The Doctor looked at the monitor screen and noticed that his arrival on Earth was imminent. It seemed to him that as he drew closer to his arrival on the planet, his apprehension grew and he had a feeling of dread gnawing at him in the pit of his stomach. Rounding the console, he went to activate the holographic scanner controls. He reached out his hand, fingertips just barely brushing the scanner's controls...
Xena had been up for some time before Gabrielle had woken and the morning air in the camp site was cool and sweet and there was a hint of wisteria wafting in the breeze. A low fire in the camp was producing smoke and a small amount of heat as the meat on the spit above it roasted slowly. The smell of cooking flesh made Gabrielle hungry and it seemed to her that the dried fruit and jerky would make a fine complement to the meal. Xena hadn't told her what animal she had caught and was using for breakfast, but in Gabrielle's reckoning, it must have been a rabbit, but of that, she couldn't be sure. At that moment, Xena walked back into the clearing and Gabrielle hadn't noticed which made Xena's first words startle her.
"Good morning, sleepyhead. Is breakfast ready yet?"
"Xena! I really wish you wouldn't sneak up on me like that. You nearly gave me a heart attack. But yeah, I think it's ready."
"Good let's eat. Oh, and one more thing..."
"What?" Gabrielle replied.
"Try to remember that my chakram is a weapon and not a fillet knife. The last time you used it to clean that eel, it took me three days and two whole bars of aloe and senna soap to get rid of the smell."
"Hey, turnabout is fair play, especially after you used my scrolls."
Xena turned to look at the bard and a moment of silence passed between them before they both burst into a fit of laughter. Gabrielle reached out for the stake on which the savory meat was roasting...
The funeral was proceeding slowly and Ian Chesterton, retired schoolmaster, had gotten up to deliver a small eulogy in behalf of his dear departed friend, Barbara Wright. With a grace and dignity that he did not feel, combined with utter solemnity, Ian made the trip to the podium forcing himself to walk each step. In his sorrow-laden heart, it seemed to take an eternity to get there. The First Doctor and Susan, along with the Doctor's other selves, were seated at the back of the assembled mourners and watching with a great sadness. They watched Ian as he spoke, forcing the words through a barrage of emotion. The old schoolmaster seemed to have aged even more as though Barbara's death had exacted an unusual toll on him. He cleared his throat and reached out for the glass of water on the podium with his right hand...
The planet Earth turned slowly on its axis, as if a participant in a cosmic ballet. The scene shifted as time became unraveled around the Temporal Nexus Point. Earth seemed to undergo some bizarre kind of temporal fragmentation and instead of there being only one Earth, there were now three, overlapping in a way that no planet ever should. The spectral scene wavered eerily as the three discontinuous Earths slowed and stopped in their spinning and froze for a split second. The planet and its ghostly sister images spun in reverse as time inexplicably flowed backward over the planet causing the last thirty seconds to repeat themselves. The effect rippled outward into the cosmos...
The Doctor looked at the monitor and apprehension built inside him. His fingertips brushed against the holographic scanner controls...
"Good morning, sleepyhead! Breakfast ready yet?"
"Xena! I REALLY wish you wouldn't sneak up on me like that. You nearly gave me a heart attack. But yeah I think it's ready."
"Good let's eat." Gabrielle reached out for the stake on which the rabbit was roasting...
The Doctor's first seven personas and Susan watched Ian as he spoke. He cleared his throat and reached out for the glass of water on the podium with his right hand...
For a brief moment, time and logic paused for no readily apparent reason as the whole fabric of time and space did a joojooflop twist inside-out...
The effect was tremendous. In the TARDIS, the air in the console room seemed to ripple, seethe and pulse and the Doctor grimaced, grasping his temple with one hand and attempting to steady himself against the console with the other as his legs gave way beneath him. The disruption of the space-time continuum caused pain to shoot through his body and his vision filled with distorted images of his ship, as though the fine woodwork were drying, cracking and aging. At the same time, the Doctor felt a weird sense of unity with his previous incarnations as the wave of temporal backwash hit them and Susan as well. They also suffered the ill effects of distorted images of different people and things and attempted a psychic bond to stave off the worst of the effects, with a minimal of success. In ancient Greece, as Gabrielle touched the spit, she stopped and stared at Xena who stared back at her. A massive wave of deja-vu washed over them and together they chorused, "Amphipolis."
The effect was over almost as quickly as it had begun. The TARDIS had begun to materialize by the stone wall that ran along the outer perimeter of the cemetery. The ship's usual trumpeting materialization "VWORP" noise sounded different. It was strangled and more hoarse sounding as if the ship herself were in pain and struggling to make a contact point in space-time. Summoning all the energies at her command, the ship punched a hole through to real space and laid a tenuous algebraic anchor in 1997 London. The TARDIS' Police Box hull shimmered and pulsed in and out of view as she struggled to phase into reality. The light atop the ship flashed an angry red instead of its usual bluish-white. At last, after a bitter struggle, the ship's ancient engines completed the materialization sequence with a final wheezing rattle. The TARDIS' arrival, as usual, had gone completely unnoticed and this amazed the Doctor as he stumbled forth from his machine. Seeing as how the fabric of space-time had just been briefly turned inside out, it didn't come as a complete surprise. He amused himself with the thought of being one of the many humans on this backwards planet that hadn't noticed a thing and was instantly reminded of something he had said to his companion Ace in his last incarnation when the Daleks had tried to claim the Hand of Omega in 1963 London.
"This is Earth, 1963. Well somebody would have noticed, I would have heard about it," Ace protested.
"Do you remember the Yetis in the Underground? Or the Zygon Gambit with the Loch Ness Monster?" The Doctor queried.
Ace gave him an incredulous look; "Do what?"
The Doctor gave an exasperated sigh and said, "Your species has the most amazing capacity for self-deception matched only by its ingenuity when trying to destroy itself..."
The Doctor paused and leant against the ship's outer frame before moving forward out of the door. Another painful spasm caught him across the temples and he stumbled out grasping his head in both hands as the episode climaxed to its painful conclusion. Yards away, the funeral was in progress and the weary Time Lord made his way towards the assembled crowd of mourners; the shock to his system beginning to overwhelm him as pain and dizziness began to overtake him. Ian stopped what he was saying and looked up to see the stranger stumble into the crowd further upsetting those who were already greatly distraught. The Doctor's vision swam with distorted figures and images that was just beginning to clear. At the sight of this man stumbling like a drunk, the Doctor's previous seven personas rushed up to the podium. Ian also rushed forward intent on learning the reason for this unseemly conduct and was caught entirely unawares as he came face to face with the man that had shown him and Barbara the universe and whom he hadn't seen in more than thirty years. The Eighth Doctor was suddenly being cradled and surrounded by his previous selves; his first self and Ian facing off with each other and the gathered mourners in an uproar over the inexcusable disturbance of the funeral. As had been said several times before in any event concerning the Doctor, all hell broke loose.
IN THE CAVERNS OF AMPHIPOLIS:
Random charges and bursts of temporal energy crackled over the smooth obsidian surface of the Gate of Rassilon. The air in front of the alien time portal rippled and it seemed to come to rest in the center of the Gate's hexagonal frame. A loud thunderclap sounded with a brilliant burst of dazzling white light and Ares stepped forth from the Gate as energy surged around and through his body. He doubled over grunting with the strain and then little by little straightened himself until he made the last few inches and throwing his arms wide, shook off the last of the ill effects he was suffering. The transport from Mount Olympus hadn't been easy and the War God's dark curls were a disheveled mess and his tunic looked as though it had been singed in a fire. He gave his clothes a cursory glance and letting out a mock sigh, said,"As with so many things in the mortal world; easy come, easy go." He snapped his fingers and a halo of silver light crawled over his body and returned his clothes to their usual gleaming black and silver. He turned back to face the Gate which sat cold and silent except for the random charges of energy dashing over its surface. He sensed a presence and would have sworn it was listening to him and he said,"I normally don't mind a healthy rivalry, just to keep things from getting old and boring, but when that rivalry gets to become a major obstacle, it usually gets moved out of the way, permanently. Especially," he paused for a second, "When it poaches MY territory!" Ares let a bolt of energy fly at the Gate and watched as it danced over the artifact's surface not so much as scarring it. The Gate then somehow threw Ares' bolts back at him and time froze as the two powers collided. The unleashing of temporal and deity energies caused another severe wrinkle in the fabric of space-time to ripple outward through the cosmos as it spread backward, forward and sideways in time.
"Xena, what's going on?" Gabrielle asked.
"I don't know, but I intend to find out. I've got a feeling that whatever it is, it's got to be big. Consider all that we've been through the last couple of days. First we turn unexpectedly at each other's throats, then the strange weather patterns and now we both think of Amphipolis."
"Could something be going on there? What if someone or something is trying to stop us from getting to Poteidaia. But if it is someone, who would it be and why?"
"No, this isn't the work of human hands. This seems to be a hallmark of the gods. This has the makings of one of their schemes."
"Alright, let's say that's the case. I mean, isn't this just a little on the unusual side, even for them?"
"I've learned not to put anything past them, but this does seem a little far-fetched compared to the usual sorts of tricks they get up to. Unless..." Xena's voice trailed off.
"Unless what?" Gabrielle questioned.
"Unless it's the work of an outside force."
"Now who would possibly..." Gabrielle's voice trailed off as a horrific thought formed in the back of her mind. She turned to face the warrior.
"Xena, you don't think? I mean, it couldn't be could it? After all, we destroyed him in Britannia, didn't we?" The Warrior Princess didn't say anything but stayed grimly silent. Gabrielle reigned in the terror that threatened to overwhelm her and forced the thoughts she feared from her own lips,
"Xena, could it be Dahak?"
"I don't know...I just don't know."
The mourners at the funeral had largely cleared and even though the police had been called in, when the description of the man, or rather, men who had interrupted the funeral had been given, no-one had apparently seen or seemed to remember them. It was as if they hadn't existed.
"Gabrielle, I really think the we should postpone the trip to Poteidaia. It's imperative that we find out what, if anything, is happening in Amphipolis."
"Xena, I can understand your wanting to get home and be near your mother, but my family is in Poteidaia. What if they're in danger?"
"I don't really think your family has anything to worry about. Besides, IF something is up in Amphipolis and we don't stop it before it spreads,"
"Provided we can stop it," Gabrielle cut in.
"As I was saying, IF we don't stop it, who's to say that Poteidaia, if not all Greece won't fall next?"
"I'm sorry...I just panicked a little. I can't help this nagging feeling that we're missing something important here and it frightens me."
"I know and it's okay. But we have got to keep calm and clear heads if we're going to see this thing through. Besides, it may not have anything to do at all with Amphipolis. Maybe something as outrageous as Mount Olympus itself could be under attack."
"Just imagine it...the final twilight of the gods," Gabrielle added almost as an afterthought.
The Doctor was surrounded by his previous seven personas. Once again, Gallifrey's most loved rogue was being allowed a glimpse into his own future. The eighth incarnation of the Time Lord was motionless on the floor of the caretaker's shed; his eyes closed as if in death. Susan reached out to gently touch the face of the man who was, even though he barely looked older than she herself, the future incarnation of her grandfather. The Doctor's skin was freezing to the touch. Amidst all of the ruckus and confusion, Ian had followed the Doctors in when they had carried their future, literally, into the shed. When a chance presented itself, the old schoolmaster pulled the Doctor, the man he knew as the Doctor, aside with a steely grip and looked him squarely in the eye. After thirty years, their physical appearance made it impossible to tell that 220 years separated them in age. Anger crossed Ian's face as he beheld the old man. The look was not lost on the Doctor and it seemed to the older man the schoolmaster's face held a universe of anger and that it was directed towards him. The air bristled as the wills of the two men collided invisibly in the atmosphere of the small hut.
"Schoolmaster! Take your hands off me!" The Doctor positively hissed in vehemence.
"No!" Ian shot back, "I want some answers damn it. And I want them now."
"I haven't time to pander to your childish imaginings!"
Ian had grabbed the Doctor roughly, swinging him around and almost causing him to fall. There was a glimmer of sorrow that suddenly pierced the schoolmaster's heart as the Doctor suddenly seemed less the powerful man of vast intelligence and mystery and more like a paper doll. The old man, however, made a quick recovery and shook himself free of Ian's vise-like grip. The schoolmaster's verbal tirade continued, his voice raw with pent up emotion.
"She died! And the reason she died is because of you! It's your fault Doctor! YOU KILLED BARBARA!!" Ian's outburst had startled all of the Doctor's personas. Susan instinctively leapt to her grandfather's defense.
"Mr. Chesterton! Grandfather had nothing to do with it! He didn't even know Ms. Wright had died until I told him. It was I who contacted him and informed him of her passing. He didn't know!" Ian turned on his and Barbara's one time pupil in near hysteria.
"But don't you see? The doctors could never determine what exactly it was that was destroying Barbara's body on the inside. Oh, I know the obituary stated that it was believed to be a rare form of leukemia, but it was alien in nature. An alien disease took its toll on her and killed her. It KILLED her!! None of this, none of it, would have ever happened had she stayed on Earth and never stepped foot into that damned TARDIS!"
"So you blame me, do you Chesterton? You blame me!? I'll remind you that it was your own curiosity that landed you in my TARDIS. You wouldn't be content to keep your noses out of affairs that were of no concern to you and as a result you and Barbara both forced, yes, FORCED, your way into my ship uninvited and unannounced. You did this to yourselves!"
