Prologue
“The Land of the Cyclopes. Heard of it?”
“A fierce, lawless people who never lift a hand to plant or plough but just leave everything to the immortal gods,” quoted Tommy. “All the crops they require spring up unsown and untilled, wheat and barley and wines with generous clusters that swell with the rain from heaven to yield wine.”
Autumn looked up from her book.
“The Cyclopes have no assemblies for the making of laws, nor any established legal codes, but live in hollow caverns in the mountain heights, where each man is lawgiver to his own children and women, and nobody has the slightest interest in what his neighbours decide.”
“Very good!” marvelled the Doctor, dashing round the console unit.
“I had to learn it for an essay. Anyway, what about them?”
“We’re going to see them,” said the Doctor in a way which was uncomfortably off-handed for such a ridiculous statement. He quickly tapped some coordinates in.
“No we’re not,” corrected Tommy, wandering over to the Doctor. “They weren’t real. They were a myth, like everything else in Homer’s Odyssey.”
“Ha! What a load of rubbish. I met Homer himself during the Trojan War. Every myth has its roots somewhere, including the Cyclopes.” The Doctor flashed up an image of the Cyclops which drew Autumn’s attention: a hulking mass of flesh with a mouth that looked like it had been carved into its face, a veiny neck and one single, suspicious eye in the centre of its head, just above a wide, flat nose. “They exist in another dimension, like a pocket universe, sealed off from ours. A natural phenomenon – the Land of the Cyclopes. And every few thousand years, the sea acts as a gateway, breaching the two worlds. No one ever detects the island but just occasionally people have become shipwrecked and discovered it… well, the hard way.”
The Doctor approached the door and opened it cautiously. Beyond it was a darkened cavern, nuanced in colour by a faint navy blue light from a far-off source. “Tommy Lindsay,” he whispered as he stepped out of the TARDIS. “I give you the land of mythology.”
They were interrupted by a dreadful shriek which echoed round the rocky walls. The thing that they’d moments seen on the screen in the TARDIS was stumbling left and right ahead of them, pulling a stake from his eye which was streaming with blood. The stake came out with a nauseating pop and he hurled it towards the time travellers who ducked as it hit the TARDIS. Footsteps ahead indicated more Cyclopes.
“What on earth is wrong with you, Polyphemus?” asked one. “Why must you disturb the peaceful night and spoil our sleep with all this shouting? Is a robber driving off your sheep, or is somebody trying by treachery or violence to kill you?”
“Polyphemus,” murmured Tommy. “It can’t be…”
“O my friends,” answered the Cyclops who was presumably Polyphemus, through the pain of his blinded eye, “it’s Nobody’s treachery, not violence, that is doing me to death.”
“Well then,” came an immediate reply, so infused with sarcasm that Tommy stifled a laugh. It was different to what he had imagined. “If you are alone and nobody is assaulting you, you must be sick and sickness comes from almighty Zeus and cannot be helped. All you can do is pray to your father, the Lord Poseidon.” The footsteps continued, this time quietening over time. The Cyclopes had abandoned Polyphemus, and the Doctor thought, just for a second, that he could hear a dark, proud laugh from somewhere in the cave.
“Let’s get out of here…”
***
“It looks smaller on the outside,” observed Tommy.
“Most people notice that sooner.”
“I think he means the cave,” muttered Autumn, rolling her eyes. Tommy chuckled.
“I suppose it does.” The Doctor examined the cave. “It’s cold out. I doubt the gateway will stay open for much longer…”
“Hey, look.” Autumn pointed out to the coast. Polyphemus was charging at a great ship in the distance, trying to throw rocks at it. And on the ship, a man was crying out at the Cyclops. His words echoed across the disgracefully squandered land.
“Cyclops!” declared the man. “If anyone ever asks you how you came by your blindness, tell him your eye was put out by Odysseus-“ Tommy gasped “-sacker of cities, the son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca. See you around!”
“I don’t remember that last bit from the book.”
“What book?” asked Autumn.
“The Odyssey. See that man? ” Tommy nodded to the ship. “That was Nobody. Or, as he’s better known, Odysseus – the greatest mythical hero who ever lived.”
“A fierce, lawless people who never lift a hand to plant or plough but just leave everything to the immortal gods,” quoted Tommy. “All the crops they require spring up unsown and untilled, wheat and barley and wines with generous clusters that swell with the rain from heaven to yield wine.”
Autumn looked up from her book.
“The Cyclopes have no assemblies for the making of laws, nor any established legal codes, but live in hollow caverns in the mountain heights, where each man is lawgiver to his own children and women, and nobody has the slightest interest in what his neighbours decide.”
“Very good!” marvelled the Doctor, dashing round the console unit.
“I had to learn it for an essay. Anyway, what about them?”
“We’re going to see them,” said the Doctor in a way which was uncomfortably off-handed for such a ridiculous statement. He quickly tapped some coordinates in.
“No we’re not,” corrected Tommy, wandering over to the Doctor. “They weren’t real. They were a myth, like everything else in Homer’s Odyssey.”
“Ha! What a load of rubbish. I met Homer himself during the Trojan War. Every myth has its roots somewhere, including the Cyclopes.” The Doctor flashed up an image of the Cyclops which drew Autumn’s attention: a hulking mass of flesh with a mouth that looked like it had been carved into its face, a veiny neck and one single, suspicious eye in the centre of its head, just above a wide, flat nose. “They exist in another dimension, like a pocket universe, sealed off from ours. A natural phenomenon – the Land of the Cyclopes. And every few thousand years, the sea acts as a gateway, breaching the two worlds. No one ever detects the island but just occasionally people have become shipwrecked and discovered it… well, the hard way.”
The Doctor approached the door and opened it cautiously. Beyond it was a darkened cavern, nuanced in colour by a faint navy blue light from a far-off source. “Tommy Lindsay,” he whispered as he stepped out of the TARDIS. “I give you the land of mythology.”
They were interrupted by a dreadful shriek which echoed round the rocky walls. The thing that they’d moments seen on the screen in the TARDIS was stumbling left and right ahead of them, pulling a stake from his eye which was streaming with blood. The stake came out with a nauseating pop and he hurled it towards the time travellers who ducked as it hit the TARDIS. Footsteps ahead indicated more Cyclopes.
“What on earth is wrong with you, Polyphemus?” asked one. “Why must you disturb the peaceful night and spoil our sleep with all this shouting? Is a robber driving off your sheep, or is somebody trying by treachery or violence to kill you?”
“Polyphemus,” murmured Tommy. “It can’t be…”
“O my friends,” answered the Cyclops who was presumably Polyphemus, through the pain of his blinded eye, “it’s Nobody’s treachery, not violence, that is doing me to death.”
“Well then,” came an immediate reply, so infused with sarcasm that Tommy stifled a laugh. It was different to what he had imagined. “If you are alone and nobody is assaulting you, you must be sick and sickness comes from almighty Zeus and cannot be helped. All you can do is pray to your father, the Lord Poseidon.” The footsteps continued, this time quietening over time. The Cyclopes had abandoned Polyphemus, and the Doctor thought, just for a second, that he could hear a dark, proud laugh from somewhere in the cave.
“Let’s get out of here…”
***
“It looks smaller on the outside,” observed Tommy.
“Most people notice that sooner.”
“I think he means the cave,” muttered Autumn, rolling her eyes. Tommy chuckled.
“I suppose it does.” The Doctor examined the cave. “It’s cold out. I doubt the gateway will stay open for much longer…”
“Hey, look.” Autumn pointed out to the coast. Polyphemus was charging at a great ship in the distance, trying to throw rocks at it. And on the ship, a man was crying out at the Cyclops. His words echoed across the disgracefully squandered land.
“Cyclops!” declared the man. “If anyone ever asks you how you came by your blindness, tell him your eye was put out by Odysseus-“ Tommy gasped “-sacker of cities, the son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca. See you around!”
“I don’t remember that last bit from the book.”
“What book?” asked Autumn.
“The Odyssey. See that man? ” Tommy nodded to the ship. “That was Nobody. Or, as he’s better known, Odysseus – the greatest mythical hero who ever lived.”
The Eighth Doctor Adventures
Series 2 - Episode 2
DINNER WITH NOBODY
Written by Janine Rivers
Aeolia
“The floating island of Aeolia,” said the Doctor, stepping out of the TARDIS and admiring the view – a mile or so of flourishing, carefully-nurtured flora and fauna; everything the land of the Cyclopes was not. He peered over the edge of the coast. The calm sea reflected his face about twenty feet down. “This is… I’ll let Tommy explain.”
“According to legend,” described Tommy, doubting the word, “Aeolia is the home of Aeolus, sun of Hippotas, a favourite of the gods. There should be a wall of bronze here.” He reached his arm out and it hit a solid wall. The particles in the air shifted, their vibrations coloured very slightly bronze. “Aliens. Of course.”
The Doctor took over and scanned the force-field with his sonic screwdriver. “Basic security system. Probably what lets ships pass through; manipulating gravity to give them a push up… you say this is definitely where Odysseus is due next?”
“Yeah, if Homer’s account is anything to go by. He was blind, I guess he could have... uh… missed a bit.”
