An Adventure in Space and Time

Posted on 03 Jul 2016 @ 8:45am by Commander Terry Walsh

3,105 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Risky Business
Location: Holodeck 2
Timeline: MD 3 : 1922

Jessa was ready for an adventure!

Her sister, of course, had the latest edition of the Doctor Who holonovels loaded into the ship's holodecks and she intended to use them. So, she headed towards the holodeck with the full intention of enjoying herself for a couple of hours, maybe fighting daleks or something.

Terry was strolling through the corridors as he had been the last couple of days. But this time was different. He was smiling like he used to and even whistling a bit. His mind wasn't on where he was going at the moment when he rounded the bend and nearly took down a person.

"Oh, uh, I'm sorry 'bout that," said Terry.

Jessa reached out and grabbed the nearest thing that would steady her- Walsh's arm. "Oh, sorry!" she exclaimed. "I should watch where I'm going. Terry, right?" she said, as she got her feet under herself.

"Yeah, Terry," he said, helping her back up. "Which twin are you again? Jayla or Jessa? Or is there a triplet that we don't know about yet?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm the third one, Janessa," she said. "There's also a Jennis as well. We're quadruplets." She grinned. "Jessa," she told him. "The hair is a dead giveaway."

Terry put his hands in his pockets and glanced at her hair. "Oh yeah, Jessa. Sorry." Terry hadn't noticed her hair, but he hadn't noticed anything. "So what are you up to?" he asked.

"I was about to go for an adventure in Space and Time," she answered. "Wanna join me?"

"An adventure...uh, ok, sure. If nothing more than to find out what in the world you're talking about." He had never heard of anything like that. Unless it was in the Science Department.

Jessa stifled a laugh. "Holodeck," she explained, jerking a thumb in that direction. "My sister's got the new Doctor Who Holonovels loaded on the holodecks."

"I don't know. You're gonna have to tell me who," said Terry. He couldn't understand why Jessa thought he would know the doctor's name.

"No, Doctor Who," she said. "Tell me you've heard of Doctor Who."

"That's what I asked you, who is the doctor?" said Terry. "And as soon as you give me his name, I'll tell you if I've heard of him."

"He hasn't got a name," said Jessa. "He's just The Doctor. Come on, I'll introduce you to him," she added, turning to the nearest holodeck and pulling up the program. "Random Doctor, random villain, random place," she muttered. "Ready?"

"Ohh, I see," said Terry. "Kinda like the EMH's...the Doctor. Okay, then, let's go for it. Introduce me to this Doctor who will take us on an adventure in space and time." He watched as the holodeck doors opened.

They walked into a shrub maze, complete with shrub animals and real chirping birds. A squirrel ran across the path ahead and somewhere, a dog barked. "Oh, great," Jessa said, sounding a mix of disgruntled and pleased. "I guess this means we get to find our way out. I'm sure we'll run into the Doctor within two minutes."

The scene was a nice, relaxing garden. Terry grinned as he walked in and said, "This place looks great, Jessa. But I've never been too good with mazes. I'd just climb the shrubberies or something."

"That's cheeting!" she laughed. "Just follow me. Come on," she added, motioning for him to follow her into the maze. "I love hedge mazes. And those corn mazes they make on Earth. It's great."

"No it's not. It's adapt and overcome...simple Marine philosophy. You see a problem, you adapt to the situation and overcome the problem. Anyway, I'd still climb it." He started following Jessa through the maze.

"Spoken like a true Time Lord," came a voice from the other side of the shrub-wall. "Although you're not a Time Lord. I know that because all the Time Lords save one are frozen in time. Well, two really, but I try to forget the Master. Anyway," the voice said and a strange sort of weebly-squelchy noise could be heard from the same direction of the voice. "Damn," said the voice. "Still no wood setting. I've got fix that. No matter." This time, the shrub wall rustled and they could hear grunts.

