A few minutes' walk from the console room was the room that the Doctor had given Kroton to call his own. Kroton didn't have any clothes, and had only a few items he didn't carry around with him. Except for his books. Kroton had accumulated an incredible number of books during his travels.
So he sat in his room, sitting because it helped him feel human, and read his books. He tried to get out of his mind what had happened on the Cyber Transport Ship. When he wasn't reading, or doing dangerous things with the Doctor and Ace, he would go to one of the TARDIS' labs or libraries, those being far greater than his own, and research, trying to figure out what had separated him from other Cybermen. Trying to figure out why he had feelings.
Why he was almost human.
The Cyber Leader seemed on the verge of being what Kroton himself was. He had identified Kroton as a brother. Emotionless Cybermen should not even be able to conceive what brotherhood is, but the Leader could, even if he had retained his loyalty to the Cyber race. Kroton returned to his original theory over and over: his attack on the Leader was somehow similar to the accident that had happened to Kroton, the one he couldn't remember. Knowing that he had created this new life for a fellow Cyberman and then killing it was taking its toll on Kroton.
He could hear footsteps approach his room, and stop. It was Ace; he could tell without looking by how heavily she walked. She knocked on his doorframe, which was purely a courtesy. Kroton didn't have a door; he had no use for one.
"Come in."
Ace walked in. "Hey. Whatcha reading?"
"The Book of Job."
"Hmm," said Ace, trying to remember what the Book of Job was. "The Professor says we've landed."
"Are we going to look around?"
"He says we should. We all should. He was very firm about that."
Kroton stood and replaced his book onto one of the shelves. "Let's go."
***
The Doctor looked up as they entered the console room. "Ah, there you are Kroton. Have a look at this." He turned a dial, and the scanner screen opened. It was what appeared to be a large food court, with restaurants on the borders and small stalls placed haphazardly in the centre space. Corridors ran between restaurants occasionally, going back to more shops, stalls, and stores.
"Oh no," Kroton said. "It's the mall."
"Don't be so surprised," said the Doctor. "We knew we'd come back. It was just a matter of when."
"So let's go," said Ace.
"Not so fast," the Timelord cautioned. "We need to remember a few things."
"Like what? Don't mention the Cyber Ship? Easy."
"What about the Blinovitch Limitation Effect?"
"The what?"
"The BLE says that you and Kroton cannot touch your other selves, or there will be a massive temporal overload that translates into a massive explosion."
"Okay, so I'll wear gloves."
"There's more than that," the Doctor said. "Remember this."
***
After they had left Kowalas, the TARDIS had landed on the Lunar Mall, orbiting the planet Earth. They had encountered a Chronite there named Helikos. What his ultimate purpose there was, they never did find out completely, only partially, but they did stop him from carrying out his immediate plan of destroying the air barriers around the Mall and killing everyone within.
All of this would have been very ordinary, save one thing. They were helped in this task by what seemed to be their futures. They arrived after the past did, and left afterwards as well. The future Doctor assured the past Doctor that he could handle what was happening, and for some reason, the past Doctor just backed down and agreed. Ace had always wondered what had happened, but had managed to curb that curiosity after realizing that she would be what happened later and could find out then.
***
"You, by nature, will try to anticipate what will happen because you lived this before. You have to try to prevent yourself from doing this."
"Professor, I know better than that. I can figure it out."
The Doctor grinned. "Famous last words, eh? Just watch out you don't get killed, or worse – kill yourself."
"How can I do that? I know that I'll live. I saw myself leave safely."
"Yes, but remember who's involved here. Two Timelords, or at least one Timelord twice, and a Chronite. All of whom exist outside of your perception of time, and can therefore influence its change. What happened here can change very easily if we aren't careful."
"Sounds more like your problem."
They left the TARDIS. The Doctor looked around, and looked at Kroton. "Kroton?"
"Yes, Doctor?"
"Be a good chap and put that gun back in the TARDIS. Your past doesn't have one, and we wouldn't want to let him know that he will be in a position to pick up a Cyber Gun."
"Alright." The Cyberman disappeared into the blue doors.
"You see," said the Doctor, "how easy it would be to destroy your past's view of the future?"
"I see," said Ace. "You don't have to rub it in."
