Timewyrm: Exodus (novel)

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Publisher's Summary

The pursuit of the Timewyrm leads the Doctor and Ace to London, 1951, and the Festival of Britain -- a celebration of the achievements of this small country, this insignificant corner of the glorious Thousand Year Reich.

Someone -- or something -- has been interfering with the time lines, and in order to investigate, the Doctor travels further back in time to the very dawn of the Nazi evil. In the heart of the Germany of the Third Reich, he finds that this little band of thugs and misfits did not take over half the world unaided.

History must be restored to its proper course, and in his attempt to repair the time lines, the Doctor faces the most terrible dilemma he has ever known...

Plot

After escaping from the Doctor’s trap, the Timewyrm immediately set about plotting her revenge. She decided that she would use the Earth against the Doctor, and traveled forward in history until she found a moment where human technology reached the point where global devastation was at last possible. She also needed a vessel, and soon found someone who seemed ideal… a bitter, neurotic madman filled with hate and resentment. But as soon as the Timewyrm entered her chosen mind, she became trapped within it.

The TARDIS followed the Timewyrm’s course through time as closely as it could, and arrived in London, 1951, the Festival of Britain. The Doctor and Ace immediately set out to find the Timewyrm, but quickly noticed that something was very wrong with history. Somehow, the Nazis had won World War II. Overheard by a local Nazi informant, the Doctor and Ace were arrested by the British Free Corps for making seditious, anti-Nazi statements. They were put under the charge of Lieutenant Hemmings.

The Doctor decided that they had to return to the TARDIS immediately to track down the source of the changes to history. After calmly enduring some Nazi psychological interrogation techniques, the Doctor tricked Hemmings into allowing them to escape, but the TARDIS was gone, taken by the British Free Corps. The Doctor decided to impersonate a high-ranking Nazi official (previously murdered by the British resistance, and found by the Doctor and Ace) in order to ingratiate himself with the Nazis. He and Ace walked right into the office of General Strasser and conned him into believing that the Doctor was conducting a secret investigation into Nazi security.

The Doctor used his new found freedom and influence to visit the war archives, housed in the former British Museum. From there, he hoped to pinpoint where history diverged. While there, he came into brief psychic contact with the Timewyrm. However, the Doctor wasn’t sure that she was really behind this. It seemed too subtle and precise for her. Meanwhile, Ace made contact with the British Resistance in order to find out as much about what happened during the war as she could. She learned of rumors of a Black Coven, a cult of mystics who were using supernatural powers to assist the Reich.

Though their cover was eventually exposed, the Doctor and Ace managed to evade Hemmings and get back to the TARDIS. Before she left 1951, Ace caught a glimpse of Hemmings entering something that looked like the Doctor’s TARDIS, which disappeared with the same familiar TARDIS sound.

The TARDIS next took the travellers to 1923, where they witnessed a doomed demonstration by the young and disorganised Nazi Party on the War Office in Berlin. The police broke up the demonstration, and a young Adolf Hitler was injured. The Doctor rushed to his aid, reset his dislocated shoulder, and told him that one day he would rule Germany. The Doctor asked that Hitler remember him when that day came. As they were returning to the TARDIS, a shadowy figure in dark clothes approached the Doctor, clearly recognizing him, and attempted to kill him with some sort of laser gun. Thanks to a bit more nitro-nina-a, Ace helped the Doctor escape from his would-be assassin.

Travelling forward to 1939, the Doctor and Ace witnessed another Nazi rally, this time in Nuremberg, and this one far, far larger. Hitler was now ruling Germany, as the Doctor promised. As Ace listened to Hitler’s speech, she realized that his words are having a hypnotic effect even on her. The Doctor suspected that his speech was being boosted somehow, using technology that shouldn’t exist in 1939. The Doctor and Ace ingratiated themselves once again with Hitler, and were treated as honored guests. Later that night, Hitler sent for the Doctor. While they discussed the impending war, Hitler suddenly burst into an uncontrollable rage. He threatened not only to destroy his enemies throughout Europe, but also to destroy the entire planet, the galaxy, and the universe itself. Later, the Doctor told Ace that he believed the Timewyrm was trapped within Hitler’s mind, but unable to exercise any real control.

The following day, the invasion of Poland began. The Doctor was on hand among Hitler’s inner circle to receive England’s official response. Hitler was confident that the English would stop short of declaring war, but the Doctor told him otherwise. When the Doctor turned out to be correct, it sent Hitler into another rage. The Doctor managed to calm Hitler down. Meanwhile, Ace received a letter intended for the Doctor asking him to meet with a Dr. Kriegslieter of the Aryan Research Bureau. Thinking this meeting might reveal information useful to the Doctor, Ace went in his place.

