DW/FF crossover fic: The Engineer's Gift (26A/27)
Title: The Engineer’s Gift
Author: shan21non
Rating: PG-13
Beta Readers: buffyaddict13 who is amazing!
Warnings: Swearing in Mandarin!
Pairings: Ten/Rose, Mal/Inara, a bit of Simon/Kaylee
Disclaimer: I don’t own Doctor Who or Firefly. How is that fair?
Summary: When the Doctor takes a wrong turn, he and Rose find themselves aboard Serenity. Confusion, explosions, mystery, romance, and adventure ensue!
Chapter one Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fourteen Fifteen Sixteen 17A 17B Eighteen Nineteen Twenty Twenty-one Twenty-two Twenty-three Twenty-four Twenty-five
A/N: Only one more chapter and then the epilogue! I’m not sure how long it’ll be until the last chapter is up. I’m still ironing out the details of it and my wonderful beta reader is leaving soon for a week long vacation. But I promise it’ll be worth your wait!
Remember, for the Chinese phrases, all you have to do is hover your mouse over the Mandarin, and a translation will pop up.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Wash, lower the ramp,” Mal ordered his pilot.
Wash jammed his thumb into the button next to the bay doors. The metal creaked and groaned as the drawbridge-style door lowered. Inch by inch it went, and slowly, a figure came into view. First the top of a slick brown ponytail, then a pair of cold eyes, and finally the rest of a pale, sneering face.
It was The Engineer.
“WASH, RAISE THE RAMP! RAISE THE RAMP!” Mal shouted.
“You know, Captain, consistency is not your forte,” Wash informed him, nevertheless jamming the button again with his thumb.
But the ramp continued to descend. Rose glanced nervously at the Doctor, then remembered that she was terribly upset with him and looked straight ahead again.
“I think you’ll find that your controls are deadlocked,” The Engineer, Lady Eden Wing, said with false cheerfulness.
As the ramp cleared her shoulders, three figures came into view behind her, a trio of Alliance soldiers. A quick glance downwards proved that they weren’t the Blue Hands. The threesome did, however, carry guns that looked significantly deadlier than sonic rifles. Guns that were trained on the crew.
“Weapons down,” The Engineer ordered.
Mal and Zoe hesitated for only a moment before removing their guns from their holsters and setting them on the ground. All eyes fell on Jayne. The mercenary let out a menacing grunt and gripped his rifle tighter. To Rose’s surprise, The Engineer’s immediate response was to laugh.
“Like a dog with a bone,” she chuckled.
As soon as the ramp set down, she placed one stiletto-ed foot in front of the other until she was standing on the grated floor of the cargo bay, inches away from Jayne. He pointed his muzzle directly at her, so close that it grazed the buttons of her tailored white jacket.
“Weapons down, or I’ll order them to start with the women,” she clarified.
Jayne’s fingers twitched.
“Do you really trust yourself to hit all three of them before they manage to kill the beautiful Ms. Serra?” she said, her icy gaze transferring to Inara. “Or are blondes more your type?” she pressed.
Rose felt her heart skip a beat with The Engineer’s eyes landed on her. She could feel Jayne’s gaze on her as well, but couldn’t bring herself to turn towards him. She heard a clatter and realized that he must have dropped his gun. The noise was enough to snap her out of her paralysis.
“Oh, very nice. Threaten the women. All hail the Great Alliance,” she sneered.
Rose couldn’t help herself, but she felt the Doctor’s hand grip her wrist and give it a warning squeeze. She felt the urge to snatch her hand back, but restrained herself. When she looked up at him, he was staring stoically ahead. The captain wasn’t quite so adept at hiding his anger.
“I don’t remember tellin’ you you could come aboard my ship,” Mal said stiffly.
The Engineer raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t remember asking,” she replied.
She held up a well-manicured hand and snapped her fingers. One of the soldiers instantly stepped forward. The Engineer gestured at the ground, and the soldier stooped to gather the discarded weapons before rejoining his compatriots.
“How did you find us?” Shepherd Book asked.
“Oh, come now. I thought you all were smart enough to figure that out for yourselves,” she said, like a teacher scolding a lazy student. “Let's just say a little bug told me.”
“Harriet?” Kaylee gasped, sounding horrified.
The Engineer smiled again. She seemed to have an endless supply of good cheer this afternoon.
“Oh you must be Kaylee! I'd recognize that sweet little voice anywhere,” she replied in some cruel imitation of fondness. “Yes, it was quite adorable, your naming her.”
“She was transmitting the whole gorram time,” Mal muttered.
“Well, you’re the ones who activated her early. You exposed her to light,” Eden Wing gleefully pointed out. “Why did you even let her out of her crate?”
“We didn’t have much choice in the matter,” Zoe snapped.
“Well, lucky for us, she was the first beetle transmitting in the field, so we were able to focus our manpower on listening to your every word,” The Engineer crowed.
“But I squashed her,” Jayne blurted out.
Again, that terrible grin crossed Eden Wing’s face. It was amazing to Rose that a smile could be so devoid of warmth; she was less a woman smiling and more a shark bearing its teeth.
“Not before the illustrious Doctor revealed that he'd figured out our game,” Eden said.
As the woman approached the Doctor, Rose’s stomach clenched. She felt him drop her wrist and suddenly longed for him to take it back.
“So you sent your husband to intercept me when I dropped Inara off on Persephone,” Mal interrupted. Rose couldn’t help but feel relieved that he’d drawn The Engineer’s attention back on himself.
“We knew your crew would come to rescue you in prison, and then we’d be able to scoop all of you up at once.” She turned on her heel and her smile disappeared. “Unfortunately you escaped.”
“Speakin’ of your better half, where is Ol’ Ath-y? We go way back. We got this great running joke where I humiliate him and fly away all triumphant-like.”
Mal’s grin was so brazen that Rose was sure The Engineer would lash out at him. But she continued as calmly as if he hadn’t spoken at all.
“It was only a slight speed bump. We knew from our recordings that your next stop would be Verbena to drop off your two newest guests,” she went on, gesturing at Rose and the Doctor.
“You’re wrong. Our next stop was Paquin,” Jayne growled. “And you must know all hell’s broken loose over there, so why even bother with us at all? Your secret’s out!”
“What secret? It’s already buried. Along with four-hundred insurgents who will serve as a lesson to others who might attempt the same foolish rebellion.”
Rose felt a wave of nausea come over her. She rocked on her heels to keep herself upright, and she didn’t fight at all when the Doctor laced his fingers through hers.
“Then what is this? Revenge? You here to arrest us?” Jayne demanded.
The Engineer spun on the mercenary, her voice taking on a hard edge that she’d managed to avoid thus far.
“Oh, you will most definitely be arrested for killing my precious creations,” she promised.
“Little spies,” River whispered.
“River, don’t,” Simon hissed, pushing his sister behind him.
But if the Engineer knew who River Tam was, she didn’t show it. She glanced past River with an almost dreamlike look in her eyes.
