So this chapter has a joke only Eureka Fans will get. Especially if you know who Will Wheaton is. But I make up for it Whovians. REVIEW!
flames and kisses,
Mlle. Phoenix Fox
"How can it be an Eye of Harmony? That thing's been here for seven years! Before Eureka Con even started." Jack asked.
"And it was buried for billions of years before that." Henry added as the doors to the Artifact closed. Having been decontaminated of radiation in the tunnel, the Doctors removed their helmets. Or at least the Tenth Doctor did. Eleven was having a bit of trouble.
"It's made of an engineered coral designed to respond to temporal particles. That's why it exists outside of space time. It was designed to exist in the Time Vortex." Ten said as Eleven was still struggling to pull his helmet off.
"The Time Vortex?" Jack asked.
"You said it existed before the Big Bang. That's impossible. Nothing material existed before the Big Bang. Therefore, it must have been created in the future then sent back to the Big Bang." Ten continued as the Eleventh Doctor twisted his helmet, only for it to somehow twist it around backward.
"He's right. And then it got buried on Earth where it wasn't unearthed for billions of years until Nathan and his team found it and brought it to Eureka." Henry said as the companions started to help Eleven by tugging on his helmet.
"So was it created naturally?" Jack asked hands on hips.
With a pop the helmet came off as the Eleventh Doctor cried,
"Blimey! Gah! Uh...no. The organic coral it's made of is a hybrid of twenty different kinds of coral grown here on Earth and then mutated to react to temporal particles."
"Mutated by who?" Jack asked.
"We suppose someone who works with marine biology." Eleven said fixing his hair.
"And someone who might use marine biology to create their entry for their Ultimate Whovian Contest." Jack said.
"But all the entries got zapped to the Barlowe house." Rose said.
"All the entries that people dropped off. There's got to be a few that didn't need help." Jack said.
"We complied a list of people that reported their projects missing. If we cross reference that list against contest entrants, we might find out who is left." Allison said.
"Well let's see." Henry said typing on the computer to pull up this list.
"Looks like there was only one project that didn't disappear. Look at that. It was a joint project." Trent said reading the screen.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me..." Jack moaned seeing the remaining names.
"Dr. Parrish. Where's Your Eye of Harmony?" Jack said entering the lab with the Doctors and companions following. The Eureka scientists had stayed behind to start working on how to control the Autron levels or the EM Shield or both.
"I don't call it that..." Parrish sighed looking through a microscope.
"But Dr. Dreckmeyer does right?" Jack asked.
"Only because he's a moron who thinks psychic energy is real." Parrish said looking up at them.
"Ray of sunshine you are." Clara scoffed.
"And yet, here we are." Ten grinned.
"True. I concede that if fictional characters can come to life, the human brain can evolve to one hundred percent capacity and develop telekinetic and telepathic powers." Parrish said.
"Beginning to see why Fargo doesn't like this guy." Rory muttered aside to Amy.
"So you don't watch the show?" Rose asked.
"Sure. I watch. But I don't obsess over it like some loser." Parrish said arrogantly.
"Really?" Eleven frowned.
"I'm more of a Trekkie." Parrish smirked.
"Then why enter the contest?" Amy asked.
"I saw the potential for a Nobel Prize. Dreckmeyer just wanted to win the dumb contest. Wanted a second Honeymoon to try to patch things up with his wife." Parrish said checking his data on his computer.
"You're such a romantic Parrish." Jack said.
"It's why I teamed up with Dreckmeyer. He was convinced that we could prove an Eye of Harmony was theoretically possible. So I grew the coral in a liquid bath of neural stimulators that Dreckmeyer created. He modified that dream reader device that was created a few years back to try to communicate telepathically with the coral." Parrish continued.
"Any luck with that?" Ten asked.
"A little. Which is why we didn't ask for the Dream Team's help." Parrish said indicating the Doctors.
"So while we were all running around trying to figure out how fictional characters came to life as they coincided with temporal particle spikes, you had created an Eye of Harmony and you didn't say anything." Jack said dryly.
"It's not an Eye of Harmony! For that we would have to expose it to gamma radiation to compact it's mass and create it's own gravitational field to cause a deformity in spacetime. Which we didn't do." Parrish said.
"Like Peabody and his particle colluder?" Jack asked.
