001.

[ukan]

[The first thing Lark does is follow his nose. He gets himself some food, enough to clear his mind, and then finds a quiet corner up on the deck where he can watch the universe drift by. He watches the network first, making cursory judgments of the people there. And then he turns the camera on himself.

He's not sure any of this is real, but it's always safest to pretend it is. If it's real to these people, it needs to be real to him.]

Monarchism depth doubtfully entrancing.

[He closes his eyes, no. Not right. Slow breath in: who am I?]

Sorry. My name is Lark. I've already introduced myself to the cafeteria, [he holds up his clean spoon] You eat pretty well here. Better than I've had in other cages. I can tell what most of the things on my plate were originally. In a place like this, in times like these, that's a blessing.

[Now the question. Time to find out the important things. He should have waited, but he doesn't have time to spare.

Who am I? Lark. Where am I? That, as Shakespeare said, is the question.]

I'm still monkey lid drudging cloud?

Comments

[timesbureaucrat]

Not many, but enough to make a sustainable population outside the dome of the Capitol.

[ukan]

Are they capable of, ah, mingling genetics with the foreign populations?

[timesbureaucrat]

[Narvin stiffens slightly in prudish discomfort at the topic.]

Gallifreyans don't mingle genetics at all. With foreign populations or with each other. Not in the sense I assume you mean.

[ukan]

Really? How fascinating. And wise, I imagine, think of the genetic abnormalities that could introduce.... But not a single Outsider has ever...?

[timesbureaucrat]

My race is sterile. From Outsiders to Shobogans to Time Lords. All of them. It's been that way for nearly a billion years now.

Some of the Outsiders may very well... [Nope, not saying the words.]

But genetic offspring could never result.

[ukan]

Are you immortal? How were you...? [Created? Born? What's the right word?]

[timesbureaucrat]

Our lifespans are quite long, but not immortal.

Our children's bodies are woven on genetic Looms. Each parent contributes DNA, the Loom then integrates the two samples and converts energy into the matter from which our cells are made. We haven't relied on the...ah...messier method in a very long time.

[ukan]

...that's beautiful. And much cleaner, even, than how my people are made. As far as I know we're sterile, too, though most of them haven't lost the taste for the...messy act. [As Narvin put it.]

[timesbureaucrat]

Indeed.

[Awkward clearing of throat. Narvin doesn't do well with conversations about sex. Even when it's just vague euphemisms.]

My people are rather cerebral by nature and culture.

[Which means they like to pretend that they've lost the taste, and often try very hard to ignore their bodies. It doesn't always work.]

[ukan]

That's an admirable trait. I hope your kind are less eager to destroy their planet than the humans of my world.

[timesbureaucrat]

We may not spend much time in nature, but we take very good care of our planet. There have been no extinctions for millennia. And unlike humans we don't need to pillage our world for resources.

[ukan]

[Ooh. Were he in wolf form his ears would be pricked up.] You make synthetics?

[timesbureaucrat]

We mastered matter/energy conversion eons ago. [Said a bit smugly.] And with the force of gravity powering most of our technology [Thanks to the Eye of Harmony] we have a perfectly clean and endlessly renewable resource of energy from which to build our homes, our computers, our clothes, even our food.

[ukan]

[Lark is quiet a moment, calculating how he could use such knowledge. Acquiring esteem and wealth isn't really his end goal, but....]

Think you could teach me to harness gravity?

[timesbureaucrat]

[Narvin laughs.]

Teach you how to...? Oh, that's a good one.

[Although come to think of it, Lark didn't say it like a man making a joke.]

Oh, you weren't serious were you? Controlling and manipulating gravity to use as a power source takes a level of technology that the humans never master. Even for Time Lords such projects take enormous planning and effort and risk.

[ukan]

Well, the humans where you're from might not have. With a helpful Time Lord, maybe my world could be saved before the humans rip it inside out.

[timesbureaucrat]

That would violate our oldest laws. I cannot interfere with the timelines in another universe.

[Except sometimes the Celestial Intervention Agency does anyway. They're selective when it comes to obeying Time Lord laws.]

[ukan]

What's the ethical concern behind that? Or is it ethics?

[timesbureaucrat]

In the ancient times Gallifrey possessed a massive empire. But our influence over these worlds did not always result in a positive outcome for them. [Narvin is good at understatement. Ancient Gallifreyans were terrible people.]

Lord Rassilon instituted the non-intervention policy to protect the peoples of the universe and the integrity of the web of time. If we gave Earth advanced technology, why not Antari Three? Why not Indra? Krontep? And if they misused that technology and destroyed themselves in the process, did we want to be responsible for their extinction? It was safer not to go down that slippery slope at all.

[ukan]

I can understand that. I'm glad it worked out for your kind.