TLAWR Chapter 66: Escape on the Two Hundred
Rated: R (to be safe)
Features: The 10th Doctor, Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, Astrid Peth, the 5th Doctor, the Brigadier, UNIT, Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, Rhys Williams, Mickey Smith, Sarah Jane Smith, River Song, Jenny, Lee MacAvoy and others.
Pairings: Doctor/Rose, Jack/Ianto, Martha/Mickey
A/N: Nothing you recognize belongs to me! Some dialogue taken from Planet of the Dead. This concludes my rewrite of this special. I was originally going to include their visit to pre-stingray alien San Helios but I think we'll go ahead and leave that for next week. Enjoy, and look out for more foreshadowing and angst in the coming updates. :D
(Earlier Entries) ( Chapter Sixty-Three) ( Chapter Sixty-Four) ( Chapter Sixty-Five)
Thirty minutes. The Doctor paced, tugging on his already wild hair, deep in thought while his internal clock counted down the seconds until the storm of alien locusts arrived. Thirty minutes until the wormhole, which was already extended more than a mile into London's airspace, would transport them to Earth. Thirty minutes until the end of the world. Just once he'd like a nice, leisurely apocalypse with none of this race-to-the-finish-line terror. Christina studied the information the probe managed to relay before it was destroyed but she couldn't understand it. The TARDIS wasn't translating for her.
"So," he said finally. "We need to get the bus back through the wormhole because without the metal protecting us we'll die, but we can't get it back through the wormhole because it's out of petrol and still mired in the sand." He growled in frustrated impatience and stared at the monitor charting the aliens' approach. "Rose would know. She always asks the right questions."
"We're looking at this the wrong way around," Christina said suddenly as the screen on the left froze on the image of razor sharp teeth waiting to devour the probe. "We came through the portal-but the Tritovores didn't, they came to trade with San Helios. Therefore, the question becomes why did they crash?"
He grinned at her. "Oh, you are good."
She smirked back at him. "One does one's best."
Lady Christina de Souza stood next to a circular opening approximately twelve feet in diameter. It was a long drop down the well to the engine casing where a crystal rested that, according to the Doctor, could get them out of here.
"Tell me again," she said over the internal comms unit the Doctor had given her. "How exactly does a crystal drive a bus?"
"It just does," he replied shortly. A familiar whirring noise shrieked in her ear and she winced. "Trust me, it will. I'll explain the science later." A pause and more whirring. "Okay, I won't, but it will work. Have any panels on the inside of the shaft opened?"
Christina peered out over the edge. Lights blinked around a stone as big as her fist set into an unfamiliar machine but the walls of the shaft were smooth and seamless. "No," she replied. "Nothing. Twenty-three minutes," she reminded him. The Doctor didn't reply but more whirring made her wince and pull the comms earbud a bit further away.
"What about now?" he asked.
"Still nothing," she said and reached into her backpack. A harness lay on top of a heavy golden chalice etched with ancient runes and Christina removed it and began fastening the buckles so it fit snugly across her waist and shoulders and the padded straps cradled her thighs. The Doctor's approach wasn't working and she hadn't escaped the police just to die on an alien planet. A problem like this one required a more creative solution and she was, as usual, always prepared.
"Any result?"
A pulley from another compartment of the back pack fastened on to the clips at her waist and she pulled her long hair back into a tight pony tail. "Not a dicky bird." There was a convenient metal hook dangling just over the center of the shaft and Christina hung the pulley from it. The thick chain would hold her weight and then some, and it was secured to the ceiling of the vessel by thick metal bands. According to the Tritovores the crystal nucleus had fallen into the engine when the ship crashed.
"Let me get this right," she said as she stood at the edge of the well. "If you get the crystal you can get us home."
"Yes!" he exclaimed.
"Consider it done." She double-checked the clips connecting the wires to her harness. Secure as ever. Then she raised her arms above her head and dived off the edge. Her stomach swooped as she fell. Her heart pounded in her chest and adrenaline shot through her veins but she pushed the instinctive panic away. This is what she loved-the thrill of the drop and the satisfaction of victory that followed. She could see the crystal; it was less than twenty feet away when a familiar whirring drowned out the rush of air past her ears and the harness pulled her to a sharp stop. "So you finally decided to join us," she said, unable to keep the irritation out of her voice. "For future reference, I decide when I stop."
"Look down," the Doctor's voice in her ear suggested. "You're just above a security grid."
If she tilted her head just right Christina could make out the crackling blue energy that raced across the air less than a foot beneath her. "How do I get past it?" she asked with grudging respect and a healthy dose of self-directed disgust. Really, she should have seen it coming. Nothing as important as the engine of a space ship would be without defenses.
"Try the big red button."
Sure enough a few inches from her outstretched right hand a bulbous red button was set into the wall of the shaft. When she pressed it the grid disappeared and her left hand tightened around the pulley control.
"Come back up," the Doctor ordered as her fingers found the switch to restart her descent. "I can do that."
Christina grinned. "Don't you wish. I saw you up there, Doctor. You were smiling when the probe was eaten. The worse it gets, the more you love it."
He sighed. "Oh, all right, but slowly."
"Yes sir." She depressed the button and the pulley lowered her at a quarter speed. With exquisite precision she tucked her legs in an then thrust them out again, shifting her center of gravity until she was descending head first nearly perpendicular to the shaft wall.
"You are quite the mystery, Lady Christina de Souza," the Doctor mused.
"Aren't you one to talk, spaceman," she shot back as the crystal inched closer.
He chuckled. "Donna-she travels with Rose and I-always calls me that: spaceman. Better than 'Martian,' I suppose."
"Was she right?" Christina asked. "Do you whiz about space in a rocket?"
"More like a blue box," he mused. "And not just space-time as well. The places we've been, Christina. We watched the Earth devour the sun, Rose and I. It was the first place I took her. And then Pompeii on volcano day-that was Donna's first trip. I've been to the end of the universe, when all the stars burned out and humanity was clinging to a rock in the darkness. And we've been to the court of King Athelstan in 924 AD." He paused. "Funny-I don't remember seeing you there. So what are you doing with the cup that Hywel, King of the Welsh, gave to the first King of Britain?"
The goblet. He found the goblet. She took a deep breath in through her nose and let it out slowly. "Excuse me, a gentlemen doesn't go through a lady's possessions."
