Robert Houdin looked at the audience and choose a really large man. He welcomed this man onto the stage and walked to a chest in the centre. He lifted it and showed it was quite light as he was only quite small himself. He then asked the man to lift it. As the large man wrapped his hand around the handle on the side of the chest, Houdin nodded to his assistant in the wings. The assistant activated an electromagnet under the stage and the large man couldn't lift the box. He tried again to lift it to no avail. As Houdin bowed, a form started to emerge from the electromagnet and crawled into the assistants mind.
"It is some point between 1840 and 1850 ," Cried the Doctor as he typed in a number on a typewriter on the side of the console he called, 'Navigation.' "Houdin is performing an illusion called the Light and Heavy box!" He ran to the time control and pulled it back. The energy in the time column spiralled and morphed into different symbols, constantly returning to a manifestation of a woman in a raggedy dress.
"Doctor?" Asked Adric.
"Yes?" Replied the time lord as he relaxed the steering mechanism.
"Wouldn't Robert Houdin speak French?"
"Good point! Tell you what, can you fly the Tardis for me whilst I activate the translation circuit!"
The Doctor walked from the console and started to make some alterations to the globe that sat to the side of a bookcase. In panic, Lyra rushed to the console! "Doctor! What should I do?"
"On the mechanical panel there is the locking down mechanism, pull that down."
"Alright!"
The Doctor had his faced buried inside the globe. "Adric, on the Diagnostic panel, there is the Organic Diagnostic Activation Unit. Activate it will you!"
"Done."
"What's the monitor showing?"
"A series of spirals."
"What colour?"
"Blue."
"Dark or light?"
"Medium."
"Good! Now then, Lyra, on the Helm panel, there is the time rotor handbrake. Pull it."
"Where next? Adric, navigation panel. Rest the time and space control in neutral."
"Right."
The Doctor emerged from the globe and went to the communications panel holding a large cassette. Go wait at the door, you two!" They hurried over and the Doctor got to work. Firstly he placed little counters onto a set of letters arranged like a chess board. He continued to play with the directional pointer and twisted the steering mechanism about as he stared through the eye piece on the helm. Then, he pulled forwards the materialisation fabricator and activated the door control. The Tardis archway was no longer blocked by large oak doors and was now opened into the world-ernes. The Doctor, Adric and Lyra walked out of the archway and onto a courtyard.
Turning behind him, the Doctor noted he had landed the Tardis in a fountain.
"Where are we Doctor? Asked Lyra.
"The Palais Royale, in those archways are the drawing rooms in which Houdin performs for private parties. In an assembly hall somewhere is a theatre where Houdin is to perform tonight."
"Can we go to watch it?" Asked Adric.
"Just so happens I've got backstage tickets!"
"Can I ask him some questions?" Asked Lyra.
"Depends what they are?"
"What do you mean?"
"If you ask him something about the future, I'll have to wipe your mind of everything."
"Ok."
The Doctor placed his hat back on his raven black hair firmly. He tied his tail coat and ran towards the door. He leant forward on the door in anticipation and then gave the door three and a half knocks. Lyra and Adric joined him as the door creaked open to reveal a smartly dressed man. "Hello!" Cried the Doctor.
"Are you here for the performance?"
"Yes!"
"I'm afraid you're three and a half hours early."
"I'm a friend of Roberts so would you let me in."
"I don't believe you. Ah here is Mr Houdin. Mr Houdin, do you know this man?"
"I don't believe so." Answered the legendary magician.
"It's me, the Doctor."
"No it isn't.
"Yes it is."
"It really isn't"
"I've changed my face, a magic trick if you will."
"Oh no."
"What?"
"I should have realised when I saw your attire!"
"What?"
"You're a fan!"
"Well, sort of. She is, if he saw your tricks then he would and I'm your old friend."
"You are not the Doctor. You are a fan."
"Look here Houdin. The only person besides yourself who knows how that walking on the water illusion works is the Doctor right?"
"Correct."
"Well," the Doctor whispered something into the illusionists ear and then leaned back.
"Welcome in Doctor. How can I help you?"
The Doctor sat down on an armchair and his companions stood to each side of the chair. Robert sat down, across from the chair and spoke. "I'm afraid there won't be a performance tonight."
"Why ever not?" Asked Lyra.
"My assistant had his mind twizzled by the power of my Light and Heavy Box, the mystic energy is something to be protected from."
"I know how it's done Mr Houdin, you don't need to keep this charade up with me."
"Well my physician states my assistant is brain dead. Yet ten minuets after he was diagnosed, my assistant was seen in the basement of the hospital."
"Well that is certainly strange." Replied the Doctor.
"I know you're good with these confusing mystery things Doctor. Please will you-" Just at that second the door of the drawing room they sat in crashed open. It was the man from the door. "I am sorry for the disturbance, but your son has been taken into hospital. He has been diagnosed with what your assistant was."
"My God! Please excuse me Doctor, I must go to the hospital now."