“So this is all a novel?” queried Autumn. “Isn’t that a bit weird?”
“It’s epic poetry,” corrected Tommy. “And this is weird, all this alien stuff. But there were a lot of accounts suggesting that Odysseus did take a journey similar to the mythical account. It all started in the Trojan War. He’s trying to get home with his men to Ithaca, to see his wife Penelope.”
“And did they make it?” asked Autumn, almost caring.
“Odysseus did.” Tommy grimaced. “All his men were killed.”
“Hold on.” The Doctor dashed inside the TARDIS.
“So how are you finding it?” asked Autumn, breaking the silence in the Doctor’s absence. “Scary? Exciting?”
“Like it’s all about to hit me and I’ll realise how insane it all is…” Tommy squinted into the distance. “I left my glasses in the TARDIS, but if I’m not mistaken, I can see something over there…”
The Doctor re-emerged and handed a battered old book to Autumn. “Homer’s Odyssey, free of charge. Have a read. Quickly, if you can. Take it with you.”
“Isn’t that bad? Like, spoilers?”
“Once you’ve read it in a book, it’s going to happen. It’s safer this way.”
“Here, Doctor.” Tommy pointed across the island. “I think I can see Odysseus and his men by the house.”
“Who lives in the house? I haven’t read the Odyssey for about a hundred years.”
“Don’t exaggerate.”
“I wasn’t.” He peered at the house on the middle of the island. “Tommy, I think you’re right.”
“Family of twelve,” recalled Tommy. “Six daughters and six grown-up sons, married to each other.”
“Ew,” remarked Autumn.
“All day long the house is filled with the savoury smell of roasting meat, and the courtyard echoes to the sounds of banqueting within.”
Autumn reconsidered. “Did they have Mr Kipling?”
Tommy did his best to cover up his amusement. “We’d better head in.”
***
An old, bearded man sat in the house, working on his laptop. The laptop was rested on a glass table surrounded by bronze walls and sat on a marble floor, like some executive bank. Odysseus and his men did not seem to bat an eyelid, and were more surprised when the Doctor, Autumn and Tommy entered. The old man’s eyes lit up and he stood up to greet the crew.
“Doctor! Athene!”
Odysseus looked around, wondering whether to supplicate or pretend he hadn’t heard.
“Athene?” asked Tommy.
“Oh, long story, I’ll explain later.”
The Doctor studied the old man closely. “Ares?”
“Actually it’s Aeolus now.”
Autumn wondered how the Doctor could tell; he was a completely different man, similar only in how he resembled the time he had chosen to reside in.
“Arrow to the eye,” continued the man. “Times were progressing and scepticism was spreading. I risked facing trial and punishment, so I took my TARDIS here, disguised it as an island, except the propulsion mechanism is on the blink.”
“Floating island,” gathered the Doctor. “And an arrow to the eye. That sounds nasty.”
“I’m on Twelve now. I think perhaps it’s time to retire.”
“Quite right too. Now, you’ve got company, er, Aeolus?”
“Yes!” Aeolus beamed and brought Odysseus over. The Doctor studied him closer. He was bearded, his hair long and untidy, his skin a healthy European olive colour; his eyes almost as old as the Doctor’s, and quite a lot wearier. Yet he was exactly what Tommy had imagined – exactly what the film-stars had portrayed, what the book had quoted, what his imagination had formed out of past experiences.
“A pleasure to meet you,” said the Doctor, shaking his hand. “I’m…” he realised it would be best to keep their previous encounter off the record. “I’m Doctor Gabriel. This is my friend, Tommy.”
“Wow… uh, hi.” Tommy chuckled nervously. “You’re… inspiring. I mean, you’re… you’re like… Zeus or something, you’re a total god. But not a god, if that’s offensive, you’re like a god, like you said to Nausicaa, for Artemis.” Odysseus frowned. Tommy realised his mistake. “What I meant was, like you will say to Nausicaa. Might say, if you meet her, which you will…” The Doctor lifted a hand to shut Tommy up.
“And this…” he brought forward Autumn. “This is the Goddess Athene.”
“Kneel,” ordered Autumn, handing her book to the Doctor who rolled his eyes. Odysseus kneeled. “And up again. What have you got to say to me?”
“Thank you, great Goddess Athene. Thank you for the help you have given me during my wretched journey; thank you for answering those prayers of utter desperation and hopelessness, for inspiring me at moments of near-death.”
“I did all that?” blurted out Autumn. “Really?” She lifted the book back up and skimmed through it. “Oh, I haven’t reached that bit yet. It’s good so far though, well done…” She patted Odysseus on the shoulder.
“Forgive me for asking, but after I angered your nephew, Poseidon, will you continue to provide the support through the rest of my travels?”
“Hmm…” considered Autumn, getting into character. “What do you think, Doctor? Do you think we might come back and support him?”
The Doctor smiled knowingly. “You know, Autumn, I think we might.” He straightened his jacket. “Goodbye Aeolus, until the next time. Look after Odysseus and his men for, er…”
“A month,” said Tommy.
“A month. Yes, have a nice month. We’ll just be off.”
***
TARDIS, Console Room
“So next after that,” recalled Tommy, “Aeolus gives them a bag of winds-“
“Propulsion device,” corrected the Doctor.
“Oi!” complained Autumn. “Spoilers.”
“He stores the bag in the hold of his ship,” continued Tommy, ignoring Autumn. “They sail on for nine days, and on the tenth they come into sight of their homeland. But Odysseus dozes off, and because he hadn’t told his crew what was in the bag, they suspected it was a fortune of gold and silver that Odysseus was going to keep for himself. So they open the bag and all the winds rush out, a tempest carries them out to sea, away from their home. Odysseus thinks about throwing himself off the ship he’s that annoyed, but decides to stay and endure, and they’re driven back to Aeolia.”
“So we go back to Aeolus’s TARDIS.” The Doctor reset the coordinates to the last destination.
“Who is this Aeolus guy?” asked Tommy.
Autumn looked up from her book. “He’s one of the Doctor’s race. We met him at Olympia, back when he was in control of the games.”
“You’ve been to the Ancient Olympic Games?” Tommy’s jaw was practically touching the floor.
“Yes,” said the Doctor dismissively. “Anyway, my species have formed a kind of network here. It’s easy enough to drop in, pretend to be a god, get the people to do whatever you like. The statue of Zeus came to life because it was being occupied by the Hunters of Andromeda, and we cleared up the mess. Can’t have the Time Lords back home knowing we’re interfering in human history. That floating island, that’s his TARDIS. Like this.” The Doctor rested back on a glass panel. “Bigger on the inside. No twelve children all married to each other – he was probably just having a webcam chat and they got confused.”
“He was exactly how I imagined…” Tommy was trailing off, staring at something imprecise.
“Do you fancy him or something?” teased Autumn.
“Nah, he’s more like a dad to me.”
“He’s more like a dad to me,” repeated Autumn in complete disbelief, then it clicked. “Oh my God, you’re a fan-boy aren’t you?”
“I thought that phrase would have died out by your time.”
“Oh,” commented the Doctor, smirking, “she’s had a few of her own.”
“Stop it!” hissed Autumn. “No discussing my TV personality career in front of students, understand?”
Tommy, on the other hand, gave up trying to understand completely.
***
Aeolia
As Odysseus entered nervously with two men by his side, Aeolus poured Nectar into glasses for the Doctor, Autumn and Tommy. There was an alien black market on Earth, explained Aeolus. They covered it up as they did all things – with mythology. His evening meal became ‘the food of the gods’.
“Odysseus?” they all exclaimed, in feigned surprise, trying to conceal their knowing laughter.
“How do you come to be here?” asked Aeolus, reading from Autumn’s book. “What evil power has dealt you this blow? We did our beast-“
“Beast,” corrected Autumn quickly, pointing to the word.
“Oh yes, best…” Aeolus moved swiftly on. “We did our best to help you on your way home to Ithaca or any port you might choose.”
“An untrustworthy crew and a fatal sleep were my downfall.”
“Put things right for me, my friends-“ finished Tommy. Odysseus was speechless. The Doctor nudged Tommy to be quiet.
“-you easily… could.” Odysseus stood in stunned silence.
“And what happened to the propulsion device?” questioned Aeolus.
“I’m afraid we lost it.”
Aeolus stirred – genuinely this time. The Doctor gulped, realising he should have warned him. Then Aeolus replied, saying all the words Tommy had expected and none of the words the Doctor had in mind.
“Get off this island instantly! The world holds no one more damnable than you, and it is not right for me to entertain and equip a man detested by the blessed gods. Your returning like this shows they detest you.” He raised his voice to a military bark. “GET OUT!”
Odysseus rushed out. Aeolus put his head in his hands. “I shouldn’t have shouted… but that was my last propulsion device. I’ve given everything away to this planet. All my technology, all my luxuries…”
“Apart from the glass table, the laptop and the robot servants,” remarked Autumn.
Aeolus laughed. “Athene. Always brightening the day.”
The TARDIS crew stood to leave.
“Will you be alright here, Aeolus?”
“I’ll be fine.” He smiled sadly. “There are plenty of Time Lords here today.”
“Why?”
