CHAPTER 21

THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN

Jason was silent as he considered the Doctor's latest revelation and its possible implications concerning himself. Finally he drew a deep breath. "Doctor, you are going to take me back, aren't you? To my own time, I mean."

"That was my intention," the Time Lord replied. "Why would you assume otherwise?"

"It's just…I know what a stickler you are with time disruptions and altered timelines," Jason replied, adding forcefully, "I'd rather not put my family through all the pain of not knowing what happened to me again. Surely you understand that?"

"Again?" Mel said in a surprised tone. "You make it a habit of disappearing?"

Jason's face clouded. "I try not to, but lately it seems unavoidable."

"Jason, if, as you say, I am a stickler with altered timelines, you'll know I will do everything in my power to return you to your proper place in time," the Doctor injected seriously.

"Yes, but…"

"And you also know perfectly well that I can get you back before you even left. But I think a short interval might be wiser. The next day, perhaps."

The Alterran nodded absently and attempted to shake off his dark thoughts. "Y'know, it's the strangest thing. Just before it happened the whole bridge—I don't know. It's hard to describe. It's as if it…warped for a second. I felt the bulkhead actually move in my hand, like it turned to putty and then hardened again."

"Sounds as if you felt the beginnings of the temporal distortion," the Doctor observed, clearly impressed. "And actually observed it happening. Perhaps all that contact with my time aura has made you time sensitive to some degree." He had no way of knowing that Jason's sensitivity actually sprang from the temporal manipulator being focused on him.

"That was just before the world turned upside down," the Alterran said darkly.

"Yes. Time distortions can have that effect."

Jason met Mel's sympathetic gaze, and finally asking the question he had been dying to ask since he came out of his coma. "Okay, now it's your turn. How did you two end up here? And at completely different points in the same time zone?"

"Oh that's quite simple. Mel and I went temporal surfing, didn't we, Mel?" the Doctor replied airily, going on to explain the events that had separated him from his companion and eventually led him to be sent to Florida as a language specialist. "The one thing I don't understand is the bouncing that distortion did before you finally popped out in the year 2000."

Jason snorted, remembering the roller coaster ride inside the distortion. He explained about watching the events on the monitor in the passenger cabin and was puzzled by the Doctor's reaction when he mentioned bumping the drone and the near miss of the large satellite in a low orbit. "I cannot believe the amount of space junk circling this planet," he remarked. He noticed an all too familiar look in the Time Lord's eyes as he glanced back in the mirror. "What do you know that you're not telling me, Doctor?" he asked in a guarded tone.

"Ah, well…" the Doctor began hesitantly.

"It's bad, isn't it?"

The Time Lord cleared his throat. "There are close to three thousand satellites orbiting this planet. Amongst these and the other 'space junk,' as you put it, is the Russian space station MIR, which, from your description, is what you nearly hit when you entered this time zone. It is currently on a decaying orbit and will eventually enter the Earth's atmosphere and burned up over the Pacific Ocean in late March of next year."

"And the drone?"

The Doctor threw a pointed look in Mel's direction. "Ah. Now that…wasn't a drone. It was an Orbiter on re-entry decent in the year 2003."

"An Orbiter?"

"I believe the common reference is Space Shuttle."

Jason's eyes grew wide. "Doctor, that ship disintegrated after—Oh my God." Clearly overwhelmed, he ran a hand through his hair, his breathing becoming fast and shallow. "Oh my God. Those things are manned!"

"Jason…"

"How many onboard?" Receiving no reply, Jason demanded again, "Dammit, Doctor, how many onboard!"

The Doctor drew a deep breath before replying. "Seven."

Mel was amazed at the transformation the Alterran was undergoing, his distress and agitation increasing by the second. "Stop the car," he blurted out suddenly. "Stop the car!"

"Jason, calm down," the Doctor admonished. "It hasn't happened yet."

"I do not want to hear about the inevitability of history, dammit! Now stop the car or I swear I'll fly out this window!" Jason threatened, thumping the door with his fist. "You know I can do it."

The Doctor brought the car to a halt along the side of the road. His friend was out of the back seat almost before the vehicle came to a complete stop. The Time Lord jumped out after him, but did not give chase. He knew Jason needed to work everything out for himself and watched as he stalked off toward the nearby trees, clearly overwhelmed. Mel got out of her side of the car and went to the Doctor's side. "Shouldn't we go after him?" she asked quietly.

