A/N: Just a reminder, Kathy fell into the Whoniverse after Resolution of the Daleks so she doesn't know anything after season 12 and New Years special so is lost in this episode but remembers the Crimea (War of the Sontarans) and the Sea Devils (Legend of the Sea Devils) as she's lived them.
—
It's 1899 and Kathy finds Jack slumped on the straw covered ground next to wicker baskets and a cart just as he's waking up. There is a broken bottle sticking out of his abdomen.
"Oh, not again." He grumbles exasperatedly.
"Really?" Kathy remarks as she walks up to him.
Jack smirks. "What? No hello, no welcome kiss? Have you come up from London just to tell me off?"
Kathy looks at him unamused. "You're gonna draw attention to yourself like this." She crouches down to his level.
"Like what?"
"Torchwood. They have a Cardiff base. They've been monitoring you, keeping transcripts of your conversations about the Doctor with people." Kathy explains.
Jack shrugs. "And?"
Kathy rolls her eyes. "To Torchwood, the Doctor is a designated enemy. I should know, I was there when Torchwood was created."
"What should I do?" Kathy pulls out the bottle from his stomach instead of replying. "Ow!"
"Don't be a baby." Kathy retorts. "What should do is join them."
Jack scoffs. "No!"
"Jack, may I remind you that you need to stay in Cardiff?" Kathy reminds him. "That's where you'll meet the Doctor again in a hundred years time and it might be a good idea to keep the alien detectors on your side."
"Fine."
"Good."
Honestly, it's like minding a child sometimes.
—
There are some adventures and scenarios from the Whoniverse that Kathy is aware of and either intentionally places herself or comes across it accidentally but in those situations, she knows what's going on. There are some situations, however, where Kathy accidentally comes across various Doctors and their companions by accident and genuinely has to find out what's going on and help solve the situation.
One such instance was easy enough to solve. Kathy had been investigating a powerful explosion on Threadneedle Street where the Bank of England is located. It was a solo assignment Kathy was doing on her own without the others.
What had been suspicious about this explosion was that those around it had reportedly carried on, completely oblivious to the damage. The strangeness of the whole thing had led to a member of the Paternoster Gang being called to investigate.
Kathy had arrived to find the bewildered trio that consisted of Amy, Rory and Eleven standing in the midst of it all. Kathy had happily greeted them to which they had done the same while telling her they had found traces of carbonite before they had been cut off by a second explosion from down in the vaults. They ran to investigate, but there appeared to be no sign of damage to the vaults and no one around except a kindly old flower seller.
Amy was concerned and tried to coax the old lady back up the stairs to safety. However, the Doctor suddenly turned on the old woman and threw the flowers aside, uncovering a traffic-calming measure from the Aldebaran Astrobahn, a small device that pacifies space pilots so they can fly safely. The device was being used to cover up the raid on the bank.
The old woman suddenly changed into an armed alien bank robber, who grabs Rory.
Thankfully the whole thing was resolved when Kathy realised they should use the reality check on the robber, and give him suggestions that he takes – that he doesn't want to fire his gun, that he doesn't want to be a criminal, and that all the happiness he will ever need can be found in a single flower!
Dancing off, the robber left the bank, planning to go home and plant a garden full of beautiful flowers. With the reality check no longer influencing the bank staff and customers, there was a sudden panic as the full extent of the damage was seen, along with a big green alien dancing around holding a flower.
Thankfully, Kathy had the Inspector and Scotland Yard on call, who flooded the scene with men to keep the people at bay while the Doctor, Amy and Rory sneaked off with the alien in tow, still dancing, to deposit him back at his home where he'll be no trouble.
—
There are other instances where Kathy isn't in the know but it's been way more difficult for her.
It's 1901 and Kathy still lives with the Paternoster Gang though she's spending more and more time away from them. She uses the excuse that she wants to see Carlyle and Ashildr who both live in the southern part of Africa where the country South Africa will be formed very soon. However, everyone knows that Kathy is beginning to distance herself because she's known the group for nearly twenty years now, and the age is beginning to show on all of them. For Kathy, many of the friends she makes have so fleeting lives and the pain of losing them is inevitable.
