The world solidified for her again. She could feel cooler air against her
legs and back. Her arms were slick and opening her eyes, she saw them
covered in orange blood. Her legs were wrapped around his waist and slowly
she lowered them to the ground. The sunlight was harsh after the black
night and dark green reeds. Against her pale skin, the blood was vibrant.
"Oh..." she whispered.
The Doctor grunted and tightened his arms and then set her down lightly on the ground.
They were in the arrival area on the Eye of Orion. She recognized that much from the columns and the gentle slope of grass beyond its perimeter. Everything was silent and calm except for the light birdsong overhead.
"Yes, well..." he hissed as her arms released him. "We've apparently arrived."
"Apparently...oh..." she responded, silencing as she turned away from him. Several women stood near the edge of the courtyard. They appeared to have stopped in the middle of a conversation. "Cripes," she groused, under her breath. She tried to adjust her clothes to cover herself. As she crossed her arm over chest, she spied the Doctor's blood.
"Rabbits!"
The Doctor had discreetly turned away from the ladies to adjust his cloth to cover more of his body. She winced as she spied the state of his body. Criss-crossed over the length of his back, the wounds were crossed hatch shallow wounds. All of them bled profusely. "Oh...Doc..."
"Where have you two..." Peri began, as Tegan opened the door. Immediately, Tegan was struck with the calm and cool summer vision her friend presented. Her dress was almost blindingly white in the sunlight and her cheeks were prettily rosy. The girl's eyes dropped from Tegan's face to take glance at her body. "Holy shit! Tegs, what happened? You're covered in mud...and is that blood?"
"Answering that will have to wait, Peri," Tegan confided. She reached out give her friend a tight hug that was returned with gusto. "Thanks for coming so quickly. Did you-"
"I told the head of the spa to bring a medical kit....but Tegan, you're covered in...is it the Doc's blood?"
Tegan turned from the door and walked back towards the bathroom. As she glanced down, she noticed that she had left muddy footprints in the plush white rug. At least she had made her mark, she thought ruefully. Peri padded after her. "Yes, it is..."
As they entered the brilliantly lit bathroom, Peri gasped: "Good grief..."
"Ah, good to see you again, Peri, I trust you're well," the Doctor muttered. He had his arm stretched over his back to reach his shoulder. Tegan came forward, tapped him and he lowered his arm with a wince. "I assure you: it's not as bad as it looks."
Tegan glanced at Peri who was shaking her head. "He's right for the most part. The wounds aren't deep at all; there are just a lot of them. And they like to bleed..."
"Yes, well...that was the purpose of the beating, Tegan," the Doctor muttered. She shook her head and leaned close to the wounds, gently teasing hemp fibers out with her finger tips, dabbing at the wounds as she did so. The bright, strong sunlight directed through the window helped her to see her quarry.
Peri covered her mouth and continued to shake her head. "Two days. You were gone two days..." she accused. She met Tegan's eyes. "What did you two do? You both look like you've been through the wringer and dragged through the mud..."
The Doctor answered, his back to his younger companion. "Did Tren reappear?" Tegan could see his eyes in the mirror in front of them, their blue irises dark from pain. He met her gaze and grimaced.
"He came back about two hours before you and Tegan did. He's been in the medical center ever since. Apparently they feel he has a sort of catatonic hysteria problem...he landed yelling about barbarians..." Peri shrugged. "I was more worried about why you weren't with him than about what was wrong with him. Other than being in shock, he appeared physically fine. Couldn't tell us anything about the two of you, though."
"Yeah," Tegan breathed. "That doesn't surprise me." She pulled a long fiber one of the Doctor's cuts and sighed. "I think that's it. Doc, that's all the fibers I can see. We'll just have to clean the cuts and get you a loose shirt..."
"Yes, Tegan." She smiled tightly at the tired tone he used. He turned and glanced fully at Peri as he drew on the shirt that Tegan had found. "You've had your vacation, I trust, Peri. You look well rested."
"Yeah, though I don't feel as relaxed now. What happened to you both? Doctor, you look like you've been whipped."
