The Doctor watched as the centrifuge spun, mixing the cure for the radiation poisoning into an almost fluorescent green liquid.

The Doctor took the vial, looking it over, before tossing it to Dana. "There you go. Should do the trick. I should warn you, though, it might be a bit… blegh. Out of sugar lumps."

"Eugh." Dana grimaced, looking at the substance. "Is that witch's brew really going to fix me?"

The Doctor made little x motions over both sides of his chest. "Cross my hearts."

Dana shook her head, but popped the top off the vial, throwing the substance back, before shuddering. She would say the stuff tasted like cough syrup, but not even cough syrup tasted that bad.

"Yeah," The Doctor chuckled. "It's got a bit of a kick. That's the sea worm extract."

"Sea… worms?" El gagged.

"The Doctor's patented Vortron Radiation Elixir and Hangover Cure." The Time Lord said, letting out a wistful sigh. "I could've retired comfortably and lived off the royalties… but I blew it all on cricket gear. Oh, by the way, you may grow hair on the palms of your hands. Just a warning. But, before that happens, I need your help, Dana."

The woman, bent over and still gagging, looked up. "With what?"

"Vortron Radiation doesn't exist naturally in the universe." The Doctor explained. "It's a byproduct of seven-dimensional space intersecting with our normal plane of existence, usually after some sort of teleportation event."

El looked to the Doctor. "The flash of light two days ago."

Dana looked between them. "You two aren't serious?"

"We're serious." El replied.

Dana looked to the Time Lord. "Just what sort of a doctor are you?"

"The original." The Time Lord replied. "But never mind that. Does Poseidon have any sort of external scanning equipment?"

"Of course." Dana replied. "Here."


Dana led the two of them up to the upper level of the command centre, to the large terminal with one of Jones's optics installed on it. Activating the scanners, the three waited for the result to come back.

The woman's eyebrows shot up, looking at the feed from across the ocean. "That's the source of the radiation?"

The Doctor nodded seriously, looking at the picture.

"But… it's a ship." El said, eyebrows furrowing as she looked to the Doctor. "A broken ship."

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, Ellie darling." The Doctor tapped the screen. "That, is the shipwreck of a very famous ship… the USS Eldridge."

The girl blinked. "I don't know what that is."

"I should've known what it was as soon as Jones mentioned the seismographs." The Doctor shook his head. "She said they were consistent with an object of approximately one-thousand tons hitting the ocean floor. I thought it might've been a spaceship… but the weight is consistent with the weight of a United States Cannon-class destroyer."

"Okay." El shrugged. "But what makes it so important?"

"You weren't the only secret project the United States government undertook…" The Doctor began, as if regaling her with a fairy tale. "The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, the 28th of October 1943. Project Rainbow. The people in charge of the project believed they could utilize Albert Einstein's Unified Field Theory to make their warships invisible. Undetectable to everything. Instead… they break the laws of trans dimensional physics. In the span of," The Doctor snapped his fingers, "A second, the ship is stretched across five-hundred different parallel universes, existing simultaneously at every single point in between them all at the same time, before the ship starts bouncing all around space and time, before it snaps back to its proper place. Every single man aboard is either killed… or goes insane from experiencing it."

"So…" Dana looked to the Time Lord. "What's it doing out there on the seabed?"

"See, the entire event was written off as a hoax. Because it was. The ship and her crew were perfectly fine, no such Project Rainbow ever existed, and the ship continued its service before being given over to the Greeks in 1951. But, at the same time… the experiment did happen. See, what the people in charge of the experiment didn't realize was… They'd accidentally invented a TARDIS."

El gasped at that.

"The Time Lords tried to step in, to send the ship back to its origin point," The Doctor continued. "But, they'd lost it. Had no idea where or when it ended up. So, what they did instead, was take a version of the ship from slightly earlier in its timeline, duplicated it, and plopped it back down, fiddling with the memories of everyone involved so they wouldn't try recreating the experiment. This is what we're looking at." The Time Lord pointed at the screen. "The original Eldridge…"

"And it's responsible for bringing the Vashta Nerada and that shark thing through." El pieced together.

"Exactly." The Doctor pointed. "Meaning we have to figure out a way to undo it."

A loud pressure seal hissed overhead, mechanical clamps ringing throughout the command center.

The Doctor and Dana looked at each other, knowing exactly who was responsible.

"He's going ahead with it… Those aren't life pods your friends will be getting into, they're coffins." He turned to El. "Come on," He led her down the steps, towards the access door to the back. "We have to stop this."

The door slid open, and the Doctor stopped, as Oswald stood on the other side, holding a harpoon gun.

