Chapter 3
Harry sat at a large desk, it was unlike his study on Gallifrey, but the scents, the feel of the woodwork; that of a thousand years or more. That sense in this place that many scholars, seekers of knowledge had passed through its mighty doors and sat here, to understand history, that was familiar to him.
The Monks of Felsecar held one of the most ancient libraries in the universe. Its section on Gallifrey and her history could consume lifetimes of research. Fortunately there were only several subjects that Harry found himself interested.
In front of him was a simple journal bound in animal hide that he had purchased prior to setting the coordinates for this location. The writing instrument, the gift from his mother lay on top of it.
He had intended to continue to research further on the founders of Gallifrey, their statues in the Panopticon always awed him. Their lives were always a curiosity for him.
Though not Omega, at least not when Savar was around. Savar's own investigations into Omega had left him so damaged that some Time Lords still suspected him of danger even a regeneration or two since those events had passed.
Omega's work had also been especially well documented and had been distilled so even a Time Tot knew his place in Gallifrey's history. Albeit they were limited in their tales of his work.
That too of Rassilon, his exploits, his travels and 'adventures' - so his brother called them, were well known. Many stories were told of Rassilon, the truth was muddied. Some said a copy of his mind lived on in the Matrix, though only Presidents and the dead really knew what lay within the Matrix. Harry had also read something of the Dark Tower, but the texts concerning that and the Games that were played around it had been excised from the archives on Gallifrey.
Harry looked up at the very high ceiling and smiled in recollection, his brother loved to tell him stories, from where he'd heard them Harry didn't know. He'd told Harry of the Games played in the Death Zone "Rassilon's Games Harry, I heard they brought in aliens to roam around the Death Zone, our ancestors!" his brother's eyes alight with the possibility of danger and excitement. He had heard from Koschei that his brother had tried to go to the Death Zone, only to find out that it could only be accessed via time-scoop. The one used for the Games it was said.
Harry had intended to come researching Pandak, Apeiron and Eutenoyar, but had come across something far more interesting.
The Eternal War against the Yssgaroth.
General Kopyion Liall a Mahajetsu's part in the war was legend, so Ordinal General Quences claimed a friend of his in a neighbouring house, or rather their family knew him before he was a general said. It was close to information on Gallifrey's early history. General Kopyion Liall a Mahajetsu's part in the Eternal War was practically lost to legend and myth.
Harry knew that Rassilon and Omega's early work with black holes wrought havoc on the universe.
But the specifics of the results of these experiments had been expunged from the archives. Scant information still existed collected in the Matrix, but unless you were President its access was limited. Harry did know of several students at the Academy that utilised unauthorised access to gain access to the Matrix or to insert their mind into the APCNet. Although access was rarely granted to those who had not regenerated, and those who attempted it often started a pre-regenerative crisis.
The Eternal War was just one of the wars whose inhabitants came from another universe. He had heard of stories of the pre-universe and the inhabitants that escaped its destruction into the current universe. These entities still retained significant powers and the horrors of which his brother found both fascinating and exciting. Harry had always found interest in these 'horror' his brother would mention, but not drawn to them as his brother was. His brother had once teased him about founders' statues, and suggested that they might be the 'silent assassins', those quantum locked beings from the beginning of the universe. Such beings and their innate manipulation of time were rightly feared, they were anathema to the Time Lords. But not something like the Great Vampires that they were compelled to seek out and eradicate. Those quantum locked beings; the 'lonely assassins' were the fauna of temporal beings. Interactions with them were mostly restricted to non-temporally active species.
Regarding the Yssgaroth, Harry suspected that that the Yssgaroth shared abilities with beings from the pre-universe or like the lonely assassins just after, when powers and abilities, the way with the universe was still malleable.
He had followed this line of information with curiosity, wondering to himself if the device Marie destroyed really was from her inaccessible parallel timeline, brought forth by the explosion that brought her to his timeline, or if it was something of a similar construction but from an alternate universe.
It was possible. Though it was just as likely, that some things may have 'fallen' between universes when Marie was thrust into this timeline.
Entrances and passages between timelines closed quite rapidly, the vortex, universes and the timelines abhorred schisms as such it required a huge amount of energy to breach parallel timelines. A destruction of a regular planet should not have been enough to do it.
Although Marie had implied, obliquely that nothing in the war that she was involved in was regular.
Harry knew from the dreams, the nightmares that he felt through her that it most certainly was not.
-/
Harry shook his head and tapped the writing device, on the page and frowned to himself.
Too many thoughts in his mind had made him lose the string of thought that he was following.
General Kopyion Liall a Mahajetsu and the Eternal War could be saved for another day, another time when he wished to explore what happened during the time against the Yssgaroth.
Replacing the book and writing implement into his bag he decided to leave the Library, he had allowed himself to become too distracted with all the possibilities for research and discovery.
The whole universe and the vortex to explore and he couldn't decide where to begin and what to discover first.
Harry suspected that was where his brother held an advantage over him. His brother was likely just happy to be away from Gallifrey, from the Time Lords and Gallifreyans; they who were content to watch the universe, interacting only when they deemed necessary for trade, diplomacy and whatever else the Lord President and the agencies of Gallifrey deemed necessary for the running functioning of society.
Harry at one point thought he would be like them, content to remain on Gallifrey, but then when his brother and others left he began to have thoughts like them.
Then everything changed again upon his contact with Marie.
He considered it a good thing that he had met her. Had he not her fate would have been destruction.
