Birth of a Time Lady

Announcement

Her fingers flew across the keys of the piano as she practiced her newly composed piece. It was one of her better works, really. But she was in no way able to appreciate that.

Her playing today was a ritual more than anything else. She was using it as a distraction, unsuccessfully so. With the latest reports from Skaro due any moment, she was doing her best to stay calm and keep a level head. The piano had always been her favorite way to do that.

In the seven hundred or so years she had spent practicing and perfecting her craft, she'd heard increasingly common reports of Dalek activity. She was certain that the Time Lords were going to declare war if the Daleks continued their invasions at this pace. The diplomatic convoy sent to their homeworld was the last hope they had of resolving things peacefully. Surely no species was completely unreasonable.

And yet she was uneasy. Days before the convoy had departed Gallifrey, the Doctor had reestablished contact. He was constantly falling in and out of favor with the presiding president, and the fact that he was out at the moment made his attempt at contact all the more unusual. He warned them, practically begged them, not to send the convoy. According to him, the Daleks were abominations, monsters that would destroy everything in their path without blinking twice. Several fringe groups of Time Lords shared his opinions. However, the Council had sent them anyway. Only time would tell if he had been correct.

She never wished more intensely for him to be wrong. She trusted his judgements, and the thought of him being right in this matter filled her with dread. But she still held onto whatever hope she had left.

A dissonant note brought her out of her inner thoughts. She blinked and scoffed slightly at herself in surprise and distaste. It wasn't like her to make mistakes. She began the set over again, this time determined to keep her thoughts from wandering too much.

She played the entire piece three times, and still no news had come. Now she was really getting anxious. She stood from her bench and made her way out of the otherwise empty music hall.

The Ambassador should have reported in ten hours ago. Even though she was only a junior Council member, and only recently promoted to even that, she was entitled to updates the moment they were made available to senior members. The Ambassador had never been known to be an untimely man, and so she couldn't help but suspect something had happened.

Her communicator beeped with its urgent message signal even as her mind began to cook up possibilities for the Ambassador's silence. The beep was almost a relief, and she began to play the audio message to hear what had taken place.

But it wasn't the Ambassador's voice speaking.

"High Council, Time Lords, citizens of Gallifrey," began a tired-sounding, gruff voice, the type an old man would speak in. "This is the Doctor."

She froze in her tracks. He must have regenerated. His message from a mere ten days ago had sounded completely different. With fear starting to creep in, she allowed the rest of the message to play.

"The Ambassador will not be reporting on the state of affairs for the Skaro diplomatic party. Because the Ambassador, along with the rest of his party, is dead. Killed during their attempted regenerations, by Dalek arms."

No. For the love of Gallifrey, no. A peaceful diplomatic party, slaughtered in cold blood? Was that even possible? Was there a chance it wasn't true?

Something in the Doctor's grim voice told her it  had to be true. She pressed a trembling hand over her mouth, trying to stifle the emotions brewing within her. She felt nauseated, dizzy, horrified. She wanted to scream and vomit and cry all at once. One of her old classmates had been in that party. To think that he was gone, struck down in the prime of his life...

But the message wasn't over yet. After a sigh and a long pause, the Doctor continued.

"It gives me no pleasure to say this, but I beg the High Council to take action. Already the Daleks have begun an attack on other systems within the Kasterberous constellation. We have no reason to believe that they will not attack Gallifrey as well. If we are to survive this, we must prepare for battle."

The message cut off there.

It took her a few moments to recover from the shock of it all. Once she was able to think again, she realized the Doctor had been right. The Daleks were bred for murder. And now they were pushing the Time Lords into war. Because she knew, deep down, that if the Daleks really were killing Time Lords now, then the High Council would have no choice. They couldn't let their people be destroyed without fighting back. The official announcement wouldn't come until after an emergency convention, but she didn't need to wait to know what would happen.

Gallifrey was at war.