FIC: Down the Rabbit Hole [Doctor Who]
Title: Down the Rabbit Hole
Author: atraphoenix
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters: Liz Shaw/River Song and the Third Doctor
Rating: PG
Summary: Liz found that she wanted to give River a chance that she didn’t necessarily deserve. It was unusual and irrational, but she’d felt the same way when she’d met the Doctor for the first time.
Author's Note: Written for birdsarecalling as part of the dw_femslash ficathon.
The narrow country road hadn’t been designed to facilitate large vehicles, but the Doctor had already cut down the expected journey time significantly and he had no intention of slowing down. Liz held on to her hat as they accelerated around corner after corner, sending clouds of sparrows fluttering out of the hedgerows. The last turn revealed the bustling, if hastily constructed, UNIT field station that they had been looking for.
Liz had spent a large part of the journey from HQ studying the report that had prompted them to travel to North Wales in the first place. Two days ago, a local farmer had reported seeing strange lights emanating from an archaeological site at the edge of his land. The first police car that had been sent to investigate had disappeared and the second police car had reported unusual noises beneath the ground. At that stage, UNIT had decided to take over.
A preliminary sweep had established that the site - a burial mound constructed before the Roman invasion - was, in fact, an alien spaceship of unknown origin. The Doctor had been given the task of identifying where the ship had come from, why it had arrived on Earth and, most importantly of all, what had activated it after so many centuries. Liz had travelled with the Time Lord to pass him any test tubes he might need.
She couldn’t pretend that she was happy with her role. In fact, she came very close to hating it. Liz didn’t have the Doctor’s knowledge of alien worlds, but she was a scientist in her own right. One day, she’d walk away from UNIT. For now, she was content - content enough, at least - to learn as much as she could while she still had the patience to learn it.
“Liz, my dear,” said the Time Lord briskly, climbing out of the car and holding out a hand for her to take, “I must find the Brigadier. Would you mind taking a look at the equipment in our laboratory?”
With a smile, and trying to fix her windswept hair with her free hand, Liz stepped daintily out of the vehicle. As long as he continued to refer to it as their laboratory, she wouldn’t protest.
“I’d be happy to.”
There was a woman - red haired and attractive, dressed in surprisingly stylish khaki fatigues - inside the makeshift laboratory when she arrived, picking up and discarding the bits and pieces of equipment that the UNIT soldiers had used to furnish the barn.
“Can I help you?” asked Liz acerbically.
The woman, who didn’t appear to have noticed her arrival, turned and smiled.
“I’m sure you can,” she said, looking her up and down, “But I was actually looking for the Doctor.”
Of course. They always were.
Rather pointedly, Liz - who regarded the woman with a critical eye and a hand on her hip - attempted to get her to answer the question that had been sidestepped earlier.
“Who are you?”
“Professor River Song. Archaeologist.”
“And the Brigadier assigned you to work with us?”
“Not exactly. I’m an old friend of the Doctor’s.”
“I didn’t realise he needed two people to pass him test tubes.”
She’d answered a little too quickly and far too sharply. River Song - Professor River Song, if she was to be believed - raised an eyebrow.
“You must be his assistant.”
“Elizabeth Shaw,” she replied, answering a question that hadn’t been voiced. “Doctor Elizabeth Shaw.”
“Very impressive. Can I call you Liz?”
“Certainly not.”
***
“Ooh, is that the Doctor?” murmured River, peering around the edge of the barn, “I’ve never met this incarnation before. I like it. Very … dapper.”
Liz had no idea what the other woman was talking about, but she’d followed her out of the laboratory in an apparently futile attempt to keep her out of trouble. Didn’t she realise that the site was a restricted area? Or had she decided that the rules didn’t apply to her?
“If you’re so eager to renew your friendship,” said Liz, as caustic as ever, “Why don’t you go and talk to him?”
River surveyed the Brigadier and his soldiers cautiously. For the hundredth time, Liz wondered why she hadn’t alerted the UNIT leader herself. It was the logical thing to do, after all, but there was something oddly charismatic about River Song. She wanted to hear what the apparent archaeologist had to say. She wanted to give her a chance that she didn’t necessarily deserve. It was unusual and irrational, but, well, she’d felt the same way when she’d met the Doctor for the first time, hadn’t she?
