Unfinished Symphony-E2-Devil Inside-Part Three
Prelude
Part one
Part Two
Unfinished Symphony-Episode Two
Devil Inside-Part Three
The ship was cold, abysmally cold. They had waited in the bee for over ten minutes to allow the ship to get some heat but it was colder than Donna had ever felt. Her breath fogged as she exhaled and she could feel her arms shaking. They were standing in one of the main service halls that circled the outer ring of the ship. It connected with the industrial air locks so goods could be brought in and off the ship without interrupting the guests. The Doctor had been looking down both ways now for almost a minute, trying to find his bearings. Finally Donna exclaimed, “Oy, can't we wait in the ship a bit longer?”
The Doctor turned and looked at her as he took off his coat, “What's that for?”, she asked as he draped it over her shoulders, “So I can get one arm in it?”
“It will help”, he said closing it as much as he can, “It will get warmed up as we move around.”, he looked again, “I just don't know how.”
“How? One foot in front of the other...quickly before we freeze?”
“It's a huge ship Donna, over 80 decks, without some kind of a map there is no way we'd find the right engine room and even then where the part would be installed. I'd rather figure this out now than running around the entire ship for a few days looking everywhere.”
“Didn't Al give you a map of the place? A GPS? A bloody compass?”
The Doctor shook his head, “Al does the preliminary scans of the ship but he doesn't keep internal records, no need to in his head, well skin. All he cares about that there is a ship here, doesn't matter what's inside.”
“So then what? We stand here until you get a vision of where this thing is?”
“Donna”, he said just a bit sharply, “Give me time to think...”, he started to pace as he thumped his forehead, “Think, think...there must be some interface on the ship. Some way to activate a map...”
And the entire wall in front of them became a diagram of the ship. It was incredible, one second it was a normal white wall with a stylish wood trim about waist high, the next it looked like a huge flat screen display, with a cut away view of the ship.
“Look at that”, he said pulling out his glasses, “The entire ship's surface is a Kingston Holographic display. It must have heard me ask for a map, which means the computer is still working. Excellent.”
“What's that stuff ?”, she said pointing at streaks of what looked like dried blue paint that covered a lower section of the wall.
“I don't know”, he said looking closer, “Something on the surface of the wall I would suppose. It has been a few millenniums, I gather the maid hasn't been around.”, and he went back to the map, “Ok where are we?”, he said out loud, and a small blue dot started to flash on the display.
“Is that us?”, Donna asked.
“I don't think so”, he said studying the map, “I don't think this computer is voice activated.”
“But you asked where we were...”, she said.
“ Yes I said out loud where we were but I was thinking where the converter was. This isn't pointing to an access hatch, it's showing me one of the auxiliary engine rooms.”
“How did it know you wanted that?”
He didn't answered, instead he closed his eyes and concentrated. The screen flashed and then changed, becoming what looked like a slick, black glass touch console. Futuristic lights and gages pulsed across the surface.
“You did that?”, she asked like it was a magic trick.
“I thought about accessing an environmental control panel. It's telepathic, the computer is telepathic”, he said marveling at the technology. He stood up quickly, “Of course, all Arcadians were telepathic in nature. They shared a genetic mind link that they could communicate through. They must have designed a computer to interface with their link.”
“Why?”, she asked horrified at the thought of a computer reading her thoughts.
“Well”, he said stroking his chin, “I suppose they thought it was expensive, they were lazy, I mean why actually ask for a drink when you can think for one. A million reasons but none of them particularly bright.
Donna closed her eyes and thought hard for a second, but nothing happened, “Why didn't it respond to me?”, she asked.
“Well humans have latent telepathic skills but I don't think you're strong enough to send to it”, and he laughed, “Think about it Donna, the first time in the history you weren't loud enough.”
“Shut it”, she said swinging an empty coat arm at him.
