there's a mountain waiting for me; closed
For once, they arrive in the receiving area for guests instead of inside a broom closet. The Doctor is pleased - especially when it turns out that they don't need landing papers or identification passes - if a little bemused. Ianto is mostly just pleased.
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It isn't the Doctor's favorite sight in the universe. It isn't even his fourth or fifth favorite sight. But it does rank somewhere in the top 50 favorite sights, he's almost certain. This, of course, does not mean that the Butterfly Nebula is anything short of stunningly gorgeous; there just are rather a lot of things to see.
"Now, which direction was that observation deck in?" He doesn't really wait for a reply though, grabbing Ianto's arm and heading off That Way.
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"You're not going to call yourself a delegate of Gallifrey and go mingle in the main observatory?" Because the Doctor, whether he wants to or not, often ends up brushing elbows with the most important people present, be they leaders of colonies or generals of armies or... delegates on space stations.
Not that he's complaining. He wouldn't mind a quiet adventure.
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Not to mention, if word ever did somehow get back to Gallifrey, he'd likely never be able to live it down. "They're probably just doing very boring things. And I promised you I would show you the Butterfly Nebula, didn't I? How would I possibly show you the Butterfly Nebula if we were off being nosy?" Oh honestly, Ianto.
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Point taken, though. Mingling with the delegates would be boring. And Ianto wouldn't want to have to call himself a delegate of Earth (or worse, the Doctor's 'plus one').
"Doctor, it's..." He grabs the Doctor's coat to stop him. The TARDIS can't translate symbols, but Ianto's gleaned from the map and the directions they were given that this one means something like lift.
He searches uselessly for a button until, a few moments later, the floor beneath their feet lights up and the door to the lift slides open. It looks like... a lift. Surprise. Ianto steps inside and looks by habit for the right button.
"Have they abolished buttons in the future?" he asks, opening his guide again to see if there are instructions for operating the lift.
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Seconds later, the doors re-open to, as one would guess, an observation deck. There are a decent number of people walking around, most staring through the large, wall-sized window. A few though are reading informational displays set up on the other walls.
"I mean, you've seen the TARDIS," he continues explaining as he slowly starts walking over to find a good place to view from. "If buttons were ever abolished in favor of something else I probably would have upgraded everything. Buttons are too much fun though. Everybody loves buttons."
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He finds a spot a short way away from the window, looking between a handful of other tourists at the nebula. The colorful gasses extending out into space look more like an hourglass from this angle, but when he tilts his head just so he can see where the nebula got its name. Its Earth name, anyway.
He intends to ask what the 'local' name for it is, just... as soon as he has breath to speak. He also intends to step closer to the window for a better view, as soon as it stops seeming like space is going to swallow him whole.
"It's... alive," he manages at length, feeling just a bit daft.
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He turns to look out through the window once more, ignoring (as best he can, anyways, being the Doctor) everything else. People walking around in front of him, some small child crying about being hungry, the sound of someone coughing, translators reading out things from the guidebook to others. He's seen it dozens of times, but it still is just as fascinating.
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Beautiful doesn't begin to cover it. He's seen images, images on a computer screen, but being here, with just a window separating him from space... it's more than beautiful.
It's different, traveling in the TARDIS. The doors close, the Doctor presses a few buttons, the doors open, and they're somewhere else. There's very little zooming about space. (And with sights like this, Ianto thinks there ought to be more.)
"What do they call it?" he asks finally, guide hanging by his side. "Butterfly Nebula's just the name we gave it, isn't it?"
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He pauses, staring back at the nebula for a moment. "Though I do know of a place where they refer to it as the Tree Nebula, and I imagine there are actually a great number of places that view it from an angle where it scarcely resembles a butterfly at all."
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"Do you think they--"
A funny sort of whump interrupts him and Ianto turns around to see that another tourist - humanoid, Ianto notes, though beyond that he can't tell - has collapsed. Two men in ship uniforms calmly but quickly approach.
"This is very normal," the shorter one explains as the taller one lifts the unconscious man up. "The sight of the nebula can have this affect. It is very all right."
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He doesn't get much of an opportunity to help, however, because the shorter one all but swats the Doctor's hand away. "It is very all right," he repeats, in a somewhat less friendly way. "We are very able to be handling the situation. Please be enjoying the rest of your stay."
As the two men carry the other off, the Doctor returns to Ianto, frowning. "That man had a fever," he says in a low voice. "Not just a fever. He was burning up."
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In the corner of his eye, he sees the scene through the window shift. A display on the wall announces that the filter has changed, and where once there were wings of a butterfly there are now partially opaque ripples across the stars, like heat waves.
"It's... weird." He turns back fully to the window, glancing down at his guide again. "Coming all this way to watch a star die."
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He sighs. "Hopefully it won't come to that, though. I'm sure he'll be fine."
The Doctor smiles and begins idly fiddling with the chain on his pocket watch. "I suppose it is weird, in a way. But pretty."
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He slips his hands into his trouser pockets, contemplating his words. That we make more of a fuss about death than we do about life? "That it takes death to make us appreciate things."
He steps closer to the wall, stopping when the tips of his shoes touch the bottom of the window. He's tempted to rest his forehead against it, but he thinks he might get in trouble for that.
It really does feel like he's about to fall forever.
"Still beautiful, though."
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If he had anything else to say on the matter though, he never quite gets the chance, as the woman standing next to him begins shrieking rather loudly about how her -- oh look, her nose has started bleeding. As the woman's... husband? Boyfriend? Brother? something begins trying to press a handkerchief to the mess to keep the blood from going everywhere, the Doctor searches his pockets before finally pulling out two small pill-shaped things.
"Ah, here you go, this should help," he says, handing them over. The woman and her male acquaintance thank the Doctor before carefully inserting aforementioned pill-shaped things in her nostrils. Moments later the bleed has apparently ceased, and the Doctor turns back to Ianto.
"Exciting day, it would seem."
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He trails off, eyes wide and fixed on a point behind the Doctor. "Doctor."
The coughing from earlier has become a wet, hacking sound, and the afflicted man is doubled over, slumped against an informational display, bleeding from his nose and eyes. An icy chill creeps up Ianto's throat from the bottom of his stomach and spreads to the tips of his fingers.
He tries to speak but his throat has gone dry. Oh god, is it - he can't do this again. He can't.
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