Unfinished Symphony-E7-Hallelujah-Part Three
Prelude
Part One
Part Two
Unfinished Symphony Episode Seven
Hallelujah-Part Three
November 22, 1963
Everyone moved at once.
Susan opened the door to the TARDIS, peeking out. Barbara and Ian moved towards her, thinking she was a captive within the tiny police callbox, and the Doctor moved as if to stop them. It was a futile effort on his part and he knew it. There was no way his elderly form could stop two full grown humans from pushing past him. But in the resistance, their minds would automatically push past him and into the TARDIS.
Exactly where he wanted them.
He called out, “Close the door!”, to Susan, knowing the control was well behind her. The female human reacted to form and moved past his arms and into the TARDIS. Being a mid to late twentieth century male, Ian followed her gallantly. The Doctor walked behind them, giving Ian a small push, making sure he would get past the threshold. The look of absolute shock on their faces guaranteed his success.
As the humans looked at the expansive control room, that in no way could fit within the confines of the policebox, the Doctor ordered, “Close the doors Susan.”
She turned and flicked the switch on the panel, the doors cycled closed, ensuring the humans were now contained. The movement gained their attention and they turned and watched them close, not knowing it was the last view of their time they would see for quite awhile.
After the doors were closed the Doctor turned to Susan, “I believe these people are known to you.”
Her eyes widened as she answered, “They're two of my schoolteachers! What are you doing here?” Her tone was half shock and half ear. She knew her grandfather well enough to know, this didn't bode well for her teachers.
Barbara looked around in a daze, her mind still struggling with the concept that she was somehow inside the callbox. She asked no one in particular, “Where are we?”
The Doctor ignored them and said to Susan, “They must have followed you. That ridiculous school - I knew something like this would happen if we stayed in one place too long.” Another hour, another night and this would be over. But now, now they were in it.
“But why should they follow me?”, Susan asked in honest confusion.
Barbara, taking the best of the situation asked, “Is this really where you live Susan?”
Susan answered, not truly understanding the question, “Yes.” As if every normal girl lived in a stable tesseract that could move through space and time.
In an annoyed tone the Doctor asked, “And what's wrong with it?” He was trying to get them used to their surrounding, they were going to be seeing them for quite some time.
Ian looked around, “But it was just a telephone box.” He was going to take some time the Doctor could tell.
“Perhaps.”, the Doc answered cryptically.
Barbara ignored the old man and asked Susan, “And this is your grandfather?”
Again Susan wasn't quite grasping the severity of the situation. She simply nodded and answered, “Yes.”
Finally Barbara looked to the Doctor, “Well why didn't you tell us that?”
The Doctor rebuked her question with a simple, “I don't discuss my private life with strangers.”
While the Doctor walked over to one of the several antique clocks he had collected on their journeys, Ian continued to prattle on, “But it was a police telephone box. I walked all round it! Barbara, you saw me!” His voice was agitated, and the Doctor figured within a few minutes might work itself into panic.
Examining the clocks he said, “You don't deserve any explanations. You pushed your way in here, uninvited and unwelcome.”
Barbara was just starting to understand, obviously the smarter of the two the Doctor thought. She looked to Ian and said, “I think we ought to leave.”
Ian looked at her, “No, wait just a minute...”, and walked over to the Doctor. As the Doctor examined the clock, muttering to himself Ian said, “I know this is absurd, but I feel...I walked all around it!”
The Doctor still looked at the clocks, “It's stopped again, you know, and I've tried... “ The TARDIS was still not functioning correctly. It was in shock over the death of its master. It knew the Doctor enough to follow his commands, but it wasn't his yet. The fact that time itself kept freezing within the control room told him it still had a lot of work left. Looking to Ian he said, “ Hmm? Oh, you wouldn't understand at all.” He walked over to the console with the human male following him.
“But I want to understand.”, he declared.
The Doctor dismissed his rambling with a casual, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”, but inside he was warmed, Here this man was, completely out of his element, in a place that his mind had no concepts for, and he still wanted to learn. Marvelous race these humans could be. He took off his cloak and said to Susan. “Oh by the way Susan, I've managed to find a replacement for that faulty filament. Bit of an amateur job, but I, er, I think it'll serve.”
Susan looked at him in confusion, since the TARDIS didn't so much as need physical repairs as it needed time to readjust its physic connection to its new owner. But she said nothing as the Doctor pulled out a small wire and adjusted a switch on the control panel.
Ian took a step back and muttered, “It's an illusion. It must be...”
