"Now THAT was a party!"
The Doctor stumbled over the threshold of the TARDIS still holding a very tall glass half full of purple liquid in one hand. His other hand hung on to the door frame and guided his unsteady movements across the room until he collapsed on the jump seat behind the control console. He beamed a crooked smile at Donna Noble as she appeared in the doorway, long blue gown hooked away from her feet and balled up in her clenched fingers. A long shawl hung over her shoulders and her red hair curled in loose ringlets around her face.
"Oh that, that was amazing!" she agreed, leaning against the door which had closed behind her without a sound. "I have never been to a party like that in my life… and right now I don't think I could ever do it again. That was exhausting!"
"Thirty two hours of dancing, drinking and feasting, all because ten thousand years ago two people fell in love and united a divided solar system," his eyes took on the faraway look of a man reminiscing. "Oh, and they were a lovely couple. I remember them well."
Still leaning against the door frame Donna stared at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. "You were there? Ten thousand years ago?"
He grinned and winked, "You didn't think the blue theme and the fireworks were a coincidence did you?"
"Fireworks?" She frowned and peeled herself off the door frame in search of another support.
A long finger pointed to the console where a dozen sticky notes in Gallifreyan script stuck to any available smooth surface. Donna stepped closer and blinked twice before realisation set in.
"That was Gallifreyan writing, in the fireworks?"
"Yup," he agreed, a self satisfied smirk sitting on his face.
"It was beautiful. It was like a work of art," she pealed one a note from its sticking place and took a seat next to him, leaning shoulder to shoulder, turning the writing in every direction trying to work out if there was a pattern to the ornate script.
He took her hand and twisted it into the correct orientation, which made no difference to Donna at all.
"What did it say?" she asked, interrupting him as he pulled the note closer to his face, "Not your note, dumbo, the fireworks?"
"It's a blessing which is, for the most part, saved for commitment ceremonies - like weddings. It's a complex way of wishing the participants a lifetime of love, joy and peace."
"I'd hate to take a spelling test on Gallifrey," Donna observed, "I can't make head nor tail of this. How come the TARDIS doesn't translate that? It translates everything else."
"Almost everything," the Doctor mumbled and took the note from her fingers with a reverence reserved for ancient texts and holy books. "She doesn't translate Gallifreyan because I don't want her to."
Donna noted the darkening of the Doctor's smile and tried to lift the mood again. "Well I'm glad I can't read it in English, because if I could I wouldn't see the beautiful writing."
"I tell you what though," a brighter tone settled into the Doctor's voice as he reached across and stuck the note back where it had been, "I haven't partied so hard since… well since I was at the court of King Louis 15thof France."
"Name dropping again," she gave him a playful shove, "When are you going to take me to meet someone famous?"
"Oh I don't plan any of this... well, not often." He trailed off realising that he was giving Donna far too much room to tease him the next time they needed a plan, and he didn't have one.
A mauve light flashed on the console and the Doctor's sudden move upwards left Donna tottering to one side while she tried to regain her balance. With a flick of a switch a small hole opened in the floor and the Doctor tipped the purple drink into a recycling shoot without looking, his attention directed to the controls in front of him.
His companion read the look on his face in an instant and hurried to her feet, casting away the shawl and her own drink.
"What is it?"
"Something bad," he replied, running to the other side of the console to spin a dial. "Something, mauve and bad."
The TARDIS groaned and fought to pull away from the ceased handbrake and with a lurch ripped itself from the soil on which it stood. All the Doctor's strength and weight and will could not hold the TARDIS and Donna could tell my the Doctor's pained expression that the wrenching noises were not only terrible news but that every agonised cry of his ship cut into his soul. The handbrake leapt away from him and the Doctor turned his attention the whirling dials and the klaxon that was growing louder by the second.
"It's all right, old girl," he cooed, caressing the console with his left hand whilst the right flipped a dozen switches, shutting off the alarms.
"Can I help?" Donna appeared at his side but he shoved her backwards as he scrambled to another part of the controls. She threw up her hands in surrender and stepped aside, watching as his frenzied movements slowed and a sense of relative calm descended.
The monitor screen fizzed until it displayed a stream of Gallifreyan and the Doctor's eyes widened as he read.
"Oh this is beyond bad," his voice was soft. "Something is wrong with time, with the universe. It's like time and matter are bleeding out from this universe and into something else…."
"How can time bleed out of this universe?" Donna asked, "I mean, where can it go?"
A still, serious expression fell over the Doctor's features. "Two years ago I wouldn't have thought it possible, but now, now I've travelled to a parallel universe… I think anything is possible."
"Parallel universe?" she repeated, a frown in her voice, "Like where you left Rose?"
