Disclaimer: Oh... You get the gist of these by now. Doctor Who not mine.

Utopia

Chapter 1: The Ink Black Sky

"Cardiff!" Announced The Doctor, as the TARDIS came to a halt.

"Cardiff?" Said Martha.

"Ah, but the thing about Cardiff is it's built on top of a rift in time and space. Like San Francisco and the San Andreas Fault. This rift bleeds energy, which I can use to fuel the TARDIS. I just need to park in front of it every now and again."

"What, so this is, like, a pit stop?"

"That's right."

Martha thought of something else. "Hang on, they had that earthquake in Cardiff a couple of years ago. Was that you?"

"Yeah… A little trouble with the Slitheen. That disruption should speed things up, since the rift's more active now." He looked at a readout on the scanner and frowned. "A lot more active in fact… Still, good for us. This should only take about 20 seconds."

Thanks to the perception filter on the TARDIS, not many people in the Plass paid it much attention. But one man in a World War II coat and a rucksack was unable to focus on anything else. "Doctor!" He roared, racing towards the police box he'd been awaiting for so long.

"All fuelled, ready to go." Said the Doctor, programing the dematerialisation controls. He looked up at the scanner screen and saw the figure coming. He quickly released the handbrake.

The man heard the machine powering up and lept forward in one last desperate effort.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor and Martha felt a jolt of acceleration like they'd never felt before.

"What was that?" Shouted Martha.

The Doctor picked himself up and had a look at the scanner. "We're accelerating. Going into the future! The year 100 million… 1 billion… 1 trillion… We're going right to the end of the universe!"

In a gully, shielded from the biting winds, 20 or so figures in stolen clothes and tribal paint, mixed from ash and the blood of their victims, perked up, snarling animalisticly as their scout returned. "Human." The scout snarled.

"Human!" Roared the chief, as everyone rallied behind him.

Prada raced madly through the wasteland. Waving his torch from side to side. He knew those savages would find him easier if he kept it on. But is he turned it off, he would literally be running through the pitch black. The tribe he'd been running from hadn't been seen for a while, but that only frightened him more. They were holding back, toying with him.

Shining his light ahead once more, the beam fell on a tribal woman on the trail ahead of him. She licked her lips and barred both rows of fanged teeth at him.

"Please, I just want to go." He pleaded.

"Human!" She roared. He heard a roar and spun round to see a small flock of flaming torches appearing on the ridge behind him. Unable to go forward or back, he scrambled down the trail to his left, even though it took him in the wrong direction.

In a lab, not far away, an old man looked at the tracker screen, watching the dots representing the tribe as they moved out. "The future kind are on the hunt again." He said.

Chantho, his insect-like assistant, came to look. "Chan, should I alert the guards, tho?"

"No. There's none to spare. Poor beggar's on his own. One more lost soul, dreaming of Utopia."

"Chan, you mustn't talk as though you've given up, tho."

"Oh no. Indeed, here's to Utopia." He raised his coffee in a toast and took a sip, wincing when he did. "Where it's to be hoped that the coffee's a little less sour. Won't you have some?"

"Chan, I'm happy drinking my own internal milk, tho."

"Yes, perhaps more than I needed to know."

"Professor Yana." A voice came over the intercom. "I don't mean to rush you. But how is it going down there."

"Er, yes, er, er, yes. Working. Yes, almost there." Said Yana.

"How is the footprint looking?"

"It's good. Yes. Fine. Excellent." He turned to Chantho and mouthed stall them.

"Chan there's no problem as such. We've accelerated the calculation matrix but it's going to take time to harmonise tho. Chan we're trying a new reversal process. We'll have a definite result in approximately two hours tho." She looked over at the professor, to see him massaging his temples with one hand and rhythmically tapping with the other, the way he often did. She didn't know if this was a sign that he was deep in thought, or if there was something she she should be concerned about. "Chan, Professor, tho?"

He promptly snapped out of it. "Yes, yes, working."

As he went to examine the equipment again, she took another look at the tracker. "Chan it's the surface scanner, Professor. It seems to be detecting up a different signal tho."

