Lessons Through All Of Time, Space, And History (A DW AU)

by GirlWhoWaited

Kennedy Humphries is an average American college student with a British roommate and a huge secret. More specifically, her roommate is Clara Oswald, and the secret is the size of a blue box. Alongside the Eleventh Doctor, Kennedy and Clara travel all of time and space when they really should be studying. You'd better take good notes.

2. Episode 2: The Man In A Bowtie

Kennedy was in the middle of speech class when Clara texted her this picture:

Kennedy slapped her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing aloud. She wasn't supposed to be on her phone, anyway. Still, she wrote back:

Well, you can't tell me now that he wasn't real.

Clara quickly responded:

It's a law from 1703. I'm convinced, too.

Stiffling down another giggle, Kennedy replied:

We've been finding evidence everywhere. And, you know, the big honkin' Dalek sitting in our dorm right now :)

Clara texted back:

Point taken. The Doctor's real. How do we find him again?

"You had better not be on your phone, Kennedy," the speech professor warned, narrowing his eyes at the freshman in the front row. "I am telling you everything you need to know for the final."

Sinking into her seat, Kennedy groaned. As if this professor ever told them anything that they needed to know for an exam. If he was as good as a professor as he thought he was, then why was she still ready to burst into tears before each and every speech that she had to give?

A voice in the back of Kennedy's head reminded her that she was supreme.

"Quick! Clara! What are the factors affecting a persuasive speech?" Kennedy exclaimed as soon as she opened the door to their shared dorm.

"Direct approach, articulate terms, what the person looks like," Clara began, firing balled-up socks at her roommate with each answer. "If the audience knows who you are, emotional appeal, bargaining down, and perception!" Holding up her arms to block the incoming return of the socks, Clara asked, "What is persuasion?"

"It's almost second nature," Kennedy declared, launching an armload of dirty socks at Clara. "We must learn to identify the factors and apply it to public speaking." She collapsed onto her bed.

"Bad day?" Clara sighed, hopping up beside her best friend. Kennedy nodded into the pillow, her ponytail swinging back and forth.

"DIIIID MYYY KENNEDY HAVE A BAD DAAAAAY?" Dalek-Sven's eyepiece waved up and down as he wheeled over to check on his rescuer and friend.

"I hate my speech professor!" Kennedy sighed.

"EXTERMINATE THE PROFESSOR!" Dalek-Sven declared.

"No, Sven, there will be no exterminating of the professor!" Clara admonished him in her best teacher voice. The Dalek calmed down immediately. It was no wonder that she was majoring in education. When Clara spoke, others listened.

Dalek-Sven floated up to the bed and landed on the other side of Kennedy. "DALEK-SVEN WILL HELP REVIIIIIISE!"

"Thank you, Sven," Kennedy smiled, sitting up to pet her Dalek on the top of his shiny round head. "You're a good friend." She kissed one of his ear-sirens. "I love you, cutie pie."

"WHAT IS LOOOOVE?" the Dalek screamed. "BABY DON'T HURT MEEEEE!"

The girls cracked up in laughter. Neither of them wanted to imagine life before this precious little pet joined them in their ten square feet of living space. Kennedy glanced at the crack in her wall. "When do you think the Doctor will be back?"

Clara shrugged. "He said same time tomorrow three weeks ago." She, too, glanced at the crack in the wall. "I don't think he's coming back."

"Why did we even go with him in the first place?" Kennedy laughed, shaking her head. Everyday she wished that she hadn't gone, because every day she couldn't stop thinking about him. "He's crazy."

"Emotional appeal," Clara suggested. "Just like in persuasive speaking. He used fear when he told us that the whole world was in danger because of that crack."

"And he used sympathy/empathy when he told me that I needed to be strong for him and overcome… well, the Voices," Kennedy added. She shuddered just thinking about the unknown forces that has seized her in the Institution.

"And it's too bad for him that annoyance isn't one of the emotional appeals that can be used in public speaking!" Clara giggled. "And for all that talking, he's not very good at using detailed examples to explain himself. No case studies, no examples, just… babble."

"That's true!" Kennedy laughed along. "Hey, let's use the Doctor to explain the targets of persuasive speaking!"

"Good idea!" Clara nodded.

"EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN! EXPLAAAAIIIIN!" Dalek-Sven inserted. Kennedy pet his head to quiet him.

"Change behavior," Clara began. "That's like when he used the psychic paper to tell us to run."

"Change mind," Kennedy replied. "Like when he changed our minds about himself from thinking he was crazy to thinking he was cool by showing us the Tardis."

"Or a combination of both of those," Clara continued. "Like how River persuaded us to both help her break out and decide that she didn't need to stay in the Institution."

"You have to set realistic goals, though," Kennedy smirked. "Unlike River did!"

"Yeah," Clara nodded. " Maybe she should've whipped out some statistics, tried out the bandwagon approach on us."

"But the bandwagon approach isn't the best of arguments!" Kennedy reminded her. "She could've bargained down, though. Started with a big goal and worked her way down to what she wanted."

"Door-in-the-face technique," Clara added.

"I'm ready for some ice-cream-in-the-face," Kennedy sighed. "You want to come with me?"

"DALEK-SVEN WILL COME WITH YOU!" the robot declared.

"Alright, alright, family road trip," Clara laughed. "Just let me grab my keys, Kennedy, and we'll go."

"Hello- ooh! Sweeties!" The unmistakable voice of River Song echoed behind the girls in the campus mini mart.

"River?!" Kennedy exclaimed, whirling around to face the Doctor's wife.

"Oh, hello, there, Kennedy!" River greeted her with a bright smile. "And Clara! What are you girls up to?"

"Well, certainly not expecting to find our favorite outerspace psychopath shopping for sweeties," Clara chuckled.

"We had to stop for road snacks," River sighed, rolling her eyes towards the tall, gangly man who was behaving as if he was, well, a kid in a candy store.

"Look, River! They've got Kit-Kats!" he declared in grand delight.

"Come here, sweetie," River smiled. "Come see what I found."

The Doctor galloped over to River. "OOh, I hope it's Jelly- Kennedy! Clara!" He enveloped both the girls into a giant hug. His grin stretched from ear to ear. "We were just on our way to Keplar-59. Brilliant star! You must join us."

"Wait, Doctor, is that persuasion or coercion?" Clara smirked. "Because you're going to have to persuade us, give us the choice. You did leave us for three weeks with no word."

"You're coercing me," the Doctor replied, wrinkling his nose. "My choice to give you a choice is gone, isn't it?"

