Winds of Time

[Bob the Rutan]

PROLOGUE

Zira laid her lover's body on the ground, the sounds of staser fire burning through the air around them. She looked around at the time capsules, hoping to find... yes... there! She gazed down on him, the Time Lord she loved, and brushed the hair from his face, blowing gently on his skin to try to bring him around to consciousness. "Brett... wake up, my love. Please."

He opened his eyes at the sound of her voice, his gaze falling across her half-Tharil features. She had her father's countenance, appearing more cat than Time Lord. He felt a strange pain within himself, pain he quickly realized was the first pangs of regeneration. He'd never look on her again with these eyes. "Where...?"

"The bay," she said to him, a weak smile growing on her distressed face. "I had to get you to safety. You must flee... he has the Moment, and he's going to use it." She helped him sit up, leaning him against one of the time capsules utilized by her mother's people.

"Eve...," he said, half a question, half in fear that she was still neaby.

Zira shook her head, frowning. "She is gone. My sister has betrayed us all." There was a sadness in her voice, but this was not the time... she had to save him. "But you must go."

His voice was weak, the glow beginning to rim his eyes as he answered her. "Come with me."

"I cannot, my love," she replied. "I must find my father. He was last seen at the base of the Cruciform." She pointed to the capsule that she'd found, the one with the key still in the lock. "You must go... but look for me. I'll find you in the Timelines... I promise."

He nodded, and she helped him to his feet. Together, the hobbled to the TARDIS, an old type 47... but then, the Time Lords had recommissioned all the capsules they could after the travesty of the Nightmare Child. "The Timelines... never forget."

She smiled. "Never, my love," she said, kissing him with the intensity of a lover saying their final goodbye. "I will be there... searching."

Brett stumbled into the TARDIS, and his fingers danced across the controls by instinct. He set the time-space controls for 'anywhere but here,' and began to fight the Winds of Time. The Moment was here, the Time Lock was falling into place, and it was all he could he do to keep the capsule moving towards the Vortex. He was almost free... he would survive the Time War, and he would find his love once again.

And in that crucial moment, when his full attention was the only thing that could save him, he felt the call of his next body, and with a sudden, sharp pain and a screaming rush of energy, his consciousness fled, and there was nothing but the light.

* * *

Two days had passed before the grinding sound of rematerialization brought him back to consciousness. He was a new man, with a new life, but there was something missing.

Gallifrey was gone... Time was locked... he seemed to remember a War... and he remembered losing his love, but there was nothing before that moment... nothing about the War itself. There was a life before, and this new life after... but the time within was as empty as the Vortex with no Time Lords to mind it.

Nevertheless... he had landed. There was a life awaiting him, and a search that must be made... and no better time or place to begin it than right here... right now. Earth. The 32nd Century. Brett smiled, looking around the battered TARDIS ravaged by its escape through the Time Lock. Even if the world outside was exactly what it should be, he still had a lot of work to do. Time to get started.

[da professor]

You certainly give good prologue, for which Karma, looking forward to the session write-ups.

[Bob the Rutan]

Thank you very much! We've finished two stories to date, and I'll get synopses posted asap.
 
First, a little background. Around a decade or so back, I ran a Doctor Who RPG using the old FASA system for a small group of people pulled from my usual gaming group. I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to the "feel" of Doctor Who, so I like to keep the group small so that the TARDIS doesn't get too crowded. We played through a couple of adventures, then lost one of our players to pilot school and the game folded.
 
When the new system came out, the player of the Time Lord "Brett" (aka Andy) made it clear to me that he wanted to give it a go. Needless to say, I already had it pre-ordered. My wife runs a different game for several members of our usual group, so we decided that her game nights would be a perfect opportunity to get the "left-overs," a grand total of three of us, together for some Doctor Who action.
 
