Dream Weaver – Chapter 4
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own Doctor Who. If I did, then Donna would have stayed an extra two seasons at least.
A/N: And we have The Long Game. It feels so odd to be writing episodes I haven't even written for TDOTAY yet. And we finally have the introduction between the Priestess and Rose. Hope you like the chapter!
Replies on Reviews:
NicoleR85: Thank you so much!
dramioneismyfuture: Aw, happy birthday! As for your predictions, we'll just have to wait and see ;)
I'm A Witch So Deal With It: I won't say anything to deny or affirm your predictions, but we'll see a little more in the next chapter. The Master and the Priestess have an interesting history between them, but no, they didn't meet in the war. I'm actually thinking about writing a series of oneshots about their time on Gallifrey. How they met, how they got together, when they got Bonded etc. But I'll wait a little while for it.
Guest: Thank you so much for telling me! I actually meant Rose instead of Rhea. I do that quite often, mistake Rhea for the Priestess and vice versa.
Sharpie-Marker1101: I agree. Rose has entirely too many proclivities towards destroying the world. She needs to control her anger. Maybe she should go to anger-management classes.
Pyra Sanada: Thank you so much!
Amelia: Actually, I've finished writing this story. Which is great for me. I update every week because when I get back to university, it'll be easier to deal with. Especially when I start writing the other Doctor Who stories I want to write.
AxidentlGoddess: Oh, thank you. I've been wanting to write a Time Lady like this for awhile. I'm just glad I got around to it. Rose and the Priestess will definitely have sparks in Father's Day. The Priestess isn't one to let Rose's stupid choices just go past.
Warnings: Nothing too much, sexual innuendo.
The Long Game: Newsreel
"So, you're a Time Lord?" Rose asked, slowly, looking between the Doctor and the Priestess.
"Time Lady," The Priestess corrected, gently. "And, yes." She nodded.
"So, what's your name?"
"The Priestess." She replied.
Rose blinked. "Seriously, like an actual religious priestess? Or like he's a 'doctor'?" She teased the brooding Time Lord.
The Priestess laughed. "There had not been a proper religion on our planet for millennia. The Doctor simply thought it would be an adequate title for me to choose on the day of my Naming Ceremony." She left out why the Doctor had thought it would be adequate, not wanting to tell Rose anything more than she had to.
Rose smiled at her and turned to the Doctor. "So, where are we going?" She asked.
The Doctor eyed Adam with displeasure and moved to the TARDIS console. "You'll see soon enough." He said, vaguely. He pulled down a lever and the entire TARDIS shook, sending the other three in completely different directions.
Rose would have slammed into the nearest wall if the Priestess had not grabbed her by the wrist at the last moment and pulled her back onto the railing. Rose grinned at her, thankfully, once the rattling stopped.
The Priestess sighed, brushing the flowery sundress she was wearing down her thighs, and straightened, joining the Doctor at the ramp.
The Doctor reached out and opened the doors, stepping out along with the Priestess, followed by Rose, into some sort of corridor on a space station.
"So, it's 200 000, it's a spaceship..."
"No, it is a space station." The Priestess corrected, looking around at the area.
"Right, a space station, and uh… go and try that gate over there. Off you go!" The Doctor winked at Rose, as he and the Priestess leaned against the TARDIS, waiting.
"200 000?" Rose clarified.
The Priestess nodded, smiling, softly. "200 000. You may want to use this opportunity to display the extent of your knowledge." She hedged, nodding at the TARDIS doors, pointedly.
Rose nodded to herself. "'Kay."
The Doctor grinned and raised his eyebrows.
Rose giggled as she opened the TARDIS door and called inside. "Adam? Out you come."
Adam stepped out with his mouth hanging open. "Oh, my god." He breathed, awestruck by what was before him.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." Rose said, reassuringly.
"Where are we?" Adam asked.
Rose exchanged a look with the Doctor and the Priestess. "Good question. Let's see. So, um... judging by the architecture, I'd say we're around the year 200 000." Adam nodded and mumbled, his mind still boggling. "If you listen... engines." The Doctor and the Priestess watched her, resisting the urge to laugh. "We're on some sort of space station. Yeah." Rose nodded. "Definitely a space station. It's a bit warm in here, they could turn the heating down... Tell you what, let's try that gate. Come on!"
