Chapter Ten: I Know Quite a Bit, Thanks.
AKA My response when one of the bullies at my old school asked me 'What do you know?'
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Well, I'm, not Steven Moffat, nor DanniFielding (because I reckon she's brilliant - Hey, I can be fans of other fics!) nor am I Davies... So I guess I don't own it?
xXx
The Doctor wove between various exhibits in the museum, bending down to comment on their accuracy as he went by. Kati-Rose lingered by a few before going over to a stone box with circular carvings etched on it. The carvings wriggled around for a little while before forming five words – 'Hello Sweetie. Hiya Aunt 'Iana!'Who's Aunt 'Iana? Kati-Rose questioned herself. She continued to examine the box with a questioning look on her face- how had a metal box turned to stone? Was one of the prominent questions in her mind.
"Wrong. Wrong. Bit right, mostly wrong," the Doctor listed before smiling. "I love museums," he told Amy, who rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, great," she said sarcastically. "Can we go to a planet now? Big space ship? Churchill's bunker?" Amy asked imploringly. "You promised us a planet next." she whined, indicating herself and Kati-Rose.
"Amy, this isn't any old asteroid." The Doctor told her, still weaving through the exhibits as she followed along on the Doctor's left. "It's the Delerium Archive, the final resting place of the headless monks. The biggest museum ever."
Kati-Rose tensed at the mention of the decapitated monastics – she remembered the episode of Demon's Run all-too-clearly.
"You've got a time machine." Amy pointed out, "What do you need museums for?"
The Doctor ignored her and went on with his list of inaccuracy. Kati blocked this out as she ran through all the possible people 'Iana could be. She came up with zero ideas.
"Wrong. Very wrong." He spotted another exhibit. "Ooo, one of mine." he said excitedly, "Also one of mine."
"Oh, I see." Amy said irritably, "It's how you keep score."
The Doctor noticed Kati-Rose staring at the box in the glass cube with a vacant expression on her face. He walked over to stand beside her her, and Amy followed, standing on the other side.
"Oh great, an old box." Amy said scathingly.
Kati-Rose lifted her head from where it was gazing at the box to face her, a look of indignation on her face. "Amelia Pond!" she said firmly. "Have some respect! This is one of the most important 'old boxes', as you so kindly put it, in the universe!"
And she was telling the truth. This box would save River Song in the very near past? Future? Anyway, if River died at this point, the time-lines would become so messed up, Amelia wouldn't have even lived to see her tenth birthday (Kati-Rose and her friends had spent ages going over possible scenarios of what would have happened if the Doctor hadn't have fixed the crack, the most prominent and likely one being that Amelia would never have existed.)
"Sorry, 'Iana." Amy said, looking at the floor.
"That's quite alright." Said Kati-Rose, smiling. So that's who 'Iana was, she though victoriously. Wait... Aunt?! After a moment of panic, she internally shrugged- she'd find out eventually. Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey.
The Doctor smiled. "The box is from one of the old star liners. A Home Box." he explained.
"What's a Home Box?" Amy asked.
"Like a black box on a plane, except it homes. Anything happens to the ship, the Home box flies home with all the flight data." The Doctor explained.
"So?"
Kati-Rose cut in. "The writing, the graffiti. Old High Gallifreyan. The lost language of the Time Lords." she said reminiscently.
"There were days, there were many days, these words could burn stars and raise up empires and topple gods." The Doctor said, his voice (or was she imagining it?) slightly husky.
"So what does it say?" Amy asked.
"Hello Sweetie." The Doctor said incredulously.
"Hiya Aunt 'Iana." Kati-Rose completed, smirking. At least her hello wasn't condescending.
"Aunt?" Amy questioned. The Doctor hurriedly came up with an explanation.
"It was a term of respect for someone that made sure you were always okay and you looked up to." he told her. What? Kati-Rose thought. Really? What was she going to do for River Song?
"So what are we going to do with it?" Amy asked.
"We're going to borrow it." the Doctor said.
"Really. Are we ever going to give it back?" asked Kati-Rose teasingly. He never gave back the TARDIS, after all.
The Doctor pouted. "Maybe."
Kati-Rose grinned, "Good enough for me! To the TARDIS! Allons-y!"
The Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver (useful, that was- except on wood) and buzzed the lock on the glass casing. It swung open, and he grabbed it. An alarm blared. The trio started running towards the TARDIS as guards chased after them.
Kati-Rose grabbed the handle and pulled the door open, ushering the Doctor and Amy in, before spinning in herself and shutting the door firmly. The Doctor immediately rushed towards the console and started hooking the stone cube up to the monitor. Kati-Rose leaned against the door, watching the pair.
"Why are we doing this?" Amy asked the Doctor.
"Because someone on a spaceship twelve thousand years ago is trying to attract our attention." he said, indicating himself and Kati-Rose, who twiddled her fingers in a wave. ((A.N: you know, that transverse wave thing you do with your fingers? No? Just me?))
The Doctor waved back before continuing, "Let's see if we can get the security playback working."