“They were so much more than that. They were salvation,” she proclaimed.
“A plague,” River corrected, louder this time.
“Be quiet, River, please!” Simon whispered harshly, his entire body rigid with fear.
But once again, The Engineer didn’t seem angry so much as wistful.
“Think of all the bloodshed my little creatures could have spared. Their intel would have prevented riots across the ‘Verse; nipped them in the bud before they became a revolution. They weren’t a plague. They were a gift.”
“A gift?” Zoe repeated, disgusted.
“I’d hate to have you pull my name in the office Secret Santa,” Wash added. He wasn’t smiling.
She pinned the pilot with a probing glance.
“Would you obey the speed limit if there were no police cruisers to enforce it?” Wash opened his mouth, but after a second he closed it again. The Engineer nodded. “Surveillance makes people safer,” she concluded.
“Surveillance makes people afraid.”
As soon as the Doctor spoke, Rose’s heart rate doubled. She felt her palm grow sweaty in his grasp when The Engineer turned towards him once more.
“The true test of a society is whether the cooperation of its citizenry is coerced through fear or inspired by a genuine sense of civic duty,” he went on.
His voice was hard and condemning, but, oddly, The Engineer’s eyes seemed to light up at his words. Before she could address him, they were once again saved by Mal’s impatience.
“If you’re gonna arrest us, then just do it and spare us the mustache-twirling,” he spat.
“Ah, but if all I wanted was to have you arrested, I could have simply had your ship flagged for pickup at any Alliance checkpoint,” The Engineer said.
“What is this, Twenty gorram Questions? Just tell us what you want!” Jayne snarled.
Eden Wing seemed to grow calmer and more content as Jayne grew more agitated. As she replied, she started to make a lazy circle around the crew, forcing them to meet her icy stare.
“Twenty Questions. A wonderful game!” she exclaimed, sweeping past Jayne. “Identify the answer by process of elimination.” She moved past Simon, who seemed to be frozen to the spot. “One of these things is not like the other.” Her heels clicked against the metal floor as she paced by Inara and Zoe. “Can you guess which one of you doesn’t belong?” she asked as she stepped past Mal. Her eyes glided right over Rose and landed on the man holding her hand.
“Doctor, you’ve been awfully quiet,” she announced.
Rose held her breath. Why had she stopped in front of the Doctor? Why wasn’t she moving past?
“First time I’ve ever been accused of that,” he replied lightly.
Of all things to do, Eden grinned at him. A genuine grin, not the nasty kind she aimed at people in her superior way.
“So I’ve heard,” she said.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow at that.
“Have you, now?”
Her eyes skimmed over his face like she was examining a rare painting.
“Oh, you’re a legend. In fact, most said you were a myth, but I always believed in you,” she intimated, again with that satisfied grin.
“‘Believed in’ him? What’s going on? Is he the head of some kind of cult?” Wash asked, bewildered.
But his question was ignored as The Engineer continued, addressing only the Doctor.
“I heard your name through the beetle, but it was only at the ball when I saw your sonic weapon that I put all the pieces together.”
“It’s not a weapon; it’s a screwdriver,” the Doctor interjected.
The Engineer ignored him.
“My superiors have files on you stretching back hundreds of years.”
Rose’s mind raced with this new information. It made sense, of course. If human governments had records on the Doctor back in her time, they would surely have only expanded on those files a few centuries in the future. But why was this woman looking at the Doctor so eagerly? Rose felt like her insides were doing somersaults. The Doctor, however, replied as if this information hardly fazed him.
“It’s always nice to meet a fan, but you didn’t have to go to all this trouble,” he said nonchalantly.
“Oh, but I did,” Eden replied. “You shape the universe as you see fit. When somebody crosses the Doctor, they’d better run. Because he doesn’t do second chances. The Daleks had a name for you.”
“The Oncoming Storm.”
Rose turned at the same time that The Engineer did, both of them staring at River.
“A-plus for the little girl,” Eden said, smiling coyly.
“Not a little girl,” River retorted, frowning.
Luckily, Kaylee spoke before Eden could react to that.
“What are Daleks?” the mechanic asked.
She seemed to instantly regret speaking when The Engineer turned towards her, but Eden’s words were short and to the point.
“Classified. Lost to history, and we want to keep it that way.”
“Classified? Like your friends with the blue gloves?” the Doctor piped up. “A word of advice: You might want to find yourself some henchmen who don’t give the impression that they live in mortal fear of dishpan hands.”
“Henchmen?” Eden repeated, looking at him with an exaggerated show of surprise. “Doctor, I’m astonished that you’d paint me as the villain here.”
“Shocked! Shocked, you say, to find that gambling is going on here!” the Doctor mocked.
Eden shook her head, coming closer.
“I’m not being facetious. I’m the furthest thing from a villain. I’m the hero of this story, just like you, Doctor.”
She stopped in front of him.
“I named myself after you, you know.” She flashed him another genuine smile before she went on. “You chose the one title that best sums up what you do. The Doctor is one who heals. He makes people better. The Engineer is one who builds things. Fantastic structures that allow humanity to advance.”
“Don’t compare yourself to me. I’ve seen your idea of advanced humans,” the Doctor said in a low voice.
He squeezed Rose’s hand so tightly that it hurt, but she doubted he even realized he was doing it.
“Here we have the Artificial Sun of Liann Jiun and the Interplanetary Gravity Bridge. On Earth-That-Was they had the Pyramids and the Great Wall of China,” The Engineer continued with enthusiasm.
“How telling that you chose two structures built with slave labor,” the Doctor retorted.
“Doctor, we have so much to discuss. You will be invaluable to our cause,” Eden said, unfazed by his dig.
The Doctor stared straight at her.
“And the others?” he asked.
“Will be arrested,” she replied smoothly.
He dropped Rose’s hand, and she felt the circulation return to her fingers.
“What if I made you a deal?” he proposed.
Rose felt her heart thud against her ribcage.
“Doctor, what are you doing?” she asked nervously.
“What sort of a deal?” Eden asked, intrigued.
“Rose, I’ll be fine,” he said without looking away from The Engineer. “Lady Wing, you know I’m not the sort of man who can be taken and used against my will.”
She smiled.
“No. You’re not a man at all. You’re so much more.”
How she could make those words sound so horrible, Rose would never know, but they sent a chill down her spine.
“I’ll agree to leave with you, right now, no fighting. And in return you will let these people live on in peace. You will never interfere with them again,” the Doctor said.
“No!” Rose blurted out.
She reached for his hand, but he pulled away, stepping towards The Engineer. But someone else stepped forward as well. Simon clung to her arm, but River pushed out of the huddle and addressed the Doctor directly.
“The man is not a gun. He is a man,” she said, almost pleadingly.
The Doctor approached her. Rose could see that she had tears in her eyes and her lips trembled. When the Doctor placed his hands on the sides of her face, her expression crumbled. He leaned in and whispered to her, but not so quietly that they all couldn’t hear him.
