OKAY, GET READY FOR A BIG, UNSUBTLE INFO-DUMP. RAJ'S NAME MIGHT AS WELL BE "EXPOSITION GUY." SORRY!

TEN

She got herself a Shirley Temple and sat down. She was sipping on it, staring into space, when Raj entered. He grabbed himself a coke and sat down with her.

"Martha," he said. He reached out to shake her hand. "You know, under different circumstances, I'd have half a mind to ask you out on a date."

"Wait, that's not what we're doing?" she asked.

He laughed. "We can pretend, I suppose."

"Okay. What's your sign?"

"Food and petrol, next left. Yours?"

"Mine too! It's like kismet!" she exclaimed.

After a brief silence, Raj broke eye contact, then said. "So, I suppose you're wondering what the hell is going on."

Martha sighed. "Yes. I am."

He looked up at her. "You have been very patient, Martha, and you haven't lost hope. That's one of the reasons why we chose you. You are an indomitable spirit. The Doctor thought so too. I know he made you feel second-best a lot of the time, but he never really thought that."

"Thanks for that," she said sincerely. "Chose me for what?"

"We chose you to be the one who remembers."

"I'm not sure how to feel about that right now," Martha told him.

"I know it's difficult," he said. "But it's like I told you this morning, it's very important that you persevere. Dark forces are at work, and it's vital that we fight against them. What happened with the Doctor today?"

"You mean David?" She said his name with big, exaggerated air-quotes and a roll of her eyes.

"Yes, him."

"He came in during Professor Simm's presentation and really took the piss out of him." She said this with glee, with relish. "He clearly disapproves of the Augmenter."

Raj whispered. "The thing that looks like a Dalek."

"Yeah! And by the way... disturbing! But apart from that, medically speaking, this lymphocyte augmentation... I think it's dangerous, especially doled out like a vaccine."

Raj told her, "Indeed. But it's just a ruse. What that machine really does is something like what you saw in Manhattan in the 30's. The, er, rectal probe transforms people into upright-walking Daleks. Humourless, emotionless, ruthless. All he would have to do is get something like 25% of Great Britain, and they would be able to topple the Earth."

"Whoa! Does the Master know?"

"We don't think so. We're fairly certain he's as clueless as Billie and Catherine and John and the rest."

Martha blinked a few times. "I didn't see that coming."

"Did you talk to David at all?"

"Yeah. Then when everyone left, I stayed on to talk with him. I convinced him that he should publish something to rebut the device. I even volunteered to be his research assistant."

"You persuaded him to speak out against Simm and his Augmenter?"

"Yes," Martha said, pulling a face. "Is that bad?"

"No, that's brilliant. Plant the seed, get David to act like the Doctor, lash out against the Master, fight the Daleks... He's got the strongest minde of them all, and the closer he gets, the more his memories will start to surface. My guess is that just being around Simm and Billie has given him some interesting nightmares. He probably had a flash of something when he met you today... no, no, this is great!"

Martha smiled. She had been right. Her instinct that she could set things right by turning David against Professor Simm had been correct.

"But why is he Scottish?"

Raj chuckled. "I don't know. Just like I don't know why Billie has that cross around her neck, or why Catherine wears a Wonder Bra. Their histories and personalities have been re-written. I suppose for the Doctor, an alternate reality was created wherein some kid named David was born and educated in Scotland. The technology used is semi-sentient, which means that sometimes, it just chooses without any rhyme or reason."

She looked at him quizzically, and for a few awful moments, Raj wondered if she didn't trust him. Then she asked, "I'm sorry, but who the hell are you? I mean, I live for twelve weeks in Crazyland, and then you show up out of nowhere and seem to know everything about me, my old life."

"I'm not human, but I look like one," Raj told her. "But I guess that's not going to be big news to you. I'm from the planet known as Kaf Celape, do you remember that?"

"Yes! Yes I do! I remember being kidnapped in the lower level of Torchwood and dragged into a little room, and then I woke up here. But John told me that Khef Selapi was some head case who worked at the private hospital while I was in my coma, and that he'd tried to revive me with chemicals."

"My brother, I'll use your word, kidnapped you. We're sorry that we frightened you, but it had to get done in a hurry. By the time we reached Torchwood, the Doctor was already sucked in, and Jack got pulled in before we could stop it. We had to protect you, and we didn't have time to explain. Very, very sorry for that, Martha."

"Oh, my God."

"My cover-name here is Raj Selapi, and according to the Council, I'm the brother of Khef who is in jail for assaulting you. He didn't get away before reality collapsed, and suddenly he found himself in some hospital basement being arrested. Fortunately, the whole process was completed by then, and though my brother had to be sacrificed to the system, our goal was met: you are here, and you are lucid."

"Reality collapsed? What's causing that?"

"Well, it didn't so much as collapse as turn inside-out. You might remember that the Kaf Celape are very good at bending reality?"

"Vaguely."

