Re: Chapter 3: The Thing in the Ice
Archives – Tarys, Trace:
Tarys had certainly recognised Gallifrey was the target of this kamikaze planet, but could feel a small amount of relief. If a planet of insanely aggressive decipedes had collided with Gallfrey, well, she probably would have noticed. And this planet would no longer be intact. The attack hadn't happened yet, its timeline was unresolved; there was still time to prevent it. Provided, of course, she could drive a whole planet off course, its controls frozen in ice somewhere.
'...most of the friezes we've seen so far have depicted the past. But we seem to be in the future here. The carvings are somewhat newer and in a different hand, or pincer, if you like. It may be a prophecy, a Ragnarok- or Apocalypse-like event, a final battle between the Yag Haz and these others. We may be seeing their religious beliefs. Quite fascinating...' After his earlier shock and breakdown, Ortega had regained some measure of control and the blinkered attitude he'd made himself notorious for. But there was a quaver in his voice, a wild stare behind his spectacles – it was the tension of a man who'd seen all his plans and works in ruins and was now somewhere past the point of madness, holding on to the one thing keeping him sane: an overwhelming ability to ignore the obvious and shocking truth.
'Sir, those were Daleks. We need to be get out of here. There's something going on back there, there's one of those Yag Haz things outside...' Vax tried to break his professor's fixation, with no effect.
They came to the end of the final battle between good and evil, or rather, limp and helpless Time Lords and all-devouring Yag Haz pulling them limb from limb, and moved onto an almost blank section of wall. '...Ah, now we come to a different style again. See how shallow and hastily carved it is? The fellow must have been in quite a hurry. Hmm, it seems to be the last one...'
Tarys, Trace, and Hali caught up and saw the final few panels. There was another attempt at a space map, only this time a trajectory had come from the clock-face world, one bearing a sigil translating to "Death" (a decipede on its back, legs in the air). It intersected and stopped at the Yag Haz world.
Bizarrely, the final panel then showed an array of crudely scratched stick figures of humanoids with blasters and decipedes. Crowds of humanoids were blasting the decipedes. From one sketch of a decipede, a leg became a long trailing line running down the wall.
On the ground was a discarded chisel. They'd already walked through the ash of the desperate decipede artist.
'One of their tools! A valuable archaeological artefact.'