The meeting began with an uneasy sense that something was wrong, even before the first serious discussion had begun. Lord Darkfyre arrived with his usual dry observation that their Castellan would likely find a way to complicate matters, while Lord Wilde offered his greetings to Lord President Chronotis and Lady Chronotis. Lord Serpentine soon joined them, openly admitting that he was worried about the future of Gallifrey. Lady Chronotis slipped quietly into the chair across from her husband, offering the room a soft smile as everyone gathered. Lord Conundrum greeted Lord Serpentine, and the room settled into what was supposed to be a debate about the strange device discovered beneath the ancient embassy.
At first, Lord Serpentine referred to the device as a Time Destroyer, explaining that his TARDIS had identified it as such and that he had even seen a remarkably clear photograph of it. He also admitted to having a strange, distant memory of the object itself. Lady Chronotis immediately questioned the name, and it soon became clear that the terminology was already part of the problem. When Professor Maltheus arrived, the discussion turned toward the records discovered within the embassy. Lord Serpentine admitted he had spent several days going through the ruins, while Lady Chronotis confessed that she had already given Lord President Chronotis a report, although she had been several glasses of wine in when she wrote it. Lord Winters then appeared with his usual declaration that he was a ninja, earning himself a demerit from Professor Maltheus before the serious discussion could even begin.
Lord President Chronotis opened the meeting by explaining that the general consensus had been not to touch the device. Unfortunately, Professor Maltheus quickly pointed out that this could only be a short-term rule. The records showed that the device was creating a temporal instability, and that instability was worsening at an alarming rate. Lord Conundrum argued that they needed to understand the technology, perhaps even reverse engineer it. Lord Wilde agreed, believing that their own technological advancement gave them the ability to contain it while they studied it. Lord Serpentine reminded them that the ancient Time Lords who created or discovered it had also been incredibly advanced, perhaps in ways they no longer understood.
Professor Maltheus finally laid out the numbers that changed the tone of the room. A data cylinder in the embassy records contained measurements of the device’s temporal activity. When idle, the reading should have been zero, and originally it had been. After a full century, however, the reading had risen to 0.0000003. Its final recorded reading was 0.00471. The increase represented more than four orders of magnitude, roughly ten thousand times the original activity. The device was apparently maintaining the stability of the present timeline, but its activity was increasing at a rate that could not continue indefinitely. If it continued to rise, Professor Maltheus warned, the device would eventually exceed its capacity and collapse.
That revelation changed the nature of the device entirely. It was not a Time Destroyer. It was a Temporal Anchor, apparently designed to select and maintain the timeline with the greatest temporal stability. The terrifying possibility was that Gallifrey’s current history might be the very timeline being held in place by the device. If the Anchor failed, reality could potentially snap back toward whatever existed before it was created. Nobody knew what that previous reality looked like. Nobody knew the Anchor’s power reserves, its limits, or precisely when its increasing activity would exceed its design tolerances.
Lord Serpentine asked the question hanging over everyone in the room. What if the device eventually erased them all? He pointed out that one race had already been erased. Professor Maltheus confirmed that the people in the current room might actually be living inside the timeline the Anchor was maintaining. The ancient records specifically warned against switching the device off while it remained connected to the temporal field. They also warned that it must not be dismantled. Lord Darkfyre took that warning even further, pointing out that dismantling the device could potentially purge an entire timeline, meaning every sentient being living within it could be erased.
Lord Winters was having none of it. He reduced the entire problem to the simplest terms he could understand. The device was a temporal unexploded bomb, a dead man’s switch connected to an explosive timeline. His solution was equally simple: put the damn thing in a black hole and walk away. Professor Maltheus explained why even that was impossible. A black hole would disconnect the Anchor from its temporal feed and effectively dismantle it, precisely the two things its creators had warned them never to do. Lord Winters remained convinced that the object was dangerous, while Lord Wilde and Lord Conundrum maintained that simply leaving it alone might be just as dangerous. Lord Conundrum even proposed constructing a new device to stabilize the current timeline before dismantling the old one.
