Author's Note:

Here is the next chapter. Given what's unfolding in Season 10, I think this story fits between Thin Ice and Knock Knock. This is the first time I've worked on a story during an active season and I find it both challenging and exhilarating. My first story was for The Thick of It long after the show was off the air – much easier to plan an outline, since the whole canon storyline was known and not in flux.

I made some minor tweaks to Chapter 1 to true things up with Season 10, but they don't affect the plotline, so there's no need to go back and re-read. I will continue to groom chapters along the way and will let you know if anything major changes. Anyway, thanks so much for reading, and the follows, favorites and reviews!


No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

-Albert Einstein


"That tears it! Where the devil has he gone now?!" Nardole let loose a string of alien curse words Bill was not familiar with.

He was right. The lab was empty. Might mean nothing, though. Perhaps the Doctor and Osgood popped off to the canteen for a coffee or some chips.

Of course, if that were the case, they probably wouldn't have taken the TARDIS.

Bill spied the mobile phone on the desk next to the computer. She unlocked the screen and was rewarded with an image so intense she dropped the phone back onto the desk.

"What's that?" Nardole had come up behind her.

"I think it's Blake's phone. That image was…crazy." Steeling herself, Bill reclaimed the phone and plugged it into the cord lying alongside it. The image she'd originally seen displayed on the monitor.

Bill squinched her eyes shut, but didn't look away from the image. Her stomach quivered with sudden nausea. She heard Nardole draw in air sharply between his teeth.

"Don't see that every day, do you?" The delloran offered.

They were interrupted by the familiar sound of the TARDIS materializing in the corner that it previously occupied. Bill steeled herself for a row between the Doctor and Nardole. She was a bit irked herself. Bill didn't like being shunted off to do grunt work while the Doctor did all the interesting stuff with Osgood.

But when the TARDIS was fully materialized, Bill's passing jealousy quickly changed to concern. The TARDIS looked – there was only one way to describe it – pale. Her customary bright blue looked faded and parched. Steam emanated from the surface of the time machine.

The door swung open and Osgood poked her head out. Bill noted that she was in disarray. Her hair had come partially loose from the neat ponytail, and her crisp white lab coat was rumpled and covered in dust.

"Doctor," Nardole bellowed, "What have you done?"

The Doctor appeared behind Osgood, leaning against the door. Bill's stomach did a slow roll when she saw the front of his shirt, which was spattered with blood. He held a bloody handkerchief under his nose. He was very pale.

"He's not well." Osgood grasped his arm and led him slowly out of the TARDIS. The Doctor did not object, which was another scary thing. Nardole was at his other side in an instant. They led him over to a chair. He sat gingerly, in obvious pain.

"The lights," He whispered hoarsely. He had his head down and was covering his eyes. Osgood cringed, as if she'd forgotten something.

"So sorry! Could someone get the lights, please?" Bill searched for the light switches, but Nardole found them first and used both hands to shut them all off at once. The lab was plunged into darkness, the only light emanating from the monitors, laptops, and other equipment.

Osgood made eye contact with Bill.

"Photosensitivity. It's really bad for the first few hours."

"Boss, what happened?" Bill was surprised by the gentleness in the cyborg's voice.

The Doctor cleared his throat. "Bohrium exposure. I only got a small dose, but the TARDIS wasn't as lucky." Bill followed his glance over to the steaming blue box.

Nardole extended a hand to the Doctor palm up. The time lord looked at it for a moment, and then reluctantly dug into his pocket and handed over his sonic. "Bohrium! Where the devil did you run into that?"

Osgood filled Bill and Nardole in on their adventure while Nardole scanned the Doctor with the sonic. When she got to the part about capturing the objects in the TARDIS and sending them back into the rift they were interrupted by the arrival of Kate, and Osgood's twin. Bill did a double take. Other than some minor wardrobe variations, the two Osgoods were completely identical.

"Why is it so dark in here?" Kate asked.

Their Osgood backed up and recapped things for Kate and her sister. Bill took the opportunity to fetch the Doctor a glass of water, which he accepted gratefully. He sat huddled in the chair, wrapped in a blanket. He was trembling. There were crusts of dried blood around each ear.

"Doctor, how bad is it? Are you going to be okay? And what's bohrium?" The time lord looked up at her and offered a weak smile. His eyes were very bloodshot.