Kathy knows Vastra, Jenny and Strax are good friends because they don't push her on it and give her as much space as they can.
Kathy is in the house on Paternoster Row when there are a few frantic knocks at the door. She hears Strax move to open the door. Vastra and Jenny are out investigating so it's just Kathy and the Sontaran butler in.
"Explain your presence here human scum." Strax's voice declares. Kathy snickers into her book at that. She can only imagine the face of the person on the other side.
"I'm, h-hi. I, or us, we, are looking for Kathy Davis?" The answer sounds more like a question than a statement.
Kathy perks up, she knows that voice. She rushes over to the door and there stands Yazmin Khan as expected. Dan is standing just behind her next to an older gentleman that Kathy doesn't know. Dan and Yaz are wearing hurriedly put together period clothing while the older man is wearing something that wouldn't stand out to the regular person, but Kathy can guess it's at least 50 years too early.
She witnesses the relief that floods the trio's faces.
"Kathy!" Dan cries joyfully, side eyeing Strax.
"Ms Davis, good to see you again." The older man adds. Kathy tries to give him a pleasant smile rather than a blank look. Clearly, he's met her before, and she doesn't want to make things awkward for him.
"You know these human miscreants, Madam?" Strax interrupts.
"Yes, Strax. Now take their coats." She instructs. He does so but not without threatening them with obliteration. "You three can follow me into the sitting room."
—
The older man introduces himself as Professor Eustacius Jericho a parapsychologist from the late 1960s. He wasn't too dazed by the fact that Kathy didn't know him, saying it explained how she knew so much about him when he'd first met her.
Kathy also learns that this Yaz and Dan have been to the Crimea, which is where they last saw her. She knew Yaz and Dan survive disappearing in Crimea as she saw them with the Sea Devils but where they had gone and what happened in the meantime, she had no idea. She is glad to see they're okay. Ish.
Dan already knows about her species, being from a different dimension and meets the Doctor out of sync so no need for an explanation there.
The trio, mostly Dan and Yaz, explain what's been happening to Kathy. Basically, something called the Flux has been destroying the universe (Kathy recalls the Thirteen telling her that it in Crimea), there are these two crystal creatures that seem to know the Doctor and the Weeping Angels have kidnapped the Doctor when they accidentally arrived in the 1960s. And that was the shortlist.
The group are all stuck in 1901 because the Weeping Angels had all sent them from the 1960s to this time (Jericho's time). Likely to get them away from the Doctor. An older version of her that had been there when this happened had told them where to find her in 1901.
Yaz recounts their task: work out where and when an inevitable battle for Earth will take place in the future because of the Flux's effects.
—
Over the next few years, the group, along with the assistance of Jenny and Vastra, search for where they could find answers. Since this has such a big impact, someone must've had a premonition of it occurring.
They go all over the world, trying to find answers but keep on facing dead ends.
The next one on the list is an ancient temple in Mexico where they believe a mystical offering pot is located and once decided, while giving them the answers they're looking for.
They set up the pulley system. The plan is that Kathy, Dan and Yaz will descend while Jericho will stay up top. A good plan that isn't excited perfectly, not completely.
Dan ends up falling through the ceiling of the temple with the rope tied around his waist and face plants the floor, while Kathy and Yaz descend properly standing with a foot each in the loop.
"That pulley system needs work," Yaz remarks as she and Kathy jump down.
"Yeah." Dan huffs from the ground, sounding wounded.
"Focus you guys. We need to find out if we're in the right place." Kathy reminds them, moving through the room that is small, cramped, and low-ceilinged with her torch. Dan stands up and stretches. "Oh, and be on the lookout for..."
Three spears whistle past Dan and implant into the wall behind him! He freezes, wide-eyed. The shafts of the spears are brushing his face. VERY narrow escape.
"…death traps." Kathy finishes.
"I was nearly a kebab!" Dan whines.
"Looking for an offering pot, remember? One that hopefully matches the sketch." Yaz reminds him.
