Title: An Alien on Aliens
Characters: Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler
Word Count: 742
Rating: K
Warnings: None
Summary: Rose asks the Doctor about alien conspiracy theories. Yes, I was just watching Ancient Aliens, and yes, I only do it because it's good for laughs.
A/N: The product of an exhausted mind, and my first official step into the Doctor Who fandom. Hope you enjoy. As always, I don't own Doctor Who or any of its characters; I just play in their universe.
For once, it was a quiet afternoon in the TARDIS. No temporal anomalies, no distress messages, no urgent grocery runs to get bananas. It didn't happen very often, and Rose actually found it rather strange. Days like these gave her a surprising amount of time to think.
"Doctor?" she asked, perched on the console room railing with a cup of tea. The Doctor was underneath the console again, half-tangled up in wires.
She heard the sonic stop buzzing. "Yes, Rose?"
"I was thinking. You know, there are all these guys on Earth, in my time, who think that the Earth has been visited by aliens. They're always written off as conspiracy theorists, or whatever. But there really are aliens, all sorts of aliens, all throughout the universe. And I was just wondering, how much of what those people say is true?"
The buzzing resumed. "Depends who you mean."
"Well, you know, like the people who say that aliens built the pyramids, or Stonehenge."
The Doctor stopped and crawled out from under the console. He was laughing. "That stuff? That's ridiculous. Complete rubbish. Utter nonsense."
Rose grinned at him and asked, "Care to elaborate?"
"What is there to elaborate? You know, the thing that I find so amusing about you people is that you do all these amazing things – you build things, you discover things, you create and explore, and it's all so beautiful. And then, sometimes only a short time later, sometimes many, many years later, you say, 'That's so fantastic, we couldn't possibly have done that.' And then you say it must have been aliens. Why can't you just accept the fact that your species is beautiful and wonderful and creative? Even your primitive cultures had enough of a grasp on functional (if not theoretical) maths and engineering to build enormous, complex things like the pyramids, or those drawings that you can only understand if you look from above. And using the stars for alignment? Brilliant! You lot have been dreamers since you crawled out of the trees."
Rose smiled one of those patented tongue-touched smiles, amused and delighted at his obvious love for the human race.
"I've always wondered," she said thoughtfully, "if aliens really did come here to build all those magnificent things, why did they do it? What purpose would it serve them? Other than fueling their egotism, I mean."
"Besides that? Nothin' much." The Doctor climbed onto the railing and sat beside her. "I always wondered about that, too. I came to the conclusion that you all come up with those ideas because deep down, you know that if you were the highly advanced race visiting some other primitive planet, you'd give away things to them, just to be helpful. You'd want to introduce them to fire and agriculture and the combustion engine. Nudge their civilization ahead a bit. Generous to a fault, you are. You assume that the rest of the universe is just as idealistic as you are. Nice trait, but occasionally bothersome – means I have to go around saving your skins all the time."
Rose looped an arm around his waist. "Admit it, you get off on it. You love swooping in and saving the planet."
"'Course I do. And so do you."
They sat in silence for a few minutes, listening to the hum of the ship around them.
"Hy Brasil," Rose said abruptly, and grinned when the Doctor jumped.
"What?"
"Hy Brasil. You must have heard of it. Supposedly, it's just west of Britain, and it sank into the ocean at some point, centuries ago. People say it was like Atlantis. Some great civilization used to live there, and supposedly there was something to do with aliens."
As she spoke, she watched traces of emotions flicker across the Doctor's face; recognition, sadness, and glee among them. It was a puzzling mix.
"Ah, Rose," he said. "Now you've opened up a can of worms. There's a long story behind that island."
"Does it involve aliens?" She asked, then quickly added, "Besides you, obviously."
"Yes, but not in the way everyone seems to think. Want to hear about it?"
"Of course I do. Why do you even ask?"
His eyes crinkled in an affectionate smile. "I was there in about 800 A.D. according to your calendar. Lifetimes ago for me, before the war…"
Rose leaned her head on his shoulder and smiled. Story time with the Doctor was almost as good as any adventure.