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| === Part two === | | === Part two === |
| Zafira and Astorius explain to the Doctor about how Luparis is rapidly cooling and that people are going into [[coma]]s, leading them to start putting people into [[sleep pod]]s. The sleep pods are arranged in pairs, one being for the husband and the other for the wife, but only one of each pair seems to be operational. The Doctor is also told that he will become Zafira's next husband and be known as her Consort Counsellor, prompting the upset Zellenger to engage him in a [[duel]]. Although the Doctor is able to disarm him, Zellenger has him [[arrest]]ed and condemns him to the sleep pods. | | Zax arrests Tegan for walking the [[street]]s unaccompanied, but [[Zellenger|Lord Zellenger]], head of security and another of Zafira's husbands, learns who she is and takes her back to the palace. Zafira and Astorius explain to the Doctor about how Luparis is rapidly cooling and that people are going into [[coma]]s, leading them to start putting people into [[sleep pod]]s in rooms known as nurseries. The sleep pods are arranged in pairs, one being for the husband and the other for the wife, but only one of each pair seems to be operational. The Doctor is also told that he will become Zafira's next husband and be known as her Consort Counsellor, prompting the upset Zellenger to engage him in a [[duel]]. Although the Doctor is able to disarm him, Zellenger accuses him of [[terrorism]] and has Zax take him to the nurseries. |
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| Mike arrests Tegan for walking the [[street]]s unaccompanied, but [[Zellenger|Lord Zellenger]], head of security and another of Zafira's husbands, learns who she is and takes her back to the palace. There, she catches up with Nyssa, who informs her that Jezzavar is planning to rebel against Zafira and would like to install Nyssa as her replacement; he believes that Zafira is too soft on her people and intends to rule through Nyssa. They disguise themselves as [[maid]]s, [[Anza]] and [[Eva (Hexagora)|Eva]], and run from a guard into the city. They find themselves in the [[nest]] of [[insect]]-like creatures, one of which tells Tegan that he is Mike Bretherton.
| | Tegan catches up with Nyssa, who informs her that Jezzavar is planning to rebel against Zafira and would like to install Nyssa as her replacement; he believes that Zafira is too soft on her people and intends to rule through Nyssa. When [[serving girl]]s [[Anza]] and [[Eva (Hexagora)|Eva]] inform them of the Doctor and Zafira's [[wedding]] and that Nyssa and Tegan will be maids-in-waiting, they disguise themselves in the maids' [[clothes]] and run from a guard onto the streets. They hide in a dark passage where they they hear a clicking sound which Tegan heard before she met Zax. They flee to another hiding place, but a panel opens and they realise that they are in the [[nest]] of a group of [[insect]] creatures, one of them tells Tegan that he is Mike Bretherton. |
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| === Part three === | | === Part three === |
| Tegan can’t believe that this creature is Mike. He eventually convinces her by saying things only the real Mike could know. Tegan realises it is him and asks him how this happened. He explains that this was done to them by the Hexagora. He was kidnapped because he was getting close to uncovering the truth while others just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they were taken from their bodies and put in the insects. They hear lord Zellenger in the distance and Mike leads them somewhere safe.
| | Mike explains that the [[Hexagora]] put [[human]]s into insect bodies and did so to him because he was close to discovering them. Nyssa and Tegan go with him into the secret passageways and, whilst Tegan [[sleep]]s, Nyssa tells Mike about the Doctor and how he can help. She goes to Jezzavar's [[party]] without telling Tegan and pretends to join him in his planned [[coup d'état]]; when Tegan awakens, she runs from Mike to go and find her. |
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| The Doctor is brought to the Nursery but Astorius refuses to cocoon the Doctor as he is supposed to be married to the Queen. When the guard protests, Astorius chides him for always obeying Lord Zellenger, reminding him who holds the real position of power. He tells him to put the Doctor in his solar.
| | Astorius refuses to place the Doctor in a sleep pod without an express order from Zafira and sends Zax away to help when one of the sleepers is brought back to the palace. The Doctor accuses him of lying about the sleep pods, leading Astorius to admit that his race are the Hexagora and that Lupara is based on their [[memory|memories]] of a temporary stay in London. They have been kidnapping and switching bodies with humans whilst the youngest Hexagora mature enough to leave the planet, but damage to their technology means that they are unlikely to be able to leave and, as a result, the human hosts are to be permanent, a prospect that troubles Astorius. The Doctor is chased by Zellenger and runs to Zafira, telling her that he would love to be her husband. |
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| The guard brings the Doctor into the solar room. He wants to get someone to stand guard over the Doctor but Astorius says it will not be necessary as he does not believe the Doctor will cause trouble. He is surprised by the Doctor when the Doctor contradicts him saying there likely will be trouble, so Astorius takes out a flint-lock pistol and assures the Doctor there won’t be. The Doctor comments about how they have taken even the technology of [[16th century]] Earth, saying it is a very primitive tool for a race that travels by space pod but they are interrupted by a sudden commotion. The Guard (Mike’s body) explains to Astorius that a sleeper has been captured and brought back to the palace. Astorius demands the guard go help the others and he obeys.
