Crossing Parallels (1/2)
Who_Daily Link: < a href="http://persiflage-1.livejournal.com/210153.html">Crossing Parallels (1/2) by < lj user=persiflage_1> (Characters: Martha Jones/Luther Arkwright, UNIT, Torchwood | Rating: NC-17 | Spoilers: The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, DW S3 & S4, TW S2)
Title: Crossing Parallels (1/2)
Author: Persiflage_1
Characters/Pairings: Martha Jones/Luther Arkwright, UNIT, Torchwood Two
[Note: Luther Arkwright is portrayed by David Tennant in the Big Finish audio drama]
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, Doctor Who S3 and S4, Torchwood S2
Summary: Investigating a potential alien invasion, Martha meets a stranger with a very familiar face.
Disclaimer: Doctor Who & Torchwood are owned by Auntie Beeb, Luther Arkwright is owned by Bryan Talbot. I'm just playing fast and loose with them all!
Author Notes: I listened to the Big Finish version of "The Adventures of Luther Arkwright" and fell instantly in love with both the character and the world that Talbot had created, and as a result, I couldn't resist bringing Luther and Martha Jones together. This story is set about 10 years after the end of "Adventures" for Luther, and a few months after "Journey's End" for Martha. This fic is a belated Xmas & birthday present for jadekirk - I hope you enjoy it!
Beta: The fabulous and helpful fourzoas
~~~~~~
Martha Jones tried to focus on the data on her laptop screen as the soldiers around her chatted excitedly about their imminent arrival at the UK's UFO 'hotspot', a small Scottish town named Bonnybridge which for nearly two decades had reputedly been the scene of over 300 UFO sightings each year. The majority had consisted of 'strange lights in the sky' which the local military had refused to confirm or deny were caused by secret experimental aircraft. Jack Harkness, however, had confirmed that Torchwood Two, which was based in Glasgow, had investigated some of the sightings, and there had definitely been some alien activity there in recent years, although not as extensive as Bonnybridge's councillor would have everyone believe.
According to Torchwood Two's Archie there had been a lot of activity in the area over the past week, with a higher than usual number of reports of strange blue lights. Archie had requested Jack's assistance in further investigating the lights, but the Captain and his small team were being kept busier than usual by activity from the Rift in Cardiff, so he'd contacted Martha and asked if UNIT could help. After two lengthy conference calls between Cardiff and London, with Jack, Martha, Colonel Mace and Brigadier Chaudhry all involved in the discussions, a UNIT platoon was dispatched to Scotland aboard a Hercules transport aircraft. Their ETA was in ten minutes and Martha had been going over Archie's reports, which Jack had forwarded to her, until she was satisfied she had familiarised herself with all the relevant data.
"All set Dr Jones?" enquired Colonel Mace from his seat across the aisle as she shut down her laptop and prepared for the landing.
"I think so, sir," she answered.
"Good."
Martha had noticed that since the business with both the Sontarans and the Daleks, Mace had a tendency to treat her as more of an equal than before, despite her civilian status. She wasn't sure if it was the result of her being one of the few people who'd escaped the Dalek attack on UNIT's Manhattan HQ, or if it was because he knew about her role regarding the Osterhagen Key (which she'd reported to the Brigadier, but hadn't discussed with anyone else). Either way, there had been greater respect in his manner when she had returned to London after the Earth had been towed home.
The Hercules touched down and everyone gathered up their kit, then waited their turn to disembark. Once on the ground they piled into the jeeps they had brought with them, ready to drive from the Leuchars airfield to Bonnybridge.
Martha had visited Scotland once with the Doctor, but that had been 19th century Edinburgh, not the 21st century, and she couldn't help wishing that she'd had the chance to come here in different circumstances, so that she could explore at her leisure rather than being driven in a rattling jeep to investigate a potential alien threat.
"Is your Torchwood contact meeting us at the site?" asked Mace, breaking Martha from her reverie.
"Yes sir, at least, that's the arrangement that Captain Harkness made with Archie."
The Colonel nodded and she wondered if he disapproved of the fact that Jack had been her go-between for contacting the Torchwood Two person who was, according to the Captain, a very strange man. Martha had concluded that if Jack, who had seen so much, thought Archie was strange, then Mace was liable to find him downright weird.
The Colonel gestured for her to join him in the front of one of the jeeps, which was being driven by a private. "How likely is it that these blue lights are genuine alien activity?" asked Mace.
"I can't say for certain, but reading the reports, I suspect they aren't of Earthly origin this time," she answered. "They've become too active and too frequent this past week for me to easily accept a more mundane explanation."
"Well Jones, I trust your instincts and experience, and your assurance that Captain Harkness' colleague isn't just looking for a bit of company."
She gave him a half smile. "If Archie had only wanted company, I'm sure he would have found some way to get Jack and the others up to Glasgow, rather than a bunch of military types he doesn’t know."
The Colonel nodded agreement, and their conversation lapsed into silence as they both considered what they might find themselves facing.
An hour later they pulled up in a layby near the town of Bonnybridge where a rather battered yellow mini was waiting, as arranged. Martha and Mace climbed out of the jeep and approached the car, from which a man climbed out, unfolding his long frame with difficulty, and the young doctor couldn't help wondering why such a tall man drove such a small car.
She approached, introducing herself and Mace.
"Archie," he answered, briefly shaking hands with them both. His skin was dry and had a translucent quality, she noticed, despite the fact he looked as if he was only a decade or so older than her. His brown hair was thin and wispy, and his grey eyes were squinting, although the afternoon daylight wasn't that bright.
"Shall we?" Martha asked, gesturing at the road.
Archie gave a nod. "Aye, ye can travel wi' me, and the rest of yer lot can foller behind."
She glanced over at Mace, who nodded slightly. "Okay." She moved around the car and climbed into the passenger seat.
They drove straight through the town and out into the countryside beyond. Martha tried making conversation with Archie, asking him about his work at Torchwood, but the Scotsman was taciturn, mostly responding with grunts. She couldn't help wondering if his manner was the result of his isolation, being the only employee of Torchwood Two, or if he'd gravitated towards the organisation because it suited his personality.
By the time they reached their destination, it was already dusk, to Martha's surprise - she'd forgotten that it got dark earlier in Scotland than it did in London. But since they were coming to see strange lights, there was little point in arriving in broad daylight.
Archie pulled up at the edge of some open ground, and the two jeeps stopped on either side of his mini.
"Where are we?" she asked.
"Hills o' Dunipace," he answered.
They got out of the car and looked up at the rapidly darkening sky.
"There," he said, pointing upwards and Martha saw there were two, no four, no eight blue lights above the cemetery that was to one side of them.
"Dr Jones, what - Good God!" Colonel Mace couldn't help interrupting himself as he spotted what she and Archie were looking at, and the lights blazed even more brightly than before, then swooped down towards their position.
Martha already had a small device in her hand which she was using to track and analyse the data from the lights. "They're definitely aliens," she told them, "and as far as I can tell, they're mechan-organic constructs."
She glanced up from the screen of her device as a sudden white light flashed across the landscape, illuminating the scene as brightly as if the sun had come back out again. As she watched, the blue lights converged on the white one, appearing to repeatedly bombard it, but also 'bouncing' off it. Four of the blue lights suddenly converged simultaneously on the white one, instead of attacking one by one as they had before, and the watchers all winced in sympathy. The other four blue lights were circling around the four that were attacking the white light, presumably biding their time, but they never got a chance to attack as the white light suddenly flared with an intensely brilliant burst of brightness. Everyone cried out and threw up their arms to shield their faces; when they were able to see again, they noticed that all of the lights were drifting Earthwards, landing roughly a hundred metres ahead of their position.
"Dr Jones?" queried the Colonel.
Martha looked down at the display screen on her Track and Analyse device. "They appear to be deactivated," she said. "They're certainly not a threat now."
