The Start of Everything

I feel myself grow nervous. I saw it. Judgement Day. I remember being in the Time Tornado, looking up, and there were missiles overhead, flying messages of destruction and death. I don't want to see. I don't want to witness the near destruction of Humanity.

Jane is dancing around the console, hands and feet operating the controls. The way she moves, using a hand to push in and out a handle, a foot to kick a lever to the right place, moving manically to keep the Cathedral in motion.

"Gotta sort these controls out!" she says as she rushes past me. She seems to be having a hard time operating it all. I stare at the console, a circular, organic affair with six sections divided out. Oh. She's having to operate it on her own, and it needs to be six people working it. I wish I knew how to help her.

I look down, at the Sonic Screwdriver in my hand. It is not like Jane's Kissie, but it is still a useful tool. The things that can be done... If Skynet had this, it would be able to add this to every Terminator... I know now that Jane is right to keep it from all sides. I put the Screwdriver into my pocket. It feels right, like it is a part of me.

I feel the Cathedral lurch to a halt. I feel fear. I don't want to be dragged of by many Terminators.

I don't want my existence to end.

I don't want to die.

Jane walks to the doors, a small, warm smile on her face.

"Come on, I need you to see this." She reaches out a hand to me."Trust me," she says softly. I walk up to her, and hold her hand.

"This is how it all starts, the beginning of everything," she says softly, before snapping her fingers. The doors obediently swing wide open.

Oh.

Oh.

My eyes widen as I take in the scene in front of me.

We are floating in space. So, so big, and I have no idea where we are.

"Where is Earth?" I ask, suddenly wishing I was back home.

"All around us. We are at the birth of our Solar System. Earth is all around us, waiting to be formed," Jane says quietly, as if in awe of the sight. A large asteroid lumbers past us overhead, close enough to see the surface pockmarked with craters. It spins slowly, and I realise that the Cathedral is not affected by its gravity. It seems so close, I could reach out and touch it. I see smaller rocks hitting it, adding to the mass.

"That's it. Right there. Earth. Given time, other rocks will collide with it, and make it bigger, and bigger, until..."

"The Earth is formed," I finish, realising what is being said.

"Well... There's going to be a collision with another newborn planet, and a bit will come out of that."

"So, that will be the Earth?" She smiles.

"No, that's going to be the Moon." I look at her, wide-eyed. How does she know all of this?

"Thank you for explaining," I say. I realise something.

"How can we be in space, and have the doors open?" She looks at me and smiles.

"The Cathedral is protecting us. If you will, it's the magic of the Cathedral, keeping us safe and alive."

"How can you know all of this?"

"What, about the creation of the Earth? I read about it in an astronomy magazine." She giggles. "Patrick Moore: Source of all astronomy knowledge." She looks outside.

"You know, I could just see this as the perfect background for a Kylie Minogue video, and at the end, she becomes a ball of energy, and travels the cosmos or something." I look at her, completely lost, but then I realise something.

"The Cathedral... it goes anywhere?" I ask. She looks at me, a look of enthusiasm.

"The Cathedral of Time... Next stop? Everywhere," she gushes. She stops, and looks at me suspiciously. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I want to go somewhere. I need something," I tell her. She looks at me, worried.

"What? What's wrong?"

"I need a heart," I tell her. She now looks really worried.

"Why? Is there a system malfunction? Are you broken? I'll fix, I'm sure I can figure-"

"I need a heart."

"What? You've got a power regulator failure something? If I have a schematic, I might be able to come up with some sort of comp-"

"No. My system is fine. I need a heart." She looks completely lost.

"I need you to help me. I need to get to the Yellow Brick Road." She looks even more lost.

"Yellow... But that's in a book! It's not real!"