"I hope he hasn't fallen asleep up... Whoa!" Kathy's head snaps towards where Dan is to see him go flying up and Jericho descends – more like falls – with a rope around his torso and lands smack onto the floor.
"Good afternoon." He huffs, face smushed into the floor.
"He pulled the rope, didn't he?" Kathy asks rhetorically.
"That was the signal!" Jericho retorts, dusting himself down.
"And you still haven't figured out how to ballast the counterweight pulley properly," Yaz replies.
"Almost. It's not entirely my wheelhouse." Jericho counters, looking around himself in wonder. "Oh, this is spectacular."
"Oh! Jericho, Kathy, look." Yaz gasps. Kathy turns to see Yaz walking over to an altar where a tiny crafted pot, with Mayan symbols, sits next to a single lit candle, burned down low amidst a collection of other small pots and jugs. (Who lit the candle?) "I think I've got it. This is the one. Oh, I'm still not sure about taking it."
"It's a discovery. It's our discovery." Jericho argues.
"Strictly speaking, it's theft." Kathy counters. "If we take it, we have to bring it back once we have it decoded."
"And reseal the ceiling," Yaz adds. Kathy wrinkles her nose as she looks up at the damage they had caused. She's less thrilled about that.
Jericho pulls on the rope. "Now, what was it again? One tug or twoooo...?" Up goes Jericho, and down comes Dan. Yaz and Kathy barely glance at him.
"Hiya." The latter calls over her shoulder.
"Have you got it?" Dan asks, face squashed into the floor.
"Think so." Kathy answers, sharing a gleeful grin with Yaz.
—
Kathy, Yaz, Dan, and Jericho's next move is to go to Constantinople to get the pot deciphered. They sit a short distance from a woman in a marketplace, who agreed to translate at a rundown stall that has an assortment of historical artefacts and carved objects.
They are drinking mint tea. The woman has fragments of a carved panel which match the symbols on the jug she's also looking inside the jug. She scratches words and numbers onto parchment.
"She's matching the symbols to the ancient panels," Jericho observes. "We should have a translation soon."
"Basically, this pot can decipher the exact date the world is going to end," Yaz adds.
"We've been in this decade for three years now. Do you think we'll ever get back?" Dan wonders.
"I find myself marooned a decade before I was born, in a century where I have a little too much knowledge of the atrocities to come."
Kathy glances at the group around her sorrowfully. She forgets that while she's in the time she's meant to, these three have been uprooted. "We've got a task; we have to stick to it. Focus on that. You guys will get home, I believe you will. I'm sorry I can't any further."
"You've been terrific help, Ms Davis," Jericho reassures her.
There's a moment of reflection but then Jericho frowns, sniffing the air. "Can anyone else smell burning?"
The smell of smoke hits the others. Oh, no.
"Now you come to mention it." Dan murmurs.
Yaz rips apart the cloth separating their stall from the other. After a few moments, she yells, "Get her out of here, now!"
Jericho immediately gets to work, ushering the translator out. Kathy pokes her head around the divide to that it's a bomb. She joins Yaz in trying to cover it up, hoping to limit its impact, with lots of rugs and shoves them over the bomb. Dan runs to the entrance of the stall, yelling, "Everyone get back!"
"Think that's gonna have to do." Yaz murmurs.
"Yeah." Kathy agrees, turning to run but realises Yaz hasn't followed. "Yaz!"
"Kathy! Yaz! Get out of here!" Kathy hears Dan yell as the two sprint from the scene.
They evacuate safely just as the bomb explodes.
—
"If it wasn't for your quick thinking, Miss Khan and Ms Davis, we could have all perished in that blast. But who would want to kill us? How do they even know about us? We're simply trying to derive a date from a pot." Jericho wonders as they sit in a circle, planning and theorising in their ocean liner cabin on the way to the next destination, Nepal.
"At least we have a partial date, December 5th." Kathy tries to lift their spirits.
"But no year." Yaz points out.
There's a knock at the door.
