Fic: Water Music (14/17)
Title: Water Music
Author: azriona
Characters: The Doctor, River Song
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Big ones for Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead. Takes place prior to Water of Mars; if you haven’t seen it, you won’t be spoiled.
Betas: runriggers
Summary: The Doctor never expects to meet anyone in a linear fashion. How he meets River Song is slightly more non-lineal than most.
Chapters One ~ Two ~ Three ~ Four ~ Five ~ Six ~ Seven ~ Eight ~ Nine ~ Ten ~ Eleven ~ Twelve ~ Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
The Doctor was well-used to being arrested and tossed in a cell of some sort. Theirs was a most regular prison: four stone walls, a window with bars fairly high up, an extremely thick wooden door, and two bunks attached to the wall, one several feet above the other. It smelled fairly awful, but he’d grown used to the stench after the first hour. His sonic screwdriver had been taken away, which was something of a problem, but Alice was outside somewhere, and it wasn’t terribly cold.
Also, the food was frankly magnificent. Dinner had consisted of Tyminian pasties and beer, as well as Huftzar artichokes. They didn’t go together especially well, but at least the combination was filling.
Now, with night having fallen outside the prison, and quiet having descended inside, only one thing lay on the top of his mind as he stared up at the stone ceiling of his latest prison.
The Doctor had been imprisoned with numerous companions over the years, but he had never, to the best of his knowledge, or at least in his own particular time-line, been arrested and tossed in a jail cell with River Song.
“River,” he called out, and heard the muffled sigh of his current cellmate in the bunk below. “Have we ever been arrested before? In your timeline. I just want to know if I have a lot of this to look forward to.”
“Spoilers,” replied River Song. “I’m trying to sleep.”
“Right, sorry.”
“Right sorry you are,” muttered River, and he heard her flop over on her bunk.
He drummed his fingers against his chest; bent one leg and straightened the other. It wasn’t cold in the little stone cell, but it was fairly damp, and River had refused use of his coat. He was fairly certain that she was currently huddled under the painfully thin prison-supplied blanket. Heat tended to rise. He wondered if she’d rather have had the top bunk - but upon entering the cell, she had gone straight to the bottom bunk and promptly laid out, facing the wall. She hadn’t even eaten dinner, and as good as Huftzar artichokes were, one serving was plenty for anybody.
Alice, at least, was somewhere in the city, presumably looking for the actual perpetrator. Once caught, their own innocence would be confirmed. No need to break out of prison, then. The Doctor wasn’t horribly worried. After all, River would of course be released, because she had to find him in The Library yet. Not to mention-
“River,” said the Doctor suddenly, “we should go on a picnic.”
There was a rustling sound, followed by a hollow snap, a bit like someone had smacked the stone wall in frustration. “Oh, yes, a picnic would be lovely. Somewhere sunny with a beach, and perhaps some seagulls. And chicken salad. And no bars on the windows, or guards at the door.”
“After we’re released, I meant.”
“I’m sleeping now, Doctor.”
The Doctor started counting on his fingers. “Let’s see - you were twelve and I tripped over you. And then you were fifteen in the library. And then - oh, wait. How old are you now, River?”
“Old enough to know better than to answer that question.”
“Mid-forties, then,” mused the Doctor.
“Thirty-seven, thank you,” snapped River.
“Ah. That’s interesting.” Five years before he’d arrive on her doorstep looking for an egg. Six years after she’d hung next to him on the top of the Eiffel Tower. He tried to remember if he’d seen River at the age of thirty-seven any other time, and couldn’t think of any.
There was another rustling noise from the bunk below. “What do you mean by that?”
“Spoilers,” said the Doctor mildly, to which River responded with a scream, clearly muffled by her pillow. “I reckon we’ve met six times by my count, River Song. How many times by yours?”
“Impossible,” said River promptly.
“Impossible that it’s six, or impossible to tell?”
“How am I supposed to answer that question, really?” snapped River.
“Oh, come now, special circumstances,” said the Doctor. “You and Alice never did diaries. I can’t have a conversation if I don’t know where you stand.”
“Well, then, I suppose conversation is out,” said River. “Which is just as well, since I’m asleep.”
“You’re awfully antagonistic this time,” said the Doctor.
There was nothing but silence below him. He didn’t think River was asleep just yet.
“Perhaps I have reason to be,” said River finally, a quiet, tense tone in her voice.
“How so?”
“I’d rather not talk about it, ta.”
“River-”
“Doctor,” said River, and now her voice quavered, a bit like she was trying hard not to cry. “It’s been a frightfully long day. I know you only just arrived, but I’ve been here for two weeks, and you know perfectly well I don’t sleep well out of my own bed. I’d like to, very much, try to get a little rest before we’re convicted for treason in the morning.”
“Right, sorry.”
Silence fell over the prison cell again. The Doctor waited until he heard River’s steady breathing below - only it wasn’t exactly steady, and it was far too quick for her to be truly asleep.
“How would I know?”
There was a half sob from River. “What?”
“That you don’t sleep well out of your own bed? How would I know that, River?”
The laugh struck him as somewhat out of place, but it also wasn’t exactly a laugh. “Spoilers, isn’t it?”
“River,” said the Doctor, but it was something of a struggle. “In the courtyard. They asked - and you didn’t say-?”
“We’re not married, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
His stomach dropped - but out of relief or disappointment, he wasn’t quite sure. “Ah. Well then.”
“I’m sure we’ve been mistaken for it, though. I think it happens to you all the time, with most of your companions. Others thinking you’re married. Sometimes it’s easier just to let them think that.”
“Donna hated it,” said the Doctor.
“Hmm?”
“Donna - haven’t I told you about Donna? Brilliant friend. I think she nearly slapped someone who thought we were together. She nearly slapped me because she thought I suggested it.”
River let out a chuckle. “Would have liked to seen that.”
“Never told you about Donna Noble?”
“Never told me about lots of things,” said River. “Talk and talk, and you never say anything.”
“Donna used to say that, too,” said the Doctor. “You’d like her, I think. Must be the ginger hair.”
“Always wanting ginger hair, always getting it in companions and never for yourself,” teased River.
For a moment, the lightness in her voice relaxed him. Then... “You’ve seen me later? After...”
“Spoilers,” said River.
“Right, of course. Spoilers. Still-”
River sighed. “Yes. Sorry. There is a distinct lack of ginger hair in at least parts of your future. I can’t speak to all of it.”
The Doctor sighed. “Well, that’s something, anyway.” They fell silent again.
“I’m fairly certain no one has ever mistaken Alice and me as married to each other.”
“Goodness, no,” said River. “Alice would punch them.” There was another moment of silence.
“She - Alice will be all right?” asked River hesitantly.
“Oh, Alice,” scoffed the Doctor. “She’ll be right as rain. Out there now, being perfectly well and looking for something to explode, no doubt. Hopefully she’ll warn us first, if it happens to be the wall.”
“I don’t always see her with you,” said River quietly. “I know she hasn’t always traveled with you, of course I know that. Only...I quite like her, you know.”
