Time Twist (a Doctor Who Adventure)

Chapter 5

The loud clanging of the cloister bell brought us back to our current predicament. The Whispermen were closing in, surrounding the TARDIS. I quickly sprinted to the monitor and punched a few buttons.

"I've activated the extrapolator shields so they can't get any closer," I announced.

Jack was busy on his half of the console, tapping on buttons and pulling levers all his own. "That's great, but we there's no way we can take off if the shields are up. We're gonna have to figure out how to get off this planet in one piece," he shouted over the roar of the engines as he started them up.

The Doctor was off to one side of the console, frantically looking for a useful button. "We're gonna have to be fast. Jack," he called. Jack glanced up from what he was doing. "When I give the signal, release the shields. Dan, you get the coordinates for somewhere remote. Begin the dematerialization process." He yelled out commands as someone who had been in this sort of high pressure situation before. "On the count of three. One."

"Two," Jack counted.

"Three!" I cried as I flipped a lever completely up, pushing it the engines to full capacity. Within seconds, the cloister bell had stopped tolling. All three of us glanced around at each other nervously.

"Did we move?" the Doctor asked, puzzled.

"Yes." I looked at the monitor. "We are on Raxicoricofalapatorious. Hmm. Odd name."

"But, it didn't make that noise," the Doctor argued.

Now it was my turn to be puzzled. "What noise?"

"You know, the noise." He tried to jog my memory. "Vworp. Vworp." He mimicked the sound with his mouth.

I almost laughed at the strange sound. I tried to suppress it, but it came out as a snicker. "Your TARDIS makes that sound?" I asked, still holding back a laugh.

"Yeah," he replied slowly. "Is it not supposed to?"

"Erm, no," I said. "You must forget to release the brakes before you dematerialize."

"Oh," he scratched his head, obviously embarrassed that he had been shown up in the sport of TARDIS flying.

"Anyway," Jack said, breaking the silence. "What do we do now?"

I thought for a moment. "Doctor, why are the Whispermen after you?" We had to get to the root of the problem here. If we knew where it all started, then we might be able to figure out how to fix it.

"Well, you'd have to understand what the Whispermen are," the Doctor began in his explanation, making himself at home in the pilot's chair. Jack and I stood in front of him like two schoolboys getting a lecture.

"And that would be. . ." Jack prodded the Doctor.

"The Whispermen are allies of the Great Intelligence. Good ol' Yog Sothoth. Except now, he's got a different face. He is residing in a man by the name of Walter Simeon. I sorta feel sorry for the old chap, 'cause I think the Great Intelligence has sort of taken him over and is possessing his body. Anyway, I'm digressing. The Whispermen assist the Great Intelligence in his quest for ultimate knowledge. He is always trying to learn. But there is one thing that he does not comprehend, however. And it's right up here." He tapped the side of his head with confidence.

"And what does he not know?" It was I who had asked the question.

"Bigger-on-the-inside Technology. He wants to understand it, to be able to replicate it. If he can do that, then time-travel is only a half a heartbeat away. Once he gets time travel, he will be unstoppable. He is an egomaniac. He wants to be the best. The last man standing, as it were, and he would do anything in his power to assure himself of his position as such."

"So again, I ask, why does he want you?"

"The only way the Great Intelligence can acquire knowledge is by consuming those who hold that knowledge." He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "And apparently the chameleon arc did nothing to stop the Whispermen from finding me. Well that plan failed," he muttered to himself.

"How is he tracking you?" Jack queried. "If it were some kind of bio-tracker, then the chameleon arc would have worked, but it didn't. So what kind of tracking is left?"

That was a good question. Maybe we could throw them off the scent, so to speak. If we could only find out what exactly they were using to track the Doctor. Then a thought struck my mind. "What if they aren't tracking you?" I spoke the thought out loud.

"Oh," the Doctor ran his hands through his hair as if some amazing thing had been said. "
But that's brilliant. When did you get to be so clever, Dan?"

I just shrugged, but then realized the question was rhetorical.

He jumped out of the pilot's chair and leapt at the controls. "Have either of you ever heard of data tracking?"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Is that anything like a thought pursuant?" He had used that before, when he was with the Time Agency. A thought pursuant would do exactly what its title implied. It would lock onto a particular thought process or idea, and would pursue the being who had the thoughts.

"Almost exactly like it, only the data tracking picks up information links instead of thought processes. It will find the source of particular data or information and hone in on them, and lead the person who used the data tracking precisely to the information's location," the Doctor explained.

"Do you have any idea how we can stop the Whispermen from finding you?" Jack asked.

Up until this point in the conversation, I had been standing silently off to one side, watching the events unfold before me. Then the Doctor suddenly pulled me into the proceedings.

"Dan," He whirled around to face me. "Do you know about Bigger-on-the-Inside Technology?"

I looked around, as if where we were all standing would give an answer to the question. "Um, yeah. Why?" Jack and the Doctor both stared at me. Then I realized why he had asked the question. "No way!" I protested. "We are not trading places. What good would it do?" Arguing my point seemed to do nothing. "Jack, come on, help me out," I pleaded. But Jack was on the Doctor's side for this one.

"Come on, Dan," the Doctor tried to persuade me. "You could pass for me with a little help."

I crossed my arms stubbornly. "No."

"Why not?" Jack asked.

"Because there's no need for it," I insisted. "Why can't you do it yourself?"

"Because if we switch places, the Whispermen will think that I am still human. The biology of the Caoni people are exactly like that of a human. If we can get you to look enough like me, then they will be fooled into thinking that we don't have every bit of the hundreds of years of experience that we do now. They will underestimate us. And that's exactly what we need."

There was no way I was putting my life on the line for a Time Lord. What had he done to deserve that? What had anybody done to deserve that? Nothing. I didn't owe anybody anything. Yes, I had tried to save his life when I saw he was in trouble, but all he had done was cause me trouble. I mentally slapped myself for the thoughts I was having. What had 500 years of traveling through time and space taught me? Definitely not to be selfish. I had been out there and seen it all. I had seen people struggle to survive amidst trying circumstances. I had seen selfish rulers and selfless heroes battle to the death for their beliefs. I realized the necessity of my actions. If I didn't do this one thing, a hero would be lost. I had heard many times of the good the Doctor had done for Earth and countless other planets. He never received thanks for what he did. Now, it was my turn to thank him for what he had done for others and here we were: the Doctor, the selfless hero, and me, the selfish ruler. I had to do this one thing, if even to prove that I wasn't what my mind was telling me that I most definitely was.

"Fine," I agreed after pointless deliberation. "I'll do it."