Time Fracture: The Continuing Adventures of The Professor and Kelli

Chapter One

Steam and smoke rose from the six sided console, although the internal fire suppression system had extinguished the open flames. The emergency lights were now active, and the only sounds in the hexagonal room were the sizzling foam on the console and the steady beep of the alarm. After several minutes of relative calm in the aftermath of what appeared to be an accident, one of the two figures on the floor began to stir.

"TIVA, report..." the first figure, a man in a long black coat ordered aloud, although the reply never came. He rolled to his side and slowly used his arms and legs to lift his battered body to a standing position. "Kelli! Where are you?"

The second figure, a young woman with pigtails and dark lipstick and eyeliner groaned. The man stumbled to her.

"Kelli, are you alright?"

"Yeah... yeah, I think so. What happened, Professor?"

The Professor stood and steadied himself against the railing that surrounded the console as he simultaneously offered her his hand. "Nothing definite yet, but I believe that we hit something."

Kelli righted herself and rubbed her bruised left arm. "Hit something? I thought we were in the time vortex... how could we hit anything?"

The older man smiled. "Remember to think outside of your comfort zone and apply your advanced knowledge of physics to our situation. Just because I implied that we hit something doesn't necessarily mean that it was a solid object."

Kelli, the brilliant grad-student from Earth stared at the smoking console. "So, we hit something temporal... like turbulence?"

"Precisely. I believe it may have been a time-fissure; the temporal equivalent of attempting to pilot a small boat through an eighty-foot wave."

"So... are we stranded?"

He turned to the smoking console, which contained very few physical controls due to its sleek touch-screen surface; with the primary manual control being a large lever that sat on the seam between two adjacent panels. "Nothing," he muttered as he moved it several times.

Kelli stared at the black panels on the smoking console, which were usually lit-up like a giant iPad. "If the controls are offline, what do we do?"

The professor sighed. "There is a backup control room with actual buttons, so I might be able to regain partial control of the TARDIS from there, depending upon how severe the damage is."

"Do you believe that we are any danger?"

He offered her a slight smile. "Well, the cloister bells aren't ringing, so that is a good sign... unless..."

Kelli swallowed hard. "Unless what?"

"...unless the damage is so great that we are now floating through space in a dead ship. If that is the case, then we are now standing in the universe's most elaborate casket."

The 28 year old woman with the fashion sense of a gothic teen glared at him. "Your confidence is inspiring," she remarked with annoyed sarcasm.

"Would you prefer that I lie..."

"You lie to me all the time," she snorted, cutting him off.

"Yes, well, it's usually for your own good," he replied, somewhat embarrassed. "Come along, let's go see if we can figure out what happened." He turned and approached the single door that led to the TARDIS' interior, followed by the aggravated woman.