Chapter Two
The Doctor left Gwen on Liberty communicating telepathically with a big black horse. Gwen told him her name was really Guinevere and she would be needed there. The horse had been waiting for her. She would help him save his race. They were being hunted. The people of Liberty were also being hunted.
Lib walked out of the TARDIS on Gallifrey and kissed the young man standing a few meters away, then held him up while he recovered from the shock. She announced he was going to marry her and led him off. She had to see the Lord President. She remembered a fault in the defenses she had to correct.
Adric grinned at him and said, "I'll call you Doctor, or at least try to. I'll forget sometimes. I've entered the coordinates of our next stop. We have to get Restin. He's in real trouble. His ship is disintegrating around him."
"Do I get to choose what to do with MY life after we perform this particular rescue?"
Adric laughed. "Not quite yet. After we rescue him, we have to find our Godfather."
"Your godfather?"
"Yes. You, Restin and I have to go back a few years in time. Since our godfather doesn't know about us yet, we won't run any risk of messing up his circuits when you take us to get him."
"Data?"
"Data. You have a real thing about Guineveres. It was my mother's name." Adric shoved a chair under him. He'd take the next piece of news better sitting down. "There's one more thing. We're needed on Cordahm. Liberty, Wren, and all the others with high psi are dying. You have to save them."
"What's wrong with Liberty?!"
"A disease. We need Data to help find the cure. It will take both of you. We take her son with us when we leave."
"Wren's coming with us?!"
"He's not the one I meant. Her youngest son is named Glaucus Peral, but everyone calls him Doc. Oh yes, only my sisters call me Adric. I'm Tech to everyone else. Now, I've got to destroy the H-miron drive unit. You won't invent it for several hundred years."
Restin, who had been called Diz since he was two, tried one more thing. It didn't work either. The old ship was being torn apart. He limped through her one more time. He didn't know why he was still alive. None of the others were. He supposed it was due to the fact he was only half-human. He'd smelled the coolant leak and yelled for an emergency air filtration. He hadn't been quite fast enough to save the others. He'd lost consciousness. When he awakened, they were all dead, killed by the fumes.
They'd been taking the ship to a museum on an allied world. It still had the dangerous old coolant that was poisonous to oxygen breathers. It had leaked when the engines became out of balance and started shaking the ship. He was sorry now that he'd talked the captain into letting him go along for the trip to the space museum. He was more sorry he hadn't been able to save the small team ferrying her there. He said good-by to those he had called friend and put on a survival suit.
He jetted out the airlock. He didn't expect rescue and death would have been quicker on the ship, but he just couldn't accept it. He watched the ship explode and drifted in space. He waited. He'd calculated the odds. There was a one in six hundred billion chance a ship would hear his emergency beacon and be close enough to pick him up before his air ran out.
The Doctor reached out of the TARDIS and pulled the young man, boy, in. He snapped off his helmet and gave him oxygen. It had been a very close thing. His eyes opened and he smiled. "Just shows odds aren't everything."
The Doctor smiled down on the boy. "I've a tendency to ignore the odds myself. I'm the Doctor."
"VERY nice to meet you, Doctor. My name's Restin, but everyone calls me Diz."
"Diz?"
"Yeah. My mom said I made her dizzy with questions from the time I could talk. She told me I was as curious as my father. I liked it."
"Hi, Diz. I'm Adric, but they call me Tech."
"Wow! It's like looking in a mirror!"
Tech laughed. "Yes, well, not quite. I'm a little taller than you are and my hair's lighter. Come on. I'll show you around the Doctor's ship and find you something to eat."
The Doctor watched them go through the interior doors. He glanced at the console and noticed Tech had put in a set of coordinates. He shook his head and smiled, then started the TARDIS on its course. He was quite looking forward to seeing Data again.
"Data. I need you."
Data stepped through the doors of the TARDIS that had materialized in front of him on the Enterprise holodeck. He had programmed an 'adventure'. He was quite sure he was still following Geordi's advice when he did.
The intruder alert cut off as abruptly as it had begun. "Sir, I can find nothing." Worf was puzzled. "The computer has reported it as a malfunction." He reread the report, but he didn't believe it. His instincts told him something had been in the holodeck.
The Doctor guided the TARDIS through the doorway between the universes, set the coordinates for Cordahm, then turned to Data. "I really hadn't expected to see you again this soon. Although, I believe it has been a great deal longer for me than for you."
"It has been only twenty-six days of my time, Doctor. May I ask the reason you came for me?"