By this time, what little composure Ian had left completely crumbled and the old schoolmaster was sobbing in abject grief; weary, he determined to fight on. Taking a deep breath and drawing himself up to his full height, he started to launch into the Doctor again as Susan moved to get between them.
"Grandfather! Mr. Chesterton! Please! With everything else that has happened today, this is no time to dredge up past hurts. Miss Wright wouldn't have wanted it this way. And we also have to figure out who that man is." She pointed to the prone figure of the Eighth Doctor. His brow had started to twitch as though he were dreaming. It was at this point that one of the other men stepped forward, his brow creased in concentration; gaze locked on the motionless figure on the floor. He was short and had dark hair that was short and somewhat curly and was just beginning to grey on the sides where it stuck out from under panama hat complete with a red paisley hat band. In his hand he carried a black umbrella with a red question mark for its handle and he was dressed in a smart, cream-colored linen suit. Ian stared down at the little man through his tears ready to turn his attack on the little fellow who's gaze now transfixed him. The little man cut him off.
"Another question that I have that I want answered-"
"If it's answers you want Ian, so be it."
The little man looked at Ian, locking him in a steely gaze. The old schoolmaster felt all of the anger and frustration of the last few days and past several years suddenly drain out of him and as it faded he was at a loss as to a reason why. As it continued to fade, he seemed to forget why he had been upset or that he had even been upset at all. He was completely captured by the gaze of the strange little man who's blue, no wait, green, or was it grey?-Ian wasn't sure-eyes of the man seemed to hold a universe of knowledge and the schoolmaster seemed to lose himself. In the space of mere seconds, Ian had gone from desperately irate to the calm at the eye of the storm. Ian could feel the little man's presence in his mind and that's when he saw it all-the unfolding story of the Doctor's lives...
He saw the Doctor's flight from Gallifrey with Susan and the numerous adventures he had over the centuries with various companions. Ian relieved all the adventures that he and Barbara had with the Doctor and how the old man's travels had continued long after they had returned to their own time. The Daleks had returned to haunt the Doctor and the scenes played themselves out and that's when he saw them. Great hulking metal creatures that looked roughly like men were invading the Earth's South Pole in the year 1986 as the Doctor battled the insidious Cybermen; the fight that had triggered his first regeneration into his second incarnation. He heard the words of the Doctor's then companions, Ben and Polly, echo in his mind,
"So he just gets himself a new one!?"
"Well, yes..."
Ian also saw the Daleks continue to haunt the Doctor after his regeneration as well as the returning menace of the Cybermen and a host of other evils. He heard the Doctor's second incarnation say to Polly,
Every detail of the Doctor's lives played themselves out and Ian saw it all and the Doctor's reason for what he did. He had seen the Doctor, his Doctor change into the form of the Second Doctor with a mop of untidy jet-black hair. He saw this form forced to stand some kind of trial for blatantly disobeying the non-interference policy of his people, the Time Lords. The words of one of the judges rang clearly in the schoolmaster's mind,
"The time has come for you to change your appearance, Doctor, and begin your exile..."
The Doctor was sentenced by the Time Lords to exile on Earth and his new and third form was tall and somewhat a dandy. He had a hawkish nose, prematurely white hair and he was possessed of a penchant for frilly shirts and velvet smoking jackets. He saw the time the Doctor's then three incarnations were brought together to battle the Omega crisis and he heard each of them make some comment,
"So what are we going to do?" asked his then companion, Jo Grant.
"Well at least we can watch that thing in comfort and then we can send in a report and see what they have to say about it."
Then Ian heard the Second Doctor speaking with a military sergeant, he thought,
"Doc, I think the strain's been a bit too much for him. Well, what are we gonna do now?"
"Keep it confused; feed it with useless information. I wonder if I have a television set handy?"
Also, with the Omega situation, Ian heard the First Doctor address his two later selves,
"Oh, so you're my replacements; a dandy and a clown."
The Doctor's adventures in his third body continued and Ian saw that after the Omega crisis, the Time Lords pardoned him and he soon gained a new companion. She was a beautiful dark-haired girl called Sarah Jane Smith. Ian saw the Third Doctor's life end as a grief-stricken Sarah Jane kneeled beside him, his body destroyed by the power crystals in the Chamber of the Great One on Metebelis 3;
"A tear Sarah Jane? While there's life there's..."
The Doctor's appearance changed again into an even younger man who had brown curly hair, bright blue eyes and child-like innocence framed by a battered old fedora and a ridiculously long multi-colored scarf and bohemian clothing. Ian saw Sarah continue to travel with the Doctor in this, his fourth form, which Ian noticed seemed to be his longest life to this point. Ian saw Sarah leave, saw Leela and the fight to save Gallifrey from invasion by the Sontarans. Ian saw the Doctor trying to escape the President's office during this adventure and heard him say,
"Even the sonic screwdriver won't get me out of this one..." Leela stayed on Gallifrey and the Doctor then traveled with the Time Lady Romana in search of the Key to Time before she, too, changed her appearance. He saw the two Time Lords stop over in Paris, France and heard them talking,
"Where are we going?" Romana asked.
"Are you speaking philosophically or geographically?" came his reply.
"Philosophically."
"Then in that case, we're going to lunch..."
Ian saw Romana leave the Doctor when she stayed behind in E-Space and then saw him sacrifice his fourth life to save the universe from his arch-enemy the Master. The Doctor's body plummeted to the ground from a fall from a radio telescope and Ian heard the Doctor's broken fourth form say,
"It's the end, but the moment has been prepared for."
The Doctor's form changed again into his youngest yet of all his personas-a man with fair hair dressed in an Edwardian cricketer's outfit. This version had many adventures including the Death Zone Affair on Gallifrey when again, all the Doctor's personas were brought together to battle the criminal insanity of the then Lord President, Borusa. After the affair concluded he heard the Doctor's fifth self talking to his companions Tegan and Turlough,
"It'll soon be goodbye then," said Tegan.
"Will it?"
"Well, you're off to Gallifrey to be President," said Turlough, "I suppose your Time Lord subjects will find a TARDIS that really works and get us both home."
"Who said anything about Gallifrey?"
"You told Chancellor Flavia..." Turlough began.
"I told her she had full powers until I returned."
"You're not going back!?" Tegan exclaimed.
"You know, sometimes Tegan, you take my breath away!" The Doctor exclaimed as he clasped her arms and gave her a little shake.
"Won't the Time Lords be very angry?" Turlough asked.
"Furious!" said the Doctor.
Grinning at the pair of them, the Doctor replied, "Why not? After all, that's how it all started!"
Ian then saw the Doctor's fifth life continue on as both Tegan and then Turlough left him. The Fifth Doctor's life ended in a sacrifice to save his then companion, Peri, to keep her from dying of Spectrox Toxemia,
"Doctor, what's happened?"
"Ah, Peri," he said weakly, "I see Professor Jackij knew his stuff. Good old Jackij."
"Jackij? You got the bat's milk?"
"Contained an anti-vesicant I imagine. Interesting."
"Well, where is it?"
"What?"
"The bat's milk!" Peri almost screamed in hysteria, fearing for the Doctor.
"Finished...only enough for you."
In a near panic, Peri said, "There must be something I can do, tell me!"
The Doctor managed a weak reply, "Too late Peri, going soon. It's time to say goodbye."
Peri was sobbing; "Don't give up. You can't leave me now." She laid his head on the TARDIS floor and crawled away in her grief. The Doctor mused to himself, "I might regenerate, I don't know...feels different this time..."
The Doctor then changed again into another youngish fair haired man whose hair was a mop of curls and who wore clashing, mismatched, hodgepodge clothes. In his Sixth form, the Doctor was again hauled in front of the Time Lords to stand trial and near the trial's conclusion, Ian heard the Doctor's Sixth form leap into an angry tirade against lies concealed from him by his people; lies which had led to the destruction of Earth in the future;
"In all my travelings throughout the universe I have battled against evil; against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed here! The oldest civilization; decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core! Power-mad conspirators! Daleks! Sontarans! Cybermen! They're still in the nursery compared to us! Ten million years of absolute power! That's what it takes to be really corrupt!"
Lastly, Ian saw the Doctor's appearance change into his current form-the form now standing before him. The vision was also filled with all the seemingly heinous deeds done because the order of things in the universe had to be maintained-made right. Ian saw this; saw this and understood. It had to be right and that may mean that situations didn't always turn out pretty or pleasant or otherwise beautiful, but it had to be right-almost as painfully simple as a place for everything and everything in its place.
Ian saw everything through the Doctor's eyes; saw the Time Lord as he was; Time's Champion and as such he had special responsibilities. It was not that he wished to cause others, especially his traveling companions, pain and/or suffering, but such was the price that was exacted by the need to keep the tenuous fabric of space-time intact. Manipulation was also sometimes part of the Time Lord's game, but it was all for a higher and greater good that went beyond the Doctor, beyond the Earth, even beyond the universe itself. As the Doctor's seventh persona still had Ian locked in his steely gaze he became aware that beneath the rather tramp-like appearance that seemed to run through all of the Doctor's selves, there was an underlying sense of enormous power and glimmerings of a vast and incalculable intelligence that gleamed in the eyes of one who is as the same time serious, yet playful. Ian saw it all and then as quickly as it had started, it was over. The old schoolmaster looked from the Seventh Doctor to the First and back again. He still had trouble believing that these two men, that all the men in the room, with the seeming exception of the young man sprawled on the floor, were all the Doctor-Time Lord of Gallifrey.
In the mind of the Eighth Doctor, a mental landscape slowly unfolded from the onslaught that had just ravaged his mental faculties. There was the sensation of falling, of tumbling endlessly through the vast wastes and reaches of outer space. The Eighth Doctor stopped his mental free-fall and tried to get his bearings. There was a problem with space-time. He didn't know what it was, but he had to find out and repair the damages. This was why the attack had hit him so hard in the TARDIS and had apparently also opened his subconscious to the astral realm that time dissected. His body had suffered ill effects but he would recover. And so, the Time Lord allowed his subconscious to drift across the vast and timeless wastes of the astral plane.
Gabrielle gathered up her pack and decided that this was a good opportunity to return to her scrolls that she had recently been neglecting. As she took out a new scroll and quill, she cast a glance up at the sky that stretched before both her and Xena on the road ahead that turned to Amphipolis. The path ran between tall palms that were vibrant green and in a weird way, she could have sworn that the green of the trees had begun to beat in time with her own heart. The curving path was grey like stone and began to writhe like a snake caught in a snare. It was then that Gabrielle became aware of a presence, dark and haunting and yet at the same time, teasing and taunting. Whatever it was she could tell it was old, very old; beyond ancient. She could feel barely concealed contempt closing in around her like the walls of a building collapsing in on her. All at once the sun and the sky flew away to nothing and the day turned into a twisted and hideous parody of a starless night as unmentionable things lurked about in the pitch-blackness, hissing and spitting and all of them calling out to her; some begging, some pleading and some demanding that she come to them, be with them and surrender herself to dark oblivion. The path was still there, writhing now ended, but she was paralyzed with fear.
"W-who's t-t-there?" she asked tremulously but there was no reply. There was a faint buzzing noise that was just starting to creep in on her senses and it seemed to fill her ears and her mind and it started to grow in volume. She looked again at the sky ahead of her down the path and she saw the ghostly image of an odd shaped device that emanated and unearthly and an unholy light. In the center of the object Gabrielle saw things the like of which she had never seen before and thought that she was for a moment staring into the very maw of Hell itself. A low rumble seemed to be coming from everywhere around her, which as it became louder, she recognized as laughter. Again she asked, almost screaming out,
"Who's there!?" There was no reply. The buzzing in her senses grew stronger;
"D-Dahak?" she said weakly. Again there was no reply. The buzzing in her senses was growing steadily worse, like garbled voices all in discord. She put her hand to her brow and shook her head to clear it. She heard another voice, faint at first but growing stronger and louder through the buzzing in her ears...
"Gabrielle? Gabrielle!" Xena grabbed the bard by both of her arms and shook her slightly. The younger woman came to with a start, the vague expression on her features vanishing as though arousing from a daydream. She looked around her for a second as though she wasn't really sure of her surroundings. The palms were still in their bright jade green foliage and the flora seemed more alive in a rainbow burst of colors the seemed to jump out at her in a concerted assault on her senses. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as a wave of nausea passed over her. She gripped her staff, holding on to it as if her life depended on it, its wooden form cool and strangely reassuring to her and she focused her mind on that. Staring at her, Xena tried to reign in her concern for the bard and not to let it overly show on her face and let go of her arms. She didn't like what was happening. There were just too damned many shenanigans too close together for this to be the work of the gods but Xena forced herself to keep her mind open to the possibility. Ares filtered into her thoughts and she had to fight to keep from using the nearest tree as a punching bag. Gabrielle returned to her senses completely and tried to put what she had experienced into words;
"Xena, there's something here. It's not the gods, it's not Dahak, but it's here, whatever it is. Oh, I can't describe it...it's well, it's ancient; older than that even. It's," she paused for a moment searching for the word she wanted,
"It's completely evil and it's not of this world..."
"Not of this world? What is-what do you mean?"
"Something is happening in Amphipolis; you were right. The whole world is in danger."
