Chapter 9

Conundrum

London, England

November 23, 1963

Emetrius boarded his flight that would take him to Washington, D.C. He would go there to initiate his contact with Janaline. He was aware that it was going to be extra busy in that particular city with the recent death of the American president. He was led to his seat by an attractive stewardess. Susana was the name on her name tag and she flashed him a professional smile. She offered him a cocktail that he immediately declined as he settled into his first class seat. She retrieved for him a blanket and pillow as he regarded her with a friendly smile of her own. He could see that underneath the pleasant veneer, she was mildly hostile to all of the passengers especially what she regarded the well dressed snob in first class. He was polite enough but he also had an air of privilege and expectation about him; he expected to be well taken care of. She hovered around a bit as he was the only passenger in the First Class section of the aircraft and since he seemed content to sleep; she hoped that she too could sleep away across the Atlantic.

As the plane took off, Emetrius pulled out an expensive pocket watch and noted the time as 7:55pm. The plane began flying a southwesterly heading that would take it towards Southampton and the Isle of Wight. The night was fairly dark with the moon in a first quarter phase in the sky but Emetrius had no trouble seeing as if it were the brightest clearest daylight. His stewardess Susana was sitting in her own seat, settling in for the flight. She has told him to just press the call button if he needed anything and he assured her that he would. Something about the evening's events troubled him. Through his own information network, he had heard about the American president's assassination but it was not common knowledge yet in London. At least it shouldn't have been to a couple of street toughs that preyed on other people. That was somewhat puzzling. Such people usually didn't bother to keep up with local events much less international ones. It was puzzling to say the least he thought as he looked out the window in the darkened cabin.

The TARDIS inside the vortex

"It's like someone is deliberately attempting to disrupt the flow of time itself, it's maddening!" the Doctor cried out in frustration. His hands worked over the controls of the TARDIS in a feverish pitch and information flashed across the display screen. Rose looked on with obvious concern on her face but the Doctor seemed oblivious to it. He was sure that he was missing something important but he was unable to pinpoint exactly what. He noticed that another time lock was about to form so he rushed the TARDIS to its temporal location to try to record the event. The TARDIS lurched violently as it arrived and the Doctor rushed out the doors to retrieve the probe that was launched. He was so focused as to what he was doing that he never noticed that Rose didn't accompany him outside.

New York City, New York

November 23, 1963

Janaline sat at her desk, looking over the daily take of information that was still coming in from her world wide network. In this country, all the news was still about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, from her point of view that was only one piece of news in a world filled with ongoing news. She compiled enormous amounts of information that was transcribed into an enormous amount of tomes, stored in various locations around the world. A device of interest had been developed called a computer but it was still in its development stage. Her sources advised her that one day, such machines could be utilized to store the data the she meticulously collected but she was somewhat skeptical about it. About an hour ago, she sensed that her former master had boarded an aircraft out of London headed for Washington, D.C. Earlier, she had sent him a couple of visitors. She had instructed them to ask him about the recent events in Dallas, Texas yesterday. He could spend months trying to figure it out and it really had no purpose except to amuse her. It was a dangerous game that she played with him, considering that he was still more powerful than she was, albeit not by much.

"Arthur," she said softy.

"Yes Mistress," he said as he walked into her study.

"Pan AM flight number 1183 left London Heathrow bound for Washington at 7:55 pm local time set to land at Friendship International in Baltimore at 11:55 local time. Emetrius is on board that flight. I want to know exactly when it lands and I want to know why he is going to Washington. I would suspect he is coming over to seek me out for some information or another."

Arthur wrote down the relevant information and walked back to his desk. He lifted his phone and made several phone calls and several of his own network contacts were set in place to monitor the incoming flight.

Janaline looked at the clock on her desk and saw that the sun would set in a half an hour. She would go out and hunt and be back in time to see what Emetrius was up to. She was privately amused that Arthur was going to be puzzled as to how she knew that Emetrius was on board that flight before he did. She smiled more at the thought that maybe she knew that Emetrius was going to be on that flight before Emetrius himself did.

