Part 5
In the haze I could hear a voice. The voice was warm, soft and comforting. I wrapped myself up in the voice as if it were a blanket.
"Fear and confusion have driven you away Stephen," said the voice. "You question reality and what reality entails. Let the question go. There is no need now to understand why the things that are happening are happening, you merely need to accept that they are happening. If you do not, you may not survive. There is also a chance that nothing will survive.
"Reality is fluid. You know this. Accept what is and look for reasons later. It is time to return to sanity."
It felt like I was swimming through treacle. Wait a minute; I've never swum through treacle so I have no clue how that would feel. Ah, I know how it feels. If you've ever had a busy day drinking you'll know that, after awhile, you can get a bit numb. Your brain is as active as ever but your body is no longer completely under your control. If you're not careful your body will keep drinking and that can lead to getting sick. That's how I feel at the moment: detached from my body but slowly reconnecting. I can make head or tail of the conversation again.
"Time can be changed?" Katy questions. "I don't understand. The future isn't fixed so how can it be changed?"
"Time is relative," the Doctor noted. "If you lived during this planet's World War, 2004 is the future, isn't it?"
"Well, yeah."
"But to someone living in 2160, 2004 is the past, isn't it?"
"Sure."
"Under these circumstances, what is future and what is past? Something must be the fixed mark, mustn't it?"
"I guess."
"What about alternate dimensions?" Eric challenged. "If every decision causes another dimension where the opposite decision was made, how could Time be changed? Another dimension would be created where the change is made as well as another where it isn't. The Daleks would succeed and fail either way."
"It's not quite as simple as that," Romana countered. "Most everyday decisions don't alter the general flow of space/time. A decision to have ramen or sushi for dinner isn't likely to significantly change the course of history."
"Unless he got a bad piece of sushi and he died from food poisoning," the Doctor noted. "That would be quite a change."
"It certainly would," Romana agreed.
"To me at the very least," Eric chimed in.
Katy grew frustrated. "I'm sorry, but is all this important?"
I could feel the haze dissipate. Words spilled from my lips. "It is. History is made up of Nexus Points, significant events where the varied outcomes cause a significant difference in the dimensions that the decision creates. The difference between our history and the history of a dimension where the Nazis won World War II are likely very different. What the Daleks appear to be doing is attempting to destroy a Nexus Point that is in our future, attempting to destroy the future of our general dimensional flow for their own selfish desires, to destroy the possibilities so that one outcome remains possible, a future where the Daleks conquer all!"
There was a pause in the conversation. I was stared at during all this. Finally Eric turned to the Doctor and broke the silence. "He's still crazy, right?"
The Doctor had a slight smile on his face. "No, I think he's starting to make sense again. Unfortunate since what he says is serious and rings true. How do you know all that?"
I grinned at him. "I read a lot."
"Steve's sane again?" Eric questioned. He raised his arms in triumph. "Yay!"
"What brought about this sudden clarity?" Romana wondered aloud.
I felt a change in air pressure directly behind the box I was propped up on. I saw the reaction of the face before me. Now I recognize the voice that helped drag me back to reality.
The Doctor beamed. "Kasumi! It's been ages."
Kasumi smiled. "Doctor, you look very well. Perhaps even younger than the last time we met."
A politely bashful smile played about the Doctor's face. "Yes, well, you're looking well yourself. To what do we owe the pleasure?"
"I was made aware of this young man's situation." She patted me on the head affectionately. "As I owed him a favour, I felt it my duty to visit and assist." It is good to know that my sanity is worth a lemon filled donut. That is information I shall need to keep for the future.
"Quite noble of you."
"Now that I have repaid that debt, I shall depart now."
"Must you?" Eric questioned.
"I would simply be in your way," she insisted. That said, she leaned down to face me. She is so very cute. "Just remember what I told you. Stay focused on what is important. You are capable of solving this problem without any further assistance from myself." She leaned forward and gently kissed me on the forehead. "Good luck." Kasumi stood, waved goodbye and wandered off in her animal form.
"Fascinating," the Doctor murmured. He looked down towards me. "You know, even the Kitsune males are quite effeminate."
I blinked at him. "What are you trying to say?"
He grinned widely. "Nothing." I think he's trying to give me a hard time. I'm not sure if I should be pleased or not.
Casually the Doctor slumped down and leaned against a box near K-9. His soft brown hat came dangerously close to covering his eyes. Eric's face displayed confusion. "Is it nap time?"
"It's time to ponder our next move," I noted, grinning. This is how I should have been acting from the beginning. I shouldn't have been caught up in the widest 'what does this all mean about life?' angle. I should just be enjoying the presence of my heroes and getting to experience first hand all their quirks. "Isn't that right K-9?"
"Affirmative," the little robot chirped.
"As with any problem this one must be approached from the correct perspective in order to achieve success," I noted. "We have two problems really; they're just tightly woven together."
Romana nodded. "The Kilaak are controlling the monsters and the Daleks are controlling the Kilaak. If we can disrupt either of those processes, we stand a chance of disrupting the entire plan."