"Of course, I understand completely. Just one question though. Where was your son?"
"At the Priory."
"Thank you."
As Houdin ran through the door and to a cab outside, Adric turned to the Doctor. "What is the Priory."
"Houdin's House. In fact, it's the only house completely powered by electricity."
The Doctor ran down a staircase and was swiftly followed by his companions. "Deinceps!"
He rushed across the courtyard and then leapt into the fountain. He fell through the archway into the Tardis. When no one joined him, he stuck his head out of the arch and said, "Just climb into the water."
Adric and Lyra looked at each other. Then, as they closed their eyes, they jumped in. The Doctor was running around the console and typing something into the typewriter on the navigation panel. He pulled back the time rotor handbrake and ran to the steering mechanism. He activated the lock down mechanism and calmed the quantum accelerator. The raggedy dressed woman inside the time column scowled at the Doctor and disappeared. He pulled the breaks, activated the materialisation lever and pulled back the time rotor handbrake. The Tardis stopped whirring and the Doctor pulled the door control. They ran through the archway and were instantly in the shadow of a house. The Doctor noticed he had landed the Tardis in a bucket of water so he soniced it to make it wouldn't be poured away. "La Prieure, otherwise known as the Priory, home of Robert Houdin and his family."
The Doctor pressed his contraption against the lock and watched as the door pushed in. "As I've said, it's completely powered by electricity."
"Why is that so important?" Asked Lyra.
"Adric, explain. I'm busy." The Doctor ran off to the staircase and started to scan it.
"The assistant who was diagnosed as brain dead was working on the electromagnetic chest right."
"Right."
"And he was seen in the basement."
"Right."
"And Houdin's son has been diagnosed the same."
"Right."
"In a house purely run off electricity."
"Right."
"So, two unrelated people are diagnosed to the same illness. They are both in an electrical building or connected to something in the electricity."
"Oh."
"Exactly. Now, the basement of the hospital will have electrical generator in, suggesting?"
"That the electrics are the key!"
"Well done Lyra!"
"Come on chaps!" Cried the Doctor as he ran down the stairs to the basement."
As Lyra and Adric caught him up, he whispered. "Stop and look."
In the middle of the basement, inside of all the generators, were figures wearing black capes. Each one was whispering and then one said, "My brothers, we reunite at last."
The second spoke, "We must speak fast!"
The third spoke, "Soon we'll have dominance over future, present and past."
The First spoke, "Well my brothers, the time is now."
Next the second, "We shall invade the mind of thou,"
Finally the third, "Thunder and lightning but how?"
The first spoke, “Via good lucks and dodgy rhymes.”
The second joined in, “Power previously used by this body of mine.”
The third finished, “We’ll have dominion over time!”
The first spoke, "We shall melt the heart of the rest!"
Then the second, "Well said my brother first!"
The third finished speaking, "For we my friends are the Tempests!"
All the capes flew into one ball and lightning flickered around the room. Dark light spilled out and the Doctor instantly stuck his contraption hand into thin air.
"Tempests. Damn it that's not good."
"Why not?" Asked Lyra.
"They use energy to infest people. Imagine, in forty or fifty years electricity becomes more common place. Everyone gets infested by the tempests or are hiding in the power."
"That's not good."
"They'll need a broadcasting spike though Doctor." Replied Adric thinking carefully.
"Good thinking! To the Tardis. Deinceps!"
They ran out of the house and the Doctor soniced the door closed. He ran to the bucket and stuck his foot in, quickly walking into the archway with Lyra and Adric. He ran to the console and pulled the IPod screen from his contraption and handed it to Adric. "Right then lad, insert that into the slot on the diagnostics panel and check the monitor. When it comes up, I want you to properly in depth search into everything. Understand?"
"Loud and clear!" Cried Adric as he got to work.
"Now Lyra, I didn't manage to upload every database on the Earth but I did manage to hack into the Lexington project. The ideas was that every single book ever written would be scanned into this system. I downloaded everything they all ready had and inserted it into my Tardis Index File. I also stole a large printing press. Within reason, every single book there can searched for and printed on the spot."
"That sounds fun."
"Sarcasm isn't your strong suit Lyra. Do you see that computer panel over there?"
"Yes."
"Go and type in the words: tempests, electricity, Paris and conductors."
"Done."
"Stand back!"
The Tardis started to get warmer and the books on the middle shelf were pulled away. They were replaced with some brand new, hot off the press editions. Little LED lights lit up under some of the books. "The ones with the LED lights are the books we need to look for ok."
"Ok." The next ten minutes were spent flicking through books and making notes about worthy conductors in little notebooks.
"Doctor!" Cried Adric. "I've found some important stuff you might want to know."
"Speak away you awesome e-space alien!" Cried the Doctor, a bit over excited.
"Shut up! Anyway, the energy of the tempests would require something 324 metres high to conduct it."
"Right. Anything else?"
"Yes! It would have to be made from iron."
"Got it."
"And it would have to have a back up generator."
