"Is she awake yet?" a soft, feminine voice asked. "It's been 3 days."

"I know." A more familiar, male voice responded. "It's odd. After this amount of time, a normal human would be dead. But a person like her should be up and moving. How's your hand anyway?"

The female gave a gentle laugh. "Doctor, it isn't hard to grow back fingers at this hospital. We wouldn't have known about her if she hadn't cut them off. I consider it a blessing that she did.

"And she isn't human. She's a Rahki. More specifically, a Jahra Rahki. That's why it's taking her so long to heal. She isn't just healing. She's reverting back to her original state. The poison woke up her dormant cells."

"That raises more questions then answers. The Rahki know about the Time Lords. Even the Jahra Rahki do, and every Rahki is always conscious of the fact they're Rahki. She would have said something."

I cut someone's fingers off? Why can't I move? Hold on, is this one of those, what-do-you-call-it, comas? Am I in a coma? What's a Rahki? Why are they saying I am one? I'm human. Kavrin thought.

The female didn't answer the Doctor's questions, but asked her own. "I see she still has that rock. You haven't been able to take it from her?"

"No. Every time I get within 6 inches of that hand, she clenches it into a fist and starts stabbing at me with that dagger again. I'm glad she doesn't have the revolver though. She traded it out for her dagger when I started to move forward to help. She wouldn't let me near, so I left her and flew the TARDIS over."

"I suppose she felt the knife would serve better as a protective device."

A small beep near Kavrin's head made her start. Well, her mind anyway. Stupid coma. At least I can hear. But what are they talking about? How can I cut someone's fingers off in a coma? More importantly, what's so odd about me that makes people glad I cut off their fingers? Why do I care so much about that rock?

"She's awake Doctor. Has been for a few minutes. She's still immobile, but her mind is beginning to turn outward instead of focusing on her shift. I think she heard all that we've been saying.

"I'll leave you now. It will be a few hours before she gains muscle control, and you should start explaining things to her before she can interrupt." The sound of clicking heals signified the departure of the woman.

Probably a nurse. This place does sound like a hospital. Smells like one too, in the sense that it smells like disinfectant and medicine. Hang on, sounds like the Doctor's moving a chair closer. If he tries to touch me I'll try my hardest to run him through.

"At least you're starting to wake up. I have more questions than answers, and there's nothing to explain to you. If you're really a Jahra, you know exactly what's going on. When you truly wake up, I'm going to be asking you so many questions it will make your head spin."

"You don't have to sound so upset. It's not like I actually know what's going on."

Kavrin heard the chair scrape the floor as it moved back. She could almost see the Doctor's puzzled look. In fact-

"How did you do that?"

"I'm lying in a coma, and the nutcase thinks I did something. Yeesh. Some people are just flat out bonkers."

"You did it again. I heard you. Jahra have no psychic abilities whatsoever. I shouldn't be able to hear you."

"How should I know how I did it? I hardly know which way is up after what's been happening. However, since I can talk to you, what's a Jahra?"

"You mean you don't know?"

"No, I'm just giving you a pop quiz. Of course I don't know! I'm a human. I grew up in America! California, America! Of course I have no idea what other species are! Americans barely know what their own government is doing, let alone other countries and planets. UK students might be taught how to fly through space, but that just hasn't caught on where I come from."

"Yeah, you might have lost your memory if you grew up there. Especially if it was Southern California."

"Watch it! Most of my family came from there. Even if I personally grew up in Northern California…"

"Then you might actually understand what I'm going to tell you. Now, keep quiet while I talk, or we'll never get through this.

"The Rahki are a race of aliens. They look fairly human on the outside. Inside, they have three hearts, extra large lungs, and the other organs are mixed up. The Rahki are the only other race, besides the Time Lords that can travel though time-"

"You can travel through time? And you didn't even bother to tell me?"

"It's in the name. We aren't called Time Lord's because we make watches. As I was saying, they are the only other race that can travel through time with relative ease without planning to invade while they're bouncing around. However, after a few…mishaps, in which they caused a rather horrid mess with timelines that took quite a while to straighten out, they were told to find better way to observe time, or to stop altogether.

"After a few years, they had perfected the 'better way'; when a person who had an incredible affect on history, or who was witness to an historical event was born, they would be traded out with a clone that had been grown as a Rahki, then shifted into whatever that species was. The clones were given the minds and personalities of who ever they were replacing, and were left to live the life of that person until after the event. The clone would be brought back, the memories extracted and put on file, and be available for all to see, then the clone would be reset for the next person. They were named Jahra Rahki, literally "copy of many."

"Hang on just one cotton-picking moment. I'm a video camera? I was brought up in a test tube and turned into a walking video camera? What about me? The human me. The real me. The one I'm a copy of. What happens to her?"

"The real person is kept in a sort of stasis, where they grow and change as the clone does. When the clone is brought back to the ship, all the memories are downloaded into the brain of the original, and all last-minute details-except deadly ones, unless the person was meant to die at that time-are added to the original, and they are placed back in the exact moment the clone left."

"But I wasn't returned to the Rahki. Unless you're one. Are you? No, you wouldn't be. You kept saying "they". You also wouldn't be having this conversation, and you wouldn't be surprised that I was a Jahra. I'm certainly surprised. Anyway, since I've established the fact that I am not back where I was grown, then what happens to the real me? They don't have me, so can't download my brain to put into her. Won't that throw a timeline someplace out of whack?"

