Fic: Solaris
Author: bell_jar_fics
Story: Solaris
Character/Pairing: Doctor, Rose, Jack, OC, Hints of Doctor/Rose
Era: Ninth Doctor Era; Takes place between The Doctor Dances and Boomtown.
Rating: PG-13 (To be safe)
Chapter 3/? (The Jungle's Secret)
Summary: The Doctor, Rose, and Jack travel to an Alien city, where they must team up with a local thief to retreive a series of mysterious artifacts of unknown capacity.
Disclaimer: Obviously not the owner.
Previous Chapters
The blue sun had disappeared below the horizon, turning the sky from golden yellow to black. All around Baniru, families were heading back into their homes for evening meal and merchants were packing up their goods for the day. The streets became illuminated with fiber-optic cables that had been worked into the pavement, assisted by glowing panels bordering the walkways. At the TARDIS, the Doctor was growing increasingly worried about Rose’s tardiness
“She should have been back long before now.” He announced, frowning at the night sky. “Something’s wrong.”
“Yeah, I think you might be right.” Jack agreed. “Maybe it’s time to go look for her. There might have been someone who saw her.” Wordlessly, the two men left the alleyway and went off to search for their missing friend. During the search, they came across a night patrolman and questioned him.
“A blonde haired Earth-child?” The patrolman’s horned brow furrowed. “There was a report from someone in the watchtowers sometime ago. There was a blonde haired Earth-child seen heading off to the Black Jungle.”
“She’s in the Black Jungle?” The Doctor spoke incredulously.
“That settles it. We gotta go after her.” Jack decided.
“You two will not enter the Black Jungle.” The patrolman blocked their way. “Entrance to the jungle is forbidden.”
“You let Rose enter.” The Doctor glared.
“That was out of our hands. Now please return to your homes or dwelling, because you shall not be allowed to leave Baniru to go into the Black Jungle.”
“Try and stop us.” Jack challenged as he and the Doctor pushed past the patrolman to head for the city gates. However, before they reached them, the patrolman took out some sort of blaster and fired it off at the Doctor’s legs. Instantly, he dropped to the ground. Jack quickly began to check for injuries, but saw there was no blood.
“It was designed to paralyze only.” The patrolman explained with a scowl. “The effects will not wear off for another twelve hours. I am sorry about your friend, but if she went off into the Black Jungle, she must be dead by now. If she did survive by some miracle, you have no hope of finding her before morning.” The patrolman looked over at Jack. “I advise you to get him back to your dwellings.” With that, the patrolman left Jack and the partially paralyzed Doctor.
“Jack,” The Doctor spoke as calmly as he could. “We're getting Rose out of the Black Jungle.”
“But your legs are…”
“This isn’t the first time I dealt with a weapon that left you paralyzed.” The Doctor cut him off. “Something very similar happened to someone I once knew a long time ago. I created an antidote to this paralyzed state sometime afterwards. It’s kept in the TARDIS’ med-bay. I need you to help me get there so I can take it. Once I get my legs working again, we’ll search for Rose in the Black Jungle.”
“Right.” Jack pulled the Doctor to his feet and assisted him back to the TARDIS.
-----
Within the Black Jungle, Rose stumbled over a tree root, regaining her balance before she fell. She had long since lost Solaris’ trail and had tried to go back, but she quickly found that she couldn’t locate her footprints to backtrack with the moon’s rays shrouded by the jungle’s canopy. Realizing how lost she was, she mentally kicked herself for going off alone and dropped down to sit against one of the trees.
“Okay.” She started talking to try and break the eerie silence. “Like Mum used to say, you’ll have a better chance of being found if you stay put. The Doctor and Jack’ll be out looking for me by now. There’s no reason to be worried or scared. The Doctor would never leave me stranded. He’ll find me, I know he will.” With this said, Rose closed her eyes, hating at how she had no choice but to sit by and wait to be rescued.
