The meeting began with the arrival of The Investigator, who was quickly greeted by Lord Wilde, Lord Serpentine, Professor Maltheus, Lord Darkfyre, Lord Conundrum, who quickly gathered around the table. Lord Winters arrived shortly afterward, commenting on the unfamiliar areas of the Citadel, while Lady Roxy moved to the side of Lord President Chronotis. She quietly explained that she and Lord President Chronotis had already discussed the matter at length over wine, and she intended to let the others take part in the formal discussion. The empty seat reserved for the Castellan was eventually filled, with Lady Roxy even managing to locate the wandering Castellan and direct him toward the table.
Lord President Chronotis then revealed the purpose of the meeting. He had sent a reconnaissance probe to the coordinates given to them by Theron, but the probe had disappeared before returning any useful information. Using his TTC, Lord President Chronotis had performed preliminary scans of the coordinates and found that, at least according to those readings, it should be safe to travel there. He wanted the assembled group to accompany him and discover what was waiting at the other end. Lord Darkfyre immediately questioned the probe’s last known trajectory and report, while Lord Serpentine asked what type of probe had been used. Lord President Chronotis admitted that it had been an older CIA model borrowed from Lord Darkfyre, earning a promise to replace the missing drone. The Investigator volunteered to go despite the danger, while Professor Maltheus cheerfully regarded the expedition as something of a field trip.
Before they left, Lord President Chronotis opened the floor for anyone who had further thoughts following their encounter with Theron. Lord Wilde explained that he had recorded the answers and uploaded them into the Prydonian Archives. The ambassador’s existence had initially been difficult for the archival AI to comprehend, but Lord Wilde had successfully reprogrammed it and installed safeguards should the information ever need to be erased again. Lord Darkfyre explained that once Theron had determined they could be trusted, the group had been able to obtain more useful answers. Lady Roxy then voiced the most troubling realization from the encounter. Their own investigation had become the catalyst for the Temporal Anchor’s failure. The more they discovered the embassy and the more they remembered, the more the Anchor weakened.
For The Investigator, this raised the immediate question of what exactly the Temporal Anchor was. Lady Roxy gave him the shortest explanation she could. An embassy had been buried and forgotten after its inhabitants deliberately erased themselves from Gallifrey’s memories and the Matrix because of an event that threatened their existence. The device responsible for keeping that threat contained was now beginning to fail. Professor Maltheus recognized the strange situation as something resembling a bootstrap inversion of a pocketed timeline, while Lord Serpentine revealed that he was detecting energy waves from the Anchor all the way out at Earth.
The group clarified that Theron’s hologram had not been a simple recording. According to Lord President Chronotis, it had been a live representation of Theron’s consciousness, which had merged with the Temporal Anchor when Theron became the final person capable of preventing it from failing completely. Theron himself belonged to the mysterious race that none of them could remember ever having existed. Lord Conundrum wondered aloud what it must be like to have one’s consciousness inside a computer, while Lord Winters launched into an unexpectedly detailed explanation of encephalographic and holographic technology. Lord Darkfyre brought everyone back to the more immediate concern. Theron’s people had identified the location they were about to visit and had apparently attempted to contain the fracture there. The missing probe only made the destination more concerning.
Eventually, Lord President Chronotis decided that they had talked long enough. Lady Roxy voiced her concern that they should be certain everyone truly agreed to visit the coordinates, particularly since the first probe had vanished. Lord Wilde agreed, noting that they had no idea what they might be walking into. Professor Maltheus asked whether the missing probe had been equipped with defensive and temporal shielding comparable to a TARDIS. Lord Darkfyre suggested that Lord President Chronotis extend the TTC’s shielding enough for someone to safely step outside and examine the immediate area.
Once everyone reached the TTC, the group discovered a room filled with books, prompting Lord President Chronotis to proudly declare that there could never be enough books. Professor Maltheus and Lord Serpentine readily agreed. Lord Conundrum, meanwhile, became fascinated by a nuclear cross-section from Sol III, earning a comparison to Heisenberg from Lord Winters.
As the TTC reached the coordinates, Lady Roxy chose to remain behind and monitor the situation from the control room. She promised to keep in contact with Lord President Chronotis and warn them if anything changed. The group arrived at what appeared to be an abandoned space station. The atmosphere was stale but mostly breathable, and the structure itself seemed strangely ordinary at first glance. Lord President Chronotis extended the TTC’s plasma shielding before the group ventured outside. Lady Roxy watched from the doorway, wishing them luck while keeping one hand near the controls. Inside the station, the group discovered that there were only two rooms to investigate. They also found old machinery, tactile control panels, unfamiliar gauges, and shelves filled with ancient scrolls.
The scrolls immediately drew everyone’s attention. Professor Maltheus was delighted by the return to hard copy information, while Lord Wilde explained that physical records often contained some of the most personal and important information in the Archives. Lord Darkfyre carefully removed one of the scrolls, while Lord Serpentine examined the ancient controls. Lord Winters wondered whether the scrolls might even originate from Gallifrey. As one was carefully opened, the faded Gallifreyan writing began to shimmer, seemingly responding to the act of remembering. At the same time, Lord Wilde and Lord Conundrum studied the view beyond the station. Something about the surrounding galaxy felt wrong. The Investigator noticed that the stars appeared connected like constellations, while Professor Maltheus questioned whether they were actually looking through a window at space or at some kind of enormous astral map.
