Posted: 29 August, 2009
Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this story that is recognisable from the Doctor Who verse. The plot however, stems from my own imagination and belongs to me. No copyright infringement is intended and I am not profiting financially from this story in any way.
Jujin's Bar, Sheba, 4915
An hour later Jayme Hall had taken advantage of the Time Agency issue Vortex Manipulator that he'd yet to return. He'd hopped to a dive bar on a moon called Sheba, roughly a century in the past. There, he had entrenched himself on a stool at the bar, doing his best to drink himself into oblivion. Frustratingly however, Agency upgrades prevented easy intoxication. And so, despite his best efforts, he was only just beginning to feel the edges of tipsy.
It was around this time that Jayme spotted a stranger entering the bar. That in itself was not out of the ordinary. It was a bar after all – people tended to come and go. No, what caught his eye was something about the woman's attire; it seemed more than a little out of place for this time and location. On a hunch he aimed his wrist device at her. After a second, it beeped and his screen displayed a list of anachronistic items on her person, some from the past and some the future.
The results of his scan both confirmed one of Jayme's suspicions and negated the other. On one hand, yes, she was a time traveller. But on the other, given her attire, she was not a Time Agent. No, if she worked for the Agency, she'd have been trained better at blending in.
He relaxed a little. Sooner or later Director Cartwright would send someone to track him down. After all, he was still in possession of Time Agency tech. He'd feared for a moment that they had located him already, but fortunately the scan proved him wrong.
That was good; he certainly wasn't ready to be dragged back yet. In fact, before the odd stranger had appeared, he had been seriously considering hacking into and resetting the tracking and security protocols on his wrist comp so they couldn't find him. It was a task beyond most time agents' skills and one he never would have considered before. But since the Agency had betrayed him, what did it matter anyway? Right?
Shaking off the thought for the moment, he watched over the rim of his drink, observing as the other time traveller wandered into the bar, looking about as if searching for someone. Silently Jayme cursed her for rousing his curiosity. Two minutes ago he was feeling perfectly content with drowning his sorrows, and planning revenge. Now however, he could already feel his buzz fading away.
Damn it, he swore to himself, he wasn't a Time Agent any more. It wasn't his business to police a possibly unauthorised time traveller. Okay, yes she could present a danger to reality if she didn't have some basic training on dos and don'ts, but… he groaned.
That small sound seemed to catch the woman's attention. Her eyes flittered briefly toward him, then away, and then snapped back again. To his surprise they were wide with what appeared to be shock and recognition, whilst her mouth was sounding out a word. It was hard to tell in the dim, smoky light of the bar, but he rather thought it was 'Jack'. He frowned, not recalling ever having used that alias. It was possible that he would meet her under that name in his own personal future. Or maybe… his thoughts began whirring wildly… maybe she had known him in those missing two years.
Deciding immediately that he couldn't pass up a possible lead on his stolen memories, he went to raise a hand to signal her over. Just then however, a weasely looking man with red eyes (part Cronitium, he identified automatically) sidled up to her. From the looks of things, the guy was introducing himself, in between throwing furtive looks this way and that. He watched her nod then attempt to sooth the skittish man, and knew this must be who she was searching for before. She turned her head back his way again, biting her lip, and he deduced that she was torn between approaching him, or leaving with the weasely fellow who was even now heading for the exit. In the end it seemed red eyes' importance and the risk of him bolting was too great, as she followed him out the back door.
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