SCARS
TWENTYONE
"So… Tell me, Norman, what exactly are you?"
"What do you mean, Doctor?"
"You have permitted me – most graciously, I might add – to understand something about those who came before you and who then left you behind. And I appreciate that, I really do. But now I'm curious, what exactly did they leave behind? Tell me about yourself, Norman."
"I am like something you have never seen before, Doctor."
The Doctor chuckled. "Oh… I find that a bit difficult to believe. I've been around, Norman. Not much surprises these old eyes any more. So what are you? Some kind of highly advanced artificial intelligence? The fabrication of a gigantic and very smart machine churning and whirling away somewhere or another? A machine tucked deep within the core of the system's central star, or maybe scattered among its myriad orbiting satellites?"
"No, Doctor, I am not that. I am none of those things. Or perhaps to be more accurate, that does not come close to describing me."
"Well, then, enlighten me, Norman. I live to learn! Well, that's one of the reasons I live, there are many other reasons, to be sure, but a big one – a huge one – and one of my personal favorites, is to learn. Learn everything I can. I'm all ears, Norman… Blimey! That better describes my previous regeneration than my current one, but you get my drift. Spit it out! What are you? Animal, vegetable or mineral? Soldier or saint? Devil or angel? What are you and where do you live and how do you know what you know?"
Norman appeared to consider something for a brief time. Then, having come to some sort of conclusion, he nodded. "I am everything and nothing. I am everywhere and nowhere. If I exist at all, I exist in the parts of space and time you do not see, do not even know about."
"Eh, what? Subspace? The Void? Dark matter? Pure energy? Alternate universe?"
"No, Doctor. Again… nothing like that."
"Oh, Jack would love this! You are so enigmatic! Have I told you about Jack? He loves the enigmatic. The more enigmatic the better! I myself don't mind it so much either, but be that as it may, can you perhaps be a little less cryptic?"
"I exist solely in the minds of those who created me. I am the sum total of all of them, Doctor, a vast network – a kind of virtual neural web that links together all those from the four races who have ever existed, and those who exist even now as we speak, exist in the realms of the unknowable and unseeable. I am a mere part, a small piece, but an integral piece, of what they are yet to become and what they are at present and what they have been in the deep, distant past. When they left me behind, they also left fragments of themselves behind as well – fragments yet nonetheless replete fragments. They left everything of themselves. I am each of them separately and all of them together.
"I can be many different things, an enforcer, a dictator, a comrade, a warrior, an enabler, a slave, a leader, a conqueror, a teacher, a savior. I can be all the things that those who created me ever were, ever possibly may come to be. I can be all those things and, yes, I can be even more. But… but, I was specifically created to watch. That is my essence, my purpose. I am the eyes of those who forged me. I am their surrogate. Their proxy. I am their caretaker, their placeholder. And I am their protector. I protect them. I protect myself. I protect their history, their future. I protect that which they left behind. I stand watch and protect everything."
The Doctor's eyes narrowed, "So when I'm talking to you, I'm actually talking to…"
Norman, for the first time, smiled. It was a wolfish grin. "Now you have it, Doctor."
"But then, why the charade, Norman? Why the whole silly I am not programmed to respond in that area routine?"
The hologram (and is it really a hologram or just what they've chosen to show me? The Doctor idly wondered) shrugged. "They… we… had become perhaps a bit too complacent. A bit too comfortable, even restful. We weren't actually asleep, but we were otherwise occupied, not paying as close attention as we should've been to the physical realm we'd left behind. Mea culpa, Doctor."
"Don't feel badly, nothing new there, Norman. It's hard to get everything right all the time. Nevertheless… let me get this straight. Along with all the other existential stuff, you're telling me you're not perfect?"
"No civilization, no race, no single being is perfect Doctor."
"Oi! I take that personally!" The Doctor laughed, and then stood up. "And now we come to the crux of the matter, Norman. What changed? What made you sit up and take notice? More importantly, why did you let us – Jack and me – in? Where no one else had gone before?"
"We let you in because of who you are."
"Ah! You mean me? A Time Lord? A Time Lord from Gallifrey?"
Norman shook his head. "Actually it is your traveling companion…"
"Jack?"
"Yes, Jack."
For the briefest time a look of puzzlement crossed the Time Lord's face. "Wait. What? You believed he was a threat?"
"That is true. There was something about your companion that threatened us at first. We admit, though, that our initial impression was incorrect. Again we do not imply that we are perfect. It took some time to evaluate him. He is…"
"Impossible!" The Doctor interrupted Norman smugly. "You're going to say he is impossible aren't you?"
"We were going to say unique."
"Right, close enough. He likes being called impossible but unique will probably work, too."
"In truth it would appear that he likes to be called neither."
"Ah, I see." The Time Lord's expression turned hard. "Are you talking with him as well right now?"
There was no response so after a few moments The Doctor continued, though his cheerful tone of voice had been replaced by one far more serious.
"You're right. Jack is special. He is…" The Lord of Time inhaled sharply as his mind wandered through myriad images of his friend Jack Harkness. He chose his subsequent words with infinite, painstaking care, "…worth protecting."
"Initially we were quite intrigued by Jack. This we've already explained. But as we roused ourselves we came to understand what he is – his importance to this and to other realms. You are correct, he is indeed worth protecting. Our initial sense of curiosity has transformed into determined concern and apprehension. As we become more and more aware of the recent events involving your companion and you, we cannot help but notice things are not as they should be."
The Doctor scowled, "Things? What do you mean things?"
"We now see, we now understand. The loss, the destruction of your people has left open in spacetime a gaping wound. A wound that is about to become infected by a most unwelcome contagion. As you say, there is a vacuum – a terrible emptiness left behind by the elimination of the Time Lords, and manifest wickedness now readies itself to sate that vacuum. Darkness descends upon the countless named and unnamed worlds. The legions of evil have amassed, Doctor, and they are focusing solely upon a single, unique, impossible individual. They are focusing precisely and utterly upon your friend and companion, Captain Jack Harkness."