-1Disclaimer: BBC owns the world, and any who resist will be exterminated. Not like that'll stop me though.
"So you're telling me there are creatures out there live entirely off rocks?" Martha asked.
The Doctor nodded, preoccupied with adjusting a circuit board with his sonic. "What's so strange about that? It's a more direct method than eating vegetables and animals. Less wasteful too." He added, targeting the sonic at a different group of circuits.
The TARDIS hung suspended in time and space. The engines hummed, beat, and filled the ship with a calming white noise. The Doctor hadn't yet decided where they were going next, but certainly didn't want to stay where they had been. Who knew that in some cultures, a banana is sacred and eating one a sin?
Martha stood shaking her head. "Maybe so, but I still think it's odd." She grinned. "Or would you like to join me in a bowl of mud and shale tonight?"
The Doctor's eyebrows rose. "They don't just eat anything you know. Has to be specific minerals, chemical and physical patterns. Emeralds, diamonds, rubies. Quartz, if they're in a fix with nothing proper to eat."
Martha stared in disbelief. "So where are we going now?" She asked.
"Up to you. I chose last time." He said, allowing her to change the topic.
"Yeah," Martha laughed, "and look how that turned out."
The Doctor turned, glancing over his glasses at her. "I'm sorry about that." He said flatly, turning his back to her again.
Martha was taken aback by his response. "I was just joking you know. No way you could know they'd find bananas sacred! I mean, I would have done the same thing." He didn't respond. She waited a beat, two, for him to respond. Nothing but the hum of his screwdriver.
"Oi." She goaded. "Joke. Didn't mean to upset you."
The Doctor stood up, stretched, and paused comically halfway through. "Martha Jones, you've given me a wonderful idea!" He bounded over to the controls, and began methodically spinning dials, pulling levers, and occasionally holding down random buttons with his feet, all the while smiling. The TARDIS began to shake as it spun through the vortex. "The most famous and brilliant comedy can be found at the height of the Amehan Empire. Intergalactic culture had fused to create the most remarkable comics the galaxy had ever seen, and there you lot were in the middle of it, borrowing from every race to create jokes that last for trillions of years."
"So we're going to a comedy club?" She laughed, bracing herself against the railing as the TARDIS shuddered violently.
"Well, seeing how well taking you to the theater worked," The Doctor grinned, "perhaps something lighter would be in order."
"As if that were my fault!" Martha protested.
"Oh I don't know. Weren't any witches there until I took you. Coincidence?" He inquired, looking at her over the console he was clutching.
"You're right. I'm actually a Carionite. Sorry for not letting you know sooner." She shot back. "And what about you? Have you figured out what you've done to Queen Elizabeth yet?"
"Nope, and that's half the fun, isn't it?" He asked, standing up. The TARDIS began to shake less and less - quickly it was still and silent. "Shall we?" The Doctor asked as he bounded for the door.
"The capitol of the Amehan Empire, Eaipolis." The Doctor announced proudly as they walked out. "Well... 5th of a total of 12, actually, but..." He trailed off. Martha stood at the edge of a massive cliff, leading thousands of feet down to a swift moving river. The system of giant canyons created by interconnecting rivers looked like the veins upon a leaf set upon an impossible scale of hundreds of square miles, as far as Martha's eyes could see. Set into the cliffs were many shafts, along with large solar arrays. Ventilation systems, perhaps lighting too, she guessed. The sky was brilliant shade of green, the color of new leaves in spring.
"So they live within these cliffs?" She asked.
"Well, the Amehan have never believed in building on top of the ground, you see. Much to do with their relation to moles, I suppose. Well, not moles, but certainly creatures that look and act like them" This city sat deep in the ground for centuries before a climate shift caused the rivers to flow here, but they never moved. They dug deeper in the ground, always seeking to keep up with the river's erosion."
"Why didn't they -"
"Just move the river?" The Doctor finished, walking to stand along side her. "It violates what they hold to be sacred. They believe that the only place their race has dominion is in the ground, tunneling. Which, and this is strange, is how they came to use a very unique form of transportation involving wormholes. To them it's all the same, just burrowing about."
