Chapter 1
They had taken the materials discovered in the cavern back to the TARDIS for analysis. The Doctor was examining the sonic screwdriver with a microscopic device. Nita was looking over his shoulder, waiting for some conclusions.
"Interesting…there has been a twelve percent decomposition of the crystal in the neural pathway links, it suggests the crystal is vulnerable to…"
"Doctor…"
"Yes?"
"How can you look inside that, and analyze the decomposition, without…without…" Nita struggled for the right word for a beat."
"Emotion?"
"…without, I don't know…"
"I am simply trying to make an objective assessment."
"Is it…yours, Doctor?"
"I am quite certain that it is, Nita."
"Could it be another Time Lord's?"
"Romana constructed her own sonic screwdriver, but it was different to mine."
"Different?"
"Yes."
"Can you work out how long it's been in the cavern?"
The Doctor glanced at Nita. "As I was going to say, the decomposition strongly indicates that screwdriver was destroyed approximately five hundred years ago. That would be consistent with the other artifacts recovered."
"Your screwdriver is not just any artifact."
"In relative terms, perhaps not. Nevertheless, it seems clear that my screwdriver is to be destroyed in the the late sixteenth century."
"Not if I can help it."
"There is nothing anyone can do to prevent it."
"At some future date, I will travel back to sixteenth century Earth, where my screwdriver will be destroyed. It has occurred. It will occur."
The ease with which he spoke it was unnerving. Michelle, who had been working in another part of the cloister room, moved to them. "I can't tell you exactly who the aliens were, but I have found out a few things." She sat at a computer station…called up something on the monitor. "The triolicized rock face told us we're probably dealing with a species with microcentrum cell membranes. Triolic waves wouldn't harm them. Also might mean they're shape shifters of some kind."
"So they could have appeared as Humans on Earth."
Michelle nodded. "I don't think it's anyone we've run into before, nothing we found matches up with any known lifeform." She switched programs. "What does match up, is a cellular fossil that might have just come along for the ride."
"Cellular fossil?"
She called up a blow-up of a one cell fossil. "A microscopic ciliated lifeform, not that different from a thousand other single cell lifeforms that you'd find on any planet surface, except this particular one is L-B-one-zero-four-four-five, and L-B-one-zero-four-four-five is only known to exist on one planet…Griffoth in the Marrab sector."
"Nita, set the co-ordinates."
"Ok."
She left. There was a moment when the Doctor exchanged a glance with Michelle, like there was something he might like to say, but then he followed Nita out.
The Doctor and Nita sat in the kitchen. Michelle was obviously shaken by the events, was depressed.
"So?"
The Doctor cocked his head. "I have no reference point by which your question can be answered."
"So, do you feel like talking about it?"
"Are you referring to the foreknowledge of the destruction of my screwdriver?"
"Yeah."
"I have no particular desire to discuss the matter. Do you feel like talking about it?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Doctor, it's gotta bother you a little."
"On the contrary, I find it rather…comforting."
Nita was surprised. "Comforting?"
"I am assuming that if my screwdriver is destroyed and left there in the cavern, that I must have died. I have often wondered about my own mortality as I have seen others age around me. I have thirteen regenerations, it is theoretically possible that I would live an almost unlimited period of time. And although some might find this attractive, to me it only reinforces the fact that I am…alien."
"I never realized, how tough all this must be for you."
"Tough?"
"Knowing that you would outlive all your friends."
The Doctor was blind to the sentiment. "I expected to make new friends."
"True."
"And then outlive them as well."
Nita nodded, beginning to understand. "Now that you know you might not…"
"…it provides a sense of completion to my future. In a way, I'm not so different from anyone else. I can now look forward to death."
"I never thought of it that way."
"We'll materialize in the Griffoth system shortly." The Doctor rose to leave.
"Let's get together for a game of chess or something later, ok?"
The Doctor cocked his head, acknowledged her, and left. Nita looked down at her drink, shook her head and grinned.
"Looked like quite an intense discussion."
Nita looked up to see the Doctor's friend Romana, who had been visiting when the Doctor had been called to Earth, in the doorway. "Yeah…talking about life, death, the future."
"Somebody getting married?"
"Nah. Somebody's gonna die."
"Die?"
"They found the Doctor's sonic a mile below London… been down there for five centuries… he wouldn't have just left it there, he must have died."
