Doctor Who: The Time of the Companions: Book 3 (Doctor Who: The Companions' Adventure)

by Cour M.

  “Then you have had men as constant companions before Rory?”

  “Yes, quite a few times. Well, we were trying to evade the Daleks who were chasing us after they had broadcasted their hunt for us, and they followed us many places. They even followed us to the Empire State Building.”

  “Really? Well, do you think the Daleks kept that memory stored in their memory bank? Because if they did, then maybe that’s why they chose the Empire State Building in New York as a place to begin their experimenting on humans. Remember when you took me there?”

  “Yes, and… oh my god,” his eyes widened, “that actually could have been it! My word, the Daleks were in Manhattan because of that, ha!”[2]

  “Plot thickens, eh?”

  “Yes, but back when I was still my very first self when they were chasing us, we eventually landed in this jungle on a planet, and just over it was a vast metal city, which we would learn was called Mechanus. We went there, and immediately got captured by an older model of these creatures. And then the Daleks arrived and there was a full battle between both species. Because of all the confusion, my companions and I were able to escape.”

  “Then the mechonoids lost lives because the Daleks were following you,” Martha asked, dubious. Unable to deny this, Eleven was silent.

  “It was an accident.”

  “I know. But something tells me that they won’t ever see it that way.”

  “No, he won’t.”

  “And who is he, this Croesus? You’ve run into him before?”

  “Yes, I have.”

  “And how did that end?”

  “With the inevitable: him and I becoming arch enemies.”

  “The Daleks, the Master, and now the mechonoids,” Martha listed, looking at their captors, “all the lives you’ve saved and it leads to you having a list of arch rivals. Just goes to show you, no good deed goes unpunished.”

  “Not if your name is the Doctor,” Eleven chuckled sadly.

  

  Martha and Eleven were led off the ship and were transported to the main headquarters of the city that they were in. As they were driven along, there was another statue of the Matrix.

  “Doctor,” Martha said, “look, there she is again.”

  “I know,” Eleven noticed, looking out of the window and up at the statue of the Matrix.

  “Why would the mechanoids have a statue of her, I wonder?”

  “It very well may be a coincidence, but…”

  “Yes, right now the word ‘but’ is the key word in every sentence. But I suppose we need to survive this first.”

  “Right.”

  They were driven along and eventually came upon a metal citadel.

  “Ah,” Eleven sighed, “figures. They’ve created another Mechanus, right here on the planet of cybermen. How fitting.”

  Eventually they were delivered to the main control room of the New Mechanus, and as they did so, they faced a room full of mechonoids, where gelem soldiers were remaining against the walls, standing sentinel.

  “You will proceed,” one mechonoid instructed the Doctor and Martha, “he demands you to stand before him.”

  “They always do, mate,” Martha inferred casually.

  “That’s the spirit,” Eleven chuckled at her resilience.

  Together Martha and the Doctor walked down the walkway, with mechonoids all glaring down at them and then they stopped at a set of steps that led up to a seat with its back turned to them.

  “It’s been a long time, Doctor,” the voice said. It was harsh and hard to listen to, Martha determined, and yet it was also sharp, precise and got your attention.

  “Yes,” Eleven replied simply, “yes, it has been.”

  “But I know what you are thinking,” he added, pressing a button on his throne seat, “it hasn’t been long enough.”

  The throne seat turned around and that was the first time that Martha got her first look at Croesus.

  

  “Martha,” the Doctor sighed, strongly, “allow me to introduce you to Croesus, leader and joint-creator of the mechanoids.”

  Croesus stood up and he was almost seven feet tall as he descended from his throne. Martha marveled at the look of him, for his face was long and gaunt, his figure was muscular, but only because it was half man and half machine. Literally there were parts of him that were robotic and then it was right next to the part of him that was human. It was as if it were a body that did not wish to make up its mind of what it was, or wanted to be. It was indescribable, for he was the sort that one did not know how to describe as being very horrible to see, or being absolutely beautiful to witness. He was a miracle—while also being a blight.