-/
Harry paused in his musings to place the books onto the trolley at the end of the shelves. It was one of the rules of the Library of Felsecar; to not re-shelve the books. Even if you had merely removed the books from the shelf briefly. One could become lost in thought and replace them by mistake elsewhere.
It was as he replaced the books and was walking towards the end of the row of shelves he heard it.
Or rather he didn't, he felt something, something on the upper ranges of the tele-psychic range.
It wasn't something he felt often, not consciously. He knew he had the abilities, quite advanced compared to most Gallifreyans for telepathy and telekinesis, theoretically at least.
But he did not expect to feel anything within this Library, although he knew that many objects could retain an imprint of locations, temporal activity, even emotions.
The Library here had a null affect on their properties, in part if was due to the planet's unique properties and how the Library was constructed, it made it perfect for a library. The books contained here would last for millennia, even more than that. Even taken away from this location they would retain the properties of the Library for hundreds of years. It was part of what made bequeathing books to the Library so unique.
Harry opened his psychic abilities and breathed in the sensations of the library as he allowed his body to move in response to his to his senses, his immediate awareness shut off as he focused on moving towards his destination.
-/
Harry wasn't sure how he had arrived at the shelf he was standing in front of; there were at least two sets of stairs separating him from where he had begun and he was only minority aware of the journey here, more focused on this destination.
Now he was standing before a bookshelf, the spines of the books on it seemed to indicate that their subjects were related to genetically inherited biomorphic abilities in the oceans of planets that orbit red giants.
The book he was staring at didn't have any conventional title on the spine, there was something that had been written in ultraviolet, but it was far too worn to be able to read.
Reaching forward he plucked the book off the shelf and opened it.
It was then he felt it; a telepathic assault that he'd never felt before. His psychic abilities he knew were advanced even for a lot of Time Lords, though he also knew he was somewhat untrained in them. But he recognised the force of the telepathic assault coming from the book, wishing to impart something to him.
At some point, though he wasn't sure how long had passed he felt a rustling of wind, which was odd, the Library breathed, but there was no wind no rush of air from the outside, save the foyer as you entered the building.
There was also a sound, the rushing of materialising and then darkness.
-/
Marie stood in the courtyard, watching, waiting, scanning the local environment. The Monks of Felsecar did not like TARDISes to materialise within their library. Although there was nothing precisely that would prevent her from doing so, it was an agreement that Harry abided by. Harry and many other travellers to the library abided by the rules of the Monks of Felsecar, for they held and maintained one of the greatest libraries in the universe.
Harry genuinely enjoyed research and the discovery of knowledge, it was part of what she had done in her existence in the previous timeline, Marie remembered that much. Intelligence gathering was part of the war effort, a major part given how much temporal manipulation the Enemy used.
Here though she had merely to watch and wait for Harry, her Time Lord to return from his researches.
She had watched an arachnid climb over her outershell, it would be burned off should she need to enter the vortex. She had plotted its whole timeline in the the time it took a humanoid to exhale. A small insignificant being.
Then, after many hours she felt it, a sharp arc through her telepathic circuits, Harry had received a high telepathic interception from something within the library.
Her HADS engaged and she dematerialised, rematerialising within the library, her engines casting a breeze within local environment.
Harry was lying unconscious, there was still significant telepathic fallout in the general area.
Marie paused for no time perceivable, given the level of telepathic fallout it would be safest to wake Harry before bringing him within her dimensions.
Reaching down she pulled him into a sitting position.
"Harry." She said above regular level.
-/
Someone was calling his name he realised, and holding him in a hard grip.
Blinking the world formed back into focus and he saw Marie squatting before him.
"Marie?" He whispered.
"There was a significant telepathic assault." She reported.
"Book..." He said.
Marie looked away from him, focusing on something. "I have it."
"Bag?" Harry asked as he pulled himself up. Marie had retrieved it from where it had fallen as Harry attempted to order his thoughts, there were a series of numbers in his mind, fallout from the telepathic contact.
"Okay." He said as Marie handed him the bag. "Book." He said she raised a slight eyebrow at him as he took, though did not open the book. "Open up, let's go." He said as he could feel his headache increasing to mammoth proportions.
As Marie spread her arms apart allowing him access he heard the rushed footsteps of the Monks as he stepped within Marie.
Harry walked into the console room and placed the book in one of the alcoves where he'd come to sit often while he considered where to set the coordinates for.
Then he moved swiftly to the console, dematerialising Marie. Setting course merely for the vortex, it was, he'd come to know where she felt most comfortable, and it was the best place to go while he mused and tried to rid himself of the headache that was continuing to remain within his mind.
But once he placed the book down on the table in the alcove where the food machine lay, he found himself walking over to the coordinate entry panel of the console and entering a set of coordinates. He only acknowledged to himself halfway through the process that they had come from the book.
"Check the coordinates for me Marie." Harry said as he walked carefully, gently back to where the book was and began to fix himself a cup of tea. He had found that it had an ability to calm his mind when he did not want to resort to medicines.
The tea did not help to lessen the headache; a result of the extreme telepathic contact but did offer some distraction from it and it allowed him to rebuild his telepathic barriers, which he hoped would remove some of the pain.
As he warmed his hands on the cup he suddenly realised something. "How did you find me?" Harry said aloud looking over to the scanner where Marie usually manifested herself.
"My Hostile Action Displacement System. I registered a high level telepathic assault." Marie responded.
