“Don't sell yourself too short, Fenia.”, the Doctor insisted, still proud as ever as he laid a hand on her shoulder, “I am a Time Lord. My people walk through the endless tapestry of time and space as if it were a morning jog. My brain was forged by exposure to the raw power and energy of time and space itself. I could have just told you the answer, sure. I could have also just walked to the Expansionary Defence Fleet headquarters back on Naporar, broken in, taken over everything and declared myself Emperor of the Chiss, believe me. But I didn't. Because that's what I do. Trying to help. That's where I was exiled by people. Because I helped nurture and protect what they saw as ‘lesser beings’. My people wouldn't interfere at all, no matter what. Meanwhile, I stuck only to the most necessary rules.”
“Rules?” Fenia asked, her Questis notes already opened. The Doctor explained: “First, don't create paradoxes. That causes damage to the time stream itself. Second, no avoiding fixed points. These are events that are so essential to the future that they even weave themselves back into the past. Equally horrendous when changed. That's why I didn't have my people drop me off at an earlier point in time. I could have just stopped Thrawn from being exiled in the first place, but that event was so relevant that time itself would have taken damage had it not taken place. Sadly, many of the worst atrocities are also fixed points. Third, that's more a personal guideline, only help as much as necessary. I give ideas, I encourage people to do their best, I help directly when someone bites off more than they can chew, but never just solve someone's problems for them. Like with you. I know you have the potential to be amazing. That's why I helped you come to the right conclusion just now. It's why I chose the name ‘the Doctor’. Because I help people. Help them be their best and shine as bright as I know they can.”
Fenia first scribbled the rules down, but then briefly looked up as she realised just how proud he was of her. She didn't know what to say, so she just asked the next question that came to mind: “Uhm, you chose your name?”
“All time lords do.”, the Doctor confirmed, “Upon graduating from the academy, we choose a name based on our personal values. I called myself ‘the Doctor’ because I liked the idea of helping people and never doing harm.”
Fenia wrote that down as well, then turned to him with a smile of regained confidence and nodded: “Then I guess we have a place to go to do that, Doctor.” She pointed at the extrapolated centre of the abductions.
The Doctor returned her smile: “Indeed, we do.”
…
Senior Captain Wutroow had, in the meantime, already finished adding the kyber crystals to all charrics. “All done, ma'am.”, She confirmed as the last screw was screwed back into the final Charric she modified before handing it back to Wuproma, whom it belonged to.
“Acknowledged.”, Admiral Ar'alani responded, “Well done, Senior Captain.” She then sat down and stared at the location the creature had last come from, as if daring it to come out already, despite it being 50 more minutes until the mysterious enemy was set to reappear.
Senior Commander Wuproma and Professor Takomin, meanwhile, sat in a different corner of the room. Wutroow, meanwhile, decided to sit down next to her Admiral “Admiral. It's unhealthy to just sit down and brood after everything that happened over the past few weeks. Or to let the emotions out only when testing new Charrics, for that matter.”
Ar'alani’s lip twitched before frowning deeper, her head sinking as she was reminded of all that happened: “I shouldn't be feeling as down as I do.”
Wutroow’s right eyebrow rose, her expression bewildered: “After your best friend gets exiled? I think even the most stoic Admiral in the fleet has the right to feel down then, ma'am.”
“No, it's… “, Ar'alani double-checked that the two others were too far away to hear them over the mechanical hums and beeps of the room, “What I am telling you now was told to me by Supreme General Ba'kif. And it is not to leave your lips unless and until I explicitly state otherwise. Thrawn was exiled, sure. But he and Supreme General Ba'kif arranged it so that a new power in Lesser Space called the Galactic Empire would eventually find him. He will then gather intelligence about them, assess the potential of an alliance against the Grysk, and return with the information and, if we're lucky, resources as well. Ba'kif will then try to use his successes as a way to get enough political capital to undo his exile and get him back home. I just have this awful feeling…”
Wutroow’s expression softened, and she tilted her head: “You think he won't make it?”
Ar'alani almost snorted at that: “Not make it? Thrawn? Lesser Space can count itself lucky if it survives encountering him. No. It's just… With how the Ascendancy has always treated him. All the political machinations against him, the regulations thrown in his face, the politicians heckling from the sidelines while he puts everything on the line for the Ascendancy. My biggest fear is that he might just like it in that ‘Empire’.”
The Senior Captain understood now. She put a hand softly on Ar'alani’s shoulder and tried a smile: “If he doesn't get back here voluntarily, I will personally drag him back to the
Ascendancy by his ears. And still, even Admirals are allowed to express their sadness about their best friend leaving, even if just for a year.”
Ar'alani put her hand over Wutroow’s and softly corrected her, managing to smile again: “One of their best friends.” Wutroow smiled at the implication.
She then took her hand softly off Ar'alani’s shoulders again to grasp the hand she had placed on it instead and told her with a grin: “Now we have some energy monster butt to kick.”
Ar'alani stood up firmly, her face serious again but clearly with less baggage than before their conversation. She then loudly declared: “That we do, Senior Captain.”

Chapter Text

The Doctor and Chaf’eni’alor briskly made their way to the coordinates they had identified. A Point close to the centre of the station which appeared to be the epicentre of all the recent disappearances.

It became ever more difficult to advance, as that was the purpose of the base’s layout. The more deeply they penetrated into the heart of the base, the more secret the labs became, the more difficult it was to advance.

Fenia was quite impressed at the Doctor's ingenuity when facing another kind of locking mechanism or security system.

First, there were doors that required permission sent by station command in order to open. No one could enter, unless someone in command who sat in the command center pressed a button to give them a permission that would allow them to open all the other mechanisms.

“We should call Wuproma or Takomin”, Fenia suggested, “They are probably able to give the signal.”

The Doctor titled his head with a one-sided grin as he looked at Fenia. With a deep appreciation for her nativity, he explained: “Able, most certainly. Willingness would be the issue here. Do you think they'd let us somewhere so secret that it requires this special permission? In particular me as an outsider? No. But I do have an idea.”

With a most mischievous smirk he pulled one of the communication devices they'd found at the last lab from his coat. A few tools he'd picked up along the way soon followed. He then used one of the tools to change some settings on the comlink.
He switched it on with a tight smile, pointed it at the door, and did something with a micro-manipulator device to the circuitry of the badge.
He looked over at Fenia, whose brows furrowed, and explained: “If I find the right frequency and signal then I might just be able to…” And the lights at the door already changed to green, indicating that it thought that they had gotten the permission.

This continued for quite some time. Infrared cameras with automated charrics attached were blocked by the Doctor by convincing the computers that they had to switch on the fire extinguisher system, which temporarily blinded the cameras with the foam.

Motion sensors which the Doctor distracted by having a nearby snack dispenser shoot out snacks with far more force and speed than usual, causing a clutter of snacks flying through the room to send them into overdrive.

