The Two-ish Doctors.
The Doctor and his traveling companion Peri entered the TARDIS. They were just leaving the planet Parthallia where they had stayed for a week, enjoying the sunshine and beaches. They had had a whole beach all to themselves for two whole weeks. Peri came away with a deep brown tan, and the Doctor came away with some interesting rocks and shells from his underwater dives. Peri put away her own souvenirs in her room as the Doctor immediately worked at the controls in the console room.
Finally out of the bikini and into a bright red leotard, Peri joined the Doctor. The console was beeping away, like an attention-starved puppy trying to get their attention. "What's that noise it's making?" Peri asked.
The Doctor was too busy trying to find out. "Hmm?" he muttered distractedly. Then he stood back and addressed her correctly, "There are some strange readings coming from the third zone. Space Station Camera."
"W', what kinda strange readings?"
"Slight fluctuations in the time stream. Didn't you feel them?"
Peri had no idea what a fluctuation to the time stream would feel like. Slight headache? An itch? Dizziness? And she was just beginning to get tired with being patronized. "No, Doctor," she said with a sigh. "I didn't feel anything."
"No," the Time Lord whispered to himself. "You wouldn't, would you?" He began working the controls again.
"I guess the vacation's over," Peri said.
The Doctor sighed. "Yes." Then he smiled to himself ever so slightly.
#
The TARDIS materialized in a small corner of the entrance lobby to the space station. The Doctor and Peri stepped out. There were many aliens and humanoids going about their business nearby, but none of them had noticed the TARDIS arrive. It looked very much like a huge lobby to a very expensive hotel back on Earth, Peri thought. The lobby went up at least ten stories with crisscrossing walkways and lift shafts. And one entire wall of the lobby was transparent and faced an incredible, multi-colored nebula just outside the space station.
It was mesmerizing. Peri walked up to the glass and just stared in awe. Then she jumped slightly when a robot came up to her from behind and said, "Welcome to Space Station Camera. Can I be of assistance?"
She ordered a drink.
The Doctor meanwhile found another robot and began ordering it about, "Excuse me. I need to know who here has been working on temporal experiments."
"I'm sorry," said the robot. "But all research projects are confidential."
"What are we gonna do now?" Peri asked, joining him.
The Doctor smiled, "Watch." He turned back to the robot. "I insist that you tell me what I want to know. It's a matter of life or death."
"In that case, sir, Professors Kartz and Reimer are working on temporal experiments."
"And where are they?"
"They have suites 88 to 101 all to themselves."
"Thank you," he said a bit smugly. "Come on," he said to Peri, just as the robot waiter arrived with her drink.
She flustered a moment and then said to the robot, "Never mind. I guess I won't have that drink after all."
The robot didn't care. It carried the tray with the drink back to the kitchen without a thought.
Once they were out of earshot of the robots, Peri asked the Doctor, "How did that work? That robot was just dumb."
"They're programmed to accept a life or death situation as an override to any other problem. But fortunately for us, they're not programmed to verify it. I suppose their programmers were the dumb ones."
They entered the lift and went up.
Once on the correct floor, the Doctor tried to walk casually, so as not to attract attention. Peri wasn't sure what to do as the Doctor whistled tunelessly, hands in pockets, examining a bit of the wall or ceiling.
Finally he found a door that would suit his needs. He made sure there were no security devices monitoring him or the door, he used his sonic lance to unlock it, and quickly nipped inside. Peri jumped in after him before the door slid shut again. They found themselves in a huge laboratory filled with electronic equipment. There were machines beeping and winking away which the Doctor pointed out to Peri, explaining their purposes, their functions, when they were created and by whom. And of course, his explanations left her none the wiser. He snuck around a bit more, from one connecting door and one laboratory to the next, until finally he walked into a large, virtually empty room and found himself strapped to a table. That is… another version of himself.
But unlike past encounters with himself, this one was the same regeneration! "You!" he shouted at the one on the table.
The one on the table looked up and shouted indignantly, "Well, it's about time! Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting for you!?"
"You knew we'd come?" Peri asked.
Both Doctors said together, "Obviously."
Then the one with Peri immediately ran over to unstrap his future self. The one strapped down was wearing a battered old brown leather jacket and the most uninteresting trousers. Before undoing the last strap, he stepped back in shock and looked at himself, "What on Gallifrey are you wearing!?"
"Would you kindly just unstrap me, please?"
The Doctor released himself and continued to glare at the others' leather jacket. "No. No. This won't do at all. Here…" He removed his multi-colored coat and handed it to his other self.
At that moment, a Sontaran entered the room. He assessed the situation and immediately drew his sidearm. "Don't move! Hands in the air!"
Both Doctors and Peri raised their hands above their heads. The Sontaran shot the coat, turning it to flames. The Doctor dropped it to the floor. He turned his glare to the Sontaran, "How DARE you!? Do you have ANY idea how UNIQUE that coat was!?"