"Particle collider. Oh...oh that could work." Ten corrected then spoke to Eleven, a lightbulb going off.
"What could work?" Jack asked.
"Oh...that is brilliant." Eleven smiled catching on.
"What's brilliant?" Jack asked looking between the two.
"But could a human do it?" Ten asked.
"Do what?" Jack asked.
"Well the people of Eureka haven't let us down yet..." Eleven said with a delighted expression as he rubbed his hands.
"Doctors!" Rose cried.
"What?" They chorused.
"Answer Jack's questions." Rose told them.
"Oh. We're being rude again, aren't we?" Eleven said.
"And still not ginger." Rose said, a smile tugging up her lips.
"Still waiting for an answer here." Jack said.
"All matter in the universe is made of the same amino acids. Therefore one could take a piece of telepathic coral, convert it to a gas and make it a star." Ten said.
"Then one could zap it with gamma radiation, compact it's mass so it creates its own gravitational field to make a deformity in spacetime. Thus creating an Eye of Harmony." Eleven continued.
"Except...my telepathic coral is still here in my lab. And there's no particle collider in sight." Parrish interrupted.
"We're going to need to see that for ourselves Parrish."Jack said.
Parrish sighed with exasperation,
"Fine...This is just a waste of time."
He crossed over to a wall where he typed in a code on a keypad. Part of the wall slid aside to show a tank of empty liquid with a glowing device attached to the side.
"What the hell?! Somebody stole my coral!" Parrish yelled.
"So much for that theory..." Jack sighed as Ten and Eleven scanned the tank with their sonic screwdrivers.
"Wait hold on. There's no sign of Autron energy." Eleven said reading the results.
"So someone did take it." Clara said.
"Not only that...but this neural device. It's range has been increased to cover the whole town. And what has been on everyone's minds for the last week?" Ten asked.
"Doctor Who." Rose nodded.
"I'm going to kill Dreckmeyer." Parrish hissed.
"Relax Parrish." Jack told him.
"But the last few days Dreckmeyer's been trying to rush the experiment. He even consulted Dr. Peabody behind my back. He probably took the coral home to work on it. Without telling me!" Parrish said.
"Wait a minute. Hold on. He consulted Dr. Peabody?" Jack asked.
"Yes. Now do your job and get my coral back." Parrish told Jack.
"Oh shut up you twit!" Amy told him.
"We need to get to Dreckmeyer." Ten said as Jack's phone rang.
"Carter."
"Jack. We haven't heard from Taggart in a while and he's not picking up his phone." Allison told him on the other end.
"Okay. I'm on it." He said hanging up. He continued,
"Taggart's MIA. I need to go check on him."
"I'll go with you." The Tenth Doctor said.
"So will I." Rose said.
"Rose it could be dangerous out there." Ten told her.
"I practically ran Torchwood One fighting hostile aliens. I can handle myself." Rose told him.
"But..."
"You're sweet to worry. But I'm going." Rose said.
"Okay, Doctor could you take Andy and check on Dreckmeyer for me?" Jack asked the Eleventh Doctor.
"Thought you'd never ask. Come along Ponds and Clara." Eleven said.
"Actually I think I'll stay here. Lend a hand." Rory told them.
"I guess they can't have enough nurses." Eleven shrugged.
"I got my doctorate in medicine remember?" Rory said.
"Once a nurse always a nurse Rory." Eleven told him before walking out, Clara following.
"Unless they get their doctorate!" Rory called after him.
"He's just messing with you." Amy chuckled kissing his cheek before dashing after the Eleventh Doctor.
"Let's go." Jack told the Tenth Doctor and Rose.
"Right." Rose nodded.
In a rundown diner on the Oregon highway, a woman sat in a booth talking on her cell phone.
"Yes. We have to move the package. Knowing Jack Carter, he won't stop meddling until we stop him. But we have to be careful. We need the Time Lords and their companions alive. Especially Rose Tyler."
Beverly Barlowe hung up her phone and smiled to herself. Everything was going according to plan.
A few minutes later Andy pulled his car up the driveway of a small ranch house on the edge of the woods. The Eleventh Doctor was in the passenger seat, Amy and Clara was in the back.
"It looks so ordinary. Not what you'd expect of a mad scientist run amuck." Clara said.
Suddenly they all jumped when a loud bang was heard from the house.