Pan Am Flight 1183

November 23, 1963

Emetrius could read from the pilots mind that they were over Newfoundland and were going to head down the eastern seaboard of Canada and the United States. He was eager to get to his destination. Information was churning in his head as it would at times like this. He needed to get more pieces of the puzzle to figure out his strategy. The man known as the Doctor and that accursed blue police box; he was the central figure into what he was and he would have his revenge upon him. It was not possible that the old man that he encountered earlier could be the same person, but somehow it was. It was impossible but he accepted it nonetheless. He knew that the Doctor had something to do with time travel as he himself had been transported into the ancient world. He had encountered the Doctor several times through out the intervening centuries and the man had never before appeared to have ever changed in appearance. He had an ordinary blonde girl with him, Rose Tyler was her name. She only appeared to be ordinary as she would more fall into the realm of extraordinary considering what she had seen on her travels. Small amounts of information had trickled to him from a variety of sources and a larger picture was forming. Tonight's sighting of the Doctor was still burning in his mind. The old man that he saw tonight was the Doctor but this Doctor appeared to be a grandfather with a regal appearance and the Doctor that he knew was a much younger man. He was confused and he could not tolerate that either. Rage was building within him and with it; focus. It was because of the Doctor that he never had his life with Elizabeth. His rage softened a bit as he thought about the last time he saw Elizabeth in that asylum. She had been his sole focus for almost three millennia. October 12, 1928 he remembered the last time he saw her alive.

The TARDIS

Rose Tyler stood with her hand on the consol of the TARDIS with a worried expression on her face. The Doctor had been talking a mile a minute and had barely paused for breath much less stopping long enough to listen to the concerns that she had about what was happening. It seemed that every time he discovered one change to the time line and rushed to examine it, another would appear to occupy his attention. It seemed to Rose that it was like a rat in a maze. Someone was not only manipulating the time line but the Doctor was well. The Doctor ran back into the TARDIS, probe in hand. He tossed it aside with into the pile with all the rest of them. A rather large pile had accumulated. He was chattering incessantly and Rose just stood there staring at him with a somewhat sad look upon her face. The Doctor finally seemed to notice and stopped and walked up to her and took her hand.

"Rose I know what I am doing, I need to stay up with this because as soon as I seem to identify one focal point, another one pops up."

"Doctor I am just worried that you are getting too far into this and not seeing the bigger picture…"

"Rose, I am the Doctor. I am brilliant you know." He said with a crooked smile.

An indicator began to beep on the consol of the TARDIS and the Doctor immediately began to almost frantically work the controls. Rose once again began to frown and unconsciously put her hand on the very spot on the TARDIS control where she had absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex.

New York City, New York

November 23, 1963

Janaline returned from her hunt and she was still very joyous as to the day's events. She had not enjoyed herself in quite some time and she planned to savor the moment for as long as it was feasible for her to do so. She looked at the clock on her desk and figured that she had just over an hour before the plane landed in Baltimore. She sat down at her desk and then froze there. There was something amiss as her enhanced senses were all going off at once.

"Arthur?" she called to her assistant.

"Yes Mistress," he said walking into her study.

"Is everything alright here? Anything going on that I should know about?"

"Everything is as it should be Mistress. My sources at the airport say that the plane is slightly ahead of schedule and should be landing within the hour."

Janaline looked at Arthur for a moment and then turned to her mind connection with Emetrius. It had all the affect of opening up a blast furnace; such was the power of the rage and anger that she encountered. It was all directed at her.

"Arthur," she said after a moment of hesitation. "Execute the Beta protocol"

"Yes Mistress."

She walked over to a closet and removed a small suitcase. She opened it briefly and looked at its contents. Without another word, she went to the window, opened it and disappeared into the night.

