Doctor Who: The Time Splicer: The Penitentiary (The Time Splicer Series Book 3)

by Cour M.

  “Gotcha, easy as pie,” Bill assured her.

  “You’re a star, Bill.” Jenna walked up to the woman who was waiting for her, and offered her hand. “Hello, you must be Katy Davison.”

  “I am,” Katy Davison confirmed, “and you are the journalist Jenna Manning.”

  “Yes, it’s nice to make your acquaintance.”

  “Nice to meet you as well,” Katy responded, “I feel stupid now. I dearly wish that I could be wearing sneakers as well. I only ever wear heels out of obligation.”

  “You and me both, ma’am.” Jenna sat down in the interviewer’s chair while Katy sat in the other one. Jenna picked up her clipboard, but she didn’t look at it. “I’m holding it just to make sure that I can get it right without looking at it. So, let’s see if I got everything correct.”

  “Fire away,” Katy invited.

  “Cheers. Here I go. You are Katy Davison, scientist and nautical specialist, and you are from Augusta, Maine. But you’ve lived in Boston, Massachusetts, for the better part of your life.”

  “Yes, but in truth, I spend much of my time driving across the country. Literally, I’ve stayed in every state in the U.S.”

  “That’s what I also had reported; you spend half of the year living in motels.”

  “Anything to avoid airplanes. I try to avoid them as much as I can. Funny, isn’t it? The ocean is scarier to most people. They’d rather fly. But for me, the air is the most frightening thing in the world, and the ocean has always called out to me.”

  “Must be the side of you that is from Maine. You had much ocean around you down there.”

  “It’s amazing, because when in America, people always call us Maine people as being ‘up there’, but you Brits can easily say that we are ‘down there’.”

  “Perspective eh?”

  “Perspective. Well, I suppose that it gave me the right to be strange for all my life. Hence why I’m here.”

  “Yeah, and you really are serious about this subject, aren’t you?” Jenna asked, amazed.

  “I very much am,” Katy Davison replied, sincere and serious.

  Jenna looked her up and down and didn’t know what to make of Katy Davison. While the ocean was vast, and mysterious, and it could contain anything within it, Jenna still wondered if Katy was slightly insane for believing in something that would appear as being farfetched.

  ⌨

  The cameras were ready, Katy and Jenna were taking a last drink of water, both were given a mic, they sat down and waited for the countdown. Once they reached one, the director gave them the go ahead, and Jenna began the interview.

  “Good afternoon everyone,” Jenna began, “Welcome to Frank Talk, the news show that brings you the truths behind the truths. Here on the BBC, my name is Jenna Manning, and as promised, we are now here with Dr. Katy Davison, who is a head scientist at the United States NOAA Department, an abbreviation for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Dr. Davison, thanks for coming to our show.”

  “Thank you for having me,” Katy Davison replied. “I look forward to talking more about this subject, and I am extraordinarily excited that the topic is now beginning to be tracked by viewers on a global scale.”

  “Well, you have an interesting subject on your hands, here. For the viewers who are unfamiliar with the subject, can you please inform them of your area of expertise, and the new topic that you are working on.”

  “Certainly. Being a specialist at the NOAA, I mainly focus my scientific studies on the ocean, from its maintenance to its contents. The ocean is vast, complex, dangerous, and therefore it has no choice but to be one of the most fascinating aspects of the world.”

  “And the most terrifying,” Jenna interjected, “If you’re like me, then nothing scares you more than the ocean itself.”

  “You’re not alone. To the average person, it’s deep, wide, and full of mysterious unknowns. Humanity doesn’t really like an unknown, especially one that we can’t control. We are obsessed with control and having the power to manipulate things, and bend it to our will. Well, the ocean, like the weather, will always be just outside of our reach and jurisdiction. We will never have power over it, nor the power to influence it in any way. It’s a place that contains many kingdoms, in small and large forms, and we perhaps only know about an eighth of it. And every few years, there is a new discovery. Therefore, I suppose that the ocean is one of those things that is dangerous, and frightening because you like knowing where the dangers are coming from in your life. Yet for those of us who gave up a long time ago on believing that we had any sort of control over how things turn out, it’s the next best thing.”

