AU Ending to VotD
It could be anywhere. She’d seen her first sunrise on Sol 3, yet the beauty and excitement of it had passed her by. Where she should have smiled and been caught up in the wonder of it, of how alien it was, of how its vibrant orange hues filled the horizon and fought with the dull grey clouds lending them their effervescence so that their edges glowed, she’d only glanced upwards and been reminded that time was ticking on by its arrival. Time that she didn’t have. He’d said his spaceship would lock on to the nearest centre of gravity, that being the Earth. But that could be anywhere. She was in one city, out of Vot knows how many. There’d be some kind of teleport on it though, surely, and she could get back. The intricacies of the task ahead, even if she did find it, escaping her for the ease of a solution, a chance that she could still help. One step at a time. She was hardly just going to sit there and wait. Sit and wait and hope that everything would go well and he’d come and find her. She had to do something.
How big was Earth anyway? She was in London, in the country of UK, she knew that much. And no-one was here; London was a ghost town, and all because of past disasters at this time of year, the old man at the newsstand had confirmed that. A Spaceship he’d said, and here it was, history about to repeat itself. But beyond that, all she knew was that with the dawn of a new day it was now Christmas Day. A day where the people of Earth should apparently be celebrating. Yet they’d fled, left their homes abandoned, pulled down the shutters on their stores and left their Christmas behind in the City that was doomed. They’d known.
Window displays sparkled with their glitter and fairy lights, tinsel and holly and evergreen fauna draped over mannequins. Capricorn Cruise Liners had got that bit right at least. A huge twinkling tree stood in the deserted square that she sprinted across. A statue close by, Lord Nelson according to the plaque she dashed past, barely stopping to read further.
Astrid went over and over in her head the limited checklist of facts that she had, trying to dissect and remember every word that the Doctor had said, cross referencing it with snippets she remembered from school and what Mr. Copper had told her. But what did he know? Probably everything she ever thought she knew about this planet was wrong, and what was she left with? A handful of vague facts, that weren’t lending any clues or assistance.
The sun had risen higher now, Earth’s Sol, and she considered that it was supposed to bring new hope when it rose and flooded the Earth with its daylight. But instead, Astrid had stopped her search. Her eyes drawn to the sky in terror.
The Titanic was hurtling into the atmosphere, ripping through the burnt orange clouds and scattering them to the very edges of the landscape. It felt like her heart stopped. She watched in horror as it showed no sign of slowing, her breath caught in her throat for what seemed like an eternity. Whatever the Doctor’d found on Deck 31, hadn’t been enough to save the cruise liner from crashing, or worse still he’d run into more Host and not been so lucky. The nuclear storm drive would destroy the planet on impact, and their fight would have been pointless. This was the end, for them, for her, for anyone that was still alive on-board. Six billion he’d said. Six billion lives.
The seconds that you can never imagine how they’ll feel seem like minutes. You’ve seen the movies, you’ve cried at them, thought you could empathise, but you couldn’t. Not even close; not until you’re standing on the very brink of an impending apocalyptic moment where absolutely everything is about to be destroyed, do you have any idea how it really feels. It seemed ironic that she would be alone for it, nobody to cling to, no friends, no family, no loved ones. That was how it should be, that was how the movies depicted it. But she was alone, in this strange deserted place, which only hours ago had felt like the most wonderful place to ever have existed. Now it didn’t feel amazing, now it felt bitter and forlorn and deathly quiet. The rapid beat of her panicked heart echoed above the eerie silence, she could feel every beat as the adrenaline coursed through her veins, amplifying the thud against her ribcage.
“I should have told you. I should have said.” Too terrified to cry even, as the ship’s course showed no promise of changing. He was on that ship, the Doctor. Dead or alive he was on-board. Wait! He was on that ship, that brilliant man, Time King, Lord? Regardless, he was on it, and even in these last seconds, desperate hope flooded through her frozen frame. He was still alive, he was still fighting, he had to be.
And then the miracle came. It missed! It was arcing upwards right at the last. He’d done it! He’d really done it! There was no-one to share the joy with, no stranger to fling her arms around. But she celebrated none-the-less. Jumping in sheer delight and laughing in a tumultuous release of emotion on that empty street, a street banked with fairy lit trees on either side, in perfect symmetrical conformity. She watched as the Titanic reached for the stars once more, and it flew right over her head, sweeping up and over the grand looking building at the far end of the street, the building with the flag flying proud above it. No-one heard her cheers of joy, not one person.
Astrid’s desperate search continued long into the day then, fuelled by a new hope and joy that the disaster had been averted, he would come here to find his spaceship, and she’d be there, waiting. But it was a tiny spaceship in a city so vast, with every step she took she wondered whether she was one step further away. When she arrived at the same corner for the third time, she cursed out loud, angry with herself for stupidly covering the same ground. But she didn’t give up; not until the sun she’d missed rising that morning had set in the distance and the sky had darkened, did she take a moment to rest. The reddish orange glow of its disappearing warmth reflected off the ash that had not yet stopped falling. It seemed like it was alight under the tint of the dying Sol, the smouldering embers of a fire long since dead.
Across the River, she thought she heard a noise, a sign of life. A glimmer of hope accompanied by a ‘vwoorp vwoorp’ noise that was swallowed by the night sky almost as soon as she’d heard it. Instinct and her own darkened hope which had sunk along with this planet’s sun told her that she’d missed him.
For the first time that day, Astrid cried. Exhaustion and all hope of finding him dissipating as she trudged on, in search of somewhere warm to rest in this abandoned alien city.
She was alive though, she had that. And she knew he was too. She’d find a way, she would stay strong.
“I’ll find you Doctor,” she quietly promised the unfamiliar stars.
