Age of Aquarius (1/2)
Title: Age of Aquarius (1/2)
Characters/Pairings: Ten, Rose, OCs
Spoilers: None
Rating/Genre: Teen | action/adventure, sci-fi, plotty mcplotterson, genfic for most intents and purposes
Warnings (mouse over to read, as they do contain plot spoilers, but rest assured that I am really only warning for those with very specific violence-related triggers-this story is still rated Teen, contains no sex or sexual situations, and less violence than your average episode of Torchwood): Character death (OC), suicide
Summary: In the year 2089, the Doctor and Rose go to meet the man who can stop a nuclear war using only words. Or so they think.
A/N: This story was written as an "incentive fic" for those bidding on me in the Support Stacie Author Auction; I posted it in bits and pieces as people bid on me. I'd like to thank the following people for so generously bidding, and for having such wonderful spirits throughout the auction: wendymr, ladychi, wiggiemomsi, jaradel, EdgeOfWorld, 4ensicbones,
np_complete and the winning bidder and the woman who now owns my ass: xebgoc
"You need to take us on sun holidays more often!" Rose skipped circles around the Doctor as he shielded his eyes from the sun and tried to avoid getting sand in his trainers. Rose had taken her own shoes off as soon as she'd opened the TARDIS doors to find herself standing on a perfect white sand beach. She wore one on each hand, using them to gesture at the ocean, the sea birds and the palm trees as she spoke. "This beats that ice planet by about a mile!"
"Who said we were on holiday?" the Doctor laughed. Rose's enthusiasm was, as always, infectious, and he debated for a moment about whether to continue on with his original plan or just let her spend a few hours playing in the surf before taking her somewhere else. Ultimately, he knew that Rose wanted and deserved more than just a transdimensional beach party, and he kept his stride purposeful. "We've an appointment to keep."
Rose stopped her skipping and looked sceptical.
"Well, I say appointment," the Doctor continued, "really an unannounced visit. To someone I've never met."
"So pretty much par for the course for us, then." Rose smiled and swept a stray hair out of her face with her shoe. "Out with the details."
The Doctor shoved his hands in his pockets and continued walking down the beach, Rose falling into step at his side. "It's 12 October, 2089. The Russian Federation is on the brink of war with the People's Republic of China. The United States is weakened by the beginnings of its second Great Depression, and the European Union is bogged down by in-fighting. A nuclear confrontation seems inevitable."
"Sounds great," Rose said, sardonically. "Perfect time to work on my tan."
"It's not a joke," the Doctor snapped.
"Sorry," she muttered but then gave him a steely look. "But, you whisk me around and in this place it's a golden age and in that place it's the end of the world, and over here everything is fantastic and over there it's a living hell, and sometimes it's inevitable and other times it's all wrong.... I can't keep track of how I'm supposed to feel."
The Doctor pursed his lips and looked past her, saying nothing.
"I'm not a Time Lord," she said, her look softening. "I'm not like you."
"I know," he murmured, but it came out hollow. "I'm sorry."
"It's all right." She took a deep breath and put a sunny smile back on her face. "Anyway, I'm assuming you didn't bring me here to watch my world burn again, so what's the catch?"
"The catch?"
"Yeah, what happens? Why this beach at this time? Assuming we are in the right spot."
He started walking again and took a deep breath, hoping that the dramatic moment when their destination was revealed might coincide with the appropriate bit of his monologue. "Right, so brink of a nuclear holocaust, worldwide panic, hopeless situation, and in walks one man."
Rose smacked him in the arm with one of her shoe-hands. "You?"
"No," the Doctor snorted. "Not me. I told you, I've never been here before."
As they spoke, they followed the course of the beach around a peninsula, so the TARDIS was no longer in view from behind. The Doctor waited a beat longer than he normally would have to continue his story, so as to make an impressive reveal of the structure that now loomed ahead of them. Rose gasped and started fumbling with her shoes to get a free hand for picture-taking.
