The Doctor and the Angels - chapter 7
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Martha Jones watched the Doctor vanish with a mixture of trepidation and satisfaction. She had known, of course, that this would be the outcome - but she still couldn't shake the feeling that she had sent him off into who-knows-what kind of trouble.
"Brigadier?" she said.
"Yes?" the normally sharp toned man jumped in surprise.
"Keep your eyes on that angel please."
"Of course." The Brigadier complied as the young woman spoke through her intercom and requested more marksmen. Two more entered through the window and took up their places. All four angels were now effectively surrounded and Martha ushered out David, Liz, Harry and finally Alistair into the grounds of the house, moving them quickly along until they were safely ensconced in the back of a black UNIT van. It was equipped with video screens and it became apparent that the feeds were coming from cameras placed on the marksmen's helmets. For several minutes there was no talking as they watched the men work, quickly handling the stone angels into a square formation facing each other. Once this was accomplished they loaded the TARDIS onto a square palette on wheels and pushed it out of the house and into another van. The young woman heaved an audible sigh of relief and finally turned to the visitors.
"Doctor Martha Jones" she offered, as the Brigadier shook her hand.
"Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart." he answered crisply.
"I know," she replied with a broad smile. "We've met. Well, I've met you."
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
The Doctor staggered and landed with a thump on a grassy incline under a weeping willow. At the foot of the slope was a sharp drop into a fast flowing river and for a moment he thanked his lucky stars he hadn't landed in it. He came to his senses quickly and looked around; there was no sign of Sarah Jane. He closed his eyes and concentrated; there was definitely no sign. The disruption in time here only accounted for his own sudden arrival. She wasn't here, nor had she been here recently. Damn.
He stood and shook himself off. Which way? For a moment he waited, lost. She could literally be anywhere, and anywhen. And then something caught his eye. A mark on the tree trunk, tiny, but significant in the way it had been made. Not burned, or carved, but bored into the wood, as though by a very tiny, concentrated, vibrating frequency. Something that could have been a sonic screwdriver… it was an arrow, and it pointed upstream.
"Excellent."
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Sarah Jane wasn't wearing a watch; but she'd sat on the bench long enough to read the paper from cover to cover; for two dog walkers and a pair of young lovers to come past, all giving her slightly curious looks as they did; and for the sun to move far enough across the sky for it to now be shining directly into her eyes. She sighed and looked up yet again, scanning the horizon and craning her neck to see behind her, something she'd been reflexively doing approximately every thirty seconds since she'd sat down. At some point, she'd have to get up and move. She couldn't spend the night here. Although she wasn't altogether sure where she was going to spend the night. She had almost made up her mind to get up when someone cleared their throat awkwardly behind her. Standing and whirling round, she came face to face with a young girl. Very young, perhaps only a teenager. Sarah could tell immediately that this girl was certainly not from 1921. She was wearing a short, thickly padded black jacket in a shiny fabric that was covered in badges, and her hair was tightly pulled back. She looked as out of place as Sarah did.
"Who are you?" Sarah questioned her automatically but the girl shook her head.
"I can't tell you. But I've got a message for you."
"From whom?" Sarah demanded.
"I can't tell you. But he said 'be patient'. He said you'd know what he meant."
"Well, yes, of course I know what that means, but how patient exactly? How long is he going to be?"
"Sorry. Don't know. That's all he said."
Sarah threw her head back and rolled her eyes in frustration.
"Why, that infuriating…" she trailed off as she saw the girl had vanished.
Frustrated as she was, it was a sign. He was searching for her, and by the looks of it, in the right place. Resolving to give him another half hour, she flopped back down on the bench.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
The Brigadier sipped at the tasteless tea he'd wrestled from the vending machine and pulled a face.
"Convenience certainly isn't everything, is it?" Liz observed wryly as she joined him, grimacing at the paper cup she held suspiciously between finger and thumb as though it might explode.
Alistair barked a short laugh and gestured at the operation running below them.
"It's all come on a bit since the 1970's hasn't it? This looks like something from a Bond film."
Liz chuckled and glanced down at her hands before answering.
"Yes I suppose so." she turned to face him fully; "Are you alright?"
"Of course. Are you?"
She shrugged and looked back at the personnel going about their work, a staggering amount of technology in use in a space that would have held perhaps two computer processing units in their own time.
"I suppose so." she paused. "You know, Doctor Jones says there's a job for me here if I want it."
Her tone was so offhand it took the Brigadier a moment to comprehend what she'd said.
"And do you want it?"
"I honestly don't know. Things are much more equal here. Martha said it's not a won battle by any means but I'd be taken more seriously, I wouldn't have the same struggles women do in the seventies.." she trailed off and started to gnaw on her lip, something Alistair had never seen her do before.
"I take you seriously, Liz," he said with more feeling than he intended. She quirked a tiny smile without looking at him.
"I know. But we must plan for what we do if the Doctor doesn't make it back, Alistair."
He nodded slowly. She was, as always, right.
"We know one thing though," she continued, "Doctor Jones has met you. An older version of you. That means you at least go back, somehow."
She was right. Again. The Brigadier took another sip of his tea, principally to cover the look on his face at the thought of leaving her behind in the 21st century.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
David balked at the medibay he'd been taken to. The sheer amount of equipment was overwhelming and he had the distinct impression he was about to be used as a human lab rat. Harry clapped a hand onto his shoulder.
"Don't worry, old chap, they only want a few samples. Doctor Jones explained it all to me. It seems they want to test if your biology has been altered by travelling through time as you did." his eyes drifted around the room. "I say, is that an electronic sphyg?" he exclaimed, suddenly distracted. David was not at all comforted and perched gingerly on the edge of the trolley. Martha Jones appeared several moments later and shrugged into her lab coat.
"David, isn't it?" she asked him in a friendly tone and he relaxed instantly. Intentional or not, her bedside manner was certainly effective.
"Yes, Doctor Jones?"
"Martha," she clarified. "And don't look so nervous, I'm not here to run experiments on you. I just want a couple of blood samples and some skin scrapes if that's okay?"
David nodded.
"Okay."
"If we can flag anything unusual it might help us to track down other victims of the Angels. And if - when the Doctor gets back we could use the TARDIS to return some people to their right times. It's worth a try, anyway."
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
A/N - a sphygmomanometer is used to measure blood pressure. Its one of my favourite words although Harry understandably uses the shortened version…I'm pretty sure electronic ones weren't around in the 70s anyway.
Thanks for reading. Please review, your thoughts are always welcome.
