The Children of Time

"How is this sort of technology even possible on a Level 5 planet such as Earth?" asked Jonathan, as he began using his Sonic Screwdriver to analyse the Network. "Subwave technology is never the product of Earth civilisation."

"Well," admitted Harriet, "I developed it. It was invented by the Mister Copper Foundation. It's a sentient piece of software designed to locate and contact anyone affiliated with your father, Jonathan." As she said this, she knew she was still curious as to how the Doctor would have Time for a family.

"But what about the Daleks?" Martha asked worriedly. "Can't they hear us?"

"No," Romana interjected, assurance in her voice. "Subwave signals are undetectable unless they undergo a massive boost of constructive interference. Ergo, they won't hear us until that happens."

"Hold on, Harriet," interrupted a confused Sarah Jane. "You're trying to get the Doctor here, but answer me this – didn't he depose you?"

"Yes," Harriet confirmed, "and I've often wondered about whether I was wrong. But I stand by what I did – I knew that one day, the Earth would be in danger, and the Doctor would fail to appear. I told him so myself, and he didn't listen." She paused, which gave Jonathan the opportunity to speak up.

"Hold on a minute," he announced suddenly. "There's a sixth signal trying to get through."

"A sixth?" asked Martha incredulously. "Then why didn't it show?"

"Visual contact may not be possible in both directions," Romana cut in. "Whoever they are, they can see us – but we can't see them."

"I can establish a link," assured Jonathan, "but it'll be audio only. We'll only be able to hear and speak to them." He activated his Screwdriver and static was heard throughout the Network. After a few moments, he spoke. "Hello? Is somebody there?"

"Loud an' clear," replied a female voice. "Long Time, no see, Captain, Harriet, Sarah Jane."

At this, the aforementioned people gasped. "Rose?" asked Sarah Jane, hoping it was the girl she'd met at Deffry Vale High School. "It is Rose I'm talking to, isn't it?"

"Yep," Rose's voice confirmed. "Reports of my death, greatly exaggerated. Now then, Jack, how'd you get back from the year 200,100?"

"Vortex Manipulator," replied Jack proudly, showing his wrist device for all on the Network to see. "I tried to get back to the 21st Century – best place to find the Doctor – but I overshot and ended up in the 1800's. Then it burnt out – kaput."

When Rose replied, her voice was full of confusion. "But then, you're more than a hundred years old."

"And looking good, right?" Jack grinned. Truth be told, there was a point in Time when he'd been ready to die. But being an Immortal had its perks.

"Not now, Captain," Romana and Harriet sighed simultaneously.

"Now then, getting back to subject," Jonathan steered the conversation back to the task at hand. "What we're doing now is trying to pool our resources together."

"The Doctor's secret army," Harriet confirmed.

"Well, I thought 'Children of Time' would be more appropriate, Harriet," Jonathan said thoughtfully. "But you've got the basic idea, yes."

"Hold on," Jack cut in, catching on quickly. "We boost the signal, that's it. We could supply some constructive interference with the power of the Rift-"

"And we've got Mr. Smith!" piped up Luke. "He can connect to every mobile phone network on the planet – billions of phones all calling out at once!"

"The chap's a genius!" Jonathan cried gleefully. "I knew I liked him!"

"Tell me about it," Maria commented wryly.

"Hold on, though," Rose's voice cut in. "It's like Romana said – the Daleks'll be able to find the Network once the signal's boosted."

"And they'll trace it back to me," Harriet confirmed, resigned to her fate. But Romana wasn't going to have that – not if she could do anything about it.

"But, I can create a Smokescreen Matrix to interfere with their Communication Monitoring Systems," she told them. "Though it won't stop them from detecting the Network, it will stop them from tracing in back to the source." She paused before continuing. "Now then, to it."

*DW*

"Activating the Rift," Jack informed the newly formed team. This was impossible, but he liked impossible – because impossible was what defined travel with the Doctor.