"I was," he muttered as he finished dressing. To Tegan's eyes, he seemingly dismissed the shocked look Peri gave him. "Now...we need to talk, you two..."
Tegan shook her head. She sat down on the bed and eyed her friend with disdain. "You're not going to rest and let yourself heal, are you?"
The Doctor frowned as he walked past Tegan to the bed. "Check my back in three hours, Tegan, it will be mostly healed. No, no...there's no time."
"But..." Tegan sighed. Her voice held an edge that Peri reacted to. The girl sat down on the bed with her and watched their friend painfully draw his suspenders over his shoulders. Tegan's hands balled in fists. Seeing him hurt always made her a little crazy, knowing he wasn't going to rest with injuries made her nearly boil with anger. "We're back on the Eye," she tried to point out to him. "We're safe."
"Ah, but our little friend here," he muttered, as he hefted the cylinder. "Our friend still needs to be investigated, researched, Tegan. It might be imperative for us to know what we have here. Granted, I think it's an errant civilization builder. And it came with an instruction manual in a language frighteningly similar to Gallifreyan. That means it could only come from one space faring place."
Tegan narrowed her eyes at the Doctor. "And that has you worried? What aren't you telling me?"
"Oh, Tegan," he sighed. He lifted his glance from the container to spear her with an exasperated look. "I don't always withhold knowledge."
"You don't?" Peri asked tightly.
The Doctor ignored the comment. "Yes, well...I'll have to do a little bit of research to be sure." He patted down the trousers and appeared lost when he came up with no spectacles. "But I do believe this object is from the outer reaches of the Universe, beyond the First Expanse...a collection of planets known as the Hydronian Federation."
"First....expanse?" Peri asked, joining Tegan on the bed. Tegan met her eyes and shook her head slowly. She didn't have a clue either.
"Well yes, Peri, you don't expect this to be the one and only Universe, do you?" he asked, his voice cracking on the final syllable. "No, no...the universe is rather like a worn rubber band, stretching and contracting, stretching and contracting into infinity."
"Or until the warranty runs out," Tegan breathed. The Doctor barely hesitated in his words.
"This Federation grew exponentially across a large percentage of the Universe in the First Expanse. Often destroying and then immediately rebuilding civilizations as they see fit on planets or forming society overnight in places where it was considered...improbable to do so. Hundreds of sentient species and some not so sentient called the Federation their...overlords, or creators, or worshipped them. It seemed that only the collapse of the First Expanse stopped them from continuing to cover the whole of the Universe..."
"Apparently? You mean you don't know?"
"No, Tegan," he sighed as he finished adjusting his clothes. "I don't know. The First Expanse is ancient history for even Gallifrey. And the expanse principles don't allow us to travel through the bottleneck into the first Expanse. We are confined by our era. Still, that is the information I remember..." he stopped and winced as though the thought were painful. "I'll have to look it up on the computer in the TARDIS for the complete facts."
"That doesn't help us here, Doctor," Peri stated. She patted the bed and frowned. "What are we talking about, by the way?"
"This." The Doctor held up the Gatherer and smiled. "Our little friend here. Tegan and I found this buried in Babylon."
"In the strangest of places," Tegan agreed. "And it was near obelisks that held several languages engraved on them."
"Like a Rosetta Stone," Peri said. Immediately Tegan smiled; she had forgotten that Peri's step father was an archeologist. Turning to the Doctor, Peri continued. "I don't know much about Babylon. It wasn't Howard's forte. Does it have religious connotations?"
"It shouldn't," the Doctor commented. He put the Gatherer down on the table and leaned over it. "And it shouldn't have been there at all! The job," he emphasized as he tapped the mattress near the object. "The task this is to do is to BUILD a civilization to prime it quickly for over lording. As far as I know, Earth was never involved in something like that. Additionally," he muttered. "Its presence in this Expanse means that the Hydronians are exerting their influence in this Expanse."
"It's not good," Tegan said, confirming what she said from the Doctor's gaze.
"They destroyed and created, created and destroyed in order to form societies proper for their purposes. In an area where society already exists, the presence of this object," he said, tapping near it again. "Holds no good missive for the population, Tegan."
