Astrophysics in Action
Post Doomsday. What if the Doctor had a different companion? Say… Samantha Carter? Crossover with Stargate: SG-1
Chapter Three: Umen'sur
"Sam, can you grab the blue spanner?" called the Doctor from under the console. Sam rummaged in the toolbox for a moment, before producing a tool that was definitely not a spanner, but definitely was blue. She frowned at it for a minute.
"Is this it?" she asked, tossing it to him, and was met with an enthusiastic agreement. "That's nothing like any spanner I've ever encountered," she pointed out, indicating the many flashing lights on the side, which were sure to serve some purpose that Sam was not privy to.
The Doctor laughed, his voice muffled as he answered her. "Have you ever tried fixing a TARDIS with a normal spanner? I didn't think so."
Sam huffed. "I've never tried to fix a TARDIS at all. You won't let me, and it's not like I know anyone else who's got one handy."
The Doctor didn't seem ruffled at all by her sharp tone. "Well, maybe one day I'll let you have a fiddle. With me watching, mind you." He emerged, sitting up straight and tossing the 'spanner' back into the toolbox. "But for now, she's all done. So where shall we go?"
Sam considered for a moment. "Another planet definitely. But other than that, I'm not sure. Put it on random?"
The Doctor nodded his agreement. "Okay, initializing randomization sequence, excluding Earth…" he tugged a lever, and made a motion at Sam, which she immediately understood and pressed a series of buttons.
Once that was done, they both sat back to enjoy the ride.
Sam opened that door and was his with a flood of disappointment. "I thought you were going to exclude Earth from the sequence."
"I did." The Doctor poked his head out, and seeing Victorian England, he shrugged. "Sorry, but come on Sam, it will be fun!" he wheedled.
Sam had half a mind to tell him to tell him where to stick it, but his enthusiasm was infectious and she found herself being pulled onto the streets of Victorian England wearing only her jeans and a leather jacket that the Doctor told her he'd worn in an earlier incarnation. All around her, women were dressed in full skirts, which stretched to their ankles, sometimes even dragging on the floor. The men were wearing either suits or soft cotton pants and shirts, held up by braces and belts. The Doctor didn't look too out of place in his brown pinstripes (though they were a bit too exciting for the time period) but Sam felt immensely out of place. Usually when the Doctor took her to another time period, he allowed her to dress from the wardrobe in appropriate clothing, but today they had been surprised by it so here she was.
"Doctor," she said nervously, looking around.
He stopped dead in his tracks and spun to look at her. "Hmm?"
She waved a hand in front of her. "Don't you think I might stand out a bit?"
The Doctor frowned for a second, before realizing what she meant. "Nah," he dismissed. "Just walk around like you own the place, and no one will even think twice."
Sam briefly contemplated the wisdom in this: after all, he always wore the same clothes. "Okay," she agreed. With that out of the way, the two continued to walk down the street, the Doctor giving a running commentary about the society.
"Um, Doctor," Sam said warily.
He turned to look at her. "Yeah?"
"I think something might be wrong," she told him, looking around at the people, who were retreating back into their dwellings as if afraid of something. The down had a distinct lack of life as they walked past. The Doctor paused a moment to think.
"You know what Sam, I think you might be right." At this, he grinned widely at her. "How do you feel about another adventure?"
Sam grinned. "I'll take one of your adventures over a trip to another planet any day.
The Doctor grinned back. "Not to mention that most of them are on another planet. Right, first things first, precisely where and when are we?"
Sam shrugged at him. "You're the one who drives the TARDIS. Isn't she supposed to tell you?"
The Doctor gave a nod of acknowledgement to this fact. "True, but I didn't check before I left, I figured Victorian England was enough information for us to have some fun. Now we need more precise information, but it will be quicker to ask one of the locals than to go back to the TARDIS.
"That's true," Sam granted. The TARDIS was at least half an hour in the other direction. "Or at least it would be if they weren't all acting like we're about to kill them and hiding from us."
"Well, yeah," the Doctor agreed. "That is a bit of a problem. Still, it can't hurt to try." He walked purposely toward a middle-aged woman who was attempting invisibility against an alley wall. "Hi!" he greeted enthusiastically, and Sam sighed, reluctantly following him.
