Chapter 12
Harry had been sat reading the heavy tome for some time in one of the alcoves beside the console. Marie was slowly making her way through the vortex to Sol 3 - Earth.
The tome, even with Marie's telepathic circuits was trying.
He had book of notes beside the tome that he'd been using to try and make sense of the text.
There were slithers of paper throughout the text, suggesting a previous CIA agent had also read through the text, making notes for themselves.
Thus far Harry had narrowed down what Magnus had looked to this text for, to power his SIDRAT project.
The Great Old Ones had immense powers, some of which could be tapped for use, at least that's what he understood from this tome and others he'd read in the past.
Rassilon had attempted to do so, and for the most part failed.
Harry knew that Apeiron had written in his diaries about harvesting powers of Chronovores to tap into alternate dimensions.
But the Great Old Ones' powers extended far beyond that, they could rewrite the universe, being from the previous universe themselves.
None of them could be harnessed by a Time Lord, especially for what, compared to the Great Old Ones' powers was simple, a time travel experiment. It was hardly Omega's Hands and the trials he experienced. He suspected, though lacked any proof (yet), that Magnus and possibly Koschei were looking for something else in this text that influenced the former's work, the latter's was still a mystery, intriguing though it was.
Harry instead had decided to refocus his attentions to the other things mentioned in the text, the past, present and near-present future threats to Gallifrey these that had significant and insignificant mentions in the text.
He recognised several mentions in the text; Cardinal Thorac and Drornid; Pandora her reign as Imperiatrix of Gallifrey; Minyos, Klist and Plastrodus 14. All were historical elements from Gallifrey's history.
Two things stood out for Harry. The Timewyrm. And Varnax and the Dark Crystals.
The former Harry recalled as a threat that would come from outside Gallifrey. The latter, he had heard before, and was sure it referred to a threat from within. It was the first time he had read of them being called "dark crystals". The term "dark" he more associated with the Dark Time rather than a specific object or set of objects. It was a somewhat florid way to describe a period of their history. Though at least it was less vague than the 'Old Times', it encompassed the Time of Empires and the Time of Chaos.
Harry was just about to walk off to the library to consult his other texts on the Dark Time to see if there was any connection to these Dark Crystals when Marie materialised with a -thump-.
"Sepulchasm! In Rassilon's name what was that?" Harry decried, he'd almost been sent barrelling towards in the inner doors.
"A dimensional disturbance in the nearby space time. It was unexpected at our destination." Marie sounded annoyed as she stated the facts in short sentences.
Harry walked quickly over to the console, and activated the holographic displays around the central column. There was definite evidence of a dimensional disturbance, possibly extra-universal. Or perhaps another alternate universe. Without locating the primary point of generation he couldn't be sure.
"That's odd," he said as he looked through the data. "Does it feel like it's been here long?" He asked, he still wasn't sure about asking Marie in such terms about her abilities as a TARDIS. But she was uniquely equipped to answer such a question.
There was a longer pause before she answered his question than normal. "It does not appear to have been present in space time for a long period. There would be more effects on the local space time if it had been present for a long period," Marie reported.
"Or if it had been here for a long time we might not have noticed," Harry mused, the jolt they'd experienced out of the vortex meant it was relatively new, or... "Is something stimulating the disturbance?"
"Possible," was Marie's response.
"Dangerous?" Harry asked.
"Possibly," Marie replied again.
Harry wondered if it was the proximity to a dimensional disturbance that was making her singular. "Is this disturbance similar to how you came to be in this universe?"
"No. This disturbance is different. Not dangerous, a TARDIS could transverse through it," Marie reported again in short tones.
"A TARDIS could..." Harry trailed off thinking to himself as he looked through the data again. Space time analysis was very much outside of his purview of study. "Marie begin an analysis of the data, cross reference all readings with the time craft database you downloaded on Gallifrey."
"Parameters?" She asked.
"TARDIS vortex spore and Rassilon Imprimatur. If a Time Lord or TARDIS did create this, that should provide information to narrow it down." Harry moved around the another part of the console.
"It will take some time, the data from the disturbance has deteriorated," Marie replied.
"Can you focus in on my brother's location and TARDIS?" Harry asked.
"His TARDIS is disabled," Marie replied in a different short tone.
Harry put his palms on the telepathic circuits and focused. "I will locate him then..." Harry whispered as he allowed his mind to access Marie's telepathic circuits and felt his way through the telepathic background noise of planet Earth.
-/ - \\-
Jo Grant walked into the Doctor's laboratory. The door to his TARDIS was ajar and she could hear him singing inside. She smiled and put down the clipboard. After that business with Axos the Doctor had become even more interested in his TARDIS.
It was then that she heard it, a noise, like the Doctor's TARDIS, except the light wasn't flashing. "Doctor," she called,
"Hmmm Jo?" The Doctor's voice drifted out through the doors of the TARDIS.
"Doctor, I can hear something," she said walking over to the entrance to his TARDIS, it always looked dark within the doorway.
"What sort of noise Jo?" He called out.
"I think, it sounds like a TARDIS. Could it be the Master?" She called.
The Doctor was outside in a flash. "The Master, I don't think so Jo, he has his own matters to be concerned about," he tilted his head listening.
"Can you hear it, I thought I could but then it faded away." Jo frowned trying to hear the noise.