The Doctor swallowed. “Quite right, too.”
The stillness this time wasn’t quite so friendly, the Doctor thought. “Is that all?” asked River, her voice now strained. “That’s all you’ll say? Quite right?”
“What do you want me to say?” asked the Doctor.
“Spoilers, you could say spoilers,” said River, sounding a bit upset. “That’s what you say, spoilers.”
“Hard for me to say spoilers when I don’t know what will happen to Alice any more than you do,” said the Doctor reasonably, and this comment was met by the sound of River tossing on the bunk below.
“You - you really don’t-?” she began, but then fell silent again, save for a deep, gasping sigh. “Fine, then. I’ll just go to sleep. Never mind about me.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing!”
“No, there’s something you’re not telling me.”
“Spoilers, obviously,” said River, choking on the words.
“River-”
“It’s not important,” said River.
The Doctor decided to leave it. If it wasn’t important, then there was little he could do to convince River otherwise. “I’m feeling peckish, aren’t you? Maybe they could bring us another artichoke...”
His bunk suddenly shook as below, River shoved at the bottom of his mattress with both her feet. “Dammit. I didn’t want to be here, you know. I really, really didn’t. I knew this was an awful idea, I knew there was every chance - I mean, you always turn up, don’t you? Stands to reason that you’d be here, when Tyminia and Huftzar fall into chaos. What’s that the Daleks called you? The Oncoming Storm? The Destroyer of Worlds? Is it just me, or is my life always falling to pieces whenever it’s you I see? You’re not my Doctor. You never were my Doctor, you’ll always be hers, and whenever I want my Doctor, it’s you I’m going to get. I’ll never escape you unscathed, will I?”
The Doctor clutched the edges of the mattress, hoping not to be kicked onto the floor. “You’ve seen me more than six times, haven’t you, River Song?”
River’s laugh was hollow. “More than six - don’t you understand, Doctor? I’ve lived that life before. The running and the laughing and the thinking that every minute you’re going to die a thousand years out of time and a thousand worlds away from your own. I’ve danced on your moonbeams and I’ve borne the brunt of your insults, and I’ve cried tears in my pillow because you never gave me a second glance. I broke my heart over you - just like all the girls who came before me, but in my own way, too, because I know something they didn’t, Doctor - I know all of you, I know so much of you. I’ve seen you at your very best and at your very worst, and maybe I was an absolute fool when I loved you before, when I was young and stupid and so in love that I’d have thrown my life away for another minute holding your hand. And maybe I’ve been an absolute fool for thinking that I could live my life without you, as if I’d never known you and never seen all those things, and went on being the staid archaeologist who knows just a bit too much about what life was really like in the latter half of the Etruscan period on the planet Tybalt, because I’d actually been there and not just read about it.
“Because that’s what I’ve done the last ten years, Doctor - I’ve tried to forget you. I’ve tried to pretend you weren’t a part of my life, had never been, and I think I did a pretty good job of it, too. Fooled everyone around me, including myself sometimes. And I hated it. The only time I ever felt whole were the times I saw you, whether you knew it or not - and you didn’t always know it, Doctor. I’ve seen you four times since that day on the beach. I don’t think you knew about more than two of them. It was all I could do not to run up and take you by the hand and tell you what I stupid idiot I’ve been. But I couldn’t. Not because of timelines or Reapers or any ridiculous thing like that. But because I didn’t want the two halves of my life to run together. You belong to my past, Doctor. I shut you in a cardboard box and stowed you under the bed and I didn’t want to see you ever again in my life.
“But here I am, locked in prison with you. Same as I’ve always been, since I was twelve years old - you and me twisting around each other whether we like it or not, destined to always find the other every time we turn around. And I’m fed up with it, Doctor - I’m absolutely fed up with it! I don’t want to have to run from you anymore, because it’s absolutely pointless. Every time I turn and run, you’re still standing in my path.”
“In your path?” sputtered the Doctor. “From the sound of it, you came here looking for me!”
“Not by choice!”
“Then how? You’ve never actually explained that.”
“Spoilers!” shouted River, and her head appeared as she popped off her bunk and stood next to his. “Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers! My whole bloody life is a series of spoilers, and it’s all your fault, you great big nit.”
“Nit?”
“I hate you,” said River, shaking. “I should just up and tell you everything.”
“You haven’t already?” snapped the Doctor.
River stepped back, her anger slowly easing into shock. “You - you have no idea. None! Do you?”
There was a long screech from the door, like metal on metal, followed by a tremendous thump. The seconds ticked by, and then the long, angular handle on the door began to twist. They both watched, hearts thumping, while the door slowly pushed open, and a familiar head poked through.
“Alice!” exclaimed the Doctor.
“Oh, good, found you,” said Alice, pleased, and pushed the door open further, revealing her clothing, now faded back to blue. “We’ve been in three cells already, and let me tell you, it takes some talking to convince the folks we’ve found to stay put. They do, mostly.”
“You weren’t letting out hardened criminals, Alice?” scolded the Doctor as he jumped down off the bunk.
“Oh, no, those were the easiest. Told ‘em to lay back down again and down they went. Like babies. Bit weird.” Alice stepped into the room, followed closely by a tall young man with dark, curly hair, dressed in purple. He handed Alice a large burlap sack, which Alice promptly dropped on the floor. The sack fell open, and Alice began to rummage through the contents. “Oh, this is Midovian.”
“Hello,” said the Doctor, cheerful now that his release was imminent. “I’m the Doctor, and you’ve met Alice already.”
“I’m best ignored, apparently,” said River.
“River Song,” said the Doctor quickly.
“Sorry it took so long,” said Alice, shaking out what was clearly a dark blue cloak lined with silver buttons. “We had to find supplies. Dangerous to be out in red at the moment.”
“Dangerous to be out at all,” said Midovian quietly. “The rioters only left the parade grounds half an hour since; we’d best move quickly before they think to return again.”
Alice handed the cloak to River, who quickly donned it over her red dress. “Your hair will be all right, provided we’re done before daylight.”
“Done?” asked the Doctor, who was handed a blue cloak of his own, this one reversible with red.
“Reclaiming the peace, of course,” said Alice, a bit surprised. “Shouldn’t be hard, Midovian and I-”
“We’re leaving,” said the Doctor shortly.
“Leaving?!” cried Alice.
“What do you mean leaving?” demanded River.
“I’m taking you home,” he told River. “I don’t know how you got here, and truthfully, I don’t care, but you don’t belong here and I’m taking you back to where I found you.”
“Which time?” snorted River, and she pulled the hood over her head. “Alice, my recorder-”
“Right here,” said Alice, reaching into her pocket, but the Doctor whisked it away before she could hand it over.
“This is no place for an archaeologist,” he snapped at River, shaking the recorder in his fist. “You’re meddling, and excessive meddling will only get you hurt, and if you hate me that’s entirely up to you, but I’m not going to have your life on my-” He choked, and River stared stony-faced at him. “I’m taking you home.”