"Where is the weakness in these processes to exploit?" I questioned, more for the sake of continuing the conversation than anything else.
"We'll have a better chance with the Kilaak," Katy offered. "The Daleks are the stronger of the two."
"The Kilaak do need heat to remain mobile," I noted. "If we could make them immobile, perhaps we could get to their Kaiju controls and shut them off. But how would we shut down their heat?"
"'Mobile'?" Romana echoed. "Lack of heat doesn't kill them?"
"It just sends them into a hibernation mode," Eric explained. "They're a... a..." His right hand rotated slightly in a 'come one I know this' sort of gesture.
"Silicone," I offered.
"Thank you, silicone based species."
"Rocks essentially," I noted. "Although I can't remember if their humanoid appearance is a disguise or an alternative form."
The Doctor sat up suddenly, his eyes open wide, his grin expanding, his hat falling into his lap. "Hibernation! Exactly!"
Romana recovered from his sudden actions first. "Exactly what Doctor?"
"We send the Kilaak into hibernation mode and shut off the equipment that is drawing the monsters here."
"Excellent idea," I exclaimed. "How?"
"We shut off the heat from their ship."
"No, I meant, how do we shut off the heat?"
"Someone will slip inside and do so."
"Again I find myself returning to the word, how?"
He grinned his grin of success, the grin that said he had a plan.
? ? ?
When I was preparing to leave for Japan, I made peace with myself, just in case. It was going to be a long plane ride and, not to be too morbid, but things do happen. It just seemed like a good idea at the time. It's not that I was expecting something bad to happen, but, you know, it was like expecting the worst. For example, if you go into a movie with low expectations, it'll be easier for the movie to exceed those expectations and for you to enjoy it. I wrapped my brain around the concept that I wasn't likely to come back from my trip with the logic that, when I did, I'd be that much happier about it.
With that said, I didn't expect to die sneaking into an alien spacecraft in order to perform a little sabotage. Oh yeah, they're gonna kill me, I'm sure of that. This is the dumbest thing I've ever done. It seemed like such an easy task when the Doctor explained it all but, as I head for the Kilaak ship, I realize how dumb this is.
The Kilaak that K-9 had stunned was still out, no doubt due to some strange reaction in its silicone based body to K-9's stun ray. The Doctor examined the Kilaak's suit and removed it. The Kilaak transformed into a small black rock, going into hibernation mode. The Doctor discovered that the suits were heated by microwaves sent from the Kilaak ship. Out came the sonic screwdriver and, bam, no more microwaves coming to the suit. It was ready for my disguise.
Oh, did I mention that the Doctor somehow talked me into going to the ship without my glasses? Have I mentioned that I now can't see a flipping thing because someone had to mention that they couldn't remember ever seeing a Kilaak with glasses and that my disguise would fail with them on? Have I mentioned that I was, apparently, the only one of the proper size to wear the suit and therefore am going forward with this plan, vision or no vision? So as I approach the ramp to the Kilaak ship (at least that's what I hope it is) I would like to make one thing perfectly clear: when I die at the hand of angry aliens, I will come back from the dead to haunt Eric O'Sullivan. I'll leave Katy alone, but I'm gonna get Erock and his big mouth. Lousy no good...
Somehow I've managed to get into the Kilaak craft without getting shot. I've never been inside an alien spacecraft before and I wish I could have a better look around but, as I've noted, I can barely see!
I'm sorry. I know I keep dwelling on the fact that I can't really see at the moment. It's kinda hard for me to ignore my current lack of clear vision. It makes me nervous. I have to keep fighting the urge to push up my glasses in an attempt to improve my vision. It would look quite odd for me to do so considering I'm not wearing my glasses. It's hard to look confident about where you're going when you can't see where you're going.
My goal is to make my way towards the equipment that broadcasts the microwaves. If I can manage to deactivate them, I should be able to put my glasses back on and look for the equipment that's controlling the Kaiju.
Pardon me while I take a moment to revel in the strangeness that is currently my life. No glasses. Alien spacecraft. Trying to protect the future of space/time. Yup. Weird.
Hang about. Did that say 'microwaves'? After a glance about I take a chance and squint. It does say 'microwaves'. There's also some Japanese writing and something that I believe is Kilaak writing. Gordon Bennett! Why is it translated into Japanese and English? Do they want to be defeated? Nick Adams would sort this lot out in a heartbeat.
Even the controls are translated. Brilliant! The red button says 'off'. Click. And now they're off. I take a chance, unzip my silver suit and place my glasses back home on my face.
Vision! Sweet beautiful vision! Clarity! Now then, where are the Kaiju controls? Hmm, imagine that, those are translated as well. Strange folk these Kilaak. With another click that's switched off as well.
"IN-TRU-DER A-LERT! IN-TRU-DER A-LERT!"
Oh bloody hell, there's a Dalek on board!