Muse: Astrid Peth
Word Count: 1257
Prompt: Write about a time when you were caught some place you shouldn't have been. @ justprompts
Notes: AU ending to VotD, based on a prospective verse at realityshifted. When Astrid tried to teleport down to Deck 31 to assist the Doctor on-board the Titanic, the teleport was so buggered, that it locked on to the last location it had sent her to and dumped her on Earth with no way back. More to come on how events transpired, but the initial events needed covering first. :D!
How big was Earth anyway? She was in London, in the country of UK, she knew that much. And no-one was here; London was a ghost town, and all because of past disasters at this time of year, the old man at the newsstand had confirmed that. A Spaceship he’d said, and here it was, history about to repeat itself. But beyond that, all she knew was that with the dawn of a new day it was now Christmas Day. A day where the people of Earth should apparently be celebrating. Yet they’d fled, left their homes abandoned, pulled down the shutters on their stores and left their Christmas behind in the City that was doomed. They’d known.
Window displays sparkled with their glitter and fairy lights, tinsel and holly and evergreen fauna draped over mannequins. Capricorn Cruise Liners had got that bit right at least. A huge twinkling tree stood in the deserted square that she sprinted across. A statue close by, Lord Nelson according to the plaque she dashed past, barely stopping to read further.
Astrid went over and over in her head the limited checklist of facts that she had, trying to dissect and remember every word that the Doctor had said, cross referencing it with snippets she remembered from school and what Mr. Copper had told her. But what did he know? Probably everything she ever thought she knew about this planet was wrong, and what was she left with? A handful of vague facts, that weren’t lending any clues or assistance.
The sun had risen higher now, Earth’s Sol, and she considered that it was supposed to bring new hope when it rose and flooded the Earth with its daylight. But instead, Astrid had stopped her search. Her eyes drawn to the sky in terror.
The Titanic was hurtling into the atmosphere, ripping through the burnt orange clouds and scattering them to the very edges of the landscape. It felt like her heart stopped. She watched in horror as it showed no sign of slowing, her breath caught in her throat for what seemed like an eternity. Whatever the Doctor’d found on Deck 31, hadn’t been enough to save the cruise liner from crashing, or worse still he’d run into more Host and not been so lucky. The nuclear storm drive would destroy the planet on impact, and their fight would have been pointless. This was the end, for them, for her, for anyone that was still alive on-board. Six billion he’d said. Six billion lives.
The seconds that you can never imagine how they’ll feel seem like minutes. You’ve seen the movies, you’ve cried at them, thought you could empathise, but you couldn’t. Not even close; not until you’re standing on the very brink of an impending apocalyptic moment where absolutely everything is about to be destroyed, do you have any idea how it really feels. It seemed ironic that she would be alone for it, nobody to cling to, no friends, no family, no loved ones. That was how it should be, that was how the movies depicted it. But she was alone, in this strange deserted place, which only hours ago had felt like the most wonderful place to ever have existed. Now it didn’t feel amazing, now it felt bitter and forlorn and deathly quiet. The rapid beat of her panicked heart echoed above the eerie silence, she could feel every beat as the adrenaline coursed through her veins, amplifying the thud against her ribcage.
“I should have told you. I should have said.” Too terrified to cry even, as the ship’s course showed no promise of changing. He was on that ship, the Doctor. Dead or alive he was on-board. Wait! He was on that ship, that brilliant man, Time King, Lord? Regardless, he was on it, and even in these last seconds, desperate hope flooded through her frozen frame. He was still alive, he was still fighting, he had to be.
And then the miracle came. It missed! It was arcing upwards right at the last. He’d done it! He’d really done it! There was no-one to share the joy with, no stranger to fling her arms around. But she celebrated none-the-less. Jumping in sheer delight and laughing in a tumultuous release of emotion on that empty street, a street banked with fairy lit trees on either side, in perfect symmetrical conformity. She watched as the Titanic reached for the stars once more, and it flew right over her head, sweeping up and over the grand looking building at the far end of the street, the building with the flag flying proud above it. No-one heard her cheers of joy, not one person.
Astrid’s desperate search continued long into the day then, fuelled by a new hope and joy that the disaster had been averted, he would come here to find his spaceship, and she’d be there, waiting. But it was a tiny spaceship in a city so vast, with every step she took she wondered whether she was one step further away. When she arrived at the same corner for the third time, she cursed out loud, angry with herself for stupidly covering the same ground. But she didn’t give up; not until the sun she’d missed rising that morning had set in the distance and the sky had darkened, did she take a moment to rest. The reddish orange glow of its disappearing warmth reflected off the ash that had not yet stopped falling. It seemed like it was alight under the tint of the dying Sol, the smouldering embers of a fire long since dead.
Across the River, she thought she heard a noise, a sign of life. A glimmer of hope accompanied by a ‘vwoorp vwoorp’ noise that was swallowed by the night sky almost as soon as she’d heard it. Instinct and her own darkened hope which had sunk along with this planet’s sun told her that she’d missed him.
For the first time that day, Astrid cried. Exhaustion and all hope of finding him dissipating as she trudged on, in search of somewhere warm to rest in this abandoned alien city.
She was alive though, she had that. And she knew he was too. She’d find a way, she would stay strong.
“I’ll find you Doctor,” she quietly promised the unfamiliar stars.
Muse: Astrid Peth
Word Count: 1257
Prompt: Write about a time when you were caught some place you shouldn't have been. @ justprompts
Notes: AU ending to VotD, based on a prospective verse at realityshifted. When Astrid tried to teleport down to Deck 31 to assist the Doctor on-board the Titanic, the teleport was so buggered, that it locked on to the last location it had sent her to and dumped her on Earth with no way back. More to come on how events transpired, but the initial events needed covering first. :D!