Doctor Whooves: Savior of the Universe
Series 2

Episode 4: Shadow of Sepra

Arriving at a city in Sepra, The Doctor opened the TARDIS doors and was immediately greeted by lasers flying from side to side, he fell back inside and got to the console again.

“Did we arrive or…?” Ditzy asked.

“We did, I’m just trying to do a better job parking this thing,” The Doctor responded, pushing a few buttons on the TARDIS console and pulling a lever. When the engines stopped, The Doctor went outside again, they were now sitting safely atop a building, “Now we’re good to go,” The Doctor said.

“So this is Sepra,” Pond said, looking at the horizon of this orange planet, the sky was a light orange, the ground was almost red and a thin fog covered everything.

“All I know about this place can be summed up into three things,” The Doctor began, “It’s a massive desert, the inhabitants have been at civil war for a long time and there is a space station crashing down to this city,” He said, pointing up at the massive object slowly falling down to the planet’s surface, Ditzy immediately panicked, but Pond stopped her.

“Okay, what can or should we do?” Pond asked.

“Find out why we were called here and, if possible, stop the people here from fighting so they can escape,” The Doctor answered.

***

“Nothing… Nothing… Wait, I just spotted something blue atop a building, with some green, yellow and blue things are near it,” A stallion in a burning facility said.

“Then we’ve found him, great!” A reptilian mare near him replied, “I’ll try to get troops down there immediately,” She said.

“Let’s hope they won’t get shot down again,” The stallion said as the reptile pony went away.

***

On Sepra, The Doctor and his crew were heading to the bottom of the building to see what was going on in the streets. Arriving there, The Doctor, Pond and Ditzy hid behind some debris and made their way forward, constantly hiding to not get hit by any shots.

The trio reached a type of large bunker on one end of the city and sneaked inside, only to be met by a few familiar aliens pointing guns at them, these creatures were blue, with lanky limbs and triangular heads with six eyes, one of them cut through the group and analyzed The Doctor before taking off its helmet and properly looking at him.

“Doctor, long time no see,” The alien creature said.

“Wait, Quari?” The Doctor asked.

“Exactly, the same Ceotu you saved from colony 6 all those years ago,” Quari said.

“I could’ve sworn it was a few months ago, then again, time travel and such,” The Doctor remarked.

“We are at war with the native Seprians for a long time, could you help us?” Another Ceotu requested.

“Depends, I want to hear both sides of the story first, let’s heed yours, since you’re right here,” The Doctor said.

“We wanted to colonize this planet to replace the old colony 6 as our natural reserve, I know, make a desert into a giant zoo, good idea, heh,” Quari said, “But once we landed, the Seprians just tried to gun our ships down, and I think they hit something on that station up there and now its falling,” He continued, “We managed to land and now we keep fighting,” Quari finished.

“Okay, so you just wanted to restart the planetary reserve project, that’s good by me,” The Doctor replied, “Now I need to find the leader of the Seprians here and I can hear what he has to say,” He mentioned.

“He and his army take up almost an entire half of the city, hard to miss them,” Quari explained, “So, see ya, Doc,” He said.

Ditzy waved at the Ceotu and the group walked back outside, they traversed the wasteland of a city to reach the other side, as they approached their destination, they began to see dried blood on the walls and streets, guns being pointed out of windows and angry growls from inside of the buildings. They entered a towering building at the center of a roundabout, and several four-armed orange aliens were talking near the reception desk, the leader noticed The Doctor and his companions and pointed pistols at them.

“We come in peace, so put that stuff down,” The Doctor said.

“Whose side are you on?” The bulky orange alien asked, “Ours, the Ceotu or the Alliance?”

“No one’s side, really,” Pond replied.

“We want to hear your side of what’s happening here so we can try to stop war and you can all run from the falling space station in the sky,” The Doctor explained, “The Ceotu told us that they just wanted to turn this planet in a natural reserve because the Centurion Alliance burned Ceotis 6,” He continued.