"No, not yet." Looking down at his companion, the Doctor said, "I've thrown an awful lot at him at once. I'm afraid it's a case of too much information and too little time to absorb it."

Jason was pacing back and forth a few metres away. After a minute he moved into the shade, sat down, and, much to Mel's surprise, started to cry. The Doctor walked over to his distraught friend, waiting in silence until he got control of himself. "Come back to the car," he said quietly. "We'll get a room for the night at the next Exit."

"But we're so close…"

"Trust me, Jason, you're in no condition to see that ship."

His friend nodded, wiping the tears from his face. "I'm…sorry I snapped," he said, and then shook his head at the irony of his own words. "Maybe I really have snapped. I'm still not over what happened on Aegis. I think I have it under control and then something happens to…" His voice trailed off and he sighed, his eyes still focused on the ground.

"How long has it been for you?" the Time Lord asked gently.

"Ten years. Ten…very long years." The Alterran got to his feet and looked at the Doctor, a mournful expression on his face. "So many deaths…" he said, a faraway look in his eyes. "There, on Tel-Shye, and now here. All around me, so many deaths. Why am I always the only one left alive?" Not really expecting an answer, he started back towards the car, oblivious to the stunned look that had come to the Doctor's face.

Suddenly question after question started screaming for attention in the Doctor's mind. Why had Jason survived the crash? The odds against it were astronomical. The ship had practically disintegrated on impact, and UNIT's initial metallurgic analysis showed severe metal fatigue brought on by extreme age. Each time it was analyzed it had aged several decades more until it finally disintegrated away to dust. And even though Jason was not human, he wasn't immortal either, nor was he immune to the ravages of time; yet he was curiously unaffected by the devastating effects of being inside the temporal distortion. Then there was the distortion itself. Why had it bounced around so much at the end? It was almost as if someone were attempting to stop it at a specific point in time.

True to his word, the Doctor pulled off at the next Exit and stopped at a motel where the emotionally exhausted Alterran could rest and compose himself. Within a few minutes, the three were checked in and carrying Mel's suitcases into their adjoining rooms on the ground floor.

The Doctor put the heaviest of the cases on the middle of one bed as his companion placed two smaller ones side by side on the floor, her plan being to sort out their contents properly and repack them. The Doctor got to the open connecting door just in time to see Jason stretch out onto one of the beds in their room. He closed his eyes, a heavy sigh escaping him.

"Looks like dinner will be 'take out' as they say in this country," the Time Lord remarked to his companion.

"Why's that?" Mel appeared beside him a moment later and smiled. "Oh. Yes, I see."

"Don't let me stop you," Jason said wearily, not bothering to open his eyes. "I'll be fine."

"No, I don't think you should be on your own just yet," the Doctor replied firmly, the edge to his voice causing Jason to sit up, a puzzled look on his face.

"Doctor, I'm fine now. I was just—" Seeing the serious expression on his friend's face, Jason's eyes narrowed. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing I can put my finger on," came the vague reply.

"Yet," his former companion added sharply.

The Doctor nodded. "Yet. Someone was awfully keen on getting you out of UNIT's control. And I'm not entirely sure why. It may have only been a power play. Or it may not."

"But they think he's dead now, surely?" Mel injected.

"Yes…" the Doctor replied evasively. "And then there are the coincidences."

"Coincidences?"

"Have either of you noticed that quite a number of coincidences have occurred in a very short period of time?"

"Didn't you used to say something about the universe being run by coincidences?" Jason asked. With a small knowing smile, he added, "In fact, I'd swear you actually rely on them."

"I will admit there is a random quality to my travels. But I have a very odd feeling…." The Doctor suddenly seemed to come out of his dark mood. "Tell you what. You two stay here and I'll get us some dinner."

"And…?"

The Time Lord's smiled. "And have little recce at the same time."

"He's getting suspicious," l'X'el pointed out, throwing his brother a so-there look.

"There's no reason he should suspect anything now that he thinks the distortion is to blame," K'ell'k snorted, thinking his brother was grasping at straws to make his point.

"Have it your way. I can't monitor his thoughts, only his actions and they are very clear." Seeing K'ell'k's dubious expression, l'X'el added firmly, "To me, at least."