He thought, Map, and the wall went back to the schematic, “Well if this is where the part is”, and he reached out to touch the screen, “We should be here.” And his finger made contact with the screen. It happened so fast and so small, that neither of them could see the minute electrical charge leap from the panel to his finger.
He pulled his finger back and yelped, “Ouch!”, he said putting his finger in his mouth, “Damn thing shocked me!”
“Oh poor Time Lord, want me to kiss and make it better?”, she mocked.
He paused for a moment and then stood up straight, “Thank you, no”, he said, far less humor than she had expected in his voice. He examined the map and declared, “It isn't far from here”, he turned and started walking away.
Donna watched and yelled, “You just gonna leave me !!”
“Catch up Susan! We haven't time to dawdle!”
She held on to the jacket as she trotted to keep up with him, “Susan? Is that another movie joke? And why are you talking like an old man all of a sudden?”
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Al blinked several times as his vision came into focus.
He looked around his room and wondered, “What just happened?” He must have dozed off because he couldn't recall a thing he was doing moments before. His gaze wandered to the corner, where he expected something to be sitting there, but it was empty. He had the distinct feeling that something important should be parked in the corner, but he had no clue to what. His tongue snaked out and licked under his right arm, where he kept his short term memories, and found it completely clean. He raised his arm and looked, and it was completely devoid of any of the his memory slime at all. There was no way for him to recall the last few hour or so.
He looked down and saw two objects on the desk. One was some kind of metal container, as Al picked it up he could see it was designed to hold a small amount of chronal energy, the same type that might be produced by a tear in the space time continuum. He didn't remember trading for such an item, but as he glanced over to the computer console he could see a workerbee had been dispatched for the space craft area. Well that explains that he supposed and looked at the second item.
He gasped as the saw the perfect little, yellow duck and scooped it up.”Where did you come from little one?, he marveled, promptly forgetting that he had forgotten at all.
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Donna was trying to keep up with the Doctor, who seemed to have little no patience in if she was keeping up or not. He had said nothing since he had called her Susan in that odd voice, refusing to even answer her questions as she struggled to keep up. Finally she shouted, “Is this a bloody race?”
Immediately he turned around, standing far closer than he normally did, “It is a race”, he said a bit manically, “A race against time and I am already a few thousand years late Sarah, so try and keep up.” He made a gesture like throwing a scarf around his neck and continued to walk down the hall.
“Did you just call me Sarah?”, she said shocked, “As in Sarah Jane? What in the hell...”
“Language Susan”, he said in the old man voice again, “We're better than that try to remember”
Donna was confused and bit scared, “Doctor”, she said reaching out to him, “What is wrong...”, and he snapped over his shoulder in another voice, “Jo we need to move, we have a small window of opportunity and we can't waste it, come along!”
Donna pulled her hand back as if burned, “Jo?”, she mouthed and saw him continue down the passageway, “Doctor you are really scaring me”, she said following behind him at some distance.
As they walked she continued to see the same strange blue streaks down the passageways. Some were around foot levels but some seemed to have been made by some kind of blue liquid spurting out towards the ceiling. Summoning up the courage to ask another question she said, “What do you think all the blue is Doctor?”, she tried to make the tone conversational and light. Hoping that his tone would follow as such.
Instead he paused and leaned in close to the wall. He sniffed a streak and then seemed to pick a small part off with his fingernail. Examining it closer he smelt it and then put it to his tongue. She recoiled from it, thinking he was making another bad joke. He made a face and then wiped his finger on his coat, “Arcadians had a much thinner atmosphere than Earths”, and kept walking.
She blinked a few times, thinking he would say something else but he just kept walking. Hurrying she called out, What does that mean?”, he ignored her, “Doctor what does that have to...”
“It means”, he said sounding like an old man again, “That their blood carried much less oxygen than yours or mine.”, he snapped like he was a cross school teacher, and she wondered if he was doing another one of his movie jokes. She didn't fancy cinema that much but she was reasonably sure there wasn't a crabby old man in Back to the Future. When he seemed disinclined to elaborate she said, “And??”
