Ageless Lunica

The planet Lunica slowly orbits its star, gliding gracefully in its ovullar orbit. The planet is Level 4, a planet just reaching the pinnacle of what we could consider Roman or Medieval technology. Astronomers now look to the skies, detailing the Orion cluster and constellations like the Archer and the Woodsman. What they don't see, however, is one small time-vessel speeding towards the ocean at remarkable speed...

The Doctor stood at his controls, experimenting with one of the levers that he had recently salvaged from an old ship. He pulled it back as far as it would go. The ship made a slight groan, followed by a small, plastic cup popping up on the console. The Doctor picked it up and examined it bemusedly.

"Simply brilliant," he said. "Oh, I do love my TARDIS."

"As you insist on telling me, Doctor," replied Peri.

He gave her a dissapproving look, poking his head round the central coloumn. He opened the co-ordinate controls and poked in a few numbers.

"Do you like History, Peri?" he asked.

"Well... it's ok, but what's that got to do with..."

"Good," the Doctor said, interupting her, "Come up here and hold this button."

She sighed and sprung up, pressing down the indicated control while The Doctor ran round the other side and pulled a few levers. The Tardis materialised.

The doors of the Tardis opened carefully, with the brashly dressed Doctor looking round to find himself in what seemed to be a Roman Colleseum. The crowds were silenced for a few seconds in disbelief, but then chanted as a confused Gladiator watched The Doctor stroll proudly into the centre of the ring.

"I'm here to speak to the Emperor, if that's not too much trouble"

The time vessel was still hurtling towards the ocean, a small sphere ridged with inscriptions. It was heating up exponentailly, and was now clearly visible to people on the ground. Or the water, for that matter,

The Emerald was a trading vessel, sailing between Lunica's two main continents. It was laced with gold, including the inscription of its name near the Hull.

"Well look at that," Crewman John said, "There be a fallin' star!"

"It's comin' these ways, it'll land on the ship!" cried a Maid.

The crew watched as the molton hot sphere looked set to collide with the ship, falling faster now than ever before, the heat boiling the water below them. Then, without much warning, as the sphere impacted with the Captain's Cabin, it vanished. The water cooled. The Captain climbed out from the crater in the deck. The sphere then reappeared about a metre behind the ship, plunging into the water and pushing a wall of water towards all sides.

The Emperor, The Doctor and Peri walked down the Pantheonic Corridor, exchanging jokes and admiring the enscriptions on the wall showing several creatures resembling horned lions.

"I still don't understand you Doctor. How can Rome be on another planet?"

"You think Humans only occur on Earth? It just happens that your development is parallel to that of Lunica, and they've developed a society that vaguly resembles your Classical Antiquity."

"Yes," said the Emperor, "We have met the Doctor many times before, and he has often proved an assistance against some of the more... well, pressing visitors to our world." He pointed at an enscription of what Peri knew as a Cyberman.

"Ah, yes. The early cyberNomads. A small coloney came here, what was it, five years ago? You weren't here, Peri, you'd gone on a day trip."

"No, my dear Doctor, you have been gone a good fifty years."

The Doctor stopped. He looked around in disbelief.

"But no one here has aged that much! You yourself look no older than twenty five!"

"That is why I originally called you here, Doctor. We cannot age. We have not aged for fifty years and we need your assistance. "

"You called him here?" interjected Peri.

"You didn't think I came here on a whim, did you?" said the Doctor. " What do you expect me to do, Emperor? What can I do?"

"We belive this Immortality is a result of the Cybermen's mining into our planet's core. We belive they have interfered with our nature and now the Gods punish us for our insolence and greed. We require you, Doctor, to use your machine to prevent the Cybermen from ever visiting our planet."

"But that goes against my own personal timeline! If I prevent the Cybermen from coming here, then you will never be immortal and never ask me to prevent the cybermen from coming here!"

The Emperor leaned in closer.

"It is that, Doctor, or you use your TARDIS to re-direct some other cyberNomads to this time period and we are simple unaware of our immortality, as Cybermen!"

The Doctor shook his head, and motioned to Peri to follow him as he returned to his now repositioned Tardis. As they went in, he told her to lock the doors. he thumped the console.

"What's wrong, Doctor? What did he say?"

"I either condemn them to immortality, to lives as Cybermen or to be stuck in a time loop. They've given me no other choice, I have only those options."

"Why don't you use the TARDIS to redirect the original attacking Cybermen to a time period where the planet doesn't exist?"

He thought for a second. He then jumped in the air.

"That's brilliant, Peri! Shame I didn't think of that myself!"

He ran over to some controls and started dematerialisation. He was travelling back fifty years.

They appeared from the TARDIS in a small area of countryside. The Doctor looked around, pointing at a few things and muttering to himself before returning to Peri.

"Now, we've got to be very careful. We'll have to wait for the Cybermen to enter the atmosphere, and then I can activate my Emergency Exterior Time Transportation Device, or ETD for short."

"What a terrible abbreviation" joked Peri.

"Don't blame me, it's not mine."

The Doctor looked at his watch, which had an array of dials and gears around three ornate clocks that only had one hand each.

"Damn me, we're a week out!" he cried, running back into the TARDIS. Peri watched as the TARDIS dissappeared before her.

"Doctor!"

A week later, the TARDIS materialised in the same spot. The Doctor now brought with him his ETD, which looked a bit like a barcode reader with sights. Then he remembered. Peri was gone.

He sprinted towards the Palace, running through the confused villagers. Then he stopped dead. The TARDIS, another TARDIS, was sat outside the Palace gates. If he met himself, the entire thing would be ruined.

"Where are you, Peri?" he cried.

Peri was sitting on a comfortable chair in the Emperor's chanmbers. On her face he's made her wear a golden mask that looked suspiciously like a lion with horns.

In walked the Emperor, folowed closely by the Doctor, who was being held back by armed guards. He was struggling intensly.

"What am I doing here! I told you, I landed on this planet by mistake! I was following a freighter, I need you to let me go..."

"Silence. You appear here, with your box, and you claim things of magic. Magic is forbidden for those not of our kingdom. You will be excecuted."

Peri jumped from the chair and stood to face the Doctor.

"Doctor! I've been waiting for you!"

"Who's this, your seer? You should be able to see that I am innocent!"

"No Doctor, you don't understand..."

"You know of this man? Tell me, my seer, is what he says the truth?"

Peri remembered that the Doctor had said he'd been here before.

"He speaks the truth, great one," she said, now with a more confident tone, "Let him stay for the night, for I predict he will save you from a great evil..."

The Emperor looked at Peri, and then at the smirking Doctor. He motioned to the guards and they released him.

"My seer, let me speak alone with this man. Go to the gardens."

Relieved to get away, Peri strode out of the room and took of her mask, looking back to the room.

"Where are you, Doctor?" she cried.

The more up-tp-date Doctor was now at cave system near where he thought he remembered the CyberShip landing. It wasn't very deep - about ten metres at most, but it still had an eerie glow that he couldn't understand. He

 not finished