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UPDATED: New Doctor Who Novella "Harmony" by TBITT

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thebunnyinthetardis
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« on: May 05, 2012, 07:07:35 am »

Chapter Thirteen



Shimmering blue green light danced around the control room as the Time Rotor began to rise and fall, energies surging and splashing like it had before. Like it had when he had made a desperate bid to change what could never be changed. His heart beat hard against his chest and he tried very hard to ignore the beating inside his head.  The rest of his pain would have to wait.  Amy’s last cup of tea before their departure helped. 

He rechecked every reading and adjusted the Earpod. Twice. All systems functioning within acceptable parameters. Good. Excellent. Now, carefully, carefully. Silver lights moved rapidly through the circuitry as the Tardis prepared to dematerialize.

The Doctor‘s face appeared on his main screen.

12, 11. Are you sure about this?”

“Amy asked me the same thing,” he said without looking up from the controls.

7. What did you tell her?”

“I told her we were as sure as we ever are.”

4. Are you ready?”

“Ready!”

Geronimo! Allons-y!” they shouted as first one, then another Tardis, dematerialized…

… rematerialized.

And flew.

He snapped open the throttle, accelerating past Jupiter, skimming the rings of Saturn, tripping lightly along the far-flung reaches of the solar system, pushing on, on, on far beyond the Mutter System. The ship responded to his very thoughts and he felt… joy.

Computations scrolled down every display and he worked his way from one control panel to the next, until at last all was silent save the sound of the Time Rotor’s gentle hum. He swallowed deeply as he stepped back, prying his fingers from the Brentford artefact that now capped the zig-zag plotter. Then he grinned, punched the dematerialization circuit again, threw the little ship into reverse, and reappeared just this side of the Earth’s single moon, sailing into the sunlight. Proximity alarms rang but he only laughed at the warnings, flicking up a visual scanner to see the other Tardis come soaring out from around the moon behind him, joining him at a safe distance in orbit about this, his second home.

“Have yourself a proper little roadster there,” the Doctor smiled broadly, then looked serious, “but don‘t push your luck. Are you sure you don’t want to set her down on one of Neptune’s moons just to be safe? Ooooh, fine. All systems go for a slow burn and re-entry. I‘ve always wanted to say that.”

“Roger that, Houston,” he answered back with a grin, preparing to dematerialize again.

The ship shuddered, throwing him to the floor as overloaded circuits throughout the room began to sizzle. He pulled himself up to check the scanners. The Rifts on Earth were diminishing and closing, the weather stabilizing over the northern hemisphere, but he was losing geosynchronous orbit. In minutes he‘d be in freefall over—he checked.  Belgium.  Yes, well, that just figured, didn’t it?--the stabilisers were off line, and the Dematerialization Circuit was on the fizz.  He checked energy conversion readings, tapping the monitor impatiently. Just a little more umph and they would be back to smooth sailing.  Neptune was beginning to look attractive.   He looked at the scanner again. No, no, no, no, no! He was losing altitude rapidly. His finger hesitated over the override. One touch.  One touch and he could force her into the Vortex for a prolonged jump, buying them time as long as she didn’t explode. Or implode.  Or consume herself into a trans-dimensional bellyache resembling a black hole.  If necessary… the thought was horrifying, but if necessary he could hijack her into the Void to prevent any further cataclysm.  And he would go with her.

Uhm, Houston? We’ve had a problem.”

The com link hissed static in reply. He jiggled the telepathic circuit link leading to the Cloister Room in an attempt to open communications directly between the two ships. Nothing.

“And, apparently, we still do.”

A rumbling vibration deep within the meta-structure rose until the entire ship shook like the west coast of North American during last year‘s mega-quake. The integrated controls popped and hissed under his fingers as, one by one, the direct links to the ship’s organic circuitry began to fail. He scrambled from control panel to control panel, assessing and reassessing the damage. He made adjustments to the neural flow being accessed via the Earpod.  Then adjustment to the adjustments.  Nothing.  Some key component had failed. Again his gaze fell upon the fail safe switch that the Doctor had installed.  He gazed up at the latticed crystal column, watching the Time Rotor and spinning gears rotate around one another in the cerulean brilliance.

Once more he struggled to toggle unresponsive controls, but it was of no use. The native circuitry twinkled like fairy lights on an overloaded electrical circuit. Christmas was being cancelled.  Deep in the belly of the Tardis, the Cloister Bell began once more to toll the peril and he yowled in frustration, at once desperate and angry at his inability to do… anything.  A searing pitch almost above the threshold of his already heightened auditory senses assailed him then, the deafening keen raising in half step increments until he thought his ear drums might burst. He tore the Earpod from his ear and threw it to the floor, clamping his hands over his ears in a vain attempt to diminish the sound of the ship’s agony. Around him, dozens of organic roundels opened into the space of the control room like flowers, tendrils of living Tardis circuitry spilling onto the crystalline surface of the floor. Slowly, hesitantly, as the banshee din lowered in pitch, pink extrusions like a fusion of echinoderm and sentient vines converged on the controls, sweeping along essential connections. Fine, silvery filaments emerged from the glistening tendrils, tapping directly into sizzling cables, attempting to reestablish control over malfunctioning systems.

He stared in wonder, momentarily forgetting that his head felt like it had been struck, again, with a pell mell mallet.  It was like a Gallifreyan fairy tale he had heard growing up on the mountain, of the Timeless Ones that had once travelled, unhindered, along the outer edges of space itself, cocooned within their immense, unending shell-like mantles. Lost now, like so much else. Lost to the ravages of Time. And the great desire of men to harness the power of the universe for themselves. Long ago, the predecessors of the people who would christen themselves the Lords of Time, skillfully harnessed Tardis technology, mastering the use of the telepathic circuits, replacing the truly alien components with machinery of their own design. In all the wide universe, his ship might be the only one still possessing enough native instinct to assert herself this way.  That was something at least.

