Reality Shift

Karlas, the Order of the Shade

Reality Shift is a Doctor Who novel. The second novel to feature the Seventh Doctor's new companions, it tells of the Doctor's visit to the planet Deram.

## Characters

* Seventh Doctor
* Bernice Summerfield
* Ruby Galcess
* Niecytise Cnartise
* "The Void" (or The Master)
* Karlas
* Anhoor
* General Carvis
* Thar'shil
* O88-B
* V66-B
* The "Perfect One"
* Third Doctor

rest to be added

## Publisher's summary

"What is the meaning of death when you have the ability to erase people from existence, make it almost as though they never existed?"

After finding a rift in the very fabric of existence, the TARDIS lands on the planet Deram. In the distant past, every single lifeform on the planet was eradicated. Now, the planet is used as an amusement park for interstellar visitors. The star attraction is the "Gate of Realities" - a rift between what is and what is not. While within it, you can see what could have been.

As Bernice joins an archaelogical expedition on the Deramites, she finds someone rather interested in her works. But an obsessed fan isn't the worst of her (and her fellow travellers') problems.

An ancient enemy of the Doctor sits in orbit and a vicious murderer stalks the park. Both are tied to an ancient cult with horrible plans involving Deram.

Seemingly, only the Doctor has the power to stop the ransacking of all possible universes, but the Doctor has gone missing.

## Plot

#### Prologue

Three hundred years before the events of Reality Shift, the Third Doctor (on orders that he assumed came from the Time Lords) attempts to stop a Thelian plot to destroy the planet Deram but is captured by General Carvis. Carvis gloats that the Doctor has failed and launches a series of missiles from Thelis onto Deram. The missiles orbit around Deram and then smash into each other in the atmosphere - doing nothing to Deram. The Doctor escapes in the ensuing chaos as Thelian forces opposed to General Carvis' forces besiege Carvis' compound. As the Doctor flees, Carvis swears blood vengeance on the Doctor.

## References

* Deram and Thelis orbit each other and sit within the Serilkis system.
* Deram serves as a massive gateway towards realities powered by psychic thought.
* The peoples of Deram, the Deramites were wiped out by the "Void". Seeing a possible threat to their existence, the Olympians formed a clone-race from their genetic information, the Hyisti (who viewed their origins as a spiritual origin story).
* Karlas is an assassin hired by the Order of the Shade (a K'ephite cult) tasked with gaining first contact with the Void and wiping out any witnesses to this first contact. He is nearly killed by the Void but it instead kills Carvis and forms a replica of its victim's form. While trying to fully summon K'eph the Inverter, he is slain by O88-B (who is killed in the process).
* General Carvis is a leader of a Thelian extremist group called the Veristis Militia with ties to the Order of the Shade. Karlas is another member of the Militia, serving as their link to the Order.
* O88-B is an archaeologist Numistical Android with an extreme love for the works of Bernice Summerfield.
* V-66B is a Numistical Android hired by the Militia due to his extreme proficiency with the art of war. While trying to kill Ruby Galcess, he is killed by Anhoor. He has a slender body with a spherical head and white "eyes" around his head in a ring-shaped pattern.
* Anhoor is a Hyisti archaeologist.
* The Doctor briefly walks into the "dark recesses of existence", seeing a twisted version of Deram (and Gallifrey) filled with various hideous creatures within its confines. Though this realm normally shreds visitors within it into a soup of subatomic particles, but the Doctor is protected by the Olympians.
* The Crystal Palace is a luxury resort built on Deram.

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## Continuity

### In-universe

* The Void is a fragment of K'eph, similarly to the Shadeling from Twilight of the Comet.

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### Doctor Who

* O88-B mentions Bernice Summerfield's works, including Down Among the Dead Men, Head Invaders!, and Fear and Sloathes in Las Vegas.