25
Forward:
Where in continuity are we?
This story take place in between the events of the end of "The Ultimate Foe" and "Time and the Rani". Just as the Audio Adventures utilize the "flub" in the Doctor stating his age from his 6th incarnation to the very first appearance of his 7th, this gives us roughly 50 actual years of time to play with. That's an almost infinite amount of adventures to plug a timelord into!
Worried that he could possibly regenerate into the evil future version of himself known as the Valyard, the 6th Doctor sets about to alter the events of his own timeline hoping to keep that persona only a shadow of a possibility, a flicker from some alternate reality. To this end he has crossed his own timeline out of desperation and kept himself from meeting with and accepting Mel as a traveling companion, at least for the time being.
Within this timeframe we see a variety of "new" companions and the door is open to create further ones. Such is the case as you will see in the following pages.
"I am the passenger
I stay under glass
I look through my window so bright
I see the stars come out tonight
I see the bright and hollow sky
Over the city's ripped backsides
And everything looks good…tonight."
-Iggy Pop: "The Passenger"
Prologue:
Attempted Genocide
Lord Targ of the Gogolmux stood proudly in his silver battle exo-suit on the bridge of the intergalactic destroyer craft he commanded. Two of his chitonous arms were clasped contemplatively behind his back while the other two rested on his hips.
He smiled as he took in the panoramic view that sprawled across the enormous view screen in front of him. The object which his gigantic craft now orbited was the planet Earth!
"This small blue world? HMPH!" He spat in contempt.
"This backwater mud ball will someday, centuries hence, rise up and destroy our home world? It seems hard to believe, yet I have broken galactic treaties to cross the time barriers and come here to an era when this planet is defenseless against the technology of the Gogulmux Empire! Today the planet Earth dies!"
The crew aboard the destroyer let forth a disturbing chittering noise which in their own insectoid language was the equivalent of a "Huzzah!" All the while the inhabitants of sixth century Earth went about their daily lives completely unaware that unkind eyes watched their world with the deadliest of intentions.
Lord Targ laughed, seemingly quite pleased with himself.
"No satellite defense systems, no interceptor missiles, no fighter craft to oppose us! Nothing and no one… to…save…"
His words trailed off and were replaced by a look of shock and disbelief as an unbelievable image buzzed past his field of vision. A spinning blue box for lack of a better description, zipping through the void.
"What the Grok was that!?"
"Incoming transmission sir." Answered the Gogolmux communications officer.
Targ wheeled around angrily just in time to see a holographic image of a humanoid male appear on his command deck. He was clad in a frock coat in a garish array of colors and his head was crowned with a neat mop of sandy, blonde curls. He seemed to hold an almost bemused expression on his face as he began to speak via universal translator.
"I have the distinct impression that your intentions towards this planet are less than honorable. Care to put my mind at ease?"
Targ drew in a breath slow and deliberate as all four hands clenched into fists.
"Who are you Earthman? You're not from this time, not possible."
The holographic projection of the figure betrayed a smirk.
"I hear that a lot. I am not an earthman as you put it, I am from the planet Gallifrey and I am known as the Doctor. Now I doubt very much that you belong in this time either, and judging from the fact that you're on a warship from a race which I happen to know harbors a grudge against this planet…"
The man arched an eyebrow and cocked his head to finish the implication of his statement.
"So! A meddling Timelord…." Targ growled.
The image shrugged.
"You've been warned. End transmission."
With that the hologram blipped out leaving the Gogolmux Lord with narrowed eyes and a trembling rage. He turned sharply towards his weapons officer while pointing to the view screen with both of his left arms.
"Charge the seismic disruptor and fire! I want that planet turned to dust!"
The weapons officer dutifully complied, turning a series of dials as a power grid displayed the energy levels rising to full capacity. As the level display reached its peak he stabbed at a glowing red button with his slender, razor haired finger. Lord Targ watched the view screen with anticipation. In an instant the Gogolmux warrior's defiance turned to confusion and then panic.
Every illuminated device on the bridge dimmed with a droning whine. Crew members stared at dead instruments in surprise.
"Report! What's going on?!" Screamed Targ.
"Weapons and engine power has been diverted sir!"
"Diverted where?"
The weapons officer quickly checked and re-checked his barely functioning monitors and gauges and then looked up with a sickly expression and a timid voice.
"Self destruct system."
Behind Targ the strange, out of place image of the blue box in the void of space buzzed past the battle cruiser's view screen. Lord Targ shook all four of his fists in a trembling rage as his crew scrambled about in a panic. Bellowing like an animal as the plasma core of his ship's engine went critical.
"Curse you! Curse you to the twelve hells of Shexar! The doom of the Gogolmux home world is sealed!"
