palpable PAL-puh-buhl, adjective:
1. Capable of being touched and felt; perceptible by the touch; as, "a palpable form"
2. Easily perceptible; plain; distinct; obvious; readily detected; as, "palpable imposture; palpable absurdity; palpable errors."
The air is full of dust and voices. The sun's going down and the night-time fires are being started. The smell of cooking food is drifting from one of the first fires. There's something else in the air tonight. There's a tension, an expectation permeating everything. He doesn't need a historical briefing to know that tomorrow will change everything for these people. He's been in enough battles to know what's coming. He earned the rank of Captain, paid for it in blood, sweat and tears as the cliché goes. He can read the signs. Even if he couldn't he can read it in the Doctor. In his face, the haunted eyes, the increasingly dramatic mood swings. He might act the pacifist, but Jack knows an old soldier when he sees one. Pity these rebels don't really trust them, they're tired, hungry, dispirited and loosing. He knows these people will win, that's why they're here after all. Removed a nasty bit of alien interference, got to make sure history unfolds the way it was meant to.
He spots the Doctor standing on an outcrop of junk that was once a tank, silhouetted against the dying light in a way that makes him look more alone and alien than ever. Close up he's got a strange look on his face. The fading light hides what he's looking at from Jack's eyes. The best he can tell is that he's watching one of the fires. The air around the Doctor feels almost electrified. That loneliness that he carries everywhere so thick right now that he might as well have a force field round him. Jack thinks of all the things that he'd like to ask. What will happen to these people? What happened to you? What happened to me? Where's Rose gone off to? So many things he'd like to ask but knows he can't. He settles for the only thing he can ask right now.
"Where's Rose run off to?" Pointing at the group of people round the nearest fire he comments, "down there. Making herself at home as always." He's got a point. For all Rose is new to this business she's brilliant at slotting neatly into people's lives. The rebels round that particular fire are the ones who helped them defeat the Mertiopas from the neighbouring solar system who'd been mucking about in their planet's history. Young and idealistic, they've never known a life that didn't meaning fighting for something. Life hasn't worn them down yet and they sing the revolutionary songs of their parents and grandparents with a passion that seems almost indefatigable. As snatches of the songs drift up to them, he suddenly finds a line from a song he heard somewhere, round a rebel campfire a long time before running through his head. "Won't you help to sing, these songs of freedom"
"Bob Marley. Good man. Brilliant voice. Humans. Take you to the furthest reaches of time and space and plonk you in the middle of a revolution and you fit in like you were born there. Amazing little creatures you are"
A familiar voice joins those drifting up to them just as he becomes aware that the group has grown considerably since he wandered off an hour or so ago. The words are familiar though he's unsure of why he recognises them.
Don't you know that talking about a revolution sounds like a whisper,
Poor people gonna rise up and take what's theirs, Cause finally the tables are starting to turn Talkin' Bout a Revolution…
Realisation dawns suddenly and dramatically on him.
"She taught them a song!"
"What did I tell you. Humans. You'll find the most unexpected and inexplicable methods of relating to one another in the strangest of situations yet you'll wage wars over the most trivial things. Fancy teaching them a few more songs?" The grin splitting his face is huge and joyful. Jack feels the elation become infectious and sweep him up. Grinning back he feels the tension ebb away from the Doctor, and, as they make their way towards the steadily growing group around the fire some of the tension is leaving the rebels as they remember why they joined this fight in the first place. Some things are always worth fighting for.