He spun around and she almost collied with him, “It means that their blood was blue. The blue marks Ms. Noble is blood, their blood. Arcadian blood.”, there was a gleam in his eye, like he knew he was scaring her somewhat, and liked it.
“Shut up”, she said reflexively, “All this blue is...blood?”, she said her voice trailing off.
“Of course”, he said still with that grin, “They killed themselves, all 941 guests. Tore each other apart limb from limb. Was a gruesome sight from what I heard. I suppose no one ever bothered to clean it up if the ship was just going to be trashed.”,he raised his eyebrows and sighed, “Oh well”, and turned back around, “Coming Peri?”, and walked off.
She stood there for a second and tried to make sure her foot didn't touch any of the dried blue material that was all over the floor. She was so upset she hadn't even noticed the new name, she skipped and ran after him, “Why?”
“Why what?”, he asked briskly, again with another voice.
“Why did they kill themselves?”
“No one knows”, he turned and smiled, “It's a mystery.”
“What? A ship of people kill themselves and no one knows why? How's that?”
“Oh they might have found out why”, he said gesturing dismissively with his hand, again another voice, “I just never bothered to check.”
And grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, “Hold on there Ziggy Spaceman, you brought me to an abandoned ship in the middle of nowhere where a whole crew of aliens killed themselves and you don't know why they did it? How do you know its not some creature in here that did it? Some kind of monster or...”
“Shut up!”, he said sharply, this time sounding like he was some kind of dock worker from the North, “That's all you do is go on and on! How he doesn't just put a muzzle on you I'll never know.”, her mouth was open in shock and his change of demeanor, “Look Donna”, he said the name a bit mocking, which was a change from being called someone else's name, “Do you know why the Titanic sank?”
She stood there silent for a second and he asked, “Do you?”
She jumped and said, “Iceberg.”
“Right”, he said sounding like he was talking to a school child that had gotten a problem right, “And do you know why it hit that iceberg?”
She shook her head no. “Why not?”, he demanded, “After all people in your time have gone down there, examined the ship. They have done their computer projections and found the most likely cause. Don't you know it?”
She shook her head again.
“That was on your planet less than a hundred years ago and there was a bloody movie about it. This ship crashed and was discovered over three hundred thousand years ago, and I wasn't an Arcadian. So why would I care why they killed themselves?”
She didn't know what to say, his speech and tone was so different, so angry. It was like a completely different person. “So don't go whining about what he did and didn't tell you about this place. We are here to get this business done and leave. If you want to leave with me, keep up and shut it.” And with that he turned and stomped down the hall, his very motion screamed anger.
She couldn't even make a sarcastic comment, she was so scared right now. She wasn't sure how and she wasn't sure why....but she didn't think that was the Doctor at all.
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Sister Parce felt like she was running in place.
She had spent the greater portion of the last year trying to rebuild what had been broken during the Doctor's stand off. For every three problems she solved five more seemed to spring up. She had handled the bulk of the work, a suggestion by The Mater Superior so that she understood the depth of labor involved in the hospital.
In times when her patience was short and her workload large, she wondered if it wasn't just a way for the old cat to get out of work. But of course each night she asked Mother Centauri for forgiveness. She had just gotten a small lead on the avalanche so she decided to get Mater's input on the parts of the reconstruction she wasn't quite sure about.
She exited the private lift and made her way into the Mater's secluded office. She halted at the doorway as she saw The Mater wasn't alone. There was a large Judoon solider standing next to her, handing her a small silver disk. Both The Mater and the Judoon looked to Parce.
“Oh I am sorry Mater”, she said bowing, “I did not know you were occupied.”, she began to walk backwards out the door. The Mater waved her in, “It's ok Sister Parce, I needed to talk to you anyways”, and then she said to the Judoon, “Please don't transmat, this won't take long.” The large alien bowed, which was more like it leaning forward at its waist, and took a step away.
