Ascension (Gallifrey audio story)

Ascension (identified on the cover simply as Chapter Twenty-Four) was the third and final story in series 6 of Gallifrey. It was written by Justin Richards.

Publisher's summary
Gallifrey Rises...

Romana's sacrifice sees Gallifrey restored to its former glory, but at a terrible cost.

As the Time Lords begin to reclaim their stronghold, Leela and Narvin find themselves trapped in a decaying reality... and only K9 can help them.

As old friends fight to reunite, new threats lie in wait...

Because Braxiatel was right: war is coming.

Plot
In the Panopticon, Chancellor Valyes strikes the Rod of Rassilon before declaring the results of the presidential election. He declares a recess when Romana suddenly materialises, not knowing where Leela and Narvin are and confused as to why there has been an election when Matthias is President.

Trey, Leela and Narvin have watched Romana disappear after stabilising the Eye of Harmony for a time and do not know where she has gone.

Romana learns from Valyes that Matthias has resigned and is surprised to see Castellan Slyne push past Commander Jevon and expresses his support for Romana becoming President. Valyes, Slyne and Jevon explain that Matthias forcibly quarantined those affected by the Dogma Virus with Shada technology, leading to a civil war in which the Matrix was damaged. Once the virus was contained, he retired and exiled himself to the Outlands, eventually returning as a broken man. Seeing Romana's return as a sign, Valyes decides that she will be the new President, but she is unenthusiastic and believes that whoever becomes the next President will need the support of the cardinals.

The transduction barriers have failed and the Capitol is falling apart around Trey, Leela and Narvin. They head to the Archives in search of a record of where Romana had have gone.

In the Panopticon, Valyes proposes that the election is made void and that Romana be reinstated. The cardinals talk amongst themselves, some remembering Romana's presidency as a golden age, and ask Romana to speak. She addresses the cardinals as a citizen and calls for a President who will be able to rise to the challenge of rebuilding Gallifrey, saying that that person is not her and that they need a new leader. The cardinals applaud her and one of them nominates Romana, beginning a chant of "All hail Romana, the once and future President". Romana is not impressed.

Trey, Leela and Narvin reach the Archive, where Leela pulls from the shadows the figure that she saw earlier and who joined them at the Panopticon, the archivist Coordinator Tallan. He tells them that the Matrix is damaged and shows Trey to the terminal whilst Leela and Narvin realise that they met Tallan on another Gallifrey.

Slyne accompanies Romana to the presidential office and Jevon comes to swear his loyalties to her once more. Jevon does not recognise Slyne and suggests that Romana makes the restoration of the Matrix one of her primary aims. She agrees, wondering if the damage has anything to do with the backup copy of the biodata extracts that they took to the Axis. When Slyne refers to the Matrix as a virtual world, Romana realises that she arrived here through a Matrix door activated by her biocode and believes that she is now in the Matrix.

Trey cannot access the Matrix and has no idea how or why Tallan is here. Her plan had been working, sending Romana through the Eighth Door, but Tallan is not part of it and she orders him to leave. Narvin is no longer sure that Trey is his President.

Slyne tells Romana that her belief that she is in the Matrix is a delusion, but she does not listen. He leaves and K9 arrives, something that Romana sees as further proof that she is in a virtual world. K9 denies this and explains that he escaped from the Daleks and has been assimilating and collecting Axis data and found that all portals have been closed, information that Romana already knows. He is more than 99% sure that this is the one true Gallifrey, but Romana is unconvinced.

K9 approaches Trey, Leela, Narvin and Tallan and explains that he was sent by Romana to help them; whilst Romana is on the real Gallifrey, they are all in the Matrix as the exit point of the portal they used was altered by Romana. Trey and Tallan do not exist and are only Matrix projections, Tallan being projected by K9 as he had no biodata to project himself, but K9 has been able to boost his signal since the Eighth Door was opened. No longer necessary, Tallan disappears. The Matrix is beginning to fail as its power is being drawn away and soon Leela and Narvin will die. They hurry to the Eighth Door with Trey.

Slyne informs Romana and K9, who has returned from the Matrix, that the quarantine system is failing due to the Matrix decay and that the infected are being released. Lukas counts down to the failure of the security doors over a speaker. Jevon is having his Chancellery Guards keep the infected back and Slyne tells Romana that she will have to authorise the use of heavy weapons to repel them. Romana refuses to sanction this. She plans to reboot the Matrix using the ancillary data in the backup, but K9 warns that this will overwrite Leela and Narvin. Slyne urges her to do it regardless, but she points out that the backup is inside the Matrix with Narvin.

to be completed

Cast

 * Lady President Romana - Lalla Ward
 * Romana - Juliet Landau
 * Leela - Louise Jameson
 * Coordinator Narvin - Seán Carlsen
 * K9 Mark II / Coordinator Tallan - John Leeson
 * Chancellor Valyes - Steven Wickham
 * Lukas - Scott Arthur
 * Matthias - Stephen Perring
 * Commander Jevon - Scott Handcock
 * Castellan Slyne - Peter Sheward
 * The Daleks / Dalek Supreme - Nicholas Briggs

Uncredited cast

 * Lord Cardinal - Barnaby Edwards

Continuity

 * Romana refers to Shada technology. (TV: Shada, AUDIO: Shada, PROSE: Shada)
 * Narvin paraphrases T.S. Eliot's poem The Hollow Men when he says, "Is this how the world ends? Not with a bang but a whimper." (AUDIO: 1963, TV: The Lazarus Experiment)
 * Narvin recalls that Tallan was a member of the High Council on the alternative Gallifrey where Leela was appointed Lady President. (AUDIO: Reborn)
 * K9 tells Romana that he fled from the Axis when it was invaded by the Dalek taskforce. (AUDIO: Extermination)
 * Romana tells K9 that she, Narvin and Leela closed the last Axis portal behind them when they returned to their own Gallifrey. (AUDIO: Extermination)
 * Romana refers to the supposed extermination of Cardinal Slyne by the Daleks on an alternative Gallifrey. (AUDIO: Extermination)
 * The Dogma Virus was created by the Daleks. (AUDIO: Panacea)
 * This marks the second time that the Daleks have invaded Gallifrey. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element)
 * Romana recalls being held prisoner by the Daleks for 20 years. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element)
 * During her first incarnation, Romana encountered the Dalek Supreme in the Proxima System. (AUDIO: The Final Phase)
 * Narvin sends Valyes to tell the Fourth Doctor to avert the creation of the Daleks. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) This interference eventually led to the outbreak of the Last Great Time War. (TV: The End of the World, et. al)
 * When hiding from the Daleks in the presidential office, Romana mentions that a former president had the wall reinforced. Leela remembered this happening. (TV: The Invasion of Time)