"Dr. Bhekithemba Mabuza," the Doctor intoned, enjoying how the Zulu syllables rolled off of his tongue. "Scientist, humanitarian, poet, philanthropist... and the man who stops the human race from destroying itself. At least this time."
Rose never took her eyes off of the gleaming glass and steel edifice that appeared to be hanging in defiance of gravity from a cliff-face over the sea, like a bubble blown out of rock. "I'm glad I brought a camera this time," she said, dropping her shoes in the sand in order to work the complicated 23rd century technology. "Is that where he lives?"
"Lives and works. The Aquarius Project: a fully self-contained and sustainable aquatic ecosystem. Humans are still working on the logistics of space travel, and Aquarius is a turning-point in allowing you lot to get off this planet and explore beyond your immediate neighbourhood. The ecosystem in that building is completely sealed off from the world outside. Nothing in, nothing out."
"So, it's a giant aquarium?"
"Sort of, but an aquarium you never need to plug in, or buy fish food for, or clean. Everything works together in a perfect model of the Earth, but in miniature. Load that on a space craft or satellite station, a group of humans could live off of the food it produces indefinitely."
Rose snapped a few more pictures of the structure and then turned the camera on the Doctor, switching the mode of the device to film recording.
"Seems like a bit of change of topic from certain nuclear holocaust."
"Dr. Mabuza is a renaissance man," the Doctor said, self-concious of being filmed. "And today, transmitting from that building to all the people of the world and their leaders, he stops a war. Extraordinary when you think about it: stopping a war with just words. It's a skill I-"
Rose had lowered her camera and was now attempting to meet his gaze directly, damn that girl.
"Anyway," he continued, "let's get a move on, if you're quite done with playing the paparazzi."
"Paparazzo," Rose said, putting her camera back in her pocket and taking her shoes up again.
"What?"
"The singular of paparazzi is paparazzo."
≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈
A most ordinary, unmistakable, yet utterly unexpected sound roused Bhekithemba Mabuza from his deep reverie. It sounded like, but could not possibly be, a knock at the front door. When the Aquarius building had been designed, there'd been no need for a door bell, so there wasn't one. The location was inaccessible by road, and visitors typically arrived and departed via noisy helicopters. Dr. Mabuza realised he hadn't heard the sound of a human knuckle on a wooden door since he left the mainland, ten years ago.
He was sure he hadn't been so far gone as to have not heard the racket of a chopper, which meant he certainly didn't actually have visitors, but the sound bore investigation anyway. A structural flaw in the building itself could have severe ramifications for the time to come.
He heard the rapping again, and followed the sound-quite improbably-to the front door, which he opened to find-equally improbably-a man in a brown suit holding up his fist as if to knock again, and a blonde woman with a wide, friendly smile and shoes on her hands.
"Oh! Dr. Mabuza, I presume!" said the man, reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket to pull out a black wallet. "I'm... ah, Smith. John Smith." He flashed press credentials quickly before returning the wallet to his pocket. "We're here for the interview?" He broke into a disarming, toothy grin and rocked back on his heels, while his young colleague dropped her shoes to the ground and slipped them on.
"Pardon me?" was all Dr. Mabuza could think to say.
"I contacted your publicist; she said it was all sorted. I'm here for, as they say, an exclusive. And my assistant-"
The woman coughed into her hand loudly, staring daggers at this John Smith fellow.
"What I mean to say is... she's a photographer-"
The woman fished around in a pocket of her jeans and produced a device quite unlike anything Dr. Mabuza had ever seen, brandishing it for a moment before sticking out her hand and introducing herself as Rose Tyler, photojournalist.
"So," John Smith continued awkwardly, "here we all are."
"Indeed," Dr. Mabuza answered dryly, rolling the possibilities over in his mind. "Well, come in, then."
The man in the suit was no more a journalist than the King of England, and his young friend was obviously not any sort of photographer. She'd put her camera away almost immediately after their introduction and showed no sign of taking any snaps as he led them through the clinical white hallways of his home. But there was the possibility that the appearance of these unlikely charlatans had something to do with Su-Jung, and that she might-against all odds-still be alive somewhere. He had to find out, before the world ended.
