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CHAPTER TWENTY

DATA AND THEORIES

“Major, I’m not really sure how Dorian will react to you,” Jason said as he led the officer to the sickbay. “He’s still pretty shaken.”

The Doctor had given the Major an edited version of events, telling him that the Earl had been lured into the room by the alien when it looked like Jason. It had then changed into the Major’s likeness before physically attacking him. Obviously, the officer assumed he knew the rest. The real Jason had arrived in time to intervene before the alien could inflict any permanent damage on Eroica, or before it decided to kill him.

“That’s to be expected,” the Major replied coolly.

“Just…let me tell him you’re here, alright?” Jason paused outside the door. “He might be asleep.”

The Major’s eyes flickered but he did not reply. He had no doubts that the Earl would agree to see him. It wasn’t often that he actually came of his own volition. The idiot would probably be beside himself with ecstasy.

The Alterran slipped into the room and Klaus lit a cigarette as he waited. A minute later, Jason reappeared and pulled the door open, waving the Major inside.

“I’ll be out in the main sickbay, Major,” Jason said as he left.

The Major nodded and then turned to see Eroica sitting up in bed in a reasonably sensible pair of long silk pajamas. His enormous blue eyes were wider than he had ever seen them. Whether this was due to fear or astonishment, he could not tell. What did surprise him was the fact that the Earl wasn’t bubbling over with glee. Perhaps Jason had been correct in his observation that Eroica might not be able to separate the real Klaus from the false one.

“I didn’t expect you to be checking on me, too, Major,” Eroica remarked mildly.

Klaus noticed a slight tremor in the Earl’s voice and found himself surprised by this, too. He crossed to the chair and sat down, leaning back to study the Earl’s battered appearance more closely. Jason had told him that he had covered the bruises, but Klaus could see Eroica’s face was still slightly swollen. “I have a message for you,” he said calmly.

“Message?”

“Yes. Your men arrived safely at the North Downs this morning. I thought you would want to know.”

Eroica closed his eyes and sat back in bed. “Thank you, Major. I’ve been very worried about them.”

The Major nodded, taking a drag on his cigarette. “The Doctor told me that thing attacked you looking like me.”

Eroica looked up sharply, a shiver running down his spine. “Yes. It looked like Jason at first. Then it…changed.” He shivered again, and hugged himself. “I looked just like you, Major. Exactly.”

The Major’s eyes flickered. “And then it attacked you?”

Eroica nodded. “The Doctor thinks it read my mind. That it became you so it could…”

“So it could beat you up?” Klaus snapped angrily. “Is that what you consider me, Lord Gloria? A bully?”

“Major, you can’t deny that you’ve hit me.”

“Twice. Perhaps three times in how many years?”

“You held a gun to my head!”

“You’re still here, you idiot! And even you couldn’t miss at that distance.”

“Very funny.”

“I don’t beat up people who can’t defend themselves,” the Major said fiercely, rising to his feet. “And I especially don’t tie people up so I can beat the shit out of them. You, of all people, should know that.”

Eroica sat with his mouth agape. He never expected so vehement a reaction. Surely, the man would change his tune if he were to learn the whole story. “I’m sorry, Major,” he said quietly. “That came out badly.”

The Major drew himself to his full height but did not reply. He did not sit down again, either. He stood glaring down at the Earl, the smoke from his cigarette turning into a storm cloud above his head.

“What I was trying to say was that the Doctor thinks that thing was trying to make me afraid by having people I trust do things…” Eroica voice trailed off and he shuddered. “Having them do things they wouldn’t normality do.” He met the officer’s gaze steadily. Argue with that one!

Klaus blinked. Then he nodded. “That makes sense. Although, I’m puzzled as to why it would suddenly start a physical assault. Until now, it’s been using psychological means.”

“The Doctor’s puzzled by that one, too.”

The Major stood thoughtfully a moment. “Perhaps all the reports should be gone over again.” He turned on his heel and headed for the door.

“Major!” Eroica called out.

Klaus stopped dead and stiffened visibly, turning back slowly. “What?”

Eroica smiled brightly. “Thank you for coming to visit me,” he cooed, primping his pajama top. “Only next time, let me know in advance so I can be properly undressed.”

The Major sighed heavily. Obviously, it had been too much to hope for that the Earl would carry on a conversation without making at least one indecent remark. “Do you want me to hit you now?”

