The information garnered was a bit disconcerting... and inconsistent with Reality As We Know It. That's never stopped the Doctor before, though.

At this time, the Jagaroth were all destroyed. They didn't exist. Only Scaroth had survived the destruction of their ship, and he'd been split into 12 selves and scattered across time, but none of them had made it this far forward in Earth's timeline.

The impression from the Babadook was 'Jagaroth', not 'Scaroth'. It might not have been able to tell the difference, since 'Jagaroth' was both singular and plural. Additionally, if it had been dealing with Scaroth, it would have been in one of his Human identities most likely, in which case it probably wouldn't have known it was a Jagaroth.

Ergo, the Jagaroth were either from 400 million years ago (or further back)... or else some Jagaroth had escaped/survived the destruction of their species from the Megatharg War.

This was not something the Doctor was aware of, though. Scaroth had not been aware of it either.

Since no other Jagaroth had been discovered in those intervening 400 million years, that was probably not the answer, although something could have happened to make them... hidden.

However, they were a time-sensitive race and could probably see into the future, that seemed the more likely possibility. Even that had its problems, though: how could they see that far into the future? How could they possibly account for events during the passing of all that time?

The Doctor steps around the console of the TARDIS, flipping levers and spinning dials, keeping it locked onto the psychic trace. "I don't know what we'll find at the end of this trail, but we need to be careful. The Jagaroth are certainly not the friendliest of people, and we may be dealing with a lone survivor. Or we could be landing in the middle of a war. Either way, we need to find out what's going on before anything else."

OOC: Glad to see activity here again! Hope everybody had a good holiday! Would have posted earlier, but I've been sick on top of holiday stuff.

Jenny followed the Doctor around the console, rather like an enthusiastic puppy, trying to learn and admire and be useful all at the same time. "If these Jaggaroth are this dangerous, shouldn't we come up with some sort of plan? I know we do the whole run away until we can fix the problem thing, but it isn't very constructive! Do you have anything in the databanks about them? Knowledge is power, and right now, most of us in this TARDIS are alarmingly lacking in both!"

Ah, the innocence! The naivety of youth! She actually believed that the Doctor would tell people what was going on, in advance, with clearly defined explanatory terms. She had no way of knowing this was not the case, either because he was playing some cunning game of his own, or he simply didn't have a clue yet. Or, more than likely, both. But she wanted to help, and other than polishing her rifle, there wasn't a lot she could do. Unless she was allowed to fly the TARDIS... Weren't parents meant to give their kids driving lessons?

No, that was for another time. And, indeed, space. They had work to do! She just wasn't clear on what it was, or how to go about it.

"The Jagaroth are extinct," Alan responded. "At least in most time periods. When we are going, they may still be alive and well."

"While the Jagaroth might be temporally psychic in some manner, we don't know yet that these really are the Jagaroth."

"They are callous, vicious and war-like, yet they lost the war they were fighting. While they are highly intelligent, they are not smarter than the Doctor. Always remember that."

"The question really is: are these the Jagaroth from before the war or after the war."

"It might be helpful if we knew who or what it was that defeated the Jagaroth. On the other hand, if they defeated the Jagaroth, do we really want to meet them?"

"I'm wondering, though, what happened to them after they defeated the Jagaroth. Do you think it might have been the Daleks?"

"I dunno... sounds like it might be a trap," Johnny offered. "Is that something these Jagaroth varmints might do?"

"Anyway we can figure that out?"

As the TARDIS flew down the timeline following the psychic trace from the Babdook, it quickly became clear that it was following it back to some time around the war.

400 million years was no different than 400 million miles to the TARDIS. Until, that is, it approached the destination time. Suddenly, the TARDIS was being buffeted by temporal ripples. It happened faster than the TARDIS could compensate and its occupants got tossed around.

It took hands-on effort from the Doctor to reorient the TARDIS so that it was 'dropping' through the ripples rather than hitting them head-on. That smoothed things out considerably, at least to the point where the TARDIS could now compensate for them.

The next step was to figure out what was causing them.

The TARDIS's temporal sensors soon located the source--a time bubble! It was kind of like a hole in time... or a section of the universe that time flowed around. It wasn't natural... not as far as the Time Lords knew. They'd never encountered a natural one in all their travels, but they'd figured out how to make one after determining a reason for it: no time.

And, of course, the psychic trace led straight to it.

