“Three more, Bitz, three more,” said Paragrim, cracking his metallic knuckles.
“Yeah, and then I can get back to Centrix and the others.”
“Indeed,” said Paragrim as he punched in the next set of co-ordinates.
“Where are we heading now?”
“The tracer’s already detected the Ninth Doctor’s TARDIS. It’s quite a bit away from us this time. Some place called the Gamestation.”
The Doctor was in a dark, dark place. He hung his head as he sat on the cold, hard, metallic bench. He had just lost Rose. She had been blasted into atoms by a damn gameshow droid, and all for the pleasure of billions of people down below on the polluted Earth he had helped to create.
Sitting either side of him was Captain Jack, the time travelling happy-go-lucky time travelling reformed con-man he had picked up from World War Two, and Lynda with a “Y”. Normal, sweet Lynda with a “Y”. Never been in trouble. Never had any reason to cause problems.
They had been arrested for breaking into the games, and they were waiting for sentence to be passed.
But something wasn’t quite right. The air felt cold. It felt stale and cold. Ice cold.
The Doctor turned to Jack. He wasn’t moving. He clicked his fingers in front of his face. Nothing.
“Having a problem, are we, Doctor?” came the voice.
The Doctor looked up. There was a large figure standing in the shadows. It appeared to be wearing a hood.
“Sort of,” he said. “What’s happened to them?”
“They’ve been frozen in time,” said the low, metallic voice.
“I can see that,” said the Doctor. He got up and stepped a little closer to the shadowy figure. “Who are you?”
“The name’s Paragrim,” said the voice.
A flash of recognition flitted across the Doctor’s face. This man was the one who had gone throughout all of space and time, chasing him down at weak moments of his life. But why was all of his encounters so blurry? It was like they had happened, and then they hadn’t.
“Who’s put you up to this?” asked the Doctor.
“Oh,” said Paragrim, stepping into the light, his tall shadow looming over the still and silent faces of Jack and Lynda, “I’m not able to divulge that information. Let’s just say it’s all revolving around something far in your future.”
The Doctor quickly went to his inside pocket and grabbed his sonic screwdriver, aiming it at Paragrim. “If you don’t unfreeze Jack and Lynda, then I’ll use this to activate the remote itself.”
“The remotes on my ship,” smiled Paragrim. “It’s being transmitted from right outside that wall.”
The Doctor turned to look at the wall behind him. Paragrim was right. This wall led directly onto nothing but space outside. The ship was likely hovering there and had a good enough range to freeze everything.
“I’m going to offer you the chance to come quietly,” said Paragrim.
“Not without a fight,” said the Doctor, lowering the screwdriver slightly.
Paragrim cleared his throat and aimed his blaster towards Jack and Lynda. “You either come quietly, or I blow a hole in both of their heads. It’d be my pleasure, of course.”
He had no choice. No matter what this Paragrim bloke was up to, he had to go with him. He had to keep his friends out of harms way.
A few minutes later and the Doctor and Paragrim had transported onto his ship. The Doctor walked solemnly over to the eight occupied glass tubes and looked into each one individually.
“If only they knew what was to come,” said the Doctor, sadly.
“You mean the Time War?” asked Paragrim.
The Doctor turned to him and nodded.
“I was little more than a child when the Time War started,” said Paragrim, “but I had heard all of the stories about it.”
“Where exactly in my future do you come from?” asked the Doctor, leaning against the tube containing his eighth self.
“I can’t tell you that,” said Paragrim.
“You’re gonna kill me anyway. You might as well reveal the truth. A last request?”
Paragrim smiled. “I’m sorry, Doctor, but even I’m not that stupid.”
“You clearly are though,” continued the Doctor. “Capturing each different incarnation of me. That’s going to blow a hole the size of Brazil in the space/time continuum.”
“I’ll be safe,” said Paragrim.
He pulled out one of the sleeping devices.
“It’s time, is it?”
Paragrim nodded. “I must admit, I like this incarnation of yours, Doctor. You’re very down-to-Earth and matter of fact.”
“I’ve just been through a lot. Seen some things that would make you weep.” He looked up at Paragrim, his eyes dark. “And I know that I’ll be back. You can guarantee that.”
Paragrim looked a little concerned, just for a fraction of a moment, and then attached the device to the Ninth Doctors neck. His eyes closed and he fell back. Paragrim caught him and placed him in the ninth glass tube.
Something about this encounter had worried him. And he couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that not everything was as it should be.
***
The Doctor opened the TARDIS door. It was raining. It was absolutely chucking it down, actually, so he grabbed his long, brown coat draping over the coral beam of the TARDIS console room, pulled it on over his slender shoulders and then marched out into the rain.