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| The Doctor and Astorius have a hostile talk fraught with tension. The Doctor reveals that he is aware that everything Astorius told him was a lie and that he suspects that the people in the chambers below are not citizens of Luparis who have succumbed to the cold but something else entirely, surmising probably the native species fallen at the hands of Astorius and his race’s aggression. Astorius confirms his suspicions. The Doctor continues, angrily explaining that the giveaway was that while he was talking to Lord Zellenger, Zellenger revealed that they had waged war with the [[Agellae]] of the [[Acteon Galaxy|Acteon galaxy]] and that the Acteon Galaxy species had never set foot in the [[Milky Way]], so that they must have fought them somewhere else, as well as the fact that they are only occupying a small portion of Luparis as further proof. He further elaborates that if they had lived here by any substantial amount of time they would have spread out across the planet by now. He suspects that Astorius and his species’ next move is to take over Earth, accusing them of being a race of space-travelling conquerors. Astorius tells him, however, that the Agellae attacked first, and they are a race of hideous, moronic ape creatures. Astorius explains they had just colonised [[Zagara IX]] when they attacked, and the Doctor recalls that tragic event as hundreds of thousands of Agellae ships were ripped apart, with bodies and debris floating all around the planet. No one ever knew who had defeated them, until now as the Doctor realises. Astorius asserts that he is not a man of war and neither are his people. They are mostly farmers, scholars and such and are merely citizen soldiers, only taking up the call to arms when threatened. He further explains that Zagara IX was a paradise, uninhabited and fruitful, warm winds rippling across fertile meadows. They built a colony there that flourished, becoming the ideal environment for the next generation. Meanwhile the Agellae were seeking new conquests and decided to strike, but Astorius claims that when they attacked they had this time chosen the wrong species and most certainly the wrong Queen. The Doctor questions their innocence, asking Astorius to explain what happened here on Luparis. Astorius elaborates by mentioning that when the arrived, Luparis was a warm planet with no intelligent life, but the Doctor counters him by asking about the mountains in the East he noticed earlier, saying that looked a great deal like termite hills that one finds on Earth. He further surmises that when they arrived they discovered an intelligent insect species already living here and when they tried to exterminate them a war followed. Astorius takes out the [[gun|flint-lock pistol]] and although the Doctor begs him not shoot, reminding him that he claimed to not be a man of violence, Astorius reveals that the Doctor knows too much and that this is the only solution, despite being a drastic one. | |
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| Mike escorts Tegan and Nyssa through the secret passageways. Nyssa asks how this happened but Mike can’t recall much, other than travelling through space at light speed, and then blacking out and awaking in his current insect-like body. They see the other insects and Mike comments that he is one of the only ones who seems to have almost full control of his new form, and excuses himself to go and try and help one of the other struggling insects. Tegan is in shock and Nyssa tries to calm her down by saying that the Doctor may be able to think of a way to fix the situation.
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| The Doctor is grateful that Astorius doesn’t shoot, but Astorius says they would only ever do so in self-defence and that by sparing the Doctor he hopes there won’t be any more trouble. The Doctor assures him there won’t. They then head to the nursery. Astorius reveals the real reason there is no monitoring equipment on the right hand chambers is because they are empty, which the doctor checks and confirms. When the Doctor asks about the use of flint-lock pistols and other archaic weapons, Astorius explains that much of their technology has been lost in the war and they make do with what they can find. He reveals that the chambers on the left contain strange insect-like creatures called "[[Hexagora]]" in hibernation, the species from the termite mounds. The Doctor reveals his knowledge about the Hexagora, how they travel in swarms across the cosmos under the leadership of a powerful Queen and notes he is seeing a pattern. Astorius reveals that they would move from planet to planet only to farm, never to enslave, only selecting planets that had no intelligent life. The Doctor, realising the Astorius includes himself in the pronoun, asks him about this and Astorius explains that they, the Hexagora, have always had the ability to disguise themselves and go unnoticed among a native inhabitants population, but it was only for reconnaissance reasons, and if the planet was not suitable they would simply scout out the next planet. Initially they had arrived on Earth in the 16th century and studied its history as well as then-current architecture and societal structure, scouting among the local natives inhabiting England but eventually Earth was found unsuitable and so they moved on to Luparis... except that they did not realise that Luparis was entering a period of its history with extreme cooling. The Doctor realises Astorius is telling the truth and asks for forgiveness but asks why he saw a human being in one of the chambers earlier. Astroius says that they only did it to trick him and that they are certainly guilty of that but they only did this because they feared the Doctor would disagree with them if he discovered the full truth. When the Doctor asks what this is, Astorius reveals that when they noticed the climate beginning to drop, they had originally thought about simply moving to another planet but they still