The Power of Three
It had been awhile since we took the Ponds home after our adventure in the Old West. So we decided to pop in on our friends. The Doctor wanted to park the TARDIS right in Amy and Rory's living room but the second I saw that where he had the coordinates set, I moved them to the small park across the street. "What'd you do that for?" he asked.
"Because," I said, "It is rude to park a time and space machine in someone's living room without asking them."
The TARDIS came to a stop and we headed outside, and in the park, in fact all over the immediate area, we saw small black cubes. They didn't seam to be in any pattern. I scanned one with my sonic and It was safe to pick up but I couldn't tell much else from my readings. "What is it?" asked Annabelle as she picked one up herself.
"I haven't the slightest idea," I said as I turned the cube around looking at it. There was no other way to describe it. It was a black cube, "What do you think, Doctor?" There was no answer. I turned and my uncle was no were to be found, I sighed "He doesn't want anyone to wonder off… Yet he's always the first one who does… Come on…"
Annabelle and I walked around the TARDIS and there was The Doctor sitting at the top of a play set examining a cube with a magnifying glass. But, we weren't the only ones who saw him, "Doctor." said Amy, as she, Rory and Rory's Dad, Brian walked up to the play set as well.
He turned to Amy and said, "Invasion of the very small cubes. That's new."
After we moved the TARDIS inside Amy and Rory's house, we stood around the console as The Doctor continued to look at the cube with his magnifying glass, "All absolutely identical. Not a single molecule's difference between them. No blemishes, imperfections, individualities."
"What if they're bombs?" asked Brian, "Billions of tiny bombs. Or transport capsules, maybe, with a mini robot inside. Or deadly hard drives. Or alien eggs. Or messages needing decoding. Or they're all parts of a bigger whole. Jigsaw puzzles that need fitting together."
I smiled, "Good thinking, Brian. All very viable options."
"Very thorough, Brian," said The Doctor, "Very, very thorough. Well done. Stay here. Watch these." He handed Brian his cube, "Yell if anything happens." and he walked away.
We walked over to the door and picked up some equipment, "Is this an alien invasion? Because that's what it feels like," asked Amy.
"There couldn't be life forms in every cube, could there?" asked Rory.
"I don't know," said The Doctor, "And I really don't like not knowing."
The Doctor lead us out of the TARDIS and to the kitchen, "We need to use your kitchen as a lab," I said, "we need to perform some tests on the cubs and see what happens."
"Right. I'm due at work," said Rory.
"What? You've got a job?" said The Doctor.
"Yeah, of course I've got a job. What do you think we do when we're not with you?"
"I imagine mostly kissing."
"You are the only one who thinks that," said Annabelle.
"I write travel articles for magazines and Rory heals the sick." said Amy.
"My shift starts in an hour. You don't know where my scrubs are?" Rory asked Amy.
"In the lounge, where you left them," said Amy.
"I don't even want to know…" I said.
Amy gave me a small playful shove. We started setting up the equipment and The Doctor said, "Ehh, the Ponds. With their house and their jobs and their everyday lives."
"The journalist and the nurse," I said, "Your both a long way from Leadworth."
"We think it's been 10 years," said Amy, "Not for you or Earth, but for us. 10 years older, 10 years of you. On and off."
"Look at you now," said Annabelle, with a smile, "All grown up." a second later the smile was gone. Then she stopped and looked around. "We've got visitors…"
Just then the front door burst open and soldiers ran into the house, "Block the rear entrances." said a voice from the solders' radio.
"Clear!" said a solider.
"Cut - power line."
"Trap One. Kitchen secured," said a soldier who has his gun pointed right at us.
We turned and saw soldiers at the kitchen door, "Trap three. Back garden secured." said one of the soldiers at the kitchen door, through the older solders' radio.
We turned back around and we saw Rory being marched into the kitchen. He had his hand up but without his scrub pants on, "There are soldiers all over my house and I'm in my pants."
"My whole life, I've dreamed of saying that, and I miss it by being someone else," said Amy.
Just then a woman in her late forties walked in, and strolled casually between the armed soldiers towards the kitchen, "All these muscles, and they still don't know how to knock," said the woman, "Sorry about the raucous entrance. Spike in artron energy reading at this address. In the light of the last 24 hours, we had to check it out and, uh, the dogs do love a runout. Hello. Kate Stewart, head of scientific research at UNIT. And, with dress sense like that…" she held a device in front of her, "You must be the Doctor and his nieces. I hoped it'd be you." The Doctor gave a salute.
"Since when did science run the military, Kate?" asked Annabelle.
