Sorry about the massive delay in posting more chapters. As usual, life got in the way. But hopefully it has slowed down enough for us to bring you chapters on a regular basis.
Chapter 9
Sam followed Harry down the cellar steps. The basement had a slightly musky smell as well as a sharp, almost electrical, ozone scent. As they reached the bottom, the quantum physicist asked, "Where did you find the casting you showed the Doctor?"
"Over here," Harry replied, gesturing towards his left before leading him through the cellar to the location in question.
As he followed the Englishman over to the area, Sam heard the Imaging Chamber door open.
"Who's this, Sam?"
Sam looked at his friend and decided to work the answers into the conversation. "Harry, how long have you had this inn?"
"A little under three years," Harry replied with a slight smile which broadened slightly as he reminisced. "We bought it a couple of months after Sally and I were married. We're constantly renovating it at the moment, which is how I discovered the footprints. We're trying to convert the cellar to hold wine."
"Looks like it would make a great wine cellar. Back to the footprints. They certainly look strange. You say you found them the other day?"
"Like nothing I've ever seen," Harry confirmed. "And I've seen quite a lot. But then, I'm sure you know about that, traveling with the Doctor."
"Um, yeah. I've seen a few strange things since that started," Sam said noncommittally.
"What's this about footprints?" Al asked as he walked beside Sam. He tapped at the handlink. "I've still got nothing, Sam. I need more info than Harry, Sally, an inn, and some footprints."
"You think the footprints have anything to do with the slime that's been coming through the walls?"
"Slime? What slime?" Al questioned with a frown. "What's going on, Sam?"
Harry shook his head. "I don't know... yet. The slime only showed this morning. I was about to get a sample and examine it when you and the Doctor arrived."
"We should wear gloves when we sample it. Do you have an extra pair?"
Harry nodded slightly. "Of course. I am, Miss Tyler, a professional. I'm aware of proper scientific methodology. I have all that we need in the toolbox." He raised the object in question to show his current associate.
Sam looked chagrined. "Of course. I wasn't inferring that you wouldn't, Dr. Sullivan." He grabbed a pair of the blue disposable gloves and put them on.
"Sullivan!" Al caught immediately. Pressing several buttons on the handlink, he quickly searched records. "Got it, Sam. Harry Sullivan, M.D. Formerly of UNIT. Married, no children. Owner of Smith's, a Victorian manor that was converted into a B&B."
Sam noticed Harry staring as he adjusted the gloves, listening to Al tell him about the man he was with. "What?" he asked.
"So... how far into the future are you from, Miss Tyler?"
"Why... other than I'm traveling with a rather eccentric time traveler... would you think that?"
"You put on those gloves without even looking twice. They haven't even been patented yet."
Sam blinked. "Right. Not until sometime in the nineties. I was sure glad when they came out."
"Allergy to latex?"
"No. I just didn't like the way they fit."
"Here we are," Harry pronounced, after putting on his own set of gloves before procuring a Petri dish from the toolbox, gaining a stare from Sam. He shrugged. "Working for UNIT has taught me that it's always in your best interests to be prepared, especially if the Doctor is involved." He pointed out the odd blue slime that seemed to seep out of the walls. "There's more today than there was yesterday." He crouched down to get a better look. "Rose, hand me a spatula. Let's see if we can't get some of this for analysis."
Al's eyes hadn't left the handlink, a frown forming on his features. "Odd... Sullivan seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth for a few months sometime in the 1970s or 1980s; Ziggy's information is a bit vague on that. And his personnel files with UNIT and the British military have been sealed. Whatever this guy is, he sure isn't a good ol' family doctor." He continued to look at the handlink. "And it looks like he's going to do another disappearing act soon." It was obvious from his expression that he was blatantly concerned.
At Al's statement, Sam couldn't help respond, "Is that why I'm here?"
"I'm assuming that's why the Doctor had you come with me," Harry replied drily, holding his hand out expectantly.
Al glanced at the ooze slowly crawling down the wall. "Yuck," he grimaced. "Reminds me of when my youngest daughter threw her blueberry Jell-O."
"Um, yeah. Of course. Sorry," Sam backtracked. "Al!" he whispered under his breath as he retrieved the spatula.
Al shook his head, confusion clear on his face as he hit the handlink. "This doesn't make any sense!"