With the new game reflecting the new Who, Andy and I decided to set the game a little over one hundred years after the last time we saw Brett and start it off by regenerating him in accordance to the way the new Who was launched. A little discussion and we had agreed on the "Escape from the Time War" idea that I then fleshed out and wrote up (posted above).
 
I'll try to provide details on each "core" character as they appear. Speaking of which... here's Brett (adapted from the old FASA character):
 
BRETT
 
Awareness 4, Coordination 3, Ingenuity 7, Presence 4, Resolve 3, Strength 2
 
TRAITS
Amnesia (Minor - Time War), Boffin, Code of Conduct, Eccentric, Feel the Turn of the Universe, Insatiable Curiosity, Last of My Kind (Brett believes he is the last of the Time Lords), Lucky, Psychic, Time Lord (Experienced), Vortex (Minor - Utilize Temporal Vehicle)
 
SKILLS
Athletics 2, Convince 3, Craft 1, Fighting 2, Knowledge 3, Marksman 1, Medicine 2, Science 4 (Physics, Astrophysics), Subterfuge 2, Technology 4, Transport 2 (TARDIS)
 
STORY POINTS: 7
TECH LEVEL: 10 (Gallifrey)
 
Personal Goal: To find Zira within the Timelines and spend his life exploring the universe with the woman he loves.
 
Zira was a part of the character's original background from the FASA days. When I was a teenager, I was a bit of a romantic, and the end of "The Warrior's Gate" seemed like the end of an old romance film to me, so my brain connected Biroc and Romana as more than just friends. Having the freedom to write my own continuity, Zira became their daughter, one of a set of twins.
 
Zira was born with their father's racial attributes, looking more Tharil than Gallifreyan. Her sister, Eve, was born looking more like their mother. Zira was well-adjusted and took very much after her mother in personality and disposition. Eve reveled in being an outcast and used her "dispossession" with Time Lord society to justify her ambitious and amoral ways.
 
Because of her need to hate her mother's people in order to continue with her self-pitying ways, Eve hated Brett from the moment he became involved with her sister. Eventually, she betrayed them both and was the primary impetus to their initial separation, trapping Zira in the Timelines and forcing Brett to run off in a "borrowed" TARDIS.
 
In the new game's "evolved" history, Brett and Zira found each other again, just in time for the Time War to begin. Again, Eve betrayed her family, this time to the Daleks, and was a key infiltrator for their cause, helping them get into position for their "final attack" against the Cruciform... and that's where the new story begins.

Eve will eventually recur as Brett's version of "The Master"... an old and very personal foe.

[JohnK]

Hullo, Bob the Rutan,

Mar 3, 2010 2:05:57 GMT Bob the Rutan said:

PROLOGUE

Zira laid her lover's body on the ground, the sounds of staser fire burning through the air around them. She looked around at the time capsules, hoping to find... yes... there! She gazed down on him, the Time Lord she loved, and brushed the hair from his face, blowing gently on his skin to try to bring him around to consciousness. "Brett... wake up, my love. Please."

<snip. snip>

Loved the fiction piece, and look forward to seeing more material on this stuff.

So, have you done up the Tharils yet for the DW: AiTaS system? If so, I suspect we would all love to see them.

Can't give you karma at the moment, but when I can, will definitely do so.

[ugavine]

I absolutely love your background and setup.
Warriors Gate is one of my favourites, as is Romana. So tying them into your story is fantastic. Love it.

I look forward to reading more of your ongoing adventures.

[Bob the Rutan]

Thanks guys!

I'm working on a writeup for the Tharils, but they're tricky... I'll post it as soon as it's done.

And Warrior's Gate is one of my all time favorites too... and Romana (though Sarah Jane will always be my favorite of favorites). But I fluxing my favorite Time Lady was an easy decision. Heh.

[Bob the Rutan]

I finished up the Tharil over lunch. The write-up has been posed in the Aliens subforum!

