Cataclysm (audio story)

 was the second story in the audio anthology Ravagers, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Nicholas Briggs and featured Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor, Camilla Beeput as Nova and Jayne McKenna as Audrey.

Publisher's summary
Nova is dislocated in time while the Time Eddies are out of control. Meanwhile, the Doctor is about to face the end of the universe. Or is that just the Battle of Waterloo?

Plot
After being captured by a time eddy, Nova crashes to the ground at a new location. She tries to explain to the Doctor how there are huge plants everywhere, but he cannot receive her. Suddenly, she is met by a flying drone looking for an "organic unit", and after hearing Nova search for the Doctor, it decides to dispatch a squad to find him. Nova asks to speak to the human in charge, but the drone simply replies that the Doctor cannot be found and that Nova must undergo decontamination. Although she briefly approves, it then opens a "corrector" to attach to her head, return her to normal, and send her back to an organics factory because of her having too much independent thought. Hearing its plan to use her as biodegradable fuel, she runs for her life, shouting that the Doctor made her a promise.

In 1959 London, Captain Halloran continues searching for the time-displaced Centurions. He eventually meets Marcus Aurelius Gallius again who launches an attack, and his troops open fire in return. Meanwhile, in a futuristic arena, Lieutenant Farraday continues to do battle with a giant robot. He realises its weak point is its flashing eyes and keeps fighting back to the cheering of the audience.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor struggles to escape the pull of a neutron star. Audrey Mohinson mocks him and he questions how she can talk to him across space and time but she tells him to focus on his problems. Suspecting he is being tested, the Doctor stops piloting to see if he is actually inside an immersive reality game. With little danger, the Doctor looks out at the creatures inside the star and spots even more time eddies at work. To test if they truly are real and escape at the same time, he flies straight into one.

Emerging from the TARDIS into another warzone, the Doctor realises upon talking to an Irish soldier that he has landed in the Battle of Waterloo - Belgium, 18 June 1815, shortly after Marshal Ney led the French army to defeat, although the forces do not know that yet. However, as the Doctor goes to leave, they are disturbed by the sight of Soviet Union T-10 tanks from 1952. He orders the soldiers to run. Later, in the TARDIS, he scolds Audrey for creating a massacre, but she believes it achieves the same effect in the end. The Doctor believes from her taunting that they have met before, but she focuses on her aims: providing exhilarating experiences for those playing Fugitives. However, he refuses to stoop to her level and leaves to find Nova instead, promising to sort out everything one step at a time if he has to.

Nova continues running for her life but begins to tire and is eventually caught by the drones, who explain that her particle makeup leaves her unable to be biodegraded, although she will still be "corrected". They are interrupted by the arrival of the TARDIS, where the Doctor and Nova explain their situations. The Doctor sonics the lead drone, putting it into sleep mode. Inside, the two continue to talk to Audrey and the Doctor explains he could track Nova through the relevant time eddy that included her DNA remnants. He then begins to use Audrey's DNA, picked up when she once patted the TARDIS, to track her down as well.

Landing back on the central arc of the Sphere of Freedom with the immersive reality systems shutting down, the Doctor and Nova face up to Audrey in person. However, the background signals warn of a space-time shadow that is destroying not just the Sphere, but the universe itself, all caused by the Doctor harnessing the time eddies' destructive potential. However, he has no idea what she means as he was arriving to stop her from doing exactly that. Audrey finally explains that the Doctor has crossed his own timeline and arrived late due to the time eddies' interference. She asks them to analyse the screens, revealing the mysterious creatures to Nova that feed on the energy from Fugitives, called Ravagers, which have now used the time eddies to fill the Time Vortex and ensure the destruction of time. Noticing only five seconds until the implosion of the universe, the Doctor and Nova sprint into the TARDIS as Audrey wishes him a sincere good luck in fixing the events.

The Doctor tries to "ride the crest of temporal destruction" to go back in time and save the universe. Nova struggles to comprehend the events and the Doctor explains some more about what he does with his life, which she finds amusing. Landing, the Doctor follows more of Audrey's DNA alongside a trace from the central arc's control node he took, but admits it gave him a feeling of dread. Hoping to find a way to stop the destruction before it happens, they emerge onto the planet Tarlishia, which the Doctor had never heard of, but notice how the city is held under a climate-controlled forcefield. The node starts reacting, which Nova assumes means it has found another similar part, and they also detect Audrey's DNA and follow it.

Out in the open, a secretary leads Audrey to the President of Tarlishia's palace alongside several guards, but encounter the Doctor and Nova who realise they have gone back in time and she does not yet know them. The Doctor's node continues reacting to something inside Audrey's suitcase, but as he tries to explain himself, he begins breathing and groaning heavily and losing focus, only returning to normal as she leaves. However, when she does, a guard places them under arrest and immediately confiscates all their belongings. Audrey meets the president with high tensions between them, trying to force the president to accept her scientific findings concerning the supposed neutron star full of Ravagers. As she prepares to show her a potential solution, however, she is overcome upon seeing a spectral Doctor being broadcast only to her who disappears upon seeing that her case contains another control node.

From prison, the Doctor returns to himself, admitting he felt the same way as when he met young Audrey in person. Trying to make an escape plan, Nova calls for the guard to read the psychic paper, which reveals a romantic message. Although the guard does not let them free, he admits they have not broken any major rules and makes sure they are cleared quickly so he can meet up for a drink with the Doctor. As the guard talks, Nova knocks him out and they make their escape.

Audrey explains that she can fashion her node into a weapon to save them, having detected on a probe mission that it was alien, connected to time, and a remnant of cataclysmic destruction. Meanwhile, the Doctor leads Nova back to the TARDIS and explains how he believes Audrey's node is his but from the past, and that he has begun to recognise the strange time particles that led them to Tarlishia. Taking off again, the Doctor knows he has to affect the past version of the node, but time is already beginning to unravel and it would be impossible to simply destroy all the offending particles even with time travel. Kicking the leftover drone out of frustration, Nova gets an idea. She realises it was searching for particles in her brain, so the Doctor decides the fleet could be repurposed to find and destroy the time particles if they were released in the past.

During a later meeting, Audrey attempts to show the proof of her findings to the president. Before she activates her node, however, she sees another vision of the Doctor, this time holding his version of the node, and he confirms that it is Gallifreyan. He admits he does not yet know how to stop the Ravagers and tells Audrey to continue making her mistakes as she fires her device. However, it does not work - instead of devolving the Ravagers, they simply absorb the temporal energy. This, the Doctor explains, is where everything went so wrong.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Christopher Eccleston
 * Nova - Camilla Beeput
 * Ravager - Clare Corbett
 * Drones / President of Tarlishia - Anjella MacKintosh
 * Audrey - Jayne McKenna
 * Halloran - Jamie Parker
 * Farraday - Ben Lee
 * Marcus Aurelius Gallius — Dan Starkey

Worldbuilding
to be added

Continuity
to be added