He nodded, "But a hole between two universe is extremely unlikely to happen as a natural occurrence. I mean nature doesn't allow for it… and even when there was a hole between the two there was no real cross contamination... What happened at Canary Wharf required two universe to be working in collaboration even if they didn't know they were, and it didn't make my ship quake in her boots and try to run for the other side of the universe."
"Canary Wharf?"
The Doctor looked at her, his exasperation evident. "Cybermen taking over the world…"
"Oh, yeah, I remember. I was scuba diving. You told me about it before."
His face contorted in an expression of serious consideration, "Well, given the situation, underwater was probably one of the safest places to be. Still, that's not answering the question."
Donna frowned, "What was the question? You, you're always going off tangent. It's hard to keep up!"
"It was your question! How can a universe bleed? Ookay so assuming you have two universe running in parallel, and someone punches a hole from one to another. It's very dangerous and unpredictable. You could end up anywhere in space, and if you're a real novice at it, you could be anywhere in time too. Dimension jumping is outlawed by almost all species clever enough to develop it."
He was pacing now. Up and down on a straight line behind the console, spinning on the heel of his Converse trainer at the end of every length. He glanced at Donna to check she was keeping up and received a nod of affirmation.
"So someone punches a hole between universe but there's no bleeding?"
"There are several ways of doing it, but though in theory it ispossible they are highly unlikely. In every conceivable deliberate attempt to link two universe the tunnel would be two way - you or want to get back after all. But every universe has its own energy, a force…"
"What are you? Yoda?"
"...a force which although it has its own signature is essentially the same, assuming all parallel universe comprise the same matter, of course. But, that energy doesn't want to be linked. Parallel universe aren't supposed to be connected, so they repel each other, keeping what belongs in each universe where it should be. Bar the occasional traveller."
The mauve lights on the console were constant now, the flashing so fast that they appeared steady, and a warning message was flashing up on the monitor in Gallifreyan and English. Donna peered at it and grabbed the Doctor's arm as he was passing, forcing him to stop and read.
"Earth," he groaned, "Why is it always Earth? Can't you lot keep out of trouble for five minutes?"
"Oh my God," Donna exclaimed, her face draining of colour, "Has Earth gone into another universe?"
"Of course not," he answered, "Not possible. Well, when I say not possible I mean it is technically possible but not likely. Certainly not in the 21stcentury. You lot are barely in the stars even by the end of it. You aren't seriously looking at new world colonisation for another millennia."
"When in the 21stcentury?" Donna asked, the Doctor's response making her feel no better.
Moving her aside he adjusted the monitor and scanned the information, "2008. Someone's got their hands on alien tech then, or it's technically advanced aliens using Earth as a base. It's probably America, or maybe Japan. That would be nice, I can't remember the last time I was in Japan. Lovely people the Japanese."
The TARDIS lurched again and a hollow, echoing wail rose up through the coral.
"She's scared," Donna spoke in hushed tones, "I've never known the TARDIS be scared before."
"It's not a very big hole," the Doctor reassured her, "Only about two-and-a-half square miles, that's tiny in terms of the universe. You could walk across it in half an hour. We'll to be precise it's two point two square miles. Somewhere in England, who says the English are dull? It's… it's..."
Donna stared at him, her mouth dry, "I worked for the planning department for about a month. Two point two square miles is exactly the size of…"
"Chiswick."
They spoke the word together, both pairs of eyes widening and the remaining blood draining from Donna's face. With lightning moves the Doctor cut off the safety protocols, and with alternate coaxing and pleading, convinced the TARDIS not to run away from, but run into danger.
"It's going to be a rough landing," the Doctor warned her. "Chiswick hasn't fallen through the bleed yet but the whole area is unstable. I don't understand what's happened.I'm getting readings that don't make sense. It's like Chiswick, well England, the Earth, the Universe, is being pulled out of existence."
"To a parallel universe?" Donna leant over his shoulder in a vain attempt to make sense of the small display screen.
He shook his head, "That's impossible. You can't sustain two universe in one."
"Is Chiswick safe? Gramps and Mum…"
The Doctor looked at her with the dark, serious expression Donna had learnt to dread. He stepped back from the controls to take her forearms in his hands and meet her gaze with a look of determination and sincerity, "Chiswick isn't safe, Donna. I'm not sure what is. But I promise you; we will fix this."
"We?" a nervous laugh echoed around the room, "What am I going to do? I'm just a temp? A temp from a place that isn't going to exist any more in… in how long? How long will it take for Chiswick to bleed out of this universe?"
"No idea, could be five minutes, could be five hours, could be five weeks," he gave himself a mental kick, "But that will not happen."
The floor beneath their feet vibrated, and the Doctor spun back to the controls. Around them the whirring and wheezing of materialisation drowned out any other words they may have spoken. The TARDIS bucked and reared like an unbroken horse tossing the occupants of the console room into the air. The lights turned red, the TARDIS careered sideways and the last thing Donna saw was the Doctor clinging to the rails as she flew backwards, her head cracking on a coral upright sending her into darkness.
