“We don’t have a choice!”

She could feel pain shooting through her limbs, engulfing her hands and feet in flame. The only thing cooling, indeed peace-giving, was the familiar hand holding hers and the solidity of the key clasped between their palms.

“There’s always a choice!”

The Doctor’s voice was more of a growl than anything, but she clung to the sanity she heard at its depth.

Everywhere she looked there was swirling sand. There was nothing in her ears but rushing wind, and it sounded like a freight train. Her skirt whipped about her legs, her arms, and her back. Her bare feet were hidden under layers of those stinging, burning, rubbing sand. She couldn’t see them after all. The sun was gone, blacked out by the scoring grains.

She glanced down at the gun. Its shiny metal, rough and alien in texture than any Terran gun, was barely visible. “Peri’s there,” she shouted. “We have to go back.”

“We’re in agreement on that, Tegan!”

The Doctor pulled on their combined hands and brought her in closer. She tried to see his eyes, but her own stung from the sand and she had to close them. She knew the answer. She knew what it was that they were going to have to do. . In the loud darkness, she replied. “As soon as we show up...”

His other arm snaked about her waist and drew her in to his chest. The key was in their clasped hands, pointed to the earth. “Yes, we’ll be targets,” he responded.

She didn’t answer. The Doctor’s hand tightened, pressing the key into her palm, and squeezed it between their entwined hands. It had brought them here and even now, she could feel it thrumming with power. “It’s a bargaining chip,” she yelled, her head sideways on his chest. Her hand avoided the crisscrossed open wounds on his back. Even so, he winced.

“At the very least…” he agreed. “It’s what they’ve wanted for thousands of centuries.”

“It could destroy their entire race,” she added.

His silence let her know that he had also thought of that eventuality. Either way, she knew that the moment they returned, their lives would depend on how quickly they could move, how quickly they could dodge and run, and she was so tired already. Weary to her bones, but far from ready to give up, she nodded. “We have a choice of what to do with it, but we don’t have a choice of where to take it…we have to go back.”

She could feel him nod. His voice sounded more private, less projecting. “Take a deep breath, Tegan. No time like the present. As soon as you feel the world solidify, run. Don’t look for me. Don’t wait…I’ll be right behind you. If you hesitate…”

“You don’t have to tell me twice, Doc,” she replied. She felt him reach behind her and press the now familiar button on his wrist. As the world began to melt like a watercolor in the rain, she heard his voice against the side of her ear. “Brave heart, Tegan. It’ll take more than this to kill us.”

And then, as usual, there was nothing.

**

Love's Philosophy
by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever,
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle;--
Why not I with thine?

**

4 days earlier

**


“Where is he taking us?”

“Rabbits, I don’t know. I hope it’s peaceful wherever it is. I couldn’t take another round of fighting like Sylvana or Sarn. If I see another gun again, it’ll be too soon.”

There was a rustle of fabric and then the sound of a teenaged body hitting a mattress filled the air. Tegan grinned before she turned to spy Peri sprawled on the bed. She knew that sound well. And she knew the enthusiasm well, although she hadn’t felt it in years. “You don’t miss the fights, not even just a little?” the young woman asked as she stared up at Tegan.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still think about it, Peri. But I don’t want to live like that ever again, if I can help it.”

Peri nodded sagely. It was a gesture that seemed odd from the girl as young as she, but in exchange for the gun and military garb that the girl had been carrying, the wisdom was a better trade. “Where did you ask him to take us?”

With a frown, Tegan finished braiding her hair. “What’s that got to do with it?”

Peri gave her a sideways glance that showed the girl’s disbelief at her statement. “Only everything, Tegan; I’m making a bet that he’ll have either piloted the TARDIS to a place you’ve mentioned recently or will apologize for not getting us where he thinks you’ve wanted to go...”

“Cripes, it’s the times I used to yell at him for not getting us where we needed to be,” she explained. “It’s a learned reaction, I suppose.”

“Two dollars,” Peri said firmly as she rose off the bed to join her friend. “I’ll bet two dollars; it’s all I have.”

Tegan rolled her eyes. “Come on, then. Let’s see what he’s about. After all, it is the first trip in this crate after that long grounding. Odds are he’ll be cajoling the poor old girl into going somewhere, anywhere.”

I just hope it’s not Earth, she thought as the two friends walked into the corridor. I’m not ready for that yet.
**

The door to the console room opened on a long missing but nevertheless familiar sight: the Doctor standing at the console, his head lowered in concentration and his hand on his chin. His coat was on the coat rack and Tegan was immediately struck by the contrast between the cricket whites and his now missing black military garb.

Without glancing at them, the Doctor cleared his throat. “Good morning, you two.”

Peri returned the greeting happily and approached the console to lean on its surface. Tegan, on the other hand, circled the equipment intent on cornering its owner. “Morning, Doc. Where do you have us aimed this time?”

“Ah, well…” he lifted his eyes and spared her a glance. “The old girl has been in dock for quite sometime, Tegan. She needs a proper shake down.”

“That’s a new way of telling us you’ve no right idea…”

“Tegan…” he sighed. “As a matter of fact, I do quite know where we are and when we shall arrive where I have us aimed.” He leaned forward on the console and reached out to tap her nose gently. “Little faith, Tegan. Little faith.”

“So where are we heading,” Peri chirped her voice cheerful. The Doctor reacted to the good mood by bestowing a wide smile.

“Rejuvina,” he said, loudly. Peri laughed as Tegan crossed her arms over her chest.

“Sounds like a snake oil charm,” Tegan smiled.

“Yes, well…it isn’t the most proper of names for a place, but it’ll do.” The Doctor rubbed at the back of his neck. “Actually it’s the common name for the resort on Trina Seven. And before you ask,” he turned back to Tegan with a smile. “That’s where we’re headed. Rest and relaxation with no fighting or evil or pain or shooting…I believe that’s what you asked for, Tegan. It’s the best I can do.”

Peri lifted an eyebrow and Tegan, feeling her pocketbook tighten with the loss of two dollars, gave a small smile.

**

A beautiful orange sky and clear green gray grass with matching trees greeted Tegan as she closed the TARDIS door. It looked very like Gallifrey had the last time she was there and she wondered if they hadn’t reached their intended destination. If her nose wasn’t tricking her, the peaceful smell of a spring morning and honeysuckle in the air. With her arms lightly crossed over her chest to hold her sweater closed, she walked across the meadow to join a clearly excited Peri and a doting Doctor on a small rise.

“Ah, yes…” the Doctor was saying. “I suppose you could say this resort works like a train station, Peri.” He swallowed and turned to meet Tegan’s eyes as she approached. “It’s rather like a nexus point. From the resort one can be transported to any time, any place in the cosmos for a vacation. The patrons are indulged to the highest level of luxury at every stop. Quite like the TARDIS in travel ability, quite unlike the TARDIS in standard of pampering.”

Tegan smiled into the breeze that greeted her at the crest of the hill. Below, and only a short distance away, was a domed complex. “That’s it there, I suppose.”

“Right,” the Doctor agreed. “And a very short distance to walk.”

“But why here if it’s the same thing as traveling in the TARDIS?” she asked, as she unfolded her arms. She felt strangely uneasy with the whole situation.

“Oh, come on, Tegan…” Peri spouted a laugh in her words. “It’s definitely not a war. And if it’s all about pampering, then I’m all about it.”

She sighed and nodded, agreeing with her friend. The Doctor, however, was less than assured and held out his hand for Peri to precede him down the hill. He slipped his hand to the small of Tegan’s back and urged her forward. “I did rather think this to be a better spot for relaxation than anywhere else, Tegan. I’ve been here before; you can change destinations daily if you wish. Patrons are extremely well taken care of.”

“As you say,” she returned, straightening her sweater as they began to descend the hill. “But I have this incredible feeling, mind, that something is dreadfully wrong.”

**

“Of course I remember you, Doctor.”

Equal measures happiness and insecurity crossed the Doctor’s face in response. “Yes, I remember! You were the steward who attended us on my last stay here…”

“Yes, with Jamie and Victoria if I recall correctly…”

“Yes, well…time and bodies have changed,” the Doctor stated. “And so have my friends. Denjar? These are my friends Tegan and Peri. Tegan, Peri, this is Denjar, one of the best operators Rejuvina has to offer.”

“We logged the arrival of your TARDIS on our lands and have created a central room for you and your party until other accommodations can be made ready.”

Tegan ambled away from the Doctor and their greeter, along the marble outlined path to a computer terminal. Peri was rapt, staring at the screen with a grin that stretched from ear to ear.

“The Doc wasn’t kidding about the anywhere, any time part and the pampering: look,” Peri scrolled down the screen to show Tegan the destinations and what was available. “Eye of Orion…you’ve been there…haven’t you, Tegan?”

She had heard the conversation ending behind her, but could still here Denjar laughing at the Doctor’s input. Therefore when a voice suddenly erupted over her shoulder, she was startled.

“We were there approximately two years ago, yes.”

Tegan felt a pair of hands on her shoulders and she glanced back up to see the Doctor addressing Peri. “It’s a lovely bit of universe,” he continued. “Fragrant, sunny and always spring, there. Isn’t it, Tegan?”

“He’s right,” she agreed. “Good grief…they have a spa there? Hell’s Teeth…”

Peri nodded emphatically and followed the screen with her finger. “Nights optional…spacious rooms…sounds like a four star resort.”

“But we didn’t see it there last time,” Tegan objected. “Where would…”

“Ah, well…” the Doctor began. “The Eye is a large planet, Tegan. And besides, I think the accommodations are transient there, only used when necessary.”

With a firm nod, Peri met Tegan’s eyes and smiled widely. “Well, I’d really like to have a gander at it, Doctor. It looks like a really classy place there. And it’s beautiful.”

“I wouldn’t mind seeing it again, Doc,” Tegan responded happily. “It really was beautiful last time…”

The Doctor slid his hands into his pockets agitatedly. “The entire universe at our fingertips and you two…”

“Choose one of the most tranquil and beautiful places in the Universe,” she responded with a teasing tone. “On a vacation, fancy that.”

The Doctor lifted an eyebrow and but Tegan could see that he was simply putting up a front. He wanted peace and quiet as much as they did. “All right, all right…” he sighed at last. “I can’t fight the both of you. Eye of Orion for the day and night and then another destination; would that be acceptable to you?”

Peri smiled and tapped the keyboard. The screen minimized and she rose. “More than acceptable to me. Thanks, Doc.”

As she moved away towards the waiting concierge, Tegan glanced at him and shook her head. “Stubborn to the last even if it is something you want.”

“Tegan,” he replied simply and grabbed her hand to keep her up. “I don’t know whether it pains me or comforts me that you know me this well.”

**

“It’s a simple enough process,” the Doctor explained as the door opened. Peri hung on the Doctor’s arm; Tegan was ushered by his hand at her back; she supposed they looked like children on Christmas. “We simply stand in a transport place and press the buttons on our transport wristbands, and we’re transported wherever we’ve requested we go. Elementary.”

The size of the doors should have cued Tegan to what the interior of the room would look like. She was pretty sure that the state of their rooms should have lent an idea. Although she loved to sink into luxury as much as the next gal, she had a hard time collapsing on the down bed. After sleeping on the ground for most of the last year, the extreme luxury made her feel uneasy just a bit. It seemed like plush velvet and silk covered every surface.

So when the grand doors opened in on an open, opulently decorated room with a stall in its center, she wasn’t surprised. Inside the stall were upholstered seats in which she simply wanted to collapse. If she weren’t on an alien planet, she could have sworn it was Terran made. Peri ran her hand over nap of the fabric.

“So it’s just step inside and…zap?” Tegan asked. She ran her eyes over the rest of the fixtures until her gaze found the Doctor. His full lips were turned up in a slight smile.

“Yes, exactly, Tegan…zap. That’ll describe the process perfectly,” he replied, his smile widening. She could tell he enjoyed the reminder of their first days together.

“To a certain point,” Denjar replied loudly. The Doctor slipped his glasses on his nose and ambled over to the bank of instrumentation.

“Still working on an artron derivative, I gather,” he said as his eyes eagerly scanned the knobs.

