Chapter 1

Canary Wharf

London, England

April 2007

As Sam entered consciousness in a new life, he didn't know what to make of his situation. He was holding onto a lever and what seemed like millions of robots and other things were flying by him. Towards what, he didn't know. His feet dropped immediately to the ground and he almost lost hold of the lever. Across from the stream of flying objects was a man, his arm wrapped around a black bar, holding on to keep from joining the torrent which appeared to be leading into a bright light. To Sam's mind, this situation was what he'd imagined falling into a black hole would be like. The fact that he was obviously not anywhere near one was comforting. However, he wanted to help the man who was showing distress. After all, helping others had become his sole mission in life.

"Rose! Hold on!" the man cried out to him, his face clearly filled with panic. For a moment, the panic faded into utter confusion as the objects zoomed past, the sounds coming from them sounding more like the screams of the damned. Soon, however, the maelstrom faded along the brilliant white light which Sam realized had been covering one of the walls on the far side of the white room he was in. The man released the black bar and immediately hurried over to Sam and wrapped his arms around him. "Rose! Are you all right?" His distinct British accent filled Sam's ears.

Rose. At least he knew he was a woman on this leap. Feeling the relief that the man exuded while hugging him, he answered, "Yes, I think so. What was all that?"

The man stared at him for a long moment, clearly concerned about his friend's mental state. "Cybermen... Daleks... Void?" Seeing only confusion on her face, he frowned, pulling out a pair of 3D glasses and putting them on. A moment later, the glasses came off as he gazed upon Sam, clearly stunned. "They're gone. The void stuff's gone. That's impossible!"

"Why?" Sam asked, not exactly sure what the man was saying much less why he was looking at him through cheesy 3D glasses. Cybermen, Daleks, Void... what the hell is he talking about? Given the circumstances, he was beginning to wonder if insanity was at play. The question was, who was insane - the man or him.

The man just gazed at him, looking more concerned than he had before. "Rose, it is impossible for void stuff to just vanish. It violates every law of temporal physics!"

"What the hell does void stuff, whatever that is, have to do with temporal physics?" Sam started to question before being cut off.

When his friend started questioning him again, the man shook his head, not interested in answering that particular query. "Never mind that now. There's still Cybermen on this world... the Cybermen that the Cybermen from Pete's World created. We have to take care of them before they decide to upgrade the Earth."

"Cybermen? Upgrading the Earth? Pete's world?" Sam continued to try to get his bearings in what seemed to be the weirdest leap ever... or at least the weirdest he could remember.

The man paused with a glower. "Now I know there's something wrong with you. Go back to the TARDIS. I'll check you over after I take care of this."

"What's a tardis?" Nothing made any sense to him and he wished that Al would make his appearance sooner than later. He was sure that his friend of many years would be able to figure out what was wrong.

The man rubbed his expressive face. "Just... come on," he ordered, grabbing Sam's hand and pulling him along.

They'd gone down several flights of stairs before the man stopped abruptly in front of one of the robots Sam had recently witnessed falling into the light. "What's that?" he asked, a chill running down his spine. He wasn't sure what it was but he figured, in this nightmare he was currently involved in, it couldn't be good.

"Doctor," the metal creature called to him before they were able to go back up the stairs.

The Doctor stopped, seeming to recognize the voice. "Yvonne..." he murmured with sadness.

The stamp of metallic feet hitting the stairs from far below wafted up through the stairwell, indicating that more creatures were on their way. The nightmare continued to build and Sam felt like bolting as fast as he could away from the terrifying sound. The man who had called him Rose, though, continued to talk to the first creature, apparently unaffected by the horror around him.

"I did my duty for Queen and country."

"Yes... so you did," the Doctor replied darkly.

"They will not pass," the creature that once was Yvonne Hartmann, head of the Torchwood Institute, informed him.