“I see,” The leader said, “My name is Zartus, general of the Seprian army in this city,” He introduced himself.

“Okay, now to the story,” Ditzy said.

“We were born in this planet, we lived in it for millions of years, do you think we’d let some aliens take it from us for the sake of making a massive zoo?!” Zartus angrily said.

“Geez, calm down, we just wanted to hear your side on this situation, we’ll get out now,” The Doctor replied, before the trio could leave the building, a small ship landed and the Seprians took aim, some soldiers from the Centurion Alliance walked out, shooting at the Seprians.

“Oh gosh,” Ditzy said, running for cover.

“Stop firing, now!” The Doctor shouted and the two sides obeyed.

“Wow,” Pond reacted.

“Doctor, so we found you,” One of the soldiers said, she took off her helmet and revealed that she was a Silurian, “Captain Styn Straz, I believe you met my sister, before she...” She introduced herself, “Anyways, I’m glad we got to you before anyone shot you,” Styn said.

“Okay, what do you want with me?” The Doctor asked

“Come with us to the headquarters, that simple,” Styn replied.

“Oh, alright then,” The Doctor said.

They all entered the Alliance’s ship and it took off to the space station above. The small ship landed at a broken down hangar, where the group disembarked the ship and headed to a control room at the top. There was a table with a holographic map of the city below and several red dots scattered around the map, concentrated on either extreme of the city.

“This is a map of City 11, as its been denominated,” Styn said.

“I presume the red dots represent all of the life forms in the city,” Pond said.

“Exactly, we’re also trying to stop this ongoing battle, but the Ceotu hate us, the Seprians don’t want us involved and you three are probably our only hope of starting peace,” Styn replied and explained.

“Well, isn’t that just lovely,” The Doctor sarcastically commented.

“We also have another problem,” Another mare got into the conversation, “Prisoner 0027, the Time Lord known as The Master, managed to escape his jail cell,” She said.

“Yeah, I was gonna get to that,” Styn said, “The Master is somewhere down there, waiting for the dust to settle and for a chance to escape from this planet,” She explained.

“Wow, things just get better every second,” The Doctor griped, “Well, do I have any choice?”

“Not really, you and your team have to make the two leaders of the factions come to terms with each other so that, hopefully, the planet can live in peace, no need to worry about The Master, we have a team searching for him right now,” Styn said.

“Okay, so take us back to the surface and we’ll schedule a meeting of sorts between Zartus and Quari,” The Doctor responded.

“As you wish, lets get back to the hangar,” Styn said.

“Can’t you just beam us up or down or something like that?” The Doctor asked.

“This base is falling apart as we speak, we have to save energy in every way possible,” Styn replied. They returned to the station’s hangar and took a ship down to the surface, near the Ceotu bunker.

“Quari!” Ditzy called out.

“I’ll be right there,” Quari replied from inside of the base, he rushed outside and saw The Doctor and his crew at his doorstep, “Oh, you’re back!”

“We need you to meet with someone at the city hall, let’s go,” The Doctor said, pulling Quari’s hand.

“Okay then, I suppose,” Quari reacted. At the city hall, the lights were dim over a desk and two chairs, the group sat Quari onto one of them and he looked around, confused.

“You can come over now,” The Doctor called, a bulky, orange, four-armed alien showed up from the shadows and Quari got mildly angered, Zartus then sat down on the other chair and the two aliens stared at each other with anger in their eyes, “Is the camera set up?” The Doctor asked.

“Almost done,” Ditzy replied.

“Camera? What is this?” Zartus asked.

“We’re going to broadcast this debate to every other city on Sepra, every soldier is gonna have to see you two come to an agreement of some, any sort,” The Doctor explained.

“I suppose we can try to discuss all of this rationally,” Quari said.

“I agree with him, are we done?” Zartus asked.

“Nope, not good enough,” Pond said.

“Attention all soldiers, Ceotu, Seprian, anyone in between, you are watching the debate between your leaders, live from the Sepra capital,” The Doctor spoke into a microphone, “You two can start now, tell each other your purposes and all that,” He told them.