"How does it work?" Tegan asked, sitting forward. "It's called the Gatherer. Bloody obvious to me that that means it gathers things. But why was it there...next to a temple? And why would the priest be talking in something like Ancient Gallifreyan?"
"Well it was left there," the Doctor began, straightening slowly. Tegan winced seeing his obvious pain. "Tegan, with instructions of sorts...I'm guessing that Hydronian and Gallifreyan, as languages, are closely related. And what we think is Early Gallifreyan might in fact be Late Hydronian." He frowned. "That has connotations I don't really want to consider now."
"But they couldn't have spoken it without..."
"Quite right, Tegan. They've been taught the language. Which is troublesome...for it means that the Hydronian Federation has now gained a foothold in the Second Expanse and may be spreading."
"Are they like the Joiba?" Tegan asked suddenly.
The Doctor rocked back on his heels and slid his hands into his pockets quickly. "I don't quite know what they are like, Tegan. This is the stuff of myths for Gallifreyans."
"Just great."
"Let me finish," he pressed, leaning forward to stare at her. "But I do know what they aren't. They aren't like the Joiba, Tegan. The Joiba seemingly live forever. The Hydronians are limited by quite short life spans. And as I said earlier and will repeat for Peri's benefit, it works by eliminating the troublesome barriers that don't allow for civilization growth by creating mental, psychological changes, opposites. Therefore, if you use it where a structure already exists..."
"Anarchy," Peri breathed. "I see the problem."
"Ah, not quite, Peri," he continued. "It would be anarchy on a planetary scale. It will deconstruct society almost immediately."
"It was never turned on at their home planet, was it?" Tegan asked, quietly. Suddenly, the metal cylinder looked very unfriendly.
"If it had been, we wouldn't have known about the Hydronians, would we?"
Tegan made a face at his comment.
"You've turned it off, haven't you?"
"What, Peri? Oh of course I have 'turned it off'. You don't think I would leave it active, do you?"
Peri and Tegan glanced at each other with a little humor. "Okay," Tegan said, finally breaking off her look with Peri. "Then what do we do with it?"
"That is rather the question, Tegan," the Doctor answered. "And at this point, I think we should do some research." When both girls looked confused, he continued. "You don't remember that we found that particular spot and time from carvings here on the Eye?"
"Isn't it dangerous to just leave it lying about like that?" Peri asked, glancing at the cylinder nervously.
"Hmm," the Doctor replied. He turned around to look at the cylinder and Tegan frowned at him. "No, no, Peri. I think it's quite inert and as no one else knows exactly where it would have gone when it left its last layover, I think we're quite safe."
Tegan stood and walked around the Doctor. She hadn't been mistaken a moment ago when she had looked at him. He was bleeding through his shirt. "And you can research from right around here, Doc," she responded. At that moment, a knock sounded at the door and Peri rose to answer it. "If that's the medical kit..."
"Yes, I take your point," the Doctor muttered. As she helped him strip again from his shirt, he eyed it mournfully. "Another shirt ruined."
"Two days and already you're back to looking like you did on Sylvana," Peri complained.
Tegan shrugged. She squeezed the water out of the sponge, letting it run over her back. The hot water soothed her. Although her back was turned to Peri, she could hear the agitation in the girl's movements. "It wasn't anything we haven't experienced before, Peri," she sighed. "A hell of a lot of running, and the Doctor knowing just enough of what was going on."
"Is that all?"
Tegan lowered her head tiredly, allowing it to rest wearily. Peri knew her too well. Her next words cemented the point to her. "I know you, Tegan. You look shaken, tense. What else happened?"
"Something other than the Doc being beaten had to happen for me to be tense?"
Peri sat down on the seat near the tub and contemplated her. "No, I didn't mean it like that. Christ, Tegs...there's just something else wrong, I can feel it."
She lifted her chin and stared at the wall. "Remember what I told you on the TARDIS...about guns? About fighting?"
Peri nodded in response.
"I felt naked without a gun. Unprotected. I hated that feeling..."
The sigh next to her let her know that Peri understood. "I guess we've changed."
