Author's Note:
Hello!
Welcome to the second story in my series, Flare. It follows on almost directly from the first, Ignite, which I reccomend you read first. This story begins within a week or two of the end of Ignite, and will be a slightly different format.
With the exception of this chapter and the last, every chapter in Flare will feature a different companion from the revived series, including a short original story of that companion and their appropriate Doctor . Just so that you (or I) don't miss him too much.
Enjoy and review!
Prologue – the Maldovarium, 5144
She had been standing there for half an hour now, just watching. Sipping slowly at a drink she'd bought using stolen credit, Fire stood in a shadowy corner of the room. Well away from the better lit bar area, she watched the other patrons carefully.
These were the co-ordinates for the rendezvous she'd been given in her training; the location of a cache of items that would help her establish herself independently without a home planet to rely on. The Maldovarium hadn't been what she'd been expecting (like amuseum or a bank) but knowing her former leader, that was precisely the point. A slightly seedy intergalactic roadside bar wouldn't be a place that anyone would look – this also had the flipside that she didn;t know what she was supposed to be looking for. So she'd sat herself down on one side of the bar with a drink in her hand and waited for a sign.
Mind you, it didn't look like being a watering hole was the only purpose for this establishment.
The bar, stocked with liquors and drinks form all sides of the galaxy, was in the centre of the room and brightly lit, but behind it she could see another, curtained-off area. Various people – seemingly with no connection to each other – had been wandering to this area all night, and coming out again, all withount drinking a drop of alchohol. It was this that had first made her suspicious.
She'd hitched with some freighters off the world the Doctor had dropped her on and as far as Percival; from there she'd picked up a lift from some partygoers heading to Calypso for a holdiay. It had been on Percival that she'd had a rather strange and (so far) unexplained incident.
Fire had been walking from the space port into the centre of the city. The streets had been crowded with vehicles and people of all species and races, all in a hurry to get to their dest ination. She'd been looking around her – having been off Gallifrey only once or twice before, everything around her was a complete novelty and she coulnd;t help herself staring, craning her neck to look at the sky above.
Next thing she knew she'd collided hard with someone. Caught off her guard, the impact had been enough to send her stumbling back and she'd almost fallen into the person behind her – a tall, blue-mandibled Juthrana. She'd looked around for the person she'd crashed into, but whoever they were, they'd already dissapeared into the crowd.
The Juthrana behind her had tutted – or rather, gave a deep gutteral click and a hiss, it's atteneas twitching.
"You want to be more careful," it said. "Port like this, there are theives everywhere."
Seized by the sudden fear that she'd been pick pocketed, she'd reached a hand up to her earring. The white point star still hung there – but so did something else, apparently dangling off her hair by a small silver chain.
It had been small black disc about the size of a walnut. At first glance it had appeared to be blank, but as she ran her thumb over it tiny ridges had appeared on the surface, coalescing to form what had looked like a tiny symbol of a dragon and the words 'The Maldovarium – est. 5105'. She had turned the little disc over to examine the other side – and her hearts had almost skipped a beat.
It had had her name on it. Miniscule embossed script had read 'Lady Fire' followed by a long series of numbers beneath. Letting out a long breath, she had pocketed the small disc and carried on walking, her mind swirling with questions.
She'd carried the tiny disc with her ever since, never letting it stray from her person and checking it's continued presence in her pocket almost obsessively. She was still no closer to finding out who had given it to her – but she had come up with a number of theories based on the evidence available to her.
The street had been very busy, enough that if they had been seeking her personally it would have been difficult. To actually make contact they would have had to have planned it, and already known her whereabouts down to the minute. They could be leading into a trap – but she had already known these co-ordinates so somebody planning to give them to her a second time seemed a bit unnecessary, because she was already coming here. And anybody from her future, who had already done the fair amount of planning required, would know that.
It seemed more likely that the mysterious figure was helping her, and that the disc was somehow important it what was about to happen. The reasons for wanting to help her, though, were equally mysterious as the ones for wanting to hurt her. She had honestly considered forgoing the rendezvous altogether, but if the given of the token had been from the future, her future specifically, then she couldn't risk creating a paradox.
As she finished the last of her drink she watched one of the bar staff hurry into the curtained area carrying a tray of drinks for whoever was inside, before coming out again a moment later. So, whatever shady dealings were going on behind there, the staff were in on it.
Having waited for nearly two hours without anything happening, she was now reasonably sure that is was the person behind the curtain that she wanted to speak to. She walked over to the bar, putting her glass back on the counter. The barman – a handsome neo-human – smiled at her, and she leant closer to him. Hoping for luck, she lowered her voice, checking that the other patrons were out of earshot.
"If I wanted to go behind there," Fire said in a low voice, nodding at the curtain, "how would I go about it?"
The barman's smile dropped suddenly. For a moment Fire though he was going to throw her out, but then he stepped closer, lowering his voice too.
"Do you have information?"
"Um, no," she said, "I don't. I'm...looking for some things, and I was told to come here." The barman narrowed his eyes at her speculatively, swiping her glass of the bar to clean it.
"Have you got anything to pay him with?" She hesitated, and the man sighed and turned away, clearly deciding that she had a bigger mouth than her pockets could afford.
"Wait," she called after him. "I've got this..." she pulled out the black disc by its silver chain, sliding it onto the bar. His eyes widened and he let out a little hiss of surprise.
