The House of Mystery

The room inside the house was pitch-black. Even Link, with his heightened elven senses, could see nothing. The only light came from a small arched window which seemed to be overlooking the street they had just left. The light was very dim, for it was nearng night outside, and didn't seem to penetrate the room at all. Below them, they could see the policemen storm into the house, but didn't hear the tramp of their feet behind them. After a few minutes, they trickled out of the house, frustrated. "What madness is this?" muttered Fred.

As the police carriages sped away, electric lights hummed into being around them. They saw that they were in a tall, arched, gothic corridor that looked like something from one of the cathedrals in Fred's homeland, made of oppressive black stone. It led off into the far distance into something they could not see. THere was no sign of any door that could have led them from the street.

Overcome with fear, Fred wondered whether this was real or whether his madness had finally overtaken him. "I've got to get out of here!" he shouted. The window was small, but there had to be some way Fred could squeeze out... He leaped through the window, screaming like a berserker, and then felt as if he had hit solid rock. His head was throbbing with pain. Enraged and frustrated, he swung his sword around impotently.

Link sighed a sigh of exasperation. [Does Fred still have his sword? It would be stupid of hi to leave it behind, but ever since being stricken by the curse once he saw Anna, this world's Fred has not been making very well-thought-out decisions.] "I think we should explore the building," he said. "It's better than facing the police out there, and in my experience it never hurts to explore."

Fred didn't want anything to do with this weird building, but he couldn't think of any way to escape. So he followed Link down the shadowy corridor. Apart from the hum of the lights, the corridor seemed eerily quiet. The light increased slowly as they traveled down the corridor.

The control room of the TARDIS was a spare grey room with roundels on the walls, looking almost but not quite exactly like that of the Doctor's original TARDIS, which had been destroyed when he'd arrived on Terra. Hathar'ruil and A'etia gasped when they realized how much larger the inside of the TARDIS was than the outside, while Grailing simply smiled joyfully. Interestingly, T'imma didn't seem to be as struck by the TARDIS interior as the others were. Generally, no matter how advanced the technology or magic of their civilization was, most people would not expect to see a structure that was larger on the inside than on the outside. But it seemed that, while she had not seen a structure like this before, it was not a challenge to her worldview and common sense.

"We'll likely be arriving on this parallel in half an hour or so," said the Doctor. "You might be a little timesick. It's not easy being jarred loose from your existential frame of reference, although I suspect that after all that the four of you have lived through you will be able to adjust better than most."

After the TARDIS was underway, the Champions separated for a time. Betty and Ragan, desparatley in need of rest after the previous mission, went to the TARDIS library to read some books and surf the Alliance homeworld's internet. (Which now also extended to Terra Prime.) Sigin and Chiana left to spend some brief time alone. The new elven Champions were being shown around the TARDIS by the Doctor, Inquirer, Elrondir, and B'elanna. T'imma and Grailing were fascinated by the Doctor's and B'elanna's lectures on temporal physics and engineering, while Aetia and Hathar'ruil looked as if they would desperately rather be somewhere else.

However, the lecture was cut short when the TARDIS's hum stopped and, for a moment, the lights flickered off. At the time, the Doctor, Inquirer and the elves were in the console room and watched as the central column stopped moving. Then, the hum and the rotor started up again.

"What was that about?" said Hathar'ruil.

"Hmmm... I don't know... hmmm..." He bustled around the console, checking its readouts. "We've arrived in the parallel we were sent to. But there's something... odd about the texture of the reality. We shall have to be careful." He turned to B'elanna and Gilmuriel. "I have a hunch that there's more to this mission than we realize. You two should remain in the TARDIS and keep watch in case something goes wrong." The elven couple nodded their assent, though they were disappointed that they wouldn't get to take part in the latest adventure.

1. After all the Champions had been gathered together and donned period clothing, they left the TARDIs and walked into the streets of Victorian London.

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