by Clive May (clive@cj4386.demon.co.uk)

A story of the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric.

The copy right of all things pertaining to the concept and characters of Dr
Who is the property of the BBC.  This Story is a work of fan fiction; it has
been written simply for the pleasure it gave me in writing it; and no money
has or will change hands with respect to the story.

The story and original characters are copyright Clive May 2001.


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Chaos Hunt.

Twelve.


On half closed wings, Agalayne rode the blast of steamy air booming up the
stairwell.  He was chittering with rage.  Hard behind him ran the Doctor,
buffeted by the scalding gale.

Agalayne rocketed onto the upper level.  His wings spread to their full
extent.  He arrowed down the hall, heading for an arch on the left.  Banking
steeply, he vanished through the entrance. The air was suddenly full of
his enraged screaming, mixed up with the angry curses of Kendron and Lobo.

like a pantomime genie appearing on stage, the Doctor tumbled out of the
stairwell in a billowing cloud of steam.  He stumbled forwards, going to his
knees on the rich, blue carpeting.  Before he could rise, the commotion from
the control room was silenced by a crack of energy.  A livid violet beam
struck from the doorway, and exploded against the rich hangings opposite,
setting them afire.  Acrid blue smoke billowed.

The Doctor scrambled to his feet.  Snatching up his hat, he ran to the
doorway, and peered inside.  The control room was lit by a shaft of level
sunlight, shining through the open doors to Kendron's rose garden opposite.
The wan, yellow light illuminated a desperate scene.  To the left, by the
console, Kendron and Lobo were sorely beset by the enraged creature.  Erratic
shadows tangoed over the walls and furniture clustered about the huge
fireplace to the right as Agalayne danced and swooped in the air, trying to
find a way past Lobo's gleaming blade .  The guard captain's left arm was
running with blood from the first attack.  Behind him, Kendron with a
bloodied arm thrown across his face, was trying to get a clear shot at the
flying fury.

Dazzled by the bright sunlight, blinking back tears, the Doctor started into
the room.  The blaster cracked again.  Another violet beam flashed,
searing across Agalayn's shoulder, before it exploded against the ornate
moulding of the ceiling.

In utter panic, Agalayne dived away, to take shelter behind the heavy
furniture.

"Kill that miserable creature!" screamed Kendron.

Lobo advanced on the padded sofa.  Trailing his hurt wing, Agalayne scuttled
back towards the black maw of the fireplace, whining piteously.

Kendron turned his attention back to the console; the little monster was
doomed.  Lobo would finish it off.  He had a more pressing matter needing his
attention.  He glanced at the main screen showing the Panopticon - all was
serene there - then at the smaller screen where the face of Rain was
displayed in close-up, lit by a billious green glare, set and determined.
Her eyes were closed with the effort of holding the water, her lips slightly
parted.

The moment of the transfer was at hand.  At last!

his daring plans for retribution were about to bear the very sweetest of
fruits.  Time had finally run out for those self styled masters of time.  He,
Kendron, the Hunt Master of the Orion Brood, one of their former slaves, a
*mere* fleshly fashioning born out of their colossal ambition, was about to
lay low those high and haughty beings.  His heart was pounding madly in his
chest as he savoured his triumph.  Laying a hand ready on the control bar, he
levelled the blaster at the Doctor.  He smiled in triumph as the last but one
tell-tale went to green.

"You're too late, Time Lord!" he crowed "My Lady Rain has called the water!
When this last   light goes green, I have but to push down on the lever to
synchronise the Construct with the Panopticon on Gallifrey.  I need not tell
you the consequences of that one little action..."

Indeed, he did not.  The Doctor understood only too well what the
consequences would be.  All that water, under millions of tons of pressure,
occupying identical physical co-ordinates as the Seal over the Eye of Harmony
would put an intolerable strain on the locks constraining the power of the
Eye. If those seals gave way under the impact, it would shake the very
foundations of the universe herself.

The doctor tensed to spring.  It was futile.  The moment he moved, Kendron
would blast him into a sixth regeneration cycle.  By the time he was fully
reincarnated - if he ever was - the universe would be well lost.