Pan Am Flight 1183

November 23, 1963

Emetrius went over that moment in his mind over and over again. Something about that last conversation with Elizabeth tore at him. He played it again in his mind, careful to remember every detail. 8:45pm she had said. Why was that significant? He pondered it over and over and then he had a sudden flash of insight. All this time he had missed it. It wasn't that time 38 years ago he needed to be concerned about, it was that fateful night in 1888 that he needed to be thinking about. 8:45pm on November 4, 1888 that was the time when he, as Nigel Brown not Emetrius went down into the London Underground to go and see why Elizabeth had not met him like she said that she was going to. 8:45pm on November 4, 1888 was the time when he had been chased into that damned blue police box. 8:45pm was when Austriel had gone and poisoned Elizabeth's mind. He carefully went over that night in his mind but then he had to pause again. He lived that particular night twice. He thought about the second time. He had chased the hateful Austriel into the London Underground that night as she had been chasing Nigel. If he had been chasing Austriel and Austriel had been chasing Nigel, there was no possible way Austriel could have been talking to Elizabeth at that exact time could there be? Was it possible that Austriel used the Doctor's blue police box to go and torment Elizabeth? Unlikely as that would mean that Nigel never could have entered it to go back in time almost 3,000 years to become Emetrius. Now it was theoretically possible that since he was in two separate places that night, Austriel could have been as well. He thought about that particular possibility for several moments before ultimately dismissing it as highly improbable as opposed to impossible. With time travel involved (if it had been possible, all this thought of time travel would have given him a headache) any number of possibilities could have been possible. One more time he walked through the events of November 4, 1888 in his mind and concluded that Austriel was with two separate versions of himself. She had to have been stalking Nigel (strange thinking about himself in the third person like this) and he had been stalking her. Elizabeth had clearly said that a woman who came and had a conversation with her at 8:45pm on the night of November 4, 1888. With a flash of astonished insight, Emetrius was drawn to the conclusion that it was Janaline, not Austriel who visited Elizabeth that night. He sat back in his seat and pondered this highly improbable turn of events. Janaline always had seemed to be fond of him no matter what he had done to her, one of the reasons that he had not destroyed her. He thought about it for a moment longer. If Austriel had been the one to go and see Elizabeth, she would have more than likely killed her outright as opposed to tell her the truth about what had happened to Nigel. Upon coming to that conclusion, his rage began to burn white hot within him.

Unable to control the violent emotions that were surging he sat in his seat and seethed for a moment. All the sleeping passengers on board the aircraft were suddenly troubled in their sleep. Some of them even began to whimper and weep in their sleep. The stewardess Susana was awakened and was immediately troubled and gripped with fear. She could almost hear an audible voice inside her head: go get the captain. She was paralyzed with fear and was unable to move. Then the voice in her head turned into a shout: GO GET THE CAPTAIN! With shaking hands, she lifted up the phone that enabled her to speak into the cockpit.

"Captain, this is Susana, can you please come out here a moment, it is very urgent."

Emetrius got up from his seat and walked up towards the front of the plane. Susana caught sight of him and drew in a breath for a scream and Emetrius reached out with his mind and snuffed out her life-force with about as much effort as it would take to blow out a small birthday candle. The captain walked out and Emetrius grabbed him.

"Captain it is imperative that you divert this aircraft to New York immediately."

"But I…uh…" the captain managed to get out before he was interrupted.

Emetrius pulled the captain close to him and manifested his most terrible and horrible face. "Captain I will not repeat myself and I am rapidly losing patience with you. Divert this aircraft to New York City right now."

To the captain's credit, he controlled his fear and didn't waver in his conviction as he said, "I don't see the point of cooperating with you since I sincerely believe that you are going to kill everyone on board regardless."

Emetrius bared his teeth as his canine's elongated themselves and he was about to bite the captain right on his neck in classic vampire fashion. He suddenly sensed the presence of his treacherous creation Janaline inside his mind. He reached out with his mind and touched the minds of all on board the aircraft, killing them all. The aircraft suddenly lurched in the air and began to dive. Emetrius quickly looked out and saw that they were still over the water. He quickly went to the co-pilot and infused him with some of his own life-force, creating a new vampire in the process. The newly formed vampire attempted to rise from his seat.

"Fly the plane, there will be plenty time to satiate your new cravings. Take us to New York City."

The co-pilot hissed and the plane turned sharply in a new direction as Emetrius reached out with his own mind and sought Janaline with his mind. A connection once made works in both directions. He couldn't terminate the link so he filled his mind with all the terrible things that he was going to do to her when he finally found her.

"Turn the plane slightly to the right." Emetrius said as he tracked Janaline like a fixed point with a compass. He knew that at the moment that she was on a train headed for Philadelphia. He placed his hand on top of the co-pilots head and began to draw the knowledge on how to fly this plane directly from his mind. He had intentions of flying this damn plane right down on top of her and the train.

Two things happened that Emetrius didn't anticipate. As he was forcing his way into Janaline's mind he then forced his way into the co-pilots mind and as a result, all three of their minds were connected. Janaline used the opportunity to cause the co-pilot to dump the planes fuel and now they had only minutes to find a place to land or crash, she didn't care much which. Then, with a brief moment of hesitation; she terminated her link to Emetrius freeing him from her invasive presences in his mind now and forever.

"We are going to run out of fuel in less than a minute." The co-pilot said.

Emetrius could see the New York City lights off in the distance.

"We need to jump." He told the co-pilot.

"I don't think so." The co-pilot said as he caused the plane to go into a dive.

