Bonjour, all!
Well, my filthy mind cannot be contained, apparently. This story is another installment in the "Pressure," "Surprise," "Unravelling" series. Let's just say that at this point in the scheme of things, the Doctor and Martha Jones are enjoying one another immensely, and sometimes in startling and/or unconventional ways! I like to think they make a game out of not having your typical sexual relationship. They are, as evidenced in previous stories, not adverse to role-play, so I think this particular scenario is right up their alley! (As such, the Doctor is keen on costumes!)
This will be a multi-chapter story, but I like, in general, to keep them short and smutty, so it probably won't get too epic. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!
PART ONE
Tracking a stone-burrowing alien across the cosmos? Not as easy as it looks.
The last of its kind, the Nosaminta parasite could be responsible for any number of cave-ins or collapses in any one of a dozen galaxies. Trying to work out which trail of destruction, exactly, belonged to this particular interstellar worm was no mean feat. It required researching, and occasionally personal inspection of the ruins of mines, buildings and statues.
But using some rather primitive plaster-casting, some rather advanced nanotechnology and some rather ingenious help from his rather ingenious companion, the Doctor had tracked down the Nosaminta's unique spiral-like burrowing pattern like a fingerprint, and with some infrared scopes, he could now tell within a few seconds whether the implosion had been the fault of explosives, an accident, or malice of the Nosaminta.
He was currently scanning some structural damage on the planet Dionumah in an opera house. The building's owners were in the process of deciding how to repair the damage, and also stop it getting worse. At the moment, they thought it was a structural flaw in the foundation of the building, and were going about the problem all wrong; the Doctor could see that the key to stopping further collapse was to subdue the Nosaminta. The worm seemed to like this building a lot, and seemed to have set up shop there.
"It says here that the opera house inspectors have decided it's probably safe to go ahead with the commemorative ball," Martha said to him. "If you're sure that this is the Nosaminta causing the damage, then that might be a good way to get close to it."
"Go to a ball?" he asked, putting down his instruments, smirking.
"Sure, why not?" she retorted. "It says it's fancy dress. All the better for us; the parasite, if he even has eyes, won't recognise that it's us."
"And, there is another nice little advantage," he said, sidling up close to her.
"What's that?" she asked, oblivious to the flirtation. That is, until she looked up and saw the look on his face.
"I get to see you in costume," he whispered, smiling.
She smiled back and pressed in closer with a subtle smile of her own. "We're hunting a parasite. Wouldn't it be better to go in dressed as exterminators in hazmat suits?"
He continued to speak low and slow, almost at a whisper. He put his hands on the console behind her and closed any space between them. "All we have to do is get into where it spends its time, and leave behind little bombs that release chemicals that are only toxic to the parasite itself. Thus far, the trick has been finding where it settled down. Now that we know, it should be fairly straightforward. And no cumbersome hazmat suit needed."
"I hate wearing cumbersome things," she said. She was surprised at how breathlessly it had come out. His whispers and warm breath on her cheek were incendiary to her, lighting her up. As he knew they would.
"Indeed," the Doctor conceded, kissing her just below her left ear. "Besides, these fancy dress balls on Dionumah are fancy dress. Lavish, grand, a little bit sexy."
"Well, all right then," she whispered back, sighing. "I guess we better blend in."
"Mm-hm," he growled.
After they fell into each other and combusted (which they tended to do, given very little provocation), they lay side-by-side on the floor of an anteroom just off the console room which they often used for just this sort of impromptu occasion. The Doctor explained to her that the Dionumah planet was across the universe from Earth, but its inhabitants were remarkably similar to those of Earth. They would have no trouble becoming part of the scenery at a fancy dress ball at an opera house there.
And when they finally dragged themselves back upon their feet and returned to the console room, Martha checked out the comm screen, which showed a blinking icon with a new message for the Doctor.
It said, Doctor, we have located the Legend of the Hepec Volumes.
"What does this mean?" she asked.
The Doctor came round the console as he sculpted his blue and brown tie into a Windsor knot, and when he saw the message, his eyebrows went up.
This was not lost on Martha.
The Doctor leaned forward and answered the message, typing in, What about the volumes themselves?
"What's this about?" she wanted to know.
"The Hepec Volumes are said to be the most powerful books in the universe."
She waited for him to elaborate, but when he did not, she asked, "Powerful in what way? Subversive propaganda? Religious material? Magic spells?"
"Well, no. Yes. All of that, I guess."
"All of that?"
"They're supposed to be able to do anything."
"Do anything? Like wash the dishes?"
He scratched is head. "Well, some people think that the material in the text gives the reader a kind of insight, an extraordinary enlightenment of some sort. But the Time Lords were fairly certain that the do anything idea was much more literal than that. Like, maybe they can give you anything, create anything... make you able to perform any task, maybe. I don't know if there is an accurate account anywhere of what the volumes can do."
"But the Time Lords were after them?"
"Not after them, just investigated them as a possible threat. Or, tried to."
"So, I'm guessing they're locked away in a vault somewhere? Or else..."
"Their location is a total mystery."
"That was my next guess."
"It's like a Holy Grail sort of thing. Some folks don't even think they exist."
"But the Time Lords did."
"Yep. The Citadel Council even got hold of a reference text. It's a book about the Hepec Volumes, and contains as much information as has ever been amassed all in one place."
"Like when different authors write Bible reference materials, and speculate over the content and who wrote the Gospels and stuff?"
"Exactly. There's the book about the books, and now the Legend has turned up, but the volumes themselves..."
The screen then blipped again with an incoming message. Still lost, it said.
"There you go," the Doctor commented, gesturing at the screen. "I don't know what good the Legend is, without the volumes."
"So, what does the Legend contain?" she asked.
"It's a decoder. It's how to interpret the volumes and make them work for you."
"And... who found it?"
"The message comes from a research conglomerate in the Trippotene Constellation. The Time Lords used to contract with them, put them in charge of finding the Legend, ostensibly to keep it out of the wrong hands. And now I'm the only one left, so they're calling me."
"Are you going to go get it?"
"Yeah, why not? What would the conglomerate do with it?"
"Wouldn't that put us in danger? Aren't there all manner of icky aliens out to find it?"
"Probably, but if they couldn't find it while it was sitting still, buried in a cave someplace, what makes you think they could find it in the TARDIS, hopping across time and space?"
"Okay, fair point," Martha admitted. "What would you do with it? Put it in a hutch someplace and forget about it for another millennium?"
"I don't know. I guess I could pull out the reference text, see if there's anything we can glean from it, when combined with the Legend."
"The reference text wasn't destroyed with your planet?"
"Didn't I mention? It's in my study. I believe I've been using it to prop up an uneven table."