[Bob the Rutan]

For the first adventure, I wanted something quick with which I was readily familiar, so that I could keep up a good pace. Knowing the Player Character's backgrounds, I quickly adapted an old FASA adventure that I had planned to use but had never had the chance to run in our old game. The adventure was titled "The City of Gold."

Here's the synopsis!

Episode One: The Lost City

Brett woke up with a new face in a wrecked control room, the central console having reconfigured itself to avoid being crushed by a large chunk of ceiling. He cleared away some junk, discovering that he wasn't quite as strong as he used to be. After a bit more clean-up, he checked the instruments and discovered that he'd landed on Earth in the early 33rd Century.

Just as he was getting his bearings, he noticed an alert light signaling a temporal field about two miles west of the TARDIS' location. Grabbing a sonic screwdriver and some psychic paper, he headed out, noting that his time capsule now resembled a large boulder. He found himself in the middle of a rainforest. Climbing a rocky hill to see if he could get a look at the source of the disturbance, he soon found himself stalked but a large, thick-skinned retile creature.

Fleeing towards a sparkling city he'd seen in the distance, he made it through the city's walls with the creature on his heels. With great difficulty, he closed the gate and turned to see who might be coming to greet him. He was surprised to find an ancient city, built of stone, with gold inlaying every wall and door. The city itself was vacant, but in its center was the source of the temporal disturbance, a large pyramid of solid gold.

Climbing the pyramid, he found some strange equipment in the central temple, and it was all hooked up to a bizarre stone idol of some ancient Mayan jaguar god. Entering through the strangely familiar door, he discovered that the idol was actually a TARDIS... his TARDIS! The location settings were exactly where he'd left her, but the chronometer was set for the year 2180.

Discovering that a force field kept him from actually touching the controls, Brett ran out of the TARDIS to look at the machines. They were similarly protected, but after a quick survery, he feared he knew what they were for. Without a thought for the giant reptile outside the city walls, he ran as quickly as possible back to the TARDIS and checked his suspicion... and he was correct. Aside from the one city, coated in gold, there was no sign anywhere in the universe that the human race had ever existed.

Someone had time-looped the entire race!

Brett couldn't be sure who had set this new course for the universe, but he knew where he had to go. He could have tried to avoid 2180, tried to avoid this future by avoiding his predestined course, but he realized that if he didn't go there and try to stop this atrocity, that he'd be trapped in this alternate timeline until he eventually ended up there by pure chance.

So, a short hop through time later, Brett found himself in the 22nd Century. Running out of the TARDIS, he was immediately disappointed to see the TARDIS in the shape of a stone idol... of a jaguar god. Still he had a job to do. With a sigh, he headed straight to the city of gold. Upon arriving, the found the city not quite as abandoned as he'd last seen it.

The city was under siege by a group of archaeologists trying to bring a little history back to their race after the Dalek invasion. This magnificent city had appeared out of seemingly nowhere after earthquakes resulting of Operation Degravitate. While the physical and earth scientists concentrated on saving humanity, the archaeologists were concerned with preserving what made them human.

With his psychic paper announcing him as Professor Brett of the Oxford Museum, the Time Lord met Dr. Madison Stanley, expedition leader, archaeologist Alistair Morrison (player character), and their entourage of scientists. He also discovered that the Dig Supervisor, Oliver Adair, had been missing since he went to scout out a way into the partially buried golden pyramid at the center of the city. Setting off with Alistair as escort, Brett set out to see the dig and, hopefully, find the missing Mr. Adair.

A short time later, they found Mr. Adair -- or rather, his body -- on a small path up and around the mountain. He was definitely dead, but his body showed no sign of trauma. They were about to head back to the camp to get some assistance in transporting his corpse when they were ambushed by treasure hunters who had come for the gold. Prisoners, they were taken back to the treasure hunters' camp, where they met their leader, the notorious Carlos Navarro.

