In the realm of human conflict, a gradual evolution has taken place, wherein those who cause and supervise the battles have gradually withdrawn from their responsibilities.
The earliest conflicts were nothing more than glorified melees, with an "every man for himself" attitude. The last man standing, no matter how bloodied, was the victor.
As civilisation advanced, a caste system for war developed. The bravest and smartest were acknowledged for their abilities, and led the others into combat, demonstrating by example the glory that could be obtained in conflict.
Eventually, generals realized that the people leading the charge were often the first ones killed. One did not want to deprive one's people of his wisdom and cunning, so one would migrate to the back of the charging column, barking orders to the men in front, directing them much as one would direct a play.
Before too long, generals realized that even the back of the column was not a terribly safe place to be, especially after the advent of the longbow and, later, the rifle. It was much safer to linger back in tents, preferably high on a hill overlooking the battlefield, and move men as if they were chess pieces, supervising the war and choosing which pieces to sacrifice to gain the best advantage. So the generals retreated even further.
As communications improved, and in their time, weapons advanced, the generals saw no need to even be in the immediate area of the battlefield. One could relay orders by telegraph or bark them into two-way radios, and the soldiers in the field would obey. Before too long, even the soldiers were rather redundant; the entire war could be fought on computer screens, rather like a vid-game. Should that prove ineffective, one could just push a button and the enemy would disappear. The ENTIRE enemy, including his house and his family and his factory and his farms, and his livestock, would disappear. And, one would hope, the enemy would not have a similar button to be pressed.
As the generals retreated further and further from the battles, until they could no longer even see a single drop of blood not caused by a careless razor nick, their tactics became more cunning, their strategies more sweeping, their campaigns more involved.
This was the bravery of being out of range.
This bravery is not limited to the battlefield; it can be seen in everyday lives. In any given day, the average sentient being interacts directly with at least ten other sentients, who then interact with ten other sentients, until the numbers are astronomical. The slightest action can have devastating effects down the road. Chaos theory states that a butterfly flapping his wings can change weather patterns thousands of miles away. Likewise, a careless word to one person can multiply millions of times, until it has destroyed the life of an innocent person several iterations later.
As a result, one should exercise extreme caution in one's contact with others. Most sentients do, in fact, take this into account, and are content to live quiet, simple lives. There are, however, those who continue to charge blindly ahead, meddling in the affairs of others, seeking to impose their will, their thoughts, and their desires on others. These meddlers rarely see the after-effects of their activities, the people who are hurt and the damages that are inflicted.
They also exhibit the bravery of being out of range.
Directly in front of him, holding his gun directly in his face, was one of the meanest guards he had seen in a long time, and he had seen many. The man had piercing black eyes -- in fact, oddly, all of the soldiers appeared to have piercing black eyes. The Doctor was just barely able to make out the name, "Edek," on the man's uniform.
"You have just ten seconds to tell me who you are and who you are working for," Edek bellowed, "before we open fire."
The Doctor struggled to work through his pain. "Gun wounds again?" he muttered to himself. "I am damn unsatisfied to be killed this way again. I had hoped for something more glorious this time around." He proffered a hand to Edek. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Doctor."
To the Doctor's surprise, the five soldiers, Edek included, suddenly gasped and lowered their weapons.
"Was it something I said?"
Jadi was the one to finally break the silence. "Does something about this museum strike you as...odd?"
"Trust me, after travelling with the Doctor, I doubt I will ever view anything as odd ever again."
"No, that's not what I mean. Let's face it, this isn't very much of a museum for one thing. Not a very interesting selection of displays, and it looks like there haven't been tourists through here in months, if not years. I'd almost swear as if this museum is here because we expect it to."
"Grife preserve me, Jadi, I will never understand you as long as you live."
"But, then again," he said as he cradled her head on his shoulder, "isn't that the way you like it?"
