The Planet of Paraxenophobes--Chapter Seven

IA#12: Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure on the Planet of the
Paraxenophobes
Chapter Seven: "Subtext and Subreality"
by Will Howells

 "But you're fine now, Doctor?" Angela asked hopefully.

 "What? Oh, yes, don't worry about me." His eyes were still dark globes, staring into nothingness. "I think I shall stay here for the moment."

 "In the park?"

 "In the nightmare."

 

In the darkness, Jadi's hands worked their way around Angela's body, mapping out the shape of her torso in his mind. Who needed light anyway?

 Their tongues intertwined, each of them producing soft grunts of pleasure.

 After a minute or so, Jadi felt Angela's body become, just for a moment, ice cold to the touch, the nerves in his hand numbing. He retracted his tingling tongue. "Did you feel that?"

 "Ah, Jadi, there you are," the Doctor said.

 Jadi let go of him with a yelp.

 "Illumination would be useful," the Doctor noted, and then there was light.

 The room was about the size of a small office, sparsely decorated, the walls of the grey plastisteel that characterised many of the otherversity buildings. One wall sported a noticeboard which featured a variety of posters, advertising various society events. The floor was covered with a rough green carpet, on which stood, in approximate order of arrival, a single table, two chairs, and, facing each other a foot apart, Jadi Morok and the Doctor.

 "This is a nightmare," the Doctor told his companion.

 "You're telling me," Jadi replied, grimacing. "Do you often go around posing as your friends?"

 The Doctor frowned. "You thought I was Angela?"

 "Obviously!"

 "Then I probably was, for some of the time."

 "What?" Jadi made a mental note to be more wary of the Doctor in future before changing the subject. "Where are we?"

 "In your dreams. I had to come and find you."

 "What are doing in my dreams?"

 "I'm not sure." The Doctor looked around the room, as if for inspiration. "As far as I can gather, we are on a sort of astral plane, a communal psychic area. Whether it's a feature of the otherversity, this planet, or the entire Otherverse, I'm not sure, but here it exists in parallel with what we would term the real world, and something or someone has flung us into it."

 Jadi pondered this for a moment. "You're not sure though, are you?"

 The Doctor smiled. "Your guess is as good as mine, Mr Morok. Now, I suggest we try and find Wil. Part of him is sure to be in here somewhere."

 "And Angela."

 The Doctor hesitated for a fraction of a second. "Angela isn't here."

 "She was here a minute ago. I was...with her."

 The Doctor forced a smile. "Your dream, Jadi. Or your nightmare. I'm sorry if I interrupted."

 

"You were right, Vicar: Archchancellor Denfisca is dead."

 "The gateway was opened as predicted. The Hordes have been freed."

 Octagim paled. "Then 'death comes to all who sleep'?" she asked, quoting the familiar line.

 "Oh yes," the Vicar said, licking its lips.

 Octagim Tradethas knew all about dramatic irony and suspense, they being two of many concepts she lectured about as a member of the media department. It therefore occurred to her not to be surprised should the Vicar suddenly turn into a Hordes. However, when the Vicar exploded out of its robes and waved a mass of tentacles at her, she was, despite herself, surprised. But she didn't run.

 "You have become one with the Hordes? 'The Law of Faction' implied it, but-"

 "No," came the Vicar's genderless voice in reply, "it is far simpler. I have always been a Hordes."

 Octagim shook her head. "That was not part of your teaching."

 The Vicar hissed. "Odd that." The creature literally rolled towards Octagim. "I would have your thoughts."

 Octagim ran.

 The Vicar collapsed back into its robes.

 

Gichzian was leading Oltobanig by a nose when he asked how far ahead of their pursuers they were.

 "If you're so interested, *you* look," was the terrified response from the Dean of Imaginary Physics.

 "It's quite safe. The Faction's teachings cover this eventuality admirably," Olf Gichzian reassured him.

 "So that's why you're running too," the Dean said between heavy breaths. "Perhaps we could aaaaaaarghh!"

