Chapter 26

"Sam!" Al shouted with desperation, dropping beside him. "No! Get up! Get up, Sam! You've helped him. Now, help yourself! Sam!" he screamed. He ran his hand through his hair. "This isn't happening! This is not happening!" He looked up at the ceiling, fury in his voice. "Do something, damn it!" he shouted to the TARDIS, figuring that this ship, as irrational as it may sound, had to have been helping Sam all this time.

Although the Hologram was unaware of it, primarily due to not being in the same timeframe, the temperature of the infirmary had dropped rapidly. However, he did notice that the floor where Sam lay reconfigured from a hard surface to a softer one molding to the time traveler's still form. "That's not going to be enough, damn it!" He became even more agitated as the neural link between him and Sam weakened. "Oh hell, we're losing him." He got down beside his friend. "Sam! Sam! Listen to me buddy! You've got to hang on! You've got to!" Al yelled outwards. "Gooshie! Ziggy! Anyone! Is there anything we can do?" With no answer, he got up and started hitting the buttons on the handlink. "I'll have to leap!"

A soft moan filled Al's ears, causing the Holographic Observer to refocus on the Time Lord.

"Ohhh...my head," the Gallifreyan patient complained, his eyes still closed as he winced and brought his hand slowly up to cover the offending appendage. Turning to his side, he coughed violently and gagged slightly. "Anyone catch that starcruiser that ran over me? And could someone shut off that racket?" In response to his question, the cloister bell ended abruptly.

"You're alive! Sam did it! You're alive!"

"Who?" the Doctor questioned, feeling nauseous. Slowly, he tried to pull himself down from the table and onto his feet but found the act of standing difficult. He blinked as he looked down at himself. "Why am I naked?" He glanced towards the strange man dressed in tan. "Did Jack Harkness put you up to this?" He noticed his hands and grimaced at the sight of the blisters there. "What happened to me?" He felt a sting on his face as well and, glancing in the reflective surface of the cabinets, noted blisters there as well. "Haven't looked this bad since I went through puberty."

"You're naked and blistered cause the poison was attacking any exposed skin but that's the least of our problems. You've got to save Sam! You know, the man who just helped you defeat Godzilla, for God's sake!"

The Doctor still appeared dazed. "Godzilla? What does a Japanese movie monster from 20th century Earth have to do with anything?" He grimaced strongly, noting a severe pain in his left shoulder. Glancing down, his eyes widened. There was a bloodied, wet, but properly dressed bandage covering his shoulder, indicating that he had obviously been hurt and tended to.

"Not the movie 'Godzilla,' you nozzle! The real one! You know! Krazan!" He looked at the Doctor, who resembled Sam at the beginning of some leaps when the Swiss cheese effect was worse. "You can't have forgotten him!"

"Sam?" the Doctor repeated, blinking for a moment, trying to understand what the strange agitated man was saying while, at the same time, figuring out why he was being called a piece of Earth plumbing.

"Yes! Sam who just saved your life!" Al pointed to the floor at the base of the IV pole which was on the other side of the table the Doctor was on. "There!" Noting the fading was getting worse his movements became more erratic. "He's dying! You've got to save him!"

The Doctor looked over at the empty IV leading into his arm before yanking it out. He struggled to the other side of the table, looking down at the still form on the floor, obviously blistered as well. "Rose," he whispered with growing concern. Dropping to his knees, he pulled the human into his arms. "Rose..."

Al's heart fell. It was obvious that the Doctor had fully forgotten Sam since he was seeing only the aura as opposed to both as he had before. His words were tinged with the growing fear that Sam's last words might have truly been his last. "You see Rose Tyler, don't you...but that's not Rose. It's only her aura. Rose is safe at our project. I swear she's safe but you've got to believe me. The person you're holding now is Dr. Samuel Beckett and if you don't help him, he's going to die and I don't know what that will mean for Rose. Please, Doctor! You have to save him!"