“River, you can’t break down now. I know you have the urge to become that scared little girl inside of you. But you have to fight it, because, you see, you are the very strongest and bravest person on this ship, and they’re all going to need you.”
He released the girl without waiting for her response, and turn quickly back to Eden.
“Do you agree to these terms?” he asked her.
The Engineer’s eyes flashed bright with anticipation.
“I will be elevated beyond my wildest aspirations if I bring you in,” she replied. “The others are of no real consequence to us.”
“Doctor, don’t!” Rose called out.
This time it wasn’t a desperate plea; it was a command. She glared at him, but once again, he ignored her.
“But first I need proof that you’re actually going to let them go,” he said.
Eden snapped her fingers again. One of the soldiers immediately turned and walked over to a military vehicle parked a few meters away. He started fiddling with some dials on the dash.
“Your locks will be down in moments,” Eden announced.
“Wash,” Mal prompted.
Wash stepped away from the door controls and started towards the stairs.
“On it,” he said before racing up to the cockpit.
“Doctor, you can’t,” Rose said firmly.
When the Doctor stared stonily ahead, she spoke louder.
“Look at me. You’re not going anywhere with her.”
“This is the way it has to be,” he said quietly.
“Bollocks! This is just you leaving everyone behind again. Well, I won’t have it,” she snapped. She stepped forward and addressed The Engineer. “I’m coming with him.”
“No you’re not,” the Doctor said calmly.
“Like hell I’m not,” she hissed.
“Sorry, but there’s no room for you in the humvee,” The Engineer said, failing to sound very sorry at all.
“I can sit in a lap. Don’t care whose,” Rose declared, walking up to one of the soldiers still in the cargo bay. “You there, you up for it?” she asked one of them at random.
“Jayne,” the Doctor said.
Rose turned to see the Doctor giving the mercenary a pointed look. The larger man nodded and started towards her.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.
Jayne avoided her eyes, taking broad steps to reach her in seconds. As he wrapped his arms around her body, she shouted, “No! Put me down!”
She struggled furiously against him, but her arms were pinned to her sides. She kicked her feet out, trying to strike at his shins with her heels, but it was as if he was made of stone. He maintained a firm grip as she trashed about.
“I’ll never forgive you for this!” she snarled.
She looked up at the rest of the crew, but if they were watching her at all, it was with a sympathetic sort of resignation. They were probably used to this sort of negotiation, living in the frontier of space. They didn’t understand that she had to stay with the Doctor.
She called out to the Doctor again, but he addressed Mal instead of her.
“Captain, you have something of mine,” he said.
Rose saw a sort of recognition come over Mal’s face.
“Oh, right,” he said, reaching into his pocket to retrieve a brown wallet.
He flipped it open and held it out to the Doctor.
“There ya go. Just like you left it,” he said.
The Doctor reached for it, pausing for a brief moment.
“It was an honor knowing you,” he told the captain.
Mal nodded and released the wallet.
“Captain, we’re up and running,” Wash’s voice announced over the comm.
There were no more goodbyes. The Doctor nodded to The Engineer, and together they strode out the bay door and into the humvee. Zoe went over to the doors and hit the largest button. The hatch began to rise, and Rose watched the Doctor disappear from view.
“Let me go! How can you do this?” she screamed, twisting again in Jayne’s arms.
As soon as the door latched shut, the mercenary released her. She ran towards the button to lower it again, despite the fact that she could feel the engine kicking on, but Mal stepped in her path.
“Rose, stop!” he ordered.
Zoe reached the control panel first, and it was the intercom button, not the door release that she hit.
“Honey, take us up,” she said.
“We’re not going anywhere!” Rose nearly growled, trying to judge just how fast she would have to move to get around both Mal and Zoe to the controls.
But Mal spoke again, and his words stopped her short.
“Rose, he touched the psychic paper,” he said. As the meaning of his words became clear, she allowed him to walk over next to Zoe.
“What did it say?” Rose demanded.
“I’m sorry, but what’s psychic paper?” Simon asked, looking between Rose and Mal. “It can’t be what it sounds like, right?”
“It’s exactly what it sounds like,” Mal replied before turning back to Rose. “When he touched it, it said, ‘Fly my way, and tell River to go fishing with the core.’”
Rose squinted back at him, then looked around the room to see that everyone else was wearing a similar expression.
“And that’s s’posed to make some kinda sense?” Jayne asked.
“To River, I’m hopin’,” Mal replied, turning to the girl in question.
River was staring up at the ceiling, looking as if there was a difficult calculus problem printed across its surface. After a moment’s pause, she jerked her head back down and stared straight at Mal.
“Radion-accelerator core. Gravitational field,” she said. In another sharp movement, her eyes were on the stairs. “I need to be in the engine room.”
With that announcement, she set off up the stairs in a half-run, leaving everyone standing around in the cargo bay with the same bewildered expression. Finally, with a shrug, Mal hit the comm button.
“Wash, change of plan. Fly towards the Doctor,” he called up to the pilot.
There was a pause before Wash’s voice crackled over the speakers.
“Just to be clear, you want me to fly towards the people who were just aiming very large guns at us?”
“That’s right,” Mal replied unflinchingly.
There was another brief pause.
“Okay then!” Wash called down.
“I’ll go with River, ‘case she needs help,” Kaylee said, moving towards the stairs.
“Me too,” Rose added, rushing up the steps after her.
Whatever was happening, if it meant getting the Doctor back, she was going to be involved. She nearly bumped into Kaylee, as the mechanic had stopped short in the doorway to the engine room. Rose saw over her shoulder that River was poised over the rotating engine with a wrench.
Kaylee inched towards her, holding her hands out in front of her like a hostage negotiator trying to assure a captor that she was unarmed.
“River, what are you doing? Let’s just-Wuh de tyen, ah! WHY?” she shouted as River brought the wrench down into the center of the engine and gave it a vicious twist.
Kaylee made to rush towards the teenager, but Rose grabbed her arm.
“No, let her,” she said.
River continued to clang away at the engine. Kaylee looked from Rose to River and back again, eyes wide in horror.
“But she-”
“It’s for the Doctor,” Rose implored.
Kaylee looked like Rose had just asked her to sacrifice her child, and in a way, Rose knew that was what it must be for the mechanic. But River had to know what she was doing.
A terrible screeching noise came from the engine as River wrenched its outer walls open. A bright green glow filled the room, and Rose felt a rush of heat. Beside her, Kaylee whimpered.
“River, be careful with her. She’s not in the best shape and sharp movements could damage her so’s even I can’t fix her,” she said tremulously.
River didn’t look up, but her movements seemed to become gentler. She reached in with her bare hands and began peeling back the delicate sheets of circuitry surrounding its center until she revealed its spinning core.
Kaylee looked ready to faint when River dropped to her knees and peered underneath the engine. She reached in and yanked on something that creaked before it came loose with a thunk.
“Oh, River, not the G-line! I just rerouted it, and the graft couplings ain’t stable!” Kaylee moaned.