“No, I don’t think so. But I would like to see the burial mound.”
“How do you know about the burial mound?”
“I’m an archaeologist, remember?” River reminded her with a laugh, walking away from the Doctor and away from the soldiers. After a short pause, Liz - in her high boots and her short skirt - hurried after her. “That’s why I’m here.”
“Don’t tell me you’re searching for buried treasure!”
“Oh, Liz.” River’s smile - her smug, intelligent smile - reminded her very much of the Doctor’s. “That’s what I do.”
***
The burial mound - neatly marked out by pegs and ropes - was guarded by a small group of soldiers under the command of Sergeant Benton. River grabbed her arm and pulled Liz against her, behind the farmhouse and out of sight. She was reminded, inexorably, of the day she’d stolen the TARDIS key for the Doctor.
“I seem to have developed a habit of breaking the rules for complete strangers,” she remarked in a stage whisper, acutely aware of the way her body was pressed against River’s. She could feel the other woman’s heart beating steadily, despite their clandestine endeavours.
“Fun, isn’t it?” River retorted, her warm red lips a little too close to Liz’s ear.
“That really depends on what you’re planning to do next.”
“I’m planning to get into the burial mound.”
“Why?”
“Because the aliens didn’t just crash their ship, they disguised their ship.”
The penny dropped.
“That’s why you called it a burial mound. That’s what the aliens made it into.”
“Exactly. I’m writing a paper on the habits of this particular species and I was hoping to get a closer look at their work.”
“Illegally.”
“If necessary.”
“Your students must be very proud.”
“And yet you’re still helping me.”
“I must be mad.”
“We’re all mad here,” River said, with a grin like the proverbial Cheshire Cat. “Tell me, do you know why a raven’s like a writing desk?”
“Stop being so ridiculous,” said Liz, though ignoring her was easier said than done. River had such an indomitable presence. When she turned around to search for another entrance to the mound, Liz followed her without giving it much thought. She stepped over rabbit hole after rabbit hole in the farmer’s field, her heels sinking into the mud, and she didn’t realise that something was wrong until it was too late.
There were no strange noises or unusual lights. The rabbit hole simply opened up and swallowed them both. Too shocked to scream, Liz tumbled down into the darkness with River at her side.
***
They landed on the ground in a tangle of arms and legs. Liz managed to disengage herself first, pulling herself to her feet and dusting the soil off her skirt. The narrow tunnel - it looked like a larger version of the rabbit hole they’d tumbled down - was dimly illuminated by electrical lighting, but there was no sign of the sun.
“Where are we?”
“I think we’ve found our way into the burial mound.”
Liz put her hands on her hips, frowning at her companion.
“Did you know this was going to happen?”
“No,” River admitted. “But it was useful, wasn’t it?”
She reached out to tuck a piece of hair behind Liz’s ear. The gesture was so natural and so tender that her heart began to hammer uncomfortably in her chest. (Surely River would be able to hear it? The tunnel was terribly silent ...)
Before she could speak, River grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back against the wall. The tunnel was not as quiet as Liz had assumed. In the distance, she could hear the sound of marching feet and the murmur of indecipherable voices.
“I don’t think that’s Sergeant Benton’s men,” she murmured.
“They’re guards,” River replied, “They were put into stasis when the ship crashed on Earth. Your UNIT soldiers must have woken them up.”
“They’re not my UNIT soldiers. And they’re only here because a police car disappeared.”
“Then maybe the farmer woke them up. It doesn’t matter.” River’s smile - River’s Cheshire Cat smile - was brightly visible in the half light. “We can disable them.”
Before Liz could ask what she meant by that, the sound of footsteps grew nearer. There was nowhere to run, but the guards were only metres away. Cold fear - something that she hadn’t truly felt since she’d been kidnapped by Reegan - blossomed in her chest, but River stayed impossibly calm. She grabbed Liz’s arm with one hand, pressing her palm to the leather strap she wore around her wrist. There was a sharp pain in her head and a loud rushing sound in her ears, but, when it cleared, the guards were … gone? Impossible!