After sighing to calm down, a twig snapping nearby made Rose jump. Squinting through a patch of trees, she saw a faint glowing light. “Doctor? Doctor, is that you?” Getting to her feet, she moved toward the glowing light to find out where it was coming from. As she got closer, she was able to make out an outline of a tall, burly figure lying against a tree and her face broke into a relieved smile. She’d recognize that form anywhere. But as she got closer, her heart stopped. It was the Doctor, but it didn’t take a second glance to know something was wrong. His head was lolled to one side, and the piercing blue eyes were completely absent and blank. A large flow of blood was slowly pouring down the corner of his mouth. “Doctor?” Rose’s voice shook as she reached out to touch her friend, and found his body was much colder than usual. “No. No, you’re not dead. You can’t be…” She dropped to the ground at the side of the Doctor’s still form. “It’s my fault. You were out looking for me. This is my fault. Doctor, please! You just can’t be dead!” She would not cry. She couldn’t. Crying meant he really was dead, and he just couldn’t be.
At that moment, a voice shouted out, guttural and primitive. In a shower of leaves, Solaris suddenly appeared as she dropped down from one of the overhanging branches. In her hand was a burning torch, which she used to violently slash the air in front of the Doctor’s body. “What are you doing?!” Rose cried in shock, trying to wrestle the torch from Solaris’ hand. However, as she tried to do so, there was a sudden flash of light. Looking over, Rose’s shock tripled at the sight of some kind of frog-like creature crouching in the dirt where the Doctor’s body had been moments before. The Doctor himself had completely vanished from sight. Once again, Solaris thrust the flame at the creature who quickly hopped off. Before Rose could ask what had happened to the Doctor, Solaris spun to face her.
“And just what are you doing wandering about the jungle? Alone? If you’re looking to cash in on the price on my head you’re wasting your time. Don’t exactly have a means of capturing me, or forcing me to accompany you back to Baniru, do you? I don’t exactly have a habit of, as the phrase goes, coming quietly. ”
“You stole the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver.” Rose replied. Solaris’ eyebrows shot up, and she looked gobsmacked for a moment, but then she let out a sudden laugh.
“And you came after me, following me all the way out here, just to get it back?” Rose nodded. “That is either incredibly brave, or incredibly foolish.” Solaris continued to laugh for a moment and then turned a half smile in her direction. “Very well. Come with me and I’ll return it to you.”
“Seriously?” Rose stared in surprise. “You’d… just give it back?”
“You followed me into the Black Jungle to get it back.” Solaris replied. “No one has done that before. I think that you’ve earned a little prize for that. Now come along, and don’t lag behind.”
“But what about the Doctor?!”
“Later. Now come on.”
Rose followed Solaris through the jungle to one tree that had a wooden hut built within the branches, complete with a porch-like platform.
“You live there?” Rose looked up at the tree hut.
“For about fifteen years now.” Solaris took hold of a simple rope that was dangling from the platform and gestured to her back. “Well, are you coming? You’ll need to hold on.” Rose quickly understood that Solaris was intending to carry her up the rope on her back.
“Thanks, but I can manage.” Rose turned down the offer. “We covered the rope climb in Phys Ed.”
“Okay then.” Solaris started up the rope, followed by Rose. Once up on the platform, Solaris proceeded up a rickety staircase to the hut.
“You never explained.” Rose began as she followed the alien thief into the hut. “What happened to the Doctor? And what was that frog?” Solaris didn’t answer, and walked to one of the windows which had some kind of primitive hoist attached to it. Maintaining her silence, she started cranking the wheel to pull up whatever was at the end of the rope. “Are you listening? Something got the Doctor, and now he’s missing. We need to find him. He could get hurt even more. One of the monsters might get him.”
“No. The Black Jungle is one of the safest places in this planetary system. The only danger is exposure to the elements. Or getting lost and perishing of starvation.”
“But what about all those dangers they talk about in the city?” Rose persisted. “Beasts and monsters and….”
“There has never been any of that inside the Black Jungle.” Solaris dismissed the claims without turning around. “There’re only those Morphs. That was what the ‘frog’ you saw was. They alter their appearance to look like whatever scares us. It’s a defense mechanism of theirs, one they use because they’re unable to protect themselves. They’re too weak. Some see them as monstrous beasts; others see them as carnivorous plants.”
“That sounds like the boggart.” Rose muttered, remembering reading about it in the Harry Potter books.