"I had hoped we hadn't changed THAT much..."
"A year and a half ago, you and I both would have been shocked that the Doc was whipped. And the Doctor would have been properly mortified..."
Tegan put her hand down in the water and glanced over her shoulder at her friend. "Hell's teeth, Peri, do you think I just let them do that to him? I tried to stop it. But it seemed that the Doc thought it necessary almost. He accepted it as his punishment, apparently."
Peri held up her hands. "I don't doubt that you tried, Tegs."
Tegan lifted an eyebrow. "It was strange, Peri..."
"Why'd he do it?"
"I was going to be..." Tegan bit her lip. She wasn't sure how this was going to come out in conversation. "They were going to put me into cultic...service and..."
"They were going to use you for a temple prostitute." Peri uncrossed her arms. "Remember, although I didn't see eye to eye with Howard about a lot of things, I did listen to him sometimes. That puts a whole new shine on the penny..."
"Hell's teeth..."
Peri shook her head and rose. "I don't think you need to guess what's going on with you and him, Tegan."
"Peri-"
There was a sharp knock on the room door and it swung open effectively interrupting her continuing. Peri turned to open their room, half expecting spa personnel. She and Tegan had requested extra towels for while Tegan was washing. Peri had been waiting to answer the door to save Tegan from doing it. The last thing she expected was the Doctor stiffly strolling in the door. His back was more poker straight than it had been and his eyes were darker than usual. Peri supposed that was from pain. "Doc..."
"Good evening, Peri! Glad to see you're well this afternoon. Are you ready?"
"Uh, ready for...Doc..." Peri began. He continued to walk through the room to the windows.
He turned. "Well, of course, ready, Peri. Your step father is an archeologist; you know the importance of field work." He bent forward slowly and tapped her on the nose. "The work doesn't come to us; we go to it."
"Peri was that the..." Tegan stepped from the bathroom, wrapped in a towel. "Cripes, Doc..."
With a sharp inhale, the Doctor straightened and shoved his hands into his pockets. Tegan leaned against the door jam and contemplated the Doctor while adjusting her towel. He sighed. "Ready, Doc? Give me fifteen minutes to dress and..."
"Quite," he cleared his throat. Tegan could tell that Peri could barely hold in her laughter until after he had left the room.
"He looks like he recovered," Peri whispered. She walked, her arm linked with Tegan's.
"Well, he did say he'd heal quickly," Tegan agreed. She patted the girl's hand. "I'll be damned if he won't let me check him again."
"Not in public, though. He'll be properly horrified if you asked him to strip here in the lobby. But that wasn't what I was talking about," she admonished. "He looked worse with him seeing you almost naked with me in the same room. I thought he was going to turn poker red and melt through the floor. Is he that horrified normally?"
"To see me starkers?" Tegan laughed. "Not nearly, but I don't think he likes the idea of being caught seeing me starkers."
The Doctor turned around and contemplated them across the lobby. As usual, his hands were deep in his pockets and his chin was held high. She could see, through practiced knowledge, that he held his body very stiffly and she wasn't fooled. Obviously he wasn't healed completely. Tegan sighed. "But then again, Peri, he's only seen me three times naked with the intent of sex and a couple of times when there was a lot else to think about. Who knows, maybe he freaks out normally when I'm naked."
Peri smiled.
He shook his hands out of his pockets as they neared. He appeared edgy, hyper, not waiting long before he jumped into action. "Come on, you two...daylight is wasting!"
"Hell's teeth, Doc," Tegan breathed. The sigh turned to a grunt as the Doctor slipped his hand to the small of her back and herded her along. Peri jogged next to them, keeping up with his long stride.
"Where's the fire?" Peri asked, out of breath.
The Doctor held open the door for them and quickly resumed his place. "Well, I do think this field research is important. Have you two no sense of adventure?"
Tegan looked heavenward for strength as Peri smiled widely.
"No, no...we have a mystery to solve...why is it here? Why did it pass through the Eye? Who left it there? We need to know all these things. Only about a dozen obelisks scattered about that courtyard. If we each take four and transfer the impressions to paper, it should take no time at all. Then this evening, I should be able to study what we have...oh...dear..."