"Since me," said Kate, "UNIT's been adapting. Well, I dragged them along, kicking and screaming, which made it sound like more fun than it actually was."
"What does UNIT know about these cubes?" I asked.
Kate walked further into the kitchen, "Far less than we need to. We've been freighting them in from around the world for testing. So far, we've subjected them to temperatures of +/-200° Celsius, simulated a water depth of 5 miles, dropped one out of a helicopter at 10,000 feet and rolled our best tank over it. Always intact."
"That's impressive," said Annabelle.
"I don't want them to be impressive," said The Doctor with a huff, "I want them vulnerable, with a nice Achilles's heel."
"We don't know how they got here, what they're made of, or why they're here."
"And all around the world, people are picking them up and taking them home," I asked.
"Like iPads have dropped out of the sky," said Kate, "Taking them to work, taking pictures, making films, posting them on Flickr and YouTube. Within 3 hours, the cubes had 1,000 separate Twitter accounts.
"Twitter!" said The Doctor in disgusted tone.
"I've recommended we treat this as a hostile incursion. Gather them all up and lock them in a secure facility, but that would take massive international agreement and cooperation."
"But, we need evidence," said Annabelle, "The cubes arrived in plain sight, in vast quantities, as the sun rose. So what does that tell us?" she looked at Amy and Rory.
"Maybe they wanted to be seen, noticed," said Amy.
"Well, more than that," said The Doctor, "They want to be observed. So we observe them."
"Right," said Annabelle, "We need to stay with them, around the clock, and watch the cubes." She tossed a cube in the air and caught it, "Day and night and Record absolutely everything about them."
"Team cube, in it together." said The Doctor, then he kissed the cube he was holding.
Four days later, The Doctor and Annabelle were less enthusiastic. The two of them had become boarded out of their minds. The Doctor was lying upside-down on the sofa between Rory and Amy. Annabelle was sitting in a chair staring intently at the group of cubes we had on the coffee table, as if she was willing them to do something.
"Four days. Nothing!" said The Doctor as he grabbed a cube off the table, "Nothing! Not a single change in any cube," he slap it, "anywhere in the world." He put the cube back and sat up, "Four days! And I'm still in your lounge!"
"You and Annabelle were the ones who wanted to observe them," I said.
"Yes, well, we thought they'd do something," said Annabelle, "Not just sit there while we sit here and twiddle our thumbs!" Then she got up and started to paces.
"You and The Doctor said we had to be patient," said Rory.
"Yes, you, you! Not me! I hate being patient! Patience is for wimps!" said The Doctor, "I can't live like this. Don't make me. I need to be busy."
I shook my head. I guess living with humans for 18 years made me less itchy than the two of them about traveling. "Fine!" I said, "Be busy! We'll watch the cubes!"
"Yes!" said The Doctor. He shot up grabbed Annabelle and they ran outside. They painted Amy and Rory's fence, kicked around a soccer ball, mowed the lawn, worked on the engine of Rory's car, and vacuumed the house. Then, they came back The Doctor sat between Rory and Amy and Annabelle sat back in the chair she was sitting in, "That's better." he said.
"You said it," said Annabelle, "Nothing like a bit of activity to pass the time. How long were we gone?"
Rory checked his watch, "Uh, about an hour."
Annabelle sighed and The Doctor said, "I can't do it. No." he got up and jumped over the back of the sofa and headed for the TARDIS.
The rest of us followed him, "Where are you going?" asked Amy.
When we walked in the TARDIS we saw that Brian was sill there sitting in a folding chair and watching the cubes, "Brian!" I said, "You're still here?"
"The Doctor told me to watch the cubes." he said.
"Four days ago."
"Oh! Doesn't time fly when you're alone with your thoughts."
"You can't just leave, Doctor." said Rory as Brian stood up.
"Yes, course I can," said The Doctor, "Quick jaunt. Restore sanity. Ooh!" he snapped his fingers, "Hey!" He draped his arms over Rory and Amy's shoulders, "Come, if you like."
"They can't just go off like that," said Brian
"Can't they? Can't you? That's how it goes, isn't it?"
"I've got my job," said Rory.
"Oh, yes, Rory, the universe is awaiting, but you have a little job to go to," said The Doctor.
"It's not little. It's important to me. Look, what you do isn't all there is."
"I never said it was. All right, fine. We'll be back, soon."
"Keep watching the cubes," I said, "Call us if there are any changes but we'll have the TARDIS set to every Earth news feed just in case something happens and you can't call us."