"All right, men, you heard the MO. We approach, but with caution. Be careful, but don't be trigger happy."
She turned to Archie as Mace led the soldiers forward. "Are you coming?"
"Och, I suppose," he answered, reluctantly, she thought.
The first alien Martha approached was, as she had described, a mechanical organic creature of a kind she had never seen before; it was about seven feet tall, or would be when standing upright, and bipedal, but it was simian not humanoid in appearance. She could see cogs, springs and other mechanical parts scattered in the grass around its body, and more such parts were visible in the open chest cavity.
"Ever seen such things before, Jones?" asked the Colonel as she investigated the deactivated remains.
"No sir," she answered, not looking up from where she was scanning the creature, her attention firmly fixed on the Track and Analyse device in her hand.
"Hmm." He watched without comment as Martha finished her scan and got to her feet.
"Sir," called one of the privates, "this one's different to the others, and I think it's alive still."
The young doctor hurried over, Mace at her heels, to find that the private was standing at the feet of a man, a very familiar looking man, apart from the colour of his hair.
"Good God!" exclaimed the Colonel as he caught sight of the figure. "That looks like the Doctor."
Martha was already on her knees beside the supine figure, pulling a stethoscope from her medical kit with one hand while seeking a pulse in his neck with her other hand. She wondered what the Time Lord had been up to: his clothes were completely unfamiliar, and his hair was a white-blond colour instead of the usual brown.
She found his pulse, but it was weak, and she quickly unzipped the brown leather flying jacket he wore, then pushed up the loose linen shirt which she absent-mindedly noticed had laces at the top instead of buttons. She slipped the earpieces of the stethoscope into place, then placed the bell on his chest, an intent expression on her face.
He stirred under her touch, and her eyes widened in surprise when she realised that she could only hear one heart beating.
"Rose?" he mumbled, "where are you?"
Martha glanced up at his words, noticing that he appeared to still be unconscious. She presumed this was the human Doctor, rather than the Time Lord, although she had understood from the conversation she'd had with Mickey, after they'd left the TARDIS, that the Time Lord was intending to leave his human counterpart in the parallel universe with Rose. She wondered how and why he was here instead.
"We need to get him to a hospital," she told the Colonel.
He nodded. "I can scramble a Puma."
"What medical facilities are there at Leuchars?" she asked.
"Just the basics," Mace answered. "We can get him taken to the Royal Infirmary at Edinburgh. I'll send a security detail with you."
She nodded. "That's probably the best."
Twenty minutes later Martha, the injured man, and four of Mace's men were in the air and en route to the hospital. Archie had headed back to Torchwood in Glasgow, apparently having lost interest in the proceedings, and Mace was organising the men to get the simian mechanoids back to the RAF base at Leuchars in order to transport them to London for further study.
As the helicopter flew to Edinburgh, Martha found herself puzzling over the unconscious man beside her. It seemed unlikely that this was the Doctor, unless one of his hearts had stopped, and while she knew that this wasn't impossible, only an X-ray could confirm whether he had one heart or two. If this was the Doctor's human counterpart, which seemed possible since he had asked for Rose, then how had he ended up back in this universe, and how could she return him again.
She sighed, knowing he needed to be awake in order to answer her questions, and pushed them to the back of her mind to concentrate, instead, on the data she had gathered via her T&A device. She was, not unjustifiably, quite proud of this gadget, which she'd designed herself, and had built with the assistance of some of the technical staff at UNIT. It might not be as elegant as the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, nor capable of as many functions as that alien gadget, but it was extremely useful, and UNIT were already talking about building more of them once Martha had done sufficient field-testing.
* * * * * *
Once at the hospital, Martha ensured that her patient was dealt with swiftly, pulling rank slightly; she tried not to pace as he was examined, X-rayed and then made comfortable in a private room which was guarded by two of the four soldiers she had brought with her.
The doctor's examination had established that the mystery man definitely only had one heart, and also, oddly, that he had no body hair except for the white-blond thatch on his head. He was also free of any physical injuries, nor could Dr Michaels discover that he'd experienced a head trauma, so his current unconscious state was rather inexplicable.
Martha contacted the Colonel to let him know the situation, then went to find out where she and the soldiers could eat; she had to enter into some brief negotiations before they were given permission to use the staff restaurant. Once they'd all eaten, and the two men who weren't on guard duty had gone to get some rest, she settled into a chair beside the bed. She knew from her student experiences that she wouldn't have any trouble falling asleep there, and she felt it was important to be on hand when the mystery man woke up again.
A couple of hours later, after Martha thought she had fallen asleep, the man beside her spoke.
"Dr Jones."
She straightened up in her chair, surprised at being addressed directly.
"Forgive me for startling you," he said, offering a sweet smile of apology. "I wonder if you can tell me which parallel I'm on?"
"Which what?" she asked, sleepy and baffled.
"Parallel. I'm from parallel Zero-Zero."
"Is that a planet?" Martha asked, confused.
"No, it's an alternative dimension. You are familiar with the concept of parallel versions of Earth."
She noticed that it was a statement, not a question. "How do you know that?" she demanded, feeling unnerved by this man who wore the Doctor's face, but didn't sound like him. "You're not the Doctor's human counterpart, are you?"
"I'm not," he agreed, "nor am I the Doctor, although I am his doppelganger. My name is Luther Arkwright."
Martha shook her head, trying to clear the sleep from her brain.
"I'm not even human, in fact, nor a Time Lord."
"Then what are you?" she asked, standing up quickly. Just because he had a nice smile, it didn't mean she had to trust him. She wondered if she should call the guards in.
"Please, Martha, I know this is a bit weird for you, even after all the things you've seen and experienced, but I assure you that I mean you no harm." He sat up and reached out to her slowly. "Will you sit down, please, and I'll explain as much as I can."
She sat down, perching on the edge of the chair and gave him a wary look. "You could start by explaining how you know who I am if you're not the Doctor or his human counterpart."
He nodded, rubbing a slender hand across his face before he spoke again. "My name, as I told you, is Luther Arkwright, and I come from a parallel Earth. I was born a human, just like you, but with highly developed psychic abilities which, amongst other things, allow me to travel through the parallels unaided, and give me strong telepathic powers." He smiled at her. "Did you know you've got a latent telepathic ability yourself?"
Martha gave him a startled look. "No!"
Luther nodded. "You're not actually awake at the moment," he said casually. "Nor am I. You're sleeping beside my bed and I'm unconscious, in a healing trance, after that attack by the simian mechanoids that your UNIT people collected up."
"I'm asleep?" she asked doubtfully.
He nodded. "My unconscious mind found your sleeping one and recognised that you've experienced space and time travel, and that you have considerable curiosity, both about me and about the universe at large."
"So will I remember this conversation when I wake up?"
"Oh yes," Luther answered quickly. "To you it will initially seem like a very vivid dream, but there's a bit more to it than that."
"Are there many more people like you on this parallel Earth you mentioned?"
He shook his head. "Not that many, not yet. There are people with telepathic powers. My friend, Rose Wylde, has the ability to sense her counterparts in other parallels, for example. And there are others like her, but no one is quite like me, not yet."
"You said just now that you were born human, but before that you told me you weren't human, so what are you, and what happened to make you non-human?"
He smiled wryly. "Technically, I'm a more advanced form of human, Homo Novus as opposed to Homo Sapiens. As for how I became more than human, that's a long and complex tale, best told when we're both awake because much of it is bloody, and I don't think you would appreciate the ensuing nightmares. However, I can tell you a little of the parallel from which I come."
Martha settled back into the chair in a more comfortable position, then nodded to indicate he could begin.
Luther smiled, the same sort of beguiling smile the Doctor often gave her, and she quickly pushed that thought aside, not wanting to be distracted.