The Doctor smiles to his daughter, and says in that tone of voice that he has where one can't be quite sure whether he's being serious or joking, "What good is a plan, anyway? You know the old saying, plans are the first things the enemy shoots at." Which has probably never been a saying, anywhere.

To Alan, he says, "Good questions, and the answer to the first one looks to be during, but…"

Before he can finish the sentence, the TARDIS is rocked and he scrambles to get the right controls while attempting not to be knocked off his feet. Pointing to a lever on the far side of the console, he says urgently, "Jenny, pull that lever! And hold it, it might try to fight you." He then flips a couple of switches, and finally presses a button with the palm of his hand to stabilize things.

Once the floor has stopped shaking, he checks the monitor again. "We hit a time bubble. That's… unsettling. On a number of levels."

"That don't sound too threatening," Johnny answers. "Can we just shoot the bubble? Stick it with a needle or something? What'll happen if it does burst?"

He was still totally in the dark about all this timey-whimey stuff, but he'd picked up a few ideas from the Doctor in his short association with him. One of them was that the more complicated a problem was, the simpler the solution might be.

Jenny threw herself on the lever with enthusiasm, and spoke quietly. "Brilliant!" She'd wanted a proper TARDIS based bit of peril for ages. But as the craft stabilised, she realised the implications.

"I don't think bursting a time bubble sounds too healthy. What if something has been put inside for good reason? Like... maybe it is full of time locked Jaggaroth? Pop the bubble, and we could have a fleet of very angry war-like people after a bit of revenge..."

Sure, they would defeat them. That's what the Doctor did. But it still sounded pretty unpleasant.

"Yes, bursting a time bubble always depends on what's inside of it," Alan concurs with Jenny.

"If there are Jaggaroth inside that are out for revenge, it would be against their adversaries from the war, but, since they lost that war, that would seem to be a bit foolish. Intelligent, but not smart."

He continued to watch the TARDIS's sensor readings but could see no further data being provided. Not surprising, really.

"Well, Doctor, shall we slip inside the bubble and see what's in there? Or do you think it might be a trap?"

"Since they aren't directing the Babadook any more, there's no longer a psychic trace to follow. The TARDIS can't see if there's a trace beyond the bubble or not."

"If it was a broadcast," he explained for Johnny's sake, "we'd be able to pick it up from anywhere. But a trace is like a line of sight--if something gets in the way, we can't see beyond any more. That's what the time bubble is doing--getting in the way. Unless, of course, the trace originated from the bubble."

"Oh, I get that alright," Johnny replies. "Like a telegraph wire. As long as it ain't cut to the next town, you can send a telegram."

"On the other hand, if'n it does get cut, well, you can still get a telegram there by way of Wichita or Abilene. Maybe."

The Doctor smiles to Johnny, and says, "Not quite right, but good analogy! It's more like if someone lit a lantern in the distance for just a moment, but when you get close there's a house in front of you. You don't know if the light came from the house, or if it was just shining through the windows from somewhere behind it."

Looking back to Alan and Jenny, he says, "It may be a trap, but that's never stopped me before. It could also be someone trying to get out of the bubble, using a psychic projection to create a path to follow. I've seen that before. Anyway, even if it isn't the source, how can we pass up a peek inside?"

A sudden bright smile shining from his face, he starts to walk around the console pressing buttons and pulling levers, attempting to slip the TARDIS into the bubble.

More often than not, bubbles tended to burst when something tried to penetrate it. On the other hand, magicians have figured out how to move things in and out of a bubble to astound their audiences.

While the Doctor wasn't trying to astound his audience, he was now playing the part of a magician as he attempted to slip the TARDIS through the bubble's "membrane". It was sort of like matching the TARDIS's surface (via a force field) with that of the bubble and then slowly, cautiously getting them to merge.

It turned out to be easier than expected because the bubble wasn't in a state of flux... not in space, not in  time. It was static. Not impossible, but rare. And, of course, it smacked of artificiality... i.e. man-made. Well, made by some creature, intellect, species, whatever. It didn't occur naturally.

And, yes! There it was! The Jagaroth ship! The bubble was being maintained by the ship. That was not a technology that the Jagaroth had.

"I'm always game for a peek!" Jenny beamed, but observing the Jagaroth vessel, she blinked. "It doesn't look like they went in for aesthetics, does it? Probably got every weapon you can imagine on it, if they're as warlike as you say. What's the next step? Run up, sneak up, or wait for them to attack?"