The Doctor smiled. "See the time?"
Ace looked at a clock on the far wall. "Just now noon." A look of concern crossed her face. "Right about when the explosion is over in the docks…"
"Don't anticipate," said the Doctor. He handed her a box of earplugs.
There was a loud explosion from one of the corridors. The thundering sound rolled around the room. Most customers dropped to the floor, covering their ears. The Doctor and Ace looked on passively, then removed their earplugs.
"Let's go see Helikos," said the Doctor. "Kroton can catch us up. He knows what's happening."
***
"Gordon Bennent!" shouted Ace. "Did you see that one, Professor?"
"I did," said the Doctor. "Kroton, can you run in there and see if there's anyone still in there?"
"Will do, Doctor," said the Cyberman. He sprinted into the flames, leaving Ace and the Doctor on the peripheral.
"Why would someone want to bomb a docking bay?" asked Ace.
"Think about it," said the Doctor.
"Personal grudge?"
"Too risky."
"Wanted insurance cash on his ship?"
"Not quite."
"Maybe," said a voice from behind them, "to prevent someone from leaving?"
The Doctor and Ace turned around. They were looking at the Doctor and Ace.
"Umm," said the Doctor. "What are you doing here?"
"Just happened to land and realized that I've been here before."
"Professor," Ace whispered into the Doctor's ear, "are two of you supposed to be here like this?"
"Not usually," said the Doctor that she didn't whisper too. "And the only reason I can answer that is I remember her," he waved at his Ace, "asking me the same thing when I was him. And just to simplify matters here, why don't we identify us as future Doctor and future Ace and call you two past Doctor and past Ace?"
"What about me?" Kroton walked out of the fire carrying two men over his shoulders and one in his arms, with another two leaning on him for support.
"Same thing, past Kroton," said future Doctor. "We'd better take a look at these guys."
"And I better go get the other two still in the flames," said past Kroton. He departed back into the inferno.
"Why is who is trying to stop who else from leaving to where?" asked past Doctor.
"What?" asked both Aces. Future Ace was feeling rather embarrassed; she had been anticipating that question.
"There is," said future Doctor, "a shipment of something owned by a Sir Roger Watson leaving for Earth sometime, but it can't now, because the Chronite Helikos wants whatever the shipment is for himself."
"Ah," said past Doctor. "What is the shipment leaving when?"
"We might just pass over that for the moment," said future Doctor.
"What might we pass over?" asked Kroton, who must have been future Kroton, as he didn't come from the flaming ruins, which both Aces and one Doctor were starting to feel uncomfortable standing so near to, evident by the perspiration on the two – or one – humans and not evident on the Timelord. "The shipment Sir Watson had of time engines?"
There was an awkward silence.
"Kroton," said past Doctor, "I don't believe we were supposed to know that."
"Don't worry," said future Doctor. "I anticipated you learning like that from the first time."
***
Helikos stood in the dock control room, slightly unhappy. He hadn't intended the explosion to be so big, but it seemed to have taken out not only Watson's ship, but also some of Watson's ship's cargo.
"Ryan," he snapped.
Ryan materialized – literally – at Helikos' elbow. "Sir?"
"See if you can start moving the T Chronium from the most critical points. We can delay the transport of the rest until after we kill everyone, but the critical mass on some of those engines is becoming dangerous.
"Sir." Ryan vanished – not so literally, as he walked out the door – and Helikos stood in the dock control room, slightly unhappy.
***
"So now what?" asked past Doctor.
"If you don't mind me coordinating our actions for the moment," said future Doctor, "I can try to get us into positions to prevent something horrible happening. Past Ace and future Kroton, go to the first aid sector and contact the medical personnel. Try to get Sir Watson to the TARDIS."
"Which one?" asked past Ace.
The future Doctor considered. "Past TARDIS. Past Doctor, take future Ace and work out a method for transporting all of these engines to a reasonable safe place to destroy them. I'll wait for past Kroton and we'll start to deal with the engine problem directly. Everyone understand? Good."
Ace walked off with Kroton and heard her future muttering something that sounded like, "And now for something completely different…"
***
Ryan had two options before him. He could take the engines to the COTTAV or take the COTTAV to the engines. He decided on the first, as Helikos never liked people playing with his COTTAV. He proceeded directly into the fire, after making the strange metallic bracelet he wore repel enough heat to make it safe.
