Chapter 3

Prometheus Institute

Melbourne, Australia

October 2008

There were many concessions that Lothos had allowed the Master as a gesture of goodwill towards their partnership. Obedience from all personnel was just one of them. Freedom to move throughout the complex was another. A third was the private use of one of the many labs in the complex. It was to this lab that the Master had Reggie take the meteorite for study while he tended to some "private affairs." Said affairs went far into the night, apparently, as the assistant didn't hear from either the Master or Dr. Langford until the next morning.

The Master walked into his office, a broad grin on his face as he sat down and leaned back. "Beautiful day, isn't it, Reginald?" he asked as the timid looking man brought in his morning tea.

"Yes, sir," came the automatic response. "A message from Dr. Langford, sir. She requests that you join her in the lab as soon as you are available."

"She's quick on her feet this morning," the Time Lord commented, taking a drink of his tea - perfect as always - before standing. "I suppose I shouldn't keep her waiting." He shook his head. "Women are so complicated, Reggie. I still don't understand why she got so upset yesterday."

"It was pretty obvious, sir." Seeing a frown set upon his boss' face, he amended, "To Earth men, sir. After all, we've had lots of experience since the Garden of Eden."

"If you believe in that sort of thing."

"Whether it was a real place or not... the point is, we've had a lot of experience with dealing with the female gender. They are logically illogical, calmly emotional, and kindly vicious."

"All oxymorons."

"Exactly. That is the female condition... except when it's not."

The Gallifreyan rolled his eyes. "Sometimes I think I should have taken up a pet instead of have fallen in love." He gave Reggie a noticeable look. "Don't go spreading that, though. I really would prefer not calling you for an icepack again."

"Quite right, sir. You are learning."

"Well, I am a genius," he countered, finishing his tea. Taking a breath, he grinned. "Have to admit, though... the argument was definitely worth the aftermath."

"That is another of the great mysteries of Earth women," Reggie admitted without actually pointing out that he knew the two had engaged in makeup sex.

"I better not keep her waiting. She's enough of an enigma as it is," the Master said, a grin on his face. He started for the door. "Inform Dr. Langford that I am on my way." Strolling through the corridors, he made his way down to his lab, knowing that the woman who had caught his affection was already hard at work in trying to find out exactly why the extraterrestrial rock fascinated the Time Lord so much. There was something more than different about it, something ancient. Something he could taste and feel with his remarkable senses. It didn't hurt that those nuggets were irradiated with whatever energy that meteorite was giving off, imbuing them with almost Gallifreyan attributes. "Anything?" he questioned as he approached her from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist, deliberately disturbing her concentration.

She leaned into his embrace. "Mmmm," she hummed, fitting herself perfectly along his body. "Last night was... spectacular."

"I agree but I was referring to our rock," he murmured to her, kissing her temple as he did so.

Pulling herself back to her task with a sardonic look at him, she moved away. "Oh." Disappointment dripped from that word. "I mean, yes, this is an out of the ordinary meteorite but none of the tests I've done have been conclusive."

Hearing the disappointment in her voice, he sighed mentally. Figuring that she was being moody again - he was now convinced that she was indeed close to her menstruation cycle - he decided to ignore the tone and focus on the object before them. "There's something about this rock, Peri. I can feel it," he said, following her. "It's making serious waves in time. Have you tested a sample yet?"

She bit at her lip. "I'm finding it hard to even obtain a sample. A diamond drill doesn't even cut into it."

He looked at her with surprise. "Really?" He moved around the table to get a closer look at it. "Have you tried running it through a spectrometer?"

"Well, I would have if I could get a small enough sample," she answered, frustrated.

"Oh, but you're brilliant. I know you can figure something out." Standing upright again, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. "I wonder..." Aiming the device at the rock, he activated it, gaining no success with the rock. Growling under his breath, he gave the meteorite a glare. "What are you?"

Suddenly, a glow began to emit from the meteorite from the area that the sonic screwdriver had been aimed at. It brightened noticeably for several seconds before the glow slowly died away, leaving the surface looking as it had before.

He blinked for a moment before adding a frown to his visage. "What was that? Meteorites just don't glow on their own. It must be sonic sensitive... which means that if I adjust the frequency..." He made a couple of adjustments to his screwdriver before aiming it at the rock once again and activating the device for several seconds. After a long moment, a sliver fell off of the meteorite and onto the lab table, gaining a broad grin from the Time Lord. "Tada!" he sang, as if he had just performed a magic trick.

Peri smiled. "I want one of those."

"I'll make you one someday. Right now, I want to see what this thing is," he told her. "Where's that spectrometer?" He carefully gathered the fragment using a pair of tweezers.

She pointed over to a lab bench. "There."

The Master opened the spectrometer's chamber and put the sliver on the sample site. Closing the chamber door, he started the scan. A few moments later, it was clear that nothing was reading from it. "Damn! What I wouldn't give for a perzadameti right now."