Continued in Part 2
Characters/Pairings: Ten, Rose, OCs
Spoilers: None
Rating/Genre: Teen | action/adventure, sci-fi, plotty mcplotterson, genfic for most intents and purposes
Warnings (mouse over to read, as they do contain plot spoilers, but rest assured that I am really only warning for those with very specific violence-related triggers-this story is still rated Teen, contains no sex or sexual situations, and less violence than your average episode of Torchwood): Character death (OC), suicide
Summary: In the year 2089, the Doctor and Rose go to meet the man who can stop a nuclear war using only words. Or so they think.
A/N: This story was written as an "incentive fic" for those bidding on me in the Support Stacie Author Auction; I posted it in bits and pieces as people bid on me. I'd like to thank the following people for so generously bidding, and for having such wonderful spirits throughout the auction: wendymr, ladychi, wiggiemomsi, jaradel, EdgeOfWorld, 4ensicbones,
np_complete and the winning bidder and the woman who now owns my ass: xebgoc
"You need to take us on sun holidays more often!" Rose skipped circles around the Doctor as he shielded his eyes from the sun and tried to avoid getting sand in his trainers. Rose had taken her own shoes off as soon as she'd opened the TARDIS doors to find herself standing on a perfect white sand beach. She wore one on each hand, using them to gesture at the ocean, the sea birds and the palm trees as she spoke. "This beats that ice planet by about a mile!"
"Who said we were on holiday?" the Doctor laughed. Rose's enthusiasm was, as always, infectious, and he debated for a moment about whether to continue on with his original plan or just let her spend a few hours playing in the surf before taking her somewhere else. Ultimately, he knew that Rose wanted and deserved more than just a transdimensional beach party, and he kept his stride purposeful. "We've an appointment to keep."
Rose stopped her skipping and looked sceptical.
"Well, I say appointment," the Doctor continued, "really an unannounced visit. To someone I've never met."
"So pretty much par for the course for us, then." Rose smiled and swept a stray hair out of her face with her shoe. "Out with the details."
The Doctor shoved his hands in his pockets and continued walking down the beach, Rose falling into step at his side. "It's 12 October, 2089. The Russian Federation is on the brink of war with the People's Republic of China. The United States is weakened by the beginnings of its second Great Depression, and the European Union is bogged down by in-fighting. A nuclear confrontation seems inevitable."
"Sounds great," Rose said, sardonically. "Perfect time to work on my tan."
"It's not a joke," the Doctor snapped.
"Sorry," she muttered but then gave him a steely look. "But, you whisk me around and in this place it's a golden age and in that place it's the end of the world, and over here everything is fantastic and over there it's a living hell, and sometimes it's inevitable and other times it's all wrong.... I can't keep track of how I'm supposed to feel."
The Doctor pursed his lips and looked past her, saying nothing.
"I'm not a Time Lord," she said, her look softening. "I'm not like you."
"I know," he murmured, but it came out hollow. "I'm sorry."
"It's all right." She took a deep breath and put a sunny smile back on her face. "Anyway, I'm assuming you didn't bring me here to watch my world burn again, so what's the catch?"
"The catch?"
"Yeah, what happens? Why this beach at this time? Assuming we are in the right spot."
He started walking again and took a deep breath, hoping that the dramatic moment when their destination was revealed might coincide with the appropriate bit of his monologue. "Right, so brink of a nuclear holocaust, worldwide panic, hopeless situation, and in walks one man."
Rose smacked him in the arm with one of her shoe-hands. "You?"
"No," the Doctor snorted. "Not me. I told you, I've never been here before."
As they spoke, they followed the course of the beach around a peninsula, so the TARDIS was no longer in view from behind. The Doctor waited a beat longer than he normally would have to continue his story, so as to make an impressive reveal of the structure that now loomed ahead of them. Rose gasped and started fumbling with her shoes to get a free hand for picture-taking.
"Dr. Bhekithemba Mabuza," the Doctor intoned, enjoying how the Zulu syllables rolled off of his tongue. "Scientist, humanitarian, poet, philanthropist... and the man who stops the human race from destroying itself. At least this time."
