(Dark Aether) – The Lockdown: Part 2…STRANDED?!

Monday, October 11th

Mornington sotked the fire a bit more as a rather chilly wind was heading in from the plains and capping the pallisade wall and heading right into the cracks and crevices of the windows of the Hotel.

“I think its gonna be a chilly winter” he mused to himself as he cracked open a bottle of Isle of Arran 10 Year Old Malt which strangley had a date of 1933 on it, he kept it in his ‘special locker’ under the middle tier of the bar.  He poured himself half a glass of the stuff and sank into the sofa infront of the fire watching the bunnies of the hotel hop around his feet, one of them hopped onto his lap and proceeded to have a nap.

It must have been a few hours later, Mornington was woken up by Charlie Wilson again coughing politley to wake up the snoozing Mornington.  Charlie had come by with a note, just received from one of the transport barges which made a regular trip between Steelhead and Port Babbage, it was addresses to Mornington…and sealed with a wax seal bearing the coat of arms of House Arcalian, one of the 6 colleges of the timelords.  A wax sealed letter only meant one thing…something bad was going to, or has happened.  Vic got that sinking feeling again.

Charlie was about to leave but Vic poured him a half glass of Arran single malt, Charlie grinned, took the glass and sat on the little seat next to the sofa.

Vic broke the seal, opened the letter out and started to read…after a minute or so he dropped the letter to the floor and simply said “You gotta be kidding me…”

Charlie looked at Vic, then picked the letter up and started to read it.

To: Professor Victor A. A. Mornington
Isambard Kingdom Brunel Hall and Hotel
Academy of Industry District
City State of New Babbage

Date: October 9th
From: Professor Xan, House of Arcalian Museum
ZigZag, Egypt

Dear Vic

As you might have noticed your shipment of Montecristo cigars has not arrived at the predetermined drop off point of the gas line in Port Babbage.

I have tried several times to land my old TARDIS there but it simply refused, spitting out some strange code and saying that Temporal Travel is suspended to that destination.  I think someone has locked the city down Vic, you might be trapped there.

Yours

Prof. Xavier Xan

Charlie looked at Vic with a worried look on his face.  “Locked the city?  Can that lot in the council do that?”.

Vic turned round and looked at Charlie, “Only one way to find out”

They both headed to Vic;s old run down lab in Clockhaven.

The old TARDIS that Xan used was an antiquated Type 11, the one in Morningtons lab was a little younger, a type 20, but as far as age, it was still a very, very old time machine.

Vic pulled the lever for a flight reset and the usual groaning and wheezing noise erupted out of the center of the machine, he then directed Charlie to fully open all the power lines to drain every last bit of power possible from the power station in Clockhaven ran by Miss Falcon.  Once the entire building started to shake he pulled the flight lever againm, set a destination for Steelhead and hit the demat lever.

A shower of sparks and a massive plume of smoke erupted from the central time column and Vic was greeted with a noise he didnt want to hear…

THUD…THUD

Charlie looked at Vic again, “Thats a missed landing”

Vic hit the demat lever and tried to land in Steelhead once more…

THUD…THUD

Vic looked at one of the old screen’s.  The monitor was flickering a code 120 warning.  He rummaged around under one of the desks and got one of the old manuals for the error codes, the maunal stated…

CODE 120 WARNING

A code 120 Warning is initiated in all consoles ranging from the type 5 upwards, signifying a natural or un-natural occuring temporal anomaly which negates all TARDIS capsules capacity to keep the occupant safe whilst dematerialising from that region.  If forcing a dematerialisation from a code 120 region of time or space, the occupants will suffer rapid ageing, followed by possible death, regeneration, and rapid ageing again.

Code 120 warnings are not to be confused with a Code 119 warning which signifys a timelocked region, as timelocked by the High Council of Timelords.

Code 120 timelocks occur naturally, although very rare.  Most cases of a code 120 can be traced to the misuse of timetravel, misuse of timetravel leading to a paradox, or misuse of timetravel by a future occupant of a region returning to a earlier point in that regions time or another dimension in said region.  According to the laws of Gallifrey, no timelord can interfere with a Code 120 locked region unless his or her life is directly threatened.

Charlie and Vic looked at each other, than back at the screen, and they both simply said “Ohhh f**k”.

For all intents and purposes, Mornington, Charlie, and all other timelords who lived, or landed in New Babbage…was now stranded.

Vic looked out through the window of the lab towards City Hall.

“I knew it, that damn portal two days ago…never, ever cross your own timestream…”

Charlie looked at Vic and asked…

“What we goona do Vic?”

Vic shrugged his shoulders…he simply didnt know.