"Just one moment!" Jericho calls. Jericho and Yaz look at Dan and Kathy.
Dan groans and Kathy rolls her eyes. "Seriously?" The latter hisses.
"Yes!" Jericho retorts.
"Every time?" Dan grumbles.
"Yes!" Yaz echoes.
"Why do we have to be the stowaways?" Kathy complains as she and Dan stand.
"Shut up." Jericho hisses.
Dan ignores him. "Can't we take turns?"
"I second that," Kathy remarks.
They roll under the bunk.
"Come in!" Jericho calls.
Kathy hears the door open and hears the wheels of a trolley. Probably a waiter. She looks out from under the bed, at the sets of shoes. She narrows her eyes when she spots the socks, there's something not right about the socks.
"Are you new?" Yaz questions, raising Kathy's suspicions further.
"Came aboard for this leg, ma'am." The waiter turns to Jericho. "One lump or two, sir?"
"One, please."
The waiter takes the teapot and smashes it across Jericho's face stunning him. He then slams Yaz against the wall and tries to strangle her. Kathy and Dan quickly shuffle out from under the bunk. They struggle but then Yaz kicks him in the nuts and elbows him in the ribs.
He falls off, staggering back and Dan takes the chance to sweep-kick the feet out from under the waiter causing him to land on the floor next to them. The man then, without warning, pulls out a gun and fires it in Kathy's direction, hitting her in the stomach.
Kathy staggers from the force of it, clutching her stomach. Her hands flow orange.
"Kathy!" Yaz cries in alarm.
"Don't worry about me. Sit on his legs, Dan!" Kathy yells. "Yaz, his chest!"
She slumps to the floor as Dan and Yaz rush to do exactly as they're told.
The waiter continues to struggle despite Dan being on his legs and Yaz on his chest. "You can't fight the future!" He warns them.
Kathy already feels her stomach begin to heal; the wound is beginning to sew itself back together and her organs fixing themselves. She feels the energy flow over her.
Kathy groans as she sits up as her body is still tired. She knows she's missing a large chunk of the struggle as she sorts herself out.
She's clued back in when Yaz yells, "No. No!"
Kathy looks up to see that the waiter's body has gone limp. She pulls herself up and goes over to the body.
Dammit. Not for the first time in the last few years, Kathy is annoyed at herself for not knowing the future or what's going on.
Jericho pulls himself up while Yaz and Dan stand up from the body.
Yaz checks him, gravely. "Poison capsule, lodged in his tooth."
"Self-sacrifice, eh? Jolly good thing, too. I was just about to bop him with his own teapot." Jericho remarks.
Dan looks at Kathy oddly. "Do you do that often?"
Kathy shrugs, realising that just magically healing yourself from a bullet wound must look odd. "Biology and not if I can help it."
Kathy notices a small snake tattooed on the inside of the wrist of the dead man. What is that?
She thinks it curious that he fired the gun at her specifically even though Dan was right next to her. It's like he knew he needed to disable her even if it was only temporary. What did he know about her?
As she does, Jericho continues talking, "Now we have an additional conundrum. We appear to have a dead waiter in our cabin. What if someone walks in?"
"Roll him under the bed for now," Yaz tells them.
"Hang on, under the bed's where me and Kathy sleep." Dan reminds her.
Kathy shrugs. "It's fine, come nightfall, when it's quiet, shove his body overboard." She sees the shocked looks of Dan and Jericho. "What?"
"You both seem remarkably proficient at this, Miss Khan and Ms Davis." Jericho comments.
Maybe Kathy should be concerned about that…
Yaz seems nonplussed. "There's no use being squeamish. We've got the future to save."
—
Kathy, Dan, and Jericho enter the cabin after dumping the dead waiter overboard.
"Job done," Dan whispers.
"Heavy beggar. He made quite a splash. I can't say I enjoyed that." Jericho remarks.
Kathy winces and gives him a pat on the back before looking properly at Yaz for the first time since entering the room. She immediately notices the decorative egg-shaped device Yaz is holding and her obvious emotional stare.