"In a pinch, the Rahki have another device that records the memories and thoughts of the clone at the same moment the clone has the thought. They can use that to send the original back until they can retrieve the clone and get their own data. It's a lot clearer when it comes straight from the source."

"What a way to put it. How do I know this isn't some trick and you're monitoring my brain waves or something to see what I'm thinking?"

"I could only prove that if you were able to move. Now, my first question is going to sound odd, but it will make sense in a moment. Can you see me?"

"What kind of a question is that? I'm in a coma. How am I supposed to see anything?"

"No pictures? No idea of what's going on?"

"I already told you, I'm American. Now, if you'll just give me a tick…" Kavrin focused her thoughts on the blur that had been bobbing around in her head from the moment she had started hearing again. Bringing it to the forefront of her mind, she noticed it was shaped like a person in a room. As she concentrated on it, it took a more defined shape. As she focused, it became a perfect picture of the Doctor sitting in a chair. She could see his nose, mouth, that nutty yet awesome hairdo that looked like he had just woke up…even the intense, slightly spacey look his whole expression gave off. The only thing wrong was the color. His clothes and the room he was in was a red hue. His face was tinged green, and every so often a flash of purple would come out of his head. She also saw odd waves around the room. They were blue, and part of them would always get pulled in towards the Doctor's ears. They seemed to coincide with the noises that she heard in the hall.

"Say something."

"What?"

As the Doctor spoke, a spear of blue came out of his mouth. Part of it rushed to her, while other bits flew off to join the others around the room.

"That…was weird. I mean really, really weird. The whole place is red. Your face is green, the area around your head sometimes gets a purple streak, and you're talking in blue. But I can see you! Honestly see you! How on Earth are you doing that?"

The Doctor abruptly stood. He started pacing the room and waving his arms about. As he did, Kavrin saw waves that were at once blue, red, and green. Flashes of blue came out of his mouth as he talked to her, but mostly to himself.

"Of course! You already absorb energy, and to do that you have to know where it is! Spending years as a human would have left cellular residue in your body that would turn psychic as an additive to that, giving you an even clearer picture of what was going on around you. That's exactly how you would have known where Nurse Shravin's hand was, and when to protect that rock!"

Whirling around suddenly, he faced Kavrin again. "What is that rock anyway? Is it a tracking device? A transmitter of some kind?"

"Maybe it's a transporter." Kavrin interjected wryly.

The Doctor got an excited look on his face. Blue poured out of his mouth like a river, and his face became a darker green. The purple around his head kept going out and getting pulled back in, like electrons spinning around a protein. The entire room was filled with colors bouncing around as he kept going. "A transporter! A preset, selective DNA transporter! You absorb energy so all it would have needed was the DNA to know who to send, then it could have used the energy you already store to send you straight to the TARDIS! You couldn't have gone through time, but you didn't need to because I was at the right moment already!"

"If I may," Kavrin put in, "since you seem to have all the answers at the moment, perhaps you wouldn't mind sharing them with me. Why does the room look like a three-year-olds coloring book, what is a DNA transporter, and what do you mean I "absorb" energy?"

Giving Kavrin a look that clearly stated he felt she was too slow, he started explaining. "A preset, selective DNA transporter is exactly what it sounds like; a transporter that has a preset destination, and requires DNA to get it going. When someone's DNA-has to be blood, or it won't work-comes in contact with the transporter, it immediately sends the person with that DNA code to where ever the destination is."

"I've been carrying a rock around that uses BLOOD to move a person?"

"It's not a rock, just looks like one."

"I found this thing at a BEECH. On a CAMPING TRIP! I've been taking this thing with me everywhere I go, and it's been waiting for me to cut myself so it can MOVE?"

"Calm down, it's not doing anything now. Probably burnt itself out anyway, only made for one trip. Are you going to keep interrupting?"

Kavrin greeted this remark with a cold silence.

"Good. What was I saying?"

"You were just about to give me the recipe for haggis, but we can skip that for now. Why is your face green?"

"That's right. Energy. Everything gives off energy. Light, heat, sound, brain waves, it's all just energy. Everyone can absorb some of that energy, that's how you see and hear. But some people are born, or in your case created, to absorb the extra energy. Those people are always smarter, faster, stronger, and can see better than others. Athletes absorb heat, that's what makes their muscles respond so well. Geniuses and people with psychic abilities absorb brain waves, that's what makes them so smart and so good at telling what others are thinking.

"Once that energy is absorbed, it's stored away until the person uses it, but when they use it, it just creates more energy and creates a never ending cycle of-

"Energy."

The Doctor finally stopped moving and just looked at Kavrin. "Yeah. Energy."

"Now, let me get this straight. I was raised in a test tube by aliens. I was morphed into a human. I was traded out with that human. I've been living someone else's life as a video camera/sponge combination cheepo replacement. I've been carrying a rock around that uses blood to transport a person to a particular spot. I'm lying on a hospital bed who knows where, and I've been in a coma because I'm turning back into an alien."

Kavrin's eyes snapped open. She sat up abruptly and faced the Doctor. "What kind of race does that to someone?"


*Constructive crictisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*