Flowers on Air 2/11
TITLE: Flowers on Air
CHARACTERS: Ten/Rose, OC (lots)
RATING: PG/Teen
SPOILERS: None past mid-series-2
SUMMARY: After being temporarily stranded in 1999, the Doctor is faced with a temptation he may not be able to turn from. Can Rose save him from himself?
DISCLAIMER: If I owned any of these characters, I'd have already released a collectors edition of Until the End of the World on region 1 DVD. BBC, RTD, Wim Wenders, full props.
A/N: This is a crossover fic between Doctor Who and the mid-90's film Until the End of the World. Knowing anything about the movie is not required (besides, I'm taking some liberties, and then the Doctor shows up and the timeline's all shot to hell anyway).
This chapter: The Doctor and Rose discover that things may not be entirely as they seem in the desert.
Rose blanched upon reading the word ‘radiation’ and punched the Doctor on the arm with one hand as she pointed to the sign with the other.
“You do seem to have a faint glow to you, Rose,” he drawled and then broke in to a low giggle. “The sonic would have picked up any dangerous radiation present when we first left the TARDIS. Nothing to worry about.”
Rose rolled her eyes and the Doctor removed his sunglasses and looked around for the people who made the sign. The paint on it was still wet, she observed, so they can’t have gotten far.
“G’day, friends.” A long-haired Aboriginal man came out from a passage through the rocks that Rose had not noticed before. He stuck out his hand and the Doctor shook it enthusiastically.
“I’m the Doctor, this is Rose Tyler. Our….vehicle stopped working about a mile off.”
“Matthew,” the man said by way of introduction as he shook the Doctor’s hand and smiled at Rose, an open but slightly worried smile. “It’s the EMP. They shot the satellite down. It’s the end of the world. Maybe.”
Rose struggled to hold back a giggle, the wry burden of the time-traveler. ”So, what’s this now about radiation?”
“Just a precaution. We’ve been waiting for them to shoot that thing down for days now, and who knows what all radiation it’ll create.” He held up a Geiger counter and switched it on.
Rose held her arms out to be scanned and the Geiger counter crackled faintly, “So are you expecting a lot of people?” She tried to pitch her voice so she didn’t sound so incredulous that anyone at all was in this godforsaken spot in the first place. “I mean, you seem sort of….well-prepared.”
Matthew chuckled, his face crinkling in to a thousand good-natured lines and crevices. “In times of trouble, everyone longs to go home, eh? This is home.”
He finished scanning the Doctor and gestured to a gap in the cliff face, about wide enough for two friendly people abreast to go through. “You’re clean. We’re happy to have guests.”
The Doctor slapped Matthew on the back and said, “We’re happy to be guests, what a coincidence!” He proceeded forward with Rose following close behind, through the crevasse.
On the far side was a sign declaring the spot as an Aboriginal cultural center, and beyond that a number of huts, tents and patios, with a rocky grotto behind them all. People of all ages trod the gravel paths that connected all of the buildings, and there was an atmosphere of excitement, tinged with anxiety. Rose looked at the Doctor, and the Doctor looked elated.
“Blimey!” he sighed. “Look at this!”
It wasn’t long before the newcomers were noticed and a welcoming committee comprised of mostly children with a few indulgent adults surrounded them. The Doctor reached in to his coat pockets (bigger on the inside) and distributed sweets to the children, who ran off together to compare and trade.
A middle-aged woman with long dark hair stuck her hand out in greeting. “I wish we were meeting under better circumstances,” she said as she shook Rose’s hand. “I’m Mary.”
“Rose Tyler. And I’m sure it will all turn out fine.”
Mary turned to shake the Doctor’s hand.
“I’m the Doctor,” he said and shook vigorously. “I say, this is quite a place you have here! I was just telling…Matthew was it, the bloke who waved the Geiger counter at us? I was just telling Matthew that our vehicle seems to have broken down about a mile away. We hate to impose-“
Mary smiled broadly, “Nonsense, Doctor….” She trailed off waiting for him to insert his surname.
“Just the Doctor,” he chirped.
Mary looked at Rose for guidance.
“Just the Doctor,” said Rose.
“Well then, Just the Doctor, and Miss Tyler, I think we have some spare accommodations for you. It won’t be much, we live simply here, but with everything happening out there,” she waved her hand to indicate the world on the other side of the crevasse they’d just come through, “maybe it’s best if you stay here with us for a while.” She began to walk towards the buildings and indicated that they should follow.
“All of these people live here?” asked Rose, looking around at the children still inspecting the strange, possibly alien sweeties that the Doctor had distributed.