A floor with pressure-sensitive plates with integrated tasers was traversed using a grav sled in which the Doctor cranked up the repulsor. As the repulsor still exerted force onto the ground, the sensors were still set off. But with the Doctor boosting the height at which they traversed said floor the connected tasers didn't reach them.

Fenia was impressed by his ability to improvise a solution to every security system the station had to offer on the spot. She was also very glad now that he chose to work for instead of against the Ascendancy. Who knows what kind of damage he could have done had he joined one of their enemy factions? And she was exhausted. She hadn't walked this quickly in quite some time, and with the Doctor locked in like that, nothing the station could throw at them gave her much time to pause either. She understood that they had a deadline, didn't mean that she couldn't quietly complain to herself about it.

…

The alarms blared. Wutroow, Ar'alani, Wuproma and Takomin all raised their charrics in unison. “Wait”, Commander Wuproma raised his hand as a signal to stand down, “Nothing here. Someone just set off the pressure plates in corridor 47/f.”

“Must be the Doctor and Fenia.”, Ar'alani responded.
Wuproma raised an eyebrow: “I don't think that's likely. Security systems wouldn't even allow them to get that deep into the station without either me or Professor Takomin giving permission first.”

Ar'alani kept a neutral face, but inside she didn't know whether to chuckle or sigh: “The Doctor has quite some expertise with getting where he isn't supposed to be. I don't doubt that's him and Fenia. We should focus on fighting the creature the next time it shows up here.”

Takomin interjected: “Shouldn't we at least have someone take him back out? Who knows what trouble that outsider could do in there.”

“He is also very good at that. Causing trouble, I mean. However, I'd rather have him cause trouble over there than here where it could interfere with our mission.”, Wutroow responded.

Takomin shrugged: “Well, I don't think he can cause much trouble anymore regardless. Those plates deliver some nasty electric shocks.”

This caused Ar'alani to suddenly hiss in anger: “What?! My senior medic is with him, you fool. That girl is probably laying stunned on the floor there too now. She'll need medical attention ASAP. Why didn't you say so immediately?” She just barely held herself back from pinning him against the wall. He should have mentioned earlier if there was a threat to her crew there.

Wutroow tried to calm her Admiral: “She's with the Doctor. You recognised yourself that he's very good at getting somewhere. And I've seen him with Fenia, I think he genuinely cares about her. So I'm quite certain that they're probably safe and sound right now.”

Ar'alani breathed deeply once to compose herself. If Wutroow considered him to genuinely care about Fenia, she was probably right. Wutroow was a people person. Still, Ar'alani continued: “You are right. But can we be sure? If she is hurt, I'd rather have her brought back to safety sooner rather than later.”

Wuproma pulled out his questis to look at the security information: “The next door after the corridor they traversed was opened soon after all the plates went off. Judging by how all plates along a path were set off and the next door that path led to was opened afterwards, I'd says they somehow made it across safely and got into the next room.”

Ar'alani breathed a sigh of relief. Wutroow had her signature smirk again and plainly stated: “Told you. Expert at getting into places. And at causing trouble.”

…

After all the security was overcome, the Doctor and the Senior Medic stood in front of a massive wall of solid kyber crystals. And the location they were supposed to go to was behind it.

“Well, Doctor”, the young woman asked as she gazed around them, “What are we going to do now? Some clever trick to find the hidden entrance? Use one of those mining devices to brute-force our way through?” She pointed at what looked like a lorry with an attached grinder. An automated device likely made to mine the crystals for the labs. From a niche in the room the lorry part would then be magnetically levitated to whichever laboratory needed them.

“Not exactly”, the Doctor replied, “Searching for wherever the entrance is would be a guessing game. And those mining tools are there for precision, not speed. I have a different idea. Now would you please give me your sidearm?” He extended his hand nonchalantly behind himself over the shoulder, as if it was the most natural thing to ask.

“I thought you didn't like weapons?” Fenia asked cautiously, knowing that the Admiral would certainly not approve of her handing her Charric to the alien.

The Doctor turned to her and smirked and again as he explained: “Only when used uncreatively.”

Fenia sighed internally, she knew that she was technically doing something against orders, but something just made her trust the stranger, he had already proven herself sufficiently in her eyes. So she took her Charric and placed it into the palm of his hand.

“Very well”, the Doctor said as he grasped the hilt. He then also took a small kyber crystal that lay around and took one of the filing devices that the woman in the security camera footage from earlier used to file the crystal into a convex lense. Fenia hadn't even seen him snatch one of the files from the table.

He held it in front of the weapon’s muzzle and explained: “Now, we shoot the energy of the charric through this lense. If we find the correct resonance frequency of the crystal in front of us…” After going through a few beam frequency settings, a large segment of the crystal wall in front of them shattered into thousands of pieces.
The Doctor gestured to her to walk inside with a grin, motioning with his hand like an old-timey gentleman who held the door open for a lady.

Inside was what seemed like the most advanced facility in the entire station. The central laboratory that all the advanced security measures had been put in place to protect. The main power source of the station, the computer core, and there it was.

From large, clear plates of multicoloured kyber crystals was what looked like a hermetically sealed chamber of pure kyber. Almost like a cage of stained glass, but of pure plates carved from crystals, exactly where the Doctor had calculated the source of the disappearances were. And inside, something could be seen.

Fenia observed the crystalline encasement. Inside, colourful swirls were visible, an amorphous collection of bright lights moving inside, like the entity. “Is this the being that has been causing all that trouble?”, Fenia asked the Doctor, her eyes narrowing.

“I don't think that's the being responsible for the disappearances”, the Doctor explained, “I don't think this being is even able to escape such a sealed crystal structure as this. The crystals are being electrically charged, so by passing through it would be harmed. It must have been trapped here on purpose. The one causing all the trouble was another one of its species.”

“If that being is in here, and another entity of its kind has caused trouble”, Fenia placed her index finger to her chin, “That means the other entity was probably trying to free it, communicate with the researchers to free it, or just sought revenge. Whatever the cause, this other entity is angry and wants its friend freed. Come on, Doctor. Let's break it out and this whole issue is over!” Fenia couldn't quite believe she'd make such a suggestion. Interfering with top priority research like that. But, it was the most logical conclusion.

“Not as easy as you'd think”, the Doctor responded, his eyes gazing at the crystal cage. Taking in every detail.

“Why not?” Fenia inquired, “Just blast that thing open with your resonance frequency trick.” As she said that, she noticed that she hadn't even demanded her charric back yet. And she didn't mind that one bit right now. Despite his discomfort around weapons, he was probably still far better at using it than her anyway.

“I wouldn't recommend that”, the Doctor explained, “There's too high a risk of just shooting through the crystal and harming the entity. And simply opening the cage doesn't seem like an option either.”

“How so?”, Fenia questioned, “You seemed very good at taking out all the previous systems.”

