The Doctor took Ariana's hand, and stormed out without another word.
At a loss for what else to do, and with no desire to hang around, Charlie and Alan followed.
The Doctor made sure that Ariana returned to her kin safely, and hastily left the Myrox world.
Alan had been just as amazed as Charlie had been when he'd entered the TARDIS for the first time.
He stared up at the space above him, lost in his calculations.
"This is a… time machine?" Alan questioned.
"Yep," Charlie agreed, leading on a railing, as the Doctor worked the controls.
"And the pair of you journey across the stars together?"
"That about sums it up," the Doctor acknowledged.
"Then…" Alan muttered, taking a moment to ponder another question. "Forgive me if… I can't disguise my curiosity. Is there any possibility you would consider me joining the two of you? The universe seems a truly fascinating place. It would be an honour to explore it."
Charlie looked at the Doctor, raising an eyebrow. Travelling through time and space with Alan Turing? Surely that was an opportunity of a lifetime?
The Doctor sighed.
"I'm very sorry, Alan, but I'm going to have to say no."
Alan looked crestfallen. But he straightened his posture, and stepped a little closer to the Doctor.
"Why not?"
The Doctor swung away, shaking his head dismissively.
"Just no."
"It's not as though there isn't enough room in here," Alan argued.
The Doctor turned to him.
"Why are you so keen?" he asked. "You almost got killed. It's rarely any less dangerous than it was today."
"What does that matter?" Alan spat.
"Why, though?" the Doctor pressed. "Why are you so determined to travel in time with me?"
Charlie wanted to step in. The Doctor was treating him rather unfairly.
"Because…"
"No. You don't have to tell me," the Doctor growled. "I already know."
"I don't believe you do," Alan protested, his fist clenched.
"You want to change something," the Doctor deduced.
Alan frowned.
"Yes."
"You can't."
"I just want to save my friend. I know you can help save him, with your… funny blue box that's larger on the inside!"
Charlie watched the two of them carefully, unsure how the exchange was going to play out.
"No," the Doctor muttered, a hint of weariness evident in his voice. "It would cause a temporal negation paradox. It would lead you to make different decisions, and stop you from arriving here."
Alan, although still cross, nodded. "Yes, I understand the logic of what you're saying."
"Then you understand why I won't let you come with me?" the Doctor asked.
"Yes," Alan snapped.
"Believe me, it's not that I don't like you," the Doctor spoke sincerely. "Because you're clever. You have a brilliant mind, and frankly, I was impressed with the running."
Alan bowed his head in shame, and muttered under his breath.
"I'll take you home, shall I?" the Doctor offered.
"If you insist," Alan relented, staring at Charlie for a moment.
Charlie wasn't sure what to think. He didn't understand why the Doctor was turning him down, either. This was Alan Turing.
"Please don't be mad at me," the Doctor moaned. "It'll make things very difficult for me in the future. Or, indeed, the past."
Alan shot him a puzzled expression.
The Doctor nodded. "That probably explains why you, uh… never mind."
He turned away, and busied himself at the TARDIS console.
The Doctor landed the TARDIS, and they stepped out.
They were back in the green courtyard, in Cambridge.
Charlie noticed Alan's dismay at stepping back into his old world.
It reminded him for a second of Kai's despair at returning to the battlefield. As though 'home' was the last place he wanted to return to.
"If you could keep all this secret…" the Doctor pressed, gesturing towards the TARDIS.
Alan smiled bashfully. "I would like to think that I'm very good at keeping secrets."
The Doctor laughed, which took Charlie by surprise – he hadn't heard the Doctor laugh before. This must have been the first time the Doctor had really relaxed his serious composure.
"Of course," he said gently.
Alan regarded them both, and Charlie felt his gaze upon him for longer than he was entirely comfortable with.
"Well, it's been a pleasure meeting you both. You are most… remarkable men."
"I would say the pleasure's been all ours, Mr Turing," countered the Doctor.
Alan masked his embarrassment with a confused smile.
"You intrigue me, Doctor," he spoke. "I can't quite work you out. You are something of… an enigma?"
Charlie managed to disguise his surprise, and glanced at the Doctor, whose expression remained unchanged.
"Enigma?" Charlie wondered quietly. "Interesting choice of words."
"You're not going to figure me out, Turing," the Doctor muttered wryly. "Don't bother trying."
"Well, farewell, silver fox," Alan asserted with a grin.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow, glanced at Charlie with an estranged smile, then turned his back on them, and swiftly returned to the TARDIS.
Charlie was left alone with Alan.
Alan flashed him a roguish smile, and Charlie felt a brief feeling of angst in his stomach, as if someone had tied his intestines to a car, and driven off with them.
"Farewell, Charlie," Alan muttered.
Charlie offered him a smile.
"Yeah," he considered. "It's been nice."
Alan raised an eyebrow, recalling their initial conversation – just metres from where they were currently standing.
"I sincerely hope not!"
"Ha! No. I mean it," Charlie shook his head, in disbelief. "It's been… really great talking to you."
Once again, he was in awe of the fact that he was speaking to the Alan Turing.
"It has indeed been enlightening," Alan agreed. "I have to say, you've shown me considerable kindness, the like of which I haven't experienced… well, not in a long time."
"Your friend?" Charlie guessed.
Alan nodded.
"No-one treated me the way he did. He was a kind… gentle person."
Alan gazed down at his shoes, hiding his eyes.
"Damn clever, too. Always testing me," Alan muttered, with a reminiscent smirk.
"You loved him?" Charlie realised.
Alan looked sharply up at him, clearly assessing how much more he should reveal.
"I did," Alan admitted, quietly. "He never felt the same way, of course."
Charlie nodded, throwing him a sympathetic half-smile. He wasn't sure what to say. So he said nothing.
