Chapter 1
The Master crouched beneath the center console, his hand to his chin as he examined the inner workings of his TARDIS. He tapped at a screen and muttered under his breath.
Sally watched from a distance. He had a habit of forgetting that she was there when he got into these moods, and she found it best not to bother him. Instead she entertained herself by trying to picture the Master with hair upon his bald head. At six feet tall and often with a severe expression, the Master might have been more approachable with a strange haircut.
The Master wasn’t the easiest person to get along with, but he’d saved her life when he’d pushed her out of the way of a taxi. What’s more, he’d changed it forever; he’d introduced her to a universe she would never have believed before she’d met him.
The Time Lords. He was one of them, an alien with two hearts and a time machine. He and his kind were working to prevent a psychic gas called the Eminence from taking over every mind in the universe; some said that it was an even bigger threat than the Daleks and, while Sally had never encountered these Daleks herself, that was a terrifying thought.
All in all, it was much more interesting than a university in London.
Finally the Master stood up and, just as she’d thought, jumped back in surprise when he saw her on the other side of the console. “When did you get here?” he asked. Before she could answer, he was already at the door of the TARDIS, daylight shining around his frame. “Well?” he called. “Are you coming?”
Sally followed without question, emerging onto a forest trail in the onset of summer. The TARDIS disappeared behind them, cloaked in the guise of one oak tree among hundreds. “What does this have to do with the Eminence?” she asked as they walked.
He spared her a confused glance. “Oh, no. This is what you might call a side quest,” he said with humor in his eyes. “You see, most of my plans require endurance and focus upon long-term goals. Now, I can see why my being a Time Lord, with all that that entails, might make the need for patience and timing seem irrelevant, but I find I really do enjoy taking on more than one task at a time and—”
Suddenly he stopped in the middle of the path. Before them stood a well-dressed but ugly little man perhaps better described as an imp, a head or two shorter than Sally and with a bulbous nose far too large for his face. “I see the one known as the Master has graced us with his presence once more,” said the man in a low rasp. “Are you here to make a deal, perhaps?” His twisted grin slid from the Master to Sally. “And who is your...companion, if I may ask?”
The Master’s pursed lips tightened at the imp’s choice of words, but the smaller man paid the Master no mind.
Sally glanced from one man to the other and decided to ease the tension before either could do something they would all regret. “I’m Sally,” she replied.
“She’s my...” The Master paused. He turned to Sally, who stared back in disbelief, then back to the imp. “You know, she’s really not important,” he said instead. “We have things to do and can’t be bothered.”
Sally’s frown deepened, but she faced the imp with a forced laugh. “I’m his daughter,” she lied. “We’re on our way to—”
“His daughter?” The strange man’s eyes grew large and bright. He bounded forward with a hand outstretched, almost skipping with glee. “So very nice to meet you, Sally, daughter of the Master.”
With one quick movement, the Master seized him by his collar and lifted him up off of the ground until his face was at eye level. “I told you the last time we did business,” he said coldly, “that it was indeed the last time.”
“Oh, I have not forgotten,” the imp said, still grinning. He kicked his feet up over his head, twisting out of the Master’s grip and somersaulting to his feet. “But the future can be rewritten, can it not?” With that, the strange man scampered away, disappearing into the bushes without a trace.
The Master spun and speared Sally with a glare. “Why on earth did you tell him that?” he hissed.
“Oh, come on,” she said defensively. “If we need a cover story, I’m more likely to be your daughter than your mother.”
“Yes, bravo, good thinking, and you have just told someone notorious for dealing in children and families that you, Sally, are my daughter.” He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Well, it doesn’t matter. We’re here for one reason, and that reason has nothing to do with him.”
