Notes: Hey everyone, this is where some changes happen... I'm a nit picker... In Classic Who, all of the TARDISes and Time Rings, etc. all made the noise. You cannot tell me that the Master and the Rani were stupid enough to leave the brakes on. So, I'm sorry, that's gone. A few other things are changing too, just to warn you. Moffat doesn't seem to care about consistency in his monsters, but I do. Please review! I'm not sure what it is about this one that has meant such a drop in response over the previous story, but I'd love some feedback about it? Do you want me to change things more drastically than I have been?

Chapter Eleven – The Time of Angels: Part One

They were strolling through a museum, again. Rose wondered just how often she would have to indulge her husband in this behaviour. His new incarnation seemed to take particular delight in it, even more than his last two.

Dashing excitedly through the displays, the Doctor shouted, "Wrong! Wrong! Bit right, mostly wrong... I love museums."

"Yeah, great. Can we go to a planet now? Big space ship... Churchill's bunker... You promised me a planet next," Amy complained as she followed along with Rose and Jamie, who didn't even bother trying to keep up with him.

"He does this every once in a while, it won't take long," Rose told her in consolation.

"Amy, this isn't any old asteroid. It's the Delerium Archive, the final resting place of the Headless Monks. The biggest museum ever," the Doctor informed her.

"You've got a time machine. What do you need museums for?" Amy asked.

"That will become apparent," Jamie said, rolling his eyes.

"Wrong!" the Doctor shouted suddenly. "Very wrong. Ooh, one of mine. Also one of mine, remember this one, Rose?!"

"Yes, dear!" she called after him, not really looking at what object he was referring to.

"Oh, I see. It's how he keeps score," Amy realized.

"Now you're getting it," Rose laughed as she bumped shoulders with her. "Looks like he's found something interesting. Let's go see what it is," Rose added when she saw him stop and stare at a box inside a glass case.

"Oh great, an old box," Amy snarked.

"It's from one of the old starliners. A Home Box," the Doctor told them.

"What's a Home Box?" Amy inquired, hoping the answer would be more interesting than most of her museum trips.

"It's kind of like the black box on a plane. It records all the flight data on the ship and then, if anything happens, the box flies itself home," Jamie explained and the Doctor ruffled his hair and gave him a proud smile.

"So?" Amy asked.

"It's the writing that's caught your attention, isn't it?" Rose wondered.

"Yeah... the graffiti is Old High Gallifreyan. The lost language of the Time Lords," the Doctor informed them.

"But that doesn't look like the Gallifreyan that you write now, Doctor," Rose said curiously.

"No, they stopped using this a very long time ago. Circular Gallifreyan is better for explaining time travel than this is. But, there were days, there were many days, these words could burn stars and raise up empires, and topple gods," he explained reverently.

"I can't read it, dad. What does it say?" Jamie asked.

The Doctor sighed as he rolled his eyes and admitted with some embarrassment, "Hello, Sweetie. Bring James and Rose."

The Doctor proceeded to... liberate the box from the case and they all ran back to the TARDIS as the security guards chased after them. Upon shutting the doors, Rose set the TARDIS to dematerialize from the museum while the Doctor plugged the Home Box into the console. They all gathered around the monitor to watch the security videos.

On the monitor, they saw a woman leaving the room where she had carved the message into the Home Box and she winked at the camera over her jewelled sunglasses before pushing them back in place. The camera switched and showed her standing in front of an airlock door as they heard someone speaking to her.

"The party's over, Doctor Song. Yet still you're on board," the man off camera said. Rose gasped slightly at the mention of the name Doctor Song. She felt the Doctor's acknowledgement that this was indeed the River Song that he had told her about.

"Sorry, Alistair. I needed to see what was in your vault. Do you all know what's down there? Any of you? Because I'll tell you something. This ship won't reach its destination," River replied, then looked at her watch.

"Wait 'til she runs. Don't make it look like an execution," the man's voice ordered.

Fixing her hair, River began to calmly list space-time coordinates, "Triple seven five, slash three four nine by ten, zero twelve, slash acorn. Oh, and I could do with an air corridor."

The Doctor, Rose, and Jamie recognized what her strange series of words were instantly and started inputting the commands to pick her up.

"What was that? What did she say?" Amy asked, wondering what had set them all in motion.

"Coordinates," the Doctor answered as he completed the sequence. "Jamie, go open the door for her, please."

On screen, River told the man, "Like I said on the dance floor, you might want to find something to hang onto." She blew a kiss toward the camera as the airlock door behind her blew open and she was sucked out into space.

Jamie ran over to the doors and opened them. He watched as the woman they saw on the video was pulled through open space towards the TARDIS by the air corridor the ship had created for her. Suddenly, Jamie found himself on the floor, with the strange woman landing on top of him.

"Oh, James! I'm so sorry. Doctor, follow that ship!" River called as she helped James up from the floor and they shut the doors. River and James rushed back up to the console to help.

"They've gone into warp drive," Rose announced as she flicked a few switches to try to keep up.

"We'll catch them, don't worry your pretty little head, love," the Doctor told her.

"I can help, dad! I've mapped the probability vectors, done a fold-back on the temporal isometry, and charted the ship to its destination," Jamie announced as he typed furiously on the keyboard.

"Brilliant, Jamie! Nice work," his father praised as he completed the flight sequence and they landed with a thump.

"Well, James always has been a better pilot than you, Sweetie," River said with a teasing smile.

The Doctor's jaw dropped as he looked at her with great offence. Rose came over to rub his shoulder placatingly. "She's just winding you up. Jamie learned it from you after all," Rose told him.

"Well, the TARDIS actually showed me some of that. Also, I was reading the manual I found in the library that dad said he didn't have anymore," Jamie replied.