Over the last few years, Kathy has quickly noticed that this Yaz, unlike the one she met with the pirates and Sea Devils, has not realised or openly confirmed her feelings for the Doctor. Kathy wants to tell her that the Doctor does feel the same but she can't say anything yet, not before the two get to have that talk.
Dan notices too. "You okay?"
"Mmm-hmm."
Kathy, Dan, and Jericho exchange glances, they know she's not going to give them any more than that.
"I should ablute." Jericho takes his sponge bag and leaves.
Kathy and Dan turn to Yaz. Kathy sits next to her and wraps around to bring some comfort. Yaz lies her head on her shoulder. Dan sits down on the other side.
"We'll see her again. She'll be alright. Wherever she is." Dab says.
Kathy smiles softly. "Of course, she's alright. She's the Doctor."
Yaz nods gratefully.
—
Yaz, Dan, and Jericho finish their ascension of a mountain in Nepal while bundled up in furs. They stagger to the top, breathless and Kathy sees they have reached the mouth of a cave.
"This man is a legendary seer. He's our last best hope in finding out when in history the battle may come, and how we might get there." Jericho tells them.
They arrive at a tent at the edge of the cave mouth where a man, dressed in a ragged shawl, sits outside meditating.
Jericho steps forward. "Sir. My name is Eustacius Jericho. I am an expert in percipients and visionaries, and in my historic reading I have read much about you and your abilities. We come to you in all humility, as we are in the midst of an extraordinary task, and seek guidance as to what the future holds."
There's a pause. The four of them wait expectantly. The man finally looks at them.
"Took you long enough." The man remarks. They look at him in surprise. Hadn't been expecting that.
"I'm sorry?" Jericho blurts out.
"To get up here. I've been watching you for days. You need to take more exercise." The man retorts. He claps his hands together excitedly, looking at them all eagerly. "So! What's the gossip from down there? Who's kissed who?"
Jericho looks at him incredulously. Oh dear, never meet her heroes. "Gossip?"
"I don't get any up here. I'll take anything."
"Suppose you don't, do you?" Kathy mutters. More light hearted than expected. Maybe it's the altitude? Solitude?
The man looks at them expectantly. Kathy goes blank on what to say and she can see the others struggling too.
Finally, Jericho speaks, "I mean... I think the telephone's been invented."
They get a blank look. "Telephone?"
"Yes, you use it to talk with people, to communicate." Jericho tries to mime it as he speaks.
"I'm a hermit!"
"Ah."
"We would've brought a newspaper if we'd known," Kathy says.
The man looks at them in outrage. "You mean you haven't? What about some food? Rope? A pot? The latest Conan Doyle?"
"Does seem rude, now you come to mention it." Dan remarks.
The man's outraged face suddenly morphs into one of humour. "Aah, I'm teasing you! I knew you wouldn't have anything, really."
Oh.
Kathy decides to get them back on track. "Do you have anything for us?"
"No."
What?
"Really?" Yaz asks incredulously and a tad annoyed.
The man grins again. "Ahh, teasing again! I don't get to tease people much." He pauses, sobering up. "I have three words."
"We've climbed all this way for three words?!" Jericho complains.
"Ssh!" Kathy hisses.
"Go on." Yaz urges.
The man closes his eyes. They all lean in, waiting. "Fetch. Your. Dog."
Again, what?
"I beg your pardon?" Jericho sounds as equally baffled as Kathy feels. On the other hand, Dan and Yaz slowly turn to each other as if they're realising something. Kathy feels none the wiser.
The man shrugs. "Fetch your dog." He repeats.
"I don't have a dog. Is that it?" Jericho turns to the rest of them. "Does this make any sense to you?"
Instead of answering, Dan turns to the man. "And if it did, how do we fetch him?"
Kathy frowns. What does that mean? Wait, hang on. The Lupari! Of course!
The man shrugs. "That's your problem. I don't know."
"I have an idea," Yaz says.
—
They travel to the Great Wall of China, where the group begins to work hard to cut down many trees and spread white paint over a huge area.
