Caroline had stopped writing in her diary that she had decided to keep, and was now biting the end of her pen with a blank look on her face.
“This has gotta end soon,” said Caroline glumly.
“What?” said Danny, zombie like.
“This boredom. Why did he have to go away for so long?”
“Never mind why,” said Danny tiredly. “I wanna know where he’s gone!”
“He said he’d had some troubles with a Boggart down in the lower levels of the TARDIS.”
“He didn’t tell me that,” said Danny. “He didn’t tell me anything.”
“Look, I think he’s a bit worried about all this stuff on your plate. Y’know, your possession?”
“Stop it, Caz,” said Danny. “I feel like you’re talking about that girl off the Exorcist.”
She sighed. “It is stupid though. I mean how many times has he told us he’s going to get us back to Thornsby?”
“Do you think he even knows how to?” asked Danny, glacing up momentarily as the City goalkeeper saved a shot.
“This whole thing’s just one big mess. He’s locked Matthew Cole away down there somewhere and won’t tell us why. He claims he’s gonna die. Then there’s me and you. I swear he’s keeping something from me, Danny. He’s gone all quiet on us. He’s shut himself down.”
Before Danny could continue a sound came from outside the TARDIS. It was a thumping and clanging sound. Then, suddenly, the TARDIS felt still. The slight vibration that could sometimes be felt whilst in flight had stopped. “It feels like we’ve landed,” said Caroline.
“We better find the Doctor.”
“Yeah,” said Caroline quietly. “Come on!” She was just about to get up when there came a hammering of the console room doors. “What the hell was that? Try the scanner.”
Danny crossed to the console and flicked a switch. An old television set sprang down from the ceiling and flicked on. The screen was obscured by something large and blue. “Well whatever that is, it’s too big for the screen to show the whole lot of it.”
“We need to find the Doctor now,” said Caroline urgently.
“Excuse me?” came a voice from the scanner speakers. “Excuse me, but I need to talk to the Doctor.”
“Who are you?” asked Caroline, looking at the blur on the scanner.
“A friend. Need to talk to him now?”
“Why?” asked Danny.
“Private business. Got some dealings with him.”
“Tell us and we’ll get him for you.”
“There is no time for that,” growled the voice. “Open the doors or I’ll kick them down.”
“No one can kick those doors down,” said Caroline with a laugh.
“Wanna bet? Do you really want to risk me destroying part of this TARDIS and damaging it’s dimensions?”
Caroline bit her lip and looked at Danny. “We better let him in. Surely the Doc will be able to deal with him.”
Paragrim stood outside with Bitz and waited. These humans were stubborn and he really had no idea if he’d be able to kick down the doors, but it was worth a try just to get the fleshlings to open up. Suddenly he heard the doors click open and a dark haired woman stood in the doorway with a taller man.
“Thank you,” said Paragrim simply.
The two pushed past Caroline and Danny and walked into the console room. Paragrim looked around him and then clicked off his hand, replacing it with his axe. “He’s always redecorating this place. Can’t he ever keep to the same design?”
“Look, just who are you?” asked Caroline, who was determined not to let the Doctor down by letting strangers on board.
“My name’s Paragrim, his name’s Bitz.” He thumbed backwards towards his sidekick. “I’m a bounty hunter and he’s a useless spare part that I’ve been lumbered with.”
“Hey - !”
“Quiet, Bitz. Now, where’s the Doctor?”
“Why do you want him?” asked Danny.
“Do not question, eh? Just tell!”
“He’s in the lower levels of the TARDIS,” said Caroline.
Paragrim pulled out a device with two prongs at the top and it began to beep. “This will help me find him. Come on Bitz.”
Paragrim headed off through the inner door followed by Bitz, Caroline and Danny.
They had been walking for almost an hour when they eventually arrived at a very large gateway.
“I can’t remember this ever being here,” said Caroline. A memory suddenly flashed through her mind. “And the name Paragrim rings a bell from somewhere.”
Paragrim didn’t notice. He was too busy trying to fathom something out. He’d seen this doorway before. He’d seen it when he’d begun this mission. In the far wall was another doorway. He quickly crossed over to that and opened it. It led out into a landing bay. The landing bay where he had originally parked his ship when he had been called by the mysterious figure that’d arranged this mission. Paragrim gritted his teeth and stomped back to the main doors. Checking his blaster, he opened them.
