The man blinks absently at Bryce's question. Then he smiles, "The doctor? Why of course. Everyone knows the doctor. Everyone I know, including my wife, is a doctor. Maybe you should try asking that at the hospital. Might have better odds, eh? There's Doctor Van Zander, Dr. Gutay, Doctor Prajnaparamitra, Doctor Jones.... Have you tried looking at the directory down in the main hall?"
K 9 remains out of sight and quiet, not wishing to interfere with what the others are trying to accomplish.
"Perhaps you misunderstand. I'm asking about *THE* Doctor. Do you know anything about this?" and Bryce holds up the book that we found in the TARDIS with the inscription.
Kyle reaches out again, to see if what the Professor SAYS and what he thinks are the same.
Dr. Caulderson doesn't respond to the reference to THE doctor, but when the book is presented, he sits up and leans over to see the note on the inside cover, he literally sits up and takes notice.
"This just says 'Doctor,' which, as I said, around here is not much help. That's certainly not my handwriting. What's this book?"
He turns a page or two to the title page, if allowed, and reads it. "My Latin's a little rusty, but ... a handwritten manuscript by Isaac Newton? Is this a hoax? Where did you get this?"
His voice rises with excitement. He stands and looks the group over again. "Who are you? Where are you from?"
I'm sorry He closes the book and takes it away from Caulderson We might have the wrong "Professor C." He would have been a teacher here in the 50s, I hoped it was you but perhaps we were wrong?
"I'm afraid I was in diapers in the 50s. Perhaps you want Professor Chronotis. He's got quite a collection of old texts." Caulderson looks disappointed that he can't see more of the book but is too civil to complain to strangers.
Just then a young man enters with a few books under an arm. He is of average height and build, with short curly black hair, wearing beige slacks, a white shirt, and a beige jacket. "The books you asked for," he says as he places them on a desk.
"Ah, Chris, thank you," the professor says. "Would you mind showing these people where they can find Professor Chronotis? They have a book he'd like to examine, I expect. This is my assistant, Chris Parsons. I'm sorry but I didn't get your names," he adds, unable to provide proper introductions.
Chris looks the group over and shrugs. "I'd be happy to. I wanted to borrow a book from him as well. Come on. He's over in the Pythagoras School."
Kyle looks nervously at the professor. Would telling him his name before he was born disrupt time? The others seemed comfortable with time travel, due to their experiences but Kyle didn’t remember his trip through time. This was all very scary.
Yes. Professor...errr...Chronotis is exactly who we need to see. Also this book is just a joke, it’s not authentic. Let’s...let’s go everyone! Also the robot dog is just a toy.
He hurried after Chris.
Hi Chris. My name is...Calvin. Thanks for being our guide.
Bryce puts on an air of being in a hurry and says "Well, thank you for your time, doctor, sorry, no time for introductions!" and hurries out of his office after Chris.
Chris looks the group over before leading them down the hall. As there are classes in session, he does not say anything to anyone until the group gets outside. Then, he says, "Professor C has his own office in the Pythagorus School. It seems the place where they let old timers keep an office. I read about some named Doctor Tempus who had been in the building for so long, as of around 1890, that rumors had begun that he was immortal. I tried to research other faculty with offices in the building, but couldn't find anything definitive until about 1950, when, my father met Professor Chronotis. He's such an interesting character. How do you know him?"
He takes the group north of the New Court complex, along a relatively new building that looks like a dorm, toward an ancient brick building that is two stories high. Picture of building
We don't, but we share a mutual friend and we wanted to introduce ourselves.
Kyle will let Chris knock on Professor Chronotis' (who Kyle is convinced is also Doctor Tempus) door.
"The name's Ted Trapes," Ted introduces himself to Chris as he leads the group to Professor Chronotis. Ted tugs at his shirt uncomfortably as he listens to the story about Doctor Tempus. Having little familiarity with the actual mechanics of time travel, he does not share Kon'Zu's suspicions.
"Does your father also work here?" he asks the boy.
"No, my father is an alum of the school, but he works in government now." Chris replies.
He opens a door to the old building. A plaque on the door describes the building was built in the 1600s. Entering the building there is a hall down the south side of the building with a few doors to rooms to the north. Chris walks down to the end of the hall and stands in front of a door and knocks. After getting no response, he calls out, "Professor! It's Chris. You've got visitors."
Still no reply.
Chris tries to door, which opens out into the hall. Looking in you all see a closet about 5' x 5'. It is empty.
Chris looks up and down the hall, confused. "There's supposed to be a great big office here! What's going on?"
