Journey's Endings
Part Five: The Sight and Sound of War
Author's Comments: Kim, Ron, Oscar Diggs and the Doctor have located the TARDIS that was stolen by the Empath, at the 1814 Battle of Bladensburg, one of the worst defeats ever suffered by an American army. Earlier, Oscar said that his grandfather was a member of Commodore Barney's Defense Flotilla at this battle, and the Flotillaman they have been helping is also named 'Diggs.' Finally, Kim has just heard the Commodore address the officer in charge of the artillery as 'Captain Possible.' Read on, and see what happens next.
My thanks go to Mahler Avatar, CajunBear73, Coot, smith5576 and all others who have read the 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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Kim was intently considering what she had just heard and what it could mean for her and the mission. Could this 'Captain Possible' be Rodger Possible, her ancestor who was a privateer captain in the War of 1812? If it was, should she tell him who she was? Would he believe her? And why was he here, on land, instead of on his ship, at sea? She tried to remember if she had read anything about Rodger Possible being involved in the Battle of Bladensburg. What if he was killed here? Should she try to prevent that? Or would just her being here change history so that he was killed in this battle?
At the same time another part of Kim's mind was observing the battle. The British soldiers had recoiled from the roundshot fired by the two big guns and the others off to the far left. Then they started forward again in spite of the cannon fire. After crossing the bridge the redcoated troops spread out, formed ranks and started coming along the road toward Commodore Barney's men. When a shot tore through them, those who weren't hit stolidly closed up and kept coming, stepping over the bodies of the dead and wounded.
Then the men stopped, brought their muskets up to their shoulders and aimed at the American guns and gunners. Ron grabbed Kim's arm and pulled her down a moment before the redcoats fired. The sound of the musket-balls slashing over her head brought Kim's mind back to the primary problem of How to Stay Alive on a Battlefield.
There was a yell from one of the men at the guns. He turned, staggered back a few paces and fell to the ground. Another man sat down suddenly, grasping at his left leg where a red stain was spreading. Kim leaped forward to check it and found an ugly gouge in the man's thigh. With the help of Ron and Oscar she carried the wounded gunner several yards back from the guns to where the Doctor knelt.
"This doesn't look too bad," the time lord commented absently as he examined the flotillaman's wounded leg. "Move your hand away, sailor . . . that's it . . . now lean back. Kimberly, Ronald, hold his arms and prop him up, please." From somewhere the Doctor had obtained a wooden canteen of water and a batch of long cloth strips. He washed the wound and then brought his sonic screwdriver into contact with the gunner's leg. There was a twitching of the muscles and a slightly flattened black ball followed by a wad of cloth popped out of a hole that quickly closed up. The blood stopped flowing and Kim could hardly see any break in the skin until she looked closely.
"Here, Oscar, hold this pad over the wound while I wrap the leg." The Doctor swiftly wound the leg with some of the cloth strips, tied them off, and nodded.
"Keep that covered for a week, and you'll be fine! Let's get him out of the way," he added, lifting the man by the hips while Oscar held his feet. They carried the wounded gunner about twenty yards to the rear and laid him in a hollow in the ground before hurrying back to the big guns.
"Change to grapeshot!" Captain Possible was shouting to the gunners. Kim saw a man holding one of the things that looked like big grapes wrapped in a bundle. That's a 'stand' of grapeshot, she remembered. The gunner stepped up to the gun, put the 'stand' into the muzzle and a second man used a long pole to ram it down the barrel. The gunners moved clear of the big gun and the cannon roared defiance at the enemy.
Kim looked to see what would happen this time — and then wished she hadn't. The nine separate balls in the grapeshot 'stand' spread out and swept through the British soldiers like a giant broom. Redcoated figures were tossed aside and hurled back in a wide swath. Moments later the other big gun roared and more went down. She turned to look at Ron and saw that her partner looked as white as the bandages the Doctor was using.
"They don't deserve that, Kim!" the boy gasped. "Nobody does!"
There were more wounded around the guns. Kim turned her attention back to the business of saving lives instead of taking them.
"Come on, Ron; there's another one down!" Team Possible felt sick — but carried on with their mission.
Kim and Ron picked up a second gunner with a wound in his left arm and hustled him back to the Doctor, who treated him, nodded, and smiled. "Next, please!"
Pulled by a group of flotillamen, a limber rattled past, away from the guns. Kim's gaze followed them and she saw the limber turn about and stop beside a pair of wagons back along the road toward Washington. The men opened the large box on the limber and began loading it with things that Kim realized were 'stands' of grapeshot and cloth-wrapped cylinders. As soon as they were done they pulled the limber back up to a spot behind the guns where other men began taking the cylinders and grapeshot out and passing them forward to the guns.
