From: jfy@cis.ksu.edu (Joseph F. Young)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho
Subject: Reposting of "Stories of Nyssa" PART 5 of 8 by David E. Woon
Followup-To: rec.arts.drwho
Date: 17 Dec 1992 22:27:41 GMT
Organization: Kansas State University, Dept. of Computing and Information Scienc
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: crucis.cis.ksu.edu
Summary: Part 5 of Stories of Nyssa by David E. Woon
Keywords: Nyssa, Story, repost

This story was originally posted around February this year...


Response to the first four Nyssa episodes was pretty encouraging.  I'm
going to post the next group.  These are a bit less connected than the
first four and start to focus much more on Nyssa.  Some people are going
to hate the new plot twist, but I think others will enjoy it.

I learned from my first series of postings that getting something out
to the network can be rather hit or miss, so I hope someone will tell me
if these episodes are being received.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
   This is the FIFTH episode in a series.  Please address comments or
     requests for further information or the previous episodes to:
            ng436@pnlg.pnl.gov   (or)   ng436@traken.pnl.gov
  --  David E. Woon  --  Molecular Science Research Center -- PNL --
            --  Alumnus of Michigan Tech University  --
------------------------------------------------------------------------


                                 CONFLUENCE
                              by David E. Woon


METABACKGROUND:

A new series of stories begins with this premise: suppose our world and
that of Doctor Who could interact.

We're fortunate that none of the deadly creatures (Daleks, Cybermen,
Sontarans, Rutans, Nimons, Vervoids, Silurians, Sea Devils, Krotons,
Zygons, Tractators, Terileptils, etc.) or villains (Master, Rani, Dav-
ros, Borad, Valeyard, etc.) exist in our universe, but the good people
and "mosters" don't exist either.  I consider this a great loss.

It would be nice to pretend.  If the Doctor Who universe were real, I
would be very glad to run into some of its kindlier inhabiants.  I
wouldn't have written the first four stories about Nyssa if I didn't
think she was an interesting person who deserved some further atten-
tion.  If it were real and I was allowed my preference, I'd want to know
more about the people involved than to always find myself beset by ad-
venture.

The story will carry on with Nyssa alone (the Doctor will appear in the
second episode).  The other main character (David Ramsey) will be intro-
duced in Scene 1.  I have patterned this individual after myself (the
prerogative of authorship).  I can hardly be blamed for wanting to be
the person from Earth who meets Nyssa and ends up travelling with her.
The settings are real, and most of the things about myself are also
true.

Toward the end of this first episode you will encounter my idea for a
new type of TARDIS which would solve all the unfortunate circumstances
that accompany fictional realities such as the Who universe.  In the
meantime (while I work out the physics which currently preclude my
technological miracle), here is the beginning of the new Nyssa story.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


BACKGROUND:

Nyssa has begun her lifetime of travelling through the universe as a
perpetual observer (and tourist).  She has no particular aim yet, no
career.  She is just curious to see what's out there.

This is how she comes to Earth and makes it to the hinterlands of Michi-
gan's upper peninsula.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


SCENE 1:  David Ramsey, present at his desk

(It's been a hard week, though successful.  An annual report went out
 and a paper was rewritten.  He has also finished the four episodes that
 make up the big Nyssa story [and he is now writing about himself in
 compellingly self-referential third person, but he is going to attempt
 to stop doing that after this aside].)

(It is now Friday night and he comtemplates his next project.  There are
 serious stories to be written, but he is not ready for them yet.  In-
 stead, he thinks back over what he's written about Nyssa and the Doctor
 and how it came about -- out of the impossible notion of running into
 Nyssa of Traken and seeing that her life didn't end on Terminus, and
 from wondering how she dealt with the death of her father.)

(In order to portray these things, we will watch in silence as he files
 the report and paper and pulls out the manuscripts for the Nyssa
 stories.  He will then type at his terminal, first trying to work on
 something serious and then changing to this.  It would, in fact, be
 interesting to see him typing this very line.)

(After which we can cut to Scene 2.)


          - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


SCENE 2:  Nyssa, in her TARDIS, on the approach to earth circa 1990.

(The placer circuit has brought her to Houghton, Michigan.  Nobody ever
 said that Time Lord technology was perfect.  On the other hand, perhaps
 it has brought her to this place for good reason.)