“No,” said River calmly, and reached out and took his wrist, carefully peeling his fingers away from the device. She immediately flipped open the viewscreen and began to scroll through the results. “Alice, what did the carbon readings say?”
Alice tried to tear her worried eyes from the Doctor. “Single-powered blaster, we think. Aimed directly at the statue. It wasn’t explosives, it was a deliberate attack.”
River glanced up at Alice, a confused expression on her face. “But that doesn’t make sense. I thought-" She shook her head and concentrated on the read-out.
“Alice, stop helping her,” said the Doctor, angry. “This planet is a powder-keg and not safe for anyone. The entire society is falling to pieces.” He looked at Midovian. “What’s happening out on the streets, right now?”
“The people are rioting,” said Midovian. “The ceremony was interrupted before it was concluded. The Huftzar believe it to be a Tyminian plot. The Tyminians believe themselves framed by the Huftzar.”
“See? Society torn in two, and we’re neither,” snapped the Doctor. “All humans, both of you, home straight away.”
“Don’t be stupid,” snapped Alice. “I’m staying with you.”
“So am I,” said River, and the Doctor’s expression was yet another form of incredulous that Alice had not yet seen.
“You? You said ten minutes ago that you hated me.”
“That was ten minutes ago,” said River, snapping the viewscreen closed. “Single-energy compound carbon beam, fired directly in the center of the statue of Itrehan. Localized debris patterns and stabilized neuron flows.”
“Not possible,” said the Doctor. “The timing was too precise, and anyone standing near the statue couldn’t have known the color of the final scarf.”
“That’s exactly my point,” said River. “Whoever destroyed the statue was in contact with someone inside the stadium.”
“That could be anybody,” said Alice, and River shook her head.
“Not here. Look.” She opened the viewscreen again, and pointed out the peculiar wave patterns that ran along the edges of the carbon readouts. “This is the base vibration of the planet. It automatically disables any sort of communicative device - mobile phones, radio waves, anything. It’s simply not possible for two people who aren’t in line-of-sight to be able to communicate with each other instantly, not on this planet.”
Alice frowned. “So then how - you’re not saying whoever did this is telepathic, are you?”
“It’s a possibility,” said River.
“No one on this planet is telepathic,” said Midovian.
“No one?” asked the Doctor mildly.
“There’s never been a case of a telepathic Huftzar or Tyminian,” said Midovian.
“Someone off-world, maybe?” theorized Alice.
“You’re saying we were attacked because the ceremony favored Huftzar?” asked Midovian. “Who would want to do that?”
“Oh, who wouldn’t?” asked the Doctor. “If I had to purchase another set of star charts, I’d be right put out.”
Midovian shook his head. “We’re running out of time. Follow me.”
The exterior hall was just as dark and dank as the cell, and the three time travelers moved quickly to keep up with Midovian, who did not seem to want to linger longer than at all necessary. The Doctor, per habit, reached for Alice’s hand, and found much to his dismay that she was already holding Midovian’s.
“So where’d you find this one?” he asked her, trying not to sound put out, and not succeeding at all.
“At the fountain,” replied Alice. “What, jealous?”
“No, not me,” lied the Doctor.
“He is,” said River, behind him.
“We never did diaries,” said Alice.
“I hardly think now is the time,” said the Doctor. “Are we quite sure he’s reliable?”
“Oh so jealous.”
“I trust him,” said Alice.
“Thank you,” said Midovian, sounding quite surprised.
“You’re welcome,” replied Alice, with a blush.
“It’s only he managed to slip you into a high-security prison with nary a scratch or tool,” explained the Doctor.
“And goodness knows, you only gad about the universe with the cream of society,” remarked River cheerfully.
The corridor let out into an open courtyard, utterly empty, although it had several benches, a guard-shack, and what looked to be posts where guards ought to have stood. Midovian reached into the guard-shack and pulled out a small cardboard box with a flip-top lid. Inside the box lay the Doctor’s screwdriver.
“Unguarded?” asked the Doctor, taking the screwdriver and instantly checking it for tampering. “We’ve been left unguarded?”
“Don’t sound so insulted,” said River, gazing over the tall fence to the city. “Why’s the city so bright? It’s nearly midnight, isn’t it?”
“Past that,” said Alice. “There’s a curfew, but no one’s following it.”
“Or enforcing it,” added Midovian.
“If the police force isn’t here guarding us, and they’re not enforcing curfew, what are they doing?” asked the Doctor.
“Joining in, mostly,” said Alice.
There was a whistling sound just outside the courtyard; above the stonework, a set of blue firecrackers set off a series of sparks, interlaced with fizzing silver ash. This was quickly followed by another display of purple and green, only instead of being shaped like a bright weeping willow, the sparkles were shaped more like a finger being brandished in a very inappropriate fashion.
“Well, that’s just rude,” said the Doctor.
Midovian sighed. “You should see what the Tyminians are putting up.”
There was another set of displays above the wall, this time depicting another part of anatomy, in another rather inappropriate position, just as River commented, “Oh, dear.”
“We should get moving,” said Alice.
The streets weren’t quite empty, but those who loitered did not seem to be inclined to do more than simple mischief. There were a set of boys near the end of the street, all dressed in red and orange, brandishing rolls of paper and matchsticks. They shouted as they tripped down the street, every so often tossing one of the rolls of paper over the nearest tree, taking care to hold one trailing end of the paper so that it wrapped itself around in a graceful arc. It was a bit difficult to really determine the color of the paper in the dark, but the Doctor had the distinct feeling that upon daylight, it would be found that the trees were decorated in orange or yellow paper.
“Oi!” shouted Midovian. “Leave off!”
“Mid,” urged Alice, tugging at his hand, “let it go. We have to hurry.”
“Brats!” shouted Midovian at the group, who paid him no heed. “As if the trees belong to one group or the other.”
“And what’s they’re doing is any worse than the fireworks display?” asked the Doctor.
“The fireworks display is over - we’ll have to clean up the trees in the morning,” said Midovian darkly. “The Tyminians are being much more destructive.”
“Destructive?” said the Doctor, his voice going a bit high-pitched. “Tossing paper over trees is destructive?”
“That’s not all,” said Midovian. “They’re also desecrated the official pictures of the new president of Huftzar.” Alice made a snorting noise, and Midovian gave her a dark look. “It’s very serious, Alice.”
“Oh, yes,” agreed Alice, her voice trembling. “Adding the mustache and devil’s horns was really very terrible of them.”
River raised an eyebrow. “Was it permanent ink?”
“Red paint,” said Midovian scathingly, and River clucked her sympathy.
“Let me recap for a moment,” said the Doctor. “The statue was decimated, and no one knows who did it. The Huftzars are upset with the Tyminians, the Tyminians are upset with the Hufizanans, and both are currently engaging in civil disobedience as if all were teenaged Earth boys in the 20th century.”
“With fireworks,” added River solemnly.