“The couplings will hold,” River replied confidently from underneath the machine.
The teenager moved as if she’d drilled this procedure hundreds of times before. With just a few twists and pulls, she turned the copper piping that Rose now knew was the G-line, whatever that meant, and spun it so that one end was pressed directly to the engine’s core, and the other was aimed at the side of the room.
“We’re not gonna have gravity without the G-line!” Kaylee noted anxiously.
“Don’t need it,” River said without looking up from her work.
Kaylee twisted her hands.
“Well, not so close to the surface, but how are we gonna escape without a functionin’ Grav Dampener?” she asked.
River stood abruptly and went to Kaylee’s side. She rested her hands over the mechanic’s and gently pried them apart. Without a word, River led her to the remounted G-line and curled the other woman’s fingers around the end facing the wall.
“Don’t let go of this,” she told Kaylee decisively. Before the mechanic could protest, River was already moving towards the door.
“Shuttle,” she said to Rose as she left.
Rose turned to Kaylee, whom she could see was struggling to hold the rattling metal pipe steady, and gave her an apologetic shrug. Then she followed River out of the room. She ran to keep up with the girl, who flew down the stairs and turned sharply towards Inara’s shuttle.
“Anyone gonna explain to me what’s goin’ on on my ship?” Mal shouted up from the cargo bay when they came into view.
“NO!” they both shouted at once, racing out of sight and into the shuttle.
River immediately planted herself in the pilot’s seat. Her hands flew across the controls, flipping switches and turning dials so quickly that Rose barely had time to slide into the co-pilot’s seat before the engine hummed to life. River reached up and hit a button above her head.
“Disengaging shuttle,” she announced.
“River? Is that you?” Wash’s voice came from the speakers.
“Wash, it’s fine. I’m here too,” Rose called up to him.
There was a brief pause.
“Oookay. So the person I know the least on this ship is accompanying the teenager, and that’s supposed to make me feel better?”
Rose had to admit that from his perspective, it might not be a huge comfort. But the Doctor was still with that terrible woman, and she had no patience for Wash’s anxiety.
“Just clear us for departure!” she snapped.
There was another pause.
“I’m still just as confused, but I’m just going with it at this point.”
“Good choice!” Rose said, grinning.
The creaking sound of large gears filled the cockpit of the shuttle, and then a loud click echoed through the room. Without any further preamble, River hit a button on the dash and gripped the steering wheel to guide them away from the ship.
Rose felt a rush of excitement as the sky came into full view. They were speeding along beside Serenity, low enough that people and were still visible but looked like tiny ants.
“So, what’s the plan then?” Rose asked, turning to her pilot.
“We’re going fishing,” River said with an enigmatic smile.
Something clicked in Rose’s brain, and she remembered dangling from a barrage balloon in the middle of the London Blitz until a handsome man with an invisible spaceship reeled her in.
“You improvised a gravity funnel!” she guessed excitedly.
River frowned and shot her a sideways glance.
“No. Reversed polarity of the graviscalar particles in the engine’s core. Sonic’s the hook. Magnetic pull of its particles will be drawn to the core’s.”
“Same thing,” Rose said, grinning again.
“He’ll need you,” River said.
Rose glanced behind her, scanning the velvet-draped walls of the shuttle
“Of course. To reel him in. What if I tear some of this cloth and knot it around my leg? I could sort of swing my body out and grab him.”
“No,” River said immediately.
Rose looked over at her, surprised.
“Trust me, I can do it. I won the bronze on my under-sevens gymnastics team,” she assured her.
“Not what I meant, Bad Wolf,” River said, shaking her head. “Take over,” she ordered, standing.
Rose scrambled up from the co-pilot’s seat and took River’s place as the girl moved behind her.
“Um, River? I’m not sure I know how to fly this!” she called back to her, hands shaking on the wheel.
She glanced back and saw River tearing off a long swath of scarlet fabric, knotting it to another piece, and then another, apparently unconcerned by the sudden shakiness of the shuttle’s flight.
“He’ll need you, Bad Wolf, or he’ll be lost,” she said.
Rose tried to maintain a normal breathing pattern as she steadied the shuttle and kept it flying alongside Serenity. It was only after a couple of seconds that she started to understand what River meant, not that the Doctor needed her now, but that he needed her always. And as much as she knew she could never stop loving the Doctor, she also knew that what he’d revealed to her that morning had changed everything.
“I don’t know if I can give myself to him like that,” Rose said softly.
She was unsure that River had even heard her, because no reply came. When she chanced another look behind her, she saw the girl flitting about the room, weaving the fabric around various objects to create some sort of complicated pulley system. Maybe she’d misinterpreted River’s statement. Surely she couldn’t be trying to talk about Rose’s love life in the middle of a rescue operation.
“Look, this probably isn’t the right time to t-”
“You scared him,” River interrupted her. “You were a mirror, and he hates himself.”
As she spoke her last words, she settled back into the cockpit and knotted one end of the fabric around the base of the gear console. Rose released the steering wheel and shifted back to the co-pilot’s seat with a frown.
“The Doctor loves himself,” she countered. “You’ve heard him go on about his brilliance.”
River shot her a deeply unconvinced look, and Rose shrugged her shoulders in defeat.
“Yeah, okay. So? The Bad Wolf scared the Doctor. And so he wiped it from my memory. That’s not something I can just move on from, yeah? What if he does it again?”
Although she was frustrated with River, she was genuinely asking now. If River had the answer, she was willing to listen.
“You be the doctor,” the girl said.
Rose squinted at her.
“What? River, I don’t understand.”
“Memory wipe is a symptom, not the etiology,” River said matter-of-factly. “Palliative treatments only reduce symptoms. Causality is key. Cure the disease-”
“River!” Rose interjected. “River, I’m sorry, but I don’t understand a word.”
“He hates himself. That’s the cause. You need to cure that first,” she rephrased.
Rose thought about the Doctor’s worst moments: his guilt over Gwyneth’s death with the Gelth; his regret at leaving the Ood behind on Krop-Tor; the relentless horror of the Time War; his eternal loneliness.
“I can’t cure that. Guilt is part of the Doctor’s world; it’s a part of him,” she said miserably.
“He needs you,” River said firmly.
Rose stared at the girl, even after she turned back to the controls. If the Doctor could accept her, all of her, Bad Wolf included, could he eventually forgive himself?
“Here comes the fish,” River announced, breaking Rose out of her contemplation.
Rose craned her neck and peered over the edge of the shuttle to see a tiny brown shape approaching from the below. After a few seconds, the figure came into sharper focus. The Doctor was floating upwards as if being reeled in by an invisible line. He was the fish, and clutched in the hand he stuck out straight above him was the hook, the sonic screwdriver, which was emitting its blue light.
“Brilliant,” Rose murmured.
He was heading straight for Serenity, towards the wall at which River had aimed the G-line, but as he moved, something else came into view.
Clinging to the Doctor’s ankles was Eden Wing.