Denjar laughed heartily. “As you well know, Doctor; you did help us with the bugs last time.”

The Doctor blushed slightly and removed his glasses shyly. “Yes, well…I might have given some advice…”

“You kept it from exploding in a tremendous pyrotechnic display, Doctor. And you have quite under-explained the science of the process.”

“Too right,” Tegan muttered. “He glosses over the good parts all the time.”

“Yes, well,” the Doctor sighed as he joined Peri in the transport. He sank into the seat and relaxed against the nap of the sofa with a smile. “I could recite the physics inherent in the process, but it would bore you. Come along, Tegan…”

Peri turned and grabbed Tegan’s hand. Together they tumbled into the seat opposite the Doctor. With his hat inclined over his eyes, she couldn’t tell his state of mind; the teasing lilt of his lips, though, gave her an idea. He was enjoying himself immensely.

“It should only be a moment,” Denjar called over. “I’m double checking the coordinates.”

The Doctor gave a nod, but jauntily rose and stepped across to sit next to his two companions.

“You’re rather calm about this…letting someone else drive,” Tegan teased. She eased his hat back from his brow. “Quite unlike you.”

“I’m on vacation, Tegan. I’d rather not ‘drive’ as you put it.”

“It makes for a change,” Peri agreed. She glanced up under the Doctor’s brim. “I like it.”

The Doctor frowned and muttered under his breath good-naturedly.

The world started to melt outside the stall. Denjar’s voice penetrated the haze as it descended: “Arrival has been set. We shall see you on the morrow! Enjoy yourself, Doctor!”

**

“How long?”

Darkness was everywhere, but Tegan could still feel the cool cushion under her legs. Peri’s hand enclosed hers; it was the only contact she had with another.

“How long, hmm?” the Doctor responded. She felt his shoulder brush hers and knew he was reclining in the chair.

“How long of a trip is it?”

“Oh well…” he began, his voice low. “You really can’t tell time on these things, Tegan. It all depends on the position of observation. Once you change that, it changes everything- relativity as your Einstein called it…”

“A simple answer would be nice,” she shot back. “From our observation, Doctor. What other observation point would you suggest?”

Peri laughed. “You two argue even in complete darkness. At least it’s good to know that something is a universal constant.”

Tegan felt his hand tap her shoulder. “By our observation, the trip is probably 10 minutes or so.”

She leaned closer to him. “You’re incorrigible, you know.”

“Am I?” he sounded shocked.

The air around them filled with a feminine voice with extremely clipped pronunciation. “Arrival imminent. Location: Eye of Orion, Pre-dynastic era, second kingdom; City: Sidon. Enjoy your stay.”

“Interesting,” came the Doctor’s hoarse voice in her ear. “Pre-dynastic era; I’ve never been there.”

“Is it something unusual?” Peri asked.

“It’s when most of the buildings were built there,” the Doctor explained. Tegan felt his leg brush hers as he crossed them. “At least that was the information I’ve heard from the excavators who have studied the Eye. The buildings have only been ruins whenever I’ve arrived. Interesting.”

“And you were worried about monotony, I suppose,” Tegan muttered with a smile. “You’ll be like a child on Christmas morning.”

Peri burst out in a laugh. The darkness seemed to lessen about them. “I resent that, Tegan. I won’t be quite that eager,” he responded quietly. There was something in his voice that made her shiver.

She felt his breath ruffle her hair at her crown and glanced back up over her shoulder to see his face in complete silhouette. He was looking down at her; she could tell the direction of his gaze, but not the intensity of it.

There was something there that made her remember about their time in the rainforest. It was a visceral memory; she could feel their time together; the rain, the coolness of his skin contrasted by the heat of his kiss. She felt the elation that she had hidden under a maelstrom of uncertainty about the whole situation, an uncertainty that had spread when she had heard the Joiba’s response. She felt the pain at watching him left behind on Sarn. And she felt the incredible happiness at finding him again but with an aged vintage of feeling that came from growing older and knowing what one wanted in life.

And then, finally, the knowledge that there was caring between them; the gripped fear in her stomach lessening. At the same time, there was frustration that there was still a long way to go; neither she nor the Doctor knew exactly what direction to go with the relationship. True to both their natures, they hadn’t discussed where they wanted to go nor had they discussed exactly where they were.

The booth flooded with light and she blinked. When she looked again, the Doctor had shifted and was rising from the seat. She could see that they had stopped in what looked to be a lobby.

“Ah, splendid, we’ve arrived,” he stated as he sat his hat on his head. He extended his hand down to her as Peri happily piled out of the booth. “Shall we, Tegan?”

And with a smile, she took his hand.

**

See! the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower would be forgiven,
If it disdained it's brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;--
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?
--Shelley


“Good Christ,” Peri muttered. She twisted to stare up at the soaring architecture and spread her arms wide in an all-encompassing motion. “Would you look at this place? Who built it? The Romans?”

Tegan smiled widely. She hadn’t seen Peri that happy since before Sylvania.

“Not quite, Peri,” the Doctor responded, pivoting like Peri, his hands in his pockets. He bit his lip. “The architecture is too mathematically precise on a level of intricacy unattainable by the Classic era.”

“Literal,” Tegan replied quietly. She brushed by the Doctor to look at the plaster dome over head. There was a wonderfully expressive mural painted on the arch of the dome: a woman holding a basket of bounty and offering it to children. “It is beautiful. The woman is very Raphealian.”

She felt the Doctor’s hand on her elbow; the fingers cupped the bone gently, almost caressingly. There was the characteristic hiccup of a breath that he took before he spoke.

“Ah, you must be the Doctor!”

She glanced over her shoulder to see him agitatedly turn, a frown on his face, to meet the approaching man.

“I am. And you are?” the Doctor asked as he readjusted his coat and hat.

“Your location specialist,” was the jovial reply. “My name is Tren.”

The Doctor seemed, to Tegan’s practiced eyes, to force a smile to his face as he held out his hand in greeting. It struck her as strange where her friend was always so eager to greet new people that he would behave so entirely different. Rabbits, she thought watching the smile slowly creep to his eyes, he only had acted like that once previously.

“Tren is it? Wonderful to meet you. I’ll admit that this is a slightly different manner of traveling than previously, isn’t it?” The Doctor bent at his waist a little as Peri came to join him. “The last time there wasn’t a specialist…”

“Recent problems with some other locations have led the Corporation to have specialists at each location,” the young man leaned in conspiratorially. “But if you ask me, sir, one can expect problems if one wishes to vacation on Skaro.”

“Good heavens,” was the Doctor’s reply. With a smile, he reached behind to put his hand at Tegan’s back. He did the same with Peri, bringing both girls even with him as they followed the chattering Tren out of the room. “Skaro?”

Tegan smiled widely as they stepped from the building and into the bright sunshine. She immediately recognized the aroma in the air as distinctly Eye of Orion. A few blinks and a moment allowed her to see the vision that met them as they stepped into a large courtyard. It was immense, stretching so far to the peripheral that the corners and walls were nearly blurred. The walls, the steps and the columns near them were sandy in color; the sky was very rich sapphire blue and the grass was as green as the greenest April sprouting. She stopped at the top step and breathed deeply. Peri nearly bounded down the steps to the grass.

The Doctor stopped on the top step and smiled down at her. She intercepted the look and returned the grin. “It doesn’t ever change, does it?”

“The Eye? No, no…the natural beauty is always here, Tegan.” His smile widened.

“It’s different with people here,” she commented as she stepped down into the grass. It was a live path, made of grass of contrasting colors. It stretched to the edges of the courtyard where columns and obelisks of varying sizes sprouted like oversized blades of grass. It was true what she said about people, she thought. There were probably a hundred or so people on the path in front of them. “The ruins were so peaceful.”

“Quite,” the Doctor responded, his hand worrying in his pocket. She knew he was agitated and the hand ventured out quickly to touch at her lower back. “You like it better that way, I suppose.”

“You suppose rightly,” she said with humor. The Doctor practically beamed at her, but quickly remembered that he was in conversation with Tren.

“Skaro, you say…”

“They do mean everywhere, every time, Doctor,” Tren reminded him. “But here on the Eye, very little happens that could be considered dangerous or indeed strange.” He glanced back and met Peri’s eyes. “Do keep up, miss. You’re Peri, correct? I’m to understand that you inquired about the complete spa package.”

“You bet I did,” Peri smiled as she drew even with the man.

“It starts this afternoon,” he replied. “Your first appointment is in two hours. That’s just enough time for me to acquaint you with your rooms. But if you’d rather, we are passing the spa on our way to your lodgings, I could allow you to stop there and escort you later this evening.”

Peri glanced to the Doctor. “I think getting pampered starting immediately sounds great to me. It wouldn’t be a problem to be escorted later, would it?”

“Your friend…Miss Tegan…has an appointment at the spa this evening,” he continued. As he turned to Tegan, she noted that his hair was so very red that it looked radiant. His eyes were indeterminate. “I could bring you to the spa and escort the both of you back at the end of the appointments…”

“Sounds like it’s a definite plan,” Tegan smiled in reply.

**

Tegan felt odd as Peri parted company with her and the Doctor, but no amount of crossing and uncrossing her arms over her chest could adjust the feeling. She wasn’t used to being without Peri now for over a year. The sight of the beautiful buildings and art work helped to lull her a little.

“The current culture here on the Eye has been on this planet for well over one hundred millennia.”

Tren’s voice was smooth and soothing. He and the Doctor walked slightly in front of her. Her Time Lord strolled with his hands held tightly behind his back, which was library chair straight. He towered over the accompanying tour guide by a half a foot and his blond hair deeply contrasted the mix of red and brown that Tren sported. And Tegan wasn’t even going to begin to contemplate the difference in dress. But what was the same between the two men was the intent way they conversed amongst themselves about the culture and the architecture.

“Amazing,” the Doctor said simply. His hand traced down the engraved figures on a column. “The culture is that advanced and yet they have a classical taste when it comes to expressing themselves in architecture.” He frowned and touched the column with a flat palm. “Although I believe this isn’t stone, is it?”

“No,” Tren smiled. “Very astute, Doctor. A bit of an archeologist, are you?”

“I get around a great deal,” the Doctor responded. He pressed his palm into the carving and then glanced up the surface of the column. “Technite?”

“A technite derivative, yes.” Tren smiled benevolently, as if watching a small child he enjoyed learning a new lesson.

“Ah, but the writing…” the Doctor reached into his inside pocket and pulled out his glasses. Tegan knew the look: his professor on a holiday persona as he leaned in to look at the writing. She couldn’t be paid enough to guess at what the type of writing it was. “Very blocked and yet has a distinct mathematical basis to it.” His fingers danced over the material reminding Tegan of a sculptor anointing his own work. There was reverence and intensity. He stood and tapped the glasses against his lips. “And literal instead of pictorial interpretation, I think. If I wasn’t mistaken…”

Tegan rolled her eyes. “You aren’t often…”

The Doctor’s response to her was a quirked eyebrow. “If I wasn’t mistaken, I would assume it was a cousin language of Gallifreyan.”

Tren frowned. “I don’t know Gallifreyan, Doctor. It isn’t a commonly studied or freely used language in the galaxy at large. Written word on the Eye can be traced through the literary tree that started in the Greater Mutter’s Spiral in the first part of the Second Universe.”

The Doctor’s interest was pronounced; he leaned forward, slipping his hands complete with glasses back into his pocket. “Really? Interesting…that is a divergent language family from Gallifrey.”

Tegan sighed and shifted her weight. Beyond the column, in the middle distance, she could see several men and women strolling. They appeared to have destinations and purpose, but no speed. Their dress was all the same, only varying in color instead of style.

“Very interesting…I wonder…do you have a library or learning institutions in these parts?” the Doctor muttered, tapping his finger against his lips.

She had had enough and stepped forward to tap her fingers against the Doctor’s shoulder. “Vacation, Doctor? Remember?”

He glanced over his shoulder at her with a sheepish grin on his face. “Of course, Tegan, of course.”

Tren readily agreed and Tegan found herself back to being escorted by the Doctor. From the interested gleam of his eyes, however, she could tell that he was still thinking about the carvings. She, however, wanted some questions of her own answered. “It seems that everyone here wears the same clothes, Tren. That isn’t required is it?”