"…Ah." The Time Lord blinked.


"I don't like this, Doctor." Oswald apologized to the Time Lord tied to the railing in the command centre. "But getting these people, getting Dana, to safety. That is my top priority. Which means I can't have you interfere."

"Oswald," Dana pleaded, "He says the life pods aren't safe, you have to listen to him!"

"I've been careful, Dana," Oswald replied. "Believe me. This way, at least we have a chance."

"He's right, Dana." The Doctor softly spoke up, nodding. "It's a chance."

El looked to her side, to the Time Lord. "Dad?"

"Go with him." The Doctor told Dana. "He wants to keep you safe."

Dana nodded slightly, as she turned around, Oswald leading the way.

"I'll be back to get you, Doctor." The man informed the Time Lord, leading Dana out of the command centre.

El looked to the Doctor inquisitively. "Okay, talk. You told me not to hurt him, you have a plan?"

"Course I have a plan." The Doctor replied. "I needed him to get out of here as fast as possible so I could do this." He suddenly held up his hands, completely free of the bindings.

"How-?" El asked.

"Taught Houdini that one." The Time Lord boasted, as he helped El free herself. "Come on, we need to get to the TARDIS, quickly."

"The TARDIS?" El repeated. "You know there's water in the way, right?"

"Ah." The Doctor held up a finger, flashing a knowing smile, as he walked over to Jones's terminal in the command center. "Jones. Could you bring up a map of the service tunnels, please?"

The computer beeped, as a wireframe layout appeared on the nearby screen. "Watertight service trenches run beneath Poseidon." Jones explained, sections of the tunnel network lighting up in the path the Doctor and El needed to take. "Although seabed tunnels connecting with your craft's sealed location have been destroyed, access is achievable."

The Doctor turned to El, smiling. "Duct-crawling… my favorite pastime."


The Doctor pushed up the access hatch, popping his head out, looking around. His eyes fell on the blue box, windows and signage glowing a cool white, and he smiled.

"Well done, Jones."


The TARDIS materialized, slightly clouded by murky water, engines muffled by the countless tons of liquid in the way. The ship fully solidified, and the moment it did, all the water inside the USS Eldridge was effortlessly displaced.

The door swung open, the Doctor stepping out onto the metal deck first, "Smells a bit stale. Tastes of engine oil and halibut, but it'll do. Come along, El."

The girl frowned as she stepped out. "It's sunk… so why is there air in here?"

"Function of the TARDIS." The Doctor replied. "Right, now, the Eldridge's Time Rotor must still be partially active. Well, they didn't call it that, but if it talks like a duck and walks like a duck." He shrugged. "In any case, deactivating it should cause the Zaralok and the Vashta Nerada to snap back to wherever they came from." He motioned for the girl to follow as he began to walk.

Something screeched, and El looked around fearfully. "What was that?"

"Speaking of the Zaralok…" The Doctor jerked his thumb to a porthole. "Don't worry, he can't see us. Porthole's too small. He probably just doesn't want to head back home. Not much in Earth's oceans bigger than him. Top of the food chain here."

"But, I don't get it." El said. "How is turning off the Time Rotor in here going to send them all back?"

"Well, I'm willing to bet that the Vashta Nerada and the Zaralok didn't go below deck." The Doctor replied. "See, the Time Lords knew what they were doing when they were creating the first TARDISes, but this lot here had no idea what they were doing. Op, hold on." The Doctor hefted El up, running in time with flashing lights. Safely on the other side, he let her down. "Get that door, if you could?"

The girl nodded, and lifted up the plate metal door, allowing them to continue.

"Hold on." The Doctor stopped her once they were on the other side. "Hear that?" He asked, heavy footfalls in the distance.

They looked, watching, as two skeletons wearing WWII-era diving suits limped around the room aimlessly, searching for food that hadn't been there for a long time.

"Fortunately enough, this is the bilge pump room…" The Doctor smiled, turning to El. "Think you can push them in there?"

The girl nodded, and her hand shot out, the two diving suits being propelled through the air, into the room. Using her powers to hit the button by the side, the doors came down to seal the bilge pump, as water filled it, before the hatch on the bottom opened, draining the water inside, taking the suits with it.

"Nice work." The Doctor complimented. "Now, where was I…? Ah. See, the particular type of physics that this sort of technology works with is all sorts of wonky. In a properly constructed capsule, it wouldn't be a problem… but again, the people in charge of the experiment had no idea what would happen."

"So, what did happen?" El asked. "And how does that explain how we send it back?"

