earlgreytea68 | Chaos Theory on Dimensionally Stable Objects on Earth College Campuses (24/26)

Title - Chaos Theory on Dimensionally Stable Objects on Earth College Campuses (24/26)
Author -

earlgreytea68
Rating - General
Characters - Ten, Rose, OCs
Spoilers - None
Disclaimer - I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for the kids. They're all mine.)
Summary - Brem goes to university.
Author's Notes - Thanks to

jlrpuckfor the beta, and sorry about that whole cold-through-the-Internet thing.

Many, many, many thanks to Kristin, for all the ideas. Thanks also to

bouncy_castle79, who once again gave it the first outside-eyes read-through.

The gorgeous icon was created by

swankkat for me, commissioned by

jlrpuckfor my birthday.

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Chapter Twenty-four

Brem had never been so relieved to see his father in his life. He thought for a moment he was just going to fling himself into a hug when his father pulled open the door. His father swept his coat back and his hands into his pockets and said, calmly and evenly, “What’s wrong?”

“There’s—they’re using the books—as weapons—this organization—on campus—the tunnels—”

“You need to take a deep breath and start from the beginning,” said his father. “Seriously, Brem. Listen to me.” He reached out suddenly and tousled his hair. “It’s going to be okay, right? This is us. It’ll be fine.”

Brem took a deep breath and did feel better. The rest of his family had spilled out of the TARDIS and onto the field, looking quite ready for battle, and Brem felt that this was all going to be fine.

He started from the beginning. “There’s a club on campus, it’s called the Organization Welcoming Those Visiting From Abroad. Owtvfa for short.”

“Owtvfa?” said his mother.

“Yeah, I know, it’s silly. Anyway, they wanted me to join, and I thought they just meant because they thought it was British, but it turns out when they meant ‘abroad,’ they meant, like, other-planet abroad. They were all aliens.”

“What sorts?” asked his father.

“That’s the thing. I assumed they were all different kinds, but now I think I was wrong. I think they’re all the same species, and I think they were worried about me because I wasn’t involved in their plan.”

“And what’s their plan?”

“They’ve electromagnetized the books. All the books. The older they are, the stronger the charge.”

“They’re using the books as weapons?” his father said.

“Yeah. From what I can gather. But I can’t figure out why now. I mean, this place is filled with books. So why now? When it could have been anytime all year?”

“Good point,” he mused.

“Maybe it has to do with the species they are,” suggested Athena.

“What do they look like?” asked his father.

“I don’t really know. They look like humans, but I don’t know if it’s an optical screen or not.”

“But they’re using books as weapons,” said Fortuna. “Surely that’s a clue to something.”

“Bibliobolups,” said the Doctor, abruptly.

“What are those?” asked Brem.

“Bibliobolups,” repeated the Doctor, grimly. “Always been obsessed with books. And Earth. It makes sense that they’d try something like this. But they’d have to wait until this time of year to make a move. Their culture forbids them from taking actions between the autumnal and vernal equinoxes of the planet on which they are—no activities in winter--so they would have had to wait until the vernal equinox to do anything, and—”

“And it would be better to wait until finals. Everyone’s in the libraries right now. Maximum destruction,” said Brem. “But what’s the point?”

“Oh, Brem, what’s the point of anything?” he asked, sounding exhausted. “Everyone’s always trying to attack somebody else, and there’s never any real point.”

“How can we get the charge out of the books?” asked Brem.

“They’re charging the books from somewhere. We need to figure out where that is. The sooner the better.”

********

Kate came to in what was clearly Yunny’s dorm room, and what primarily surprised her was that both Yunny and Professor Smith were there. Kate blinked at them.

“Your boyfriend is being troublesome,” Professor Smith told her from where he was leaning against Yunny’s door.

Kate sat on the bed and stared at him, mind racing.

“He’s leaving us little clues, like I’ve time to go looking things up like ‘oncoming storm’ and ‘doctor.’ Stuff out of fairy tales. So insulting. So you’re just going to tell me. What is he?”

“I don’t know what you—”

“You know what I mean. He isn’t of this planet. I know you know. Tell me what he is.”

Kate considered how awful it would be to give the answer to this. She didn’t really relish being knocked out again, and if things were going to get worse from here, she didn’t want to fight unnecessarily. If Brem was giving them clues, including his father’s name, what was the harm in giving them all the info? “He’s a Time Lord,” she said.

Professor Smith made a sound of disgust. “Another myth. Time Lords don’t exist. Is that what he told you he was? He’s lying.”

Kate said nothing. She was quite sure Brem had told the truth. She was equally sure that a nearly extinct race would seem like a myth to these people.

“Useless,” Professor Smith told Yunny. “Completely useless. Tyler’s got no tricks up his sleeves. Lock her up, the books will take care of her, and we’ve got to be off.” Professor Smith turned and left the room without looking back.

********

They found the book electromagnetizer in a basement room of one of the classroom buildings. “Not the library,” his father said. “Makes sense. They’d want it away from the primary destruction. Deadlock seal the room so we can work,” his father said, and Brem turned back, aiming his sonic screwdriver.

