Interrogator: You're a spy!

The Doctor: Am I? Who am I spying for?

Interrogator: I'm asking the questions. I repeat, you're a spy!

The Doctor: That wasn't a question. That was a statement.

Interrogator: Careful, our friends here don't get much fun. [Gestures to the thuggish Ogron security guards.]

The Doctor: Poor fellows. Sorry I can't oblige them at the moment, I'm not in the mood for games.

- Day of the Daleks

Third Doctor.


Somewhere in the Yukon, late 21st century

"Unhhhn.."

The Doctor blinked, then bit his teeth together. The sky above him was cloudy, and trees rose blurrily to touch it all about him. He could feel dirt, small plants, and bits of wood under his back.

"Must have been... quite a blast... to generate that much recoil."

He pulled himself over to a nearby tree, and levered himself to a sitting position. He looked off toward the clearing with a wince.

He had apparently hit a small tree when thrown from the clearing; it was canted at a slightly crooked angle, strips of bark and scattered wood splinters hanging off. He slowly turned his head, wincing, and noted that many of the trees had sustained similar damage. He blinked, then hauled himself to his feet.

He was almost back to his TARDIS when he noticed what had really happened.

The trees had not been knocked sideways; they were twisted, some into disturbingly unnatural configurations. A winged shape darted past the Doctor's head with a harsh cry. He whirled around, speeding his perception of time with a frown of concentration, and studied the creature more closely. A moment later he started, breaking his focus and allowing normal time flow to resume, which also let the creature disappear into the trees.

"A Pellus scorpohawk?!"

He quickened his pace, and entered the clearing. He looked around in growing alarm. Shimmers and sparkling tears of various colors were dancing in the air. The grass, where it had remained Earth-type grass, had turned a brackish gray. The rest was a variety of hues; one particular patch caught his attention. It a long, bluish strain resembling nothing more than a collection of reeds; they were waving languidly about, despite the fact that the air was still.

"Temporal and dimensional disruption on such a scale," he said. "Good heavens!" He covered the remaining yards to his ship at a run. Behind him, from the bluish grass, there was an aborted yip of pain, and then a crunching noise. He didn't even glance back as he got the door open, strode in and slammed it shut behind him.

Several lights were blinking on the console, and a whooping alarm was going off.

"Let's see now..." he said, turning two dials and sliding open a panel in the center of one of the console's faces. "I didn't realize I would be back on temporal patch-up detail this soon after my reinstatement," he mused. He grasped a small yellow lever with one hand, punched in a sequence on a small key pad, then reached across to another area of the console to turn and hold a switch. "I certainly hope this old thing still works." He looked over at the main screen, back at the controls, then pulled the lever.

Outside, a pale pink energy began working its way outward on all sides from the TARDIS; as it passed over the ground, there was a a tangible twist in the air as the ground and air shifted back to how it had been before. The energy walls stopped moving ten feet from the ship on all sides, holding steady.

The Doctor stared at the screen, and scratched his head. "Well, that's gotten some of it stabilized, at least." He stood in thought for a second, then brightened. "Of course!" He walked over to a section of wall, feeling along, and found a small pull-tab. He yanked and stepped back. A thin panel of wall came down. As it did, a screen flickered to life and two keyboards and several other controls emerged from the inner side (now the top) of the panel.

"Ah. So this Type 40 was fitted with a field agent console." He stepped forward, removing his coat and putting it up on the coat rack. "I haven't touched one of these since my post-graduate decade! Let's see if I still remember..."

He began typing in on both keyboards, watching the smaller and main screen with equal intensity. He stepped back, studying the dials anew, then cracked his knuckles and went back to work, his hands a dancing blur across the entire console.

Bolts of directed white flame began to extend from the light on top of the ship toward the edges of the clearing. It wasn't a smooth progress. They seemed to be balked in some cases, striking invisible barriers, being pressed back in others. They wound around those areas and pressed forward, alien landscapes starting to fade into normal Earth view.

BLAM!

A wall panel blew off, with a great gout of blue flame and pale cobalt smoke! The Doctor staggered back.

"Blast it! Not now!" He noticed a screen flashing on the main console, and glanced over at it.

TARDIS ARRIVING TARDIS ARRIVING TARDIS ARRIVING

"What in blazes?!" His hand slammed down on the comm controls. "This is the Doctor! There is a Class VII Epsilon disruption here, repeat, a Class VII Epsilon disruption! Reverse your course immediately!"

He looked back at the main screen.

VHARP VOARP VARP - The air in the clearing began to shimmer in a new way, as another ship's arrival became more and more apparent.

The idiot hadn't listened! He pressed on the button again-

"THE DOC-TOR?"

He started, whirling around. The voice had come out of the main speakers- from outside!

He stared in shock. "What?! It can't be!"

Outside, amidst the strengthening vestiges of interposed space-time, stood the largest Dalek he had yet seen! Its burnished-copper carapace gleamed, and it turned toward his ship with surprising speed. The Doctor took a belated double-take when he saw the reason for the turn of speed, and some of its apparent size.

This Dalek was hovering several feet above the ground!

