Chapter 4 – Doctor Oswald
Clara hurried back to the underpass as quickly as she could. The community service patrol seemed to be determined to cover the mural over which could potentially destroy any evidence. Fortunately when she arrived the tunnel was deserted expect for Rigsy and Nova. The two teens had removed the posters from the wall and were furiously scrubbing the walls down in preparation for their new coat of paint. The teacher fiddled nervously with her ear, reminding herself of the earpiece latched onto her central nervous system, "When we get out of here, you're taking this thing out of me", she whispered to herself.
"One thing at a time Clara", the Doctor replied, a little calmer than earlier, "try to keep your head still, I can't get a good look at the walls".
"Everyone's a critic", Clara grumbled and slowly dropped down the stairs towards the tunnel. The teens from earlier were at the far end of the underpass and she wanted to avoid dragging them into this situation if possible. Whatever was in the city had the power to distort the TARDIS, that alone was enough to make it dangerous. More importantly she didn't want to get them in trouble with the Police. They seemed like good kids, if a little reckless and misguided in their attempts to create something artistic.
Clara stepped into the tunnel, focusing on the shadowy figures on the wall. The same uneasy feeling washed over Clara again, like these paintings were somehow watching her, "Can we hurry this up", she said through the earpiece, "something is seriously wrong here".
"I know, I'm feeling it too", Clara suddenly hear Jenny's voice from inside her bag. She peeked inside and saw the TARDIS, now propped up on its side with the door open and Jenny's face filling the gap. "It's like the walls are watching us, I've never felt anything like this before", the red head continued.
"TARDIS isn't detecting anything unusual", the Doctor added, "try the sonic Clara, use setting 461 it's a wide arcing scan program. The TARDIS is still low on power so it could be missing something important". The teacher fumbled around in her bag until she found the slender metal tube. She wasn't completely sure how to use the device, other than point it at something and push the button. There were a few tiny buttons and knobs along the shaft so she twisted them, hoping her intent would help her calibrate it properly. Pointing the tube at the wall, a gentle humming and bright amber light pulsed out the tip, "That's setting 361", the Time Lady's voice said through the earpiece, "great for cauterising flesh wounds, not so good on concrete".
"Perhaps if you told me how to use the damn thing we wouldn't have this problem", Clara spat back irritably. How was she supposed to know what all the little knobs, buttons and twisty bits did?
"Turn the barrel clockwise until you feel it click", Jenny offered once again trying to act as peace maker between the pair.
Clara did as instructed and resumed her scan of the wall, "See that wasn't too hard was it?" she said sarcastically.
"Forgive this old woman for forgetting a few things once in a while", came the Time Lady's dry response. Clara chose not to escalate the argument further, with the Time Ladies stuck in the TARDIS they would need to work as a team to get out of here. She waived the sonic device over the wall and then switched to the other side. The Doctor hadn't told her to stop or offered any further advice so the brunette assumed she was doing something right. It didn't stop her from feeling like a total idiot though, waiving a small metal tube up and down a wall.
After a minute or so of arm waiving, the Doctor finally spoke again, "Interesting, it's like the dimensions are getting distorted around this tunnel".
"Dimensions, as in parallel worlds, like the one we found in a stationary cupboard in my school?" Clara asked. The memory of getting sucked into a hell dimension was still a little raw and it only made her more nervous of this tunnel.
"No not those types of dimensions", the Time Lady corrected, "but physical dimensions. Think about this you live in a three dimensional world, everything has length, width and most importantly depth. A painting on a wall only has two dimensions, length and width", there was a brief pause in the Doctor's lecture before she added, "expect for these ones, something very strange is happening with these paintings. It's like they've blurred the lines between the second and third dimension".
Clara understood the Time Lady's explanation but the most concerning thing was the lack of cause for this event. Nothing she had encountered in her months of travelling could explain this phenomenon and by the sounds of it, the Doctor didn't have an explanation either, "Is it safe in here?" she asked softly, "should we cordon off the tunnel".
Another pause, Clara didn't like it when the Doctor didn't reply straight away. That either meant she didn't know the answer or she was thinking up a lie in an attempt to reassure her. "I'm not sure, the TARDIS is taking too long to calculate".
Not overly reassured by the answer, Clara backed slowly out of the tunnel and back into daylight. Even if they did have to block off the tunnel, did she have the authority to do that. It didn't seem like Fenton the council worker would want to take her word for it. Maybe the psychic paper would come in handy, assuming the Doctor could get enough power into the TARDIS to complete whatever calculations it needed to do.
Clara was broken out of her thought by some approaching footsteps. She cursed her luck, the sound of the sonic must've attracted the attention of Rigsy and Nova, "You came back then", the girl spoke up, "any luck with those missing people?"
"Don't tell them anything Clara", the Time Lady snapped in her ear, "I still have no idea what's causing this".
The teacher scratched her ear, attempting to drown out the annoying voice in her ear, "Working on it", she offered as a response, "where's everyone else?"
"Tea break", Rigsy replied, "how can you be working on it, there's only one of you?"
"Yeah come to think of it, you never told us who you were", Nova chipped in.
Clara cursed her luck, this must be how the Doctor felt every time someone crossed her path during an investigation. Suddenly a thought crossed her mind, maybe she should act the way the Time Lady would in this type of situation. After all she had some knowledge of aliens, coupled with the sonic screwdriver and the right attitude she could pull this off. She put on her most determined look and said confidently, "I'm the Doctor".
"Clara don't you dare", the Time Lady hissed in her ear.
Ignoring the indignant Time Lady, Clara continued, "Doctor Oswald but you can call me Clara", she added with a flourish of the sonic screwdriver.
