Fic: Two Coins, Silver 6/10 (Doctor Who; Realignment 'verse)
Story Title: Two Coins, Silver (6/10)
Series Title: part of the Realignment universe
Author: butterfly
Summary: It's not exactly the honeymoon of anyone's dreams.
Pairing: Doctor/Rose
Rating: PG-13.
Warning: AU after Doctor Who 3x13 - "Last of the Time Lords". Some plot elements and lines from "The Voyage of the Damned", written by Russell T Davies.
Previous Parts: One; Two; Three; Four; Five.
Two Coins, Silver
“I'll see you soon,” the Doctor said to his Rose on the other end. He pulled away from the comm and turned to lean back against it, his eyes closed. Astrid pressed her lips together tightly and gently reached out to touch the Doctor's shoulder. He let out a soft breath of air as she made contact.
His lips were slightly parted and she longed to sketch him. She wasn't a very good artist, but she wishes she could capture the curve of his mouth, the soft pink of his lips. His thick brown hair would be nearly impossible for her to draw correctly but she wanted to try. His cheekbones were sharp and high, almost fragile.
He looked so delicate despite all his strength.
They'd made it through a narrow, broken stairway and a Host attack, but the Doctor looked more exhausted at this moment than he had after both of those things. He must be terribly worried about his wife.
She'd never had anything like that.
He opened his eyes slowly - warm, brown and glad to see her - and she held up a tray of food in her other hand, offering it up to him.
“Saved you some,” she said, giving him her professional smile and a bit of a wink. “You might be a Time King from Gaddabee, but you need to eat.”
“Yeah, thanks,” he said. He sat down on a bit of rumble and she perched next to him. He ate absently, the vast part of his concentration still in that strangely knowledgeable head of his and not on his meal.
“You look good for nine-hundred and three,” she said. She realized a moment too late that her words had come out a bit too flirtatiously and continued, quickly, “How long have you been married? You said it was recent.”
He swallowed a bite of food and looked down thoughtfully. The light was catching the the side of his face - she could see bits of dust caught in his hair.
“Oh, very nearly ten hours,” he said. The corner of his mouth kicked up in a smile and his eyes went hazy and distant. “In eleven more minutes, it'll be ten hours.”
Astrid smiled back at him. She was about to say more - perhaps ask him about knowing to the minute - but Mr. Copper came up to them. He was bending over to get a bit closer to them and Astrid hoped that his back was up to the strain. This was not a normal day for him. Well, not for any of them.
“Doctor, it must be well past midnight, Earth time. Christmas Day.”
“It wasn't already Christmas Day?” the Doctor asked, his forehead wrinkling up. “Oh, I'm glad that Rose didn't hear that.”
“Why's that?” Astrid asked.
“She'd tease me. Rightfully so,” he said. He paused, then grinned up at Mr. Copper. “Merry Christmas.”
Mr. Copper laughed cheerily, all of him lighting up for a moment. It was good to see him so happy after what had happened over the last couple of hours.
“This Christmas thing, what's it all about?” Astrid asked the Doctor.
“Long story,” the Doctor said, which meant that he didn't feel like telling them. “I should know - I was there. I got the last room.”
He had a tiny, secret smile at that, like he was telling a joke for himself that none of them understood.
“But if the planet's waking up, can't we signal them?” Mr. Copper asked. Astrid was watching the Doctor very closely and was surprised to see a flicker of contempt cross his face, quickly hidden. Why would that question make him look like that? Mr. Copper didn't seem to notice it. “They can send up a rocket or something.”
“They don't have spaceships,” the Doctor said, as though it were obvious - something that everyone should know.
“No, I read about it,” Mr. Copper said, with certainty. “They have shuffles, space shuffles.”
“Mr. Copper, this degree in Earthonomics... where's it from?” the Doctor asked, his forehead wrinkling up a bit.
Mr. Copper paused, his gaze shifting from the Doctor to the floor and back again. “Honestly?” he asked.
“Just between us,” the Doctor said, his voice a bit of a whisper.
“Mrs. Golightly's Happy Travelling University and Dry Cleaners,” Mr. Copper said. He wiped his plum handkerchief across his brow and shuffled to a bit of rubble across from them, sitting down.
“You -- you lied to the company to get the job?” Astrid asked, startled into speaking again. Apart from the fact that he'd lied at all - it shouldn't be possible. The Capricorn line was supposed to be throughly checked out. She'd had to go through a two-week waiting period before she'd been hired while they checked out her qualifications. They hadn't done the same for him?
Mr. Copper was talking now about feeling like he'd been wasting his life on Sto, which was familiar enough to Astrid. He'd wanted something exotic, like the Earth. Yes, Astrid could understand well enough why he would lie - when they'd been been on the Earth earlier, it had been such a thrill to stand on a real alien planet. The stink of the air had been so unlike Keg or any of the other cities she'd lived in on Sto and the stones under her feet had had barely any give at all. If she'd known that she needed to lie to get on one of the ships, she probably would have tried.
“And you, Doctor - are you from Earth?” she asked. He'd acted like he'd seen it all before, when they'd been down on their brief tour. “You seem so much more advanced than we thought they were, but you know so much about the planet.”
“Oh, it might surprise you,” the Doctor said, throwing her a wink that made her catch her breath and remind herself that he was married to a beautiful adventuress that he obviously adored. He claimed that they didn't have money, but his suit and his wife's crimson dress looked to be as high quality as Rickston Slade's own black tie and Slade was likely the richest man on the ship. Even if the Doctor hadn't been married, he would have had no interest in a common waitress. “I'm not from the Earth, but Rose is and she uses her intelligence more efficiently than anyone else I've ever met.”
“You married below your species?” Mr. Copper asked. Astrid winced at his words. The Doctor lifted his gaze up and the look in his eyes made her shiver and Mr. Copper take a step back. “Sorry. None of my business. Terribly sorry. But, you see, my problem is, Doctor, that if we survive this, there will be police and all sorts of investigations. Now the minimum penalty for space-fraud is ten years in jail. I'm an old man. I won't survive ten years.”
The Doctor's face had softened throughout Mr. Copper's speech and he opened his mouth to reply when they all heard a banging on the door. The Doctor dropped the rest of his food and popped up, hurrying over to the opposite door, calling out to everyone that it was the Host and that they needed to move now.
