The world both solidified and dissolved. As she felt solid Earth under her
feet, she was blinded by brilliant sunlight. As she blinked, she moaned.
"Where are we?"
The Doctor's arms released her and she felt the cold metal Gatherer slide against her back. It took her a few moments to gain use of her legs; the tingling of the alien powered device still sent shocks through her muscles. "And how did we travel?"
He held up his wrist and the device. "A closing of the spatial loop so to speak...the bracelet and turning on the Gatherer's memory circuit and a bit of an opened ended travel channel..."
"Where are we?" she asked as she turned around to stare at the surroundings. Everywhere there was sand, white, hot sand.
"I'm not quite sure," he muttered as he lowered his hands. With a sigh, he turned the Gatherer over in his hand and looked at it. "I wasn't that sure it would work, but we couldn't have survived as we were...laser fire was too heavy and we weren't to a correct vantage point for negotiation."
"Then..." she tried to wrap her brain around the situation. "Then we traveled here on the Gatherer's circuit...or whatever that thing is..."
"Yes, well...I simply closed the memory travel circuit...we are on a planet or place that the Gatherer has traveled to and from. Cheer up, Tegan...at least it isn't in the middle of a firefight."
She shook her head. There was a buzzing in her ears that acted like white noise. "But it is in the middle of nowhere, you know. I don't see any civilization, Doc."
"Nor do I." He turned and trudged up the nearest sand dune.
"It's bloody confus-"she muttered and stopped as she joined him at the top of the dune. Below there was what once was a city of some size. As far as the eye could see, buildings of differing sizes and colors lay in different levels of disrepair and ruin. Wind whipped through the brickwork, howling like a hungry wolf. Sand licked at the edges and she thought that she could see it eroding more of the light colored stone away. Swirling, the sand rose, as though physically wiping history from the face of the planet.
It felt desolate, empty, as though it were forgotten. But she had a feeling there had been death here. "Oh my – Did it...did that thing do this?"
The Doctor stopped moving with his mouth gaping open. She could see his eyes scanning the scenery. From rooftop to sand, his gaze roamed. Then, slowly, he glanced back down to the Gatherer. "Ah, well..."
"It looks like the Eye did when I first saw it...with Turlough..." she continued. The buildings were hues of brown and sand and burnt umber. Half-walls and crumbling stone were everywhere and had fallen everywhere.
"Quite..." he responded. He squinted at the nearest building. There was a single standing arched doorway. With a low hum, he said: "See those etchings, Tegan? I think that's written in a language similar to that at the Eye..."
"Is it?" Tegan shook her head. "Then...where are we?"
"At a place where the Federation existed before it colonized and created the civilization on the Eye."
"But..." she sighed. She moved closer to him. The ruins seemed ominous to her. "But the language...on the Eye...in Babylon...was a type of early Gallifreyan..."
"Quite," he growled.
Glancing up at him, she saw that his sight was trained off in the distance. "What is it, Doc?"
"It's too similar to early Gallifreyan, Tegan, to be coincidence. I don't believe in coincidence of that nature."
She took a deep breath and exhaled explosively. "Shit."
"Not the word I would choose, but I agree with the sentiment," he muttered. "It's that similar to Ancient Gallifreyan..."
"...because it is Ancient Gallifreyan..." she continued.
"In its pure form." He swallowed and nodded. "It evolved from the Federation's language...and evolution of language often, but not always follows the evolution of similar cultures. But in this case...I think it's the same language."
"Time Lords are..." she nearly spat. "Evolved Federation?"
His eyes were equal measure angry and sad as he returned his gaze to her. "All facts point in that direction and I really would not like to dwell on that possibility at the moment, thank you."
The buzzing in her ears had increased and the wind increased, swirling sand around them like tiny shards. As it closed in on them, she reached for his hand, enclosing the Gatherer. He shifted so that his fingers interlaced with hers. Howling of the wind grew and she found the need to yell. "Are you sure they're those Federation people? You didn't recognize them!"
"At the moment, there's no doubt in my mind that they are who I think they are." he yelled in return. He reached for her other hand as the wind increased and swirled the sand around them. "They've mutated, evolved, changed...they're an aberration in this Expanse. Their mutation has made it so that they can't breathe air in most environments. That's the reason for- "
"The suits!" Tegan finished for him.
"Yes."
"Are they everywhere?"
