The Doctor and the Time Keeper
or
A Tale of Adventure, Heroism and Time
by MC Khaleezy
Maxwell Keeper awoke on a clear-skied September morning, believing it was like any other September morning in Tallahassee, Florida. He lay in bed for a short spell, gazing at the poster hung upon his wall across from his bed. It was a fine sketch of Big Ben, that most elegant and notable of clocks. (Drawn quite skillfully by Maxwell himself he might tell you if you asked, but he would never say so unsolicited.)
Verily, 'tis a beautiful morn, Maxwell thought, gazing out his bedroom window at the rising sun. It was 7:06 a.m. Maxwell didn't need to check a clock to know this. He could tell by the position of the sun.
Maxwell dressed himself and made a pot of coffee. Not too strong, of course. His steps were soft and his movements hushed. His sister Eleanor was still asleep in the other bedroom. He had just enough time to savor a mug of fresh brew before setting out to work at Longo's Watch Repair, the watch repair shop owned by Eleanor's husband Desmond Longo. Maxwell was lucky to have such a deeply fulfilling career.
On his way out the door, his phone chirped. The first client of the day. Maxwell checked the sky for a brief moment, and made a call.
"Good morn, good sir!" He exclaimed into his mobile phone, "'Tis seven thirty-seven o'clock in this, the morning of September 20, in the year of our Lord twenty-fifteen." He hung up immediately after. No TIME to waste on this very day, he thought.
When Maxwell arrived at work, he was surprised to find Desmond already there. Usually one was hard-pressed to arrive at Longo's Watch Repair before Maxwell Keeper. His work at the shop was not just his livelihood. It was his greatest pride and joy.
"Hey, Max," Desmond greeted him, "I got a call super early this morning. Apparently someone has a very important watch repair emergency and will be here any minute. I wanted to make sure we were open on time. He said he would pay extra. Much extra."
"Why, verily, good Desmond!" Maxwell exclaimed, "I do wish you hadst informed me of this very emergency! I should have gotten myself to this establishment quite very earlier, indeed."
"I know, Max," Desmond responded. "I just don't want you to overwork yourself. You already do so much here."
Before Maxwell had a chance to respond, there was a rhythmic knock on the front door of Longo's Watch Repair followed by that door opening tentatively.
A strange man with wild hair stepped into the shop. "This is the place to get your watch fixed, yes?" He inquired in a peculiar accent. "I just happened to be dropped into this town… at this time-"
"Seven fifty-four on this very morn!" Maxwell interjected before the stranger was able to finish his sentence.
"Er, yes." The stranger responded. "As I was saying, I am not altogether familiar with this area, but I saw this shop on the street. The phone number was on the sign. Thought I'd give you a call. I've got a watch that requires repair, quite immediately I might add."
"Well verily thou hast come to quite the very right place!" Maxwell burst out with joy.
"Please relax, Max." Desmond said, perhaps a trifle annoyed.
"I would be Maxwell Keeper… the TIME Keeper," Maxwell introduced himself to the stranger.
"Time Keeper? Why, that's quite a stroke of luck, isn't it?" The stranger responded with immense delight. "I'm the Doctor, perhaps you're familiar?"
"I hathn't been to see a doctor in quite a bit of… TIME! But whatever your time-related needs may be, I am doubtless quite very ready to see to them post-haste."
"Okay, I'm going to the back to get to work," Desmond said, flatly. "Just let me know if you actually need me." He shrugged slightly, and retired to the back room of the shop.
The Doctor and the Time Keeper gazed at each other for a short moment. The meeting felt fortuitous to both. As if it were destiny. Or a stroke of luck, at the very least.
"Well listen here, Time Keeper," the Doctor spoke. "I happen to be all alone right now, and I could use a man like you."
"But of course! Shall I take your broken watch to the back for repair, then at this very moment? Desmond shall fix it up verily quite nicely and I shall make sure you never go a moment without knowing at whence time the day has arrived."
