The Chronicles of Dr. Hugh

Dr Hugh and the Creature from Beyond Time

hey were hunting him.

He ran through the streets desperately trying to throw them off. Down back alleys, through the crowded market, but still they followed, they had an eager blood-lust in them, an easy collar and perhaps, some fun later. However, for the moment, this cat and mouse situation would suffice.

They chased him up the dark road, crunching on the broken glass of the old street lamps. Cursing as the litter stained their clean uniforms. Their prey darted into a dim alley, they smiled, licked their lips in anticipation, no escape for him down a dead end. Out with the rubber hoses, slapping them gently in their palms, they turned the corner. He was gone.

There were no doorways, an unclimbable brick wall at the end, he wasn't even behind the strange blue box; which seemed strangely out of place, in their minds. Sighing they turned their backs and went in search of other quarry.

Chest heaving, fear pouring from him, he lent against the door of the blue box. Relief flooded through him as he heard the cops depart.
"Give 'em a few minutes and I'll be off home" he sighed. It was then that he realised he was standing on a plush pile carpet, subdued lighting infiltrated the room and gentle, romantic music played in the background.

He turned slowly, instead of the small interior he'd expected, a large sized room confronted him. He brushed the furry dice hanging from the ceiling away from his face, and he gaped at an electronic bar which was in the middle of the floor mixing a cocktail, with cherries and even an umbrella in it.
"Hi man, come in and take a drink" the man drawled. He was sitting on a sunken sofa with each arm spread round a scantily clad beautiful girl. He was dressed in snappy trousers, alligator skin shoes and a silk shirt. Buttoned low to reveal a hair encrusted chest and a gold medallion the size of a saucer. Under the greased black hair a Latin face looked back at him.
"Hey man sit down, you look tired", he stood, "My name's the Doctor, Doctor Hugh, but you can call me sir!! Ha ha ha"
"The Doctor, but you're supposed to be ..."
"Oh yeah man, that old T.V. program, I dumped that image long ago, too prudish if yer know what I mean. Ha Ha, Hey girls why don't you go a' slip into something more revealing hey!". They left the room, giggling as he fondled their behinds. "Not bad eh! I picked them up at the Andromeda slave market the other day. Trained from birth in the art of eroticism. Ha ha."
"But what happened to your other assistants?"
"Those old prudes, I dumped them. Look man you don't go through eight hundred years of life without getting a bit bored. So I decided in this reincarnation to splash out a bit, take a holiday, relax and enjoy myself, ha ha ha! If you know what I mean!"
"But what about your fans, won't they be disappointed?"
"Ah sod 'em, I'm fed up with all those whining goody goodies. I can tell you man, this is the most I've enjoyed myself in a long time. You pick up a lot of info in eight hundred years, especially from my last body, the guy in the white coat, Eastern European accent and a fetish about perverted dreams. So I'm on holiday and I enjoy myself, what else is there to do?"
"Well you could save the world from the Empress and her police."
"Nah, she's a good dame, got the right ideas in her pretty little head and I've got a date with this ice maiden over in the Pluto tomorrow. So got to rush if you'd just step outside, the cops are waiting for you. Remember, enjoy yourself."

As he left, he saw the blue box with its go faster stripes and Carlos Fandango extra wide trim slowly fade away into nothingness.

The pain. Unbearable pain. The worst yet. His fingers ripped at the greased hair. His face distorted in agony. Mouth wide in a silent scream. He collapsed behind the bar. The girls fled the room in blind panic.

Moans rose and drifted throughout the room and were then cut off.

A hand reached up and gripped the bar in an uncertain hold. A pale hand, not a Latin hand. The rest of the new body followed. The clothes had ripped as the stature had grown.

Instead of the small Latin lover, stood a young man of average height. Long, dark hair flowed over his shoulders and a solid, slightly gaunt square cut face looked into the reflection on the panel of the bar. A melancholy Anglo-Saxon face with a touch of the Celt looked back and smiled. "Ah much better, now I can save the universe once more. And look at what that damn dago has done to the LEXIS. A spring clean seems in order!" "I'm back and I'm staying this time!"

The warriors stared in superstitious fascination at the blue megalith standing in the middle of the stone circle. The druids started a chant to drive the evil spirits away, then fell silent as a door opened and a figure stepped out. A GOD. They dropped to their knees and the young man, with light blazing out from behind him, looked slightly bewildered for a while. Then he shrugged and dropped a box full of fluffy dice and medallions on the scorched grass, then he turned and went back into the pillar. "Oh mighty lord, Lugh, you have come to save us from the depredations of the Saxon raiders?" He dropped the carpet alongside the box. "What?"
"You have come to save us?"
"Err, oh yes of course, saving worlds, my speciality. Here in this box is your salvation" said Hugh warming to his task. "This crystal (garish) tankard must be taken to a far off king and used as a test for your brave knights, this sword in a stone with "A PRESENT FROM TINTAGEL" written on it, whoever can draw it from the stone will be the next king. Ah yes, if you really want to win you've got to build a monument to me on this very spot. A splendid creation which will last forever. If this is done you will triumph over the Saxon scum and be forever blessed."