The Doctor had orchestrated his plan by travelling back to a point in time just before his transmission to the Gogolmux warship and materializing on board during that crafts own shift through time. With his advanced knowledge of temporal theory he knew that although risky he would be able to move about the ship undetected, having calibrated his craft, the T.A.R.D.I.S. to materialize slightly out of synch by mere milliseconds.
This dangerous maneuver was only conceivable within the time stream. Effectively a ghost the Doctor had rewired the weapons systems into the ships self destruct device. If the Gogolmux attempted genocide they would find the favor returned!
The grand warship exploded in a noiseless expansion of light and death. Debris scattering out to burn up at the fringe of Earth's atmosphere or fly out into the depths of the solar system.
The blue box faded off into the time stream even as what was left of the Gogolmux' temporal drive whizzed by the disguised time ship into the dark of space. The inhabitants of sixth century earth would record the event of the great light in the heavens. An event some twentieth century historians would argue was evidence of a U.F.O. sighting. Little would anyone realize how close the earth had come to destruction that day, or how the same events would affect mankind nearly two thousand years later.
2: Nightmares on the Moons of Mars
John Maxwell collapsed breathless with his back against the cold, metal door. He had shorted out the lock panel to keep it from opening and he was too exhausted to run anymore. Whatever the thing that tore poor Forbes, the custodian apart was, he prayed it couldn't savage its way through the door.
With a nerve wracking howl it was there, on the other side of the locked portal, plasteel alloy shrieking at the assault of massive claws. John closed his eyes tight and tried not to breathe. There was a noise then, almost indescribable but somewhat like the distant tinkling of falling glass across stone. It sounded very far away and yet strangely it felt very near. All of a sudden John Maxwell knew that whatever the monstrous thing that had chased him was, it was no longer waiting behind the locked door. No, now it was in the room with him. It could not be seen but in the churning pit of his stomach he knew that it watched him with hungry, terrible eyes!
John could contain his overwhelming fear no longer! Clutching frantically at both sides of his head with sweaty hands he screamed. Shooting up into a sitting position in his bed with panting, gasping breaths the realization washed over him that it was all a terrible nightmare. The same one he had been plagued with for weeks. Each time it was the same but each time the beast got a little bit closer to catching him!
He had barely regained his wits when a scream of abject horror came at him from the common hall of his living complex. Racing to his door and then out Mr. Maxwell spied his only neighbor on the floor, a middle aged woman named Zenia. She was staring in panic at the shredded remains of what was once a man. Limbs torn off, disemboweled, blood painting the walls red.
"Oh my god…" he stammered as he approached the butchered form with morbid curiosity.
Gingerly turning the torso over with his foot the gore flecked name badge flopped into immediate sight: Forbes Custodial Services. John's eyes grew wide in shock at seeing the name badge and then Zenia saw it too and began to scream again.
"I-I just had a nightmare that he was killed! Butchered by some monster!" She looked up at her slack jawed neighbor with imploring eyes right before she fainted dead away.
It was well past lunch when John Maxwell, a low level administrator in the office of the Phobos Colonial Mayor was finally released from the security offices of the colony police. They had dragged him in for questioning but it had felt more like a debriefing.
Police Scientists and psychologists offered him a host of theories and assured him he would be fine with the proper mental treatment. Even they sounded less than convinced though. Just spewing the lines they were told to by the colony hierarchy. Life on the Martian moons might be better than the overcrowded, over polluted mega cities of Earth, but beurocratic nonsense was alive and well on Phobos.
One whispered comment he had caught from a rookie cop had stuck with him.
"Probably nuts!"
With a heavy sigh Mr. Maxwell began to wonder if his sanity really was in question. That's when he saw the strange looking, strange dressed man smiling in wonder at the most mundane things as he nearly bumped into him.
"That tears it." He muttered to himself. "If the harlequin here is any indication I must be going crazy!"
His offhand remark had been heard by the stranger who turned an irritated smirk and clear blue eyes to rest on the tired and disheveled form of John Maxwell.
"Why do you think your going crazy sir? I'm quite real. Just caught up in the wonder of this place you know. Mankind on Mars! It's really quite an achievement! Atmosphere factories, hydroponic gardens, a fully functioning society!"
Maxwell stared with a bored yet at the same time slightly amused expression on his face. It was a rarity in the colonies, but the occasional crazy street person did crop up from time to time. No one came to the colonies without careful screening and a job classification. Poor guy must have simply gone loco. Maybe he was having the nightmares too? The thought occurred to ask just that question, but then he shook his head and dismissed the idea with an audible grunt. He wasn't about to get into a conversation with this guy.
"ummm Yeah, it's a real…marvel. Well, you have a good day then."
