Midnight! We love this story, and the mystery. So much we have planned here, I hope what we write is even half as good as the original story.
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The Doctor, Rose and Jack all took their seats in the bus that would take them to see the Sapphire Waterfall. It reminded Rose of the seating in an airplane, though she hadn't ever flown in one before. Her mum couldn't afford anything like that, but she'd seen what the inside of a plane looked like anyway, thanks to the telly. There weren't many passengers with them, so they could spread out a bit if they wanted, or switch seats to go chat with the others.
The hostess came over to greet them, as she had for some of the others already and handed them each a packet.
"That's the headphones for channels one to thirty six. Modem link for 3D vidgames. Complimentary earplugs. Complimentary slippers. Complimentary juice pack and complimentary peanuts. I must warn you some products may contain nuts," she recited officially.
"That'll be the peanuts," the Doctor replied.
"Enjoy your trip," she acknowledge with a false smile.
"Oh, we can't wait. Allons-y," he told her enthusiastically.
"I'm sorry?" she asked, unfamiliar with what he just said.
"It's French, for let's go," he explained.
"He's a bit of an expert in languages," Rose told her.
"Fascinating," the hostess replied and impatiently moved on to repeat her spiel about the complementary stuff to the other passengers.
"Someone doesn't like her job," Jack spoke up.
They listened as the older man behind them lectured the young woman with him about the details of the planet and their tour, while making ridiculous demands of her. Rose wondered how the poor girl could stand it, but guessed that he was her employer or something and she was just trying to keep her job. The man leaned forward to introduce himself.
"Hobbes. Professor Winfold Hobbes," he said, offering his hand.
"I'm the Doctor. Hello," he replied, shaking his hand with a grin.
"It's my fourteenth time," the professor bragged.
"Oh. Our first. This is my wife, Rose, and our friend, Jack," he added.
"And I'm Dee Dee, Dee Dee Blasco," the young girl added, offering her hand in greeting as well.
"Don't bother the man. Where's my water bottle?" Hobbes interrupted dismissively.
"Oh, it's no bother at all," Rose insisted, taking her hand. "Lovely to meet you, Dee Dee."
"An absolute pleasure. Captain Jack Harkness," Jack introduced himself when he took the woman's hand, kissing the back of it and making her blush.
"Jack," Rose and the Doctor sighed exasperatedly.
"I don't mind," Dee Dee said shyly as Jack threw her a wink.
"Ladies and gentlemen, and variations thereupon, welcome on board the Crusader Fifty. If you would fasten your seatbelts, we'll be leaving any moment. Doors," the hostess announced as everyone settled in. The doors slammed shut abruptly, followed by the shields over the windows as she continued, "Shields down. I'm afraid the view is shielded until we reach the Waterfall Palace. Also, a reminder. Midnight has no air, so please don't touch the exterior door seals. Fire exit at the rear, and should we need to use it, you first. Now I will hand you over to Driver Joe."
"Driver Joe at the wheel," a voice sounded over the intercom. "There's been a diamond fall at the Winter Witch Canyon, so we'll be taking a slight detour, as you'll see on the map. The journey covers five hundred klicks to the Multifaceted Coast. Duration is estimated at four hours. Thank you for travelling with us, and as they used to say in the olden days, wagons roll."
The screen at the front of the vehicle displayed the detour route and Rose worried a bit at that. Usually, when something out of the ordinary happened around them, it meant that trouble would come with it. This was supposed to be a relaxing trip, but between past experience and a niggling at her time senses, she knew something was coming.
Rose looked around her and slowly released her grip on the majority of her senses: the ones that Jack's presence grated at. His fixedness was there: a giant ball of hopelessly tangled messy timelines. As she slowly allowed herself to feel the timelines around her, she started feeling better about being able to be around him without having to feel on guard. She hadn't gone to panicking like she had in that basement, nor did she feel like she had to get away for her own sanity.
"Rosie, you're being awfully quiet," Jack spoke worriedly. "Aren't claustrophobic, are you?" Rose shook her head, eyes still closed.
"She's trying to relax her senses," the Doctor told Jack, having realized what she was doing early on. Rose knew he had been helping her through it since he figured out what she was doing.
