Chapter 23
After tucking the crystal in his pocket and grabbing the Vorpal sword, the Doctor moved through the TARDIS back to the console room, Sam on his heels. "The TARDIS should be able to charge these up quite easily." Leaning the sword against the console, he dug into his jacket and pulled out a metal hook before using it to lift a section of the grated floor. He hopped down into opening, digging into the wires with enthusiasm.
"You seem awfully confident that this is going to work."
"Are you always this negative?" the Doctor questioned as he pulled several wires out of the opening. He looked at them with confusion for a moment, as if he didn't know where he had got them from, before jumping down yet again.
"No. Usually I'm pretty positive about things. Still, I've never had to deal with a Dragon before. You heard what the Shades said. They may not be able to hold him back."
"That's not to say that they won't," the Doctor reinforced as he dug through the innards of the TARDIS before coming back up with several more wires. He started to untangle the mess at a rapid pace. "Like I said before, we've got some time on our hands. Admittedly not much but still... Besides..." He gave him a manic grin. "I always come up with something. Now... this wire with that circuit... OUCH! Maybe not that circuit. This circuit? Yeah. And this here. Connect here and here..." He abruptly stood, seeming to have two mismatched bundles of wire in each of his hands. "Grab the sword, Sam."
"Um. Yeah." He went over to the sword and retrieved it, bringing it to the Time Lord.
"Hold these wires and don't let them touch," the Doctor instructed. Carefully propping the sword against one of the coral pillars, he retrieved Sam's wires and placed both on either side of the hilt so that they touched. The crystal immediately started to glow. "There. Nothing to it," he assured the physicist as he took several steps back, obviously proud of his work. A moment later, a high-pitched whine filled the room followed by a small explosion coming from the crystal in the sword. The room filled rapidly with foul smoke.
"ARRGGHH!" exclaimed Sam, his face grimacing. "Oh... that really reeks!" He quickly went to the door and exited the TARDIS. Seeing Sally's roses in full bloom he went over to them and pushed his nose into one of the flowers. He breathed in deeply to dispel the horrid scent he'd just experienced.
The Gallifreyan quickly followed, waving away the acrid scent. "Okay... not the best reaction in the world. Obviously, the TARDIS' power overloaded the crystal and caused it to implode. And you think it stinks for you. Think about me. I have more sensitive olfactory nerves than human. Not to mention how it's affecting this migraine." He glanced over to see Sam's face practically buried in Sally's roses. "What are you doing?"
Sam pulled away for just a second. "The roses smell good." He quickly put his nose back in as the TARDIS continued to billow smoke through the open door.
"Roses aren't going to help us charge up the Vorpal sword, Sam," the Doctor berated him. He paused for a moment as he looked around at the rose bushes. "Roses... YES! That's it!" Without warning, he rushed back into the TARDIS, which was still filled with smoke. A minute later, he returned with a pair of gardening shears and proceeded to snip off several of the blooms.
"What are you doing?" queried Sam with a shocked look. "Like you said, roses won't charge the Vorpal sword..." He watched as the Doctor continued the massacre of the rosebush, "...and if Sally's anything like my mother, she's going to kill you."
"I need the petals," the Doctor insisted.
"But why?"
"To create an organic barrier between the TARDIS and the sword. And flowers... well, roses more specifically... are perfect for that. I can make a thick paste out of the petals, coat the crystal with it, energize the crystal, and break off the dried paste once the charging is done."
"Oookay..." Sam replied. "Still you probably should have taken the blooms from several bushes rather than the one in the middle. Sort of makes this one stand out like a sore thumb." The Time Lord shrugged but didn't say anything. "So how many petals do you need?"
"Three or four cups," came the reply as the Doctor tucked the shears into his pocket.
"Looks like enough then. Any way you can do the charging outside the TARDIS in case this doesn't work?"
"Sam, if this doesn't work, we're down to hoping that Plan A works, which I sincerely hope that it does. The only other option would be to find an already fully charged crystal, which may take longer than the amount of time we have." Grabbing the blooms he'd cut off, the Doctor reentered the TARDIS. The smoke had since dissipated, though the stench still lingered. He stopped briefly when he noticed Sam wasn't following him in. "Come on. I need your help," he told him abruptly before continuing through the time ship, hurrying towards the kitchen.
Sam stood outside the TARDIS for a few moments before grimacing. "Right behind you," he said nasally, rushing in while holding his nose.
The Doctor was washing the roses in the sink when the physicist arrived shortly afterwards, still holding his nose. "There's a blender on the far counter. Bring it closer," he instructed. The moment the blender was within reach, he dumped large handfuls of rose petals in, put on the lid, and turned on the machine, chopping the petals into tiny pieces. "Salt and flour..." he commented, digging through cabinets. "I know I have them somewhere... AH!" Pulling out a bag of flour and a box of salt, he plopped them on the counter. Stopping the blender, he knocked the chopped rose petals onto the counter before ladling a couple of cups of flour and about five tablespoons of salt. Then, with a return to the sink, he procured some water and poured it on the odd mixture. "Kneed that into a paste," he ordered Sam. "Bring it to the console room when you are done." With that, he hurried out of the kitchen.