“Well, me and my kind just wanted to rebuild a natural reserve that those bastards at the Alliance burned shamelessly,” Quari angrily started the debate.

“Wow, you wanted to build a zoo in a populated planet, you truly are geniuses,” Zartus replied, getting up from his chair.

“No, no, no,” The Doctor stopped them, “Discuss this maturely, please,” He said.

“Shut up, Time Lord!” Zartus told him off.

“Fine, I’ll let you two settle this all alone,” The Doctor said, walking back behind the camera.

“Ugh, so,” Zartus began, “Why did you want to colonize our world,” He asked.

“I already told you, the Centurion Alliance destroyed our sixth colony to stop a Dalek attack,” Quari responded.

“Okay, and why did you think you could take our planet?” Zartus questioned.

“We don’t even want your full planet anymore, you’re killing everyone who tries to run away for some reason, we can live just having a large area to build our reserve,” Quari replied.

“Is that so?” Zartus said.

“Exactly, just give us a large enough area to put together a natural reserve, maybe a space or air base, and we’ll be good,” Quari explained, “I’d say I’m surprised that you didn’t listen before, but you refused to do so,” He added.

“Well, if that’s all, then I, in part of my entire army, apologize for this massive misunderstanding,” Zartus said, he put his arm up to Quari and they shook hands, it was all recorded and broadcast live across the planet, so everyone saw them there.

“Wow, that was much easier than I thought,” The Doctor said. Before they could all celebrate the agreement, a gray stallion with a messy black mane walked out of the shadows, pointing a type of sonic screwdriver at either of the leaders.

“Hahah, I was waiting for a good chance for my assassination attempt, what better time than when its being shown live across this pitiful planet,” The Master said.

“Get out of here,” The Doctor responded.

“Oh, Doctor, why can’t you be glad to see your old friend?” The Master asked, “By the way, Zartus is a liar,” He mentioned.

“Huh?” Quari was confused.

“It’s basically in Seprian blood to try and get another species’ trust before killing them,” The Master explained.

“Uh oh,” Ditzy said, Zartus walked up behind Quari and shot the Ceotu in the head, killing him on the spot, the murder was shown across the planet and made all of the soldiers angrier than ever before.

“Oh dear, what now?” The Doctor asked himself, all of them heard a stampede outside, Pond rushed outside to check and ran back in to report on what was going on.

“The two armies are over here,” Pond said, “This will not end well, at all,” He commented

“What do we do?” Ditzy asked The Doctor.

“I’ll do my best, for one,” The Doctor answered as he began to walk away.

“But what about us? Do we sit here with an insane alien with a gun?” Ditzy got angry at The Doctor.

“Okay then, come along,” The Doctor replied. They sneaked past the armies and headed to the building where the TARDIS was situated. Inside of the ship, The Doctor rushed further inside and came back with an amplifier, a black guitar and a pair of sunglasses.

“Really?” Ditzy was confused.

“I have a drum kit and a bass, if you wanna help,” The Doctor joked, “Anyways, I did forget something,” He said, rushing back into the TARDIS to come back with a boombox and a small tape.

“What are you gonna do? Play a cover of some old song until they stop?” Pond asked.

“Uh, no, that’s totally not it,” The Doctor tried to lie.

“Ugh, let’s just go back, I’ll carry the radio thingy, Ditzy, take the amp,” Pond said, picking up the boombox’ handle.

“This is a spaceship, did you forget?” The Doctor pointed out, he pushed a lever while doing a pose and the TARDIS took off back to the city hall, where The Master was watching the ruckus outside from a safe position, the group grabbed all of the things and headed to the doors.

“Oh, you’re back so soon?” The Master condescendingly asked.

“I have no time or patience for your garbage, just let us through,” The Doctor replied.

“Okay, calm down, go on ahead,” The Master said, moving out of the doors, the group took their equipment and headed outside, The Master then noticed all of the things their were toting around, “Whatever their plan is, it won’t end well,” He said to himself.

