Fic: Solaris
Author: bell_jar_fics
Story: Solaris
Character/Pairing: Doctor, Rose, Jack, OC, Hints of Doctor/Rose
Era: Ninth Doctor Era; Takes place between The Doctor Dances and Boomtown.
Rating: PG-13 (To be safe)
Chapter: 12/30(?) (The Visor)
Summary: The Doctor, Rose, and Jack travel to an Alien city, where they must team up with a local thief to retrieve a series of mysterious artifacts of unknown capacity.
Disclaimer: Obviously not the owner.
I am SO sorry this took so long. My computer died on me, and it took forever before the new one finally arrived. Of course, once it did, I had to hit the ground running on schoolwork. Please forgive me!
Previous Chapters
The eight travelers had ridden their amailias out of the N’renyan Jungle, and were now heading across a nearly barren savanna-like area.
“At this rate,” Kairivan spoke to the Doctor, “we should reach Storm Canyon by tonight, and then we can start scaling down the cliffside path to the Ancient Ruins. That means you and your friends will be able to retrieve the belt by tomorrow afternoon at the latest.”
The progress of the group, however, was soon cut short as they moved around a bend, and straight into a herd of strange alien beasts. The creatures were about as large as a common elephant, covered with coarse dark brown fur, with jagged, curved horns emerging from their skulls and an armadillo-like bony armor shell on their backs.
“A boffer heard,” Kairivan gaped, halting her amailia quickly.
“What’s wrong?” The Doctor questioned. “They’re not dangerous, are they?”
“Not usually,” Jamada explained gruffly. “But they can be extremely territorial, especially if they have young with them. It would be wise to give them a wide berth, just to be safe.” However, as the group started to alter their course to avoid the boffer herd, the amailia that Lulez was riding backed into a shrub-like plant with sharp prickles, and let out a bellowing grunt of pain. The amailia’s cry effectively got the attention of a particularly large boffer, who must have been the herd’s leader. Within an instant, the large boffer began a charge, its heavy weight causing the ground to shake as it moved. The charging boffer sent the amailias into a state of panic, with most of them clearly getting ready to bolt.
“Everyone, hurry!” Gaya cried out as he turned his amailia about, pointing to a nearby outcrop of rocks. “We need to get to high ground fast; the boffer isn’t able to make it up steep climbs." Acting quickly, the group led their amailias towards the rocky outcrop, trying to reach it before the boffer could reach them, but when they were just a few yards away, the boffer managed to catch up to them and blocked Rose’s path. Her shout of alarm was muffled by the boffer’s bellowing roar.
“Rose!” The Doctor froze in shock at the sight of the boffer driving Rose away from the rest of them. Without hesitation, he forced his amailia to turn around to try and save his friend.
“Doctor, don’t be a fool!” Jamada barked, trying to stop him. “That boffer will kill you if you get in its way!”
“So, you’d just stand by and let the boffer hurt Rose?” The Doctor fixed Jamada with an icy stare. After a moment, Jamanda relented, recognizing the Doctor’s resolve at protecting Rose. When Jamanda stepped aside, the Doctor urged his amailia down from the rocky outcrop, and went after Rose. As he rode the Alien beast to rescue his friend, he noticed through his peripheral vision that he’d been joined by Jack and, to his surprise, Solaris. In fact, it was Solaris’ amailia that caught up to the boffer first. With a display of complete recklessness, Solaris jumped off of the amailia that she’d been riding and latched on to the boffer’s tail, before slowly climbing up to the beast’s back.
“What’s she trying to do?” the Doctor stared in shock as Solaris clung to the boffer’s shaggy fur.
“I think I know,” Jack realized, pointing to a location up ahead, where there was a small, narrow crevice embedded into the rocky ground. It wasn’t that big, but just big enough for a human to enter.
As Jack and the Doctor watched, Solaris managed to make it up to the boffer’s head, balancing there on her knees. Right when the boffer was about to pounce upon Rose and her amailia, the thief lunged off of the beast, semi-tackling Rose off the amailia, and the two girls fell through the crevice. The boffer, not willing to let his quarry go so easily, began clawing at the crevice, swiping his heavy foreleg inside the fissure every so often. With the boffer distracted, the Doctor dismounted his amailia and hurried forward. Quickly setting the sonic screwdriver to the right setting, he pointed it at the boffer, emitting a high frequency that effectively drove the boffer away from the crevice and back to his herd.
When the danger had passed, the Doctor and Jack hurried over to the fissure. The crevice, it turned out, widened out into a small cavern, where Rose and Solaris were lying on their sides.
“Rose!” The Doctor called out as he and Jack entered the cavern to see if she was all right. At the sound of the Doctor’s voice, Rose gingerly pushed herself up into a sitting position. Surprisingly, she appeared unharmed, apart from a few scrapes on her cheek and arms, but that didn’t stop the Doctor from throwing his arms around her in a tight hug.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, fine,” Rose breathed, returning the hug. “Never better.”