"It's been held in the International Gallery for two hundred years," he continued on as if he hadn't heard. "I hardly think they let you just walk out with it, which makes you, Lady Christina de Souza, a thief."
"I like to think I liberated it," she replied primly.
"Don't tell me you need the cash."
Her lips twisted in a smirk. "Daddy lost everything, invested in the Icelandic banks."
"No," he said and she could hear the amusement in his voice. "No, if you need cash you rob a bank, you don't steal something like this. You can't sell it, who would buy the Cup of Athelstan? It's too singular, too precious. Stealing this-that's a lifestyle."
"I take it you disapprove?" she asked as the crystal inched closer.
"Oh, absolutely," he replied at once. "Except-that little blue box. I stole it from my own people."
"Good boy. You were right-we are quite a team."
"I stole it to escape," he continued and his voice shifted. The playfulness faded and melancholy took over. "But you, Christina who wants to go so far away-this isn't an escape. Those sirens in the tunnel, they were for you."
"Detective Inspector MacMillan," she agreed. "He's been pursuing me for years, always one step behind."
"Cut it a bit close for comfort this time, did you?"
Christina scoffed. "Says the man who has less than twenty minutes to save the world." She paused. "But hang on a tick. You've got a time machine. Even if those sting-ray aliens make it through the portal, when you get back you could hop in your box and go back in time-stop them. You could bring San Helios and all those people back."
"It doesn't work like that." His voice was grim and flat. "I'm part of established events now. If I go back and change them that's a paradox. Saving one man who should have died nearly destroyed the world, but one hundred billion? A paradox that large would rip apart the universe."
"So, what?" she asked. "You would just stand there and watch it happen?" The Doctor remained silent. "What if it was Rose," she pressed on. "What if you could save her? Are you telling me you could stand there and let her die just to prevent a paradox? What good is a time machine if you can't use it to change the world?"
A grating roar echoed through the air and Christina froze. "What the blazes was that?"
"We never did find out why the ship crashed," the Doctor reminded her. "Christina, get out of there."
The time for casual soul searching had passed but the crystal was within her reach. It was larger than any diamond she had ever seen and exquisitely cut. The facets reflected brilliant shards of light across her skin and the walls of the shaft around it. "Too late," she told him. "I'm almost there."
"Careful," he admonished. "And slowly. Do you have an open vent system?" he asked, presumably to the Tritovores. "Ah. That's what I thought."
"What's going on?" Christina asked as she went to work on the crystal. It was set in a plate that appeared to disengage from the panel that was wedged into the engine casing.
"It's like when birds fly into a jet engine," he explained which really didn't clarify much of anything.
She swiveled for a better grip and then froze. The shaft opened up around the engine, which was held to the walls of the chamber by thick steel girders. Less than thirty feet away one of the sting-ray aliens lay, tangled in a mess of twisted, broken girders. "Doctor, we have company," she said. "One of the creatures."
"It must have flow in one of the vents and caused the crash. Leave it," he ordered. "Christina-get out!"
The adrenaline was back and she fought to keep her breaths steady and shallow and as quiet as humanly possible. "It's not moving," she whispered. "I think it's injured."
"No, it's dormant because the temperature's so low down there but your body heat is raising it."
A weak chuckle escaped her lips. "I tend to have that effect." She returned her attention to the crystal. "I'm almost done."
"Not just the crystal," he instructed. "I need the plate it's on too, the whole thing."
The sting-ray alien's wing twitched. One of the girders shifted with a groan. It eyes flickered open and its tail lashed. Christina pulled the plate, complete with the intact crystal, free.
"I've got it!"
The clang and screech of metal-on-metal reverberated through the air as the pulley whirred into action and yanked her back up the shaft. The creature roared and struggled free, thrashing its wings and body and slamming the thick metal girders into the wall of the chamber. It surged toward her but she was moving too fast, though she felt the wind of its passage against her face. She glanced up and saw the red button that triggered the security grid approaching rapidly. A smile spread across Christina's face as she smacked it on her way up.
The alien righted itself and gave chase. It was fast and would have caught her without the protection of the security grid, which lit up a brilliant blue when it came into contact with the alien's metal exoskeleton. She shielded her eyes with one hand and held the plate to her chest with the other.
"Oh, you are brilliant!" the Doctor exclaimed as he pulled her over to the shaft's edge. The Tritovores chittered at them and he grinned. "Yes, she is good. Now-we need to run."
They stumbled out into the bright sunlight and Christina nearly fell. Her eyes were adjusted to the relative darkness inside the ship but the Doctor's hand wrapped around her own pulled her forward without pause. Her pack rode low against her back, weighed down by the cup of Athelstan and the crystal plate. He tried to make her leave it but she refused. The swarm was nearly upon them. All around the air was full of grating roars and the screech of metal against metal.
"Come on!" the Doctor shouted as he pulled her faster and faster. The Tritovores were gone, devoured by more of the sting ray aliens that had been lying dormant in the hull of the ship, between the photafine steel and the metal sleeve of the walls. The ship would be gone soon as well, devoured to allow the aliens to pass through the wormhole. Christina's lungs burned and her legs ached but she pushed on. There would be time to rest when they were safely back in London and if the Rose could keep up, well, so could she.
The air in the bus was hot and heavy with the acrid scent of sweat. Angela rested her head against the metal pole that extended from the outside corner of the bus seat to the ceiling. The rest of the water in Rose's bottle was gone, divided up between them. She sat just behind the driver's seat, alternating between checking her phone and watching the horizon. Nate sat behind Angela and Barclay across from her. They were holding up well, considering, but they were young and strong. Rose was most worried about Angela, who wilted in the heat. Lou was down to his shirt sleeves; he'd taken off his sweater and used it to block out some of the sunlight streaming through the windows. Carmen was distant but otherwise appeared less affected than the rest of them.
A strange, booming noise disturbed the air. Rose flinched and Angela startled as well. She hadn't told the others what was coming for them-she hoped she wouldn't need to, but the Doctor wasn't back and they were running out of time.
"What sort of a storm is that?" Angela cried as the creatures became visible.
Two figures crested the dune in front of the cloud of sting ray aliens and Rose sagged in relief. The Doctor and Christina were alive.
