Options

[Kitten Kong Destroyed Wotan]

May as well put it here

Chapter 1 part 1

The Earth hung in space as it had always done, on its own, with no knowledge of the thousands of alien races out there in the universe, a number of these had come to Earth in the past but these had either been covered up, gone unnoticed or simply been considered hoaxes, these had become countless by the time the human race began the year 2005AD. So humanity continued as it always had done, crime, war and politics all present on its surface. And from out of nowhere obvious a vast space station came into view in orbit above the planet. A vast sphere at the centre with long corridors connecting it with smaller spheres that were connected to other spheres. Inside the centre sphere a group of aliens were preparing to carry out their experiment on humanity once again.

Some parts of Earth were very peaceful, for instance the quiet street where the houses were almost 100% empty as of people being out at work or school, cars only came done here on their own, there was never mass traffic or disturbance. That is until the air was filled with a loud groaning sound as a major anachronism materialised in plain view of the non-existent passers by. This was an anachronism in two ways; the first more obvious way was its appearance. A blue Police Public Call Box, this would have looked perfectly normal during the 1950s and 60s but they’d been abandoned and were no longer used, although only people who remembered or knew about them would have considered it as out of place. The second anachronism was that this wasn’t even a Police box; it was in fact a time machine in disguise, and a malfunctioning disguise at that. It had been functioning perfectly until a visit to London during 1963 where a very long stay had lead to it getting stuck in its current form. The time machines disguise wasn’t the only think that wasn’t functioning properly, the four occupants had no idea where they were going or when. All they knew was that there’d probably be some trouble there. The occupants of the time machine knew it as the TARDIS, Time And Relative Dimensions In Space and they had just left the planet Vortis after another of their hair-raising adventures. The door of the TARDIS opened with a slight creak as an old man stepped out; the Doctor surveyed the scene with interest and chuckled slightly to himself.
“Looks like we overshot 1963 again,” he muttered to himself as his three companions followed him outside.
The Doctor had picked up his three fellow travellers during his travels. Ian and Barbara, two teachers from 1963, had stumbled upon the TARDIS after following the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan home from school one day, rather than having them letting them go and possibly reveal his secret to the rest of the world he set the TARDIS to dematerialise with them on board, since then they’d become very good friends and he had been trying to get them back to 1963 ever since. Susan had left the TARDIS after their second encounter with the Daleks, as the Doctor wanted her to belong somewhere. Shortly afterwards they’d ended up on the planet Dido where they’d met just two people in the wreck of a spaceship who were being watched and apparently protected from the inhabitants of the planet by a creature known as Koquillion, the first one (Bennet) had murdered the entire crew and all but two of the inhabitants of the spaceship. The other was Vicki, a 16 year old girl who’s father had been among those Bennet had murdered. When Bennet had revealed himself to be Koquillion he was killed by the two remaining inhabitants of the planet. The Doctor had then invited Vicki aboard the TARDIS. Now the four of them were standing outside the TARDIS, admiring the street they were in.
“Well its definitely Earth,” Ian commented, “makes a change from Vortis I suppose.”
“Quite right, but it isn’t 1963 I’m afraid,” the Doctor said.
“How can you tell?” Barbara asked him.
“Well the major thing is that most of these cars won’t be released until about the early 21st century, so I’d say this may be between 2004 and 2006,” The Doctor explained.
“Anything interesting happen then Doctor?” Ian asked.
“Well, there was some utter rubbish on the television called reality shows,” the Doctor replied, “I hope I never get roped into a series of Big Brother.”

While this was going on the occupants of the space station were preparing to carry out an experiment on every human on the planets surface. A message range repeatedly throughout the station.
“All personnel to their stations, stand by for options,” it said repeating constantly with a warning siren sound to accompany it.
In the main control room of the centre sphere of the station a number of the alien occupants were arriving and sitting in front of a console with a small screen on it, these consoles ran along the walls and where in every room of the ship set up for the experiment and each one was focussed on one member of the human population. Each room was perfectly circular. The aliens themselves were almost humanoid, but they were completely bald and had an extra eye in their forehead, dark blue skin, a tail with two pronged sting on the end coming out of their necks and a tube running along their arms which eventually went inside them. These tubes would be used to spray their enemies with a corrosive acid that would kill them slowly and painfully, though this had only evolved as a natural defence and rarely used. These aliens were known as the Jovicenes, they had come to Earth many times before hand to carry out this experiment and to monitor the reactions of the humans to it. After ten of the Jovicenes had seated themselves at their wall consoles another came in and sat at a console in the middle of room. The screen on this console showed the whole of the Earth, he activate on of the controls in the console and a panel in the wall lowered to reveal a window pointing at the Earth. He then activated another control that activated a radio that would send a message throughout the entire station.
“This is Commander Ovor speaking, all personnel stand by, Options begins in T-minus 20 seconds,” he said, and the message rang throughout the entire station as all the personnel prepared to begin the experiment.
Commander Ovor watched as the personnel in the control room set the controls of their consoles for the start of the experiment, he turned back to the radio.
“10 seconds,” he announced.
He activated yet another control and a white beam shot out from the front of the ship and covered the whole Earth without anyone on it noticing. He once again turned back to the radio.
“5…4…3…2…1…ACTIVATE,” he shouted and then every Jovicene on the ship activated one major part of their consoles as a golden sphere of light shot down the white beam and struck the Earth with an almighty flash.
Commander Ovor smiled, the Earth looked the same but on his console screen there was a long string of Earths, one for every member of the population.

Every person on Earth witnessed exactly the same thing, everyone around them suddenly vanish with them as the only one left. It took a view seconds for the Doctor to recover from seeing his companions disappear without warning, he had witnessed many strange thinks in his life but that was a first.

“Sir, the experiment is in full operation,” one of the Jovicenes informed Commander Ovor.
“Excellent Captain Holas, tell the Icinders that they may send in there people to Option 72,530,” Commander Ovor ordered.
“Yes sir,” came Captain Holas’s reply.
“Sir, there’s something odd here,” another Jovicene said.
“What is it Captain Umop?” Commander Ovor asked.
“There seem to be four more options then originally noted,” Captain Umop explained.
“Well maybe the computer made a miscalculation when we asked it what the population of the Earth would be when we arrived,” Commander Ovor suggested.
“Not likely,” Captain Umop replied, “It’s never miscalculated before and we made that calculation before we left Jovicene.”
“So what are you suggesting Captain?” Commander Ovor asked beginning to sound worried.
“That for more people have arrived on Earth outside the natural increase in population,” Captain Umop replied.
“Which options are they on?” Commander Ovor asked.
“Options 657, 93, 600,024 and 72,530,” Captain Umop replied.
Commander Ovor went back to his console and typed in some the numbers of the options into a keypad on it. The screen showed who was in each option, Vicki was in Option 93, Barbara was in Option 600,024, Ian was in Option 72,530 and The Doctor was in Option 657. When Ovor was looking at The Doctor a red light stated flashing on the console and two words appeared on the screen, NOT HUMAN.

Ian was wandering around the streets trying to find something that would help him find out why everyone had disappeared. He briefly saw something odd in the corner of his eye, looking round he saw over a garden wall something that was definitely not human. It was dark green and had a large bulk, four very thin arms two very short legs and no apparent head. It was standing in front of a rabbit’s hutch watching the rabbit eating a carrot. Ian saw that it was making notes on small hand held computer. Ian climbed over the wall and approached the creature.
“Er…Hello,” Ian said nervously has he slowly moved towards the creature.
The creature turned round and Ian saw that its face was in the middle of its chest.
“Ah, you are the human in this Option,” the creature said, as though it had expected Ian to be there.
“What? What Option?” Ian asked sounding confused.
“You may not understand, and I see no point in explaining since you won’t remember it afterwards,” the creature replied.
“Oh, well who are you then?” Ian asked, disappointed that the creature wasn’t going to explain what was going on.
“I am Tellm, I am from the planet Incinder,” the creature explained.
“Well I sort of guessed you’d be from another planet,” Ian commented.
“Oh, I just thought you might think of me as a man in a costume,” Tellm said, “Most humans would take that view now but if I’d turned up round the 1950’s they might think I was an alien. All though if whoever saw me was able to provide evidence anyone they showed it to would think of it as a hoax, the stupid things.”
“Well what are you doing here then?” Ian asked.
“There are a large number of my people scattered across this Option of the planet, we are studying the animal and plant life of this planet,” Tellm explained, “Tell me, what is this fascinating creature called?” he added turning back to the rabbit.
“That’s a rabbit,” Ian explained
“A rabbit,” repeated Tellm making a not on his hand held computer, “And why has it chosen to nest in this wooden box? I’ve been studying it and its anatomy suggests that it isn’t able to construct such a thing.”
“It didn’t,” Ian explained, “That was made by humans, the people that live in this house are keeping the rabbit as a pet.”
“A pet,” Tellm repeated, “What does that mean?”
“Well, they just keep it and look after it,” Ian replied, “I can’t really explain what it means.”
“I see,” Tellm replied, “I’ll go and find a different animal to examine, would you like to accompany me?
“Ok,” Ian replied, and they both left the garden and walked down the street.

Back on the Jovicene space station Commander Ovor was watching the scene the moment when the TARDIS materialized on his screen. He was intrigued as he watched its four occupants emerge.
“Captain Umop, go down to Option 657 and bring its subject here,” Commander Ovor ordered.
“Why sir?” Captain Umop asked.
“He is extra to the population, and the computer has revealed that he is not human,” Commander Ovor explained, “I want to know why he is there.”
“Yes sir,” Captain Umop replied.
Captain Umop left the control room and went to an almost completely empty room, like the others it was completely circular and in the center was a black disc about an inch high and two meters in diameter. Captain Umop went to stand on the disc that then vanished with him.

The Doctor stood by the TARDIS; he was waiting for some sort of indication of where his companions had gone. He then saw Captain Umop materialise right in front of him. To most people this would have come as a shock but the Doctor was used to seeing this sort of thing happening. Captain Umop stepped off the disc and approached the Doctor.
“Greetings, I am Captain Umop,” he said.
“Ah, yes hello Captain,” the Doctor replied, “I am the Doctor,” he added offering his hand to Captain Umop who shook being familiar with Earth customs, he made a mental note of this gesture from someone who wasn’t human.
“Greetings Doctor,” the Captain said, “I have been ordered to take you up to our space station, my commander would wish to know the reason for your presence on this planet.”
“An I would like to know where my companions are,” the Doctor said.
“You will know, in finding why you are here we will know why they are hear as well,” Captain Umop replied, “Please stand on the disc,” he added.
The Doctor complied and they both vanished.

Somewhere in the middle of the M1 a large Black space ship touched down with a loud thump. A ramp lowered from inside it and five aliens disembarked. These aliens were about eight feet high and two heads; one head held the nose, eyes, mouth and ears but the other head had no recognisable features at all, the featured head also had a horn curving over from the back. They each had a long tail with a set of spikes on the end and they were all carrying a gun. None of them spoke any understandable Earth language.
“We have been ordered to find and eliminate the subject of Option 93,” one of them said in their incomprehensible language, “They are not of major importance, this task is just merely to prevent her interfering with our main plan.”
“We understand,” the other four chorused.
They then opened up their second heads and removed a small disc with a button in the center. They pressed the buttons at the same time and vanished.

Captain Umop led the Doctor to the control room of the space station. He was very intrigued by its presence in Earth orbit and wanted to find out more.
“Welcome Doctor,” Commander Ovor said as the Doctor entered the control room, “I am Commander Ovor.”
“And I suppose you are in charge of all this,” the Doctor said.
“Yes, I am in full command of the space station Power Base 4 and the 8th Options experiment,” Commander Ovor replied.
“And what is this experiment?” the Doctor asked.
“Its more of behavior observation,” Commander Ovor explained, “We split the Earth into several separate Earths or Options as they’ve become known as, all existing at the same point in space and in the same dimension,” he added indicating the screen on his console which was showing the string of Earths again, “One Option for every member of the population, and each one is alone on their option. We observe their reactions to the situation”
“And why have you brought me here?” the Doctor asked.
“Because our computer calculated how vast the population would be when we arrived taking into account the natural increase in the Earth’s population,” Commander Ovor explained, “And when the experiment began there were four more options then calculated. And you and your companions were in those options. On top of that the computer said you weren’t human, what were you doing on the Earth?”
“I arrived completely by accident, I have no control of my ships destination,” the Doctor explained.
“Can you prove that?” Commander Ovor asked.
“If you mean take you with me in it, dematerialize, try and fail to get back then yes I can prove it, but I’d rather not,” the Doctor replied.
“Have it your way then,” Commander Ovor said, sounding disappointed.

[Kitten Kong Destroyed Wotan]

“You called it the 8th Options experiment,” the Doctor noted, “Why?”
“We have carried out this experiment before,” Commander Ovor explained, “The last time we carried it out was in 1985 right in the middle of Live aid,” he added chuckling, “You should have seen Bob Geldoff’s reaction.”
“This is the 8th one,” The Doctor said ignoring Commander Ovor, “When were the other 6 carried out?”
“I can show you some archive footage if you like,” Commander Ovor suggested.
“Oh very well then Commander,” the Doctor said.
Commander Ovor adjusted some controls on his console, there was a vast battle on the screen, men on horseback, arrows flying everywhere then the Options cut in and only one man was left.
“Option 770 of the first experiment, 1066, the battle of Hastings, King Harold,” Commander Ovor explained.
He adjusted the controls a bit more and it showed the London blitz of the Second World War, then all but one of the bombers plummeted towards the ground and exploded.
“Option 8,882 of the fifth experiment, 1941,” Commander Ovor noted.
“And how did he react?” the Doctor asked.
“Well at first he thought that they’d been hit by enemy fire but really the few RAF planes that had been there crashed as well so he continued with the bombing.”
“Tell me who long does each experiment run for?” the Doctor asked.
“24 hours, then we stop it,” Commander Ovor replied.
“And what happens when you stop it?” the Doctor asked.
“Well that’s simple…” Commander Ovor began but he was interrupted by Captain Holas.
“Commander, we’ve detected another alien in Option 600,024,” he said.
“Put it on my screen,” Commander Ovor ordered.
“Right away sir.”
The screen of Commander Ovor’s console showed a humanoid figure covered in green, orange and purple scales with long claws in place of its fingers; it had no here and bright yellow eyes. It ran off down the street it was in at high speed.
“What is that?” the Doctor asked, shocked at the sight of it.
“I’m not sure,” Commander Ovor said, “But I think it may be Uxpolien.”
“And what is an Uxpolien?” the Doctor asked.
“The Uxpoliens can alter their DNA to another form, but first they need to get a sample of basic DNA from someone,” Captain Holas explained.
“And how do they do that?” the Doctor asked.
“They stab their claws into their victims,” Captain Holas replied, grimacing.
“Who’s in that Option?” the Doctor asked, sounding like he was starting to panic, “Is it someone important? A major political figure?”
“No, its one of your companions,” Commander Ovor replied, worried.

