Reunion - Part 9




Grace glanced around wildly.  Pure adrenaline had gotten her away from the center of
town; fortunately no one seemed to have noticed yet that she had 
escaped.  She was now crouched, panting, behind a stone barn.
   Well, she assumed it was a barn; the door was wide open.  When she'd peered 
inside, considering it as a possible hiding place, the smell from within, combined 
with a strange snuffling noise, had caused her to change her mind.  Fortunately, 
whatever was in there hadn't come out.
   She abruptly slumped against a wall, leaning forward slightly, her hands on 
her knees.  Trapped on an alien planet, every blue humanoid's hand turned 
against her...
   And at the moment her only ride home was an alien sociopath.
   The Master had talked as though he was certain that the Doctor would 
come here.
   He had better, she thought grimly.
   Grace straightened up with sudden resolution.  She'd remain near the center 
of the village and see if the Doctor showed up soon.  Perhaps he'd see a ride 
home as fair trade for being warned about this ambush...
   She shook her head ruefully at her own facetiousness.

For the second time that day, a time capsule noisily exited the Vortex and deposited itself upon the surface of Isconia. The door opened slightly, and a tousle-haired figure peered out. "Coast's clear," he said as he stepped all the way out. "Come on." A few moments later, another figure stepped slowly out of the police box. "Oh, wow..." Brian Dempster said, stopping and staring in astonishment. "The colors are...different." "Really? I've been to so many planets, I guess I've gotten so I don't really notice color schemes that much, unless they're radically different." He looked peremptorily about him. "This falls somewhere in the middle of the range of 'Earth-like' planets." Brian's head swiveled around to stare at his companion. "Really?" The Doctor smiled reassuringly. "Really." That bit of perspective seemed to help, as well as serving as a reminder that his companion was an experienced traveler, so Brian took a deep breath, and asked: "Any idea where we'll find Grace, then?" The Doctor pointed. "At a guess, I'd hazard...that settlement over there." Brian looked in the direction he was pointing, and saw a cluster of stone buildings nestled in a valley under a craggy hill. They resolutely set off over the countryside.
Brian lay on his stomach and stared down the hillside at the blue-gray beings moving about the village of stone that lay below. He felt he could have just lain there and watched them all day, but sensed that there was no time for that. Blue people on another planet... He'd caught the occasional science fiction movie that had been shown in the theaters, but had never in a million years thought he'd see something in real life similar to what he'd seen on the big screen. His companion watched his reactions carefully. There was not enough time to allow Brian to properly acclimate as he'd have preferred, but these were not normal circumstances. Fortunately, he seemed to be coping surprisingly well now, especially considering the way he'd earlier denied what was happening to him. "Only one gender..." Brian found himself wondering. "Then how do they..." "They're hermaphrodites; they've got all the 'equipment' necessary. They can impregnate themselves, or exchange reproductive material with others in order to increase their genetic diversity. That's why they all look alike -- there was much less need for them to evolve obvious sexual dimorphism." Brian turned and looked at the Doctor, brows raised. "Un-hunh..." he said, gingerly. "Then how do they decide who does what-" He paused. "On second thought - I probably don't want to know." "When given the choice, always take the one which offers the more knowledge, Mr. Dempster." "Okaaay. Then how....?" "Oh. Well, actually, no one's quite figured that one out, yet. At least it isn't in the TARDIS Data Banks," the Doctor admitted easily. "For now, it remains one of those Isconian mysteries. Only they can tell the difference..." He was grinning as Brian shook his head in sudden amusement. Dusk was falling, turning the yellow sky gradually gray. "Time for us to go," the Doctor told Brian quietly, who looked sharply at him and nodded. Getting up, they passed swiftly down the slope and began to creep carefully past the out-lying buildings. No one seemed to be about, Brian noted with relief. It was the dinner hour, which the Doctor had told him the Isconians kept with an almost religious fervor. "So, how will we know which building Grace is in?" Brian muttered to his Time Lord companion. "Easy," the Doctor muttered back. "The building with guards in front of it." "Oh. Right." Silly; he should of thought of that. Brian had an adrenaline buzz, half-expecting somebody to leap out at them at any moment. The smell of something edible wafted through the air. Somewhere nearby, the natives were sitting down to some type of food... Brian suppressed a bizarre impulse. If he peeked in through one of the open windows through which shone a dim yellow glow, would he see a family of blue people gathered around the dinner table? Part of him wanted to just throw open a door and walk in going, "Hi, I'm from another planet! What do you think of that?" Probably give them the local version of a heart attack. If they had hearts. "Quickly, now," the Doctor reminded him tersely, banishing Brian's momentary wool-gathering. They slipped around a few more corners and down a few more streets, drawing closer to the center of the village. Ahead of him, the Doctor peeked around a corner, then motioned with a hand to halt. Brian drew cautiously closer to his guide and was invited to take a look around the corner. His quick glance revealed to him a stone building in front of which several blue humanoids were loitering. "So," the Doctor murmured, sotto voce. "Central location, not much cover. Good for them, not so good for us." He turned his head to peer at his companion. "We are going to need a distraction." Brian considered. "Do you have anything that would explode, a bomb or something?" he suggested hopefully. The Doctor