Okay, so I've had an idea for this bouncing around in my head, and I want people's opinions on it. There's a poll up on my profile page as well, but you can drop your answer in a PM or a review. See, in the actual DW series there's always things mentioned on screen about things that happened outside the episodes, and they're basically never elaborated on.
Which, I admit, does add to the whole quirkiness/amazingness of the show.
But I figure I could write a series of interludes, I suppose, for An Awful Lot of Running to Do about things that happened off-screen. Jenny's reaction to the TARIS for the first time (it was deleted from the prologue), the reunion party I mentioned in The End of Time, father/daughter fluffiness, since there's not always a chance to see that in the episodes written. So, like I said, let me know what you think!
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"This is brilliant," Jenny laughed, looking around with wide eyes.
"Definitely," Amy breathed. The Doctor was holding onto Jenny's ankle as she floated outside the TARDIS, and Jenny in turn was holding onto Amy's ankle. Around them, nothing but an endless expanse of stars.
"Okay, come on, Pond," the Doctor grinned, pulling Jenny back down. The two landed on the TARDIS floor, still laughing. "Now do you believe me?"
"Okay, your box is a spaceship," she said with a nod. "It's really, really a spaceship. We're in space!" Jenny's laughter subsided, but she was still grinning. Amy reminded her of Donna, yet it didn't hurt as much as she expected. Amy paused, struck by a sudden thought. "What are we breathing?"
"I've extended the air shell," Jenny replied. "We're fine."
"I extended the air shell!" the Doctor protested. Jenny smirked, then paused. The Doctor clapped his hands together, and they all looked at the massive city floating below. "Now, that's interesting. Twenty-ninth century. Solar flares roast the Earth, and the entire human race packs its bags and moves out till the weather improves. Whole nations!"
He ran back to the console, the doors closing behind him. Jenny raised an eyebrow, but she knew it was fine and she wanted to see how long it would take him to notice.
"Migrating to the stars. Isn't that amazing?"
He paused. "Amy?"
Jenny opened the doors, looking at Amy holding onto the corner of the TARDIS. The Doctor had the grace to look embarrassed.
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They landed the TARDIS with surprising ease, and the Doctor spun around to smile at the two of them. "Well, come on," he urged. "I've found us a spaceship. This is the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland. All of it, bolted together and floating in the sky. Starship UK. It's Britain, by metal. That's not just a ship, it's an idea. That's a whole country, living and laughing and shopping. Searching the stars for a new home."
"Can we go out and see?" Amy asked. Jenny nodded emphatically.
"'Course we can," he said brightly. "But first, there's a thing."
"A thing?" Amy repeated.
"An important thing. In fact, Thing One." Jenny shook her head.
"Doctor Seuss references?" she asked. "Honestly?"
"Doctor Seuss is cool," he replied. "But anyway. Thing One. We are observers only. That's the one rule I've always stuck to in all my travels. I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets."
Jenny had to take a moment to process that statement, several thoughts whizzing about inside her head, but then she realized Amy was talking and snapped out of her reverie.
"-and cold? Doctor?" They looked over at the scanner screen, talking to a crying child. He glanced up and made a motion with his hand, clearing stating come on, hurry up!
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"I'm in the future," Amy said as they stepped out of the TARDIS, taking a step back as a bicyclist went past. "Like, hundreds of years in the future. I've been dead for centuries."
"That's cheerful," Jenny muttered, but the Doctor shook his head.
"Never mind dead, look at this place," he said. "Isn't it wrong?" His tone clearly said the solution should be obvious, and yet neither Jenny or Amy could see what he was talking about. "Come on, use your eyes! Notice everything. What's wrong with this picture?"
"Is it the bicycles?" Amy finally said. "But unusual, bicycles on a spaceship."
"Says the girl in the nightie," the Doctor countered. Amy flushed, glancing down at her clothing.
"Oh my god, I'm in my nightie."
"Look around," the Doctor repeated. "Actually look. Jen, can't you see anything?" He plowed on before she could continue. "Life on a giant starship. Back to basics. Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up street lamps, but look closer. Secrets and shadows, lives led in fear. Society bent out of shape, on the brink of collapse. A police state. Excuse me."
He ran over to a small round table where a young couple was eating and took the man's glass of water.
"What are you doing?" the man demanded.