"I come from parallel Zero-Zero. It is a uniquely stable continuum and as a result has very advanced science and technology, and is the most peaceful version of Earth. The science of this Earth grew by leaps and bounds since it was unfettered by the socio-religious prejudice usual on other parallels. John Dalton perfected his Theory of Relativity by 1800, and in 1816 Franz Joseph Gall proved the existence of psionics to the scientific establishment. The first man and woman set foot upon the Moon in 1820, and in 1832 Charles Babbage completed BINAC, the first electronic stored-programme computer. By the early 1850s world poverty and famine had been eradicated."
He nodded at the look of astonishment on Martha's face. "The tenets of religion held back the advancement of science on many parallels, but on Zero-Zero, without religion to hold it back, science advanced far faster. Since the early 20th century some us in Zero-Zero have been involved in the Valhalla Programme, which was created to monitor parallel worlds and observe the predicted fluctuation of historical trends. They built a massive hyper-computer called WOTAN, which was conceived as an integral part of the structure and project. WOTAN was designed to scan the continua, to correlate, analyse and display information on the status of the myriad parallel worlds. In particular, its role was to help those in the Valhalla Programme to deal with the Disruptors in other continua."
She gave him a quizzical look. "Why do I get the feeling these disruptors have a capital letter?"
He gave her a wry smile. "Probably because they loomed very large in my life for a very long time," Luther answered. "To a large extent they are responsible for me being more than human now."
"That's the story you won't tell me until we're both awake," she commented. He nodded. "So why are you here? Do I need to warn UNIT about an imminent Disruptor attack?"
"Oh, no, I completely destroyed them all some time ago. I'm here to stop the simian mechanoids."
Martha blinked at the casual way he mentioned the destruction of the Disruptors; if nothing else, it proved that this wasn't the Doctor because the Time Lord would not have been so relaxed about it: she still remembered the state he'd been in after the loss of the Dalek-Human hybrids in New York, and how she'd tried to help him. She filed that away for further thought, when she was actually awake.
"So, this healing trance, is that the reason why the doctor couldn't find any injuries on you?"
"Yes. My ability to heal myself, even from fatal injuries, is another part of my Homo Novus state."
"So, eventually people like you will put people like me out of work," Martha commented.
"But that won't happen for a long time," Luther observed. "Besides, you are more than just a doctor."
The look he gave her was so intently focused that she shifted in her chair, feeling uncomfortably like he was laying bare her soul. This close scrutiny was another difference between this man and the Doctor, and she didn't know if she could get used to it, assuming she had the chance.
"You've got a Healer's heart, but you've also got a Warrior's spirit, a Lover's passion and a Poet's soul in you." His expression was thoughtful as he spoke. "During the year that you walked the Earth all four of those elements of your nature were in perfect harmony, which allowed you to succeed in your mission to tell the story of the Doctor, and heal your world of the hurt caused by his enemy the Master. But the Lover and the Poet have become lesser to the Healer and the Warrior since that year was rewound."
She swallowed hard as his gazed focused back on her face.
"I'm sorry, Martha," he apologised, a contrite expression on his face. "I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable."
She shook her head, rendered momentarily speechless by his perceptive comments.
"I should let you sleep in peace," he said, "and we can talk properly in the morning."
"Okay." The last thing Martha remembered before she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, was Luther smiling at her in a way that made her feel safe and valued, as if she was an important person in his life.
* * * * * *
Martha awoke at 5 am when one of the guards came in to say that the nurse wanted to take a look at the patient.
"Let her in, Sampson, but I doubt she'll find much wrong with him."
The private nodded, then went out and a tall, blonde nurse came in. She nodded a brisk acknowledgement to Martha, who returned the gesture as she moved over to the window to give the nurse more space.
She heard a soft exclamation of surprise behind her, and turned to see Luther looking at her, his eyes an icy blue.
"He's awake," the nurse said unnecessarily.
"Yes I am," he said, sitting up, "and ravenously hungry, if you wish to know."
"Yes sir." The nurse found herself by bobbing a curtsey before hurrying away.
"Hello Martha Jones." He held out his hands and Martha found herself going to him, allowing him to take both of her hands in his.
She cocked her head at him. "Are you using hypnotism on me?" she asked.
He grinned, laughter lines crinkling his face in an attractive manner. "Charm, actually."
"Full of yourself, aren't you?" she joked, trying to cover her nervousness.
"Maybe." He gently pulled her closer until she was standing against the edge of the bed, both of her hands clasped in his and held between their bodies. "Do you trust me?"
She shrugged one shoulder. "I think I can, but I'm not sure yet."
He nodded his understanding. "You're scared of being hurt again," he observed. "Mostly because I look quite like your Doctor, I think."
"It's pretty unnerving when you do that mind reading thing, you know?"
"I'm sorry." He looked down at their clasped hands. "I want to help you, Martha," he said softly.
"Why?" she asked. "You hardly know me."
Luther looked up again, his gaze intent, and she felt a small shiver pass through her, but she didn't know whether it was fear or desire, or both, or something else entirely.
"Actually, I know a good deal about you already, just from that conversation we had last night." He rubbed his index finger over her knuckles. "Your lively mind called out to mine, and I am intrigued by you."
Martha gave him a half smile. "You intrigue me, too," she answered shyly.
He smiled back. "Good. There are things I want to help you to learn and discover, and I want you to be more whole than you are. You will be a much better healer if you're not constantly repressing half your nature."
"Last night, you mentioned I had a poet's soul," she said, "but I've never written any poetry, and I don't even read it that often."
Luther's smile widened into a grin. "I didn't mean it quite so literally," he explained. "To have the soul of a poet makes you a good communicator, which is how you were able to spread the story of the Doctor so effectively during that rewound year."
"Oh!" She felt her face heat up in embarrassment at her mistake.
"It's okay," he assured her. "Don't feel bad."
Martha heard the door opening behind her and she quickly moved away from the bed as the same nurse came in, accompanied by a doctor; she waited by the window again as the doctor talked to Luther and the nurse made notes on his chart.
They went out after the doctor had agreed that Luther could have some breakfast and that he would be discharged this morning.
"I thought they'd never go," he said.
Martha smiled in sympathy. "I should ring Colonel Mace, and let him know the situation. Are you coming back to London with us?"
"If that's acceptable to your Colonel, yes. I daresay your science people will want to investigate the Simico Mechanismus, the simian mechanoids," he clarified, seeing her blank look.
"Oh they will," she agreed. "I'll give the Colonel a ring while you eat your breakfast."
He nodded, and Martha hurried out, her mind buzzing with ideas and speculation.
* * * * * *
Colonel Mace readily agreed to Luther's suggestion that he accompany them, and assist the scientific and technical people in investigating the mechanoids. They flew back down to London in the Hercules, and the trip down only seemed half as long as the trip up had been as Martha and the Colonel talked with Luther.
They were back at HQ by lunchtime, and Mace left Martha to look after Luther, instructing her to give him the tour after they'd eaten, then he went to make his report to the Brigadier. Martha immediately felt nervous at being left alone with Luther, not least because she was aware that he knew what she was thinking and feeling.
"Would you like me to show you how to shut me out?" he asked, a sympathetic expression in his eyes.
"No," she answered after a moment. "I'll get used to the idea."
He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "Brave woman," he said softly.
"Let's go and have some lunch, and then I'll show you around," Martha suggested.
He nodded. "And I can tell you some of that promised story," he offered.
"That would be good."
She led the way to the canteen, and they settled themselves at a quiet corner table with their food.
"I was born in 1950," Luther began.
"But - Sorry, go on. I shouldn't have interrupted."
He smiled. "I don't mind interruptions," he assured her. "I welcome them, in fact, if you've got any questions or need anything clarified."