looked at him narrowly. "What is it with you humans and explosives?" he muttered. "Well, look, I'm just trying to help," Brian retorted, annoyed. "I know. It's just that I've had my fill for awhile of things that go boom," the Doctor replied, risking another peek around the corner. He looked back at Brian. "I'll draw the guards away, distract them. They're presumably expecting someone to show up looking for Grace, but not necessarily two people. You should be able to sneak up and get her out." He paused as Brian opened his mouth, looking perturbed. "When you do, you both head right back to the TARDIS." Brian fingered the spare key hanging on a string around his neck. "And you'll be doing what?" "As I said, distracting them." "And if this Master guy shows up?" The Doctor smiled slightly. "Distracting him, too." Brian shook his head. "You're crazy. The only reason I'm going along with this is that you seem to have done this sort of thing before..." "Believe me; I have. When you two get back to the TARDIS, my link with her ill let me know. I'll meet you two back there." Brian looked at him doubtfully. "And if something goes wrong?" he asked quietly. The Doctor looked solemnly back at him, hearing the unspoken words. "You remember those several controls on the Console that I showed you how to operate?" Brian nodded. "I've pre-set the coordinates. All you would have to do is to move those controls, and the TARDIS would automatically return you to San Francisco a short time after we left." Brian stirred uneasily. "Well...you be careful, all right? We'll see you back there." The Doctor grinned, and clapped Brian encouragingly on the shoulder. "Just get Grace out. That's the most important thing." The Time Lord slipped away, blending into the twilight shadows. Brian stood, his heart hammering, waiting for all hell to break loose. For several minutes he heard and saw nothing, then-- The three guards standing around in front of the stone building suddenly snapped into alertness, swiveling around to stare down the boulevard. Brian peered out, squinting at the figure who was strolling quite unconcernedly down the street, hands in frock-coat pockets. It was the Doctor. The incongruous figure stopped in the glow-globe-lit street and stood, an appreciable distance away from the stone 'jail', but within easy viewing distance of the guards. "Hello," he called out in a clear voice. "I am the Doctor, and I've come for my friend." The three humanoids glanced at each other, then began to walk towards the Doctor. He started to slowly back up. It was a bizarre sight, Brian noted, as he crept closer to the suddenly unguarded building. All four moved along the street, the Doctor slowly retreating, luring the pursuing Isconians away from the building. "Greetings, Offering," one of the guards said. The Doctor's eyebrows lifted slightly at the word 'offering'. "You honor us with your presence. We will escort you to the Place of Waiting, as preparations are completed for the Rejoining." "I see. 'Rejoined' with whom or what?" "To Shamithel, the god-who-sleeps, Offering." "And will that awaken Shamithel?" the Doctor inquired politely. The guard's answer had the ring of a memorized litany. "Only when all parts of Shamithel are returned to it will Shamithel return to us, Offering. Long ago, Shamithel was scattered across the whole world, and beneath, and above. Now, all parts seek to return, to be whole once again. For each piece, a time to return, to be Rejoined. The task of the Faithful is to assist, to aid the Reunion." He paused, then continued. "To help those fragments which have forgotten from whence they came. All must be returned." "How do you know it's really my time to be 'rejoined' to this Shamithel?" the Doctor asked conspiratively, as he continued to back up. "In fact, how do you know I'm a part of Shamithel at all?" The Isconian answering him looked at him calmly. "Such as you are, what else could you be?" he replied, gesturing at the bizarre figure before him. "Split into 'hes' and 'shes', mere fragments of the original essence of you. We were told earlier of the form these bits of you would take, how we would be honored by your arrival, be able to aid you in your Rejoining." "Whether we fragments want to or not," the Doctor sighed. As clever a use of a religious creed to serve one being's needs as he'd ever seen. It was at times like these when he could almost admire the Master's cunning, were it not for the invariably nefarious ends to which it was put. A neat trap. Any protestations from him or any other hapless being decreed to be a lost part of their god would presumably be ignored by the Isconians in favor of bringing the day when their deity would return to them one day closer. The Doctor glanced at the building which every step was taking him further away from. Hopefully he was giving Brian enough time to reach it undetected and free Grace. She had, he reflected, better be in there. Was that a shadowy figure he saw moving, drawing close to the entrance? The Isconian who had spoken to him hesitated, starting to look back as if suddenly suspicious. "Well!" the Doctor exclaimed. The spokesman's head instantly whipped back around to stare at him. "I'm afraid we have a conflict of interests here. I don't want to return to Shamileth right now." He shrugged. "Sorry." The spokes-Isconian bowed slightly. "You test us well, Offering. As the 'she' Offering does. Our faith will not falter." It was barely enough warning. The speaker made a subtle gesture with his hands, and the other two guards leapt forward, arms outstretched to grab the 'he' before them. The Time Lord jumped back, barely avoiding their lunge, whirled, and fled. The two guards were close behind. The speaker threw his head back and called out in a loud clear voice. "My people, arise! The Offering called the 'Doctor' tests us! It is somewhere among us. Leave your homes, look without. Find the Offering, and return it here to me!" The doors to the dwellings lining the main street opened, their inhabitants obediently emerging to join in the search.


To be continued...


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