Chapter 15

Sam made his way up the stairs to the front door of the inn. "Why do women's shoes have to hurt so much?" he asked rhetorically. He'd followed Harry's advice as to the clothing to wear and, since he was in a blue-skirted suit that Sally had lent him, he had on the flattest pair of blue pumps he could find. Still they were higher than what he would have preferred and after spending the day at the library, his feet were throbbing.

"You got me there, Sam," Al replied, following the scientist up the stairs and through - literally - the front door. "I blame whoever decided women needed to have their long shapely legs show. So... what I guess I'm saying is... thank goodness for high-heel shoes on women's feet."

"Yeah, well, you don't have to wear them," groused the physicist.

"Well, you could have worn Rose's sneakers but I'm not sure that they would have gone with that suit."

"I don't have to wear what?" Sally asked, coming out of the office and seeing Rose Tyler walk in.

"Um... nothing. Just talking to myself." Sam changed the conversation quickly. "So, where are the Doctor and... ummm... the doctor?"

Sally nodded to the outdoors. "They're in the TARDIS doing analysis on what little material was salvaged. Whatever was in the cellar destroyed everything."

"All of the equipment? That must have made a mess."

"Not only that, but the cellar was covered with that odd blue ooze we'd been finding. Took Harry and the Doctor all morning to clean it up."

"See, Sam?" Al put in. "Told you that thing in the basement was dangerous. Probably is already plotting on whether to eat us with or without ketchup."

Sam threw a quick glowering glance at Al before turning his attention back to Sally. "Well, my day went better, I guess. I have some information for the Doctor." Thinking about his time at the library gave him an idea that would show Al how the psychic paper worked. "Sally, look at this. What does it say?" he said, pulling out the wallet again.

Sally complied, reading the paper Sam presented. "It reads, 'Rose Tyler, graduate student, History Department, University of Chicago.'" She looked at him with questioning. "Why?"

"Oh, I'd just been practicing and wanted to see how it looked," Sam made up. He whispered to Al. "See?"

Al looked at the paper again and shook his head. "All I see is a blank piece of paper, Sam."

The Doctor walked into the room, followed by Harry, his mind on what he had discovered in the cellar. However, when he heard Sam's partner's words about the psychic paper, his thoughts were immediately diverted. He looked at Al with questioning. "The psychic paper is blank to you?" His eyes moved up and down the length of Al's form with a frown. "I never would have taken you for a genius."

Sally turned to the Doctor. "A genius? Me? No, Doctor, I said the paper works with me."

"Is that supposed to be some kind of insult on my intelligence?" Al retaliated defensively.

"Of course not," the Doctor assured him. "Just the opposite, in fact. It means you're brilliant! Well, not as brilliant as me... but still..." He paused a moment. "You really can't see anything on the psychic paper?" he questioned again, pointing to the item in question.

Harry looked at the Doctor as if he'd lost his mind. "Sally said she can see what's on the paper, Doctor. Didn't you hear her?"

Sam blew out breath, looking at it again himself. "Well, it's still blank to me. I'd really like to see how it works."

The Doctor teeter-tottered his right hand. "Works on various psychic wavelengths. The less susceptible the mind, the less likely for it to be fooled."

Sally and Harry figured that whatever was going on in the Doctor's mind, they weren't going to get a straight answer. "Fine. I guess we've both got susceptible minds, then," Harry groused.

"That's not a bad thing," the Doctor commented. "You're still brilliant." He gave Harry a one-fingered salute as if to emphasize his words.

Sam looked at the Time Lord's bandaged hand. "What happened?"

"It's nothing," the Doctor told him, lowering his hand abruptly to hide the bandage.

Harry shook his head. "That blue gel caused his hand to blister. It'll be fine, though."

"Make sure to keep it protected then," Sam cautioned.

The Gallifreyan gave the human men a glare. "So I sustained a minor injury earlier. Why is everyone making such a fuss over it? It's nothing," he reiterated emphatically. He looked at Al, going back to the previous topic of the hologram's questionable genius status. "What mystifies me is how someone so blatantly thick can see the psychic paper as being blank."

