Series 1 Episode 3: The Path to Knowledge

Rhodes, 489BC

In the 5th Century BC, the World was a very different place to how it is now. Ancient Greece was a relatively sophisticated period in world history. Archaic Greece saw advances in art, poetry and technology. Some of the greatest minds ever known to man originated in this time.

And that’s exactly why Exodus was here.

Exodus was the lone survivor of a race of titans known as The Death Lords. There were 6 of them, each serving their own purpose which they would all work towards and then give what they have learnt to help work towards a final result. Nobody knew what this final result was, and nor will they ever. Exodus’s purpose was to gain knowledge. He visited various lands and worlds in a quest for knowledge which could contribute towards the final result. His mission was to learn everything: Every fact, every statistic, every piece of data, everything.

He owned a large amount of knowledge already but he did not know everything yet. He knew many things, but he had missed one place of the radar; He had missed one planet: Earth.

Exodus arrived in Ancient Greece in order to complete his mission which he would contribute to the final result. At this stage the other five death lords had long since perished, though he refused to admit their loss. He still believed the Final Result was possible, even though he knew it could not be achieved by one being alone. It needed all six Death Lords. Exodus still continued his quest to gain all knowledge. He would not give up. Giving up is not what a Death Lord would do.

The Death Lords were allies of a race known as the Tsuraxi. Exodus believed the warrior race could assist him in his mission and help give towards the final result. Inside of his spacecraft, Exodus pulled up a communicator screen and searched for nearby Tsuraxi ships. He pressed a selection of buttons before gaining communication with this said spacecraft.

“Tsuraxi.” Exodus beckoned, “We need you now. We are in ancient Greece. We shall harvest the knowledge that we need for the final result but we require your assistance.”

On the other end of the line was a Time Lord known as the Doctor. He was alone once again after departing his latest friend, Lydia, and was now on the search for a number of things. He was on a mission to find his ship, and to find himself, but the most important thing for him was to find out what the Tsuraxi wanted. He had encountered the Tsuraxi only recently and a warning they had issued him had haunted him ever since. He had destroyed the last of the Tsuraxi: But he knew they weren’t done with him yet.

The Doctor was desperate to learn all he could about the Tsuraxi, so he piloted the time pod which he had stolen from the race towards the source of the communication line. He arrived in Rhodes in 489BC.

He had arrived in a period where the Cities of Rhodes were preparing to unite and the construction of a new city was about to begin. He searched around the area for where the signal was coming from. He soon noticed a strange looking ship. The doors of the spacecraft opened with a robotic figure departing from it. It was the same figure that he had noticed on the scanner. The Doctor shifted towards the creature.

“Hiya.” He began, but the creature remained silent. “I received a call from your spacecraft. You said you required assistance.”

Exodus grabbed an object from his cloak and scanned the Doctor with it. He breathed heavily. “You are not a Tsuraxi. How did you gain possession of this ship?”

“That’s a long story I’m afraid. Who are you?”

Exodus chuckled, “You are not aware of the Death Lords?”

“Well if I was I don’t think I’d be asking would I?”

The creature moved towards the Doctor, leading the Time Lord to back away. Exodus observed him intently. “We are allies of the Tsuraxi. You shall identify yourself.”

“My name is the Doctor. Who’s speaking?”

Exodus was shocked. He was aware of the Doctor: A saviour of worlds, a protector of civilisations, a warrior among men. He knew the Time Lord would serve a threat to the final result. Exodus grabbed another item from his pocket and stunned the Doctor with it, knocking the Time Lord unconscious. He moved towards the body, lifted it up and placed it inside of his ship. The doors of the spacecraft closed as the Doctor lay blissfully unaware of what was happening.

It was a few moments before the Doctor arose. He had a faint recollection of what had happened and no more. He attempted to pilot the spacecraft, but the controls were too complex even for him. He grabbed his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and opened the door. He slid outside of the spacecraft, but was not greeted by a pleasant sight.

Rhodes was in flames. Exodus had began his rampage.

Far in the future of the planet Earth, in a hospital room in 21st Century Manchester, Lydia Barker was startled by the death of her mother. She had no idea what had happened or why her mother had died this suddenly. Her final words of warning, “They poisoned my drink. They’ll come for you. Don’t trust anyone-” did not sound pleasant to her. She burst into tears. Matt entered, and on noticing the body gave out a slight scream in terror.

