Chapter 2

Melbourne, Australia

May 2004

Harold Saxon instructed Lothos' people on how to realign the phase matrix to the quantum signature of a gap in the Time Vortex. Saxon explained that leaving the energy field, which he referred to as an "Eye," was the first step. He would then reside in that gap, a nowhere space between the field and their reality, while his new colleagues conceived of a method to bring him into the world again. During the eight months that the work progressed, it was increasingly obvious from his intonations that he was impatient with the procedures, often belittling the scientists he was instructing, pulling back his vehemence only when Lothos disagreed with his "attitude."

Finally, when all was prepared, Dr. Langford's voice rang out. "We're almost ready, Mr. Saxon."

From the energy field, a tired "How soon?" emerged.

"Within the hour."

"An hour?!" Saxon's voice boomed.

"Yes. To pull in enough power, we have to wait until the power grid is in its down usage time."

"I suppose after being trapped in this forsaken place for so long that I can wait a mere sixty minutes more." It was plain that Saxon wasn't in the least pleased by the delay.

The fifty minutes until the start of the down usage time went by quickly. At the appointed time, Lothos' project pulled on the grid, sucking the power necessary to run the massive equipment.

As the power rose exponentially, the energy field seemed to fluctuate even more, causing workers and scientists alike to move away quickly in awe. What looked like electricity bounced around the room deep in the heart of Lothos' project, striking one worker dead instantly. Another moment passed and the room was filled with a high-pitched whine, causing those still alive to cover their ears. The whine continued, cracking the glass with the letter "T" etched into it, a remnant from the former occupants, followed by the screams of the current employees of the facility. Finally, though, the transfer was complete and there was sudden quiet in the room.

Lothos was the first to speak. "Are you still there? Did you survive?"

There was a long silence before the male voice, whose owner had been the focus of all their efforts, finally spoke. "Yes, I am here. This is... interesting. I am free of the Eye. After so long..." Saxon seemed to exhale loudly, a sound that reflected pleasure. "The pain is gone. I feel whole and yet... not. Very strange indeed."

The light brightened. "Good. Perhaps then we can move forward to the next stage of the process you alluded to."

"Yes," Saxon immediately agreed. "Yes, indeed. I have enemies that wouldn't hesitate to hunt me down and drag me back to my world as their prisoner. It is imperative that they do not find me, especially if we want our new association to bear fruit."

"I expect my return on investment to be worthwhile. If what you have told me is correct, there is no way our association will not bear fruit."

"In that case, I need you to make a telepathic dampening field generator," came the reply.

"What is that?" Peri asked.

"Exactly what it sounds like. It's a generator that produces an electrical field that dampens a telepath's ability to sense another telepath, namely me."

"Exactly how big does this field need to be?" Lothos questioned. "I'm assuming that this generator will need to continuously run once you're in this world."

"Of course, it does. Otherwise, the others of my kind will be able to sense my presence even if they are a thousand million light years away and in a different time. As for the field... the whole of the Earth sounds about right to me."

"The whole of Earth?" Peri exclaimed in surprise. "Exactly how much power will this generator consume? You know we had to wait to pull you out of the energy field to gain enough power."

A sigh came from the limbo space in which Harold Saxon currently resided. "I suppose, given the fact that you are ill-equipped and a little young as a planet, a less expansive area will have to do, at least until I am there to do a proper job of it. A comfortable distance, enough for me to have some freedom of movement and not feel as if I were in a cage. How large is the facility you are located in?"

Peri provided a general concept of the size of his building indicating that it had ten expansive floors below ground and five above. "I suppose that will have to do until we can find a more... spacious answer," Saxon replied to Dr. Langford's specifications.

Lothos spoke to Peri. "You will continue to work with our new friend to provide whatever he needs to bring him to the Prometheus Institute. Please keep me informed of your progress."

Peri crossed her arms, clearly displeased with having to maintain her current "relationship" with the blatantly egotistical entity in the ethereal plain. "Yes, Lothos," she responded, hiding her frustration just as she had been since this endeavor had begun.

