"How long do you think we'll be here?" Alison asked the Doctor, sitting on one of the two chairs with her arms folded, a table in front of her.
"Until whoever is in charge gets here." the Doctor replied as he walked around the room they were in, before stopping to stare at the large mirror on the wall. "We know you're there. So why don't you come out?"
"Wait, do they still use those kind of mirrors in the future?"
"Not the same kind as in your time. This stuff is much stronger. Could probably survive a grenade." the Doctor explained as he lightly flicked the mirror, before he sat down next to her.
"Umm, if they're there, should we not talk about the you know what?" Alison whispered, but the Doctor have her a blank look, leading Alison to talk more. "You know. The stuff about time. And space. And the blue box."
The blank look continued.
"Come on Doctor, can you just tell me you understand?" Alison asked, her voice raising slightly. When he continued to stare, she grew impatient. "I'm talking about the TARDIS!"
"Oh that. No you shouldn't worry. I've spent thousands of years talking about the TARDIS and a bunch of other stuff that confuses people, and it's never causes anyone to stop trusting me before. Well, almost never." the Doctor replied as he reached into his pocket a pulled out a flask from the inside of his coat, taking off the lid before taking a quick swig of the content, quickly grimacing from the taste afterwards.
"Are you...drinking? Right now? Seriously?" Alison questioned, now quickly hating herself for getting into that stupid box with the Doctor.
"Yes. And no you can't have some. This Alberian whiskey is nearly three thousand years old and could kill a human in two minutes." the Doctor responded as he took another quick drinking of it, yet again grimacing, before he put the flask back into his coat. "Also, it tastes terrible. I think three thousand years is when it starts to go bad."
"I thought whiskey lasted forever?" asked Alison with an annoyed tone.
"So did I. Nice to know I can still be surprised." the Doctor responded, before looking at Alison. It took her a few seconds, but eventually she noticed how he was looking at her. Like he was analyzing her, trying to figure out what exactly it was that made her tick.
"What are you looking at?" Alison aggressively asked the alien.
"You don't have to be scared you know." he told her, trying to recall how he used to do this.
"Why shouldn't I? I'm on an alien world, with an alien who likes to drink, and I have no idea what's going to happen to me. Why shouldn't I be scared?"
"Because..." the Doctor began, before finding himself unable to think of anything. He claws into the deep recess of his mind for some expression or speech that could help, maybe a lesson from his own childhood like he had told Jo when they were in Atlantis, but found himself already talking. "Because you shouldn't. It won't help."
Once upon a time, it had been easy for the Doctor to reassure people about their fears. To make them feel happy and safe. He had once been good with people, especially when he had been blond and loved cricket or when he liked to wear a bow tie and a fez. Even the one with that godforsaken coat would have been better in this situation, or at least when that one was nearing the end of his life, as underneath all that attitude was someone who cares so much about people and simply chose to act that way. But now, it was like there was a constant barrier between himself and everyone else, and he didn't know how to get past it. Sure he could provide small comforts, a brief sorry if he was in a good mood, but when it came to proper emotional help he was as useful as using the sonic screwdriver on wood. Which reminded him that he really needed to fix that. Then again he's survived roughly ninety-six hundred years without fixing it, give or take a millennium or two, so he supposed he could live another thousand years like that.
"Great talk." Alison replied, glaring at him slightly. The Doctor was about to say something else, something that might fix his mistake, but suddenly the door to the room slid open. In walked a man at about forty years of age, with obviously receding dark brown hair that had a few obvious strands of grey. He observed the Doctor and Alison with his grey eyes, standing up straight in his uniform while two soldiers entered behind him, their hands on the guns in their holsters, clearly ready for anything.
"My name is Captain Kane and I am in charge of security in this base." he told them. "Now who are you, and how did you get here?"
"I'm the Doctor, this is Alison, and we were just passing through. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I must of got my dates wrong. We're about a century early, give or take a few decades." the Doctor explained. "So if you would just let us leave, we'll be out of your hair. Or at least what's left of your hair."
"You're not going anywhere." Kane told him. "Chances are, you're responsible for the murders."