“Because I was”, the Doctor confirmed, in a voice that would have sounded arrogant had she not seen his absolute brilliance taking out the security systems first-hand, “But this system is rather fool proof. The power source of the sealing mechanism is inside. The chamber is hermetically sealed with kyber crystals, which, if shattered by brute force or by a charric, could send waves of energy that injure the being. The only way by which one can deactivate it is an external signal, and this isn't like the previous door, I can't just hack in with a com signal. This is actually physically linked to the command station via a cable.”

Fenia tilted her head: “Which means what?”

The Doctor sighed as he looked towards her: “What I was trying to avoid. We will actually have to try and convince Wuproma or Takomin to open this cell.”

Fenia looked at her Chrono: “20 more minutes until the other being attacks next. We will have to be…” Before Fenia could say ‘fast’, the Doctor already ran.

She was rather impressed by his speed too, she had seen warriors during drills not able to run as fast as that ancient man.

Fenia, however, decided that she'd already ran enough for her whole week's worth of cardio today. And she was sure as ice not going to run again. She thought about what she'd seen the Doctor do today. Look at a problem, then at the surroundings, then do something with the surroundings that makes the problem go away.

She stepped outside the central door room again and saw it: the lorry maglev. Quickly, she typed in the command center as her target, huddled into one of the carts, and allowed herself to be shot towards her target at high speeds.

…

She didn't enjoy traveling by metal lorry one bit. Being pressed into the cold, hard steel of the crate she lay inside at breakneck speeds was certainly not why she became a medic. It was, however, preferable to running regardless. And it was definitely preferable to what she had to do next. Convince the others to let the creature live. Tell her Admiral, Senior Captain, and both the research and military commander of the station to do something. Telling them that they may have gotten something wrong. The idea of speaking up against superiors made her stomach turn more than any twist and turn in the path of the lorry. And she'd have to be the one to tell them, she knew. As fast as the Doctor was, he wasn't as fast as that damned thing.

Ar'alani, Wutroow, Wuproma and Takomin all collectively turned their heads as they heard the lorry barreling towards them. The metal lid in the wall opened, and slowly rose Fenia from her uncomfortable vehicle.

She stood up, dusted herself off and looked between the four nervously.

Wutroow whistled: “Quite an entrance. Has the Doctor taught you how to make one while you were on your little investigation?”

“Speaking of which”, the Admiral added drily, “I thought I had given you an order to stay with him to make sure he doesn't do anything to jeopardise the mission. Explain yourself, Senior Medic.”

Fenia swallowed what felt like a clump of pure nyix in her throat. Steadying herself by breathing slowly, she started to explain: “Admiral, I fear you are about to make a mistake. In the center of the station we have encountered a being of the same type as the one that abducts people here. It might be its friend, mate or family member. Kept inside a kyber crystal cage in the central lab. It probably wants us to release that other entity, tried to communicate or seek revenge by abducting those people”

Ar'alani’s glance sharply darted towards Professor Takomin: “Is that true? Does your central lab keep one of those creatures?”

The professor held his hands in front of his chest as if to shield himself from Ar'alani’s glare: “As I said, everything on this station is need-to-know basis even for me.”
Ar'alani scoffed. After another sigh she then asked: “Senior Medic, what evidence have you found that keeping that creature imprisoned was what made the other creature attack?”

Fenia explained: “It's right in the center of all the disappearances. If one looks at the disappearances and when people disappeared first where, it's centered on that kyber cage. And because that one was in the centremost lab, it appeared as if it took people by rank. If we release it, the other one will likely leave us alone too.”

Ar'alani countered: “Or these creatures come from there and the people in the central lab managed to capture only one of them before the second one took them. I can't risk this mission on what is possibly or likely true.”

“But what if that being just wants its friend to be released?”, Fenia asked, “Then we'd be killing an innocent being for wanting to protect what's important to it.”

Ar'alani stated in a slightly harsher tone: “My order is to protect this station and the Chiss on it. Not some energy monster taking them. And if the only way to do so with 100% certainty is to take it out then I'll gladly take that option. And that's final.”

“Yes ma'am.”, Fenia gulped. Her heart was screaming at her to object further, while her brain told her to be quiet.

…

The time approached that the entity would appear next. Minutes ticking by as the crew prepared to slay the beast that took their fellow Chiss away. Admiral Ar'alani, Senior Captain Wutroow, Senior Commander Wuproma and Professor Takomin all had modified Charrics on them now and were facing the wall the entity had last emerged from.

Fenia leaned against a wall on the other side of the room, uncertain whether to join them.

The Admiral saw that, but decided not to order her to join them in the execution of the intruder. She knew that Fenia joined her crew to heal, not kill. In a sense, the young Chaf woman's revulsion at the idea of killing proved what a good Chief Medical Officer she was. In a few minutes, this would all be over and Fenia could return to the ship and continue to be the diligent officer she was, Ar'alani promised mentally.

…

Only two minutes left. Fenia looked towards the device that the Doctor had built earlier to make the entity go away. For a split second, she thought that maybe she could use it to scare the entity off before the modified Charrics could mortally wound it. But no. This would be an act of insubordination that would get her certainly kicked from the fleet, almost certainly kicked out of her family, and possibly would make her birth family not want her back either. She was uncertain if she could live with the thought of not having done all she could to save an innocent being, but she was absolutely certain that her life would be over if she tried anything against a direct order.

The Doctor, meanwhile, was still running back to the command center. Almost there. Luckily, the security measures were explicitly designed in such a way as to only stop movement in one direction. The fact that the security was designed one way was a psychological choice, making sure that potential intruders would never find themselves in a hopeless situation, as such people always fought hardest. By allowing them to fall back, the station ironically became safer, as enemies wouldn't be backed into a corner and because it made movement away from the most sensitive areas attractive. The Doctor was currently very fond of the Chiss’ knack for psychological warfare, as it meant that he was able to run back far faster than he had advanced into the station. Just a few more steps…

…

Finally it happened. The entity slowly began to emerge from the wall that it had last emerged from as well. Quickly, the crew jumped to attention and drew their weapons.

Fenia couldn't watch. She still believed that the being was likely innocent. For a final split second, her idea of scaring it away came back into her mind and was dismissed equally quickly. With guilt still heavily laying in her stomach she shut her eyes closely. Not wanting to watch the violence happen.

Next thing she heard was a bang. No, not a bang, a shatter. As if someone had dropped a glass. That wasn't the sound Charric fire made, more so like…no, why would that? Maybe it was just what the modified Charrics sounded like. Then she heard shouting, not a cry of victory, more like a quick yelp of surprise from all the other Chiss. She heard Ar'alani call out loudly: “WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS THAT? WAS THAT YOUR DOING?”

Fenia’s eyes opened, then she saw it. The Doctor had just ran in, the Charric she lent him and the small crystal he made into a lense in his hands. Then, she realised what had happened. The Doctor set her Charric she gave to him to the resonance frequency of the focusing crystals, shattering the kyber crystals inside Ar'alani and Co.’s modified weapons, making them useless at once. Like what he did to the solid crystal wall.