Al gave him a glare. "Now I know I'm being insulted," he complained, turning his head towards Sam, wanting him to tell off the alien, when his eyes caught sight of the psychic paper. He froze. His face went a shade of pale as he stared at it with a mixture of awe and terror. "Umm... Sam? The a... um… the paper."

The Doctor turned his head upon hearing Al's words, looking at the paper with wide eyes. "Are you thinking that?" he questioned the physicist.

"Thinking what?" Sam asked. "It still looks blank to me."

Sally and Harry looked at the paper as well. "This time it's blank, Doctor," said Sally. Harry nodded his agreement.

The Gallifreyan stared for a long moment, fascination plain on his face. "Obviously, someone's trying to gain my attention," he commented. "'Help us, Time Lord,'" he read aloud. He was instantly reminded of the previous night and the whisper of a voice calling out to him. He stifled the shiver that threatened to run down his back.

Sam looked at the Doctor. "You're seeing that?"

"It's quite clear, in fact. Question now is who is it and what do they need help with?"

"Whoa!" Al exclaimed, taking several steps away. "That's... this..." he started, looking at the four people around him. "I mean... you can see that?" he questioned, his voice shaking. "And... and they can't?" He took another step, raising the handlink to quickly press in the exit code. "That's it! I'm outta here!"

Sam watched as Al melted down. He knew the man had been showing all the typical signs that he had the "heebie jeebies" since the strange events had started when he and the Doctor had arrived at the inn. Still, normally he would at least talk to Sam about it before going off the deep end. Then again, this time things were quite a bit more over the top. Seeing Al almost run through the Imaging Chamber door concerned him. "Al!"

The Doctor straightened abruptly at Al's words. "No, wait!" he called out, taking several steps towards the hologram in a futile attempt to stop him. Seeing the white door close behind him, he turned quickly towards Sam and noted that the psychic paper was instantly blank. He growled in frustration.

"You'll what, Rose?" asked Harry, logically misunderstanding Sam's outburst.

Sam looked at the Doctor, hoping for understanding. "He's always been scared of things like this. He's superstitious."

Not paying any attention to Harry's question to Sam, the Doctor turned to the scientist, pointing to where Al had disappeared. "We need him back here," he stated with authority.

Sally looked a bit upset. "My husband has never been superstitious, Miss Tyler. It's rather presumptuous of you to talk about my Harry being scared of anything. I'm sure the Doctor can tell you that he faces danger very well."

Sam, realizing his words were being misunderstood, turned to Sally. "I'm sorry. That's not what I meant." He turned to the Doctor. "I don't know how we can do that. We're only in contact in the Imaging Chamber."

"And you have no idea when he will arrive next?" the alien demanded.

"No." Sam took a breath and started pacing. "Usually, it's not too long, although there have been times when it's been hours... and occasionally days."

"We don't have days!" the Time Lord informed him loudly, getting into his face with fury.

Harry looked between the Doctor and the woman he saw before him, suddenly walking rather masculine. "What the bloody hell is going on here, Doctor?"

The Doctor again ignored Harry's question, instead focusing on Sam. "How do we get him back into your Imaging Chamber, Samuel?"

Sam was at a loss. The Doctor was livid. He hadn't been with him long, less than two days in fact, and so he didn't really know him, but somehow he knew this wasn't typical of the man. Something was very wrong. The problem was, Sam wasn't sure what they could do about it. "I... I... don't know..."

"Samuel?" asked Sally shaking her head. "Doctor, what on Earth is the matter with you? I sincerely doubt addressing Rose with that name is going to help anything."

"Oh, fantastic!" the Doctor exclaimed sarcastically. "The end of the world is about to come crawling up the cellar stairs, there's someone or something asking for my help for some unknown reason, and you don't know how to get hold of your own partner from the future. Absolutely bloody fantastic!"

"What are you talking about... end of the world?" Sam asked, feeling a sudden chill go up his spine. "I know we were seeing lost time but you didn't understand why it was happening the other day. Why do you think that it means the end of the world?"