"Murders? What murders?" Alison asked the captain. Kane looked at Alison, observing the worried look on her face.
"How did you get here?" Kane asked again, and looking at the Doctor specifically. "And what species are you? We know she's human, but our readings say you have two hearts."
"Wait, he has two hearts?" questioned Alison, before looking at the Doctor. "You have two hearts?"
"Yes. Why, is that a problem?" the Doctor asked her.
"No. It's just that you don't act like you have more than one heart." Alison responded, clearly still annoyed with him, though the Doctor chose to ignore her.
"What murders?" he asked Kane.
"What are you and how did you get here?"
"We were just passing through on my ship and what I am isn't important. What murders?"
"Why should I tell you?"
"Because if you really thought we were somehow involved, this conversation would be going very differently." the Doctor responded firmly, as he did a quick glance over Kane. "You've had trouble sleeping. You're tired, but not so tired that it hinders your ability to do your job or prevent you from creating a facade that you have some measure of control over the situation. But judging by how stressed you've sounded since you've been in here, I would say that these murders have been having for about a week or so, ten days maximum."
"What? I'm not stressed." Kane replied, and Alison was about to agree with him. But what the Doctor had said had made quite crack in his armour, since she could now see that Kane did seem to be stressed and tired.
"Yes you are. Don't bother trying to lie, I'm too old for it to work." the Doctor replied firmly, standing up now to properly face Kane, their eyes level with each other. "Listen to me very carefully. My name is the Doctor and if you let me, I can help you find out what is happening. But only if you stop with this whole charade and give me the facts."
Kane stared at the Doctor, before letting out a sigh of defeat. "Twenty days ago we arrived on this planet. We made polite greeting with the local species, showed we meant them no harm and set up this base. Everything was fine."
"Until the murders." Alison said simply, and Kane nodded.
"We've only accepted they were murders about nine days ago, but the first case was five days before that. One of the engineers, Ruth Foster, went missing one night. We looked for her all day and couldn't find her until the next day. She was dead, and another person had gone missing." Kane explained.
"Any personal connection between the victims?" the Doctor asked, with Alison noticing how he now seemed far more relaxed.
"Besides the fact they were part of this base? No, there is no correlation. There are seventy people working here Doctor, and they are afraid. Many are starting to think the jastians are involved." Kane responded.
"But you don't think they are." the Doctor stated, with it clearly not being a question. Kane hesitated, before nodding.
"First of all, we haven't done anything to warrant such an extreme reaction. Secondly, there have been reports of them suffering casualties as well." Kane responded. "Same thing, every night someone goes missing, shows up the next night dead while someone else has vanished."
"Have you tried helping each other?" Alison asked Kane. "You know, so you can find out what's doing this?"
"No. Like I said my people are beginning to blame the jastians. To make matters worse, a lot of the jastians are starting to think the same about us." Kane replied. "Sort of makes an alliance difficult."
"But can you enable a meeting?" the Doctor asked, and Alison swore that Kane's eyes nearly bulged so big they could have jumped out of his head.
"Are you crazy? They could attack you on sight!" Kane told the Doctor.
"Yes they could attack the three of us. But they also might not, and I need more information if I am to help." the Doctor told Kane.
"Well, that proves it. You must be crazy." Kane replied, causing the Doctor to stare straight at Kane, making the man look a little scared.
"Kane, I get the feeling that you are struggling to grasp a very simple fact. Without my help, whatever is happening will continue and more people will die. A lot from whatever this is, but probably more from the inevitable war that will follow between humans and jastians. With my help, I can't guarantee nobody will die. What I can guarantee is that whatever is happening will be over soon." the Doctor told Kane firmly. "So, are you going to drive us or not?"
Tell me what you think and if there are any spelling mistakes or sentences that don't make sense. To those who noticed the reference to the Eleventh Doctor while I know that the Shalka Doctor is regulated to non-canon status due to the revival making it impossible for him to be the Ninth Doctor, I have always personally liked to believe that he is a future incarnation of the Doctor. And since the Time Lords are alive, though admittedly at the end of the universe, and the Doctor has an unknown amount of regenerations, I figured I would make that the case in this fanfic as opposed to having him as an alternate Doctor.