The landscape beyond was cold and barren. It was a beach somewhere in the north of England. He wasn’t exactly sure where, but he didn’t care.
His face was pale and as the rain fell down it plastered his normally spiked up hair down onto his forehead.
He made his way down the stone steps and towards the beach. The sand caked his shoes as he made his way to the relative safety of underneath the old pier.
Not too long ago, something had happened. Something that had caused him to question every fibre of his being. He had defied the laws of time and they had punished him. An innocent woman had taken her own life to preserve the course of history.
This was something that he had difficulty accepting. It was because of him that she had taken her own life. It was him that had caused her to do this. She had been the braver and better person, whereas he should never have interfered.
He sighed as he sat down on a piece of driftwood under the pier. He needed Donna here right now. She’d know what to do to make him feel happy again. She was the one who had saved him last time when he almost lost control.
He was distracted from his thoughts when he saw a large, brown spaceship shoot through the clouds and towards his position. He stood up from the piece of driftwood and put his hands in his pockets. Something inside him was tapping on his memories, like a woodpecker. He knew who this was. This was Paragrim. That was all he needed on a day like today.
He watched as the ship touched down in the sea. The door opened and Paragrim stepped from the shuttle.
“You keep turning up, don’t you?” said the Doctor.
“Like a bad penny,” smiled Paragrim, walking through the tide.
“Who gave you time travel technology?” asked the Doctor, putting on his specs and eyeing up the partially submerged spaceship. “Not the Time Lords.”
“No,” smiled Paragrim. “As I said last time, I can’t reveal where or when I’ve come from. Suffice to say, they only use time travel as a means to accomplish what they need to do. They are not interested in using it to cause damage.”
He frowned at Paragrim. “That doesn’t make sense. Surely your employers know what damage can be done to the web of time if I’m removed from it.”
Paragrim thought about what this version of the Doctor had said. It was true - Eyeglass had never been so ruthless with time travel before. The mysterious cloaked man had offered to send him to a pocket universe, but, again, Eyeglass weren’t in the habit of damaging the web of time. Something about this didn’t feel quite right.
By the time Paragrim had looked back, the Doctor had gone. The little freak had pulled a fast one on him. He looked around him. He was nowhere to be seen. And then he spotted a blur of brown disappearing around his spaceship and through the hatch.
“Doctor!” growled Paragrim as he began running across the beach and back to his ship.
Inside the ship, the Doctor had located the cargo hold and was frantically looking for someway to open one of the glass tubes. It didn’t matter to him which incarnation it was. All he needed to do was free at least another of his selves.
“What the hell are you doing in here?” came a whiney, metallic voice.
Standing there was the yellow and red, humanoid-shaped Bitz.
“The game’s up,” said the Doctor, aiming his screwdriver at the tube containing his Sixth incarnation.
“Don’t be stupid,” said Bitz, “they need to be opened in a certain way. You can’t just blow the tops.”
“He’s right,” growled Paragrim as he struggled through the door and advanced on the Doctor.
“The life signs on my Sixth incarnation are pretty unstable,” said the Doctor, edging closer to the tube. “If I break him out then it’s very likely he’ll regenerate - much too earlier than he should do.”
“And?” said Paragrim.
“The web of time,” said the Doctor again. “I trust your employers have a way of saving you. Well they can’t save you if I put a spanner in the works.”
Paragrim gritted his teeth and sighed. “Your actions would cause your Sixth self to regenerate too early, therefore damaging the time line.”
“I’m sure even you’re not that stupid.”
“You speak logically, of course.”
“You’re having doubts, aren’t you?” The Doctor felt that somehow he was beginning to get through Paragrim’s incredibly thick skull. “All of this is wrong.”
Paragrim shook his head. “They know what they’re doing!”
“Do they?”
“The only way I can find out is to complete my mission. If I can do that, then maybe I can find out answers.”
“And how am I going to be able to help you from inside a glass tube?” said the Doctor, trying to hold in his emotions.
“I don’t need your help,” said Paragrim, raising his gun and pointing it at the Doctor.
“You idiot,” said the Doctor.
Paragrim shot a stun-blast into the Doctor’s chest and he crumpled to the floor in a heap.
“That was a close one, boss,” said Bitz, hefting the Doctor up to his feet and dragging him to the tenth container.
Paragrim stared ahead of him. Not all of this was making sense. But he did know one thing for sure - he only had to get one more incarnation of the Doctor, and then he’d get some answers at last.
Next: The Eleventh Doctor does a little bit of shopping for Amy and Rory. Coming Monday 23rd September.
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