The Doctor didn't answer, placing the glass down on the floor and crouching so his ear was against the floor and he was looking into the water. Then he jumped back up and placed the glass on the table.
"Sorry, checking all the water in this area," he apologized. "There's an escaped fish."
He walked off again, Jenny and Amy catching up and falling into step alongside him.
"Why did you just do that with the water?" Amy asked.
"Don't know," he replied. "I think a lot, it's hard to keep track. Now, police state. Do you see it yet?"
"No," Jenny replied.
The Doctor pointed to the crying child.
"One little girl crying," Amy said dubiously. "So?"
"Crying silently," he replied. "Important lesson on children psychology, Jen, pay attention now. Children cry because they want attention, because they're hurt or afraid. But when they cry silently, it's because they just can't stop. Any parent knows that."
Dad? Jenny asked. Were you a parent... before me? An actual, normal parent, not a parent with a fully grown progenated daughter? He didn't reply to her, continuing with what he was saying before.
"Hundreds of parents walking past who spot her and not one of them is asking what's wrong, which means they already now, and it's something they don't talk about. Secrets. They're not helping her, so it's something they're afraid of. Shadows. Whatever they're afraid of is nowhere to be seen, which means it's everywhere. Police state."
The child, wiping tears from her eyes, got into a lift. The Doctor pulled out a colorful wallet from his pocket.
"Amy, you go to Deck two-oh-seven," he said, tossing her the wallet. "Apple Sesame Block, dwelling 54A. You're looking for Mandy Tanner." Amy looked pointedly at the wallet, and he looked briefly sheepish. "Oh, er, this- fell out of her pocket when I- accidentally bumped into her. Took me for tries." Jenny snorted. "Ask her about those things. The smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere."
Amy took the wallet. "But they're just things," she pointed out. Jenny looked at one of the booths with a scrutinizing gaze.
"It's because they're clean, right?" she said as the Doctor opened his mouth. "Everything else is all battered and filthy and disgusting, but there isn't even a fingerprint on the booths. Not one piece of trash, not one curious child, not even a footprint within two feet of them." The Doctor beamed.
"Exactly! Now, ask Mandy, why are people scared of the things in the booths?"
"No, hang on," Amy protested as he started walking away. "What do I do? I don't know what I'm doing here, and I'm not even dressed."
"It's this or Leadworth," the Doctor replied. "What do you think? What will Amy Pond choose?" Amy paused, but then a small smile began to spread across her face. The Doctor laughed. "Gotcha. Meet us back here in half an hour."
"What are you going to do?" Amy asked. He continued to smile.
"What I always do. Stay out of trouble. Badly."
Jenny sighed and watched as he walked away, leaping over a bench and walking towards the elevator backwards. "And I will do what I always do. Get into trouble with him to make sure he doesn't do anything too stupid in the process."
"Is this how it works?" Amy asked her. "Neither of you ever interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?" Jenny paused.
That was what she didn't understand. That one thing her father had said, that they never interfered. Was this an attempt to be amusing, to instill some sense of responsibility in their new companion, or was he actually being serious? Her father had explained the process of regeneration in more detail shortly after the prophecy given by Carmen when they had bid Christina farewell. He still had the same memories, in the same detail, but it was almost more hazy, harder to recall, if that made any sense. Like a dream you had, and when something reminded you of the dream then you could remember it but if you tried to think of it while you're sitting around doing nothing then you wouldn't remember a thing. Still the same person, but the different appearance, different preferences, it was essentially like being a whole different person. It was being a whole different person. And while this incarnation of her father seemed to be far more cheerful, she couldn't help but think that there was something leftover from before, from Mars and Gallifrey and so many deaths. But Amy didn't know any of that, and it was fairly likely that she never would.
"Yes."
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The Doctor climbed down the ladder first, followed by Jenny, who lightly jumped off, skipping the last five rungs and landing with her knees bent, straightening back up as he started scanning the walls with the sonic screwdriver. Jenny pulled her own from her pocket and did the same, frowning.
"Can't be," the Doctor muttered. Jenny mentally nudged her father, looking pointedly at a glass sitting on the floor. A woman stepped from the shadows, wearing a velvet dress, hood covering most of her face and a mask covering the rest.
