When fiction meets reality
To celebrate the birthday of the ever-awesome Rowena, I present this fanfic.
Though it is a bit clumsy, it comes from a place of true nerdiness.
Let us begin.
Chapter One
Rowena stepped out the doors of the school, viola in hand. She had a lot on her mind: loads of classwork to catch up on, a lost copy of her music to find, and, of course, someone was challenging her again. These things and more went through her mind as she walked towards the parking lot. Just my typical day, she thought. Then, as if the universe was reading her mind, strange things began to happen.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something odd falling through the clouds, something familiar, something…blue? But when she turned her head, it was gone. Suddenly a roaring sound rose from the distance, and she looked back to see a menacing alien craft lowering onto the campus. It started a whirlwind, whipping up leaves, trash, and dirt. Beams of lasers began shooting out of the core. It was chaos. And she was the only one there.
A door opened behind her. "Get in!" she heard a voice call. "What are you doing standing there?" She turned to see a blue police box in the middle of the pathway. A gangly man in a trenchcoat stood opening the door, his eyebrows raised in urgency, motioning for her to come in. Without hesitation, she did as he said.
She stood in the box, isolated from the outside commotion. She waited, her viola and backpack resting on the ground, looking around at the huge inside. As the Doctor (who else could it be?) was preparing the machine for takeoff, he looked up.
"No questions?" he said. "Comments from the peanut gallery, expressions of astonishment, all of the above, etcetera, etcetera, I've heard it all before." He paused thoughtfully. "Everything except silence." He flipped a final switch, churning the ship into motion. "That one's new". There was another pause as he waited for her to respond.
"I'm observing," she said, simply.
"Observing," he repeated, smiling. "Ah. Well, then, when would you like to observe?" The ship took off, floating them through space-time.
"When?" she mused, her mind churning, "How about a long time ago," she smiled, "in a galaxy far, far away?"
The Doctor grinned. "Which galaxy?"
Chapter Two
A voice echoed in the distance.
"You can go anywhere, any galaxy you feel like, the entirety of the universe, all in this funny blue box of mine."
"Anywhere you want to go."
"Stars, planets, colonies, past future, present, anywhere in time and space, it's all here."
"There's a nice little empire of Skith a couple light years that way, or, ooh, you'll love this one, Raxacoricofallapatorius! Isn't that just fantastic"
"Anywhere you want to go, go, go, GO!"
Rowena sat up suddenly, her waking consciousness chasing the strange voice out of her head. Oh, fudge, she thought. I missed that dream again. She reached for her laptop, preparing to yell that she was doing homework, not going on tumblr. Then, as her hands clutched empty air, she realized.
This was not home. This was not even Earth at all.
She scrambled to put on her glasses, shoving them on her face. The room around her came into focus. Oh my god. She was actually in the TARDIS. She sat up quickly, looking around. It was a side room, that was for sure, but unmistakably the TARDIS. She swung her feet onto the floor, shoes still on. What happened, she wondered, staring at the words written on her heels. As she walked out the door, she realized she didn't know her way around this machine at all. But she did know a thing or two about the Doctor, and she knew that he wouldn't leave her somewhere where she couldn't get out. And this was a funny little machine; she had a feeling it would help her out if she needed it. Walking out the door, she focused her thoughts on her return to the main room, and as she neared the end of the hall, a small door appeared. She smiled. Guess she knew her way around after all.
The Doctor smiled at her from the other side of the door.
"Hello", he said, stopping from his work. "You've been out for-" he skipped to the other side of the console, looking at a screen. "About a quarter of an earth's rotation. Six hours, as you would say." He shook his head. "Sorry, I was just traveling with a Crespallion, gets a bit confusing with all the systems of measures in the universe and stuff. Anyways."
"So," said Rowena, rolling her eyes, "What exactly happened?"
"Oh, right!" said the Doctor. "Um, let me see. We were traveling to 30th century Zeta major, and, if I'm remembering correctly, we experienced a bit of, ah, trouble on the way." Rowena smirked at this. "That was not my fault!" he said. "The TARDIS is a bit ornery right now."
