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Had I ever finished off one of these damned things before? I forget. I may not have. I really don't recall. At any rate, here's the conclusion to the current IA. Hoping it isn't utter shite. (I did it late Monday evening in the space of about 4 hours, ending up practically dozing on the keyboard at the end, realizing I had a lame-o last few sentances. Ugh.) The bit before the chapter title is Kris Herzog's cliffhanger from the end of his chapter (in the best tradition of Doctor Who, natch).
***********************
As the doors closed, the last thing that they could hear was the Queen
shouting orders to the pilot to bring the ship closer to the planet's
surface.
Looking up at the scanner, Vivi looked concerned. "That was the real
Commander?"
"Yes, well... I imagine that she was abducted sometime between my last
visit and pre-invasion. Her drone was sent back, and she was subsumed by the
Queen."
Pulling something from his tunic, Greh smiled. "That was what I needed to
know... Thank you very much, Doctor." Vivi looked shocked.
"Greh?" she said with some concern.
"Take us back to the Command Centre... we have unfinished business." Greh
said matter of factly.
DOCTOR WHO: THE INTERNET ADVENTURES : #27
THE APAN WAY
Conclusion (Chapter 9)
by Bex 'Da Mod' Dowgiert
"Don't we always?"
"What?" Vivi was agitated; unable to stay still, she was fidgeting, her gaze
first on Greh, then the Doctor.
"Have unfinished business." The Doctor, by contrast was calm. Bored, even,
after his brief burst of activity. "I have to admit that at any given moment
the situation is on average more than eighty percent likely to consist of
repercussions, tag-ends, leftovers, loose ends, side effects...to whit,
unfinished business." A few more moments, then he turned and made his way to
the console, where he proceeded to activate the controls. "Oh, and, Greh,"
he added crisply over his shoulder, "*do* put that thing away. I'm sure that
Vivi and her friend are amenable to reason. As, it goes without saying, am
*I*. Always."
Behind him, two sets of eyes stared at his back as the hand Greh had holding
the handgun dropped slightly and Vivi paused in her nervous shuffle.
The Ex-SSS agent found himself repressing a momentary sensation of
sheepishness. But he was, after all, simply carrying out his own mission.
Nothing personal.
Having finished his console perambulations, the Doctor turned and paused to
regard Greh with something akin to distate. "Besides, *I* don't carry those
things. If you'd truly done your homework, you'd have known that."
Greh *blinked* at their host for a moment, then shrugged as he caught the
Doctor's meaning. "Posing as you kept me fed. And in practice."
Several yards away, Vivi suddenly hissed "*No*!" a hand flying to her
forehead as she staggered, then regained her balance. Before the three
travellers a dim haze formed into a figure, which solidified into the
simulacrum of a dark-haired male of medium height.
"Dammit!" Vivi growled, tears glinting in her eyes. Across from her, Greh
twitched, then straightened.
"I'm sorry, Viv. But they both know I'm here. No point in hiding anymore."
Ignoring Greh, the dim figure turned to address the Doctor. "I'm Jorrell. I
wanted to thank you for helping Vivian. And for not just exposing me when
you realized I was linked to her."
The Doctor smiled slightly. "Far be it for me to interfere in such a
beautiful... friendship. If you'd been in her mind against her will, then
perhaps...but such was not the case."
Jorrell nodded, smiling his own small smile in return. Then he turned to
regard Greh, his expression turning grim. "I have to make this quick," he
said. "I can't keep this form for long."
Greh stared back, impassive.
"I don't know who you're working for, and I don't much care at this point.
I'm not going back with you or anyone else. I'm also not going to reveal
where my body actually is. Oh, and by the way...I quit. So, you can take
your intelligence and shove it..."
Greh still said nothing, his gaze merely flicking from the ghostly figure
before him to Viv and back.
"Don't even *think* it," Jorrell growled, his own pale figure flickering as
if he were starting to discorporate. "Forget using her to get to me." He
paused, took a soundless, deep breath, and with a brief glance at Vivi,
added, "I'm going to cut the connection. They'll never find me after that."
The gasp was from Vivi; livid, she started forward, trembling, saying only
"Jorrell--!"
"I'm sorry. It's the only way."
Greh examined his fingernails, then said, "Fine; go ahead."
The other three stared at him. Jorrell hesitated, glanced over at Vivi, who
stood, her indecision mirroring his. Behind them both, the Doctor quietly
awaited the end of the stand-off.
