Fic: Living Paradox, by wendymr and dark_aegis 2/3
Story: Living Paradox
Authors: wmr/ wendymr and Gillian Taylor/
dark_aegis
Characters: Ninth Doctor, Jack Harkness, Rose Tyler
Rated: PG
Disclaimer: Not ours, or Jack would have been around a lot longer!
Summary: There are reasons the Time Lords tried to police time. This is one of them.
Written for measi as an incentive fic for bidding on wendymr in the April Support Stacie Auction.
dark_aegis very kindly agreed to write it with me. I'm hugely embarrassed that it took so long to write this, and I hope that the longer story than promised is sufficient recompense. The prompt was dark and stormy night; well, we did mention it! With very many thanks to yamx for BRing.
Chapter 1: Now You See Him...
Chapter 2: Paradox
It’s as he thought. Feared.
Someone’s been messing about in Jack’s past. Someone’s gone and changed Jack’s past, and either killed him or caused something to happen so that Jack died.
The sudden tightness in his chest’s unexpected.
It’s the waste of a life, that’s all. The lad shouldn’t have died. Irrespective of whatever he’s supposed to do in his future, Jack was a good bloke. Full of promise, and definitely better than he gave the lad credit for.
He bends and picks up the bone. A femur, by the look of it, severely gnawed on by animals. No way of telling how long ago Jack died, not without highly-sophisticated forensic equipment, and even that might not be reliable given the wildlife and predators on this planet.
So, his theory’s confirmed, not that he expected anything else. That’s the easy bit. The harder bit’s going to be finding out when and how Jack died, so that he can stop it happening - and save the universe in the process.
“Come on, back to the TARDIS,” he says abruptly, turning and walking away even as he speaks. There’s work to do, and not a lot of time to do it in. The longer he delays, the more fixed this new time-stream becomes - and the consequences of undoing it, the ripples it will cause throughout the universe, become catastrophic. Nearly as catastrophic as not undoing it.
Rose’s hand slides into his. “Meant a lot to you, didn’t he?”
He starts. The words of denial are right on his lips, but he can’t say them. Instead, after a moment, he says, “Told you. He’s important. End of the universe in twenty days if this timeline continues.”
She doesn’t reply. Instead, her hand squeezes his.
“You an’ him were mates,” he says, for some reason feeling the need to tell her, to have her know about Jack, even if she doesn’t remember herself. Even if, once he’s sorted this, which he will, she’ll remember again. “Best of mates. Always laughin’ an’ teasin’. Flirtin’, even,” he adds reluctantly.
She falters momentarily, before recovering her stride. “I... remember something. Or... I dunno, it feels like some sort of dream. Fallin’ into some bloke’s arms. Can’t see his face, but I think he’s good-looking. I... but then he disappears, like he was never there.”
Good. She’s not completely forgotten, then, even if the new timeline has asserted itself in her brain.
“That’s how you met him,” he explains. “Saved your life. You were hangin’ from a barrage balloon during an air-raid and he rescued you.”
She frowns. “But I remember that - the air-raid, I mean. I was chasin’ that kid, you know, the one in the gas-mask. Ended up clinging to this barrage balloon with bombs falling all around me. But...” Her face creases. “Someone caught me, yeah, but I could’ve sworn it was you.”
“Nah. Jack.” It should have been him, of course, but he’d been busy elsewhere and by the time he’d noticed she wasn’t with him she was nowhere to be found.
“I remember going to 1941. You wanted to show me one of Churchill's speeches, but you mistimed the trip. We ended up arrivin' just before the latest round of the Blitz. I remember there was this kid who had something wrong with him, something alien...”
“Mostly correct, but missin' an important bit. The reason we went to 1941 is Jack. Well, Jack meddlin' in things he shouldn't've, but that's beside the point.”
He digs into his pocket and produces the psychic paper, then flips it open and shows her the page. “That’s Jack.” He doesn’t have to look at it to know what’s there: the Captain in all his too-handsome glory, teasing grin on his face, looking like he could star in a toothpaste ad.
She looks up at him, regret and sadness on her face. “I don’t remember him. Well, not really. There’s something, but it feels sort of like a dream and I can’t see his face clearly.”
He nods. It’s only to be expected. But he can’t help feeling as if Jack deserves more than that. More than to have him be the only person in the whole universe who actually remembers him - well, remembers him as he was, in the timeline where he didn’t die.
“Come on,” he says again, and she walks beside him, still holding his hand.
“He was your friend too,” she says, and it’s not a question.
“Wouldn’t go that far,” he mumbles. Rose doesn’t answer. For some reason, he finds himself telling her more. “He did something incredibly stupid. Almost wiped out the human race.”
“Same as me, then,” she says, again glancing up at him.