"Linking up to every mobile phone network," Sarah Jane registered her progress. As she did, she thought back to the last time she'd said goodbye to the Doctor – it really hadn't been goodbye, after all.

"Sending you the number," Martha added in her two pence. Looking back to her travels, she had always thought she was second-best. But when she left, she'd been right – she wasgood.

"Creating Smokescreen Matrix," Romana told them. Part of her was curious to see what the new Doctor looked like – as she had not seen him in over a century and Jack had said that Jonathan did not look anything like his father right now.

"Opening the Subwave Network," Harriet finished the preparations. This was an opportunity to atone for the sin of mass-murdering the departing Sycorax on Christmas 2006. And she was going to take it.

"Mr. Smith...make that call!" Sarah Jane instructed her supercomputer.

"Calling...the Doctor!" Mr. Smith announced. At once, every phone in the world began calling the Doctor's phone. Now, all they could do was wait...

*DW* onboard the TARDIS... *DW*

"PHONE!" the Doctor shouted, immediately racing to answer it. "Martha, is that you?!"

"What is it?" asked Donna. "What's happening?!"

"It's not a call," the Doctor replied. "It's just a signal."

"Well, can you follow it back?!" Donna questioned him.

"Oh..." the Doctor paused, "...just you watch me." So saying, he hooked the phone up to the Guidance Systems of the TARDIS. At once, the Capsule was shaken violently as it was dragged into the Temporal Pocket pervading the Medusa Cascade.

When it was over, the Screen was displaying the twenty-seven planets that had been stolen from their individual Space-time coordinates. The Doctor and Donna were overcome with relief.

"What just happened?!" cried Donna in shock.

"The entire Medusa Cascade has been put just a second out of sync with real Time," the Doctor explained to her. "A tiny little pocket of Time – but we found 'em!"

Just then, the Screen began to buzz with static. "Ooooh..." the Doctor remarked curiously. "Must be a Subwave signal...someone's trying to get through..."

Eventually, the Screen came back into focus – but instead of the twenty-seven planets, there were five faces lined in a roster on a Subwave Network. Jack, Martha, Harriet Jones, Sarah Jane...and a boy he couldn't recognise – not even using the telepathic trace that the boy emanated. However, with his curly dark hair, he looked very reminiscent of the Doctor's 4th self.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YA BEEN?!" yelled Jack angrily. "Doctor, it's the Daleks!"

Those words were the ones that confirmed his theory. The Doctor had suspected that the Daleks had moved the Earth from its position in Space-time – for they'd tried to do something like that before, back in his 1st life. But before he could ponder the subject, the participants of the Network broke into an urgent ramble.

"The Daleks...they're taking prisoners!" cried Sarah Jane.

"It's not just Dalek Caan!" Martha told him.

When they'd finished, Harriet spoke up. "I believe I told you once, Doctor, that one day the Earth would be in danger...and you would fail to appear when it mattered the most," she told him cuttingly. "But better late than never, I suppose."

"Haven't got the Time, Harriet Jones," the Doctor shot back in a dismissive manner. He didn't think he could forgive her for the murder of the departing Sycorax, to whom he'd given an ultimatum to which they'd complied.

"Before you give me the silent treatment, Doctor," Harriet interjected impatiently, "this boy is very anxious to speak with you."

"Who is he, then?" asked the Doctor. But the answer was given by Martha – and it was a shocking revelation to him.

"According to him, Doctor, he's your son," she told him with a smile.

"My what?!" he cried in shock.

"Yep," the boy confirmed, grinning a toothy grin. "My name's Jonathan, by the way. Hello, Father."

The Doctor looked at his newly-discovered son – Jonathan – with joy. He wasn't alone in the Universe any longer – at least, he didn't think he was. But he had to be sure. Jonathan, however, had resumed talking.

"There are two others who are anxious to meet you, by the way," he told his father. "One of them is a friend of yours – and the other is my mother. I think your friend introduced herself as Rose."