"A what?" Peri asked, unfamiliar with the word.

"It's a Time Lord instrument. Basically a scanning device used in research. If I had one, I could scan this thing, find out exactly what it is and why it's sonic sensitive." He sighed. "But the closest one is on my home world on the other side of the galaxy."

Peri considered his dilemma. "Well, I don't know how we'd get you one of those." She paused. "But perhaps some other alien equipment could help you. Lothos has taken most of what had been found here for his personal use, but there is a room with unidentified items. Perhaps something is in there?"

The Master raised his eyes to her and gave her a wide smile. He ran around the table and pulled her into a tight hug, kissing her passionately. "See? I told you, you are brilliant! There has to be something of some use there." Grabbing her hand, he marched out of the door of the lab, forcing her to hurry to keep up with him. "Where is this room?"

"It's on Level Six. Just because they didn't know what to do with them didn't mean they wanted them available to anyone."

"Well, then... it's a good thing that I'm not just anyone," he replied with a mischievous grin. "Show me."

The scientist guided the Time Lord through the corridors and into a room two levels up. As the Master looked around, he frowned. The storage room was filled with a variety of miscellaneous things, most of them of no scientific value whatsoever. There were at least three toys that he could see and many other items turned out to be ordinary household tools. His nose wrinkled slightly as his frustration grew.

Peri sighed, seeing his distain at the items in the room. "I'm sorry that there wasn't anything here to help, Harry."

"Don't instantly assume, Peri. I'm not done looking!" he rebuked her with a little heat. Turning his head, he froze, his eyes widening manically. "Oh, you're beautiful!" he exclaimed, reaching up to grab an item off of a shelf. "Ask and you shall receive!"

Seeing his face light up, Peri's did as well. "This will help you?"

"More than that," he told her, admiration in his voice. "It's exactly what I wanted in the first place. A perzadameti. And in good working order, too from what I can see," he said as he examined it. "Other than being very dirty, that is." He looked at Peri pointedly. "Not a word to Lothos or anyone else about this. I don't want my people's technology in the hands of human imbeciles."

"I take it you don't see me that way," she commented with a gleam in her eye.

He gently touched her cheek. "Never," he assured before bolting out of the room. Getting back into the lift, the two of them went back to the lab, where the Master quickly brushed the dust off of the Gallifreyan instrument and set it on the worktable. Taking the meteorite sliver, he gently placed it in the hexagonally shaped ring before pressing several buttons on it. "They probably thought this was some sort of ceremonial headwear," he grumbled to himself. Several seconds later, thick beams of light came from each corner and converged together, forming a domed hologram. A myriad of symbols seemed to scrawl through the hologram at a rapid pace. "Impossible," he whispered, astonishment in his voice.

Seeing the symbols similar to the ones he wrote in the book he kept in his office, she asked, "What is it?"

"It's an Eye!" he exclaimed.

"An eye? What do you mean? It can see us?"

He grinned at her question. "Not a real eye, my dear. Eye is the word my people use for a highly condensed, stable black hole – so condensed that it's solid. But the only one in existence is the Eye of Harmony." His brown orbs darkened. "The same anomaly that the Doctor condemned me to before your people rescued me."

She looked at the object with trepidation. "If it's a black hole, why isn't it sucking everything around it, including us, into its gravitational field?" She paused as his words penetrated. "You were in a black hole? Then how did we pull you out? That should have been impossible."

"It's been stabilized to be a power source. And to be quite honest... I don't know how you were able to pull me out. I shouldn't have even survived. Maybe it has to do with the same reason this Eye isn't pulling us in, since the Eye of Harmony is also stabilized." He gazed at the readings once again. "But there's something else about this Eye. It's negatively charged."

"From the way you say that, I take it that's unexpected." She knew, physicist or not, she was way out of her league when it came to this object.

"Unexpected isn't the word. It means it's made from anti-matter. This shouldn't even exist! How did it get here? It so plainly came from a negative universe. The moment it arrived in this one, it should have caused a Biblical Armageddon."

Peri licked at her lips. "These eyes... you say they're stabilized? Maybe that has something to do with why they exist like they do." She was grasping at straws but this line of thought seemed reasonable to her.

He gave her a grin. "I keep telling you and you keep disagreeing with me. You're amazing! I can't believe that I didn't realize that myself. The stabilization is allowing this to exist in this universe. Still doesn't explain how it could exist, though. The Eye of Harmony was created; it didn't form naturally. Which means, someone made this Eye." He turned off the perzadameti and picked up the sliver with his bare hand. "I heard rumors that Omega had somehow survived the explosion that created the Eye of Harmony but I didn't really believe them until now. He must have been thrust into an anti-matter universe. And he created this Eye, which has somehow come into our universe."

"This Omega was a Gallifreyan, I assume."