"And how can I be sure of that?" the Doctor questioned, blatantly suspicious. "You're a Cyberman now. How can I trust you?"

"Doctor..." the creature replied. "I... feel."

A pause filled the stairwell before the Doctor spoke. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." The tone itself spoke of the sincerity of his words.

"To live like this is worse than death. The Cybermen will be deleted."

"And you?" the Doctor questioned softly.

"All Cybermen will be deleted. You must leave." The creature stomped out of the way.

Sam heard the sadness in the creature's and the man's voices. While still concerned with all the things he was seeing and hearing, his heart reacted to the emotions. "Maybe there's another way?"

The Doctor swallowed slightly before pulling his companion passed the Cyber creature. He stopped for a moment, looking towards it. "Torchwood has to end here," he informed her bluntly.

"This Torchwood will be deleted," came the assurance.

Sensing his friend's unease - or at least knowing that she would protest - the Doctor turned to Sam. "Rose, there isn't any other way. It's too late for that." He turned back to the Cyber. "I'm going to trust you. You get only one chance."

"Confirmed."

Sam nodded his head, sadly. He wondered if he was here to find another way, but not knowing anything at the moment about where he was or even what the logical explanation to what he was seeing was, he couldn't risk it. His gut told him to trust this man and so, until Al showed up and gave him more information, he went with the flow. "All right. What do we do now?"

"We run," the Doctor replied. He again looked to the Cyber. "Good luck... Yvonne Hartmann." With that, he started again down the stairs at a run, glancing over his shoulder briefly to make sure that Sam was following him. Following his instincts, he made his way down one more level before bursting through the doors. "Where is she?" he muttered to himself before spotting a blue police box behind some crates. "Brilliant!" he exclaimed, hurrying to it. "Allons-y!"

Sam ran after the man whom the metal creature had addressed as "Doctor" as if that was his name. The man appeared to be running towards a blue police box, which Sam realized likely meant they were in England. He figured that put him sometime before 1968. It didn't seem right, though, since he noticed high-rise buildings through the windows they passed which had recognizable landmarks of London. He'd been to England several times before and he knew the skyline of London almost as well as he knew Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. However, this skyline had buildings he'd never seen before, which told him that it had to be sometime after the last time he'd visited London which was after 1968. It was like he was in a mix of times, not that the concept gave him any comfort. A mix of times would likely mean that anything he was seeing was a figment of his imagination, whether dream, drug, or insanity induced. Besides, what would a police box be doing inside a high-rise anyway? He sprinted ahead, sure that their destination must be somewhere beyond this room and was likely through the next set of doors. He passed the Doctor in an easy sprint, bypassing the small blue structure.

"Rose!" the Doctor called out, seeing his companion going right passed their destination. "Where are you going?" He hurried to stop Sam, reaching out just in time to see a Cyberman heading their way. "Whoa!" he cried, grabbing Sam's arm and running back towards the police box just as a laser-like blast flew through the space where Sam had been only a moment before. Hurriedly reaching into his trouser pocket, he pulled out a key and unlocked the box. He quickly stepped in, grabbing his friend's arm to force her to follow, slamming the door behind them. "That was too close!" he exclaimed. "What the hell were you doing out there?" Without waiting for an answer, he rushed to an oddly organic looking circular contraption in the center of the equally odd-looking room.

Sam stopped, completely dumbfounded by what he was seeing. The man had pulled him into the small police box, but the room around him looked like a cavern. As the man did something with some strange instruments, Sam became curious. This was like nothing he'd ever seen before although it clearly was a creation of his imagination. Deciding to investigate this vision, he opened the door, ready to step out to take a look at the object from the outside when he was again stopped by what appeared before his eyes. He was certain now that he'd passed up sanity entirely. The swirling colors around him looked more like the hallucinations from a psychoactive drug which would explain a lot if his host had ingested some. The sounds around him didn't help either. "Oh, boy," he said quietly under his breath. He suddenly felt very lost. Was this a leap? The Bartender had told him the leaps would get harder and, he had to admit, many of them had been difficult. Still, he'd managed to keep his sanity. Now, though...he heard the sound of the man's talking but none of it made any sense to him. He closed his eyes hoping this would all just go away. The man that he currently referred to as 'Doctor' hadn't stopped talking since the moment Sam had entered the Twilight Zone and none of it made sense. He was grateful for the ripping mechanical sound that almost drowned out the man's rant. Almost.

