Work of Fiction

When Cracks Are Called Galactic Snakes

Chapter 1

“This time I pick the song, we are not listening to “Bad Case of Loving You,” again.”

“What?! It’s a good song! Robert Palmer is very clever man, and besides, it’s an ode, or a thank you to me for saving him!”

The Doctor and his companion stood around the Tardis’ console, adjusting the dials, switches, and buttons that flickered and glowed around them. Both of them stood next to one certain switch which controlled the personal radio.

“You saved Robert Palmer! When?!” Clara asked with wide brown eyes full of curiosity.

“Oh, it was a while ago, you know I still never understood why he said ‘Bad case of L-” The Doctor was interrupted when several alarms started to go off simultaneously. The Tardis shook, rumbled and tossed the two time travelers about.

“DOCTOR!” Clara managed to yell while gripping tightly to the railing, knuckles turning white.

“WORKING ON IT!” He yelled back, as he grabbed onto one of the monitors. To the best of his ability, he tried to analyze and figure out the cause of the rocking and alarms.

Then suddenly the Tardis became still, with no more rocking or shaking. Only one single alarm continued to blare, as it echoed off the walls.

“Doctor? Is it over?” Clara asked hesitantly, looking over to the other side of the console where the Doctor stood. She watched his eyes flicker over the monitor quickly.

“Doctor?” She asked again, as she slowly walked around the console. “What just happened? What’s wrong? Aren't alarms supposed to be a bad thing?” As she stood arms crossed, next to him, the alarm slowly died off.

His eyes hesitated on the monitor before moving slowly to look at Clara. “Oh, Clara, Clara, Clara. Something impossible.”

She paused. “Isn’t everything we do impossible?”

“Well… yes and no. It’s all perfectly probable, yet people don’t tend to believe in it until they see it. Take you for example. But, but- Clara this is not the time!” He rambled on as he excitedly moved around the console room, flicking switches, pressing buttons, examining monitors, and turning knobs as needed.

“How about an explanation for the non-timelord?” Clara asked trying to avoid running into him as he scrambled about.

“I should have noticed this! After all the dimensions should have locked back up and reset! But no. There’s still one teenie-tiny crack in ours, leaking into one other dimension!” The Doctor could barely hold his excitement. A crack in the dimensions; all of them should have been sealed of completely; but for… “Oh. Ohhh. Just one. One other pocket dimension.”

Clara was trying to keep up and understand his rambles, as his excitement of the unknown in the universe bubbled. Though when his tone of voice changed, she became worried. “Pocket dimension? Like the one when we went g-”

“Ghost hunting, yes.”

“But it was like a parallel universe, where that girl was trapped.”

“I know.”

“How can there be another one?”

“Theres an unlimited amount of them. Though, like I showed you; very, very hard to travel to and from. Each one has a significantly different characteristic from another. Yet… more similar to ours.”

It took Clara a minute to process this new information the Doctor was feeding to her. More pocket dimensions? “So, why have you just now noticed that there has been a problem? I mean, shouldn't you have noticed right away?” she asked.