Inheritance of War--Chapter Four

DOCTOR WHO: THE INTERNET ADVENTURES
"INHERITANCE OF WAR"
Chapter Four: "Past Tense, Present Tense, Future Very Worried Indeed" By Zarg the Unmercible*
*With additional material by Bruce Greenwood

 Wil screamed.

 

Jadi yelled, and the bolt from the blaster took him cleanly through the chest.

 

Angela backed away from the two scruffy young men, who advanced on her, staring with wide, vacant eyes.

 

"I'm glad you two are here," said Colonel Mon, shaking his head. "This Doctor character is really starting to get on my nerves. That's a good sign, right?"

 

Tern just sighed. "No, Doctor, none of us have any idea of what might be in the capsule. I was called in because I'm an expert, but I'd only seen it for about five minutes before the attack."

 

"Dear oh dearie me, you are a panicky one, aren't you?" The Gord's smile was positively vicious. "The panicky ones are usually best."

 

There was a blinding light, and when Jadi could see he found himself strapped into what seemed to be a dentist's chair. A figure over his head was shining a light into his eyes.

 

"What are you doing here in the museum? You shouldn't be here now. No, no, that's not right at all. You shouldn't be here, miss."

 

Professor Henderson thought for a moment. "It would seem that the Doctor -- if that is who we are dealing with -- is in either his fourth body, though the description doesn't *quite* match, or is, in fact, a new body altogether. Fascinating, don't you think?" He grinned.

 

The Doctor stopped pacing. He whirled and looked straight at Tern with piercing eyes. "They knew exactly where to be and exactly when to be here. How?"

 

The Gord smiled at him. It would have been a quite grandmotherly smile if it wasn't so hideously evil. Wil tried not to scream again, and found to his shock that he didn't.

 

"Things will go much easier for you, Mr Morok, if only you tell me where the TARDIS is." The figure examined the drill, flecking a few bits of nonexistent dust from the end.

 

Angela shrugged, and smiled number 23 -- the disarming, 'oops, am I lost?' smile. "I saw your exhibit, and I just *had* to come in and have a look! Isn't it fascinating?"

 

"Absolutely astonishing," said Colonel Mon flatly. "Now if you wouldn't mind coming with me so that you can meet him and judge for yourself."

 

"A traitor?" Tern gaped at the Doctor in astonishment. "But who'd work for the Merabalans? Who'd work for the Gord?"

 

Wil tried to move his head, but he was held fast. "Believe me, I do want to hurt you. Not too little, mind, but not enough to seriously damage you. However, if you want to save me some unnecessary pleasure, then all you have to do is pledge allegiance to my cause."

 

"All right, I'll tell you where the bloody crukking TARDIS is! Just let me out of this chair, now! Don't use the drill! I don't need the drill! Don't use the drill!"

 [Drill's a bit much, have to tone it down a mite.]

 

"And over here we have the TARDIS key! Believed to be the genuine article. It was left here when the Doctor originally visited nearly eight thousand years ago!"

 [My my, that was remarkably easy for her. Then again, they never were exceptionally quick off the mark.]

 

Mon rushed over to him. "Edek, what the hell happened?"

 "The Doctor happened. He attacked me and ran off with Tern."

 [Now this won't do at all. We have to have the good Colonel trusting the Doctor. Naughty Edek.]

 

"The Gord. Now why does that ring a bell?" The Doctor had started his rapid pacing again, occasionally stopping to hum, check his watch, or suddenly stare into Tern's eyes, as if trying to startle Edek into doing something. Edek just jumped.

 [Oh my. You are remarkably thick, aren't you, Doctor? Merabalis, Diracan, the Gord, what more do you need?]

 

Wil felt cold. The Gord whispered in his ear. "All you have to do, dear boy, is say that you'll serve me. You don't even have to mean it, just saying the words will be enough. Then you can be all nice and warm, snug as a bug in a rug."

 [Amateur.]

 

Jadi screamed, and the drill went straight through his

 [WAAAAAAY too much. Restart his scenario again. Yes, again.]

 

Jadi screamed, and woke up. He sat up, breathing heavily, his eyes wide open. Slowly, he took account of his surroundings.

 The room he'd woken up in was a uniform dark gray. It was smallish, with a shallow roof and no furniture. The only door was locked, and the only other thing in the room was the light.

 "This is bad," he murmured. He spent the next couple of minutes checking the room thoroughly, pushing against all the walls, the light, even the roof. Eventually he gave up and thumped the door with frustration.