The Sontaran set his pistol to minimal power and shot the Doctor square in the chest. The Doctor doubled over, clutching his injury. The Sontaran then slowly pulled his communicator off his belt and called the others. A few moments later, two humans and three more Sontarans entered the room.
"What's going on here?" asked one of the humans, who happened to be dressed exactly like the Doctor who had been strapped down.
That same Doctor replied, "Me, Peri, allow me to introduce you to Professors Kartz and Reimer. And these others are merely Sontaran thugs, and don't deserve to be introduced."
The lead Sontaran scowled and tightened his grip on his gun, "Be very careful, Time Lord."
The newest Doctor to the scene nodded in understanding. "Let me guess. You're trying to create your own time machine and you need the help, and I use that term loosely, of a Time Lord or two."
Kartz turned to Reimer. Kartz was a bit taller and slightly heavy-set. Reimer was a small man. "And you have clearly come back in time to rescue your earlier self."
Both Doctors scoffed. "You have it backwards!" the younger Doctor bellowed, more keen to show off his superior intelligence than to keep the information to himself and possibly gain the upper hand later. He pointed to the one who had just vacated the table, "He's the one from my future!"
Kartz nodded. "Well, it hardly matters. We have two of you." He then turned to Peri, "And one hostage. I believe that gives us the advantage." He turned to the Sontarans, "Take the girl. Lock her up safely and post a guard."
One of the Sontarans gripped Peri's arm and escorted her out of the room.
Kartz turned back to the Doctors, "Her safety depends entirely on your conduct."
The Doctor couldn't immediately think of a way out. So he agreed. The older Doctor was strapped down to the table once again, and the others all stepped into the next room. They watched on monitor screens as the Doctor's body was scanned in every detail. The Doctor in this room quickly saw that they were scanning for his symbiotic nuclei.
As the younger one watched helplessly, he turned to the nearest professor, Reimer, "Aren't these scanners dangerous?"
The small man paused in his readings just long enough to say, "Yes. That's why we're all safely in this room."
"But you might kill me!" the Doctor protested, indicating his other self in the next room.
"It's all right," Reimer said, very unsympathetically. "We'll still have this version of you as backup."
As this was his future self on the table, the younger Doctor, safely behind the wall, made a mental note to go on an anti-radiation tablet regimen for the foreseeable future.
The scanning resumed.
#
A day went by. The scanning was now complete. The Doctor's body was now fully mapped, and Kartz and Reimer were in their laboratory digging through the scans. Meanwhile the two Doctors continued to work under duress in the next room, under Sontaran guard. And Peri remained locked up in her own small room somewhere else in the space station. In fact the Sontaran guards kept such a close eye on them, that the Doctors could barely whisper to one another without getting a warning.
As the Doctors fiddled with improving a primitive version of a dematerialization circuit built by Kartz himself, they decided that they had better act now. They waited for the Sontaran guard to slack off for a moment in his vigilance. It was hard to tell if he was though, with that large helmet obscuring his features. But they soon realized that he wasn't going to relax any time soon. So they would have to try something anyway. They glanced surreptitiously towards the Sontaran. And then, with faces scrutinizing the work they were doing, one whispered, "Contact," and the other whispered, "Contact." It was over in two seconds. Without their guard even knowing that anything out of the ordinary had ever happened, the Doctors now had a detailed escape plan.
One continued working with the dematerialization circuit, while the other picked up the discarded temporal rectifier. It was in poor shape. But he had a good chance of making it work… at least work for him!
#
It was another day before the Doctors announced that they had something to show the professors. A breakthrough with the temporal rectifier. It was ten minutes before both Kartz and Reimer found the time to show up. They weren't too hopeful, as this was too soon for a breakthrough, and they still didn't trust the Doctors.
Once they were sure they had everyone's attention, one of the Doctors pressed the big red button. And suddenly the room was engulfed in the most tremendous noise! It was a time wind! Lights and colours so bright they were almost loud! The Doctors looked up. Everyone was frozen in time… except for the two Time Lords! They looked at each other to confirm that they were seeing this. It worked. Now phase two. The Doctor released the button, "Sorry about that."
"Sorry about what?" None of the others knew that anything at all had even happened.
Of course! They hadn't witnessed anything! The colourful Doctor quickly threw out a clever bluff, "Well, that's just it! Nothing happened. So sorry. Let me just increase the input energy and give it one more try."
Kartz sighed. Reimer shook his head. And the Doctor twisted a dial and then pressed the big red button again. The only trouble was the effect stopped immediately if he took his finger off the button. So the younger one shouted above the time winds, "You go! Obviously you're the one who should get away!"
"I know," the older one shouted. "I remember from the last time I was here! Don't worry! It'll work out!" And he left.