Harry nodded, he had only heard of the Hostile Action Displacement System, the HADS in a TARDIS being activated to prevent TARDISes being in situations where it might be hazardous for the pilot to return to it. Not TARDISes seeking out a danger because the pilot was within reach of the danger.
It was interesting. To have something like that ready to swoop in.
"I have the placed the temporal and spacial coordinates." Marie announced as Harry continued to muse to himself. His headache was lessening now though he continued to eye the book with some suspicion as he went over to the console so check the secondary displays there.
The coordinates were for a planet in a star system in the Acteon Galaxy. It wasn't a galaxy he was overly familiar with, he had read something whilst researching psychic powers that the Acteon Galaxy held several planets with naturally occurring elements that enhanced certain abilities. Although the text was very vague and might have been confusing galaxy with other astronomical terms.
From Marie's data, which she had even admitted was not what it had once been due mostly in part to her journey into this timeline. But there was enough basic astronomical data here to identify the system. The coordinates were for the fourth planet from the yellow-white main sequence star. According to the coordinates Marie had placed the specifics as being in the upper hemisphere of the planet.
Before he had really begun to think about it he started to move around the console, keying in the coordinates and engaging Marie's engines.
It was a relatively short flight, as he didn't leave the console, but problems began as he attempted to rematerialise.
As he pulled the leavers on the console for the final rematerialisation he felt a hard resistance to re-materialisation.
"That's not good." Harry said aloud as he looked at the readings, there were steadily rising parachronic levels and intermittent chronon particles.
Walking around the console he redistributed power and tried and again, then the lights flickered around him and he got a similar response.
He didn't bother to ask Marie, in times when they were in flight and during materialisation TARDISes were doing a multitude of things, and while she was able to converse during these times, he knew the console communicated everything that was relating to the TARDIS function and flight.
He boosted the outer shields and attempted another materialisation; then something exploded from the console, Harry glared at the temporal buffers and altered the coordinates to planetary orbit and once more tried for a materialisation.
This time he was able to rematerialise Marie and then refocus her sensors on the planet below.
There was evidence of particles of strange matter, bonded helium 2 dwarf star matter which were aiding the generation of a parachonric sub-strata in the atmosphere of the planet. It meant it would be quite hard to travel materialise a TARDIS on the planet. Though theoretically once there Marie could recalibrate her outer shell using he elements of the atmosphere.
Harry posited as much to her as he studied the readings.
"That is possible Harry. I faced many such anomalies..." She paused. She did not do that often but Harry had come to know that these times were when she either had little memory of the event or it was a buried or traumatic memory. He had come to know that a lot of Marie's memories were traumatic, he had learnt not to experience them when her memories bombarded him in the night.
Then she seemed to snap back, the gap was thousandths of a microspan in length, but he noticed. "In the past complications were awry in the universe and the vortex."
"We could get a spacecraft and transport it there. The planet appears to have a population." Harry mused looking at the sensor readings.
"The levels in the atmosphere would likely disable a Time Lord during passage unshielded through the atmosphere. The parachronic levels are extreme." Marie reported.
"On the surface though?" Harry asked looking over to Marie's representation in the scanner.
Marie paused for the slightest portion of a microspan. "Relatively safe, unless there is instances of solar flares or other phenomena, then exposure would be higher."
"And operating your chameleon circuit to travel through the atmosphere won't work because under that duress you'd need to concentrate power on protecting me and your systems." Harry surmised as he recalled his Academy studies.
"That is correct Harry." Marie replied.
Harry walked back over to the book. The cover was still quite worn, but now within the even lighting of the TARDIS he could just about make out the lettering. It was High Gallifreyan and was written in a wavelength that few could see. Gallifreyans were one, it said 'Cult of the Time Lords'. Carefully he opened the cover once more.
Now though, there was still a lingering sense of psychic energy, but the pages were blank, there didn't appear to have been anything written on them.
"Can you enter the atmosphere Marie without dematerialising, and we will just fall onto the planet?" Harry asked. The inner and outershells of a TARDIS were in different dimensions, closely tied but separate so the impact when they came to on the surface would not affect him. Or Marie for that matter. But only a handful of things could affect Marie or any TARDIS.
Marie was silent for more time than usual. "Yes. There may be considerable disruption within my interior dimensions. I will likely not be able to communicate until I have recalibrated my systems when I am on the surface."
"The control room will remain intact?" Harry asked.
"Yes. The control room is isolated from the other locations within my dimensions. It will remain intact." Marie answered carefully.
Harry knew in a situation like this there would still be considerable disruption even within the console room, but it would not be lethally threatening.
Looking to Marie's representation in the scanner he nodded. "Very well, let us see where this message leads." Harry said as he made his way around the console, priming Marie's engines for space flight and starting the calculations for atmospheric insertion.
-/
Harry gritted his teeth as he gripped the side of the console, the harness he'd found in amongst the clothing was only slightly preventing him from being flung around the console room as Marie descended through the planet's atmosphere.
Then there was a moment a sensation of zero gravity as Marie fell into the atmosphere, the friction against her outershell ceasing.
Now that they were through the atmosphere Harry pulled himself around the console to use Marie's sensors to establish what the planet was like.
Atmosphere was good for carbon based life forms, with approximately 85 percent nitrogen with oxygen making up the rest and minute quantities of other elements.
It was now, also that the noise of transitioning through the atmosphere that he could hear the strain on Marie's engines. Harry moved around to check the power readings, they were still within tolerances, but he could still feel the strain. Marie would adjust though, once they were landed.