Then both Vivi's and Jorrell's shoulders slumped, and the young man's shade
moved over to stand protectively near his host. "How long have you known?"
Vivi asked, her voice dull.
"That you had managed to slip away, find a host, and gone off gallivanting?
And that this agent had left his own body and teamed up with you in some
idiotic attempt to betray me and his mission? Time has no meaning in
INSpace; you ought to know that. Limited corporeals. I just knew." Greh's
face, given the appearance of more age than he truly carried by dint of his
purposely cultivated scruffiness, twisted in a moue of distate. "You fancy
yourselves in *love*. The great queen and her unexpected rescuer falling in
*love*. How puerile."
"Not as puerile as attacking an entire planet merely because we were on
it!!" Vivi snapped.
Greh shrugged. "It was a good practice; to see what level of finesse it took
to coordinate such a military operation."
Vivi snorted. "*What* finesse? The hivemind obeys whatever comes out of my -
right now, your - mandibles."
"So it does. And I think they will do an extremely efficient job of
over-running Verdant. Which, despite the coincidental fact that you fled
there, also happens to be the third-largest supplier of hydromel. Might as
well help ourseves while we're here! And after that, perhaps a visit to the
Kheleron homeworld will be in order..."
Vivi hissed, the closest she could come to the *buzzzzzzzzzzzz* of utter
rage that she made in her original body. "That is not our way, to pursue
such insanity - we'll be slaughtered! We are NOT a plaything for your
amusement, drones to be idly discarded at your whim!"
"Are *now*. The price you pay for venturing where you oughtn't to have."
Greh turned to look at the Doctor, his eyes glinting. "I always *did* love a
good game of Jenga." He tilted his head. "Why so quiet, TimeLord?"
The Doctor sniffed. "First, I knew it was you. Second, might I remind you
that you are in *my* TARDIS. And third, those don't even work in here." He
waved a dismissive hand at Greh's handgun.
Greh/Morrell idly glanced at the weapon. "Doesn't matter; was just for show
anyway." He tossed it over his shoulder and it clattered away into the
shadows as he looked back up at them and grinned.
The tableau held as the time rotor ground down and silence fell. They were
back on Verdant.
And still the tableau held.
Greh/Morrell made a mocking half-bow, waving a hand in the drection of the
TARDIS doors. "Well, my Queen? Will you emerge, to address your future
subjects?"
"No, I think I'll just stay right here. Jorrell, *don't* go anywhere!" she
added in a strange combination of command and supplication as his form
flickered.
"I...I can't help it, love," he murmured, a strange expression on his own
face, some combination of strain and anticipation. "I've never had to hold
this form this long. Besides...I have something... I need to do." His
expression turned especially grim as he vanished like a soap bubble.
Zenza/Vivian gave a little *shriek* of comingled despair and rage.
And before her, Greh got the oddest expression on his face, moments before
his eyes rolled up into his head and he dropped like the proverial discarded
puppet.
"JORRELL!!"
"No! *Don't* distract him in that way!" The Doctor darted forward, and
grabbing Vivian/Zenza by one hand, hurried them both over to the console.
Placing her hands on two palm plates as he did the same to identical ones
the next panel over, he said quickly, "Distact them *this* way--"
A *WRENCH*, and they were in.
*****
"NO! I will NOT abide it!" Queen Zenza was raging.
She was also trapped in a door-less chamber at the top of a stone tower.
Looking out the window afforded her a look at the countryside around as well
as a choice view of Morrell and Jorrell battling it out on the sward below.
Unfortunately, Jorrell was rather getting the worst of it at the moment. The
Doctor *winced* as the young man took a vicious *kick* in a rather sensitive
area and Morrell paused to guffaw at his retching opponant.
The chitenous, bristled beauty turned to the Doctor again, mandibles
clicking dangerously. "I escaped, found a way out of this Insanity! Why did
you bring me back here to watch my Love suffer - you are in league with the
Avatar after all!"
The Doctor ducked out of the way as she rushed at him. This would take some
fast footwork, and even faster explaining.
Backpedalling until he hit wall, he threw his hands up appeasingly before
him, even as the Queen *slammed* two of her barbed legs up against the stone
wall to either side of his head, blocking him in, then leaned forward to
*bzzzz* at him. "Any last words before you die, Doctor?"
"Actually... yes. Shouldn't you be saving this anger to use to fuel your
breaking free of Morrell's control?"
She paused. "Do you think I did not TRY?! He thwarted me then, I barely
escaped later to hide my inner-most self in Viv'yan; he thwarts me still!