Tegan's mouth fell open. Peri's hand tightened on her wrist. "Good God!"
"Oh..." she whispered.
The Doctor grunted and tightened his arms and then set her down lightly on the ground.
They were in the arrival area on the Eye of Orion. She recognized that much from the columns and the gentle slope of grass beyond its perimeter. Everything was silent and calm except for the light birdsong overhead.
"Yes, well..." he hissed as her arms released him. "We've apparently arrived."
"Apparently...oh..." she responded, silencing as she turned away from him. Several women stood near the edge of the courtyard. They appeared to have stopped in the middle of a conversation. "Cripes," she groused, under her breath. She tried to adjust her clothes to cover herself. As she crossed her arm over chest, she spied the Doctor's blood.
"Rabbits!"
The Doctor had discreetly turned away from the ladies to adjust his cloth to cover more of his body. She winced as she spied the state of his body. Criss-crossed over the length of his back, the wounds were crossed hatch shallow wounds. All of them bled profusely. "Oh...Doc..."
"Where have you two..." Peri began, as Tegan opened the door. Immediately, Tegan was struck with the calm and cool summer vision her friend presented. Her dress was almost blindingly white in the sunlight and her cheeks were prettily rosy. The girl's eyes dropped from Tegan's face to take glance at her body. "Holy shit! Tegs, what happened? You're covered in mud...and is that blood?"
"Answering that will have to wait, Peri," Tegan confided. She reached out give her friend a tight hug that was returned with gusto. "Thanks for coming so quickly. Did you-"
"I told the head of the spa to bring a medical kit....but Tegan, you're covered in...is it the Doc's blood?"
Tegan turned from the door and walked back towards the bathroom. As she glanced down, she noticed that she had left muddy footprints in the plush white rug. At least she had made her mark, she thought ruefully. Peri padded after her. "Yes, it is..."
As they entered the brilliantly lit bathroom, Peri gasped: "Good grief..."
"Ah, good to see you again, Peri, I trust you're well," the Doctor muttered. He had his arm stretched over his back to reach his shoulder. Tegan came forward, tapped him and he lowered his arm with a wince. "I assure you: it's not as bad as it looks."
Tegan glanced at Peri who was shaking her head. "He's right for the most part. The wounds aren't deep at all; there are just a lot of them. And they like to bleed..."
"Yes, well...that was the purpose of the beating, Tegan," the Doctor muttered. She shook her head and leaned close to the wounds, gently teasing hemp fibers out with her finger tips, dabbing at the wounds as she did so. The bright, strong sunlight directed through the window helped her to see her quarry.
Peri covered her mouth and continued to shake her head. "Two days. You were gone two days..." she accused. She met Tegan's eyes. "What did you two do? You both look like you've been through the wringer and dragged through the mud..."
The Doctor answered, his back to his younger companion. "Did Tren reappear?" Tegan could see his eyes in the mirror in front of them, their blue irises dark from pain. He met her gaze and grimaced.
"He came back about two hours before you and Tegan did. He's been in the medical center ever since. Apparently they feel he has a sort of catatonic hysteria problem...he landed yelling about barbarians..." Peri shrugged. "I was more worried about why you weren't with him than about what was wrong with him. Other than being in shock, he appeared physically fine. Couldn't tell us anything about the two of you, though."
"Yeah," Tegan breathed. "That doesn't surprise me." She pulled a long fiber one of the Doctor's cuts and sighed. "I think that's it. Doc, that's all the fibers I can see. We'll just have to clean the cuts and get you a loose shirt..."
"Yes, Tegan." She smiled tightly at the tired tone he used. He turned and glanced fully at Peri as he drew on the shirt that Tegan had found. "You've had your vacation, I trust, Peri. You look well rested."
"Yeah, though I don't feel as relaxed now. What happened to you both? Doctor, you look like you've been whipped."
"I was," he muttered as he finished dressing. To Tegan's eyes, he seemingly dismissed the shocked look Peri gave him. "Now...we need to talk, you two..."
