I credit the completion of this chapter to the snow day today. I hate winter and I hate snow days, but I guess they're good for writing. And reading. Just nothing that I actually have to turn in. Oh well.
Once again, this is unbeta-ed, so any mistakes are my own. Please enjoy!
Disclaimer: If you thought DW was mine, you need to get drug tested, my friend.
"What's your theory, Rose?" the Doctor asked as they moved through a crowd of people chattering loudly with each other.
Rose blew out a breath. "I'd say there's someone on the inside pulling strings to do something. Probably take over the government, maybe assassinate the garvat." The Doctor grinned at her. "What?"
"You're deducing."
"I think I am."
He beamed at her for another moment before turning to the other. "And what about you? Any ideas, observations?"
Ryder blinked up at him, momentarily speechless. She'd obviously not been expected to form an opinion on the matter at all. "Um," she began, "they rely on the Munik a lot. For just about everything. Maybe they could tell us if anything's been off lately?"
He let out a laugh. "She's just like you, Rose! Always with the domestic approach; I love it! Best way to find out all the juicy secrets. Brilliant." He had a different grin for her, but a grin all the same. Ryder smiled, more to herself it seemed. "Right, then. Let's go talk to the Munik and see what's going on, shall we?"
Rose nodded, eagerly, taking his proffered hand and lacing their fingers together. Ryder raised a subtle eyebrow at her, but followed all the same as they set off toward a group of the blue men seated at a large table outside of an open set of larger doors. Gobr's Pub was inscribed above the doors. Ryder looked at the Doctor, inquisitively. "Doctor, they're not speakin' English, are they?"
To him, it sounded as if she already knew the answer to that one. "No, they're speaking something called Parav, a derivative of a mix of Earth's Portuguese, Arabic, and the Munik language."
She nodded, slowly. "So then there's gotta be something translating, right? Like your ship or something."
The look he gave her was one of genuine praise. "Exactly like that, Ryder. The TARDIS'll translate anything you throw at her. Well, almost everything. Doesn't translate Gallifreyan, but that's for a whole other reason."
"Those are the circle-y things I see all over the place then, yeah?" Rose piped up, just before they arrived at the table. He gave a short nod just as they arrived.
"Hello! I'm the Doctor, this is Rose and Ryder. May we sit and have a chat?"
The blue men looked at each other for a long while until the largest one gave them a long look, and finally a nod. The trio pulled up chairs and seated themselves amongst them, Rose politely declining a drink that was raised in her direction. The one who had offered it shrugged and proceeded to throw the whole thing back, downing it in one gulp. Ryder pretended not to have been staring.
"We've just got here and are curious about this place," the Doctor said, crossing his arms and leaning on the table. "Anything strange been happening?"
Again, the Munik's exchanged long looks with each other. "Vhat do you mean 'strange'? Vhy do you vant to know?" the large one asked, his accent sounding almost perfectly Greek. Ryder was rather startled by it, stopping just short of doing a double-take.
"We like strange, live for it, actually. That's us, magnets to the strange," he replied with a cheeky smile. "Any big changes that have come out of nowhere? Any huge change in government? Any weather patterns happen where they shouldn't? Though I imagine anywhere here shouldn't have any weather patterns, what with the whole metal-y thing you've got going on here. Not that I don't like the metal look, I think it quite suits you, it's just–" Rose shot him a look, and pressed her foot on top of his, lifting an eyebrow. "Right, sorry. Anyway. Strange."
The group turned in on itself once again, this time they murmured to each other, so low neither Ryder nor Rose could make out any of what they were saying. Eventually, though, the big one frowned at them.
"Zere has been a recent appointment of a ykvro and an increase in ceevil deesturbances, but zere has not been such 'strange' acteevities as you have described. Our planet is a peaceful one, and we are happy vith vhat we have," he said. His voice was gravelly and so deep, it almost made Ryder's chest vibrate.
"So Nzeg is new?" Rose asked, forehead creasing.
"Yes."
"And what do you think of him? Good? Bad?" Ryder inquired.
"He has done good for our planet so far, so the Muniks like Nzeg."
The Doctor frowned. "Why, though? What has he done?"
"He has made new security system for ze people of Yarsma. It helps vith za controlling of ceevil matters. It helps us vith za people who sneak out at night to zeir 'secret' meetings."
"Secret meetings? For what, exactly?"
"It is against Yarsman law to be out at night. Some people do not like dis and some want to make a new government for the 'improvement of za people'."
Ryder wasn't liking the direction this was going. It sounded as if they may have stepped into the middle of a coup without even realizing. "So, what, you think there's going to be some sort of revolution?"
"We feel as zough if left too long, zere will be an uprising."
"Are there any Munik suspected to be involved?"
He looked grim. "Yes. Zere are some zat we think may be connected vith za people in zese groups, but ve do not have ze evidence to arrest zem yet."
Rose frowned. "Whot's the punishment if they're found guilty of being a part of that?"
"For any citizen, ze punishment is death."
The Doctor let out a long breath. "I really wish you hadn't said that," he muttered, shaking his head slightly. He then stood, quite abruptly and tugged Rose up as well by the hand. Ryder flew to her feet quickly after. "Right, well, thank you for all your help. You have a beautiful planet."
And with that, he urged them away faster than they had come. "Doctor," Ryder said, almost running to keep up with his frantic pace. "Doctor! Where are we going?"
"To see the garvat. I need to have word or two with him."
Rose glanced over her shoulder and gave her friend a small shrug, trotting alongside the Doctor. Ryder didn't understand how she allowed herself to be towed like that; she was more than content to just run next to them and avoid the risk of being dragged like the owner of a very strong dog. In fact, the more she thought about it, the Doctor did somewhat resemble a mutt that used to run around the estate. It was quite large and scruffy, roughly the same colour as his hair, and strong, judging from the way it had hauled off a bag filled with at least ten turkey carcases from Christmas. She suppressed a giggle.