With that the humans left and the three of us headed off. When we came back it was Amy and Rory's wedding anniversary. They were having a cookout in their back garden. The Doctor was holding a large bouquet of flowers. Amy was on her cell phone leaving us a message, "Hey, it's me! Hello. So, the U.N. classified the cubes as "provisionally safe," whatever that means, and Banksy and Damien Hirst put out a statement saying the cubes are nothing to do with them. And the cubes? Well, they're just...here, still. What's it been, 9 months? People are just taking them for granted. Maybe we'll never know why they came, but, anyway, I got to Laura's wedding. It was great. She's here tonight. Being as it's our wedding anniversary, we thought you might've dropped by. I left you messages."
Then Amy turned around and saw us, "We know!" said The Doctor as he handed her the flowers and gave her a hug.
"Happy anniversary!" I said as I gave her a big hug.
Annabelle hugged her and said "Come with us. And bring your husband."
Amy looked at Rory and they followed us to the TARDIS. When we stepped out again, we were in a fancy old fashion, hotel room and Amy and Rory were dressed for the early 19th century. "26th of June 1819," said The Doctor "the recently opened Savoy Hotel. Dinner, bed, and breakfast for two." Just then a chef walked in with a covered tray, "Bonjour, bonjour, merci, Auguste."
"You two will be back before the party's over," I said.
"They won't even notice you left," said Annabelle.
"No complications, I promise," said The Doctor. Rory took The Doctor's face in both hands and kissed him on the cheek, "Ooh!"
Annabelle and I laughed and us three Time Lords went back in the TARDIS. But, unfortunately, The Doctor was wrong about no complications because the next morning the five us were sitting on the sidewalk. Rory and Amy were disheveled looking and for some reason is was snowing in June.
"Well that was a bit of a shock," I said.
"Who would have guessed there was a Zygon ship under the Savoy," said Annabelle.
"Half the staff imposters," said The Doctor, "Still! It's all fixed now, eh?"
A bit later, Amy and Rory were back in more modern clothes, as we ran into a medieval-style bedroom, with wood paneling and rich draperies. The Doctor leapt onto the bed, "I thought we were going home!"
"You can't miss a good wedding," said The Doctor.
Annabelle grabbed onto The Doctor's collar, "Get under the bed now!"
We all got under the bed and heard a walking stick and the muffled voice of a man said, "… King of England!"
The Doctor shushed us and put a finger to his lips, "It wasn't my fault," said Amy softly.
"It was totally your fault," said Rory.
"Somebody was talking and I just said 'yes.'"
"To wedding vows. You just married Henry VIII on our anniversary."
Just then the feet and legs of Henry VIII entered the room. At that exact moment, The Doctor sneezed. I buried my head in my hands and shook my head, "Sorry," was all The Doctor could say.
We were able to escape from Henry VIII and got Amy and Rory back home in time for the anniversary toast. As others cheered, Brian looked at us kind of annoyed and then walked over to us, "How long were they away?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, Brian," said The Doctor.
"Because they're wearing totally different clothes from earlier."
"Seven weeks. We got sidetracked. A lot."
"No…" I said, "You got sidetracked. Every time we were going to bring them home, you had another idea of somewhere to take them."
"What happened to the other people who traveled with you?" asked Brian.
The three of us looked at each other then Annabelle spoke up, "Some left us, some got left behind, and some - not many, but - some died. But not them, Brian. We would never let that happen to them…"
Then we all looked over at Rory and Amy who were laughing and chatting with their friends.
After the party was over it was just us three Time Lords, Amy and Rory. Amy was turning over a cub in her hands. The Doctor then said hesitantly to Amy, "Can we... stay here? With you. And Rory. For a bit. Keep an eye on the cubes. However long that takes."
"I thought it would drive you and Annabelle mad."
"No. No no. I mean, I'll be better at it this time. I... miss you."
A few days later we in the living room of Amy and Rory's home watching the UK version of "The Apprentice" Lord Sugar, the host of the show was saying, "I sent you out to sell as many cubes as you could in 24 hours and look at you, you've made a right hash of it, haven't you? Well, Craig, you're fired."
Amy, The Doctor and Rory were sitting on the couch eating fish fingers and custard. While Annabelle and I were sitting on the floor in front of them eating fish fingers and custard as well, "If I had a restaurant, this would be all I'd serve," said The Doctor with his mouthful.
"Yeah, right. You, running a restaurant," said Amy.
"We've run a few restaurants," I said.
"Yeah," said Annabelle, "Who do you think invented the Yorkshire pudding?" She pointed at The Doctor.
Rory chuckled, "You didn't."
