CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The dumbfounded Klaus lay staring up at the Doctor, not quite believing the force that had just been exerted against him. The man standing over him was incredibly strong. What should have followed was for his own gun to be held on him and several threats and/or demands to be made. Instead, his assailant simply helped the boy that he had been accosting to his feet.

The Doctor regarded the stunned officer a moment before sighing heavily. “Oh, do get up, Major. I didn’t hit you that hard,” he admonished as he crossed to the unconscious Jason and knelt down beside him.

“Too bad,” Turlough grumbled, rubbing his bruised shoulder. He looked at the figure stretched out on the floor and caught his breath. “Doctor, that’s—”

“Yes, I am aware of that, Turlough,” the Doctor snapped impatiently as he checked the Alterran over, a worried look creasing his face. “How long has he been like this?” he asked concernedly, looking over at Eroica, who felt certain the Major was right and they had materialized in a lunatic asylum.

“I don’t know,” Eroica replied. “A few minutes. He collapsed just after we…er, arrived.”

The Doctor looked from the Earl to the Major and back. “Did he bring you both through at the same time?”

“Yes.”

The Doctor cursed under his breath. “Royal idiot. He should know better than to pull a stunt like that.”

“Always so encouraging…” Jason replied weakly.

“Jason…” Eroica said in a relieved tone. “I thought we’d killed you.”

The Alterran was genuinely surprised to hear this. “Did you really?” He turned his attention to the Doctor. “Are you going to—?” He broke off when he saw the Major’s Magnum in the Time Lord’s hands. “Dare I ask what’s been going on while I was unconscious?” he said as he sat up.

“I was awake and I’d still like to know,” Turlough replied astringently.

Jason looked up and grinned. “Turlough!” he said delightedly. “You look like you’ve had a run in with Iron Klaus.” He turned back to the Doctor. “And judging by the look of thunder on the Major’s face, I can only assume that introductions have yet to be made.”

“Full introductions have yet to be made,” the Doctor corrected mildly. He gave the sleeve of the Alterran’s royal finery a tug, adding, “Your royal highness.”

“Long story.”

“Isn’t it always?” The Doctor got to his feet. “Might I suggest we go to more comfortable surroundings and compare notes?” He helped Jason up and then held out a hand to Eroica, who was still staring in wide-eyed wonder. “Well, come on, Dorian. I don’t bite.”

“Why is it everyone we meet already knows who we are?” Eroica said as he accepted the hand. He turned to Jason, nodding in the Time Lord’s direction. “He claims he’s the Doctor.”

Jason could not help but laugh. “He is.”

“Pull the other one.”

“Like I said before, long story.”

The Doctor smiled brightly, throwing a glance in the Major’s direction. The officer was leaning against the wall near the door, smoking a cigarette, and glaring at him. “Major, if I give you your gun back, will you refrain from using it until after you learn the whole story?”

The Major folded his arms and replied in German. “If you give me my gun back, I’ll put a bullet through your fucking heart.”

The Doctor’s eyes flickered before he responded in impeccable German. “Hearts. I have two. If you must shoot me, at least do it properly, Herr Major von dem Eberbach.”

Eroica gave an involuntary cry upon hearing this. “Two hearts? You really are the Doctor!”

“And you really are an idiot,” the Major said darkly.

Jason heaved an exasperated sigh. “Here we go again…” he moaned. “Can’t you two give it a rest for even five minutes?” He suddenly felt lightheaded again and put a hand to his head. Then the room seemed to start spinning. “Doctor, is the TARDIS far?”

The Prince’s tone set off an alarm in the Time Lord’s head and he turned sharply back to him. “Why?”

Jason gave him an unfocused look. “Because…I think someone may have to carry me.” With that, his eyes rolled back into his head as he passed out again.

“Not again!” Eroica gasped, catching the Prince as he collapsed a second time.

“He’s depleted his energy reserves protecting you both inside the temporal corridor,” the Doctor replied tersely. “And to be honest, I’m not sure you’re worth it.”

“Now steady on…” Eroica objected.

The Doctor thrust the gun into Turlough’s hands, ordering him to returning it to the equally stunned Major. Then he swept Jason into his arms, a look of thunder on his face. “You, Lord Gloria, are spoiled, selfish, and self-centered.” He rounded on Klaus before the officer could agree with him. “You, Major von dem Eberbach, are paranoid, arrogant, and ill-tempered. And those, gentlemen, are your good points. Jason risked his life to get you back here and all you can do is argue with one another!” So saying, he strode toward the door. “Turlough, door,” he snapped.

