The Doctor started to tap his fingers on the walls and listened carefully to the echo. Aymar followed the Doctor’s lead to see if he could find anything odd in the walls of the cave. Amy and Rory found the Doctor’s actions amusing and repeated his tapping in a mocking manner.
‘It’s no use Doctor, there’s nothing here. We’re wasting our time.’ said Amy with a sigh.
‘Oh no, no, no, no, young lady, we simply can’t just give up,’ said the Doctor ‘Now if only I had my recorder, I could play us a nice tune. That always helps me concentrate on difficult problems.’
The Doctor suddenly started to jump rather comically up and down on the spot.
‘What do you think you are doing?’ laughed Amy.
‘Just checking to see if there is anything hidden below us. Unfortunately there isn’t.’ replied the Doctor while creasing up his face and drooping his eyes apologetically.
Rory couldn’t believe that after everything they had gone through to get here, all they had found were a couple of empty caverns. The Doctor seemed so certain that they were on the right track, but what if Aymar’s ancestor had been wrong? What if he had drawn one of suns slightly in the wrong place? They could be miles away from where they needed to be. As for the Doctor acting all schizophrenic, was he still the same brilliant person? Some of his recent behaviour seemed so erratic and his personality changes were now happening in a matter of minutes rather than hours. Rory looked down and found a small spherical rock similar to the ones that the Doctor had cleared the mine with. He picked it up and started to throw it to himself in frustration.
‘We’re just wasting our time walking around this empty cave. I’m so bored. Here Amy, see if you can catch this.’ said Rory as he threw the spherical rock to Amy.
Amy couldn’t contain her excitement at catching it cleanly. She was always a bit clumsy when it came to sporting activities and catching had never been her forté.
‘Great, now throw it back to me.’ urged Rory.
Amy threw the rock back to Rory, but her aim was a bit awry and the rock went much higher then she intended. As the rock made contact with the ceiling, there was a splashing sound rather than a thudding sound. The group immediately went to where the sound came from and discovered to their amazement that there was now a puddle on the ground below where the rock had hit the cave’s roof.
The Doctor pointed his torch up to ceiling above where the puddle was, but all he could see was the blue rocks stuck to the ceiling.
‘Oh my giddy aunt,’ said the Doctor, ‘I’ve got it. Those aren’t rocks up there but blue pouches filled with water. We’ve found “The Fountain of Maturity”. Well strictly speaking it’s not really a fountain, more like bags of water. There’s artistic licence for you. The water must seep through from the mountain to the cave and develop a membrane from the viscosity of the properties in the cave’s roof.....Now Rory, let’s help Amy get up there, so she can get one of them down for us.’
Rory and the Doctor both interlocked their hands and Amy stepped up on them while softly placing her hands on the crowns of their heads to steady herself. She reached up and managed to pull one of the blue marble pouches down from the ceiling. She handed it to the Doctor, who burst it with his teeth and caught the percolating liquid in the palms of both his adjoined hands.
Just as the Doctor moved his hands towards his face to drink the water, a loud sound reverberated around the cave. Startled by this the Doctor instinctively put his hands up, while dropping the water to the floor in the process. The Doctor felt another pain in his chest and head. He once again fell to the floor in agony. He looked up to see that Dishi was standing at the tunnel entrance of the cavern, pointing a weapon at the Doctor’s head.
~~~
'Get up Doctor!’ ordered Dishi, ‘I know you’re going to be fine. Now all of you stand still.’
Dishi was pointing one of the fingers of a metal glove on his right hand at the Doctor, while his other fingers had expertly been directed at his three friends.
‘It was you who gave us that flower, you little brat. I’m going to you thrash you to an inch of your life.’ roared Amy as she started to move towards Dishi.
‘No stop, that glove is a weapon. He can fire lasers from each finger.’ explained Aymar.
‘Thank you for that warning, Aymar. In fact, I am grateful to all of you for leading me here to “The Fountain of Maturity" I knew that if I brought you together with Aymar, that you would not only be clever enough but desperate enough to lead me straight here. Now, I want you to get me down some of those pouches of water.’ said Dishi.
‘Mm? What's that, my boy?’ muttered the Doctor, ‘Pouches of water? Why ever would you want them? You are young and healthy. You have no need of its recuperative powers.’
‘You don’t understand Doctor. I am tired of being washed up at the age of 9. I am just as bright as those that are younger than me, but I will never now have the chance to lead my people. This society is unfair and needs to change. With the water from the fountain, I will be able to change everything forever.’
‘That’s not going to help you,’ interrupted Aymar, ‘Look at what happened to my great grandfather. He was treated like a freak of nature and never taken seriously. The same thing will happen to you.’
