Chapter 2 – Labor Trouble

"Could you say that again," the Doctor requested, his brain stuttering as he tried to grasp a problem more difficult than seven-dimensional physics.

"The Construction Workers Union claims that working on an alien planet constitutes an extra-long commute, by their rules. Also the difference in time zones is considered working 'off hours', and might be 'time and a half', depending on the time zone that the worker comes from. The Trades Union Congress has called a closed door meeting to discuss the issues of working here, while living on Earth, versus those who work here and also live on Gallifrey," Pete rattled off and the Doctor just blinked at him in confusion. "The Contractors are also demanding to see the plans for stage two, before they start on stage one, they are concerned that the HVAC might not be compatible, if it isn't all done in one go.

"Isn't this supposed to be a top secret, undercover, government project, hidden from public sight?" the Doctor asked in confusion.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean you don't have to deal with Contractors and Unions," Pete assured him and the Doctor dropped his head in his hands.

"Pete, I'm starting to think my mother had the right idea. Is it too late to drop myself into a black hole?" he groaned and Pete laughed.

"Don't worry, Doctor, I'm an expert at all of this and soon you will be too," he assured him.

"Not if I can help it," he grumbled and Pete chuckled at his expression of mulish obstinacy. "This is the 'way too slow path'!"


Romana dropped to the edge of the opening and hung by her fingers. James arms caught her around her calves and she released her grip, trusting him to slow her decent. She landed on him and he grunted at the impact.

"You okay?"

He nodded in the dim light and helped her to stand.

"Why is it always sewers?" he asked her with a groan, sweeping the torch across the brickwork of the crumbling ancient viaducts.

"Because we're the finest team of 'Lost Time Lord Search and Rescue' ever and this is how we prove our derring-do to the world?" she asked him with wide innocent eyes. He gave her a look of long suffering, kissed her cheek, and began walking away, following the beacon locator with practiced ease. "No?"

"No."

They jumped over missing sections of tunnel, climbed over piles of debris that neither one choose to examine too closely and eventually found a Void ship, tilted to one side, door open, with equipment and wiring ripped out and hanging lose.

To Romana's practiced eye it looked as though someone with more theory than practical knowledge had tried to put together a communications panel, but it was hard to be certain. What she was certain of, though, was that it was a huge mess.

She could sense a Time Lord's mind nearby, but it wasn't anyone she knew well, so she couldn't quite get a handle on their exact location.

"Hello?" James called out. "Anybody here? We're the rescue party!"

"I'm Romana, it's safe to come out now, the War is over," she sent with her mind and waited for an answer.

A skinny, filthy shape eased itself from a nearby pile of rubbish and peered at them with mild hazel eyes.

"Hi, I'm Romana, this is my husband, James, we're here to help," she told the half-hidden figure in a gentle coaxing tone.

"I'm Ellasiira," the girl announced and moved into the light that shone down from a hole in the street above.

"Hello Ellasiira, do you have anything you want to take with you? My TARDIS is nearby and we can get you to a bathtub, food, and safety." The girl looked around at the rubbish heap she'd been living in and shook her head.

"A bathtub sounds really good," she answered and came forward. She was on the short side, not quite up to James's shoulder, but she was older than Romana had at first assumed. She performed a bow of introduction quite creditably and Romana returned it, with James fumbling a bit through his. He was still working on the nuances of Gallifreyan manners.

"This way then," she encouraged the girl and they headed back through the sewers.

James hoisted Romana up, so she could grab the edge and pull herself back to the surface. She reached down and pulled Ellasiira up after her and then dropped a rope down to James.

"How long have you been down there?" she asked Ellasiira and the girl sighed out.

"Two years, six months, three days, fourteen hours, and twenty-seven minutes," she answered grimly. "I spent three years thinking I was human and then someone asked me about the broken pocket watch I always carried about. It got me interested and I opened it up." She shot an irritated glance down at herself. "I glowed golden in front of half the townsfolk and next thing I knew they were getting ready to burn me for a witch."

James scrambled onto the ground beside them and frowned.

"I didn't realize this world was quite that primitive," he commented, disapproval in every syllable.

"It wasn't, but apparently the 'magic' I performed led to a crises of faith across the whole area. I am single handedly responsible for the rise of the Church here and the toppling of the monarchy," she grumbled, to both of their dismay.

"Great, another mess to clean up," James grumbled and Romana shrugged philosophically.

"Someone has to do it, might as well be us, my dear." He sighed and nodded.

After a bath and clean clothes, Ellasiira turned out to be nearly three hundred, but was so skinny and underfed that she looked half that age.

"Well, I was apprenticed to Professor Dunal, High Energy Physics was my specialty at the Academy, and he just called me into his office one day and told me to go straight to the Lady Professor's house and do exactly as I was told. So, that's what I did. I had no idea what I was letting myself in for, but it's better than being dead, so there's that," she informed them in a very matter of fact tone and then she dived back into the chicken soup with a hungry will.

"Just so," James commented and Romana hid her amusement at how taken aback he was. Ella was not exactly pretty, but she had an interesting face; large eyes, sharp features, a wide expressive mouth, and a face covered in freckles. She was surprisingly blasé about her whole experience.

"I really just want to get back to work; I was halfway through a really interesting series of experiments with Alpha particles," she told them and Romana blinked at her.

"You do realize that Gallifrey was destroyed, that we're in another universe entirely, and that we're still trying to rebuild the alternate universe Gallifrey, but we mostly just have a bunch workmen running around with nano-assemblers and no running water, right?" she countered, her eyebrows climbing towards her hairline.

"Hmm. I'll need to order some equipment then," Ella murmured.

"From where? Gallifrey is a construction site, there are no manufacturers there," Romana protested.

