EPISODE 2:

SCIENCE AND THE LAMB

CHAPTER 6:

MONUMENT ISLAND

The nun (or whatever female adherents to Comstock's cult of personality were called) didn't do anything of the sort, merely continuing to pray. As Booker ran over to the controls, the Doctor frowned, sniffing. "Oh dear," he murmured.

Suddenly, his attention was drawn to the cockpit window, as was Bernice's. Comstock was rising into view on a barge, a microphone in hand. "The Lord forgives everything," he said. "But I'm just a prophet, so I don't have to."

Benny's eyes caught movement from the woman, who was raising a candle above her head…ready to drop. And only now did she realise that she could smell some sort of oil, the woman seemed to be doused in it. A torch all but ready to go up in flames.

"Amen," Comstock said.

"Amen," the woman echoed, but before she could drop the candle, Benny grabbed her hand, squeezing it shut. The woman struggled and squirmed, and Benny, while she was no slouch in physical combat, was fighting against the fires of fanaticism.

"Die, sinner! Be cleansed with heat!" the woman screamed, even as she smashed Benny away…and dropped the candle.

The Doctor was many things, and while many physical activities other than running eluded him, he had, particularly in this incarnation, the skills of a circus performer(1). While he wasn't agile enough to jump into the air and somersault, he could tumble. And he was excellent at prestidigitation, though he'd had that in many of his incarnations: he remembered the distinctly unimpressed look on Henry Gordon Jago's face as his fourth incarnation did tricks(2).

Another thing he was good at was juggling, throwing things into the air and catching them. So when he saw the candle about to be dropped, despite Benny's efforts, he darted forward, and managed to catch it.

"NO!" the nun screamed. She tried to hurl herself on the candles behind her, but Benny held the woman away, and Booker came up to the nun and punched her.

As the woman slumped, unconscious, Booker murmured, almost wryly, "Another sin to add to the litany. Then again, I'm drowning in blood. What's punching out a nun compared to that?"

"Shades of a suicide bomber," Benny remarked, as they pulled the unconscious woman away.

"Suicide bomber?" Booker asked. "Do I really want to know?"

"It's after your time, as far as I know," Benny said. "But then again, people have used fanatics for suicidal attacks for a long time."

"Like the original Assassins(3)," the Doctor murmured, looking down at the prone nun with pity. "They thought they'd enter paradise too." His face twisted into an angry scowl. "Comstock," he snarled quietly. He then went over to the control panel, and nodded, while tinkering with it. "There. That should do it."

"What did you do?" Booker asked.

"Made sure we could get to Monument Island. The gunship is on autopilot," the Doctor said cheerfully. He peered out the window. "I'm sure that by this point, Comstock is wondering what had happened. But like many a villain, he left before the execution goes through."

"Okay, but what about your cabinet thing? Why couldn't we have used that to get to Monument Island? Isn't it your time machine?"

The Doctor nodded. "But the Luteces gave me coordinates. When I left the Raffle, it took me some minutes to get back to the TARDIS. It was a bit difficult, but not impossible to travel back those few minutes. I spent that time while I was trying to get the TARDIS to the right point setting up instructions for those two people, as well as persuading the TARDIS to supply the special effects, like the light and smoke."

"So those two are alive?"

"I will not be party to an execution for someone wanting to marry someone from a different race," the Doctor said, darkly. "As long as the person is of age, sentient, and willing, it shouldn't matter. In any case, I sent the TARDIS to automatically dematerialise to the relevant coordinates, as well as setting the HADS."

"HADS?"

"Hostile Action Displacement System," the Doctor explained. "If there is imminent danger of attack, the TARDIS dematerialises and rematerializes nearby(4). I connected the HADS to send it to the coordinates. Which, if I'm correct, is roughly at Monument Island, before long. The way the Luteces told me, it seems like it will be our escape route when things go bad retrieving Elizabeth." He smiled. "I knew an Elizabeth once. Dr Elizabeth Shaw, my assistant at UNIT(5)."

"Doctor, can we save the trip down memory lane for later?" Benny asked. "What about Anna DeWitt?"

"How do you…?" Booker asked.

"The brand on your hand. Comstock mentioned Anna. It was a bit of a leap," the Doctor admitted, "but I'd sooner put money on it standing for 'Anna DeWitt' than 'Anno Domini'."

Booker looked at them both, before he said, "My daughter."

"What happened to her?" the Doctor asked.

"I…I don't know…" Booker muttered.

Benny frowned. "A pretty important thing to forget, especially as it's her initials branded on your hand."

"Must be the effects of trans-dimensional crossing," the Doctor murmured. "Booker doesn't belong in this timeline any more than we do. But why would the Luteces bring someone from another timeline over into this one…unless…"

The Doctor turned to contemplate the statue they were approaching. The Luteces could have asked the Booker from this timeline to do this, so there were two alternatives he could think of offhand. Either Booker was dead, or didn't exist in this timeline, or…

He blinked. Comstock's rant was very personal, true, but the way he spoke to Booker…it was more than seeing details of the future through technology masquerading as prophecy. It was as if he knew what Booker's life was really like.

