| "Well, I was kind of wanting....my old form back," the red haired Betty
says. "I wasn't very comfortable with being a twin...."
"Of course you'd change back to your old self....and look just like
me," Stacy's Betty smiled. "Which would be....interesting."
"You don't have a twin sister back home....do you?" Stacy asks, suddenly
seeing the problem.
"Nope," her companion sighs. "And as such.....well, here's the problem.
I'm kind of....well known. I wrote a book and such, so explaining the sudden
appearance of a duplicate of me would be....hard to lie about convincingly.
And along those lines, with all that, it would be harder by far to make
up a new and believable identity for my....sister here."
"Wait, what if I just go home," the other Betty asks, perplexed.
"Uh, wouldn't the way home be hidden in that....TARDIS that is now.....gone?"
Melissa asks. "I mean, that thing travels back and forth through time.
Didn't you say part of it traveled sideways in time to some type of parallel
world in an episode called Inferno, but only by accident?"
Several faces go pale at that.
"Maybe.....the Master's TARDIS has the way home?" Stacy whispered.
A bit of semifrantic discussion amongst themselves, along with some
magical exams of things called morphogenic fields and a tricorder
scan (Solomon could exam one...perhaps two matrixs of a person....but would
be nearly dead from exhaustion afterwards).
It'd be worth it, if the need came up.
One, while there are signs that there had been alterations to what Solomon
can deduce as a morphogenic field-a field where the simplest
of curses and magical disguises were altered in order to change appearance
had
signs of tampering.....that was no longer an issue.
The tricorder showed something interesting about where these women were
from. It involved their quantum signatures.
There were only TWO identical quantum signatures. Stacy's signature
didn't match any of her companions. Betty Ragan's signature was also unique.
The only matching signatures were.....those of Melissa's and the red haired
Betty (called Betty 2 for now for the sake of brevity, while Stacy's Betty
shall be called Betty 1 for now).
"But the Doctor said it was only a crude form of manipulation," one
of the Betties protested. Solomon, knowing the only way he could think
of to solve this problem then and there, then switches his sight over to
see into the eather of the magical realms.....and looked at the matrixes
of Melissa and Betty 2.
It might as well have been the same person as far as their matrixes
were concerned! the former Star Fleet Ensign sighs to himself before
slumping to the ground.
"Good news....and bad news....." Solomon whispers as the others gather
around him in concern. "Good news is that our red headed Betty will not
need the glasses.....your new body and face will make it much easier to
produce a new....convincing identity if you should go back home. Bad news
is.....you are will forever more look like you do now, Betty.....unless
you do something stupid....as I did.......like get infected with lycanthropy....."
The demifox sighs and then suggests they see the other mages, perhaps
they'll have ideas....
Meanwhile,
The mages just shake their heads and give the last burst of information
needed for the Doctor to help with the exorcism.
The magical examination of the Doctor's sincerity had been easy enough.
The Time Lord didn't even have clue one on how to block the examiniation
of his aura. Then came the surprise.
An ordinary organic human mind couldn't have taken the strain of so
much information shoved upon it so quickly. Few minds on Terra could have
done it.
This took half the time I thought it would take, Inquirer says
to the mages.
That....was incredible, the Doctor says in awe. And you were
telling me, while you were....teaching me....about your Ethiopia joining
together with the rest of this world to form a united world under the United
Nations? You said you were linked to your lands to better aid the Ethiopian
people, and while it gave you great powers...it restricted you to within
the borders?
But with the whole of Terra united, I'd be able to again move about
beyond Ethiopia? the Regent chuckled. Not quiet. I may be able to
move beyond the borders once that happened, but....I'd not have the.....gifts
I enjoy now. I'd find that....my heart would be lonely for I'd be unable
to hear the song of the nation's heart. Oh, I'd have Sigin, my consort,
but.....
We also love the humans who've we've given our hearts to, Sigin
chuckles while mentally hugging the Regent (who giggles....much to her
chagrin).
That was sharky! Malachi D'Honaire (who'd picked up using many
of the slang terms of the Alliance with his stint of working with Inquirer
so long ago). I never thought I'd see so many leasons be assimilated
at such a fast rate.
The Doctor felt himself "smiling" like mad at the compliment, even though
he felt that such an action was....not becoming of the demeanor he had
adopted when he had regenerated to this form.
Hey, did I or did I not say that if any bloke could do it, it be
Dr. Who? Diane Walker said from the side. She'd had been almost impossible
to stop in her desires to see this operation live in the cybernetic flesh,
and had been delighted to be granted permission. She had no real magical
talent or knowledge to grant in this operation, but had earned a special
treat for her timely suggestion.
What did you call me? the Doctor says, befuddled.
Oh, sorry Doctor, Walker coughs. That nickname is from the
last episode from the a series from my world of Dr. Who. Originally, the
show that mimicked YOUR life up until recently had first been named when
someone from the first show had said "A doctor, yes. But Doctor who?" When
you were on your eighth and last regeneration, some Companion was a real
wise arse, and called you that at the end when you kept refusing to tell
him your real name. I guess I was lucky to see that episode, since not
all parallel worlds had your eight incarnation made into a series. Some
didn't even make the premiere television movie.
The Doctor frowned in consternation, at that and at the sense of....laughter
from the others present.
But really now, the Time Lord says to himself. Somehow he had
a sinking feeling that he'd be stuck with that nickname.....
Lucky him.....
By any chance did one of my later incarnations have a love for....jelly
babies? the disgruntled Time Lord sighed, remembering one young man's
offer.
Your next incarnation did indeed have something for them, Doctor,
Walker said, a little embarrassed.
They begin to drop back into what passed as reality outside the Net.
One thing..... Diane asks while they drop back into reality from
the Net.
"You have the Daleks...a race of boxy cybernetic robot like beings out
to conquer the whole of the bloody universe," Diane continued. "Now, I
and a few friends always wanted to know....how do they plan on doing this
with the way they roll around like that?! How the bloody heck do they climb
stairs?"
The Doctor stares at the young looking woman (who had softly glowing
skin and the body that seemed to be the idealized version of a woman of
teenage years).
What kind of question is THAT?!
Before the Doctor can even draw a breath to answer, a harried Ethiopian
town guard come running in.
"Regent, the bearded one from the TARDIS has disappeared....and killed
several guards in the process by shrinking them to the size of dolls....somehow!"
the flustered guard burst out.
"Bearded one.....oh bugger," Walker gasps. She turns and looks at the
aghast looking crowd, and then to the Doctor.
"The Master came in your TARDIS?" she whispered. "What...how?"
"He hijacked my TARDIS after he set the VLA back on one of my Companion's
Earth to blow up...and wipe the whole of humanity from the face of the
planet." The Doctor explained. "We somehow jumped sideways in time, and
ended up here on Terra Prime. My TARDIS then.....self destructed for some
reason and we dived out barely in time to escape with our lives. We found
ourselves in this eldritch place looking at what I had thought until
recently the products of imagination....along with what I know was the
Master's TARDIS. The fool shot at Trilling Blackfeather, causing him to
react in pain and mauling the fool in the process.
"I thought you said that those spells would keep him under,"
the Time Lord then says to the Consort of Ethiopia.
"We figured that it would....since it would for a human being," Sigin
Dronocis mutters. "But now where did this.....Master....go?"
-
 "Why,
that's easy!" Walker says, astonished at such a question. "To HIS TARDIS!"
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