With this he made some mystic gestures with his right hand and disappeared back inside the pillar. The warriors threw themselves to the floor in terror as it faded away.

The chief druid fingered the holy relics with a strange thoughtful look on his face and then said, "Where's Aurelius?" A question which was never answered, at least not for him. But he consoled himself with the two angels 'Lugh' had left behind.

The Doctor turned from the control panel, glanced around the room, then did a double take at the broad shouldered, muscle bound, sun tanned warrior hefting a large sword at him. "You are not the everlasting light Lugh!"
"I never said I was, did I!"
"You are an impostor and I will slay you or die nobly in the attempt, you foul demon from Valhalla."

The warrior then realised that the pillar was bigger on the inside than the outside and promptly fainted. Doctor Hugh sighed, slipped his thumbs into his leather belt, sighed again and took off his denim jacket and chucked it into the corner. The scarf followed it as it was always getting in the way.

He turned to the console and busied himself with the controls, a few seconds later the strains of hard rock filled the craft. Hugh then dragged the unconscious body of the warrior into a bedroom and arranged him on the bed. Then he went and hid the warriors weapons behind the sofa.

Slapping the warrior in the face a few times didn't do much but the glass of water did. Spluttering Aurelius sat up. "Ah the demon kills me."
"Oh shut up and listen. My name's the Doctor, Doctor Hugh, I'm no demon, but I am a universally famous film star and saver of the galaxy and it looks like I'm stuck with you. So cut the demon bullshit and we'll get on brilliantly, understand?"
"Err, yes."
"Good, we're now travelling through time to London, so I can pick up a new girl assistant."
"Time?"
"Don't worry about it, just think of it as magic and you'll get used to it."

Fiona looked at the notice again, it seemed just for her.

'Assistant required. Must be intelligent, quick witted, willing to undergo hardship and exercise and must be willing to travel widely. Apply room 666 Keane's Building, today or yesterday.'

"Next please!"
"Hello, my name is Komrade Helga, I want this job, to be able to spread Communism by glorious revolution throughout the world. Do you want to buy a copy of Socialist Worker?"
"No thanks I'm a capitalist. Next please!"
"Hi, my name is GiGi and I'd just love to have the job because I like fluffy baby animals and I've got big breasts and I want to sit on your lap."
"Hum ... no I can't, next", Hugh breathed in a gasping sort of voice.

Fiona entered, a trifle nervous and sat in the hard backed chair across the table from a harassed looking young man. "Hello, my name's Doctor Hugh, tell me why you want the job."
"Well, I'm unemployed at the moment. I only just finished my law degree you see and I need a job. Plus I've always wanted to travel and I won't get another chance."
"Good, good, tell me do you scream a lot?"
"Err, no, why?"
"Never mind, you've got the job, meet me at the police box by 6pm tonight. Prompt. With your bags packed and you're affairs in order."
"Will I need my passport?"
"Not where you're going!"

5.55pm and still a way to go, she wasn't going to make it. Trying to run through the city with heavy bags had been too tiring after everything else. There it was, the police box, its blue light flashing on the top and it was slowly disappearing in front of her eyes.

Gone. She looked at her watch, 6.01pm. All for nothing! She collapsed sobbing to her knees. The despair of the past few weeks welling up from inside. "One minute late Miss Gulliver! Don't let it happen again." She clambered to her feet and stared with abject horror at the blue police box, standing there, taunting her. "Come on, we haven't got all day. Into the LEXIS, Aurelius will help you with your bags."
"It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside! How's it done? Dimension shifts?"
"Mirrors actually." Once again the LEXIS faded from the cities sight only to reappear outside a small Irish pub in the city of Coventry called The Peacock. A young man got out followed by two others. Dr. Hugh got out his green yo-yo and gave it a few spins. Fiona with a curious look on her face asked "Why are we here Doctor? To save the world?"
"Nah, so I can have a decent pint of Guinness, come on, the first round's on me"

The Doctor was listening to Irish folk music, a pint of Guinness in his hand and a dreamy deja vu look on his face. Aurelius was trying to open a packet of crisps and Fiona was sipping something green with an umbrella in it. Glancing around the room the Doctors gaze fell on two men of Aryan extraction reading a book. Its name 'The Economicon'.