“Is everything ok Mater?”, she asked approaching the elderly feline.
“Yes”, she said activating the computer screen built into her desktop, “I am going to need you to take over as acting Mater while I attend another matter.”
“You're leaving?”, Parce asked in astonishment. In the years she had served the sisters she had never known the Mater to ever leave the building. If she was talking about the Judoon then that meant going off world, and that just didn't make sense to her.
“Yes”, she nodded as she pushed a few more buttons, “This Judoon works for The Shadow Proclamation and wants me to give testimony against The Doctor.”
Parce opened her mouth and then closed it quickly, “He's being tried?”
The Mater looked to her, “Yes, it seems the Doctor exceeded himself when he dealt with the Macra and he is going to be punished for it.”, she went back to her console.
“The Macra”, she blurted out, “But he saved us from them!”
The Mater looked up slowly, “Yes, and it seemed that he dealt with it in a way that is against Galactic Law. I am surprised Sister Parce, he held us hostage, I thought you'd be a bit happier.”
“But we asked him to stop them”, she could not believe what she was hearing.
“I know, but we didn't tell him how.”
“But we gave him the chemicals to make it, we helped him! We gave him a bloody parade for it. How can you give testimony against him?”
The Mater was silent for a long while and then said, “He held us hostage and threatened our lives. If it wasn't for a moment of weakness from Sister Fidelis we'd be dead. He needs to pay for his crimes.”
“I agree”, she said, “But saving us wasn't one of them.”
“We are done discussing this!”, The Mater snapped, “I am transferring control of the hospital over to you while I am gone, do not make me regret this!”
“Yes ma'am”, Parce said quickly bowing.
“I have faith in you Sister Parce, have faith in the Sisterhood.”, and she looked to the Judoon, “I am ready to leave.”
The Judoon walked over to the older cat and placed a hand on her shoulder, “Jo no”, he said and the two of them vanished.
Leaving a confused and angry Acting Mater Parce wondering if she could stay silent for long.
To be continued...
Part one
Part Two
Unfinished Symphony-Episode Two
Devil Inside-Part Three
The ship was cold, abysmally cold. They had waited in the bee for over ten minutes to allow the ship to get some heat but it was colder than Donna had ever felt. Her breath fogged as she exhaled and she could feel her arms shaking. They were standing in one of the main service halls that circled the outer ring of the ship. It connected with the industrial air locks so goods could be brought in and off the ship without interrupting the guests. The Doctor had been looking down both ways now for almost a minute, trying to find his bearings. Finally Donna exclaimed, “Oy, can't we wait in the ship a bit longer?”
The Doctor turned and looked at her as he took off his coat, “What's that for?”, she asked as he draped it over her shoulders, “So I can get one arm in it?”
“It will help”, he said closing it as much as he can, “It will get warmed up as we move around.”, he looked again, “I just don't know how.”
“How? One foot in front of the other...quickly before we freeze?”
“It's a huge ship Donna, over 80 decks, without some kind of a map there is no way we'd find the right engine room and even then where the part would be installed. I'd rather figure this out now than running around the entire ship for a few days looking everywhere.”
“Didn't Al give you a map of the place? A GPS? A bloody compass?”
The Doctor shook his head, “Al does the preliminary scans of the ship but he doesn't keep internal records, no need to in his head, well skin. All he cares about that there is a ship here, doesn't matter what's inside.”
“So then what? We stand here until you get a vision of where this thing is?”
“Donna”, he said just a bit sharply, “Give me time to think...”, he started to pace as he thumped his forehead, “Think, think...there must be some interface on the ship. Some way to activate a map...”
And the entire wall in front of them became a diagram of the ship. It was incredible, one second it was a normal white wall with a stylish wood trim about waist high, the next it looked like a huge flat screen display, with a cut away view of the ship.
“Look at that”, he said pulling out his glasses, “The entire ship's surface is a Kingston Holographic display. It must have heard me ask for a map, which means the computer is still working. Excellent.”