“No. I’m just making sure it’s really you.”

“You idiot.”

* * *

Several minutes after the Major left, Jason reappeared in Dorian’s doorway. “Well, how did it go?”

Eroica smiled brightly. “Surprisingly well, I think. Not one serious threat. And he even gave me a message that my men returned home safely.”

“Excellent.” Jason gave his friend an appraising look. “You feel up to getting out of bed for a bit?”

“Oh, do I!” Eroica practically threw the covers off the bed.

Jason could not help laughing at his enthusiasm.

“What’s so funny?”

“Sorry. This might be inappropriate under the circumstances, but… Normally you’re the one trying to get everyone into bed.” Jason was relieved when his friend laughed. He held out a hand. “I thought you might like to wear something other than pajamas.”

Eroica looked down at himself, rubbing the fine silk material. “These are quite nice, actually.”

“The Doctor tells me they’re from when he visited the court of Kublai Kahn.”

“Kublai Kahn?”

“Yes. Apparently, he won them playing backgammon.”

Eroica shook his head. “If it weren’t the Doctor we were talking about, I’d say you were making this up.”

“Just trying to distract you. I have no doubts that you’ll be adding them to the other goodies in the pocket dimension,” Jason replied knowingly.

“Oh! The pocket dimension!” Eroica gasped, a hand going to his mouth. “I don’t know what happened to it.” To his relief, the man at the door was suddenly holding out the little pouch.

“It was in your coat pocket,” Jason said mildly.

Eroica took the pouch and smiled, clasping it to his chest. “I’ve grown rather fond of this.”

“I’m not surprised.” Jason turned and led the way out. “Come on. I have another treasure trove for you to see.” He threw a quick glance over his shoulder. “But it isn’t to end up in that little goodie in your hands, got it?”

“No promises,” Eroica joked. “What is this treasure trove?”

“You just wait and see. I know how you love surprises.”

Within a few minutes, the pair were standing in front of a plain white door. It looked like the dozens of other plain white doors in the stark white corridors of the enormous interior of the TARDIS. Eroica regarded it a moment and then turned to Jason. “Well, don’t keep me in suspense.”

“Open it,” Jason invited.

Eroica hesitated. “Why? What’s in there?”

“The TARDIS wardrobe. Well, one of them.”

“Wardrobe?” Eroica’s eyes narrowed. “How big is it?”

“I think the word enormous might cover it.” Jason grinned and pushed open the door. “Where do you think the Major got all his changes of clothes from?”

A small delighted noise escaped the Earl as he took in the gigantic room. “Oh, my…” As far as he could tell, it would hold at least one football pitch, possibly even two. It was literally packed, from floor to ceiling, with clothes. From hundreds of different worlds and hundreds of different time periods. Racks and racks and racks of the most exquisite clothes he had ever seen.

Jason took the thunderstruck Earl by the hand and pulled him through the door. “Over there are the mens clothes,” he said, waving a hand to take in the ocean of garments. “Over there are the ladies. There are the accessories. Shoes, belts, jewelry, and what not. And over there, is the mirror, although I suspect you’d’ve found that on your own.”

“I’ve died and gone to heaven,” Eroica said at last. Then, without thinking, he gave Jason an enormous hug.

“Dorian, you’re crushing me!” the amused Alterran protested.

“Oh, Jason, I think I love you,” Eroica sighed, planting a kiss on the other man’s mouth.

Jason took a stunned step back. Christ, he’s a damned good kisser. “Down boy, or I’ll call for the Major to protect me.” He could not help but grin at the obvious stars in Dorian’s eyes. He had hoped the wardrobe would help get his friend’s mind off what happened to him. He never dreamed it would work so well as to make Dorian forget everything.

“I don’t know where to start,” Eroica said as he crossed to the nearest rack of garments.

“You can have as much time as you like,” Jason replied happily. “I’m supposed to go help the Doctor and the Major sort through all that data that was collected. And, apparently, the KGB was good enough to supply the incident reports that they’ve been keeping over the years.”

“Sounds like you’ve got a full afternoon ahead of you.”

Jason grinned. “I think yours is going to be more fun.”

* * *

The Doctor scowled down at the papers that were strewn all over the console room floor. Well, perhaps not strewn. The Major had been meticulously sorting the reports, having divided them into categories. Each category containing a stack of papers, some stacks being larger than others. Turlough was at the console loading the data into the computer as it was called out to him. Jason, in the meantime, had simply listened as each event was described.