A thousand thoughts ran through the Time Lord's mind as he collated the information that was being thrown at him. A second later, one could almost literally see a light bulb turning on over his head as clarity filled his eyes. "Right," he said, his voice more firm than he himself felt. "Help me get him on the couch."

Al blinked. "I can't."

The Time Lord raised an eyebrow. "If you want me to save your friend, I need your help!" he told him emphatically. "I'm not exactly in tip-top shape with this wound in my shoulder."

Al, deciding that he needed to end this concern quickly, moved to the Doctor and put his hand through him. "No, I mean I really can't. I'm not there."

It was the Doctor's turn to blink. "Oh. Then you're either a Gelth or a hologram." He blinked again. "Albert! Right. You're a hologram."

Once more the floor morphed to a biobed, rising up to be at normal height.

"Thanks, old girl. That helps," the Gallifreyan commented. Groaning, he pulled himself to his feet once more to go to his patient.

"Can you save him? Is there still a chance? Oh, hell, Sam used the antidote on you. Saw him inject the entire vial. Damn, Damn, Damn!" The hologram kept babbling.

The Doctor started to examine the physicist but stopped abruptly with a slight frown on his face. "Why is it so cold in here?"

"Who the hell cares if it's cold or hot?! I told you, he's dying! He's dying and there's obviously no antidote for him...is there?" The final question was asked, the sound of hope in Al's voice.

"Antidote?" the Gallifreyan queried. "For Dragon poison!" He abruptly turned to the still open drawer of multicolored vials. "Which one is it?" he muttered, leaning his head against the wall. "Come on! Think!"

Al started to relax when the Doctor began looking through the vials again. "Oh, you do have extra antidote. That's good. That's really good." However, when the Doctor seemed unsure he began to get nervous again. "What! You don't know which to use? Sam's dying and you can't remember!"

"You're not helping!" the Time Lord yelled at him, anger and desperation tinting his eyes.

"Hey, my buddy just saved your life! I'm just worried that the fact you're dragging your heels will mean he's not going to make it!"

"Meanwhile, you waste precious time screaming in my ear, making it near impossible for me to think!" The Doctor turned back to the drawer.

"Well, what do you want me to do?!"

"Get the hell out or I'll make you get out! Now... human biology... think think think think," the Time Lord berated himself. He suddenly stiffened physically as if he'd literally become petrified. "Oh, no. No no no no no! This is not good." He ran his hand through his hair, desperately trying to figure out how to save Sam's life. At that moment a rush of colder air hit his skin causing him to shiver before a small grin graced his lips. "Oh, clever girl!" he exclaimed. Quickly looking about, he rushed over to one side of the room and opened a small heavy metallic door, sliding a metal slab from the interior. Rushing back to the medical table which had again morphed into a gurney, the Time Lord quickly pulled the physicist over to the slab.

"What are you doing?!" Al cried out his eyes opened wide in shock. "I thought you were going to give him the antidote. You can't just put him in your morgue! No! I won't let you!" He tried to grab Sam away from the Gallifreyan, his holographic hands passing through his friend's body as the Doctor continued his actions. "What kind of a monster are you!" Al's pained words flowed out.

The Doctor having moved Sam into the rectangular recessed drawer pressed several buttons on a panel next to it causing the entire apparatus to slide in and the door to close. As it did, a green light came on above it. Turning towards Al with growing frustration, he shouted, "Enough! TARDIS, we need silphium!" he ordered, knowing that his faithful time ship would take him where they needed to go, with the added benefit that the Holographic Observer wouldn't disturb his thought processes further.

The blessed silence of the time vortex greeted the Doctor the moment Albert Calavicci vanished from sight and sound. Finally, he could focus his still healing mind on the task of addressing his own injuries and then saving one Dr. Samuel Beckett from an agonizing death by Dragon poison. With the disappearance of the hologram, he knew he wouldn't have to deal with the overprotective monstrosity that was Sam's friend. He found himself still weakened from the poison which would make it difficult for him to attend to the wound in his shoulder. He needed rest, and lots of it, to allow his superior biology to take over the tasks he couldn't do. Knowing that they were well on their way to their destination, and that until they reached it there was little he could do for his human friend, the Doctor procured a blanket. He was about to take his place on the medical couch but instead, found the floor coming up to meet him.

