Unfinished Symphony-E2-Devil Inside-Part Two
Prelude
Part one
Unfinished Symphony-Episode Two
Devil Inside-Part Two
It was quiet in the workerbee as The Doctor piloted the shuttle towards the abandoned luxury liner. Donna half watched him work the controls and half trying to organize the thoughts in her head.
Finally he engaged the auto pilot and swiveled the chair towards her, “Ok ask”, he said out of nowhere.
“Ask what?”, she said confused.
“You have a thousand Donna questions burning”, and he pointed to the point between her eyes, “right there behind your eyes. We have about twenty minutes before we're in range so let's ask them now.”
“You just assume I am daft and have a million questions that only the great Doctor can answer?”
“Well I wouldn't call you daft but there are question that only I can answer.”
“Like ?”, she asked.
“I know who wrote the book of love, I know how many licks it takes to get to the center of one of those dreadful pops, I know if a tree falls in the woods if it makes a sound, I know what was in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, I know a bit about history, I know a bit biology..”
“Ok, ok”, she said holding up her hands in surrender, “I do have a few I suppose.”, she said through a laugh.
“Well then”, he said settling in, “Ask away...”
“Ok then”, she said settling in herself, “Why are you so casual about some blond somewhere making a time machine ?”
“What of it ?”, he said shrugging.
“Well isn't that odd ?”
“No”, he said making a face, “Thousands of galactic civilizations have developed time travel over the years. Some even use it as a yardstick as measuring technological growth.”
“So wait”, she said, “There are other time travelers ?”
“Oh course, where do you think Jack comes from ? In the 51st century there is a whole squad of time agents, all there to make sure that time travelers don't go and do something stupid.”
“Like what ?”, she asked.
“Like making sure President Lincoln dies by slipping in his bathtub.”
“What !”, she said trying to stand up, “But he didn't...”, and she saw the smile on his face, “See ?”, he said, “Time travel is easy, after awhile any reasonable civilization gets there.”
She digested that for a second, “So then they are all time lords also?”
And she saw the emotion slip off his face. It was subtle and it was almost unseen, but she saw it. His eyes went from laughing to dead cold and she knew she had passed some invisible barrier again and he was seething inside.
“No”, he said clipping his speech, “They are nothing like Time Lords”, and when he said it she could see the capitalization of each word.
“So then what's the difference?”, she asked with no tone in her voice, on the off chance she might spark something worse.
He moved the chair and looked out the front screen in silence for a few moments. She wondered if he was even going to answer her when he started to talk as if he was very far away from her, “The difference is everything”, he took a deep breath and then turned back to her, she could see the old glimmer was back.
“Did you ever see that movie, the one with the flying car that could travel through time ?”
“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ?”
And he gave her that look, that look that she had forgotten something incredibly simple like tying her shoes or breathing and walking, “Yes Donna, yes. Do tell me the part of the movie when the beat up car flew up into the sky and then back in time ? Which part cause I must have stepped out and gotten some candy just then?”
She hit him on the arm, “Well I don't know, what movie?”
“Back to the Future?”, she nodded, “Flying car?”, another nod, “
Delorean?”
“Is that an actor?”
He sighed and rubbed his eyes, “Honestly Donna I worry for your race sometimes. It is a movie about a car that can travel forwards and backwards in time when it goes 88 miles an hour.”
“Is 88 miles important for time travel?”
“No it has nothing to do with it!”, he snapped.
“Then why bring it up?”
He shook his head, “Time travelers can move forward and backwards into their own time line. They are unaware of the alternate timelines and worlds that overlap every particle of space time. They simply go from one end of history to another, and that's it. Time Lords...”, and he looked away again, “...we were something altogether different.”
Donna almost said something but stopped, she resisted the urge to fill the silence with something, anything. But she knew he needed the silence, he needed the space so she gave it to him.