Jessa looked at Terry and shrugged just as a face appeared over the top of the shrubs. It was an older face with sandy colored hair. "Ah!" said the man. "No, you're not Time Lords! Just as well. Give me a moment." More rustling and grunting and the man jumped down in front of them. He was dressed all in black, with a long coat that had a red lining to it. "Now then, what are your names?" he asked.

"I'm Jessa and this is Terry," Jessa introduced them.

"Jessa and Terry," said the Doctor. "And you're right, Terry, it's not cheating. You could learn a thing or two from him," he told Jessa. "Now! Where are we?" he said, looking around.

Terry couldn't help but smirk a bit. "Your Doctor here knows his stuff," he said to Jessa. He leaned down and lowered his voice to a whisper, "But, you're gonna have to explain what a 'Time Lord' is though." Then standing back up, he said, "Well, it's an a-'mazing' piece of work, actually. Someone put a lot of time into it, but other than in the middle of a maze, I have no idea. I could climb to the top and see what's out there?"

"A-mazing?" said the Doctor. "Did you just say a-mazing? And after I just sung your praises to this- this slow-minded whisp of a girl!"

"Hey!" said Jessa, mildly disgruntled. "I'll have you know, I happen to be a teacher!"

"Oh, a teacher!" mocked the Doctor, pacing back and forth in front of the shrub wall. "Please, teacher, teach us how to get out of this maze!"

"He's just trying to act all big and tough," Jessa told Walsh. "And discourage us from helping, but he's going to need us by the end."

"That's what you think!" called the Doctor from several feet away.

Jessa shook her head, grinning. "Come on," she said. "We follow."

Terry fell in step with Jessa and chuckled at the holographic Doctor. "So how does this work? Do we just follow him and wait until something happens?"

"Pretty much," she replied. "It usually happens pretty fast." She glanced to her right and spotted an angel statue, then glanced away before doing a double take and found the statue three steps closer. She gasped and stopped. "Doctor!" she called frantically. "Doctor! Terry, don't blink. Keep your eyes on it!"

Terry stopped dead in his tracks. His old Marine training, not to mention his SAR training, was coming back to him. He quickly surveyed the surrounding area...and above them, just in case. Then he saw what Jessa was looking at. "Uhh, Jessa...are you feeling okay? It's just a statue."

"It's not," said Jessa. "It moved. Doctor!" she called again.

"Yes, yes, what is it?" the Doctor complained, coming to stand beside them. He spotted the angel and did a double take. "Did it move?" he asked.

"Yes," said Jessa.

"Are you sure?"

"Look, I might just be a teacher, but I know when something moves, okay?"

"Keep your eyes on it," he said, hurrying away. "Don't blink!" he called over his shoulder.

"Not blinking!" Jessa replied, closing first her right eye, then her left.

"Okay, not blinking is going to be hard," said Terry. "But why? What's going on? I mean, you've even gotten the Doctor up in arms. But...why are we staring at a statue and not blinking? And how did this thing move?"

"It's complicated," answered Jessa. "In short, it can't move when you're looking at it. The doctor will explain it when he gets back."

"Oooookay," said Terry. He stood there, staring at the statue and trying not to blink. "So, how long does this doctor usually take?"

"Usually not long," she said. "Doctor!" No answer. "DOCTOR!" Still no answer. "Oh, he'd better not have left us here on our own!"

But, at that moment, a weird sort of sound like an engine running while metal scraped against metal repeatedly surrounded them and the scenery began to change into a control room that Jessa knew well. "Oh, he's clever!" she exclaimed, keeping her eyes on the angel until the room solidified around them. She blinked rapidly once they could no longer see the angel again.

"Of course I'm clever, clever is my middle name; The Clever Doctor," said the Doctor, flipping a few switches on the center console.