"Don't know why I bothered giving you my phone, obviously you wouldn't use it to call me and let me know what's going on," Rose remarked sharply as he slid to a stop in front of the bus, Christina hot on his heels.
"Bit busy," he said and grabbed Christina's pack.
"Excuse me!" the other woman snapped breathlessly but he ignored her and pulled out a huge crystal embedded in a spidery-looking plate.
"Don't need that," he muttered and snapped off the gem, tossing it aside.
Christina's face twisted in shocked outrage. "I risked my life for that!"
"No," the Doctor corrected her and snapped off a pronged device from each of the plate's corners. "You risked your life for these-antigravity clamps!" He handed all four of them to Rose. "Snap them on the frame just behind the wheels; they'll attach magnetically."
"Antigravity clamps?" Rose asked with a raised eyebrow.
He shrugged. "Found a spaceship, did a bit of scavenging. I'll tell you all about it later, I promise-after we've gotten back safe and sound. Christina!"
"Yes?"
He held up the rest of the plate. "Do you have a hammer in that bag?"
She grinned at him. "It's funny you should ask."
Rose attached the clamps as the Doctor and Christina arranged the rest of the device over the steering wheel and dashboard of the bus. She pounded on the window when the last one was affixed and dashed back inside. The swarm was seconds away. Inside Christina held Rose's mobile to the Doctor's ear.
"Sorry," he said as Rose pulled the door shut behind her. "Got to go."
"UNIT?" she asked. He nodded. "Let's get the hell out of dodge, then."
The Doctor grinned at her and pressed what Rose assumed was the 'start' button. The device attached to the wheel flickered and hummed-and then sparked. "No," the Doctor said as he smacked the side of it, "no, no, no, no." But it sparked again and the humming stopped. He bit his lip and ran a hand through his hair.
"What's going on?" Christina demaned. "Why didn't it work?"
"They're incompatible." He gestured to the wires running from the device to the dashboard. "It's a bus and a spaceship, and an alien one at that. The technologies are too different." He frowned. "If I could just weld them together-"
Rose leaned in. "What do you need?"
"Something malleable," he replied. "Something non-corrosive, something ductile, something-" His eyes darted past her to Christina, still holding her backpack. "Something gold."
Christina shook her head. "No, absolutely not."
"Fate of the world," he reminded her.
She sighed and reached into her pack, pulling out the cup of Athelstan.
Rose stared at her. "Where the hell did you get that?"
"The International Gallery," Christina replied.
"You're a thief," Rose breathed. "I knew it. Oh, that explains so much."
"Not just a thief," Christina said with a toss of her hair. "I'm the best thief." She fixed the Doctor with a firm glare. "It's over a thousand years old and worth eighteen million pounds." Reluctantly she handed him the chalice. "Please be careful."
"I promise," the Doctor said solemnly-and then he swung the hammer solidly into the side of the chalice.
Christina winced as he roughly reshaped it. "I hate you."
The bus emerged relatively unscathed from its second trip through the wormhole, and once the terror of the situation subsided the passengers of the two hundred seemed to enjoy their impromptu flight over London almost as much as the Doctor appeared to enjoy flying a bus with antigravity clamps and a priceless historical artifact. Three of the sting ray aliens managed to get through the wormhole before a UNIT scientist named Malcom managed to close it, but UNIT handled them relatively efficiently. Rose noted that the Doctor didn't express his traditional distaste for weapons as rocket launchers took out each alien. Perhaps he was learning-but the tightness of his lips and the set of his jaw suggested otherwise.
She laughed out loud as he swung the bus around toward the empty street and the soldiers below. The Doctor glanced back and the tightness eased as he grinned at her. Rose wasn't the only adrenaline junkie aboard the TARDIS, though she was going to have a stern talk with him about communication when they got home.
They landed without incident and two UNIT soldiers stood by as the Doctor opened the door to direct the passengers to debriefing. The Doctor, of course, breezed by them with Rose close behind. Christina tried to follow them but the taller soldier caught her arm and firmly escorted her behind the rest of the passengers. She cast a glance back over her shoulder but the Doctor's back was towards her. Rose caught the other woman's gaze, the way her lips turned down at the corners and her eyes drooped. She looked-hopeless. Caught.
Captain Magambo was waiting for them next to the TARDIS. She was about Rose's height, perhaps a bit shorter, and dressed in a pristine green UNIT uniform with a red beret covering her hair which was pulled back into a neat bun. She carried a standard issue handgun in a holster at her hip and Rose was willing to bet she was extremely good with it. A man stood staring at the TARDIS. He had short, wavy brown hair and pale skin and wore a long white lab coat over his oxford and sweater vest combination. Wire rimmed glasses perched on his nose and fingerless gloves covered his hands.
"Doctor," Captain Magambo said and saluted. He made a face but said nothing.
The other man turned to face them and launched himself at the Doctor in a fierce hug. The Doctor grinned. "You must be Malcolm," he said.
"I am, sir," the man replied. "Oh, I love you!"
Rose hid her grin behind her hand and even the stoic Magambo cracked a smile. The Doctor would hug anyone, and he practically beamed at the other man.
"To your station, Doctor Taylor," Magambo reminded him gently after he had repeated his profession of love several times. Rose was grateful; laughter bubbled up inside her at the slightly stunned look on the Doctor's face and the absolute adoration on Malcolm's. As the other man left Magambo's grin widened. After a moment she composed herself.
"I take it we're safe from those things?" she inquired.
He nodded. "Oh, they'll start again-it's part of their lifecycle, not their fault-but I'll see what I can do, nudge the wormholes onto uninhabited planets." He glanced back at Angela, Nathan, Barclay, Carmen, Lou, and Christina who were standing a few feet away listening to other UNIT officers.
Rose stepped forward. "Closer to home, Captain," she said in her very best Torchwood voice, the one she used when dealing with other agencies once upon a time. "Those two lads," she gestured. "They were very good in a crisis. Nathan's looking for a job, he's clever, takes orders well, and Barclay's good with engines. You could do a lot worse."
Magambo gave Rose an appraising once-over and nodded. "I'll take that under advisement, ma'am." She glanced back at the soldiers setting up the perimeter. "Now-I've got three dead aliens to clear up and explain to the press-I don't suppose the two of you would fancy helping with the paperwork?"
