Chapter 6: Blogging at the end of the universe

Even though all three of them already knew they were going to get the TARDIS back, they were still pleasantly surprised and maybe a little relieved to see the blue time machine materialise in front of them almost a week later in Western Drumlins. The last two weeks had felt very long for everyone involved, and after a brief silence they all went their separate ways to their rooms to be alone for a while. Both Susan and Martha had agreed about taking a long nice bath, but they had no idea what the Doctor was going to do in his room. And to be fair, Susan didn't really even care, as long as she could take a long shower without worrying about using all the hot water.

Almost quarter of an hour later and feeling much more fresh, Susan headed back to the control room. To her surprise both Martha and the Doctor were already there, lingering around the TARDIS console. Susan went to stand beside Martha, who nodded at her in greeting.

"So where are we heading now?" Susan asked, the leather bag looped over her shoulder. Susan never left the TARDIS unprepared. Otherwise she would probably be running after Martha and the Doctor without any useful equipment at all. The bigger-on-the-inside bag had proven to be rather useful while they were in the 60's, since she actually had some extra clothes to change into, unlike some other people she could mention.

The Doctor looked up from the console at her question, and grinned silently. He flicked some switches and jumped around the console. The TARDIS started humming and soon the dematerialisation sound, or the breaks as Susan called them, started.

"Cardiff," he said, pulled a lever, and grinned again.

Susan grinned back at his enthusiastic expression, but on the inside it felt like her guts were twisting around. God, it really was going to be today.

"Cardiff?" Martha asked, bemused.

"Ah," the Doctor nodded, his expression gleeful as he took steps across the console room to get to another lever.

"But the thing about Cardiff is that it's built on a rift in time and space-just like California and the San Andreas Fault," he rambled, then went quiet and turned his head to look at Susan. "The very rift actually, that brought Susan here."

Martha's eyes widened, and Susan nodded silently, deciding to keep quiet.

"The rift bleeds energy." He made a vague gesture with his hands. "Every now and then I need to open up the engines, soak up the energy and use it as fuel."

Martha's expression cleared. "So it's a pit stop!"

"Exactly!" the Doctor said, and pulled yet another lever down. "Should only take twenty seconds."

He frowned thoughtfully. "The rift's been active."

Susan coughed awkwardly and hid a smile behind her hand. If the Doctor only knew just how active the rift had been, he'd probably be even more furious at Torchwood than ever before.

Martha shot a suspicious glance at Susan, and then turned toward the Doctor.

"Wait a minute," she said, frowning. "They had an earthquake at Cardiff couple of years ago. Was it you?"

Susan glanced back and forth between the Doctor and Martha, amused by the Doctor's expression.

"Bit trouble with the Slitheen," he said and stared forward without actually seeing anything. "Long time ago. Lifetimes," he added and pulled down his ear in a nervous gesture. "I was a different man back then."

Susan sneaked behind him and stole a glance at the monitor, where Jack was running across the Plass towards them. "Doctor..." she said, scowling at him.

The Doctor just glanced at her and silently raised an eyebrow. He turned back to the consoled. "Finito!" he said, ignoring Susan, and pulling one or two levers to start the journey away. "All powered up." He looked up at the moving glass thing in the middle with a gleeful expression.

Susan sighed. He was so rude to Jack. "Doctor..."

Martha frowned and glanced at Susan, then back at the Doctor. Something was definitely going on.

Just as the TARDIS was beginning to dematerialise, the whole control room shook violently and all three were thrown back on the floor. The TARDIS console made a few hissing sounds and let out sparks.

"Whoah!" Susan said and rubbed her backside. "That hurt."

They all clung to the console as the TARDIS continued to shook uncontrollably.

"What's that?" Martha asked, looking at the Doctor.

The console let out a few more sparks and started smoking. Susan waved her hand around, not wanting to breath the alien smoke that would be deadly in too big doses.

The Doctor stared at the monitor, scowling at what he saw.

"We're accelerating?" he asked out loud, staring hard at the Gallifreyan text. "Into the future. The year one billion. Five billion. Five trillion." His voice was getting incredulous. "50 trillion. What? The year 100 trillion. That's impossible!"

Susan took a look at the text too, but as expected, didn't understand it. She just saw a group of round circles. "What happens then?" she asked, gladly stealing Martha's line. She was getting ridiculously anxious about what was about to happen.

The Doctor's mouth opened and closed. He glanced at both Susan and Martha, his expression baffled. "We're going to the end of the universe."

After a while the TARDIS stopped moving and went silent. They all let go of the console and stared around them carefully, listening to the TARDIS as it let out eerie creaking sounds.

"Well, we've landed," the Doctor said, throwing an uncertain glance at both Susan and Martha, who were both staring at him seriously.