“We didn't invent time travel, we perfected it. We can see time and space in its entirety, we can see each time line and each strand of fate and how it links together. We have a sense of what time should be like. At first we were just...just observers. But as we progressed we realized that such a gift came with a price, with a responsibility. We didn't invent time travel, we perfected it. We found how to warp space and time, harness it through devices and objects, through ourselves. And with it we took it upon ourself to preserve the space time continuum from everyone. From every time traveler, every temporal anomaly, every spacial rift. Everything. We were guardians of order in a multiverse born from chaos.”, and he looked at her with the sadness of 900 years and smiled, “And we were fantastic. We walked the stars and tamed the wilds. We were judge and jury on those who dared to endanger those who could not defend themselves.”
“And executioners?”, she asked aghast.
“When needed”, he said.
“What happened?”, she found herself unable to ask.
He looked at her, “We lost. We dared to tell the universe how to live, and it fought back. And we lost”, he went back to fumbling with the controls, “So if some blond girl wants to build a time machine, let her. Who am I to tell her what to do with it anymore? I'm just like her”, and his voice lowered, “Worst, I have no time to return to. We are almost there.”, he said louder.
Donna's heart swelled with sorrow. She wanted to reach out, hug him, hold him, make things better somehow. She had known there was a darkness in him, a darkness that had no limit, no bottom to judge its depth. But she never understood until now, how incredibly alone he was, and how much he needed someone. She cleared her throat and asked, “So you think we'll find a reflector in there?”
“Refractory converter”, he corrected her, “And yes”, he said maneuvering the wokerbee around, “And yes, there she is.”
Donna gasped as she saw the lights from the bee dance across stern of the ship, she had never seen something so incredible in her life, “Now that's a ship !”, she said marveling.
“It figures it takes an Arcadian ship to get Donna Noble's seal of approval.”
“Arcade ?”
“Arcadian”, he said, “Ancient race that valued two things, the accumulation of wealth and the flaunting of said wealth to others. After awhile the Arcadians got serious and changed their ways.”, and he became distant for a second, “I was there for the fall of Arcadia during the Time War, such a loss....”, and he trailed off, “But that was now and this is then”, he said putting on a good face, “The Pleonexia, the largest and most over the top cruising ship of her time”, he looked to her, “Like the Titanic, except the Titanic had better table linens”, and he thought, “Both of them in fact. If she was utilizing a type 6 refractory converter then we are assured it is the best and most expensive refractory converter of the time. Which is more than enough for my poor TARDIS. I can't imagine here just sitting there leaking energy”, and his shoulders shuddered, “Makes me sad. But we're close now”, he said pushing another set of buttons, “I am sending the ship the power codes now, let's give it a few minutes for the air to recirculate and the heat to come on. Might as well wait for it to be hospitable”, he smiled at her.
Without a moment of thought she hurled herself over to the driver's side and hugged him. He laughed as she squeezed him tight, his arms moved around her and he hugged her back. She felt her eyes leaking and she had no words for him, there were just too much to say. All she could whisper was, “I am sorry.” Closing her eyes she just felt and thought, she just felt and thought as hard as she could. She bundled up all her feelings and sorries into one ball and thought it all at him as hard as she could. He rested his head on hers and whispered thank you as they sat there and hugged in silence.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Luke Smith was bored.
His adoptive mother, Sarah Jane Smith, had gone out to investigate a series of teenagers that had gone insane and shot up public places and had left Luke at home. He had finished his homework, read his study books and done his chores. He had called Maria but she was out with her father, he had called Clyde but he wasn't answering his cell. He had done everything he could possible do in the house, and found himself dreadfully bored.
Sarah Jane had told him to stay in the house specifically, so leaving wasn't an option. So he decided to read. He had recently had Mr. Smith begin downloading the United States Library of Congress to his laptop a few thousand books at a time, which gave him some small way to pass the time.
But it didn't make it any less boring.
