Calling (4/5)
Title: Calling (4/5)
Author: Me!
Rating: PG. Maybe PG-13 now.
Spoilers: Post-Doomsday... yes, another one.
Summary: Rose stared in disbelief. None of this made sense, and part of her wished that it wasn’t her problem to deal with.
Disclaimer: The Doctor is not mine. Yet.
Author’s Note: I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
The Doctor was reluctant to loosen his grip on Rose, having only just got her back. He had so many questions, but Romana was insistent that they return to her TARDIS immediately to investigate the disturbance in time. There would be time for explanations later, and there was a lot to explain.
“I’m not leaving Rose here, not when I’ve just got her back.” The Doctor said, forcefully.
“Oh, I’ll be here to attend to her every need!” Jack grinned, cheekily.
“As I said, I’m not leaving her here.”
“From what Rose has shown me of her travels, I think she could be useful to have around.” Romana looked thoughtful.
“Err, guys, I am here you know!” The relief of being reunited with the Doctor had exhausted Rose, she was almost too tired to function, but she had never been one to miss out on an adventure, and she wasn’t about to start now. She took the Doctor’s hand, and followed Romana through into her console room.
“Neat parking!” Jack looked around. “Is this whole TARDIS within a TARDIS thing a good idea though?”
“It’s fine, as long as it’s not the same TARDIS inside itself.” Romana was impressed that Jack knew enough to be concerned. “Come on, an extra pair of hands is always useful.”
“I’ve always found the same thing. The more hands, the better, especially…” He trailed of. Jack’s mind was still wrestling with the idea of materialising a TARDIS inside itself.
“Hmm.” Romana refused to allow herself to smile at Jack’s comment. “Now, this disturbance, we’ll track it back to the source, then we’ll have to deal with it. I don’t think it’s related to our arrival here, though.” She looked at Rose.
“What could it be then? Is it just coincidence?” Rose was still wondering why Romana had thought she would be useful to have around.
“We’ll know for sure soon enough. Stay here, I’ll be back in a moment, there is something that I want to show you. You’re going to like this.” Romana smiled at the Doctor as she turned and seemed to glide out of the console room.
“How are you back with me, Rose? How is Romana here?” The Doctor knew that Romana would give him the details later, but for as much as he knew; they may have boarded his TARDIS by magic.
“She’s been in the void, in a sphere. Like the other one. Just chance that she met me, I think. She’s nice though, and she knew you, so I trusted her. She was protecting something from the Daleks, she said, but I don’t know what.” Not for the first time that day, Rose reflected that her explanation sounded a little childish.
“I think that we are about to find out.” The Doctor’s eyes lit up as Romana returned, carrying something that Rose thought looked rather like a cross between a trumpet and a machine gun.
“It’s beautiful.” The Doctor took the instrument and examined it excitedly. “It’s beautiful, so simple, so brilliant, it’s…”
“What is it?” Jack looked rather less impressed. “Is it a weapon?”
“Oh yes, and a very powerful one, despite it’s appearance.” Romana said confidently. “It’s a Spatio-Temporal Modulation Regulator. We were still developing it when, well, when things got out of hand. It works though, and it was essential that the Daleks didn’t get hold of it. In the wrong hands, it could destroy all life in just a few seconds, all through time and all through the universe.”
For once, the Doctor was speechless.
“Err, Romana.” Jack broke the silence, “Wherever it is that we are going, I think we are there.”
“So we are. Good, it’s a planet, breathable atmosphere, and gravity not dissimilar to Earth. Uninhabited though, that’s strange. Let’s take a look outside.”
With a shared sense of apprehension, the four travellers left the safety of the TARDIS to explore the unnamed planet and to find out what had brought them to it.
It didn’t take them long to find what they were looking for. Or at least, for it to find them.
“Time Lords! Exterminate!”
“Dalek Sec!” The Doctor beamed and hoped that he could buy his companions some time. “Yes, that whole void thing, sorry about that, it was nothing personal, you understand?”
“The Cult of Skaro?” Romana looked more than a little surprised.
“You will stop conversing now. The Time Lords will die.”
There was no time to think, the Doctor grabbed Rose and Romana by the hand and started to run. Jack followed behind, wishing that he had time to admire the view.
“Safe. In. Here.” The Doctor was out of breath, as were the others. “Now, that Spatio-Temporal Modulation Regulator. Tell me how it works, Romana.”
“I’m not sure that we can use it, the whole of space and time will be affected by even the tiniest miscalculation. This isn’t what Time Lords do.”
“We do kill Daleks though, that is what we do, and we have been doing it for too long now, it’s time to end it.”
Rose looked at the Doctor, she knew that they were in very real danger, and she hadn’t even had the chance to get to know him again, there was so much still to say. “Is this like turning Daleks to dust?” She ventured.
Romana nodded, Jack and the Doctor froze as they realised what Romana was thinking.
“No, Rose, you can’t, not this time, I won’t let you!” The Doctor was furious; this would never work.
“Aside from the fact that you or I would be on the receiving end of an extermination if we were to step out of the door again, we know too much. This device is organic, too much energy flows through it and all life is gone.” Romana was insistent.
“I can control it. “ The Doctor was equally insistent. “There is no way that Rose is going out there, she’s been through enough already.”
“She knows what to expect. She’s done it before and with this device, it will be properly controlled this time.”
“I’ll do it.” Jack volunteered. “I’m not letting Rose go out there either.”
Rose was thinking hard; this was what she had meant earlier. Romana had seen what had happened on the Game Station. She’s been shocked. She probably understood more about it than Rose herself did. But she trusted Romana. Romana had helped her get back to her Doctor.
Silently, as if in a trance, Rose kissed the Doctor and took the trumpet from Romana. As she held it, she felt a comforting light descend around her, and she knew that it was time to leave the safety of the TARDIS.
The Doctor was pacing around furiously. “I can’t believe that you brought her back to me only to take her away again, Romana. You can’t let her do this, it will kill her!”
Jack stayed quiet. The Doctor was angry, angrier than he had ever seen him. He was quite sure that it was only the fact that Romana was a woman that was stopping the Doctor from hitting her, and he had no intention of being on the receiving end of a punch himself.
“I wouldn’t have let her go if she couldn’t do it.” Romana looked confident, but the tremble in her voice gave away her nervousness.
The Doctor was shouting in frustration. “She won’t know when to stop, it will kill her again and I might not be able to save her this time, you don’t even know if that thing works for sure! You may as well have killed her yourself!”
Romana was quiet, and moved to look at one of the screens on the console. As the screen faded from bright white back to the view of the landscape outside the door, she closed her eyes and slowly lowered her head.
“What?” The Doctor ran to the screen. He froze, as he saw Rose lying twisted and motionless, just a few yards away from the TARDIS.