“What did you do?” exclaimed Liz, snatching her arm back. The tunnel - the same tunnel they’d been standing in before - was still and silent once more. River gave her a smirk that suggested that Liz was supposed to be very impressed by this turn of events.
“I moved us ten minutes into the future,” she explained, “The guards are gone.”
“Are you telling me that that device allows you to travel through time?”
“Yes, I am. And yes, it does.”
“A time travelling archaeologist?” Liz remarked, raising an eyebrow. “Doesn’t that rather defeat the point?”
River laughed.
“No wonder the Doctor likes you.”
***
The guards wore uniforms that were constructed from overlapping scales of an eerie black alloy. The metallic plates rippled with each step, shimmering in the low light of the tunnels. They travelled in pairs or in small groups, but, until the commanding officers were revived, they had no real purpose or aim in mind. They’d disposed of the police officers that had stumbled into their ship and, as soon as they found them, they would dispose of the human females that had arrived less than thirty microspans before. Then they would wait, as they had done for centuries. They were nothing if not patient.
***
“Are you all right?”
Liz nodded, opening a flap in her heavy helmet in order to catch her breath.
“I’m fine. How much further?”
The uniforms were uncomfortable and awkward, but, without them, she and River would have fallen at the first hurdle. Only a handful of soldiers had been brought out of stasis, but they still posed a significant threat. They’d passed the remains of the unfortunate police officers - brittle, papery skeletons that had been drained of moisture and life - and they certainly didn’t want to suffer the same fate.
If they disconnected the plasma canisters that were nestled in the heart of the burial mound, Liz and River could restore the stasis field before anyone else was hurt. River had described the canisters as one of the most dangerous potential weapons in any galaxy, as well as the ship’s power source. After taking a look at the remains of the police officers, Liz had been inclined to agree.
“Not far now.”
With a nod, Liz sealed her helmet and fell into step beside River. This was no longer an archaeological expedition. Let the Brigadier take disciplinary action against her! If she could save even a single life by siding with River, she’d continue to do so without a second thought.
***
River pulled off her helmet and dropped it into the dust. The gold box in the middle of the room - impossibly ornate and astonishingly beautiful - glowed softly. The aliens had gone to a lot of trouble to disguise the plasma canisters and make them into part of the mound.
“We did it,” she breathed, “We actually did it.”
Liz removed her own helmet, but, before she could make a comment of her own, River - smiling a smile that was joyful and beautiful and entirely innocent, unlike her earlier Cheshire Cat smirk - turned to her. The gap between them hadn’t been particularly large to begin with. She closed it and kissed her before Liz had a chance to come to terms with what was happening.
The kiss was a kiss of celebration and delight, but the moment was all too brief. Liz had barely started to kiss her back when the room started to shake. Someone - something, speaking in a guttural alien language - was hammering on the door that they’d been very careful to lock behind them.
“Time to go,” said River, quickly, grabbing Liz’s wrist and pulling her towards the box. The ceiling trembled with each blow, dislodging fragments of soil and making it difficult to see. She was ready for the teleport this time, though her head was still swimming from the kiss.
***
The aliens managed to burst through the door a moment later, but they were too late. They stumbled over the discarded armour and watched, furious and horrified, as the two humans faded from view.
Their triumphant smiles were the last things to disappear.
***
The hasty transport to the surface knocked the wind out of Liz. Breathing hard, she leaned back against the wall of the barn. When she straightened up, River was gone. She’d taken the gold box - and the plasma canisters - with her.
She shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was. River had appeared out of nowhere and she’d been bound to disappear just as suddenly. Really, Liz had been a fool to think that the adventure they’d shared - that passionate, joyful kiss of relief and celebration - had been anything other than … than a partnership born of convenience! River had needed an assistant and Liz had been there.
How would she explain what had happened to the Doctor and the Brigadier? It would have been a difficult conversation if she’d had the canisters in her hand. Without them, it was all but impossible.