"But that is." Amy said.
"Wait here." Andy told them getting out.
"Yeah girls wait here." Eleven said. But Andy pressed a button on his dashboard and suddenly the Doctor found he couldn't get his seatbelt off.
"Oi!" he said.
"Sorry Doctor. That means you too. You are still technically a civilian and it's against my programming to allow any of you to put yourselves in danger." Andy explained through the open door of the driver's side.
"Oh Andy hang the First Law and let me out!" the Doctor said.
"I'm sorry Doctor. But that violates the Second Law." Andy said shutting the door and rushing inside. The Doctor cursed under his breath in Gallifreyian as he struggled with the seatbelt.
"Andy that man is messing with an Eye of Harmony, it's not safe for anyone! Especially if it implodes! And don't tell me about the Third Law!" The Doctor yelled after him.
"I thought the Eye of Harmony was back at GD?" Clara asked.
"It is! But that temporal coral is about to become an Eye of Harmony! Don't you see? It was created here in Eureka. Then it's going to get sent back to the Big Bang. And then it's going to be found by Dr. Stark who brings it back to Eureka. It's all...very...timey wimey!" the Doctor explained in frustration as he yanked on the seat belt.
"Doctor your pocket!" Amy told him.
"Oh what about my pocket, Pond?" the Doctor asked trying to tear the belt with his teeth.
"You've got your sonic screwdriver now, remember?" Amy asked. The Doctor froze.
"Oh."
Clara and Amy shared a look.
Then they all jumped again when another blast came from the back of the house, this time sending a charred body crashing into the front yard. A charred body in a very familiar deputy's uniform.
"Andy!" Clara cried as the Doctor got his screwdriver out and undid both his belt and the doors. He got out, followed by the girls and rushed over to the robotic deputy. He was nothing but a pile of blackened metal parts, cloth and melting nano polymer that was sparking and twitching with damage. Clara covered her mouth while Amy wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"Oh Andy..." the Doctor sighed picking up Andy's head.
Then Andy's head opened his eyes and said,
"Oh nuts and bolts...not again!"
"Gah!" the Doctor cried tossing the head to Amy.
"Agh!" Amy yelled tossing the head to Clara.
"Eek!" Clara shrieked tossing the head back to the Doctor.
"Andy! You're alive!" the Doctor exclaimed happily.
"Of course. My central processors were built into my head. It's just terribly inconvenient when I fall apart like this." Andy pouted.
"Okay this is the freakiest thing I've ever seen." Clara said.
"You've never seen a Headless Monk." Amy told her.
"Andy, what happened?" the Doctor asked.
"I got in the path of an electrical discharge which I'm pretty sure was created by the missing particle collider." Andy said.
"What?" Amy asked.
"The missing machine zapped him with a lightning bolt." Clara clarified.
"Can you call Jack for backup?" the Doctor asked.
"It might take a few minutes to get a signal. My battery was fried too." Andy said.
"Keep trying. Don't lose your head." Eleven said putting Andy's head down on the grass and running around the side of the house, Amy and Clara on his heels. They saw an old garage, lit up from within like a lantern. The Doctor ran for the garage door and opened it. They saw a large spiraling bunch of gases enclosed in a force field, lightning bolts shooting out from it.
"What's it doing?!" Clara yelled over the noise generated by the machine and the electricity.
"It's going to implode! And take out Eureka with it!" the Doctor yelled.
"Doctor! What are you going to do!?" Amy cried.
The Doctor gave a slight grin with realization,
"I have to send it back in time. Back to the Big Bang. So that when it implodes it won't damage anything!"
"No!" cried a voice.
They looked and saw a man huddled behind a turned over lab table.
"Please don't! They want the Eye of Harmony!" he yelled.
"I have to!" the Doctor said pulling out his sonic screwdriver. He pushed the button and the particle collider increased it's beam. The radiation shifted around the force field, contracted then disappeared. It send a pulse of energy that knocked everyone off their feet.
Clara groaned in pain as she pulled herself up,
"That thing could have killed us."
"Hopefully the lingering radiation won't." the Eleventh Doctor panted.
"What?" Amy asked concerned.
"No! No!" the man cried.
"Dr. Dreckmeyer it's over! It's gone!" the Doctor told him out of breath.