"I believe we have a plague to cure. I'm a bit of a passenger on this trip. Tech is the one who knows the reasons. He hasn't really told me very much."
"Tech?"
"Hi, Data. That's me. This is Diz. Actually, I'm Adric and He's Restin, but we don't go by our names much. We need you to help save the people of a world. My sister is waiting for us to save them in the future, but first we have to save them in the past."
"Don't even try, Data. Even I can't keep it all straight. Tech comes from my future."
"I shall do as you suggest, Doctor. My programming was not designed to process the paradoxes of time travel."
The Doctor and Data set up the medical laboratory. Tech told them they were dealing with a micro-virus specifically designed to attack telepaths. He didn't know any more than that. He, Diz and the Doctor would all be infected before Data found the cure.
The TARDIS landed in the hospital on Cordahm and Andy led the Doctor to the ward where all her family lay dying. He walked from bed to bed. Tarna, Calla and her two daughters, Wren and his two sons, Liberty and the small redheaded boy who laid on the bed next to her, were all comatose. He knelt by Liberty's bed and took her hand. "I'm here Liberty. I said I wouldn't come back, but I have."
He took blood samples and carried them back to the TARDIS. He grabbed the TARDIS doors until the dizziness passed. He was infected. He had very little time.
Tech and Diz were the best lab assistants he'd ever had. He ran analyses and Data integrated the information. They'd run over seven thousand when Diz fell unconscious. They had run four thousand more when Tech succumbed. The Doctor held out four days and nearly eighty thousand analyses. Data carried him out of the TARDIS and laid him on a bed in a room off the ward. Tarna died that night. She was the first. Data performed an autopsy. Andy assisted.
"Andy, I have found an area of cells that appears to be diseased."
"Where, Data?"
"The anterior cortex of the cerebrum. The epiphysis also seems to be affected."
"That might make sense. No one ever really answered why we have the pineal body. Maybe the fact Tarna has a very large one answers the question. She's non-human and she and Calla are extremely powerful telepaths."
"Please prepare slides of this tissue. I will attempt to increase the resolution of the scanning microscope by connecting my main computational matrix to the TARDIS computer banks."
Andy slid the prepared slides into the microscope and crossed her fingers. Calla's condition was worsening. She wouldn't survive another day unless they found some kind of 'something' that would help. She watched the flashing lights in the open panel in Data's head and prayed he'd find the answer.
The Doctor wasn't comatose. He was delirious. Peral and five other men held him down.
They placed another set of restraints on him and Peral sent them from the room. He was the only one he trusted not to speak of the Doctor's ravings. He rubbed his bruises and hoped the set of restraints would hold. The last two hadn't.
He was called from his place to the bedside of Liberty's son. The two women tending the patients were terrified. Peral didn't really understand it, but did his best to reassure them. The boy seemed to be better, then his condition began deteriorating again. Someone yelled for him and he sighed and walked to the hospital entrance. The small herd of horses was gathered nearby. They too were sick. Two of them sank to the ground as he watched. He thought hard about the attempts to find a cure and the bay mare nickered. Someone yelled for him and he ran back to the Doctor's room. He'd broken another set of restraints.
"Andy, hyper-pherase, adrenal corticosterone, anatherine eight three seven, micro-veratin alcase."
"Here, Data. All but the adrenal corticosterone. I can't find any of that."
Data disconnected himself and handed her a rapidly written formula. "Begin combining the other three in these proportions. I shall extract the adrenal corticosterone from the Doctor."
Andy went to work. They didn't have much time.
Peral rubbed another bruise and watched the android hold the Doctor down with one hand while he drew fluid from him with the other.
"I shall hold him while you find another set of restraints, Peral, but you must do it quickly. There is very little time."
"Data, the horses are sick too. They're outside."
"If our formulation is effective, I shall have a basis to develop an equine serum. Please find restraints quickly. It will take some hours to prepare and test the formula. We must hurry if we are to save your wife Calla."
Andy fell asleep over a tray of dishes. Data moved her gently aside and checked. One showed slowed growth. He calculated a slight change in the formulation and prepared another dish.
Data began preparing the serum. He had found the inoculant. He awoke Andy and handed her the injector. "Inject it directly into the carotid artery. Begin with the Doctor. If he quiets, Calla should be next. Watch her carefully for anaphylactic shock."
