THE LOST SOULS
CHAPTER SIX Rory was leaning a shoulder against the TARDIS door, when it suddenly swung inward. He stumbled back onto Amy, nearly knocking her down. To avoid that, Rory's quick thinking caused him to grab her. Unfortunately, since he was also stumbling on the pavement, one hand caught Amy on the shoulder, while the other one accidentally grabbed onto a certain prominent part of her chest. "Rory! This is hardly the time or the place!" Amy shouted at him. Then, as they both righted themselves, she whispered in his ear, "Maybe later, if we're still here, yeah?" "Er--Amy, I didn't....." Suddenly realizing what Amy just inferred, Rory quickly nodded his head. "OK, sure, whatever you say." "Oh, that's brilliant. Here I am, trying to save the world, and you two are busy getting all...amorous." Came the Doctor's voice from inside the TARDIS, sounding slightly perturbed. "Doctor!" Amy yelled joyously, running into the time machine's console room, "You're alright, you're here!" Rory followed Amy inside, and they both gazed around them, seeing a seemingly empty control room, the TARDIS console lit up with blue florescent type lighting, the red and coppery interior illuminated by the roundel lights embedded in the walls. "You're still invisible, then?" Amy asked, sadly. For a moment she had hoped the Doctor had found a way to come back. "Well, yes. But, not for long, hopefully." said the Doctor's bodiless voice. "Where are you?" She questioned him, looking around for a clue to the Doctor's whereabouts. "Yeah, I was wondering about that. I mean, if we walk around in here, would we bump into you, or can we walk right through you?" Rory asked curiously, standing beside Amy. "Uh, I'd really rather you didn't walk right through me, if you don't mind, Rory. I'd feel so....violated." The Doctor said, indignantly. "And, I'm standing in front of the console monitor, so as long as you don't hover over around the machinery, everything will be hunky dory....or is that dory hunky? I sometimes get these quaint human expressions mixed up." "So, Doctor, what happens now?" Amy asked. "Depends on which it is, Amy." The Doctor's voice answered. As she walked closer to the console, Amy could hear a slight noise in the background, the soft hum of the sonic screwdriver. She guessed the Doctor was still using it to amplify his voice so they could hear him. "Which what is, Doctor?" She had no idea what he was on about, now. "Hunky-dory, or dory hunky." The Doctor's voice said. "The first one." Rory replied, helpfully. "Right, then everything is going to be hunky-dory, and shipshape in Bristol fashion....unless....." The Doctor told them. "Unless what?" Rory questioned him, his brows knotting with worry, as he leaned against the safety rail. He didn't like the sudden change of tone in the Doctor's voice. "Oh, nothing to worry about. It'll be fine." The Doctor replied, a little too light-heartedly. "What shouldn't we be worried about, Doctor?" Amy asked, as she came to stand well back from the console monitor, where she assumed the Doctor was stationed. "Really, it'll be fine." The Doctor said dismissively. "Now, hush. I'm trying to work here. Silence good. Distractions bad. Rory." "What? I didn't say anything!" Rory objected. "Yes you did, just now. You said, 'What? I didn't say anything.'" The Doctor told him. "Quit changing the subject, Doctor. I know you're nine-hundred and whatever years old, and our age in your years probably makes us toddlers or something....but we're human, and we're not children. So, just tell us what is the matter, already." Amy scolded him. "Yeah, sorry Amy. You too, Rory." The Doctor said contritely. Judging by the direction of his voice, Amy guessed he'd changed places to somewhere over to her left. Unconsciously she shifted slightly, to be nearer to him. "OK, I think I might be able to bring back myself, Mandy and everyone else." The Doctor told them. "But that's great news!" Rory said, getting up and going over to stand beside Amy. He put his arm around her reassuringly. "There's a catch though." The Doctor conceded. "Oh." Amy said, disappointed. "There's always a catch, it seems, with you, Doctor." She muttered. "Not always!" the Doctor argued, his voice now coming from the opposite side of the console. "Only sometimes. Well, I say sometimes, but I suppose quite a lot, really. But, if life were easy, think