The Doctor's Memoir Pt 1

by justamessenger

The Doctor is real, and he wants you to know everything. He has finished his work, and is releasing a memoir, as a way of creating a series of fixed points in time. It has taken him a very long time to complete his work, and he needed to be sure it would not be undone by the passage of time.

I was taller once, as a young man. I was a different man than I am now. I had brown hair. I was skinny, had bad teeth, smoked cigarettes and drank too much. I can't say I blame myself, in hindsight. We were stupid back then. We were Americans, blind to the world and lost in a cloud. I was taller then.

I remember hating school, but loving to learn about whatever popped into my head. I was curious about everything from space to moss. I thought there were aliens. I wanted to know how my radio controlled car worked. I took everything apart! I learned everything I could, but I couldn't pass a class—any of them. I was a terrible student, but my mind was always doing something important. I was the middle of three children, in a middle-class family, in a small town, in northern Pennsylvania. Not what you were expecting from me, was it? It turns out, there's a lot of things you don't even realize you don't know about me. You only know what I wanted you to know, because I couldn't have you spoiling everything, and getting me stuck dead, in some time and place, where and when I don't want to, nor am I supposed to, die. There's a reason you don't know my name, and we'll get to that later. My job would have been immensely more difficult if you had, had even the slightest idea what I'm talking about right now.

This memoir has been made, to ensure that certain actions take place. You will likely read passages that will not make immediate sense to you. Rest assured that if you are reading this, we got through it.

Schrodinger's Cat was a thought experiment which stated that reality does not create itself until we observe it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look it up. It's going to be important later.

I go off on a lot of tangents, so you'll have to bare with me. Where was I?

I was a bad student. I wasn't well accepted by my classmates. I went to church—of all places. With everything I know now, I can't even hope to believe in a God. I mean, what would he be doing? There isn't a single thing in all the universe that needs God to make it happen. He doesn't even have a job. Another spoiler: humanity goes on a long, long time. At one point, I was absolutely hooked on politics and social justice issues. I read everything, and I was appalled at some of the things that had been going on in the world. I got into history, and learned about all the struggles of man. I read Holy books until I had questions that Jesus couldn't answer. I got into science. I found biology, psychology, chemistry and finally Physics. I loved physics, every bit of it.

There are certain details about my childhood that I can't give out just yet. It's important that you don't know my actual identity, because if this book ever slipped into my parents' hands, or my own hands, before I wrote it, I will have crossed my own timeline, and create a pretty nasty fixed point. I have to grow up the way I grew up, or this never gets to happen, and well, that may have been for the best, but I don't want that.

There's this funny thing about time paradoxes that says, they don't exist. They can't exist, and that's exactly why we don't want to create one. It's bad for everyone. Speaking of ,"bad for everyone," I want to apologize for something that happened. I had no idea that anything bad could happen by pushing that button. The numbers were right, and it's the only way this was going to happen. The machine broke. It wasn't anyone's fault. Either way, the fact that you're reading this means that I fixed it. In your timeline, this memoir is being released to the public when I was 31. I'm more than 900, on the BBC timeline for you. I can't tell you how old I am right now, but it's fair to say, I'm not old enough to have forgotten everything. I still remember the important stuff. I've seen the universe's troubles unfold and be resolved by my hand. Everything terrible that would have happened to humanity—that came from other worlds—I've been handling. I've been resetting you guys since the dawn of time. I'm not God. I'm a time traveler. I've been everywhere and everywhen. I've seen the births of stars in fast forward and paused the most awe-inspiring moments of all of time and space. I think I'm ready for you to know. I'm the Doctor. Well, in you're timeline, I'm going to be.

Chapter 2: 2052

I'm an older man at this point, but society had grown by leaps and bounds by the time we invented time travel. My team and I had been hard at work for years. We saw the coming and passing of human invention. You're going to go through 72 different audio formats by 2052. This isn't a spoiler. This is a reality that I hope humanity gets a grip on as early as possible. Things are about to change in a hurry. By 2013, you're already past the 45 degree angle on the exponential growth of human development. You're pretty close to inventing wormholes! Oh, to experience the wonder of that day again. It really brings me back, writing about this stuff. We had no idea what was going to be on the other side. Most of the public didn't show interest in the project, but the people who cared, cared a lot! We were on the edge of our seats, watching it on our IG Screens. We all remembered where we were on the day science created the first wormhole. After a few years of testing, they sent the M.M.P. (Mission Module Package)(Mama P. for short) into the edge of the entrance to see what types of readings it could pick up. Let's just say, it didn't last long. What passed the threshold waves of that opening, never came back. We have no idea where it went, and it could honestly be anywhere. We received no data transmissions, and the project was killed until a new angle was considered.

That's when we invented the TARDIS, 2052. It wasn't a big blue box, it wasn't bigger on the inside, and I shouldn't have ever done it. We had worked for so long, and we knew we were right. We went over every number a hundred times. The computers checked our work trillions of times a second, for three straight years! Every physics professor in the world agreed this was a good idea. We went for it. We built the machine. It was clunky. A bunch of screens on LevRaks. A neural interface would surround the user's body, and the pilot could just think, and it would program in a unitime coordinate. Who would have thought that even after all the science was right, a mechanical problem would occur. How stupid of us.

On July 21st, 2052, just two days before the scheduled public demonstration, I was swept away with the TARDIS.

Let's back up a few days: It's July 12, 2052. We're in London, readying for the unveiling of Project TARDIS, at the Hawking Time Institute. I wasn't the project leader. I wasn't an inventor. I was just a button pusher. I was there to crunch numbers and check systems for malfunctions. I was a troubleshooter. It was not easy being me, with all the NASA and ESA people zipping around. They towered over me, intellectually. They knew more than I did in each of their fields, and it was impossible for me to troubleshoot specific systems without the help of one or more of these people. They were not the ,"hero," type that you'll remember from the 1960s-2010s. These were the type of people who spoke flatly, and without excitement. These people were just doing their jobs. I can't imagine how anyone could be working on the world's first time machine without a sense of awe and wonder, but that's why these people were hired. They stayed objective. The project administrators needed to be sure that they could remain objective, so they could shut the project down without hesitation, if anything seemed out-of-the-ordinary.

An intern brought me a coffee, around 2:30 in the morning. Her name was Jericha Windsel, a twenty-something woman studying spacial dynamics at MIT. I hardly paid attention to her, over my shoulder, as she placed the mug down on the right-hand side of my desk. I gruffly made a sound that was supposed to feel like a ,"thank you,", but was more like a ,"How do you not understand that I'm left-handed?". I was never all that polite when I was working. There was a problem with the second and third coolant lines for the portal dilation inhibitor. That's the part that keeps the portal from expanding past the limits for the project. If this unit failed, the portal would open, and continue to expand until its energy reached the Jacobson threshold, at which point, the portal would become unstable and begin to aimlessly spin out of control, swallowing anything within range like a big spherical cookie cutter, severing that space from the rest of our reality. This was just one of several major things that could go wrong if we weren't diligent in checking and double-checking, and triple-checking our systems before running the machine.

I stayed up all night, working on the coolant lines, and finally got them flowing at around 6:30 that morning. I was supposed to be there for another twelve-hour shift, inspecting the next few systems, so I had to do it. I took a quick break to use the restroom and get my thoughts together for the day ahead. From inside my stall, I heard two men enter the restroom, having a conversation about the chances of having each and every system of TARDIS operating at safe levels all at once. The first voice was optimistic that we could get everything to stay online for the demonstration, but the second voice wasn't so sure. We had yet to get more that half of the systems online at once, and time was running out. We were under a lot of stress to get these things working properly, but I was not terribly worried. I didn't have my reputation riding on this project. I was just a button pusher.

On the night of the 21st, I was working alone again. It was about 11:30 pm, while I was working on the coolant lines again. We still had not managed to get all the systems working simultaneously, and my job was to try to get everything working together. I was always good at seeing entire systems as working groups of cause and effect. That's why I was there. If anyone could get this thing working, it was going to be me. I got all the systems online and paused. All I had to do was get them all working in synchronicity, and pause the entire system until the project leader could verify the system stability.

Throughout the night, I had managed to boot up 24 of the 25 systems, and place them in suspension. I was working on the last system, the velocity sending unit. The velocity sending unit is pretty important. As you sit in your seat on Earth, you may not realize that you're actually moving at millions of miles per hour through the cosmos. If you were going to try to move through a time portal, with a destination that would land you in the same location, there wouldn't be a planet there. Not only would you need to change the date, you'd also need to know where in the cosmos, your target has moved. You'd need to stretch a wormhole from your current location in spacetime, and stretch it to the next location. The velocity sending unit was the system that mapped out that location and targeted the far end of the wormhole to meet it, and stay with it while moving through the cosmos. It's like having a string connecting two cyclists. As they are gliding over the pavement, the string moves with them. Our wormhole must fly through time and space, horizontally, keeping up with both the beginning point and the end point of the journey. It had been having trouble latching onto the destination. It kept on speeding up and passing the mark by several hundred thousand miles. Repairing this was nothing more than dialing in a setting and restarting the computer that controls it. I was getting excited, knowing that I was just a few minutes from completing my job, but I was worried about what I was going to do with my life afterwards. For the last several years, time travel science was my whole life. It's all I cared about, and it was my entire focus. Once we turned the machine on, and it works, I've got nothing left to do.

Jericha Windsel made her way into the room with a cup of coffee, as I was making the final adjustment to the velocity sending unit, and as I fired it up, she graciously set the mug down on my right. Still left-handed. Still a little annoyed. Not her fault. Not anyone's fault. I'm just the kind of guy who forgets that I'm the only one in my head, using my thoughts and experience. I really shouldn't hold people to the same standards that I hold myself, when it comes to having the ability to completely understand what I would do for myself. I should just accept her kindness and show some gratitude, but what's in the past is set in stone. If I could go back and change the way I treated her, I would. I can't though. I can't cross my own timeline, especially when it comes to things that happened in that room.

That room, on that night, is the scene for the single most important moment in all of Earth's history—its death.

As I restarted the velocity sending unit, and it was coming back online. Jericha was asking me questions, as usual. Her questions always infuriated me because they were so far beneath the ideas that I was having. In order to answer her questions, I had to stop thinking whatever I was already thinking, purge my thoughts, reset my mind, and think through the logic that led to her question. It made me hold a sort of contempt for her, even as I saw her absorbing the answers.

She was bright and resilient to my abuse and lack of attention. Sometimes I was very short with her, but she was always able to pick apart my answers like a child who constantly followed up every answer with another ,"why?". She was 22, and had been picked for this internship, out of a field of thousands of applicants. She was driven and determined to learn. She was creative and human. I truly admired her, but in most occasions, I was too busy with my own thoughts, to take her's seriously. I can't imagine that I did not hurt her feelings on many occasions. This is something that would come to haunt me for the rest of my life. The way I interacted with Jericha was shameful and unwarranted. I think she loved me, even as I was an old man, far too old for someone like her. She had her whole life ahead of her, but had left much behind her. She was a point in time, a transition. She had so much left to do; so many kisses to be shared, so many moments of profound joy, and so many opportunities ahead of her. Her favorite color was blue, and she loved to draw.

As I stopped my train of thought, to answer yet another of her infantile questions, I felt a wave of aggravation come over me. I didn't notice it at first, but soon it became apparent that I had no desire to interact with her right now. I'm sure she noticed before I did. I snapped back with a quick answer that was hardly enough to wet her lips, had it been a drink. I was busy. I had a million ideas pouring through my head. I was just moments away from achieving full system stability, and all I had to do was suspend the program. I didn't. She hit me with a full on assault over the way I had treated her. At any other time, this would have been completely acceptable, but this was a very dangerous time to deal with this. She ripped me apart, and I was so focused on her response that I forgot to pay attention to the program coming online. It sat there waiting while I faced the most intuitive dissection of my mannerisms that I had ever heard. I could hardly imagine that this young woman had, had the time to piece me together in a way that allowed her the type of insight that could penetrate me so deeply. She knew me so well. I froze in introspective fear, while trying my best to keep up with the string of observations that she was pouring through. It would take me a long time to fully realize the changes that would come from this. That's when it happened.

The alarm began to sound. I looked over to the platform. All the displays were on, so I ran over to inspect the situation. They were locked on to a destination, which was impossible. I had not activated the neural setup, so no one could have entered the unitime coordinates, and there was no other way to program in a destination. All the systems were coming out of suspension, one at a time, in the correct order, as if someone had remotely begun the launch sequence. The room was hard encripted. There was no way for this to happen! I stood there in the platform, looking over the screens. Jericha was asking me what was happening, and I told her to shut up, and that I needed to concentrate. I winced at my own harshness. I checked all the systems, which seemed to be working, all except the coolant lines on the portal dilation inhibitor. It was going to fail! I didn't have enough time. There was no way I could reboot that system in time to initiate safely. I knew what was going to happen. As TARDIS began making its sounds, I peered over to Jericha. I had time to mouth three words to her before I was gone.

"I'm so sorry."

In the exact instant that the platform transitioned, the portal dilated as expected, and it swallowed everything. Not just the room. Not just the building. Not just a section of the city. The entire Earth, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, and it didn't stop there. By the time the portal stabilized and shrank into nothingness, it had swallowed about 25% of the Milky Way Galaxy. It may seem like a big thing, and for our standards at the time, it was. In an astronomical sense, it was a drop in the bucket. The universe would never miss it, and I didn't even see it happen. I knew it happened. I knew the coolant lines failed. There's no way they could have held, with TARDIS running at full operative capacity. That's the day I ended the world, and for that I am sorry.

Chapter 3: The first time traveler

The fact that I ended up anywhere other than the vacuum of some spot in deep space, was a mystery to me at the time. I was somewhere, and I wasn't suffocating. There was the smell of sulfur in the air. My skin was wet and cold. It was dark, very, very dark. I could feel my lab coat becoming wet and cold. It was so cold. I was scared. There were no sounds other than my own breathing and the pops and clicks coming from the cooling TARDIS systems. I checked the screens, and to my amazement, the system was holding stability. The machine would work again! I knew that I couldn't go back to the lab to stop myself. That would create a paradox that could pop the universe like a bubble. Where would I go? Where was I? When was I?

I pulled up the unitime coordinates to find that I had arrived several million years in the future, while occupying the same space from which I had originated, though I was not traveling in the same trajectory that I was while on Earth. I was moving in the opposite direction, at more than twice the velocity. My wormhole had not been a long one. It must have dropped me off at the first chance it had to set me on the surface of a habitable planet. Who had begun the sequence? How did they gain access to the system? I could see no one. Why had I been brought here, and what was going to happen to me? I was scared.

After a few hours of wrestling with my own hesitations, I realized that sitting in one spot was not going to accomplish anything. I decided to look around. I realized that I shouldn't wander too far from TARDIS, so I kept my exploration to just a few hours. After a while, I came across a most curious sight. There was a plaque, fixed to a large stone. It looked as though it had been constructed eons earlier. It was in English! How could it be in English? If I had destroyed the Earth, millions of years ago, how could there have been an English-speaking person alive to write the inscription? Every person who had ever known the language, had been wiped out! I set out to read it.

"Sir, you are the first time traveler. You did not make a mistake. You did the best you could. You are going to be okay. Don't panic. Go back to the TARDIS. Unicode:4258:6215:72:71285

You must complete your path. I can give you only this information, because more could change your future. Just trust yourself, and look for the clues. -A. Friend

P.S. Press the button for a hot meal.,"

I wrote the unitime-stamp on my hand. At this point, I was not in any condition for deep thought. I was hungry from my several hours of walking, so I pushed the button. Nothing happened. No sounds, no anything. It took me a few confused moments to realize that my stomach was full. I didn't even get to eat my meal. It simply appeared in my stomach! I could hardly handle what had just happened! What sort of alien technology had I stumbled across, or rather, been led to. I still had no idea who could have turned on my machine, or why they had brought me to this place. I started back to the TARDIS with a swirling storm of thoughts that kept landing me back to all my questions. There was information missing, but I was sure that with enough time, I could put the pieces together. I could fill in the holes with the most likely scenarios, but now I was realizing how little I actually knew, and how many more possibilities there were than I had imagined.

