I awoke to find myself sprawled on the floor near one of those giant cone things and machinery that Riversong had fixed in room 109.

I checked my pockets, and, to my surprise, my new toys were still there.

A hairy paw grabbed me by the hair, forcing me to my feet.

It was Glynus, brainwashed again, literally or figuratively.

I wished I still had that slug.

He pushed me forward, toward the cones.

"Wait," I said. And then I tried the little speech that worked on him last time. "You may think the Quarks are doing you a favor by extracting ores out of that planet, but they don't know the first thing about maintaining a good slave labor force. They just push everyone until they can't go on and then kill them when they can't get up. That's no way to maintain good production levels."

He eyed me with suspicion. "And where are you getting this information from?"

"Personal experience."

He frowned, muttering under his breath. At last, he said, "It's just too bad. You'll have to go along with the rest."

The Mulgam pushed me forward.

I offered him the cigarette case. "Want a gummy bear?"

Glynus gave me a dumb look. "What?"

"Uh, they're called Jelly Babies. Candy."

I opened the case, demonstrating by eating one.

Starch. Yummy.

Glynus tried one, then frowned.

"That's pretty much what I said," I joked.

I didn't know it at the time, but Clara had been watching me. Although apparently brainwashed or zombified somehow, my pointless activity caused her to scrunch up her face and stare at me like she were trying to solve an annoying riddle.

"Doc...tor," she stammered, as in a fog.

"That is not the Doctor," Riversong sighed, sounding like she were in a trance.

Clara said, "He has Jelly Babies and the same phone."

The two froze, gawking at me.

"And this!" I cried, whipping out the sonic screwdriver.

I pushed a button, and I heard a bunch of popping, crackling sounds.

A dozen Quarks suddenly appeared out of nowhere, sparking and popping as I held the button down.

Unfortunately, it seemed I only destroyed their cloaking devices, and when I pointed the screwdriver at one of these shiny creatures, it did nothing.

I twisted the ring and tried again.

This time, it made an ear splitting high pitched noise.

I would have experimented further, but at that point, a Quark grabbed me by the legs and flung me against a wall, over and over again.

I never actually wanted to know what it was like to be body slammed to death, but I got to find out anyway.

When I woke up on the floor near Captain Salty's again, my pockets were empty. It seemed this time warp was very selective about what changed and what didn't. Regardless, I wasted no time getting to business.

Jumping to my feet, I hurried down the hall to the Senator's table, giving him a smile.

"Hi," I said. "I'm the Doctor. Mind if I borrow that book?"

Tayari nodded and I took it.

Desiree waved me over to her table, but I had things to do, so I took her flipper and said, "You're doing a great job. I'm still working on stopping the Quarks. I'll let you know when I need help."

I kissed the flipper.

"You're gorgeous. I love you. Don't blow us up. I'm going to find something that does the job better."

And I ran off to Tayari's room.

The safe was easier to open this time around.

To my great relief, the little monitor inside was working again, and I saw the Doctor's face once more. I sighed in relief.

I noticed he sat in a room resembling my TARDIS. The colors and architecture were different, and it had a kind of carousel thing on the ceiling. I remembered they remodeled.

The man looked down at his watch. "Five minutes, thirty seconds. Excellent. Maybe you should be the one repairing the engines at Jixtibik 11."

I gawked at him. "This is a time loop! Everything's repeating! How is this possible?"

He smiled. "Mepatma. Lots of room for data. It's a little different than a DVD. It's more like one of those CD-ROM games. Decision tree and all that. Took some readings from alternate timelines, made a few educated guesses. It's a game. Of sorts.

"`IF he arrives at the room in five minutes and thirty seconds, THEN give him Speech B.' Etcetera. On a positive note, we were back where we were before, minus the severely damaged playback device."

He cleared his throat. "I must reiterate: No playing with the sonic screwdriver while I'm talking!"

I nodded. "Yes sir!"

He gave me a glum look like he'd much rather be there in person.

Then the Doctor waved his hands. "Ask away."

He said this before the statement that provoked this response even escaped my lips. Not that I minded or anything.

I continued my line of questioning.

"You said I made a video that sent children jumping off bridges."

"More or less," he shrugged. "One could argue the parental influence was absent, but nobody forgot the little dog on the computer screen, and the hopelessly pessimistic things that it said."

I swallowed.

"Great," I said. "You made me feel guilty for something I haven't even done."

"Time loops are unstable. So I would advise against it. What happens if she gets pregnant and time suddenly returns to normal?"

I could feel my ears burning. "What?"

He frowned at the screen. "Sorry. That was another one you don't ask yet."

I blushed even deeper. I didn't even want to ask.

The Doctor cleared his throat. "Haven't done yet."