They slid open and beyond them was a huge room. The walls were metallic grey and white strip lights adorned the ceiling. At the far end was a plain looking desk and chair. This was the place where Paragrim had originally begun his mission. This was the space station he’d arrived in at the start. But how could it be? It was in the Doctor’s TARDIS.
Then he noticed it. Sat at the desk was the hooded figure. Paragrim checked his axe and began walking over to the mysterious employer. When he reached the table he raised his axe and brought it crashing down on the computer screen.
“What’s going on?”
The hooded figure didn’t respond.
“I demand to know. This is where I was hired by you to find the first eleven Doctors. What’s it doing in the middle of my Doctor’s TARDIS?”
By now Caroline, Danny and Bitz had crossed over with bemused faces.
“Tell me now! Why is your headquarters in the Doctor’s TARDIS, and where is my incarnation.”
“Oh dear,” came the voice from the hood, more clearly and fluidly than before and sounding very familiar to Caroline and Danny. “I’m afraid I’ve done you a bit of an injustice, Paragrim.”
Caroline and Danny looked at each other in confusion and then back at the man.
“You see, my dear friend, I am the Doctor.”
Paragrim stepped back in shock. The mysterious figure stood up from the desk and lowered his hood. Underneath was a thin, pointed face and a smooth bald head. This was the Doctor he knew. The incarnation from his own timeline. The Doctor he had met above Equinox.
And he was grinning at their shocked faces.
“I want answers now!” raged Paragrim.
“So do we,” said Caroline and Danny together.
“I just wanna go home,” said Bitz glumly.
“Calm down, everyone, just calm down.”
“Calm down?! I’ve been travelling from one stinking place to the other looking for your first eleven selves for what seems like slagging ages! You said they all had something in their cell structures. EXPLAIN!!”
The Doctor held up his hands to calm Paragrim. “I know this has come as a shock to you, but I couldn’t very well tell you the truth, could I? The point is, I have reason to believe that each of my incarnations have been infected by some kind of disease. I received word that it had inexplicably happened at certain points of my life and therefore I found it important to gather together my former lives and personally cure them myself.”
“Then who caused this infection, eh?” asked Paragrim angrily.
“At this moment I don’t know. I do have my suspicions though.”
“Then why trick me? Why didn’t you just do it yourself?”
“I felt it inappropriate for myself to delve into my past eleven times and steal my own body. Meeting your past self once is bad enough. Meeting it eleven times…” The Doctor drummed his fingers on the desk. “Did you meet any external opposition?”
“Opposition? Yes, of course I did!”
The Doctor looked interested. “Who?”
“Yourself! And this place,” said Paragrim indicating the large room. “How did you trick me with this?”
“I didn’t trick you. Well, okay I did, but it was important. I merely disguised the TARDIS as a space station. You’d never have known the difference.”
“Hang on,” said Caroline, “have you repaired the chameleon circuit at last?”
“No,” said the Doctor, interlocking his fingers, “just merely changed the TARDIS perception filters to appear as a space station to Paragrim’s ships sensors.”
“But it’s a blue box now!” growled Paragrim.
“Well I wasn’t expecting you right now, was I?”
Paragrim growled and leapt onto the desk. He grabbed the Doctor around the throat and touched the blade of his axe onto his cheek. “I’m going to kill you!”
“Wait! Wait!” said the Doctor. “What made you come here anyway?”
Paragrim relaxed his grip a little. “I felt that something was wrong. Believe it or not, your previous incarnations got me thinking.”
“Good old Doctors,” smiled the Doctor, trying not to choke. “So you came to look for me?”
“You’re my Doctor,” said Paragrim begrudgingly. “I know how you operate. If anyone was to help me, then it’d be you.”
The Doctor looked a little touched, but also apologetic.
“And then I find that you’ve set the whole thing up.”
“Yes,” said the Doctor sadly. “I’m sorry, Paragrim. Look, can you please release me.”
Paragrim growled and reluctantly let go of the Doctor. “But I don’t understand. The General gave me the coordinates to this place.”
“Yes,” said the Doctor, looking rather pleased with him. “You see, that chap actually does exist. But, again, it was the perception filter. Once I knew you were on your way I was able to nudge you slightly off course to arrive at my TARDIS. I even fooled your ship.”
Paragrim felt like punching the Doctor, but he tried to contain his anger again. “Then the hooded guy is still waiting for me? The real one?”
“No,” said the Doctor. “I found out where you were heading and dealt with him. He’s now facing the Shadow Proclamation for crimes against the rest of the universe and for dealing with Eyeglass.”
“Then I’ll never know the original plan for me.”