The five of them stood in front of the book electromagnetizer, Brem and the Doctor holding their sonics. “Welllllll,” his father drawled, finally. They looked at each other, and the Doctor grinned and twirled his sonic. “Shall we get to work?”

The book electromagnetizer was not complicated, just tedious, and even with all of them working as quickly as possible, it was taking forever to get the bloody thing out of commission. Brem was on his back under one side, aiming the sonic delicately at one of the filigreed wire connections, when the banging started on the door.

“We’ve been discovered,” he heard his father say, from the other end of the machine.

“Oi!” Athena shouted through the door. “Bibliobolups! We’re a bit busy disabling your stupid world-ending machine!”

“Theenie,” hissed his mother. “Can we at least try not to provoke people?”

“What? They’re tossers.”

“And watch your language,” he heard his mother say.

Brem suddenly slid out from under the machine, listening. “Did they go away?”

“What?” asked his father.

“Fort, open that door.”

“What?” said his mother. “What if they’re—”

But Fortuna had already pulled the door open, revealing an empty hallway.

Brem felt his father stop working, walk over to stand beside him.

“Why would they leave?” he asked, slowly.

“This isn’t the only machine.” Brem looked back at the device they were working on, his head doing mathematical equations. “Do you know how many books there are around here? This isn’t nearly big enough to be holding the charge on all of them. Oh, God, we should have seen it immediately.” He tore his hands through his hair. “Bloody hell, they must have these things littered all over campus.”

There was a moment of silence, then his father turned to his mother and Athena and Fortuna. “We need to get everyone out. Everyone out of this campus. Everyone you can find.”

“Theenie, stop at my room, make sure you get Matt,” Brem told her.

“Yeah,” she said, nodding.

His father turned to him. “You’ve got this one covered, yeah? I’ve got to go look for the next one.”

Brem nodded.

“Deadlock seal this door behind us,” his father said. And then the rest of his family vanished.

Brem deadlock sealed the door and turned back to his book electromagnetizer.

********

Athena went racing across campus toward Brem’s dorm room, leaving her mother and Fortuna in the middle of an argument about whether or not Fortuna would be allowed to stick with Athena or needed to stay with her mother. She didn’t have time for the argument, and she paused impatiently by the door to the dorm when Fortuna shouted her name and came dashing up.

“I won,” she said, sounding pleased with herself.

“Good,” Athena responded, shortly, pulling open the door, and they ran down the hallway to Brem’s room, both sliding inside it.

Matt looked up from where he was reading a book at his desk. “Hey,” he said. “I don’t know where your brother is, if that’s what you—”

“Matt, we have to go,” Athena said, without preamble. “The campus is being attacked by aliens.”

Matt blinked. “What?”

“We’re under attack, and we could use your help to get everyone out. Can you help?”

Matt glanced out the window at the campus, where everything looked perfectly normal. “How do you know we’re being attacked?”

“Because we’re aliens, too,” she said.

Matt looked at her for a second. Then he said, “My God, that explains so much.”

“Exactly.”

He stood and winked at Fortuna. “So let’s get everyone off campus then.”

“Molto bene,” said Athena, but Matt caught her hand as she turned to run.

“So wait a second,” he said. “This means you’re genuinely serious about the tentacle thing, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Sorry. But if I wasn’t into tentacles, I’d be all over you, you know.”

********

Yunny locked her in the closet of the dorm room, and Kate sat in the dark and tiny space and struggled to pull Brem’s Christmas gift to her out of her pocket. “Okay,” she whispered to herself, flipping through the settings on it. “Let’s hope you gave me an unlock setting, Brem, because I don’t have any bobby pins.” She knew there was a lock setting, but it was the opposite effect she was interested in at the moment, and she wasn’t sure if it existed. At least, not for standard door locks. She began pressing buttons at random on the device, because she never had completely figured out what all of the settings did. Suddenly, the building’s fire alarm sounded, and Kate jumped a mile. Great. Perfect. Yunny was probably hoping to burn her alive. Kate pressed buttons on the sonic more frantically. It buzzed and flashed and made odd noises, turned itself into a comb and then a brief flicker of flame as she passed through the lighter setting, probably boiled several eggs in the vicinity, and then, abruptly, finally, the closet door clicked open.

She was going to kiss Brem hard when she saw him next, she decided, in relief, as she pushed the door open.

Yunny’s bedroom was deserted, and Kate moved through it a run, the alarm sounding louder now. She yanked Yunny’s bedroom door open, just in time to tumble into the arms of a man who had been running full-tilt down the hallway.

He straightened her impatiently. “Didn’t you hear the fire alarm? We’ve got to get out of here.”

Kate gaped at him, at the shock of messy hair and the freckles, and realized suddenly why Brem was always going on about having to find a better coat. Because that right there was a great coat he was sporting.

The man’s hand found hers, fingers intertwining, and then he grinned at her. “Run,” he said.

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