He’s not going to comment on that. Even when she doesn’t remember Jack, she’s still defending him. “Helped to put it right, he did. S’pose that was something. Almost died for it, too.”
“But you saved him.” Again, it’s not a question.
“Nearly didn’t,” he admits. If it hadn’t been for Rose- Well, anyway, it was the right thing to do. Knew it at the time, too, even if he was pissed off at the bloke.
Seems he’s destined to keep saving Captain Jack Harkness’s life after the fact.
***
“So, now what?”
They’re back in the TARDIS and the Doctor, still clutching that piece of bone - which is a bit creepy, really - is staring at the monitors on the console again. She moves closer, trying to see what he’s looking at, and out of the corner of her eye suddenly there’s - what?
No. She’s going mad. For a second, she thought she saw a man at the next section of the console, leaning over as if he was about to speak to the Doctor. But there’s no-one there. It’s just her imagination.
“Doctor?” Her voice is more hesitant than she intended. This must be creeping her out more than she thought.
“Yep?” He doesn’t shift his attention from the console, and he’s clearly distracted.
But this could be important. Or it might not. “There’s this weird... I keep thinkin’ I see someone else in here. A bloke. Looks a bit like the man you showed me in the psychic paper. How can I be seeing Jack if he died before I ever met him?”
The Doctor is frowning when he turns his head to look at her. “You're seein' fragments of time. Bits of what used to be and what could've been. You're more susceptible to it here, in the TARDIS. She's what's allowing you to see it. That's the problem with paradoxes - very messy. Tends to leave bits of time behind.”
“Oh.” She nods, sort of understanding. “So, like I said, what next?”
“We find out the origin of the paradox, just where Jack Harkness's life was prematurely ended,” the Doctor replies, setting the bone onto the console. “This should help.”
He does something to the console and a bluish glow suddenly surrounds the bone. Moments later, it's gone. “What-?” she starts, but doesn't get to finish because the Doctor's whirling about again, flipping switches and twisting knobs. The screen changes, showing the usual geometric shapes of the Doctor's language, only this time some of those shapes are flashing.
“Ha! Got it. Artron energy decays at a specific rate. Comparing this bit of bone to that energy we found before and… yep. This-” He stabs his finger against the screen, pointing out a flashing icon. “-is where the signatures match.”
“What's that mean, then?” Rose asks. “That when he died?”
“Most likely. Living tissue generates the most artron energy. After death, it dissipates. So this is where we've got to go.”
“And where's that?”
“Twenty-five years ago, this planet’s time.”
***
The coordinates don't take long to plug in. It's a matter of transferring data from one part of the console to another. What takes time is making sure that when they travel through the Vortex they don't get shaken apart. That's the problem with mucking about with time. It takes a while for it to even out again. Makes Vortex travel a bit tricky for a while.
Well, he calls it tricky. More like trying to skip a brick across a pond with more bouncing and less sinking.
“Rose, I need you to keep an eye on this screen -” He taps the monitor, pointing at the centre of the swirling Vortex. “- I've got to keep us right there while we travel. I can't let us drift too far to one side or the other. An' I'll need a warning if there're any bumps heading our way.”
Rose looks terrified, but she nods anyway. Good girl. Knew he'd chosen right when he'd asked her to come along. And soon he'll have the other member of their team back with them where he, too, belongs.
“Right, then. Here we go.” The TARDIS shudders around them as he takes her into the Vortex, her engines protesting the move.
He focuses his attention, his entire being on the controls, trusting Rose to warn him if he drifts too far off centre. He becomes a whirl of movement, practically dancing around the console, doing the job of what should've been six pilots by himself. The stabiliser here. Adjusting the force of the engines there. Directional steering here.
“Doctor!” Rose's shout is all the warning he gets before the TARDIS shudders violently, throwing both himself and Rose to the floor. It only takes a glance at the monitor to realise that they must've reached an eddy in the Vortex. The TARDIS is half-way emerged within its violent edges and sinking further the longer he's on the floor.
He scrambles back to his feet and rushes back to the console, riding the violent tremors with every bit of skill he has. He has to fight the currents of the Vortex, as well as the controls themselves, to pull the TARDIS free. The shuddering doesn't completely abate, but it lessens enough for Rose to rejoin him at the console.
“What was that?” she asks, barely audible over the sound of the engines and the groans the TARDIS is making as she bucks against the current.
“We ran into a temporal eddy. That's why we've got to stay in the middle of the Vortex. Paradoxes tend to do that. The closer we are to a paradox, let alone near the centre of it, the more violent travel through the Vortex is,” he explains.
“So we're always running into paradoxes, then?” Rose asks, humour practically dripping off every word.
“Oi! Less of the insults, thanks. Tryin' to keep us alive here.”
“There's another eddy. Right side.”
“Got it,” he says, shifting the TARDIS a little more to the left.
