(no subject)
Here we go then, chapter one of my NaNo, which I had up a really good name for, but then I forgot it :(
Bear in mind spelling etc is likely to be even worse than usual because I really am trying not to edit myself too much.
Ushas stood in the middle of the huge, ornate hall surrounded by various members of her chapter, staff members from the Time Academy and her parents, suddenly feeling very, very small. Everyone else was seated in the balcony high above her in tiered seating, looking at her on the floor. She knew this place was designed purely to make the accused, the in trouble feel tiny, but that knowledge did not make it any less true. This time at least she had the sense to look apologetic, to look as if she was sorry for what she had done and to remove the almost permanent smug look from her face. This time she knew she was not getting out this with a mere warning. Theta Sigma’s word revolved around her head so loudly she could have been sure he was projecting them to her, though when she managed to locate him on one of the rows in between Koschei and Drax he did not even seem to be looking at her. She only hoped this was because it was too painful for him, and not because he did not. Of course him not caring would have made things significantly easier, as it would had she not cared just as she always claimed.
“Say you’re sorry, Ush. Beg if you have to. If they say they’re going to take away all of your equipment let them!”
Let them take away her equipment? She would rather them take away her regenerations, all of them. Still at the moment it looked as if she had options. She had run out of chances and the very worse thing was this time it was hardly even her fault. She had been unlucky, no that was not right. She was smart enough to know luck was not real. She had overestimated the strength of the cage in which she was keeping her test subjects. It had hardly been her fault that they had managed to break out. Perhaps if the Academy did not insist on using such cheap materials for their learning tools she would not even be here. In fact she was almost she would not have been here if her experiments had not managed to find their way to the damned President’s chamber and eaten one of his beloved pets. That was what this was really about, why this was truly her last chance. Why it was seeming increasingly likely that she was about to be expelled from the Academy a mere twenty eight years before her graduation. All of the other little ‘incidents’ had happened to other people. To members of staff or other students and no one had died, so it did not matter. Not until the President himself had been affected, and now it was time to come down hard upon her, to make an example of her so that anyone thinking of doing anything against the President would know that such a thing would not be tolerated.
She chanced a glance at the elder Time Lord, keeping her head ducked as she looked up at him, fighting the urge to glare. Chances were if she did such a thing she would be in even more trouble than she was now. Assuming for a moment that that was possible. She doubted he would speak at all during her trail, he was probably only here to see that justice was done, that he would get his revenge for what had happened. For what she had done. Really she knew she should have been more careful. She should have kept a closer eye on the growth rate of her white lab mice. She should have tested the strength of the metal of which the cages were made out of, still she knew she would not be here were it not for the President and his lose. Of course Ushas herself could not see what all the fuss was about there either. She had never seen the point in pets herself. They were just stupid animals that required feeding, looking after and cleaning up after and what did you get in return? Some small furry creature curling up against you? Luckily though she had so far managed to keep these thoughts to herself. The last thing she needed to do was antagonise him further.
“Ushas,” a booming voice said, breaking her out of her own person annoyance. “I assume you know why you have been called here, yet again.”
The young Gallifreyan nodded, but said nothing. The longer she was able to keep her mouth shut the longer she would not be at risk of saying something inappropriate. She was sure this was a trait she had picked up from Theta Sigma. He liked to think he could talk his way out of trouble, but the number of detentions he had landed the three of them in suggested otherwise. His problem was he never knew when to stop talking.
“If you could speak up,” the same voice prompted.
Ushas sighed heavily. So much for that plan then. “Yes, sir,” she said politely. “I am aware of why I am here.” She paused for a moment wondering if she should carry on, or if perhaps only answering the specific question was the best idea.
“Would you care to share you version of events with the assembly?” he questioned.
The girl opened her mouth to protest about the way the question had been posed. Her version of events? Well so much for even the possibility that this might be a fair trial. “My version,” she said carefully, “is that a number of white mice from the planet of Sol Three, also known as Earth that I had been experimenting on managed to escape from both their cages and my lab, as a result of a their rapid growth. I was in Tardis training at the time and thus was unaware of what was happening. Had I been aware I assure you that I would have been able to deal with the problem before they could cause any damage.”
“But as you have pointed out you were not aware,” he pointed out. “And they did cause rather a lot of damage, did they not?”
“Yes sir, they did,” she conceded. Really she had no idea why she was attempting to defend herself. She knew it would not matter what she said. Her fate had almost certainly already been decided, this was just to show that everything was being done as protocol demanded.
“Would you care to share with everyone the damage they caused?” he asked.