"So what's out there?" Martha asked.

"I don't know," he revealed, his face looking even a bit fearful.

Martha huffed. "Say that again," she said. "That's rare."

The Doctor looked at her. "Not even the time lords came this far," he said. "We should leave." Martha swallowed, and the Doctor glanced at Susan, whose face was blank. "We should should go. We should really, really... go."

Then he grinned and the moment was over. Martha grinned back and they both ran to the door at amazing speed.

Susan went after them, glad that both of them missed the lack of grin on her face. This whole thing was screwed up, she thought and sighed, stepping through the doors. Really, really screwed.

It was dark and cold outside, and Susan was glad she'd chosen to wear the black coat.

"Oh my god!" Martha yelled just as Susan stepped through the doors. Martha ran to Jack, who was dead on the ground, and tried to take his pulse. Susan walked to stand next to the Doctor, who was staring at Jack with a grim expression.

"There's no pulse!" Martha yelled and stood up. "Hold on, you've got that medical kit thing," she said and ran back to the TARDIS.

Susan rolled her eyes and went to stand beside Jack.

"Hello again," the Doctor said, looking down at Jack an grimacing. "Oh, I'm sorry." He looked away.

Martha came back very quickly with the medical kit. "Here we go," she said and pushed past the Doctor. "Get out of the way."

As she kneeled down, she looked a bit more closely at Jack. "It's a bit odd, though. Not very 100 trillian – that coat's more like World War two."

Susan hid a smile and looked down at Jack. He looked so pale, poor guy.

"I think he came with us," the Doctor said.

Martha looked up at him. "What do you mean?" she asked. "From earth?"

"Must've been clinging to the TARDIS," the Doctor said and glanced back at it. "All the way through the vortex." He shook his head. "Wow, that's very him."

Martha's eyes widened. "What, do you know him?"

"Friend of mine," the Doctor said. "Used to travel with me. Back in the old days."

Martha looked first down at Jack, then back up at the Doctor. "But he's..." she trailed off. "I'm sorry, but there's no pulse, there's nothing. He's dead."

Susan grinned. "Should you try mouth-to-mouth?" she asked and glanced at the Doctor, who scowled. Martha threw a glare at her.

"How can you be joking at a time like this, the man's dead-" she started, but was cut off as Jack gasped and gripped the nearest person next to him, who happened to be Martha. She screamed.

"Well, that's much for me," Martha said breathlessly. "It's all right, just breathe deep. I've got you now."

Jack looked up at his saviour. "Captain Jack Harkness," he said and smiled charmingly. "And who are you?"

Martha giggled. "Martha Jones."

"Nice to meet you Martha Jones."

Susan had to force back a giggle herself at his tone of voice. He was so cute.

"Oh, don't start!" the Doctor groaned, sounding like he had said it thousands times and finally grown tired of it.

"I was only saying hello," Jack said, frowning.

Susan chose that moment to take a step into his line of sight. "You didn't say that to me when we met," she said and pouted. Then she grinned, holding out her hand. "Need a hand?"

"Susan!" Jack said, eyes widening as he took her hand and heaved himself up. "But I only just saw you ten minutes ago!"

"Hold on!" the Doctor said, clearly annoyed. "You two know each other?"

Susan looked at him and poked out her tongue childishly. "Jack's actually the first person I met in this universe," she said. "He helped me to set up my life in Cardiff."

The Doctor made a displeased sound at the back of his throat.

Susan ignored him and turned back to Jack. "It's been a few minutes for you, but just over two weeks for me. Time travel, you know."

Jack nodded. "So you really did find him like you said you would," he said, grinning.

Susan scratched the back of her head. "Actually I met him by accident."

The Doctor obviously didn't like being ignored.

"Captain," he greeted, cutting Susan's tale short.

Jack turned to face him, his expression more serious now. "Doctor," he said. "Good to see you again."

The Doctor nodded back. "And you, same as ever." His expression changed into a curious one. "Although, have you had work done?"

"You can talk!" Jack scowled.

The Doctor blinked. "Oh, yes," he said. "The face! Regeneration," he clarified, then frowned. "How did you know it was me?"

"The police box kind of gives it away," Jack said. "I've been following you for a long time."

Susan decided not to point out how creepy that sounded, and wandered to stand next to Martha, who was glancing between Jack and the Doctor.

"You abandoned me," Jack accused.

The Doctor's face was blank. "Did I?" he asked lightly. "Busy life. Moving on."

Jack stared at him for a while. "Just got to ask," he started. "The battle of Canary Wharf. I saw the list of the dead... It said Rose Tyler."

The Doctor looked at him for a moment before his face brightened. "Oh, no, sorry!" he said. "She's alive."

Jack's eyes widened. "You're kidding!"