“With fireworks,” allowed the Doctor. “That doesn’t sound right. Why would any group that began with destroying a statue revert to pranks teenage boys would prefer to play?”
“I don’t think they would,” said River.
“Quite right. What did those carbon readings say again, River?”
River pulled the scanner out of the bag slung around her neck. “Levels of 87.6 percent. Binary readings of 26.42.8765 alpha eplison janderstix.”
“Ho!” crowed the Doctor. “Janderstix.”
“Yes, janderstix - Doctor! Where are you going?”
The Doctor ran across the street, and with a leap, was able to reach the tail end of the orange paper flapping against the tree. He studied it for a moment, and then scanned it quickly with his screwdriver before letting out another cheerful whoop. The others quickly caught up to him.
“See this?” he said, waving the paper. “Look at the readings here. Binary codes 24.17.8643 alpha delta.”
“Delta?” repeated River, her eyes going wide.
“Delta!” crowed the Doctor.
“I have absolutely no idea what either of you are saying,” said Alice, crossing her arms.
The Doctor pointed at Midovian sharply. “You, sir, have some explaining to do.”
“Me?”
“It’s not his fault!” said Alice. “He’s not the one in charge.”
“Isn’t he?” asked the Doctor quietly, eyeing the silver threads in Midovian’s doublet. “Midovian, isn’t it? That’s not your full name.”
“No, sir,” said Midovian quietly. “Midovian Kylean Delorn.”
There was a quick intake of breath from River. “Thought so,” said the Doctor smugly. “Alice, you do find them sometimes, don’t you?”
“Delorn is an old name,” said River. “There were Delorns back in the very beginning, when Tyminia and Huftzar first made their truce.”
“Of course there were,” said the Doctor. “Midovian is the Huftzar heir, unless I’m mistaken.”
Alice took a step back from Midovian, but he held fast to her hand. “What are you talking about?” she asked cautiously. “What does this have to do with delta or janderstix or whatever it is the scans picked up?”
“It’s DNA, of a sort,” explained River, staring at Midovian. “The paper, it’s at one level of DNA. But the carbon readouts are another level. Whoever caused the explosion of the statue - they’re not Huftzar or Tyminian. It’s someone more advanced than either of them. Someone from further along in their evolutionary cycles.”
Alice inhaled sharply. “An off-worlder,” she said. “A telepathic one, even?”
“Perhaps,” said the Doctor, still looking at Midovian. “But I suspect the heir of Huftzar is keeping something to himself.”
“It’s not quite true,” said Midovian, and turned his gaze back onto Alice. His brown eyes were wide and innocent and absolutely captivating. Alice had the idea that there was a great deal Midovian was not saying, and would have liked to, and perhaps already was saying, only she was too stupid and too human to understand it. “Kylean, who is the prince regent of Huftzar, is my father - but my elder sister, Chalana, is the heir.”
Alice blinked as she tried to interpret the new information. “I spent the whole day with you, and this didn’t come up?”
“It wasn’t important at the time,” said Midovian.
“You’re the second in line to inheriting an entire planet, and it wasn’t important at the time?!?”
“Yeah, sorry I brought this up,” said the Doctor, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Midovian-”
“I have no power,” Midovian said, interrupting. “Even if Huftzar was in rule, I would have no political say, and the people do not know me for my position. In Tyminia, I was only a servant in the Tyminian guard. No one would listen to me.”
“Well, that explains how you were able to break us out,” said the Doctor. “Your lot were the ones to lock us in.”
River turned to Midovian. “That story of Itrehan - how’s it go again? Not who he was - but how he stopped the war originally. How he brokered the peace between the Huftzar and the Tyminians.”
“The armies of Huftzar and of Tyminia met on the battlefield,” said Midovian slowly. “Itrehan rose from the earth and proclaimed amnesty between the two. He brought forth the winds to scatter the armies amongst each other, so that they were not divided but stood as brothers, and no man knew who belonged to which people. They lived amongst each other until order could be restored, and in that time, learned to appreciate each others’ ways. In that spirit, the peoples of Tyminia live as Huftzar for a time, and vice versa, and peace reigned.”
“Very pretty,” said the Doctor dryly, “but you’re forgetting one small detail.”
Midovian frowned. “What?”
“The name of the battlefield.”
“No one knows the name of the battlefield,” said Midovian. “It was lost through time.”
The Doctor turned to River. “River, if you would?”
“Oh, now you want my help. I thought archaeologists meddled too much.”
“River...”
“Pilmertia,” said River. “It was the Plains of Pilmertia.”
Midovian paled. “That’s impossible.”
“Nothing’s impossible,” said the Doctor dryly. “It’s something I’ve learned over the last few centuries.”
“The Pilmertians left the planet twenty generations ago,” interjected Midovian, agitated. “They swore never to return-”
The rest of the story regarding the Pilmertians was lost, however, as the powerful explosion behind them rocked the city. The Doctor reacted first, which did not surprise anyone. What was surprising, however, was that his first instinct was not to shelter Alice - but River. He pulled the woman by her shoulders to the ground, and by the time he reached for Alice, she had already been pushed to the ground by Midovian, whose words were still half-formed on his lips, and whose wide, shocked eyes stared at the Doctor.
“What was that?” asked Alice.
“The police station,” Midovian said, his voice somewhat wooden as he watched his former workplace burst into flames.
The Doctor looked over his shoulder to see what remained of the police station, where only an hour ago, he’d been waiting for rescue. It burned, the fire licking the sky.
“An explosion like that is not a prank,” he said.
“If you don’t mind,” said River pointedly, and he jumped back from her body, where it had lain under his. She pushed herself up to her knees and brushed the imaginary dirt from her sleeves. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate being saved...”
“Would you rather the alternative?” asked the Doctor. He scrambled to his feet.
River immediately hopped up to her feet, and brushed the ash from her dress. “Thank you,” she said, but the Doctor was no longer listening - in fact, he was no longer even there, but halfway down the street, heading for the burning station.
“Well, come on!” he shouted back to them. Midovian and Alice were up like a flash, and took off after him. River sighed, and followed.
They didn’t have to run far. The walls surrounding the station were rubble in some places, and by the time Alice, the fastest of the three, caught up, the Doctor had already found a safe passage through.
“Something set it off,” he said, looking down from the highest point of the rubble. “And you don’t think it was the Tyminians or the Huftzar who did this, do you? Not quite tossing eggs in someone’s post box, is it?”
“So who was it?” asked River, finally catching up.
The Doctor pointed at Midovian. “Before the explosion - what were you saying?”
“Before-"
“The Pilmertians, Midovian, the Pilmertians! Who were they?”
“The Pilmertians were another people on the planet,” said Midovian. “Neither Huftzar or Tyminian. They wanted nothing to do either of us. Some hundred years after the peace, they left - disappeared, overnight. No one knew where they’d gone. And now you’re saying - you think they did this? Why would they come back?”
“It’s not that they’ve come back,” said the Doctor grimly. “I don’t think they went anywhere really at all. I think they came here.”