The argument grew heated until Lady Chronotis finally brought the room back to the real question. Doing nothing was apparently no longer an option. The issue was not whether they should act, but what kind of action would allow them to learn more without destroying what they were trying to protect. She offered another possibility. The Matrix might not contain any direct information about the erased embassy or the Anchor, but perhaps they could use it as a conduit to retrieve information without touching the Anchor itself. Professor Maltheus realized that the Matrix could contain the memories of the former Lord President from the era in which the embassy disappeared. Even if history books had been altered or erased, a Lord President’s mind would normally have been uploaded into the Matrix.
The idea quickly became the safest option available. Lord President Chronotis was the only person present with the clearance necessary to access information hidden behind restrictions imposed by a former Lord President. Lady Chronotis suggested that her husband connect directly to the former President’s records rather than interface with the Anchor itself. Lord Darkfyre insisted that the connection remain one-way, with information coming out but nothing being downloaded into Lord President Chronotis’s mind. Lady Chronotis agreed immediately. Her priority was simple. She wanted her husband alive.
The group prepared for the attempt. Lord Conundrum took responsibility for configuring the Matrix. Lord Wilde moved to a control terminal to monitor its stability. Lord Darkfyre began constructing a layered firewall around Lord President Chronotis’s mind, adding layer after layer to prevent anything hostile from returning through the connection and Lady Roxy was responsible for monitoring her husbands vitals and ensuring his safety and health. Professor Maltheus stood watch over the President himself, ready to terminate the procedure if anything went wrong. Lord Serpentine monitored the room and its systems while Lord Winters provided an almost relentless stream of commentary, including advice about thinking unsexy thoughts, nine times tables, coffee, chairs and, naturally, pretzels in case the world ended.
At last, Lord Conundrum initiated the connection. Lord President Chronotis entered the Matrix and began searching for the former President. The system initially appeared stable, and Lord Wilde confirmed that all parameters were within safe limits. Then the correct files appeared on the screens.
PRESIDENTIAL CONTINUITY RECORD.
A figure began to form within the Matrix. It was the former President from the time of the embassy. Almost immediately, however, the system displayed a warning.
TEMPORAL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED.
The former President spoke.
“If you’re seeing this, then the anchor survived.”
Lord President Chronotis questioned him about why the embassy had been hidden. The answer revealed the truth that had been buried for centuries. Something had happened during the ambassador’s final mission. The embassy had become temporally unstable, and whatever was affecting it had begun spreading beyond the embassy itself. The Temporal Anchor had been created to hold the embassy outside normal time. It had never been intended to bring the embassy back.
Lord Conundrum immediately wondered whether the people inside might still be alive in another timeline. The possibility was enough to give the entire discovery a new meaning. Perhaps the embassy was not a tomb. Perhaps it was a prison. Perhaps it was a lifeline.
Then came the revelation that changed everything. The former President identified the final ambassador.
Theron Valek.
Theron Valek had never left the embassy. When Gallifrey displaced the embassy outside normal time, Theron remained connected to the Anchor. He was the one keeping the system stable from the other side. The room fell into a new kind of silence. Someone was still there.
Lord Serpentine immediately wanted coordinates. Professor Maltheus asked the more important question: why had the embassy returned? Was the timelock failing, or was the Anchor itself becoming unstable? The former President’s answer was chilling. The recalibrations discovered in the embassy records had not been attempts to repair the Anchor.
They had been caused by him. Theron Valek was somehow affecting the Anchor.
When Professor Maltheus asked whether an intruder or member of the research team could be responsible, the former President gave an unsettling answer.
“Neither. Or perhaps both.”
Before they could pursue the question further, the Matrix began to deteriorate. The readings spiked. Screens flickered. Smoke began rising from the equipment. Lord Wilde fought to maintain the safety barriers while Lord Conundrum desperately worked the controls beside him. Lord Darkfyre strengthened the firewall around Lord President Chronotis, refusing to allow the connection to become a doorway into his mind. Lord Serpentine increased the coolant to the Matrix computers and restored the fire suppression systems, managing to stop the smoke from becoming a full system failure.
But the clock was running out.
Lady Chronotis watched her husband’s vital signs closely. His heart rate was climbing. The Matrix was becoming increasingly unstable. Professor Maltheus urged them to terminate the connection because they had already learned enough. Lady Chronotis hesitated, knowing that Lord President Chronotis would want the answers. For a few precious moments, she allowed the connection to continue.
