Welcome back! In the words of a very wise man, "This is the day! This! Is! The Day! This is the day everything begins!"
Barry leaned on a railing at Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff, watching the sun sparkle on the waters. There were times, he had to admit, that his
own planet could be as magnificent as any other. Behind him, he heard Jack and the Doctor exit the ship, and he turned with a grin. The
Doctor had explained that Gwyneth's sacrifice had sealed the rift in time and space that ran through Cardiff, but it still produced energy that
the TARDIS could use to refuel.
"She's soaking up the temporal energy from the rift, and should be ready to go by tomorrow," the Doctor announced as he joined Barry, Jack
coming by to lean on his other side and wink at a local man in a suit walking by. The man blushed and hurried off, and Barry rolled his eyes
affectionately.
"Great! So, uh, what's there to do in Cardiff?"
"Oh, I'm sure we can find something. Hang out, as you lot say. September 15th, 2006. Wind's coming from the…east. Trust me," the Doctor
smiled.
"Safest place in the universe."
"Oh, I hate it when you say something like that," Barry muttered, but he grinned back and headed after his friends.
-
Later, the three of them sat around a table in a diner as Jack held forth on one of his tales from the Time Agency, which were so ridiculous
he honestly couldn't tell whether or not it was made up. Barry listened with half an ear as he watched the Doctor stand up, grab a paper out
of someone's hand, and hold it up.
"And I was having such a nice day," he said sadly. The picture on the front was of Margaret Blaine.
"According to intelligence, the target is the last surviving member of the Slitheen family, a criminal sect from the planet
Raxacoricofallapatorious, masquerading as a human being, zipped inside a skin suit," Jack recited as they strode into the building. "Okay,
plan of attack: We assume a basic fifty seven fifty six strategy, covering the most likely exits on the ground floor. Doctor, you go face to
face. That'll designate Exit One, I'll cover Exit Two. Barry, you'll take Exit Three. Have you got that?"
"Excuse me," the Doctor put in. "Who's in charge?"
"Sorry. Awaiting orders, sir."
The Doctor straightened up and stared forward, and his troops all looked to him attentively. Then he grinned.
"Like he said. Nice plan. Anything else?"
"Present arms."
Each held out their cell phones.
"Ready."
"Ready."
"Ready. Speed dial?"
"Yup."
"Ready."
"Check."
"See you in hell."
They headed off.
-
"Slitheen headed north," the Doctor announced.
"Got it!" Barry snapped into his mobile, then flicked it closed and ran off. He'd always been a good runner, and his time with the Doctor had
definitely improved his skills. He dodged around a cleaning cart, caught his foot in it, and tumbled to the ground. Another skill the Doctor and
a life of being chased by bullies had given him was getting up swiftly, and so he jumped to his feet, apologized to the cleaning lady, and
dashed away. Then, just as his sides were starting to hurt, he burst out into the fresh air, colliding with Margaret. Both of them tumbled to
the ground, and she rolled away, reaching for something she'd dropped. He lunged, but she was faster, and with a flash of light, she
disappeared as the Doctor and Jack ran up.
"Sorry, guys, I was too late."
"No, you weren't," the Doctor said cheerfully, and held up his sonic screwdriver. She reappeared right in front of them, took one look, and
turned to run again, but the sonic brought her back. Vanish, reappear, vanish, reappear.
"I could do this all day," the Doctor told her calmly.
"This is persecution," Margaret protested. "Why can't you leave me alone? What did I ever do to you?"
"You tried to kill me and destroy this entire planet," the Doctor reminded her. She shot him a look that could've soured milk at fifty paces.
"Apart from that."
Escorting her inside, the group discovered what Jack called a "tribophysical waveform macrokinetic extrapolator," or, basically, a pan-
dimensional surfboard, which she'd been planning to use to blow open the Rift.
"How'd you think of the name of the project?" the Doctor asked, looking up at a poster.
"What, Blaidd Drwg? It's Welsh," she shrugged.
"I know, but how did you think of it?" the Doctor pressed.
