"Rose River" AU
'Martian Waters'
Chapter Three

Clanging sounds reverberated in the distance, making Rose and Jenny look around in confusion. 'Lockdown... Is she serious?' Rose asked. 'How the hell are we supposed to leave now?'

'Worry about that later, Rosie,' John answered. He walked over to Ed and tapped his shoulder. "Do you have video logs for the bio dome?"

"Yes... Why?" Ed replied.

The Doctor came over. "What are you thinking?"

"We found Maggie not ten feet from that air lock. Tarak was with us at the time, and Andy was in there to begin with. All are infected and dripping wet. The bio dome's the common denominator, and I saw a lot of hydroponics when I was in there. Whatever's going on, it started with the water."

The Doctor turned to Ed. "Is your water supply recycled?"

"No, it's not," he replied, shaking his head. "We're sitting on top of a huge glacier. That's why we chose this site in the first place."

"Glacier?" John said with wide eyes.

The Doctor looked down and shook his head. "Oh, brilliant."

"It's filtered though," Ed said, completely confused. "It's supposed to be safe."

"Oh, obviously!" John barked with more than a bit of sarcasm.

Adelaide heard the commotion, and came over to listen to them.

The Doctor gave him a look. "Stop it." Turning to the monitor, he tapped at the keyboard and pulled up the security log list. Selecting that day, he pulled up the file and went backwards from the end. Spotting something, he paused it and hit play. "What's he doing?"

Ed and John looked at the screen. "Looks like he's nibbling something," John said. They then watched Andy go into convulsions. "There. Back it up a minute or two. See where he got it from."

The Doctor did that and hit pause again. "Is that a carrot?" he asked, squinting at the screen.

Ed nodded. "Andy was determined to have real vegetables by Christmas."

"Hit play," John prompted. They watched Andy smiling at the orange vegetable, and then go to a spigot to wash it off. "Stop! There's the water connection. He cleans it, takes a bite, then has a fit."

"Hold on," Ed interrupted and nudged the Doctor out of the way. Typing at the keyboard, he explained. "He said some colourful things yesterday about government contractors."

He found the file quickly and played it. Andy appeared on the screen, looking completely annoyed. 'Maintenance log, 21.20, November 20, fifty nine. Number Three water filter's bust. And guess what, the spares they sent don't fit. What a surprise. Anyhow, no panic. One and Two filters seem to be okay. Over and out.'

"A filter!" the brothers said. "One bloody little filter," John complained. "Then the dam burst," the Doctor continued the thought.

"It takes a week for the water to cycle out of the bio dome," Adelaide said from behind them, getting their attention. "That means the infection happened today, and the rest of us are clean!" Turning to the rest of the crew, she raised her voice. "Everyone, I'm declaring Action One with immediate effect. Mission Unsafe! We're leaving!"

The crew looked shocked, but scrambled at the order with only one complaint. "But we came all this way," Roman said with a look of pain.

Steffi turned and pulled him around by his shoulder. "The mission is terminated, Roman. Get your essentials, then help Mia with the food stores. I've got the central computer."

Rose spoke up over the din. "Captain? About our suits?"

Adelaide looked at her and nodded. "Steffi! Get their space suits out of lock up." She got a nod out of the woman, who turned towards storage. Jenny and Rose followed after her.

John placed a hand on Adelaide and Ed's arms. "I need to speak to the two of you in private. Wont take long, I promise."

"You've got two minutes, John," Adelaide said. "We can use the communications booth."

The Doctor looked at his brother, alarmed. "What are you up to?"

"Never mind," John said. "Get Rose and Jenny sorted." Setting up a mental screen, he thought to him as he followed Ed and Adelaide into the booth. 'You know why. This isn't just you anymore. Share the load, now go.'

The Doctor frowned at his brother's retreating form, but knew he was right. Scowling, he turned away and went to help the girls with the suits.

Once they were inside the communications booth, Adelaide gave John an impatient look. "Make this quick. We have a half a year trip or more to stock up for."

John nodded. "This will be as quick as I can make it. Just trust me." In the small confines of the booth, it was easy for him to reach out to both of them and place his fingers on their temples, even though they both shied away.

The base faded from sight around them, and changed to a simple white room. Ed whirled around and away from John while Adelaide simply gasped. "What's going on? What'd you do to us?"

"Calm down," John said. "This is the fastest way for me to relay information. When we're done, only a second of actual time will have passed."

"You really are telepathic?" Ed asked, petrified. Adelaide looked at him in shock.

"Yes," John nodded. "Normally, I'd ask permission first, but this is an emergency and I apologize. Don't worry, I won't be changing anything in your mind, but you have the right to know what's happening no matter what my brother may think."

Adelaide forced herself to remain calm, impressing John immensely. "All right. What is so important that you have to invade our heads?"