Sam watched as the Doctor left the room, leaving him with the task of turning the material into a homogenous mass. "Right," he called after the Gallifreyan. "I feel like I'm back in Mom's kitchen on baking day," he reminisced as he put his hands into the mixture and kneaded it. Eventually the paste was done and he took it to the Doctor. "I've mixed it up. Hope it's the consistency you wanted." He notice that the room no longer held the odiferous smoke, for which he was grateful.
The Doctor, in the meantime, had removed the imploded crystal from the Vorpal sword and had replaced it with the second one. He'd also made some adjustments with the wires coming from the console. Feeling Sam's presence behind him, he gestured him to come closer with the paste and proceeded to glop it all around the hilt and the crystal. Then, pushing the wires into the paste on either side of the sword, he took a step back. "That should do it." He looked down at his hands with a smile. "Anyone for arts and crafts? I make a mean rose bead necklace."
"I'm beginning to believe that there's nothing you can't do, Doctor."
"Well..." the Doctor answered with a tilt of his head, obviously lapping up the compliment.
Sam looked at the jury-rigged charger. "If you're sure that's going to work this time, don't you think we'd better work on Plan A?"
"Already am," the Time Lord assured him, marching away from the console room and back through the TARDIS. Making a brief stop to rinse the rose petal paste from his hands and allowing Sam the chance to do so himself, he went into a large room filled with various odds and ends. He grabbed four oddly-shaped items and a large coil of insulated wiring before exiting the TARDIS, not saying a word the entire time. Hurrying into the inn, he immediately headed for the stairs to the cellar.
Sam followed the Doctor, having become accustomed to his focus when he was on mission, whether to capture a Dragon or just get a really good cup of tea. When they reached the cellar, Sam noticed that Al wasn't there. He sighed, figuring this was just one of those strange situations that Al wasn't good at dealing with. Turning to the Doctor, he asked, "Okay, what's the plan?"
"I'm setting up an isolation field," the Doctor told him, handing him the oddly-shaped things in his hand. The items looked more like golden dunce caps with a ball balanced on the tip of the cap. "Put one of these in each corner of the room," he instructed. The moment the "dunce caps" were out of his hands, he started to unravel the wiring.
Sam placed the items as requested. "What principle does this work on?"
"Sort of improvising at the moment," came the honest response. "It's far too complicated to go into how it works but with the gramlars in place and wired to each other, it should create an ionic resonance field... sort of a giant spider web made from sexan energy."
"So, Godzi... I mean, Krazan will be captured like a fly in a web?"
"Well, that's the idea." The Time Lord didn't sound too sure of himself as he connected the wires from one gramlar to another, creating an illusion of a box with two bisecting radiuses.
"Have you ever captured a Dragon like this? Has anyone?"
"Nope. Well, don't know if anyone else has ever done so before but I certainly haven't. Can't say I've ever captured a Dragon before, for that matter. Last time I ran across a Dragon, I wasn't in the mood to capture one. You tend not to be in the mood when one is trying to kill you. We could possibly throw a fishing net over him but I don't have one and I doubt that Harry has one big enough to cover a Dragon. Plus, there's only the two of us dealing with him, not a whole army."
"Well, I hope it works."
The Doctor didn't reply as he stooped down to finish the preparations. As he was doing so, the Imaging Chamber door opened, allowing Al to return from the future.
Sam looked up and over to his friend, annoyance on his face. "Where have you been? You were supposed to let us know if Krazan was coming."
Al looked a little sheepish. "Well, I was here for awhile but then I figured it wouldn't hurt to go back and see what Ziggy had to say about all this. Thing is, the numbers are only getting worse. Now everything between 1986 and 1993 is just... gone." He looked at the preparations that were being done. "And what is this? Looks like a geometry lesson being given by Doc Brown."
"It's a trap, Al," Sam explained, deciding it wasn't really worth getting into an argument as to why Al had gone back. "The Doctor wants to capture Krazan."
"Capture Krazan? I don't think that's such a hot idea."
"Would you rather I allow him to escape?" the Doctor put in, standing from his work.
"No. Based on how fast time's disappearing, that wouldn't be a hot idea either."
"I personally agree. So, we capture him and ensure that he is returned to his people."
"And what will his people do with him?"
"Don't know. Up to them," the Time Lord replied. A split second later, his eyebrows furrowed. "Do you feel that?" He extended his hand to look at the back of it. "The atmosphere is electrically charged. Which means..."
A flash of light enveloped the room, causing the three men to turn towards it in surprise.
"He's coming," the Doctor announced.
From the cellar wall, almost like an Escher painting, a Dragon was emerging. As horrible as it had looked on the tape, in reality, it was much worse. Krazan shot a menacing glare at the humanoids in the room.