Rose laughed and the Doctor sniffed. "Not a chance."
Magambo stepped back and saluted once more. "Then until we meet again sir, ma'am."
"I hope so," he replied.
Rose smiled. "Ta." She turned her back to UNIT and the bus and ran a hand over the rough wood of the TARDIS's door. "You beautiful ship, am I ever glad to see you."
"Better than a bus any day," the Doctor agreed and pulled out his key.
"A little blue box, just like you said." Christina stood behind them, hands on her hips, eyes roving over the TARDIS. They turned back to face her and she grinned at them. "Come on, Doctor, show me the stars."
A man in a long brown coat dodged UNIT soldiers, moving towards the TARDIS with determination and no small amount of anger. Rose glanced sideways at the Doctor. For all his talk about the men that followed her (good men, like Jack and less good, like Adam) he seemed to attract just as much attention. It's part of who he is, the enthusiasm and knowledge and command and charisma that draws you in, makes you feel special and important, and she made her peace with it long, long ago. Still, she can't help but feel a surge of gratitude when the Doctor turns back to Christina and says, firmly, "No."
The other woman blinked. "What do you mean, no?" Desperation crept into her voice as the man drew closer. He was shouting something, the words were indistinguishable but she flinched as his voice reached their ears. "I saved your life," she continued. "You saved mine."
"Thank you," he replied. "And you're welcome. But we're full up at the moment."
She stared at him, mouth open in shock. "We're surrounded by police!" she protested. "I'll go to prison!" Christina's eyes darted from the Doctor's impassive face to Rose's. "Please," she said finally. "You were right, earlier. I don't steal for the money-I don't need money. It's the thrill, the adventure, like today! I want every day to be like today. Please, we're a good team, you and I."
"I've got Rose." The Doctor squeezed Rose's hand and bumped his shoulder against hers. "And then there's Donna to think about too. I've got all the company I need right now."
Christina stepped back and took a deep breath. Her mask of amused indifference slid back into place and she tilted her chin up. The Doctor slid his key into the TARDIS and opened the door. Her eyes widened when she saw the vastness of the console room, so incongruous with the outside dimensions, but otherwise Christina remained impassive. Rose paused, one foot on the console room ramp, her hand on the TARDIS doorframe, and then she turned back to Christina.
"Go to Cardiff, if you can," she said. "Ask for Jack Harkness in the tourist center at Millennium Plaza. Tell them that Rose Tyler sent you. All that talent and ambition shouldn't be wasted. You've seen how big the universe is-the sort of threat that comes up against Earth every day. Maybe you'd like to defend it, you know-for variety."
"Rose, are you coming?" She slipped inside as the Doctor came to the door, just in time to see Detective Inspector MacMillan, presumably, lead Christina to a police car in handcuffs.
"Go on," Rose said from the jump seat. "I know you want to help her."
He threw a grateful look back to her and stepped outside, closing the door behind him. One of the UNIT officers stopped MacMillan and the Doctor took that opportunity to slip behind the Detective Inspector and sonic Christina's handcuffs. They opened with a click and she glanced up as he moved back towards the TARDIS. She licked her lips and nodded a quick acknowledgement as MacMillan's second in command helped her into the police car.
The Doctor crossed his arms and leaned back against the TARDIS to watch as Christina left the handcuffs on the seat and snuck out the other side of the police car. He knew where she was going, of course, there was really only one way out for her. If not by TARDIS-then why not by bus?
"Doctor!" Carmen's voice drew him away from his contemplation of Christina and he beamed at her and Lou. "You take care now," she ordered.
"And you," he replied. "Back in time for tea, yeah? Chops and gravy and all that." He started to turn away but she grabbed his arm with more strength that he would have thought she possessed.
"No, but you be careful." Her voice was urgent and she squinted into his eyes, like there was something she could almost see. He froze. The alien suns were gone, and their radiation decaying. In moments her augmented gift would fade back to the faint trace to which she was accustomed but for now she could see what he could not. "I think," she continued hesitatingly. "Your song is ending, sir."
"What do you mean?" he asked, his voice low and serious.
"It is returning. It is returning through the dark and then, Doctor? Oh, he will knock four times." Her lips trembled and her eyes shone with unshed tears. She pulled away and Lou wrapped his arms around her.
Rose was waiting for him on the jump seat, watching the monitor with a great deal of amusement. It was on, the Doctor realized, and tuned to just outside. She laughed when the bus rose above the police and UNIT. He sat down beside her to watch it grow smaller and smaller, until finally it disappeared into the night. She leaned into him, resting her head against his chest, and he curled his arm around her shoulders.
"Thank you for earlier," she said after a moment. "For stopping to think about asking her along."
"Can you imagine her and Donna?" he asked and she giggled. "I'd never hear the end of it. And besides, what you did was perfect. Let Jack give her a taste of world-saving, see if she's really suited to it."
Rose hummed softly in agreement, and then leaned over and stuck her hand in his trouser pocket. He leered at her but she rolled her eyes and pulled out her mobile, waving it in front of his face. "Next time we're separated you should, I dunno, use this to tell me where you are and what's going on. I called you five times, five times and you picked up once." She dropped back against the seat and sighed, squeezing the bridge of her nose. "It would have been nice to know what you were planning, with the clamps and all."
He swallowed. "You're right. I'm sorry. But there was this ship that came to trade with San Helios-that's the planet, San Helios-and we were captured by Tritovores and-I meant to call you, I did." He made a face. "But then UNIT kept calling and Magambo wanted me to tell her the wormhole was a threat so she could destroy it-"
"What?" Rose demanded.
He winced. "Oh. Did I not mention that?"
Rose glared at him. "No. You didn't."
"Right. Well." He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. "Sorry?"
She sighed and let her head drop back against the jump seat. "You can't keep doing that. You can't put me somewhere safe while you rush off into danger." He opened his mouth to object but she held up her hand. "Yeah, I know what you were doing. Someone had to keep them calm and together…but you could have asked."
"I'm not very good at this," he confessed softly.
"At what?" she asked and raised her head to look at him. "Having an equal partner? Coz like it or not, that's what I am. If you push me I'll push back, and if you send me away there's no power in the universe that could keep me from finding you." She nudged his shoulder with her own. "So get used to it, coz I'm here to stay."