Perhaps because he may very well have lived it.

He closed his eyes, mentally comparing Booker and Comstock in his mind. Yes, the resemblance was there. Of course, it could be a familial resemblance rather than what the Doctor was thinking, but his instincts were telling him a chilling, horrifying truth.

Booker DeWitt and Comstock were the same person, albeit from different timelines.

"Booker, what year was it when you left your office?" the Doctor asked.

"1912. Why?"

"I just need a fact for a disturbing theory," the Doctor said.

"But it's 1912 here," Benny said.

"Yes, it is…" the Doctor said. The Doctor wondered, did Comstock become who he was through extended periods of time travel? It'd explain the age difference. But just as the Doctor, while he looked to be middle-aged, was actually centuries old, the reverse could be true. Comstock may look old, but he may be as old as Booker. After all, the Luteces were living examples of people from parallel universes who were very different.

He needed more information.


They arrived at Monument Island with little incident, though the Doctor and Benny carefully tied up the nun. The Doctor found a means to send the airship back to base, albeit on a timer, so they left the airship, and let it fly away.

"What do you think will happen to the nun?" Benny asked.

"I don't know. Comstock obviously doesn't value the lives of his followers, but where else can I send her? If I brought her with us, she'd try her best to stop us," the Doctor said, sadly.

"You did the right thing, Doc," Booker said quietly.

"Did I?" the Doctor asked, as he went through the doors.

They found themselves in a park-like area, with the statue looming only a short distance away. The Doctor was disturbed to see warning signs all over the place. He then looked up at the statue.

The girl has abilities that Comstock intends to exploit, Robert Lutece had said. And if these warning signs had any validity to them, they were dangerous abilities. Of course, that went without saying: tinkering in time travel, as well as cross-dimensional travel, was always dangerous.

So what abilities did the girl have, specifically?


Venturing into the Monument Island complex began to paint a very disturbing picture indeed. Quarantines were required for those passing through, though the Doctor believed it was not due to any disease, but rather, potential side effects of being close to such dimensional instability.

There were various things that disquietened the Doctor and his companions. The first was a growth chart, labelling Elizabeth a 'specimen'. They also found a Voxophone record that added to the Doctor's theories about Comstock. The man was dying of some sort of cancer, and he would be willing to bet that it was due to exposure to whatever was happening here.

And then, there were experiments on various items of Elizabeth's. A teddy bear, a poetry book, and much to their mutual disgust, a sample of blood from her menarche, or first period. It was the fact that something so personal was on display dispassionately as a specimen that disgusted the three infiltrators. But worse was to come beyond.

They then found, not far beyond, a dark room for developing photography. And amongst those hanging up was of a girl dressing herself. Benny wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Voyeurs," she snarled quietly. "Were they just performing scientific experiments, or were those sick animals getting off on watching her?"

The Doctor offered no reply. It did seem, at best, gratuitous for so-called scientists to photograph a teenaged girl half-naked like that. There was doing things for clinical record, and then, there was voyeurism.

Next door, there was a projector, showing highlights from the girl's life, where she tried lockpicking, painting, singing and dancing, as well as studying cryptography. "So she's obviously intelligent," the Doctor mused. "And as cultured as she can be, growing up isolated from anyone else. But there are three questions that must be answered."

"One, is she being guarded by someone, or something?" Benny asked.

"Very astute, Benny. Two, what exactly are her powers? And three…" The Doctor pursed his lips. "Will she be happy to see us?"


They went through more rooms, including ones that had biological specimens of various kinds. The Doctor took a bottle of blood with him, though he refused to tell the others why. And then, they found the Siphon. The Siphon was a vast array of electrical apparatus, sparking and glowing. Hazards signs littered the place, and an eerie music seemed to waft around the area. The Doctor, following the instructions the Luteces gave him, shut down specific parts of it. "What will that do?" Booker asked.

"Elizabeth, according to the Luteces, has abilities Comstock wants to control. I have just undone the leash."

"Is that wise?" Benny asked.

"Probably not, but for inveterate meddlers, the Luteces do seem to know what they're doing," the Doctor said cheerfully.

"Sounds like you've got rivals in them," Benny said with a cheerful smirk.

The Doctor laughed ruefully. He then looked at the Siphon as it began to shut down. He then plucked out a component, apparently a combination of crystals and circuitry. "They also told me to take this component out." He frowned, peering at it. "This is a crude artron energy transformer."

"Artron energy…that's the stuff the TARDIS runs on," Benny said.

"Amongst other things. Artron energy is present throughout the universe, but is particularly abundant in three places: a living, sentient mind, the Time Vortex, and the bodies of time travellers(6). The transformer was designed to basically reduce the potency of the artron energy running through it. It's rather beautiful for crude and dangerous technology. Booker?"

"Yes?"

"Would you kindly step on this thing for me(7)?" the Doctor said, placing the device on the ground.