how dreadfully dull it would be. You're born, live an easy life full of....really dull stuff, then you die. Pffft---! What would be the point of it all, without a few challenges and hardship to keep things really interesting?" They heard him give a big sigh. "Thing is, what I need to do, to counteract The Shadow Maker's version of reality, is to re-create his victim's own version of reality. And to do that, I am going to have to get underneath the console, and do something I've never done before. I'll have to directly manipulate the space-time vortex." "And, let me guess;" Amy said, "doing that is just a wee dangerous?" "Very." The Doctor agreed. "If I make even the smallest mistake, it'll throw the whole of the space time continuum out of whack, and the universe will abruptly collapse in on itself. It'll make the Big Bang seem like a firecracker. And trust me, you don't want to light the blue touch paper on this baby. That would be so un-cool." "Oh well, that doesn't sound so bad." Rory said sarcastically. "Risking killing everyone and everything in the entire universe isn't something I do lightly, Rory." The Doctor said quietly. "Sorry, Doctor. That was stupid of me." Rory said, chastised. "You're not stupid Rory, you just didn't have your thinking cap on. Shame on you." The Doctor told him. "I expect better from Amy's significant other." There was a pause, then his voice said, "I'm going to go underneath now. I'll need to do some ionic soundings of the vortex, before I commit to manipulating the TARDIS's atmospheric crystal power defractor." A couple of minutes later, Amy and Rory heard the Doctor's voice coming faintly from beneath them. "Amy, Rory," the Doctor told them, his voice suddenly sad and somber, "I'll need the sonic to do all this, so I won't be able to use it to amplify my voice any longer. If this doesn't work, I can't promise that the two of you will be safe. If you want me to stop what I'm doing, now would be the time to tell me. You'll both be safe from The Shadow Maker, as long as the pair of you stay inside the TARDIS." Rory and Amy looked at each other searchingly. The idea of living the rest of their lives inside the TARDIS wasn't so bad. But then, they each thought of the billions of people on earth, forced to live out the rest of their lives virtually as ghosts. Almost as if they were both connected mentally, Amy and Rory nodded to each other. "No, Doctor." Amy called down to him, "Rory and I wouldn't want to live at the expense of everyone else on earth. It wouldn't be worth it, our lives are nothing compared to six billion others....but," she said sympathetically, "what about the decision you have to make?" "You're lives aren't nothing, Amy." The Doctor told her firmly. "Not to me. And, neither are the lives of the people on this planet. I don't want to do this. But, I have no choice. If I don't try this, The Shadow Maker won't stop with the earth. He'll move on to other planets, other times. Nowhere in the universe will be safe. I absolutely cannot let that happen." Rory and Amy waited tense moments, while the invisible Doctor fiddled with the time rotor beneath the console. They both became alarmed, when a nasty chemical smell filled the air, and blue smoke began to rise up from below. They both made faces and Amy instantly put her hand over her nose. "Ew! Smells like some...giant alien, farted!" Amy complained, trying to find an apt description for the stench. Rory simply shrugged. "No worse than some of the smells I've encountered as a hospital nurse." He said, pulling up his shirt over his nose. "Though if I'd known the TARDIS could smell like this, I might've stayed home! You could have at least warned me, Amy" "That's because it never did this before, Rory. I'm hardly an expert on alien machinery, am I?" She retorted. All of the sudden, the TARDIS began to vibrate violently. With a startled yell, Amy was thrown against Rory, as they both grabbed onto the safety rail for dear life. Abruptly, the shaking stopped. Looking down through the glass floor, they could see nothing through the smoke. Taking Rory by the hand, Amy lead the way down the steps to the area beneath the console. Being careful not to step in any of the holes in the floor, Amy desperately looked for any sign of the Doctor. But the blue tinted smoke was too thick to see beyond her arm's length. Then, like a magician