When I got back to TARDIS, I had yet to come up with anything other than the thought of the clues that I had picked up from the plaque. First of all, there was a period after the "A," in A. Friend. That's a name. That's not just something that someone put there to signify their relationship to me. This message may not have come from a friend. Also, the message said that I was the ,"First," time traveler. That means that I was not the last time traveler. Others had come after me! Who were they? Would I meet them? How many of them are there? I began to prepare myself for departure. I stood in the center of the platform, and looked at my hand and began to read. As I read the last numbers in the series, the neural set transmitted my thoughts into the guidance system and started the launch sequence.

Within a few moments, I saw the things around me begin to fade, as if the sound of TARDIS was slowly deconstructing the space around me and reassembling it as a new place in spacetime. I felt an overwhelming fear come over me as it all dissolved around me. It was terrifying, being alone and lost.

Poor Jericha. I wish she was here with me. Even though she didn't know everything I knew, I was more confident when she was there, asking me questions. If only she were here, I wouldn't be so scared. How could I have let her die? I still have a hard time thinking about her, even as the ages have passed. She would have made a good companion. I felt like I understood everything about her, but looking back, all I could say with certainty was that she liked the color blue, and she didn't know that I was left-handed. I would have given anything to have her with me. She was just a child, but, then again, so was I, only 70. I knew nothing back then.

A new place began to materialize around me, which was still an amazing sight for me to behold. So many times, I would take it for granted. I never thought about how surreal of an experience it was for each of my companions, their first times. They must have been terrified. At least they had company. I was alone for the first few times. I didn't know if I would ever see my home again. I knew that I couldn't actually go back. Luckily, Earth had not been visited by time travelers in the past. The entire history of that planet was a clean slate, untouched by the ripples of time. There were no parallel paths. There was only one timeline, and that was comforting. Nothing could change the fact that the Earth had existed, and that I was here. Everything that had ever happened, led me to this point, which meant that time trotted along in exactly the best possible way, effectively.

The new landscape had trees and grass. It was beautiful weather. The sky was blue and there were wisps of clouds. Was I back on Earth? In the distance, I saw a house. It was stone, and had a thatch roof. There were flowers, meticulously planted and maintained in raised beds around the home. I began to walk that way. If the plaque told me to come here, it had known that I would be showing up at this house. There must be someone here to help me, or give me some information. It could be a trap, but right now, I didn't really have any other options. The grass was short and uniform. There was a stone path and the air smelled of cedar. It reminded me of my childhood, and for the first time since the lab, I felt a brief moment of comfort. I stepped onto the stone porch and stood in front of the door. There was a plain, brass door-knocker in the center. As I reached for it, I was captivated by the thoughts of the possibilities that lay just on the other side. My finger touched the cold brass, and slid behind, as I lifted the knocker. I knocked three times.

The most inviting voice I had ever heard, called out, "Come on in! It's open!" I reached for the knob and gave it a turn to the left. The door swung open easily and I smelled cookies. The front room was dimly-lit and quaint. It was like something out of the American 1900's. There was furniture and art on the walls. There was a well-trodden plain cloth rug, leading into the next room. "Come on," the kind voice called out, from the next room. "The cookies are almost done. They're your favorite, peanut butter with chocolate chips." I slowly approached the doorway, afraid of what may be waiting on the other side of the threshold.

Pausing before I entered, I asked, sheepishly, "Where am I? How do you know me?" I craned my head just inside the door, to get a better look. There was a woman with her back to me, bending down, and inspecting the contents of her oven.

"Just another minute, and they'll be ready."

She stood and turned her head, glancing over her shoulder, as if I was someone whose company was quite common in her kitchen. She was putting on her oven mitts. "You've had a strange day, well, night. The last normal thing you remember was being back in the lab, in London! That was a long time ago, from where we're standing right now. Have a seat."

To my horror, one of the chairs at the table, slid out, on its own. I must have jumped a mile! On my first day, I was not ready for the sort of things I would be seeing. She said, "I bet you weren't expecting that! Well, things have certainly changed since your time. This place was chosen for you, so that you could take some time and get up to speed, without having to deal with everything all at once. This place is here so that you can take baby steps. Right now, you're in between points in time and space. You're smack in the middle of a trip." I sat in the chair. "Your journey was halted so that you could be fully briefed on the events which surround you. I can't tell you everything. Spoilers. We can't have any of that. With everything you're supposed to do, you'll learn. Just know that what you're going to do in your lifetime, is more important than any existential discomfort you may be feeling today."

"That's not really as comforting as you may think," I said. "I did just wipe my entire planet, and everyone on it, out of existence."

"That's a thought for another time and place. There's nothing I can tell you that's going to make that feel better. You'll just have to try to not think about it. It's only going to bring you down. The real reason you're here, is to keep you safe while you get the ball rolling. As disappointed as you probably are, you did just become the first time traveler in the universe. You already know that you're not going to be the last. You figured that out when you read the plaque on Teminis II. That's the name of the planet you first landed on."

"How did TARDIS know to go there?,"

"It didn't. You got stuck, and the TARDIS wouldn't let you re-materialize until the location was safe."

"Who put the plaque there?,"

"I did. I was just returning a favor to an old friend. I'm Agatha Friend," she said in an eloquent Cambridge accent, "and I just got back from setting up that plaque, just moments before you arrived at my door. Since your first time, hundreds of time travelers have followed your legacy. You're a hero in the eyes of science, from one corner of the universe to the other. You have quite the life to continue. I can't say that it's all going to be nice, but you've sure got a lot of history ahead of you. I can't tell you the details, because advance knowledge would undoubtedly change the path you're going to take, which would be really bad for everyone. Needless to say, I know an awful lot about you. It's good to see you like this. I always wondered what you were like in the beginning. However, I imagined you to be a bit more talkative, but I guess that'll come in time." She reached into a cupboard and pulled out a small device. She then began to approach me, and I pulled back sharply. "Oh don't worry. I just need to perform a scan, to make sure you're who I was expecting, and not someone else, or yourself from another time. This will only take a second, and it's not going to hurt." She smiled, almost playfully. She held her device up toward me and it beeped once. "Okay. You're you. That's all I needed to know. Now, there's a room all set for you upstairs. You should go get some rest." She reached into a cupboard and pulled out a small item. It was another device. "Here," she said as she placed it in my

hand. "This will help you sleep. When you're ready, just press the button and say, "Sleep."."

I started to examine the device when she exclaimed, "Oh, no! Your cookies! They've burned! Oh, well. I'll just have to get another batch ready for you, for later. You're room is up the stairs, first door on the left. Sweet dreams!"

I hesitated, at first, but followed her instructions. I left the room, climbed the stairs, and opened the first door on the left. Inside was a small bed with a nightstand on the left, which was good because I'm left-handed. I undressed, placed my clothes on the dresser, and laid down, pulling the covers up to my chin. Again, I inspected the little device she had given me. She had said to hold the button and say, "Sleep," so I did. I was not expecting to fall instantly to sleep. It must have been a funny sight to behold.

When I awoke, Agatha Friend was folding my clothes. I was rather taken aback at this intrusion, but it was her house, and I, her guest. She had been nothing but kind, and I couldn't think of any reason to be upset, other than the shock of waking to someone handling my things. It's not like I had anything of importance with me. Just clothes. As I started to move, my mind began to sharpen to my surroundings. I let out a groaning, "Good morning."

"Oh, well hello! I'd say I didn't mean to wake you, but I didn't wake you. The sleep starter was set for exactly eight hours. You needed a good night's sleep."

"Okay then," I said. "So what's on the agenda for today? Do I get to try out some fancy new technology? How about a history lesson to get me up to speed?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you understood. You can't know the history yet. In your timeline, none of these points are set. If I tell you what happens, every point will become a fixed point in time, and you won't be able to change anything. I'm just here to make sure you're physically and mentally ready for the things that lay ahead of you. I'm so sorry, sir."

"Okay. So what do I do from here."

"Breakfast!"

During my time with Agatha, she showed me things that I would never have believed. She showed me impossible things. She taught me about anti-gravity, unlimited sources of power, the underlying structure of reality and all the things my 2052 physics had yet to uncover. I could hardly wrap my mind around the things the showed me.

Chapter 4: Leaving Agatha's Place

Agatha's was the last bit of real peace I ever felt. In my timeline, as I write this, there has never been another moment when I was safe. I have been chased throughout all of time and space, and I'm getting tired of running. It is for this reason that I am composing this memoir. There is the fear that it will one day find itself in my hands again, but I made sure to release it in a time when it could do no harm to my path. There is also, no way for me—or anyone else—to know that it's about me because no one knows who I was before I became the Doctor, not even my former self.

Anyway, Agatha was an unbelievably hospitable host. If you ever get the chance to take a pit stop, half-way through a wormhole, I hope she targets your craft and brings you in for a landing. Her cookies are fantastic!

Emily, turn right down the corridor. At the end, there will be a green button and a red button. Push the green button. Do not push the red button! Now, RUN!

I stayed with her for several days, not getting many answers, but rather, she just wanted to spend time with me. I suppose it must have been funny for her, seeing me as my former self, all human and dumb. The first time she met me, I would be more than a thousand years old, with a brand new face and more stories than you could imagine. I saw her several more times throughout my life, but in her timeline, this would be the last, for this place, in between points in spacetime, had become a safe haven for her. She had seen so, so, so much in her time. She had fought battles with more heroism than anyone. We had been on many adventures together, from the Suns of Paratel, to the storm towers of Mung. She was always ready to make hard choices, and she gave so much of herself, that she was the only person who could possibly handle the important job of preparing me for the journey that lay ahead.

As I boarded the TARDIS, I asked her if she knew where I was supposed to go next. She reminded me of the nasty side effect of my machine (deleting places from time and space), and told me that I could not leave her world under the power of the TARDIS, for her safety. She agreed to send me back through my own wormhole. She had pulled me out of it, and she could drop me back in. I'd end up coming out on the other side. I asked her about the coordinates that were on the plaque, and she told me that she had not picked them. I had picked them myself. She was just told to pull me out of that particular time stream. She did not know the location of the coordinates, and for good reason. If they landed somewhere in her future, she couldn't know about it. I now know better. She never saw me again.

She pulled her device from her pocket again, pressed a few buttons and waved goodbye as we dissolved from each other's view. Within a few moments, another reality began to form around me. I was in a clean, white hallway, with dark gray, rounded corners. There was a soft, gray handrail that extended from one end of the hall to the other. Outside the windows, were bright skies, both up and down. I wasn't, at first, sure how this worked, but Agatha had prepared me for the idea of unexplainable things. She let me know that most of my journeys were going to be met with peril, and I would find my way by chasing down answers to unexplainable things. Such was not the case on this day.

I didn't know it at the time, but I was on the home world of the Daleks, Skaro. By now, I'm sure you've seen the BBC series. The BBC has done a fantastic job of portraying fictional tales of my real-life occurrences. They have been made to appeal to a wide audience, as was needed to ensure the show's future. Had it not been for the show, I would have never become the Doctor. That series is what gave me my greatest tools. As you know, I already have my TARDIS, but it's not quite as cool as the police call box. The call box TARDIS came into play a bit later in my timeline, and I can assure you that it made my life much, much easier. The systems that were in place on the police box, made my little time machine look like a bicycle sitting next to the Space Shuttle! Let's just say that the Box TARDIS was better in every way imaginable. I'll get into the specifics later.

My arrival on Skaro was timed so that I would be welcomed, instead of hunted. Since I had not been a time traveler for long, I had yet to make enemies. The Daleks were not always the war race that you may already know. Back then, they were called Dals and Thals. They were peaceful for many years before anything bad ever happened. They were a humanoid race of intellectuals and artists. They were deep thinkers, optimistic and friendly. Though they were alarmed at my arrival, they quickly saw it as an opportunity to expand their knowledge of the universe. They were an advanced race, with technology that could inspect me and my platform.

I met my first Kadels, just a few minutes after my arrival. I was greeted warmly, but with caution. They understood that I was a long way from home. They had never met a human before. Seeing that human beings were wrought with badness, it's a good thing they didn't have a history book lying around. They may have greeted me with more than a little hostility if they had known about the suffering humanity had put its own people through. Instead, I was met by a female who spoke no English. It was difficult, at first, to create a line of communication, but after a few minutes, we started using hand gestures. I was led down the hall and through a series of corridors.

Eventually, we came to a room, occupied by a single attendant and a shelf of small, white boxes. The attendant began to speak, but there was nothing I could do to understand. I showed him a look of confusion and helplessness. He used his hand to indicate that he wanted me to talk. As I spoke, he opened one of the boxes from the shelf, and removed a small black cube. He turned it over several times before taking my hand. He held my hand open, palm facing up, at the height of my chest. He, then, placed the cube in my hand. I stopped speaking, but he motioned for me to continue, so I started talking about my house, back in the US. He twisted the cube with his fingers, in what appeared to be very calculated movements, almost like he was tuning in an AM radio station. After a few moments he stopped and smiled. He began to speak.

"Hello traveler. Would you care to satisfy our curiosity as to your origins?,"

He had the same eloquent Cambridge accent that I remembered from Agatha Friend! Was the entire universe British?! He saw the surprise on my face and offered an explanation. I'm hard pressed to remember the actual specifics of our conversation, but in the end, I learned that the Dal universal translator cube is designed to read my mind. It deciphers the sounds I'm hearing, and intercepts the transmission before it reaches my auditory cortex, and translates those sounds, using a database of every known language, rendering the words into whatever regional dialect is most easily recognized by my mind. The fact that I had spent several months in London, had conditioned my mind to most easily recognize the Cambridge accent of my colleagues. I didn't mind it. I always liked the way the Brits spoke, so I never bothered to adjust the setting.

Once I had my language cube, I stuck it in my pocket and asked the most important question I could think of. Why was there a sky in both directions?

"How can there be sky above and below?"

"That's not the sky," chimed one of my Kadel escorts. "It's the energy grid. We're in a low-level shortage, so it comes on automatically, from time to time."

"Really? That's smart. How's it work?"

"Oh, We don't know that. It's a new fixture—just completed."

"Can I have a look at it?"

"Sure, I can arrange a tour for you after you finish your registration with the High Command."

"Registration?" I asked.

"Oh. I thought you knew. Everyone on Skaro is registered. It's how we keep tabs on our resource disbursement. If we didn't know how many people to feed, we wouldn't grow enough food for everyone. The same can be said of energy, housing, education, and medical resources."

"So," I said, "You provide all this for the people of your planet?"

"Oh, no. I don't have anything to do with it. It all comes from the Generation Center. They created the energy grid that you noticed earlier. It is thanks to them that we can focus on our lives and our new ideas. How can a society become better if it uses most of its productive

potential for sustenance?"

"I suppose that makes sense. If only my home world had figured that out. We're still fighting wars over money and power! We had talked about making the change to a resource-based economy, but the people in power refused to budge. They said that they were making things better, and they were, but they refused to make any changes that could endanger their hold on the rest of the people."

"It sounds, to me, like you've seen a great deal of misery then."

"Not really. We always seemed to find a way to be happy, even if it meant ignoring the suffering of others. We just didn't talk about it."

"Well, that is a sad tale indeed."

Throughout our talk, we had traveled down several corridors, and after a few minutes, arrived at a console. The console was holographic, and when I stepped near to it, a projection encircled me and my host. After a few moments, I could see an image of myself, rotating, with arms and legs slowly cycling through all their ranges of motion, much like the famous sketch by DaVinci. The image broke into several rotating images of the various levels of my body, including my skeletal structure, cardiac system, neurological system, endocrine system, and muscular structure. It produced a map of my skin, complete with scars, moles, and freckles. I then saw a long series of sentences. Upon inspection, I realized that this machine was cataloging my thoughts, as far back as my mind had stored them! This was not okay!

"Stop it!"

"What?" My host asked.

"It's reading and recording my thoughts! I'm not okay with this!"

"Oh," He turned it off, "I thought you knew what we were doing."

"I guess I didn't."

"Everyone goes through this process every day. We keep an accurate record of everything that we deem to be important. It helps us ensure that issues are dealt with before they can effect the population. We have to know your entire being, so that we can clear you for public exposure. Until we complete this scan, you won't be cleared leave the facility. It's a public safety risk."

"Well, where does all this information go? Who has access to it?"