He got to the main concentration of T Chronium. A majority of them, like Helikos said, were safe for a good period of time, but there were seven that need to be moved. He approached the first one and began to remove the anti-matter stabilization device, which was extremely bulky and made movement with it one impractical. Something caught his eye for a moment, though. A Cyberman was quickly leaving the scene, carrying what looked like an injured man.
The Cyberman was leaving the scene, so there was nothing to worry about. Ryan continued to remove the stabilization, and opened his mind to stabilize the T Chronium. His mind couldn't hold it for some reason, though. This shouldn't be happening. There wasn't enough T Chronium here to be too much to hold.
Complete confidence in self is often a good feeling to die with. Ryan did.
***
They had walked for five minutes until past Doctor had found the storeroom – store warehouse was more like it, though – and now they were examining the cranes and transportation devices.
"Hmm," said past Doctor. "Which of these vehicles do you think will be the most efficient, Ace?"
"That one, I think," said future Ace, pointing. She bit her lip nervously. It was actually the flatbed truck she remembered seeing her future driving at one point.
The Doctor was right. This was impossible to deal with. She shook her head vigorously to clear it. She would just deal with things as they came from now on, and wouldn't even think about what she remembered from the future.
She noticed the Doctor looking at her, concerned. "Problem, Ace?"
She smiled. "Nope, Prof. Just thinking."
"Good, good." They walked over to Ace's truck, the Doctor getting in the driver's side. "Ready to go?"
"Yeah!"
The Doctor turned the key. Nothing happened. He got out, and opened the hood.
"I think," said the Doctor, not unkindly, "that this truck is missing an engine. Care to pick another one?"
Ace felt a sinking feeling come through her stomach.
***
"Maybe you should go in," said future Kroton. "I'm still not the genocidal species of the month around here."
Past Ace nodded. "Alright. Where you going off to, then?"
"I'll go off to the TARDIS, make sure that that's not being disturbed."
Ace nodded. "Be careful, then."
Kroton left, and Ace went into the first-aid department. She was assaulted by a nurse.
***
Kroton retrieved from his memory the location of the past TARDIS and wondered why the future Doctor didn't want to go to the future TARDIS. The future was much closer than the past. Kroton then spent a few seconds reflected over the philosophical nature of that last remark.
It was about a ten minute walk, but Kroton ran it in one and a quarter. He finally arrived at the TARDIS. It was blocked, by several beams of metal. Kroton recycled a portion of his unused air supply; it had the same emotional effect of sighing, he'd found. He'd have to move all of that himself, which wasn't really a problem, but seemed tedious compared to the larger issues looming in his head, mostly the ones about Cybermen…
A man approached from behind him. "So you're the one."
Kroton turned. The man's face was hidden by shadows, so Kroton began to do an infrared scan and overlaid it on the man's face. "I'm the one what?"
The face was a quarter done and not that familiar. "This blue box; is it yours?"
"It belongs to a friend of mine. I was about to move these beams."
"I see." He moved closer, but changed his angle. Kroton had to revise his image. "Need help?"
Before Kroton could respond, the beams of metal flew up into the air and slammed themselves onto Kroton. Several things occurred to Kroton at that moment. It was odd that there was large pieces of metal in front of the TARDIS; it was far from the explosion and any debris. Also, Kroton completed his scan and could clearly see the contours of the man's face. Of Helikos' face.
"Stupid for Time Lords to be intervening. Their TARDISes stand out so clearly to my kind." He walked out of Kroton's line of sight. "It is unusual for them to be using Cybermen though. I suppose I'll have to question you when I have time."
A large piece of metal descended onto his head. It was until the tenth blow that he began to blackout, and it wasn't until just before he blacked out that he realized the Helikos wasn't telekinetic.
The metal was T Chronium…
***
"Let's move in as close as possible, Kroton," said future Doctor. "Or, at least, as close as possible for me."
"Sounds good, Doctor."
The two moved into the flames. "It appears that the majority of the engines are over there," the Doctor gestured. "Let's see if they can be moved out of the most intense fire."
"Rolling?"
