Six
Rattigan Academy sat on a hill overlooking south London. As the Doctor drove the taxi up the main building, Rose stared out the window. The sight was unbelievable: London, engulfed in clouds too thick to be fog. She could just make out the Eye, rising above the city.
As soon as the taxi was parked, they dashed toward the main building, racing through its hallowed–or rather–hollowed halls, until they reached a laboratory. The Doctor clapped his hands together and began dashing around the room, collecting vials, beakers, and devices she couldn't put a name too. "I need to create a counter-agent for the coronic acid and code it into the atmospheric converter in a way that won't draw my attention when I come later," he explained.
"I'll go and keep watch then," she said, anxious to stay out of his way as he worked. He'd put on his glasses and was moving with that frantic intensity she remembered so well from their time together.
He glanced up. "Watch out for Luke Rattigan. He'll be skulking about somewhere. Don't let him shoot anyone. Including himself. We'll need him later to... save the day."
During her visit to the alternate universe that had created itself around Donna, she had learned some of the details of this incident, but not the particulars of how the Doctor had handled it. How exactly Luke Rattigan fit into it, she didn't really know.
She raised an eyebrow. "And what do I tell him when he asks why we're here?"
"Just say you need to use his lab to perform gravimetric analysis of some samples."
"And he'll know what that means?"
"Of course."
"Well good." And then, under her breath, "Because I certainly don't."
He was so absorbed now that he didn't even pause to reply, and she headed out into the hall, shutting the door behind her. It was strange to think that he was in there, but also out there somewhere, back at the ATMOS factory. He was saving the world, just as he always did, with no notion that she was in this universe, shadowing him, part of a game of hide and seek between his past and his future.
She was startled from her reveries by the clack of footsteps echoing from an adjoining hallway. Though she had not met Luke Rattigan, Rose suspected that he did not wear heavy boots and march down corridors. As she crept closer, Rose could now hear raised voices, one, factual with clipped military tones, the other young and very shaky.
"Turn to face me, coward."
"Why are you here?"
Rose darted a glance around the corridor and her suspicions were confirmed for there, just a few feet away, stood the blue-clad shape of a Sontaran soldier, weapon aimed at the back a mousy boy that could only be Luke Rattigan.
"I have orders from General Stall to ensure that you don't cause any trouble, boy."
Luke spun around to face the Sontaran, a pistol gripped in his shaking hands. "I'll shoot!"
The Sontaran did not move. "Then do so. I do not fear death."
"I–I'm not bluffing! I'll do it, I swear I'll do it."
"You tremble like a scout ship on solar winds." And with one quick motion the Sontaran batted the weapon out of Luke's hand. The pistol bounced off the wall and slid across the floor behind the Sontaran.
"But I helped you. I'm an ally."
The Sontaran scoffed. "We need no allies. You are nothing but a pawn that has served its purpose."
Groaning inwardly, Rose began to creep closer. She supposed she had to keep Luke from getting shot as well as preventing him from shooting. It was just a few feet. She stepped lightly, eyes darting between the Sontaran soldier and the pistol.
"And now," the Sontaran continued, raising his weapon, "you will–"
"Behind you!" Luke shouted.
The Sontaran's shoulders shook with its laughter. "Do you take me for a yearling, boy? I–"
And that was as far as he got before Rose snatched up the pistol used the butt to strike him in the circular hole in the back of his armour–the probic vent; the Sontaran's one weakness. The Sontaran crumpled to the floor, his helmet coming loose as his head hit the wooden floor. Luke Rattigan stared in horror, first at the fallen soldier and then at Rose.
Rose glowered. "You were trying to tell him I was coming. Were you going to let him shoot me too?"
"I–no–I–who are you?"
"I'm here to borrow your lab. To analyse the gas."
"That won't do any good. There's an entire fleet up there," he said motioning toward the ceiling.
Pistol still gripped in her hand, Rose raised her eyebrows. "Is that so? Well then I'd better work faster." She paused to remove the clip from the pistol and then handed the empty weapon back to him. "And you'd better be on your way."
He didn't argue this time, just skittered away. Rose sighed and headed back to the lab. "Doctor," she called. "We have a–" She cast a glance at the diminutive soldier crumpled on the floor. "Little problem."
She led him to the other hallway where the Sontaran remained in a heap. The Doctor, still in a lab coat, glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, crouched down next to him. "You clobbered him pretty soundly, didn't you? He's completely out. Still breathing, though." He rocked back on his heels for a moment before getting back to his feet. "We'd better get him back to the teleport. They must have unlocked the teleport pods to send him here and they'll be expecting him back. Don't want to keep the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet waiting, do we?"
Rose groaned, but, as the Doctor picked up one of the Sontaran's arms, she followed suit and grabbed the other and together they heaved him up. He weighed more than he looked like he should. Naturally.
Without his helmet, she could see the leathery tan skin of the Sontaran's oval head and his sunken eyes. She'd read the Torchwood files of course, but it was the first time she'd seen a Sontaran for herself. "You know," she said, as they staggered down the hall, "when I was little I had one of those toys–the Mr. Potato Head ones. At least I did before mum tossed him out."
Stumbling under the Sontaran's weight, the Doctor still managed to appear perplexed. "Why'd she do that?"
Rose's lips twitched. "He had an accident involving a washing machine." She paused for a moment and glanced at the Sontaran's face. "I don't feel so bad about it now."
They were grunting with effort by the time they reached the teleport and it was a great relief to be able to drop him on the floor of the device. "Won't they just send someone else in?" Rose asked as the Doctor punched buttons on the console.
"They should be otherwise occupied just about now." And then he hit a final button and stepped away from the machine. In a flash, the Sontaran was gone–and presumably back on his ship. Where he would shortly get blown up, so she supposed they weren't really doing him any favours. "Back to work now." He offered Rose his arm. "Would you care to act as my lovely assistant?"
Taking his arm, she gave him her most winning smile. "I'd love to, Doctor."
Back in the laboratory it was another matter entirely. He was once more in mad scientist mode, alternately tinkering with wires and stirring beakers set on Bunsen burners. The oversized lab coat completed the image perfectly and Rose was reminded of her secondary school chemistry teacher. She'd had a crush on him... until she'd actually had to take chemistry.
He held out a hand. "Pass me the potassium dichromate," he said, eyes fixed on a bubbling substance in the test tube in his other hand.
"The what?"
"The orange one."
After several more such exchanges and a fair bit of banging on the side panel of one of the contraptions, the Doctor broke out into a huge grin. "There. I've added the counter-agent to the coronic acid into the base setting for the atmospheric converter. I won't even know it's there."
"When you show up here. Any minute now," Rose said pointedly.
"Right. Yes. We should be going." He paused for a moment to strip off the lab coat, looking quite relieved to be rid of the thing, and then held up his dimensional transporter.
She moved to stand next to him. "Where to next, d'you think?"
"No idea," he said, and grinned. And together, they pushed the buttons.
This time when they materialized, Rose knew instantly where they were. It was somewhere she had never wanted to see again.