“The bog-what?” Solaris momentarily paused and turned her head a fraction of an inch in her direction.
“Never mind. You probably never read those books out here.” Solaris shrugged and turned her attention back to the hoist. “For me…. I saw the Doctor dead.” Rose admitted softly.
“Mmm. Friend of yours?” Solaris nodded in understanding. “Yes. I can’t say I blame you. It’s hard loosing a friend you rely on for everything, especially…. if you don’t know what happened to them.”
“Did that happen to you?” Rose asked, noticing Solaris’ tone suggested it.
“It was a long time ago. No sense dwelling on it.” Solaris still was not looking at Rose, but pulled the carved box that had been attached to the end of the hoist’s rope into the tree hut.
“Then that wasn’t the Doctor I saw.” Rose breathed in relief.
“No, it wasn’t. Just a Morph trying to scare you. Nothing more.”
“So, if you don’t mind me asking, what do they look like to you?” Solaris finally looked over at Rose.
“They… don’t really affect me. You and I, we’re… I don’t see the way you do. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Is it that visor?” Rose asked, pointing to the eye visor that covered Solaris’ eyes. “Is it like this infrared device, or….” As Rose spoke, she moved a hand toward the visor, in a clear attempt to remove it. In response, Solaris quickly swiped her hand away.
“Please. Don’t touch the visor. Nothing personal. I just don’t like people touching it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Forget it.” Solaris opened the carved box, allowing Rose to see some of the contents. There was a circlet made from flexible branches woven together, a bottle of some kind of bluish-green liquid, and a golden medallion that was emblazoned with a symbol she knew she saw before, but couldn’t quite place where. And there, among the box’s contents, was the sonic screwdriver. Solaris took the stolen tool and handed it over to Rose. “Here you are. You’ll find it’s undamaged.”
“Thanks.” Rose pocketed the sonic screwdriver, finally taking a moment to look around the hut. It was very simply decorated, with a hammock hanging in the corner with an intricately-embroidered blanket draped over it. A mossy rock served as a bedside table, holding up a miniature hologram projector that was currently turned off. Fastened to opposite ends of the hut was an improvised clothesline made from a vine, where various wardrobe choices were hanging. “Did you make this whole place by yourself?”
“Took me three years, and quite a few minor cuts, bruises, and sore muscles, but it was well worth it in the end.”
“But, you built all this on your own?”
“You sound surprised. Don’t see why. After all, who’d want to help a worthless thief like myself construct a hut?” As Solaris talked, she got into the hammock. “Best you get comfortable. We can’t exactly make our way back to Baniru tonight. Last thing I need is for you to get lost. I can find my way in the dark, but I can’t see you doing the same, especially since you’ve never had practice.”
Can’t we at least try?” Rose asked. “The Doctor and Jack must be looking for me by now.”
“No chance. If your friends are as crazy as you are, to come into the Black Jungle at night, I’ll have enough trouble finding them tomorrow morning. Now if we try and make the way back to the city, and you wind up loosing me in the dark, I’ll have to be up all night looking for you as well. I’ll need to be well rested if you want me to get you and your friends back to the city together.”
“And what makes you think you’re the only one who can get through this jungle at night?” Rose questioned.
“I’m the only one who’s ever managed to do so, and I’ve been doing so for fifteen years. Can you say that?”
“No, I can’t.”
“Well, there you go. Now try and get some rest.”
“Fine. Where exactly am I supposed to sleep?” Solaris carelessly gestured to the floor. When Rose didn’t move, Solaris rolled over to face her. “Oh, don’t tell me. You’ve never slept on the floor before, have you?”
“No. I haven’t.”
“Fine, then.” Solaris climbed out of her hammock. “Go on then. I can sleep anywhere.”
“Thanks.” Rose got into the hammock as Solaris curled up in the corner of the tree hut, the visor still covering her eyes. “Are you actually going to sleep with that visor on?”
“The visor does not come off,” came the blunt reply. “Now go to sleep. The faster you do so, the faster we can get up to find your friends.” Rose sighed and obeyed, but only after lying awake for a while, wondering where exactly the Doctor and Jack were, until sleep overtook her.