“Wuproma, Takomin.”, The Doctor called, “Unless you want any of you to be snatched away I would send a release code to the central lab very quickly if I were you.”

Wuproma responded first, running towards the command computer core before the entity had made it all the way through the wall. He didn't want to obey that madman, but with their Charrics made useless he had little other choice but to try it the other way. Releasing the other entity, hoping it would actually end this madness. He sent a release code to the central laboratory, allowing the second entity to come out.

Then, like a miracle, the entity’s colours softened, it became more translucent, and it floated in the middle of the room, no more advancing towards anyone or anything. A second being like it appeared, making its way through the wall with seemingly less effort than the first. The two amorphous entities circling one another in a dance of lights. As if life day decorations had come to life and started to dance. Then, both beings disappeared back into the walls.

As Ar'alani was about to say something, the crystals around them started to glow. Everyone looked around, fearing that an onslaught of far more energy beings had just arrived. However, no one expected what happened next.

The lights, one by one, took firm shapes and died down. Leaving behind a disoriented Chiss each time. More and more lights formed across the station and became Chiss officers, warriors and scientists.

Ar'alani was dumbfounded, asking with a voice barely above a whisper: “What is happening?”

The Doctor smirked as he explained: “Seems to me as if the entities are bringing back who they took. It really appears as if whatever happened to one of them made the other angry and it started to take personnel. As revenge, or maybe to try and communicate with them, who knows? What matters is that no one was permanently injured and that these brave people can return to their homes safely.”

Takomin listened intently before turning to the crowd and speaking: “Which of you was involved with the central laboratory experiment that captured the entity? I think I do ‘need to know’ what in the world you were trying to accomplish now.”

One middle-aged scientist spoke up: “It was an experiment for propulsion. These beings can conduct and direct kyber energy with close to no energy loss. Replacing the power distributor of a hyperdrive with such a creature could help us build hyperdrives in the class 0.1 and below range. We are talking about traversing the galaxy in mere hours, if not mimutes. Well, that dream seems to be gone now, since these entities seem to retaliate against it so strongly.”

“Don't give up just yet.”, the Doctor interjected, “Only because these beings don't want to be part of a forced experiment doesn't mean they can't be persuaded otherwise. Maybe they like certain frequencies or types of energy particularly much and you can train them with positive reinforcement. Or you can communicate with them, forge an alliance, and get them to join your project like that. You're all smart people here, figure it out.”

The scientist nodded.

One of the warriors, a young woman, looked at the Doctor and laughed out loud: “Why are you wearing one of our theatre props?”

The Doctor's eyebrow rose: “Theatre props?”

The woman smiled: “Yes. Theatre props. We have a theatre club on this station. Meetings every Saturday. Lakrimko leads it. ” She looked for Lakrimko in the crowd, a younger man who was still rather disoriented from rematerializing: “Look here! That alien is wearing one of your costumes!”

The young man turned to them and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. He wasn't even aware yet that there was an alien on the station now. He considered the Doctor and, as no one tried to arrest the strange being on the station, concluded there must have been a reason no one tried: “You. Are you the reason that that weird thing brought us back?”

The Doctor placed his arm around Fenia’s shoulders and corrected: “We are the reason.” Fenia smiled at being included, but then looked down in shame, still upset about not intervening when she could have.

Lakrimko chuckled and declared: “Alright then. You can keep that. Consider it a thank you for bringing me back.”

The Doctor's face lit up in response: “I thank you. This outfit really does suit me a lot.”

“Just one more question, Doctor.”, Professor Takomin asked, “Why did the entity grab someone only every 90 minutes precisely?”

The Doctor smirked and explained: “That probably had to do with the experimentation on it. I'd wager that energy was inserted into the cage every 90 minutes to make measurements, which caused the entity to emit the energy, making the other entity able to absorb it, which was necessary to make it able to dematerialize someone on its own. Also the reason it took those who were closest to its friend first, easier to take someone closer to the center of the energy. And also why it came through the wall a lot less quickly than the second one after we released it. As the first came with the intention of taking someone else, it had to go slow to conserve the energy needed to take someone else with it.”

Fenia added: “That's also the reason it took people of higher rank first. Because they tended to be closer to its imprisoned friend on average. Less energy required. And why you and Wuproma were not taken yet. As station command you two were always out here by the docking bay and command center to vet people coming in and coordinate the research. No conspiracy needed to explain that.”

“Conspiracy?” the Professor asked, clearly offended that someone had even come up with such an idea.

Fenia shrugged and smiled: “One has to consider all possibilities.” The Doctor beamed at her with pride.

…

After it was confirmed that all station personnel had been returned, Ar'alani and her crew said their farewells to the base’s crew: “May warrior’s fortune smile upon your efforts.”
The Doctor, without anyone noticing, took one palm-length crystal with him without anyone noticing and stuffed it into the pockets of his newly-gifted suit.

…

The journey back to the Vigilant was uneventful. With the journey there, all that happened on the base, and the journey back, it wasn't even 5 hours yet. Sorry the Doctor was right about one more thing. They were, in fact, back in time for tea.

As they arrived back in the Vigilant’s launch bay, Ar'alani quickly debriefed her team: “Senior Medic Fenia, you may return to your quarters. Compile all you found out about the Doctor into a report. Senior Captain Wutroow, take the Doctor to the brig.”

The Doctor's eyebrows furrowed in anger and confusion: “What? I just saved all these people. Without me, you'd have killed the entity and no one would have brought the base’s personell back to material existence.”

Ar'alani’s eyes narrowed on him: “Yes. And in doing so, you jeopardised the mission and directly interfered against my orders. Consider the fact that I'm not executing you on the spot as a sign of my gratitude. Wutroow, take him away.”

…

A few minutes later, the Doctor was put inside a dark, empty cell with a force field as the door. Only a small gap below it, presumably to bring prisoners food.

Wutroow activated the force field of the cell and turned towards the hallway outside. Before stepping out entirely she turned towards the Doctor in his cell one last time: “I wouldn't try breaking out. The Admiral will have to decide what to do with you soon, and the better you behave, the more likely that ends well for you.” Her face softened slightly, thinking that if he were a Chiss, there was a good chance they'd have put a medal onto his honour chains for the rescue he just pulled off instead. He saved the personell, he stopped the entity from attacking anyone again, and as the entity seemed intelligent it could even be argued he stopped an illegal act of aggression against other sapients. Her face softened: “And, Doctor. Thank you.”

The Doctor smiled at her genuinely: “You're very much welcome.” Seemingly not angered by the fact they'd put him into a cell at all. Or at least not angry at her, since she merely carried out her Admiral’s orders. Then, the Senior Captain walked away to attend her duties.

Chapter Text

“His ship does WHAT?”, Admiral Ar'alani asked sharply as she read Senior Medic Fenia’s report. Senior Captain Wutroow stood to her left next to the Admiral wordlessly.