Tegan shook her head. She sat down on the bed and eyed her friend with disdain. "You're not going to rest and let yourself heal, are you?"
The Doctor frowned as he walked past Tegan to the bed. "Check my back in three hours, Tegan, it will be mostly healed. No, no...there's no time."
"But..." Tegan sighed. Her voice held an edge that Peri reacted to. The girl sat down on the bed with her and watched their friend painfully draw his suspenders over his shoulders. Tegan's hands balled in fists. Seeing him hurt always made her a little crazy, knowing he wasn't going to rest with injuries made her nearly boil with anger. "We're back on the Eye," she tried to point out to him. "We're safe."
"Ah, but our little friend here," he muttered, as he hefted the cylinder. "Our friend still needs to be investigated, researched, Tegan. It might be imperative for us to know what we have here. Granted, I think it's an errant civilization builder. And it came with an instruction manual in a language frighteningly similar to Gallifreyan. That means it could only come from one space faring place."
Tegan narrowed her eyes at the Doctor. "And that has you worried? What aren't you telling me?"
"Oh, Tegan," he sighed. He lifted his glance from the container to spear her with an exasperated look. "I don't always withhold knowledge."
"You don't?" Peri asked tightly.
The Doctor ignored the comment. "Yes, well...I'll have to do a little bit of research to be sure." He patted down the trousers and appeared lost when he came up with no spectacles. "But I do believe this object is from the outer reaches of the Universe, beyond the First Expanse...a collection of planets known as the Hydronian Federation."
"First....expanse?" Peri asked, joining Tegan on the bed. Tegan met her eyes and shook her head slowly. She didn't have a clue either.
"Well yes, Peri, you don't expect this to be the one and only Universe, do you?" he asked, his voice cracking on the final syllable. "No, no...the universe is rather like a worn rubber band, stretching and contracting, stretching and contracting into infinity."
"Or until the warranty runs out," Tegan breathed. The Doctor barely hesitated in his words.
"This Federation grew exponentially across a large percentage of the Universe in the First Expanse. Often destroying and then immediately rebuilding civilizations as they see fit on planets or forming society overnight in places where it was considered...improbable to do so. Hundreds of sentient species and some not so sentient called the Federation their...overlords, or creators, or worshipped them. It seemed that only the collapse of the First Expanse stopped them from continuing to cover the whole of the Universe..."
"Apparently? You mean you don't know?"
"No, Tegan," he sighed as he finished adjusting his clothes. "I don't know. The First Expanse is ancient history for even Gallifrey. And the expanse principles don't allow us to travel through the bottleneck into the first Expanse. We are confined by our era. Still, that is the information I remember..." he stopped and winced as though the thought were painful. "I'll have to look it up on the computer in the TARDIS for the complete facts."
"That doesn't help us here, Doctor," Peri stated. She patted the bed and frowned. "What are we talking about, by the way?"
"This." The Doctor held up the Gatherer and smiled. "Our little friend here. Tegan and I found this buried in Babylon."
"In the strangest of places," Tegan agreed. "And it was near obelisks that held several languages engraved on them."
"Like a Rosetta Stone," Peri said. Immediately Tegan smiled; she had forgotten that Peri's step father was an archeologist. Turning to the Doctor, Peri continued. "I don't know much about Babylon. It wasn't Howard's forte. Does it have religious connotations?"
"It shouldn't," the Doctor commented. He put the Gatherer down on the table and leaned over it. "And it shouldn't have been there at all! The job," he emphasized as he tapped the mattress near the object. "The task this is to do is to BUILD a civilization to prime it quickly for over lording. As far as I know, Earth was never involved in something like that. Additionally," he muttered. "Its presence in this Expanse means that the Hydronians are exerting their influence in this Expanse."
"It's not good," Tegan said, confirming what she said from the Doctor's gaze.
"They destroyed and created, created and destroyed in order to form societies proper for their purposes. In an area where society already exists, the presence of this object," he said, tapping near it again. "Holds no good missive for the population, Tegan."
"How does it work?" Tegan asked, sitting forward. "It's called the Gatherer. Bloody obvious to me that that means it gathers things. But why was it there...next to a temple? And why would the priest be talking in something like Ancient Gallifreyan?"