As he perused various military transcripts from The American Civil War, he wished something would happen, something to make the day less boring.
Thought he looked like a fourteen year old male human, Luke Smith was turning one year old in a few weeks so he had never experienced the true fear of the saying, Be careful what you wish for, it might come true.
There was a noise outside the front door, like something heavy falling to the ground. Luke closed his laptop quietly and listened. There was the sound of something walking up the steps, something heavy, something metal. Luke tiptoed over to the door in his socks and peered through the peephole.
And saw a full grown Judoon solider coming towards the door. He turned the safety lock and threw himself away from the door, the remains of the thick door splintered as if it was balsa wood. Luke tripped over the bottom step and looked up as the alien creature stood over him bellowing, “Jo No Ko Fo !”
“That is bad”, Luke said trying not to panic.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000
The workerbee locked itself to the cruise ship with a clunk, Donna could feel the small craft shake as it adhered itself to the airlock. The lights along the huge Arcadian cruiser had started to come on one at a time, making the Pleonexia glow like a Christmas tree.
“It's beautiful”, she marveled.
“You should have seen her in the day”, he said securing the lock, “She sailed from the far end of Arcateen V to Zeta Minor, the richest of the rich standing about showing off to each other their wealth. From what I heard it was quite a trip.”
“You were never on it?”, she asked.
“No it crashed before I had a chance to”, he said opening the outer hatch, “I never found the time to go back and visit it before then.”
“Why would you?”, she asked a bit shocked.
“Same reason I sailed on the Titanic, the Lusitania, the Loki and the Transtrollian. There is something noble about taking a cruise on something destined to perish. You honor it in a way by enjoying it one last time...”, he shook his head, “It's hard to explain, it's just a hobby.”
“Why can't you collect baseball cards like everyone else?”
“No fun in that”, he said as the outer latch opened, “You coming?”
“Into the dead, dark ship that hasn't had anyone alive on it in forever?”
The Doctor looked into the darkness of the air lock and then back, “Well yes..in there.”
She shook her head, “You've seen Back to the Future but not a proper horror movie”, she pushed him along, “Go on then...first nutso in a hockey mask and I am blaming you!”
He started to climb in, “Hockey mask, got it.”
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Luke found his footing and made off up the stairs. He didn't have time to look behind him to see if the rhino creature was following him, but he had to assume it was. As he pushed open the attic door he practically screamed, “Mr. Smith I need you !!”
The brick wall unfolded itself, the fanfare of music oddly out of place as the grunts of the thing started up the stairs, “There is a thing down there !!”
“Activating security protocol number 7”, Mr. Smith said with his normal unemotional voice, “Please get behind me Luke.”
Luke jumped behind the far edge of the computer, crouching under the console. As he felt the solid wall of Mr. Smith he saw the glow of a force field surround him and the console.
The Judoon burst into the room, a silver rod in his hand. Quicker than Luke could register a red dot appeared on the tip of the rod and a beam shot out from Mr. Smith. The rod glowed and then vanished from existence, the alien seemed as shocked as Luke. The red dot appeared again on his forehead, “Jo, to, roo, do”, the computer intoned an then in English, “I am informing him I can speak his language and he is not to take another step forward.”
The large creature's eyes crossed as it tried to focus on the dot and took a step back, “Ho?”, it said.
“Ho woe low”, Mr. Smith ordered, “I am asking him what business he has here.”
“What is he?”, Luke asked feeling a bit better now that Mr. Smith had saved the day.
“He is a Judoon processor, a race of mercenary creatures that serve out Galactic Law with a considerable lack of subtly.”, the creature started to intone words, “He is in the employ of Shadow Proclamation and is attempting to serve a summons to Sarah Jane”, the computer intoned another series of words and the Judoon produced a silver disk. Almost gently it set the disk down on a small table and took a step back. With a quick gesture he pushed a button and he vanished. Leaving a confused Mr. Smith and Luke to wonder, what was all that about?