"There are certain rules, Rose, that you seemed to have completely and totally forgotten. And rule number one is when I say go to the TARDIS, you go to the TARDIS, not pass it up like a marathon runner and especially not in a building full of Cybermen! I honestly don't know what is going on with you. Maybe the Void has had some kind of weird effect on you. Certainly would help explain why the void stuff is suddenly gone. Then again, if you were affected, I should have been affected, which I haven't been. I'm going to have to run some tests..." He raised his head and suddenly noticed his companion staring out of the TARDIS' doors... and into the Vortex. "Rose! Are you mad?!" He hurried over and rapidly closed the doors.

Sam felt the man rush past him. He opened his eyes and realized he could no longer see the colors swirling. A moment later, he realized it was because the doors had been closed and the man was again addressing him. He answered truthfully, "I think I must be."

"Opening the doors while we're dematerialized is extremely dangerous!" the Doctor berated, seeming not to have heard Sam's words as he blocked the exit physically with his thin body. "I told you a long time ago. Never EVER open the doors while we're dematerialized!"

Looking at the man again, Sam tried to figure this out. He focused on the title. Doctor. The man was supposedly a doctor. "Are you my doctor?" he asked, hoping that was the string that would lead back to sanity assuming he was in a leap.

The rebuking gaze quickly changed to one of great concern. "Of course, I'm the Doctor. Are you all right? You don't look well."

A word the man had used suddenly seemed like a lifeline. "Dematerialized?" Sam now wondered if he was somewhere between leaps. That would explain it all. Maybe the dream hypothesis was right; he was dreaming a nightmare. "I think I want to wake up now." A very weak smile graced the human time leaper's face. When it didn't seem like that was going to happen, he sighed. It didn't appear that waking up was an option. He'd just have to continue down the rabbit hole awhile longer.

Shock, the Doctor thought, trying to find a reason for Rose's sudden change in behavior. She's just fully realized that she's never going to see either Mickey or Jackie ever again and she's going into shock. He frowned slightly. Still... there's something else odd about her. Shock wouldn't explain the lack of void stuff. Considering all that had just happened, he decided that it would be prudent to make sure that he could isolate Rose if necessary. If it were more than shock and required immediate medical attention, the console room was ill-equipped to handle it. Gently taking her arm, he told her gently, "I'm taking you to the infirmary."

"Okay," the confused man answered allowing this doctor to lead him. The cavernous room led to a winding corridor. There seemed to be multiple rooms off of it. Suddenly he realized something and spoke it out loud. "This is similar to a Klein bottle."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow with surprise. "You know about Klein bottles? Continuous surfaces and all that?" Obviously there was something going on that couldn't be easily explained away. He shrugged slightly, knowing that he'd discover the reason soon enough. "The TARDIS isn't quite like a Klein bottle. Klein bottles are finite. Well... finite-ish. The TARDIS is infinite. Well... semi-infinite. Well... sorta semi-infinite." He looked around with a frown. "And for some reason, she's not being very cooperative. The infirmary's supposed to be around here somewhere..."

"She?" Sam wondered if all these confusing activities were because something was wrong with Ziggy, who was being called Tardis for an unknown reason. He asked, again thinking that perhaps this was the road out of madness. "This Tardis isn't a computer, is she?"

