CHAPTER 3-WRINKLES IN TIME
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 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!"