"What is it? You saw something didn't you? What did you see? C'mon Gabrielle, I need to know." The buzzing had started to faintly intrude on Gabrielle's senses again, but she went on,
"Xena we have to get to Amphipolis and stop whatever it is that's going on. If we don't the world will be destroyed. They need our help!" The bard had begun to get excited as if there was a need for extreme urgency on their part. She tore away from the warrior's grasp and started to take off down the trail almost leaving Xena behind. The warrior easily caught up with her and reached out an arm to touch her shoulder. When Xena had Gabrielle's arm in her grasp the bard rounded on her angrily and shook her arm free;
"Will you let me go!" she screamed as she stepped back causing her blond tresses to fly wildly in the wind. At that moment Xena saw that the little girl had gone to be replaced by a beautiful and sensual, yet serious young woman whom she loved more than life itself. Gabrielle's reaction had stung her but the warrior didn't allow herself to show it.
"What do you mean they need our help?" The bard looked at her friend and tried to force an apology for her outburst and also explain what she meant as she began to walk away. The buzzing in her senses was almost to an unbearable point now. "They need our-" She didn't finish her thought. As she was turning away, the buzzing in her mind and ears overwhelmed her as the bottom dropped out of her reality. She collapsed in Xena's arms, oblivious to the cries of concern from the warrior.
IN THE PANOPTICON-SEAT OF GOVERNMENT: PLANET OF GALLIFREY:
Vast light years away from the turmoil that was embroiling the Earth, the citizens of another planet drew together to observe the chaos and to figure out how best to handle the situation. The High Council of the Time Lords of Gallifrey was convening in an emergency session to debate what, if any options were open to them concerning the Gate of Rassilon. From the council chamber, the members of the Inner Council were gathered around the charcoal-colored council table in grim silence. At the head of the table, a woman was seated who was possessed of a regal bearing as if she could have easily been confused with royalty if Gallifrey had anything resembling royal families. The woman in question had radiant blond hair piled high atop her head adorned with a diamond tiara and tear-drop pearls. The lady was wearing the regal silver-white robes of the office of the Lord President. Her face was an unreadable mask as the wall display screen showed varied and different data overlaid on a holographic representation of the Earth. The lights in the chamber were dimmed and the data on the screen was replaced by recordings that the time technicians had made during the last few hours. On the display, the Earth was rippled and distorted and the planet seemed to sporadically phase in and out of reality. Warnings at the bottom of the screen flashed danger to the time line if the threat to Earth persisted unchecked. The President stood quietly and turned away from the rest of the assembled lords and ladies and clasped her hands behind her back. She could feel the weight of their stares on her back and she also knew they were awaiting her decision. Change had always been slow in coming about on Gallifrey and when it did it was usually quick and turbulent. Since the President had come to power, Gallifrey had gone from a hidden world content to merely watch the goings-on of the universe to a more pro-active role in the affairs of others and similar policies. Change had been slow and there were those Time Lords who were still loyal to the old ways; the old regime. It was these few and narrow-minded individuals who would have had no qualms whatsoever in sacrificing the Earth in order to save the rest of the universe. Secretly, they feared the threat to their own power and positions. However, the President and those loyal to her knew that if Earth were destroyed the consequences for Gallifrey would be dire indeed as well as for the rest of the universe; such factors as these were helping to shape the President's decision. The technician presenting the information finished her speech; her final words breaking into the President's thoughts;
"The result of the Gate's break in dormancy means the deterioration of the Earth's temporal field as it has chosen to situate itself on that planet. The planet will lose its temporal cohesion as it were, and become either free-floating in time or simply cease at all ever having existed. This must be prevented at all costs. If the Earth should start to float freely in time, it could come to occupy its own exact same point in time and space twice over or that of another planet or stellar body, the result of which is time ram. An obvious solution would to be to destroy the artifact or the planet itself."
"Yes, but the obvious solution isn't always the best solution to a problem," the President interrupted. The technician continued, "Alternatively, another of our options is to attempt to stabilize the Earth's time field and attempt also to retrieve the Gate and securing it in a null-time stasis dam. It is far too dangerous to have it return to Gallifrey as it would pose a threat to our planet and the Eye of Harmony itself. Our seemingly only hope is to enlist the aid of someone who can deactivate the Gate before it's too late."
One of the lords present, one who still held allegiance to the old order of things spoke up, "Why not use the Magnotron? Surely it would have some sort of a stabilizing effect on the Earth? We could temporarily use it to spatially relocate both the planet and the Gate until we can work out a more permanent arrangement." At this the President spun and the air surrounding her seemed to bristle with her temper as it made its unspoken presence felt to all. She spoke in angry disbelief, "What you propose Lord Ambul is no option! The time that the Gate has anchored itself in is one of the key developmental periods in the history of the planet. To use the Magnotron on the Earth could very well cause what we hope to prevent at all costs. Yes, we could use the Magnotron on the Earth and it's very possible that we may even be able to prevent a mass loss of life, but I have doubts as to that. Furthermore, the Magnotron would only change that planet's spatial location and the threat to time would still remain. We, as Time Lords, are pledged to protect all from and to prevent if at all possible, those sorts of catastrophes. I will not, while I am president of this council, have the deaths of untold billions on my conscience."
"If I may, Madame President," Ambul shot back, "You are too personally involved and I think that you are forgetting your training in emotional detachment. The time you spent with that rogue; what was his name? The Doctor, was it? Yes, that's it, the Doctor. The time you spent with him softened you to your training. You see these humans and their world as not merely the subjects of study, which indeed they are, but almost as if they and all they have actually counted for something in a larger sense. No, I still maintain that the Magnotron is the only viable solution. As technician Grallis pointed out, to send in an agent in a TARDIS would be foolhardy in the extreme." Another voice joined in the verbal barrage. The President's most trusted adviser and also one time companion to the Doctor, Ace, as she like to be called, spoke up, "Look here you weasel-featured wise-arse. That's my home you're talking about blotting out like so many teeth." Ace was dressed in her black body armor that she had obtained in the Imperial Spacefleet of Earth's far future. Ambul glared back at her disdainfully down his nose and made the mistake of a snide remark, "Given the circumstances, I think I need not comment, savage." Ambul spat this last word out and then went from snobbish disdain to complete and utter surprise when Ace crossed the room in three strides, grabbed him off his portly hind end and with long, muscled arms, jacked him up against the wall, forcibly grabbing his crotch, which according to his facial expression, hurt immensely. Hissing through her teeth she growled in a low voice, "How would you like for me to make you a eunuch, huh? Or better still, I could just nail your damn balls to the fucking wall!" Ace had reacted so quickly that neither the President nor any of the assembled lords had time to think. Some were visibly put out by this display of primitive aggression and then went to his aid. The Chancellery Guards started to move towards the two but the President stayed them with a command. She then laid a restraining hand on Ace's shoulder and called her down gently, "Dorothee." Ace backed down at the sound of her true first name pronounced in the French language of Earth and dropped Ambul to the floor in a heap as the guards helped him up. The President didn't show it on her face, but inside, she was laughing her ass off. After a moment she spoke, "Lords and ladies, you all know the situation that lies before us. We can either use the Magnotron on the Earth in a gloriously futile gesture or seek the aid of an independent agent to stop the Gate and save the Earth. However, we would have to send an agent by means other than a TARDIS. I put the situation before you to decide." The Council voted by a show of hands and was evenly divided six to six.
"I anticipated that it might have come to this," the President began, "And in such instances it is up to me to cast the deciding vote and I choose that we find an independent agent. The matter is therefore settled. Now all we need is for us to find a willing agent to aid us. Technician Grallis, call up the time zone that the Gate has anchored itself to." Grallis did as she was commanded. On the screen, a holographic triangle indicated the exact location of the Gate in ancient Greece. Grallis managed a close up view of the region. The time disruptions were even more erratic and chaotic here nearer to the Gate and the indications were that the Earth's time field could collapse altogether at any time. Grallis spoke, "Madame President, I have also included a search of native peoples who might be of some use to us as agents against the Gate. However, the temporal interference is making it almost impossible to get a definite lock on any one being. It should also be noted at this point that there may actually be one type of TARDIS that might be able to penetrate the time zone in which the Gate is anchored." At this both the President and Ace perked up and pressed Grallis for more information. She continued, "As you know, the earliest models of TARDIS units had no means of emergency escape without irreparable damage to the ship or serious harm to its occupants. It was decided for this very reason, that if a dangerous situation occurred whilst on any planetary surface conducive to supporting life, the TARDIS unit's Time Vector Generator could be disconnected and made to disguise itself. This was only put into practice on one TARDIS model and was later abandoned in favor of other safety methods."
"Grallis, what was the model TARDIS that this was used on?" The President nearly squeaked.
"It's an old model ma'am. There are no longer any models of this type left anywhere on Gallifrey. We would literally have to pull one out of the past and I don't see that happening unless you know of a way to penetrate the Absolute Time Barrier that surrounds the planet!"
"Grallis," Ace nearly shouted, "Just tell us the flaming model type that this was used on!" The time technician continued as though she were surprised that the President and Ace didn't know; "Why the model is the old Type Forty."
IN THE CAVERN WITH THE GATE:
Ares stood in silent contemplation in front of the odd alien object. The air next to him shimmered and Strife joined him in front of the Gate.
"Strife, this object defies description. It resists my energy bolts and my sword. And yet, I can sense a consciousness to it if you will. There is a great power here that feels as though it were teeming with vast intelligence," Ares snorted at this last bit, "If that's the case then it may be just what I need to help me stop Xena if she won't turn."
"Well it makes for a nice change from the old hack-and-slash. But before you just go about trying out your newfound toy uncle, and putting the warrior bitch in her place chained and bound at your feet, don't you think you ought to try and actually use it first?"
"I will, you idiot, as soon as I can figure out how it works!" Ares roared not wanting to appear the fool in front of Strife. The younger god cast a dubious glance back at the obsidian form of the Gate. Muttering quietly with a edge to his voice, Strife said, "I know the perfect use for it. It could hang as a picture frame for Hera's likeness in the Great Hall on Olympus. It's just the right size to suit her bloated ego."
"Remind me never to come to you for ideas about home furnishings, Strife," Ares deadpanned. The God of War, being of a practical nature when it suited him to do so, strode over to the pedestal that formed the Gate's base and slowly reached out a hand to gently caress the midnight black surface. Not impressed by the basic construction of the device, Ares stepped through the aperture that formed the portal when the Gate was activated and sighed, clearly irritated. He turned back to face Strife with annoyance playing on his features, and leaning on one arm, propped himself up on the Gate's surface, the palm of his hand coming into contact with the smooth almost frictionless surface. At that moment, a slight tingling sensation ran up Ares' arm and he looked over noticing that the alien portal seemed to be drawing, no, feeding, off his energy and draining him slightly. His arm seemed to be suffused in a bluish glow and seemed to be leaching, melting, into the Gate's surface. He pulled his hand away and noticed the light show before him. The Gate's surface began to dance and writhe with bands of blue light that spiraled over its surface. Bulges began to appear under the black surface and undulated wildly before taking the form of what appeared to be claws at the Gate's six corners. The show dwindled and died and when it was over the Gate sported a molten silver exoskeleton of adjoining claws that spat and shot energy into the empty waste at the center of the alien time portal. Ares was indeed amazed. "Why I never..." he whispered. He stepped back from the Gate and Strife moved to join him. Out of nowhere, the Gate was suddenly suffused by a golden-white light. The two gods gazed in amazement at each other as a feminine voice emanated from the Gate, breaking the silent stillness of the cave; Figure out how I work? I am not a randomly convenient tool to be used at whim and discarded without a second thought. "What are you?" Ares asked. Be silent and I shall divulge all of the information you seek, Ares, God of War.
"How did you know who I am?" Ares questioned threateningly while he considered what the Gate was saying to him. It responded with, All of time is as a book to me. Pages upon pages to be read as needed. There is nothing in all of creation that is not laid bare before my eyes as all events in the universe of time and space are recorded. Nothing is hidden from my sight.
"Go on then," Ares growled, "Whatever it is that you have to say, say it! I'm all ears." The feminine voice that emanated from the Gate echoed around the cavern as it grew in volume. I am an artifact of alien origin. My being has its beginnings in the misty dawn of time immemorial. It was my duty and my privilege to serve my masters as I was designed to do as the lords of time and space as I now wish to serve you. I am the first and the last remaining of the time portals known as the Gates of Rassilon!
SOMEWHERE ON THE ASTRAL PLANE:
The landscape, if it could be called that, was grey. The fog, cold and wet, was grey and it seemed to whisper and breathe in soft wet hisses as if arousing a lover from a dream. The entirety of it all was a grey void that pulsed with the heartbeat of life. The was a buzz in the atmosphere that sounded like a million voices softly calling out in urgent whispers. Gabrielle felt herself free-falling as if she were incorporeal and her head felt light as if she had made herself dizzy from drinking too much or from that child's game where you stand in one spot and spin around until you fall down. Somehow this was more than just a dream. She didn't know how she knew, she just knew. The greyness dissipated into a likeness that matched the night sky. Somehow, Gabrielle knew that something was wrong in the universe. The vision she had experienced on the path leading to Amphipolis suddenly leapt back into her memory with striking clarity as the vision of the object came back to her. A spasm jolted through her body and there was just a quick momentary flash that raced into her mind of a stranger. A stranger who would come from a far away place and who would save the Earth. So, both her and Xena's feelings had been a credit to both of them. Something dreadful was beginning to stir; to awaken. An ancient power with a great potential for evil was arousing and it was starting in Amphipolis. Images swirled past the bard in a maddening haze of kaleidoscopic colors and Gabrielle got the impression she was moving down a long and shadowed corridor. Was she falling or floating? She couldn't tell. Her breath was coming in ragged gasps. She was puzzled how this was as she knew she was in a trance-like state and for a brief moment a slight episode of panic seemed to overwhelm her until she saw that the immediate area around her started to lighten
The Doctor figured that temporal disturbance had most likely induced a near catatonic or comatose state and somehow freed his psyche to wander the astral wastes. Deciding that some action was needed, he allowed his mind to branch out only to be stopped by a static barrier. He noticed that as he reached out with his mind, the invisible barrier around him would become visible and would buzz like white noise from a television. Some sort of psychic backlash I went through, he reasoned. Alone, he was not strong enough to breach the barrier, but perhaps he could with some outside help...