Fenia’s eyes shot up wider, not expecting the Admiral to raise her voice, and she nodded: “It creates a psychic link which it uses to translate, ma'am.”

The Admiral asked again: “His box… has second sight?”

Fenia simply nodded again, straining herself from trying a bit too hard to stand at attention: “In a manner of speaking, yes. Although I doubt it's the same neurological mechanism that allows certain sky-walkers to read minds.”

“How so?” the Admiral asked, “We barely understand anything about third sight, let alone second. Why do you think it has to be a different mechanism?”

Fenia’s head tilted slightly, and her eyebrows rose: “Uhm, well, I don't think boxes and sky-walkers have much in common.”

“They're both blue”, Wutroow chimed in with a sly smirk. This caused Ar'alani to give her a deadpan glare, although both knew that the Admiral didn't actually disapprove of the comment.

Fenia corrected the joke sincerely: “I doubt that blueness has any correlation with telepathy. All Chiss are blue, yet only those with third sight ever develop second sight. Also, there are plenty of other blue species, and I have never heard of a higher percentage of telepathic individuals among them.”

Wutroow snorted and asked: “Am I rubbing off on you?” She expected that statement to have been a sarcastic remark.

“You are a great Captain, ma'am. I see that as a great compliment.”, the young woman answered, smiling and nodding with fullest sincerity. Ar'alani and Wutroow looked at each other briefly, both suppressing a smirk. No words needed to be said to know they were both thinking the same thing. ‘That girl understands sarcasm about as well as Thrawn did during his first year at the academy.’ They both turned back to Fenia and continued going through the report.

“That was certainly… enlightening.” Ar'alani said while rubbing her left temple, “Well, I still don't like the idea of a strange vessel inside my mind.” She then keyed the comm: “Ar'alani to bridge. Divert our course to Sposia. Tell the UAG we have something they might like to take a look at.” “Aye, ma'am.” The response came immediately.

…

The Doctor sat in his cell and meditated. There was no use in pacing up and down any further, and he intended to heed Wutroow’s advice of not trying to break out. So he decided to sit there for a while, with his legs crossed, his eyes closed, and going through the various breathing techniques the Venusian nuns had taught him during his stay on Venus, where he studied their Aikido. After what felt like forever, or a few seconds, he couldn't tell because of how deeply in a trance he was, the door to the brig corridor opened, and he heard footsteps.

As soon as he was out of his trance again, he obviously knew exactly how long it had been; his time sense never failing him. He lit up when he saw who it was: “Fenia! What brings you to the nasty part of the ship?”

“I'm bringing you your dinner.” She said as she shoved a bottle of water, a tray of meat-striped fruit squares, and two nut-paste sandwiches under the force field of his cell. Not standard brig food, but something she prepared herself.

The Doctor smirked at her and gratefully accepted the meal: “Why, thank you, Fenia. Is it usual for a ship's highest-ranking medical officer to be the one to bring a prisoner his rations?”

“Not really”, Fenia answered, “I simply told the Admiral that, since I'd never formally dismissed you from sickbay, you were technically still my patient and I had to do a final check-up on you.” Her face darkened, and she tilted her head downwards, her gaze lingering on the floor: “I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry for not doing anything.”

The Doctor's brows furrowed in genuine confusion: “I would hardly call what you did ‘not doing anything’. You came up with a brilliant way to get there faster, you informed them of our discoveries, and you told them not to try to kill the being. You did what you could.”

“I didn't do all I could.”, Fenia corrected, “I thought that I might be able to use the device you built to scare the creature away before the charrics could harm it. In the end, I decided against it, which was…”

“Brilliant!” the Doctor interrupted, no doubt interjecting before a far harsher judgement of herself came out of Fenia’s own mouth, “That solution was absolutely remarkable. I'm impressed you came up with it. I could see that working.”

“But I didn't.”, Fenia said, her head dropping further, not even able to look into the Doctor's eyes, “I had a solution, one you say could have worked. And I didn't. If you hadn't shown up in time, I'd have allowed an innocent creature to die and dozens of Chiss warriors and scientists to remain as energy trapped in crystals.”

The Doctor smiled softly. Showing her his most compassionate, softest face to calm her: “Fenia, please look at me. No one asked you to disobey orders. You did all you could while keeping yourself safe in your precarious position. No one would fault you for what you did or didn't do.”

“I'd fault me.”, Fenia responded, looking at him again with her eyes slightly watering, “I am here because I'm trying to save lives. I just had a perfect opportunity there, and I chose not to. What kind of a medic am I that would do such a thing? You solved the problem in a heartbeat, even though you knew that your position was even worse than mine.”

The Doctor shook his head: “Fenia. I simply have far more experience at this than you. Experience with what to do when everyone told me that the universe simply is the way it is. And I've discovered something in my time. The universe can be cruel and indifferent, yes, but that doesn't mean we must be. Because whenever the universe shows its bad side, and we say ‘no’, and we show we care, and we show a better path is possible, then the universe gets ever so slightly better. The universe gets less and less cold and uncaring the more we refuse to be cold and uncaring. And you tried your best to be caring.”

“But I didn't say no.”, Fenia said, almost whispering, breathing to hold back her tears.

The Doctor shook his head softly: “Oh, you did. There are different scales to saying no. Standing up to an army of cruel invaders is just as much saying no as explaining to someone what they're doing is wrong. It's just on different scales. And no one starts with the army. You come from a low-ranking Chiss family. And now you're in a ruling family, but in its lowest rank. All your life, you've been taught to be subservient. And that you managed to tell someone of higher standing than you that they're wrong is itself amazing. It's all about refusing the cruelty that's demanded of us, and you've made great strides in that direction.”

Fenia managed to carefully smile again: “So you're going to work on me until I get all the way to standing up to an army?”

The Doctor nodded wholeheartedly: “I don't see any reason not to.”

Fenia chuckled and placed one hand on the force field dividing them: “Thank you, Doctor. For teaching me. And for believing in me.”

The Doctor placed his hand at the same spot as hers and snickered as well: “I thank you, Fenia. For this amazing food, and for not letting me succumb to boredom here.”

Fenia added hastily: “Oh, there's one more thing I wanted to tell you. They want to bring your ship to the UAG on Sposia. The Universal Analysis Group. They research strange and exceptional alien technologies in hopes of reverse-engineering them.”

The Doctor's brows furrowed as he took his hand off the force field again, quickly changing pace as he was furious now: “They're taking my TARDIS? Just great! My last hope of maybe finding a way out of this exile-gone.” Now it was the Doctor's turn to breathe to calm himself; his quick outburst startled Fenia, which he really didn't mean to: “Alright. I guess there's no use in blowing up over this. I'd just make more enemies by trying to go against this. Thank you for informing me, Fenia.”