"I don't think so..." he called. "I hope not. It might well be the only cell that exists, desperately trying to gain a foothold. They are very long lived. I think they might have been waiting for this object...leaving it somewhere safe..."
"Earth?"
"Precisely...and have now come back for it!"
"And the Gatherer..." she yelled.
"I can't let them have it, Tegan. I don't know how far back the path of destruction stretches, but it will stretch over the entire Galaxy if they continue. They've ceased to understand how it works. All they can dream of is spreading themselves thinly throughout the Galaxy...they're like a virus...insidious and deadly. They'll create and destroy on whim."
"But how do we keep it from them?"
The Doctor glared down at the object between their hands. "We don't. I can't allow this to be used elsewhere, Tegan."
She gaped at him and felt his hand tighten on hers. "Then what?"
"Well, I'll," he began and his voice caught on the words. His gaze centered on hers and held it. "I'll have to make sure it can never be used again. It's an object of unbelievable power that shouldn't be allowed in anyone's hands."
"We can take it with us..."
"Anyone's hands including ours...mine, Tegan!"
She shook her head. Sand seemed to be everywhere. "Then what can you do?"
He swallowed and shook his head. "I shall have to disable its permanent use. The technology that this instrument uses is similar to Gallifreyan psychotronic circuits...on a grander scale. A bit of tweaking of their basic programming and I should be able to switch it off permanently...feed a redundancy through its matrix."
She stared at him. A thought, a feeling tickled at the back of her mind and she swallowed hard. It was like the warehouse again, the feeling, the worry, the look in his eyes. "No."
"Tegan."
"You're going to have to stay with it, aren't you? What will happen when you feed that...that...redundancy or whatever it is you're talking about through it?"
Through the sand, she saw his look of determination and the inkling of remorse in his eyes. Even through the maelstrom of flying grains she saw their blue like a summer sky. "Yes, well..." he began his voice deep and strong. "That's the problem with circuits like this...when the redundancy is fed through the circuits someone will have to stay attached to it, constantly...coaxing the redundancy..."
"No."
"It's the only thing I can-"
"Think of another."
"If I left it to them, Tegan," he said his voice harsh. "If I left it to them without the redundancy, it would be like leaving them with a loaded gun."
"And if you stay with it...it'll be like the Daleks..." she shouted, not caring if the meaning was clear.
"And if I don't..." he said, lowering his voice. "They'll become like the Daleks, Tegan. The Gatherer won't kill...it will only destroy the civilization that was built...tear apart the cultural and resurrect the taboos...over time ..."
"Over time it will do to the Eye what it did here. Remember? I've seen it."
He nodded. "For all I know, Tegan...this is the cricket ball that brought that house of cards down."
"So it won't kill...but those brutes with the guns..." she shouted. "They will. They'll kill you."
"Do you have a better idea?" he asked, yelling.
His gaze turned sad and his look gave her the strength to straighten her. She stood tall as her dress whipped about her legs and his. She knew he was reliving the warehouse and the Daleks, the war...all in one moment. And she knew that he was right.
"We don't have a choice!"
She could feel pain shooting through her limbs, engulfing her hands and feet in flame. The only thing cooling, indeed peace-giving, was the familiar hand holding hers and the solidity of the key, the solution, the problem, clasped between their palms.
"There's always a choice!"
The Doctor's voice was more of a growl than anything, but she clung to the sanity she heard at its depth.
Everywhere she looked there was swirling sand. There was nothing in her ears but rushing wind, and it sounded like a freight train. Her skirt whipped about her legs, her arms, and her back. Her bare feet were hidden under layers of those stinging, burning, rubbing sand. She couldn't see them after all. The sun was gone, blacked out by the scoring grains.
She glanced down at the gun. Its shiny metal, rough and alien in texture than any Terran gun, was barely visible. "Peri's there," she shouted. "We have to go back."
"We're in agreement on that, Tegan!"
The Doctor pulled on their combined hands and brought her in closer. She tried to see his eyes, but her own stung from the sand and she had to close them. She knew the answer. She knew what it was that they were going to have to do. . In the loud darkness, she replied. "As soon as we show up..."
His other arm snaked about her waist and drew her in to his chest. The key was in their clasped hands, pointed to the earth. "Yes, we'll be targets," he responded.