"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"
I rather think that running would be my best bet at this point. As I start to move, I can feel a great warmth behind me. I rather think it has shot at me. Oh dear, a Dalek is shooting at me! This knowledge managed to increase my top speed impressively.
In a flash, I'm down the ramp of the ship and tearing across the park. Hang about, weren't there people in the park before? It's empty now. I glance back to see what kind of lead I have on the Dalek. Oh. Well. That explains it.
The roar deafens me. My legs continue to move out of instinct more than anything else. The reason for the emptiness of the park is clear for Godzilla is near.
The Dalek reaches the door of the craft. I see the Dalek's speaking lamps light up. I get the impression it's yelled "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" at me. Hmm, good luck with that. Godzilla does not look happy.
Winded, I stop running near the road. I'm faint-headed from running and fear and perhaps whatever radiation that Godzilla's giving off. Oh well, this must be it. Goodbye cruel world.
Godzilla's mighty foot rises up and crashes down on the Kilaak ship. It, along with the Dalek, explodes rather grandly. The impact of his foot on the ground as well as the explosion of the ship picks me up off the ground and knocks me back. I roughly land some feet back, luckily on grass as opposed to pavement. Twice as luckily I manage to avoid banging my head on the ground.
I pull myself half up and fail to make it any further than that. Continuing to move seems to be my best bet but I can't get my legs to move. It may not be obvious, but I'm not much for running. I can walk for ages but running is not a skill of mine. I'm currently wheezing like Orson Wells after a flight of stairs. Oh well. At least I'll get to see what part of Godzilla lands on me.
Godzilla snorts with what seems to be satisfaction. He looks around for a moment and begins to lumber off, away from where I currently rest thank goodness. His tail whips over my head, very high over my head luckily. Off he goes, presumably heading back for the ocean. Thank goodness for all of that. Hopefully he'll follow the path he took to get here and not cause much more damage than he already has done.
A screech attracts my attention. I look up. Mothra's overhead and something is... snowing down. I found out later that it was a pollen of some sort, a radiation absorbing sort of thing. This was rather nice. Another few screeches, a few laps of the area and Mothra takes off as well.
Well what do you know? I'm not dead. I want to be more enthusiastic about it but my adrenaline is wearing off and I'm feeling rather tired. I drag myself up to my feet and head off in the direction of the Dalek craft, where I left my friends. At least I can see now.
Time blurs and stretches for me. I am beat. I lose track of how long it takes me to get anywhere as I mechanically retrace my steps. I am snapped from my daze by a loud cry of "Steve!" I look up and see Katy tearing towards me with a look of happy relief on her face. She impacts with me rather enthusiastically, which is also the word I would use to describe the hug she delivers. "We saw Godzilla over the buildings and heard the explosion and we were so worried."
A myriad of clever replies floated through my brain. As I patted her politely on the back, I plucked one of those clever thoughts from my tired brain. "Hullo."
She pulls away, concern still evident on her face. "You are okay, aren't you?"
"Most of me anyway. Bruised but not broken. Hey, the Dalek shuttle is gone."
Erock stops grinning long enough to fill me in. "We made sure that everyone was released from the Dalek ship before the Daleks returned from their hunting of the Doctor. Not long after they returned, the Kilaak ship exploded. The Daleks squawked a bit, got back in their ship, took off..."
"And then Rodan flew by and smashed their ship!" Katy enthused.
"Excellent! So everything's taken care of then?"
"I think so."
Katy smiled. "And it's all thanks to the Doc..." She trailed off, puzzled. "Where did they go?"
It may be my imagination but I swear I can hear the sound of the TARDIS dematerializing echoing gently from the alleyway. I smile and feel the need to quote. "'I hate goodbyes. I'll just slip away quietly.' I suppose I would have been disappointed if they hadn't just snuck off." I sigh audibly. "Still it would have been nice to have seen the inside of the TARDIS. Oh well. Anyone else need a drink?"
"Or a curry?" Eric asked hopefully.
That night we celebrated. It's not everyday that you can celebrate saving, not only the world, but the timestream. This would explain why we stayed out so late. It was a wonderful celebration.
The next day was Sunday. It started late for us. It was peaceful. No aliens attacked, no time shifted, no kaiju visited, no kitsune appeared. The most we accomplished was some shopping and some simple fun. After the past few days, it was vacation.
Monday dawned with a peaceful twitchiness as I once again had to pack up and depart. Altogether too soon had come the day of my departure. I made it to the airport without difficulty. At no point was I recognized as the chap who fought Godzilla in a mecha. It was probably for the better.
The plane took off on time. As we started off across the ocean, Mothra flew along side us for a little while. I'd like to think that Mothra was saying bye to me but, who am I to read the mind of a giant moth?
We landed without incident in America. Ah, relaxing America where there are less giant monster and more super heroes. Here, talented amateurs put on silly suits to fight against alien invasion. Then again, I guess I did have a silly suit for awhile there.
Now that I think about it, I do have this transforming car robot so perhaps I could do a bit more adventuring...
Or not.
-Fin-
