Doctor Who: The Grandfather Paradox

Chapter 4: Family Ties

CHAPTER 4: Family Ties

With furious energy, the Doctor darted around each and every side of the TARDIS console, pressing and rotating a flurry of switches and dials. He addressed Rory and Amy, but kept his attention focused directly in front of him. "It's all hands on deck for this one," he said. "Amy, hold that lever there until I tell you. Rory, over here. Both hands on this. Firm grip. Don't let go. And me..."

The Doctor darted over to the central keyboard, where his fingers became a whirlwind as they typed in a series of commands. "I'm crossing every crossable thing that this works."

He punched in the final keystroke and heaved a nearby lever downwards. Instantly, the TARDIS came to life in a lurching shudder, the wheezing rhythm of the engines sounding more guttural, denser, than normal. If a look outside the craft were possible, it would be seen to be travelling through space at a blistering speed, spinning on its axis at a rate so fast that its shape was nothing more than an formless blur.

Inside, its occupants were thrown around every which way. Violent, jarring motions rocked the TARDIS, rapidly growing to take on a distinctly more dangerous edge. Even the Doctor, normally the one who would find a certain degree of delight in the rocky, roller-coaster movements of TARDIS travel, found himself beginning to sweat. This felt different. Dangerous.

The sound of the engines grew; Rory had to raise his voice to be heard over the racket. "Can't you make this thing less noisy?"

"And less bumpy?" said Amy.

The Doctor hastily swept his hair from his eyes. "This 'thing' was designed to travel through time and space. Time and space. We're going to a place that has neither. We're might as well be using a car to drive to the moon. So, please, pardon me if things jolt a bit more than usual."

As if on cue, the TARDIS vibrated violently, rattling its occupants. The Doctor steadied himself on his feet while Rory was nearly sent to the floor. He looked at the Doctor in exasperation. "Never a dull moment," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Pointless if there were," said the Doctor.

The interior lights flickered. Sparks exploded from the console, sending a blinding stream of hot metal shards into the air. And somehow, from above, crackles of forked blue lightning boomed and crashed into the brass railing nearby. The impact was deafening. Amy screamed.

The Doctor continued to work the controls as his brow furrowed in frustration. "Oh dear. Wherever we're going, there's no red carpet - and by red carpet, I mean clear materialisation point. There's nowhere for us to land; it's all occupied somehow." He squinted at the monitor. "I can't make it out... some kind of dense forest, maybe? Or possibly a full car park? No, that doesn't sound right — wait, I'm picking up some sort of structure. Massive. Solid. Well, mostly solid. Somewhere inside it is a hollow area. A small room of some type. It's eye-of-the-needle stuff, but if I bring her in right, if the spacial distribution analysers haven't been fried, and if we're very, very lucky—"

"Just land!" screamed Amy.

"Oh, don't worry — that's going to happen one way or another."

The Doctor put all his energy into steering and manipulating every piece of console equipment within reach. A massive groaning noise, like bending metal, reverberated throughout the TARDIS. As though the very structure of the craft was being stressed and bent to within a hair of breaking point. As though it was being pushed to the very limit. Beyond it.

"Rory, turn to the right!" The Doctor twisted two dials in tandem as he kept a close eye on the console monitor. "Amy! Flip that lever!"

Amid the mayhem they did as directed, and the TARDIS lurched at a sharp, sudden angle. The three scrambled to maintain their footing. "Hold on!" said the Doctor. "Almost... there..."