Enter The Rani (Part 1)
The Doctor lies. People tend to forget this simple fact when thinking of his feats of bravery and daring do. They think of him as kind and gentle and above all else good. But above all else The Doctor lies. What are his true origins? How was he really born? What is his age? What is his name? Who are his true enemies? He would have the universe believe that I am an enemy. That I am an amoral scientist who is capable of the greatest evils ever perpetrated. A woman who will do anything regardless of consequences in the name of science. He lies. I am Ushas and this is my story.
I am an anomaly. Some would say an abomination that should never have been allowed to come into being. Yet my parents called me a gift, and a friend once said I was an impossible miracle. Whatever the word used, whatever the connotation is, I am different. You see, the circumstances of my birth are quite unique by Time Lord standards. I was born to a mother and a father, not created with many other beings on a genetic loom as is customary. I was conceived in a manner considered base and barbaric. A lustful indulgence of man and woman that the Time Lords had long thought they had moved past. But my parents, great scientists in their own right, had been stationed in the remotest corner of the universe, in a barren galaxy, on a small planet known as Earth. They were in the very heart of India, the perfect place to study humanity. For within this microcosm existed extremes of abundance and beauty but also desolation and poverty. This vibrant influx of extremes made this land the very best and very worst of humanity. My parents hated it, yet they loved it. Even once returned to Gallifrey they longed for the dry heat that clogged the nostrils with sweetness and saffron dreams. That sense of magic and open awareness that in the entire universe they had only found in India. Indeed they fell so in love with this land that they embraced it as their own and began to not only study the customs of humanity but to fully immerse themselves in them. My father began calling my mother his Queen, his Rani, and they fell deeper in love the longer they stayed. I am a direct result of that immersion in culture, that love. My mother unknowingly used up what would be her last regeneration to push me into the world just as the locals did. This was a decision that she said she never regretted, she called me her Princess. Said she would do it again in a double heartbeat. My father clung to us both, his Queen and his Princess; you could scarce find a happier family. Yet in the end, all this was taken from me, despite our love.
When my parents’ tenure on Earth was up we returned to Gallifrey. I was but a small child but I knew that I was different and for many unwelcome. My mother was stripped of her remaining regenerations by The High Council of Gallifrey as a result of her petty humanistic indulgences. She was shamed and stripped of her Time Lady status, given the remaining lifespan of the humans she had come to love so much. My father begged them for leniency. He told them of how they were scientists who simply involved themselves in their research – without experiencing life as the humans did how could they ever understand them? He pleaded with The High Council to punish him as well, so that he may share her punishment. He wanted to give her half of his regenerations. The High Council were unmoved. Cold, unfeeling, arrogant, they never changed. We hated them but we loved each other. My mother insisted that if this was to be her last life then we were to pack all that would have been into that short period. We loved hard, we laughed hard and we studied hard. We were to make the most of the one lifetime that we had together. And so despite our mistrust of The High Council I was still indoctrinated in the ways of Gallifrey so that I too could have a full life witnessed by my mother.
At the age of eight I was taken to look into The Untempered Schism like all children of Gallifrey. Some howled in terror at the sight, others ran in confusion, some simply collapsed. No me. I looked into this gap in space and time and The Time Vortex revealed to me my purpose in life. I too would become a great scientist like my parents, and I would unlock the secrets behind regenerations. I would give my mother back her lives. Nothing would stop me, including The High Council. I had been inspired. My parents accepted my vision as clear and true because it was their vision at the Schism that had inspired their path which had eventually led to India. So it was decided that I must begin my training at the finest school on Gallifrey, the Prydonian Academy. It was there where I would meet a bumbling boy who would become my dearest friend and my greatest downfall. For this boy’s mistakes would ultimately cut short my future at the academy, and result in me fleeing Gallifrey with the secrets of regeneration still eluding me.
THE STORY OF THE RANI AND HER DAYS AT THE ACADEMY TO COME
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