The screen flickered to life to show River lowering her sunglasses and winking at the camera. The Doctor adjusted one of the cables and the video zoomed forward. A man came up to her, flanked by guards.
"Party's over, Doctor Song." He told River, "Yet you're still on board."
"I needed to see what was in your vault." River told him. "Do you all know what's down there? Any of you?" she asked. "Because I'll tell you something. This ship won't reach it's destination."
"Waits 'till she runs." the man told the guards, "Don't make it look like an execution."
River looked down at her watch. "Triple seven five," she started listing, "slash three four nine nine ten, ten twelve slash acorn. Oh, and I could do with an air corridor." she added, perfecting her hair as she did so.
The Doctor moved over to the keyboard and started typing in the coordinates. Kati-Rose smiled. Acorn, she thought, shaking her head. This was an example of official coordinates - what had the world, sorry, universe come to?
"What was that?" Amy asked, "What did she say?" She held onto the rail at the bottom of the monitor.
"Coordinates." Kati-Rose told her from the doorway.
The Doctor pulled a few levers and pressed a button that made a 'ding!' noise as the recording of River and the men continued.
"Like I said on the dance floor," River said flirtingly, "you might want to find something to hold on to."
The man at the front gained a look of surprise as he noticed the airlock seal and he and his men grabbed onto the pipes along the side of the corridor. The airlock behind her opened as River blew a kiss to the men.
The Doctor gave a whoop as the TARDIS materialised and rushed towards the doors. Kati-Rose moved to the side slightly as he pushed one open and reached out to pull River into the TARDIS. They both fell over and Kati-Rose giggled (she remembered all the times that they had to re-take that shot in her world- poor Matt.)
Amy looked at the pair on the floor in shock, her arms at her sides. "Doctor?" She asked.
"River?" The Doctor breathed.
"River!" Kati-Rose said happily, moving over from her position beside the doorway. She bobbed down beside the aliens on the floor.
"Either get up or snog him," she told River seriously, who smirked while the Doctor blushed.
"Sure," River replied flirtatiously. Kati-Rose laughed, and helped her up.
The Doctor jumped to his feet and the three went over to the doors to see the Byzantium zooming off. "Follow that ship," River told him, voice serious now.
The Doctor and River rushed over to the console (this moment was what made Kati-Rose wonder the purpose of that previous statement) and started programming the TARDIS to keep up with the ship. Kati-Rose made her way over at a leisurely pace (she couldn't fly the TARDIS, so she wouldn't be of much help. She may as well take her time). River took off her heels and hung them on the bar underneath the screen.
"They've gone into warp drive." River stated, checking the screen, "We're losing them. Stay close."
"I'm trying." said the Doctor, pushing buttons and pulling levers. Kati-Rose went over to Amy, and leant on the railing next to her.
"Heya Ames! How's life on the TARDIS?" she asked Amy cheerfully in a whisper.
"Boring." Amy complained, "I want to see a planet." Kati-Rose would have scolded her at this point in time, but admittedly, she wanted to see a planet as well.
"Yeah, for a alien with a ship that travels in time and space, you would think that he would be able to go to a place other than England. Good Gummi-bears," Kati-Rose said. ((A.N: Because Australians all eat Gummi-bears))
The two girls laughed in hushed tones, drawing the attention of the Doctor, who had just sat down in a huff on the pilot's chair.
"Watch this." Amy whispered quietly in Kati-Rose's ear. "Doctor," she started. "How come she can fly the TARDIS?" she asked.
This seemed to send the Doctor deeper into his tiff. "You call that flying the TARDIS? Ha!"
"Okay." River started, "I've mapped the probability vectors, done a fold-back on the temporal isometry, charted the ship to it's destination, and parked us right along-side."
"Translation." Kati-Rose called out to the room at large. "You've mapped the quantity with both direction and magnitude that has elements which are non-negative real numbers that add up to one, amplified the time and distance preserving map between two spaces from behind, followed the ship to it's destination using the the reverse magnified time and distance preserving map and landed." She bowed, then straightened up, and frowned.
"How did I know that?" she asked. The Doctor, however, was more focused on the last part of her statement.
"We haven't landed." he told River, who smiled smugly.
"Of course we did. I just landed her." she told him.
"But, it didn't make the noise." the Doctor said, akin to a child whining.
"What noise?" River asked him, confused.
"You know, the-" the Doctor tried, and failed, to imitate the sound the TARDIS made when it landed. Kati-Rose clicked her fingers, and the TARDIS played the noise (when the Doctor was trying to make the wheezing noise, she had asked the TARDIS, very nicely, to make the noise when she clicked. The TARDIS was wrapped around her finger when she was polite, it seemed). The Doctor gave her an incredibly grateful look, to which she replied with a wink and a smile, which made him blush. She saw why River did this now- it was incredibly fun.
"It's not supposed to make that noise." River told him, "You leave the breaks on."
"Yeah, well, it's a brilliant noise. I love that noise." the Doctor blustered.
