Chapter 24 – Thirteen meets Twelve
The
TARDIS (Thirteenth, with
Daniel, Jia'hale, Sabir and Sigrun)
It had been days, possibly over a week, since Felicia had disappeared
into an anomaly in the TARDIS structure.
The Doctor and most of her companions had spent most of the time
searching the various places where the TARDIS had landed, looking for
clues as to where Felicia had ended up (except Jia'hale, something
was up with her, she had remained undressed since Felicia had
disappeared, whereas before she usually did wear something, even if
minimalistic). In any case, Felicia had been to none of those places
(although they had run into a Clara clone, it had been a while since
that had happened). Only twice did the TARDIS land where her previous
self had been.
It had been a some time since she had been there (less than a year,
but still months), however there had been no evidence that Felicia
had been. (One person at one place had described Clara, another at
the other had described Tamsin.)
The TARDIS changed course again. 'She may be honing in on her,' she
thought. He heard footsteps, and looked. Sabir entered the console
room. He looked well rested, as if he had had a long, restful sleep,
'He probably has,' the Doctor thought. Only Daniel and Sigrun had
occompanied her on the previous adventure.
“Are we close?” he asked.
“I have no idea. The TARDIS may be going about as random as
before,” the Doctor answered. She was sure that she wasn't but she
didn't want to rule that out.
“I hope not.” Sabir sat next to her, and looked at the readout.
“Heights of Oranuri?” he asked.
“A floating city above an Australian forest in the 22nd
Century.”
“Sounds interesting,” Sabir said.
“I do remember being there,” she said with a hopeful tone.
He leaned closer. “Good,” he said. He pressed against her, but
that didn't last more than a second before he flinched away. “Oops!”
he said.
She stood up. The TARDIS was about to land.
“We're landing?”
“Yes, Sab.”
“I'll get Daniel and Sigrun.”
Heights of Oranuri, New South Wales, Australia
18 September 2164
The TARDIS materialised near the edge of a platform that looked out
over the forest below. A few minutes later, the Doctor, Sabir, Daniel
and Sigrun emerged.
“How high is this place, Doctor?” Sigrun asked.
“Two kilometres above sea level. 1600 – 1700 meters above the
ground.”
“Looks like it,” she said as she glanced through the glass at the
forest below. She could see a normal city in the distance, with two
other complexes hovering above it.
“Right, we need to determine if my previous self is here or not.”
“Hopefully we'll run right into him,” Sabir said, “What did you
look like again?”
“Older male, with brownish hair, and a black suit.”
“There may be many people meeting that description, Doctor,”
Daniel said.
“Possibly, but Australia of the 22nd Century was more
Victorian in their tastes, mostly.”
Indeed as she looked, Sigrun could see many people dressed similarly
to late 19th Century Britain, though some outfits wouldn't
have been worn by people in that period. Not by any stretch of the
imagination. 'Like something Jia'hale would have worn,' she thought.
Sabir took out his phone. “Let's see if something happened recently
that you would have been invovled in,” he paused. “Unless we're
going to be involved alongside him, that is,” he added with a look
at the Doctor.
“I hope not!” the Doctor said. 'I don't particulary want to be,'
he thought.
Fifteen minutes later, Sabrina noticed something. A blue box. 'The
TARDIS! The previous Doctor's TARDIS.' It looked slightly different,
but it was still recognisable as the ship. “Doctor!”
“Yes, Sab!”
“The earlier TARDIS!”
The Doctor saw it instantly. “Right, let's go up to her and wait.”
The earlier TARDIS was in a park. The Doctor stopped in front of the
doors. She directed her companions to surround it. Sabir and Daniel
went to the sides and Sigrun to the back.
The Twelfth Doctor and his companions, Tamsin and Laranna, approached
the TARDIS after having driven the air pirates away from the Hights
of Oranui.
“Doctor,” Tamsin said. “The TARDIS is surrounded.”
“I see that,” the Doctor said. He walked closer and looked at the
woman in front of the doors. 'Of course!' He realised what was
happening. 'Too bad she's arrived too late,' he thought. “Tamsin, I
think this is Felicia's Doctor.”
“You're right,” the other Doctor said, as her other companions
came alongside her.
“You're right,” the Doctor said, in response to his other self.
“Unfortunately, it has been some time since Felicia was with us,”
Tamsin said.
“I suspected such, for I don't remember you as you now appear,”
the Doctor said.
“Huh?” Tamsin asked.
“What do you mean?” Sabrina asked.
“I don't remember Tamsin travelling with me, for some time prior to
Laranna joining me in the TARDIS.”
“Really?” the younger Doctor asked. “Are you saying that
Felicia has changed our personal history?”
“It appears so,” the older Doctor said.
“Wait a minute. It wasn't her,” Tamsin said.
The Doctor's looked at her. “What?”
“It would be best if we all went into the TARDIS,” Tamsin said.
“Even with the perception filters we'd be drawing too much
attention.”
The older Doctor entered the younger's TARDIS. The sight of the
console room filled her with nostalgia. Tamsin had sat next to the
console, and brushed her long hair away from it. (That was another
thing, according her memories, she still had much shorter hair when
she had stopped travelling.) “So, you're responsible for the change
in the personal history, Tam?”