"Well it was left there," the Doctor began, straightening slowly. Tegan winced seeing his obvious pain. "Tegan, with instructions of sorts...I'm guessing that Hydronian and Gallifreyan, as languages, are closely related. And what we think is Early Gallifreyan might in fact be Late Hydronian." He frowned. "That has connotations I don't really want to consider now."
"But they couldn't have spoken it without..."
"Quite right, Tegan. They've been taught the language. Which is troublesome...for it means that the Hydronian Federation has now gained a foothold in the Second Expanse and may be spreading."
"Are they like the Joiba?" Tegan asked suddenly.
The Doctor rocked back on his heels and slid his hands into his pockets quickly. "I don't quite know what they are like, Tegan. This is the stuff of myths for Gallifreyans."
"Just great."
"Let me finish," he pressed, leaning forward to stare at her. "But I do know what they aren't. They aren't like the Joiba, Tegan. The Joiba seemingly live forever. The Hydronians are limited by quite short life spans. And as I said earlier and will repeat for Peri's benefit, it works by eliminating the troublesome barriers that don't allow for civilization growth by creating mental, psychological changes, opposites. Therefore, if you use it where a structure already exists..."
"Anarchy," Peri breathed. "I see the problem."
"Ah, not quite, Peri," he continued. "It would be anarchy on a planetary scale. It will deconstruct society almost immediately."
"It was never turned on at their home planet, was it?" Tegan asked, quietly. Suddenly, the metal cylinder looked very unfriendly.
"If it had been, we wouldn't have known about the Hydronians, would we?"
Tegan made a face at his comment.
"You've turned it off, haven't you?"
"What, Peri? Oh of course I have 'turned it off'. You don't think I would leave it active, do you?"
Peri and Tegan glanced at each other with a little humor. "Okay," Tegan said, finally breaking off her look with Peri. "Then what do we do with it?"
"That is rather the question, Tegan," the Doctor answered. "And at this point, I think we should do some research." When both girls looked confused, he continued. "You don't remember that we found that particular spot and time from carvings here on the Eye?"
"Isn't it dangerous to just leave it lying about like that?" Peri asked, glancing at the cylinder nervously.
"Hmm," the Doctor replied. He turned around to look at the cylinder and Tegan frowned at him. "No, no, Peri. I think it's quite inert and as no one else knows exactly where it would have gone when it left its last layover, I think we're quite safe."
Tegan stood and walked around the Doctor. She hadn't been mistaken a moment ago when she had looked at him. He was bleeding through his shirt. "And you can research from right around here, Doc," she responded. At that moment, a knock sounded at the door and Peri rose to answer it. "If that's the medical kit..."
"Yes, I take your point," the Doctor muttered. As she helped him strip again from his shirt, he eyed it mournfully. "Another shirt ruined."
"Two days and already you're back to looking like you did on Sylvana," Peri complained.
Tegan shrugged. She squeezed the water out of the sponge, letting it run over her back. The hot water soothed her. Although her back was turned to Peri, she could hear the agitation in the girl's movements. "It wasn't anything we haven't experienced before, Peri," she sighed. "A hell of a lot of running, and the Doctor knowing just enough of what was going on."
"Is that all?"
Tegan lowered her head tiredly, allowing it to rest wearily. Peri knew her too well. Her next words cemented the point to her. "I know you, Tegan. You look shaken, tense. What else happened?"
"Something other than the Doc being beaten had to happen for me to be tense?"
Peri sat down on the seat near the tub and contemplated her. "No, I didn't mean it like that. Christ, Tegs...there's just something else wrong, I can feel it."
She lifted her chin and stared at the wall. "Remember what I told you on the TARDIS...about guns? About fighting?"
Peri nodded in response.
"I felt naked without a gun. Unprotected. I hated that feeling..."
The sigh next to her let her know that Peri understood. "I guess we've changed."
"I had hoped we hadn't changed THAT much..."
"A year and a half ago, you and I both would have been shocked that the Doc was whipped. And the Doctor would have been properly mortified..."