The feud between the First Doctor and Ian had ended. The Second Doctor, with his scruffy mop of jet black hair leaned over the unconscious body on the floor before them. After a moment's inspection, he looked up and concluded aloud, "Whoever he is, he's received a very nasty shock to his central nervous system. I'll see if I can rouse him." The little man took the prone arm of the Eighth Doctor and began feeling for a pulse. Almost immediately he shot a surprised glance upward at the other Doctors, his eyes wide in disbelief. He gasped in surprise, "There is a double pulse! This man is a Time Lord!" At this revelation the other of the Doctor's personas gathered around for a closer inspection. The Second Doctor looked at his other selves and announced, "I am going to attempt telepathic communication." The little man reached out a hand to the temple of his as yet unknown successor and muttered the word "contact." The Second Doctor's faced tensed with the strain as he tried to establish some sort of mind link, all to no avail. "It's no good," he said, "some kind of psychic haze is preventing contact."
"Of course you couldn't contact his mind," chided the dandy form of the Third Doctor, "You've got it all wrong, sprout."
"And I'll kindly thank you to keep out of my way, curly-locks!" came the sharp retort. And before anyone knew where they were, both the Second and Third Doctors were again embroiled in yet another of their classic arguments. Susan again played the role of the peacemaker.
"Doctors! Please! I believe we've had enough of arguments to last us all ten lifetimes over," There were general mutterings of consent at that statement; Susan continued, "If one of you alone is not enough to breach the psychic haze, why not try a concerted effort?" The seven personas of the Doctor muttered their agreement and after a moment's quick discussion, formed a half-circle around the prone figure on the floor. Harnessed in telepathic unity, they chorused, "Concentrate. We must be one. Contact!" To Susan and Ian, the sight was stunning. Here they all were, seven different men, yet the same man. They were harnessed now telepathically and it was not seven personas that Susan and Ian saw before them but the same man in seven different bodies; different but the same. "Well, Susan, it almost gives new meaning to the phrase 'talking to yourself'," Ian quipped. Susan laughed, "You're right Mr. Chesterton. It does!"
As the area around her lightened, Gabrielle became aware of the bubble. Its surface seemed to tingle and ripple and as she reached out to touch it, she felt a tingling sensation course through her accompanied by the feeling of being shocked by some sort of force. She tried talking at the sphere. "Hello? Can anyone her me? My name is Gabrielle. Is anyone there?" All she got in response to her questions was a buzzing that sounded rather vaguely like someone trying to respond through a torrential downpour.
Over the course of the last few minutes, the bubble around the Doctor had started to phase in and out of visibility and continued to do so until it had taken on a semi-solid state. Inside the sphere, the Doctor could just hear Gabrielle's muffled words, although he couldn't make out what it was that she was saying. He attempted to communicate back to her, but he couldn't penetrate the haze of the psychic bubble. It also seemed that there was yet another presence nearby and it seemed hauntingly familiar and oddly comforting. On the outside of the sphere, Gabrielle saw seven ghostly faces fade in and out in a circle around the hazy bubble. Slowly the bubble started to collapse and take the shape of a man. At first the haze crackled over the form until at last Gabrielle could see a head of shoulder length, brown wavy hair. The eyes in the face were bright blue and spoke to her of vast intelligence and childlike curiosity and innocence. The clothes the stranger had on were an odd mixture too. He had on strange looking leggings or breeches, a velvet coat or cloak of some kind with a shirt and some other type of short coat over that and a neckcloth. To the Doctor, Gabrielle appeared in much the same manner, starting out in a complete haze. Gabrielle watched as the seven ghostly faces seemed to vanish into the face of the stranger before her. She called out to him again, asking, "Can I help you? Who are you?" The Doctor could not hear her words but he was able to read her lips. He tried to reply when he realized that the bard could not hear him either. He then saw Gabrielle reaching out to touch him and he reciprocated the action. Their fingertips brushed against one another and the result was unbelievable. At the instant their fingertips touched they both started to glow blue and blue lines of electricity started to course over both their bodies and shoot outwards from them as the blue light became a blinding white glare. With a loud thunderclap it was over. As Time Lord and bard beheld one another, they each saw a glimpse of a part of the other's life. Gabrielle saw a rectangular blue box of some kind that was surmounted by a brilliantly flashing white light. The Doctor, in turn, saw a beautiful, dark haired female warrior. Gabrielle asked again, "Who are you?" "I'm called the Doctor," came the reply. The accent indicated he was from Britannia, or so Gabrielle imagined. She was about to ask him another question when suddenly she saw the two of them spinning wildly out of control, away from one another. The Doctor's last words echoed in her ears, everything fading to black as her conscious mind took over once more.
The faces of the Doctor's first seven personas eased as the strain passed from them. Slowly, and one by one, they opened their eyes. Susan rushed over to the First Doctor, the one she had always called grandfather, and with curiosity growing inside her every second, begged to know what was going on.
"Well, my dear, it seems we have yet another Doctor on our hands." A groan from the floor caused all to look down as the reviving figure of the Eighth Doctor finally came to. He shook his head to clear it and stood up, his legs shaking and causing him to sway unsteadily on his feet. He looked around the room at his previous selves and said with a crooked smile, "Funny, I don't remember inviting my ancestors round to dinner."
"OK, let me get this straight," said Strife, "You're some kind of time gate from another planet?" That is correct, the Gate responded. I was engineered by the technicians of the planet Gallifrey to serve the beings who would become my masters, the Time Lords. I can not only provide access to any planet and any time in the cosmos but I can control time as well. Ares wasn't saying a word; only silently considering the possibilities. The Gate continued to drone on in "her" melodious feminine tones; I can only allow access to the various times and places of this planet in my weakened state. To become fully active, I need access to the Eye of Harmony on Gallifrey. It is from this limitless source that all artifacts of Gallifreyan origin receive power. Ares then spoke, an evil gleam forming in his eyes, "I think we can be of service to one another. We will help you to attain the power you desire in exchange for your helping us." Continue, said the Gate in its melodious tones. "If what you say is true, then your presence by now has not gone unnoticed on, um, Gallifrey, was it? I can only assume they will be sending one of their number to reclaim, stop, destroy, delay you, whatever, yada, yada, yada. We can offer to help you establish a link with this Eye or whatever it is that you called it if you will help us rid ourselves of one very annoying bitch. A bitch who at the same time fuels my greatest desire and yet just happens to be a particularly nasty source of irritation to me." Who? The Gate enquired. "Her name is Xena. She's known to all as the Warrior Princess. But enough about her just for the moment. There is still one thing, one loose end that nags me. And as Strife here can tell you, I hate loose ends." What is it? The Gate asked. Ares continued, "After you help us and in so doing, gain the power you seek, what then?" I have only one desire, the Gate droned in its feminine trill, and that is to serve you, my new masters. Although he didn't say so aloud, Ares thought to himself, I'll just bet you do.
Xena was cradling Gabrielle in her arms and her thoughts drifted back to when her son Solan was a newborn and how when she had looked down into his soft blue eyes, all her anger with the world seemed to dissipate. Here he was, a helpless newborn and all that mattered was him, the son of she and Borias. Her heart ached at the sacrifice she had made as she thought back to the night she had given Solan into the care of the centaur, Kaleipus. Xena's thoughts returned to the present and she looked at Gabrielle's face which seemed to be shining with an angelic inner light of its own. Here you are, she thought. You , who are the one bright light in my dark and lonely world. How could I have let this happen to you? I want so much to save you from and protect you from this darkness within me and from the world around us. But how can I fight an enemy I can't see? You are my guiding light, my way, my peace. I'm lost without you in my life. Gabrielle, please, come back to me. Almost as if she had wished her to revive, Gabrielle started to squirm and fidget and then sat bolt upright, a single word escaping from her lips in a cry of desperation, "Doctor!" The bard looked wide-eyed in terror as Xena looked at her and for a moment, the warrior didn't see Gabrielle. The person who was sitting before her was a complete and total stranger. The moment passed quickly and the girl from Poteidaia looked over at her friend and asked, "Xena, what happened?" "You fainted," the warrior replied, fighting to keep the worry out of her voice. Gabrielle tried to remember what had happened but there was only distorted images in her memory now; bits and pieces that eluded her whenever she tried to mentally grab onto them. The bard stood and brushed herself down and she leaned on her staff for support. She felt that it had almost become a part of her in a way; like it was an extension of her own being. It felt reassuring against her flushed cheek and she turned to face the warrior. "Xena, we need to leave this place, it isn't safe. We're in grave danger here. I can't begin to imagine what we'll find in Amphipolis." Rising to a stance from near where she was crouching by a fire that she had built, Xena started to finger the catch where her chakram rested. "So, we can expect some kind of attack, possibly while on our way home." Gabrielle cut her off, "It's not that. That feeling that I had earlier, of something happening in Amphipolis, it's grown stronger. Something unpleasant is definitely going to happen or will happen soon. And Xena, someone may die."
PRESIDENT ROMANA'S CHAMBERS-GALLIFREY:
The President looked up from the discourse she was preparing and over at Ace. It had been some time since she had seen the Doctor and she was pleased at the opportunity to see him again, providing of course, they could find a way to reach him. Romana spoke, "With all the interference surrounding the Earth, we can't establish any kind of contact with the Doctor, and his is the only Type Forty TARDIS still in existence."
"Well, we have all sorts of various means at our disposal. According to what you had said earlier, the latest temporal scans placed him on Earth at the end of the twentieth century. Is it possible we could use the Time Scoop to snatch him from Earth?" Romana gave thought to Ace's observation and finally said, "We may have to. The Time Scoop has the necessary ability to punch through the interference and rescue, if you will, the Doctor. Our trouble is going to be in pinpointing the exact temporal coordinates that his TARDIS is located in. Without those, the Time Scoop could accidentally pull anyone or anything out of time that shouldn't be. Also, Lord Ambul has strong support here in the Capitol. Both he and his followers strongly favor a return to the old ways and wouldn't hesitate to see Earth destroyed to preserve the integrity of the space-time continuum to their own greedy ends. This situation provides them plenty of fuel to fire their arguments with."
"Is their support really that strong?" Ace wondered.
"Yes," replied Romana, "And I'm afraid that in the right situation, it could lead to civil war here on Gallifrey. If there was only some way we could keep track of him, or somehow get a handle on what he's up to."
"There's no need," said Ace, "I already have a man on it now. In fact, he should be in a secret meeting with Ambul and his gang even as we speak." Romana looked up at her most trusted adviser and gave a thoughtful grin as she said, "Wicked!"
Lord Ambul was meeting with some of his soon to be confederates. It was plain that civil unrest was indeed in the offing.
"So what do you propose? How do we seize control?" A junior grade Time Lord asked. Ambul replied, "We have a great deal of support here in the Capitol. News of the crisis on Earth is being spread like wildfire even as we speak to assure us of victory. Should it come to it , however, a full scale civil war will be fought. Be assured, my lords, that President Romana's support is strong but not without its weak points. It would only be a matter of time before the old regime could be reestablished." Some of the other lords looked decidedly pale at the thought. Ambul further reassured them, "Only as a last resort, of course, will it be used. By that time however, we will have the power to stop what is happening on the Earth. Gallifrey must be protected at all costs! The President has let outsiders into our world and I feel certain that Rassilon never intended it that way. We must ensure the safety of our home even if it means ultimately sacrificing the Earth! Are you with me?" There were a few muttered words of consent. "Think of it this way," Ambul continued, "We are not only saving ourselves, but the whole of time itself. Time is what we are pledged to protect! Again I ask you, are you with me?" "YES!!" chorused the assembled lords. "Good," Ambul started, "You're all dismissed except for Valyeux and Mnemost." All of the lords then departed except Valyeux and Mnemost and unbeknownst to them, a spy who had been planted to infiltrate the group as seen to by Ace. What he overheard shocked him to the very core of his being, "All is set Lord Ambul." The spy couldn't see who was talking from his vantage point where he was hidden, "We have been able to discover the plans for the Demat Gun in the Matrix and have discovered how to integrate the basics of the technology into the Magnotron beam. One blast and the Earth will be no more!" The spy turned to flee and warn Romana and as he did so, his robes caught on the stand on which a small vase was resting. Too late, he saw the vase crashing down and reached out to catch before it could shatter on the floor. With amazing Time Lord dexterity and agility, he caught the vase and settled it on the floor. He turned away again to find the President and warn her of the soon-to-be chaos. As he turned away, the antique stand the vase had rested on came toppling down, smashing into the vase and clattering across the floor. Knowing that his cover was blown, he made a hasty exit but not before realizing that he had also been seen. "Quick!" Ambul bellowed as he saw the spy escaping, "He'll warn the President!" Valyeux took off after him as Ambul and Mnemost stayed behind, the former swearing under his breath. At last he said, "This forces our hand, Mnemost. Now we must go through with the coup. Rally the others! We strike tonight!"
