The moment he stepped down out of the gleaming white and green medic shuttle, John knew that he never wanted to leave the beautiful planet he had arrived on. Looking up, the green skies he had seen from space stretched on in all directions, interrupted only by the skyline of a nearby city and a few other small planes that had been reduced to the size of dots by distance, distinguishable as spacecraft only by the sparkling tails of blue-green fire they trailed behind them.
A warm breeze trailed past him, bringing with it the sounds of the bustling city. He lifted his head and closed his eyes, letting the indefinable yet pleasant smells the wind brought with it wash over him.
A sense of peace settled in his heart, and he wished the moment could last forever.
"John," Uliiwa called, softly.
Breathing in deeply and enjoying the coolness of the air—Uliiwa had given him a futuristic looking wrist-strap to borrow that would automatically convert the air around him to oxygen once it was in his blood so that he would be able to breathe on Adebaen—and the way it tingled slightly in his lungs, John opened his eyes and turned to look at her questioningly.
She smiled at him and gestured with both pairs of her arms to a large green and white egg-shaped pod that hovered a few inches above the gently swaying blue grass.
"Oh, right." He said, slightly embarrassed as he quickly strode over. In his awe, he'd entirely forgotten that they were supposed to be meeting someone in the city. Some agent or other who was supposedly an expert on identifying alien species.
When it became apparent that John's memories weren't going to return despite the healing room's aura, Uliiwa suggested John meet with the man who'd asked everyone to call him CJ. She didn't know what his real name was, but she trusted him. And that was good enough for John.
As he neared it, a part of the wall slid open on the pod, creating a doorway. He stepped though it at Uliiwa's nod to do so, and found himself in a spacious circular compartment that resembled slightly what he imagined the inside of a horse drawn carriage looked like.
He frowned for a second, wondering how he could possibly know what the inside of a carriage looked like, and just like that, he suddenly knew without knowing how that he had ridden in one before, when he was just a small child. Perhaps in some sort of parade or show?
He shook his head, promising himself to muse further on it later, and moved to take a seat on the purple-cushioned bench that ran around the length of the pod. Uliiwa stepped in after him, and following her came the little circular many-armed monocle-wearing cyclopean robot that Uliiwa had introduced to him earlier as Haryenian. He piloted the medical ship she'd picked him up in, and had alerted her to John's plight in the first place.
As he looked around the pod, noticing the way the ceiling stretched a few feet beyond his reach, and how there was enough room on the circular bench for he, Uliiwa, and Haryenian to be seated—or, in the robot's case, floating—comfortably, a sudden thought occurred to him.
His eyes widened slightly, and he sat in stunned silence as the shock of the idea sank in. Haryenian pressed a small button on the wall near he sat with one of his many spider-like arms, and the wall where the door had been slid shut without a seam, leaving behind a perfectly smooth round wall.
Then the little robot pressed another button, and part of the wall slid down to reveal a window about a foot wide that spanned the interior of the pod, perfectly positioned so that when John turned his head or looked across him and beyond Uliiwa, he could see the area around them.
Haryenian pressed one last button, and with a soft hum and a scarcely noticeable shift, the colors outside the window blurred into lines of green and blue as the pod began to move.
John finally found his voice. "I-Is this thing…" He paused, twirling a finger in a circle to indicate the pod, "It's smaller on the outside, isn't it?"
Uliiwa smiled and nodded just as Haryenian said, "Indeed it is! Good eye, lad!" his voice was refined, if a bit high, something John hadn't been expecting at all the first time he'd heard it. And he definitely hadn't been expecting the English accent. "Not many notice it. Actually, we're lucky to have the capability in the first place. It was a gift, actually, from a man, ages and ages ago. Funny enough, but his name was John too! John Smith, he called himself."
Uliiwa chuckled, raising a hand to her mouth, "Har, you know that wasn't his real name." She said, patting the top of his casing with one of her other hands, "You realize that on Earth, the name John Smith is practically synonymous with 'alias'? It's the single most common combination of names the humans use when they can't think of anything else."
Haryenian rolled his eye. "Yes, yes, my dear Uliiwa, but he was a time traveler. Every trend has to start somewhere, who's to say he wasn't the original John Smith?"
