Comparing Notes, Part I
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 15090
|
"You say," said the Doctor. "That it was the Wizard Zardoz that
transported you through the time-ether continuum from your timeband into
my timeband. This is incredible to say the least, but let us go back to
the beginning before we arrive at the present. You say that on the eve of
the full moon you slew the Dragon inhabiting the Shreken, this same Dragon
you name Minestus. You say that in that exact moment a Voice rang out and
transported you to this, the Calamari Desert. You say that, hours later,
on the night of the full moon you came to my tower...which incidentally is
this very night. You say that my pet Bobo ripped you –Fred- to shreds,
and as we have a man who looks like you on the operating table in my
laboratory I find myself able to agree with you. You say that I then
proceeded, under long hours and with much strain to myself, to use the
magical arte to amend the work I accomplished through sheer medical
wizardry and that my magic utterly failed. Then you say that I began to
speak of the goodness of this dead Dragon Minestus, of the great and
mighty and evil wizard Zardoz, of the ancient Great Empire, and a mythical
Book that can defeat this evil mage. You say that once you left the
protection of my home you again encountered the invisible Voice –
presumably Zardoz himself- and it sent you into the wheel of time which
then deposited you here in this timeband only one and a half days into
your past, yet within a realm of existence where your facts of recent
history are moot and nonexistent!"
"Well, yeah," said Fred. "That's our story and we're sticking to it!" "Incredible!" shouted the Doctor, nearly making Fred spill his tea. "Magnificent! Beautiful! Sleek! Exquisite!" "What's he babbling on about?" asked Fred of the princesses. Each hunched their shoulders as if in saying, 'I dunno.' "Don't you understand?" asked the Doctor, looking at them as if they were seven-year-old students in a chemistry class. "This mage, this Arch-mage shows himself to be most intelligent, and cunning, and powerful. It is so ingenious, his plan of self-defense. Here you are... there you were, that is, and instead of just killing you (I mean, how uncivilized is that?) he sent you into the wheel of time and abandoned you there!" "Well, gee, that's great," said Fred. "Glad you like his style, but we need to get back into that Wheel, get home and kick some butt." "Oh," said the Doctor. "I'm afraid that just isn't possible right now. I don't have the knowledge nor the magical might necessary for such an endeavor, I don't know of anyone who does. But I do have a plan. The way I see it, you can do the same research here, in my timeband, seeking the same information of the Great Empire. Though my timeband and yours are not truly parallel, not truly analogous, I'm sure that the mission which my other-self sent you on will also be fruitful here. Besides, you do have an object from the other timeband, the book." Fred looked at Thesamar, and she at him, and then he produced the book from out of his robes. "But this book will only tell us of the Great Empire in our world—" "Timeband," corrected the Doctor. "Yeah, whatever," continued Fred. "Anyway, how's it going to help us?" The Doctor sighed and looked at him as if he were an 'F' student in a swimming class. "Its' quite elementary, young knight. Even though our timebands are divergent in their current time-ether realities, it is possible that many elements of each timeband co-exist within both bands. For example, in both timebands there was a Great Empire, in both there is an Allaria and an Aqualaria, in both there is a knight Fred, a princess Astra and me. Let us look at this book and I shall compare notes with what I know of the Great Empire in this timeband." "It's not going to work," said Astra. "First, the Great Empire has been gone for nearly 1000 years, destroyed by magical forces that no one now understands, fathoms, nor even can recreate. Even if our Great Empire is the same as yours, that was a long time ago. And certainly our present is not like yours." Astra got up from the chair and began pacing, pointing her finger this way and that and rubbing her chin. "You say that you, Thessamar, were captured and imprisoned for nearly 20 days, and so was I. Yet you say that it seemed that there were two mages, one pitifull and one pitiless; yet in my imprisonment this was not the case. You say that Fred killed the Mage-Dragon, and so it was here. You call the Dragon-Mage 'Minestus,' yet the Allarian knight called him only the Southern Dragon and our people –though we have many names for the dread beast- have never called him 'Minestus.' You say that the Voice which sent you to this desert is indeed a mad mage by the name Zardoz, yet the Voice which we heard only called itself the Master of the now-dead Dragon-Mage whose only name we ever heard was 'Velus.' Though even that name is couched in masquerade and lies. These are enough facts to point to two very different worlds." "Timebands, dear Princess," corrected the Doctor. "You are correct, yet these differences all stand on the fact that here we have no Zardoz and there they do. This is a crucial truth, one that will affect our two histories and their developments, but the farther back we go in our research of history, the more we may see that is similar and indeed identical. That is our only hope."
|
YY
1/22/2001 10:57:24 AM
Extending Enabled
21470296 episodes viewed since 9/30/2002 1:22:06 PM.