"I'm the Doctor, and this is Sam Carter. We're from far far away and we were wondering if you could tell us precisely where we are,"
"And the date," Sam included, and the woman shrank even more against the wall, if that were even possible.
Sam and the Doctor looked at each other in query, before Sam once more addressed the woman. "Can you tell us what you're so afraid of?"
The woman looked at them both in wide-eyed terror, but did not say anything.
"Whatever it is, we'll fix it," the Doctor out in brightly. "That's us! Saviours of the universe, fearless conquerors of evil-overlords," he continued, and Sam suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at his antics. The woman had stiffened even more at his words, and Sam attempted to calm her.
"We will fix it, I promise." She consoled, and finally the woman's silence broke.
Unfortunately, it wasn't to tell them what was wrong, but to let a cry of terror rip itself from her throat, a single word that neither Sam nor the Doctor had ever heard before. "Umen'sur!"
At this exclamation, Sam and the Doctor exchanged a glance of confusion, and spent several seconds staring in mystification at the terrified girl. Someone tentatively tapped Sam's shoulder, and she turned around. Behind her, with a gun trembling in his hand at his side, was a man dressed in a uniform of some sort, presumably of the police or a guard of some type. There was another man behind the Doctor, and this one was holding two pairs of handcuffs. The both of them looked frightened out of their wits, not unlike the woman they'd been attempting to question.
"Excuse me Sir, Ma'am," began the one with the gun, terror obvious in his tone. "We have to arrest you. Could you please come quietly, Sir, Ma'am?"
Sam and the Doctor exchanged bewildered looks. "What are we being arrested for?"
The man looked to the right and chewed on his lip. "Could you please just come?"
The Doctor 'humm'ed briefly, turning to Sam. "Of all the times we've been arrested, these people have been the nicest about it. What do you say, Sam?"
Sam blinked at him in amazement, and spoke to him in a lowered tone. "Why, exactly, do you think it's a good idea for us to be arrested?"
The Doctor shrugged. "It could be fun."
Sam rolled her eyes. "Most times when we're arrested, we're almost executed," she reminded him.
The Doctor sucked a breath in through his teeth, "True," he agreed. "But these people couldn't harm a fly, they're too scared. Look! They're actually asking us if we'll let them arrest us! We could walk away now and never hear from them again," he wheedled.
"Let's do that then," Sam said quickly.
"…they wouldn't even try to stop us. So, I think we'll be fine. They, however, clearly are not fine. Something has the whole place terrified, and that's not normal. Something that might be Umen'sur, if I'm not wrong. Now I've heard of most things, Sam, but I haven't heard of the Umen'sur, ever. And I'm a curious man, I want to find out what they are and why they're so scary. Also, why would they think that we're the Umen'sur?"
Sam had silently agreed to come half way through his speech, but had allowed him to continue anyway, an amused smile playing on her lips. In truth, she was worried about the unusual atmosphere in the town as well. "Alright then," she smiled.
The Doctor wore a smug expression of victory on his face as he turned to the guards. "Right then! Take us away!"
Reluctantly, the second guard stepped forward and cuffed them, and with the assista nce of the other, led them both away.
They were in what seemed to be an interrogation cell, considering it only had two chairs and a table inside. It was a surprisingly modern cell, which had the Doctor wondering whether there had been alien influence in the town (the presence of the Umen'sur certainly seemed to indicate that there was) but Sam was convinced that they had, in fact, landed on another planet. She had already taken apart the box that housed the security system, and was examining it thoroughly with the assistance of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. "Doctor, this circuitry is like nothing I've ever seen on Earth. And look," she pointed out a small metallic looking structure inside it. "I'm not sure what this is for, but this metal – it's either an alloy that we haven't discovered yet, or a completely different element, look at it," she shoved the wires in his face and he clicked his tongue, putting on his glasses.
"Ooh, Naquadah," he intoned, much to Sam's frustration and confusion.
"Well?" she demanded.
"Definitely not Victorian England?" the Doctor said, looking at her over the top of his glasses, and she nodded. "Must be a planet occupied by people who want to live in that kind of a society, there are always a few people who believe that the old way was the better way. After all, there's a planet of Ninjas, why shouldn't there be a planet of the almost-amish?"
Sam looked at him in shock. "Planet of Ninjas?"
