2. Verger Nine.

"Where did you take us to?" Chloe asks.
"To where reports said the issue is the worst," the Doctor says. "To the verge of where normal Hyperspace transportation will take you to. Verger Nine. " .

"How are the laws of Physics different here?" Chloe asks, keen to understand what they're up against.
"Let's see," the Doctor says.


The Doctor looks at information presented on the Console monitor. "There's a net imbalance of certain types of matter," the Doctor says. "Space is warped here. There are too many repellants. If nothing is done, then in a short time, possibly just weeks, chemical attraction will start to diminish and matter itself will cease to hold together, returning us to be dust of the lonely Universe; just a short time earlier than everyone else in the Universe. If we try to correct this and we get it wrong, there will shortly be a Big Crunch here!"

"Who's that over there?" Chloe points at a sleek Tardis not far away as the Doctor's Tardis highlights it on the screen.
"It looks like Gallifrey's own bunch of Time Consultants to probe the deeps," the Doctor says. "I wonder who they are, and who picked them?"

Crystelle One staggers into the Tardis Control room from the corridor. "Doctor, I want to make a difference, not just lie there fading away."

"Absolutely," the Doctor welcomes Crystelle One's valiant attempt. He says this mostly to encourage her as her time left is short.
The original Crystelle and Myriad accompany her into the Control room. They look concerned for Crystelle One's wellbeing.

"There's a time to rest and there's a time to venture," the Doctor says. "She can do a bit of venturing until she runs out of energy."

"What should we do with the other Tardis out there?" Chloe asks.
"Another Tardis?" Crystelle One asks. She peers at the screen. "Who's in there?"
"I just asked that," the Doctor says. "Let's find out!"
"Subtly, or unsubtly?" Crystelle One asks controversially.
"Doh, banter!" the Doctor recognises his noisy Tardis can't arrive quietly and sit in the other Tardis and eavesdrop.

"I don't mean we need to go there," Crystelle One says. She approaches the Console and presses the big blue Voice Control button. "Tardis, can we see and hear them without being seen or heard?"
The screen immediately shows three Time Lords deep in concentration looking at their Tardis Console monitor. Part of the Doctor's monitor screen starts to show what's on their screen.

"Who picked them?" the Doctor views them with disdain. "Were they supposed to perish? They've no idea what's happening here! They're just charting its progress!"

"What are all these numbers telling us?" Chloe asks.

The Doctor focusses on the screen contents. "The curvature of Time just here is extreme," the Doctor says as they study this information. "If we stay here much longer we won't be able to get back. Have they noticed that?"
"Apparently not," Crystelle One says observing the depth of their focus on other things. "But how did you deduce that?"
"Those numbers there," the Doctor vaguely indicates an area of the screen the three Gallifreyans in the other Tardis aren't looking at. "Time is heavily affected by something here." He indicates a pictorial image. "Look at those lines over there, pulsating to converge to a point, then changing to a vortex, but not the Time Vortex as we Time Lords know it, a natural Time Vortex. Whatever's causing it is beyond the convergence point."

"Is there anything we can do?" Myriad asks. She looks earnestly at the Doctor hanging off his every word.
"If we could hold the convergence point together and seal it, then Time might ping back to normal."

"Could we make something to do that?" Chloe asks, recalling the Doctor creating something when she was accompanying him on an almost forgotten adventure half a lifetime ago.
"We might," the Doctor says. He starts typing on the Tardis Console keyboard.


Can they do anything? Or is it better to just head back home while they can?