“Oh no, Miss Tegan; it’s simply all there is here,” Tren responded good-naturedly, gesturing to have them enter the building ahead of him.

“Very like ancient Greek…” Tegan said, quietly. “Beautiful.”

“Not Greek, Tegan,” the Doctor corrected with a smile. “More Terran Middle Eastern…more Babylonian…”

With a groan, she leaned back into his hand. “Why does it not surprise me that you know textile history?”

“Well…” he replied, his voice falling in tone on the drawn out syllable. “I am a man of many talents.”

**

The silk was lovely and cool against Tegan’s skin. She hadn’t quite caught the name of the knot nor the way it was tied across her shoulders, but at that moment she didn’t quite care. From the way that Peri was gently petting the fabric against her own hips and thighs, she knew her friend loved the sign of luxury that adorned their bodies.

“Shouldn’t we have waited for the Doctor and Tren to come find us, Tegan?” Peri asked quietly as they entered the main thoroughfare. “Do you really know where you’re going?”

Tegan shrugged good-naturedly and continued down the marble path towards a wide courtyard. Even at the distance, she could see it as would be in her time…a beautiful ruin of a place with sandstone and marble portions. “Is it ever a good idea to wander anywhere we go? I’m sure we’re safe here. Besides, our rooms are just up a bit off the main corridor. Just go to the main column and turn right…”

With a grin, she continued down the ivy-covered, column-lined path. Peri’s blue gown mixed with the silver of her own, creating a flowing shadow of silk next to their legs. “What do you think the Doctor has been doing while we were pampered and cared for this afternoon?”

Tegan rubbed her hands over her arms at the mention of the day. Her skin was so much silkier now, wonderfully smooth from the massage and body wrap she had undergone. Peri positively glowed.

“Probably something involving trouble, learning, investigation or all of the above,” Tegan responded as she peeked about the corner. Then she gave her friend a wide smile. “Rabbits! All the time that’s gone by but that much surely hasn’t changed.”

There were many stars visible over the horizon, but even by their meager light, she could see a masculine form standing by one of the columns, his fingers at his lips and his head inclined.

“Is that…”

Tegan rolled her eyes and approached the man they both knew. “Just like us…turn at the second column, and straight onto morning…to find Peter Pan…”

Peri giggled as they approached.

“I’m glad you find humor in Tegan’s literary allusions,” the Doctor stated. His eyes didn’t waver from the column. “I gather the both of you had a wonderful day and evening?”

“The best,” Peri agreed. “The spa here was tops in pampering.”

Tegan agreed with a sigh. “They had the best passionflower and lilac bath.”

The Doctor turned to meet her eyes. “Did they? Interesting.”

“Is there any particular reason why you are out in the middle of a mostly empty courtyard staring at columns?” She asked. Peri grinned and looped her arm through her friend’s. Tegan patted her hand as if to say: listen to this.

“I’m surprised at you, Tegan,” the Doctor muttered and turned back to the column. In the dark, his fingertips danced on the surface of the column. She rubbed her hands over her naked arms and with a shiver she realized she wanted his touch. After their conversation, or lack thereof, she thought ruefully, she wasn’t sure if it was the best idea she had had.

“How so, Doc?” Peri chirped. “I thought it was good question to ask.”

“Tegan and I saw these columns this afternoon. I’ve done a bit of research this afternoon; these columns intrigue me. Or rather…the writing on them.”

“The non-Gallifreyan, but very Gallifreyan like writing?”

“The very,” he looked away from the column and speared Tegan with a smile. “I’ve booked a trip to Earth tomorrow.”

Tegan frowned. “Why or rather: where?”

“Yeah, Doc,” Peri agreed.

The Doctor tapped the column with his fingers. “As I said earlier, Tegan, the writing on this column is enough like Early Gallifreyan that it’s partially translatable.” He glanced sheepishly over his shoulder to Tegan. “Or at least, I translated it and received a somewhat understandable string of words in return. It tells of a colonization attempt on a planet in Mutter’s Spiral. It’s a planet that has similar climate to the Eye. And it was a planet that was visited and studied for eons by the wise men of this civilization. They’ve been watching the ‘large bird-like lizards’ and the wanderings of early humanoids.” He grinned widely. “The only planet I know that fits that description is Earth.”

“But when, Doctor?” Tegan pressed. There was something about this that made her wary.

He turned, his hands sliding into his pockets. “Well, this civilization doesn’t have the ability for time travel. And this column is rather new comparatively. If I were to hazard a guess…”

Peri muttered under her breath. “A guess, yeah…right.”

The Doctor continued as if he hadn’t quite heard his companion. “With time translation between the two…I would say it was at the earliest civilization attempt…in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys…Sumerian and Babylonian civilizations. There’s a fine line between the two…”

Tegan frowned. “And you want to go there and then?”

“Yes, well…I’m intrigued,” the Doctor responded. “I wonder what this civilization does with your planet, Tegan. Yes, I’m going. But you two may remain here; I’ll only be gone a short while.”

Peri sighed and Tegan’s back straightened. Her friend responded first: “I personally would like to remain here…if you promise you’ll return quickly.”

Tegan’s frown became more pronounced and she said nothing. The Doctor smiled. “Of course I’ll return quickly. I’ll spend less than a day there. I only want to do a few things. I’ll be back before you blink.” He turned and met Tegan’s eyes. “But that can be decided tomorrow. I understand that our accommodations have a wonderful restaurant…would you two care for a bite to eat?”

Peri beamed and started down the path the Doctor indicated with his outstretched hand. Tegan approached him, her arms crossed over her chest. “Doctor…”

“Tomorrow, Tegan,” he pressed. “We’ll all make a decision tomorrow.”

“Why does this not surprise me?” she continued as though he hadn’t said anything. “Curiosity is your relaxed state, isn’t it?”

He sighed and slipped his hand to her back. “The dress is lovely; I trust you had plenty of currency?”

She shook her head. “Avoidance, Supremo.”

“I am getting better at it, aren’t I?” he replied with a smile. “We’ll talk about it later…but first, please, dinner?”

**

After a filling and quite exquisite dinner, the Doctor escorted Peri to her room. He left Tegan by the open balcony to enjoy the night. The breeze was more intense that far from the ground and it rustled both her skirt and hair. She couldn’t quite describe the flowery aroma but settled for calling it honeysuckle. And the clarity of the stars was mesmerizing. Only the cool touch of familiar hands at her shoulders brought her mind back to the present.

“It’s still beautiful here…even with people. It still smells like spring,” she murmured.

“Quite,” his voice rumbled. His hands slid from the apex of her shoulders to cup her upper arms.

“You know I’ll have to go with you tomorrow,” Tegan responded as she turned her nose into the breeze. “You can’t be trusted to stay out of trouble and you can’t be trusted to simply go and come back without someone to remind you to…”

“Ah yes,” he said a breathless laugh under his words. “Your responsibility again, am I?”

“You bet your lives, Doc,” she replied. She inhaled a little more of the spring night and turned to him. “And where have you hidden my room, by chance?”

The Doctor adjusted the brim of his hat and turned; his hand dropped to take hers. “An interesting story that,” he stated quietly. “It seems that you were given a room to share with someone, Tegan.”

Tegan felt a small grin tease at her lips. “Oh no…you don’t say.”

“Well,” the Doctor drew out the syllable as his voice fell in timbre. Suddenly, she could tell when the teasing manner he hadn’t quite figured out how to use properly was dropped and his inner seriousness shone. His hand tightened and she could see that his lips had released their smile. His eyes were dark and wary as well. It mattered what she said, she realized; it mattered what she answered. “I had thought as we haven’t had a great deal of time to spend alone, Tegan…and our lives have been rather hectic as of late… And, well, as this is our vacation…I thought that perhaps you and I might…”

“Share a room?” Tegan quietly asked.

“Yes, well…” the Doctor cleared his throat. “We have discussed our feelings toward one another…”

She nearly laughed at the shy and serious way he spoke. “As best as either you or I are able to, yes…”

He gave her a friendly frown. “I do realize we shall have to discuss things further, Tegan.”

“Someday,” she muttered in return, but squeezed his hand. “You want to spend the night together.”

“I would like to, yes,” he responded quickly.

“A year and a month, Doc…”

“Yes, well, Tegan,” he sighed as he stopped and turned to her. “This isn’t something commonplace…this…fraternizing…between us. You have expressed interest…previously…that you wished we had engaged as such more often…”

“The answer is yes,” she said as her smile widened. She stroked at his cheek for a moment to placate his rising temper. “Easy, Doc…I wasn’t going to turn you down.”

“Thank Rassilon…” he responded good-naturedly. “I’m not accustomed to asking in the first place, Tegan. To have to convince you wouldn’t be any easier. “

She rose on her toes and pressed a kiss to his lips that stilled him. He tested his lips with his tongue afterwards. She smiled and pulled on their clasped hands. “Come on…where’s the room?”

The Doctor’s smile was small and he strode down the corridor at a clipped rate. She felt his pull and followed along, her silver dress swirling about her legs in the breeze.

**

It was different than the other two times. This time there was no rain falling about them and it wasn’t hurriedly on a bed. This time it was slow and leisurely. Her dress was left over the back of a chair; his clothes neatly folded on the seat. The cool breeze dusted her legs as she raised them about his hips; his breath was like a cool kiss of life against her cheek, her chin, and her chest; it harkened the arrival of his lips.

“I hope that smile is not at my expense,” he muttered, his body stretching out on top of her.

“Quiet the ego, Doc,” she whispered in return. “I’m just happy.”

After what seemed an eternity of gentle teasing touches, of his hands lovingly stroking her body, of her lips exploring and mapping what little of his body she didn’t know, and of him raising her passion to a feverish pitch, he joined them. There was more tenderness then, a slowly traveling hand as if he was memorizing or reacquainting himself with her body. He seemed to hesitate as he had before, tensing above her, but this time she realized it was because he wanted to draw out the anticipation from the both of them.

For an instant, she saw him with his blond hair, darkened now to a light brown, his eyes deep and soulful, and his lips swollen and parted, poised over her. He looked serious, as though what was occurring was more than what it was. But then the instant was gone and his muscles coiled and sprung and the join was complete.

Her smile became a laugh of joy as his moan of pleasure resounded in the room.

She felt his fingers touching or rather gently restraining her head as he raised his lips from her brow. She swallowed the rest of her laugh at the sight of his blue eyes wide and heated, his pupils nearly obliterating their color. The gentle flame that burned beneath the surface was hot and yet comforting. “I couldn’t’ do this as Supremo, Tegan…” he breathed. “You understand?”

She nodded, the stinging feel of tears touching at the edges of her eyes.

“It wouldn’t have been…” he hissed a breath through his teeth that accompanied a thrust that made her squirm. “It wouldn’t have been what it should.”

Her hands fell to his lower back, feeling the push and pull of his muscles under his skin. She couldn’t draw a complete breath; both his gentle thrusts and his kiss stole what little air she had from her. An ache formed in her chest and she tried to voice what she felt. “But what is it supposed to be?” she whispered, her lips moving, a tear grazing the side of them.

His groan was as much in pleasure as in a slight touch of anguish. “Oh, Tegan…” he muttered, his hips shifting to deepen their contact. “It wouldn’t have been…this…”

She arched her back, her nails digging into his back in passion. “Doc…” She hiccupped and tried to keep her lips from saying more than she wanted. “Please don’t tell me it’s…” she moaned. “Don’t tell me it’s to keep me with you…”

“No,” he said strongly.

She raised her legs above him. He lifted his body off of hers, his arms holding him firmly above her. She couldn’t hold him anywhere but at his shoulders and there she could feel the strength and power in his thrusts. As she closed her eyes, she squeezed another two tears from beneath their lids. He muttered encouragement, but it wasn’t necessary. With quivering and a shout, she climaxed, dragging him with her to the edge of the cliff and plummeting over. His groan of release shook her to her core.

But he didn’t move off of her, didn’t gently ease her to the side and fall to the mattress as he had before. He calmly and gently continued to thrust, his eyes searching for hers in the dark. “Joining, Tegan; it’s about joining…and…affection.”

