The search for answers within the hidden embassy continued, but what began as another careful examination of an ancient room soon became something far more dangerous.
The group gathered once again under the leadership of Lord President Chronotis, with Lady Roxy at his side. Lord Darkfyre arrived carrying something he had recovered during the previous investigation: a piece of Dalek technology. Though the discovery offered little in the way of answers concerning the embassy, it served as a reminder that the effects of whatever had happened here might not have been isolated to Gallifrey. Professor Maltheus agreed that other civilizations could have been affected as well.
With no obvious answers in the previous discoveries, Lord President Chronotis proposed that everyone return to the Ambassador’s Office. If something had been overlooked, perhaps a room full of eyes would reveal what a single investigation had missed. The room appeared much as it had before. Dust covered everything, undisturbed for thousands of years, yet nothing had decayed. Books filled the shelves. A locked desk waited silently. An old hourglass and jewelry chest offered no immediate answers. Even a communicator and an ancient Earth telephone suggested that whoever had occupied the office had possessed a strange fascination with Earth.
Lord Winters arrived with a rather different concern. His repeated suggestions of food, wine, and eventually Bolognese pizza provided an almost absurd contrast to the increasingly serious investigation. Lord Wilde repeatedly attempted to steer the Castellan back toward the matter at hand, while Lord Winters remained convinced that lunch was a perfectly reasonable priority.
Then Lord Darkfyre found something. A book shifted on the shelf, revealing a dusty key. The key opened the locked desk. Inside was an ancient letter bearing familiar seals. Within the letter was another key, strangely warm and unnaturally heavy. The letter itself contained a warning and a clue. It pointed toward the room across from the Diplomatic Records Room, the very room the group had previously been unable to enter.
The discovery changed the mood immediately. Whatever lay beyond that door had been deliberately hidden. Yet someone had left the means to reach it. Lord Darkfyre used the second key, and the door opened. What waited inside was unlike anything the group had yet discovered.
Desks were scattered throughout the room. Books lay across the floor, some with pages deliberately removed. Notes and documents were everywhere. A strange crystal sat among an assortment of unfamiliar machinery. There were photographs whose faces appeared scratched or erased, identification badges with no names, calibration rings, and equipment that seemed to combine temporal technology with something resembling the components of an ancient TARDIS.
Lord Magnum began examining the scattered notes and quickly discovered a reference to Experiment 15, suspended pending review. Lord Darkfyre found records concerning another experiment, this one producing minor temporal echoes and brief moments of déjà vu. Then came the discovery that changed everything.
A warning in the notes described multiple chronological states existing within the test chamber. Memories contradicted one another. The notes contained a partially completed warning about an Anchor. Lord Darkfyre realized what they were looking at. The device did not simply stabilize time.
It chose which version of time survived.
The implications were horrifying. If the Anchor selected one timeline, then every other possibility could be erased. Not merely altered. Not merely forgotten. Erased. Entire people, histories, worlds, perhaps even civilizations could cease to exist. The room suddenly felt very different.
Lord Crai was fascinated by the technology, though even his engineering expertise could not immediately identify the strange crystal or determine exactly how the device functioned. Lord Wilde questioned whether it might have been some form of TARDIS technology. Lady Roxy examined the strange clock-like machinery, recognizing similarities but also seeing components she could not explain.
Meanwhile, Lord Winters continued to question whether anyone truly needed to understand the device before simply getting rid of it. The debate quickly became heated.
Lord Magnum argued that the artifact was far too dangerous to remain in existence. He suggested that it should be removed to the Omega Branch, or even erased from time entirely with a D-Mat gun. Lord Winters agreed with the basic conclusion that the machine was bad news, though his proposed solutions ranged from blowing it into an uninhabited star system to throwing it into a black hole.
Lord Wilde took the opposite position. To destroy the artifact would mean destroying perhaps the only opportunity they had to understand what happened. If the device had malfunctioned, studying it might reveal a way to reverse its effects. If an entire planet and species had been erased because of an accident, there might still be a chance to undo it.
And Lady Roxy raised an even more troubling possibility. What if it had not malfunctioned? What if the civilization involved had deliberately chosen to erase itself? What if they had discovered something so terrible that their own extinction was the only way to protect everyone else?
The possibility hung over the room.
Lord President Chronotis examined the crystal and considered the implications. Gallifrey had apparently gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal the embassy. The Matrix had been purged of its records. The structure itself had been hidden. And yet the contents had not been destroyed. Why? Lady Roxy wondered aloud why the Gallifreyans would leave behind books, recordings, gifts, references, and other remnants of their relationship if they truly wanted the discovery to remain impossible.
Perhaps the evidence had been left intentionally. Perhaps someone wanted them to find it. Or perhaps the concealment had simply failed. Then Lord Darkfyre discovered another devastating clue.
The records suggested that two teams had worked on the device together. Yet everything the group had previously uncovered indicated that one of those teams had later been erased from history. There was no explanation for why. Only the terrible possibility that the Anchor itself had been responsible.
Professor Maltheus drew comparisons to the ancient Oubliette of Eternity, where individuals could be erased from time itself. If such technology had been applied to an entire species, then the artifact before them could represent something far beyond an experiment. It could be a weapon. A weapon capable of deciding which history deserved to exist. And perhaps it had already been used.
The arguments continued.
Lord Magnum wanted the device destroyed. Lord Wilde wanted it preserved and studied. Lord Crai proposed a middle ground: carefully dismantle it, reverse engineer it, and document everything without ever attempting to activate it. Professor Maltheus, normally one of the strongest advocates for preserving knowledge, began to question whether this was one of the rare occasions when knowledge itself was too dangerous to possess. Lord Darkfyre worried that even studying the device could allow someone to recreate it someday. Lady Roxy remained focused on the possibility that the research could somehow help restore what had been lost.
And Lord President Chronotis found himself facing the most difficult question of all: Did the device malfunction, or did it do exactly what it was built to do?
No one had the answer. Then the group noticed something even more disturbing. The crystal was glowing. A readout indicated that the device was active. No one knew how it had been activated. No one knew what would happen if it were moved. No one even knew whether touching it might be enough to trigger something.
Lady Roxy voiced the concern that moving the device could disturb whatever process was currently taking place. Lord Darkfyre agreed. Professor Maltheus warned that the artifact’s location could be essential to its function. For the moment, there was only one safe decision.
Do not touch it.
Lord President Chronotis finally called an end to the immediate investigation. The artifact would remain where it was. The room would be locked, and everyone would leave. Lord Darkfyre secured the area. Lord Winters made his final objections. Lord Wilde continued arguing that the records needed to be studied. Professor Maltheus warned that some secrets might truly be better left buried. Lord Crai remained determined to understand the technology. Lady Roxy looked toward the records surrounding them and realized that they had barely begun scratching the surface. And Rain, who had remained close to her mother throughout the investigation, quietly wondered whether the records might finally reveal who had created the mysterious drawing they had discovered earlier.
At last, Lord President Chronotis locked the door. The Anchor remained inside. Waiting.
The group was tasked to study the records room and uncover everything they can about the device, the two teams who created it, the missing civilization, and the events that led to the Anchor being abandoned. Lord President Chronotis has asked everyone to submit their thoughts and findings before a final decision is made.
Because one thing is now certain: Whatever happened here was important enough for Gallifrey to erase it from history. And whatever the Anchor was created to do, someone believed it was dangerous enough that the truth should never be found. Now, the truth has been found.
And the question is no longer simply what happened? It is: What will Gallifrey do with the truth?