She blushed faintly. "I was going to say, you look as if you're in your mid thirties, not almost 60. It's one thing for the Doctor to look ridiculously young for his age, but you're not a Time Lord. Do Time Lords even exist on any of the other parallels?"
He shook his head. "No, I've never come across them, nor had I even heard of them before I saw the knowledge of them in your head. My looking so young is one of the side effects of my powers, outwardly I don't age as obviously as you."
"So, you were born in 1950?"
Luther nodded. "I was born on parallel 00-30-22. The parallels are numbered according to how much they differ from Zero-Zero. So parallels 00-01-00 and 00-00-01 are both flanking parallels, with only a slight degree of dissimilarity between either one of them and Zero-Zero."
"So parallel 00-30-22 is quite a lot different to Zero-Zero," Martha observed, her forkful of salad momentarily forgotten as she frowned over this information.
He smiled warmly at her. "Yes, that's correct."
"So which parallel is this Earth?"
"As far as I can determine this is parallel 00-30-92, so it's quite a lot different to Zero-Zero."
She nodded, so he continued with his story. "I am the son of a Battle of Britain ace who had been awarded the Victoria Cross. Unfortunately my mother was a Disruptor agent which means that my father had been carefully chosen to sire a child because he came from a long line of soldiers and fighters who had served their country with distinction. I was conceived as the Disruptors' ultimate weapon, and shortly after my birth I was kidnapped by Disruptor agents while both my parents were killed in a fire at the hospital."
Martha looked shocked. "That's horrible," she whispered, sympathy flaring in her dark eyes. She couldn't imagine not having both her parents around; she might not see them so often now that they were both dealing better with their experiences of being held by the Master, but they were there for her, just as she was there for them.
"I didn't know," he said. "It was several years before I found out. I spent the first fourteen years of my life living in an underground bunker where I was subjected to an intense training regime that was designed to turn me into a living weapon. At the age of fourteen, however, I first discovered my talent to subconsciously shift myself across the parallels when I took myself back to the Earth of my birth. Until then I hadn't known I could move freely between the parallels."
"Thank goodness you escaped." He could hear the relief in her voice, and feel the warmth of her emotion in her mind.
"I did, but I then spent the next six years on the run from the Disruptors, and it's possible I would have remained in hiding if I hadn't been discovered in 1970 by Rose Wylde. She was an agent of Zero-Zero, and another anomaly of the parallel worlds as many of the different versions of her across the multiverse are telepaths, and are therefore empathically linked to one another."
Luther reached across the table and touched her hand. "It might make you feel uncomfortable to hear this, since your Doctor friend, who I look like, also had a companion called Rose, but Rose Wylde and I became romantically involved."
Martha shrugged. "I'm not jealous of her any more," she said.
He tilted his head, looking at her thoughtfully. "You are, just a little," he said softly, "I can sense that your feelings about her changed recently, after the two of you met, but there's still a tiny sliver of jealousy there. You fear that you will always stand in her shadow, no matter what you do for the Doctor."
She stared down at her almost empty plate, feeling embarrassed that he'd caught her out in a lie. She had thought that she was over that irrational feeling because she knew that the Doctor knew that she was good, and that she would do all she could to defend the Earth.
Luther slid a finger under her chin and lifted her face to his, cupping her left cheek in his right hand. "It's okay, Martha. Your feelings are understandable, and the fact that you still feel that way shows that the Doctor still hasn't properly addressed the matter with you, which is his error, not yours."
After a few moments she nodded, and seeing that he'd also finished eating, she suggested that they begin the tour of the HQ that Mace had suggested.
"I'd like to see where you work," he said promptly.
"Okay. I've got an office and a lab near the Infirmary, so we'll start there."
As they moved through the corridors of the base, heading towards the area where she worked, Martha was acutely aware of the sidelong looks that Luther earned.
"They can't help staring," she told him, "it's because you look like the Doctor."
"It's okay," he assured her. "I get stared at quite often." Seeing her own sidelong glance, he clarified. "I'm a decorated soldier, war hero, whatever you might want to call it, on many parallels."
She nodded her understanding, then used her ID card to let them into the Sullivan Wing. "The Infirmary is through those doors," she told him, pointing across the corridor, "and this is my office."
He slipped through the door she held open for him, then waited for her to step past him into the room.
"It's just an average sort of office," Martha said.
Luther stood in the middle of the room, gazing around at the shelves of books that covered two of the walls, the large desk with its desktop and laptop computers, and the window that looked out onto a small flower garden. Then he focused his gaze back on Martha, who was watching him with undisguised curiosity as she leaned against the edge of her desk.
"Tell me about the Doctor," he invited.
She tilted her head, looking slightly surprised by his request. "I thought you could get all the information you wanted from reading my mind?"
He nodded. "I could, of course, but it would be a bit rude."
She gestured to the chair beside her desk. "Take a seat."
He slipped into it, shedding his leather jacket and hanging it on the back of the chair, then gave her an expectant look as she settled in her own chair.
"I was a medical student based at the Royal Hope Hospital on the day I met the Doctor," she began, explaining how the Time Lord had disguised himself as a patient in order to investigate odd goings-on at the hospital, then how the Judoon had transported the hospital to the Moon and all that had followed from their arrival in search of a criminal.
As she spoke, Martha was reminded of her storytelling sessions on her journey across the Earth, seeing Luther listening with such an attentive expression on his face. She got the sense that he was drinking in her every word, but that at the same time he was reading her feelings about the Doctor, both how she had felt at that exhilarating first meeting, and how she felt now. In some ways it scared her that Luther knew exactly how she felt about the Time Lord, but in other ways it was a relief that someone else did know. She'd wanted to talk to Jack about the Doctor, but whenever they'd met recently there had never been a good time for such a conversation.
There was something about Luther that spoke of trust; it seemed uncanny that she should feel she could trust him, even before she hardly knew anything about him, and she wondered why she did. Somehow she didn't feel that it was just the fact that he looked like the Doctor, and she wondered if it was the aura of calm that she sensed surrounding him.
"Thank you for sharing that with me," he said softly when she had finished her narrative.
Martha inclined her head. "Thank you for listening."
"Do you want to show me your lab now?" he asked, and she nodded again, then got to her feet. He stood up too, and gently squeezed her shoulder as she passed him.
She led the way next door and they found three white coated people gathered around a bench at one end of the long room, poring over one of the simian mechanoids.
"What can you tell us about these creatures?" Martha asked as they joined the group at the bench.
"Not much, I'm afraid," he answered ruefully. "I followed them here across four parallels."
"Why did you follow them?"
"I sensed them before I saw them, and their auras were full of malevolence." He looked down at the mechanoid, an expression of distaste on his face.
"Can we expect more of them?" Martha asked. "Should I be recommending to my superiors that UNIT posts soldiers in Bonnybridge?"
Luther looked up at her concerned expression. "I don't think there will be any more," he answered, "but of course, I can't guarantee that." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I could go and investigate the parallel from which they originated, though, and see if I can establish their mission."
She gave him a hopeful look. "I don't want to impose on you," she began, "but if you could try to find out it would make things easier for us."
He nodded. "Let's go back to your office," he said quietly.
They moved next door again, and Luther gave her a smile. "To travel between the parallels, I phase from one dimension to the next," he told her. "I thought it would give rise to less comment if I did it from here."
"Yes, of course."
"I don't know how long I'll be gone," he warned her, "but I will be back, that's a promise."
Martha nodded. "Okay."
He dipped his head to place a light kiss on her forehead, feeling her shiver in response, then he stepped back and moved himself through the parallels. To Martha, it was like watching the TARDIS dematerialising, but without all the wheezing and groaning of the ship's ancient engines. Somehow her office seemed emptier without him, and she immediately scolded herself.
