Journey's Endings
Part Three: Grumbles and Grapeshot
Author's Comments: Once again the Empath has eluded Team Possible and the Doctor. Or was he just going somewhere else without knowing that he was being pursued? Read on, and you will learn some of the answers.
My thanks go to Mahlar Avatar, CajunBear73, and all others who read the two previous chapters. Please feel free to leave a comment about this story at any time. I will do my best to reply.
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"Oh, great!" Ron groused. "He got away from us again! Where do you think he's gone now, Doctor?"
"One minute, Ronald, while I check." The Doctor swung the sonic screwdriver in a circle as he turned completely around, "If he's still in this time and hasn't gone too far a distance, I may pick him up again," he added.
Kim gritted her teeth. They had seen the Empath in 1893 and found his TARDIS in 1862, but both times he had left before they could catch him. Now their quarry had slipped away for a third time! Kim hadn't felt this annoyed since Bonnie Rockwaller had tried to become Captain of the Middleton High School cheerleader squad.
"Well! He just materialized," said the Doctor, happily.
"Good," Kim snapped. "Where is he?" Her 'mission' voice contained a mixture of determination and satisfaction.
"Five miles to the northeast of where we are now."
Kim frowned in concentration. "That's about where Bladensburg is. He must have gone there to watch the battle!"
"You mean we didn't scare him away? Cool!" Ron enthused.
"Miss Kim?" Oscar's voice combined respect and curiosity. "Do we go after him or wait for him to come back here?"
"Good thinking, Oscar," Kim answered. She looked at the Time Lord and added her own question.
"Any thoughts on that, Doctor?"
"We'll have to go and search for him at Bladensburg, certainly. But K-9 should stay here in case he returns after the battle is fought."
Kim nodded. "Everybody around here will be excited and nervous because the British troops are coming, right?"
"Exactly. And that's just what an Empath likes: lots of strong emotions."
The Doctor knelt beside his robot companion, who now had Rufus sitting on his back.
"Remain here, K-9, and keep a sharp watch for that stolen TARDIS. If it comes back, and the Empath steps out, stun him at once. Clear?"
"Perfectly clear, Master." The robot dog nodded his head as he spoke.
"Ron, I think Rufus should stay here with K-9," said Kim. "If you two got separated on the battlefield it might be very hard to find him."
"Okay. You understand, buddy? Stick with K-9 until we get back." Ron extended his right index finger to his mole rat friend, and Rufus shook it firmly in one tiny paw.
"We'd better go back upstairs before they start to wonder why we're staying down here," Kim remarked. She picked up the lantern and waved to Rufus and K-9 as she, the Doctor, Ron and Oscar went out the door and into the hallway.
As they came back up the steps, they heard Dolley Madison speaking to someone. "I understand, Mister Blake, but the President has left me in charge here while he is with the army, and I am not about to abandon my post!"
Coming into the room Kim saw Mrs. Madison with a man who looked scared. He was dressed a bit carelessly and seemed close to panic. Paul, the young black man, stood to one side, as if awaiting instructions. The Doctor paused to avoid intruding, so Kim, Ron and Oscar stopped as well.
"The outcome of the battle is not a certainty, Madam; you must be prepared to leave at a moment's notice!"
"If danger threatens, of course, I will leave in good time. But not beforehand." Dolley nodded in a firm, 'and that's that!' manner.
The man nodded in reply, excused himself, and rushed out of the room. Paul hurried after him to open the door, but the man didn't wait and opened it himself.
"Who was that?" Kim asked, as they joined Dolley Madison.
"James Blake, the mayor of Washington," she replied, gazing after the man with a frown.
That's the Mayor of Washington? Kim wondered to herself. How did somebody like that get elected?
"Sort of excitable, isn't he?" Ron remarked to Oscar.
"Seems to be a bit high-strung for a public official," the Doctor observed.
Dolley frowned for a moment and slowly nodded. Then she turned and faced the time lord. "Well, Doctor, is your machine stored properly?"
"Safe and sound, Ma'am. But by the Mayor's agitated manner, I gather that dinner may be late, tonight."
"Perhaps," Dolley Madison replied firmly. "But when the President returns to this house I shall be here to greet him."
Before anyone could comment on this, the doorkeeper came up to Mrs. Madison and cleared his throat.
"Pardonnez-moi, Madame. One of Commodore Barney's flotillamen is here. He is seeking a wagon to help carry ammunition for the artillery to Bladensburg."
"We have a wagon," said Kim. "And we can help load the ammunition in it."
"Yeah, we could help," Ron added. The Doctor nodded his approval and winked at both of them.
"If Paul will get our wagon, we'd be glad to offer our assistance," the time lord said to Dolley.
"Very well. Paul! Bring the flotillaman in, and then fetch the Doctor's wagon to the door."
"Yes, ma'am." The boy went out of the room and in less than a minute came back with a lean, tanned young man who seemed to be only a few years older than Kim and Ron. He was dressed like a seaman, and when he was introduced, he saluted Mrs. Madison.
"This gentleman is known as 'The Doctor;' he and his three friends have a wagon, and will help you load it with ammunition for the artillery."