At that moment of ultimate crisis, Lobo lunged for the huddling Agalayne.
The terrified creature surged up from behind the sofa, and raked a taloned
claw across the man's face.  Lobo screamed and slashed wildly at the flying
form.  Agalayne deftly avoided the clumsy stroke of the sword, and dove head
long for Kendron.

From the corner of his eye, the Hunt Master noticed his peril. Instinctively,
he swung the blaster round, squeezed off a shot.  The violet
bean scorched across Agalayne's back.  The darting creature's screaming took
on an edge of agony; but he came on resolute.  He struck Kendron in the right
shoulder.  The man's upper body was engulfed in a whirling mass of leather
wings, ivory teeth, blond hair and crimson blood.

The Doctor took his chance.  He leapt for the console.  The last tel tale
went green.  He hesitated a split second, then moved the lever into the
one setting that promised any chance of saving the situation - a second too
late.

A vast double concussion reverberated from the bowels of the fortress.  The
carpeted floor staggered, and cracked right across from wall to wall.  The
Doctor clung on to the lever, holding it down.  In a shower of white dust,
broken plaster mouldings rained down from above.  The earth bound thunder
rolled away through the rambling fortress, shattering windows, shaking loose
great lumps of masonry, and toppling walls.

Through the noise and confusion, the Doctor barely registered the crack of
the blaster; Agalayne's chittering died abruptly.  The Doctor's hearts
clenched in sudden sorrow; but he dare not take a moment to look.  The next
instant, the hot outlet of the blaster was shoved brutally into the back of
his neck.

"Open the phase to Gallifrey, Now!" Kendron snarled, emphasising his command
by jabbing the searing hot muzzle into the Doctor's neck.  The smell of
seared flesh  tainted the air. The Doctor flinched away ; but he held onto
the lever.

On the larger screen the tranquil scene of stately Time Lords in brilliant
coloured robes, gliding about in preparation for one of their interminable
ceremonies, played silently. Below it on the smaller screen, the face of the
Selkie glowed green, her eyes closed, her expression serene as she held the
water ready to Kendron's command.

"NO!" he stated resolutely, saying a silent prayer that Rain would move to
her left.  Two inches would suffice, then his improvised plan would have at
least a fifty-fifty chance of only destroying Orion and not the entire
universe.

"then die!  Time Lord!" Kendron snarled, and squeezed the firing stud.

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Deep in the rock under the fortress, the dwarf star panels sealing off the
Orion Brood's Gateway Chamber were punched free from their seating by water
under so much pressure it was solid as concrete.  the impact with the rock
wall, a split second later, flashed the panels into white heat.  Released
suddenly from hundreds of tons of pressure at the heart of the water sphere,
it erupted in all directions along the passages.  The steaming bore tide of
death swept all before its foaming wave-front.  Walls cracked asunder.  The
water shouldered aside the broken detritus of its cataclysmic eruption into
the passages; or picked up the shards of stone, bearing them along in the
van, all it encountered.  At terrifying speed, the multi- pronged fist of
water, mailed with stone,  punched through the tunnels of the fortress.

it's approach struck fear into the hearts of the Sister-Selves as they
scrabbled among the piles of shattered stone, helping Tegan and Adric to pull
a half drowned Harmony from beneath them. The oncoming disaster could not be
outrun, even if they left Harmony to drown.  Nor could they go between with
all the devil metal.  They clawed madly at the rocks trapping Harmony.

Adric, scanning the scene, pushed down panic.  It was useless to stay here
grubbing around in the rocks.  They could achieve nothing.
Somebody ought to try and find the Doctor, in case he needed help. He grabbed
at the arm of Ariana, getting her attention.

"It's useless!  Find the Doctor!" he yelled over the mind numbing roar of the
on-coming water.

In all the confusion, no one noticed Nyssa.  The girl was leaning against the
wall, head clutched in hands, tears flooding down her cheeks.

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Shrieking with terror, the Earth Station Brood ran in panic from the old
manse in Little Deeping they inhabited -  away from madness.  But fast as
they ran,  insanity easily overtook them.

As they emerged into the Court, the Fountain metamorphosed into a roaring
column of water.  The Gateway shivered into a thousand shards of stone.  With
awesome power, the spear of water, tipped with stone, flashed towards the
stars.  A half mile into the sky it reared, before the imperatives of gravity
asserted its rights in the matter.  The shaft slowed, the bud of stone
 blossomed, spread, and folded back on itself like a translucent flower
unfolding.  Tons of broken stone began the long fall back to earth.