"Kind of, but...." She stopped when she realized Jadi wasn't paying attention to her; his eyes were riveted straight ahead. Focusing on what he was looking at, Angela could make out a woman in front of them. She appeared to be wearing a uniform of some kind. Slung over her shoulder was a rifle, and she appeared to be carrying a large, metal box. A security guard, perhaps?
"Maybe we should ask for directions," Jadi said. He stepped towards the woman, raising his hand for attention. "Excuse me," he shouted.
The woman saw him, and took off down the hall at a speed that impressed even Angela.
"Wait! Come back!" Jadi was shouting after her, but she didn't respond. Something in his bounty hunter's instincts kicked in, he drew his blaster, and ran after her. "What's going on?!?" he shouted as he ran off into the distance.
"Jadi, don't! Come back! You'll...!" But it was no use talking to him; he never listened once he had the scent of blood in his nostrils. Angela was about to take off after him when she did, in fact, notice something odd.
They had been standing beside a doorway when Jadi noticed the strange woman ahead of them. Angela had noticed it, but had not really examined it very closely. She did so now. Stepping back a few paces, she noticed that the exhibit name carved into the wall said "HALL OF LEGENDS AND MYTHOLOGY." That was normal enough, but the door itself was quite unusual.
It was shaped like a larger-than-life version of the TARDIS.
The two were not in the room for more than five minutes before it appeared that they had done what they had come for. The woman turned and nodded to her companion, who pushed a button. The maniacal air-conditioning came back on, and the vortex appeared in front of them. The two black-clad figures stepped in.
Another soldier quickly ran what looked like a scanner device over and around the Doctor, and studied the readout intently. "He's unarmed, sir. Looks like he's got everything BUT a weapon on him, but nothing he could have used to shoot the guards." With a sweep of his hand, the soldier scanned the surrounding room. "No sign of the weapon anywhere in here, either. My guess is he's clean."
"What about Tern? Is he...."
A groan from behind them confirmed the scientist's continued existence.
"Well, it looks like whoever took down these two made it off with the artifact." Edek pressed a button on his wrist communicator. "Seal off the facility! We have an infiltrator! Let no one in or out!"
"But sir," one soldier meekly interjected, "if what we've heard about the Merabalans is true, then...."
"Do you honestly believe in fairy stories, Corporal!?"
"Well," the soldier modestly pointed at the Doctor, "what about HIM?"
Edek pondered the situation for a few moments before begrudgingly realizing that the young man had a point. "Yes. What about him?" The Major paced around the Doctor, examining him very closely. "So, you claim to be the Doctor, do you?"
"It's not a matter of claiming. The last time I checked, I was the Doctor. Oh, dear, has my reputation preceded me?"
"You might say that. How did you get here?"
"Oh, I manage to get around. You know what it's like, life on the road, no port to call home, a...."
"Shut up. I mean, what SHIP did you use to get here?"
The Doctor sighed. "I really wish people would stop calling it a 'ship.' Technically, it's not a ship at all, it's a Type 40 Space-Time vessel, commonly known as...."
One of the younger soldiers finished the Doctor's sentence for him. "A TARDIS."
The Doctor glared at the soldier. "Yes, yes, yes, that term will do as well as any."
Five of the soldiers, along with the awe-struck Tern, suddenly dropped to their knees. The late arrival, who had not, turned to Edek and whispered in his ear. "Begging your pardon, but should I contact the Colonel, sir?"
"Don't bother. I'll do it myself."
The woman took him around several more quick turns and ducked through a number of doorways in an effort to shake Jadi off. "Run all you like," Jadi yelled, "Jadi Morok always gets his man. Or woman, in this case!"
The woman dropped the metal box she had been carrying and dashed through a handy door. Jadi turned and followed her into the room.
Jadi was surprised for a moment. The room appeared to be empty.
He did a quick survey. There were no other doors or windows, no obvious means of escape. But that meant....
A quick judo chop to the back of his neck confirmed Jadi's suspicions. She was right behind him.