"Yes, I can," the Doctor said walking over to the bench and looked around.
Jo realised then the sound renewed and beside them a figure was slowly materialising in front of them.
"Doctor it's..." Jo looked to the Doctor who was smiling.
"My, my, I did wonder when you'd come to visit," he said as the figure solidified.
Jo looked at the figure, it looked like a statue, or a mannequin. "Doctor, is it one of those Auton things?"
The Doctor looked to her surprised. "Why... of course, you'd think that, no, Jo. This is much more advanced than a simple Auton."
Then, something happened and Jo involuntarily took a step back from the thing, the whatever it was that wasn't an Auton. It split in half and a young man stepped out of it.
"Doctor what's, who's..." she started.
"Hello brother," the young man said wrapping the Doctor in a hug.
"Harry, you've come to visit me," the Doctor said, his voice full of a warmth that Jo hadn't heard before.
"Doctor?" She asked.
The Doctor stepped back from the young man. "Jo Grant, might I introduce you to Harry Potter."
"Your brother?" She asked in a weak tone as the young man's gaze fell on her and she offered her hand to him.
"Harry Potter, yes," he clasped it with both hands.
Jo looked at him, there was something about his gaze, she wasn't sure about. He was also so much younger than the Doctor. "How old are you, you can't be more than 16 years old and the Doctor's..."
Harry Potter smiled warmly at her. "I'm younger than the Doctor" he said the Doctor's name with a hint of amusement, looking to him as he did so. "But more than 16 years..." he trailed off in thought. "Much more than that passage of time."
"How much older?" She narrowed her gaze at him.
Harry Potter looked to the Doctor who shrugged. "In your terms I would be about two hun-"
At this point the Brigadier walked in, very much annoying Jo because he'd interrupted Harry Potter's answer.
-/
"Ah Doctor, glad to have found you still here I've had a interesting report from the watchover station at-" The man who'd walked in stopped to look at himself and Marie. He wore a military style uniform, and from the way his brother's body language shifted appeared to be both someone who was in charge of this facility and someone who his brother respected. "Who the devil are you?"
"Brigadier," his brother stepped forward. "I would like to introduce Harry Potter-"
His brother was cut off by the Brigadier. "Doctor, might I remind you we are a top secret organisation, not some day out for the local school children!"
"If you hadn't interrupted me Brigadier, this is Harry Potter, my brother," his brother finished and then looked to him. "Harry Potter, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart," he introduced with flourish.
Harry offered his hand to Brigadier Lethrbridge-Stewart. "My apologies for intruding on your facility Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, I would not mean to cause any offence or security issues for your organisation."
"Well, um, good to meet you Mr Potter." Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart said and looked to his brother. "You obviously don't take after your brother with manners," he commented in an amused tone. "So are you one of his lot?"
"His lot?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"Time Lords," his brother said in a short grumpy tone.
Harry nodded. "You're aware of our people Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart?"
"Well the Master's been around on Earth causing havoc, the Doctor told us something."
Harry looked to his brother, puzzled. "The Master?"
"Koschei," he said in a soft tone. "He goes by the Master now."
"Koschei?" Jo Grant asked his brother curiously.
"Later Jo," his brother looked to him. "You knew he was on Earth?"
"The CIA sent someone to warn you," Harry countered.
"The Americans?" The Brigadier asked.
His brother laughed. "Similar attitude. Our own people have an organisation that should have stopped the Master."
"The Celestial Intervention Agency," Harry explained as his brother walked over to a bench. "They protect the interests of our home planet and people."
"And I'm to help them, when they'd exiled me?" His brother muttered.
The Brigadier looked between them and then shook his head. "Doctor, I have a report from the watchover station at the Inferno site. Some of your gizmos have been giving off a lot of readings. My technicians can't make head nor tale of it."
"What?" His brother strode over to take a the papers out of the Brigadier's hands.
"What is a watchover station?" Harry asked the collected people around him as his brother was engrossed.
Jo Grant looked to the Brigadier who looked to him and nodded. "It was a failed attempt to breach the Earth's core to use as a source of energy. The Doctor used the nuclear reactor on site for his experiments."
"Experiments?" Harry asked looking around the space he and Marie had landed in, he could see a steady state microwelder to one side and what looked like a model of a dematerialisation circuit on a plinth, or it could be a redesign, or perhaps an older design of dematerialisation circuit, he couldn't be sure.
"With my TARDIS," his brother said passing him the notes he was reading.
Harry quickly looked over the notes, it looked like energy readings, while a lot of them seemed to be in whatever format was used currently on Earth he recognised the pattern of fluctuations as similar enough to what he and Marie had registered when they'd arrived in the local space time.
"I think we will need to investigate this brother, it would appear to be more dangerous than you may consider," Harry said and turned to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. "Brigadier, as you are in charge I believe you should accompany us, if this is your organisation," Harry said to the military man, who looked to his brother.
"Of course Mr Potter, I'll lay on a jeep, we can go out there in something that isn't the Doctor's ridiculous car." He said with a smile to his brother.
"We will attend to it in my TARDIS," Harry simply.
"Your what?" The Brigadier looked at him. "You've got a box like the Doctor's, or the Master's horse box?"
"Harry has something rather more advanced than either mine or the Master's Brigadier." His brother gestured towards Marie.
