Salvation Nine (audio story)

 was the first story in the audio anthology Into the Stars, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Timothy X Atack and featured Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor.

Publisher's summary
The Doctor happens upon an unusual outpost - and discovers it is about to be annihilated.

To save Salvation Nine, he must rally a people for whom war is an alien concept and protect the future of the Sontaran race!

Plot
The Ninth Doctor lands on a control ship flying above Salvation's ninth moon, he confronts Navarch Al-Hanin about how their squadron plan to attack Sontarans that have been detected in a jungle on the moon.

The Doctor then tells Navarch the story of how he landed on the moon in order to relax, but he encountered a Sontaran.

This Sontaran, Lopps (spelling may be inaccurate), was different from those he had encountered before, with organic clothing and a friendly demeanour, telling The Doctor not to keep going where he was going due to there being mud.

Lopps states that he has never heard the word 'Sontaran' and that his race were called 'Niners' and calls over another Niner named Gaznak.

Navarch expresses her confusion over Gaznak being female as Sontarans don't need to reproduce, being a clone race. The Doctor suggests that there may be traces of male or female DNA left in the Sontaran biology.

Gaznak, as the current leader in circulation, shows The Doctor the remains of a Sontaran attack squadron which had crashed at most 10000 years before then.

The Doctor is then shown the 'Earthing Wheel' where the Niners use their 'Earthing Nodes' (Probic Vents) to consume energy using fermented biomass, from the fruit and vegetables they grow, and a water wheel.

Navarch doesn't believe that this is genuine and says that they are Sontarans in disguise, so she prepares 10 contingents of exo-marines to bait a retaliation from the Sontarans.

He goes on to explain how he told the Niners about Sontaran life and culture and how he needed proof that they were different. After more talking he is convinced enough that they are different and flies off in the TARDIS to the command ship.

Navarch tells The Doctor of other cases where Sontarans have hidden in similar ways and used it as a tactical advantage, she states that the exo-marines land in one hour and that the Doctor can investigate why the fleet came to Salvation Nine.

The Doctor returns to Salvation Nine where Lopps and Gaznak greet him, he then inspects a nearby ruined temple which has depictions of Sontarans killing civilisations and The Doctor works out that the only life signs the fleet scanned were Sontaran so it was easy to assume that the Sontarans had wiped out most other species on the moon.

The Doctor storms off, blaming himself for believing that Sontarans could change. Lopps warns The Doctor to tread carefully as he had marches into their birthing ground, and at that he stops altogether and looks around him.

Lopps shows The Doctor the top of one of the children's heads and The Doctor admits that they are a fundamentally different species from Sontarans.

He then gathers the Niners together and explains his newly made plan to bring a Sontaran of the equivalent rank of Navarch's and bring him to Salvation nine so he can deny that the Niners are true Sontarans.

To do this he needs to bring two Niners to convince a Sontaran Feld Marshall to come with them but voting on who should go would take days, so as Leader and Leader Designate, Gaznak and Lopps assume responsibility for the village and go with The Doctor.

The Doctor takes Gaznak and Lopps to his TARDIS in which he teaches the Niners how to pass as Sontarans including target practice in the pool room and how to address the Field Marshall.

The Niners express their concerns at having to shoot a living being, but after The Doctor shows them a video of Exo-Marines, he convinces them that they won't be killing anything.

They land and after dodging fractal bombs and gunfire and shooting Exo-Marines. Gaznak is shot but Lopps and The Doctor approach a vis-unit to call Field Marshall Henks of the 43rd iteration of Henks, Bastion of Sontar, Henks the impenetrable. He orders his security detail to keep their distance due to the HADS of the TARDIS. He states that he will attend in person.

As they are making their way back to the TARDIS, Lopps gets his arm shot but doesn't get much time to react before the security detail efficiently deal with the Exo-Marines and form a perimeter around the TARDIS. Henks comments on the glory the Niners' injuries brings them and asks Gaznak to reveal her face to him so Henks can commend her.

When she takes her helmet off, Henks is surprised and explains to the Doctor that this is what happens when a Sontaran grows old. He also states how rare a sight it is since Sontaran often die in battle before that can happen.

Gaznak distracts Henks and Lopps knocks him out. They take Henks into the TARDIS and take off for Salvation Nine. The Doctor works out that both the male and female elements are in Sontarans' DNA but the male side expresses itself in earlier life as it is more aggressive and better for war but becomes more female as the clone ages.

They blindfold Henks and bring him to the Earthing Wheel, where they contact a secure channel which Navarch is on. They show her a live visual feed of the events.

The Doctor tries to get Henks to deny the Niners, but Henks refuses to cooperate for a bit but as he was about to deny them, the Exo-Marines enter the Atmosphere and distract him. Henks believes that conflict may arouse the Niners' inner Sontarans so they can die in glory.

They let Henks out of his bindings and take him to the birthing ground. Gaznak pulls a baby Sontaran out of the ground. Henks says that it is not Sontaran and Navarch's associate shuts down the Exo-Marines. Henks was outraged and attacked the Exo-Marines with a tree branch, getting himself killed.

The Doctor coos over the baby, named Nruxt. He thanks the Niners and warns them not to fall into Sontaran habits and to remember their past. He then says goodbye and leaves in his TARDIS

Cast
to be added
 * The Doctor - Christopher Eccleston
 * Gaznak - Josie Lawrence
 * Navarch Al-Hanin - Pooja Shah
 * Sontarans - Dan Starkey
 * Sontarans - Dan Starkey

Continuity

 * The Doctor has Sontaran armour kept from when they invaded his TARDIS during the Sontaran invasion of Gallifrey, though his memory of their break in is distorted due to the after-effects of using the De-mat Gun. (TV: The Invasion of Time)