To be continued...
Part one
Unfinished Symphony-Episode Two
Devil Inside-Part Two
It was quiet in the workerbee as The Doctor piloted the shuttle towards the abandoned luxury liner. Donna half watched him work the controls and half trying to organize the thoughts in her head.
Finally he engaged the auto pilot and swiveled the chair towards her, “Ok ask”, he said out of nowhere.
“Ask what?”, she said confused.
“You have a thousand Donna questions burning”, and he pointed to the point between her eyes, “right there behind your eyes. We have about twenty minutes before we're in range so let's ask them now.”
“You just assume I am daft and have a million questions that only the great Doctor can answer?”
“Well I wouldn't call you daft but there are question that only I can answer.”
“Like ?”, she asked.
“I know who wrote the book of love, I know how many licks it takes to get to the center of one of those dreadful pops, I know if a tree falls in the woods if it makes a sound, I know what was in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, I know a bit about history, I know a bit biology..”
“Ok, ok”, she said holding up her hands in surrender, “I do have a few I suppose.”, she said through a laugh.
“Well then”, he said settling in, “Ask away...”
“Ok then”, she said settling in herself, “Why are you so casual about some blond somewhere making a time machine ?”
“What of it ?”, he said shrugging.
“Well isn't that odd ?”
“No”, he said making a face, “Thousands of galactic civilizations have developed time travel over the years. Some even use it as a yardstick as measuring technological growth.”
“So wait”, she said, “There are other time travelers ?”
“Oh course, where do you think Jack comes from ? In the 51st century there is a whole squad of time agents, all there to make sure that time travelers don't go and do something stupid.”
“Like what ?”, she asked.
“Like making sure President Lincoln dies by slipping in his bathtub.”
“What !”, she said trying to stand up, “But he didn't...”, and she saw the smile on his face, “See ?”, he said, “Time travel is easy, after awhile any reasonable civilization gets there.”
She digested that for a second, “So then they are all time lords also?”
And she saw the emotion slip off his face. It was subtle and it was almost unseen, but she saw it. His eyes went from laughing to dead cold and she knew she had passed some invisible barrier again and he was seething inside.
“No”, he said clipping his speech, “They are nothing like Time Lords”, and when he said it she could see the capitalization of each word.
“So then what's the difference?”, she asked with no tone in her voice, on the off chance she might spark something worse.
He moved the chair and looked out the front screen in silence for a few moments. She wondered if he was even going to answer her when he started to talk as if he was very far away from her, “The difference is everything”, he took a deep breath and then turned back to her, she could see the old glimmer was back.
“Did you ever see that movie, the one with the flying car that could travel through time ?”
“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ?”
And he gave her that look, that look that she had forgotten something incredibly simple like tying her shoes or breathing and walking, “Yes Donna, yes. Do tell me the part of the movie when the beat up car flew up into the sky and then back in time ? Which part cause I must have stepped out and gotten some candy just then?”
She hit him on the arm, “Well I don't know, what movie?”
“Back to the Future?”, she nodded, “Flying car?”, another nod, “
Delorean?”
“Is that an actor?”
He sighed and rubbed his eyes, “Honestly Donna I worry for your race sometimes. It is a movie about a car that can travel forwards and backwards in time when it goes 88 miles an hour.”
“Is 88 miles important for time travel?”
“No it has nothing to do with it!”, he snapped.
“Then why bring it up?”
He shook his head, “Time travelers can move forward and backwards into their own time line. They are unaware of the alternate timelines and worlds that overlap every particle of space time. They simply go from one end of history to another, and that's it. Time Lords...”, and he looked away again, “...we were something altogether different.”
Donna almost said something but stopped, she resisted the urge to fill the silence with something, anything. But she knew he needed the silence, he needed the space so she gave it to him.