"In the short time I've been with the Doctor, I've found that things don't have to make a lot of sense to be happening," Sam said, couching his words so that they would make sense to both men.
Harry grinned at his words. "That, Miss Tyler, is a most definite fact when it comes to the Doctor." He scraped some of the slime. "Hand me another Petri dish."
Al frowned slightly at the same words. "No, Sam. You don't understand. Ziggy's got absolutely nothing on the year 1987. And I mean, absolutely nothing. Not even world history, stuff that is in history books. It's like it all just vanished into thin air!"
Sam stopped what he was doing, a stunned look on his face. "You sure something's not broken?"
"Nothing's broken. Just want to make sure we get a large enough sample to analyze," Harry assured.
"Seriously, Sam. It's like everything is being erased." Al hit the handlink a few time. "Nothing, Sam. I'm getting nothing."
"That's impossible!" Sam whispered tightly.
"Oh, I'm sure that the Doctor has told you many times that nothing is impossible," the physician told him. "Especially something as simple as retrieving a Petri dish."
Al licked at his lips. "You know, Sam. None of this funky stuff with Ziggy started until you met this Doctor. Maybe he's causing Ziggy to blow a gasket or something."
"Well," said Sam, shaken, but continuing to carry on two conversations at once and choosing his words carefully to do so. "I think that the Doctor is somehow drawn to events that appear impossible but I also think that he would never allow bad things to happen to people if he can avoid it." He handed the second Petri dish to Harry.
"The Doctor certainly tends to get himself into trouble," Harry agreed as he scraped another sample from the wall.
"A troublemaker! See, Sam! I knew it!" Al continued to try to get the handlink to work. "1988 seems fine," he commented to himself. "1986 too... Sam, it's only 1987!"
Sam shook his head. "That's not exactly what I meant, Dr. Sullivan. What I meant was that the Doctor doesn't cause trouble, he's just drawn to it." He looked pointedly at Al. "Sort of like I am by God, Fate, Time, or Whatever. And I'm sure the Doctor doesn't mess with history that way."
Harry looked at him with wide eyes. "Oh, I agree. The Doctor would never actually cause trouble... Well, not intentionally. Far from it, in fact. I remember when Sarah... dear old thing... She used to travel with the Doctor as well. She would get into all sorts of trouble and we would have to pull her out of it before all hell broke loose." He paused for a moment, thinking about Sam's words. "What do you mean you are drawn by God, Fate, Time or Whatever?"
Sam shrugged, knowing that reference was more for Al. "Oh, I just mean that it seems like fate that the Doctor and I met. Like someone or something wanted me to be with him. That's all."
"Interesting idea," Harry commented. As he did so, he noticed a familiar yet peculiar indentation on the soil just to his right. "Come take a look!" He gestured her to follow, crouching again as he put a lid on the Petri dish in his hand. "More footprints. But look! Those look like claw marks. Like something was trying to pull itself forward on all fours."
Sam looked at the print carefully. "Or maybe trying to keep from being pulled away." He looked up at Al. "I wish we could get a picture of the footprint and have it analyzed to determine what type of animal left it."
"Right, Sam," Al replied, punching a few buttons again on the handlink. "Let me see if I can calibrate this thing..."
"I have a camera upstairs in my study but I'm afraid I haven't any film," Harry replied. Standing, he took several steps back. "At the very least, we can avoid treading on it so that the Doctor can take a look. There's also the plaster that I'd poured earlier. Odd thing, really. If the Doctor's never encountered anything like it, I doubt that either of us has."
Al shook his head, looking at the handlink with a confused frown. "Ziggy's got nada on the footprints, Sam. Except..." An odd look crossed his features. "Sam... she says that, whatever made those marks... stands upright."
"These prints were made by something standing upright? How can that be? Doesn't look like a bear or primate print," Sam stated, re-examining the indentation. He shook his head. "From what I recall of anatomy and physiology, it almost looks reptilian."
Harry looked at the prints again. "You're right! Look there!" He pointed out a set, one in front of the other. "The ones in the back are thicker and the phalanges are shorter, whereas the ones in front are thinner with long phalanges, almost like fingers."
Al shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. "Sam... please don't tell me Dr. Sullivan has Godzilla living in his basement."
