From: pih@doc.ic.ac.uk (Paul Ian Harman) Newsgroups: alt.ql.creative Subject: Doctor, Samuel Beckett (part two) Date: 4 Oct 1994 20:14:35 +0100 Organization: Dept. of Computing, Imperial College, University of London, UK. Message-Id: <36s9ir$1j6@oak63.doc.ic.ac.uk> After assuring you that I wouldn't get it done, I have managed another chapter. I hope you enjoy it, please keep up the feedback 'cos it's very encouraging! ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ Doctor, Samuel Beckett ---------------------- or A Leap in Time -------------- by Paul Harman ============== Part Two ~~~~~~~~ Al walked into the Waiting Room with a certain amount of trepidation. With no idea of where Sam had gone, they could not tell who (or what) would be in there. Ziggy had never had any problems in finding Sam before, except when he and Sam had somehow changed places after the shock treatment leap. Perhaps that had happened again... a freak accident had left Sam out of the normal time range. Gooshie was working on it, but their best source of information, as usual, would be from whoever had changed places with Sam. The door slid upwards, and Al entered the Waiting Room. He didn't know what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn't what he saw. The tall, well built man seemed very uncomfortable in the white body suit, but was otherwise very sure of himself. The huge head of frizzy curly hair gave him the appearance of being friendly, but at the moment he seemed far from friendly. "Just what in the universe do you think you're doing?" asked the Man. "Please, calm down," said Al, "you're bound to be a little confused at first." "Don't patronise me, it doesn't suit you," the Man replied. "I want to know just where and when I am." "Where, I can't tell you. Why do you ask about the when?" "Believe me, when you've been time travelling as long as I have you begin to recognise the signs." "Who are you?" asked Al, at a bit of a loss before this formidable man. "I am the Doctor, and I'm also very angry. I demand to see whoever is in charge here." "I'm afraid that..." "Oh, don't give me any of that nonsense. Is that the door? Good." The Doctor walked boldly to the exit from the Waiting Room, and stepped outside. This is a very strange leap indeed, Sam thought to himself. He had been exploring the maze of corridors outside the lab control room, and refused to admit he had become thoroughly lost. "Al, where the _hell_ are you?" he shouted into the distance. He was sitting in what appeared to be a conservatory, with pillars covered in ivy and some stone benches. The bell was extremely loud here - that was what had led him to this place. Between tolls, he heard a whirring noise. Looking round he saw a small robotic dog, about the size of a Yorkshire Terrier, roll into... wherever he was. "Greetings, Master," said the robot. "Master?" Sam thought aloud. "Doctor...?" K9 repeated. Doctor, thought Sam. Perhaps this is a hospital. "Hello... K9," said Sam, looking at the side of the robot and taking a fairly good guess at it's name, "Can you take me back to the laboratory?" "The laboratory, Master? Are you feeling alright, Master?" K9 asked. "Yes, fine, thank you," Sam replied, feeling strange talking to a robot. Still, he used to talk to... to... he couldn't remember the name of his computer which was supposed to control Project Quantum Leap. Oh, he wished Al would turn up... "To the control room, then." "Affirmative, Master." said the robotic dog, and led Sam back towards the console room. "...and so we've been trying to get him back ever since," Gooshie finished explaining the Project to the Doctor. "I see. Do you have any ideas why he has leapt into me?" asked the Doctor. "I don't know, and Ziggy has no predictions either. Can you tell us what you were doing immediately before you and Sam changed places?" "Well, I had just left Gallifrey..." "Gallifrey?" asked Al, bemused. The Doctor continued. "Yes, where I'd just left Leela and K9..." "K9? Is that some sort of dog or something?" asked Tina, who hadn't really been listening to what was going on. "Yes. Do you want me to explain or what?" "Sorry..." said Tina, who then returned to her work, leaving Al and Gooshie to question the Doctor. The Doctor went on to explain that he was a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, who had left the planet of his origin in his TARDIS and been putting wrongs to right ever since. "A Time Machine, eh? Well, it's not so impossible, I suppose. I expect Sam would have managed to invent one eventually, had he not been caught in the accelerator those five years ago..." Gooshie was thinking aloud. "Could it be possible that your, er, TARDIS is shielding the signals?" "Very likely. It has numerous protection circuits to avoid spurious energies from entering the craft." "And where is this TARDIS now?" asked Gooshie. "I don't know. That's the problem with her, she's a little erratic..." "Her?" said Al, "I thought this thing was a machine!" "So? Ziggy's a machine, no?" "That's different..." said Al, taking out one of his famous cigars. "You shouldn't smoke, young man," said the Doctor, "It destroys your lung tissue and blocks your arteries." "Hey, I don't need a lecture from you..." he said, storming into the Imaging Chamber. "So you don't know where it is." Gooshie repeated. "No, I don't. And if your Doctor Beckett can't get the TARDIS back to me, or if we don't change back, then I'm trapped here. A prospect I don't relish." The Doctor was silent for a moment, remembering the time he was sentenced to being virtually imprisoned on Earth by the Time Lords. That set a thought in motion. "Hang on... the TARDIS is pre-programmed to return to Gallifrey automatically if I am unexplainedly removed from it while it's in motion. So, in theory, that's where it is." "But where, exactly, is Gallifrey?" "The coordinates are 017 438 000 EX 21 47" said the Doctor. "I'm _sorry_?" said Gooshie. "Hmmm... never mind. Do you have a star chart?" Sam had returned to the console room of what K9 had told him was "The TARDIS". Frankly, Sam thought that K9 was getting suspicious and he realised that there was definately something very weird about this leap. Could he be in a top-secret military base? The central column in the mushroom-like console had stopped moving, and was no longer alight. Sam wasn't sure if that was for the best, or not. Certainly it meant something important had happened. "If only I could get those doors open!" he mumbled to himself. "Doors inoperable, probable cause: door control jammed." said K9. "What door control?" said Sam, looking with dismay at the myriad of buttons and switches on the control board. "The red plunger, Master" said K9 informatively. Sam spotted the control, and pressed it down. There was a loud whirring from behind him, and he turned to watch the huge doors open. Outside were a number of guards, dressed in a very theatrical way. "Back so soon, Doctor?" asked one. "Oh, boy..." Sam whispered. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ -- +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- Paul (Ozymandias) Harman : pih@doc.ic.ac.uk -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ -+-+-+-+-+ The amazing changing quote currently stands as follows: +-+-+-+-+- "Given that God is infinite, and given that the Universe is infinite... would you like a toasted tea cake?" - Talkie Toaster