14 - A GOOD ENCOUNTER

Martha is lying on the floor of the TARDIS. Her body feels heavy, her hands shake and she felt like a piano has sat on her chest. Time passes slowly and painfully. The antidote runs through her veins, she felt it come in like a cold wave inside her veins, but nothing has changed since then. In fact, her symptoms had decreased but became more intense. The place where the massive syringe had touched her skin had gone dark, was swollen and it hurt. Every little damn thing hurt. One minute she was cold, the other she hot. Her nose had stopped bleeding, but she could still feel the taste on her tongue. Her muscles ached, one screaming louder than the other. Her left arm was itching so much, she had broken nails while scratching it and long lines came from her wrist to her elbow. She looks at the time machine door hoping she'd find something to help her pain, but nothing came. The Doctor had kissed her goodbye and left her with the promise of quick return, but time kept passing and no sign of him. She takes a second to close her eyes, to breathe the pain in and out, but it only made it worse.

When she opens her eyes once more, Mickey is the one sitting next to her. crossed leg and with a painful look in his eyes. A ghostly image of himself all dressed in black.

"Why are you still here?" Martha wonders, squeezing her arms around her own stomach.

"Because you're not going to last long" Mickey replies without moving his lips.

"They gave me a bloody antidote."

"Do you really think that was an antidote? Risking losing leverage by healing you? Imagine you had back up waiting somewhere."

"If they were afraid I was not alone, they would have left some of them with me."

"The Doctor is a bigger threat than you. Instead, they kill you and keep their focus solely on him."

"You're being mean. I'm dying."

Martha curls up into a little ball of pain and tries to breathe through it.

"This is not like giving birth, dear."

"Will you help me?"

"The help I can give, you're not ready to take," Mickey replies quietly, his voice coming out of his mouth like silk. Martha looks ahead and looks straight at Mickey's eyes. "Not yet, at least."

"Haven't heard your voice in a while."

"Hello."

"Hi."

The two look at one another and remember the love they felt for one another. Martha crawls her way to a sitting position and sits right next to Mickey. The silence invades them and together they sit on the TARDIS floor. Martha slowly scratching her right arm.

"Did you know?

"About?"

"The meteor?"

"Yes. Mostly, Tish and I knew. It talked to us once." Mickey told looking ahead. "Well, it was you, but it clearly wasn't you. Tish was staying with us for a few nights as her building was being fumigated. Termites, you know? One night we both woke up to you walking around the house. Tish went to touch you in the arm, to call you and it was like she had gone into shock. Suddenly, she was on the floor passed out. I grabbed you and I felt it."

"Felt what?"

"The meteor," Mickey replies. "It showed me everything. Where it had come from, where it was going. Your accident. It showed me James as a boy and a grown man. It said 'I gave you your son' which at the time I knew it wasn't true, but it made sense somehow. Then, it told me never to tell you. Seconds later, you were yourself."

Martha fights another wave of pain. This time it seems like someone was digging through her body with the smallest of knives. Whimpers of pain leave her mouth and she grinds her teeth to fight that knives that kept digging into her belly.

Tears begin rolling down Martha's face as she balls herself up again into a ball of pain and sorrow.

"If I die, who's gonna look after James?"

"He has the best of me and you," Mickey adds with sadness in his eyes. "Besides, something alien more. He'll be fine.

The convoy of military trucks made its way towards the light coming from the horizon. As they came closer the light became brighter and the temperature outside rose accordingly. The military trucks, these futuristic monsters of protection, roar down the black dirt road like there was no tomorrow. The Doctor, Constantine and Ja rode on the same truck, the second one of the convoy. The two guests wore a full body suit that not only protected them from the toxic air, but also from the increasing heat. Since the ride had begun, the Doctor hadn't stopped scratching his arm, even with the suit.

"You need to stop," Constantine warns the Doctor. "You're will end up ripping the suit and be worse than you are now."

"I don't need you to give me orders."

"I'm trying to make the best of a situation."

"The best situation? We've left Martha behind. She's dying!"

"I know," Constantine replies, with a cold stare. "We still have a missing to complete. Luckily, we'll get there fast enough and return before she meets her husband in what they call heaven."