The clearly fake smile made its way to the Doctor's face.

"Parallel world," he chirped. "Safe and sound. And Mickey!" he continued. "And her mother!"

There was an expression of amazement and joy on Jack's face. "Oh yes!" he gushed and grabbed the Doctor into a bear hug, both of them laughing and practically dancing around.

Susan eyed them closely. That one didn't look much like a man hug, she thought. It was more of a 'I love you marry me please' kind of hug. Must have been because Jack was involved.

"Good old Rose," Martha whispered.

Susan glanced at her and bit her lip. She had never really liked Rose that much, but to be fair, she hadn't liked Martha either. And look at them now, after spending all the time together they were good friends. Rose wasn't that bad either, to be honest.

They started making their way onwards, Susan and Martha on both sides of Jack and the Doctor walking ahead of them. Jack started entertaining them with the story of how he had gotten stranded in the future.

"And there I was, year 200100, ankle deep in Dalek dust, and he goes off without me," he said, glancing at the Doctor briefly. "But I had this," he continued, tapping his fingers at the machine on his wrist. "I used to be a Time Agent. It's called a vortex manipulator." He threw a dark look at the Doctor. "He's not the only one who can time travel."

The Doctor groaned and turned. "Oh, excuse me!" he said. "That is not time travel. It's like I've got a sports car, you've got a space hopper!"

Susan giggled. "I used to have that on a t-shirt."

Martha grinned at her. "Ohhoh," she said. "Boys and their toys."

Jack scowled. "All right, so I bounced," he said. "21st century, I thought. The perfect place to find the Doctor, except I got it a little wrong." Susan giggled at that and Jack threw a mocking glance at her. "I arrived in 1869 and this thing burnt out so it was useless."

The Doctor shrugged. "I told you so."

"Doesn't sound very reliable," Susan tutted and raised an eyebrow. "Don't they teach you how to fix those things at the Agency?"

Jack pursed his lips at her. "They do," he said, a little coldly. "But not with the kind of technology that could be found in the 19th century."

Susan brought up her hands in defence. "Sorry, just asking."

Jack rolled his eyes. "I had to live through the entire 20th century, waiting for a version of you that would coincide with me!" he said with a pointed look at the Doctor.

Martha looked at him closely. "But that makes you more than a hundred years old!"

Jack grinned. "And looking good, don't ya think?" He laughed. "So I went to the time rift and based myself there, 'cause I knew you'd come back to refuel."

He gestured towards his backbag. "Until finally, I got a signal on this detecting you, and here we are."

Susan stroked her chin. "Just out of curiosity..." she started and looked between the Doctor and Jack. "Did you ever stumbled across his former regenerations?"

Jack snorted. "I never met them, but I've heard a lot of them. It seems he was working for the UNIT for some time."

Susan smiled and glanced at the Doctor, who didn't look very pleased. "Have you seen a picture of him with the scarf?"

Jack let out a laugh. "Yes," he said. "It was a very nice fashion statement."

Susan bit her lip. "Don't forget about the celery."

"Oi!" The Doctor yelled. "There is nothing wrong with my fashion sense!"

Jack raised and eyebrows, but kept silent.

Susan grinned at him. "Of course not, sweetie," she said, winking. Then she frowned at her own choice of words. "Wait, scratch that. Forget I called you sweetie. Never doing that again," she said. It just sounded so wrong. Getting a weird look from Martha and the Doctor, Susan shook her head and continued, "Anyway, your fashion sense has just always been somewhat... unique."

Martha snorted at that. "Converse shoes with a suit, yeah, I'd call that unique."

Susan glanced at her, her face serious. "Don't diss the converse."

Martha rolled her eyes, but then her face turned serious and she frowned. "But the thing is, Doctor, how come you left him behind?" Martha asked, a bit annoyed and maybe a little bit concerned.

"I was busy."

"Is that what happens though? Seriously?" she asked. "Do you just get bored with us one day and disappear?"

"Not if you're blonde," Jack quipped.

"Oh," Martha said dramatically. "She was blonde. What a surprise!"

Susan scowled at them. Nothing wrong with blondes. "That was uncalled for," she said. It's true she never really like Rose, but she wasn't stupid or anything just because she was blonde. Rose was nothing short of amazing, anyway.

The Doctor threw a grateful look at Susan and turned to face Martha and Jack.

"You two!" he said. "We're at the end of the universe, all right. We're at the edge of the knowledge itself, and you're busy..." he paused, looking for the word, "Blogging!"

At least they had the shame to look sorry.

"Come on."

They walked after him, stepping on the edge of a cliff. Before them was a conglomeration of the former habitants of the planet they were walking upon.

Martha was amazed. "Is that a city?"

"A city or a hive," the Doctor said. "Or a nest. Or a conglomeration."