“The Ceotu leader has been killed, the Seprians are victorious!” Zartus said to the crowd as they fought.

“Sorry, could you move over to the side a bit, I need to get things set up,” The Doctor said, Zartus was confused, but obliged, he moved to the side. Ditzy placed the amplifier beside The Doctor, Pond placed the boombox on the opposite side, The Doctor plugged in his guitar and used his sonic screwdriver to create a power source for the boombox and amp.

“Um… I don’t know what to say right now, so I guess I can try to speak through this song,” The Doctor awkwardly said, he turned on the amp, put the tape in the boombox and a song began to play.

The Doctor played the guitar to the melody of the lyrics, and the war almost stopped, if not for a few Seprians that weren’t enjoying this show so much.

“Your peaceful tactics are futile, cease this pathetic noise at once!” An elder Seprian soldier said, shooting The Doctor’s boombox, making the song stop.

“Hey, that was really ex-” The Doctor cut himself off to dodge another shot, directed at his amplifier, which also broke down on the spot.

“Okay, Doc, what’s plan B, C, whatever plan we’re even on now?” Ditzy asked.

“We use my secret technique, the one that’s sure to save us all in the end,” The Doctor dramatically said.

“And that is…?” Pond asked.

The Doctor began to dash back into the city hall, “RUN!!!” He shouted, Ditzy and Pond followed him and The Master caught up to them. When all of them were in the TARDIS, The Doctor closed and locked the doors, just to be sure that they’d be safe, he then stopped to check if everything and everyone was there, and he noticed the extra passenger.

“Stop giving me that look Doctor,” The Master said, “Look, just let me get a change of clothes and then you can drop me off anywhere you want,” He suggested.

“Sure, whatever, just find the closet and do your stuff,” The Doctor said, The Master then trotted into the TARDIS to find out where the closet even was.

“Hey Doctor, are you okay?” Ditzy asked.

“More or less, I failed to save two races from obliterating each other, I lost my favorite amp and boombox, but at least my friends are safe,” The Doctor remarked, “Somethings you just can’t fix, war will always happen for one reason or another, some people will always be hungry, and what am I to do about all of that,” The Doctor reflected, he walked over to the TARDIS console and laid down on top of it.

“Uh, Doctor, what is that thing?” Pond asked, pointing at a ghostly white figure resembling The Doctor.

“Don’t mind it, whatever it is, it’ll go away,” The Doctor replied, not looking at the reflection of the phantom on the time rotor until it was already gone, all he saw were the scattered light particles floating away.

A few moments later, The Master walked back to the console room, now wearing a gray vest, a silver watch and sunglasses.

“I hope you don’t mind if I keep this stuff,” The Master said.

“Okay, now that you’re done, where do you want me to leave you at?” The Doctor questioned.

“I don’t know, Earth?” The Master requested, “If that’s fine with you, that is,” He said.

“No, it’s okay, Earth, past, present, who cares when,” The Doctor said, pressing a few buttons and pulling a lever down. In just a while, they were safely on Earth and The Master got off of the TARDIS. The ship’s doors were closed and the crew of the TARDIS was wondering where to go next.

“I’ve always wondered what space schools are like,” Ditzy broke the silence.

“That sounds like an awful idea,” Pond replied.

“No such thing as a bad idea, just a bad or disappointing payoff,” The Doctor said, “But, yeah, that sounds very boring,” He added, “How about a surprise, I’ll just take us somewhere and we’ll see where the ship lands?”

“Now that’s a good idea,” Pond said, Ditzy grunted in response, The Doctor pressed in a code on the console’s keyboard and puled the lever to take off.

END OF EPISODE 4

Author's Note

I finally finished this episode and now it's posted, was it worth the wait for the single account-less person keeping up with this garbage? Probably not...

I don't know what else to add this this note.

Next Time: The Doctor and his companions end up in a realm between time and space, where they spend a "night" at a mansion.