Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Revistitation

When I woke up again, I found a helmet on the bedside table. I didn't hesitate to strap it to my head. I probably looked like a complete idiot. But I did not care. If I did have more than three serious head injuries, I was going to make damn sure it wasn't going to be more.

I left the med room and made my way back the main control room. The shadow Doctor's disembodied, echo voice greeted me as I walked in. "Feeling better?" he asked. "Do you like the helmet?"

"Yes and Yes," I replied. "And my senses appear to be functioning. At least, for the moment."

"That's one point for the bright side," he said. He came around the console unit where I could see him. Once more, he was covered in wires and kicking around components on floor.

"What are you doing?" I asked him. "Because it looks like you are taking apart the TARDIS."

He stopped mid-stride and spread apart his arms. "I'm taking apart the TARDIS."

"Why?"

"There is a mechanical reason for her bad temper. She has had bad moods before but nothing on this scale," he said. "The thing is I don't have the right parts. I have to make due."

I looked at the main console. "I can tell. I am guessing that now, no matter what you install, it is no longer working. It was bound to happen sooner or later, Doctor. You can't keep repairing an ancient, technologically advanced, time-space vehicle using typewriters, analog dials, and HDMI cables." I shrugged. "It's one of the things that is making her sick."

"What would you know about it? You aren't even sciencey! You are a fortune teller!" He ranted. "Fortune teller. And on my TARDIS!" The Doctor turned his back on me. "Not by my permission. By Mutiny!"

"It doesn't take a fortune teller to deduce that she is sick. All you have to do is listen to her." I refused to be frustrated at him, not this time.

"I can fix it," he said.

I shook my head. "You are clearly going about this the wrong way. Otherwise, you wouldn't have so many problems with her. She is clearly complaining about your method of "repair." Did it occur to you that maybe, it isn't all that mechanical?"

He nodded. "Yes, it is. I know for sure." The Doctor dove into the belly of the console and came forth again. He held out a small, fractured part at me. "Here." I took the part and examined it. "That is all that is left of a very special part. I won't try to explain it, you would not understand. This type of piece is called a wu..."

"A wuzzle!" I looked at it closer. "It's a combination of organic and inorganic materials!"

The Doctor was thrown off by my exclamation. "You...know about wuzzles?"

"Yeah, of course I do. A wuzzle is a combination of two or more things that normally do not go together. Everybody knows that," I shrugged. "Although, now that I think about it, it makes sense. The TARDIS would be full of these types of components." I paused for a thought. "Oh. Oh no. Doctor, these can't just be replaced by any thing. This is organic for a reason."

He nodded. "That part is broken. There is another one that has and is in severe deterioration. I must find a way to patch this, at least for now. Until, I can figure out a solution."

"Why do you need a solution? Patch it and then we will go get a replacement part."

"I'm afraid not, Jessica. TARDIS and many pieces of them are grown, not manufactured. The planet they were grown on is long gone."

"Ah, Gallifrey."

"No, not Gallifrey." I had no response to that. He continued. "Stuff happened. It's gone."

"Do what gardeners do and grow your own," I said and shrugged.

"Well, I wish I would have thought of that," he burst. "Why, oh why, did I never think if that?"

"Stop being dramatic and tell me why you can't," I said. "Obviously, you have thought of that and for some reason have not done so due to a complication."

The Doctor huffed and threw up his hands. "I'm missing something in the math."

Now, this part got very weird. The Doctor's normally shadow static body, blipped and buzzed, hard. His face montaged through a hundred others in seconds. The face finally settled on one that had enormous furry eyebrows and a sullen, slightly wrinkled face. His hair was short and grey and he was wearing a hoody under his jacket. I didn't say anything about it. I just stared at him, while he went off on a tangent about math and physics, like a crazed university professor.

"Do you understand, Jessica?" he asked at the end of his lecture.