No. That wasn't it, he considered with a wry smile. More like he'd met the floor. He looked toward the medical couch and decided it just wasn't worth the effort. Allowing himself to finally feel the exhaustion he'd buried in order to focus on saving Sam, he wrapped the blanket around him. Thus slumped on the floor, he closed his eyes and slipped into a deep and healing sleep. As he crossed the border into unconsciousness, he smiled knowing the TARDIS was molding the floor's contours to provide a softer, more comfortable place for his body to lie. He could hear the TARDIS gently singing in his mind, lulling him to sleep as well. It was the last thought he'd have for quite awhile.

DWQLTWDWQLTW

Al entered the Control Room from the Imaging Chamber, his whole demeanor one of an agitated and upset. He first shot his words to Jack. "Your so called protector is a monster." He then turned to Gooshie, "Get the Accelerator on line and find out where Sam went before it's too late. I'll be ready to leap when you find him." He started to walk out of the room. "I'm going to get a Fermi suit, Jack. You might be the project head but right now I don't give a damn about anything you have to say."

The programmer looked between the two men and responded quietly, "I'll get right on it, Admiral." He gave a final look to Jack as if to say his loyalties would always be with the Project Observer.

Jack quickly followed Al out of the Control Room, confusion clear on his face. "You're leaping?" he asked, incredulously.

"Damn right, I am. It's Sam's only chance." As he strode determinedly toward the room where the Fermi suits were stored. "What is that man's problem anyways?! My best friend is dying... dying... after saving his life and he does absolutely nothing to save him! You said he's an honorable person. What the hell am I supposed to believe, Jack?! From what I can see, history's right about this 'Time Lord.' He's a class A number one certified bastard!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Al twirled around almost causing the taller man to run into him, glaring at him. The head of Project Quantum Leap had never seen such fury seething from him. The only comparison he could summon was that he was face-to-face with a human version of the Doctor turned Oncoming Storm. If the Observers next words were true, he couldn't blame him. ""I just saw your Doctor put Sam in a morgue drawer. He wasn't even dead yet and that... that... savage just files him away like he was nothing. Sam saved his life and this is how he repays him?" Al's words had come out of him like a flow of hot lava. "Add to that, first sign of difficulties and he up and runs!"

Jack blinked, stunned at his words. He looked confused for a moment, trying to put them into context. Finally he shook his head and stated firmly. "Wait a minute. The TARDIS doesn't have a morgue."

"Like hell it doesn't! I saw it with my own two eyes!"

"Ok...ok...just calm down and help me understand. What exactly is it that you think you saw?"

Al looked at Jack, their years as partners being put to the test. He saw in Jack's eyes the need to understand. Letting out a short breath, Al compelled his voice to be deceptively calm. "Sam had used the entire antidote on the Doctor despite the fact that he himself was dying. He was willing to do it to save your Doctor even if it meant he might not make it," he explained, his eyes filling as he remembered Sam's words. "Then when the Doctor does wake up, he opens a morgue drawer and lays Sam on the slab and closes the door." Al's voice turned bitter and sarcastic. "Real nice piece of work, that one."

"I'm telling you, Al," Jack stated firmly. "There is no morgue in the TARDIS. Obviously you didn't see what you think you saw."

"Then you tell me. What else could it be?" Al's fury regained its strength. "Then, he up and disappeared. Told his ship to take him to some planet called Silphium while Sam's left to die alone."

"Silphium?" The confusion was plainly clear on the immortal man's face. "Silphium?" he questioned again. "There's no planet called Silphium that I know of." He paused for a moment. "Did the Doctor do anything to this supposed morgue drawer?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you said he put Sam in it and closed the door, right? Did he press some buttons? Was there some sort of gauge beside the door to indicate temperature or anything like that?"

"I don't know what he was doing exactly. But, yeah. Once the door was closed he did push a few buttons. A green light came on. I assumed it was a lock."