  “You still and forever will be the same,” Croesus continued, walking down the steps of his place, “always content to have a companion. Tell me, how replaceable, how expendable is this one?”

  “Leave her alone,” Eleven said.

  “Ah, it’s always so nice when he does that, isn’t it?” Croesus said to Martha, pleasantly, “That dominating and threatening tone. But you do know,” he continued, grabbing Martha’s face and pulling her toward him, “That he only does it because he’s always hiding, always running from the fact that he has no idea what to do.”

  “Get off me,” Martha ordered.

  “Sorry, dear, but it’s not nearly as intimidating as when you do it.”

  “Why are you here, Croesus?” Eleven inquired. “And would you mind getting off her?”

  “Possessive until there is nothing that you can do?” Croesus chuckled. “And I was hoping that we could be pleasant to each other.”

  “No, you weren’t.”

  “No, of course I was not.”

  “We know about the TARDISes,” Martha stated as Croesus still held her in his clutches, “we know that you were the one who sent the cybermen to Marinus. And you know what? I’m very tired now and have seen quite a few people I care about die because of it, so if you could please just shut up about everything else and just tell us your plan before you kill us, I would be very grateful.”

  Croesus clamped down on her face.

  “You think you know him!” He spat, getting closer to her face, “how amazing! All of you and your blind faith in the man who has two hearts that died long ago.”

  Croesus raised up Martha by her neck and she clutched at his hands, trying to keep breathing as she was being choked to death.

  “What if I told you, Doctor, that I would relinquish my plans, I would cease all conflict against the universe, if you just let me enjoy you standing there and watching your face as I killed her. As I killed where your heart always lies. What if I promise, Doctor, that you can save so many lives after this, if you just let her die at my hands?”

  “Fine then,” Eleven replied, “Kill her!”

  Chapter 3

  The Writer, the Time Travelers, & the Wardrobe

  “Well,” C.S. Lewis said as Amy, Rory, Ten, and Ace looked at him, “I just mention a whole new world and you are all staring at me. Forgive me, but am I that handsome?”

  “You were just fighting in a scary battle, then you get abducted by an unknown alien and you are cracking a joke?” Ten laughed, “my god, that is textbook C.S. Lewis for you there!”

  “Well, I believe this is all my hallucinations anyway, so there is no point in me getting frightened by it, is there? After all, I can’t be dead.”

  “Well at least you see that,” Ace said.

  “Of course not, for if I was dead, then I would see nothing at all,” Lewis stated, and Ten shrugged his shoulders.

  “Ah, so you’re at that stage of your life.”

  “War can do that to you,” another soldier said, “and after what we’ve seen, we’re perhaps too much in shock to feel anything for a time. I told everyone,” he said to himself, “I swear I did.”

  “And who might you be?”

  “He’s the man who reported the missing soldiers,” Jack instructed.

  “Yes, my name is John Henric
kson,” the man voiced.

  “You were the one who tried to warn people,” Ten said.

  “And everyone called me insane,” Henrickson stated, “no one listened, and now look what’s happened? I hate being right!”

  “Well, you tried to warn us,” C.S. said, “I got to give you credit for that.”

  “Indeed,” Ten inserted, “but if it’s any consolation, John Henrickson, you’re now in a prestigious line of men who get called insane when they are really just a step ahead of the rest of humanity.”

  Rory and Amy came back from helping everyone and also brought more food for C.S. and John, who took it greedily and began to eat.

  “Thank you,” John said, in between bites, “but please, can you get us out of here?”

  “Not yet,” C.S. Lewis argued, “there are more of us. As they were carrying us in, I woke up. Everyone else was still unconscious, but I remember it all. It was strange, but one moment we were being dragged off the battlefield, then we stepped into a strange door of some kind, and then the world changed utterly, and we were in the woods, in the midst of a large land. And then the world came undone fully for me as I saw the horizon appear on a swift sunrise. There was a large castle at the end of it, made of ice.”