Tellm was examining a Pigeon while Ian watched from a distance. Tellm stood up and the Pigeon flew away.
“What did you say that fascinating creature was called?” Tellm asked.
“A pigeon,” Ian replied.
“And that is a type of…bird was it?”
“Yes,” Ian replied again.
“Interesting, I have never seen a creature that could master flight without aid of an artificial piece of apparatus,” Tellm said.
“Believe me if it weren’t for birds we’d never even have considered making powered flight,” Ian explained.
“How fascinating it is that you have taken inspiration for many of your inventions from the world around you,” Tellm said, “I had been hoping to find and study a Dragon but I haven’t seen any around here.”
“I’m not surprised, Dragons don’t exist,” Ian explained.
“You mean they are extinct?” Tellm asked.
“No, they never existed, they’re mythical,” Ian explained.
“Oh,” Tellm said sounding disappointed, “What about a Mermaid?”
“Mythical,” Ian replied.
“Hydra?”
“Mythical.”
“Dodo?”
“Extinct.”
“What about a Yeti?” Tellm asked.
“Well that’s different, no one has actually proved that it doesn’t exist so maybe,” Ian explained.
“Are there other creatures like that, whose existence hasn’t been proved or disproved?” Tellm asked sounding interested.
“Well the other two more famous one are Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster,” Ian replied.
“Interesting, I may try and put further investigation into those at a later time,” Tellm muttered to himself.
“Well if you want to study animals I’d suggest going to a farm or the local zoo,” Ian said.
“Ah yes, I know what those are, and some of my race are already looking around some of those,” Tellm explained, “But I really would like to examine one of these extinct species, I am really fascinated with the idea of the Dinosaurs. One group of several species, being the dominant life form of a planet without any sign of great intelligence,” Tellm said.
“Well if you want to study those I’d suggest a natural history museum,” Ian said.
“Well, lets find one of those then shall we,” Tellm said and strode off, Ian signed and followed.
“You still haven’t told me why all the other people have disappeared,” Ian said.
“As I said before, you may not understand,” Tellm replied.
“Try me.”
“Alright then,” Tellm said, and began explaining the Options experiment to Ian.

The Uxpolien hid down an alley of one the streets he’d just run along. He hoped that the experiment would give him a good hiding place while he looked for its subject. It didn’t matter to him if he added another murder charge to his list; he’d committed half of those whilst taking on a disguise, along with charges of fraud, theft, and an attempt to pass himself off as an extinct species. He had been running from the Uxpolien Law Force for at least a year and there had been times when he’d almost been caught. Then he spotted someone, an adult woman. Well, he thought to himself, that ugly thing would have to do; he watched the woman’s movements carefully. Barbara, unaware that she was being watched, decided to go back to the TARDIS.

The aliens aboard the space ship parked in the middle of the M1 were disembarking. Their leader was in the control room reporting back to their home planet.
“Yes, the Opus attack group are moving out now, they will be in their positions in a few hours,” he informed his superior.
“Excellent Leader Eln,” came the reply, “The Opes of Opus will soon conquer this planet, you were wise to choose this time to conquer it.”
“Our spies are very efficient, to give us information about this experiment Emperor Terrin,” Leader Eln said, “The experiment has been in progress for just over one hour, we will be fully ready by the time the 24 hours are up and the experiment is ended.”
“Excellent,” Emperor Terrin replied, and cut off the communication.

Commander Ovor had contact the planet Uxpolia, in an attempt to find out why one of their people was on Earth.
“We do give some aliens raves permission to come to Earth during the experiment, and this time only the Icinders permission this time, and they only wanted to study the planet, so why is one of your race down there without permission?” he said to the Uxpolien leader on the other end.
“The description you gave us matches that of one our convicted criminals,” the Uxpolien said.
“And who would that be?” Commander Ovor asked.
“Ipitum Kelleem, his crimes would result in several death sentences,” came the reply, “He has been on the run for a while, we’ll send some of our Law Enforces to aid in his capture.”
“Thank you sir,” Commander Ovor said relieved, “Signing off now.”

Captain Holas had taken the Doctor to a section of the ship that contained the personnel’s personal living quarters. The Doctor was led to one of them, like all the other rooms in the ship it was perfectly circular. Integrated into the walls were two screens and a semi-circular hatch, there was also a table attached to the wall and popped up on two legs with a chair in front of it.
“This is the sleeping section,” Captain Holas explained walking over to the semi-circular hatch, put his hand on a panel beside it and the hatch opened then a bed came out of it, “You program how long you want to sleep for and it’ll wake you up when that time is over.”
“And how do I do that?” the Doctor asked.
“This panel is thought sensitive,” Captain Holas explained, “You just think of the time and it’ll accept it.”
“That’s some very good technology,” the Doctor commented.
“Thank you,” Captain Holas said, smiling.
“What are these for?” the Doctor asked indicating the two screens.
“Well the one on the left is for communication, there’s a thought sensitive panel next to that one, just think of who you what to contact and you’ll be able to,” Captain Holas explained “As long as they’re on this station.”
“And the other one?” the Doctor asked.
“Well that can access our equivalent of the internet,” Captain Holas explained.
He then pulled a board out of the wall just under the screen with two thought sensitive pads.
“I suppose you just think of what you want to know and it’ll find it for you then,” the Doctor said.
“That’s right Doctor,” Captain Holas replied.
“And I notice that there is a thought sensitive pad on the table,” the Doctor said indicating it.
“Yes that’s for food, you just think of…” Captain Holas started.
“…whatever you want to eat,” the Doctor finished.
“Yes, I see your accepting this technology very well,” Captain Holas said.
“Well its not quite as advanced as what my people have developed over time but still very impressive,” the Doctor said chuckling.
“I see,” Captain Holas said sounding as though he didn’t really.
“But why don’t you have these thought sensitive pads in the control room or on any of the equipment used to carry out the experiment?” the Doctor asked.
“The experiment is too complicated to be controlled by thought Doctor,” Captain Holas explained.
“Ah, I thought it might be that,” the Doctor said, “Quite understandable Captain.”
Then without warning the communication screen came on, showing Commander Ovor on the other end.
“Doctor, Captain Holas, we’ve just discovered a large number of an alien race in Option 93,” Commander Ovor said, “I think you should get back here right now.”

In the control room Commander Ovor was looking at the screen of his console, it showed on the Opes of Opus in an ordinary street, the Doctor and Captain Holas came in and the Doctor went straight over to the Commander’s console.
“That’s the street my TARDIS materialized in,” he said, shocked.
“Yes it is Doctor,” Commander Ovor replied, “And that isn’t the only alien in that part of the Option.”
“Yes but what are they?” The Doctor asked.
“That is one of the Opes, from the planet Opus,” Commander Ovor said.
“And is there anything else you want to tell me?” the Doctor asked.
“Yes,” Commander Ovor said, “One of your companions is in that Option.”
Commander Ovor adjusted one of the controls and the screen flicked to a picture of Vicki standing by the TARDIS.

Vicki had decided to stay by the TARDIS because she was certain that wondering off could cause more problems then she already had, and she was unaware that the Ope was slowly moving towards her. But thinking she heard something she looked round and spotted it. They both looked at each, Vicki started backing away slowly as the Ope advanced towards her. The Ope had a nasty grin on its face. It started chuckling wickedly and raised its spiked tail into the air. Then it raised its gun, pointing straight at Vicki. Vicki looked at it then turned around and ran, only to run straight into the other four Opes around a corner, all of them with the same grin on their faces and their guns raised. The first Ope came round behind her and pointed its gun straight at her head.

The Doctor watched this happening on the screen, each moment of it made him become more and more worried about what was going to happen next.
“You’ve got to do something,” he said to Commander Ovor, agitated at the fact that the Commander was only watching the screen and not taking any action at all.
“There isn’t any point in doing anything,” Commander Ovor said.
“What do you mean there’s no point, those things obviously intend to kill her,” the Doctor said, his voice getting steadily louder as he spoke.
“Yes, I know,” Commander Ovor replied, sounding very calm.
“Then why aren’t you doing anything,” the Doctor shouted, the Commander’s calmness making his temper rise.
“Because there is no point,” Commander Ovor said again.

Vicki couldn’t move for fear of the creatures that now surrounded her, as they advanced closed and closer, a high wicked cackling coming from all five of them. She closed her eyes, knowing that the end was soon near. Then the Ope behind her gave the fatal order that Vicki only heard as a series of gargling, hissing and roaring.
“Kill her,” he ordered.
All five of them opened fire, letting less blasts of energy from their guns, each one firing at least six shots. Vicki collapsed, a look of shock and fear on her face and her body was covered in burn marks from where the shots had hit her. The Ope that had given the order bent down to examine her body, she was definitely dead. He then opened up his second head and removed a flat square object, he held it flat in his hand a hologram of Leader Eln came out of it.
“Report, Soldier Captain Jonz,” Eln said.
“The subject of Option 93 has been eliminated sir,” Jonz replied.
“Excellent Captain,” Eln said, smiling wickedly, “Return to the ship.”
“Yes sir,” Jonz replied and the hologram vanished.
Jonz put the square back in his head and extracted his matter transmitter disc, as did the other four Opes. Then all activated the discs and vanished. Leaving Vicki’s body in the middle of the street.

[Kitten Kong Destroyed Wotan]

Chapter 2 part 1 (By Mrmatt)

The Doctor stared in disbelief at the scene before him on the monitor. The broken body of Vicki lay on the ground, lifeless, like a puppet that had had its strings cut. She was dead and he was to blame, first Susan had left and now, Vicki was dead and he was to blame. He had just started to grow fond of the girl and she had died and it was his fault, no wait it wasn’t it was this Ovor chaps' fault. He hadn’t installed any safety precautions in the system that would prevent outside interference. He turned round and stared at the Commander.
“Sir, because of your fool hardy experiments, one of my companions lied dead on the ground. What do you have to say for yourself? Hmmm?”
“Doctor, I’m sorry for your loss..”
“SORRY! Sorry doesn’t cover it young man, a young girl is dead and you are to blame”
“Doctor everything is alright, once the option has run its course everything returns to how it was before it began, the dead return to life and no-one is any the wiser” Ovor replied a smile on his face. The Doctor looked at the man, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing they sectioned off individuals to run experiments and the return them back to what they were doing with no knowledge of what had just happened. Yes, it seemed typical enough for the inhabitants of this planet, who didn’t have a clue what was happening around them unless it jumped up and down in front of them waving their arms around. However at least on the plus side Vicki was alive, or would be when the experiment ended. The questions remained, who was it that killed Vicki, why did they and why wasn’t Ovor doing anything about it.
“So why are they here then, hmmm?” the Doctor said waving his arm at the screen in front of him.
“They are as I said the Opes of Opus and they are a highly dangerous species, I don’t know what they are doing here, they have no permission to be on this planet.”
“Well do something about it young man” the Doctor said, the attitude of the Commander was really beginning to grate at his nerves.
“Doctor we are merely observers, being a man of science you should know that any interference during an experiment could cause anomalies”. The Doctor knew that he was right but didn’t like to admit it, the second this debacle was over, he would go down to the planets surface retrieve the others and leave the planet.

Arthur Kershaw sat on the park bench feeding the ducks, which were happily quacking away in front of him, vying with the pigeons for the crusts of bread he was throwing. Arthur was seventy and had retired from his job as a tailor a couple of years ago, they said he had to his shaking hands, meant that his seams were not as straight as they should be, and that he might as well retire and spend more time with his wife. She was away for the week at her sisters in Brighton and now all he had for company were the ducks. He thought back to that day, the day they said that it would be best for him to retire, the day his life ended, the day that since he had no idea what to do with himself. He had worked constantly from a young age, only taking holidays, when he needed them. Since he had retired he spent much of his time at home with his wife, they still loved each other even after nearly fifty years of marriage, it was just the tedium of spending most of the day sat around the house doing nothing that got to him. Now here he was sat in the park feeding the ducks until Countdown came on, then he would go home, watch Countdown, with a rather garishly suited Richard Whiteley. He looked about him, the park was unusually quite, even for this time of day, there were normally young mothers with children in pushchairs and people walking their dogs in the park at this time, but today, something was different. The atmosphere was different; he couldn’t even hear nay cars, which was highly suspect. Had he gone deaf, no he was being stupid he could still hear the ducks in front of him quacking. Too many late nights, probably he thought to himself, little knowing what was going on around him on another version of the small blue-green planet he inhabited.

Ian found Tellm an interesting companion to walk with, his enthusiasm for the world around him was contagious, he felt a grin spread across his face every time Tellm went running off after the most mundane things exclaiming, “what’s this?” Then when Ian had caught up to him and started explaining what it was he would take out a strange notepad that wouldn’t look out of place in one of the Flash Gordon serials Ian remembered seeing in the cinema. They were on their way to the museum they had seen signposted, to look at dinosaurs, it had been a long while since Ian had last been to a museum and seen dinosaurs, the imposing diplodocus skeleton at London’s Natural History Museum, was firmly imprinted on his mind. They were terrifying creatures when they were dead, so heaven only knew what they must have been like when they were alive, perhaps he should ask the Doctor to take them back some time to have a look.
“Tellm you still haven’t explained to me where everybody else on the planet is” Ian said.
“Well” Tellm paused “it’s like this, the earth is under the control of this group of aliens called the Jovicenes, they run a group of co-existent parallel earths where they run experiments to test certain factors” Ian snorted
“You expect me to believe that do you?” he said a slight grin on his face, although with the Doctor around he supposed anything could be possible.
“It’s true, you should have seen the look on President Kennedy’s face in Dallas in 1963” Tellm said running off to smell a daisy. Hang on thought Ian, President Kennedy had arrived in Dallas the day he had left Earth with Barbara and the Doctor, had this really being happening to him before he left Earth, had it happened to him. He chased after Tellm, wanting to know more.
“They put everything back to how it was afterwards and make sure no-one has any memory of the events though, poor Kennedy still ended up dead along with King Harold at Hastings...” he trailed off for a second looking at the daisy. Ian shook his head to clear his thoughts, President Kennedy was dead, shame really he had seemed as though he could have provided some hope for America’s future against Russia.
“Anyway” Tellm continued picking himself up out of his silence “they invite different aliens hear for a variety of reasons during these experiments for a variety of different reasons, we’re here to research and better understand this planet, that’s why I’m looking at all the animals”. The two companions arrived at the museum just as Tellm finished explaining this and they started up the stairs of the museum. The museum may not have been that different from most museums from the out side but inside it was another story. The place had large marble effect floors, with large ionic columns flanking the length of the hall, hiding off to the different exhibits and there dominating the centre of the room was a large suit of armour:
“if only I’d brought my tin opener” joked Ian.
“What is that?” Tellm asked pointing at the suit of armour looking worried as though he expected it to come to life any minute.
“Don’t worry you’re quite safe, it’s a form of protection from the past, it was worn in battle”
“I was worried because I didn’t think you humans were sophisticated enough to build robotic servants”
“Thanks I think” Ian said, not sure whether to be amused or offended. He lead the way to the dinosaur exhibits past glass cases full of chimpanzee skulls and fish fossils, his mind still unsure of how all this was going on, he needed to speak to the Doctor and he needed to speak to him soon.

Barbara wandered the empty streets, wondering to herself where everyone had gone; she couldn’t see the Doctor, Ian or Vicki anywhere. She found this disconcerting, when you travelled with the Doctor, you expected at least one member of your group to disappear, but all of them and everyone else in the area was just too strange. She rounded the corner to the TARDIS to see if they were all there waiting for her to turn up so they could leave. No luck, the street where the Doctor had parked the TARDIS was just as deserted. Barbara turned on her heel and headed back in the direction she had come from. There was a flicker of movement in front of her.

The Opes moved out, they had no idea exactly how long the experiment would last, so they had to move themselves quickly to get into the best position to achieve maximum destruction. They ran across road in tight formation and converged in a park.
“Right this is the plan” Leader Eln said as the last remaining Opes arrived. “We all spread out into different areas of this planet each of us in large densely populated areas, to create havoc, you” he said pointing at a random soldier “where are you heading?”
“Salt Lake City, sir”
“Population?”
“Almost one million sir”
“I want them all dead”
“SIR” and with that he was gone.
“Right you lot, don’t stand around there like the slack-eyed nurn-toads you are GO!!”
There was a sound of a massive number of teleporters being activated and the group in front of him was gone. Leader Eln rubbed his hands gleefully together, waiting the destruction that was to follow.