"I always… hoped… that somehow, his mind lived on."
Alan's eyes met his, searching him.
"Perhaps it does."
Charlie frowned, feeling more and more uncomfortable by the second.
"Perhaps it could," he added.
That faraway look recaptured Alan's eyes once more, and it was a while before he spoke again.
"I thought that the Doctor could have taken me back, in his time machine, even just to see him." He blinked, and shook his head. "But I fear that would be impossible."
"Yeah," Charlie agreed, uselessly.
Alan looked up at him, with a furtive grin.
"I think you remind me of him. Just a bit," he said, almost a whisper. "I say a bit. I… I don't know."
Alan laughed awkwardly, and that awkwardness was growing larger between them by the minute.
"I've never had a mastery over words. If it weren't for…"
Alan paused, staring him straight in the eye.
"You're not coming back, are you?"
Charlie bit his lip, and looked back at the Doctor. He was busying himself at the TARDIS console, noticeably ignoring them.
"I honestly don't know."
"I think I shall miss you… Charlie."
Alan laid his hand on Charlie's shoulder, and he smiled awkwardly, feeling very, very uncomfortable, until Alan withdrew it.
"You're still hiding something. I can tell," Alan professed.
Charlie's face contorted in bewilderment.
"I don't know what you mean?" he replied quickly. The words came out of his mouth without his full control.
Alan nodded. He had a look in his eyes; a wisdom, which seemed beyond his years.
Charlie was a little concerned. He couldn't work out what it was that Alan knew.
"One should be what one is, I think," Alan advised. "I hope you know that."
"Uh, I guess?"
"Come on, we can't stay any longer," the Doctor called.
Charlie glanced round. The Doctor was impatiently setting some controls. He wasn't entirely certain how the Doctor was managing to perform said action in such an accusatory manner.
"No? Bugger…" muttered Alan.
Charlie said his last goodbyes, and dashed back into the TARDIS. The doors slammed shut behind him, and the engines roared.
"Why not?" he asked, striding up to the console.
"Because it gets incredibly awkward, and I really, really hate farewells."
"But that's Alan Turing," Charlie muttered in exasperation.
"It didn't escape my notice."
"Why didn't you let him come with us? I don't understand."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow.
"I've already explained that, haven't I?"
Charlie frowned, shrugging uneasily. "I know that. But he wanted to save his friend."
"I know," the Doctor replied. "Christopher Morcom. Died of bovine tuberculosis before he came to Cambridge."
Charlie stared at him for a moment, shaking his head.
"Do you know that because he's famous, or do you just know stuff about everyone?" Charlie challenged him.
"Look it up if you don't believe me," the Doctor said, pushing the TARDIS screen towards him.
There was a webpage on Alan Turing, but Charlie ignored it.
"But you still haven't explained why," Charlie protested.
The Doctor sighed, but he didn't object to Charlie's interrogation.
"Some things always happen. Without the death of Christopher Morcom, Turing may not have dedicated himself to the inventions that eventually came to pass. The codebreaking that helped end World War Two. The computers that evolved into far more powerful machines. Machines that perhaps… one day in the future, learn to think for themselves."
Charlie shook his head. This wasn't the answer he wanted. Weren't they supposed to help? Make things better? Isn't that what the Doctor did?
The Doctor looked at him, trying to read his thoughts.
"Alan Turing is one of the most important minds in your species' history. The consequences of altering his past would have been disastrous. Kai must have realised that. He's essentially her great-great-great-something grandfather."
"So what if he hadn't been important to history? Would you have helped him then?" Charlie asked, his voice brittle.
The Doctor frowned. "Is there such a thing?" he suggested, kindly. "Someone who isn't important to history?"
Charlie turned away, his quivering chin betraying his feelings. He couldn't watch the Doctor calmly shoot him down.
"I know you're upset," the Doctor fathomed. "Because I think you know what happened to Alan."
"Yes," Charlie whispered hoarsely, staring blankly at the TARDIS screen.
"What's the point?" he said, after a while.
The Doctor frowned, so Charlie explained.
"What's the point in doing this, if we can't change anything? If we can't make a difference?"
"Who says we haven't?" the Doctor challenged. "We ended a war."
"You ended a war."
"You managed to convince me Kai deserved a second chance," the Doctor confessed. "You changed my mind, and I think you changed a few others, as well."
"Me included, I guess," Charlie admitted, resignedly.
"No doubt we have emerged from this different men…" the Doctor quoted.
Charlie threw him a puzzled look, wondering where he'd heard the phrase before. A look which the Doctor picked up on.
"Alan Turing," the Doctor explained. "You know he designed a chess-playing algorithm, which he nicknamed Charlie?"
"Really? No…" Charlie dismissed.
"Honest. He told me," the Doctor insisted. "Name didn't stick, though. He never said why he changed it."
Charlie narrowed his eyes. "You just made that up."
"I did not," the Doctor protested, raising his eyebrows in innocence.
Charlie laughed, despite the overwhelming feeling that he had absolutely nothing to laugh about.
He shook his head, and tried to ignore the Doctor's mock-confused smile.
He knew that the Doctor was only pretending to smile, although he wasn't entirely certain how he could tell.
The Doctor was probably just trying to make him feel better. Perhaps the Doctor was keeping something from him.
Well, that made two of them.
They were both lying. And they both knew it.
They both knew when to wear the mask, that hides one's true face from the world.
They both knew how to play the imitation game.
The Adventure Continues...
The Twelfth Doctor and Charlie will return in: Web of Doom. The Doctor finally decides it's time to put Charlie to the test. When they answer a distress call, they discover that the UNIT Moonbase is under attack.
Author's Notes:
Thanks to everyone who followed, reviewed, and read this adventure.
Just knowing that someone enjoys these stories makes posting them worthwhile.