Tegan’s hands encircled his shoulders, her muscles continuing to quake. She met his gaze. “I like hearing that.”

“Interestingly enough,” he sighed, holding her tightly. He brought his body flush against hers. She could feel his sense of humor bubbling through him. “I like saying it.”

His fingers stroked her cheek for a moment before he lowered his lips to cover hers, gently, and with infinite attention. “I care,” he returned, sobering. “Don’t doubt that I do.”

Darkness embraced them and he gently pulled away and fell to her side on the mattress. She felt his lips at the back of her neck as he spooned around her. Somehow, with an ease of the anxiety in her gut, she fell asleep, held firmly against his chest.

**

The morning brought birdsong like twinkling crystal dancing in the wind through the window. It was a calm enough way to wake up and Tegan turned on her back. Still naked, she felt cool in the morning breeze. The sheets were mellifluous across her hips and the touch of the early morning air was murderous on her naked chest, but she found she just wanted to stretch and stay where she was.

But the empty space next to her in the bed brought back memories of the night before and she glanced over at it in mild annoyance. The Doctor was gone. And with her luck, she thought viciously as she sat up and pulled harshly at the sheets, he had left the planet without her.

“Bloody bastard,” she sighed as she padded across the floor to the chair where her dress was. “He’s probably left without me. Damn man never could understand…”

It took her ten minutes and several tries on the knots at her shoulders before she was presentable to stumble down the corridors in search of the Doctor. She found him, standing with Peri, in the courtyard below their room. She had slowed to a fast paced walk, but drew up short as she rounded the ivy covered column. The birds were still loud and she was jostled as she moved through the crowds. Her loose hair flittered about her and her feet were bare; she hadn’t thought to tie back the hair or slip on her shoes. Her dress was therefore less than formal, but it was still like those around her: archaic, but beautiful.

Everything was like a warm dream: sandstone columns, what looked like tumbled marble for the walkway, and orange etching on the smooth warm silica look of other columns. Against the cool blue of the sky and the gray white clouds, the colors were vivid. But even the artist in Tegan had little time to appreciate the surroundings. She centered on her friends.

“Doc…” she said quietly. Her heart slowed and she felt that she was able to take a breath again.

He turned to glance at her, his hands in his pockets. In the shadow cast by the wide brim of his hat, she could see his blue eyes. They centered on her hair, then her eyes and then fell to look at her dress, then continued to her feet. The small smile on his lips matched the spark in his eyes. “Good morning, Tegan,” he said, good-naturedly. “And no, I haven’t left without you.”

“Rabbits and spit,” she muttered, moving past the last of the crowd to him. Peri smothered a smile in the back of her hand. With a frown, Tegan reached up to feel her hair, immediately knowledgeable that her braids had loosened and slipped in the night. With a set to her chin, she straightened her back and continued the rest of the distance to join her friends.

Even if she had missed her friends in the rush of people in the courtyard, she couldn’t have missed Peri’s dress, nor the color of it. A heavenly blue that brought out her eyes and the peach ivory color of her skin, the dress nearly sparkled in the sunlight. There was not a strand out of place on her head. Tegan felt at her own disshelved braid and she patted at it.

Tegan felt her friend’s hand tucking her loose braid against the back of her head as Peri asked: “So it’s not really a destination, Doc?”

“Sumeria? Heavens no,” the Doctor replied. “No, no…and as such, Peri, it will take some engineering of the transference circuits to deposit us where we want to be. The splendid thing is that our destination specialist is quite up to that challenge.”

“Tren?” Tegan asked. “Good Lord…”

“Well, Tegan,” the Doctor replied as he cleared his throat and leaned over to adjust her dress high on her shoulder. She frowned and pulled to straighten the dress; there was a distinct feeling that she was forgetting something. “It appears that our destination specialist is a bit of an adventurer himself. He has our transport planned.”

“Is it too late to gather the TARDIS?” Tegan asked.

“Yes, rather,” the Doctor sighed. He turned to usher both she and Peri away from the center of the courtyard. “This isn’t a planned destination and this visitation I’m planning isn’t quite sanctioned by the government in power here on the Eye. Returning for the TARDIS would only draw attention to us.” His smile widened and Tegan rolled her eyes. His inner child was coming out to play. “Besides, it’s rather interesting to do it like this and Tren wants to accompany us. Ah, and here’s just the man…”

The Doctor walked off at a fast clip, leaving Peri and Tegan in the shade of the ivy. Tegan could see the smaller destination controller listening by the edge courtyard. “Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” she asked, quietly. “Peri, are you sure you don’t want to come with us…”

“And pass up a few days of lying by the pool and spa life? Are you insane, Tegs?” Peri laughed. She turned to look at her friend. “Besides, I think that you and he will be gone for only a little bit. Tren seems not to be keen on a long term trip.”

With rolled eyes, Tegan commented: “It’ll be a first.”

“Yes, but it’s not like the TARDIS, Tegan; it’s not like the old girl will mess up and not bring you and he back. You’ll have those transfer bracelets…and he’s quite adamant about no time displacement during the travel…”

“True,” Tegan breathed. Her smile for Peri was wide. “There might be hope for us yet.” She sighed and turned to her friend. “How was your evening? I see you’ve changed dresses. Cripes, I hadn’t thought to…”

Peri laughed. “To take other clothes from our shopping stash before you spent the night with the Doc.”

“Hell’s teeth,” she cursed quietly. There was no malice in her friend’s eyes. “Well, yes, if you really want to know. I was rather caught unawares that he wanted to… But it wasn’t that…”

Peri’s laughter died, but her smile remained, tinged with happiness for her friend and a tenderness that made Tegan’s throat tighten. “I don’t know what happened to the two of you before I met you, Tegan. I’ve never asked, but I know you’re close.” Turning into the sun, Peri squinted and sighed. “You’re not embarrassed about it, are you?”

“Hell no,” Tegan replied. “The only problem I might have is if you thought…well that…” She took a deep breath. “Rabbits! I didn’t want you to think that we were any less friends or that the Doc had any less fondness for you than you thought he did… It’s not like I know what’s going on with it all…the man is…” she growled under her breath which elicited a smile from Peri. “God’s teeth, I never know where I stand.”

The Doctor turned around and waved to the both of them, but Tegan could feel that his eyes were on her. Peri giggled. “And that surprises you? How?”

“Touché,” Tegan muttered. “It looks like we’re wanted.”

Peri looped her arm through Tegan’s and confided, a little warmly: “Obviously.”

**
The sun was high overhead, harkening the noon into the afternoon, when Tegan, Tren and the Doctor returned to the position where they had transported to the Eye. The warmth as it spread across her body reminded her of a Spring Day; the rays were intense but only warm, not hot like summer. Somehow, she had rearranged her braids into a resemblance of order and had gathered her shoes.

As they made their way to the arrival pad, Tegan with her arm looped through the Doctor’s, she noticed that all the other women about her wore metallic and jewel tone dresses. “Good Lord, they’re all the same style, but the colors…”

“Hmm, bright aren’t they?” The Doctor muttered in return, settling his hat more firmly on his head. “Although I must admit a preference for the silver, Tegan; it becomes you.”

Tegan sighed and continued to keep pace with her friend (a small voice in her head would not allow her to call him her lover). “You’re improving.”

“I am trying,” he replied.

“Well then,” she began, “how about you explain to me again what it is that’s going to happen here. That would be considered a laudable effort.”

He stopped his smile from erupting by clearing his throat. “We’re attempting to travel to Ancient Earth, Tegan.”

“But not time traveling,” she responded.

“No…”

“Why not?” she pressed. His arm tightened and she was brought up short as he stopped quickly. She noticed that he was keeping them a fair distance from Tren. The younger humanoid was bent over a small table. Three bracelets rested on the surface and were similar to the ones they had worn to the destination spot on the Eye.

He sighed and closed his eyes. “If we were to time travel, Tegan, we would have to do so to a location where there was no set spot of destination. You see, it is similar methodology to Gallifreyan Time technology; Rejuvina technology cancels out spatial and temporal probabilities thereby making only one set transversed plot. The only differing factor is that the Rejuvians have plotted the courses previously and have found places where the probability is one. There is no such preplotted spot in Sumeria. Additionally, if we travel to a non plotted point, it will be noticed in their tracking center. I would prefer that the main controllers not know where we are.”

Tegan frowned. “That’s a bit unsafe, don’t you think?”

“Oh, Tegan,” he muttered. “We are perfectly safe. Besides, there is no time distortion needed from this starting place. It’s simply a side jump…if one avoids the rather convoluted contained temporal side dimensions…”

“Oh that sounds just lovely,” she replied as he began to walk slowly, pulling her along gently by her hand.

“You don’t have to accompany me,” he whispered.

“True. But you love it when you have an audience,” she retorted. “And you’re not going anywhere without me, you daft Time Lord.”

He smiled, tightly, but she could see it grow as they neared the specialist. The smaller man turned to glance up at the Doctor and then down at her. “Ready, are you, Doctor?”

“Yes, quite, Tren,” the Doctor said. He stopped and gently removed Tegan’s hand from his arm and clasped her hand. “I’m to understand that you’ve completed programming the bracelets?”

Tren bestowed a wide, excited smile on the both of them that reminded Tegan of a used car salesman. The man picked up the bracelets: circlets of steel with jewel colored small buttons and knobs. They looked to be expensive silver jewel encrusted Tiffany bubles to her eyes. The sun caught the edge sending up a glint. “Of course I have, Doctor.” He lovingly turned the object over in his hands. Tegan found his happy, enthusiastic look to be somewhat disheartening. “I’ve patched in directions as best as you were able to discern from the etchings on the column. I have to admit that I adore makeshift changes to the patterning in the circuits.”

“Hmm,” the Doctor said, holding out his hand. The junior technician handed over the bracelet after a moment of hesitation. After a few quiet moments, the young man danced away to pick up another bracelet. Tegan watched the Doctor fished a small jeweler's glass from one of his pockets, and examine the back of the bracelet and, apparently, the circuitry. “Quite well done, Tren.”

The young man beamed from the approval. “Thank you, Doctor. The endorsement of a Time Lord is a great thing for a technician. Of course, I’m still working my way up the ranks, you know,” he turned to address Tegan. “I’m a destination specialist for the next cycle until I have done my duty and then I shall be transferred to my new post. With the recommendation of a Time Lord…”

“Yes, well…” the Doctor cleared his throat. “Our excursion isn’t…condoned, Tren. I can’t write a recommendation based on this…particular…destination, but I could speak highly of your theoretical base…” He turned the bracelet over and approached Tegan. “May I have the honor, Tren…?”

“Of course,” the lad replied. As the Doctor’s cool hand enclosed hers and the icy circle of steel was closed over her wrist, he came over to explain his work. “It works simply, Doctor, Miss Tegan: the red knob will transport you there. Pressing the green and blue buttons in tandem will complete the internal circuit and bring you back. We will use the launching pad as one would with a normal trip.”

“You talked him into this, didn’t you?” Tegan hissed, finally.

“I simply suggested that the circuitry could be rewired to deliver us to our destination,” the Doctor sighed. “He’s very enthusiastic about it all, as you can see.”

“Your suggestions,” Tegan sighed as the Doctor clicked his matching bracelet on his wrist. “Your suggestions are more like mandates for people like him. Cripes, if he doesn’t worship the ground you walk on.”

“Well, that could happen with more regularity,” the Doctor sighed, snapping his bracelet closed.

“Ego,” she warned. She saw her own eyes reflected back in the steel, distorted by the arc of the bracelet. “Are these safe…will they get us where we should go?”

“Ye of little faith,” the Doctor muttered, frowning at his bracelet. He clicked it shut and turned to Tren who was securing his bracelet on his arm as well. Before Tegan could ask any more questions, he leaned over and pressed the red button on her bracelet and his own at the same time.

She yiped as the world dissolved into nothing around them. Her stomach fell, twisted as reality left her. She could only imagine that this would be the feeling of traveling as the TARDIS without the bubble of reality it contained about them. Only the Doc’s cool hand as it closed on her hip let her know someone else was there.

With a sigh, and a fight to calm her nerves, she surrendered to the pitch black around them.

“And Tren?” she whispered.