Fenia smiled softly again and gave him a nod: “Well, I expected something like this. Just thought you'd want to know. I have to go now, Doctor. Do enjoy your meal!” Fenia left and went back to the sickbay, while the Doctor sat back down and enjoyed his meal.

The thought of them taking his TARDIS did, however, leave a sour aftertaste. No, he wouldn't let them take her.

…

Some time later, the Doctor once again heard steps. Quicker and smaller than Fenia’s. Quicker and smaller than any adult Chiss would be. Soon, he saw a small Chiss girl pace up the corridor. No older than 10, in a practical, teal overall. Her big, red-glowing eyes facing downward as she sat down, nestled into a bulkhead to the left of his cell and gnawed at her pigtails anxiously. She continued to just look at the floor in front of her and pulled out a toy of a packbull-like thing on wheels, nudging it around in front of her. “Well, hello there!” The Doctor gained her attention with the least threatening smile he could muster.

The little girl shook once as she noticed the cell was occupied. She was told that only bad people were put here. And his alien appearance made her even more concerned. She hugged her legs, tightly pulling her knees to her chest and clutching her toy instinctively as she stammered: “P-p-please don't hurt me.”

“I won't hurt you.”, the Doctor assured her, “I'm the Doctor. And who might you be?”

“No, you're not!”, she immediately shot back, her fear lashing into confused anger, “I know this ship's doctor. Her name is Fenia and she always gives me my favourite sweets! You're just some weird, alien bad guy!”

The Doctor couldn't help but chuckle: “Senior Medic Fenia is a friend of mine, too, actually. I'm not a doctor. I'm the Doctor. As in, Doctor is my name.” He saw that this still hadn't helped her trust him quite as much as he hoped, so he lied: “I'm a guest here. It's just that all the guest rooms were already full, so I was put here instead. Anyway, who are you now?”

“... Ab’begh”, the girl stated carefully, no longer quite as terrified. “I'm the captain’s daughter.”, she added hastily, the rehearsed lie put into her as long as she could remember.

“Oh really?” the Doctor tested, already made suspicious by her tone, “So, Ab’begh. Do you mean you're the Senior, Mid, or Junior Captain’s daughter?”

Ab’begh’s mind began churning again, her heart beating as she didn't know how to answer that. She was just told to say she was the captain's daughter and that everyone would leave her alone if she'd said that. She had to think on her feet: “Uhm… The Senior Captain’s. Yes.”

The Doctor smiled, testing her further: “Oh, really? I'm a friend of Senior Captain Wutroow’s as well.”

The girl looked towards the ceiling again in thought before trying to continue quickly: “Oh yeah… That's right… Yes… Senior Captain Wutroow. That's it. That's my mom.”

The Doctor chuckled: “You just took three whole seconds to tell me which Captain your mother is. As I mentioned her name, you took a few more to make sure you remembered it correctly, to make sure I'm not tricking you with a false name. No one needs time to remember their mother's name. Nor would they need so much time to know what her position is, at least not if they live on the same ship. You looking up as you tried to recall that your supposed mother's name is additional proof that it was way harder than it realistically would be for someone's daughter. Again, who are you, Ab’begh?”

Ab’begh was devastated. Has she been found out? Tears already started to well in her eyes.

“No worries.”, the Doctor soothed her quickly, “I won't dig any further if that's uncomfortable. Would you be more comfortable telling me what you're doing here in the brig corridor?”

Ab’begh quickly wiped the tears from her eyes as she explained: “It's just my… Nanny. She always demands so much of me. Studying, reading,... Other things. Sometimes I just come here. It's usually empty here, and no one has found me yet.” Her eyes grew large from pleading as she looked directly at the Doctor: “You won't tell them that I like hiding here either, right?” Ab’begh wasn't sure why she told the stranger anything at all; she wasn't supposed to give him even a tenth of the information she just gave, but somehow it felt… right. Like the clear path when navigating the stars. Something far deeper than even her training in secrecy inside her told her that was the way to go.

“Of course I won't tell”, the Doctor assured her, “Having a break every once in a while is important. I'm sorry your nanny doesn't know that.” He also thought about the way she said “nanny” again. There was some hesitation there, too. An indicator that this title wasn't the full picture either. Still, he wouldn't dig any further. Ab’begh already seemed to have enough on her plate without a Time Lord trying to dig up her secrets. Instead, he decided to help her: “Do you want to know the best way to relax?”

Ab’begh considered it, then nodded: “Sure, if you know it.”

The Doctor smirked and nodded: “I do. In fact, I was just doing it when you came in. Some charming nuns on a faraway planet called Venus taught me this nifty meditation technique.”

Ab’begh immediately began to smile more brightly: “Wow! You've got to tell me about that place sometime!”

“I will tell you about it and many more places from my travels.”, the Doctor assured her, “Now, let's start with the meditation. Look. Sit down like this. Spine straight. Now close your eyes.”

They went through breathing techniques, introspection, and then some visualisation exercises. To Ab’begh, it felt as if she was floating now. Like all the weight of her responsibilities fell from her. Then, vibrations. An odd sensation she usually only felt when navigating. She delved into her mind deeper and deeper. Then, remarkably, she felt as if she was fully aware of her surroundings. Like her, the ship, even the universe, was all one thing connected in a tapestry of causalities, and she could feel it all. She could see it all. This may be the most intense experience of Third Sight she has ever had, more than any cluster of stars or gravitationally anomalous region ever gave her. How was that even possible outside her sensory deprivation headset? The Doctor's and Ab’begh’s eyes shot open simultaneously. The Doctor's brows raised in surprise, while Ab’begh’s were furrowed in confusion.

“Wh… What was that?”, Ab’begh inquired anxiously. In a sense, she knew what it was. Some Third Sight thing. She always felt this jittery when tapping into it. But there was something different about it. She usually never had Third Sight experiences this powerful outside of the controlled environment on the bridge, nor had she ever felt so connected to everything around her beyond immediate events and things she actively focused on, and there was one particularly different thing. She actually felt better. Usually, using her Third Sight depleted her. Made her feel exhausted. But somehow, this stranger made the Third Sight help her.

The Doctor, meanwhile, looked at her in surprised fascination. A big grin on his face as he declared, “You have a remarkable psychic presence! It's as if your mind itself were woven into the fabric of space. Are you feeling better?”

“Much!”, Ab’begh declared, opting to ignore the statements she didn't exactly understand. “Can I still stay for a bit?” she asked. She still didn't exactly know who this stranger was. It didn't exactly matter to her anymore. He could be a Chiss, a Human, or even one of those monsters in the maintenance hatch her caregiver insisted didn't exist. He made her Third Sight help her, and that made him her friend in her book.

The Doctor nodded: “Of course. Stay as long as you need to. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

The young girl looked back at her packbull toy: “Well, this isn't working anymore. I tried to charge it and everything. It's supposed to zoom around. Right now, it does nothing.”

The Doctor's eyes narrowed on it, and he told her: “Alright. I'm rather good at repairing things. I'll see what I can do. Just slide it under there.”