As the Doctor started scanning Rose with the sonic screwdriver, checking for internal injuries, Jack grinned over at Solaris, who was now getting up into an almost-crouching position, with both her hands on the ground, her back facing them. “Solaris, that little stunt was either incredibly brave, or incredibly stupid,” Jack announced with a low whistle, an amused grin on his face. “I think I’m starting to like you.” Solaris replied with only a grunt, keeping her back to the others.
When the Doctor helped Rose to her feet, satisfied with the results of his scan, which revealed that there was no serious damage done, Rose happened to glance down and noticed that Solaris’ visor was lying on the ground a few feet away. Immediately, she went over to retrieve it.
“Solaris, I got your visor.” Rose knelt down to try and return it to the blue-haired alien, placing a hand on her back as she did so.
“Don’t touch me!” Solaris growled, shrinking away from Rose.
“What’s with the attitude? I’m just trying to…” Rose’s voice died in her throat the instant Solaris turned to face her, allowing the eyes that had been previously hidden behind the visor to finally be seen. The alien thief’s eyes appeared to have been solid steel blue at one point, but now they were completely coated over with a cloudy sheen. “You’re…. you’re blind!” Rose realized. Solaris took the visor from Rose wordlessly and replaced it over her sightless eyes.
“Yeah, I’m blind. I have been since I was a child.” Solaris finally spoke. “It could have been a lot worse, though. It could have been my life that I lost the night it happened. I was lucky.”
“How did it happen?” the Doctor asked gently. Solaris visibly flinched.
“It was a night I’d prefer to forget.” The Doctor replied with only silence, respecting Solaris’ wishes to not go into the subject of how she lost her sight.
“One question,” Jack spoke up. “If you are blind, then how are you able to get around?”
“Is it that visor?” Rose guessed, now staring as Solaris’ visor. “Is it like Star Trek?”
“First of all,” Solaris replied, laughing slightly, “you need to remember that I haven’t heard of Star Trek out on Baniru, Rose. But to answer your question, my visor is not a tool to help me see. I only wear it to hide the fact that my eyes don’t work. I don’t need it for any other reason. Incidentally, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone I cannot see. When people learn of that, they might feel the need that they need to baby me; that I’m some weak and helpless thing. That’s something I cannot stand. As for the issue of how I can manage without my sight, like I told Rose the night we met; I don’t see the way you do.” Letting out a small sigh, Solaris took a seat on a nearby rock before clarifying.
“After I lost my eyesight, I met…. I suppose the best description for her would be an angel of mercy. When I became blind, a woman discovered me, and took me under her wing. Her name was Amalthea. She became everything to me; a mother, a friend, and a mentor all in one. Because of her, I learned another way to see without the use of my eyes.
“My particular species, when they first began to exist, were able to use psionic abilities. But as they evolved, the psionics became more along the lines of vestigial abilities, and became dormant. Sort of like how the appendix in humans no longer serves an actual purpose. Amalthea was able to assist me in reawakening those abilities, and under her tutelage, I learned how to use them in order to see.”
“So, you see psychically,” the Doctor concluded.
“How does that work, anyway?” Rose wondered out loud. “Do you see the way we do? I mean, I know you don’t see the way we do, but do you still….” Rose trailed off, realizing how idiotic she was sounding.
“I know what you’re trying to say, Rose, it’s fine,” Solaris reluctantly gave a half smile, as if sensing her discomfort. “Unfortunately, it’s rather hard to explain. But… have you ever seen a photograph from a thermal infrared camera? That should give you a basic idea of how the world appears to me. It’s sort of like… the basic outline of people and objects. Although, like I said, it’s really the sort of thing that’s hard to really explain. Rather like how it’s hard to describe an actual color; it’s something you know when you see.”
Before more could be said, the four companions heard the voice of Kairivan calling for their names as the N’renyans searched for them.
“We’d better rejoin the others,” the Doctor decided. No sooner had the small group managed to climb out of the cavern, Gaya suddenly appeared.
“Oh, thank the great maker none of you were harmed,” he breathed in relief. “We’d feared that you had been trampled by the Boffer.”
“No, we managed to get out of that mess,” the Doctor assured.
“Then the four of you have amazing luck,” Jamada noted, stepping up to Gaya’s side. “Not only have you lot gotten out of that, but we have also reached your destination.”
“We’re at Storm Canyon?” Jack blinked in surprise.
“At the escarpment, at least,” Kairivan explained as she appeared, as well as the other N’renyans. “We’ll have to rest here for the night; it’ll be dark soon, and it’ll be too dangerous to make the journey down the cliff-side temples. We need to wait until morning before continuing.”