 Deciding to take stock, Jadi sat in the corner of the room opposite the door. "All right. I see a woman running away carrying a crate, or pod or something. I chase her, she hides behind a door and knocks me out. Next thing I know I see a robot which says it's Angela, and it shoots me. Bang, I should be dead, but instead I find myself tied up in a room with no doors with a rope with no end. Except -- " And here he scowled. "Except I don't remember that like a memory. More like something out of a movie I saw once or something.

 "I do *not* like people messing with my head.

 "Okay, so I'm stuck in this room with no doors. But then that disappears, and I end up inside what looks like somebody's brain, and another robot shoots me. Except it doesn't, it just disappears."

 AND THEN I ASKED YOU WHERE THE TARDIS WAS.

 Jadi sighed wearily. "Yes, then you asked me where the TARDIS was and I said I wasn't going to tell you, so you said you'd destroy me, and you did. Except you didn't. Um."

 AREN'T YOU A LITTLE TIRED OF THIS? I CERTAINLY AM. LET'S GET ON WITH YOU TELLING US WHERE THE TARDIS IS, AND THEN WE'LL LET YOU GO.

 "In how many pieces?"

 THAT DEPENDS ON HOW LONG IT TAKES YOU TO TELL US.

 "Oh dear. In that case, I'll tell you all I know. It was stolen by a group of drunken football hooligans from near Alpha Centauri singing 'here we go, here we go, here we go.'"

 OH, ISN'T THAT JUST AWFUL.

 Jadi nodded. "Best I could think of at the aargh."

 

Angela stopped in front of another exhibit. "And this is...?"

 Potz, the smaller of the two curators, spoke up. "This is the strangest artifact we've ever had in the museum."

 "Some think it's, it's, it's some kind of of weapon." Leop grinned and pointed at Angela's hair dryer, sitting impossibly in the case. "What do you think it is?"

 Angela sighed. "Big, big, big trouble."

 [Oh yes indeedy, Miss Ferris. Oh yes indeedy-diddly-do.]

 

"Think. Think. Think!" With a sigh of frustration, the Doctor stood up and paced across the room. "I have all the pieces of the puzzle. Now all I need is the top of the box so I can tell which ones are supposed to be the edges.

 "Well if there is a traitor, how are they contacting the Merabalan forces? I mean, you'd think that security in a base this tight -- "

 The Doctor snorted. "I once walked into a high-security army base and wandered around for about a minute before getting caught." He paused for thought. "Of course, it was a trap, but still."

 Tern sat and stared into space for a bit. "What happened to Major Edek?"

 "Hmm?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow in Tern's direction. "Oh, he'll be all right. That was just a simple flip, and I made sure he'd land softly."

 "No, what I mean is, how did they get past him? And how did they get on and off the station without being monitored on RADAR or whatever it is they use at the moment?" Tern seemed to be becoming a bit more anxious. "What if Edek is the traitor?"

 [Able to leap to conclusions in a single bound.]

 The Doctor stood their for a second, thinking over Tern's idea before shaking his head. "Good old Edek would never be a traitor. A bully, a snipe, maybe a snoop, but never a traitor."

 [Much better. Good old Edek.]

 Tern shook his head as if to clear it. "Did you just hear -- "

 And with that, a sudden burst of fantastic light and colours appeared in front of them. It quickly formed a tunnel, and a group of people started walking through from the other side.

 "Wil?" The Doctor ran forward to greet him. "What on Earth have you been ooof!" The last came as Wil hit the Doctor in the stomach with the butt of his rifle.

 "Silence! Silence and make way for the Gord!"

 "Oh no." The Doctor's eyes filled with horror. "It's her, isn't it. I thought I'd dealt with her."

 "Oh, but you did!" said the Gord, stepping daintily off the end of the tunnel. "You did indeed. At least three times, and now I'm going to deal with you!"

 "Wait!" shouted the Doctor desperately. "I've only met you twice before. If I've foiled you more times than that, then I haven't done it yet! You know as much about the laws of Time Travel as the Time Lords do, so -- "

 "Yes." The Gord rounded on the Doctor fiercely. "I do indeed. That's why the noosphere is in place, to keep you out of my domain, and yet you consistently break the treaty." Then she smiled sweetly. "But if you've only met me twice, then killing you now would set up a rather large and possibly universe destroying paradox, correct?"

 The Doctor nodded cautiously. He didn't like the way this seemed to be leading.

 [Remarkably perceptive of you, Doctor. Remind me to buy you a second brain cell if either of us survive this]

 "Oh, goody!" said the Gord, and shot the Doctor cleanly through the chest.

 To be continued...

 [ Part 3 | Home | Back to the Collaborations | Up to index | Part 5 ]