(Commercial)...
(begin part 4)
The Doctor made his way to the Tardis entryway and stood before the closed doors in dramatic fashion as if suddenly overcome with the burden of unrevealed knowledge.
"What awaits us beyond these walls...," he adjusted his skinny tie, and pointed nervously "..I cannot say precisely... which alternate reality it will be. But I can say with 100% certainty that since you are from a different timeline, you can rest assured that you ...you...you my friend are immortal."
"IMMORTAL?" Audrey was stunned.
"Well, not really imMORtal, but immortal in the sense that you don't exist in this time line and so technically you cannot die in it...so technically immortal but okay lets just say you can die, and it doesn't really count."
"I wasn't counting on dying anyway," Audrey exclaimed.
But the Doctor wasn't finished explaining. Due to the sheer capacity of the Time lord's brain and capacity for processing thoughts, it is not terribly uncommon that he will contradict himself only moments after coming to a conclusion, not because the first conclusion was incorrect or premature, but unlike human brains where cognitive reasoning takes place with focused effort, the Time lord is able to truly multi-process very much like putting boiling water on a back burner to simmer. His thoughts can continue to calculate while he has moved on to focus elsewhere. So often times a Time lord is able to reach a new conclusion based on the millions of calculations he processed since his last conclusion.
"...no no now wait a minute..that's not quite right at all... actually it is 100% certain..."
The Doctor's mind was now retrieving the possible scenarios that he had placed on parallel computation mode as he began dedicating full cerebral processing capabilities to the task at hand. He was literally running through hundreds of millions of different possibilities simultaneously. His eyes closed lightly and he touched his index finger to his temple.
"...yes..yes...yyyyyes... it is 100% certain not that you are immortal but that in fact you will die! awkward silence eyes looking left then right then left again awkward pause it seemed that even the Tardis' heart/engine paused on that note, waiting for something more On second thought...maybe you should wait inside the Tardis."
"But Doctor..." Audrey had many questions, but the Doctor had no time for school girl observations for he was still making calculations and possible outcomes for his young time-space traveler. Raising up his sneaker and placing it on the the dash, he then leaped to the top of the Tardis console where it seemed he had concentrated his mental energy. Audrey thought she saw static electricity lightening effects buzzing about his head.
"WAIT! No, no, I got it now.. Ah Ha! Yes, If you see yourself out there walking around...for instance you see another you, it means your original timeline that was once a parallel universe has just converged into this one, meaning that the conglomeration of timelines was always one timeline even-though it required the merging of two different ones.. So...depending on which one of 'you' survives the cataclysmic shock of seeing yourself from another timeline (that only appears to be corrupted but when in actuality it was all a part of the real timeline that they two should converge)...Anyway..whichever Audrey returns with me...yes that is a deeper question isn't it! If the original Audrey, survives and returns or if the Audrey from this timeline returns...hold on, this will take more calculations..."
"Doctor, I've already been taken out of my timeline, so in one sense I already have died. Remember they only found my backpack? But since I am still alive it must mean that transporting into another timeline has become my new timeline. So I am living in this time line that is intersecting with other timelines so whether I live or die won't be any different than if I had stayed. I'm not afraid, I'm ready to go out there, whatever it is. Now open those doors!" Audrey waxed boldly poetic inspiring even the Doctor.
"Okay have it your way.." the Doctor said nonchalantly and jumping down off the console and opened the doors.
"Plus I have to go to the bathroom like a maniac! " Audrey added.
Stepping out of the Tardis, Audrey Dawn realized immediately where they had landed. It was in the very farthest corner of the International school property where the two walls come to a point, behind several fruit trees in the garden. Right beside them and hidden from view was the emergency phone booth tucked away so that not even nosy first or second graders would see it.
It felt good to step onto solid ground again.
"We are in the garden. All this looks the same." Audrey said as she strode merrily but guardedly through the plum trees taking in a 360 degree twirling view of her immediate environment spinning slowly with her arms out lightly touching the branches and leaves that were at eye level.
"It all is the same!" Audrey said confidently.
But she noticed the Doctor solemn, serious and silent.
"Doctor, its the same! We are in the right time and place!" she said enthusiastically.
But the Doctor only looked downward, not moving or sharing her enthusiasm.
"Doctor..."
"Did your timeline have this?" The Doctor slowly knelt and brushed back some leaves revealing a brand new gray marble tombstone with a cross and an angel's head on the top.
" or this...or this.. or all these..."