"Oh, this all goes to the Central Processing Authority. They are in charge of establishing your resource needs and ensuring that the extra is accounted for. This scan tells us exactly what you need, so that we can provide it for you, without subtracting resources from others."

"Well, that's all well and good, but I can't let you scan my thoughts. They are private and they belong to me."

"If you insist, but I assure you, by completing the scan, our system will be able to provide you with things you didn't even know you wanted or needed."

"Like what?"

"Well, it says here, that your favorite meal is called, a grilled Reuben, with french fries and coffee. Even as I have no idea what any of that means, the system recognizes your memory of that meal, and can recreate it for you, at any resource distribution location, at any time. I can't imagine living without it. On Skaro, our society depends solely on this for our everything. You, quite literally, can't exist here without it. It can provide you with answers to any question in our database, which is quite extensive. It holds the accumulated knowledge of our entire Dal race, and can be accessed at any time, from any console. If you require, you can also use a portable console."

My host reached into his pocket, and pulled out what looked like a cell phone from the early 2010's. When he opened it, a projection appeared above it, that held a picture of my host, and a brief list of information about him and his surroundings. It even had a picture of me! Beneath my image was a flashing ,"Alert!" badge.

"Why is there an alert on me?"

"That is due to your incomplete scanning status. Once you complete the scan, you will be fully integrated into our society, and can come and go as you please."

"Fine. Let's get this over with."

"Because you halted the first scan, you must initiate the scan, yourself."

"How am I supposed to do that?" I was becoming annoyed.

"Simply speak to the console, and it will take the appropriate action."

I walked back toward the console, stopped in front of it, and said, "Well. What are you waiting for? Beam me up Scotty!"

The projection re-appeared around me, and it seemed to pick up where it left off. Everything was going fine. There were the occasional embarrassing little bits of my memory that I could have done without, but that was nothing compared to what it eventually discovered. The scan uncovered my origin. Suddenly, everything turned red and began to flash! A message came across the projection. It read, "Dangerous!"

My host looked startled, as he quickly spoke up. "Oh, my! I'm very sorry sir, but it appears that you have been causing some trouble, but not recently. How old are you?"

"What do you mean?,"

"Well, sir, it says here, that you come from a world, long-since destroyed, called Ecos 3."

"Ecos 3?" We called it Earth."

"According to our records, sir, a very large portion of your galaxy was simply erased! How did such a thing happen, and how are you still alive, and how did you come to arrive on Skaro?"

After a few moments of detachment, I softly asked, "How long ago was it destroyed?"

"Oh. Earth has been gone for several million years, sir. I thought you would have known. Where have you been all this time?"

"It's rather a long story, for another time, maybe?" I said, jokingly, "That's not going to work, is it?"

"I'm afraid not," He said, with a well-articulated sense of urgency, "The council will certainly be asking to see you, very shortly."

"How shortly?"

"Very likely, now!" He huffed.

In moments, guards hurried down the hall and into the room Walking straight through the projection, they formed a circle around me. My host stepped slowly back from me, and reached-what he felt was-a safe position, behind two of the guards.

"Hey guys! Where are we goin'!?"

Before I could have done anything, I was unconscious. They didn't tell me that their scanner was going to create an override switch for my sleep function. If you ever find yourself confronted by a Dal registration scanner, read the fine print!

When I awoke, I was in glass box, no bigger than a coffin. There were tubes running in and out of it, and, of course, there's a projection displayed in front of my face. It's a list of questions. A voice comes over an intercom, saying, "Read the questions to yourself, please."

"What?!" I yelled.

"The questions, sir. Please read them to yourself."

"Why, so you can scan my thoughts, and get the history of Earth? Not a chance, pal!"

"Sir, The questions, please."

"And what if I don't?"

"I'm going to apply stress to your nervous system, causing you discomfort. From there, I will introduce the thought that the knowledge contained within those questions, will cure you of your discomfort. You will automatically begin reading the questions, simply because your mind will be convinced that there is reward in it."

"You can't be serious! You can't just flip a switch and make me sta—Question One. What is your last memory of the time you spent on Ecos 3?-Holy Hell guy! Is that even safe?!"

"It's harmless, now just read the questions."

"You're going to have to try harder than that!"

"Well, it says here that your last memory from Ecos 3 involves a female called Jericha. You,-Oh, my, you feel so much guilt! I'm so very sorry, but it doesn't appear that you could have saved her. You know exactly what happened to your planet. Your account of the event has been added to the historical record. However, you were involved in illegal activity. Time travel, without the necessary licensing and permit, has been a criminal act since... well... forever. I'm sure that the Time Lords will be here soon, to bring you to trial."

"The Time Lords? Who are they? Like in Doctor Who?!"

"The Time Lords are the guardians of time. They have witnessed every moment in all of time, and I'm sure they have been expecting for you to appear eventually."

"So, they are like the time police?"

"In a way, yes. However, the Time Lords are not interested in crime and punishment. Their task is to ensure that time and space are protected from those who would endanger others."

"But I would never put others in danger!"

"Your history would suggest otherwise."

"But it was an accident! If you can read my thoughts, then you know that there was nothing I could do! And how was I supposed to know about any licensing or permit?! As far as we knew, we were the only living things in the universe!"

"The only living creatures in the universe? You cannot be serious. It shows here that your people had a thorough enough understanding of the depth and age of the Universe to conclude that there must be life elsewhere."

"We had theories, but no evidence! All those years, spent wondering if there was more out there, we waited! I can't be held responsible for this. If the Time Lords can travel through time, why didn't they stop it before it happened?!"

"I don't know the answer to that," he said, "You'll need to ask the Time Lords."

"Don't think I won't! Now get me out of this box!"

"I'm sorry, sir. I can't do that. You are in our custody for the time being."

"Figures." I mumbled.

Chapter 5: The Time Lords

I'm not sure exactly how long the Dals kept me in the box before the arrival of the Time Lords. It could have been days. I slept through as much of it as I could, but the waking hours just seemed to drag on and on. They didn't even let me use a console. All I could do was wait, in extreme discomfort. Eventually, my time came. I heard a voice. It was hard to make it out, at first, but after a few moments, it became clear what was happening. This was a prisoner transfer.

I tried my best to seem dignified, but after spending an indeterminate amount of time in a box, I'm sure that I looked as badly as I assume I smelled. My coffin lid opened, and I felt a rush of cold come over me. I couldn't move, but I was still very present. It was as if they had frozen my body, but allowed my mind to continue working. I was afraid. I began to slowly rise out of my coffin box. I was levitating!

My body began to rotate so that my feet were facing the direction of those who had come to take me away. Then, I began to slide through the air, toward them until I was among them. Someone placed a hand on my arm and looked into my eyes. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. I couldn't make a sound. I was merely present. I had no control over anything, and that's a scary position to find one's self. He began to speak to me.

"You are charged with the crime of the destruction of Ecos 3 and its inhabitants. For this crime, you will be tried before the supreme high council of the Time Lords, on Galafrey. We will begin your transport, immediately."

That's when the sleep trigger thing happened again. I'm still not sure how long I was out. All I know is that I was taken, and we traveled a long way. When I finally awoke, I was laying on a small bed, in a holding chamber, and there were seven or eight humanoid beings, standing around me. One of them wore deeply colored robes. She seemed to be of a much higher rank than the others. When she spoke, everyone else stopped and paid her the highest attention. There were no salutes or pomp, but rather, a reverence for an equal, who was somehow of a higher caliber of intelligence and wisdom than the others. In any other circumstances, this would have been a refreshing change, but I was fearful. I did not know what to expect. That's when she asked the others to leave, and she remained in the cell with me.

"Good day, sir," She said. "Considering the time and place from which you have come, I can assume that you have a great number of questions. However, as you have been charged with a crime, of such immense gravity, my people will be extending, to you, no such rights."

"Well, isn't that just fantastic!"

"Sir. You will find that such aggressive behavior will not bode well for you, as your trial approaches. Might I suggest a more dignified demeanor? It will not likely change the specifics of your sentencing, but it could ensure that you appear more dignified in your story, when it is shared among future generations."

"Your history books are not a great concern of mine."

"I had feared that you may be hesitant to see this as an opportunity to share your tale with the universe. The mystery of Ecos 3 has been an important topic among many of the lesser species. Some even claim that it was erased by a great hero, or a god, who had been fighting time, in an attempt to save the entire Universe. We had always scoffed at such conjecture, and greatly look forward to sharing the truth with them, that Ecos 3 was merely wiped out by an amateur time traveler with a chip on his shoulder and a bad attitude."

"That's not fair! You weren't there, and you don't know what happened! The whole thing was an accident! I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time!"

"It's fair to say that you were not in the wrong place. As the only survivor of the billions of worlds you erased, it's quite fair to say that you were the only being in the right place at that particular point in time."

"Yeah, some fine luck that's turned out to be. I don't even know where I am! I can't go home! I have no idea what's going to happen to me! I'm going to go ahead and stick with my story. It's my story, and I'm telling it from my perspective. Ever since that night, I've been tossed around, from planet to planet, with absolutely no clue what's going on! I don't know if I'm in the past, or the future."

"You are in the present.,"

"And people keep saying dumb crap like that! Everything's a riddle out here, and I'm getting tired of it!"

And that's when I fell asleep again. It was such a strange sleep. Not like the sleep trigger I had experienced on Skaro, and not like the dream sleep I was used to having back on Earth. It was hollow and empty. I could feel, hear, and smell everything, as if I was still awake. I was just unable to open my eyes or move my body. Though this is an excellent means by which to ensure prisoner obedience, it's really not such a pleasant experience to endure. The hours were dragging. I started to think about everything. I really had no idea what was going to happen to me, and I was at the absolute will of my captors. I was the first human to ever be charged in an alien court. I couldn't believe how very human everyone looked. I suppose that just goes to show that life didn't begin on Earth. Settles that once and for all. The young explorer of my childhood would have been so excited. He was so much braver than I was, lying there, an old man in a cell. I'd have given anything to be back home. I wanted coffee. I wanted to read a book in a hotel room, or smell a human woman again. I was never going to pay taxes again. I'd probably never hear another Nirvana tune in my life. I'd never play a guitar again, or sing in the shower. I'd never see my son's face again... My son! That's when I finally felt it. It hurt so, so badly. I still don't want to think about it, so please excuse me if I refrain.

Chapter 6: The Trial

I was given very little warning. When your body is sleeping, and your mind isn't, it will... Eventually. I was snapped back into life, on at the exact moment I was called in to speak on my own behalf. I didn't have a lot of time to prepare—not that there was much to prepare for. They asked me my name. I told them a fake name. They tell me not to lie. I tell them another fake name. Not buying it. So, I did the only thing I could think to do: I ran. I didn't get very far at all, and the fact that I elbowed a gentleman, whom I assumed was some sort of lawyer, who turned out to be one of the thirty-or-so jurors, would prove to have a negative impact on my case. I made it down one hall, and half-way around a corner before they hit my sleep button. When I awoke, there was a small amount of blood on my upper lip. I was given another chance to tell my side. Again, I declined. I had nothing to say for their history books. I knew something that no one else knew but the Dals, the Time Lords, and Agatha Friend. There's a funny thing about stopping the flow of information. Do you remember when I was talking about Schrodinger's Cat? It's really important. I can't go back in time and keep those events from happening, but I can keep them from spreading. If I can stop the flow of that information, I can keep the demise of Earth confined to Schrodinger's Cat's box. If no one observes it, it didn't happen. If I can get rid of everyone in the universe who knows about it, I can go back and keep it from happening. However, I cannot cross my own timeline, or I risk upsetting things even further than I have already. So I have to go about this indirectly. I need to time my attack perfectly. I have a time machine, but I was sure I'd only have one shot at it. I mean, with everything that could go wrong... It didn't matter. All I knew is that I would need to be heartless. If I could keep the Earth from being erased, I could keep this whole thing from happening, and everyone would come back to life. It's win-win! It does mean, however, that I have to kill two entire races of people, on top of the tens of billions of lives that I snapped out of existence back on Earth. It's not going to be the most ethical route, but it's going to have to work.

Spoiler Alert! By the way, I'm terribly sorry to have kept this part a secret for so long, but the fact that you're reading this, means that I already got it all done. The universe is safe, and you're living on a planet that isn't going to be ripped out of time and space, in 2052. It's taken me thousands of years to get it all done, but—in the end—humanity was saved. None of this is going to happen in your timeline because I fixed it in my own. It's like that Donnie Darko movie, where the kid finds a hole in time and has to see it through to the end, and then make it right, when it counts.

My trial continued for a short while. They continued to ask me for my details, but I told them anything but the truth. They knew I was lying. They weren't buying it. Finally, the jurors had, had enough. They found me guilty by a lot of votes. I was sentenced a pretty tough stint. I hadn't even thought this sort of punishment could exist. This was new. It was horrific. I still can remember every last minute of time I spent in prison. I was sentenced to spend eternity alive, in an infinitely large space, never aging, never eating, sleeping, or going home. This may seem extreme, but you have no idea. With the idea of infinite time and space comes the idea of hope. Hope in a vacuum is toxic. It's enough to drive you mad and back again over and over, month after month, century after century. The monotony of infinity is astounding and demoralizing. The floor was perfectly flat, and somewhat soft, until I tried to sleep. It became comfortable, somehow. This would be my only comfort.

When you think about centuries, you still think about it in terms of periods of history, from which you are generationally removed. I don't have this problem. I was alive for all of it. I was deeply alive, and incapable of anything else. I was frozen, in a glimmer of time that stretched eons.

If it didn't sound bad enough, they gave me two great tools, to help me really appreciate the time I'd be spending alone with nothing. I got a brand new body. It was exactly the same as my old one. I was still 70. This was, however, a Time Lord replica of my body, fit with all the biology necessary to survive the rigors of infinity. I was snapped back into existence inside a brand new brain! This thing has been epic! You have no idea how refreshing it is to wake up every morning with a Time Lord brain! It's like instantly getting over a hangover, every time I remember that I don't have a human brain anymore. This thing is just so much faster. It's like having the the IQ of Einstein and the multi-tasking ability of mom with two-year-old triplets. I see things in a different way than I used to. I see it in a much larger perspective. At first I was a bit clumsy with all this processing power, but after a few hours, I got the hang of most of it. I was able to visualize unitime coordinates in my head, and plot routes from one location in space and time, to another. I could have navigated the TARDIS just as well as any of that old platform's systems could have done. I'm not a human calculator, but I could easily understand complex issues, that I could hardly grasp as a human.

This new mind did not come without its drawbacks. With increased brain activity comes increased blood flow. Hence the need for the second heart. It wasn't immediately useful in my time in prison. It was helpful during a point in one of my insanities, that I felt the need to run as far and as fast as I could. I ran for miles. I kept going for hours. After some time I was used to running for days. My body could do everything my old one could do, but without getting too tired, and with the fastest brain a human ever got to use.

I sang often. I would tap out rhythms on my upper legs and chest, while inventing symphonies that would disappear forever. My mind was my only safe haven, except for when I got down. I'd sit and think about everything, and I hated myself. Then the futility comes. I've done something terrible, and I know how to fix it, but I'm locked away, quite literally, forever. I mean, C'mon! I had the answer, but they insisted on locking me up. However, I'm sure that the idea of letting your own homeworld see its end, would drive anyone to fear. I'd have locked me up too.

Chapter 7: The second person in the universe

It had been more than three hundred years since I met another person. I had been alone with my thoughts. The years in isolation had broken me, many times. One day, while I was staring off into the distance, I heard footsteps approaching me from a long way off. They were casual steps, not running or scuffing. When I saw him, I couldn't speak. I hadn't spoken in so, so long. He was slightly tall, but not taller than I. He had a medium to small build, and was wearing a uniform. He had short, brown hair, that was straight, and purposefully messy. His eyes were calm, but not understanding. This man was young, and hardly experienced. He wasn't nervous. He was rather loud and rude. His demeanor reminded me of an oversexed college sophomore, on an athletic scholarship, but not the captain of the team. He was more like the second-string quarterback who was used to using his quick wit to make up for his insecurities. He seemed like he had spent his whole life in second place; unable to determine where he was lacking, he turned up the volume on the parts of his personality which garnered the most attention from those around him. He desperately wanted to be noticed, and I was the perfect audience. I was transfixed by this man.