“What the hell happened?” Asked Matt. “We have to call a nurse.”

Lydia sighed. “She’s dead.”

“I can see that,” Replied Matt.

They remained in silence for a moment. Tensions were still at a high between the two of them after all that had happened. Lydia stood up and strolled out of the room. She informed a nurse about what had happened. The nurse hurried into a room, covered Andreas body over with a blanket, said a small prayer and carried her out. Lydia went to follow her, but Matt stopped her before she could.

“I asked you a question.” Matt said, “What the hell happened, Lydia?”

“I was about to tell her about the Doctor and the TARDIS and Mars and everything-”

“Mars?” Matt laughed.

“It’s not the time for that, Matt. I was about to tell her everything and she told me somebody spiked her drink. Who could have done that? There was nobody else in the room-apart from you. You-”

Matt was shocked that Lydia would make this accusation. “Are you seriously accusing me of killing your mother? What has she done to me?”

“Maybe it was revenge. I mean you were going to shoot me when you noticed the tattoo.”

“Which is still on you by the way-”

Lydia stumbled and turned towards Matt. “What happened? Who would have spiked her drink and tried to kill her? She would never even harm a fly.”

“How the hell would I know?”

“Well your part of this UNIT thingey. You know about aliens and stuff so you could know about all this for all I know.”

“I don’t know anything, but it could have been the Tsuraxi. I mean they issued that tattoo without you even noticing, so they could have killed her to get revenge on you without you noticing too.”

“Everywhere I go people are dying. My boss, the scientists on the base, my mother. Maybe it’s just the norm now.”

Another tear began to form. Matt tried to comfort her but she backed away.

In 5th Century Rhodes, the Doctor lay in a pit of mass destruction. He surveyed the area and the damage that had been done to it. He tried searching for Exodus but he must have gone a long way. He moved back towards the Tsuraxi time pod. He noticed that there was a computer on the main control panel. He typed in the Death lords into the computer and it came up with a plethora of results. He clicked on one, which revealed the death of five of the Death Gods and the survival of Exodus. The piece talked mostly about the so-called final result, which still remained ambiguous. The Doctor remained hopeless. He couldn’t just leave like he did on Mars. He had to face the problem.

The Doctor departed the Time Pod and spotted Exodus standing directly in front of him.

“Doctor.” Exodus began. “You managed to find a way out of my spacecraft but it was still too late. Rhodes has been destroyed.”

The Doctor remained silent but speaked volumes through an expression of anger which he now occupied on his face. He grabbed his sonic screwdriver from his pocket once again. “I was just researching you, Death Lords, and you sound like a nasty bunch. Tell me-What is this so called final result?”

Exodus grinned. “There may still be hope for it yet, Doctor. Why should I tell you?” He paused for a moment. “My purpose in the Final Result was to gain knowledge. I needed to learn everything. Every single thing. I went from planet to planet, stealing the knowledge, sucking it out of civilisations. And everywhere I went I heard the name Doctor. Every now and again I’d learn about you while I was stealing said knowledge. You’re a bit of a legend.”

“More than that. I’m a fairytale.”

“You’ve squandered your enemies plans over and over again. Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Silurians, Zygons, Zarbi. The list is endless. You will never be able to destroy a Death Lord.”

“I’m up for a challenge.”

Exodus grabbed the weapon from his pocket which the Doctor soon disintegrated using his sonic device. Exodus lifted himself off the ground and floated towards the Time Lord before bursting into a ball of flames, knocking the Doctor to the ground and re-forming again.

Exodus chuckled. “We Death Lords have quite a reputation.”

“So do us Time Lords.”

The Doctor held his screwdriver down and aimed it towards Exodus as a prison formed around the Death Lord. Exodus was trapped inside.

“What have you done?” Exodus asked, “Release me!”

The Doctor grinned, before addressing him with a blunt “No”. As the Time Lord trotted away he heard laughter coming from behind him. Suddenly, all the areas surrounding him turned to darkness. The Doctor had found himself trapped inside of four walls of solid blackness.

The laughter of Exodus echoed through the prison. “I have travelled through all existence in search for knowledge. Do you really believe anyone could trick me? Not even you could see through my line of thought.”

The Doctor did not like being outwitted. “What have you done, Exodus?”