The Doctor looks away from Constantine. He stares at the horizon, which seems not come fast enough. Still, he scratches his arm.

"So, Constantine." Ja began, getting the Cyborg's attention. On his lap rests a gun. "We know your planet very well. We respect it so. A planet of soldiers. A military world."

"Indeed," Constantine adds. The Doctor remains silent, he's eyes are on the horizon. "We've been aware of Idra, also. Your people have been fighting for a while."

"We'll keep fighting to keep these lands from foreigners." Ja answers. He looks out the window at the darkness. "These lands were our pride and joy. Then our Emperor decided that all of these beauties weren't ours to keep, but he wanted to sell them. To give them to some and invite others to dig on our soil and take our minerals."

When he turns to Constantine, Ja has a look of utter rage in his eyes.

"So, we decided to burn down the planet, instead of giving it away."

"How is that productive?" The Doctor asks. "Your planet has been in demise ever since you decided this was a good idea."

"Oh, this wasn't my idea, Doctor." Ja opens a bigger smile. "Hell, for what I know the original revolutionary is dead by now. What we are doing in continuing his legacy. If it means burning down our planet and killing our own, we will. What we won't do is sell ourselves to the highest bidder."

"You make me sick."

"Thank you," Ja replies with a shrug. "However, you should be grateful. Any other part of this planet you would be dead or in prison. Here, I'm allowing you to talk to me and be all sassy. Consider yourself privileged."

The Doctor looks at the soldier with a look of repulse and utter rage, but before he opens his mouth to manifest such feelings, Ja points the finger at the Time Lord "How dare you to judge us, the actions of my people? We know you, Doctor. We know you well and what you have done on your planet, Gallifrey." The Doctor swallows hard and sits in his seat. "Besides, you're ready to point the finger at me, but did you know you're also riding with a serial killer?"

It's Constantine's time to feel the urge to punch the soldier right in the face. He knew his reputation was far from perfect, he knew he had done his mistakes in his time, but he was not a criminal.

"What happened to your ranks, Constantine?"

Constantine tenses up quickly and the Doctor looks back at the cyborg with curiosity. The soldiers of Caleb23 were known for their markings on their body, mostly on their arms. The more markings they had, the higher the rank. From what the Doctor could make out, he had not seen Constantine's arms, so far, but if Ja was speaking some nonsense Constantine would have dismissed him quickly.

"I'm a driver."

Ja showed him is a dark smile. "You're not a driver. Or at least, not just a driver."

"I am."

"You could sense my men when we were still far away from you. You're not just a driver. You're one of us." Constantine does not reply. Ja keeps smiling, with one hand resting on his gun. "The thing about our people here in Idra, we are very good at spotting liars or people who are not telling the entire truth." He looks at the Doctor "You're travelling companion is far from truthful"

"My companions are who they are. I trust them." The Doctor replies with hate and disgust in his voice. He depends from these mercenaries but is not willing to even engage with them in cheap tricks. This only made the Timelord scratch his arm even harder, it was starting to burn even under the suit.

"You're a bigger fool, than I thought," Ja replies with his sinister smile. He turns to Constantine "Well?"

"We were sworn to protect a planet, Lysiak. Like the name, it was a peaceful planet, however, just like yours, the President decided it was best to make commercial trades with certain nations from other planets who were far from friendly. We were called to battle. On a mission, I ignored the reports of my General saying there was a possibility of a trap waiting for us." Constantine told this tale without a drop of emotion or regret. Like anything coming from him, everything was methodical and just practical. "Thousands died from the attack. Including members of my team. For this, I faced jail and lost all my rankings, without the possibility of regaining them. I am now a driver. I drive here and there, I stay behind and fix cars."

"How mad are you?"

"You have no bloody idea"

Ja lets out a huge laugh of content and pride. His entire body is laughing and, to accompany, he bangs his hand on the walls of the cars as if he were telling this massive joke.

"I like you, cyborg. We don't like foreigners, people who don't belong to our land, but you are welcome. You are welcome to fight beside us and feed that rage. I can smell it boiling in you."