Astrid tugged Mr. Copper up and started him in the right direction and the whole group of them rushed out of the room and along a hallway - everything was still smoking and in ruins from the meteoroid shower and it surprised Astrid how much it hurt to see the Titanic in such distress. This ship had just been her way out of the mind-numbing boredom of Sto, but seeing it like this just felt so wrong. It was such a beautiful ship. It didn't deserve to have people betray it.
When they reached the door to the next section of the ship, the Doctor pulled out that chirping blue tube of his and pointed it at the door - Astrid glanced over at the other door to see it dent from the pressure of the pounding. She tried to stifle her shriek of surprise, but couldn't hold it back completely. She heard a clanging from behind her and turned to see that the Doctor had got the other door open for them, and the entire group of them rushed through.
They were in the engine room - it was enormous, as it had to be, to hold a nuclear storm drive. The heat from the engines was largely dissipated by the time it reached this high, but it was still warmer than the room they'd just been in. There was only a narrow walkway from this side of the room to where they needed to go, and it wasn't even a proper walkway, just a very lucky metal beam that had fallen across the drive room.
“Is that the only way across?” Rickston Slade asked.
“On the other hand,” the Doctor pointed out. “It is a way across.”
“The engines are open,” Astrid said. She'd been in this room dozens of times and it had never appeared this intimidating before, because the engines had also been closed down below, which meant the gravity net was in place. With the engines open, the net couldn't be on. If they fell down now, nothing would save them.
“Nuclear storm drive,” the Doctor said in disgust. “Soon as it stops, the Titanic falls.”
“But that thing, it'll never take our weight,” Morvin Van Hoff worried.
“You're going last, mate.” Rickston said. Astrid only wished that she had time to slap him, now that her job was useless anyway.
“It's nitrofine metal,” the Doctor said. “It's stronger than it looks.”
“All the same, Rickston's right. Me and Foon should-”
The edge of the balcony broke away underneath him, and before anyone else could so much as reach out for him, he was gone, down to where the engine swirled below. Foon screamed out his name and everyone was shouting and Astrid couldn't take her eyes away from where he'd fallen. They couldn't even see him anymore, but she knew that had happened to him - the drive would vaporize him once he passed the safety bubble. Astrid covered her mouth with her hands, listening as Foon turned to the Doctor, blaming him for not keeping a promise to save her.
Horrible as Astrid felt for Morvin, this hadn't been the Doctor's fault. He was doing his best to save all of them, but he wasn't Vot, Highest Power. He couldn't levitate or raise the dead. Foon shouldn't be yelling at him, not when he was trying so hard and he was just one man from Gaddabee, however impressive he might seem to them. He couldn't do the impossible. They couldn't expect him to do Vot's work.
The clanging from the hall they'd just left was growing louder and they just... they didn't have any time.
Slade rushed for the walkway, slowing down once he reached it - the Doctor went over to him, to talk him across, and Astrid took over his place in comforting Foon, reaching an arm as far across her shoulders as she could. She could still hear Foon sobbing and she would have done anything to make her feel better, but no one could bring Morvin back.
There was a shift and boom as the storm drive twisted below them and Slade slammed down forwards onto the walkway, only barely keeping himself on top of it. The Doctor was calling reassurances out to him and Astrid had to admire him for it. She didn't know if she would have the grace to be so kind to the man.
Astrid shivered when she realized that she could hear the 'kill' chants of the Host - Mr. Copper heard it, too, and alerted the Doctor, who sealed the door to the hallway. Mr. Copper was complaining about that and Astrid couldn't see why. The Host wanted to kill them. Anything that kept them away was a good thing as far as she was concerned.
Foon started talking - hoping that Morvin was all right, that he'd made it through. Astrid wished that she didn't have to kill that slender reed of hope, but there was no way to have a gravity net in place with the storm drive open. The nuclear energy would eat it away. Morvin was gone. Foon started crying again in earnest and Astrid wrapped her arms around the woman's shoulders, her own face wet, too.
Slade gave a shout of victory and Astrid turned her face to see that he'd successfully made his way to the other side. She let out a sigh of relief as she heard the Doctor tell Bannakaffalatta to go next. He was a nice fellow. She hated that it was taking Sto so long to give cyborgs the same basic rights as the rest of the citizenry. They needed to follow the example of Hela, their nearest planetary neighbor. Hela had been giving cyborgs full rights for almost five years now.
Just as Bannakaffalatta headed across, the door started to dent. The Host had found them again. They didn't have much time now. Astrid stood, helping Foon up as well, and looked nervously at the marks on the door. How long would it hold up to the Host's hands?
The Doctor said her name and she turned to him - he was telling her that she needed to cross now. She let go of Foon's hand hesitantly and grabbed onto the Doctor's. His face was tight with strain and she asked him when he'd be coming. He nudged her onto the bridge and told her just to go.
She placed one booted foot on the walkway, glancing down to remind herself of how careful she needed to be - the fallen beam itself was not just narrow, it was also covered in more debris that she would need to step over so that she could reach the other side. This ship had not been designed to withstand an emergency situation and she was fully planning on reporting it to the Shipping Commission once she got home.
Bannakaffalatta stopped in his own journey to reach a hand backward to her - she accepted it and moving forward bent over was actually easier and more reassuring than standing tall would have been. He was such a sweet man. She'd have to hold him to that promise of a drink once they all got out of this.
The beam creaked underneath them and Astrid glanced back to see that Mr. Copper and the Doctor had joined them. Bannakaffalatta complained about the added weight, but Astrid couldn't shake her relief in knowing that the Doctor was that little bit closer. He might not be able to do everything that they wished he could, but he was good at this sort of thing. Certainly much better than she was.
Bannakaffalatta had to let go of her hand to leap across a nasty section and then she had to make the leap as well. Just as she landed, the ship shook around them and she very nearly lost her footing. Her breath was coming hard and fast and her heart was pounding like it was going to force its way out of her chest. The beam was starting to crack around them.
She knelt there for another moment, trying to catch her breath when she realized that... that the Host...
“They've stopped,” she said.
“Gone away?” Bannakaffalatta asked hopefully.
“But why would they give up?” the Doctor asked.
Astrid was staring back across the beam at the silent door, wondering the same thing. They wouldn't just go away. They wouldn't give up, not when they seemed to want so badly to kill them all.
Then Mr. Copper was staring up past them. “I'm afraid we've forgotten the traditions of Christmas,” he said, pointing a shaking finger upward. “That angels have wings!”
