In response to some reviewers; I cannot answer queries directly unless they're asked from a FF account – To reiterate, I cannot respond to guests; neither can I answer your queries here within pre-chapter talk; the reason for this is simple; Spoilers. ~Interface
Chapter 26: Void space
When Jenny Flint bounded happily back into the Tardis with their swords she was shocked to hear quite a heated argument in progress.
"… But they're only human!"
"My Jenny is human too! Doesn't your concern reach that far?!"
"But she's a Victorian Assassin!"
"Occupation isn't the point here!"
Exasperated, Jenny looked over to Strax who was stood polishing his blaster by the secondary control panel, "'ow long 'ave they been at it?" she asked.
"Since you left boy," Commander Strax very nearly looked sympathetically up at her before holding the excessively large gun up, "Which one should I obliterate first?"
Jenny let her face relax into a smile, "You daft thing" She winced again as the voices became even more aggressive, "I know where I'm shovin' this sword if she carries on" Strax watched in bemusement as the girl marched off to where the voices were radiating from. Vastra didn't notice Jenny appear beneath the console, it wasn't until her sword was being pressed firmly into her hand did she acknowledge the girl beside her, "Sorry 'bout 'er Doctor," Jenny looked straight into Vastra's eyes, "If you think tha' I'm so fragile an' 'elpless then maybe you need to go back under the ground an' find yourself a Silurian"
"Jenny, my love, that isn't what I…"
"Vastra I know as well as anyone 'ere tha' you're only tryin' to protect me; but this is wha' we do. Look at us, a Time Lord, a Silurian, a crazy Sontaran; and me. We protect folk, save 'em. You an' me, we catch the bad ones in London. We're ready for this, let's do this an' go 'ome, an' I promise I'll never pick up another sword again"
The Doctor watched the pair in pure fascination, it was incredible. What Jenny was doing had to be some kind of an art form, it had to be. No one, not even the Doctor, could calm a Silurian as wild as Madame Vastra. It had taken him hours upon hours of negotiating with the irritable reptile before he'd managed to convince her to stop killing tunnel diggers in the underground. He had the scars to prove it too.
"I swear," he offered his input, "We'll be in and out of there so fast, it'll be like we never went there at all"
Jenny looked up into Vastra's unconvinced expression and nodded at the woman eagerly.
"Jenny…," the Silurian groaned, "You're putting me in such a position here"
While they battled it out with pleading stares the Doctor pulled out his screwdriver and began to fiddle with the settings. He grinned widely and aimed up at the console through the floor. The Tardis shook violently as it began to fly its way towards the void space. Vastra hissed angrily and started towards him, but Jenny caught her firmly by the shoulders, "The best thing tha' ever 'appened to me, was throwin' myself into adventures with you," she told her, "When I'm with you, I'll always be safe, 'cause I can't bear the thought tha' you'd 'ave to live on without me"
The Doctor scrambled up the stairs to the console level, his footsteps skidding across the floor were barely audible over the roar of the engines. Sparks erupted around the couple below, the lighting flickered, the whole Tardis shook violently as it broke down the boundaries between worlds. They didn't usually share kisses without Vastra having prior warning due to her venomous tongue. At that moment Jenny didn't care, she broke all the rules of their relationship and pulled the bewildered Silurian into a passion laced show of affection. It wasn't until the Tardis became far too out of control for their liking that they parted.
"Woo!" the Doctor yelled flailing around the controls, "Yowzaa!" He pulled a few levers and engaged the stabilisers, it helped, but not by much, "We've crossed over! The Tardis doesn't like it, systems are shutting down, it's very bad!"
"Can we land?" Vastra was almost instantly at his side, stepping in time with his dancing around the controls.
"Almost certainly not!" he cried.
"I admire your optimism Doctor!" the Silurian patted his shoulder and moved swiftly to where she could hold onto a guard railing. She indicated to Jenny that she should do the same.
"Wha's 'appening?!"
"Emergency landing!" the Doctor stumbled back away from the controls struggling to maintain his balance, "Hold on tight! Whoaah! Geronimo!"
"But sir! Madame!" The Sontaran, having failed to secure himself to anything, sailed over their heads as the Tardis tumbled.
"Strax!" Jenny yelled grabbing for him unsuccessfully as he flew past her head.
"For goodness sake Strax!" Vastra hissed snatching for his ankle also unsuccessfully. The poor Sontaran came around about for a second time as the Time Machine jerked and shuddered.
"I've got you!" Jenny reached for him, his heavy weight dislodged her grip on the bar ripping her free of her security. They held hands tightly. Beside the Doctor, Strax's abandoned blaster collided with one of the control panels; the doors opened wide.
"Seriously guys!?" the Doctor groaned, he really needed to have that lever removed. He tossed the blaster over his head hoping it would keep out of the action now and tried desperately to reach for the small implement that would close the doors.
"Jenny!" Vastra's fingers just missed the girl's leg as the pair shot past her and towards the open entrance. Jenny saw the open doorway approaching behind Strax.
"Tell me boy, is it bad?" he asked quite calmly considering the situation.