"Haven't you noticed, yet?" The Doctor replied. "Aside from those two… we haven't come across any bodies yet."

El looked around. The Doctor was right, the ship was empty.

"It's a classic case of a temporal switch around caused by an improperly-mounted Time Rotor still being active." The Doctor shook his head. "To put it in the simplest terms I can, imagine that the Zaralok and the Vashta Nerada are surrounded in energy, and the people from here on the Eldridge are surrounded in energy too. " He began, climbing up a ladder. "They both have different kinds, however, unique to each world they come from, and that energy wants to go back to its proper place. The Time Rotor, which is still somewhat active, is currently interfering with that energy from going back, so all we have to do is shut it off, and everything snaps back into place. Understand?"

"Yes." El nodded.

"Good, cause it's absolutely nothing like that." The Doctor said. "But I don't have the time to talk to you about string theory and its ramifications. Ah," He looked around upon reaching the top of the ladder, "Now we're getting somewhere."

"Where are we?" El asked, looking around.

"The engine room, I think, and if you look up there…" The Doctor pointed to a green box made out of corrugated steel, faintly emitting a scraping noise not dissimilar to the TARDIS's engines.

"The Time Rotor."

"Humans. You try to make something invisible and you make one of the most powerful time traveling devices in the known universe." The Doctor shook his head. "Hm… here, climb up."

"Why?" El questioned, as she nevertheless climbed on the Doctor's back once more.

"Because I hear electricity crackling, I have rubber soles, and you don't."

El frowned. "Rubber soles…"

"Yep. Now, what was I talking about…? Oh, right." The Doctor got back on track as he carried her up the stairs. "Then again… you lot were trying to make a substance to make people immortal and wound up with gunpowder so I shouldn't be surprised at this point. Steam valve." He pointed to it and the steam leaking out of the pipe ahead. "Mind getting that?"

The girl nodded, and without lifting her hand, began to turn the wheel as she and the Doctor continued through the now clear air, up the steps. Steam hissed, stopping and starting haphazardly, the Doctor waiting for the safe points. Eventually, they started approaching the top, arcs of green electricity coming from the Time Rotor into the staircase.

"Ah, see?" The Doctor pointed out as they cleared the top.

El looked to her left and gulped. "Dad… The Zaralok's back."

"Oh for crying out loud, can't I have a peaceful piggyback ride with my daughter for once!?" The Time Lord grumbled, running across the deck to the control system for the Eldridge's Time Rotor.

Grabbing and pulling down the lever on the far left, El leaned over and pulled down the middle, before she pulled the final one down with her mind.

The Zaralok, about to crash into the window, suddenly vanished in a flash of light, as that same flash took over the inside of the Eldridge.

The bodies of the human crew, long, long dead, were now back in their proper places.

The Philadelphia Experiment could finally rest.


The Doctor stood, hands clapped satisfactorily behind his back, stood in Poseidon's command centre, as he watched the life pods shoot up through the water, bubbles trailing behind them, as they approached the surface.

"Look at them go…" The Time Lord smiled. "I daresay daylight never looked so good."

El nodded in agreement, looking to Dana and Oswald. "What about you two?"

"We'll take the next pod." Dana answered. "Oswald is responding well to your meds, but the pods' SOS beacons will bring a medical ship. We need to get everybody checked out."

"Well, in any event, you shouldn't have to worry about the Vortron radiation anymore." The Doctor informed. "Shutting down the Time Rotor on board the Eldridge stopped the dimensional intersection causing it."

"I'm… sorry, Doctor." Oswald apologized. "I acted like an idiot. The moment you shut that thing down, we saw the Vashta Nerada vanish out of the life pods. You saved our skins. Really."

"Well, I couldn't just leave you sitting in the dark, could I?" The Doctor replied.

"I do have a question, though…" Oswald began. "What will happen to the Eldridge now?"

"I've already taken to removing the Time Rotor myself." The Doctor replied. "The wreckage itself, well… I'll leave that to you lot."

"I see." Oswald nodded. "Doctor… whoever you are, wherever you come from… thank you. We owe you everything. In fact… we've just had our harvest. We would be honored if you could join us for Christmas dinner."

"Mmm…" El's stomach growled. "Hungry. What are we having?"

"Oswald's prize crop." Dana answered.

"Oh, marvelous!" The Doctor clapped. "What's that then?"

"Sea pumpkins." Oswald answered.

"Sea… pumpkins?" El repeated.

"You'll love them." Oswald promised, turning to walk down the steps as El and the Doctor looked at each other.

The two time travelers made out of there faster than even the TARDIS could carry them.