The last thing Turlough wanted was to be the next target of the Time Lord’s wrath. He pulled the door open, handing the dumbfounded Major his gun back at the same time. The Doctor vanished through the door, heading swiftly down the corridor in the direction of the TARDIS.

“Turlough, as soon as those two can act in a civilized manner, bring them with you!” the Doctor called before disappearing around a corner.

Turlough exchanged a look of mutual bewilderment with the Major and Eroica before he sighed heavily. “Come on, then,” he said and led the way out the door. With nothing better to do, and not wanting to lose sight of Jason, the pair followed him.

“Does the TARDIS still look like a Police Box?” Eroica ventured.

Turlough threw a startled look over his shoulder. “Yes.”

“And this is 1987?”

“Yes.”

“And the Lubyanka.”

This was a statement of fact rather than a question and was spoken by the Major. He was standing in front of a portrait of General Secretary Gorbachev, looking at the burn mark that he himself had made on the wood frame. He touched the mark as if to verify it were real and then turned to Eroica. “If I didn’t believe him before, I do now.”

Turlough gave the Major a puzzled look. The Doctor was going to have a lot of explaining to do when he finally caught up with him.

* * *

Jason was more or less his old self by the time Turlough led the others into the TARDIS console room. He was in a chair with a large glass of something on ice in his hand. There was a pitcher on a table that was beside him that undoubtedly contained whatever it was that he was drinking.

“Jason, you’re alright!” Eroica sighed relievedly as he crossed to him and took a seat.

“On the mend,” the Alterran said mildly, raising his glass. “The Doctor remembered my secret recipe for fast recoveries.”

Turlough’s eyebrows went up. “Did he, now?”

The Doctor was leaning back against the console, his arms folded. “Do you feel up to comparing notes?” he asked calmly. “Starting with how you managed to retrieve Dorian and the Major from a time corridor in the Twenty-seventh century.”

Jason glanced over at the Major, seeing he was already in the process of lighting another cigarette. “Why not?” he sighed. “I doubt you’ll’ve gotten the full story from the KGB as to how they got in there.”

Klaus gave a derisive snort. “The KGB would never admit to the full story.”

“It would be far too embarrassing,” Eroica injected knowingly.

“Really?” The Doctor pulled up a chair and sat down. “Who wants to tell me about it?”

* * *

The Doctor listened in silence as Jason and the others told their separate tales. Jason wondered if he should tell about his encounter with Muriel, and finally decided to give only edited details. He referred to her as a “questionable source” rather than give a full accounting. If he told the Doctor the information came from a Mythryn, he felt certain it would be summarily dismissed.

“I’m not sure how much stock to put into this,” Jason said mildly. “But I know how you like to have all the facts, however obscure.”

The Doctor nodded absently. “It might be important.”

“Yes. And it might also be so much nonsense.”

“Well, we’ll find out eventually.”

The Doctor then explained what he and Turlough had managed to turn up in the few days they had been there. The energy readings were something that still needed to be fully evaluated, but the ghost sightings had also piqued his interest.

“Ghost sightings?” Jason repeated, throwing a quick glance in Dorian’s direction. “Is this a recent phenomenon?”

“Apparently not,” the Doctor replied. “It seems to’ve been going on for decades. The interesting thing is, the incidents seemed to’ve stopped for a while, and then suddenly started up all over again.”

Jason sat back in his chair. “Started back up with a vengeance, is that what you’re saying?”

“Just after the Major’s disappearance, as a matter of fact.”

Jason threw a startled look in the Major’s direction. At some point during the lengthy explanations, the Doctor had supplied the officer with a gun cleaning kit. Klaus was calmly cleaning his Magnum while taking in everything being said. This new piece of information was enough to make him stop what he was doing and look up, his eyes meeting Jason’s.

“And now,” the Doctor went on, “there’s a new twist. Before it was just ghosts. Now, apparently, the statues have started to move.”

“What!” This was Eroica, who practically fell out of his chair. He gave the Time Lord a horrified look before turning to Jason, who held up a hand in his direction.

“This just started happening?” Jason asked.

“Yes. Just before you arrived, in fact,” the Doctor replied, giving Eroica a puzzled look. “No one we’ve spoken to has ever heard of anything like this before.”

The Major gave a snort and started reassembling his gun. “The Earl can tell you all about moving statues.”

“Major, this isn’t bloody funny,” Eroica protested.

The Doctor exchanged a mystified look with Turlough, who shook his head and shrugged. He turned to the others, who obviously knew more than they were telling. “Um,” the Time Lord said calmly, “if you might enlighten me?”