“With us,” the Doctor replied immediately.

“And where is here?”

“Nowhere,” he responded. “And everywhere.”

As usual, he made no sense of all to her, but she did what she had done for all her time with him and trusted him.

**

“You can open your eyes now.”

Tegan blinked her eyes open. The sunlight was sharp in her eyes, making her blink. The atmosphere was humid and the colors around her -- she immediately knew she was on Earth. The Doctor was standing in front of her, bent at the waist as usual, smiling loosely at her.

“You enjoy that,” she complained quietly. She blinked again and gazed at their surroundings. It was a beautiful open grassy field. Had she paid more attention in science class in second form, she supposed she might have known what kind of grass it was, but as it stood, she only knew that it was tall, boggy grass. She inhaled and was immediately struck with the smell of hard, hot Earth. “Are we…”

“We are,” the Doctor confirmed. He turned to survey the field and beyond it what appeared to be a small settlement. Tegan came forward to the edge of the grass where he stood, and joined him, squinting into the powerful sunlight and towards the massive stacked pyramid in front of them. On the topmost part of the pyramid, greenery, seemingly more bright than that around them because of the reddish bricks it was set against outlined a building.

At the foot of the building, people milled and moved to and fro. They were too far away for her to make out any details.

The reeds next to her rustled loudly. She jumped.

“We appear to have arrived,” Tren muttered at her elbow.

“Ah, yes,” the Doctor stated and calmly turned to greet the other man.

“When we were supposed to?” Tegan pressed.

“Oh Tegan,” the Doctor muttered. He stepped from the edge of the bog and turned around to reach out his hand to her. “Have faith in our friend Tren here. Of course we are when we are supposed to be. That building over there is a ziggurat, a religious building and from the iconography outside, I would assume it has been dedicated to the God An.”

“And who’s that when he’s at home?”

Tren stifled a chortle, but Tegan heard it nonetheless. She was determined to enjoy herself even if it were in the face of a seemingly academic exercise of the Doctor’s. She blinked and gazed at her friend to see his lips turn up into a smirk of sorts.

“We simply did a side step in spatial coordinates, Miss Tegan,” Tren responded. He extricated himself from the reeds and dusted his clothes off with a flat hand.

The Doctor began quietly. “He is the main deity of the Sumerians from the Uruk era…the early era of Sumerian history. Or rather…the Akkardian people who displaced the Ubaidian…”

Tegan sighed and took the Doctor’s hand to step from the marsh. “You sound like my grandmother’s pastor, Doc…begats, begats and more begats.” At his sigh, she continued. “Simple question: do you know when we are?”

He twisted around and squinted at the sun and slowly turned to stare at the architecture that seemed to spring from nowhere, massive and square, in the center of the village. She watched as his eyes narrowed and he bit his lip; it was endearing to see the familiar thought process. She slipped her arm through the nook in his.

The Doctor looked down and his eyes were warm. “Right after the Great Flood, Tegan….the Jendat Nasr Period of Sumeria. Look at the silt underfoot; it covers most of the ground as far as the eyes can see. That’s from the Euphrates and the Tigris and a massive flood. They’ve invented the wheel. And…” he sniffed the air. “Smell that slight acrid aroma? They’re beginning to experiment with iron smelting, I would think. Definitely soon after the Flood…”

“But that…” Tegan began and then frowned. “That covered the whole world…why would there be so many people…and how…”

“Possibly only a few decades or maybe a couple of hundred years, Tegan, since it happened. I can see the time period in the level of culture.” He smiled and adjusted his hat on his head. “These people would report the flood as world wide, Tegan…it covered everything they knew.”

She must have looked shocked, because he covered her hand with his. “Come on…really Tegan,” he began. “It’s all relativity of situations, you see. If you only know five miles from your home and don’t know if anything else exists and you saw it all covered with water so that the whole lot is uninhabitable, wouldn’t you say the entire world was covered with water? Of course you would. As these people did, Tegan.”

“God’s hat, Doc,” she muttered as she covered her eyes from the direct sunlight. “Leave me one undisturbed myth, please?”

He smiled gently. “I’ll try, Tegan. I will most definitely try.”

**

Tren trailed behind them, slowly taking in all that he saw. Tegan recognized the look of awe on his face. It was obvious he had only been a few non Rejuvina preplanned places in the Universe; he’d never just landed himself anywhere and any time like they always did. It was a studied difference to the calm easy gait the Doctor maintained. She felt the slight swagger in the Time Lord’s steps that he tried hard to hide. His eyes under his hat held the studied nonchalance of a man noticing simply everything while looking almost uninterested. She appreciated suddenly that his hand was still covering hers and he escorted her like a man showing a woman his champion cricket team. There was that infuriating knowledge that he viewed this all as a glorified education experiment even though they were walking into God knows what, but she felt safe. As usual. For the present.

The first building they passed on their trek was a small mud brick type house that looked barely large enough for one person, but she realized it held a family. She saw a woman with a child at her breast at the door and wanted to stop, to talk, but the Doctor kept her on path.

A path it appeared he had already plotted. He was making a beeline for the ziggurat, the large pyramid type structure, and the carvings on a column nearby.

He was oblivious to everything else as usual, but she knew they were drawing stares.

“Come along,” he whispered as her gait slowed. “Almost there.”

“But, Doctor…” she sighed. She looked to the sky for strength and quickened her stride. “What do you intend to do? Read these columns too?”

“That was the main purpose in coming here.” He settled his hat further back on his head and she was amused by his very 1930’s archeologist’s look. He continued to stroll with nary a glance to the right or left. “I want to see if the writing matches the samples I traced yesterday from the columns on the Eye. The Sumerians were the first to use cuneiform, you know. And the samples I have from yesterday…” he patted his chest pocket proudly. “The samples clearly show the beginnings of mathematical theory inherent in the cuneiform figures. It’s akin to very Early Gallifreyan writing, Tegan and that interests me immensely.”

“Everything interests you immensely,” she retorted. “A bloody linguist…”

She was startled as her arm was jerked by his quick stop. The Doctor bent down, his other hand alighting on her shoulder. “Are you all right, Tegan? You look worried.”

“Haven’t you noticed,” she pressed as she quickly turned back towards the way they had come. Tren drew alongside them and uneasily glanced over his shoulder as well. “We’re being watched rather closely. It’s raising my hackles, Doc.”

“She’s right,” Tren muttered. He straightened his back and adjusted his draped clothes about his shoulders. “We have apparently drawn attention, Doctor.”

“Hmm,” he replied as he glanced at their audience. Several women with children and a couple of men dressed in little else than a cloth covering their hips had gathered. Tegan had seen the looks like theirs previously and it was often on the faces of people holding a gun at her. She had learned about fear and force on Sylvania and something about the nearly tangible friction in the air alerted her to possible problems.

“Well, Tegan,” he continued after biting his lip for a moment. “Your clothing is rather rich looking. I do believe they have yet to have mined silver and gold isn’t plentiful here. Metallic color would be a new thing to them.”

“And your clothes are a tad out of style,” she muttered.

Tren drew in close jostling Tegan’s arm in the process. “This is a new situation.”

“What?” Tegan asked. A glance at the young man’s face showed her that he was a little scared and more than a little sheepish.

His dark eyes turned to her. “Rejuvina technology ensures that locations for vacations have a basic understanding of language of those traveling to them or translation devices on hand.”

“Rabbits,” Tegan responded with a frown. “And they have neither here.”

“I do admit: I should have thought of this before we left. A translator device could have been calibrated once we arrived.”

As the others drew closer, Tegan shook her head. “But we all understand one another…you, me, the Doctor… It’s that TARDIS ability…”

“Ah, well,” the Doctor sighed as he rubbed his head. “We are all speaking English right now, Tegan. Tren is quite right in pointing out the problem. The TARDIS translational circuits won’t stretch this far, I’m afraid, and my Ancient Sumerian is really extremely rusty.” He glanced at the now almost humorous amount of people gathered around them. “Never mind, Tegan. We should just keep walking. The sooner we reach the columns and act as though nothing is amiss, the sooner they’ll return to their business.”

“Are you sure? It’s like we’re the main attraction.”

“Brave heart, Tegan,” the Doctor replied as he reached for her hand. “Trust me. In these instances it’s always best to smile, nod and continue on with plans until stopped. Now, come on…”

She was pulled by him towards the columns. All other noise had stopped about them; the crunching of the hard sand underfoot and their breathing was all she could hear. It seemed that even the animals were watching them. As they neared, the Doctor switched the hand holding hers and used the other to pull out a piece of paper out of his pocket. She could smell the stone; it smelled cold, ancient to her. The writing on it reminded her of the etchings from Rassilon’s tomb and Egyptian hieroglyphics wrapped in a nice neat package.

“Hmmm,” the Doctor muttered. “Very interesting, don’t you think, Tegan?” He let go of her hand after squeezing it. As he knelt, he pulled out a pencil and a folded leaf of paper. “Yes, the writing is very much the same, but with a more squared strike. It could be the tools they used for etching. Much more primitive by the looks of it.”

Tegan shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest; she felt naked. “What do you have to do?”

“I need to take impressions of this writing. I can translate it more fully when we return to the Eye,” he responded, his voice distant as he concentrated on his task. “And I shall be able to compare it to Gallifreyan in the TARDIS. I’m not quite as fluent with Ancient Gallifreyan as I am the Middle and Late varieties. Always seemed more than tedious…” he grinned up at Tegan. She spared him a momentary glance. “I rather enjoyed field trips.”

“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me in the least,” she breathed. Her eyes trained back on the crowd about them. She saw the writing on the left side of the column, the side hidden in shadow. Tegan stepped to the side and glanced down. “Doctor…the writing is completely different on this side.”

“Is it?” he frowned up at her and shifted his weight to look where she indicated. She pointed her finger at the collection of animal-based pictorial representation and knelt.

“Excellent, Tegan; you take my breath away.” He quickly finished his impression of the first side and found another large piece of paper in his pocket. Skittering around, crouched, he began to make impressions of the next side. Tegan stepped back and to the side.

“And this side too!” Tegan exclaimed. The writing on this new side was even more alien to her eyes. It was more like diagonal lines and ticks in configuration.

The Doctor’s eyes widened, but he continued his work, his hands working like a blur. He stopped for a moment, grabbed another piece of paper and a pencil from one of his pockets. “Here, Tegan. Do as I am doing…transfer the etchings to the paper.”

She knelt and began to take impressions of the writings. Behind her, she heard Tren shuffling about on the path. He was nervous; she knew the sound of nerves. Minutes later, Tren confirmed her knowledge. “Doctor? Miss Tegan?”

“Yes, Tren?” Without looking up, the Doctor continued to madly scribble. “Could you move out of the sun?”

“Our company has not dissipated.”

Tegan glanced up at Tren and then to the gathering. He was right: there were more people and they were closer to them.

“Smile, Tren. We’re almost done here.”

“If he doesn’t find something else to impress,” Tegan responded with a smile. She continued to take the impression madly until she felt Tren touching her shoulder. The crowd around them was parting. She was mesmerized as she watched the women, several of which were holding babies or toddlers, and small children stepped to the side. They lowered their heads in a show of reverence.

Against the incredibly bright blue sky, the drab earthy colors of the clothes were dull. There were a few more men in loincloths and still others with something draped about their shoulders. But as the crowd parted, she saw a tall, slender man dressed in red standing at the center. He held a stick that had writing like the first side of the column.

Tegan glanced at the other columns. Every single one of them looked like it had two different types of writing on them. She had wondered how they had landed in so close to the column that they needed to take an impression of, but realized that all of the columns would have given them at least two different languages. But she also noted that none of the people came closer than the edge of the square that the columns outlined. This man was no exception, and he appeared to contemplate them with large measure of annoyance.

“Doc?”

“Almost there, Tegan. How are you coming along?” he asked.

“Doc…we’ve got company,” she muttered.

The man pounded his stick against the ground and shouted a long series of syllables heavy on the consonants and very unlike English. It felt like a jackhammer against her eardrum.

The Doctor mightily frowned as he heard the words. His inhale made her know that he didn’t know what was going on either. He rose and stepped around, laying his hand on her shoulder.