I had to split this chapter into 2 parts due to it's length. Click here for chapter 26, part B!
Author: shan21non
Rating: PG-13
Beta Readers: buffyaddict13 who is amazing!
Warnings: Swearing in Mandarin!
Pairings: Ten/Rose, Mal/Inara, a bit of Simon/Kaylee
Disclaimer: I don’t own Doctor Who or Firefly. How is that fair?
Summary: When the Doctor takes a wrong turn, he and Rose find themselves aboard Serenity. Confusion, explosions, mystery, romance, and adventure ensue!
Chapter one Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fourteen Fifteen Sixteen 17A 17B Eighteen Nineteen Twenty Twenty-one Twenty-two Twenty-three Twenty-four Twenty-five
A/N: Only one more chapter and then the epilogue! I’m not sure how long it’ll be until the last chapter is up. I’m still ironing out the details of it and my wonderful beta reader is leaving soon for a week long vacation. But I promise it’ll be worth your wait!
Remember, for the Chinese phrases, all you have to do is hover your mouse over the Mandarin, and a translation will pop up.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Wash, lower the ramp,” Mal ordered his pilot.
Wash jammed his thumb into the button next to the bay doors. The metal creaked and groaned as the drawbridge-style door lowered. Inch by inch it went, and slowly, a figure came into view. First the top of a slick brown ponytail, then a pair of cold eyes, and finally the rest of a pale, sneering face.
It was The Engineer.
“WASH, RAISE THE RAMP! RAISE THE RAMP!” Mal shouted.
“You know, Captain, consistency is not your forte,” Wash informed him, nevertheless jamming the button again with his thumb.
But the ramp continued to descend. Rose glanced nervously at the Doctor, then remembered that she was terribly upset with him and looked straight ahead again.
“I think you’ll find that your controls are deadlocked,” The Engineer, Lady Eden Wing, said with false cheerfulness.
As the ramp cleared her shoulders, three figures came into view behind her, a trio of Alliance soldiers. A quick glance downwards proved that they weren’t the Blue Hands. The threesome did, however, carry guns that looked significantly deadlier than sonic rifles. Guns that were trained on the crew.
“Weapons down,” The Engineer ordered.
Mal and Zoe hesitated for only a moment before removing their guns from their holsters and setting them on the ground. All eyes fell on Jayne. The mercenary let out a menacing grunt and gripped his rifle tighter. To Rose’s surprise, The Engineer’s immediate response was to laugh.
“Like a dog with a bone,” she chuckled.
As soon as the ramp set down, she placed one stiletto-ed foot in front of the other until she was standing on the grated floor of the cargo bay, inches away from Jayne. He pointed his muzzle directly at her, so close that it grazed the buttons of her tailored white jacket.
“Weapons down, or I’ll order them to start with the women,” she clarified.
Jayne’s fingers twitched.
“Do you really trust yourself to hit all three of them before they manage to kill the beautiful Ms. Serra?” she said, her icy gaze transferring to Inara. “Or are blondes more your type?” she pressed.
Rose felt her heart skip a beat with The Engineer’s eyes landed on her. She could feel Jayne’s gaze on her as well, but couldn’t bring herself to turn towards him. She heard a clatter and realized that he must have dropped his gun. The noise was enough to snap her out of her paralysis.
“Oh, very nice. Threaten the women. All hail the Great Alliance,” she sneered.
Rose couldn’t help herself, but she felt the Doctor’s hand grip her wrist and give it a warning squeeze. She felt the urge to snatch her hand back, but restrained herself. When she looked up at him, he was staring stoically ahead. The captain wasn’t quite so adept at hiding his anger.
“I don’t remember tellin’ you you could come aboard my ship,” Mal said stiffly.
The Engineer raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t remember asking,” she replied.
She held up a well-manicured hand and snapped her fingers. One of the soldiers instantly stepped forward. The Engineer gestured at the ground, and the soldier stooped to gather the discarded weapons before rejoining his compatriots.
“How did you find us?” Shepherd Book asked.
“Oh, come now. I thought you all were smart enough to figure that out for yourselves,” she said, like a teacher scolding a lazy student. “Let's just say a little bug told me.”
“Harriet?” Kaylee gasped, sounding horrified.
The Engineer smiled again. She seemed to have an endless supply of good cheer this afternoon.
“Oh you must be Kaylee! I'd recognize that sweet little voice anywhere,” she replied in some cruel imitation of fondness. “Yes, it was quite adorable, your naming her.”
“She was transmitting the whole gorram time,” Mal muttered.
“Well, you’re the ones who activated her early. You exposed her to light,” Eden Wing gleefully pointed out. “Why did you even let her out of her crate?”
“We didn’t have much choice in the matter,” Zoe snapped.
“Well, lucky for us, she was the first beetle transmitting in the field, so we were able to focus our manpower on listening to your every word,” The Engineer crowed.
“But I squashed her,” Jayne blurted out.
Again, that terrible grin crossed Eden Wing’s face. It was amazing to Rose that a smile could be so devoid of warmth; she was less a woman smiling and more a shark bearing its teeth.
“Not before the illustrious Doctor revealed that he'd figured out our game,” Eden said.
As the woman approached the Doctor, Rose’s stomach clenched. She felt him drop her wrist and suddenly longed for him to take it back.
“So you sent your husband to intercept me when I dropped Inara off on Persephone,” Mal interrupted. Rose couldn’t help but feel relieved that he’d drawn The Engineer’s attention back on himself.
“We knew your crew would come to rescue you in prison, and then we’d be able to scoop all of you up at once.” She turned on her heel and her smile disappeared. “Unfortunately you escaped.”
“Speakin’ of your better half, where is Ol’ Ath-y? We go way back. We got this great running joke where I humiliate him and fly away all triumphant-like.”
Mal’s grin was so brazen that Rose was sure The Engineer would lash out at him. But she continued as calmly as if he hadn’t spoken at all.
“It was only a slight speed bump. We knew from our recordings that your next stop would be Verbena to drop off your two newest guests,” she went on, gesturing at Rose and the Doctor.
“You’re wrong. Our next stop was Paquin,” Jayne growled. “And you must know all hell’s broken loose over there, so why even bother with us at all? Your secret’s out!”
“What secret? It’s already buried. Along with four-hundred insurgents who will serve as a lesson to others who might attempt the same foolish rebellion.”
Rose felt a wave of nausea come over her. She rocked on her heels to keep herself upright, and she didn’t fight at all when the Doctor laced his fingers through hers.
“Then what is this? Revenge? You here to arrest us?” Jayne demanded.
The Engineer spun on the mercenary, her voice taking on a hard edge that she’d managed to avoid thus far.
“Oh, you will most definitely be arrested for killing my precious creations,” she promised.
“Little spies,” River whispered.
“River, don’t,” Simon hissed, pushing his sister behind him.
But if the Engineer knew who River Tam was, she didn’t show it. She glanced past River with an almost dreamlike look in her eyes.
“They were so much more than that. They were salvation,” she proclaimed.