K 9 uses his scan integral gadget on the closet and it's surrounds, then pauses to process the information gained. "The odds that Professor Chronotis is also Doctor Tempus and The Doctor I calculate to be 94.45%."
K 9 uses his scan integral gadget on the closet and it's surrounds, then pauses to process the information gained. "The odds that Professor Chronotis is also Doctor Tempus and The Doctor I calculate to be 94.45%."
Bryce goes into the closet, and taps on every wall to make sure it's real and there's no empty spaces behind. If nothing unusual turns up, he steps back out into the hall and looks down the wall the door to the closet is on. Are there any other doors on this wall?
You’re part right...but why would the Doctor give himself a book?
"We have no data on The Doctor's circumstances at all Mr Kyle. Giving himself a book does not have an obvious rationale, but there could be any number of reasons The Doctor might want to do that. And what did you mean by 'the robot dog is just a toy'?" replies K 9 while joining Bryce in inspecting the interior of the closet.
I didn’t mean to offend, Mr. Nine. I just didn’t want to disrupt time by introducing a sentient robot dog into the 70s.
"Very well. No offence taken."
Neither Bryce nor K-9 can detect anything about the closet or hall that suggests it is anything other than what it appears to be.
Chris regards the conversation between K-9 and Kyle with caution and chooses to walk to the other end of the hall to try other doors, muttering, "This makes no sense!"
While Chris is down the hall, you hear a soft hum coming from the closet and a door materializes in the doorway. Moments later the door slides to the side, revealing a room that looks very much like a Cambridge professor's office who likes to collect rare books. The office takes up much more space than the closet does.
Note: when there have been no dice rolls, I will occasionally require this roll when something happens that might trigger a bad memory. If you fail the check and get a flashback, you'll get a story point, since this is a non-standard.
Note: when there have been no dice rolls, I will occasionally require this roll when something happens that might trigger a bad memory. If you fail the check and get a flashback, you'll get a story point, since this is a non-standard.
This episode lasts rounds.
Kyle grits his teeth, but keeps things together.
Is the office occupied?
Ted is about to interject in the argument between Kyle and K9 when the sudden materialization of the door stops him. He watches the door with amazement.
As they peer into the room, Ted asks, "Is this common in the future? Rooms being larger than they should be?"
Not in the 70s, no.
K 9 will scan the room. If that reveals no particular sign of hazard, K 9 will enter the newly appeared room and inspect the interior closely.
No one is visible from the hall, but all near the door can hear the sound of someone brushing teeth and humming. The room looks like a library, with floor to ceiling bookshelves, an open area in the middle with comfy chairs . There is a soft rustling sound which appears to be the sound of a tea kettle heating up.
K-9 can enter and explore. The floor is carpeted and relatively clear of obstacles. If he follows the sound of humming, he discovers a small room out of view from the entry door that might be a water closet.
K 9 does in fact follow the humming. On seeing the door, K 9, not wanting to disturb someone using the toilet, says "Hello, is anyone there? Professor Chronotis? Doctor Tempus?"
Bryce follows K-9 into the room and towards the sound of the humming. K-9 speaks up before he does, so he waits to see what happens.
Bryce and K-9 hear the humming and brushing stop and a moment later a tall man pokes his head around the door with a toothbrush still in his mouth. His eyes narrow for a moment, looking concerned and suspicious, but then they open wide with surprise.
He takes the toothbrush out of his mouth and exclaims, "K-9! Bryce! Hello!" He disappears, spits in a sink, and returns, sans toothbrush, "What are you doing here?"
He has short brown hair that hangs down on the right side of his face, green eyes, and a decidedly pointed chin. He is wearing a light blue shirt, dark pants, high top shoes, a brown jacket, and a bow tie.
Kyle looks over to see who is calling out. Is it a face he recognizes, even in the dim recesses of his mind?
"Um...hello...do I know you, sir?" Bryce asks, rather puzzled.
Kyle does not recognize him or undergo any flashbacks. As far as he knows, this is just a bloke in the room.
When neither Bryce nor K-9 seem to recognize him, the man walks out to the main room, speaking as he goes. "It's the Doctor! We saved the Liberty Bell from destruction by those metal eating aliens that were masquerading as British soldiers? We diverted that asteroid that was headed for Africa? Or hey, remember when we all went into a bar and everyone started laughing?" He pauses and then adds, "I think we inspired a classic type of joke with that one. How did it go? 'A Time Lord, programmer, and a robotic dog walk into a bar...' Anyway..."
K-9 and Bryce indeed remember such adventures with the 4th Doctor.