“Actually,” said the Doctor, “I did manage to hack into the computer files. The hooded chap - Throx, as he is known - was going to give you some background information on my recent journeys, and then you’d be armed with enough info to take me down.”
“Then I can still complete my mission,” smiled Paragrim, flexing his muscles.
“Sorry, Paragrim, but no. I’ve activated a field within the TARDIS that prevents you from firing any weapons.”
Paragrim looked at his gun, aimed it at the Doctor and then pulled the trigger.
Nothing.
He growled.
“Now, now. There’s no need to get overexcited.”
“I don’t know, Doctor,” said Caroline, “this doesn’t all make sense.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well this virus for starters. Why did it only affect your first eleven incarnations? And who infected you anyway?”
The Doctor sighed. “Why only the first eleven? I don’t know the answer to that. All I know is that it never reached my twelfth incarnation.”
There was a beeping from the desk and the Doctor checked the console. It showed the tubes being unloaded from the cargo bay of Paragrim’s ship into the console room. Slowly but surely a group of Centrix Medi-Bots began administering the antidote to each of the prone forms of the Doctor.”
“As soon as I knew the virus, I was able to construct the antidote.”
“Traitors!” yelled Bitz at the screen.
The ground shook, as if an earthquake had erupted from far away. The Doctor frowned and looked at the screen. The Medi-Bots were busy trying to close the doors of the console room.
“Is that my ship?” asked Paragrim, pushing past the Doctor to see the screen.
The Doctor flicked screens and the outside view showed Paragrim’s ship detaching itself from the outer doors of the TARDIS. It slowly began to drift backwards through the vortex.
“Typical amateur Human time travel,” hissed the Doctor.
“The engines are going into overload,” said Paragrim.
“Not only that,” said the Doctor, checking the readouts, “but it’s actually travelling backwards through its own pathway.”
“What does that mean?” asked Bitz, looking concerned that he may never get a lift back to his home planet.
“Of course!” yelled Paragrim, almost slapping his head. “The viruses on board the ship!”
“You have viruses?” asked the Doctor.
Paragrim nodded.
“Oh,” said the Doctor, and then half-smiled. It all made sense now. Paragrim’s ship was about to fall back through time, visiting each of the first eleven Doctors again. The ship was already damaged beyond repair and the viruses would be spread throughout time, infecting each of the Doctors.
“It’s your own fault!” said Paragrim. “It’s a crukking Paradox!”
“A what?” asked Danny.
The Doctor slapped his forehead. “A paradox. I detected that my first eleven incarnations had this virus and so I sent Paragrim to collect them all up. Then Paragrim’s ships engines fail and travel back along the time path it’s just taken, spilling the viruses into the incarnations before they’ve even left.”
“Idiot,” said Caroline, blankly.
“I’m tempted to use what was once a very favourite saying of mine, but I’m afraid it may infuriate Mr. Paragrim even more.”
“But is everything going to be okay?” asked Danny, worriedly.
“Absolutely,” said the Doctor. “Nothing wrong a little paradox from time to time. As long as you can fix it in the end.”
In the space/time vortex the ship disappeared. It careered through the different time zones to just before each incarnation was picked up, silently spreading the deadly virus until it finally returned back to the vortex where in exploded into a million, glowing pieces of white-hot metal.
***
Some time had passed. The Centrix robots had cured the previous incarnations, taking particular care on the Sixth Doctor who had been nearing death. They had brought him back from the brink.
“So what do we do now?” said Caroline as they watched the Centrix Medi-Bots return to their own planet in their tiny, yellow shuttles.
“We drop each of them off to the moment just after they were taken. Transmat them back down to their correct time and location.”
“But why couldn’t you have done that before? Why couldn‘t you have snatched them yourself?” asked Caroline.
The Doctor sighed. “Because I couldn’t risk entering my timeline eleven times and making a mistake. And I also couldn’t just hit the transmat beam and hope for the best.”
“But will you remember any of this?” asked Danny. “And, ya know, will this not damage the web of time?”
The Doctor smiled. “There’ll be some recollection,” he said, as he closed the doors, “but it’ll be just like a dream. It’ll fade and they’ll forget.”
“And the people around the other Doctor’s? Anybody who witnessed it all?”
“I’m telepathic,” said the Doctor. “I’ve programmed the TARDIS to make them forget. In turn my first eleven incarnations will telepathically transmit to those around to forget.”
“Just like a cut scene from a film,” said Caroline.
“Exactly.”