Yet again Ushas sighed. “Not especially,” she admitted. “I dare say everyone knows already, anyway.”
“I am assuming you are referring to the fact that one of your enlarged specimens managed to find its way into the Presidents private chambers, in which his cat was sleeping?” he said.
“Yes, sir,” she confirmed.
“And that said specimen…ate the Presidents cat,” he pressed.
“That is my understanding of the matter,” she agreed, pausing as she remembered she was supposed to be apologising. “For which I am very sorry,” she added hastily. “I promise should I be allowed to stay at the Academy that I will not carry out any further experiments that may put anyone or anything in any kind of danger.”
There was a humourless laugh from the Time Lord that was seemingly in charge of this trial. “It is a little late for that, Ushas,” he informed her. “The decision has already been made. You will be expelled from the Time Academy and sent else where to finish your education.”
I thought it might have, she thought to herself, raising her head to look at him finally. There was no point in even trying anymore, not right now at least, though she had never been one to give up quite so easily.
“Do you have nothing else to say?” he asked.
“Is there any point?” she inquired. “If the decision had been made then I very much doubt there is anything I can say that will make you nor anyone else in the council change their minds.” She paused for just a second before continuing. “Particularly under the circumstances.” In the back of her mind she heard Theta Sigma’s voice say her name, exasperatedly. She smiled slightly to herself. It was interesting just how well he knew her. How one simple, fairly innocent sentence had been enough to alert him to the fact that she was about to argue.
“Under the circumstances?” the arch chancellor repeated, leaning forward in the ornate wooden chair in which he was seated. “To which circumstances are you referring to?”
She laughed slightly, knowing she was almost definitely taking her life into her own hands by doing so, but really that was exactly where she wanted her life. The idea that these people honestly thought they were in charge of her, that they could dictate what would be happening to her and she would just stand there and take it was laughable. So what if she was not yet a Time Lady? She was still arguable the smartest and most inspired student in the whole Time Academy.
“The circumstances to which I refer are of the involvement of the President. I am not naïve enough to be unaware that this is the true reason for my punishment. Expulsion? Really? For my work on increased growth of Earth based mammals, when at least ten per cent of the universe at any one time are starving to death?” She laughed again and shook her head. It was too late now, she had nothing else to lose so she not going play to part of the apologetic criminal any longer. “Oh how very short sighted you are.” she turned slowly to face the audience watching her apparent downfall. . “How very short sighted you all are. Sitting there, observing the whole of time and space. Do you people not realise what we are capable of? What we could do? We do not deserve to gifts Rassilon gave us, we do nothing with them. We are so completely detached from the rest of the universe, so really what is the point?” Her eye caught that of Koschei, who was beaming in agreement.
That’s my girl,” he projected, aware that speaking out loud would ruin his own plans. He needed to stay at the Academy in order to become a Time Lord, to get his own Tardis and get as far away from this damned planet and its people as he could and he knew that she would understand that. You tell them, Ushas! You tell them how pointless and feeble they are!
“So what if the President lost his blasted pet?” she continued, spurred on by Koschei’s encouragement, even while Theta Sigma was sitting beside him in stunned silence. “For a race of people that can see everything you really cannot see the bigger picture at all, can you? There have to be sacrifices in the name of science! Do you think Rassilon and Omega did not make sacrifices to create you? To create your precious technology? You people have no idea!”
“Order!” The President yelled, standing for his throne at the side of the main balcony at the far end of the room, as Ushas whired around to face him, her hearts thumping hard in her chest, high on adrenaline and the knowledge that it did not matter what they did to her now, because she had said her piece and hopefully someone would listen and do something, even if it was only Koschei and Theta Sigma.
“How dare you say such things about us?” he roared.
“I say them because they are true,” she informed them. “The great and mighty Time Lords? Oh please. How many of you have even left the planet? How many of you have even left the citadel?” Behind her she could hear murmurs of agreement, of questioning and of outrage. She had got them, they knew she was right. Their whole race was a joke.
“Quiet!” The arch chancellor and president shouted in unison.
“Do you not see this girl is mad? You are lucky we are only sending you away. For the things you have said today we should lock you up, send you off to a deserted and dying planet to live out the rest of the your days,” the arch chancellor informed her.
Ushas had to admit she was rather to tell him to do it, but her sense of self-preservation kicked in before she could. “What are you going to do with me?” she asked instead, slightly breathless from her little tirade.
She watched as the two elder Time Lords leant in towards one another apparently deciding what they could do to punish her for her outbreak. After what felt like a lifetime, but was in fact only a minute or two the arch chancellor spoke again.