Coming out and seeing Kyle leads him to pause and consider a moment. His eyes shift to Joe and he smiles and says, "Joe! You've grown up I see."
Somewhere in here, Chris returns to see the room back the way he expected it. He stands at the door until things get too weird and he leaves to get help. He does not return while things unfold in the Professor's TARDIS/Office/Living Quarters.
"Master!" exclaims K 9 as he moves rapidly over to The Doctor and nuzzles his hand.
Wait, wait wait wait. I think we’ve made a terrible mistake. Your TARDIS picked us up, told us you were in trouble. And I think we skipped ahead...or back. You’re not the same Doctor who was in trouble...
"DOCTOR! It IS you! Now I remember, you told me that you can...rejuvenate, was it?...and change your looks. Good to see you! How long has it been for you since we've seen each other? It's been a good 30 years for me! But wait...I thought that chameleon circuit was permanently burned out? How'd you get your TARDIS to appear like the entrance to a closet and/or office?"
Ted follows the others into the room just as the man is revealing himself to be the Doctor. He shakes his head in astonishment and denial. "It's not possible for this man to be the Doctor," he argues. "He looks nothing like him, his personality is completely different, not to mention his fashion sense."
"DOCTOR! It IS you! Now I remember, you told me that you can...rejuvenate, was it?...and change your looks."
"Rejuvenate?" Ted looks closer at the man claiming to be the Doctor. "Is it really you, then?"
The Doctor sips his tea and explains recent events. The TARDIS in which all sit is the TARDIS of Professor Chronotis, who is a Time Lord near the end of his life, who has been living at St. Cedds for the past few centuries, changing his identity from time to time and counting on the change of faculty and students at the school to keep his longevity from being noticed. He had been incarcerated in a Time Lord prison called Shada, but he had escaped. When the Doctor visited him, his time stream accidentally crossed with the timeline of himself (8th Doctor) intent on visiting the professor at the same moment.
This led to a complicated sealing off of the building with a variant of the Reapers but localized so they just try to consume the immediate cause of the paradox rather than destroy all creatures on the planet. Dr. Chronotis (or Salyavin, as he was known as a Time Lord on Gallifrey) knew how to navigate the Tardis out of the universe's attempt to prevent time paradox by navigating into N-Space, which is not supposed to be possible but this version of the TARDIS, a Type 40 model, had a design flaw that allowed it to interact with the ... [insert usual timey-whimy wibbly wobbly terms to explain it all]. The 8th Doctor took his leave with the help of Romana and returned to Cambridge and to avoid further paradoxes. The 11th Doctor remained with the professor to deal with a different problem.
It was during this period that the 11th Doctor's TARDIS would have lost contact with him and set out to locate others who could help locate him again.
Long story short, the Doctor and Salyavin had an adventure or two getting out of N-space and in the process, they had to visit Shada, where Salyavin was captured and is now continuing his incarceration as he approaches death, having used up his allotted regenerations. The TARDIS has been programmed to return to Shada once the Doctor gets off so he can return to his own TARDIS. The professor's TARDIS has a number of rare and dangerous books he had removed from Gallifrey.
"So," the Doctor wraps up, setting his tea cup on the table, "let's get back to my TARDIS and I can drop you off wherever you like. I'm happy to see you all. I am in a similar situation to the professor, near the end of my time and so I'm avoiding the inevitable by visiting old friends one last time."
He moves everyone out of the TARDIS and the extradimensional space again removes itself, leaving only the small closet. As everyone exits the old building, they see Chris returning with various serious looking men intent on investigating what he claims to be very strange goings on.
The Doctor avoids these folks and strolls along back toward the TARDIS. As he's walking, he suddenly stumbles and winces, holding his temples and crying out.
He whips out his sonic and stares at the readings perplexed. Joe sees strange particles orbiting him and then blipping out of sight.
He shrugs it off and returns to the TARDIS, but when he opens the door, he stares at a cube that is floating in the middle of the room above the console.
Kyle rushes to the Doctor’s side. Doctor, are you ok? Are you having terrible flashbacks to traumatic events you don’t consciously remember?
He looks up at the others What? The symptoms are the same!
Bryce interjects a couple of questions as the Doctor tells his story : "So, what did Salyavin do to warrant being put into a Time Lord prison? I didn't even know such things existed!" And, "So, you're ok with the prison getting their books back? I assume that means that Salyavin is justly imprisoned?"
Regarding the cube in the Tardis :
By the way its shape changes as it rotates, Bryce immediately recognizes it for what it is : "Why bless my soul, that's a tesseract!"
Ted listens to the Doctor's story, eyes glazing over slightly at some of the more technical aspects.
