Explanations by Campfire

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 14773

Finally, thought Ragan, a chance to rest. This had possibly been the most hectic and insane day of her life. She realized that she had probably been wandering around for many hours in subjective time, and was in need of a good rest. Except... "Wait," she asked, "what about provisions? Did we take any with us from the TARDIS?"

"Why naturally," said the Doctor, who proceeded to extract some things from his pockets and set them on the ground. "I always come prepared. This," he said holding up a thin red rod, "is a phaser torch. It can be used both to emit concussive blasts that can cut down trees and to emit laser blasts that can start fires. This," he said holding up a plastic container, "contains nutrient pills. These should have all you humans need to survive. I'm sorry it's not terribly appetizing, but it's not like I have a chicken dinner in my pockets. Not at the moment, at any rate. And this," he said indicating a black object "is a solar-powered coffee maker. I've not much use for coffee myself--I rather prefer tea--but for some humans, it's almost necessary to survive. It hasn't been used in a while, so it should still be high on power. Oh and, Master, I'm fairly sure that to win this game we all have to be alive. So you're probably better off not trying anything too audacious with that torch, not unless you want to be trapped in this dimension forever."

After that, it was fairly easy to make camp, although they didn't have pillows or a tent (Ragan resolved to remind her Doctor to bring one on their next adventure). The food was tasteless but at least made her feel full, the coffee was very refreshing. As night fell, Ragan settled back on a tree trunk and began to finally relax. The sounds of the night began to gain in volume as the lightning bugs blinked their secret codes into the twilight. An owl hooted her friendly call and small animals scurried through the tall grass to their burrows. The stars were brilliant in the clear sky and a large yellow moon rose slowly in the East. This is peaceful, thought Ragan appreciatively. Then, she looked over to the Master. Almost peaceful, she thought.

A human voice broke the mood by yelling " Hello the camp!" Ragan realized that the voice was vaguely familiar, although she couldn't quite pin down why.

"Might this be one of your 'Guardsmen?'" the Doctor asked Dayanara.

"No, it is not," she said, "I would know if it was. And he may be an useful ally." She turned to the forest. "Come over here!" she yelled. As the stranger approached the camp, Ragan was rather surprised when the fire flared up to reveal not Daniel Boone, not Clint Eastwood, not Don Knotts, not even Heather Locklear, but...

Who was it, anyway? It seemed to be a young man with brown hair, about 18, carrying a sword and wearing knight's armor that looked a bit too heavy for him. He seemed rather surprised to see the group that was sitting at the fire. "Doctor? Ragan?" he said, clearly confused.

"Wait, who are you?" asked Ragan. "How do you recognize us?" She had a sinking feeling that things were going to get even more convoluted.

"I'm Adrian McClure, but Ragan would probably know me better as Knight Random. Or even Time Warrior, if you must. I'm another author from that story Ragan used to write. I recognize Ragan from the picture of her character on an episode guide to the story, and the Doctor and the Master from having seen Doctor Who." He looked over to Dayanara, trying not to seem too appreciative of her magnificent proportions. "Who are you, though? I don't recognize you from any TV show in your reality,

"I suppose an explanation is due, for I have not given one yet even to my allies here. I am Dayanara, or rather Agent Y-394, from a human colony in an alternate reality. At age 18, I was approached by the Multiverse Patrol, an organization of which the Time Lords among you are somewhat aware, which helps preserve the cohesion of the multiverse against unseen forces that threaten us all. Our training is long and arduous and our missions risky--most of us do not survive our first mission. My own first mission was to free an alternate earth from the dominion of the deadly Aerani. But they were far more powerful than I had at first thought, and would have killed me had not the Doctor saved me."

"You know, that sounds vaguely familiar to me too," put in Ragan.

"I think I recognize that backstory," said Adrian. "It was one of the possible entries for Addventure Game 4, which of course they never did anything with. So where is this place, anyway? And how did you get here?"

The Doctor then more or less explained everything that had come before, from the nature of the interactive stories that mirrored their reality (or maybe it was the other way around) to the other Betty Ragan's transformation into one of the Twins of Doom and meeting with the Doctor to their mission to save the VLA to their displacement into the mysterious void and the encounter with Scott Chen and his challenge, to the mysterious appearance of Dayanara and their arrival here. "Now perhaps you could explain how you got here?"

"Well, I was sent here by Author Scott as well. He caused a random Fred of an alternate reality to go insane, impersonated Sir Toby, and asked me to come here to take Fred's place in quest against the Dragon. He apparently increased my physical strength, but I'm not quite used to it. I'm not really sure why Scott hates me so much, though. I mean, I never got to write any episodes for Game 3. Although I did write a lot of NEQ episodes with Scott in him, and I did write him into that hideously complex Red Pyramid thread. Come to think of it, that's enough reason for Scott to want to kill me. Still, at least there isn't more than one version of me running around..."

At that moment, another, suspiciously similar voice called out "Hello the camp!" Adrian cringed as another Adrian, looking about three years younger, entered the camp. He looked around and almost fainted from shock. "Doctor? Ragan? What on Earth?" He then looked at Dayanara and his jaw almost fell off. The elder Adrian shook his head in embarrassment. Then, the younger Adrian looked into the eyes of the elder Adrian.

"Oh crap," they said in unison.

  1. Naturally this meant, much to everyone's irritation, that they had to explain everything all over again.
  2. Ragan takes the lead...

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Knight Random (with a tip of the hat to Count Gregor)--after all, why should Ragan have all the fun?

5/25/2003 11:04:28 AM

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