Features: The 10th Doctor, Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, Astrid Peth, the 5th Doctor, the Brigadier, UNIT, Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, Rhys Williams, Mickey Smith, Sarah Jane Smith, River Song, Jenny, Lee MacAvoy and others.
Pairings: Doctor/Rose, Jack/Ianto, Martha/Mickey
A/N: Nothing you recognize belongs to me! Some dialogue taken from Planet of the Dead. This concludes my rewrite of this special. I was originally going to include their visit to pre-stingray alien San Helios but I think we'll go ahead and leave that for next week. Enjoy, and look out for more foreshadowing and angst in the coming updates. :D
(Earlier Entries) ( Chapter Sixty-Three) ( Chapter Sixty-Four) ( Chapter Sixty-Five)
Thirty minutes. The Doctor paced, tugging on his already wild hair, deep in thought while his internal clock counted down the seconds until the storm of alien locusts arrived. Thirty minutes until the wormhole, which was already extended more than a mile into London's airspace, would transport them to Earth. Thirty minutes until the end of the world. Just once he'd like a nice, leisurely apocalypse with none of this race-to-the-finish-line terror. Christina studied the information the probe managed to relay before it was destroyed but she couldn't understand it. The TARDIS wasn't translating for her.
"So," he said finally. "We need to get the bus back through the wormhole because without the metal protecting us we'll die, but we can't get it back through the wormhole because it's out of petrol and still mired in the sand." He growled in frustrated impatience and stared at the monitor charting the aliens' approach. "Rose would know. She always asks the right questions."
"We're looking at this the wrong way around," Christina said suddenly as the screen on the left froze on the image of razor sharp teeth waiting to devour the probe. "We came through the portal-but the Tritovores didn't, they came to trade with San Helios. Therefore, the question becomes why did they crash?"
He grinned at her. "Oh, you are good."
She smirked back at him. "One does one's best."
Lady Christina de Souza stood next to a circular opening approximately twelve feet in diameter. It was a long drop down the well to the engine casing where a crystal rested that, according to the Doctor, could get them out of here.
"Tell me again," she said over the internal comms unit the Doctor had given her. "How exactly does a crystal drive a bus?"
"It just does," he replied shortly. A familiar whirring noise shrieked in her ear and she winced. "Trust me, it will. I'll explain the science later." A pause and more whirring. "Okay, I won't, but it will work. Have any panels on the inside of the shaft opened?"
Christina peered out over the edge. Lights blinked around a stone as big as her fist set into an unfamiliar machine but the walls of the shaft were smooth and seamless. "No," she replied. "Nothing. Twenty-three minutes," she reminded him. The Doctor didn't reply but more whirring made her wince and pull the comms earbud a bit further away.
"What about now?" he asked.
"Still nothing," she said and reached into her backpack. A harness lay on top of a heavy golden chalice etched with ancient runes and Christina removed it and began fastening the buckles so it fit snugly across her waist and shoulders and the padded straps cradled her thighs. The Doctor's approach wasn't working and she hadn't escaped the police just to die on an alien planet. A problem like this one required a more creative solution and she was, as usual, always prepared.
"Any result?"
A pulley from another compartment of the back pack fastened on to the clips at her waist and she pulled her long hair back into a tight pony tail. "Not a dicky bird." There was a convenient metal hook dangling just over the center of the shaft and Christina hung the pulley from it. The thick chain would hold her weight and then some, and it was secured to the ceiling of the vessel by thick metal bands. According to the Tritovores the crystal nucleus had fallen into the engine when the ship crashed.
"Let me get this right," she said as she stood at the edge of the well. "If you get the crystal you can get us home."
"Yes!" he exclaimed.
"Consider it done." She double-checked the clips connecting the wires to her harness. Secure as ever. Then she raised her arms above her head and dived off the edge. Her stomach swooped as she fell. Her heart pounded in her chest and adrenaline shot through her veins but she pushed the instinctive panic away. This is what she loved-the thrill of the drop and the satisfaction of victory that followed. She could see the crystal; it was less than twenty feet away when a familiar whirring drowned out the rush of air past her ears and the harness pulled her to a sharp stop. "So you finally decided to join us," she said, unable to keep the irritation out of her voice. "For future reference, I decide when I stop."
"Look down," the Doctor's voice in her ear suggested. "You're just above a security grid."
If she tilted her head just right Christina could make out the crackling blue energy that raced across the air less than a foot beneath her. "How do I get past it?" she asked with grudging respect and a healthy dose of self-directed disgust. Really, she should have seen it coming. Nothing as important as the engine of a space ship would be without defenses.
"Try the big red button."
Sure enough a few inches from her outstretched right hand a bulbous red button was set into the wall of the shaft. When she pressed it the grid disappeared and her left hand tightened around the pulley control.
"Come back up," the Doctor ordered as her fingers found the switch to restart her descent. "I can do that."
Christina grinned. "Don't you wish. I saw you up there, Doctor. You were smiling when the probe was eaten. The worse it gets, the more you love it."
He sighed. "Oh, all right, but slowly."
"Yes sir." She depressed the button and the pulley lowered her at a quarter speed. With exquisite precision she tucked her legs in an then thrust them out again, shifting her center of gravity until she was descending head first nearly perpendicular to the shaft wall.
"You are quite the mystery, Lady Christina de Souza," the Doctor mused.
"Aren't you one to talk, spaceman," she shot back as the crystal inched closer.
He chuckled. "Donna-she travels with Rose and I-always calls me that: spaceman. Better than 'Martian,' I suppose."
"Was she right?" Christina asked. "Do you whiz about space in a rocket?"
"More like a blue box," he mused. "And not just space-time as well. The places we've been, Christina. We watched the Earth devour the sun, Rose and I. It was the first place I took her. And then Pompeii on volcano day-that was Donna's first trip. I've been to the end of the universe, when all the stars burned out and humanity was clinging to a rock in the darkness. And we've been to the court of King Athelstan in 924 AD." He paused. "Funny-I don't remember seeing you there. So what are you doing with the cup that Hywel, King of the Welsh, gave to the first King of Britain?"
The goblet. He found the goblet. She took a deep breath in through her nose and let it out slowly. "Excuse me, a gentlemen doesn't go through a lady's possessions."