"What the devil, I didn't notice this woman in here," The Brigadier muttered.
"Just as it should be," Harry said as he stepped forward. "Marie." As Marie parted her arms he gently pushed the slightly stunned Brigadier towards her interior.
"Come on Jo," his brother said as he followed.
-/
Jo just stared around her as she followed, somewhat, stumbled into...into a woman. It would be very inappropriate, were it not for the casual way Harry Potter, the Doctor's brother had just walked in and then...
She couldn't work it out, it was...dark, darker than inside the Doctor's TARDIS, which he said wasn't up to scratch but this...
There were alcoves all around the room and in the centre a larger console than inside the Doctor's.
It was...
"Oh...I'm dreaming," the Brigadier was saying to himself.
"No, Brigadier, you're not, this is what a TARDIS looks like, in full operation," the Doctor had a huge grin on his face.
The centre of the column in the console stretched up to the ceiling with intermeshing...Jo wasn't sure, rods in the middle of the glass tube.
"Marie, status of analysis of the dimensional disturbance." Harry Potter was saying.
Jo looked around for a woman, if he was talking to someone there had to be another person in here.
"Marie is the name of this TARDIS Jo," the Doctor was suddenly beside her.
"But, you said your 'old girl' couldn't talk Doctor?" Jo asked.
"Harry's TARDIS is quite a bit more advanced than my TARDIS," the Doctor explained.
-/
"Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, are you alright with the transition to the interior dimensions?" Harry asked and wondered if he had done the right thing in bringing the Brigadier into his TARDIS and exposing individuals of a Level Four civilisation to Time Lord technology. But it seemed evident, if they had interacted with another Time Lord, enough, suggestive in their tone to have come into conflict with Koschei that they must be capable of accepting the interior dimensions of a TARDIS.
"What? Yes, Mr Potter, quite," he said looking around.
Harry looked over to where his brother was conversing with Jo Grant. "Doctor, do you have the local coordinates or..." Harry looked through the sheaths of paper he was holding and found the localised information on it. "Marie, analyse the data and display the location."
"Understood," she paused. "This is the location of the first disturbance source, wider space time disturbance is from another vortex spore."
His brother rushed over and stood at the console looking someone confused by the amounts of data, Harry assumed this was the result of the blocks placed in his memories by the High Council. "What do you mean another, another TARDIS?"
"Harry, could you explain?" Jo Grant asked calmly looking between his brother and the Brigadier.
"First, brother, explain this, all of it." Harry said looking at his brother who was looking increasingly concerned.
He sighed. "I was just trying to get around the High Council's blocks on my TARDIS Harry, you don't understand, being stuck in one location..." he trailed off and began to explain.
-/
Harry frowned. He had never heard of a TARDIS control console being used outside of the dimensional shell as his brother explained. "Marie," Harry said in a tone of confusion.
Marie manifested herself as a hologram within the control room.
"It's a projection," his brother helpfully supplied to his two associates. "Is what my brother describes enough to create this disturbance?"
"No," she said in a short tone. "The disturbance is being sustained. His TARDIS is not drawing enough power to sustain a dimensional disturbance."
His brother looked to him with a shocked expression. "Harry you think another TARDIS is sustaining and breaching the dimensions?"
Harry looked to his brother. "Or a CVE, or a stellar manipulator, or a bridge. Our history is littered with experiments into alternate dimensional transmission," he countered.
"I'm not understanding much of this Miss Grant," Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart muttered.
"Nor me Brigadier, it's all a bit over my head too," she looked between the two Time Lords. "What does this mean Doctor, Harry?"
Harry looked to her and the Brigadier. "Stand around the console," Harry gestured. "Doctor, place your hands on the telepathic circuits."
His brother narrowed his eyes at him. "Why the devil should I do that Harry?"
"Marie will extract the exact dimensional frequency that your unconscious mind used to pilot your TARDIS control console sideways through the vortex," Harry looked to the two humans with them. "Hold the console, Marie will isolate us from the exterior disturbances much more than my brother's journey through using only his console."
"As long as we don't end up in a world without kippers or something down the rabbit hole." Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart commented standing up at the console in front of the weapons control systems looking down at them and then back to Harry.
Harry doubted he could recognise anything familiar with his current time, although, allowing these two humans within Marie's dimensions would have granted them limited access to Marie's translation circuits allowing them to read some of the controls on the console.
"Palms onto the telepathic circuits brother," Harry said calmly as he readied Marie to dematerialise.
"I know how to do this Harry!" His brother snapped. "I just wish I could tell you what settings I used instead of this."
Harry remained silent, he wished to deal with this himself. With he and Marie, this...disturbance could be controlled and dealt with. Harry was somewhat worried that his brother had been the instigator of the disturbance. The High Council had already exiled his brother. A dimensional disturbance such as this was something of a concern. Dangerous things escaped through CVEs, through holes in the universe. Dark things that caused millennia wars.
Marie's journey into this universe had required a massive amount of energy, but there were many much smaller incursions utilising very different forms of technology and energy.
-/
Jo watched as Harry's body language changed as he pushed and pulled various leavers and buttons. The Doctor looked like he was concentrating, like on the Axon ship as he did something with his mind.
The Brigadier was looking at one panel of the TARDIS console, she looked over at some of the controls, but couldn't make head nor tail of it.