Rose opened the gate and the Doctor, the Priestess and Adam followed her into the room beyond the corridor.
They found themselves in a room overlooking the Earth.
"Here we go! And this is..." Rose paused as she looked down upon the Earth. Adam had to hold on to the railings for support as he made his way to her side. The Doctor and the Priestess stood a little way off away from the two humans. "...I'll let the Doctor describe it." Rose finished, a little awestruck herself.
"The fourth great and bountiful human empire. And there it is. Planet Earth at its height. Covered with mega-cities, five moons, population 96 billion." The Doctor began.
"The hub of a galactic domain, stretching across a million planets, a million species, with mankind right in the centre." The Priestess finished, peering down at the majesty of the Earth through the observation window.
Adam fainted with a girlish sigh and the Priestess looked down at him, worriedly, but neither the Doctor or Rose bothered to turn around.
"He's your boyfriend." The Doctor commented.
Rose sighed, mournfully. "Not anymore."
"Come on, Adam. Open your mind." The Doctor encouraged. One of his hands was in the Priestess', while the other was wrapped around Adam's shoulder. "You're gonna like this fantastic period of history. The human race at its most intelligent, culture, art, politics. This era has got fine food, good manners-"
The Doctor was hit in the side by a man shoving through.
"Out of the way!" The man said, rudely, before rushing off.
The Priestess raised an eyebrow at the Doctor, who looked stunned. "I believe that is the definition of irony." She said, dryly, making the Doctor glare at her.
Floor 139 suddenly sprung to life all around them. Food stalls were set up all around them and people bustled past the four to queue up, chatter moving around the place.
The Doctor looked bemused.
Rose examined the fast food behind the cases and turned to the Doctor. "Fine cuisine?" She smirked.
The Doctor spun around, completely wrong-footed. "My watch must be wrong." He looked down at it. "No, it's fine... weird." He muttered, looking all around him.
"That's what comes of showing off. Your history's not as good as you thought it was." Rose said, teasingly.
"My history's perfect." The Doctor said, defensively.
"Actually, for the first time, his history is correct," The Priestess narrowed her eyes at the Floor. "This is wrong."
"First time?" The Doctor cried out, mildly offended.
Beloved, you are hardly able to talk, you are barely able to drive the TARDIS by yourself. She reminded the Doctor.
Just because you passed your test… and the only reason that happened was because the examiner was looking down your dress the whole time. The Doctor grumbled. So much for primitive biological reactions. He grumbled to himself, jealously.
I never spared him a second glance. The Priestess thought, blithely.
"They're all human. What about the millions of planets? The millions of species? Where are they?" Adam asked, his eyebrows furrowing.
"Good question. Actually, that is a good question." The Doctor seemed surprised by that. He jovially put an arm around Adam's shoulder. "Adam, me' old mate, you must be starving."
"No," Adam shook his head. "I'm just a bit time sick."
"Nah, you just need a bit of grub." The Doctor turned to the chef of one of the stalls. "Oi, mate, how much is a cronk burger?"
"Two credits twenty, sweetheart. Now, join the queue." The chef said, gruffly.
"Money. We need money." The Doctor moved over to what looked like an ATM, his sonic screwdriver ready. "Have to use a cash point." The Doctor held his sonic screwdriver to the cash point and what looked like to be some futuristic version of a credit card fell out of the slot, looking like a long metal strip with ridges in it. The Doctor handed it to Adam. "There you go, pocket money. Don 't spend it all on sweets." He said, mockingly, before grabbing the Priestess' hand and walking away.
"How does it work?" Adam asked, examining the metal strip, bemusedly.
The Doctor turned back, an exasperated look on his face. "Go and find out!" He exclaimed, rolling his eyes. "Stop nagging me! The thing is, Adam, time travel's like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guide book, you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers." Rose laughed, but Adam just stared at him, brow furrowed. The Priestess raised an eyebrow and the Doctor suppressed a wince, knowing he was going to get it later. "... just a figure of speech." He said, hastily, to the Priestess. "Stop asking questions, go on, do it!" The Doctor said, shooing him away. Adam turned and walked into the crowd.
Rose made to follow him.
"Off you go then!" The Doctor teased Rose, a grin lighting up her face. "Your first date."