"It's been held in the International Gallery for two hundred years," he continued on as if he hadn't heard. "I hardly think they let you just walk out with it, which makes you, Lady Christina de Souza, a thief."
"I like to think I liberated it," she replied primly.
"Don't tell me you need the cash."
Her lips twisted in a smirk. "Daddy lost everything, invested in the Icelandic banks."
"No," he said and she could hear the amusement in his voice. "No, if you need cash you rob a bank, you don't steal something like this. You can't sell it, who would buy the Cup of Athelstan? It's too singular, too precious. Stealing this-that's a lifestyle."
"I take it you disapprove?" she asked as the crystal inched closer.
"Oh, absolutely," he replied at once. "Except-that little blue box. I stole it from my own people."
"Good boy. You were right-we are quite a team."
"I stole it to escape," he continued and his voice shifted. The playfulness faded and melancholy took over. "But you, Christina who wants to go so far away-this isn't an escape. Those sirens in the tunnel, they were for you."
"Detective Inspector MacMillan," she agreed. "He's been pursuing me for years, always one step behind."
"Cut it a bit close for comfort this time, did you?"
Christina scoffed. "Says the man who has less than twenty minutes to save the world." She paused. "But hang on a tick. You've got a time machine. Even if those sting-ray aliens make it through the portal, when you get back you could hop in your box and go back in time-stop them. You could bring San Helios and all those people back."
"It doesn't work like that." His voice was grim and flat. "I'm part of established events now. If I go back and change them that's a paradox. Saving one man who should have died nearly destroyed the world, but one hundred billion? A paradox that large would rip apart the universe."
"So, what?" she asked. "You would just stand there and watch it happen?" The Doctor remained silent. "What if it was Rose," she pressed on. "What if you could save her? Are you telling me you could stand there and let her die just to prevent a paradox? What good is a time machine if you can't use it to change the world?"
A grating roar echoed through the air and Christina froze. "What the blazes was that?"
"We never did find out why the ship crashed," the Doctor reminded her. "Christina, get out of there."
The time for casual soul searching had passed but the crystal was within her reach. It was larger than any diamond she had ever seen and exquisitely cut. The facets reflected brilliant shards of light across her skin and the walls of the shaft around it. "Too late," she told him. "I'm almost there."
"Careful," he admonished. "And slowly. Do you have an open vent system?" he asked, presumably to the Tritovores. "Ah. That's what I thought."
"What's going on?" Christina asked as she went to work on the crystal. It was set in a plate that appeared to disengage from the panel that was wedged into the engine casing.
"It's like when birds fly into a jet engine," he explained which really didn't clarify much of anything.
She swiveled for a better grip and then froze. The shaft opened up around the engine, which was held to the walls of the chamber by thick steel girders. Less than thirty feet away one of the sting-ray aliens lay, tangled in a mess of twisted, broken girders. "Doctor, we have company," she said. "One of the creatures."
"It must have flow in one of the vents and caused the crash. Leave it," he ordered. "Christina-get out!"
The adrenaline was back and she fought to keep her breaths steady and shallow and as quiet as humanly possible. "It's not moving," she whispered. "I think it's injured."
"No, it's dormant because the temperature's so low down there but your body heat is raising it."
A weak chuckle escaped her lips. "I tend to have that effect." She returned her attention to the crystal. "I'm almost done."
"Not just the crystal," he instructed. "I need the plate it's on too, the whole thing."
The sting-ray alien's wing twitched. One of the girders shifted with a groan. It eyes flickered open and its tail lashed. Christina pulled the plate, complete with the intact crystal, free.
"I've got it!"
The clang and screech of metal-on-metal reverberated through the air as the pulley whirred into action and yanked her back up the shaft. The creature roared and struggled free, thrashing its wings and body and slamming the thick metal girders into the wall of the chamber. It surged toward her but she was moving too fast, though she felt the wind of its passage against her face. She glanced up and saw the red button that triggered the security grid approaching rapidly. A smile spread across Christina's face as she smacked it on her way up.
The alien righted itself and gave chase. It was fast and would have caught her without the protection of the security grid, which lit up a brilliant blue when it came into contact with the alien's metal exoskeleton. She shielded her eyes with one hand and held the plate to her chest with the other.
"Oh, you are brilliant!" the Doctor exclaimed as he pulled her over to the shaft's edge. The Tritovores chittered at them and he grinned. "Yes, she is good. Now-we need to run."
They stumbled out into the bright sunlight and Christina nearly fell. Her eyes were adjusted to the relative darkness inside the ship but the Doctor's hand wrapped around her own pulled her forward without pause. Her pack rode low against her back, weighed down by the cup of Athelstan and the crystal plate. He tried to make her leave it but she refused. The swarm was nearly upon them. All around the air was full of grating roars and the screech of metal against metal.
"Come on!" the Doctor shouted as he pulled her faster and faster. The Tritovores were gone, devoured by more of the sting ray aliens that had been lying dormant in the hull of the ship, between the photafine steel and the metal sleeve of the walls. The ship would be gone soon as well, devoured to allow the aliens to pass through the wormhole. Christina's lungs burned and her legs ached but she pushed on. There would be time to rest when they were safely back in London and if the Rose could keep up, well, so could she.
The air in the bus was hot and heavy with the acrid scent of sweat. Angela rested her head against the metal pole that extended from the outside corner of the bus seat to the ceiling. The rest of the water in Rose's bottle was gone, divided up between them. She sat just behind the driver's seat, alternating between checking her phone and watching the horizon. Nate sat behind Angela and Barclay across from her. They were holding up well, considering, but they were young and strong. Rose was most worried about Angela, who wilted in the heat. Lou was down to his shirt sleeves; he'd taken off his sweater and used it to block out some of the sunlight streaming through the windows. Carmen was distant but otherwise appeared less affected than the rest of them.
A strange, booming noise disturbed the air. Rose flinched and Angela startled as well. She hadn't told the others what was coming for them-she hoped she wouldn't need to, but the Doctor wasn't back and they were running out of time.
"What sort of a storm is that?" Angela cried as the creatures became visible.
Two figures crested the dune in front of the cloud of sting ray aliens and Rose sagged in relief. The Doctor and Christina were alive.
