28 Jun 2014

Number 17 (Part 4)

The Doctor was leant forward, his chin resting on the top of his hand as he stared at the fireplace.

“So you just forgot?” said Maxus.

“I didn’t just forget,” said the Doctor. “I suffered a major trauma to my body and mind. The temporal energy caused me to regenerate, and the Master colliding with me in the vortex didn’t help.”

“But you’ve remembered now?” said Tylaya.

“You see,” said the Doctor, tapping on his temple, “memories are never really gone. They’re just buried. Hidden away. It just needed a few triggers to bring them back.”

“All this is foreign to me,” said Norman who was standing by the mantel piece sipping on a brandy.

“Yes,” said Nancy. “What about these ghosts?”

“Well,” said the Doctor, leaping to his feet, thinking better of it and swaying slightly and then staring up at the ceiling. “They’re not technically ghosts.”

“They’re the family, aren’t they?” said Tylaya.

“Yep,” said the Doctor. “As I said: bubbles always rise to the surface.”

Maxus looked around the room. “So this 6 hour bubble is pushing it’s way through to our world?”

“Yes,” said the Doctor, “and so it appears that they are ghosts when really they‘re not. We’re just catching glimpses of them and their actions.”

“I thought you knew what you were doing.”

“I did know what I was doing. But with time experiments there’s always an element of risk.”

“So what do we do?” said Nancy. “How can we free these ghosts?”

The Doctor looked sad for a moment, remembering the hope that the Sleight’s had when they realised they’d be able to continue living with their son around, however short that time space in the bubble was.

“I have the date that they left now,” said the Doctor.

The house shook and they heard a scream from somewhere in the walls.

“I can try and fly the TARDIS back to the bubble. It’s with extreme risk though,” he said, glancing at both Tylaya and Maxus. “I don’t expect either one of you to come with me.”

“Is that worry creeping through, Doc?” said Maxus, raising his eyebrows.

“Don’t push your luck,” said the Doctor.

The Doctor headed out of the living room and to the front door where Nancy caught up with him. “Look, Doctor,” she said, putting a hand on his shoulder, “I don’t claim to understand really what’s going here, but if you don’t come back from this…bubble thing, what happens?”

The Doctor looked at her with all the seriousness of a GP delivering bad news to his patient. “The bubble will break through into this time zone where it will grow exponentially until it consumes everything in it’s path.”

“We all die?” said Nancy, trying to simplify things in her brain.

The Doctor nodded once and then turned to leave.

“Good luck,” she shouted.

As the Doctor reached the TARDIS and unlocked the door Tylaya came running out.

“What?” said the Doctor, looking down at her.

“I’m coming with you. I figure you may need someone with you if thing’s go south.”

“And what about Maxus?” said the Doctor, nodding towards her fiancé standing in the doorway.

“He’s not happy, but I feel I owe you-”

“You don’t owe me anything,” he said, going inside the box.

“I do. I really, really do.”




The Doctor and Tylaya stood at the console. The Doctor had inputted the dates and was busy working on reconfiguring the time drives so they could bypass normal space and slip back into the bubble.

Tylaya gently tapped the top of the console nervously.

“Stop that,” said the Doctor curtly.

“Sorry,” she said.

He glanced at her. “Apology accepted.”

“I really am sorry,” said Tylaya.

“Don’t start again,” said the Doctor, shaking his head.

“I never meant for this to happen.”

“But it did happen, Tylaya, didn’t it? You and your boyfriend killed a perfectly innocent woman. Everything she ever was: gone. And I’ll never forgive you or him for that.”

“If I could take it all back-”

“But you can’t.”

“Don’t you understand,” she said, tears in her eyes. “I’m trying to make things better between us.”

“You can’t.”

“But, Doctor.”

“I don‘t want things to be better between us!”

The loudness of the Doctor’s voice echoed around the church-like console room and was followed by a deafening silence. Tylaya backed away from him and went to sit on the sofa. For the first time ever, she felt frightened of him. And for the first time she didn’t feel safe anymore.

The Doctor turned to face her. “I’m dying, Tylaya. I know that. I’ve known that for a long time, but it was only when I met Alice that I really felt that I could accept that. Before then I was busy looking around for ways to save me. Regenesis machines and stupid pills to keep me going. But then Caroline and Danny left me and I met Alice. And she made me realise that it didn’t matter that I was dying. I just had to enjoy the rest of my life for as long as I could.”

He plugged a device into the console and flicked a switch.

“And so I got on with life. I was going to take Alice to so many different world’s and times. She wanted to go and see the Beatles back in 1961 in the Cavern. She wanted to visit the Moonbase after it had first opened. She wanted to see what would become of her race. How can she do that now? I was just starting to get to know her.”