The stranger smiled in return and just then something from one of the pockets of his multi-colored waistcoat began to buzz like an angry, electronic hornet. He looked alarmed as he fished it from its hiding place. It was a circular device about the size of an old, antique pocket watch. John stepped back in surprise as others on the sidewalk gave the two a wide berth and did their best to ignore them.
"What the hell is that thing?"
The stranger's eyes narrowed on the device and then looked back up at Maxwell far more serious than before.
"This…"thing" as you called it, is a chronometer, it detects time particle fluctuations and abnormalities. You my dear fellow seem to be setting it off."
The man abruptly grabbed John by his chin and looked into his eyes as if inspecting them for something. His grip was both sudden and strong. The lowly administrator batted the unwelcome hand away in alarm.
"Hey! Get off! I'm crazy? The whole damn place is off its rocker!"
With that he hurried away from the oddly garbed man. Leaving him standing in the street pointing the buzzing gizmo at him and keying in something on its surface.
3: Holes
The Doctor had wanted to see the colonies on the Martian moon of Phobos for sometime. It was pure curiosity. According to what he recalled the colonies lasted from roughly 2530 to 2779 C.E. and then were destroyed by a terrible earthquake which decimated the atmosphere factories.
As he stood pondering the eventual demise of the area he stood in, he thought about what Peri might say had he brought her along. He was happy for her of course, as the new Queen to King Yrcanos, but he did miss her company, though he would be loathe to admit it! The only thing that saved him from his endless loop of thoughts was the chronometer going off again.
He had been idly holding the device in his hand, quite obliviously when once again an almost identical temporal anomaly registered. This time it registered from a distraught looking middle aged woman. Rather than approach her and risk scaring her off as he had done John Maxwell, the Doctor instead decided to follow from a safe, respectable distance.
The blonde woman with azure highlights and too much makeup eventually wound up at a small, fairly new looking living complex. The dome shaped structure was typical of its kind on 26th Century colony outposts. Inside it would be divided into six comfortable sized apartments, two on each of its 3 floors. Reading the resident list on the front entry port of the structure the Doctor noted that three of the apartments were unoccupied and the others were assigned to the building caretaker, a Mr. Wilson Forbes, John Maxwell, and Zenia DeLacourt.
Utilizing a device he had picked up some four hundred years in the future beyond this era he easily fooled the security code computer into allowing him entrance into the building. No sooner had he stepped foot through the portal than his chronometer went crazy! He too, felt strangely light headed and for the briefest of moments saw galaxy-like spirals of color flit too and fro before his eyes.
Though himself unaware he must have made a noise or cursed at the sight and his outburst brought the attention of Ms. Zenia DeLacourt, who opened her door to see the oddly dressed man with a hand to his forehead looking quite ill.
"Oh my! A-are you ok? You must be the new caretaker. Is everything alright? Y-You didn't see the wolf did you?"
The tired faced woman approached the Timelord cautiously, as if afraid to step foot in her own buildings hallway. The Doctor was regaining his wits quickly and took advantage of the situation.
"Yes, yes I am…the new caretaker. Sorry just a dizzy spell, I'll be alright."
Zenia's natural bachelorette instincts kicked in with a smile as she took the stranger by the arm.
"Oh please come in and sit down a minute. I'll get you some water; my tanks were just refilled yesterday."
Entering the lonely woman's abode the Doctor felt instantly uncomfortable. Not from any sense of danger but from the overwhelming feeling of desperation on the part of a fifty-something single woman who didn't get out much.
He shuddered and mustered a half hearted smile as she winked and went to the kitchen to fetch some water. Almost immediately he began removing various gizmo's and gadgets from the pockets of his coat along with a small tool kit and began fiddling with them. Cobbling together an entirely new device comprised from several others.
Meanwhile in the kitchen Zenia was fixing her hair using the chrome refrigerator as a mirror. She had had a terrible night and a terrible day and right now what she wanted was to forget what she had seen in the hallway. Unfortunately her plans were dashed when the stranger's voice called to her from the living room.
"What did you mean by wolf out there? In the hall. You asked if I had seen the wolf."
Images of Forbes' savaged remains flashed through her mind, she caught herself on the counter and tried to shake the pictures away.
"T-they didn't tell you? The man you replaced was killed in the hall. Torn apart by some animal, a wolf…it was a big wolf. I suppose they must have caught it. I mean, where could it hide in a building like this? Right?"
The Doctor continued to tinker with his device with an eyebrow raised in curiosity.
"A wolf? On Mars? Did you see it or is this just a story from another tenant or the police?"
The voice that replied was small and shaky. It sounded distant, it was a sound of fear.
"I dreamed it. Dreamed it for days and then it came true."
The Doctor stepped into the kitchen doorway to find Zenia sitting on the floor with her back against the cold, hard refrigerator. Her makeup was streaked down her cheeks from tears.