"Don't know why I bothered giving you my phone, obviously you wouldn't use it to call me and let me know what's going on," Rose remarked sharply as he slid to a stop in front of the bus, Christina hot on his heels.
"Bit busy," he said and grabbed Christina's pack.
"Excuse me!" the other woman snapped breathlessly but he ignored her and pulled out a huge crystal embedded in a spidery-looking plate.
"Don't need that," he muttered and snapped off the gem, tossing it aside.
Christina's face twisted in shocked outrage. "I risked my life for that!"
"No," the Doctor corrected her and snapped off a pronged device from each of the plate's corners. "You risked your life for these-antigravity clamps!" He handed all four of them to Rose. "Snap them on the frame just behind the wheels; they'll attach magnetically."
"Antigravity clamps?" Rose asked with a raised eyebrow.
He shrugged. "Found a spaceship, did a bit of scavenging. I'll tell you all about it later, I promise-after we've gotten back safe and sound. Christina!"
"Yes?"
He held up the rest of the plate. "Do you have a hammer in that bag?"
She grinned at him. "It's funny you should ask."
Rose attached the clamps as the Doctor and Christina arranged the rest of the device over the steering wheel and dashboard of the bus. She pounded on the window when the last one was affixed and dashed back inside. The swarm was seconds away. Inside Christina held Rose's mobile to the Doctor's ear.
"Sorry," he said as Rose pulled the door shut behind her. "Got to go."
"UNIT?" she asked. He nodded. "Let's get the hell out of dodge, then."
The Doctor grinned at her and pressed what Rose assumed was the 'start' button. The device attached to the wheel flickered and hummed-and then sparked. "No," the Doctor said as he smacked the side of it, "no, no, no, no." But it sparked again and the humming stopped. He bit his lip and ran a hand through his hair.
"What's going on?" Christina demaned. "Why didn't it work?"
"They're incompatible." He gestured to the wires running from the device to the dashboard. "It's a bus and a spaceship, and an alien one at that. The technologies are too different." He frowned. "If I could just weld them together-"
Rose leaned in. "What do you need?"
"Something malleable," he replied. "Something non-corrosive, something ductile, something-" His eyes darted past her to Christina, still holding her backpack. "Something gold."
Christina shook her head. "No, absolutely not."
"Fate of the world," he reminded her.
She sighed and reached into her pack, pulling out the cup of Athelstan.
Rose stared at her. "Where the hell did you get that?"
"The International Gallery," Christina replied.
"You're a thief," Rose breathed. "I knew it. Oh, that explains so much."
"Not just a thief," Christina said with a toss of her hair. "I'm the best thief." She fixed the Doctor with a firm glare. "It's over a thousand years old and worth eighteen million pounds." Reluctantly she handed him the chalice. "Please be careful."
"I promise," the Doctor said solemnly-and then he swung the hammer solidly into the side of the chalice.
Christina winced as he roughly reshaped it. "I hate you."
The bus emerged relatively unscathed from its second trip through the wormhole, and once the terror of the situation subsided the passengers of the two hundred seemed to enjoy their impromptu flight over London almost as much as the Doctor appeared to enjoy flying a bus with antigravity clamps and a priceless historical artifact. Three of the sting ray aliens managed to get through the wormhole before a UNIT scientist named Malcom managed to close it, but UNIT handled them relatively efficiently. Rose noted that the Doctor didn't express his traditional distaste for weapons as rocket launchers took out each alien. Perhaps he was learning-but the tightness of his lips and the set of his jaw suggested otherwise.
She laughed out loud as he swung the bus around toward the empty street and the soldiers below. The Doctor glanced back and the tightness eased as he grinned at her. Rose wasn't the only adrenaline junkie aboard the TARDIS, though she was going to have a stern talk with him about communication when they got home.
They landed without incident and two UNIT soldiers stood by as the Doctor opened the door to direct the passengers to debriefing. The Doctor, of course, breezed by them with Rose close behind. Christina tried to follow them but the taller soldier caught her arm and firmly escorted her behind the rest of the passengers. She cast a glance back over her shoulder but the Doctor's back was towards her. Rose caught the other woman's gaze, the way her lips turned down at the corners and her eyes drooped. She looked-hopeless. Caught.
Captain Magambo was waiting for them next to the TARDIS. She was about Rose's height, perhaps a bit shorter, and dressed in a pristine green UNIT uniform with a red beret covering her hair which was pulled back into a neat bun. She carried a standard issue handgun in a holster at her hip and Rose was willing to bet she was extremely good with it. A man stood staring at the TARDIS. He had short, wavy brown hair and pale skin and wore a long white lab coat over his oxford and sweater vest combination. Wire rimmed glasses perched on his nose and fingerless gloves covered his hands.
"Doctor," Captain Magambo said and saluted. He made a face but said nothing.
The other man turned to face them and launched himself at the Doctor in a fierce hug. The Doctor grinned. "You must be Malcolm," he said.
"I am, sir," the man replied. "Oh, I love you!"
Rose hid her grin behind her hand and even the stoic Magambo cracked a smile. The Doctor would hug anyone, and he practically beamed at the other man.
"To your station, Doctor Taylor," Magambo reminded him gently after he had repeated his profession of love several times. Rose was grateful; laughter bubbled up inside her at the slightly stunned look on the Doctor's face and the absolute adoration on Malcolm's. As the other man left Magambo's grin widened. After a moment she composed herself.
"I take it we're safe from those things?" she inquired.
He nodded. "Oh, they'll start again-it's part of their lifecycle, not their fault-but I'll see what I can do, nudge the wormholes onto uninhabited planets." He glanced back at Angela, Nathan, Barclay, Carmen, Lou, and Christina who were standing a few feet away listening to other UNIT officers.
Rose stepped forward. "Closer to home, Captain," she said in her very best Torchwood voice, the one she used when dealing with other agencies once upon a time. "Those two lads," she gestured. "They were very good in a crisis. Nathan's looking for a job, he's clever, takes orders well, and Barclay's good with engines. You could do a lot worse."
Magambo gave Rose an appraising once-over and nodded. "I'll take that under advisement, ma'am." She glanced back at the soldiers setting up the perimeter. "Now-I've got three dead aliens to clear up and explain to the press-I don't suppose the two of you would fancy helping with the paperwork?"