Tylaya didn’t know what to say.

“So, instead of me imparting all my wisdom to a young lady who wanted to see the world, I instead have to spend the rest of this miserable incarnations life with you two. Two murderers.” He punched another couple of buttons and the TARDIS began it’s flight. “So, no, Tylaya. I will not forgive you. I will not forgive Maxus, and if I could give you two up to get Alice back I’d do it in a heart beat.”

Tylaya felt sick.

“Now hold the bloody hell onto something. We’re in the vortex and about to hit the bubble.”

A few minutes later the TARDIS engines were grinding and sparks were issuing from the console. The whole ship shook and lurched as the TARDIS tried to enter into the bubble.

Tylaya felt sick before, but now she felt even more sick as the ship vibrated.

The Doctor remained standing at the console, one hand on the controls and another steadying himself on his cane.

Then, finally, the ship came to a halt.




The TARDIS doors opened and the Doctor stepped out. All around was some kind of misty substance and somewhere in the distance the Doctor could hear a child singing a nursery rhyme. It wasn’t a voice he recognised either.




All my incarnations
Standing in a row
When they are gone
Where do they go?





Tylaya came up behind him. “This is the bubble?”

“It’s deteriorated beyond anything recognisable,” said the Doctor. “When the bubble was created it would have been perfectly fine. Now the poor Wallis’s are hearing the families cries.”

“Doctor!” screamed Emily in the distance. “Doctor! Help us!”

The Doctor went as fast as he could, followed by Tylaya, into the thick mist until eventually he discovered the tree that had stood in the garden of number 17. It looked completed out of place and sitting at the base of the tree, cradling herself and rocking backwards and forwards, was Emily.

“Emily,” said the Doctor, crouching down in front of her.

Her tear soaked eyes looked up at him and frowned. “You’re not the Doctor.”

“No,” he said, “but I’m a friend.” He helped her to her feet and then held out his hand. “John Smith.”

She took his hand and forced a smile. “It all went wrong,” she said.

“The Doctor told me what he had done. He never thought it would have gotten this bad.” The Doctor tried to peer into the thick mist. “Where’s everybody else?”

“I don’t know,” said Emily. “Everything just started falling apart.”

There was a flash of green light and the fog seemed to billow away from them and, amazingly, get even thicker.

“Come on,” said the Doctor, taking Emily’s hand and guiding her and Tylaya through the fog.




“Pure temporal energy,” said a voice.

The Doctor span around. They had been walking for some time, but somehow he had lost Emily and Tylaya. Now he was standing on his own.

A woman with blondish-grey hair and a cardigan wandered from out of the mist. She looked kind and he recognised her. He recognised her from when he was back in Thornsby. He’d had a vision of her and she’d pointed at a tree branch for him to help himself up.

“Who are you?” said the Doctor.

“Someone who is concerned,” said the woman.

“Do you have anything to do with this house?” said the Doctor.

“No,” she said, smiling. “I’m simply using this bubble as a crossing point - a stepping stone, if you will - to speak to you. It’s incredibly difficult, you know.”

“Why?”

“Because of where I come from.”

“Which is where?” The Doctor was getting frustrated.

She smiled. “I’m not sure you’re ready for that answer yet.”

“Typical,” said the Doctor, looking around for Tylaya and Emily.

“Look, have you considered returning to your home?”

“How do you know who I am?”

“I know everything about you,” she smiled. “So, have you?”

“I can’t do that. Not now,” said the Doctor quickly.

“No, and that’s a good thing.” She stepped closer to him. “It’s good because there is another way for you to heal yourself.”

“What? How?”

“It depends on whether you can face the journey.”

He looked at her closely. “I’ve accepted my fate.”

“And you don’t have many days ahead of you now, but do you really want to die?”

“Like I said, I’ve accepted my fate.”

The woman nodded. “Very well.” And she stepped back into the mist.

“Wait!” said the Doctor.

“If you should change your mind, all you have to do is find Mount Cassius,” said her disembodied voice. “There is someone known to you there who needs your help.”

“Who?”

But she was gone.




The Doctor moved on through the mist until he could make out the large, looming shape of Number 17. It looked so strange to see it here amongst the nothingness.

“Over here!” came Emily’s voice.

Tylaya was there too. She reached out a hand and the Doctor reluctantly took it as he was guided through the back door.

Inside the house was cold, dark and grey. There was a smell of sulphur in the air.

“Who are you?” said Geoff, his rough northern accent coming back to the Doctor as if he’d never forgotten it.

“I’m a friend of Doctor Galloway,” said the Doctor. “John Smith.”

“Well,” said Geoff, “he’s got a cheek.”

“He apologises for this series of unfortunate events,” said the Doctor.

