Eloise turned to see a twenty foot tall white rabbit (with pink fur lining its ears) standing over them.
“What,” murmured the sixth Doctor, “Does that have to do with Doctor Who?”
“I have no idea,” Eloise said. “But the workings of the Goddess are infinitely mysterious. I think it best that we let her alone, and focus all our attention on the problems we can tackle.” She cleared her throat, and, counting off on her fingers, tried to make sense of the last few minutes’ chaos. “First: that ‘artifact’ seems to be multidimensional, and also seems to be causing a temporal rift here on Rad-wah, and our sister world Adwc – with Alryssa as its centre, correct?”
There were nods and murmurs of agreement scattered throughout the crowd.
“Second: we suspect the Valeyard to somehow be in control of that ‘artifact’, right?”
The nods and murmurs were more scattered, and were mingled with a few “I guess so”s.
“Third: We somehow have to get ahold of said artifact, and stabilize it, thereby stabilizing Alryssa’s history, so we can stabilize our history, so we can defeat the Valeyard.”
“That’s what I was just saying!” the eighth Doctor said.
“Right,” Eloise continued. “So – John, here, has suggested that we use music to safely ‘contain’ the thing… Do you think that would work?”
“Possibly,” the third Doctor said. “If we can create a sonic field, and send it through the Time-Space Visualizer, we could transmute the sound waves into temporal waves… If we get the frequencies just right, we’d be able to generate wave interference, and ‘neutralize’ the false temporal waves that it is generating.”
“That sounds like a plan to me,” Eloise said.
There were scattered groans.
“What? Did I make a pun, or something?” she asked. “Anyway, Thomas,” she said, gently prying him away from Alryssa, “could you please locate the ‘artifact’ with the Time-Space Visualizer? Thank you.”
Taking Alryssa by the hand, Eloise led her over to the second Doctor. “I’m going to need your help with this,” she told him. “If we are to contain that thing, our sonic field (also known as music) is going to have to be very precise – we’re going to have to get the tones and harmonies just right.”
“Yes,” he said. “Yes, I think you’re right.”
“Well, since it is tuned to Alryssa’s personal temporal vibrations, perhaps the temporal vibrations around her would give us a clue as to what that sonic field should be. I suggest we each play sustained notes while next to her, then feed the sound into my TARDIS’s computer. My guess is that the temporal fluctuations in Alryssa’s personal field would cause slight variations in pitch to the notes. With that information, my TARDIS could compose a melody that would perfectly interfere with that thing’s effects…”
“Well,” said the Doctor, a little doubtfully, “It might just work…”
“Right, then. Come on, Alryssa, Doctors – to my music room!”
Alryssa, looking around for something more interesting than the busily-concentrating Imran, suddenly noticed the young woman who was wandering around the pub clutching a Guinness. “Ana!”
“Ryss! I found you again! Cool. Hey, hey, watch the Guinness!”
After a quick explanation of previous events – including Alryssa being the nexus of a series of time rifts – Ana bought another round of drinks.
“How will this help?”
“Well, if the universe is ending, I want to be drunk for it.”
“Who said it was ending?”
“Well, you did, I thought…” Ana’s voice trailed off as she sipped more Guinness. “Look, you said you were trying to find me because I’m a Subreality Writer, and we have ‘powers’, right?”
“In a nutshell.”
“Well, why?” Ana shrugged. “I mean, technically, the only difference between me and you is that I’m from Subreality, and you’re from Rad-wah. It seems to me, as a Writer, you’d have just as much control. If not more, since it isn’t my turf, so to speak.” She smiled cheekily. “Does that make sense?”
“Yeah, it does,” Alryssa agreed. “Problem is that over here, we’re not bound by the Rules…”
“I hope you explain that,” Ana said.
“On Adwc, we’ve never said what a writer, or author avatar, can or can’t do. So we don’t know what we can do. You guys in Subreality have said what a Writer can do – anything, so long as they have something to write with… In other words,” Alryssa finished off her drink, “we needed you to help us realise we can do anything in Rad-wah and Adwc, and show us how to do it… Oh, and for the party games.”
Ana thought about this. “So where do I start?”
They were interrupted by a yell from Imran. “Got it!”
“Uh, guys?” Thomas piped up, his eyes still glued to the TSV, “You won’t believe this, but it seems that our Valeyard ‘friend’ is stuck in a time loop. He’s stuck, just opening a set of doors over and over again!”
“You’re right,” the sixth Doctor said, coming to look for himself. “I don’t believe it.” He frowned. “That’s not the Whaleyard.”
“How can you tell?” asked Thomas.
“I know… Seven, Eight, over here. Is it, or isn’t it, the Valeyard in that time loop?”
The eighth Doctor took a close look at the figure in the time loop. “I see… I’d wondered about this…”
“What? What is it?” Thomas was starting to get a little… aggravated.
The seventh Doctor took a deep breath. “To accomplish all that he has in the time available, the Valeyard must have taken over the identity of a Time Lord known to the High Council… in this case, Lord Gallifrijan.”
“…and he’s imprisoned the real Gallifrijan in a chronic hysteresis,” the sixth Doctor completed.
“So,” said Eloise, “if we could break the time loop, and bring the real Gallifrijan in front of the High Council, we could prove the Valeyard’s an imposter, and nip his plan in the bud!” She paused. “But first, we need to stabilize Alryssa.”
Alryssa rolled her eyes. “Great, Imran. Now… what did you have in mind?”
Imran grinned nervously. “Well, it occurred to me… if all four of us pool our abilities, we could travel back in time to the very beginning of Cyberspace, and prevent the Valeyard writing Cyberspace out of existence.”
Ana raised an eyebrow. “And how do we do that?”
Imran looked even more nervous. “That’s where Alryssa comes in… As long as no-one attempts to neutralize that artifact, this might work…”
Alryssa shifted uncomfortably in the lush armchair that the second Doctor and Eloise had seated her in while they… performed their sonic experiments. “Sorry to interrupt the ‘concert’,” she said, the grimace on her face making it clear that she was using the term lightly, “But what happens to my other, erm, ‘self’ if my timeline stabilizes?”
“She simply vanishes, I think,” the second Doctor told her. “At least, that’s the hope. It shouldn’t hurt a bit, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Well, no, not exactly…” Alryssa said cautiously, “but I can feel what she’s up to, sort of. And she and the other Donald and other Imran have snagged Ana into some cockamamie plan. If they all vanish…”
“Ana will be stranded,” Eloise finished.
Alyssa nodded.
“You wouldn’t still have that link to Adwc, would you?” the second Doctor asked, as nonchalantly as he could.
Alryssa dug in her pocket and pulled it out. “Here,” she said. “And I have a link to Rad-wah here.”
“Thank you,” said the Doctor, taking them. “I’ll be right back.”
zzzzipPOP
“So what do we do?” Alryssa said, taking a long sip of her Guinness.
“Okay… Could everybody say ‘Ana, Alryssa, Donald, and Imran travelled back in time to the beginning of Cyberspace’? Please?”
The other three looked at each other. This hadn’t a hope in hell of working… then again, what did?
“Ana, Alryssa, Donald, and Imran travelled back in time to the beginning of
zzzzipPOP
zzzzipPOP
Cyberspace.”
“Well, I wasn’t expecting this…” Alryssa commented.
“Hey,” said Donald. “Where's Ana?”
Imran slapped his forehead. “Not again!”