"I think I understand the gist of it. Always glad to help, Doctor."
"I'm happy to see you all. I am in a similar situation to the professor, near the end of my time and so I'm avoiding the inevitable by visiting old friends one last time."
Ted isn't sure how to address this, so he leaves it be until the Doctor has the moment of pain on the way back to the TARDIS. He follows Kyle to the Doctor's side, deeply concerned.
"Are you alright? Is this... Is this related to the end of your time, as you said before?"
The Doctor avoids these folks and strolls along back toward the TARDIS. As he's walking, he suddenly stumbles and winces, holding his temples and crying out.
He whips out his sonic and stares at the readings perplexed. Joe sees strange particles orbiting him and then blipping out of sight.
When The Doctor stumbles K 9 moves in what is actually an attempt to bring his nostril lasers to bear on anyone who may be attacking The Doctor. Realising The Doctor is not under attack, K 9 returns to The Doctor's side, saying "Are you unwell master? You may lean or sit on me if needed."
For a man in his 900s, the Doctor looks fit as can be. Only his personality betrays his age, showing a worlds-weariness that he tries to hide with babble and stories.
After his episode, he recovers quickly. In reply to expressions of concern, he says, "I'm fine... I think. I feel fine... now, at least. But when you're 900 years old, you've got to expect the odd moment of vertigo."
: "So, what did Salyavin do to warrant being put into a Time Lord prison? I didn't even know such things existed!" And, "So, you're ok with the prison getting their books back? I assume that means that Salyavin is justly imprisoned?"
"Actually, he was driven a little mad by his experience looking into the Schism. But he also had the ability to get inside people's minds and control them. He had not done anything bad with his powers, but the leadership on Gallifrey at the time tricked him into going to the prison and then tried to trap him there. He used his powers to escape and in the process made everyone forget where Shada was. His books allowed him to get back to it and when I left him, he was in charge of the prison, enjoying his remaining time reading their extensive library."
Once back in the TARDIS, the presence of the hypercube gives the Doctor a momentary boost of mood, as he excitedly took the cube and set it on a spot with a square depression on his TARDIS console into which the cube fit perfectly.
Bryce mainly knows that the cubes were used by Time Lords as communication devices. The Doctor once likened them to Time Lord text messages.
K-9 knows a bit more about how they work. Physically resembling white cubes, they are able to store a Time Lord's thoughts or speech and can be sent through time and space.
The Doctor fiddles with the console controls. "Before I read the message, I want to see if I can tell who sent it. The last one of these I received turned out to be a trap, not really from the one who purported to send it."
The Doctor throws switches and shifts levers with exaggerated drama. On his view screen appears a circle of Gallifreyian Text. The Doctor frowns at the word. "Watchmaker? That's impossible! He or She doesn't exist. It's just a fairy tale."
He manipulates the console some more and words appear on the screen: "Origin of message: Time: ??? Place: ???"
The Doctor looks peeved. "That shouldn't happen. All hypercubes are time and place stamped. It can't be tampered with!"
"All right, my mysterious beauty. Let's see what you have to say for yourself."
The message transmits to the whole room, with a voice that is hard to place as either male or female, young or old.
"If you are receiving this, you are in a unique position to preserve history and the future. You are in possession of a TARDIS, so you are uniquely placed to do what urgently must be done. A legendary weapon created by the Time Lords of Gallifrey was thought to have been destroyed in the destruction of Gallifrey at the conclusion of the Great Time War. It was not destroyed and it has fallen into the wrong hands. It is the ultimate assassination weapon. It attacks a person's timeline, eroding it in both directions until the person is erased from existence.
I have been blessed ... or perhaps cursed... with the ability to see such things happen but I have limited ways to affect the outcome of such events. But I have intimate knowledge of this weapon, for I was the one who invented it. I know how the process may be interrupted and the timeline restored. Once the process is halted, the timeline repairs itself. The longer the life of the person whose timeline has been attacked, the longer the process takes and the more chance there is of stopping it in time. In this case, the target is a Time Lord, so that is in your favor.
"To stop it, you must locate where the attack originated. The weapon will be at that point in space and time. You must find the control consoles and turn the temporal exterminator off. To find where the attack originated, I have included instructions on constructing a temporal trace locator. This locates places in the target's timeline that have yet to be erased and by going to such places, and getting close enough to events influenced by the target, the temporal locator collects data. With enough of these data points, it can extrapolate to the location of the attack.
Good luck. Here is the target of the attack."