When Jack didn't seem to loom over everything else in the small cabin, she opened her eyes and looked at the timelines of the other passengers in the cabin. None of them were destined to die for sure, though the woman at the front had far fewer immediate possibilities than the others. Something was coming, she just wasn't sure what.
She looked over at Jack, and, just as the Doctor described, it hurt to look at him. She decided not to tamp down her senses again, as a reminder of what she'd done to him.
"Got it figured out, Rose?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah," she told him and smiled reassuringly.
"For your entertainment, we have the Music Channel playing retrovids of Earth classics. Also, the latest artistic installation from Ludovico Klein. Plus, for the youngsters, a rare treat. The Animation Archives. Four hours of fun time. Enjoy," the hostess announced as multiple videos, holograms, and general noise all started to play around them.
It was an assault of the senses and Rose was sure that someone who was epileptic would have had a seizure right then and there. They all knew why earplugs were part of the standard package handed out to each of them.
The Doctor, Rose, and Jack all looked at each other in agreement before the Doctor took out his sonic and shut it all off.
"Well, that's a mercy," they heard the old professor behind them say a second after everything quieted down.
The Hostess then started walking down toward them.
"Uh, oh, someone's in trouble," Rose teased in a very low voice so that only the three of them would hear. Beside her, Jack snickered.
"I do apologise, ladies and gentlemen, and variations thereupon. We seem to have had a failure of the Entertainment System," the hostess told everyone, quite put out by the inconvenience.
"Oh," the Doctor pouted for a second, as if he had nothing to do with it.
"But what do we do?" a woman, who appeared to be about middle aged, asked from toward the back of the cabin.
"We've got four hours of this? Four hours of just sitting here?" her husband complained.
"Tell you what. We'll have to talk to each other instead," the Doctor suggested with a smile.
It wasn't long before the couple was happily exchanging stories with Jack and the Doctor, their son looking particularly bored.
Rose was chatting with Dee Dee, away from Professor Hobbes. She wanted to get some idea why the girl put up with such a grouch.
"I'm just a second-year student, but I wrote a paper on the Lost Moon of Poosh, Professor Hobbes read it, liked it, took me on as researcher, just for the holidays. Well, I say researcher. Most of the time he's got me fetching and carrying. But it's all good experience," Dee Dee explained.
"Not exactly research experience. All you're learning is how to minimize his complaining," Rose countered. "Did they ever find it?"
"Find what?" she asked.
"The Lost Moon of Poosh," Rose clarified. It wasn't the first time she had heard someone mention losing something enormous.
"Oh, no. Not yet," she replied.
"Well. Maybe that'll be your great discovery, one day. Just gotta make your own name for yourself, yeah? Here's to Poosh," Rose told her, offering her glass for a toast.
"Poosh," Dee Dee responded, clinking their glasses together.
##########
"So, Doctor," Jack started when the couple turned around to complain about their son's apparent lack of interest in anything or anyone aboard the bus. "Rose won't talk to me about it, but how's she doing with the whole-" He stopped speaking and looked around at their company. "-Human turned Time Lady thing," he finished in a much lower voice so no one would hear them.
"Better than I expected," the Doctor admitted. "She's had some...issues."
"What kind of issues?" Jack asked, concerned.
"There's been a few times where she's burnt out, but that's entirely my fault," the Doctor replied, shrugging as if it weren't a big deal when Jack knew he beat himself up over it every time it happened.
Jack knew he didn't want to talk about it, but Rose wouldn't speak about it and Jack had a vested interest in making sure she was okay. He'd push the old Time Lord if he had to.
"Something tells me that's not entirely your fault. She'll have to start telling you sooner when she's getting worn out. Now, what else?"
The Doctor sighed. "There has been a few times, always when she's learned something else she could do, that she-" he paused with a pained expression that was fleeting.
"She freaked out, didn't she?" Jack asked softly. Early on, he'd done the same. It had led to several rather painful attempts to see how far his apparent immortality could go.
"That's as good of a way to describe it as anything," the Doctor replied.