Something strange was going on here.

The two were easy to follow, they marched straight with the arrogance of their race, looking neither left nor right, they marched straight through the group of students who had just come in the back door.

The Doctor felt vaguely disconcerted by this group, especially the one in faded denim and long dark hair, who smile a strange enigmatic smile at him. And then he was gone, lost in the crowd.

The Aryans led them through the polytechnic and into the halls of residence. A sinister building, dark and watchful. The tall rows of windows, staring like eyes on a far distant sight which no man could ever see. What the Doctor didn't see as he entered the shadowy hall was a white robed man in the shadows, who, if anyone could have seen his face under the pointed hood, would have seen been seen staring with fervent intent at the Doctor.

The Doctor did, however, see the name of the halls in which he stood, the dread name Pri'ory. "Pri'ory, something terrible is happening here, and we're only just in time to stop it!"
"Doctor, what do you mean?" gasped Fiona, stumbling after him as he rushed down the stairs the two they were following had taken. Down into the cellars of Pri'ory, a labyrinth of twisting tunnels and dead ends, wan lights peered out of the gloom which hung heavy in the air. A murmur of voices reached them down the disused passages. Voices which brought a chill to the listeners. A heavy voice was calling for silence.

"The day of our new glory will soon dawn, the Fourth Reich will be all powerful under the glorious leadership of Adolf Hitler!" A murmur of confused voices crept along to them. "I will explain further. After the war his body was brought here in secret, to this end place and stored waiting for this time. Unfortunately the body has absorbed some of the ancient evil which clings to this place and has become slightly mutated. However, this will just make him more dignified and eager to purify the world. All salute the Fuhrer." The deafening cry of fanatical men echoed through the passages. "Doctor Heinrich will be here in an hours time with the final piece of equipment. So to your duties. Kaptein Steiner guard the sacrifice well, she is essential to our plans. Now go!"
"Dr Hugh I saw something behind us."
"What was it?"
"It's gone now, but it was a white figure or something."
"Come on we've got to get out of here."

Upstairs, in the wholesome air, the Doctor held a conference. "Aurelius, you try to find out where the sacrifice is being kept.I'll go back to the LEXIS to get something that will help us"
"Doctor, what's going on?"
"Never mind that, come on."

"Doctor, what are you making?"
"A sonic screwdriver."
"Why does it look like a machine gun then?"
"Ah, well I must admit it does have certain similarities but its primary purpose is to open doors, or close them in need."

"Herr Doktor, could you come into this room, before we show you the body." Doctor Heinrich looked at the young man and shrugged, the NAZIs were always obsessed by formality. It was probably a document check. "Yes, of cou..." Hugh caught him as he slipped to the floor, quickly put on his white coat, briefly examined the equipment. "You know what to do Fiona?"
"Yes" she said to the disappearing back.

"Ah, Doktor you arrive at last, you have the equipment?", eager eyes fixed on the box at Hugh's feet. "Yes, lets get on with it shall we?" Hugh set up some impressive looking equipment around the monstrous coffin and stared in horror at a broken slab bearing archaic figures. "What have you done here?"
"Oh we broke it while digging the coffin up."

His eyes narrowed, "You are not the Doktor! Guards!" Too late, he stared into the muzzle of the screwdriver and blanched. "Call them off. You don't know what you've done here. You almost raised something that would make your petty Fuhrer look like a flea bite."

Aurelius and Fiona appeared in the doorway, dragging a scared looking girl, and started to run towards the Doctor. "Kill them, the Fuhrer must live!" Machine guns spoke, shells ripped through the room. Aurelius and the girl twisted as the bullets flung them through the air. The Doctor, returning fire, didn't notice as their blood seeped through a crack in the slab. Then the bullets ripped through the equipment the Doctor had brought in, clouds of steam started to rise from the coffin. But still the Doctor didn't notice. "Doctor, the coffin!" The lid tipped, crashing to the floor and splintered into a thousand pieces. A withered claw emerged, talons clutched the coffin sides and drew the old and decayed body up. The body was decayed but a red glow shone from the empty eye sockets. "Alive, Alive." its throat croaked. "Ah, Doctor we met again, it has been many years but I this time I...", it said no more as the sonic screwdriver accomplished its deadly task and blew the ghoulish Nazi back to its grave. "Eat lead Nazi scum" cried the Doctor

The Nazi soldiers just stood and stared at this, their leader, whom they had strived to bring back, dead before their eyes. "But you can't do that" the leader choked, "thats unfair" with tears in his eyes. Then he said no more as white robed hand drew an obsidian dagger across his glistening throat. The other Nazis fled or died in panic and despair. "Fools" the white robe hissed, "they have broken the seal and the Great Ctholera will soon rise!"