“We didn't invent time travel, we perfected it. We can see time and space in its entirety, we can see each time line and each strand of fate and how it links together. We have a sense of what time should be like. At first we were just...just observers. But as we progressed we realized that such a gift came with a price, with a responsibility. We didn't invent time travel, we perfected it. We found how to warp space and time, harness it through devices and objects, through ourselves. And with it we took it upon ourself to preserve the space time continuum from everyone. From every time traveler, every temporal anomaly, every spacial rift. Everything. We were guardians of order in a multiverse born from chaos.”, and he looked at her with the sadness of 900 years and smiled, “And we were fantastic. We walked the stars and tamed the wilds. We were judge and jury on those who dared to endanger those who could not defend themselves.”
“And executioners?”, she asked aghast.
“When needed”, he said.
“What happened?”, she found herself unable to ask.
He looked at her, “We lost. We dared to tell the universe how to live, and it fought back. And we lost”, he went back to fumbling with the controls, “So if some blond girl wants to build a time machine, let her. Who am I to tell her what to do with it anymore? I'm just like her”, and his voice lowered, “Worst, I have no time to return to. We are almost there.”, he said louder.
Donna's heart swelled with sorrow. She wanted to reach out, hug him, hold him, make things better somehow. She had known there was a darkness in him, a darkness that had no limit, no bottom to judge its depth. But she never understood until now, how incredibly alone he was, and how much he needed someone. She cleared her throat and asked, “So you think we'll find a reflector in there?”
“Refractory converter”, he corrected her, “And yes”, he said maneuvering the wokerbee around, “And yes, there she is.”
Donna gasped as she saw the lights from the bee dance across stern of the ship, she had never seen something so incredible in her life, “Now that's a ship !”, she said marveling.
“It figures it takes an Arcadian ship to get Donna Noble's seal of approval.”
“Arcade ?”
“Arcadian”, he said, “Ancient race that valued two things, the accumulation of wealth and the flaunting of said wealth to others. After awhile the Arcadians got serious and changed their ways.”, and he became distant for a second, “I was there for the fall of Arcadia during the Time War, such a loss....”, and he trailed off, “But that was now and this is then”, he said putting on a good face, “The Pleonexia, the largest and most over the top cruising ship of her time”, he looked to her, “Like the Titanic, except the Titanic had better table linens”, and he thought, “Both of them in fact. If she was utilizing a type 6 refractory converter then we are assured it is the best and most expensive refractory converter of the time. Which is more than enough for my poor TARDIS. I can't imagine here just sitting there leaking energy”, and his shoulders shuddered, “Makes me sad. But we're close now”, he said pushing another set of buttons, “I am sending the ship the power codes now, let's give it a few minutes for the air to recirculate and the heat to come on. Might as well wait for it to be hospitable”, he smiled at her.
Without a moment of thought she hurled herself over to the driver's side and hugged him. He laughed as she squeezed him tight, his arms moved around her and he hugged her back. She felt her eyes leaking and she had no words for him, there were just too much to say. All she could whisper was, “I am sorry.” Closing her eyes she just felt and thought, she just felt and thought as hard as she could. She bundled up all her feelings and sorries into one ball and thought it all at him as hard as she could. He rested his head on hers and whispered thank you as they sat there and hugged in silence.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Luke Smith was bored.
His adoptive mother, Sarah Jane Smith, had gone out to investigate a series of teenagers that had gone insane and shot up public places and had left Luke at home. He had finished his homework, read his study books and done his chores. He had called Maria but she was out with her father, he had called Clyde but he wasn't answering his cell. He had done everything he could possible do in the house, and found himself dreadfully bored.
Sarah Jane had told him to stay in the house specifically, so leaving wasn't an option. So he decided to read. He had recently had Mr. Smith begin downloading the United States Library of Congress to his laptop a few thousand books at a time, which gave him some small way to pass the time.
But it didn't make it any less boring.
As he perused various military transcripts from The American Civil War, he wished something would happen, something to make the day less boring.