He approached me, leaned his face close to mine, and whispered, "You will call me Master."

I had hardly the strength to look up at my guest. I tried to think of something to say in return, but after so much time, I was unprepared to make any sort of remark. I was overjoyed and scared all at once. I sat there, on the floor of my infinite space, frozen in a moment of thought, sorting out the implications of this man who wished for my servitude, when he lifted his foot, and heaved it at my shoulder, throwing me back—my head smacking the floor, which softened to lessen the blow. As he towered, leering over me, I groaned while I reorientated myself. This man was a bully, and he had found me at my most defenseless. How is it that after three hundred years, the first interaction I encounter, is with such a brute? Had I earned this? Was there need for increasing the potency of my punishment? I righted myself, and looked around to see where my guest had gone off to, but he had vanished.

For a very long time, he would pop in and out of my room, always greeting me with some form of abuse. Sometimes, I would see him every day, for hours, and other times, he would be gone for what seemed like months. Even as our meetings always came to some sort of mean behavior on his part, I came to looked forward to his visits. It had been so long since I had interacted with anyone, that even his abuse was better than the immensity of nothingness that I was living. As hard as it is to imagine now, I grew fond of the abuse. I was in such dire need of attention, that his insults, his fists, his kicks and spit; they were the closest thing I had to happiness. During his time away, I found myself longing for his return.

Over the next few years, I re-developed my ability to speak. I began to move around again. I wanted to be presentable for my guest, my Master. I wanted him to be pleased with me. I wanted him to like me. I imagined our meetings. I rehearsed the things I would say; "Good day, Master." I Imagined him kicking me in the mouth. "Thank you, Master. I'm glad to see you are well." I envisioned him spitting on me and cursing me. "You're right, Master. I'm sorry that I'm such a burden. Would you please stay a bit longer today? Do you have a family? What are their names? What is your home like?" A kick to the ribs. I didn't care that he was hurting me. I was not bothered by his anger. I only hoped to lead him to seeing me as a person. I hoped that we could talk about things. I wanted him to be my friend. I needed his approval, not because he was in any way admirable, but because he was the only person in my entire world. I needed him to accept me, so that I could be at peace with my own existence. That acceptance would never come.

Chapter 8: The Time War

From the inside of my cell, I had no idea what was going on outside. I had been locked away for seven centuries, with no news of the rest of the universe. Some important things were happening. The Time Lords lived on Galafrey, a planet, cloaked from all of time and space. It existed on an entirely separate plane from the rest of the universe. As time passed for the universe, linear and steady, the view of time, on Galafrey was anything but. A million years for the rest of the universe could pass in moments on Galafrey. Transversely, the same million years could re-wind in the very next moment. Time could be compressed, stretched, and it all happened independently of anyone's involvement. The Time Lord Universe was, in every way, separate from all of normal time and space.

During my time on Galafrey, thousands of years had passed, and my friends back on Skaro had changed with the times. The Dals and the Thals had gone to war with each other, wiping out the warlike Thals, and mutating the Dals, in a nuclear attack. The mutations were not only physical, but also mental. All of the deep intellect and and philosophy were turned into a xenophobic hate for all living creatures, but especially the Time Lords. After some time, the Dals had established that the extradition of the first time traveler had seriously hurt the progress of their own species. They regretted allowing another species to dictate their obligations to the rest of the Universe, especially when that species existed in a separate universe. They were now, The Daleks.

By the end of my seven centuries in prison, the Time War had been raging for more than three hundred years. The Daleks had traveled for several thousand years, to reach Galafrey. Their hatred had only grown with the passing of time, and both sides were well prepared for a historic war that could go on for eons. From inside my prison, I had no idea.

With the Time War in full swing, the Master's periodic beatings had been coming less and less frequently, so I spent most of my time in utter solitude. The new brain that had been given to me, with my Time Lord body, was always busy. I had always been interested in theories of reality and the technology that could be created to shape and direct it. I began to contemplate my cell.

It was infinitely large, with no light source, yet it always maintained the same, dimly-lit ambiance of a basement. For there to be light, without the use of a light source, there must be something else going on. This was not normal reality. This must be some sort of technology. With any technology, there is a specific mechanism to bring forth a specific result. The mechanism in this case was designed to create a seemingly limitless space. Either the door to my cell was a portal into an entirely other Universe, or the space only seemed to be infinite. Seeing that the Time Lords existed in an entirely separate Universe and timeline from the rest of things, it was not impossible for them to have the power to dedicate an entire Universe to a prisoner. However, it seemed like a lot to waste on punishing one man. I couldn't imagine that they would set up an entire Universe for just me. After a long time, I came to the conclusion that this room must be an artificial construct, that was not infinitely large, but instead, infinitely deceiving.

If the room was not infinite, then how large was it? Was it measured in miles? Was it measured in lightyears? Had I ever even moved from the spot I had arrived in? Maybe this room was no more than a few feet across, and there was a mechanism that was able to trick my senses into believing there was nothing but space off in the distance. I remembered Schrodinger's Cat. The experiment concluded that nothing in the universe could exist without being observed. That meant, if no one knew something was there, it wasn't. Could it be that the space behind me didn't actually exist? Could this room be reading my thoughts, just like the Universal Language Cube? Could it be using my thoughts to construct a room that is identical to what I imagine it to be? Was there a way to test this?

The floor softened whenever it was necessary. If I laid down to sleep, it softened. If I fell, it softened, but if I ran, it was a normal, hard floor. It was triggered by intent! The room knew what my intentions were, and adapted its own physics to suit my need! Seeing that I was a prisoner, I was likely not given the deluxe model, or at least there must be other options that I was not granted. If the floors could change their elasticity, then maybe gravity could change as well. With a technology this advanced, there must be some sort of method to make this happen. Maybe I was just using it incorrectly.

If the floor behind me ceased to exist when I was not looking at it, then was the floor in front of me made up of the same matter that made up the floor that was previously behind me? If this was the case, what would become of an object, not part of the construct, if I set it down, looked away, and looked back? Would it still be there? Would the construct preserve it, or destroy and replicate it? Would it just vanish into nothingness? Also, how large were the individual pieces of the construct? Were they independent of each other, or were they one fluid mass? Were they particles or blocks? Were they the actual matter, or just representations of it? It reminded me of something that my colleagues and I had worked on for a while, but stopped while we waited for new technologies to solve a few problems for us. It was a complex project, which would have worked, in theory, but human technology was still growing and changing. We hypothesized that there was a way to turn any form of matter into any other form of matter. We based our research on the Higgs Boson, which is a brand new thing for you readers, so I'll try my best to keep this description simple enough to be understood, and vague enough to not invent it for you. The Higgs gives mass to energy, by slowing energy down. It turns energy into matter. Different frequencies and volumes of energy can be converted into predictable forms of matter. It's all a matter of dialing it in properly. Now, in quantum mechanics, each particle has a corresponding anti-particle. A proton has an anti-proton. A Higgs Boson has an Anti-Higgs Boson, which eliminates the Higgs, and allows energy to return to its normal speed. If the Higgs turns energy into matter, then the Anti-Higgs turns matter into energy. We figured that, with sufficient computing power and energy storage, one could change the structure of matter, by converting it into energy, and then back into matter. If this device was a gun, you could set the dial to ,"Anti-Higgs," aim at the ground, convert the dirt into energy, store it, set the dial to ,"Higgs," select the new material, pick a shape, aim at the designated location for new object, pull the trigger, new object is constructed, particle by particle, right before your eyes. We had envisioned this device operating on massive scales, large enough to convert a solar system into an entirely other solar system. We thought we could bring order to the cosmos by converting chaotic systems into habitable ones. This technology was going to be awesome! I wondered if we would have ever figured it out. If this room was anything like my ,"Higgs Gun," I knew what I had to do. If this room was reading my thoughts, and using my perception as a means by which to trigger changes in the room, then my own mind should be able to trick it into creating things that were not there before! What if I could make a guitar?! What if I could make food? Could I create a means of escape?! I had to try.

I closed my eyes and imagined a cool breeze. Nothing happened immediately, but I figured that I had all the time in the world to explore this theory, so I did. I practiced for days, which became weeks and months. It became my entire focus. I had to cause the room to think that I was actually perceiving something that was not there. I tried everything! I tried imagining the feeling of the breeze. I tried imagining the origin of the breeze, and even envisioned a complex weather system within the room. I tried thinking about it while causing myself pain, to see if another region of my brain could be the trigger that would allow that thought to become a reality. I tried it while doing cartwheels. I tried it while solving complex mathematical theorems. I tried it while dancing. I tried it while thinking, longingly, of past lovers. I tried it while thinking about my son. I tried it while contemplating the future of mankind, had I not wiped the planet from existence. I tried it while meditating on a mental image of a castle, which I rotated, slowly, in my mind. I tried everything, over and over again. I became obsessed with the idea that this room could create reality from my thoughts, and I refused to give in. More than a year had passed before I felt that breeze. I can't believe I hadn't thought of it earlier. The answer was music! When the human mind shuts out the outside world, and is allowed to focus, entirely, on music, every region of the brain becomes intensely active. I could not simply use one part of my brain to trigger this machine. I had to use the whole thing! I sat down and thought of the sounds of a piece of music I had always loved. I was listening to Summertime, by George Gershwin. I though so deeply, about the sounds of the song, that I swear I could hear it playing, as if I was wearing headphones. I was so shocked at this, that I forgot to keep remembering the song. In a moment, I noticed that I had stopped creating it, but the song was still there. It wasn't in my mind. The room was playing the song! I made the room do something! It was magical, sitting there, hearing music for the first time in centuries. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as the serotonin and endorphins poured through my head. I had found happiness again. As much joy as this was bringing me, I couldn't enjoy it long, before I was ready to try the breeze again. Creating a breeze is no different than creating sound waves, so I tried it again. I sat down with my Summertime again, and let myself fall into the song. After a few times through the piece, I began to imagine the chill and pressure of the wind on my back. It was soft, at first. It was barely enough for me to notice, but that small drop in temperature was all I needed to prove my theory. I could manipulate the very fabric of this reality, with my mind! Talk about a super-power!

As impressed with myself as I had become, I still had not devised a means of escape. If I simply imagined myself free, would I actually be free, or would I continue on existing in my cell, living out an artificial lifetime? I needed to make a tool that could break the machine down. I needed a tool that could exist outside of this construct, but still be made of the matter inside. I needed a time machine! I needed the TARDIS!

Now, My TARDIS was nice, and all, but I had a little something different in mind. Something a little more blue. I remembered my television hero from the BBC. I was already so much like him, that it would not be a stretch for me to completely assume that identity. I could imagine a sonic screwdriver. If I could imagine a Police Box, I could fill it with anything I want. Since it would be made from the stuff of this cell, it didn't need to follow all the same laws of physics. It could be whatever I wanted. It could be, inch for inch, the Doctor's TARDIS. I wouldn't even need to know how to pilot it, because my mind would be the controls. I wouldn't even have to learn how to use my sonic because my mind would create all of its functions. It could perform any sort of task I need it to perform, and its only weakness would be my own ability to focus my attention on it. With the stuff of this cell, I could have all the same powers as a god. I could create anything I wish, with nothing but my thoughts. I could save Earth, but first, I had to get out of here. In order to use Schrodinger's Law to snap the Earth back into reality, I needed to rid the Universe of everyone who knew that it had been destroyed. This would prove to be a long task, but I was already on Galafrey. I knew what I had to do.

Chapter 9: The truth about the end of the Time War

For any of you who have been following the BBC series, you are here, with the understanding that the destruction of Galafrey was necessary, and was done to rid the Universe of the scourge of the Daleks. This is only a partial truth, for the entire truth would have changed the way I was perceived. Had the show told the actual truth, I would likely not have found my love for time travel. None of this would have ever happened, but again, maybe that would have been for the best. However, I am still quite certain that if I had not become the Doctor, the show would never have aired. It's funny to think that I was inspired by a show, that was based wholely on me and my adventures. It's a bit of a time loop, and I'm not sure how it passed, but it did, and we're all still here. You've enjoyed the show, I've enjoyed my life, everybody wins. I must confess that I'm sorry I couldn't share all the nasty details with you before today, but who would watch a show about a hero who had caused as much trouble as I have caused? I'm certainly no hero. I'm just a man in a box, trying to fix a mistake I made, a long time ago.

Anyway, I was telling you about my escape. I had to destroy Galafrey, if I ever wanted to bring Earth back. Luckily, once Earth is back in place, I could go back and reset the whole thing, starting time back up, before my mistake, and before the terrible things I was about to do. I had no idea that it would take so long to repair my damage, and I had yet to understand the vast number of worlds that knew about the demise of Ecos 3. I had no idea how many races would try to stop me, or how persistent they would be. They chased me from one corner of the Universe to the other. They never let me rest, and I have spent every moment since, looking over my shoulder, waiting for them to pop up again. I had my TARDIS and my sonic. I set the key into the door lock and gave it a turn. It opened effortlessly, and the door swung silent. I peered inside, almost afraid of what I would see. It was all there, and perfect! It was bigger on the inside, and I knew how time travel worked. I also knew how to rip a hole in space-time. All I had to do was to imagine the coolant lines that lead to the Portal Dilation Inhibitor. I had to repeat the accident that destroyed the Earth. I had to destroy Galafrey.

I shut the door, and began looking around my new home. It was magnificent! It was the TARDIS! I could hardly believe what I was seeing. I spent a lot of time wishing that the show was real, and that, one day, I would take a ride in that mysterious Blue Box. How could I have ever guessed that I would be him? Doctor Who was real, and it was waiting for me the whole time!

I wanted to take some more time looking around, but I was sure that The Master could come along any minute, even as I hadn't seen him in well over a year. I had no idea of the war that was raging outside my cell. I didn't know that my Master had been fighting alongside the rest of the Time Lords. I didn't know that they had all but forgotten me. All I knew was the simple fact that if he returned, my only chance for escape would be ruined. I had to go. I approached the console and wondered where I should go. I wondered which knobs to pull, which buttons to press, and which screen I should be looking at. I realized that it was all decor. I didn't have to touch a thing. All I had to do was think of a place and time, and then I would simply imagine the whirring sound of the TARDIS leaving.

I decided that I should go back to Earth, so that I could regain some of the humanity I had left behind all those centuries ago. I wanted to go home. I wanted to breath the mountain air. I wanted to eat a Reuben and fries. I wanted to walk down a crowded street. I wanted to see humans. I decided to take a trip back home. I would cause myself to land on Christmas. Christmas was always my favorite time of the year. I loved the crispness of the air, the smell of wood stoves, and the happiness that was shared on that day. I wanted to come home to something joyous. I would have to be sure to not run into myself, so I went back to a Christmas that I was out-of-town for. The Christmas of 2004 was the only year that I didn't make it home to see my family. I was living in Upstate New York, and couldn't bring myself to take the trip. This would be the perfect time to return to. I stood in front of the console, hit a couple buttons, yanked a lever, and imagined the sounds of the TARDIS. She started right up.

I looked over at the coolant lines, and with a heavy heart, I loosened the fitting. Lights began flashing, and controls began moving. I felt a few large bumps as she disintegrated into nothingness, and one giant thud as she set down in the grass, in the woods, just outside of town. I stepped outside, and took in my first breath of Earth air in more than seven hundred years. I had escaped, and Galafrey was no more. I knew nothing of the Daleks. I did not know that I had just solved the Time War. I was no hero. I was an escaped prisoner, and I thought I had killed anyone who would come after me. How wrong I was.