Story: Solaris
Character/Pairing: Doctor, Rose, Jack, OC, Hints of Doctor/Rose
Era: Ninth Doctor Era; Takes place between The Doctor Dances and Boomtown.
Rating: PG-13 (To be safe)
Chapter 3/? (The Jungle's Secret)
Summary: The Doctor, Rose, and Jack travel to an Alien city, where they must team up with a local thief to retreive a series of mysterious artifacts of unknown capacity.
Disclaimer: Obviously not the owner.
Previous Chapters
The blue sun had disappeared below the horizon, turning the sky from golden yellow to black. All around Baniru, families were heading back into their homes for evening meal and merchants were packing up their goods for the day. The streets became illuminated with fiber-optic cables that had been worked into the pavement, assisted by glowing panels bordering the walkways. At the TARDIS, the Doctor was growing increasingly worried about Rose’s tardiness
“She should have been back long before now.” He announced, frowning at the night sky. “Something’s wrong.”
“Yeah, I think you might be right.” Jack agreed. “Maybe it’s time to go look for her. There might have been someone who saw her.” Wordlessly, the two men left the alleyway and went off to search for their missing friend. During the search, they came across a night patrolman and questioned him.
“A blonde haired Earth-child?” The patrolman’s horned brow furrowed. “There was a report from someone in the watchtowers sometime ago. There was a blonde haired Earth-child seen heading off to the Black Jungle.”
“She’s in the Black Jungle?” The Doctor spoke incredulously.
“That settles it. We gotta go after her.” Jack decided.
“You two will not enter the Black Jungle.” The patrolman blocked their way. “Entrance to the jungle is forbidden.”
“You let Rose enter.” The Doctor glared.
“That was out of our hands. Now please return to your homes or dwelling, because you shall not be allowed to leave Baniru to go into the Black Jungle.”
“Try and stop us.” Jack challenged as he and the Doctor pushed past the patrolman to head for the city gates. However, before they reached them, the patrolman took out some sort of blaster and fired it off at the Doctor’s legs. Instantly, he dropped to the ground. Jack quickly began to check for injuries, but saw there was no blood.
“It was designed to paralyze only.” The patrolman explained with a scowl. “The effects will not wear off for another twelve hours. I am sorry about your friend, but if she went off into the Black Jungle, she must be dead by now. If she did survive by some miracle, you have no hope of finding her before morning.” The patrolman looked over at Jack. “I advise you to get him back to your dwellings.” With that, the patrolman left Jack and the partially paralyzed Doctor.
“Jack,” The Doctor spoke as calmly as he could. “We're getting Rose out of the Black Jungle.”
“But your legs are…”
“This isn’t the first time I dealt with a weapon that left you paralyzed.” The Doctor cut him off. “Something very similar happened to someone I once knew a long time ago. I created an antidote to this paralyzed state sometime afterwards. It’s kept in the TARDIS’ med-bay. I need you to help me get there so I can take it. Once I get my legs working again, we’ll search for Rose in the Black Jungle.”
“Right.” Jack pulled the Doctor to his feet and assisted him back to the TARDIS.
-----
Within the Black Jungle, Rose stumbled over a tree root, regaining her balance before she fell. She had long since lost Solaris’ trail and had tried to go back, but she quickly found that she couldn’t locate her footprints to backtrack with the moon’s rays shrouded by the jungle’s canopy. Realizing how lost she was, she mentally kicked herself for going off alone and dropped down to sit against one of the trees.
“Okay.” She started talking to try and break the eerie silence. “Like Mum used to say, you’ll have a better chance of being found if you stay put. The Doctor and Jack’ll be out looking for me by now. There’s no reason to be worried or scared. The Doctor would never leave me stranded. He’ll find me, I know he will.” With this said, Rose closed her eyes, hating at how she had no choice but to sit by and wait to be rescued.