The answer became far more disturbing when the scroll’s hidden message revealed itself. It warned that when the hunger came, Gallifrey must not be found, because if the Anchor failed, the silence would end and the hunger would know where they were. Lord Darkfyre immediately recognized the message as a warning about something that consumed. Professor Maltheus wondered if the hunger could be the legendary Ravenous, while Lord President Chronotis stared through the window trying to understand what they were seeing. The planets did not appear to orbit a normal star. Instead, Lord Serpentine realized that what they had mistaken for a central star was actually a strange green gas. The lines connecting the distant worlds only made the mystery deeper.
Professor Maltheus found another scroll and read aloud a far more horrifying account. Something had come through the system, and the worlds closest to it had been stripped bare. Atmospheres had failed, seas had boiled, and life had vanished. Further examination revealed that four planets had been completely emptied of life, while one remained untouched. Lord President Chronotis immediately questioned why that final world had survived. Lord Wilde suggested it might be the only living world left in the system. Lord Darkfyre scanned one of the important scrolls so Lord Wilde could later study a copy in the Archives, carefully returning the original to its place.
Meanwhile, Lord Serpentine attempted to activate the station’s ancient machinery. His first attempts failed spectacularly. The analyzer flickered, several systems seized, and the old equipment seemed to resent being disturbed. When The Investigator took over, a gentle adjustment and a well-placed thump finally brought the machine back to life. The terminal began producing a steady stream of data, revealing temporal residue, an atmospheric anomaly, and an energy signature nearby. Lady Roxy immediately began detecting something strange from the TTC. Temporal energy was spiking, but it did not behave like a normal rift or vortex. She could not identify exactly what they were dealing with.
Professor Maltheus and Lord Serpentine began gathering as many scrolls as they could, realizing they might not have another opportunity to return. Lord Serpentine produced large bags while Professor Maltheus even sacrificed his jacket as an improvised scroll carrier. Lord Darkfyre carefully helped gather the remaining documents, while the others continued examining the station. Then Lady Roxy’s instruments changed. Her screen suddenly populated with new readings faster than she could interpret them, until one message became unmistakable.
It had detected them.
Lady Roxy urgently warned Lord President Chronotis that whatever the “it” was, it knew they were there. Lord President Chronotis looked toward the green mist and saw it beginning to move toward the station. The group immediately abandoned any thought of lingering. Lord Serpentine hurried the remaining bags toward the TARDIS, Professor Maltheus bundled the last scrolls through the door, and Lord President Chronotis ushered everyone inside. Even Lord Winters managed one final distraction by claiming there was a two-headed bear in the other room, earning little more than an exasperated response from Professor Maltheus.
Once aboard, Lady Roxy studied the readings and finally began to understand what they had encountered. The green substance was not an atmosphere and it was not radiation. It was a carrier, moving through the system while stripping energy and matter from everything it touched. The planets had not simply lost their life. Something had consumed their atmospheres, oceans, biological matter, and even their residual temporal energy. The untouched planet was particularly disturbing. The mist had stopped just before reaching it, but the moment the group arrived at the station, it had begun moving again.
The implications were chilling. Lady Roxy believed the Temporal Anchor had been what kept this “cloud” from moving. Their memories were causing the Anchor to fail, slowly unraveling whatever had once been frozen in place. There might still be life on the final untouched planet, but their presence had potentially restarted the very threat the Anchor had been designed to contain. Lord Wilde wondered whether the entity was sentient. Lord Conundrum simply observed that they were rather terrible at this, since their investigation had effectively restarted the threat. Lord Winters agreed with characteristic bluntness, while Lord Serpentine defended their efforts.
Lord Darkfyre suggested that they should not immediately return to Vorlaxion in case the entity could track them. Lord Conundrum agreed, and Professor Maltheus proposed that they eventually investigate the untouched planet, but only after giving the creature time to move away. Lord President Chronotis activated a temporal orbit in an attempt to throw off anything following them. For a tense few moments, everyone watched the readings. Fortunately, the mist did not follow. Instead, it continued consuming the space station they had just escaped.
With the immediate danger behind them, Lord President Chronotis deactivated the temporal orbit and set the course for Vorlaxion. Lord Serpentine’s own TARDIS eventually recalled him, pulling him away via a Time Ring so he could return to his ship. Before departing, he thanked everyone for the adventure. Back aboard the TTC, Professor Maltheus expressed relief that they had managed to recover the scrolls, while Lord Darkfyre hoped their theft of the ancient records had not been for nothing. Lord Wilde looked forward to beginning the painstaking work of studying them.
The TTC finally returned safely to Vorlaxion. Lord President Chronotis reduced the shield power and noted the strain the journey had placed on the ship’s reserves. Professor Maltheus immediately declared that a strong cup of tea was in order, followed by an examination of everything they had recovered. Lord President Chronotis agreed that the scrolls needed to be documented, with Lord Wilde, Professor Maltheus, Lord Darkfyre, and anyone else willing to help taking responsibility for the work. Lord Wilde departed for the House Tower to begin preparations, while Lord Darkfyre carried a bag of scrolls into his office. At the end of the long day, Lady Roxy settled against Lord President Chronotis’s desk, exhausted but amused by everything that had happened. After everything they had just survived, she could only look back on the chaos and remark, “Well, that was fun.”