"Hey, don't ask me," the Doctor defended "It's your species."
Sam shook her head, realizing that now was not exactly the time for this discussion. "So what's Naquadah?"
"Dangerous," the Doctor answered promptly. "The only reason I can think of for it to be here, like this… well, frankly Sam, I'd be surprised if it wasn't a bomb."
Sam bit her lip. "I thought you said that these people weren't going to try and kill us."
The Doctor nodded. "Well, yes. But that was before I knew that they had a Naquadah bomb in their security system. They'll likely destroy themselves as well as us."
"Well that's comforting," Sam noted dryly. "So… time to plan an escape?"
The Doctor agreed quickly. "We won't be able to work out what's going on here if we're dead." He took his sonic screwdriver back from Sam and began to work on the concrete door. "Still," he mused as a small click indicated that he had it open. "At least we know that it wasn't your clothes that made them arrest us. It's clearly got something to do with these Umen'sur and Naquadah."
Sam reluctantly agreed with him on that point, and they exited the cell. It was surprisingly easy to sneak out of the facility in which they were being held. It was a sall building, housing maybe five other cells, and then there was nothing. The only security seemed to be in they systems laced with the Naquadah bomb, there weren't any guards or anything. Looking around, they could see that they were in the middle of a padock. The Doctor tugged Sam back inside the block of cells, much to her confusion.
"We just escaped! Why are we going back inside?"
The Doctor looked at her like she was stupid for a few seconds before he explained. "There are other people in those cells, Sam, and it looks like they're going to blow this place up. Also, they might know something about the Umen'sur."
So they found themselves opening the doors to one of the other cells in sneaking inside. The occupant was sitting on the chair in the middle of the room, staring vacantly at the wall. He didn't even look at them when they entered. The Doctor approached him slowly.
"Hello," he greeted softly.
The man did not reply.
"I'm the Doctor, this is Sam. Who are you?"
His face was emotionless as he answered. "Keller."
The Doctor and Sam exchanged looks of delight. Finally someone was willing to speak to them! "Listen," said the Doctor urgently. "Do you know what's going on here? What's happened to you?"
"I have been taken," Keller said in vague tones, resuming staring at the wall.
"Ah… yes. By whom, exactly?" the Doctor prodded.
"I have been taken," Keller repeated as though he expected them to know exactly what he meant. "I have been taken and now I will be terminated." His voice lacked any indicators of emotion at that statement."
Interesting. So apparently the man knew about the bombs – or at least, the effect that they would have.
"Aren't you scared?" Sam asked incredulously, gawping at him.
"No," the man asserted as if this was something he had not considered. "I have been taken, thus I cannot feel scared."
At this phrase, the Doctor paled slightly. The lack of emotions was eerily familiar-, reminiscent of both the Daleks and the Cybermen. "What do you mean, you have been taken?" he urged, but did not receive a straight answer.
"I must be terminated." Keller responded blankly.
The Doctor sighed in frustration. "Come on, Keller, give me a hand here. What do you mean you have been taken? Why are we here?"
Keller blinked. "We are here because we have been taken. We have no fear and must be terminated." The man's eyes lifted to a clock on the wall. "Termination in fifty seconds."
"Oh crap,"
At this announcement, Sam and the Doctor began to run away from the complex as fast as they possibly could. Spurred by adrenaline, they managed to make it just far enough away that they could feel the heat from the blast scorching their backs, but they remained relatively unharmed as they dropped to the ground.
"There goes our only willing source of information," mourned the Doctor.
Sam glared at him. "He wasn't exactly willing, and he was cryptic as all hell. Surely there's someone in this town that will speak to us in straight terms!" she was frustrated with the entire situation, and didn't even bother trying to hide it.
The Doctor frowned. "Well, he was the best we could get."
Sam paused for a second. "Maybe not."
The Doctor looked at her suspiciously. "Sam?"
"These people are terrified of us. If we just demand that they tell us everything we want to know, they're bound to tell us. We just have to stop being so gentle with them."
The Doctor took a long moment to consider it. "I don't like it," he began grudgingly. "But it's the best chance we've got at helping these people, so okay. Just this once, mind."
They were the same guards that had timidly asked them to agree to be arrested. Putting on a stony face that wasn't entirely false, she marched up to the two, the Doctor on her tail. "We agreed to be arrested, not to be executed!" she exclaimed to the trembling guards.
