Chapter Fifteen
"Peral, he's done it again!"
"I know, Lib. Stop him. He's given us enough."
"I can't. He doesn't even know I'm here. He'll keep pouring strength into us until we can't take any more or he runs out."
"He will know I am here." Mirune walked through the tent flaps and over to the Doctor. His four companions stared in surprise when she knelt beside him and gave him a passionate kiss.
His eyes snapped open. Mirune sat back and smiled at him. He said, "All right, you got my attention."
His four companions laughed until the tears rolled.
"I can't find him anywhere."
"I can't find him either, Lib. Jo, our horses seem to want us. Find Lathan and our tack."
"Lathan is here and I have brought all but the saddles. They are within Talf's tent."
"Where have you been?"
"Lib, you ask me that which I will not answer."
"What?!"
"I followed the Doctor. It was wrong of me. I did not believe myself needed."
"Well, where is he?"
"He does not need you either, Lib." Lathan grinned at her and went to get his saddle. They were still standing in the same place when he returned. He shook his head and said, "The Doctor has told all he wishes farewell. He will be riding the road to the west. Do you not wish to go with him?" He smiled as they ran for Talf's tent. He rode west. He had the Doctor's boots and breastplate. He should be nearly ready for them.
The Doctor was preparing to mount Leoht when Lathan rode up and handed him his boots. "You found them!"
"We have had them since we left Gerond's castle. I am sorry I did not think to give you them before this day." Lathan grinned at him and added, "I would have given you them four hours agone, but you seemed most busy."
The Doctor stopped pulling on his boot and looked up. "Lathan... "
"Doctor, the others come soon. Perhaps we should be further west before they come. He waved at the nearby tents and guided Geifan west.
The Doctor pulled on his boots, fastened on his breastplate, mounted Leoht and rode after him. "Lathan, you're a wonder."
"No, Doctor, I'm a squire." The Doctor began to laugh. He was going to enjoy introducing Lathan to Liberty
It was some time before the others caught up. Lib said, "Sorry, Doctor, we just couldn't seem to get away. People kept stopping us to say good-by."
"Yes, I know. That's why I usually try to slip out quietly. It doesn't always work." He sounded disgusted.
Lib just looked at Lathan. He'd collapsed over Geifan's withers. Laughing.
The inn was a pleasant place. The crackling fire seemed all the friendlier for the blizzard that howled beyond the tightly shuttered windows.
"So you gave the amulet to Mirune?"
"I didn't want it, Lib. I told her it would stop pulsing when I left her world. The circuits will fuse within a day after that."
"Aren't there an awful lot of pieces of advanced technology still laying around, Doctor."
"Not for long, Peral. The Puck doesn't like them. Seems to think there's too much cold iron in the world already." He smiled as three of his companions collapsed in laughter. "Have Lib tell you the story, Lathan. Or better yet, listen in when she tells it to your children."
"Doctor, we do not think there can be children."
"We're going to Cordahm. It's time you met Liberty and Tarna."
The Doctor's companions stared after him as he climbed the stairs. They hadn't known they were going to Cordahm.
The Doctor wasn't really surprised to see the black horse grazing in front of the TARDIS doors. It didn't belong on Laeth. "That answers that question."
"What question, Doctor?" Lib watched him hunt through his saddlepack for the TARDIS key.
"Ah. There it is." He turned and put the key in the lock. "What to do about the horses. They're coming with us." As if to prove his point, Leoht ducked and squeezed through the door ahead of him. He followed his horse in and ducked beneath the console. When the rest of them entered, he was peering at a circuit board through a jeweler's loupe. His companions watched as their horses trotted through the interior doors. The black horse followed.
The Doctor pulled a tiny brush from the air and dusted off a small area of the board. He leaned back under the console, slid the board into place, and closed the panel. He stood and said, "I'm hungry. Do you think you could arrange to do something about dinner?" His companions laughed and filed through the interior doors to arrange it.
Lathan followed them, but Freond nickered as he passed a corridor. He found the horses standing in front of a door. He removed their tack and left it in the room with two strange red machines. He nearly got lost returning. Lib had told him of the TARDIS, but the words had been but words.