A slight smile came to Jack's lips. "A stasis chamber," he concluded. "He wasn't putting Sam in a morgue drawer. He was putting him in a stasis chamber."

"A stasis chamber? You mean like the ones in those sci-fi stories?"

Jack raised his eyebrows at the Admiral. "Do I really have to answer that question? You did say that Sam used all of the Dragon's poison antidote on the Doctor. What's the best way to keep someone alive until you can procure the necessary treatment?"

"You're telling me a stasis chamber could save Sam's life? They aren't just some fictitious chamber?" Hope entered the Admiral's eyes, softening his demeanor slightly. "You're telling me that his going to the planet Silphium could be to get more antidote or something?"

"It's got to be," Jack agreed. "The Doctor wouldn't just let him die."

"You better be right, Jack."

"Of course, I am. He's never let me down. Well, just that once... but that's in the past. Really in the past. Or the future as the case may be."

"Gentlemen," Ziggy's voice broke into the room. "I believe there is something you should know."

Al exhaled slowly. "Well... given that you haven't let me down yet... I guess we'll have to wait until the Doctor returns from Silphium. I just hope they're not gone longer than they were when they went to Rextar Seven."

"What yet..." Jack started but then waved off the comment. "You know, if I had some star charts, I might be able to at least find this planet. Maybe work out how long they'll be gone. At the very least, we'll have an idea of where they went in the first place. Rextar Seven was fairly benign but there are quite a few planets that aren't as hospitable." He gazed up at the ceiling, already knowing where to start his search. "Ziggy, contact Tosh. I need a computer link between you and our computer back in Cardiff."

"No, Captain. That will not be necessary," the computer stated with arrogance dripping.

"No, it is necessary," Jack contradicted her. "I need access to my personal database. Call Tosh now, you pile of primitive used parts." Al raised his eyebrow. It was obvious that his boss had picked up a few idiosyncratic phrases from him.

"You will not need your personal database. It is not germane to this issue."

"Like hell it isn't! How am I going to find this planet if I don't have the necessary resources?" He paused. "Is this because I called you a pile of primitive used parts? I'm sorry. Okay? Now get hold of Tosh!"

"No," Ziggy responded, although it was not clear to what particular question was being answered.

Al had remained silent but seeing Jack's face becoming hard and his eyes seething, he felt he should step in. "Why won't Jack need his database to find the planet Silphium, Ziggy?"

"Because, Admiral, silphium is not a planet."

"And you know that... how?"

"Because I'm a parallel hybrid computer," Ziggy started. Before either man could say another word, she finished, "and I know how to Google Wikipedia." She started to quote. "'Silphium (also known as silphion or laser) was a plant of the genus Ferula. Generally considered to be an extinct "giant fennel" (although some claim that the plant is really Ferula tingitana), it once formed the crux of trade from the ancient city of Cyrene for its use as a rich seasoning and as a medicine.' I can go on or I can provide the URL to the site. Which would you prefer?"

Jack blinked, his anger quickly dissipating with the computer's words. "So, it's an extinct plant?"

"Yes, Captain."

Al spoke up. "And since you found it on Wikipedia, I'm assuming the plant must be from Earth."

"Yes, Admiral. That should be obvious."

There was another length of silence before Jack spoke. "I can't tell you how idiotic I feel right now. Good thing you never connected to Tosh. Or Gwen. Or Ianto."

"I hate it when she's a smart ass," Al grumbled.

"Well, thank you, Admiral," Ziggy commented, sounding very pompous.

"Okay, then. So, the Doctor needed this giant fennel for an antidote. How long ago did it go extinct?" Jack queried.

"First century A.D."

Al exploded. "What! Have you had a few circuits overheat, Ziggy? Is that even in our range?"

"The range isn't the problem, Admiral. It's finding my father in the vast sea of time."

"Yeah," the Observer said, dejected. "We had enough trouble finding him in the Civil War and that was less than two centuries. Twenty centuries is a whole other matter."