The Time Lord looked at him with dark eyes. Now he was certain, without any doubts, that there was something wrong. Either his faithful companion was suffering from a severe case of sudden amnesia... or she wasn't his faithful companion after all. The only way he was going to be able to know for certain was to get this person into the medical bay and run a scan on her. For the time being, however, it seemed prudent to play along. "Oh, Rose, you know the TARDIS is far more than a computer," he stated plainly. "Don't upset her any more than she already obviously is. Probably has something to do with Torchwood trying to get into her." He patted a nearby wall. "Now, there. Everything's all right. Just... give me the infirmary, old girl."

A moment later, the walls seemed to shift around them and a door that hadn't been there before suddenly appeared to their left.

Sam watched the walls moving and realized that the drug hypothesis was coming up from behind in the race of explanations. Maybe he was magnafluxing. "Infirmary?"

"Infirmary!" the Doctor confirmed with a manic grin. "Come on. Let's have a look at you." He stepped through the door and waited. "Well, are you coming? I don't have eternity. But then again, time is relative, isn't it?"

Realizing the truth in that statement, the leaper dryly responded, "Yeah, you have no idea." He walked into the strangely appointed room.

The Doctor looked at his companion with suspicion before gesturing towards the nearest medical couch. "Have a seat." He reached into his jacket and pulled out an odd cylindrical object. Tapping away at it, he then pressed a button, aiming it at Rose's chest. Immediately, a blue light came from the tip, accompanied by a high-pitched electrical sound.

Not recognizing the tool, Sam asked, "What's that?"

The Doctor ignored the question as he scanned the person in front of him. "Blood seems clean," he commented before frowning. He raised the sonic screwdriver and gazed on it, his frown growing. "But somehow your blood type's changed." Twisting here and pressing there, he scanned again. "And your gender's changed," he added with a frown which increased rapidly into incredulity. "And your DNA has changed!" Abruptly, he took a step back, twisting the sonic screwdriver again before aiming it at the person he now was certain wasn't his Rose. "Who are you and what have you done to Rose Tyler?" he asked, his voice turning dark.

Knowing that the man must be seeing Rose Tyler's aura but obviously seeing through the mask that a leap entailed, Sam's forehead crinkled. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Don't worry, though, your lady friend is safe."

The Doctor didn't react to Sam's reassurances. At least, not the way Sam expected. If anything, he became far more volatile. "You're not from Raxacoricofallapatorius and wearing Rose's skin so you must be something else. Something I haven't encountered yet. So, what are you? And where is Rose? What have you done to her?" he shouted, his fury growing.

There was sound that made Sam look around. Rather it was the lack of a sound that had been there but was now gone. It was as if something had changed, like an engine had been shut off. He couldn't figure out what had changed now, though. Not with the obviously enraged man in front of him. Based on the doctor's reaction, he decided to tell him the truth. He didn't expect to be believed. "I'm a scientist. My experiment sort of zigged when it should have zagged. Your friend is back at the project in my aura and I..." He waved his hands at the aura he was in. "...am in hers." Even as Sam tried to explain the situation to the angry man before him, the sound of the Imaging Chamber door filtered through.

"Sam, I wasn't sure we were going to find you. Ziggy just got a lock. And you are not going to believe this girl we have in the Waiting Room. She keeps demanding to see a doctor but every time we send Beeks in, she starts yelling at the top of her lungs," Al informed as he walked in. "She..." He looked around. "Sam... what the hell is going on here?"

"What project?" the Doctor demanded.

"Al!" Sam said, relieved at seeing his friend. At least that was something normal. Well, as normal as it got leaping through time. He turned to the doctor. "Project Quantum Leap. It deals with time travel."

"Sam, what the hell are you doing?!"

"Your friend has a point. What are you doing meddling with time travel?" the Doctor questioned, not moving from his position.

Al frowned with concern. "Sam... can he... can he hear me?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes slightly, dropping his arm and turning towards the Admiral. "Of course, I can hear you! I'm not deaf!"