Thought he looked like a fourteen year old male human, Luke Smith was turning one year old in a few weeks so he had never experienced the true fear of the saying, Be careful what you wish for, it might come true.
There was a noise outside the front door, like something heavy falling to the ground. Luke closed his laptop quietly and listened. There was the sound of something walking up the steps, something heavy, something metal. Luke tiptoed over to the door in his socks and peered through the peephole.
And saw a full grown Judoon solider coming towards the door. He turned the safety lock and threw himself away from the door, the remains of the thick door splintered as if it was balsa wood. Luke tripped over the bottom step and looked up as the alien creature stood over him bellowing, “Jo No Ko Fo !”
“That is bad”, Luke said trying not to panic.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000
The workerbee locked itself to the cruise ship with a clunk, Donna could feel the small craft shake as it adhered itself to the airlock. The lights along the huge Arcadian cruiser had started to come on one at a time, making the Pleonexia glow like a Christmas tree.
“It's beautiful”, she marveled.
“You should have seen her in the day”, he said securing the lock, “She sailed from the far end of Arcateen V to Zeta Minor, the richest of the rich standing about showing off to each other their wealth. From what I heard it was quite a trip.”
“You were never on it?”, she asked.
“No it crashed before I had a chance to”, he said opening the outer hatch, “I never found the time to go back and visit it before then.”
“Why would you?”, she asked a bit shocked.
“Same reason I sailed on the Titanic, the Lusitania, the Loki and the Transtrollian. There is something noble about taking a cruise on something destined to perish. You honor it in a way by enjoying it one last time...”, he shook his head, “It's hard to explain, it's just a hobby.”
“Why can't you collect baseball cards like everyone else?”
“No fun in that”, he said as the outer latch opened, “You coming?”
“Into the dead, dark ship that hasn't had anyone alive on it in forever?”
The Doctor looked into the darkness of the air lock and then back, “Well yes..in there.”
She shook her head, “You've seen Back to the Future but not a proper horror movie”, she pushed him along, “Go on then...first nutso in a hockey mask and I am blaming you!”
He started to climb in, “Hockey mask, got it.”
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Luke found his footing and made off up the stairs. He didn't have time to look behind him to see if the rhino creature was following him, but he had to assume it was. As he pushed open the attic door he practically screamed, “Mr. Smith I need you !!”
The brick wall unfolded itself, the fanfare of music oddly out of place as the grunts of the thing started up the stairs, “There is a thing down there !!”
“Activating security protocol number 7”, Mr. Smith said with his normal unemotional voice, “Please get behind me Luke.”
Luke jumped behind the far edge of the computer, crouching under the console. As he felt the solid wall of Mr. Smith he saw the glow of a force field surround him and the console.
The Judoon burst into the room, a silver rod in his hand. Quicker than Luke could register a red dot appeared on the tip of the rod and a beam shot out from Mr. Smith. The rod glowed and then vanished from existence, the alien seemed as shocked as Luke. The red dot appeared again on his forehead, “Jo, to, roo, do”, the computer intoned an then in English, “I am informing him I can speak his language and he is not to take another step forward.”
The large creature's eyes crossed as it tried to focus on the dot and took a step back, “Ho?”, it said.
“Ho woe low”, Mr. Smith ordered, “I am asking him what business he has here.”
“What is he?”, Luke asked feeling a bit better now that Mr. Smith had saved the day.
“He is a Judoon processor, a race of mercenary creatures that serve out Galactic Law with a considerable lack of subtly.”, the creature started to intone words, “He is in the employ of Shadow Proclamation and is attempting to serve a summons to Sarah Jane”, the computer intoned another series of words and the Judoon produced a silver disk. Almost gently it set the disk down on a small table and took a step back. With a quick gesture he pushed a button and he vanished. Leaving a confused Mr. Smith and Luke to wonder, what was all that about?
To be continued...