After considering her position, Liz - resigned and more than a little bitter - made her way back to the Doctor’s makeshift laboratory. It didn’t occur to her to lie to her colleagues. She could imagine the Brigadier’s displeasure and - even worse than that - the Doctor’s disappointment, but brushing what had happened under the metaphorical carpet was not an option.
The worst thing they could do was dismiss her for losing the canisters. But she was always talking about returning to Cambridge, wasn’t she? It would be all right. She had made plans to leave on half a dozen occasions. Her superiors would simply be making the decision she should have made for herself a long time ago.
She pushed open the door and paused, taking a deep breath and summoning up the courage to face the Doctor. She’d never felt so foolish. She’d been in a number of seemingly helpless situations since joining UNIT, and she had spent years in the occasionally cutthroat world of academia, but River’s betrayal - what else could she call it? - had left her feeling brittle and bitter. Liz had always thought of herself as an intelligent, practical sort of person. She’d allowed herself to get swept away in an adventure and …
... and it couldn’t be!
The plasma canisters were lined up neatly on the Doctor’s unused desk. There was no sign of the Time Lord himself, or, indeed, of the enigmatic River Song, but there was a note addressed to Liz.
Sorry for rushing off. I’ve kept the boxes - I’ve got a paper to write, after all - but I thought you and your friends at UNIT might find these useful.
I’ll be seeing you again x
Liz read the note three times before it sank in. Then, with a laugh, she tucked it into her pocket and left the laboratory in search of the Doctor.
***
Six months later, Liz stepped out of her laboratory at Cambridge University, hanging her white coat on a hook next to the door. The night watchman - the only other person in the building at this late hour - gave her a nod as she passed him and crossed into the car park. Although she’d left UNIT’s erratic working hours behind her - along with a great many other things that she refused to admit she missed about UNIT - the sensitive nature of her experiments forced her to remain behind when everyone else had already returned home. Or so she told herself. There was a good chance that she was simply trying to fill hours that now felt achingly empty.
To her great surprise, River was waiting outside, wearing a pair of sunglasses and a smirk as she leaned against the bonnet of Liz’s eminently practical Ford.
“What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you. Do you always work so late?”
“When I have to.”
“You know what they say, don’t you? All work and no play …”
“… makes Liz a dull girl. Yes, I know.”
“I was going to say ‘means that Liz needs a holiday’.”
“I can’t take a holiday at such short notice.”
“Of course you can,” she replied, holding up her wrist and her familiar wrist strap, “Time travel, remember?”
Despite herself, Liz was intrigued. Recently, she’d spent a lot of time staring down microscopes. She hadn’t realised that she’d miss alien threats - or the thrill of identifying and solving a problem that threatened the security of an entire planet - until she’d left them far behind.
“What did you have in mind?”
“I’m organising a dig in Cairo - the planet, not the city - and I thought you might like to visit the site. It’s beautiful. Crystalline deserts and a sky the colour of emeralds ...”
“It does sound beautiful,” Liz conceded, “But what’s the catch?”
“Catch? I’m hurt.”
“And I’m realistic.”
“An excellent quality in an assistant.”
Liz bristled immediately. She’d left UNIT because she had refused to spend the rest of her career passing test tubes to the Doctor. She could scarcely believe that River was making her the same unfathomable offer.
“It wouldn’t be like that,” said River quickly, “I promise. No fetching or carrying or passing equipment. All you have to do is keep me company and help me explore an alien planet. Can you really walk away from an offer like that?”
Liz glanced at her car and her briefcase and the dark laboratory behind her.
No, she couldn’t.
***
The planet was more than simply beautiful. It was astonishing. Liz stooped down to scoop up a handful of sand particles, allowing the utterly unfamiliar material to run between her fingers. The sky bathed everything - including the tent from which River, who had been sorting out the paperwork, emerged - in a soft, greenish sunrise.
“Right,” said River briskly, “Are you ready?”
Still mystified by the crystals, Liz managed a nod of ascent.
“Great. Will you pass me that chisel?”
Her expression of delight turned into a look of pure horror.
“It was a joke, Liz,” laughed River, slipping an arm through the other woman’s, “Fancy a drink?”
“A drink? At this time of morning?”