"Yeah!" the Doctor agreed mildly from behind her, not quite sure what to make of angry-Sam.
"Y-you had to be termin-terminated," he stuttered fearfully, a thin sheen of sweat gathering on his forehead as his hand clenched and unclenched around the gun at his side.
Sam let out a loud sigh of frustration, and whipped the weapon from his hands, pointing it steadily at him. "Come with us and answer some questions or you get a shiny bullet through your head," she informed him bluntly.
Behind her the Doctor was looking angry. "That wasn't part of the plan, Sam!" he told her, frustration clear in his tone.
Sam shrugged, and turned to look him in the eyes. "It is now," she said, then lowered her voice so that the guard couldn't hear her. "And don't give him a reason to call my bluff, Doctor,"
The Doctor obviously wasn't pleased about this turn of events, but Sam tried not to think about it too much as she led the man back to an empty shop.
"What's your name?" she demanded.
The man looked confused by the question, and answered slowly. "Guard Hadlan. Yours?" the question was tacked onto the end like he wasn't sure if he should be asking or not.
Sam smiled at him, but quickly remembered that she was supposed to be playing 'bad cop' and dropped it, answering tersely. "Sam Carter."
"I'm the Doctor," said the Doctor from beside her.
Hadlan seemed to have relaxed a bit, as his face screwed up at this. "Doctor who?"
The Doctor sighed, looking up to the ceiling. "Why can't anyone ever take just the Doctor for an answer?" he asked rhetorically, before looking back at Hadlan. "Doctor Ted Carter," he said.
Sam glared at him. "We're not making buddy with the prisoner, Ted," she growled. "Hadlan, I want you to tell me exactly why we were arrested earlier."
There was a moment of silence, and Sam banged her fist on the table. "Now, Hadlan!"
The Doctor held back a snigger. Someone had definitely been watching too much TV.
"You're Umen'sur," he answered quickly, stepping back as though Sam might hit him.
"What are Umen'sur?" the Doctor cut in quickly.
Hadlan looked at them both, bewildered. "Surely you know!" he forgot to be afraid, but Sam and the Doctor shook their heads.
"You cannot feel fear," he told them in a whisper, a small thread of horror intermingling with his low tones. "Your body has become host to the Umen'sur. Now it's just fear that to can't feel, but soon it will be worse. It goes for the strongest emotions first: fear, love, happiness, disappointment. But then it attacks the rest of your brain, getting rid of all your last shreds of humanity before leaving you an empty husk! You stay like that for a few days, peripherally aware of your surroundings and very occasionally being able to speak, but then your body drops dead and the Umen'sur looks for a new host."
The guard had told them the story like it was a ghost story, like an attempt to frighten them. It did, in fact, give Sam a light chill down her spine and she shuddered. The Doctor also looked a little strained in the face. "And these Umen'sur… what do they look like?"
The guard shrugged. "You'd have more chance of knowing than I. You two, are, after all, Umen'sur. Now that you know the danger you pose to all the others, will you please return to the cells?" and just like that, the fearful, trembling man they'd first met made a reappearance.
The Doctor groaned. "Hadlan, come with us," he demanded. "I'm going to prove to you that we're not Umen'sur, and then you're going to help us work out a way of getting rid of the Umen'sur."
The Doctor stood abruptly, walking out the door. Hadlan followed a few meters behind, and Sam shook herself out of the reverie before jogging to catch up to the Doctor. "Doctor, the Umen'sur must be some sort of contagious disease that attacks the emotional centre of the brain," she offered her theory, and the Doctor nodded.
"And these people have no other way of identifying the victims in their early stages except by their lack of fear. So in turn, everyone in the town gets even more scared, and they all show it, just to be sure that they're still safe," he continued to build on her theory.
"And then if they realize that they are unwell, they agree to being terminated because they don't want to pass the disease to their friends and family," Sam finished.
"Exactly." The Doctor agreed. "And going up to a random person on the street and claiming you can defeat the great evil doesn't exactly seem like the kind of this someone scared out of their wits would do, so they assumed we were Umen'sur."
"And when we agreed to be arrested, they assumed we realized that it meant 'terminated'," Sam groaned, and the Doctor nodded.