(We see that she has been hovering in invisible partial dematerialisa-
 tion for several days.  She has been studying Dave while he works
 during the day, and when he comes back in the evening.  She is aware of
 the project to which he has been devoting his free time.  One night he
 left the unfinished drafts on the bookcase rather than take them home,
 and she read them.  How has he captured the events of her recent life
 when he could not possibly know them?  Maybe it is this anomaly which
 has brought her here.)

(We have now reached the Friday night mentioned in the previous scene.
 David has already looked at the corner in which Nyssa's TARDIS stands
 invisible and has wondered if Nyssa has been watching him from that
 vantage.)

(David looks over the last bit which he has just typed.)

D.  I can't believe what I'm writing.

(He says these remarks to the empty corner.)

D.  I'm daft, simply daft.

(After a pause and some wandering.)

D.  One reality might intrude into the other.  The medium of the word
    and the mind could meet the world from within.

(Nyssa decides that the time has come.)

(A TARDIS materialises in the corner in question.  Nyssa has chosen to
 adopt a blue police call box for this one instance for the sake of its
 familiarity to Dave.)

(The door opens quietly and Nyssa steps out.  Dave doesn't know how to
 feel.  After all, he isn't surprised, but he is disturbed.)

D.  Nyssa of Traken...  How can you be here?

N.  How can you, David Ramsey, be where I am?  Which of us is real?

D.  Is that a safe question to ask?

N.  Only if the answer is reasonable.

(A moment ticks by, and then a few more.  The conversation must now
 switch tones.)

D.  So what brings you to Houghton?  I don't think the Doctor has ever
    made it this far out.

N.  I don't think he has either.  I've been watching you and decided to
    introduce myself to you.

D.  I'm honored.  Is there a reason?

N.  The placer ciruit chose that location (she points at the corner
    with the TARDIS).  I didn't believe it was working correctly, but
    then I began to observe you.  I was puzzled.  This can only mean
    that my new ciruits really work.

D.  Did you come to Earth just for me?

N.  Not entirely.  I let the placer circuit choose the final location.

D.  Most people would look at me in strange ways if I told them that
    Nyssa of Traken, of Doctor Who fame, had visited me one Friday
    night.  There are only two or three people I know I'd even dare
    mention this to.

N.  Don't worry about it.  If you can write my story as if it were a
    work of fiction and hit the details and conversations with almost
    complete accuracy, you probably aren't going to have much trouble
    explaining it to other people, if that time ever comes.

D.  It would appear that you're right.  But maybe this means I'm just
    crazy?

N.  I don't think you're crazy and the facts don't support it.

D.  Maybe from your perspective.

N.  Well, just don't worry about it.

D.  OK, you've convinced me.  Now, why are you here?

N.  I'm here because of what you know about my TARDIS.

D.  Me??

N.  You know how to use the new circuits.

D.  I'm suppose to know how to use them, and you don't, but you know I
    know how to use them?

N.  That's how it is.


          - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


SCENE 3:  Saturday night at Dave's desk

(The story begins again.  Dave has not met Nyssa yet, in fact has no
 idea that there even is a Nyssa.  In fact, the words "Doctor Who" do
 not mean much to him.  Of course, this also means that Dave did not
 write any episodes about Nyssa.)

(I said that the story "begins again."  I do not mean that it starts
 over: the first two scenes are still an integral part of this tale or I
 would have deleted them from my file.  And so, we begin again.)

(Dave is working at his desk.  He works with only a desk lamp and leaves
 the overhead fluorescents off.  He has been setting up what quantum
 computationalists call "a third-order many-body perturbation theory
 calculation."  The uninformed reader would probably prefer to remain
 that way.)

(A TARDIS materialises in the corner, its appearance being that of a
 computer cabinet.  Dave has been downstairs topping off his coffee
 cup.  The oddity of the cabinet strikes him immediately.)

D.  What is this doing here?

(He tries to open the access door, but it is locked.  He sits in his
 chair and turns to face the cabinet.  He is clearly very curious, but
 hasn't a clue that it is a Type-43 Time and Relative Dimensions in
 Space vehicle.)

(After a minute or so the door opens and Nyssa steps out.  Dave sees
 behind her into the open space which is the control room.  It is
 clearly not the room which is behind the wall against which the TARDIS
 is standing.  Nyssa closes the door.)