“Oh… it’s… nothing.” The Doctor took his word for it, but Autumn sensed there was something he was hiding from them.
***
TARDIS, Console Room
“What next?” asked the Doctor. Autumn ran up the stairs to get away from the spoilers.
“They sail on for six days and six nights, and on the seventh they come to the Laestrygonian land.” He shuddered. “They find a harbour and take to land again… they see a wisp of smoke rising up from the countryside so send a party inland to find the inhabitants.” Tommy was slower this time. The Doctor could tell that things were not quite right. “They come across a strong girl drawing water outside the town. She shows them to her dad’s palace, they go in and meet his wife, a massive woman who calls her husband down. Then he… well,” Tommy grimaced, “he pounces on one of the men and eats him for supper.”
The Doctor’s eyes widened.
“The other two go back to the ships, Antiphates raises a hue and cry through the town, and the Laestrygonians start pelting his flotilla with lumps of rock. All the other ships are destroyed, leaving just Odysseus’s. So I’d say… let’s avoid that one.”
“Yes, let’s.”
“That’s disgusting!” called Autumn from upstairs, evidently catching them up in her novel.
“Then they reach the island of Aeaea, home of Circe, the enchantress. Another goddess. I suppose she’s a Time Lord too?”
“Time Lady,” corrected the Doctor. “Let’s find out which one…”
***
Aeaea
Odysseus reached the top of a rocky height, staring on over the island. Smoke was rising from a distant place. A house, much like Aeolus’s, lay in a clearing among the dense oak-shrub and forest trees. The reddish smoke left Odysseus in two minds whether or not to press forward and reconnoitre.
He looked up at the sky, a place known only to the gods. He thought of how Aeolus and the others had treated him, even Athene. He knew his thoughts were wrong. He owed them his lives. But there were times when he wondered how they were gods and he was mortal – they were both one of the same; an expression of the essential quality of life that imbued all things. They all deserved the same luck, and to help another was always both an obligation and a pleasure. He hated not knowing their inside joke. He wondered if his plight was, to them, an amusement. Then his mind turned back to Penelope, as it always did; her face amid a crowd of suitors, awful pigs of men treating his pearl of a wife as dirt. He had to get back to save her and his kingdom from laziness, a greater evil, in the wrong hands, than savagery and cunning combined.
Odysseus decided a better course would be to return first to his ship on the beach, give his men a meal and sent out an exploring party. On his way back, an antlered stag went right across his path. Odysseus struck him on the spine half-way down his back as he came up from drinking from the stream. As the bronze spear went right through him, he bellowed, falling dead in the dust. A gift straight from the gods; a needless but meaningful gift that put to rest his earlier sentiments. He wondered which god had undertaken such a human action as to provide a gift for the sake of giving.
***
Eurylochus returned a few hours later, sweating and weeping. No men followed. Odysseus frowned; it was unlike a leader to return without his men. Twenty-two were missing. Eurylochus stopped, panting.
“Went out – as you ordered – through the woods – noble Odysseus.” He coughed. “In a clearing, in a glade, we came to a well-built house of polished stone. Someone inside was singing in a clear voice as she went to and fro at her great web – either a goddess or a woman. My men called and she came out, immediately opened the polished doors, and invited us to enter.” He picked his next words carefully. “In their innocence, the whole party followed her in. But I suspected a trap and stayed outside. And now the whole party has been wiped out. Not a single man reappeared, though I sat there a long time, watching.”
When Odysseus heard the story, he slung his big bronze silver-studded sword in its silver scabbard over his shoulder, then his bow.
“Take me back with you the way you came,” instructed Odysseus, wasting no time. Eurylochus threw his arms around Odysseus’s knees in supplication.
“Favourite of Zeus,” he pleaded, “leave me behind, don’t, don’t force me to go with you there… you will never come back yourself, and you won’t rescue a single man of, of your crew, I’m certain… I’m certain of it. Let us get away quickly with those that are left here, please.” He lowered his voice. “We might still escape the evil day.”
Odysseus thought to himself. It wasn’t quite laziness, but it was fear. He often struggled to draw the line between fear and cowardice. One could be helped, he thought – the other could not. “Very well,” he replied reluctantly. “Stay where you are, and eat and drink by the black ship’s hull. But I shall go. I have absolutely no choice.”
With that, he turned his back on the ship and the sea, and struck inland. But, threading his way through the enchanted glades, he was nearing the sorceress’s palace when the two men he recognised from Aeolus’s palace bounded out from either side of him.
“Where are you off to?” asked Tommy, following Odysseus. “Wandering alone through an unknown country, your friends turned into pigs? Have you come to free them?”
“What concern is it of yours?”
“Quite a great concern,” said the Doctor, joining the two at Odysseus’ right-hand side. “We’re here to deliver you from your trouble. Take this.” He handed Odysseus a tablet. “This drug will make you immune from… er…”
“Evil,” suggested Tommy.
“Yes, evil. Circe, you see, she uses black magic. She’ll begin by preparing you a mixture, into which she will put her drug. But she won’t be able to enchant you when you’ve taken my special pill, because it does special things and stuff.”
“Special things and stuff,” repeated Odysseus.
“You’ve got it.”
“What is this unearthly ‘pill’ called?”
“Moly,” answered Tommy, keeping historically-accurate. “It’s from a plant.”
“What plant?”
“A dangerous plant. Very dangerous for mortal men to dig up. But the Gods are fine. Because they can, after all, do anything.”
Odysseus swallowed the pill, along with the lie.
***
As Odysseus called for Circe, the Doctor and Tommy stood to the side of the house out of view. The tale had to be, as it always way, Odysseus’s.
“So what happened to Hermes? He was supposed to give the moly. You still haven’t explained.”
“What kind of names are ‘Doctor Gabriel’ and Tommy? He’ll make up a god. They always did. I thought you studied the ancient world.”
“May I remind you,” hissed Tommy, “that this was considered fiction until an hour ago?! And now it’s not even historically accurate! According to Homer’s account, Circe invites Odysseus to bed, when he threatens her and she supplicates. They all invited him to bed. That’s the ancient world for you. That’s just how it was!”
“No, it’s not.”
“What?”
“It’s not how it was.” The Doctor turned back to Tommy. “When you’re a great traveller and you get home to tell your tale, would you rather tell them about how that bloke called Doctor Gabriel saved the day, or about how you were invited into bed by a beautiful woman and managed to have her at your knees?”
“True,” replied Tommy, nodding.
The polished doors opened and a woman, young and feline-looking, dressed in silky red robes, emerged. For some reason it brought Tommy back to a secondary school English Literature exam, where he’d had to write about Curley’s wife from Of Mice and Men; how she’d posed, so suggestively; and her use of colour and body language. Though this woman’s face was, beneath its charm, colder and more calculating, she was not lost and alone, as he had supposed Curley’s wife was. She was in company and enjoying it. She welcomed Odysseus in. The Doctor approached the door and raised his sonic to it.
“Recognise her?” asked Tommy.
“Not yet, but most people I knew would have regenerated in the time I was away.” The Doctor pushed the door open.
“Off to the pigsty,” Circe was ordering, “and lie down with your friends.” She looked to the Doctor, suddenly realising his presence, whilst also wondering why there were no effects on Odysseus.
“Thanks O, but I’ll take over from here.” The Doctor spun around, admiring the marble interior. In the centre of the room he recognised a console unit, also marble, now fitted with space for a glass of some drink of the gods. “The Rani,” he said, looking to the woman. “I knew I’d get there eventually.”
“Doctor,” she answered, unimpressed. “What are you doing here?”
“Touring.” They shared a moment of mutual resentment. “Oh, and this is Tommy.”
“How lovely.”
“Incarnation?”
“None of your business. The last one was bitten by a lion, if you must know.”
“Ouch.” The Doctor made a face. “No incidents with electrical appliances anymore. No accidents in the home, falling up the stairs.”
“Up?” queried Tommy.
“They’re anti-grav,” clarified the Doctor. Tommy nodded in comprehension. “Rani, what are you doing posing as an enchantress? No, hold on, what are you doing turning men into pigs? I’ve seen some of your schemes but this really is insane.”
“It was only an experiment. It worked. I can turn them back now.”
“Oh, I see. You’re hiding out here, as per usual, conducting dodgy experiments. Planet Earth is not your laboratory!”
“Are you going to report me?” The Rani put her hands on her hips, annoyed.
“No – on one condition.”
“Name it.”
“You turn back Odysseus’s men. And you look after them until they’re ready to go.”
“To which I respond with a condition of my own.” The two of them circled the console unit.
“I’m not liking the sound of this. Go on.”
“I’ve been doing some research into morphic fields. I’ve generated one here – I think. Only within the TARDIS, of course, I couldn’t go affecting those outside, not that there is anyone here. To see if the field has worked, I need to keep the men here for a year. Take blood samples every day. Quick pinprick and the rest of the day’s their own. They’ve got all the space of the TARDIS, the greatest palace anyone could ask for. And they won’t be harmed.”
“No.”
“No?”
“I can’t. I can’t let you use them like this! Not for a whole year.”
“Well…” Tommy came forward, calming the Doctor. “The book does kind of say a year.”