Amy stifled a laugh behind her hand and River just crossed her arms and smiled smugly at the disgruntled Time Lord. The Doctor took Rose's hand and pulled her along as he stomped towards the doors.

"No, wait! Environment checks!" River called after them as she ran to the keyboard and ran a scan of the exterior.

"Oh yes, sorry. Quite right. Environment checks," the Doctor said sarcastically as he opened the door and stuck his head outside. "Nice out."

Rose laughed and smacked his shoulder playfully.

"We're somewhere in the Garn Belt. There's an atmosphere. Early indications suggest that..." River started listing, but the Doctor cut her off.

"We're on Alfava Metraxis, the seventh planet of the Dundra System," he began and River blinked confusedly as the same information showed up on the monitor in front of her. "Oxygen rich atmosphere, all toxins in the soft band, eleven hour day and... chances of rain later," he added as he checked outside again.

"He thinks he's so smart when he does that," River pouted.

"That's because he is," Jamie replied.

"He's just showing off, James. Right then, why did they land here?" River asked.

"They didn't land. They crashed. You should've checked the Home Box," the Doctor informed her and he went outside with Rose, eager to leave the presence of River for a little while.

He sighed a little and pulled his wife closer as they looked up at the crash wreckage. The ship sat atop a high cliff face in front of them as they stood on a cold, grey beach. It wasn't the kind of beach that Rose liked to visit. It reminded her too much of a lonely beach in Norway and she squeezed the Doctor's hand a little tighter. He could feel her melancholy thoughts and sent her feelings of comfort and reassurance.

"What caused it to crash?" Amy asked from behind them. Rose and the Doctor started a bit, not realizing that the others had finally followed them out of the TARDIS.

"Not me," River replied.

"Nah, the airlock would've sealed seconds after you blew it. According to the Home Box, the warp engines had a phase shift. No survivors," the Doctor informed them.

"A phase shift? That doesn't just happen. That would have to be sabotage," Jamie said in surprise.

"I did warn them," River responded as she shook her head and started typing into a handheld computer.

"You warned them about something in their vault, yeah? What was it?" Rose questioned.

"Well, at least the building was empty. Aplan temple. Unoccupied for centuries," River informed them, ignoring Rose's query.

"Aren't you going to introduce us?" Amy asked the Doctor.

"Yes, of course. Rose, Jamie, Amy Pond, this is Professor River Song," the Doctor replied.

"Ah! I'm going to be a Professor someday, am I? How exciting," she said as she walked ahead of them and continued running some sort of scan on her handheld device. "Spoilers!" she shouted smugly.

The Doctor slumped a bit as he realized that he had inadvertently given her future information. Rose squeezed his hand again in support.

"Yeah, but who is she and how did she do that? She just left you a note in a museum," Amy argued at the introduction that told her nothing new.

"Two things always guaranteed to show up in a museum. The Home Box of category four starliner and sooner or later, him. It's how he keeps score," River teased knowingly.

"Well, she's got you pegged there, love," Rose admitted.

"It's hilarious, isn't it?" River laughed with Amy as the Doctor just looked more and more picked on.

"I'm nobody's taxi service. I'm not going to be there to catch you every time you feel like jumping out of a space ship," the Doctor told her frustratedly.

"Well, it's a good thing that there are other Time Lords I can count on instead," River replied. "There's one survivor. There's a thing in the belly of that ship that can't ever die," she said ominously.

"Isn't there always?" Rose commented.

River punched a few buttons on her device and then, held it up like a phone and began talking to someone, "You lot in orbit yet? Yeah, I saw it land. I'm at the crash site. Try and home in on my signal... James, dear, could you sonic me? I need to boost the signal so we can use it as a beacon and your daddy's looking a bit put out at the moment."

James flicked to a setting that would boost the signal on her computer and ran it over her device a few times. She ruffled his hair affectionately and finished her chat quickly.

"Why does she call you Sweetie?" Rose asked curiously, slightly miffed that the woman would presume to use a term of endearment with her husband.

"I don't know, she did that the last time I met her too," the Doctor said with a sigh and followed where River and Jamie were headed.

"We have a minute. Shall we?" River asked him as she pulled out a very worn looking, blue diary and started flipping through the pages. "Where are we up to? Jamie is so young. Have we done the Bone Meadows?"

"What's that?" Rose asked, nodding at the book.

"Everyone stay away from it. That's her diary," the Doctor warned and crossed his arms. He hated not knowing everything that was going on.

"Oh, you don't have diaries yet? Rose and Jamie ought to start one soon. I know you're too proud to bother with it, Doctor," River noted.

"I don't understand," Amy interjected.

"Time travel. We keep meeting in the wrong order," the Doctor explained.

"Goodness, this really is early for you isn't it?" River said, slightly shocked that Rose, Jamie and Amy didn't know her at all. Even the Doctor didn't seem to know much about her.

Four swirls of wind and dust marked the abrupt transport of four soldiers nearby. They noticed Doctor Song and marched toward her. The leading officer said in a rather annoyed tone, "You promised me an army, Doctor Song."

"No, I promised you the equivalent of an army. This is the Doctor, Rose and James," River responded confidently.

The Doctor and Rose were not keen on being compared to an army and bristled a little when the soldier turned to them in surprised awe.

"Father Octavian, sir, ma'am," he began with a salute toward the Doctor and Rose. "Bishop, second class. Twenty clerics at my command. The troops are already in the drop ship and landing shortly. Doctor Song was helping us with a covert investigation. Has Doctor Song explained what we're dealing with?"

Rose looked at her husband and he turned to River for some explanation.

"Doctor, what do you know of the Weeping Angels?" she questioned in response.