After sighing to calm down, a twig snapping nearby made Rose jump. Squinting through a patch of trees, she saw a faint glowing light. “Doctor? Doctor, is that you?” Getting to her feet, she moved toward the glowing light to find out where it was coming from. As she got closer, she was able to make out an outline of a tall, burly figure lying against a tree and her face broke into a relieved smile. She’d recognize that form anywhere. But as she got closer, her heart stopped. It was the Doctor, but it didn’t take a second glance to know something was wrong. His head was lolled to one side, and the piercing blue eyes were completely absent and blank. A large flow of blood was slowly pouring down the corner of his mouth. “Doctor?” Rose’s voice shook as she reached out to touch her friend, and found his body was much colder than usual. “No. No, you’re not dead. You can’t be…” She dropped to the ground at the side of the Doctor’s still form. “It’s my fault. You were out looking for me. This is my fault. Doctor, please! You just can’t be dead!” She would not cry. She couldn’t. Crying meant he really was dead, and he just couldn’t be.
At that moment, a voice shouted out, guttural and primitive. In a shower of leaves, Solaris suddenly appeared as she dropped down from one of the overhanging branches. In her hand was a burning torch, which she used to violently slash the air in front of the Doctor’s body. “What are you doing?!” Rose cried in shock, trying to wrestle the torch from Solaris’ hand. However, as she tried to do so, there was a sudden flash of light. Looking over, Rose’s shock tripled at the sight of some kind of frog-like creature crouching in the dirt where the Doctor’s body had been moments before. The Doctor himself had completely vanished from sight. Once again, Solaris thrust the flame at the creature who quickly hopped off. Before Rose could ask what had happened to the Doctor, Solaris spun to face her.
“And just what are you doing wandering about the jungle? Alone? If you’re looking to cash in on the price on my head you’re wasting your time. Don’t exactly have a means of capturing me, or forcing me to accompany you back to Baniru, do you? I don’t exactly have a habit of, as the phrase goes, coming quietly. ”
“You stole the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver.” Rose replied. Solaris’ eyebrows shot up, and she looked gobsmacked for a moment, but then she let out a sudden laugh.
“And you came after me, following me all the way out here, just to get it back?” Rose nodded. “That is either incredibly brave, or incredibly foolish.” Solaris continued to laugh for a moment and then turned a half smile in her direction. “Very well. Come with me and I’ll return it to you.”
“Seriously?” Rose stared in surprise. “You’d… just give it back?”
“You followed me into the Black Jungle to get it back.” Solaris replied. “No one has done that before. I think that you’ve earned a little prize for that. Now come along, and don’t lag behind.”
“But what about the Doctor?!”
“Later. Now come on.”
Rose followed Solaris through the jungle to one tree that had a wooden hut built within the branches, complete with a porch-like platform.
“You live there?” Rose looked up at the tree hut.
“For about fifteen years now.” Solaris took hold of a simple rope that was dangling from the platform and gestured to her back. “Well, are you coming? You’ll need to hold on.” Rose quickly understood that Solaris was intending to carry her up the rope on her back.
“Thanks, but I can manage.” Rose turned down the offer. “We covered the rope climb in Phys Ed.”
“Okay then.” Solaris started up the rope, followed by Rose. Once up on the platform, Solaris proceeded up a rickety staircase to the hut.
“You never explained.” Rose began as she followed the alien thief into the hut. “What happened to the Doctor? And what was that frog?” Solaris didn’t answer, and walked to one of the windows which had some kind of primitive hoist attached to it. Maintaining her silence, she started cranking the wheel to pull up whatever was at the end of the rope. “Are you listening? Something got the Doctor, and now he’s missing. We need to find him. He could get hurt even more. One of the monsters might get him.”
“No. The Black Jungle is one of the safest places in this planetary system. The only danger is exposure to the elements. Or getting lost and perishing of starvation.”
“But what about all those dangers they talk about in the city?” Rose persisted. “Beasts and monsters and….”
“There has never been any of that inside the Black Jungle.” Solaris dismissed the claims without turning around. “There’re only those Morphs. That was what the ‘frog’ you saw was. They alter their appearance to look like whatever scares us. It’s a defense mechanism of theirs, one they use because they’re unable to protect themselves. They’re too weak. Some see them as monstrous beasts; others see them as carnivorous plants.”
“That sounds like the boggart.” Rose muttered, remembering reading about it in the Harry Potter books.