She watched in anticipation as the two teens glanced nervously at each other, "So Doctor Oswald", Nova began, "what exactly are you a Doctor of?"
"Of lies", came the Doctor's annoyed grunt in Clara's ear.
"Well I'm usually pretty vague about that point", Clara shrugged, "I think I picked the title because it makes me sound important".
Inside the dimly lit TARDIS, Jenny watched as her mother banged her head in frustration against the console surface, "Can you believe that, she's trying to pass herself off as me", the Doctor huffed, "that must be against the rules of the universe".
"I dunno, she doing a good job of it so far", Jenny shrugged as she observed Clara talking with the teens, "if I was an impressionable human I'd believe her". The older Time Lady was continuing to grip the console tightly, grinding her teeth at Clara's impersonation, "Come on let her have her moment, what harm can it do?"
Reluctantly the Doctor appeared to agree with her daughter, "Fine, gang up on me", she pouted, "a human and a Time Lady with less than ninety years experience", she sulked as she flicked a couple of button on the console, "I didn't study at the Academy for nothing you know".
"I know Mother", Jenny attempted to soothe the Doctor's bruised ego. Given the size of the ego, that might take some time, "Any luck with the readings, maybe give Doctor Oswald something to work with".
The Doctor grumbled under her breath and turned her attention back to the scanner. The TARDIS was on emergency power reserves, making the job more strenuous that usual. "This is strange", the older Time Lady announced, pointing at a map on the screen, "there's a similar energy signature coming from a house in the city".
"So it's not just isolated to this tunnel then?" Jenny clarified, "full scale alien invasion?"
"But of what", the Doctor mused, tapping a finger against her chin, "creatures that can manipulate physical dimensions, that's a new one. If I wasn't stuck inside a failing TARDIS this would actually be exciting".
Jenny stiffened slightly at the term 'failing TARDIS'. She knew enough about the time ship to know it wasn't healthy but for the Doctor to admit that it was slowly dying, that suddenly made everything more real. The life support system was almost completely gone, if Clara was still onboard then there wouldn't be enough oxygen for her to breath. Only the Time Ladies respiratory bypass system allowed them to continue to function. Even that wouldn't last forever though, in a couple of hours there wouldn't be enough air for both of them.
The younger Time Lady came to a difficult decision, just at the same time her mother did, "I'll direct Clara to this address but maybe you should get out there too", the Doctor suggested, "the quicker this is dealt with, the better".
The red head knew exactly what the Doctor was doing, on the surface it looked like a simple instruction but really the older Time Lady was ensuring Jenny was safely away from the dying ship. "You could always come with me", Jenny flashed her Vortex Manipulator, "plenty of teleportation space for two?"
The Doctor reluctantly shook her head, "Can't do that, the TARDIS is so weak that you wouldn't be able to lock on to its signature to return". A grim look passed over the Time Lady's feature, "Besides the captain always goes down the ship".
Jenny held back her sadness, the Doctor had already made a difficult decision and it wouldn't do any good getting upset. There was always a chance they could reverse the process that the TARDIS had suffered, that had to be her main focus. She enveloped her mother in a tight hug, "Stay safe", she whispered in her ear.
"You too", the Doctor replied, sending reassuring feelings through their mental link, "now get out of here before I change my mind". Jenny resisted the urge to take her mother with her and quickly teleported out of the TARDIS.
Clara hadn't heard any of this conversation and was still chatting away to Nova and Rigsy. She had avoided mentioning aliens, that was a sure fire way of scaring the teens away. They seemed to be buying her 'Doctor' act, which did make her question why people trusted strangers so easily. Her musing on the human psyche was interrupted by the Doctor, "There's a similar energy signature at a property in Bewick Road. I've sent Jenny out to investigate, you can meet up with her there".
The school teacher tried not to let on that she was getting a message through her ear, although it was very tempting to snap back that she had no idea where that was. An encyclopaedic knowledge of the streets of Bristol wasn't something she possessed. Then she realised that there were two locals in her presence. She hadn't wanted to bring them onboard but without them, she might not be able to get to that address quickly enough, "Thanks for the chat but I really must be going, got to visit an address in Bewick Road". Dropping the name of the road into the conversation was a cheap trick. The teens knew that Clara wasn't local and she was dangling the bait in front of their noses.
"Hey that's not too far from me", Nova stated, "and since you're not local, you'll need a tour guide".
"Nova", Rigsy hissed, "you'll get put away for certain if you abandon the others".
Clara had to agree with the reluctant Rigsy but neither of these teens appeared to be the types to care about the authorities too much. "Look Rigs people are missing and if we can do our bit to help then we should. What better way to serve the community then finding its missing people".
Secretly Clara hoped that Rigsy could talk his friend out of this, she didn't want to be responsible for the safety of these two teens, "Alright fine but if Fenton asks, this was all my idea".
"Ain't he a sweetheart", Nova nudged Clara, drawing a blush from the male teen behind them, "come on, it's just over this way".
As Clara and the teen walked towards the road in question, the Doctor came over the earpiece, "You wanted to be me Clara, now you know how hard my life is". The school teacher couldn't help but agree, feeling the pressure of saving the TARDIS, the lives of the people of Bristol and the two teens who she appeared to have taken as her 'companions'. Suddenly pretending to be the Doctor didn't feel like a good idea at all.
A/N – So the BBC actually did it then, didn't think they'd have the stones to be honest. For the first time in a while there appears to be some buzz around Doctor Who. You probably know where I stand on the idea of a female Doctor and since you're reading this story I'm guessing you feel the same. Certainly has got my creative gears whirring...