"Might have to, but that could be just as damaging to the stabilization equipment." The Doctor approached one of the engines. "Open that cover there, and let's see what kind of status it thinks it has."
Kroton open the hot metal case, and caught the Doctor before he fell into the flames. For some reason the Cyberman could not fathom, the Doctor had fainted.
***
respect our truth – no, you do not – respect – we are the instruments of your death – there are too many for you to see and not enough for us to rule – but we shall rule you – alive – you never thought – now respect
there is more – can it help – we need to be respected – nature has changed – are we . . .
***
"Maybe," future Ace said, "we can move an engine from one of the other trucks and still use this truck?" She bit her lip hopefully.
The past Doctor shook his head. "A bit too impractical. We'll just have to use another truck." He pointed to a transport that looked more like a tank, but still had enough storage capacity in the back. "How about that one?"
Ace nodded reluctantly.
***
Ace fell uncomfortably. "What the hell was that about?"
The nurse that assaulted her extended a hand. "I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know why I did that."
Ace grabbed her hand and pulled herself up. "I'm looking far a Sir Watson. Is he here?"
The nurse nodded. "Yes – but how did you know that? He came in secretly, didn't want anyone to know he was hurt."
"I had inside information, you might say," said Ace, and then immediately ducked as the nurse took another swing at her. Ace aimed a low kick at the nurse's stomach, and she fell to the floor. "Would you stop doing that?" Ace yelled.
The nurse groaned. "Probably not."
***
The future Doctor was in a cell. It wasn't a real cell. He realized that as soon as he opened his eyes. It was the same cell he thought he was in on Kowalas, down to every detail that hadn't existed before. He wondered why his mind had conceived this place again. Something might be attacking him mentally . . .
"Something is attacking you mentally," said Sabet.
"Hello, Sabet," said the Doctor. "Have a jelly baby. I thought you were dead."
"I'm not Sabet," said not-Sabet, who did look a great deal like Sabet. "I am how your mind is interpreting what is attacking you, just as this cell is an interpretation of your state of being attacked."
"Why these two things?"
"Because I am a representation of the T Chronium in the time engines, and both Sabet and this cell were in situations you were recently in involving T Chronium. It's simple mental association."
"How can the T Chronium be attacking me?"
Not-Sabet looked at the Doctor with appreciation. "You are lasting a long time. The other didn't" He went to sit down next to the Doctor. "When have you ever seen T Chronium?"
"Time engines . . ." the Doctor ventured.
"And?"
"I've yet to see a Chronite that didn't have some T Chronium nearby."
"And how many time engines have you ever seen together at once?"
"Well, you only need one. Why are you telling me this?"
A smile crossed the lips of not-Sabet. "You'll see. But onto the explanation of who we are . . ."
***
The best that future Kroton could tell was that it was a solid block of T Chronium, except for a space for his head to stick out. Had the Doctor not told him to remove the weaponry his wrist, he would have begun to blast his way out, or at least try to.
He looked out of the space that had been left him. Helikos was out there, manipulating controls of what seem to be a navigation panel. So he was probably on some sort of ship. Good to know . . .
"Where am I, Helikos?" he called out.
Helikos jerked up in surprise. "How did you know who I am?"
"I know your whole plan," said Kroton. "How you want to launch an invasion from Gallifrey, using ships powered by those engines. But it won't work. We'll stop you."
Helikos drew himself up impressively and crossed to the part of the wall where Kroton supposed the block of T Chronium was set into. "You will explain fully."
***
Past Kroton was worried. He pulled the Doctor out of the fire they were standing in. And he waited.
***
"Now this way must be the shortest way to the docking bay," said the past Doctor. He glanced at Ace. "Out of curiosity, what is the other you doing at this point?"
"I don't remember seeing myself again until the end but once. Should you know anyway?"
The Doctor spun the wheel of the tank and ploughed through a wall. "Probably not." He glanced at Ace again and saw her gripping the arms of her seat. "What's wrong?"
"Why did you go through a wall?"
"I did say that this was the shortest way. I guess your future never mentioned going through a wall."
My future never could have in the truck. Ace struggled to remember when she had seen herself in the truck. "Umm, Professor?"
"Yes?"
"That truck I picked before?"
"Yes?"
"I do remember seeing myself in it."