From the smile on Uliiwa's face, and the tone of Haryenian's voice, it was obvious that they'd had this debate many times before. Smiling to himself, John shifted sideways a bit on the bench so that he could look out the window closest to him without having to twist his neck.
The scenery flashed by, edges slightly blurred from the speed they were going, and he stared in wonder as they passed by a grove of golden-orange trees whose branches and vines swayed as if of their own will in the wind above them, while hundreds tiny, four winged birds swooped and dove around them in a wildly beautiful dance. Another of the same tree they passed had been slit open in the middle, as though from some harsh blow, and a single red glowing eye peered out from it.
The rest of the short journey passed by in a blur, enchanted as he was by the things beyond the window. A few minutes after they entered the gates of the city—huge, graceful things of shining white metal inscribed, so Uliiwa told him, with the words, Think not of yourself, but of others—the pod finally came to a slow half just outside a small two-story building made of white stone.
"We have arrived." Haryenian announce, reaching out with two of his arms to the control panel. The soft hum of the engines shut off, and a moment later, the door slid open just as the window retracted, transformed once more into a blank, unmarked wall.
As soon as the door had opened fully, a breeze gently wafted through the pod, carrying with it once more that indefinably pleasant smell, much stronger this time than it had been before. He would have to ask what it was later, after they had met with the man who called himself CJ.
Uliiwa stood and stepped out first, and Haryenian gestured for John to go before him, before he too floated out, closing the door behind him with a simple rap of one of his metallic pincers against the hull.
Then Uliiwa led them into a large futuristic looking building made of reflective dark blue metal. They stopped in front of what he assumed was a receptionist's desk, and the man—at least, John thought it was a man, he couldn't really tell, what with the heavy dark robes that covered every inch of him but his eyes, which were deep sunken and glowing ice blue, and he didn't want to be rude and ask—behind the counter greeted Uliiwa, and they exchanged a few words in a language John couldn't understand. Then the ice-eyed man nodded, and inclined his head to a hall that stretched out at the far right of the room.
Uliiwa nodded her thanks, and they set off down the hallway.
They stopped at the third door on the left, and Uliiwa calmly knocked. After a few seconds, a voice from the other side bid them enter, and she opened the door.
John had been expecting many things when he walked into the room. A doctor's office, a scientist's gleaming white lab, a psychiatrists' cheerful lair. But, instead, they walked into…a bathroom.
At least, that's what it appeared to be at first glance. The room was covered in white tiles, and there was what appeared to be a large bathtub that took up most of the floor in the far corner, but there was also a large wooden bookcase that filled one of the entire walls from ceiling to floor, and an office area in front of that, complete with desk, some sort of high tech computer, and rolling—or in this case, floating—chair.
His gaze roamed around the room, trying to find the person who had spoken, only to have his attention drawn back to the pool as he suddenly noticed that it was occupied. A green, blue, and grey-ish blur underneath the water—which he now realized was quite deep, at least ten feet, at a guess—was moving toward the edge closest to them.
He glanced warily at Uliiwa to check her reaction, suddenly uneasy—for some reason, he couldn't help but feel that whatever was in the pool was dangerous. The sudden image of a statue, it's pose screaming fear, wings curled about itself protectively, shielding its eyes with an arm, flashed behind his eyes and his breath caught in his throat for one bare instant as horror momentarily overtook his senses.
He took a single step backwards away from the pool—and then the fear was gone as if it had never been, leaving him slightly disoriented. Neither Uliiwa nor Haryenian seemed to have noticed his little moment, and for that he was immensely glad. He managed to quell the embarrassed heat that wanted to rise to his cheeks just as the creature that had been swimming reached the edge of the pool.
Two dark green hands—each with five fingers, he noticed with slight relief, still a bit bewildered that Uliiwa had two extra thumbs, it was just so strange—gripped the edge of the pool, and the creature—no, man, he corrected himself—pulled itself out of the water.
The first thing he noticed were the tentacles, dark green with bands of lighter grey-blue, and, for a moment, he thought they were snakes, the way they moved about as if by their own will about the man's head.