"The impossible truth in a glass of water," she said quietly, Jenny and the Doctor warily looking back. "Not many people see it. But you do, don't you, Doctor, Commander?"
"You know us?" he asked sharply, tensing at the name which seemed to be following them. Commander.
"Keep your voice down," she replied just as sharply. "They're everywhere. Tell me what you see in the glass."
"Who says I see anything?" the Doctor asked at the same time Jenny replied with, "Who are they?"
"Don't waste time," the woman said. "At the marketplace, you placed a glass of water on the floor, looked at it, then came to the engine room. Why?" The Doctor looked at her with a piercing gaze before replying.
"No engine vibration on deck," he finally said. "Ship this size, engine this big, you'd feel it. The water would move. So we decided to talk a look. It doesn't make sense, though." He walked over to a box and pulled out a cable that hadn't even been connected. "These power coupling, they're not connected. They're dummies, see? And behind this wall-" Jenny knocked against the metal with her fist, causing a series of hollow gongs to ring out. "-nothing. It's hollow. If I didn't know better, I'd say there was-"
"-no engine at all," the woman finished.
"But we were moving," Jenny said slowly. "You were traveling, this ship is traveling through space. I watched it."
"The impossible truth, Commander. We're traveling among the stars in a spaceship that could never fly."
"But how?" the Doctor asked.
"I don't know," she replied. "There is a darkness at the heart of this nation. It threatens every one of us. Help us, Doctor, Commander. You're our only hope." She pulled a small device out of the folds of her dress. "Your friend is safe. This will take you to her. Now go, quickly!"
She turned to leave, but the Doctor spoke up before she had slipped into the shadows.
"Who are you?" he asked. "How do we find you again?"
"I am Liz Ten, and I will find you."
She vanished into the shadows and the smoke.
Dad, Jenny said as they started back up the ladder. That name again. Commander.
I wouldn't worry about it, he finally replied. There are worse names to be called.
She frowned, then spoke again.
What did you mean by saying we never interfere? I know that's nothing like you. At all.
The answer wasn't slow in coming this time; it never came.
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"This isn't a trick. This is for real. You've got to find the Doctor and Jenny and get them back to the TARDIS. Don't let him investigate. Stop him. Do whatever you have to, just please, please get the Doctor off this ship!"
The door slid open to reveal Amy staring in confusion at a screen, where a recording of her was playing. There were two buttons as well, one that read FORGET and one that read PROTEST.
"Listen to me. This isn't a trick. This is for real."
Jenny took a few steps closer to the screen as the Doctor scanned the walls and the ceiling, frowning.
"You've got to find the Doctor and Jenny."
Amy reached around her and switched the screen off. Jenny gave her a pointed look, but was ignored.
"Basic memory wipe job," the Doctor said, looking at the results on the sonic. "Must have erased about... twenty minutes."
"But why would I choose to forget?" Amy asked, glancing back at the screen.
"Because everyone does," Mandy said from where she stood in the doorway. "Everyone chooses the Forget button."
"Did you?" Jenny asked lightly, pulling out her own sonic and waving it across the blank screen.
"I'm not eligible to vote yet," Mandy said like it was obvious. "I'm twelve. Any time after you're sixteen, you're allowed to see the film and make your choice. And then once every five years."
"Democracy in action," Jenny sighed.
"And you say I'm the rude one?" the Doctor asked with a laugh.
"How do you know about this?" Mandy cut in. "Are you Scottish too?" The Doctor laughed again, while Jenny gave a smile.
"Oh, I'm way worse than Scottish," he said. "I can't even see the movie. Won't play for me, either of us, technically."
"It played for me," Amy pointed out.
"We aren't human," Jenny said.
"No, you look Time Lord," she countered. "We came first."
"So there are other Time Lords, yeah?"
"This body was born from death. All it can do is die."
Gallifrey burning.
The Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child, the Could-Have-Been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-weres. The War turned into hell.
"No," the Doctor finally said, not looking at them. "There were, but there aren't. Just me... now. Long story. There was a bad day. Bad stuff happened." He looked up from the screen, ancient brown eyes staring into wide hazel. "And you know what? I'd love to forget it all, every last bit of it, but I don't. Not ever. Because this is what I do, what we do, every time, every day, every second. Hold tight."
Dad, don't you-
The Doctor slammed his fist down on the PROTEST button, and the door slammed shut. The floor beneath them began to slide open, and they took a few steps back from the long drop.
