Lesser Evils (audio story)

Lesser Evils was the second of two special Big Finish Productions Short Trips in conjunction with the Time Lord Victorious series. It featured Anthony Ainley's and was written by Simon Guerrier.

Publisher's summary
The Kotturuh have arrived on the planet Alexis to distribute the gift of death to its inhabitants. The only person standing in their way is a renegade Time Lord, who has sworn to protect the locals. A Time Lord called the Master...

Plot
On the planet Alexis, a Koturruh woman descends through the death she has brought. She creates symbols in the grass as a memorial to the lives lost, and bestows a lifespan of eight years to a local six-legged livestock species. She continues to bestow lifespans upon species of trees and insects, wondering whether the creatures understand what she has done. Above, hairy, six-armed creatures with glowing, amber eyes and conical heads watch the Koturruh woman from the forest canopy. She witnesses the species' future, including its' discovery and naming (Mungellos). One creature lands on the forest floor and displays subservience, then offers a jewel to her as a gift, which she interprets as a bribe.

The Master makes his appearance known suddenly from behind a tree, and the Koturruh woman admits to herself that she hadn't noticed him. The Mungello withdraws the jewel, and returns to the canopy at the Master's suggestion as the Koturruh woman regards him and reads his mind. She discovers he has been on the planet for years, after having his time ship taken from him: a judgment from his own people. The Master promises servitude to the Koturruh, and that he is no threat, prompting her to laugh at the thought. In spite, she turns to a moss-covered tree and dooms the moss to outlive the tree on which it depends, and the act briefly stuns him. He regains his composure and invites her to continue, but remains quietly uncomfortable. When the Master asks her name, she gets close to intimidate him, probing his face with crystalline tentacles, before starting to choke him. As she intrudes into his senses and thoughts, he continues his praise of her work without resistance, and says that while the Mungellos seem a torpid, plateaued species, he intends to save them from her.

She drops him in disbelief before declaring the Kotturuh unaccustomed to challenge. He placates her and tells her he has spent years learning about the Mungellos, protesting that they are more than they appear. His sheer audacity makes her briefly consider sparing the Mungellos of death, and she decides to listen to the Master's argument. He praises the species' complex social interplay and non-intrusive values, based on a respect for life. She dismisses this at first, but as he continues she begins to attune to the Mungellos, and experiences the richness of their lives and perspectives. The Master points out the offering of a jewel as another example; the Mungellos spend years foraging for the perfect stone on the forest floor and hold it tight in their highly-pressurized sixth hand, transforming the very chemical properties of the stones into jewels like the one offered to the Koturruh woman. He tells her they might hold onto a stone for a thousand years, then trade it with others, but that the offering was a welcome that would have been given to any outsider according to the Mungellos' creed. The stones are their way of making social bonds and conversing, and the Master admits their selflessness has enchanted him, declaring them worth defending.

She waits, then asks him plainly if they are worth his life. He freezes for a moment, before proudly accepting those terms. She strikes him and forces him to his knees, but the Master's scheming mind evades her mental intrusion. An older Mungello drops to the forest floor and approaches the Master, offering him a silver-white jewel. He takes it respectfully and the Koturruh remarks at the handsome payment. The Master argues its value is not in wealth but as a token of the Mungellos' esteem, denying its value otherwise. The Mungellos begin to growl at the Master, as the jewel starts to shine blue. The Koturruh woman determines the stone is sensitive to truth. As the Master proclaims himself their friend and protector, it shines brighter blue and the Mungellos grow angrier. The Koturruh woman reaches into the Master's mind as she increases the blue effect with satisfaction.

Three million years later, a Vendrovian death ship fleet breaks from hyperspace in the shadow of the Dwarf moon Sparrow. Every weapon in their arsenal is trained on the Master's position, at a podium in a castle in the heart of a nation-state. He fiddles with a jewel in his hand, chuckling.

Back in the forest, the Master drops the blue stone to the forest floor, and the old Mungello spits on it as it steams and turns black. At the Kotturuh woman's interrogation, he insists he didn't know about the stones' power, but admits if they were sufficiently pressurized, they could likely be used to change the course of an interplanetary war. He promises and pleads with the Mungello that he would use such power to bring peace, but it swats him away and turns to the Koturruh woman, offering its empty hand instead. She asks the Mungellos if they understand what will happen, and as the Master protests, the Mungellos accept. She bestows a lifespan of a mere few years upon the species, and the new limit on their lives transforms them for the better, making them grateful for their limited time, and changing the course of the species' future. But it leaves the Master haunted.

Characters

 * Kotturuh
 * Kotturuh

Crew

 * Cover Art - Anthony Lamb
 * Director - Lisa Bowerman
 * Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
 * Music and Sound Design - Richard Fox @ FoxYason Studios
 * Narrator - Jon Culshaw
 * Producer - Alfie Shaw
 * Script Editors - Simon Guerrier and Alfie Shaw
 * Sound Design by Richard Fox @ FoxYason Studios
 * Writer - Simon Guerrier
 * Senior Producers - David Richardson

Worldbuilding

 * The Master has been exiled on Alexis for years.
 * The Galactic Empire visited Alexis.
 * Kotturuh have purple skin, tentacles, fingers, and eyes.
 * The Kotturuhs' robes contain symbols from the worlds they visit.
 * The Kotturuh maliciously makes it so that the moss will outlive the trees it depends on.
 * The Mungellos have a specially evolved sixth arm to protect the crystals they keep.
 * Other lifeforms on Alexis include beetles, worms, flies, and donut-shaped birds.

Continuity

 * The Master was previously exiled on a planet by the Time Lords without his TARDIS. (PROSE: The Velvet Dark)