Chapter 9: I'll be home for Christmas

It was late in the afternoon, December 22, 2004. I was home. I could hardly believe it. I laid in the grass for over an hour, not caring that I was cold. I had forgotten how beautiful it was to feel discomfort. My cell was boring, but the temperature was always perfect, the floor was soft, and there was absolutely no way to hurt myself, short of using my own bare hands. I hadn't felt anything for so long, that this was heaven. It was a sensory explosion. I heard the snow birds chirping away in the trees above. The sticks in the trees ticked and scratched as they tossed around in the wind. The smell of the decaying leaves overcame me, as the sun burned my eyes. It had been so long since I had seen sunlight! I had almost forgotten it, but now, living under it, I felt all the beauty of my natural world, wash over me. I stayed in that spot for well over an hour. I didn't care. There was nothing to be late for. No one was expecting me, not that they would have recognized me at this age. I looked more like my grandfather than I did, myself. After a long while, I stood up, wiped the leaves from my clothes, and realized that I could not go into town, wearing these clothes. I was still wearing the clothes that I was wearing when I destroyed the Earth! I needed something different. These clothes were from 2052! I went back into the TARDIS, and looked around for a closet. I knew there had to be one somewhere, I just had to imagine it. I decided to locate my wardrobe, not far from the control room. I strolled down the back hallway, and reached for a door on my left. I opened it, to reveal a truly enormous room, hundreds of feet in every direction, filled with rack, after rack, of clothes. There were garments from every time period I could imagine. I could hardly believe that I was creating all this in my mind. I was still shocked that I was inside a thing that only existed because my mind told it what to look like, and how to function.

I walked around for a few minutes, going from rack to rack. They were each labeled by region and time period. There were suits of armor, king's robes, business suits; a thousand different types of footwear, an entire wing of hats and scarves; an aisle of staffs, walking sticks, and canes; a wide array of beachwear and summer clothes; and then I found it. I saw a sign that read, ,"2004-Northeastern USA,". I shuffled it around and found some warm socks, a pair of boots, some denim jeans, a tan button-down, a brown tailored vest, and a green parka. I topped it all off with a blue wool stocking cap with a fuzzy ball on top. I found a very special scarf, which I should not have worn quite yet, but I figured I could wear it out once without causing too much trouble.

Once I was dressed for the weather, I decided to get moving. There was no snow on the ground, but it was a cold 26 degrees, and a slight breeze. I remember that we didn't get the white Christmas we had hoped for, that year. Global warming had already seen to that. I made my way down the slope of one of the low mountains, and began to see the town. It was just the way I remembered it, all those years ago! Of course it was. I have a time machine. I was actually standing at the edge of my home town, almost fifty years in the past! I could hardly believe what I was seeing. I remembered all the smells, and they hit me so hard that I had to stop for a minute to take it in. This was quite a lot to experience in just a few hours of freedom, after seven centuries in isolation.

Everything felt strange. It was beautiful to experience it all again, but I couldn't shake a certain feeling. Something was eerie. Something was off. Maybe it was the complete lack of technology. Maybe it was the old cars. Maybe it was all the emotions of being free, in a place that I was never supposed to go. I wasn't supposed to be here. I was supposed to be 70 miles away, in another town, in another state. I wasn't even supposed to be there. I was supposed to be in 2052, preparing to unveil the world's first time machine. Actually, I should be dead. I should have died hundreds of years ago, but I wasn't. I was very much alive, and home.

As I made my way into town, I saw the shopping plaza I used to shop at. I looked over to the side, and saw the path that I used to take, as a child. I remembered the summer days, catching snakes under rocks, in a huge open field, that was now being built into a housing development. I decided to take the path instead of the road. It only seemed right. The Earth was frozen, and it popped and snapped under my feet, as I strode along what remained of the path. There was an empty road right down the middle of it, with homes being built on each side. The builders had all gone home for the Holidays. I couldn't help but imagine the happiness of their children at the idea of their fathers being home for them. I remember that feeling. As a child, my father worked so much that I hardly felt like I knew him, most of the time. It was during the Holidays, when he would take a couple of weeks off, and I would finally get to feel like he was my dad. I don't know that I ever told him how much I admired him. He worked so hard. It's funny how thoughts trail around like that. All it takes is a few memories jogged, and all of the sudden, I'm reminiscing about how much I wanted to see my father.

I followed the road for about a tenth of a mile before I saw it. I was directly behind my childhood home. My parents and younger sister still lived there. They had become used to the idea that I wasn't coming home. I hadn't even called them in months. I could see my father's car in the driveway as I weaved between houses and trees, cutting through yards, past my mother's old garden plot, through the spot where my brother would eventually build his mechanic shop, and up the driveway, toward the sidewalk. I felt like I shouldn't be there. What if someone came outside? Would they recognize me? What would I say? Would I pretend to not know them? Could I even pretend that? My parents had been dead for a long time. I missed them very much, and I wanted to see them and tell them my name. I wanted to hold them both, and weep for their loss. I wanted to tell them how sorry I was for not making it home this Christmas. I wanted to make it up to them, but how could I do all that without disrupting things?

This whole thing seemed like something out of a Dickens novel. I was Scrooge, taking the tour of Christmas past, except that this time, they could see me. They could hear me, and I could make a mistake that could unravel everything. I had an idea! I wanted to see my family, and I couldn't just knock on the door. Instead of meeting them, I had to find a way for them to meet me. I couldn't just wait outside the house. I had to do something else.

My clothes had come from the TARDIS, which means that they were made of the same construct as my cell. They could be manipulated by my thoughts! I did a quick bit of imagining, before reaching into a pocket, and removing an envelope. It was green and red, with an embossed wreath in the corner. I stepped onto the porch and took a few steps over to the front door. I pulled open the screen door, knocked, stepped back, slid the envelope into the screen door, so that it would be seen when someone opened the door. I quickly removed myself, and started toward a bush, so that I could hide. The door opened, and I saw my sister. She slipped the envelope from its spot in the screen door jam, opened the screen and looked around. She was always the most observant of us, and it didn't take her long to locate me.

"Hey!" she barked. "What are you doing over there?" She came out on the porch. "I see you. You're behind that bush. You can come out. I'm not going to do anything. I just want to know who is dropping off envelopes in my door."

I stayed behind the bush. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't let her see me. It could ruin everything! She continued closer.

"Come out or I'm calling the police!"

I was panicking as she came around the bush, carrying a snow shovel.

"Who are you? Don't think I won't beat you to death with this shovel!"

I stood up. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause any trouble. I was just delivering this card."

"Who's it from?"

"Your brother. He's sorry he couldn't make it home for Christmas, and he misses everyone."

"You know my brother?! Where is he?! We've been trying to find him for months!"

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you more," I said. All I can tell you is that he's safe. He's going through a hard time right now, but he's okay."

She looked at my face, as if she was trying to read my eyes for more information, when she paused.

"Oh my God!" She cried. "Why are you so old?!"

"What do you mean?,"

"Don't try to fool me. I know my brother when I see him. Now, tell me what happened."

She looked a bit confused, but she was definitely putting the pieces together, in her head.

I took a slow, deep breath. "I—I don't know. I can't."

"I'm waiting."

"I can't tell you! I can't even tell you why I can't tell you! I have to go." I turned away.

"Stop right there. You don't get to just walk away from me after something like that. You have to tell me something!"

"I really can. I can just turn and walk away, and you'll go your whole life wondering what this was. You'll see me in a few months and you won't even mention it to me."

"Yes I will.,"

"No! You can't! I can't ever know that you saw me! You shouldn't have seen me!" I tried to run, but at seventy, I couldn't outrun her like I used to. She took a few steps, and grabbed my arm.

"If you can't tell me why you're so old, at least tell me where you're going."

"I can't!"

"You don't have a choice. Unless you're planning on knocking me out, you're stuck with me."

We walked across town, to the local coffee house. We ordered our drinks, and I realized that I didn't have any money. I hadn't even seen an American dollar for hundreds of years. I hadn't thought about this. I was still getting used to the instant gratification that comes with having a material that can be formed to my own mental image. I reached into my pocket and pulled out an old-looking leather, single-fold wallet. I opened it and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill, but it wasn't right. It was a bill from to 2040's, which wouldn't pass for legal tender in 2004. I asked my sister to cover the bill this time. She agreed, and pulled out a twenty from her purse. I looked at it, and developed a mental image of it. I looked back into my wallet, and pulled out another twenty. It was the correct age this time. This could present a problem for me. I had infinite money! However, infinite money wasn't very important to a man with a time machine made out of such a malleable substance. I was the richest person in all of history, and I had not yet dealt with that reality.

We made our way to a tall table by a window, in the front corner of the cafe. I hung my coat on the back of my chair, and hung my scarf with it. I was about to have the most incredible conversation in my life, and maybe all of human history. I was about to tell someone that I was from the future!

"Okay," she said. "First things, first. Why are you like a hundred years old?"

"Well, that's not an easy question to answer, so I'm going to try to handle this delicately. You're not supposed to know any of this, so I have to be careful to not tell you too much. You need to promise me that you'll never tell a soul about any of this. It is infinitely important that you never speak of this to anyone, ever."

"Okay. Why not?"

"Oh my God. I don't even know how to start." I paused, and tried to think of what to say first.

"I'm your brother. I'm much older than you expected me to be. I have a wallet with an infinite amount of money in it." I pulled out the wallet, opened it, and handed her a few bills. Then, I handed her a few more, and a few more, and a few more, and kept filling her hand until she stopped me.

"So, you're magic?"

"No. I'm science. I'm not even human anymore."

She looked at me, puzzled.

"Two hearts."

"No way!" She stopped, and her eyes began to dart around as she tried to wrap her brain around this information. She tried, desperately, to find some sort of an answer. There had to be something that linked all these things, but it was just beyond her grasp. "Wait! Are you an," She leaned close and whispered, "an alien?!"

"Oh." I thought for a moment. "I suppose I am."

"Where are you from?"

"Well, I'm still your brother, from Earth. I was still raised in our house, and came from our parents. I just have a shiny new body."

"Shiny and new?" She chuckled. "I don't know the last time you saw yourself, but there's nothing shiny or new about your body. You look like you might die of old age, right here, drinking coffee with me."

"The new body is a replica of my own."

"Okay. So you're actually an old guy."

"Bingo!"

"So, you've blown my mind enough already. You can just tell me the thing that ties all this together now."

"Hmm. Okay, here goes. I have a time machine."

"No Way! Where is it?! Can you show me? Can you take me back in time? Oh my God, I want to go back in time, so bad! Please?! You have to take me. Have you seen the future?! What happens to us?"

"Hold on a second! I can only answer one question at a time."

"Then tell me everything, on the way."

"On the way?"

"-To your time machine!"

We finished our coffees, and put our coats back on, before embarking on our trek across town and up the mountain. I told her everything, but not the whole truth. I couldn't tell her that I destroyed the Earth. I couldn't tell her that I spent so much time in prison. I couldn't tell her where I got the TARDIS, or how it worked. All I could tell her was lies. I told her that I was a guest on an alien world, where I was given my new body. I told her that I had always been safe, and that I was a hero. I lied so much, that I couldn't stop. I couldn't have her knowing the truth. Her fore-knowledge of future events would have made things change, and I wasn't ready to give up my ticket to ride around the universe as an immortal Time Lord, with infinite everything. I was a god, and I couldn't make myself be okay with the idea of giving that up just yet. I had all the time in the universe to enjoy this before I had to fix the future. I didn't need to tell her everything just yet. This would become a routine for me. I was going to lie to everyone I met, for the rest of time, until now. Writing this memoir is my way of explaining myself to everyone, even if they never know it's about them. There will be no time traveler in your timeline. If you're reading this, my blue box is not going to come scoop you up for an adventure. I'm so, so sorry.

Chapter 10: My first passenger

My sister and I had just about arrived at the spot where my TARDIS was parked. I grabbed her hand, and said, "We're almost there. Are you sure you're ready for this?"

She looked at me. There was a hesitation on her face. She seemed to be unsure that she would be able to handle the reality that was waiting, just ahead. She stopped.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I don't know. It's just so much... um,..."

"I know." I showed her a look of confidence. I wanted her to know that she could trust me to keep her safe. "I promise you, we're going to be okay."

"Are you sure? I mean, you have a time machine, and I've never even given a second thought to what that would mean. You just landed in my lap, and you're tellin' me that you're my brother, you're old, you're from the future, and now you're an alien too. How can you expect me to be okay right now?"

She started to look panicked, so I knelt down to meet her, face to face. I looked her in the eye and said, "I promise you that it will all make sense really, really soon. Now, c'mon. We're almost there."

We were off again. It was only a few moments before we arrived at the TARDIS. It was parked at the edge of a clearing, at the top of the mountain. I had left it camouflaged, so that anyone wandering on the mountain, wouldn't come across it, not that they could do anything to it. Anyway, it was invisible right now, so when we arrived, I said, "Okay, we're here!"

"What do you mean? I don't see anything."

"Hold on one second." I clapped my hands twice, and it began to come into view, my beautiful Blue Box. "What do you think?" I turned to see her reaction, and it was great. She stood there, eyes as big as quarters, mouth hanging wide open, not breathing. She raised her arm and pointed at the TARDIS, and slowly turned her head toward me, her eyes never leaving their focus on the box.

"Oh. My. GOD! That just appeared out of no where!"

"Haha! No. It appeared out of right there. It's been there all day. I just made it invisible so that no one would find it." I walked up to the door, pulled out the key, placed it in the lock, turned it, and asked, "Are you ready?"

"Just open the door!"

So, I opened the door, revealing the inside of the TARDIS.

She peered her head inside. "WHAT?! But it's bigger on the inside! How is it bigger on the inside?!"

"Magic, I guess."

She ran inside, up the steps, and to the console. She swung her head around the place, trying to take it all in. I have never seen anyone so excited about anything, in my entire life.

"Where are we going?"

"Um, I hadn't really thought about it yet. I don't know. Where do you want to go?"

"I want to see my future!"

"Absolutely not!"

"Why not?!"

"You can't know your future! You'd create a fixed point in time."

"What does that even mean?"

"It means that your future can change, but not if you have seen it. Once you've seen it, or even know about it, it's set in stone, and nothing in the entire universe can change it."

"Well that sucks."

"Sure does. So, where else do you wanna go?"

"Can we see what killed the dinosaurs?! Or, we should go to ancient Rome!"

"Ooh! That's good! Ancient Rome, here we come!" I started pulling random knobs and pushing random buttons. I was just pretending that they were useful, but I knew they were merely decorative-A secret I have kept for a long time. As a matter of fact, any time I allowed others to pilot the TARDIS, they only THOUGHT they were doing the driving. In reality, it was all me. I don't even have to be inside the thing. The connection between the TARDIS and my own consciousness is so strong that I can even control it when it has gone through time without me. I can think it back to me, at any point in time and space. If I'm going to be away from it, in a dangerous place, I can make it leave, and come back when I'm ready to go. I'm never stranded. Ever. However, I can't couldn't tell everyone this stuff, so I was stuck pretending that I was stranded, or that I couldn't get the TARDIS back from those anyone who had stolen it. The TARDIS is nothing without me. It even regenerates me if I'm killed. I tell everyone that it's a Time Lord thing, but it's actually just the TARDIS. Since it is linked with my stream of consciousness, and can build matter out of other matter, it can build me a new body, and dump me right into it. Actually, I'm not even sure that I'm the same consciousness that began this journey. I've died A LOT of times, and I never really notice anything different about my consciousness after regenerating. I could be the same "me," but it's impossible to know for sure. My tastes change with each new body. My preferences change, but this is because the neural material that makes up the brain in each new body is different than the one I was born with. The arrangement of neurons, from body to body, is as different as the neurons in any other two people. However, I always come back with the same memories that I had before. It seems mysterious and scary, but it sure beats dying.

Anyway, My sister and I were on our way to Ancient Rome.

Chapter 11: When in Rome...

In a moment, the sounds of the TARDIS had faded, and we came to rest. My sister's face was beaming with excitement, but showed wisps of uncertainty, as she contemplated—in a fleeting moment—the magnitude of what had just happened. She was a time traveler! On the other side of that door, existed a reality that had passed away, long ago.

My sister made a run for the door, but didn't get through it before I stopped her with a, "It's 110 A.D. You're not planning on going out there in THOSE clothes, are you? Won't last ten minutes out there dressed the way you are."

"Oh, I guess you're probably right, but what use is a time machine if you can't go outside?"

"Well, that would be totally useless! Follow me!" I led her into the corridor, and brought her to the door to the wardrobe. "I'm not entirely sure you're ready for this, but...," and at that, I proudly swung open the door of the single greatest collection of fine garments, anywhere in the universe.

She was speechless for a moment, but I could rightly see some sort of strange excitement building on her face, which culminated in a steadily amplifying, high-pitched squeal, which ended with a maniacal chuckle, and she was off!