Jenny stared wide eyed at him, and shook her head silently, "S'all under control," she lied. They jerked suddenly to a halt, she could feel a tight band gripping her ankle and squeezing. She looked down to see her feet, a pink fleshy tongue was curled around her ankle. Jenny smiled across at her resourceful wife; she closed her eyes and let out a huge sigh of relief. Her argument for them being here had almost flown straight out of the door; and her along with it. She cringed, Vastra was going to be a nightmare to live with after this.
"Boy"
"What now Strax?" the question had barely left her lips when she felt the gravity return instantaneously, "Oh no" They landed on the floor with a thud, "Ouch," the small assassin rolled onto her back rubbing her face desperately, the pain was almost too much for her.
"Everyone alright?" the Doctor called.
"Yeah," Jenny grumbled, "Jus' 'ad my face rearranged though"
"Yet still beautiful my dear" A cool hand dragged the mildly injured Victorian up from the floor. The Doctor rubbed their backs happily on his way to the doors.
"Close call there buddy," he play-punched the Sontaran nurse as he went by. The Doctor held his screwdriver up and looked back to his comrades, "Now then gang," he muttered darkly, "It's time"
As they stepped outside the intense heat hit them like the heat one would feel stepping out of an aircraft having landed in a hot climate. Had the ground not gone on for miles in every direction any of them may have been convinced that they were inside a volcano ready to erupt. The sky was ablaze, the upper atmosphere burned several shades of orange and red casting a warm glow on the time travellers. The floor was uneven and cracked, in some places it had completely given way, showing off terrifying drops into hot flowing lava below.
"God 'elp us," Jenny muttered curling her fingers tightly around the sword that she wasn't so sure would be enough to save her any more.
"Sorry," the Doctor, ahead by a few metres turned to them, "But God knows better than to come here," he turned back to vast chaos ahead of them, "We're on our own"
He cast his gaze in every direction possible, he wasn't sure what he'd expected to find here in the void space, but this wasn't how he'd expected it to look, "Vastra, what did your people know of the void space?" he closed his eyes to visualise her words when she spoke them.
"The Void Space is the gutter of the universe, an empty space where nothing and no one should ever find themselves"
"Tell me the empty bit again," he squeezed his eyes shut tighter, "Now, quickly," he demanded of the mildly irritated Silurian.
"… An empty space, where nothing and no one should ever find themselves"
"Empty space…" The Doctor finally opened his eyes to look at her, "Is this how you imagined it?" The Silurian for the first time, truly accepted what her eyes were seeing. This did not look like the void space as described to her by her people, this was not a place of complete nothingness. The roar of the streaming lava finally seemed to reach her hearing. Distant explosions were now clearly audible to her. She closed her eyes, following the Doctor's silent example; she could hear it, it was high pitched, it sounded in agony, as though something, some strange magnificent creature were dying a slow, painful, terrifying death.
"Can you hear it?" the Doctor sniffed back a tear. His green eyes were watery now with his growing emotion.
"Doctor, I must admit you are starting to unsettle me now, what is it?"
The Doctor knelt to the floor, his pressed his palm against the ground, took a handful of dirt and let it fall through his fingers, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he murmured. Jenny's hand quickly slipped into Vastra's; the mad man's mumblings were beginning to instil concern in her now too.
"Doctor, please explain. There's something here in a lot of pain and distress. We must find it, help it if that is still possible"
"Oh it's in distress alright. And pain, lots of pain, so much pain," he looked up to the women, "But we can't save it now," tears streaked his cheeks, though he tried he couldn't sniff them back any longer.
"Where is it?"
"You're standing on it"
The two women looked slowly at one another and then turned their uncomfortable stares to the ground beneath their feet.
"Doctor," Vastra was gradually losing her cool even though she could see that the Doctor was incredibly upset, "What is it?"
"The Earth," he told her flatly, "It's their Earth, they tried to pull it through," he stroked the ground over and over, "They tried to pull it through dimensions, it's too big, look at it, it crashed here, Vastra it's in agony, it's dying"
Jenny had never felt such a gut wrenching nausea flood through her like the one that overcame her so suddenly at that moment. She squeezed Vastra's hand tightly. The Silurian returned the squeeze, if a little harder than she had intended to. She wondered how many Silurian's had been slumbering when the Earth had been forcibly removed from its orbit and dropped to its final resting place here in the void. She clenched her teeth together tightly, she would not cry. Her own civilisation were still safely slumbering in their own world, and despite this destruction her own counterpart had managed to escape the fate of the others, hibernating in her own hibernation pod.
"Sir," Strax's voice came from further behind the gathering.
"Not now Strax," Vastra snapped watching the Time Lord apologise over and over to the world that he had been unable to save. She actually found herself moved by his sorrow, by his deep and obvious heartfelt regret. At her side Jenny wiped away a tear that had escaped down her cheek. Vastra held her precious human close to her, Strax's voice broke through the air again.
"Madame, I really must insist"
The women turned begrudgingly to see what the Sontaran could possibly want. Vastra's heartbeat went into a full panic overdrive, panic that never actually managed to reach her tough exterior. She snatched the Doctor up to his feet with inhuman strength and speed. The Doctor was not accustomed to such rough handling, he straightened his bow tie indignantly and smoothed out his ruffled shirt before freezing at the sight of the creatures surrounding his Tardis. He snapped his screwdriver out, flicking it masterfully out to its full extension. He forced himself to stand protectively in front of his faithful gang. The next words to leave his mouth trembled with every syllable.
"Do, not, blink"