When he found his way back to them, they were on their way to the console room with dinner. The Doctor had changed into his multi-colored clothes. They waited for him to finish laying in the coordinates. The TARDIS gave a small lurch and they were on their way. The Doctor took his dinner from Peral and said, "There are more comfortable places to eat. Shall we find one?" He led them to a very homey little study they'd never seen before and were sure they could never find again.
"Doctor, are we going to Cordahm?" He had said they were, but that had been almost three months ago. Lib thought he might have changed his mind.
"Yes, but we have another stop to make first."
"Where?"
"Peral, you don't think I would have gone to all this trouble to save a good fishing spot, then not check to see it was there, do you?" He smiled at his companions and they laughed.
The fishing spot was there and the Doctor set course for Cordahm. They didn't see the horses again until they landed. The Doctor opened the doors and they ducked through and trotted toward the hills. He stepped out of the TARDIS and saw Liberty a few feet away watching them trot off. "They're telepathic. They'll come if you need them. Hello, Liberty. I've brought your grandchildren home."
"You look wonderful. What have you been doing to get so gorgeous?"
"Riding around on that big white horse for nearly four years."
"Four years?! I want to hear this story! JO! We've been worried about you. Half the town spent the night looking for you."
"I suppose the Doctor's brought me back the day after he came and got me. It's been quite a while for me. I think you'd better prepare yourself for some surprises. Lib, Peral, Lathan, quit stalling and get out here."
Liberty stared at her grandchildren. They were beautiful. Peral was probably the handsomest man she had ever seen. He was about a hundred ninety-five centimeters tall and perfectly proportioned. She didn't quite know what to think of his long blond hair or the coronet he wore. Lib was tall and slender. In her own way, as muscular as Peral. She too wore a coronet. She watched as Jo put one on her head and then noticed the golden skinned young man standing slightly behind Lib wore one.
Lib grinned and pulled him forward. "Grandmother, this is Lathan. He's my squire."
"Hello, Liberty. I have heard much of you. I hope to learn from you even more to use in the defense of my wife's back."
"Wife?!"
Peral grinned and said, "I'm married to my squire too, Grandmother," He put his arm around Jo. "but you already know her. The Doctor married us."
"Doctor, you and I have a LOT to talk about." The two couples laughed as Liberty grabbed his hand and led him off.
Epilogue
He had stayed longer than he intended. Again. Calla caught up with him and shook her finger at him, then smiled and hugged him. Her two small girls nearly knocked him down in the street with their telepathic shouts of good-by. Wren and Andy strolled along the street with him for a few moments, then stood arm in arm watching him. They'd named their twins Gawain Michael and Lancelot James.
Liberty was waiting for him by the TARDIS doors. "You d
idn't really think you could leave without saying good-by to me did you?"
"I wasn't. I knew you'd be here."
"You're not coming back again are you?"
"I don't plan on it. I've been involved with your family for more than ten years. I think that's quite long enough."
"Doctor, why did you become so involved with us?"
"It was part of the lesson. A piece of the labors."
"The labors?"
"I have performed my twelve tasks of atonement. The gods of Olympus gave Heracles aid. You were the aid I was given. I'm not fool enough to refuse the gift."
"Well, I'm glad we could be of assistance. Atonement for?"
"A crime for which I've been tried, but have yet to commit."
"It must be confusing being a time traveler on a permanent basis. Doing things like: penance before the sin, trial before the crime." She grinned at him. "I suppose, now that you've done all this, you can go back to being rude and selfish and hard to get along with."
"I'm looking forward to it." He smiled as she wrapped her arms around him for the last time.
As he unlocked the TARDIS doors she said, "Doctor, I... Never mind. It really wouldn't make any difference. Take care, my knight. I will miss you."
"And I you, my squire."
She shook her head and walked away. She hadn't told him after all. It was just as well. He'd have worried about her age.
"What are you doing here?!"
"Hitch-hiking, Doctor." Lib grinned at him and handed him the spare TARDIS key she'd worn around her neck for four years. "We have work to do and we need a lift."
