Chapter 7

TARDIS

Adric, Nyssa, and Buffy stood near the center console of the TARDIS. Adric had been able to decode enough of the spell's source code so that the TARDIS was able to slow Dawn's unraveling. The two companions of the fifth Doctor had managed to convince Buffy to leave the medical wing while Dawn slept.

"So…are you and Spike full time Companions?" Nyssa asked Buffy, trying to ease into a conversation.

Buffy chuckled wryly. "No, he's just a very good friend of ours," she replied. "I don't think the Doctor could handle two Slayers on board for very long," Buffy said. "Faith and I would be at each other's throats after the first week," she admitted.

Nyssa looked a little confused. "I thought you and Faith got a long pretty well," she observed.

"We do, just as long as we don't spend too much together," Buffy said. "Eventually our prime Slayer instincts take over and we fight to see who gets to be in charge," she said.

"What exactly is a 'Slayer'?" Adric asked.

Buffy sat down on the airline seat attached to the railings and thought about how to answer that question. When the Doctor had stormed into her life, everything she thought she knew about the origins of the Slayers turned out to be lies given out by the forerunners of the Watchers. A small smile tugged on the corners of Buffy's mouth. Thanks to their alien friend, she now knew the truth. "Slayers is actually short for Vampire Slayers. A Time Lord called the Other created genetically modified warriors to fight the vampire-slave race left on Earth after the Vampire King visited," she told them.

"You're a genetically altered human?" Adric asked, showing his total lack of interpersonal skills. Nyssa hit Adric in the arm. "Ouch!" he said as he rubbed the sore spot.

"Sorry…we usually don't let him talk to other people very often," Nyssa apologized.

"It's ok, he sort of reminds me of a guy I work with named Andrew," Buffy said.

Nyssa decided to ask the next question before Adric could stick his foot in his mouth again. "Obviously you and Faith are both women. Are there any male Slayers?" she asked.

"Nope," Buffy answered. "Faith and I had a little metaphysical visit with the Other and he told us that he wasn't all that great at genetic manipulation. The Other was only able to link the super powers to the X chromosome," she said. "It's all good though. Men would have just misused the Slayer abilities anyway," Buffy said, winking at Nyssa.

Adric looked insulted. He was about to defend his sex when the doors to the TARDIS opened and the away team consisting of the Doctors, Faith, Spike, and Tegan came in. Spike was practically holding Tegan up on her feet.

"What happened to Tegan?" Nyssa asked, worried about her friend.

"Oh…it's nothing really," the fifth Doctor said as he put his hat on the hat rack. "A spot of tea and she'll be right as rain," he suggested.

"Nothing to worry about," the tenth Doctor added as he walked up the catwalk to the center console. "Tegan just contracted a virus that was killing her and would have ended up turning her into a flesh eating zombie," he said. Nyssa looked at the group that had ventured outside, trying to figure out if the tenth Doctor was joking. Buffy just nodded her head as if it were something she dealt with on a daily basis. (In reality, Buffy usually only had to deal with flesh eating zombies on something resembling a bi-weekly schedule.)

The fifth Doctor smiled as Tegan eased herself onto the seat next to Buffy. "Spike and Faith managed to procure a sample of both the virus and antivirus. Synthesizing an antidote was really quite simple after that," he said. The fifth Doctor purposefully left out the part about his future daughter helping out. He didn't want to ruin his surprise once he reached his 11th incarnation.

"Doctor, what's a zombie?" Adric asked. Both of the Doctors ran their hands through their hair at the same time.

Spike was flabbergasted. He pointed at the young man wearing the patchwork clothes. "He's not serious, is he?" Spike asked. He looked at Adric. "With the Doctor's track record, I would have thought you would have seen plenty by now," Spike said.

"Problems with the occasional zombie?" the fifth Doctor asked his older self.

The tenth Doctor inhaled loudly through his teeth. "Yeah…I suppose you could say that," he admitted. Ever since he had changed into 9, he had been dealing with zombie like creatures with alarming frequency.

"Did you get what we came here for?" Buffy asked eager to move on to the next segment.

"Right," the Doctors said in unison, slightly embarrassed by their absent minded nature. The tenth Doctor pulled out a small, slightly opaque cube about three inches on a side. The corner of one side of the cube was cut off to form a quarter of a cylinder. It was easy to see that four such segments could be placed together to make a larger cube with a shaft down the center.