"Come now dear lady, everything's going to be alright." He knelt down and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"I believe you. Trust me I've seen far stranger things than bad dreams coming true. Let's see if we can't fix this problem ok?"
For the first time in over a week since the dreams began Ms. Zenia DeLacourt felt like maybe, just maybe sleep wouldn't be so terrible.
In the only other occupied apartment John Maxwell sat tired and alone on his living room floor. On the small coffee table in front of him was sat up an impressive and colorful array of pills and capsules. Mr. Maxwell had been considering taking a large quantity of these pills for the past several minutes. With a sigh he dropped his face into his hands and knew that he couldn't do it.
"Maybe I can…just stay awake somehow. Some of those drugs they give to space freighter pilots to keep them up." He muttered to himself.
As Maxwell got to his feet he felt a cold shudder race down his spine as a vaguely familiar sound met his ears quite distinctly. A sound like shards of glass falling to the floor. He began to panic, his breaths coming quick and short as he inexorably turned around.
There behind him was thankfully no wolf or beast or demon, but something equally frightening and fantastic. A perfect circle, like a window, hovered in the center of the air behind him. It was about half the size of an average doorway. Looking directly at it was like watching a movie. A verdant jungle of bizarre plant life and dark rolling skies. Small, alien animals flitted into view from underbrush only to scamper off as they seemed to notice the slack jawed human watching them.
Shaking his head in disbelief John walked around the circle. It had no back or sides as though it only existed like a picture hung flat on a wall. It was, he thought, very much like a hole in the air itself. Timidly yet with unwavering curiosity John Maxwell ventured to reach inside the hole with a trembling right hand.
No sooner had the Doctor managed to calm down the distraught Ms. DeLacourt than a cry of sheer agony pierced the building. Zenia sat up from the couch where she lay in a panic and the gallant stranger wheeled about towards the sound in surprise as well.
"Stay here, someones in trouble!"
Zenia pulled the blanket up over her head and began to panic.
"The wolf! It's the wolf!"
The Doctor was already in the hall though, his hand instinctively feeling the myriad trinkets in his pockets. He carried no weapons for no raygun or blade was as sharp and deadly an instrument as his own superior intellect. Whatever awaited would not be met with force, but with an indomitable will.
Racing towards the screams the enigmatic alien found himself at the door to the apartment across the hall. The chronometer in his jacket pocket was pinging like an alarm bell as he deftly worked the cipher lock to gain ingress.
As the door slid open the Doctor was met with a horrifying site. John Maxwell, whom he recognized as the man he had met earlier on the street, held a bloody stump of a wrist and staggered towards him. His right hand had been neatly sliced off!
The air itself wavered here and there in the apartment like a dirt road on a hot August day. Staring in wonder the Doctor saw holes appear randomly in the nothing. Some as small as coins, others as large as dinner plates. Still more winked in and out like tiny spiraling galaxies! With a grave look the Timelord caught the fainting Mr. Maxwell and hurried him from the madhouse his chambers had become.
The rifts were appearing in the hall as well, though not nearly as much. Still a small creature, about the size of a starling, scampered through the hall on a dozen red spindly legs. The Doctor took a mental note of it as he rushed into the apartment of Ms. Delacourt with his bleeding burden. Thankfully the scared woman did not remove the blanket from over her head and so the Doctor was spared the almost certainly piercing screams she would have elicited seeing him tend to his charges wound.
At dizzying speed the Gallifreyan had cauterized and dressed the severed limb utilizing a small med kit from an inside pocket of his garish coat. He then gently pulled the covers from Zenia's face until she could see him looking at her quite seriously.
"Your neighbor is laying here on the floor. I tended to his wound and he will be just fine, I want you to stay here and keep an eye on him. Can you do that for me?"
The whimpering woman saw the blood trail from her doorway to the unconscious form of John Maxwell, who appeared to be sleeping comfortably with a neatly bandaged blunt ended right arm.
"Oh Mr. Maxwell!" She exclaimed and suddenly flew into a matronly fit of fetching blankets and pillows. Satisfied the Doctor raced into the kitchen, selected a large plastic drinking pitcher and a plate, and hurried into the hall.
The air had returned to normal now, no further distortions winked into being. In the stark white of the hall the stranger out of time scanned the floor and walls until with a smile finding its way to the corner of his mouth, he spied what he was looking for.
The bizarre little creature which had scampered through one of the rifts was curled up in a corner. It did not look especially dangerous, indeed it looked quite timid. Using the pitcher the Doctor scooped it up and clapped the plate over the top. He held up his prison to the light to get a better view of the thing.
It had twelve legs, segmented and bright red, rather insect looking, but its body was covered in a black fur and closely resembled the body of a bat. Its head held two oval eyes with vertical eyelids a pig-like snout and a mouth which held apparently blunt teeth.