"I brought another stack of letters for you to deliver someday." Peral was grinning too.
"Doctor, we can't do what we swore to do on Cordahm. You're the only one who can take us somewhere we can."
"Jo, you and Lib are both going to be mothers soon. You should stay on Cordham."
"No, Doctor, we don't belong there. Neither do our children. We're not sure where we do belong, so, we're depending on you to find it for us."
"We know we're not companions any more, Doctor." Lib grinned at him. "I had to teach Lathan English." She didn't tell him she had learned the Doctor had been heard as the Chosen on Laeth.
"Do you stand witness to their worthiness, Time Lord."
"I do, Grand Master."
"We have never taken women with child before."
"I know, but they are truly sworn."
"So I believe, or I would not accept them. They will be trained."
"Thank you, Grand Master." He took a hand of each and held their four in his two, then released them. They would always wear the rings. He would not.
He walked out of the gates and entered the TARDIS. He had found where they belonged. Two knights and their squires would join the battle against evil in the universe.
He had also fulfilled a promise. He had returned Orcini's emblem to his order and told them how he died.
He paid a visit to a planet he knew well. He sat in a meadow and watched a herd of horses race down the wind. They were showing off for him. They'd heard his thoughts of admiration. The planet's name was Liberty.
Captain Knight, Leroy and the Boys
Sharon L Reddy
copyright 1991
The Doctor drifted. Place to place and world to world. He met a few old friends and made a few new ones. He thought about going to Earth, but it just wasn't time yet. He hadn't been alone more than a few weeks in twelve years. Now, he had said a final good-by to the people and the world that had claimed him for ten of them and he didn't quite know what to do with himself. For the first time in his long life, he felt unneeded and unnecessary, then he heard the crying child.
He awoke from the dream. It had been too clear. He could still feel the loss that had brought tears to his eyes and tightened his chest. Somewhere a child cried for a mother who would never come. He lay on his bed and opened himself to the feeling. He didn't know if he could find the child, but he was in need of someone. He was the one who had heard.
He couldn't find him. He could feel him, could hear him, but it was faint and all around him. Within him. He couldn't understand why. He gave up and decided to go fishing. Perhaps, if he quit searching, it would strengthen. He headed for the console room.
He set the coordinates, then stared at them. They weren't right. They didn't make any sense. They wouldn't take him where he wanted to go. They wouldn't take him anywhere. He tried again with the same result. Something very strange was happening.
He sat down in the chair he sometimes brought to the console room. He needed to think. He was obviously putting in the wrong coordinates, but he didn't know why. He decided to try again and pay very close attention. He rose and went back to the console.
He watched in amazement. He laid in a set of coordinates with his right hand and changed them with his left. He tried a different set with the same result. He let go of reason and 'felt' his way around the console. When he completed the circuit, he crossed his fingers and activated the TARDIS drive. Something seemed to grab the TARDIS and pull. He was thrown to the floor.
He came to slowly. His mind echoed with the cries of the child. He tried to damp his telepathic receptors, but it just got stronger. He reached out to check the TARDIS and stopped in surprise. He'd reached with his left hand and the sleeve on that arm was the wrong colors. He went to find a mirror.
Everything was reversed. His white shirt was black. Red was blue. Every shade of his multi-color clothes was its complement. Only he and the TARDIS had not changed.
He walked from room to room. Everything was reversed. The rooms were in the same place, but the furnishings weren't. His bed with white sheets had stood to his left. It now had black sheets and was on his right. He'd gone through a very strange reversal.
He wasn't in E-space. That hadn't caused this kind of change. The coordinates he'd set shouldn't be responsible. Whatever had boosted the TARDIS drive had pulled it into another set of dimensions. The child began to cry again and he fell to his knees. He cried with the child and he knew he was there. He called him. And he called him Daddy.
He did his best to calm him. He couldn't find him if he couldn't think. He finally succeeded in quieting him enough to search for him. He made it back to the console room and tried to initiate a search pattern. It was useless. Nothing he did seemed to work. He stopped and closed his eyes. He felt himself reach out with his left hand. He let his sub-conscious have his hand. When he heard the TARDIS drive, he opened his eyes. He was on his way. Somewhere.