A smile formed on Rose's face. "You're going to get a smack, you are." She threatened, playfully. She looked at the Priestess. "Are you gonna go with him, then?" She didn't know what to think about her, if she was being honest. It was strange having another alien there on the TARDIS, especially one who seemed to know the Doctor so well. It was a little disconcerting and it did make her feel slightly resentful. The Doctor seemed so attentive towards her. Rose shook her head free of those thoughts. She just spent like thirty years being tortured. He's probably just worried.
"'Course she is." The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Where else would she be?" The Doctor wasn't about to let the Priestess out of his sight for longer than was necessary. He couldn't take the chance that she'd be taken from him again. Just to make sure, he'd have to keep a 24/7 watch on her, at all times. Not that he didn't mind doing it. He loved the Priestess with everything he had and he loved spending time with her. As far as he was concerned, she was his sun and his stars. His universe. His Bondmate. Even on Gallifrey, they'd just sit and talk for hours. She was the only one who could keep him still for a lengthy period of time, even when they were young and in the Academy.
The Doctor grinned at Rose's back as she turned to follow Adam in the crowd. He turned around and wrapped an arm around the Priestess' waist, pulling her into his side, his grin fading into a more thoughtful look.
"Come on, Dream Girl, let's go and investigate." He said, giving her a charming grin and pressing his lips to her forehead.
The Priestess smiled. "I have missed that." She said, softly.
"Missed what?" The Doctor frowned.
"You calling me 'Dream Girl'." The Priestess replied.
The Doctor's grin grew even more. "I always call you 'Dream Girl'." He teased, nudging her with his hip. "Remember the first time I called you 'Dream Girl'?" He whispered in her ear.
The Priestess laughed and smacked him on the arm. "Do not make me blush, beloved." She warned, playfully, leaning in and kissing him on the cheek. The memory of that first time came to her mind, making her hands shake in anticipation and her blood heat up. They had been so young back then, having known each other only for a few months at the most when he had given her that nickname. She supposed she had fallen for him that minute itself.
He pressed another kiss to the side of her head and they walked on through the crowd. The Doctor reached out and halted a dark skinned woman, who was leading around a blonde-haired woman, who were walking past and chatting.
"Erm... this is gonna sound daft, but can you tell us where we are?" The Doctor asked, innocently.
The dark-skinned woman frowned and gazed at him like he was the village idiot. She gestured to a huge sign on the wall. "Floor 139... could they write it any bigger?" She asked, sarcastically.
The Priestess stepped forward. "Floor 139… of what, exactly?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Must've been a hell of a party." The dark-skinned woman muttered to her friend.
"Oh, you're on Satellite Five." The blonde-haired woman answered.
"What's Satellite Five?" The Doctor asked, frowning.
"Come on, how could you get on board without knowing where you are?" The dark-skinned woman scoffed, eyeing the Doctor with annoyance.
"Look at me, I'm stupid." The Doctor said, pleasantly.
"Hang on, wait a minute," The blonde woman paused. "Are you a test? Some sort of management test kind of thing?"
"You've got us." The Doctor shrugged, nonchalantly. "Well done. You're too clever for us." The Doctor pulled out his psychic paper and showed it to the two.
"We were warned about this in basic training. All workers have to be versed in company promotion." The blonde woman said, smiling brightly.
"Right. Fire away, ask your questions. If it gets me to Floor 500 I'll do anything." The dark-skinned woman gushed.
"Why?" The Priestess frowned at her. "What happens on Floor 500?" She asked, curiously.
The woman raised an eyebrow. "The walls are made of gold." She said, as if she were stating the obvious. "And you should know... Mr and Mrs. Management. So... this is what we do." She walked away and led them to the screens. The blonde woman smiled at them, nervously. "Latest news... sandstorms on the new Venus archipelago. Two hundred dead. Glasgow water riots into their third day... spacelane 37 closed by sunspot activity. And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Boe has just announced he's pregnant." She said, gesturing to every screen on the wall.
The Doctor and the Priestess started to smile. They exchanged a look. "We get it. You broadcast the news."
"We are the news." The dark-skinned woman corrected.
The blonde woman smiled at the Doctor and the Priestess, hopefully, again, and they smiled back.
"We're the journalists. We write it, package it and sell it. 600 channels all coming out of Satellite Five, broadcasting everywhere. Nothing happens in the whole human empire without it going though us." The dark-skinned woman finished.