As the message concludes, an image appears on the screen. It shows an older man with white hair swept back from his forehead. Moments after appearing, it transforms into a younger man with dark hair with bangs covering his forehead playing some kind of flute, then it shifts to another image and another. Eventually each companion recognizes one of the images as the Doctor and the last image to form is a mirror image of the Doctor staring at the image dumbfounded.
Well...that's not good. Doctor, you mentioned something tried to eat the paradox the last time you and...err...you were in the same place, with this whole "Shada" business. That probably means you can't follow the temporal trace locator yourself to gather the data, because you'd cross your own timeline repeatedly. We'll have to do it for you.
He thinks for a moment. Oh! And since you don't remember any of this, we can't let you see us at any of those moments! Otherwise you'd already know how this happens and where the attacks occur.
He looks to the more seasoned time travelers, to see if this tracks with their understanding of time travel.
"Affirmative on not taking The Doctor. On not allowing the Doctor to see us, insufficient data. The Doctor may not recall us meeting his earlier, in his time line, self due to another reason such as disruption to his memory caused by his current state of health and age. Finally The doctor may indeed recall the meetings with us in his past and our future, and knows from those meetings he does not inform us of them now. So The Doctor may not be telling us of those meetings to preserve the time line or to avoid us now calling off our expedition as not needed when that very missions's success is what renders it redundant. The Tesseract has been tampered with, when this is not thought possible, and the individual who claims to have sent the message is a fairy tale. Much relevant data is unknown, unverified or deliberately with-held. Extreme caution is advised. Probability of something foul being afoot 98%."
Ted watches with horror as he processes the warning being given. A brief flash of the Doctor he helped washes away any lingering doubt left in his mind, although he notices there was a face in between the one he was familiar with and the one standing before them now. For the first time Ted wonders exactly how long it's been for the Doctor since they first met.
Ted looks at Kyle and K-9 with uncertainty. "I won't lie, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the logistics of time travel. But it sounds like we have to do this without the Doctor's help?"
Well...that's not good. Doctor, you mentioned something tried to eat the paradox the last time you and...err...you were in the same place, with this whole "Shada" business. That probably means you can't follow the temporal trace locator yourself to gather the data, because you'd cross your own timeline repeatedly. We'll have to do it for you.
He thinks for a moment. Oh! And since you don't remember any of this, we can't let you see us at any of those moments! Otherwise you'd already know how this happens and where the attacks occur.
He looks to the more seasoned time travelers, to see if this tracks with their understanding of time travel.
"If I understand this correctly," the Doctor replies, "This weapon attacks the timeline at different points and this temporal locator gizmo takes us to those points. So I can't cross my own timeline because my timeline will have been erased. Nothing I see in these locations can create a paradox, since I won't have been there before and I won't remember it. But just to play it safe, how about we build this locator and check one of the places. You'll need me to fly the TARDIS, but you don't necessarily need me to go outside the TARDIS."
This locates places in the target's timeline that have yet to be erased and by going to such places, and getting close enough to events influenced by the target
"Affirmative on not taking The Doctor. On not allowing the Doctor to see us, insufficient data. The Doctor may not recall us meeting his earlier, in his time line, self due to another reason such as disruption to his memory caused by his current state of health and age. Finally The doctor may indeed recall the meetings with us in his past and our future, and knows from those meetings he does not inform us of them now. So The Doctor may not be telling us of those meetings to preserve the time line or to avoid us now calling off our expedition as not needed when that very missions's success is what renders it redundant. The Tesseract has been tampered with, when this is not thought possible, and the individual who claims to have sent the message is a fairy tale. Much relevant data is unknown, unverified or deliberately with-held. Extreme caution is advised. Probability of something foul being afoot 98%."
The Doctor keeps trying to get a word in edgewise to K-9s analysis, but after a few tries, he looks in a mirror and adjusts his bow tie. Once the robot dog stops talking he turns back to face the group.
"Someone is attacking me, so yes, I'd say that is pretty foul. The Watchmaker is a legend on Gallifrey, a Time Lord who some thing is far in the future, watching over Gallifrey and playing with time lines like a puppet-master. Fat lot of good it did Gallifrey I'm afraid." The Doctor pauses, looking a bit out of sorts at the thought of the fate of Gallifrey. "Some of you know about that," he says, glancing at Ted with a nod, but then regarding Kyle with uncertainty. "But if my time line is destroyed, whole worlds may be lost. If recent adventures have taught me anything, it is that some view me with fear, but most respect me for what I've been able to do for them. I'd not like to roll the dice and see all this lost. I can face my own death; in fact, I've been planning on it, once I visited a few other former companions and friends. But to let it all slip away. I don't think so." Here he seems to have talked himself into something.