Disclaimer: Not mine, not making money.

Summary: This littlie moon is it, the Doctor told himself. Amy and Rory's last stop before going home. But things do not ever go as planned it seems, and old habits die hard as the Doctor must form an alliance against his better judgment.

Rating: Teen for language, violence, rape, adult situations. Man I seem to be loading this one. Will probably end up as M later. Let me know if I need to change it.

Note: Technically a crossover, this story picks up more or less 3500 years after the conclusion of "Farmer in the Sky" by Robert Heinlein. You really don't need to have read it though, I pretty much am using his setting (and research) and none of the past characters. In the Doctor's timeline, we pick up immediately after "A Christmas Carol." Yeah, got tired of waiting and thought I would write my own! Enjoy!

Magnification

Chapter One: Something Amiss on Ganymede

And the consciousness resumed. Like the firing of an ignition, a rebirth was set in motion. Across an underground cache of dark lipidic matter, molecules restructured and set to resume their role as part of a whole. It was a whole that had remained dormant, waiting for just the right level of heat energy with which to initiate its reorganization and bring it to life. Just the right amount of heat to spur its resurrection and enable it to once again attempt a claim to this new universe.


The TARDIS materialized on the rocky, dusty surface of Ganymede. This little moon is it, the last stop, the Doctor told himself. No more would he give in to the pleading of his eager young companions, although he knew himself to be a sucker for the fresh zeal for exploration and adventure that so attracted him to their company.

No, perhaps I'll go dig up the likes Sarah Jane, and give this serious adventuring a rest for a while…he had pondered this road before, more often as of late. But he would just smile to himself, and know the day he stops running across the universe he may as well be dead. He himself had played that part before, so long ago in another life. Not to mention a half-human version of himself off in another dimension playing it as well. He gave a slight chuckle at the thought of dropping in to see how THAT was working out for him. If he is happy that is surely not him.

"What are you doing, Doctor?" Amy asked from the monitor, snapping him out of his reverie. He busied himself on the other end of the console

"Hmm?' He looked up, meeting her questioning gaze. "Oh yes, creating an atmosphere bubble so we can enjoy the view without freezing to death. I try to keep my near death experiences to one method per year." Three oversized steps had him to her side of the console and adjusting a dial.

"But Doctor, it says here the temperature is 28 degrees."

"What measurement unit?"

She rolled her eyes, "Celsius, of course."

As annoyed as he was that Amy was learning enough about piloting the TARDIS to make sense of the monitors and second guess his self-proclaimed infallible memory, he was a bit proud of her. She was even starting to make sense of the basic controls, to a limited extent. And he didn't see any harm in it, after all his TARDIS seemed to like her. Hell, Rose had his ship so uptight that it took a semi and a tow chain to open a maintenance port; obviously his old girl would have rather seen him die than let Rose pilot her. After that mess, he became more lax about his companions learning the controls (if the TARDIS would allow), and after seeing River Song fly it so aptly, Amy had been more hopeful of someday making sense of it, and was becoming better at it than he had expected.

A quick glance at the monitor verified that indeed things were not right. He began scanning the rest of the data registered by the ship. "Hmmm air looks to be breathable, with high levels of oxygen and hydrogen…but the temperature is all wrong…ahh there it is."

"What is it? Is something wrong?" Rory asked them as he walked in to the console room and saw a similar expression of concentration on their faces, glued to the screen.

Amy lit up, "I think I see it. That halo over the topographical readings?"

"What does it mean?" Rory leaned over their shoulders, although deciphering the jargon displayed on the screen would be a hopeless task.

"Yes!" the Doctor smiled and rocked back on his heels, "A foreign energy source. It seems to be creating a containment shell and is acting somewhat like a greenhouse. Should be quite safe to venture outside as long as it remains in place." He was headed toward the door as he spoke with Amy close at his heels.

"Amy," Rory called, "your coat!"

"Thanks," she smiled as he threw it to her, and he followed them both out the twin doors and into the unknown.

"Oh my…" were Amy's words as Rory met them on the surface of Ganymede just outside the TARDIS.

"Uh, so where exactly are we?" He asked. And then he looked up and saw what had held Amy captive. It was a sight to behold. In his limited travels with the Doctor, he had yet to be taken somewhere merely for the view. This must have been it. He was continually amazed at how comfortable Amy was with this science fiction come to life.

He wondered if he would ever truly get used to it. A part of him didn't really want to, he had learned the Doctor's lesson a short time ago, tasting the torture of time upon an immortal as he waited beside the pandorica. At least he had something to look forward to as days, months, and years became irrelevant: He had Amy. The Doctor had nothing but the present, as far as he knew. He hated the fact that he pitied the Doctor, a god among men. But every time Rory looked up to see he and Amy conferring, planning, or having a 'moment' he couldn't help to cherish the security of his future, in knowing that the day Amy is out of his life, either he will have died or will soon after. As morbid as it sounded to himself it brought him hope. But in it he also could see that the Doctor's fear of abandonment was likely well founded. He held no jealousy of the Doctor's relationship with Amy, Rory knew he would push them both away far before he came to depend on her emotionally. In fact the Doctor had already proclaimed their last trip was eminent. But none of them, Amy, the Doctor, or he seemed quite ready to part ways.

