Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.
Connection
Chapter Two – Really, Really Bad
With a yawn, Anthony roused from a deep slumber, uninterrupted except for dreaming of flying through a forest of fans. For a minute he thought he was still dreaming, as the soft whirring hum continued to permeate his bedroom. Then the fog of sleep lifted, and he remembered that he was on board his girlfriend's TARDIS. An attempt to move his right arm reminded him that said girlfriend was in bed with him, her head cushioned on his arm.
Hope stirred and opened her eyes, smiling up at him in a way that made his heart flip over. "G'morning, did you sleep okay?" she asked, sitting up. "Wonderfully…why is there a bedroom that looks just like mine on board your TARDIS?" he asked. "TARDIS's are psychic, remember?" answered Hope, "she must have wanted you to feel at home".
"Oh, err, thanks" Anthony said towards the ceiling. The machine pulsed in what he hoped was a good way. They took turns to use the en-suite bathroom (that was a change, and one Anthony didn't mind – the tiny bathroom at his flat didn't have a Jacuzzi in the corner) and get dressed. After breakfast, when they were in the console room, Hope turned to Anthony and grinned. "All of time and space is at our fingertips. Pick a star, any star" she pointed straight up at the ceiling.
Anthony craned his neck and stared up at the stars and planets revolving above them. "Hmm…that one" he decided, pointing to a bluish white dot revolving around a larger yellow one. Hope peered at it and announced "I think that's Felspoon. You'll like Felspoon; it has mountains that sway in the wind. It's awesome". She input the co-ordinates and began to dematerialise on the planet. Halfway there, however, a warning alarm began to blare.
Cursing, the Time Lady twisted a black knob which sent the high pitched relentless wee-ooh, wee-ooh, wee-ooh noise to more tolerable levels. Anthony made a mental note of where the knob was on the console. The time machine shuddered violently as Hope struggled to get it under control. Anthony just held onto one of the columns and struggled not to lose his breakfast. "Fine, do what you want you stupid thing!" Hope finally said in frustration.
The TARDIS rocked some more and finally came to a halt. Hope reached out to touch the controls, only to pull her hand back when the console sparked at her. Huffing, she said "I'm sorry I called you stupid. Happy now?" This time she touched it more cautiously, breathing a sigh of relief when it didn't spark again. "What happened?" asked Anthony. "I dunno, we've just stopped. We haven't landed, we're just floating above the planet" explained Hope.
She turned on the scanner, which began picking up a large amount of temporal energy, emanating from somewhere other than the TARDIS itself. With the flick of a switch she set it to visual mode, and gave a horrified gasp that brought Anthony over from his place by the column. "What is it, what's wrong?" he asked in concern. "This is bad. This is really, really bad" she replied.
The scanner screen displayed an expanse of space, with the curve of a planet visible in the bottom right hand corner. The most arresting aspect of the scene was a thin white crack threading its way across the screen. It wasn't a crack in the screen itself, it was something outside. "That's a crack in space-time. That shouldn't exist" Hope said sombrely. "Wait, you mean like one of the cracks that erased my dad from time once?" asked Anthony, alarmed by her dark tone. Hope started to nod, and then frowned, looking closer at the screen.
"No…this is different. It's like…you know when you chip glass, and all the hairlines radiate out from where you chipped it?" she asked. Anthony nodded. "It's not exactly like that, but if it helps…I need to get a look at the bigger picture" she determined. As Hope pressed buttons and turned knobs, the screen went pure white with a red jagged line running across it. The image stretched and as it did so, more fractures became visible.
Eventually they could see a dozen or so cracks spreading from one point in space. "Right then, sorry Ant. Felspoon is just gonna have to wait!" announced the Time Lady as she set the co-ordinates for the epicentre of the cracks. She had to figure out what was what. The TARDIS resisted this flight even more than the last one. "I don't think the ship wants to go there" said Anthony, clinging to the console. "Well, tough! Cos she's gonna have to!" replied Hope.
At last, the time machine landed with a thump. Brushing her hair out of her eyes, Hope grinned at her boyfriend. "You coming?" she asked. Anthony considered it; outside those doors was a strange planet, home to something dangerous that could possibly erase them both from time. "You bet" he answered, hurrying towards her. Well, he wasn't about to let her go out there on her own.
They stepped out of the TARDIS onto a barren, rain swept rocky landscape. As Anthony exited the TARDIS, Hope looked around to see what he was emerging from. The time machine had disguised itself in the form of a large grey boulder, fitting considering their surroundings. "I thought TARDIS's were boxes!" Anthony shouted over the wind. "Nah, just my dad's! Come on!" Hope yelled back, taking his hand. They picked their way between the rocks towards a cliff face, where a yawning cave offered shelter.