“Tam?” Tamsin asked.
“It's an idiosyncracy. My name is Sabir, he calls me 'Sab.'”
“I shouldn't have known that,” the younger Doctor said, with an
eyeroll.
“Anyway, there were many times when I would have stopped travelling
in this amazing ship. But there was one thing that caused me to
reconsider. What had happened to Felicia? It seemed that we had
become friends. I couldn't stop travelling. And so I have, on and off
for six years, as far as I can reckon.”
“That answers that, I guess,” Sigrun said. She glanced at
Laranna, leaning on one of the upper railings. Her intricate cloak
concealed her figure and face.
“Yes, but were you travelling with me alone when she appeared?”
“No, Kiara and Nathan were as well. Although Nathan left before
Felicia did.”
“During our investigation of Vile's plot,” the older Doctor said.
“She must have changed those events.”
“If she changed those events, then she changed the events in the
universe with that Stargate network too,” the younger Doctor added.
“Great, and it was touch and go with Adria as it was!”
“Only Dr. Jackson and Lana escaped when we were captured by the
Priors,” Tamsin related. “Is that right?” she asked the older
Doctor.
The older Doctor paused. “That's right. Then we spent months trying
to follow the Stargate wormhole, before I figured out how to take the
TARDIS through the 'gate.”
“Was SG6 with you?” the younger Doctor asked.
“Yes.”
“I don't think that too much has changed.”
Tamsin then related the incident in which Felicia went further back.
“And so she went to the earlier Doctor.”
“Right, I'll start searching for him. I don't know where to start,”
the older Doctor said.
“I guess so. Jia'hale is going to be disappointed. I know I am,”
Sigrun said.
“You have a fifth companion?” the younger Doctor asked.
“All you need to know, for now, is her name,” the older Doctor
said.
“Sure,” the younger Doctor said, with a disappointed tone.
Tamsin started and stood up. “I'll be right back!” She dashed out
of the console room.
“I guess we'll wait, for her to get back?” Daniel asked.
“Of course,” the younger Doctor said.
While Tamsin was gone, Sigrun unsuccessfully tried to engage Laranna
in conversation But the enigmatic girl (or woman, no one, not even
the Doctor, was sure of her age) had remained as silent as ever. All
that had happened was that Laranna had thrown her cloak back to
reveal that her hair and face were hidden beneath a mask as intircate
as the cloak. That had surprised Sigrun to say the least.
'Interesting,' she thought.
Tamsin returned with a couple of large suitcases. “Sorry for the
delay. It took time to pack everything.”
“What?” the younger Doctor asked.
“I'm going to travel with your older self. Seeing that he's
actually looking for Felicia.”
“Go ahead!” the younger Doctor said with a resigned tone. “But
you could leave your stuff here. It will be in her TARDIS when you
get there.”
“I doubt it. If she doesn't remember, then my stuff won't be
there.”
“You're welcome to come, Tam, but it's some distance to my TARDIS.”
“No problem. This TARDIS can be moved closer.”
“I knew you were going to say that,” the younger Doctor said. He
set the TARDIS in motion.
While the TARDIS was moving, Tamsin went up to Laranna. “Bye,
Laranna. I'm sorry I never got to show you around Exeter, like I
promised, but we may meet again.” She then gave her a short hug.
Laranna for her part, seemed to be surprised (not that anyone could
see if she was) and returned the hug. She then waved goodbye to
Tamsin. Then they curtsied to each other.
The TARDIS landed. The younger Doctor switched on the Scanner..
“There it is, the other TARDIS.”
Tamsin turned to Sigrun. “Tamsin.” She held out her hand.
Sigrun took it. “Sigrun. The others are Sabir and Daniel.”
“Thanks,” Tamsin said as the shake concluded.
As soon as the other TARDIS had dematerialised, Tamsin entered the
older Doctor's ship. The console room was different. “Wow. It's
different,” she said.
“That it is, Tam.”
'That's going to take some time to get used to,' she thought. 'As
well as the fact that he's now a she.'
Sigrun picked up one of the suitcases. “Let me help you,” she
said.
“Thanks.”
“And we're on our way, looking for Eleven,” the Doctor said.
“Cool,” Sabir said.
Tamsin had unpacked everything, so she decided to explore the TARDIS,
to see how it had changed...
Jia'hale turned a corner and ran into someone she didn't know. “Who
are you?” she asked, with slight fear. She put herself into a
defensive stance.
The look of shock and slight disgust in the other person's face
disappeared. “Tamsin.” She averted her eyes. “Jia'hale, right?”
“Yes.”
“I travelled with the previous Doctor, where Felicia had gone.”
Hope welled within Jia'hale's bosom.
Tamsin established eye contact. “However, your Doctor was too late
by years,” she said with an apologetic tone.
Jia'hale collapsed to a sitting position. “Oh!” she said.
The Doctor has started looking for the previous Doctor.
“Good.”
“You want me to stay for a while?”
“Yes.”
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