Story: Solaris
Character/Pairing: Doctor, Rose, Jack, OC, Hints of Doctor/Rose
Era: Ninth Doctor Era; Takes place between The Doctor Dances and Boomtown.
Rating: PG-13 (To be safe)
Chapter: 12/30(?) (The Visor)
Summary: The Doctor, Rose, and Jack travel to an Alien city, where they must team up with a local thief to retrieve a series of mysterious artifacts of unknown capacity.
Disclaimer: Obviously not the owner.
I am SO sorry this took so long. My computer died on me, and it took forever before the new one finally arrived. Of course, once it did, I had to hit the ground running on schoolwork. Please forgive me!
Previous Chapters
The eight travelers had ridden their amailias out of the N’renyan Jungle, and were now heading across a nearly barren savanna-like area.
“At this rate,” Kairivan spoke to the Doctor, “we should reach Storm Canyon by tonight, and then we can start scaling down the cliffside path to the Ancient Ruins. That means you and your friends will be able to retrieve the belt by tomorrow afternoon at the latest.”
The progress of the group, however, was soon cut short as they moved around a bend, and straight into a herd of strange alien beasts. The creatures were about as large as a common elephant, covered with coarse dark brown fur, with jagged, curved horns emerging from their skulls and an armadillo-like bony armor shell on their backs.
“A boffer heard,” Kairivan gaped, halting her amailia quickly.
“What’s wrong?” The Doctor questioned. “They’re not dangerous, are they?”
“Not usually,” Jamada explained gruffly. “But they can be extremely territorial, especially if they have young with them. It would be wise to give them a wide berth, just to be safe.” However, as the group started to alter their course to avoid the boffer herd, the amailia that Lulez was riding backed into a shrub-like plant with sharp prickles, and let out a bellowing grunt of pain. The amailia’s cry effectively got the attention of a particularly large boffer, who must have been the herd’s leader. Within an instant, the large boffer began a charge, its heavy weight causing the ground to shake as it moved. The charging boffer sent the amailias into a state of panic, with most of them clearly getting ready to bolt.
“Everyone, hurry!” Gaya cried out as he turned his amailia about, pointing to a nearby outcrop of rocks. “We need to get to high ground fast; the boffer isn’t able to make it up steep climbs." Acting quickly, the group led their amailias towards the rocky outcrop, trying to reach it before the boffer could reach them, but when they were just a few yards away, the boffer managed to catch up to them and blocked Rose’s path. Her shout of alarm was muffled by the boffer’s bellowing roar.
“Rose!” The Doctor froze in shock at the sight of the boffer driving Rose away from the rest of them. Without hesitation, he forced his amailia to turn around to try and save his friend.
“Doctor, don’t be a fool!” Jamada barked, trying to stop him. “That boffer will kill you if you get in its way!”
“So, you’d just stand by and let the boffer hurt Rose?” The Doctor fixed Jamada with an icy stare. After a moment, Jamanda relented, recognizing the Doctor’s resolve at protecting Rose. When Jamanda stepped aside, the Doctor urged his amailia down from the rocky outcrop, and went after Rose. As he rode the Alien beast to rescue his friend, he noticed through his peripheral vision that he’d been joined by Jack and, to his surprise, Solaris. In fact, it was Solaris’ amailia that caught up to the boffer first. With a display of complete recklessness, Solaris jumped off of the amailia that she’d been riding and latched on to the boffer’s tail, before slowly climbing up to the beast’s back.
“What’s she trying to do?” the Doctor stared in shock as Solaris clung to the boffer’s shaggy fur.
“I think I know,” Jack realized, pointing to a location up ahead, where there was a small, narrow crevice embedded into the rocky ground. It wasn’t that big, but just big enough for a human to enter.
As Jack and the Doctor watched, Solaris managed to make it up to the boffer’s head, balancing there on her knees. Right when the boffer was about to pounce upon Rose and her amailia, the thief lunged off of the beast, semi-tackling Rose off the amailia, and the two girls fell through the crevice. The boffer, not willing to let his quarry go so easily, began clawing at the crevice, swiping his heavy foreleg inside the fissure every so often. With the boffer distracted, the Doctor dismounted his amailia and hurried forward. Quickly setting the sonic screwdriver to the right setting, he pointed it at the boffer, emitting a high frequency that effectively drove the boffer away from the crevice and back to his herd.
When the danger had passed, the Doctor and Jack hurried over to the fissure. The crevice, it turned out, widened out into a small cavern, where Rose and Solaris were lying on their sides.
“Rose!” The Doctor called out as he and Jack entered the cavern to see if she was all right. At the sound of the Doctor’s voice, Rose gingerly pushed herself up into a sitting position. Surprisingly, she appeared unharmed, apart from a few scrapes on her cheek and arms, but that didn’t stop the Doctor from throwing his arms around her in a tight hug.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, fine,” Rose breathed, returning the hug. “Never better.”
