Earth Who by Douglas Neman

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Chapter 8

Devon applied the injector to Uly, and watched as he groggily came awake.

"How are you feeling?" she asked gently. He rubbed his face with one hand. "Tired," he said. "Sore."

"The middle of the night," Danziger smiled. "Being tired right now is what you're supposed to be feeling."

"Then why did you wake me up to ask me that?" Uly yawned, and nestled his head against his mother's shoulder, too tired at the moment to even wonder where he was. She kissed his forehead.

A light started flashing on the TARDIS console. The Doctor noticed it, and examined a readout, his brows furrowed.

"What's going on?" Alonzo asked.
"I set the TARDIS to scan for any communications between the planet and a satellite, and it's picked something up. It might mean the ZED is still calling the shuttle down to pick her up.

Alonzo asked, "Well why would she do that if-" He stopped, as a voice came over the speaker. The Doctor had tapped into the signal.

"-lieve you have looked better," the voice said. "It's a lasercast signal," the Doctor said. "Lets see who this is, shall we?"

All this activity woke Ulysses up some more, and he started to take in his surroundings.

The Doctor flicked another switch. A holovid of the conversation they were picking up shimmered into existence before them, in between the tea cart and the sofa.

It took all of them a moment to recognize who the woman on the floor was.

"Oh, dear God!" Devon whispered.

Julia didn't answer. Can't let him goad me, she thought. Can't let him trick me into giving anything away he wants to know. She closed her eyes, ignoring him. She spit out some blood.

Reilly nodded, just once.
The ZED kicked her in the stomach. Julia convulsed, and almost retched.

"I want you to look at me when I'm talking to you," Relly said. "The ZED will find a new and interesting way to make you do that every time you turn away."

"She does it enough times, I'll die," Julia whispered. "No, you won't -- not yet, anyway," he answered. "The ZED will make sure of that. She has just as much knowledge about anatomy as you. Although for a completely different purpose."

"I'm gonna kill him," Alonzo whispered. There was a fire raging inside him. "I swear to God I'm gonna kill that bastard!"

"What do you want?" Julia asked. It was so difficult to talk.

"Only to see you one last time before you die," he said. "And to remind you of why this is happening to you. Do you remember what I told you, Heller? Do you remember one of the last things I told you before you betrayed me?"

"Doctor, he's going to kill her!" Devon said. "Can you track her signal and land where she is?"

"Yes, but I don't know what good that would do. Charging headlong against a ZED, even armed, would be madness, and the TARDIS takes a few seconds to materialize. You would have no surprise."

Reilly leaned in close. "I told you that you would die running, didn't I Heller?"

"Doctor, we don't have a choice," Alonzo said. "Why can't we home in on Reilly?" Danziger asked. "If I had a gun to his head, I guarantee you he wouldn't order Julia to be killed."

"And you think there won't be any ZEDs on the station where he is?" the Doctor asked. "That would be foolhardy. However -- there might be another way."

"In case you haven't figured it out," Reilly went on, "this ZED unit isn't hunting penal colonists any more. I pulled it from its other duties for the sole purpose of capturing Ulysses Adair and hunting you down. I took a guess as to where you were, based on your path to New Pacifica, and instructed the ZED to wait for you to come out of the mountains -- and you're no longer in a blackout zone. She was under specific orders to force you to run before shooting you. You see, unlike you, the ZEDs can follow orders."

"And I think for myself," Juia whispered. "One up for me."

The Doctor said, "I'm going to break in on their transmission, bluff him into keeping her alive. It may be the only way to save her without committing suicide ourselves."

"What are you going to tell him?" Devon looked worried. "I don't know," the Doctor replied. "I'll find out when I start talking."

Reilly turned to the ZED. "I assume your mission has been successful?"

"No," she answered.
Reilly's mask of cool composure fell. "They succeeded in recapturing the boy. The only hostage I have is this woman."