"Oh, well, does Felspoon still exist in this universe?" she asked, but even as she was speaking, she had already wandered over to the console and began typing queries. "Ah? Good! They have always had equipment that was quite compatible with our systems, I have no doubt that I could cobble something together," she announced with satisfaction and they both just stared at her for a long moment, as she looked about expectantly, as though equipment would simply materialize around her.

"Right. We'll get right on that." Romana looked at James and he shrugged. "Scientists," she grumbled and they headed back to Gallifrey, wondering just how much help this girl was going to be and if she would be worth the trouble.


Andred watched as the last block of buildings for Torchwood 5 was completed by the nano-assemblers. He didn't quite understand the concept of a union for workers, since Nanites rarely complained about job conditions and robots usually just needed upgrading, but he trusted Pete to figure this stuff out for them.

Leela jogged by with a platoon of UNIT soldiers, running easily as the far younger men and women panted and wheezed behind her. He grinned rather evilly at the sight. They would need to train a lot harder if they wanted to keep up with his wife.

"She's doing wonders with them," Col. Mace chuckled. "They can't stand that a woman who looks middle-aged is running them ragged."

"Leela's being nice too; she hasn't taken them over the obstacle course yet. Wait till they see her scaling walls and leaping over chasms," Andred told him with a smile and Col. Mace got a gleeful expression on his face that boded ill for his soldiers.

"I can't wait."


Susan sat down sharply, reading the data with her hearts sinking. She'd long suspected that the interruption in her last regeneration had harmed this body, but she hadn't expected it to have such far reaching consequences.

She'd gone all those years desperately wanting a child of her own, one grown inside her own womb, and now it looked as though that wasn't going to be possible, not in this form, anyway.

"Are you alright?" Arthur asked her with a sympathetic look.

"I know that I can always create a child from Koschei's and my genetics, of course, but I'd really wanted the experience of pregnancy, the wondering, the waiting, the whole mystery of motherhood and birth," she explained and he nodded his understanding. "I shouldn't be so upset."

"Nonsense, Susan, it's perfectly understandable," he contradicted.

Koschei came running into the room, looking worried, and she realized he'd picked up her distress, but hadn't sensed the cause of it. She saw him and burst into tears.

Arthur tactfully withdrew with a pat on Koschei's shoulder as he left.

"What's wrong, are you hurt?" her husband asked, grabbing her against him, radiating worry. She shook her head against his shoulder and he relaxed a bit.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you," she sobbed and he patted her, confusion and alarm in his mind. "I'm being s-silly. It's just that I so wanted to carry your child and give birth, but I can't, and I've waited so long…" she broke down and he cradled her against him, making soothing noises.

"Oh Susan," he murmured and she caught a thought in his head that made her jerk upright.

"What? You thought I wouldn't want to have children with you? Why not," she demanded. He flushed and looked away.

"Monsters and madmen, we don't usually get the girl and we certainly don't get families," he mumbled and she cupped his face in her hands and stared into the deep blue of his eyes.

"Thick," she murmured and then kissed him hard. He held her against him, returning the kiss with fervent desire and she wondered what it was going to take for him to figure out how much she loved him. He could see into her heart, she'd died for him, protected their secret for two hundred years, and been imprisoned for defending him, and he still couldn't believe in her. It was maddening. "Like a brick that head of yours," she finished, when they finally came up for air.

"I spent two hundred years thinking you hated me, it might take a while for me to get used to the idea that you don't," he told her, looking rather abashed.

"Well I spent two hundred years waiting for you to return my phone calls, you jerk," she grumbled and he looked at her in surprise.

"You tried to contact me?" He looked shocked and she dropped her head down and tried not to think about cricket bats in conjunction with his head.

"Yes, a couple of times, but you never returned my calls," she ground out. "I invited you to my graduation and you stood me up."

"I never got the messages, I'm sorry. I would have come if I had," he assured her. She looked at him and saw that he was telling the truth. "Seriously, though, back then, I would have come just to shock your family, crash the party, and then take you on the buffet table in front of everyone," he admitted with a wicked grin and she threw her head back and laughed.

"Oh love, I would have enjoyed that a lot more than the actual party we did have," she chortled and kissed him again.

"Look Susan, I did try to get back to you, time and again, but Rassilon made sure I was always assigned to be somewhere far away from you, and the control mechanisms he'd installed in me kept me from being able to disobey him."

"Dar told me, just before we escaped Gallifrey, that you'd never stopped trying to get to me. It was the one thing that let me believe that you hadn't left me behind on purpose," she whispered and he crushed her to him, opening his mind and memories to her. He let her see his anguished emotions, showed her the way he'd tried to get back to her, and how he kept losing consciousness each time and then he showed her the grief, despair, and rage he'd felt upon awakening again, believing he'd left her to die.

"I'm so sorry, Susan, I never would have left you of my own free will, never," he told her and she nodded into his shoulder. "I have never hated myself more than when I thought I'd left you to your death."

"Well, don't let it happen again, mister," she chuckled damply and he tightened his grip on her almost painfully.

"Don't ever get that far away from me again," he prayed and she drew his head down for another kiss.

"Never farther apart than this, love," she promised and he buried his face in her hair.

"Well, I might have to go to the loo occasionally; you can let me go for that, all right? He asked and she burst into laughter again.

"Oh, you ridiculous man!" They held each other for a long moment, chuckling softly and then he drew back to look into her eyes.

"So, really? Children," he enquired, his eyes so vulnerable and hopeful, that she couldn't force words past the lump in her throat and just nodded.

"Really," she answered and he closed his eyes, moved to tears, and she just hugged him close, wondering if they would ever find the bottom of all the pain they'd both suffered.