The spy had a start on Valyeux, but not a large one and Valyeux had been armed as the spy had been made painfully aware. Valyeux had fired at him and even though it was just a grazing shot, with a staser set to kill, it was enough to trigger a regeneration. The shot had caught him in his left shoulder. The spy had to reach the President's suites first and Valyeux was beginning to gain on him. Managing a burst of speed, the spy found a place where he could stop a moment and rest and perhaps make Valyeux think he had doubled back. He winced as he felt his body shudder and nearly shut down as he yearned to allow the regeneration process to start and run its course. As he came out of hiding, he rounded a corner and noticed Valyeux stealthily searching for any signs of him in the corridor. To get to Romana's suites the spy's path would take him directly into Valyeux's line of sight and that was one thing he wanted to delay as long as possible. He noted it was just a very few yards to the President's suites down the corridor directly in front of him. Valyeux was down the corridor to his left and was slowly advancing towards the spy as he searched for him. The spy started out, knocking over a large, exotic-looking potted plant and causing Valyeux to catch sight of him. The spy ran. The last few yards seemed like miles to him and gasping painfully, he at last collapsed on the floor of the President's suites and managed to gasp at Romana and Ace, "Plan-planning a...coup...Civil war...de...stroy...Earthhh..." "Salvaar? Salvaar!" Ace cried at the prone figure as the last of his breath escaped and he became comatose. It was too late for him. The regeneration process began and Salvaar's body began to glow with the light of the noonday sun. Valyeux then entered the room and lowered his staser at Salvaar and fired point blank. The regeneration stopped and the golden light caused by the biochemical processes of regeneration and electricity from the staser blast collided in a maddening ballet of light and noise. The light grew in intensity until it was blinding all in the room. When it dissipated, Salvaar was no more. Ambul and Mnemost then joined Valyeux with a host of others, stasers trained on Romana and Ace. The President's features betrayed no emotion while Ace's eyes flashed dangerously as Ambul said in mock remorse, "I am so sorry that it had to come to this Madame President, but consider yourselves under arrest. The restoration of the old order begins now." He then looked at Ace who was being restrained by two guards and squeezing her jaw between his fingers, hissed, "I have something special planned for you my dear." She responded with a snarl and spat in his face. Turning to address the guards that had sided with him, Ambul said, "Convey them to a holding cell. They are to await termination. Also, arrange it so that it appears they died in a catastrophic accident for public record. Trash the room. A bomb planted by terrorists ought to do for a cover. Make it so." Romana and Ace were then led away. Romana was calm and reserved; Ace was cursing up a storm.
"I want to delay Xena and make my final surprise for her and the blond especially grand. Didn't I say that I love screwing with people's heads, Strife? Well, the Gate here," The Gate interrupted him, Call me Hexa-Prime; "How about just Prime?" Ares continued, "Anyway the Gate will allow us to free Callisto and Velasca and with their powers at my command, Xena won't hesitate to surrender or be destroyed." "But," Strife asked, "How will Prime here do that? Free Callisto and Velasca I mean?" Prime answered Strife's question. I can manipulate time itself. I can fold back time into itself to the point where the two women were imprisoned by Xena and free them and place them under Ares' bidding. A simple "Oh" was all that Strife could manage. We just need to keep Xena busy until I can attain power enough to free them both. "That won't be a problem, Prime. We can hit Xena where she's most vulnerable, that irritating blond, Gabrielle," Ares said. "But," Strife started to protest, "They don't even know we're here! How do we get their attention?" "Simple Strife," Ares said with a grin, "We announce our presence."
Joxer had wasted no time in trying to find the warrior and the bard. Ares had fairly shaken him up and though he could hear Gabrielle griping, he felt certain that she was gonna be delighted at having him around. Oh sure, she may keep on about how much she couldn't stand him, but to him, there was no denying it, Gabrielle had it for him bad. Aw, who was he kidding? He knew Gabrielle cared for him as she might for a brother or a very dear friend, but it would never go beyond that. But still, he could dream couldn't he? Dismissing his romantic notions for the time being, he focused, in as much as he was able, on his immediate task. He hadn't run into Xena and Gabrielle in a long while, and so for all he knew, they could be anywhere in Greece. Still, Joxer thought he'd try the one place where he figured Xena just might be; her home village of Amphipolis. He had lost track of time since the affair with Ares at the gorge where Callisto and Velasca were imprisoned. He remembered when he had first met the fair-haired warrior goddess, Callisto. At the time she was still an ordinary mortal who was driven in her quest to rid the world of the warrior-turned-heroine. He had wanted to be in her army of mercenaries until his eyes had been opened and he had become a good guy. He could be as dense as fog at times, but still a good guy. Joxer was just coming into the approach to Amphipolis when the first of the time quakes hit.
The Gate, at Ares command, activated. The internal area of the hexagon rippled and clouded over as temporal energy swam over and suffused the silver exoskeleton of the Gate's structure. The energies coalesced at the center and began to spin in a dizzying haze. Random bursts shot forth from the silver claws and the haze wavered and became a clear picture of a future battlefield. The fact that the soldiers in the scene were dressed oddly and had strange weapons didn't bother him. To Ares, here was a golden opportunity trussed up and presenting itself to him like a ready made sacrificial lamb and he'd be damned if he'd let it slip by. He addressed the Gate, "Can you allow these soldiers into this time? Do you have enough power?" I can but try, Prime replied. The image around the battlefield rippled as blue fingers of temporal energy sparkled over the onyx surface of the Gallifreyan artifact. An unearthly glow then suffused the Gate and with a blinding flash, the soldiers in the battlefield scene before them vanished.
The Gate had opened a hole in time just big enough to allow it to pull a small force of British soldiers back through time from the American Revolution. As a result, the Earth's time field began to degrade faster.
In the caretaker's shed the Eighth Doctor raised a hand to his brow as the last of the cobwebs cleared from his brain. As with previous occasions when all the Doctor's personas came together in an emergency, if this could be called an emergency, there were the usual questions, "So, you're the latest model, huh?"; "Which regeneration are you?"; "Goodness me! So there are eight of me now!?" And the questions went on. To Susan, it almost seemed like a highly unusual family reunion of long-lost brothers. She hated to interrupt the moment, but action needed to be taken.
"Doctors, I realize this must be a happy time for you, but we need to find out what is happening to the Earth." To reinforce her statement, the quake caused by the Gate opening a temporal rift and hijacking the soldiers hit 1997 London with devastating results. The shed rattled and the party of ten burst forth from inside and glanced around them with horror. London had changed. A glowing void that warped and rippled had opened in the fabric of space-time and had settled over a large section of the city. It was like someone had suddenly overlaid a part of London from centuries past over the modern day metropolis. It was mind boggling to see sixteenth-century dwellings amidst the skyscrapers. Citizens of the city from four centuries past wandered around, some seemingly oblivious to the changes around them while others seemed dazed or in a state of panic. There was a general sense of folks not quite knowing what to make of the situation that had just occurred to them. Susan noted how the two different time zones seemed to just meld together. The horror, however, wasn't over there. The air still fairly seethed with temporal disturbance and London, both London of today and centuries ago, seemed to wave and ripple as time underwent the stresses imposed upon it by the Gate. The Doctors looked on, horrified, as random bursts of temporal energy began erratically sweeping around the gruesome scene haphazardly hitting the first thing that managed to get in the way. It was at that moment that a blood-curdling scream pierced the chill morning air. A woman from sixteenth-century London dropped a basket of washing that she was carrying and started stumbling towards the cemetery. The poor, bedraggled wretch was pale and wan and she screeched, "Help me!" As she neared the point where the two time zones converged she started to slow down and her voice slowed and deepened as well. Little by little, as if time itself were indeed standing still, she glanced back behind her. One of the many, loose, random bursts of temporal energy was thundering down upon her like a child's ball bobbing down the street. The woman seemed to ripple as she reached the barrier and started to cross over into modern London. She burst forth from the disturbance, which had the quality of a wall of water, like a butterfly from a cocoon. As she did, she started to stumble and had trouble keeping her footing. The temporal burst had passed unaffected through the temporal barrier and was nearly on top of her as her new course took her straight towards the Doctors. Susan dashed forward to help her when the Eighth Doctor grabbed her back. Let me go! I have to save her!" Susan struggled against the Doctor's vise-like grip. He spun her around with extreme urgency flashing in his eyes, "Susan, there is nothing you can do! Watch!" Susan stopped struggling and watched as the woman now seemed to be in a state of temporal flux and oblivious as to what was happening to her. Another bad sign the Doctor noted, was how more and more people were becoming aware of the gravity of the situation and were beginning to panic. Looking back over at the woman, the Doctor noticed that her body was alight with an unearthly glow and the entire TARDIS crew could see the buildings beyond through her as she started to fade into transparency. Her progress slowed and she froze in place as great horrible gashes ran through her making the Doctor think that someone had simply erased parts of the woman with a giant pencil eraser. The woman's faced locked into a rictus of fear and pain as the temporal burst hit her with the frenzy of time out of control. The energy swirled in a maddening ballet of light and spent itself as it seemed to permeate every fiber of the woman's being. The energy spent itself and was no more as the scene ended in a silent implosion. Susan could do nothing but stare, too stunned to even speak. Tears welled up in her eyes. "It's the two time zones," the Eighth Doctor said, "They weren't meant to coexist together. The result is the disturbances that we've been seeing. It's like trying to fit two ill-fitting pieces of a puzzle together."
"What we need," said the Second Doctor, "Is to isolate what's causing this."
"Agreed," the First Doctor said, "But where do you suggest we start?"
"Why not try a temporal scan of Earth from the TARDIS console," supplied the cricketing outfit clad Fifth Doctor.
"No," muttered the darkly mysterious form of the Seventh Doctor as all eyes turned to look at him, "There's much more to it than that. Time itself is in peril. We have to repair the damage and set history back on its proper course. Someone or something is manipulating time for whatever reason and it must be stopped." As the Seventh Doctor finished speaking, it seemed the time quakes were indeed becoming worse and the last semblances of order were starting to slip away. The Earth itself heaved to and fro as if a living entity. The ground cracked and split apart and bucked wildly as building after building began to sink into the ground; those that weren't destroyed by the temporal bursts. Other buildings and landmarks simply just ceased to exist as their temporal cohesion disintegrated. People were running and screaming as mass hysteria became law. The Doctors, Susan and Ian were swept up in a throng of people as they struggled to reach the shelter of the TARDIS. They tripped as the Earth continued its heaving motion. The short jaunt across the cemetery to where the TARDIS was parked seemed to take forever. Susan gasped as she suddenly remembered Barbara's casket and looked over at it. Amazingly, it had managed to stay largely undisturbed and Susan was determined that they should take it with them to keep it from coming to harm.
"Doctors! The casket," she cried, "We have to take it with us! We can't leave it in this chaos. Miss Wright's remains will be destroyed!"
"We will take it Susan," shouted the Eighth Doctor over the din, "We won't leave it behind." Susan beheld him for a moment, his brown hair waving in the wind. Even amidst this current chaos sweeping the planet, Susan still found it hard to believe that this eighth incarnation of the Doctor was her beloved grandfather. He did, however, represent the one thing that seemed to be lacking in this hellish chaos; the stability of time immemorial.
The band of time travelers reached the obsolete Police Box form of the TARDIS and noticed that its beacon was pulsing an angry blood red and that its engines boomed out an angry rhythm that matched the beacon's flashing. The ship itself had not gone unaffected by the ravages to the time line of the planet. Like the Doctor, the TARDIS had a special relationship to time and had its actual existence outside of normal time and space. It almost seemed as if the TARDIS would give into the forces overcoming the planet as the temporal cohesion of all things seemed to dissipate at random. The ship struggled to keep an anchor in 1997 as the planet slowly unraveled around her, causing her to phase in and out of the continuum. Just when it seemed that the TARDIS herself would swept away on a wave of wild temporal energy and be lost forever, the ship fought back. Summoning all of the energies at her command, the ship threw an algebraic lifeline into real space. Engines groaning with the strain and screaming defiance at the chaos around her, the TARDIS started to undergo a change. The Doctors all watched amazed as one by one, all the separate TARDISes that transported each Doctor to 1997 dematerialized. The blood red light of the beacon gradually lightened to orange, then yellow, before becoming a blinding bluish-white. As if attracted by an unseen magnet, seven separate forms converged on the form of the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS. The strangled rasp emitted by the ship's engines slowly grew in pitch and volume as each separate phantom TARDIS converged on the solid form. Soon, the TARDIS stood, her engines screaming out in a victorious trumpeting roar as if the materialization sequence had begun. The beacon streamed a brilliant white light that pulsed in time to the ship's booming cry and faded with a final materialization rattle as all the separate TARDISes had now become one. The Eighth Doctor opened the doors and bustled everyone inside the time ship as he fought to keep his balance as the quakes hit harder. A mass of human bodies milled around everywhere, some even looking as if they might consider the TARDIS as shelter. After making sure that his other selves, Susan and Ian were safely inside, the Time Lord cast a glance back over to Barbara's casket. Somehow, he had to find a way to get it back to the TARDIS. Knowing he couldn't carry it alone, he opted for the first thing that popped into his head--materialize the TARDIS around it. Gripping the edge of the ship's hull for support, he pulled himself inside.