Astrid turned her head to follow that trembling finger and her heart froze when she saw the Host descending down on them. They shouldn't be able to levitate, certainly not in this room, but they shouldn't be able to at all. None of the staff had been told about that. It shouldn't be happening.
Yet happening, it was. There were at least five of them, hovering in the air around their walkway, their hands folded together.
One of them beeped. “Information: kill.” It reached up, taking off its metal hat - Astrid thinks she remembers one of the crew calling it a 'hallo'. The Doctor yelled out a warning to them all, picking up a bit of a metal bar.
Astrid started tugging at a bar near where she was, but it was stuck in place. And the Host were holding their hallos in one hand, looking like they were going to throw them. Astrid yanked harder, hauling out the bar just in time to smash it into a hallo before it hit her and nearly unbalancing herself with the swing.
Every time that any of them hit one of the hallos, it would spark bright blue and zoom away, but never downward. They didn't seem to be getting rid of any of them. She heard the Doctor yelp out in pain and looked over in time to see one of the hallos graze Mr. Copper, who clutched his side in pain.
“I can't,” Astrid said, despairingly. She couldn't fight a useless battle and this wasn't working. No matter what they did, the hallos kept attacking them.
“Bannakaffalatta stop!” Bannakaffalatta yelled. She turned and saw him throw his bar to the side. “Bannakaffalatta proud. Bannakaffalatta cyborg!”
With that shout, he ripped open his dinner jacket and triggered an overload on his own circuits - it sent out a pulse that knocked all the hallos down and made the Host spark and shiver and drop like weights, most of them falling down in the nuclear drive below them and one landing with a clang on the walkway behind the Doctor.
Then she heard a crack behind her and Astrid turned to see Bannakaffalatta fall back on the walkway right behind her. She gasped out in horror and rushed to his side, looking down at his power core - it was blinking on empty.
“He's used all his power,” she called out to the Doctor, and then she looked back down at Bannakaffalatta, placing her hands on his shoulders gently.
“Did good?” Bannakaffalatta asked.
“You saved our lives,” she told him.
“Bannakaffalatta happy.” He did sound happy, but he also sounded... resigned. And that wasn't good enough. He couldn't give up now.
“We could recharge you,” she said. “Get you to a power point. Just plug you in.”
“Too late,” he said, with a tiny shake of his head.
“No, but... you've got to get me that drink, remember?” she said, trying to smile.
“Pretty girl,” he said, and her smile widened hopefully... then his face relaxed, his eyes closing, all the breath and energy gone from his body. She took in a shuddering breath and then started to reach down to fix his shirt back into place, but Mr. Copper stopped her.
Mr. Copper pulled out Bannakaffalatta's EMP transmitter, saying that he would want them to use it. Mr. Copper was right, of course he was, but it sent a shiver through her, to see a part of Bannakaffalatta just being removed like that.
A weapon against the Host, though, Astrid could support that. Who knows how many other people had already been killed by them?
It was with a grim heart that Astrid nodded - and then Slade brought them more bad news. The Host that had fallen onto the walkway was starting to get up, and that EMP was still empty, unless it had some bit of emergency power left.
They might still die, here and now.
Everyone - including herself - was shouting and it was doing no good. That Host was going to kill them, all of them.
And then the Doctor held up a hand and said, “Loophole! Security Protocol Ten! Six-Six-Six! Twenty-One!”
He kept shouting out numbers and Astrid took Bannakaffalatta's EMP from Mr. Copper, checking desperately to see if there was any kind of back-up on it - yet knowing that there couldn't be, that if there had been, Bannakaffalatta would still be alive.
“One!” the Doctor called out and the Host stopped advancing. In fact, it repositioned itself into standard information-dispensing position. Astrid's heart felt like it might start working again.
“Information: state request.” It was rather chilling to see one of the Host behaving that way now, after she'd seen them trying to kill her. The toneless quality of its voice was disarming instead of reassuring.
The Doctor proceeded to try to interrogate the Host, but Astrid was having a hard time concentrating on what either of them were saying. She'd wanted to see an alien planet and maybe have a bit of an adventure. But her breath was coming hard and fast, her body shivering with adrenaline and as much as this was terrifying her, there was something horrifically exciting about it as well. And the Doctor and his wife did this all the time - was this why? Was it because of the way her blood was rushing under her skin and every nerve in her body was on edge? Did they enjoy it?
The Doctor's interview with the Host appeared to be over, as it told him that his questions were up.
“Information: now you will die.”
It started to raise up its hallo again for another attack. Astrid cringed a bit, wondering if it might not be less painful just to jump down into the drive.
And then she saw Foon - Foon came up behind the Host and looped a rope over the top of it, cinching it tight. “You're coming with me,” she said, before taking a deep breath and-
she leapt from the walkway, holding firmly to the other end of the rope. The Doctor screamed, but it was too late.
She and the Host were both gone - tumbling down to be vaporized in the engine core. Astrid stood there for a moment, staring. The noise of the room seemed overpowering, though it couldn't be any louder than it had been a moment ago.
“Everyone, move,” the Doctor said, pushing Mr. Copper in her direction and holding his hand out toward her. Astrid nodded, a little shakily, and gave him the EMP before heading over to the other side of the room, where the Doctor pulled out his tube and beeped it at the door, opening it for them. He led the way through, stride determined. They raced down a hallway until they reached an intersection - the Doctor spun around to face them and Astrid had to stop abruptly to avoid running past him.
“Get up to Reception One,” he told them. “Once you're there, Mr. Copper, you've got staff access to the computer. Try and find a way of transmitting an SOS. Astrid, you're in charge of this-”
He held the EMP transmitter up in front of her. She hadn't noticed until now, but his tie had been undone, giving him a ruffled and dashing look, and he really did have truly lovely hands, with long and slender fingers.
“-once it's powered up, it'll take out Hosts within fifty yards but then it needs sixty seconds to recharge. Got that?”
Astrid took the transmitter from him, trying to figure out just when he'd had the time to reprogram it while they'd been escaping. The Doctor turned to Slade, holding up his helpful tube device.
“Rickston, take this. I've preset it. Just hold down that button. It'll open doors. Don't lose it. You got that?”
Slade inclined his head a bit and accepted the machine from the Doctor, who promptly ordered him to go open the next door. Slade stared down at the Doctor's device, running his fingers over it, then startled when the Doctor yelled at him, scurrying off to obey.