"Put that away!" he ordered, eyes flicking from side to side. "I'll take you through."
The barman led her to the area at the back, parting a rich swathe of curtain to revel a small room with lavish furnishings. At a polished wooden table, an enormously fat blue man in sumptuous robes appeared to be conducting business of some kind. Across from him sat a slender-boned reptilian entirely covered in iridescent red scales, which shimmered gently in the candlelight.
"My dear," the blue man laughed jovially, "you know that I – "
"Mr. Maldovar," said the barman. So this was the owner, Fire realised – the bar was just a front for the real business going on in here. "Mr Maldovar, there's a customer here to see you,"
"What?" he snapped, turning his head to glare at his unfortunate staff member. "Can't you see I'm in the middle of a deal –"
"She's a black coiner, sir," said the barman, giving his boss a meaningful look. Instantly the blue man's demeanour changed – turning back to his customer with a smile, he politely excused himself.
"I'm afraid this is really very important, my dear, you know that I would hate to interrupt our time together otherwise." The blue man got laboriously to his feet, and the scaled woman followed suit with a long sigh. She exited, brushing past Fire on the way out, and the barman followed, looking pleased to get away.
Fire stepped inside to the curtained room, eyeing the sumptuous decorations warily. The blue man smiled politely at her and gestured for her to take the vacated chair. She sat down, shifting uncomfortably.
"I take it that you are the proprietor?" she said, stilling her fidgeting an aiming for cool aloofness.
"I am," said the man. "Dorium Maldovar, at your service." Fire inclined her head. "I take it that you have a black coin?"
"I have this," she said, drawing out the disc and laying it down on the table.
"Ah, yes, that will do nicely," said Dorium, reaching for it with fat blue fingers. Turning it this way and that in the light, he pulled out a monocle to get a closer look at the reverse face, before setting it down very suddenly. He clicked his fingers and some thing came scampering up to the table; though from that angle she couldn't see what. Dorium handed the coin to it.
"Go and find the matching item," he commanded, and smiled coyly at Fire while they waited for it to return. Unsure exactly what to do in this situation, she elected to do nothing but smile politely back, despite Dorium's attempts to draw her into conversation.
Eventually the thing came back, and Dorium, lifting the box from its hands, laid it on the table in front of her to examine. It was a polished black wooden box about the size of a football, perfectly cubed and completely smooth, without a single blemish or marking.
"What is it?" she asked, trying her best not to sound curious.
"You don't know?" said Dorium, raising his eyebrows and shifting back in his chair.
"I was given the coin by...a friend. I didn't know what it meant," Fire said steadily.
"It's some kind of storage," said Dorium, shaking his head and making his chins wobble. "But we've never been able to get it open..."
"Hmm," she said, regarding the box in front of her. The coin had had her name on it – it had been meant specifically for her, and had reacted only when she touched it. Was the box the same? Testing her theory she reached out a hand and stroked a finger over the smooth wood. Instantly, a split formed right down the middle of the top side, and the two halves slide outwards to reveal the interior.
Both Dorium and Fire peered into the box, frowning. Fire saw what was in there and started to laugh delightedly, reaching in a hand to scoop out the contents. It was a heavy metal ball about the same size as a cricket ball, and covered in circular Gallifreyan markings, the intertwining circles forming an obscure pattern.
"Oh, excellent," she said, picking it up and testing its weight in her hand.
"Can I ask...what is it?" said Dorium, looking up at Fire.
"Just a trinket," she said smoothly. "Valuable, but a bit useless." She was reluctant to trust the blue man with the information of what this really was – transport, perhaps the core of the capsule that had taken her off Gallifrey. After all, Dorium Maldovar was a black-market trader – albeit of the more genteel variety. She slid the ball into her pocket and picked up the box, now much lighter without its contents.
"Was there anything else you would be wanting?" asked Dorium with a practised smile. "The black coin is worth 10,000 credits, you know..." Fire paused, looking back at the large blue man over the table.
"There is one thing," she said slowly, carefully. "I need information on someone, specifically information from the early 21st century..."
"You need only name the name," said Dorium, leaning back and spreading his hands expansively.
"The companions of a man named the Doctor," Fire said, letting go of the last of her caution. Hopefully this man would know something, she thought, watching Dorium's face nervously; she just didn't want word of this getting to the Doctor somehow. The last thing she wanted was for him to be tracking her around the cosmos while she was making her... enquiries.
Dorium's eyes widened nervously and he wiped his brow with the back of one hand.
"Ah, the, um, the Doctor..." he said, fidgeting before seeming to make up his mind.
"Is there a problem?" asked Fire, trying her best to sound as aloof and disinterested as possible.
"No, but it will cost you the whole 10,000 credits," he said.
"All of it?" she said, surprised.
"Definite information about the Doctor is rare, my lady, and information of a more personal nature even more so..." Dorium said diplomatically.
"But this is not 'personal information'," said Fire with a cool smile. "This is about his companions."
"If there's one thing you have to understand about the Doctor," Dorium's face was now completely serious, "it is that those two things are one and the same."
Fire just looked at him for a long moment, evaluating his sincerity. The strangely muffled sound of the patrons in the bar wafted in through the gap in the curtains.
"I understand," said Fire eventually. "I'll give you the credits." A satisfied smile broke across Dorium's face.
"Well then," he said. "Come with me..."