 Gichzian didn't dare look back.

 

The Doctor had led Jadi back into the latter's cell, located another door, and opened it with the aid of his sonic screwdriver and a hairpin. The two time travellers had found themselves in an empty office, the door of which had turned out to be unlocked. As a result, they were standing at the side of the park.

 "Where now, Doctor?"

 "We split up and look for Wil. In half an hour or once you've find him, whichever happens first, go back to the TARDIS. Well, where the TARDIS would be if this were reality."

 "As opposed to?"

 "Subreality."

 Jadi wished he hadn't asked. "How do we find him, just look about randomly?"

 "Think about it, Mr Morok," the Doctor said, marching off towards the physics departments.

 Jadi wished he hadn't asked.

 

Angela's audio-processor noted a disturbance approaching her. She automatically turned her head, ensured optical wavelengths were still set to the full visible spectrum, and looked. Rolling towards her was an amorphous mass of grey-blue tentacles, its diameter just larger than Angela's height.

 "Doctor, snap out of it."

 He didn't reply. Angela's systems mapped out possible trajectories for the approaching creature and she soon realised that it was heading not for her but for the unconscious form of the Doctor. She scooped him up in her arms and ran.

 

The Doctor felt a momentary cold flush and decided something was up in the 'real world'. Angela would have to tend to it for the moment: plenty was up in the world his consciousness was currently occupying.

 He pushed open the nearest entrance to the Department of Unlikely Physics and went inside.

 "Ah, Wil, there you are."

 The boy was standing in front of him, arms of folded. "And you think I'm the fool," he said smugly.

 "Pardon?"

 "You've got the wrong person," the boy told him with effortless superiority. "I'm not the Wil you're after. Although, now you're here, I should tell you some things about him. Do you know the stress he's under?"

 "Er, stress?" said the Doctor, only a vague idea who Wil's lookalike was.

 "Yeah, stress," said the OtherWil, hands on hips. "He's been through so much bad stuff, y'know, and it doesn't help that I keep having a go at him about it. Frankly, he's as screwed up as a promiscuous history professor in a brothel."

 "Are you sure you're not Wil?" The Doctor's notions were beginning to solidify. "You live here, don't you?"

 The OtherWil snorted. "Where's here? This building? I think not."

 "This subreality, whatever it is."

 The OtherWil grinned. "Well done! Have a jelly baby?"

 The Doctor reached for one. "Gelatine free?"

 "Of course."

 The Doctor took one of the sweets and chewed it. "And you've been bothering my companion, yes?"

 "Oh yes. And don't think I'm about to stop. His traumas created me and I've got no intention of leaving him alone now."

 "Not even if I asked politely?"

 "Not even then."

 The Doctor shrugged. "I'll see you again, I suspect. Thank you for the jelly baby, but I really must go and find the *real* Wil."

 The OtherWil nodded. "I should do. The poor boy is in quite serious danger."

 

"Wake up, Gui," Wil pleaded, shaking her gently. "We have to be leaving."

 *Thud* *thud* *thud* went the door.

 Gui shifted uncomfortably but remained deeply asleep.

 

*Thud* *thud* *thud* went the door.

 "Wake up, Wil," Gui pleaded. The boy remained stubbornly unconscious.

 *Thud* *thud* *crunch* went the door as a flailing mass of tentacles broke their way through the structure.

 Jadi Morok appeared at the door in time to see the creature absorbing the remaining limbs of Guiarin Sudjocz, native, student, winner of the Huistol Canabris scholarship, and former living being.

 

Gui shrieked, her eyes tightly closed. Her body convulsed and then stopped, dead. Before Wil's emotions could kick in, a jagged hole was broken in the middle of the door and a Hordes burst in. Wil back away.

 "W-what do you want?" he asked.

 The creature hissed as it rolled over Gui's body towards Wil. "Your thoughts. A being from another universe to feed the System."

 To be continued...

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