Next, the Doctor pulled a medical response kit from the debris and handed it to Mr. Copper, telling him to get himself fit, then he turned back to Astrid.
She had to admit, she was a bit in awe. This was a man who knew how to take control of a situation.
“Astrid, where's the power point?” he asked her, briskly, none of that extra warmth from earlier in his voice. She hurried off to show him and the two of them bent down under the comms and he reached down to show her where to plug in the transmitter to charge it.
“When it's ready, that blue light comes on there,” he said, pressing a button and showing her. He'd given them so many instructions, it was as if... as if he knew that he wouldn't be there to help them.
“You're talking as if you're not coming with us,” Astrid said, feeling as though her heart had plummeted down to her stomach. He was the one who'd kept them together and kept them alive. How could they do this without him?
“There's something down on Deck 31,” he told her. “I'm gonna find out what it is.”
“What if you meet a Host?” Astrid asked. He'd given away his blue tube - not that it seemed to be a weapon - and she was the one who would have the EMP transmitter. He'd be helpless.
“Well, then I'll just... have some fun,” he said, like it was nothing at all.
“Sounds like you do this kind of thing all the time,” Astrid said.
“Not by choice,” he said, sounding slightly wounded, like it was an argument he'd made often. “All I do is travel. That's what I am - a traveller. Imagine it. No tax, no bills, no boss, just the open sky.”
She gazed up at him and she tried to envision his world - a world of complete freedom, where he had no obligation but to himself. She could see herself in that world with him, laughing under alien skies, him holding her tightly when danger threatened, seeing him smile and getting to see more than just the hint of his throat.
Then, with something of a mental thud, she remembered his voice from when they first met.
Rose Tyler, my wife.
I suppose that you could call this our honeymoon.
She wouldn't get to be the person to look after him - he already had that someone. And yet... she couldn't stop thinking of visiting Earth and looking up to see that alien sky. Even if she couldn't have him, she might still be able to have that.
“I'm sort of... unemployed right now,” she started, picking her words very carefully. “And I was just thinking... hoping, really, that your ship might have room for another person. A friend.”
“It's not always safe,” the Doctor said, but his eyes were warm and welcoming again.
“I don't mind,” she said. “I've got no one back on Sto, no family, just me. So, what do you think? Can I come with you?”
The Doctor smiled and her heart beat just a little bit faster.
“Yeah, I'd like that,” he said. “Yes.”
The ship shook around them and his smile slipped. He stood up and opened the comms to the bridge back up again. Astrid stayed where she was so that she could continue to power up the EMP.
“Rose, Midshipman Frame - are you still with us?” he asked.
“It's the engines, sir,” came the immediate response from young Frame. Astrid tried to remember his first name, but couldn't quite think of it. Alexis, perhaps? It was something odd like that. “Final phase. There's nothing more I can do. We've got only eight minutes left!”
“Don't worry, I'll get there,” the Doctor said.
“The bridge is sealed off!” Frame protested.
“I'm working on it,” the Doctor snapped. “I'll get up there somehow. Is Rose there?”
There was a brief pause.
“Of course, I am.” Rose's voice was breathy and sweet - Astrid hadn't really had time to notice it earlier and it didn't really matter, she supposed. “I'm not qualified to muck about with the engines, that's all, Doctor.”
“Rose-”
“We've got a time limit,” she said, sounding firmer. “Go save the ship.”
“As ordered,” the Doctor said. Then he breathed out softly and clicked the comm off again, turning back to Astrid.
“All charged up?” he asked, and she nodded. She stood up and followed him as he raced back over to the other two. “Mr. Copper, look after her. Astrid, look after him. Rickston... um... look after yourself." He gave Astrid a lingering look. "And I'll see you again, I promise.”
He turned to leave and... she couldn't stand just to have him go like that.
“Hold on!” she said, her mind racing. “There's an old tradition on planet Sto-”
“I've really got to go,” the Doctor said.
“Just wait a minute!” Astrid said. She stared for a moment, wishing that he weren't quite so tall, but then an idea struck her. She went over to Mr. Copper and pulled the medical kit from his hands, placing it down on the ground in front of the Doctor. He looked at her, bemused. She climbed up on it and leaned forward to place a very soft kiss on the corner of his mouth. His eyes closed briefly and she let herself take a moment to think about the kiss that she might have dared to give him if he weren't married.
When she pulled away, he opened his eyes, and the tenderness in them made her ache inside. “Yes,” he said gently, cupping her cheek briefly. “That's a very old tradition.”
He pulled away from her, heading off again, and Astrid blinked hard, not letting herself cry.
They had a job to do.
It was astonishingly easy to settle into a routine as they made their way back to Reception One - Rickston would open the door, Astrid would rush in to zap any Hosts who might be around, then she would wait for her transmitter to power up again while Rickston headed for the next door. And each time felt easier and gave her more of a rush when she pulled off her part of the plan. If this was really what life with the Doctor would be like, she might really enjoy it, despite the danger.
They reached Reception One and Astrid found it much easier than she would have predicted to get Rickston and Mr. Copper to follow her instructions. But then the computer that they might have used to send the call for help was down.
She glanced around the reception area, wondering if there was anything else that they might be able to use, and her gaze landed on the teleport bracelets, giving her another idea. She might not be able to do anything else here, but maybe she could still be useful.
She went over to the comms and called the bridge. Frame was the one who answered.
“Who's there?” he asked.
“Astrid Peth. I was with the Doctor,” she said. “Tell me, can you divert power to the teleport system?”
“No way,” he said. “I'm using everything I got to keep the engines going.”
“It's just one trip,” she said. “I need to get to Deck 31.”
“And I'm-” Frame started to speak and then he was cut off.
“Isn't that where the Doctor went?” That was Rose's voice, sharp and inquisitive.
“Yes,” Astrid said, relief washing over her. She didn't need to do all the convincing herself. “He's done so much for us and I... I need to help him.”
“We'll get you that power,” Rose said.
“Thank you,” Astrid said. She turned to the teleport system and tried turning it on, a thrill running through her when it responded. She grabbed one of the bracelets and snapped it on. She looked over at Mr. Copper, who was fiddling with head of one of the Hosts. “Mr. Copper, I'm going to find him.”
“Good luck,” he said. She smiled and then braced herself.
