Chapter 5

In the ballroom of a London Medieval home was an elegant reception. About two dozen well-dressed 15-century society people were chatting in small groups. A single narrow table held drinks and canapes.

"The eminent scientist, Nicholas of Cusa, has proposed that the Earth rotates on its axis."

The gentleman, from the receding brown curly hair, moustache and beard, and soft educated accent was unmistakably William Shakespeare. There were a couple of people at the side, listening.

"This distinguished philosopher has also written about the possibility of the plurality of worlds. Furthermore, he wrote that the earth is a star like other stars, is not the centre of the universe, is not at rest, nor are its poles fixed. He has excited many about the notion."

Included in the group was Romana, dressed in 15-century costume, but with a couple of exotic touches, as though she were royalty from a far-flung island. "Mister Shakespeare, why do I suspect you are not one of them?"

Her comment generates easy smiles from Shakespeare and the others. Shakespeare was witty, charming – but deeply cynical. "Your suspicions, Madam Romana, are undoubtedly based upon your keen observational skills. Now if you will permit me, I will continue my character assassination unimpeded."

Everyone laughed.

"Please so."

"According to our best geologic estimate, there is a range of evidence against the daily rotation of the Earth on its axis. Perhaps it is true, perhaps false."

"Perhaps very false."

Shakespeare nodded. "Indeed. But regardless, if the Earth were moving and not the celestial spheres, all the movements that we see in the heavens that are computed by the astronomers would appear exactly the same as if the spheres were rotating around the Earth. Now, some say that if the Earth were moving the air would be left behind causing a great wind from east to west. As to the scriptural passage that speaks of the motion of the sun, I believe that this passage conforms to the customary usage of popular speech and is not to be taken literally. I suppose Nicholas and his supporters would say the difference between theory and appearance is explained by relative motion."

Shakespeare reached out and casually took an oyster canape off the plate of a gentleman standing near. He appeared to study it carefully. "The oyster alone probably needed the earth to rotate to come out just right."

Everyone laughed as he popped the canape into his mouth.

Romana gave him a sly smile. "And if the Earth isn't alone… If there are millions of inhabited planets in the Heavens…"

"Quite my point. Man becomes a trivial creation, does he not? Lost in the vastness of the cosmic prairie, adrift on the deep ocean of time. A single one among countless others." Shakespeare appeared pleased with himself.

Romana casually shrugged. "Then again, someone might say a diamond is still a diamond – even if it is one among millions. It still shines as brightly."

Shakespeare studied her for a moment, then smiled. "Indeed, someone might say that, Dear Lady. If someone thought the Human race were akin to a precious jewel. But this increasingly hypothetical someone would not be me."

Romana smiled.

The Doctor was standing in the entryway, wearing the fine clothes of a 15th-century gentleman. He scanned the room.

"Good afternoon, sir." The doorman, a large man appropriately dressed, holding a guestlist. The man eyed the Doctor.

The Doctor shot his cuffs, as if confident in his new role. "Good afternoon. I would like to speak to Romana."

The doorman consulted his guestlist, "And you are…?"

The Doctor's confidence suddenly flagged as he realized there was a list. "The Doctor."

The man checked the list. "The Doctor… Could it be under another name?"

"I do not know…"

The doorman was hesitant about possibly offending a misplaced invitee. "I… can't seem to find you on our guest list, sir."

"I am a personal friend."

"Madam Romana has discovered many personal friends since the newspaper announcement. But if you are not on the guest list, there is nothing I can do."

The Doctor would not be denied, and began to move inside. "It is urgent that I see her."

The doorman tried to block his way… "Sir, if you don't leave this house immediately, I will send for the police."

"That is an excellent idea. I will wait for them inside." The Doctor strode straight into the party. The doorman grabbed onto him, but was dragged along like a rag doll by the Doctor's Time Lord strength.

Romana and company were still enjoying the conversation.

"Sir! Please!"

Romana and Shakespeare and the others turned toward the noise.

The Doctor approached them, dragging the Doorman behind him. "Romana, I must speak with you immediately." The Doctor stopped in front of her.

She reacted… looked at him without an ounce of recognition.

The doorman was out of breath. "Forgive me, madam. He's stronger than he looks."

"I am sorry about the disruption, but he did not believe me when I told him we were friends."

"We? Meaning you and me? Have we met, Mister…"

The Doctor was puzzled. "Doctor."

Romana looked completely blank. The Doctor reacted – she didn't know him. "Yes. We… travelled together."

Romana smiled, trying to socially defuse the situation, as well as find out who this strange man was. Shakespeare was keenly observant.

"I have certainly done my share of travelling. What ship?"

"The TARDIS."

"Is that a clipper ship?"

"It is a timeship."

Romana reacted – suddenly she knew she was dealing with an alien like herself. But she also was acutely aware of the need to maintain appearances.

Shakespeare was puzzled. "A timeship? What registry would that be?"

"Doctor. Of course." She turned to Shakespeare. "Excuse us, but we have so much to catch up on…"

Romana quickly hurried the Doctor out of the room. Shakespeare was left with his hand in the air. He stared in the direction the pair disappeared, a look of intrigued suspicion on his face…

Romana pulled the Doctor past the partygoers and around a door. "Let me guess. My father sent you. Well, you tell him I still have a lot more listening to do,"

"I was not sent by your father."