“Easy on him, Geoff,” said Maria as the rest of the family joined Geoff, Tylaya, Emily and the Doctor in the kitchen.

“Tell me what happened,” said the Doctor.

“Everything was alright at first,” said Maria, “and then we noticed the sulphur smell. We had no idea what it was.”

“And then the walls started to sweat,” said Gladys, shivering at the thought.

“Sweat?” said the Doctor.

“Built up condensation,” said Maria. “And then things started falling apart. We could always see the outside world, even though we knew we couldn’t leave the garden, but slowly it started to fade away like some sort of mist.”

“I’m sorry,” said the Doctor sadly.

“Not your fault,” said Geoff. “It’s Galloway’s fault.”

“Okay, Geoff,” said Maria, “that’s enough now. The Doctor couldn’t have known this was going to happen.”

“Hmmm,” said Geoff, turning away.

“Can you put it right?” said Maria.

“I can try,” said the Doctor. “But you do realise that if I take you away from here then your son will die?” He nodded at Liam.

“I know,” said Liam before the rest of them could answer, “but we can’t stay in this nightmare any longer.”

Maria looked as though she was about to burst into tears again and restrained herself. “It’s something we talked about should we have ever managed to find a way out. We understand the consequences.”

“Okay,” said the Doctor. “Then let’s do this.”




Twenty minutes later the Doctor and Tylaya had helped the family wade through the soup-like mist until they reached the doorway of the TARDIS.

“So did he just give you his time machine?” said Maria.

“I’m borrowing,” smiled the Doctor.

“I’ve always wanted to see inside this thing,” said Liam in awe.




Aftter the questions and the gasps and the surprises and the not-good-enough answers, the TARDIS was ready to leave the bubble.

The Doctor hovered over the console, deep in concentration.

“What is it?” said Tylaya.

“It’s just very…difficult.”

“What is?”

“Closing off a time bubble. It requires a lot of energy. I don’t know if the TARDIS even has enough power to break away from it,” said the Doctor, his voice a whisper so the family wouldn’t hear.

“You have to try,” said Tylaya. “They - we - can’t stay here forever.”

“I know,” said the Doctor. “It’s just…there was somebody inside that bubble.”

“Somebody?”

“An old woman. She knew me. She said that if I decided to live I had to find a place called Mount Cassius.”

“It doesn’t ring a bell.”

“Me neither.” He straightened himself up. “Okay, let’s give this a whirl.”

He pulled the lever and the TARDIS engines groaned into life. The Doctor flittered around the console, programming information into the control panels. The engines began rattling worryingly and the crystals in the central column were glowing brightly.

“So how does this work?” asked Maria, keeping close to her worried family.

“I’m going to attempt to suck the bubble up.”

“What?”

“I can’t just leave the time bubble here. It’s rapidly deteriorating and it’s bleeding through into our world.”

“What’s been happening?” said Geoff.

“There’s a nice old couple leaving in your house now and they think they’re seeing ghosts. What they’re actually seeing are your actions and echoes from within the bubble. If we don’t shut it down, it’ll continue to expand until it moves beyond number 17 and into the rest of the town.”

“Jesus…” said Geoff.

“Exactly,” said the Doctor. He worked at the controls for a good ten minutes and then looked up. “I’ve programmed the TARDIS to pull the bubble out with us as we dematerialise. It should be like a vacuum cleaner sucking up dirt. Hopefully the bubble itself will be enough to give the TARDIS the power it needs to escape. I say should.”

“Should?” said Tylaya, worriedly.

“Well, it could go wrong.”

They all looked at the Doctor with worry on their faces.

“Worst case scenario,” continued the Doctor, “is that the bubble is unleashed on the town and it causes temporal chaos.”

“Oh,” said Tylaya.

“But as that’s likely to happen if we don’t close it down anyway…well, we might as well take the risk.”

Gladys sat on the sofa with the two children whilst Maria and Geoff held each other close. Tylaya held tightly onto the console.

“Ready?” said the Doctor, turning to her.

She nodded.

He pulled the lever.

Outside the TARDIS began to dematerialise from the bubble. All around the green mist swirled and churned around. It was like a river running around and past a boulder.

The TARDIS rumbled and shook, vibrating violently. Soon the mist started to swirl and coalesce towards the blue police box. The mist was being sucked towards the TARDIS like iron filings being drawn to a magnet.

Slowly the bubble began to close in around the TARDIS.

Inside everyone was holding on for dear life.

“Hold on, people,” said the Doctor. “Here we go!”




The street was still and silent as the TARDIS materialised with a violent shake. The door opened and the Doctor, Tylaya and the Sleight’s piled out, smoke billowing from the interior behind them.

“Everything okay?” said Maxus, running out of the house, watched on by the shocked Wallis’s.