Ian and Tellm looked up at the imposing Tyrannosaurus Rex in front of them, it was big, really big and had had rather large teeth. The darkness of its bones, a result of the fossilising process made it seem even more sinister.
“There he stands, his majesty the king of the tyrant lizards, in all his regal glory” Ian said a rather large smile, “deposed by a meteorite they reckon, just show how we are all insignificant to natures whims”
“They’re wrong” he heard a voice come from round the other side of the skeleton, Tellm poked his head round the corner “well not wrong as such, more right idea, wrong about what crashed”.
“I suppose you know do you” Ian said, a slightly sarcastic tone in his voice, the tone he frequently sued on the Doctor when he tried to disprove something Ian knew.
“ I do actually, it was a spaceship”
“What?” Ian thought Tellm was joking with him, but the conviction in his face told he wasn’t
“Yes, there was an experiment in the Jurassic period that went err wrong and nearly caused the extinction of the species too early and that would have caused a real problem to the planets development. However it was all sorted only for someone to go and crash a spaceship smack bang into the planet and do the job anyway”.
“How do you know all this anyway”
“I read it in the records, that’s how I know” Tellm said looking up at the macabre image in front of him.
“Oh right, so while we’re here what else do you want to look at?”
“I’ve heard about this Darwin, I was wondering if I could have a look at what he did, for one of you humans he was quite intelligent”.
“Ah evolution, an interesting idea, not really my field of expertise but lets have a look anyway” Ian said and began weaving his way past cases filled with Velociraptor claws and dummies of Neanderthal men with spears. Seeing these brought back memories of his first trip with the Doctor and the Cave of Skulls and the Neanderthals they met then.

[Kitten Kong Destroyed Wotan]

Chapter 2 part 2 (By Mrmatt)

He shivered as the memories of burning skulls faded from his mind to be replaced by images of skulls and reconstructed skeletons behind ropes and glass cases in front of him. For all he knew one of these piles of grinning bodies could be them, his mind wandered again for a second back to the jungle and the Doctor poised ready to strike the killing blow and how he had stopped the Doctor from carrying out the actions. The Doctor, what had happened to him? Did he know what was going? Then there was Barbara she had left Earth with him, and they had travelled together for however long it was, that was the problem with the TARDIS, it may be a time machine but time seemed to move differently inside. Tellm brought him back down to earth,
“ That’s not right”
“What isn’t?”
“Well as far as I remember people in these times didn’t smoke tobacco and if they did they definitely didn’t smoke it with a pipe”
“Ah I think I can explain that” Ian said a smile on his face and he proceeded to tell the story of his first adventure with the Doctor in the Cave of Skulls.

The Doctor was in one of the rooms on the ship, he had tried going to sleep but every time he closed his eyes, he thought of Vicki being gunned down in front of his eyes and being powerless to help her, it could just as easily have been his beloved granddaughter Susan, if she wasn’t over 150 years in the future. He had tried to work the thought-controlled panels to dim the lights and see if that would work, it didn’t. He was lying down on the bed staring at the ceiling when a noise alerted him that there was an incoming call on the monitor. He looked across and decided it might be best to answer it. The question was, how did he answer it did he just think about answering it or did he have to press some buttons? He tried the easier option first and thought about answering a call. The face of Commander Ovor appeared on the screen. ‘Just what I need’ thought the Doctor.
“Doctor I just want you to know that we have located your male companion and he is quite safe, he is currently with a less hostile species and they are looking at museum exhibits together”
Typical Chesterton, going off and looking around in museums when there was trouble going on.
“Thank you Commander, is that all?
“Yes Doctor for now, I also want to say that as soon as the experiment is over, we will reunite you and all your companions.”
“Thank you Commander, now if you don’t mind I would like to get some sleep, good night” With that the Doctor shut off the communications link and thought of the best thing to relax him enough to sleep, a nice cup of coco. Slowly on the table a white mug with a blue rim appeared on the table steam gently wafting upwards from it, a dark brown liquid inside and the smell of chocolate filled the air. Smells were interesting things, they brought back lots of memories and this was true even for the Doctor. He remembered the cup of coco he had shared with Cameca in the Aztec Gardens, so long ago. “At least I didn’t end up engaged this time” he thought and chuckled to himself as he sipped his coco.

Arthur rose stiffly from the bench, his old joints aching he put his and in his waistcoat pocket and produced his fathers pocket watch. He looked at the white dial with its black Roman numerals and watched the hands slowly tick their way round, 3:00, just enough time to call to the newsagents and pick up a copy of the newspaper to catch up on the latest events around the world. He placed the watch with its intricate workings back in his pocket and made his way slowly to the shop. He was wondering which newspaper it would be best to get, he wasn’t bothered really as long as it wasn’t a tabloid, with it’s usual headline’s about Big Brother and nobodies trying desperately to get noticed. He thought about it some more and realised that left him with a limited pool and he didn’t feel like doing The Times crossword or Sudoku puzzles so thought he would go for The Sun instead. The streets were just as empty as the park had been things really were getting unusual. He arrived at Winston’s newsagents, Arthur liked Winston, he had arrived in the 1950’s from Jamaica and had taken over the local shop not long after. The shop had been there for years and Winston was a reassuring presence, always there with a smile and asking how the family were. It was only small talk but the fact that he cared enough to ask always made Arthur happy because it showed that he cared enough to even think of asking. He pushed the door open and walked in and heard not the familiar “Hello Arthur, how’s the family?” spoken in Winston’s soft Jamaican accent but silence. Things were starting to worry Arthur, Winston was always somewhere on the shop floor and yet he wasn’t anywhere in sight.
“Winston, hello it’s Arthur are you there?” Nothing. He peered over the counter to see if Winston had collapsed, he hadn’t, a fact for which Arthur was grateful, he hadn’t got the first clue what he would do if that had happened. He grabbed a copy of the paper with it’s headline “Big Brother Beauty Quits”, typical, he put his hand in his pocket, took out the exact change and left it by the till with a note for Winston, in case he was upstairs. He left the shop and began to make his way back to his home to watch Countdown and then read the newspaper.

Leader Eln made his own way to his assigned spot, the place where he was to begin his massacre to ensure an Opesian stronghold in this sector of the galaxy. The Opes were a strong race trained to fight and conquer, they had beaten off many threats, including the feared Jartrons, this planet would be no problem. He arrived in a relatively large open area with a fountain topped with a statue, a large number of streets lead off from this central point, according to the reconnaissance surveys this spot was called Piccadilly Circus. Eln made himself comfortable around the base of the statue and began dismantling and reassembling his gun just to keep his mind alert and his fingers nimble.
The Doctor finished his mug of coco, and put it down on the table in front of him and tried again to get back sleep. The lights had dimmed to a dusky orange, similar to the first light of dawn, just bearable enough to sleep in. He closed his eyes and drifted off into a deep sleep only to be woken by the sound of the communication device in the corner of the room to alert him to the fact that there was yet another incoming call from someone who obviously didn’t appreciate the idea of people sleeping. He opened a cautious eye and looked at the monitor, to see who was disturbing him this time. It was some minor lieutenant by the name of Gring who the Doctor didn’t really want to speak to, but as he was in their ship, he better be hospitable.
“Yes, I was trying to sleep” he snapped
“Doctor, I was wondering whether you knew that your female companion, not the one that err,” he quickly changed the subject “well it’s the elder of the two females you were travelling with, I wondered if you would like an update on her progress”
“Young man I was trying to sleep and you disturb me and bring up a delicate issue, that was caused by you and your superiors. I would only like it if you informed of any changes in the safety of my companions and when my companion who you so delicately tried to avoid is revived. Thank you and good bye!” With that final out burst he shut off the monitor and seated himself back down on the bed and tried to get back to sleep.

Arthur got home just in time to make a cup of tea and catch the familiar opening music of Countdown. There was Whiteley as smug as ever a grin on his face, welcoming people to another episode of Countdown. Arthur only watched Countdown because it made him feel smart to try and beat the contestants at the games. He settled down into the chair to watch the show and got ready to try and prove to himself that he was still good at something. His thoughts wandered to his wife and he wondered what she was doing at this precise moment, if she was watching Countdown. He decided to ring her at her sisters, he got out of the chair careful not to knock over the packet of chocolate digestives he had on the side, and walked over to the phone and began dialling his wife’s sisters. The phone rang and rang for ages but to no avail, there was no answer, they must have been out, so he decided he would try again later. He walked back over to the chair and watched the rest of Countdown whilst drinking his tea and eating digestives, normally Mary wouldn’t let him have biscuits, but whilst she was away he was going to have them. Countdown finished and he decided to try again, it was getting late and they must be back by now, it was going to be getting near teatime so they would be back waiting for the food to cook. He picked up the receiver, there was a dialling tone, but when he dialled the number and waited the phone just rang and rang until the robot answer machine woman’s voice came on, there was no way he was talking to a machine, so he hung up and decided to have a go at the crossword.

Barbara leaned against the TARDIS’ familiar shell staring at the street she had just come out from, looking hard at the dark shadows the buildings cast, she was certain she had seen something hovering around there, something she could have sworn didn’t look human. Barbara could cope with things that weren’t human, you got used to them with the Doctor, as long as it wasn’t a dalek, she had met those metal monotonous monsters, once too often. There was definitely something there, she had to go and investigate, but she couldn’t leave the TARDIS in case the others returned and went looking for her. Where were they, it was nearly half four and they she hadn’t seen a single person walk past. Even it was a bank holiday, there should have been some people walking by, returning home, or if it was a school day, school should have finished by now, but there was no-one around. She was getting fed up of waiting and slightly put on edge by the fact that no-one had turned up so she decided to go for a walk around, she left in the opposite direction to the one she arrived from. The killer in the shadows was really starting to get angry, why couldn’t the woman just get that bit closer, so he could attack and get the feel for the human form? He had had enough, it was now or never, he would follow, this woman and strike her when she was at her most vulnerable. He slinked off, making sure that he stuck close to the sides of building and to shadows.

A claxon sounded, in the circular control room of the Jovicene ship, a red light flashed on and off at an alarming rate.
“Report Lieutenant” yelled the Commander, his tone authoritative and urgent
“Sir the killer in the Doctor’s other female companions option is on the move and is edging slowly closer”
“Why are the sirens going off then?”
“Well, sir, it’s like this” the lieutenant who had interrupted the Doctors sleep explained haltingly how he had set up the system to warn of any problems in the sectors where Ian and Barbara were.
“Get the Doctor up here now” Commander Ovor said coolly, the lieutenant, did the traditional double handed salute of the Jovicene’s, clicked his heels together and marched swiftly down the corridor to the Doctors’ room.

The door to his room slid open, the Doctor opened one eye, it was the lieutenant who had disturbed his sleep, earlier and he was doing it again. The Doctor sat up and turned to face him, using the look that he frequently used against Chesterton when trying to explain something.
“Young man I thought I’d asked you not to disturb me when I was sleeping unless it was important!”
“Doctor, I know but Commander Ovor insists that you see him on the bridge at once” Gring said, trying to imitate Ovor’s authoritative tone, instead sounding more like a frightened schoolboy stood before the headmaster for a small prank. The Doctor sighed heavily and made his way to the control room.

“Ah Doctor, I understand you asked not to be disturbed unless one of your companions were in trouble, well because of you Gring here” he pointed at Gring who had walked in behind the Doctor, who promptly hid his face and pretended to busy pressing buttons “he took it on himself to set up a system warning us of any such occurrences”.
“And you’re accusing me of what precisely?” The Doctor was beginning to get angry with this man; these military types were all the same, all mouth and little brain.
“Nothing Doctor, I would just appreciate it if you didn’t give my men the impression that you are in charge and not me”
“I’m sorry Commander, you fetched me just to say that, I have been trying to sleep ever since what happened to Vicki and have had nothing but interruptions. Now if you don’t mind sir, I shall return to my rooms and try to get some rest” The Doctor turned on his heel and started towards the door when Commander Ovor’s voice said:
“Actually Doctor, there is one other reason, the female Barbara, I believe you said her name was, her situation has worsened” The Doctor stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widened as he remembered what was sharing the same scenario as Barbara.
“Young man, you have to get here out of there immediately, you have killed one of my companions in your options already today, I would prefer it if you didn’t make it an even number”
“Doctor, I cannot interfere with the experiment at this late stage, the damage that could be wrought is unimaginable.” Gring watched the scene unfold in front of whilst on the screen, the killer edged closer, hunger and insanity glinting in its evil eyes.

“Fascinating” Tellm looked at Ian who had just finished telling him about the Cave of Skulls, “and this TARDIS allows you to go anywhere in Time and Space?”
“Yes”
“So you were actually there in Palaeolithic times and were the ones responsible for this anomaly?
“Yes” Ian was beginning to laugh as he realised how ridiculous all this sounded
“Where is this Doctor friend of yours then?”
“I don’t really know, but you’d like him Tellm, he’s a scientist and you share the same magpie curiosity” Tellm looked at him confused “a magpie is bird, it’s renowned for its curiosity and is seen investigating anything that takes its eye.” The two of them wandered around looking at different exhibits in the museum, things from different periods in earth history and different animals from the wide world, primates of all shapes and sizes and a great white shark, which was hidden around a corner, that caused both of them to jump back sharply. They both burst into fits of laughter as they realised what had happened.
“So Tellm, how long until this experiment is over?”
“It depends on when they think its run its course, it could be a few hours or another day at the most” Tellm replied, not glancing over his shoulder, largely because he had his head inside the sharks mouth looking around.
“A whole day, isn’t there anyway we can reach them so I can find out where my friends are?” Ian asked
“No, sorry Ian, they can only be found when they want to be”
“I see, so we’re stuck here until this experiment ends” Ian was starting to feel gloomy, he wanted to see the Doctor and tell him what was going on, something was deeply wrong here.
The two of them wandered around the museum for a further half-hour and were just wandering back through the dinosaur exhibit when a creaking sound above them alerted Ian to a problem, the Iguanodon skeleton next to him lurched violently, the metal wires to the ceiling, keeping it upright and in place had snapped! The skeleton fell to the ground, Ian pushed Tellm violently out of harms way, playing the hero as he had grown used to doing. The skeleton fell and landed full on top of him.

[Kitten Kong Destroyed Wotan]

Chapter 3 part 1

Tellm looked in shock at the skeleton on top of his friend. He cautiously moved in closer in case anything else would suddenly collapse. Examining Ian he found that he was only unconscious, though Tellm wasn’t sure if this was good or bad in humans. Falling unconscious for his species would be devastating, their body would have been unprepared for the sudden deactivation and would have exploded. Their scientists hadn’t yet found out why they exploded but it was all the more reason to avoid it. Ian hadn’t exploded so Tellm assumed that it was a good sign. Then Tellm thought he heard something move. Looking around he saw nothing but then he noticed that the skeletons head was rising. Tellm retreated away from it as the dead Iguanodon rose to its feet and then Tellm watched in fascination as muscles, organs and skin began to form around the skeleton until it was a fully living Iguanodon.
“Incredible,” Tellm muttered to himself.
Making quick notes on his computer pad he watched the dinosaur examine its surroundings and then storm off in the direction of the main entrance though Tellm wasn’t sure if it would fit. If it could come back from the dead after several million years it may be able to squeeze through a hole smaller than it. He then heard a slight moan, and turning round saw that Ian was recovering from having a skeleton fall on him.
“Ouch, that really hurt,” Ian groaned trying to get to his feet, “If an Iguanodon is that dangerous dead I’d hate to see what its like when its alive, even for a herbivore.”
“Well that Iguanodon seems to be a miracle of wild life,” Tellm said.
“What do you mean by that?” Ian asked looking puzzled.
“It has just returned to life, recovering lost skin and organs and it is perfectly alive,” Tellm said a tone of excitement in his voice.
“I was wondering why it wasn’t on top of me,” Ian said laughing.
“And I thought I wouldn’t be able to study live dinosaurs,” Tellm said his excitement mounting.
“Well I don’t think it wouldn’t have been able to do that naturally,” Ian said.
“Why do you say that?” Tellm asked himself looking puzzled now.
“Well if it could it would probably have done so years ago, that thing has been dead for several million years it would have done it almost immediately if it could be done naturally,” Ian explained.
“What are you suggesting?” Tellm asked.
“That something strange has caused that thing to come back to life,” Ian said.