"Pudding, yet savory. Sound familiar?" said The Doctor.
A few days later. I was sitting in the living room watching The Doctor and Annabelle play tennis on the Wii. I was going to face the winner for the Time Lord Wii Tennis Championship of all of Time and Space, as The Doctor put it.
"Oh!" said The Doctor as he put his hands up in the air and climbed on the sofa, "That's second set: Doctor! Ha ha! Oh, if Fred Perry could see me now, eh?"
"He'd probably ask for his shorts back." I said.
"You got lucky, old man," said Annabelle, "The third set is all mine…"
Just then a cube popped up and started to hover in front of the TV. I stood up and joined my daughter and my uncle. Then, I said to the cube, " Whatever you are, this planet, these people, are precious to us. And we will defend them to our last breath."
The cube just continued to hover, The Doctor "Is that all you can do, hover? I had a metal dog could do that." Then the cube opened up and tube came out of it, "Ooh! Ooh, that's clever. What's that?" Then the cube fired a laser at us. The three of us fell to the floor and scrammed behind the sofa. We looked underneath and saw the cube and it fired at us again. We jumped up and ran out of the room. When we got out of the room we peered around the corner of the doorway and saw the cube hovering in front of the TV and using the Wii to upload information from the internet, "Ooh, you really have woken up."
Just then we heard Rory call out, "Doctor!" We turned and saw him running down the hall from the kitchen, "Hi. The cube in there, it just opened?"
Just then Amy ran down the stairs and said, "The cube upstairs just spiked me and took my pulse!" She showed us the palm of her hand and there was 25 little pinpricks in a perfect square.
"Really?!" said The Doctor, "Mine fired laser bolts and, now, it's surfing the net!" he said with a big smile.
I rolled my eyes, "That's not a good thing."
Just then Brian came in, "You're never going to believe this. My cube just moved. It rattled."
The Doctor laughed and went back to watching the cube in the living room. Then Rory's cell phone rang, "Hello?… Okay. I'm on my way…." He hung up the phone, "I have to get to work. They need all the help they can get."
"Let me come help out," said Brian.
"Take your dad to work night, brilliant!" said Rory. He looked at Amy, "Okay, are you going to be all right here?
Amy gave Rory a kiss and said, "Keep away from the cubes."
"All right," said Rory. Then he and Brian left. The Doctor came back in the hall from the living room. He was looking at his psychic paper and smiling.
"What are you grinning about?" asked Amy.
"We're wanted at the Tower of London," he said as he put the psychic paper away and headed for the door.
A short time later, we were at the headquarters of UNIT deep inside the Tower of London. Kate was explaining why she summoned us whiled Amy walked behind us, "Every cube across the whole world activated at the same moment."
"Now we're in business," said The Doctor, "You sent me a message to my psychic paper. You know, I'm almost impressed."
"Secret base beneath the Tower?" said Amy, "I hope we're not here because we know too much."
"Yes, I've got officers trained in beheading," said Kate, "Also, ravens of death." Then she walked away.
"I like her," said Amy.
"Me too," I said.
"Me three," said Annabelle.
"Yeah," said The Doctor.
Kate took us to a large room where there were a lot of sealed booths with cubes inside, "There are 50 being monitored and more coming in all the time," she said, "I don't know how useful it is. Every cube is behaving individually. There's no meaningful pattern. Some respond to proximity, some create mood swings."
Amy walked up to one that didn't look like it was doing anything, "What's this one?" asked Amy.
"Try the door." said Kate. Amy opened the door and we heard 'The Chicken Dance'. The Doctor plugged his ears and Kate said, "On a loop!" Amy then closed the door quickly.
Kate then took us to a large room lined with banks of computer screens, "This is the latest," said Kate.
We looked at the screens and Annabelle said, "Systems breach at the Pentagon, China, every African nation, the Middle East."
"I've got governments screaming for explanations and no idea what to tell them. I'm lost, Doctor. We all are."
"Don't despair, Kate," said The Doctor, "Your dad never did." Kate just stared at him, "Kate Stewart. Heading up UNIT, changing the way they work. How could you not be? Why did you drop 'Lethbridge'?"
"I didn't want any favors," said Kate, "Though he guided me, even to the end. 'Science leads,' he always told me, said he'd learnt that from an old friend."
"We won't let him down," I said, "We won't let this planet down."
Just then there was a beeping from the computers, "They've stopped," said a technician, "The cubes. Across the world. They just shut down."
"Active for 47 minutes and then they just die?" asked Kate.
"They're not dead," said Annabelle, "Dormant, maybe."