"Don't go getting attached," she told herself as she sat down at her desk to apprise Colonel Mace of Luther's departure to investigate the simian mechanoids. It would, she felt, be foolish in the extreme for her to get attached to Luther, especially since he'd already made it clear that there was someone in his life.
* * * * * *
Part 2
Title: Crossing Parallels (1/2)
Author: Persiflage_1
Characters/Pairings: Martha Jones/Luther Arkwright, UNIT, Torchwood Two
[Note: Luther Arkwright is portrayed by David Tennant in the Big Finish audio drama]
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, Doctor Who S3 and S4, Torchwood S2
Summary: Investigating a potential alien invasion, Martha meets a stranger with a very familiar face.
Disclaimer: Doctor Who & Torchwood are owned by Auntie Beeb, Luther Arkwright is owned by Bryan Talbot. I'm just playing fast and loose with them all!
Author Notes: I listened to the Big Finish version of "The Adventures of Luther Arkwright" and fell instantly in love with both the character and the world that Talbot had created, and as a result, I couldn't resist bringing Luther and Martha Jones together. This story is set about 10 years after the end of "Adventures" for Luther, and a few months after "Journey's End" for Martha. This fic is a belated Xmas & birthday present for jadekirk - I hope you enjoy it!
Beta: The fabulous and helpful fourzoas
~~~~~~
Martha Jones tried to focus on the data on her laptop screen as the soldiers around her chatted excitedly about their imminent arrival at the UK's UFO 'hotspot', a small Scottish town named Bonnybridge which for nearly two decades had reputedly been the scene of over 300 UFO sightings each year. The majority had consisted of 'strange lights in the sky' which the local military had refused to confirm or deny were caused by secret experimental aircraft. Jack Harkness, however, had confirmed that Torchwood Two, which was based in Glasgow, had investigated some of the sightings, and there had definitely been some alien activity there in recent years, although not as extensive as Bonnybridge's councillor would have everyone believe.
According to Torchwood Two's Archie there had been a lot of activity in the area over the past week, with a higher than usual number of reports of strange blue lights. Archie had requested Jack's assistance in further investigating the lights, but the Captain and his small team were being kept busier than usual by activity from the Rift in Cardiff, so he'd contacted Martha and asked if UNIT could help. After two lengthy conference calls between Cardiff and London, with Jack, Martha, Colonel Mace and Brigadier Chaudhry all involved in the discussions, a UNIT platoon was dispatched to Scotland aboard a Hercules transport aircraft. Their ETA was in ten minutes and Martha had been going over Archie's reports, which Jack had forwarded to her, until she was satisfied she had familiarised herself with all the relevant data.
"All set Dr Jones?" enquired Colonel Mace from his seat across the aisle as she shut down her laptop and prepared for the landing.
"I think so, sir," she answered.
"Good."
Martha had noticed that since the business with both the Sontarans and the Daleks, Mace had a tendency to treat her as more of an equal than before, despite her civilian status. She wasn't sure if it was the result of her being one of the few people who'd escaped the Dalek attack on UNIT's Manhattan HQ, or if it was because he knew about her role regarding the Osterhagen Key (which she'd reported to the Brigadier, but hadn't discussed with anyone else). Either way, there had been greater respect in his manner when she had returned to London after the Earth had been towed home.
The Hercules touched down and everyone gathered up their kit, then waited their turn to disembark. Once on the ground they piled into the jeeps they had brought with them, ready to drive from the Leuchars airfield to Bonnybridge.
Martha had visited Scotland once with the Doctor, but that had been 19th century Edinburgh, not the 21st century, and she couldn't help wishing that she'd had the chance to come here in different circumstances, so that she could explore at her leisure rather than being driven in a rattling jeep to investigate a potential alien threat.
"Is your Torchwood contact meeting us at the site?" asked Mace, breaking Martha from her reverie.
"Yes sir, at least, that's the arrangement that Captain Harkness made with Archie."
The Colonel nodded and she wondered if he disapproved of the fact that Jack had been her go-between for contacting the Torchwood Two person who was, according to the Captain, a very strange man. Martha had concluded that if Jack, who had seen so much, thought Archie was strange, then Mace was liable to find him downright weird.
The Colonel gestured for her to join him in the front of one of the jeeps, which was being driven by a private. "How likely is it that these blue lights are genuine alien activity?" asked Mace.
"I can't say for certain, but reading the reports, I suspect they aren't of Earthly origin this time," she answered. "They've become too active and too frequent this past week for me to easily accept a more mundane explanation."
"Well Jones, I trust your instincts and experience, and your assurance that Captain Harkness' colleague isn't just looking for a bit of company."
She gave him a half smile. "If Archie had only wanted company, I'm sure he would have found some way to get Jack and the others up to Glasgow, rather than a bunch of military types he doesn’t know."
The Colonel nodded agreement, and their conversation lapsed into silence as they both considered what they might find themselves facing.
An hour later they pulled up in a layby near the town of Bonnybridge where a rather battered yellow mini was waiting, as arranged. Martha and Mace climbed out of the jeep and approached the car, from which a man climbed out, unfolding his long frame with difficulty, and the young doctor couldn't help wondering why such a tall man drove such a small car.
She approached, introducing herself and Mace.
"Archie," he answered, briefly shaking hands with them both. His skin was dry and had a translucent quality, she noticed, despite the fact he looked as if he was only a decade or so older than her. His brown hair was thin and wispy, and his grey eyes were squinting, although the afternoon daylight wasn't that bright.
"Shall we?" Martha asked, gesturing at the road.
Archie gave a nod. "Aye, ye can travel wi' me, and the rest of yer lot can foller behind."
She glanced over at Mace, who nodded slightly. "Okay." She moved around the car and climbed into the passenger seat.
They drove straight through the town and out into the countryside beyond. Martha tried making conversation with Archie, asking him about his work at Torchwood, but the Scotsman was taciturn, mostly responding with grunts. She couldn't help wondering if his manner was the result of his isolation, being the only employee of Torchwood Two, or if he'd gravitated towards the organisation because it suited his personality.
By the time they reached their destination, it was already dusk, to Martha's surprise - she'd forgotten that it got dark earlier in Scotland than it did in London. But since they were coming to see strange lights, there was little point in arriving in broad daylight.
Archie pulled up at the edge of some open ground, and the two jeeps stopped on either side of his mini.
"Where are we?" she asked.
"Hills o' Dunipace," he answered.
They got out of the car and looked up at the rapidly darkening sky.
"There," he said, pointing upwards and Martha saw there were two, no four, no eight blue lights above the cemetery that was to one side of them.
"Dr Jones, what - Good God!" Colonel Mace couldn't help interrupting himself as he spotted what she and Archie were looking at, and the lights blazed even more brightly than before, then swooped down towards their position.
Martha already had a small device in her hand which she was using to track and analyse the data from the lights. "They're definitely aliens," she told them, "and as far as I can tell, they're mechan-organic constructs."
She glanced up from the screen of her device as a sudden white light flashed across the landscape, illuminating the scene as brightly as if the sun had come back out again. As she watched, the blue lights converged on the white one, appearing to repeatedly bombard it, but also 'bouncing' off it. Four of the blue lights suddenly converged simultaneously on the white one, instead of attacking one by one as they had before, and the watchers all winced in sympathy. The other four blue lights were circling around the four that were attacking the white light, presumably biding their time, but they never got a chance to attack as the white light suddenly flared with an intensely brilliant burst of brightness. Everyone cried out and threw up their arms to shield their faces; when they were able to see again, they noticed that all of the lights were drifting Earthwards, landing roughly a hundred metres ahead of their position.
"Dr Jones?" queried the Colonel.
Martha looked down at the display screen on her Track and Analyse device. "They appear to be deactivated," she said. "They're certainly not a threat now."
"All right, men, you heard the MO. We approach, but with caution. Be careful, but don't be trigger happy."