Yana had a look. Instead of the usual blip, the scanner now showed a small square. "Well, that's not a standard reading. I can't make it out. It would seem something new has arrived."

With one final alarming bump, the TARDIS came to a halt. "We've arrived. The year 100,000,000,000,000." Said the Doctor, with a hint of uncertainty. He took a cautious look at some readings that seemed to indicate they were on a planet with a breathable atmosphere.

"So what's out there?" Said Martha.

"Don't know."

"That's new. You hardly ever say that."

"Not even the Timelords ever came this far. We should leave… We should really, really leave…" He grinned in amusement at the idea that he'd ever consider such a thing and ran for the door.

Opening it up cast a thin beam of light outside, onto an otherwise pitch dark world. It wasn't the darkness of a moonless night, more a sealed room with no lamps or anything. The Doctor nodded and pulled a couple of torches from the underfloor hatches, handing one to Martha.

Outside, they swept their lights over nothing but bare rocks and sand and dirt, with a few dead trees here and there. But it took less than a minute for Martha to discover something more alarming. An unconscious figure was lying in the dirt a few feet from the TARDIS. She hurried up to him. "I'm not getting a pulse… Hold on, you've got that medical kit."

As she hurried back to the TARDIS, the Doctor stepped up to the man, sadly. "Hello again old friend. Oh, I am sorry."

Martha hurried past him and put the stethoscope in her ears. "Here we go. Get out of the way. It's a bit odd, though. Not very hundred trillion. That coat's more like World War Two."

"I think he came with us." Said the Doctor.

"What from Earth?"
"Clung to the outside of the TARDIS. All the way to the end of the universe. That's very him."

"What? Do you know him?"

"Used to travel with me, back in the old days."

Martha noticed that he was being unusually calm about all this. "But he's… I'm sorry Doctor but there's no heartbeat or anything. He's dead."

No sooner had she said this than the man gasped and grabbed her arms. Martha shrieked. "Oh, so much for me! It's all right. Just breathe deep. I've got you."

"Captain Jack Harkness mam." He said. "And… who are you?"

"Oh don't start!" Said the Doctor.

"I was just saying hello!" Said Jack.

"I really don't mind." Martha grinned and helped Jack up.

Jack turned to face the Doctor. Not sure how to broach the subject he'd wanted to. Instead, he decided to start off small. "Doctor."
"Captain."

"Good to see you."

"The same to you. Although… have you had work done?"

"You can talk!"

"Oh, the face! Regeneration. How did you know it was me?"

"The TARDIS sort of gives it away. I've been following you for a long time. You abandoned me!"

To one side, Martha's eyes had widened, though Jack seemed in good humour about it.

"Did I? Sorry."

"By the way, Doctor. I saw the casualty list for Canary Warf. It said Rose Tyler was among the dead…"

"Oh no, she's fine! She's in a parallel universe."

"You're kidding!"

"And her mum, and Mickey!"

"Doctor that's great!" Jack laughed and hugged him.

To one side, Martha tried not to be too jealous. "Good old Rose."

Jack joined them in having a look round the wasteland. Tracks and skeletons here and there told them that this planet had at least once been inhabited.

"So there I was, stranded in the year 200,100, ankle deep in Dalek dust, and he goes off without me. But I had this." Jack waved his right wrist, which had a device strapped to it. "I used to be a time agent. It's called a vortex manipulator. He's not the only one who can time travel you know."

"That," said the Doctor, "is not time travel. It's like I've got a sports car, you've got a space hopper."

"Boys and their toys." Martha grinned.

"Ok, I bounced." Said Jack. "I thought 21st century, the best place to find the Doctor, except that I got it a little wrong. Arrived in 1869, this thing burnt out, so it was useless."

"Told you." Said the Doctor.

"I had to live through the entire twentieth century waiting for a version of you that would coincide with me."

"But that makes you more than 100 years old." Martha shone her torch over his face for a better look.