It started as a slight tremble and finished with earthshaking quakes and it broke through the foundations of the halls. Its immense bulk pulsing and stretched. Tentacles whipped across the room, stumps that took the place of legs thumped the ground. The joy of freedom was obvious.

Then its eyes lit upon the pitifully small figures standing below. A hunger swelled up inside. With a swiftness not estimated it seized a brace of the white robes and Nazis and fed them to the various mouths sprouting from its putrid body.

"Why do you do this to us master? We feed you!" wept the white robe as he was thrust head first into a gaping maw. "Mortal fool, do you not realise that you are just prawns in the game of the Universe. Merely prawns for the great old ones to play with. And now the world is mine to destroy!"
"Stop! Go back to where you belong, if you are allowed freedom everybody dies, even you!"
"Ha, ha, ha" boomed through the mounds of rubble, "You think I care Doctor, I who've been dead for a million years. You think I care for this?" He flicked a tail and J block collapsed with a screaming of concrete and students. "Why should I care for the world or even the universe after what it has done for me!" It gestured and the remaining two blocks fell to the earth.

It was tall, growing all the time, speaking out of all of the mouths at once. "Then I will force you back!" The Doctor closed his eyes and concentrated, above him laughter thundered out in a thousand tongues. The Doctor opened his eyes and stood staring, while his mouth started to laugh and then "This is illogical captain, may the force be with you Luke! Nanu, nanu. Blake! E.T. go home. In space no one can hear you scream" "Doctor, what's he doing to you, do something!" "He's combining...Welcome to the Twilight Zone..combining all the science fiction films into..I am a free man ... one .. bring me the body of Flash Gordon...when that happens there will be a chain reaction and I'll be utterly destroyed."

"No Doctor, not yet, I'll let you live, I will not be so kind as to let you die, when you could witness the end. The end of everything. Ha, ha, ha, ha!" the laughter echoed like crashing waves over the supine body of the Doctor as the Ctholera lumbered, destructively away.

"Doctor, Doctor, wake up, you've still got to save the world."
"Go away, I want to sleep" "No Doctor, get up or you'll never wake up."
"Ehhh, I suppose so, well girl what are you waiting for, back to the LEXIS!"

"How are you going to stop that thing?" "Ctholera?...its going to be difficult but it might just work."
"What will?"
"A time trap, to pull him back to his death. I'll fix the seal and then no more Ctholera."
"What is he anyway, it was horrible and so, so evil."
"No, not evil, it's beyond evil. Just malevolence for malevolences own sake alone. No emotions, except for the wish for power. He came into existence a long time ago, at the dawn of time, with the other Eldar gods and great old ones who rule the universe. It controlled the forces of the economy, it also had power over time and it used those powers to great effect. The whole universe almost came crashing down. After they managed to snare Ctholera and imprison it here, they created the Economy Lords to mend the rents in the fabric of the economy caused by Ctholera and its ilk. Which is where I come in. Come on, enough of this history we have work to do!"
"Is there anything I can do?"
"Yes...get me a cup of coffee please, black, no sugar."

"It's finished, come we must move the LEXIS." The LEXIS rematerialised in the smoking ruins of Pri'ory. The Doctor emerged carrying a delicate box, held with utmost care. He set it on a rock, twiddled a few knobs. Frowned and then hit it. Lights flashed and it beeped. "Ah, working." A distant crashing shook the ground. "Right Fiona, you go into the LEXIS and press the red button when I come in."
"What are you going to do?" The crashing got nearer and a monstrous shape could be discerned on the horizon. "But Ctholera will kill you."
"It's a good day to die, now get inside."

A shadow loomed over the fragile figure of the Doctor. "You have trapped me Doctor, stripped my powers from me but before I die again you will die for meddling." Ctholera was sinking into the ground and the Doctor with a tube a superglue in his hand was fixing the slab. A rubbery tentacle snaked out and crushed him flat and the fires erupted and a terrible cry rent the air, full of anguish and the words "I shall return" drifted through the night sky.

When the fires had subsided, Fiona picked her way through the rubble, frantically searching for something. "Looking for something?"
"Doctor...how did you survive?"
"Spugged if I know, I just his behind this small rock and didn't even get a scratch. Come on lets go before the autograph hunters arrive!"

The LEXIS faded away and a crumbling pillar slowly toppled over and obscured the slab, the slab which locked Ctholera into its doom and bore the archaic figures

"Do not disturb"

on it.