He continues laughing as if the world were about to end with the joke of the century. Constantine looks away from the crazy soldier and his eyes fall on Doctor, who despite being next to him, continued looking ahead to the horizon fast approaching. Quickly he grabs the hand of the Timelord stopping him mid scratch.

"Look at yourself." He orders. The Doctor looks down at his white suit and sees that the right arm is now showing stripes of blood. He was scratching himself raw.

Suddenly, a voice comes through inside the truck.

"We're getting closer, boss."

Ja stands from inside the truck walking easily from the back of it to the front. He stood right behind the driver and the passenger's seat, looking straight ahead.

"We are getting close indeed." He acknowledges. "Let's stop. We'll walk the rest of the way."

Constantine opens his mouth to talk, but is quickly silenced by a nudge from the Doctor. He looks at the Timelord inquisitively and he replies "Understand this, sometimes you have to be smarter. Sometimes being smart demands casualties. Even if it wasn't planned."

The trucks suddenly come to a halt and Ja lets out a howl. "Let's take a look at this gem of yours, Doctor."

He opens the door and the heat comes in an intense wave. Ja stands by the door looking at the impact zone where the meteor had met the ground and his smile got bigger. By the door, he grabs a big thick helmet all painted black and puts it on. He says something in his own dialect and then walks out the door. The driver and the passenger do the same with the helmet, but instead of walking out, they motion for the two guests to get out first. The Doctor and Constantine put their helmets and get out the truck.

Outside, it was suddenly so bright it almost seemed morning. The Doctor looks up and the Universe is still there on top of his head with all the stars and planets at a distance, so visible it was scary. He looks down, his eyes adjusting to the brightness of the landing site, and sees that the light is coming from deep within a massive crater left my meteor's landing. Not only had the meteor dragged on its landing, it had also sunk into the ground. The impact zone was this gigantic whole, both big in diameter and height, but he knew that deep down, the living breathing organism remained, waiting.

"Alright," Ja Says looking back at his team who was now fully dressed and prepared to face any danger. "You lot, that the left side. You the right. We go from here and the rest of you go to the other side. We need to attack this from all sides."

The team members immediately disperse, except for Ja's team, a total of five men, who wait for him. Ja looks at the Doctor and Constantine.

"You're awfully quiet." He notes while looking at the Doctor. "I would expect more fight and arguments from the so called Doctor. I'm disappointed."

"What do you want me to say? It won't change your mind either way." The Doctor adds. "I'm telling you, you shouldn't go in there. You don't know what you're dealing with."

"I don't listen to your orders, Doctor. You're not in Gallifrey. You're not on Earth or Caleb 23. We are our own men."

Quickly, Ja motions his men and together they begin walking, but none of them notices the Doctor and Constantine stay behind.

"What are you doing?" Constantine wonders looking back at the Timelord.

"Wait." He orders.

Part of him didn't want to this. Part of him truly and utterly hated himself for allowing this happen, but he knew there was no reasoning with such creatures like Ja and his men. Creatures of nothing but rage, with pure disregard for others.

Bathed in the pure white light of the meteor they looked like thin shadows fingers walking up to the top of the crater. Once they reached the top, the men began their descent into the crater. Immediately, the Doctor began to run.

"Where are you going?" Constantine asks watching the time Lord run back to one of the trucks.

"Stops asking questions and bloody run!" The Doctor replies, without looking back. Constantine runs following the Doctor's footsteps. The Time Lord opens the door of the first truck and jumps inside, followed by Constantine who closes it behind him.

Constantine takes off his helmet and finds the Doctor sitting behind the wheel of the car, still with his helmet on.

"What's the problem?"

"You seem to forget this is a living breathing organism. When it meets any other source of life, it takes it. Martha and the Queen are the exceptions. Once it sees their true nature, what do you think it's going to happen?" The Doctor goes behind the wheel and tries to start the car, but he has no idea how it works. It's a multitude of buttons, levers and screens he'd never seen before. "How can anyone drive this?"

"Move!" Constantine orders and the Doctor moves to the passenger side. "You can take that off now."

"No." The Doctor replies. "I don't think it's going to go smoothly."