The wind swept violently along the cliffs, and Martha crossed her arms to keep her jacket in place. The Doctor stood nonchalantly a few feet to her side, hands in pockets with his trench coat whipping and snapping in the wind. Despite the sun's warmth, the wind was bitterly cold. Still, they stood admiring the city, the many layers of rock exposed to show the planet's history, for quite some time. At least, it felt like quite some time to Martha. She was freezing. The Doctor, however, was lost in his own world. To burrow through matter and space, to create an intergalactic empire based upon instantaneous travel via worm hole, was remarkable. If only they'd been able to burrow through time, as his people had, he thought sadly. They might not have met their end at the hands of the Sontarians in only a few thousand years. He stood silently, remembering how the city would look - a crater that spanned an impossible distance, the mesa city of Eaipolis crumbled to dust. Still later it would become a lake... a watery grave and memorial for the race that died here. The sun had turned red, he reminisced, by that time. Shaking his head to rouse himself, he looked over at Martha who hung to her jacket, her knuckles white.
"Shall we head in?" He asked casually, oblivious to her discomfort.
"P-p-please." Martha responded through gritted teeth.
The Doctor and Martha walked together to a large concrete slab, dotted with lights and dishes to help guide in ships. The TARDIS sat upon it, and past it was a small hatch, barely large enough for the Doctor to fit into once he'd undone the locking mechanism holding it in place. Martha watched as he climbed down, the dark hiding him totally from her sight.
"Well come' on then! Haven't got all day!" He called up to her. Martha began to carefully climb down, and was pleased to discover the air becoming warmer. Despite that, it tasted clean, fresh. Finally, her feet touched the ground, and she hopped off the ladder. The Doctor stood a few feet away, pointing the sonic at his glasses, working intently. He inspected his work quickly, and put them on, squinting up at the open hatch above them.
"Right! Can't leave the front door open." He said, pointing the sonic upwards. The hatch slammed shut, and they were left in total darkness. Martha panicked, reaching quickly for the ladder but realizing then she should have reached for him. Perhaps his people could see in the dark.
"Doctor?" She called out.
"I'm right here." He said, holding his sonic like a torch. The darkness enveloped everything. Martha couldn't see anything past the half of his face illuminated by the pale blue light, and his hand gripping the instrument.
"Can you turn the lights on or something?" Martha asked, searching with her free hand for his, which she had assumed he had extended while holding on to the ladder.
"Remember when I told you the Amehans were like moles?" He asked, still holding the sonic up but making adjustments with his other hand. Martha let her arm drop along side her, but still kept her grip on the ladder.
"Yeah," She said, realization spreading across her consciousness, "Moles have terrible vision in daylight."
"Yup, and so do the Amehans. In fact, they actually raise their young in pitch blackness for the first 5 years of their lives. Believe it reinforces what's actually important, or rather, what's not. Now what's really, and I mean really, interesting about all -"
"So do they have lights, or is the entire city dark?" Martha interrupted.
"Aside from some special places set up for" He paused, sounding disdainful, "tourists, yes. Pitch black."
"So what are we going to do?" She asked.
"Well I've used the sonic to make my glasses perceptive to heat. Actually a neat trick, but unfortunately, I only have one pair, and that won't do." He shook his head, thinking. "Unless...", he said, looking at her, eyebrow arched.
Martha met his gaze, although she wasn't sure he could see her without his glasses on as the light the sonic was producing was weak. "What." She said flatly. "No, you know what? Just get it over with."
"Martha, I need you to hold every still, and keep your eyes open. No matter what happens, keep them open and look right in front of you, OK?" He put on his glasses, winced, and turned off the sonic. She looked ahead, seeing nothing but pitch blackness now. She heard him move closer.
"Here we go. Keep looking straight ahead." The Doctor said.
"Ah!" The light of the sonic felt as though it had pierced through her skull. The light was so intense it flooded her consciousness. She couldn't think, or feel. All she could do was see the light, burning her eyes and mind.