"Let me ask you something, Time Keeper. What time is it?"
"Why, 'tis eight o' the clock right at this very second, good Doctor!"
"And you knew that without even glancing at a watch?"
"But of course! What sort of Time Keeper dost thou take me for, verily?"
"Why, just the sort I'm after. Forget the watch, come with me."
"Oh but I couldn'st leave Desmond alone for such a TIME."
"Trust me, he'll understand. I need you, Time Keeper. Will you help me?"
One look into the Doctor's earnest face, and Maxwell knew he could not turn him down. This was a man in need. And in need of Maxwell's unique skills at that. This was Maxwell's time to demonstrate his worth. "Verily, of course I shall help thee," was his solemn response.
The Doctor lead Maxwell out of the shop, through the parking lot and around the corner into an alley. In that alley stood an old-fashioned blue police box.
"Why, what wouldst this strange contraption be?" Maxwell inquired.
The Doctor's eyes twinkled. "It's the TARDIS, my good man."
"The what?"
The Doctor did not respond, but instead opened the door of the box, stepped halfway in, and gestured Maxwell to follow. Maxwell had no idea how he would fit in that tiny box alongside The Doctor, but his curiosity overwhelmed his doubt. He stepped inside.
What he saw nearly gave him an aneurysm. This box, so tiny on the outside, was enormous on the inside. It was a sprawling, metallic jungle, featuring a glowing hub in the very center.
Maxwell stood, dumbfounded just inside the doorway.
"Well come on in, Time Keeper. You're quite welcome!"
Maxwell walked in slowly and glassy-eyed. He did not understand what he was seeing, but what could he do but embrace it and pursue this adventure to the fullest?
"Doctor, what exactly art we doing in this very location? I canst hardly believe what I doth am seeing!"
"Well, my friend. We're about to travel."
"Travel? Why but to where?"
"Not where," the Doctor replied with a wink. "When."
Before Maxwell could ask the Doctor what he ever meant by that, there was a violent whirring emitting from the hub of this TARDIS box thing. The floor lurched, throwing Maxwell into the wall. He braced himself as best he could while the hub of the TARDIS sparked, much to his alarm.
After what was only a few moments but felt like hours to Maxwell, the TARDIS calmed, and the atmosphere relaxed. Maxwell hesitated to move or speak. He was petrified.
"Ah yes!" The Doctor exclaimed with joy. "We've arrived."
"Arrived where? Err, arrived when?"
"Now you're getting it! Step outside and see for yourself."
Maxwell did indeed step outside. He could hardly believe his eyes. Women in bonnets and full skirts strolled down the cobblestone street with grubby young children in tow. An occasional horse-drawn carriage rattled along. Was this real? Was the Doctor playing a cruel trick, or was Maxwell truly standing… in the past?
The Doctor approached over Maxwell's shoulder. "Quaint, isn't it? I do adore London."
"Verily, I must be doth in but a dream!"
"Verily, you're not," the Doctor sounded impatient. "I thought it would be easier for you to catch on than it was for the others. Surely the Time Keeper shouldn't be so disarmed by a tiny bit of time travel. Why, we've only traveled about a hundred and fifty years. That's hardly a skip down the block!"
Maxwell was silent. What was there to say? Eleanor and Desmond would never believe this. But Maxwell did. He couldn't help it. He had always hoped, deep down that this was possible. Somewhere inside, he had known.
"So tell me Time Keeper. What time is it?"
Maxwell gazed directly at the sun, with intensity, for several seconds. "Why 'tis but ten forty-nine in the morn! And it must such be in the month of March. March thirty-first quite in fact. Upon this very year of… eighteen-fifty-nine? I hardly believe it, but I canst not beith mistaken."
"Well we haven't got much time then, have we? Follow me straight away!" The Doctor bounded off, and Maxwell scurried after.