"Uh-huh," said Rowena, unconvinced. The Doctor moved on.
"We'll only likely be able to travel about fifty years in each direction-that's forward and backwards-and only in my most recent location." He stopped.
"Which is…?" pressed Rowena.
"Britain," replied the Doctor, sheepishly. "We've got a range of a few hundred miles, but until the TARDIS decides it's going to start functioning properly again, I'm sorry, but Michigan is quite out of the question."
Chapter Three
"It's quite alright," assured Rowena. "I'm still up for a bit of exploring."
"Fantastic!" said the Doctor. "Very good."
"Say I wanted to go to Cardiff, then," she said. "Around 2040. Could you-"
"Oh, yeah," he said. "I can do that!" He flipped a switch which began the rickety process of takeoff. As they went, he simply stood leaning on the railing, a smile on his face. When the TARDIS finally came to a halt, he started towards the door.
"Allons-y!" he called, motioning for her to follow.
"What?" he exclaimed as the door opened. "What! This isn't Cardiff, this isn't even in the 21st century! Aw, come on!" he complained to the TARDIS. "I finally get a chance to show off, and all you give me is this," he said, motioning to the London skyline. Rowena emerged out of the door next to him.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Oh, nothing, nothing," he said, changing his tone. "Well, I say nothing. Turns out the TARDIS isn't taking requests, but I managed to get us here, London, around…" he spun around, scanning the surroundings, "The nineties!" he finished brightly. "Nineteen nineties, that is."
"Very clever of you," she said, deadpan. As the Doctor opened his mouth to retort, Rowena caught sight of the city, and her eyes widened.
"London," she whispered.
The Doctor smiled. Rowena began turning around slowly, taking everything in. His smile became even wider, and he waited a moment before speaking.
"We can go anywhere," he said gently. "Anywhere you want."
"Not anywhere," said Rowena, doubtfully.
"Oh, I beg to differ," he said, taking out a metal device and spinning it in his hand. "Between my good friend here, the sonic screwdriver, and the always-helpful psychic paper…locks and guards? No problem. Now where would you like to go?"
Chapter Four
Two people walked down the streets of London, laughing.
"And then I say to him, 'You know, if you take a glance behind you, you'll know just what's coming' and then he goes 'Now, really?' and I say 'Oh, yes!'"
A man in a trenchcoat and red trainers was smiling while relaying his story. A girl in an equally eclectic outfit and short dark hair was walking next to him.
"He fell for it?"
"He did!"
"That's brilliant." Rowena smiled as she walked. "Ooh, Buckingham Palace!" she said, noticing the building beside them. "That looks like fun!"
The Doctor took out the psychic paper with a flourish. "Now, who shall we be this time?"
"How about the head of security?" she suggested, looking at their attire. "That'd give us some funny looks." The Doctor laughed.
"Sounds fantastic. Let's have some fun!"
And in they went.
"This has been very exciting," said Rowena later, as they walked in the light of the sunset. "But I'd like to do something a little more low-key, to relax a bit."
"Alright, yeah, I see it. Calm, quiet, plenty of that in London," replied the Doctor.
"No, I'm serious," she said. "I need to get a moment to catch my breath."
"Well," he began, "I've got to check on the TARDIS anyway. So why don't you go and explore?"
"Are you sure?" she asked excitedly.
"Oh, yeah! I hate to leave you, but you'll be fine. I can't have a human on the TARDIS anyway if I have to recalibrate it." He shrugged.
"And you never know when a TARDIS will need recalibrating," smiled Rowena.
Chapter Five
Rowena walked carefully into an ornate building. A chance to relax for a while would be nice, she thought. Now to look around a bit…
She was immediately distracted by the noises coming from a nearby room. It sounded like the cries of a rather squeaky attacker. She opened the door and entered, surprising a young boy in the corner of the room.
"What are you doing here?" he shouted accusingly, pointing a wooden sword at her.