She didn't answer. The Doctor's hand tightened, pressing the key into her palm, and squeezed it between their entwined hands. It had brought them here and even now, she could feel it thrumming with power. "It's a bargaining chip," she yelled, her head sideways on his chest. Her hand avoided the crisscrossed open wounds on his back. Even so, he winced.
"At the very least..." he agreed. "It's what they've wanted for thousands of centuries."
"It could destroy their entire race," she added.
His silence let her know that he had also thought of that eventuality. Either way, she knew that the moment they returned, their lives would depend on how quickly they could move, how quickly they could dodge and run, and she was so tired already. Weary to her bones, but far from ready to give up, she nodded. "We have a choice of what to do with it, but we don't have a choice of where to take it...we have to go back."
She could feel him nod. His voice sounded more private, less projecting. "Take a deep breath, Tegan. No time like the present. As soon as you feel the world solidify, run. Don't look for me. Don't wait...I'll be right behind you. If you hesitate..."
"You don't have to tell me twice, Doc," she replied. She felt him reach behind her and press the now familiar button on his wrist. As the world began to melt like a watercolor in the rain, she heard his voice against the side of her ear. "Brave heart, Tegan. It'll take more than this to kill us."
And then, as usual, there was nothing.
Somehow, in the same instant, they solidified, returned, slightly displaced from where they had been previously, and the Doctor released her. As she twisted, she saw that their unfriendly aliens were gathered about. They didn't look confused as to where she and the Doctor had gone, but neither were the aliens expecting the two of them to materialize in a different place.
As soon as she felt the world solid under her feet, she ran. The gun was in her hand, a cold, firm, strange friend. She lifted it and fired shots at the walkway in front of their pursuers. It splintered the stone.
She slid to a stop on the far side of one of the large pillared walk way. The Doctor didn't make it as far and stopped at the edge of the walkway, facing her across the cobbled stone. "Fine shooting, Tegan!" he called as he brought the Gatherer up to where he could see it better.
"I didn't hit anything!" She called back agitatedly. Then she watched him fiddling about on the bottom side of the small object. "Are you turning it on, Doc? Do we have a choice?"
"We always have a choice!" Conviction resounded in his voice and she realized he had had an idea in the intervening moments. She watched him fiddling with the Gatherer. It flickered in the sunlight, its facets reflected back, blinding her momentarily. As she watched, the Doctor leaned into the column, his head bent over the instrument. The stone above his head exploded in shards as a laser shot hit.
Tegan turned and squeezed off a couple of rounds towards their pursuers. She didn't aim to hit, she aimed to confuse. It gave the Doctor a couple of minute's breathing room. "Come on, Doc..." she muttered. Then called louder. "Doctor?!"
"A moment, Tegan!"
"We don't have a moment!"
The Doctor grimaced. "I'm working as fast as I can!"
"What are you doing?" she cried and ducked as a volley of shots hit the wall.
"When I say so, Tegan, give me cover. I need to be over there with you..." he gritted between his teeth. He turned the object over in his hands and then speared her with a glance. "Now!"
Tegan stepped out slightly and laid down cover fire until the Doctor slid to a stop next to her. "What are you doing?" she hissed.
"I'm going to give them their Gatherer, Tegan," he muttered, a tight smile on his face. "Get Peri when they release her. Lead her out of here. Don't look back."
"I don't like the sound of that. I'm not leaving here without you."
"I don't intend to have this situation escalate and I haven't thought of another way and time is, as always, of the essence," he muttered. Then with a shout, he addressed the Federation: "I have your civilization builder!" After a sigh, he repeated the phrase in Gallifreyan.
"Release the girl..." he muttered for Tegan and then called it out in Gallifreyan. Then he raised his hat above the level of the wall along with the Gatherer.
"Are you mad?" Tegan squinted at the Doctor. "Think of something else..." she pleaded.
"Trust me," he responded. When the firing stopped, they cautiously glanced over the top of the wall. The soldiers stood at attention, their guns held at ready. Peri was held at arms length, nearly dangling from the much taller humanoids grip. Her beautiful dress was covered in ash and shards from the splintered path. Tegan bit her lip. Her friend looked unharmed otherwise.
The Doctor called out in that strange language of his and Tegan braced herself. "If they're relatives of yours," she breathed, as she tried a last ditch effort to make him see logic. "They'll know you're going to do something, Doc. You won't make it two steps..."