"Hold still!" He said irritably, one hand held up in anticipation of the need to hold her head still. "Just a little more... and there!" He turned off the sonic and placed it back in his breast pocket as Martha sunk to the ground, he hands over her eyes.
"What did you do that for?" She yelped, holding her hands over her eyes. "Is that some sort of Time Lord practical joke? If you slept I'd get you back for this... blinding me as if I weren't blind enough already in the dark..."
"Open your eyes." He murmured quietly.
Martha did, and she saw him, crouched beside her, one arm resting on his knee. His torso was a mix of reds and golds, while his hearts were bright white, spreading lanes of brighter light throughout him. His eyes glowed intensely, a luminous gold. She put her hand to her face in disbelief. The warm blood pumped through her veins, it's warm branching outwards, cooling as it went, changing from red to darker and darker shades until it reached the tips of her fingers.
"Infrared vision." She stammered. She could see in the dark. See heat instead of light.
"I'm sorry Martha, I really am, but I can't do the same thing to my eyes, so I have to use my glasses, so I just figured..." He trailed off. "We can just leave, if you want. I'll change them back."
"No, no, it's amazing!" She said, standing up. "This is just amazing..."
"It'll take a few minutes, maybe up to an hour, but soon you'll have the same visual acuity you had when you saw with light - more or less, anyway. Might be a little fuzzy, but that can't be helped. Still, it'll be better than globs of light moving about, what you see now. Just takes the brain a little while to accept the rewiring."
Martha's head snapped up from looking at her foot, which incidentally had a fascinating system of blood vessels. "Rewiring?" She asked, feeling anger bringing to well up in her stomach.
"Well it's not as though you can see in the dark naturally, you know, so along with changing the receptors in your eyes you have to change the way the brain interprets the data. Might give you a headache, actually." He said quickly, looking down. "But only a mild one." He added hopefully.
Martha was about to snap at him for 'rewiring' her brain without her permission, but it was then that she realized the Doctor was right. Her visual acuity had started to come back. The Doctor was no longer just a shape made of light. His features had returned, and she could see his glasses on his face, his hair. Still a bit blurry though, she thought, and his eyes still burned gold.
"I can see the veins in my hands, " She mused. "It's like a living anatomy book."
"You know, they have those, actually..." He paused. "Wait. You can what?" He asked quizzically, running his hand through his hair, leaving odd trails of orange heat. Like terrible highlights, she though, very amused.
"I can see my veins... here, look, I'll show you." She said, as she traced their paths from her shoulder to her arm.
"Now that is impressive. I've never seen a human pick up so quickly!" He beamed.
"Can I ask you a question though?"
"The eyes. Its my eyes, isn't it. Right?" The Doctor asked, seemingly unsurprised at the question. "It's due to the naturally higher body temperature I keep, combined with the structure and heat absorbing properties of my bones." He paused, looking at her.
"So you've got a thick head, is what you're saying." Martha deadpanned.
The Doctor grinned. "Not thick enough to keep me from being brilliant!" He looked at her, his demeanor shifting quickly. "I know what it looks like though. If it reminds me, it certainly reminds you."
She did remember, even if she tried to push the memory away. That one glimpse of the fury of a sun in his eyes was worse than anything she'd experienced with him. Worse than guiding John Smith back to his true identity, worse than the Daleks. The realization that someone like him had been taken over, could be taken over, completely by a creature so angry and so vengeful frightened her to the core. She remembered his words. "Burn with me, Martha.", He'd growled.
It really didn't help that the Doctor was watching her. The light from his eyes was oddly contained by his glasses, bleeding out along the edges. It's not the same, she reminded herself. It's not. He's still himself.
"Is it going to be a problem?" He asked quietly. No answer.
Martha finally spoke. "No. It's not going to be a problem." She said, more an affirmation for herself than an answer for him.
The Doctor gave her his best smile. "Brilliant. Shall we be off then? The best comedy in the universe awaits us." He said, gesturing down the narrow hall.