“A plague,” River corrected, louder this time.
“Be quiet, River, please!” Simon whispered harshly, his entire body rigid with fear.
But once again, The Engineer didn’t seem angry so much as wistful.
“Think of all the bloodshed my little creatures could have spared. Their intel would have prevented riots across the ‘Verse; nipped them in the bud before they became a revolution. They weren’t a plague. They were a gift.”
“A gift?” Zoe repeated, disgusted.
“I’d hate to have you pull my name in the office Secret Santa,” Wash added. He wasn’t smiling.
She pinned the pilot with a probing glance.
“Would you obey the speed limit if there were no police cruisers to enforce it?” Wash opened his mouth, but after a second he closed it again. The Engineer nodded. “Surveillance makes people safer,” she concluded.
“Surveillance makes people afraid.”
As soon as the Doctor spoke, Rose’s heart rate doubled. She felt her palm grow sweaty in his grasp when The Engineer turned towards him once more.
“The true test of a society is whether the cooperation of its citizenry is coerced through fear or inspired by a genuine sense of civic duty,” he went on.
His voice was hard and condemning, but, oddly, The Engineer’s eyes seemed to light up at his words. Before she could address him, they were once again saved by Mal’s impatience.
“If you’re gonna arrest us, then just do it and spare us the mustache-twirling,” he spat.
“Ah, but if all I wanted was to have you arrested, I could have simply had your ship flagged for pickup at any Alliance checkpoint,” The Engineer said.
“What is this, Twenty gorram Questions? Just tell us what you want!” Jayne snarled.
Eden Wing seemed to grow calmer and more content as Jayne grew more agitated. As she replied, she started to make a lazy circle around the crew, forcing them to meet her icy stare.
“Twenty Questions. A wonderful game!” she exclaimed, sweeping past Jayne. “Identify the answer by process of elimination.” She moved past Simon, who seemed to be frozen to the spot. “One of these things is not like the other.” Her heels clicked against the metal floor as she paced by Inara and Zoe. “Can you guess which one of you doesn’t belong?” she asked as she stepped past Mal. Her eyes glided right over Rose and landed on the man holding her hand.
“Doctor, you’ve been awfully quiet,” she announced.
Rose held her breath. Why had she stopped in front of the Doctor? Why wasn’t she moving past?
“First time I’ve ever been accused of that,” he replied lightly.
Of all things to do, Eden grinned at him. A genuine grin, not the nasty kind she aimed at people in her superior way.
“So I’ve heard,” she said.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow at that.
“Have you, now?”
Her eyes skimmed over his face like she was examining a rare painting.
“Oh, you’re a legend. In fact, most said you were a myth, but I always believed in you,” she intimated, again with that satisfied grin.
“‘Believed in’ him? What’s going on? Is he the head of some kind of cult?” Wash asked, bewildered.
But his question was ignored as The Engineer continued, addressing only the Doctor.
“I heard your name through the beetle, but it was only at the ball when I saw your sonic weapon that I put all the pieces together.”
“It’s not a weapon; it’s a screwdriver,” the Doctor interjected.
The Engineer ignored him.
“My superiors have files on you stretching back hundreds of years.”
Rose’s mind raced with this new information. It made sense, of course. If human governments had records on the Doctor back in her time, they would surely have only expanded on those files a few centuries in the future. But why was this woman looking at the Doctor so eagerly? Rose felt like her insides were doing somersaults. The Doctor, however, replied as if this information hardly fazed him.
“It’s always nice to meet a fan, but you didn’t have to go to all this trouble,” he said nonchalantly.
“Oh, but I did,” Eden replied. “You shape the universe as you see fit. When somebody crosses the Doctor, they’d better run. Because he doesn’t do second chances. The Daleks had a name for you.”
“The Oncoming Storm.”
Rose turned at the same time that The Engineer did, both of them staring at River.
“A-plus for the little girl,” Eden said, smiling coyly.
“Not a little girl,” River retorted, frowning.
Luckily, Kaylee spoke before Eden could react to that.
“What are Daleks?” the mechanic asked.
She seemed to instantly regret speaking when The Engineer turned towards her, but Eden’s words were short and to the point.
“Classified. Lost to history, and we want to keep it that way.”
“Classified? Like your friends with the blue gloves?” the Doctor piped up. “A word of advice: You might want to find yourself some henchmen who don’t give the impression that they live in mortal fear of dishpan hands.”
“Henchmen?” Eden repeated, looking at him with an exaggerated show of surprise. “Doctor, I’m astonished that you’d paint me as the villain here.”
“Shocked! Shocked, you say, to find that gambling is going on here!” the Doctor mocked.
Eden shook her head, coming closer.
“I’m not being facetious. I’m the furthest thing from a villain. I’m the hero of this story, just like you, Doctor.”
She stopped in front of him.
“I named myself after you, you know.” She flashed him another genuine smile before she went on. “You chose the one title that best sums up what you do. The Doctor is one who heals. He makes people better. The Engineer is one who builds things. Fantastic structures that allow humanity to advance.”
“Don’t compare yourself to me. I’ve seen your idea of advanced humans,” the Doctor said in a low voice.
He squeezed Rose’s hand so tightly that it hurt, but she doubted he even realized he was doing it.
“Here we have the Artificial Sun of Liann Jiun and the Interplanetary Gravity Bridge. On Earth-That-Was they had the Pyramids and the Great Wall of China,” The Engineer continued with enthusiasm.
“How telling that you chose two structures built with slave labor,” the Doctor retorted.
“Doctor, we have so much to discuss. You will be invaluable to our cause,” Eden said, unfazed by his dig.
The Doctor stared straight at her.
“And the others?” he asked.
“Will be arrested,” she replied smoothly.
He dropped Rose’s hand, and she felt the circulation return to her fingers.
“What if I made you a deal?” he proposed.
Rose felt her heart thud against her ribcage.
“Doctor, what are you doing?” she asked nervously.
“What sort of a deal?” Eden asked, intrigued.
“Rose, I’ll be fine,” he said without looking away from The Engineer. “Lady Wing, you know I’m not the sort of man who can be taken and used against my will.”
She smiled.
“No. You’re not a man at all. You’re so much more.”
How she could make those words sound so horrible, Rose would never know, but they sent a chill down her spine.
“I’ll agree to leave with you, right now, no fighting. And in return you will let these people live on in peace. You will never interfere with them again,” the Doctor said.
“No!” Rose blurted out.
She reached for his hand, but he pulled away, stepping towards The Engineer. But someone else stepped forward as well. Simon clung to her arm, but River pushed out of the huddle and addressed the Doctor directly.
“The man is not a gun. He is a man,” she said, almost pleadingly.
The Doctor approached her. Rose could see that she had tears in her eyes and her lips trembled. When the Doctor placed his hands on the sides of her face, her expression crumbled. He leaned in and whispered to her, but not so quietly that they all couldn’t hear him.
