The Modern Viking

This is a story about Ashildr, the immortal former Viking who after her second meeting with the Doctor had decided to go through life picking up where he left off. In short, she decided that it was her purpose to clear up after him by making sure that the people he leaves behind are ok and not scarred by their time with the most improbable of men.

Chapter 1

For centuries Ashildr walked the Earth, travelling and learning all she could, while, at the same time clearing up after the Doctor, a man she quickly learned was more mysterious than she first envisioned. For instance, in the early 1880s she was undercover as a maid in Buckingham Palace when, one day she found herself alone with the Queen, an impressive and formidable woman who languished any moment when a room was quiet and she could collect her thoughts.

"You there, what is your name?" she had asked.

"Alice ma'am" answered Ashildr, using her fake name.

"How long have you been working here Alice, I do not recognise you?"

"I have been employed here for just a few weeks your majesty"

"And how are you finding it, are you getting around all right, I know how imposing it can be"

"It is good work ma'am, hard, but good and yes, I am finding my way around ok"

"I am glad"

"Your majesty, may I ask you something?"

"I welcome any enquiry, ask away"

"There is a rumour that you were beset upon by a most horrific creature on your last trip to Balmoral, is it true?"

"… Yes, it is, and I shan't say any more on the matter"

"One moment, there was a man wasn't there, a most mysterious and thought provoking man who resolved the issue and sent the creature away"

"I do not know to what you are referring"

"Oh, so you don't remember the Doctor then?"

"Doctor who?" answered Queen Victoria.

"What about the Torchwood Institute?"

"How do you know these names?"

"I have my sources"

"Fine, but I do believe that it is my turn to ask you a question"

"Of course, go ahead"

"When did you meet the Doctor?" asked the Queen.

"Which time? I met him twice"

"Twice!"

"Yes, and it is my understanding that you think him to be just as much of a danger to this world as the evils that afflict it, when, in actual fact nothing could be further from the truth".

"That man is not of this world as we know it, s yes, I do think that he has the potential to be a danger".

"The Doctor is by no mean on the same level as those you think him to be, he has saved this country, this world many times and he will continue to do so for aeons to come".

"How are you so sure of that fact?"

"Because he save me, once from death and once from myself, both times creatures from far away were involved".

"Whoa are you Alice and how do you know these things?"

"Just think of me as an observer to his activities" she answered before walking out of the room, but not before turning back and saying "Oh, and my name's not Alice".

Ashildr then left the palace, never to return (at least not under Queen Victoria's reign) and it was from this meeting with one of Britain's most revered monarch's that she learned that not everyone though the Doctor was a beacon of hope and goodness, so she decided that in subsequent meetings she would have to tread very, very carefully.

Over the next 135 years Ashildr began to get even more astonished than she had already been about the advances in medicine and technology and as all the new equipment came into daily life she developed what she called a Doctor Detector and its function was to monitor alien activity throughout the world in order to try and find the most likely places that the Doctor would crop up. One such place was Downing Street in 2006.

End of Chapter


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