Rose laughed and the Doctor sniffed. "Not a chance."
Magambo stepped back and saluted once more. "Then until we meet again sir, ma'am."
"I hope so," he replied.
Rose smiled. "Ta." She turned her back to UNIT and the bus and ran a hand over the rough wood of the TARDIS's door. "You beautiful ship, am I ever glad to see you."
"Better than a bus any day," the Doctor agreed and pulled out his key.
"A little blue box, just like you said." Christina stood behind them, hands on her hips, eyes roving over the TARDIS. They turned back to face her and she grinned at them. "Come on, Doctor, show me the stars."
A man in a long brown coat dodged UNIT soldiers, moving towards the TARDIS with determination and no small amount of anger. Rose glanced sideways at the Doctor. For all his talk about the men that followed her (good men, like Jack and less good, like Adam) he seemed to attract just as much attention. It's part of who he is, the enthusiasm and knowledge and command and charisma that draws you in, makes you feel special and important, and she made her peace with it long, long ago. Still, she can't help but feel a surge of gratitude when the Doctor turns back to Christina and says, firmly, "No."
The other woman blinked. "What do you mean, no?" Desperation crept into her voice as the man drew closer. He was shouting something, the words were indistinguishable but she flinched as his voice reached their ears. "I saved your life," she continued. "You saved mine."
"Thank you," he replied. "And you're welcome. But we're full up at the moment."
She stared at him, mouth open in shock. "We're surrounded by police!" she protested. "I'll go to prison!" Christina's eyes darted from the Doctor's impassive face to Rose's. "Please," she said finally. "You were right, earlier. I don't steal for the money-I don't need money. It's the thrill, the adventure, like today! I want every day to be like today. Please, we're a good team, you and I."
"I've got Rose." The Doctor squeezed Rose's hand and bumped his shoulder against hers. "And then there's Donna to think about too. I've got all the company I need right now."
Christina stepped back and took a deep breath. Her mask of amused indifference slid back into place and she tilted her chin up. The Doctor slid his key into the TARDIS and opened the door. Her eyes widened when she saw the vastness of the console room, so incongruous with the outside dimensions, but otherwise Christina remained impassive. Rose paused, one foot on the console room ramp, her hand on the TARDIS doorframe, and then she turned back to Christina.
"Go to Cardiff, if you can," she said. "Ask for Jack Harkness in the tourist center at Millennium Plaza. Tell them that Rose Tyler sent you. All that talent and ambition shouldn't be wasted. You've seen how big the universe is-the sort of threat that comes up against Earth every day. Maybe you'd like to defend it, you know-for variety."
"Rose, are you coming?" She slipped inside as the Doctor came to the door, just in time to see Detective Inspector MacMillan, presumably, lead Christina to a police car in handcuffs.
"Go on," Rose said from the jump seat. "I know you want to help her."
He threw a grateful look back to her and stepped outside, closing the door behind him. One of the UNIT officers stopped MacMillan and the Doctor took that opportunity to slip behind the Detective Inspector and sonic Christina's handcuffs. They opened with a click and she glanced up as he moved back towards the TARDIS. She licked her lips and nodded a quick acknowledgement as MacMillan's second in command helped her into the police car.
The Doctor crossed his arms and leaned back against the TARDIS to watch as Christina left the handcuffs on the seat and snuck out the other side of the police car. He knew where she was going, of course, there was really only one way out for her. If not by TARDIS-then why not by bus?
"Doctor!" Carmen's voice drew him away from his contemplation of Christina and he beamed at her and Lou. "You take care now," she ordered.
"And you," he replied. "Back in time for tea, yeah? Chops and gravy and all that." He started to turn away but she grabbed his arm with more strength that he would have thought she possessed.
"No, but you be careful." Her voice was urgent and she squinted into his eyes, like there was something she could almost see. He froze. The alien suns were gone, and their radiation decaying. In moments her augmented gift would fade back to the faint trace to which she was accustomed but for now she could see what he could not. "I think," she continued hesitatingly. "Your song is ending, sir."
"What do you mean?" he asked, his voice low and serious.
"It is returning. It is returning through the dark and then, Doctor? Oh, he will knock four times." Her lips trembled and her eyes shone with unshed tears. She pulled away and Lou wrapped his arms around her.
Rose was waiting for him on the jump seat, watching the monitor with a great deal of amusement. It was on, the Doctor realized, and tuned to just outside. She laughed when the bus rose above the police and UNIT. He sat down beside her to watch it grow smaller and smaller, until finally it disappeared into the night. She leaned into him, resting her head against his chest, and he curled his arm around her shoulders.
"Thank you for earlier," she said after a moment. "For stopping to think about asking her along."
"Can you imagine her and Donna?" he asked and she giggled. "I'd never hear the end of it. And besides, what you did was perfect. Let Jack give her a taste of world-saving, see if she's really suited to it."
Rose hummed softly in agreement, and then leaned over and stuck her hand in his trouser pocket. He leered at her but she rolled her eyes and pulled out her mobile, waving it in front of his face. "Next time we're separated you should, I dunno, use this to tell me where you are and what's going on. I called you five times, five times and you picked up once." She dropped back against the seat and sighed, squeezing the bridge of her nose. "It would have been nice to know what you were planning, with the clamps and all."
He swallowed. "You're right. I'm sorry. But there was this ship that came to trade with San Helios-that's the planet, San Helios-and we were captured by Tritovores and-I meant to call you, I did." He made a face. "But then UNIT kept calling and Magambo wanted me to tell her the wormhole was a threat so she could destroy it-"
"What?" Rose demanded.
He winced. "Oh. Did I not mention that?"
Rose glared at him. "No. You didn't."
"Right. Well." He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. "Sorry?"
She sighed and let her head drop back against the jump seat. "You can't keep doing that. You can't put me somewhere safe while you rush off into danger." He opened his mouth to object but she held up her hand. "Yeah, I know what you were doing. Someone had to keep them calm and together…but you could have asked."
"I'm not very good at this," he confessed softly.
"At what?" she asked and raised her head to look at him. "Having an equal partner? Coz like it or not, that's what I am. If you push me I'll push back, and if you send me away there's no power in the universe that could keep me from finding you." She nudged his shoulder with her own. "So get used to it, coz I'm here to stay."