had several young Hexagorans whom were not fit for space travel yet and were not sure if many other would be able to handle a second migration, having already just come out of a first massive one to Luparis. One by one they began to slip into unconsciousness due to the climate and to which no end was foreseeable. Queen Zafira contemplated many solutions, however, they agreed on only one way out. They sent a "scry-warp" into Earth’s atmosphere to observe humans living in polar communities in order to try and adopt their methods to survive, but soon realised that this was not possible since humans were mammals who possessed bodies better-adapted to cold weather since they possessed warm blood and could grow hair. Queen Zafira, he explains, was faced with no other choice, but the Doctor finished Astroius’ sentence by saying that the scry-warps were reprogrammed to select human targets. Hexagoran commanders would then travel in spacepods to earth and bring the chosen targets back. At first they would pick randomly, but the reason they began to target specific groups of humans like athletes was that they were found to have better standards and provide better material. He explains that when they targeted randomly, the humans abducted were not missed but when they began to target groups like athletes, people began to notice and so those people were abducted as well. The Doctor comments then that the cocoons are not for health but Astorius assures him they are, although now their primary function has become for mind-transference.
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| Nyssa and Mike talk while Tegan sleeps. She apologises to him on behalf of Tegan and explains that Tegan told her that they were very intimate. She also explains that they had come here with the Doctor as Tegan insisted on coming when she discovered he had disappeared, showing that she still cares about him and holds feelings for him. She explains to Mike who the Doctor is and says that he might be able to fix this if they can find him. Nyssa suspects he is still in the palace and makes a plan with Mike to find him, using Lord Jezzavar.
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| Astorius explains that the material used for the cocoons is called "Hexian", from their home-world. They usually use it as food, but in difficult times they use it on Hexagorans husks too damaged to survive by draining the Hexagoran’s mind essence into their genetic memory pool, in which the memory nutrients of the Hexagoran is stored. The Doctor likens this to a pool of memories, and Astorius continues by explaining that the vast knowledge they have gathered over the aeons is stored in it, which is why they have been able to reconstruct almost perfectly the many palaces and buildings of 16th century [[London]]. He also explains that the minds of the humans are also in this pool while the Hexagoran bodies lie in repose in the cocoons in the palace. He also notes that the process for switching the minds between the bodies is quite harmless. Astorius continues, telling the Doctor that the reason the Queen would like to marry him is that due to the impending ice age, she believes mating with the Doctor will give her off-spring the ability to live much longer, through the ice age, as the Doctor had earlier mentioned that his people have the ability to live for millennia at a time. The Doctor berates Astorius, saying that his society is under immense stress, as it is the only reason that they have hatched such a heinous scheme but notes that he suspects Astorius has shared this information with him because it is troubling him. Astorius says the plan was just originally to occupy the human hosts until the young had matured but by then it was too late as the cold had so damaged their technology that for the swarm to move on was too difficult. The Doctor demands he reverse the process and return the captives but Astorius says it is not his decision to make. Meanwhile, they hear a commotion outside as a guard reveals to Zellenger that Astorius refuses to cocoon the Doctor. The two hear this and Astorius tells the Doctor to go find the only person who can protect him, Queen Zafira. The Doctor, infuriated, makes a run for it.
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| Jezzavar hosts a party as his house consisting of his fellow revolutionaries. He asks that although they had originally planned to overthrow tonight, and the wedding presenting a perfect opportunity, they delay the case given the circumstances. Just then Nyssa arrives and announces that she would like to aid them in their revolution.
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| Zellenger barges in on Astorius and demands the Doctor’s location, but he reveals that the Doctor has gone and says no more. Zellenger chases after him.
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| Tegan awakens to find herself alone with Mike. Despite him warning her she runs off to find Nyssa.
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| The Doctor, meanwhile, searches for the throne room but is spotted and chased by a pair of guards. | |
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| Tegan is pursued by Mike who tries to stop her from going. She insists on escaping and continues on.
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| The Doctor continues looking for the throne room but is found by Zellenger. He manages to incapacitate Zellenger by pulling a rug out from underneath him and makes a break for it. He finally finds the throne room but is stopped by an armed guard. He manages to outwit the guard and escapes.
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| The Doctor barges in on Queen Zafira and demands an audience with her. Zellenger catches up with him and demands the Queen order his arrest on him being a spy and an alien. The Doctor, however, reveals to the Queen that he would love to be her husband...
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| === Part four === | | === Part four === |