"An herbivore I think, and mammalian." Smiled the Doctor as he carried his prize back into the apartment and sat it on the sofa table next to the device he had cobbled together earlier.
"Zenia DeLacourt moved from her task of making John Maxwell comfortable to gaze into the pitcher. Her face was cartoonishly magnified by the clear container as she peered in, causing the creature to squeak and back away.
"That big bug bit Mr. Maxwell's hand off?"
The Doctor arched an eyebrow at the woman and with an air of exasperation replied.
"Of course not! This creature is harmless. However unless I miss my guess it doesn't belong here…at least it hasn't for quite some time."
Adjusting some wires into fittings on his newly made gadget the Doctor pointed the device at the creature and depressed a button with his thumb. There was a buzzing and whirring from the dials of the gizmo which Zenia noticed seemed to correspond to a series of surprised expressions on its wielder's face.
"Verrry interesting, and as I expected after seeing those rifts."
Ms. DeLacourt tapped on the plastic that held the small life form.
"What did you expect?"
The Doctor gently pushed her hand away from her tapping in admonishment as he stood up in thought.
"This creature, like any being that travels through or is closely exposed to a time rift, has absorbed chronotons, time particles. This gauge reads time particle emissions. I made it to scan you actually, as you had set off my chronometer earlier, but this small creature tells quite a tale!"
The middle aged woman blinked in confusion and stared blankly at her male guest. He looked at the glazed expression and rolled his eyes.
"That animal is from the Moons of Mars alright, but the Mars of 50,000 years ago!"
Unbeknownst to the two, Mr. Maxwell had regained consciousness and had sat up just in time to catch the last part of the conversation. Upon hearing the last line he groaned and promptly fainted once more with a thud.
4: A Hand in Time
After being revived and explaining what had transpired in his apartment John Maxwell of the Phobos colony listened to the Doctor explain his theory of what was and had been happening to them.
"How I don't know but these "holes" seem to be temporal portals. Gates that open to another point in time for the purpose of traveling between the two. The only thing is that such a phenomenon cannot possibly be anything other than an intelligently designed happening."
John and Zenia both got the gist of what he was saying and replied almost in unison.
"You're saying someone is doing this to us?"
"It's really too random to think someone is targeting you specifically." Countered the Doctor.
"Perhaps someone is experimenting with temporal technology nearby? Though honestly that science won't become viable for about ten thousand more years."
The strangely garbed man smiled and began examining the small creature again while his two companions looked at each other wondering if they had heard the same thing. Snapping his fingers in revelation the Doctor fairly shouted.
"Of Course! You lost your hand when the portal closed on it Mr. Maxwell. Therefore we can safely assume its laying on the Phoban soil at the other end of the portals point."
Maxwell looked at the stump of his wrist in dismay as the Timelord continued.
"This device can trace the absorbed chronotons on an object to tell me a point of time origin. Such as on this creature it tells me it is from precisely fifty one thousand three hundred and twenty two years ago. At that time Mars and its moons had an atmosphere of their own and in fact were teaming with life. The wolf-like creature you saw most likely came and went through the portals sensing easy prey. Which..ahhh..I'm afraid means it will most likely be back given half a chance. Unless of course, it found the taste of your former custodian not to its liking."
John Maxwell stood up in disbelief.
"Hold it! Just hold it! Exactly who are you and how do you know all this stuff?"
The Doctor dismissed the man with a wave as he grabbed his strange device in one hand and scooped up the pitcher containing the creature with the other. Striding purposefully out the door towards Maxwell's apartment he let the door close behind him without answering the question. Zenia shrugged and got up to follow him.
"Well I'm starting to think he isn't really the new caretaker!"
Inside Maxwell's apartment Ms. DeLacourt found the stranger busying himself with calibrating his device and checking an antique pocket watch. He looked to be deep in thought. John came storming in after her.
"Well just make yourself at home why don't you!"
"Look Maxwell," Started the Doctor with a tinge of annoyance creeping into his firm voice. "If I can find the origins of what is generating these portals I can stop them. Your hand has absorbed chronotons from both eras and using you and this creature I should have enough data to triangulate where the portal generation is coming from."
John plopped down onto his couch with a dejected look. The strange man whom he had bumped into that very morning came over and sat beside him with a heavy sigh.
"John, the energy it takes to open even a tiny rift is phenomenal, and dangerous. You and Ms. DeLacourt claim to have dreamed of strange things. The time energy crackling in and out of existence is damaging your psyche. Creatures from another time are gaining access to a world no longer their own. It has to be fixed before both times suffer corruption and damage. I'm here to help, not to hurt you."
"What do we need to do then?" Maxwell asked.