“What's that stuff ?”, she said pointing at streaks of what looked like dried blue paint that covered a lower section of the wall.
“I don't know”, he said looking closer, “Something on the surface of the wall I would suppose. It has been a few millenniums, I gather the maid hasn't been around.”, and he went back to the map, “Ok where are we?”, he said out loud, and a small blue dot started to flash on the display.
“Is that us?”, Donna asked.
“I don't think so”, he said studying the map, “I don't think this computer is voice activated.”
“But you asked where we were...”, she said.
“ Yes I said out loud where we were but I was thinking where the converter was. This isn't pointing to an access hatch, it's showing me one of the auxiliary engine rooms.”
“How did it know you wanted that?”
He didn't answered, instead he closed his eyes and concentrated. The screen flashed and then changed, becoming what looked like a slick, black glass touch console. Futuristic lights and gages pulsed across the surface.
“You did that?”, she asked like it was a magic trick.
“I thought about accessing an environmental control panel. It's telepathic, the computer is telepathic”, he said marveling at the technology. He stood up quickly, “Of course, all Arcadians were telepathic in nature. They shared a genetic mind link that they could communicate through. They must have designed a computer to interface with their link.”
“Why?”, she asked horrified at the thought of a computer reading her thoughts.
“Well”, he said stroking his chin, “I suppose they thought it was expensive, they were lazy, I mean why actually ask for a drink when you can think for one. A million reasons but none of them particularly bright.
Donna closed her eyes and thought hard for a second, but nothing happened, “Why didn't it respond to me?”, she asked.
“Well humans have latent telepathic skills but I don't think you're strong enough to send to it”, and he laughed, “Think about it Donna, the first time in the history you weren't loud enough.”
“Shut it”, she said swinging an empty coat arm at him.
He thought, Map, and the wall went back to the schematic, “Well if this is where the part is”, and he reached out to touch the screen, “We should be here.” And his finger made contact with the screen. It happened so fast and so small, that neither of them could see the minute electrical charge leap from the panel to his finger.
He pulled his finger back and yelped, “Ouch!”, he said putting his finger in his mouth, “Damn thing shocked me!”
“Oh poor Time Lord, want me to kiss and make it better?”, she mocked.
He paused for a moment and then stood up straight, “Thank you, no”, he said, far less humor than she had expected in his voice. He examined the map and declared, “It isn't far from here”, he turned and started walking away.
Donna watched and yelled, “You just gonna leave me !!”
“Catch up Susan! We haven't time to dawdle!”
She held on to the jacket as she trotted to keep up with him, “Susan? Is that another movie joke? And why are you talking like an old man all of a sudden?”
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Al blinked several times as his vision came into focus.
He looked around his room and wondered, “What just happened?” He must have dozed off because he couldn't recall a thing he was doing moments before. His gaze wandered to the corner, where he expected something to be sitting there, but it was empty. He had the distinct feeling that something important should be parked in the corner, but he had no clue to what. His tongue snaked out and licked under his right arm, where he kept his short term memories, and found it completely clean. He raised his arm and looked, and it was completely devoid of any of the his memory slime at all. There was no way for him to recall the last few hour or so.
He looked down and saw two objects on the desk. One was some kind of metal container, as Al picked it up he could see it was designed to hold a small amount of chronal energy, the same type that might be produced by a tear in the space time continuum. He didn't remember trading for such an item, but as he glanced over to the computer console he could see a workerbee had been dispatched for the space craft area. Well that explains that he supposed and looked at the second item.
He gasped as the saw the perfect little, yellow duck and scooped it up.”Where did you come from little one?, he marveled, promptly forgetting that he had forgotten at all.
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Donna was trying to keep up with the Doctor, who seemed to have little no patience in if she was keeping up or not. He had said nothing since he had called her Susan in that odd voice, refusing to even answer her questions as she struggled to keep up. Finally she shouted, “Is this a bloody race?”