"He was one of the founders of our society, in fact. Without him and Rassilon, I wouldn't be a Time Lord. I'd be a... well, I don't know what I would be. What is a Time Lord if he can't control time?" He grimaced at the thought, not liking the idea that, if Rassilon and Omega hadn't created their society, his people would have been stuck on Gallifrey, feeling time and regenerating but being unable to show their greatness. Even non-Time Lord Gallifreyans benefited from Rassilon's foresight, able to gain the reward of Endowment if they proved their worth. The grimace slowly faded as his eyes widened. "Oh, that's it... That's it!" He laughed giddily, running around the table several times before pulling Peri into his arms, swinging her around before setting her down again and then kissing her.

Peri laughed. "You know, you really are incorrigible sometimes. I think that's why I love you so much."

"I know that's why you love me. Because I'm just like you!" he affirmed. "And you, my beautiful Periwinkle, are going to be just like me!"

"What do you mean?"

He cupped her face with his hands. "I told you that I would find a way to make you a Time Lord. I found it."

"Me? A Time Lord? That's impossible... I'm human," she breathed.

"Not impossible. Just highly improbably unless you have the right tools. I had a human body when I fell into the Eye of Harmony and look at me now. I'm fully Time Lord again." He turned her face towards the meteorite. "And we have an Eye now. With time, the right calculations, and the right equipment, I can make an Endowment Chamber. That must be why I'm a Time Lord once again. Because I was in the Eye of Harmony. If we put you in this Eye... under much more controlled conditions..." He looked at her face while her eyes remained fixed on the meteorite. "I am going to make you a goddess. Marry me," he ordered.

Until she heard the words, she didn't know that was what she most wanted to hear. Yet, at the same time, she was unsure he meant them. "Marry you? Like in husband and wife marry?"

"No, like in goat and sheep," he replied with a hint of sarcasm. "What other definition of 'marry' do you have?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Cute. Very cute." She paused. "It's just that I wasn't sure a Time Lord would find the idea of joining like that as... desirable."

"We procreate like all other species in the universe. And haven't I shown you just how much you mean to me? I murdered for you... multiple times... Periwinkle Langford. What more proof do you want?"

"I... I..." she started and then grabbed him in an embrace, "...I didn't need proof but this is more than I ever expected." Pulling away, she smiled at him. "If we're both Time Lords, we'll be together forever."

"Just like I promised," he replied, his eyes gleaming. "So... is that a yes, Dr. Langford?"

The passionate kiss he received was all the answer he needed.

DWQLTWDWQLTW

Project Quantum Leap

March 2010

Rose, upon seeing Sam's wardrobe, had agreed with Jack. Sam's taste of clothing was boring. Well, everything except the tuxedo neatly tucked into a corner of his closet. As it was, she slipped on a pair of jeans, a plain t-shirt, and the cowboy boots and hat that Jack absolutely insisted that she wear. She felt utterly ridiculous in the clothes but at least it wasn't the Fermisuit. Jack had obtained a car and they had left the project, the sagebrush and desert rushing by as he drove. Having never been in the United States in her entire life, the trip to the city was a unique adventure. It was a good four hours before their shopping was done after which, having grabbed a bite to eat on the way, they returned to the complex to make appropriate travel arrangements and to pack. Following dinner at the Calavicci's and a good night's sleep, they were ready to leave, Jack having made sure that their tickets were available for pickup at the airport.

Al still wasn't sure this was really a good idea. "What if something happens to you while you're gone?" he asked, hoping to change their minds.

"Don't worry, Al," Rose answered with a smile. "Captain Jack will watch over me. Probably even when I don't want him to and when it isn't in the least bit appropriate."

"I'll be a perfect gentleman." At the looks given him, he amended. "Well, I'll try." The looks still weren't convincing. "Cross my heart and hope to die," he said once more doing the motion with his finger across the left side of his chest.

"I suppose that's something," Al commented. "Okay, okay. Have fun, you two. And I want her in bed before midnight every night."

"Oh, you're no fun," Rose protested jokingly.

Jack laughed at Al's statement. "Okay, Papa Bear. I promise I'll be a good chaperone."

"That's what I'm afraid of!" Al called to him as the two left in the elevator. Shaking his head slightly, he sighed before turning to return to the Control Room. He didn't know why but every time Jack made any kind of assurances, he always got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that something was bound to go wrong. Not horribly wrong... just enough to make his own life that much more miserable. He looked around the room that was the heart of the project and decided that, since Sam hadn't made a reappearance and there wasn't much for him to do at the moment, he didn't really want to stay. According to Ziggy, Sam was off planet... and this time for God knew how long.

"I'm going home to Beth," he told Gooshie. "Call me if Sam shows up again." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Maybe she'll give me one of her famous neck rubs," he murmured to himself, hoping to somehow find some solace out of the mayhem his life had become. He really hoped that Jack was right on this one. He didn't want to think of the consequences if he was wrong.