Rose never took her eyes off of the gleaming glass and steel edifice that appeared to be hanging in defiance of gravity from a cliff-face over the sea, like a bubble blown out of rock. "I'm glad I brought a camera this time," she said, dropping her shoes in the sand in order to work the complicated 23rd century technology. "Is that where he lives?"
"Lives and works. The Aquarius Project: a fully self-contained and sustainable aquatic ecosystem. Humans are still working on the logistics of space travel, and Aquarius is a turning-point in allowing you lot to get off this planet and explore beyond your immediate neighbourhood. The ecosystem in that building is completely sealed off from the world outside. Nothing in, nothing out."
"So, it's a giant aquarium?"
"Sort of, but an aquarium you never need to plug in, or buy fish food for, or clean. Everything works together in a perfect model of the Earth, but in miniature. Load that on a space craft or satellite station, a group of humans could live off of the food it produces indefinitely."
Rose snapped a few more pictures of the structure and then turned the camera on the Doctor, switching the mode of the device to film recording.
"Seems like a bit of change of topic from certain nuclear holocaust."
"Dr. Mabuza is a renaissance man," the Doctor said, self-concious of being filmed. "And today, transmitting from that building to all the people of the world and their leaders, he stops a war. Extraordinary when you think about it: stopping a war with just words. It's a skill I-"
Rose had lowered her camera and was now attempting to meet his gaze directly, damn that girl.
"Anyway," he continued, "let's get a move on, if you're quite done with playing the paparazzi."
"Paparazzo," Rose said, putting her camera back in her pocket and taking her shoes up again.
"What?"
"The singular of paparazzi is paparazzo."
≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈
A most ordinary, unmistakable, yet utterly unexpected sound roused Bhekithemba Mabuza from his deep reverie. It sounded like, but could not possibly be, a knock at the front door. When the Aquarius building had been designed, there'd been no need for a door bell, so there wasn't one. The location was inaccessible by road, and visitors typically arrived and departed via noisy helicopters. Dr. Mabuza realised he hadn't heard the sound of a human knuckle on a wooden door since he left the mainland, ten years ago.
He was sure he hadn't been so far gone as to have not heard the racket of a chopper, which meant he certainly didn't actually have visitors, but the sound bore investigation anyway. A structural flaw in the building itself could have severe ramifications for the time to come.
He heard the rapping again, and followed the sound-quite improbably-to the front door, which he opened to find-equally improbably-a man in a brown suit holding up his fist as if to knock again, and a blonde woman with a wide, friendly smile and shoes on her hands.
"Oh! Dr. Mabuza, I presume!" said the man, reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket to pull out a black wallet. "I'm... ah, Smith. John Smith." He flashed press credentials quickly before returning the wallet to his pocket. "We're here for the interview?" He broke into a disarming, toothy grin and rocked back on his heels, while his young colleague dropped her shoes to the ground and slipped them on.
"Pardon me?" was all Dr. Mabuza could think to say.
"I contacted your publicist; she said it was all sorted. I'm here for, as they say, an exclusive. And my assistant-"
The woman coughed into her hand loudly, staring daggers at this John Smith fellow.
"What I mean to say is... she's a photographer-"
The woman fished around in a pocket of her jeans and produced a device quite unlike anything Dr. Mabuza had ever seen, brandishing it for a moment before sticking out her hand and introducing herself as Rose Tyler, photojournalist.
"So," John Smith continued awkwardly, "here we all are."
"Indeed," Dr. Mabuza answered dryly, rolling the possibilities over in his mind. "Well, come in, then."
The man in the suit was no more a journalist than the King of England, and his young friend was obviously not any sort of photographer. She'd put her camera away almost immediately after their introduction and showed no sign of taking any snaps as he led them through the clinical white hallways of his home. But there was the possibility that the appearance of these unlikely charlatans had something to do with Su-Jung, and that she might-against all odds-still be alive somewhere. He had to find out, before the world ended.
Continued in Part 2