Clara nodded. "You better be careful not to take away our perception of choice, Doctor, or you're a bad public speaker. First characteristic of a persuasive speech- persuasion versus coercion"

The Doctor made a face at her over his handfuls of candy. "I'm a brilliant public speaker!"

"Persuasion is a process of influence," River inserted. "And you, my love, are rather impatient."

"But he's certainly got the call to action down!" Kennedy replied. "He'll do anything he can to influence our decision to come with you guys again. But his call to action will need to be clear."

"What is this, Interrogate the Doctor Day?" he pouted. "Come on, please, let's go!"

"All right, then," Kennedy shrugged. She laughed. "How are you going to pay for all that candy, Doctor?"

He looked at the girls with big, sad eyes.

"Oh, I've got it taken care of," River declared, snatching everyone's purchases away from them and carrying them up to the counter. With a bat of her eyelashes and a swick of a debit card, River purchased the candy and led the way out and down the street to the Tardis.

"Where did that come from?" the Doctor wrinkled his non-existent eyebrows at his wife's debit card.

"I didn't nick it, if that's what you're thinking," she assured him. "I happen to have a real job where I make real money. I soniced my card so that it would work anywhere."

"Is does that?" the Doctor exclaimed.

River smiled. "Setting 5645."

She turned back to the girls as they climbed into the Tardis. "So you're studying persuasive speech?" They nodded. "I know quite a bit about persuasion myself. Tell me, then, about setting realistic goals in persuasive speech."

"Well, you want to stay away from topics that are already national debate," Clara began.

"Like the right that you don't have to take over another planet!" the Doctor commented as he pulled a lever on the control panel.

"No national campaign topics, either," Kennedy added.

"Like Humans are Friends, Not Food," the Doctor inserted. "I've got that one on a t-shirt."

"Choose something that you have a personal connection with," Clara continued.

The Doctor smiled. "Such as, why bowties are cool."

Kennedy rolled her eyes at him as she said, "Choose something that's easy to understand."

"Like why Daleks are bad!" the Doctor declared, pointing his sonic screwdriver at Dalek-Sven.

"Choose something the audience isn't aware of or isn't already doing now." Kennedy stepped between the Doctor and her Dalek. "Such as why not all Daleks are the same."

"And phrase it in the positive," Clara reminded them. "Such as, a good Dalek is possible."

"And there are your characteristics of a persuasive speech," River concluded. "Persuasion versus coercion, call to action, and setting realistic goals. Good job, girls."

"And now for something that's actually fun!" the Doctor declared, yanking down one last huge lever on the control panel. "Geronimo!"

"Groton, Connecticut."

Clara read the Tardis's location in a deeply disappointed tone.

"7 December 2015."

She cocked her head at the supposed time-traveller.

"EXPLAIN! EXPLAAAAIIN!" Dalek-Sven took the words right out of her mouth. Clara raised an eyebrow and put her hand on her hip.

"Well, we seem to have travelled up the coast," the Doctor began. "Because the Tardis does not want to take us into the future today."

"Way to reinforce what we already know, Doctor," River replied. "We're already on the side that seems to understand that. Now reinforce why I should hold value in that belief that the Tardis wants us here."

As River spoke, the date changed back almost thirty years.

"7 December 1981."

"We're in the past!" Clara exclaimed, bolting for the door.

"Wait, Clara!" the Doctor stood in front of the Tardis doors. "I'm going to actuate your behavior here and persuade you to get a coat before we go into Connecticut in the winter."

"You'll have to convince us first that we brought the winter coats that we left in our room, then," Clara replied, crossing her arms. "Mindset change, behavior change."

"There is a giant closet through that door right there," the Doctor pointed out.

The girls emerged from the Tardis in their best multicoloured jumpers and high waisted jeans. They'd even managed to tease their hair almost to the size of River's. "Groton, Connecticut, here we come!" Clara laughed, leading the way out the door.

"Hey, Clara, isn't this the place that you texted me about?" Kennedy inquired.

"Hey, Clara, let's go back inside!" the Doctor declared.

"No, wait- this is the place with the law about not trusting a man in a bow tie," Clara laughed. She stopped in front of the Doctor and crossed her arms. "Do you have anything to do with that law, Mister?"

"Of course I don't!" he exclaimed, his face repugnant.

"Of course he does," River corrected him, tossing a coat at the Doctor as she exited the Tardis.

"DALEK-SVEN LIKES HIS SCAAARRFF!" the little metal can of hatred was the last one to roll out of the blue box.

"Dalek-Sven is going to keep his voice down," Kennedy instructed.

The Dalek wiggled his eyestalk up and down as if he was nodding. "YES, KENNEDY!"

"So, what are we doing in the eighties?" River inquired, placing her hands on her hips as she raised her eyebrows at her husband.

The Doctor cracked his knuckles. "We are going to town hall."

They followed him without question.

The Doctor marched through the streets of Groton, past the river and the schools and the little shops and all the way to the building from which the mayor governed. As he walked, people in the street stop and stared. They gasped. They gawked. They whispered. They cried out. They screamed.

River grabbed her husband's arm right before he could open the door of the town hall. "What did you do, Doctor?" she demanded.

He took a deep breath. He sighed, "It's not what I did do. It's what they wouldn't let me do."

"Uh-huh." River let him go, but the look on her face said that she would be keeping an eye on him.

Pushing open the doors, the Doctor swaggered through the halls of town hall with his head held high. He nodded to unfamiliar people and waved to strange faces. Everyone who saw him stopped and stared.

"He's real!" a secretary gasped.

The Doctor strode all the way to the mayor's office. He shoved open the door and gave a chin-up gesture to the little old man at the desk.

The mayor dropped his paperwork.

"It's you," the mayor gasped. "The Man in a Bowtie!"

"Get up," the Doctor declared. "That desk is mine. I am the mayor of Groton."

"No, you are not!" the old man declared, pointing to the sign on his desk that read Mayor Filmore. "Now get out of here this instance!"

"I am the mayor of this town, just as I have been since 1703!" the Doctor fought back. "Check your records, Filmore!"

"That's quite a question of fact," Clara whispered to Kennedy. "He's attempting to convince his audience that a certain piece of factual information is true."

"No, Doctor, we are better off without you here!" Mayor Filmore spat. "This town is in enough trouble without you here to cause more!"

"Question of value," Kennedy whispered back. "The mayor's attempting to convince us that one thing is better than another."

"Oh, just get out of your chair and let me be the mayor!" the Doctor's bald little eyebrows shot far above his head in frustration. "And, yes, Clara, that is a question of policy because I am attempting to move him to action!"

Clara cleared her throat. "Doctor, perhaps you should try using Monroe's Motivated Sequence, especially since you're going for an actuation speech."