"I chose it at random, that's all," Margaret insisted. "I don't know. It just sounded good. Does it matter?" "Blaidd Drwg," the Doctor said. He
translated it: Bad Wolf. He and Barry exchanged worried looks, thinking over all of the times they'd heard that phrase recently. The Doctor
dismissed it, but Barry frowned to himself. Before he could think much about it, though, the Doctor announced that they were taking
Margaret home.
"So we're actually going to…hang on…Raxa…Raxacorico….thingy," Barry frowned in concentration.
"…fallapatorius," the Doctor finished impatiently.
"Raxacoricofallapatorius!" he cheered, and the three friends high-fived.
"They have the death penalty there," Margaret told them coldly.
"Where? On Raxacoricofallapatorius?" Barry grinned at her. She shot him another glare, and nodded, explaining that returning there would
be an automatic death sentence for her.
"Not my problem," the Doctor replied, equally coolly.
Back in the TARDIS, Margaret tried some pretty obvious flattery, calling the TARDIS the "technology of the gods." The Doctor was as
unimpressed as Barry was.
"Don't worship me - I'd make a very bad god. You wouldn't get a day off, for starters," he told her.
Jack confirmed that the extrapolator would have them ready to go by morning.
"Long night ahead," Margaret almost purred. "Let's see who can look me in the eye."
One by one, she looked around at the others. One by one, they dropped her gaze. Barry sighed to himself. Surely, what she'd done merited
execution, if anything did. But they were pretty much killing her. It was one thing to let an enemy die as a result of their own schemes. But
dropping her off and watching her die? Suddenly, his stomach felt like it had the time he'd eaten too much Big Belly Burger in one night in
order to impress Iris.
"Can I give you a hand with the extrapolator, Cap?" he asked.
"I could always use one of your hands, Bare," the older man assured him with a wink. Barry flushed scarlet.
-After
After Margaret left for her dinner date with the Doctor, both wearing bangles that would shock her if she moved too far away, the TARDIS
was quiet. Though Barry's scientific knowledge wasn't anywhere near Jack's, he was intelligent, quick to learn, and could put wire A into slot
B and provide an extra pair of hands. As they worked together, exchanging quiet commentary and banter, Barry became aware of a sense of
contentment at the simple, manual labor. He was sure the Doctor would figure something out-it was what he always did. For now, he was
with his friend, and everything was fine. Until the extrapolator went crazy.
"What's happening?"
"It's feeding off of the TARDIS!" Jack shouted to him as both of them leapt for the console. Barry knew a little about the controls, but this
was completely beyond him. He pulled out the extrapolator connections, but it didn't seem to do much. The extrapolator glowed, and the
TARDIS shook.
"There's an earthquake outside!" the captain shouted, glancing at the scanner. Barry pulled a lever he thought might help, but it was
impossible to tell if it had had any effect. A scream ripped through the air, and it took him a moment to realize it had come from the scanner.
A woman was lying trapped under a piece of rubble, and without hesitating twice, Barry rushed outside and lifted it just far enough for her to
roll out. Above, the clouds snapped and roiled and boiled, and some instinct drew his gaze upwards. There was a bright flash of light, an
eternal instant of enormous pain, as if every cell in his body were simultaneously freezing and boiling, and then…nothing.
Oh, my, whatever happened to Barry? What's going to happen next? Well, part 2 will be coming out shortly. Please, please leave a review-they really make it worthwhile.
And in case anyone's wondering about Jack and Barry-the former would be more than happy to take just about anyone's pants off, though Barry is pretty much heterosexual. If you want to imagine Barry and Jack going at it offscreen, though, by all means be my guest.
I also wanted to briefly touch on the eternal dilemma superheroes face, regarding Thou Shalt Not Kill. Barry's obviously against killing, but in this episode he does tacitly support letting Margaret get killed. It's foreshadowing his eventual choice as a superhero. Obviously, he'll do his best to save lives as much as he can, but when pressed, when there's no other option, he will do what must be done.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American readers!