The Rani smirked.
“Sometimes I hate history,” muttered the Doctor.
***
Aeaea, One Year Later
“Circe,” began Odysseus. “Keep that promise which you once made me, to send me home. I am eager now to be gone, and so are all my men. Whenever you are not present they stand around exhaust me with their complaints.”
“Heaven-born son of Laertes, resourceful Odysseus,” answered the Rani, checking the results of the blood analysis. The life expectancy was exactly three years higher than a year ago. She smiled – her theory had worked. Remembering her place, and the vow she had made to the Doctor, she turned back to Odysseus. “Do not stay on unwillingly. But first you have to make another journey and find your way to the Hall of Hades and dread Persephone…” she referred back to her digital copy of The Odyssey to check the names. “…to consult the soul of Tiresias, the blind Theban interface.” She cleared her throat. “I mean, prophet. His faculties are unimpaired, for dead though he is, Persephone has granted him, and him alone, continuing wisdom. The others there are mere shadows flitting to and fro.”
Odysseus broke down, sitting on the bed and weeping. The Underworld, the place which seemed so exciting and fantastical in the days of bed-time stories, was now a presence of horror and doom in his life. None of us in adulthood would dare step into the terrifying and boundless places our childhood minds had imagined, but it was his task again; to lie to his men that they would live and have tales to tell, when yet more of them would be killed. He wondered how many of them would survive, how many would die, and whether when - if – he returned to Ithaca, he would remember that number every time he woke up in the morning.
***
TARDIS, Console Room
Autumn bounded down the stairs as the Doctor and Tommy re-entered.
“Have they gone to the palace?”
“Yes they have, and the palace is a scientist’s TARDIS. Where next?”
“Quite a lot happens. They go to Hades, the Land of the Dead. Know anything about that?”
“Know?” Autumn tapped her nose. “We’ve been. It’s an underground network set up by the Church of St Ava. What next?”
“Right…” Tommy took it in and gathered himself once more. “Then they go back to Aeaea and go ahead with funeral rites for a boy who died before they left, falling off a rooftop.”
“Elpenor,” said Autumn, proudly remembering the name. “Then Circe takes them back in for a day and tells Odysseus where to go next, which I think was really nice of her-“
The Doctor laughed. “Of course! The Rani would need to check their blood a while later to see if the effects of the morphic field had worn off. She’s priceless.”
“They go past the Sirens,” continued Tommy. “Odysseus’s men put wax in the ears, while they tie him up and he listens.”
“Sounds like the sort of thing you’d do,” said Autumn to the Doctor.
“They face the choice of passing Scylla or Charybdis and as advised they pass Scylla. Scylla’s this, er, six-headed, twelve-legged thing who hides in the shadows, and picks of six men. She barks – whimpers – like a puppy. Strange creature. But too dangerous for us to see, right?”
“Right,” confirmed the Doctor. “Absolutely. But I get the impression this is going somewhere.”
“Afterwards they go to the Sun-god’s isle, where Hyperion keeps his cattle and sheep. It sounded quite peaceful. Can we go there?”
“Of course we can.” The Doctor tapped the coordinates in slower this time, almost surprised at Tommy’s simple request. There was usually more to it where humans were concerned. Autumn was too busy finishing off the novel to notice.
Thrinacie, The Island of the Sun
Night was coming fast, and Autumn admired the sunset across the horizon. She was reminded of a time she had camped out on the coast back in her home planet, watching the suns move their separate ways, always trying to fathom their complex relationship. She took to this isle instantly; its fresh small of grass, and its cool, calming breeze.
A herd of cattle moved slowly past the TARDIS, but no one was to be seen for miles. The animals seemed to know what they were doing. In the distance, a flock of sheep did the same. The Doctor chased after the cattle, scanning them with his sonic screwdriver.
“This isn’t right,” he said, concerned.
“They’re immortal,” explained Tommy. “The cattle of Hyperion.”
“Of course.” The Doctor hit himself on the head with the sonic. “It all makes sense now. The paradox. Look around you. What do you see?”
Silence fell. Autumn replied with the only things that came to her mind. “Grass and water.”
“This world, I mean. What do you see? Because what I see is a paradox waiting to happen. So far history has been self-fulfilling. But what if it wasn’t? What if we were writing it right now, over-writing another history that you were never aware of? What if you are the author of the Odyssey, Tommy Lindsay, and what if you are writing it today – right this second?”
“Okay…” Tommy tried to wrap his mind around it. “But how?”
“Let’s say a whole load of Time Lords relocate here. It’s only so long before the High Council realise something’s up, so the Time Lords here set up a system to keep themselves hidden. These aren’t the oxen of the sun god – they’re the machine of the Time Lords. Immortal, because they’re living fixed points in time. They’re fixed, and they’ve got a direct link to the Time Lords. Their history is more important than yours, so the Time Lords here are undetected.”
“That’s complicated.”
“Exactly. It’s brilliant. But more than that, it’s necessary. Not just for the Time Lords to escape the High Council, but for history to survive. If these things weren’t here maintaining the paradox, the whole of time would fall apart.”
“Doctor…” Tommy’s voice was shaking slightly. “I haven’t exactly been straight with you.”
“What do you mean?”
“This part is the cruellest bit of the Odyssey.”
“What?” Autumn spoke up. “You mean you didn’t tell him?”
“Didn’t tell me what? I’m starting to wish I’d re-read this now.”
“Okay.” Tommy sat down in the grass. The other two joined him. It was like a mythological picnic.
“Circe – or the Rani; whoever - warns Odysseus of Thrinacie. She warns him not to come here, and that if he does, he can’t kill the animals.”
“Makes sense,” said the Doctor, approving. “Killing these things would break the paradox altogether. It would finish the Time Lords, and possibly the whole Ancient World.”
“Here’s the thing… Eurylochus makes Odysseus stay. And then he, well…” Tommy looked to the floor. “He convinces the others to kill and eat the oxen. They stay for six days and feast on the meat. When they set out again, Zeus kills them all, and only Odysseus lives on.”
“So why bring us here, Tommy?” The Doctor studied him, trying to work out what to make of him with the change of circumstance.
“I just wanted to see if it was true, see what you made of it. And then you said about the fixed point in time. Look, if we saved them-“
“No,” interrupted the Doctor. “Before you even go there, it’s not what I do.”
“But you said so yourself, we’re writing this history. We’re writing the book now. I want to write my ending, I want to tell the story again. A story where they lived.”
However much Autumn disagreed, she couldn’t help but admire him, treating history as a story-book; a narrative whose rules were purely poetic.
“They were young men,” continued Tommy. “They were scared and they wanted to get home – home to mothers, wives, children. And they made a mistake; they followed the stupidity of one man who decided to disobey what Odysseus had advised. It killed them all.”
The Doctor considered.
“They deserved it,” declared Autumn. “They were fools of men. Odysseus said so himself.”
“Are you saying they deserved to die?” questioned Tommy.
“No. I’m not saying they deserved their fate, they just don’t quite deserve saving from it, either.” Autumn’s logic was cold but irrefutable.
“But we have an opportunity here. To save lives. Isn’t it our duty, isn’t that what we do?”
“Those men were being picked off like flies. Their ridiculous actions at Ismarus had six from each ship killed. Then even since we met them – the Cyclops, dashing out the brains of six men; the Laestrygonians destroying the ships; Scylla snatching up another six as Odysseus watched. They cried out his name. Look, Tommy, I know it’s not what you want to hear but those men were doomed from the start. Only Odysseus would ever have made it back from Ithaca.”
“And what if you were Odysseus?” pleaded Tommy. “What then?”
“My whole planet’s gone, Tommy. My species. Don’t you think I’d go back and save them if I could? But I can’t. Imagine the ramifications. I’d never have met the Doctor, I’d never have made him suffer. And without that suffering, he’d never have done all the wonderful things he did. He’d never have met Robin Moon again, never have met you. We’d never even be here.”
The Doctor smiled.
“Odysseus will suffer but he will accomplish things just as great.”
“Doctor?” Tommy looked to the Time Lord. “You’ve been at this longer than us. I say we put it to you.”
“I’d say we don’t have much choice.” The Doctor looked out to the distance. Tommy sighed in a final frustration. On the other side of the island, a fire was burning.
“Doctor.”
The three of them turned around. A silhouette stood by the seafront, sad and enigmatic.
“Aeolus.”
“The paradox is broken. Those idiots – I knew they’d ruin everything. Our mechanism will kick in in a few days. They’ll be killed, to ensure their role in breaking the paradox doesn’t leave a wound in time. But now the High Council are aware of our activities on Earth, we’ve all got to flee. I’m going to have to go very far and hide somehow. Doctor, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to have to tell you this.”
“Tell me what?”
“The reason we’re all here. It's you.”
The Doctor’s hearts thumped. “What do you mean?”
“So many of us were working in small colonies around Gallifrey. Getting out of the citadel because we hated it there. It was safe, for a while. Until someone bombed the Dalek Parliament.”
The Doctor felt a lump in his throat.