"You see, a while back, our planet was visited by a charming bloke called Davros. We had never seen a Dalek before, and he convinced us that his plans were on the up-and-up and got us to show him our reality-bending technology. I regret to say that my people gave him the tools he needed to do... this." Raj gestured around the room, indicating this alternate world.

"Wow. That's huge."

"Yes, well. As soon as we worked out what he was up to, the harmful process he was planning on foisting upon the human race, and that the reality bending was meant to incapacitate everyone associated with his 'greatest enemy,' we summoned the Doctor to warn him, and also to gain his expertise. One day while he was on our planet, our machinery went haywire, and then he simply disappeared. We found him on Earth a few weeks later, working at the university, with no knowledge of his life as a Time Lord. He was the first one sucked in, as it were. So we went to Torchwood, as we figured, in the absence of a travelling companion, the second-in-command would be Jack Harkness. We were there, as you know, for about a week and then Jack was sucked in. So we took you out of the line of fire by..."

"...pumping me with some sort of chemicals," Martha finished his thought.

Raj gestured to say 'you're right'. "We gave you a dose of something that made you invisible to the scanner that detects subjects of the reality transfer. We use it on ourselves sometimes when we're 'fixing things' as it were. Oh, and we had just enough time to keep your family intact so you'd have some kind of anchor, but technically, they are victims of this process as well, since they don't remember the Doctor or the Master or anything."

"But the Master is dead! What's he doing here."

"He did not die, he exiled himself to a different reality – that is a long, long story which I will leave for the Doctor to regale you with someday, if we ever get out of this mess. But the Master is, in spite of all practical appearances, a Time Lord. Therefore Davros saw him as a threat. He pulled the Master and Rose out of their respective alternative realities at the same time and dumped them in this world together, that's why they're so close here. They both carry some kind of residue from the dragging-across that was done to them, and it attracts them to each other like magnets. Has the Doctor ever talked to you about void stuff?"

"No."

"Damn," he said. "Well, it attaches to a being that crosses the void space between realities. However, there is an extra interdimensional polarity as a result of pulling the subjects across two separate realities, especially if one of them is a false, manufactured reality like this one. Professor Simm and Billie are... well, you get the idea." Raj tipped an eyebrow at her suggestively.

"Ugh," Martha groaned. "I don't even want to think about that."

"Yeah, well, get used to it. The rumours are true. Reality collapsing makes for strange bedfellows."

"Ugh," Martha said again.

"And what's more, that same residue that they carry is repelling them from everyone else who is a victim of this, which is why The Doctor and Rose bristle when they see each other. Basic quantum physics, I'm afraid."

"What about me? I didn't bristle when I saw her, and I have good reason to," she asked.

"You're not really a victim are you? You're still Martha Jones! And! I think you'll find that you're the only one in this little game who's got any family or friendly ties. Have you heard any of them discuss their past?"

"Just John," Martha answered. "He told me about his friend Chris."

"We think that's a residual memory of another version of the Doctor, before he regenerated into the Doctor that you know. For some reason John remembers him as an old boyfriend."

Martha giggled. "Aw," she drawled. "That's cute. Some things don't change."

There was a long silence while Martha processed it all, and Raj let her. Each of them sipped at their drink slowly. Martha was first to speak again.

"So what do I do? Same thing as 1913, wait for it to blow over? Or blow up?"

Raj sat back in his chair. "No, because in 1913, his biology had been rewritten. Not this time. He's still a Time Lord in his cells, it's only his mind that's been altered. And as I've said, and as you already know, his mind is perhaps the strongest in the universe."

"So I keep giving him things to remind him of who he is?"

"Yes, exactly," he said. "Don't go too fast or he will shut it all out. But if we can bring him round before Davros puppets the Master into getting it approved for universal vaccinations, then we can thwart the whole thing. But as I've told you, my people had never seen a Dalek before a few months ago, and we know nothing about them. If we're going to stop them, we're going to need the Doctor."

"Okay," Martha said, the wheels in her brain turning rapidly. "I'll spend as much time with him as I can, and start implating ideas... giving him images... But wait, what about the Master? Couldn't that just as easily be done to him?"

"Possibly," Raj said. "He is no Doctor, but all Time Lords were blessed with superior intellect."

"Should I work on him as well? If he's an enemy of the Daleks, won't he pull away from the scheme as soon as he knows about it?"

"With the Master, it could go either way. It's hard to say what will take precedence in his moral compass, the hatred of Daleks or the hatred of humankind. It's a risk. Better to leave him in the dark until we have the Doctor nice and lucid."

Martha sat up straight, and looked at Raj with renewed hope. She had a task. She knew what to do. She held out her hand. "Thank you, Raj."

"You're welcome, Martha," he said, kissing, rather than shaking her hand. Then he looked at her slyly. "You already have a plan, don't you?"

She smiled. "Yes. I'll see you later."

She stood up and left the tavern, and as she did so, she dialled her mobile phone. "John? Martha. Change of plans."