"Brilliant idea, Clara!" The Doctor banged his hand against the table. "Then I demand a Town Council meeting. Give me five minutes to persuade you, Filmore, and then, you will let me save this town."

"Save this town from what?" River asked dangerously.

"From absolutely nothing," Mayor Filmore answered. Finally, he told the Doctor, "Fine. You, the dead man walking- you should be back in history where you belong."

"So should whatever's in those chambers, Filmore," the Doctor seethed.

The mayor threw his hands up in exasperation. "Fine, Doctor, you have five minutes."

"That's perfect," Clara nodded. "Because Monroe's Motivated Sequence has got five steps."

The Doctor and his friends stood at the head of the round table in the town hall's small conference room. Half a dozen greying town officials sat in a circle watching him, waiting. This was a man of myths, the story that their parents who'd lived in Groton long before told their children at bedtime.

"Clara," the Doctor whispered unnecessarily loudly. "What's first?"

"Attention," Clara told him. "You need to get the attention of the audience. Be creative."

The Doctor nodded.

"Hello, town hall officials of Groton, Connecticut!" the Doctor exclaimed, jumping up onto the table. He spread his arms about in a grandiose manner. "I am the Doctor, yes, I am that Doctor! I am wearing a bowtie, and yes, I look cool!" He straightened his bowtie with a cheeky smile.

He looked back to Clara, who nodded. "Now, need!" she said. "You need to tell them that there's a problem, and that your solution is the answer. Articulate this need. Use visuals!"

The Doctor pointed to her and then to the table that he stood on. "This is a circle. You know a lot about circles in Groton, don't you? Specifically stone circles." The people around the table nodded. "Specifically what came out of those stone circles in 1703."

He pulled his sonic screwdriver from his coat pocket and zapped the projector at the other end of the room. Immediately, an old slide of an 18th century painting projected onto the wall. In the painting, eleven skeletons danced around a double circle of stones.

"Specifically what that stone circle does to those you love when they get too close."

With another zap of the screwdriver, the projector turned off. The Doctor jumped and landed sitting down, his long legs dangling off the side of the table. "Ever since your ancestors found that stone circle that you now call the Gungywamp Archeological Site, the people of this town have been going mad seeing those skeletons."

The council members looked away in horror.

"And the only way to fix it is to let me do it this time!" the Doctor declared. "Don't be silly like your great great great great great great grandparents and pretend that I am lying this time because I am not!" The Doctor slammed his hands against the table. "Let me help you! I know how to fix stuff! I'm clever!"

"Now, Satisfaction!" Clara cut in. "Five steps to satisfy the need. One- Reveal the action that you want then to perform in a clear and concise manner,"

"Let me be your mayor!" the Doctor declared.

"Two, Explain the details of what you want them to do."

"Tell Filmore that I am your mayor, bowtie or not," the Doctor continued. "Then, let me and my team have a look at the stone circles. We can find the problem and keep your people's skeletons from dancing on that stone circle."

"Third, explain how the action you want them to do solves the problem that you outlined in the need step. Use strong reasoning and factual support."

"I have, unbeknownst to you, saved your world countless times," the Doctor sighed. "I've got an archeologist with me- Professor River Song. And two brilliant students!"

"AND DALEK-SVEN!"

"Yes, and Dalek-Sven," the Doctor made a face of distaste. "Anyhow, I know what those rings are- they are not remnants of colonial mills or Native American structures. Those stone chambers that you won't go into- clever move. I tried to tell your people in 1703 that that's where the Osseus are keeping your dead!"

"Keeping the dead?" Kennedy exclaimed.

"Yes, the dead," the Doctor nodded. "And, like you, I want them to rest in peace."

"Fourth, evidence that the solution has worked in real life," Clara interjected.

"President Nixon!" the Doctor declared. "Ever heard of the Silence?"

The council members reluctantly shook their heads.

"You're welcome. Clara, fifth part?"

"Meet imagined objections," Clara replied. "Refute potential arguments."

"The man in a bowtie," the Doctor laughed. "The man that your parents warned you not to trust is here telling you that he can solve that little problem that your quiet little town keeps hidden from the rest of the world. Your mayor says that I'm not the mayor, but I say that your dead don't stay dead. Now you tell me who's wrong,"

"Step Four, Visualization!" Clara declared. "Like they use in sports to help the mind lead the body. Show the audience that the world will be a better place if they perform your action."

"Oh, everything's better once you let the Doctor fix it!" he laughed. "Imagine a Groton where the skeletons stay in the ground. That's it. That's why I need you to trust me as your mayor. I did win the elections in 1703. Technically, I never left office. Just let me do my job."

"And, final step. Action- your call to action. Convince your audience to begin the action," Clara said.

"I'm the Doctor, I'm clever, now do as I say," he stated simply. "Let me do my job."

He hopped down from the table.

The council only stared at him blankly.

"Maybe he should've done an audience analysis first," Kennedy whispered to Clara. "Demographic questions to build a composite of his audience, questions about their issues/attitudes/behaviors to determine where they stood on the issue of, well, him."

Clara laughed. "I can see their minds churning over his fallacies now. There's all kinds of errors in his reasonings."

"There was a bit of ad hominem against our ancestors," one of the council women spoke up. "You kind of attacked them instead of their reasoning, didn't you? When you called them silly?"

"They called me a liar!" the Doctor pouted. "And your ancestors were coerced into the bandwagon effect, like lemmings. They became convinced that everyone stood against me, and that nothing was happening with the skeletons. But you know the truth!"

"Aren't you using appeal to authority, though?" a man with salt-and-pepper hair inserted. He gestured towards River. "Using that pretty little archeologist to get us to go along with what you're saying? Celebrity endorsements aren't a reason to support you."

River took a deep breath and drew her gun. Pointing the barrel at the man, she dared, "Call me pretty again, and-"

"Thank you, River, that's enough violence for one day," the Doctor cut in, putting an arm around her shoulders and gently guiding the gun back to her holster. "Don't you dare make hasty generalizations about me, sir," River growled at the man, bullets ready to shoot from her eyes even if she didn't have her gun. "You rushed to that argument without proper facts. I am no celebrity, and I am certainly no… eye candy! I am more highly educated than your left pinkie toe, and you will do well to respect me." Tossing her hair behind her, she added, "The fact that I put the hot in psychotic is completely unrelated."

The Doctor smiled at her.

"And the only arguments against him are pretty circular," Clara cut in. "The law says not to trust him because he's wearing a bowtie. The law says not to trust a man wearing a bowtie because it's bound to be him. He's your mayor, but he can't help. He can help, but he's not your mayor."