  “And, by your theories, you have now stumbled on the next best thing.”

  “Yes, I believe we have. Last year, we at the NOAA Department, were monitoring the oceans, and in the Atlantic Ocean, we located a powerful, long and loud sound emitting from underwater. Yes, your first thought could be that it was an underwater volcano, or something else, since the Earth is also so incredible a thing. Yet this was not that. This sound was distinctly that of an animal. And it was not the roar of any known animal that is recorded in the aquatic records. We brought a recording of the sound as we did it, and fifteen days later, we even had the same sound protruding from the same location, along with a visual of this.”

  Footage was presented on a television behind them where the ocean appeared on screen, then a loud roar came from underneath it as well as there was a disruption in the water where a bit of a large wave erupted from the area.

  “Oh,” Jenna commented.

  “Yes, the sound is distinctly animal-like, but it is confirmed. It’s larger than any of the largest known creatures that the ocean has contained. And we also did our research; there were no submarines or underwater ships travelling in the Atlantic Ocean in the vicinity. Besides, no known underwater vessel can even make that sound.”

  “So, what you’re saying is that there can be no way that this was a prank of some kind.”

  “That’s precisely what I’m saying.”

  “Yes, but have you detected any more sounds in that area?”

  “No, not in that area. And that’s why we are in London now.”

  “What Dr. Davison is referring to is that recently, there have been some similar sounds in the Celtic Sea, which surrounds Britain.”

  “Yes, once the sound disappeared from the Atlantic Ocean, we received permission from Britain’s Oceanic Administrations to surveil its neighboring seas. In truth, we were working off a hunch.”

  “A hunch?”

  “Yes, when the sound disappeared from near America’s waters, the sound seemed to be headed in the direction of the United Kingdom. Therefore, we took a leap of faith, and here we are.”

  “And how have been your efforts?”

  “That is precisely why we are here now. We detected a similar sound amid the Celtic Sea, between Ireland and Wales. We also found a similar wave made during it. Then we took a risk, and we released a camera in the same place that the sound had erupted a week before.”

  “And what was your success? For, tell me that you have the footage?”

  “Oh, we very much do. It’s already been given to your camera man.”

  “Play the footage,” Jenna ordered, and behind them, the television turned on again. There was a recording of the camera that was underwater. Yet as the camera lowered further into the water, it grew darker and so the light above the camera came on. Of course, the light did not illuminate anything further than a few feet away, but it was still serviceable. The seconds ticked away, and then out of the shadows appeared a large object. Within the pool of light, the side of a creature appeared, then the skin moved along the camera and suddenly the camera was filled with a pool of dark blue, and the blue was filled with malice.

  “Is that a…” Jenna asked.

  “Yes, Ms. Manning. That is an eye. A very large eye. And it was once in your Celtic Sea.”

  “Amazing,” Jenna replied, surprised
. A part of her did her best to deny the evidence of her very eyes, but she could not deny that she was intrigued.

  “And you are certain that it’s not a whale?” Jenna asked, trying to remain objective and unimpressed.

  “Give it one more minute.”

  The malicious eye raised up and then in front of the camera, a large tooth appeared, then all went black as it clearly crushed the camera.

  “Luckily the camera was linked into our system,” Dr. Davison reported, “and we could keep the footage despite that the camera was destroyed. We have records of every whale and shark in the world, and that is neither of those things.”

  “So, you are saying that we are now witnessing the discovery of a new species?”

  “New or old, this animal was initially labelled as the Bloop when it was first discussed. Then it was fondly labeled as the Cthulu. When the theories of its initial release began, people wrote it off as a joke, and called every one of us who supported this theory as foolish. But believe me, I didn’t come all the way from around the globe on a hunch. There will be naysayers, and there always is. But this proof is out there now. We have something travelling in our waters around the globe, and it’s something new. Or it’s something that is very very old, and it’s finally showing itself to us.”

