Chapter 6

Crewe, United Kingdom

Earth

August 10th, 2014

As she materialised, DS Claire Downing remembered why she hated short-range transmat. It always made her dizzy.

In her normal life, as the First Lady of Gallifrey, Alicia had to contend with the wretched thing on a daily basis, and thought she would be free of it here on Earth.

Sadly, life had a way of messing you around like this.

As she fought to gain her balance, she became aware of the overpowering wall of sound that was assaulting her from all sides. Someone had turned their music all the way up to 15, never mind 11. Alicia didn't recognise the music, but she did know that it didn't belong here..

Right planet. Wrong timeline.

As she took in her surroundings, she saw that signal she'd followed had brought her to a modest dining room. The walls were covered with a mixture of photos of small children in those poses favoured by schools throughout the universe, and photos of all manner of holidays and parties.

Against one wall was a desk, on which sat a very sleek (by Earth standards) computer. Against another wall was another desk, at which sat a young woman.

The woman was completely lost in whatever it was she was doing. As Alicia moved closer, she saw the woman was reading a large, old book. Nothing wrong with that.

What was rather odd was what was propping it up. And that music wasn't helping.

"Why a watermelon?" She asked.

The watermelon in question was not only propping up the book, it appeared to have a Discman plugged into it.

"Why not a watermelon?" Snapped the woman, as she stopped the Discman, whilst not looking up from her book.

"Where did you find that?" Asked Alicia, motioning to the CD case laying on the table.

"See for yourself." Offered the woman, as she nudged the case across the table whilst still not moving from her sitting position.

Alicia picked up the CD case. She turned the case over, and after noting the name of the group (she'd never heard of The KLF) gave all her attention to the catalogue sticker she found on the back.

It read UNIT-1991-CD4633352/3/A.

She tapped the case on her hand. "You shouldn't have this."

It was this that got the full attention of the woman. As she stood to face Alicia, she could see in the woman's eyes that she was far from happy.

"That's what has you worried, is it? We have bigger problems than the type of music I'm listening to. Wouldn't you agree?"

Alicia had to concede she did have a point.

She watched as the woman swept past her, taking the CD case as she moved. She was dressed in a long, bright summer frock with short sleeves. Her bare feet stomped across the floor as she moved towards a small pile of CD cases, on which she placed the one in her hand.

She turned again to to face Alicia, her eyes ablaze with a fierce, frightening intellect that was just about kept at bay by the pair of glasses, who's gold frames were the perfect match for her vibrant, blonde hair.

She folded her arms. "Well?"

Alicia took a deep breath. "It's not good. But I don't think we'll have to worry about it for long."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" Then a thought hit her. "It's started already? The backwash from the accident shouldn't kick in for a least a day or so."

Alicia scoffed at the choice of the world 'accident'. They both knew it was far from that.

She reached into her top, and brought out a brightly glowing orb she wore around her neck on a delicate chain, so delicate it looked like it shouldn't be able to hold the orb she now held in her hand.

"It hasn't. I just tried to keep the poor woman calm. She was nearly hysterical."

"In a few days in won't matter anyway. But thank you all the same."

Alicia nodded as she reached into her pocket. "I managed to have a poke around to see if there were any loose ends that could cause questions." She handed the piece of paper she'd found to the woman. "Turns out there was."

The woman sighed as she took the paper. "I told her not to bring anything back."

"You shouldn't have taken here there in the first place. Where did you take her?"

"The markets on Garazone. She was moaning she'd missed the market in town, so I offered to take her to a far better market." She laughed at the memory, "She thought I was taking her to Hanley!"

"And then you took her off world again? And that's when…"

"Yes. Yes. That's when it happened." Snapped the woman. "In a few days, it'll be like nothing ever happened. Literally."

"You hope."

"That reminds me. You were suspicious about this Pritchard. Are you still?"

Alicia thought about this, and shrugged. "I'm not sure. But I think we'll know in a day or so. I suppose some good has to come out of this little drama."

"Speaking of drama…" The woman moved towards a photo hanging a wall. She lightly touched the head of the dog in the photo, and the entire wall vanished…

...to be replaced by a real-time image of the Earth.

Alicia was impressed.

"I did wonder at the photos. I thought you said you didn't have children?"

"I don't. It was something he knocked up." She walked over to the waterlemon and gave it a loving pat.

"So this is now?" Asked Alicia, motioning to the image.

"Correct. Realtime image of the planet thanks to our little friend over there." The woman indicated the watermelon.

"So, come on then. You mentioned 'drama'?"

"I did. Yes." The woman waved a hand at the image. A large orange mesh covered the entire planet. The mesh seemed to be shifting ever so slightly. Sparks came off it at random points, as if it were on fire.

Alicia's jaw dropped. She knew what that was.

"What in Omegas name is causing it?"

The woman looked at her. "It would appear that this planet, on this day, is become a focal point for a vast amount of temporal activity. Vast even for Earth."

Alicia nodded slowly. "He's coming here, isn't he?"

"Maybe. And, judging by this, so are half the High Council."

"You're right. Now what?"

The woman thought for a second, then came to a decision. "Maybe I should do what I was supposed to do?"

Alicia gave her a friendly smile "As you wish, Lord President."

The woman smiled back. "I'd much prefer Bex, if that's alright with you."

Half an hour later, Alicia had listened to Bex's instructions, and transmatted her way out of there.

Bex liked Alicia. Well, of course she did. So she felt bad for pulling the wool over her eyes.

She threw herself into the chair she was sat in when her guest first arrived. As she sat down she began to fiddle with a small silver charm that hung from a bracelet. She'd had to pump up the perception filter in her house so Alicia wouldn't poke around too much. This was the reason for Alicia's bumpy transmat trip. As someone with a high telepathic ability, Bex knew she'd have to cause as much psionic disruption as possible, hence playing 'Last Train to Trancentral' at full blast. The power the amped perception filter was putting out would cause Alicia a feeling akin to seasick, and Bexs' intimate knowledge of her friends natural aversion to matter transportation was enough to convince Alicia she had just had another of her bumpy rides. Twisting the small figurine on her wrist brought the filter back down to a level more suited to distract one of the natives.

Natives! She thought. That was me once!

With that taken care of, Bex returned her full attention to the reason for her little bit of trickery; the book perched by her watermelon. It wasn't against the rules for her to have this book, but it would raise too many questions, and she wasn't in the mood for nosey parkers. This book was special as, well, it didn't exactly belong in this permutation of reality.

She stroked the watermelon, noticing the hole she'd plugged the Discman into had vanished.

"Not long now, little one." She said. "Then we can get on with what's important."

With that, Rebecca 'Bex' Arnold took a deep breath and returned to her book.

The books name? The Chronicle of The Last Great Time War.