In Option 93 some Opes who had been waiting in the same natural history museum had witnessed the same thing and had promptly opened fire at the resurrected creature. When it was dead the immediately contacted Leader Eln.

“Commander Ovor, we’ve picked up an anomaly in the experiment,” Captain Holas reported sounding worried.
“What’s happening?” Commander Ovor asked.
Holas indicated the screen he had been watching and Commander Ovor saw the Iguanodon
“What is that creature,” he asked shocked.
“An Iguanodon sir,” Holas explained, “It’s supposed to be extinct.”
“Which Option did this happen in Captain?” Ovor asked.
“All of them sir,” Holas replied.
“How did this happen?”
Captain Holas made some adjustments to his controls until the screen showed the Iguanodon returning to life.
“There’s an anomaly in the experiment Captain,” Ovor said reaching this conclusion quickly, “Search for anything that either shouldn’t be there, isn’t connected with where we are or is just unknown to us.”
“But surely the presence of the Opes and the Uxpolien are the cause of it?” Captain Holas suggested.
“No, the mere presence of an alien creature couldn’t cause this sort of anomaly,” Ovor explained, then realising something he added, “I think I should speak to the Doctor about this,” and he left the control room.

“And so ends Big Brother 2007, see you next year.”
Arthur did a double take at this; Big Brother 2005 had only just started so how could they be showing the finale of a series that wasn’t due for another two years, and Arthur had been hoping it would be axed by then. He’d only turned on Channel 4 to watch the news and here they were showing a TV show that hadn’t been made yet. He tried the other channels, BBC 1 were showing the first episode of the Goodies, BBC 2 were showing the 20th anniversary episode of the Weakest Link presented by Brooklyn Beckham, ITV were showing an episode of the Tomorrow People and channel five were announcing that they were closing down after twenty years of broadcasting. Arthur thought that he was either going mad or just having a bad day. He decided to try and cope with it and decided to watch the Goodies, he hadn’t seen it in years and they were showing the episode with the giant kitten.

“Fascinating, most fascinating,” The Doctor muttered to himself as he watched the Iguanodon, “And what do you think caused the anomaly?”
“We don’t know,” Commander Ovor explained, “I wanted to know if you might have any suggestions about it.”
“Well it seems to be some sort of temporal anomaly,” The Doctor said, “So it may have something to do with my ship.”
“Why do you say that Doctor?” Ovor asked, “Is the technology on board to advanced for the Options experiment to cope with keeping it stable?”
“Quite possibly, it may have been triggered by the Opes and the Uxpolien,” the Doctor explained, “But the major effects are definitely caused by my ship.”
“And why is you ship causing temporal anomalies?” Ovor asked.
“My ship is capable of traveling in time and space Commander,” The Doctor explained.
“Are you being serious?” Ovor asked sounding serious himself.
“Perfectly,” the Doctor replied.

Leader Eln watched in surprise as a pigeon that had landed in front of him started to age and die, and then go back again. This was getting weird, first a supposedly dead creature coming back to life then a perfectly alive creature becoming to old to live. As he watched the pigeon hatch for the ninth time he decided to just shoot it, and he did so successfully. Opes lived to kill, he remembered the first thing he’d killed. It was a bully at the school he’d been to. Eln had been able to put up with it until he went to excrete in his second head. When he’d gone home, stolen his father’s gun and shot the bully when he got to school. The school controller had awarded him a prize and made him school assassin, his main job being to shoot the competition from other schools on sports day. He chuckled at how he’d taken out the fifty-mile runner about a metre from the finish line. He’d also had the honor of executing of executing the previous Ope leader; all Ope leaders were executed when their term was over.

In Salt Lake city the Opes were getting into their positions. Squad Leader Pux was receiving a report from one of the Soldiers.
“We have learnt that President George W Bush was present on a Presidential visit,” the soldier reported.
“Excellent, send soldiers to his position, we must take out as many world leaders as possible,” Pux said wickedly.
“Yes sir,” the soldier replied and rushed off to obey his orders.

Commander Ovor stood in front of a group of Uxpoliens. The all had different colored scales and were wearing a dark blue uniform with an eye on the left side of the chest. Ovor noted that the criminal they were after was wearing the same uniform, he’d probably stolen it to aid his escape.
“Right, from what I have been told your target is the criminal Ipitum Kelleem,” Commander Ovor said addressing the Uxpoliens, “So you have been sent here to find and arrest him. Once you have succeeded in that mission, I would ask that you help us with the problem of the Opes.”
“Yes sir,” the Uxpoliens all replied.
“Commander,” the Doctor said taking Ovor by surprise, as he had been completely unaware of his presence.
“Yes Doctor, what do you want?” Ovor asked.
“I would like to go down with them, to make sure that my companion is safe,” The Doctor replied, “And that I would like to also help in with the Ope problem.”
“Ah, I assume you would wish to have revenge for what they did to Vicki,” Ovor said.
“I wouldn’t use that term,” The Doctor said, “I merely want to make sure that they are brought to justice for what they have done.”
“I understand Doctor,” Ovor replied, then he addressed the Uxpoliens, “You will find the criminal in Option 600,024. He is currently stalking a female of the Human species, I think you can guess what his plans for her may be.”

Tellm and Ian were cautiously following the Iguanodon, observing its movements with interest. Tellm was constantly making notes of its behaviour.
“This is truly fascinating, an extinct creature walking the Earth again,” Tellm said enthusiastically.
Then he looked up from his note pad to see the Iguanodon collapse and slowly rot to a skeleton again.
“How did that happen?” Tellm asked in amazement.
“Presumably that was caused by whatever made it come to life again in the first place,” Ian suggested.
“Yes I suppose so,” Tellm said.
“Well at least the lucky thing got a few extra minutes of life,” Ian said laughing.
Tellm moved closer to examine the skeleton. Making a few more notes on computer.
“Well Ian, I think we’d better find something else to look at,” he said and headed off in the opposite direction.

The Doctor and the Uxpoliens were in the Matter Transmission room and all standing on the disc there.
“So what do you plan to sentence this creature to when you have arrested him?” The Doctor asked.
“It has already been decided that he is to be given the death penalty at least five times,” one of the Uxpoliens said.
“And how do you plan to do that?” The Doctor asked.
“Our scientists are working on it,” was all the Doctor got in reply.
“Good luck with your mission,” Commander Ovor said standing by the door.
The disc dematerialised and Commander Ovor turned to leave when a communication screen in the room activated. Captain Holas was on the other end.
“What is it Capter?” Ovor asked.
“We’ve lost contact with some of the Options sir,” Holas replied.
“Which Options?” Ovor asked.
“Options 5, 667, 2956, 600,024 and 725,304,” Holas replied.
“Then that means we won’t be able to monitor the Uxpoliens or be able to know if they’re in trouble,” Ovor said slowly realising, “Get those Options back on line as soon as possible and that is an order.”
“Yes sir,” Holas replied and the screen deactivated.

Barbara was getting tired as she continued walking round the streets looking for others. She decided to just go back to the TARDIS and wait. Turning round she move closer to where Ipitum Kelleem was hiding.

The Matter Transmitter Disc materialised in the street near the TARDIS. The Doctor went over to it and pulled out his key.
“Doctor what are you doing?” one of the Uxpoliens asked.
“I think I may have some equipment in my ship which could help in us in our search, and maybe in getting rid of the Opes,” the Doctor explained.
Then they all heard a loud scream.

Ipitum Kelleem had become very impatient from waiting for Barbara to move closer to him. He had almost given up when she’d changed direction. Preparing for his attack a hole opened up in his right hand. A few seconds after Barbara had passed him he shot out from his hiding place and grabbed her from behind. Taken by surprise Barbara screamed from fright but Ipitum stifled this by cover her mouth with his right hand. This wasn’t really to silence her since he assumed there wasn’t anyone who’d here it and try to rescue her. A gas was being pumped out of the hole in his hand into Barbara’s mouth, the gas made her feel drowsy and she collapsed at his feet, unconscious. He was just about to insert his claws into chest when he heard sudden running feet. He reckoned that it may take them a few minutes to reach where he was, Uxpoliens had excellent hearing senses. Ipitum quickly started looking for a place to hide, finally he settled on one of the houses in the street. After checking under the flower posts and the doormat he deduced that the owners probably didn’t have problems with losing keys. So instead he inserted one of his claws into the lock and turned it, it opened easily. Upon entering the burglar alarm activated but he silenced this by simply stabbing one of his claws into it. After dragging Barbara inside he closed and locked the door.

“I was sure it came from here,” one of the Uxpoliens said as after they’d arrived at the spot where Ipitum had attacked Barbara.
“Well even creatures such as yourselves may be capable of being mislead at times,” The Doctor commented.
“That is a fair point Doctor,” the Uxpolien commented, “We will take that into account in future.”
“Good man,” The Doctor said, “But sir, I don’t believe you have told me you name, nor have any of your colleagues.”
“It is not necessary Doctor,” the Uxpolien replied.
“Oh now don’t be silly,” the Doctor said, “I would feel far better to know the names of people I am working with.”
“Very well Doctor, I am EC8 Olifim Guarynup,” the Uxpolien replied.
“Ah, what does the EC8 mean?” The Doctor asked.
“It is my rank, I am Enforcer Class 8,” Olifim replied.
“Interesting, makes a change from the name of rank system most species use,” The Doctor commented.
“Yes, now Doctor I suggest we continue the search,” Olifim said.
“Yes of course, I suggest we get back to my ship I wasn’t able to get what I wanted,” the Doctor replied and they all headed off back in the direction of the TARDIS.

Ipitum Kelleem had been watching the Doctor and the Uxpolien Law enforces through the window, they hadn’t noticed him and he relaxed as they went away.
“You need to do better than that to arrest Ipitum Kellem,” he said, sblack personing.
He then turned to where Barbara was lying still unconscious on the floor. Flexing his claws he kneeled down in front of her.
“This is the part I really enjoy,” he sent to himself starting to laugh.
He then plunged all ten of his claws into Barbara’s chest, blood slowly oozing out. His claws glowed with a bright green light as the DNA was found and the basic structure absorbed by his brain through his claws, then his conscious and subconscious mind started conferring with each other about how they could use this DNA to re-arrange his own DNA so that it was similar to his current appearance but with a human appearance. Slowly he started to change, his claws becoming fingers, his scales vanishing to be replaced by human skin and hair started to sprout of his arms legs and head. He stood up, his transformation complete. Examining himself in the mirror he saw that he had sleek black hair and beard, blue eyes and a few freckles on his face. A very satisfying change. He looked down at Barbara’s body; she was definitely dead, her chest covered in blood. He looked down at his fingers to see that they were covered in blood as well. What to do with the body? Nothing. He knew enough about the Options experiment to know that everything would be restored to normal when it ended with anything that hadn’t been there at the start remaining where and as it was when the experiment was ended. He would wash his hands first and then find a different house to hide in, just in case. He didn’t want to be found in the same house as a murder victim while the Options where still running. He thought that maybe he should change out of the Law Enforcer uniform and into something more human. He went upstairs to see what the owners of this house have to offer.

“Doctor, I think that since there are two problems to deal with that some of us should go to Option 93 and tackle the Opes,” Olifim Guarynup told the Doctor after he’d emerged from the TARDIS, “Did you find anything that might help?”
“Unfortunately no, but I agree with you there,” the Doctor replied, “I will stay here for now.”
“Very well,” Olifin replied, he then signaled to some of the other Uxpoliens to fallow him back to the Matter Transmitter Disc.
“Good luck,” the Doctor said as the five Uxpoliens on the disc dematerialized.

[Kitten Kong Destroyed Wotan]

Chapter 3 Part 2

After first making sure that the coast was clear Ipitum Kelleem left the house he had been hiding in and got into a nearby car after briefly turning one of his fingers back into a claw. He inserted the same claw into the ignition and started the car, which moved of silently. Uxpoliens had slight mental powers that they could use for small things like silencing a loud noise. He planned to head for somewhere busy, hopefully in America. New York seemed good. He’d use a plane from the nearest airport to fly there.

“All Opes are in position sir, we will be able to cause as much trouble as damage as possible,” one of the Ope soilders informed Leader Eln via his communications panel.
“Excellent, we now only need to wait until the end of the experiment,” Eln replied and deactivated the communicator.
Leader Eln chuckled slightly as he shot down a few passing pigeons, he was ready for anything. He reactivated his communicator to speak to an Ope that was still on board the spaceship.
“Ship Controller Yiop, has there been any word from our other ships?” Eln asked.
“Yes sir,” Yiop replied, “They are currently massing behind Jupiter and a small solider carrier has been launched to board the Jovicene station to deactivate the experiment as soon as possible.”
“Excellent, anything else?” Eln asked.
“Yes sir,” though it was predicted that we might cause some anomalies in the experiment while we were here there is a more major anomaly being caused. I’ve asked our Scientific Adviser and he reckons it involves temporal interference.”
“Interesting,” Eln muttered, remembering the Pigion coming back to life and dieing again.
“Yes sir so I’ve contacted the solider carrier and explained the situation to them, we will need it shut down as soon as possible to avoid the temporal anomaly affecting us,” Yiop said.
“Do we know where the origin of the anomaly is?” Eln asked.
“Yes, it is nearby where the subject of Option 93 was eliminated,” Yiop explained, “But it is in every Option.”
“Then we must dispatch Opes throughout each Option and destroy it,” Eln said.
“Yes sir, I’ll arrange it at once,” Yiop replied and Eln’s communicator deactivated.

Aboard the Solider carrier at least fifty Opes were preparing to take the station.
“Leader Uklin, we have received a message saying that a temporal anomaly has been caused in the experiment,” one of the Opes informed Ulkin, “We have been asked to try and deactivate the Options as soon as possible.”
“Thank you COM Operator Hindor,” Ulkin replied and dismissed the Ope, “How long till we reach the station?”
“At least an hour sir, at maximum speed,” Hindor said.
“What is our current speed?” Ulkin asked.
“Half maximum,” Hindor replied.
“Then go to maxium,” Ulkin ordered.
“Yes sir,” Hindor replied.

“Well Doctor, what do you suggest we do now?” one of Uxpolien Law Enforcers asked.
“What would you suggest, and can you tell me your name at least,” the Doctor said.
“I am EC1 Iop Lucindor, and if you insist on asking me I think we should start searching some of the nearby buildings,” the Uxpolien replied.
“An excellent idea good man,” the Doctor said.
The Doctor and the remaining Uxpoliens started entering the houses that surrounded them, shortly after they’d all entered the one they’d chosen a group of three Opes materialized near the TARDIS.

“Sir the Opes seem to be spreading out across the Options,” Lieutenant Gring informed Commander Ovor, “And they all same to be converging on the same area.”
“Where exactly is that?” Ovor asked.
“Near where the Doctor said his ship is currently positioned,” Gring replied.
Ovor thought about this for a moment, comparing it with what the Doctor had told him about the TARDIS.
“The Doctor said that his ship might be responsible for the temporal anomalies currently taking place in the Options,” Ovor said slowly working out the what his may mean.
“Why do you think that may be important sir?” Gring asked.
“Do you think that it might affect the Opes?” Ovor asked.
“Yes I do, and maybe they’ve worked out where exactly it is,” Gring replied.
“Can we contact the Doctor at all?” Ovor asked.
“No, we’ve lost any contact with the entire Option he’s in,” Gring said sounding very worried indeed.

Ipitum Kellem had reached the airport and had started searching for a decent plane to take him to New York, completely failing to notice that the car he’d stolen rusted to nothing within a few minutes and then returned to normal.

The Opes had all drawn their guns and were pointing them directly at the TARDIS.
“Right, I’ll give you a countdown to fire,” one of them informed the others, “Five, four, three, two, one, FIRE.”
They all fired at maximum power at the TARDIS was enveloped in a bright white light, then with a blinding flash. When it cleared the TARDIS was in perfect shape, but the Opes had gone. Where they had stood was a small burnt patch on the floor and small pile of soot. The same thing was happening in each Option with every attempt to destroy the TARDIS.