  ⌨

  The interview eventually ended, and Jenna watched Dr. Katy Davison as she left the studio. Watching her, Jenna wondered at the woman, for she could tell that Dr. Davison really was going to pursue this theory and possibly chase it toward the sea. Even then, she couldn’t decide if she believed the existence of the Cthulu or not.

  Yet before Dr. Katy Davison left, she was heading out of the studio doors when she heard footsteps behind her.

  “Dr. Davison?”

  Katy Davison turned around and a middle-aged woman, between fifty and sixty years old, thin and with an interesting face, accosted her.

  “Yes, hello?”

  “Hello, I was in the studio, and I witnessed your interview.”

  “Ah,” Dr. Davison smirked, disheartened, “if you’re about to be one of those cynics who discredits everything that I did, I am telling you now that your words will fall on deaf ears, and I don’t care one lick about what you say.”

  “Oh no, I am not here to discredit your work. I write because I admire it.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes, I do. And I was wondering about any assistance that you might need on the project.”

  “Ah, thank you, but I’ve seen this before as well. You come with idealist aspirations about joining our administration. And then you sign on, you find out that the work is dull, boring, and often you spend your time getting laughed at, and called unprofessional. Forgive me, but I must disillusion you, because even that footage I showed today is going to be ripped to shreds by critics. If you are interested, I thank you, but I advise you to rethink joining us.”

  “Believe me, I’ve had my share of the unbelievable. And I’ve survived much danger and boredom that went hand in hand. I believe you. We all do.”

  “We?”

  “Yes, the organization that we are a part of. And since you are in Britain now, this theory falls into our jurisdiction. I’m a member of UNIT.”

  “We’ve heard of you in America.”

  “Have you?”

  “Yes, we have. But we heard that you were an extinct faction of the British government. Though, we don’t always know what it is that you did, so we assume that you are a spy service—equivalent to the FBI.”

  “Oh, very much not. We deal with the unexplainable, the extraterrestrial. And the supernatural. And we never really left, Dr. Davison. We just went very covert and we are glad that we did. As you know, our recent past Prime Minister, Harold Saxon, proved to be an error.”

  “I know, he killed our President.”

  “Yes, sorry about that. But as you saw, he paid the price for that. And if UNIT had not kept itself so secret, then Saxon would have disbanded our administration. Going more covert was key. Especially since our head has fallen ill over the years.”

  “And who was he?”

  “Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. He was the man who assigned me to my first true case in UNIT, and we are here to assist you. We believe that this animal might be more than simply a species from Earth.”

  “You do?”

  “It’s a theory. And we are assuming you won’t laugh at it.”

  “What’s your name?”

  She offered her hand to shake.

  “Good afternoon, my name is Jo Grant. I’m a member of UNIT.”[9]

  The End

  * * *

  [1] This prison is an actual legendary prison in America.

  [2] The Tesserecta was first seen in ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’, when it went back in time to hold Hitler accountable for his crimes.

  [3] This is a reflection of what the Eleventh Doctor said to the patchwork people in ‘The Doctor’s Wife’.

  [4] Eleven says the same thing in ‘The Name of the Doctor’, when the Great Intelligence forces him to enter his own tomb.

  [5] Jupiter has often been recorded for having 16 moons, yet recent research has declared that Jupiter might have 23 more moons that orbit it. Yet since Nasa still hasn’t confirmed this, the 16 moons are still the official number.

  [6] This is scientific fact. The moon to Earth does possess oxygen atoms on it for some days out of a month.

  [7] This is historic fact. Henry "Box" Brown was a19th-century Virginia slave who escaped to freedom at the age of 33 by arranging to have himself mailed in a wooden crate in 1849 to abolitionists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

  [8] The time they encountered a heat barrier was during their Third incarnation, in the episode ‘The Daemons’.

  [9] This theory of the ‘The Bloop’ or ‘Cthulu’ was in fact debated over and considered real when a loud roar was heard from the ocean around America in 2007. It was recorded by the real NOAA, and it is still wondered at sometimes to this very day. Also, this member of UNIT is Jo Grant, who was the companion of the Third Doctor.