"Okay, I think..." Harry was saying as he pulled a leaver and then there was a thundering throughout the room as the TARDIS dematerialisation noise thumped through them.
Jo could feel it working through her body.
"Is this what happened when you travelled through the disturbance brother?" Harry was asking the Doctor.
"I did it without a protective shell Harry, it felt...different. Painful," the Doctor said.
Jo had read the reports written by the Brigadier and Dr Elizabeth Shaw concerning the project and the Doctor's journey to that other Earth. 'A world consumed in fire and flames'.
Jo felt like the noise of the TARDIS or was that of Marie, if she was a real...person was she still a TARDIS? Or was she a TARDIS first and then a person, or was she a person at all?
It was like the noise was mesmeric, making her want to drift off to sleep.
-/
Then the Doctor was shaking her gently. "It's alright Jo, we've arrived."
"Where Doctor?" Jo asked looking around and saw a frame of an image hanging mid air to one side.
"In the world destroyed by flames and fire Miss Grant," the Brigadier's tone was grim.
"Indeed, approximately 2 kilometres, in your measurements from a survival structure, the location where the dimensional disturbance is being generated from." Harry Potter said from where he was standing. Jo found she'd walked over to look at the image, the hanging wall of an image in the room, it looked desolate.
Jo felt she wanted to say lots of things, but all she could think of was that their measurements were miles not kilometres.
"You might feel a little disorientated from the transference Jo, it'll pass," the Doctor explained in a gentle tone.
"Is that why I feel more scatterbrained than usual?" She laughed.
"Indeed, I felt a bit fuzzy Miss Grant," the Brigadier offered with a smile.
-/
Harry was studying the readings from Marie, she had been rendered somewhat subdued from the transference through the dimensional disturbance. He had conversed with her while everyone, including his brother was somewhat stunned by the passage. Her systems were taking time to adjust and realign. He did not think she should travel with them into the facility. It had been hard enough to land her as close as they were to the survival structure.
The exterior surface of this alternate Earth was survivable, but illustrated the after effects of the near-extinction level event that his brother had described. There was very little moisture present in the atmosphere, higher background radiation, though within tolerances even for humans.
The structure was suggestive of a highly militarised society, Marie had suggested that he use caution when investigating.
There were some odd readings coming through via Marie's telepathic circuits, but they were far too low to understand.
"Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart," Harry announced. "You will be accompanying us when we venture outside?"
"Yes Mr Potter, I've come this far," he looked, almost challenging to his brother.
Harry nodded and gestured towards Marie's inner doors. "Through that door on the right is a room of clothing, Marie will illuminate a portion that she thinks will be useful."
"Why would we need to change Harry?" Jo Grant asked.
His brother stood up straighter in a confrontational manner towards him. "Yes Harry, we should just go in and explain-"
"Marie's analysis suggests a militarised society, I do not wish to be injured," Harry said simply and wondered, not for the first time whether he should have contacted the CIA to deal with this. But it was his concern for his brother, already exiled, Harry did not wish for a further decision to be weighted against him. Marie had said she considered him capable, more so than other Time Lords to deal with threats against his person.
"Doctor?" The Brigadier seemed to gauge his brother's response.
"Violence never solves anything Brigadier," his brother said simply.
"This is protection brother, I do not wish to regenerate yet," Harry countered calmly and looked to the Brigadier. "You should find something appropriate."
The Brigadier looked between Harry and his brother.
"Should I go and get changed as well Doctor?" Jo Grant asked looking to Harry, he nodded, but looked to his brother, who had moved closer to Jo Grant, almost protectively.
There was a selection of clothing within Marie. In preparation and also during his time in the Third Zone he had acquired a plethora of clothing items, only a small amount appropriate for him to wear.
"I'm not sure Jo, according to Harry this is a dangerous world, something I have had first hand with." His brother looked to him. "The outside environment looks dangerous."
"Safe enough even for humans, but if you'd like to look..." Harry said walking over to the outer doors with Jo and his brother following.
-/
Jo felt her throat burning as she stepped outside, her eyes were burning and watering and there was a smell, of sulphur and death. It made tears spring to her eyes and she realised that it was probably death, the death of most of this world, just as the Doctor had described.
She stepped backwards, within...within the arms of Harry's TARDIS.
"I think..." she began. "I think I'll wait here."
"Ah, I see you're dressed Brigadier, good," Harry Potter was saying.
The Brigadier seemed to be wearing something sand coloured, like his uniform but bulkier in places.
-/
"Give me your weapon Brigadier." Harry as he pulled on a thin tunic and strapped a holster for a staser to his thigh, along with a conventional energy weapon under his arm.
"Harry," his brother warned.
"What is that Doctor?" The Brigadier asked his brother.
"A Gallifreyan staser, a weapon of my own people's design," his brother wrinkled his nose at him. "Guns Harry?"
"To protect Gallifrey and its people." Harry quoted.
"So I'll be using one of those staser things Mr Potter?" The Brigadier asked.
"No Brigadier, they're genetically coded, only Gallfreyans can use them," his brother said.
Harry passed him another weapon. "A design of weapon used within the Terran Spacefleet in your future," Harry explained. "The controls and locations of the safe mode will be familiar to you Brigadier."
The Brigadier took the weapon carefully. "Yes, Mr Potter, very good. Doctor?"