As the Doctor started scanning Rose with the sonic screwdriver, checking for internal injuries, Jack grinned over at Solaris, who was now getting up into an almost-crouching position, with both her hands on the ground, her back facing them. “Solaris, that little stunt was either incredibly brave, or incredibly stupid,” Jack announced with a low whistle, an amused grin on his face. “I think I’m starting to like you.” Solaris replied with only a grunt, keeping her back to the others.
When the Doctor helped Rose to her feet, satisfied with the results of his scan, which revealed that there was no serious damage done, Rose happened to glance down and noticed that Solaris’ visor was lying on the ground a few feet away. Immediately, she went over to retrieve it.
“Solaris, I got your visor.” Rose knelt down to try and return it to the blue-haired alien, placing a hand on her back as she did so.
“Don’t touch me!” Solaris growled, shrinking away from Rose.
“What’s with the attitude? I’m just trying to…” Rose’s voice died in her throat the instant Solaris turned to face her, allowing the eyes that had been previously hidden behind the visor to finally be seen. The alien thief’s eyes appeared to have been solid steel blue at one point, but now they were completely coated over with a cloudy sheen. “You’re…. you’re blind!” Rose realized. Solaris took the visor from Rose wordlessly and replaced it over her sightless eyes.
“Yeah, I’m blind. I have been since I was a child.” Solaris finally spoke. “It could have been a lot worse, though. It could have been my life that I lost the night it happened. I was lucky.”
“How did it happen?” the Doctor asked gently. Solaris visibly flinched.
“It was a night I’d prefer to forget.” The Doctor replied with only silence, respecting Solaris’ wishes to not go into the subject of how she lost her sight.
“One question,” Jack spoke up. “If you are blind, then how are you able to get around?”
“Is it that visor?” Rose guessed, now staring as Solaris’ visor. “Is it like Star Trek?”
“First of all,” Solaris replied, laughing slightly, “you need to remember that I haven’t heard of Star Trek out on Baniru, Rose. But to answer your question, my visor is not a tool to help me see. I only wear it to hide the fact that my eyes don’t work. I don’t need it for any other reason. Incidentally, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone I cannot see. When people learn of that, they might feel the need that they need to baby me; that I’m some weak and helpless thing. That’s something I cannot stand. As for the issue of how I can manage without my sight, like I told Rose the night we met; I don’t see the way you do.” Letting out a small sigh, Solaris took a seat on a nearby rock before clarifying.
“After I lost my eyesight, I met…. I suppose the best description for her would be an angel of mercy. When I became blind, a woman discovered me, and took me under her wing. Her name was Amalthea. She became everything to me; a mother, a friend, and a mentor all in one. Because of her, I learned another way to see without the use of my eyes.
“My particular species, when they first began to exist, were able to use psionic abilities. But as they evolved, the psionics became more along the lines of vestigial abilities, and became dormant. Sort of like how the appendix in humans no longer serves an actual purpose. Amalthea was able to assist me in reawakening those abilities, and under her tutelage, I learned how to use them in order to see.”
“So, you see psychically,” the Doctor concluded.
“How does that work, anyway?” Rose wondered out loud. “Do you see the way we do? I mean, I know you don’t see the way we do, but do you still….” Rose trailed off, realizing how idiotic she was sounding.
“I know what you’re trying to say, Rose, it’s fine,” Solaris reluctantly gave a half smile, as if sensing her discomfort. “Unfortunately, it’s rather hard to explain. But… have you ever seen a photograph from a thermal infrared camera? That should give you a basic idea of how the world appears to me. It’s sort of like… the basic outline of people and objects. Although, like I said, it’s really the sort of thing that’s hard to really explain. Rather like how it’s hard to describe an actual color; it’s something you know when you see.”
Before more could be said, the four companions heard the voice of Kairivan calling for their names as the N’renyans searched for them.
“We’d better rejoin the others,” the Doctor decided. No sooner had the small group managed to climb out of the cavern, Gaya suddenly appeared.
“Oh, thank the great maker none of you were harmed,” he breathed in relief. “We’d feared that you had been trampled by the Boffer.”
“No, we managed to get out of that mess,” the Doctor assured.
“Then the four of you have amazing luck,” Jamada noted, stepping up to Gaya’s side. “Not only have you lot gotten out of that, but we have also reached your destination.”
“We’re at Storm Canyon?” Jack blinked in surprise.
“At the escarpment, at least,” Kairivan explained as she appeared, as well as the other N’renyans. “We’ll have to rest here for the night; it’ll be dark soon, and it’ll be too dangerous to make the journey down the cliff-side temples. We need to wait until morning before continuing.”