  “Ice?” Amy remarked, “truly?”

  “Yes, but I do not believe that we are there, for this looks completely different.”

  “So,” Rory said, “we’re in a magical land with C.S. Lewis? Am I the only one seeing a pattern?”

  “Why do you single me out?” C.S. Lewis said, “I promise that this is not my fault.”

  “We know,” Amy assured him, “and no one is blaming you.”

  “Not at all, it is just…”

  “Just what?”

  “Hang on a moment,” Ten said, “excuse me.” He turned and with a whip of his coat, he rushed to the TARDIS doors, but Ace jumped in front of it.

  “What are you doing!” Ace demanded, “whatever it is out there that took the soldiers could be there, waiting.”

  “Well, I didn’t come here just to sit inside my police box, now did I?”

  “Can’t you do environmental checks and scan the area first? Don’t just go out there, seriously soldier, look before you leap!”

  “You know me, Ace,” Ten smiled, “a mystical land that is reached through the portal on a battlefield! How can I resist!” Ten kissed her forehead and then rushed out of the TARDIS, with Ace following behind. As they emerged, they were immediately met with a series of winter coats hanging up in what appeared to be a closet—a wardrobe.

  

  “Oh, no way!” Amy laughed, “that is just too cool.”

  “But,” Henrickson contradicted, “that’s not right! No literally, that was not the room that we were just in.”

  “Yes,” C.S. Lewis agreed, “we were in a cell that was made of glass. We did everything we could to break it, but it wouldn’t go.”

  “He’s right, Doctor,” Jack said, “we were not in a room of coats, so let me go first.”

  “You’ve risked your life enough,” Rory demanded.

  “Care about me, huh?” Jack smirked.

  “I’m a nurse, don’t look too far into it,” Rory said, “though I am happy you are fine.”

  “Don’t worry,” Jack said, going in front of the Doctor, “I’ll always be fine.”

  “What, does he have nine lives, or something?” C.S. Lewis observed, “truly, friend, I saw you on the battlefield and you were shot four times in the chest, but here you are.”

  “What can I say?” Jack smirked, “sacrificing myself for others just has a resurrection effect for me. Yes, hear me roar.”

  Jack turned away, but Rory was there to notice the curious look on C.S. Lewis’s face when he thought of what Jack had said. Then as he saw John move forward, about to explore the new world as well, he followed along, also joined by Amy, Ace and Rory.

  

  Leaving the front doors, they began to push their way through the winter coats, and then slowly they began to turn into branches where the lot of them began to move too eagerly.

  “Eh!” Ten cried, “stop pushing!”

  “Well, move faster then, will you?” Amy cried.

  “Jack’s the one going slow!”

  “It’s called being cautious,” Jack cried, “just because I can never die doesn’t mean that you all can.”

  “Oh, that’s it!” Ace said, “he CAN’T die.”

  “Well, he can technically,” Ten said, recalling when he had taken Martha to New New New New New New New New New New New York and they had come in contact with the face of Boe.[3] “But every time that he dies, he is resurrected and brought back to life.”

  “That is—by god, Clive!” John hissed, “you’re stepping on my foot and I can’t move, man!”

  “We just survived something where we could have been shot to death, we got transported out of a world war, and you are complaining about this. John Henrickson, sort out your priorities!”

  “I don’t like it when things step on my feet! And—”

  They had pushed each other so much that as they reached the end of the set of trees, they fell on the ground and into a large bit of snow. As they looked up, C.S. Lewis was the first to jump up and begin to look around.

  “We’re in a forest!” He cried, “just like I… I mean, but it wasn’t frozen before. There was no snow at all.”

  “No, there wasn’t,” Jack said, apprehensive.