The teleport grabbed her and blue light enveloped the world around her.
Continue on to Part Seven.
Series Title: part of the Realignment universe
Author: butterfly
Summary: It's not exactly the honeymoon of anyone's dreams.
Pairing: Doctor/Rose
Rating: PG-13.
Warning: AU after Doctor Who 3x13 - "Last of the Time Lords". Some plot elements and lines from "The Voyage of the Damned", written by Russell T Davies.
Previous Parts: One; Two; Three; Four; Five.
Two Coins, Silver
“I'll see you soon,” the Doctor said to his Rose on the other end. He pulled away from the comm and turned to lean back against it, his eyes closed. Astrid pressed her lips together tightly and gently reached out to touch the Doctor's shoulder. He let out a soft breath of air as she made contact.
His lips were slightly parted and she longed to sketch him. She wasn't a very good artist, but she wishes she could capture the curve of his mouth, the soft pink of his lips. His thick brown hair would be nearly impossible for her to draw correctly but she wanted to try. His cheekbones were sharp and high, almost fragile.
He looked so delicate despite all his strength.
They'd made it through a narrow, broken stairway and a Host attack, but the Doctor looked more exhausted at this moment than he had after both of those things. He must be terribly worried about his wife.
She'd never had anything like that.
He opened his eyes slowly - warm, brown and glad to see her - and she held up a tray of food in her other hand, offering it up to him.
“Saved you some,” she said, giving him her professional smile and a bit of a wink. “You might be a Time King from Gaddabee, but you need to eat.”
“Yeah, thanks,” he said. He sat down on a bit of rumble and she perched next to him. He ate absently, the vast part of his concentration still in that strangely knowledgeable head of his and not on his meal.
“You look good for nine-hundred and three,” she said. She realized a moment too late that her words had come out a bit too flirtatiously and continued, quickly, “How long have you been married? You said it was recent.”
He swallowed a bite of food and looked down thoughtfully. The light was catching the the side of his face - she could see bits of dust caught in his hair.
“Oh, very nearly ten hours,” he said. The corner of his mouth kicked up in a smile and his eyes went hazy and distant. “In eleven more minutes, it'll be ten hours.”
Astrid smiled back at him. She was about to say more - perhaps ask him about knowing to the minute - but Mr. Copper came up to them. He was bending over to get a bit closer to them and Astrid hoped that his back was up to the strain. This was not a normal day for him. Well, not for any of them.
“Doctor, it must be well past midnight, Earth time. Christmas Day.”
“It wasn't already Christmas Day?” the Doctor asked, his forehead wrinkling up. “Oh, I'm glad that Rose didn't hear that.”
“Why's that?” Astrid asked.
“She'd tease me. Rightfully so,” he said. He paused, then grinned up at Mr. Copper. “Merry Christmas.”
Mr. Copper laughed cheerily, all of him lighting up for a moment. It was good to see him so happy after what had happened over the last couple of hours.
“This Christmas thing, what's it all about?” Astrid asked the Doctor.
“Long story,” the Doctor said, which meant that he didn't feel like telling them. “I should know - I was there. I got the last room.”
He had a tiny, secret smile at that, like he was telling a joke for himself that none of them understood.
“But if the planet's waking up, can't we signal them?” Mr. Copper asked. Astrid was watching the Doctor very closely and was surprised to see a flicker of contempt cross his face, quickly hidden. Why would that question make him look like that? Mr. Copper didn't seem to notice it. “They can send up a rocket or something.”
“They don't have spaceships,” the Doctor said, as though it were obvious - something that everyone should know.
“No, I read about it,” Mr. Copper said, with certainty. “They have shuffles, space shuffles.”
“Mr. Copper, this degree in Earthonomics... where's it from?” the Doctor asked, his forehead wrinkling up a bit.
Mr. Copper paused, his gaze shifting from the Doctor to the floor and back again. “Honestly?” he asked.
“Just between us,” the Doctor said, his voice a bit of a whisper.
“Mrs. Golightly's Happy Travelling University and Dry Cleaners,” Mr. Copper said. He wiped his plum handkerchief across his brow and shuffled to a bit of rubble across from them, sitting down.
“You -- you lied to the company to get the job?” Astrid asked, startled into speaking again. Apart from the fact that he'd lied at all - it shouldn't be possible. The Capricorn line was supposed to be throughly checked out. She'd had to go through a two-week waiting period before she'd been hired while they checked out her qualifications. They hadn't done the same for him?
Mr. Copper was talking now about feeling like he'd been wasting his life on Sto, which was familiar enough to Astrid. He'd wanted something exotic, like the Earth. Yes, Astrid could understand well enough why he would lie - when they'd been been on the Earth earlier, it had been such a thrill to stand on a real alien planet. The stink of the air had been so unlike Keg or any of the other cities she'd lived in on Sto and the stones under her feet had had barely any give at all. If she'd known that she needed to lie to get on one of the ships, she probably would have tried.
“And you, Doctor - are you from Earth?” she asked. He'd acted like he'd seen it all before, when they'd been down on their brief tour. “You seem so much more advanced than we thought they were, but you know so much about the planet.”
“Oh, it might surprise you,” the Doctor said, throwing her a wink that made her catch her breath and remind herself that he was married to a beautiful adventuress that he obviously adored. He claimed that they didn't have money, but his suit and his wife's crimson dress looked to be as high quality as Rickston Slade's own black tie and Slade was likely the richest man on the ship. Even if the Doctor hadn't been married, he would have had no interest in a common waitress. “I'm not from the Earth, but Rose is and she uses her intelligence more efficiently than anyone else I've ever met.”
“You married below your species?” Mr. Copper asked. Astrid winced at his words. The Doctor lifted his gaze up and the look in his eyes made her shiver and Mr. Copper take a step back. “Sorry. None of my business. Terribly sorry. But, you see, my problem is, Doctor, that if we survive this, there will be police and all sorts of investigations. Now the minimum penalty for space-fraud is ten years in jail. I'm an old man. I won't survive ten years.”
The Doctor's face had softened throughout Mr. Copper's speech and he opened his mouth to reply when they all heard a banging on the door. The Doctor dropped the rest of his food and popped up, hurrying over to the opposite door, calling out to everyone that it was the Host and that they needed to move now.