‘Your forefather was weak. He didn’t understand the true power of the fountain. Only a visionary like me can see its true potential. I don’t just want to drink it myself. I want to add it to the colony’s water supply, so that everyone drinks it. Then we will be just like all the other Earth settlements. My actions will make me a hero that everyone will adore and they will naturally want to elect me as their Emperor.’
‘Nonsense, my dear boy.’ said the Doctor, ‘Surely you don't expect all the people to welcome you with open arms. What makes you think that your society wants to change? Hmm, Now Aymar here is one of the victims of your society’s unfairness, why don’t we ask him if he wants the society to change.’
‘Never, I know it may seem unfair,’ responded Aymar, ‘but everyone in our society lives in peace and happiness and is well looked after. The rest of the planets leave us alone and we are free to enjoy our lives in tranquillity. I don’t want any of that to change.’
‘See young man, there you have your answer. The society doesn’t necessarily want your change. Who are you to decide its future?’
‘It doesn’t matter whether they want this change or not, they are going to get it!’ avowed Dishi.
Dishi straightened his arm and shot laser bolts simultaneously in four directions. They hit the ground before each of them.
‘Next time I will aim at your heads. Now Doctor, help the girl get down those water pouches. Do it now or I will kill your friend Aymar!’ threatened Dishi.
‘Come along Williamson, let’s help Amy up.’ the Doctor said to Rory.
‘My name is Rory Williams, Doctor.’ Rory corrected.
‘Oh yes, yes, yes! I know your name, William. Hm, gracious me, we’d better do what the boy says.’
Amy climbed up again and this time she grabbed six pouches of water. She jumped down and waited to get further instructions from Dishi.
‘Bring them to me and put them here on the floor a few feet in front me.’
Amy slowly did what Dishi asked and placed the water pouches in front of him.
‘Now turn around and go back to your friends.’ Dishi ordered.
Amy turned and started to edge back to her friends. Dishi carefully picked up one of the pouches. He burst it into the palms of his hands, just as the Doctor had done before starting to drink the water from the palms of his hands. The water touched his lips, then his tongue and disappeared down his throat. It felt so refreshing and tasted like no other water that he had drank before. He could feel it having an immediate effect on his nervous system.
Amy could see that Dishi was no longer pointing his glove at anyone as he had used both his hands to drink the water. She ran towards him swiftly and aimed a kick at the boys head. She knocked Dishi to the ground and immediately grabbed for his glove. She pulled it out it off his right hand and threw it to Aymar. Aymar caught it, quickly put it on and aimed his gloved forefinger at Dishi.
‘That’s for sending those overgrown monkeys after us. You see, no matter how clever you kids think you are, we’re still much bigger than you!’ shouted Amy.
Rory grabbed Dishi and held his arms around him to stop him from escaping.
‘So what will we do with him?’ asked Aymar, ‘We can’t let him go as he knows where the fountain is. He will be able to come back any time and complete his ridiculous scheme.’
‘You’re not suggesting we kill him, are you?’ said Amy.
‘Out of the question; we will not harm him, but at the same time we cannot let him go back to the colony. So there’s only one thing we can do.’ said the Doctor.
‘What’s that?’ said Rory.
‘Ha, ha ha, ho, ho, ho, we’ll take him with us in the TARDIS and drop him off at a nearby Earth colony, where he can live his life exactly how he wants to live it, just like all the other humans.’ said the Doctor looking rather pleased with his solution.
‘What if he tries to come back one day?’ asked Aymar.
‘Do you think that anyone in their right mind will bring him back here, hmm? Not with all the galactic warnings around this planet. I’m certain he won’t come back. Now then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in this. Now there’s something I’m forgetting? What is it? Oh yes, we need to drink the water before it is too late.’
Amy took a pouch from the pile. She burst it with her long finger nails and poured some water to Rory’s lips. She then did the same for the Doctor, before drinking from the pouch herself.
She suddenly felt the confusion in her mind clear and soon she felt like she was back to normal. She looked closely towards Rory who was still holding Dishi. He gave her a thumbs-up sign to indicate he was feeling better. She now looked towards the Doctor.
‘Doctor, how are you feeling?’ she asked.
‘I’m feeling great. In fact just like my old self. Well not like my older selves but the self that belongs to this handsome body. I think you know what I mean. I am ready to take on the whole of Time and Space again. Let’s get back to the TARDIS! Geronimo!’ he exclaimed with delight.
written by
SHAMS UDDIN
copyright 2012
artwork by
COLIN JOHN
copyright 2012