“The people of the Honey Ant Dreaming will always call this place home, no matter where they actually live. With the satellite and all, many have come home in recent days.” Mary turned on to a gravel path to the right and stopped at a kind of permanent tent. With so little rain here in the desert, living primarily out of doors was not troublesome, aside from the heat.
It seemed to be a surplus army tent, with mosquito netting on three sides and solid canvass on the fourth, a wood plank floor, two cots and a rough wooden desk and chair. An oil lantern sat on the desk along with a box of matches.
“There’s water and toilets down the path to the left, and the communal kitchen is just there, second right. You must be tired from your walk.” Mary smiled again, broadly and openly, and left them standing in front of the tent.
“Well, Doctor,” said Rose, entering, “you’ve certainly got your wish.”
“I know!” he grinned. “What a perfect way to spend the end of the world. Oh! This is our second end of the world! Which one d’you prefer, this one or the last one?”
The Doctor removed his coat and threw it over the cot.
“I like the one that doesn’t have the crazed human trampoline trying to kill us all, I think,” Rose giggled.
The Doctor grinned and gave a little giggle back, bouncing up and down on his heels like an impatient child.
Just then, there was a sound in the near distance that made him stop bouncing immediately on hearing. At first Rose didn’t think anything of it. Just the sound of a door opening and closing, until she realized that it was the sound of a metal door, with a complicated lock system unlocking, opening, slamming, and then locking again. It would not have sounded out of place at a military base or laboratory, but here in the middle of the desert, it was very out of place indeed.
The Doctor locked eyes with Rose and raised an eyebrow. The edges of his mouth twitched in to a small, sly smirk.
“That’s…interesting.” whispered Rose, not wanting to make too much noise for fear of drowning out any further sounds that might give them a clue as to the nature of this mysterious door. And there were indeed footsteps approaching up the gravel path, and two voices, a man and a woman. Both spoke English with foreign accents. Rose pursed her lips, straining to hear what was said.
“He can take care of himself,” said the man, quite gruffly. “If he even was telling the truth about that in the first place. He could be God knows where, doing God knows what. He should have been back here months ago anyway. I am sure there’s a woman involved.” He spat out woman with so much venom that Rose, if she could have, would have liked to sink in to the ground on the spot. “There’s always a woman.”
The footsteps grew nearer and they could just make out through the mosquito netting two elderly figures, not Aborigines at all, but quite definitely Europeans, walking arm in arm. The woman wore large dark sunglasses, the man a Panama hat.
“I don’t know why you had to send him after it at all. He could have been happy here, with our family.”
They continued to walk away from Rose and the Doctor’s tent and their words became less distinct. The last thing they heard was the older gentleman saying, “I did it all for you.”
The Doctor and Rose exchanged a look, and a smile again flitted across the Doctor’s face, and both left the tent without speaking.
A short way down the path to the right, there was indeed a door sunk in to a sheer rock face. There had been no effort made to hide it, but it clearly was locked and protected by some sort of security system.
The Doctor stopped and considered it, and Rose knew he wasn’t wondering whether or not to enter. That would not even be a consideration for him. Something else was on his mind.
“Oh of course!” he said suddenly, taking the sonic screwdriver out of his jacket pocket. “If the central computer running the security system is somewhere inside this rock, it wouldn’t have been affected by the EMP.”
“There’s really no way I can convince you to not break and enter, is there?” Rose asked.
“Break? Who said anything about break? I never break, only enter.” He ran the sonic over the keypad and they heard a sharp metallic click. “Come on, Rose, a high tech metal door in the middle of the desert? Totally unaffected by the EMP? It’s just too good!”
He opened the door and held it for her, and they slipped inside, closing the door as quietly as they could behind them. They found themselves in a short corridor, the air cool and the walls lined with plastic sheeting. Their steps were difficult to muffle as they were walking on a metal grate, much like the one on the floor of the TARDIS console room. Above were hanging fluorescent lights and cords and cables ran every which way. The Doctor silently mouthed, “Wow!”
Voices could certainly be heard coming from whatever room or rooms lay at the end of the corridor, as well as the distinct hum of many, many microprocessors and the fans needed to cool them. The Doctor leaned down to Rose’s ear and whispered, “Clearly things here are not what they seem.”
There really was not enough room in the facility for them to maneuver about unseen and the Doctor gestured back towards the door. Exiting as quietly as they had entered, they were just on the verge of sharing a mutual round of rib-nudging over their discovery before getting down to the business of planning a proper investigation of what exactly was going on here, when they heard footsteps approaching.
The man in the Panama hat appeared from around a corner and in a move born of many instances of snooping about and getting caught, the Doctor and Rose simultaneously pasted cordial smiles on their faces and turned to stand should-to-shoulder facing the approaching man. For his part, the man in the Panama hat looked none too pleased to see them, a frown drawing all of his features downward.
