Square One (Gallifrey audio story)

Square One (identified on the cover simply as Chapter Two) was the second story of the first series of Big Finish's Gallifrey audio series. It was written by Stephen Cole.

Publisher's summary
"It's too late... time is coming for us!"

In a climate of unease and mistrust, the great time-travelling powers of the universe are holding an historic temporal summit. The meeting will take place on a planetoid impervious to outside attack or internal subversion in any way.

But while President Romana walks a knife-sharp political tightrope into dangerous territory, Leela and K9 find themselves attending the summit in unexpected roles. They are hunting for evidence of Free Time activity, but find instead terrors of a different kind — time and time again...

What impossibility stalks the planetoid? Who is manipulating time? Can Leela and Romana discover the truth — or will they find themselves sent back to square one for all eternity?

Plot
Romana, Leela and K9 Mark II are in the Presidential TARDIS, trying to navigate through the shifting time field but unable to get through a defence shield without the correct codes. As the time distortion catches up with them, Leela says that "it is happening again".

At an earlier time, Romana and the High Monan reach an understanding about the debacle on Gryben. Afterwards, Romana checks with K9 that the communication between the two was secure as Liaison Officer Hossak will be speaking to the High Council tomorrow about the temporal summit and nobody can know what Romana is planning to do.

At a special meeting, Hossak explains to Romana, Braxiatel and Narvin that potential axis powers have been wary of attending a summit after the Temporal Peace Conference on Archetryx which was followed by invasions by the Daleks. However, those who have already pledged to attend will be doing so on a synthetic planetoid in neutral space, the heads of state sending lesser politicians and appearing as holograms; Romana informs Narvin that she will be sending him to the summit with Hossak as his aide.

Leela can tell that Romana has little enthusiasm for the summit and senses that she is keeping something from her. Romana has spoken with Braxiatel and, worried about Free Time, she has decided to send Leela and K9 Mark I to the summit to keep an eye out and to attempt to identify their benefactors amongst the Temporal Powers. Leela is to pose as an exotic dancer and, on the planetoid, meets her colleague, Baano.

K9 Mark II informs Romana that the entertainment troupe have arrived on the planetoid and that the other K9 had not been detected due to him being doctored in accordance with security regulations. He will be able to detect any attempt to tamper with the secure network.

A servitor shows Leela and the dancers to their rooms and Baano tells Leela that Narvin has selected her as his dancer. In their room, K9 tells Leela that the servitors confiscated his blaster, fitted his sensors fitted with a limiter and prevented him from making recordings.

The summit begins to deteriorate into petty bickering. While investigating, Leela realises that she is reliving the same day again. The whole planetoid is experiencing time slips, although Leela is the only one who realises it.

Narvin gets accused of killing Pule of Unvoss after Pule's drink explodes. Romana, weary of the events on the planetoid, decides to investigate in person. She gets attacked by a servitor robot, who turns out to be Baano, one of the exotic dancers on call. Baano agrees to reveal her employer in exchange for amnesty. It was V'rell's plan to kill Pule of Unvoss.

Liaison Officer Hossak brandishes the device she used to turn time back. She had been shaping the summit to her ends, and she now planned to turn back time yet again, erasing Romana in the process. Romana then unveils that the whole summit was a sham, and the real summit elsewhere.

Cast

 * President Romana - Lalla Ward
 * Leela - Louise Jameson
 * K9 - John Leeson
 * Cardinal Braxiatel - Miles Richardson
 * Coordinator Narvin - Seán Carlsen
 * Liaison Officer Hossak - Jane Goddard
 * Baano - Lucy Campbell
 * Flinkstab of Nekkistan - Daniel Hogarth
 * V'rell of the Monan Host - Daniel Barzotti
 * Pule of Unvoss - Joseph Lidster
 * Servitors - Robert Dick

Continuity

 * Romana mentions the Time Lords' refusal to use force on Gryben. (AUDIO: Weapon of Choicd)
 * The events of AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element are mentioned.
 * It's mentioned that Cardinal Braxiatel has been busy elsewhere; though it's possible that this is because he was organising the real summit, another possible explanation for his absence is revealed in AUDIO: The Inquiry.
 * One of the delegates at the summit is a Virgoan. (PROSE: Stop the Pigeon)
 * The timecode on the holo-prints was made with a beryllium chip. (TV: Doctor Who)
 * Flinkstab murdered a dancing girl on Coralee, the human colony visited in PROSE: Storm Harvest.
 * When Romana confronts Hossak, she asks how many times Hossak has reversed time, to which Hossak replies "three times", a reference to TV: The Horns of Nimon