Emetrius made is way to the door of the aircraft as he once again, reached out and touched the co-pilots mind, drawing out his life-force. He then obliterated the door of the aircraft and was blown out by the pressure differential; barely missing the engine as he the aircraft continued its descent towards the ground. The plane hit the ground less than a minute later at full speed and disintegrated in a huge fireball. He used almost all of his power to slow his own descent and forward motion, hitting the ground hard but not really injuring himself. His clothes weren't so fortunate, leaving his expensive suit in tatters. He found himself in Brentwood, New York. The plane crashed about 15 miles to the east of here and as soon as he could find a replacement of his wardrobe, he intended to go and talk with his good friend, and quite possibly his next victim, Arthur.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

November 24, 1963

Janaline boarded the small airplane that would take her to Chicago, from there she would board an international flight bound for Paris, France. Once there she would contact Nooroo and then the two of them could deal with Emetrius. He had managed for frighten her but she wasn't going to stay frightened. She would soon go on the offensive.

Paris, France

January 28, 1964

Janaline had just finally managed to get Arthur on the phone. He had informed her that he was no longer working for her and that Emetrius was his new master now. She was angry about that as Arthur had served her so well. He had also told her that he was taking his network with him and was going to devote all of his time and energy attempting to locate the elusive Doctor. She looked at Nooroo and he smiled patiently at her. He didn't like to be in large cities, especially in Europe or America. So she traveled with him to Africa where she stayed for quite some time. At first they were wary of an impending attack from Emetrius but it never came. After a time, The One sought them out to inquire why they would ally themselves together but he soon went back to South America. After a time, the two of them wore on each other's nerves and Janaline decided to head back to Paris.

Nairobi, Kenya

February 7, 1982

Janaline walked in the bad area of town, hunting. Soon enough, someone would be foolish enough to attempt to make her a victim. As with her modus operandi, she would then victimize the assailant. She could hear her prey approaching and she feigned nervousness as she glanced at the lone male approaching her, wearing a hoodie. She quickly turned her head away and had to suppress a smile. Nooroo seldom hunted humans, preferring to kill only animals. All the humans that Nooroo had stalked, he made into vampires. Her victim was almost in reach and she decided to let him grab her before she "explained" it to him.

He grabbed her and then spun her around and threw her into a wall with such force that the bricks it was constructed with began to crumble around her.

Emetrius! Was all she had time to think before he grabbed her again and threw her into a wall across the street with similar results. As she was flying through the air, she noticed that Emetrius was moving almost as fast as she was so that when she impacted, she was grabbed and thrown again is a similar fashion only this time to fly up into the air several feet before crashing into another wall. The small amount of extra time that she had during her ballistic flight through the air gave her just enough time to be ready for his next attack. As he grabbed her, she grabbed back and they began to grapple. She bared her fangs, going for the kill when she realized she made a fatal error. Emetrius had grabbed her by the head and was already drawing her life-force from her. She screamed in rage, but really was powerless to do anything but thrash and struggle. She stared into his hate filled eyes and was planning being defiant until the bitter end. Emetrius drew about a third of her life-force from her and then put her gently back on her feet. She staggered and then fell to the ground.

"I seem to remember burying you in the ground for a long time. Do you remember that Janaline? I do, oh how I relived that memory over and over again."

She sat there and stared at him defiantly, waiting for the renewal of his assault. He managed to surprise her.

"Henceforth you will once again call me Master. You acquiescence is recommended, as I will make you so weak and will torture you so slowly, you'd swear that I made a career out of it."

"I will do as you ask Master." She said carefully

He held out his hand and when she took it, he helped her to her feet.

"Come, we have a flight to New York City. I actually intend on allowing the plane to land there this time. During the last 18 years I have made a rather extensive network, Arthur has expanded his. You will yours with ours and we are going to find out all we can about the Doctor and his TARDIS. It's an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. That's what he call's his blue phone box. Come now."

The TARDIS inside the vortex.

"I've got it Rose! I have located the source!" The Doctor cried happily with a smug smile on his face. "We are heading there now and then we can get those chips!"

Rose smiled in spite of the apprehension that she was feeling. Seeing the Doctor like this always made her happy. Seeing him like this was one of the reasons that she traveled with him, plus the fact that he had a time machine. She merely looked at him warmly as he worked the controls on the TARDIS.

"Here we are Rose, Cardiff in 2006. Let's go fix this and get those chips!" he said as he ran towards the door.

The instant he opened the door, all hell broke loose.