"Say whhheeeeeeee!" the Doctor said with a grin.
Amy screamed wordlessly as they fell, and while Jenny was just as inarticulate, her mental screams of Dad, you are INSANE got the point across clearly enough.
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The Doctor groaned as he stood up, covered in waste. Jenny, who was sitting in the stuff, fought the urge to vomit. Amy landed next to her with a splash not a moment later.
"Where are we?" Amy asked, looking around in disgust.
"Six hundred feet down, twenty miles laterally, puts us at the heart of the ship," the Doctor replied. "I'd say Lancashire. What's this, then, a cave? Can't be a cave. Looks like a cave."
Jenny shivered as the ground squished underneath her hands.
"It's a rubbish dump!" Amy snapped.
"Only food," he replied. "Organic, coming from feeder tubes all over the ship."
"The floor's squishy," she muttered, jumping up and down.
"Very squishy," Jenny agreed, feeling her feet sink as she stood up. "And rubbery. And slimy."
A growl came from far off, silencing the two and causing the Doctor to pause in realization.
"Er, it's not a floor, it's a-" He paused, looking around. Jenny read the answer in his mind, however, and jumped to her feet, wondering if it was possible for her to climb back up the feeding tube.
"It's a what?" Amy demanded.
"The next word is kind of a scary word," the Doctor said slowly. "You probably want to take a moment, get yourself in a calm place. Go 'omm'."
"Omm," Amy repeated.
"Eww," Jenny mumbled.
"It's a tongue," he announced, and she flinched.
"I'm trying not to think about that," she replied. "And are we in Star Wars or something? Stuck in a massive mouth in space, and then the "help us, you're our only hope" thing?"
"Be nice, Jen," the Doctor said absently.
"We're in a mouth?" Amy nearly shrieked.
"On the plus side, roomy."
"Why should I be nice? There's a massive something underneath the spaceship, and we're in it's mouth. I'm in a mouth," Jenny snapped in reply.
"How do we get out?" Amy asked, looking around.
"How big is this?" the Doctor mused, effectively ignoring them. "It's gorgeous. Blimey, if this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach. Though not right now."
"Dad," Jenny pressed. "Way out? Preferably a way that isn't the normal way?"
"Well, the normal entrance is closed for business." The Doctor pointed at a wall of closed teeth in the distance.
"Not to mention I don't fancy being vomited into space," Jenny added.
Amy started walking towards the Doctor, only for him to throw his hands up and look around nervously as the floor – tongue – vibrated.
"Don't move," he said, and the floor vibrated again.
Jenny swore in Gallifreyan, causing the Doctor to spin around at look at her.
"Where did you hear that?" he asked. She glanced up at him.
"The last time you tried to 'fix' the console," she replied calmly. "And in answer to Amy's upcoming question, the swallow reflex." The Doctor quickly started waving the sonic about, and the tongue shook again, more violently.
"Vibrating the chemo-receptors?" Jenny asked weakly.
"Yup."
"The what?" Amy asked.
"The eject button"
The room shook again, and they all lined up. The Doctor took one of their slimy hands in each of his grinning wildly.
"Right then," he said as a wave approached them. Jenny glanced at the pipe they had come down. She might be able to climb up, but the three of them would never make it in time and she didn't want to be left alone on a tongue- "This isn't going to be big on dignity. Geronimo!"
The last thing she was aware of was being surrounded by slime and desperately wishing that there was sanity somewhere in the family.
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Jenny woke up to her father tapping her cheek.
"Jen," he was saying. "Come on, atta girl. Wake up time." She blinked a couple times, adjusted to the uncomfortable sensation of being covered in encrusted slime, and swatted his hands away.
"I'm fine," she muttered, standing up. "Where are we?"
"Overspill pipe," Amy replied. "And the smell isn't the pipe." Jenny wrinkled her nose.
"Can we get out?" she asked. The Doctor nodded at the door.
"One door, one switch, one condition." Jenny glared at the FORGET switch. "We forget everthing we saw. That's the carrot... and here's the stick."
He turned around as two booths containing the... things. Smilers, Jenny decided to call them. Two booths containing the Smilers lit up.
"There's a creature living in the heart of this ship," the Doctor said, looking at them warily. "What's it doing there?"