Susan wanted to ask what the latter word actually meant, but felt like it would have disturbed the moment.

"Looks like it was grown." He pointed down. "But look, there. That's like pathways, roads. Must have been some sort of life, long ago."

Martha broke the silence. "What killed it?" she whispered.

"Time," the Doctor said. "Just time. Everything's dying now. All the great civilisations have gone." He looked up and they followed his lead. There were no stars in the sky. "This isn't just night," the Doctor said. "All the stars have burned up and faded away, into nothing."

Jack was the one to make a rather bright deduction. "It must have an atmospheric shell. We should be frozen to death."

The Doctor looked doubtful. "Well, the girls and I maybe," he said. "I'm not so sure about you Jack."

Susan poked him lightly in his shoulder. "Rude."

Martha was shaking her head. "What about the people?" she asked. "Does no one survive?"

The Doctor saw her expression and tried to cheer her up. "I suppose, we have to hope. Life will find a way..."

Susan saw the man just before Jack opened his mouth.

"Well, he's not doing too bad," he said and pointed at Padra who was running away form the future kind. The Doctor narrowed his eyes.

"Is it just me or does that look like a hunt?" he asked and sprang into action. "Come one!"

They followed him without questions asked.

Jack burst into laughter as they ran down from the cliff.

"Haha!" he shouted. "I've missed this!"

They caught up with Padra who ran straight into Jack's arms. "I've got you!" he said to the panicking man and stepped in front of him, drawing his webley from his belt.

The Doctor saw the gun and scowled. "Jack, don't you dare!" the Doctor warned.

Jack rolled his eyes and fired a few times into the air. The future kind stopped at the loud noise and backed down.

"What the hell are they?" Martha asked.

Susan shuddered. "I don't care, let's just run."

Padra agreed with her. "There's more of them, we've got to keep going!"

The Doctor grasped Padra's shoulders. "I've got a ship nearby, it's safe," he said. "It's not far, it's just over there -" He turned and saw more of the future kind coming form the direction of the TARDIS. "Or maybe not."

"We're close to the Silo, if we get to the Silo we're safe!" Padra yelled.

The Doctor looked back at Jack, Martha and Susan.

"Silo?"

"Silo!"

"Silo for me!" Martha said, raising her hand.

They turned towards Susan only to notice that she was already running.

It took them almost two minutes to reach the gates of the silo. Susan felt like her feet were going to fall of any minute. It had been along time since she had been running for that long, that fast. It definitely didn't help that she was still feeling nauseated from all the excitement and nervousness. God, she was a bloody mental case.

"It's the future kind!" Padra yelled. The guards scrambled around the gate.

"Show me your teeth!" they yelled back. Susan was already grimacing by the time Padra repeated the sentence at their little group and the Doctor and others showed their teeth. The guards flashed the lights at their faces and noticed their normal teeth. "Human," one of the guards yelled in confirmation, "Let them in! Let them in!"

They went through the gate and Susan felt like she could drop dead on the ground any moment now.

One of the guards fired at the ground near the gate and the future kind all stepped backwards at the loud noise.

"Humans!" the leader hissed, sneering. "Humani. Make feast!"

Susan shuddered and grabbed ad hold of the Doctor's jacked, hiding her face between his shoulder blades. The future kind had always crepeed her out a little too much. The Doctor wiggled at the contact and glanced at her over his shoulder.

"Susan," he sighed, but upon noticing that she wasn't going to move, he rolled his eyes and turned back to the gate.

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Doctor," he said, trying not to laugh. "You seem to have something stuck on the back of your coat."

The Doctor just grunted in response.

Martha laughed at the two of them. "Susan, what are you doing?" she asked.

Susan hugged the Doctor a bit tighter at the question, not really wanting to let go. She moved her head a little to glance at Martha and Jack. "Scary monsters gonna eat me," she whispered, and almost smiled at their expressions.

Jack snorted. "How long have you been traveling with her again?" he asked Martha, clearly amused.

"About three weeks, almost four."

"And she's still like that?"

Martha frowned. "Actually, this is the first time she's been this nervous..."

The Doctor glanced at them. "Blogging," he said pointedly, then turned around quickly and caught Susan by her shoulders before she could move. "And you, try to get a hold of yourself, we'll be fine."

Susan wanted to cry, she wanted to shout that no, they wouldn't be fine, because everything would be like hell for the next year, but she couldn't. She stared straight at his eyes for a moment, unblinking.

"Oh," she said and smiled. "Right, sorry." Susan wanted to keep hugging him and apologize for the rest of eternity for what was about to happen, but she knew she couldn't do that.

So she let him go.

The Doctor pulled his ear and turned to the guards and Padra, who had all been shamelessly staring at them for the last two minutes. "Thanks about that," he said.

