Chapter Twelve: Flesh, Blood and Mind
They hardly had time to rest, when suddenly the alarms blared and the stone foundations of the Hub trembled at their feet again. In swift movement Mickey Smith stepped up to the monitors and watched in horror at the sight that was unravelling before and above him. A great white space station parted the night clouds as it sank down into the Earth's atmosphere.
Everything was shaking as though the planet itself was aware and now shuddering. Then there came an echoing blast: a great alarm was blown above ground where the UNIT troops rushed into strategic battle positions, armed and as prepared as they could be.
"Martha, we've got to call them off!" shouted Mickey as Martha Jones joined him, her phone in her hand. "They're in that thing."
"I tried!" cried Martha exasperatedly. "But General Adama's not listening to me. That thing's not receiving their warning calls and moved in too close. He's now got permission to use extreme force. He has everything ready to fire."
At that instant, a harsher alarm blared and on the monitors they saw it. Missiles relentlessly pursuing the target from every direction. How many there were, the two couldn't count. Underneath the new General, UNIT's bite was deep.
The Hub was filled with a dead silence as they watched. Only the sound of Ianto Jones unconscious and breathing heavily in the medical bay could be heard.
The missiles whistled straight, but then suddenly before it reached its target, it struck a defensive energy shield that came out of nowhere. One by one the hundreds of missiles exploded harmlessly and filled the air with black smoke.
"Missiles," breathed Martha.
"That's his idea of a warning shot?" said Mickey as he began working away furiously on the computer. "We've got to get the guys out of that space station. I've located the TARDIS but nobody's making contact."
"I can't contact him. That shield must be blocking signals getting in."
Then, as though on cue, it rang in her hand.
"But maybe not the other way round!" she cried victoriously.
"Is it him?" asked Mickey, looking up.
"No, but it's Jack," she said as she answered the phone.
"Tell him I want a raise, or else I'm going freelance."
"You and me both."
They all stumbled slightly in mid-run, as rolling shockwaves boomed through the space station that seemed to come at them from every direction. They sprang to the walls for support in alarm. Doom, doom, it rolled again, as though giant hands had turned the space station into a vast drum.
"What the hell's was that?" cried Matt as the shockwaves subsided.
"Martha, can you hear me?" said Jack preoccupied.
"Keep moving," said Gwen. "Something bad is going to happen here and I want to be done with this place."
Jack made a turn east, his coat billowing after him as he tracked the life signs on his manipulator and the others followed obediently.
"Loud and clear," replied Martha from the device before suddenly a hologram of her floated inches from his arm. "Where the hell have you guys been?"
"Long story," shouted Gwen from behind as they kept moving.
"Just connect me to the Hub's computers," ordered Jack.
"Doing it now."
Jack quickly ran his other hand through his hair. In spite of peril, the Captain insisted in looking good for the cameras, knowing a hologram of himself was now in Torchwood.
"Now I can boost the signal, get a layout of this place and know where we're going," he said as he turned another corner and the others trailed alongside him with great haste.
"Jack, UNIT's mobilising to blow that space station out of the sky," said Martha gravely. "You've got to get out of there now."
"Yeah, we felt it just now," said Jack.
"Have you found Matt?"
"Right here!" Matt shouted over, waving as he did.
"Yup," said Jack chuckling darkly, "Now we've just got to find the Doctor and Ivy as well."
"They're not with you?" shouted Martha.
"It got complicated," answered Jack. "Hold on, there's some sort of interference with the life signs. Do a scan for me."
There was a pause of quiet as they kept moving. Jack took no turns, right or left, for the passage seemed to be going in the direction he desired. Though there was no pursuit, nobody slowed down and they kept their movements swift and tireless. But then when Mickey's voice came through, they halted with a curious sense of foreboding.
"Jack," he said softly, "The space station is full of people."
"What?" said Gwen. "But we're the only one's here. We haven't passed anyone else."
"Bodies," mumbled Jack as he moved to the wall on his right. He stretched out his vortex manipulator arm and pressed a button on it towards the wall. It quivered slightly then a handleless door appeared and slid away without making a sound. "These aren't just walls. They're rooms full of dead people."
"And Jack," continued Martha, "the space station is right in the eye of the vortex."
"I don't like how things are sounding," said Matt.
"Don't worry," said Jack as he turned to the child, smiling as he did. Despite it all he looked entirely confident. "The Doctor will come up with a plan."
"Good. That's good right?"
Jack paused and his expression turned to that of a combination of a grin and a grimace.
"You're a new companion, so it's best I don't share with you some of his older plans," he joked. Well at least Matt hoped he was joking. "But hey, no matter what trouble we get into, I always come out alive."
"Yeah but you're imm-"
"Let's find him then," interrupted Jack as he quickly traced life signs on his manipulator and led them away.
He ran. Not turning back, as they followed him, leading the way in the deadly dark. He seemed the same. Just like she remembered him.
"We have to get off this base," said the Doctor as he wove his way through the corridors to the song of his TARDIS, calling only to him. "Right now."
"We're running away?" she asked.
"We haven't got much time," he answered gravely.
"But I wanted to redecorate the Rani's face!" replied Jenny to her father.
"I'll teach you about regeneration later," said the Doctor, a smile flashing across his face.
