Episode One-Whatsername-Prelude
I made a point to burn all of the photographs
She went away and then I took a different path
I remember the face but I can't recall the name
Now I wonder how Whatshername has been...
Green Day
Prelude
The Terilepitil call it Shan'ka. Crespallions call it Lortha. Logopolitans refer to it as a state of permanent zero. The Ood call it the long death. Almost every race in the galaxy has a name for it. The Gallifreian's called it the olomax which roughly translated as Unfinished Symphony. He knows over 2,100 ways to say it, but as always it is English that seems to sum it up best for him.
Alone. He was alone again.
There is a term in computers that refers to the state in which things return to how they are supposed to be. It is called a default state. To tell what a computer's default state was all one had to do was turn off the computer and then turn it on again. Barring any internal or external problems, the computer will return to it's default state within minutes. It was a fast and easy rule of figuring out if a computer had a hardware or software problem. If the computer could not reset itself to a default state, then it can be a hardware problem. If the computer tries to return to it's default but is unable to accomplish it, it might be a software problem. If both are in working order and the computer still will not reset, one has to look and see if the computer's default state is in fact the same one the user is imagining.
The Doctor was wondering if it was a hardware or a software problem this time.
With Rose it was a hardware problem. After all her being stuck in Pete's World and him being in the real universe, definitely a hardware issue. Now with Martha, that was software. Obviously the ghost of Rose clung to the Doctor like smoke to a burn victim, so much so that after awhile she was forced to admit she was “getting out”. Completely software on that. But Donna...that one is...different.
You could call it a hardware problem, after all if she was to keep her Timelord memories she would die. Unfortunitly, no matter how incredible human beings were, they weren't ready for the full majesty of the unfiltered universe in their head. The entire space time continuum spread out before them, all the multiple paths flowing out from each person, glowing like a beacon into the eternal night. There were days that he felt weary of such a burden, a human...it would have killed her. No doubt about that.
But it was software too wasn't it ? After all....he could have...
The TARDIS phone rang suddenly. The shrill, old world bell ring was incongruous when compared to the full magnificence of the interior of the ship. His thoughts were neatly filed away, along with the calculations of how much Rift Energy was left in the power cells and exactly how much longer the refractory converter would still function before it needed to be replaced. As his old teacher Azmael used to say, “Any Time Lord not thinking at least three things at once, was wasting their time.” Just the thought of his old friend made him feel even worse than before. A shadow of all the time lost and gone moved over him, he paused inches from the phone, knowing that it wasn't something good.
Only a handful of people even had the number, and not one of them would call for anything less than the end of the world.
Again.
The end of the world again. He sighed and resisted the urge to lay down for quite some time and hope it all sorted itself out. But as Robert used to say, “Miles to go before I sleep”, which he gave him by the way. That's what he got for talking out loud around writers. Never can trust writers.
“Hello ?”, he said into the receiver, none of the weariness for just a few seconds ago evident in his voice.
“Doctor ?”, a female voice asked. And automatically a smile came to his face, “Martha ! Martha Jones as I live and breathe, what are you doing on my line ?” He had just left Earth, not even (quick round of temporal math) two months ago their time, after the destruction of the Daleks and towing the Earth back via the TARDIS. To them two months had passed, to him...it seemed like a lifetime. A lifetime since he lost her again.
Shan'ka, Lortha, Zero, Long Death....alone.
“Doctor, I'm here at Torchwood and we need to talk with you”, her voice was pleasant but there was the tone she had when she was trying to be all business. A formality that creept into her words when she was struggling to hold on. He bet not even her parents would recognize it, not even her finace. But then her parents and finace hadn't stared death in it's face with her like he had.
“Hold on Martha”, he said moving back to the console and activating the videoscreen by the phone. The Gallifreyan text vanished and a small image of Martha sitting on in front of one of the Torchwood data terminals appeared. She didn't have on her normal UNIT uniform on, and in fact was wearing a doctors coat instead. Though the image wasn't perfect she could see the Torchwood tag pinned to her pocket and he smiled, “Did you go and replace Jack while he wasn't looking ?”
The face of Captain Jack Harkness pushed in from one side, his smile even charming over a thousand light years away, “No I just made her an offer she couldn't refuse” As with everything he said, Jack somehow made even this statement sound sexual in some small way. The Doctor smiled even wider and shook his head, “You're not her type Jack, she likes men”
The captain mimed holding his hands to the imaginary wound over his heart as he grimaced, “You wound me Doctor” The mood seemed relatively light, but he could tell Martha was just waiting, “What did you need, Doctor Martha Jones”
Martha crooked her mouth sideways for a second, biting her bottom lip, an obvious sign that she was trying to figure out what to say next. In all his time with her he never thought Martha was ever one to be careful with words, so this meant it was bad news.
“What's wrong ?”, he said all seriousness, “Did something somehow survive ? Davros find a way through ?”
“No, it's not that. It's just...”, she stopped and looked off screen for a second, as if conferring with someone else.
“Martha are you in trouble ?”, he leaned in to screen, wondering if they were being held against their will or possibly trapped...but no Jack wouldn't have been flirting. Well no that's not true, Jack would flirt no matter what,
“It's just...”, she started again, “I think you need to get back here”, again looking off screen. There was some kind of commotion, but it was behind the screen and the mic, so he couldn't quite make it out.
“Martha”, he said trying to get her attention, but whatever it was had her more than occupied. Finally he saw a hand move Martha and Jack out of the way and place itself in front of the screen.
All the blood drained from the Doctor's face as he watched.
“OY ! What's the big deal taking off without me ! You think you can just ditch me here and I wouldn't mind !”
“Donna ?”, he whispered.
“Alright”, she said looking at Martha, “He remembers my name, that's a start. Where the hell are you ?”, she said leaning into the camera, as if she could divine the TARDIS' location from the interior.
“Wha ?”, he started.
“You better get back here RIGHT now mister ! I am not going to wait around forever for you”
“Wha ?”, he stuttered.
“And don't think just cause you came back means it's square between us. Cause let me tell you skinny boy....”
“Wha ?”, he spit out again.
“...you have A LOT of explaining to do !!”
“Wha ?”, he said again...Azmael would have been disappointed. Because currently all the Doctor could think of, was Donna.And how did she remember him ?
To be continued...