N.  Hello, my name is Nyssa.  Can you tell me about this place?

D.  I'm David Ramsey.  Do you want to know about the Houghton or about
    the university?

N.  I knew the place was named Houghton, but I didn't realize that this
    was a university.

D.  Just a small one, Michigan Technological University.  I'm here doing
    postdoctoral work for my Ph.D. advisor and trying to find a real
    job.  What brings you here and what is that cabinet you came out of?
    You must be from off-world.  That doesn't fit any of our technology.

N.  You saw inside of it, didn't you?

D.  Yes.  We can't do that yet, although I've thought about how
    convenient it would be.

N.  You aren't surprised to encounter someone from another world?

D.  One hears rumors about alien invasions, mostly landing in and around
    the British Isles.  Someone has quite a bit of control over the
    media, but the news slips out.  Where are you from?

N.  A world called Traken.

D.  I'm only from Earth, from a place in this same state.  I haven't
    been around much.

N.  I've been to Earth before, and I've travelled with one of the people
    from your planet.  We both travelled with another man from a dif-
    ferent world, someone called the Doctor.

D.  Sounds interesting.  So, what brings you here this time?

N.  I'm out exploring, and the Doctor always liked the Earth.  I've
    decided to spend some time here.

D.  You're welcome to spend some of it with me.

N.  All right, if you don't mind.

(Dave would hardly mind.  When a miracle materialises in the corner of
 your office, you put everything else out of your mind.)

D.  Not at all.

N.  Would you like to see my TARDIS?

(She helps him to connect "TARDIS" with the box in the corner.)

D.  Sure.

(They enter it.)


          - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


SCENE 4:  Saturday night, the first Nyssa and Dave

(Call me fickle if it will make you feel better.  The story now reverts
 to the first pair of characters.)

D.  Is there another reason why you're here besides this thing about me
    knowing how to use your TARDIS?  We aren't about to be invaded by
    Daleks, are we?

N.  Not that I know of.

D.  That's the Doctor's line of work.  I'd guess that you're more in-
    clined to listen and watch.  (She is nodding her head.)  Of course,
    there really aren't any monsters on Earth.

N.  There were monsters on the Earth I've seen.

D.  Do you happen to believe in alternative realities?

N.  You can't have a time stream split up unless the two parts have only
    the net energy which was in the pre-split universe.  If there are
    such splittings, then they must either keep splitting until there is
    only a tiny fraction of energy in each one, or they might recombine
    later with another substream.  It's a necessary outcome of Dal
    Santo's Corollary to the Law of Conservation of Energy.

D.  Sounds vaguely familiar.

N.  I'd like to explore with you.

D.  Do you want to know some of the history of the area?

N.  Yes, and I'd also like to know your own history.  After all, you
    already know mine.

D.  That IS unfair.  What do you want to know?

N.  Everything.  Oh, I know...  If you had a time machine, what would
    you use it for?

D.  That sounds like a question you've asked before.  It's like a
    question we ask here: what do you want to be when you grow up?

N.  I'd like to answer that one myself.  You're right, my question is
    one that adults ask children all the time on Traken.  Then adults
    keep asking it as adults.

D.  It's the same with, What do you want to be when you grow up?  Did
    you keep asking it of yourself all those years on Terminus?

N.  I kept thinking what I could do for my father if the Doctor came
    back and let me use his TARDIS for anything I wanted...  But it's
    your turn.

D.  I'd use a time machine to go back and meet my father.  He died when
    I was only four, and I wish I could have known him.  When I was
    growing up, it was just because everyone else had a father.  But
    I've learned a few things about him in recent years, and I think it
    would have been good for us both to have known each other.  He and
    I may have had some things in common.

N.  So you also have tragedy in your past over your father.

D.  Not like yours -- your pain is a sharp one.  Mine hardly seems like
    pain most of the time.  It's the knowledge that something is missing
    that could have been there.

N.  We could go back and find him.

D.  No, we can't.  I can't do it.  It wouldn't be right.

N.  I think I understand.  I know that I shouldn't have gone back and
    watched the Master kill my father.

D.  It helped you to decide what you should do.  If you hadn't gone back
    you may have always wondered if you should have done it anyhow.

N.  But I shouldn't have needed to.

D.  Maybe you did need to.  The people of Earth don't have the same
    level of technology as you do -- we have to depend on our memories
    and try to deal with them knowing that the past is irrevocably
    receding ever further into the past.  You're a Time Lord, and time
    is different to you.  We have only the moment, you have it all.