"And, mentioning the bowtie, false cause," Kennedy added. "You're attributing the wrong cause to the problem you're describing. It isn't the bowtie that makes you not trust him. It's the fact that he's right."

Silence blanketed the room.

Clara cleared her throat. "All in favor of accepting the Doctor as mayor of Groton and his services, please say aye."

Half a dozen ayes echoed around the table.

In the doorway, Filmore swore.

"Excuse me, Miss?" A young man wearing a denim jacket stopped Kennedy outside of the conference room. "You came here with the man in a bowtie, didn't you?" Kennedy nodded. "Awesome!" he beamed. "Mind if I get a quick interview?"

"Um, I, uh… I really don't have anything important to say," Kennedy shrugged. On the inside, however, she had a million questions- were time travellers even allowed to talk to the media?

"Oh, sure you do!" the young man smiled. "Surely a woman as bodacious as yourself is equally as brilliant. You must be pretty clever to get into town hall like that in the first place."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Kennedy smiled shyly. She knew herself to be pretty smart, but beautiful? Never. "Besides, it wouldn't be right. I'm a journalist, too. At least, I'm studying to be one."

"Me, too, actually!" the young man smiled, walking with Kennedy as she followed the Doctor down the hall. They paused outside of the mayor's office. "I'm doing my internship for The Day, and so I got sent out here to Groton, my hometown, as their rep at town hall." He stuck out his hand for a shake. "I'm Ollie, by the way."

"Kennedy," she replied, flustered as she shook his hand. "I'm not from around here. I'm travelling with the Doctor."

"Well, Kennedy, this Doctor story is going to be pretty huge, and I could use an assistant," Ollie smiled. "If you're willing to help."

"Oh, um, sure!" Kennedy smiled. This was it- her first chance to get some experience out in the field. Even if it was in 1981.

"Cool beans," Ollie nodded.

"EXACTLY WHAT ARE YOUR INTENTIIOOOOONSS?" Dalek-Sven screamed behind Ollie.

The young journalist jumped in fright. "What is that thing?!" he exclaimed.

"That's my pet Dalek, Sven," Kennedy smiled. "Now, Sven, behave, please."

"DALEK-SVEN WILL PROTECT KENNEDY!" he declared. "OLLIE WILL BE EXTER-"

"Shush, you!" Clara declared, sticking her head out of the mayor's office. She smiled at Kennedy. "Continue." She turned to Ollie. "And she would love to be your assistant while we're here."

They followed Clara into the office, where the Doctor reclined with his feet atop the desk. "So, Ollie, what are the news values here?" Kennedy smirked.

"News values?" Clara inquired.

"They're how events are separated according to what's news and what isn't," Kennedy explained. "They're important because not all events in the world can be covered by the media."

"The news values help writers decide how to arrange a story," Ollie added. "You know, deciding what's important enough to be considered news."

"Makes sense," Clara nodded.

Ollie whipped out a notebook and pen. "Kennedy, could you please take notes while I interview the Doctor?"

"Boo!" the Doctor exclaimed. "What if I don't want to be interviewed? When is this going into print?"

"Tomorrow's post, probably," Ollie replied. "That way, it has timeliness- the event is recent. Also, it's got proximity because it's close to The Day readers' area."

"Why me, though?" the Doctor frowned.

"Because you love to talk," Kennedy answered. "And because you have prominence- you're famous here, Doctor."

"All right," the Doctor smiled, folding his arms behind his head. "Interview away."

"What brings you back to Groton after almost four hundred years?" Ollie asked, pressing a button on a tape recorder.

"You don't waste anytime, do you?" the Doctor laughed. "And neither do I! I was here yesterday."

"Yesterday!" River exclaimed.

The Doctor shrugged. "You were asleep."

River slapped him.

Ollie cleared his throat. "Who have you brought with you this time?"

The Doctor smiled at each of his friends in turn. "Professor River Song, who is my wife; Kennedy Humphries, who will not be your wife; and Clara Oswald, who will also not be your wife."

"AND DALEK-SVEN!" the alien robot declared. "DO NOT FORGET DALEK-SVEN!"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "And Dalek-Sven."

"DALEK-SVEN IS NO ONE'S WIIIIIFE!"

Ollie took a step away from Kennedy and the Dalek. "You believe in the stories about the dancing skeletons, I assume."

"You're a journalist, Ollie, you should never assume!" the Doctor frowned. "You need to back up your facts! And of course I believe in them; they aren't stories!"

"What do you think they are?" Ollie asked meekly. "The dancing skeletons?"

"They're called the Osseus," the Doctor sighed. "And they're not really skeletons. They're just inhabiting them because they're trapped in those tunnels, and the stone circles are the only way out."

"What are you going to do about the Osseus?"

"We are going to help them get out and get back to their home," the Doctor replied.

"Impact," Kennedy murmured. "This event is going to affect a lot of people- er, aliens."

"Aliens?" Ollie exclaimed.

"Oi! Aliens are people, too!" the Doctor scowled.

"Sorry," Kennedy offered. "But, Ollie, won't this story have magnitude, too? It's going to involve a lot of people."

"Well, not many living people, actually," the Doctor cut in. "Just five. And a Dalek."

"Aliens are people, too," Kennedy reminded him.

"Six, then," the Doctor corrected himself.

"Who's the sixth, sir?" Ollie asked.

"Why, you, of course!" the Doctor smiled. "We'll need bait."

"Bait?!" Ollie exclaimed. However, he was too late, because he was already intrigued, because these people were interesting, and Kennedy was interesting, and they were already leaving, and he was following them, and he was a part of this now.

He was finally living the journalist's secret dream- he was part of something bigger at last.

"What's the currency on a story like this, Ollie?" Kennedy inquired as the group trotted through the woods to the archeological site. "Do people in Groton see dancing skeletons often?"

Ollie shook his head. "Not too often, not lately. At least, not enough to prove it."

"Will it cause conflict?" she asked. "A heated fight, maybe?"

Ollie shrugged. "The only real fight will be over letting him back into town."

"What's so wrong about the Doctor, anyway?" she shook her head. "He's a great guy. Why won't you guys trust him?"

"He's just a folktale," Ollie sighed. "The man in a bowtie is the story that we all grew up with as kids. When he came to town, people started losing their minds, and they started seeing skeletons dancing in the stone circles in the forest. When he got elected mayor, it only got worse."

"And did it get better when he left?" Kennedy inquired.

Ollie shook his head.

"What fascinates you so much about his story?" she pressed.

"I found an article about him in a really old copy of a colonial paper that the library had in its basement," Ollie began. He didn't tell this story to many people, but for some reason, he felt that he could trust Kennedy. The Doctor seemed to trust her, after all. "Nobody else knows this, but that was the article that made me want to be a journalist. It was such a novelty- so bizarre and unusual that no one else could have ever captured such a story." He couldn't help but laugh at himself. "And that's exactly what I set out to do."

