Time Out of Mind: Part 6

Part 7 : Power of the Doctors




"And who exactly is Adric? Hmm? Who?" the first Doctor exclaimed.

"'e was my companion in my fifth incarnation. 'Ang about, 'e died" the ninth Doctor replied. The fourth Doctor stepped forward and grinned:

"Oh I remember Adric and he looks very much alive to me." Adric scowled:

"I think Doctors that you should now address me as 'Sir'. I am not your companion, rather I am the personal assistant of the Exalted Creath, the Guardian of the Universe Lord Chang!"

The tenth Doctor was puzzled:

"Now look Adric, or Sir if you prefer, whats going on? Obviously I'm overjoyed that you're alive but how? And why are you assisting this lunatic?" Chang laughed sardonically and waved his hand:

"Oh keep going with the insults Doctor, if you must. The last gasp before the darkness. As the old Chinese proverb says, the bird that faces the cat's jaws chirps the loudest." Adric turned towards the tenth Doctor:

"I did not die in the explosion that saved earth from the Cybermen. The ships' defence mechanism automatically beamed me off the ship and onto this planet. The Cybermen were trading weaponry with Zeneth at the time. I landed in the Valley of Sapphires overlooked by the dark mountains of Zemorah. Not knowing where to go I ventured into the mountain region and emerged reborn."

"And how exactly are you 'reborn'?" the third Doctor asked.

"I'm now free of childish emotion, sentiment and foolishness. The will to power is all that matters. I serve the Exalted Creath!"

"Sounds like a rather dull journey" the fourth Doctor quipped. Chang reached forward his hand and a beam of light shot out of it and froze the fourth Doctor to the spot. As the ninth Doctor rushed forward, the same thing happened to him."

"Now look. Release my other selves" the second Doctor shouted. Chang laughed:

"As you can see Doctors, I have powers beyond your imagining. You asked about the TARDIS paradox. My psychokinetic cosmic energy will supersede any paradox machine over a million times. I have the power in my mind to control all of time and space once I have control of all of your TARDISES. Watch........"

Chang directed them to a series of plasma screens in the wall which came on. They saw on the screens the 6th Doctor and Peri, the seventh Doctor and Ace and the 8th Doctor. All started to fade from the screen and vanish."

"Right now those three are arriving in another part of the forbidden tower, just as you did. I now have almost a complete set. Your fifth incarnation managed to temporarily elude me and he is with your 11th. They will soon be here also........"



Back on earth, the child Jennet Device lunged at Tegan who dodged out of the way, tripping over. The child moved towards her and aimed the knife at her left eye. However Kyle rushed forward and grabbed the child, pulling the knife from out of its hand. The child kicked and screamed, sinking its teeth into Kyle's arm:

"Ere calm down will ya, ya little madam". Suddenly Jennet began to glow and change. Kyle let go as the child transformed into a Zenethian humanoid with green skin and cat shaped eyes.

"Ere so you were a shape-shifting alien all along" Kyle shouted. The alien shouted in the child's voice:

"I am Jennet Device. My mummy is a witch". Suddenly it turned and ran.

They returned to 'The Black Witch' pub and tie the coalman up in the cellar along with Bill Smith. They they all sat down in the bar for a bite of supper and a conference. Mary Smith served them hotpots and beer:

"On a serious note, I do feel that you need to expand the range of your cuisine and beverages" Ben pointed out to her. Mary smiled:

"Well with Bill otherwise engaged I might just consider it lover-boy, if you make it worth my while." Ben winced. The 11th Doctor gave them an enigmatic look:

"Well it seems like these so-called ghosts are alien shape-shifters after all. Cool or what". The fifth Doctor frowned:

"Its hardly a laughing matter."

"Ere but why are they shape-shifting into long dead witchcraft suspects?" Kyle asked. The fifth Doctor looked up:

"I think that something has gone wrong. They no doubt started out with some kind of plan to pretend to be locals .Possibly they wanted to create a story around ghosts and the Lancashire witchcraft trials as a diversion while they made off with the nuclear technology. However something went wrong and some of them have started to believe that they actually are the people that they are impersonating. The mental tension of this has driven them insane."