"Right, so clearly we're here so that we can fix this little problem that they have with the Umen'sur. But how exactly do you propose we do that?"
Sam shrugged. "My doctorate's in theoretical astrophysics. I'm not much use with infectious diseases, I'm afraid."
The Doctor looked contemplative. "I'm not exactly an expert, either," he frowned. "But I can bet your bottom dollar that we need to first find out as much as we can about the disease and for that,"
"We need to find a victim," Sam concluded.
By this point, they were almost at the TARDIS, and the guard was still trailing behind them. "Hadlan," called the Doctor suddenly, stopping in his tracks to turn around.
Hadlan blinked. "Yes, Doctor Ted?" he asked warily.
"Where do you keep all the Umen'sur?"
They were at another set of prison cells, not unlike the ones that they had been trapped in before. "These ones should go in twelve hours," Hadlan explained.
Only acknowledging Hadlan's words with a nod, the Doctor worked on the door to one of the cells with his sonic screwdriver while Sam watched silently with pursed lips and Hadlan nervously ripped at the skin around his fingernails. The door clicked open to reveal a blonde girl sitting on the chair, drumming her fingers against her knees.
"Hello!" exclaimed the Doctor. "I'm Doctor Ted Carter, this is my sister Sam, and this good man here is Hadlan. We need your help."
"My help?" snorted the girl. "I'm Umen'sur, how could I help anyone now? Unless you're into assisted suicide, I'm good for that," despite her infection with the Umen'sur, it appeared that she still had the typical teenaged snark.
"This one's now very far gone, yet," Hadlan informed them quietly.
"I'm Sam,"
"Abidel," the girl introduced. "So what's the deal?"
"Don't you worry about details," grinned the Doctor. "Come on, we're breaking you out."
The girl didn't look particular enthused by the thought, but she didn't seem against it. "Whatever," she said, standing up and allowing herself to be led to the TARDIS, where the Doctor took her straight to the infirmary.
He began the run the sonic screwdriver over her like a wand, making a noise of excited realization when it came over her head.
"I've got good news and bad news," he announced once the tests were finished. Sam, Hadlan and Abidel looked at him expectantly. "Good news: it's not a disease, it's a parasite, and I can stop it's propgation."
"That's great!" exclaimed Hadlan with a look of awe and joy on his face.
"Yes, but the thing is, and I'm really sorry…" Sam's stomach sunk. She knew what the next words were going to be. "It's going to be very painful, and you might not survive." He finished, looking straight at Abidel, whose face had brightened at the good news and paled incredibly when she heard the bad news.
Sam wrapped the teenager in her arms and let her cry for a few minutes. Abidel took a deep breath, pulling away from Sam and looked up at the Doctor. "I'll do it," she announced.
"Thank you," said the Doctor sincerely. "Okay, Abidel. What I need you to take these," he handed her two tablets, "and then you have to let go."
Abidel wordlessly took the tablets, swallowing them in one gulp and lying down on the cot. Her eyes closed and the other three watched intently as her breath slowed, her chest stilling. A few more seconds passed and she gasped loudly, her eyes flicking open, her mouth wide in a painful scream. "Abidel, let go," urged the Doctor. "You have to let go!"
It seemed she got the message as her scream died and the Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver. "Umen'sur, you have taken this body. I demand to know why and that you release it."
"I will not release it." A gravelly voice erupted from Abidel's throat. "It is my right."
The Doctor shook his head. "No, it's not. It's her body, she should be allowed to live there."
"It is fault of her people that we do not live in our original homes," the Umen'sur said.
"Hadlan?" the Doctor said, but the guard could only shrug.
Sam grabbed Abidel's wrist. "What do you mean? Where was your original home?"
"For many centuries, we were undisturbed. We happily fed from the natural minerals in the soil."
A look of realization crossed Hadlan's face. "The mines," he breathed. "The first Umen'sur were all workers in the mines."
"You lived in the mines?" the Doctor asked. "Then they dug up your home?"
"Yes," the Umen'sur revealed. "They destroyed our home and turned it into a weapon. The council decided to evoke an appropriate punishment. Their bodies are their homes, and it was our right to make them destroy them with the weapons that they made from our home."