It takes ten minutes to arrive at their destination, eddies becoming more frequent the closer they get to the source of the paradox. The TARDIS shudders one last time before she settles into stillness, her hum fading into the background.
“Right, then. Jack should be somewhere outside those doors. He won't know us, though,” he says.
“I don't know him,” Rose points out and he winces at the reminder.
He extends his hand and smiles when Rose grasps it within a firm grip. He doesn't know what they're going to find out there. Who would've killed Jack? More than that, who would've gone back in time to kill Jack? Sadly, he doesn't know much about the lad's life before he joined them. Sure, there's the conman bit and the Time Agency, but that doesn't help, not really. And it’s not good that he doesn’t know. He should have taken the time to find out more about Jack.
Once they're outside, with his free hand he pulls the sonic screwdriver free from his pocket and thumbs it on. It just takes a few seconds to change the settings and it will now locate Jack. He just wishes he knew precisely what they're getting into.
They've landed near the centre of the city. Throngs of people move about on their business and no-one turns to give them a look. Typical, that. Land a fantastic ship in the centre of their lives and what do they do? Ignore it. Good thing, though. He doesn't know how he'd manage to deflect curiosity away from the TARDIS in time for him to stop Jack's death.
He's very much aware that by being here, now, he's become part of events. True, that doesn't mean much since this is the centre of a paradox, but it's bad enough.
“How'd Jack die?” Rose asks.
He shakes his head. “I don't know. The remnants we found weren't able to tell me much. Could've been anything, really.”
“Great. So how're we supposed to stop something that we don't know anything about?” Good point, that.
“The person who came back here, who changed things, has an artron signature too. We just have to scan for it once we locate Jack. I'll need you to keep an eye on Jack when we find him. I'll focus on finding our culprit.”
“An' if we do find the person who killed Jack an' stop him? What happens then? Does our Jack just suddenly appear out of thin air? Or show up in the TARDIS, or back where we started?”
“Don't know, actually,” he admits.
“You don't know?” Disbelief crosses her face.
“Happens,” he says. “Not frequently, mind. But it does happen.”
Rose just shakes her head.
The sonic screwdriver beeps and he moves in the direction of the reading. According to this, Jack's close by, but moving away from them. He quickens his pace.
***
She doesn't get much chance to admire their surroundings. The Doctor's too focused on finding his Jack to dawdle for something like sightseeing. He's dropped her hand, mostly because he needs both to tweak the screwdriver's settings. At least, that's what she thinks. So she's stuck both trying to keep up with him and catching impressions of the city. The people here - now that she does have more chance to look given they didn't really get up close to anyone the last time they were here - are tall, brown-skinned, with faces covered in scales. They're sort of a cross between a lizard and a human, if there is such a thing. Strangely, though, the look suits them. She'd almost call them handsome.
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she realises she's almost lost the Doctor. It's only thanks to his sombre black jacket that she can find him amongst the throngs of people. The natives tend towards bright colours that are almost too dazzling to her eyes. The Doctor, and even herself in her t-shirt and jeans, are bits of darkness amongst all these people.
Rose hurries after the Doctor, apologising as she brushes against other people in her haste. When she's at his side again, she relaxes. It's probably silly, but she always feels safer when he's close by. Like nothing bad can ever happen to her with him around, though she knows that's certainly not true.
“He's just ahead,” the Doctor says quietly, nodding his head, and she looks in the direction of his nod.
That's Jack? Her first impression is of a man who looks too good to be true. He's beautiful, if a man can be called beautiful, and she feels like she knows him. Which she should, if time hadn't changed.
“Wow.” The word slips from her lips without the chance for her to even consider censoring it.
Surprisingly, the Doctor doesn't seem to even notice. “Watch him,” the Doctor commands and he disappears instantly, taking any sensation of safety with him.
This isn't a lark, she knows that. This is trying to sort time and bring someone back to them. She's so busy keeping an eye on Jack that she doesn't realise that he's watching her back until he gives her a dazzling smile and begins to saunter her way.
Panic fills her. Stupid! Of course he'd notice another human - at least, she thinks he's human, too.
“Hello,” he says and his voice somehow makes him even more attractive - a feat she thought impossible. “I'm Douglas Carson.” He holds out his hand for her to shake, which she does, still rather dazed.
“I'm, um, Rose,” she stammers.
Douglas Carson? If that’s his name, then why is the Doctor calling him Jack Harkness? Fake name, of course, she realises after a second or two. Just like the Doctor introducing himself as John Smith. But why does he need a false name? And what’s he doing here, anyway? If Jack’s human, just like her, why is he on an alien planet? Just who is he?
“Well, um, Rose,” he says and there's a flash of humour in his eyes. “What brings a gorgeous woman such as yourself to Semai?”