"All staff are reminded that the canteen area now has self cleaning tables. Thank you!" A voice came over the loudspeaker.
Adam was sitting at a crowded table. Rose stood next to him, offering him a paper cup filled to the brim with some sort of strange liquid.
"Try this. It's called 'zaffic', it's nice. It's like a, um, slush puppy." Rose said.
"What flavour?" Adam asked, frowning at the cup.
"Um..." Rose took a long, slow sip through the straw. "Sort of, beef?" She tried.
"Oh, my god…" Adam half-laughed, completely overwhelmed by his surroundings. Rose laughed and Adam shook his head. "It's like everything's gone. Home, family, everything." He whispered.
Rose bit her lip, looking at him, concernedly. Thinking for a few moments, she took her phone out of her pocket. "This helps... the Doctor gave it a bit of a top-up. Who's back home, your mum and dad?"
"Yeah." Adam nodded.
"Phone 'em up." Rose suggested, offering him the phone.
"But that's one hundred and ninety- eight thousand years ago." Adam protested.
Rose rolled her eyes. "Honestly, try it. Go on!"
Adam took the phone, carefully. "Is there a code for planet Earth?" He asked, snidely.
Rose glared at him. "Just dial!"
Adam started to type the digits into the phone.
"I'm sorry we're not in." A feminine voice answered over the machine.
"It's on!" Adam's eyes went wide and his hands shook.
"Please leave a message. Thanks, bye!" The tone sounded.
"Hi. It's... it's me." Adam said, hesitantly. "I've sort of gone... travelling. I met these people... and we've gone travelling together. But, um... I'm fine... and I'll call you later. Love you. Bye." He hung up, suddenly gleeful. "That is just-"
Suddenly, an alarm sounded through the entire floor and everyone started to abandon the canteen area. Rose and Adam stood, not sure of what to do or where to go. The Doctor and the Priestess were revealed through the crowd, only a short distance away from them.
"Oi! Mutt and Jeff! Over here!" The Doctor called out and winced when the Priestess smacked him on the arm.
Rose, beaming at the Doctor, immediately rushed over to and joined them. Adam hesitated for a moment, holding Rose's phone in his hand. Then, seeming to make a decision, he place the phone inside his pocket, and joined the Doctor, the Priestess and Rose.
The four walked into a dreary, white room that was reminiscent of a hospital ward. There was a large, reclining chair in the middle of a raised octagonal platform in the middle of the room, around which the staff were sitting cross-legged. In front of them were pads on which they could place their hands. The Doctor, the Priestess, Adam and Rose stood, leaning against some railings, off the side of the room. The dark-skinned woman from the canteen area stood in the middle of the octagonal platform, starting to address the room.
"Now. Everybody behave. We have a management inspection." She looked over at the Doctor and the Priestess, who smiled, pleasantly, at her. "How do you want it? By the book?" She asked.
"Oh, right from scratch, thanks."
The woman turned away. The Priestess looked at the Doctor, who grinned at her, knowingly. He reached out a hand and stroked it down her arm, leaving goosebumps behind him and finishing at her hand, which he squeezed, tightly.
"Ok, so, ladies, gentlemen, multisex, undecided or robot, my name is Cathica Santini Kadainy. That's Cathica with a 'C', in case you want to write to Floor 500 praising me, and please... do..." The Doctor grinned, giving a non-committal jerk of his head, making the Priestess shake her head in dismay. "Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest, and be non-biased. That's company policy." The woman turned to smile at the Doctor and the Priestess, who nodded at her.
"Actually... it's the law." The blonde-haired woman corrected, turning to smile at the Doctor and the Priestess, shyly.
"Yes, thank you, Suki." Cathica said, irritated by Suki's interruption. "Okay, keep it calm... don't show off for the guests... here we go." She slid into the chair, lying down. "And... engage safety..."
The staff around the chair held their hands out over the pads in front of them. Each of the eight walls lit up as they did so. The Doctor, the Priestess, Rose and Adam looked around, expecting something to happen. Cathica snapped her fingers and small, circular door in the middle of her forehead parted, revealing the pink flesh of her brain. The Doctor and the Priestess turned away in mild disgust, while Rose stared in alarm. Adam leaned forward, slightly, over the railing to get a better look. The staff placed their hands down on the pads and closed their eyes.