  “Why would there be snow now then?” Amy said, picking up some and eating it.

  “Amy!” Rory exclaimed.

  “What?”

  “You don’t know where that snow has been.”

  “You know that I like to eat snow. I can’t help it.”

  She took a bite full as Ten laughed.

  “How does it taste?” Jack asked.

  “Like snow. And I just ate it in Narnia!”

  “What?” C.S. Lewis asked, “what did you just say?”

  Ten gave Amy a warning look.

  “Nothing,” she replied, “I really said nothing at all.”

  C.S. Lewis turned around and laughed.

  “I can’t believe it!”

  Ten walked up to him and looked pensive.

  “Look familiar, doesn’t it?” Ten asked.

  C.S. Lewis faltered.

  “I do not understand what you mean,” he replied softly.

  “I think you do, though.”

  C. S. Lewis bit his lip.

  “But if this is all here, and not the cell that we were in,” John Henrickson said, “then there is something at work here.”

  “Yes, it means that the land can change,” Jack said, looking around at the beautiful sight of the woods covered in snow. “And while it’s beautiful, it can also be bad.”

  “Hello there!” Came the voice of one of the soldiers from within the TARDIS. “Where did you all go?”

  

  Ten and the others rushed back into the TARDIS and all the remaining soldiers who were in the cell with them were standing there, and there were seven of them in total.

  “What is this place?” One of them asked.

  “Good day, soldiers,” Ten said, “welcome to the TARDIS, it’s a spaceship that’s bigger on the inside, to the point of being infinite, and we discovered that you all were taken from the battlefield during World War I, you were captured by an alien, but we are not sure which, and you have been transported to a magical land, for reasons that we don’t know. Any questions?”

  “Yes,” the first one said.

  “Of course,” the second one said.

  “You bloody well believe that we do,” came the third reply.

  “Blast it man, yes!” The fourth roared.

  The fifth, sixth and seventh one shouted obscenities, so Ten blotted them out of his mind.

  “Blimey,” Ten sighed, “one day my speeches won’t end with a never-ending supply of questions.”

  “But first thing is first,” C.S. Lewis
said, coming forward, “thank you for saving our lives, but really, sir, who exactly are you?”

  “I’m the Doctor.”

  “Doctor Who?”

  Ten chuckled.

  “C.S. Lewis just asked me that! Ah, it feels just like Christmas.”

  “I don’t believe in that holiday all that much.”

  “I know. Like I said before, we’re at this time in your life.”

  

  “What other time would you find me?” C.S. Lewis asked.

  “Good question,” Ten replied, evading the question altogether, “so who feels like explaining the complexities of time and space to these fine young men while I try and scan the area, while also finding the right place to prove how we are not insane?”

  “I’ll do it,” Jack said, “I kind of always love being the one to explain this all to people.”

  “No arguments here,” Rory replied.

  While Jack was explaining it all to them, Ace joined Rory in looking after their wounds to make sure that they were all mostly healthy.

  As he did, Amy went up to Ten while he was pulling a lever.

  “Your gang gets larger.”

  “Yes, they do,” he smiled, “I don’t know if I have ever been happier or sadder all at the same time.”

  “You’ve been both, but Doctor, don’t you think this is all suspicious?”

  “Of course I do, what? Did you think that I would not think a hidden invisible door on a battlefield in the midst of World War I that led to a magical land is simply the earth drinking a cup of tea? Oh, ye of little faith!”

  “No, but I mean, C.S. Lewis, in the midst of the hard stage of his life, fighting in a battle, and then gets pushed into a magical land. I mean how often does that happen by coincidence?”

  Ten gave her a look.

  “What?”

  “Amy, one time I met Dickens and there just happened to be ghosts around him, then I met Agatha Christie and there happened to be a murder mystery there, and Shakespeare with witches, and the list can go on and on about that… well, then again, the witches had come for Shakespeare himself.”