The two men darted around a few blocks, Maxwell following the confident Doctor, trusting that obeying him was the right choice and not a dangerous folly. After rounding a corner, the Doctor stopped short. Maxwell almost ran him over as he stumbled to a halt next to him. The Doctor pointed across the street. Maxwell turned his gaze to the location at which the Doctor gestured.
Maxwell required no explanation as to what he was seeing. His heart filled with a pure sort of joy he had never known. Not even his wonderful, deeply satisfying career had ever brought him this much deep, profound pleasure. As he took in the sight, his eyes welled.
"I'm truly here. I never thoughtst I'd seeith yonder day," he whispered in awe.
"It's quite beautiful, truly," the Doctor responded with slight amusement. "I rather wish I could remember seeing Big Ben for the first time. I wager it must have been a lovely experience."
The clock tower was majestic. It stretched into the sky with stately precision. The numbers on the clock face were the most artful numbers Maxwell had ever seen. The seven, the ten and sweet God the three. They were even more exquisite in person.
Maxwell tried to maintain his composure, truly, but it was all too much. He fell to his knees and simply gaped. A single tear rolled down his left cheek. The Doctor let him be for a few moments. It had been centuries, maybe millennia since he had experienced wonder such as this, but he respected the impact of this moment on the young Time Keeper.
Eventually, Maxwell felt a soft tap on his shoulder. "We haven't got any more time to waste, Time Keeper," the Doctor announced gently.
"Yes, of course. Time." Maxwell got to his feet and faced the Doctor. "What art we doth to do, good Doctor?"
"At exactly noon today, Big Ben will ring for the very first time in history. That is if we can stop the alien invaders from blasting their Dissemination Ray from the clock tower first. If we don't, Big Ben's first chime will also be its last. And all of London will cease to be. Instead of this vibrant city, we'll see a wasteland taken over by all manner of foul creatures intent on building their own base of operations on your planet. It's just London at risk today, but in the matter of a few months, it could be the entire world."
"Who wouldst dare to violate the sanctity of this most marvelous of time pieces?" Maxwell demanded, shaking with rage.
"I do believe you are about to have the opportunity to ask them yourself," the Doctor replied, paling.
Maxwell turned away from the Doctor and looked behind him. Three gaunt, yellow lizard-men were approaching. Maxwell wondered why the other people on the street weren't screaming and fleeing in panic. Then he noticed they weren't moving at all. No one was moving save the Doctor, the Time Keeper and the strange lizard-men.
"Get out, Doctor! And take this sniveling weasel with you," one of the creatures commanded.
"Not a chance. You Garthoids don't scare me at all. You're nothing, and if you think the others will finally start to remember and respect you if you do this, you're quite mistaken" The Doctor said steadily.
"Not true! The Daleks themselves said they would ally with us if we obtained this land for them."
"Never trust a Dalek," the Doctor scoffed. "That's just plain stupid. You'll do the work, and they'll just edge you out. They're using you. Come to your senses and just leave. If you can do that, I'll leave you alone."
"Not happening, Doctor," the lead Garthoid hissed. "Now if you'll excuse us, we have business to attend to and not a second to waste arguing with you. You'll cease to exist within the hour. Why not do something more pleasant with the rest of your life?" The Garthoids scampered off toward Big Ben with alarming speed. As soon as they were out of sight, the people on the street began to move again, having no idea that their lives were in danger
"Time Keeper," the Doctor began, just a hint of fear in his voice. "What time is it?"
"'Tis eleven of the clock quite exactly upon the hour."
"Damn!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Since Big Ben has not officially been christened and given its first toll, we cannot rely on it for the exact time. We need to be as accurate as possible, do you understand?"
Maxwell nodded gravely.
"We've got to get inside Big Ben, and we've got to get to that Dissemination Ray before the stroke of noon. I'm going to need you to update me every ten minutes with complete precision. I need to know exactly how much time I've got. Can you do that for me?"
"I doth believe I was quite verily born for this very task," Maxwell responded with confidence. "But, Doctor? If these Garthoids can stop time, why dothn't they simply freeze us all whilst they carry out yonder evil plan?"