Turning the sensors towards the landing site they were aiming for; a short distance from the precise coordinates Harry began to frown.
There appeared to have been significant precipitation recently, and the surface appeared to be considerably softer than his initial assumption based on Marie's sensors.
He had assumed that Marie would strike the surface, penetrating a distance that would not take long for him to extract himself from. But the texture and density of the surface was far looser than he had presumed.
If he did not alter their speed it would take an unfeasibly long time to extract himself from the hole that Marie would tunnel through when she impacted the surface.
Harry forced himself to pause and focus as a well of panic arose. If he had to remain within Marie her recalibration process would take far longer and due to her many systems that would be offline during the calibration process time would pass one to one with the outside world and he had a time and space coordinates to keep, down to the microspan.
As he calmed himself he recalled his mother, and sometimes his father telling him of other civilisations and their progress towards simple atmospheric flight. They the sometimes used device that used drag to slow an object's passage through an atmosphere to well below terminal velocity.
Still gripping the console, more through panic than need he moved around to the chameleon circuit entry panel and swiped his hand over the controls giving him access to search through its systems. He hoped he could add a small addition to Marie's outershell, something which would not be a full activation of her chameleon circuit.
He grinned to himself as he found something that appeared to be what his mother had described to him.
Marie hadn't noticed. There were countless things she would be monitoring as they continued to fall. A TARDIS monitored things well outside the normal perceptions of a Time Lord.
But as they continued to fall Harry didn't notice a change in their velocity. Harry moved quickly around to the telepathic circuits and shoved both palms onto the touch plates.
Marie, pull the straps. He thought, though his actual telepathic thoughts were far more complicated than that, but his focused idea was what he knew from the idea of a 'parachute'.
-/
Marie blinked, as she felt something against her telepathic circuits. A message from Harry.
It was then that she realised he had enacted her chameleon circuit to add something minor to her outershell.
A pack, with straps on the front, his direction was to pull them.
Marie reached up as the atmosphere continued to pass around her and pulled.
A large piece of what would seem to simpler lifeforms to be material unfurled immediately slowing her descent through the atmosphere.
It was a simple solution to the descent speed issue.
-/
Then after an indeterminate amount of time the whole control room shuddered and he was almost wrenched away from the console again, it was then that he realised that their downward speed had slowed.
With a slight thump he felt it, they had landed on the surface.
Then most of the lights winked out and he was bathed in the neutral tones of Marie's emergency lighting. There were single beams of light on each of the alcoves around the console.
As he unhooked himself from the console and remove the the harness he walked over to the now quite disturbed clothing area and pulled on a coat that he had found to be useful when exploring outside of the TARDIS's dimensions.
Then as he was about to make his way over to the doors a second light turned on, it was above the alcove that was opposite Marie's weapons systems, and it too held personal weapons. Personal side arms and other such weaponry. He never really thought to take weapons, but it seemed that Marie was insisting as a third lit up above him.
Harry sighed and looked around the control room, Marie couldn't manifest herself, not until she'd recalibrated so this was all she could do.
Harry chose a Gallifreyan staser, the holster which he strapped to his thigh and the weapon itself both had perception filters which would prevent most humanoids from viewing it.
He paused in another alcove to take a portable scanner in order to locate the precise coordinates from the book.
Walking up to the doors, they didn't open, Marie wasn't aware of everything within her dimensions Harry mused as he walked the few steps back to the console and operated the door mechanism; and pulled a leaver.
Harry didn't attempt to communicate with Marie; she had her eyes closed and a neutral expression.
Judging from where they had landed; in a large grassed area the coordinates were in a slightly built up area that would take him only a short period to walk to, it seemed to be the distance or a little more of the diameter of the Panopticon.
-/
The coordinates were within a large industrial building, from the sounds and the line of people it appeared to have been repurposed for a cultural event.
Harry was glad he had some currency within this coat, though he also used some mental persuasion that he had learnt from Koschei to gain entry more swiftly.
From the gyrating bodies he assumed the sounds were music, though it was rising and falling throughout the audible spectrum even approaching levels that only Time Lords and a handful of other species could hear.
The music was oscillating throughout the audible spectrum, but especially through the lower frequencies, and seemingly pausing and continuing to progress though its shifting.
The crowd appeared to be enjoying it and were far too caught in their own experiences to pay him any heed as he made his way through the assembled humanoids as he glanced at his scanner.
Finally after being jostled somewhat by many excited individuals he found he was in the correct spacial coorindates, the temporal ones he would need to wait several further microspans for.
Harry spent the time feeling his way through the music, it was rather interesting, the volume would he assumed be doing some damage to many of the humanoids, but he was able to isolate the various frequencies and enjoy the composing that the music producer had done to create such a wildly layered piece of music.
Then he noticed it, buried within the musical layers was a telepathic subwave, intermittent, but present, and difficult to notice, it seemed, he could feel it, almost, from the various waves of sound that were pulsing through the air, but it was something more.
As he was managing to grab it, someone stepped into his field of vision.
Harry looked up at the taller man who smiled a wild smile and offered him his hand.
"Hello. I see someone found my book." Harry heard the man's voice as he took his hand and it was only as they were holding each other's in a handshake that he realised that the man had not spoken. He had broadcast it, telepathically, though directed through touch.
"I did." Harry said, also telepathically, which seemed to surprise the man.
The man was wearing a shirt that was open, Harry could see a tattoo on his chest, he could also feel the double pulse of a Time Lord.