“The problem with deleted scenes,” said Danny, “is that they usually end up getting released eventually.”
The Doctor looked at Danny and then quickly to Caroline. “Deleted scenes…yes…”
Deep Space. Unknown Time.
Paragrim opened his eyes. He was sitting on a small, basic-looking cargo ship. In his hand was a bag containing the credits he was promised and sat next to him the unconscious Bitz. He wasn’t quite sure where he had received it from, but he was sure things weren’t right. He saw his self travelling through time and he saw a bald man laughing at him.
The Doctor! He could remember.
He had used something in the TARDIS to knock him out. He wasn’t sure how, but the Doctor had gotten the better of him. He had to find the General and he had to come up with a new and better plan to fix all of this. He needed to get his revenge!
“Can we go home now?” asked Bitz, stirring from his slumber.
“No,” said Paragrim. “We need to find a way to get back at him.”
Bitz sighed. Would he ever get home?
***
Ben and Polly blinked as they stood looking down the corridor. They could have sworn they had just seen something unusual, but for the life of them they couldn’t place the memory. Neither of them mentioned this to each other and they headed back to the bunk room to see the Doctor.
By the time they reached the Doctor’s bed, the unusual occurrence had faded from their minds. The old and frail form of the Doctor was once again asleep in his bed.
A great change was coming and it would happen soon.
***
The TARDIS lurched and the Doctor stumbled slightly, clutching his recorder tightly. He looked to the ground and saw his companions, Ben and Polly, on the floor. He crossed over to them and they slowly began to stir.
“What’s going on?” asked Ben dizzily.
“I don’t know,” said the Doctor, struggling to remember. “I think the TARDIS must have just hit turbulence in the vortex.”
“Turbulence?” enquired Polly.
Ben laughed as he got to his feet. “Don’t you think it’s about time you learnt to steer this ship properly?”
Polly and the Doctor smiled at each other. Perhaps Ben was finally beginning to realise that this new man really was the Doctor.
And somewhere there was a fading memory.
***
The Doctor opened his eyes. He was on the floor of the console room again. Again? Where had he gone. He had the memory of being dragged across the ground. He even had the bumps and bruises to prove it. But as soon as he tried to work out the memory, it had faded. Now he was left with the droning and humming of the console room and the pain of the radiation eating away at his cells.
“Take me home,” said the Doctor in a faint whisper. “Please....take me home.”
***
Adric closed his eyes and then opened them again. The Doctor was standing beside the TARDIS near the edge of the forest. Adric had a memory of something shooting off into the sky, but that memory had gone.
“Are you coming then?” asked the curly haired Doctor.
“What?” said Adric, confused.
“We have work to do,” said the Doctor sternly.
Adric frowned and then followed the Doctor into the TARDIS.
The time machine slowly faded away leading only the sound of children playing in the distance.
***
He had the bats milk in his hand. He didn’t know how, but he was sure that someone had stopped him. A look of relief dawned on his face. He might just be able to get back in time to save Peri. He was unsure about himself though. There was only enough milk for Peri. So, that meant that it really was death this time. Popping the bats milk into his pocket, he struggled back up the tunnel.
***
‘Sparx!’ cried Evelyn as she knelt over the giant robot. The gash in his head was leaking what looked like glowing blue liquid. It was almost like liquid electricity. Evelyn had remembered the Doctor being attacked by the AWD. Then Sparx had turned up to help, and then....it was a blur. Somehow the giant robot had ended up on the floor, unconscious and with a large gash in his head and shoulder.
Evelyn stumbled away from Sparx and back to the Doctor. She began to cry and rested her head on the Doctor’s chest. Soon the sound of an alien-looking vehicle came from the direction of the other side of the bridge. Evelyn looked up as the ambulance screeched to a halt.
She looked back down to the Doctor. His eyes were open and he was smiling.
“Doctor!” she cried. “Are you okay?”
“Never felt better,” said the Doctor. “It was touch and go there for a while, but I think I’m going to be alright.”
***
The Doctor was pacing the console room. He stopped beside the console and tapped the handle of his umbrella on his chin. Then, with a frown, he continued to pace once more, awaiting the rendezvous with Chris and Roz. He didn’t like knowing things that weren’t available to know. He wanted to be in the loop. He felt as though something was missing, but the more he concentrated, the more he forgot.
And then it no longer mattered.
***
“Charley? What on Earth are we doing here?” asked the Doctor. He and Charley were clinging onto the freezing cold framework of the roller coaster.