Chapter Fifteen
Author: azriona
Characters: The Doctor, River Song
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Big ones for Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead. Takes place prior to Water of Mars; if you haven’t seen it, you won’t be spoiled.
Betas: runriggers
Summary: The Doctor never expects to meet anyone in a linear fashion. How he meets River Song is slightly more non-lineal than most.
Chapters One ~ Two ~ Three ~ Four ~ Five ~ Six ~ Seven ~ Eight ~ Nine ~ Ten ~ Eleven ~ Twelve ~ Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
The Doctor was well-used to being arrested and tossed in a cell of some sort. Theirs was a most regular prison: four stone walls, a window with bars fairly high up, an extremely thick wooden door, and two bunks attached to the wall, one several feet above the other. It smelled fairly awful, but he’d grown used to the stench after the first hour. His sonic screwdriver had been taken away, which was something of a problem, but Alice was outside somewhere, and it wasn’t terribly cold.
Also, the food was frankly magnificent. Dinner had consisted of Tyminian pasties and beer, as well as Huftzar artichokes. They didn’t go together especially well, but at least the combination was filling.
Now, with night having fallen outside the prison, and quiet having descended inside, only one thing lay on the top of his mind as he stared up at the stone ceiling of his latest prison.
The Doctor had been imprisoned with numerous companions over the years, but he had never, to the best of his knowledge, or at least in his own particular time-line, been arrested and tossed in a jail cell with River Song.
“River,” he called out, and heard the muffled sigh of his current cellmate in the bunk below. “Have we ever been arrested before? In your timeline. I just want to know if I have a lot of this to look forward to.”
“Spoilers,” replied River Song. “I’m trying to sleep.”
“Right, sorry.”
“Right sorry you are,” muttered River, and he heard her flop over on her bunk.
He drummed his fingers against his chest; bent one leg and straightened the other. It wasn’t cold in the little stone cell, but it was fairly damp, and River had refused use of his coat. He was fairly certain that she was currently huddled under the painfully thin prison-supplied blanket. Heat tended to rise. He wondered if she’d rather have had the top bunk - but upon entering the cell, she had gone straight to the bottom bunk and promptly laid out, facing the wall. She hadn’t even eaten dinner, and as good as Huftzar artichokes were, one serving was plenty for anybody.
Alice, at least, was somewhere in the city, presumably looking for the actual perpetrator. Once caught, their own innocence would be confirmed. No need to break out of prison, then. The Doctor wasn’t horribly worried. After all, River would of course be released, because she had to find him in The Library yet. Not to mention-
“River,” said the Doctor suddenly, “we should go on a picnic.”
There was a rustling sound, followed by a hollow snap, a bit like someone had smacked the stone wall in frustration. “Oh, yes, a picnic would be lovely. Somewhere sunny with a beach, and perhaps some seagulls. And chicken salad. And no bars on the windows, or guards at the door.”
“After we’re released, I meant.”
“I’m sleeping now, Doctor.”
The Doctor started counting on his fingers. “Let’s see - you were twelve and I tripped over you. And then you were fifteen in the library. And then - oh, wait. How old are you now, River?”
“Old enough to know better than to answer that question.”
“Mid-forties, then,” mused the Doctor.
“Thirty-seven, thank you,” snapped River.
“Ah. That’s interesting.” Five years before he’d arrive on her doorstep looking for an egg. Six years after she’d hung next to him on the top of the Eiffel Tower. He tried to remember if he’d seen River at the age of thirty-seven any other time, and couldn’t think of any.
There was another rustling noise from the bunk below. “What do you mean by that?”
“Spoilers,” said the Doctor mildly, to which River responded with a scream, clearly muffled by her pillow. “I reckon we’ve met six times by my count, River Song. How many times by yours?”
“Impossible,” said River promptly.
“Impossible that it’s six, or impossible to tell?”
“How am I supposed to answer that question, really?” snapped River.
“Oh, come now, special circumstances,” said the Doctor. “You and Alice never did diaries. I can’t have a conversation if I don’t know where you stand.”
“Well, then, I suppose conversation is out,” said River. “Which is just as well, since I’m asleep.”
“You’re awfully antagonistic this time,” said the Doctor.
There was nothing but silence below him. He didn’t think River was asleep just yet.
“Perhaps I have reason to be,” said River finally, a quiet, tense tone in her voice.
“How so?”
“I’d rather not talk about it, ta.”
“River-”
“Doctor,” said River, and now her voice quavered, a bit like she was trying hard not to cry. “It’s been a frightfully long day. I know you only just arrived, but I’ve been here for two weeks, and you know perfectly well I don’t sleep well out of my own bed. I’d like to, very much, try to get a little rest before we’re convicted for treason in the morning.”
“Right, sorry.”
Silence fell over the prison cell again. The Doctor waited until he heard River’s steady breathing below - only it wasn’t exactly steady, and it was far too quick for her to be truly asleep.
“How would I know?”
There was a half sob from River. “What?”
“That you don’t sleep well out of your own bed? How would I know that, River?”
The laugh struck him as somewhat out of place, but it also wasn’t exactly a laugh. “Spoilers, isn’t it?”
“River,” said the Doctor, but it was something of a struggle. “In the courtyard. They asked - and you didn’t say-?”
“We’re not married, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
His stomach dropped - but out of relief or disappointment, he wasn’t quite sure. “Ah. Well then.”
“I’m sure we’ve been mistaken for it, though. I think it happens to you all the time, with most of your companions. Others thinking you’re married. Sometimes it’s easier just to let them think that.”
“Donna hated it,” said the Doctor.
“Hmm?”
“Donna - haven’t I told you about Donna? Brilliant friend. I think she nearly slapped someone who thought we were together. She nearly slapped me because she thought I suggested it.”
River let out a chuckle. “Would have liked to seen that.”
“Never told you about Donna Noble?”
“Never told me about lots of things,” said River. “Talk and talk, and you never say anything.”
“Donna used to say that, too,” said the Doctor. “You’d like her, I think. Must be the ginger hair.”
“Always wanting ginger hair, always getting it in companions and never for yourself,” teased River.
For a moment, the lightness in her voice relaxed him. Then... “You’ve seen me later? After...”
“Spoilers,” said River.
“Right, of course. Spoilers. Still-”
River sighed. “Yes. Sorry. There is a distinct lack of ginger hair in at least parts of your future. I can’t speak to all of it.”
The Doctor sighed. “Well, that’s something, anyway.” They fell silent again.
“I’m fairly certain no one has ever mistaken Alice and me as married to each other.”
“Goodness, no,” said River. “Alice would punch them.” There was another moment of silence.
“She - Alice will be all right?” asked River hesitantly.
“Oh, Alice,” scoffed the Doctor. “She’ll be right as rain. Out there now, being perfectly well and looking for something to explode, no doubt. Hopefully she’ll warn us first, if it happens to be the wall.”
“I don’t always see her with you,” said River quietly. “I know she hasn’t always traveled with you, of course I know that. Only...I quite like her, you know.”