Terry watched as a room materialized around them, locking out the angel. It was almost as if the entire thing had been beamed in, but not. The sound itself was also sort of weird. But then this whole holodeck program seemed that way to him simply because he didn't know anything about it. Maybe he could do a bit of research...if he ever had the time. "So, somebody want to tell me what just happened here?"

"Angels," answered The Doctor, twiddling some knobs and messing with the zig-zag plotter. "Of the weeping variety. They're only statues when you see them. They're as old as the universe- or nearly anyway- and they survived this long because they have the most perfect defense system; they're quantum locked. They don't exist when they're being observed. The moment they are seen by any other living thing- including one another- they turn to stone. And you can't kill a stone. But, turn your back on them and they're faster than you can imagine. Turn your head away, even blink and-" he clapped his hand suddenly, making Jessa jump.

"Ah, okay, then," said Terry. "I suppose we should be thanking you, good doctor." He looked around the room and then to Jessa, raising an eyebrow. "What is this thing?"

"That," said the Doctor, "is your girlfriend."

Terry jerked his head to the doctor and then looked back at Jessa with a smirk. "Not quite, Doc. But since you brought the subject up, let me introduce you two, again. You look like you could use a girlfriend. Doctor, Jessa...Jessa, Doctor. I'm sure you two will hit it off well. But I was talking about this room or control center or whatever it is."

"Oh no!" said the Doctor quickly. "I don't do girlfriends!"

"Relax, Doctor, he was just poking back," said Jessa. "He just wants to know what this place is."

"It's the Tardis!" announced the Doctor. "It's my time and space machine. Now, more importantly, what are the Angels doing here?"

"Oh, I see, a time and space machine," said Terry. "As far as what the angels are doing here, perhaps spies?" said Terry. "Maybe they want this Tardis?"

"Of course they want the Tardis- wait!" exclaimed the Doctor, turning and pointing one finger at Terry. "How do you know that? Are you in league with them? Are you a spy?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Doctor," said Jessa, rolling her eyes. "The only beings in league with the angels are other angels."

"Lucky for you, she's right," said the Doctor after a moment's pause. "All right, time to investigate," he added, heading for the door.

"Wait, we're going back out there with them?" asked Terry. "How are we going to investigate if we can't take our eyes off of them?"

But, the Doctor wasn't listening. He crossed to the door and threw it open onto a completely new scene. This time, they were on a beach with white cliffs behind. "Ah, the beach," said the Doctor. "Just what we needed. Anyone got a swim suit?"

Jessa grinned and jerked her head to the door, indicating that they should go outside.

"Well, I'll admit," said Terry. "It's better than whatever that was all about back there. But how did we get here? And no, I didn't brings a pair of swim trunks." He looked around and took in the whole scene. The beach was beautiful with it's fine, white sand. The sun was high in the sky, but there was a slight breeze blowing off the ocean. So it wasn't too hot.

"I told you, time and space machine," answered the Doctor. "This time it was space. Next time, it could be time. We'll have to see."

Jessa grinned. "Come on," she said. "Wait until you see the outside of this thing."

"Point taken, Doctor." He turned to Jessa. "The outside of it?" He followed Jessa outside and turned around. "What in the..."

Jessa giggled and looked at the Doctor, but he wasn't paying attention. "Amazing, isn't it?" she said of the simple blue police box that was definitely not big enough to hold the whole of the control room they'd just exited much less the rest of the rooms, swimming pools, and libraries inside.

"This...this is crazy. It's like a holodeck or something," said Terry. "How does that even work?"

"Holodeck!" exclaimed the Doctor from about thirty feet away. "What do you think this is, Star Trek?"

Terry looked at Jessa, a quizzical look on his face, and shrugged. In a low whisper, he replied, "What is this trek through the stars he's talking about?"

"No idea," answered Jessa, confused. "As for the ship... thing-"

"TARDIS!" called the Doctor.

"Yes that," said Jayla. "It's Time Lord Science. I have no idea how it works, but in short, it's bigger on the inside."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" called the Doctor. "If you two are done snogging, we've got things happening here!"