The Doctor, finishing his repairs asked Susan, “What is he talking about now?”
Susan looked to her teachers and asked, “What are you doing here?”
Clearing his throat the Doctor said, “You don't understand, so you find excuses. Illusions, indeed? You say you can’t fit an enormous building into one of your smaller sitting rooms?”
Ian, clearly not following answered, “No.”
The Doctor asked, “But you've discovered television, haven't you?”
Again Ian answered, not understanding, “Yes.”
The Doctor continued with, “Then by showing an enormous building on your television screen, you can do what seemed impossible, couldn’t you?” It had nothing to do with how the TARDIS worked or how space and time worked in general. But it was just ridiculous enough for the Doctor to use his answer to gauge the man's intelligence.
Ian stuttered out, “Well...yes, but I still don't know...”
Not a bad answer all things considered. At least he didn't stand on his limited knowledge of science and physics to say it was impossible. The Doctor said out loud, “It’s not quite clear, is it? I can see by your face that you're not certain. You don't understand.”, he said laughing, “And I knew you wouldn't! Never mind”
Turning back to the console the Doctor began the preflight warm-up. The TARDIS began its normal preparation cycles as he said out loud, “Now then, which switch was it...? No, no, no....Ah yes, that is it!” Flipping a switch, his trap was set. Talking to Ian he said, “The point is not whether you understand...”, and he turned to face him, “What is going to happen to you, hmm?” Looking to Susan the Doctor said, “They'll tell everybody about the ship now.”
And he knew they would. Damn Victoria and her blasted Torchwood. He had no idea how they knew about him, but when he had scouted this planet for use as a refuge, he had found out quite quickly this Torchwood not only knew about him, but actively looked for him. One word from these two humans and those idiots would be crawling over central London looking for him and Susan. And god forbid they ever caught them. He envisioned being strapped down on a lab table, unable to kill himself to regenerate...and if they found out about Susan...
Ian sputtered, “The ship?”
The Doctor turned, “Yes, yes, ship! This doesn't roll along on wheels, you know.”
Barbara asked in shock, “You mean...it moves?”
Susan answered with, “The TARDIS can go anywhere.”
The female school teacher look at the young girl in complete confusion, “TARDIS? I don't understand you Susan.”
Susan answered, “Well, I made up the name TARDIS from the initials. Time And Relative Dimension In Space. I’d thought you both would understand when you saw the different dimensions inside from those outside.” The Doctor arched an eyebrow at that answer. It was such a fabrication, such a complete lie that the Doctor couldn't understand why Susan would use it. And then he saw her eyes and it began to dawn on him...
She was starting to forget.
She had been on Earth too long, she was bonding with them. Within a few years she would completely forget her time on Gallifrey, and become a human. Even now she forgot how she knew the word TARDIS, and had invented a reason for her to. She was going to start forgetting some things and then start learning others. And if that was true, then there was hope for them all.
Ian interrupted the Doctor's train of thought by asking, “Let me get this straight. A thing that looks like a police box, standing in a junkyard...it can move anywhere in time and space!?”
Susan answered as if he was slow chi8ld and had answered a question correctly, “Yes””
The Doctor added a, “Quite so.”, but he was watching her.
Ian's mind had finally hit the limit of impossible things it could handle today. He proclaimed, “But that's ridiculous!”
Susan looked to the Doctor, “Why won't they believe us?”
Barbara said, “Well how can we?”
The Doctor pulled Susan close and said, “Now, now, don't get exasperated, Susan. Remember the Red Indian. When he saw the first steam train, his savage mind thought it an illusion too.”
Ian became flustered and said, “You're treating us like children!”
Which was true, but the Doctor wasn't willing to conceded that yet. “Am I? The children of my civilization would be insulted.” Which was of course true, Gallifreyian children possessed on average three times the mental intelligence of the average human, and that wasn't even factoring in the inherent mental powers.
But Ian had grasped on to the one word in that sentence that was odd, “Your civilization?” His eyes were wide.
The Doctor decided there was no time like the present on getting this out of the way. He locked eyes with Ian and said, “Yes, my civilization. I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it. Have you ever thought about what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension? Have you? To be exiles? Susan and I are cut off from our own planet, without friends or protection. But one day...”, he allowed himself to dream for a small moment as he put an arm around Susan, “...we shall get back. Yes, one day…one day....”
Susan look at her teachers and said, “It's true. Every word of it's true. You don't know what you've done coming here…”, she looked to the Doctor, “Grandfather, let them go now, please! Look, if they don't understand, they can't...they can't hurt us at all! I understand these people better than you...their minds reject things they don't understand...”