Leader Eln had received a report from an Ope who had just survived an attack on the TARDIS but had died from his injuries. He had told Eln that when they had fired on the TARDIS the power from their weapons had been turned back against them with devastating results. Eln contacted all he other Opes that had been sent into the Options to tell me to cancel their mission only to find that all of them had already carried it out.

One of the Law Enforcers had found Barbara’s body and had told the Doctor what he’d seen. The Doctor had gone to have a look for himself had come out of the house in a major sate of shock.
“Doctor,” Iop Lucindor said calmly and sympathetically, “I’m sorry, I know how you feel. I’ve lost a lot of my friends in this sort of thing, at least halt of them to the guy we’re after.”
The Doctor remained silent, neither of them noticed the 747 flying overhead.

Tellm had been eager to see the TARDIS so Ian had led the way back to it, explaining that they wouldn’t be able to get inside. They were now standing next to it, Tellm was examing every detail of the police box exterior while Ian was looking at the burn marks on the floor around it.
“This is an absolutely fascinating object,” Tellm said sounding as enthusiastic as ever.
“If you say so,” Ian said distracted, “I’m sure these weren’t here before though.”
“Let me have a look,” Tellm requested bending down with some difficult due to his short legs, using two of his arms for support.
Tellm adjusted some controls on his computer pad and moved it over on of the patches, the computer emitting a pulsing beep noise as he did so. With his remaining arm he picked up some of the soot and sniffed it, looking worried he switched off his computer.
“Trouble?” Ian asked.
“Yes I’m afraid,” Tellm said all hints of enthusiasm gone, “That soot contains Ope DNA.”
“And what is an Ope?” Ian asked.
“Trouble,” Tellm replied.
“Tellm, that doesn’t really help,” Ian said sighing.
“Has the Doctor ever taken you to the planet Opus?” Tellm asked.
“No he hasn’t,” Ian replied, “Most of the time we just end up on Earth.”
“Good,” Tellm replied.

The Doctor was sitting in the TARDIS console room; he’d wanted some time to be alone. He’d been through a lot with his companions; they were almost always in great danger but never to point of one of them being killed. Yes there had been near misses but they’d always escaped danger. Only this time it was different, death had happened and the he hadn’t been there to prevent it in any way.

Captain Holas was examining some readings on a screen, the readings mentioned the stability of the different Options, so far each one was slightly unstable due to the anomalies caused by the TARDIS, Option 93 was slightly more unstable because of the Opes. Then without any warning readings went out of control, changing constantly without staying the same for even a second. Holas immediately activated 100 Alert. Commander Ovor was already aware of the problem as on his screen the Options started to merge and split, the span around each other totally out of control.

On the Earth it was like being caught in an earthquake, maybe registering 8 on the Richter scale. Nothing was damaged, no buildings collapsed, just immense shaking off the ground to the point where you couldn’t stand up. People kept switching locations for some reason, one moment you were walking down a deserted London street then falling out of a Kapok tree the next. Arthur Kershaw was very surprised to be switched from his sitting room to the middle of the Atlantic, standing in the middle of New York, being on the roof of the BBC television center until finally appearing inside the TARDIS.

“What caused it,” Commander Ovor asked, worried.
“I don’t know, but its stabilized now,” Captain Holas replied.
“Good think to as we’ve got another problem,” Lieutenant Gring replied.
“What!” Ovor said, in astonishment, “What is it?”
“We’ve detected an Ope ship approaching the station,” Gring replied.
Ovor remained silent as this information sunk in.
“Alert level 10,” he ordered suddenly, “Issue all personnel with weapons.”
“Yes sir,” Gring and Holas replied, both saluting.

Ian and Tellm were slowly staggering to their feet, they were in the same place as before despite ending up in the Arctic for a few seconds. Ian immediately noticed that the TARDIS doors were open. Tellm was having difficulty standing up so Ian helped in.
“What happened?” Ian asked.
“I’m not sure,” Tellm replied, “the Jovicenes may have lost control of the stability of the Options.”
“So what happens as a result of that?”
“They lose control of the Options,” Tellm explained, “Mainly who’s in which and where they are in the Option.”
“So we might be in a different Option,” Ian suggested.
“I suppose so,” Tellm replied.
“Well we might bump into someone else here then,” Ian commented wondering whether the Doctor Barbara or Vicki were here.
This train of thought was answered when he spotted something a short distance away. Running over to it quickly he realized that it was Vicki. Her body was now stiff and cold. Tellm went to stand next to Ian but remained silent. He didn’t know who the girl was, or how she had died, but he could tell from Ian’s reaction. He didn’t think it was wise to say anything at the moment. Ian finally got up and went back to the TARDIS. Then he realized that…
“Tellm, the doors are open,” Ian said in surprise.

Every Jovicene on board the space station was now carrying a weapon. The weapon itself resembled a table tennis bat with a handle and a large circular piece attached. One side of this was black and the other red. The red side would absorb any energy blasts and recharge the weapon if it was low on power while the black side would just deflect it. The handle didn’t have a trigger, instead the gun was thought operated. The user just had to think of who or what they wanted to hit and how powerful the blast would be, which meant that aim wasn’t required, just recommended for better accuracy. Many of the Jovicenes were standing poised to strike if they saw an Ope materialize on board the station, and the Opes were preparing to do just that. Commander Ovor was in the main control room directing orders throughout the station.
“All Options monitoring stations are to be sealed off, but monitors must remain monitoring, the experiment must be kept stable,” he said the words echoing throughout the space ship, “Prepare emergency battle fighters and matter transmission systems, set DNA scanners to alert to the presence of Opes.”
The monitoring station doors slammed shut with an ominous echo, all the Jovicenes were getting to places which would be an advantage in battle while some just headed for places of safety.
“And I want the Doctor and the Uxpolien Law Enforcers back up here immediately,” Ovor ordered.

A few of the Law Enforcers that had gone to Option 93 were now engaged in a gun battle with Leader Eln, they’d had him cornered briefly but the effect of the Options becoming unstable had lost them this advantage. Eln had taken cover behind the fountain at first and then transmitted himself off to random places in the area where he only remained for a few seconds, enough time to fire a shot at one of his opponents. He’d managed to kill one of the Law Enforcers and had been leading them away from Piccadilly Circus for a while until he eventually arrived in Trafalgar Square, where he then transmitted himself to the top of Nelson’s Column. From there he managed to take out two more of the Law Enforcers before one of them took hit him with a blast. Eln lost his balance and fell towards the ground but managed to activate his matter transporter to prevent this. He didn’t rematerialize in the area.
“Well looks like we’ve lost him then,” one of the Uxpoliens commented.
“Yes EC2,” Olifim Guarynup said in reply, “But we’ve just received orders to get back to the Doctor and return to the station.”
Taking out a small control box from his uniform Olifim adjusted some of the controls until the Jovicene matter transmitter disc appeared in front of them, the two of them boarded it and dematerialized.

[Kitten Kong Destroyed Wotan]

Chapter 4 part 1 (by Mrmatt)

The Doctor stared there was a man in the TARDIS, an elderly man who looked just as shocked as he was at this unexpected intrusion. Arthur looked; he was in a room that appeared to be the size of a cathedral but it looked nothing like a cathedral instead it looked like the set of one of those Hollywood science fiction films. The walls were a brilliant white and had circular indentations, and a large mushroom shaped object, with six sides and buttons, dominated the centre of the room. There was an old man in a frock coat looking at Arthur as though he had just appeared out of thin air, after what had happened in the past few minutes Arthur thought that he might well of done. He was watching television one minute then he was in the ocean, then on top of a building, he must be dreaming, that was he’d eaten some cheese and drifted off and he was dreaming all this. He, pinched himself to wake himself up, it hurt he was actually awake. Things were getting stranger by the minute. He had to sit down and get his head around what was happening. The Doctor stared at this strange man in his suit, first he appeared out of nowhere in his TARDIS, panicked and then he pinched himself and now he was sitting down in his chair the cheek of the man!
“Excuse me sir but what may I ask are you doing?” the Doctor said walking over to Arthur who was seated in the console room’s ornate chair.
“W-well I’m not entirely sure.” Arthur stammered slightly flustered and scared because this man was talking to him and didn’t seem overly keen on his presence “I was hoping you might be able to explain what has happened to me”
“What may I ask is it that has happened to you then, hmm?” The Doctor said, his curiosity now grabbed by this rather curious mans appearance and his flustered nature convinced him that he was as surprised as he was. Arthur looked at the old man for the first time he looked to be the same age as Arthur and yet there was something about him that Arthur couldn’t place, almost as though this man wasn’t entirely what he entirely looked like. He took a deep breath and began recounting the tale of his strange day to this man who looked at Arthur nodding occasionally and seeing his eyes widen at the moment when he started mentioning the TV and it being unsure of what year it was and his travels from his room to the ocean and beyond.
“So what about you …” Arthur paused waiting for an answer from The Doctor
“I am the Doctor and before I answer the rest of your questions I think you need a string cup of sweet tea to recover from the shock” with that the Doctor disappeared down the corridor to the food machine. He needed to time to piece all this together and work out a course of action, what he also needed was Chesterton or someone else so they could share their experiences and thoughts on what was happening. There was no chance of that happening until this Option ended but by then it may be too late because the Opes would be in their prime positions to do what they wanted. He reached the machine and dialled up the appropriate code for two cups of tea. He returned to the console room to see Arthur staring round him wide eyed at all the buttons, best let him drink some of the tea before he explained some of what was happening. He watched Arthur slowly sip the tea and the colour return to his face before he began explaining the edited version of events, best to simplify things for now, to avoid giving him even more worries. He omitted what the full capabilities of the TARDIS were, somehow explaining to a man that had just been through all that he was now in a time-space machine wouldn’t be good for his health. Nor would telling him that human kind was subject to the whims of an alien species conducting a series of random tests. So he explained it as a random teleportation and time travel experiment being conducted by the government.
“So all those internet nut-jobs were right the government does know more than they’re telling us? I always thought it was just delusions of some people with over active imaginations” The Doctor sighed, typical humans, tell them it’s a government conspiracy and they believe anything.
“Yes it is and if you don’t mind I need to find out how to get you back home and work something out”

Tellm and Ian ran to the open TARDIS doors, despite all Ian had told him he couldn’t believe that primitive wooden box in front of him held the sophisticated technology Ian had mentioned in his stories. He had to see the inside for himself; this would make an interesting report for his superiors.
“Wait here Tellm, I’ll just see if the Doctor’s in and explain to him about you then I’ll call you in, best not to scare him”
“Surely he is used to people of my appearance”
“Yes but just to be on the safe side so he doesn’t think something’s wrong I’ll go in and explain”
“Very well I shall wait here”
“There’s a good chap, be back soon” With that Ian walked through the doors, through the black void and into the white room of the place he’s come to regard as home. There was the Doctor and someone he didn’t recognise an elderly man sat in the chair and drinking tea. It was quite a comical image these two elderly man in the ultra modern console room sat drinking tea.
“Doctor can I have a word”
“Ah Chesterton my dear boy just the fellow I was looking for, this is Arthur Kershaw who appears to be having some problems but the TARDIS has now sorted them out”
“Hello Arthur” Arthur looked up from his tea and smiled at this new comer “Doctor I’ve got a friend who I think would like to speak to you but somehow I don’t think Arthur would like to see him” he lowered his voice “lets just say Arthur may not quite be ready for contact with Tellm”
“Ah right, I see would you mind leading Arthur, into a room in the TARDIS where he can have a lie down, he’s suffered a bit of a shock”
“Right, Arthur do you want to follow me, we’ll find you somewhere comfy shall we”. He led Arthur off into a darkened room and the returned to the console room. Went to the doors and called Tellm in. Tellm got up from being sat in front of the TARDIS doors, and walked into the box in front of him and then it hit him, this place was every bit as fantastic as Ian had described. Tellm looked in wonder at the brilliant whiteness and technology around him, somehow this was much more impressive than the technology of the ship he had arrived in and that was top of the range bio-wear technology. The old man next to Ian coughed; he must be the Doctor that Ian had mentioned.
“Hello Doctor, Ian’s told me so much about you.” He said extending a thin arm. The Doctor reached out and shook the proffered limb.
“Ian tells me that you are aware of the present situation on earth, perhaps you can tell me why the Opes are here and what they want” Tellms’ jaw, if you could define a jaw on a creature with no definite head dropped.
“The Opes are here on Earth, this is bad indeed, if you don’t act soon they shall destroy this planet and with it all life and all my lovely research”
“Research?”
“Yes Doctor, you’d quite like Tellm if the situation allowed for you to get to know one another better. He’s a scientist like you and like you his curiosity can get the better of him,” Ian said smiling slightly at the Doctor.
“What do you mean by that Chesterton, hmm?”
“Oh nothing Doctor.” Ian said trying to prevent himself from laughing at the Doctors’ reaction. “Doctor there appears to be a problem outside. I don’t know if you’ve come across it, but there something is wrong with time”
“Yes dear boy I had noticed, why what have you experienced”
“Nothing much just dinosaur skeletons falling on top of me and then coming to life before falling down dead in the road”
“ Chesterton, this is no time for jokes. Time is a very serious matter, have you learnt nothing in our travels?”
“Doctor now is not the time to argue, we need to focus these Opes you mentioned. Especially if they’re as dangerous as Tellm says they are”
“Dangerous is an understatement Ian, these Opes are known for their callous brutality, they are a single minded warlike race with their minds entirely focussed on their stupid war with the Kro’Akans”
“Hmm, most curious what they then want with the earth?” The Doctor said grabbing his lapels in that quirky he did when thinking.

Outside the TARDIS the air shimmered slightly and Holas and Gring stepped out. Looking up at the TARDIS before them.
“This is the Doctors’ vessel. Not impressive is it, looks like a box to me like those from the options experiments forty years ago, remember?”
“Oh yes around the time of the Kennedy Option in Dallas? Those were the good old days weren’t they?”
“Yes they were, no Opes and no time anomalies interfering. Why can’t these aliens just leave this planet alone?” Holas said, the irony of his statement totally escaping him. “Shall we enter this box and find out what the Doctors’ planning”
“Yes” With that the two Jovicene’s entered the TARDIS and got the surprise of their life.

Somewhere in the air a Boeing 747 was drifting noiselessly remaining undetected by the facilities of both earth and the law enforcement agency that was hunting its murderous pilot. This pilot was currently checking the series of instruments in front of it making sure all the readings were indicating the planes flight was fine. It wasn’t that different to flying a spaceship after all. Then again he had crash-landed the one he had arrived on this planet in. He looked out of the windows. He was nearing the Atlantic Ocean and a few hours later he would be in America and then the fun would really begin. The best apart of it all was, those stupid Jovicene’s couldn’t do anything about it. If the space filth arrived when the Option had resumed their cover would be blown which meant he was safe from their interference so he could continue his killing spree. They wouldn’t of course call the Police in as it would interfere further with their precious options if yet another outside influence become involved. He smiled to himself, the human form, wasn’t the most pleasant in the universe, still it was better than being imprisoned or worse dead. The skin still didn’t feel quite right so he shifted it slightly to adjust the muscular structure slightly to give himself a squarer jaw and that seemed to solve his problem. He looked at the map he had to steal, so he could have some idea of where he was going the coast line he had left behind definitely looked like that on the map which meant in a few short hours he would be in America, a superpower and one where he could have a lot of fun killing in as many different ways as possible, each as gruesome as the last. He didn’t know why he killed really, he just did and enjoyed it, he got some sort of sick pleasure from watching his victims suffer and he also enjoyed the thrill of eluding the police that dogged him wherever he went. He sat in the chair and kept his eyes on the instruments as the 747 continued his silent, ominous journey across the ocean to its destination.