The Doctor opened the TARDIS doors. The scanner had showed him an image like a photograph negative, but the world beyond the doors looked normal to his eyes. He stepped out and fell.
He couldn't move. Could barely breathe. He was trapped in invisible bonds and slowly smothering. He desperately fought, then realized the child was the one trapped. He calmed him and tried to explain he had to let go of him so he could find him. He felt him pull back, but he cried, "Daddy! Daddy, hurry!" as he released him. He didn't look for him, just began to run and let his body lead him.
He found the wrecked ship. He threw pieces out of his way and tore at the broken hull. Somehow, he had to get into it. His child was trapped. The part of his mind that was cold logic argued the child was not his, but every other part of him screamed he was.
He crawled through the hole he'd made. The tiny ship was dark and reeked of spilt hydraulics. He found the woman and reeled in shock. He knew her. He knew her at the first touch. She was dead and he'd never known her, but he loved her and he mourned. He searched for his suffocating child.
He found him trapped beneath the buckled ceiling and suddenly knew he had already known the child was son and not daughter. He called on strength he didn't know he had. He forced the ceiling up a fraction and ripped the collapsed acceleration couch out of his way. The small boy climbed out of t
he niche that had saved his life and he held him to him and backed out of the ship. He could smell the chemicals combining. They had very little time. He reached the ground and began to run. He made it about eighty meters and the ship exploded. He protected his son's body with his own, then held him and wept for the woman he loved. The woman he had never known.
"You're Daddy from before." The boy knew about his daddy. He looked different, but that didn't bother him. He could feel he was Daddy. "You don't have us yet."
"No. I don't even know who us is." He smiled at the four-year-old boy. He was positive now the boy was his. Some future self had a wife and child.
"I'm Adric. We have to go find Gwen and Liberty. They're my sisters. Bad things took them. Mommy and me were looking for you. We needed your help to get them." He started to cry. "Mommy can't 'generate. She's all gone away."
The Doctor held his son in wonder. The woman wasn't a Time Lord and they'd had three children. In this place. In this time. Where was his later self? The one who lived in another set of dimensions. Why wasn't he the one who had heard the boy? "Adric, why did the bad things take your sisters?"
"They want you. Not you you, Daddy later you. You know this thing they want to know, but you don't know it. That's why you're here. 'Cause they can't get it from you."
"The later me couldn't come, because of knowledge he can't chance someone getting?"
"Uh huh. That's what you told me in my head. You said you'd come from the other place from before, but I had to call you. You wouldn't know I was in trouble. You were all hurty inside and Mommy's face was everywhere in your head."
"All right. Let's go find your sisters. Tell me about the bad things."
Adric had given him an exact set of coordinates. He was amazed at the child. He felt warm and proud each time he looked at the boy. He couldn't understand why he looked so much like him. Blond, fair, gray-eyed. Which of his later personas would love and marry? Who had he become that he would do something that seemed so strange?
"Daddy, you're all confused. You don't think in the way you have to yet. It's all one place. I'm me and you're you and I'll be lots more mes and you'll be lots more yous and all the places and all the us-es are all the same and all together everywhere. I'm all grown up and I'm little. I'm me all at once. You're you, but still one at a time. Mommy called you serial. Me and Gwen and Lib are all at once."
"You're right, Adric. I'm confused. Was your mommy human?"
"No, she was different. She came from a place that's not anywhere. She said I help go get her and I can't worry cause I don't remember it yet. She was looking for you. When she died, she went back. She can't come again. You don't ever understand, but that's all right. She could only stay 'til she died and she knew when that would be."
"We've landed. The scanner is nearly useless. I don't know where we are or what's outside the TARDIS. You'll have to stay here. I'll find Gwen and Lib."
"No, Daddy, the bad things get you. I find Gwen and Lib, then we come get you. Daddy, the bad things are going to hurt you. I'm sorry. They won't know who you are. You mustn't tell them. We'll get you soon. I have to go before they come. I have a key. Bye."