You. “Jus' sight-seeing. My friend-” No. She can't turn her head to look for the Doctor. Might give the game away. “-said this was a bit off the beaten path, but I shouldn't miss it.”
“Your friend?” he echoes, still smiling. “Should I be jealous?”
“We've only just met,” she says, feeling somewhat lightheaded.
“Some of my best relationships've begun just like this,” he says. “Man meets woman, discovers she doesn't belong…”
Oh, shit.
He lifts his right arm, opening the flap on some sort of wristwatch. He looks at it briefly, before his entire demeanour changes. “Who are you? Your clothing doesn't fit this time period and your entire body is soaked in artron energy.”
Oh, shit.
***
The artron signature’s getting stronger. He’s getting closer. Good.
Approximately ten minutes now, according to the TARDIS’s calculations, until Jack dies in this altered timeline. He’s got ten minutes to save the lad’s life. No, to save the universe. And he’s just got one shot at it. No going back to try again. Far too dangerous, that, even without him and Rose already here and split up.
The screwdriver’s beeping intensifies. Following it, he turns a corner into another busy street. Almost immediately, the two Semaians in front of him cross the road, and he finds himself right behind a humanoid figure. The beeping instantly becomes almost continuous.
He shuts off the artron tracker immediately; no sense alerting the bloke that he’s being followed. Switching to another setting, he does a quick scan. Human, definitely. And, by the carbon-dating on the clothes he’s wearing, from the same era as Jack.
Has to be the bloke who killed Jack. Has to be. No other humans around, for one thing and, as he told Rose earlier, Semai isn’t a tourist destination. No reason for any humans to come here, unless they’ve got a particular reason.
Like changing someone’s past... like removing someone from history...
The man halts abruptly and starts fumbling with something on his left wrist and looking down at it. It’s a wrist computer, like Jack’s. He’s a Time Agent.
A Time Agent. Now, that makes sense. Jack’s relationship with the Time Agency is complicated. On the run from them, yet conning them at the same time. Memories wiped, with no idea why: was it because he committed a crime, or because he upset someone in a high place? Or maybe even because he knew too much about something it wasn’t convenient for him to know about. That, the Doctor’s thought ever since Jack mentioned those missing memories, is the most likely solution. After all, if Jack had done something wrong why wouldn’t he have been discharged from the Agency? Why was he allowed to quit?
The Doctor ducks into a shop doorway as the Time Agent turns suddenly. Right. He’s tracking Jack. Letting a couple of Semaians pass first, the Doctor steps out of the doorway again and follows, staying far enough back not to be seen, but close enough so that the Time Agent doesn’t get too much of a head start. Pointless coming here just to watch Jack get killed, after all.
In less than five minutes, they’re approaching the last corner. Turn right here and Jack will be just a few yards away, as long as he hasn’t moved too far from where he saw the lad when they arrived. Rose should still be around, too. He hopes she’s had the good sense to stay out of sight. No point saving Jack’s life and changing history anyway by having him remember her when they meet in 1941.
The tingling in the air’s getting stronger. Four minutes away now. Though the feel of the impending paradox is stronger than it should be. There’s something else now, something new. He feels his body tense, and he hurries to get closer to the Time Agent. This is getting too dangerous. Though it shouldn’t be. He’s got the bloke in his sights, within very easy reach. Simple matter to push him over, or even to disable his weapon with the sonic if need be.
He rounds the corner a fraction of a second behind the Time Agent. And there’s Jack, standing with his back to them, a sitting duck. Looks like he’s arguing with someone. He moves then, half-turning, and a chill runs through the Doctor’s spine.
It’s Rose. Jack’s arguing with Rose. He’s seen her. Talking to her, too. Oh, fantastic. This is going to take more sorting out than he wanted to deal with. Stu-
“Caldwell! Or whatever name you’re going by this time,” the Time Agent calls, a sneer in his voice. “I warned you. Told you I’d get you when you least expect it.”
Jack moves, faster than any human with normal reflexes should. He shoves Rose roughly behind him and turns to face the other agent. “What do you want, a gold star?” He laughs, but every inch of his body’s obviously on alert, and his hand’s creeping around to a back pocket.
“No, just your dead body lying in the dirt,” the other agent retorts, and there’s a glint of metal suddenly. Rassilon! He must have drawn a gun when the Doctor’s attention was elsewhere.
The agent’s aiming the gun. Jack’s drawing his own weapon. And the Doctor lunges forward, ready to shove the agent out of the way. And a movement in the corner of his eye distracts him, delays him just long enough to stop him getting to the agent in time.
Rose has rushed at Jack, pushed him hard and knocked him to the ground. But now she’s directly in the line of fire.
As if in slow motion, there’s a report as the agent fires. He can almost see the blast of energy heading towards Rose. And there’s nothing he can do to stop it. Nothing at all.