Astrid tugged Mr. Copper up and started him in the right direction and the whole group of them rushed out of the room and along a hallway - everything was still smoking and in ruins from the meteoroid shower and it surprised Astrid how much it hurt to see the Titanic in such distress. This ship had just been her way out of the mind-numbing boredom of Sto, but seeing it like this just felt so wrong. It was such a beautiful ship. It didn't deserve to have people betray it.
When they reached the door to the next section of the ship, the Doctor pulled out that chirping blue tube of his and pointed it at the door - Astrid glanced over at the other door to see it dent from the pressure of the pounding. She tried to stifle her shriek of surprise, but couldn't hold it back completely. She heard a clanging from behind her and turned to see that the Doctor had got the other door open for them, and the entire group of them rushed through.
They were in the engine room - it was enormous, as it had to be, to hold a nuclear storm drive. The heat from the engines was largely dissipated by the time it reached this high, but it was still warmer than the room they'd just been in. There was only a narrow walkway from this side of the room to where they needed to go, and it wasn't even a proper walkway, just a very lucky metal beam that had fallen across the drive room.
“Is that the only way across?” Rickston Slade asked.
“On the other hand,” the Doctor pointed out. “It is a way across.”
“The engines are open,” Astrid said. She'd been in this room dozens of times and it had never appeared this intimidating before, because the engines had also been closed down below, which meant the gravity net was in place. With the engines open, the net couldn't be on. If they fell down now, nothing would save them.
“Nuclear storm drive,” the Doctor said in disgust. “Soon as it stops, the Titanic falls.”
“But that thing, it'll never take our weight,” Morvin Van Hoff worried.
“You're going last, mate.” Rickston said. Astrid only wished that she had time to slap him, now that her job was useless anyway.
“It's nitrofine metal,” the Doctor said. “It's stronger than it looks.”
“All the same, Rickston's right. Me and Foon should-”
The edge of the balcony broke away underneath him, and before anyone else could so much as reach out for him, he was gone, down to where the engine swirled below. Foon screamed out his name and everyone was shouting and Astrid couldn't take her eyes away from where he'd fallen. They couldn't even see him anymore, but she knew that had happened to him - the drive would vaporize him once he passed the safety bubble. Astrid covered her mouth with her hands, listening as Foon turned to the Doctor, blaming him for not keeping a promise to save her.
Horrible as Astrid felt for Morvin, this hadn't been the Doctor's fault. He was doing his best to save all of them, but he wasn't Vot, Highest Power. He couldn't levitate or raise the dead. Foon shouldn't be yelling at him, not when he was trying so hard and he was just one man from Gaddabee, however impressive he might seem to them. He couldn't do the impossible. They couldn't expect him to do Vot's work.
The clanging from the hall they'd just left was growing louder and they just... they didn't have any time.
Slade rushed for the walkway, slowing down once he reached it - the Doctor went over to him, to talk him across, and Astrid took over his place in comforting Foon, reaching an arm as far across her shoulders as she could. She could still hear Foon sobbing and she would have done anything to make her feel better, but no one could bring Morvin back.
There was a shift and boom as the storm drive twisted below them and Slade slammed down forwards onto the walkway, only barely keeping himself on top of it. The Doctor was calling reassurances out to him and Astrid had to admire him for it. She didn't know if she would have the grace to be so kind to the man.
Astrid shivered when she realized that she could hear the 'kill' chants of the Host - Mr. Copper heard it, too, and alerted the Doctor, who sealed the door to the hallway. Mr. Copper was complaining about that and Astrid couldn't see why. The Host wanted to kill them. Anything that kept them away was a good thing as far as she was concerned.
Foon started talking - hoping that Morvin was all right, that he'd made it through. Astrid wished that she didn't have to kill that slender reed of hope, but there was no way to have a gravity net in place with the storm drive open. The nuclear energy would eat it away. Morvin was gone. Foon started crying again in earnest and Astrid wrapped her arms around the woman's shoulders, her own face wet, too.
Slade gave a shout of victory and Astrid turned her face to see that he'd successfully made his way to the other side. She let out a sigh of relief as she heard the Doctor tell Bannakaffalatta to go next. He was a nice fellow. She hated that it was taking Sto so long to give cyborgs the same basic rights as the rest of the citizenry. They needed to follow the example of Hela, their nearest planetary neighbor. Hela had been giving cyborgs full rights for almost five years now.
Just as Bannakaffalatta headed across, the door started to dent. The Host had found them again. They didn't have much time now. Astrid stood, helping Foon up as well, and looked nervously at the marks on the door. How long would it hold up to the Host's hands?
The Doctor said her name and she turned to him - he was telling her that she needed to cross now. She let go of Foon's hand hesitantly and grabbed onto the Doctor's. His face was tight with strain and she asked him when he'd be coming. He nudged her onto the bridge and told her just to go.
She placed one booted foot on the walkway, glancing down to remind herself of how careful she needed to be - the fallen beam itself was not just narrow, it was also covered in more debris that she would need to step over so that she could reach the other side. This ship had not been designed to withstand an emergency situation and she was fully planning on reporting it to the Shipping Commission once she got home.
Bannakaffalatta stopped in his own journey to reach a hand backward to her - she accepted it and moving forward bent over was actually easier and more reassuring than standing tall would have been. He was such a sweet man. She'd have to hold him to that promise of a drink once they all got out of this.
The beam creaked underneath them and Astrid glanced back to see that Mr. Copper and the Doctor had joined them. Bannakaffalatta complained about the added weight, but Astrid couldn't shake her relief in knowing that the Doctor was that little bit closer. He might not be able to do everything that they wished he could, but he was good at this sort of thing. Certainly much better than she was.
Bannakaffalatta had to let go of her hand to leap across a nasty section and then she had to make the leap as well. Just as she landed, the ship shook around them and she very nearly lost her footing. Her breath was coming hard and fast and her heart was pounding like it was going to force its way out of her chest. The beam was starting to crack around them.
She knelt there for another moment, trying to catch her breath when she realized that... that the Host...
“They've stopped,” she said.
“Gone away?” Bannakaffalatta asked hopefully.
“But why would they give up?” the Doctor asked.
Astrid was staring back across the beam at the silent door, wondering the same thing. They wouldn't just go away. They wouldn't give up, not when they seemed to want so badly to kill them all.
Then Mr. Copper was staring up past them. “I'm afraid we've forgotten the traditions of Christmas,” he said, pointing a shaking finger upward. “That angels have wings!”