“Welcome to the 51st century.”
Author: atraphoenix
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters: Liz Shaw/River Song and the Third Doctor
Rating: PG
Summary: Liz found that she wanted to give River a chance that she didn’t necessarily deserve. It was unusual and irrational, but she’d felt the same way when she’d met the Doctor for the first time.
Author's Note: Written for birdsarecalling as part of the dw_femslash ficathon.
The narrow country road hadn’t been designed to facilitate large vehicles, but the Doctor had already cut down the expected journey time significantly and he had no intention of slowing down. Liz held on to her hat as they accelerated around corner after corner, sending clouds of sparrows fluttering out of the hedgerows. The last turn revealed the bustling, if hastily constructed, UNIT field station that they had been looking for.
Liz had spent a large part of the journey from HQ studying the report that had prompted them to travel to North Wales in the first place. Two days ago, a local farmer had reported seeing strange lights emanating from an archaeological site at the edge of his land. The first police car that had been sent to investigate had disappeared and the second police car had reported unusual noises beneath the ground. At that stage, UNIT had decided to take over.
A preliminary sweep had established that the site - a burial mound constructed before the Roman invasion - was, in fact, an alien spaceship of unknown origin. The Doctor had been given the task of identifying where the ship had come from, why it had arrived on Earth and, most importantly of all, what had activated it after so many centuries. Liz had travelled with the Time Lord to pass him any test tubes he might need.
She couldn’t pretend that she was happy with her role. In fact, she came very close to hating it. Liz didn’t have the Doctor’s knowledge of alien worlds, but she was a scientist in her own right. One day, she’d walk away from UNIT. For now, she was content - content enough, at least - to learn as much as she could while she still had the patience to learn it.
“Liz, my dear,” said the Time Lord briskly, climbing out of the car and holding out a hand for her to take, “I must find the Brigadier. Would you mind taking a look at the equipment in our laboratory?”
With a smile, and trying to fix her windswept hair with her free hand, Liz stepped daintily out of the vehicle. As long as he continued to refer to it as their laboratory, she wouldn’t protest.
“I’d be happy to.”
There was a woman - red haired and attractive, dressed in surprisingly stylish khaki fatigues - inside the makeshift laboratory when she arrived, picking up and discarding the bits and pieces of equipment that the UNIT soldiers had used to furnish the barn.
“Can I help you?” asked Liz acerbically.
The woman, who didn’t appear to have noticed her arrival, turned and smiled.
“I’m sure you can,” she said, looking her up and down, “But I was actually looking for the Doctor.”
Of course. They always were.
Rather pointedly, Liz - who regarded the woman with a critical eye and a hand on her hip - attempted to get her to answer the question that had been sidestepped earlier.
“Who are you?”
“Professor River Song. Archaeologist.”
“And the Brigadier assigned you to work with us?”
“Not exactly. I’m an old friend of the Doctor’s.”
“I didn’t realise he needed two people to pass him test tubes.”
She’d answered a little too quickly and far too sharply. River Song - Professor River Song, if she was to be believed - raised an eyebrow.
“You must be his assistant.”
“Elizabeth Shaw,” she replied, answering a question that hadn’t been voiced. “Doctor Elizabeth Shaw.”
“Very impressive. Can I call you Liz?”
“Certainly not.”
***
“Ooh, is that the Doctor?” murmured River, peering around the edge of the barn, “I’ve never met this incarnation before. I like it. Very … dapper.”
Liz had no idea what the other woman was talking about, but she’d followed her out of the laboratory in an apparently futile attempt to keep her out of trouble. Didn’t she realise that the site was a restricted area? Or had she decided that the rules didn’t apply to her?
“If you’re so eager to renew your friendship,” said Liz, as caustic as ever, “Why don’t you go and talk to him?”
River surveyed the Brigadier and his soldiers cautiously. For the hundredth time, Liz wondered why she hadn’t alerted the UNIT leader herself. It was the logical thing to do, after all, but there was something oddly charismatic about River Song. She wanted to hear what the apparent archaeologist had to say. She wanted to give her a chance that she didn’t necessarily deserve. It was unusual and irrational, but, well, she’d felt the same way when she’d met the Doctor for the first time, hadn’t she?
