Forever (audio story)

Forever (identified on the cover simply as Chapter Eighteen) was the fourth story of the fourth series of Big Finish's Gallifrey audio series. It was written by David Wise.

Publisher's summary
Gallifrey stops.

Romana has been assassinated...

The Time Lords have never existed...

Gallifrey's secrets are lost.

On a world they barely recognise, Narvin and Leela find themselves fighting to stay alive. Against all their expectations, brutality and barbarism reign. And Gallifrey's slaves are rising up to face their masters.

Before this day is out, their lives will change forever. And the world they know might end before it has even begun...

Plot
On an alternative Gallifrey, Chancellor Narvin calls for the attention of the Inner Council for President Romana to deliver a speech about the recent attempt to sabotage Project: Rassilon. The perpetrators are being put to a series of deaths and regenerations until their final incarnations are executed and, thanks to Chief Overseer Thracken, the project will be completed a month sooner than thought. Soon, the Regenerators will become Time Lords. Coordinator Vansell protests and uses an incendiary rifle to assassinate the President.

Romana, Leela and Narvin arrive on this Gallifrey, having just left one where the Time Lords were simian. K9, waiting behind on the Axis, informs them that the portal in this reality is not a fixed point in space and that it could conceivably drift away from the planet, stranding them there. The trio are found by Captain Jevon and Guard Valyes, who insist on guarding Romana and assume that Leela is a slave, until Narvin sends them away. As they showed no awareness of the CIA, Romana deduces that this Gallifrey is without time travel.

Entering the Panopticon, they witness the aftermath of the President's assassination with Commentator Theta Sigma interviewing Councillor Braxiatel. The Chancellor has Vansell executed and declares that Project: Rassilon will be completed and that they will become masters of the universe as dictated by Rassilon. Before the Chancellor can seize absolute power as the next Supreme Leader and President, Narvin tells Romana to make herself known and claim that the President had been a double. She does so and commands that the Chancellor speak with her in private.

Leela and Narvin sneak away and hear Valyes kill a runaway slave, which is a capital offence due to the labour crisis, and three civilians. They find a hidden door which Narvin believes will take them to the Presidential Palace where Romana has said they will regroup.

Romana demands to see the plans for Project: Rassilon and, when the Chancellor mentions that she has shown no interest in them before, she says that she is interested now that she has been the victim of an attempted assassination. The reports show nothing but setbacks and malfunctions so she demands to know the truth and to see the complete history of the project in fifteen microspans.

Leela and Narvin reach the Presidential Palace, which is exactly like that of the prime Gallifrey. Romana joins them and tells them that the Regenerators are attempting to make an Eye of Harmony, which the trio could use to return to the Axis if they are unable to find the portal. She tells Leela and Narvin to find out if they have made a primitive timeship whilst she helps complete the Eye of Harmony, but Leela is wary of providing this race of slavers with the power to travel through time.

Romana returns to the Chancellor, who does not believe that she could have found and installed a double without him knowing. He says that they are married and pulls a gun on her when she does not recognise that that is a lie. She continues to claim that she is the President and says that she came from the future to ensure her planet's destiny before admitting that she is from a parallel universe. She promises to help with the Eye of Harmony in exchange for safe passage away from Gallifrey, an offer which the Chancellor accepts. He orders Thracken to kill a slave and to continue doing so every five microspans should Romana fail to complete her task within five spans.

Leela and Narvin arrive beneath the Panopticon where the Eye is being constructed by slaves. Thracken is recording a report for the Chancellor when he spots Narvin, mistaking him for the Chancellor. Leela and Narvin look into a dome, functioning as a primitive transduction barrier, and see a prototype TARDIS within which they presume contains the Eye. Thracken approaches them and assumes that Leela has been brought as a replacement for the executed slave. Narvin confirms this and speaks with Leela in private, telling her to rally the slaves, before leaving her there.

Romana links K9 to the systems and transfers the Project: Rassilon data to him, having him compare it with all that he has on the Eye form the prime timeline. The Chancellor says that they only recently found the Eye whilst excavating the Panopticon, left unfinished after Rassilon was assassinated. Romana will help complete it as she does not care what will happen beyond saving her friends due to her becoming the Destroyer of Worlds on another Gallifrey.

Leela joins the slaves and is welcomed by Unit 190, who says that she no longer needs a name as a slave and has no hope. Leela says that they can stand up for themselves and has Unit 190 gather the slaves before work begins again.

Looking at the history of Project: Rassilon, it seems to Romana that something is stopping the project's success as something else fails whenever a problem is resolved. The reason that the Chancellor is in such a hurry to have the Eye completed is because he has promised the Inner Council that it will be opened at midnight and that he will become, for all intents and purposes, the new Rassilon. Romana sees this as a gamble and wonders why he has set this deadline.