Bargaining for their lives, they promised to show Navarro the back way into the city, planning to escape on the way in and warn the others. They were then given over to woman named Sandoval, on of Navarro's lieutenants, who escorted them to a small out-building. The building was then tied shut with several yards of rope. They were discussing their plan with a young Mayan woman arrived with dinner. Her name was Lynda, and she was the criminals' translator and guide.

Lynda asked them if they'd seen the young Mayan "prince" Virarocha. They told her that they hadn't, and she told them a story of her village's Chieftan defying a Serpent god from within the temple, and how her people had followed in behind the strange visitor when it had slain their leader without even a weapon. And she told of how Virarocha had refused to fall in behind the 'false god,' and took those loyal to him and left the village.

The next morning, while "leading" the treasure hunters into the city, Brett and Alistair conspired to escape, but were stopped short when the criminals were ambushed by a group of Mayan's in ancient dress under the command of a strange cloaked figure. Lynda escaped into the rocks while the two scientists and the treasure hunters found themselves prisoners of the Mayans.

The criminals, except for Sandoval, were taken to caves to be interred. Sandoval, Brett, and Alistair were escorted to the pyramid, where they met two Earth Reptiles, the philosopher Droval and technician Vishtar. After a brief conversation, where they learned that the third member of the Triad, the scientist Shava, had been killed by the ape primitives, Brett was horrified to discover that the "Silurians" had found his TARDIS... and that the damage of escaping the Time Lock had damaged the door lock.

With the Earth Reptiles in possession of his time capsule, the three were taken away to be locked away with the others. Fortunately for them, Lynda returned with Virarocha and his men, and all three of them were rescued. While the two scientists agreed to return to the Mayan revolutionaries' camp, Navarro left them to try to find a way to free his men. The next morning, the scientists, Lynda, Virarocha, and his lieutenants traveled back into the city to rendezvous with the other archaeologists.

Knowing the Silurian plot, Brett pressed the archaeologists to evacuate. They did, along with Virarocha's men, except for Dr. Stanley who refused to leave Alistair and Brett. The three scientists, Virarocha, and Lynda turned their sites on the pyramid. Using a secret entrance known to Virarocha, they snuck into the temple underground, passing over (and in some cases nearly falling into) a crack that allowed them to look down into the Earth Reptile hibernation chamber.

Through a few close calls, they eventually made their way into the Temple of the Sun atop the golden pyramid. Once there, Brett managed to convince Droval to give the humans a chance to coexist. Vishtar was not convinced, but deferred to Droval's wishes. Just as it looked like things were going to work out, however, Navarro returned with his treasure hunters. They attacked in force, planning to overthrow the reptile-men, stop their diabolical plan, and loot the temple.

Brett ran out to stop the fighting and eventually succeeded, but not until Dr. Stanley had been killed and Droval had been injured and Vishtar had started the machine. With Virarocha and Navarro causing a distraction, Brett and Alistair rushed into the TARDIS before the force field could be activated. Recognizing the implications of his next action, mourned what he was about to do, and dematerialized the TARDIS, causing a feedback loop that saved humanity, but time-looped the city of gold and all within it's borders, including the entire Silurian colony.

The parked the TARDIS and stepped out, looking at the empty jungle where the city had once been. Brett offered to give Alistair a ride to the rendezvous point to rejoin his team of scientists and report on Dr. Stanley's loss. The archaeologist agreed and they stepped inside the ship.

Unfortunately it was then that the damaged TARDIS decided to malfunction. After a short and violent ride in the Vortex, Brett was surprised to hear someone knocking on the door. He opened the TARDIS entry portal to see a young woman dressed in the clothes of an early 20th Century train conductor.

"Ticket please."

"Pardon?"

"Your ticket?"

"My ticket?"

"Yes, sir. I need to see your ticket."

"Ah yes!" Brett said, still not fully in the moment. He showed her his psychic paper. She took it, looked it over, and returned it to him.

"Welcome aboard," she said, all smiles."We hope you enjoy your trip aboard the Orient Express."

Brett just stared at her, suddenly realizing he was way off course.