The Doctor realized that she didn't know who he was, but decided he had no choice. "Circumstances demand that I take you into my confidence. I require your assistance." There was a pause, then the Doctor spilled the beans. "I am from Gallifrey."

Romana reacted with surprise. "Is this some kind of a joke?" She stared at his guileless face. "No, you don't look like the joking type."

"That is correct. I am a Time Lord, and you and I travelled together in my time capsule."

Romana let this sink in for a moment. Accepted it, for now. "Why do you need my help?"

"My ship encountered a species who appear to be threatening 15th-century Earth. I investigated, and was inadvertently pulled into their temporal vortex. When I saw your picture in the newsletter, I assumed you had joined me from the future. But I did not know you had visited Earth so long ago."

The Doctor suddenly noticed something behind Romana – a tendril of smoke wafting up from behind the door. The Doctor and Romana looked from the smoke to each other. They stepped around the corner… to see Shakespeare inches away from them, a pipe firmly in hand.

"Eavesdropping is by no means a proper activity for a gentleman. Nonetheless, the deed is done…"

He had heard everything.

In the caverns beneath the surface of Griffoth, Nita, Michelle and Carolyn all participated in the preparation of the field… there was a variety of technical gear with them… one metre-high generator with controls and readouts, three sixty-centimetre-high relay stations akin to a small satellite receiver.

Carolyn wielded a scanner pinpointing the perimeter. "Here."

Michelle set down a generator expertly… aimed it at Nita about twenty metres away.

Nita was doing roughly the same exercise with the scanner. "The triolic waves end… right… here." She set up a relay station, aligned it with Michelle.

Carolyn had moved to the rockface and set up another relay. She checked it with her scanner. "That's fine." She moved to meet Michelle against a parallel section of rockface, where she was setting up the last relay station. "I think we're ready." Carolyn went to the generator and hit a panel, an optical flash passed between the generator and the three relays and disappeared. The area was not a perfect square. "The subspace field is established." She looked at Nita for further instructions.

"Let's do it, ladies."

Carolyn was holding a modified scanner. "I've modified this scanner to interface with the subspace generator. It should allow me to control the phase discrimination, assuming it's going to work at all. I'll need both of you within the field."

Michelle and Nita passed between the relays, another optical flash as they passed through the invisible line.

"Adjusting for synchronic distortion… point-zero-zero-one…"

And with each count, there was a continuous lighting change, slowly being bathed in a blue light.

"Point-zero-zero-two… point-zero-zero-three…"

And as the blue hue increased, now figures began to appear. A group of aliens in reclining positions on the ground, arranged loosely in a circle, each of them was brown-orange, a vaguely humanoid shape with very round heads with three tentacle-like features, no facial features to speak of, except for eyes that flashed a greeny-gold colour occasionally. In their centre, built into the ground, was a translucent holding chamber, glowing and flashing from within, like a light ball spinning inside. On the side of the chamber was a techno-organic, nipplelike projection. Periodically, the chamber dispensed an energy segment from its lower recesses, and as it emerged one of the aliens on a rotating basis sucked it into his eyes.

The team reacted, but the aliens continued to ignore them.

"Why can we see them when they can't see us?"

"The phase displacement might not bring us far enough into their perceptual range."

Nita moved up close to look at one, it ignored him, and kept sucking energy.

Carolyn looked at her scanner. "These strands appear to be biomagnetic, variable flux, they must be organic in origin.

"A life-form?"

Michelle and Nita moved to the translucent chamber, the lights continued to flash from within, moving around, darting, and again, once in awhile, one was dispensed out the bottom and disappeared into an alien's eyes. Michelle was getting strong readings now, and she couldn't help raising one hand to the chamber and gently touching it. "No. There is no life here, what I am reading is only an imprint, an echo from the last moment of life. Human life, they all died in terror."

There was a sonic boom, a bright light and they reacted, turned to see two more aliens arriving through a hole of swirling white light, one carried a canister, the other a glowing, Slitheenlike object, the noise was deafening.

The team was surrounded by the swirling wind, now bathed in the combination of blue and white light. They were far enough away to avoid being sucked in like the Doctor was. They reacted to the sight of the newcomer aliens.

The aliens moved to the transparent chamber. One of them attached the canister to the nipplelike projection on the chamber's side, new segments entered the tube from the canister, and the chamber got brighter.

The team watched in horror, over the din – "My God, they're delivering more of them, for the others to… ingest."

Michelle reacted with surprise to something she saw. "Nita, look at what he's carrying."

Nita looked at the other alien with the fat object, as it wobbled in the alien's hands, and opened a mouth revealing itself to something akin to a Slitheen, and it struggled to escape but the alien gripped it harder. The other alien removed the canister from the holding tank and they moved back to the white light and were drawn in.

Nita exchanged a look with the others and with a nod, she led the way to the anomaly, as they moved closer with grim determination on their faces, they entered into the force, and disappeared into the white light, which twisted itself up and disappeared.