“The bog-what?” Solaris momentarily paused and turned her head a fraction of an inch in her direction.
“Never mind. You probably never read those books out here.” Solaris shrugged and turned her attention back to the hoist. “For me…. I saw the Doctor dead.” Rose admitted softly.
“Mmm. Friend of yours?” Solaris nodded in understanding. “Yes. I can’t say I blame you. It’s hard loosing a friend you rely on for everything, especially…. if you don’t know what happened to them.”
“Did that happen to you?” Rose asked, noticing Solaris’ tone suggested it.
“It was a long time ago. No sense dwelling on it.” Solaris still was not looking at Rose, but pulled the carved box that had been attached to the end of the hoist’s rope into the tree hut.
“Then that wasn’t the Doctor I saw.” Rose breathed in relief.
“No, it wasn’t. Just a Morph trying to scare you. Nothing more.”
“So, if you don’t mind me asking, what do they look like to you?” Solaris finally looked over at Rose.
“They… don’t really affect me. You and I, we’re… I don’t see the way you do. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Is it that visor?” Rose asked, pointing to the eye visor that covered Solaris’ eyes. “Is it like this infrared device, or….” As Rose spoke, she moved a hand toward the visor, in a clear attempt to remove it. In response, Solaris quickly swiped her hand away.
“Please. Don’t touch the visor. Nothing personal. I just don’t like people touching it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Forget it.” Solaris opened the carved box, allowing Rose to see some of the contents. There was a circlet made from flexible branches woven together, a bottle of some kind of bluish-green liquid, and a golden medallion that was emblazoned with a symbol she knew she saw before, but couldn’t quite place where. And there, among the box’s contents, was the sonic screwdriver. Solaris took the stolen tool and handed it over to Rose. “Here you are. You’ll find it’s undamaged.”
“Thanks.” Rose pocketed the sonic screwdriver, finally taking a moment to look around the hut. It was very simply decorated, with a hammock hanging in the corner with an intricately-embroidered blanket draped over it. A mossy rock served as a bedside table, holding up a miniature hologram projector that was currently turned off. Fastened to opposite ends of the hut was an improvised clothesline made from a vine, where various wardrobe choices were hanging. “Did you make this whole place by yourself?”
“Took me three years, and quite a few minor cuts, bruises, and sore muscles, but it was well worth it in the end.”
“But, you built all this on your own?”
“You sound surprised. Don’t see why. After all, who’d want to help a worthless thief like myself construct a hut?” As Solaris talked, she got into the hammock. “Best you get comfortable. We can’t exactly make our way back to Baniru tonight. Last thing I need is for you to get lost. I can find my way in the dark, but I can’t see you doing the same, especially since you’ve never had practice.”
Can’t we at least try?” Rose asked. “The Doctor and Jack must be looking for me by now.”
“No chance. If your friends are as crazy as you are, to come into the Black Jungle at night, I’ll have enough trouble finding them tomorrow morning. Now if we try and make the way back to the city, and you wind up loosing me in the dark, I’ll have to be up all night looking for you as well. I’ll need to be well rested if you want me to get you and your friends back to the city together.”
“And what makes you think you’re the only one who can get through this jungle at night?” Rose questioned.
“I’m the only one who’s ever managed to do so, and I’ve been doing so for fifteen years. Can you say that?”
“No, I can’t.”
“Well, there you go. Now try and get some rest.”
“Fine. Where exactly am I supposed to sleep?” Solaris carelessly gestured to the floor. When Rose didn’t move, Solaris rolled over to face her. “Oh, don’t tell me. You’ve never slept on the floor before, have you?”
“No. I haven’t.”
“Fine, then.” Solaris climbed out of her hammock. “Go on then. I can sleep anywhere.”
“Thanks.” Rose got into the hammock as Solaris curled up in the corner of the tree hut, the visor still covering her eyes. “Are you actually going to sleep with that visor on?”
“The visor does not come off,” came the blunt reply. “Now go to sleep. The faster you do so, the faster we can get up to find your friends.” Rose sighed and obeyed, but only after lying awake for a while, wondering where exactly the Doctor and Jack were, until sleep overtook her.