She was pleading with him, she knew what he had planned and she had guessed at what came next. He looked at her and with a cold word answered, “No.”
Walking to the back of the room he went over to make sure the gravitational locks were odd as Ian said, “He can't keep us here.”
Barbara looked at Susan and said, “Susan, listen to me, can't you see that all this is an illusion? It's a game that you and your grandfather are playing, if you like. But you can't expect us to believe it.”
Susan looked at her as if burned, “It's not a game!”
“But Susan”, Barbara tried to explain but Susan cut her off.
“It's not! Look, I love your school. I love England in the 20th century. The last five months have been the happiest of my life....”, the young girl look completely distraught.
The teacher tried to explain again saying, “But you are one of us. You look like us, you sound like us....”
Taking a breath Susan said, “I was born in another time. Another world.“
Ian's mind had had enough. He took a step towards Susan and said, “Now look here Susan, you...” He saw the look in her eyes and knew, there was no way this girl was going to break. She was completely caught up in...whatever this was. Instead he turned to Barbra and said, “Oh come on, Barbara, let's get out of here.” The old man had been back there fiddling with that control panel the whole time, and Ian didn't like the looks of it.
Susan said, “No, you two can't get out. He won't let you go.” as the teachers searching the walls for the way out. But with the doors closed, there was no way to distinguish the exit from the walls. They both turned and heard the Doctor laughing, standing at the console.
Pointing to the controls Ian said, “He closed the doors from over there.”, moving towards the console he began to search, “I saw it...”, the panel was filled with switches and dials, “Now which is it...? Which is it?”, finally he turned to the Doctor and asked, “Which control operates the door? “
The Doctor looked at him and leveled a glare, “You still think it's all an illusion....” He was hoping the laughing would goad the male on, he was the only one here that posed a threat to him. He he tried to stop the Doctor from activating the TARDIS, there wasn't much the Doctor could do.
Finally with anger in his voice Ian shot back, “I know free movement in time and space is a scientific dream I don't expect to find solved in a junkyard!”
“The Doctor smiled and said, “Oh, your arrogance is nearly as great as your ignorance!”, and then the old man laughed in his face.
Asking again, almost pleading, “Will you open the door? Open the door!” Again the old man laughed, looking to Susan Ian asked, “Susan, will you help us?”
In a horrible tone Susan replied, “I mustn't! I mustn’t!” it was a mix of fear and shock, but the girl still didn't move.
Looking at the control panel he sighed and said, “Very well then. I'll have to risk it myself.”
The Doctor moved and said, “I can't stop you...”
And just a moment before Ian pushed his finger down, Susan saw it and yelled, “Oh, don’t touch it! It’s live!”
Ian, pushed the button the Doctor had rigged with his wire, and was racked with thousands of volts of electricity. The man turned away from the console and went down to a knee, grasping his hand in pain.
Barbara ran to his side and looked up at the old man, “What on earth do you think you're doing”
Susan practically begging now, “Grandfather, let them go now! Please!”
The Doctor watches the humans and says, “ And by tomorrow we shall be a public spectacle. A subject for news and idle gossip.” Which of course was the least of his worries, but he was not going to subject Susan to nightmares by explaining to her what Torchwood was.
He turned to the console and she moved to intercept him and said, “ But they won't say anything”
Putting a hand on her should he said in the kindest voice he could, “My dear child, of course they will. Put yourself in their place. They're bound to make some sort of a complaint to the authorities - or at the very least talk to their friends.”, he wagged a finger at her, “If I do let them go, Susan, you realize of course we must go too.
Her eyes widened, “No. Grandfather, we've had all this out b…”
And with the sternest voice he knew he cut her off, “There's no alternative, child.”
And then she said the most incredible thing he had heard. And it was right then he knew he had found a way to hide Susan forever. She looked at him and said, “ I want to stay! Look, they're both kind people. Why won't you trust them? All you’ve got to do is ask them to promise to keep our secret and…”
Faking anger he said, “ It's out of the question.”
She threw a fit, exclaiming,”I won't go, Grandfather. I won't leave the 20th century…I'd rather leave the TARDIS and you!” Inside he knew he had been right, she had already bonded to these humans. He doubted if she even had two hearts anymore. He needed to bring these humans along with them. If he limited his travels to Earth and kept these two...companions near her. In no time she would be as human as themselves
And Gallifrey would never find her.
Outwardly he said, “Now you're being sentimental and childish.”