“So, what can we conclude from all this,” Jason asked finally. “Aside from the fact that this thing seems to have been operating, relatively undetected, for decades.”

“I can’t shake the notion that this is some kind of…mind parasite,” the Doctor remarked.

The Major looked up and frowned. Then he noticed that Jason and Turlough seemed equally perplexed. “Mind Parasite?” he asked.

“Yes. I encountered one once that fed off evil.* Perhaps this one feeds off fear.”
* The Mind Of Evil

Jason’s eyebrows went up. “Well, jumping out at people in the dark is certainly enough to frighten them,” he remarked. He glanced at the stack for that category. Then a thought struck him and he looked over at the Major. “Are all those from the same time period?”

Klaus turned back and picked up the stack, quickly thumbing through them. He nodded. With the exception of the events of the past week, all the other instances were within a fifteen year time period that ended sometime in the mid 1970s. The Major looked up. “That’s when that bastard Borodin started the matter transmission experiments.”

The Doctor gave him a stunned look. “I’m guessing that’s not common knowledge.”

“No. But NATO intelligence has been keeping tabs on it,” Klaus replied. “It’s been rumored that every time a dissident vanished without a trace, it was through that thing.” He gave a small smile of irony. “I can now attest to the fact that the rumors were true.”

“Yes…” the Doctor said thoughtfully. “It seems Comrades Ivanov and Borodin were keeping house for someone.”

“Doctor,” Turlough injected, “you’re not saying they were working with that…whatever-it-is, are you?”

“Hardly. But the creature, parasite, whatever-it-is, seems to’ve giving up its spectral diet of tiny frights and developed a taste for sheer terror.” The Doctor nodded over to one of the stacks, adding, “And if all those reported disappearances are in some way connected to this, its appetite is increasing.”

Jason sat back in his chair, his eyes wide. “My God, it’s like an addict,” he whispered.

The Major turned sharply to him. “What?”

Jason gave him a steady look. “The pattern fits that of an addict. You humans have all kinds of hormones kick in when you’re frightened or startled. An adrenaline rush being one of them. Fight or flight, I think is the current theory.” He looked over at the Doctor. “But it can’t be just the adrenaline rush from fear. There are other emotions that trigger the same biological reactions.”

“Yes, but the psychic energy it creates is different,” the Doctor pointed out. “The parts of the brain that are utilized for rational thought are different than those used when in a blind panic.”

“Doctor, are you saying this creature is like the thing in the Hakol probe?”* Turlough wanted to know.
* The Awakening

Jason frowned, throwing a quick glance in the Major’s direction. “Hakol probe?”

“Yes. Turlough and I just had a run in with one in 1984,” the Doctor replied. “The inhabitants of Hakol utilize psychic energy the way humans utilize electricity. It’s just another power source to them.”

“So…it’s not unreasonable to assume there’s something out there that feeds on the psychic energies produced by fear,” Jason concluded.

“And anyone being tossed into that transmat would undoubtedly be terrified.”

The Major remembered Eroica’s reaction when he was thrown into the booth. Terror. Raw terror.

“And now that it’s offline?” Turlough asked.

“If it is an addict, it’s probably going through withdrawal,” Jason concluded. He nodded at the papers in the Major’s hands. “Obviously, the spectral events of a few years ago aren’t enough anymore. It’s gotten addicted to the heightened energies produced by sheer terror.”

The Major’s eyes widened. “That’s why it attacked the Earl! He was the last one to be thrown into the booth.”

“Yes,” the Doctor replied thoughtfully. “It would’ve been familiar with his fear pattern.”

“But why the physical attack?”

“Conditioned response, perhaps. From what I understand, the guards were rather physical when they threw him into the transmat.”

The Major nodded and then looked the Doctor in the eye. “So, how does knowing all this help us catch it?”

* * *

Jason returned to the wardrobe to find Dorian curled up on the floor. Or more accurately, curled up on a mound of clothing on the floor. He felt his heart in his mouth at the thought that he had taken ill. “Dorian?” he said worriedly, touching his shoulder.

Eroica rolled onto his back and smiled. “Mmmm. Hello, love.”

“Oh, thank God!” Jason said in a relieved voice, sitting down on the floor beside him. “I thought you’d passed out.”

