Part 2: Revival
"Doctor?" Rory starts, standing away from the console with Amy tensely, prepared to grab a railing at the first sign of turbulence.
"Yes, what is it?" he prompts, nimbly handling one of the levers, navigating the unfamiliar time stream warily. They weren't in the correct one yet.
"Didn't the Teselecta predict that Rose and her Doctor would destroy the world?"
"Yes, that happened."
"Well, is the two of them getting a spaceship really the best way to avoid that?" Rory wonders. "We didn't even remind them before we left to not blow up the planet."
Amy frowns as she's reminded of it, and looks to the Doctor. "We should go remind them."
"But I've almost crossed current space-temporal boundary!" the Doctor complains.
"Almost, but not quite. So we can still go back." Truthfully, Amy had no idea what that meant, but she caught the word "almost", which was enough to argue with. "We left earlier than our supposed time limit. We can pop back for a few seconds, tell them to be careful, maybe suggest they not go flying off anywhere for a while, and then we can leave again."
"We don't have that much time."
"We can spare a few seconds at the expense of that entire planet," Amy decides.
The Doctor sighs irritably. It's exhaustive work, arguing with Amy Pond.
"Fine," the Doctor concedes. "We go back for mere seconds and give them not-destroying-the-world advice, but only for a few seconds. If they've left and we don't find them when our handful of seconds is up, we leave and hope for the best."
"Deal," Amy accepts.
"It even has the kinetic-potential stabilizer!" the Doctor exclaims, fiddling with a rusted protrusion jutting out of the console. "I installed that one myself on the old one! Just stumbled across the right equipment on a junkyard planet."
"Junkyard planet?" Rose echoes, pressing her palms down on the edges of the controls beside him to get a better look at the rod he marvels at. "There are junkyard planets?"
"Of course there are!" the Doctor grins, so very pleased to have someone to dispense knowledge onto. "When habitable planets fill up, the trash sometimes gets moved elsewhere to make room for the residents."
"Can we visit a junkyard planet?" Rose requests.
"On our first trip together in this ship?" the Doctor scoffs. "Not likely."
"It could be fun," Rose says, turning to half-sit, half-lean against the console. "Imagine the things we could scrabble up."
"Junkyard planets are desolate, dreary places," he tells her, turning and mimicking her position, crossing his arms. "No place for a first trip."
Rose laughs at his meticulous attitude about their destination. "It's one jump through time and space, not a honeymoon."
The Doctor smiles only a bit forcefully. "How about we go somewhere where I don't have to be concerned with you catching bacterial infections?"
"Like where?"
The Doctor thinks for a moment, his bottom limp protruding in a thoughtful pout. "I know!" he exclaims suddenly, turning around and fiddling with the controls.
Rose spins and lowers her face to linger close to his. "Where? Where are we going?"
"Aw, and ruin the surprise?" he grins mischievously. "I'm in for a bit of a surprise myself."
The Doctor yanks down on a certain lever, and then moves to grip the sides of the controls. The ship lurches, and Rose latches onto his arm.
He's a bit pleased at that.
He's unwilling to remove his arm from this arrangement, so it's with one hand that he drives the midflight ship. This probably contributes to added turbulence, which leads to Rose clutching tighter to him. It's all very convenient.
Eventually, the ship stills. Rose unlatches herself and practically skips to the doors.
"Aww, this is great!" she chirps. "If I'm not allowed to know where, when are we?"
"I don't know," he admits, deliberately not checking and trotting after her. "That signal I got earlier warning the other Doctor to leave? I just followed it."
He reaches around her and pulls the doors open. Sunlight . . . or rather, light from somewhere, spills into the ship before they close the doors behind them.
"From what I've been told," he says, "this is the Republic of Restituo."
And a whole new civilization stretches itself out before them.
Rose marvels at it for a few moments. It's a colorful environment, like something out of a comic book. Reds and greens of the vegetation blare out at her. They're outdoors, finding themselves in a field similar to the one they'd just left. Nearby, dark grey building loom, towering above the bright vegetation. So familiar, yet so different in subtle ways. The buildings clash with the vegetation like the buildings and plants on earth did, but in a different way. Back on earth, efforts were made to fake a cooperation between urbanization and plant life; controlled shrubbery and gardens and such. Here, no such efforts were made. Plants grew where they might and building arrangement hinted that the architects didn't collaborate.
As Rose marvels at the environment, the Doctor marvels at her. The way this foreign light falls against her face. The way her face lights up at the newness of it all. Geez, he never thought he'd see that face again.
"What's in the buildings?" Rose asks.
"I don't know," the Doctor shrugs, taking his own moment to marvel at his surroundings. "Never been here. Whole new experience."
"Do you know what . . . race . . . lives here?"
"Some sort of humanoid, from the looks of that Lara girl who contacted me. But that's just her. There could be tons of different races."
"Mainly just the one," a new voice responds.
To their right, a familiar face approaches, two men trailing behind.
"Lara Oswald!" the Doctor beams.
"Nameless man," Lara greets curtly. "If we could track a dangerous signal from another planet, you don't think we could've seen you coming?"
"Oh, we're not dangerous!" the Doctor assures her. "Well, not intentionally, that is."
"Then why are you here?"
"Just exploring," Rose joins into the conversation.
"Exploring Restituo?" Lara raises an eyebrow. "It's not really a vacation spot. We're functional and pragmatic. There's not much to see."
"There is if you look hard enough," the Doctor replies optimistically. "Sorry, not to be rude, but what race is it that functions and pragmatizes here?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Lara smirks.
"Human?" Rose guesses.
"No," she scoffs. "No, of course not. We're time lords."