"Mmmm Stand well clear I should think. If this is operating on some sort of cycle then we should see it begin again any moment now based on the time between the last two occurrences."
Almost as if on cue the atmosphere in the room grew distinctly heavier, slightly colder. The creature in the pitcher began to bristle and chatter. Then came the sound, like broken glass falling in slow motion or the tinkling of crystal. Small holes popped into being in the air itself. The largest this time about the size of a softball.
The Doctor removed the small animal from its prison and held it close to one of the portals. It scampered back through in a hurry.
"There you go my little friend!"
Peering carefully into one of the holes the stranger in a strange land began taking readings and calculations on a scrap piece of paper as well as his device. Lost in thought he turned his back on the particular rift he had been studying when Zenia and John both screamed in horror!
Feeling a wet snapping at the back of his head the Doctor wheeled about to face the small hole in the air once more only this time it was filled from the other side with a razor fanged, bestial snout!
He shuffled back in alarm as his two companions screamed:
"It's the wolf! It's the wolf that killed poor Forbes!"
Luckily there appeared to be no portal large enough for the beast to gain entry but it was still quite a savage sight! The Doctor glanced at his watch with a grimace.
"If it doesn't pull its snout out soon then…"
VWOOMP! The holes irised shut, winking out of existence once more. There was a split second cry of animal torment and then the ferocious creature's snout fell to John Maxwell's apartment floor, severed and bloody.
"I doubt it will survive a wound like that!" Stated the Doctor matter of factly.
He sat down on the sofa and began working out his calculations then, as if nothing remarkable had even happened. John and Zenia held tight to each other and stared in horror at the bloody toothed lump on the floor.
After about five minutes the Doctor looked up smiling smugly to himself.
"I should be able to use this data to locate the source of energy used to open the rifts." He pocketed his various items as he stood. Zenia looked alarmed.
"Wait! You're going? Leaving us in this nuthouse?"
"I must go to my TARDIS, my ship.." Stated the Doctor. Then almost in resignation continued.
"I suppose you two can come along if you want."
Without hesitation the two followed close on his heels towards the apartment door. He stopped suddenly as if a thought had just occurred, causing them to bump into each other.
"But don't touch anything and do what I say!"
5: The Past Catches Up
The Doctor's craft lay just on the outskirts of the colony hidden amid the twisted ruins of an unused scrap yard. He smiled with fond familiarity at what appeared to be a wooden, blue Police box, the like of which had not been common since the 1950's in Britain. Looking back at the two following him he saw that they had stopped dead, a look of confusion on their faces.
"She's a beauty isn't she? And far more than what she appears!"
John Maxwell touched the side of it with a confused look.
"This thing must be worth a fortune if it's real! How is this ancient thing going to help us though?"
The Doctor took Zenia's hand to help her up.
"Just get in and you'll see." He smiled.
Once the two had stepped through the door they found themselves not in a cramped booth, but in an open room of a size that seemed impossible from the looks of the thing they had stepped into! A large control console dominated the rooms center. Lights blinked from various devices which seemed to cover almost every surface. In the center of the console was a clear cylinder within which a geometric structure seemingly composed of crystal or perhaps glass sat. The interior was roomy enough for all three of them to occupy quite comfortably, another doorway opposite from the one they had entered seemed to lead to even more rooms beyond! The Owner of the remarkable craft went immediately to the console and pulled a lever which closed the doors behind them and began feeding the calculations he had made at the apartment into a computer.
"Welcome to the TARDIS!"
Zenia DeLacourt looked to her neighbor and stammered.
"H-how is this… What the hell…"
The Doctor spun around and smiled reassuringly.
"It's a little hard to explain in simple terms. You see, the TARDIS can disguise its outward appearance to blend in with wherever she lands, and the interior is simply…"
"Bigger on the inside…" stammered Maxwell in wide eyed astonishment.
The Timelord raised a finger with his mouth open as if to continue but apparently rethought his course of action and shook his head to himself as he spied the bewildered faces of his two passengers. Spinning back around he continued entering the data into his navigation computers. His amazed passengers were still little more in the clear as to how this ship was possible than before.
With a sound like a grinding, pulsing whine the central column of the control console began to raise and lower rhythmically. If anyone had been in sight from the outside they would have seen the light atop the police box pulsing in time with the strange noise as the blue object faded from view like a ghost.
Back inside the Doctor began flipping switches and pressing keys on various controls as he walked in a circle around the console in front of him.
"This should do the trick!" He smiled as he grasped and turned a large silver dial.
On a small screen in front of him appeared two rifts in the fabric of time and space, entry ways into the temporal highway that only his ship could detect and utilize. Information scrolled beneath both images on his viewer, telling the Doctor where each rift would take him too. A consternated look crossed his features.