"The Garthoids' time-manipulation powers are quite weak off their home planet of Garthos. I'm surprised they managed to stop so many people for minutes without faltering. Their powers must already be quite exhausted already."
"Forgive me, Doctor, but dothn't it quite seem that these fiends mightn'st have chosen a rather more strategic moment to use such power?"
"Well yes, of course, but they aren't very clever, poor chaps."
"That maketh quite an amount of very sense. Thank you. I am quite ready now, Doctor."
With a nod of trust, the Doctor sprinted toward Big Ben. Maxwell followed, more determined than he had ever been in his life. The journey across the square and into the entrance of the Palace of Westminster, home of the renowned clock tower, seemed to take forever.
The Doctor bounded through halls and doorways, as sure of his direction as ever. Portly old British men with beards and embroidered vests hollered as the two companions flew by, weaving around government officials and shoving confused stragglers out of their way.
"Doctor!" Maxwell called ahead, quite breathless. "Art thou not worried that these men wilst follow us?"
"Please, Time Keeper, now is not the moment for questions! Just keep up!"
It seemed to Maxwell that there was quite a number of details and mitigating factors the Doctor was glossing over or even flat-out ignoring. But it was not his place to question. Only his place to follow along, trust and obey.
Just as they reached the entrance to a stairway, Maxwell felt a twinge in his belly. "Doctor 'tis quite eleven ten at this very moment!" He cried.
"Wonderful. We're making excellent time. The journey up these stairs won't be easy. I certainly hope you are in shape, Maxwell." The Doctor began to hurry up the first flight, taking them two at a time.
Maxwell decline to mention that he was not in shape at all. In fact, he was already nearly too tired to go on. I couldst stop, he thought. I couldst verily obtain some rest and catch up in quite a few minutes. But nay! The very fate of that most glorious structure our world ever has known hangest in the balance. And its survival dependeth upon my very self. I canst not falter. Not now. There is no… TIIIME.
Maxwell stopped only to take a single deep breath, then he began to climb.
Despite the Doctor's head start, Maxwell had caught up with him by the end of the first flight.
"Time Keeper, I fear I am not quite as equipped to traverse these stairs as I had thought." The Doctor wheezed.
Thank the very Lord, Maxwell thought, panting in exhaustion. "It's rather all right, Doctor. We have forty-seven minutes and nine seconds to make it up these very stairs. We can rest, verily, if need would havest us doeth so."
"Very well, Time Keeper." The Doctor took a seat up on one of the steps.
Maxwell sat down next to him. The two were both silent, lost in their own thoughts. The seconds ticked away rhythmically in Maxwell's head.
After a few moments of much-needed rest, Maxwell felt that familiar twinge yet again. "Doctor," he said solemnly, "'Tis eleven-twenty."
Without a word, the Doctor rose to his feet and resumed the long, arduous, daunting journey up the steps. Maxwell followed. "We shouldn't go too fast, Time Keeper. Portion out your strength. Slow and steady, my good lad. Slow and steady."
Maxwell took one step with each thump of his heartbeat. Slow and steady, but never stopping. The Doctor always just a couple paces ahead. Slow and steady, but never stopping.
The flights of stairs were unending. Reach the top, turn to the right and climb again. Over and over and over. Was there truly a top? Were they stuck in some sort of alternate dimension? Neither man had ever experienced such a hell.
The back of the Doctor's neck glistened with sweat. Maxwell's chest and face were flush. He could feel an unbearable heat radiating off his skin. Each breath grew more and more painful. If only he had stopped at the beginning of these stairs. If only he had turned away. If only he had said no.
But he hadn't, and so he trudged on.
Their pace was almost glacial, but still they kept moving. There had to be an end. They had been climbing for so long. They had to be almost there. They had to be.
When the twinge returned, Maxwell barely had enough breath left to speak. "Eleven-thirty," he gasped between deep, aching breaths. The Doctor did not respond. He just kept climbing.