"Xena, what's happening? Why all of these sudden storms? What is with all this freakish weather?"
Gabrielle asked with fear in her voice.
"I don't know," the warrior replied, "It could be Dahak. Alternatively, after all that you've told me and what we've seen, whatever is going down in Amphipolis has definitely got to have something to do with it. One thing I'm convinced of now is that it's not the work of the Olympian gods. It's far too showy for even them." The warrior and bard both cast brief glances across the oddly behaving sky. Clouds passed and flew by at an alarming rate as the weather conditions worsened. First there would be a sudden burst of rain in a hard downpour and then it would stop abruptly and turn immediately into snow. The snow would just as soon vanish only to be replaced by a very dense fog. The nightmare went on and on. The pair had managed to scrounge around and find some shelter in the trees where the foliage was thick. Xena, demonstrating one of her many skills once again, managed to weave the plant leaves together tight enough to keep them dry. As an extra precaution, they pulled out their traveling cloaks.
Ares had watched as Hexa Prime tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to pull the soldiers backwards in time. In its weakened state, however, the Gate, couldn't exercise the needed control and the soldiers evaporated into the wastes of the continuum. After this little attempt had gone awry, the God of War had retreated to rethink his strategy. In all the excitement, he had allowed himself to get caught up in the moment and he knew he couldn't let that happen again. Also, he reminded himself, there was no way to tell whether or not the Gate honestly had not had the strength to hold onto the soldiers or if it had been a deliberate attempt on the part of the Gate to stall for time to suit whatever purpose it had. It was a partnership he wouldn't take lightly. He had to admit he had been thinking too narrowly. He wanted to hurt Xena; hurt her bad and maybe, just maybe, he was angry enough to want to see her dead too. He wouldn't rest until she knelt before him and acknowledged him as her supreme lord. Equally, his lust over her burned inside him just as strongly and he found a familiar pleasant tingling sensation in his groin as his masculinity started to make its desires known. The one time when Callisto's essence had been trapped in Xena's body and Ares had made love to her, he drank in every curve, every scent of the Warrior Princess; enjoyed the delicious taste of her body's natural perfumes on his tongue, teasing the succulent nipples of her breasts even if Xena's essence was at the time trapped in Callisto's body. He knew Xena's one weak spot would be Gabrielle and he knew that releasing Callisto and Velasca would most assuredly get the warrior's attention.
He also saw an opportunity here to rule not only Earth but whole other worlds and times and with the Gate as his to command, his power would be absolute. He could strike at Xena where she was weakest, meaning he could harm Gabrielle or Amphipolis or even that bumbling fool Joxer. He had sent Joxer to try and find Xena and deliver his ultimatum. Ultimatums weren't really his style, he though. He was more of a sneak and he had to admit that Xena still roused his passions when he saw her in action. The pity of it was that since she had been on this atonement kick of hers, she could be a real bitch if you got on her bad side. He finally decided that in a case such as this, the direct approach was the best and if it came right down to it, the world minus one warrior princess wouldn't be such a bad thing. After all, he said to himself with a slight grin, when all is said and done, who's really gonna give a damn?
CHANCELLOR SPANDRELL'S QUARTERS: THE PANOPTICON; GALLIFREY:
An elderly figure sat behind lonely controls at the desk of the Chancellor of the High Council of Time Lords. Called out of retirement, the Chancellor had been given the post upon Romana's rise to the position of President after her return from E-Space.(1) Spandrell was a wily old bird who had a dozen tricks up his sleeve and seeing as how the President knew the Doctor, he was more than glad to be of assistance to her.
Several weeks had passed since Ambul had taken over along with his band of cronies and in Spandrell's wizened opinion, his cover story as to his take over and soon-to-be induction as President had more holes in it than a well worn blanket. The story went something like this; there was a terrorist attack from a group of internal dissenters to the new government. The President, unfortunately, had been involved and had perished. Then there had been the "supposed" instructions that should an untimely (and, Spandrell believed, highly unlikely) event occur, Romana had chosen Ambul as her select candidate to lead the planet. He didn't waste any time either. He vociferously attacked Romana's liberal policies with all the vim and vigor he could muster and doing his best to bolster support for his plot to destroy Earth, all in the name of planetary security. To Spandrell, it stank worse than a load of fetid Gallifreyan wharf-vole kidneys. Today was Ambul's day to make a big production of how it would be for "...the greater good of Gallifrey..." and all that nonsense. To Spandrell, the man was as daft as a Gulmere pouchling. Still the hard part would be the pretense of putting up a loyalist front in support of Ambul. What was the saying? You could catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Spandrell knew that everyone would have their attention focused on Ambul's induction which would provide him excellent cover for his little bit of homegrown treachery. The old Time Lord studied his console and changed the view to that of the detention center. Romana and Ace sat glumly, their faces betraying little or no emotion whatsoever. The President's face was set as if in stone, a grim determination discernible in the steely blue-grey eyes. Ace's face was a blank mask, belying the rage that bubbled inside her. Upon hearing of the "supposed" accident with Ace and Romana, it hadn't taken Spandrell too long to ferret out what had really happened to them and where they were being kept. Ace was speaking, "Romana, we've been here for God knows how long and that crukking bastard Ambul will have the whole populace believing his lies. Why haven't we tried to get out of here?"
"Patience, Ace, we'll think of something."
"The time to think of something was when we first got dumped in here weeks ago. Besides, Ambul has probably has himself inducted as President by now. If that's the case, that slimy bastard moves faster than a snake."
"Yes, I know." The two women fell back into silence.
"Chancellor Spandrell, have all the necessary final checks been made concerning the induction ceremony?" Ambul said this as he swaggered into Spandrell's office in the Chancellery. "Yes, Lord Ambul," the old Time Lord replied. To him, Ambul appeared as a pompous strutting peacock who was eager to show off all his splendor. He strolled around the room pouring over all the readouts of security arrangements. Spandrell looked up from a display to see Ambul getting dangerously close to his secret files to free Romana and Ace and expose Ambul's treachery. Spandrell cleared his throat and diverted Ambul's attention with a trifling point over security to keep him from discovering his plans. Pretending to want to discuss the matter further, Spandrell escorted him out of the office.
The Doctors, Susan and Ian paused on the landing just inside the main TARDIS door. As the Eighth Doctor made his way down the steps and across the floor to the hexagonal, mushroom-shaped console, the others could just stand and stare. The room was far more spacious than any of the Doctor's personas were used to. Sticking his hands in his pockets, the Second Doctor poked out his stomach and with a petulant scowl on his face, said, "You've been doing the TARDIS up a bit, haven't you? Hmmmmm, I don't like it." The Doctors all then made themselves at home in the ship. The atmosphere was warm and had a homely feel to it. Ian walked as if in a daze. This TARDIS was so different from when he and Barbara had traveled with the Doctor so many years before. He felt a tugging at the back of his mind and felt a warm and familiar presence like an old friend as the ship bonded with him on a telepathic level. He examined all the flora and fauna as he found he had wandered into the Garden Room. Finally alone with his thoughts and the TARDIS' cybernetic sentience in his mind, the old schoolteacher let the tears flow as the grief poured forth from his soul.
The Eighth Doctor twisted knobs, turned dials and pulled levers on the console as he tried to sort the endless data that was streaming in from the world outside. The news was catastrophic. Time was collapsing in and around the planet with the force of a whirlpool. At that moment, the Cloister Bell began its deep, resounding clang that the Doctor knew spelled certain doom for the planet. It was no good. He needed to think, to plan, to find a way and if this information was correct, then Earth had little time left and when it went, the TARDIS was sure to be dragged along with it. His other selves gathering around the console, the Doctor worked furiously to move the ship to retrieve Barbara's casket. Taking turns at the console's different stations, the Doctors all worked as one. At last the Eighth Doctor straightened up; "Cross our fingers," he said, switching his personal pronouns, "Here goes." The Doctor threw the master dematerialization switch and the rods inside the time rotor lurched into motion. Halfway through the cycle, the rotor froze and refused to budge. The Eighth Doctor groaned, "It's no good. The time dimensions around Earth are contracting to the point of collapse too fast. We'll have to make the jump and bypass space-time altogether." The Doctors set to work as one again making sure that the timing of the jump was perfect. If the calculations were off by even a fraction of a micro-second, the TARDIS would be flung randomly into space-time or destroyed. Making the necessary corrections, the Doctor threw the dematerialization switch again. The TARDIS engines roared to life with a warped strain to their sound. The beacon flashed brilliantly as the ship began to fade into transparency. Suddenly, in the middle of the maddening mob, there were two faintly transparent Police Boxes-one near the cemetery wall and one seeming to overlay the area where Barbara's casket rested. As the transparent form of the TARDIS near the wall faded out of existence, the ship's hull solidified around the casket. The bypass of space-time was a success!
"That's it. There's no more I can do. With time collapsing around the planet, the TARDIS is frozen to this place. We need outside help." The Doctor's words were almost lost through the din of the Cloister Bell's resonant peals.
"Doctor, what do you propose to do?" Susan asked. The Time Lord looked up at each one of his seven previous personas in turn and noted their grim expressions and then said, "Call the Time Lords. They are our only hope."
Spandrell's little diversion had worked rather better than he had dared to hope. Right in the middle of the Gold Usher inducting Ambul as President, the alarm sounded. As a result, all of the assembled Time Lords were in an uproar. The safety bulkheads lowered trapping everyone in the great Audience Hall.
Once they had walled up the Audience Hall, only the Chancellor or a higher ranking official could release them. And with an energy dampening field in place, the Audience Hall was totally isolated. Regaining his bearings in the chaos, Ambul growled through clenched teeth, "Spandrell!"
Spandrell, Romana and Ace sped down the hidden corridors of the Panopticon to the secret room that only Spandrell knew of. They turned, ducked down passages and backtracked to confuse anyone who might would follow. Spandrell doubted that, with his little deception, anyone would really bother to look for them. At least he hoped they wouldn't. At last they came to a darkened room that appeared to be tucked neatly away from everything else. After catching her breath, Romana spoke, "Thank you for that daring rescue Chancellor. Where is it that you've brought us to?"
"It's an old disused control center for the Time Scoop. Ever since the Death Zone Affair(2) and the Doctor's subsequent trial(3), it has been largely forgotten. I happened on this secondary control center quite by accident." Ace was glancing around and said, "This is some severe technology you've got here Chancellor."
"Why thank you."
"Chancellor," Romana continued, "How did you know we needed access to the controls of the Time Scoop?" The old Chancellor smiled as he tapped the side of his nose and gave a sly wink.
The Doctor, noticing that Ian had been absent from the rest of the group for the last several minutes, left his other selves and Susan to get reacquainted and went to see if the old teacher was holding up. As if acting more on instinct than having to actually look for him, the Doctor crossed opposite the console to the rather opulently adorned Garden Room and found Ian on an ornate wrought iron bench near a large reflecting pool. To normal standards, it looked like a small pond. As he looked up to see the Doctor enter, he gave a shuddering sigh and tried to bring his emotions under control. The Doctor sat next to him and ran a hand through his wavy brown curls. Finding words for situations like this were always difficult for him and he reckoned that after a thousand years and eight lifetimes, he ought to be a pro at it. He let out a deep sigh and glanced up at the ceiling to the artificial blue of a daytime sky on Earth. A cloud passed by and somewhere in the transcendental spaciousness of the Garden Room, a bird called out. Light from some source streamed through the foliage casting shadows on Time Lord and human alike.
"Ian, about what I said earlier,"
"Huh?" interrupted the teacher.
"I wanted to apologize for the nasty things I said earlier."
"What are you talking about? I was arguing with the..." He said before he realized that even if it was his eighth persona he were addressing, the man sitting next to him was still the Doctor. As the realization sank in, Ian turned his gaze back to the Japanese fighting fish that swam lazily in the reflecting pool. The Doctor, for his part, was feeling like a fish out of water and stumbled over his next words, ignoring the two ferrets that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere having perched on him; one on his lap, the other on his shoulder.
"Ian, I can understand your anger. I feel Barbara's loss as deeply as you do. I was younger then," he paused realizing how contradictory that must sound. He realized again in the space of seconds, that even though his first persona appeared as an old gentleman and his current persona appeared to be in his mid-thirties, he was in fact now about eight hundred years older-and wiser. He went on, "I know I was often an irascible, cantankerous old lout, but think of the fun and the travels we had. Even with the many arguments, there were the happy times too."
"I know Doctor. What I can't figure out is if I am really just mad at myself, for not being able to help her or mad at her for leaving me alone. She's gone and I'll never see her again." Looking Ian squarely in the eye, the Doctor said, "As long as she lives in here," he pointed to Ian's heart, "And as long as she lives in your memory, she will never truly be gone."
"There is just so much I wanted to say to her before she died and now I'll never get the chance."
"It's not too late Ian. She may no longer be with us physically but wherever she is, I'm sure she can hear you. Come with me." The Doctor led Ian out of the Garden Room and back across the console room. Turning at an odd angle, he headed down a long corridor that matched the rest of the ship's layout. He stopped abruptly at a heavy bronze double door and gave it a gentle tug. What Ian saw as the door swung open bewildered and amazed him. Beams of golden late afternoon sunlight streamed out into the corridor. In the center of the open area that was displayed before them, was a crystal bier standing in a grassy glade that was surrounded on all sides by softly rolling hills that disappeared into the horizon. There was a salty scent to the air and Ian noticed an ocean someways in the distance and just off to the left were mountains, dark and brooding. Ian knelt down to feel the emerald carpeting of the grass. It was real. Returning his attention to the crystal bier, he noticed that Barbara's casket rested on top of it.