She ran past racks and racks and racks and racks of clothes, past twenty or more aisles, with plenty more ahead, arranged by time period, size, social status and gender. She was the quick shopper type of girl, and this occasion would be no different. Even with hundreds of thousands of options at her fingertips, it only took her a few moments to find what she was looking for.

I was so astonished at watching her, that she had almost finished picking her costume before I made it to the aisle with the wealthy merchant togas. I'll admit, the costumes were quite fun.-As I became more and more used to this sort of traveling, I didn't care so much about what I was wearing. As it turns out, if you walk, confidently, through a strange world, they really don't care what you're wearing. Most people get over it pretty quickly.-I donned a yellow-ish tunic, a burgundy sash and belt. I wore an elegant sandal, and decided to carry a small, red pouch.

My sister came out, dressed in gladiatorial armor, complete with sword and shield.

I remarked, "I'm not sure you were ever made aware, but they didn't all dress like that."

"Well, I want to!"

"Nope. Go change. I'm not letting you out that door, until you wear something appropriate for the time period."

"You're no fun!" She yelled, as she trudged away, sword dragging behind her.

"I don't have to be fun! I'm the Time Lord—not you! Now, hurry up! I'll meet you in the control room!"

"Meanie!"

"Child!" I left the room, and headed for the control room.

It wasn't long before she was ready to go again, but she brought the sword. I looked at her... peered down at the sword... back to her face... "You do know, you can't bring the sword, right?"
"Fine." She dropped it on the floor at her feet. "Let's go before you spoil anything else."

We walked down the ramp, to the door, stopped for a moment, took each other's hand, and—together—we eased open the door. We were instantly greeted with the sounds of people, busy with their shopping. There were buildings, merchant carts, stone streets, livestock, and enormous piles of bread. We had arrived at the Forum Pistoruim; the Ancient Roman bread market.

I followed for a bit, as my sister pranced merrily down the stone street, stopping to admire the merchandise. After she visited a few carts, we found our way to a thing of immense peculiarity. It was a shape. I had never assumed that a dodecahedron had been imagined by the Ancient Romans. It was a three dimensional shape with twelve, pentagonal sides. The one I found on a merchant's cart was hollow, and contained a small, white sphere. It almost looked like a ping-pong ball. I held it up to the sun, to get a better idea of what it's use could be, but I was at a loss. I asked the merchant, "What's this thing for?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. I picked it up last week, from a traveler who told me he found it in the countryside, on a hill."

"How much would you like for it?"

"Ten denars."

I scoffed, "Ten?! For this little thing? You don't even know what it's for!"

"Either do you. The price is ten."

"Five!"

"Ten."

"Seven?"

"Ten denars."

"How about nine? Will you take nine?"

"Ten, or nothing."

"Just give him ten!" My sister chimed in, "It's not like you're short on cash these days."

"Fine! Ten denars!" I reached in my pouch, but remembered that I didn't know what a denar looked like! I looked around for a moment, and couldn't see anything that could give me a hint. How could I make infinite money, if I didn't know what the currency looked like?! "Excuse me, sir. May I see a piece of money? I know this seems strange, but I promise I'll give it back, straight away."

He looked at me in a way that confirmed my suspicion that this was an incredibly unorthodox request. I shot him a look that said, "Come on. What am I going to do, run?"

With a grizzly huff, he reached into his pouch, and pulled out a single-denar coin, handed it to me, and said, "I'll be needing that back when you're finished."

I looked it over quickly, popped my head back up, flipped it back to him, and said, "Oh! I've got plenty of those!" as I reached into my coin purse a handed him a pile of coins. "Keep the change!" I yelled as I strode away, shoving the dodecahedron into my pouch, sister in tow.

"So, sister, where would you like to go? What do you want to do while you're in Ancient Rome?!"

"We should go see a play! The Theatre of Pompey shouldn't be too far from here! It should only take us a few minutes to get there! I wonder what's playing!"

"How you can know all this stuff, and still think it's okay to dress as a gladiator, is beyond me."

"I did a school project once! I got an A. You'd have known if you ever spent any time at home!" We continued on our way as she started becoming curious about some things in my past. "Where were you for Christmas that year? Mom's been worried sick over it. Dad even thinks you could be dead!"

"I don't think I can really tell you anything. If you know, you may change something, and mess everything up!"

"Come on! You're like a hundred years old, and a time traveler! If I can go my whole life without mentioning this, I think I can let young you keep doing whatever it is you're doing, wherever you are."

"Well, I suppose it can't hurt." I went on to explain to her, a very painful time in my life. A lover had managed to wedge herself into my head, and from there, she knocked down the pillars that were propping up my ego. She devastated me in every sense of the word. The fact that I survived, still astonishes me, considering how often I contemplated ending my own life over it. The man I became, had found his way out of that turmoil, and restructured himself, to make a better go of things. Despite all the pain that came with it, I am a better man for her efforts. I was an arrogant youth, who cared not for the feelings of others, as I trounced around, swinging from heart to heart. My lover's efforts ended that, and I came out the other side, a stronger, better man.

My sister was quiet. She had no idea that I had ever suffered, and at that time, I hardly had. She had only known me before that episode, and wouldn't have heard about it for another few months, had I not taken her along.

"I'm sorry," she said to me.

"It's okay. It was a long time ago."

It wasn't long before we reached the Theatre of Pompey. We made our way to the admissions gate, and entered the Theatre. The performance was a reading of Pliny the Elder, and his accounts of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, and the destruction of Pompeii. I had read this piece, a number of times in my life, and was always surprised at the immense sadness of the tale.

We sat away from the small crowd, up in the upper seating. There were about a hundred, or so, people in attendance, which was small for this venue. The Theatre of Pompey could hold more than twenty-thousand spectators. The event lasted of just over two hours, and I was already quite bored with it, but not my sister. She was completely immersed in the moment. She clung to the edge of her seat as the story unfolded. The sadness of the tale, brought her to tears twice, and I tried to not make a big deal of it. She had always been so strong, that it was odd to see her so vulnerable. I think a part of her was still in shock over the idea that we were in a place that only existed as rubble, in our time. It was like we were sitting in a cemetery, full of ghosts who had not yet realized they had died. The past is a strange place. It gives you the feeling that you should help try to save them from the death that awaits them, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, but we were sitting right here with them! There was nothing we could do for them. They would all perish, just like the people of Pompeii. They would see their deaths approaching, as they aged. Their entire civilization would end before our time even began. This has always been a sad thought for me. I don't like the past. There are too many people to save, and no way to do it.

After a while, the speaker took a bow, and made his way toward the rear of the stage, before disappearing from view. Before the crowd rose, a man in the audience stood up. He was very well-dressed, and had brought a team of armed centurions. He must have been important. He stood, raised his arms, and with a booming voice, announced, "In honor of this fine reading, I would like to invite all of you to dine in my home. A banquet has been prepared, and it is my delight to invite you all to join me. Even you, up there!" He motioned for my sister and I to come along.

I looked over to her and gave a gesture with my face and shrug of my shoulders, that meant, "Why not?"

"We're going to a banquet!" she squeaked, giddily, as we rose to our feet. We made our way down the stone steps, and joined the rest of the crowd, which wasted no time before embarking.

We left the Theatre, and tried to keep to ourselves as we walked along with the rest of the procession. Little did we know that the man of high importance, who had invited us, was none other than Emperor Trajan: The Kindhearted Soldier.

Chapter 12: The Home of The Emperor

On our way, my sister made an incredible point: we could not use our real names because they weren't Roman. We needed new names, that would allow us to fit in, just like the clothes. It's safe to say that we weren't very original. She was Junia, and I was, Ianuarius (Januarius), after our birth months. Also, we couldn't tell people that she was my sister. I was likely, the oldest looking man that anyone here had ever seen, what with the staggeringly low life-expectancy, and all. We decided that she would be my granddaughter and caretaker. Such an old man couldn't be expected to handle everything on his own. She didn't much care for the idea of having to take care of me, but when in Rome...

We arrived at the home of Trajan. It was an enormous home, with massive pillars surrounding each of the four walls. We were escorted into the main hall, where servants were busy setting tables and filling glasses. There were armed guards at each and every exit. The people mingled around, trying to seem important enough to be here. Everyone was busy. That's when I felt it. There was a strange heat emanating from my pouch. I could feel it starting to burn my leg a bit, so I reached down and pulled it out. I loosened the top, and peered inside to see what was happening. As I looked in, a small yellowish-white glow snapped off like a light switch! I nudged my sister, "That ornament we bought at the forum was just glowing, and it got really hot," I whispered.

"Well, take it out," she said quietly.

I reached into the pouch, grasped onto the little dodecahedron, and dragged it out. It shook a bit, so I set it down on a table. If it was going to get hot again, I didn't want to be holding it. As my hand pulled away, it jumped! It jumped a full two inches above the table, and landed on another side, six or seven inches away from where I had set it down.

"Did you see that!?" I begged.

"Why is it jumping?" she asked, but before the words were all the way out of he mouth, it jumped again, only this time, it bounced around until it fell off the far side of the table. It met the floor with a profound shattering crash. We ran around to the other side of the table, to inspect the damage, and to see what was causing this little object to behave in such a peculiar fashion. When I saw it, I was fully unprepared for what I would find.

On the floor, were the shattered remains of the dodecahedron, the small white orb, but more importantly, and impossibly tiny man. He was totally naked, and sprawled out on the floor, apparently unconscious. He was no more than an inch tall, but he didn't look strange. He was a correctly proportioned little man, just lying there, possibly injured.

It was at this moment that I became aware of the fact that my sister and I were not the only people who had heard the crash. A large crowd of attendees had decided to come investigate the disturbance. They were all seeing the same thing I was seeing, however, they were not at all prepared to look at this in an objective manner. It wasn't long before everyone was in a panic, screaming toward the doors, guards and all. The hundred or so guests were having trouble getting through the door. It was like something out of Dante's Inferno. They had become a tied up, stampeded-upon, writing pile of Romans. Some were still free of the swarm, and they wasted no time in crawling over the rest of them, in an attempt to be free. This had gotten bad, quickly, so there wasn't much time to make a decision about what to do, so I gently scooped up the little man, and placed him back into the pouch. My sister had found a door, leading to another room. She motioned toward it, and I obliged. We went through the door, and found ourselves in the Emperor's library.

"Quick, bring him over to that table in the center. There's nowhere for him to hide!"

"I don't think he'll be doing a whole lot of hiding. I'm not even sure he's breathing!"

"Not taking any risks!" she said, as she emptied out a vase of its flowers and water, plopping it down on the table beside my pouch. "Put him in here."

I opened the top of the pouch and saw the tiny body beginning to move. I quickly lowered the pouch into the vase, so that he could exit under his own power. I was afraid that I would probably crush him with the slightest touch. In a few moments, the pouch began to rustle about. A moment later, he came out of the opening.

"Please, lay the vase on its side!" a loud voice rang out.

"Who said that?!" I said excitedly, turning around, surveying the room. There was no one here but my sister and I.

"Me! I'm in the vase!"

This was unnerving. How could this booming voice come from such a tiny, little man? "How do I know you're not going to run away?"

"You don't."

"That's not very comforting," my sister interjected.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Please, set the vase on its side, let me out, and I'll tell you everything you need to know."

"I'm sorry. I can't do that without some sort of guarantee that you won't run. We're not here to hurt you. We want to help."

"Though I appreciate the gesture, there is very little you could do to help me."

At that moment, two little hands came up out of the top of the vase, which was easily a foot tall. My sister and I both jumped back, as we saw the little man, now larger, pull himself out of the vase, and jump down onto the table.

"How did you do that?!" my sister howled.

He continued to grow, until he was large enough to step down and onto the floor. As he stood there, her reached a height of around ten or twelve feet—still naked.

"I am Parin Fourteen-Eleven, Imperial scout of the Royal Army of the former planet, Nairis."

"What do you mean, "Former Planet"?" I asked.

"The death of a star in a neighboring system, caused the death of our home world. We are in search of a new world, upon which to rebuild our empire. In my time here, I have found your race to be primitive, and your world to be suitable for our rebirth. My people have been notified, and will arrive soon."

"How many people are we talking about? How many people made it off your planet?"

"We had enough advanced warning to create an evacuation plan that would protect the assets of my world."

"Assets? Advanced warning? How many people were left behind? Why did you get to live?"

"The economy of my planet was strong enough to support the evacuation of all government and military personnel, as well as the members of the ruling class. We were able to save over a billion people."

"But you left the rest to die?! Your economy couldn't support letting the poor survive?!" I scolded.

"You're monsters!" cried my sister.

Again, the giant spoke, "Silence! I did not ask for your opinion of the actions of my people. The General has been notified, and will arrive shortly."

"We're going to stop you!" I cried.

"You? You and your female child? You will stop us? By what authority do you speak to me in this manner?"

"By my authority!" announced an imposing voice from behind us. "I am Emperor Trajan, Supreme Leader of the Roman Empire, and Commander of Her Legions. You will inform your General that there is nothing here, worth his mortality."

"My orders have been fulfilled."

"You can't do that! People live here! What are you planning to do with them?" my sister begged.

"The people of this world are not my concern." He turned to the door and began walking away. "My concern is with the people of my world." And he was gone. We ran to the door to see if we could tell where he had gone, but when we did, we realized that it would not be difficult to keep track of him. He was still growing! He stepped over buildings, and on others, collapsing house after house. He had grown to unimaginable heights, and was making his way across the city. The giant did not move in the same way that giants do, in the movies. In films, largeness is depicted by the slowing down of movements. This giant was not slowing down! He was moving with the same agility as if he was no larger than any other man. His voice did not become deeper as he grew, and it was not high-pitched when he was small. His foot prints were easily, thirty meters long, and hundreds of meters apart. There was nothing we could do to keep up with his speed, and even if we could catch him; what could we do to stop him? I had an idea!

"Emperor, what's the fastest way to the bread market?!"

"That's not even the correct direction. Why would we go there?"

"I left something there, that I think we can use to stop this."

"Are you sure?!"

"Absolutely!"

"Follow me to the stables."

We ran.

"Good Sir," said Trajan, between breaths, as he sped along the corridor to the rear of the house. "I am the Ruler of this Empire, and it has never been like me to run from a fight. If my people saw me running away, all would be lost for Rome. I'll send two guards with you, on horseback. You'll be at Pistorium in a few minutes."

He was instantly, the most powerful man I had ever seen. As intimidating as the giant had been, talking straight down to us, this Emperor had a coldness in his eyes that could put out Hell, I was afraid for the entire race of Giants. I learned a lesson that would guide me for the rest of my life. If I was going to be the man in the box, I had to be tenacious and bold. I could never back down from a fight. I had a lot of work to do, and I had to be objective, cold and terrifying. I'm not sure why this was happening in Rome, in 110 A.D., but if this sort of thing was going to be happening, I had to protect this planet to my very last breath.

"Hey!" said my sister, climbing her steed. "I get it that you're a time traveler in a blue box, with a sonic screwdriver, in a Timelord body, living forever; is the show about you, or are you pretending to be The Doctor?"

We left the stable. "I don't actually know. I haven't had a lot of time to think about it, but I don't know." Back then, she didn't know a lot about the show. It wasn't very popular in the US, but my dad had watched it from time to time. "Come on. We need to hurry!"

Then it got worse. How, you ask, could it get worse? The sky above, grew dark. Above us, was the first test of my newly found bravery. A billion little dots were screaming through the atmosphere. I was terrified.

"Can you handle this," she asked, as calmly as she could, while on horseback. "If you're gonna play Doctor, you have to be able to do this. This never happened in history. If this is in our past, why didn't we learn about it in Sunday School?"

"We're here!" I shouted as I stopped and hopped down. I brought the TARDIS back into view, and dug for my key, shoved it into the lock and swung open the door. "It's bigger on the inside," I shouted as the guards followed me in. They paused for no more than an instant. They never said a word. I never got that about soldiers. They just do what you tell them. You gotta admire a guy who can do that, but it's just not my thing. I never liked taking orders. "Leave the door open!" I shouted to my sister as she came in. I envisioned a cedar chest, off in a corner. It was there. I dug around for a rope. It was there. I tied one end to the railing, and ran up to the console. I had to make it look like I was doing something. My greatest asset was the fact that I was the only person who knew how my TARDIS actually worked, and what it was made of. "I'm setting it on auto-pilot, and I've locked us onto the giant. Hold onto something!"

