4.
"In here," Victoria whispered, catching Jamie's sleeve as they slipped along the hallway. They could still faintly hear the Scholar singing a ribald song above the sound of his gushing bath-water, just down the hall.
The two of them slipped quietly into the room. "What is this?" Jamie wondered. The lighting was subdued and it seemed every wall had some sort of conduit running up or over or around them. In the corner a dark slumped shape carefully lifted its head.
"Jamie? Victoria!" The Doctor called quietly. "What are you doing here? Are you all right?"
Jamie noticed he wasn't really moving, just turning his head a little to be able to see them. "Oh, we're all right. But what's wrong with you? Are you tied?" He quickly crossed to his friend.
"I'll watch the door," Victoria whispered behind him. "See if you can get him out."
"No, no, don't touch anything," the Doctor said urgently as Jamie came to kneel beside him.
"But…it's only a wee wire!"
The Doctor wrists and ankles were wound about with thin silvery lines that came from a hole in one of the conduits and went back into another.
"They're filaments, and yes I know it looks quite flimsy but it's also quite effective. It's like a trigger, Jamie. If I interrupt it or even let these two here cross one another before we rematerialize we could all be lost in the Vortex. Permanently."
"What? But, that man, he would be lost with us too…!"
"Yes. A risk he obviously decided to take."
Jamie eyed the wires. "Could it be a bluff?"
"No, I'm afraid not. He knew exactly what he was doing. Though I've calculated, assuming we get out of this, dear oh dear, she's an older model, you know… yes, I think I've a way I can reconfigure the circuits so it can't be done again."
Jamie glanced back at Victoria, shifting impatiently. "Can't you do it now? Or I could, you could tell me what to do."
The Doctor gave a little smile at this eager willingness. "No, no I'm sorry. It would be far beyond you."
"But, maybe you could fix it after, even if we were in th'…the Vortex. We could get back out."
"No, I'm sorry Jamie," he minutely shook his head. "I don't think I would survive it myself. You and Victoria would be left to live our your days with that madman in the bath."
Jamie's eyes grew wider. "Y' mean… it would kill you?" He edged back, suddenly fearful he might even accidentally touch the tiny silver lines. "An' you let him do this to you?"
"Yes." The Doctor considered the filaments and raised his eyes to Jamie's again. "Inconvenient, isn't it?"
"Why?" Jamie had to ask, though he knew the answer. "Why let him tie y' down like this?"
The blue eyes looked away. "I couldn't risk him taking another shot at you, Jamie. You've a good, strong heart but it would've stopped with another charge. Victoria might not have even survived the once. I have a responsibility to her, you know." He glanced back towards her and drummed up a small smile. "And besides, where there's life, there's hope. As long as we're all alive we might come up with some manner of fixing the problems he's so determined to create."
"Isn't there anything we can do now?" Victoria asked. "How about that box he made you make up, the one you put by the console? Can we turn that off at least?"
The Doctor's brow furrowed slightly and then the sunlight seemed to come out. He suddenly smiled, barely restraining himself from a habitual cheerful clap. "Yes. Oh, well done, my girl. Yes, now listen to me, both of you. Go to that box; it slides open on the side. Inside you'll see a short, coloured wire. Pull it!"
"But won't that make that, that Vortex thing…" Jamie hesitated.
"No, no, no. It will merely break the connection to the hard-wired coordinates. Without the dominance of that new input, the TARDIS will revert to the previous ones; that would be right back when we were."
"Won't he be angry?" Victoria wondered.
"If he realizes the change, I expect so, but still, he mustn't be allowed to go back; it's going to just make a terrible mess with all sorts of tangled strings if he does."
"But his weapon…" Victoria said.
Jamie winced in agreement. "Aye, that's a problem."
"Hm," the Doctor said. "You know, he's more desperate than unreasonable; more than any of his schemes he just wants his TARDIS. You need to blame me. If he confronts you, by all means do whatever you need to do to find cover, and keep blaming me. Say I forced you to help me, or I've given up, whatever. I'm more likely to survive that weapon than you are. If he has his way, the entire natural progression of Western civilization would be thrown off, completely changed!"
"Then let him be angry," Jamie growled. "Let's go!"
"Wait!" the Doctor said, "One more thing. Victoria."
"Yes?"
"Did that Scholar rogue leave his clothing anywhere you can reach it?"