Jadi managed to croak "good shot" before everything went purple with little flashes of orange.
He glanced over at the black box the intruders had left behind. Even though he had no idea what it was, he had an intuition that in a few seconds, any place that the vortex would lead to would be preferable to where he was at the moment.
He mentally flipped a coin in his head, cursed himself for making it a two-headed coin, and lunged forward.
Knocking over the two interlopers, Wil entered the vortex, which quickly closed behind him.
He reviewed the alleged "Doctor" in his interaction with Major Edek for the fifth time. Over the millennia, there had been many impostors, but there was a nagging doubt at the back of Mon's mind. Something was different this time; could this really be *the* Doctor?
He stopped the playback and accessed the base's historical databank. With his hands moving swiftly over the control pad, Mon entered his search criteria and sat back. Moments later, the screen resolved itself into a crude drawing of a white-haired man with an aristocratic nose wearing a velvet smoking jacket. He was standing next to a short girl with long blonde hair.
"The legends of the Doctor again, Colonel?"
Mon turned with a start, almost ready to draw his firearm, before he realized that it was only his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Toros.
"Karn! Don't startle me like that!"
"Sorry, sir." Toros put down the paperwork she had brought with her and leaned in closer to the readout. "Permission to speak freely? I never thought you were one to actually believe in the Doctor, Colonel."
"I never have. But there is something intriguing about the man Major Edek is bringing here. Something in my gut is saying this could be it."
He entered some new search criteria. The picture of the old man and young girl faded out and a new one came up on the screen. This one was of a younger man with a head of curly, orange hair wearing a patchwork overcoat. Standing behind him was a boy wearing a white shirt, blue pants, and spectacles, looking over a printout.
"The Anti-Doctor, sir?"
"No," Mon corrected her, "according to the legends the Anti- Doctor will have a beard and be dressed all in black. This," he motioned to the new image, "is the Merabalan version of the legend of the Doctor."
"Merabalan version of the Doctor?"
"Yes. They have a legend about him, too."
"May I?" Toros sat down, pulling the terminal screen around to face her, and sifted through the text. After a few minutes she spoke. "Truly fascinating. It would seem that while they have a Doctor legend, it seems that the only things they have in common with ours are the name and the Temple of TARDIS. Their Doctor's helpmate is this Grant person where ours had Lady Josephine, their Doctor's behavior is markedly different, and...oh-HO! There ARE some other similarities."
"Exactly. Apparently, you're thinking what I was thinking."
Toros scanned back to the footage Edek had sent. "But the man Major Edek has captured looks nothing like either our or the Merabalan version of the Doctor."
"True, but if their Doctor is OUR Doctor, maybe he wears more than one, or even more than two faces."
"But do you honestly think he can end this war, Colonel?"
"If anyone can, it's the Doctor. After all, he's the one who started it!"
The robot was aiming a gun right at Jadi's head.
"Hello. Nice place you have here. Interesting gun. Is it..."
"SHUT UP!"
The robot's exclamation knocked Jadi backwards. That voice. He recognized that voice. Was it....
"Angela?"
"How dare you!" the robot practically screamed. "HOW DARE YOU?!? Did you think I'd forget?" Jadi thought he could recognize a bit of sadness in the anger deep within the robot's voice.
"What are you...." The robot's metal hand lashed out, striking Jadi in the face, throwing him back against the wall. "You know what I'm talking about! You left me! You and the Doctor abandoned me, leaving me all on my own!" The intensity of the robot's voice was increasing, building back to the scream that Jadi had first heard from it. "I sat there, abandoned, for FIVE MILLION YEARS! My mind was active for the whole thing! I lived, alone, trapped there, for eons upon eons, and never once did either of you think to check me! I wasted away. I saw civilisations grow and die around me, unable to do anything! But now, I'm free."
The robot once again levelled the gun at Jadi's head. "And now, I have you right where I want you."
The sound of a gunshot echoed through the empty halls.
To Be Continued...