“No, I don’t think so. But I would like to see the burial mound.”
“How do you know about the burial mound?”
“I’m an archaeologist, remember?” River reminded her with a laugh, walking away from the Doctor and away from the soldiers. After a short pause, Liz - in her high boots and her short skirt - hurried after her. “That’s why I’m here.”
“Don’t tell me you’re searching for buried treasure!”
“Oh, Liz.” River’s smile - her smug, intelligent smile - reminded her very much of the Doctor’s. “That’s what I do.”
***
The burial mound - neatly marked out by pegs and ropes - was guarded by a small group of soldiers under the command of Sergeant Benton. River grabbed her arm and pulled Liz against her, behind the farmhouse and out of sight. She was reminded, inexorably, of the day she’d stolen the TARDIS key for the Doctor.
“I seem to have developed a habit of breaking the rules for complete strangers,” she remarked in a stage whisper, acutely aware of the way her body was pressed against River’s. She could feel the other woman’s heart beating steadily, despite their clandestine endeavours.
“Fun, isn’t it?” River retorted, her warm red lips a little too close to Liz’s ear.
“That really depends on what you’re planning to do next.”
“I’m planning to get into the burial mound.”
“Why?”
“Because the aliens didn’t just crash their ship, they disguised their ship.”
The penny dropped.
“That’s why you called it a burial mound. That’s what the aliens made it into.”
“Exactly. I’m writing a paper on the habits of this particular species and I was hoping to get a closer look at their work.”
“Illegally.”
“If necessary.”
“Your students must be very proud.”
“And yet you’re still helping me.”
“I must be mad.”
“We’re all mad here,” River said, with a grin like the proverbial Cheshire Cat. “Tell me, do you know why a raven’s like a writing desk?”
“Stop being so ridiculous,” said Liz, though ignoring her was easier said than done. River had such an indomitable presence. When she turned around to search for another entrance to the mound, Liz followed her without giving it much thought. She stepped over rabbit hole after rabbit hole in the farmer’s field, her heels sinking into the mud, and she didn’t realise that something was wrong until it was too late.
There were no strange noises or unusual lights. The rabbit hole simply opened up and swallowed them both. Too shocked to scream, Liz tumbled down into the darkness with River at her side.
***
They landed on the ground in a tangle of arms and legs. Liz managed to disengage herself first, pulling herself to her feet and dusting the soil off her skirt. The narrow tunnel - it looked like a larger version of the rabbit hole they’d tumbled down - was dimly illuminated by electrical lighting, but there was no sign of the sun.
“Where are we?”
“I think we’ve found our way into the burial mound.”
Liz put her hands on her hips, frowning at her companion.
“Did you know this was going to happen?”
“No,” River admitted. “But it was useful, wasn’t it?”
She reached out to tuck a piece of hair behind Liz’s ear. The gesture was so natural and so tender that her heart began to hammer uncomfortably in her chest. (Surely River would be able to hear it? The tunnel was terribly silent ...)
Before she could speak, River grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back against the wall. The tunnel was not as quiet as Liz had assumed. In the distance, she could hear the sound of marching feet and the murmur of indecipherable voices.
“I don’t think that’s Sergeant Benton’s men,” she murmured.
“They’re guards,” River replied, “They were put into stasis when the ship crashed on Earth. Your UNIT soldiers must have woken them up.”
“They’re not my UNIT soldiers. And they’re only here because a police car disappeared.”
“Then maybe the farmer woke them up. It doesn’t matter.” River’s smile - River’s Cheshire Cat smile - was brightly visible in the half light. “We can disable them.”
Before Liz could ask what she meant by that, the sound of footsteps grew nearer. There was nowhere to run, but the guards were only metres away. Cold fear - something that she hadn’t truly felt since she’d been kidnapped by Reegan - blossomed in her chest, but River stayed impossibly calm. She grabbed Liz’s arm with one hand, pressing her palm to the leather strap she wore around her wrist. There was a sharp pain in her head and a loud rushing sound in her ears, but, when it cleared, the guards were … gone? Impossible!