Booker nodded, and then stamped on the component viciously, grinding it into powder. "Will that stop Comstock?"

"Maybe not, but it will slow him down immensely."


An elevator took them up to a series of rooms for observing Elizabeth through one-way mirrors.

One of the rooms, they saw Elizabeth for the first time. The dark-haired girl was showing off a card with a picture of Paris on it to the mirror. The Doctor wondered whether she knew on any level that she had an audience behind those mirrors. It was then that he noticed that she wore a thimble on the little finger of her right hand. She soon left.

They moved into another observation area, where Elizabeth was working on a painting of the Eiffel Tower. The Doctor realised that something was very wrong. His senses had been tingling ever since entering the tower, but now, it seemed to be centred on the painting.

He finally got a key piece of information when Elizabeth seemed to grasp at the painting, and then, with a gesture, opened up the very air itself, the border a brilliant white. And beyond the rent she created was a darkened cityscape, but the Eiffel Tower loomed in the distance. And the Doctor saw a cinema, with the top billing being La Revanche du Jedi.

"Doctor, that cinema…" Benny hissed.

"Yes…"

"What do you mean, the cinema?" Booker demanded in a low whisper. "The girl just ripped a hole in the air!"

"Through space and time…" the Doctor murmured, only to blanch when he saw an ambulance coming right for the rent. The girl noticed too, and she struggled to close up the hole, managing it just in time before the ambulance, lights flashing and siren wailing, nearly hit them.

As the girl, clearly shaken, stumbled away, Benny said, "Doctor, that cinema billboard…"

"I know."

"What are you two talking about?" Booker demanded.

"La Revanche du Jedi. In English, Revenge of the Jedi," the Doctor said.

Benny nodded. "In our timeline, Revenge of the Jedi was the original title of a film released in 1983. But the creator changed it to another title, Return of the Jedi, shortly before release."

"It has nothing to do with the job at hand," Booker said.

"On the contrary, it has everything to do with it," the Doctor said. "Somehow, Elizabeth has the innate ability to open rents in time and space. It is her power that Comstock exploits to his own ends, or at least in tandem with the Luteces' technology."

"So, who is her father?" Booker said. "The Luteces said that I was to bring her back to her father. What does her father want with her now? Does he want to exploit her like Comstock?"

The Doctor frowned at Booker's question, which seemed to make a connection within his thoughts. Benny didn't fail to notice the Doctor's eyes flickering briefly to Booker's brand. "Maybe he wants to make amends."

The Doctor was beginning to feel that there was more to this. Why bring Booker in from another timeline? Why go to all that trouble? The Luteces could have picked any number of competent and qualified agents to do their bidding. Why go to all the trouble of bringing Booker in from another reality?

Unless Booker was connected to this somehow. And not just as an alternate version of Comstock, assuming that the Doctor's theory was correct. There was another connection here as well.

Booker had forgotten the fate of his daughter, despite branding her initials into his hand. Could it be that she was the very girl they were set to rescue?

CHAPTER 6 ANNOTATIONS:

The Doctor is suspecting the true relationship between Booker and Elizabeth. He only suspects, as he has little evidence, and less than his suspicion that Booker and Comstock are the same, but he suspects all the same.

I decided to spare the nun rather than have her fate run its course like in the game because I wanted the Doctor and Benny to actually have an impact on events.

1. This is not something I made up. In fact, the Doctor shows off said skills during Doctor Who: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Sylvester McCoy knows many circus performer tricks, and long before he became the Seventh Doctor, was a performer on the Ken Campbell Roadshow, doing things that Jackass would have done nowadays.

2. Henry Gordon Jago was a theatre owner and MC in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (which is, despite some dubious treatment of the Chinese, is one of the best stories in the entire series). Since 2009, Jago, and another character from the same story, professor Litefoot, appeared in the Big Finish audios, starting with a pilot episode in the Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles series, and then getting their own spinoff series, Jago & Litefoot.

3. The original Assassins were used as the basis for the organisation in Assassin's Creed. A fanatical group, they were indoctrinated to murder their targets publicly, but allowing themselves to be killed in the process. The Assassins are actually mentioned in Doctor Who at least once: in the sadly missing story Marco Polo, Ping Cho recites a version of their story.

4. The HADS first made its appearance in The Krotons, and made a reappearance as recently as the new series story Cold War.

5. Liz was the first companion of the Third Doctor. Fittingly for this fanfic, her last televised story, Inferno, involved the Doctor's first televised journey into a parallel universe. In the New Adventures novel Eternity Weeps, set in 2005, Liz dies from an alien virus. As she is mentioned as being alive in the new series, I am ignoring that novel.

6. Artron energy is first mentioned, I believe, in The Deadly Assassin, where the Doctor's mind is struggling in the Matrix (long before the Wachowskis did their film), one of those supervising him remarks that he has a lot of artron energy. In Four to Doomsday, the Doctor confirms it to be a power source of the TARDIS.

7. I couldn't resist a reference to the original BioShock.