"Oh, and I should have recognized it the moment I laid eyes and tongue on it!" the Gallifreyan berated himself. "And then there was all that time disappearing. But not the rest of the universe. Oh, no. Just Earth. And I didn't see it! How can I be so completely and totally thick! Call me Mr. Thicky Thickster from Thicksburgh, Thicksylvania!" He slapped his head as if to invoke corporeal punishment on said thickness. "And I just had to go and taste that ooze. Blimey! What a completely boneheaded thing that was!"

"I can't argue with that..." Sam started. He then put his hand on the man's shoulder. "But now's not the time to go off on some self-deprecating tangent. You've obviously identified it. Now, answer the question. Why do you think it means the end of the world?"

"Because that's exactly what will happen." The Oncoming Storm looked deep into Sam's eyes and saw the human's confusion. "There is a creature coming into this world in that cellar and, when he comes through, there won't be a single man, woman or child on the face of the Earth left unless we stop him here and now."

Harry reached a protective arm around his wife, who blinked in absolute shock. "Doctor, you told me just a bit ago that the creature we saw on the film means death. And now you're talking to Rose in such a strange fashion. I asked you before and I demand an answer. What is going on here?"

The Doctor gave him a hard look before returning his eyes to Sam. "You tell him," he said bluntly.

"Oh, boy," voiced Sam as he saw truth in the Doctor's eyes. He barely heard Harry's demand, his head was spinning so. He knew he'd never been leapt into a situation before where he couldn't do something. As strange as this time was, he believed there must be an answer, if he could just think what it was. Through his rapid thoughts, he heard the Doctor's request. "What?"

"You tell them the truth about who you are and I'll tell all of you about our 'visitor' in the cellar." The Doctor's voice dripped with venom as he spoke of the creature.

The quantum physicist looked down for a moment. Telling anyone who he really was went against everything the project stood for and he wasn't sure what the eventual ramifications would be. However, desperate measures were called for if the Doctor was right, and Sam didn't doubt he was. He raised his eyes again and stated, "My name is Dr. Samuel Beckett. I'm a time traveler from Earth's future."

Harry's face grew red as anger overtook him. "No lies, Miss Tyler."

"He's telling the truth, Harry," the Doctor informed them, noting the look on the couple's faces. "He just looks like Rose Tyler and sounds like her."

Sam explained, "Exactly. To observe events in time, I trade places with another being, in this case Rose Tyler. You see her aura but I'm... um... hidden in it. Rose is fine, though. She's currently at my project, safe and well cared for. She will not be harmed by this displacement."

The two innkeepers looked at each other and then the Doctor who nodded his approval at the apparent young woman's words.

The Gallifrey then stated, "Settled? Good. Now to focus on what is really important, namely preventing the Earth from becoming a feeding ground for a very nasty beastie."

"Feeding ground?" Sam asked, turning his head to the Doctor.

"Yes," came the blunt response. "Our 'friend' down there is a carnivore... and he's not particularly picky about what's on his plate."

"How could one carnivore destroy the entire Earth?" Sally asked.

The Doctor gave her a hard look. "Oh, believe me, he can, once he calls for his followers. And he can do quite a bit of damage even before those followers show up. He's a Dragon."

Sam shook his head. "There's no such thing as dragons..." He then stopped, as a tangent thought suddenly grabbed him. "Well, not on Earth there aren't. I guess there could dragons elsewhere in the universe."

"There were Dragons on Earth for a short time. That's where much of your mythology about dragons comes from." The Doctor started pacing as he spoke. "They're a warrior race, a noble race. Well, they were until the Time War. Then the royal houses of Lastiarus were divided. Some of the families wanted to fight with the Time Lords, some viewed the war as not pertaining to them and so isolated themselves from outsiders. But others sided with the Daleks, who offered them power in return for their assistance. Unfortunately for us, the worst of the worst is trying to push his way into this world. He and his followers view other species as being inferior to Dragons. So they kill or enslave anyone or anything they consider inferior." He gave them a knowing look. "And that would include humans."