The Doctor stared after the boy as he climbed on the chair, opened the TARDIS doors, jumped down and ran out. He followed and shut the doors behind him. He could feel he was on a space ship, but that was all he knew.
He walked across the huge, echoing, cargo bay. What could the ship carry that would require a hold nearly a kilometer across? He started to look for a door of some kind. Adric had told him he would be captured, but he planned to find a way to avoid it. He had just found the door when the robot sentry rolled out of the shadows and stunned him.
Adric found his sisters. They were waiting for him. They ran in opposite directions and, in its split second of confusion, he climbed the robot guard and shut it off. They had to be bigger before they got their daddy from the bad things.
The Doctor rolled over and groaned. He hadn't told the creatures that held him anything they wanted. They'd only been truly interested in the answer to one question and he hadn't known what an H-miron was. Adric had told him he didn't have the knowledge they wanted. It was a good thing he hadn't. His defenses had gone down in seconds. He would have answered anything they asked. If he hadn't, his mind would have been destroyed. The mind probe they used was more powerful than any he had ever known.
He nearly laughed. They had asked him who he was and he'd told them his name. Not the Doctor, his name. It had meant nothing to them. They asked him how he'd gotten there and he'd told them. They hadn't found a type Mark-40 capsule in the hold. They asked him if he'd freed the children and he'd said no. They put him with the other 'humanoids' and put him to work.
Robots were useful for a great many things, humanoids only three. Robot power was limited and expensive. Humanoids replaced themselves. He was a mining unit. If he produced his quota, he was fed. If not, he was nerve jangled. Actually, he was jangled for talking, or looking around, or stepping out of line, or... And, since the jangler was locked around his throat and computer controlled, it was very efficient. He'd seen two men jangled to death. They hadn't made their quota three days in a row.
The selectors entered the 'sleeping place'. Everyone stood. Very straight and very still. There were fifty in the barracks. Two were selected each night. The others would be allowed to sleep. But not talk. Or leave their assigned bunks. They selected the Doctor.
He followed them out of the barracks and stood where he was told. There were seven other males standing nearby. One of them looked around and was jangled. He struggled to his feet and stood still. The selected females were placed across from the males. There were forty of them. Both groups were led down the corridor.
The Doctor hadn't been broken to slavery, but he would wait. The time to break free would come. He would end this. The scaled blue creatures would be freed also. They too wore janglers and obeyed the computer that directed life on the ship. The computer too would have controllers. He would find them.
The Doctor enjoyed the shower. It felt good to be clean. He didn't enjoy the physical examination afterward. It was performed by a machine and too thorough. The cubicle opened and he stepped into a room with transparent walls and five women. He thought he knew what was expected, then blue scaled people entered and he realized he was wrong. He was only 'performance' compatible with the females. He learned the second use for humanoids. They were entertainment. The creatures instructed them. When he and the women were ready, it began. And shadowy figures watched from the other side of the glass.
The Doctor had been given a day to recover, then sent back to the mine. The ship had been moved. The composition of the rock was different. He loaded his ore cart and stood waiting. Another would be sent. He filled three that day. He filled three each day for six days, then his quota was increased again. Then again.
He dropped onto his bunk exhausted. For eight days, he had filled five ore carts. He wasn't sure, but he didn't think anyone else had a quota that high. He looked at himself. He was filthy and rimed in the salt of his own sweat. The sonic drill broke the ore loose, but he had to load it by hand. He had become hugely muscled. That night he was selected again.
He awoke and didn't know where he was. He wasn't in the barracks. He was in a room by himself. He'd passed out from exhaustion and had no idea how long he'd slept. He got up from the pillowed floor and walked around. The jangler didn't activate. The room had a lavatory and a bath. He touched the tap and wasn't jangled. He drew a hot bath and stepped in. He basked in the hot water and wondered why he was there. He was still in the tub when the wall became transparent.