Then the former President delivered his final message.
He had lost contact with Theron Valek when the final recalibration failed. Before the connection was severed, Theron had given him one instruction. If the Anchor was ever discovered again, they were not to shut it down.
They were to find him. Theron knew how to bring the embassy home.
Then the former President looked directly at Lord President Chronotis and delivered the final warning.
“If you’re hearing this now, then you’ve already found the door.”
At almost the exact same moment, Lord President Chronotis’s heart rate plunged. Lady Chronotis made the decision. “That’s it. Cut it off. Now!”
Lord Wilde immediately began the shutdown protocols. Lord Darkfyre kept the firewall active while working to sever the connection. Lord Serpentine grabbed a fire suppressant when another part of the Matrix began to burn, flooding the area with suppressant and saving the equipment. Professor Maltheus recorded the final information as quickly as possible while Lady Chronotis rushed toward the pod, waiting desperately for it to open.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then the pod opened.
Lord President Chronotis staggered to his feet, looking around the room with confusion before asking Lord Wilde why there were two of him. Lord Serpentine immediately called for medical assistance. Lord Winters, despite having loudly established moments earlier that nobody in the room seemed to possess even a basic first aid badge, suddenly found himself helping with the situation. Professor Maltheus ordered him toward the door while Lady Chronotis dropped beside her husband and checked his pulse and breathing.
Slowly, Lord President Chronotis began to recover. Lady Chronotis remained beside him, monitoring his heart as his two hearts gradually returned to their proper rhythm. Lord Serpentine kept the medical team waiting nearby while Lord Darkfyre confirmed that his firewall had remained intact throughout the entire connection. Lord Conundrum admitted that he needed a rest himself, while Lord Winters produced a cup of tea but, unfortunately, no Jaffa Cakes.
Eventually, Lord President Chronotis was able to speak. He described the experience of entering the Matrix as being a little like going into hell. Yet despite the danger, the mission had given them answers they had desperately needed.
Professor Maltheus summarized what they now knew. The Anchor itself was not failing. Something or someone was causing it to respond. Someone was trying to pull the embassy back from its timelock. Theron Valek remained displaced in time, still connected to the Anchor and apparently possessing the knowledge required to bring the embassy home.
The investigation had only become more complicated.
Lord President Chronotis revealed that he was not convinced they were actually looking for a Time Lord. Professor Maltheus immediately realized what he meant. There had been another ambassador inside the embassy, one belonging to the species that had been erased from history. If that being had survived, they did not even know what biological characteristics they should be searching for.
Lord Conundrum offered a solution. They could scan for Time Lords and then reverse the parameters, allowing other species to appear. Lord Winters reduced the idea to its simplest possible form, joking that they were essentially telling the computer, “Find everyone who isn’t us.” Even in the aftermath of nearly losing their Lord President inside the Matrix, the remark earned the appropriate mixture of amusement and irritation.
But beneath the humor was a very real problem. They now had a name.
Theron Valek.
They had a location they had not yet fully understood. They had an embassy that was returning from a place outside normal time. They had an Anchor whose activity was being manipulated by a third party. And somewhere beyond the reach of ordinary history was a missing ambassador who might be the only person capable of bringing the embassy home.
Lord Serpentine returned to his TARDIS to investigate why its memory had produced such strange information. Lord Wilde prepared to return to the House Tower and begin searching the archives using the newly discovered name. Lord Darkfyre offered to continue searching the archives as well. Lord Conundrum remained fascinated by the mystery and the technology behind it. Professor Maltheus began considering what their next steps would need to be. Lord Winters remained skeptical, bluntly reminding everyone that his instincts still told him they were dealing with something dangerous.
And Lady Chronotis had only one priority left for the moment. Getting her husband home.
She helped Lord President Chronotis toward the door, insisting that he needed food and rest before they attempted anything else. Their search of the embassy could wait. Their next investigation could wait. Even the fate of the timeline could wait for one evening.
Because somewhere beyond the timelock, beyond the erased history and the unstable Anchor, Theron Valek was still waiting.
And if the words of the former President were true, the door had already been found.