Sam looked away, trying to process what he'd just learned. "Daleks? Those things I saw when I first met you that were being pulled into that... that..." He was at a loss to describe what he'd seen. "It was like a black hole, but it couldn't be," he stated. "Well, whatever it was the robots and the pepper shaker things fell into it. The pepper shakers were the Daleks, right?"

Harry couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the description. "They do resemble pepper pots," he confirmed. Then he remembered how horrid the creatures were with their single-minded focus on destroying all life but their own. "Don't tell me will be seeing them again, Doctor. The number of times we had to deal with them before was quite enough for me."

The Doctor nodded to confirm Sam's words while at the same time verbally assuring Harry, "I doubt that we will encounter them again." He turned to Sam. "The others weren't robots; they were Cybermen. And it wasn't a black hole; it was a gap between alternate realities." He waved his hands, indicating that they were getting sidetracked. "The point is that one of their allies is about to come to Earth. And he isn't going to stop until he's conquered this planet and enslaved anyone alive after his tyranny. That's why time has literally vanished from Earth's history according to your computer and why it's spreading slowly into the future. If there are no humans to record Earth's history then it doesn't exist for your computer."

"But it's starting now. There's got to be something going on. If there wasn't, Al wouldn't have just been here. He would have disappeared. So it can't be a given yet."

"Of course not. History fluctuates constantly. Like... 'Back to the Future.' Remember 'Back to the Future?' You were still in your own time when that came out."

"Yeah. I remember. Marty goes back and if he doesn't fix things, he and his family disappear."

"Right. So your computer's predictions for the disappearing timeline are like the photo he kept in his wallet and, right now, his brother's head just disappeared. And if we don't do something now to stop it, his sister and even Marty will come next."

"Yeah. I can see that."

Harry blinked slightly at their conversation. "'Back to the Future?' I didn't see it. Figured it couldn't be as interesting as real time travel.

"Oh, brilliant films. You should watch them. You and Sally'll love them."

"Films? There's more than one?" Sally questioned.

"Not for a couple more years," Sam stated. "That's if the Earth is even here in a couple of years."

"Oh, don't worry because, now that I know what we are up against, I'm sure I can come up with a plan. Unfortunately, we need Sam's imaginary friend back here as soon as possible because, obviously, there's a secondary issue that needs to be dealt with as well." He paced. "The thing is that stopping this Dragon isn't going to be easy. He's vicious, he's fast, he can camouflage himself against almost any natural background, and his skin is extremely thick and heavily scaled. All of that makes him a very formidable opponent. And I have no doubt that as soon as he can, he'll call his followers to help him conquer this planet." He turned his head towards Harry. "It's fortunate that we took the precautions that we did when cleaning the cellar. Dragons have extremely toxic secretions so it's a good thing that I only received a minor injury."

"Minor injury, my ass," Harry commented. He felt Sally shudder as she pushed her head into her husband's chest. "What can we do? How do we stop it?"

Sam pointed to the psychic paper that the Doctor was still holding. "Do you believe that message you saw was related to the Dragon?"

"I'm not sure but I don't believe in coincidences," the Doctor replied. "The only way to be sure is to get in contact with whoever sent that message." He glanced at the physicist with determination. "And the only way we can do that is if your friend returns to reestablish the link."

Sally looked up, clearly no longer fully tracking. "Friend? What friend? From what I can see we're all here."

"Oh, to explain the complexities of quantum theorem as it relates to holographic interfaces and the human neurological system," the Time Lord complained. "Suffice to say, there is a holographic man whom only Sam and I can see and hear - Sam because Al is neurologically linked to him, me because I'm a Time Lord and... well... I'm brilliant."

Sam just shook his head at the Doctor's pronouncement of his mental prowess, figuring this wasn't the time or place to comment about it. No. He had to figure out how to get Al back. An idea was niggling him, just out of reach. He was sure it would come to him eventually. He just hoped they had time.

Harry looked at the Doctor. "Dragons, spirits, a changeling, and now an invisible imaginary friend. Are there any other things you wish us to be aware of, Doctor?"

"Perhaps two more," the Gallifreyan replied. "After all, I always make it a habit of believing six impossible things before breakfast. Or rather, in this case, before dinner."