And now you have taken me from my host!" She drew back a leg, ready to
spear.
And paused again, as the Doctor merely shook his head, no mockery, no anger,
no fear on his face. Concern, yes. But not crumpling in fear. Which
was...odd, given his predicament. And so she hesitated.
"He's distracted right now; I doubt he's paying more than the merest bit of
attention to you. He's relying on your inexperience in INSpace and your
failure to retake control of your body earlier to convince you that you can
do nothing against him."
The Doctor gestured with his right hand in the little area in which he had
left to move . "And it worked. Morrell isn't doing to you what you see
around you right now, Zenza... *You* are."
The Apan Queen gaped, mandibles falling open slackly. "*I'm* doing this?"
The Doctor nodded. "Now...you can continue to believe in what you see
now... or you can arrange something different. INSpace *is* the realm of
utter thought."
Zenza considered for several long moments...before abruptly pulling away.
The Doctor slumped slightly before straightening up again, pausing for a
quick wipe to his forehead with a handkerchief.
She strode over to the window. A *grunt* of pain floated up. Sadly, the
voice was Jorrell's. Staring out, the Queen demanded, "Continue."
The Doctor made his way to her side. "You were caught by surprise when you
discovered this mental plane. Trapped. In a unique situation of imagination
you'd never encountered before. Demoralized."
He paused, and she glanced down at him as he glanced up.
"So...you imagined yourself into this tower.
"Now... imagine yourself out."
Zenza looked back out the window.
And a moment later...everything changed.
*****
"You know...this is all rather surreal."
The Doctor glanced over at Greh - or, rather, his INSpace representation - as near his Verdant spaceport persona as no matter - as the man meandered over to where the Time Lord was standing, somewhat severe in his dark suit.
"I was wondering where you'd gotten to. Well done on that distraction, by
the way." Greh smiled slightly but said nothing.
"As for all this....I regard it as a classic case of...wishful thinking."
A few meters away from them, Zenza and Jorrell were enfolding each other in
a hug. Which, given that the Queen manifested here in INSpace as her
original self, and Jorrell as *his* self...made for an strange combination
of chitenous limbs and soft human - if well-muscled - arms.
Ah, Love.
Morrell was gone - it hadn't taken him long to disappear once the tide of
battle had turned in the lovers' favor. Which it had the moment Zenza had
dissolved her prison and charged into battle. The manipulative Avatar was
gone somewhere - but Zenza forever wise to his tricks. Hopefully.
The Apan Queen turned her head to glance in the Doctor's and Greh's
direction. "*Thank* you," was all she said.
The Doctor smiled slightly, reached out to grab a surprised Greh's hand,
*blinked* and with a *WRENCH*--
--found himself back before his console in the TARDIS.
Even as he straightened up with a sigh, the young woman next to him crumpled
to the floor. A groan issued from Greh where he lay nearby.
The Doctor carried Vivian over to a nearby settee, laid her carefully down,
and looked critically at her, before helping the former SSS agent to his
feet. He followed Greh's gaze as it paused on Vivian's still form.
"The Queen's gone," he said in answer to Greh's unspoken question as they
both stood looking. "Back to her original body. Just as Morrell is no longer
accessing you."
"How can you tell?"
The Doctor pointed to a monitor, which displayed several Apan Warstingers
moving away from their orbit above Verdant. "They're pulling out - The Queen
is back in control."
Greh nodded, hesitating. "Doctor, I--"
"Oh, look," the Doctor said suddenly. "She's waking up."
Vivian Jean's eyelids moved, fluttered, and opened. She stared straight up
at the ceiling high above her.
"I," she murmured, "have got the *biggest* headache..." She sat slowly up,
putting a hand to her head. "Err..." She paused, staring at the men before
her.
"Erm...where am I?"
The two men glanced at each other, at her, then each other again. But even
as they opened their mouths to answer, she smirked.
"Don't bother; I remember."
The Doctor's eyebrows rose a little. **Do* you?"
Vivian nodded. "Enough. I know...that I in a way played match-maker for a
Queen and her lover. It was...interesting."
The Doctor smiled. "I'm sure it was. But now I suppose I must be getting you
two back..." He reached for the door lever, then glanced back at his two
temporary guests--
Who'd disappeared. He heard the sound of excited voices from down the side
corridor leading away from the console room. They were *already* exloring.
He sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. It would take him *hours* to
find them now and kick them out. *If* the TARDIS cooperated.