Once the tenth Doctor pulled the segment out of his jacket, Faith noticed a third catwalk had appeared leading from the center control area to a door she had never seen before. "I thought old Blue had keyed all of the perception filters so they wouldn't work with me," she complained to her boyfriend.

"Hum?" the tenth Doctor asked, confused. Faith walked up to him and turned him around so that he could see the new catwalk and door.

Faith saw the slightly surprised look on the tenth Doctor's face. "That wasn't a perception filter, was it?" she asked. "That really wasn't here just a moment ago," Faith said rhetorically.

The tenth Doctor shook his head. "Oh…that's where she left it. I always wondered what she did with it when we weren't using it," he muttered.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Faith asked him, only slightly annoyed.

"The segment room," the fifth Doctor answered before the tenth had a chance to speak. "It's where we store the segments while search for the others," he said. "Each segment by itself is a very powerful artifact. When they come in to contact with the others, their power grows exponentially," he explained. "The TARDIS had to create a room with shields heavy enough to keep the energies from affecting her. Since we don't have the occasion to use it very often, I suspect the TARDIS stores it in a tangent universe to keep her from being cluttered," the fifth Doctor said.

Buffy took a long look at the cube in the tenth Doctor's hand. "Let's get the Rubik's cube tucked in and get on with things. Dawn isn't getting any better," she reminded everyone.

"I'm sorry, my dear. Even as a Time Lord, I still lose track of time every now and then," the fifth Doctor said. He walked up the third catwalk with his other self and opened the door. Inside was a plain 10' x 10' gray room. The only thing in the room was a gray metal table directly in the center. He watched as the tenth Doctor reverently put the segment on the table. "Where to next?" the fifth Doctor asked.

"How would I know?" the tenth Doctor replied. "You have the tracer," he reminded the fifth Doctor.

The fifth Doctor pulled the tracer out of his jacket. "So I do, sorry old chap," he said. They quickly walked down the catwalk to the center console. The fifth Doctor placed the tracer in the console. He flipped several switches and threw the flight lever. The Time Rotor began to rise and fall in time with the dematerialization sounds. The fifth Doctor looked at the coordinates and frowned. "I don't remember ever being to that particular planet before," he mused.

The tenth Doctor looked over the fifth Doctor's shoulder. "New one to me too. Well…I suppose I have been there before since you're going, but obviously I don't remember it," he said. "Off to the library, shall we?" the tenth Doctor asked.

"Is it still near the pool?" the fifth Doctor asked.

"Of course it is. I don't think I'll ever quit enjoying a nice book by the pool," the tenth Doctor answered. "Even after 2 dropped his Kindle in the hot tub,' he said, sharing the embarrassing memory with his younger self.

The two Doctors walked into the library followed by their Companions. "I don't know what was more embarrassing…dropping that damned E-reader when I saw Jamie in those Speedos or the fact that I was reading Twilight at the time," the fifth Doctor chuckled.

Faith snickered. "Wow, I guess 2 really was gay," she said. The tenth Doctor winked at her.

Buffy turned her head from side to side and tried to wrap her head around how many books there were in this place. "No wonder Giles had a nerdgasm the first time we were in the TARDIS," she whispered to husband.

"So what's the plan? Do we split up and start looking for books, or do we go in teams?" Spike asked the Doctors.

The tenth Doctor looked around and for the first time in ages thought about how vast his collection had grown. He gestured with his arm in a broad sweeping motion. "These are all for pleasure," the tenth Doctor said. Buffy gasped at the thought. "For work, we just have to come over here," the tenth Doctor said. He led them to a table in the center of the lobby. The table sat in the middle of a large white tiled circle. On the old wood table was an even older looking manual typewriter.

"Riiiight," Buffy said sarcastically.

The fifth Doctor frowned at her and typed in the coordinates the segment tracer had provided. Instantly, the area occupied by the tile circle was filled with a blue holographic map representing the sphere of influence of the Time Lords. The tenth Doctor made gestures with his hands and arms. The map zoomed into first one galaxy and then again on a particular solar system. Ellipses appeared showing orbits of six planets were displayed. The second planet was highlighted. Pages of information written in High Gallifreyan flashed next to the planet at roughly five per second. After several minutes the pages of information stopped flashing and only the model of the solar system remained.

"Enough with the suspense," Faith said. "Where are we going?" she asked.

The tenth Doctor stepped into the holographic map and pointed at the second planet. "Here," he said. "We're going to the second planet in the Polaris system. It has Earth like atmosphere and gravity," the tenth Doctor explained. "The planet is a bit unusual in the fact that its axis is tilted nearly 45 degrees from the plane of its orbit," he said. "It looks like we will be landing on the northern hemisphere during its summer. Sorry Spike, but you'll have to wait this one out," the tenth Doctor informed his friend.