DWQLTWDWQLTW

Cardiff, Wales

June 2004

Captain Jack Harkness sat at his desk deep within the Torchwood facility in Cardiff, Wales. In front of him was an instrument that looked in some ways like a really wild and crazy laptop. Only closer inspection would show that this 'laptop' had not been built in any factory on Earth. Rather, the strange letters showed it was from a culture that had nothing to do with the third planet from the star named Sol. This particular gem had been found in an abandoned coal mine that had come to the attention of Torchwood when local legends of hauntings seemed to have some truth to them. When the Torchwood Three team investigated, this equipment had been found.

The ex-Time Agent had been toying with it for the last few weeks and was close to cracking its secrets. From what he could tell, it was meant to track temporal 'events,' for a lack of a better word. Jack's goal was to fine tune it enough to see the patterns from one particular temporally astute alien. He wasn't sure he could do it but given his previous occupation and the skills he'd gained in the 51st Century, he was certainly going to try.

"Jack, we picked up some alien activity on the other end of town. Looks pretty minor," Suzie Costello commented as she waltzed into Jack's office. She glanced over at Jack, noting his concentration on the odd alien artifact. Ever since she had been recruited by him to join Torchwood three years before, he seemed to be obsessed by certain things. First it was police boxes that seemed to appear and disappear out of nowhere. Now it was this temporal tracking device... or TTD as she liked to call it. "Are you still on that thing? It doesn't work, you know."

"That's because there's evidence of a large amount of temporal activity recently that has blocked sectors of the drive. It's still showing some patterns." He hit a few buttons. "Look at these. While there are a few outliers before 1953, all the rest have been clustered from then to almost present day. They look like time eddies with time changing around them. Then there are these single points that appear randomly but with similar basic signatures each time."

She leaned over his shoulder and looked at the screen that so fascinated him. "So, what does that mean? That time is actually changing randomly? Or did someone change it deliberately?"

"Well, there seem to be two or three types of eddies. It's a little hard to see if these two are really different or not. But this one is definitely different from the other two. Then there are a few times where there's overlap between different signatures. Nothing major seems to change which makes me wonder if it is deliberate. Most entities trying to change time try to do it in a big way. Still, the sheer number is astounding."

Suzie blinked for a moment, wondering how he was so knowledgeable about time and shifting timelines. Then again, there was still much that she didn't know about her boss or the agency' she worked for. Based on the information she'd learned to date, it wasn't outside of possibilities that Torchwood had a handle on time travel. Regardless of the reasons for Jack's knowledge, she knew it was always best not to ask questions.

Slipping on her glasses as she knelt beside Jack's chair, she tried to get into a more comfortable position. "The eddies show minor changes... doesn't make much sense if you are trying to change Earth's history. Well, except for a couple, that is. Two of the single points converge in 1912... the Titanic sinking? And look at this one in 1963... one of the eddies and one of the single points converge there. The Kennedy assassination? Not a human conspiracy but a time one? And there's that one... those two points meeting on December 31st, 1999." She noted that an odd look crossed her boss' features upon the mention of Kennedy's death and the Millennium, as if he were haunted personally by both events. While the Millennium change had been interesting, to say the least from her point of view, she couldn't understand why Jack would be so disturbed by the events in 1963 since Jack wouldn't have even been born yet. Again, it was better not to ask. "So, if this isn't some grand alien scheme to take over the Earth, what is it?" she questioned when Jack didn't reply to her previous queries.

"I don't know. I just don't have enough data." He sighed as he shook his head as if willing the thoughts away. "As to the single points, there are so many of them. I'm not sure there's any way to make better sense of them."

"There isn't even a pattern to them." Suzie sighed as well. "Totally random and in practically every era of human history, some of them major events. And any time there are changes, they are so small that they could be just random time shifts." She gave him a hint of a smile. "So, I was wrong. It does work. Still doesn't help us deciphering it, though."

Jack harrumphed. "Yeah. Doesn't help at all." He turned off the power to the equipment deciding that perhaps looking at it at another time might be better than trying to force a breakthrough. "So what was this minor alien activity you were talking about?"

DWQLTWDWQLTW

Melbourne, Australia

November 2004

Six months.