“Ah, well…Tegan…” he sighed as she rose. He grasped at her hand. “I do believe I should have brushed up on my Sumerian language skills.”

“Tell me something…” she responded as she stared at the man facing them. It was clear he was angry. “Tell me something I don’t know, Doc. He looks decidedly unfriendly.”

**

“Ah,” the Doctor began and stepped forward. He gently pressed Tegan behind him with one of his hands while extending the other one, palm up, towards the man. The man eyed his hand with annoyance and trepidation. Tren stepped to Tegan’s right. She wasn’t sure if he was scared or just ignorant of what was going on, but she didn’t want to take the time to look. All of her attention was on the Doctor and their inquisitor.

“Ah, yes…” the Doctor reached up and took off his hat, handing it quickly back to her. “Hello. I’m the Doctor and these are my friends, Tegan and Tren.”

“Too many syllables,” Tegan muttered. She laid her hand against his back and leaned in close. She opted to flash a wide smile at the group around them while the Doctor took a deep breath.

“We are friends.” The Doctor tried again, but the man shook his head and banged his walking stick against the ground once more.

She winced as a string of syllables poured out of their accuser’s mouth. But the Doctor leaned forward, his brow creased in concentration. Tren laid his hand on the Doctor’s shoulder and shook his head.

“I don’t have a clue, Doctor,” the specialist sighed.

The Doctor didn’t spare him a glance, however. When she looked up at him, she could see the Time Lord was mildly shocked and clearly thinking. She wondered what was going on his head, but didn’t have long to wait to find out.

His words, at least she thought they were words, were long and full of consonants. There were little or no vowels and although they appeared to be words, they were alien to her ears.

Their accuser reeled as if struck. He yelled and several men appeared at the peripheral of the square in which they stood.

To Tegan’s war hardened senses, it appeared that their accuser was planning to take prisoners. The air was filled with the sound of shuffling feet. She tapped the Doctor on the shoulder. “Please tell me you didn’t just offer to sleep with the chief’s daughter…”

The Doctor released a hard sigh that might have been a laugh or agitation. “No, Tegan, I didn’t,” he responded as he reached for her arm. A gentle tug brought her alongside him and into plain sight. “I don’t understand what he is saying. I didn’t respond in kind.”

“Then what did you say?”

“Yes, Doctor,” Tren added his voice to Tegan’s, stepping to her far left. “If my ears weren’t mistaken, I do believe I heard…”

“Very rudimentary Gallifreyan or rather I used the basic speech patterns and words of Early Gallifreyan,” the Doctor replied. “I simply told him we were friends and meant no harm.”

She straightened her back as the men neared them. The men were all dressed alike, in white loincloths and carried matching sticks. They neared, but it was at a slow pace. Their steps were so well placed and slow that barely any dust rose from them. And the silence hurt her ears. No one made a sound, not even the babies and children.

“But he wasn’t speaking Gallifreyan,” Tegan pressed.

“No, but he understood it,” the Doctor said as the first of the men reached them. “Or at least it didn’t sound alien to him. He didn’t do this when I spoke English to him, but when I switched to a very early form of my home language…he reacted. Interesting, don’t you think?”

“Interesting…” Tegan began as one of the guards reached for her. The Doctor gently eased her in front of him and slowly began to walk towards the edge of the square. “Interesting wasn’t a word I’d use to describe it…”

“Trust me, Tegan. We shall be fine.”

Tren wasn’t so convinced, however. “But where are they taking us to be fine?”

“Hmm, well…hopefully somewhere out of the sun…” the Doctor responded with a small smile. He cast a wary glance at the accuser towards whom they were being forced. “I hope.”

**

If she had thought that the pyramid was large from far away, it was immense and awe-inspiring when they neared it. Somehow, she had been forced between her two friends as they walked. Every once in a while, one of them would be pushed from behind and would stumble. Her sandals were doing little to protect her feet against the hard sun-dried mud brick path they walked and she was sure that Tren’s feet hurt as well.

She squinted into the sun and up at what the Doctor had called a ziggurat. It was a triple level pyramid, three levels all constructed in the same red mud sun dried brick. The top level appeared to be all plants with a regular building. As they neared it, she saw steps leading up to a sloped walkway that ramped up the side. She had seen pictures of things like this as a child.

“The Tower of Babel,” she said under her breath. “The Hanging Gardens…”

“Both of which are not built yet, Tegan,” the Doctor responded. “And won’t be for a few centuries; Babylon has yet to conquer this section of Akkardian peoples.” He no sooner finished speaking than he was shoved hard from behind and ended up stumbling forward and falling to his knees. As he went down, one of the men behind them roughly tapped his newly healed leg. He hissed in pain.

Tegan twisted, stepping in back of the Doctor as their captors made to push him again. “Bloody brutes! Leave him be! We’re walking as fast as we can.”

“Tegan,” he warned as he slowly climbed to his feet. Tren reached down to haul the Doctor up to his feet, but Tegan refused to budge in between the captors and the Doctor. She found her hands balling into fists and her hand felt empty. Mournfully, for a second, she realized she was missing having a firearm in her hand. With concentration, she released the fists.

The Inquisitor approached and stopped within inches of her. His mouth, when he grinned at her, held teeth that were in varying stages of decay and were flat. She was sure the Doctor would say something about his eating habits, but all she could think of to complain about was his lack of hygiene. “I’ve seen people like you before,” she said quietly. “And they’re often on the other end of a gun nozzle from me…”

A cool familiar hand grasped her elbow. Several syllables of incomprehensible words sounded over her shoulder in the Doctor’s calm, calculating tone. She had heard it used most recently when he was playing ambassador; it was aimed at making situations smooth. The Inquisitor didn’t move his gaze from her though, and she was damned if she was going to look away first. His smile dimmed and then the man rumbled several words.

She saw the hand heading toward her face and instinctively reached out to intercept it. The force of the blow jarred her hand and her wrist and she grunted. “Don’t even think it,” she whispered.

The hand that hit her face the other way she had no way of stopping. It was too fast and she didn’t see it coming. She had crossed her body with her dominant hand to stop the original strike. The Doctor’s hand tightened on her elbow and he was there beside her in a breath. He reached out and took a hold of the hand she held in hers and forcefully extracted it from her grasp. He wasn’t kind about it and she knew that his strength could be incredible. Another string of words emanated from him, this time more forceful and clipped. Tren pulled her back by her shoulders and the Doctor released her only when she was behind him.

There was silence and then the Doctor turned her with hands to her shoulders and began to walk once more towards the bottom steps.

They walked in silence for several moments, climbing the stairs to the slanted path.

“Bloody bastards,” she nearly spat as they were several steps above their leaders.

He lifted his hand as they crested the stairs and mounted the sloped path. She felt his cool fingers lightly against her cheek. “He hit you hard enough to make your body jar, Tegan,” he said quietly. He stopped her and turned her face toward him with both his palms on her cheeks. His concerned visage made her feel gentled and calmed. “You’ll have quite a mark on your cheek,” he stated. He traced it with his finger. Their guards had gathered around them, but he didn’t move. “Don’t draw attention to yourself, Tegan. Women are not considered equal citizens in this society. That was why he slapped you. You were quite forceful with him.”

“They hit you.”

“Tegan…” he warned quietly. “Please…I have my reasons.”

“You want me to take this lying down?” Tegan grumbled disbelievingly.

“I don’t want you struck again…”

He turned her and ushered her ahead of their captors and up the final level of stairs. “Doctor…”

His eyes were forward, and he looked to be the calm, collected Time Lord she had known for the better part of five years. But when he spoke, she heard the warlord he had been seeping into his persona with the cold, harsh, unbending tone he used. “I would not allow it to happen again. And I’m sure that my reaction would not do our predicament here any good.”

“Doc…”

“I wouldn’t allow it to happen again, Tegan.”

“I’ve had worse and have given worse in the last year.”

“I wasn’t with you in the last year,” he responded.

With his final word, they crested the top of the stairs. As she glanced about the open aired building, she hitched a breath. “Oh rabbits and spit…”

**

“Brave heart.”

Even the whispered age-old words of support didn’t soothe her nerves as she stopped next to the Doctor. They were surrounded by literally hundreds of people. Every one of them was dressed alike in bright orange and red rough loincloths with matching materials draped over their shoulders. They were of average height, she supposed. It wasn’t often that she felt petite, but surrounded by these men, the point was driven home.

“Hell’s teeth…” she reiterated. She heard Tren’s startled inhale as he stopped alongside her. Just the sheer number of men, dressed alike, standing in mass in the large temple was enough to impress them.

“Incredible,” the Doctor breathed. Tegan saw his perusal of the area and the situation out of the corner of her eyes. “Look at the architecture.”

Tegan barely had time to glance upwards at the red brick building with the columns before they were forced to walk forward once more. The Doctor’s hand engulfed hers, holding it tightly as they approached steps leading up to the building. “What is it?”

“If I’m not mistaken,” the Doctor said extremely quietly but with a profoundly interested tone. “This is very similar to the Temple of Nanna in Ur, Tegan. We’re in Ur.”

“Which is…west of Brisbane, I suppose,” she bit out, her hand clenching his as they began to climb the steps.

He frowned, but leaned down so that he could talk more privately with her. Tren leaned forward as well, obviously interested in what the Doctor was saying. “It’s only the principle city in the later fourth through first millennium in the area of the Euphrates, Tegan. You know the bible or the torah…it’s the birth place of your Abraham. The Hanging Gardens will be here some day. And before you ask, I would estimate our time to be approximately 3000 or as late as 2800 BCE.”

Tegan heard the words and strained her mind to remember some of her ancient history.

Tren shook his head. “And this is Earth?” He glanced up as he stumbled the remaining steps. Tegan looked up as he did, using the Doctor’s hand to keep her balance. Over head there were planted gardens surrounding a large opening which led into darkness. In the sun the red bricks looked like they were covered in blood.

“Oh, undoubtedly,” the Doctor whispered as their captors pushed them away from the steps.

“Can’t we just leave?” Tegan remarked.

“No, I’m afraid not…” her friend began.

“No, we need to be in the area of first arrival. It isn’t so much where we leave here, but if we were to be elsewhere, it might cause problems with the vector travel for our return.” Tren interrupted, speaking quickly and concisely.

“Like materializing inside a planet or a star…” the Doctor continued.

“Zap…” Tegan breathed. As they neared the entrance, she could feel cool emanating from the interior. There were still more men lining the walk to the temple entrance; their method of dress was the same. Some light flickered from the torches inside.

Sticks were extended in front of them, stopping their advance and the Doctor drew up short. She could tell that he was biting at the bit to continue forward. And like a wild horse that is harnessed and reined the first time, he appeared ready to bolt. But it wasn’t in fear. Tegan could tell by the look in his eyes that something more was happening. It was something that hadn’t quite flickered on her danger radar screen; it was something that had him intrigued and yet just a little worried.

At the shadow line where the sunlight disappeared, they waited. A medium tall man stepped from the shadows. He appeared the same as the rest, only he was dressed in indigo and the fabric appeared of better quality. A man behind them called out several words. Although she was tempted to turn about and look at the man, Tegan trained her eyes on the Blue man. He lifted his chin as though listening intently and his black eyes and black hair appeared almost blue in the shade. She shivered.

The Doctor started forward, but was restrained. His voice rumbled several words before he was silence with a jab to his ribs.

“Bastards,” Tegan growled. Before she could get her arm about his waist to support him, the Blue man spoke. It seemed to be similar words to what the Doctor had said.

Breathing hard, the Doctor frowned. “Hmm…”

“You know what he said?”

The Doctor’s bright blue eyes speared her and she recognized the gleam. “Ah, no…no, not quite…but I do intend to find out.”

Tren yelped as they were prodded with sticks away from the front of the temple and toward the side. Tegan grunted, keeping her arm firmly about the Doctor’s waist. “Whatever it is,” she sighed. “I don’t think you made any new friends.”

**

“Well…” she sighed. Tegan’s hands rested on the window sill. There was barely enough room on the flat surface for her two hands to be together. It was just enough room to see sky, and a slim sliver of ground far below. “I’m afraid that mountain climbing isn’t on my resume.”