"Yes...I had thought of that..." he whispered to her. He fingered the Gatherer and then closed his eyes briefly. She watched as his fingers danced a merry tune on the pad of the object and saw his mouth move as though offering up a silent liturgy of prayer to whatever God Gallifreyans observed. She wanted to reach out and yank it from his grip.
Her eyes fell from his face to the object in his hands. "Doc..."
The catch in her voice must have tripped something in him for he squinted as though struck by an alien thought. His eyes met hers and something...ill timed humor...affection... brought a gleam to their blue and crinkled the skin at the edge of the eyes. The smile didn't make it to his mouth. "Brave heart, Tegan."
"They'll kill you..." she hissed. "It's like..."
"No...in the warehouse," the Doctor sighed. "On the ship, I set out to be a murderer..."
She gripped the gun. He released the Gatherer and laid his hand on hers over the weapon.
"Here, you're just committing some sort of grand suicide," she said quietly. "Don't do it....please?"
After a firm shake of his head and a squeeze of her hand, he touched her cheek. "I can do this, Tegan, without bloodshed and can deal with the situation. A little bit of personal risk is acceptable. Get Peri. Stay safe."
"Stubborn..." she muttered. "So goddamned stubborn..."
A small smile curved his lips and he released a small sigh. "Tegan..." His eyes turned gentle, endless, and the color of a summer sky. She could see him hesitate and that hesitation made her clamp down on her reaction. But the blazing thought in her mind was that she would protect him as best she could, as she had learned on the jungle. Little bloodshed, he wasn't being a murderer, two sides of a small war could be pacified, and a weapon eliminated...good outcome maximized, cost minimized....Supremo would be happy. The Doctor would be happy. He was taking the only cost on his shoulders.
With a wry sigh, she realized that that much hadn't changed. The only thing that had...was her.
And her feelings.
But if she didn't let him do this, so much else could or would go wrong...people's lives...they couldn't not do something.
"Good luck. Go on," she whispered. She knew exactly what he needed to hear.
The Doctor smiled wider and rubbed her cheek with his thumb, his hand cold against her skin. Quickly, he leaned in, his lips brushing the corner of her mouth against her cheek. "Brave heart."
And then he rose, turned and stepped out into clear view.
She watched as he walked across the open courtyard. Her finger itched on the trigger of the gun and she kept it aimed, locked against the top of the wall. He might have had to do what he needed to do, but her sanity dictated that she stay and cover his back. The Doctor walked slowly across the distance, both hands held out to show only the Gatherer and nothing else.
The sounds of his footsteps on the gravel of the courtyard echoed in the battered silence after the gunfire. And the sight of his orange blood bleeding through the back of his white shirt made her wince. As he neared, several guards raised their guns. Still, the Doctor kept his hand wrapped around the instrument; the circuit was still being manipulated.
The Federation leader waved his hand towards the ground, but the Doctor shook his head, stepping closer to the group.
Guns rose and trained on him. A round of laser fire landed near his feet and she bit back a moan. She was only one gun; if she took shots, they would have to be wise ones. And she had to think of Peri. They would certainly harm her. She would have to make a decision on whom to shoot first and live with the consequences, if she could.
The Doctor eased forward another step calling out in his foreign language. Tegan watched as Peri was slowly released and ran forward. He caught the girl in a light embrace with one arm and gently prodded to her off towards where Tegan hid. Reluctantly the girl did as he bid.
As Peri ran toward her, Tegan's stress level decreased slightly. But she didn't let the gun falter. Beyond the fluttering fabric of her running friend, she saw her lover gesturing madly, nearly flinging the object wide in his hands. She could see his anger in his posture in the way his hand shook, in the arrow straightness of his back, in the way his head reared. At least now she had only one target to worry about.
The leader neared the Doctor, holding out his hand for the object. Tegan could see the other hand raised as if ordering to fire on his mark. She leaned further down into the wall, the gun held steady on the top. Peri slid around the edge of the wall and joined her.
"Tegan?"
"He's being a hero again," Tegan bit out in answer.
She felt Peri's hand on her shoulder, but instead of warmth, she could only feel pressure.
One of the guards lifted his gun and took aim on the Doctor. Tegan pressed herself further into the wall, feeling the harsh edge cut her skin, but it only served to make her concentrate harder.
She could see the hand tighten on the gun. The Doctor's voice was raised in anger and yet he still gripped the Gatherer tightly in his fist.
With a deep breath, she tightened her finger on the trigger.
The Doctor raised his hand; the Gatherer glittered in the sun.