Terry walked over to where the man in the bow-tie was standing. "What's up, Doctor?" he asked. He wasn't sure where the man was looking, but he couldn't see anything.

"I think this may be their base of operations," he said. "Angels usually tend to live near people, but I suspect these ones are up to something. They want my box, for sure, but why they'd work here, of all places, I have no idea."

"Well," said Terry, trying to get into character a bit more, "if they usually live near people, and these don't, could they be renegade angels? You know, rebels or something?"

The Doctor stopped and looked at Terry. "That's... that's brilliant," he said. "Yes, rebel angels! But, if they're rebels, what's their game?

"You said they wanted your...box," said Terry, still unsure of it all. "What with the whole space and time thing, it would make it easier for them to get around and do bad things. Does it time travel?" Terry could only imagine what kind of havoc they could wreak if that were the case.

"Of course it time travels, that's what 'time and space' means," answered the Doctor. "Angels feed off of Time energy. And with the Tardis, they'd have an unlimited supply of time energy- more than they could possibly ever need. But, imagine the power it would give them! It would rip the universe in two."

Terry looked at Jessa and grinned. It was a look of mischievousness more than anything as he was about to play with words again. He turned back to the Doctor and asked, "Rip the universe into what?"

"No, in two," said the Doctor. "As in it was one, now it's two. Are you sure you're the same guy who came up with rebel angels?"

Jessa hid her grin behind a hand and looked away. This was just too funny.

"Yep. Same guy," said Terry. He looked at Jessa, trying hard not to laugh. This was the old Terry. The Terry that his two newest friends had helped to come back to the surface. "I get it now, thanks. So, with your Tardis providing an endless supply of energy and time travel, is it possible that they could go back and wipe out the other angels or mankind for that matter?"

"There's no telling what they could do," answered the Doctor. "This is all very theoretical, keep in mind, but they could destroy the entire universe. You!" he suddenly exclaimed, pointing a finger at Jessa. "You're not human. What are you doing here?"

"Just visiting," answered Jessa. "I'm Trill."

"Trill?" he said. "What's Trill?"

"We have spots, see?"

He gave her a withering look. "Yes, I can see you have spots," he said. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon to see that!"

"Well, that's basically it," she replied. "Anyway, the angels. If they're after your Tardis, why don't we go someplace else?"

"Brilliant! Except I don't know for sure that they're after it," said the Doctor.

"Well I don't imagine they would answer too many questions seeing as how they turn to stone when we look at them," said Terry. "Maybe set some sort of a trap?"

"A trap!" exclaimed the Doctor. "How do you trap an angel?"

"You're the time lord," said Jessa. "You tell us."

"That's right," said Terry. "You're the time lord. How do we trap an angel...Doctor?"

"All right, I have an idea!" said the Doctor, rubbing his hands together. "Here's the plan..."

~~~~~~~~~~

Nearly an hour later, the three of them, less their shoes and covered in some odd goo and Jessa with a shirt half ripped off, collapsed on the ground outside the Tardis, utterly exhausted. They had discovered the angels' plan- which was, in fact, to capture the Tardis- and through the genius of the doctor, dumped them into the time vortex.

"Why's it always the girl's shirt that gets ripped," complained Jessa, wiping goo from her face. "Like guys never rip their shirts or something?"

Terry sat on the ground, bare toes sticking up and covered in...whatever, and started checking his shirt. "Nah, we always seem to get through these things with our clothes still intact. Nothing ripped here. At least not the shirt. How about you, Doc? Get any rips in your shirt?"

"Of course not," said the Doctor, throwing some switches and getting the Tardis moving again. "What do you think I am, some sort of clumsy oaf? No offense," he added in Jessa's direction.

She gave him a withering glare. "None taken," she said in a tone that clearly said there was some taken.

"Good!" said the Doctor cheerfully. "Now... where are we off to next?"

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