“Fine,” said the Doctor, coughing and spluttering.

“We made it!” said Emily with glee.

“Thank you, Mr Smith,” said Geoff clasping the Doctor’s hand warmly.

“You’re welcome,” said the Doctor with a smile.

“Doctor,” said Liam, slowly approaching the Time Lord, “thank you.”

“Liam..”

“It’s okay, Doctor,” he said slowly.

“How did you know it was me?”

“Only the Doctor would try and help me as much as you have. I don’t know how you look different, but it doesn’t matter.”

The Doctor nodded. “Liam, if there was any way that I could help you…”

“You gave me a few more years with my family,” he said, “and that was brilliant. Scary, but brilliant.”

The Doctor puffed out his cheeks, blowing out air. “Bless you, my boy.”




One day later




The Doctor had helped the Sleight’s to try and reintegrate into society and the Wallis’s had also helped. There were many questions and not many answers, but the Doctor felt that he was able to leave both families to deal with what was going to happen next.

Tylaya had begged the Doctor to try and help further, but he had simply shaken his head.

“Me helping is what got that poor family in that unfortunate situation.”

“But he’s just a kid,” said Tylaya.

“I know,” said the Doctor. “I know.”

Liam had taken a turn for the worst in the night, but as the Doctor, Tylaya and Maxus stood at the door of the TARDIS, looking back at number 17, Liam had found the strength to come to the front door.

Maria had her arms around him and Liam gave a weak wave to the time travellers.

The Doctor nodded back at him, and then they turned to leave.




A few days later Maria sat in the garden, gazing up at the clouds. She held Liam’s baseball cap in her hands, her eyes filled with tears.

Then, with a burst of light, the clouds parted, the sunlight streaming down. He was up their somewhere. Happy and well again.

She smiled.




Mount Cassius, The 3rd Moon of Barrisk




He entered the castle chamber, his footsteps echoing on the flagstones. With every step he felt more and more like he was heading into the web of a spider.

And then the spider appeared.

A very beautiful woman with long, red hair and a long, flowing black dress that showed off an impressive figure. She was wearing some kind of head band with a green jewel set into the centre of it. She eyed him up with distrust, her arms folded.

“My lady,” he said.

“Koschei,” she said.

“Please, my lady,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes, “I’ve not used that name for some time now.”

“As you wish,” said the woman with a sigh, “Master.”

He grinned.

“And you can dispense with the ‘lady’ if you would.”

“Of course, Celestia.” He bowed his head slightly, but it was more out of courtesy. She held no royal powers over anyone.

“So what do I owe this pleasure?” she said, as he slowly walked up to her.

“You’ve heard of what’s happening to the Doctor?”

“Whispers,” said Celestia. “It’s not the first time he’s been in a pickle, you know?”

“I agree,” said the Master, “but he’s always had help to…fix him.” He narrowed his eyes. “And we all know why he can’t get help from Gallifrey.”

Celestia narrowed her lips and breathed out through her nose. “Then he’ll just have to suffer the consequences and die.”

The Master chuckled. “Oh, you’re cold, Celestia. This is the Doctor we’re talking about.”

“And why do you want to help him so much? You’ve always been at each others throats.” She shook her head, laughing. “Goodness me, even before he ran away the first time you were at each others throats.”

“Yes,” said the Master, nodding in agreement, “but even I can change. The truth is that I don’t want him to die. If he’s to die, then it should be by my hands and standing tall as a true Time Lord.”

Celestia laughed. “Are you sure that’s the only reason?”

“It’s the only reason you need to know.” Almost instinctively he scratched at the side of his face.

Celestia frowned at him. “Indeed. Well, what is it that you expect me to help you with?”

“Your husband.”

“My husband died a long, long time ago,” she said sharply. “What does this have to do with him?”

“I know it’s still a sensitive subject, but if you’ll agree to help me I’ll be happy to bring you all the information I have from my TARDIS.”

“Again, what has this got to do with my late husband?”

The Master smiled. He had her now. “Because I believe that what killed your husband can help the Doctor.”

She frowned. “This is a family matter, Master. You shouldn’t be getting involved.”

“Oh, come off it, Celestia.”

“No. When Reikon and my son died it destroyed my world.”

“And the Doctor was there for you.”

“Yes,” she said sternly.

“Well he would be, wouldn’t he?” said the Master. “And you can’t deny him the help now. After all, your husband - Reikon - was one of his brothers.”

The End


Doctor Who: Darkpaths will now take a mid-season break. It will return with "The Trees of Cologne" on Saturday August 2nd 2014. 

For more information on why we are taking a break, please see the upcoming information posts over the next week. Also keep a look out for the cover and blurb for "The Trees of Cologne" as well as a "Story So Far..." post.

No comments:

Post a Comment