“It was after you, Doctor. After what you did. You did more than just make people feel safe, more than just make the Daleks feel scared. You did the most dangerous thing anyone in the universe could do right now - you destroyed the one bit of structure they had. Their one chance at being mannered and thoughtful, and you blew it up. We had a system. It was working. And you went and tore it down.”
The Doctor was speechless, looking to himself in hope of reason.
“It’s my fault.” Autumn stepped forward. “I made him. I gave him the incentive, I drove him insane. And quite frankly, every Dalek blown up is a conscience cleared. He did the right thing. So you can either accept that, punish me or get out because he’s been through enough.”
For the first time talking to Autumn, Aeolus did not smile. He simply nodded, understanding. “Getting out.”
“Oh.” He turned back as he walked to the sea. “I never told you my name. I was…” he looked up to the sky, his tone of voice changing to something sombre, funereal. “I was the Gatherer.” And with that, he was gone.
“What…” the Doctor swallowed, turning back to his friends. “What happened to Odysseus next?”
“After he lost his friends, he spent seven years on Calypso’s island. Most of it weeping. He fought and fought and in the end he made it home.” Tommy looked back on his memories of the Odyssey fondly. “He walked back into Ithaca and once he’d worked his way back into his home, he shot every suitor dead and saved his wife. The greatest hero who ever lived.”
“Shot everyone dead?” The Doctor spoke doubtfully. “Doesn’t sound like much of a hero to me. A hero doesn’t kill his enemies to save the day.”
“The floating island of Aeolia,” said the Doctor, stepping out of the TARDIS and admiring the view – a mile or so of flourishing, carefully-nurtured flora and fauna; everything the land of the Cyclopes was not. He peered over the edge of the coast. The calm sea reflected his face about twenty feet down. “This is… I’ll let Tommy explain.”
“According to legend,” described Tommy, doubting the word, “Aeolia is the home of Aeolus, sun of Hippotas, a favourite of the gods. There should be a wall of bronze here.” He reached his arm out and it hit a solid wall. The particles in the air shifted, their vibrations coloured very slightly bronze. “Aliens. Of course.”
The Doctor took over and scanned the force-field with his sonic screwdriver. “Basic security system. Probably what lets ships pass through; manipulating gravity to give them a push up… you say this is definitely where Odysseus is due next?”
“Yeah, if Homer’s account is anything to go by. He was blind, I guess he could have... uh… missed a bit.”
“So this is all a novel?” queried Autumn. “Isn’t that a bit weird?”
“It’s epic poetry,” corrected Tommy. “And this is weird, all this alien stuff. But there were a lot of accounts suggesting that Odysseus did take a journey similar to the mythical account. It all started in the Trojan War. He’s trying to get home with his men to Ithaca, to see his wife Penelope.”
“And did they make it?” asked Autumn, almost caring.
“Odysseus did.” Tommy grimaced. “All his men were killed.”
“Hold on.” The Doctor dashed inside the TARDIS.
“So how are you finding it?” asked Autumn, breaking the silence in the Doctor’s absence. “Scary? Exciting?”
“Like it’s all about to hit me and I’ll realise how insane it all is…” Tommy squinted into the distance. “I left my glasses in the TARDIS, but if I’m not mistaken, I can see something over there…”
The Doctor re-emerged and handed a battered old book to Autumn. “Homer’s Odyssey, free of charge. Have a read. Quickly, if you can. Take it with you.”
“Isn’t that bad? Like, spoilers?”
“Once you’ve read it in a book, it’s going to happen. It’s safer this way.”
“Here, Doctor.” Tommy pointed across the island. “I think I can see Odysseus and his men by the house.”
“Who lives in the house? I haven’t read the Odyssey for about a hundred years.”
“Don’t exaggerate.”
“I wasn’t.” He peered at the house on the middle of the island. “Tommy, I think you’re right.”
“Family of twelve,” recalled Tommy. “Six daughters and six grown-up sons, married to each other.”
“Ew,” remarked Autumn.
“All day long the house is filled with the savoury smell of roasting meat, and the courtyard echoes to the sounds of banqueting within.”
Autumn reconsidered. “Did they have Mr Kipling?”
Tommy did his best to cover up his amusement. “We’d better head in.”
***
An old, bearded man sat in the house, working on his laptop. The laptop was rested on a glass table surrounded by bronze walls and sat on a marble floor, like some executive bank. Odysseus and his men did not seem to bat an eyelid, and were more surprised when the Doctor, Autumn and Tommy entered. The old man’s eyes lit up and he stood up to greet the crew.
“Doctor! Athene!”
Odysseus looked around, wondering whether to supplicate or pretend he hadn’t heard.
“Athene?” asked Tommy.
“Oh, long story, I’ll explain later.”
The Doctor studied the old man closely. “Ares?”
“Actually it’s Aeolus now.”
Autumn wondered how the Doctor could tell; he was a completely different man, similar only in how he resembled the time he had chosen to reside in.
“Arrow to the eye,” continued the man. “Times were progressing and scepticism was spreading. I risked facing trial and punishment, so I took my TARDIS here, disguised it as an island, except the propulsion mechanism is on the blink.”
“Floating island,” gathered the Doctor. “And an arrow to the eye. That sounds nasty.”
“I’m on Twelve now. I think perhaps it’s time to retire.”
“Quite right too. Now, you’ve got company, er, Aeolus?”
“Yes!” Aeolus beamed and brought Odysseus over. The Doctor studied him closer. He was bearded, his hair long and untidy, his skin a healthy European olive colour; his eyes almost as old as the Doctor’s, and quite a lot wearier. Yet he was exactly what Tommy had imagined – exactly what the film-stars had portrayed, what the book had quoted, what his imagination had formed out of past experiences.
“A pleasure to meet you,” said the Doctor, shaking his hand. “I’m…” he realised it would be best to keep their previous encounter off the record. “I’m Doctor Gabriel. This is my friend, Tommy.”
“Wow… uh, hi.” Tommy chuckled nervously. “You’re… inspiring. I mean, you’re… you’re like… Zeus or something, you’re a total god. But not a god, if that’s offensive, you’re like a god, like you said to Nausicaa, for Artemis.” Odysseus frowned. Tommy realised his mistake. “What I meant was, like you will say to Nausicaa. Might say, if you meet her, which you will…” The Doctor lifted a hand to shut Tommy up.
“And this…” he brought forward Autumn. “This is the Goddess Athene.”
“Kneel,” ordered Autumn, handing her book to the Doctor who rolled his eyes. Odysseus kneeled. “And up again. What have you got to say to me?”
“Thank you, great Goddess Athene. Thank you for the help you have given me during my wretched journey; thank you for answering those prayers of utter desperation and hopelessness, for inspiring me at moments of near-death.”
“I did all that?” blurted out Autumn. “Really?” She lifted the book back up and skimmed through it. “Oh, I haven’t reached that bit yet. It’s good so far though, well done…” She patted Odysseus on the shoulder.
“Forgive me for asking, but after I angered your nephew, Poseidon, will you continue to provide the support through the rest of my travels?”
“Hmm…” considered Autumn, getting into character. “What do you think, Doctor? Do you think we might come back and support him?”
The Doctor smiled knowingly. “You know, Autumn, I think we might.” He straightened his jacket. “Goodbye Aeolus, until the next time. Look after Odysseus and his men for, er…”
“A month,” said Tommy.
“A month. Yes, have a nice month. We’ll just be off.”
***
TARDIS, Console Room
“So next after that,” recalled Tommy, “Aeolus gives them a bag of winds-“
“Propulsion device,” corrected the Doctor.
“Oi!” complained Autumn. “Spoilers.”
“He stores the bag in the hold of his ship,” continued Tommy, ignoring Autumn. “They sail on for nine days, and on the tenth they come into sight of their homeland. But Odysseus dozes off, and because he hadn’t told his crew what was in the bag, they suspected it was a fortune of gold and silver that Odysseus was going to keep for himself. So they open the bag and all the winds rush out, a tempest carries them out to sea, away from their home. Odysseus thinks about throwing himself off the ship he’s that annoyed, but decides to stay and endure, and they’re driven back to Aeolia.”
“So we go back to Aeolus’s TARDIS.” The Doctor reset the coordinates to the last destination.
“Who is this Aeolus guy?” asked Tommy.
Autumn looked up from her book. “He’s one of the Doctor’s race. We met him at Olympia, back when he was in control of the games.”
“You’ve been to the Ancient Olympic Games?” Tommy’s jaw was practically touching the floor.
“Yes,” said the Doctor dismissively. “Anyway, my species have formed a kind of network here. It’s easy enough to drop in, pretend to be a god, get the people to do whatever you like. The statue of Zeus came to life because it was being occupied by the Hunters of Andromeda, and we cleared up the mess. Can’t have the Time Lords back home knowing we’re interfering in human history. That floating island, that’s his TARDIS. Like this.” The Doctor rested back on a glass panel. “Bigger on the inside. No twelve children all married to each other – he was probably just having a webcam chat and they got confused.”
“He was exactly how I imagined…” Tommy was trailing off, staring at something imprecise.
“Do you fancy him or something?” teased Autumn.
“Nah, he’s more like a dad to me.”
“He’s more like a dad to me,” repeated Autumn in complete disbelief, then it clicked. “Oh my God, you’re a fan-boy aren’t you?”