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"No!  Brother!  We SHALL not permit this thing!"

The words were spoken in a quiet voice; yet they had such force that it
sounded loud over the noise of the collapsing fortress.  Kendron staggered as
though shot.  He gasped, his free hand reaching for the medallion; but it was
not there.  His face set grim. He swung the blaster from the Doctor's head to
cover the new threat.

The Doctor relaxed.  He scanned the board.  The settings had drifted, opening
both the Earth Station and the Orion Phase.  Quickly, he readjusted the
controls, closing the Gates.  The phases had been only partially open, and
for a few seconds - even so!  Fervently he gave up a little prayer for the
safety of his adopted planet.

He studied the face of Rain on the screen.  It was a thing of concentration,
all green and black shadows, the eyes tight shut, the lips slightly parted.
The Doctor could not help but feel a twinge of admiration.  The Selkie was
actually holding the sphere of water in stasis, a magnificent feat of PK,
even with the boost from the amplifier.

For the moment, the danger was now confined to Orion.  At any moment, the
planet might topple over in its orbit and break apart under the pressure of
the water; but it WOULD only be this planet that was destroyed.  The Doctor
relaxed a little more, and turned to see the reason for this un-looked for
reprieve.

The air was full of swirling dust.  Lit by the sunlight, the clouds pulsed
with an eerie yellow glow.  Just inside the entrance to the Doctor's left,
wreathed in the eddying haze, the Orion Brood stood regarding their Hunt
Master with cold malice.

They formed a dark semi-circle with Ariana at the focus.  All the
Sister-Selves wore the same expression of resolute determination.

The controlled calmness in his Sisters unmanned Kendron completely.  Icy
fingers of fear closed on his heart.  The hand at his chest still groped
uselessly for the medallion, the symbol of his power, the engine of dominion
over the Orion Brood.  Without it, Kendron felt naked and exposed.

"Obedience to the Duty!"  he essayed, without conviction.  The command held
no power to compel; and he knew it.

The Brood shook its collective head. Ariana spoke.   "Not this time, Brother.
This time there WILL be a reckoning for the betrayal of Madelayne."

In a fluid motion, Ariana stooped to the lifeless body of Agalayne.  She took
up the silver medallion , gently easing the links from the fangs.  She rose,
holding it before her, regarding Kendron with cold, black eyes.

Kendron's lips smiled.  He keyed the medallion to command; its power to
compel would be stronger if he held it; but it was not absolutely necessary.
The nerve jangling buzz of the medallion built up in the shattered chamber,
cutting like a knife through the cacophony of noise.

"Obedience to the Law!" he boomed, his voice laden with a new assurance. A
grim smile caressed Ariana's lips.  Again, she shook her head.  "No.  Not
this time, Brother." she said.  The silver medallion fell from her fingers.
With a savage stamp, Ariana crushed the symbol and source of Kendron's power
to command the Brood.

The hum of compulsion ceased abruptly. The division between Kendron and the
rest of the con-tesserate mind of the Brood vanished.  Kendron screamed as
the greater part of the Brood consciousness enveloped that tiny corner that
had once been his and his alone.  He stood alone no longer.  Now, he shared
the world with a furious awareness, screaming for retribution for the crimes
committed against itself.

Kendron screamed again.  The blaster cracked.  A violet beam lashed Ariana
into the arms of her Sister-Selves.  As the single entity it was, the black
garbed Brood surged towards the rebellious part of itself.  Kendron took a
step back.  The blaster cracked again.  Another sister fell from the body of
the Brood, her belly a smoking ruin, to collapse across the body of
Ariana. A second later, Kendron vanished under a screaming maelstrom of arms,
legs and fluttering black silk.

Caught up in the melee, the Doctor was dislodged from his position at the
console.  He was bundled to the floor, and rolled away from the storm of
blood and madness.  A moment later, with a shout of surprise, he tumbled into
emptiness.

On the console the lever snapped back to its default setting.  Kendron's
Construct phased with the Panopticon.  Rain felt the shift, and relaxed her
hold.  With a thunderous roar, the water came into being over the seals of
the Eye.  The titanic concussion shook Gallifrey to its very foundations.
The shielding of the Eye groaned, and began to buckle.