N.  It may all be accessible, but little is really open to us.  There
    are too many places we don't dare go.  I asked the Doctor recently
    why he never went back to visit Rassilon.  It seemed like such an
    obvious thing to do.  He shuddered and told me that I had better
    spend a lot of time thinking before I wandered off anywhere in the
    time stream.  Later I asked again.  I had no idea why he had reacted
    so strongly.  He said, "You're not of Gallifrey, so perhaps that
    explains your mental block over this.  What do you think would
    happen if I went back in my TARDIS and met Rassilon?  He had an
    incredibly fundamental role in defining the future of Gallifrey and
    the Time Lords.  It would be unlikely that I could avoid disturbing
    some future event and undo thousands upon thousands of years of my
    own people's history."

D.  I can see how a Time Lord could be paranoid about something like
    that.

N.  Most of the time it isn't really paranoia, just extreme caution and
    common sense.  But true paranoia does happen, often in waves.  A
    group of Time Lords will try to have all TARDIS's recalled and
    destroyed.

D.  That doesn't sound good.

N.  We survive.  It sounds like you don't want to go anywhere in my
    TARDIS with me.

D.  You've phrased that in a way...  Ask me again.

N.  If you had a time machine, where would you go?

D.  Anywhere, anytime, as long as you're driving.

N.  All right.  We'll go somewhere.  But I'd like to listen to more of
    your memories.  Who needs a time machine when there are memories?
    Let's go find a comfortable room in my TARDIS and talk.

D.  Fine.  I'll tell you what I know about my father.

(They enter her TARDIS.  The door closes and it dematerialises.)


          - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


SCENE 5:  Sunday (A blue Monza, heading north on US 41), the first Dave
	  and Nyssa, partly overcast (but with large, well-defined
	  clouds)

(Dave and Nyssa are driving out to Dave's cottage.  Nyssa has not had
 much experience in ground vehicles.  She is a little bit nervous when-
 ever a car approaches from the other direction.  She's already asked,
 "Why don't you have an anti-collision computer on your control panel?"
 and she looks at pedestrians as if they were mad fools.)

(They have decided to take Dave's car because the TARDIS would simply
 jump the distance, and he wanted her to see the scenery.  She's
 enjoying it.)

(They pass one of the several abandoned shafthouses from the copper
 mining era.)

D.  There's another one.

N.  I like the feel of history this place has.

D.  But it's recent history by your standards.  A hundred years must
    seem like a trivial amount of time to you.

N.  On Traken we don't have much of a feel for history.  Our culture is
    thousands of years old, but it is stable.  Things don't change very
    much.  You need change in order to feel the history of life.

D.  Earth certainly had that, especially in the last 500 years.

N.  In that period of time you've discovered the limits of your world
    and started to make efforts to leave it.

D.  I'm enjoying these talks, Nyssa.  It's good to meet someone with a
    different prespective.

N.  It's good for me, too.


          - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


SCENE 6:  Dave and Nyssa, mark II

(Oddly enough, we also find them driving north.  However, on their
 Sunday, it happens to be overcast and snowing lightly.)

N.  It looks like wonderful country, but it feels dark.

D.  The Keweenaw is a very moody place.  There can be periods of bright
    sunshine, but it is often smothered in heavy clouds.  It's hard to
    believe, on a day like today, that the place could ever feel
    cheerful.

(They come out of the woods and begin driving along the lake shore past
 the Great Sand Bay.)

D.  This is the Great Sand Bay.  The northern coastline of the peninsula
    is full of hidden navigational hazards, mostly sandy shoals and
    basalt reefs.  A Coast Guard buoy tender ran aground off Keweenaw
    Point just recently.

N.  It's especially bleak today, isn't it?  I can easily picture a small
    vessel going down in these cold seas.

D.  It is dark today.  I don't think anyone would be out there in the
    winter, but numerous ships did go down along here.  The most notable
    incident would be the wreck where Douglass Houghton drowned.  He was
    the man who did most of the earliest geological surveys of the
    region.  He was the one who brought back word of native copper, but
    eventually Lake Superior took him.  That happened about eight miles
    back, at Eagle River.

N.  That was when it started getting dark.

D.  You're right.

(They drive on past the dunes of sand and snow in silence.)


          - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


SCENE 7:  Dave and Nyssa I

(Meanwhile [hardly an appropriate adverb, actually], the other pair have
 arrived at Dave's cottage.  We see them making their ways down the
 snow-covered drive on snowshoes.  The sun has broken through the
 clouds and made the place bright.)

(We have our first view of the cottage.  It is made from brown stone,
 variously shaded and all from the lake shore.  It is two stories tall,
 and the windows are trimmed with red and white.  A sign hangs over the
 front door which says, "A Hut of Stone."  Pine and aspen surround it,
 and the lake begins only twenty feet from its north wall.)

(Nyssa is enchanted.  Her people long ago gave up building character
 into their homes in the interest of utility.)

N.  It's beautiful.

D.  Thank you.  I thought you'd like it.

N.  You said that your grandfather built it?

D.  With help from my grandmother, my uncle and my father.

N.  I want to see what it looks like inside.

(They approach the rear entrance and get to the door after a minute of
 digging.  There are two or more feet of snow, except for a four foot
 drift near the front door.)

(They enter and we follow with them.  Dave takes Nyssa around, showing
 her the old kerosene stove, the bookcase and other furnishings, the
 solid pine logs which support the second floor, and the view of the
 lake from upstairs.  Nyssa is even more enchanted.)

N.  It's all so wonderful.  You were lucky to have such a place at which
    to spend your summer holidays when you were young.

D.  I have great memories surrounding this place.  Playing on beach and
    on the rocks.  Getting lost in the woods with my mom.  Lots of other
    things, too.  (He's also thinking of practicalities.)  How about if
    I get a fire going in the fireplace?  Then we can go out and explore
    a bit and have warmth to come back to.

N.  All right.

D.  Just a minute.

(He runs upstairs and comes back with a heavy quilt.)

D.  Here.  Wrap up in this and keep warm while I get the fire going.

N.  Thanks.

(He begins to gather up wood and newspapers while Nyssa wraps the quilt
 around herself and makes herself comfortable on the big, overstuffed
 couch.)


          - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


SCENE 8:  A while later

(They are now outside on the snowshoes again, wandering along the shore.
 The sun has ignited the brightness of the snow, which stands out in
 great contrast to the gray-blue of the swelling lake.  An icepack
 extends out about a hundred yards to a line of rocky reefs which jut
 out of the lake, but there is also dark open water in the midst of the
 ice.)

(They pass over a point and we see a small island.  There is open water
 between it and the shore.  The water along the shoreline is not free;
 it is full of floating masses of ice.  There is a distinct sound
 accompanying the slow swelling of the lake through the ice, a quiet
 hissing.)

D.  I named that island Elf Island a long time ago.  I used it in a
    story I was writing about a lake monster and some nefarious elves.
    This whole area lends itself to the telling of stories.

N.  I can see how it would.

D.  It's too bad there isn't an ice bridge to the island now.  I've
    walked across it to the island some years.

N.  It's hard to believe that it's really winter.  It's so bright.

D.  But hardly friendly.  But you should see it when it really feels
    like winter.


          - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


SCENE 9:  The second pair

(They have taken their cue from the end of Scene 8: they are standing in
 the same place looking at the same island, but the feel is totally
 different.  The sky is heavy, and although there is only a light
 powdery snow sifting down at the moment, the darkness portends heavier
 snowfall soon.)

N.  Elf Island.  I can almost see legends storming around it, and you
    haven't told me anything about it.

D.  I've never seen it this dark out here at midday.  Perhaps we should
    get back to the car and try to get back to Houghton before the
    blizzard hits.

N.  That sounds like a good idea.

(At that moment Nyssa notices a tiny canoe-like boat swinging out from
 behind the island and points at it.)

N.  Look!  What's that?

D.  It's a boat.

(They watch it making slow headway toward the shore.)

D.  I think we should hide.

(He draws her out of view.)

N.  Why?

D.  Because of what's in the boat.

N.  It's only a little man.

D.  People don't grow that small on Earth.  You may be used to seeing
    extraordinary things, but I'd rather not take any chances.

N.  I've learned to listen to local wisdom.

(Dave peeks to see how the elf is progressing.  He is making his way
 toward the shore, but not directly toward where Dave and Nyssa are
 hiding.)

D.  I'm not sure where he's heading.  Maybe we should try to follow him
    after he lands.

N.  Why?

D.  For the same reason as before.

N.  All right.

(The elf lands a dozen yards from Dave and Nyssa, but between them and
 the cottage.  He pulls the boat up on the ice.  Dave and Nyssa are both
 watching intently as the elf does something that makes his vessel
 disappear.)