“But if I remember correctly from the detailed stories that your Slyvanian friends told me,” the Doctor said. “You could possibly demolish the mountain, dependant on amount of explosives on hand.”

“That was more Peri’s job,” she shot back. She tilted her head back to stare at the small square of visible sky overhead. They had been lowered into this hole by climbing down ropes. Her fighting had only gotten her legs constrained by rope. If she had to guess, there was only about 15 square feet on the floor and it had two small slits at shoulder height that allowed in sweet fresh air.

The Doctor had the three pages of paper laid out across the floor and was on his hands and knees. He glanced back up at the window. “Don’t disturb the glass, Tegan.”

She glanced up at the several glasses that the Doctor had hung together with twine and straws. They created a line of reflective light down to the area where the Doctor worked. “Oh, and do move out of the light, would you, Tren?” He complained. With a sigh, he went back to studying the papers.

Tegan frowned and backed away from the window to crouch next to her friend. “What have you figured out from those impression things, Doc?”

“I haven’t figured out anything quite yet,” he grunted. “And we have very few hours before nightfall. So, if you don’t mind…”

With a sigh and resting her crossed arms on her knees, she turned her attention to the actual papers. The last two hours had been filled with him sighing and harrumphing over the papers. She still didn’t have a clue in hell what they were about, but assumed that the Doctor had an idea. “Can I help?” she asked again for the fourth time.

“Linguistics is a hard subject,” he sighed tiredly as he lifted his gaze to her. “And alien translation of language to cuneiform is even harder, Tegan…”

“I only asked,” she responded hotly. “You’re a bloody bear when you’re working, you know. I only asked a simple question. And both Tren and I are in this hole with you because you thought these impressions important enough that you didn’t take us back to the landing place immediately. And if you think they’re important, I think they’re important. You’re trying to translate…”

It must have been her tone because he finally rocked back to sit on his feet and removed his glasses. Almost blindly, he tapped two fingers at the first paper. “This is Sumerian cuneiform from the Early Period. This is an alien language that matches the one we found on the column on the Eye.” He looked back down and tapped his finger agitatedly on the third piece of paper. It was the one she had transferred. “And this one appears to be a numeric, mathematically based code.”

“But you read maths like other people read cereal boxes,” she encouraged. “It’s one of those logic based languages you’re always going on about…”

“Yes,” he breathed, drawing out the syllable. “Not quite, Tegan.”

Tren had pressed himself up against the wall. She recognized the look that had taken over his eyes since they had been lowered into the hole. There was resignation to fate and fear warring for dominance; she had seen the look on many men and women on Sylvania. They were the ones she tried to separate from when the fighting would break out; they often gave up or panicked. “These things describe the same thing?” he asked in a tiny voice.

The Doctor nodded. “I’m positive that they do. It would make no sense to have three different languages describing three different things on the same object.”

Tren appeared to try and take a deep breath. “So one would help you decipher the others.”

“Clearly.” The Doctor met Tegan’s eyes. She understood from his expression that he too had sensed Tren’s state.

“It’s like reading those bloody international directions on the airplane,” Tegan sighed. “I almost thought I was teaching myself Spanish once by…what is it, Doc?”

He started next to her, leaning forward to stare at the papers. “You take my breath away, Tegan…of course! I’m an imbecile! It’s instructions!”

“Eh?” she asked. She watched the Doctor change from cranky to industrious in a matter of seconds. “How would you know that?”

“The columns on the Eye were detailing a history of travel. It described travel to Earth. We couldn’t have been much beyond the time stated on the columns; they were quite new and technite does rather have the tendency to change to a fiery red after fifty or so standard years. That column was still the original color. Therefore, travel was to here…recently. But the people here aren’t from the Eye…they’re human. Why would there need to be a column here outlining travel or listing Kings or religious rights with three different languages on them? There wouldn’t be a need. No, no…”

He balled his hands up in fists and leaned over the papers. “No…there wouldn’t be a need for it. That column wasn’t there to remember something by; it was there to give instructions to people. To those that read…the priests and scribes and royalty…”

Tegan leaned forward as well. “So it’s telling people to do something. Why do you think this is a problem? Or why do you think it’s enough of a problem to make us stay here this long?” She could feel the Doctor’s excitement. It electrified the air around them.

The Doctor moved the papers one on top of another. “Why? Call it a hunch, Tegan. You said yourself that you had a bad feeling about all of this. Why would the Eye populace be leaving instructions to a bunch of newly evolved humanoids on a remote planet?”

“Are you sure it’s the people from the Eye?”

Tren asked the question with a flicker of interest. The Doctor bit his lip and glanced up at the man. He continued, waving his hand at the papers and the Doctor. “I didn’t recognize the words on the column there or rather, I couldn’t read it. I know the Eye’s dominant languages.”

“Interesting, isn’t it? Quite true you didn’t. So who is leaving messages on the Eye in this language and then issuing directions here in several.” The Doctor commented. He lined up the letters one under another. “I’ve been trying to decipher them in conjunction with one another…” He pulled out the one paper with the scratchy scribbling outlining the Eye type language. The familiar thought stringing mutterings began. “If the first word is similar to the Ancient Gallifreyan word….and the second word is a secondary root form of the word for…yes, yes…that would work…”

Tegan rocked back on her heels and watched fondly as the Doctor began to mutter and intone in both Gallifreyan and English. Then with a sigh, she glanced back up at the opening. She could tell by the color of the sky it was getting on towards night. “Are you sure about the Gallifreyan, Doc? Is it really close enough to it?”

“We’re here, aren’t we?” he asked, but she could hear a bit of a chuckle lurking in his words. His eyes still scanned the writing. “And we did find more of the same writing. I couldn’t have been that far off in my translation, then.”

“Typical.”

**

“He’s weakening. He’s in shock.”

“Quite.”

Tegan rubbed her arms. She could sense rather than see the Doctor moving about. Tren had stretched out on the ground on the opposite side of the small cell. There was little room left, so she sat, against the wall, her arms around her knees. Then she felt the Doctor lower himself to the ground next to her. “It’s a good thing this isn’t the middle of a war,” Tegan whispered. “He’d never last.”

“The rest of our lives aren’t going to be wars, Tegan,” the Doctor whispered. “Lean forward.”

She did and she felt his arm slip about her shoulders and draw her in. His hand, cool, but still warmer than the night air, rubbed at her naked arm. “He’s scared. This is a new thing for him.”

“It’s sad that it’s old hand for us,” Tegan said quietly. The Doctor’s sigh ruffled her hair. “What did you find? You haven’t told me the first thing about it. And if it isn’t Gallifreyan but it has the same basics of Gallifreyan…”

“It’s something older than Ancient Gallifreyan. These sentences are strung together with complex grammar and that isn’t something that Ancient Gallifreyan does, per se. It possesses most of the sounds of Gallifreyan language…therefore it must be something older than Ancient Gallifreyan, something that Gallifreyan evolved from…”

“Older than the Time Lords?” she asked. He patted her shoulder and tightened his hold.

“Possibly,” he commented. “And as to what it said…you heard me muttering, Tegan.”

“All I heard was ‘twenty steps to the east of the line of demarcation’.”

“Twenty-two actually,” he responded. She could hear the smile in his voice. “Something is hidden in that area, Tegan. Buried, put within or something…but something is hidden out there where it says.”

“The rest of the columns…”

“There were five of them,” he agreed. “I think we only have twenty percent of the story here. I think the rest of those columns outline what to do with what is there.”

“Great…a user’s manual.”

“I need to find out what is going on, Tegan.”

“Why?”

He sighed. She felt the slide of his chest against her shoulder and suddenly wondered when the feel of his body’s movements had become second nature to her. “Something isn’t right here,” he urged. “There is no reason for these instructions. It describes the need to hide the object…its called an Irtian, by the way…from the people who sent it here. It’s called the Gatherer.”

“Are you sure you have your words right? You’re comparing words to numbers…”

“Quite. And yes, I’m sure I’m right,” he said. “But there is no information in your archeological records about Ur having these major finds. No, no…Tegan, the time’s all wrong. I need to find out what’s going on here. It could be very important.”

“I see that a year of being a general didn’t dim your curiosity at all,” she sighed. “I’ll still say it’ll eventually kill you.”

“Oh, probably,” he commented with a small laugh. “But not today.”

She glanced back up the shaft. “We could climb out, you know. It’s pitch black.”

“And they’re at the top of the shaft, Tegan. Besides, they’d expect us to escape from here. We should rest and try at a time they won’t anticipate. Tren wouldn’t make it, though, I’m afraid.”

“You know that,” Tegan responded with a nod. “We can’t leave him.” She rolled her head back into the wall across his arm. “After all that has happened in the last few weeks, I swore to Peri I’d never hold a gun again. But, rabbits, if I don’t want one now.”

He sighed and rolled his head back too; she could feel it. “If it makes you feel any better,” he admitted so quietly that she could barely hear it. “I wouldn’t mind a strategy table…”

She smiled. “Cripes, Doc…who ARE we? Because it doesn’t sound like us.”

“WE haven’t been the same in over a year, Tegan,” he replied.

She quieted a laugh and shook her head. “That’s not what I…”

“I know.”

The words were said with a tenderness she hadn’t heard since the top of the castle’s armaments. For the first time in a long time the meaning behind them was clearly understood. He was considering the other changes to be secondary in the scheme of things. And for him, she supposed, that was true. Leave it to a Time Lord to consider a close, caring, perhaps loving relationship to be a more major change than a complete personality overhaul. After all, they did regenerate and shed just about everything about themselves.

But then again, she was the only one in the relationship of two that had said I love you. She sighed as she thought that perhaps he didn’t mean that at all. Her hand rubbed at her brow. Rabbits, life was so much more straight-forward with a gun in your hand and very little thought to anything more than protect your friend and yourself.

“What are they doing up there?” she asked, striving to change the subject and to take her mind off of it.

“It isn’t moonrise, Tegan,” he answered. “And this is the Temple of the Moon. I rather think they are waiting for the presence of their major God…”

“Great.”

He turned his head toward her, his lips brushing against her brow more by accident than design. “Brave heart, Tegan. Follow my lead.”

She shook her head slowly. “Very typical,” she sighed and turned to rub her nose against his cheek. He caressed her cheek for a moment, his long fingers gently cradling her face. “Do you have any clue what we have to do up there, Doc?”

The answering smile was felt against her brow.

“Oh, great,” she whispered. “Just tell me what you think they’re going to do…”

And with a deep breath, he did just that.


**


She remembered what he said in vivid detail as she, Tren and the Doctor were pushed to the center of the Temple later that evening. In the moonlight, the red brick of the Temple seemed black as night. Tegan’s dress glittered in the light, silver on silver. All was as before complete with the hundreds of men, except now the opening to the Temple was nearly blazing with fire light. They were led toward it with sticks and that was something Tegan noted.

“They never touch us.”

“Ah, yes…” the Doctor replied. He eased Tegan a little in front of him. “I’ve noticed that as well. Do you remember the way they did not approach us until told to when we were in the middle of the columns? I do believe we may have intruded on a religious area, Tegan. That adds another layer to the scripts we’ve found. Interesting.”

“But does it explain their lack of…” she glanced over her shoulder to their guard. “…want to touch us?”

“Yes. If we’ve done something horrible by their religion and we’re tainted, they wouldn’t want to be tainted either, now would they?”

“That makes sense.” Tegan climbed the five steps into the main temple. “Are you sure there they don’t subscribe to human sacrifice?”

“Not at all,” he whispered. Beside them, Tren walked in silent shock. He had been that way since they had been lifted out of the shaft. Tegan could tell the Doctor was sizing up the man for future problems. “As I told you, Tegan, they use forced slavery.”

She nodded as she looked about the temple. It was dark except for a perfect circle of light in the center. The smell of sun dried mud filled her nose and she inhaled hard. She wanted to retreat. There were too many people; the area was too open. She needed places to hide. She couldn’t fight in the open, it was unsafe. “Can’t we make a run for it?”

“Tren is in too much shock to be able to make it with us,” the Doctor replied. “And we can’t leave him here.”

“No, no, we can’t…”

The Doctor’s hand pressed at the middle of her back. “Then we have to face this.”