A dozen instruments became operational at once and he sprang to the console, stumbling over flesh-like creepers, careful to avoid direct contact with the threads of living silver. One of the 3-Dimensional scanners flickered to life, displaying their current trajectory, followed by lines of High Gallifreyan programming code interpreting data, projecting what he already knew to be a grisly outcome, and listing limited options and posited formulas to counteract the inevitable.  The information scrolled down four screens at such a rate that he could scarcely take it all in. One by one the monitors went dark until a final line of complex coordinates appeared on just one. An algorithm of despair.

“Com’on Little Girl, com’on--there must be something else,” he pleaded, pulling at his hair in frustration. He pounded his fists against his already aching skull, turning himself in dizzying circles. “Think, think, think! Something! I don‘t want to take you into the Void.”

Someone spoke his name.

Trust me.

He swung back around…

…and then felt it. A gentle caress on his right arm. A tendril of the ship, his ship, looped about his elbow, softly brushing toward his outstretched hand. Faster than he could draw breath, hair-like filaments sprouted along the length of the tentacle, penetrating deeply into his skin, attaching to his nerves and muscles like sea silk spun from Pinna nobilis. He gasped at the searing pain but held still, fascinated in spite of himself.

They had altered too many under-developed systems to accommodate their own needs. The Tardis, still so immature, could not repair them. Could not fully interpret them. But he could. Another tendril wound tenderly around his other arm, and his heart beat wildly against his chest. To his knowledge, no Gallifreyan had undertaken such a thing in eons--and he questioned whether his altered Time Lord DNA would even make it possible--but he was running out of options. And she had spoken his name. Why hadn’t he realized sooner?

The Doctor hailed him from the other ship, and he stepped closer to the monitor, playing with the dials, all the while aware of caressing fingers that were at once both exhilarating and terrifying.

“The good news is you saved the Earth. Bravo! President Jones has a medal for you. The bad news is your systems have almost all gone critical. She‘s going to explode and likely turn this arm of the galaxy into an intergalactic marble scramble in less than 8 minutes. No, six. Seven and half.”

“Possibly, but not here. Not now. I‘m overriding the dematerialization circuit. We‘re taking a trip.”

“You’re what? Don’t be absurd! You’ve lost too many vital systems. If she explodes there you’ll send cracks through Time and Space. Trust me on that. It is no fun at all. If you tear apart in the Vortex you might be thrown into the Void and that‘s one place I can‘t come looking for you. No matter how much Amy likes you. Or Rory threatens me. Or Rose… cries.”

“That was the risk,” he said, trying not to look at the silken hairs emerging from the filamentous extrusions entwining him. “We both knew it.”

“But it isn’t necessary,” the Doctor insisted, leaning forward until his entire face filled the screen. “I can adjust her course from here.”

“And do what? Pitch her into a black hole and hope for the best? Not happening, Time Boy. Besides, you can’t.”

He could see the deepening frown on the Doctor’s face as the Time Lord punched buttons in vain, flicking back a silly mop of hair in agitation.

“You disabled the emergency link to your flight controls! Fine. Just, just, just fine! Then we’ll do something else clever. Com‘on. There are two of us. We have more clever thoughts before breakfast than a hundred people combined have in their entire lives.

“Here’s one. We‘ll wrap her in a safety bubble and get her as far from here as possible before the fireworks begin. Or, we’ll wrap the Earth in a safety bubble and hope your Tardis bounces off of it without knocking any other planets in the system out of orbit! Hang on. Here’s a better one. It’s called Abandon Ship. I’ve almost got a lock on your bio signs--we’re pulling you out of there!”

“No!” he grit his teeth against the pain in his left arm as the silken hair crept, spider like, to access his central nervous system More ganglia brushed against the back of his neck and into his scalp. “I’m going to attempt a direct neural interface. There’s no other way. I won‘t let her die out here.”

The Doctor’s face lost all colour as the realization of what was actually happening fully dawned.

“You can‘t do that!That was a fairy tale.  A mad fairy tale!”

“You’re just jealous,” he said, attempting to smile, but suspecting he failed.

“No, I’m not! You don’t know what you’re doing!”

“No,” he agreed, his breath coming harder as his pulse continued to increase. “But she does.” He made eye contact with the Doctor. ”Tell Rose I’m sorry. Tell her... what you couldn’t say before.”

He closed down the visual relay and stepped back from the console, raising his arms one last time to watch the spreading byssi, silken thread spun from the very heart of the Time Ship.

Such… exquisite… pain… he gritted his teeth once more against the agony, finally closing his eyes, allowing the blending of his flesh with that of the Tardis. The fabric of his life began to unravel as living ice coursed though his body, fused with nerve and sinew, tearing through his cellular structure until… yes!  In one blinding moment he was one with the ship, his blood whispering the codes the Dematerialization Circuits required. Understanding grew. Stability was attained. And she swam, they swam, into the Time Corridor, racing her sister ship through the Vortex like dolphins in a sea of Time and Space. He opened his eyes briefly, basking in the rushing Time Storm that swirled blue-green through the interior of the ship, playing the resonance harp in the crystal chamber far better than any program might have done. Well done…. well done…  That voice!  Shimmering sapphire light twisted though the Time Rotor’s lattice enclosure like moonlight through an arbor of climbing rose vines.  He threw back his head and began to laugh, unlocking the memory of what was, what might have been, and what had to be. Then he wept at the unspeakable joy as full Harmony was achieved.
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