The Doctor stopped, watching Reilly. "I don't think we need to worry," he said. "If I know my paranoid megalomaniacs -- and I do -- I think I know what's coming next."

"Then why are we standing here having this conversation?" Reilly fumed. "Heller is secondary. I want that boy!"

"He is beyond my reach," the ZED said simply. "The colonists recaptured him using a technology I've never seen before. Unless I receive further orders from you, I have no choice but to revert to standby."

Reilly thought for a moment, his hand on his chin. The Doctor observed him. He was one cool customer, all right. He didn't waste time with recriminations or denials -- he simply accepted the facts as they were, no matter how unpleasant, and searched for a solution.

This was a very dangerous man, indeed. "I've studied Eden Project, and read their files," he finally said. "I have every reason to believe they'll come back for Heller. For now, keep her alive, and interrogate her. Deal with them when they come after you. In the meantime, upload the information you have. I want to analyze whatever technology you saw."

"Yes, sir." The ZED broke communication. The hologram images faded away.

"Just as I thought," the Doctor said. "I figured a calculating man like himself wouldn't waste a hostage if his primary mission wasn't achieved. For now, Julia will remain alive."

"So how are we going to get her out of there?" Danziger asked.

"We'll have to go back and get the others," Alonzo said. "Just mount an all-out attack."

"We can't do that!" Devon said. "Anyone hit with a worm bullet would die. You saw Julia -- even if we killed the ZED, she's in no condition to operate on anyone."

"Actually, I could operate on someone," the Doctor said. "There is a reason I'm called, ‘the Doctor,' you know. However -- there is another way."

He picked up the satchel he had carefully brought with him from the Edenites' camp. He opened it up. Inside was a koba.

"It's the same one who poisoned Cameron," he smiled. "I figured it wouldn't wander too far, and I was right. I went out and called to it, and it came."

Danziger asked, "How can a koba help-" then his face cleared.

"The ZEDs are still human beings!" Devon said. "They can be poisoned by a koba just as easily as one of us can!"

"Precisely," the Doctor said. "The only problem is that Julia was shot about 55 minutes ago, and there's no time to train this animal to throw thorns at the people we want it to."

"So you're thinking of collecting a few of its nails to use as weapons?" Danziger asked. "Our sedaderms can do that much -- and faster."

"No," the Doctor replied. "I'm thinking that if the koba feels protective towards me, as obviously it does, then it will strike at anyone attacking me."

"That means you would have to place yourself in danger," Devon said. "And hope that this animal really does like you, and that it won't miss!"

"We got no choice, Dev," Danziger said. "The Doctor's plan is the best one I've heard, and Julia doesn't have much time."

"Time," Devon said, then looked up at the Doctor sharply. "Time! Of course, this is a time machine! We could go-"

The Doctor put a hand up. "Don't even think it, Devon. We can't."

"We can't what? Go back and rescue Julia before she gets shot? Just materialize in front of her and pick her up! We know exactly where she'll be from the signal we received!"

"And if we pick her up, the ZED never captures her, and the signal never gets sent in the first place, and you have a paradox."

Devon frantically searched for an argument against that. She couldn't find one.

"Devon, I'm a Time Lord. I'm well-versed in temporal physics, and I've been traversing the time lines for almost a thousand years. Believe me -- I know what I'm talking about."

All this time, Ulysses had been circling the console, looking at the blinking lights. He reached for a switch. The Doctor's hand gently reached down and caught him by the wrist, pulling his hand away. "Not that one," he muttered.

"Is this really a time machine?" he asked innocently. "Yes, it is," the Doctor said.
"Cool." He laid his head on the edge of the console and absently stroked one of the wooden time dials. It showed today's date on the New Earth calendar. "Mom, can we go back and get Robbie and bring him here?"

Devon's face filled with sympathy, and she glanced at the Doctor. "Robbie was Uly's best friend back on the stations," she explained. "He...died. Two days before we left."