***
to be concluded in Chapter 3: Resurrecting the Dead
Authors: wmr/ wendymr and Gillian Taylor/
dark_aegis
Characters: Ninth Doctor, Jack Harkness, Rose Tyler
Rated: PG
Disclaimer: Not ours, or Jack would have been around a lot longer!
Summary: There are reasons the Time Lords tried to police time. This is one of them.
Written for measi as an incentive fic for bidding on wendymr in the April Support Stacie Auction.
dark_aegis very kindly agreed to write it with me. I'm hugely embarrassed that it took so long to write this, and I hope that the longer story than promised is sufficient recompense. The prompt was dark and stormy night; well, we did mention it! With very many thanks to yamx for BRing.
Chapter 1: Now You See Him...
Chapter 2: Paradox
It’s as he thought. Feared.
Someone’s been messing about in Jack’s past. Someone’s gone and changed Jack’s past, and either killed him or caused something to happen so that Jack died.
The sudden tightness in his chest’s unexpected.
It’s the waste of a life, that’s all. The lad shouldn’t have died. Irrespective of whatever he’s supposed to do in his future, Jack was a good bloke. Full of promise, and definitely better than he gave the lad credit for.
He bends and picks up the bone. A femur, by the look of it, severely gnawed on by animals. No way of telling how long ago Jack died, not without highly-sophisticated forensic equipment, and even that might not be reliable given the wildlife and predators on this planet.
So, his theory’s confirmed, not that he expected anything else. That’s the easy bit. The harder bit’s going to be finding out when and how Jack died, so that he can stop it happening - and save the universe in the process.
“Come on, back to the TARDIS,” he says abruptly, turning and walking away even as he speaks. There’s work to do, and not a lot of time to do it in. The longer he delays, the more fixed this new time-stream becomes - and the consequences of undoing it, the ripples it will cause throughout the universe, become catastrophic. Nearly as catastrophic as not undoing it.
Rose’s hand slides into his. “Meant a lot to you, didn’t he?”
He starts. The words of denial are right on his lips, but he can’t say them. Instead, after a moment, he says, “Told you. He’s important. End of the universe in twenty days if this timeline continues.”
She doesn’t reply. Instead, her hand squeezes his.
“You an’ him were mates,” he says, for some reason feeling the need to tell her, to have her know about Jack, even if she doesn’t remember herself. Even if, once he’s sorted this, which he will, she’ll remember again. “Best of mates. Always laughin’ an’ teasin’. Flirtin’, even,” he adds reluctantly.
She falters momentarily, before recovering her stride. “I... remember something. Or... I dunno, it feels like some sort of dream. Fallin’ into some bloke’s arms. Can’t see his face, but I think he’s good-looking. I... but then he disappears, like he was never there.”
Good. She’s not completely forgotten, then, even if the new timeline has asserted itself in her brain.
“That’s how you met him,” he explains. “Saved your life. You were hangin’ from a barrage balloon during an air-raid and he rescued you.”
She frowns. “But I remember that - the air-raid, I mean. I was chasin’ that kid, you know, the one in the gas-mask. Ended up clinging to this barrage balloon with bombs falling all around me. But...” Her face creases. “Someone caught me, yeah, but I could’ve sworn it was you.”
“Nah. Jack.” It should have been him, of course, but he’d been busy elsewhere and by the time he’d noticed she wasn’t with him she was nowhere to be found.
“I remember going to 1941. You wanted to show me one of Churchill's speeches, but you mistimed the trip. We ended up arrivin' just before the latest round of the Blitz. I remember there was this kid who had something wrong with him, something alien...”
“Mostly correct, but missin' an important bit. The reason we went to 1941 is Jack. Well, Jack meddlin' in things he shouldn't've, but that's beside the point.”
He digs into his pocket and produces the psychic paper, then flips it open and shows her the page. “That’s Jack.” He doesn’t have to look at it to know what’s there: the Captain in all his too-handsome glory, teasing grin on his face, looking like he could star in a toothpaste ad.
She looks up at him, regret and sadness on her face. “I don’t remember him. Well, not really. There’s something, but it feels sort of like a dream and I can’t see his face clearly.”
He nods. It’s only to be expected. But he can’t help feeling as if Jack deserves more than that. More than to have him be the only person in the whole universe who actually remembers him - well, remembers him as he was, in the timeline where he didn’t die.
“Come on,” he says again, and she walks beside him, still holding his hand.
“He was your friend too,” she says, and it’s not a question.
“Wouldn’t go that far,” he mumbles. Rose doesn’t answer. For some reason, he finds himself telling her more. “He did something incredibly stupid. Almost wiped out the human race.”
“Same as me, then,” she says, again glancing up at him.
He’s not going to comment on that. Even when she doesn’t remember Jack, she’s still defending him. “Helped to put it right, he did. S’pose that was something. Almost died for it, too.”
