Post by Rob "the Meddler" Goodfellow on Jul 2, 2012 22:10:29 GMT -5
For a billion years, the Time Lords ruled a trillion-year swathe of history. They dwelt on a world named Gallifrey, orbiting a binary star in the constellation of Kasterborous in a galaxy known to humans by the prosaic designation NGC 1275. And then they never existed. Their world and their history was cut from the Spiral Politic by the Renegade known as the Doctor.
Gallifrey is gone. Gallifrey never existed. But its legacy lives on.
In the final decades before the beginning of the Last Great Time War the Specialist, Keeper of the Halls of Eileithyia, had a premonition. A vision of a coming disaster, that would bring an end to the Time Lords forever. And the woman who had for 1400 years nurtured and protected the children of Gallifrey swore that she would not allow them to perish.
Acting in secret, careful not to alert the High Council, she had a TARDIS prepared. It was equipped with an independent power source, and with stasis chambers sufficient for two hundred children and twenty adults. Selecting the children, ranging in age from the newly-Initiated to near-adults nearly graduated from the Academies, was a hearts-breaking task. A planet filled with people, and she would be able to save so few.
A Captain of the Chancellary Guard, one Ramachulainn, became her agent. He chose five other Guardsmen - Dioshendewa, Kastramaleli, Eyomimir, Tarquetavala, and Shendawaya - as his crew, and made ready for a command he hoped would never come.
It did.
The TARDIS, named the Ark of Eileithyia, fled Gallifrey as the Transduction Barriers crumbled and the Dalek Armada advanced on the Citadel. The crew selected a backwater time and place to hide until the Specialist called on them. They chose the Pyrenees Mountains of Gascogne in the 14th century anno domini, as the local Gallifreyoids reckoned time.
And they waited.
And they waited.
And finally, the call came. The Ark emerged into 21st century Cardiff, and things went terribly wrong. The tale of just how wrong is told elsewhere. What is important is that, after a number of misadventures, Ramachulainn determined that waiting was no longer a viable strategy.
The crew of the Ark of Eileithyia chose a world orbiting a reddish star in the constellation of Kasterborous, roughly 87 light years from the binary system where Gallifrey had never been. The planet, which they named Gluarijhan (High Gallifreyan for "New Home"), was barren. Lifeless. But it was the right distance from the primary, and nearly the right mass. And they set to work, nudging and altering the planet over millions of years, making it fit for life.
And then the real work began.
Gallifrey is gone. Gallifrey never existed. But its legacy lives on.
In the final decades before the beginning of the Last Great Time War the Specialist, Keeper of the Halls of Eileithyia, had a premonition. A vision of a coming disaster, that would bring an end to the Time Lords forever. And the woman who had for 1400 years nurtured and protected the children of Gallifrey swore that she would not allow them to perish.
Acting in secret, careful not to alert the High Council, she had a TARDIS prepared. It was equipped with an independent power source, and with stasis chambers sufficient for two hundred children and twenty adults. Selecting the children, ranging in age from the newly-Initiated to near-adults nearly graduated from the Academies, was a hearts-breaking task. A planet filled with people, and she would be able to save so few.
A Captain of the Chancellary Guard, one Ramachulainn, became her agent. He chose five other Guardsmen - Dioshendewa, Kastramaleli, Eyomimir, Tarquetavala, and Shendawaya - as his crew, and made ready for a command he hoped would never come.
It did.
The TARDIS, named the Ark of Eileithyia, fled Gallifrey as the Transduction Barriers crumbled and the Dalek Armada advanced on the Citadel. The crew selected a backwater time and place to hide until the Specialist called on them. They chose the Pyrenees Mountains of Gascogne in the 14th century anno domini, as the local Gallifreyoids reckoned time.
And they waited.
And they waited.
And finally, the call came. The Ark emerged into 21st century Cardiff, and things went terribly wrong. The tale of just how wrong is told elsewhere. What is important is that, after a number of misadventures, Ramachulainn determined that waiting was no longer a viable strategy.
The crew of the Ark of Eileithyia chose a world orbiting a reddish star in the constellation of Kasterborous, roughly 87 light years from the binary system where Gallifrey had never been. The planet, which they named Gluarijhan (High Gallifreyan for "New Home"), was barren. Lifeless. But it was the right distance from the primary, and nearly the right mass. And they set to work, nudging and altering the planet over millions of years, making it fit for life.
And then the real work began.