The tank screeched to a halt as the Doctor hit the brakes. "Impossible."
"I know, but –"
"No," said the Doctor. He pointed out into the mall. "Is that you?"
Ace followed his finger. Pushing her way through the crowds was Ace. Or someone who looked just like her.
"No," Ace whispered. "I never came here before . . ."
***
Past Ace looked at the floor. It was covered with medical personnel, all unconscious. Ace had to admire their determination. As each one attacked her – and fell – they all tried to interrogate her. Friendlily. Each one politely asked her questions before taking a swing. In the end, Ace just knocked them all out without bothering to answer questions, since they never answered hers. Only a couple had run away. Ace didn't even get a good look at the girl, but she didn't really care.
The back room was locked, but she forced the door with a crowbar she had in her satchel. Inside was a distinguished looking gentleman, in a tweed suit, carrying a cane and looking quite astonished.
He was also, Ace noticed, dead.
***
"One of us is useless to think," said not-Sabet. "We are cognizant enough of what we are being told to respond and work efficiently. Two of us is useless as well. Three of us, and we are childlike. Unless a Chronite is around. Then their influence is too strong, and three is as useless as one. At four, we are more mature. At five, we are nearly equal to a Chronite in power. Six of us can beat a Chronite in a battle of wills. Or a Time Lord."
"That," said the Doctor, "is the most extraordinary example of collective intelligence I've never heard. What happens with even more of you?"
"We do not know. We did not even know what we told you until a few hours ago. There are only six of us collected at this point, but we can feel others around. There is one nearby that we might add soon, when our concentration is not with you."
"What about the T Chronium that is mined from Gallifrey? There should be more than enough there to –"
"It is unrefined. That is all that we can figure out. But there is still the reason we need you."
The Doctor nodded. "I was wondering when we were coming to that."
***
Rachel moved quickly. Of all people, her duplicate had come in and attacked the first aid station. All of the Chronites posing as the medical staff were not using any T Chronium, Helikos had told them, and it had been their downfall. Rachel knew better, though. She had a supply hidden. She would get it, and a truck, and try to get anyone who was still alive out of the first aid station.
The T Chronium was in the supply rooms. Rachel fashion a piece of it into a bracelet and then turned to finding a truck, preferable one that had a single key so no one else could steal it. The first truck she tried, a flatbed with lots of room for passengers if they held on, didn't work. She looked under the hood. There was no engine.
Rachel smiled.
***
Actually, not dead, dead. Not even kind of dead. Stiff as a board, yes. Cold as ice, undeniably. Responsive as a dead person, certainly. But not dead.
"He's resting," Ace murmured, and looked over the rest of the room. He was still alive; he was breathing, and had a pulse. Paralyzed? Ill? Ace wished someone from the future had told her about this eventuality.
The rest of the room contained a number of vials, beakers, and shot glasses filled with liquids. There was broken glass near Sir Watson's head, which had liquid on it that looked very much like the liquid that was coating his lips.
Ace began to think about what the liquid was and how she might figure that out.
***
The block was getting tighter. Kroton could hardly stand it at this point. But he couldn't give in to Helikos, for no other reason than he knew that his future didn't when he was his past . . .
Kroton was suddenly very glad that whatever he had been before a Cyberman didn't involve time; he would be confused far too often.
"How do you know my plans?" Helikos was standing right in front of Kroton, nearly screaming. "There is no possible way a Cyberman could learn this!"
"I'm not the only one," said Kroton. "I have friends who know them as well. They'll even stop you when you try to destroy the air barriers around the mall."
Helikos stopped screaming, and a smile crossed his lips. "What a very good idea."
Kroton suddenly realized what a stupid thing he had just done.
***
The past Doctor gestured quickly. "Get after her. I want to know why there's a double of you walking around when there's already two of you."
So would I, thought Ace. She would have thought that someone from her future would have mentioned this. A thought struck her.
"What will you be doing?"
"I still need to get to the other Doctor before those time engines get too unstable. I sense he needs my help as well."
Ace nodded and jumped out of the tank. "Be careful."
The Doctor smiled. "You know I will be – literally." The tank ploughed through another wall and was gone.