(To Chapter 3)
CHARACTERS: Ten/Rose, OC (lots)
RATING: PG/Teen
SPOILERS: None past mid-series-2
SUMMARY: After being temporarily stranded in 1999, the Doctor is faced with a temptation he may not be able to turn from. Can Rose save him from himself?
DISCLAIMER: If I owned any of these characters, I'd have already released a collectors edition of Until the End of the World on region 1 DVD. BBC, RTD, Wim Wenders, full props.
A/N: This is a crossover fic between Doctor Who and the mid-90's film Until the End of the World. Knowing anything about the movie is not required (besides, I'm taking some liberties, and then the Doctor shows up and the timeline's all shot to hell anyway).
This chapter: The Doctor and Rose discover that things may not be entirely as they seem in the desert.
Rose blanched upon reading the word ‘radiation’ and punched the Doctor on the arm with one hand as she pointed to the sign with the other.
“You do seem to have a faint glow to you, Rose,” he drawled and then broke in to a low giggle. “The sonic would have picked up any dangerous radiation present when we first left the TARDIS. Nothing to worry about.”
Rose rolled her eyes and the Doctor removed his sunglasses and looked around for the people who made the sign. The paint on it was still wet, she observed, so they can’t have gotten far.
“G’day, friends.” A long-haired Aboriginal man came out from a passage through the rocks that Rose had not noticed before. He stuck out his hand and the Doctor shook it enthusiastically.
“I’m the Doctor, this is Rose Tyler. Our….vehicle stopped working about a mile off.”
“Matthew,” the man said by way of introduction as he shook the Doctor’s hand and smiled at Rose, an open but slightly worried smile. “It’s the EMP. They shot the satellite down. It’s the end of the world. Maybe.”
Rose struggled to hold back a giggle, the wry burden of the time-traveler. ”So, what’s this now about radiation?”
“Just a precaution. We’ve been waiting for them to shoot that thing down for days now, and who knows what all radiation it’ll create.” He held up a Geiger counter and switched it on.
Rose held her arms out to be scanned and the Geiger counter crackled faintly, “So are you expecting a lot of people?” She tried to pitch her voice so she didn’t sound so incredulous that anyone at all was in this godforsaken spot in the first place. “I mean, you seem sort of….well-prepared.”
Matthew chuckled, his face crinkling in to a thousand good-natured lines and crevices. “In times of trouble, everyone longs to go home, eh? This is home.”
He finished scanning the Doctor and gestured to a gap in the cliff face, about wide enough for two friendly people abreast to go through. “You’re clean. We’re happy to have guests.”
The Doctor slapped Matthew on the back and said, “We’re happy to be guests, what a coincidence!” He proceeded forward with Rose following close behind, through the crevasse.
On the far side was a sign declaring the spot as an Aboriginal cultural center, and beyond that a number of huts, tents and patios, with a rocky grotto behind them all. People of all ages trod the gravel paths that connected all of the buildings, and there was an atmosphere of excitement, tinged with anxiety. Rose looked at the Doctor, and the Doctor looked elated.
“Blimey!” he sighed. “Look at this!”
It wasn’t long before the newcomers were noticed and a welcoming committee comprised of mostly children with a few indulgent adults surrounded them. The Doctor reached in to his coat pockets (bigger on the inside) and distributed sweets to the children, who ran off together to compare and trade.
A middle-aged woman with long dark hair stuck her hand out in greeting. “I wish we were meeting under better circumstances,” she said as she shook Rose’s hand. “I’m Mary.”
“Rose Tyler. And I’m sure it will all turn out fine.”
Mary turned to shake the Doctor’s hand.
“I’m the Doctor,” he said and shook vigorously. “I say, this is quite a place you have here! I was just telling…Matthew was it, the bloke who waved the Geiger counter at us? I was just telling Matthew that our vehicle seems to have broken down about a mile away. We hate to impose-“
Mary smiled broadly, “Nonsense, Doctor….” She trailed off waiting for him to insert his surname.
“Just the Doctor,” he chirped.
Mary looked at Rose for guidance.
“Just the Doctor,” said Rose.
“Well then, Just the Doctor, and Miss Tyler, I think we have some spare accommodations for you. It won’t be much, we live simply here, but with everything happening out there,” she waved her hand to indicate the world on the other side of the crevasse they’d just come through, “maybe it’s best if you stay here with us for a while.” She began to walk towards the buildings and indicated that they should follow.
“All of these people live here?” asked Rose, looking around at the children still inspecting the strange, possibly alien sweeties that the Doctor had distributed.
“The people of the Honey Ant Dreaming will always call this place home, no matter where they actually live. With the satellite and all, many have come home in recent days.” Mary turned on to a gravel path to the right and stopped at a kind of permanent tent. With so little rain here in the desert, living primarily out of doors was not troublesome, aside from the heat.