"Donna?" the Doctor's voice was urgent and pleading, "Donna, can you hear me?"
She screwed shut her eyes as consciousness rose, accompanied by an exquisite pain that pummelled the back of her head. Other sensations returned in small steps. The first was the damp feeling on her back, the second was the cold, the third was liquid dripping on her skin. Donna opened one eye and then the other she saw the Doctor looking down at her and realised he had cocooned her head in his hands. They were almost nose to nose, a realisation that made Donna pull back with a snap.
"It's okay," he sat back a little himself and as Donna's eyes focused she saw worried lines on his face ease away. "You banged your head, you've been unconscious for about 5 minutes that's all. Missed the worst of the landing. I had to drag you outside, the TARDIS is full of smoke."
"It's raining," she muttered, shivering in the cold and trying to sit up. "My dress is ruined!"
"I don't think the TARDIS is fairing much better," the Doctor replied, casting an eye behind him to his beloved ship which lay at an angle pressed into a bank of soil, smoke seeping through the hinges of the closed door. "She may never forgive me for this."
With the Doctor's help Donna stood up, wincing at the sharp pain in her head and some unexplained throbbing in her side.
"Where are we?" she asked as she tried to get her bearings.
"In the nearest piece of clear ground to the epicentre of the problem. The strange thing is I can't see anything in any direction. Which is lucky considering the landing."
Donna looked behind them at the gouge dug into the dirt that stretched back beyond view. Grass and mud coated the side of the TARDIS and debris splattered the Doctor's immaculate suit making him look like a teenager had been bored at a wedding and skipped out to play football.
"Is this Chiswick?" Donna used the Doctor's arm to get to her feet. "It looks a bit... rural"
"It is Chiswick, at least according to the TARDIS. I think the better question is when is this." He stuck out his tongue and took a deep inhale. "Salt, factory smoke, fires, smog... 19th century, 1834 I think. Doesn't feel right though, something in the air is giving me goosebumps."
"But we were aiming for 2008." Donna brushed the wet dirt from her blue dress succeeding only in smearing mud everywhere.
"Yes," his response was slow, "Better early than late I suppose. Without the TARDIS we'll have to do this the hard way. "
Donna rolled her eyes, "When do we ever do anything the easy way?"
"Come on. We are going exploring."
The sun, though shinning, was dulled by a thick grey smog that hung low on the air. Through the gloom Donna could make out the shapes of well established trees, great bows linked in a canopy that seemed to loom over the travellers in every direction. The ground was wet from a heavy downfall of rain which had left puddles in the long grass that looped over their shoes, making walking an effort. The Doctor linked his arm with his companion in a gesture of chivalry and in a bid not to lose her. Still wearing the party shoes her stiletto heels dug aggressively into the soft soil, making their progress slow. The silence was unnerving and Donna found herself shivering, not just from the cool air but from an inexplicable sense of unease that filled her stomach with snakes.
"I don't know anywhere in Chiswick like this. Not in 2008. The only open space we have are public parks."
"Times change," he replied as he fished the sonic screwdriver from his pocket. "The industrial revolution started the real growth in the cities. In just over a hundred years rural Chiswick will be urbanised. In another hundred years they will run out of space and will start building tower blocks. Five hundred years from now they'll be building in the middle of the Thames. The price of progress I suppose."
A snot shot through Donna's nostrils, "Progress, is that what's destroying the world in my time?"
"Yeah, all that pollution. You lot should really learn to recycle and walk more," the Doctor agreed, distracted and listening to the unhappy whirring of the screwdriver. "I'm getting very strange readings. Distortions, ripples of a major energy expenditure, near this spot."
He stopped dead and dropped Donna's arm making a small crop circle in the grass as he spun round and round, first in one direction then the other, tripping over his feet as he went. Held in the Doctor's tight grip the screwdriver flashed and whirred more rapidly until it found the right direction.
"There," the Doctor pointed, "Just beyond those trees."
Mud splashed in his wake as the Doctor took off at a run, arm outstretched as he followed the guidance of his trusted screwdriver. Donna tottered behind him for a few steps before swearing in frustration and ripping off the shoes that were proving to be such a hindrance. Looping them around her fingers she grimaced as her bar toes squelched into the soft muddy ground, cold wet earth squelching between her toes. Reluctant and unhappy Donna forced herself into a trot, following the Doctor into the tree line.
On the other side of the trees the grass was trimmed to perfection and a gradual slope lead down to a circular pond which had at its centre a tall white obelisk with a cherub at two sides. To her right was a building that Donna felt she should recognise. It was small, only the size of a tiny country church and white painted with Roman columns leading to a closed, circular room with a high domed roof. The Doctor was standing by the first of the steps that led up to the colonnade, sniffing the air, his face wrinkled with puzzlement and distaste.