"I carry my wits Brigadier, and my intelligence. I don't need weapons, I thought you didn't either Harry," his brother commented.
Harry took two small energy scanners and passed one to his brother. "'The universe is an open book, we just have to explore it', Harry quoted, their father first. "'be prepared for it, for it contains many dangers, to be observed'." Harry finished.
"Quences," his brother muttered.
"Ordinal General Quences," Harry added idly.
"Ordinal General?" The Brigadier asked curiously.
"Our head of our house Brigadier, I'll tell you about the old codger on the way," his brother turned away from him to talk to Jo Grant.
-/
Lethbridge-Stewart winced at the outside world Harry Potter's TARDIS had landed within. The young man, or at least he appeared to be a young man had a wholly different perspective to the Doctor.
Alistair took a careful breath, Potter had said the atmospheric density clip, a small metal broach-like thing attached to the uniform he was wearing would provide a filter for the air, something Potter and the Doctor did not require.
Alistair wondered if this was what the Doctor was like away from Earth, or if any others of the Time Lords were like this and the Doctor and the Master were the odd ones out.
Potter was much more professional, but Alistair did wonder, if he worked with this 'Celestial Intervention Agency' why he did not call them in with this problem. But the answer to that was immediately apparent when he saw the looks Potter gave his older brother.
It was oddly humanising, even though it confirmed the Doctor wasn't human, seeing that he had a younger brother who looked up to him and wanted to protect him.
As they approached the dome-like structure Potter unholstered his weapon. "On stun brother."
There was a noise that Alistair couldn't associate with any weapon and two bright star-like flashes his the guards at the entrance.
-/
Harry looked at the energy scanner he and his brother were holding once they were inside. There was one main signal but...there looked to be another but as he relaxed his senses he felt it and looked to his brother, who just seemed annoyed that both the Brigadier and himself were holding weapons.
"What is it Potter?" The Brigadier, rather than his brother had noticed his distraction.
"Brother, can you sense a telepathic..." Harry trailed off.
"What Harry?" his brother looked to him.
"You two follow the energy trace and destroy it." Harry ordered. "I need to find something, or someone."
-/
"What did he say?" Alistair asked the Doctor as Harry Potter rushed off.
"Something...about a telepathic signal," the Doctor muttered. "Harry has always been more adept than I was Brigadier, come along old chap. I think we may be in trouble quickly."
"That's what Miss Shaw and Miss Grant always say about you Doctor." Alistair chuckled, despite the situation he found it enlightening to be here, beside the Doctor.
"Adept? Like the Master, that mesmerism guff he tried on Miss Grant?" He pressed..
"No Brigadier, Harry is much more capable than the Master, much more..." The Doctor about to continue when some soldiers rounded the corner of the corridor they were walking quickly down.
-/
Harry moved swiftly through the corridors, looking, seeking out the telepathic signal. It was very weak and not even registering on his energy scanner. He could only just feel it, something on the edge of his senses, he couldn't even know what it was, whether it was Time Lord or TARDIS only that it was a presence seeking out something.
Harry paused and let his senses follow the signal, allowing that to drive his feet and legs forward.
Then suddenly he was almost knocked off them, he'd somehow entered what looked like a secure area within the facility. He'd been knocked off his feet by the environment, it was thick, almost wet with Artron and regenerative energy.
In the middle of the room was a figure, there were cables all around him, many of them, led directly to him. He was heavily disfigured from what appeared to be hypodermic needles.
But that wasn't what had caused the disfigurement, Harry recognised it, from descriptions in the history of Gallifrey, when regeneration was much more volatile than it was currently, and in the nightmares that seeped through from Marie, from that other universe, that one with an endless war the Time Lords engaged in.
Severe, targeted regenerative trauma, targeted to extract energy from the regenerative process. Crudely extracted. Barbarically induced.
Harry stepped forward towards the figure. "I heard your cry," he said calmly to the figure though Harry felt an anger within him, at what had happened to this Time Lord that he'd not felt before, then the figure's eyes were open, but their mouth was not, Harry wasn't sure if the Time Lord could speak, so disfigured was his body. Harry repeated his statement telepathically, and saw the pupils respond in kind.
'You are a Time Lord?' The Time Lord asked.
Harry nodded. 'I can help, remove the devices trigger a-'
He was mentally cut off. 'No, the process has already begun, I, he ensures that the maximum will be extracted.'
'Who?' Harry asked as the doors slammed open and guards came running in, they did not pause to ask questions and began firing their weapons at him.
Harry turned, feeling time slow as his meta-temporal senses reacted accelerating his reactions faster to respond to the situation. Summoning his psychic abilities and what he knew and experienced so far with them; a psychic energy field formed around himself and the injured Time Lord.
As the projectile weapons impacted with the shield Harry did not think to user his staser, he simply reacted, holding out his hand and concentrated, the eight guards shooting at him began to burn, quickly engulfed in psychic fire, they crumbled fast to dust.
Then as his senses returned Harry looked around him, suddenly more aware of what he'd done.
'You are far more capable than anyone on Gallifrey.' The Time Lord in front of him said with surprise in his mind.
'The rich Artron and regenerative energy mix in here', Harry felt, thought defensive of his actions. 'Who did this?'