Eroica put his head in his hands, too distraught to say anything.

“Dorian had a run in with a statue that ended up producing a brief psychosis,” Jason began slowly.

“Don’t be so clinical,” Klaus growled in annoyance. “He was delusional. Afraid of his own shadow because of some damn fool statue.”*
* Eau de Cologne: Seduction On The Rhine

“Major, it moved!” Eroica protested. “It bloody moved! It shot an arrow!”

“But it missed you! It was just as lousy a shot as you are.”

“Major, you’re not helping,” the Doctor snapped.

“I’m not trying to help,” Klaus snapped back.

“That I can see. You obviously have no idea how to be supportive.”

“Supportive?” the Major snorted, waving a hand in the air. “You’re talking about ghosts and moving statues. Am I supposed to give that equal weigh to the KGB trying to kill us?”

Jason cleared his throat. “I’m afraid he does have a point there, Doctor. This isn’t the type of thing you usually bother with. Unless…” He suddenly remembered Muriel’s injuries and wondered if the manifestations in the Lubyanka and her attacker were linked somehow. “These sighting? They’re just that, right? No physical manifestations?”

“Like clanging chains?”

“Like flying objects. You know, typical poltergeist type stuff.”

“Ah. No, nothing like that,” the Doctor replied. He went on to relate his theory about the prototype creating a temporal fissure when it malfunctioned and the time corridor being the end result with all the sightings just glimpses into history.

“That doesn’t explain how statues move,” Eroica objected.

“If they were repositioned, that would overlap with the current time line making it appear as though they were moving,” the Doctor said simply.

Jason nodded. “I was afraid my questionable source might’ve run into this…ghost,” he said finally. “But it was violent. This…whatever-it-is, seems to only be interested in scaring the pants off of people.”

“Obviously, more investigation is necessary before we say it’s just a benign manifestation,” the Doctor concluded.

“Obviously,” Jason agreed with a sigh.

“And what about us?” the Major wanted to know. “Are we to stay in Moscow while you lot—?”

“Christ!” Eroica exclaimed, gaining everyone’s attention. “My men are still in Leningrad!” He turned to Jason, his eyes wide. “They think I’ve gone to look at an art collection. They don’t even know I went missing. They could be under arrest for all I know.”

“I’m sure someone in Bonn noticed I didn’t return from Moscow when expected as well,” the Major replied blandly.

The Doctor cleared his throat. “As soon as Jason contacted me that you were safe, Major, I let NATO know you had been unavoidably detained.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “I’ll bet that went over well.”

The Major gave a derisive snort. “My Chief was probably delirious hoping I’d been killed.”

“Actually,” the Doctor broke in, “I pulled a few strings with UNIT to assure the West that you were not being held against your will. You’re welcome to contact them yourself.”

“And my men?” Dorian asked.

Jason gave the Major a steady look. “You’re the expert in these matters, Major. Do you think the KGB will’ve arrested them?”

“At this point, I doubt anyone will admit to being involved in the plot to bring Eroica to the Soviet Union,” the Major replied knowingly. “That was a blunder that Ivanov and Borodin made.”

“Meaning what, exactly?” Eroica demanded. “That they’re trapped in this country now?”

“Very probably.”

Eroica put a hand to his head, overwhelmed by the prospect. Trapped in the Soviet Union!

“Perhaps I might be able to assist,” the Doctor injected mildly.

Eroica looked up sharply. “How?”

Turlough could not help but laugh. “The Doctor has friends in high places.”

Eroica’s eyebrows went up and he turned to look at Prince Jason, who also laughed.

“Don’t look at me, Dorian,” Jason chuckled. “Even in my time, the Doctor has more clout than I do.”

The Doctor grinned. “You think so?”

“I know so,” Jason stated flatly. “So, who do you know in Communist Russia? The General Secretary? Or the head of the KGB?”

* * *

As it turned out, the KGB was only too willing in assisting the Earl in getting his men out of Leningrad. However, this was contingent under the condition that Eroica never make public the fact that he had been brought to the Soviet Union under false pretenses.

With the Doctor’s assistance, Eroica was able to contact his men in Leningrad in order to give them the evacuation order. He was also able to contact the North Downs and order his Zeppelin sent to transport everyone back to England. Within a very sort period of time, all the proper authorities were notified, and the clearances were given.

Several hours after this was accomplished, a guard came for the Earl, telling him that the Director wished to speak with him about the evacuation of his men. Eroica was nervous about this at first, but knew that nothing would happen to him now that the ridiculous plot had been uncovered. Now all he had to do was wait until his own transportation back to England could be arranged.

* * *