They all listened to this explanation with patience until its conclusion. "So, basically it's a twisted form of revenge?" Sam concluded, but the Umen'sur denied this.
"No. It's not twisted. We are doing to the what they did to us."
"And… these no chance you're just, well, fed up with it? Tired of being killed for the cause?" hinted the Doctor.
The Umen'sur's eyes hardened. "Their destruction of our homes continue. Our destruction of theirs will continue also."
"Hadlan, what will it take to stop the mining of the Naquadah?" Sam jumped in quickly.
Hadlan shrugged. "Not my area of expertise, but it might be a bit difficult to convince them that in order to destroy the enemy they should stop trying."
The Doctor frowned. "Yes, well, that could be a bit of a problem."
Sam turned to the Umen'sur. "Do you have a name?"
The Umen'sur nodded Abidel's head. "I am High Councillor Trennis."
"High Councillor Trennis," she began formally. "I request your patience in dealing with the people of this planet. They were unaware of the harm they were causing to your people. Furthermore, I offer you a proposal."
The High Councillor was silent for a moment before he conceded. "Continue,"
"It is true that you do not require a host to continue your survival, correct?" she continued, and the High Councillor gave a curt nod in response.
"In exchange for you immediate evacuation of all hosts, with their minds intact, all the mined Naquadah will be turned over to you and any further requests for mining will come before the High Council. Current mining will end. You will also immediately concede the body of Abidel, your host, and cease taking new hosts." Sam had apparently learnt something from the many times she'd been watching the Doctor negotiate with aliens, and the Doctor was looking on proudly while the Umen'sur seriously considered.
"You have twenty four hours to make good on your side of the deal. Then, and only then, we will release the hosts and cease taking new ones. Until this time, I will remain in the body of Abidel, however I will allow her full consciousness. Is this acceptable."
Sam grinned. "Deal."
They shook on it and with a gasp, Abidel returned to them, crying. Sam hugged her for a few minutes, until she stopped crying, then turned to the others. "Come on, we don't have long to convince everyone else of what to do," she said.
"Right!" exclaimed the Doctor. "We don't have long, come on, off to the town hall," he ushered Hadlan and Abidel out of the TARDIS, but held Sam back.
"I'm proud of you, Sam," he told her seriously.
Sam shrugged. "I learnt it all from you, Ted," she said pointedly and he smiled.
"Come on sis, let's go talk some sense into the populace!"
In the end, the villagers were fairly easily convinced to acquiesce their Naquadah supplies and their mines, assured that everyone they hadn't blown up would be returned to them unharmed. Several of the older men were pushing to go in and blow up the mines, but the Doctor was able to convince them that this would be a very bad idea, so the idea was vetoed by the rest of the town. Within the set twenty four hours, the mining had been abandoned and the rest of the terms of the terms fulfilled.
"Bye Sam," Abidel said, hugging her tightly as they stood congregated around the TARDIS.
Sam hugged her back. "I'll miss you," she told the teenager, who sniffled into her shoulder. "Come on, Abi, it'll be alright."
Abidel drew herself up tall. "Will you come visit?"
Sam looked at the Doctor to field that one. "Probably not, Abidel. I'm sorry, but we don't usually come back."
"Oh," she said sadly.
Hadlan clapped a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Don't worry, Abidel. It'll be alright."
Abidel nodded. "Yeah. It's just, well, you guys saved my life. I feel like I owe you something."
Sam gently clasped the girl's shoulders. "You owe us nothing, Abi."
"Yeah," put in the Doctor. "All in a day's work!"
Hadlan laughed at that. "I think that we do owe you rather a lot, Doctor Ted, Sam. But if you refuse everything else, you can at least have our thanks."
Sam and the Doctor nodded, hugged Abi goodbye one last time and shook Hadlan's hand, steeping back into the TARDIS.
A/N: I'm not all that happy with the conclusion, but this was the original adventure that some people asked for, or at least my attempt at it. Tell me what you think. I tried to incorporate ideas from both shows, and not to make it too ridiculous. I had precisely two ideas for this: the Umen'sur or the planet of Ninjas. You got this. Be glad. I know it's a lot shorter than normal, too, but I figure if I dragged it on for too long it would have been terrible, not to mention you'd have had to wait forever for an update. Anyway, as always concrit is appreciated.