He learned he was to leave the bath when he was jangled. He learned he was to stand under a blower when he was jangled. He learned he was to stand in the center of the pillowed room facing the door after three more
jangles. He stood. A slot in the wall opened and a beeper sounded. He took a chance and walked to it. Food was passed through. He ate, then waited. He returned to the center of the room when he was jangled. The jangling was mild and of short duration. Instruction not punishment. He spent five days standing and watched shadowy figures pass beyond the semi-opaque wall on one side of the 'room'. Each night he was allowed to drop to the cushioned floor to sleep and each morning to take a bath.
"It's time to set him free. We're ready." Adric was sixteen. He'd spent twelve years in technical study and the last nine in intense physical training as well. His sisters were eighteen and nineteen. They'd skipped a bit of the training, but none of the study.
"I'm going to miss you all terribly, but you're right. It's time. Take care of yourself, son. I wish I could come with you."
"We know, Dad. You aren't supposed to. Your part is done and just beginning. We'll see you again."
"I don't suppose you'd consider telling me when."
"Daddy, you don't really want to know." Gwen gave him a hug. "You wouldn't be happy knowing the future. You like living day to day. We've always known that."
"That's true. It would take all the excitement out of life. I'm still not sure how you do it. Don't you find knowing everything that's going to happen boring?"
"We don't think about it. It's only the important stuff we pay attention to." Lib hugged him good-by. "Even though we might be able to remember it all, we don't. That WOULD be boring."
The Doctor held his three children, then watched them walk toward the 'other' TARDIS. They'd assured him they'd be all right, but he'd still worry. He wondered when he'd see them again. He set coordinates for his dimensions, engaged the H-miron, and left the place he'd called home for twenty years. His children had said he must find the one he called the Valeyard before he found his eighth persona. He smiled as he thought of his son. The boy he'd named Adric and called Tech was in for a few surprises.
The Doctor stood in the center of the room and watched the door open. A very fat, richly dressed, ursanoid entered. He was the chief programmer and he had selected a new toy.
The programmer was pleased. This one was very strong. He might last awhile. Perhaps as many as ten days. The others had been anticipating the feast for five and were wagering on its date. He never participated in the wagering. It might inhibit his play. He arranged himself comfortably on the pillows, opened his toy box, laid it on the floor, then selected items for the first game.
He touched the button to start the music and began setting up the game. The new toy didn't cry out. That was unusual. The stimulators were very uncomfortable. He'd designed them that way. He inserted the last electrode into the socket on the stimulator and gave the first instruction. The first of many.
He was delighted with the toy. It might last even longer than he'd thought. He had played with it for several stellar time divisions before it collapsed and couldn't rise when jangled. Even then, it had not lost consciousness. He removed one of the stimulators. It would be in the way. He set the music for the finale.
When he decided it was late and he should get some rest, he left the stimulators in place. He didn't replace the one he'd removed. He had built something new and he wanted to try it. It was remote controlled and he would use it on his eighth division mealtime the next twelve stellar division work period and watch the toy's reaction by vid. He anticipated it would add relish to his meal. He completed its installation and left.
The Doctor lay on the cushions and retched and bled. His blood had excited the fat ursanoid. It had licked it from him and panted with pleasure. He, near instinctively, reached for the most painful of the stimulators and was jangled. He distanced himself from the pain and slept.
"I don't understand why he has to go through this."
"Gwen, we've been through this before. We have to do it as we remember it. The timing must be right. The thing he called the chief programmer has to be with him and the others have all got to be in the lounge."
"He still remembers it too well, Adric, and it's been a very long time."
"I know. We'll end this horror. When we destroy the main computer, the breeding ship will be disabled. The humanoids on it and in the mines will be freed. We had to wait until they were on a viable world. Lib, do you remember all the codes?"
"Of course I do. I'll kill the computer and set the ship to take off and fly into the sun. You just make sure the thing that hurt Daddy so badly his eyes still look haunted when he remembers it dies."
"I remember killing the chief programmer. It's the last thing Mother said to do before she died. She said Dad would never do it so we'd have to and we can never tell him what we've done. The ursanoids are too close to learning the way through to the heavily populated dimensions. This ship contains enough of their young in stasis to enslave a galaxy. Gwen, you shouldn't have any trouble getting the paldiths onto the shuttle once the computer is down."