"TEMPORAL WEAKNESS SUCCESSFULLY EXPLOITED. TARDIS DETECTED."

The Doctor turned back to the smaller console, working it frantically. Not enough power... He had to stall the thing until he could shunt it over from the main engines.

"How did you get your... hands on time travel technology, Dalek? And from which space-time frame did you arrive here?"

"THAT IS IRRELEVANT. YOU WILL GIVE US THE CO-ORDINATES AND PASSWORDS TO THE TIME AND FORCE SHIELDS DEFENDING GALLIFREY. YOU WILL GIVE THEM TO US OR BE EX-TERMINATED!"

He had gotten back to the main console, and had pulled up a panel. Amidst his frantic rewiring, he said, "That itself is irrelevant, isn't it? You'll try to exterminate me anyway- and I'm safe here in my TARDIS. You can't touch me, Dalek." He reached over to a small keypad, increasing power to the shields by as much as he dared. He then finished the last of his connections.

He stood up and glared at the screen. "I'll have this damage fixed soon... you can go back to your proper space and time by choice, or by force!"

"IT IS YOU WHO ARE MISTAKEN, DOC-TOR. I WILL NOW DE-MON-STRATE."

The Doctor saw the Dalek train its weapon on the TARDIS, and he whirled back toward the small console. His hands flew across the controls. Just a few more seconds and this mess would be-

The Dalek fired!

The beam struck the shields. The Doctor smiled grimly.

"POWER INCREASE INITI-ATED."

He watched in horror as the beam sliced cleanly through the shimmering energy wall- and slammed into the outer hull of the TARDIS!

BLAM

The blast sent him staggering into a door frame, then into a heap against a wall!

He got back to his feet, staring about him in horror. Smoke rose from two sections of the console, and sparks cascaded from the nearest panels. One spot on the wall was visibly red hot.

That thing had actually been able to damage his TARDIS!

He stumbled back over to the smaller console, and breathed a short sigh of relief at seeing it still intact.

"YOU WILL GIVE US THE CO-ORDINATES AND PASSWORDS TO THE-"

"Yes, yes," snapped the Doctor. "I heard you." He saw that the Dalek was moving forward, positioning itself for what would doubtless be a much more devastating attack.

He glanced back at the main console. Three-quarters power transferred... it would have to do. He finished entering the data, then re-activated the device.

"YOU HAVE FAILED TO RESPOND, DOC-TOR. YOU WILL PAY THE PENALTY. YOU WILL BE EX-TERMINATED!"

"I'm afraid not," said the Doctor, as the white flames shot out across the clearing with renewed vigor. He noted something he had not counted on - in moving forward, the creature had brought itself the border between three different invading sections of reality.

"Move, you fool! Get back!"

"WHAT IS - THIS?" it said, as burning lines of yellow-golden Vortex energy suddenly traced themselves in cross-sections across its carapace. "UNDER ATTACK! UND- SCRREEEARRCH!" It shrieked this last as the vanishing space-time sections vanished, taking with each a chunk of surprised Dalek. It finally disappeared with a crashing explosion that drove the Doctor stumbling back from the main screen, one arm thrown across his eyes, as it flared out.


"...and that's what happened. I have sealed the rip as best I could, and have included all readings and settings with my report."

The Time Lord Controller on screen looked off-screen at the displays that adorned the various computers in his office. "Well, Doctor, your report, and your readings, certainly corroborate the one we have from that area." He typed something on a keyboard, then looked up. "This one part of the strange Dalek certainly is disturbing, but not a concern."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at that. "I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it," he said. "His speech indicated others. If more of those kind of things-"

"Doctor, you have already reported the circumstances," said the Controller. "It was obviously a fluke. Those creatures would never be able to gain such power here."

"Well, I certainly hope you're right."

The Lord's manner on-screen suddenly became chilly. "I am right, Doctor. If you would bother to do your own research, you would find that there is not a single other mention of that type of Dalek anywhere in the Matrix."

The Doctor simply shook his head. "I stand corrected," he said.

"Your report has been noted and filed, someone will be out as soon as feasible to ensure any left-over activity is taken care of. Frankly, Doctor," the Lord said, "it's a refreshing change to see you fixing temporal trouble spots rather than causing them." The transmission ended abruptly. The Doctor stared at the blank screen for a long moment, then smiled.

"Well, there's certainly no love lost there." He turned to survey the damage to the interior of his TARDIS.

He glanced into the hole the falling wall panel had left, then walked over and opened the top of the field agent console. He stepped back in a hurry when a gout of smoke and sparks erupted from it, causing him to drop the lid back in place. "Blast, I don't think I'm going to be able to use that again," he said.

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe I could convince the Lords to replace it for me?" He thought a moment, then shook his head. "No, I doubt it. And, do I want to give them another chance to put me on a shorter leash?"

He paced back over to the door, turned, and again surveyed the console room. "My goodness, what a mess." He began to laugh. "Why, there's almost as much wrong now as when I first got her!"

Still chuckling, he pulled a small tool kit from his pocket and stepped over to the wall to begin his repairs.