appearing out of a conjuring trick, there he was. The Doctor walked through the seemingly impenetrable haze, coughing and waving away the smoke. His face and clothing were tinged with blue soot, but Amy didn't care. She ran up to the Doctor and gave him a big hug. Which he wholeheartedly returned, with a dazzling smile and a twinkle in his eyes. Amy and Rory followed the Doctor, as he bounded up the stairs to the TARDIS console. Flipping on the monitor screen, he stared at it, reading rapidly scrolling data, as the geometric Gallifreyan language told him what he wanted to know. Amy peered over the Doctor's shoulder, as images began to appear on screen. It was people, standing in the middle of streets and pavements, looking bewildered. Amy gave a triumphant yell of joy, when she spotted her cousin Mandy, among them. "It's her! It's Mandy! Doctor you saved them!" Rory said, turning to slap the grinning Amy a high five. He gave the Doctor a friendly, if awkward, pat on the back. "That was...amazing. Thank you Doctor, for Amy, and for all of us. If there's ever anything I can do for you, just name it." Rory told him. "Yes, yes it was really amazing, Rory." The Doctor said, with a smug expression. "And you know, there is something very important you can do for me." "Just name it, Doctor!" Rory said, looking like he expected that he was about to be sent on some noteworthy mission. "I could really do with a nice cup of coffee. Extra strong, cream, no sugar, please." The Doctor told him. Rory's face fell, his ego deflated, but a promise was a promise. "Oh. Right. Of course, Doctor, I'll get right on it." As he left, Amy did her best to hide her amusement, as she gave him a sympathetic peck on the cheek. "Off you go, coffee man." She told him, smiling. "Tell you what, I'll give you a hand." "Thanks, Amy." Rory replied, as they walked up the stairs to the corridor leading to the TARDIS kitchens. "No worries. I've had your coffee, Rory, and I like the Doctor too much to subject him to it." She said with a smirk. Meanwhile, the Doctor disappeared into the TARDIS interior, to clean himself up. A short time later, Amy and Rory came back into the console room. They found the Doctor, soot-less and in clean clothes, including a new bow tie, roaming around the console, flicking switches and checking readings. Rory held a shiny antique Georgian-era copper coffee pot, with a trickle of white steam coming out of the spout. Amy's right hand gripped a modern white coffee mug with an image of a red WWII poster imprinted on it, that read, 'Keep Calm and Carry On.' Suddenly, Amy saw the console monitor begin to flicker with blue static electricity. "Oh no, no way, that's just not possible! How could he get inside the TARDIS?" The Doctor said, in a panicky voice, backing away from the screen. Before the Doctor could say anything more, a dark figure appeared on screen. This time, he was dressed identically to the Doctor, only in all in black, except for red suspenders and a red bow tie. The Shadow Maker's grim, cadaverous face glowered evilly from the screen. His body was framed by a blue aura. "You have only temporarily won the game for the people of earth, Doctor. But, beware. This game isn't over yet." The Shadow Maker spoke, in a deep, smooth, oily voice. "How did you escape your prison on Galifrey? It should have been impossible." The Doctor asked. As he did so, he backed protectively towards Amy and Rory. "Towards the end of the Time War, Rassilon and the Council of Twelve secretly promised me my freedom, in exchange for my help in defeating the Daleks. The Daleks captured me, soon after my release, but before the emperor of the Daleks could have me imprisoned on his ship, and just before the destruction you wrought, I stole a vortex manipulator, and escaped from you all. Now, no one shall ever imprison me again." "Yeah, yeah, yeah, spoken like a true megalomaniac. Man, I cannot tell you how so unimpressed I am. If you were captured twice, you can be captured again." The Doctor warned the figure on the monitor screen. "Not so, Doctor." The Shadow Maker said, "With the unlimited power of your TARDIS, I can never be stopped. Not by the last of the Time Lords, or the Daleks or any other creature or being in all of time and space. The universe will become my plaything." You are powerless to stop me." "Oh give me a break." The Doctor scoffed. "And