One of the guards coughed and started walking. They followed him. "Let's get you inside."

"My name is Padrafet Safekane," Padra said. "Tell me, can you take me to Utopia?"

The guard grinned at him. "Oh, yes sir," he said. "Yes I can."

"It's like a box, a big blue box," the Doctor said a moment later. "I'm sorry, but I really need it back, it's stuck out there."

Padra was more concerned about his family and spoke immediately after the Doctor.

"I'm sorry, but my family were heading for the silo," he said. "Did they get here? My mother is Kistane Shafekane. My brother is Beltone."

The guard nodded. "The computers are down but you can check the paperwork," he said. "Creet!" As he bellowed, a young blonde boy around ten stuck his head around stuck his head around the corner. "Passenger needs help."

Creet nodded and walked to them. "Right," he said professionally. "What d'you need?"

Padra walked over to Creet and looked at his clipboard.

The guard turned back to the Doctor. "A blue box you say?"

The Doctor brightened up a little. "Big, tall, wooden," he said. "Says "police.""

The guard nodded. "We're driving out for the last water collection. I'll see what I can do."

The Doctor smiled. "Thank you."

All this time Padra had been talking with Creet, and Martha had been staring at the boy oddly. "Come on!" Creet said and walked off.

Martha followed him. "Sorry, but how old are you?" she asked.

Creet glanced back at her, bit amused. "Old enough to work," he answered. "This way."

They all followed him, and god, the stink was horrible. Susan realised that the place really was like a refugee camp.

"Kistane Shafekane," Creet called out. "Kistane and Beltone Shafekane?"

Martha was looking around with pity in her eyes, Susan noticed and then glanced at the Doctor, who looked more amazed than anything.

"It's like a refugee camp," Martha voiced Susan's thought out loud.

Jack wrinkled up his nose. "Stinking!" he said and as a man glared at him, he corrected: "Ooh, sorry, no offence."

The Doctor was beaming. "Don't you see that? The ripe smell of humans," he said. "You survived. Oh, much better than a million years evolving into clouds of gas. And then another million as downloads, but you always revert back to the same basic shape. The fundamental humans." He shook his head.

"Kistane Shafekane!"

"End of the universe and here you are!" The Doctor grinned. "Indomitable! That's the world. Indomitable! Ha!"

Susan couldn't help but grin back at him as they hurried to keep up with Creet. He was looking so happy that Susan felt even more awful about what was going to happen to all of those humans.

"Is there a Kistane Shafekane?"

A woman stood up. "That's me!" she said and gasped as she saw Padra.

"Mother?"

"Oh my god," she said and they ran towards each other to hug. "Padra!"

Martha grinned brightly at the sight. "It's not all bad news!" she said, glancing at the Doctor and Susan. The Doctor started sonicking a door nearby while Jack found some entertainment.

"Captain Jack Harkness," he said, shaking the man's hand. "And who are you?"

"Stop it!" the Doctor warned, not even looking his way. Susan stood next to him, curious about what he was doing. She frowned, not remembering this bit. "Give us a hand with this. It's half deadlocked, see if you can override the door."

Jack set to work on the keypad while the Doctor sontinued sonicking the door itself.

The Doctor grinned. "Let's find out where we are!" he said and slid the door open.

Susan's eyes widened as she realised what was happening, and she grabbed a hold of his jacket before he could fall.

"Doctor!" she gasped. "Be a little more careful when opening doors by force, okay? If a door is locked, there's usually a reason for it!"

The Doctor took a step back and smiled sheepishly. "Thanks."

They looked up in amazement at the huge rocket, hot air swirling all around them in the form of steam.

"Now that's what I call a rocket," Martha breathed out.

The Doctor came to a conclusion. "They're not refugees," he said, frowning. "They're passengers."

Susan shook her head. "You honestly figured that out only now?" They looked back at her. "The guard told the little boy that a passenger needed help," she said, amused by their expressions. "You just don't pay attention to the things around you, do you?"

Martha nodded absently. "They said they were going to Utopia," she said, looking up at the Doctor who was back staring at the rocket.

"The perfect place," he said. "Hundred trillion years, it's still the same old dream." He looked at Jack. "Do you recognize the engines?"

Jack shook his head. "Nope," he said. "But whatever it is, it's not rocket science. But it's hot, though."

The Doctor nodded. "Boiling."

Susan took a step backwards so that they could close the door.

"But if the universe is falling apart," the Doctor started, and glanced at Susan. "What does Utopia mean?"

Susan pursed her lips and then grinned a little. "I wrote an essay about Utopia once," she said absently. "Well, about Dystopia, the lack of Utopia, to be certain."

The Doctor raised and eyebrow at him, but Susan was saved from an explanation as Professor Yana ran up to them, glancing between the Doctor and Jack.