Which she seldom did these days.
The Doctor stood, considering....then abruptly folded himsef discontentedly
into a chair.
He'd wait here. They'd find their way back to the Console Room eventually.
Everybody did.
Sooner or later.
~*FIN*~
***********************
As the doors closed, the last thing that they could hear was the Queen
shouting orders to the pilot to bring the ship closer to the planet's
surface.
Looking up at the scanner, Vivi looked concerned. "That was the real
Commander?"
"Yes, well... I imagine that she was abducted sometime between my last
visit and pre-invasion. Her drone was sent back, and she was subsumed by the
Queen."
Pulling something from his tunic, Greh smiled. "That was what I needed to
know... Thank you very much, Doctor." Vivi looked shocked.
"Greh?" she said with some concern.
"Take us back to the Command Centre... we have unfinished business." Greh
said matter of factly.
DOCTOR WHO: THE INTERNET ADVENTURES : #27
THE APAN WAY
Conclusion (Chapter 9)
by Bex 'Da Mod' Dowgiert
"Don't we always?"
"What?" Vivi was agitated; unable to stay still, she was fidgeting, her gaze
first on Greh, then the Doctor.
"Have unfinished business." The Doctor, by contrast was calm. Bored, even,
after his brief burst of activity. "I have to admit that at any given moment
the situation is on average more than eighty percent likely to consist of
repercussions, tag-ends, leftovers, loose ends, side effects...to whit,
unfinished business." A few more moments, then he turned and made his way to
the console, where he proceeded to activate the controls. "Oh, and, Greh,"
he added crisply over his shoulder, "*do* put that thing away. I'm sure that
Vivi and her friend are amenable to reason. As, it goes without saying, am
*I*. Always."
Behind him, two sets of eyes stared at his back as the hand Greh had holding
the handgun dropped slightly and Vivi paused in her nervous shuffle.
The Ex-SSS agent found himself repressing a momentary sensation of
sheepishness. But he was, after all, simply carrying out his own mission.
Nothing personal.
Having finished his console perambulations, the Doctor turned and paused to
regard Greh with something akin to distate. "Besides, *I* don't carry those
things. If you'd truly done your homework, you'd have known that."
Greh *blinked* at their host for a moment, then shrugged as he caught the
Doctor's meaning. "Posing as you kept me fed. And in practice."
Several yards away, Vivi suddenly hissed "*No*!" a hand flying to her
forehead as she staggered, then regained her balance. Before the three
travellers a dim haze formed into a figure, which solidified into the
simulacrum of a dark-haired male of medium height.
"Dammit!" Vivi growled, tears glinting in her eyes. Across from her, Greh
twitched, then straightened.
"I'm sorry, Viv. But they both know I'm here. No point in hiding anymore."
Ignoring Greh, the dim figure turned to address the Doctor. "I'm Jorrell. I
wanted to thank you for helping Vivian. And for not just exposing me when
you realized I was linked to her."
The Doctor smiled slightly. "Far be it for me to interfere in such a
beautiful... friendship. If you'd been in her mind against her will, then
perhaps...but such was not the case."
Jorrell nodded, smiling his own small smile in return. Then he turned to
regard Greh, his expression turning grim. "I have to make this quick," he
said. "I can't keep this form for long."
Greh stared back, impassive.
"I don't know who you're working for, and I don't much care at this point.
I'm not going back with you or anyone else. I'm also not going to reveal
where my body actually is. Oh, and by the way...I quit. So, you can take
your intelligence and shove it..."
Greh still said nothing, his gaze merely flicking from the ghostly figure
before him to Viv and back.
"Don't even *think* it," Jorrell growled, his own pale figure flickering as
if he were starting to discorporate. "Forget using her to get to me." He
paused, took a soundless, deep breath, and with a brief glance at Vivi,
added, "I'm going to cut the connection. They'll never find me after that."
The gasp was from Vivi; livid, she started forward, trembling, saying only
"Jorrell--!"
"I'm sorry. It's the only way."
Greh examined his fingernails, then said, "Fine; go ahead."
The other three stared at him. Jorrell hesitated, glanced over at Vivi, who
stood, her indecision mirroring his. Behind them both, the Doctor quietly
awaited the end of the stand-off.
Then both Vivi's and Jorrell's shoulders slumped, and the young man's shade
moved over to stand protectively near his host. "How long have you known?"
Vivi asked, her voice dull.
"That you had managed to slip away, find a host, and gone off gallivanting?
