Delphine and The Doctor II

Chapter 4

Meanwhile, Clara who has been running since forever from the shadowy, growling biped hides behind a door as she watches the figure keep running. She looks around and finds herself in an observatory with a lovely big Victorian telescope. She was about to explore the room when another growl sends her running off in the other direction. She passed the open air swimming pool, karaoke bar and ends up in a library. "Now that's just showing off." She said as she looks at the library which was filled with shelves of books and bottles. A full six stories of them. Clara, curiosity piqued, looks at the books and bottles and notices that letters are starting to appear on her burnt palm. She looked around, finding a large bound book on its own special stand - The History of the Time War. Slowly walking to it, she opens it in the middle and gasps at one of the words. "So that's who," She said as a clang and a growl echo through the library. Quickly, she dodged behind another rack of books and bottles to hide from the thing. She looks up as she hears a few voices above her, right where the bottles containing the Encyclopedia Gallifreyica are. Clara presses back against the rack, trying to hear the conversation and unknowingly tips one of the bottles over. She gasped as words tumble out over her head. Slightly annoyed and surprised, she wafts them away, letters disappearing into thin air. It growls again, this time on the other side of the room and so she runs to the entrance and into the hallway, continuing her mission to find The Doctor or Delphine.

Bram prises off a section of the console, grunting as he pulls it off and drops it in a pile of other junk. "I made up the name Tardis from the initials Time And Relative Dimension In Space." Bram gasps as he turns around, getting even more scared when he saw no one there. "The Tardis is dimensionally transcendental." Another voice said. "What does that mean?" A voice replied. "That's trans-dimensional engineering. A key Time Lord discovery." The voice answered as Bram continued to work, clearly spooked out. After a few minutes of silence, another voice begins to speak. "The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door. Believe me, they've tried." Bram gasped as another voice spoke right beside him. "We are in space!" Bram finally finishing, grabs as much junk as he can and moves it near the door. "It can move anywhere in time and space?" A voice boomed out, scaring Bram. He sighed, he had to finish working, or else Gregor would have his head. He sighed as other indistinct phrases were heard from everywhere.

Gregor walks around, following the beeps on his scanner as it talks to him. "Everything." It says suddenly. "What? Report." Gregor asked, confused. "Everything, behind that door." The computer repeated. Gregor looked up. "Everything?" he waits for the computer's answer. "Sensor detects everything you could possibly want." Wasting no time, he opened the door labeled ARS Room. He is greeted by a ton of cables dangling down, with large glowing bulbs on the end, each the size of his head. "Everything." The computer repeated as Gregor swung a bulb. "I don't understand. Give me a price tag." Gregor said, not knowing what he was looking at. "Incalculable." The computer responded. "What?" Gregor asked, exploring the room. "More valuable than the total sum of any currency. Living metal. Bespoke engineering. Whatever machine you require, this system will build it." Gregor smiles as he raises the focused laser cutter to take some of the machines. Just then he felt a push. He flies forward as The Doctor and Tricky run in. "Delphine?" The Doctor asked as Gregor turned around to see a familiar face. "You?" He began as the girl kicked the laser away from him.

"No! No, no, stop! Please, don't. Don't touch it. Please." The girl said as she faded. "Tardis Telepathic Interface," The Doctor said, explaining. "It's the Tardis herself, telling you to stop." He watched as Gregor sat up and dusted himself off. "She won't let you touch it. I can feel a Tardis tantrum coming on." The Doctor said, thinking about who Delphine was in Gregor's family. Godfather's friend? "What the hell is this place?" Gregor asks, waking The Doctor up, out of his thoughts. "Architectural Reconfiguration System. It reconstructs particles according to your needs." He said, blurting out the textbook definition. He wasn't paying attention, rather more attention to the fact that it had been a while since he had established contact with Delphine. "A machine that makes machines?" Bram asked as Gregor began to cut off the bulbs. "Yes, basically. What are you doing? No, no, don't. Don't!" The Doctor yelled as Gregor grabbed one of the Gallifreyan engraved light bulbs. "If you walk out of here with that circuit, the Tardis will try to stop you. Now listen to me. Look, the clock is ticking. We must find Clara and Delphine"

Gregor, not believing The Doctor, pulls off the light bulb as the whole ship roars. He turned around, ready to walk out the door when he noticed that it wasn't there anymore. "What the? Where's the door gone?" He asked The Doctor as he wrung his hands. "Ever seen a spaceship get ugly?" The Doctor asked, visibly worried. This had never happened before and he didn't know how to react or help the Tardis. "This isn't happening," Gregor said, smacking the wall. "She won't relinquish it. Her basic genetic material." The Doctor said as he again soothingly ran his hand on the wall of the room. "Torch it. I said, torch it." Gregor said to Tricky. But Tricky shook his head. "Can't you feel it, Gregor? The ship, the ship's in torment, like it's a living thing. You can't hurt it." Gregor smirks and pulls out a flare, putting the light bulb in his backpack. As he turns around, the door returns. "What's the matter, Tardis? Scared to fight me?" He asked as he walked out, leaving The Doctor and Tricky to follow him out. "It's the same. It's just the same." Tricky said as he walked from one hallway, into another and coming back to where he started.

"It's diverting us, spinning a maze around us. We will never reach Clara or Delphine in time. Gregor, not wanting to listen to The Doctor began walking away. "Hey! Hey!" The Doctor and Tricky yell out, following him. They follow Gregor through a hall and turn right, returning to the same position they were in when they had started. "It's just the same, again." The Doctor laughed. "No point in building walls. You'll just know how to smash them down. It's found other ways of controlling you. Smart bunch, Time Lords. No dress sense, dreadful hats, but smart. If you want to get out of here, let that circuit go. It is creating a labyrinth." The Doctor explained. Gregor, now slightly worried, decided to check on Bram. "Bram? Bram, can you hear me?" He asked, smacking the walkie-talkie a few times to make it work. "Bram, the ship is alive. Get out of there. Bram, don't touch anything." He said, not knowing the amount of danger Bram really was in.