That was how long it took to develop, test, and perfect the telepathic dampening field generator that Saxon had demanded. There were many reasons for the overly lengthy amount of time to build the machine. Finding a suitable energy source to run it with, finding the necessary parts, insuring that the schematics that Saxon had to recite actually made sense to the human engineers in charge, finding a way to test the device in the first place... all of them created unique challenges for Peri Langford to take on. And she took them on with gusto, her fascination with the mysterious Harold Saxon growing with every conversation that she shared with him.

Saxon, it seemed, wasn't nearly as belligerent or impatient now that he was free of the energy field, his explanation that the field had caused him great pain giving an understandable reason to his ill-temper before. Now free from pain to distract him from the work, he appeared to want to present himself in a better light and to show the human scientist his softer side. He encouraged her to talk to him as she worked, which she did at first hesitantly and then openly. She told him everything about herself: her political views, her likes and dislikes, the fact that she had no family to speak of other than her fellow employees at the Prometheus Institute (and they weren't really much of a family, in her opinion), her status as CEO of the public front for Lothos' project... there was nothing she kept from him.

He, in turn listened quietly, not ready to provide too much information until he was completely out of the bubble he had existed in. One thing he did talk about with Peri was his desire to be a part of the universe again. He desperately wanted to once again breathe, see, hear, and feel. The idea was tantalizing, giving him the motivation he needed to help Peri create the field generator he so desperately needed.

While the concept of being so completely deprived of sensory input, other than hearing, wasn't a new concept to her, Peri couldn't help but wonder how the being in the pocket of space-time could remain sane. She didn't understand why she was so intensely involved, other than scientifically, with him. But she did know she wanted to free him more and more with every passing day.

She hurried into the room where the anomaly had been found so many months before, her eyes wide with excitement. "Mr. Saxon, are you awake?" she asked, her voice reflecting her emotional state.

"I am always awake," he answered. "There is no way to truly sleep here," he grumbled.

"How would you like to sleep in a real bed tonight?" she questioned, her eyes gleaming with her smile. Getting no answer, she continued. "We did it, Mr. Saxon! The telepathic dampening field generator. We completed it and it works."

"I will reenter the universe?" The tone in his voice showed he was not going to let false promises throw his concentration. He'd been able to hold his own but as each year had passed while in the Eye, he'd come closer and closer to losing hope. To have freedom so close was intoxicating. For him, it was all the more reason to keep things even.

"Yes. As soon as the generator is in place, we'll pull you out completely and you will be free. I'm having technicians install the generator now to a power source. The moment I get the go ahead, I'm pulling you out."

"That will be..." he started, suddenly overcome with an emotion he seldom felt, one of gratitude that this woman was happily ready to deliver him to his destiny. He decided that a small disclosure was in order. "I have not been so happy since I was the supreme leader of the Mantadons."

Peri blinked, fascinated by the revelation. "Who are the Mantadons?" She slowly sat down, her attention focused on his upcoming response.

He paused and then stated proudly, "They were my greatest creation and would have set so many free to pursue their dreams."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I had solved one of the greatest problems for my people. The Mantadons were masters of actions. You could show them how to do something once and they would do it that way perfectly every time. Never a variation. And yet, they were not robotic but rather flesh and blood. That gave them great flexibility in the things they could do."

"So... eidetic memory?"

"Oh, that was just the start. They were designed to do so much more. If not for Thete, all would have gone to plan."

"And who was this Thete? You've mentioned him before. One of your enemies?"

"He was the man who put me here. Imprisoned me for eternity."

Peri looked towards the anomaly in space-time, sympathy in her eyes. "Not for eternity. You will soon be free." Almost as if to reaffirm her words, the intercom in the room chirped. Standing, she walked briskly to the receiver and pressed a button. "Langford," she answered.

"We are ready, Doctor," came a male voice.

"On my mark, Mr. Thomas," she instructed. She turned towards the gap in time. "Pulling you out, Nr. Saxon," she told the entity they had worked so long to release. Striding to the equipment on the other side of the room, she made the necessary adjustments. "Five... four... three... two... one... Realigning field."

The room blazed with a bright light. As the being was pulled out of the bubble and into the world, an opposite force seemed to pull him back. Peri reached out and grabbed at the entity. As she made contact, a piercing sound seemed to echo within her mind. It was as if a steady rhythm of four drum beats were playing behind her eyes. She shook her head and pulled once more, the act dislodging the man from his prison. She gazed up into his eyes - humanoid, from all appearances - transfixed by their chocolate brown color. She swallowed tightly, unable to look away from him. It was almost as if he had her under some kind of spell, the rhythmic sound still in her head.

