Doc's entered the Rift Room to examine said Rift. Recent conversations have made him curious as to what the hell it really is, and why there is no way back. Plus, he feels the need to glare at it for messing around with his powers and taking him away from Marty.
He's more than a little confused to see what looks like some sort of blue telephone box in the room, apparently trying to throw itself into the Rift. He knows about living machines -- he's sort of one himself -- but this is strange even for him. "Hello?" he ventures tentatively. "Anyone in there?"
The TARDIS spins, skitterng away from the event horizon and dumping a lot of psychic machine code over the Doc's brain. :: phenomenon{'rift'} == hostile wrt passage.vector{origin:here}{destination:!here} && process{reverse(phenomenon.rift)} == !known !! :: It's accompanied by half a hundred equations in a sort of metalanguage, no symbols, just data. :: entity{this} == {SCARED} !! ; require(entity.Doctor{mine}) !! ::
Doc jerks away from the blue box, one hand at his temple as it suddenly starts yelping at him in some sort of machine code. Great Scott, it talks! He winces at the flood of information. Loudly.
"All right, calm down," he says, rubbing his forehead as he tries to sort through it all. "You want to get back through the Rift but don't know how -- I can sympathesize, I want back myself -- you're scared, and -- you want your Doctor?" He frowns, puzzled. "Doctor who?"
The Narration can hear all of you groaning already.
Doc's still confused. The only person he knows who simply goes by "Doctor" is -- well, HIMSELF. Back in Arcadia, after he learned he wasn't just Andrew's "Professor" but before Marty reminded him that he had an actual human first and last name. And he's pretty sure the darn thing doesn't want him.
"I'm afraid I don't know this 'Doctor,'" he admits. "I'm a scientist myself -- if there's any way I can render assistance. . . ." He shrugs.
:: entity{Doctor}{mine} !location{here} ::, she explains. She takes a good Look at him, scanning over his mind and body. She doesn't know what sort of assistance can be rendered, but something else catches her eye.
:: entity(literal) == organic ; framework.constructed =» allow({functionality > }) ?? :: She swivels, facing her door to him and opening it up wide enough so that he can see the vast control room, the pulsing of the light from beneath the control panel that's as close to being a literal her-form as anyone's likely to see. Then she closes the door again. She's not going to let him in - that's an honour reserved for her pack. Assuming she knows who they are any more.
Doc's jaw drops as he gets the glimpse inside the blue box. He'd been suspecting that this thing wasn't really a telephone booth of some sort, but that just proves it. "Great Scott. . . . What are you?" he asks, stepping forward even as she closes her door. "Amazing. . . ."
The question registers in his mind after she closes up. It takes him a moment, but he's pretty sure she's asking about the various metal bits inside him. "Er, not really," he says, wincing. "I mean, I couldn't function without them now, but that's only because the originals were -- taken out." More like ripped out -- he shudders as, for a moment, his mind goes back to Andrew's operating table, being clamped down as the Faerie cut him open and forcibly replaced parts of his skeleton, his stomach, his heart. . . .
She pokes at them, a bit, reaching out with her mind to study each component. :: identity{mine} == {'TARDIS'}{species.'timamine'}{configuration.abstract+exotemproal+transdimensional+physical} ::, she explains. :: entity.{literal}{me} == abstract ; entity.{physical}{me} == constructed =» allow({physical interaction}{transportation}{physical analogue communication}) ::
It's a bit disconcerting for Doc to have something poking around at his replacement parts, triggering a few clicks in the gears and releases of steam. He backs up a bit again, hugging himself out of nervousness.
"Wow," he whispers softly as she explains what she is. "Exotemporal, transdimensional. . . ." His eyes light up. "You sound like a living piece of the space-time continuum. I never thought of it as sentient before." He starts wondering about that flux capacitor of his, what modifications he might have to make in light of this new information.
Be careful, TARDIS, a living time machine might turn him into a raging fanboy. ;)
Doc looks very intrigued. "I see. You must have been around for -- well, since the beginning, I suppose. Amazing." He grins. "Time travel's been an interest of mine for many years, I admit." He brings up his thoughts on the flux capacitor and lets her take a look. "To be able to talk to a sentient aspect of this Time Vortex, the space-time continuum itself -- it's frankly an honor." He reaches out as if to touch the box, stopping just shy -- doesn't want to offend, after all.
