Unfinished Symphony-E6-I Do-Part Two
Prelude
Part One
Unfinished Symphony Episode Six
I Do-Part Two
“A what?”, Adam's boss asked over the comm.
“A TARDIS”, he tried explaining again, “Time and Relative Dimension in Space. Its a damn time machine!”
“And?”, she asked quietly, “We have a time machine ourselves. I know where you were from that's odd but in the 51st century it is kind of like owning a car.”
Adam looked to Quenter who shook his head but motioned for Adam just to go along.”This isn't any time machine boss. We are talking a time lord, a stuffy time lord. A stuffy, mean time lord.” It was so so bad if he had to face the Doctor again. Lord knows he was mad enough last time he saw him, but to find out he had somehow 'jumped bail' and gotten a job in the future...well he was sure that bastard would find something wrong with it.
Though seeing Rose would be nice.
He shook his head, “This guy is a trouble maker, big time. I sent you the files on Gallifrey. Trust me when I say, this Boggs guy doesn't have the last of anything. That was why the temporal readings were off, time was slightly altered in here and not in the rest of the ship. Trust me, this is your guy.”
There was silence as she skimmed the data, “You think he has our quanta?”
“I don't know.”, he started to pace, “On one hand coming across the universe to rescue one stupid monkey is a bit much.”, he then changed directions, “On the other it is just the stupid, overblown kind of environmentalism that he would condone.”, he stopped and thought, “I don't know!”
“Ok Adam, turn it down a few, we don't know this Doctor was anywhere near our Quanta.”, she tried to explain.
“Not exactly.”, Quenter interjected, “The traces of Arton energy could not have come from that old TARDIS. That thing hasn't moved in well over two thousand years. I would have a better chance wearing something that costs less than Adam's annual salary before that...thing...generated an erg of energy.”
They heard her go over the data again, “So we have an active TARDIS somewhere on the ship. And that opens a portal to the Time Vortex.”
Adam continued, “The Quanta sees the portal and figures out how to do it by itself.”
“Or it just hopped a ride into their portal, either way, we have an AWOL quanta loose somewhere in the time vortex.”, the Adipose finished.
“Which is why we can't get a fix on it's location.”, she reasoned, “Ok well that's all well and good, but it doesn't get us any closer to our paycheck. We have no idea where that vortex will end up at.”, they could both hear her chewing on the end of her pencil from here. “Is his ears really this big or is that you glitching the holo Adam?”
Adam was silent, lost in thought. Suddenly he snapped his fingers, “That's not true! We do know its most likely destination.”
“We do?”, both his boss and Quenter asked.
“Earth!”, he said, “He always returns to Earth. All we have to do is get near it and wait for whatever time period he shows up in.”
“What do you think Quent?”, she asked. As the senior partner on scene it was technically his call on where to pursue the case.
The Adipose was above all things logical. He had spent a lifetime training in the royal occupation of war. By the time he was considered a teenager he had mastered Prograt's Advanced Dance of War, by the time he was ready to succeed his father, he was a tactical genius. What he wasn't was violent.
Turning away from this races hereditary tendency towards militaristic conquest he had renounced his right to the throne and gone out into the wide verse, looking for a living. What he found was Tributary Shanty, a new security and acquisitions firm. His scientific as well as tactical forte had served them both well in the past years, and now she was asking him if they should trust Adam. No one ends up in the 21st century with an advanced cyberlink in their head without a story that had to end on the wrong side of the law somehow. They were still on the fence with him, seeing if he was going to pan out or not. But now they didn't have time to suss out his dealings with this Doctor guy, not with a client like Boggs.
A man like Boggs could snap his fingers and dry up every job within the most of Mutter's Spiral. Conversely he could snap his fingers and make them all very, very wealthy. So getting this idiot's blue monkey back took priority over all other considerations.
Such as intrusive and righteous Time Lords.
“Probability wise Earth is a safe bet. Going over Adam's numbers he returns to the planet 78 percent of the time. Add the destruction of Gallifrey, that number goes up to 90 something. But we can't do this alone.”, which of course meant, YOU need to meet us there.