“River, you can’t break down now. I know you have the urge to become that scared little girl inside of you. But you have to fight it, because, you see, you are the very strongest and bravest person on this ship, and they’re all going to need you.”
He released the girl without waiting for her response, and turn quickly back to Eden.
“Do you agree to these terms?” he asked her.
The Engineer’s eyes flashed bright with anticipation.
“I will be elevated beyond my wildest aspirations if I bring you in,” she replied. “The others are of no real consequence to us.”
“Doctor, don’t!” Rose called out.
This time it wasn’t a desperate plea; it was a command. She glared at him, but once again, he ignored her.
“But first I need proof that you’re actually going to let them go,” he said.
Eden snapped her fingers again. One of the soldiers immediately turned and walked over to a military vehicle parked a few meters away. He started fiddling with some dials on the dash.
“Your locks will be down in moments,” Eden announced.
“Wash,” Mal prompted.
Wash stepped away from the door controls and started towards the stairs.
“On it,” he said before racing up to the cockpit.
“Doctor, you can’t,” Rose said firmly.
When the Doctor stared stonily ahead, she spoke louder.
“Look at me. You’re not going anywhere with her.”
“This is the way it has to be,” he said quietly.
“Bollocks! This is just you leaving everyone behind again. Well, I won’t have it,” she snapped. She stepped forward and addressed The Engineer. “I’m coming with him.”
“No you’re not,” the Doctor said calmly.
“Like hell I’m not,” she hissed.
“Sorry, but there’s no room for you in the humvee,” The Engineer said, failing to sound very sorry at all.
“I can sit in a lap. Don’t care whose,” Rose declared, walking up to one of the soldiers still in the cargo bay. “You there, you up for it?” she asked one of them at random.
“Jayne,” the Doctor said.
Rose turned to see the Doctor giving the mercenary a pointed look. The larger man nodded and started towards her.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.
Jayne avoided her eyes, taking broad steps to reach her in seconds. As he wrapped his arms around her body, she shouted, “No! Put me down!”
She struggled furiously against him, but her arms were pinned to her sides. She kicked her feet out, trying to strike at his shins with her heels, but it was as if he was made of stone. He maintained a firm grip as she trashed about.
“I’ll never forgive you for this!” she snarled.
She looked up at the rest of the crew, but if they were watching her at all, it was with a sympathetic sort of resignation. They were probably used to this sort of negotiation, living in the frontier of space. They didn’t understand that she had to stay with the Doctor.
She called out to the Doctor again, but he addressed Mal instead of her.
“Captain, you have something of mine,” he said.
Rose saw a sort of recognition come over Mal’s face.
“Oh, right,” he said, reaching into his pocket to retrieve a brown wallet.
He flipped it open and held it out to the Doctor.
“There ya go. Just like you left it,” he said.
The Doctor reached for it, pausing for a brief moment.
“It was an honor knowing you,” he told the captain.
Mal nodded and released the wallet.
“Captain, we’re up and running,” Wash’s voice announced over the comm.
There were no more goodbyes. The Doctor nodded to The Engineer, and together they strode out the bay door and into the humvee. Zoe went over to the doors and hit the largest button. The hatch began to rise, and Rose watched the Doctor disappear from view.
“Let me go! How can you do this?” she screamed, twisting again in Jayne’s arms.
As soon as the door latched shut, the mercenary released her. She ran towards the button to lower it again, despite the fact that she could feel the engine kicking on, but Mal stepped in her path.
“Rose, stop!” he ordered.
Zoe reached the control panel first, and it was the intercom button, not the door release that she hit.
“Honey, take us up,” she said.
“We’re not going anywhere!” Rose nearly growled, trying to judge just how fast she would have to move to get around both Mal and Zoe to the controls.
But Mal spoke again, and his words stopped her short.
“Rose, he touched the psychic paper,” he said. As the meaning of his words became clear, she allowed him to walk over next to Zoe.
“What did it say?” Rose demanded.
“I’m sorry, but what’s psychic paper?” Simon asked, looking between Rose and Mal. “It can’t be what it sounds like, right?”
“It’s exactly what it sounds like,” Mal replied before turning back to Rose. “When he touched it, it said, ‘Fly my way, and tell River to go fishing with the core.’”
Rose squinted back at him, then looked around the room to see that everyone else was wearing a similar expression.
“And that’s s’posed to make some kinda sense?” Jayne asked.
“To River, I’m hopin’,” Mal replied, turning to the girl in question.
River was staring up at the ceiling, looking as if there was a difficult calculus problem printed across its surface. After a moment’s pause, she jerked her head back down and stared straight at Mal.
“Radion-accelerator core. Gravitational field,” she said. In another sharp movement, her eyes were on the stairs. “I need to be in the engine room.”
With that announcement, she set off up the stairs in a half-run, leaving everyone standing around in the cargo bay with the same bewildered expression. Finally, with a shrug, Mal hit the comm button.
“Wash, change of plan. Fly towards the Doctor,” he called up to the pilot.
There was a pause before Wash’s voice crackled over the speakers.
“Just to be clear, you want me to fly towards the people who were just aiming very large guns at us?”
“That’s right,” Mal replied unflinchingly.
There was another brief pause.
“Okay then!” Wash called down.
“I’ll go with River, ‘case she needs help,” Kaylee said, moving towards the stairs.
“Me too,” Rose added, rushing up the steps after her.
Whatever was happening, if it meant getting the Doctor back, she was going to be involved. She nearly bumped into Kaylee, as the mechanic had stopped short in the doorway to the engine room. Rose saw over her shoulder that River was poised over the rotating engine with a wrench.
Kaylee inched towards her, holding her hands out in front of her like a hostage negotiator trying to assure a captor that she was unarmed.
“River, what are you doing? Let’s just-Wuh de tyen, ah! WHY?” she shouted as River brought the wrench down into the center of the engine and gave it a vicious twist.
Kaylee made to rush towards the teenager, but Rose grabbed her arm.
“No, let her,” she said.
River continued to clang away at the engine. Kaylee looked from Rose to River and back again, eyes wide in horror.
“But she-”
“It’s for the Doctor,” Rose implored.
Kaylee looked like Rose had just asked her to sacrifice her child, and in a way, Rose knew that was what it must be for the mechanic. But River had to know what she was doing.
A terrible screeching noise came from the engine as River wrenched its outer walls open. A bright green glow filled the room, and Rose felt a rush of heat. Beside her, Kaylee whimpered.
“River, be careful with her. She’s not in the best shape and sharp movements could damage her so’s even I can’t fix her,” she said tremulously.
River didn’t look up, but her movements seemed to become gentler. She reached in with her bare hands and began peeling back the delicate sheets of circuitry surrounding its center until she revealed its spinning core.
Kaylee looked ready to faint when River dropped to her knees and peered underneath the engine. She reached in and yanked on something that creaked before it came loose with a thunk.
“Oh, River, not the G-line! I just rerouted it, and the graft couplings ain’t stable!” Kaylee moaned.
“The couplings will hold,” River replied confidently from underneath the machine.