"And 3... 2... and spike." Cathica finished, her eyes closing.
From the contraption hanging over the chair and over Cathica, light blue electricity started to stream down into the hole in her head and into her brain.
"Compressed information, streaming into her." The Priestess narrowed her eyes at the contraption on the ceiling.
The Doctor nodded. "Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer."
"If it all goes through her, she must be a genius." Rose whispered.
"Nah. She wouldn't remember any." The Doctor said, shaking his head.
The Priestess bit her lower lip. "There is entirely too much information. Her mind would burn in an instant."
The Doctor and the Priestess began to walk around the room, circling the octagonal platform, while Rose followed, a little disgruntled that the Doctor was so intent on keeping the Priestess by his side.
"The brain's the processor. As soon as it closes, she forgets." The Doctor muttered to the Priestess.
"So, what about all these people round the edge?" Rose said, looking around.
"They have these chips installed into their brain, connecting them to her." The Priestess explained, kneeling beside one of them to get a closer look.
"And they transmit 600 channels. Every single fact in the empire beams out of this place." The Doctor finished.
The Doctor and the Priestess completed their circuit around the room and they leant against the railing again, next to Adam, who was still staring at the event in front of him with shock and alarm.
"Now, that's what I call power." The Doctor muttered to his Bondmate.
Rose frowned, concernedly, at Adam. "You alright?"
"I can see her brain." Adam stuttered.
Rose's eyebrows furrowed. "Do you want to get out?"
"No... no. This is technology, it's... it's amazing." Adam breathed.
"This technology is wrong." The Doctor and the Priestess said, simultaneously.
Rose and Adam stared at them.
"Trouble?" Rose asked, a smile about to break out.
The Doctor caught her eye. "Oh, yeah." He smiled at her.
Rose smiled in a satisfied sort of way. There was a slight shuddering sound and Suki twitched. She gasped and lifted her hands off the pad, as if she had received an electric shock, breaking the connection. The other members were forced to lift their own hands off too and the lights in the walls turned off. The compressed information stopped streaming into Cathica and the door in her head slid back closed. Suki rubbed her hands, breathing heavily.
"Come off it, Suki, I wasn't even halfway, what was that for?" Cathica hissed, annoyed that Suki had disturbed her chance to show off in front of the management.
"Sorry, must've been a glitch..." Suki said, weakly.
Cathica stood up.
Inside the room where Suki, Cathica, the Doctor, the Priestess, Adam and Rose, and the others were gathered, the loudspeaker sounded throughout the entire room and a projection sprung to life on the wall.
"Promotion." The loudspeaker said.
Cathica's eyes closed, obviously praying a little too hard. "This is it. Come on. God, make it me. Come on, say my name." She muttered, furiously, under breath.
The Doctor and the Priestess looked at her with mild concern, wondering what it could possibly be about Floor 500 that would make someone want a promotion that badly.
"Say my name, say my name..." Cathica's eyes were screwed shut as she pled and then they opened.
"Promotion for..." The loudspeaker began. "Suki Macrae Cantrell."
The words flashed on the projection and Suki's mouth dropped open. The Priestess looked over at Cathica, seeing that the woman looked as though someone had reached into her and pulled out all of her internal organs, leaving her hollow inside.
"Please proceed to Floor 500." The loudspeaker ordered.
Suki stood up and stared at the projection as if she could not believe what she was seeing. "I don't believe it... Floor 500..." She breathed, absolutely awestruck.
"How the hell did you manage that? I'm above you!" Cathica snarled, her ego slashed to pieces.
"I don't know," Suki shook her head in dismay. "I just applied on the off-chance... and they've said yes!" She exclaimed.
"That's so not fair, I've been applying to Floor 500 for three years!" Cathica shouted.
"What's Floor 500?" Rose asked the Doctor.
"The walls are made of gold." The Doctor and the Priestess murmured at the same time, making Rose recoil in confusion and surprise.
The Doctor, the Priestess, Rose and Cathica stood by the lift to say goodbye to Suki.
"Cathica, I'm gonna miss you! Floor 500..." Suki turned to the Doctor and the Priestess. "Thank you!"
The Priestess smiled at her as the Doctor shook his head with a grin. "We didn't do anything!" The Doctor protested.
"Well, you're my lucky charm!"