As if by natural intuition Constantine quickly starts the truck. He is beginning to make a U turn when all of the sudden screams are heard from inside the crater. Gut wrenching screams, the kind that makes your skin crawl and your insides revolt.

"Go! Go now!" Constantine finishes the manoeuvre clumsy and quickly, but before he got a chance to get far away the light disappears bringing darkness to the world. The duo trade looks wondering if anything had gone wrong. But like someone releasing their breath after holding it in for a very long time, the light returns in a wave of heat and brightness. The Doctor is screaming at Constantine to go faster and the light chases them like bubble growing faster and faster. The Cyborg steps on the gas, making the engine roar and the car shake. The light catches them turning everything white and hot.

Martha opens her eyes suddenly. Something happened on the outside, she could feel the TARDIS tremble. Something rocked this planet.

"What was that?"

Mickey, who laid next to her, reached out and touched a strain of her hair. Martha felt the cold touch of death and did not find it weird or frightening, but comforting.

"Just rest. It's almost over."

With their readjusting to the sudden darkness, the Doctor and the cyborg find themselves in the middle of nowhere. The Time Lord takes off his helmet and, with great satisfaction, realised he managed to escape the blast in one piece. Constantine is by his side, hands still gripping the wheel so strongly, it had made two dents on it. He looks at the Doctor with an inquisitive look.

"Did they die?" He asks.

"Most likely absorbed by the meteor." The Doctor replies with little or no care in his spirit. "So, yes."

"I thought death was not on your agenda?"

"It's not."

He adds nothing more to his side of the argument. Somehow, he didn't feel sorry for Ja and his men. He couldn't feel sorry for those who were willing to destroy their own planet and kill their own without flinching. He knew the kind of soldier Ja was. It wouldn't stop unless someone stopped him.

"Do you feel bad?"The Doctor asks.

"Should I?"

"You're the one in control of your emotions."

"Somehow I can't seem to be bothered.

"Did you know this would happen? That it would 'absorb' them?"

"I'm surprised it didn't absorb us in the process, to be honest. " The Doctor replies. "It's a living thing, Constantine. We need it to have a form. We need it if we are to beat the Queen and save Martha, Tish, James, your people and people of Angyionight. I'm not proud. But then again, we're never proud of necessary things."

"Indeed"

The third voice made the duo jump out of their skin. In sync, they looked back to find a figure sitting in the back of the truck. It was tall and lean, sitting with its legs crossed and hands on its knees. It was impossible to know if it was female or male in nature, as it seemed to be all and nothing at the same time. Its features were soft, pleasing and yet, somewhat frightening for no being could harvest such beauty.

It sat there completely naked. The skin, as white as milk. The eyes, big as diamonds, were of the colour purple and the nose so small and perfect it practically wasn't there. It had assimilated the features to the men in Ja's armies while creating something new entirely. A dark line formed right in the middle of its forehead all the down to its chin, stretching the neck, arms to the tip of the fingers, hips, legs and feet. However, the most riveting aspect was the fact that its hair floated around it as if it were deep under water. White in colour looking like silk floating away.

"Oh my..." The Doctor let out. The meteor cocked its head towards the time lord. It didn't blink, just stared.

"Doctor." It calls looking at the time lord. A thousand voices speaking at the same time coming from one set of lips. It turns its head to Constantine, looking him up and down."Constantine."

"Hello." The cyborg replies without really knowing what to say.

"Hello." It mimics

"How come we aren't dead?"

"If it wanted to kill us, it would have." The Doctor adds.

"Would have." It repeats.

"Instead, it's here. Right in front of us. Which means, it knows we mean it no harm."

"No harm." The meteor repeats.

The Doctor clears his throat, turning it into a cough. A serious coughing fit. The meteor blinks once and cocks its head to the other side.

"Dying."

"Possibly, yes." The Doctor manages to get out while coughing still. He coughs so hard and so deep that his hand catches a splash of blood. He thinks of Martha, if he's like this, how could she be. Please don't be dead, he begs to himself.

"Martha?" The meteor suddenly asks. The Doctor looks at the meteor and frowns.

"You can read my mind?"

"Your mind." It repeats. "Martha?"

"Yes. Martha. My friend. She's..."