And that this agent had left his own body and teamed up with you in some
idiotic attempt to betray me and his mission? Time has no meaning in
INSpace; you ought to know that. Limited corporeals. I just knew." Greh's
face, given the appearance of more age than he truly carried by dint of his
purposely cultivated scruffiness, twisted in a moue of distate. "You fancy
yourselves in *love*. The great queen and her unexpected rescuer falling in
*love*. How puerile."
"Not as puerile as attacking an entire planet merely because we were on
it!!" Vivi snapped.
Greh shrugged. "It was a good practice; to see what level of finesse it took
to coordinate such a military operation."
Vivi snorted. "*What* finesse? The hivemind obeys whatever comes out of my -
right now, your - mandibles."
"So it does. And I think they will do an extremely efficient job of
over-running Verdant. Which, despite the coincidental fact that you fled
there, also happens to be the third-largest supplier of hydromel. Might as
well help ourseves while we're here! And after that, perhaps a visit to the
Kheleron homeworld will be in order..."
Vivi hissed, the closest she could come to the *buzzzzzzzzzzzz* of utter
rage that she made in her original body. "That is not our way, to pursue
such insanity - we'll be slaughtered! We are NOT a plaything for your
amusement, drones to be idly discarded at your whim!"
"Are *now*. The price you pay for venturing where you oughtn't to have."
Greh turned to look at the Doctor, his eyes glinting. "I always *did* love a
good game of Jenga." He tilted his head. "Why so quiet, TimeLord?"
The Doctor sniffed. "First, I knew it was you. Second, might I remind you
that you are in *my* TARDIS. And third, those don't even work in here." He
waved a dismissive hand at Greh's handgun.
Greh/Morrell idly glanced at the weapon. "Doesn't matter; was just for show
anyway." He tossed it over his shoulder and it clattered away into the
shadows as he looked back up at them and grinned.
The tableau held as the time rotor ground down and silence fell. They were
back on Verdant.
And still the tableau held.
Greh/Morrell made a mocking half-bow, waving a hand in the drection of the
TARDIS doors. "Well, my Queen? Will you emerge, to address your future
subjects?"
"No, I think I'll just stay right here. Jorrell, *don't* go anywhere!" she
added in a strange combination of command and supplication as his form
flickered.
"I...I can't help it, love," he murmured, a strange expression on his own
face, some combination of strain and anticipation. "I've never had to hold
this form this long. Besides...I have something... I need to do." His
expression turned especially grim as he vanished like a soap bubble.
Zenza/Vivian gave a little *shriek* of comingled despair and rage.
And before her, Greh got the oddest expression on his face, moments before
his eyes rolled up into his head and he dropped like the proverial discarded
puppet.
"JORRELL!!"
"No! *Don't* distract him in that way!" The Doctor darted forward, and
grabbing Vivian/Zenza by one hand, hurried them both over to the console.
Placing her hands on two palm plates as he did the same to identical ones
the next panel over, he said quickly, "Distact them *this* way--"
A *WRENCH*, and they were in.
*****
"NO! I will NOT abide it!" Queen Zenza was raging.
She was also trapped in a door-less chamber at the top of a stone tower.
Looking out the window afforded her a look at the countryside around as well
as a choice view of Morrell and Jorrell battling it out on the sward below.
Unfortunately, Jorrell was rather getting the worst of it at the moment. The
Doctor *winced* as the young man took a vicious *kick* in a rather sensitive
area and Morrell paused to guffaw at his retching opponant.
The chitenous, bristled beauty turned to the Doctor again, mandibles
clicking dangerously. "I escaped, found a way out of this Insanity! Why did
you bring me back here to watch my Love suffer - you are in league with the
Avatar after all!"
The Doctor ducked out of the way as she rushed at him. This would take some
fast footwork, and even faster explaining.
Backpedalling until he hit wall, he threw his hands up appeasingly before
him, even as the Queen *slammed* two of her barbed legs up against the stone
wall to either side of his head, blocking him in, then leaned forward to
*bzzzz* at him. "Any last words before you die, Doctor?"
"Actually... yes. Shouldn't you be saving this anger to use to fuel your
breaking free of Morrell's control?"
She paused. "Do you think I did not TRY?! He thwarted me then, I barely
escaped later to hide my inner-most self in Viv'yan; he thwarts me still!
And now you have taken me from my host!" She drew back a leg, ready to
spear.
And paused again, as the Doctor merely shook his head, no mockery, no anger,
no fear on his face. Concern, yes. But not crumpling in fear. Which
was...odd, given his predicament. And so she hesitated.