Tegan put her hand down in the water and glanced over her shoulder at her friend. "Hell's teeth, Peri, do you think I just let them do that to him? I tried to stop it. But it seemed that the Doc thought it necessary almost. He accepted it as his punishment, apparently."
Peri held up her hands. "I don't doubt that you tried, Tegs."
Tegan lifted an eyebrow. "It was strange, Peri..."
"Why'd he do it?"
"I was going to be..." Tegan bit her lip. She wasn't sure how this was going to come out in conversation. "They were going to put me into cultic...service and..."
"They were going to use you for a temple prostitute." Peri uncrossed her arms. "Remember, although I didn't see eye to eye with Howard about a lot of things, I did listen to him sometimes. That puts a whole new shine on the penny..."
"Hell's teeth..."
Peri shook her head and rose. "I don't think you need to guess what's going on with you and him, Tegan."
"Peri-"
There was a sharp knock on the room door and it swung open effectively interrupting her continuing. Peri turned to open their room, half expecting spa personnel. She and Tegan had requested extra towels for while Tegan was washing. Peri had been waiting to answer the door to save Tegan from doing it. The last thing she expected was the Doctor stiffly strolling in the door. His back was more poker straight than it had been and his eyes were darker than usual. Peri supposed that was from pain. "Doc..."
"Good evening, Peri! Glad to see you're well this afternoon. Are you ready?"
"Uh, ready for...Doc..." Peri began. He continued to walk through the room to the windows.
He turned. "Well, of course, ready, Peri. Your step father is an archeologist; you know the importance of field work." He bent forward slowly and tapped her on the nose. "The work doesn't come to us; we go to it."
"Peri was that the..." Tegan stepped from the bathroom, wrapped in a towel. "Cripes, Doc..."
With a sharp inhale, the Doctor straightened and shoved his hands into his pockets. Tegan leaned against the door jam and contemplated the Doctor while adjusting her towel. He sighed. "Ready, Doc? Give me fifteen minutes to dress and..."
"Quite," he cleared his throat. Tegan could tell that Peri could barely hold in her laughter until after he had left the room.
"He looks like he recovered," Peri whispered. She walked, her arm linked with Tegan's.
"Well, he did say he'd heal quickly," Tegan agreed. She patted the girl's hand. "I'll be damned if he won't let me check him again."
"Not in public, though. He'll be properly horrified if you asked him to strip here in the lobby. But that wasn't what I was talking about," she admonished. "He looked worse with him seeing you almost naked with me in the same room. I thought he was going to turn poker red and melt through the floor. Is he that horrified normally?"
"To see me starkers?" Tegan laughed. "Not nearly, but I don't think he likes the idea of being caught seeing me starkers."
The Doctor turned around and contemplated them across the lobby. As usual, his hands were deep in his pockets and his chin was held high. She could see, through practiced knowledge, that he held his body very stiffly and she wasn't fooled. Obviously he wasn't healed completely. Tegan sighed. "But then again, Peri, he's only seen me three times naked with the intent of sex and a couple of times when there was a lot else to think about. Who knows, maybe he freaks out normally when I'm naked."
Peri smiled.
He shook his hands out of his pockets as they neared. He appeared edgy, hyper, not waiting long before he jumped into action. "Come on, you two...daylight is wasting!"
"Hell's teeth, Doc," Tegan breathed. The sigh turned to a grunt as the Doctor slipped his hand to the small of her back and herded her along. Peri jogged next to them, keeping up with his long stride.
"Where's the fire?" Peri asked, out of breath.
The Doctor held open the door for them and quickly resumed his place. "Well, I do think this field research is important. Have you two no sense of adventure?"
Tegan looked heavenward for strength as Peri smiled widely.
"No, no...we have a mystery to solve...why is it here? Why did it pass through the Eye? Who left it there? We need to know all these things. Only about a dozen obelisks scattered about that courtyard. If we each take four and transfer the impressions to paper, it should take no time at all. Then this evening, I should be able to study what we have...oh...dear..."
Tegan's mouth fell open. Peri's hand tightened on her wrist. "Good God!"