Ab’begh slid the toy through the hatch below the force field that was there to get prisoners their food. The Doctor opened up the battery case and had a look. This also gave him an idea of how to escape. He pulled out a manipulator tool and the kyber crystal he had snuck out from the research base, then used it to access the circuitry. He quickly mended the loose connection that caused the toy to no longer function, but then pressed the kyber crystal to the battery. Then, the battery discharged into the crystal, which directed the discharge into one of the emitters of his cell’s force field, causing it to fluctuate long enough for the Doctor to step out. He handed the toy back to Ab’begh and smirked: “You'll need to charge it back up again, but I'm sure it will work afterwards.”

He looked around, knowing that this had probably set off an alarm somewhere, then looked at Ab’begh: “I apologise, but I'll have to go now. Remember what I taught you today. See you soon!” He hoped he would see her again, which was unlikely after what he had just pulled. He then darted out of the room.

“See you soon!” Ab'begh shouted after him, waving after her new friend. She then decided it was time to go back to her caregiver and face her tasks.

…

The Doctor managed to hide in a vent near the main docking clamp, where it was likely that they were going to get his TARDIS through to the place Fenia told him about. A few hours later, the Doctor saw them. Ar'alani, Wutroow, and two low-ranking warriors with a Gravsled arrived to bring his TARDIS to the UAG. A Chiss in regal attire greeted them as they opened the hatch. “Ahh, Admiral Ar'alani, Senior Captain Wutroow, to what do I owe the pleasure this time?” the older gentleman asked.

“The pleasure is ours, Patriarch Stybla’mi’ovodo”, Ar'alani said with a bow, hiding the fact that she didn't expect him to open the hatch personally, “We have brought you a technological marvel in prime condition that could potentially bring the Ascendancy many centuries’ worth of technological advances.”

The Chiss, Patriarch Stybla’mi’ovodo she called him, lifted his hand gracefully: “Please, Admiral. Call me Lamiov. Thrawn and Ba’kif always spoke highly of you, and any ally of theirs is one of mine. It saddens me that we never met under easier circumstances, where you and Thrawn could have enjoyed the full hospitality of the Stybla family before it happened.” His brows furrowed slightly in memory of the sentence.

“I doubt the three of us could ever have met under easier circumstances” Her own pain was interrupted by a thought that nearly caused her to smile, “Thrawn had a habit of finding troubled circumstances. Or troubled circumstances had a way of finding him. We may never know...” That last admission brought the pain back.

Lamiov nodded in acknowledgement, then made his way to the TARDIS, touching it slightly out of curiosity, then raised a brow: “I am afraid the Ascendancy already knows how to make wooden boxes.”

“This isn't just any wooden box, your venerante”, Wutroow responded, “According to our Senior Medic’s interrogation of a…peculiar guest, this ship is capable of moving through time, translating words in our heads, and is vastly bigger on the inside than outside.”

“And what if I don't believe said guest?”, the Patriarch countered.

Wutroow answered: “We have no reason to doubt him.”

Suddenly, Lamiov’s eyes shot open in stunned surprise: “So it is true.”

Wutroow was confused, furrowing her brows as she thought her answer wasn't convincing enough to get this kind of reaction: “I didn't expect to change your mind that quickly.”

“Well, it did just translate.”, the Patriarch told her with a smirk, “I just said what I did in old Tybroic. The ancient language of the Stybla family. I don't think you or the Admiral knows it. The fact that you understood said question means this box indeed just translated.”

Wutroow began to smirk: “Clever trick. So we know for a fact that it can translate now.”

“We do indeed”, Lamiov nodded and pointed at the TARDIS, “Let's get this inside.”

For the Doctor, it was his sign that he'd need to slip inside soon. And then, he would need bargaining power, and he knew exactly how to get that. He got inside after a brief time waiting; he snuck inside. One secret Chiss base was luckily much like another, so he already knew how to get past any security systems. Then, he reached a place that looked interesting enough to make his official entrance there. A group of scientists was working on what to the untrained eye might look like a small water tower with antennae at the end. He knew it had to have been an attempt at creating a shield generator. Probably an attempt at reverse-engineering.

…

The scientists didn't even notice him at first. They were hunched over, looking at their instruments, altering some circuits, trying to figure out why, after all this time, the shield generator still didn't work quite right. One of the scientists, a young man identified by his name tag as “Stybla’va’resek”, was convinced that the main projection coil just wasn't clean enough yet. He always thought that whenever he wasn't around, the other scientists tended to be sloppy with cleaning protocols. He sat there with his vibrobrush and a bucket of cleaning solution and went through the third round of cleaning each component by hand. Maybe this would get him a new idea, too. He often got new ideas while cleaning. Suddenly, he saw someone take his bucket.

“Sorry, I'll need that.”, the pale alien who just took it told him. Alien? What was he doing in here? Lavare was immediately alarmed and keyed the emergency signal. In the meantime, the alien also had the gall to snatch the component he hadn't even finished cleaning yet and put it back into the machine. Then, to everyone's shock, the white-haired outsider poured the cleaning solution into the coolant.

… Lamiov got the emergency beacon message. “Someone broke into Vault 5! Quick! Guards! Everyone! In vault 5, section 7, room 4!” Ar'alani and Wutroow looked at each other, realising they both thought the same thing. A break-in at such a secure facility, shortly after they docked? It had to be that insubordinate Doctor. They quickly followed Lamiov and his guards.

…

The Doctor, meanwhile, had the time of his lives with the shield generator. Snatching all the parts that weren't in yet and putting them back in, ruining the coolant with cleaning solution, and getting it ready to switch on. “Excuse me?”,” May I?”, “I'll need that”. Then, another part was gone, or another lever flipped. The mix of his speed and his odd politeness throughout the whole thing made everyone hesitant to fight back. His manners were like a hypnotic shield from hostility, while the thought that this odd, jumping, and running man was clearly more suited for hand-to-hand combat than they made the last urge to do so anyway vanish.

Ar'alani and Wutroow stormed into the room alongside Lamiov and his guards. All immediately raising their charrics and firing at the Doctor. The Doctor just jumped to one last console where he pulled a lever that switched on the shield. To everyone's shock, the charric-bolts dissipated. The shield was indeed working.

“Doctor”, Ar'alani immediately stormed at him angrily after the fire ceased, “What did I tell you about getting out of that cell?”

“You know this man?” Lamiov asked with a raised brow.

“In a manner of speaking”, Ar'alani said with a sigh, “I took him prisoner after he…interfered with our mission.”

“He interfered here too!”, Lavare complained, “Stopped me from cleaning. Just put it all together in a decidedly unprofessional manner. HE POURED CLEANING SOLUTION INTO THE COOLANT!”

“And yet, it worked?”, the Patriarch stated, his voice itself sounding uncertain if he had just made a statement or question.