"I didn't doubt that," said the younger of the two, as he continued to hold his finger down on the button. He watched as the leather-clad Doctor darted quickly out of the room.
The younger Doctor continued to hold his finger down on the button. There was no telling how long his other self would need to find Peri and escape. But after three minutes of no time (so to speak) the machine gave up and burst into flame!
The professors and Sontarans suddenly found that time was passing again (though they had never actually noticed that it had stopped in the first place). But what they did notice was that there was only one Doctor now. From their point of view, it looked like a magic trick. There was a puff of smoke, and where there had been two Doctors, there was now only one! Reimer turned to the Sontarans, "Find him! Quickly!"
"And check on the girl!" Kartz added.
The professors turned angry frowns upon the Doctor, who met their frowns with a smug, victorious smile.
#
The next day they decided to scan him again. This time, they would intensify the scan, partly because they were still cross with the escape of the Time Lord's other self and the girl. "You know,"
said Reimer. "Another way to get a clearer scan was to have the subject remove his garments." Kartz hesitated, and then nodded.
The Doctor was strapped to the table. A Sontaran stood guard at the door. Another Sontaran entered the room and unstrapped the Doctor. "Thank you," the Doctor said.
The Sontaran then pulled out his gun. "Now remove your clothing."
"What?!" the Time Lord bellowed.
"Remove your clothes," the Sontaran said, gun trained on his prisoner.
"I will not!"
At that point, the Sontaran shot him… in the arm, and on low power. But it was enough to convince the Doctor that he was better off naked and alive than dead and clothed.
He slowly removed his clothes and threw them onto the floor with as much defiance as he could muster, fuming the whole time and trying to remain as dignified as he could.
Kartz came in at that point and held out a very thin hospital gown. Apparently killing didn't bother him. But to see someone treated so indignantly did.
The Doctor took the robe and put it on. "You're too kind," he said with as much sarcasm as he could.
"Now lay down, please."
As he climbed onto the table, the Doctor said pompously, "It's lie down, actually."
The professor strapped the Doctor down. Then he and the Sontarans left the room.
There was nothing he could do at this point except wait as they prepared their machine in the next room. This was going to take some time as they focused the scanning sensors. And he had to get out. There was no knowing where his future self was. So it was up to him. He thought about it, and eventually decided that the old tricks were the best tricks: he pretended to be ill.
"I know that you're probably not going to believe me," he began shouting loudly enough for them to hear. "But I think I may be sick." He waited for a response. After a moment, he realized that none was forthcoming. So he cleared his throat and tried again, "I'm quite serious! It may disrupt your scans if I'm vomiting all over myself while you're doing it!" Another pause. Another lack of response. So the Doctor started heaving as though he just might throw up.
Finally Kartz came in. He stood over the Doctor and sighed, "Do you need a bucket?"
"I… I…" The Doctor pretended that the effort of heaving was too much for him to even respond.
Kartz looked around, found the small dustbin in the corner, and brought it over. The Doctor tried to twist his head around towards the bin as awkwardly as he could. And when it became clear that he couldn't do it from this position, Kartz glanced towards the security cameras, hoping that Reimer would take it as a, "Watch him," look, and then unstrapped the Doctor.
The Doctor immediately leapt onto the larger man and shoved him into a table. The two struggled for a moment before the Doctor forcefully brought down a handy isolation matrix spectrometer right onto the man's head!
He watched the man fall to the floor unconscious. Then he noticed that his very thin medical gown had been torn almost completely off. So he quickly removed Kartz's clothes and put them on himself. He paused a moment to realize that this was where he had gotten this outfit all along!
Then he turned to go, and found that there was a Sontaran standing in the doorway watching the whole thing. The Sontaran was even smirking… The Doctor raised his hands reluctantly…
But then there was a familiar sound… the TARDIS! The Doctor lowered his hands and smiled smugly at the Sontaran as the sound got louder. The Sontaran took a single step closer, not sure what was happening. And then the Doctor found himself standing in the console room with his other self and Peri.
"Well, it's about time! Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting for you!?"
"Yes, I do."
They were now dressed alike. They stood face to face, like a man looking in the mirror. They nodded approvingly.
Then the older one turned to the console and began pressing buttons and flipping switches. "Right. I'll just take us to my TARDIS and we'll say goodbye."
A short moment later, they arrived. The older one turned to face his other self, "Take care."
"I'll do my best," the younger one responded.
The older one turned to Peri and smiled sadly. "You take care too, Peri."
Only then did it occur to her that there was not another version of herself still traveling with the Doctor. But by the time she said, "Hang on…" he was already out the door.
The Doctor, her Doctor, shut the door behind his older self, and then simply dematerialized the TARDIS.
Peri watched him work at the console like it was just any other day. "I guess you're keeping those clothes then?"
The Doctor thought about his future self who just left, and replied, "Obviously."
Peri mouthed to herself, "Thank god."