“We have already been in contact with another celestial education provider,” he informed her. “They have agreed to accept you as a way of encouraging us to consider joining the Federation.”
Ushas could only hope they were referring to the Science Academy on Vulcan, though something told her that was highly unlikely, probably because she might actually enjoy that. “Which member planet of the Federation?” she questioned, trying not to even let the thought that was trying to form in her mind do so. She already knew what the answer was going to be. It made perfect sense for her punishment.
“Earth,” the president informed her, looking a little too happy with himself. “You will be transferred to the Starfleet Academy in San Francisco, in the 23rd century, just in time for the start of the new academic year. You will then serve under Starfleet for at least thirty Earth years.” He paused a moment to enjoy the sudden change of facial expression on the young Gallifreyans face. She no longer looked nearly as pleased with herself, nor as wild. In fact she looked rather like am upset child, small and lost and frightened. “Oh and as punishment for your little out burst we have also decided to reduce the number of regenerations you have, from twelve to six. We feel this is more than generous under the circumstances. We would have reduced it further but the life span for most members of Starfleet in greatly reduced anyway, so we thought this would make up for that matter.”
Having her regenerations reduced meant little to Ushas. She was certain her sense of self preservation when it came to matters of life or death were strong enough that she would be fine with that many, even if they were putting her in life threatening positions. She would deal with all of this and then when Koschei and Theta Sigma graduated to become Time Lords themselves they would come and get her and they would travel together whether she was a Time Lady or not. Then they would show the Gallifreyan council exactly what their kind were truly capable of. “When do I leave?” she asked simply, pulling herself together and looking up at the two men, her jaw set in determination.
“First thing tomorrow. We suggest you use the time to pack up your belongings and say your good byes,” the arch chancellor told her. “You will have a guard until you are handed over to Starfleet, you to make sure you not try to escape in the meantime.”
Ushas inwardly scoffed at the suggestion. As if giving a guard would be enough to stop her if she truly wanted to escape. If the arch chancellor honestly believed that he clearly did not know her at all. Still there was no point of even considering escape at least until she was inside a Tardis. “Of course,” she said instead. “I expected nothing less. May I go now?”
“Do you have nothing else to say for yourself?” he asked.
She shook her head and smiled slightly, up at him. “Think I’ve said all I have to for today,” she informed him. “I believe I have rather a lot of packing to do though.”
Bear in mind spelling etc is likely to be even worse than usual because I really am trying not to edit myself too much.
Ushas stood in the middle of the huge, ornate hall surrounded by various members of her chapter, staff members from the Time Academy and her parents, suddenly feeling very, very small. Everyone else was seated in the balcony high above her in tiered seating, looking at her on the floor. She knew this place was designed purely to make the accused, the in trouble feel tiny, but that knowledge did not make it any less true. This time at least she had the sense to look apologetic, to look as if she was sorry for what she had done and to remove the almost permanent smug look from her face. This time she knew she was not getting out this with a mere warning. Theta Sigma’s word revolved around her head so loudly she could have been sure he was projecting them to her, though when she managed to locate him on one of the rows in between Koschei and Drax he did not even seem to be looking at her. She only hoped this was because it was too painful for him, and not because he did not. Of course him not caring would have made things significantly easier, as it would had she not cared just as she always claimed.
“Say you’re sorry, Ush. Beg if you have to. If they say they’re going to take away all of your equipment let them!”
Let them take away her equipment? She would rather them take away her regenerations, all of them. Still at the moment it looked as if she had options. She had run out of chances and the very worse thing was this time it was hardly even her fault. She had been unlucky, no that was not right. She was smart enough to know luck was not real. She had overestimated the strength of the cage in which she was keeping her test subjects. It had hardly been her fault that they had managed to break out. Perhaps if the Academy did not insist on using such cheap materials for their learning tools she would not even be here. In fact she was almost she would not have been here if her experiments had not managed to find their way to the damned President’s chamber and eaten one of his beloved pets. That was what this was really about, why this was truly her last chance. Why it was seeming increasingly likely that she was about to be expelled from the Academy a mere twenty eight years before her graduation. All of the other little ‘incidents’ had happened to other people. To members of staff or other students and no one had died, so it did not matter. Not until the President himself had been affected, and now it was time to come down hard upon her, to make an example of her so that anyone thinking of doing anything against the President would know that such a thing would not be tolerated.