Harry assumed, by where the man's fingers were that he was searching for one on Harry.
"First body?" The man asked. Harry nodded. He would not gain a second heart until he regenerated, or passed through a maturation chamber on Gallifrey where they could artificially stimulate the process, but it was a distinctly unpleasant process to go through he had heard. Regeneration was preferable.
The tattoo was interesting, the only instance he knew of of Time Lords having tattoos were those in exile; they were marked by the High Council.
The man must have seen him studying. "I'm not an exile. I just like it." He said tapping the tattoo.
Harry let go of the man's hand and shrugged. "I was just curious." He said, still telepathically. The man raised an eyebrow. While Time Lords could communicate telepathically it was evident by his surprise that Harry could do so without physical contact.
"I'm the Corsair." He said grinning.
"Harry Potter." Harry replied.
"So you found my book, what'd you think?" The man, the Corsair asked.
"Interesting, it gave me a headache." Harry said honesty.
The Corsair laughed out loud. "An honest Time Lord. I like you Harry Potter." Then he offered Harry his hand again.
Harry eyed him for a moment before taking it again. "It was nice to meet someone. If you can find me, maybe we'll chat further." The Corsair said.
Then something started to happen, Harry felt it; a psychic change in the Corsair and he made to let go of Harry's hand.
Whatever it was, Harry wanted to let go of the Corsair's hand, and that was what made him force himself to hold onto the Corsair's hand harder.
The Corsair eyed him hard, but made no forceful attempt to wrench his arm free.
The feeling, the psychic sensation increased. Harry could feel it, a physical preparation, and a psychic layering, it was almost as though the Corsair's biodata were fizzing in preparation.
Harry dropped his psychic defences and focused on the sensation, it was as though the Corsair's body was reaching away, somewhere conceptual.
Harry concentrated on those similar sensations.
Then there was a sudden in-rush of air, like the venting of atmosphere on a space craft and then...
Harry's legs buckled and he realised they were outside.
And the Corsair was laughing, and as Harry looked over at him jumping up and down and laughing to himself.
"You Harry Potter are something else, something...amazing. Balls, I tell you. That's what you've got." He rushed over and pulled Harry up so he was standing.
Harry looked up at the sky.
They had moved, somewhere else on the planet, the lower hemisphere Harry guessed from the position of the stars.
He could only guess at this point, he could feel a multitude of chemicals buzzing throughout his body, various primal chemicals and energies from whatever that was that had just happened.
It wasn't a time ring, he would have felt, even a brief journey through the vortex.
It also wasn't a transmat, not anything he was familiar with.
"You're thinking to yourself Harry Potter, what was that shit and how did it happen?" The Corsair asked bouncing on his heels a mad smile on his face, excitement present throughout his body. Then he howled at the sky. "Wow. The last girl who tried that with me, she left half her body at the club." He paused and suddenly was serious. "Emergency regeneration. Very nasty. Too confident those CIA agents, that's their problems." He looked him in the eye. "Not like you. You felt it."
Harry swallowed. "What..." He trailed off. "What was...what happened?" Harry asked as he looked around and then closed his eyes as the Corsair whistled.
Harry reached out with his senses, he couldn't feel or anything, any technology that could have done that, but there was some psychic traces in the air.
"Something to do with our psychic energies?" Harry asked.
The Corsair grinned at him. "Tele-psychic transference."
Harry's eyes went wide. He had heard Quences mention that in passing. Harry knew that their ancestors had had similar abilities in the past, but even real unassisted tele-psychic transference was something that few attained.
The Corsair was grinning at him. "Yes, Really." He laughed again. "Really!" He grinned.
The Corsair took his hand and shook it again and Harry prepared himself again for the process. The Corsair laughed. "Not so soon Harry, eagerness, but it's hard work." The Corsair said as he let go of Harry's hand. "How about we go somewhere else?"
"I thought you said we couldn't?" Harry asked as he felt his biology settling down somewhat.
The Corsair looked at him. "We can go in my TARDIS, I assume you came here by transmat? Ship in orbit?" He gestured around him. "If you can guess where my TARDIS is." He smiled.
Harry smiled carefully back at the Corsair. "How about we follow you?"
"We?" The Corsair paused and looked at him.
Harry added, correcting himself. "Myself and my TARDIS."
The Corsair rubbed his hands together. "You got your TARDIS through the atmosphere. Ha! I knew I'd like you Harry Potter. So?" He waved around him. "You can come with me, I'll give you a lift back to your TARDIS."
Harry thought not. He had just met the Corsair and Harry wasn't sure if he wanted to step into the Corsair's TARDIS, not just yet. Especially with Marie here on the surface.
He slowly reached out his hand, making a motion to snap his fingers. Stattenheim remote controls on TARDISes were not standard, but the act of clicking one's fingers or whistling was used to summon them was useful in focusing the mind and to signal the arrival.
He just needed to focus and hope that Marie was aware and had recallibrated her systems.
"My TARDIS will be just here." He said and focused on a telepathic frequency he was relatively sure the Corsair wasn't aware of and snapped his fingers.
For a half a microspan there was nothing.
"No harm Harry Potter, I can help you retrieve your TARDIS." The Corsair said looking to him.
But Harry shook his head, he could feel Marie's approach. Then wind started to pick up and Harry mentally frowned as he heard the roaring of a TARDIS's engines. Marie's engines were working hard in this planet's environment.
Then as her form solidified he heard the Corsair make a noise. "I didn't expect that."