"Come on, Kim; more wounded!" Ron called. Kim snapped back to the sitch again and hurried to the guns to collect the casualties. Here they found Thomas standing over a flotillaman who was down, and passing a cylinder to a man at one of the guns.
"They're falling back! Guess they don't like the taste of our grapes!" Thomas shouted. Kim and Ron paused to look toward the British troops and saw that this was so. The redcoats were pulling back, further away from those murderous cannons, and then moving off to the right of the guns.
"It appears they're going to try attacking the Marines," Captain Possible calmly remarked. "We may have discouraged them somewhat."
"I should think so!" Ron exclaimed. "An hour or so trying to attack these guns would make anybody want to back off."
Thomas shook his head. "It's been about a quarter of an hour since we opened fire," he said with a grin. "And those redcoats don't give up easy."
Kim and Ron exchanged a glance. To them the battle seemed to have been going on for at least an hour!
More rockets were sailing past. They didn't appear to be aimed at any special place, but whistled past Commodore Barney's guns, the Marines to the right and the troops to the left. Several went high overhead and landed well behind the gunners, and as Kim looked in that direction she saw one hit the ground near the tree trunk that was the disguised TARDIS.
The Marines opened fire with their three cannons and their muskets, and Kim turned to see the British line waver and halt. They raised their own muskets and fired, but the Marines just reloaded and sent another blast at the enemy. Then the British began to fall back and the Marines swarmed forward, swinging cutlasses and shouting, "Board 'em! Board 'em!"
Ron stared at the charging Marines and then turned to Kim. "Boredom? How can they be bored with all this going on?"
"That's what Marines shout when they're on a ship in battle, and they jump onto the enemy ship to capture it, Ron. They 'board' the enemy ship."
"Oh." The two teens watched in awe and admiration as the Marines drove the redcoats back to a rail fence, where red coats and blue ones mixed to become locked in a fierce hand-to-hand fight.
Kim turned back to the man on the ground, who was holding his left arm and swearing softly. When he saw Kim he blushed slightly and said, "Pardon me, miss, but they hit my arm."
"Come on; the Doctor will take care of it." Kim helped the man to his feet, passed him to Oscar with orders for the boy to guide the flotillaman to the time lord. Then she turned to help Ron with another man.
They had just reached the hollow in the ground where the time lord was busily tending to the wounded when two of the rockets came over and landed near the wagons as another limber came rolling back to them. There was a series of yells and shouts from the men around the wagons, who piled into them and started driving madly away toward Washington. Several others raced to the wagon that Kim, Ron, Oscar, Thomas and the Doctor had used to bring up the grapeshot and cannon balls. They untied the horse, climbed into the wagon and quickly set off after the others.
"Hey! There goes our wagon, guys!" Ron yelled, pointing at the departing men.
"And there goes our ammuniton!" Thomas raged from the limber he'd just help pull back. "Civilians! Devil take 'em! They were paid to bring that powder and shot up here, and now they take it away when we need it!"
"You had better let Captain Possible and Commodore Barney know about this," the Doctor remarked calmly. "A sudden lack of ammunition is never a welcome surprise."
Thomas nodded and turned to the men who had been pulling the limber. "Back to the guns, lads. We have to tell them the powder an' shot are gone." The flotillamen wheeled the limber around and started up to the gun battery, while Thomas raced ahead to carry the bad news.
Kim hardly noticed this, for she had spotted a man in civilian clothes who had not run off with the others. He was just standing by the roadside, gazing at the marines and the men further to their right. He turned and looked at a low hill beyond the men, where a large group of troops stood, ready to fire when the British came closer. As he did this Kim realized she had seen his face before — when she, Ron and the Doctor were watching the Cold Storage Building burning at the 1893 World's Fair. It was the Empath!
"Doctor! Ron! There he is! Come on, follow me!" Kim broke into a run toward the old tree by the road that was the disguised TARDIS. Ron, Oscar and the time lord all jumped up and came behind her. At the same moment the Empath looked around, saw them and also began running toward the tree.
The Empath was closer to the tree but Kim and Ron had lots of experience in sudden spurts of running. They got to the tree just as the Empath peeled back a section of the bark as if it was a door — which, of course, it was. Kim slammed into the Empath and knocked him into the TARDIS, dove in herself and rolled to her feet inside a room much like the control room of the Doctor's TARDIS.
The Empath was just getting to his feet, and pulling something from a trouser pocket. Kim lunged to grab him for a hip throw but he jumped back just far enough to dodge, and raised a black rod, somewhat like the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.
"Kimberly! Duck!" At the Doctor's shout Kim did a quick leap to one side and dropped to the floor. The Empath pointed the tube at her and there was a flash of light between the rod and Kim.