Looking at his now nervous friend with a weary patience, Sam shook his head. "It's not Godzilla. That's just a story..." He paused, giving Al a withering look. "...and it's a cellar."
"I thought killer cyborgs from another planet were just a story," Harry pointed out. "I'm sure it's not Godzilla, per se. But it could be something similar."
Al took a shaky breath. "Oh, boy! Sam..."
"Yeah, it's beginning to look like that." Realizing that he needed to talk to Al alone, Sam gave Harry a half grin. "I'm afraid I need to return to my room for a bit. I don't think it's wise to stay down here alone."
Harry hesitated for a moment before agreeing. "I suppose you're right. We'll leave this be for the Doctor to see." Gathering his toolbox, he started up the stairs ahead of Sam. "I'll start analyzing those samples with what equipment I have."
Once they reached the main floor, Sam headed towards his room. Pulling out his key, he entered the abode of lacy girly-ness where Al had Ziggy center him to.
Whatever nervousness Al had projected in the cellar almost vanished completely once he saw the room Sam had been assigned. "Oh, how pretty, Sam! It suits you!"
"Gee, thanks, Al."
"Well, I guess anything is better than being in that cellar. This place gives me the creeps."
"Well, I've got to admit this whole leap has been pretty weird so far." Sam paused. "Is Ziggy still having problems pulling up information from 1987?"
Al checked the handlink again. "Still nothing. I just don't get it, Sam. I can't even pull up my youngest daughter's birth date and that's in the Project's database." He paused for a moment. "And I'd definitely call upright lizards walking around in the basement of an old Victorian manor pretty weird."
"Cellar," Sam corrected once more. "Yeah, that's definitely not something I'd ever thought I'd see, but I was referring to the rest of it as well. The Doctor is really something." He turned back to the matter at hand. "What are the odds that I'm here to stop whatever this thing is from haunting the Sullivans?"
"Ziggy's not giving any odds anymore," Al answered, slapping at the handlink. "She says that without data, she is unable to make a reasonable assessment." He looked at Sam. "Personally, I think she's as freaked out about all this as I am."
Sam's face dropped. "Ziggy's not working on this?"
"Do you blame her? I mean, take a look!" He showed the handlink to Sam, revealing the blank screen whenever he tried to pull up an event from 1987.
Sam took a deep breath. "Oh, boy."
"Yeah!" Al exclaimed, turning the handlink back towards himself. "Sam... this is a level 11 on my hinky-ometer."
"It's probably just a problem with one of the chips. Have Gooshie try a trans-linear regression subroutine at the interface with the temporal modulator."
"A what at the what with the what?"
"Don't worry, Al. Gooshie will understand. I think it will stabilize some of the variables and give Ziggy some data again."
Al hesitated a moment before inputting the order on the handlink. It took a couple of minutes before there were any results. The frown on Al's face only grew. "Sam... this is getting worse. Now we've lost the first two months of 1988. What do you think is happening?"
"I think maybe the Doctor may be the best person to ask about this."
"Yeah, but the Doctor is out, if you know what I mean," Al replied derogatorily.
Sam sighed. "Okay, Al, I get it. You're not exactly the Doctor's greatest fan. I personally find I like him and, at the moment, he may be the only one that can figure out what we need to do about this creature and the strange data loss. That is, unless you can get Ziggy working on it."
Al rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'll go back and see if I can get our programmers figuring out why Ziggy's not working right." He punched in the exiting sequence into the handlink. "Be back as soon as I can. Just... stay away from Godzilla in the cellar."
Sam nodded and then watched Al go back through the Imaging Chamber door. He understood Al's reluctance to accept that the Doctor was not a threat. Sam wasn't even one hundred percent sure why he was so willing to accept everything as easily as he had. He recalled touching the Doctor's hand and realized that perhaps a little bit of Rose Tyler was still influencing him. Thing was, it felt perfectly right. He knew without question at this point that the Doctor could be trusted. He turned and went the door again, going down the stairs to the first floor.
Sally came out of the manager's apartment. "Harry has gone out to meet the Doctor. He's just arrived with the TARDIS. He picked such a nice place to land it. Right in the center of the rose garden and on the grass, almost making the TARDIS look like it was meant to be there."
Sam smiled. "Then let's go out and meet him." He waited for Sally to lead the way.