"Then why shut down?" asked Amy.
"I don't know," said The Doctor, "I don't know. I need to think. I need some air. Who has an underground base? Terrible ventilation!" The Doctor walked out of the room and Amy, Annabelle and I followed him.
A short time later, Amy, The Doctor, myself and Annabelle were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on a wall overlooking the Thames, "The moment they arrived, I should've made sure they were collected and burned," said The Doctor, "That is what I should've done."
"How?" asked Amy, "Nobody would've listened."
"You're thinking of stopping, aren't you? You and Rory."
"No, no, I mean, we haven't made a decision."
"But you're considering it," I said.
"Maybe," said Amy, "I don't know. We don't know. Well, our lives have changed so much. There was a time - there were years - when I couldn't live without you three." she laughed a little then continued, "Um, when just the whole everyday thing would drive me crazy. But since you dropped us back here, since you gave us this house, you know, we've built a life. But I don't know if I can have both."
"Why?" asked The Doctor.
"Because they pull at each other. Because they pull at me and because the traveling is starting to feel like running away."
"That's not what it is," said Annabelle.
"Oh, come on, look at you and The Doctor," said Amy, "Four days in a lounge and you two go crazy."
"We're not running away," said The Doctor, "This is one corner of one country, in one continent on one planet that's a corner of a galaxy, that's a corner of a universe that is forever growing and shrinking and creating and destroying and never remaining the same for a single millisecond and there is so much, so much, to see, Amy. Because it goes so fast. We're not running away from things. We're running to them, before they flare and fade forever. It's all right. Our lives won't run the same. They can't. One day, soon, maybe, you'll stop. I've known for a while."
"Then why do you keep coming back for us?"
"Because you were the first," said The Doctor, "The first human face this face saw. And you were seared onto my hearts. Amelia Pond. You always will be. I'm running to you and Rory before you fade from me."
Amy put her head on The Doctor's shoulder and said, "Don't be nice to me." she said as she started to cry a little, "I don't want you to be nice to me."
"Yeah, you do, Pond." He leaned his head on Amy's and said, "And you always get what you want."
Then all of the sudden I realized what happened with the cubes, "They got what they wanted."
"What?" asked Amy as she sat up, "Who did?"
"The cubes. That's why they stopped. Come on." Then we all ran back inside. Once we met back up with Kate I said, "Kate? Before they shut down, they scanned everything, from your medical limits to your military response patterns. They made a complete assessment" just then the lights went out, "of planet Earth." The Doctor took out his sonic and started to do a scan, "and its inhabitants. That's what the surge of activity was."
"Problem with the power?" asked The Doctor.
Kate pulled out a flashlight, "Not possible. We've got backups."
"Hmm," said The Doctor as he walked away.
We followed him back to the room with the observation chambers. Every cube, in every chamber and the number 7 in blue light. "Doctor. Look." said Amy.
"What?" The Doctor walked over.
"Why do they all say "7"?"
"Seven. What's important about seven?"
"Seven wonders of the world," said Annabelle.
"Seven streams of the River Ota," I said.
"Seven sides of a cube," said The Doctor.
"A cube has 6 sides," said Amy.
The Doctor scanned the cube, "Not if you count the inside." I had to hold my hand down to resist the urge to smack him upside the head. Then the number on the cube changed to 6
We went back to the computer room and The Doctor said, "It has to be a countdown."
"Not in minutes," said Kate.
"Why would it be minutes, Kate? We have to get humanity away from those cubes. God knows what they'll do, if they hit zero. Get the information out any way you can: news channels, web sites, radio, text messages. People have to know that the cubes are dangerous."
"Okay, but why is it starting now?" asked Amy, "I mean, the cubes arrived months ago. Why wait this long?"
"Because they're clever. Allow people enough time to collect them, take them in to their homes, their lives. Humans, the great early adopters. And then wham! Profile every inch of Earth's existence."
"Discover how best to attack us," said Kate.
"Get that information out any way you can. Go."
Annabelle went over to the computers and said to one of the technicians, "Every cube was activated. There must be signals, energy fluctuations on a colossal scale. There must be some trace. There can't not be. We need to think of all the variables, all the possibilities, okay?"
The technician started to work while Kate put out the word to get way from the cubes.
A short time later we moved back to the large room with the cube observation chambers. The number on the cubes had reached '3' The Doctor decided that he should be the only
one in the Tower with close contact with the cubes when they reached '0'
The Doctor got ready to go inside one of the chambers and Amy said, "Doctor, please, you don't have to do this," then she turned to me and Annabelle, "Why are you letting him do this?"
