Timewyrm: Exodus (novel): Difference between revisions

The Doctor saves a shopkeeper from a brawl with members of the Freikorps, a sanctioned group of local thugs under the loose control of the SS. He and Ace then witness a murder, and the dying man slips the Doctor an odd item: the identification of a high-ranking Nazi official, the [[Reichsinspektor General]]. Shortly thereafter, they are arrested on the word of an informant, and imprisoned by a Lieutenant [[Anthony Rupert Hemmings|Hemmings]], local commander of the Freikorps. They escape quite easily, and return to the Festival, where a local named [[Popplewell]]–secretly a resistance member–hints at how to contact the resistance movement. He also reveals that the TARDIS was taken by a patrol. They return to the local headquarters, and the Doctor uses the ID badge to bluff his way into the confidence of the local general, General [[Strasser]]. Hemmings breaks in and accuses them, and the Doctor has Hemmings seconded to his command, so as to keep him in view.

The Doctor tells Hemmings that Ace is a relative of a resistance member, and has contacts; she must be “interrogated” (for the sake of appearances) and then released, and will then willingly lead them to the resistance. Meanwhile, the Doctor goes to the former British Museum to examine the military records stored there, hoping to find the point at which history diverged. He learns that the turning point was at Dunkirk during the war; unlike real history, the Germans annihilated the retreating British army at Dunkirk. He is contacted psychically by the [[Timewyrm]], who rages and tears up the room, much like a poltergeist–but he gets the impression she is trapped somehow. Hemmings, meanwhile, “interrogates” Ace; he beats her more than necessary for effect, as he doesn’t believe they are not enemies of some sort. He then releases her, and she goes to act on the tip from Popplewell, meeting resistance members at [[Ma Barker]]’s Cafe. Hemmings has her followed, and plans to raid the cafe; but he is interrupted by the timely intervention of the Doctor, who manages to vouch for the resistance members as double agent, and have Hemmings arrested. Back at HQ, he sends Ace to the TARDIS, and goes to release Hemmings secretly, knowing he put the man in a dangerous position; but Hemmings attacks him and bolts. Hemmings sees the TARDIS materialize, and a voice calls him inside; then the TARDIS vanishes. However, something isn’t right; the Doctor’s TARDIS is still where he left it. The Doctor joins Ace there, and they depart.

Working with a plan that he has not yet revealed, the Doctor travels to Munich, 1923, on the date of Hitler’s failed coup that led to his imprisonment (during which he would write <em>Mein Kampf</em>). Against Ace’s urging, he lets the events play out…and resets [[Hitler]]’s dislocated shoulder, ingratiating himself to the future dictator. Later he tells Ace that the Nazi regime failed in part because of Hitler’s incompetence…and he cannot allow Hitler to be replaced with a competent dictator. Hence, his involvement now.

They then travel to Nuremberg, 1939, and hide the TARDIS in a parking location in the Time Vortex. They attend a Nazi party rally, and the Doctor demonstrates that Hitler’s speeches are not very good, but are using some highly advanced psychological tricks, tricks which don’t belong to this time period; someone has been interfering, but it doesn’t seem to be the Timewyrm–it’s not her style. He meets [[Hermann Goering|Goering]] and Himmler, Hitler’s highest-ranking associates, and also [[Martin Bormann|Bormann]], Hitler’s personal attendant. He also meets an old and deformed doctor named [[The War Chief|Kriegslieter]], who seems familiar somehow. He then meets Hitler, and, playing on the memory of their first meeting, he incorporates himself into Hitler’s inner circle, obtaining resources and freedom to operate in the process. At a private audience with Hitler, he learns that the man has been possessed by the Timewyrm, who sets off a telekinetic storm like that seen in the museum. However, he learns something else: The Timewyrm is trapped in Hitler’s powerful mind, and can’t escape. He teachers Hitler some basic techniques to resist its influence. And still, someone else’s hand is at work.

Hitler kicks off the invasion of Poland. He believes that Britain will not counterattack, but will appease him, as they have done before–but he is wrong. Britain declares war, sending Hitler into a rage, but he is able to calm himself and not accede control to the Timewyrm, thanks to the Doctor. Meanwhile, the Doctor is content, knowing the war will proceed on schedule–history has not yet been derailed.

The Doctor is summoned by Goering, who admits that if necessary, he would replace Hitler for the good of the Reich. He is then arrested and taken to [[Heinrich Himmler|Himmler]], but ingratiates himself by claiming to be a sorcerer–he knows that Himmler is obsessed with the occult. Himmler invites him to Drachensberg, the castle of the SS, where Himmler’s other alleged sorcerers–the Black Coven–meet. However, upon returning to his rooms, the Doctor finds an invitation from Kriegslieter, which Ace has accepted in his place. By the time he gets to Kriegslieter’s office, Ace is missing–and a crystal ball on the table shows her being prepared to be used as a sacrifice at Drachensberg.

The Doctor calls in a favor from Goering, setting him on the road to Drachensberg with an armored column. He then finds a transmat booth in Kriegslieter’s office, which leads to Drachensberg. He tampers with it before using it, sending himself onto the roof of the castle instead of to the receiving transmat, and the receiving transmat explodes. However, to save Ace, he surrenders–and he recognizes the equipment in use. It is the property of the War Lords, whom he last encountered at the end of his second life. Kriegslieter proves to be the renegade Time Lord known as the War Chief, now victim of a failed regeneration that left him deformed.

Escaping [[The War Games|their past defeat]] by the Time Lords, the War Lords had come to Earth to again form an unstoppable army; but this time, unlike their previous plan to collect soldiers from throughout history, they will craft their own army via Nazi Germany. To that end, they have been controlling, manipulating, and assisting Hitler; it is this involvement that leads to the change in history at Dunkirk. The War Lords will win the war, accelerate humanity’s technological development, and conquer the galaxy. Ace will be sacrificed to motivate the SS, and the Doctor…Kriegslieter will take his body and his [[Regeneration cycle|regenerations]].

When Himmler arrives for the sacrifice, the Doctor tells him he is being groomed to replace Hitler. He turns on Kriegslieter, who is stunned, having underestimated Himmler’s loyalty to Hitler. The Doctor frees Ace and uses her new Nitro-9-A variation to create a distraction, escaping to the top of the tower. Goering’s armored column arrives, and a battle begins. Goering’s men overcome the Black Coven, but are interrupted by Hitler; the Doctor senses something wrong, and realizes that he has made a mistake–he has not only enabled Hitler to resist the Timewyrm, but to control it. Hitler leaves with Himmler and Goering and the troops. However, the dying Kriegslieter briefly reanimates his dead troops to attack the Doctor. The Doctor sets the castle’s reactors to explode, and they escape in the TARDIS–summoned back from the Vortex–just before it blows, eliminating the War Lords and their technology.

But there is still the Timewyrm to deal with, and Dunkirk. The Doctor jumps ahead to 1940. At Hitler’s command bunker, he confronts Hitler, who is about to order the destruction of the British Army at Dunkirk. The Doctor provokes the Timewyrm into showing itself–and with the aid of the TARDIS, he breaks it free of Hitler’s mind, sending it unfocused into the void. Hitler, now a broken man at the mercy of his own madness, is left impressionable; and the Doctor gets him to order a withdrawal rather than an attack. Thus the true timeline is restored.

The Doctor is unhappy; though he saved time, he still allowed the war to rage, and the Timewyrm is free again. Ace has him return to the festival in 1951, where he sees that all is restored; this cheers him up. However, elsewhere, the Timewyrm is still plotting–and preparing one Lieutenant Hemmings for the [[Timewyrm: Revelation|future]]…