In a determined voice Susan said, “No, I mean it.”
He honestly hoped she did. Looking at the humans he said, “ Very well. Then you must go with them. I’ll open the door.” He turned to the console, hoping she wasn't watching him.
Thinking they were about to be freed Barbara asked, “ Are you coming, Susan?”
Susan looked at her and then heard her grandfather throwing switches. Looking at the panel and then the back wall she realized it a moment too late. She grabbed at him and said, :”Oh no grandfather, no!”
The Doctor pushed the girl aside and moved towards the last sequence of buttons, “Let me go!”, he ordered.
The girl held on and shouted, “No!”
Pushing the last few buttons the ship began to detach itself from Earth's space/time. The movement through Susan back as the Doctor exclaimed, “Get back to the ship’s side! Hold it...”
And then the chamber was filled with a familiar sound to anyone who had traveled in a TARDIS before. Within seconds...they were gone.
This time for good.
“The Anemoi? You had the Anemoi attack the Tagan?”, he asked in shock.
Susan turned to him and leveled an odd glare at him, “They are my friends Doctor.”, which was a round about way of saying he wasn't, “I was in danger, they wanted to help. Help me. Help this project!”
The Doctor's tone lowered a few notches, “What project Susan? You mean mining the crystals?”
Susan shook her head and took a step towards him, “The Trellian government sent me here to make sure their mining did not upset the Anemoi's natural habitat. Ever since I had discovered them they have received an enormous amount of attention.”
The Doctor nodded, still talking softly, “So you received a grant from the Galactic Federation to make sure their crystals weren't all taken.”
Susan smiled, “I had forgotten how smart you are Doctor. It has been so long you start to think that maybe it was a memory, or an illusion or something. You think, no one can be that smart., I must have just been young.”, she took another step, “But here you are, smart as I recall.”
The Doctor smiled, but Donna could tell it wasn't an actual smile, “So you had the...your friends deal with the Tagin....how?”
Susan said nothing for a moment in answer. She stared into the Doctor's eyes and said, “It's getting late and the mines are about to be closed down. Will you be sleeping in the TARDIS? If not I can provide a couple of bunks.”
Donna could see the Trell miners still working, there was no indication that any of them were about to pack it in. She said nothing as the Doctor said, “The TARDIS is fine, you're welcome to come in. I'm sure she misses you.”, he said.
“Maybe tomorrow”, Susan said kindly, “Do you need an escort back?”
“We can find our way.”, the Doctor said, “Can't we Donna?”
“Yep, no need. We're good, all good here.”, Donna said taking a step backwards, “Pleasure to meet you...and your...friends.”, she said as the Doctor pulled her along. They walked in silence for the next few minutes as they got to the TARDIS. As soon as the door closed the Doctor flew to the control panel as Donna asked, “Who in the..”
He looked up at her and put a finger to his lips. He activated a switch and the control room fell silent. You weren't aware of the small background noises that followed you in the control room. They were so faint and just below hearing, you more felt than than heard. But this was silence, complete and utter silence.
“What did you do?”, she asked looking around.
“Put the room in statis...in case one of her 'friends' followed us.”, he said.
“Who is that girl? Is she your actual granddaughter? As in blood?”
He shook his head and moved to another part of the control panel, “No. Well not in the way you think.”
“Why does she call you grandfather then?”
“On Gallifrey there is a process where you can accept responsibility for someone into your family. You can claim them as part of your family and name the relationship in which you interact.”, he was looking at the scanner intently.
“Like you did with Luke?”, Donna asked.
“Exactly what I did with Luke.”, the Doctor didn't like what he was looking at, “She was an....obligation I inherited many, many years ago. The relationship was termed as grandfatherly, ergo she is my granddaughter according to Gallifrey law.”
Donna made a face, “But you said her race, she isn't a Gallifreyian, is she?”
He looked somberly at her, “No, she is something quite different.”
“What is she?”, Donna asked.
He stopped from what he was doing and sighed, “That is a long story.”
Donna put her hands on her hips, “I have time.”
He looked at her face and realized, they weren't going to get anything done until she heard the story, the whole story.
“Ok”, he said sitting down on the step and patting the space next to her, “Have a sit down.” He looked off in the distance for a moment and asked out loud, “Where should I begin?”
“A the beginning?”, she offered.
“The beginning of the end more like it...”, he said distantly, “The beginning of the end of the beginning...”
“What's that mean?”, she asked.
He shook his head, “It started when a friend of my family's was arrested...”
To be continued...
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