"He's distracted right now; I doubt he's paying more than the merest bit of
attention to you. He's relying on your inexperience in INSpace and your
failure to retake control of your body earlier to convince you that you can
do nothing against him."
The Doctor gestured with his right hand in the little area in which he had
left to move . "And it worked. Morrell isn't doing to you what you see
around you right now, Zenza... *You* are."
The Apan Queen gaped, mandibles falling open slackly. "*I'm* doing this?"
The Doctor nodded. "Now...you can continue to believe in what you see
now... or you can arrange something different. INSpace *is* the realm of
utter thought."
Zenza considered for several long moments...before abruptly pulling away.
The Doctor slumped slightly before straightening up again, pausing for a
quick wipe to his forehead with a handkerchief.
She strode over to the window. A *grunt* of pain floated up. Sadly, the
voice was Jorrell's. Staring out, the Queen demanded, "Continue."
The Doctor made his way to her side. "You were caught by surprise when you
discovered this mental plane. Trapped. In a unique situation of imagination
you'd never encountered before. Demoralized."
He paused, and she glanced down at him as he glanced up.
"So...you imagined yourself into this tower.
"Now... imagine yourself out."
Zenza looked back out the window.
And a moment later...everything changed.
*****
"You know...this is all rather surreal."
The Doctor glanced over at Greh - or, rather, his INSpace representation - as near his Verdant spaceport persona as no matter - as the man meandered over to where the Time Lord was standing, somewhat severe in his dark suit.
"I was wondering where you'd gotten to. Well done on that distraction, by
the way." Greh smiled slightly but said nothing.
"As for all this....I regard it as a classic case of...wishful thinking."
A few meters away from them, Zenza and Jorrell were enfolding each other in
a hug. Which, given that the Queen manifested here in INSpace as her
original self, and Jorrell as *his* self...made for an strange combination
of chitenous limbs and soft human - if well-muscled - arms.
Ah, Love.
Morrell was gone - it hadn't taken him long to disappear once the tide of
battle had turned in the lovers' favor. Which it had the moment Zenza had
dissolved her prison and charged into battle. The manipulative Avatar was
gone somewhere - but Zenza forever wise to his tricks. Hopefully.
The Apan Queen turned her head to glance in the Doctor's and Greh's
direction. "*Thank* you," was all she said.
The Doctor smiled slightly, reached out to grab a surprised Greh's hand,
*blinked* and with a *WRENCH*--
--found himself back before his console in the TARDIS.
Even as he straightened up with a sigh, the young woman next to him crumpled
to the floor. A groan issued from Greh where he lay nearby.
The Doctor carried Vivian over to a nearby settee, laid her carefully down,
and looked critically at her, before helping the former SSS agent to his
feet. He followed Greh's gaze as it paused on Vivian's still form.
"The Queen's gone," he said in answer to Greh's unspoken question as they
both stood looking. "Back to her original body. Just as Morrell is no longer
accessing you."
"How can you tell?"
The Doctor pointed to a monitor, which displayed several Apan Warstingers
moving away from their orbit above Verdant. "They're pulling out - The Queen
is back in control."
Greh nodded, hesitating. "Doctor, I--"
"Oh, look," the Doctor said suddenly. "She's waking up."
Vivian Jean's eyelids moved, fluttered, and opened. She stared straight up
at the ceiling high above her.
"I," she murmured, "have got the *biggest* headache..." She sat slowly up,
putting a hand to her head. "Err..." She paused, staring at the men before
her.
"Erm...where am I?"
The two men glanced at each other, at her, then each other again. But even
as they opened their mouths to answer, she smirked.
"Don't bother; I remember."
The Doctor's eyebrows rose a little. **Do* you?"
Vivian nodded. "Enough. I know...that I in a way played match-maker for a
Queen and her lover. It was...interesting."
The Doctor smiled. "I'm sure it was. But now I suppose I must be getting you
two back..." He reached for the door lever, then glanced back at his two
temporary guests--
Who'd disappeared. He heard the sound of excited voices from down the side
corridor leading away from the console room. They were *already* exloring.
He sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. It would take him *hours* to
find them now and kick them out. *If* the TARDIS cooperated.
Which she seldom did these days.
The Doctor stood, considering....then abruptly folded himsef discontentedly
into a chair.
He'd wait here. They'd find their way back to the Console Room eventually.
Everybody did.
Sooner or later.
~*FIN*~