I shook my head, "How can we stop him?"
"Besides how dangerous could they really be?" said Annabelle, "We've checked all the reports. So far no one has been killed by the cubes."
"Amy's right," said Kate, "You don't have to be in there. We can do this remotely."
The Doctor turned and faced us, "Remotely isn't my style. See you after." The Doctor kissed his fingertips, tapped Amy on the head, opened the door to the chamber and went inside. The Doctor sat down in a chair in the chamber and picked up the cube on the table. He gave it an spin and it changed to "2" The Doctor set the down and leaned back against the wall of the chamber then the number changed to "1." About a minute later, the cube reached "0" then it went dark. The Doctor looked at the four of us through the window. Then the cub slid open.
"Geronimo."
"What's happening?" I asked over the intercom.
The Doctor leaned forward and looked inside the cube.
"Well, what's in there?" asked Annabelle over the intercom.
"There is nothing in here." said The Doctor.
"Well, that's good?" asked Amy, "You know, it's not bombs, it's not aliens."
"Why? Why is there nothing inside? Why? It doesn't make any sense!" Then, the Doctor walked out of the chamber.
We walked into the computer room. The technician was watching a variety of screens with views from street cameras from all over the world. People were just walking past the cubes on the ground, ignoring them, "Glasses, is it the same?" asked The Doctor, "Is it the same all around the world?"
"They're empty," said Kate, "We're safe. Right?"
"No," I said, "We are very far from safe. Every action the cubes have made has been deliberate. Why draw attention to the cubes, if they don't contain anything?"
"Look," said Amy, as she pointed at the screens.
On the screens there were people on the streets gripping their chests and collapsing to the ground. "They're CCTV feeds from across the world, showing the same," said the technician.
"People are dying," said Kate.
"No. They can't be dying," said Annabelle, "How? How are they dying?"
"I want information on how people are being affected," said Kate.
"The cubes brought people close together. They opened and…" Before The Doctor could finish his thought he grabbed his chest and fell to into a chair in pain.
Annabelle, Amy and I rushed over to him, "Doctor, what's the matter?" asked Amy as I took out my sonic and did a scan.
"Uh! Ah! I don't know!" said The Doctor.
"Posters are logging a global surge in heart failure, cardiac arrest," said the technician.
I checked the readings on my sonic, "That's it exactly," I said, then I looked at my uncle, "Your left heart has stopped working. We need you to the TARDIS." I spun the chair around and started to push him out the door,.
"No no no no no!" he said, "Just a second. Turn around, turn around, turn around." I reluctantly turned him around and pushed the chair back to the desk, "Come, show me 10 seconds after the cubes opened. Show me the patterns in their electrical current." The technicians brought up the information See?"
"No!"
"Yes, the power cut. They sucked the power and then - aah! They're signal boxes! People - wham! Pure electrical surge out of the cube, targeted at the nearest human heart. The heart!" he slapped the technician's chest, "An organ powered by electrical current, short-circuited. How to destroy a human? Go for the heart. Ow! Crikey Moses!"
"Annabelle, the scan you set running," said Kate, "The transmitter locations. It's found them."
"Bring it up," said Annabelle.
The technician brought up a map of the world and there were seven red dots around the world, "Seven again," said Annabelle, "Seven stations… Seven minutes… Why is Seven important?"
"Ah-aaah! Ha ha ha ow! Ow!" cried the Doctor. Then he looked at Amy, "How do you people manage one heart? It is pitiful! The wormhole. Bridging two dimensions. Seven of them, hitched on to this planet. But - but – but where's the closest one? Glasses, zoom in."
The technician zoomed in on London and onto a building, "That's the hospital where Rory works."
"Of course it is…" I said with a sigh.
The Doctor, Amy, Kate, Annabelle and I walked into the hospital, "How many deaths have been recorded?" I asked Kate
"We don't know," she aid, "We think it could be a third of the population."
"Kate, we have to find the wormhole. But the attacks could still happen. Tell the world. Tell them how to deal this. The world needs your leadership right now."
"I'll do my best."
I smiled, "Of course you will. Good luck, Kate." Then, Kate left.
"Ahh! Agh!" cried out The Doctor as he fell against a wall. Annabelle and I went over to him to help him keep standing.
"Okay, how long are you going to last with only one heart?" asked Amy. The Doctor put his arm over her shoulder and she helped him walk.
"Not much longer," he said, "We need to locate the wormhole portal."
I took out my sonic and started to scan. I started to get a reading. It wasn't the portal but it was something not of human made. I followed the scan and it pointed right to a little black girl, just standing in the hallway, holding a cube. I walked up to her and her face and eyes started to glow blue, "Oh, my God." said Amy.