Harry didn't say anything, just nodded to Marie and she opened her arms allowing him access to her internal dimensions.
Harry paused on the threshold and pointed to an area to the right of the Corsair. "There is your TARDIS."
The Corsair's eyes went wide. "How did you know Harry Potter?" He asked.
Harry smiled at the Corsair. "That would be telling." He said with a smile and walked into his TARDIS.
As the doors closed behind him he looked over to the scanner where Marie's image was waiting.
"How are you?" Harry asked as he went over to the console.
"Recalibrated, all data on this planet, including your creative manoeuvre are now stored in my databanks."
Harry nodded and began readying to dematerialise. "We need to follow the Corsair's TARDIS." He said as he began the dematerialisation process.
Marie nodded. On the holograms around the time rotor showed representations within the vortex and he saw that another TARDIS likely the Corsair's had joined them. It was in the shape of a large obelisk.
"Corsair to Harry Potter, come in Harry Potter."
Harry eyed the communication panel and pushed a button. "I hear you Corsair."
"Follow my lead, I'm sure you can keep up."
"Where are we heading?" Harry asked as he locked coordinates onto the Corsair's TARDIS. Marie could follow his TARDIS very easily.
"Bonjaxx's Bar on Maruthea, you'll love it, if you haven't been there already, everyone loves Bonjaxx's bar."
"I see." Harry said as the Corsair's TARDIS began travelling through the vortex.
It seemed that this bar lay on a structure within a temporal fold of the vortex, requiring some complicated precision flying to get there.
Then, after passing a wreck of a Nekkistani freighter and Navarino tourist bus he saw it.
It appeared to be a space station that had been situated at a still point in the vortex.
He watched as the Corsair's TARDIS dematerialised, the energy trace said that it had rematerialised within the space station.
Harry looked at the console. "Energy readings suggest TARDIS cradles present." Harry paused. "I don't think you need to go anywhere so common." Harry said with a smirk and adjusted the coordinates.
-/
Stepping out of Marie he saw the Corsair wandering down the corridor.
"So this is your TARDIS. Never seen one like this before." He said looking at Marie. "What sort of model is she?" He said reaching out to touch her.
Marie reacted with the speed of...of a TARDIS and grabbed his hand. "One far more advanced than yours. Corsair." Marie said calmly as she let go of his hand.
The Corsair seemed stunned for a moment and the looked to Harry. "The bar's this way." He gestured. Harry nodded but allowed him to walk away before speaking with Marie.
"Make a scan of this structure and then observe." Harry said, while looking around. "Check out the TARDIS cradles as well." He paused and then added. "No weapons Marie." He said seriously thinking on the last time she was...pushed in danger.
"I understand." She said in a level tone.
"I have no desire to take a dip into the vortex today." He said as he walked away from her.
-/
Inside the bar was like many a drinking establishment around the universe. An area from where drinks were served various species drinking various concoctions.
He saw a booth where the the Corsair was beckoning him, Harry made his way slowly over feeling his way through the telepathic maelstrom in the bar. It wasn't extreme but there was a slightly noticeable telepathic field, like someone had adapted a TARDIS' state of grace circuitry.
"Zeg will be around in a moment, don't worry, he's a good one." The Corsair said passing him a plasti-flex screen that held a detailed list of the consumables available.
"A good what?" Harry asked flicking through the lists of beverages.
"Dalek." The Corsair said simply.
Harry shrugged. He'd heard of the species before. They were supposedly a species on an unassuming planet. His studies hadn't really meant that he'd needed to pay attention to them or any other of the millions of species in that corner of the galaxy.
The Corsair stared at him and then whistled. Harry tensed for a moment thinking he was summoning his TARDIS. "You are a newbie aren't you. Don't even know who the Daleks are Harry Potter."
As he finished speaking a red thing around his height glided over. It had several yellow spheres around its base and a single eye piece.
"Cors-air. What do you wish to drink?" It asked in an adjusted voice, it sounded as though whatever organic creature was having its speech amplified or modified through this machine.
"My usual, and you Harry?" The Corsair addressed him.
"The ale from Hephaestus VI." Harry said watching the creature, Zeg the Corsair had said.
"Harry's never met a Dalek before." The Corsair explained.
"That is" It paused. "Interesting." It paused again. "Many are fortunate not to encounter a Dalek." It paused and its eye piece swivelled to look at the Corsair. "Others seek Daleks out."
"Only for a chat," The Corsair paused. "I thought others might be as chatty as you Zeg old mate."
"You were mistaken." It said and then glided away.
Harry watched the Dalek Zeg glide away.
"You really don't know what he is do you?" The other Time Lord looked at him with curious amazement.
Harry raised an eyebrow. "Should I Corsair? There are many millions of species in the galaxy. I recall something of them, but it is outside of my field of study."
"And your field of study is?" The Corsair asked curiously.
"Gallifreyan history, its historical influences and cultural relations." Harry said smoothly. It was one of the primary subjects of his study, or would have been, had he remained on Gallifrey.
"Interesting." The Corsair said as he leaned back musing on the information. "You were at Felsecar when you discovered upon the psycho-spore that I left there." He looked up as a tray floated over.
Harry noted the micro-anti-gravitational engines on it. It seemed somewhat over designed considering there were more efficient methods of delivering drinks. He had also seen individuals delivering drinks personally. It was Corsair again that answered his questioning gaze.
"Zeg knows when I'm in deep conversation not to disturb by delivering drinks personally. He likes a good chat old Zeg does." He said allowing Harry to take his own drink.