"What?"
"Some sort of back up generator. Most likely, we would need a hydroelectric generator."
"So, we need a 324 M tower, made of iron with a river near buy."
"Right."
"Doctor."
"Yes Lyra."
"How about the Eiffel Tower?"
The Doctor kissed her on the forehead and then raced to the console. He activated the dematerialisation circuit, pulled the time rotor handbrake back and activated the atom accelerator. He pulled the quantum foam manipulators and pressed down his foot on a peddle at the helm which made the swirling time mists swirl quicker. "Hold on!" The Tardis spun round, sparks flying from the console and smoke pouring from the chandelier. "Ah!!!!"
The Doctor pulled the time rotor handbrake and the materialisation circuit activated. He hit the door control and leapt out. They ran underneath the gigantic arch of the tower and the Doctor looked up. Activating his sonic, he soniced above. The manhole cover he stood on moved magnetically up until it was next to the elevator.
He did the same for his companions and they stepped into the elevator. The Doctor increased the energy on the elevator and they flew up. When it pulled to a stop, the Doctor walked out and towards a staircase. He ran up it shouting, "Come on my friends! Deinceps!"
Adric looked at Lyra and Lyra looked at Adric. Grinning they ran after the Doctor.
Five minutes later they had arrived at the top of the of the tower. There was a computer panel next to a large teslacoil- which was pulsing with energy. The Doctor started to sonic the control panel. "Adric, I need you to get to work reprogramming this. Come on quickly!"
Adric hurried over and started working on the panel. "Doctor?" Asked Lyra.
"Yes."
"I'm not an expert but that's a teslacoil there."
"Yes."
"The Teslacoil was made in 1891."
The Doctor was working on another panel but suddenly stopped. "That's not possible!"
"And the Eiffel Tower wasn't opened till 1889."
"That doesn't make sense."
"Doctor!" Cried Adric.
"Yes?"
"I've reprogrammed the panel to do everything opposite to how it's instructed."
"You genius! Now then, time to call the Tempests!"
The Doctor typed something into the panel. "Step back my friends."
The teslacoil lit up and started to produce plasma beams. Out of these walked the three tempest brothers. They were stronger than before. "Who are you to invade our world?" Asked the first brother.
"I'm the Doctor and it's not your world. Tell me, where did you get the teslacoil from?"
"We just found it."
"Where?"
"In a scientific laboratory."
"When?"
"This year."
"No you didn't."
"We honestly did."
"And the tower?"
"It was just here."
"That's not possible!"
The second brother suddenly went very rigid and stared at the Doctor.
"Time is caving in. There is a creature at the centre of time and space who is manipulating the vortex. And you don't know. Nobody knows."
"Just what I need!" Cried the Doctor. "Now on about you. You're genius plan was to imprison the whole of this planet by infesting them with electrical currents. But you needed a place to use as your source. Where did you choose? The home of Robert Houdin, a place completely powered by electricity. Now then! One of your brothers was infesting itself in an electro magnet to have a look. But then the magnet was transported to the stage. They thought they had been kidnapped so they struck out at the assistant. He was taken to hospital. At hospital, your brother headed down to the nearest source of electricity. Now you three were worried about your brother so you struck out at Emile- Houdin's son. You now plan to use this teslacoil and this conductor to imprison the world. BUT! There was one mistake!"
"What was that Doctor?" Asked the third brother.
"You used Hydroelectric generators."
"So?"
"There is one thing you never combine with electricity. If you're wise or at least a naughty school boy in the bathroom, the one thing you will now is that you never combine two things!"
"What!"
"Electricity and water!" The Doctor soniced at the river and it started to evaporate. It rose into the sky and then the Doctor turned his contraption off. The water vapour condensed and the rain fell.
"No!" Cried the Tempests as they erupted.
"Doctor." Muttered Adric.
"Yes?"
"That Teslacoil is going to explode."
"I know."
"And we can't escape."
"I expected better from you Adric. We parked the Tardis in the river."
"Yes."
"And now the river is raining on us. Step forward Adric."
Adric placed his foot forward and moved in a bit further. He stepped from a wet, hot balcony over Paris into the warmth of the Library console room of the Tardis. He was followed by Lyra and the Doctor, who ran over to the console and started pushing buttons. "Here we go!"
The Tardis dematerialised into the time vortex.
"Doctor," started Lyra. "I'm tired."
"Thought you might be. If you go down the corridor and turn right twenty three times and then left you'll arrive in your bedroom."
"Thanks Doctor."
"It's fine. I'll wake you when we arrive at the scrapyard."
"We're going to a scrapyard?"
"I need parts for the Tardis!"
"Alright."
"I'm going to bed as well, Doctor." Replied Adric.
"Ok. Just follow Lyra."
As his companions walked off, the Doctor looked at his monitor screen and activated the time curve indicator. The screen showed some neutral spirals. And the spirals were broken.
The Doctor will return in, 'The Mechanical Graveyard.'
No comments:
Post a Comment