"There was a massive power surge close to this point," he brushed his tongue against his teeth, trying to rub the atmospheric flavours from his palate. "Can you taste it?"
Disgust registered on Donna's face but she found herself sticking her tongue out and tasting the air.
"Oh my God," she says, "It tastes like… well like the Marsh Estate smells on Saturday nights. Burning tyres and aerosol cans."
He nodded in agreement, nostrils flared, sniffing the air with a dubious caution. "Oh this wasn't just a power surge, this must have used enough power to turn off the lights across half of Europe!"
"But there's nothing here, nothing that uses power anyway."
"Maybe there is… inside..."
"Oh!" Donna exclaimed with excitement, "Hang on a minute. I know where we are. I've been here, loads of times, with Mum and Dad. Over there, that's Alfcombe Manor, and this is the funny temple thing. We used to sit over there in the amphitheatre and have a picnic."
"Amphitheatre?" The Doctor spun round and stared out into the smog.
She nodded and pointed to the other side of the pond which was only just visible. The Doctor followed the direction of her finger and could just make out the slope of the land.
"That's why the signal is so strong here, the acoustics of the place have captured the remnants of the energy and the smog has helped stop it escaping into the atmosphere. Donna, you're brilliant!"
Donna pretended not to hear the compliment. "So are we standing about here or going in? I'm freezing."
"Well, if you will insist on wearing inappropriate footwear and clothing…" he glanced down and realised she was now barefooted, the heeled shoes poised to smack him in the arm at any second.
"Oi!" Donna raised her voice in frustration, "If you hadn't crashed the TARDIS I would have had time to change."
The Doctor's trainers squeaked a little on the stone steps muttering half under his breath, "Well if you humans would stop breaking the universe I wouldn't have had to come in the first place."
Stepping over the threshold and into the relative dark of the temple they ceased their bickering and the Doctor reached behind him to take Donna's hand. In other circumstances his companion would have complained, said she wasn't one of the school kids he was used to travelling with and she didn't need a hand to hold. But there was something immeasurably reassuring about his fingers wrapped tight around hers as her bare feet touched the cold stone floor. She slid for the first few steps, mud oozing out from her stockings and he helped her balance without a single mocking remark though Donna was sure the comments were on the tip of his tongue.
"How far back does it go?" Donna asked, trying not to make much sound. Every movement echoed around the walls and it felt as though their presence would be discovered at any second. There was something about the place that gave Donna the creeps. She was beginning to feel as though she was walking through a graveyard and did not want to wake the sleepers in the earth below.
"There's a door at the back I think. I can make out some kind of opening. Just a few more steps."
His foot slipped on something slick on the floor and, as he regained his stance, he heard a sharp intake of breath beside him as Donna's bare skin made contact with the same substance. He felt her grip on his hand lock in a silent terror.
"Oh god," she whispered, panic seeping into her voice, "That's warm. What is it? What am I walking in?"
The Doctor bent his knees, bringing his face closer to the ground and using the sonic screwdriver's blue light to illuminate the puddle. With sudden comprehension of his find the Doctor jumped up and guided Donna sideways and backwards until they were standing against the far wall in the darkest part of the room. From a pocket he pulled a large handkerchief and then said in a gentle voice.
"I'm sorry Donna, it's… it's biological matter…"
His companion froze, her fingers digging into the skin on his hand as her brain translated his words into simple terms.
"Biological matter..." she swallowed hard enough for the Doctor to hear, "You mean blood?"
"I've got a handkerchief in my hand to clean it up. I'll do it if you want."
There was a long silence. In the meagre light the Doctor could see the outline of Donna's chest, rising and falling in rapid succession. When her other hand reached for his, he pressed the handkerchief into her palm and helped her to balance as she scrubbed her foot.
"Thanks," she managed with a tight voice, "I don't suppose you want this back."
The Doctor squeezed her hand, and the bloodied cloth was dropped onto the floor.
"Stay here," the instruction was firm, "I'm going to investigate."
Donna had no intention of moving anywhere and her back hugged the wall as she watched the Doctor, sonic screwdriver in hand step away, retracing their steps until he came to the pool of warm, congealing blood.
Turning up the brightness of the sonic to maximum he scoured the floor for the source. It didn't take long to find. The remains of a body laid prone on the floor, dark clothing saturated with blood. Possessing a strong stomach was a necessity for a Time Traveller, but as the sonic passed down the corpse the Doctor felt bile rising in his throat and an uncomfortable needling sensation pricked his skin.
At his feet lay a woman, mobile phone in an outstretched right hand, the left side of her body severed and missing.
