Chapter Three

Overlap

The Doctor grunted an unintelligible reply and continued with his work.

Not quite believing what he was seeing, Turlough followed Ace's nervous glance, going cautiously over to the central control console where, to his horror, he saw a pair of feet protruding from beneath.

"Professor!" Ace hissed again.

Finding his voice at last, Turlough demanded, "What do you think you're doing under there?"

Startled by the unexpected male voice, the Doctor came out from under the console and stared up at the vexed young man a moment before breaking into a broad smile. "Great Gallifrey, Turlough!" he gasped. "What on earth are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" Turlough was incredulous. "What are you—?" He broke off as the Time Lord's greeting sank in, scowling down at the strange little man beneath the console. "How do you know my name?"

"Ah, you may well ask," the intruder grinned as he got to his feet. "I have the advantage of time, you see."

"No, I don't see," the young man replied acidly.

"Neither do I," Ace injected. "Doctor, do you actually know him?"

The Time Lord nodded. "Oh, yes. We're old friends, aren't we, Turlough?"

Turlough wasn't listening. He was too busy trying to absorb what Ace had just said. "Doctor?" he gasped unbelievingly, throwing a quick glance back towards the inner door before looking the Doctor up and down again. "But you're not…" His voice trailed off and his eyes grew wide as he realized what must have happened. Turning sharply back to the inner door, his body seemed to sag. "Oh no, I have to sit down," he muttered, a hand to his head. "We must've crossed time streams. That's what caused the temporal disturbance." He sank slowly into a nearby chair, his mind reeling with the possible implications of the present situation.

"Ah! Temporal disturbance. Of course, I should've known," the Doctor clucked, glancing over at the console. "That would explain why all the systems are off-line." He looked over at his current, and now very confused companion, seeing her glaring angrily back at him. "Oh dear, oh dear, I am slipping. Ace, this is Turlough. Turlough, Ace."

Ace ignored the introduction. "Doctor, what's going on?"

"Well…it's a bit complicated," the Doctor sighed as he started to circle the console.

"You'd better tell her slowly and in words of one or two syllables, Doctor," Turlough injected dazedly.

"You keep out of this!" Ace snapped angrily.

"Gladly," Turlough snorted as he got to his feet. "I need to see if the Doctor—my Doctor—is still where I left him."

"What?" the Time Lord called from across the room. "You weren't on the planet's surface during the distortion?"

"No, I was in the TARDIS with the Doctor…the other Doctor. You know what I mean. The one I—" Turlough sighed heavily. He knew the Time Lord was following him, but he was con fusing himself. "Anyway, just before the temporal disturbance hit, he…well, he collapsed."

"And you were in the TARDIS?"

"Yes. In vortex."

The Doctor's face darkened considerably. "The TARDIS must've materialized inside itself," he said to himself before asking, "So, it's just the two of you, then?"

"Yes. Well…not unless you count Kamelion."

"Kamelion!" the Doctor gasped. He had forgotten about the shape shifting robot he had been forced to destroy on Sarn. Then again, now that he thought about it, he had parted company with Turlough on Sarn as well.

"Not that he'll be much good now," Turlough was saying. "He blew a fuse or something just before your other self collapsed."

Ace was now completely lost. "Doctor, what is he talking about? What other self?"

The Doctor exchanged a dark look with his former companion and sighed heavily. "Lead on, Turlough," he said in a theatrical tone. "I'll try to explain on the way."

Turlough was relieved to find his Doctor exactly where he had left him, sleeping peace fully and apparently unaffected by the TARDIS's recent upheaval. As the young man crossed to the bed side, he was appalled to see the Doctor's body seemed to blur, looking like the same im age superimposed a dozen times over. He put his hand on the Time Lord's shoulder and was relieved when he returned to a single solid image. "Doctor," he said, gently shaking him. "Doctor, can you hear me?"

The Doctor moaned softly, his eyes fluttering open a crack. "Turlough…?" he said weakly, struggling to focus on the boy's concerned face. Touching the hand on his shoulder, he said fear fully, "Turlough, we've got to get out of here. I saw it. It's out there!"

"What is?"

"A hole in Time. Enormous. Terrifying. We must get to the TARDIS!"

"Doctor, you were dreaming," Turlough said reassuringly.

"No!" the Time Lord cried, grabbing his companion by the arm. "Turlough, I saw it. A tear in the fabric of Time itself. I was being…dragged into it." His strength suddenly seemed to fail him and he fell back and closed his eyes. "We must...get to the TARDIS. It's the…only protection. It must be closed."

Trying not to let his growing apprehension work its way into his voice, Turlough said soothingly, "Doctor, you were having a nightmare. You're already in the TARDIS. See? You're perfectly safe here."

The Doctor struggled to comprehend, looking at his companion and then at his surroundings. Sighing heavily, he said at last, "I must be sicker than I thought. You're right, of course. I…I must've been…dreaming." By now he was completely drained and settled back in bed. "We'll be safe in the TARDIS," he muttered as he drifted off to sleep.

An extremely worried Turlough turned to Ace and her Doctor, who were standing in the door way. "I don't understand it. He's not sick. He just doesn't seem to have any energy. And now he's body's going out of synch. I don't know what to do."

In a quiet, almost fearful tone, the Doctor at the door replied, "Neither do I."

Ace's mouth dropped open in amazement. The Doctor had tried to explain the situation, but she was still having difficulty grasping it. How could the tall, fair-haired young man in the bed also be the smaller, darker individual who stood beside her?

"Hang on a minute, Professor," she interrupted. "You say that that's you over there, right? In a kind of…past life?"

"That's one way of putting it, yes."

"Then why don't you know what to do? If this already happened to you, then you must know what we did."

While this sounded logical enough, the Doctor pointed out that there were two major problems. First, the crossing of one's own time stream was a very tricky business and had a tendency to leave memory gaps. It was also against the Time Laws, but he chose to keep this point to him self. The second point was that his other self was hardly in any condition to be recalling any thing.

"I think I'd better try and find some help," Turlough suggested practically. "We were sup posed to be on course for a medical station, but who knows where we are now."

The Doctor nodded. "An excellent idea, Turlough. But I shall go, and I want you both to stay put until I get back. Alright? Good." Before either of his companions could respond, he vanished through the door.