"She's an outlier droid monitoring everything. If I shut her down, I can get a lock on the portal." I pointed my sonic at her neck. I caught her as she fell and gently lowered her to the floor.
The Doctor groaned in pain again, "I can't." He didn't have the strength to keep standing so he fell against the wall and slid to the floor, "I can't do it. I need both hearts. Ah! Aah!"
I held my uncle's hand, as he laid on the floor. I didn't know what to do. The TARDIS was at Amy and Rory's house miles away. If the Doctor did die right here… that would be it… He didn't have any more regenerations in him. He had a little regeneration energy in him from when River saved us but not enough for a full regeneration. Annabelle and I couldn't give any of our regenerations to him because he had forbid us to do so. Just then Amy spoke up, "All right, desperate measures." I turned around and saw Amy had grabbed a portable defibrillator.
"What? No! No no no no. That won't work. I'm a Time Lord! Ah, Amy!" shouted The Doctor.
But Amy didn't listen opened The Doctor's shirt, "All right, clear!" Annabelle and I quickly scrambled away then Amy placed the paddles to The Doctor's chest and applied the charge.
The Doctor shout right up, "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Welcome back, Lefty. Whoa-hoa! Two hearts." He danced around and struck a pose like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, "Back in the game." He kissed Amy on the forehead, "Never do that to me again." Then he headed off…
I smiled and gave her a hug, "Thank you Amy… Come on… Let's go…"
We followed The Doctor down a deserted hallway to an large elevator with 'Do Not Use' tape all over the doors. The doors opened and all what was inside was what looked like an elevator, "Oh, portal to another dimension in a goods lift?" said Amy disappointedly
Annabelle took out her sonic and did a scan, "The energy signals converge here."
"Does seem a bit cramped, though," said The Doctor. We stepped into the elevator and I walked to the back wall. I lightly touched it and it rippled like it was water. We looked at each other with smiles, "Through the looking-glass, Amelia."
We all held hands and stepped through the portal and found ourselves on a ship orbiting Earth, "Where are we?" asked Amy.
"We're in orbit. One dimension to the left," said The Doctor.
We walked into a room with a bunch of people laying unconscious on tables. Rory was one of them and Brian was laying on a gurney next to him, "Rory!" said Amy as she rushed up to him.
The Doctor reached into his pocket and tossed a small jar to Amy as he crossed to the other side of Rory," Seborean smelling salts. Outlawed in seven galaxies." he said.
Amy held the smelling salts under Rory's nose and he sat right up. At that moment something shot as us and we all ducked down behind the table, "Whoa-hoa! Whoa!" said The Doctor, "What kind of a welcome do you call that?"
I turned and saw a bald man dressed in a black cloak. His skin was heavily cracked and wrinkled. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, because I shouldn't have been seeing what I was seeing… I looked at Amy, "Amy, get Rory and Brian out of here. Now."
"What are you going to do?!" she asked
I pushed the gurney toward Amy. She used the salts on Brian and he shot up, "Absolutely no idea," said The Doctor, "Get him through the portal."
We started to help push the gurney the we were fired at again, "So many of them, crawling the planet, seeping into every corner." said the Being.
Amy and Rory pulled the gurney out of the room and the being disappeared and reappeared in front of a bank of monitors made from seven hexagonal panes of glass. The being wasn't real. It was just a hologram. Us three Time Lords walked to the other side of the screen and looked at the hologram, "It's not possible," said The Doctor, "The Shakri were a myth. A myth to keep the young of Gallifrey in their place.
"The Shakri exist in all of time and none," said the Shakri hologram, "We travel alone and together. The Seven."
"Now we know why they used 7," said Annabelle.
"The Shakri craft, connected to Earth through 7 portals in 7 minutes," said The Doctor, "Ah, but why?"
"Serving the word of the Tally," said the hologram.
"Why Earth?" I asked.
"Not Earth - Humanity. The Shakri will halt the human plague before the spread."
"Erase humanity before it colonizes space," said Annabelle, as we walked to the same side of the screen as the hologram, "We thought the cubes were an invasion."
"The human contagion only! Must be eliminated."
Just then Amy and Rory came back in, "Who are you calling a contagion?"
"Didn't I tell you two to go?" I asked.
"You should've learnt, by now," said Rory.
"Yeah, and what is this "Tally," anyway?" asked Amy.
"Some people call it "Judgment Day" or "the Reckoning."" said The Doctor
"Don't you know?"