Any thought John had harbored about seeing a familiar faced was quickly dispelled when he realized that the man in front of him had more than five pairs of eyes. Other than that, though, and besides the fact that his skin was green, he appeared human. The tentacle-haired man wiped his hands down his arms, brushing off the droplets of water that still clung to the grey wetsuit-like clothing he wore, before offering John a smile.
"You're…from Earth, right?" He asked, his voice surprisingly youthful. At John's nod, he stuck his hand out, and John hesitantly shook it.
"I'm CJ," the man continued, then nodded over John's shoulder, "Uliiwa called ahead and told me of your situation, John. Said you woke up without any memories but for your name?" John nodded again, trying to keep his gaze from lingering too long on CJ's face. He really didn't want to be rude, but he could hardly contain his curiosity. What would it be like to see from so many eyes at once?
CJ nodded to himself and made a made a humming noise, carefully looked John up and down, and then moved around him towards the office area. After a moment John followed, and Uliiwa moved forward to stand in front of the desk. "Where is your assistant, CJ?" She asked, looking confused and slightly concerned, "I contacted him as well as you, he was aware that he would be needed. Shouldn't he be here by now?"
CJ, who had sat down in the floating chair, let his face fall into his hands as he sighed loudly, shaking his head from side to side, the snake-like tentacles bouncing in a slightly hypnotic fashion. John had to blink and look away after a moment when the sight left him slightly dizzy. The room slowly stopped its swaying.
When the tentacle-headed-man spoke, it was to Uliiwa, "I forgot that you have not yet had the… ah, opportunity to meet my assistant." He said, sounding both exasperated and apologetic. "There's definitely no need to worry about him. I asked him to deliver some papers for me a few hours ago. He should be back any minute now." CJ held up a hand when it appeared that Uliiwa was going to speak, "And before you ask," He said, his eyes flickering to John for a moment, "He tends to get a little…distracted…when he's in the city. The Kevril," He said, shaking his head again, "He can't resist them. 51st century humans, you know how they are." He said.
Apparently Uliiwa did know how they were, because she nodded, her mouth open in a silent, 'oh' of understanding. Haryenian chuckled, and John glanced over at him, wondering what the joke was.
He was about to ask what CJ meant by 51st century—surely it was code for something—when a sudden resounding crash that was quickly followed by a ground shaking roar sounded from beyond the door. Uliiwa froze, Haryenian jerked slightly, John almost jumped out of his skin, and CJ toppled backwards out of his chair.
A moment later, before anyone could even say anything, the shouting came again, and this time John was able to make out a voice, and realized it was the man who had been at the reception desk. He didn't know what the man was saying, but he sounded angry. Really angry. The roar came again, and John somehow knew that it wasn't the cloaked man that made the sound.
He backed away from the door, adrenaline thrilling through his veins, wildly looking to the others so they could find some way to escape. Surely something was attacking the building? But instead of the fear he had been expecting, he saw only relief on CJ's face. The green-skinned picked himself up from the floor, looking slightly embarrassed. Seeing John's panicked expression, he rushed to reassure him, "Don't worry," He said, "That's just my assistant."
The sheer absurdity of the statement was only made more apparent when another heart-stopping loud roar shook the room.
CJ seemed to realize this. "This sort of thing happens to him all the time," he said, trying to explain in a way that made sense and failing horribly. John just stared at him, completely flabbergasted. Was his assistant a werewolf for crying out loud?
CJ winced when another crash echoed through the building, then scowled, the tentacles on his head starting to vibrate, creating an ominous rattling sound. "I'll explain later." He said, annoyance starting to creep into his voice as another crash sounded, and the rattling noise grew in volume.
Leaving John, Uliiwa and Haryenian staring after him in confusion, CJ marched forward, forcefully swung open the door so that it slammed against the wall, stepped through it so that he was blocking John's view of the room outside, put his hands on his hips, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "CIRONE! SIT!" The crashing sounds from outside the room abruptly stopped, and was replaced by a dull thumping sound that made John think of a dog wagging its tail against the floor. The rattling of CJ's tentacles only lowered slightly in volume. "SO HELP ME GODS—IF YOU DON'T STOP FLIRTING WITH ZURIEL I WILL HAVE YOU OUT ON THE STREET AND BLACKLISTED FROM HERE TO ARENCOLL FASTER THAN YOU CAN SAY DON'T BLINK! DO. I. MAKE. MY. SELF. CLEAR!?" He thundered, and for a moment there was complete silence as everyone within earshot stared at him in disbelief.