"Ummm...?"

Roll the credits! Next Time: "Nightmare on the Orient Express"

[Bob the Rutan]

Episode Two: Nightmare on the Orient Express
 
Having just discovered that the TARDIS had arrived on the Orient Express somewhere in Eastern Europe, Brett and Alistair decided to investigate just where -- and when -- they were. Leaving the TARDIS locked behind them (after some quick repairs to prevent anyone else trying to time loop humanity), they exited onto the train.
 
A nearby flyer informed them that they were one the maiden voyage of the all-new Orient Express, a 5-stop train traveling from Paris to Beijing to "reopen cultural exchanges lost during the Dalek occupation." The high-speed hover train had been modeled to resemble, at least internally, the classic look of a train from the early days of the 20th century.
 
The year, they quickly learned, was five years too earlier than Brett had intended, 2175. Something didn't feel quite right, so Brett asked Alistair is anything untoward had happened on this voyage. Alistair couldn't recall anything unusual about it, but decided to check the world history files on his archaeologist's data pad. Despite not remembering seeing anything on the news, he discovered that the train had apparently crashed just East of the Ukraine, costing the lives of all but two of the passengers, Sir Kingsley Archer, a British gentleman, and Amber Quinn, an American working as car attendant... the young girl who'd taken their ticket.
 
Assuming that the event just hadn't stuck into Alistair's memory, they decided it was best to leave. On the way back to the TARDIS, however, a young woman ran up to Brett, grabbed him in desperation, and said, "He's dead! Oh my, he's dead," before fainting in the Time Lord's arms. Calling the car attendant, Brett and Alistair, along with the curious Sir Kingsley, went to investigate.
 
They found the body in the baggage car. Sir Kingsley recognized him as an American passenger called Jonathan Cross, a rather nosey fellow as he recalled. Brett diagnosed that he had been strangled and, using his psychic paper, declared himself Detective Inspector Brett of Scotland Yard with Alistair as his assistant. Sir Kingsley immediately deferred the case to "the professionals."
 
The two travelers investigated the car and discovered several interesting facts. First, the window was open leading to the discovery that the train was surrounded by an inertial dampening force field to allow passengers to have fresh air without depressurizing the train. Secondly, they surmised that Cross has been looking for something, based on the position of his body. And third, the weapon was not a standard garrote... it was more akin to one of the bungee cords that held the luggage in place.
 
Brett and Alistair then went to question the other passengers in their section of the train. They discovered the following individuals: Benard and Milou Janssen, a Belgian businessman and his quiet, submissive wife; an obese and verbose Arab in a fez named Samir bin Ghazi and his man Friday Habib; the young, gorgeous-yet-mysterious French woman who had found the body, Angelique Rostand; Sir Kingsley and his traveling companion Temperance Lindsay; and an American businessman named David Hendricks.
 
They also decided to travel to the next car forward and speak to the conductor, Hans. They passed through the trains forward power plant on the way, and Brett stopped to point out to Alistair that major damage to any number of circuits, especially the ones controlling the inertial field, could cause the train to crash fatally.
 
After meeting with the conductor and putting in a call to the next stop in Moscow to have the authorities waiting at the station, they decided to return to the passenger car. In-between cars, the companions interrupted an apparent argument between Hendricks and a Middle-Eastern man in a turban that they had not previously met. The two passengers excused themselves and returned to the passenger car, Hendricks taking his seat and the man in the turban moving towards the sleeper cars.
 
Further interviewing revealed little save that Milou Janssen did not travel well and seemed ill despite motion sickness treatments, that everyone seemed to be hiding something, and that Cross had previously interviewed all of them himself, implying that he might have been more than just another passenger. Hoping to discover clues to his identity, the two went back to the baggage car... but Cross was gone! A quick look around revealed a bit of torn fabric matching Cross' jacket jammed into the corner of the window pane. It looked like someone had thrown the body from the train.
 