"Thank you, Ma'am. The Commodore is moving his men and guns to Bladensburg and needs every wagon we can find to take up the powder and shot."
"We'll help all we can," Kim answered in her 'mission' voice. "This is Ron, Oscar and I'm Kim. Let's get started!"
"Thank you, Mrs. Madison," said the Doctor as they all started for the door. "We'll be back for K-9 as soon as we can."
"You're welcome, Doctor. And be careful, all of you!" Dolley called as they left the White House.
When they came out, Paul was just bringing the wagon to the foot of the front steps. Oscar offered to drive, if the flotillaman would tell him where to go.
"That's a good idea; I'm better on a sloop's deck than on a wagon. Let's see, you're Oscar? My name is Thomas." They shook hands and mounted the seat at the front of the wagon, while the Doctor, Kim and Ron climbed into the wagon box. Once everybody was on board Oscar flicked the reins, and they started out.
As they drove east on Pennsylvania Avenue, Thomas explained that Commodore Barney, 400 flotillamen, 120 Marines and five cannon had been ordered to guard the main bridge over the Eastern Branch of the Potomac River.
"We were all down there, without a Redcoat in sight," Thomas explained. "The Commodore was ready to chew marlinspikes an' spit nails 'cause it looked like we'd be left out of the battle. Then President Madison and his cabinet showed up." The young man shook his head and whistled. "The Commodore really let 'em have it. He wanted to know why over five hundred fightin' men and five guns had to guard a bridge when any corporal and five men with muskets could burn it if the British showed up!"
"Good question," Ron remarked. "Did he yell at the President?"
"Him an' the Secretary o' War, Johnny Armstrong!" Thomas replied. "Won his point too. The Marines, us flotillamen an' the guns started marching, but the Commodore told off some of us to find wagons, load 'em with ammunition for the guns and follow him to Bladensburg. Oh, turn right here. We go south from the Capitol to the Navy Yard."
Kim had never studied military tactics and strategy, but she had learned the basics in Mr. Barkin's history class and by watching documentaries on television. Leaving good troops and artillery behind when you set out to stop an invasion sounded pretty slap-dash to her. No wonder we'll lose this battle! she thought grimly.
Thomas guided them to the Washington Navy Yard, through the gate and past a monument that he said was dedicated to the men who died in America's war with the Barbary pirates. The wagon pulled up where cannon balls were stacked, and Thomas said they needed to put thirty of them in the wagon.
"Then we need thirty o' those stands o' grapeshot," he added, pointing to a pile of things that did look something like batches of big grapes to Kim.
"You keep the horse steady, Oscar," Kim ordered, "we'll load the wagon."
"How much do these things weigh?" Ron asked, as he picked up one of the cannonballs.
"Twelve pounds," Thomas answered. "A stand of grape weighs 'bout eleven pounds." He picked up one and remarked, "There's nine grapeshot in each one o' these things. The shot weigh a pound apiece."
"I believe it," Kim grunted, as she lifted her third 'stand' into the wagonbox.
"What are grapeshot for, anyway?" Ron asked as he loaded another cannonball.
"Stands o' grape in your guns will let you cut up a sloop's rigging, or stop a small boat attack, cold," said Thomas. "It's like a load of buckshot, only lots bigger."
"Very effective against cavalry and massed infantry, too," said the Doctor. "Particularly at short range. There! I believe that's all you asked for, Thomas." He ran a calcuating eye over the projectiles in the wagon and nodded. "Yes. We have thirty of each."
"What about gunpowder?" Kim asked Thomas. "Should we load some of that, too?"
"Nope. The Commodore took a couple o' wagons with him that were full of cartridges for both the twelve-pounders and the eighteen-pounders when he marched out." He got back up on the wagon seat, while the Doctor, Kim and Ron got back in the wagon box.
Thomas gave Oscar a hand up to the seat, told him which road to follow, and added, "The drivers didn't like it, much, sittin' next to all that black powder, but the Commodore told 'em if they wouldn't drive the wagons, we would."
"Then the wagon drivers aren't flotillamen?" Kim was puzzled. "Or Marines?"
"Nope; they're civilians," Thomas remarked. "Turn left here," he directed Oscar.
Kim's estimate of American military ability in the coming battle dropped even lower. She traded a look with Ron, who seemed equally dismayed.
"What a way to fight a war," Ron grumbled. "If Mr. Barkin could see it, he'd blow a fuse."
Kim nodded, and the wagon rolled onwards toward the little village of Bladensburg and a dark moment in American history.
TBC . . .
Author's Disclaimer and Notes:
The Disney Company owns the Kim Possible concept and characters.
The British Broadcasting Corporation owns the Doctor Who concept.
The term TARDIS is also copyright by the BBC.
The plot of this story is my responsibility.
The Tripoli Monument at the Washington Navy Yard was carved of Carrera marble in 1806 and brought to the United States on the Navy frigate U.S.S. Constitution. The monument survived the burning of the Navy Yard in 1814, and in 1831 it was moved to the west terrace of the United States Capitol building. In 1860 the monument was moved a second time, to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, where it remains to this day. It is the oldest military monument in the United States.