The Doctor swallowed. “Quite right, too.”
The stillness this time wasn’t quite so friendly, the Doctor thought. “Is that all?” asked River, her voice now strained. “That’s all you’ll say? Quite right?”
“What do you want me to say?” asked the Doctor.
“Spoilers, you could say spoilers,” said River, sounding a bit upset. “That’s what you say, spoilers.”
“Hard for me to say spoilers when I don’t know what will happen to Alice any more than you do,” said the Doctor reasonably, and this comment was met by the sound of River tossing on the bunk below.
“You - you really don’t-?” she began, but then fell silent again, save for a deep, gasping sigh. “Fine, then. I’ll just go to sleep. Never mind about me.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing!”
“No, there’s something you’re not telling me.”
“Spoilers, obviously,” said River, choking on the words.
“River-”
“It’s not important,” said River.
The Doctor decided to leave it. If it wasn’t important, then there was little he could do to convince River otherwise. “I’m feeling peckish, aren’t you? Maybe they could bring us another artichoke...”
His bunk suddenly shook as below, River shoved at the bottom of his mattress with both her feet. “Dammit. I didn’t want to be here, you know. I really, really didn’t. I knew this was an awful idea, I knew there was every chance - I mean, you always turn up, don’t you? Stands to reason that you’d be here, when Tyminia and Huftzar fall into chaos. What’s that the Daleks called you? The Oncoming Storm? The Destroyer of Worlds? Is it just me, or is my life always falling to pieces whenever it’s you I see? You’re not my Doctor. You never were my Doctor, you’ll always be hers, and whenever I want my Doctor, it’s you I’m going to get. I’ll never escape you unscathed, will I?”
The Doctor clutched the edges of the mattress, hoping not to be kicked onto the floor. “You’ve seen me more than six times, haven’t you, River Song?”
River’s laugh was hollow. “More than six - don’t you understand, Doctor? I’ve lived that life before. The running and the laughing and the thinking that every minute you’re going to die a thousand years out of time and a thousand worlds away from your own. I’ve danced on your moonbeams and I’ve borne the brunt of your insults, and I’ve cried tears in my pillow because you never gave me a second glance. I broke my heart over you - just like all the girls who came before me, but in my own way, too, because I know something they didn’t, Doctor - I know all of you, I know so much of you. I’ve seen you at your very best and at your very worst, and maybe I was an absolute fool when I loved you before, when I was young and stupid and so in love that I’d have thrown my life away for another minute holding your hand. And maybe I’ve been an absolute fool for thinking that I could live my life without you, as if I’d never known you and never seen all those things, and went on being the staid archaeologist who knows just a bit too much about what life was really like in the latter half of the Etruscan period on the planet Tybalt, because I’d actually been there and not just read about it.
“Because that’s what I’ve done the last ten years, Doctor - I’ve tried to forget you. I’ve tried to pretend you weren’t a part of my life, had never been, and I think I did a pretty good job of it, too. Fooled everyone around me, including myself sometimes. And I hated it. The only time I ever felt whole were the times I saw you, whether you knew it or not - and you didn’t always know it, Doctor. I’ve seen you four times since that day on the beach. I don’t think you knew about more than two of them. It was all I could do not to run up and take you by the hand and tell you what I stupid idiot I’ve been. But I couldn’t. Not because of timelines or Reapers or any ridiculous thing like that. But because I didn’t want the two halves of my life to run together. You belong to my past, Doctor. I shut you in a cardboard box and stowed you under the bed and I didn’t want to see you ever again in my life.
“But here I am, locked in prison with you. Same as I’ve always been, since I was twelve years old - you and me twisting around each other whether we like it or not, destined to always find the other every time we turn around. And I’m fed up with it, Doctor - I’m absolutely fed up with it! I don’t want to have to run from you anymore, because it’s absolutely pointless. Every time I turn and run, you’re still standing in my path.”
“In your path?” sputtered the Doctor. “From the sound of it, you came here looking for me!”
“Not by choice!”
“Then how? You’ve never actually explained that.”
“Spoilers!” shouted River, and her head appeared as she popped off her bunk and stood next to his. “Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers! My whole bloody life is a series of spoilers, and it’s all your fault, you great big nit.”
“Nit?”
“I hate you,” said River, shaking. “I should just up and tell you everything.”
“You haven’t already?” snapped the Doctor.
River stepped back, her anger slowly easing into shock. “You - you have no idea. None! Do you?”
There was a long screech from the door, like metal on metal, followed by a tremendous thump. The seconds ticked by, and then the long, angular handle on the door began to twist. They both watched, hearts thumping, while the door slowly pushed open, and a familiar head poked through.
“Alice!” exclaimed the Doctor.
“Oh, good, found you,” said Alice, pleased, and pushed the door open further, revealing her clothing, now faded back to blue. “We’ve been in three cells already, and let me tell you, it takes some talking to convince the folks we’ve found to stay put. They do, mostly.”
“You weren’t letting out hardened criminals, Alice?” scolded the Doctor as he jumped down off the bunk.
“Oh, no, those were the easiest. Told ‘em to lay back down again and down they went. Like babies. Bit weird.” Alice stepped into the room, followed closely by a tall young man with dark, curly hair, dressed in purple. He handed Alice a large burlap sack, which Alice promptly dropped on the floor. The sack fell open, and Alice began to rummage through the contents. “Oh, this is Midovian.”
“Hello,” said the Doctor, cheerful now that his release was imminent. “I’m the Doctor, and you’ve met Alice already.”
“I’m best ignored, apparently,” said River.
“River Song,” said the Doctor quickly.
“Sorry it took so long,” said Alice, shaking out what was clearly a dark blue cloak lined with silver buttons. “We had to find supplies. Dangerous to be out in red at the moment.”
“Dangerous to be out at all,” said Midovian quietly. “The rioters only left the parade grounds half an hour since; we’d best move quickly before they think to return again.”
Alice handed the cloak to River, who quickly donned it over her red dress. “Your hair will be all right, provided we’re done before daylight.”
“Done?” asked the Doctor, who was handed a blue cloak of his own, this one reversible with red.
“Reclaiming the peace, of course,” said Alice, a bit surprised. “Shouldn’t be hard, Midovian and I-”
“We’re leaving,” said the Doctor shortly.
“Leaving?!” cried Alice.
“What do you mean leaving?” demanded River.
“I’m taking you home,” he told River. “I don’t know how you got here, and truthfully, I don’t care, but you don’t belong here and I’m taking you back to where I found you.”
“Which time?” snorted River, and she pulled the hood over her head. “Alice, my recorder-”
“Right here,” said Alice, reaching into her pocket, but the Doctor whisked it away before she could hand it over.
“This is no place for an archaeologist,” he snapped at River, shaking the recorder in his fist. “You’re meddling, and excessive meddling will only get you hurt, and if you hate me that’s entirely up to you, but I’m not going to have your life on my-” He choked, and River stared stony-faced at him. “I’m taking you home.”