Leela speaks with the slaves, telling them that they can escape and that the guards will not kill them due to the labour crisis. In fact, Valyes is amongst the slaves, having been sent there for killing one. The slaves do not believe her claims that she has come from another planet until she presents Unit 190 with her pulse, then she announces that they will overpower and disarm Thracken and his guards

K9 has found the flaw in the Eye of Harmony and Romana summons the Chancellor.

Valyes confirms that killing slaves is a capital offence and that the guards will not harm them out of fear of joining them, gaining Leela the slaves' support.

K9 explains to the Chancellor that the problem is the transduction barrier; it should be composed of rigid matter rather than validium, which cannot contain the gravity of the nucleus of the black hole. Whenever the Regenerators have tried to activate the Eye, the transduction barrier has emitted a wave of gravitational energy which causes a component to malfunction. K9 suggests that they inject a stabilising metal to rigidise the validium. Romana feels that they are overlooking something, however.

Leela, armed with a knife, tells the group that the plan is to get the guards into the pens where they cannot use their whips, allowing them to easily be disarmed. When Thracken arrives and the slaves pretend to be too exhausted to move, he calls in his guards. The slaves ambush them.

Romana cannot think why the Eye had been abandoned and forgotten about and reasons that Rassilon must have deliberately chosen the validium to prevent its completion. Whilst the Regenerators believe that the prophecy says that Rassilon will return when the Eye is completed, Romana interprets it differently and has K9 run a full scan. He detects billions of life signatures within the nucleus of the black hole.

Thracken tells Narvin of the slave revolt and asks who he is, knowing that he is an impostor as the Chancellor has been in the Chancellery all day and knowing that the Chancellor always carries a side-arm. Having always hated the Chancellor, Thracken prepares to kill Narvin when Leela holds a knife to his throat and knocks him out. Leela shows Narvin the slaves and says that they will have to take them to another planet to live out their lives in peace.

K9 detects non-corporeal life forms within the Eye, a hive mind made of thought and energy who begin scanning them. A voice says that they are known as the Krilig, or the Timeless Horde, and that they were trapped by Rassilon before they could devour the minds of all on Gallifrey. Power is flowing into the Eye and soon the Krilig will be free, but Romana refuses to be responsible for the death of another species.

The Chancellor finds Thracken and learns of his double. Thracken puts the Rod of Rassilon into the dome, which opens. Romana calls for them to close it and threatens them with the two-hundred armed former slaves. The Chancellor goes down and speaks with Romana, Leela and Narvin and learns of the Krilig, but he refuses to believe it. K9 informs Romana that at least part of the Krilig has escaped and has likely already selected a host within the Capitol. The Chancellor agrees to postpone the opening and orders Thracken to close it, but Thracken becomes possessed by the Krilig.

The Chancellor shoots and kills Thracken, but the Rod of Rassilon breaks, meaning that the Eye cannot be closed. Narvin says that they could allow the Krilig to emerge so that they can acquire the prototype TARDIS, but Romana refuses to be responsible for the death of another civilisation and says that they will have to destroy the Eye by throwing the Rod into its heart. The Chancellor stops her as the Rod is isomorphic and will not respond to her. He takes the Rod and traps himself inside the dome before destroying the Eye, leaving Gallifrey to Romana.

Although the TARDIS has been destroyed, K9 says that the portal is headed directly towards the Eye and could allow the Krilig to escape to another world. To stop them, Romana tells K9 to shut down the portal and to look after the Axis as Overseer Immortalis. He says goodbye as they lose contact. With the loss of Braxiatel and K9, Leela is upset and, no longer trusting Romana to keep her promises, leaves and says that they will not meet again. This world will now be their home, with Romana and Narvin acting as President and Chancellor.

Cast

 * Romana - Lalla Ward
 * Leela - Louise Jameson
 * Councillor Braxiatel - Miles Richardson
 * K9 Mk II / The Krilig - John Leeson
 * Narvin - Seán Carlsen
 * Commentator Theta - Colin Baker
 * Overseer Thracken - Matthew Bates
 * Sura - Carole Ann Ford
 * Captain Jevon - Scott Handcock
 * Coordinator Vansell - Anthony Keetch
 * Young Slave - Charlotte Parkyn
 * Guard Valyes - Steven Wickham

Continuity

 * In the alternative timeline in which Rassilon failed to finish the Eye of Harmony before his death, the Doctor never left Gallifrey, becoming a commentator rather than a renegade Time Lord. By this time, he appears to be in his sixth incarnation. He is commonly referred to as "Theta Sigma," which was his nickname at the Academy in the proper timeline. (TV: The Armageddon Factor, The Happiness Patrol)
 * Romana tells the alternative Narvin that, in the proper timeline, Lord Presidents have been assassinated in the past. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
 * Lord Zakar was present when Lady President Romana was assassinated by Coordinator Vansell. (AUDIO: Arbitration)