With a clicking noise, the heads of the Smilers turned around so that they were frowning. Frowners, then? Jenny took a half-step forwards, angling herself so she was next to her father and in front of Amy.
"No, that's not going to work on me," the Doctor scoffed. "Big old beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. That how it works?"
The heads began clicking again as they rotated, but this time their eyes were red, their mouths bared open in a snarl. Jenny resisted the urge to take a step back.
"Right," she said slowly. "Two sides of a head, you have three, seen stranger. But we aren't leaving, and we aren't forgetting."
"What are you going to do?" the Doctor taunted. "Stick your tongues out at us?"
The booths opened and the Smilers stepped out. Jenny would have buried her head in her hands if she thought she could afford to look away from the robots.
"First we land in a mouth and you say you'd like to see its stomach, so it starts to swallow us. I think, just a hunch, mind you, I think that asking robots with creepy heads what they're going to do to us if we refuse to comply to their demands probably isn't the best idea!" All of this was said in a quiet tone, but it was taut with slight anger and fear.
Liz Ten stepped from the shadows and shot the Smilers before the Doctor could reply, twirling her two pistols around before putting them in holsters, then turning around to look at them. Her mask was gone now to reveal a face that would have looked beautiful if she were smiling, caramel skin, curly brown hair and a near-perfect complexion, but right now she just looked serious.
"Look who it is," the Doctor laughed. "You look a lot better without your mask." Liz smirked before turning to Amy.
"You must be Amy," she said, holding out her hand. "Liz, Liz Ten."
"Hi," Amy replied, shaking the offered hand. Liz made a brief noise of disgust, quickly wiping her hand on her cloak.
"Eurgh! Lovely hair, Amy. Shame about the sick." She started towards the now-open door where Mandy was standing. "You know Mandy, yeah? She's very brave."
"How did you find us?" Jenny asked.
"Stuck my gizmo on you," Liz replied, tossing the Doctor a tracking device of her own. "Nice moves on the hurl escape. So, what's the big guy doing here?"
"You're over sixteen, you've voted," the Doctor said. "Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it."
"No," Liz countered. "Never voted, never forgot. Not technically a British subject."
"Then who and what are you, and how do you know me?" the Doctor asked, taking a step in front of Jenny, who sighed but remained where she was. "And why did you call Jenny 'Commander'?"
"You're a bit hard to miss." Liz calmly avoided the question entirely. "Mysterious strangers, MO consistent with higher alien intelligence, hair of an idiot..." The Doctor ran a self-conscious hand over his slime covered hair. "I've been brought up on the stories. My whole family was."
"Your family?"
Liz avoided the question again, glancing back at the Smilers.
"They're repairing," she commented as the robots started to twitch. "Doesn't take them long. Let's move."
They quickly left with Mandy and off into several sub-corridors.
"The Doctor and Jenny," Liz said as they walked. "Old drinking buddies of Henry Twelve. Tea and Scones with Liz Two. Vicky was a bit on the fence about you, weren't she? Knighted you and exiled you on the same day. And so much for the Virgin Queen." This last part was added with a laugh.
"That was Jenny's fault," the Doctor muttered. "She invited Jack." Jenny rolled her eyes, but then the Doctor paused in realization. "Liz Ten," he breathed.
"Yeah," Liz replied, turning around. "Elizabeth the Tenth. And down!"
They dropped to the floor as Liz shot the repaired Smilers again.
"I'm the bloody Queen, mate," Liz said, looking down at them. Jenny belatedly realized that they rather resembled subjects crouching at the Queen's feet. "Basically, I rule."
They continued onwards through the corridors, only pausing once when they came to tentacles, thrashing against metal grating.
"Any ideas?" Liz asked. Jenny was slowly shaking her head.
Can't they hear it? she finally managed to say to her father.
Human ears can't pick up on it, he replied, squeezing her hand in silent reassurance.
"I saw one of these things up top," Amy said. "There was a hole in the road, like it had burst through like a root."
"Exactly like a root," Jenny croaked, pieces coming together in her mind. She didn't know the whole story, but she had a guess. "One creature, breaking through the walls of the entire ship, reaching out."
"What, like an infestation?" Liz's expression turned more concerned and just a tiny bit angry. "Someone's helping it. Feeding it, feeding my subjects to it. Come on, got to keep moving."