“But you saved him.” Again, it’s not a question.
“Nearly didn’t,” he admits. If it hadn’t been for Rose- Well, anyway, it was the right thing to do. Knew it at the time, too, even if he was pissed off at the bloke.
Seems he’s destined to keep saving Captain Jack Harkness’s life after the fact.
***
“So, now what?”
They’re back in the TARDIS and the Doctor, still clutching that piece of bone - which is a bit creepy, really - is staring at the monitors on the console again. She moves closer, trying to see what he’s looking at, and out of the corner of her eye suddenly there’s - what?
No. She’s going mad. For a second, she thought she saw a man at the next section of the console, leaning over as if he was about to speak to the Doctor. But there’s no-one there. It’s just her imagination.
“Doctor?” Her voice is more hesitant than she intended. This must be creeping her out more than she thought.
“Yep?” He doesn’t shift his attention from the console, and he’s clearly distracted.
But this could be important. Or it might not. “There’s this weird... I keep thinkin’ I see someone else in here. A bloke. Looks a bit like the man you showed me in the psychic paper. How can I be seeing Jack if he died before I ever met him?”
The Doctor is frowning when he turns his head to look at her. “You're seein' fragments of time. Bits of what used to be and what could've been. You're more susceptible to it here, in the TARDIS. She's what's allowing you to see it. That's the problem with paradoxes - very messy. Tends to leave bits of time behind.”
“Oh.” She nods, sort of understanding. “So, like I said, what next?”
“We find out the origin of the paradox, just where Jack Harkness's life was prematurely ended,” the Doctor replies, setting the bone onto the console. “This should help.”
He does something to the console and a bluish glow suddenly surrounds the bone. Moments later, it's gone. “What-?” she starts, but doesn't get to finish because the Doctor's whirling about again, flipping switches and twisting knobs. The screen changes, showing the usual geometric shapes of the Doctor's language, only this time some of those shapes are flashing.
“Ha! Got it. Artron energy decays at a specific rate. Comparing this bit of bone to that energy we found before and… yep. This-” He stabs his finger against the screen, pointing out a flashing icon. “-is where the signatures match.”
“What's that mean, then?” Rose asks. “That when he died?”
“Most likely. Living tissue generates the most artron energy. After death, it dissipates. So this is where we've got to go.”
“And where's that?”
“Twenty-five years ago, this planet’s time.”
***
The coordinates don't take long to plug in. It's a matter of transferring data from one part of the console to another. What takes time is making sure that when they travel through the Vortex they don't get shaken apart. That's the problem with mucking about with time. It takes a while for it to even out again. Makes Vortex travel a bit tricky for a while.
Well, he calls it tricky. More like trying to skip a brick across a pond with more bouncing and less sinking.
“Rose, I need you to keep an eye on this screen -” He taps the monitor, pointing at the centre of the swirling Vortex. “- I've got to keep us right there while we travel. I can't let us drift too far to one side or the other. An' I'll need a warning if there're any bumps heading our way.”
Rose looks terrified, but she nods anyway. Good girl. Knew he'd chosen right when he'd asked her to come along. And soon he'll have the other member of their team back with them where he, too, belongs.
“Right, then. Here we go.” The TARDIS shudders around them as he takes her into the Vortex, her engines protesting the move.
He focuses his attention, his entire being on the controls, trusting Rose to warn him if he drifts too far off centre. He becomes a whirl of movement, practically dancing around the console, doing the job of what should've been six pilots by himself. The stabiliser here. Adjusting the force of the engines there. Directional steering here.
“Doctor!” Rose's shout is all the warning he gets before the TARDIS shudders violently, throwing both himself and Rose to the floor. It only takes a glance at the monitor to realise that they must've reached an eddy in the Vortex. The TARDIS is half-way emerged within its violent edges and sinking further the longer he's on the floor.
He scrambles back to his feet and rushes back to the console, riding the violent tremors with every bit of skill he has. He has to fight the currents of the Vortex, as well as the controls themselves, to pull the TARDIS free. The shuddering doesn't completely abate, but it lessens enough for Rose to rejoin him at the console.
“What was that?” she asks, barely audible over the sound of the engines and the groans the TARDIS is making as she bucks against the current.
“We ran into a temporal eddy. That's why we've got to stay in the middle of the Vortex. Paradoxes tend to do that. The closer we are to a paradox, let alone near the centre of it, the more violent travel through the Vortex is,” he explains.
“So we're always running into paradoxes, then?” Rose asks, humour practically dripping off every word.
“Oi! Less of the insults, thanks. Tryin' to keep us alive here.”
“There's another eddy. Right side.”
“Got it,” he says, shifting the TARDIS a little more to the left.