Estimating where Cross had been looking when he was killed, Brett and Alistair began to search the luggage racks. Before they could find anything, however, the luggage rack collapsed, burying them both in suitcases, rucksacks, and steel. Brett suffered some minor damage causing him a bit of a distraction, but Alistair had managed to push him out of the way of the worst of it.
 
They soon discovered that someone had cut the rack's mounting brackets with what looked like an arc-welding torch. Suspecting that the timing of the collapse was a little too convenient, they searched for any sign that they hadn't been alone in the baggage car, but all they could find was the open window. Choosing discretion over valor, they closed the window finally and locked it. With only a couple of feet of clearance within the inertial field, the size of the window, and the method by which the mounts had been cut, Brett was beginning to have suspicions as to the identity of the killer.
 
Following his gut, Brett re-interviewed the Belgians and learned that they were on the train because Benard feared that Milou's time was short, and they wanted one last adventure together. She had become ill several weeks before, and her condition was worsening. Brett began to suspect that the woman's condition was induced through malice, but kept his suspicions between himself and Alistair. The two found a seat to discuss the case in private, but several moments later were once more spurred into action.
 
Just as the train passed through a tunnel, the lights in the car went out. When the lights finally returned, Benard Janssen was missing! Searching the train, the two companions, Sir Kingsley, and young miss Quinn discovered an acrid smell and a new body in the train's power plant... someone had killed the conductor. Brett examined the body and determined that the conductor had been electrocuted. He pulled out his sonic to determine the source of the electrocution.
 
The discharge of his sonic triggered a booby trap, and Alistair only just managed to knock the Time Lord out of the way as his screwdriver fell, fried and melted to the floor. Brett was a bit confused about a booby trap set to advanced technology, but just assumed that he must have been recognized. In any case, his suspicions were confirmed enough to begin his real investigation, so Brett pulled Alistair aside and, in summary, explained the biology and history of the Rutan Host.
 
Deciding that it was time to leverage the TARDIS' databanks, Brett asked Sir Kingsley to do a quick search of the baggage car while he and Alistair "regrouped," and the two promptly returned to the ship. Trying to determine what a Rutan might be doing on Earth, they quickly discovered that the destruction of the Orient Express destroyed the future of ground-based, rapid transport. Instead, a commission of officials from across the globe turned their eyes towards space travel... and the committee would be headed by Sir Kingsley Archer!
 
None of this history matched with Alistair's memory of events, however, and Brett began to suspect that they had crossed into another divergent timeline. He quickly learned, however, that the TARDIS' Temporal Incongruity Field (TIF) Beacon, a circuit that prevented those in the ship from being affected by convergences in time, had been destroyed in his escape through the Time Lock. The "history" of Earth had changed in Alistair's data pad while his memories of his recent life had not... causing Alistair a bit of a headache.
 
Suspecting that one or more Rutans was stuck on Earth and manipulating humanity to build a way home, which would jumpstart the actual history of the human race's expansion through space endangering the history of the Empires of Earth and the Galactic Federation, Brett announced that it was time to find and stop the alien. Alistair agreed, excited to have the opportunity to meet a "proper" alien, rather than one that looked just like a human being. Exiting the TARDIS, they once again encountered Sir Kingsley.
 
The British gentleman had located Cross' briefcase among the suitcases scattered across the baggage car. Opening it with his sonic, the companions discovered the motive behind Cross' murder... the badge and vortex manipulator of a 51st Century Time Agent. The duo surmised that Cross had come back to stop the very changes in history that Brett and Alistair had just discovered. Suspecting that the Rutan was hiding out among the humans, the two split up... Brett went to interview the mysterious Mr. Hendricks, while Alistair went off in search of the man in the turban.
 