As they left, Jenny pressed her fingers through the grating. The tentacles twitched before brushing against her hand in a soft caress.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I'm so, so sorry."
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"Why all the glasses of water?" the Doctor asked as he navigated the maze of glasses covering the floor. Liz lay down on the large canopy bed in the center of the room.
"To remind me every single day that my government is up to something," she replied, "and it's my duty to find out what."
Jenny picked up the white mask and turned it over in her hands. "A queen going undercover to investigate her own kingdom?" she asked.
"Secrets are being kept from me," Liz replied. "I don't have a choice. Ten years I've been at this. My entire reign, and you've achieved more in one afternoon." The Doctor stepped over to Jenny, flashing the mask with the sonic.
"How old were you when you came to the throne?" he asked.
"I was forty," she said. "Why?" Amy gaped.
"You're fifty now?" she asked incredulously. "No way." Liz grinned.
"Yeah, they slowed my body clock. Keeps me looking like the stamps."
"Air balanced porcelain," Jenny said quietly, looking back at the mask. "Stays on by itself because it's perfectly sculpted to your face."
"Yeah," Liz agreed. "So?"
And another piece of the puzzle dropped into place.
"So everything," Jenny said sadly.
Suddenly, the door to the room burst open. A group of men came in, dressed in hooded black robes but their faces were still visible.
"What are you doing?" Liz demanded, sitting upright, outraged. "How dare you come in here!"
"Ma'am, you have expressed interest in the interior workings of Starship UK," the man at the front of the group said in a monotone. "You will come with us now." Liz raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.
"And why would I do that?"
The man's head twisted around to show the demonic face of a Smiler.
"How can they be Smilers?" Amy asked weakly.
"Genetic manipulation, probably," the Doctor spat. Liz shook her head.
"Whatever you creatures are, I am still your Queen," she said coldly. "On whose authority is this done?"
"The highest authority, ma'am," the Smiler replied.
"I am the highest authority," Liz countered.
"Yes, ma'am. You must go now, ma'am."
"Where?"
"To the Tower, ma'am."
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The Tower, it turned out, was at the lowest point of Starship UK, deep in the dungeons. The room itself was done in a medieval style, although the computers and bits of machinery scattered everywhere, topped with the tentacles thrashing at the grating, negated the effect.
"Ma'am," a man with graying hair and glasses said as he stepped from the shadows, bowing to Liz. Jenny was cringing at the noise, but nobody seemed to notice.
"Hawthorne," Liz spat. "So this is where you hid yourself away. I think you've got some explaining to do."
"Why are there children?" Jenny asked, glancing over at where a group of children stood in the corner.
"Protesters and citizens of limited value are said to the beast," Hawthorne said calmly. "For some reason, it won't eat the children. You're the first adults it's spared. You're very lucky."
"Yeah, look at us," the Doctor scoffed, his tone turning into disgust. "Torture chamber of the Tower of London. Lucky us. Except it's not a torture chamber, is it? Well, except it is. Except it isn't. Depends on your point of view."
They walked forwards, and Jenny resisted the urge to block her ears as the screaming grew louder while they looked down at a large pulsating mass quivered in the center of the room. Giant electrodes shot electrical bursts down at it every few seconds.
"Depends on the angle," Jenny said weakly. "Yeah. It's either the exposed pain center of the creature's brain being tortured relentlessly... or it's Starship UK's go faster button. The gas pedal."
"I don't understand," Liz whispered.
"Don't you?" the Doctor asked bitterly. "Try to. Go on. The spaceship that could never fly. No vibration on deck. This creature, this poor, trapped, terrified creature. It's not infesting you, it's not invading... Like Jen said, it's reaching out. It's what you have instead of an engine. And this place down here is where you hurt it, where you torture it day after day after day, just to keep it moving."
He strode over to a grate and yanked it aside, looking up as a tentacle shot through, waving through the air.
"Tell you what," he said, pulling out the sonic. "Normally, it's above the range of human hearing... This is the sound none of you wanted to hear."
He pressed a button. Screams filled the room, horrible, pain-filled, terrified screams, the same screams the Doctor and Jenny had heard before. Except now they all knew what it was.
"Stop it," Liz demanded, horrified. The noise ceased, but Jenny could still hear it. "Who did this?"