'The Leader.' A feeling in the mental maelstrom of the Time Lord's thoughts 'One of our own.'
When Harry heard the man, in his mind speak the name of the Time Lord he was shocked and disturbed. 'We are from another universe, to destroy the bridge. My brother,' Harry paused and wasn't sure he could explain.
'Parallel developments young Time Lord.' The Time Lord paused
Harry winced as he felt the Time Lord's pain wrack through his mind and reached out. Harry wanted to make contact, to properly connect with this Time Lord, but he didn't trust himself to keep the barriers in his mind solid.
'Kill me, young Time Lord, this must, end.' The Time Lord was looking towards his staser.
Harry stepped back from the Time Lord.
"May I know your name?" Harry asked as he adjusted the control.
Harry could hear footsteps and knew he needed to do it now, just as the Time Lord mentally spoke his name the door exploded open Harry fired.
"Harry!" His brother exclaimed as the staser hit the Time Lord.
A small rush of energy exploded out of the Time Lord as he died.
"What have you done Harry?" His brother shouted.
There were alarms going off elsewhere, Harry just stepped closer to his brother and the Brigadier and sent a telepathic signal for Marie.
-/
Jo Grant wished, just a little bit that she had gone with the Doctor and the Brigadier, and Harry.
She wasn't sure how she felt being left behind; stuck inside a TARDIS. Inside a TARDIS that looked like a woman.
She had wandered around, Harry telling her before he left that she could have a look around that 'Marie will lock any doors she doesn't want you wandering into'.
When the Doctor talked about his TARDIS she didn't realised that was what it meant.
She'd found a huge library, bigger than any she'd ever even imagined.
Then she'd wandered outside, at least she thought it was outside, except there had been a door, a small internal one like in the Doctor's TARDIS.
It was like there was an outside world, trapped inside a room, inside a TARDIS, which looked like a woman.
In the end she'd returned to the console room where she'd found a kettle and made herself a cup of tea.
At least that was normal, Harry had an old tea pot as well.
It was nice to know the Doctor and his brother shared something.
Walking over to the console she looked around. "Umm. excuse me, Marie?" Jo forced herself not to jump when the woman she was standing inside of appeared in front of her. "Um, should I have gone, with the Doctor and the others?"
The woman, who wasn't a woman, looked at her. Jo suddenly felt very small under her gaze. "The facility is heavily guarded, the environment hostile," she reported.
"Yes but," Jo began. "Will the Doctor be safe?" She tried instead.
"The secure environment is hostile, Harry and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart were appropriately armoured against and incursion. The Doctor is a Time Lord who chose not to use any weapons," Marie paused. "The Doctor is capable without weapons."
Jo walked around the console, Marie watched her. "If you're so intelligent, why do you need Harry, can't you just fly off wherever you want?"
Marie tilted her head and looked at her. "I am a TARDIS Jo Grant."
Jo frowned, she wasn't sure if Marie was deliberately answering her questions in a bad way or she wasn't framing her questioned in the right way. "But don't you want to go and explore the universe?"
"No. A TARDIS requires a pilot, a bond with a Time Lord," Marie said.
Jo smiled, now she was getting somewhere. "But what does that mean?"
Marie gave her a look. "It is beyond a Level 4 civilisation to understand the complexities of Gallifreyan and Time Lord society."
Jo's smile slipped, but something of the sentence surprised her. The Doctor had always talked about the Time Lords, the people who had exiled him. But Marie had made it sound like Gallifreyans and Time Lords were separate. "What's the difference between Time Lords and Gallifreyans?"
Marie looked like she was about to say something when she disappeared and it sounded like the TARDIS, she was dematerialising.
"Marie! Marie! Where are you going?" Jo rushed around the console trying, looking for something.
And then off to the side three people faded into existence.
"How the devil did we end up here?" The Brigadier was saying.
"Marie materialised around us." Harry Potter was saying as he walked up quickly to the console and stood in front of one of the panels pushing buttons. Jo recognised it as the same one the Brigadier had been curious about when they'd travelled over there. "Marie, dematerialise and prepare to target the facility."
"Target! Harry." The Doctor rushed over to the console as the rods and prongs in the middle of the column were meshing together again as the TARDIS dematerialisation noise filled the room again.
"That was a Time Lord in there brother," Harry said roughly. "I touched his mind."
"Ready to fire." Jo heard Marie's voice, calm as when she had been speaking to her.
"Target for the facility's complete destruction," Harry said in a calm tone.
"We destroyed the remains of the gubbins, the Doctor said it was what was left of a TARDIS Mr Potter," the Brigadier said approaching. "The Doctor set it to self destruct explode."
"Implode Brigadier," his brother clarified. "Harry they'll suck in the dimensions."
"Marie?" Harry queried.
"Minor relative dimensional disturbance detected," she reported.
"There's no need to hurt these people here Harry," the Doctor said in a reasonable tone.
"They were just trying to survive, that's what the Doctor said," Jo tried to Harry.
-/
Harry's hand hovered over the weapons systems controls. He didn't even need to use the controls, he could just tell Marie, or send a mental command through her telepathic circuits.
But he wanted to destroy that facility for what they had done to that Time Lord, for what he had seen and felt in his mind, what experiments had been done to him, he wanted to destroy them for that. And then he paused, allowing his more conscious mind control, to think, not to react as he had been taught. "Return to our universe Marie, use the same temporal and dimensional vectors," he ordered as he walked out of the control room, wishing to change his clothing and settle his mind.