“I thought that phrase would have died out by your time.”
“Oh,” commented the Doctor, smirking, “she’s had a few of her own.”
“Stop it!” hissed Autumn. “No discussing my TV personality career in front of students, understand?”
Tommy, on the other hand, gave up trying to understand completely.
***
Aeolia
As Odysseus entered nervously with two men by his side, Aeolus poured Nectar into glasses for the Doctor, Autumn and Tommy. There was an alien black market on Earth, explained Aeolus. They covered it up as they did all things – with mythology. His evening meal became ‘the food of the gods’.
“Odysseus?” they all exclaimed, in feigned surprise, trying to conceal their knowing laughter.
“How do you come to be here?” asked Aeolus, reading from Autumn’s book. “What evil power has dealt you this blow? We did our beast-“
“Beast,” corrected Autumn quickly, pointing to the word.
“Oh yes, best…” Aeolus moved swiftly on. “We did our best to help you on your way home to Ithaca or any port you might choose.”
“An untrustworthy crew and a fatal sleep were my downfall.”
“Put things right for me, my friends-“ finished Tommy. Odysseus was speechless. The Doctor nudged Tommy to be quiet.
“-you easily… could.” Odysseus stood in stunned silence.
“And what happened to the propulsion device?” questioned Aeolus.
“I’m afraid we lost it.”
Aeolus stirred – genuinely this time. The Doctor gulped, realising he should have warned him. Then Aeolus replied, saying all the words Tommy had expected and none of the words the Doctor had in mind.
“Get off this island instantly! The world holds no one more damnable than you, and it is not right for me to entertain and equip a man detested by the blessed gods. Your returning like this shows they detest you.” He raised his voice to a military bark. “GET OUT!”
Odysseus rushed out. Aeolus put his head in his hands. “I shouldn’t have shouted… but that was my last propulsion device. I’ve given everything away to this planet. All my technology, all my luxuries…”
“Apart from the glass table, the laptop and the robot servants,” remarked Autumn.
Aeolus laughed. “Athene. Always brightening the day.”
The TARDIS crew stood to leave.
“Will you be alright here, Aeolus?”
“I’ll be fine.” He smiled sadly. “There are plenty of Time Lords here today.”
“Why?”
“Oh… it’s… nothing.” The Doctor took his word for it, but Autumn sensed there was something he was hiding from them.
***
TARDIS, Console Room
“What next?” asked the Doctor. Autumn ran up the stairs to get away from the spoilers.
“They sail on for six days and six nights, and on the seventh they come to the Laestrygonian land.” He shuddered. “They find a harbour and take to land again… they see a wisp of smoke rising up from the countryside so send a party inland to find the inhabitants.” Tommy was slower this time. The Doctor could tell that things were not quite right. “They come across a strong girl drawing water outside the town. She shows them to her dad’s palace, they go in and meet his wife, a massive woman who calls her husband down. Then he… well,” Tommy grimaced, “he pounces on one of the men and eats him for supper.”
The Doctor’s eyes widened.
“The other two go back to the ships, Antiphates raises a hue and cry through the town, and the Laestrygonians start pelting his flotilla with lumps of rock. All the other ships are destroyed, leaving just Odysseus’s. So I’d say… let’s avoid that one.”
“Yes, let’s.”
“That’s disgusting!” called Autumn from upstairs, evidently catching them up in her novel.
“Then they reach the island of Aeaea, home of Circe, the enchantress. Another goddess. I suppose she’s a Time Lord too?”
“Time Lady,” corrected the Doctor. “Let’s find out which one…”
***
Aeaea
Odysseus reached the top of a rocky height, staring on over the island. Smoke was rising from a distant place. A house, much like Aeolus’s, lay in a clearing among the dense oak-shrub and forest trees. The reddish smoke left Odysseus in two minds whether or not to press forward and reconnoitre.
He looked up at the sky, a place known only to the gods. He thought of how Aeolus and the others had treated him, even Athene. He knew his thoughts were wrong. He owed them his lives. But there were times when he wondered how they were gods and he was mortal – they were both one of the same; an expression of the essential quality of life that imbued all things. They all deserved the same luck, and to help another was always both an obligation and a pleasure. He hated not knowing their inside joke. He wondered if his plight was, to them, an amusement. Then his mind turned back to Penelope, as it always did; her face amid a crowd of suitors, awful pigs of men treating his pearl of a wife as dirt. He had to get back to save her and his kingdom from laziness, a greater evil, in the wrong hands, than savagery and cunning combined.
Odysseus decided a better course would be to return first to his ship on the beach, give his men a meal and sent out an exploring party. On his way back, an antlered stag went right across his path. Odysseus struck him on the spine half-way down his back as he came up from drinking from the stream. As the bronze spear went right through him, he bellowed, falling dead in the dust. A gift straight from the gods; a needless but meaningful gift that put to rest his earlier sentiments. He wondered which god had undertaken such a human action as to provide a gift for the sake of giving.
***
Eurylochus returned a few hours later, sweating and weeping. No men followed. Odysseus frowned; it was unlike a leader to return without his men. Twenty-two were missing. Eurylochus stopped, panting.
“Went out – as you ordered – through the woods – noble Odysseus.” He coughed. “In a clearing, in a glade, we came to a well-built house of polished stone. Someone inside was singing in a clear voice as she went to and fro at her great web – either a goddess or a woman. My men called and she came out, immediately opened the polished doors, and invited us to enter.” He picked his next words carefully. “In their innocence, the whole party followed her in. But I suspected a trap and stayed outside. And now the whole party has been wiped out. Not a single man reappeared, though I sat there a long time, watching.”
When Odysseus heard the story, he slung his big bronze silver-studded sword in its silver scabbard over his shoulder, then his bow.
“Take me back with you the way you came,” instructed Odysseus, wasting no time. Eurylochus threw his arms around Odysseus’s knees in supplication.
“Favourite of Zeus,” he pleaded, “leave me behind, don’t, don’t force me to go with you there… you will never come back yourself, and you won’t rescue a single man of, of your crew, I’m certain… I’m certain of it. Let us get away quickly with those that are left here, please.” He lowered his voice. “We might still escape the evil day.”
Odysseus thought to himself. It wasn’t quite laziness, but it was fear. He often struggled to draw the line between fear and cowardice. One could be helped, he thought – the other could not. “Very well,” he replied reluctantly. “Stay where you are, and eat and drink by the black ship’s hull. But I shall go. I have absolutely no choice.”
With that, he turned his back on the ship and the sea, and struck inland. But, threading his way through the enchanted glades, he was nearing the sorceress’s palace when the two men he recognised from Aeolus’s palace bounded out from either side of him.
“Where are you off to?” asked Tommy, following Odysseus. “Wandering alone through an unknown country, your friends turned into pigs? Have you come to free them?”
“What concern is it of yours?”
“Quite a great concern,” said the Doctor, joining the two at Odysseus’ right-hand side. “We’re here to deliver you from your trouble. Take this.” He handed Odysseus a tablet. “This drug will make you immune from… er…”
“Evil,” suggested Tommy.
“Yes, evil. Circe, you see, she uses black magic. She’ll begin by preparing you a mixture, into which she will put her drug. But she won’t be able to enchant you when you’ve taken my special pill, because it does special things and stuff.”
“Special things and stuff,” repeated Odysseus.
“You’ve got it.”
“What is this unearthly ‘pill’ called?”
“Moly,” answered Tommy, keeping historically-accurate. “It’s from a plant.”
“What plant?”
“A dangerous plant. Very dangerous for mortal men to dig up. But the Gods are fine. Because they can, after all, do anything.”
Odysseus swallowed the pill, along with the lie.
***
As Odysseus called for Circe, the Doctor and Tommy stood to the side of the house out of view. The tale had to be, as it always way, Odysseus’s.
“So what happened to Hermes? He was supposed to give the moly. You still haven’t explained.”
“What kind of names are ‘Doctor Gabriel’ and Tommy? He’ll make up a god. They always did. I thought you studied the ancient world.”
“May I remind you,” hissed Tommy, “that this was considered fiction until an hour ago?! And now it’s not even historically accurate! According to Homer’s account, Circe invites Odysseus to bed, when he threatens her and she supplicates. They all invited him to bed. That’s the ancient world for you. That’s just how it was!”
“No, it’s not.”
“What?”
“It’s not how it was.” The Doctor turned back to Tommy. “When you’re a great traveller and you get home to tell your tale, would you rather tell them about how that bloke called Doctor Gabriel saved the day, or about how you were invited into bed by a beautiful woman and managed to have her at your knees?”
“True,” replied Tommy, nodding.
The polished doors opened and a woman, young and feline-looking, dressed in silky red robes, emerged. For some reason it brought Tommy back to a secondary school English Literature exam, where he’d had to write about Curley’s wife from Of Mice and Men; how she’d posed, so suggestively; and her use of colour and body language. Though this woman’s face was, beneath its charm, colder and more calculating, she was not lost and alone, as he had supposed Curley’s wife was. She was in company and enjoying it. She welcomed Odysseus in. The Doctor approached the door and raised his sonic to it.
“Recognise her?” asked Tommy.
