Part II, What is Steam Century Anyways
"Chibiiiii! Where are you Chibi?" Kiel called out on the third level of the TARDIS.
"Merrrrroew…I'm here." Chibi let loose on her grip and fell claws down on to Kiel.
"God Chibi, you're going to get someone killed doing stuff like that." He patted the head of the half cat half human that had been picked up as a stray by the Doctor on New (New New New New…) Earth. Her black ears and tail twitched for a moment at Kiel's condescendence before she stood fully erect.
"I'm not just a cat you know; you can't treat me like one." She pushed the small glasses up her furry nose. "I'll have you know I've been trained in the ancient cat ninjutsu of Seras Prime."
"Yeah yeah, where's Nick?"
"Last I smelled him, somewhere in the fifty-third floor. He might be floating around again."
"We've landed."
"Really, where? Old New York, I heard there was a play performed called Cats…"
"No, it's uh, well uh, I'm not sure. It doesn't look like the New York I remember and the Doc is flabbergasted by some leaf he took from an orange tree."
A holographic image promptly popped up in one of the subsections of the outer wall of the TARDIS, the Doctor was standing there fiddling with a control before he turned to it.
"Attention all Decks. We've crossed into an alternate reality, I think." He whacked the console for a moment, "Is this thing on?" The familiar buzz of the sonic screwdriver whirred before he started again. "Look the TARDIS can sustain herself without much issue, it seems the rift that runs from Cardiff on our Earth runs right through here in this timeline. But it seems there is something a miss. Electric and gasoline motors don't seem to exist here. It's as though everything is based on Leonardo Da Vinci's steam mechanics. There are no radio waves, no television, no electronics that I read like they are in our time line. All of you need to come up here immediately. There is something else that is bothersome."
The hologram blurred out as Kiel and Chibi stared amused by the Doctor's confusion.
"Well at least we know one thing," said Chibi "we're not in…what's that saying again, Columbia anymore?"
"Kansas…not in Kansas anymore…" Kiel shook his head and started for the main stairwell followed closely by Chibi.
***
Nick awoke to start, the blurred afterimage of a hologram still burned in the zero gravity level.
"What…" he mumbled through the oxygen mask. Kicking with his left foot he sent himself twirling towards the wall with the afterimage. "God how long was I out…."
***
The main control room twittered and beeped as the Doctor ran from console to control. A long ticker ribbon streamed from the center console piling on the floor.
"Doc…yo Doc, what's the…" Kiel was cut off as the Doctor ran past him to pull another lever.
"You…" He grabbed Kiel and dragged him over to one console, "hold this down and don't let it come up. Use all of your strength if you have to."
He leapt over another pile of paper and hoisted Chibi with one go, he set her down on a chair that was bolted to the floor. "Tell me when that number reaches, oh somewhere around sixteen thousand. Where's Nick, have either of you seen…no no oh no no no…" He ran across the floor picked up a rubber mallet and hit the top of another console.
"Doctor what are we doing?"
"We're analyzing that leaf."
"What leaf?"
"The one I plucked from one of those orange trees."
"Grrrr…fifteen five hundred." Chibi purred.
"Uh, Doctor…help" Kiel was being pulled up by the lever ever slowly. Before the Doctor could get to him Nick came rushing in, tripped on a pile of paper and came crashing down on Kiel pulling the lever down all the way again.
"Good man…I told you sleeping in zero g is great."
A few seconds later two alarm bells sounded and the entire process came to a halt.
"So let's see what it is." The Doctor strode over to a small container and opened it to find a human eyeball where the leaf had once been.
"An eyeball?" His eyebrows furrowed and his lips drew to a thin line. "Those orange trees, they were once human."
***
Chibi was the first out of the TARDIS, slinking towards the wall of one of the buildings. Long shadows laid across the street in the early evening sunlight. The Doctor, Kiel, and Nick found their way to her, locking the TARDIS as they left. Over head was an airship heading north towards what looked to be several sky scrapers.
"So a taxi would be good." The Doctor prodded for a moment at the air.
"Why not take the TARDIS?"
"Simply because if we do it will lose power, right now it's drawing all of its energies from the rift." The Doctor stood out in the street and looked in either direction.
"Not even a buggy. This seems to be a good time to pull out Bertha."
"Bertha?" Kiel looked to Nick and Chibi. "Who's Bertha?"
"What is Bertha, you mean. Bertha is my faithful Ford Model A."
The Doctor ran back to the TARDIS and disappeared into the Blue Box. A few minutes later the TARDIS began to grow and on its side appeared a large door. With a small grumble the door popped open and out came a yellow nineteen twenties Ford Model A. Its yellow paint had not one scratch and the leather seating was pristine as the day it came off the assembly line. The Doctor was seated behind the steering wheel, leather goggles over his eyes and a long multicolored scarf was wrapped around his neck.
"I had wondered where I had left these. Come on what are you waiting for, get in."
Nick shook his head, "I think I'll guard the TARDIS."
"Ugh, always the cranky one." Chibi jumped into the back seat her tail flipping back and forth. Kiel took the passenger seat.
"Don't touch anything, the Rift is unstable." The Doctor said has he pushed a few buttons on the dashboard. "I made a few modifications; she doesn't need gas anymore that's for sure." With a flip of a switch and change in gear the tires rotated down to reveal anti-gravity units. "Hang on, and don't claw the leather."
The Model A lifted off and began to fly straight for the air ship.
***
"Captain, Captain Brennan, there is a…well a." A low ranking officer huffed after running from the foredeck of the HMA Badger.
"There's a what?" Brennan said, looking over her shoulder at the officer. She stood at the helm of the HMA Badger, which had just arrived in New York to report on the recent events in the Eau Claire city boundaries.
"A…a, well I don't know what it is, it looks like a carriage, but its flying."
"What do you mean flying? Carriages do not fly." The Captain stood down from the helm handing it off to her first officer.
"Take me to this flying carriage." The Captain ordered the officer who obligingly began to quick march back to the foredeck.
***
"There she is the air ship, HMA Badger?" The Doctor squinted through his goggles for a moment. "What is up with you humans and naming ships after animals? You know Spartacus, he named his ship the Minotaur, of course it was destroyed and he was enslaved before he ever sailed it."
***
"There Captain," the officer pointed to the yellow model A that the Doctor was driving.
"Man the cannons, frontal turn to the left. Enemy spotted!" The Captain yelled as a hail of repeats of the order sounded along the corridor. "Fire when they're in range."
***
"What the…" Kiel pointed to the row of cannons now facing head on as the Badger made its turn to the left. "…Doctor!"
"I'm on it…" The Doctor pulled the steering wheel hard to the left and instead of driving forward came to a sliding stop.
"All right, Chibi you take the wheel I need to get into the trunk." The Doctor climbed over the front seat as Chibi climbed over Kiel to get to the front. In a matter of moments the first volley of cannons were hurtling for them. What seemed an eternity to Kiel and Chibi lasted only a mere handful of seconds, and in that same time the Doctor activated a fully powered anti-gravity shield which encased the entire car. The cannon balls bounced right off flinging to either side of the car.
Another volley came at them, and then a third before the HMA Badger ceased fire.
"Ok so now what, they're apparently not friendly." Kiel pointed to the lot of cannons.
"Oh come on, they just saw a flying carriage what did you think was going to happen." Chibi prodded at Kiel with her fore-claw.
The model A floated gingerly over to the Badger coming along side the observatory where the officer and Captain Brennan stood.
"Oi!" The Doctor cried out at them, "Can we at least talk this over first?"