"The Doctor?" he asked Jack, making Susan snort and Jack frown at her.

The Doctor's face brightened. "That's me!" he said.

Professor Yana turned to him and grabbed his hands. "Oh, good, good!" he yelled, pulling the Doctor with him. They all followed the pair, with the professor mumbling 'good" all the way.

The Doctor looked back at them with a smile. "It's good, apparently!"

Susan kept silent as they followed them into the room with all the rocket controls. She could feel her hands starting to sweat.

"Chan – Welcome, – tho," Chanto greeted them. Susan nodded and gave her a brief smile.

Professor Yana started showing the Doctor around.

"This is the gravitissimal accelerator," he said and moved around. "And over here is the footprint impellor system, if you know anything about end time gravity..."

Martha smiled at Chanto. "Hello," she said. "Who are you?"

Chanto nodded, almost bowing. "Chan – Chanto, – tho."

Jack grinned at her. "Captain Jack Harkness."

The Doctor glanced up. "Stop it!"

Jack glared at him. "Can't I say hello to anyone?"

Chanto smiled shyly. "Chan – I do not protest, – tho." She giggled.

Jack winked. "Maybe later blue," he said and joined the Doctor. "So what have we got here?"

Martha followed Jack, curious about the bubbling noise coming from his backbag.

"All this feeds into the rocket?" the Doctor asked Yana.

"Yeah, except without a stable footprint we'll never achieve escape velocity," Yana said. "If we only could harmonize the five impact patterns and unify them, well, we might just make it," he said hopefully.

"What do you think Doctor? Any ideas?"

The Doctor frowned. "Well, umm," he said, turning around in a circle, "Sort of... Not a clue."

"Nothing?"

"I'm not from around these parts, I've never seen a system like it," the Doctor said, grimacing. "Sorry."

Professor Yana shook his head, defeated. "No, no, I'm sorry," he said. "It's my fault. There's been so little help..."

In the sitting room area, Martha had been examining Jack's bag and pulled out a bubbling glass container with a hand inside.

"Oh my god," Martha said out loud, putting the container down on a table, and they all gathered around her to see what was the matter. "You've got a hand," she said to Jack. "A hand, in a jar, in your bag."

Despite her nervousness, Susan giggled at the Doctor's expression.

"But, that's my hand!" he spluttered.

Jack grinned and shrugged. "I said I had a Doctor detector."

"Chan – Is this a tradition amongst your people, – tho?"

"Not on my street!" Martha said incredulously. "What do you mean it's your hand? You've got both of your hands, I can see them!"

The Doctor looked up at her. "Long story, I lost my hand on Christmas day, in a sword fight."

Martha looked amused. "Um, and you, what?" she laughed. "Grew another hand?"

Susan nodded. "Yep."

The Doctor nodded too. "Um, yeah, I did," he said and Martha's expression fell.

"Hello!" he said, wiggling his fingers at her.

Susan smiled at him. "That's so cool," she said. "Reeeeally useful too."

Professor Yana frowned. "Might I ask you, what species are you?"

The Doctor looked up at him. "Time lord. Last of. Heard of them? Legend or anything? Not even a myth?" Professor Yana shook his head, and the Doctor frowned. "Blimey, end of the universe is a bit humbling."

"Chan –, It's said that I'm the last of my species too, – tho," Chanto said.

The Doctor leaned forward in his chair. "Sorry, what was your name?"

"My assistant Chanto. A survivor of the Malmooth," Professor Yana said. "This was their planet Malcassairo, before we took refugee."

The Doctor looked up at her. "That city outside, that was yours?"

"Chan –, The conglomeration died, – tho."

"Conglomeration!" the Doctor said, leaning backwards. "That's what I said."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "You're supposed to say sorry."

"Oh, yes," the Doctor said. "Sorry."

"Chan –, Most grateful, – tho."

Martha was ignoring them. "You grew... Another hand."

Susan rolled her eyes, grinning. "Get over it already," she said. "He's an alien, remember?"

The Doctor wiggled his fingers again. "Hello again." He stood up. "It's fine, look. Really, it's me."

Martha took his hand. "Even after all this time you're still full of surprises."

The Doctor clicked his tongue and winked at her.

"Chan –, you're most unusual, – tho."

"Well," the Doctor said, not even trying to be modest.

"What about those things outside, the beastie boys, what are they?" Jack asked.

Susan answered before the professor could. "They're called the future kind, and it's feared that they are what humans will become," she said. Chanto and the professor looked at her, surprised. Susan scratched her neck. "That's if I understood right, I heard Padra call them that and the name is making it kinda obvious, don't you think?"

Professor Yana nodded. "Yes. It's an old myth," he said. "It will happen to us unless we reach Utopia."