They headed down, through a labyrinth of corridors, always heading deeper into the earth. It was hard to Martha to imagine that just a few feet outside were massive cliffs leading thousands of feet down. To her it felt as though she was halfway to the center of the planet. The air remained fresh despite the depths, impressing Martha very much. The Doctor walked briskly, clearly familiar with the paths leading down into the city. Martha followed along behind, tracing the power conduits that glowed inches below the surface of the walls with her fingers. She was still adjusting to her new vision, but clearly enjoying it. Deeper and deeper they walked, and soon other tunnels began to converge with theirs and the tunnel broadened, so that she could walk along side the Doctor again. They proceeded together in silence, the Doctor lost in his thoughts and Martha with the now emerging spider web of venting and power conduits along the path. It was almost like Christmas lights, setting the tunnel aglow. Finally the tunnel stopped at a great door, easily large enough to fit two double deck busses though. The conduits flowed past, into what appeared to be a great space beyond.
"Right, so here we are then." The Doctor said, smiling. "Tell me, what can you see?"
Martha paused. "I can see the piping going past the door, and spreading out. It must be a huge space beyond here."
The Doctor looked at her approvingly. "Good." He said simply. "What else?" He asked quietly.
"I can see... it's like insects. Fireflies. They're so faint." She said. "There must be hundreds." Her voice became quiet. "No, thousands. Tens of thousands." The Doctor watched her intently as she spoke, and it almost seemed as if she could feel the heat radiating from his eyes. She didn't look at him, but rather stared straight ahead.
"What are they?" He asked.
Martha stood in shocked silence. People. Amehans. All the small glows moving about past the door, below and above her, were the citizens of the city. The more she focused, the deeper she could see. Millions of lights.
The Doctor stepped closer. "Tell me what they look like. That one," He whispered, pointing. "Right there."
She took a deep breath, and focused on the light. It was stationary, unlike the millions of others. She let it become all she saw, and slowly it took shape.
"It's small... only a meter, meter and a half." She began. "It's legs are like a dogs, but it walks upright. It's arms are long, and it's hands have only..." She strained to see. "...only 3 fingers, but with claws."
"And?"
"It's hunched over, but not reaching for anything. Must be the way it's supposed to be." She concluded. "It's face... they eyes, they sit on the sides. They're small, but it's nose is huge. So is it's mouth."
She was so lost in the sight of the city all around her and the Amehan she'd been observing that she involuntarily jumped back with shock when the great gates began to open, splitting down the middle and sweeping up. The light, or rather, the heat, blinded Martha, and in the corner of her eye she thought she saw the Doctor wince as well. Her vision cleared, and she stood stunned looking at the great path, a car less boulevard lined with shops and small eateries. A few dozen Amehans walked along the sides of the street, the center of which was decorated with flowing statues that glowed brightly at their bases and extended upwards into darkness.
She could see the Amehans perfectly now as they loped along. The way they walked was comical, like cartoons of cavemen she'd seen as a child. Their noses never stopped twitching. They wore a variety of clothes, but many wore none. Some had on long, plain toga-like shirts on reaching their knees, while a few wore what could have passed for suits, or at least what a suit would become this far into the future. Still, the majority seemed happy to wear only the fur they grew, which was long and thick. She felt the Doctor take her hand, and she looked over to see him watching her still, with a serious expression on his face.
"What is it?" She asked.
"Last time I checked, the Amehans never had much to do with clothes. Nothing to do with them, actually." He paused. "Ever."
"And? They've had contact with thousands of other species, I'd imagine, and lots of them wear clothes." She responded.
"Right, but it's a point of pride for them. Inferior species cover themselves. The Amehans believe they are perfect as they are. Also helps the whole species reproduces asexually. And grows fur. Makes selling cosmetics difficult, I'd imagine... But no. This is wrong." The Doctor finished. He ran his tongue over his teeth, thinking. He squeezed her hand.
"Let's find out where these moles got their misplaced sense of modesty. Up for a mystery?" He asked, smiling.
"Always." She replied, smiling back.