The TARDIS takes a look at the images he's bringing up or her, turning them over and poking at bits, carefully lifting concept from design and slotting it back in. :: capacitor.function == { transmute(physical velocity =» velocity{through.vector(time)} ) } ?? :: she asks. :: concept{'static friction'} == analogous ; if(flux
"Pretty much so, yes," Doc nods. "I'm still working out what the threshold is. My designs were rather rudely interrupted back in my home universe. I know it'll take a massive amount of power to fuel the flux capacitor -- something in the range of a couple of gigawatts. And the velocity of the time vehicle will have to be rather high too, at least 80 to 90 miles per hour." He frowns. "How do you do it? Travel through time, I mean. If there's a way to explain it."
The TARDIS thinks, for a moment, how to describe this. It's not something linear, finite creatures are used to thinking about. It's something she's had trouble explaining to her own Doctor, and she has the kind of faith in him that says he should understand everything.
:: {time} =analogous> {'double helix'} ::, she says. It's a simplification of a simplification to the nth degree, but. :: {'vortex'} == strand('v') && {location(spatiotemporal)} == strand(s) ; strand(v).interconnects{strand(s)} ; 'speed'(travel) wrt strand(v) > 'speed'(travel) wrt strand(s) ::
The rather odd picture of time as some sort of strand of cosmic DNA comes to Doc's mind. Well, she did say it predicated life. . . .
He thinks hard about the information. He gets it on a basic level -- two separate lanes of travel, joining to form a single destination, one being faster than the other -- but she's right, it's definitely not intuitive to a mind used to thinking in only three dimensions. He's only taken a few baby steps into fourth-dimensional thinking with his flux capacitor. "You're a complicated being," he finally says. "Though it must be nice to be able to simply know this sort of thing."
He's more than a little confused to see what looks like some sort of blue telephone box in the room, apparently trying to throw itself into the Rift. He knows about living machines -- he's sort of one himself -- but this is strange even for him. "Hello?" he ventures tentatively. "Anyone in there?"
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"All right, calm down," he says, rubbing his forehead as he tries to sort through it all. "You want to get back through the Rift but don't know how -- I can sympathesize, I want back myself -- you're scared, and -- you want your Doctor?" He frowns, puzzled. "Doctor who?"
The Narration can hear all of you groaning already.
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"I'm afraid I don't know this 'Doctor,'" he admits. "I'm a scientist myself -- if there's any way I can render assistance. . . ." He shrugs.
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:: entity(literal) == organic ; framework.constructed =» allow({functionality > }) ?? :: She swivels, facing her door to him and opening it up wide enough so that he can see the vast control room, the pulsing of the light from beneath the control panel that's as close to being a literal her-form as anyone's likely to see. Then she closes the door again. She's not going to let him in - that's an honour reserved for her pack. Assuming she knows who they are any more.
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The question registers in his mind after she closes up. It takes him a moment, but he's pretty sure she's asking about the various metal bits inside him. "Er, not really," he says, wincing. "I mean, I couldn't function without them now, but that's only because the originals were -- taken out." More like ripped out -- he shudders as, for a moment, his mind goes back to Andrew's operating table, being clamped down as the Faerie cut him open and forcibly replaced parts of his skeleton, his stomach, his heart. . . .
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"Wow," he whispers softly as she explains what she is. "Exotemporal, transdimensional. . . ." His eyes light up. "You sound like a living piece of the space-time continuum. I never thought of it as sentient before." He starts wondering about that flux capacitor of his, what modifications he might have to make in light of this new information.
Be careful, TARDIS, a living time machine might turn him into a raging fanboy. ;)
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Oh, the TARDIS might not mind that at all. Enthusiasm is a good thing, where she's concerned....
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:: {time} =analogous> {'double helix'} ::, she says. It's a simplification of a simplification to the nth degree, but. :: {'vortex'} == strand('v') && {location(spatiotemporal)} == strand(s) ; strand(v).interconnects{strand(s)} ; 'speed'(travel) wrt strand(v) > 'speed'(travel) wrt strand(s) ::
She pauses for a moment.
:: is.intuitive wrt species{mine} ::, she offers. :: !intuitive wrt species{other} ::
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He thinks hard about the information. He gets it on a basic level -- two separate lanes of travel, joining to form a single destination, one being faster than the other -- but she's right, it's definitely not intuitive to a mind used to thinking in only three dimensions. He's only taken a few baby steps into fourth-dimensional thinking with his flux capacitor. "You're a complicated being," he finally says. "Though it must be nice to be able to simply know this sort of thing."
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