"But I don't know," whispered Ace. She shook her head to clear it, and turned to follow whoever looked a lot like her. She was barely in sight, but Ace had made a bit of a practice following people. She had gained half of the distance between them when she passed the customer service desk, now abandoned. A thought from her past crossed her mind, and she approached the desk. The microphone was simple. It had an on button and an off button.
***
"The personality seems completely random," said not-Sabet. "We can not control it. Right now, we are benevolent, and as a result would like to stay that way. Before the last engine was added, though, we were hostile. We killed a Chronite named Ryan because we could."
"So right now it is in your nature to not hurt anyone?" the Doctor asked.
"Yes, but you are fortunate. Our sixth engine that made us compassionate was added just as you were being attacked. This is why it took us a few minutes to decide upon how to deal with you."
"But how can I help you?"
"Right now we desire not to hurt anyone that is not hostile to us. But it is our nature, be that good or evil, to expand, and we cannot deny that nature. Expanding would create another personality randomly, though, one that our current self may not be approving of. Therefore, the only solution we can see to prevent pain of others is to have our intelligence completely destroyed." Not-Sabet stood, and raised his hands about him. Appearing around him in the cell were other figures. Shadowy forms without distinguishable features, probably so because so much concentration was being spent on the image of Sabet. "You must separate the engines, and quickly, before any personalities may be created. You must lower us to the state we were before we were gathered."
"I have one question about this," said the Doctor, also standing.
The other forms disappeared, and the Doctor was left alone with not-Sabet. "Yes?"
"You obviously have some sort of emotions, else you would be trying to save lives."
"True."
"And you have intelligence. You told me this, and I have seen this."
"And your point?"
"My good friend Kroton has been searching for artificial life of any type to help explain his own existence. He's a Cyberman, you see. He could learn much from you, an authentic and true artificial life form."
"It saddens us greatly that we cannot help your friend. It is in our nature to, but general prevention of pain that we may cause takes priority."
"What about genocide?"
"What about it?"
"What separating you be considered genocide? There is only you, and if I destroy this intelligence, there won't be you."
"You say we are artificial life. What is artificial can be made, and unmade, and then remade. Do not worry about this line of thought."
The Doctor sat again, deep in thought. Finally, he raised his head and nodded. "Alright, I'll do it."
Not-Sabet smiled. "We will release you now."
The cell began to fade slowly as a thought hit the Doctor. A big thought. "Wait!"
"Yes?" said not-Sabet, still fading slowly.
"You said that the image of Sabet and the cell from Kowalas were used because they were associated with T Chronium."
"We did," said not-Sabet, definitely getting transparent. His voice was also getting fainter.
"When was there T Chronium on Kowalas?" the Doctor asked, almost shouting.
The image of Sabet spoke, but the Doctor woke up before he could make anything of it.
***
The past Doctor entered the far side of the docking bay and saw Kroton and the future Doctor outside the flames. The future Doctor was on the ground for some reason, but the past Doctor didn't worry much about it. He was about to drive the tank over to them, when he heard a sound. It was a sound he never like to hear, but he reacted immediately. He stopped the tank.
"Kroton," he said in a somewhat loud voice. "I know you can hear me; your audio receivers can pick this up. The air barriers of the mall are being released. This is the transport vehicle you'll need. Come and get it. I'll deal with the barriers."
The Doctor took off to where he hope the controlling system for the mall were. He glanced over his should and saw Kroton running toward the tank. At least he knew his message was being received.
***
"Hey, McShane," said a voice. Past Ace looked up. The voice was coming from all around her. "Look at the shelf of bottles to your left." Ace did, but wondered about the voice. It . . . it sounded like hers. "See the one with the milky green liquid?" Ace did, and also spotted the intercom speaker on the wall. She moved out of the room, and closer to the mall. Ace's message to herself seemed like it was being broadcast to the whole mall . . .
"McShane, get back it that room!" Ace jumped, and ran back into the room with Sir Watson. "Get that liquid, and pour it into – Gordon Bennett, this sounds silly. Pour it into his ear. That should bring him out of the paralysis."
Ace did as she was told, all the while wondering what the rest of the mall was making of that announcement. The liquid began to smoke, and Sir Watson began to stir. "Ace!" she whispered.
"No kidding," said the intercom.