"No, you don't understand! They've got my wife! They'll kill her if I don't give them an Eye of Harmony!" Dr. Dreckmeyer sobbed. The Doctor shared a troubled glance with his companions.
"There's Taggart's truck." Jack said parking behind the large, custom made all terrain vehicle. He, the Tenth Doctor and Rose got out, seeing no sign of the wacky Australian scientist. Rose saw that besides the two lane highway and the 'Welcome to Eureka' sign, there was nothing else but the North Pacific redwoods around them.
"He's got to be here somewhere." Rose said.
"Taggart!" Jack called.
"Dr. Taggart!" Rose cried.
"Taggart!" Ten called as they started into the woods. Hearing nothing but their calls and the crunch of leaves underfoot, Rose walked off a bit away from Jack and the Doctor, when she spotted a backpack on the ground. She started to pick it up when she noticed a figure behind a bush.
"Doctor! Jack! Over here!" Rose called. The two men rushed over to Rose's side.
"Found him." Rose said pointing to the figure. Jack looked and saw Taggart frozen in spot, looking out through a bush which was also frozen.
"Ah Taggart..." Jack sighed.
Ten grabbed Rose's hand when she started to reach for the backpack again.
"Careful. The temporal effects are spreading. Anything Taggart could have touched might be affected." He told her.
"I better call Henry." Jack said dialing the number.
Back at GD, Rory was helping Henry check Jo, Zoe's and Zane's vitals. Henry had called his wife Grace in to help Trent, Holly and Fargo figure out how to fix the EM shield while Allison was running interference against the DOD. Henry answered his phone and answered,
"Hello?"
"Henry its Jack. We found Taggart. He's frozen in time like the others." Jack told him having put his phone on speaker.
"Probably because he's so close to the EM Shield. Can you check it to see if it's showing any signs of damage?" Henry asked.
"Sure hang on. Here Doctor, hold this." Jack said handing the phone to the Doctor and walking back towards the road.
"Jack wait!" Henry said. But it was too late. Just as Jack reached the town border, he got zapped like a bug in a bug zapper. The EM Shield being more electric than magnetic at the moment.
"Whoa! Gah! " he cried, shaking off the effects.
"Jack touched the EM shield didn't he?" Henry asked, amusement fighting with his concern.
"Yup. How'd you know?" The Tenth Doctor asked watching the Sheriff hop around and try to recover.
"I know Jack. I meant for you to use your sonic screwdriver to get a reading." Henry chuckled. Then he furrowed his brow as he heard Rose ask,
"Jack are you alright?"
"Yeah...fine." Jack nodded.
"Wait a minute. Doctor is he okay?" Henry asked.
"His heart might be racing a bit, but yeah. Right as rain." The Doctor shrugged.
"That's odd. If Jack touched the EM Shield while it's being affected by temporal particles, why isn't he frozen in spacetime like Taggart?" Henry asked.
The Doctor considered it,
"Good question. But I'd rather not risk getting frozen myself to find out. I think we'd better head back."
"Henry. You need to send a team to get Taggart." Jack said taking his phone back.
"Right. Have you heard from Andy yet?" Henry asked.
"Not yet. I'm going to head back to the station, see if he's there. If not we'll head over to the Dreckmeyer house." Jack said.
"Okay see you soon." Henry said before Jack hung up. They climbed back in the jeep, but no sooner had they driven into town than did Vincent wave them down.
"Hey Vincent. What's wrong?" Jack asked rolling down the window.
"You tell me Sheriff. Look!" Vincent said pointing to the street. They looked and saw a crowd of concerned people instead of Whovians having fun. Jack and the Doctor got out of the jeep and Jack noticed an oak leaf was frozen in midair before him. Then he, Rose and the Doctor made their way through the crowd where they saw a young girl in a Sixth Doctor costume frozen in place as she blew TARDIS shaped bubbles.
"It's starting to spread." Rose said.
"Sheriff what's going on?" Vincent asked, worrying his hands. More questions of a similar nature were launched at them, with some people asking the Doctor,
"Please Doctor! Save us!"
"Save us Doctor."
"Help us Doctor."
"Okay okay, folks! Get to the bunkers." Jack ordered. The crowd dispersed, willing to listen to the Sheriff that had saved them so many times, and hopeful that their childhood hero the Doctor would help him.