I made my way to the door, rope in hand, and imagined us going up. I was flying the TARDIS, above Ancient Rome, chasing after a giant. It was official. I was The Doctor, and I was fine with it. It was exhilarating! I could see the monster in the distance, and it wasn't long before we arrived.

The Emperor was riding as hard as his horse would handle—a thousand men, readying themselves for the fight of a lifetime with a seemingly unstoppable force. Hundreds of centurions rode behind him, shields in hand, they charged courageously toward the greatest foe Rome had ever seen. From above, they were the crashing waves of a mighty river, pulsing through the streets, like a dam that had broken. They were terrifying, and the Emperor himself, was the tip of the sword. I had never seen a more fearless bunch, and I was almost sad to take this fight away from them. There was so much honor in dying for Rome, that they knew their families would be taken care of if anything happened. I hated that I was going to take this from them, but there was nothing this swarm of soldiers could have done against an billion-man army of giants. This would be a massacre, and I had a better idea.

We reached the Giant in moments, and slowed to a circling orbit, just out of its reach. I tied a loop in the end of my rope and began swinging it like a lasso. I focused on my target and released. I concentrated on the rope's objective, and it was under my complete control. It soared above the giant and the loop began to expand, dropping neatly around the Giant's neck. I pulled it tight, and the Giant snapped his gaze over to my little craft.

"What do you think your little rope is going to do to me?"

"It's going to get smaller!" I screamed, and just as I said it, I could see it begin to tighten around the giant's neck. He reached for it, trying to curl his enormous fingers around it, but it was too late. He was caught, and the rope would choke him to death if he didn't do something. "If you don't shrink, You're doing to suffocate, so I'd start getting little again if I was you!"

The Giant began to shrink, while a massive fleet of dodecahedron hovered above, waiting for the all-clear to land. As the Giant shrank, I kept my rope tight, making it follow him back down to size. Once he was no larger than a man, I yanked him inside and allowed the rope to loosen, but not enough to be removed. I needed a bit of insurance if I was going to have such a massive enemy on board my ship.

"Okay," I said, standing over my captive. "Now, we're going to talk about this!"

"My people will not negotiate with you. I am only one of billions of my people. We will have what we came for, whether you kill me or not."

"I'm not going to kill you. I want to make your people an offer. Contact your General. He is invited aboard my ship."

"What could you possibly offer to my people, that is of greater reward than your planet?"

"Oh, it's gonna be good. Follow me," I said as I started toward the corridor. He followed silently, as we made our way to a door that I had not yet opened. "Open this door, Sir." He reached for the handle, and slowly slid the door open. "This is my offer." On the other side was a patch of grass, which led to a few trees, pointing the way to a majestic landscape that was every bit as large as a billion soldiers could possibly need.

"How can this be on your ship? It's breathtaking! I have contacted my General, and he will arrive shortly. I believe that he will take kindly to your offer."

"That's good. You've done well, soldier."

I ran to the door of the TARDIS, and yelled down to Trajan, who had hardly just arrived at the place where I had roped the Giant. "The danger is past! The Danger is past!" I yelled down, while my TARDIS descended. When I reached the ground, I stepped outside, and met the Emperor.

"Did I miss the battle?!" He laughed.

"Well, about that. I think we've reached an agreement. Come on in!"

The Emperor peered over at my blue box, approached and craned his head inside.

"Come on! Don't worry! It's extremely safe."

He stepped inside. "Who, exactly, are you? Are you a son of the gods?"

"Well... Something like that."

At that moment, the General arrived, and wasted no time boarding the TARDIS.

"Ah, General! It's so good to finally meet you! I'm sure you have a lot of questions, and we'll get to them soon enough." I turned to my sister. "Could you take the General down the hall and show him his room?"

"Absolutely! Could you please follow me?" She said as she walked toward the rear of the ship, General in tow. From the gasp I heard when she opened the door, I could tell that we were going to be alright.

"Emperor," I said to Trajan. "Rome is safe again. The giants will stay aboard my ship, until we have found another world for them, were they don't have to wipe out another entire race of people"

"Rome thanks you, friend. What is your name? The people will want to know."

"Actually, you can't tell them about me."

"Why is that?"

"It's a very long story, but we'll have some time to discuss it. It's going to take a couple of days to get a billion soldiers into the ship. You can call me, The Doctor."

"The Doctor?"

"Yeah! I kind of like the way that sounds. I'm The Doctor."

Over the next few days, I spent a lot of time with the leaders of these two, powerful civilizations. I explained, to Trajan, why history could not know me. The giants helped repair the damage that was caused by the battle. My sister spent a few days touring the city with a royal escort, enjoying herself more than she had ever imagined. She would make a brilliant time traveler. All was well in Rome, and It wouldn't be long before we hopped back into the TARDIS, and found another grand adventure.

The dodecahedron were all accounted for, and a small fleet of the tiny ships were given to Trajan as a gift, a show of peace and understanding. Several of them have been turning up across Europe over the following centuries, and humanity has regarded them as a great mystery ever since.

The tale of the giants, vanished into obscurity, and the people of Earth soon forgot that any of this had ever happened. It was never mentioned in the history books, and was replaced, instead, with a battle, depicted in the spiraling mural that wrapped around Trajan's Column.

My sister and I boarded the TARDIS, once again, and shut the door. I offered her one more adventure, but this time I would pick the location. I picked Las Vegas, in 1977.

Chapter 13: Loaded Dice

We spent a bit of time getting dressed for the occasion; I dressed exactly like Hunter S. Thompson, with aviator sunglasses and a fisherman's hat; and my sister dressed up in a t-shirt and cut-off denim shorts, with tall socks and tennis shoes. We certainly fit the part for the times. Outside, It was hot and arid, but comfortable, even under the scorching heat of the sun. The Vegas I remembered, had surpassed every dream that was had by those who had turned this place into a desert oasis. This low-rise vacation destination was poised to become a skyrocketing metropolis, full of towers, on top of towers, fed by miles and miles of solar and wind farms. The Vegas I was in now was still barely drawing from the Hoover Dam's power. In my sister's time, Sin City was just beginning its third wave of creation.

We made our way to the door of the TARDIS, and paused. This was starting to become something of a tradition. Each time I landed in a new place, I was so excited to get out into it, but to take a moment, to imagine what could be waiting for me on the other side, was a truly satisfying moment. I imagined a bustling street, full of tourists with pockets full of winnings. I imagined dancing girls and laughter. I imagined fountains, lights and music, but as the door burst open, I found myself disappointed.

There was no city. It just wasn't there! How does an entire city just get up and leave? There was one building, off in the distance. It was about a mile from where we had landed, and barely visible through the shifting and bending light just above where the sky met the sand. From where we were standing, it was difficult to see any details of the structure. I couldn't tell what color it was, or even how many floors it had. From all I could tell, it looked to be no more than fifty feet wide.

"What is that?" She asked, squinting to see what was obscured by the distance and the sun.

"Well, It's definitely not a Casino."

"So, where's Las Vegas?"

"Hmm. Yes. That is an important question. Isn't it... One way to find out."

" In case you didn't realize, it's like a million degrees out here, and there's no water between us and whatever's going on over there. Not to mention the fact that I'm three shades away from being an albino, and you never said anything about bringing sunscreen."

"Oh! I've got just the thing!" I ran back into the TARDIS, to the wardrobe, to the rack of parasols, and back out.

"Perfect!" She reached for the parasol.

"GET YOUR OWN! This one's for me!" I joked.

"Wanna try that again, funny guy?" She gave me the look of death, and I tossed it over like a hot potato. "That's what I thought. Now, follow me." She turned and began the march into the desert.

It felt as if we had been walking for hours, by the time we reached the building we saw in the distance. It was much further than we thought, and much, much bigger. What we thought was likely a small shack was, instead, a massive, massive warehouse.

"Why is there a giant warehouse in the middle of the desert?" She asked.

"That's a very good question." I responded. "Do you notice anything strange about it?"

"Is this a trick question? This whole thing is strange."

"There are no roads leading to it. What use is a warehouse, if you can't transport things in or out of it?"

She whipped her head back and forth, in disbelief that there could be no roads. "Who goes through all the trouble of building something this size, and forgets to put it by a road?"

"That's exactly what I was thinking. Let's find out!"

"Sure! We'll just ask the first person we see!" Sarcastically, she looked around. "Nope. No one around."

"You're not funny."

"Of course I am!"

"No." I said, quietly, slowly shaking my hanging head.

"Shut it."

My eyes darted off behind her, and tried to squint out the sun. I brought up my hand to block out some of the light, and I was able to focus. "There! Come on!" I broke out into the best run my tired body could manage.

"What?! Where are you going?!"

"I'm thirsty!" I called back to her.

"Well, wait for me!"

"Hurry up!"

In a moment, we were there. Just as I had hoped, there was a spigot; just a small pipe coming up from the ground, with a handle and a spout. I raised the handle, and heard a hiss as the air was forced out. Eventually, there was a gurgling, and then a rush of brown water, which cleared up in a few moments. I cupped my hands under the spout, and splashed it on my face, and into my hair. She took a drink of it, and spit it out instantly.

"Eew! Sulfur water!"

"Oh! I have an idea!" I reached into my pocket, and pulled out my sonic. "Fill your hands with water." She complied, and I aimed my screwdriver at the puddle in her hands, pressed the little button, and held it for a moment. "Okay. Try it now."

She shot me a puzzled look, but raised her hands to her mouth and slowly took a sip. "That's so much better! I love that little gizmo, of yours. What exactly does it do?"

"It does just about whatever I want it to do. It's a pretty versatile little thing."

"Where did you get it?"

"The future."

"The future? You got it in the future?"

"Yep."

"Glad I asked."

"Me too. Now, If you don't mind, could you step aside so I can get a drink?"

"Not at all!" She waved her arm back, in a "There you go" sort of way."

"Thank you." I lifted the handle again, put my face close to the stream, fired up my sonic, and took a drink. "Wow! That's good! Okay. Let's find out what's going on with this place, and why it's not Las Vegas."

We marched off toward the furthest corner, hoping to find a door or a window. We walked almost the entire way around the place before seeing anything.

"What's that, over there," she said. I looked, and saw a door with some strange writing on it. It wasn't made up of symbols that I had seen before, and my Universal Language Translator wasn't picking it up. If it wasn't a language, then what could it be? It was a bit flashy, not like it was flashing, but more like it was some sort of word art, like graffiti, or a logo. For all I knew, it could just be some normal thing that I hadn't seen before. We got a little closer, and my sister put her ear up to the door. I could smell the scent of cigars, but there was something else. There was a smell that I hadn't experienced before.

In most cases, it's not entirely difficult to pick apart a number of scents, which appear simultaneously. If an average person smells something like spaghetti sauce, he or she can break it down into a few components without much difficulty. The garlic is generally easy enough to pick out, along with other spices, like oregano. However, the human olfactory system is only useful to about that point. A Time Lord has a sense of smell that is more like that of a dog. A Time Lord can break a combination of scents down into the specific compounds that make up the smelled substance. (I'm surprised that this never made it into the show, but it's no matter. The show was more like a shadow of the truth. It was a collection of the displaced memories of the people who had been involved in my adventures in other timelines. Their memories were only a by-product. I had no intention of being the inspiration for a TV show when I began this. I guess that I just always found my way into friendships with very talented people. Because of the nature of some of my adventures, it wasn't unheard of for me to be mingling with the people who dream impossible dreams. I suppose it's only natural that some memories from other planes of existence, found their way into the consciousness of several visionary writers. Several Doctor Who writers have been passengers on the TARDIS in other timelines. Sometimes, they were the only ones with the know-how to get me through a situation. Those writers have saved the world more times than they could ever imagine. The simple fact that they inspired me to take on this persona, and to do the things I did, means that they are heroes in their own right. I couldn't have done any of this without them.)

Anyway, I was smelling something, and it was a new something. It was a collection of chemicals that had not been around me since my body transfer. Maybe this was some sort of drug. I knew that in the Seventies, in Vegas, it wasn't difficult to get one's hands on any number of illicit substances. I remembered what Agatha had told me: "Always go toward the unexplainable things." I decided to knock.

"Who is it?"

"The Doctor!" There was a moment of shuffling around. My sister and I looked at each other with a look of curiosity coated in the fear of impending doom. There were several muffed voices, saying things that I couldn't piece together. After a few moments, the knob shook and began to turn. The door slowly opened up, until it came to an abrupt stop as the chain-lock came to its full extension. A male face appeared, looking through the crack.

"It's about time you got here. Hold on." The door closed again, and there was a rustling around for a moment as the gentleman unhooked the chain. The door opened quickly, but not all the way. The man, whose head I had just seen, popped out and looked back and forth, and out into the desert. "You weren't followed, were you?"

I looked over my shoulder quickly, and nervously said, "Well, I don't think so."

"Come in," He said, quickly and hushed.

When we entered the warehouse, I couldn't believe what I saw. There were three monstrous ships, parked inside. In the center of the place was a single card table, surrounded by four chairs; three of which were occupied, and they not human.

The gentleman who let us in, escorted us to the table, to meet who I assume were the owners of the giant vessels.

"Doctor!" a very thin, gray alien erupted. "It's so good to finally meet you. It would not have been a fair game without an Earth man in attendance. We apologize for the short notice of your invitation. I hope that you were able to locate the place easy enough."

"Thank you very much. It's good to be here." I said, playing along. "Now, I couldn't help but notice that,... well, How should I say?... Where's the city?"

"Oh, it's fine. It's actually still here. We've simply created a tangent. When we conclude our time here, we'll turn it back off. I suppose we could have warned you. It must have been a confusing ride in. Please introduce us to your lovely companion."

"Oh, this is my sis... er... my granddaughter, um... Uh... Junia!"

"Well, Junia, I must say, I adore your name. Not a very common name, now, is it?"

"Um," she stammered, "No. Not very common. My mother picked it out."

"Please do not lie to me."

"What do you mean?!"

"Not to worry. I did not mean to offend. It has been very nice meeting you, Junia. However, due to the high stakes of this game, you are not permitted to stay. If you'd be so kind as to follow Victor. He will escort you to a place where you can wait."

Panicked, she looked over to me, hoping for some sort of direction. I nodded to her, and said, "Go ahead. I'll be fine."

She had that look on her face that screamed, "You'll be fine?! What about me?!"

I motioned for her to go along. She scowled at me, but went along.

"Victor, take me away!"

"Right this way miss." In a moment, they were out of sight, around the end of one of the ships, parked in the warehouse. I had no idea of the danger she was in. Had I known, I'd have left her back at the TARDIS, but it was too late.

"Impressive fleet!" I joked, making small talk.

The lot of them laughed, as I made my way to the empty seat at the table, and sitting down.

"Now gentlemen," the thin, gray one said, "We all know why we are here. My name is Larris, and I will be your dealer this evening. I'll try to not waste any more of your time, but it is customary that each player is introduced to his opponents before we begin. To my left," he motioned, "may I introduce, the esteemed general, Aralon Vaggis Putlyn Phrygharys, of Trenyason 4." We all acknowledged General Phrygharys with a nod. "Across the table, we have Doctor Terence Lloyd Parks, of Earth, and on my right, may I introduce the head of the galaxy's most profitable mineral extraction and distribution company, Drick Sodan." We all nodded at each other. "Now, as this is a high stakes game, it is time to trade in for your chips, so that we can get things underway. Please ready your buy-in. I'll start with Drick. What will you be offering to the game?"

"I recently acquired a fleet of Darcydian battle cruisers, one hundred and twenty-five vessels, fully equipped with the most advanced weaponry available in the Draxxis System. The value of the fleet has been set to seventeen trillion unis."

"Very nice." Said Larris.

"Next, we have General Phrygharys. What will you be putting on the table today?"

"My way into the game will be paid with this." He reached down, next to his chair, on his left. And revealed an attache case, which he opened on the table, and removed a piece of paper, which he set down, for inspection, in the center of the table.

Larris reached forward, and picked up the document for examination.