John sighed. "This isn't... Oh hell, never mind. I'm here to tell you about your granddaughter."

"What about her?" Ed shouted.

Adelaide glared at him. "Ed!"

"Calm Down!" John said, waving for them to settle. Turning to Adelaide, he tried to explain. "Remember what I said to you on the way to the bio dome, about how Einstein was wrong about the speed of light?"

She nodded. "Yeah, but you sounded like a nutter, so I ignored it."

John smiled. "I'm in your head, love. Now's not the time to question sanity."

"You're about to talk about time travel, aren't you?" Ed asked, completely taking John off guard.

"How did you know that?" he asked him with wide eyes. He was completely confused when he discovered that all of his mental doors were in place.

"We heard your chatter," Ed said. "Why else do you think I was out there with a rifle?"

"Sounded crackers, the lot of you," Adelaide added. "But you were here, and that wasn't possible. So I ignored that and sent him out there. Still think you're round the bend."

John made a mental note to set up some scramblers on the suits later, and berate his brother for his oversight. "Okay. Crackers or not, this is important." He pointed ahead of him, where a huge screen appeared with a file of a woman on it. "That right there is your legacy... both of you."

They turned to look at the screen and had matching expressions of shock on their face. In huge letters at the top, read the name 'Susan Fontana Brooke'. Marveling at the picture of a young woman in uniform, they both stepped closer to read.

'First Lightspeed Ship - Proud Heritage. Susie Fontana Brooke has been successful in her mission to Proxima Centauri. Entering the Space Agency at an early age, Brooke followed in the footsteps of her grandmother, the legendary Captain Adelaide Brook, who led the mission to set up the first scientific colony on Mars - A mission that ended in tragedy. A veil of darkness spread over the planet with the news of a nuclear blast in 2059 which destroyed Bowie Base One.'

Adelaide turned to John. "That's really her?" He nodded. "Why are you telling us this?"

Ed put a hand on her shoulder and turned her back around. Pointing at the screen, he read aloud. "... first scientific colony on Mars - A mission that ended in tragedy." He turned to look at John. "Tragedy? Nuclear blast? Why? Are you here to stop this?"

John startled them both when he said, "No."

"Then why?" Adelaide asked him.

John looked at his feet. "Like I said before, we're here by accident. My brother wanted to give Jenny an educational field trip about the Martian colonization. That was all. We got the year wrong."

"But you fix this now, right?" Ed asked.

"No," John said. "I'm sorry, but we can't. And the reason is Suzie."

That brought them up short. "What do you mean?" Adelaide asked.

John looked pained. "Your death here is her inspiration. The reason my brother admires you lot so much, is because she's one of his heroes. You both were the reason for Suzie's obsessive drive for space. Her flight was the catalyst for human expansion into the galaxy for the first time." He paused, looking into their faces one at a time. "Your legacy is the dawn of the first Federated Alliance with the other powers in this spiral arm of the Milky Way. Your descendents... and yes Ed, I know she's your granddaughter as well... Your descendents reach out to the stars because of what happens here today, and grab them with both hands."

They were quiet and staring at each other, so he continued. "Normally, we can come in and tweak things to make them better. But, there are points of history that must never be changed at all costs, lest all of history falls apart. Call them fixed points. Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo? Fixed. Hitler's invasion of Poland? Fixed. Japan's attack at Pearl Harbor? Fixed. The Moonshot? Fixed. Suzie's light speed flight to Proxima Centauri? Fixed... and by extension..." His voice dropped to a whisper. "Today... Fixed."

Adelaide closed her eyes and bent her head down with her face twisted up. Ed closed the gap between them and hugged her close. "Why..." she started, then swallowed. "Why are you telling us this?"

John's voice was wobbly with emotion. "Consolation. You needed to know. My brother is conflicted with this, because he idolizes Suzie and wants to save her some pain. But it's wrong, and will undo an enormous amount of human history - both in space as well as here on Mars. The detonation must've obliterated whatever microbes are locked in the glacier, because by the middle of the next century there are thousands of colonists on the planet - no infections."

Ed looked over at him to see tears streaking down John's face. "You'll forgive us if we try anyway. I'm not about to go down without a fight."

John smiled sadly. "Indomitable. Just remember one thing. Those microbes targeted Andy and Maggie, not the birds I heard chirping in the bio dome. What does Earth have that Mars doesn't?"

"Liquid water," Adelaide said. She pulled away from Ed and placed her hands over her nose and mouth. "Oh god."

"One drop," John said, "and what happens here will happen there."

She steeled herself and looked at Ed. "When we're out of here, I want you to get to the rocket and set up for immediate launch. If for some reason it gets compromised..."

"I'll do it," Ed whispered. "John, get us out of this thing."