The young law enforcer looked down at the body of the woman killed by the criminal he and his unit had spent what seemed like an eternity chasing, only to be eluded at the last minute. He was getting fed up of all the needless deaths, if he found him and he was alone, forget the regulations; he was going to bring him to justice his own way. He patted his silver sidearm affectionately as it lay in the holster around his leg. If it meant jeopardising his career he would prevent this guy from committing any more crimes, he had only been a member of the force for about five years but it didn’t matter if he lost his job bringing down the sick minded maniac who had slaughtered many on countless different worlds indiscriminately. The problem was, he had attacked the human female which meant he could now adopt the human form making him impossible to find on this planet with its billions of inhabitants. They didn’t even know if he had left the country.

[Kitten Kong Destroyed Wotan]

Chapter 4 part 2 (by Mrmatt)



The two Jovicenes’ entered the console room and looked around them in amazement, but they soon snapped out of their reverie when they saw the Doctor stood by the console with another human and the alien Tellm, who had specially sanctioned permission to be on earth to conduct biological research.
“Ah just the gentlemen” The Doctor said as the two walked into the TARDIS “have the Law Enforcers found their man?”
“What Law Enforcers? Is there an escaped criminal hiding out there?”
“I’ll explain later Chesterton, right now there are more pressing issues at hand”
“Yes Doctor, just make sure you do explain”
“Doctor, may we get back to the more pressing matter at hand” Holas interrupted, not wanting to delay the problems much longer.
“Very well, Chesterton, it appears that the TARDIS is responsible for the temporal anomalies that are affecting the planet resulting in events like the dinosaur you saw and the events Mr. Kershaw was unfortunate to suffer”
“Oh yes Arthur what are we going to do about him?”
“I thought you could look after him, I want you to lead him out of the TARDIS blindfolded and explain to him that you’ll be keeping watch over him in case he has any more troubles. Besides I don’t want him coming with me when I go to the Opes’ home planet.”
“What? You mean you’re going there but Tellm says they’ll kill you before you can even say hello!”
“It’s true Doctor the Opes are the kind of creatures who would skin you alive and use the skin as lining for a chair and your innards to stuff toy bears for their children” Tellm said, the fear in his voice showing just how fearsome the Opes could be.
“Very well, Tellm, would you accompany me to the planet so I know what to expect?”
“Doctor if you take that action then I’m afraid we must accompany you on behalf of the Joveciene’s and negotiate with the Opes leader and return you to Commander Ovor upon your return”
“Very well, but I must act unobstructed you understand, this is an important task. My companions and I must be reunited”
“Yes Doctor where is Barbara?” He asked the image of Vicki's prone body lying there still firmly implanted in his mind
“You mean the other female she is-“ Gring began but Holas butted in just in time
“She is safe and you shall be reunited. Now please hurry along time is of the essence”
“Very well Chesterton, would you mind awfully taking Mr. Kershaw from the room you left him in, whilst I find the co-ordinates for the planet Opus”
“Yes Doctor, hurry back won’t you”
“Don’t worry Chesterton, now go”
“Very well Doctor” Ian said resignedly, somehow unconvinced by the Doctors manner, he went through the simple door that lead to the depths of the ship. He walked down the white corridors to the room where he had left Arthur. It must be so nerve racking for him to suddenly find himself in this strange world of gleaming white rooms and vast spaces. Particulalrly after all that the Doctor said he had been through, he walked into the room where Arthur was waiting just putting his cup of tea down.
“Come on Arthur follow me, I’m going to take you home and then keep an eye on you until we can be certain you are no longer suffering from the effects of the problems you’ve suffered.”
Doctors’ orders I suppose”
“Yes in a way.” Ian smiled “shall we leave, we’ll be taking you out of the back door to prevent anymore problems”
“OK lead on” Ian led the way down the many winding corridors to the exit the Doctor had mentioned. They emerged at the front doors of the TARDIS.
“Your turn to lead now Arthur. Time to take you home”. As Arthur and Ian rounded the corner Ian heard the TARDIS engines straining and groaning as the ship began its journey to the planet Opus.
“Hurry back Doctor” he whispered to himself.

The Doctor stared at the console, watching the cylindrical column with its hypnotic rising and falling motion waiting for it to stop indicating their arrival on the planet Opus. He looked at the three other occupants of the console room. Tellm was looking nervously around, he didn’t want to be going to the planet of the Opes but had no choice the Doctor needed his knowledge to rescue his friends so they could leave again in the TARDIS, but unfortunately first they had to deal with The Opes. That was always the case in his travels he wanted to leave in the TARDIS but a problem always arose that prevented this and they had to solve it before they could leave. He was still adjusting to the fact that Susan was gone; he had left her on earth to enjoy her future. Now he had Vicki and Ian and Barbara who he was both fond of and growing to respect more as their travels had brought them together as a team. He wandered over to Tellm, he didn’t want to associate himself with the two Jovicene’s this was largely there fault that two of his companions were dead and the earth under threat.
“Tellm is there anymore you can tell me about the Opes culture?”
“Yes Doctor but first can you answer me one question?”
“Sure, Tellm anything to satisfy a fellow scientists’ curiosity”
“Well, I was wondering why Ian and I and Mr. Kershaw who you mentioned all appeared in or around your ship?”
“Well, that is very difficult to explain but I believe it is because the TARDIS is a time and space machine and this has caused a problem with the fabric of time and space causing anomalies. Resulting in both the dinosaur you saw becoming reanimated and then decaying before your eyes and the teleporting across distances you did.”
“Ah I see. Well what would you like to know about the Opes, but I should warn you I know very little and what I do know isn’t encouraging”
“What is their society like, that would be useful to know so we know who to see. Do you know anymore about this war of theirs?”
“Unfortunately I don’t know anymore about the war besides the fact it’s been raging for the best part of twenty years.”
“Hmmm, how about their leader”
“Now that I can tell you about, his name is Emperor Terrin and he is the most vile Opes of the lot, he would sacrifice half of his troops to ensure even the smallest victory.”
“Hmm, the wonders of the military mind, anything else you know that may be of use to me.”
“Sorry Doctor I’m afraid I don’t know anymore, science is more my field of interest.”
“I see very well thank you for telling me what you do know, any information is important”.
“Your welcome Doctor, I’m happy to help a fellow scientist”.
As Tell finished his sentence the time rotor stopped its movement signifying their arrival on the planet Opus.
“Shall we have a look at where we are gentlemen?” The Doctor said operating the scanner control and looking at the monitor as the cover slid up.

The planet Opus is a strange planet, for a planet that ahs been at war for such a long time its infrastructure is largely undamaged, the cities all remain largely undamaged hidden in their large craters and the transport systems all run on time on well maintained routes deep underground. In the centre of the area where the TARDIS had landed there stood a very impressive structure it was a tower of gigantic proportions and had the glass and steel look of a skyscraper from a large city like New York back on earth. However unlike a skyscraper there was one fundamental difference about this building, the gigantic ribs connecting to it, a series of giant silvery blue twists all at a regular intervals all reaching the same height on the building. This morbid picture reminded the Doctor of the Wild West and the skeletons of cattle that had been pecked clean by carrion birds and left to bleach under the blazing sun. This was obviously where they were meant to be heading and the skeletal appearance did nothing to lighten the Doctor’s mood about meeting the Opes Emperor.

Ian looked at Arthur; he was starting to get some colour back in his cheeks as he walked around the front room. He looked at the old man before him; he’d seen so much in such a short time, things that he wouldn’t normally have seen and it must be taking its toll on the poor mans nerves. H e remembered that night he first entered the TARDIS, abandoned in the junkyard at Totters Lane. The moment he had stepped into the TARDIS for the first time, the brilliant whiteness of the console room surpassing everything he thought possible technology, beyond the realms of the Flash Gordon serials he had seen at the cinemas. The TARDIS however wasn’t a set somewhere in America it was real and everything that had happened to the crew so far was equally as real. The moment had now passed and Ian was getting used to the strange locations and peoples and technologies they had encountered in their travels. What it must’ve been like for Arthur to experience all these small shocks in short succession to one another, he dreaded to think. Still at least Tellm hadn’t joined them that would really have pushed Arthur into a worse case of shock. Somehow the sight of Arthur and Tellm, someone who was so definitely alien that it would be impossible to deny it, and this old man trying to adjust to each other’s presence amused him.
“Ian would you like a cup of tea” Arthur called from the kitchen.
“Yes please Arthur milk, two sugars”
“Ok” Ian heard the clanking together of cups and the sound of a switch being flicked, “Ian I was wondering if you could tell me a bit more about what’s actually happening here”
“Well” Ian started unsure what to tell Arthur. The old man had re-entered the room and Arthur looked at the old man. His eyes were twinkling with a certain sense of mischief and laugh, somehow like the Doctor Arthur must be stronger than he looked Ian thought. He sighed heavily and began.
“What has the Doctor told you?” he asked as the kettle continued boiling in the background.

The Doctor looked at the TARDIS panel that gave an indication of all the necessary readings, the atmosphere was breathable for himself and the others. He walked over to the door-opening switch and pressed the buttons and the two large doors swung open.
“Are you ready gentlemen?”
“Yes Doctor” the three said, Tellm sounded least confident.
The four travellers stepped out of the police box shell straight into the way of four Opes with their guns raised pointing at them.
“Ah, I wish to see your leader” The Doctor said raising his hands “Come on young man”
The Opes general looked confused but motioned with his gun for them to march. The Doctor obliged and fell into step besides Tellm.
“Don’t worry Tellm, I’ll keep an eye on you.” He said
Holas and Gring looked defiant but complied with the instructions, they wouldn’t be able to do much good dead. The tower they saw wasn’t actually a residential feature as he had earlier thought it was, it was a shield generator.
“Most interesting” he commented as they passed beneath it.
“Yes Doctor, that’s for protection against the Kro’Akans”
“What can you tell me about them?”
"They are around your height green with high domed heads and three fingered hands and in many social ways they are similar to the Opes, the only difference they really have is religion, the Opes believe in the Holy Order of the Prophet Zarin. Whilst the Kro’Akans believe in the same religion just that the prophet was the Prophet Zaron, Zarins’ brother ”
“ Is this war then one of religion. Over something so petty as who the prophet was? ”
“As I said Doctor I don’t know but you could be right.”
“Yes I fear I am, it seems wherever you go in the universe, conflicts come down to a few things and one of those is religion”.
“Yes Doctor, I had noticed that myself, you might find out sooner than you thought it looks like we are nearing the Imperial Palace.” The building before them was certainly impressive; it was a large structure white with a rather hideously ostentatious design and guards lining all the steps.
“Well they certainly know how to be subtle” The Doctor said looking up at the building before him. Tellm looked up apprehensively at the building, he had terrible stories about what happened here, he had heard stories about thrones of bones and torture chambers that were torturous enough to hear about let alone experience. He swallowed hard as one of the Opes jammed the gun hard in his back forcing him up the stairs. He stumbled and started up the stairs dreading what he would see.

The Emperor of The Opes sat decadently in his chair, his legs drained over one of the arms. He held an apple in one hand was twirling a gun around the fingers of the other. He stopped the gun and pulled the trigger, blasting a chunk of wall out causing dust to fall on the guard stood beneath it. Emperor Terrin laughed a loud harsh laugh, like a man who smokes twenty packets of cigarettes and drinks a bottle of whisky a day, petty mindless destruction amused him. Besides pulling the trigger once in a while ensured he kept his accuracy and he didn’t get too rusty. He returned to rotating the gun around his fingers when the guards escorting The Doctor, Tellm, Holas and Gring entered the throne room.
He stopped twirling the gun and sat up. Who were these visitors, new targets to shoot or more slaves, either way he would probably end up shooting them.
“General who are these worms” he said he knew it sounded clicked but he still wanted to sound intimidating to the visitors. He smiled he had intimidated the guards, the two uniformed people and the four armed creature, but the old man stood staring at him. He scowled at this he didn’t like it when people defied him, he was the leader of a fearsome war-like race and he didn’t like being thought of as anything other than terrifying.
“You” he said pointing at the Doctor “Why don’t you cower before me? Don’t you know who I am”
“Well actually young man I don’t and I’m not in the habit of cowering before the unknown. So no I’m not scared of you.” The Doctor said smiling slightly, he loved beating these big military types down to size.
“You dare mock me, I am the Emperor of one of the most feared races in the galaxy and you smirk quietly in my presence old man”
“I am the Doctor and I came here for a specific reason, to learn why you have chosen the Earth as a place to continue your pathetic war of religion”
“You dare mock the sacred war! You know nothing of our reasons and I demand you speak to me with more respect” Terrin said rising sharply from his chair his voice increasing in volume as he got higher and higher in his chair.
“Sir I did not come to debate religion and war with you I merely came to learn more of your intentions for the planet earth. My friends there” he indicated Holas and Gring “Run the Options experiments on earth and would like a word about it with you to see if an arrangement could be reached.”
“The Opes do not make treaties with anyone they fight and obliterate, treaties are for the politicians and on Opus we have no politicians!” Terrin said, spit flecking his lips and his face getting redder as his temper reached breaking point.
“You military types are all the same only content with things if you can dominate and oppress.” The Doctor was becoming more and more angered by the Emperors attitude.
“You shall suffer for this Doctor” Terrin yelled drawing his gun. Emperor Terrin had a short fuse and he had had enough of the insolence of this old man, he slowly lowered the barrel of his gun and aimed it at the Doctor, making sure he targeted the area where it would cause the most injuries and slowly he started to squeeze the trigger.

[Kitten Kong Destroyed Wotan]

Chapter 5 part 1

The Doctor stayed still as he watched Emperor Terrin prepare to kill him, noting that he seemed to be a very slow trigger puller. The Doctor supposed he just wanted to prologue the tension of waiting for death as much as possible. Then Gring suddenly raised his right arm, and aiming towards Terrin and the corrosive acid was squirted out of the tube that ran down his arm. The acid went over Terrin’s gun and some of his hand, both started to dissolve. Terrin roared in rage and hurled the remains of the still dissolving gun aside.
“An excellent piece of thinking there Lieutenant,” the Doctor commented with a slight chuckle.
“I was aiming for his heads,” Gring replied.
“Oh,” the Doctor replied, disappointed.
“Um, Doctor, I think we should attempt to leave,” Tellm suggested, “Now.”
Terrin raised his tail in anger as the four of them turned and ran. Opes pulled out weapons as they passed, opening fire with a complete lack of accuracy. Gring and Holas were spraying their acid and any Opes that were within range, and picking up their discarded weapons.
“I really don’t think we’ll be able to escape from them,” Tellm said, having difficulty keeping up due to his short legs.
Then they rounded a corner to fins a group of Opes blocking their way, and some more Opes positioned themselves behind them.
“I rather thing that you’ve just be proved correct,” the Doctor said to Tellm.

“Why haven’t Gring and Holas returned with the Doctor?” Ovor asked, beginning to get angry.
“We’ve lost contact with them,” Captain Umop explained.
“Is there any reason for this?”
“No sir, although the anomalies have ceased and from observations of the area the Doctor’s ship has gone,” Umop explained.
“So, he’s left Earth and taking them with him,” Ovor muttered to himself.
“And sir, the Uxpolien Law Enforcers have returned,” Umop said, changing the subject deliberately.
“Good, what chances are there of the Opes coming aboard?” Ovor asked.
“We’ve detected an Ope ship landing on the Earth’s only natural satellite,” Umop replied, “With about 50 Opes on board.”
Then an Ope materialized right in the middle of the control room.