"But you have said that Terminators are not real, and that the Cathedral shouldn't exist, and the hand in the jar healed you, and you exploded and grew a second heart. It has to be magic. If there is magic, then there has to be the Yellow Brick Road, and I need to walk along it to get to the Emerald City. Then the Wizard can give me a heart." Jane raises an eyebrow, and and absently brushes her hair from her face with her hand. She has webbed skin between her fingers. How come I didn't see that before? And her ear... it's pointed. And her eyes... they are round, abnormally round. Not human... she said other elements... she notices her hand, and gasps, her mouth full of fangs. Her hand flies to her mouth, and she turns away, running towards the central console. There is a strange bulge to the back of her leather trousers. There's a sniffling. I run to her, and with all my strength, grab her by the shoulder and turn her to make her face me. She's staring at me, scared. And shame. She has shame. She pulls her hair over her face.

"What is happening?"

"Default form," she says softly. "but I didn't show it at first... unless it was a glamour. Reflexive. Instinct." She looks at me through her hair. "You think I'm a freak, don't you? I'm a..."

"Will you take me?"

"Huh?"

"To see the Wizard." I can see that she is bewildered, despite the mask of hair. I give her a smile, and brush the hair from her face.

"I don't care." A thought comes to me. "You are my friend. Friends accept each other for who they are."

"Why a heart? Why do you think you need a heart? I don't get it," she says, sniffling.

"Because my chest is hollow."

"But your chest is full of... I dunno, parts. It's full-"

"Because my chest feels hollow." she looks at me, her eyes widening in understanding.

"Oh, Sweetpea..."

"So you'll take me? To see the Yellow Brick Road? To the Emerald City? To see the Wizard?" she looks at me sadly.

"Bit it's not real! It doesn't exist..." a look ripples across her face, as if something has come to her.

"Well... yes, the Yellow Brick Road exists... but the Emeral- well, I guess that could be considered one... but you wouldn't need a Wizard. There isn't one." A thought crosses her. "Except that... well, it'd be a reverse process of sorts. They'd never do it, though." her face is full of thought, as her mind races to find answers.

"Pride. The best Smiths have loads of it. We could trick one into doing it." she looks at me, with a glimmer of determination, which crashes down with a realisation.

"We can't do it."

"But-"

"The time-line. The Patch Openings... I guess you'd call them Nexus Nodes, they're unavailable. And the Cathedral would need them to get to the Yellow Brick Road." her shoulders slump in defeat.

"We can't do it." her eyes look up at me, the brilliant, glowing green ablaze with compassion.

"If I could give you one of mine, I would," she tells me. "I would." I feel my body drain of hope and excitement.

"Oh. Thank you for explaining." She suddenly makes a squeal, and starts swivelling the screen around to her, and is hitting the controls hard.

"If we stop Skynet from being created, and we stop the time displacement technology from being created, we'd have no contamination. No contamination, no unavailable Openings. No barrier to us getting you a heart." she turns to look at me.

"You want a heart? Then you have to step up, and fight." she looks again at the screen. "Because it's the only way to do it."

"Then I fight. And win." And I will. Anything to have a heart. She just hugs me, and then snaps her fingers. The doors close, and she's operating the controls again, and after a bumpy ride, she rushes outside, into the garden. I feel myself feel a little... I don't know. Sad, I guess. The wonderful journey is over.

And then she's back, with her leather jacket, backpack and the stuff I bought. And I realise. She's just collecting our stuff. And as she rushes through, she snaps her fingers, and the doors close again, and she drops the stuff to the floor. She starts to operate the controls.

"Sorry it took so long, I had to make sure that the key to the back door was in its place, and the door was locked. So, I had to come out the front way." She looks at me with an impish smile as her face changes back to the human countenance I know so well now. She gets out the computer, and with some cables, attaches it to the console. Next, she gets out a couple more keyboard type pieces of equipment, and then attaches them as well. Then she gets a few clamps out of the backpack, along with some rods of some description.

"Transcendental Physics," she explains. "bag's bigger on the inside." And with that, she carries on, making sure that the computer systems are in front of the seats. The battered yellow leather seats with tape covering holes. She sits down, and positions the consoles closer to her. She pats the seat next to me.

"I guess you think less of me now," she says wistfully. I rub the tip of my thumb along her lip.

"No."

"But I was made into a monster-"

"I don't believe you. You're not a monster. Not here," I tell her, tapping her chest. She smiles as she operates the controls, angling the screen.

"Where are we going?" she glances at me, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Spoilers," she says as she slides a control up.