A solemn expression passed across her face. She was disconcerted by the announcement. "That's why the Doctor was invited to Earth. I didn't realize…"
"Yeah, something, isn't it?"
Romana looked at her with an unusually concerned expression, like she had known this was coming…she'd been waiting for it.
Nita continued. "He seems fine about it, better than I am." She stood up. "I better get back."
Romana acknowledged her, and Nita left. "Full circle," she said to herself.
Nita met Michelle in the corridor. "I heard about the Doctor."
"Yeah."
"It's having a traumatic effect on everyone."
"Yeah."
"If you don't want to talk about it, it's okay."
"I'm fine. I'm just…"
"…angry."
"No not angry." Then she realized Michelle was right. "Yeah, angry. Why should I be angry?"
"Maybe it reminds us all of our own mortality."
"I just don't want to believe it."
"Have you ever heard the Doctor define friendship?"
"No…"
"How did he put it…something like…" She did an impression of the Doctor. "Friendship is standing shoulder to shoulder in the face of life and death. Friendship is there when love's candle has burned and guttered. Friendship stays loyal when the enemy is at the gates. Friendship is never sacrificed, never surrounded."
Nita smiled. "You do that very well. So what's the point?"
"He 'stands shoulder to shoulder' with us, and we do the same for him…it's like finding out someone you love has a terminal illness and…"
The door to the control room opened, revealing the Doctor. She stopped in mid-conversation. There was an uneasy tension.
"Doctor."
The Doctor nodded. "Michelle, Nita."
Nita and Michelle stepped into the control room. There was an uncomfortable beat of silence.
"Would either of you mind if I made a personal inquiry?"
"Personal inquiry? No, go right ahead."
"I am perceiving an apparent change in the way that others act toward me. For example, people abruptly end their conversations when I appear, as you did when the door opened. Is this an accurate observation?"
"Not at all," said Nita.
"Yes," said Michelle at the same time.
Nita sighed. "Yes."
"You're right, Doctor. And it's not a very nice thing to do."
Nita was struggling. "It's just that we've stood shoulder to shoulder with you…and the enemy is at the gates."
"I understand. I love you too, Nita."
"We've arrived."
"Any sign of life?"
"No."
"Sensors are picking up unusual temporal disturbances on a small area of the planet's surface, forty-two degrees, seven minutes north by eighty-eight degrees declination east."
Nita exchange a glance with the Doctor. "Temporal disturbances…"
"Spectral analysis shows a high level of triolic waves emanating from the same location."
"Do they correlate with your readings from Earth, Doctor?"
"Yes, the magnetic signature is identical to the one found in the cavern."
"Would these triolic waves be dangerous to humanoids?"
"Only with longterm exposure. There's no immediate threat."
"Let's go."
"Michelle…"
The Doctor moved to join them, but Nita shook her head. "Carolyn, let's go." She started towards the doors.
The Doctor reacted. "Nita…"
"Doctor, I think you should stay here and monitor the sensor readings during this investigation."
The Doctor nodded to Nita who left with Carolyn and Michelle.
The Doctor usually led the team out of the TARDIS. But he knew that the discovery on Earth led his friends to want to take precautions, even though he personal thought there was no rational justification for such a course. His friends were being irrational. It was possible that the events leading to his death my not begin for years…even centuries. Nevertheless, this investigation began with his apparent death. His friends were simply trying to see that it didn't end the same way.
While he appreciated their concern, but one could not cheat fate. But he knew that his friends couldn't forgive themselves if they didn't at least give it a try.
Nita, Michelle and Carolyn stepped out into an underground cavern. They moved around, investigating with scanners, the natural rockface environment. Michelle had an unusual feeling, she couldn't put her finger on it yet, Carolyn moved along an invisible perimeter, taking readings.
"The concentration of triolic waves falls off about here." She walked into the rockface. "It increases exponentially the closer in we go."
"What's the source? Is there something beyond the wall?"
"No."
"Then what's the explanation?"
"Don't have one yet." Michelle pulled out her phone and called the TARDIS.
"Go ahead."
"Could you run a spectral field correlation for me. See if these triolic readings are directly related to the temporal distortions."
"All right." The Doctor moved from one console to another, began pressing a series of panels.
In the cavern, Michelle began walking with an inner purpose, looking at her scanner.
Nita was concerned. "Michelle…"
"There is life here… a child… an old woman… dozens more… dozens… hundreds… terrified…"
"Terrified?"
"My God… they're Human."