(At that moment the elf looks up and, probably just by chance, sees the
 two sets of eyes watching him.)

E.  David Ramsey and Nyssa of Traken!  You don't need to hide from me.
    Do come out!  We need to get indoors as quickly as we can.

(Dave and Nyssa come into full view.  At that moment the snow steps up
 its assault.)

D.  You're right.  We need to hurry.

(They begin to make their way back to Dave's cottage.  They are quickly
 indistiguishable from the whiteness of the storm.)


          - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


SCENE 10:  Dave, Nyssa and Elf, back in the cottage

(There is a fire and all three are standing close to it.  The power is
 out and there are several candles and a kerosene lamp for light.  They
 will all move around during this scene, sometimes standing by the fire,
 sometimes sitting near it.)

(The elf is approximately two feet high, but reasonably proportioned.
 There is nothing very odd about his physiognomy: no pointed ears or any
 of the other traditional elf-like features.)

N.  Have you enough wood to last a while?

D.  This should do us.  If we run low, there is more out in the little
    cabin.  I don't think it will be to hard to get out there and back
    with the snow shoes.

(Neither Dave nor Nyssa are sure what to do about the elf-like being
 who knows their names and appears to be friendly.  He hasn't said
 much.  Now he breaks his silence.)

E.  You have a nice place here -- out of the cold and quite cheerful
    in contrast to the weather outside.

D.  Thank you.  Would you mind telling us who, and what, you are?

E.  My name is Argix.  I am a scout for the Threnodanians, although
    I myself am just a sprite.

D.  Sprite, as in elf, leprecaun, brownie?

E.  From one perspective, yes.  When your people have seen my people,
    they have used such labels.  We are just servants of the Threno-
    danians.

(Nyssa is possibly slightly more apprehensive about the sprite than
 Dave.  She has seen scouts before looking over planets like the Earth.)

N.  Please pardon my asking, but why are you here?

A.  I can understand your apprehension.  Earth is off-limits to open
    visitation at this stage in its maturity, although that may be
    allowed to expire in another hundred years.  Do you know that
    they've been showing serious signs in the last ten years of taking
    responsibility for themselves?  It probably won't last long at this
    stage, but it's a move in the right direction.

N.  I would like an answer to my question.

A.  You've seen too many invasions, my dear.  The Threnodanians are
    about as peaceful as you can get.

D.  Are these Threnodanians considering taking up residence on Earth?

A.  I'm only looking over this particular region.  They're waiting to
    hear back from me.  If I bring a favorable report, some of them will
    surely come.

D.  "Some" doesn't sound like an invasion...

N.  Why would they come here, anyway?

A.  Look at this place!  It would be perfect for them!

D.  They like cold and lots of snow?

A.  They don't care a bit about the physical aspects.  Unaffected, ex-
    cept here.  (He taps the side of his head.)

N.  What are Threnodanians like?

A.  You wouldn't have a dictionary around here, would you?

D.  I don't think so.

A.  I would have asked you to look up "threnody."  It would clear up
    some of your questions.

N.  You could just tell us what it means.

A.  Certainly.  I'm afraid I'm used to people who require precise defi-
    nitions, and they hate it when I have to paraphrase.

D.  Go ahead and paraphrase.

A.  A threnody is a song of lamentation and grief.  The Threnodanians do
    more than sing, however.  They capture what they sense in a myriad
    of forms -- words, ideas, images.  They live it.  They store them
    and remember them.  And sometimes, they share them.

N.  That doesn't sound very harmful.

A.  It isn't.  It's very beautiful.  They are dedicated to remembering
    that which might otherwise be lost -- the memories of grief upon
    which the characters of individuals and cultures are built.

D.  And you scout out planets -- for what?

A.  For potential value as inspiration.  The Threnodanians prefer young
    worlds and peoples who are still in their birth pangs.  From what
    I've seen of Earth, they would love the place.  This day, for
    example.  This storm.  I know a triplet of Threns who would die to
    be here right now.  Even I can feel the emotion in the lake and in
    the air, and see the struggle between man and nature.  Your people,
    David Ramsey, are worth studying.  You have a long history of living
    in places which are inhospitable.  And you often choose to work
    toward difficult goals.  Although it has often been for survival,
    you choose to fight the forces of nature.  Wherever there is
    struggle, there is also failure and grief.