They trim back trees and bushes. Huge pair of tree clippers. Plant seeds. Hack back bushes. They chop down a load of bamboo and start splashing white paint around on the stone ground. They paint huge long lines on rocks.
They stand back, exhausted, many months later. Dan and Jericho have beards!
"I hope it looks all right. I don't suppose we'll ever know, really." Jericho remarks.
Next to the Great Wall of China, carved into the land, the earth, the trees, and the bushes, over a huge area they have written: KARVANISTA: DAN LEWIS IS HERE 1904: FETCH YOUR HUMAN!
Well, let's hope the Lupari (Karvanista) sees this over a century in the future.
—
"Still no response from the dog," Dan mutters as they sit in the cabin once more. Jericho and Dan are now shaven.
"Karvanista." Kathy corrects amusedly. She's getting an idea of the kind of relationship between Dan and the Lupari.
"And still no Doctor." Yaz laments.
"Maybe that man only says 'cause he knew we would, not that it'll actually lead somewhere?" Kathy theorises.
The cabin door suddenly opens and a man bursts through. The man looks baffled as if this isn't where he expected to turn up. He frantically runs up to the porthole and looks out. Oh, he's furious.
"Oi, what are you doing?!" Dan cries.
The man turns accusingly. "A ship? A ship at sea?"
"I'll call a steward." Jericho threatens.
"Wait. I know you." Dan suddenly says. "We've met. In a tunnel?"
"I've met you too, on Atropos," Yaz adds.
Yeah, apparently there's a planet called Time? Kathy isn't so sure about that.
"What do you know of my tunnels?" The man answers prickly.
"Not a lot. Time was going mad." Dan replies.
"Do you call me mad, sir?!" The man cries aggressively. "Joseph Williamson, the mad mole! You take their side!"
While the rest of them are blank and who he is, Dan seems to know. "You're Joseph Williamson?"
"Who else would I be, sir? And it seems I must find my own way out of this infernal puzzle. Those cursed shifting doorways!" He storms out and slams the door behind him. Dan opens it and looks down the corridor.
"Wait, where's gone?" Kathy questions. She's left completely baffled by the entire encounter.
"Joseph Williamson. Don't you see?" Dan asks.
Kathy glances at the equally baffled looks from the other two. "I don't think so."
"The Williamson tunnels. They're a tourist thing. They're being excavated in my time." Dan explains. "If he keeps turning up in all these different places and times... we've got to find him. That's where we have to go."
"You could all go back home." Kathy realises. She's happy for them but she's going to miss not spending as much time with them.
—
They walk among the pillars of the hall, talking to a young man called Alfie, caretaker at the
"Yeah, me grandad used to work for him," Alfie tells them. "He told me all sorts of things, you know, about what he built down there. He reckoned there's dining halls, bedrooms, the lot. Someone even said there's an army down there."
"So, what's happened to the tunnels since his death?" Dan asks.
"It's all shut down. All the work stopped. It's ancient history now."
"Alfie, would you know how we'd get access to any part of them?" Kathy asks.
"Oh, I wouldn't go down there, Miss. It's dangerous. And also, some folk say he still walks the tunnels." Alfie warns. "Wouldn't want pretty girls like you seeing any ghosts."
Kathy and Yaz share amused looks with one another.
"These pretty girls can look after themselves." Yaz retorts.
"It's these two you've got to worry about," Kathy adds with a grin.
—
The tunnel is run-down. Cobwebs, creaking beams, dust. The group, now dirty and cobwebbed, creep along, with a lamp or two between them. They clear their way through the cobwebs. Urgh. Dust rains down on them, it feels very dangerous. Dan is unrolling twine and chalking on the walls, as they go, to mark their trail. Jericho is holding the sketch map.
"How many hours is that now?" Yaz asks.
"Six and a quarter," Dan replies. "We're running out of twine and lamp fuel."
"We are searching for a ghost to explain the improbability of Space and Time. We should not be surprised if we don't find it." Jericho says logically.
"The optimism is appreciated." Kathy sarcastically remarks.
They round a corner into a different section. The lamp is lower.