She turned to Archie as Mace led the soldiers forward. "Are you coming?"
"Och, I suppose," he answered, reluctantly, she thought.
The first alien Martha approached was, as she had described, a mechanical organic creature of a kind she had never seen before; it was about seven feet tall, or would be when standing upright, and bipedal, but it was simian not humanoid in appearance. She could see cogs, springs and other mechanical parts scattered in the grass around its body, and more such parts were visible in the open chest cavity.
"Ever seen such things before, Jones?" asked the Colonel as she investigated the deactivated remains.
"No sir," she answered, not looking up from where she was scanning the creature, her attention firmly fixed on the Track and Analyse device in her hand.
"Hmm." He watched without comment as Martha finished her scan and got to her feet.
"Sir," called one of the privates, "this one's different to the others, and I think it's alive still."
The young doctor hurried over, Mace at her heels, to find that the private was standing at the feet of a man, a very familiar looking man, apart from the colour of his hair.
"Good God!" exclaimed the Colonel as he caught sight of the figure. "That looks like the Doctor."
Martha was already on her knees beside the supine figure, pulling a stethoscope from her medical kit with one hand while seeking a pulse in his neck with her other hand. She wondered what the Time Lord had been up to: his clothes were completely unfamiliar, and his hair was a white-blond colour instead of the usual brown.
She found his pulse, but it was weak, and she quickly unzipped the brown leather flying jacket he wore, then pushed up the loose linen shirt which she absent-mindedly noticed had laces at the top instead of buttons. She slipped the earpieces of the stethoscope into place, then placed the bell on his chest, an intent expression on her face.
He stirred under her touch, and her eyes widened in surprise when she realised that she could only hear one heart beating.
"Rose?" he mumbled, "where are you?"
Martha glanced up at his words, noticing that he appeared to still be unconscious. She presumed this was the human Doctor, rather than the Time Lord, although she had understood from the conversation she'd had with Mickey, after they'd left the TARDIS, that the Time Lord was intending to leave his human counterpart in the parallel universe with Rose. She wondered how and why he was here instead.
"We need to get him to a hospital," she told the Colonel.
He nodded. "I can scramble a Puma."
"What medical facilities are there at Leuchars?" she asked.
"Just the basics," Mace answered. "We can get him taken to the Royal Infirmary at Edinburgh. I'll send a security detail with you."
She nodded. "That's probably the best."
Twenty minutes later Martha, the injured man, and four of Mace's men were in the air and en route to the hospital. Archie had headed back to Torchwood in Glasgow, apparently having lost interest in the proceedings, and Mace was organising the men to get the simian mechanoids back to the RAF base at Leuchars in order to transport them to London for further study.
As the helicopter flew to Edinburgh, Martha found herself puzzling over the unconscious man beside her. It seemed unlikely that this was the Doctor, unless one of his hearts had stopped, and while she knew that this wasn't impossible, only an X-ray could confirm whether he had one heart or two. If this was the Doctor's human counterpart, which seemed possible since he had asked for Rose, then how had he ended up back in this universe, and how could she return him again.
She sighed, knowing he needed to be awake in order to answer her questions, and pushed them to the back of her mind to concentrate, instead, on the data she had gathered via her T&A device. She was, not unjustifiably, quite proud of this gadget, which she'd designed herself, and had built with the assistance of some of the technical staff at UNIT. It might not be as elegant as the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, nor capable of as many functions as that alien gadget, but it was extremely useful, and UNIT were already talking about building more of them once Martha had done sufficient field-testing.
* * * * * *
Once at the hospital, Martha ensured that her patient was dealt with swiftly, pulling rank slightly; she tried not to pace as he was examined, X-rayed and then made comfortable in a private room which was guarded by two of the four soldiers she had brought with her.
The doctor's examination had established that the mystery man definitely only had one heart, and also, oddly, that he had no body hair except for the white-blond thatch on his head. He was also free of any physical injuries, nor could Dr Michaels discover that he'd experienced a head trauma, so his current unconscious state was rather inexplicable.
Martha contacted the Colonel to let him know the situation, then went to find out where she and the soldiers could eat; she had to enter into some brief negotiations before they were given permission to use the staff restaurant. Once they'd all eaten, and the two men who weren't on guard duty had gone to get some rest, she settled into a chair beside the bed. She knew from her student experiences that she wouldn't have any trouble falling asleep there, and she felt it was important to be on hand when the mystery man woke up again.
A couple of hours later, after Martha thought she had fallen asleep, the man beside her spoke.
"Dr Jones."
She straightened up in her chair, surprised at being addressed directly.
"Forgive me for startling you," he said, offering a sweet smile of apology. "I wonder if you can tell me which parallel I'm on?"
"Which what?" she asked, sleepy and baffled.
"Parallel. I'm from parallel Zero-Zero."
"Is that a planet?" Martha asked, confused.
"No, it's an alternative dimension. You are familiar with the concept of parallel versions of Earth."
She noticed that it was a statement, not a question. "How do you know that?" she demanded, feeling unnerved by this man who wore the Doctor's face, but didn't sound like him. "You're not the Doctor's human counterpart, are you?"
"I'm not," he agreed, "nor am I the Doctor, although I am his doppelganger. My name is Luther Arkwright."
Martha shook her head, trying to clear the sleep from her brain.
"I'm not even human, in fact, nor a Time Lord."
"Then what are you?" she asked, standing up quickly. Just because he had a nice smile, it didn't mean she had to trust him. She wondered if she should call the guards in.
"Please, Martha, I know this is a bit weird for you, even after all the things you've seen and experienced, but I assure you that I mean you no harm." He sat up and reached out to her slowly. "Will you sit down, please, and I'll explain as much as I can."
She sat down, perching on the edge of the chair and gave him a wary look. "You could start by explaining how you know who I am if you're not the Doctor or his human counterpart."
He nodded, rubbing a slender hand across his face before he spoke again. "My name, as I told you, is Luther Arkwright, and I come from a parallel Earth. I was born a human, just like you, but with highly developed psychic abilities which, amongst other things, allow me to travel through the parallels unaided, and give me strong telepathic powers." He smiled at her. "Did you know you've got a latent telepathic ability yourself?"
Martha gave him a startled look. "No!"
Luther nodded. "You're not actually awake at the moment," he said casually. "Nor am I. You're sleeping beside my bed and I'm unconscious, in a healing trance, after that attack by the simian mechanoids that your UNIT people collected up."
"I'm asleep?" she asked doubtfully.
He nodded. "My unconscious mind found your sleeping one and recognised that you've experienced space and time travel, and that you have considerable curiosity, both about me and about the universe at large."
"So will I remember this conversation when I wake up?"
"Oh yes," Luther answered quickly. "To you it will initially seem like a very vivid dream, but there's a bit more to it than that."
"Are there many more people like you on this parallel Earth you mentioned?"
He shook his head. "Not that many, not yet. There are people with telepathic powers. My friend, Rose Wylde, has the ability to sense her counterparts in other parallels, for example. And there are others like her, but no one is quite like me, not yet."
"You said just now that you were born human, but before that you told me you weren't human, so what are you, and what happened to make you non-human?"
He smiled wryly. "Technically, I'm a more advanced form of human, Homo Novus as opposed to Homo Sapiens. As for how I became more than human, that's a long and complex tale, best told when we're both awake because much of it is bloody, and I don't think you would appreciate the ensuing nightmares. However, I can tell you a little of the parallel from which I come."
Martha settled back into the chair in a more comfortable position, then nodded to indicate he could begin.
Luther smiled, the same sort of beguiling smile the Doctor often gave her, and she quickly pushed that thought aside, not wanting to be distracted.
