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Uneasy JreemsBy Alden BatesThree days of searching later, and Sam still hadn't found the Doctor. Damn police box, she thought, why does it have to be so big? There was a distant rumbling noise, and she called out "Sorry!" She began the trek back to the console room, wondering if when she got there she'd find him fussing over the controls as he usually did, or whether he'd still be missing. That was when she noticed a door that hadn't actually been there the first time she went past. Shrugging, she pushed the door open and stepped in. The room beyond the door was the weirdest she'd seen in the TARDIS. An iron walkway protected by a railing led a small distance out to a circular viewing platform, reminding her of some sort of observatory. The weird part was that the whole thing seemed to be hanging in an immense space, a vortex of coloured lights spinning into infinity. Standing on the platform, next to the binocular stand, was the Doctor. He was motionless, apparently staring into the void, hair gently blowing in the breeze. "Wassup?" she called, starting to make her way along the walkway. The Doctor didn't move, not until she went over and gave him a poke. He drew a breath and looked at her sharply. "Sam?" "Where are we? What kind of room is this?" The Doctor looked around. "This isn't a room." She looked back and saw that the walkway appeared to be attached to the side of a police box. The vortex spun past it, continuing into dense black in the distance. "This is a sort of lookout," said the Doctor quietly. "Oh?" Sam looked up at the vortex. There was no way of telling how far away they were from the walls of the tunnel. "We're outside in the vortex. There's a thin force-field keeping the air in and everything else out," he said with a smile. |
Sam nodded, staring at the spinning light. Far away, she could see dots moving around, like tiny sparkles of light on a pond. There was a moment when the whole vortex flushed to orange, swirls of colour dancing across her peripheral vision. "Isn't it beautiful?" said the Doctor. "Millions of timelines twirling together. The flights of a million bumble bees. Look, there's a fate rainbow!" Sam yawned. "How long 'til we land?" "A while," the Doctor waved a hand. "Look! A Jreem time hopper!" Sam watched the tiny saucer-like craft as it wove in and out of the timelines, pausing every now and then as though to get its bearings. Suddenly it shot across the space, two black ships in pursuit. "What are those ones?" Sam asked, interest peaked. "Jreem drone ships. The Time Lords pay the Jreem to repair minor damage to the continuum; and they send out those unmanned drones to locate and repair the damage. I don't know why they're attacking a hopper." Spears of light lanced past the hopper, the pilot throwing the craft into a tight series of manoeuvres to attempt to avoid them. Finally a bolt of light struck the little ship, splitting it apart. The black ships circled triumphantly twice and then sped back amongst the lights. "Aw," said Sam. "Well, we should go inside now, right?" The Doctor was staring intently at the floating wreckage. She shook her head and started wandering back towards the police box, then halted when there was a rattling noise behind her. Sam turned sharply to see the Doctor launching himself from the railing. He flew free of the platform and spun into space. "Doctor!" Sam dashed back to the railing. "What the hell are you doing?! Come back!" He spun to face her direction, gave a boyish grin and waved. Then he said something she couldn't hear. She wondered if he had his own personal force field or what. "You daft ..." He was rotating gently, turning as he came into contact with the first pieces of hull. She could see him pushing against the metal to adjust his course. Finally he bumped against a particularly large black thing which looked uncomfortably like a coffin, and began manoeuvring his way around it.After an interminable amount of time, He found the front of the coffin and tugged at a lever. There was a hiss of something that looked like steam, and the front of the cabinet swung open. Sam watched him pull something from inside, something that loooked like a big metal egg with arms and legs. He tucked it under his arm and thrust off back towards her.Already she could see he'd chosen a course too far to the left. She jumped to the appropriate side of the platform and leaned out over the railing. He drifted closer... |
Sam threw herself against the railing and reached out an arm, straining as he drew nearer. The Doctor tucked the object under his other arm and reached out. He drifted closer and she pushed hard against the bars. Their fingertips brushed together... And the Doctor floated inevitably past and out of reach. "Doctor!" Sam disentangled herself from the railing in time to see his shocked face as he drifted past the police box and out of sight. Numb, she stared around, looking for something, anything, to help her rescue the Doctor.Finally, she slumped against the binocular stand and started wondering how she was going to cope. I'm not going to move, dammit, she thought.I'm going to sit here until he comes back. They'll find my poor skeleton lying here, waiting. She blinked the tears out of her eyes. "Damn," she swore, thumping the pith behind her. The TARDIS gave a grunt, as though waking up. The vortex twisted around her. Suddenly she could see the Doctor again, moving towards her. He gave a faint grin as he thumped into the railing. The object bounced onto the walkway beside Sam, but she was too busy hugging the Doctor to care."The TARDIS is a little slow to react," he grinned. Sam didn't say anything. "Sam, Sam, Sam," said the Doctor. "It'll be easier to get through life if you let go of me." She released him and stared at the smile. "Did you know that was going to happen?" He shrugged. "Well, I meant to reach the TARDIS on the first jump but --" his grin broadened. "It all turned out all right." The egg-thing jerked suddenly and climbed to its "feet." Sam could see a small black window in the front and realised it was some sort of space suit. "Hello?" it said through a tinny speech synthesiser. The Doctor stepped forward. "Hello, I'm the Doctor. What in the Universe did you do to provoke those drones?" The egg wobbled. "Nothing really. They're designed to detect and correct eddies in the Time/Space Continuum. They're also not very intelligent." The Doctor and Sam looked at each other. "So why did they attack you?" asked the Doctor. "Well," sighed the Jreem. "My name's Eddie..." The End |
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