The world exploded in a shower of fireworks that threw both her and Peri to the ground.
The Doctor's arms released her and she felt the cold metal Gatherer slide against her back. It took her a few moments to gain use of her legs; the tingling of the alien powered device still sent shocks through her muscles. "And how did we travel?"
He held up his wrist and the device. "A closing of the spatial loop so to speak...the bracelet and turning on the Gatherer's memory circuit and a bit of an opened ended travel channel..."
"Where are we?" she asked as she turned around to stare at the surroundings. Everywhere there was sand, white, hot sand.
"I'm not quite sure," he muttered as he lowered his hands. With a sigh, he turned the Gatherer over in his hand and looked at it. "I wasn't that sure it would work, but we couldn't have survived as we were...laser fire was too heavy and we weren't to a correct vantage point for negotiation."
"Then..." she tried to wrap her brain around the situation. "Then we traveled here on the Gatherer's circuit...or whatever that thing is..."
"Yes, well...I simply closed the memory travel circuit...we are on a planet or place that the Gatherer has traveled to and from. Cheer up, Tegan...at least it isn't in the middle of a firefight."
She shook her head. There was a buzzing in her ears that acted like white noise. "But it is in the middle of nowhere, you know. I don't see any civilization, Doc."
"Nor do I." He turned and trudged up the nearest sand dune.
"It's bloody confus-"she muttered and stopped as she joined him at the top of the dune. Below there was what once was a city of some size. As far as the eye could see, buildings of differing sizes and colors lay in different levels of disrepair and ruin. Wind whipped through the brickwork, howling like a hungry wolf. Sand licked at the edges and she thought that she could see it eroding more of the light colored stone away. Swirling, the sand rose, as though physically wiping history from the face of the planet.
It felt desolate, empty, as though it were forgotten. But she had a feeling there had been death here. "Oh my – Did it...did that thing do this?"
The Doctor stopped moving with his mouth gaping open. She could see his eyes scanning the scenery. From rooftop to sand, his gaze roamed. Then, slowly, he glanced back down to the Gatherer. "Ah, well..."
"It looks like the Eye did when I first saw it...with Turlough..." she continued. The buildings were hues of brown and sand and burnt umber. Half-walls and crumbling stone were everywhere and had fallen everywhere.
"Quite..." he responded. He squinted at the nearest building. There was a single standing arched doorway. With a low hum, he said: "See those etchings, Tegan? I think that's written in a language similar to that at the Eye..."
"Is it?" Tegan shook her head. "Then...where are we?"
"At a place where the Federation existed before it colonized and created the civilization on the Eye."
"But..." she sighed. She moved closer to him. The ruins seemed ominous to her. "But the language...on the Eye...in Babylon...was a type of early Gallifreyan..."
"Quite," he growled.
Glancing up at him, she saw that his sight was trained off in the distance. "What is it, Doc?"
"It's too similar to early Gallifreyan, Tegan, to be coincidence. I don't believe in coincidence of that nature."
She took a deep breath and exhaled explosively. "Shit."
"Not the word I would choose, but I agree with the sentiment," he muttered. "It's that similar to Ancient Gallifreyan..."
"...because it is Ancient Gallifreyan..." she continued.
"In its pure form." He swallowed and nodded. "It evolved from the Federation's language...and evolution of language often, but not always follows the evolution of similar cultures. But in this case...I think it's the same language."
"Time Lords are..." she nearly spat. "Evolved Federation?"
His eyes were equal measure angry and sad as he returned his gaze to her. "All facts point in that direction and I really would not like to dwell on that possibility at the moment, thank you."
The buzzing in her ears had increased and the wind increased, swirling sand around them like tiny shards. As it closed in on them, she reached for his hand, enclosing the Gatherer. He shifted so that his fingers interlaced with hers. Howling of the wind grew and she found the need to yell. "Are you sure they're those Federation people? You didn't recognize them!"
"At the moment, there's no doubt in my mind that they are who I think they are." he yelled in return. He reached for her other hand as the wind increased and swirled the sand around them. "They've mutated, evolved, changed...they're an aberration in this Expanse. Their mutation has made it so that they can't breathe air in most environments. That's the reason for- "
"The suits!" Tegan finished for him.
"Yes."
"Are they everywhere?"
"I don't think so..." he called. "I hope not. It might well be the only cell that exists, desperately trying to gain a foothold. They are very long lived. I think they might have been waiting for this object...leaving it somewhere safe..."