"Why can't Spike leave the TARDIS?" Tegan asked.

Spike stepped forward and pointed at the planet. "Same reason why Alaska and Northern Canada aren't vampire vacation hot spots during the summer. Too many hours of sunlight and not enough of darkness," he explained. Spike looked over at the tenth Doctor. "How many hours of sunlight are we talking about?" he asked.

The tenth Doctor looked at the model and then glanced at the ceiling as he did the calculations. "Polaris 2 has a 26 hour day. At that tilt and considering we'll be there in late Spring…I would say we're in for about 25 ½ hours of daylight," he replied.

"Right," Spike said as he clapped his hands. "Looks like I'll be able to spend some quality time with my wife," he said.

"Afraid not, Spike," the fifth Doctor said. "If Buffy's abilities are similar to Faith's, then we will probably end up needing her," he told he blonde vampire.

Buffy squared her shoulders. "What are we facing this time…demons, rabid robot monkeys, door to door salesmen?" she asked.

"The local population are referred to as Ursanoids," the tenth Doctor said as he gestured with his hand in the hologram. A picture of what looked like a bipedal bear wearing rough, homespun clothing swam into view.

"They look adorable," Nyssa said.

Tegan squinted at the hologram. "What's the catch?" she asked. The tenth Doctor made another motion with his hand and an image of a human sprang to life next to the Ursanoid. The human only came up to the large bear's chest. Circles appeared around the paws and muzzle of the Ursanoid. Enlarged pictures sprang out from the hologram showing huge, razor sharp claws and teeth obviously designed for tearing meat from its prey.

"On the other hand…" Nyssa hedged as she looked at the claws.

Spike pulled Buffy to him and kissed her cheek. "Go…have fun. I'll look after the niblet while you're gone," he told his bride.

Polaris 2

A small furry quadruped with a single horn above its eyes sat happily munching on a flower inside a small clearing in the great forest. The animal dropped the stem and propped up its mobile ears when it heard the materializing noises of the TARDIS a few feet away. The rush of suddenly displaced air convinced the horned animal to hop away.

The doors to the TARDIS opened and the tenth Doctor poked his head out. He squinted in the harsh daylight and pulled out his sunglasses. The tenth Doctor took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. "Little bit more oxygen and a little less nitrogen that what you are used to, but everyone should be fine," he told the Companions. The tenth Doctor walked out and began looking at the huge trees all around them. Nyssa and the fifth Doctor were the next ones out. Tegan had decided that she would rather rest up a bit from nearly dying and Adric was still working on decoding the source code for Dawn's spell. Buffy and Faith were the last ones to come out. When the door was shut, Faith squeezed her key through her shirt and the light on top of the TARDIS flashed twice.

Buffy wrinkled her nose. "Something smells funny here," she said. "Not bad…just weird," Buffy tried to explain.

The tenth Doctor smiled at her as he looked up from a grass clipping he had obtained with a pair of scissors. "That's clean air you're smelling," he told her.

A surprised look came across Buffy's face. "So that's what it smells like," the native Californian said.

The fifth Doctor pulled the tracer out of his pocket and everyone watched as the blue end of the tube pointed in the direction of a game trail. "Shall we?" he asked and started down the trail. Buffy stopped him by putting her hand on his chest.

"Not so fast, celery guy," Buffy said. "We don't know what's down that trail. We don't even know what's around that first bend down there," she pointed out. "Faith and I will go scout ahead. Give us a few minutes and then you can start down the trail," Buffy told him. Before the fifth Doctor could argue, Buffy and Faith ran off into the forest, silent as only true predators can be.

Faith and Buffy had been running for 15 minutes and neither one of them was showing any sign of strain. They came to a halt when they heard a large animal moving through the bushes about 30 yards to their right. Faith looked at Buffy who just nodded once. The two Slayers crept cautiously in the direction they heard the noises. As they got closer, they could hear occasional deep growls coming from the other side of a small hill between them and whatever was making the noises.

The Slayers reached the top of the hill and froze as they tried to process what they were seeing. A few yards away was a large brown Ursanoid reading a bear sized newspaper. He was sitting with his backside hanging off of a fallen tree. His crude leather trousers were bunched around his ankles.

Buffy couldn't help herself. She started giggling. Faith elbowed Buffy and whispered, "I guess that answers that rhetorical question."