"I guess you could say that the article held emotional impact," Kennedy smiled sweetly. "Even if it wasn't about puppies, kittens, or kids."

"Yeah," Ollie laughed. "And hey, I didn't think I was the one being interviewed here."

"Well, if you were," she laughed, "I would put the story about the Doctor article first in my article on you."

"The first thing, the lead, the top of the inverted pyramid," Ollie smiled. "That's where the most important information goes."

"Yep," Kennedy nodded. "Then everything else in descending order of importance."

"What made you decide to become a journalist?" he asked. Even though it was so off topic from his mission, Ollie sincerely wanted to know.

"The media are essential components of our lives," Kennedy shrugged. "I guess I wanted to be a part of something bigger."

"Secret of the Media One," Ollie smiled. "Nice."

"Who's telling secrets back there?" the Doctor called over his shoulder. He wrinkled his nose when he saw the journalism students shyly glancing away from each other. "Oi! Kennedy! No more talking to the media."

"Secret of the Media Two, Doctor," Kennedy giggled. "There are no mainstream media."

"What is that supposed to mean?" the Doctor replied.

"What is 'the media' supposed to mean?" Kennedy retaliated. "The 'old media,' such as newspaper and TV? What makes them more mainstream than our alternative media? Talk radio, blogs, Twitter…"

"Twitter?" Ollie looked confused.

"Nevermind it," Kennedy smirked. "You'll understand when you're older."

He shook his head at her. Then, stepping back into his reporter's shoes, Ollie inquired, "But, Doctor, what really does bring you back to Groton after 400 years? Most people have forgotten about you by now."

"I told them that I would be back when they needed me," the Doctor answered. "And maybe this time, they'll believe me!"

"Some people do still believe in you, you know," Ollie offered.

"Of course they do!" the Doctor beamed. "I'm the Doctor! Everyone will believe me. Just give it time."

"Secret of the Media Three," Kennedy shrugged. "Everything from the margin moves to the center."

"Also, Secret Four. Everything that happened in the past will happen again. He's back to supposedly fix the skeletons, just like in 1703," Ollie added. "But seriously, what is Twitter?"

"Um, it's a new type of media," Kennedy began carefully. "Or, it will be, one day. It's kind of like everyone being a reporter, only they can write just a sentence at a time."

"Sounds terrifying," Ollie muttered.

"Secret Five," Kennedy nodded. "New media are always scary."

"So, what do people say about me, anyway?" the Doctor interjected. "Do the people of Groton… like me?"

"Some of them do," Ollie answered. "The Bow Tie Circle, mostly."

"The Bow Tie Circle?" the Doctor smiled. "I quite like the sound of that. Tell me, what do they say about me in this Bow Tie Circle?"

"Well, the Bow Tie Circle does a bit of campaigning trying to convince people that the skeletons are real, and that you're coming back," Ollie explained. "I considered writing a column for them once, but, Secret Six- activism and analysis aren't the same thing. I couldn't separate my personal beliefs from my critiques of their mission."

"That's the media for you," the Doctor sighed. "Never can stand firmly on just one side of any issue, can they?"

"Secret Seven- there is no 'they'," Kennedy replied. "You can't categorize all of the media as a whole like that, Doctor, because it doesn't exist that way. There are so many different facets of the media that it's virtually impossible to make generalizations that accurately encompass all of them."

"Journalists," the Doctor made a face. "Always-"

"Searching for the truth," Kennedy finished for him. "The good ones, anyway."

The Doctor smiled at her.

"So, River, how are you doing?" Clara inquired, making conversation as they traipsed through the woods. "Since the… you know?"

"They prescribed me with neuroleptics," River laughed. "Antipsychotics. They're drugs that relieve the symptoms of schizophrenia or other severe forms of psychological disorder. Safe to say, I never take them."

"What kind were they?" Clara asked. "I mean, how has biological treatment for psychological disorders changed in so many years?"

"Unfortunately, it hasn't changed much," River shrugged. "I can't remember exactly what they were. It was either phenothiazines like Thorazne or a haloperidol like Haldol."

"My aunt had to take neuroleptics," Ollie said. "But like 1 in 4 of those who do, she developed tardive dyskinesia. It's an irreversible muscle disorder that causes uncontrollable, repetitive actions. She couldn't help twitching her face, flailing her limbs, or thrusting her tongue. It was awful."

"Back when I was in prison, they made me take benzodiazepines- Librium, before they switched me to Valium," River replied. "It's a tranquilizer, which reduces the mental and physical tension and the symptoms of anxiety" She reached for the Doctor's hand. "It was after we got together. You see, he would come in his TARDIS to sneak me out at night, and so I spent my days a little bit too excited. They got nervous and prescribed me with the anxiolytics- the anti-anxiety drugs."

The Doctor squeezed her hand. Then, he chuckled "Once, when I was younger, I had a few days when I just would not come out of my TARDIS. Granted, I had just almost been turned into a human forever, and it was good to be back. However, my friend Martha, who was travelling with me at the time, was a medical student. She tried to prescribe me with Xanax, a benzodiazepine, because she thought that I had agoraphobia all of a sudden. When I freaked out about it, she told me that I might need the Xanax for panic disorder instead."

"You're not agoraphobic," River replied, "Just a madman with a blue box."

The Doctor smiled.

"Stop," the Doctor declared all of a sudden. "I remember this place."

"Doctor, this is a random tree in the woods," River told him, one hand on her hip. "How could you possibly remember it?"

"Encoding," he replied matter-of-a-factly. "The process of putting information into a form that my memory system can accept and use. I'm a Time Lord. My memory is quite vast.I never forget."

"How do you possibly store every single image in your mind?" Clara exclaimed.

"Do you recall the 1960 experiments of George Sperling?" the Doctor inquired.

Clara nodded. "He had the three rows of letters that he flashed for barely a fraction of a second. His participants, through free recall, could recall four or five of them. Sperling still believed that they held the image of all nine letters in their memories but just had trouble retrieving it. If they were prompted to recall just a certain row, they had much better accuracy. He called it iconic memory."

"Iconic memory, the storage of images, is just one of the ways that we use our sensory registers," the Doctor continued. "Sensory registers are the memory systems that briefly hold incoming information. There's one for each of the five senses."

"So, echoic storage register would be auditory," Clara replied.

"You're exactly right!" the Doctor smiled, booping Clara on the nose endearingly. "Yes, so, back to this tree- the human mind can encode seven bits of information in its short term memory at a time, give or take two. It holds this information for about eighteen seconds. However, a Time Lord has no short term memory. Everything that goes into my mind stays forever."