"I come from parallel Zero-Zero. It is a uniquely stable continuum and as a result has very advanced science and technology, and is the most peaceful version of Earth. The science of this Earth grew by leaps and bounds since it was unfettered by the socio-religious prejudice usual on other parallels. John Dalton perfected his Theory of Relativity by 1800, and in 1816 Franz Joseph Gall proved the existence of psionics to the scientific establishment. The first man and woman set foot upon the Moon in 1820, and in 1832 Charles Babbage completed BINAC, the first electronic stored-programme computer. By the early 1850s world poverty and famine had been eradicated."
He nodded at the look of astonishment on Martha's face. "The tenets of religion held back the advancement of science on many parallels, but on Zero-Zero, without religion to hold it back, science advanced far faster. Since the early 20th century some us in Zero-Zero have been involved in the Valhalla Programme, which was created to monitor parallel worlds and observe the predicted fluctuation of historical trends. They built a massive hyper-computer called WOTAN, which was conceived as an integral part of the structure and project. WOTAN was designed to scan the continua, to correlate, analyse and display information on the status of the myriad parallel worlds. In particular, its role was to help those in the Valhalla Programme to deal with the Disruptors in other continua."
She gave him a quizzical look. "Why do I get the feeling these disruptors have a capital letter?"
He gave her a wry smile. "Probably because they loomed very large in my life for a very long time," Luther answered. "To a large extent they are responsible for me being more than human now."
"That's the story you won't tell me until we're both awake," she commented. He nodded. "So why are you here? Do I need to warn UNIT about an imminent Disruptor attack?"
"Oh, no, I completely destroyed them all some time ago. I'm here to stop the simian mechanoids."
Martha blinked at the casual way he mentioned the destruction of the Disruptors; if nothing else, it proved that this wasn't the Doctor because the Time Lord would not have been so relaxed about it: she still remembered the state he'd been in after the loss of the Dalek-Human hybrids in New York, and how she'd tried to help him. She filed that away for further thought, when she was actually awake.
"So, this healing trance, is that the reason why the doctor couldn't find any injuries on you?"
"Yes. My ability to heal myself, even from fatal injuries, is another part of my Homo Novus state."
"So, eventually people like you will put people like me out of work," Martha commented.
"But that won't happen for a long time," Luther observed. "Besides, you are more than just a doctor."
The look he gave her was so intently focused that she shifted in her chair, feeling uncomfortably like he was laying bare her soul. This close scrutiny was another difference between this man and the Doctor, and she didn't know if she could get used to it, assuming she had the chance.
"You've got a Healer's heart, but you've also got a Warrior's spirit, a Lover's passion and a Poet's soul in you." His expression was thoughtful as he spoke. "During the year that you walked the Earth all four of those elements of your nature were in perfect harmony, which allowed you to succeed in your mission to tell the story of the Doctor, and heal your world of the hurt caused by his enemy the Master. But the Lover and the Poet have become lesser to the Healer and the Warrior since that year was rewound."
She swallowed hard as his gazed focused back on her face.
"I'm sorry, Martha," he apologised, a contrite expression on his face. "I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable."
She shook her head, rendered momentarily speechless by his perceptive comments.
"I should let you sleep in peace," he said, "and we can talk properly in the morning."
"Okay." The last thing Martha remembered before she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, was Luther smiling at her in a way that made her feel safe and valued, as if she was an important person in his life.
* * * * * *
Martha awoke at 5 am when one of the guards came in to say that the nurse wanted to take a look at the patient.
"Let her in, Sampson, but I doubt she'll find much wrong with him."
The private nodded, then went out and a tall, blonde nurse came in. She nodded a brisk acknowledgement to Martha, who returned the gesture as she moved over to the window to give the nurse more space.
She heard a soft exclamation of surprise behind her, and turned to see Luther looking at her, his eyes an icy blue.
"He's awake," the nurse said unnecessarily.
"Yes I am," he said, sitting up, "and ravenously hungry, if you wish to know."
"Yes sir." The nurse found herself by bobbing a curtsey before hurrying away.
"Hello Martha Jones." He held out his hands and Martha found herself going to him, allowing him to take both of her hands in his.
She cocked her head at him. "Are you using hypnotism on me?" she asked.
He grinned, laughter lines crinkling his face in an attractive manner. "Charm, actually."
"Full of yourself, aren't you?" she joked, trying to cover her nervousness.
"Maybe." He gently pulled her closer until she was standing against the edge of the bed, both of her hands clasped in his and held between their bodies. "Do you trust me?"
She shrugged one shoulder. "I think I can, but I'm not sure yet."
He nodded his understanding. "You're scared of being hurt again," he observed. "Mostly because I look quite like your Doctor, I think."
"It's pretty unnerving when you do that mind reading thing, you know?"
"I'm sorry." He looked down at their clasped hands. "I want to help you, Martha," he said softly.
"Why?" she asked. "You hardly know me."
Luther looked up again, his gaze intent, and she felt a small shiver pass through her, but she didn't know whether it was fear or desire, or both, or something else entirely.
"Actually, I know a good deal about you already, just from that conversation we had last night." He rubbed his index finger over her knuckles. "Your lively mind called out to mine, and I am intrigued by you."
Martha gave him a half smile. "You intrigue me, too," she answered shyly.
He smiled back. "Good. There are things I want to help you to learn and discover, and I want you to be more whole than you are. You will be a much better healer if you're not constantly repressing half your nature."
"Last night, you mentioned I had a poet's soul," she said, "but I've never written any poetry, and I don't even read it that often."
Luther's smile widened into a grin. "I didn't mean it quite so literally," he explained. "To have the soul of a poet makes you a good communicator, which is how you were able to spread the story of the Doctor so effectively during that rewound year."
"Oh!" She felt her face heat up in embarrassment at her mistake.
"It's okay," he assured her. "Don't feel bad."
Martha heard the door opening behind her and she quickly moved away from the bed as the same nurse came in, accompanied by a doctor; she waited by the window again as the doctor talked to Luther and the nurse made notes on his chart.
They went out after the doctor had agreed that Luther could have some breakfast and that he would be discharged this morning.
"I thought they'd never go," he said.
Martha smiled in sympathy. "I should ring Colonel Mace, and let him know the situation. Are you coming back to London with us?"
"If that's acceptable to your Colonel, yes. I daresay your science people will want to investigate the Simico Mechanismus, the simian mechanoids," he clarified, seeing her blank look.
"Oh they will," she agreed. "I'll give the Colonel a ring while you eat your breakfast."
He nodded, and Martha hurried out, her mind buzzing with ideas and speculation.
* * * * * *
Colonel Mace readily agreed to Luther's suggestion that he accompany them, and assist the scientific and technical people in investigating the mechanoids. They flew back down to London in the Hercules, and the trip down only seemed half as long as the trip up had been as Martha and the Colonel talked with Luther.
They were back at HQ by lunchtime, and Mace left Martha to look after Luther, instructing her to give him the tour after they'd eaten, then he went to make his report to the Brigadier. Martha immediately felt nervous at being left alone with Luther, not least because she was aware that he knew what she was thinking and feeling.
"Would you like me to show you how to shut me out?" he asked, a sympathetic expression in his eyes.
"No," she answered after a moment. "I'll get used to the idea."
He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "Brave woman," he said softly.
"Let's go and have some lunch, and then I'll show you around," Martha suggested.
He nodded. "And I can tell you some of that promised story," he offered.
"That would be good."
She led the way to the canteen, and they settled themselves at a quiet corner table with their food.
"I was born in 1950," Luther began.
"But - Sorry, go on. I shouldn't have interrupted."
He smiled. "I don't mind interruptions," he assured her. "I welcome them, in fact, if you've got any questions or need anything clarified."
She blushed faintly. "I was going to say, you look as if you're in your mid thirties, not almost 60. It's one thing for the Doctor to look ridiculously young for his age, but you're not a Time Lord. Do Time Lords even exist on any of the other parallels?"