“Not yet, but most people I knew would have regenerated in the time I was away.” The Doctor pushed the door open.
“Off to the pigsty,” Circe was ordering, “and lie down with your friends.” She looked to the Doctor, suddenly realising his presence, whilst also wondering why there were no effects on Odysseus.
“Thanks O, but I’ll take over from here.” The Doctor spun around, admiring the marble interior. In the centre of the room he recognised a console unit, also marble, now fitted with space for a glass of some drink of the gods. “The Rani,” he said, looking to the woman. “I knew I’d get there eventually.”
“Doctor,” she answered, unimpressed. “What are you doing here?”
“Touring.” They shared a moment of mutual resentment. “Oh, and this is Tommy.”
“How lovely.”
“Incarnation?”
“None of your business. The last one was bitten by a lion, if you must know.”
“Ouch.” The Doctor made a face. “No incidents with electrical appliances anymore. No accidents in the home, falling up the stairs.”
“Up?” queried Tommy.
“They’re anti-grav,” clarified the Doctor. Tommy nodded in comprehension. “Rani, what are you doing posing as an enchantress? No, hold on, what are you doing turning men into pigs? I’ve seen some of your schemes but this really is insane.”
“It was only an experiment. It worked. I can turn them back now.”
“Oh, I see. You’re hiding out here, as per usual, conducting dodgy experiments. Planet Earth is not your laboratory!”
“Are you going to report me?” The Rani put her hands on her hips, annoyed.
“No – on one condition.”
“Name it.”
“You turn back Odysseus’s men. And you look after them until they’re ready to go.”
“To which I respond with a condition of my own.” The two of them circled the console unit.
“I’m not liking the sound of this. Go on.”
“I’ve been doing some research into morphic fields. I’ve generated one here – I think. Only within the TARDIS, of course, I couldn’t go affecting those outside, not that there is anyone here. To see if the field has worked, I need to keep the men here for a year. Take blood samples every day. Quick pinprick and the rest of the day’s their own. They’ve got all the space of the TARDIS, the greatest palace anyone could ask for. And they won’t be harmed.”
“No.”
“No?”
“I can’t. I can’t let you use them like this! Not for a whole year.”
“Well…” Tommy came forward, calming the Doctor. “The book does kind of say a year.”
The Rani smirked.
“Sometimes I hate history,” muttered the Doctor.
***
Aeaea, One Year Later
“Circe,” began Odysseus. “Keep that promise which you once made me, to send me home. I am eager now to be gone, and so are all my men. Whenever you are not present they stand around exhaust me with their complaints.”
“Heaven-born son of Laertes, resourceful Odysseus,” answered the Rani, checking the results of the blood analysis. The life expectancy was exactly three years higher than a year ago. She smiled – her theory had worked. Remembering her place, and the vow she had made to the Doctor, she turned back to Odysseus. “Do not stay on unwillingly. But first you have to make another journey and find your way to the Hall of Hades and dread Persephone…” she referred back to her digital copy of The Odyssey to check the names. “…to consult the soul of Tiresias, the blind Theban interface.” She cleared her throat. “I mean, prophet. His faculties are unimpaired, for dead though he is, Persephone has granted him, and him alone, continuing wisdom. The others there are mere shadows flitting to and fro.”
Odysseus broke down, sitting on the bed and weeping. The Underworld, the place which seemed so exciting and fantastical in the days of bed-time stories, was now a presence of horror and doom in his life. None of us in adulthood would dare step into the terrifying and boundless places our childhood minds had imagined, but it was his task again; to lie to his men that they would live and have tales to tell, when yet more of them would be killed. He wondered how many of them would survive, how many would die, and whether when - if – he returned to Ithaca, he would remember that number every time he woke up in the morning.
***
TARDIS, Console Room
Autumn bounded down the stairs as the Doctor and Tommy re-entered.
“Have they gone to the palace?”
“Yes they have, and the palace is a scientist’s TARDIS. Where next?”
“Quite a lot happens. They go to Hades, the Land of the Dead. Know anything about that?”
“Know?” Autumn tapped her nose. “We’ve been. It’s an underground network set up by the Church of St Ava. What next?”
“Right…” Tommy took it in and gathered himself once more. “Then they go back to Aeaea and go ahead with funeral rites for a boy who died before they left, falling off a rooftop.”
“Elpenor,” said Autumn, proudly remembering the name. “Then Circe takes them back in for a day and tells Odysseus where to go next, which I think was really nice of her-“
The Doctor laughed. “Of course! The Rani would need to check their blood a while later to see if the effects of the morphic field had worn off. She’s priceless.”
“They go past the Sirens,” continued Tommy. “Odysseus’s men put wax in the ears, while they tie him up and he listens.”
“Sounds like the sort of thing you’d do,” said Autumn to the Doctor.
“They face the choice of passing Scylla or Charybdis and as advised they pass Scylla. Scylla’s this, er, six-headed, twelve-legged thing who hides in the shadows, and picks of six men. She barks – whimpers – like a puppy. Strange creature. But too dangerous for us to see, right?”
“Right,” confirmed the Doctor. “Absolutely. But I get the impression this is going somewhere.”
“Afterwards they go to the Sun-god’s isle, where Hyperion keeps his cattle and sheep. It sounded quite peaceful. Can we go there?”
“Of course we can.” The Doctor tapped the coordinates in slower this time, almost surprised at Tommy’s simple request. There was usually more to it where humans were concerned. Autumn was too busy finishing off the novel to notice.
Thrinacie, The Island of the Sun
Night was coming fast, and Autumn admired the sunset across the horizon. She was reminded of a time she had camped out on the coast back in her home planet, watching the suns move their separate ways, always trying to fathom their complex relationship. She took to this isle instantly; its fresh small of grass, and its cool, calming breeze.
A herd of cattle moved slowly past the TARDIS, but no one was to be seen for miles. The animals seemed to know what they were doing. In the distance, a flock of sheep did the same. The Doctor chased after the cattle, scanning them with his sonic screwdriver.
“This isn’t right,” he said, concerned.
“They’re immortal,” explained Tommy. “The cattle of Hyperion.”
“Of course.” The Doctor hit himself on the head with the sonic. “It all makes sense now. The paradox. Look around you. What do you see?”
Silence fell. Autumn replied with the only things that came to her mind. “Grass and water.”
“This world, I mean. What do you see? Because what I see is a paradox waiting to happen. So far history has been self-fulfilling. But what if it wasn’t? What if we were writing it right now, over-writing another history that you were never aware of? What if you are the author of the Odyssey, Tommy Lindsay, and what if you are writing it today – right this second?”
“Okay…” Tommy tried to wrap his mind around it. “But how?”
“Let’s say a whole load of Time Lords relocate here. It’s only so long before the High Council realise something’s up, so the Time Lords here set up a system to keep themselves hidden. These aren’t the oxen of the sun god – they’re the machine of the Time Lords. Immortal, because they’re living fixed points in time. They’re fixed, and they’ve got a direct link to the Time Lords. Their history is more important than yours, so the Time Lords here are undetected.”
“That’s complicated.”
“Exactly. It’s brilliant. But more than that, it’s necessary. Not just for the Time Lords to escape the High Council, but for history to survive. If these things weren’t here maintaining the paradox, the whole of time would fall apart.”
“Doctor…” Tommy’s voice was shaking slightly. “I haven’t exactly been straight with you.”
“What do you mean?”
“This part is the cruellest bit of the Odyssey.”
“What?” Autumn spoke up. “You mean you didn’t tell him?”
“Didn’t tell me what? I’m starting to wish I’d re-read this now.”
“Okay.” Tommy sat down in the grass. The other two joined him. It was like a mythological picnic.
“Circe – or the Rani; whoever - warns Odysseus of Thrinacie. She warns him not to come here, and that if he does, he can’t kill the animals.”
“Makes sense,” said the Doctor, approving. “Killing these things would break the paradox altogether. It would finish the Time Lords, and possibly the whole Ancient World.”
“Here’s the thing… Eurylochus makes Odysseus stay. And then he, well…” Tommy looked to the floor. “He convinces the others to kill and eat the oxen. They stay for six days and feast on the meat. When they set out again, Zeus kills them all, and only Odysseus lives on.”
“So why bring us here, Tommy?” The Doctor studied him, trying to work out what to make of him with the change of circumstance.
“I just wanted to see if it was true, see what you made of it. And then you said about the fixed point in time. Look, if we saved them-“
“No,” interrupted the Doctor. “Before you even go there, it’s not what I do.”
“But you said so yourself, we’re writing this history. We’re writing the book now. I want to write my ending, I want to tell the story again. A story where they lived.”
However much Autumn disagreed, she couldn’t help but admire him, treating history as a story-book; a narrative whose rules were purely poetic.
“They were young men,” continued Tommy. “They were scared and they wanted to get home – home to mothers, wives, children. And they made a mistake; they followed the stupidity of one man who decided to disobey what Odysseus had advised. It killed them all.”
The Doctor considered.
“They deserved it,” declared Autumn. “They were fools of men. Odysseus said so himself.”
“Are you saying they deserved to die?” questioned Tommy.