John was almost afraid to breathe as the irrational fear that CJ would turn his wrath on him clawed its way into his thoughts. He was relieved beyond belief when the silence was broken by an arrogantly amused young voice saying, "Well, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today." A pause, and John could also see the smirk he could hear in the young man's voice. "Probably 'cause I wasn't in it."
John's jaw dropped.
Who in their right mind responded to threats of being fired from their boss, like, like, like that? Was CJ's assistant insane? Maybe '51st century' was actually code for idiot?
John glanced over at Uliiwa, only to see that she seemed less than surprised. It was impossible to gauge Haryenian's reaction because, well, he didn't exactly have a face.
John looked back at CJ, taking a slight step backward as he did so, expecting the man to be enraged over his assistant's audacity. Instead CJ simply sighed, and spoke in the language Uliiwa had used to converse with the desk receptionist. Now that he was calmer, John dared to peek over CJ's shoulder.
And stared.
And the giant monster that almost looked like a cross between a gorilla, a dog, and a dragon stared back, its fang-filled mouth open and its forked tongue hanging out lazily as it panted, its short stubby tail wagging against the floor, creating the thumping sound he had heard earlier. Its body was covered in reddish brown fur that ended just before its paws, which resembled the hands of a primate, except that it only had three 'fingers'. It had the strangest eyes he had ever seen. What he assumed was the pupil was red, then the iris circled out around it, turning from green to blue to black in all very distinct segments. Two large horns rose up from behind its head, and a crest of dark red and orange-ish spikes ran down its back.
This was, apparently, the Cirone CJ had ordered to sit earlier. Was this was pets looked like on other planets? The thing was huge! Even sitting, it reached above John's head. It appeared friendly enough, but he hadn't forgotten the frightful roars and growls he had heard earlier.
As he watched it, a dark-blue skinned alien man wearing white clothes approached the creature, patted it on the head, and held a small hand-sized glass sphere up to its forehead. Light flickered along Cirone's fur, and then the creature turned into an orb of light, and like a bolt of lightning, zoomed into the sphere. The entire process took only a second, and when it was over, the sphere was no longer clear, but filled with a thick swirling red fog, and the creature was nowhere to be seen.
Speechless as a vague memory tugged at the back of his mind—something to do with a mouse? But the thought disappeared as quickly as it came—John realized as the blue man snatched heavy robes off the ground that it was the same man who had been behind the desk. And judging by the way he seemed both embarrassed and angry, it wasn't that hard to guess that he was Zuriel and the one CJ's assistant had been flirting with.
CJ spoke again, and Zuriel nodded, muttered something intelligible in response, and threw a sharp glare over his shoulder and stalked off out of John's line of sight.
CJ sighed wearily, then turned his head to the right. "Are you alright?" He asked, somehow managing to imbue his voice with both concern and irritation at once.
"Ha! Do you even need to ask?" Again came the arrogant voice, and John saw CJ roll his many eyes before crossing his arms over his chest, the tentacles on his head rattling slightly, before he turned to John and motioned him forward.
"I…apologize for Zuriel's behavior." He said, his words still underlined by a hissing noise, displaying his irritation, "But please, allow me to introduce you to my assistant. And please, do not allow his unprofessionalism to tarnish your thoughts of me. We are polar opposites, I assure you." CJ gestured to his right, and when John looked, he saw a young man with dark hair dusting himself off. From what John could tell, he'd been on the floor a moment ago. He'd probably been tackled by the creature they called Cirone, he realized with some concern.
Finished ridding himself of the small specks of dusk that had settled on his great coat, the young man straightened, adjusted his collar, and swaggered over. He looked John up and down in a way that was completely unlike the way CJ had done before. John fisted his hands, suddenly self-conscious.
The young man raised an eyebrow, grinned as though he liked what he saw, and stuck out his hand. "Captain Jack Harkness." He said, "And who are you?"