Data headed for the horses, reviewing his data on equine anatomy. The bay mare was standing right in front of the doors, obviously waiting for him. She held very still while he extracted the needed fluid from her. He patted her and told her he would hurry, then returned to the lab. He prepared a serum and an injector. She nickered softly when he returned less than two minutes later to the small herd gathered, most too weak to stand any longer, at the door.
"Would you mind releasing me?"
"Doctor!" Peral undid the restraints and handed the Doctor a glass of water.
"What happened to you?"
"I'm afraid you did, Doctor. There are about five others in the same shape."
"You should have restrained me sooner."
Peral laughed. "We did. That's the fifth set."
"Oh, I see."
"I want to see how my wife is. I'll be back."
The Doctor rubbed his wrists and sat up. He held still until the dizziness passed, then swung his legs over the side of the bed and, bracing himself against the wall, slowly stood. He had to see how the others were. He felt wobbly, but got to the ward.
Andy was sitting by Wren's bed. She jumped up and ran to aid him. "Doctor! You shouldn't be up."
"You're probably right. I don't seem to be extremely steady. Help me to that chair." She aided him to the chair by Liberty's bed "How long?"
"Since I gave them the serum? About four hours. Doctor, Doc regenerated."
"HE WHAT?!"
"Easy, Doctor. I really expected you would. And the other two. Hang on." She steadied him in the chair. "You all have two hearts. I thought you knew."
"Guinevere Rondell. Guinevere. That's what he meant. Three named Guinevere. Two universes and another set of dimensions and three named Guinevere."
"I hope you explain that statement. The weird thing is, they look like triplets." She watched him lay his head on Liberty's bed and shake with laughter.
"I suppose he knows. I never really told him. He never asked."
"You didn't tell me either, Liberty."
"I started to, but you needed to leave. It might have kept you here."
"I've only been gone a few months."
"Seventeen years again for us. And it was long enough to take off all the weight I worked so hard to put back on you. What did you do this time and who cut your hair? No! I don't want to know!" The strange look that had come into his eyes terrified her. It aged him a thousand years. "Did you kill them?"
"Who?"
"Whoever put the new lines around your eyes and scars on your soul."
"No, but I think Tech did."
"Tech? Our Tech?"
"No. The son of my future self and a woman named Guinevere. He's over there. You'll meet him soon. He's the one who told me I was needed here. He has two sisters. Their names are Guinevere and Liberty. The other boy is called Diz. He's from another universe." He smiled at her. "His mother's name is Guinevere." She started to laugh. It was good medicine.
"Doctor?"
"Yes, Data?"
"I believe I have successfully treated the horses. The virus appears to have been manufactured. It is airborne. I have devised a vaccine, but I shall need a sample of blood from each of you. You appear to be rather a mixed group."
"Data, you have a gift for understatement." Data wondered about the woman in the bed, laughing so hard tears streamed.
"He says he has to go with you."
"Did you tell him no?"
"No, I gave him a hug and told him good-by."
"Why, Liberty?"
"Because it was what he wanted, Doctor. He doesn't belong trapped on this world. I love him too much to do that to him. Give him a universe to explore."
"Actually, I shall give him two. This time I won't be back, Liberty."
"I know, but I'll look for you at seventeen year intervals anyway. Walk with me awhile. Tell me the names of the stars in my sky. Then promise me you'll find out who tried to kill us."
"The blue one on the eastern horizon is Bethera. Those two bright ones above it are Alberse and Porlata." He named the stars and made the promise and left her sitting on the grassy hill. He wouldn't see her again. Each time it was harder to say good-by.
"Well, what now? Do I take Data back?"
"That's up to him. I'm going to try not to tell you the future anymore. You really don't want to know it."
"Well, Data? Tech says the choice is yours."
"Doctor, you have said you can return me to the moment I left. I would like to assist you in finding those who devised the virus. I would also like to become better acquainted with my godsons."
"Oh, he told you that. I wasn't sure he would. Data, did Diz tell you what happened to Gwen?"
"No, Doctor. I know only that she was transferred to the Repulse."
"Well, Tech, are you going to give us a clue? Where should I start looking?"
"The place they try again. Don't worry about the time factor. The capsule carrying the virus was a one shot deal. You said they got a figure wrong and it was the only time they got it right."
Data watched the boy walk through the interior doors, then looked at the Doctor in inquiry.
"I'd explain if I could. He says he lives all at once. Past, present and future all existing simultaneously. Even thinking about it makes me dizzy. But I think I know where we're going."
"Where, Doctor?"
"The same place we were, but several hundred years later. They call the world Liberty."
Knight Progenitor Page 24