***
The Doctor opened his eyes. He was not in the fires, or what was left of them as they seem to have died down at this point. At first he though past Kroton was no where to be seen, until he saw a massive tank being driven towards him. He smiled, remembering the message that his past had given Kroton. He stood as the tank pulled up.
"Hello, Kroton," he said cheerfully.
"Doctor! You're alright!"
"Never better," the Doctor grinned. "But we have serious work to do. We have to move all of these engines at least –" He surveyed the fire damaged floor and did a rapid burst of mental calculations. " – twenty-five meters apart. We have to keep them that way, and we have to move all thirty in probably the next ten minutes."
Kroton nodded. "Sounds like a blast."
The Doctor glanced at him cynically. "You have no idea."
***
Ace had lost ground on her double by making the announcement to her past. She hoped that didn't fall under anticipating, but she was pretty sure it did.
She lost track of her quarry around the vehicle depot she and the Doctor had gone to. The was no apparent sign of her. Ace looked around helplessly. She needed a miracle.
If miracles come in the form of nearly being run over by a flatbed truck that didn't have an engine, Ace got a miracle.
She darted out of the way quickly enough to see her double – except for the naft clothes; Ace could never see herself wearing a lab outfit – in the driver's seat. Ace made a great leap, and wound up in the bed of the truck. She moved, quickly but carefully, up to the cabin, and broke the back window.
"Hey," Ace smiled. "Can I come in?"
***
Rachel couldn't believe her eyes. The one who had attacked the first aid station had tracked her down! It was impossible, but it also seemed impossible that there was one who looked so like her in the mall. Rachel turned back to driving for a moment to make sure she didn't crash, and then turned her attention to her assailant. She pointed her bracelet at the girl, manipulating the T Chronium to draw the air from around the girl's head.
At first, it seemed to work. The girl realized that she couldn't breathe. She tried to shout in panic, but without air, she couldn't do that either. But, oddly, the girl kept her wits, and simply started moving, seemingly not caring about oxygen. The girl aimed a kick at Rachel's chest that took her completely by surprise. She flew out of the truck, losing control of the bracelet and the T Chronium in the truck acting as an engine. Rachel hit a large window, flying through the glass. She could feel shards of it in her back, and began to black out. She looked after the truck with fading sight.
The girl in the truck could breathe again, but the truck, Rachel noted with morbid commiseration, was out of control.
***
Ace could breathe again, but she didn't bother to think about it. She launched herself into the driver's seat, but found nothing really worked but the steering wheel. The truck was still moving very quickly on momentum, and Ace realized she could still crash. She struggled to keep from hitting anything major, but still managed to take out a few minor displays.
Finally, she stayed in the centre of the aisle pointed toward the food court. She seemed out of danger, and casually glanced out the window.
The truck was passing the first aid station. Her past, standing next to a much alive Sir Watson, was looking at her in the truck in astonishment.
Future Ace smiled. "Ohh . . ."
***
The past Doctor rushed into the dock control room, the closest place he could think of that might control the air barriers. But when he got there, he found all of the controls useless. They had all been redirected into cables that led into a closet . . .
The Doctor felt with his mind. It wasn't a closet. Some sort of multi-dimensional array instead. It wasn't a TARDIS. It wasn't complex enough. It wasn't as simple as a SIDRAT, though. It did feel a bit like a COTTAV, but that meant it wasn't just any Chronite. Like Time Lords and TARDISes, Chronites were very selective about who got a COTTAV. The Doctor entered the COTTAV.
Kroton was inside.
He was encased in a large block of T Chronium, with only enough exposed to reveal his head. At the control stood a man with seven fingers on his hand. A Chronite. He looked up, surprised.
"Who are you?" His eyes widened in shock when he realized what the Doctor was. "A Time Lord. You keep strange but impressive company, Cyberman."
"It's a good life," said Kroton from his block.
"Why are you destroying the air barriers?" asked the Doctor. "It'll just kill whatever people you have out there."
"And everyone else, hopefully," said the Chronite. "I hope Sir Roger is dead at this point; I told my staff to kill him when they could. He was learning too much. But if every dies out there, I can collect my time engines whenever I'd like."
"I will have to stop you," said the Doctor.
"How?"
"We are both Gallifreyans. I propose a mind battle."