Sam looked from one man to the other. "What? Maybe it's the brain waves again, like with Blake..."

Al shook his head, pounding at the handlink. "Ziggy doesn't know what to think of this guy, Sam. In fact, there isn't even a hint of a record. Who the hell is this yo-yo?"

"Brainwaves!" the Doctor smiled slightly at Sam's supposition. "I'm not supposed to see him, am I? Let me guess. He's a neurological hologram tuned to the mesons in your brain. Oh, that's brilliant! Elementary, of course. But brilliant, nonetheless." He frowned slightly. "What year are you from? Human aren't supposed to have that kind of technology for another hundred fifty years."

"Elementary?" Sam responded with indignation.

The Doctor started to pace slightly. "Of course, it would have to be a fairly short temporal distance, no more than... oh, a hundred years. Maybe two hundred at the most. Or a few thousand with the right upgrades. Which means that you could possibly have that kind of technology." He turned to the Admiral again, looking at his attire. "But based on what you're wearing, I'd say you're in the late 20th century, early 21st perhaps. By the way, nice suit," he commented before turning back to Sam. "But you still have a lot to explain. Where... is... Rose... Tyler?" he demanded again. "When is she?"

Sam gave a slightly crooked grin. "Well, I'm not sure. I mean, I can't remember. I know I've been leaping quite awhile now so I don't know what year Al is in presently. As to where, she's in the Waiting Room at the Project. That's in..." He suddenly looked confused. "…some place I don't remember."

The Doctor looked at Sam with growing sympathy. "'Zigged when it should have zagged.' Time travel without a capsule is a killer. Plus you probably didn't have the parameters quite correct, did you? Causes amnesia every time you travel through time. I'm so sorry."

A slight frown crossed Sam's face. "Who are you and how do you know so much about these things?" He looked around. "And while you're at it, you want to explain this place and when and where I am?"

"I'm the Doctor," the Time Lord replied, folding his arms over his chest. "And I know more about temporal physics than you ever will. And you?"

"Sam, don't tell him anymore!" Al protested vehemently.

"That's a pretty high opinion you have of yourself," Sam commented, knowing that in temporal physics, he certainly didn't know everything but knew more than just about anyone on the planet, not that he was smug about it. "I'm Sam Beckett." He looked over to his partner. "Come on, Al, he knows I'm not Rose Tyler." He turned back to the Doctor. "And I really would like to know your name. I'm a doctor too, but I don't push it."

"That doesn't give him the right to know about the project!" Al argued. "We don't know anything about this guy!"

The Doctor was frowning slightly. "Sam Beckett. I've heard that name before. Other than the playwright that is." He scrutinized Sam. "You're not related to the playwright, are you? Now, Beckett, he was an interesting fellow." He grimaced. "Couldn't make tea to save his life."

"I don't think I'm related to him," answered the time lost physicist. "Although I do like tea."

"So did Beckett," the Doctor groused. He made a slight gagging sound before suddenly grinning. "Tea! That's what we need! Good cuppa! We can talk over tea! And I know just the place!" He started out the infirmary door, heading down the corridor towards the console room. "Rextar Seven! Best tea in the Rextar system!" He hesitated, turning to look at Sam, who had quickly followed him. "No... I think Paris would be better. But they're more coffee drinkers than tea." He thought for a moment. "I know! Cardiff! We can fuel up while we have a cuppa... and you can explain yourself."

"Sam, I wouldn't go to Cardiff!" Al exclaimed.

The Doctor turned towards the Admiral, pondering for a moment. "You know... I think he's right. We'll go to Rextar Seven after all." He gave Al a glare. "Where we can talk in private." He continued on into the console room and noted the time rotor on the console had stopped. "We apparently materialized. Let me just verify something right quick..." He glanced at the monitor on the central console, noting the complete lack of activity in the area that was known as Canary Wharf. "Good. Yvonne kept her word." Grinning at Sam, he then made the necessary adjustments to the coordinates.

