She was older than her namesake. Far older, a good 60 years in human terms and just beginning to feel the pains of old age. Her namesake had only been a teenager, by comparison. A maiden when she met her tragic end. When she, the current incarnation, completed her first voyage without incident she assumed she had escaped the curse of the name. She was wrong. The Curse had merely been waiting, lying dormant and watching, just for the right time to strike.
The world below her was Home. It wasn't her point of origin, she lived elsewhere now, but it would always be Home to her. She traveled the stars like her namesake had traveled the sea. And she had found it peaceful. There was a certain level of enjoyment that came with doing the job her namesake had once done, would have done, with a certain twist to it. The twist that came from seeing other cultures, other worlds. Not interfering, just watching, always watching. Observing silently as she circled above. Silent Night.
And then it came. A betrayal so harsh it shook her to her core. Shocked as she was she had no time to react, no time to raise her shields or warn her people. The innocent people she cradled within her sturdy frame. All but a handful gone in an instant, their screams silenced by the vacuum of space. And still reeling from the betrayal of her Captain, she could do nothing to prevent the inevitable. She couldn't even try. She leaned sharply to port as the wounds on her starboard side sparked, venting precious oxygen into space. And inwardly she seethed, angry at the injustice of it all, the cruelty that only another cold blooded murderer could understand. And she felt ashamed, ashamed she hadn't seen it coming.
"Terrible name for a ship."
Truer words had never been spoken, she thought wryly.
Gravity, the central force of the universe, the force that determined the course and path of all things living and inanimate (did she count as the latter, she didn't think so) asserted its dominance. She fell, began to fall, down down down, down to the world her soul called Home. That she loved as strongly as any Native would, despite her entirely alien origins. Everything about her body was alien, from her distinctive profile, so reminiscent of her tragic namesake, to her nuclear storm drive, an unknown technology to anyone below her. And she was going to destroy them just as surely as her crash would destroy her and all remaining aboard her. She would've despaired at that knowledge, simply closed her eyes and waited for the end. If not for a presence. A presence that shown with power, hidden just beneath his seemingly inconspicuous surface. A power so strong it could unleash a force stronger than gravity, force capable of showing its dominance over the known dominant power of the universe. A force understood and misunderstood by so many, Time. Time Lord. Even the name spoke of dominance (or perhaps arrogance) but either way, he was her only chance and while that chance existed, she would hold onto hope. Only he could save her, save them all.
The flames licked futilely at her black hull which was deceptively stronger than it appeared to be. She was designed for space travel after all. Meant to take the strains of nebula clouds, dying suns, supernovas and she had been felled by something as simple as a meteor shower. Once again she cursed the Curse that could only be attributed to her unlucky name. Even though she knew the real reason for her current 'predicament'. She winced as the flames curled around her knife like prow, another attribute of her namesake, and licked her open wounds.
The world below grew quite large until she couldn't see it as a world at all, but as a small island nation, then as a city by the river, and then as a single building. One that still carried the importance and the reverence she felt at the sight of it was replaced by sheer horror when she realized that she was heading straight for it, that she would hit it. Her roots, the soul she carried, cried out in despair at the thought of striking such a prominent part of her heritage. To hit such a structure would be an absolute travesty, an atrocity to everything that made her who she was. She closed her eyes, giving into her despair and braced herself (how does one brace themselves for Death) for impact.
Then, her engines reignited. Hope flared within her glowing heart and she put all the power she had into her specially designed thrusters. Be damned what damage she caused on the ground, she would not hit that building! She would not strike the Queen. Her Queen. Her graceful prow rose over the top and she sailed straight past, clearing the flagpole with a minimal distance to spare. Her powerful engines continued her upward accent and for a spaceship who had never experienced the sensation of atmosphere against her hull, the sensation was both a curiosity and a wonder. Her heart soared at the discovery and with the crisis averted her soul sang at the once in a lifetime chance of seeing her Home so close. And as she cleared the planet's atmosphere, once more establishing a standard orbit (and if she was inside Earth's detection net, no one commented on it), she reflected. She knew her chances, her damage was extensive and at her age, would likely mean the scrapyard. But she found she didn't mind the thought as much as she once did. Despite her end once again being caused by a disaster, she couldn't bring herself to feel sad or angry. Because she had gone home, for once she had not just circled above and watched the progress of the human race, secretly longing to rejoin her world. She had seen her world, seen her home both on what she'd observed outside, and inside herself as well. The humanity of those who survived, the humanity that shown through the one man who was unhuman in every way but who she could easily call a Terran. His love for the planet matched her own and despite the near catastrophe she was grateful to him. Not just because he saved her life, but for showing her that although she lived far away from Earth, the blue world was still with her.
"Thank you, Doctor. Thank you..."