"Earth?"
"Precisely...and have now come back for it!"
"And the Gatherer..." she yelled.
"I can't let them have it, Tegan. I don't know how far back the path of destruction stretches, but it will stretch over the entire Galaxy if they continue. They've ceased to understand how it works. All they can dream of is spreading themselves thinly throughout the Galaxy...they're like a virus...insidious and deadly. They'll create and destroy on whim."
"But how do we keep it from them?"
The Doctor glared down at the object between their hands. "We don't. I can't allow this to be used elsewhere, Tegan."
She gaped at him and felt his hand tighten on hers. "Then what?"
"Well, I'll," he began and his voice caught on the words. His gaze centered on hers and held it. "I'll have to make sure it can never be used again. It's an object of unbelievable power that shouldn't be allowed in anyone's hands."
"We can take it with us..."
"Anyone's hands including ours...mine, Tegan!"
She shook her head. Sand seemed to be everywhere. "Then what can you do?"
He swallowed and shook his head. "I shall have to disable its permanent use. The technology that this instrument uses is similar to Gallifreyan psychotronic circuits...on a grander scale. A bit of tweaking of their basic programming and I should be able to switch it off permanently...feed a redundancy through its matrix."
She stared at him. A thought, a feeling tickled at the back of her mind and she swallowed hard. It was like the warehouse again, the feeling, the worry, the look in his eyes. "No."
"Tegan."
"You're going to have to stay with it, aren't you? What will happen when you feed that...that...redundancy or whatever it is you're talking about through it?"
Through the sand, she saw his look of determination and the inkling of remorse in his eyes. Even through the maelstrom of flying grains she saw their blue like a summer sky. "Yes, well..." he began his voice deep and strong. "That's the problem with circuits like this...when the redundancy is fed through the circuits someone will have to stay attached to it, constantly...coaxing the redundancy..."
"No."
"It's the only thing I can-"
"Think of another."
"If I left it to them, Tegan," he said his voice harsh. "If I left it to them without the redundancy, it would be like leaving them with a loaded gun."
"And if you stay with it...it'll be like the Daleks..." she shouted, not caring if the meaning was clear.
"And if I don't..." he said, lowering his voice. "They'll become like the Daleks, Tegan. The Gatherer won't kill...it will only destroy the civilization that was built...tear apart the cultural and resurrect the taboos...over time ..."
"Over time it will do to the Eye what it did here. Remember? I've seen it."
He nodded. "For all I know, Tegan...this is the cricket ball that brought that house of cards down."
"So it won't kill...but those brutes with the guns..." she shouted. "They will. They'll kill you."
"Do you have a better idea?" he asked, yelling.
His gaze turned sad and his look gave her the strength to straighten her. She stood tall as her dress whipped about her legs and his. She knew he was reliving the warehouse and the Daleks, the war...all in one moment. And she knew that he was right.
"We don't have a choice!"
She could feel pain shooting through her limbs, engulfing her hands and feet in flame. The only thing cooling, indeed peace-giving, was the familiar hand holding hers and the solidity of the key, the solution, the problem, clasped between their palms.
"There's always a choice!"
The Doctor's voice was more of a growl than anything, but she clung to the sanity she heard at its depth.
Everywhere she looked there was swirling sand. There was nothing in her ears but rushing wind, and it sounded like a freight train. Her skirt whipped about her legs, her arms, and her back. Her bare feet were hidden under layers of those stinging, burning, rubbing sand. She couldn't see them after all. The sun was gone, blacked out by the scoring grains.
She glanced down at the gun. Its shiny metal, rough and alien in texture than any Terran gun, was barely visible. "Peri's there," she shouted. "We have to go back."
"We're in agreement on that, Tegan!"
The Doctor pulled on their combined hands and brought her in closer. She tried to see his eyes, but her own stung from the sand and she had to close them. She knew the answer. She knew what it was that they were going to have to do. . In the loud darkness, she replied. "As soon as we show up..."
His other arm snaked about her waist and drew her in to his chest. The key was in their clasped hands, pointed to the earth. "Yes, we'll be targets," he responded.
She didn't answer. The Doctor's hand tightened, pressing the key into her palm, and squeezed it between their entwined hands. It had brought them here and even now, she could feel it thrumming with power. "It's a bargaining chip," she yelled, her head sideways on his chest. Her hand avoided the crisscrossed open wounds on his back. Even so, he winced.