“No,” said River calmly, and reached out and took his wrist, carefully peeling his fingers away from the device. She immediately flipped open the viewscreen and began to scroll through the results. “Alice, what did the carbon readings say?”
Alice tried to tear her worried eyes from the Doctor. “Single-powered blaster, we think. Aimed directly at the statue. It wasn’t explosives, it was a deliberate attack.”
River glanced up at Alice, a confused expression on her face. “But that doesn’t make sense. I thought-" She shook her head and concentrated on the read-out.
“Alice, stop helping her,” said the Doctor, angry. “This planet is a powder-keg and not safe for anyone. The entire society is falling to pieces.” He looked at Midovian. “What’s happening out on the streets, right now?”
“The people are rioting,” said Midovian. “The ceremony was interrupted before it was concluded. The Huftzar believe it to be a Tyminian plot. The Tyminians believe themselves framed by the Huftzar.”
“See? Society torn in two, and we’re neither,” snapped the Doctor. “All humans, both of you, home straight away.”
“Don’t be stupid,” snapped Alice. “I’m staying with you.”
“So am I,” said River, and the Doctor’s expression was yet another form of incredulous that Alice had not yet seen.
“You? You said ten minutes ago that you hated me.”
“That was ten minutes ago,” said River, snapping the viewscreen closed. “Single-energy compound carbon beam, fired directly in the center of the statue of Itrehan. Localized debris patterns and stabilized neuron flows.”
“Not possible,” said the Doctor. “The timing was too precise, and anyone standing near the statue couldn’t have known the color of the final scarf.”
“That’s exactly my point,” said River. “Whoever destroyed the statue was in contact with someone inside the stadium.”
“That could be anybody,” said Alice, and River shook her head.
“Not here. Look.” She opened the viewscreen again, and pointed out the peculiar wave patterns that ran along the edges of the carbon readouts. “This is the base vibration of the planet. It automatically disables any sort of communicative device - mobile phones, radio waves, anything. It’s simply not possible for two people who aren’t in line-of-sight to be able to communicate with each other instantly, not on this planet.”
Alice frowned. “So then how - you’re not saying whoever did this is telepathic, are you?”
“It’s a possibility,” said River.
“No one on this planet is telepathic,” said Midovian.
“No one?” asked the Doctor mildly.
“There’s never been a case of a telepathic Huftzar or Tyminian,” said Midovian.
“Someone off-world, maybe?” theorized Alice.
“You’re saying we were attacked because the ceremony favored Huftzar?” asked Midovian. “Who would want to do that?”
“Oh, who wouldn’t?” asked the Doctor. “If I had to purchase another set of star charts, I’d be right put out.”
Midovian shook his head. “We’re running out of time. Follow me.”
The exterior hall was just as dark and dank as the cell, and the three time travelers moved quickly to keep up with Midovian, who did not seem to want to linger longer than at all necessary. The Doctor, per habit, reached for Alice’s hand, and found much to his dismay that she was already holding Midovian’s.
“So where’d you find this one?” he asked her, trying not to sound put out, and not succeeding at all.
“At the fountain,” replied Alice. “What, jealous?”
“No, not me,” lied the Doctor.
“He is,” said River, behind him.
“We never did diaries,” said Alice.
“I hardly think now is the time,” said the Doctor. “Are we quite sure he’s reliable?”
“Oh so jealous.”
“I trust him,” said Alice.
“Thank you,” said Midovian, sounding quite surprised.
“You’re welcome,” replied Alice, with a blush.
“It’s only he managed to slip you into a high-security prison with nary a scratch or tool,” explained the Doctor.
“And goodness knows, you only gad about the universe with the cream of society,” remarked River cheerfully.
The corridor let out into an open courtyard, utterly empty, although it had several benches, a guard-shack, and what looked to be posts where guards ought to have stood. Midovian reached into the guard-shack and pulled out a small cardboard box with a flip-top lid. Inside the box lay the Doctor’s screwdriver.
“Unguarded?” asked the Doctor, taking the screwdriver and instantly checking it for tampering. “We’ve been left unguarded?”
“Don’t sound so insulted,” said River, gazing over the tall fence to the city. “Why’s the city so bright? It’s nearly midnight, isn’t it?”
“Past that,” said Alice. “There’s a curfew, but no one’s following it.”
“Or enforcing it,” added Midovian.
“If the police force isn’t here guarding us, and they’re not enforcing curfew, what are they doing?” asked the Doctor.
“Joining in, mostly,” said Alice.
There was a whistling sound just outside the courtyard; above the stonework, a set of blue firecrackers set off a series of sparks, interlaced with fizzing silver ash. This was quickly followed by another display of purple and green, only instead of being shaped like a bright weeping willow, the sparkles were shaped more like a finger being brandished in a very inappropriate fashion.
“Well, that’s just rude,” said the Doctor.
Midovian sighed. “You should see what the Tyminians are putting up.”
There was another set of displays above the wall, this time depicting another part of anatomy, in another rather inappropriate position, just as River commented, “Oh, dear.”
“We should get moving,” said Alice.
The streets weren’t quite empty, but those who loitered did not seem to be inclined to do more than simple mischief. There were a set of boys near the end of the street, all dressed in red and orange, brandishing rolls of paper and matchsticks. They shouted as they tripped down the street, every so often tossing one of the rolls of paper over the nearest tree, taking care to hold one trailing end of the paper so that it wrapped itself around in a graceful arc. It was a bit difficult to really determine the color of the paper in the dark, but the Doctor had the distinct feeling that upon daylight, it would be found that the trees were decorated in orange or yellow paper.
“Oi!” shouted Midovian. “Leave off!”
“Mid,” urged Alice, tugging at his hand, “let it go. We have to hurry.”
“Brats!” shouted Midovian at the group, who paid him no heed. “As if the trees belong to one group or the other.”
“And what’s they’re doing is any worse than the fireworks display?” asked the Doctor.
“The fireworks display is over - we’ll have to clean up the trees in the morning,” said Midovian darkly. “The Tyminians are being much more destructive.”
“Destructive?” said the Doctor, his voice going a bit high-pitched. “Tossing paper over trees is destructive?”
“That’s not all,” said Midovian. “They’re also desecrated the official pictures of the new president of Huftzar.” Alice made a snorting noise, and Midovian gave her a dark look. “It’s very serious, Alice.”
“Oh, yes,” agreed Alice, her voice trembling. “Adding the mustache and devil’s horns was really very terrible of them.”
River raised an eyebrow. “Was it permanent ink?”
“Red paint,” said Midovian scathingly, and River clucked her sympathy.
“Let me recap for a moment,” said the Doctor. “The statue was decimated, and no one knows who did it. The Huftzars are upset with the Tyminians, the Tyminians are upset with the Hufizanans, and both are currently engaging in civil disobedience as if all were teenaged Earth boys in the 20th century.”
“With fireworks,” added River solemnly.