"All right! I'll hug anyone!" The Doctor said, cheerfully, wrapping his arms around the young woman, as she giggled in his embrace.
The Priestess watched, silently, and was pleasantly surprised when the eager girl wrapped her arms around her as well. She hesitantly slid her arms around the girl and hugged back, not used to the physical contact after so many years. She patted Suki on the back, awkwardly, before letting go and giving her an encouraging smile.
The Doctor frowned at the tension in the Priestess' limbs as well as the hesitancy that she had displayed when Suki hugged her. He reached out and tugged her into his side, entrapping her hand in his much larger ones, stroking down the soft skin, hoping to offer her some comfort.
Cathica looked stubbornly away at nothing in particular, hell bent on not looking at Suki lest her jealousy show. Rose narrowed her eyes at the joined hands of the Doctor and the Priestess, but shrugged it off as some alien custom. Maybe they didn't have the same meanings behind physical contact as humans did, holding hands could be just something friends did, the Doctor and her held hands sometimes too. Rose turned away, spotting Adam, who was sitting only a short distance away.
"Come on, it's not that bad..." Rose offered.
"What, with the... the head thing?" Adam waved at Cathica.
"Yeah, well she's closed it now!"
"Yeah but... it's everything. It freaks me out. And I just need to... if I could just..." Adam struggled to find the words to express himself accurately. "...cool down. Sort of, acclimatize."
"How d'you mean?" Rose's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"Maybe... I could just go and sit on the observation deck? Would that be all right?" Rose nodded, hesitantly. "Soak it in, you know, pretend I'm a citizen of the year 200 000."
"Do you want me to come with you?" Rose asked, concernedly.
"No, no," Adam shook his head. "You stick with the Doctor." Rose nodded. Adam paused. "You'd rather be with him." There was another awkward pause as Rose realised that it was true. "It's gonna take a better man than me to get between you two. Anyway, I'll be on the deck." He said, lightly, getting to his feet.
Rose fumbled inside her pocket. "Here you go... take the TARDIS key. You know, just in case it gets a bit too much."
"Yeah, like it's not weird in there." Adam said, sarcastically.
Rose handed the key over and Adam walked away, leaving her alone. Adam grinned to himself, gleefully, holding the key, rejoicing under his breath.
"Oh, my God, I've got to go, I can't keep them waiting…" Suki picked up her bag and rushed to the lift. "I'm sorry!" The lift pinged open and she stepped inside. "Say goodbye to Steve for me." The Doctor and the Priestess smiled as the lift doors closed. "Bye!"
The Doctor and the Priestess waved at her, the former cheerfully, the latter a little slow and wary. Cathica looked away, sourly.
"Good riddance." She muttered.
The Doctor frowned at her. "You're talking like you'll never see her again. She's only going upstairs."
"We won't." Cathica said, shaking her head. "Once you go to Floor 500 you never come back."
The Doctor and the Priestess stared at the closed lift doors, brow furrowed.
The Doctor, the Priestess and Rose followed Cathica through the canteen area.
"Have you ever been there?" The Priestess asked, carefully.
"No. You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to 500 except for the chosen few." Cathica explained.
Adam entered the observation deck. He looked out over the Earth for a few seconds, then turned to a computer behind him. He placed his hand on the hand pad.
"Give me access..." Adam murmured and the computer screen sprung to life, lighting up. Adam snatched his hand away and paused. "I can learn anything." He muttered, the greedy gleam lighting his eyes up.
He looked around, making sure that no one was looking at him or what he was doing and then he turned back to the screen. He placed his hand back on the groove.
"Let's try..." He racked his brain for the right term. "Uh, computers. From the 21st Century to the present date, give me the history of the Microprocessor." The computer started to stream the information into Adam, a long line of blue code running down the screen. He looked amazed. "Oh my God." He breathed.
Cathica entered the Spike Room, followed by the Doctor, the Priestess and Rose.
"Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance, can't you give it a rest?" Cathica said, irritated.
"But you've never been to another floor?" The Doctor asked, frowning.
"And the floor below this one?" The Priestess asked.
The Doctor settled himself comfortably in the chair on the platform, the Priestess leaning against it from behind, her arm stretched across his shoulders, giving him a comforting warmth that he revelled in. Rose stood off to the side, watching their interaction, intently.