"He left 'em all in a pile," Jamie put in. "We saw them when we were comin' here, the weapon's not with 'em though. I checked."
"Good, good. Jamie, you're a quick runner. I need you to go to the third drawer on the credenza in the console room. Can you do that? You'll find something like a bracelet in the drawer. Do you remember the one the Scholar was wearing? It's just like it."
"Right," Jamie said. "Third drawer." He ran from the room.
"Victoria, I'm afraid I have something less savory for you. Would you mind checking the pockets and such in the Scholar's clothing? I need his bracelet. If he notices you, you can, oh, say you were just going to gather them up to wash or something. Being helpful. We need to swap the two of them."
---
Can I decline a nymph divine?
Her voice as a flute is dulcis;
Victoria tiptoed up to the pile of clothing and began poking through it, trying to ignore the cloud of soap-scented steam that curled her way and the raucous voice of the Scholar as he soaked:
Her oculis bright, her manus white,
And soft when I tacto, her pulse is. Rorum!
She wasn't quite sure what he was singing about but it didn't sound very proper. His tone alone brought pink to her cheeks. She turned to his robes.
Rorum corum sunt divorum harum scarum Divo!
Tag rag merry derry, periwig and hatband…
Her hand closed on something rounded, pulling it from the folds. The bracelet!
Hic hoc horum genetivo…
Careful to leave the pile in approximately the same shape it had been in when she'd started, she backed away with her treasure in hand.
"Hsst!"
Victoria gave a little jump, her hand going to her throat in alarm. Jamie was there behind her, with the other bracelet in hand. She put a hand to her lips and gestured at his find, that they needed to trade them. Jamie nodded, traded, then silently hovered for a moment before obeying her pointing hand and heading back to the Doctor. She turned and crept back to the pile of clothes.
O how bella my puella,
I'll kiss secula seculorum…
There! She tucked it carefully into place and pulled back. Somewhere in the bathing room the Scholar began to splash in time with his song.
If I've luck, sir, she's my uxor!
O dies benedictorum! Rorum . .**
--
Jamie tucked the bracelet into the Doctor's pocket for him. "That other one, it looked just like it."
"That's because it was just like it. Almost exactly so."
"So why were you trading them?"
"Mine is broken. I haven't used it in years."
"Won't he realize it's broken?"
"No, why should he? It wouldn't be working now, he's already inside a TARDIS. Besides, he's a ninny."
"I thought he was a learned man…" Victoria said, "At least, he seemed so."
"No, he's just thinks he is. He goes around like a child stealing valuables just because he thinks they're shiny. Why, he cluttered up his own TARDIS with all sorts of things I'm sure he never paid for, flotsam and jetsam of a thousand museums," The Doctor snorted. "And he thinks that it makes him learned. He's little more than a cosmic pickpocket, really. That childish narcissism of his is the trouble, and not for the first time." He looked down at his wire-bound wrists again.
"Are y' sure there's no way we can undo that?" Jamie asked.
"Oh, don't worry about me! As long as I hold still, I'm in little danger. Once we've rematerialized, you can come cut right through them. The important thing now is you two get to that console box. Slide open the side…"
"And pull the coloured wire!" finished Jamie.
"Good lad. Off you go!"
---
"Here it is," Jamie said, pulling the metal box from where it lay against the base of the console. He pried at one side, then the other until one of them slid open beneath his hand.
"Can you see it?" Victoria asked, watching anxiously back down the hallway. They hadn't heard any singing from the bathing room this time, only water gurgling. There was a shuffling noise somewhere down the hall.
"Which one?" Jamie asked, peering into the hole.
"The coloured one," Victoria said impatiently. "Hurry, I think he's coming!"
"Och, there's two!" Jamie looked up at her with panic in his eyes. "Which wire do I pull? The red one or the blue one?"
There was no way either of them could know and no time to go back and find out.
"What are you doing? Get away from that!" came the voice of the Scholar. He was fumbling with his weapon, his robes half-askew from his interrupted bath.
Victoria shut her eyes, tight. "Pick one!"
"What if it's wrong?"
"Just…pick one! I don't know. Red!"
Jamie yanked the red wire from its place. A tiny arc of bright sparks flew from it, singeing his fingertips. The TARDIS gave a slight shudder and lurch sending Victoria stumbling over him.
--
**Actual lyrics of an anonymous bawdy song from the early 1700s.