"Well. This is quite nice, indeed. It appears that the General has acquired ownership of the world where we have gathered! General Phrygharys bets the Earth! This is truly exciting. Now, our last player, Doctor Parks. What have you?"

"Please, just call me Doctor."

"Very well, Doctor. What will you be presenting to us today?"

"Well, seeing that my planet is on the table, and we've got a mining mogul in attendance, I'd better win this. I'll be putting forward, an object with no calculable value, a truly priceless commodity. I'm going to bet my time machine, the TARDIS."

There was a gasp, which came from everyone at the table.

"How did you come by a time machine?! You're just a physician from Earth!" Exclaimed Drick Sodan.

I couldn't tell them the truth, so I just left it open. "It's not important how I got it. It's only important that I have it, and that I am putting it up, in order to win back my planet."

"Very well." Said Larris. "Now that you have each paid your way into the game, we can begin. Now, each player will start with twenty-five trillion unis, in chips." At that moment, Larris waved his hand over the table, palm facing up. A stack of chips appeared next to each player. It's as if he created them, himself, or they were some sort of projection. I could not tell how the chips came to be, but with all that I had already seen, things like this did not seem so extraordinary. "Seeing that we are in Las Vegas, and this is nineteen-seventy-seven, we will be playing the popular game of the period. The game is No Limit Hold 'Em. The player to my left, in this case, General Phrygharys, will post the small blind, which is set at twenty-five million unis. I will, then, deal two cards to each player, starting on my left, with the dealer button moving left, one space, per hand. Once each player has received his two hole cards, you can each decide to fold, or stay in. To stay in the hand, each player must post the big blind, starting with the second player to the left, and going around the table, coming back to the player with the dealer button, who, to stay in, must post again, to match the big blind. In today's game, the big blind is set to fifty million unis. I will, then, lay down five cards, facing up. Each time a card is laid, players have the chance to raise, call, or fold. Once all the cards are down, there is one last chance to call, raise, or fold, before each player must reveal the cards in his hand. Does everyone understand the rules of the game?" We each nodded. "Then let us begin. General," the dealer said, "Will you please post the small blind of twenty-five million?" Phrygharys nodded, and slid a small stack of chips into the center of the table. "I will now deal two cards to each player."

As the cards slid across the table, I felt a sense of excitement, as well as a profound fear of what would happen if I lost. If Drick Sodan won, the Earth would likely be destroyed and mined, the TARDIS would be lost forever, and I'd have no chance of un-doing the damage of my first time jump, back at the Hawking Institute. If Phrygharys won, he'd have a new fleet of battleships, my TARDIS, and the Earth would remain in his possession. It doesn't seem that he had ever done anything with the planet. He just owned it. I couldn't imagine that he'd ever even visited before. However, that sort of detachment from a property could likely mean that he was just waiting for the right buyer. Either way, I had to win. There wasn't much of a choice. I couldn't afford to lose my TARDIS, and I couldn't allow either of these two to have legal ownership of this planet! I can't say that I know what I'd do with a fleet of battleships, but I wasn't too worried about those.

Larris finished passing out the cards, and we all picked up our hands to see what we had. I lifted my cards, to find a two and a seven. I'm not sure, but I think that's the worst hand in poker. Being new to the game, I didn't bother folding. I put up my big blind, of fifty million unis, and was followed quickly by Drick, who was all too enthusiastic about posting the bet. It was Phrygharys' turn to match, which he declined, folding his hand. It was me and Drick now, as Larris began flipping cards into the center of the table. The first was a two, then a nine, followed by a queen.

"Raise, call, or fold. It's on you, Doctor."

Seeing that I had a pair of deuces, I knew that my hand was not strong. I didn't want to fold yet, so I called.

"Drick?" Asked Larris.

"I call."

"Very well." He laid another card on the table, this time, a seven! I had two pair! They were low pairs, but I had two pair, and that's enough to stay in the game. "Doctor?"

"I'll raise it another fifty million."

"Drick?"

"I'll see it."

I wasn't sure what Drick could have. I had been too busy paying attention to my own cards, to notice any expression form him. He could have a pair of queens and a pair of sevens, for all I knew. I was a little nervous, but I had to go for it. Larris flipped down the final card. A queen! I had three pair!

"Doctor? Do you wish to raise, call, or fold?"

In the excitement of having three pair, I couldn't help myself. "I raise another fifty million!"

"What could you possibly have?!" Chuckled, Drick.

"Fifty mil, and you can find out."

"I'll see your fifty million, and raise you another fifty." He slid a pile of chips into the pot.

"Will you match his bet, Doctor?"

I took in a deep breath, which I wish I hadn't. Everyone at the table now knew that I was unsure. I had to match it. Three pair is a great hand. I could be beaten, but it wasn't terribly likely. I slid my chips out onto the table, and let it sink in.

"Let's see what you've got! I just paid fifty million to see those cards!"

I swallowed hard, and laid my cards down on the table. "Three pair."

"Three pair?!" Exclaimed, Drick. "You can't play three pair! You can only use five cards. You've got two pair, sevens high! You just lost a hundred and fifty million!" He slapped his cards on the table. "Full house, Queens over sevens!" Reaching both arms in, raking in his winnings, he remarked, snidely, "Stupid Earth-man. This is your planet's game! I shouldn't have to teach you how to play it!"

The utter shock of that result, really messed with me. I couldn't imagine how I had been so stupid. I had played this game before. It was a long time ago, but I had always played well. I couldn't understand how this had never come up before. Of all the ways to start a game, I couldn't think of a worse first hand. It was humiliating. It took me a few rounds to live down the memory of that hand, but after six or seven hands, I was starting to get the hang of it. My stack of chips had taken a pretty nasty hit, but I could come back from this. I had to come back from this. How could I have ended up in this situation? Would the fate of the entire planet really come down to a game of poker, in a warehouse, in the middle of nowhere, and also, in the middle of Las Vegas?

The game continued for a few more hours before Larris announced that we would be taking a short break. By now, it was easy to see that Drick was the better of the three players, and that Phrygharys was likely going to be out of the game soon. I had done fairly well, and managed to amass my twenty-five trillion again, as well as three-and-a-half trillion from Phrygharys' pile. It wouldn't have bothered me to see him win, if not for the TARDIS. However, if Drick won, I knew that the Earth wouldn't have much time before the planet drillers started coring it out.

We stood up and excused ourselves for our break. I asked for a glass of water from the gentleman who had let me in. I also asked if he could take me to my sister. It had been several hours, and I knew that she would be angry with me. If I didn't go to her during this break, she might actually kill me.

"Doctor!" Called Drick. "I think it's time you understood what is happening here. You see, we don't have any way of knowing, for sure, that you even have a time machine. Your granddaughter is being held until the conclusion of our little game here. If I lose the game, I'm out a fleet of war ships. I can verify them right now. Same goes for Phrygharys. He presented the actual deed to this planet! How can you expect us to just take your word on this?"

"But you can't take her! She has nothing to do with this?"

"Well, that's where you're wrong," said Drick. "She's got a lot to do with this. She's the only way to ensure your full compliance with the spirit of the game. In that sense, she's a big part of what's happening here."

"Well," I flailed. "You have to at least let me see her! I have every right to know that she's safe!"

"Every right?! Ha! You don't have any rights here! You're just some landlocked physician, in a world that's so primitive, you've only barely broke through your own atmosphere! Your people only reached your moon, eight years ago! You're nothing! I could erase you, and no one would ever care!"

"I'm nothing? If I'm nothing, then what are you?"

He got right up in my face, so close that I could feel the heat of his breath, and said, "Compared to you, I'm a god."

"Okay tough guy! You want proof that I've got a time machine?! I got your proof!" Now, I wasn't absolutely sure that this was going to work, but it was worth a try, and it was going to save me a lot of time. I didn't feel much like walking all the way around the warehouse, and halfway across the desert to show them the TARDIS. I had to make it appear. I reached into my pocket, pulled out my key and sonic. I held them both up over my head, pressed the little button, and it happened. Softly, at first, I began to hear that beautiful whirring sound. In moments, I could see a faint outline, which faded into blue. I did it! I could summon the TARDIS at any time! "There ya go! Time machine!"

"Well, are you going to just stand there looking at it, or are you going to open it up and let us see for ourselves?"

I walked up to the door, jammed the key into the lock, and gave it a twist. I was so recklessly infuriated at the idea that my sister had been taken, that I wasn't thinking about all of my opponent's options. I opened the door, and started in with an, "Allons-y?!" He followed me in, and to this day, I still wish I had been paying attention to what was happening.

"So what do you-"

"BANG!"

The blunt lead tip of a .38 caliber round, sped out the barrel, and slammed through the back of my head, and came to rest, only a few inches into my brain. The shock of the hit, whipped my head forward and almost down to my chest. That was the very last memory of life before death. The moments that followed, occurred in the blink of an eye, and lasted for an eternity on their own. At first, I felt as if the Earth's gravity had tripled, and tripled, and tripled. Then my vision changed. It was as if my eyes had been dipped in motor oil, and so, everything seemed to have a sepia tone to it. After that, I stopped hearing, or even being able to create sounds in my mind. That's about when I lost track of time. It was actually more like I could, no longer, understand the concept of time, or that time had ever existed. Then there was blackness. It was emptier than the vastness of any part of the universe I have seen since. I feel like I was in that emptiness for hundreds of years, and maybe I was, but on another plane of existence that is separate from all time and space. I died, and for some indeterminable amount of time, I was somewhere else. Maybe I was still clinging to a few neurons before the blood stopped feeding them.

Chapter 14: The man who couldn't die

I awoke, in a beautiful place, full of majestic mountains and cloudless skies that went on forever. The grass was soft, and I was just weak enough, at first, to lay in it for a few moments before the memory of my death flooded back into my mind. I reached back to feel the spot on the back of my head where the bullet had entered, but there was nothing there but hair. In fact, the hair on the back of my head seemed slightly thicker than I had remembered it being. It was also shorter. I inspected my hand to see how much blood it had gathered, but it was clean. The cleanliness of my hand was only amazing for a second because the confusion I was experiencing was immediately overshadowed by the simple fact that it was not my hand that I was using. Both of my hands were different. My arms were different. My skin wasn't that of a seventy-year-old man! I was young again! However, the moles and freckles that I had spent a lifetime memorizing, were gone! I was in an entirely different body! I instantly brought my hands up to inspect my face, which was also not mine. The nose was larger, and I had thinner lips. My mouth felt different, and my tongue moved in new ways. I wasn't as tall as I had been before. That's when I looked down. I was naked.

I was naked, standing in a pristine valley, experiencing perfect weather. This wasn't so terribly bad, but I wasn't sure where I was. I thought that maybe this was heaven, and that all the stories of God had been true. If this was heaven, then where was everyone else? I started yelling. I screamed at the top of my lungs, just hoping that there was someone who could hear me. I wasn't yelling for long.

"Why are you yelling?" asked a voice.

"Who was that? Where are you?"

"I'm over here."

I looked in the direction of the voice, which came from the direction of one of the mountains. I squinted to see who had spoken, but the voice came from close by. I was very confused. That's when I looked up. Peering over the top of the mountain, was a giant head.

"Well hello, giant head! Are you God?"

"Giant head? I'm more than a head." At that, he grew, and stepped over the mountain, naked. After crossing the mountain, he walked toward me, getting smaller with each step. I knew exactly where I was! I was in the TARDIS, with the Nairisians! I wasn't dead, and I was still on my ship! I had to get back out there and get my sister back!

"Nairisian! What is your name?" I yelled as he approached.

"Teadrow." he replied.

"Hi Teadrow. This is going to sound really strange, but I need your help. I know I look a little different right now, but I'm the guy with the bigger-on-the-inside time machine/space ship."

"Well, it's nice to see you visiting, but you'll have to appease my confusion, and tell my why you're naked, here, and not yourself."

"I've been killed, and somehow, I'm alive again, but in a new body."

"Killed? Who would ever kill you?"

"The guy who is trying to steal the TARDIS."

"Well, we can't let that happen. Let me get some backup."

"Thank you, Teadrow!"

He was off. He grew tall enough to run over mountains, in a flash! He ran, and was quickly out of sight. In only a few minutes, he was back, and he had brought friends—Lots of friends. While he was gone, I thought up some clothes. I also thought up a door. I hadn't realized that I never thought up an inside of the door. It's a good thing they had only been on board for a few days, otherwise, that may have been pretty awkward.

7. Learn about earth deed. It was handed down through generations, starting with a family member who came to earth 1200 BC for religious freedom. Became the Anasazi Indians.

14. Doctor regenerates while they (How many guys are stealing the TARDIS? Are they working together? Who is the leader? What reason do they have to work together?) are trying to figure out how the TARDIS works. Comes back as a different guy, much younger. More agile. Handsome-Ish. (Need a description of this new face. Describe the shock of being dead, and then regenerating without knowing that you can regenerate. Never done it before. Talk about the sensation of being in a new body, that was not perfectly modeled after your original one.)

15. Is thrown in the same door as the little giants from the previous episode. After regeneration, they figure it's time to return a favor. Little army quietly fills the control room. I walk out, new body and all. Say something witty, but messed up, like "Miss me?" As villains begin to ready themselves to handle the intruder (me), the giants make their presence known by beginning to un-shrink, catching the villains by surprise. Interrogate for whereabouts of sister.

Plot 2: my sister is kidnapped by an organized group of human criminals. (Human trafficking).

She is not recovered before the resolution of plot 1.

2. Doctor is not kind, during interrogation. Gets in guy's face, very distinctly and clearly

threatens guy (Which guy?). While threatening, doctor raises his hand next to his head. Ice pick (Or something cool like that) slowly appears, floating, slowly grabs it, never taking his eyes off the guy. Curved metal bars begin coming out of the floor, tightly securing guy to his place, forcing him down to the floor, lays him flat on his back. Doctor puts ice pick right above guys eye, demands info. (Where are the other guys? Being held back by the little giants.)

3. Dude talks, crying like a baby. Gives 2 partial names and descriptions. (What types of names? Look up common regions where human trafficking happens, and possible famous names that have been associated with it.)

4. Leaves guy on floor, pinned down, guarded by billions of tiny soldiers. Goes hunting... Find guys, get info, figure out sister is on her way to memphis.

6. Land in memphis, she's not there yet.

7. Run into Elvis Presley (where? How? What's he doing? What time is it?), who strangely enough is on just the right drugs to make it so that he figures out that I'm a time traveler from the future, and begs for a chance to hang out with me.

8. I let him tag along (Talk about how I've never been very impressed by him, and that I didn't care for much of his music or films.), but tell him to stay out of the way, and don't talk or touch anything (He seems put off by the idea that he isn't being taken seriously, I tell him to shut up).

9. Go looking for the people who have my sister (Where am I looking? How am I getting there? What happens along the way? How many places do I check? Do I find and follow clues? Informants?).

10. They've been waiting for me. They took her, not for trafficking, but as bait, to catch the time traveler. They're not human (Where are they from? When and how did they arrive? Why do they want the time traveler?), and they realize that Elvis will fetch a high price among collectors.

11. Elvis offers himself as a trade, and then uses his own body to short out the alien ship.. (Tells us he wants to leave the world laughing at him because he was always a chump, never accomplished anything of value, in comparison with the Doctor. Asks to be left on the toilet with a Playboy.).

13. Shock that kills Presley, sends out a frequency that is picket up by SETI, and is known as the

Wow signal! (What did the signal represent? How did the TARDIS create this signal? Where is SETI located? Why are we there?)

In the end, I bridge the gap between the beginning and end of time, ride the wave across, and reset the entire universe. I then, reach the final point of universal collapse, get the entire universe into the TARDIS, and let the TARDIS dissect the entire process, thus replicating the matter, inside an infinitely large room, and restarting the process, with a full database of the movements and reactions of every speck, in all of history. It then guides the progression of reality in the same pattern that led it up to 2052, at which point, time is left to unfold as it would. I would only interfere if it came to the point of happening again. If my TARDIS created it, it's my universe, and I can walk in on any part of it I like, and suffer zero consequences because Earth never had a 2053. I would be crossing no timeline, and I could go right on living, in complete peace, even if I run into myself. This universe will have been born with the intention of two of me. This is how I get the Earth back.