While the Doctor had a clandestine meeting first with Goering, then with Himmler, both involving the state of Hitler’s mental health, Ace walked into a trap set for the Doctor. Ace was transported somehow to a castle in Drachensburg and held in a dungeon. When the Doctor extricated himself from the political intrigue surrounding Hitler, he found a note left by Ace. Fearing the worst, he followed her immediately to the Berlin office of the Aryan Research Bureau. He found there a crystal ball that showed him an image of Ace being shackled to a dungeon wall and threatened menacingly with a knife. The Doctor found a transport device linking the offices in Berlin with the castle Drachensberg. The Doctor used the device to go after Ace.

In Drachensberg, the Doctor was introduced to the mysterious Dr. Kriegslieter, a hideously misshapen man. Kriegslieter turned out to be the War Chief, a renegade Time Lord the Doctor had faced long ago (see The War Games), the deformities being a result of a botched regeneration. Once again, the War Chief was working with the War Lords to develop a superior race of soldiers from Earth’s history. They had been amplifying Hitler’s natural leadership abilities in order to manipulate World War II. They would make sure Hitler avoided his major mistakes (the delay at Dunkirk, opening the second front against the Soviet Union), and with the aid of nuclear reactor in the basement, see to it that Nazism took over the world, and eventually, beyond. Ace would be sacrificed according to ancient mystical rites invented to the War Chief to amuse the gullible Himmler, whose SS were loyal to the War Chief.

When Himmler arrived for the ceremony, the Doctor tried to expose the War Chief as a traitor to the Reich, but to no avail. As the ritual sacrifice proceeded, the Doctor appealed to Himmler to allow him to perform the sacrifice personally, arguing that the ritual would have more meaning if he were to personally sacrifice this young woman whom Himmler believed was his niece. The Doctor used the sacrificial knife to cut Ace’s bonds, and used Ace’s last nitro-nine-a capsule to give them a chance to escape. They ran to the top of the castle’s tower. Outside, Goering had arrived with a tank division and was advancing on Drachensberg. The Doctor explained the he had told Goering that treachery against Hitler was taking place at the castle. The War Chief’s zombified soldiers fought back against Goering, but to no avail. As the battle concluded, Hitler arrived by airplane. The Doctor explained to Hitler that Kriegslieter was behind everything, and he did it in such a way as to make both Himmler and Goering look like loyal heroes of the Reich. Hitler thanked the Doctor again for his service. Hitler then told the Doctor that, with the Doctor’s assistance, he had learned to tame the Timewyrm within him and draw on her immense power as his own. The Doctor realized with horror that he had given Hitler the emotional control necessary to win the war!

After Hitler and the others left, the War Chief rose from the battlefield. At his command, all of the apparently dead SS soldiers did the same. The Doctor and Ace ran back into the castle and bolted the door. While Ace held the zombies off with grenades, the Doctor ran to basement to set the nuclear reactor to overload. That done, the Doctor and Ace ran to the top of the tower, where the Doctor produced a small device and pushed a button. The TARDIS materialized in front of them, and they made their escape. When the reactor exploded, it destroyed everything, including the War Chief and his zombie soldiers.

Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor came up with a plan to deal with Hitler and the Timewyrm. Consulting a World War II almanac, the Doctor picked the precise time and place for their confrontation, a place codenamed Felsennest in May 1940. There, armed only with a lantern, the Doctor confronted Hitler. He told him that he was in charge, and that the Timewyrm was nothing compared to his greatness. This had the desired effect, luring the Timewyrm out into the open. The Doctor offered to allow the Timewyrm to take over his mind if she released Hitler. The Timewyrm accepted, but the Doctor’s lantern was really an extension of the TARDIS forcefield which he used to repel the Timewyrm. Hitler was crushed and confused, suddenly robbed of his power and confidence. The Doctor persuaded him to halt the advance on Dunkirk and delay the invasion of England. Hitler agreed, and the historical course of the war was maintained.

Back in the TARDIS, Ace celebrated their success, but the Doctor blamed himself for freeing the Timewyrm. She might have died trapped inside Hitler’s mind, but instead she was free to roam the universe. To console him, Ace suggested that they return to 1951 to see the real Festival of Britain. When they arrived, everything was nicely back to normal.

Somewhere in the universe of time and space, the Timewyrm congratulated Lieutenant Hemmings on his progress, and promised him that he would soon have his revenge upon Ace and the Doctor…

Characters

  • Never met Hitler before this occasion.
  • Has grey eyes.
  • Can speak German.
  • Goes under the alias Johann Schmidt.
  • Drinks some weak tea whilst in the alternate-London.
  • Is almost killed by the warlord/chief
  • Adolf Hitler
    • Had psychic powers because of the Timewyrm trapped within him.
  • The War Chief
    • Also appears known as Doktor Felix Kriegslieter
    • His Time Lord physiology saved him when he was shot, but the War Lords took him with them to study.
    • He started to regenerate, except his injuries were too severe, so he half regenerated leaving him disfigured.

References

Notes

  • This is the second novel in the Timewyrm tetralogy.

Continuity

External Links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Timewyrm: Exodus, page 185

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