“I created a fake simulation. I tracked you down by detecting which ship you had stolen. I then created a realistic interpretation of Rhodes in the late 5th Century BC from what I had studied in the data banks.”

“That’s not possible.”

“Nobody likes to be tricked Doctor. I happened to create something that not even you could figure out. Now I shall head to the actual Ancient Greece in search for the knowledge that I need. Goodbye, Doctor.”

And so the Doctor was trapped.

In 21st Century Manchester, a car rolled up in front of a protected base. Guards stood and patrolled the building, ensuring that nobody could realise what was inside. Inside of said car was Lydia and Matt. They had arrived at the UNIT Headquarters.

Matt worked at UNIT and had only recently been forced to inform Lydia about his occupation. Now, he decided it was about to time to show Lydia what they have been working towards. After all, they needed answers.

Inside was a protected base filled with technology that was more advanced than anything else Lydia had been aware of on Earth. She looked around and was tempted to touch items, but Matt stopped her from doing so. Matt convinced Lydia to stop pausing as they strolled towards the centre of activity. Dozens of workers were avidly attempting to serve their purpose. Matt tapped one on the shoulder. She was a tall, blonde haired woman in her early thirties.

“Hello Matt,” The woman observed Lydia closely, “You know we can’t bring outsiders in here. Who is this?”

“Oh yes!,” Matt remarked, “I forgot about introductions. Lydia, this is Janet: Our scientific advisor at UNIT HQ, and Janet, this is Lydia: My girlfriend.”

Lydia and Janet shook hands. Janet was still unsure of why Lydia was here, “So what have you brought her here for? You know you’re not meant to tell outsiders about our operation.”

“Well it’s a long story.” Replied Matt. Janet noticed Lydia’s tattoo and jumped out of the way from it. Matt confronted her, “I sort of came here to see if there’s any way you can get that thing removed.”

Janet grabbed an item from a nearby drawer and scanned the tattoo on Lydia’s hand, removing it. Lydia breathed a sigh of relief. She was pleased that she no longer had to worry about the tattoo. But there were still many other things on her mind: What had happened to her boss? And why had her mother been murdered? She needed answers.

She strolled out of the base but Matt pulled her back towards him. “I need to go.” Lydia shouted. “In case you forgot, my mother just died.”

Matt nodded before releasing her from his grip. “Look, I know it’s been a hard day for you. Well, it’s obviously been a very hard time for you in general recently, but I think we’ll be able to find some answers to your questions. UNIT have special passes, so we can enter the hospital and take some DNA samples of your mother. It’s not something I’d like to do, but if you need answers I can organise some way of finding them.”

Lydia nodded. “What about my boss? He fell out of the office window.”

“The police are researching that now.” Announced Janet. “Anyway, you need to promise that you don’t tell anyone about UNIT. We went through quite a hard time recently setting everything back up, so we decided it was best to keep our organisation top secret. You shouldn’t know anything about this place really.”

Lydia put her thumb up. She turned around. “Is it alright if I take a look at some of the artifacts you’ve got to offer?”

Janet tutted, but Matt intervened. “Yes, of course. I’ll show you round.”

Lydia searched around the area for interesting artifacts and objects, and found a few rather intriguing objects. There was an alien hand, a rustic sword and an isolated eyestalk. But as she reached the next room she noticed something: A blue box. She recalled the Doctor mentioning a similar object. He had said to her whilst they were on Mars: “You see, it’s not only the Tsuraxi I’m looking for. I travel around the universe in a sort of blue box. It won’t make any sense until you’ve seen it. Well, it probably won’t even make sense to you then.”

And there it was: The ship that the Doctor had once lost. Right in front of her. If only he was there now.

But he wasn’t. He was still trapped inside of a time prison, while Exodus paraded the universe on his quest for knowledge.

Lydia surveyed the object, before asking. “Is there any way we can get that thing open?”

Matt moved closer. He decided to change the subject. “So how come you’re talking to me all of a sudden?”

Lydia tutted. “That’s not a response to my question.”

“No.” Matt replied. “There’s no key. There’s a door lock but no key came with it. Janet told me it just arrived here one day.”

"I need to get that open," Lydia responded, "That's the Doctor's ship."

Matt stood in shock. “Well there’s no way I can get it open I’m afraid. I guess we’re just going to have to wait until the Doctor comes to us…”

Next Week: Battleground