"Doctor, this is amazing! How is it done? Are we outside the TARDIS? Is it holograms? dimensional transference? How?"
"None of the above, actually," came the reply, "We're still in the TARDIS and this is simply a room like all the others. Everything you see is real, nothing holographic or fake about it. I think," he said with a smile pulling at his mouth, "I think that the old girl rather had a soft spot for Barbara too."
"You mean you didn't..."
"No. The TARDIS did this herself. I think it's her way of showing how much Barbara is missed."
"It's beautiful."
"Anyway, I'll leave you alone. I suspect there are some things you'd like to get off your chest in private."
"Yes. Oh, and Doctor?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you."
"You are quite welcome my friend; quite welcome." The Doctor then turned and left the room and headed back towards the console room, leaving Ian alone with his thoughts and a strange kind of peace in his soul.
TIME SCOOP CONTROL CHAMBER-GALLIFREY:
Spandrell had wasted no time when they entered the chamber. He erected a force field which only he knew how to disarm. He then set about helping Romana and Ace scan for any trace of the Doctor's TARDIS. Ace's voice floated across the room, "I've got him! The TARDIS is on Earth in London on the seventh of October, nineteen ninety-seven. He's activated the distress beacon. That's how I was able to pinpoint him!"
Madame President," Spandrell interrupted, "You should know that when we activate the Time Scoop, they'll know immediately. They may also be able to locate us."
"Then we had better work fast then, hadn't we?" came the President's reply.
Ambul had gathered a handful of his supporters about him and growled his instructions, "Find Spandrell. Check on the President and her pet savage. IF they are missing, I want them found and brought before me! Go! Now!" His confederates turned to carry out his orders.
"Romana, we're ready to begin broadcasting. We have managed to cut in on Public Access Television's main channel. Ambul won't know what hit him! Broadcasting....now!" Romana then, to the surprise of all in the Audience Hall, addressed all of Gallifrey and told the planet of Ambul's treachery and his plans to usurp the position of the President. "Lastly," she continued as she finished up her address to her people, "We have an agent who can help us save both the Earth and Gallifrey. At this moment we stand ready to retrieve his TARDIS from where it is trapped on Earth. Citizens of Gallifrey, let me also urge you not to be swayed by Ambul and his like who would destroy our planet for their own personal gain. Take back what is ours! They cannot win!" With that the message ended and the lights flickered as the Time Scoop mechanism was fired from the secret control room. The interruption in the power caused the Audience Hall to open and allowed Ambul's confederates to begin their search. Ambul stared around himself, horrified, as an eerie hush fell over the gathered Time Lords. His beautiful dreams of empire were burning to the ground around him. A low rumble had started and grown quickly in volume as the assembled Lords began muttering amongst themselves. As he tried to restore to a situation that was rapidly spiraling out of his control, a young acolyte Time Lord managed to get a patrol staser away from its owner and made a mad dash towards the dais where Ambul stood. Raising the staser, he aimed and shouted a call to arms,
"For Romana! For GALLIFREY!!!" All Ambul could was stare dumbly as he was shot at point blank range. The Gallifreyan Civil War had begun.
The TARDIS lurched drunkenly and sent the Doctor hurtling to the floor. Picking himself up, he ran to the console room with Ian following just a few seconds behind.
"What is it?" the Doctor asked one of his previous selves, "What's going on?" He started to fuss over the controls. His fourth persona came and laid a restraining hand on his arm. Pointing to the ceiling he said, "It's the Time Lords. I think we're going home." The Doctor's gaze fell upon the time rotor and made note that it was moving indicating the TARDIS was in flight. After studying the controls, the Eighth Doctor looked up with a grin and said, "I hope they've prepared a welcome home party."
As Romana had finished her statement over the broadcast network, she joined Ace and Spandrell who completed the adjustments necessary to pull the TARDIS off of Earth. After making the final adjustments to allow for the time distortion around the planet, Romana herself checked the calculations. Taking a deep breath, she said, "Cross your fingers." She threw the switch.
Underneath the Panopticon, the boiling mass of energy that was the Eye of Harmony shivered and rippled as a command pulse summoned forth the energy to retrieve the Doctor's TARDIS. The captured heart of the black hole that powered the planet reacted, sending a burst outward through the Scoop's emitter array.
The brilliant pure white beam raced through space and the dimensions of time to the earth year 1997. The beam punched through the temporal disturbances surrounding the planet and homed in on the TARDIS. Like a fist suddenly snatching away a prized possession, the Time Scoop latched onto the Doctor's ship engulfing it in a brilliant white light. Beacon flashing and engines roaring, the TARDIS dematerialized. Like a captive bird set free, the Doctor's ancient time machine soared through the heavens along the coarse of the Time Scoop beam.
"He's due to arrive at any moment!" Ace shouted over the din outside. Ambul's followers, or rather, the ones he had dispatched to find them, had managed to trace the location of the control chamber despite Spandrell's best efforts. They had not, however, managed to penetrate Spandrell's force field; yet. It seemed though that it was only matter of time. On the monitor, it showed the TARDIS' arrival was imminent. Just then, a loud explosion rocked the control room knocking all three to the ground. When the air had cleared of smoke, armed rebels had stormed into the room shouting and waving stasers about. As the trio got back up off the floor, they saw the fanatical, crazed stare on the faces of Ambul's supporters in the door. With pure hatred playing on the lead rebel's face, he screamed, "DIE!! YOU TRAITOROUS BITCH!!!"
"NOOO!!" Ace shouted and she instantly moved to position herself between Romana and the rebel assassin. Time seemed to slow to a crawl and Ace felt as if she were suddenly someone else and detached from events. Then, as if in slow motion, she ran and started to dive in front of Romana. As she moved to do so, a loud throbbing drone started to fill the room and the Time Scoop beam began to coalesce and suddenly flashed into being. Accompanying the beam, with whispery undertones, was the trumpeting, wheezing groan of the TARDIS' engines. The beam sparkled sapphire blue, with the light of a thousand diamonds and coalesced into solid form as the TARDIS materialized. At that moment, the lead rebel loosed a shot from his staser. The energy pulse crackled against the Time Scoop beam and seemed to dissipate before being thrown back against the lead rebel and his associates; its power amplified a thousand times. The rebels disintegrated and a large part of the surrounding structure went with them. The few unfortunate souls who had been left to witness the event fled in terror; the image of what they had just seen burned into their memories. The door to the ancient time craft opened and the Doctor emerged followed by his previous selves and the others. As he cast glances about him, he said, "Looks as though this place could use a spot of dusting." He then noticed Romana, Spandrell, and Ace and greeted each of them warmly in turn.
Spilling outward from the Capitol, civil war waged on unabated; threatening to consume all of Gallifrey. Using the now reinforced control room as a base of operations, the group watched as the civil unrest threatened to rip the planet apart.
"And all this because of what's happening on Earth." To Romana, the Doctor seemed to be burdened with the weight of centuries. There was a great sadness in his face. She spoke to his back as he turned away, "The only way to stop the Gate is to return to the Earth before the planet is lost."
"My only concern with that is that the Gate needs a direct link with the Eye of Harmony in order to become fully active. In order to do just that, it may try to "consume" the TARDIS and forge a link with the Eye through the Time Vector Generator," he added glumly.
"If you decide not to, I'll understand, but Earth will still be in danger."
"And," he said, "It just so happens that only a Type Forty TARDIS has any hope of reaching Earth and mine is the only one left in existence. It seems to me that my duty is clear."
"I'm glad that you agreed to help, Doctor."
"How could I not? Earth is like a second home to me. I was exiled there by the Tribunal remember? But what of you, Spandrell and Ace?" Ace interrupted him, "We'll be fine, Professor," she responded using his old nick name that she always used to call him by when she traveled with him years before. It brought a smile to his face that quickly vanished as he continued, "What of Gallifrey itself? The Capitol is being ravaged by war between the Academies, the Chancellery Guard and the Shobogans." The Doctor strode back over to the scanner screen and did a panoramic sweep across the city. Fingers of flame tickled the buildings in various areas of the Capitol. Tearing his gaze away from the screen, he turned away in disgust as a single tear rolled down his cheek. The moment quickly passed and the Time Lord regained his composure. Gathering everyone around him he said, "OK Doctors, others, let's put our heads together. Earth and Gallifrey depend on us." The brainstorming began.
The TARDIS sat alone, her banks of ancient circuits whirring, clicking and ticking over to themselves. She had long since tired of computing the inverse of stellar densities here in the constellation of Kasterborous and tried to commune with the other TARDISes in the docking compound. The 'young upstarts' didn't care to have anything to do with a TARDIS model so old they all considered the Doctor's machine to be 'past it.' Little did they realize the wealth of information that she contained from the countless adventures she'd seen over the centuries. Oh well, it was no plasma off her outer shell. Tapping into her own cybernetic core, the TARDIS sought out a relative psychic frequency unique to Gallifrey and searched for the distinct pulse of the Doctor's mind. She sensed his thoughts like a psychic radar focusing in on a blip on a radar screen. Screening his mind, the ship became concerned over her operator's well-being; the Gate of Rassilon again. The TARDIS could just recall millennia ago when their evil taint had finally been removed from Gallifrey. That blasted Hexa Prime, the first and most powerful of all the Gates, was wreaking havoc on Earth. The ship held no delusion as to what caused the turmoil that she had undergone on the tortured planet and she also knew the Doctor would not allow the threat to his adopted home go unchecked. He would rise to the challenge, and when he did, the TARDIS, his oldest and most trusted friend, would be at his side. The TARDIS did a quick diagnostic over her power and drive systems. Her link to the Eye of Harmony was strong; artron energy pulse steady. When the time came the TARDIS would carry the Doctor where he was needed. Besides, the TARDIS herself had a few surprises for the Gate should it try anything.
That night in Gabrielle's dreams a voice spoke to her. It was feminine and resonant with a strange lilt to it that had a soothing effect on the bard. She saw the strange alien object that she had seen just a few days ago on the road to Amphipolis. The image introduced itself as the Gate of Rassilon and it had urgent news for Gabrielle to give to Xena. The bard addressed it, "I know you. I saw you in a vision just days ago. What in the gods name are you?" The Gate responded, I am known as the Gate of Rassilon. I was built millennia ago on the planet of Gallifrey, many, many countless miles away through the vast reaches of the heavens. I have come to you in this vision to warn you that Ares is setting a trap for you and the warrior.
"A trap? What kind of trap?"
He plans to usurp my power of temporal manipulation to free from imprisonment two women known as Callisto and Velasca. Do you know them?
Gabrielle whispered almost breathlessly in disbelief, "Callisto and Velasca? It can't be..." The Gate continued to reveal to Gabrielle all that it knew. Flashes and images of the future swirled around the bard's vision. Glimmerings of fire, destruction and death swirled drunkenly as the Gate spoke to her. The bard tossed and turned in her sleep as the images grew worse. Whole mountains heaved and buckled and collapsed in upon themselves. The seas boiled and rolled and as though someone had pulled a plug, large holes appeared in the surface of the world's oceans that logically, just shouldn't have happened. In other places, massive tidal waves washed over the land in a wave of ruin. She suddenly jerked herself awake from tossing and turning with the Gate's last words fading away as dying echoes in her mind. Turning to the warrior, she gently shook her awake and just looked at her for a moment. What she had just witnessed was too overwhelming, and she couldn't find the words she wanted. Xena had smiled up at her before propping herself up on both elbows. "Where's the fire," she asked a little sleepily. Gabrielle still wouldn't say anything, continuing only to stare back at the warrior. This nightmare was too real and the bard knew there was no getting around it. Her eyes misted over and hating herself for letting Xena see her start to cry, she got up and started to toy with the laces of her top. Xena asked her, "Gabrielle, what's the matter?" Gabrielle tried to play it off like it was nothing, but she couldn't keep it up, "Oh, I've just seen how the world is going to end, that's all."
"What do you mean you've seen how the world is going to end?"
"The object, Xena! I saw it again! I didn't tell you this, but when we started towards Amphipolis a couple of days ago, I had a vision of the object that's behind all of this madness. It just spoke to me in my dreams. Ares had gained control of it and he's planning to free Callisto and Velasca both. The Gate's powers will give him the ability to do it. It told me to warn you; that you needed to know." Xena's face went from concerned to stone in the blink of an eye. "It's a good thing you listened," was the only reply she could manage. Gabrielle was sobbing quietly by this time as she went on, "It was horrible. I saw such images of death and destruction like the world has never seen before. How can we fight Ares, Callisto, Velasca, and a strange object that controls time? Xena, We can't win this war, not this time. How can we fight them?" How indeed?, wondered the warrior. Moving up behind her, Xena reached her arms around Gabrielle and hugged her close. With soft shushing noises and reassurances, she gently rocked her and kissed the younger woman tenderly on the cheek. After she had calmed Gabrielle down, she muttered to herself, "You want me Ares? You've got me!" Within minutes the two women were packed up and racing at breakneck speed towards Amphipolis.