He shook his head. "No, I've never come across them, nor had I even heard of them before I saw the knowledge of them in your head. My looking so young is one of the side effects of my powers, outwardly I don't age as obviously as you."
"So, you were born in 1950?"
Luther nodded. "I was born on parallel 00-30-22. The parallels are numbered according to how much they differ from Zero-Zero. So parallels 00-01-00 and 00-00-01 are both flanking parallels, with only a slight degree of dissimilarity between either one of them and Zero-Zero."
"So parallel 00-30-22 is quite a lot different to Zero-Zero," Martha observed, her forkful of salad momentarily forgotten as she frowned over this information.
He smiled warmly at her. "Yes, that's correct."
"So which parallel is this Earth?"
"As far as I can determine this is parallel 00-30-92, so it's quite a lot different to Zero-Zero."
She nodded, so he continued with his story. "I am the son of a Battle of Britain ace who had been awarded the Victoria Cross. Unfortunately my mother was a Disruptor agent which means that my father had been carefully chosen to sire a child because he came from a long line of soldiers and fighters who had served their country with distinction. I was conceived as the Disruptors' ultimate weapon, and shortly after my birth I was kidnapped by Disruptor agents while both my parents were killed in a fire at the hospital."
Martha looked shocked. "That's horrible," she whispered, sympathy flaring in her dark eyes. She couldn't imagine not having both her parents around; she might not see them so often now that they were both dealing better with their experiences of being held by the Master, but they were there for her, just as she was there for them.
"I didn't know," he said. "It was several years before I found out. I spent the first fourteen years of my life living in an underground bunker where I was subjected to an intense training regime that was designed to turn me into a living weapon. At the age of fourteen, however, I first discovered my talent to subconsciously shift myself across the parallels when I took myself back to the Earth of my birth. Until then I hadn't known I could move freely between the parallels."
"Thank goodness you escaped." He could hear the relief in her voice, and feel the warmth of her emotion in her mind.
"I did, but I then spent the next six years on the run from the Disruptors, and it's possible I would have remained in hiding if I hadn't been discovered in 1970 by Rose Wylde. She was an agent of Zero-Zero, and another anomaly of the parallel worlds as many of the different versions of her across the multiverse are telepaths, and are therefore empathically linked to one another."
Luther reached across the table and touched her hand. "It might make you feel uncomfortable to hear this, since your Doctor friend, who I look like, also had a companion called Rose, but Rose Wylde and I became romantically involved."
Martha shrugged. "I'm not jealous of her any more," she said.
He tilted his head, looking at her thoughtfully. "You are, just a little," he said softly, "I can sense that your feelings about her changed recently, after the two of you met, but there's still a tiny sliver of jealousy there. You fear that you will always stand in her shadow, no matter what you do for the Doctor."
She stared down at her almost empty plate, feeling embarrassed that he'd caught her out in a lie. She had thought that she was over that irrational feeling because she knew that the Doctor knew that she was good, and that she would do all she could to defend the Earth.
Luther slid a finger under her chin and lifted her face to his, cupping her left cheek in his right hand. "It's okay, Martha. Your feelings are understandable, and the fact that you still feel that way shows that the Doctor still hasn't properly addressed the matter with you, which is his error, not yours."
After a few moments she nodded, and seeing that he'd also finished eating, she suggested that they begin the tour of the HQ that Mace had suggested.
"I'd like to see where you work," he said promptly.
"Okay. I've got an office and a lab near the Infirmary, so we'll start there."
As they moved through the corridors of the base, heading towards the area where she worked, Martha was acutely aware of the sidelong looks that Luther earned.
"They can't help staring," she told him, "it's because you look like the Doctor."
"It's okay," he assured her. "I get stared at quite often." Seeing her own sidelong glance, he clarified. "I'm a decorated soldier, war hero, whatever you might want to call it, on many parallels."
She nodded her understanding, then used her ID card to let them into the Sullivan Wing. "The Infirmary is through those doors," she told him, pointing across the corridor, "and this is my office."
He slipped through the door she held open for him, then waited for her to step past him into the room.
"It's just an average sort of office," Martha said.
Luther stood in the middle of the room, gazing around at the shelves of books that covered two of the walls, the large desk with its desktop and laptop computers, and the window that looked out onto a small flower garden. Then he focused his gaze back on Martha, who was watching him with undisguised curiosity as she leaned against the edge of her desk.
"Tell me about the Doctor," he invited.
She tilted her head, looking slightly surprised by his request. "I thought you could get all the information you wanted from reading my mind?"
He nodded. "I could, of course, but it would be a bit rude."
She gestured to the chair beside her desk. "Take a seat."
He slipped into it, shedding his leather jacket and hanging it on the back of the chair, then gave her an expectant look as she settled in her own chair.
"I was a medical student based at the Royal Hope Hospital on the day I met the Doctor," she began, explaining how the Time Lord had disguised himself as a patient in order to investigate odd goings-on at the hospital, then how the Judoon had transported the hospital to the Moon and all that had followed from their arrival in search of a criminal.
As she spoke, Martha was reminded of her storytelling sessions on her journey across the Earth, seeing Luther listening with such an attentive expression on his face. She got the sense that he was drinking in her every word, but that at the same time he was reading her feelings about the Doctor, both how she had felt at that exhilarating first meeting, and how she felt now. In some ways it scared her that Luther knew exactly how she felt about the Time Lord, but in other ways it was a relief that someone else did know. She'd wanted to talk to Jack about the Doctor, but whenever they'd met recently there had never been a good time for such a conversation.
There was something about Luther that spoke of trust; it seemed uncanny that she should feel she could trust him, even before she hardly knew anything about him, and she wondered why she did. Somehow she didn't feel that it was just the fact that he looked like the Doctor, and she wondered if it was the aura of calm that she sensed surrounding him.
"Thank you for sharing that with me," he said softly when she had finished her narrative.
Martha inclined her head. "Thank you for listening."
"Do you want to show me your lab now?" he asked, and she nodded again, then got to her feet. He stood up too, and gently squeezed her shoulder as she passed him.
She led the way next door and they found three white coated people gathered around a bench at one end of the long room, poring over one of the simian mechanoids.
"What can you tell us about these creatures?" Martha asked as they joined the group at the bench.
"Not much, I'm afraid," he answered ruefully. "I followed them here across four parallels."
"Why did you follow them?"
"I sensed them before I saw them, and their auras were full of malevolence." He looked down at the mechanoid, an expression of distaste on his face.
"Can we expect more of them?" Martha asked. "Should I be recommending to my superiors that UNIT posts soldiers in Bonnybridge?"
Luther looked up at her concerned expression. "I don't think there will be any more," he answered, "but of course, I can't guarantee that." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I could go and investigate the parallel from which they originated, though, and see if I can establish their mission."
She gave him a hopeful look. "I don't want to impose on you," she began, "but if you could try to find out it would make things easier for us."
He nodded. "Let's go back to your office," he said quietly.
They moved next door again, and Luther gave her a smile. "To travel between the parallels, I phase from one dimension to the next," he told her. "I thought it would give rise to less comment if I did it from here."
"Yes, of course."
"I don't know how long I'll be gone," he warned her, "but I will be back, that's a promise."
Martha nodded. "Okay."
He dipped his head to place a light kiss on her forehead, feeling her shiver in response, then he stepped back and moved himself through the parallels. To Martha, it was like watching the TARDIS dematerialising, but without all the wheezing and groaning of the ship's ancient engines. Somehow her office seemed emptier without him, and she immediately scolded herself.
"Don't go getting attached," she told herself as she sat down at her desk to apprise Colonel Mace of Luther's departure to investigate the simian mechanoids. It would, she felt, be foolish in the extreme for her to get attached to Luther, especially since he'd already made it clear that there was someone in his life.
* * * * * *
Part 2