It seemed like ages before they finally stopped, the Doctor slamming his hands down on Garvat Kolq's desk. "I need you to tell me absolutely everything that you think the people of this planet want, and I want you to do it now."
Kolq's head shot up, and he looked halfway between terrified and utterly lost. "I'm sorry?"
"What he means is that there are rumours going 'round that there may be revolution groups, and we need to know why they'd be so against you and your government," Rose translated, shooting the Doctor a glare.
The garvat's terror faded. "Oh, I see." He put down the pen – or what Ryder assumed was a pen – down and folded his hands atop the paper he'd been writing on. "Well, it would seem that the people of Yarsma are stuck. They do not see the merit in trying to advance any sort of... anything, really. The people do not agree with the way that I am trying to push this planet into the modern age."
"And how exactly are you doing that?" Ryder asked.
Kolq opened his mouth to answer, but just as he did so, Ykvro Nzeg appeared, carrying a clipboard and looking official. "I am once again very sorry to interrupt, but sir, we have a Board meeting right now."
The garvat looked almost relieved. "Right, sorry about this. I must ask you to wait until my meeting is over to ask me any further questions. Until then, please feel free to explore. There are Munik's everywhere if you need help finding anything." He stood, smoothing down the silk tie he wore over a silver oxford. In a flash, the two men swooped past them and were out of sight.
Rose could practically hear the gears turning in the Doctor's head; could practically feel his excitement. She turned to him, a smile on her face and an eyebrow lifted. He locked eyes with her, a smile slowly overtaking his face as well. Ryder crossed her arms. "Are we going to look for clues or are you two just going to stare at each other?"
"Right," the Doctor exclaimed, taking Rose by the hand once more and leading the way out of the High Chamber, his coat billowing behind him. This time, Ryder did have to run to keep up with him.
Confirming Ryder's suspicions, the Doctor did not have any sort of plan as to how they were going to get to the bottom of what was going on. He said as much as they made their way aimlessly through the maze of corridors. Rose, on the other hand, jumped right in with suggestions. "I say that we find these people who want to revolt," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Well, it was to Ryder, at least, perhaps not to the Doctor, though. "They'll be able to shed some light on things, don't ya think?"
He grinned at her. "'Course they will! Brilliant, you are, Rose Tyler."
She smiled back, looking rather pleased with herself. Ryder rolled her eyes behind them. "How are we gonna find them, though?"
"We'll ask around, how else?" He looked back at her as if she had suddenly sprouted three heads.
"Yeah, but you heard what the Munik said; punishment for being tied up with them is death. How d'you think we're gonna get 'em to talk to us if they think they're gonna get killed for it?"
"I'm sure we'll figure something out," he replied simply, with a foreboding glint in his eyes.
Rose really should have seen this coming. She was practically kicking herself that she hadn't; he was, after all, the Doctor, and this was possibly the most Doctor-esque thing she could imagine.
They'd waited around practically all day for the people to start returning to their homes and the Muniks to start their nightly patrols in a broom cupboard, of all places. There was barely enough room for them all to sit comfortably, so Ryder had ended up sprawled across Rose's legs with her knees in the air because her feet were tucked up between Rose and the Doctor. The two girls had had a chance to catch up a little bit as the Doctor just listened and played with whatever it was he had pulled from his coat pocket and the sonic screwdriver, but other than that, they had remained quiet.
Once the bustle outside the door had died down to null, the Doctor poked his head out the door and motioned to them that the coast was clear. Ryder had eagerly sprung up and practically run out the door, happy to have her legs back. Rose stretched her sore and tight muscles as the Doctor grabbed her hand and tugged her down the nearly black corridor at an uncharacteristically slow pace. She realized why when she heard other sets of foot falls from somewhere in front of them. It was a moment before the three of them stopped all together as the footsteps came even closer.
They stopped just short of them, however, and, through the darkness, they saw three young men and a younger girl standing before them. The leader, it seemed, gave them a hard look and seemed to dare them with his eyes. "We're friends," the Doctor whispered.
He looked them all up and down once more before giving a short not and continuing on their way. The three time travellers glanced at each other before following the group through the empty halls. Not one did they hear or see a Munik, but that didn't stop the paranoia from creeping into Rose's veins like poison. They walked for what seemed like a lifetime before the group took a sharp turn down a corridor that could've been missed had no one been looking for it, and through a door that was much the same, in terms of style.
Inside, it was like a madhouse.
There were at least two hundred humans, plus more than a few Muniks sitting at tables and drinking whatever spirits they had on this planet. It was loud, a harsh contrast to the silence that had been around them in the hallway. It was such a dramatic difference, both Rose and Ryder looked to the Doctor for an explanation in the same moment. He frowned. "Some sort of sound blocking technology; pretty standard for recording music in the Andromeda galaxy. Not sure why they have it here, though."
The man they had been following wheeled around and regarded them in the light. His face was young, probably not much older than Ryder, but his eyes told of age beyond his appearance. Rose was slightly taken aback; it was almost like looking at the Doctor. Almost. His friends also looked them over, but the girl spoke first. "They're aw'right." She and the other two men stepped away into the crowd while the first stuck around.
"I hope you three know what it is you're getting into," he said at last, "it would be a shame to see such pretty faces disappear." His words were flirting, but his face gave no indication of his seriousness or lack thereof.
The Doctor's frown had apparently stuck. "We know. What we don't is why you're willing to risk so much. What are you actually rebelling against?"
His eyebrows pinched together. "You mean you really don't know?" At the shaking of their heads, he let out a breath. "My name is Xren. I'm in charge around here. Allow me to enlighten you."