(He turns to the window.)

    Sprites have an odd sense of time.  It is not as unchained as that
    of the Threnodanians, but it makes us useful as surveyors.  I look
    out over the lake and I see shadowy history going back and forth
    before my eyes.  I see ships vanishing beneath cold waters, men
    losing all color in their deaths.  I look back toward the hills and
    I see and hear the men working beneath the ground, toiling against
    unyielding stone.  I see some of them buried beneath unexpected
    rockfalls, but many more, and wives and children as well, buried
    early because of the hardness of life.  These are old happenings I
    see, but your people struggle on in this century in different ways
    that are often no less demanding.

(Both Dave and Nyssa have been mesmerized by his words.)

    Even in the two of you I see history and depths that cry out in
    lamentation.  Nyssa, though you are from far away, a child of Traken
    and a daughter of a Time Lord, this world suits you and you may find
    that it is in resonance with your own heart.  There are many ways
    here for you to express your pain and also the strength into which
    it is being transformed.  David, you are a modern man but aware of
    how little time is between you and those miners and their families:
    I see that you could understand us sprites and our ability to see
    dimly forward and backward into time by studying our surroundings.
    You are like Nyssa in many ways.  It is interesting that you have
    been brought together.

D.  When will these Threnodanians arrive?  I would like to meet them.

A.  It will be many years yet, but they are not to be looked for.  They
    will not show themselves visibly for fear of unduly influencing your
    people.

D.  Well, you're welcome to visit any time, even if we never meet your
    masters.

A.  Thank you.  I will return at least once more.  And now I must
    leave.

N.  You can't go out in the blizzard, especially if your ship is on that
    island.

A.  It isn't necessary.

(Again he does something which looks like magic, and a pod appears on
 the floor.  He opens it and we see a small chamber.)

N.  You have dimensional transcendancy.

A.  Not quite as sophisticated as your TARDIS, but efficient nonetheless.

N.  I think you could teach the Time Lords a thing or two.

A.  Not Time Lords.  They appreciate time too well for my taste.  A bit
    too stoical, if you know what I mean.

N.  Perhaps you're right.

A.  Perhaps I'm not.  Well, I must leave.  I will return to honor your
    invitation, David Ramsey.

D.  Good, I'll look forward to it.  Good bye, Argix.

N.  Good bye.

A.  I wish good lives to both of you.

(Argix climbs into his vessel and it fades silently away.  Dave and
 Nyssa are silent.  Outside, the wind howls and snow abrades the
 windows.)

N.  He set this all up so he could meet us.

D.  I'd have to agree.  Maybe he was curious why an Earthling and a Time
    Lord were wandering together along Lake Superior.

N.  Do you know what he meant by being unchained from time?

D.  I think so.  The mind is locked into a physical form which is drawn
    along with the time stream, but it is not really restricted to the
    ongoing present.  Everyone can look back through memories and histories
    and forward through dreams.  We are all time-travellers in that
    respect.  Sometimes I can feel it even more strongly than that.  I
    can look back through my life at moments when I knew I was looking
    forward to such a moment of looking back.  I'll stop from time to
    time and look both ways -- to dozens of younger me's looking forward
    in anticipation or dread, or to older incarnations of myself looking
    backward with satisfaction or regret.  I'm doing it at the moment.
    Those other me's are out there right now.  I can see other people
    and their lives, too.

N.  It's hard for a Time Lord to understand that sort of perspective.
    If we're curious about the past, we go there.  I wonder which is the
    best way?

D.  They're both useful.

(They sit and watch the fire for a while.  It is burning low.)

D.  We have to get back to town before the road is impassable.

N.  All right.

(He looks at her longly.)

D.  Excuse me if I'm being impertinent.

(He kisses her lightly on the cheek.)

N.  What would I find impertinent about that?

(And she kisses and hugs him in response.  This goes on for some fuzzy
 amount of time, but it does end.)

(Dave gets up and spreads out the coals in the fireplace, and then they
 head back to Houghton.)


          - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


SCENE 11:  The other Dave and Nyssa, in the cottage

(It is midafternoon.  Dave and Nyssa have come in and are warm again,
 sitting before the fire.  Both feel a sense of satisfaction from just
 being outside walking through the sparkling world of white and dark.)