Opes were materializing all over the station, taking most of the Jovicenes by surprise, and they used this advantage to get in some quick shots at them but some were quick enough to draw their weapons and open fire. Some Opes managed to kill everyone in the surrounding area, then moved on to somewhere else. There were Jovicene bodies and damaged consoles all over the station. Commander Ovor had ducked for cover as soon as the appearance of the Ope had registered. As he drew his own weapon the Ope started taking random gunshots, killing two Jovicenes and damaging one of the cosoles. Ovor took aim, and fired. Taking out the Opes second head entirely. The Ope roared in agony, his tail swinging about at random, hitting one of the Jovicenes in the chest with the spikes embedding themselves in him and then breaking. Ovor took another shot, this time in the remaining head. The Ope collapsed, dead. Around the ship Opes were being killed, but not before they could do some major damage. Then they were ordered to return to the ship, only 23 of the 50 Opes survived. Ovor looked at the destruction around him, wondering what this would do to the experiment.
“They’ll be back,” he said to himself.

Emperor Terrin stood there, with the Doctor and the others lined up in front of him. He was now very angry, first the Doctor had raised his temper and then he’d have his hand ruined. He’d had a few more years of his reign left but he had a feeling that this might be cut short, all living Opes were right handed (left handed ones were executed) and he didn’t think that his people would want a ruler who couldn’t use a gun properly. His anger was so strong that he really wanted to kill something or someone, so he swung his tail into the back of a nearby Ope. Tellm shuddered as he watched this, wondering if that would happen to him. Terrin turned towards them with what the Doctor thought must be the most grotesque facial expression he’d ever seen.
“You will not leave here alive,” Terrin snarled, “Take them to be executed.”
“Which method shall we use?” one Ope asked.
“I’ll decide later,” Terrin replied, “But show them what may be in store for them first.”

On Earth Leader Eln had returned to his ship, which for some reason was now in the South Pole. Ship Controller Yiop was trying to get the heating system to work again after it had been damaged in the anomaly. Opes didn’t like cold conditions, they usually stopped their weapons from working. Eln shivered, and decided to try and contact the other Opes, to see where they all now were.

Ian finished explaining everything that had happened to Arthur, he’d even telling him about some of his previous adventures with the Doctor.
“So really I don’t think the Doctor didn’t tell you the truth in the first place was because you wouldn’t understand it,” Ian explained, putting down his empty tea cup.
“I can certainly see why,” Arthur said, chuckling.
“I suppose so,” Ian said, “I wonder if there’s anything interesting on the television.”
“Probably the Queen’s speech 1987,” Arthur suggested.
“I doubt it, now that the TARDIS has left,” Ian said.
“Fair point,” Arthur replied.
It was now just past midnight, and a few stars were visible in the sky. Then they heard movement outside. Ian looked out of the window and saw something that matched Tellm’s description of the Opes. It was holding a gun and making its way towards Arthur’s front door. Arthur looked out of the window as well.
“Good grief, what on Earth is that thing?” he asked, extremely shocked by what he saw.
“I think it might be an Ope,” Ian said, “I also think that we should try leaving.”

The Doctor, Tellm, Holas and Gring were lead into a round a room that was almost entirely white. They were stood there with two Ope guards standing by the door, both armed. On one wall was a screen and a control panel, other than that the room was completely empty. There was also two doors set into the walls, the one they’d entered through and another directly opposite it. This door opened and a third Ope came in, pushing a girl in front of him. The Doctor was surprised to see that this girl was human, she looked about 14 or 15 at least. She was wearing a black sleeveless dress and a silver bracelet on her upper right arm. She also looked very scared and nervous. The Ope that had come in with her pointed towards the control panel and the girl moved towards it, the Ope standing beside her. When she had her back to them the Doctor spotted small box attached to the back of her neck.
“I wonder what that’s for,” he muttered to himself.
“Silence,” one of the Opes shouted.
The Doctor gave the Ope a very unpleasant look, then he went back to watching the girl. The screen was now active and showed a circular room with two Opes and a man in it, this started getting the doctor even more interested because the man’s clothes were also black and his top was sleeveless, the Doctor could just see a silver bracelet on his arm. The Opes pulled down a cylinder from the ceiling, they opened this opened this up and secured the man’s wrists in it before closing it again. The Opes then left the room. They all stared at the screen, waiting for something to happen.
“Activate,” the Ope by the girl ordered.
The girl hesitated, the Ope glaring down at her. Then the Ope opened up his second head and removed a small cube. He held this in his hand, then it started to glow with a bright white light, the box on the back of the girls neck glowed as well. She gave a cry of pain and then her right arm started to move, shaking heavily. It went and activated one of the controls. Then, in the room on the screen several knives came out of the wall, which then started spinning at high speed. Then the room started to compress. The knives getting closer to the man in the center, until finally they cut him to pieces. The Doctor looked in shock, the girl meanwhile was on the floor, they saw that she’d was in tears. The Doctor wanted to help her, but he thought it would have to wait. He watched make some adjustments to the controls, and a different image appeared on the screen. It now should a stone chamber with another man, dressed in the same way as the first one, chained to the back wall.
“I wonder what’s going to happen to this unfortunate fellow,” The Doctor muttered to himself, and this time no body told him to be silent.
Then on the screen a beam of light shot out from just underneath the screens view. On reaching the opposite wall with the man chained to it, it hovered just above his right should. Then it was lowered and cut his arm off. The laser than preceded to cut through the windpipe to his left lung, melt his right eye, cut off both his legs before finally decapitated him. There was a few minutes of stunned silence, than the two Opes guarding the door moved forwards and led the Doctor, Tellm, Ging and Holas out of the room.
“Well if that’s how they execute people I can see why they’re an unpopular race,” Tellm commented as they were led to goodness knows where.
“I just wonder who that girl was though,” The Doctor said quietly, nobody heard him.

Ian watched the front door as the Ope tried to get through it, it seemed confused, probably caused by the moment when the planet had started shaking so violently. Arthur was standing beside him, feeling very nervous.
“Ian, can’t we just get out through the back door?” Arthur suggested.
“Good idea,” Ian replied, “Come on then.”
They both turned and ran quickly to the back door, just as the Ope finally broke through the front one.

On the Jovicene space station Commander Ovor was the clear up and repair operations after the first Ope attack.
“Increase the power to the main energy shield,” he ordered to one Jovicene, “Try and make it so that anything passing through it via a matter transmitter will be vaporized.”
“Yes sir,” the Jovicene replied, saluting.
“Sir,” Ovor turned round to see Captain Umop was standing behind him.
“Yes captain, what is it?” Ovor asked.
“Commander, we’ve detected that the moment when the experiment became unstable has spread the humans across the Options and away from their original locations,” Holas explained, “And that includes the Opes.”
“Is there anything we can do about it Captain?” Ovor asked.
“Only to deactivate the experiment and start it again,” Umop replied.
Ovor thought about this, on one side it would restore the Doctor’s friends back to life, which he would be glad to see, but on another side…
“No,” Ovor said, “It might give the Opes a change to begin carrying out their massacre of mankind.”
“I understand sir,” Umop relied, saluting he then left the control room.

The Doctor, Tellm, Gring and Holas were now sitting in a large cell. Like the execution control room the walls were completely white, the only feature in here was a bench running along the back wall. The Doctor was pacing around the cell, deep in thought, Tellm was leaning against one of the walls and Gring and Holas were sitting on the bench.
“What are they waiting for,” Gring asked, “If they’re going to kill us why not now?”
“If you know that you’re going to be executed the more time passes between you finding out about it and the execution taking place would be time for fear to build up,” the Doctor explained, “So therefore the Opes are probably trying to do just that.”
“Is there any way we can get out of here at all Doctor,” Tellm asked.
“We could use our acid to burn through the door,” Holas suggested.
“An excellent idea Captain,” the Doctor replied, “What do you say we give it a try.”
Holas raised his right arm, took careful aim and the door and shot a burst of acid out, it missed. Hitting the wall at least a metre away from the door.

[Kitten Kong Destroyed Wotan]

Chapter 5 part 2

“Well you can try again,” Tellm suggested.
“I wouldn’t bother,” Gring replied, “look.”
The area of wall where the acid had hit was completely undamaged as the acid dripped onto the floor, forming a small puddle.
“I’ve seen both of you use that acid weapon of yours and neither of you have met your intended target,” the Doctor said to the two Jovicenes, “Is there any reason why?”
“We don’t use it very often,” Holas replied, “It evolved as a natural defense when we where in an evolutionary stage equivalent to a human Neanderthal.”

Emperor Terrin was watching the Laser Cutting chamber being prepared for the next execution, it wasn’t often that more than one victim was to be executed by this system, and then it was usually two slaves. It wasn’t often that aliens were executed on Opus (unless they were a Kro’Akan). Terrin looked down at the remains of his right hand, his execution might be next after this one, so he was going to make this the most painful experience he could for those aliens. But first he thought he’d give them a last meal, as every other victim of Ope execution did.

Ian watched the Ope from outside Arthur’s house; they’d used the back door to get out and were now looking over the wall round the front at what the Ope was doing. They could it clearly through the living room window, it reached up for a set of shelves on one wall, all holding books, the Ope tore the whole lot of the wall. It then started firing at anything in the room at random, including the sofa that caught fire, and the television.
“The way that beast is going it’ll destroy my whole house,” Arthur said starting to panic.
“I don’t think we can stop it,” Ian said, “Lets find somewhere to hide I think its starting to rain.”
“All right,” Arthur said reluctantly, he took one last look at his house and followed Ian.

Commander Ovor watched Ian on one of the remaining console screens in the control room, if they’d managed to escape from an Ope unharmed then the creature must have become very confused after the major anomaly. He hoped that all the Opes were, they might be a bit easier to deal with.

The Doctor looked up as the cell door opened, the girl they’d seen in the execution control room entered carrying a tray with four square plastic boxes on it. She placed this on the floor as the door slid closed behind her.
“I’ve been ordered to bring you this food before you die,” she told them, the tone of here voice made it obvious that the idea upset her.
The girl then turned round and made to leave.
“Now wait a moment,” the Doctor called, the girl paused, one of her feet hovering over the puddle of acid, and then turned back towards them.
The Doctor beckoned her forward and motioned that she sit down next to him. When she had done he started speaking again.
“Well firstly, what’s your name?” the Doctor asked.
“Tam,” the girl replied, sounding slightly nervous.
“Tam, well can you tell us why you are here?” the Doctor asked her calmly.
“I am a slave,” Tam replied, “I have been for my entire life.”
“I see,” the Doctor said, keeping his voice calm, “How did you become a slave then?”
Then Tam went on to explain that two centuries ago a group of Opes had gone to Earth and captured a small group of people, then took them back to Opus to be used as slaves, and how they’d been forced to reproduce ever since. Then she went on to explain that her clothes were basic slave uniform.
“And this?” the Doctor asked, indicating the bracelet she was wearing.
“When the Opes brought the original group back here they set up a slave trade with several other planets,” Tam explained, “Some of them have humanoid inhabitants so it is a sign that we are a slave. It can’t be removed.”
“And what about this?” The Doctor asked tapping the box on the back of Tam’s neck.
“That is to ensure that slaves obey orders,” Tam explained, “It punishes them if they don’t and then it can be used to take control of them to carry out their orders.”
There was silence at this, broken after a few minutes by Tellm.
“That is perhaps the most barbaric thing I have ever heard about the Opes,” he said, beginning to sound very angry.
“I agree,” Holas said standing up, “We must do something about this.”
“Yes, so do I,” the Doctor added, “But first I think we should…” but the Doctor was distracted by Tam who had just emitted a loud cry of pain.
“What’s wrong?” the Doctor asked, starting to panic.
Tam couldn’t speak through all the pain she was experiencing, but she tried pointing to the box on her neck. The box was glowing with a bright white light, remembering what had happened in the execution control room the Doctor started rummaging in his pockets until he found a small penknife. The Doctor used it pries open the back of the box to reveal a mass of small electronics inside.
“Captain come here,” the Doctor called to Holas.
“What are you going to do Doctor?” Holas asked looking at the inside of the box.
“I want you to destroy all this with a drop of acid,” the Doctor said, “Quickly,” he added, seeing that Tam was still in pain.
Holas did as the Doctor had told him, and the acid melted all the electronics in the box. Tam relaxed, all the pain had gone.
“Well that’s one problem sorted,” the Doctor said, putting the casing back on the box.
“Thank you,” Tam said, “I think they were punishing me for staying in here for too long.”
“I see,” the Doctor said.
“Doctor, I think we should try and get out of here,” Tellm said.
“Yes I agree, but we’ve tried and failed to get through that door,” the Doctor said.
“I want to come with you,” Tam said, taking them all by surprise.
There was silence as they all looked at her, then the Doctor spoke.
“I understand that,” the Doctor said, “But don’t you have any family who you’d want to come to?”
“No,” Tam said, “My mother and father were both killed a few months ago in a Kro’Akan attack.”
“I’m sorry to hear it,” the Doctor said.
“Its alright, I’m just glad they’re not Ope slaves anymore,” Tam said.
“But I don’t think it wouldn’t be fair on any other slaves if we can will only rescue one,” Tellm said.
“Better to rescue one slave than none at all,” Tam said.
“I agree,” the Doctor said, “I don’t think we should bring about how fair something is into the argument.”
Then the door opened, distracting them. There was an Ope standing in the doorway. It was looking at Tam and judging by the expression on its face it wasn’t very happy.
It stepped in the cell then slipped on the puddle of acid. It then fell on its back and landed in the puddle. The Doctor noticed that its foot was burned badly and the Ope was now writhing in pain on the floor, the acid had obviously burned through its back. Half of its body was blocking the door.
“I think now would be a good time to leave,” the Doctor said.

Leader Eln was now very frustrated, he’d tried to ease it by going outside and shooting some penguins. None of the other Opes had responded to any attempt at contact, and they had completely failed to get anything on the ship to work.
“Haven’t you managed to get anything to work?” he asked ship controller Yiop.
“No sir, nothing at all,” Yiop replied, “We might be able to make more progress if there were more of us here.”
“Well we can’t recall any of our attack group,” Eln said, “And most other Opes are engaged in the war.”
“I suggest that we contact Opus and request that they send some slaves down by matter transmitter,” Yiop said.
“Excellent,” Eln replied, “I’ll make contact immediately.”

Ian and Arthur were now sitting in the park. Arthur had spotted smoke rising from the distance, and he had a feeling he knew what the source of it was. He wondered what he should do now. Then he saw the Jovicene materialize out of thin air, and decided he was going mad.

Emperor Terrin had just been given two pieces of information, the first made him angry; the second made him swing his tail into the informant’s head. He then summoned two slaves, and ordered them to kill themselves, which he knew they’d refuse to do so he did it himself using the control boxes. He then started thinking about the information he’d received; thinking was not one of strengths. Then the bombs hit.

The Doctor and his companions were now hiding in a small gap between two buildings, they could see the TARDIS about a mile away. The Doctor looked up at the sounds of explosions, a series of bombs were impacting on the protection shield, causing it to ripple. Opes around them were running inside, to shelter from the attack. There were a small number of ships passing over the city at high speed and dropping the bombs. They seemed to be constantly changing shape, as though they were a liquid in zero gravity. Then an energy blast, presumably launched by the Opes in retaliation hit one of them and it exploded. Thick black liquid covered the shield generator and the surrounding area. Without the black liquid the shape was a small sphere, about five meters in diameter. This was then hit by another energy blast and exploded.
“I presume that those are the Kro’Akans,” the Doctor commented, indicating the ships.
“They must be,” Tam said, “I’ve never witnessed a Kro’Akan attack before.”
“Interesting choice of design though,” the Doctor said, “I wonder why.”
“I think that might be why,” Gring said, “Look.”
Gring was pointing to the shield generators, smoke was rising from them and they were starting to melt. Blobs of molten metal were falling from.
“Come on,” Holas said, “We need to get to Doctor’s ship fast.”
Then a section of the shield shimmered then went out.
“RUN!” Gring shouted, and the five of them raced towards the TARDIS.
The Doctor was in front, with Gring and Holas behind him. Tellm was at the back of the group, his short legs costing him in speed again. Tam was beginning to tire, she wasn’t used to exerting herself like this. Above them a long metal tube was emerging from one of the black liquid ships. It then fired some of the black liquid through the gap in the shield, aiming straight at the main generator tower in the center. The Doctor reached the TARDIS and opened the door, looking up he saw the structure of the tower begin to melt. Holas and Gring made it and were inside immediately, Tellm came next. Tam reached the TARDIS a few minutes later, breathing heavily, she seemed on the point of collapse. The Doctor got her into the TARDIS at almost the same moment that the tower started to collapse. The rib structure around it was starting to break and collapse. The TARDIS dematerialized just as the whole structure collapsed on the city. The Kro’Akan ships then started heavy bombing, dropping explosives and great blobs of the liquid that surrounded them. With buildings exploding and melting, the city couldn’t last much longer.