Charley frowned. “It was the-”
“Yes?” asked the Doctor when she didn’t continued.
“I can’t remember. I’m sure I saw something on the beach. Did something attack us?”
“Don’t be daft,” came a voice from the roller coaster’s car. A man was looking down at them. “There was a fault with the ride and we stopped. You two tried climbing down the framework. Nutter’s if you ask me.”
There was a murmur of agreement among the other passengers.
The Doctor looked at Charley and frowned. “It seems that we are nutters, Miss Pollard.”
Charley broke into a smile and then shivered. Carefully the Doctor stepped over to her and took his coat off. Ignoring the chill, he placed the coat around Charley as the emergency rescue teams began to arrive.
***
The Doctor opened his eyes. He was sitting between Lynda with a “Y” and Captain Jack. They looked as solemn as he did, but he was sure he was missing something.
“You alright, Doc?” asked Jack, noticing the Doctor’s concerned face.
The Doctor frowned and then looked at Jack. He didn’t answer. All he wanted to do was get revenge. Revenge on the ones who had killed Rose.
***
The Doctor grabbed at a rock that had sunk slightly into the wet, gooey sand. He hefted it up and, closing his fingers tightly around it, flung it towards the sea.
He had to get a grip of himself. He had done some questionable things, and he knew the end was coming, but he had to pull himself together. Time was running out and he had so, so much to do before time turned.
***
The Doctor got to his feet, his hair a mess. He quickly ran his fingers through it to untangle the knots, and then looked around. Had he slipped over? He had a slight bump on his head. He must have hit it on the side of the TARDIS as he fell on the wet ground.
He took another look at the Ponds, quietly enjoying the DVD he had bought them. And then he smiled. Surely these two would be okay. Surely…
***
The First Doctor, Polly and Ben’s adventure continues in ‘The Tenth Planet’ as the Doctor reaches his first regeneration.
The Second Doctor, Polly and Ben’s adventure continues on the planet Vulcan in “The Power Of The Daleks“.
The Third Doctor eventually returns to UNIT HQ in “Planet Of The Spiders” after spending some time in the vortex.
The Fourth Doctor and Adric’s adventure’s continue in “Logopolis” where they confront the new version of the Master.
The Fifth Doctor’s attempts to save Peri’s life can be seen in “The Caves Of Androzani”.
The Sixth Doctor ad Evelyn can be seen in a special one-off story coming in 2014 called “War of the Machines”.
The Seventh Doctor’s adventures continue with Chris and Roz in Virgin Books “New Adventures“.
The Eighth Doctor’s adventures continue with Charley in a range of audio adventures released by Big Finish Productions.
The Ninth Doctor, Jack and Lynda with a “Y” make their move in “Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways”.
The Tenth Doctor finally meets his destiny in “The End of Time”
The Eleventh Doctor continues to watch Amy and Rory Pond’s marriage deteriorate in “Asylum of the Daleks.”
The Doctor sipped on the steaming mug of tea and then leaned back in the deck chair he had set up in the console room.
Caroline and Danny stood there, arms folded and looking rather annoyed.
“Yes?” said the Doctor.
“It’s all just perfectly normal to you, isn’t it?” said Caroline.
The Doctor put his mug down and kicked his legs up, resting them on the console. “Okay, I admit I don’t always delve into my past so closely, and, yes, I admit that it was all my fault.”
“You need to be careful!” snapped Danny. “Sometimes I never know if I’m going to wake up and still exist or not!”
“Okay, I’m sorry,” said the Doctor.
“And just one more thing,” said Caroline.
“Go on.”
“Were you the twelfth Doctor? Did you come after the floppy-haired tweedy one?”
The Doctor smiled. “No. He was some time ago now. My Twelfth incarnation had a wonderfully fantastic head of hair. Magnificent eyes!”
“Then what number are you?” said Caroline. “Just how many of you are there?”
The Doctor grinned and tapped his nose. “Now that would be telling.”
THE END
Next time: "The Story of the Ancestors". We return to our regular, ongoing story arc, with the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about what's been going on. Stand by for the cover, blurb and "Story So Far" bit to get you up to speed!
An absolutely great ending to a story i read with mixed feelings: On the one hand i got a little impatient ("Now Paragrim is "collecting" this doctor...then the next...AND the next one...so what?" - a bit of "all the same") but on the other hand there are all these references to the known stories and well-known incarnations, which is clever and keeps up the tension.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as i said before, this last chapter is something special, esp.the part where we readers are being told how all the sub-plots will continue..!!