Alistair found the turban but not the man, the long strip of cloth stuck in a seam in the flexible walls between cars that someone had used to try to try to discard it. Brett learned that the argument they'd seen earlier had concerned the quality of food delivered to miss Temperance Lindsay, to whom Hendricks had taken a liking and was trying to sway away from Sir Kingsley and towards a rendezvous by bribing the "Arab that works in the kitchen" to bring her something off of the basic menu.
 
Reuniting, the exchanged clues, but Brett couldn't figure out why the turban would have been found separately from the Rutan, since the alien could have simulated clothing without needing the real thing. (GM Note: this was never resolved in-game, but the turban was from the real Yousef, who'd been killed to give the Rutan access to employee areas on the train, prior to the TARDIS' arrival, and had gotten caught in the seam of the wall after the cook's body had been thrown from the train.) Nonetheless, they decided it was time to take the initiative and "force the 'Belgian' to show his hand."
 
Suspecting that the alien had by now assumed Sir Kingsley's form, Brett made a show of informing the British Lord that the criminal was about to be apprehended. The duo then moved forward to the car's power plant and into the conductor's maintenance room. They discovered that the conductors body had been recently thrown through the still-open door in the maintenance room, and soon found themselves under small-arms fire by none other than Milou Janssen.
 
Brett soon learned that the Rutan was not trying to escape Earth... he was trying to get the humans to move towards colonizing other worlds to reduce the population for eventual Rutan invasion... the aliens wanted the planet for strategic purposes in their war with the Sontarans, but feared that the surviving humans may have access to left-over Dalek technology and wanted to weaken them as much as possible before attacking.
 
While the Time Lord kept the invader talking, Alistair heroic climbed along the outside of the train, struggling to keep within the inertial field, but eventually managing to re-enter through the passenger car. As the Rutan attempted to finish Brett off in human form, to continue the ruse that there was no alien on board, Alistair snuck up behind her and hit her with bin Ghazi's walking stick. Together, the two managed to force the Rutan into a rubber trash bin, which they quickly threw out the door, past the limits of the inertial field, and watched it slam into a tree at 500 m.p.h.
 
With the threat ended, the two made their way through the train, said their "good nights," and made their way back to the TARDIS. Once inside, Brett used the vortex manipulator to fix his ship's TIF Beacon before setting off to return Alistair to his rendezvous point. But as soon as they dematerialized, the TARDIS began to spin and thrash around violently.
 
Fighting their way back to the central console. Brett announced that the new TIF Beacon had locked on to a time corridor and they'd been pulled inside. Seeing little option, he wrestled with the controls to keep the ship intact while it ran the course of the tunnel through the Vortex. Materializing, he quickly rushed to the doors to see where they'd landed.
 
Throwing the doors open, he found the TARDIS engulfed in flames with vague outlines of people watching the fire burn. The chameleon circuit had disguised the ship as a wooden pole. Turning back inside, he called to Alistair to determine their location. His companion checked the computer and informed Brett that they were in France in the early 15th Century. Brett was silent, however, looking past Alistair at something in the lower reaches of the control room. The silence was broken by a girls voice with a French accent speaking the words, "By God!"
 
A young woman with brown hair was tied to a wooden pole in the center of the TARDIS. Looking from Brett to Alistair and back to Brett, she added in a reverent whisper, "St. Michael was true to his word... remain faithful, and you will be lifted into the Heavens."
 
Brett finally shut his open-hanging mouth. "Ummm... miss," he stuttered in surprise.
 
"Are you St. Peter?"
 
"Um... no. Can I ask your name?" he said, fearing the answer.
 
She smiled at his slightly, as if she'd been given some great reward.
 
"Jeanne... Jeanne d'Arc."
 
Brett swallowed hard. "Uuuuuummmm...."
 
Roll Credits! Next Time: The Stratagem Maneuver

[Bob the Rutan]

We've completed the next two episodes... The Stratagem Maneuver and part one of the first two-parter, Winner Takes All. I'll try to get at least the first written up and posted before the weekend is out.

[Kit]

Excellent stuff! i'm enjoying these!