Emperor Terrin roared in anger, the Imperial Palace had been hit by a bomb and a liquid blob, Terrin knew that if he survived this he would be killed anyway. He wanted to go down fighting. He grabbed a weapon from a passing guard, and then killed him. He rushed outside, and then started firing on the ships, the gun in his remaining hand. He caused small amounts of the liquid to fly away. Terrin kept firing until he was hit directly by a liquid blob.

The Doctor stood over the controls, could he get back to Earth? He’d been surprised that he’d actually managed to get to Opus, mostly because he didn’t really know where it was. He turned round to his companions. Tam was now sitting in the carved wooden chair the Doctor kept in the console room; she still didn’t seem to have recovered from sprint back to the TARDIS. Tellm, Gring and Holas were standing by the doors silently, apparently waiting for the Doctor to do something. He turned back to the console and soon the TARDIS arrived at its destination, whether intentional or not.

Captain Umop rematerialized aboard the Jovicene space station, Ian and Arthur (still thinking that he’d gone mad despite Ian’s assurances to the contrary) were with him. They followed Umop down several corridors until they reached the control room. Commander Ovor was waiting for them.
“Captain, we have located an Ope ship on the planets surface, take a small group of Jovicenes and the Uxpoliens down there to detain any Opes on board,” Ovor ordered.
“I understand,” Umop replied, saluting, then he left the control room.
“I brought you here for your safety,” Ovor said, addressing Ian, “I don’t think I could take the Doctor’s reaction of you were killed as well.”
Ian remained silent, he wondered how the Doctor had reacted toward Vicki’s death, how would the Doctor react if he was killed. And then another thought rose in his mind, was Barbara dead as well? Some how he realized that he knew that he didn’t want to know the answer to that, guessing what it might be.

The Scanner screen showed a white landscape, covered in snow. The Doctor had checked his the TARDIS instruments. They were on Earth, but he didn’t know which part, or the date. The Doctor adjusted the scanner to pan around the surrounding area until it focused on a space ship in the distance.
“That’s an Ope ship,” Tam said.
“Ah, good,” the Doctor said, “Then we probably have arrived during the experiment.”
“Why is the ship here though?” Tam asked, “Opes can’t take extreme low temperatures.”
“Really,” the Doctor said, chuckling, “Well you certainly know a lot about them, information like that could be useful.”
“It comes from living my whole life with them,” Tam said.
“Yes, well I think we should go and investigate,” the Doctor said.
“Are you sure that’s wise?” Tellm asked.
“Well if Tam is right the Opes on board might have frozen to death by now,” the Doctor replied.
“True, but I still don’t like the idea,” Tellm said.
“Well you can stay here then if you want,” the Doctor said, “For those of us that are going outside I think we should find some warmer clothing to wear.”

Leader Eln was trying to contact Emperor Terrin, but he couldn’t make any contact with the Ope main city at all. It looked like there request for slave labor would have to be abandoned. Eln shivered, they’d have to get the heating fixed if they were to survive. He heard movement behind him and turned round to see Yiop staggering towards him. Eln watched in horror as Yiop collapsed, dead. Eln roared in anger, this wasn’t how an Ope should die. Freezing in a cold wasteland with no hope of being rescued. An Ope should die in battle taking out as many of his enemies at once. Eln was now very angry, and when Opes were angry they usually killed someone. Unfortunately for Eln the only creature within range was already dead. Then he looked out through the window and spotted someone that wasn’t dead, several someone’s in fact.

Tellm watched on the scanner screen as the Doctor, Tam, Gring and Holas approached the Ope ship. He was worried; what if there was danger when they got there. What should he do? Should he stay here? Should he go with them? Should he stop talking to himself? Yes, was the answer to the last one. Then he started again.

The Doctor was now wearing a thick cloak over his other clothes, Tam was walking beside him. Tam had found a thick black coat in the TARDIS wardrobe, she was also wearing a pair of thick gloves and a long striped scarf, some of it was trailing behind her in the snow. Gring and Holas were a short way behind them, they hadn’t made any attempt to protect themselves from the cold, insisting that they weren’t affected by temperature at all. Tam was feeling very nervous as they approached the ship, this feeling increased the closer they got. The Doctor didn’t show any sign of negative emotion at all. He just strode on, approaching the ship without any thought of turning back.

Eln was busy preparing the ships weapon systems. All of them. The first weapon would hold its target in position, preventing it from moving. The second would cause great pain to sprout through there bodies, then the third was one of a choice. Eln could either cause a heart attack, make the victims brain melt, or just simply blow them up. Eln decided on the latter two options. Which one first he thought to himself. Focusing on each of the four targets in turn until finally focusing on Tam. Eln grinned wickedly as he prepared to activate the weapons.

[Kitten Kong Destroyed Wotan]

Chapter 6 part 1 (by Mrmatt)

The Doctor looked around the desolate wasteland surrounding him, he turned and looked at his fellow companions, he looked at their newest companion Tam, the girl who had left the Opes home world with them, this was probably the first time she had seen snow. He felt sorry for the poor girl spending her life in servitude and on her first taste of freedom she was in a situation where she didn’t know what would happen from one minute to the next, at least as a slave she had a monotony that made life predictable, dull but at least there were no nasty surprises. He turned and focussed determinately on the ship in front of him, it lay there quiet in the snow, there had been no movement around it for some time now and this worried him, why would the Opes leave a ship unguarded unless they were either all dead from the cold or had lain a trap? He hoped he was wrong but the Doctor thought that somehow, the trap option was the most likely. He just hoped they had all developed the urge to have a snowball fight and kill each other.

Eln was making some final adjustments to the bank of machinery in front of him, the screen in front of him would indicate the optimum moment to press the button and unleash the full extent of the weapons array, that summed up only a small section of an Opes armoury. He exhaled, his breath misting worryingly before him, the cold was something that Opes weren’t used to. Earth certainly wasn’t the most comfortable place to use as a base for their war against the Kro-Akans. He would take great pleasure in leaving this world if this is what it was like. He saw the woman approach the ship getting closer and closer. Finally she was within range of the machine, he went to press the button when something cold hit him in the head and knocked him off balance. The Doctor stood in the doorway a second snowball in his hand ready in case he needed it; he hadn’t had a decent snowball fight in a while. Eln pulled out his gun and pointed it straight at the Doctor, glaring menacingly at him.

Arthur looked around the ship he was on, still doubting his sanity, what he needed right now was a strong, sweet cup of tea to deal with the shock. First the silence, then the TV, then the Doctor and his ship and now aliens appearing out of nowhere and taking him to their ship. Arthur just hoped these aliens were more amiable and less prone to probing as the ones he had often heard abducted people. The kind of people who, Arthur often laughed at for being so desperate for fame and who were obviously a few sandwiches short of a picnic, perhaps he was now one of them. Arthur hoped he wasn’t, he didn’t think a tin foil hat suited him. He looked across at Ian, who seemed to be every quiet since they had arrived on the ship, was it something that the alien who had just left them had said, something about the Doctor not being happy if he died too? That was it someone who Ian knew was dead as a result of everything that had happened. Arthur suddenly felt a wave of pity for Ian who sat there silently staring at the floor, whoever it was who had died he knew it must be someone who Ian was close to, he knew that his reaction would be similar if his wife died, that sense of being all alone, he hoped would be a long time before it happened. He sighed a little and tried to shake the horrifying thought from his mind, he would be much happier when she returned from visiting her sister. Normally he would go to visit but this time was different

The Doctor realised at once the mistake that he had made as Eln got up brandishing the deadly Opes handgun. It had a bayonet like attachment however unlike a bayonet on guns from earth, this one was jagged and looked as though it would not only be used for simply running someone clean through but also for taking a far chunk of them with it when it was taken back out. The Doctor looked at Eln advancing on him, his face twisted into a horrifying depiction of pure rage. His lips were flecked with spit and his eyes were burning with an intense maniacal fire. The Doctor breathed heavily, this next part wasn’t going to be so easy. What he needed right now was a last minute rescue. His needs were met just a few short seconds later when a stream of clear liquid shot past his head and it Eln, square between the eyes. The Doctor turned around and saw Holas standing there his arm outstretched, acid guns dripping and a look of satisfaction on his face. Eln emitted a animal raw as the acid burned its way slowly through his skin.
“Thank you Holas, you saved my life there”
“Its quite alright Doctor, we may yet need you in the fight against the Opes.” replied Holas. A smile on his face.
“Go tell the others to return to the ship I need to disable our friends’ ships weaponry” the Doctor said indicating Eln who was still thrashing around clutching at his face which was starting to come in hideous red blotches, which did something that was previously thought impossible, it made an Opes even more hideous a sight. The Doctor moved over to the bank of machinery chuckling to himself.

Holas ran back down to Gring, Tam and Tellm. He was glad that he had noticed the Doctor sneak on ahead to the ship alone. He had just saved the Doctors’ life, he had to keep the Doctor alive so that he could be taken back for questioning aboard the ship. He arrived back with them and skidded to a halt in the snow, narrowly avoiding falling flat o his face and make a fool of himself.
“The Doctor says we have to hurry back to the TARDIS and wait for him there”. he said.
“Where is the Doctor?” Tam asked looking very worried. “He‘s just looking at something on the Opes ship, he said he‘s meet us all back at the TARDIS“ Holas said. He just hoped that the Doctor would met them back at the TARDIS soon or else the experiment would be in serious trouble.

Arthur was worried he had finished speaking to Ian and comforting him about the situation with his friends and not knowing whether one of the was alive or not over half an hour ago and he had heard nothing from him since. He was too young to have served in the war but his father had and he remembered the agony he and his mother went through never knowing if they’d see him again, the dread every time the postman came to the door in case he brought a letter bearing the news. He looked up from his reminiscing about such sad times when he heard the door of the room they were in slide open and in walked one of the aliens that had left them in the room. Arthur had decided that he hadn’t gone mad after he had thought all that had happened through after all if what Ian had told him earlier was true things were bound to get stranger, so he might as well just accept it and go with the flow otherwise he would end up really going insane. The Jovicene who had just walked in coughed politely so he could get the attention of both the humans.
“Your presence is requested on the bridge, immediately” he said.
Arthur turned to Ian and said:
“Come on Ian, it might be good news you never know”. Ian gave a non-committal grunt as a reply. Arthur started to stand up an turned to Ian who was still staring at the wall. “Ian come on it could be god news about the Doctor or your friends perhaps they’ve been revived and they’re waiting for you in the control room” Ian didn’t look as though he believed this but he got up and slowly made his way to the door. Arthur felt really awkward, he struggled to deal with people he had known for years in situations like this, the short time he had known Ian made the situation more awkward. He exhaled heavily and just hoped that everything would be ok when he went to the bridge.
The bridge of the Jovicene ship was a hive of activity, everywhere Arthur looked there were more of the Jovicene running around each clearly bent upon a purpose that they were determined to complete no matter what got in their way. He looked around the bridge hoping to see the Doctor who may be able to explain where he had gone and also to offer Ian a more reassuring and comforting presence. Unfortunately the Doctor was nowhere in sight, unfortunately an important looking Jovicene in a grand uniform was walking towards them both looking grim faced. Arthur could sense the next words he was about to hear were not going to be the most heart lightning he had heard.
“Ian, I am Commander Ovor, and I am in charge of the Earth experiment you and your friends have become involved in. I would like to offer my deepest sympathies for the death of the two female members of your party.” he said crossing his left arm diagonally across his chest and inclining his head, in the traditional Jovicene way of showing grief and sympathy. Arthur looked across at Ian, who looked quite angry at the Commanders’ words as they he thought they were a mere formality. However Arthur was relieved to see that instead Ian swallowed his anger and mumbled a word of thanks for the Commanders kind words.
“Why did you want to see us on the bridge Commander?” Ian asked his voice faltering as the shock of the Commanders’ words washed over him. His two companions dead, did the Doctor know that Barbara was dead too? If he did and he knew when they last saw each other, why didn’t he tell him? Didn’t he know not knowing what had happened was worse than knowing? That was Ian’s biggest problem with the Doctor, he may appear human on the outside but sometimes he could be completely inhuman in the way he dealt with peoples feelings. He put this thought to the back of his mind as Ovor started to explain why he had called him and Arthur to the bridge.
“ I called you both here to inform you of the Doctor’s progress with his mission” Ovor explained.
“Well, how is he doing? How do you know what he was doing?” Ian prompted hoping that the Doctor was on his way back to the Jovicene ship, he had a lot of questions that he wanted answering.
“I have just this minute received a report from one of my scouts who went with the Doctor on his mission he explained where the Doctor had gone and why. He said that they hadn’t had much luck in talking to the Opes Emperor. He did say that they have now returned to Earth and have landed near an Ope ship and that the Doctor had run into some trouble with the one Opes onboard.” He paused and looked across at Ian and Arthur who both had worried looks on their faces. “However” he added “my scout assured me that the Doctor is fine and that he is just trying to disable the Opes ship to delay their plan until we can think of a way to defeat them.”
“Is that all then Commander?” Ian asked “If so I would like to return to the room we were in to deal with your news” Ovor looked at Ian and understood for the first time what it was like to lose people who you cared for and would go to any lengths to protect. He inclined his head and said “Very well you may leave for now. I shall call you when I hear more of the Doctor.” Ian mumbled a word o thanks and left the room followed by Arthur who felt relieved that the Doctor was safe an was trying to sort the problems they faced out, he also felt upset for Ian whose worst fears had now been confirmed. He walked out of the room and along the corridor and realised hadn’t asked about getting a cup of sweet tea, something that he remembered was recommended for treating shock and he thought they could both do with a very sweet cup of tea. He thought about the two cups of tea as he walked past a wall panel that beeped at him, Arthur turned round, his attention aught by the unfamiliar noise and looked at the panel which had slid up the wall to reveal two cups of tea in white mugs. Arthur walked cautiously over to the cups and picked them up, taking a sip from one he found it very sweet but strangely comforting. He felt his shock lessen slightly as he jogged to catch up with Ian again to give him his cup of tea. Arthur was slowly adapting to this strange place and all its odd goings on.

The Doctor rested against the computer bank, he was getting too old for all this running around, in his younger days he used to enjoy running rings around those who challenged him, but that was years ago and on a different world entirely. Nowadays he relied on Ian to provide the muscle and energy in these situations, only doing so himself when the situation desperately called for it. He really could have used Ian’s help now, he was ashamed to have admitted it but he was starting to regret his initial attitude to the arrival of both Ian and Barbara aboard the TARDIS that cold night when they had followed Susan home. Eln was still thrashing around trying to stop the acid burning away the rest of his face. His rage was building as his howls of pain became increasingly more wild and animalistic as the acid burnt away his features. The Doctor knew he only had a short amount of time before Eln recovered from Holas’ attack and when he did the Doctor knew his chances of survival would be reduced drastically. He had faced daleks, Voord and other things too nasty to mention. but he always got the same adrenaline rush whenever he was in these lie or death situations and he still really enjoyed it. He knew that he had to act quickly and he had to act there and then. He edged his way slowly around the bank of computers to the main panel, the one that he had to sabotage to buy some time until he could think of something better to do to stop the Opes in their plot whatever their motive was. The Doctor squatted next to the control pane and prised it open. He looked inside and was amused at how simple the internal systems were.