The Chronite smiled. "Certainly, Time Lord. Would you like to sit?" He motioned toward two seats facing each other against the wall of the room.
The Doctor nodded, and slowly the two of them moved and seat at the same time.
"Be careful, Doctor," Kroton called.
"Don't worry."
"We begin," said the Chronite.
"I, the Doctor, initiate this battle of wills, the victor be the stronger."
"I, Helikos, respond with attacks, the victor be the stronger."
***
Kroton watched Helikos carefully, certain that there was some trick. From what he understood of mind battles, one did not quickly agree to them. Helikos didn't seem below cheating.
As he thought this, Kroton saw Helikos stroking the bracelet of T Chronium he wore. The bracelet began to glow . . .
"Doctor!" Kroton yelled, and Helikos collapsed. The Doctor stood and turned, smiling cheerfully.
"Hello, Kroton, let's get you out of there."
The block of T Chronium seemed to fall away from his body. Kroton rubbed his joints, making sure nothing had be disturbed by the T Chronium. "What happened?"
The Doctor opened his hand. Hidden in it was the sonic screwdriver. "I thought it was very obvious that Helikos would try to increase his willpower by using the T Chronium to magnify his mind. I'm sure that he didn't foresee that metal being tampered with by sonic waves. He'll be out cold for a few hours at least." He laughed. "I guess I cheated better."
***
The Doctor and Kroton left the COTTAV and made their way back down to the docking bay. "Doctor?"
"Yes, Kroton?"
"I know I'm not supposed to influence your future or anything, but . . ."
"I trust you not to do anything. And by the laws of Time, you couldn't have changed me too much, or else your Doctor wouldn't be so the same."
Kroton didn't want to think about that one, so he said, "Just learn the Morse Code for the word ‘help'."
***
"And so I looked under the hood," future Ace was saying to the future Doctor and past Kroton as the past Doctor and future Korton walked up, "and what was in there but a big lump of T Chronium. That's what my look-alike was using to run the truck. Brilliant, eh?"
The past Doctor surveyed the docking bay. "You have these engines spread out quite a bit."
"That's true," said the future Doctor. "But I must make a request of you."
"Yes?"
"Let's head toward your TARDIS. As soon as past Ace shows up with Sir Watson, I think you should leave. We should be able to deal with the rest."
The past Doctor regarded his future. Was there some kind of hidden communication? Or instinctive trust in one's self? Ace and Krotons could tell, but the past Doctor nodded. "Sounds alright."
***
"Good bye, all," said the future Doctor, smiling.
"You have no idea how much sense it makes at this end," said future Kroton.
"Thanks for the help," past Ace said to her future.
"Yeah, no prob," said future Ace. "I guess I'll never see you again, even if you are me. You know . . ."
"This is why," the past Doctor said, "humans aren't meant to time travel."
"Says who?" said a grumpy – and understandably confused – Sir Watson.
The past Doctor herded his companions into the past TARDIS, and it dematerialized.
"Impressive," said Sir Watson, "but what kind of acceleration can it get?"
"Now Sir Watson," said the Doctor, turning to him, "we must talk about your time engines."
"What of them?"
"They are very unstable, and proximity to other engines with not help the problem. I suggest you contact the Time Lords and ask them to deal with the problem. They –" The Doctor held up a hand to block Sir Watson's protests. "– will not make you lose a profit. They can be very understandable at times. Now I suggest that you help bring this mall to some sort of order – and make sure no on tampers with those engines until the Time Lords get here!"
Sir Watson mumbled under his breath, but turned and walked toward the food court, dragging his feet.
"Now," said the Doctor, "let's go deal with Helikos."
***
"This is were the ship was, if I remember," said the Doctor, opening the door to the dock control room.
The COTTAV was gone.
"Well, now what?" asked Kroton.
"Easy," said the Doctor. "I really want to know some detail of what invasions force he had planned. I picked up some surface thought concerning during my mind battle with him -"
"So that's how you told us," said Ace.
"– but I want some more details. So we'll follow him."
"In the TARDIS?" asked Ace.
"Can we do that?" asked Kroton.
"Oh, come on you two," said the Doctor, turning on his heel and jamming a floppy brown hat on his head of curls. "The TARDIS can do anything she'd like."