“With fireworks,” allowed the Doctor. “That doesn’t sound right. Why would any group that began with destroying a statue revert to pranks teenage boys would prefer to play?”
“I don’t think they would,” said River.
“Quite right. What did those carbon readings say again, River?”
River pulled the scanner out of the bag slung around her neck. “Levels of 87.6 percent. Binary readings of 26.42.8765 alpha eplison janderstix.”
“Ho!” crowed the Doctor. “Janderstix.”
“Yes, janderstix - Doctor! Where are you going?”
The Doctor ran across the street, and with a leap, was able to reach the tail end of the orange paper flapping against the tree. He studied it for a moment, and then scanned it quickly with his screwdriver before letting out another cheerful whoop. The others quickly caught up to him.
“See this?” he said, waving the paper. “Look at the readings here. Binary codes 24.17.8643 alpha delta.”
“Delta?” repeated River, her eyes going wide.
“Delta!” crowed the Doctor.
“I have absolutely no idea what either of you are saying,” said Alice, crossing her arms.
The Doctor pointed at Midovian sharply. “You, sir, have some explaining to do.”
“Me?”
“It’s not his fault!” said Alice. “He’s not the one in charge.”
“Isn’t he?” asked the Doctor quietly, eyeing the silver threads in Midovian’s doublet. “Midovian, isn’t it? That’s not your full name.”
“No, sir,” said Midovian quietly. “Midovian Kylean Delorn.”
There was a quick intake of breath from River. “Thought so,” said the Doctor smugly. “Alice, you do find them sometimes, don’t you?”
“Delorn is an old name,” said River. “There were Delorns back in the very beginning, when Tyminia and Huftzar first made their truce.”
“Of course there were,” said the Doctor. “Midovian is the Huftzar heir, unless I’m mistaken.”
Alice took a step back from Midovian, but he held fast to her hand. “What are you talking about?” she asked cautiously. “What does this have to do with delta or janderstix or whatever it is the scans picked up?”
“It’s DNA, of a sort,” explained River, staring at Midovian. “The paper, it’s at one level of DNA. But the carbon readouts are another level. Whoever caused the explosion of the statue - they’re not Huftzar or Tyminian. It’s someone more advanced than either of them. Someone from further along in their evolutionary cycles.”
Alice inhaled sharply. “An off-worlder,” she said. “A telepathic one, even?”
“Perhaps,” said the Doctor, still looking at Midovian. “But I suspect the heir of Huftzar is keeping something to himself.”
“It’s not quite true,” said Midovian, and turned his gaze back onto Alice. His brown eyes were wide and innocent and absolutely captivating. Alice had the idea that there was a great deal Midovian was not saying, and would have liked to, and perhaps already was saying, only she was too stupid and too human to understand it. “Kylean, who is the prince regent of Huftzar, is my father - but my elder sister, Chalana, is the heir.”
Alice blinked as she tried to interpret the new information. “I spent the whole day with you, and this didn’t come up?”
“It wasn’t important at the time,” said Midovian.
“You’re the second in line to inheriting an entire planet, and it wasn’t important at the time?!?”
“Yeah, sorry I brought this up,” said the Doctor, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Midovian-”
“I have no power,” Midovian said, interrupting. “Even if Huftzar was in rule, I would have no political say, and the people do not know me for my position. In Tyminia, I was only a servant in the Tyminian guard. No one would listen to me.”
“Well, that explains how you were able to break us out,” said the Doctor. “Your lot were the ones to lock us in.”
River turned to Midovian. “That story of Itrehan - how’s it go again? Not who he was - but how he stopped the war originally. How he brokered the peace between the Huftzar and the Tyminians.”
“The armies of Huftzar and of Tyminia met on the battlefield,” said Midovian slowly. “Itrehan rose from the earth and proclaimed amnesty between the two. He brought forth the winds to scatter the armies amongst each other, so that they were not divided but stood as brothers, and no man knew who belonged to which people. They lived amongst each other until order could be restored, and in that time, learned to appreciate each others’ ways. In that spirit, the peoples of Tyminia live as Huftzar for a time, and vice versa, and peace reigned.”
“Very pretty,” said the Doctor dryly, “but you’re forgetting one small detail.”
Midovian frowned. “What?”
“The name of the battlefield.”
“No one knows the name of the battlefield,” said Midovian. “It was lost through time.”
The Doctor turned to River. “River, if you would?”
“Oh, now you want my help. I thought archaeologists meddled too much.”
“River...”
“Pilmertia,” said River. “It was the Plains of Pilmertia.”
Midovian paled. “That’s impossible.”
“Nothing’s impossible,” said the Doctor dryly. “It’s something I’ve learned over the last few centuries.”
“The Pilmertians left the planet twenty generations ago,” interjected Midovian, agitated. “They swore never to return-”
The rest of the story regarding the Pilmertians was lost, however, as the powerful explosion behind them rocked the city. The Doctor reacted first, which did not surprise anyone. What was surprising, however, was that his first instinct was not to shelter Alice - but River. He pulled the woman by her shoulders to the ground, and by the time he reached for Alice, she had already been pushed to the ground by Midovian, whose words were still half-formed on his lips, and whose wide, shocked eyes stared at the Doctor.
“What was that?” asked Alice.
“The police station,” Midovian said, his voice somewhat wooden as he watched his former workplace burst into flames.
The Doctor looked over his shoulder to see what remained of the police station, where only an hour ago, he’d been waiting for rescue. It burned, the fire licking the sky.
“An explosion like that is not a prank,” he said.
“If you don’t mind,” said River pointedly, and he jumped back from her body, where it had lain under his. She pushed herself up to her knees and brushed the imaginary dirt from her sleeves. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate being saved...”
“Would you rather the alternative?” asked the Doctor. He scrambled to his feet.
River immediately hopped up to her feet, and brushed the ash from her dress. “Thank you,” she said, but the Doctor was no longer listening - in fact, he was no longer even there, but halfway down the street, heading for the burning station.
“Well, come on!” he shouted back to them. Midovian and Alice were up like a flash, and took off after him. River sighed, and followed.
They didn’t have to run far. The walls surrounding the station were rubble in some places, and by the time Alice, the fastest of the three, caught up, the Doctor had already found a safe passage through.
“Something set it off,” he said, looking down from the highest point of the rubble. “And you don’t think it was the Tyminians or the Huftzar who did this, do you? Not quite tossing eggs in someone’s post box, is it?”
“So who was it?” asked River, finally catching up.
The Doctor pointed at Midovian. “Before the explosion - what were you saying?”
“Before-"
“The Pilmertians, Midovian, the Pilmertians! Who were they?”
“The Pilmertians were another people on the planet,” said Midovian. “Neither Huftzar or Tyminian. They wanted nothing to do either of us. Some hundred years after the peace, they left - disappeared, overnight. No one knew where they’d gone. And now you’re saying - you think they did this? Why would they come back?”
“It’s not that they’ve come back,” said the Doctor grimly. “I don’t think they went anywhere really at all. I think they came here.”
Chapter Fifteen