Eroica rubbed his eyes, finally coming fully awake. “Jason? I thought…” He sat up slightly and looked around. “I must’ve been dreaming.”

Jason nodded but did not remark on the fact that he was delighted his friend had not had a nightmare. “I see you found something to your liking,” he said instead, taking in the Earl’s incredibly elaborate outfit. What struck him was the brocade jacket that was very similar to the one he himself had worn when he first appeared in the infirmary six centuries in the future.

“I found lots of somethings, as you can see,” Eroica replied muzzily, rubbing his eyes again. “Do you think the Doctor would mind if I kept just a few outfits?”

“Jesus Christ Almighty, Dorian!” Jason moaned. “Can’t you keep your mind off thieving for five minutes?”

“I’ve been in here longer than five minutes.”

Jason put his head in his hands. “Give me strength.” The man was impossible. When he looked up, he saw the Earl studying him with an odd look on his face. “Now what? Have I grown another head?”

“No. I’d…like to ask you something,” Eroica began hesitantly. “I’m just not sure how to go about it.”

“My Lord, you actually sound serious.”

“I am, and that’s just what I wanted to ask.”

Jason blinked. “You’ve lost me.”

“I know about your being an alien and all that. And that you speak English rather than your own language…”

“Ye-es…”

“It’s…the expressions you use. My Lord. My God. Pray this works. I need another miracle.” Eroica paused before asking. “Are they just…”

“Expressions?” Jason completed, receiving a nod in reply. “No, they’re not.”

Eroica blinked. “I never thought about it before. That…well, aliens might…”

“Might also believe in a Supreme Being, as it were. Someone higher than themselves working for the greater good,” Jason stated succinctly.

“Yes. You…really believe that?”

“With all my heart.”

Eroica sat back and looked at the Alterran a moment. “How?”

Jason laughed, lowering his eyes. “Dorian, I’m a doctor. I’ve seen too many strange and wonderful things to believe that it’s all a random jumble. People call me a miracle worker. But I like to think I just pass on the miracles I’m given.” He looked up, his eyes narrowing as he noticed his friend was clearly uncomfortable. “I assume you don’t agree.”

“Jason, I’m a homosexual.”

“Yes, I am keenly aware of that fact.”

Eroica drew a deep breath and looked the Alterran in the eyes. “Do you think I’m evil?”

“What?” Jason gasped. “Where on earth did that come from?”

“I’ve been called some really horrible things. I’m…an abomination against God, apparently.”

Jason sat back and marveled. “Dorian, I think you’ll find that your own Bible says that homosexuality is a sin against the flesh. That the…er, act is an abomination.”

The Earl looked up sharply. “You’ve read the Bible?” he said in disbelief.

“I’ve read a lot of the works from your planet.” Jason gave a small smile. “I prefer the view that one should hate the sin and love the sinner.” He saw Dorian close his eyes in response to this and said mildly, “I suppose all that is dependent on what one considers a sin.”

“I guess.”

Jason could not help but smile at the petulant tone. “What do you believe?”

“I’m an atheist.”

Jason found himself marveling again.

Eroica lowered his eyes. “So’s the Major,” he added quickly.

Jason let out an amused squeak. “Now there’s irony for you,” he snickered. “Aren’t I supposed to be the godless alien?”

“I suppose.” Eroica could not help being amused and gave him a sideways glance. “What about the Doctor?”

“Ah. I have no idea, actually.”

“What? After all the time you’ve known him?”

“I supposed he’d consider himself an agnostic. But to be honest, in all the time I’ve known him it always seemed to be understood that the subject was off limits.”

Eroica sat thoughtfully for a minute, mulling this over.

“Dorian, why is this suddenly so important to you? You’re a thief, for petty’s sake,” Jason said amusedly. “I seem to remember ‘Thou Shall Not Steal’ being in the Bible, too.”

“I don’t know. I suppose…” Eroica’s voice trailed off and he considered a moment, only to frown. “Why is it whenever I’m around you I get all serious and introspective?” he said accusingly.

Jason laughed as he got to his feet. “Because I’m easy to talk to? Change of pace?” He gave a sly grin. “Because I’m a good kisser?”

Dorian gave him another sideways glance.

Jason held out a hand. “Come on. The Doctor’s sent Turlough and the Major off to take some readings. That’ll take a while. I thought you might like something to eat before they need me again.”

* * *

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