"Bill." His voice failed him. He rubbed his throat and had a sip of water.

"Bohrium is an element that doesn't occur naturally on Earth." This came from the other Osgood. Apparently, their Osgood had finished the recap, and now all attention was on the Doctor.

"It was discovered back in the seventies as a result of particle smashing experiments and added to the periodic table of elements. While it's not part of our typical background radiation, it doesn't seem to have any adverse effect on humans or any of the lab animals that were exposed to it during initial testing. Half-life is only seventeen seconds, so it's very difficult to work with. Testing was discontinued in 1976 due to budget cuts and the law of diminishing returns. There just wasn't a need to do anything with it."

Their Osgood picked up the narrative. "Other species, however, are not necessarily as resistant to bohrium as we are. In the nineteen seventies, when the Doctor was on staff here at UNIT, he was exposed to bohrium and nearly died. It interferes with a time lord's ability to regenerate and causes rapid breakdown of several critical systems, such as the vascular system."

"That's why you're bleeding?" Bill asked the Doctor. He nodded.

"You need to lie down, sir." Nardole grasped his arm to help him stand, but the Doctor resisted.

"Zygons are also sensitive to bohrium," the Doctor rasped, eying the other Osgood. "It could be the objects contained bohrium. The half-life is so short that by the time I examined them there was no trace. If anything else happens with the rift, or if we get more objects, the zygon population of Earth is in grave danger. And we still don't know why the objects came out of the rift in the first place." The Doctor's voice caught and he coughed. Everyone saw the fine spray of blood speckles on the back of his hand.

Nardole tugged on the Doctor's arm again. This time, the time lord rose stiffly and let Nardole steer him towards the TARDIS.

"No more talking. You need rest. Come along." The delloran led the Doctor back into the TARDIS. Bill was torn between following to see what she could do to help and staying to be a part of the conversation back in the lab.

"This isn't good," Kate opined. "With the Doctor out of commission we really don't have any defense against another attack."

The second Osgood moved to the computer. Her sister joined her. "We still don't know what these disappearances mean, either. My sister said she and the Doctor compared the images to the video footage from Blake's hospital room and matched the fire creatures to the doctor and orderlies. Could it be a parallel universe? If so, might the people who have disappeared still be alive?"

"But when we got close to the rift, that's when we came in contact with the bohrium," Their Osgood offered.

"But bohrium doesn't have an effect on humans," The other Osgood countered. "If any of the people who vanished were zygons, though,"

Her sister finished her sentence. "They'd be dead for sure."

Bill had had enough. "Hold on a minute – what are zygons?"

That question led to a five-minute primer on the history of zygons on Earth and the revelation of the true meaning of the two Osgoods, after which, Bill adjusted her mental names of the two sisters to "Bowtie" (their Osgood) and "Question Marks" (the other one). God forbid they changed their clothes.

Nardole emerged from the TARDIS at the tail end of the zygon discourse.

"How is he?" Kate asked. Her features were full of concern.

"I dunno. Not so good. Unconscious, at the moment."

"Will he recover?"

"I'm not a doctor, and really don't know much about time lords, other than the basics. They have two hearts. When critically ill or injured, they can regenerate a whole new body, rather than dying. They are sensitive to aspirin. I had heard about bohrium, but until now thought it was a myth, sort of like Superman and kryptonite."

"So, there's nothing we can do to help him?" Kate asked. Bowtie responded.

"Maybe we can. I've read Harry Sullivan's notes from the seventies. He was a UNIT medical officer who worked closely with your father, the Brigadier, and also the Doctor. When the Doctor suffered bohrium exposure back then, Sullivan did a lot to help him recover, though largely through trial and error. As a result, we have a fairly large body of knowledge about time lord physiology, and even some blood and tissue samples." Bowtie looked down. "I'm not a medic, either, though. Just because we have the information doesn't mean we can really do much with it."

Kate, however, still looked hopeful. "I think I might know someone who can help. I'm going to step out and make a few calls. Osgoods, please work on a strategy and contingency plan to cover monitoring that rift and responding to anything else that comes out of there. Reach out to Cal-Tech and NASA as needed, as well as any other agencies we can employ to monitor and activity at the rift. I will rejoin you presently. Nardole and Bill, please don't go anywhere, we'll need you. And the Doctor needs you. Keep an eye on him, please."

"Right," Bill and Nardole eyed each other. No kidding.