Mythical Creatures

Scene 1: The Earth Line

“You can lose yourself. Everything. All boundaries, all time…
And just when the sweet confusion is so intense you think you're gonna die, you kind of do.”
- Bicentennial Man

The Tardis settled in its new location, and the Doctor stepped outside without checking any monitors. He had taken to traveling blindly, using clues in the environment to figure out where and when he’d ended up.

The first thing he noticed was that he’d parked right on a significant ley line, a good place to recharge the engines. The second thing was that it also seemed to be the middle of a road. A brick road, fortunately; devoid of traffic. The third thing was that water was flowing in; he jumped out and pulled the door closed behind him. For some reason, there was a square pool in the middle of the road, and the Tardis fit neatly inside it. He laughed out loud when he noticed the plaque on the ground in front of it:

TAKE TIME TO REFLECT
July 1, 1994

So the signs were in English, and it was at least 1994. That narrowed it down… a little.

He circled the Tardis, stepping over a thin stream at the back that ran straight into the pool, enhancing the flow of energy in the ley line. The stream was coming from a fountain, and beyond the fountain was a cross street, and then a large brick building. There was a clock on its side that read a quarter to ten.

A twelve hour clock. Not all cultures used those. Even fewer used Roman numerals.

When he looked down again, he realized the building was reflected in the fountain. The clock’s reflection would be right underneath the Tardis, in that small pool.

The road seemed to slope downward as it went away from the clock, and he began to walk in that direction. The sun was to his left, and yellow. If it was 9:45 AM, that was east… unless this was a planet that rotated the other way. If it was 9:45 PM, that was west (with the same disclaimer), and the day was very long at this time of year. The weather was fairly warm, so that was possible, but since this street was lined with businesses and restaurants, he would expect it to be populated on a summer evening.

There was a Ben and Jerry’s Scoop Shop on the next corner. That didn’t really narrow down the location much, because they were popular throughout the galaxy. He especially liked their Sonic Banana flavor, though they hadn’t created that until after he blew up the weapon factories on Villengard, so they probably wouldn’t have it now. There were vehicles parked here that fit with 20th and 21st Century Earth technology. It could still be later than that, if this were a backwater planet.

As he crossed the street, he looked to the right, and there was a lake in the distance. Then he glanced down again and saw a word on the ground. It was carved in granite, a block set in the bricks. It was meant to be read from the other direction, but he could see it said “Ulan Bator.” That was an Earth city. Mongolian, to be precise, and a place he’d had a rather unpleasant visit once. This wasn’t it.

Soon he came to two more words, these set to face him: Montreal and Burlington. A building to his right said “Burlington Town Center.” American spelling, but there were enough Burlingtons in America and its off-planet colonies that it still didn’t pin down his location. Nor did it explain why there were other city names in the street. This block and the next were full of them, some facing him, others facing away, varying distances from the center of the road, which was marked with a granite line. Obviously this was a place with abundant granite. Xian, Port-au-Prince, Ho Chi Minh City… now that narrowed down the time a bit more, because Ho Chi Minh City had been renamed after humans abandoned communism. Bogota, Djakarta… another cross street. Now the brick promenade sloped more sharply down. The street was striped crosswise, and though the center line continued, there were no more cities listed. The lining businesses were primarily restaurants, most of which had outdoor tables set up, but no customers right now.

Then he crossed a granite line that curved away from him as it moved out from the center, and he stopped abruptly. The stripes did not continue past the curve; the brick was plain red. But ahead was a granite map of the Earth, nearly as wide as the street, with the north pole facing him. He stared at it as he walked through, turning to look from another angle. Two circles, showing the globe from opposite sides, with the line still running through. To the right was a plaque that explained it.
 

The Earth Line presents Burlington’s place in the world by following our line of longitude around the globe. The granite line down the center of Church Street represents 73°13’ West Longitude (and its continuation on the other side of the earth; 106° 47’ East Longitude). The scale approximates fifty miles on the earth’s surface for every three feet on the Church Street Marketplace.

Laughing, he stood on the map in the place of this city, which he could now identify as Burlington, Vermont, USA, feeling the sun on his face and the ley line running through him. In the distance, he could hear cars on the road, boats on the lake (Champlain, it was called), airplanes in the sky. He knew, as if the Earth itself were telling him, that he was here for a reason.

Scene Selection

1. The Earth Line	6. Three Days
2. Based on a True Story	7. Cassiopeia
3. Tempus Vivat	8. Connection
4. Green Light	9. No Happy Endings
5. Reunion	Commentary