“Sounds good. Ok you guys take the peregrine to Earth, I will rendezvous in the Kingfish. Pick a year.”, she said making arrangements on her end.
Adam did a quick round of relative temporal math in his head, a feat that would have been impossible for any human being normally. But with the aid of the I-Cyber in his head, he was capable of a lot of things humans would never do. “Early twenty first century”, he said, “Last time I saw...I heard of him was around that time.”
“But he has a time machine”, she asked over the comlink, “Why go back to the same time.”
He thought of Rose and the way he had looked at her when he thought no one was looking, “He has...friends in that era. Trust me, we will find our Quanta from 2001 to 2023. I'm willing to bet on it.”
“Never bet with a cyborg.”, Quenter said moving towards their ship.
“Why?”, Adam asked smiling, “Cause we're too smart?”
“Because anyone stupid enough to have that done to their brain, can't have all his wits in the right place.”
The trip to Earth was reasonably quiet after that statement.
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“Ok heading into Earth proper now.”, he said pulling a lever.
Donna looked around in confusion, “You sure?”
“Well, yes. I mean we are over Earth, it seems to be the 21st century...St. Genevieve isn't it?”, he looked at the console again.
“No I mean we aren't shaking.”, she walked around the completely still TARDIS, “There's no rattling or...well the whole thing that seems to happen when we are about to land.” She placed a hand on her console, “There is something different isn't there?”
He nodded, “Something we are going to have to investigate later, after we get Martha hitched.”
Donna walked casually around the control room, “So you going to talk to him?”
“Hmmm?”, he said watching the screen not flicker and spark, “Who?”
“Jack of course.”, she tried to make her question sound casual, but he knew better.
“Don't.”, he said in mock anger, “Don't meddle Donna. Me and Jack”, and he paused and thought, “Jack and I? Well the two of us had a reasonable disagreement. I don't agree with the way he is handling things and he is being unreasonable about it. I have nothing to say to him.”
Donna placed a hand on his sleeve, “He is a friend.”, he began to disagree but she shushed him, “He is a friend, if you like him or not.”
He made a face, “I am reasonably sure that I have to like a person to want them as a friend.”
“No, real friends aren't like that.”, and she leaned in to make her point, “Real friends are like family, and you have to like them, whether you do or not.”
He cocked his head and smiled, “That makes no sense. You know that?”
She smiled back, “And yet you understood exactly what I meant.”, her voice softened, “Talk to him. There will be an open bar and opportunity.”, his face didn't change, “For me?” Still didn't change. “Ok for Martha at least? She is torn up about being in the middle of you two.”
He scoffed slightly, “She shouldn't be torn. Jack is handling things wrong, and thats that.”
She grabbed his ear and said loudly, “OY! SWIZLE STICK!! MAKE NICE WITH THE OTHER BOY OR I WILL SMACK YOU PROPER.”
He tried to disengage his ear, but that seemed to make her hang on harder. “Ouch, Donna, Donna!”, he called, but she wouldn't relent.
“Promise!”, she said.
“Ok I promise!!”, he whined.
“Promise and mean it!”, she said pulling his head towards her.
He glared at her and finally, “Okokoko.”, she let go as he rubbed his ear, “I will talk with him.”, he said, “But I won't like it!”, he said as she made her way into the wardrobe room.
She rolled her eyes, “Boys.”
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“It's a mistake.”, Francine Jones said as she helped her daughter put her hair up.
“The wedding?”, Martha said pulling back.
The older woman pulled her hair, and therefore her head, back into place, “Inviting him.”, she said. The pronoun in question needed no explanation. The Doctor and her mother had had some ups and downs since they had met. At first she had no problem with the man, not knowing he was a time traveling alien. After that she was told a series of lies and fabrications by Harold Saxon, who ended up being the Doctor's foe in disguise. She had spent a year, trapped aboard the Valiant, forced to serve the renegade Time Lord as a servant. After they were liberated, and the time line restored, she had great affection for the Doctor. Heralding him as Martha's personal savior and someone who was always welcome in her home.
That was until the Earth was captured by Davros.
