"In Desperate Need of a Miracle."
By James Carmody.
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. That series is possibly the property of BBC, or possibly the property of Stephen Moffat, but I'm not sure which. That matter is a matter for the legal teams to settle. I willingly forfeit any financial claim to this story- don't sue, you won't get anything if you do- in fact, you'll lose the money spent on the lawsuit for nothing. I will not accept any money for this fanfiction story. I believe this ends the discussion.
Summary: Heavily inspired by the episode "The Girl Who Died", this is a Dr. Who short story that deals with events in that episode, and is a partial re-write of the episode, but with some characters thoughts/feelings voiced within. There's also a tad of Norse Mythology in this- I hope for consistency's sake that I don't get anything wrong. Please read, review/comment, and enjoy.
Characters: 12th Dr (Peter Capaldi's character), Clara Oswald, Ashildr, her father, "Lofty", "Lofty's baby daughter", various other villagers.
Author's Story Notes: This is quite a bit different for me to write than my usual, but this is a worthwhile exercise to engage in. There will be a high degree of personal thoughts of the characters within it, so be prepared, and typical of my works and thought processes, this deals quite a bit with battle-situations; so I'm indeed pleased to be returning to writing stories involving military situations.
The character of "False Odin" will also be known as "Mire Commander", as a reference point.
This will NOT be a total or nearly word-for-word rendition of even one small scene of the episode "The Girl Who Died", it is basically some scenes with the characters thoughts written into the story, with a few touches: Ashildr's narration of what happened on the Mire ship, for instance- and is a short story: highly unlikely to be more than one small chapter, sorry folks- aiming for short and sweet here.
"Norse" refers to the people, "Viking" refers to an economic expedition, weather to raid or trade in the ancient language of the Norse- this is to fix a common misnomer and misunderstanding.
Chapter 1.): "We're Sure in the Middle of it Now."
Beginning Chapter 1 Author's Notes: Here it is, folks, pure action/adventure, and some defense of one's community on the part of some truly terrified villagers prior to a major battle, genre's are: some drama, action/adventure, that kind of deal, and I'm massively glad to be thinking on those terms, and intend to do so for as long as possible (end-run: eternity, folks!).
And now, I present you a story about a storyteller's nightmarish discovery, please enjoy...
As Ashildr's father stood to her side, holding his left hand on his offspring's back to reassure her that she was now safe from the nightmare she had just witnessed, and listened, with the rest of his village, as well as these two newcomers who dressed so strangely to this fantastic tale, he doubted that he'd truly be safe. The words he heard coming out of his child's mouth terrified him- their warriors had been taken away, and now they learned that they'd been killed and consumed by this "false Odin", who'd come from the sky.
"I couldn't just let his words go unavenged, nor his deeds." Ashildr was saying to her fellow Norse villagers, they were currently just beginning to recover from their shock of learning that they'd been tricked; now they'd just learned that their greatest fighters were now dead and had been 'processed' as they would a pig for supper or for the winter- it was horrible. Ashildr went on "Clara was talking, far too calmly for the situation, and then I learned what had happened to our warriors: a guard, I guess he was a guard, he was wearing a suit of armor with the weapons of those metallic visitors of a few hours ago. Anyway, he came up holding some sort of a cup, handed it to false Odin, and false Odin drank from it, after identifying that it is "adrenaline and testosterone" made from our finest warriors! These words made me sick to my stomach, Father! Our greatest warriors, slaughtered and then processed like farm-animals- I couldn't let that stand!" She started to cry a bit then.
The Doctor, who'd been sitting quietly and scratching his chin along the sides, then thought "If at all possible, I've got to get these people to run and scatter, then they'll be alive- they stand no chance against the Mire: sub-machine-guns against swords? It'll be a massacre!" but try as he might to convince the villagers to abandon their homes and run, they wouldn't. They insisted it'd be a good death.
Lofty's baby girl then started crying around about that time, and was saying that she was scared- she could sense the danger present in the present situation, and didn't know what to do.
Some time later:
"Well, if you won't run, then you'll have to learn how to fight and fight well. Time to begin weapons training..." The Doctor told his new army recruits- however, after a day of drilling, very little had improved, and one guy's phobia had increased itself to a greater personality disorder and in intensity- as he now fainted at the mere mention of blood, instead of the sight of it. Needless to say, when Clara came out to talk to him, things weren't going well for the Doctor in his first day as a Drill Instructor in years... oh, he'd been in the Army all right, but that was ages ago, and a life he'd tried hard to forget.
That evening, as the Doctor was thinking "We're in desperate need of a Miracle." he got into a very interesting conversation with Ashildr. The battle was about to begin in less than twelve hours, and so far, his recruits weren't up to par as combat troops- then Ashildr told him something about Lofty taking his baby daughter to see the fish, and how it calms her and he got an idea...
The end of my story, what do you think?
End Chapter 1 Author's Notes: What do you think of this story? I know it's deliberately different enough from the episode to prevent legal trouble.
Please tell me what you think of my first Dr. Who fanfic.