Cathica shook her head. "I went to floor 16 when I first arrived, that's medical, that's when I got my head done, and then I-I came straight here. Satellite Five, you work, eat and sleep on the same floor. That's it, that's all." She narrowed her eyes at the two aliens. "You're not management, are you."
"At last!" The Doctor crowed and looked up at the Priestess, who smiled at him, fondly, with a large grin that stretched across his face. "She's clever!"
Cathica paused. "Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me. I don't know anything." She warned them.
"Don't you even ask?" The Doctor said, incredulously.
"Well, why would I?" Cathica asked, confused.
"You are a journalist." The Priestess said, slowly. Perhaps she had forgotten that.
"Why's all the crew human?" The Doctor asked, suddenly.
Cathica frowned. "What's that got to do with anything?"
"There are no aliens aboard this spaceship." The Priestess murmured.
"Why?" The Doctor asked.
"I don't know," Cathica shook her head. "No real reason, they're not banned or anything."
The Doctor looked around the room, pointedly, before raising an eyebrow at Cathica. "Then where are they?" He asked, slyly, the obvious innuendo in his question.
Cathica looked surprised and baffled by the question. "I suppose immigration's tightened up. It's had to, what, with all the threats."
"What threats?" The Priestess asked, quietly.
"I don't know... all of them. Usual stuff. And the price of space warp doubled so that kept the visitors away..." The Doctor and the Priestess watched her intently. "Oh, and the government on Traffic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming, you see... just... lots of little reasons, that's all." Cathica shrugged.
"Adding up to one great big fact, and you didn't even notice." The Doctor said, shaking his head at Cathica's obliviousness and her ability to turn a blind eye to everything that had been going on around her.
"Doctor, Priestess, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything." Cathica said, slowly, to the strange couple.
"I can see better. This society's the wrong shape. Even the technology." The Doctor commented, looking at the Priestess, who nodded.
"It's incredibly anachronistic, this space station." The Priestess remarked, looking around at the room.
"It's cutting edge!" Cathica protested.
"It's backward! There's a great big door in your head!" The Doctor said, incredulously.
"That is practically medieval in regard to the year 200000." The Priestess added.
"So, what do you think is going on?" Rose piped up, walking over to them, a little lost by what was going on in front of her. She stared, intently, at the way the two acted around each other. Maybe they had known each other on their home planet. She'd ask them back when they were in the TARDIS.
"It's not just this space station," The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "It's the whole attitude. It's the way people think. The great and bountiful human empire's stunted. Something's holding it back." He told the Priestess, whose nails scraped across the short, cropped hair on the Doctor's head, and he nuzzled into her touch.
"And how would you know?" Cathica glared at them.
"Trust me. Humanity's been set back about 90 years." The Doctor said, meaningfully.
"When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?" The Priestess asked, suddenly, her voice low and her tongue running over her teeth.
Cathica's eyes widened. "91 years ago…" She trailed off.
The Doctor and the Priestess nodded and Cathica looked away, frustrated and thoughtful.
Adam stood in front of the computer terminal on Rose's mobile. "Mum, Dad, keep this message, okay?" He ordered. "Whatever you do, don't erase it. Save it. You got that?"
He placed his hand on the pad again. He spoke into the mobile as the information started to stream right through him.
"The microprocessor became redundant in the year 2019, when it was replaced by a system called SMT, that's Single Molecule Transcription-" Suddenly, the information stopped coming and the words 'Floor 16' appeared on the screen.
"No, no, no, no, no, no! What're you doing! Come back! Come-" Adam shouted and kicked the base of the computer. He looked behind him to see that no one had heard his outburst of anger, then back at the computer. "Why are you doing that?" He asked, curiously. The words remained stubbornly on the screen. "What's Floor 16? What's down there?" Adam asked, narrowing his eyes at the computer.
A/N: Thought that might be a good place to end the first chapter. These chapters might be a little shorter than the ones in TDOTAY, just a warning. I don't think Rose is quite jealous of the Priestess because she has romantic feelings for the Doctor. I think she just feels a bit insecure that the Doctor won't want her to travel with him anymore because he's got the Priestess. I think the Priestess and Rose will get close in Season 1. But that might change after the Doctor regenerates ;)
Anyway, hope you all liked the chapter and don't forget to leave a review.