The Doctor looked down at Uly with pity, and gently knelt beside him. "No, Ulysses, I'm sorry. We can't do that. Time travel can't be used in that way."

"Why not?"
The Doctor sighed. Images of Tegan and Nyssa rose before him, berating him, calling him heartless because he wouldn't go back to save Adric. They hadn't understood, either. He wasn't sure Tegan had ever quite forgiven him.

"Well, because it's an event that has already happened. And once an event has crystallized in the web of time, it cannot be changed."

Uly just stood silently, not comprehending. "Let me put it this way -- why stop with Robbie? Why don't I just go ahead and go back in time to prevent the crash, and save O'Neill? Or even bring all the Syndrome children straight here from the stations 22 years ago? Or save the Titanic from sinking, or prevent World War III?"

"I don't know," Ulysses shrugged. "Why not?" "Because I can't," the Doctor said. "The only ones who can do such things are beings so abominably powerful, and with so much psychic energy, like the Osirans, that they almost live outside of time itself, and would not be interested in helping people like you and me. If I tried, the TARDIS wouldn't take me there, and I'd just end up somewhere else. Or I would go there, but events would happen anyway despite my efforts to stop it, like being in a VR movie.

"We can't just keep going back in time to negate every horrible event, every flunked test, every bad first impression, every failed attempt, every death. Even if we could, other things would happen in their place -- things which would be equally good, bad, or controversial. We have to cherish the people we love, the times we have, and the things we enjoy while they're still with us, because nothing lasts forever. This is true even for Time Lords."

"I mean, think of what you're asking -- millions of people traversing the time lines, writing and rewriting the past until there is no future any more. And not just for good intentions -- for evil ones, as well. There are a couple of evil Time Lords I've run into many times in my life. Not even they can alter established history, although they've tried several times. We're all forced to work within the constraints of what we have available. You can't rewrite history, Barbara -- not one line."

"Barbara?" Danziger asked quietly. The others traded confused looks.

The Doctor tilted his head to one side, wondering. Now why did he think of Barbara Wright after all these centuries?

"I still don't understand," Uly said. "You will, Uly, someday," Devon said suddenly. "Believe me -- you will."

The Doctor turned to look at her, and Devon felt those thousand-year-old eyes delving deep into her soul, as if nothing was hidden from them. He could tell she knew more than she let on. But whatever he saw there, he didn't say.

"Doctor," Alonzo said. "Julia."
"Yes," the Doctor stood up. He showed the map on the ceiling again, and selected a point just above the ZED's mountainside encampment. "I'm going in alone. I want the rest of you to stay here."

The central column ground to a halt. The Doctor gently picked up the koba and walked outside, having to step down a little as he did. Looking back at the TARDIS, he saw why.

The TARDIS was leaning against a tree. It was the only way it could land on the mountainside without tumbling down it. The Doctor smiled, shaking his head. His ship never ceased to amaze him with something new.

He started walking. The others stood in the doorway, watching him go.

After a few minutes, the Doctor set the koba on the ground. The animal looked up at him, confused. The Doctor took a few more steps, then turned and smiled. "You can't possibly expect me to carry you everywhere, now can you?" He walked on, gingerly stepping his way down the steep mountainside. He took out his sonic screwdriver and held it over his head, activating it slightly so there could be no doubt the ZED would detect it.

The koba happily followed him, holding its little arm over its head.

The others watched until the Doctor was out of sight. Alonzo said, "I just can't wait here."

Danziger nodded, and motioned them forward. Devon turned and pointed a finger at Uly, who had grabbed his staff and had started to go with them. "Whatever happens, do not leave the TARDIS!" She turned to follow the others.

"You're supposed to stay put, too." Devon whipped her head back around, staring at her precocious child, who stared right back at her. Finally, she said, "Just...stay here."

Uly didn't argue, but stood in the door and watched them go.

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