She beamed back at him and a happiness lifted her thoroughly. Though her heart and head were exploding with questions and things to say to her father, she did not speak of those thoughts aloud, and held them back. The time for that was not here. The game was afoot and the Rani wouldn't be stopped that easily. However, she did allow one curiosity to slip through as she looked at the girl in their company.
She didn't know what to say and instead she blurted out the first thought that came to her mind.
"You're not a Time Lord as well are you?"
"Nope," she answered casually as though they were simply having tea, and not actually running away from a potential and immediate galactic apocalypse. Jenny didn't know why she assumed the girl was a Time Lord. She smelled different from Time Lords at any rate.
"Just tagging along for the time and space travelling thing after the Doctor saved me."
"I guess dad saves a lot of girls huh?" said Jenny.
"Girls, guys, kids and the entire universe. I heard he's indiscriminate like that."
"Equal opportunity saver, my dad. I'm so proud."
"My name's Ivy."
"Jenny. For Generated Anomaly. Think that makes my whole name Jenny Anna Molly, but I never got round to asking dad our surname."
"It's complicated."
"Dad? Wait...what?" exclaimed Ivy.
"Humanity," she muttered as she looked out onto Earth. Disdain filling her eyes. "A cancer unto the universe. So boldly stretching out across galaxies. Their numbers will darken the sky of every world."
The Rani turned swiftly back around to the controls and opened up the matrix limits of her TARDIS. And she felt it, the rushing sensation of time flooding back to this point with every inch of her Time Lord body. The edges of Rift bracing itself, quivering in its knowledge of what was to come. Every future for the Earth, echoing back through space.
She quickly ignored it and continued the process. She would not allow for the Doctor to stop her when she was so close to her goals. Her thoughts returning to the humans below her instead, fully aware of the impact they would have in the future. And fully aware that they were close to space faring technology that would allow them to stretch their civilization across the stars. Chaos too shall spread with them.
"But that future will not exist. It will not come to pass. It will not come to fruition. Instead, humans shall be replaced with my new Time Lords. We are the true guardians of the universe. We impose order on the chaos of life and evolution. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it."
The Doctor continued on their way, with due haste. His company were all eager to get out as quickly as possible, and all were willing, aching and tired as they were from the torture inflicted upon them. The Doctor led as usual. In his left hand he held up his glimmering sonic screwdriver, expecting the Rani to block their way back to the TARDIS. But no obstacles came and they kept moving unhindered. Behind him came Jenny, her starlight eyes glinting in the dimmest of lights as she turned her head from side to side, expecting danger around every corner. Behind the soldier, trying to catch up to the fitter two, was Ivy and she kept look of the back. No gleam of danger came from there, but that was no comfort.
If the Rani was not trying to stop them escaping or fighting her, then she must have things of higher priority on her list. And that didn't bode well for them.
Then the Doctor felt it.
His Time Lord mind saw, the Rift bleeding and pulsating horribly like exposed flesh and organs. Far too close was its heart, the Time Vortex itself. The Rani was putting into motion her plans to awaken her Time Lords and the terrible price to pay was the planet below them.
"Jenny, are you ok?" asked Ivy.
The Doctor spun round. Jenny whimpered, her hands on her head at the throbbing in her mind continued as confusion spread across her face. It was clear she was as Time Sensitive as any other Time Lord would be.
"What happened to you?" said Ivy as she looked at her and the Doctor to and fro.
"It's ok," assured the Doctor, as he put his hands on Jenny's shoulders. "You're a Time Lady. You can feel Time. You're feeling the Time Vortex in your mind for the first time. Time Lord children don't usually get exposed to this until they're ready."
"My mind?"
"Yes. But the Rani's tampering with the Vortex. We've got to stop her before it's too late. Can you still move?"
"Yeah. I'm made of sterner stuff. Just never expected that to happen is all."
"You're coping a lot better than I did when I first felt the Vortex," he said smiling. "Come on, the TARDIS is right round this passage."
They moved off again, and just like the Doctor said, the TARDIS was there, standing ready for him. And it was not alone. Gwen, Matt and Jack stood staring back at them, relief spreading amongst all present as words failed for the moment, as they rushed to one another. Matt and Ivy reunited happily in each other's arms. But again the situation was dire and all other pleasantries and greetings had to be missed.
"Good to see you again Matt," said the Doctor, genuinely but briefly. "Glad you got him back."
"Ran into a bit of trouble with Wade," said Gwen, skipping details as she went along. "But he's not going to be a problem anymore."
"And you got someone too I see," said Jack, jerking his head slightly at Jenny. "You run into some trouble as well?"
"A big one," said the Doctor. "An old Time Lord friend I didn't know survived, planning to destroy the Earth. Just like old times. Love it. Wonderful."
"Who's she?" asked Matt bluntly, pointing at Jenny.
"Jenny," she answered happily, not the least taken aback at how chatty everyone was in such a situation.
"She's his daughter," explained Ivy to the others wisely after learning the truth from the Doctor.
"Oh," said Gwen, surprised. "Congratulations?"
"Thanks," beamed Jenny.
"Daughter?" barked Jack.
"Right, time to go," ignored the Doctor, as he quickly jumped aboard his TARDIS. "We have to stop the Rani."
The others followed without hesitation, closing the door behind them. The TARDIS glowed a bright white, wind whipping at its feet and rushing through the passages like a strong breeze. Then they were gone, except for one voice that still echoed through the corridor.
"DAUGHTER?" exclaimed Jack.