It takes ten minutes to arrive at their destination, eddies becoming more frequent the closer they get to the source of the paradox. The TARDIS shudders one last time before she settles into stillness, her hum fading into the background.
“Right, then. Jack should be somewhere outside those doors. He won't know us, though,” he says.
“I don't know him,” Rose points out and he winces at the reminder.
He extends his hand and smiles when Rose grasps it within a firm grip. He doesn't know what they're going to find out there. Who would've killed Jack? More than that, who would've gone back in time to kill Jack? Sadly, he doesn't know much about the lad's life before he joined them. Sure, there's the conman bit and the Time Agency, but that doesn't help, not really. And it’s not good that he doesn’t know. He should have taken the time to find out more about Jack.
Once they're outside, with his free hand he pulls the sonic screwdriver free from his pocket and thumbs it on. It just takes a few seconds to change the settings and it will now locate Jack. He just wishes he knew precisely what they're getting into.
They've landed near the centre of the city. Throngs of people move about on their business and no-one turns to give them a look. Typical, that. Land a fantastic ship in the centre of their lives and what do they do? Ignore it. Good thing, though. He doesn't know how he'd manage to deflect curiosity away from the TARDIS in time for him to stop Jack's death.
He's very much aware that by being here, now, he's become part of events. True, that doesn't mean much since this is the centre of a paradox, but it's bad enough.
“How'd Jack die?” Rose asks.
He shakes his head. “I don't know. The remnants we found weren't able to tell me much. Could've been anything, really.”
“Great. So how're we supposed to stop something that we don't know anything about?” Good point, that.
“The person who came back here, who changed things, has an artron signature too. We just have to scan for it once we locate Jack. I'll need you to keep an eye on Jack when we find him. I'll focus on finding our culprit.”
“An' if we do find the person who killed Jack an' stop him? What happens then? Does our Jack just suddenly appear out of thin air? Or show up in the TARDIS, or back where we started?”
“Don't know, actually,” he admits.
“You don't know?” Disbelief crosses her face.
“Happens,” he says. “Not frequently, mind. But it does happen.”
Rose just shakes her head.
The sonic screwdriver beeps and he moves in the direction of the reading. According to this, Jack's close by, but moving away from them. He quickens his pace.
***
She doesn't get much chance to admire their surroundings. The Doctor's too focused on finding his Jack to dawdle for something like sightseeing. He's dropped her hand, mostly because he needs both to tweak the screwdriver's settings. At least, that's what she thinks. So she's stuck both trying to keep up with him and catching impressions of the city. The people here - now that she does have more chance to look given they didn't really get up close to anyone the last time they were here - are tall, brown-skinned, with faces covered in scales. They're sort of a cross between a lizard and a human, if there is such a thing. Strangely, though, the look suits them. She'd almost call them handsome.
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she realises she's almost lost the Doctor. It's only thanks to his sombre black jacket that she can find him amongst the throngs of people. The natives tend towards bright colours that are almost too dazzling to her eyes. The Doctor, and even herself in her t-shirt and jeans, are bits of darkness amongst all these people.
Rose hurries after the Doctor, apologising as she brushes against other people in her haste. When she's at his side again, she relaxes. It's probably silly, but she always feels safer when he's close by. Like nothing bad can ever happen to her with him around, though she knows that's certainly not true.
“He's just ahead,” the Doctor says quietly, nodding his head, and she looks in the direction of his nod.
That's Jack? Her first impression is of a man who looks too good to be true. He's beautiful, if a man can be called beautiful, and she feels like she knows him. Which she should, if time hadn't changed.
“Wow.” The word slips from her lips without the chance for her to even consider censoring it.
Surprisingly, the Doctor doesn't seem to even notice. “Watch him,” the Doctor commands and he disappears instantly, taking any sensation of safety with him.
This isn't a lark, she knows that. This is trying to sort time and bring someone back to them. She's so busy keeping an eye on Jack that she doesn't realise that he's watching her back until he gives her a dazzling smile and begins to saunter her way.
Panic fills her. Stupid! Of course he'd notice another human - at least, she thinks he's human, too.
“Hello,” he says and his voice somehow makes him even more attractive - a feat she thought impossible. “I'm Douglas Carson.” He holds out his hand for her to shake, which she does, still rather dazed.
“I'm, um, Rose,” she stammers.
Douglas Carson? If that’s his name, then why is the Doctor calling him Jack Harkness? Fake name, of course, she realises after a second or two. Just like the Doctor introducing himself as John Smith. But why does he need a false name? And what’s he doing here, anyway? If Jack’s human, just like her, why is he on an alien planet? Just who is he?
“Well, um, Rose,” he says and there's a flash of humour in his eyes. “What brings a gorgeous woman such as yourself to Semai?”
You. “Jus' sight-seeing. My friend-” No. She can't turn her head to look for the Doctor. Might give the game away. “-said this was a bit off the beaten path, but I shouldn't miss it.”