I shook my head, getting steadily more embarrassed. "Done what?"

"You said I `made you feel guilty for something you haven't even done,' to which I reply, `haven't done yet'."

Oh.

So that explained that.

Kind of.

"I still don't get it. If I caused so much death with...my video...why let me have control over such a powerful spaceship?"

"The deaths weren't your fault. It kind of was, but the real problem was merely giving up hope. Giving up on life."

He waved his hands as if to say, "Tadaah!"

"A man giving up on hope doesn't risk his life trying to safe a few thousand intelligent lifeforms from being blown to bits. Giving up on life, maybe, but from what I've heard, those were merely accidents. Already you are making an excellent time lord."

"How are you getting all this information? You're dead! The phone isn't everywhere!"

"From the spirit realm," he grinned, twirling his fingers mystically.

"Just kidding. Time traveler. Comes with the territory. Just had to hack a few cameras on the ship, read a few books...from the future, and I told you about the phone already. You more than anyone, should understand how that kind of prescience works."

Suddenly the cel phone started ringing. I picked it up.

"Hello?" a female voice said. "Mom?"

I frowned. "No?"

"You are not taking a phone call in the middle of the most important conversation you'll ever have," the Doctor scolded, but I couldn't handle both things at once. She hadn't called me last time, so I thought it only fair.

I heard the start in her voice. "Who is this?"

"The...Doctor?" I managed to put a tone in my voice that said, "I'm puzzled that you don't know already."

The real Doctor smacked his face, looking embarrassed. He shook his head and disappeared from the monitor.

"Oh! That's right! Fabulous! Did you know there was a bunch of weird circuity stuff being hauled into room 109?"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm well aware of that."

"All right, Mr. Smarty Pants. What about the green frog thing in the egg?"

I frowned. "Frog in an egg?"

I glanced at the Doctor's little screen, but it now it only displayed snow.

"It's in the kitchen. Stuck on one of the counters. Nobody can seem to move it. People have just been working around it all day."

A chill ran down my back. If this was what I thought it was, the last thing I wanted to do was see it.

Still, it was in an egg. It was different.

I didn't want to see it, I had to see it.

"Uh, sure," I said. "Be down in a minute." And I pocketed the toys again. This time, I left the slug inside its box, saving it for a time when I needed it for a distraction.

The thought of looking at this egg was more interesting than my usual plans, so I hurried downstairs to the banquet hall. I supposed the bar had a kitchen as well, but the one she referred to sounded busier.

I would have gone in and taken a look at the place before, but I had avoided it the last dozen times due to the fear of being arrested. In fact, when I tried to pass through the door this time, I got stopped by mole man.

"Excuse me, sir," he said. "Employees only."

A light bulb went off in my head, and I flashed my new ID badge, hoping and praying he wouldn't notice it was nothing but a temporary boarding pass.

His eyes widened. "I assure you, sir, our facilities are sanitary and Acsigci compliant."

I fought down a laugh. Why was this guy confusing me with a health inspector?

I decided to go with it. "I'd (ahem) like to see that for myself."

With a grimace, he showed me in the kitchen.

The room was disappointingly mundane for a spaceship. Stainless steel counters, refrigerators and cooking implements. Spotless tile floors. Of course, the chefs looked bizarre, some guy with a head like a cactus with a hair net covering his entire head, a guy with a face that looked like the Eureeka puppet from Eureeka's Castle, a bunch of magenta faced people and a praying mantis thing busily chopping those rhubarb things that bite you when you pick them up.

Flames leapt from skillets tossing inedible looking food.

I frowned as I watched a man with a muzzle of a Jack Russell terrier putting something that didn't look like beef, pork or chicken into a lasagne.

"There he is!" I heard Clara cry.

I looked up and saw her standing beside a large pink and black glowing transparent egg.

I shuddered as I saw what lay at the bottom.

It was one of those one eyed frog things, possibly one created by my scary bearded friend with the turtle mask. I stared at it in stunned silence.

What was this thing?

Was it really a naked Quark?

Was this Quark prison?

Or did the creepy guy trap it there like a bug in a jar?

In fact, did he himself create this little mutant and stick it in a jar as a punishment for a real or imagined insult?

"Doctor?" Clara asked, interrupting my train of thought.

"I've seen this before," I said.

I reached for the egg, but then stopped, putting on my glasses.

We were surrounded.

The egg had guardians standing protectively at each side, tentacles braced to attack in the event of threatening motions.

I looked back and saw another row of Quarks lurking along the tables, a couple, to my surprise, busying themselves with meal preparation, pouring in suspicious looking chemicals.

Maybe it was good I never got to eat at the buffet.

"What's wrong?" Clara asked.

I handed her the glasses. "See for yourself."