Kendron broke clear from his demented Sisters, the blaster gone from his
grasp, his cream robes tattered, and sopping with blood.  In panic, he fled
out through the door, down the ruined corridor, and madly away through halls
grey with the dust of ruin, desperate to escape the inescapable.

Retainers, guards and servants scattered before the terrifying hunt as it
bayed in hot pursuit of Kendron through the destruction, filling the
trembling air with an eerie howling.  The Brood ran swift and light, with
hair and tattered silks flying like doom laden banners.

Twice they almost had him.  But, at the last, he eluded the avenging horde by
plunging through an arch and slamming a panel of Dwarf Star Alloy shut in
their faces.  From beyond the door, he could hear the pounding of their fists
on the metal.  But this was nothing to the screaming fury which pursued
the Hunt Master around the inside of his skull.  There would need to be a
whole lot more of the Devil Metal between himself and his Sisters before he
could escape that particular persecution.

Pushing himself upright, he staggered away from the door and up a flight of
steps.

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The Doctor's hand slapped hard against a jagged edge of stone.  His fingers
closed over the projection.  The ragged edge sliced into his fingers.  His
 mad plunge was arrested by a bone jarring shock.  Desperately, the Doctor
clung on.  For a long heart stopping moment legs thrashed in empty air, as he
pendulumed back and forth over the chasm, then he got another hand on a
projecting metal reinforcement exposed by the sundering of the floor.  The
Doctor rested a moment to summon reserves of strength; but he dare not delay
too long; the seals of the Eye would be under terrible pressure - they could
collapse at any moment.  With a shout of determination, he hauled himself up.

His clothing snagged in a projecting edge of metal. No matter how he wriggled
and heaved, he could make no further headway.  A few feet away, forever
beyond his reach, it seemed, the console taunted him with a vision of
cataclysm.  He made one last effort to haul himself from the crack in the
floor, but to no avail.  He was caught fast.

While he was searching his mind wildly for some way out of the mess, a
bedraggled Nyssa emerged from the eddying dust. She paused a long moment,
looking dazed, before swaying forwards, heading for the body of Agalayne.
With renewed hope, the Doctor called out to the girl.

"Nyssa!  Help Me!"

The bemused girl seemed quite unaware of her surroundings.  She stumbled,
almost falling over the body of Ariana.  A few steps beyond, she went to her
knees, beside the body of agalayne.  Copious tears were flooding down her
cheeks in an outpouring of sorrow and grief.  She reached down, and with
gentle fingers, stroked the singed fur, soothing the seared flesh of the
brave little creature who had touched her heart.


 "Nyssa!" the Doctor yelled in desperation.  The edges of the crack
were crumbling under his desperate fingers.  He shifted the grip and tried
once more to disentangle himself. His legs thrashed uselessly in emptiness.
To his right, the gap was beginning to close up, the edges grinding together
like teeth.

"NYSSA!" he screamed again.  "HELP ME!"

Framed by a haze of golden murk, on the main console screen a representation
of the devestation on Gallifrey played in silence.  The sphere was expanding
at the speed of sound.  The mighty construction of the Panopticon restrained
the outward thrust, groaning and shaking.  Inside, the water, like some
mighty giant struggled to be free.

And on Orion, Nyssa knelt before the seared remains of Madelayne's pet,
weeping and dying Agalayne's death over and over in her dazed mind, deaf to
the peril that threatened the universe.

The Doctor closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to touch Nyssa's grieving
mind.  He knew not if his latent telepathic powers would gift him any
advantage in contacting the girl; but he was out of options.

"NYSSA!" he screamed, both with his voice and his mind.

The girl kneeling by the body shivered as though struck.  She raised her head
and peered around.  She saw the Doctor's plight.  In slow motion, it seemed
to the Doctor, Nyssa rose and drifted towards him through the thick air in an
abstracted stumble.  Going to her knees at the brink of the rift, Nyssa took
a grip on the Doctor's wrists and hauled with all her might.

Her strength was not sufficient to the task; and the Doctor remained caught
over the abyss, while on the screen, an elegant ornamental tower on the north
east corner of the Panopticon staggered, before collapsing in a graceless
slide of rubble.





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