“Your friend?” he echoes, still smiling. “Should I be jealous?”
“We've only just met,” she says, feeling somewhat lightheaded.
“Some of my best relationships've begun just like this,” he says. “Man meets woman, discovers she doesn't belong…”
Oh, shit.
He lifts his right arm, opening the flap on some sort of wristwatch. He looks at it briefly, before his entire demeanour changes. “Who are you? Your clothing doesn't fit this time period and your entire body is soaked in artron energy.”
Oh, shit.
***
The artron signature’s getting stronger. He’s getting closer. Good.
Approximately ten minutes now, according to the TARDIS’s calculations, until Jack dies in this altered timeline. He’s got ten minutes to save the lad’s life. No, to save the universe. And he’s just got one shot at it. No going back to try again. Far too dangerous, that, even without him and Rose already here and split up.
The screwdriver’s beeping intensifies. Following it, he turns a corner into another busy street. Almost immediately, the two Semaians in front of him cross the road, and he finds himself right behind a humanoid figure. The beeping instantly becomes almost continuous.
He shuts off the artron tracker immediately; no sense alerting the bloke that he’s being followed. Switching to another setting, he does a quick scan. Human, definitely. And, by the carbon-dating on the clothes he’s wearing, from the same era as Jack.
Has to be the bloke who killed Jack. Has to be. No other humans around, for one thing and, as he told Rose earlier, Semai isn’t a tourist destination. No reason for any humans to come here, unless they’ve got a particular reason.
Like changing someone’s past... like removing someone from history...
The man halts abruptly and starts fumbling with something on his left wrist and looking down at it. It’s a wrist computer, like Jack’s. He’s a Time Agent.
A Time Agent. Now, that makes sense. Jack’s relationship with the Time Agency is complicated. On the run from them, yet conning them at the same time. Memories wiped, with no idea why: was it because he committed a crime, or because he upset someone in a high place? Or maybe even because he knew too much about something it wasn’t convenient for him to know about. That, the Doctor’s thought ever since Jack mentioned those missing memories, is the most likely solution. After all, if Jack had done something wrong why wouldn’t he have been discharged from the Agency? Why was he allowed to quit?
The Doctor ducks into a shop doorway as the Time Agent turns suddenly. Right. He’s tracking Jack. Letting a couple of Semaians pass first, the Doctor steps out of the doorway again and follows, staying far enough back not to be seen, but close enough so that the Time Agent doesn’t get too much of a head start. Pointless coming here just to watch Jack get killed, after all.
In less than five minutes, they’re approaching the last corner. Turn right here and Jack will be just a few yards away, as long as he hasn’t moved too far from where he saw the lad when they arrived. Rose should still be around, too. He hopes she’s had the good sense to stay out of sight. No point saving Jack’s life and changing history anyway by having him remember her when they meet in 1941.
The tingling in the air’s getting stronger. Four minutes away now. Though the feel of the impending paradox is stronger than it should be. There’s something else now, something new. He feels his body tense, and he hurries to get closer to the Time Agent. This is getting too dangerous. Though it shouldn’t be. He’s got the bloke in his sights, within very easy reach. Simple matter to push him over, or even to disable his weapon with the sonic if need be.
He rounds the corner a fraction of a second behind the Time Agent. And there’s Jack, standing with his back to them, a sitting duck. Looks like he’s arguing with someone. He moves then, half-turning, and a chill runs through the Doctor’s spine.
It’s Rose. Jack’s arguing with Rose. He’s seen her. Talking to her, too. Oh, fantastic. This is going to take more sorting out than he wanted to deal with. Stu-
“Caldwell! Or whatever name you’re going by this time,” the Time Agent calls, a sneer in his voice. “I warned you. Told you I’d get you when you least expect it.”
Jack moves, faster than any human with normal reflexes should. He shoves Rose roughly behind him and turns to face the other agent. “What do you want, a gold star?” He laughs, but every inch of his body’s obviously on alert, and his hand’s creeping around to a back pocket.
“No, just your dead body lying in the dirt,” the other agent retorts, and there’s a glint of metal suddenly. Rassilon! He must have drawn a gun when the Doctor’s attention was elsewhere.
The agent’s aiming the gun. Jack’s drawing his own weapon. And the Doctor lunges forward, ready to shove the agent out of the way. And a movement in the corner of his eye distracts him, delays him just long enough to stop him getting to the agent in time.
Rose has rushed at Jack, pushed him hard and knocked him to the ground. But now she’s directly in the line of fire.
As if in slow motion, there’s a report as the agent fires. He can almost see the blast of energy heading towards Rose. And there’s nothing he can do to stop it. Nothing at all.
***
to be concluded in Chapter 3: Resurrecting the Dead