"We act on instructions from the highest authority," Hawthorne said.
"I am the highest authority," Liz nearly snarled. "The creature will be released now." Nobody moved. "I said now! Is anyone listening to me?"
Jenny looked down at the mask still in her hands.
"Liz," she said quietly, handing her the cool white porcelain. "Your mask. It's old. At least two hundred years old, I would say."
"So?" Liz asked, confused. "It's an antique." Jenny sighed.
"An antique made by craftsmen two hundred years ago, yet perfectly sculpted you your face. The slowed your body clock, Liz. You're not fifty, you're closer to three hundred."
"Nah, it's been ten years," Liz insisted. "I've been on this throne ten years."
"Ten years," the Doctor sighed, taking her by the hand and walking towards a computer terminal. "And the same ten years, over and over again, always leading you here."
They looked down at the two buttons. FORGET and ABDICATE.
Liz turned to Hawthorne, horrified. "What have you done?"
"Only what you have ordered," Hawthorne replied calmly. "We work for you, ma'am. The Winders, the Smilers, all of us." He reached over and pressed a button. A video began to play on screen, and Liz stared down at her own pained expression.
"If you are watching this- If I am watching this, then I have found my way to the Tower of London," the recording said. "The creature you are looking at is called a Star Whale. Once, there were millions of them. They lived in the depths of space, and, according to legend, guided the early space travelers through the asteroid belts. This one, as far as we are aware, is the last of its kind. And what we have done to it breaks my heart."
Jenny slowly took a few steps backwards, shakily sitting on the steps while everyone watched in silence.
"The Earth was burning. Our sun had turned on us and every other nation had fled to the skies. Our children screamed as the skies grew hotter. And then it came. Like a miracle, it came. The last of the Star Whales. We trapped it, built our ship around it, and we rode on its back to safety. If you wish our voyage to continue, then you must press the Forget button. Be again the heart of this nation, untainted. If not, press the other button. Your reign will end, the Star Whale will be released, and our ship will disintegrate. I hope I keep the strength to make the right decision."
"I voted for this," Amy breathed, wide-eyed in shock. "Why would I do that?"
"Because you knew if we stayed here, I'd be faced with an impossible choice. Humanity or the alien. You took it upon yourself to save me from that." He turned to look at her, expression cold and hard. "And that was wrong. You don't ever decided what I need to know."
"I don't even remember doing it!"
"You did it!" he snapped. "That's what counts."
"I'm... I'm sorry."
"Oh, I don't care." His tone had shifted from cold to disgusted, indifferent to sneering. "When I'm done here, you're going home." He started for another one of the terminals, leaving Amy standing behind him. She frowned.
"Why?" she demanded. "Because I made a mistake? One mistake? I don't even remember doing it!"
"Yeah, I know," he said, not looking up at her. "You're only human."
"What are you doing?" Liz asked quietly. Mandy came over to sit next to Jenny, and Amy sat down on the other side of her.
"You okay?" Amy asked quietly. Jenny looked up at her.
"He was like this once," she replied, just as quietly. "Only once, but it was horrible, Amy."
"I'm going to pass a massive electrical charge through the Star Whale's brain," the Doctor replied to Liz, sounded disgusted again, this time with himself. "Should knock out all its higher functions, leave it a vegetable. The ship will still fly, but the whale won't feel it."
"That'll be like killing it."
The Doctor turned on them.
"Look!" he snapped. "Three options. One: I let the Star Whale continue, in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two: I kill everyone on this ship. Three: I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor anymore."
"There must be something we can do, some other way-" Liz started, but the Doctor overrode her.
"Nobody talk to me!" he shouted. "Nobody human has anything to say to me today!"
Jenny and Amy watched, offering silent support to the other. Mandy had ran over to one of the children in the room, and they couldn't do anything to help at all.
Jenny looked up as Amy nudged her in the side, then nodded to where Mandy was talking with another one of the children. One of the tentacles had come up from the ground, poked at Mandy's shoulder until it had her attention, and the two children were smiling and lightly petting it.
...come on, use your eyes, notice everything...
...our children screamed, it came, like a miracle...
...it won't eat the children...
...the children screamed, then it came...it's the last of it's kind...
...just me now...
...the last of it's kind...