"Rose is here?" asked the Doctor in surprise. Jonathan nodded. "So...she got back from the parallel Universe."

"And she isn't the only one, Father," his son continued, fixing him with a knowing look in his eyes – eyes that looked so familiar to him. "I'm a child of E-Space."

"E-Space?!" exclaimed the Doctor, his hearts soaring, his face lit up with unbridled joy. "But that means..."

"Hello, Doctor," rang a voice from Jonathan's screen as a strawberry blonde figure came into the picture. Of all the companions he'd had, this wonderful woman was the one who was unique in every sense of the word...

"Romana?" he gasped, happiness and relief coursing through him. This was soon replaced by shock. "Romanadvoratrelundar? You...had a child?"

"Yes, Doctor. I had a child...yours," Romana told him with a smile. "And I see you still haven't forgotten my name. I'm impressed."

"Well, I was hardly going to call you 'Fred,' was I?" the Doctor snorted. At this everyone else – even Harriet – burst out laughing, while Romana blushed a furious red in embarrassment. But the Doctor's tone quickly became a questioning one. "Romana, how did you get back?"

"Well..." she began hesitatingly, "it wasn't easy. Sometime before the Tharils were completely liberated, the CVE constricted so much that it was impossible for any large group of matter to traverse the Void - though it would still allow energy through, and Spatiotemporal analysis was still possible. Nearing the completion of their liberation, the Tharils sensed a crack in Reality that could be traced back to this Universe. It was pinpointed to 2007, London, Canary Wharf – and it got bigger as Time passed."

"I can explain that," the Doctor interjected. "Two years ago, the Daleks, using a Void Ship, broke down the walls of Reality in an effort to escape the Void. A parallel version of the Cybermen followed them, helped along by the former Head of Torchwood One. I opened the crack wide enough that it would pull anything soaked in Void Stuff back into the dead Space. With that, the walls of Reality sealed off."

"Only to be opened again two years later, it seems," Romana concluded that section of the story. "Because soon, the CVE became wide enough for physical travel. But there's something else, Doctor...something far worse. When I used my Quantoscope to analyse alternate Timelines, I found a horrifying possibility. Every star in E-Space was going out and disintegrating..."

"That's what was happening in our world too, Doctor," spoke Rose Tyler's voice over the Network. "Basically, we've been building a...Dimension Cannon. As well as travelling to other Universes, it can measure Timelines...and every star was going out. Not just in your world...not just in ours...not just in Romana's, but the whole of Reality. Even the Void was dead. Something is destroying everything..."

"And I know what," Romana told them. "Because now it adds up. I also found out the source of the destructive force behind it all. The stars were being destroyed by a compressed wave of Zed Neutrino Energy."

"And what's...compressed Zed Neutrino Energy?" asked Sarah Jane worriedly – but nothing would prepare her for the horror she felt upon what the Doctor told her – or was about to tell her before Mr Smith interrupted.

"Every atom in the Universe – or any other Universe with the same Laws of Physics as our own, for that matter," he began with the aura of a Professor, "is bound by an electrical field – compressed Zed Neutrino Energy nullifies this Electromagnetism. If one such wave were broadcast from the Medusa Cascade – the most powerful rift in Space-time – it would break through the rift into every alternative and/or parallel Reality. All things would be turned to dust by the energy, while the Universes they inhabit would become a mass of particles, punctuated by a maelstrom of black holes."

Everyone gasped in horror – none more so than the Doctor and Romana. But this was to be expected from the likes of the Daleks, who sought to exterminate all other life-forms in existence. And speaking of which...

Everyone's screen was overwhelmed by static. Evidently, the Daleks had decided it was now the moment to interrupt the reunions.

"Hello?" the Doctor asked. But for all his shock about the imminent destruction of Reality, nothing could have prepared either him, Sarah Jane or Romana for the horror that the voice that spoke over the Network could instil them with...