They seemed to pause as Harry took a sip of the ale he'd ordered and the Corsair sipped his beverage. Both were in large vessels and held a sizeable amount of liquid.
Harry watched the Corsair who seemed to be anxious to speak again but was waiting for a prompt from him.
Harry had seen other students in his classes at the Academy exhibiting similar behaviour, waiting for a question to be asked so they had the satisfaction of answering it. He preferred the pursuit of knowledge for his own benefit. The information itself, the discover of it, that was fascinating for him not the revelation to others that he knew something they did not.
Harry decided not to ask the question that the Corsair seemed to wish he ask of him, the response reflected in the question he had asked him. Corsair seemed to wish to want to say what he occupied his life with.
It was a question that Harry was peripherally curious of, though what a Time Lord did when they were away from Gallifrey interested him only on the fringes of his curiosity. It was interesting that the Corsair had set the...the trap of his, but what he did during the rest of his time...
Harry found though as their amiable silence progressed that he did want to know something of the Time Lord before him. He held an excitable energy that reminded him of his brother though it was somewhat more controlled. His brother liked to rush into the waters and disturb whatever might be in there; laughing as he did. Harry remembered many a gumblejack caught through that very method; his brother always laughing and splashing about surprised that his technique of surprise and action worked out so well.
Swallowing a mouthful of ale Harry leaned back and asked the question the Corsair seemed wanting to be asked.
"Do you have a field of study Corsair?" Harry asked, pausing to add further questions before the Corsair could respond. "Or do you just spend your time on planets waiting for Time Lords to find your trap?"
"Invitation Harry old chum." He said with a grin. "I don't think anyone would wait around like that, that would be boring!" He enthused. "I like a bit of adventure me. See the sights of the universe. Back home's so boring. Cloaks and robes of Gallifrey. Even you've abandoned that, even with your fascination with our planet's past." He nodded to Harry's current attire.
Harry tilted his head slightly as to acknowledge the Corsair's observation of this. He found his robes comforting and comfortable for long spans spent studying and to walk the halls and corridors of the Capitol.
But travelling the time vortex, piloting Marie, his TARDIS, visiting planets. He had found that required more than the robes of study, the robes and cloaks of Gallifrey. He had hoped to find something of the clothing of the explorers of Gallifrey's past within Marie's vaults. But they were some of the many things lost in her transition to this universe. The clothing she had within her in the alcoves next to the console room were practical clothing of which he had been selecting for his sojourns outside of her inner dimensions.
"Adventure?" Harry queried. "Like encountering more of the Daleks?"
"Damn pepper pots. They like a bit of war. Masters of manipulation, good at hiding in the shadows." He took a swig of his drink as though recalling something unpleasant made him wish to forget. "And exterminating from them."
"The adventure that invites danger at every turn." Harry replied knowingly.
The Corsair grinned again. "That's right Harry, you know it then?"
"My brother likes it." Harry said. "He once wanted to go off to the Death Zone to find Rassilon and see what his Games were all about."
The Corsair laughed and looked at him. "And you, did you wish to rush off into Gallifrey's wilderness to uncover the Rassilon's games?"
Harry nodded with a smile. "Yes, but only to keep him from falling prey to Rassilon's games. Our father stopped us, we were 'too young to throw our lives to the Raston Warriors and rabid Ogrons'." Harry chuckled at the memory.
"Let me guess Harry Potter, you were curious enough to look into how to get into the zone." The Corsair asked with a grin and chuckled at the look of surprise that it exhibited from you younger Time Lord opposite him.
"There were some things written of the Games Corsair but much of it has been lost, hidden or spread away from Gallifrey." Harry revealed cautiously.
"Or every bit of what you have said, hiding things and losing them away from Gallifrey is what our ancestors did to hide their deepest machinations and manipulations of the past." The Corsair said reflectively.
"Is adventuring all you do Corsair?" Harry asked after a moment, still curious of the older Time Lord before him, there seemed to be something else that he wished to offer or to reveal. Like the showmen Shabogans playing their sleight of hands in the drinking establishments. They were simple optical allusions or sometimes complex manipulations of block transfer, pushing an item through the vortex for the briefest of micro-span and returning it changed or not for the amusement and awe of their watching audience.
The Corsair shook his head but grinned at him. "You're a perceptive one Harry Potter. I knew that as soon as I clapped eyes on you."
"I think not Corsair." Harry challenged. "You thought I would just come along with you in your TARDIS that I visited upon the planet by ship or transmat."
The Corsair nodded. "You have me Harry Potter." He held up his hands as a sign of resignation and peace. "I also do the occasional work as a free agent, mind." He then revealed in a lower tone. "For the CIA."
The Celestial Intervention Agency. Harry knew of their, not so much their actions, for which they generally did not publicise. But of their influence, there were a great many records of their actions though almost all of them were impossible to access. What was accessible he had found quite interesting.
"Interesting." Harry replied after a micro-span or three. "A free agent?" He asked.
"Not under their auspices. I do the occasional job for them, keeps me busy. They keep me in the know or parts for my TARDIS, other things. It keeps life interesting. Not to be beholden to the High Council." He screwed up his nose. "Always worrying those people."
Harry didn't say anything. He respected the High Council, they governed with knowledge and respect of Gallifrey, their protections and concerns were part of that.
"You might find it interesting too." The Corsair mentioned lightly.
