Doctor Who Taggart Chronicles Chapter 2

Chapter 2: An Unearthly Man


John walked down the hallway of the ship with the three Zol'dir; their guns steadily trained on him. John was always examining his surroundings for anything he could use to his advantage. Sadly, he saw nothing but the cold steel of the walls; nothing he could use as a weapon or distraction.
He didn't trust that the Zol'dir were simply looking for information. It's been many years since John last saw The Doctor, and for good reason. As far as John was concerned, if he never saw The Doctor again it would be too soon. Nonetheless, anyone after him isn't good news, nor is it good news for anyone involved.
"This way, Time Lord." The Elder spoke.
"It's a straight hallway, figured that part out." John twisted with his normal attitude, albeit always sarcastic. They walked on until it seemed as if John's skin was wrinkling more by the second when they walked through another set of air lock doors. The room they entered was some sort of science facility. Control panels, flashing lights, experiments. The works John observed. At the center of it all was some sort of huge unseemly machine. Many humans sat in front of a few rows of computers, no doubt slaves to the Zol'dir. They controlled the various machines around the room.
"So what is this all for?" John asked, not expecting an answer. To his surprise, however, the elder responded.
"This is our prized research facility. The Zol'dir pride themselves on being the most technologically advanced race in the universe."
"So what does this have to do with The Doctor" John demanded "Cut to the chase."
"We need to find him and you are going to help us."
"The hell I am!" John exclaimed. "You can just take you fancy lab and stick it up your---"
"If you won't corporate, I suppose we shall have to just eradicate our other guests wont we?"
"You bastards…" John mumbled under his breath.
"But enough, to the point." The Zol'dir chief walked over to the large machine in the middle of the room and placed his hand on it."We know all Time Lords are psychically connected, and that one can help find another." The elder explained.
"Even if I would help you, I couldn't sense him this far out in the galaxy if I wanted too, not to mention knowing him he's probably somewhere in ancient Greece, getting himself into trouble, as per his custom."
The Elder switched on the machine. It roared to life.
John looked up to see a balcony full of Zol'dir guards; fully armored and heavily equipped; ready to fire at any moment.
"That is where our recent development comes into play. This machine is fueled by residual time energy, the lifeblood of all Time Lords. It was very hard collecting the amount required. In the end, however, it will be worth it. This machine will amplify your telepathic link to The Doctor, and seeing how you two are the last known Time Lords, finding him should be rather easy."
"If you had this machine ready for me the whole time, why even bother with the other humans?" John queried.
"Call it, insurance, should you resist, or fail to deliver. Now, cooperate, or they will be destroyed.
Seems I have no choice. I know The Doctor would gladly sacrifice himself to save these people. Maybe while he's here we can work out an escape. John thought to himself. Although, the thought of working with The Doctor sickened him; John had to find a way to save Amy and the other humans. John could never forgive him for what happened.
"Now, make your way into the machine" The Elder said as the guards pushed John forward with the tips of their weapons.
"Hey, hey, I can walk now." John grunted, annoyed by the pushing and the shoving.
John hesitantly climbed into the machine, the guards strapped him in. Then the machine lifted up and held John in a vertical position. The lights on the machine began to glow one by one until the machine was fully functional.
"Hell, maybe I'll get a nice tan on this thing." John said sarcastically, as the doors on the machine closed around him.
The elder slammed his staff into the ground. "Now combine our gathered energy with his own residual energy.  The Zol'dir chief commanded the human slaves. The humans got to work, all frantically clattering on their computers. The machine began to hum. An energy field began to glow around it. Little by little the energy field began to change in color to a bright gold.
"Initiate phase 2; when it is complete, begin search of The Doctor."
There was more key punching and typist flailing, and the machine began to sing very loudly, but something was wrong, something was very off key. A small explosion came from the back of the machine.
"What was that sound!" The elder exclaimed.
"I don't know, something isn't right the energy levels are off the chart, the machine can't take it." A human woman announced from behind her screen, her eyebrows furrowed.
"Then turn it off! Abort! We can't kill him!
John gritted his teeth and moaned pain. Every muscle in his body tensed up.
"We can't, his body is absorbing the energy from the machine. It's soaking it up like a sponge." The woman said, frantically typing at her computer trying anything to turn the machine off.
"You incompetent fools! He will be killed and we'll never find The Doctor."
Finally the machine began to power off as it finished all the malfunctioning it was doing. There was a series of smaller explosions until the machine came to a complete stop.
"Undo his restraints at once!" The chief commanded.
John's restrained were undone; the doors of the machine opened; he fell to the ground in pain as his body glowed bright gold.
He was breathing heavily, his body in severe pain. He lied flat on the floor for some time, until finally, he crawled up to his knees.
"How can he be alive? The amount of energy he absorbed was astronomical!" One of the men whispered from behind his computer.
John grunted in pain as he attempted to pull himself together. But it was too late. He held out his hands and saw gold energy expelling from them. He was regenerating and he knew it. However, something was off.
"The Time Lord is regenerating, give him space. " The chief commanded.
John felt weird, he was starting to regenerate and had only moments left yet he felt empowered, energized. He didn't feel at all like he was dying.
Finally, he made it to his feet. All the energy had settled in him that he had absorbed.  Suddenly, he reached the peak in his regeneration, arms stretched out as the golden fire screamed from his body. All at once his body seemed to explode, but this wasn't normal. The explosion was far stronger than any regeneration he had experienced. The energy that exploded from his body was much stronger than normal. A wave of energy escaped that flew through his enemies, destroying them. It tore through the computers and the machines, destroying all within the room, atomizing it all completely. John fell to the floor, finally, strangely however he remained the same. He had not regenerated at all. But how? He lay unconscious in the center of the crater that he had created on the ship floor; his enemies vaporized.