"Actually," Jack put in, tucking his hands into his trouser pockets with confidence, "there could be a way to not only find him but also talk to him before Ziggy can even make a lock."

Al's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "You've got that smug look on your face, Jack. What do you have up your sleeve this time?"

"Why would you think I have anything up my sleeve? Other than my looking like I know something you don't know."

"Oh, I don't know. Your voice? The fact that you're bouncing on your heels a little? Not to mention your eyes are telling me that you're about to blow us away with another toy of yours." Al had learned that Jack somehow got a hold of some of the coolest technology he'd ever seen. While Sam building Ziggy and Quantum Leap in general had been cutting edge, some of the things he'd seen Jack use were just 'out of this world.'

The immortal man took a breath. "When I was traveling with the Doctor, Rose had a cell phone he'd jiggery-pokeried. Basically it allowed her to call anyone, anywhere, and anytime. She could be orbiting the Great L'tanei Monastery in the year 309,000 and call her Mum here on Earth in the year 2006."

"You're kidding. You can do that? I still have dead zones and my phone has the widest digital network available," Al mused. He then added quickly, "And why didn't you tell us about this before?"

"I sort of forgot until just now," Jack admitted. "After all, I've been around a while. Point is, since Rose never went anywhere without her phone, it should be easy to give them a call. Then hopefully we'd be able to get a neural lock on him. But we need to coordinate Ziggy's search and lock with the phone signal first."

"Right," Al agreed. "And Gooshie will need to be involved in that." He now started walking in the direction he'd come from, the Fermi suit clearly forgotten. "I guess I was wrong, Jack. If the Doctor's going into the past to get more antidote to save Sam, he's probably not as bad as I portrayed him. But he could have told me that the antidote for that alien's toxic sweat would be found in Earth's past?"

"Well, technically, Dragon's secretion isn't sweat. It's a biological defense against predators."

"What sort of predators would go after a Dragon?" Al asked incredulously. "That must be some badass monster. It would be like... like... Godzilla versus Mothra or something like that." Reaching the Control Room they walked in and Al went straight to Gooshie, Jack following. "Any luck?"

The programmer glanced briefly at the Admiral, surprise coming to his face the moment he saw that he returned sans Fermi suit. "You're not leaping?"

"What?" he reacted before explaining the change to the programmer. "No. After talking with Jack... and Ziggy..." he said to sooth the hybrid computer's ego, "...we've come up with another plan. I just want to know if you've found Sam yet."

Gooshie accepted Al's explanation without comment and proceeded to answer his inquiry. "No... and we've been through most of his lifetime... at least the past. Haven't tried the future yet. Not sure how we'd even do that."

"Jack's come up with another way to track Sam. He will fill you in on it. We'll need the programming quick."

"Other than brainwaves?" asked Gooshie, intrigued. "How?"

"The Doctor left in a hurry to find the ingredients for the antidote, but he won't be in Dr. Beckett's lifetime even though he's still on Earth," Jack told him. "However, Rose carries a modified cell phone on her. So..."

"Cell phone signal," Al said with a shrug.

"Cell phone signal?" Gooshie asked and then smiled. "Captain, it's always interesting when you're here."

"I'll take that as a compliment, Doctor," Jack replied with a smile that lit up the room. "I'll help you with your programming."

The programmer with the bad breath nodded. "It's been a while since we worked on a project this closely."

As Gooshie and Jack got to work on the problem, Al excused himself. "Call me when you're ready, Jack. In the meantime, I'm going back home. I left a few loose ends earlier. Want to take care of them."

"Say hi to Beth for me. I'm sure she'll love your... taking care of her loose ends," Jack commented.

"You're incorrigible."

"Yep...but that's why we're such a good team. I'll give you a call." Jack gave a wave to the Admiral as he left the Control Room, refocusing his attention to the work ahead of them. Until they had a workable "Locating Sam via Rose's phone" system, they would just have to assume that the Doctor and Sam were safe.

And that's the end of Book 2. Book 3 will be posted very very soon. Thanks for reading and please don't hesitate to review!