It seemed to be a surplus army tent, with mosquito netting on three sides and solid canvass on the fourth, a wood plank floor, two cots and a rough wooden desk and chair. An oil lantern sat on the desk along with a box of matches.
“There’s water and toilets down the path to the left, and the communal kitchen is just there, second right. You must be tired from your walk.” Mary smiled again, broadly and openly, and left them standing in front of the tent.
“Well, Doctor,” said Rose, entering, “you’ve certainly got your wish.”
“I know!” he grinned. “What a perfect way to spend the end of the world. Oh! This is our second end of the world! Which one d’you prefer, this one or the last one?”
The Doctor removed his coat and threw it over the cot.
“I like the one that doesn’t have the crazed human trampoline trying to kill us all, I think,” Rose giggled.
The Doctor grinned and gave a little giggle back, bouncing up and down on his heels like an impatient child.
Just then, there was a sound in the near distance that made him stop bouncing immediately on hearing. At first Rose didn’t think anything of it. Just the sound of a door opening and closing, until she realized that it was the sound of a metal door, with a complicated lock system unlocking, opening, slamming, and then locking again. It would not have sounded out of place at a military base or laboratory, but here in the middle of the desert, it was very out of place indeed.
The Doctor locked eyes with Rose and raised an eyebrow. The edges of his mouth twitched in to a small, sly smirk.
“That’s…interesting.” whispered Rose, not wanting to make too much noise for fear of drowning out any further sounds that might give them a clue as to the nature of this mysterious door. And there were indeed footsteps approaching up the gravel path, and two voices, a man and a woman. Both spoke English with foreign accents. Rose pursed her lips, straining to hear what was said.
“He can take care of himself,” said the man, quite gruffly. “If he even was telling the truth about that in the first place. He could be God knows where, doing God knows what. He should have been back here months ago anyway. I am sure there’s a woman involved.” He spat out woman with so much venom that Rose, if she could have, would have liked to sink in to the ground on the spot. “There’s always a woman.”
The footsteps grew nearer and they could just make out through the mosquito netting two elderly figures, not Aborigines at all, but quite definitely Europeans, walking arm in arm. The woman wore large dark sunglasses, the man a Panama hat.
“I don’t know why you had to send him after it at all. He could have been happy here, with our family.”
They continued to walk away from Rose and the Doctor’s tent and their words became less distinct. The last thing they heard was the older gentleman saying, “I did it all for you.”
The Doctor and Rose exchanged a look, and a smile again flitted across the Doctor’s face, and both left the tent without speaking.
A short way down the path to the right, there was indeed a door sunk in to a sheer rock face. There had been no effort made to hide it, but it clearly was locked and protected by some sort of security system.
The Doctor stopped and considered it, and Rose knew he wasn’t wondering whether or not to enter. That would not even be a consideration for him. Something else was on his mind.
“Oh of course!” he said suddenly, taking the sonic screwdriver out of his jacket pocket. “If the central computer running the security system is somewhere inside this rock, it wouldn’t have been affected by the EMP.”
“There’s really no way I can convince you to not break and enter, is there?” Rose asked.
“Break? Who said anything about break? I never break, only enter.” He ran the sonic over the keypad and they heard a sharp metallic click. “Come on, Rose, a high tech metal door in the middle of the desert? Totally unaffected by the EMP? It’s just too good!”
He opened the door and held it for her, and they slipped inside, closing the door as quietly as they could behind them. They found themselves in a short corridor, the air cool and the walls lined with plastic sheeting. Their steps were difficult to muffle as they were walking on a metal grate, much like the one on the floor of the TARDIS console room. Above were hanging fluorescent lights and cords and cables ran every which way. The Doctor silently mouthed, “Wow!”
Voices could certainly be heard coming from whatever room or rooms lay at the end of the corridor, as well as the distinct hum of many, many microprocessors and the fans needed to cool them. The Doctor leaned down to Rose’s ear and whispered, “Clearly things here are not what they seem.”
There really was not enough room in the facility for them to maneuver about unseen and the Doctor gestured back towards the door. Exiting as quietly as they had entered, they were just on the verge of sharing a mutual round of rib-nudging over their discovery before getting down to the business of planning a proper investigation of what exactly was going on here, when they heard footsteps approaching.
The man in the Panama hat appeared from around a corner and in a move born of many instances of snooping about and getting caught, the Doctor and Rose simultaneously pasted cordial smiles on their faces and turned to stand should-to-shoulder facing the approaching man. For his part, the man in the Panama hat looked none too pleased to see them, a frown drawing all of his features downward.
(To Chapter 3)