She chanced a glance at the elder Time Lord, keeping her head ducked as she looked up at him, fighting the urge to glare. Chances were if she did such a thing she would be in even more trouble than she was now. Assuming for a moment that that was possible. She doubted he would speak at all during her trail, he was probably only here to see that justice was done, that he would get his revenge for what had happened. For what she had done. Really she knew she should have been more careful. She should have kept a closer eye on the growth rate of her white lab mice. She should have tested the strength of the metal of which the cages were made out of, still she knew she would not be here were it not for the President and his lose. Of course Ushas herself could not see what all the fuss was about there either. She had never seen the point in pets herself. They were just stupid animals that required feeding, looking after and cleaning up after and what did you get in return? Some small furry creature curling up against you? Luckily though she had so far managed to keep these thoughts to herself. The last thing she needed to do was antagonise him further.
“Ushas,” a booming voice said, breaking her out of her own person annoyance. “I assume you know why you have been called here, yet again.”
The young Gallifreyan nodded, but said nothing. The longer she was able to keep her mouth shut the longer she would not be at risk of saying something inappropriate. She was sure this was a trait she had picked up from Theta Sigma. He liked to think he could talk his way out of trouble, but the number of detentions he had landed the three of them in suggested otherwise. His problem was he never knew when to stop talking.
“If you could speak up,” the same voice prompted.
Ushas sighed heavily. So much for that plan then. “Yes, sir,” she said politely. “I am aware of why I am here.” She paused for a moment wondering if she should carry on, or if perhaps only answering the specific question was the best idea.
“Would you care to share you version of events with the assembly?” he questioned.
The girl opened her mouth to protest about the way the question had been posed. Her version of events? Well so much for even the possibility that this might be a fair trial. “My version,” she said carefully, “is that a number of white mice from the planet of Sol Three, also known as Earth that I had been experimenting on managed to escape from both their cages and my lab, as a result of a their rapid growth. I was in Tardis training at the time and thus was unaware of what was happening. Had I been aware I assure you that I would have been able to deal with the problem before they could cause any damage.”
“But as you have pointed out you were not aware,” he pointed out. “And they did cause rather a lot of damage, did they not?”
“Yes sir, they did,” she conceded. Really she had no idea why she was attempting to defend herself. She knew it would not matter what she said. Her fate had almost certainly already been decided, this was just to show that everything was being done as protocol demanded.
“Would you care to share with everyone the damage they caused?” he asked.
Yet again Ushas sighed. “Not especially,” she admitted. “I dare say everyone knows already, anyway.”
“I am assuming you are referring to the fact that one of your enlarged specimens managed to find its way into the Presidents private chambers, in which his cat was sleeping?” he said.
“Yes, sir,” she confirmed.
“And that said specimen…ate the Presidents cat,” he pressed.
“That is my understanding of the matter,” she agreed, pausing as she remembered she was supposed to be apologising. “For which I am very sorry,” she added hastily. “I promise should I be allowed to stay at the Academy that I will not carry out any further experiments that may put anyone or anything in any kind of danger.”
There was a humourless laugh from the Time Lord that was seemingly in charge of this trial. “It is a little late for that, Ushas,” he informed her. “The decision has already been made. You will be expelled from the Time Academy and sent else where to finish your education.”
I thought it might have, she thought to herself, raising her head to look at him finally. There was no point in even trying anymore, not right now at least, though she had never been one to give up quite so easily.
“Do you have nothing else to say?” he asked.
“Is there any point?” she inquired. “If the decision had been made then I very much doubt there is anything I can say that will make you nor anyone else in the council change their minds.” She paused for just a second before continuing. “Particularly under the circumstances.” In the back of her mind she heard Theta Sigma’s voice say her name, exasperatedly. She smiled slightly to herself. It was interesting just how well he knew her. How one simple, fairly innocent sentence had been enough to alert him to the fact that she was about to argue.
“Under the circumstances?” the arch chancellor repeated, leaning forward in the ornate wooden chair in which he was seated. “To which circumstances are you referring to?”
She laughed slightly, knowing she was almost definitely taking her life into her own hands by doing so, but really that was exactly where she wanted her life. The idea that these people honestly thought they were in charge of her, that they could dictate what would be happening to her and she would just stand there and take it was laughable. So what if she was not yet a Time Lady? She was still arguable the smartest and most inspired student in the whole Time Academy.
“The circumstances to which I refer are of the involvement of the President. I am not naïve enough to be unaware that this is the true reason for my punishment. Expulsion? Really? For my work on increased growth of Earth based mammals, when at least ten per cent of the universe at any one time are starving to death?” She laughed again and shook her head. It was too late now, she had nothing else to lose so she not going play to part of the apologetic criminal any longer. “Oh how very short sighted you are.” she turned slowly to face the audience watching her apparent downfall. . “How very short sighted you all are. Sitting there, observing the whole of time and space. Do you people not realise what we are capable of? What we could do? We do not deserve to gifts Rassilon gave us, we do nothing with them. We are so completely detached from the rest of the universe, so really what is the point?” Her eye caught that of Koschei, who was beaming in agreement.