Astrid turned her head to follow that trembling finger and her heart froze when she saw the Host descending down on them. They shouldn't be able to levitate, certainly not in this room, but they shouldn't be able to at all. None of the staff had been told about that. It shouldn't be happening.
Yet happening, it was. There were at least five of them, hovering in the air around their walkway, their hands folded together.
One of them beeped. “Information: kill.” It reached up, taking off its metal hat - Astrid thinks she remembers one of the crew calling it a 'hallo'. The Doctor yelled out a warning to them all, picking up a bit of a metal bar.
Astrid started tugging at a bar near where she was, but it was stuck in place. And the Host were holding their hallos in one hand, looking like they were going to throw them. Astrid yanked harder, hauling out the bar just in time to smash it into a hallo before it hit her and nearly unbalancing herself with the swing.
Every time that any of them hit one of the hallos, it would spark bright blue and zoom away, but never downward. They didn't seem to be getting rid of any of them. She heard the Doctor yelp out in pain and looked over in time to see one of the hallos graze Mr. Copper, who clutched his side in pain.
“I can't,” Astrid said, despairingly. She couldn't fight a useless battle and this wasn't working. No matter what they did, the hallos kept attacking them.
“Bannakaffalatta stop!” Bannakaffalatta yelled. She turned and saw him throw his bar to the side. “Bannakaffalatta proud. Bannakaffalatta cyborg!”
With that shout, he ripped open his dinner jacket and triggered an overload on his own circuits - it sent out a pulse that knocked all the hallos down and made the Host spark and shiver and drop like weights, most of them falling down in the nuclear drive below them and one landing with a clang on the walkway behind the Doctor.
Then she heard a crack behind her and Astrid turned to see Bannakaffalatta fall back on the walkway right behind her. She gasped out in horror and rushed to his side, looking down at his power core - it was blinking on empty.
“He's used all his power,” she called out to the Doctor, and then she looked back down at Bannakaffalatta, placing her hands on his shoulders gently.
“Did good?” Bannakaffalatta asked.
“You saved our lives,” she told him.
“Bannakaffalatta happy.” He did sound happy, but he also sounded... resigned. And that wasn't good enough. He couldn't give up now.
“We could recharge you,” she said. “Get you to a power point. Just plug you in.”
“Too late,” he said, with a tiny shake of his head.
“No, but... you've got to get me that drink, remember?” she said, trying to smile.
“Pretty girl,” he said, and her smile widened hopefully... then his face relaxed, his eyes closing, all the breath and energy gone from his body. She took in a shuddering breath and then started to reach down to fix his shirt back into place, but Mr. Copper stopped her.
Mr. Copper pulled out Bannakaffalatta's EMP transmitter, saying that he would want them to use it. Mr. Copper was right, of course he was, but it sent a shiver through her, to see a part of Bannakaffalatta just being removed like that.
A weapon against the Host, though, Astrid could support that. Who knows how many other people had already been killed by them?
It was with a grim heart that Astrid nodded - and then Slade brought them more bad news. The Host that had fallen onto the walkway was starting to get up, and that EMP was still empty, unless it had some bit of emergency power left.
They might still die, here and now.
Everyone - including herself - was shouting and it was doing no good. That Host was going to kill them, all of them.
And then the Doctor held up a hand and said, “Loophole! Security Protocol Ten! Six-Six-Six! Twenty-One!”
He kept shouting out numbers and Astrid took Bannakaffalatta's EMP from Mr. Copper, checking desperately to see if there was any kind of back-up on it - yet knowing that there couldn't be, that if there had been, Bannakaffalatta would still be alive.
“One!” the Doctor called out and the Host stopped advancing. In fact, it repositioned itself into standard information-dispensing position. Astrid's heart felt like it might start working again.
“Information: state request.” It was rather chilling to see one of the Host behaving that way now, after she'd seen them trying to kill her. The toneless quality of its voice was disarming instead of reassuring.
The Doctor proceeded to try to interrogate the Host, but Astrid was having a hard time concentrating on what either of them were saying. She'd wanted to see an alien planet and maybe have a bit of an adventure. But her breath was coming hard and fast, her body shivering with adrenaline and as much as this was terrifying her, there was something horrifically exciting about it as well. And the Doctor and his wife did this all the time - was this why? Was it because of the way her blood was rushing under her skin and every nerve in her body was on edge? Did they enjoy it?
The Doctor's interview with the Host appeared to be over, as it told him that his questions were up.
“Information: now you will die.”
It started to raise up its hallo again for another attack. Astrid cringed a bit, wondering if it might not be less painful just to jump down into the drive.
And then she saw Foon - Foon came up behind the Host and looped a rope over the top of it, cinching it tight. “You're coming with me,” she said, before taking a deep breath and-
she leapt from the walkway, holding firmly to the other end of the rope. The Doctor screamed, but it was too late.
She and the Host were both gone - tumbling down to be vaporized in the engine core. Astrid stood there for a moment, staring. The noise of the room seemed overpowering, though it couldn't be any louder than it had been a moment ago.
“Everyone, move,” the Doctor said, pushing Mr. Copper in her direction and holding his hand out toward her. Astrid nodded, a little shakily, and gave him the EMP before heading over to the other side of the room, where the Doctor pulled out his tube and beeped it at the door, opening it for them. He led the way through, stride determined. They raced down a hallway until they reached an intersection - the Doctor spun around to face them and Astrid had to stop abruptly to avoid running past him.
“Get up to Reception One,” he told them. “Once you're there, Mr. Copper, you've got staff access to the computer. Try and find a way of transmitting an SOS. Astrid, you're in charge of this-”
He held the EMP transmitter up in front of her. She hadn't noticed until now, but his tie had been undone, giving him a ruffled and dashing look, and he really did have truly lovely hands, with long and slender fingers.
“-once it's powered up, it'll take out Hosts within fifty yards but then it needs sixty seconds to recharge. Got that?”
Astrid took the transmitter from him, trying to figure out just when he'd had the time to reprogram it while they'd been escaping. The Doctor turned to Slade, holding up his helpful tube device.
“Rickston, take this. I've preset it. Just hold down that button. It'll open doors. Don't lose it. You got that?”
Slade inclined his head a bit and accepted the machine from the Doctor, who promptly ordered him to go open the next door. Slade stared down at the Doctor's device, running his fingers over it, then startled when the Doctor yelled at him, scurrying off to obey.