"I won't. I've got the H-miron unit and the timer. It'll get them through to their own world and be just a lump of metal once they've landed. This ship will leave a nice hole to the surface for the humanoids in the mine. I remember they have a very nice society here in a few hundred years."
The new toy was so much fun he decided to share it. His coworkers had all watched it with him at mealtime. The remote was a tremendous success. They begged to attend the game that evening. The chief programmer decided to invite them all. They deserved to celebrate. Enough of the rare element had been mined to build the engines that would take them to the place the humanoids came from. Soon there would be enough for all to have toys. He would show them the games they could play. He planned the music and refreshments for the party.
The Doctor tried to distance himself from the pain. He couldn't. The shocks were irregular and the nerves raw. The jangler hit him again and he struggled to his feet.
The chief programmer passed his toy around. His friends were delighted. They dipped their tongues in its blood and stroked it. He showed them his favorite game and they applauded. There were several that wanted to play, so he devised a new game on the spot. They applauded his genius. The toy cried out and they cheered and took turns. He removed two of the stimulators and taught them a game four could play at once, three with the toy and one with the control box. They timed their play to the music. The toy lasted more than four stellar periods before it stopped responding to the stimulators and the jangler. He let go of its head and let it fall.
The chief programmer said good-night to his very appreciative associates and gave each a piece of the toy's head fur as a party favor, then removed the last stimulator. He licked the last of its blood off and pushed a claw in to get just a bit more. He was lapping it when the TARDIS landed in the corridor outside the soundproof room.
Gwen and Lib ran for their assignments. They didn't look. They remembered they didn't. Lib threw a grenade in the lounge. The chief programmer's coworkers had gathered there to plan a gesture of appreciation for the entertainment their superior had provided.
The chief programmer looked up at the open door at the sound of the explosion and into Adric's eyes. They were the last thing it would ever see. Adric said, "For my father." and killed it slowly. Ten seconds is a long time when the device of execution is a sonic weapon.
Adric wiped his tears on his sleeve, picked his father up and carried him into the TARDIS. He struggled to do it, but remembered he could. He found the deep healing beam where he remembered he would and began work. He healed him and carried him to the bath.
Lib killed the computer. She introduced a virus and laughed as it spread. The computer asked why and she told it. It had helped with her father's torture. It controlled the jangler. She set the controls manually for time delay liftoff and ran for the TARDIS.
Gwen guided the confused and frightened paldiths to the shuttle telepathically and connected the H-miron.
She remembered where she found her father's things. She laid them aside and loaded all the rest into the ore carts and sent them to the humanoids in the mine. She heard the shuttle launch and picked up her father's things. She ran back to the TARDIS. Lib would be on her way. They would change the dimensional reference and the H-miron would return them to her father's universe. She remembered how she did it. The TARDIS would dematerialize as the ship launched for the sun.
He awoke in familiar surroundings. He was in his bath in the TARDIS. For a few seconds, he tried to convince himself it was all a very bad dream. He toweled off and dressed. His clothes were the right colors, but they didn't really fit. He looked in the mirror and closed his eyes. He leaned against the wall and ran a hand across his head. If he hadn't remembered it all much too clearly, he would have thought he'd regenerated. His appearance was totally changed. He could feel the TARDIS was in flight, so he walked to the console room. He stepped through the doors and stopped. They were waiting for him.
Lib smiled at him. He looked a lot like he would again. "Hi, Daddy, I'm Lib. You're going to take me to Gallifrey."
"I'm Gwen, Daddy. You take me to Liberty. I'm going to meet the horses. I'll like them a lot."
"Hello, Dad. I'm sorry we had to leave you there so long. We couldn't come any sooner. We remembered the time we came to get you. You remembered it too. You reminded me several times to tell you I was alone when I found you." Adric smiled at him. "You and I are going to find a door you'll make to another universe. There is someone there who needs us."
Lib pushed a chair under him. She remembered he needed it. He sat down and buried his face in his hands.
Knight Progenitor Page 23
