Doctor Who: The Grandfather Paradox

Chapter 3: Time and Tide

CHAPTER 3: Time and Tide

"I think I misjudged knock-knock jokes," said the Doctor. "Compared to you, they're a riot."

"I've never been more serious," said the Shadow Architect. "To relieve the universe of its extraneous stress, we need to remove the anomaly - that is, two humans who should not exist. Now enough delay. It's time for what needs to be done." She looked at Amy. "Come."

Amy backed away into the cell. "No, you stay away from me."

"Come with us or we'll move you by force."

The Doctor stepped forward. "This is... this is a lot for us to process. I'm sure you can understand that. And I don't agree with your methods. I find them extremely humourless and excessive. But I respect that the greater good makes them necessary."

Amy looked at the Doctor, aghast. "What are you doing?"

"Give me five minutes with the humans," said the Doctor. "Enough time to say goodbye. After that, you may do with them as you wish."

Rory lunged at the Doctor. "You snake!"

He tried to land a punch, but the Doctor grabbed his wrist and deflected the blow. The Shadow Architect spoke sharply. "Enough!"

Both stopped in their tracks.

"I don't understand your sentimentality for such a volatile species, Doctor, but I'll grant your request. Five minutes. After it's done, we'll deal with you next."

The Shadow Architect turned and walked into the shadows. The sound of her heels clacking on the concrete faded into the darkness. The Doctor waited until they were totally gone and, satisfied that they were alone, he let go of Rory's wrist and turned to the group.

"We're getting out of here. All of us."

He spoke with urgency. A noticeable sparkle danced in his eyes. He was alert - more alert than ever. "Her Majesty is right. There's a problem with the universe. But she's got the fundamentals totally wrong — it's much worse than she realises." He darted around the cell as he tried to distill the torrent of information racing through his head into a serviceable explanation. "Things happening when they shouldn't. Things living when they shouldn't. The temporal fabric of time and space has ruptured. Stuff is bleeding into our universe from... oh, look, let me show you."

The Doctor reached into his jacket pocket and produced a black marker. He darted to the back cell wall and drew three simple circles, side by side, onto the grey concrete surface.

"Um," said Miranda. "Graffiti adds an extra five years to your-your sentence."

The Doctor pointed to the middle circle. "This is us," he said. "This is our universe. These two beside us, they're parallel universes. And between them is nothing. There's no contact. Just three lovely self-contained universes."

He drew again, three more circles. This time he drew them with a clear overlap, where the edge of one circle was drawn over its neighbour.

"This is what's happening now. This middle circle is still us, but look here. The edges are overlapping. They're bleeding into each other. Stuff from one universe is filtering into the next. Go back to those giant scales - that extra stuff is causing the weight of each universe to increase."

"What extra stuff?" said Rory.

"Anything. Anything and everything that's sticking its nose where it doesn't belong. It can be physical, like you and Amy. You're existing in an overlap with our universe that says humanity is alive and another that says humanity is dead. That's added pressure onto the fabric of space and time. And up here..." The Doctor tapped his head. "I'm overlapping between two sets of conflicting knowledge. The laws from one universe are battling with the laws of another. And Miranda — I'm sorry, but I knew there was something amiss with you, too."