A slightly different Story Line
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 14630
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The Doctor stumbled out of his steaming blue box. "Run!" he cried to the two strangers in the distance. "Run!"
"You run!" they cried in unison. The Doctor looked over his left shoulder, losing his Fez in the process. Something big and hairy was between him and the open door of the TARDIS. The old girl tried her best to contain the energies coursing with in her, but they slammed into the monster. The monster roared and everything went black. The two strangers were dragging the Doctor. His shoes were smoking. "My Tardis!" he cried, sitting up. The two strangers were near him. Around them, horse riding supplies. Tools. Modern stuff. Modern stuff with dust on it. Who would leave such well crafted tools alone for so very long? "Tardis?" said the male. "Oh no, did the monster kill another?" "Another?" "We came here with an Uber driver. Barely knew the woman. But the big hairy thing tore her to pieces." "Damn. Damn. I think I can help. The blue box I was near." "That thing?" said the woman. "I thought it blew up. But if you look out the window here you can see if reflected off the kitchen window." Indeed her words were true. The old girl was standing where she had landed, still giving off the rainbow colored radiation. Harmless to biological life but a mess for a TARDIS. "Well, we aren't going anywhere with her in that state. She has to funnel it just right into the time stream. Don't know what caused it but that was on the few bits of the manual I bothered to read. The energy won't hurt us but it'll break down the rooms inside the TARDIS. We'd be squashed by a chair before we could get to the console." "What are you talking about?" said the girl. "Big blue box. Could have gotten us out of here. But something messed with the box, now it's not physically safe to be inside." "Your big blue box can't go anywhere." "It's more than you think, dear." "I know, I know. It's a time machine and space ship. Bigger on the inside." "You know, I thought I kept this knowledge from the populace." The Doctor turned towards his male rescuer. "You know anything about this?" "That's why we were coming here in the first place. We met over the internet and hired an Uber drive for the last ten miles." The Doctor raised an eyebrow. Then he stood and went towards the equipment. "It's the big blue box that twigged us. Lots of people think you're just a general symbol of goodness, that's why England made the police box what it is. But I've noted it in a lot of places that aren't just historical records talking about saving lives. The sketch on the wall in Pompeii. The diary entries of three different Titanic survivors. Out of the last one hundred words of Madame Curie fully sixteen of them referenced a blue flying box in some manner." The Doctor spun towards the two, his face grave. "You don't know what you're messing with. This is not good information." "Former NASA janitor." said the man, not backing down. "98 years old. Said he heard through a vent how 'a doctor, in a blue ... thing, saved Houston from being obliterated'. Two Vietnam vets, dying of Agent Orange, said a doctor who slept behind a blue door on a freight steam cured everyone of a disease some bastard got off a fish. Eight books from eight different decads in a French monastery shows the same man with frizzy hair and a scarf giving vaccines to the village children." "Wasn't vaccines. Well, it was, but it was a lot more. Kept the entire European continent from fading away...Knowing all that, ALL that you came here to an out of the way mansion in the foothills of Kentucky to screw around? That kind of stuff gets you killed! It almost did! My ship almost fried you!" "What makes you think we came willingly?" said the woman. "They sent me pictures of my little sister, she's in college in California and some bastard was showing a gun with her in the background!" The man dipped his head. "My parents are in hospice. I got sent their room numbers. The nurse's schedule. They made sure to point out a five minute flaw where nobody is within a thousand feet of their room." "We'll put a tack in that for later. First, names." "Anya." said the woman. "Jim." said the man. "And why did you drag me to safety into this workshop?" Jim pulled a tarp off an anvil. "That hairy thing doesn't like getting close to iron." Anya pointed to the equipment. "Also a few indications from the gas station incident in 1950. Said you did a lot of work with random scrap. Whole A-Team thing." "Ah, the gas station. I saved a hundred lives that day. And retro-actively invented Twinkies. Good times." "A hundred lives in danger were good times?" "No, but the fact I saved absolutely everyone that was ... well, was. Now let's see what we can do in here." ... "How long until we can hide in your blue box?" "Won't it be a tough fit with all three?" "Rather cram into there than deal with angry sasquatch." "Not all sasquatches are angry but we're going to have to be on our own for at least three days. The old girl hit something nasty right over this spot. Dimensions all messed up inside. Right now even a shoe couldn't fit, probably. She'll be...well, good. Not saying we can get out considering what's been happening temporally but we won't be squished into atoms if we hide inside." "Temporally?" said Anya. "Metaphorically the old girl is in a swamp. She's seen a dry island and is making toward it but even then that doesn't mean we can all leave the swamp. Metaphors are awful. This temporal mess is nothing like a swamp. You could understand if I had three months to teach you the basics and the way time is falling apart in this place I probably do. But first priority is making sure time doesn't melt away like an ice cream cone in the hot sun. Oh, there go the metaphors again. Let's see what we can see." ... "Let's go exploring." said the Doctor. "I told you, being next to the anvil is the only thing that keeps the hairy thing at bay." "It's iron that keeps it at bay." "Some of these tools are iron too." replied Jim. "Surely it's the quantity, not quality?" "Nope, things like this, it's just the iron period." "Still not comfortable. Last time we ventured away from this place, someone got torn to pieces." "You two know who I am. Somehow. I'll protect you." "Stop!" said Anya. "This isn't right! Didn't you say your ship will be fixed in three days?" "Yes...but I'm not comfortable waiting around three days. There's no food and water I can see in this place." "We'll be a mess in three days but we can load ourselves up in iron whatever and make a run for your ship." "Yes, that certainly is an option, now ... why do I want to leave this place so strongly? That's not right at all. Someone is influencing me." "I was right!" Anya said, picking up an iron bar. "This doesn't mean I want to go." "Let's go see what's influencing me." "What?" "I'm good at noticing mental influences. We're not going recon now. We're heading straight for whatever's playing silly buggers with my brain." "I'm okay with waiting it out." said Jim. "I can deal with hunger better than you lot. You'll hurt." "And be alive!" "Look, did either of you two's research ever figure out the sonic screwdriver?" "Nope." "Not me." "Well, thank goodness for small favors. Perhaps Unit's work doesn't need more adjusting after all." The Doctor pulled out a small silvery rod. "I love this thing. Doen't hurt, doesn't maim, doesn't kill. We see Mr. Hairy and a good blast will knock it for a loop." "Then we can kill it with the iron!" said Anya. "Only as a last resort." "It killed..." "I know who it killed!" The Doctor glared at Anya. She yelped and dropped her iron bar. "What if it's being manipulated the same way we are! Use the iron for self defense only." He smiled again and it was like he had never been mad at all. "Look. Even some of the smaller bits are iron. Load up your pockets even if you're staying." Jim and Anya followed the Doctor onto the main lawn.
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Lots42
11/2/2018 11:30:07 PM
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