The teenager moved as if she’d drilled this procedure hundreds of times before. With just a few twists and pulls, she turned the copper piping that Rose now knew was the G-line, whatever that meant, and spun it so that one end was pressed directly to the engine’s core, and the other was aimed at the side of the room.
“We’re not gonna have gravity without the G-line!” Kaylee noted anxiously.
“Don’t need it,” River said without looking up from her work.
Kaylee twisted her hands.
“Well, not so close to the surface, but how are we gonna escape without a functionin’ Grav Dampener?” she asked.
River stood abruptly and went to Kaylee’s side. She rested her hands over the mechanic’s and gently pried them apart. Without a word, River led her to the remounted G-line and curled the other woman’s fingers around the end facing the wall.
“Don’t let go of this,” she told Kaylee decisively. Before the mechanic could protest, River was already moving towards the door.
“Shuttle,” she said to Rose as she left.
Rose turned to Kaylee, whom she could see was struggling to hold the rattling metal pipe steady, and gave her an apologetic shrug. Then she followed River out of the room. She ran to keep up with the girl, who flew down the stairs and turned sharply towards Inara’s shuttle.
“Anyone gonna explain to me what’s goin’ on on my ship?” Mal shouted up from the cargo bay when they came into view.
“NO!” they both shouted at once, racing out of sight and into the shuttle.
River immediately planted herself in the pilot’s seat. Her hands flew across the controls, flipping switches and turning dials so quickly that Rose barely had time to slide into the co-pilot’s seat before the engine hummed to life. River reached up and hit a button above her head.
“Disengaging shuttle,” she announced.
“River? Is that you?” Wash’s voice came from the speakers.
“Wash, it’s fine. I’m here too,” Rose called up to him.
There was a brief pause.
“Oookay. So the person I know the least on this ship is accompanying the teenager, and that’s supposed to make me feel better?”
Rose had to admit that from his perspective, it might not be a huge comfort. But the Doctor was still with that terrible woman, and she had no patience for Wash’s anxiety.
“Just clear us for departure!” she snapped.
There was another pause.
“I’m still just as confused, but I’m just going with it at this point.”
“Good choice!” Rose said, grinning.
The creaking sound of large gears filled the cockpit of the shuttle, and then a loud click echoed through the room. Without any further preamble, River hit a button on the dash and gripped the steering wheel to guide them away from the ship.
Rose felt a rush of excitement as the sky came into full view. They were speeding along beside Serenity, low enough that people and were still visible but looked like tiny ants.
“So, what’s the plan then?” Rose asked, turning to her pilot.
“We’re going fishing,” River said with an enigmatic smile.
Something clicked in Rose’s brain, and she remembered dangling from a barrage balloon in the middle of the London Blitz until a handsome man with an invisible spaceship reeled her in.
“You improvised a gravity funnel!” she guessed excitedly.
River frowned and shot her a sideways glance.
“No. Reversed polarity of the graviscalar particles in the engine’s core. Sonic’s the hook. Magnetic pull of its particles will be drawn to the core’s.”
“Same thing,” Rose said, grinning again.
“He’ll need you,” River said.
Rose glanced behind her, scanning the velvet-draped walls of the shuttle
“Of course. To reel him in. What if I tear some of this cloth and knot it around my leg? I could sort of swing my body out and grab him.”
“No,” River said immediately.
Rose looked over at her, surprised.
“Trust me, I can do it. I won the bronze on my under-sevens gymnastics team,” she assured her.
“Not what I meant, Bad Wolf,” River said, shaking her head. “Take over,” she ordered, standing.
Rose scrambled up from the co-pilot’s seat and took River’s place as the girl moved behind her.
“Um, River? I’m not sure I know how to fly this!” she called back to her, hands shaking on the wheel.
She glanced back and saw River tearing off a long swath of scarlet fabric, knotting it to another piece, and then another, apparently unconcerned by the sudden shakiness of the shuttle’s flight.
“He’ll need you, Bad Wolf, or he’ll be lost,” she said.
Rose tried to maintain a normal breathing pattern as she steadied the shuttle and kept it flying alongside Serenity. It was only after a couple of seconds that she started to understand what River meant, not that the Doctor needed her now, but that he needed her always. And as much as she knew she could never stop loving the Doctor, she also knew that what he’d revealed to her that morning had changed everything.
“I don’t know if I can give myself to him like that,” Rose said softly.
She was unsure that River had even heard her, because no reply came. When she chanced another look behind her, she saw the girl flitting about the room, weaving the fabric around various objects to create some sort of complicated pulley system. Maybe she’d misinterpreted River’s statement. Surely she couldn’t be trying to talk about Rose’s love life in the middle of a rescue operation.
“Look, this probably isn’t the right time to t-”
“You scared him,” River interrupted her. “You were a mirror, and he hates himself.”
As she spoke her last words, she settled back into the cockpit and knotted one end of the fabric around the base of the gear console. Rose released the steering wheel and shifted back to the co-pilot’s seat with a frown.
“The Doctor loves himself,” she countered. “You’ve heard him go on about his brilliance.”
River shot her a deeply unconvinced look, and Rose shrugged her shoulders in defeat.
“Yeah, okay. So? The Bad Wolf scared the Doctor. And so he wiped it from my memory. That’s not something I can just move on from, yeah? What if he does it again?”
Although she was frustrated with River, she was genuinely asking now. If River had the answer, she was willing to listen.
“You be the doctor,” the girl said.
Rose squinted at her.
“What? River, I don’t understand.”
“Memory wipe is a symptom, not the etiology,” River said matter-of-factly. “Palliative treatments only reduce symptoms. Causality is key. Cure the disease-”
“River!” Rose interjected. “River, I’m sorry, but I don’t understand a word.”
“He hates himself. That’s the cause. You need to cure that first,” she rephrased.
Rose thought about the Doctor’s worst moments: his guilt over Gwyneth’s death with the Gelth; his regret at leaving the Ood behind on Krop-Tor; the relentless horror of the Time War; his eternal loneliness.
“I can’t cure that. Guilt is part of the Doctor’s world; it’s a part of him,” she said miserably.
“He needs you,” River said firmly.
Rose stared at the girl, even after she turned back to the controls. If the Doctor could accept her, all of her, Bad Wolf included, could he eventually forgive himself?
“Here comes the fish,” River announced, breaking Rose out of her contemplation.
Rose craned her neck and peered over the edge of the shuttle to see a tiny brown shape approaching from the below. After a few seconds, the figure came into sharper focus. The Doctor was floating upwards as if being reeled in by an invisible line. He was the fish, and clutched in the hand he stuck out straight above him was the hook, the sonic screwdriver, which was emitting its blue light.
“Brilliant,” Rose murmured.
He was heading straight for Serenity, towards the wall at which River had aimed the G-line, but as he moved, something else came into view.
Clinging to the Doctor’s ankles was Eden Wing.
I had to split this chapter into 2 parts due to it's length. Click here for chapter 26, part B!