"Oh ye of little faith," Dan says, gesturing ahead. They all look to see there is a faint light, coming glowing towards them from further along. Eventually, out of the darkness comes a ghostly figure with a ghostly aura, holding a light. Williamson.
"It's him! I'll go over. One Scouser to another." Dan decides.
"Hey, Dan. Are you from Liverpool? Why have you never mentioned it? Can you believe it, Kathy?" Yaz jokes.
Kathy grins, she's been enjoying this, her and Yaz mocking Dan during the time they've spent together. "No, I don't. You could knock me down with a feather."
"All right, Sheffield and—" Dan pauses. "Wait Kathy, where're you from?"
Kathy shrugs. "I'm old enough for it not to matter. I'm from earth, that's what counts."
"Right, well, both of you, keep your cutlery on." Dan walks forward into the tunnel towards the ghostly Williamson.
Dan approaches Williamson. Williamson keeps approaching, very ghostly, very spectre-y.
"Alright, mate. Can I just check you're not a ghost, are you?" Dan calls.
He's nose to nose with ghostly glowing Williamson. Williamson then slaps Dan around the face. Hard.
Kathy winces. "Well, that answers that question."
"Was that ghostly, sir? Did you feel it?" Williamson snaps.
"You're lucky I don't give you one back." Dan retorts.
"What do you want?"
Yaz steps forward. "In a nutshell, we believe the fabric of Space and Time is under threat, and that Earth is about to be under attack, but we're not sure when, where or who from, and we need to find others who can help us stop it happening."
Yeah, that's about the size of it.
There's a pause from Williamson as he looks at them all in turn and his expression starts to crumble, his eyes begin to water. "Finally! Oh! Finally!" He hugs Yaz. "I have been at my wits' end. I have so much to show you. There's so little time!" He runs off as they look at each other. Williamson turns and calls back, "Come! Come! Come!"
The group follows him into the dark.
—
A vast chamber dotted with pillars and junk, separating the large area into smaller portions. All around the chamber are doors. A dozen doors. They encircle the entire chamber. Williamson runs through leading Kathy, Yaz, Dan and Jericho into the middle of it.
"This is where I have endeavoured to make sense of it all. This chamber is the heart of my excavation project. I have attempted to build defences here, for humanity, against the destruction to come." Williamson explains.
"Er... there are labels on each doorway." Jericho points out.
Kathy looks to see each doorway has a collage of notes, pictures, and labels. 'Endless Cities Of Steel! Firebolts!' 'Only Ocean.' 'Viscous transparent wobbling armies! Do not enter!' 'A ship. At sea. Strange passengers that recognised me, had some knowledge of my tunnels.' 'Surface is of a lucid substance.' 'Matches with accounts of Athens. Mass of ash and dust and sand. Temple. Time appears to run paradoxically.'
"Precisely, sir. A dozen doorways, a dozen worlds." Williamson replies. "Except the past few days have changed everything."
"Why?" Kathy questions.
"Since All Hallows' Eve, all is flux." Halloween, that's when it all started according to Yaz and Dan. "Some of the doorways have changed. They are gateways to places I have never seen. Fraught with danger. Especially doorway nine. Do not touch doorway nine."
'Doorway 9 Death! Rays of Death. Never open!'
"Any particular reason?" Jericho asks.
"Death, sir. Endless death!" Williamson exclaims, storming over and is now right in Jericho's face.
"Oh, that's... that's persuasive." Jericho shakily says.
"I hoped I could save everyone. Now I fear I cannot save anyone." Jericho admits sombrely.
There's a sudden banging on one of the doorways. They all turn and look at the door.
"Does that happen often?" Yaz asks warily.
"It's never happened before," Williamson says.
Bang! Bang! Bang! They spin around and see it's another door. Bang! Bang! Bang! Another door! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The doors blow in. Kathy's eyes widen as she takes in the familiar form of a Sontaran. She's startled out of her thoughts as the troops come stomping in, firing causing the group to scatter.
"Kill all resistance! Sontar-ha!"