Immediately he turned around, standing far closer than he normally did, “It is a race”, he said a bit manically, “A race against time and I am already a few thousand years late Sarah, so try and keep up.” He made a gesture like throwing a scarf around his neck and continued to walk down the hall.
“Did you just call me Sarah?”, she said shocked, “As in Sarah Jane? What in the hell...”
“Language Susan”, he said in the old man voice again, “We're better than that try to remember”
Donna was confused and bit scared, “Doctor”, she said reaching out to him, “What is wrong...”, and he snapped over his shoulder in another voice, “Jo we need to move, we have a small window of opportunity and we can't waste it, come along!”
Donna pulled her hand back as if burned, “Jo?”, she mouthed and saw him continue down the passageway, “Doctor you are really scaring me”, she said following behind him at some distance.
As they walked she continued to see the same strange blue streaks down the passageways. Some were around foot levels but some seemed to have been made by some kind of blue liquid spurting out towards the ceiling. Summoning up the courage to ask another question she said, “What do you think all the blue is Doctor?”, she tried to make the tone conversational and light. Hoping that his tone would follow as such.
Instead he paused and leaned in close to the wall. He sniffed a streak and then seemed to pick a small part off with his fingernail. Examining it closer he smelt it and then put it to his tongue. She recoiled from it, thinking he was making another bad joke. He made a face and then wiped his finger on his coat, “Arcadians had a much thinner atmosphere than Earths”, and kept walking.
She blinked a few times, thinking he would say something else but he just kept walking. Hurrying she called out, What does that mean?”, he ignored her, “Doctor what does that have to...”
“It means”, he said sounding like an old man again, “That their blood carried much less oxygen than yours or mine.”, he snapped like he was a cross school teacher, and she wondered if he was doing another one of his movie jokes. She didn't fancy cinema that much but she was reasonably sure there wasn't a crabby old man in Back to the Future. When he seemed disinclined to elaborate she said, “And??”
He spun around and she almost collied with him, “It means that their blood was blue. The blue marks Ms. Noble is blood, their blood. Arcadian blood.”, there was a gleam in his eye, like he knew he was scaring her somewhat, and liked it.
“Shut up”, she said reflexively, “All this blue is...blood?”, she said her voice trailing off.
“Of course”, he said still with that grin, “They killed themselves, all 941 guests. Tore each other apart limb from limb. Was a gruesome sight from what I heard. I suppose no one ever bothered to clean it up if the ship was just going to be trashed.”,he raised his eyebrows and sighed, “Oh well”, and turned back around, “Coming Peri?”, and walked off.
She stood there for a second and tried to make sure her foot didn't touch any of the dried blue material that was all over the floor. She was so upset she hadn't even noticed the new name, she skipped and ran after him, “Why?”
“Why what?”, he asked briskly, again with another voice.
“Why did they kill themselves?”
“No one knows”, he turned and smiled, “It's a mystery.”
“What? A ship of people kill themselves and no one knows why? How's that?”
“Oh they might have found out why”, he said gesturing dismissively with his hand, again another voice, “I just never bothered to check.”
And grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, “Hold on there Ziggy Spaceman, you brought me to an abandoned ship in the middle of nowhere where a whole crew of aliens killed themselves and you don't know why they did it? How do you know its not some creature in here that did it? Some kind of monster or...”
“Shut up!”, he said sharply, this time sounding like he was some kind of dock worker from the North, “That's all you do is go on and on! How he doesn't just put a muzzle on you I'll never know.”, her mouth was open in shock and his change of demeanor, “Look Donna”, he said the name a bit mocking, which was a change from being called someone else's name, “Do you know why the Titanic sank?”
She stood there silent for a second and he asked, “Do you?”
She jumped and said, “Iceberg.”
“Right”, he said sounding like he was talking to a school child that had gotten a problem right, “And do you know why it hit that iceberg?”