Then she was forced to see her daughter, not as her little girl she had bounced on her knee and walked to school. Instead she had to watch horrified as Martha had become the military officer she had always been. Francine was forced that day to acknowledge that her little girl was gone, and what was left in her place, was his fault. Ever since then, she had been...let's say chilly.
Even though Martha had explained a million times the Earth was back because of the Doctor and she was alive because of his actions. It didn't change the fact her little girl was gone. And she was still mad about that.
“Oh come on mom.”, she said trying to pull away again, “Let's not do this again.”
She pulled her daughter's hair, admittingly a bit harder than she needed to, “I don't like how you are around him.”, she said brushing her hair, “You change.”
“I do not.”, she complained, “Ouch!”, she said making eye contact through the mirror. “I do not change!”
“Yes Doctor.”, her mother mimicked as she brushed, “Anything you say Doctor. Can i get you a cup of tea Doctor?”
“I never said that!”
“You might as well of.”, and she stopped brushing, “Look Martha, you are a wonderful girl. No. A wonderful woman, a brilliant and beautiful woman. And I see you this last year, so sure of yourself, so confident, I had never been so proud. And then you go and quit your job and join his friends doing god's know what. And I see you going backwards. Becoming that fumbling little mouse who can't see her own worth over the great and mighty Doctor.”, and she threw the brush on the table, “And I hate it. I hate how he makes you act.” She turned and looked at her daughter, “Thomas Milligan is a great man Martha. He doesn't travel through time or save the world. But he is a one in a million guy.”
“I know that.”, Martha said, her eyes still tearing up.
“Then you better not let him see you around the Doctor.”, she gathered up her handbag, “Because he sees you gushing over that beanpole, he is going to figure out what it really looks like when you are in love with someone.”, and she walked towards the door, “And that will break his heart.”
Her mother walked out, leaving Martha sitting there wondering what brought that on...and how much was it true?
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“Where did they go?”, Boggs asked his assistant.
“They said Earth.”, from the look on Boggs face it was clear he had no idea what an Earth was. “Class five planet, unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the galaxy.”
“My Quanta went there?”, Boggs looked up Earth in his database.
“They made it sound as if there was an intruder on the Gallifrey deck.”, the assistant closed his eyes in anticipation.
“WHAT!”, Boggs jumped to his feet, “I have been working on that damn exhibit for almost ten years now. You are saying someone, who hasn't signed a non disclosure for has been in there?”, he spun around, “And left!!” He began to pace his officer, “They could tell Bernard, if they tell him there is no stopping him from blabbing it to everyone on his damn blog. They won't be surprised, they won't be impressed. They'll stand there and be all, Oh Gallifrey, how last summer.”, he turned and looked at his assistant, “I will have done it all for nothing!”
The man, who had been up nearly thirty hours now spoke, what would be his last words in the employment of Trenton Boggs, “There is always the historical value.”
There was a blip of light as Boggs pushed his transmat, termination button. The, now fired, assistant found himself back, at the planet of his hire, small severance package deposited in his account and a fifty three page long e-mail reminding him the price of breaking the non disclosure agreement he had signed.
The next assistant walked into the office, fully prepped on the conversation.
“Get me some people.”, the assistant nodded, “I needed trained people.”, another nod, “I want a covert team sent to Earth.”
“To find the Quanta?”, the lackey asked.
“Yes and to find the bastard that snuck into my collection early.”, his voice got menacing. “I want them to find him, hold him down...”, and he pulled out a datapad, “And sign this confidentiality agreement or I will sue him so hard his grandchildren will be paying me.”
“Yes sir. One covert team, check.”, he turned and then asked as he was leaving, “Should I inform Tributary of our people?”
Boggs made a cutting gesture with his hand, “NO! I don't think I can trust them any more. Make sure the Quanta is found and the agreement signed.”
The lackey bowed three times as he exited the room.
Trenton sighed as he collapsed into his chair, “Some days, you have to just do everything yourself.”, he pushed a button on his desk, “Start plotting a course for...”, he looked at his data screen, “Earth. I have a feeling this isn't going to go as smoothly as I want it to.”
To be continued...