"I confess I called the two of you for more than just the Sontaran thing. I wanted to see how she was doing. From our conversations, I couldn't tell what I would have found when I saw the two of you again. For all I knew, she could have been losing her mind slowly or she could have become even more like you, sonic screwdriver and all." He looked over to Rose, who was speaking animatedly with the young woman, Dee Dee. "She's just...like always," he finished musing.
"Oh, I just remembered," the Doctor said, reaching into the inner pocket of his jacket where he kept the sonic. He pulled out a small pen. It was black with silver metal accents. "This is for Rose. Haven't had much time to work on it, but just finally got it where I want it. Remember the Adipose incident?"
"Yeah. Gwen still refers to them as fat babies. Good job on that, by the way, Jack replied, knowing that the Time Lord had been keen to change the subject.
"Thank you. Anyway, the woman in charge, Matron Cofelia, had this little ditty." He wiggled the pen. "Gave me some trouble, it did, but I was able to get it from her and it came in handy later on."
Jack was about to ask what it was, because it obviously wasn't just a pen, but the Doctor beat him to the explanation. His explanation was weird, though. It sounded like the Doctor was in a commercial. "It pretty, it's sleek, and it unlocks almost any door. This sonic pen has two thousand three hundred and twenty-eight of the most useful settings from my own sonic and-" He clicked the back end of the pen, which like many pens, made a small ball point tip come out. "Writes if you need it. The pen part won't work in anti-gravity, though. Pens were never good for that."
Jack chuckled. "So, when are you gonna give it to her?" He nodded to the woman in question, who was deep in conversation with Dee Dee.
"Meant to give it to her last night, but I got distracted." Jack sniggered and he rolled his eyes.
"I did too. Had fun with this l-"
"No, no, no. I do not want to hear anything about your conquests." The Doctor's forehead then became creased in confusion. "I thought Rose said you were with Ianto Jones? The fifty-first century might be a bit more relaxed, but I'm pretty sure adultery is still a no-no."
"What kinda guy you take me for?" Jack responded. "We're not monogamous, but we're usually together. 'Yan doesn't do guys, though, so we have an agreement: I wind up in a different time, and-"
"Ianto doesn't-but," Rose said from the seat in front of them, having had come back from her discussion with Dee Dee while they were talking. She was backward in the seat, on her knees, and very confused. -"But you. What?"
He just laughed at them. "Oh, I am all man," he told them.
"Yes, we knew that," the Doctor joked, grinning at a very confounded Rose. "Shame that wasn't a bigger distraction."
"Okay, I'm confused. How comes he's with you then? I was there when you asked him out, and he seemed interested enough."
"He says I smell good," Jack explained, waggling his eyebrows. Rose had said the same thing many times.
"Ah, of course. Fifty-first century hormones," the Doctor commented.
"Okay. Off the topic of Jack's sex life. I just heard something interesting from Dee Dee," Rose spoke up. "Doctor, have you ever heard of the Lost Moon of Poosh?"
"No, I haven't. Poosh. That's a funny name. Po-osh," he replied, sounding out the word.
"Apparently, it was an uninhabited moon orbiting the gas giant Poosh, named after some god or something like that, but here's the thing, Poosh was almost twice the size of Earth and no debris was ever found."
"Maybe we should investigate that next," Jack said. "But first, this lady is eying me up."
Rose giggled, "Have fun Jack." The Doctor just shook his head, but even the stuffy old Time Lord couldn't keep from smiling.
##########
The Stewardess brought everyone their meals, which all looked like a microwaved dinner for one. At that moment, Rose was sitting with Sky, who looked depressed and had been sitting on her own. The Doctor was talking to Dee Dee and Professor Hobbs and she had no clue where Jack was beyond toward the back of the bus. She could hear his voice once in awhile.
"Oh, no, I'm here with my husband, Jack and Donna, but Donna's not here. She stayed behind in the Leisure Palace. How about you?" Rose asked in response to her question about whether she was alone or not.
"No, it's just me."
"I've not done that. Like having someone to share the experience, myself." She stabbed at the meat on her tray and looked at it closely. She didn't know what it was, but knew from past experience that there was a chance she didn't want to know.