"Come along, Pond. Let's have a look." he said. He started to walk towards the doors, Amy following.
"No, wait." River called after them, "Environment checks."
"Oh, yes, sorry." said the Doctor, who had reached the doors, "Quite right. Environment checks." He opened the doors and swung out.
"Nice out." he said matter-of-factly.
River looked over to the screen. "We're somewhere in the Garn Belt. There's an atmosphere. Early indications suggest that-" the Doctor cut her off.
"We're on Alfava Metraxis, the seventh planet of the Dundra system. Oxygen rich atmosphere, all toxins in the soft band, eleven hour day and chances of rain later." he prattled off.
"He thinks he's so hot when he does that." River sighed in exasperation. She and Kati-Rose walked towards the doors.
"Does what?" Kati-Rose asked her. "Imitates a GPS and the radio weather?"
The girls laughed while the Doctor pouted.
"How come you can fly the TARDIS?" Amy asked River.
"I was taught by the very best." River boasted.
The Doctor looked smug, "Yeah, well-"
"It's a shame you were busy that day." River told him, and his face turned 'grumpy' as Amy would put it later. "Kati-Rose is an excellent tutor. Right then, why did they land here?" she asked rhetorically.
Tutor? Kati-Rose asked herself. How big a part of River's life was she? How many things did she change by being here, in this universe? And how did she learn to fly the TARDIS? She wrenched herself out of her thoughts- she didn't want to end up like Sherlock, sitting in a single spot for hours.
"They didn't land." Kati-Rose said, remembering what came next.
"Sorry?" River said, unsure of what she had heard.
"You should have checked the Home Box." the Doctor told her, "It crashed."
River went slightly pale, and rushed out of the TARDIS. Amy turned to the Doctor.
"Explain." she said shortly. "Who is that and how did she do that museum thing?"
"It's a long story and I don't know most of it," The Doctor said in an equal tone. "Off we go," he started walking towards the console.
"What are you doing?" Amy said, remaining by the door, next to Kati-Rose.
"Leaving." the Doctor said in staccato. "She's got where she wants to go, let's go where we want to go."
"Are you basically running away?" Amy asked bluntly. Of course he is, Kati-Rose thought. He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day. Though the Doctor had sworn against violence, so it's more like: he who runs away, lives another day (which is still true).
"Yep," the Doctor replied.
"Why?" Amy asked. Because he has the ability to, Kati-Rose answered internally.
"Because she's the future. My future."
"Can you run away from that?" Amy asked, full of questions. Can anyone really escape the future? Kati-Rose wondered.
"I can run away from anything I like. Time is not the boss of me." the Doctor said.
"Adelaide Brooke." Kati-Rose said loudly, her voice cracking slightly.
The Doctor paled.
"In the name of Adelaide Brooke, I ask that you never, ever say that again." she said to him. It was cruel of her, she knew, to remind him of his moments of insanity and the consequences of his actions.
"Okay." The Doctor choked.
"I'm sorry..." Kati-Rose whispered. It's okay, he mouthed.
Amy looked between them- Kati-Rose looked close to tears but determined, and the Doctor had reacted as though he'd been told that someone had killed his beloved pet cat.
"Hang on," Amy said slowly, breaking the moment (For the love of jelly-beans, Writer! There are no moments!). "Is that a planet out there?" she asked.
"Yes, of course it's a plane," Kati-Rose said.
"You promised us a planet," Amy pointed out to the Doctor.
"Five minutes?" Kati-Rose pleaded.
The Doctor relented, "Okay, five minutes."
"Yes!" Amy cheered, and she and Kati-Rose hi-fived.
"But that's all, because I'm telling you now, that woman is not dragging me into anything."
Oh yes she will, Kati-Rose thought, as Amy dragged her out the door to look at the once-sleek spaceship sticking out of a building carved out of the rock, a burning wreck.
The Doctor followed them out of the TARDIS to where they were standing five feet away, staring, transfixed, at the spaceship.
"What caused it to crash?" Amy asked.
"Not me." River said.
"Nah, the airlock would have sealed seconds after you blew it." The Doctor told her, "According to the Home Box, the warp engines had a phase shift. No survivors."
Kati-Rose wandered off, trying to get a closer look at the building, her boots scraping slightly against the rocks covering the ground. From the way it looked, you wouldn't be able to tell that as soon as you went into it, you were a goner. It was filled with millions upon millions of statues, and all of them were Weeping Angels. How in the name of jelly-beans had the Doctor survived this?
Behind her, she heard River, the Doctor and Father Octavian talking about the 'mission'. One statement stood out among the rest.
"Doctor, what do you know of the Weeping Angels?"
Kati-Rose's blood seemed to freeze in her veins. Now, above all other times, she realised that this was really happening.
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Ha ha ha ha haaa... *sigh* Well, I said I wouldn't, but I did. Now you can all be on the edge of your seats until next Saturday/Friday! Have fun!
Also, 20 reviews? You spoil me so!
Ta-ta ('till Saturday/Friday),
LoS :D