She shook her head no. “Why not?”, he demanded, “After all people in your time have gone down there, examined the ship. They have done their computer projections and found the most likely cause. Don't you know it?”
She shook her head again.
“That was on your planet less than a hundred years ago and there was a bloody movie about it. This ship crashed and was discovered over three hundred thousand years ago, and I wasn't an Arcadian. So why would I care why they killed themselves?”
She didn't know what to say, his speech and tone was so different, so angry. It was like a completely different person. “So don't go whining about what he did and didn't tell you about this place. We are here to get this business done and leave. If you want to leave with me, keep up and shut it.” And with that he turned and stomped down the hall, his very motion screamed anger.
She couldn't even make a sarcastic comment, she was so scared right now. She wasn't sure how and she wasn't sure why....but she didn't think that was the Doctor at all.
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Sister Parce felt like she was running in place.
She had spent the greater portion of the last year trying to rebuild what had been broken during the Doctor's stand off. For every three problems she solved five more seemed to spring up. She had handled the bulk of the work, a suggestion by The Mater Superior so that she understood the depth of labor involved in the hospital.
In times when her patience was short and her workload large, she wondered if it wasn't just a way for the old cat to get out of work. But of course each night she asked Mother Centauri for forgiveness. She had just gotten a small lead on the avalanche so she decided to get Mater's input on the parts of the reconstruction she wasn't quite sure about.
She exited the private lift and made her way into the Mater's secluded office. She halted at the doorway as she saw The Mater wasn't alone. There was a large Judoon solider standing next to her, handing her a small silver disk. Both The Mater and the Judoon looked to Parce.
“Oh I am sorry Mater”, she said bowing, “I did not know you were occupied.”, she began to walk backwards out the door. The Mater waved her in, “It's ok Sister Parce, I needed to talk to you anyways”, and then she said to the Judoon, “Please don't transmat, this won't take long.” The large alien bowed, which was more like it leaning forward at its waist, and took a step away.
“Is everything ok Mater?”, she asked approaching the elderly feline.
“Yes”, she said activating the computer screen built into her desktop, “I am going to need you to take over as acting Mater while I attend another matter.”
“You're leaving?”, Parce asked in astonishment. In the years she had served the sisters she had never known the Mater to ever leave the building. If she was talking about the Judoon then that meant going off world, and that just didn't make sense to her.
“Yes”, she nodded as she pushed a few more buttons, “This Judoon works for The Shadow Proclamation and wants me to give testimony against The Doctor.”
Parce opened her mouth and then closed it quickly, “He's being tried?”
The Mater looked to her, “Yes, it seems the Doctor exceeded himself when he dealt with the Macra and he is going to be punished for it.”, she went back to her console.
“The Macra”, she blurted out, “But he saved us from them!”
The Mater looked up slowly, “Yes, and it seemed that he dealt with it in a way that is against Galactic Law. I am surprised Sister Parce, he held us hostage, I thought you'd be a bit happier.”
“But we asked him to stop them”, she could not believe what she was hearing.
“I know, but we didn't tell him how.”
“But we gave him the chemicals to make it, we helped him! We gave him a bloody parade for it. How can you give testimony against him?”
The Mater was silent for a long while and then said, “He held us hostage and threatened our lives. If it wasn't for a moment of weakness from Sister Fidelis we'd be dead. He needs to pay for his crimes.”
“I agree”, she said, “But saving us wasn't one of them.”
“We are done discussing this!”, The Mater snapped, “I am transferring control of the hospital over to you while I am gone, do not make me regret this!”
“Yes ma'am”, Parce said quickly bowing.
“I have faith in you Sister Parce, have faith in the Sisterhood.”, and she looked to the Judoon, “I am ready to leave.”
The Judoon walked over to the older cat and placed a hand on her shoulder, “Jo no”, he said and the two of them vanished.
Leaving a confused and angry Acting Mater Parce wondering if she could stay silent for long.
To be continued...