smallhobbit | Cat and Mouse (2/4)

Title: Cat and Mouse (2/4)
Rating: U
Character/Pairing: Simm!Master, Tenth Doctor
Word length: 1,225 in this chapter
Spoilers: None, AU
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and its characters belong to the BBC, not to me
Summary: In which we learn of the Master’s plan
Part One

Part Two

As the Master watched the brown and yellow earthlings, someone shouted out and those holding hands turned through 90 degrees, so that now instead of north-south corridors, the corridors ran from east to west. In addition the “cat” which had nearly caught the “mouse” was separated from its prey by determined brown and yellow arms.

The Master was feeling particularly annoyed with the inhabitants of the planet of Naranja. He had tried to take over their government by fair means (well fairish means – he had poisoned the heir apparent and offered himself as a suitable alternative) but they had chosen a different ruler and, despite his best attempts to brainwash the population, had told him to leave at once. They had even threatened to kill him if he didn’t leave. The Master didn’t take kindly to this threat and determined to get his revenge by destroying the planet.

His first thought had been to blast the planet out of existence, but the slight technical problem of not having available a weapon powerful enough to do the job, had forced him to think again. He needed another method of destroying the annoying planet. The Master considered and discarded a number of options as either totally impractical (using a giant trebuchet to fire the planet elsewhere) or too easily prevented (setting fire to a mostly aquatic planet). Then he had a brilliant idea – sonic resonance. And he remembered seeing a xyzellie bird with bright green tail feathers, a sure sign that she was going to be laying eggs in the next couple of weeks.

So the Master hastily returned to where he had seen the xyzellie bird. He cautiously approached the mud hole that he knew she inhabited and, when he thought he was close enough to capture her before she could fly away, flung himself at her in a similar way to a rugby player aiming to catch a loose ball. He landed with a resounding squelch in the mud; the bird was no longer there.

Getting back to his feet, he cursed loudly as he considered the state of his suit. He tried to remove some of the mud from his face by wiping his hand across it, but only succeeded in smearing it around more effectively. He cursed again and then described the Doctor with all the suitable words he could think of, which would have embarrassed the Doctor if he hadn’t heard them all before. It had to be the Doctor who was to blame, no-one else would deliberately move a xyzellie bird when he needed the eggs to destroy a planet.

He stomped his way back to his TARDIS thinking furiously how he could track the Doctor and retrieve the bird. All at once he had a brilliant idea, quite one of his best. The Liberty Bell had originally been made in England, before being shipped to Philadelphia. What the manufacturers hadn’t known was that part of the metal had come from a planet called Gallifrey, introduced by a temporary foreman. Although the bell had cracked soon after its arrival in Pennsylvania (something to do with a reaction of the metals from two different planets, not that anyone understood this) the metal had been reused when creating the new bell. If the Master could get hold of the bell it would be the perfect means of tracking the Doctor as waves from his TARDIS would cause the Gallifreyan metal to resonate.

A quick trip back to 1846 and the Master had the Liberty Bell, which he hung above the console. He constructed a system whereby he could switch the bell on for short periods of time, sufficient to check his progress without, he hoped, the Doctor noticing that he was being followed. It also meant that he wouldn’t have to constantly listen to the sound of the bell as he travelled. The system worked perfectly. At first the bell hummed very quietly, but then gradually the sound got louder and the Master knew he was on the right track. He was surprised at how quickly he seemed to be gaining on the Doctor and he started to relax. Next time he checked the Doctor was further away; had he spotted his pursuer? The Master decided he couldn’t risk losing the Doctor now, so opted to leave the bell working all the time. He put on ear defenders – he’d had enough sounds in his head to last him all his life times – and concentrated. The bell was getting louder and louder and then all of a sudden everything went silent.

The Master checked the dials: Phut nebulae. Nothing would penetrate the atmosphere of these planets. He needed to decide which planet the xyzellie bird would be hidden on. The bird must have laid its eggs by now, which didn’t allow him much time to find them. Once he had the eggs in his possession they would last for months, but if the bird was sitting on them they would hatch in a matter of days.

Red5 was the smallest of the planets and therefore, the Master reasoned, the most likely one that the Doctor would decide to hide the bird on. He therefore landed and performing a rapid scan of the planet he spotted what he thought was the bird almost immediately. He shot out of the door and instantly stepped into something that resembled slightly melted ice cream. It even tasted a bit like ice cream, the Master reflected, as he lost his balance and fell into the substance. Although in fact the ice cream was only about three feet deep and the ground underneath was solid he realised that the Doctor would have been unable to find anywhere suitable to leave the xyzellie bird. He therefore waded back to his TARDIS and got changed for the second time that day.

Having failed in his first attempt the Master decided on a change of plan. He would make a rapid pass over each of the other planets in the hope that he could spot something from the air. Since Red5 had been a disaster he first tried Green2 and from there moved onto Green3. At first inspection both seemed reasonable possibilities but he knew he didn’t have time to explore them thoroughly and therefore moved on in the hope of success elsewhere. He barely gave Red2 a second glance, it was such a very boring planet, with nothing to recommend it and then he started to reconnoitre Red4.

As he approached the planet’s surface his heart leapt, for there, with no attempt at seclusion, was a very well known police box. The Doctor was slipping. The Master almost felt disappointed; he had expected a bit more of a challenge from his old adversary. On the other hand, this was probably as well as he didn’t have much time left to find the eggs. Having parked his own machine where his fellow Time Lord wouldn’t see it, he crept up towards the Doctor’s TARDIS, intent on following the Doctor to the xyzellie bird’s hiding place. Had he been paying more attention he would have been rather careful of the pile of branches that were lying in a neat row beside the TARDIS. As it was he trod on the branches and promptly fell into what could best be described as a tiger trap.