Mother Tongue (audio story)

Mother Tongue was the third audio story in Time War: Volume Three, the twelfth series of Gallifrey.

Publisher's summary
Leela was thrown into a Vortex ravaged by the Time War, lost in space and time – but the Trell have shown her mercy...

She finds herself in another realm, another life. One where the warrior is also a mother. Where she must help her son to choose the path to avoid his world's destruction.

Plot
Leela falls from 's TARDIS and into the Time Vortex. She remembers watching her mother die when she was a girl and then wakes up, finding herself on the ground with a young man stood over her. He tells her that she tripped over a Trell, an anemone-like creature, and that he is Sholan of the Teus. He helps her up to take her to see Drah, whom he needs to see anyway to ask about why the Trell stopped oscillating for a time, and says that Leela is his mother.

Drah is concerned about Leela's apparent amnesia and sends Sholan away to the Citadel to continue his studies with Kraumer so that she and Leela can talk alone. Leela and Drah walk among the Trell, which are drawn to Leela, and discuss Leela's past. Whilst she remembers being on Gallifrey, Drah has known her to have lived on Nateus since she was born. The planet is a quantum anomaly thanks to the presence of the Trell, which can alter the usual rules of space and time and only speak to one or two people in a generation; when Drah tells her to touch one, she feels connected to the Trell and sees the Vortex.

Sholan apologises to Madam Renucha for his lateness and sits with Kraumer, the heir to the throne. During the lesson about plant life, Sholan tells Kraumer that the Trells had stopped oscillating for a time, meaning that Nateus was briefly visible, but Sholan is unconcerned. Renucha collapses, unable to breathe, and seems to be dead for a moment before she recovers, unaware of where she is.

Drah says that Leela could be a visitor of consciousness, come to Nateus and merged with the mind of Leela of the Teus. Visitors are rare but usually inhabit the bodies of dying leaders and help the people until the leader's death. A time shift occurs and Leela finds herself with a baby, Sholan, and tells him about how she once fell on a branch which went straight through her arm and had to be removed by her father. However, her scar has disappeared.

Leela shifts back to Drah, who sees her claim to have experienced a time shift as evidence that she is a visitor, being shown the life of her host by the Trell. The Trell stop, disconnected from the Vortex, and Drah hurries to the Citadel with Leela to let them know.

Madam Renucha tries to continue with the lesson but cannot remember what she was teaching and does not seem to know much about them. She suggests that they go to examine the Trell in person and has Kraumer lead the way.

Leela and Drah use a vehicle far in advance of the technology used elsewhere, having been built from knowledge given by a visitor. Drah does not wish to speak of the Time War, which is currently far away from Nateus but getting closer, and says that they need to remain hidden and keep the people ignorant of the war. Leela believes that this is pointless as the Daleks will find them and destroy them, but she suddenly shifts away again.

Leela sees Sholan playing a fighting game with Kraumer and, when Sholan loses, she tells him that he must practise more in order to become invincible for the coming war. He says that there will never be war on Nateus, but agrees to fight harder. Leela then shifts ahead fifteen years into the war, when Nateus is more technologically advanced, Kraumer is Lord Warrior and the Trell are weakening.

to be completed

Cast

 * Leela - Louise Jameson
 * Sholan - Sam Hallion
 * Kraumer - Will Kirk
 * Drah - Sarah Douglas
 * Renucha - Maxine Evans
 * Warrior - Wilf Scolding

Continuity
to be added