Under his feet was an unmistakable stone cut granite tombstone. But there wasn't just the one, there were several. All of them cut in the same gray marble but with different names but very different looking angel heads on top. She didn't recognize the names but the angel heads didn't seem right. She bent over to get a closer look.
The first angel head had been glued on to the top. It was different colored stone; much darker and older. The head wasn't centered exactly, or straight, or even very professional, but yet someone went to the trouble to add an angel head to each one of these. Neither of them were the same. One was smiling, one was weeping, one was blowing a kiss, one was bowed in reverence and still one was smirking.
A chill ran down her spine because she knew this wasn't right, but she chased it away by forcing herself to deduce what had happened.
She examined a tombstone it read, "Sherman T. Parallelogram, he was obtuse at times but equally acute."
Another placard read...
"Numbers keeping the secrets of old, for eons spoken to those who are told, the power of the symbols, ciphers and clues, still lurking in undiscovered proofs."
" Rest In Peace, Mr. Rhombus, He was unparalleled from every angle."
"Pythagoras, Thy Beautiful Cadence I will sing of thee, One, Two, Square Root of Three."
"Is this some kind of joke? This is disturbing," said Audrey. "Is it supposed to be funny or what?'
"Perverted Maths! I've seen it before. It's never pretty. Turn away Miss Dawn. Look no further upon this sickness, this disease. Behold what manner of decrepit discipline does wreak havoc upon the soul." The Doctor said in disgust..
"Here lies Linear Function, he never strayed from the straight and narrow."
"It turns my stomach! There's nothing sicker more degenerate than the maths obsessed criminal. Look what he's done to these poor students. Maths proposes a power to learn, solve, and understand the universe, but this is the bait and within it the hook. The student learns but never achieves, always rewarded with a more difficult problem to solve, until finally his desire has become addiction and his pursuit of knowledge betrays him...seeing nothing in life but formulas, always working never achieving."
" R.I.P. Pair-Abola, Your work is done, your plane is fixed, but no longer to this earthly plane. Fare thee well, my conic-shaped friend I will never work y(squared)= 5x the same again."
"Uh...This is all actually very good news.." Audrey spoke up.
"Yes?" queried the Doctor.
"Yes, uh...uh... it means...it means... we are on the right timeline...you see... these students died doing maths...so that means... uh your theory about Mr. Mckinnel is correct."
"Exactly! That little mathematical demon...we've got him now...he's probably in there right now unleashing his instruments of torture upon the poor souls."
He retrieved his well-used sonic screwdriver and raised one eyebrow as he read the tiny display only available to him.
"We need to move. Then ionic energy cloud created from the maths class is growing. Its only a matter of hours or maybe days before it rips another hole in space and time. We've got to get in there and stop him!"
Audrey lead the way out of the garden and toward the school. The Doctor was slow to follow, he didn't want to reveal the name upon the grave where he stood. He waited until she left. He looked at it one more time to confirm that he read it correctly. Here lies Audrey Dawn...Calculus Claimed her soul.
The doctor stared at the dirt below and then into the heavens above. Raising his fist he made an unscripted vow to the universe that erupted from his very soul and from deep within the chamber of twin hearts that beat together as one.
"My God! what a monster! With the foundations of the universe as my witness I make this pledge...that I will see justice done. From every darkened corner of the this galaxy where lonely calculators sit idle and nerdy maths students mourn to work integrals and solve equations fearful of the tyranny of ionic implosion. In the name of everything that's good and right, I vow to unleash maths to be what it was intended to be, the tool by which nerds can truly shine and let their brain power grow unimpeded into the far reaches of shadowy time and space shedding the very light of hope and knowledge into it and with it... (dramatic pause)...the chance to do maths without their head exploding."
The intensity grew but volumed lessened to a deep whisper originating from the depths of the Doctor's soul.
"Every Math Nerd Hear me now and hear me clear...and every mother that birthed you and held you to her beating breast...Grieve no longer! Kratos you jealous deity of old, could you not bear to see her Athena hold the keys to ciphers, so attack her you did but upon Zeus you never summated... that he would save her and be your end. And as Kratos was so shall you be you modern devil, Mckinnel, you modern-plastic Kratos, you and your demon maths! Upon this Doctor you never summated. Hold your brainy heads up thou nerds, your redemption draweth neigh! the wayward scoundrel son of Kratos shall be cut off from the land of the living and threaten you no more...so help me...The Doctor...Nerds on that day...you shall be free !"
Having spoken his vow in all earnest with hands lifted upward, he returned to himself once again, strained his tie, gathered his emotions, and left the garden and quickened his pace for a showdown with Kratos.