“So did the mission after he ‘interfered’ with it”, Wutroow noted.

The Doctor smirked and simply explained: “These fine scientists have obviously worked on this for a while, so it had to be one of the less obvious issues. Then I thought that the Chiss probably used a coolant different from whoever made the original. An easy mistake to make. However, still a mistake, as in these types of shields, the coolant system also serves as a secondary field enhancer. With this coolant, that didn't work. By adding the cleaning solution, I gave the coolant the necessary properties to aid in the creation of a stable field.”

“Remarkable!”, Lamiov’s lips curved into the slightest of smiles, “If you would like, I could show you some of our other artifacts.”

“Your venerante?”, Ar'alani objected, “As I have stated previously, this outsider is a meddler, and currently also my prisoner. I must recommend against you showing him any more of this facility.”

“Did you not say that he helped during your mission?”, the older man looked at Wutroow.

“He did”, the Senior Captain replied, “Many good Chiss are alive today because of him.”

“And you said that he just finished a reverse-engineering project we hadn't made headway on for months?”, he asked Lavare.

“Yes sir”, the scientist reluctantly admitted.

“Then he seems like a valuable ally”, Lamiov concluded, “What is your name, stranger?”

“I'm the Doctor”, the Doctor told him, “Just the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, far from here. I was exiled here due to an… unfortunate disagreement.”

“Exile”, the Stybla Patriarch considered the word, “A word I may have heard one too many times recently. Do you accept my offer to become a UAG asset?”

“Actually, I prefer to stay more mobile. The Admiral has been most hospitable, so I would prefer to stay on her ship.” The Doctor started bargaining, also reminding himself of the little girl aboard the Vigilant he'd made a promise to come back to, “If you arrange that for me, I will return here every once in a while and help you with other technology. However, there is another thing that I need to ask of you.”

“Speak”, Lamiov stated. The Doctor nodded: “The TARDIS, the blue box the Admiral brought in, is mine. I would prefer it to be near me.”

“Let me think about it.”, Patriarch Lamiov said, “Having an outsider put onto a ship of the Vigilant’s status and giving up such an interesting piece of technology are difficult things to arrange.”

The Doctor simply nodded: “Could I at least see the TARDIS until you make that decision?”

“Of course”, the Patriarch nodded.

They all began to walk back to where they left the TARDIS when Lamiov received the alert. The Doctor immediately ran towards it, stroking her handle softly: “Now there. I hope they haven't been harsh to you.”

Wutroow smirked: “Do you and the box wanna be left alone?” The Doctor ignored the remark and pulled the TARDIS’ key out from his shoe, then inserted it into the lock. For some reason, it didn't work. Why wouldn't it work? Oh no. “For heaven’s sake!”, the Doctor exclaimed, “The Time Lords must have even changed her lock. Just great. Not only did they take its ability to travel, but apparently also my ability to access it at all! Fulfilling my request to be sent into exile here has made them make the exile sentence harsher in other ways, apparently also in this one.”

The box seemed to make a mechanical scratching noise that somehow sounded sad. “What?”, the Doctor asked, “Leave you behind? I could never do that.” The box moaned. “Well, if it's OK with you. Would make the Patriarch’s job easier too.” The Doctor conceded. The Doctor then turned to Lamiov: “The TARDIS has told me she's alright with staying here for the time being. Please do treat her well. Thus, I only request you put me onto Admiral Ar'alani’s ship as a kind of…scientific advisor. In exchange, as said, I will help you with your research every once in a while.”

“That can be arranged then”, Lamiov stated, “I will call Supreme General Ba'kif immediately to make it happen.”

“With all due respect to the Stybla’s famed openness and curiosity”, Ar'alani objected, staying calm despite clearly being on edge, “This man is an outsider who has, at multiple occasions, interfered with Chiss matters against my explicit orders. I understand that you, especially as a UAG scientist, benefit from this acceptance of outside ideas and people when studying alien artefacts. My ship, however, is a military vessel. You can't just put an ungimbaled laser like him on it.”

“Admiral, sit down please.”, he stated calmly and sat down at a nearby table, gesturing for her to do the same opposite of him. Ar'alani sat down and the Stybla Patriarch asked: “Do you know why I offered you to just call me Lamiov when you arrived?”

“No, your vene- Lamiov”, she corrected herself in response. She remembers that she did find it odd that he greeted her and offered her a remarkably casual way to address a Patriarch just as she arrived. Lamiov’s lips curved into what almost passed as a smirk as the Admiral corrected herself.

Then, he sighed, and the smile soon disappeared as he recalled recent events.

He spoke with the weight of both his age and status: “Not even a week ago, the process of sending Thrawn into exile was finalised. Thrawn, whom I almost adopted into my family. Whom I treated as a great asset of the Ascendancy, because he was, but never as a young man I was rather fond of, even though he was that as well.
A few months prior, my old friend Thooraki, Patriarch of the Mitth, passed away as well. I remember that, in recent years, I also started treating him as more of an allied Patriarch than as the man I once played tricks on our families’ elders with.
I had time to think now, about where it all went wrong. And I was reminded of our family virtues, as you already mentioned. Openness, curiosity, acceptance. Reasons why we were chosen to lead the UAG. But also, or so I've found, a good attitude to have towards potential allies, familiars, friends. By not being open to the people in our lives, we deny ourselves much of what makes having people in our lives pleasant.”

Ar'alani looked at him in reluctant understanding: “But, Lamiov, he's a risk. He could be a great asset, or our greatest liability.”

“They also said that about Thrawn, as you know”, Lamiov, “All I ask is that you give him a chance, as you have done with that strange Mitth boy at the academy long ago.”

“Only one chance”, Ar'alani insisted, “At the first sign of him stepping out of line, I will have him shoved out the airlock.”

Lamiov’s lips curved into a smile again: “I wouldn't expect anything less of you.”

Ar'alani sighed: “If you can indeed get Ba'kif to make him a scientific advisor aboard the Vigilant, I will make no objections.”

Lamiov nodded: “Thank you, Admiral.”

Supreme General Ba'kif, or Labaki as Lamiov called the formerly-Stybla General, was soon convinced by the reports of a brilliant, yet unorthodox alien whom his old friend vouched for.

Ar'alani looked sternly at the Doctor as she pinned the symbol typical of civilian consultants onto the lapels of his, in her opinion, ridiculous, velvet jacket: “Congratulations, Senior Scientific Advisor Doctor, do not disappoint me.”

The Doctor gave one firm nod, and she stepped back away from him.

Suddenly, her comlink flared up and a priority message came from the Vigilant: “New mission, Admiral. Just came in.”

“We'll be right there”, the Admiral responded. “Goodbye, Patriarch Lamiov. Thank you for the hospitality and the advice.” She bowed to him one last time, as did he in return. The Admiral then looked to her crew: “Everyone, back to the Vigilant. We have received news of another mission.”

The others also said their goodbyes and quickly made their way back to the ship.