"At the very least..." he agreed. "It's what they've wanted for thousands of centuries."
"It could destroy their entire race," she added.
His silence let her know that he had also thought of that eventuality. Either way, she knew that the moment they returned, their lives would depend on how quickly they could move, how quickly they could dodge and run, and she was so tired already. Weary to her bones, but far from ready to give up, she nodded. "We have a choice of what to do with it, but we don't have a choice of where to take it...we have to go back."
She could feel him nod. His voice sounded more private, less projecting. "Take a deep breath, Tegan. No time like the present. As soon as you feel the world solidify, run. Don't look for me. Don't wait...I'll be right behind you. If you hesitate..."
"You don't have to tell me twice, Doc," she replied. She felt him reach behind her and press the now familiar button on his wrist. As the world began to melt like a watercolor in the rain, she heard his voice against the side of her ear. "Brave heart, Tegan. It'll take more than this to kill us."
And then, as usual, there was nothing.
Somehow, in the same instant, they solidified, returned, slightly displaced from where they had been previously, and the Doctor released her. As she twisted, she saw that their unfriendly aliens were gathered about. They didn't look confused as to where she and the Doctor had gone, but neither were the aliens expecting the two of them to materialize in a different place.
As soon as she felt the world solid under her feet, she ran. The gun was in her hand, a cold, firm, strange friend. She lifted it and fired shots at the walkway in front of their pursuers. It splintered the stone.
She slid to a stop on the far side of one of the large pillared walk way. The Doctor didn't make it as far and stopped at the edge of the walkway, facing her across the cobbled stone. "Fine shooting, Tegan!" he called as he brought the Gatherer up to where he could see it better.
"I didn't hit anything!" She called back agitatedly. Then she watched him fiddling about on the bottom side of the small object. "Are you turning it on, Doc? Do we have a choice?"
"We always have a choice!" Conviction resounded in his voice and she realized he had had an idea in the intervening moments. She watched him fiddling with the Gatherer. It flickered in the sunlight, its facets reflected back, blinding her momentarily. As she watched, the Doctor leaned into the column, his head bent over the instrument. The stone above his head exploded in shards as a laser shot hit.
Tegan turned and squeezed off a couple of rounds towards their pursuers. She didn't aim to hit, she aimed to confuse. It gave the Doctor a couple of minute's breathing room. "Come on, Doc..." she muttered. Then called louder. "Doctor?!"
"A moment, Tegan!"
"We don't have a moment!"
The Doctor grimaced. "I'm working as fast as I can!"
"What are you doing?" she cried and ducked as a volley of shots hit the wall.
"When I say so, Tegan, give me cover. I need to be over there with you..." he gritted between his teeth. He turned the object over in his hands and then speared her with a glance. "Now!"
Tegan stepped out slightly and laid down cover fire until the Doctor slid to a stop next to her. "What are you doing?" she hissed.
"I'm going to give them their Gatherer, Tegan," he muttered, a tight smile on his face. "Get Peri when they release her. Lead her out of here. Don't look back."
"I don't like the sound of that. I'm not leaving here without you."
"I don't intend to have this situation escalate and I haven't thought of another way and time is, as always, of the essence," he muttered. Then with a shout, he addressed the Federation: "I have your civilization builder!" After a sigh, he repeated the phrase in Gallifreyan.
"Release the girl..." he muttered for Tegan and then called it out in Gallifreyan. Then he raised his hat above the level of the wall along with the Gatherer.
"Are you mad?" Tegan squinted at the Doctor. "Think of something else..." she pleaded.
"Trust me," he responded. When the firing stopped, they cautiously glanced over the top of the wall. The soldiers stood at attention, their guns held at ready. Peri was held at arms length, nearly dangling from the much taller humanoids grip. Her beautiful dress was covered in ash and shards from the splintered path. Tegan bit her lip. Her friend looked unharmed otherwise.
The Doctor called out in that strange language of his and Tegan braced herself. "If they're relatives of yours," she breathed, as she tried a last ditch effort to make him see logic. "They'll know you're going to do something, Doc. You won't make it two steps..."
"Yes...I had thought of that..." he whispered to her. He fingered the Gatherer and then closed his eyes briefly. She watched as his fingers danced a merry tune on the pad of the object and saw his mouth move as though offering up a silent liturgy of prayer to whatever God Gallifreyans observed. She wanted to reach out and yank it from his grip.