"Away." The meteor replies. It looks at the Doctor without blinking. The meteor looks up and touches the ceiling of the truck with the tip of its finger. Slowly it taps the ceiling with its fingernails "Up. Up."

The blood inside the Time Lord's veins freezes.

"Constantine."

"On it."

The truck roars on the dust road towards Martha.

Martha Jones is feeling as if she's floating on air. Everything is beautiful. Everything is peace. The pain had stopped long an ago and she felt just fine. Looking down, she can see her old self-lying in a pool of her own vomit. A nasty vision of herself, to be honest.

"Come on." Mickey was right there next to her. Behind him, the biggest light shone warm and welcoming. She could hear children laughing, water running and birds chirping right behind him. However, something still kept her.

"What about the Doctor?"

"You've spent your life worrying about him."

"He's my friend."

"He will be fine. You will see him soon."

Martha took one look down again and saw herself. Suddenly, she felt sad.

"I can't leave James."

"James has people to look after him. He will understand."

Mickey reaches out his hand and welcomes her. Quickly the sense of sadness vanishes and Martha reaches to touch her husband's hand.

Before she could ever brush his fingers a cold wind reaches her. The light behind Mickey vanishes and he's facing turns to confusion. He seems to look behind Martha, with his confusion turning to anger.

"No."

Martha looks behind her and sees this unimaginable being staring at her.

"Martha." The being calls her. "You can't go."

All of sudden, everything turns black and Martha is pulled down.

Martha opens her eyes woken up by a sense of coldness. The first thing she notices is that the Doctor is holding her close to his chest and is now with a look of relieve.

"Oh thank you! Oh, thank you!" He kisses Martha on the forehead and holds her tighter. "Martha Jones you almost gave two heart attacks."

"Doctor, can you let go of me?"

"No. Not now. Nor ever. You'll always be with me. Always." He looks deep into her brown eyes cupping her face with his head. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so very sorry."

Martha cups his face as well, her eyes looking around and quickly recognizing the TARDIS.

""I'm back."

"You are. It brought you back and it saved me."

"What brought me back?" Martha suddenly realizes that there was something kneeling right next to her. Slowly her eyes avert to it and it blinks, cocking its head from side to side. A wave of memory comes to her and she quickly remembers her experience with the meteor back in Ireland. Martha reaches out and touches the meteor's hand. "You."

"Well, technically, it's not the same one you met in Ireland, Martha."

"I know. I know." Martha holds on to the meteor's hand even hard. By touching it she feels a deep connection to the meteor as if she could open her heart and soul and it would understand her. "We've met."

"You met one of me. Yes."

"You saved my life."

"Life inside of you."

"Yes. I'm asking you to save my son's life now." The meteor cocks its head intrigued as ever. "There's a Queen with the power to hypnotize everyone. She has my son. He is like her."

"James."

Martha leaves the Doctor's embrace and kneels in front of the meteor.

"She wants you."

"My power."

"Your power, yes," Martha replies. "Will you help us?"

All of the sudden, the phone inside the TARDIS begins to ring. The group exchanges look without knowing exactly what to do at this moment. Until the Doctor gets up and quickly runs to it.

"Doctor!"

"Colonel!" The Doctor replies. "How did you get this...?"

"Not important, at this moment Time Lord. We've got ourselves some trouble."

"What trouble? Everything is okay now. We've got the meteor..."

"I wouldn't call it okay since we have hundreds of Dalek ships coming our way."

The Doctor's heart sinks. One problem right after the other. He immediately begins touching every button and setting the coordinates for Caleb 23.

"What?"

"You heard me! Daleks!"

"Where's the princess?"

"We don't have time to move her, Doctor." The Colonel replies. "If you don't come up with a solution fast, I believe we will all die."

"No." The Doctor replies. He looks at the meteor, which still sits next to Martha. "Colonel, stand down."

"What?" The cyborg on the other side yells. "Have you lost your mind?"

"Colonel, I have with me the most amazing source of energy and power. The moment the Queen knows that she won't do a bloody thing."

He touches one last button and then pulls the lever. The TARDIS screams and shouts, as it disappears from Idra.