"Sam..." Al called out softly, gaining his friend's attention. "According to Ziggy, there's no such thing as Rextar Seven. I think this guy's a little bananas, if you know what I mean."

"Well, if it's not there, we won't be going, will we?" answered Sam, intrigued by what he was slowly starting to accept was the only reality he was going to have for awhile no matter what the source was. At least, it was a reality he was becoming more familiar with, if not comfortable. He followed the Doctor back to the cavern.

"Yes, but it also means that you're following a mad man!"

"At this point, Al, I'm not sure it's not the mad following the mad."

"Now," the Doctor commented as Sam walked into the console room. "Coordinates are set." He gave Sam a peculiar look. "Ready?" Not waiting for an answer, he exclaimed, "Allons-y!" as he flicked a switch, instantly causing the room to shake.

"Sam!" Al yelled, noticing how the connection between the present and the past started to fade quickly.

The leaper looked towards his friend, who flickered for a moment and then simply ceased to exist. "Al?" Sam questioned. "Where did my friend go?"

"He's still back on Earth in the 21st century," the Doctor told him as they clung to the TARDIS' console while the room shook. "He's perfectly fine, though I imagine that he's probably spitting bullets... or whatever you Americans say."

"What do you mean 'back on Earth in the 21st century?' I can only travel on Earth in either the late 20th or early 21st centuries. My own lifetime." He paused. "Well, maybe Al's since we have mixed mesons now." He figured he shouldn't bring up the one time when he'd traveled along his familial DNA. It didn't seem to be pertinent.

"Oh, that's because you didn't set the parameters correctly. Now you're stuck with traveling in your own lifetime and there's no way out of that until you correct it."

"Correct it?"

"Of course, that would depend on which parameters weren't set correctly in the first place. And finding out those would take at least one of my lifetimes. There is an easier way, though. You need a time vortex manipulator," he replied bluntly. "Unfortunately, those aren't going to be around for another 30 centuries." The TARDIS continued shaking for several minutes before stopping abruptly, causing Sam to fall to the grated metal floor while the Doctor seemed unaffected. "Now I remember you! Dr. Samuel Beckett. Born 8th of August 1953. Nobel Prize winner and mankind's 21st century Einstein." He gave him a manic grin. "You're brilliant!"

The human time traveler looked up with a shy grin. "That's me and thanks, although I think the designation of Einstein was... well..." He hated when people compared him to his idol. "...a bit much. But that puts you at an advantage. I still don't know your name."

"Of course, you do," the Time Lord replied with a frown. "I told you. I'm the Doctor."

"Yeah, but doctor who?"

"Just... the Doctor."

"Fine, don't tell me," Sam groused. "You just want me to keep calling you 'the Doctor.'"

"Well, if you have to give me a human name, I have gone by Dr. John Smith. But my name is the Doctor." He looked down at Sam, who was still sitting on the floor. "Are you going to sit there all day?"

Sam started to get up. "I just figured, if we start moving again, it was safer down here. Do you even know how to drive this thing?" He added, "Doctor."

"Of course, I do!" the Gallifreyan protested. "And we've landed so you can stand now. Come on." He walked over to the door and reached out to take the handle. "Brand new world outside."

Sam followed him not at all sure what he'd see when the doors opened. "You sure we won't have those swirly colors again?"

"We were in the Vortex then. Perfectly safe now." He wiggled his eyebrows slightly. "Dr. Samuel Beckett from Elk Ridge, Indiana, in the country of the United States of America, on the planet Earth, welcome... to Rextar Seven." He opened the door melodramatically and stepped aside, watching Sam's face.

Sam felt like he'd stepped into a fantasy land of enchantment. The grass, if that's what it was, was purple, the hills in the distance, a bright yellow. The sky was a light shade of orange. "Lucy in the sky with diamonds," he breathed right before passing out.