I smiled and shook my head. "Not a single word of it." He stood in front of me unmoving. "Okay," I said. "What I got out of that whole thing is that the TARDIS is a mathematical construct that involves many things I can't possibly begin to understand."

"Yes!" He threw his hands up.

"No!" I threw my hands up too.

"No?"

"No," I said, putting my hands back down at my sides. "There is no computer or component that I know of that also, in conjunction with parts, do not also run without a program. Doctor, that also requires words! Ships, planes, cell phones, computers, even refrigerators, on Earth, have programs to run the parts. Without the 'else if's' or 'variable x's,' you cannot get anything to work correctly. You can hook up any hardware to any other hardware. If you don' have the program to run nothing will work."

"No," he said again.

"Yes. The program, the process, what ever you want to call it. It is the same thing. If I plant a seed in soil, it won't grow. It needs sunlight, rain, and nurturing. If I know the correct fertilizer, that will improve the chances of a better plant. If that plant is near other beneficial plants, it will grow better. It's a process. A program. With the right stuff at the right time, the plant will grow. That means I need to program myself with the correct process and information to achieve my goal. Doctor, that isn't any different from engineering. Not really. You just use inorganic materials and I use organic materials. That's all."

"What did you just say?" he whispered.

"Materials. Programs. Process. I am sure your PHD covers simple stuff like that."

The Doctor's image flipped out. The grumpy man left his face and the montage returned. He began to pace back and forth quickly. "Oh!" he yelled and smacked his forehead. "Oh!" When he came back to me, he stopped in front of me. He reached out and grabbed both of my arms. The body image settled on a younger man, with wild hair, a long brown coat, and a pair of converse shoes. He was the sexiest Doctor I had ever seen, except maybe for the one in the Bow-tie. "You are brilliant!" He yelled at me. I couldn't answer. I was captivated by this Doctor for the moment. I could not for the life of me look at him without a stupid look on my face. He pulled me in a for hug.

I breathed faster and my heart nearly jumped from my chest out of my mouth. "Nope! Too much!" I yelled, loudly. I pushed him away very fast.

He backed up. "No, you're right. Too much." His body image went out again. He was back to his static shadow thing. "Hugs. Ug! Don't know what came over me."

"A long brown coat and a pair of sandshoes," I said, off handedly.

"Really?" he asked. "Just now?"

I was busted. I blushed so hard. I gave a fake, wide smile. "What? Sorry? Didn't hear you."

"Yes, you did," he said, suddenly serious. He took a moment to think. "A little while ago, you said something about a bow-tie. Then, you said something about a long brown coat and sand shoes."

"Really? Don't remember that," I replied. I turned around. "Time out spot for the human. Shouldn't be in the way."

The Shadow Doctor reached out and grabbed me. "Wait, right there." He grabbed at his sonic screwdriver and stuck it up my helmet.

"What are you doing?'

"Doors go both ways, Jessica."

The screwdriver whistled at me. My senses faded in and out again. I got dizzy and nauseous. I stumbled and fell right into him. It was very quick. As sudden as it happened, it was over. The whistling of the screwdriver stopped.

"I turned off the telepathic field dampener. I needed a quick look.," he said, as I normalized. "Jessica, you know how I feel about secret keeping."

I shrugged. "I'm not a mind reader. I'm a fortune teller." He was silent. "Okay, fine. Sometimes, I don't see you as a shadow man. I guessed a little while ago, that sometimes you take on the image of past Doctors. I don't know when it will happen. It's random. I don't cause it. Besides, what does that matter? I didn't think it was relevant to you."

"Everything is relevant to me. Everything is connected," he said.

"Well, I'll call Dirk Gently right away," I muttered.

"Let's get going. No more time to waste." He said. He picked up the cords from the floor. He wrapped them around his static body. "Nothing wrong with a little revisitation." He laughed. "Geronimo." The Doctor dove back into the console unit.

I was left standing in complete confusion. "Geronimo? Does he know that the guy who said that threw himself and his horse off a cliff? He fricken died, for pete's sake!"



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