He was naked and the sensation of sudden cold along with the sound and lights appeared to overwhelm him. He screamed as years of sensory deprivation came to a sudden halt, the strongest sensation being the return of the drums in his mind, which had been absent in both the Eye and the ether.

The scream forced Peri out of her reverie and she quickly but gently took hold of him, helping him down to the floor before he could collapse. "It's okay," she whispered. "You're free. You're safe." As she spoke, a rush of footfalls indicated that a couple of technicians had hurried to help. Peri looked at them with stern eyes. "Get a robe or something for him. And water." She didn't need to raise her voice to get them to act quickly since they knew the consequences of inaction would be.

He clung to her tightly for a long moment then, with determination, closed his eyes and abruptly stopped screaming. As if pulling strength from the air, his chest heaved. When he opened his eyes again, all pain and fear was gone, the drums now quieter but still there. Curiosity had replaced the pain and anxiety he had felt. "What is this place?"

She stared at him, shock on her features at the sudden change. Confusion filled her eyes as she carefully told him, "A lab in Lothos' complex."

He looked around at the displays and wires. A short feel of all time told him that somehow he'd regained his Time Lord status. He had touched the mind of another of his species, which caused him great alarm as he was certain that the reverse could also be true. With a sudden revelation, he looked to Peri, his anxiety returning briefly. "Has the telepathic field been raised?"

Peri gasped slightly, mentally kicking herself for her negligence. "Thomas! Raise the field!" she ordered. Hearing confirmation that the field was up, she smiled.

As the field was raised, contact with the single individual ceased, making him wonder why he could only feel one other Time Lord. "The overload to my senses was more than I expected," he murmured, figuring that was what prevented him from feeling more of his kind.

"I understand," she told him softly, thinking that his words were an explanation for his sudden change from screaming to silence. "Can't be easy coming back into the world when you've felt only pain for so long and then nothing at all for almost six months." As she spoke, a long black robe was delivered per her previous orders. She briefly released her hold on Saxon to accept the robe before carefully draping it over his shoulders. "Can you stand?"

He took stock of how he felt. Although the pain had been great, it was subsiding. In comparison to a regeneration, his rebirth had not been as bad as it could have been. "Yes. I can." He pulled himself up and soon was standing in the room.

As he did, the lights dimmed slightly. "Ah, Peri. I see you've brought our guest safely to us. Well done."

"Thank you, Lothos," Peri replied to the hybrid-computer as Saxon slipped his arms into his new robe and tied it around his body. At the same time, a technician came in with the ordered glass of water, which Saxon took without comment and swallowed down quickly.

"So..." he said. He stopped, blinking for a moment as he finally noticed his own voice. "Is this really how I sound?" He grinned broadly. "I like it." As if to realign his thought process, he tucked his hands into the pockets of the robe. "Anyway... you're Lothos, eh?"

"Yes," the disembodied consciousness stated without fanfare. "Peri has told me that after your ordeal you will likely be exhausted. I suppose that, being in a biological body like you are, she's right."

Saxon glared up at the ceiling. "I gather from your choice of words that you are not... biological in nature. I've been rescued by a machine?" He didn't seem pleased with the prospect.

"I was once biological. I choose this form for a variety of reasons, not the least that I never tire, I can interface the virtual world, and I can now compute at the speed of multiple parallel supercomputers. I have never regretted my decision."

"Good for you," Saxon replied, clearly unimpressed by Lothos' words. "Well, you may not tire but I occasionally do, especially after spending an indeterminate amount of time in a sub-spatial junction. Besides..." He slowly brought his hand up to examine it. "I want to see what I look like."

"A room has been prepared for you. We'll discuss specifics of your role at the Prometheus Institute when you are able." The focus changed. "Peri, I'd like you to join me after you taken care of his needs."

"Of course, Lothos," Peri replied with a slight bow of her head. She turned to Saxon, a bright smile on her face. "This way, Mr. Saxon," she instructed, putting a supportive hand under his elbow.