To Kim's amazement all that happened was a very strange burst of music. It sounded something like Pop Goes the Weasel being played backwards on a leaky bagpipe. The Empath just stood there with a bewildered expression, so she bounced up and charged in on him.
He dropped the rod and began throwing punches that suggested some kind of martial art, but Kim knew how to handle such things. She blocked the Empath's blows, landed a solid punch in his middle that made him double over and topped it off with a spin-kick that caught the Empath's jaw. He straightened up, went over backwards and landed with a bone-shaking thud!
"Here, Kim, use this," said Ron, handing her a coil of rope. She quickly tied the Empath's hands behind his back and lashed his ankles together. Then she looped some rope to lash the tied wrists and ankles together. As she finished the Empath was looking less dazed and seemed to be regaining consciousness. Ron looked over the result of Kim's work and nodded.
"You're good, kid — real good," Ron said to their captive in a broad drawl. "But as long as Kim's around, you'll just be second best."
"I agree, Ronald." The Doctor looked up from the central control consol where he had just closed the TARDIS' door. "That was in the style of James Cagney in The Public Enemy, correct?"
"Ah, no," Ron replied. "Like Jim Carrey in The Mask."
"Oh, yes. Of course." The Doctor shook his head in a how-did-I-miss-that-one manner, and began to examine the control console of the stolen TARDIS.
Ron turned to Oscar and said, "Did you hear that captain call Thomas 'Diggs?' Could he be your granddad?"
"He might be," the boy replied. "I think my father calls grandfather 'Tom' sometimes."
"He seems like a badical guy. And do you suppose that 'Captain Possible' is an ancestor of yours, KP?"
There was no answer, so Ron turned to look closely at Kim. She had a thoughtful, preoccupied expression, and seemed deep in thought.
"Earth to Kimberly! Come in, Kim!"
"Huh? Oh, yes, Ron; what is it?"
Ron repeated his question, and Kim frowned. "He might be. Daddy loaned me a book that was all about a man named Rodger Possible, who was a ship captain during the War of 1812. But I haven't got to the part about late 1814, yet."
Kim pushed that problem aside for the time being and turned to ask the Doctor a question.
"It looked as if he was trying to shoot something at me, but there was just some odd music instead. Did you do that?"
The Doctor held up the device he'd brought out when they were stalking the Empath in the basement of the White House.
"Yes, I used this countervail generator. It set up a field that cancelled most of the stun beam he fired, reducing it to a melody of sorts. If I hadn't, you'd have been unconscious for a couple of hours, at least."
"I see," Kim nodded. "Well, thank you very much, Doctor."
"As you say, Kimberly, 'It's no big.'" The time lord went back to his examination of the control console for a minute or so, and then spoke.
"Well, this fellow had the controls set so he could make a fast getaway if necessary," the Doctor remarked. "We can jump back to the ground floor of the White House, pick up K-9 and Rufus, and then go back to my TARDIS." He looked at Kim, Ron and Oscar. "We should have this whole affair wound up in a couple of hours."
"Say, now that we've got this TARDIS back, why don't we go into the past before we first got to the White House, and catch him there when he shows up?" Ron asked.
The Doctor shook his head. "I'm afraid not, Ronald. You see, we were in the Patent Office and walking to the White House while this TARDIS was already there. Then we went back for K-9 and the wagon, and then drove it to the White House. If we hopped back as you suggest that would change what we've done in our own past, and the Bilnovitch Limitation Effect makes that sort of thing impossible, even for a time lord. You see?"
He was met with blank looks on the faces of Kim, Ron and Oscar. Ron started to say something, stopped, nodded and then shook his head.
"Yeah . . . no . . . just forget that I asked, okay?"
"Good idea," said Kim.
"Can we see how the battle's going, outside, before we go?" Oscar asked.
The Doctor tapped a control and a wall screen lit up with a view of the outside. Things looked grim as the view panned across the area. The troops to the left of Commodore Barney's guns were gone, and Kim saw that the troops on the low hill on the far right were falling back in confusion. The flotillamen and Marines were standing firm and blazing away with their muskets, but the cannons were no longer firing.
"No more ammuniton for the big guns," Oscar muttered. "Grandpa hated those wagon drivers for running away with it." The boy shook his head. "He says 'We were holding them until the wagons and the militia ran away.' I never thought I'd see it happen, though."
"We can't stop it by ourselves, and we've still got a sitch on hand," Kim said. "Can we go, Doctor? This all looks pretty sad."
"I agree," said the time lord. He snapped a switch and the time rotor began its steady rise and fall. It made a 'wheeze-whoosh' sound somewhat like the one in the Doctor's TARDIS, but not as loud. "Next stop, the White House, about five hours after we left it!"
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.