Chapter 3
"I've been in your study for two hours. I've run the mass spectrometer on all particulates… I've canned the EM spectrum in case a wave guide was somehow leaking radiation… I've even crawled into the life support ductwork… Professor, I don't know what this vortex was that you saw…"
"I didn't just see it. I felt it. I barely got away from it!"
And he realized how paranoid this sounded… and the others looked at him.
"Well, there's nothing there now. And no sign there ever was."
A silence. The Doctor frowned. "Is there any possible connection to Nita's experiment… could this time bubble be… floating around the TARDIS perhaps…"
"No, Professor. The bubble was definitely contained in the Control Room. There's no way it could affect something up on Deck Twelve. I've completed level-1 computer diagnostics. There are no malfunctions."
"Any other ships respond to our queries, Ace?"
"The Wellington is the only Alliance vessel in this sector… it reports normal operations. A Judoon ship within communications range also reports nothing unusual."
"Have external sensors detected anything out of the ordinary?"
"The interstellar medium in this sector is slightly denser than average. However, all readings are well within normal parameters."
The Doctor mulled this over. His eyes stared at the table top. He looked up for the first time. Calmly- "Stay in your quarters."
Suddenly the cloister bell started ringing.
"Nita, I'd like you to program onboard sensors to monitor all of us… if we can catch the exact moment someone disappears…"
Ace moved down the hall. The Doctor, trying to contain his frustration, hurried after her…
"Ace?"
Ace stopped, waited for the Doctor.
"I need you to tell me if I've gone completely mad."
Ace smiled. "If you can ask the question, I'd say no."
"Don't evade the question."
"Then ask me one I can answer," said Ace, sympathetically.
"Ace, I have memories of a friend who no longer exists! You don't remember him. But I can close my eyes, and see his face as clearly as I see yours! What if it isn't some huge conspiracy?! What if it's just me?!"
"What if it is just you?"
"Then, I've delayed a mission, scared you… and me…"
"So what? Professor, you've acted in the best interests of your TARDIS and companions. What more could you ask of yourself? If it turns out to be a… mistake… we'll be a little late to Durenia Four… that's all."
"It's not a mistake… I wish it were…"
"When we reach Starbase, I'll request a complete workup: both physical and psychological."
"If we reach Starbase. Nita… where's Nita…?"
He doesn't finish, just turns and goes.
The Doctor rushed into the Control Room. He goes to the computer station Nita was working on before. The same distinctive Okudagram was on the monitors, graphically illustrating the time field bubble. But Nita was not there. The Cloister Bell was still ringing.
"Nita!"
Nita came out from behind the console.
"Theta? You all right?"
The Doctor brought himself under control "No. We may have very little time left…"
Nita looked at him with concern…
"You don't believe me…"
"I don't know, Theta…"
"I don't have time to convince you. My friend has gone and your experiment is the only possible explanation we have to work on right now…"
She indicated the monitor where they saw the CAD representation of the distinctively-shaped bubble. "There it is. I don't know what else to do…"
"Then find someone who does… someone who knows more about… about time bubbles…"
"I've already talked to Romana on subspace… she can't explain it either and it's all based on her equations. There is someone who might be able to help us, but I can't reach him."
"Who?"
"He was Romana's assistant… an artificial being, a construct of the Gallifreyan Matrix… He said he was "Shayde"… somehow he combined time technology with the energy of this own thoughts…"
"Yes, I remember…" said the Doctor thoughfully. "He took us where thoughts and reality became indistinguishable… Nita, is it possible you've accidentally re-created something he did? Something that could alter reality?"
"I don't see how. But he's the only one who could tell us… I've sent a message by subspace, but Gallifrey is so far away, it'll take days to get there."
They started walking down the corridor.
"I don't even know if he's still around. He was malfunctioning."
"Nita, it's a chance, we have to…"
They turned a corner. When the Doctor went around the corner, Nita was gone.
"-try it…" the Doctor continued. He realized Nita was gone. "Nooooo!"
The cloister bell was still ringing. The Doctor entered the Control Room. Ace was there.
"Nita's gone…" the Doctor said calmly.
Ace looked at her.
"Nita… let me guess – you've never heard of her."
"Professor, I believe I've bee more than fair. I've done everything I can to substantiate your… your perceptions-"
"Nita Llewcots! Your best friend. She's very good at poker, likes to cook, listen to jazz, plays the trombone…"
"I cannot find any evidence…"
"never gets the punch line to a joke…?"
"Professor, we'll be arriving at Starbase One-Three-Three in a few minutes…"
"loves chocolate, her mother makes you shudder? My fiancé – she's been the living, breathing heart of this TARDIS for over two years. She deserves better than to be shrugged off… brushed aside… to be pinched out of existence like this! She deserves so much more…"
Ace went to the Doctor, touched him gently on the arm. "Perhaps you should go to your quarters until we arrive…"
"It's perfectly logical to you. The two of us roaming about time and space. No one else."
"We've never needed anyone else before."
He sat beside her. "I don't suppose you remember an artificial being, a construct of the Gallifreyan Matrix who was once onboard… called himself Shayde…?"
Ace gave him a look of concern and sadness.
"Ace, I don't know how, but you and I must find this Shayde or another like him… If anyone can help us…"
"You have my word… as soon as we return to the starbase, I'll make every effort to find him."
"This isn't a delusion. It isn't a dream. There is a physical, measurable phenomenon at work. Maybe you can help me identify it…"
"How?"
"I'd like to use the TARDIS computer to monitor your life functions."
"Until I disappear."
"It will happen."
"Very well. TARDIS, continuous scan: Dorothy McShane vital signs. Audible readout. Begin now."
The computer began a low volume recitation of Ace's vital signs. There were electronic EEG sounds and: "One ten over seventy. One ten over seventy." The readouts ran continuously in the back ground.
"I promise you I'll continue to do whatever I can to figure out what's happening, and to bring you all back. I'm sorry I lost my temper. You do remember that?"
"Vividly. But if I have forgotten my closest friend and comrade, as you say, I deserved every word."
"For quite awhile now there's something I've been meaning to say to you. I may not get another chance…"
The computer readout was gone in a wink. He was talking to empty air. He looked around the control room, and shook his head. "I won't forget. I won't forget any of you!"
He heard a faint roaring noise, rapidly growing in intensity. He turned. The vortex was forming again in front of the viewscreen. He began to feel himself being dragged towards it. He grabbed on to the console, held on for dear life, as the vortex tried to claim him. It pulled him horizonal to the floor. But he was successfully fighting it. As his struggle continued, the vortex began to collapse. He saw the screaming heart of the maelstrom. Another place could be discerned in the distance. A voice became more distinct. It was Nita's voice.
"I'm losing it… The link isn't holding, Ace!"
On the other side of the vortex, Nita and Ace sat at computers, rapidly executing commands. No Cloister Bell. The vortex was swiftly contracting.
"I'll try the secondary equations!"
"No, it's too late. Look."
The vorex contracted until only a minute point of energy hung in space near the drive. Then this point, too, was gone.
"I've lost it."
"I'm sorry, Nita."
"It's over. We'll never get him back."
"It's not over, Nita," came a voice.
Nita and Ace turned in surprise.
Shayde phased in. "There's still a way."