"I'm still getting used to it. I've found myself single rather recently, not by choice," Skye told her.
"Been there. What happened?" Rose wondered and put the meat in her mouth. It was tender, but weird, and she was sure it belonged in the same category of meats as bologna and hot dogs.
"Oh, the usual. She needed her own space, as they say. A different galaxy, in fact. I reckon that's enough space, don't you?"
"Yeah, probably. One of my exes went to another universe. Last I heard of the other, he was in prison. Life goes on, but I've got the Doctor now. You'll find the right person in time," she assured the other woman.
Sky took a bite of the meat on her tray. "Oh, what's this, chicken or beef?" she wondered.
"Spam," Rose answered.
"Spam?"
"Shit posing as meat," Rose explained, which made Skye laugh a little.
##########
About halfway through their trek to the sapphire waterfall, Professor Hobbes decided to display his research on the planet to everyone via slides through the projector. The Doctor was kind enough to repair it for that function at least. Everyone paid close attention, even the teenager, Jethro, that didn't seem to want to be there at all for most of the trip.
"So, this is Midnight, do you see, bombarded by the sun. Xtonic rays, raw galvanic radiation. Dee Dee, next slide. It's my pet project. Actually, I'm the first person to research this. Because, you see, the history is fascinating. Because there is no history. There's no life in this entire system. There couldn't be. Before the Leisure Palace Company moved in, no one had come here in all eternity. No living thing," the Professor explained.
"But how do you know? I mean, if no one can go outside," Jethro, questioned.
"Oh, his imagination. Here we go," his mother complained.
"He's got a point, though," the Doctor interjected.
"Yeah, I mean, life takes all kinds of forms. Just because things we're familiar with can't live here, doesn't mean nothing does," Rose agreed. She'd seen far too much to discount anything happening completely.
"Exactly. We look upon this world through glass, safe inside our metal box. Even the Leisure Palace was lowered down from orbit. And here we are now, crossing Midnight, but never touching it," Hobbes agreed.
Everyone paused and looked at each other in confusion when the transport rattled to a stop. Rose, Jack, and the Doctor exchanged a look. Rose and the Doctor both had known something was going to happen, but had been waiting for a sign of it to come.
"We've stopped. Have we stopped?" Jethro's mother, Valerie, asked.
"Are we there?" her husband Biff added.
"We can't be, it's too soon," Dee Dee argued.
"They don't stop. Crusader vehicles never stop," Professor Hobbes insisted.
The hostess started walking up the aisle from her place in the back of the bus. "If you could just return to your seats. It's just a small delay," she tried to assure them. She then went to a small intercom device on the wall and started talking in it.
Since most everyone was seated already, watching the lecture, only the professor had to sit down. A few people grumbled.
"And so it begins," Rose said under her breath. Both the men on either side of her could hear her.
"Yep," the Doctor replied.
"Wait. What are the two of you talking about?" Jack whispered. "Did you know something was going to happen here?" he asked.
"I suspected," the Doctor replied.
"When we were told about the diamond fall, that's when I suspected. 'S why I decided to try to use my time sense," Rose told him.
Behind them, the other passengers were discussing whether or not it was a pit stop or if they'd broken down.
The hostess got off the intercom and announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, and variations thereupon. We're just experiencing a short delay. The driver needs to stabilise the engine feeds. It's perfectly routine, so if you could just stay in your seats."
The Doctor, who knew a thing or two about engineering, stood up quickly and went directly to the door separating the cockpit from the rest of the bus. Jack, who also knew a lot and had even been allowed to work on the TARDIS without the Doctor's supervision, also stood up to find out what was wrong.
"Could you both please take your seats?" the hostess asked, obviously annoyed at the two of them.
The Doctor pulled his psychic paper out of his pocket and showed it to her quickly. "There you go. Engine expert. This is my trainee. Two ticks."
Without waiting for another word from the woman, the Doctor opened the door of the cockpit and walked right in, with Jack on his heels.
"I'm sorry, sir. if you could just sit down. You're not supposed to be in there," the hostess called out ineffectively.
"Don't worry ma'am. We won't hurt anything," Jack told her and winked before closing the door quickly.