Tegan stopped outside the circle of light, but they were all pushed bodily into the center. “Too right we have to face it.”

“It can’t be all that bad, Tegan. We’ve had worse.”

Tren whimpered next to her and she reached back to comfort him. Suddenly, and without warning, a man approached her as two others approached her friends. She heard clothing ripping and turned around to see Tren stripped of his clothes. The man’s eyes were wide as saucers and he swayed on his feet.

The Doctor was next. He stood stoically, staring forwards impassively, as his sweater and shirt were cut from his body.

She met his eyes as they cut her dress from her body. His stoic mask cracked a little and she could see the anger pulsing out of his eyes. But seeing the emotion in his eyes made it easier for her to only concentrate on him. It kept her from fighting for the knife. And then naked, they were turned to face the priest, or what she guessed was the priest. It was the blue dressed man. He was in full regalia complete with a cap and draped rich blue cloth. The rod he held was more intricately carved. It appeared to her that they were the main attraction at a religious gathering. The situation wasn’t comforting in the least.

“Doc…” she breathed. “It’s that bad.”

**

The night air had seemed warm previously. Now it was freezing on her naked skin. She was livid. Her hands balled into fists and hung defiantly at her side. If one of the men stayed close enough, she would have slapped them. It would have gotten her hit, she supposed, but anything was better than getting stripped.

She had seen anger and warning in the Doctor’s eyes. He was silently pleading with her not to draw retaliation. He had worn the same look on the bridge of the ship just days ago. He was angry she was being mishandled; after all, he had always been mad about his companions being accosted. Yes, the stare she had seen was almost burning with fury, yet was quietly simmering under the ice blue.

And that clear anger in the eyes of her emotionally detached, sometimes lover, was enough to make her bite her tongue. Instead of lashing out, she lifted her chin and steeled her gaze on their captor.

The priest was staring at them, the gaze pointed and cold as ice. He switched his gaze from one to the other and began to speak in clear concise words. Tegan immediately recognized it. “Rabbits.”

The Doctor’s hand enclosed her wrist and he stepped up alongside her. “Quiet,” he warned.

“But that’s…”

“Yes, Tegan…” he breathed. “Now quiet…I need to interpret.”

She gritted her teeth at his tone, but remained quiet. To her ears, and apparently to his, the words were Ancient Gallifreyan or a close facsimile thereof.

“But how…” she whispered quietly, barely about the breeze. “And why?”

The Doctor didn’t answer. He stood, his eyes trained on their leader, his lips moving silently. She was mesmerized by the flickering of the torches around them; she stared at them in an effort to ignore the people around them; she made a conscious effort not to be ashamed and glared at everyone.

She didn’t know entirely why she, the Doctor and Tren were naked, but with all the bustling around behind the leader, she assumed it was a ceremony of some sort. At least no one was staring at their bodies. In fact it seemed as though they were being shunned. No one looked directly at them.

Suddenly the Doctor’s arm slid around her waist and she was brought up hard against his flank. Her muscles tensed. “What’s he said?” she asked, as the Doctor took up her hand in his. He didn’t answer her. Rather, he shouted out a couple of words, stumbling over the second. The priest nodded, but appeared unhappy. He banged his stick twice on the ground. The Doctor apparently didn’t care for the tone nor the look for he continued to talk loudly. His voice was forceful and quite commanding. After a moment, the priest waved his hand and the Doctor fell into silence.

Another volley began a moment later. The Doctor’s hand continued to squeeze her wrist; she knew it was going to leave marks. She winced despite herself and wrapped her other hand around his to keep it from crushing her bones.

“At least tell me what he’s saying…” she whispered pointedly.

The Doctor rocketed off another response to their overlording captor. And then quietly answered Tegan: “We trespassed on sacred ground to An and Nanna. Apparently they are very impressed we weren’t struck down.”

“Nanna? It doesn’t look like Gran’s house.” Her weak joke was met with silence. “So glad we’ve made some sort of impression,” Tegan grumbled. Her fingers were getting white from trying to stem the force of his grip. “Does that mean they’re going to let us go?”

He was already involved in another exchange of words. When he finished, he shook his head. “No, no, Tegan…far from it.”

“Wonderful,” she breathed. “Doc…you’re hurting me.”

His grip lessened slightly, but he still held firmly. Several men were approaching them again. “Sentencing has been passed,” he muttered as both of his hands tightened on her.

“What on Earth does that mean?” she asked, her voice rising in pitch. “We weren’t even represented.”

“Hush, Tegan,” he warned. She felt his back straightening and all his muscles tightening. She could tell, through knowing him, through knowing other people in the face of a threat, that he was sizing the man up. He was assessing the situation. With a frown, after a heated exchange, he moved her behind him.

She didn’t have time to respond. Apparently angered by something the Doctor had said, the priest came towards them, fiery, loud and incensed. Tegan heard the yell of the priest and the Doctor’s quietly fierce response. She fought the want to jump into the foray, laying her hand against the Doctor’s cool back.

The Doctor reached for her finally and turned his back on the priest. Even in the torch light she could see his eyes like hard icicles. Her friend was buried; Supremo reigned.

Over his shoulder she could see men approaching. Each carried blue swathes of cloth draped over his arm. “Thank God, clothes…” she breathed.

He rolled his eyes. “Particular clothes, Tegan. We’re to be inducted into the service of the temple. And before you ask, that includes the wearing of the provided clothes and under a certain guise.”

“Meaning?” She tried not to flinch as one of the men draped the cloth over one of her shoulders. The cloth fell, rough in texture, about her hips to the top of her thighs. It was simply tucked about her waist and left as is. It covered none of her chest and even less of the rest of her. “I don’t think I like this very much. Hell’s teeth, Doc…” she griped as they draped another cloth about the Doctor’s hips. “What is going on around here?”

“I am to help with the scribes. Apparently,” he sighed. “Apparently my mastering of the few languages skills associated with Ancient Gallifreyan has led them to feel I am of the educated class.”

“And me? Tren?” she asked.

The Doctor eased her nearer to him and glanced back at Tren. There was a slight change the Doctor’s eye color: she knew that meant he was concerned. The tick in his cheek, the lifting of his right eyebrow was an unvoiced comment on how he thought Tren was doing. And it wasn’t good.

“You and Tren are to enter into the cultic rites associated with An and Ishtar.”

“But this is the temple of Nanna,” she argued. “They’ve got the wrong place.”

“Yes, well…” the Doctor sighed. “I don’t think that matters much to them. You will be given to the new temple rites by next full moon.” He stiffened as the men of the temple neared them. Tegan watched the dance and pull of the torch flames as they passed. She knew if she looked directly at the men, her anger would get the better of her.

“Can’t we just leave?”

The Doctor shook his head as they were surrounded and instructed to walk towards the open door again.

“Why not? You’ve gotten what….hey!” She had moved barely three steps when her arm was grabbed and her bracelet was taken. “Doctor!”

The Time Lord frowned and reached back for Tegan. “Keep walking.”

“But…” Tegan was livid. “That was the only way…”

“No, it isn’t the only way you can leave here,” he reassured. “There is another way, albeit a bit more convoluted and hard, but it is doable.” He grimaced as they passed from the temple interior out into the ink black night. His pace was clipped and Tegan ran to keep up with him.

“Please tell me we aren’t going back to that cell,” she stated. “I’m decidedly tired of it.”

“Oh, no,” he replied as they drew to a stop at the top of the stairs. Tren puffed next to them. She disentangled her hand from the Doctor and wrapped her arm around the man. Tren flinched and Tegan could feel the tremors in his body.

“No,” he continued as their guards began to herd them down the stairs. “We’re to be placed in the household of the head scribe of the temple as his slaves.” Before Tegan could say anything, he turned to her with a smile. “At least it isn’t a hole, Tegan, cheer up.”

“Slaves?” she bit out. Tren simply whimpered. “I think I would prefer the cell, thank you very much.”

The Doctor sighed heavily. “Be thankful you aren’t transferred to the temple immediately, Tegan. The cultic rights mean you shall be a symbol of fertility in Ishtar’s temple; you’ll be a temple prostitute.”

She sputtered as she stumbled down the stairs, holding Tren up. The Doctor came around to the man’s other side and slipped his arm under Tegan’s to take the man’s weight. “Over my dead body,” she warned. The Doctor nodded. “And mine.”

“Then let’s go!” she nearly shouted.

“Tegan,” he continued as they began down the main slope toward the ground. “I don’t think you understand the depth of what is going on here. This is Sumeria…the cradle of civilization for Homo Sapiens. There is a priest here who speaks on some level, in some mutated form, Gallifreyan. There’s Gallifreyan writing on obelisks about the place. And it ties to the Eye of Orion.”

“So those bastards you call a race have been here,” she rumbled. “Doesn’t surprise me in the least.”

“But it isn’t Gallifreyan, Tegan…it’s an older, cruder language. I want to know what this Gatherer is…I want to know why it’s here. And why it is incorporated in the religion of these people. It could be vitally important. Someone is fooling around with the beginning of your race. This means that everything that is listed as being a part of this society…the use of 60 as a predominant number in maths, it’s how Terrans will tell time, the wheel, laws…might be in question.”

Put that way, Tegan thought, he had a point.

“I’ll have us away from here by the time the full moon occurs, Tegan. I do promise that. You will not be put into the cultic rites.”

She hadn’t been looking at him, but the tone of his voice made her shiver. The message of his warning came across loud and clear. He needed to stay, but he wouldn’t allow her to be harmed. She didn’t need the support; she would fight her own battles, but the sentiment was welcomed. There was the feeling that if she started a fight, he would most definitely finish it.

She blinked and looked out from the pyramid. Flames danced on torches as far as she could see, dark houses, quietly moving animals…it was a quiet, peaceful image of the first civilization on Earth. She knew that. And she knew that if it was in trouble, they had to do something. The Doctor was usually not wrong about his feelings in matters like these. And her gut feeling told her all wasn’t right there.

“All right, Doc,” she sighed. “Let’s figure it out. But quickly?”

“Brave heart, Tegan,” he said for the second time that night. “I’ll be so quick that if you blink, you’ll miss it.”

**

*Crack*

She didn’t know if the sound of the creaking basket she held was louder, or the sound of her back creaking as she stood. If she got old, she didn’t know it. So it came as a surprise to her that her body sounded old. Must have been the year she spent sleeping on the ground, she supposed. Apparently it affected her enough that she had a hard time sleeping on the relative comfort of a pallet and the Doctor’s shoulder.

She looked down at the collection of hemp that she had just placed in the basket. In another time, another place, it would be humorous that she was harvesting the crop, but here it was commonplace.

Tegan straightened and began to walk across the short distance to the house. She gave the guard a smirk as she passed him. It wasn’t intellectually hard work, as she had told the Doctor, anyone could manage it, but that hadn’t been his worry that morning.

They had been awakened roughly by the head of the household. As she had disentangled herself from the Doctor, it had apparently become clear to their new boss that she didn’t speak the language. The Doctor had accompanied her to the field quickly and quietly, listening intently as to what he was being told. Then he stopped her by putting his hands on her shoulders and nodded gravely to the field.

“The hemp is ready for harvesting,” he had muttered. “They want you to help the others to bring it in and if there is enough time, reduce it and begin to weave it into rope.”

“Doesn’t sound too hard, Doc,” she had commented. She had glanced around at the others and then sighed. “And looks mundane and safe enough, but I won’t say it’s my favored job. But let’s not stay around here long enough for it to become my chosen profession, eh?”

But she could see he worried about something else, it was written as fresh and etched as deeply in his eyes as those marks he was planning on transferring. “You are planning on getting us out of here quickly, yes?”

“Oh quite,” he had agreed with a deep sigh. “I just need to figure out how to get over to the obelisks without a problem.”

“I thought you were helping with the carving…”

“Yes, well, Tegan…the ones I need to interpret are already finished,” he had quipped. “I won’t be near them.” But then he had turned to look at the man who was leading him away and frowned. “Ah, well, shall see what I can do. Keep safe and if you have a problem, find me.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.”

And with that, they had separated. She stretched as best she could while still moving and entered the main courtyard. Blinking in the bright sunlight, she wiped sweat from