Exactly four seconds after his announcement, he saw it. The end of the stairs. Maxwell cried a single tear for the second time that day.
Both the Doctor and the Time Keeper collapsed on the final stair. Heaving in pain and breathlessness, Maxwell lifted his head weakly. The three Garthoids stood before him in a small room that housed a bell, larger and more finely cast than any bell Maxwell could have ever imagined, and behind the bell, facing outward, a tripod with a sort of satellite dish affixed to the top. It looked as if it would reach to Maxwell's shoulder. The Dissemination Ray. It had to be.
Maxwell nudged the Doctor next to him, unable to speak a warning. The Doctor looked up, steeled himself and rose to his feet.
"We expected you sooner," laughed the head Garthoid. "Getting old, are we?"
"This absurdity is over," the Doctor stated confidently. He pulled something out of his inside jacket pocket. Something about the size and shape of a vegetable peeler, but which glowed at its tip.
"What do you expect to do with that useless toy?" The head Garthoid mocked while his two companions chuckled snidely.
"I'm not sure yet, but I'll figure it out." If Maxwell hadn't seen the trepidation in the Doctor's face just moments before, he would never have believed the man doubted his imminent victory for even a second, as he sounded almost cocky.
This was it. This was the moment the fate of Big Ben and also all the humans on planet Earth would be decided. Seized with the imperative nature of the moment, Maxwell leapt to his feet and lunged at the head Garthoid's throat.
He managed to topple the beast and pin him to the floor. The element of surprise had worked quite to Maxwell's advantage. However, exactly three quarters of a second after the pair hit the floor, Maxwell felt himself lifted off the Garthoid by four immensely strong, scaly arms.
He wriggled and he twisted, but there was no escaping. The two Garthoid goons had him captive. "It's useless to even try," one of them hissed into Maxwell's ear.
"Time Keeper, you fool!" The Doctor shouted. "You had one job! To keep track of the time! If you end up dead, how will I know how much time I have left?"
"You hast twenty-six minutes and twelve seconds, verily, Doctor!" Maxwell cried, pain tingeing his exclamations. "I sha'nt'nt let thou down!"
"Good man." The Doctor said with utmost sincerity. "Although it does seem that the stakes would be much higher and the emotional effect of this moment much keener if we had less time left. Immediacy lends quite a bit to a narrative's momentum and effect."
"What are you blathering about, old man?" Hissed the head Garthoid as he righted himself, and brushed the clock dust off his clothes. "This is real life. And London is about to be destroyed, thanks to your ineptitude. We'll be sure to thank you in our memo to the Daleks."
The head Garthoid lunged toward the Doctor, but the Doctor darted out of his reach. Before the head Garthoid could recover, the Doctor scrambled to the Dissemination Ray.
The two other Garthoids shifted with uncertainty. Maxwell felt the lapse in their hold on him. Each second stretched into eternity. This was his moment. This was his time.
Maxwell stopped struggling and relaxed. He felt a perfect wave of calm overtake him. All the time that had existed before this moment in his life and all the time that would come to be after (if there even was an after) faded away. He had never experienced such perfect clarity, such perfect peace.
With a violent twist, Maxwell burst free of the Garthoids' grip and fell onto his hand and knees on the floor. He jumped up and threw himself between the Doctor and the three Garthoids.
"What did I tell you, Time Keeper? You're no use to me dead!"
"Trust me, Doctor," Maxwell spoke evenly. "Do what you have to do."
The next several moments were a flurry of fists and hisses and swift dodges. By focusing only on the present second, and none before or after, Maxwell accessed a capability and a precision he never knew he contained. It was one man against three aliens, yet the one was holding the three off.
Never for even a millisecond did Maxwell lose track of what was happening or where his opponents were. As the Doctor fiddled with the Dissemination Ray using his strange glowing vegetable peeler, Maxwell fought. He delivered shin kicks and groin slams, never missing a beat. His fingers jabbed through eyeballs and his elbows cracked into sternums. The pain that lit up his entire body only increased his focus. He was unstoppable. After delivering an epic face punch, the thought occurred to Maxwell: What would his family think if they saw this?