That’s my girl,” he projected, aware that speaking out loud would ruin his own plans. He needed to stay at the Academy in order to become a Time Lord, to get his own Tardis and get as far away from this damned planet and its people as he could and he knew that she would understand that. You tell them, Ushas! You tell them how pointless and feeble they are!
“So what if the President lost his blasted pet?” she continued, spurred on by Koschei’s encouragement, even while Theta Sigma was sitting beside him in stunned silence. “For a race of people that can see everything you really cannot see the bigger picture at all, can you? There have to be sacrifices in the name of science! Do you think Rassilon and Omega did not make sacrifices to create you? To create your precious technology? You people have no idea!”
“Order!” The President yelled, standing for his throne at the side of the main balcony at the far end of the room, as Ushas whired around to face him, her hearts thumping hard in her chest, high on adrenaline and the knowledge that it did not matter what they did to her now, because she had said her piece and hopefully someone would listen and do something, even if it was only Koschei and Theta Sigma.
“How dare you say such things about us?” he roared.
“I say them because they are true,” she informed them. “The great and mighty Time Lords? Oh please. How many of you have even left the planet? How many of you have even left the citadel?” Behind her she could hear murmurs of agreement, of questioning and of outrage. She had got them, they knew she was right. Their whole race was a joke.
“Quiet!” The arch chancellor and president shouted in unison.
“Do you not see this girl is mad? You are lucky we are only sending you away. For the things you have said today we should lock you up, send you off to a deserted and dying planet to live out the rest of the your days,” the arch chancellor informed her.
Ushas had to admit she was rather to tell him to do it, but her sense of self-preservation kicked in before she could. “What are you going to do with me?” she asked instead, slightly breathless from her little tirade.
She watched as the two elder Time Lords leant in towards one another apparently deciding what they could do to punish her for her outbreak. After what felt like a lifetime, but was in fact only a minute or two the arch chancellor spoke again.
“We have already been in contact with another celestial education provider,” he informed her. “They have agreed to accept you as a way of encouraging us to consider joining the Federation.”
Ushas could only hope they were referring to the Science Academy on Vulcan, though something told her that was highly unlikely, probably because she might actually enjoy that. “Which member planet of the Federation?” she questioned, trying not to even let the thought that was trying to form in her mind do so. She already knew what the answer was going to be. It made perfect sense for her punishment.
“Earth,” the president informed her, looking a little too happy with himself. “You will be transferred to the Starfleet Academy in San Francisco, in the 23rd century, just in time for the start of the new academic year. You will then serve under Starfleet for at least thirty Earth years.” He paused a moment to enjoy the sudden change of facial expression on the young Gallifreyans face. She no longer looked nearly as pleased with herself, nor as wild. In fact she looked rather like am upset child, small and lost and frightened. “Oh and as punishment for your little out burst we have also decided to reduce the number of regenerations you have, from twelve to six. We feel this is more than generous under the circumstances. We would have reduced it further but the life span for most members of Starfleet in greatly reduced anyway, so we thought this would make up for that matter.”
Having her regenerations reduced meant little to Ushas. She was certain her sense of self preservation when it came to matters of life or death were strong enough that she would be fine with that many, even if they were putting her in life threatening positions. She would deal with all of this and then when Koschei and Theta Sigma graduated to become Time Lords themselves they would come and get her and they would travel together whether she was a Time Lady or not. Then they would show the Gallifreyan council exactly what their kind were truly capable of. “When do I leave?” she asked simply, pulling herself together and looking up at the two men, her jaw set in determination.
“First thing tomorrow. We suggest you use the time to pack up your belongings and say your good byes,” the arch chancellor told her. “You will have a guard until you are handed over to Starfleet, you to make sure you not try to escape in the meantime.”
Ushas inwardly scoffed at the suggestion. As if giving a guard would be enough to stop her if she truly wanted to escape. If the arch chancellor honestly believed that he clearly did not know her at all. Still there was no point of even considering escape at least until she was inside a Tardis. “Of course,” she said instead. “I expected nothing less. May I go now?”
“Do you have nothing else to say for yourself?” he asked.
She shook her head and smiled slightly, up at him. “Think I’ve said all I have to for today,” she informed him. “I believe I have rather a lot of packing to do though.”