The Doctor looked clueless. "And Utopia is...?"

"Oh, every human knows of Utopia!" professor Yana said. "Were have you been?"

The Doctor made a face. "Bit of a hermit," he said with a straight face.

"A hermit with friends?" Yana asked, amused.

"Hermit's united," Susan said, grinning to cover her rapidly beating heart. "We meet up every couple of years and switch stories about caves."

Martha and Jack looked at her oddly, as did the professor and Chanto. Only the Doctor's glance seemed knowing.

"It's good fun," the Doctor continued, completely serious. "For a hermit. So, um, Utopia?"

Yana crooked his finger and led them around a computer screen that showed a navigational chart with a blinking red dot.

"The call came from across the stars, over and over again," Yana explained. "Come to Utopia."

He pointed at the red dot. "Originating from this point."

The Doctor was leaning against the console with his chin in his hands. "Where is that?"

"Oh, it's far beyond the condensate wilderness. Out towards the wild lands and the dark matter reefs. Calling us in," Yana told. "The last of the humans, scattered across the night."

The Doctor looked thoughtful. "What do you think is out there?"

"I don't know. A colony, a city, some sort of haven?" Yana said, shaking his head. "The Science Foundation created the Utopia Project thousands of years ago to preserve the mankind – to find a way of surviving beyond the reality itself. Now, perhaps they found it, perhaps not."

He looked down at the Doctor. "But it's worth a look, don't you think?"

The Doctor smiled. "Oh, yes."

He started explaining something about the signal, which Susan promptly ignored as she was too busy staring at professor Yana, who suddenly had a painful expression on his face. Susan knew he was probably hearing the drums, and she silently cursed Rassilon and the other time lords still remaining for that.

"Professor?"

Yana startled at that and walked around them. "Right, that's enough talk," he said. "There's work to do. Now if you could leave please, thank you."

The Doctor looked at him. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine, and busy!"

"Except that rocket's not gonna fly, is it?" the Doctor said, leaning against a piece of device. "This footprint mechanism thing, it's not working."

Yana turned around. "We'll find a way!"

The Doctor continued. "You're stuck on this planet," he said. "And you haven't told them, have you. That lot out there, they think they're gonna fly."

Professor Yana sat down, dejected. "It's better to let them live in hope."

The Doctor suddenly turned a bit more cheery. "Quite right, too," he said, and went past Jack who took his coat. "I must say, professor... What was it?"

"Yana."

"Professor Yana," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "This new science is well beyond me, but all the same, a boost circuit must be a circuit which reverses the boost," he said and Susan cracked a smile at his wording.

"So I wonder what would happen if did -" He picked up the circuit and sonicked it, before flicking it on. "- This?"

The whole system started rolling, letting out an almighty sound, and they all looked around, amazed.

"Chan –, It's working, – tho!"

Professor Yana stood up, looking around. "But how did you do that?"

"Oh, we've been chatting away, I forgot to tell you," the Doctor said with a straight face before grinning. "I'm brilliant."

"And modest too!" Susan said.

The Doctor winked at her, and they got to work.

Susan helped Martha and Chanto carry more circuit boards to the main room. She didn't stay listen to Martha speak with Creet, since she didn't know if she could handle to listening to him, poor thing. She reached the Doctor and the others just after the guards had brought the TARDIS back.

The Doctor came from inside, taking a long wire with him and connecting it to the footprint systems.

"Extra power," he said. "Little bit off a cheat, but who's counting?"

Susan glanced between professor Yana and the TARDIS.

The Doctor looked up. "Jack. You're in charge of the retro feeds!"

The door slid open. Martha and Chanto stepped through.

"Oh, I'm glad to see that thing," Martha said, noticing the TARDIS. Professor Yana was again looking like he was in pain, so Chanto went to him.

"Chan –, Professor, are you all right, – tho?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he said. "I'm fine, just get on with it."

Susan glanced at Jack, who noticed her. "Connect those circuits into the spar, same as the last lot. But quicker."

Susan obliged.

'He thinks he's so good 'coz he happens to know something about rocket science,' the voice inside Susan's head remarked after she had connected the last circuit. She was started and stepped back, almost tripping on a wire and crashing into a machine beside her.

"Are you all right?" the Doctor asked, noticing her pale face.

Susan looked up at him and smiled. "No, I'm fine, just... Umm, remembered something," she said.

What the hell? First you disappear for weeks and then appear to scare the crap out of me so that I look like a fool? Susan thought, scowling.

'Not my fault,' the voice said. 'You just haven't needed me lately, that's all.'

Susan scowled. And now I do?

'You do remember that picture of you and the Master, don't you?'

Of course I do, Susan thought. How could I have forgotten?