Killing the guards and being confronted with a Time Lord asking, wishing for death was beyond anything he thought he would face when visiting his brother. Now, barely a few spans after that he was wishing to destroy a remaining outpost of a civilisation that suffered an extinction level event. Making him like some of the Time Lords of old, warmongers, reigning terror.
Or perhaps...perhaps he was just angry, angry that a Time Lord could do that to one of their own.
-/
"Where's Harry gone Doctor?" Jo asked.
"To change and rest Jo," the Doctor said nodding to the Brigadier who stepped through the door that Harry had passed quickly before.
"What happened there Doctor?" Jo asked.
The Doctor sighed walking around the console, Jo peeled away and walked over to where Harry had his tea things, making the Doctor a mug of tea she walked back across the room and handed it to him with a soft smile.
"Ah, thank you Jo," The Doctor took the cup, his body language shifting to that of relief. "Harry's at least not relying on the food machine."
Jo wrinkled her nose, she'd found that, but had only been able to work out the button for water. The rest seemed to be a screen and a language that must have been native Gallifreyan.
Jo asked only a few questions as the Doctor talked about what he'd found, in the computer systems there, what he and the Brigadier had done, but the Doctor said very little about what Harry meant about there being another Time Lord there.
Then the Brigadier came out looking much happier to be back in his regular uniform.
"I'll take that Brigadier." The Doctor went striding over to the Brigadier holding out his hand.
"You don't trust me not to wander off with it Doctor?" The Brigadier asked handing the Doctor the laser gun Harry had given him.
"Harry shouldn't have given you something so advanced. Especially considering what he believes," the Doctor muttered.
"And what's that Doctor?" The Brigadier asked. "For a young man Mr Potter seems very mature and capable."
The Doctor pulled a face. "Harry believes in our people's mantra of non-interference. Harry would have been happy to remain at home and observe the universe."
"And you didn't Doctor?" Jo asked, distracting the Doctor where he was trying to find somewhere to put the gun and eventually just shoved it somewhere in one of the nearby alcoves.
"No," the Doctor shook his head. "No Jo I didn't. Look where it got me."
"Mr Potter believes in the law," the Brigadier observed.
The Doctor sighed taking a sip of his tea. "Yes, he does. Harry respects authority all too much. He and Quences got on like a house on fire."
"This Ordinal General chap?" The Brigadier asked.
"Was he like your house master Doctor?" Jo asked the Doctor playfully.
The Doctor looked to her with a mix of emotions. "No Jo, more like..." He smiled. "Perhaps yes you might think of him like that. I much preferred the hermit to speak with, Harry preferred the library and advices of Quences than I did."
"Where is the young man Doctor, he seemed to disappear as soon as we dematerialised," the Brigadier said with some wonderment in his voice that he had actually said what he had said.
The Doctor beamed at him. "You're learning quick Brigadier. Harry will have required time to rest."
"Why Doctor?" Jo asked.
"Harry's younger than me Jo," the Doctor began.
"Shouldn't that mean he's brimming with energy Doctor?" The Brigadier asked. "Is there any of that tea left Miss Grant?" He addressed Jo.
Jo nodded as they three walked over to where Harry kept his tea things.
"Younger Time Lords are..." The Doctor trailed off as he seemed to try and think of how to explain it to the two humans with him.
"This is some good tea Doctor, proper English tea," the Brigadier was wrapping his hands around the mug breathing in the steam while the Doctor thought to himself.
"Iris Wildthyme gave me that tea," a voice, Harry's voice said as he walked into the control room.
"That woman!" The Doctor exclaimed in a tone that Jo couldn't quite place.
-/
Harry walked over to the console, he had instructed Marie leave the other universe to slowly close and knit together the vortex threads that had been roughly pulled apart by those utilising the Time Lord's TARDIS.
When he had killed the Time Lord, a show of mercy, requested by him, Harry had done something...questionable. He had reached out in the microspans of his death and touched his mind, extracting information from him.
It was his own curiosity that needed to be sated, and the knowledge gained he had needed to carefully breakdown in his mind. He had left the main control room to his brother, the Brigadier and Jo Grant and moved to one of the secondary control rooms to avail himself of Marie's telepathic circuits.
He had needed some time to extract and consider what he had found, what he had ripped in the period between firing the staser and its energy bolt finding purchase on the Time Lord.
Almost all of what he had found in the Time Lord's mind was disturbing.
But he now knew definitively who had done that to the Time Lord.
The discovery had been darkly amusing, were he one to find such things as such. 'The Leader', the man whose face was on the 'Unity is Strength' posters in the base was an alternate of his brother was fascinating. It supported many theories on parallel dimensional development. Harry found himself considering writing something on this development. But concern for his brother's predicament, especially as he had begun the series of events which quite possible had lead to the Time Lord's predicament, that Harry had needed to mercy kill him, that posed worrying issues for Harry.
"We will be returning to your base of operations soon Brigadier," Harry said over at the group.
"Why did it take so long coming back Harry than when we went there? Feels like we've been in here ages." Jo Grant asked.
Harry smiled gently over at the younger woman. "Marie repaired the damage to space time caused by the dimensional ripping."