"So, everything is encoded into your long term memory, then?" Clara clarified. "And it's limitless?"

The Doctor nodded. "And so might be yours."

"But human long term memory is subject to distortion," she added. "And failure of encoding. Sometimes we misunderstand. Sometimes we see something wrong. Sometimes we miss something completely."

"Like the Silence,' River murmured.

"Humans are remarkable when it comes to remembering lists, too," the Doctor rattled on. "However, with the serial position effect, you are more likely to remember what's near the top of the list and what's near the bottom than anything in the middle of the list." He added, "And, River, something else about the Silence- the humans use automatic processing to remember what to do. Muscle memory. It's different than before the moon landing, when we had to use effortful processing to try to remember if we'd seen them or not."

"Excuse me, but what?" Ollie exclaimed. "Time Lord? Silence? And what has this all got to do with the moon landing?"

"You wouldn't understand." The Doctor made a face. "It's all… wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff."

"So, Doctor, how did you remember the random tree in the woods?" Clara cut in.

"Rehearsal," the Doctor answered. "I played its location over and over in my mind because-" He stepped behind the tree, nudged a rock with his foot, and pulled aside the dead bark, revealing a hollow inside that opened up to a dark cavern below. "-this is where the Osseus tunnels begin." He held out his sonic screwdriver, bright green light shining the way. "Follow me. And don't run off! That means you, Kennedy!"

"Crap…" Kennedy muttered in the darkness. "I just remembered that I have a psychology test next week. Well, the week after the day we came from. Heh. I just recalled that-I retrieved it from memory without much help. At least my test is multiple choice so that I can use recognition instead- retrieval aided by clues."

"Oh, shh! Wait! Look at that!" Clara pointed at the wall of the cavern. They watched in awe as a burst of blue light sparked along the wall until it hit a travelling red spark, and the two together lit up a purple light. "It looks like long-term potentiation!" she exclaimed. "You know, the memory-forming synapse change that occurs when new experiences change the operation of existing synapses in the brain!"

"It reminds me of when I was studying neurophysiology in Apylsia," the Doctor said in quiet, wondrous tones. "They're a mollusk with an incredibly simple nervous system. They're often used to study learning and memory for humans."

"So, it looks like a hippocampus?" Kennedy asked. "You know, the forebrain structure associated with the formation of new memories?"

"Doctor…" Clara took a deep breath. "Are we inside a brain?"

"Here's my theory," the Doctor began, leading them farther down the cavern on tiptoe. "The Osseus do not possess physical bodies, which is why they inhabit skeletons- which humans have an abundance of. Sorry."

"The graveyard is far from here," Ollie cut in. "And no one who disappeared went anywhere near the forest."

The Doctor thought for a moment. "Ollie, has anyone ever directly seen the dancing skeletons?"

"A lot of people have memories of it," Ollie shrugged.

"And are these explicit memories?" the Doctor furthered. "Do people have to deliberately try to remember seeing them?"

Ollie shook his head. "Now that I think about it, no. Not really. This is a subject that I wrote a lot of stories on for my high school paper. Everytime that I interviewed someone, their recollection was more unintentional, as if my telling them a description of what they might have seen conjured up their memories."

"Almost as if they were implicit memories," Clara mused. "The unintentional recollection and influence of prior experiences."

"Gosh, Clara, how do you possible remember all of this stuff?" Kennedy laughed.

"Chunking," Clara smiled. "I break it all up into meaningful groups. Or mnemonic devices. I like acronyms. And I use distributed practice. I break my studying up rather than cramming all at once."

"So, the stories of the dancing skeletons- they're merely visual descriptions. People only talk about what they saw," the Doctor continued his thought process.

Ollie nodded. "As if they were using only selective attention those nights- focusing only on one part of the stimulus field."

"But all those people, and they only focused on one thing that they saw…." The Doctor began to pace. "Surely someone would have remembered the cold. Or that they were hungry. Or tired. Or that they heard something. Drums?"

Ollie shook his head. "They all told the same story- I went into the forrest, and I saw eleven skeletons dancing on the stone circle."

"Eleven?" the Doctor repeated. "Every one of them?"

Ollie nodded. "Every time. It's always eleven. Oh, and one always has a missing foot."

"Then this is not state-dependent memory, which is helped by similarities or differences in a person's internal state during learning versus recall," the Doctor muttered. "Because everyone's story is exactly the same."

"That's scarily accurate to be eye witness testimony," Kennedy commented.

"And when someone didn't mention the missing foot or the eleven skeletons, but you told them that someone else said they saw it, they suddenly remembered it too, right?" the Doctor inquired.

"Yeah, actually," Ollie answered. "I tested it out once. A man at the pier told me that he'd seen eleven skeletons. But when I lied and said that his competitor had seen twelve when I followed up with this guy, his memories suddenly changed."

"Misinformation effect," Clara explained. "Suggestive words, mentioned objects- those kinds of things can distort and even change memories."

Ollie smiled. "Wow, Clara, you really are amazing at explaining-"

"EXPLAIN!" Dalek-Sven screamed. "EXPLAAAIIIN!"

"Shhh!" Kennedy clapped her hands over his robot-face, but still the Dalek screamed. The walls of the cavern sparked to life with brilliant synapses, energy pulsating throughout the stone as if it was alive.

"His disturbance stimulated the hive mind," the Doctor murmured.

"I SAW THE SKELETONS DAAAAANCE!"

"Sven, baby, no, you didn't," Kennedy assured her pet, stroking his cold, metal head. "You've never been here before."

"I SAW ELEVEN SKELETONS DAAAANCE!"

"No, Sven. You've never been to Groton before. You couldn't have, my love."

"ONE SKELETON HAD A MISSING FOOOOT! I SAW THE SKELETONS DANCE ON THE CIRCLE!"

"Implanted memories!" the Doctor exclaimed. "When he disturbed the Osseus hive mind, it implanted a false memory into his head."

"Like Elizabeth Loftus did in the 1990s," Clara began. "She implanted false memories of being lost in the mall as a child into participants' heads to see if they could recall them later. And they did, as if they were real memories."

"Excuse me, the 1990s haven't happened yet," Ollie gasped. He glanced to Kennedy. "Have they?"

"Okay, let me clear this up for you," River sighed. "Your girlfriend here is a time traveller."

"She's not his girlfriend!" the Doctor exclaimed at the same time that Kennedy exclaimed the same in defence of herself.

"But you are a time traveller?" Ollie looked at her with wide eyes.

Kennedy nodded.