"You don't have to keep working," the Doctor said to Yana. "We can handle it."

Susan paused at that and glanced at the two of them.

"It's just a headache," Yana answered and Susan grimaced. "Just – just noise inside my head Doctor. Constant noise inside my head."

The Doctor kneeled before him. "What sort of noise?"

"It's the sound of drums," Yana said. "More and more as thought it's getting closer."

"When did it start?" the Doctor asked, frowning.

"Oh, I've had it all my life, every waking hour," the Professor answered and stood up. "Still, no rest for the wicked."

The Doctor smiled.

So what about the picture? Susan continued.

'Did you honestly think that the Master would kidnap one of the Doctor's companions when he's trying to escape?'

Now that she thought about it, it didn't really sound reasonable. So?

The voice sighed. 'That means that you either beg him to take you with him...' the voice trailed off and Susan grimaced at the mental image. 'Or you go with him in a way he doesn't notice you until it's too late.'

Susan's eyes widened. So, I have to hide inside the TARDIS and volunteer to leave with him?

'Yep.'

Susan sighed. Why did she keep doing these things? She had no idea.

"Professor, are you getting me?" the guard from earlier asked through the webcam.

Susan walked to stand behind the Doctor. "Doctor, I left my glasses in the TARDIS," she said. "I'll go fetch them, I'll be right back, okay?"

The Doctor nodded absentmindedly. "Yes, yes," he mumbled, not really paying attention to what she was saying.

After a while he realized what he had heard.

"What?" He turned to look back at her only to find that she was already gone.

The Doctor turned to look at Jack. "Since when has Susan ever worn glasses?" he asked, baffled.

Jack shook his head and shrugged. The Doctor frowned but was forced to let the matter go as the professor started cursing the computers.

"God sakes!" he said. "This equipment, needs rebooting all the time."

Martha walked up to him. "Anything I can do?" she asked. "I've finished that lot."

"Yes, if you could," Yana said, getting up and giving Martha his seat. "Just press the reboot key every time the picture goes out."

"Certainly sir," Martha said and grinned. "Just don't ask me to do shorthand."

The guard, Atillo, called out as the picture came back. "Are you still there?"

Yana stepped in the view of the camera.

"Ah," he said. "Present and correct. Send your man inside, we'll keep the levels down from here."

Atillo was silent for a moment, before he announced, "He's inside. And good luck to him."

Yana looked back at Jack. "Captain, keep the levels below the red."

The Doctor frowned. "Where is that room?"

Yana glanced at him. "It's underneath the rocket. Fix the couplings, and the footprint can work," he said. "But the entire chamber is flooded with stet radiation."

"Stet?" the Doctor asked, raising his eyebrows. "Never heard of it."

Yana shook his head. "You wouldn't want to," he said. "But it's safe enough. We can hold the radiation back from here."

They watched on the monitor as Jate worked on the couplings. After a while an alarm began to sound.

"It's rising!" Yana yelled. "0.2. Keep it level!"

"Yes sir!"

Jate had just fixed the second coupling, when an alarm went off.

"Chan – We're losing power, – tho!"

The Doctor rushed to sonic the controls in order to keep the levels down. "The radiation is rising!" Something was wrong.

Jack rushed to the controls. "We've lost control!"

"The chamber's going to flood," Yana said.

The Doctor frowned. He glanced back. "Jack! Override the vents!"

Jack took hold of two cables that were letting out sparks. "We can jumpstart the override!"

"Jack don't!" The Doctor warned. "It's going to flare!"

Jack hold the cables together and they flared violently. He let out a scream as they sent an electric current through his body. The others watched helplessly as he fell dead on the floor.

Martha rushed to him. "I've got him!"

Chanto pushed the cables aside. "Chan – Don't touch the cables – tho!"

Professor Yana looked down at Jack. "Oh, I'm so sorry," he said.

The Doctor put his hands in his pockets and watched, as it seemed, unperturbed. "The chamber is flooded with radiation, yes?"

Martha started mouth-to-mouth on Jack.

"Without the couplings the engines will never start!" Professor Yana said. "It was all for nothing!"

"Oh, I don't know..." The Doctor said lightly. "Martha." He pulled her up gently by her shoulders.

Martha was desperate, she was a doctor for god's sake. She couldn't just leave Jack to die! "You've got to let me try!"

"Come on, just listen to me," he said with a pointed look. "Leave him alone."

The Doctor gazed down at Jack for a moment.

"It strikes me, professor, you've got a room a man can't enter without dying. Is that correct?"

Professor Yana let out a dry chuckle. "Yes," he said.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows and started to take his glasses off. "Well..."

Jack let out a huge gasp and wriggled on the floor, coming back to life.

"I've got just the man."

Jack looked up at them, breathless. "Was someone kissing me?"