The Gate was pleased. For long and countless millennia, it had lain dormant and disused in the musty, null dimensions of the time vaults underneath the Capitol. Thanks to the help of another renegade Time Lady, Vestai L'huma, the Gate had broken the temporal chains that had bound it and sought at first to escape its creators/jailers. It felt refreshed and renewed. It had been ages since it had felt anything akin to human emotion. It hated to admit it, but for the time being, it needed the primitive savages and their petty immortals who paraded around as "gods". If only it could gain access to the Eye of Harmony! Then its power would be absolute and the universe would bow before it. When it had leached the energy from Ares, the Gate's personality matrix, which functioned similar to the symbiotic nuclei of a Time Lord, had absorbed the rudiments of the War God's personality. With a matrix that bordered on amorality, it was now possessed of Ares' hate, bloodlust and desire for conquest and an almost indomitable will. Now, instead of a sentient alien time portal, it was a deadly killing machine. Soon, it thought, Ares and Xena will be locked in battle with each other and I can get on with dominating this world and others. All will be powerless before me as I grow to rule the universe. Planets and whole galaxies will prostrate themselves before me and the Time Lords will come to deeply regret ever having tried to destroy me!
Xena spurred Argo on harder pushing the mare as fast as she could go. The warrior's blood pounded a rhythm in ears that matched the drum like beating of her heart. Gabrielle held on to her feeling the warmth of her body and she snuggled in closer to her resting her head on Xena's back to protect herself against the wind.
Joxer had tumbled through the valley like a pebble tumbling down a hill of gravel. He could barely keep his balance as in terror he ran towards the village that was Xena's home. The caverns were coming into view and just beyond that lie Amphipolis, appearing to him as a ghost town. Another time quake hit and Joxer's balance went helter-skelter. When he stopped tumbling, his latest spill had landed him at the cavern in which the Gate was hidden away. Thinking to wait out the quakes in the shelter of the caves, Joxer dashed inside and immediately wished he hadn't. Ares and Strife were inside arguing with an odd-shaped device that Joxer could hear responding in a feminine voice. It was clear that Ares was highly upset. "I had planned to break the news to Xena! The premature action on your part forces our hand! You haven't even reached full power yet, unless you're hiding something from us and I can't guarantee to save you from whoever it may be that the people who created you will send after you!"
Look at it this way, trilled the Gate, Xena and the girl are now heading straight into your trap. I can also guarantee that they will have added incentive to hurry here.
"What do you mean?"
Watch. The vortex of energy formed and swirled at the Gate's heart. Gradually, it took the shape of a man. As it did so, familiar blue fingers of electro-temporal energy crackled and writhed like living snakes over the figure and with a loud thunderclap Joxer was suddenly standing at the heart of the Gate. He was still standing in the crouched position he'd been in when he entered the cave. Ares' scowl changed to a wide grin. "Hexa Prime, I love the way you think!" Thank you, the Gate droned, but I am still limited in what I can do. My energy that I leached from you when you touched me is still strong, but is gradually beginning to fade. I need to merge with the Eye of Harmony. "Ah yes," Ares, "Any further ideas as to how you'll accomplish that?" One or two, came the reply. "Well Xena and Gabrielle are on their way and with the clown prince here," Ares said as he roughly manhandled Joxer who gave a squeal of protest, "I'd say everything was falling nicely into place. Come, let's go meet the two 'heroines'." Energy crackled over Hexa Prime, Ares, Strife, and Joxer and then they were gone.
"Doctor, you will be careful, won't you?"
"Of course, Madame President," the Doctor smiled as he said this, "Don't worry, I will stop the Gate."
Romana grasped his hand firmly and reached up and kissed him on the cheek. Turning, the Doctor headed into the ship. Crossing to the console, he set the coordinates for Earth on the alphanumeric keypad and then paused. Patting the wooden console lovingly he said, "Ready, old girl? Here goes." Reaching out to the navigation panel, he threw the master dematerialization switch. Outside, Romana watched as the TARDIS trumpeted her departure from Gallifrey.
Xena reigned Argo to a halt and she and Gabrielle dismounted. Standing in the Amphipolis village square were Ares and Strife holding Joxer captive. Behind the two gods Xena could see the device that must have been the alien object based on the description that Gabrielle had given to her. The warrior drew her sword on instinct and purposefully, if a little cautiously, and strode towards her nemesis. Gabrielle followed closely behind with her staff gripped closely to her. Her facial expression was a total blank.
Ares spoke in his usual mocking tone, "Xena! Long time, no see. Perfect day for a reunion."
"Save it, Ares. Whatever it is that you've got planned, you can forget it. I'll see myself in Hades before I see Callisto loose on the Earth again."
"Oh, Xena, I'm hurt," he continued in his same mocking tone, "I was hoping we could enjoy a friendly social call."
"Ares, with you, nothing is ever as simple as a purely social call. Do you have any concept of the carnage those two will wreak if you release them? Why do it, for Hades' sake? What are you really up to? Did the circus come to town?" she said indicating Joxer and the Gate.
"Simple, I want you back and this time I can honestly say that I'm prepared to go to any lengths to get you back. To help you make the right decision, I have something that may give you a little incentive." Ares purred the last few words of the last statement.
"I saw that you managed to capture Joxer. That in itself is no great task. But knowing you, one puny," Joxer shouted indignantly at that remark, "mortal isn't enough. What else are you up to?"
"Oh Xena you'll see. You'll see. Prime, now!" When Ares finished talking, he moved out of the way and Xena and Gabrielle got a full glimpse of the Gate of Rassilon. The vortex at its heart seemed deep and endless like a corridor and they could see that it obviously went no deeper than the surface of the artifact. The energy pulsed and writhed and while it did this, an image formed in the heart of the vortex that caused Xena's blood to turn to ice in her veins. The image formed into a bubble that came to rest on the dais that made up the Gate's base. The bubble was man sized and in it Xena could see the screaming, terrified faces of the villagers. It was like looking through a window into another world. She could see her own mother, Cyrene, trapped in the alien landscape. Ares sidled up to her and putting his hands on her shoulders, he purred in her ear, "What's it gonna be Xena?" His voice was soft, but there was a definite edge to it. She wrestled with her thoughts. She'd be damned if she'd let a village full of people suffer needlessly. Spinning to face him, here eyes narrowed to murderous slits. "Let them go, Ares," she growled.
"Of course," he purred. Something inside the warrior cringed at the thought of him giving up so easily. Hazarding a glance over her shoulder, she called out, "Gabrielle?"
"I'm here," came the reply.
"Good. Stay behind me." Xena moved closer to the Gate.
Somewhere in the Gate's circuitry, its intelligence matrix detected a temporal disturbance not of its making. Ah, so the Time Lords had sent an agent. Judging by the temporal signature of the object, the Gate could tell that a TARDIS was headed towards Earth and from the key coding in its matrix, it knew that it was an old model and one that was no longer in service. As discreetly as it could, the Gate sent a pulse out to the Doctor's time machine. At last it would have the power it needed to free Callisto and Velasca and wreak havoc throughout the cosmos...
The Doctor was busy at the console when the ship's lights started to flicker and then dimmed considerably. A warning went up from the monitor suspended above the console. The Doctor studied the information available to him and noted that the Gate must be trying to establish a link to the ship and try to bleed the ship of its artron energy supply. The Doctor set to work trying to remodulate the TARDIS' vortex shielding to block the power drain. The Cloister Bell began its resonant clanging and the Doctor worked furiously to thwart the Gate's attack. The lights in and around the console room flashed and winked as they fought to stay lit. One corridor suddenly went pure white as a creeping hoar frost overtook it. Still working like mad, the Doctor reached out and turned a switch only to have it short out on him. He paused a moment as the time rotor lurched to a halt and its lights died. Slowly, even the Cloister Bell's peals were silenced from the power loss. Braced against the console, the Doctor could tell the ship would soon fall out of the vortex and be caught in the Earth's gravitational pull...
The Gate's tap into the TARDIS' power had disrupted the artron energy flow sufficiently to pull the TARDIS out of the space-time continuum. The ship plummeted towards the Earth, powerless.
The Doctor worked like a mad man. The residual power left in the capacitors indicated to the Doctor that the Gate had tapped into the artron energy stream released by the Eye of Harmony. Checking the power store, he noticed that the Eye itself was still feeding power to the ship, only the temporal capacitors were not receiving it to power the rest of the ship. He guessed the TARDIS had attempted to maintain some kind of shielding around the Eye's reception nodule in the Cloister Room. He smiled at the ship's ingenuity. He saw that he had no other choice and would have to divert power directly from the Eye itself. He would have to be careful, though. If the adjustments were off, the TARDIS would be sucked into oblivion. From somewhere far off in the ship the was an explosion and the TARDIS sounding sick. He frowned, but then allowed himself a slight smile when he remembered that Grace had been forced to rewire the ship during their unforgettable escapade together. Setting to work with the trusty sonic screwdriver, the Doctor fought to bring the TARDIS back to life again.
"So you see Xena, you can either join me again, or I'll have the Gate release Callisto and Velasca to hound you and Gabrielle for eternity. Consider the possibilities; I have it in my power to now use them to rule the universe."
"Ah-ah-ah, Ares. We wouldn't want Zeus getting wise to your plans, now would we," she growled, "I can't allow you to use that obscene thing. If I have to move heaven and earth, so help me, I will stop you."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
"Then you leave me know choice. Prime, show them your stuff." As the time portal started to activate, Gabrielle came to stand by her friend. "Xena," she said quietly, "Can he do it? Do you think he can?"
"I don't know for sure, but I do know that IF indeed he has that power, then he won't hesitate to release those hags."
"How will we fight two goddesses bent on our deaths?"
"Like demons if we have to. But however we have to fight them, we'll do it side by side," Xena said as she reached out and took Gabrielle's hand in hers. "Ready?" she asked the bard?
"Why not? It's just another day in the life." The women prepared themselves. With the power that Prime had leached from the TARDIS, the portal glowed a blinding white. Partially shielding their eyes, the women stood their ground as a small platoon of soldiers stepped forth out of the Gate. Under the control of the Gate and at Ares' command, the soldiers stopped and stood in formation. They were all clad in black material and they had some kind of helmets that were black and had dark shielding over the eyes. At their sides they carried strange weapons that neither women had seen before. Xena assumed automatically that they were from the future. At that moment, Ares gave the command, "Attack!" The soldiers sprang and Ares shoved Joxer into the middle of the fray. Xena gave her piercing battle cry as she came to meet the soldiers head on. A couple of well placed blocks prevented her getting skewered on the end of a futuristic sword and kept Joxer from being sliced in two. She shoved him out of harm's way, sending him reeling over towards Gabrielle who was just barely holding her own against two more soldiers. Busy with the soldier directly in front of her, the warrior princess did not see the figure come up from behind her. At Gabrielle's shouted warning, she feinted to the side and the two soldiers cut each other dead. Another good swing severed one soldier's head from his shoulders, sending blood spurting into the air. She looked over to see that Gabrielle was still managing to hold two of the goons at bay, who were trying to get at her and Joxer who was at her back with his sword drawn and trying to jab the soldiers like needles into a pin cushion. A kick from one of the soldiers sent Joxer reeling into the bushes. Seeing that they were at a stalemate, the soldiers around Gabrielle backed off and one of them brought one of their strange weapons to bear on her. It was barrel-like and had a trigger at one end. A muted whumph! sounded and a pulse of light slammed into the bard. Gabrielle went down, her shoulder blasted open, with blood streaming from the wound.
"GABRIELLE!!!" Xena bellowed when she saw her friend fall. A murderous rage filled her and releasing the latch that held it in place, Xena let her chakram fly at the soldier who was standing over Gabrielle preparing to fire the strange device again at her head this time. He barely had to time register what was happening to him as the chakram's razor sharp edge severed his hand from his wrist causing him to yelp in pain and drop his weapon. Xena ran him through with her sword, her eyes shining dangerously. Forgetting everything but Gabrielle, she rushed over to her companion's side and took her in her arms to support her. Joxer had roused from where he had been knocked senseless and was trying to position himself as a human shield between the two women and the soldiers. Reaching up, Xena deftly caught the chakram and readied it to be released again. She looked down into Gabrielle's pain-filled eyes.
"Xena," she slurred, "The pain...please...stop the pain." There was blood everywhere. The impact of the blast had shattered the bone and Gabrielle's life slowly ebbed away. Eyes beginning to dim with tears, the warrior used a pressure point technique to dull the pain in Gabrielle's shoulder, causing a tortured gasp to escape her lips. Xena couldn't bear it. She cradled Gabrielle and tried to comfort her as the tears began to flow. She stroked the angelic face and wiped the tears from the bard's eyes.
"I-I l-love you, Xena," Gabrielle managed weakly. Xena gently shushed her, "I know. I love you too."
The warrior then lifted her chin and kissed the bard's soft lips. Joxer, witnessing the scene, felt a surge of bravery and anger at his friends' suffering and with a howl, lunged at one of the nearest attackers only to be knocked senseless again. Xena's anger was growing and she began to release the chakram when she was frozen in mid move. She and Gabrielle had been frozen to the spot, stunned. One of the soldiers was holding a weapon that had emitted some kind of energy pulse around the two women. Straining with all her might, Xena couldn't budge it. She was trapped, Gabrielle was bleeding to death and the strange soldiers brought several more of the same barrel-like devices to bear on them. Xena could only stare as the soldiers closed in for the kill...
1. See Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy starring Tom Baker. E-Space was a small universe outside of the normal universe. The normal universe was referred to as N-Space.
2. See Doctor Who: The Five Doctors-starring Peter Davison
3. See Doctor Who: The Trial of a Time Lord-starring Colin Baker