The Kind Ones, Chapter 8
Rose stood in shock before the Doctor. “What are you talking about?” she demanded.
The Doctor ran a hand through his hair and down his dejected face. “All the villagers are already dead,” he repeated. “They died during the massive firefight and resultant nuclear explosions that occurred centuries ago, by this timeline. If we interfere, we’ll only do as well as the Karandaix, or end up amplifying the problem.”
“But Olena is just a little girl!” Rose shouted angrily. “And I promised her we would help! Is this your solution? To let her die with all the others? And what about the Karandaix?” Rose gestured to the wall of creepy aliens. “Are you going to let them die too? What’s the point Doctor?”
Rose met his face accusingly, but wasn’t prepared for the complete fury she found there, and backed up unconsciously in response.
“Sometimes I wonder that myself Rose!” he shot back. “What was the point of landing on this planet, only to find out it was already doomed from the beginning! What was the point of meeting the Karandaix, a volatile and dangerous species that I can’t relocate anywhere without risking an innocent population? What was the point of losing my TARDIS and nearly losing you, when we couldn’t do anything to stop it! It’s not FAIR!”
The Doctor flipped around aggressively with his last statement, as if he could turn away from reality itself. Rose allowed him to breath for a moment before approaching him and resting one supportive hand on his shoulder.
“You’re better than this, Doctor,” she told him. “You can think of something. I know you can. If only you have some time.”
“Time, yes,” the Doctor answered more calmly. “It is a matter of time, isn’t it?”
The Karandaix fluctuated uneasily from their stronghold in the wall. “What is to be done with us?” one of them asked sadly.
The Doctor’s eyes flickered and Rose knew his brilliant mind had come to life, as it always did when someone needed him the most.
He turned to her. “I may have something that can stand in for the Karandaix’ incessant need for energy,” he reported. “This would not only allow them and the Kvetwaw to survive indefinitely, but it would no longer necessitate human sacrifice or terrifying delusions.”
“How is that?” Rose asked breathlessly. “What are you going to use?”
The Doctor tried to smile as he took her hands in his own. “The Time War,” he said remotely. “It’s in a Time Lock, and as such could serve as an unlimited source of energy for the Karandaix. They said time and space are merely obstacles to be overcome, so if they can tap into that power source, they’d never need terrorize another civilization again. All the horror and fear they need can be found on Gallifrey when it burned.”
One of the Karandaix swished forward eagerly. “This is an excellent solution!” it agreed. “We need only the coordinates, and we can tap into the time signature to harness the source.”
The Doctor approached the alien and crossed his arms. “First things first,” he announced, “You’re going to take Rose and I back to the TARDIS, right as we were entering the atmosphere. You’re going to hold the vortex steady and reverse the feedback signal that was doing damage to my ship. Once Rose and I are released safely, I will deliver the coordinates to you.”
The Karandaix considered this amongst themselves before one moved ahead of the others. “But how can we trust you to keep your word once you are set free?” it asked.
The Doctor’s eyes darkened and flashed dangerously.
“The real question is if we can trust you!” Rose broke in unexpectedly before turning to the Doctor. “How do we know that they’ll keep Kvetwaw stabilized, once they’ve been given what they want?”
He nodded his head as he stared at the undulating aliens in the walls. “I suggest another pact,” he intoned heavily. “The Karandaix take those seriously, if I’m not mistaken.”
The Karandaix murmured amongst one another before consenting. “We honor all of our agreements,” an older sounding tendril declared. “If you give us the key to the power source, we will keep the Kvetwaw safe, and never again feed from them or their descendents.”
“Agreed,” the Doctor answered before turning to Rose.
“I just have to return something first,” she said, holding Olena’s doll under her chin.
The Doctor and Rose left the Kind House behind, and made their way back to the village in the early morning light. Rose sighed as she took the Doctor’s hand in hers and they walked by misted fields still wet with dew.
Before they reached Olena’s house, Rose pulled them to a stop and regarded the Doctor shyly.
“I’m sorry that I yelled at you,” she began, but the Doctor cut her off.
“I deserved it,” he responded. “Sometimes I forget how much hope is left in the universe, Rose, but you show it to me everytime. I’d given up, but you kept on fighting, determined to save an already demolished planet and a nearly unforgiveable form of life in one go. I know I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again and again. You astonish me, Rose Tyler.”
Rose gave him a brilliant smile, erasing all of the previous darkness from his mind.
“You’re not so bad yourself, you know,” she returned.
They stared into one another’s eyes significantly before being interrupted by a piercing shriek.
“Doctor! Rose!” Olena’s voice rang out from the open hut door.
The little girl ran madly down the walk and tumbled into both of them with her arms outstretched.
“How did you survive?” Olena asked in wonder as she brushed a strand of yellow hair from her bright white forehead.
The Doctor watched as Rose handed the little doll back and smiled knowingly. “Let’s just say we had a little help from your friend here,” he exclaimed.
He grew a bit more serious as Olena hugged her toy tightly and wiped away a tear. “Olena, we’re going to leave here shortly, but we wanted to let you know that the Kind Ones are never going to hurt anyone ever again. From now on, there is a new pact, and it’s no longer between the Kvetwaw and the Karandaix.”
Olena looked confused, so Rose patted her shoulder. “That’s the real name of the Kind Ones,” she explained. “And the new pact is between them and the Doctor. After we leave this planet, your people will no longer need to take sacrifices to the Kind House.”
The Doctor nodded his head in agreement. “We’re also going to get rid of that wretched hum,” he told her, “And the Bozalosc that have haunted your plains. Everything is going to go back to normal, Olena, and you won’t ever have to be frightened again.”
The little girl smiled through her tears as she hugged them both. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“Doctor,” Rose asked as they were walking away, “How are you going to get rid of the hum? I thought that sound was a necessary side effect of the time reversal.”
“Mm, yes that’s true,” he replied easily. “But once the Karandaix have access to the Time War, they’ll be able to control it so that it’s no longer audible. The chances of anyone still being able to hear it will be negligible, at best.”
“And the Bozalosc?” Rose asked. “Are they another species that interfered here like the Karandaix? Will you really be able to remove them?”
The Doctor stopped in his tracks and took Rose’s hand tenderly. “Rose, the Bozalosc were never alien to this world as I had suspected. They were the villagers who were sacrificed to the Kind House. You remember how I said that the Kvetwaw were already dead, because their world had already been destroyed? Well, you can’t kill something that’s already dead. The Kind Ones drained their victims in an already weakened state, leading to two consequences. One: the Kind Ones were never truly sated, as they would have been from fully living beings, and two: the unfortunate villagers who were drained to the breaking point became unholy vestiges of their former selves, set to wander the plains aimlessly like zombies.”
Rose shuddered and screwed up her face as she envisioned it. “That’s horrible!” she cried.
“Don’t worry,” the Doctor said soothingly. “Once time is set back to the start, the Bozalosc will disappear, and all of the villagers who had been transformed, as well as those who had been driven mad by the hum, will return to their previous selves.”
“Including Olena’s friend Bernardyn?” Rose asked hopefully.
“Yes,” the Doctor assented.
Rose bounded into his arms and nearly bowled him over with her enthusiasm.
“Well…” the Doctor said to himself with embarrassment.
“Let’s get back to the TARDIS,” Rose said cheerfully. “I’m ready for this whole nightmare to be over!"
(Next Chapter)