Harry looked at the Corsair. "Was this all a recruiting trial?" Harry asked. The CIA's methods were less known but they were based on past institutions and intelligence gathering methods that his classes at the Academy had studied.
The Corsair looked shocked. "No! Harry Potter. Not at all." He exclaimed, shocked and worried that Harry had thought that of him. "That was...to find a mate, someone to chat with." He paused and fixed him with a look, a telepathic look as he spoke telepathically to him. "To find some people who are adept with the mental arts." He paused telepathically. "It is a rare thing on Gallifrey to be as skilled as you Harry Potter."
Harry nodded. "I have my own researches to pursue Corsair. But perhaps." Harry paused. "Perhaps if I become as you seem to be, wanting excitement and adventure then perhaps."
The Corsair nodded. "Just make sure you stay as a free agent, you don't want to get in deep with them they're like a starved pig-rat once they get hold they're very hard to get rid of."
"A strong acid." Harry said recalling Quences saying that a nearby house to his and his brothers had an infestation and should the pig-rats attack them a strong acid, while painful would force them to withdraw from your flesh.
The Corsair laughed. "That would do it. More like a bath for some in the CIA though. I'm sure they've got something you'd like your hands on Harry Potter." The Corsair paused. "Although with your TARDIS I think you could go anywhere you wish."
Harry wondered when Corsair would approach the subject of his TARDIS, of Marie.
But he surprised Harry by shaking his head and holding up his hands again. "I'm not going to pry Harry Potter. You and your TARDIS are-" He cut himself off. "Every Time Lord has a unique bond with their TARDISes. I can see that you do not wish the topic to be pursued."
Harry was grateful for the Corsair's statement and said so adding. "Marie and I are young in our travels."
The Corsair indicated that he understood.
Much could be understood from the interactions between Time Lords that was beyond the simple word.
They concluded their social encounter with simple talk of travels of the vortex and other minor events that could fall afoul the time traveller unaware.
-/
Harry found Marie waiting a short distance from the TARDIS cradles where the Corsair's TARDIS was parked, alongside two other TARDISes which appeared to Harry's eye to be earlier models of TARDIS, though without going closer to them he couldn't be sure what model precisely they were.
"Keep in touch Harry Potter, I should like to continue our association, there's not many who challenge so immediately on first meeting." He held out a hand to Harry who took it.
"I too" Harry said telepathically to him. "It is enlightening that you are as versed in the telepathic forms. Fascinating that I'd like to know more."
"I think you want to discover that for yourself Harry Potter." The Corsair said with a grin. "It's much more exciting to go out and do it for yourself than listen to an old hand like me." He said and with that and a wave he walked towards his TARDIS, placing a hand against a smooth portion of its outershell and admitting himself.
A moment later the chamber that they were in echoed to the sound of a TARDIS dematerialising.
Only now did Harry address Marie. "Did you find anything interesting?" Harry asked looking over at the other TARDISes and then thought better of any answer Marie might give. "Later I think." Harry said and with the slightest of nods indicated to Marie she opened her arms allowing him access to her internal dimensions.
Inside he walked over to the console and set the coordinates for a piece of space at a point where there would be no time or space vehicles.
As he dematerialised then he looked over at the mirror in which Marie manifested herself when they spoke within.
"Did you find anything of interest in your wandering around?" Harry asked.
"There were several time ships present docked or within transmat range of the station." She reported.
"Expected as it's a station within the vortex." Harry said as he shuffled off that jacket he was wearing and removed the weapon from his thigh returning them both to their places in the alcoves that surrounded the console.
"There appear to be portals to other minor dimensions, suggestive of cliental that frequent the bar." Marie continued as Harry returned to the console.
"People from minor dimensions visiting a bar in the time vortex?" He asked a tone of surprise.
Marie made no outward appearance to have anything other than indifference to the concept.
Harry leaned on the console as he recalled the studies at the Academy on inter-dimensional systems. He'd quite enjoyed the passioned discussions from the visiting lecturers about the tangibility of hyperspace and whether or not it was a theoretical impossibility or not. They, the students had been left with the task of writing a report on it. He'd found enough evidence that proved it did exist and was transversible. Though not by TARDIS, there was evidence that Gallifreyans had travelled through hyperspace in the past, but the knowledge to do so had been lost sometime following the Time of Chaos.
"Was there any evidence of inter-dimensional stress on the sub-stratum of the station from the transversing of dimensions near by?" He looked over at Marie's representation as he did so, even though he knew he could just talk to the console if he wished to or up at the ceiling.
Marie paused in the briefest way that she did when considering something within her memory banks.
"Nothing visible on standard scans, there were some dimensional baffles that would have dealt with any moderate dimensional stresses that could arise from such transference."
Harry nodded. "I think we'll return there again, it looked like a safe place to meet people."
"A low level dampening field was in action." She continues.
"Seemed like a state of grace system." Harry tried.
"Similar, but not the same." She added, there seemed to be the underline statement that she would know the difference.
Yawning for a moment Harry pushed himself away from the console.
"We'll continue to drift I think, allow your systems to fully recover." Harry paused looking at the console. "Some of your sub-systems that you reconfigured are still returning to optimum." Harry continued as he walked towards his sleeping chambers.
-/
A/N:
The Corsair is in an early incarnation.
He's also not met the Doctor by this point. I wanted Harry to meet him first. To have Time Lord friends who are out in the universe and not be in the Doctor's shadow.
Yes what Corsair and Harry do might be considered by some people to be "apparating", more on it and the wizarding version of it much later in the story.