The Doctor took a step forward, blocking any path the Dragon could make towards Sam. "Krazan the Terrible, I request parley according Article Fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation."
Krazan roared in anger. "The Shadow Proclamation are weak fools trying to prevent the natural right of the strong to rule."
"Really? Well, that's a new one on me. Still, most of the known galaxy, include your home world of Lastiarus recognizes their rules and regulations. And since you are chatting with me, I'm going to assume that you agree to the terms listed in Article Fifteen. As such, I'm going to say this once. Go back to your prison cell immediately. Do not make any further attempts to escape."
"Who are you, puny creature, to speak to Krazan the Great thus?"
The Time Lord's eyes grew dark. "I'm the Doctor."
"The Time Lord General!" the Dragon roared. "I thought you lot had been eradicated from the universe."
"The war is over, Krazan. Your Dalek masters are all gone."
"They were never my masters!"
"Doesn't really matter now, does it?" the Gallifreyan countered. "The war's over and you are a prisoner. And I will not permit you to escape."
"And how will you stop me, Time Lord?" As he spoke, he sniffed the air. "Meat!" he exclaimed. Turning to the scent, he moved quickly towards its source.
The Doctor hurried to block Krazan's path but found the Dragon's size curtailing him. "Sam, run!" he cried out. Quickly, he reached into his jacket pocket and, pulling out his sonic screwdriver, aimed it at one of the gramlars, activating the field. As he did so, Krazan swung his tail in the Doctor's direction, knocking the sonic out of the alien's hand and sending both it and the Doctor flying to one end of the room.
"Enough talk." He looked over the human. "A bit scrawny but I haven't had live meat in quite some time." He stopped suddenly, gazing at Sam for a long moment. "Why do I see two huumaans standing in the same spot?" He sniffed the air again, a confused look on his face. "Two huumaans, one scent. Impossible!"
Al, who had been watching the interaction between Krazan and the Doctor with growing concern and knowing that the two men didn't have his holographic protection, suddenly threw caution to the wind, straightening to his full height, ever the picture of a Navy Admiral. "I'll tell you what's impossible, lizard face. How your mother ever loved an ugly mug like yours!"
The Dragon turned. "Three huuumaaans but only one scent! Where did you come from?"
"Well, if you really want to know, from a few hundred miles east of here. Or a few hundred miles west of here," Al taunted. "Depends on who you ask." Lowering his voice, he told his partner. "You heard the Doctor. Get the hell out of here."
Sam nodded and ran towards the laundry area.
"Let me guess," Al said, turning back towards the Dragon. "When you were a kid, the other kids wouldn't play with you because your ugly face scared off their pets."
The Dragon took a swing at the man that continued to annoy him. As his claw went through his intended victim, he roared, "What is this trick?"
"What trick? I'm just standing here having a nice conversation with my new friend Godzilla," the hologram replied with a broad grin. He pulled out a cigar and lit it.
As Krazan moved on Al once more, there was a sudden sound. The Dragon's screech gave witness to the rage he felt. "No! I'm not going back!"
Al grinned broadly. "So soon? I was just starting to get to know you." He waved. "Bye!"
Fingers of light came out of the wall and pulled the Dragon back. With a full roar, Krazan pulled forward again, determined to escape from the growing light coming towards him.
A groan came from the other side of the room as the Doctor sat up, his head pounding from the impact it had made against the floor. Seeing that Sam had escaped from Krazan, thanks to Al's taunting, he quickly searched for his sonic screwdriver. Seeing it on the floor inches from the Dragon's claws, he dived for it, grabbing it and bringing it up just as he felt a tug on his foot.
Krazan roared again. "This is your doing, Time Lord. Huuuumaaan meat would have been easier to catch but I will savor the experience of taking you apart limb from limb."
"Doctor!" Al exclaimed, seeing the Dragon pulling the Gallifreyan towards him. "Hang on!"
The Time Lord used his free foot to try to hinder his advance towards Krazan. "Hadn't thought of that. Would help if I had something to hold on to!" He searched with one hand for a crevice, a loose plank on the floor, anything to keep him from falling into the dimensional cell with Krazan while, with his other hand, attempting to adjust the screwdriver to a setting that might help him as well.
As the Doctor was being pulled away, Sam - who had been watching from the other room - rushed back in holding a mop with both hands. Running after the dragon, he held the cleaning utensil as a weapon. "Let him go!"
"Sam!" the Time Lord cried out. He reached out his free hand towards him. "The mop!"
The physicist instantly understood what the Doctor wanted. Lowering the mop so that it was within reach, he pulled the moment the Doctor grabbed hold of it. A hair of a second later, the latter cried out with triumph and, activating the screwdriver, aimed it at Krazan's hand, causing the Dragon to yelp in pain and release his grip.
"You shall pay for that, Time Lord!" He cried out as he was pulled into the rift.