"That's not at all what I expected. There should be a third path, the temporal point of generation."
His fingers flew furiously over myriad controls and once again he turned the large silver dial. This time a third rift materialized on his screen. He arched an eyebrow with a "harrumph!" of surprise.
"Alright you two, hold on tight we may have a bumpy landing!"
In fact the third rift opened not to a when, but to a where located in the here and now of their location. The TARDIS materialized with a slight shudder at the other side of the path it had entered. A place of absolute darkness save for the twinkling of electronic lights from an unknown source some one hundred yards from the craft.
"Where are we?" Asked John as he stared at the view screen over the Timelord's shoulder.
"We are approximately a quarter mile directly below your apartment Mr. Maxwell. In the cavernous bowels of Phobos itself!"
Pressing a series of buttons switched on external lights which brought the alien cavern into view. Fused into the very rock were twisted and ages old pieces of metallic debris. The walls and ceiling were a kaleidoscope of fossilized plant life and bizarre skeletons. It was a cathedral of paleontological wonder! A hidden world which could re-write the history of the solar system had it ever been discovered by man.
The entire trio stared at the monitor in amazement until with a slight tremor in the whole of the enormous cavern the distant metallic object studded with lights grew brighter and tiny holes began to appear in the air!
"Theres our target!" Exclaimed the Doctor tapping the image on the viewer.
Checking various gauges he stroked his chin in thought.
"No breathable atmosphere here, but it's not a vacuum or toxic either. Though whatever that machine is it's emanating some pretty potent energy readings. I can extend the TARDIS's force field outwards like a bubble, which will create a hospitable zone, but it won't last long. Still it should serve as protection in case that device gets tricky! Stay put."
He set his two companions with a firm look and pulled the red lever which opened the doors. With this the Doctor straightened the yellow and pink lapels of his frock coat and stepped out into the cavern.
It was a child like sense of pure wonder and joy that crossed his features as he scanned the walls and ceiling of the buried world they had entered. He seemed lost in thought but with a sudden renewed sense of purpose he checked his watch and gave a thumbs up to the ship, wherein John Maxwell and Zenia DeLacourt watched anxiously on the monitor.
The Doctor made his way to a large piece of metallic debris which seemed to be fused not by age, but by heat, into the very rock. Examining this he recognized the alloy as well as a barely discernible marking as coming from a space faring race that was still centuries away from interplanetary travel in this era. His mind began to churn with possibilities.
Carefully approaching the lighted device his stomach knotted in a confirmation of his previous recognition, but this time on a more personal level. Though badly battered and buried halfway in rock the device was unmistakable. He breathed out in dismay to himself.
"Oh no. It's the temporal drive… The time drive from the Gogolmux war ship."
The Doctor's mind drifted back to the encounter with Lord Targ some twenty two hundred years prior to this time. To the Timelord the encounter was actually only three weeks ago.
It was still functioning, although in a greatly diminished and fractured way. How long had it lain there dormant? Over two thousand years since it must have streaked to a meteoric impact and buried itself deep in these caverns. Its self contained power source of course, had a half life that would extend for several hundred more years. A tremor, perhaps caused by the terra forming on the surface, must have somehow activated the drive causing the temporal rifts in such a localized area.
These thoughts raced through the Doctor's mind as he inspected what he could see of the exposed controls. He hung his head as he worked to deactivate the device. He couldn't help but feel that he was partly responsible for the grief caused by the machine. After all, it was he who destroyed the war ship it had been part of.
So lost in thought was he that he failed to keep track of the time. The cycle had come around again and as he snipped one wire the temporal drive activated!
Watching from onboard the ship the Doctor's companions saw a bright flash of light and the monitor blacked out from the feedback! Without thinking, Zenia ran out of the TARDIS with a stunned John Maxwell barely even having time to protest.
"Zenia wait! You'll be killed!"
The 52 year old woman was already out of the ship and racing towards the man who had seemed to help them, to believe in them, when no one else would. He lay close to the thrumming device which remarkably seemed to be leaking light itself. She called out to him, unaware that due to his proximity to the humming machine, he could not hear her.
The cosmic drifter crawled forward with a laser scalpel in hand, staying low to avoid the phenomenal energies which were spewing from the device.
"STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!" He chided himself as his hand strained forward towards wiring and circuitry he had managed to expose before it activated. The laser scalpel sliced through and abruptly the lights on the mechanism winked out!
Getting back to his feet he placed his hands on his hips and surveyed his handiwork.
"Hmph. Just like that then. This infernal thing won't trouble anyone anymore."
The smile on his face dropped along with the color which drained from his cheeks as the temporal drive began to shudder violently. Turning to run back to the TARDIS the Doctor saw the worried form of Zenia DeLacourt running towards him.