"I've never wanted to find out."
"Before the Closure, there is the Tally," said the hologram, "The Shakri serves the Tally!"
"The pest controllers of the universe," I said, "That's how the stories went, isn't it?"
"Wow, that's a seriously weird bedtime story," said Amy.
"You can talk," said Annabelle, "A wolf in Red Riding Hood's grandma's nightgown?"
"So!" said The Doctor as he clapped his hands, "Here you are, depositing slug pellets all over the Earth," he walked back to the other the screen to face the hologram, "made attractive so humans will collect them, hoping to find something beautiful inside."
"Because that's what they are," I said as I joined my uncle, " They aren't pests or a plague. They are creatures of hope, building new things and reaching for new incredible heights."
"But they making mistakes, of course, every life form does," said Annabelle as she walked over to us, "but, they learn. And they strive for greater things and they achieve it."
Then the three us walked back over to Amy and Rory, "You want a tally?" asked The Doctor, "Put their achievements against their failings, through the whole of time. We will back humanity against the Shakri every time."
"The Tally must be met," said the hologram, "The second wave will be released."
"What does that mean?" asked Amy
"It's going to release more cubes to kill more people," I said.
"The human plague, breeding and fighting," said the hologram, "And, when cornered, their rage to destroy. You're too late, Time Lords. The Tally shall be met." Then it disappeared.
"He's gone?" asked Amy.
"He was never really here," I said, "That was just the ship's automated interface.
"Like a talking propaganda poster." said The Doctor. We ran over to the computer, "I can stop the second wave," he said as he used his sonic on the computer, "I can disconnect all the Shakri craft from their portals, leave them drifting in the dark space. Ah, but all those people who were near the cubes, so many of them will have died."
"I restarted one of your hearts," said Amy.
"You'd need mass defibrillation," said Rory.
"Of course," I said, "And I know just how to do it! The Shakri used the cubes to turn people's hearts off. We're going to use them to turn them back on again," I took out my sonic scaned the computer.
"Will that work?" asked Amy.
"Well, creatures of hope. Has to," said The Doctor.
The readout of the screen changed, "30 seconds," I said, "Don't let me down, cubes. You're working for me, now."
The ship began to shake violently, "Oh, dear," said The Doctor, "All those cubes. There's going to be a terrible wave of energy ricocheting around here, any second. Run."
Then we all ran for the portal and jumped through as the ship exploded, landing on the floor of the hospital elevator.
While Amy and Rory took Brian home, The Doctor, Annabelle and I went back to UNIT. Thankfully my plan work and the cubes restarted the hearts of everyone they had stopped. Kate escorted us to a car that would take us back to Amy and Rory's, "You - you really are as remarkable as Dad said," said Kate then she kissed him on the cheek, "Thank you."
"My! A kiss from a Lethbridge-Stewart. That is new," said The Doctor.
"It's been a pleasure meeting you, Kate," I said, "I'm sorry that Annabelle and I never got a chance to meet your father."
"From what The Doctor has told us. He was a pretty remarkable man in his own right," said Annabelle.
"That he was," said Kate, "That he was."
The Doctor looked at his watch and said, "Oh, dear. We're late for dinner."
"Right," I said. Annabelle and I each gave Kate a hug. The Doctor held out his hand for Kate to shake but pulled it away before she could. He gave her a salute before getting in the car and Kate waved good bye.
That night we were in Amy and Rory's kitchen with Brian eating Chinese food by candlelight. "Mmm, dear me. We'd better get going. Things to do. Worlds to save, swings to... swing on."
Us three Time Lords each grabbed a fortune cookie stood, The Doctor and Annabelle headed for the door but I stopped and looked at Amy and Rory, "Before we go I want you both to know that we understand that you guys have lives here. That's what make you both so wonderfully human. And I should know about being human…" We all chucked except for Brian, "You don't want to give them up and we understand."
"Actually, it's you and your family they can't give up, Teddy," said Brian, "And I don't think they should. Go with them. Go save every world you can find. Who else has that chance? Life will still be here."
"You can come, Brian," said Annabelle as she and The Doctor stood by the door.
"Somebody's got to water the plants. Just bring them back safe," he said.
"Every time…" I said with a smile, "I promise…" Then, the five of us headed out to Amy and Rory's backyard where the TARDIS was sitting. We paused for a moment and looked back at Brian who was standing there to see us off. Amy and Rory went inside Then, Brian gave us a wave. I gave him wave back and headed inside. If I ever thought that that night would be the last time that Brian would ever see Amy or Rory again… I would have never made Brian that promise…