Next, the Doctor pulled a medical response kit from the debris and handed it to Mr. Copper, telling him to get himself fit, then he turned back to Astrid.
She had to admit, she was a bit in awe. This was a man who knew how to take control of a situation.
“Astrid, where's the power point?” he asked her, briskly, none of that extra warmth from earlier in his voice. She hurried off to show him and the two of them bent down under the comms and he reached down to show her where to plug in the transmitter to charge it.
“When it's ready, that blue light comes on there,” he said, pressing a button and showing her. He'd given them so many instructions, it was as if... as if he knew that he wouldn't be there to help them.
“You're talking as if you're not coming with us,” Astrid said, feeling as though her heart had plummeted down to her stomach. He was the one who'd kept them together and kept them alive. How could they do this without him?
“There's something down on Deck 31,” he told her. “I'm gonna find out what it is.”
“What if you meet a Host?” Astrid asked. He'd given away his blue tube - not that it seemed to be a weapon - and she was the one who would have the EMP transmitter. He'd be helpless.
“Well, then I'll just... have some fun,” he said, like it was nothing at all.
“Sounds like you do this kind of thing all the time,” Astrid said.
“Not by choice,” he said, sounding slightly wounded, like it was an argument he'd made often. “All I do is travel. That's what I am - a traveller. Imagine it. No tax, no bills, no boss, just the open sky.”
She gazed up at him and she tried to envision his world - a world of complete freedom, where he had no obligation but to himself. She could see herself in that world with him, laughing under alien skies, him holding her tightly when danger threatened, seeing him smile and getting to see more than just the hint of his throat.
Then, with something of a mental thud, she remembered his voice from when they first met.
Rose Tyler, my wife.
I suppose that you could call this our honeymoon.
She wouldn't get to be the person to look after him - he already had that someone. And yet... she couldn't stop thinking of visiting Earth and looking up to see that alien sky. Even if she couldn't have him, she might still be able to have that.
“I'm sort of... unemployed right now,” she started, picking her words very carefully. “And I was just thinking... hoping, really, that your ship might have room for another person. A friend.”
“It's not always safe,” the Doctor said, but his eyes were warm and welcoming again.
“I don't mind,” she said. “I've got no one back on Sto, no family, just me. So, what do you think? Can I come with you?”
The Doctor smiled and her heart beat just a little bit faster.
“Yeah, I'd like that,” he said. “Yes.”
The ship shook around them and his smile slipped. He stood up and opened the comms to the bridge back up again. Astrid stayed where she was so that she could continue to power up the EMP.
“Rose, Midshipman Frame - are you still with us?” he asked.
“It's the engines, sir,” came the immediate response from young Frame. Astrid tried to remember his first name, but couldn't quite think of it. Alexis, perhaps? It was something odd like that. “Final phase. There's nothing more I can do. We've got only eight minutes left!”
“Don't worry, I'll get there,” the Doctor said.
“The bridge is sealed off!” Frame protested.
“I'm working on it,” the Doctor snapped. “I'll get up there somehow. Is Rose there?”
There was a brief pause.
“Of course, I am.” Rose's voice was breathy and sweet - Astrid hadn't really had time to notice it earlier and it didn't really matter, she supposed. “I'm not qualified to muck about with the engines, that's all, Doctor.”
“Rose-”
“We've got a time limit,” she said, sounding firmer. “Go save the ship.”
“As ordered,” the Doctor said. Then he breathed out softly and clicked the comm off again, turning back to Astrid.
“All charged up?” he asked, and she nodded. She stood up and followed him as he raced back over to the other two. “Mr. Copper, look after her. Astrid, look after him. Rickston... um... look after yourself." He gave Astrid a lingering look. "And I'll see you again, I promise.”
He turned to leave and... she couldn't stand just to have him go like that.
“Hold on!” she said, her mind racing. “There's an old tradition on planet Sto-”
“I've really got to go,” the Doctor said.
“Just wait a minute!” Astrid said. She stared for a moment, wishing that he weren't quite so tall, but then an idea struck her. She went over to Mr. Copper and pulled the medical kit from his hands, placing it down on the ground in front of the Doctor. He looked at her, bemused. She climbed up on it and leaned forward to place a very soft kiss on the corner of his mouth. His eyes closed briefly and she let herself take a moment to think about the kiss that she might have dared to give him if he weren't married.
When she pulled away, he opened his eyes, and the tenderness in them made her ache inside. “Yes,” he said gently, cupping her cheek briefly. “That's a very old tradition.”
He pulled away from her, heading off again, and Astrid blinked hard, not letting herself cry.
They had a job to do.
It was astonishingly easy to settle into a routine as they made their way back to Reception One - Rickston would open the door, Astrid would rush in to zap any Hosts who might be around, then she would wait for her transmitter to power up again while Rickston headed for the next door. And each time felt easier and gave her more of a rush when she pulled off her part of the plan. If this was really what life with the Doctor would be like, she might really enjoy it, despite the danger.
They reached Reception One and Astrid found it much easier than she would have predicted to get Rickston and Mr. Copper to follow her instructions. But then the computer that they might have used to send the call for help was down.
She glanced around the reception area, wondering if there was anything else that they might be able to use, and her gaze landed on the teleport bracelets, giving her another idea. She might not be able to do anything else here, but maybe she could still be useful.
She went over to the comms and called the bridge. Frame was the one who answered.
“Who's there?” he asked.
“Astrid Peth. I was with the Doctor,” she said. “Tell me, can you divert power to the teleport system?”
“No way,” he said. “I'm using everything I got to keep the engines going.”
“It's just one trip,” she said. “I need to get to Deck 31.”
“And I'm-” Frame started to speak and then he was cut off.
“Isn't that where the Doctor went?” That was Rose's voice, sharp and inquisitive.
“Yes,” Astrid said, relief washing over her. She didn't need to do all the convincing herself. “He's done so much for us and I... I need to help him.”
“We'll get you that power,” Rose said.
“Thank you,” Astrid said. She turned to the teleport system and tried turning it on, a thrill running through her when it responded. She grabbed one of the bracelets and snapped it on. She looked over at Mr. Copper, who was fiddling with head of one of the Hosts. “Mr. Copper, I'm going to find him.”
“Good luck,” he said. She smiled and then braced herself.
The teleport grabbed her and blue light enveloped the world around her.
Continue on to Part Seven.