Her eyes fell from his face to the object in his hands. "Doc..."
The catch in her voice must have tripped something in him for he squinted as though struck by an alien thought. His eyes met hers and something...ill timed humor...affection... brought a gleam to their blue and crinkled the skin at the edge of the eyes. The smile didn't make it to his mouth. "Brave heart, Tegan."
"They'll kill you..." she hissed. "It's like..."
"No...in the warehouse," the Doctor sighed. "On the ship, I set out to be a murderer..."
She gripped the gun. He released the Gatherer and laid his hand on hers over the weapon.
"Here, you're just committing some sort of grand suicide," she said quietly. "Don't do it....please?"
After a firm shake of his head and a squeeze of her hand, he touched her cheek. "I can do this, Tegan, without bloodshed and can deal with the situation. A little bit of personal risk is acceptable. Get Peri. Stay safe."
"Stubborn..." she muttered. "So goddamned stubborn..."
A small smile curved his lips and he released a small sigh. "Tegan..." His eyes turned gentle, endless, and the color of a summer sky. She could see him hesitate and that hesitation made her clamp down on her reaction. But the blazing thought in her mind was that she would protect him as best she could, as she had learned on the jungle. Little bloodshed, he wasn't being a murderer, two sides of a small war could be pacified, and a weapon eliminated...good outcome maximized, cost minimized....Supremo would be happy. The Doctor would be happy. He was taking the only cost on his shoulders.
With a wry sigh, she realized that that much hadn't changed. The only thing that had...was her.
And her feelings.
But if she didn't let him do this, so much else could or would go wrong...people's lives...they couldn't not do something.
"Good luck. Go on," she whispered. She knew exactly what he needed to hear.
The Doctor smiled wider and rubbed her cheek with his thumb, his hand cold against her skin. Quickly, he leaned in, his lips brushing the corner of her mouth against her cheek. "Brave heart."
And then he rose, turned and stepped out into clear view.
She watched as he walked across the open courtyard. Her finger itched on the trigger of the gun and she kept it aimed, locked against the top of the wall. He might have had to do what he needed to do, but her sanity dictated that she stay and cover his back. The Doctor walked slowly across the distance, both hands held out to show only the Gatherer and nothing else.
The sounds of his footsteps on the gravel of the courtyard echoed in the battered silence after the gunfire. And the sight of his orange blood bleeding through the back of his white shirt made her wince. As he neared, several guards raised their guns. Still, the Doctor kept his hand wrapped around the instrument; the circuit was still being manipulated.
The Federation leader waved his hand towards the ground, but the Doctor shook his head, stepping closer to the group.
Guns rose and trained on him. A round of laser fire landed near his feet and she bit back a moan. She was only one gun; if she took shots, they would have to be wise ones. And she had to think of Peri. They would certainly harm her. She would have to make a decision on whom to shoot first and live with the consequences, if she could.
The Doctor eased forward another step calling out in his foreign language. Tegan watched as Peri was slowly released and ran forward. He caught the girl in a light embrace with one arm and gently prodded to her off towards where Tegan hid. Reluctantly the girl did as he bid.
As Peri ran toward her, Tegan's stress level decreased slightly. But she didn't let the gun falter. Beyond the fluttering fabric of her running friend, she saw her lover gesturing madly, nearly flinging the object wide in his hands. She could see his anger in his posture in the way his hand shook, in the arrow straightness of his back, in the way his head reared. At least now she had only one target to worry about.
The leader neared the Doctor, holding out his hand for the object. Tegan could see the other hand raised as if ordering to fire on his mark. She leaned further down into the wall, the gun held steady on the top. Peri slid around the edge of the wall and joined her.
"Tegan?"
"He's being a hero again," Tegan bit out in answer.
She felt Peri's hand on her shoulder, but instead of warmth, she could only feel pressure.
One of the guards lifted his gun and took aim on the Doctor. Tegan pressed herself further into the wall, feeling the harsh edge cut her skin, but it only served to make her concentrate harder.
She could see the hand tighten on the gun. The Doctor's voice was raised in anger and yet he still gripped the Gatherer tightly in his fist.
With a deep breath, she tightened her finger on the trigger.
The Doctor raised his hand; the Gatherer glittered in the sun.
The world exploded in a shower of fireworks that threw both her and Peri to the ground.