"Come on. Let's get to the station. I'll call Henry from there." Jack told them. They began to walk towards the station and Rose noticed the troubled look on the Doctor's face.
She grabbed his hand and told him,
"Hey. Don't worry. You'll figure this out."
"I hope so. Did you see the look on their faces? Usually I'm the one trying to convince people I can save them. I'm not used to a whole town believing in me. I don't want to let them down." The Tenth Doctor confided as they entered the station. Jack stopped short seeing a woman in a tattered blue dress sitting Indian style on the cot in his jail cell, eyes closed in meditation.
"What the...?" Jack said.
The woman opened her eyes and exclaimed,
"Thief! You're my Thief! The Skinny one, not the Chinney one. Look at you! Goodbye! No, not goodbye, what's the other one?"
"Who are you and why are you in there?" Jack asked as the woman stood, face between the bars.
"Uncle and Auntie put me in here. Or did they do that already? Didn't? Tenses are difficult aren't they?" The brunette replied, ignoring his first question.
"Right...Andy probably put her in there. Public intoxication or something. I need to check my messages." Jack said going to the phone.
The Doctor looked back at the woman with a curious frown before looking back at Rose who said,
"Doctor tell me. How bad is it?"
"Honesty? End of the universe bad." The Doctor sighed.
"That won't happen." The woman added shaking her head.
"Why?" Rose asked.
"Because my Skinny Thief and the Chinney Thief will help the Peacekeeper find the truth." The woman said.
"The Peacekeeper? What do you know about the Peacekeeper?" The Doctor demanded.
"No messages from Andy. I'll call him after I call Henry. What's up with her?" Jack asked Rose as he dialed another number.
"She says she knows something about the Peacekeeper." Rose said.
"Who are you?" The Doctor demanded.
"Well the Whovians call me Idris, but actually I'm...oh shoot! What do you call me?" The woman called Idris asked herself in frustration.
"I could think of a few descriptions right now." The Doctor said.
"Do you not know me? Just because they put me in here?" Idris asked.
"I'm sure Deputy Andy had a good reason for putting you in there." Rose said.
"Not in the cage, Pink and Yellow Girl. Or are you Bad Wolf? Were Bad Wolf? Are going to be Bad Wolf?" Idris asked confused.
"Sheriff is anyone in town testing any new types of drugs?" The Doctor asked in a stage whisper.
"Wouldn't be surprised." Jack said redialing since he got Henry's voicemail.
Idris tried again,
"Oh that's right. You're my Skinny Thief. I had met my Chinney Thief. You came before Chin. You wouldn't know me, would you? They put me in here. This body. I'm the... Oh, what do you call me? We travel. I go..."
Then to their shock the woman made the sound of the TARDIS taking off in flight.
Eyes wide, the Doctor muttered meekly,
"What?"
"Holy...smokes! How'd she do that?" Jack asked.
"The TARDIS?" Rose asked.
"Time And Relative Dimension In Space. Yes, that's it. Names are funny. It's me! I'm the TARDIS." Idris beamed.
"No. You're not! You're a barmy, mad lady. The TARDIS is up and downy stuff in a big blue box." The Doctor denied.
"Yes, that's me. A type 40 TARDIS. I was already a museum piece, when you were young, and the first time you touched my console you said..." Idris said.
"I said you were the most beautiful thing I had ever known..." The Doctor interrupted, realization dawning on him.
"And then you stole me. And I stole you." Idris smiled.
"I borrowed you." The Doctor corrected.
"Borrowing implies the eventual intention to return the thing that was taken. What makes you think I would ever give you back?" Idris purred.
"You're the TARDIS?" The Doctor asked.
"Yes."
"My TARDIS?" The Doctor asked again in disbelief.
"My Doctor. I believe you call me...Sexy." Idris smirked.
"Only...in...private..." The Doctor muttered with a blush.
"Jack? Jack are you there?" Henry's voice came from the other end of the phone.
Having forgotten his reason for holding the receiver to his ear, Jack said,
"Henry...was there an episode of Doctor Who where the TARDIS turned human?"
"Uh...yeah. It was part of the first half of series seven with the Eleventh Doctor. It was called, 'The Doctor's Wife'. Why do you ask?" Henry asked.
Looking up at Idris again, Jack shook his head,
"No reason."