“No. I’m not saying they deserved their fate, they just don’t quite deserve saving from it, either.” Autumn’s logic was cold but irrefutable.
“But we have an opportunity here. To save lives. Isn’t it our duty, isn’t that what we do?”
“Those men were being picked off like flies. Their ridiculous actions at Ismarus had six from each ship killed. Then even since we met them – the Cyclops, dashing out the brains of six men; the Laestrygonians destroying the ships; Scylla snatching up another six as Odysseus watched. They cried out his name. Look, Tommy, I know it’s not what you want to hear but those men were doomed from the start. Only Odysseus would ever have made it back from Ithaca.”
“And what if you were Odysseus?” pleaded Tommy. “What then?”
“My whole planet’s gone, Tommy. My species. Don’t you think I’d go back and save them if I could? But I can’t. Imagine the ramifications. I’d never have met the Doctor, I’d never have made him suffer. And without that suffering, he’d never have done all the wonderful things he did. He’d never have met Robin Moon again, never have met you. We’d never even be here.”
The Doctor smiled.
“Odysseus will suffer but he will accomplish things just as great.”
“Doctor?” Tommy looked to the Time Lord. “You’ve been at this longer than us. I say we put it to you.”
“I’d say we don’t have much choice.” The Doctor looked out to the distance. Tommy sighed in a final frustration. On the other side of the island, a fire was burning.
“Doctor.”
The three of them turned around. A silhouette stood by the seafront, sad and enigmatic.
“Aeolus.”
“The paradox is broken. Those idiots – I knew they’d ruin everything. Our mechanism will kick in in a few days. They’ll be killed, to ensure their role in breaking the paradox doesn’t leave a wound in time. But now the High Council are aware of our activities on Earth, we’ve all got to flee. I’m going to have to go very far and hide somehow. Doctor, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to have to tell you this.”
“Tell me what?”
“The reason we’re all here. It's you.”
The Doctor’s hearts thumped. “What do you mean?”
“So many of us were working in small colonies around Gallifrey. Getting out of the citadel because we hated it there. It was safe, for a while. Until someone bombed the Dalek Parliament.”
The Doctor felt a lump in his throat.
“It was after you, Doctor. After what you did. You did more than just make people feel safe, more than just make the Daleks feel scared. You did the most dangerous thing anyone in the universe could do right now - you destroyed the one bit of structure they had. Their one chance at being mannered and thoughtful, and you blew it up. We had a system. It was working. And you went and tore it down.”
The Doctor was speechless, looking to himself in hope of reason.
“It’s my fault.” Autumn stepped forward. “I made him. I gave him the incentive, I drove him insane. And quite frankly, every Dalek blown up is a conscience cleared. He did the right thing. So you can either accept that, punish me or get out because he’s been through enough.”
For the first time talking to Autumn, Aeolus did not smile. He simply nodded, understanding. “Getting out.”
“Oh.” He turned back as he walked to the sea. “I never told you my name. I was…” he looked up to the sky, his tone of voice changing to something sombre, funereal. “I was the Gatherer.” And with that, he was gone.
“What…” the Doctor swallowed, turning back to his friends. “What happened to Odysseus next?”
“After he lost his friends, he spent seven years on Calypso’s island. Most of it weeping. He fought and fought and in the end he made it home.” Tommy looked back on his memories of the Odyssey fondly. “He walked back into Ithaca and once he’d worked his way back into his home, he shot every suitor dead and saved his wife. The greatest hero who ever lived.”
“Shot everyone dead?” The Doctor spoke doubtfully. “Doesn’t sound like much of a hero to me. A hero doesn’t kill his enemies to save the day.”
“A hero doesn’t,” agreed Tommy. “A hero also doesn’t get his men killed, sit at the seafront staring disconsolately home, lash out in anger at one of his most loyal comrades or sleep with every woman he meets as a favour to get them on his side. A hero doesn’t need the help of gods, doesn’t break laws or make decisions worthy of an idiot. But we all know there aren’t heroes in the real world. A hero can only exist in a universe far simpler than the one we’re cursed to endure. Instead, we get the closest thing – men like Odysseus. Men who in a kinder world could be heroes. And if we have one duty, it’s to help them.”
“Then maybe you should be the one to do that,” suggested the Doctor. “After all, you know more about him than the rest of us.”
“And knowledge is all I’ve got. He doesn’t need his fan, Doctor.” He looked to Autumn. “He needs his goddess.”
***
Ogygia, Five Years Later
Odysseus sat disconsolately, staring out to sea in his usual spot. Calypso was inside; he could hear her beautiful singing, feel it drifting across the sea, and wished that he too could become weightless and glide his way back to those he loved. Someone sat down next to him. He turned, somehow calm. It was Athene.
“You’re going to be here a while longer,” said Athene, practising her pebble-dashing. “You know what the Cloud-Gatherer is like – a little too patient. But you’ll get back. However much trouble he’s caused you, he still wants you to get home. So why don’t you tell me a little about yourself?”
“With respect, Athene, you know more than I do.”
Athene moved closer and put her arm around him. “I’m no psychic, I just watch. Tell me what you’re feeling right know. I want to share it with you.”
London, Earth – the early twenty-first century
Tommy Lindsay sat at the edge of the table, occupied by fourteen year-old ideas, trying to multi-task. He moved his book towards his side of the desk. The girl with the freckles looked like she was about to sneeze again. The teacher rolled his eyes, sensing the same thing.
“Tommy,” began the teacher.
The girl sneezed.
“Tommy.” The teacher started again. “Tell me – why do you think Athene helped Odysseus? She didn’t owe anything to him. And her nephew hated him.”
“Well I…” Tommy tried to gather what he knew of the story. He was still taking it in, wishing he’d done his revision. It seemed like a decent enough book, albeit a bit fanciful.
“I suppose,” he decided, making up his mind then and there. “She didn’t see courage in him, but… I don’t know. She saw something else, like, not the good, heroic traits. She saw his desperation and his mistakes, and maybe it was those things that drew her to him. I just get the impression that that’s the kind of person Athene was.”
“And is that a good thing?” The teacher was impressed; pushing him further.
“I think so.” Tommy considered. “If Athene had been real, I think she’d have been a good person.”
“Do you think you’d have got on with her.”
“Ooh,” teased the boy at the other end of the table. “Tommy and Athene.”
“Yes,” said Tommy, ignoring him. “Yes, I think we would have.”
“Then maybe you should be the one to do that,” suggested the Doctor. “After all, you know more about him than the rest of us.”
“And knowledge is all I’ve got. He doesn’t need his fan, Doctor.” He looked to Autumn. “He needs his goddess.”
***
Ogygia, Five Years Later
Odysseus sat disconsolately, staring out to sea in his usual spot. Calypso was inside; he could hear her beautiful singing, feel it drifting across the sea, and wished that he too could become weightless and glide his way back to those he loved. Someone sat down next to him. He turned, somehow calm. It was Athene.
“You’re going to be here a while longer,” said Athene, practising her pebble-dashing. “You know what the Cloud-Gatherer is like – a little too patient. But you’ll get back. However much trouble he’s caused you, he still wants you to get home. So why don’t you tell me a little about yourself?”
“With respect, Athene, you know more than I do.”
Athene moved closer and put her arm around him. “I’m no psychic, I just watch. Tell me what you’re feeling right know. I want to share it with you.”
London, Earth – the early twenty-first century
Tommy Lindsay sat at the edge of the table, occupied by fourteen year-old ideas, trying to multi-task. He moved his book towards his side of the desk. The girl with the freckles looked like she was about to sneeze again. The teacher rolled his eyes, sensing the same thing.
“Tommy,” began the teacher.
The girl sneezed.
“Tommy.” The teacher started again. “Tell me – why do you think Athene helped Odysseus? She didn’t owe anything to him. And her nephew hated him.”
“Well I…” Tommy tried to gather what he knew of the story. He was still taking it in, wishing he’d done his revision. It seemed like a decent enough book, albeit a bit fanciful.
“I suppose,” he decided, making up his mind then and there. “She didn’t see courage in him, but… I don’t know. She saw something else, like, not the good, heroic traits. She saw his desperation and his mistakes, and maybe it was those things that drew her to him. I just get the impression that that’s the kind of person Athene was.”
“And is that a good thing?” The teacher was impressed; pushing him further.
“I think so.” Tommy considered. “If Athene had been real, I think she’d have been a good person.”
“Do you think you’d have got on with her.”
“Ooh,” teased the boy at the other end of the table. “Tommy and Athene.”
“Yes,” said Tommy, ignoring him. “Yes, I think we would have.”
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NEXT TIMEPassing in the Night
Arriving on a lighthouse in the deep space, Tommy begins with an unfathomably bleak first peak at the wider universe - but that's not all. Here, light years away from any other life, something is waiting; watching. Something which should never have been guided here. Something ancient, passing in the night... Episode List: 1. The Magic Box 2. Dinner With Nobody 3. Passing in the Night 4. A Shop For Limbs 5. Material Values 6. The Cloud Beneath The Sea 7. Wish You Were Here 8. A Castle Deep in the Woods 9. In Slumber Repose 10. A Perfect Circle 11. Under Ice 12. Waking the Witch 13. The Morning Fog |