"And looking good for it. Don't ya think? So I went to the time rift, based myself there because I knew you'd come back to refuel. Until finally I get a signal on this, detecting you and here we are."

"But the thing is, Doctor." Said Martha. "Why did you abandon him?"

"I was busy." He said evasively.

"Is that what you do though? Just get bored one day and abandon us?"

"Not if you're blond." Jack grinned.

"Oh, she was blond? That explains a lot."

The Doctor spun round to face them. "You two! We're at the end of the universe, all right? Right at the edge of knowledge itself and you're busy blogging! Come on."

Fortunately, they reached the edge of a chasm at this point. Shining their torches down, they saw a walkway, not far below.

"Looks artificial." Said Jack.

They upped the power on their beams and had a look further out. The lights travelled over the outlines of rocky pathways, supports and arches.

"Is that a city?" Said Martha.

"A city or a hive, or a nest, or a conglomeration. Like it was grown. But look, there. That's like pathways, roads? Must have been some sort of life, long ago." The Doctor replied.

"What killed it?"

"Time. Just time. Everything's dying now. All the great civilizations have gone. This isn't just night. All the stars have burned up and faded away into nothing."

Jack gazed up at the ink black sky. "They must have some sort of atmospheric shell. Otherwise we'd have frozen to death."

"Well, Martha and I, maybe. Not so sure about you, Jack."

"What about people?" Said Martha. "Does no one survive?"

"Well… I guess we have to hope life might find a way."

"They don't seem to be doing too bad for themselves." Said Jack. He pointed at a collection of lights that were moving into view on the nearest walkway. Shining their lights down, they saw a man running like mad, ahead of a group of people in war paint, with torches and spears.

"Is that me or does that look like a hunt?" Said the Doctor. "Come on!"

They hurried along the top of the chasm, shadowing the man below. "Oh, I have missed this!" Jack laughed.

Finally, they found a way down and hurried over to where Prada was. "We've got you!" Jack called to him.

"They're coming! There's more of them! We have to keep moving!" The man cried.

Jack saw the crowd coming and whipped out his revolver.

"Jack, don't you dare!" Shouted the Doctor.

The Captain thought for a moment, then fired three shots into the air. The startled tribespeople halted.

"I've got a ship. You should be safe there." Said the Doctor, only to look round and see another herd of torches appearing around the top of the trail they'd just come down. "Or not."

"We're close to the silo." Said Prada. "We should be safe there."

"Silo?" The Doctor asked his companions.

"Silo." They both nodded, and took off at a run.

Prada led them round the city, to a set of vehicle tracks. Assuming these would lead to the silo, Jack and the Doctor raced ahead of him. Martha found herself lagging behind, though still ahead of their pursuers. It occurred to her that The Doctor's greater than usual speed may be due to him subconsciously racing Jack.

Finally, they rounded a bend and a set of rusted metal gates and watchtowers came into view. Faded paint identified it as silo 17.

"It's the future kind!" Prada shouted at the guards, as several hurried down to the gates, with guns drawn.

"Show me your teeth! Show me your teeth!" Shouted the guard Captain.

"Show him your teeth!" Shouted Prada. He bared his teeth at them, the others did the same.

"Human, let them in." Shouted the guard. They opened the gates enough to let the group through, then shut them the moment they'd done so let loose onto the ground in front of the charging hunters.

"Human!" Snarled the chief. "We eat."

"Go back where you came from." Said the guard.

Jack sniggered. "Oh, so you don't tell him to put his gun down."

"He's not my responsibility." Said the Doctor.

"And I am? Huh, that makes a change."

The chief, meanwhile looked them over. "Kind watch you. Kind hungry." He and his tribe backed away, snarling.

"Thanks for that." Said the Doctor, as they padlocked the gates.

"Let's get you inside." Said the guard Captain.

"My name is Padra Toc Shafe Cane. Tell me. Just tell me, can you take me to Utopia?"

"Yes sir." The guard grinned. "Yes I can."

Author's notes: Logically, the end of the universe should have been darker, though that would have made filming impossible.