The cave turned out to be a tunnel, burrowing into the cliff side. Hope brushed water droplets off her hair and jacket, before pulling out her sonic screwdriver. She turned in a slow circle, holding the device out in front of her. It started to beep when she pointed it down the tunnel. "Whatever caused that crack is down here" she announced, before pulling a torch out of her pocket. Not a small penlight either, but an entire UV light stick. "Bigger on the inside" she said in answer to Anthony's questioning stare, handing it to him.
They made their way down the tunnel, which twisted like a rabbit warren. "How're we gonna find our way out of here?" asked Anthony. Hope stepped gingerly over a patch of slippery rock. "First things first, we need to find out what's causing these cracks. We'll worry about escaping when it comes to it" she answered. No sooner had the words left her mouth, than a rumbling sound emanated from behind them.
A few bits of rock fell from the ceiling as the rumbling grew louder. "Run!" Hope cried, grabbing Anthony's hand and pulling him down the corridor. They threw themselves to the ground and covered their heads with their arms as rocks thundered and crashed. When the dust settled, Anthony got to his feet and helped Hope to hers. He raised the light stick to illuminate the boulders that had fallen, blocking their exit.
They dimly heard a crash further away. It must've been pretty big to resonate through the rock. "I think whatever caused the cracks in time and space is also cracking apart this cliff. Come on, there's no use trying to shift this lot. We'll have to try and find another way out" said Hope, heading down the tunnel once more. Anthony followed her faithfully.
/
It was about ten minutes before they came to the epicentre of the fractures in space-time. A large cavern had been hollowed out, though whether by the epicentre or by natural forces they couldn't be sure. Hope motioned for Anthony to stand back, and then cautiously approached the edge. She held out a mirror, tilting it this way and that to see the reflection of the…thing. She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw what it was. Then she spotted something else, something brilliant.
"There's a gap at the end of the ledge, it looks like it might be a way out. But Anthony, you can't look at the light. Whatever you do don't look into the light" she implored him. "Why, what does the light do?" he questioned. "It's the Time Vortex. I don't know how but the Vortex is…leaking, or something. If you look into it your soul will burn, your mind will be consumed and it will strip away your existence" replied Hope. Anthony was sorry he asked.
They carefully made their way along the ledge, keeping their eyes off of the huge glow covering the opposite cave wall. It was a lot harder than Anthony expected; it was like being told not to look down, you automatically did just that. He repeated a mantra to himself in his mind – Don't look down, don't look left. Don't look down, don't look left. Hope came to a stop, and leaned back against the rock wall so Anthony could see what had stopped her.
The ledge narrowed at this point. They could still cross it, but not facing forwards. They would have to turn towards the light. "I'll go first. Just be really careful" said Hope, before edging her way out. Keeping her back pressed against the wall, she moved along the ledge one small shuffle at a time. At last she reached the wider part of the ledge and they both breathed sighs of relief.
Anthony began to inch his way along the ledge with his heart in his mouth. A yawning chasm gaped below him, with a deadly light straight ahead. It took all of his willpower not to look up, to keep his gaze fixed on the narrow ledge. When he was almost at the end, he met Hope's gaze and they shared a nervous grin. He made his final step without looking, and misjudged the distance. His foot stepped on thin air and he wobbled, eyes widening.
He didn't know what made him look up. He had no idea what possessed him to do it. But he panicked, looking around wildly for a handhold, and his gaze fell on the forbidden light. He caught a glimpse of something huge and terrible and beautiful, before a hand was clapped over his eyes and another hand yanked him to safety.
Still holding her hand over his eyes, Hope manhandled her boyfriend through the gap and into a hole rain was falling down into. "Anthony! Look at me, are you alright?" she asked urgently, removing her hand. Anthony blinked repeatedly. "Yeah…I think so. My vision's a bit blurred but apart from that I'm fine" he replied. Not satisfied, Hope scanned him with her sonic and checked the results. "Cellular structure's normal, brain waves functional; there's a small increase in your artron energy levels but that's to be expected" she determined.
Now that they'd established that Anthony was okay, and wasn't about to be erased from time, they had to try and get out. By standing on Anthony's shoulders, Hope managed to drag herself out of the cave into the rain. She pulled Anthony up after her. They ran back to the TARDIS, and when they came on board the ship blasted them with warm air. Soon they were both warm and dry. "Thanks!" Hope grinned at the Time Rotor.
She quickly grew serious again however. "I'm going to try and close the breach" she announced, before proceeding to do just that. But no matter what she tried, nothing seemed to work. In the end, she simply sealed the whole planet in a time loop; after Anthony reminded her to check if it was uninhabited or not. "It hasn't fixed it but it'll stop anybody else exploring here. I need to tell my parents about this, but I promise we'll go to Felspoon later, okay?" she told Anthony. He nodded in understanding.
As Hope contacted her parents TARDIS, Anthony briefly thought he saw his skin glow gold. When he looked again, there was nothing there. He shrugged and joined Hope besides the console, offering to help pilot the time machine.