D.  So, what DO you want to be when you grow up?

N.  You remembered!

D.  Yep.

N.  When I was young I wanted to be a scientist and studied.  Then I
    went off with the Doctor and learned a lot more.  It was very help-
    ful for Terminus.  I think that I still want to be in science, but
    it looks different from where I'm standing now.  I used to see
    science as a series of tasks and as increasing levels of profi-
    ciency.  Now I see it as a big picture with pieces to fill in.  But
    being a Time Lord makes the picture enormous.  I don't really want
    to "do" science, but I do want to use it and learn more of it in
    every circumstance I encounter.

D.  That makes you sort of a peripatetic scientist.

N.  I like that.  So what do you want to be when you grow up?
   
D.  The older I get, the less I know how to answer that question.  I
    used to want a specific label, but I can't do it any more.  I've
    been in too many fields, and my interests take in several very
    different disciplines.  I make a good researcher, but I can also
    write.  If I had to give up physical science, I'd probably go into
    psychology or writing.

N.  You could do all of those anywhere.

D.  Meaning....?

N.  You could travel with me....if you're interested....

D.  When do we leave?


          - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


SCENE 12:  Dave and Nyssa I in the TARDIS control room

N.  It's up to you to get us back to my own universe.

D.  How am I suppose to do that?

(She leads him to a certain control panel.)

N.  These are the controls that will take us along the imaginary axis.
    I don't know how to use them, but I know that you do.  And don't
    ask: I don't know how I know that you know.

(Dave looks at the panel and realizes that there is something very
 familiar about its appearance.  He fingers a toggle switch.)

D.  Are we dematerialised yet?

(Nyssa activates a control, and the part of the rotor assembly which
 involves simple spatial dematerialisation begins to move.)

N.  Now we are.

D.  Cut us free from the time stream...

(Again Nyssa toggles some switch.  The rest of the rotor starts to
 move.)

D.  All right.  Now this (click) should activate the motivator for the
    imaginary circuits.

(A third, hidden element of the rotor begins to oscillate.  Dave then
 types in some instructions into the flight computer.)

D.  I guess we're on our way.  You'll have to plot the rest of the
    course.  I don't know where were going.

N.  I'm waiting for contact with the Doctor.

D.  How did I do that?

(Nyssa doesn't know.  It is a mystery which won't be solved for quite
 a while.)


	  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


SCENE 13:  Dave and Nyssa, in her TARDIS, a sitting room

(This room has quite a bit in common with the Doctor's sitting room,
 although it lacks his collection of mementoes.  We do note one object:
 a large chunk of native copper, which Dave has brought aboard.)

D.  So where are we going?

N.  At the moment we're heading toward the Doctor.  We'll meet someplace
    in Orion.

D.  The Doctor.  That will be an interesting meeting.

N.  I think he will be as interested in you as you are in him.

D.  Why?

N.  Because of the asterisk.  Because this is a Type-43* TARDIS.  A
    vessel that can travel through imagination as well as time and
    space.

(The camera pans back and we see the other Dave and Nyssa enter the
 room.  Neither set notices the other.  The newcomers sit in the same
 chairs in which the others are already sitting and blend into united
 entities.)

D.  What just happened?  I feel as though I just came into this room
    and sat down, but I know we've been here for half an hour.

N.  I felt it, too.  It was as if....  Do you remember what I said a
    yesterday about alternative realities?  I think that two of them
    have just come combined.

D.  You're right.  I have a new set of memories: in which I didn't know
    about you before you showed up in my office.

N.  And you hadn't written stories about me.

D.  We met an alien,

N.                   a sprite named Argix,

D.                                         who told us wonderful things

N.  about Threnodanians

D.                      and about time being unchained.

N.  This is intriguing.

D.  I wonder what brought the two realities together?

N.  We did.  In both streams, we came together and crossed a boundary
    in our relationship.

D.  The fact that you and I are now together...

N.  Brought us together.

(Cut to the background music.)


          - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


(Is it so surprising that Nyssa would find a companion to travel with
 who would be more to her than one of the Doctor's companions are to
 him?)
-- 
Joseph Young, Systems Programmer
KSU Department of Computing and Information Sciences
Manhattan, Kansas 66506  FAX: (913) 532-7353  Phone: (913) 532-6350   
Internet: jfy@cis.ksu.edu  UUCP: rutgers!depot!jfy