He imagined the look of awe on Desmond's face. The furrowed concern of his sister Eleanor. Then, the back of his head hit the floor. He had lost his focus for just one second, yet it was long enough to get body slammed by one of the alien creatures.
"Time Keeper!" he heard the Doctor scream from seemingly a world away. The voice echoed in his head.
"Doctor," he croaked. "'Tis eleven-forty on the very dot."
Maxwell closed his eyes as he lay on the floor. He was done for. He could no longer move. Then he heard a humming at first from far, far away, but growing closer.
"Get up, Time Keeper!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Get behind me, NOW!"
With a painful groan, Maxwell managed to crawl his way over to the Doctor. The Garthoids, believing him vanquished, had turned their attention to the Doctor and the Dissemination Ray. He reached a spot directly behind the Doctor and collapsed. He kept his eyes open this time.
"Did you hear that, you miscreants?" The Doctor's voice boomed in the small room. "We beat you with twenty minutes to spare." He pointed the Dissemination Ray at the three Garthoids. A stream of light shot out from the satellite, targeting the Garthoids. Then, as quick as blinking, they disappeared. There were no explosions, no screams, no clamoring. They just ceased to exist.
Maxwell found himself able to rise to his knees. "Doctor! Verily I wast under quite the impression that setting off that ray wouldst destroy everyone here in London?"
"Don't be silly. While you were busy mucking about with those reptiles, I reversed the filter on it. I made it so instead of disseminating all the human bodies in London, it would disseminate all the Garthoid bodies. Wasn't even that hard, really."
"So we're safe now?"
"Well not quite. We've got to get out of here before they come to ring the bell if you'd like to use those ears of yours ever again. How much time do we have, Time Keeper?"
"Seventeen minutes and forty-two seconds, Doctor."
"Well, that should be plenty. Up you get, lad. Let's get moving."
Maxwell picked himself up and steadied. The Doctor waited patiently as Maxwell prepared himself to walk again. He still felt faint. Without a word, the Doctor approached, and placed Maxwell's arm over his shoulders. "I'll help you out of here, my friend."
It did not take nearly as much time or effort going down the stairs as it did going up. By the time the two made it to the ground floor, Maxwell felt much better.
"What do you say we go outside and watch Big Ben ring?" The Doctor asked.
"Verily, that sounds quite marvelous."
When Big Ben rang for the very first time, Maxwell stood at the front of a crowd of nineteenth century Londoners. He was aching and dirty and oddly dressed compared to the others. But never had he felt so alive. He stared at the clock face, unblinking and counted the chimes under his breath.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve.
Each of his favorite numbers represented by the clear clang of History's finest bell, residing in History's finest clock. Nothing in Maxwell's life would ever compare to this moment, he realized. He was almost sad. But he couldn't be, not really. Not after he had saved the world, discovered his hidden strength and seen and heard the most beautiful sight and sound in the entire world.
Maxwell and the Doctor walked together back to the TARDIS. The Doctor opened the door and gestured Maxwell to enter in front of him. The Doctor followed, closing the door behind him.
"Well I suppose I should take you home," he started. "That is unless… You don't suppose you'd want to stay? Travel space and time with me?"
A whirlwind of questions rushed through Maxwell's head. What about his job? What about his sister? Although, how could he return to that life now that he had seen the things he had seen? How many other wonderful clocks existed in this world and other? What would watches look like in the future? And Time! To explore all of Time without limit… How could he refuse?
He could take breaks to visit Eleanor and Desmond. He could write letters. He could even work on the app he was developing while on the go. The choice was clear.
"My dearest Doctor," Maxwell said, beaming. "Verily, I wouldst quite be honored to be thine Time Keeper."
The Doctor's whole face shone with joy. "Well then. Let's be off. Where to next?"
"Nay, Doctor. Not where. When."