“What did you do?” exclaimed Liz, snatching her arm back. The tunnel - the same tunnel they’d been standing in before - was still and silent once more. River gave her a smirk that suggested that Liz was supposed to be very impressed by this turn of events.
“I moved us ten minutes into the future,” she explained, “The guards are gone.”
“Are you telling me that that device allows you to travel through time?”
“Yes, I am. And yes, it does.”
“A time travelling archaeologist?” Liz remarked, raising an eyebrow. “Doesn’t that rather defeat the point?”
River laughed.
“No wonder the Doctor likes you.”
***
The guards wore uniforms that were constructed from overlapping scales of an eerie black alloy. The metallic plates rippled with each step, shimmering in the low light of the tunnels. They travelled in pairs or in small groups, but, until the commanding officers were revived, they had no real purpose or aim in mind. They’d disposed of the police officers that had stumbled into their ship and, as soon as they found them, they would dispose of the human females that had arrived less than thirty microspans before. Then they would wait, as they had done for centuries. They were nothing if not patient.
***
“Are you all right?”
Liz nodded, opening a flap in her heavy helmet in order to catch her breath.
“I’m fine. How much further?”
The uniforms were uncomfortable and awkward, but, without them, she and River would have fallen at the first hurdle. Only a handful of soldiers had been brought out of stasis, but they still posed a significant threat. They’d passed the remains of the unfortunate police officers - brittle, papery skeletons that had been drained of moisture and life - and they certainly didn’t want to suffer the same fate.
If they disconnected the plasma canisters that were nestled in the heart of the burial mound, Liz and River could restore the stasis field before anyone else was hurt. River had described the canisters as one of the most dangerous potential weapons in any galaxy, as well as the ship’s power source. After taking a look at the remains of the police officers, Liz had been inclined to agree.
“Not far now.”
With a nod, Liz sealed her helmet and fell into step beside River. This was no longer an archaeological expedition. Let the Brigadier take disciplinary action against her! If she could save even a single life by siding with River, she’d continue to do so without a second thought.
***
River pulled off her helmet and dropped it into the dust. The gold box in the middle of the room - impossibly ornate and astonishingly beautiful - glowed softly. The aliens had gone to a lot of trouble to disguise the plasma canisters and make them into part of the mound.
“We did it,” she breathed, “We actually did it.”
Liz removed her own helmet, but, before she could make a comment of her own, River - smiling a smile that was joyful and beautiful and entirely innocent, unlike her earlier Cheshire Cat smirk - turned to her. The gap between them hadn’t been particularly large to begin with. She closed it and kissed her before Liz had a chance to come to terms with what was happening.
The kiss was a kiss of celebration and delight, but the moment was all too brief. Liz had barely started to kiss her back when the room started to shake. Someone - something, speaking in a guttural alien language - was hammering on the door that they’d been very careful to lock behind them.
“Time to go,” said River, quickly, grabbing Liz’s wrist and pulling her towards the box. The ceiling trembled with each blow, dislodging fragments of soil and making it difficult to see. She was ready for the teleport this time, though her head was still swimming from the kiss.
***
The aliens managed to burst through the door a moment later, but they were too late. They stumbled over the discarded armour and watched, furious and horrified, as the two humans faded from view.
Their triumphant smiles were the last things to disappear.
***
The hasty transport to the surface knocked the wind out of Liz. Breathing hard, she leaned back against the wall of the barn. When she straightened up, River was gone. She’d taken the gold box - and the plasma canisters - with her.
She shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was. River had appeared out of nowhere and she’d been bound to disappear just as suddenly. Really, Liz had been a fool to think that the adventure they’d shared - that passionate, joyful kiss of relief and celebration - had been anything other than … than a partnership born of convenience! River had needed an assistant and Liz had been there.
How would she explain what had happened to the Doctor and the Brigadier? It would have been a difficult conversation if she’d had the canisters in her hand. Without them, it was all but impossible.