"And possibly in control of an unknown evil force we know only as the Voices," the Doctor chimed in.

"Not possibly," Kennedy stated. "I am. And they're not evil. Everything has the potential to be evil when it's not properly contained. Even you, Doctor. It's why we have to have laws."

The Doctor took a deep breath. He wondered what these Voices were doing inside of her fragile mind. She was so very young, and so very human….

"Ollie, do children play in this forrest?" River asked, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen.

"Yeah, kids who live in the neighborhood near here like to dare each other to go look for the skeletons," Ollie answered.

"And their accounts are still all exactly the same?" River furthered.

Ollie nodded. "I kept a record, actually, of everyone that I interviewed. Everyone that would talk to me, I recorded and wrote down everything that they said to me about the skeletons. It was a big project."

"Sounds like an obsession," Clara commented.

Ollie shrugged. "Maybe it is."

"Children, though- they can't give eyewitness accounts that are so clear," Clara expounded on River's train of thought. "When they're just kids, they can't possibly encode that kind of trauma that clearly."

"And has anyone ever tried to forget about the skeletons?" the Doctor asked. "Motivated forgetting, where they willfully suppress information so that it is no longer accessible on a later memory test?"

"Quite a few of the people that I talked to tried to forget it, actually," Ollie replied. "They didn't want to believe that it had really happened. But they always said that no matter how hard they tried, they never could forget seeing the dancing skeletons."

"So you've got a town full of people who all share the same memory that's implanted when they disturb the hive mind, which-" the Doctor licked his finger and stuck it in the air- "seems to reach as far underground as Groton is wide."

"Why would it do a thing like that?" Clara wondered.

"Defense," the Doctor decided. "What's the best way to protect what's important to you?"

"Keep other people away from it," River finished for her husband.

The Doctor froze for a moment, then, very quietly, he said- "Follow me as silently as you possibly can. That means you, Dalek-Sven."

"Where are we going now?" Kennedy asked.

"Into the mind of the beast," the Doctor whispered. "The stone circle."

"So, we are inside of a mind," the Doctor began as they traipsed silently down sparkling cavern halls. "And what is the most important function of the mind?"

"To think," Clara answered readily. "The manipulation of mental representations."

"Humans think mainly in natural concepts," the Doctor continued. "These are concepts that have no fixed set of defining features but instead share a set of characteristic features. So, members of these concepts don't need to have all of the characteristics the concept contains."

"For example, the Doctor has a natural concept of who his friends are," River added. "This is a natural concept that we all fit into, even though not everyone here is exactly the same. We differ in gender, age, how we met the Doctor, education level, percentage of humanness…" She cast a brief glance at Kennedy and Sven. "But we're all friends of the Doctor because we fit at least some of the concept's features, such as like to travel with the Doctor, clever, creative, compassionate, adventurous, brave…" She smiled at the Doctor. "And then there are prototypes. A prototype is a member of a natural concept that possesses all or most of its characteristic features. I am the prototype of a friend of the Doctor."

"But the Osseus hive mind thinks in formal concepts," the Doctor picked up where she left off. "Its concepts can be clearly defined by a set of rules or properties. For example, it's formal concept of threat is anything that disturbs the hive mind. If it has the property of disturbing the hive mind, whether it's being too loud, somehow crossing it, or what have you- the hive mind projects the memory of the dancing skeletons into the person's mind to warn them to stay away."

"But how would the hive mind thing define a disturbance?" Kennedy asked.

"It must have a schema about what constitutes a disturbance," the Doctor answered. "Generalizations it's made about the category of disturbances."

"And then, implanting the memory of the dancing skeletons must be a script," Clara continued. "It has a mental representation of the familiar sequence of activities."

"So, it has a concept for disturbances and a script of what to do… the connection between the concept of 'disturbance' and the concept of 'defense' must be linked with a proposition, a mental representation that expresses the relationship between concepts," Kennedy added. "It links them into the script."

"All in the name of protecting whatever's underneath than stone circle," Clara concluded. "All right. So, next question is, how do we find where the stone circle is?"

"Cognitive map," River answered. "If this is a mind, then surely it's got a mental model that represents familiar parts of the environment. There's nothing more familiar than what you hold most secretly within you." She reached a hand towards the wall. "Now, if we could just plug in-"

"No!" the Doctor exclaimed, leaping between his wife and the wall. "Let me!" He stuck hand against one of the synapses on the wall without a second thought. "EEEEEEOOOOOOWWWEEEEE!"

The Doctor jumped back from the wall, shaking the pain from his fingers. "Owie!" he exclaimed. "Ow ow ow!"

"Why would you do something so stupid?" River demanded. "You're a Time Lord, for goodness sake. You can't combine one powerful mind with another and expect there not to be sparks. Now what did you see?"

"Pain," he whimpered. "It hurt." He took a deep breath. "No one is going to touch that wall again."

"Then how are we supposed to find where we need to go?" River tested him.

"The Voices," Kennedy answered matter-of-a-factly. "We'll do it intuitively."

"Absolutely not!" the Doctor exclaimed.

Kennedy merely rolled her eyes at him. "I'm in college now, Doctor. I don't need an adult to tell me what I can and can't do."

River laughed. "I wonder if that's what I sound like to Mum and Dad."

"Anyhow, the least I can do is try, right?" And without a moment's hesitation, Kennedy closed her eyes, grabbed ahold of the Doctor's hand, and tuned in.

Speak to me again. Please tell me you're still there.

Here. We are here, Queen.

Go into the Osseus hive mind. Take control. Give me control. I want control. Control. Osseus hive mind. Control.

Inmanu summu

English. Translate to English. Speak in English. You will speak in English. You will be under my control and my control alone.

Legion...under control….

Tell me where to find the stone circle.

Follow...intuition...link

Kennedy gasped for air as she forced open her eyes.

"I did it!" she exclaimed. There was something else in her mind now, something new in the Voices. "I… I think I made a connection. An intuitive link. Follow me!"

They fell in line behind her as if they were soldiers going into battle.

"You made a link with the hive mind?" Ollie asked with awe. Kennedy nodded. "What's it like on the inside? What's it thinking?"

Kennedy concentrated for a moment before answering. "It's all algorithms. Everything is a systematic procedure that can't fail to produce a correct solution to the problem."

"Does it use heuristics?" Clara inquired, ever-inquisitive as she was. "Any cool outer space mental shortcuts or rules of thumb?"

"It seems to assess possible disturbances with the anchoring heuristic," Kennedy replied. "It just adds new information to the already existing information that it has to reach a judgment. Basically, it assumes something is a threat based off of the probabilities that it already has in place. The tiniest disturbance, and it jumps to conclusions.

