Who would have thought?

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 42240

Betty

Oy, this is sure a strange group of Companions the Doctor's landed.....


Rule 1

And it might grow stranger.

Yes, of course I and the other Celstrials (at least the free willed ones) of the Offices of Order and Chaos are watching our Champions while they're on Quest! Do you expect anything less of us, since we DID task them in the first place?

Okay.

By now you've probably seen that our Champions got away from Collins before having even a chance to hear rumors about what's really going on with Atlantis. Yes, they'd bypassed a whole truckload to problems with the White Hand and Duke D'Honaire (who'd been desperate indeed when he'd risked using the slipgate system . . . the magical teleportation network left over from the days that Atlantis had sunk beneath the waves until recently). Bypassed seeing the now distraught Rowena babbling what she'd met Fred in the forest, only to in the end lose him. Drove him away.... That last part was delivered in a fit of tears. Yeah, I'm still not totally proficient with things like emotions and the other human qualities the Higher-Up(s) visited upon me and the other Rules and Agents when we'd been gifted with Free Will (all the better to do our job, which had become infinitely more difficult when the Demons and Angels started mucking about with the inner workings of my and my Counterpart's Offices). However, I do believe she blames herself for it. In one light she's right, but in another I kind of feel that Inquirer and the others....

Well, I'm not going to judge our Champions on matters that I and the others like me are still just learning the fine points. Besides, though we're still learning the fine points, we had put in a lot of time and effort in choosing them. That AND if time proves us to have been mistaken we have . . . means to bring them to heel.

Oh, don't look at me that way. You already know of the means I'm talking about. By now it's become crystal clear that those like the Doctor and his Companions (as well as others like Jarlath's group and family) will never need such control techniques as those we used on the Champions (like various characters from realms like the Doctor comes from) that were forced upon us. Those monsters, having been gifted with immortality (part and parcel of what comes with being a Champion), would have run amok, needing not worry about the consequences. They'd always come back. They' eventually be able to overcome anything "mere mortals" could throw at them. Nothing else, they could outlast them. Crimes and atrocities galore, if not put in check! Utlimately our fault, the Celestrials, if we do nothing to bring them to task. That's why...

Well, that is why those like some people who call themselves the Master find themselves a prisoner within their own bodies as an artificial (and rather shallow if compliant) . It's extreme, but little else would do!

But being who the Doctor and the other Champions of Terra Prime are, at their core, means that somehow I feel such drastic measures shall never need to be used!

Thank the Higher Up(s) for that! Would really HATE having to be forced to do that to them! See, not only do we learn to deal with our new found "humanity" (for lack of better word) through watching our Champions live out their lives we Rules and Agents rather are . . . .We like them.

.....

Yes, that's possible. Point in fact an associate of mine, Rule 179, confides a lot into that one Elder Champion--Morganna Wordeni-- he has in his beck and call. Real friendship there, actually....

...

Well, you get the idea. Back to the Quest.

The Demons (assholes, every last one of them!) are chortling about what awaits when the Doctor gets within detection range of Atlantis, but I have a few ideas on what....

No, that would be telling. Wait and see!

A hint, though. Has something to do with their rather astute guesses about what awaits the Key Component holders who are already immortal. Certain kindnesses and care taken by them instead of doing a simple snatch and grab style of job...

They're bright, these Champions of Terra Prime. Another reason why I like them. They'd already figured out that we Celestrials of Order and Chaos do not just drop a Quest on them without taking SOME care. Like what we do for the Doctor's group. Before now we'd taken great care to give them Quests that at least one member had a good grasp on. Things like TV knowledge and such.... This particular Quest is special in that "Special" knowledge doesn't exactly exist.

Then again, we'd tasked the Champions of Terra Prime to pick up these particular immortal Key Component Carriers because of the fact that analog reactions were going to take place, changing this Quest from nearly impossible to merely VERY difficult.

Well, enough behind the scenes stuff. Back to the Quest!


Later, in the wee hours of the morning next day...

Chiana

Awakening, I groan and open my eyes.

Whatever the frell just hit us we'd only had a few microts of warning when Inquirer, the one with the best eyes of us all (dragons being the second) had shouted a warning about something being wrong.

Something about a golden city in the distance on an island that shouldn't have been there.

Right in the same place where we were heading!

Groaning, I need to make a few attempts before getting to my feet. I'm in some kind of holding cell, by the looks of it. No bars, but some kind of room with a glowing wall where the exit should be. Bet you that it serves the same purpose as a jail cell door!

  1. "Ah, you're awake," Aeryn-Pip sighs, looking at me from across the way in another cell. "Had been wondering about when you'd finally wake up there."

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5/23/2004 9:36:49 AM

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