'Ah. Doctor, we have been expecting you for some time.' The man stepped forward as the Doctor backed away slightly. He quickly looked over his shoulder towards the door in which he'd entered and called, 'K9?' but he remembered that he left him in the console room of the TARDIS.
'Doctor?' spoke the figure before him.
'Do you know me? Do I know you? I’m terrible with faces, mainly my own but a lot of other people as well.' The Doctor looked around the room as several of the men and women began to move towards him, all be it a little stiffly.
'You do not know us? We are The Cult of Vartax.' The man sounded dismayed. Disappointed that the Doctor had not heard of their notorious past.
'Ahh, very good. I don’t mean to be rude but who are The Cult of Vartax? If you don’t mind me asking.' enquired the Doctor.
The tall man blinked slightly. 'You do not remember us, Doctor? No recollection of us at all?'
'Well like I said I get about a lot. What are you doing here? I mean you’ve frozen yourselves in what appears to be a cryogenic chamber and don’t seem to be too bothered by the fact that I have woken you up.' The Doctor grinned. Nobody else reciprocated, they were now all outside the chamber, the tall figure, who appeared to be their leader, was fiddling around with the control system next to the chamber.
'That is because we knew you would come Doctor. It was written.'
'Was it? By whom?'
He turned to face the Doctor. 'I am Tobias Takmore, leader of The Cult of Vartax.'
'Written, you say? Ah. You’re that sort of Cult, hey? I’m amazed you survived this long by the way you are talking.' The Doctor marched over to the controls. 'This is an air pressure machine is it not?'
'Indeed.' Takmore moved over towards the Doctor and adjusted a few more controls.
'What I don't understand is why you were frozen at all?'
'We were betrayed,' Takmore examined the dials in front of him as he continued, 'By my Secretary! A spy for the Torchwood Institute no doubt.'
The Doctor looked up at Takmore, a confused expression upon his face, 'I'm sorry. Did you say secretary?' Tobias nodded. 'I thought so,' acknowledged the Doctor, 'They're hard to come by these days.'
'Of course, you wouldn't have heard of Torchwood,' began Takmore, 'Before your time.'
'Or after,' muttered the Doctor. 'So what reason would the inhabitants of this planet have you and your followers sent into incarceration for such a long time?' He turned on his heels and stared at Takmore with his great, big, bulging eyes.
'We have forty two satellites in place around the planet Earth. I only need to send them a simple command and they shall send pressure waves onto the surface of the planet. They will keep pushing down until all life is destroyed.' Takmore smiled slightly. 'You cannot stop us this time Doctor.'
'Why would you want to kill millions, no billions of people?' The Doctor’s face was blood red as his anger began to surface and he felt the urge to punch Takmore who showed such carelessness to life. It disgusted him.
'Once the none-believers have been cleared from the planet then The Cult shall use the great human empire and convert the universe.'
The Doctor knew the man was mad. 'How long have you been asleep then? A hundred years? A thousand years?'
Takmore seemed briefly worried. Sweat appeared around his neck. 'What do you mean Doctor?' He was looking behind him. Some of his members seemed to be yawning while others appeared to be in pain as they moved disorientated about the room they were all in.
'You’ve been asleep a long time, Takmore.' stated the Doctor, 'Even at this advanced stage of technology most human bodies could not take more than 200 years of being frozen. Do you really think that you can repopulate the Earth with this bunch? They won’t see next Thursday never mind the many months it’s going to take you to destroy the human race.' He looked at the console Takmore had, moments before, been examining and begun to undo his work. He knew that if he directed the beam back on itself then he may have a chance.
'Doctor, step away from the console or I will shoot you.' Takmore could feel his body dying beneath him. His hand gripped onto the side of the console.
'Takmore, I can give you one chance. Tell your people that you were wrong. The Cult is wrong. Do that and I will take you away from here and find you a new home.'
Takmore looked at everyone. 'I w-will do it. B-but first you n-need to take me to your TARDIS. I c-can’t t-tell them that I am d-dying.'
'Of course, we don't want a mutiny on our hands, do we?' The Doctor frowned at the idea of allowing himself to bow to Takmore's wishes but he didn't fancy the chances with the other members should a fight for control break out. 'Alright. C’mon.' he said as he supported Takmore back to the TARDIS. Once they had reached the open doors to the TARDIS they were greeted by K9 who looked up.
'Master, I have detected a chameleon-' began K9 but the Doctor interrupted:
'K9, can you tell me if this man is dying?' The Doctor gently placed Tobias on the ground and moved directly to the console. He observed the information before him. 'Interesting.' he muttered.
'Negative, Master. There is nothing wrong with the humanoid.'
'Thought as much.' The Doctor turned to see Tobias lunging towards him but he grabbed his arm and threw him over his shoulder.
Tobias groaned. He felt inside his pocket. His pocket watch seemed to be shouting at him.
'Open it? Yes. I’ll open you.' Tobias muttered to himself. He pressed down on the catch. Several rays of golden light escaped from the watch and engulfed him. The Doctor was taken aback by the sudden revelation that was happening before him.
'Danger Master! Danger! Chameleon energy present.' clipped K9, backing away and activating his laser.
Soon all the energy had poured into his body and as his eyes changed colour, Tobias fell to the ground. 'Oh my dear Doctor, you have been naïve.' and he began to laugh.
'Ah. Well, this is a turn up for the books.' The Doctor stared at the man in front of him.
'How are you Doctor? It’s been a long time.' The Master grinned as he walked over to the console. 'Aha, I see that you have changed your TARDIS desktop theme. I don’t like it.' and turned back to face the Doctor.
'I see you have regenerated again, you must be running out of bodies by now.’ the Doctor was edging towards the door.
'Indeed, but this body is only temporary.' The Master suddenly cried out in pain as he clutched his stomach and fell to the floor.
'K9, can you detect anything wrong with the Master?' The Doctor now had his back to the wall.
'The present form of the Master is failing, he will soon return to his previous state of existence.'
'Your tin pot of a companion is right Doctor. This body won’t last much longer!' The Master cried out in pain as he began crawling towards the Doctor who had moved over towards the decaying form.
'Tell me the access code to stop the destruction of Earth!' said the Doctor.
'You noticed,' The Master struggled to get his words out, 'that as soon as we awoke from our sleep that the command would be sent to the satellites. Clever old you. What makes you think that you can stop it now?' He gripped the Doctor’s arm. K9 inched nearer, his blaster aimed firmly at him.
'Because of the timing.' said the Doctor, 'This spaceship is in deep space, it will take time to reach Earth.' The Doctor helped the Master as he struggled to his feet.
'Very good, Doctor. But I won’t tell you the codes, because then I have lost my hold over these pathetic humans.' The Doctor helped the Master out of the TARDIS door.
'This was never about the Cult was it? You were simply going to blackmail Earth. It was all a lie…'
'Master.' called K9 suddenly.
The Doctor stopped as K9 operated the scanner screen. On it they could see all of the members of the Cult now standing outside the TARDIS waiting, observing them both through the open doors of the time machine.
'You blaspheme! Lord Takmore would never do that. He is our leader. He has kept the Cult alive.' They began to chant rhythmically.