The child looked quite out of place in the prestigious building. He was clad in fairly disheveled clothing, looking as if he had been carefully dressed at one point, but had rebelled against decorum and chosen to wreck his outfit instead. He seemed to be in costume as well; a red bandana was tied around delicate dark curls, and a homemade patch covered his left eye.
"Who are you!" he tried again, unhappy that his ferocity hadn't brought a response.
"My name is Rowena," she replied. "You make a very fearsome pirate."
"Why, thank you," he said, bowing superiorly.
"But being a pirate is a rather pointless career path," Rowena said casually, "No intellectual challenge at all, way too simple, just boring, boring, boring."
He looked very concerned.
"But I have to do something to spite Mycroft," he ventured, pouting. "He says being a pirate isn't respectable, so my pirating annoys him." He brightened at the thought, butd then his face fell again. "So what do I do?"
Rowena thought for a moment. "Well, you could always consider deduction, pursuing detective work." He seemed to enjoy this option. "Or," she said, "You could try this."
She got out her viola and began to perform some of her favorite pieces. The boy was enraptured. He watched her every motion, traced her every move.
"Can I learn to do that?" he said, finally. Even in his awe, he still spoke condescendingly, as if he couldn't believe he was asking her the question.
"Yes," she replied. "I mean, it's not easy, but if you devoted enough time to it, you most definitely could." Something in her tone must have been a touch too belittling, because suddenly the boy sat up, and a snide expression crossed his face.
"While the likes of you might prefer the viola, I assure you, I will be playing the violin," he said. "Now, go." He kept the look of contempt on his face, sharp cheekbones beginning to protrude beneath his childish features.
"Alright, then," said Rowena, putting her hands in the air and trying not to smirk. "I'm going."
"And don't forget my name," he said. "Sherlock Holmes. You'll be hearing of me in the detective business, I'm sure."
"Oh, I am too," she said.
Chapter Six
Rowena walked back towards where the TARDIS had been parked, still smiling at her encounter with young Sherlock. As she went, another boy began to follow her. She turned around.
"What are you doing?" she said.
"You've got nice shoes," he said, oddly. "I've never seen shoes like that before."
"Thanks," she said, a little confused. "What's your name?"
"Carl," he said. "Well, it's Carl Franklin Powers, if you want to be precise. I was heading out to the pool a moment ago, but those awesome kicks distracted me."
Rowena stood still. She was directly interfering into Carl's timeline, she knew it, but she didn't know what to do.
"I-"she stuttered, "I have to go now." She started walking cautiously in the other direction. Carl followed.
"Oh, look!" said Carl, a wicked grin spreading across his face. "It's Jim." He looked at a small, lizardlike boy standing threateningly in the shadows. "There's the weirdo, too strange to have any friends," Carl taunted.
"I'll burn you!" cried the boy Rowena assumed to be Jim. "And your little friend, the girl with the shoes." His voice was menacing and strangely creepy. "I'll burn her too!" His voice cracked, and Carl laughed.
"Not if I get you first," he said. Jim slunk away into the shadows, somehow a more frightening act than aggression in this case. Carl turned back to Rowena. "Where are you going?" he asked, an element of mockery in his voice. Oh, no, she thought. She needed to get out of here; there was something very sinister going on, and she also had no desire to disturb the space-time continuum. She seemed to recall having read something about Carl Powers…something about a pool…she assumed it was the pool where he had just been going.
Rowena began to look around desperately. By some stroke of luck, the Doctor was nearby, walking towards her from ahead. She ran towards him, waving him back, trying to express that they needed to leave, and leave now. He was confused for a moment, but then his eyes widened and he nodded, running back towards the TARDIS. He got in, and the box began to disappear.
"No!" she screamed. What was he doing? Suddenly it rematerialized a few feet ahead, and her motion carried her right through the door.
"Let's get out of here!" the Doctor said.
"Not if I can help it," said the boy in the corner.
TO BE CONTINUED