The notion that they might be approached in a non-aggressive way did not even need mentioning. This was the TARDIS. Of course the weird time bubble universe fighting lunatics would attack! A race called the Jagaroth wouldn't pop over for a cup of tea and a slice of Battenberg. Not even for a rich tea biscuit, the true nadir of beverage accompaniments.

Once inside the bubble, it was easy enough for the Doctor to shift the TARDIS inside the ship. Most of the time, it was a good idea to park it in an obscure corner somewhere, a cargo space, a storage closet... Only when he knew what he was getting into did he materialize the TARDIS right in the middle of everything.

Not unexpectedly, the TARDIS rematerialized smoothly, without any problems. No alarms went off (on the TARDIS at any rate), nothing shook or attacked it. It was almost anticlimactic.

Finishing landing the TARDIS, The Doctor says, "Let's try to avoid being caught to start with. And then try to talk our way out of trouble when we get caught, trying to find out what we can on the way," he adds, quite pointedly saying when rather than if they get caught.

He almost always gets caught eventually.

"Always a prudent course of action," Alan concurred.

"The way this is probably going to go, Johnny, means that your guns might be needed, but just don't shoot the Jagaroth, no matter what they look like or do. However, while it is normally ill-advised, shooting equipment might be necessary."

Jenny hefted up her wicked looking rifle. "Shooting... or running... I'll be right by your side! But no shooting unless it is in the direst possible situation." She added the latter part to reassure her father that she had not gone completely insane. "Talk first, run next, shoot last. It's an easy system to remember!"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:08, Fri 21 Feb 2020.

The Doctor glances to his daughter for a moment, until she's reassured him that she is speaking of a last resort. He can't help but smile just a little bit. The relief of having her back is still keen enough to override his attempt to be stern. "Good. And keep them down, it's hard to talk to someone if they think you're planning on shooting them."

Stepping over to the TARDIS door, he opens it, peeks outside, and if nobody is immediately surrounding them he steps outside.

"I only shoot when there is nowhere else to run." She followed the Doctor with a jaunty step. "Love the running!" She looked around, a little disappointed. "Oh. No welcoming committee?"

The Doctor does not see anyone immediately near the TARDIS, not surrounding it or threatening it, but he does see a dozen or so Jaggaroth moving about on the deck. They are either ignoring the TARDIS or are oblivious to it.

It takes a few seconds for their actions/activities to register, but then he gets the distinct impression that they are being controlled somehow.

Even after he steps out of the TARDIS, their actions don't change.

The Doctor looks concerned as he steps forward, but to test he announces himself to one, "Hello?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:45, Mon 09 Mar 2020.

"It's a bit anticlimatic," Jenny noted. She watched the Jagaroth go about their business, and bit her lower lip. "Just a question, a little thought... If these Jagaroth are so fearsome, dangerous, and all that sort of thing... What does that say about the sort of people who can control them like this? A saying about frying pans and fires comes to mind."

This was definitely a complication. Jenny disliked complications. She was programmed to see things in simple terms, like a good little soldier drone. She was doing all she could to break that behaviour pattern. But this made her nervous.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:32, Thu 12 Mar 2020.

"Controlling them? Maybe. But the real question is how? We wouldn't want to fall under the same control," Alan responds to Jenny's comment.

Following behind the Doctor, he starts scanning the area. The most obvious method, given the appearance, was via some sort of mental power. After that, he'd look for a biological reason.

As the Doctor addresses the first Jaggaroth he runs across, he gets no response... from it or any others. It's as if it doesn't hear him or see him.


Alan immediately picks up some kind of field of mental energy. Although it seems to be a low level field, he quickly realizes that it's specifically tuned to the Jaggeroth brainwaves.

That explains why the Doctor and his companions aren't being affected, and may also explain why they haven't been detected yet.

He is then able to determine that the source appears to be the cargo hold (at least, it would be on another ship) of the Jaggeroth ship. There is clearly something there... he can't quite determine what it is.

"All it says is that they are powerful psychics. Something we already knew. Alan's right, our bigger worry is how."

While Alan tracks down the source of the signal, the Doctor waves his sonic screwdriver at one of the Jaggaroth. "If we see the effect that it's having on their brains, maybe we can figure that out."