"There was damage from my crossing?" His brother asked in a worried.
Harry shook his head. "Their attempts to cross caused the scarring, it will heal in time brother," Harry watched his brother, unsure of how much the Time Lords had blocked in his brother's mind. He had mentioned 'time travel theory', however the fact remained his brother had piloted his TARDIS across dimensions. That still required some dimensional and temporal knowledge, perhaps it had been mostly unconscious, utilising knowledge learnt early at the Academy Harry wondered to himself.
Walking around the console he checked the coordinates. "Rematerialising now."
-/
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart turned around as he walked out of...out of what appeared to be a woman, split in half, with the Doctor, Miss Grant and Harry Potter, the Doctor's brother following him out of the woman, who wasn't a woman.
"Well, I shall bid you goodbye, for now brother." Harry Potter was saying to the Doctor.
The Brigadier saw a flash of anger in the Doctor's face as Harry Potter turned to leave.
"That's it Harry, a brief glimpse inside your TARDIS, another universe and then you're off, leaving me here?" The Doctor looked to Harry Potter.
Alistair watched the younger man, he looked no more than 16, but his behaviour was much more matured. Alistair briefly gazed to the woman, Marie, the TARDIS who seemed to be watching the interplay between Harry Potter and the Doctor with calm interest.
Alistair watched and tensed for a moment as Harry Potter reached into his coat pocket and retrieved what looked like a pack of white cards from a pocket and held them out to his brother.
"If you ever require assistance brother, send for me, I will come." Harry Potter said offering the white cards. Alistair couldn't see what they were beyond a deck of white cards.
"I don't want your hypercube Harry! I want my freedom." The Doctor roughly batted the pack of cards out of Harry Potter's hands, they went flying across the room and then, Alistair stared at them as they stopped. Hanging in the air for a moment.
Alistair looked to Miss Grant who was equally agape as they hung there for a moment before returning to Harry's hand.
"Your freedom?" Harry Potter repeated watching him.
"You have the psychic abilities Harry, you could remove the Time Lord's mental blocks, you could give me my freedom to travel back," the Doctor implored.
Alistair felt as though the temperature in the room dropped a degree and looked over to Miss Grant who was stood on the opposite side of the room to him, nearest to the Doctor. They both met in a gaze for a moment. Alistair felt like neither Time Lord was really paying them much attention.
"You were sentenced by the High Council brother. You called on the Time Lords," Harry Potter challenged.
"Don't tell me what I know Harry!" The Doctor exclaimed.
Harry chuckled. "You broke our laws, you accepted and enjoyed your status as a renegade."
The Doctor spluttered. "It's not like that Harry, I'm not like-"
"Like Koshei, like Ushas, like Mortimus..." Harry listed, Alistair couldn't fathom what these names meant, only that they were likely like the Doctor. "Like Magnus."
"I am not like him he," the Doctor almost raged. "he threw his all in with those people, do you know what they did?" The Doctor looked to his brother.
"I saw, I saw the world time looped." Harry Potter looked to his brother. "Do you remember when we went to Olyesti?"
"When we were visiting the Three Minute Cities?" The Doctor seemed to sneer slightly. "What of it Harry?"
"I was left behind, at the station with you," Harry Potter began. "You said 'sometimes we have to obey the laws brother, sometimes we have to break them'," Harry Potter paused. "Savar told me, knowing laws which to break and which to follow makes a good Time Lord, knowing when to break them and when to follow them, that makes a great Time Lord."
"You shouldn't listen to Savar, he's dangerous Harry," the Doctor said in a dark tone.
There was a flash of anger in Harry Potter's expression for a moment. "Who I associate is for me to decide on, I did not make any judgements of your associations brother." Harry Potter breathed in deeply and looked at the Doctor firmly. "Were your exile permanent you would not have been allowed to keep your TARDIS and only the faintest knowledge of Gallifrey."
With that Harry Potter turned around to face Alistair. "Brigadier," Harry Potter pressed the deck of cards into his hands. "If you find yourself facing a situation which my brother refuses or does not wish to participate in, lay these out. Think, or even speak to them. When you are finished the hypercube will find me, and I will be here."
Then Harry Potter turned, pausing briefly near Marie to bid Miss Grant farewell and they were treated to a woman disappearing before their eyes.
"Well, Doctor, would you like this, whatever it is, hyper gubbins?" Alistair held out the pack of cards.
The Doctor held his hands up. "No Brigadier, Harry would have ensured that only your biodata could activate it, he doesn't trust me with something like that."
"Doctor, was everything he said...about your life?" Miss Grant asked curiously.
The Doctor turned to look at her. "Oh, of course Jo, Harry is, well, he's a different sort of chap to me, much more...special."
-/
A/N:
A sort of sequel to Inferno, I've also borrowed a few plot pieces from the novel Face of the Enemy. I wanted to have a reason for Harry to interact with the Brigadier and Jo and this seemed like the best way in.
I left Jo within Marie before Jo's just so much better for these sorts of questions / scenes than the Brigadier is.
I rewrote the last part of this chapter a few times. Originally it would have been a bit more aggressive. With Harry telepathically ripping the hypercube out of the Doctor's hands and then passing it onto the Brigadier. After Harry had left the Brig would've said "Now I see your temper runs in the family Doctor."
Thanks for reading.