I mean by that, a coffee break. Look, Shadow Maker, it's been a long day, I'm tired, and if I have to stand here and listen to you blather on, I really could use a really good jolt of coffee." With lightning speed, the Doctor suddenly grabbed the coffee pot out of Rory's hands, threw the lid down on the glass floor, and flung the hot coffee all over the console monitor. The blue static electricity surrounding the monitor suddenly turned red, as The Shadow Maker abruptly cried out in pain, and began writhing about. "Nooooooo! This can't be happening!" he screamed. Dropping the coffee pot on the glass floor, the Doctor stood back and folded his arms. He watched apathetically, as The Shadow Maker's image slowly shrank down, blurred, turned into smoke, and then disappeared completely. Amy and Rory both jumped, when the console monitor blew up in a shower of sparks. "Wha--what'd you do?" a bewildered Rory asked. "That was a perfectly good pot of coffee, I'll have you know!" Amy protested. "But at least you've put it to good use, it seems. Wow, talk about caffeine overload!" "The Shadow Maker was a being of the Dark Times. Almost nothing could destroy him completely. That's why my people imprisoned him in the first place." The Doctor explained, reaching for a switch on the console. Instantly, a blower came on somewhere, slowly removing the blue smoke from the bottom of the time rotor, and the white smoke from the exploding monitor, out of the console room. "There, that's better!" The Doctor beamed. "Well, I said almost nothing cold harm him. There was one single chemical element, in all the universe, which when combined with certain other chemicals, is poisonous to the Umbra creatures. And of course, The Shadow Maker being one of the Umbra, it's guaranteed to make him kick off. That one chemical is so rare, that it can only be found in one place." "Let me guess," Amy said, glancing down at the now-empty coffee pot, "somewhere right here on earth?" "Correctamun--darn, I said I'd never say that again." The Doctor said to himself. "Erm--absofreakinlutely! Eh--no, that doesn't sound good, either." He added, pacing up and down thoughtfully, "Affirmative! No, now I sound like K-9." "Who?" Amy asked, shaking her head, as she bent down and uplifted the now slightly dented coffee pot. Handing it to Rory, Amy said, "Once again Doctor, you're not making any sense. Why not just say, 'yes?' like everyone else?" "Oh, there you go, expecting me to be dull like some ordinary person. Sorry, can't do it. It's against my personal ethics. Don't ever ask me to do that again, Amy Pond!" He admonished his friend, wagging a finger at her. "Anyway," Amy said with a patient sigh, "getting back to the point, what exactly did you do to The Shadow Maker?" "Did you know, that there's something like a thousand different chemical compounds in a single cup of coffee? At least ten percent of every cup of java contains known carcinogens? But, it's also an antioxidant, anti-depressant and, it's good for your short-term memory! So, good news, bad news, when it comes to coffee." "Oh good, now I can impress all my mates next time we go into a coffee shop." Rory said. "But what's that got to do with poisoning The Shadow Maker?" "It's a rare chemical known as glarganene. Harmless to humans. Earth scientists won't even discover it for at least another hundred years. It's even harmless to the Umbra, until it's combined with seven other chemicals." "Such as?" Amy asked him, tilting her head skeptically. She'd seen a lot of weird stuff while traveling in the TARDIS, but killing someone with a cup of hot coffee? "To be exact; glarganene combined with alkaloid caffeine, dextrine, sulphuric acid, chlorine, h20, nitrogen and calcium. That's why I asked for cream in my coffee, Rory." "Right." Rory nodded. The Doctor was already busy making repairs to the console monitor. Rory held the damaged coffee pot aloft, waving it in the air. "Hoo-ray for coffee! Now, how about I go and brew us a fresh pot?" "Are you trying to poison me, Rory?" The Doctor said, turning around with a horrified look upon his face. "Erm--no!" a surprised Rory protested. "Because Amy's told me about your coffee," the Doctor said, slipping her a mischievous wink, "and I personally wouldn't try it on a Dalek, if what she says is anything to go by."
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