After considering her position, Liz - resigned and more than a little bitter - made her way back to the Doctor’s makeshift laboratory. It didn’t occur to her to lie to her colleagues. She could imagine the Brigadier’s displeasure and - even worse than that - the Doctor’s disappointment, but brushing what had happened under the metaphorical carpet was not an option.
The worst thing they could do was dismiss her for losing the canisters. But she was always talking about returning to Cambridge, wasn’t she? It would be all right. She had made plans to leave on half a dozen occasions. Her superiors would simply be making the decision she should have made for herself a long time ago.
She pushed open the door and paused, taking a deep breath and summoning up the courage to face the Doctor. She’d never felt so foolish. She’d been in a number of seemingly helpless situations since joining UNIT, and she had spent years in the occasionally cutthroat world of academia, but River’s betrayal - what else could she call it? - had left her feeling brittle and bitter. Liz had always thought of herself as an intelligent, practical sort of person. She’d allowed herself to get swept away in an adventure and …
... and it couldn’t be!
The plasma canisters were lined up neatly on the Doctor’s unused desk. There was no sign of the Time Lord himself, or, indeed, of the enigmatic River Song, but there was a note addressed to Liz.
Sorry for rushing off. I’ve kept the boxes - I’ve got a paper to write, after all - but I thought you and your friends at UNIT might find these useful.
I’ll be seeing you again x
Liz read the note three times before it sank in. Then, with a laugh, she tucked it into her pocket and left the laboratory in search of the Doctor.
***
Six months later, Liz stepped out of her laboratory at Cambridge University, hanging her white coat on a hook next to the door. The night watchman - the only other person in the building at this late hour - gave her a nod as she passed him and crossed into the car park. Although she’d left UNIT’s erratic working hours behind her - along with a great many other things that she refused to admit she missed about UNIT - the sensitive nature of her experiments forced her to remain behind when everyone else had already returned home. Or so she told herself. There was a good chance that she was simply trying to fill hours that now felt achingly empty.
To her great surprise, River was waiting outside, wearing a pair of sunglasses and a smirk as she leaned against the bonnet of Liz’s eminently practical Ford.
“What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you. Do you always work so late?”
“When I have to.”
“You know what they say, don’t you? All work and no play …”
“… makes Liz a dull girl. Yes, I know.”
“I was going to say ‘means that Liz needs a holiday’.”
“I can’t take a holiday at such short notice.”
“Of course you can,” she replied, holding up her wrist and her familiar wrist strap, “Time travel, remember?”
Despite herself, Liz was intrigued. Recently, she’d spent a lot of time staring down microscopes. She hadn’t realised that she’d miss alien threats - or the thrill of identifying and solving a problem that threatened the security of an entire planet - until she’d left them far behind.
“What did you have in mind?”
“I’m organising a dig in Cairo - the planet, not the city - and I thought you might like to visit the site. It’s beautiful. Crystalline deserts and a sky the colour of emeralds ...”
“It does sound beautiful,” Liz conceded, “But what’s the catch?”
“Catch? I’m hurt.”
“And I’m realistic.”
“An excellent quality in an assistant.”
Liz bristled immediately. She’d left UNIT because she had refused to spend the rest of her career passing test tubes to the Doctor. She could scarcely believe that River was making her the same unfathomable offer.
“It wouldn’t be like that,” said River quickly, “I promise. No fetching or carrying or passing equipment. All you have to do is keep me company and help me explore an alien planet. Can you really walk away from an offer like that?”
Liz glanced at her car and her briefcase and the dark laboratory behind her.
No, she couldn’t.
***
The planet was more than simply beautiful. It was astonishing. Liz stooped down to scoop up a handful of sand particles, allowing the utterly unfamiliar material to run between her fingers. The sky bathed everything - including the tent from which River, who had been sorting out the paperwork, emerged - in a soft, greenish sunrise.
“Right,” said River briskly, “Are you ready?”
Still mystified by the crystals, Liz managed a nod of ascent.
“Great. Will you pass me that chisel?”
Her expression of delight turned into a look of pure horror.
“It was a joke, Liz,” laughed River, slipping an arm through the other woman’s, “Fancy a drink?”
“A drink? At this time of morning?”
“Welcome to the 51st century.”