...Is this how it works? You never interfere with other peoples or planets...
...children screamed...
...unless there's children crying?
Yes.
And in silent agreement, Amy and Jenny stood up.
"Sorry, Your Majesty," Amy said as they each grabbed her by the arm and nearly carried her to the voting buttons. "Going to need a hand." The Doctor looked up in shock.
"Amy, Jenny, no! No!"
Amy pushed Liz's hand down on ABDICATE.
The floor shook violently before stopping. The Doctor stared at the two of them in horror.
"What... what have you done?"
"Nothing at all," Amy said with a laugh. "Am I right?" Hawthorne was gaping at a screen showing streams of date.
"We've increased speed!" he gasped. Jenny rolled her eyes.
"Well, now that you've stopped torturing the pilot!" she scoffed.
"It's still here," Liz said in confusion. "I don't understand." Amy took Jenny's hand, and they walked forwards to look at the brain. Jenny could hear singing rushing through her mind like a breath of fresh air after the rain.
"The Star Whale didn't come like a miracle," she explained. "It volunteered. You didn't have to trap it or torture it. That was all just you."
"It came because it couldn't stand you watch your children cry," Amy continued. "What if you were really old, and really kind and alone? Your whole race dead. No future. What would you do then? If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind..."
"...you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry," Jenny finished.
...Jenny?
Yes?
I'm sorry.
Jenny left Amy's side to go and pull her father into a hug.
I forgive you.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
Jenny and the Doctor were standing on the observation deck when Amy walked up.
"From Her Majesty," she said, holding out Liz's mask. "She says there will be no more secrets on Starship UK." The Doctor looked down at the mask.
"You could have killed everyone on this ship," he finally said.
"And you could have killed a Star Whale," she countered. He sighed.
"And you saved it, both of you. I know."
"Amazing though, don't you think?" she asked lightly, standing on the other side of the Doctor. "All that pain and misery and loneliness, and it just made it kind."
"But you couldn't have known how it would react," he protested weakly.
"You couldn't," she said. "But I've seen it before, and so's Jenny, I think. Very old and very kind, and the very very last of its kind. Sound familiar?"
They shared a brief hug in the starlight.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
"Shouldn't we say goodbye?" Amy asked as they jogged through the marketplace. "Won't they wonder where we went?" The Doctor grinned.
"For the rest of their lives. Oh, the songs they'll write! Never mind them. Big day tomorrow."
"Sorry, what?" Amy froze.
"It's always a big day tomorrow!" Jenny said excitedly. "We have a time machine, and he skips the little ones." Amy nodded, then looked at them, almost nervous.
"You know what I said about getting back for tomorrow morning?" she asked. They nodded. "Well... have you ever run away from something because you were scared, or not ready, or- just- just because you could?" Jenny shook her head, but the Doctor nodded.
"Once, a long time ago."
"And what happened?" He gave a forced smile.
"Hello."
Jenny slapped him upside the head, causing him to jump.
"Don't freak the poor girl out," she said teasingly. "Now, anyway, Amy, is there something you want to tell- Wait." She paused, looking at the box. "Telephone?"
They all walked into the TARDIS, where the phone was indeed ringing.
"People phone you?" Amy asked.
"Well, it's a phone box," the Doctor replied, almost affronted. "Would you mind?"
Amy went to answer the phone while the Doctor leaned against the railing. Jenny sat down in one of the squashy seats.
"Hello?" Amy asked, almost timidly into the phone. Pause. "Sorry, who?" Longer pause. "No, seriously. Who?" Pause. "Says he's the Prime Minister," she said to them. "First the Queen, now the Prime Minister. Get about, don't you?"
"Which Prime Minister?" Jenny asked.
"Er, which Prime Minister?" Amy relayed. Pause. "The British one." The Doctor nodded as though this was a reasonable response.
"Which British one?"
"Which British one?" she repeated. Pause. Amy held out the phone. "Winston Churchill for you." The Doctor grinned, bounded up the stairs and snatched the phone away.
"Oh, hello dear!" he said happily into the phone. "What's up?" Pause. "Don't worry about a thing, Prime Minister. We're on our way!"
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
In bed above, we're deep asleep, while greater love lies further deep. This dream must end, this world must know, we all depend on the beast below.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
And Starship UK carried on, light spilling from a crack in the hull.