"What are you doing out of the ship!? Get inside Zenia! Hurry!"
Ms. DeLacourt turned to run back to the ship only to be cast violently to the hard ground when she tripped over the cavern's uneven rock floor.
The Doctor knelt to pick up the woman's limp form. There was a bright flash at that moment, a kaleidoscope of pulsing color that seemed a living thing. Zenia regained consciousness in the moment of the bright pulsing strobe and in a confused panic tore from the Doctor's grasp and ran…the wrong way.
"Zenia…NO!"
There was no time now to go after her. The force field had shielded them from the brunt of the first blast but now a second one erupted that was far more powerful. Still dazed from the effects of that first jolt the Timelord was only vaguely aware of how close he was to his ship's entrance and of John Maxwell hauling him into the safety of the TARDIS at the last possible moment!
Blinking and light headed the Doctor regained his wits.
"Help me to my controls…John." He breathed as he shook the cobwebs from his mind. Fixing Mr. Maxwell with a weary smile he added.
"Thank you."
Fairly falling into his console he checked his instruments and panned the monitor camera about the cavern. The temporal drive was completely destroyed and some thirty yards from the ship lay a prone form draped in clothing and shimmering with tiny lights that slowly dissipated as the two men watched.
"Zenia." Sighed the Timelord and turned away.
John squinted as if trying to discern something more clearly on the screen.
"She's moving. Could she still be alive?"
The Doctor wheeled back around to the monitor and began adjusting various controls.
"She shouldn't be after exposure to that much raw temporal energy, but she was still within the force bubble…"
He checked and re-checked the readouts on the monitor before him.
"It doesn't seem possible at all, but she is! She's alive Maxwell!"
The two men ran from the TARDIS and approached the still woman who was gently stirring on the cavern floor. Something seemed …different. Both men stopped cold as Zenia DeLacourt, a fifty two year old office clerk from the Phobos Colony, sat up groggily with a weak smile.
The Doctor knelt down and produced his chronometer device from his pocket once more while at the same time gently covering the woman's exposed upper body with her blouse which had fallen loosely away. John Maxwell simply stared dumbfounded. Zenia grew concerned.
"What is it? Oh God am I scarred or something?"
She reached up to feel her face with her hands and stopped halfway. These were not the thin and somewhat boney hands she knew. They were young, very young, and smaller.
"Ms. DeLacourt" Began the Doctor. "I'm not sure how or even if it's permanent, but from the backlash of time energy you were exposed to your body has regenerated about forty years approximately."
The fifty two year old woman, now in the body of a twelve year old, promptly fainted.
6: Passage and Passengers
Some hours later the trio stood inside of John Maxwell's apartment. Zenia, still in an almost dream-like state of disbelief, had procured more suitable and sizeable clothing and stood transfixed in front of a full length mirror.
The Doctor had confirmed that all stray temporal energy was quickly dissipating from the location. All was well on Phobos once more. The Timelord put away his device with a smile.
"There will be no more wolves at your door from here on out John."
"It's utterly fantastic. How can I go back to my dull, day to day life after seeing such things? After meeting you?" He responded with a shake of his head.
The cosmic wanderer laughed.
"Relish what you know and enjoy what you have my friend. Mine is not a path to follow by choice. I think you'll find new resolve in your life from the experiences you've had."
A youthful voice with the tone of aged crassness rang in.
"Well I can't exactly return to the oh-so exciting life I was leading now can I?"
The two men looked at the little girl who was not really a little girl, Ms. Zenia DeLacourt.
"What the hell am I supposed to do? Who would believe what happened to me?"
The Doctor pondered a moment, started to speak but stopped, and then with a barely contained grimace he addressed her.
"I suppose you could travel with me…for a bit. Chances are you realize, that the effects of the temporal energy will eventually wear off. Still I suppose you might be better off for the moment…"
"Travel with you in your ship?" Zenia interjected with a beaming smile that only the face of a child can make.
"You'll have to do as I say."
She nodded in agreement still beaming.
"It's only temporary."
Zenia continued to nod.
"Oh…Alright. Let's get what you need and be off." He sighed.
The young looking girl walked happily beside the Doctor as they set off for his TARDIS to leave the 28th century Phoban Colony behind.
"Zenia sounds so…grown up don't you think? From now on just call me Zee!"
She stopped walking and thought a minute before adding.
"Hey! What do I call you? What's your name anyway?"
The Doctor stopped and looked back at his passenger. His only reply was a friendly smile.
The Beginning
"Get into the car
We'll be the passenger
We'll ride through the city tonight
We'll see the city's ripped backsides
We'll see the bright and hollow sky
We'll see the stars that shine so bright
Stars made for us…tonight."
-Iggy Pop: "The Passenger"