"I also see the representative heuristic in assessing disturbances. It judges whether something falls into the disturbance class based off of its similarity to other members of the class. If it looks like a threat and smells like a threat, then it's a threat."

"And do you know why it uses the implanted memories as its source of defense?" River asked.

"I think it's the availability heuristic," Kennedy answered. "Its judgments are based on the information that is most easily brought to mind. The simplest solution is to give them a fearsome warning that stays with them forever."

"Functional fixedness," Clara mused. "It thinks about familiar objects in familiar ways. Disturbances are given the memory because disturbances have always been given the memory."

"Stop being clever," the Doctor pouted. "I'm the clever one."

"Hush, sweetie, brilliant, beautiful minds at work," River laughingly informed him. "Why don't you just stand to the side and look pretty?"

"I can do that," the Doctor smiled smugly, adjusting his bowtie.

"The Osseus hive mind is stuck in a mental set, then," River told the girls. "It has a tendency for old patterns of problem solving to persist."

"So, the question is, how do we get it to stop?" Ollie interjected.

"Hush, Ollie, brilliant, beautiful minds at work," River waved him off, not unlocking her gaze with Kennedy's and Clara's. "You can go stand to the side and be pretty with him." A wide grin spread across her face. "Gosh, I love finally having other women on board."

Clara smiled back. "So, question is, how do we get it to stop?"

"Well, let's think through some problem solving strategies," Kennedy suggested. "Clara?"

"We could let it incubate," Clara said. "Set it aside for a while, keep walking. A solution could suddenly appear if we wait it out."

"My dad once waited 2,000 years for my mum while she was locked in a magic box," River replied. "Let's just say I did not inherit his patience."

"Okay, then, we'll try something else," Clara stated. "We could try means-end analysis, which involves continuously asking where we are in relation to our final goal and then deciding on the means we can take to get one step closer to that goal. Subgoal by subgoal."

"Takes too long," River decided. "Why shoot bullets when you could get it all done at once with a bomb?"

"Let's not bomb or shoot anything!" the Doctor interjected.

"Right," River sighed. "Ethics."

"Ooh! I've got it!" Clara declared. "Analogies! We try to find similarities between this problem and one we've encountered before."

"All right, then," River nodded. "We've got a powerful hive mind putting thoughts into people's heads that aren't their own. Sound familiar at all?"

Kennedy and Clara exchanged a glance. "The Voices."

"Kennedy, how much control have you exerted over the Osseus?" the Doctor asked, joining the women in their huddle.

She shrugged. "I linked with them, intuitively. I can see their thought process. I can give it simple commands, like leading me to the stone circle."

"We are going to find the stone circle," the Doctor took a deep breath. "And then you are going to need to take complete control of the hive mind."

"Well, I have to say that this solution certainly shows creativity," Ollie murmured, attempting to lighten the heavy mood as they approached whatever was beneath the stone circle. "Your friends' capacity to produce original solutions or novel compositions is pretty awesome."

"Thank you!" the Doctor beamed. "They're great at divergent thinking, aren't they? Generating many different solutions to a problem."

"Doctor, we've only come up with one solution," Kennedy reminded him.

"Yes, I know," he nodded. "And I am hoping that you can come up with a better idea rather quickly."

"You should be proud of us for utilizing our convergent thinking, Doctor," Kennedy smiled. "We applied the rules of logic and what we knew about the world to narrow down the possible solutions to our problem."

The Doctor paused. Then, very quietly, only for Kennedy's ears to hear, he whispered, "Are you afraid?"

Kennedy shook her head. He shouldn't have suspected anything less from the girl who kept a Dalek as a pet.

It was so, so beautiful.

"It's a spaceship!" Ollie exclaimed, rushing forward to admire the shining, spinning orb levitating beneath a shaft of light.

They were finally beneath the stone circle.

"Careful not to be evaded by your confirmation bias, Ollie," Clara warned him. "We have a tendency to pay more attention to evidence that supports our hypothesis about a problem rather than to evidence that refutes it. But just because it's shiny and floating doesn't mean that it's a spaceship. It could be anything, really."

"No, that's a spaceship," the Doctor clarified.

"What's it doing here, then?" Clara cross her arms.

"The Osseus made a gambler's fallacy," Kennedy smirked. "They believe that the probability of future events in a random process will change depending on past events. They think that if they keep implanting memories, then people will just go away and leave them alone."

"But we never will, will we?" Clara smiled. "The humans are never going to leave earth, are we, Doctor?"

He sighed. "Well…. That's another story for another day."

"But they want to leave earth, don't they, Doctor?" Kennedy gestured towards the spaceship. "The Osseus want to go home."

"Where is home?" the Doctor asked.

Kennedy closed her eyes. "Locus. But they can't leave. They're too afraid."

"Afraid of what?" Ollie asked.

Kennedy took a deep breath. "Of us. Humans. People." Confusion contorted her face. Then, jutting her chin towards the Doctor, she declared, "Him."

"What about me?" the Doctor declared. "I only want to help them!"

Eyes still closed, Kennedy shook her head. "The Oncoming Storm."

She took a step towards the spaceship..

"Wait." The Doctor reached out his arms to stop her. "Are we sure that this is the only way to do it? To potentially unleash an unknown evil force?"

"The Voices are not evil," Kennedy said steadily. "Power is about what is done with it."

The Doctor had a sinking feeling that that was the Voices speaking through her. "Kennedy, are you sure that you can do this? Are you sure that you can keep control?"

She nodded.

"This isn't group polarization, Doctor," Clara inserted. "Our group discussion didn't result in anything more extreme than we would have come up with individually. There was no suffocating majority view or trying to associate ourselves with the decision. It was unanimous.

"And we didn't fall victim to groupthink, either. Not one of us was rendered unable to evaluate the wisdom of various options and decisions realistically.

"We know what we're doing, Doctor. We know because you taught us. You asked us to save the world with you, and that is what we are going to do. Maybe not our world this time, but someone else's. And their world is just as important as ours." She placed a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "You taught us that."

The Doctor took a deep breath.

He smiled.

"Clara, Kennedy, River- I am going to need to trust you."

River stepped up beside Kennedy. "Are you ready, love?"

Eyes still squeezed shut, Kennedy nodded. She stuck out an arm to the side. "I want him to hold my hand." The Doctor reached out for her fingers, but Kennedy retracted her arm. "Not you. They're scared of you." Carefully, she reached her other hand to the opposite side. "Ollie? Help a girl save someone else's world?"

Putting his bravest face on, Ollie stepped up to the challenge. "Just say the word." He wrapped her hand tightly in his.

Kennedy stepped into the shaft of light beneath the Osseus ship.