"So are you saying that there are psychologically insane aliens out there committing violent killings because of some error in their shape-shifting technology?" Katie Ryan asked.

"Er ain't that obvious what 'es sayin?" Kyle replied.

"Shut it, council" Katie snapped back.

"Well I suggest that we interrogate that coalman" Ben stated. He, Katie, Kyle and the fifth Doctor went down to the cellar and Kyle untied the gag from round Powell's mouth:

"Right, tell us what you know about these nuclear bombs bein' nicked". Powell scowled:

"I'm tellin' you nowt". Katie Ryan kicked him in the shin:

"We haven't got time to mess with you. Kyle here grew up in the East End and knows a thing or two about violence. Ever heard of Frankie Fraser and his pliers? Now talk you fat bastard." The fifth Doctor took Ben to oneside:

"Is this the kind of interrogation method that Operation Delta regularly uses? I'm shocked and disgusted." Ben's golden hair fell down into his eyes:

"I'm sorry Doctor. Its Katie, she doesn't always follow the correct bounderies." Ben pulled Katie to oneside:

"Katie, you cannot interrogate him in that agressive manner."

"Oh take off your halo Ben. We need him to talk."

"Then use professional questioning."

Katie returned to to Powell and before Ben could stop her, she pulled a corkscrew out of her handbag, that she had borrowed from the bar, and held it close to Powell's face:

"Who are you working for Powell? I suggest you tell me".

"Ok ok... bloody hell she's a nutter this one. Look all I do is hide the stuff ok. My business is in trouble. They're all goin' over to gas fires round 'ere. I owe people. No one wants coal like they used to. They bailed out the business and saved me house from bein' repossessed."

"Who did?" the fifth Doctor asked.

"Them, I don't know who they are. Organised crime or summat. But I'll tell you they ain't normal. Them ghosts, they seem to control 'em...."



Meanwhile, back on Zeneth, the Doctors are led through the dark stone-walled passageways of the tower towards separate cells. The Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors have greeted the others and shared a few anecdotes. Peri is frightened:

"Where... where are we Doctor."

"In a castle of some kind obviously. Now stop whingeing Peri" the sixth Doctor stated.

"Don't talk to her like that" Ace exclaimed.

"Ace... this is no time to bicker with my former self" the seventh Doctor advised. As the seventh Doctor and Ace are shown to their cell, an alien guard runs in and shuts the door behind him:

"I am Zonar. Some of us do not agree with the Exalted Creath's plans. Please... if he knew I was one of them I would be killed within' hours. Look, the Exalted Creath is not acting alone."

"How do you mean? Who is he?"

"The one known as Chang who became our Exalted Creath came to Zeneth five generations ago at the time of the last great famine. He landed here in a spacecraft with others, all from the planet known as earth. They landed in the Valley of Sapphires and determined to set up home there. Chang and his fellow travellers were part of an international pacifist organisation on 23rd century earth who became alienated from the direction that earth politics was heading in. They determined to travel and find a new world. They encountered many problems on their journey, including a time interface storm which threw them back in time several centuries, but finally they landed here. They were happy for a time but Chang was restless and wanted to explore the Dark Mountains of Zemorah. The others warned him not to, as there was something foreboding about those mountains, however he insisted. For months he was gone and the other earthmen assumed him to be dead. And then he came back..... but he was not the same. Something had happened to him on his journey through the mountains, something strange..... sinister. He was accompanied by a group of our own people whom he had bent to his will and he had strange powers to kill just by pointing his hand and to control people with his mind. He first enlaved the other earthmen and then killed them. But he used his powers to end the famine and make the ground grow food again. In time , I am ashamed to say, my fellow Zenethians grew to worship him. He built the forbidden tower and became the Exalted Creath, Lord of Zeneth. Now he wants not just earth but the entire universe. But there is something else......"

"What? What is it?" the seveth Doctor asked:

"We in the resistance have discovered that he is not acting alone? He and his apprentice, the one called Adric, are working with someone else. Someone whose power is greater than even theirs. That is why they can use your machines together without creating this thing you call a paradox......







...............TO BE CONTINUED.