He noticed off to his left he could see the haze of dawn outlining a rocky moonscape, but centered in the dark sky was a massive planet lit two thirds by the approaching sun, red orange, cream, yellow, swirled and in bands on its surface. And then it hit him. "Jupiter!"

"And Io to the right and that is Europa coming close to eclipse," the Doctor added. "We're on the moon Ganymede. My last gift to you was to let you two pilot the TARDIS forward through the phases, but it seems our plans have changed."

Amy was clearly disappointed. "How so?"

"There are lights there to the right on the horizon," he pointed out to them. "We shouldn't be able to stand here without the risk of death by exposure for one. And there are not supposed to be people here. There haven't been people here for thousands of years. And there are sure signs of some."

"Well why not?" Rory asked. "Why would there not be people on a planet with air to breathe? Didn't you say there are lots of Earth colonies? Why not this one?"

"Full of questions, aren't we? First off, this is not a planet, it's a moon. Most humans dislike living on spheres with days longer than 36 hours. A day and night here amounts to about a week on earth, as it's a lunar cycle and fixed by tidal pulls toward Jupiter. Good thing or we'd have a hard time predicting night and day and then be forced to deal with Amy off her circadian rhythm"

"Watch it, space man!"

"Good point," Rory agreed, with a wry smile at Amy.

"Secondly, Humans TRIED to colonize this planet, melted the ice and created a breathable atmosphere. They even weather and temperature controlled vast areas to create a sustainable ecological system complete with highly productive agriculture. But for some unknown reason it failed. It's remained quite a mystery. But no one knows for sure what happened that wiped out the colonists. You know it was before the creation of instantaneous communication, so the colonists back then were out on their own…one day they were asking for more supplies and the next transmission was fuzz.

"So naturally, we're going to check out these lights over there." And with long strides he bounded off toward the object of his current obsession with Amy and Rory having no choice but to follow closely behind.

Amy easily matched his strides. "But if you're so curious, why not take the TARDIS back to when the colonists were here and just ask them ourselves? Or would that be too easy?' she asked, with no effort to hide her sarcasm.

With a roll of his eyes he replied, "Yes of course if you want to risk ending up like them, but I would much rather go the safe route and depend on a little Archaeology."

"I thought you said you hated Archaeology," She said.

"No, he said he hated Archaeologists," Rory added with a teasing smile.

"I said no such thing, I said I DISLIKE Archaeologists," The Doctor defended.

Amy quipped, "Oh so you mean you dislike Archeologists who show up out of nowhere, save your skin and subsequently scare the socks off of you." This received a snicker from Rory, never missing an opportunity to gang up on the Doctor.

"Haha thick as thieves over there you two. But remember River Song saved you both as well. Amy, you on two occasions. But that is still no reason to trust her." And with that he trodded forward, never relaxing his pace.

A few minutes later, the trio was spotted across the desolate moonscape through the grey of dawn. From far up the Cliffside, the movement caught by the young agent's trained eye had her flat on her conditioning mat, with her left hand activating the perception filter on her belt and unsheathing her sidearm in one smooth motion. It was only then her conscious mind processed what exactly it was she had seen.

Three humanoids. Two male. One female. Order of dominance: dark haired male, female, light haired male. Indiscreet with no visible weapons. Heading southwest toward camp.

She was young, but the initial military training all children who entered the program underwent was put in place for a reason. If you can't keep yourself from getting killed, you are of no use to the agency, right?

Although 16 now and yet to let her superiors down, she was about to cut it close this morning. Well, technically morning, on Ganymede time it was the middle of the night. The two day week took some getting used to, but she had long since disregarded her internal clock and learned to adapt to new places quickly.

With an upbringing that had been far from normal, her intense lifestyle and training during her tenure with the agency had done little to break her spirit. Having snuck out to do some low-light climbing and watch the sunrise, she was in a precarious position now and would likely be chastised for compromising the mission. But hey, that's only if you get caught…

No, your first priority is the mission, and this constitutes a possible compromise, she chided herself as she rose up just enough to peek over the edge of the cliff to get a second view of these strange intruders. Definitely uncaring of being seen. The three were in deep, no, more argumentative conversation.

Thinking it best to climb down there to get an ear on them sooner rather than later, she waited a minute until they were out of sight. She then took the rocks out of her pack she had used to offer some heft to her covert exercise session, rolled up her conditioning mat and began to scale down the cliffside with practiced agility. And of course the unsuspecting travelers remained oblivious to the elusive River Song, tracking just meters behind them and taking record of their conversation. Which incidentally was quite trivial, as River could care less what Rugby was or its merits on the psyche of adolescent schoolchildren.