In case you missed it, I'm posting two chapters together. Make sure you read part 1 first - it's already timey wimey as it is without any more complications :)
36 - Backwards (part 2)
The target for the Apollo 11 astronauts, the moon, at lift off, will be at a distance of 218,096 miles away. We're just past the two minute mark on the countdown. T minus one minute, 54 seconds and counting..., the speaker from the little black and white tv counted.
"It's an exo-skeleton. Basically, life support. There's about 20 different kinds of alien tech in here", River said, studying the spacesuit. They were back at the warehouse in Florida where everything started.
"Who was she? Why put her in here?", the Doctor asked.
"Put this on, you don't even need to eat. The suit processes sunlight directly. It's got built in weaponry and a communications system that can hack into anything", River kept explaining.
"Including the telephone network?", Zoe asked.
"Easily".
"Why phone the President? Why Nixon?".
"It defaults to the highest authority it can find. The little girl gets frightened, the most powerful man on Earth gets a phone call", River told her, suddenly looking up. "The night terrors... with a hotline to the White House".
Zoe followed River's gaze and made a disgusted face as she saw the Doctor sniffing and licking one of the blue envelopes.
"You won't learn anything from that envelope, you know", River warned him.
"Purchased on Earth, perfectly ordinary stationery, Tardis blue. Summoned by a stranger who won't even show his face. That's a first for me. How about you?", he said.
"Our lives are back to front. Your future's my past, your firsts are my lasts", River stated, as Zoe noticed once again how clever she was at changing the subject when she wanted to avoid a topic.
"Not really what I asked", he said, as he saw right through her trick.
"Ask something else, then", River smirked.
"What are the Silence doing? Raising a child?", Zoe interrupted.
"Keeping her safe. Even giving her independence", River said.
"The only way to save Amy is to work out what the Silence are doing", the Doctor noted.
"I know", Rory said.
"Every single thing we learn about them brings us a step closer", the Doctor insisted, trying to sound reassuring.
"Yeah, Doctor, I get it, I know", Rory repeated.
"Of course, it's possible she's not just any little girl", the Doctor thought aloud.
"Well, I'd say she's human, going by the life support software", River explained.
"But?", Zoe asked.
"She climbed out of this suit. Like she forced her way out. She must be incredibly strong".
"Incredibly strong and running away. I like her", the Doctor cheered.
"We should be trying to find her", River said.
"Yes, I know, but how?", he said again. "I have the strangest feeling she's going to find us", he added then, as everybody else in the room shivered.
This is Houston, do you read? Over, the tv buzzed again as images of the Apollo blinked on the screen.
"Why does it look like a NASA spacesuit?", Rory wondered.
The Doctor walked over to the tv. "Because that's what the Silence do. Think about it. They don't make anything themselves. They don't have to. They get other life forms to do it for them", he said.
"So they're parasites then?", Zoe asked.
"Super parasites. Standing in the shadows of human history since the very beginning. We know they can influence human behaviour any way they want. If they've been doing that on a global scale for thousands of years...", the Doctor kept thinking aloud.
"Then what?", Zoe cued him.
"Then why did the human race suddenly decide to go to the moon?", he continued.
The countdown started on the telly. Ten, nine, ignition sequence start, six, five, four...
"Because the Silence needed a spacesuit", the Doctor wrapped.
..one, zero, all engines on. Lift off. We have a lift off. 32 minutes past the hour, lift off on Apollo 11.
River opened the message from Canton on her handheld device. You should kill us all on sight, the creature was saying in the video.
Rory was sitting off to the side, still listening to Amy's sobs over the nanorecorder. Zoe was still looking at the spacesuit. She tried to move its arm when the glove twitched visibly.
"This suit, it seems to be repairing itself. How is it doing that?", she asked, although nobody seemed to pay attention to her. She gave Rory a sad look as he leaned against a packing crate, the nanorecorder still in his hands.
"Doctor", Zoe insisted, "a unit like this, would it ever be able to move without an occupant?", she asked, catching River's attention.
"Why?", he asked.
"Well, the little girl said the space man was coming to eat her. Maybe that's exactly what happened", River said, joining Zoe's line of thinking.
Amy's voice talked again from Rory's palm, as he warily lifted his head. The Doctor and Zoe heard her, but as Zoe walked to Rory, the Doctor thought best to leave him alone.
"I love you. I know you think it's him. I know you think it ought to be him. But it's not, it's you. And when I see you again, I'm going tell you properly, just to see your stupid face. My life was so boring before you just dropped out of the sky". Rory dropped his head in hearing those words. "So just get your stupid face where I can see it. Ok? Ok?", Amy's voice kept going.
"She'll be safe for now. No point in a dead hostage", Zoe said to Rory, sitting beside him.
"Can't you save her?".
"I think we can track that signal back... take us right to her", she said, nodding at the Doctor.
"Then why haven't you?", Rory said.
"Because then what?", the Doctor cut in, "I find her, and then what do I do? This isn't an alien invasion. They live here. This is their empire. This is kicking the Romans out of Rome."
"Rome fell", Zoe pointed out.
"I know. I was there". the Doctor said.
"So was I", Rory blurted, as Zoe tilted her head in surprise.
"Personal question", the Doctor said, gesturing at Zoe for her to leave them.
"Seriously? You?", she heard Rory answer him as she stood up and approached River beside the spacesuit.
"River... How well do you know Amy and Rory?", she asked.
River laughed ironically. "Depends on the point of view", she said. Cryptic as usual, then. "She was talking about Rory, you know that, right?".
"That's what I thought too", she said. "I'm not sure he understood, though".
"He will, soon enough", she smiled. "That's not what you wanted to ask".
"When Amy left me her phone, she said something... very personal to me, but I think she didn't tell Rory...", she started, awkwardly. "It's just...".
"Zoe", River cut her off, clasping her arm, sighing at the sight of the dotted line on her wrist. "I know you still don't know her that well, but... the time will come".
Zoe rolled her eyes, as the Doctor jumped in between them, hands on their shoulders.
"You ladies ready?".
"Almost", River said, handing Zoe a gun.
"Why does this look familiar?", she asked. They answered with a smile, Zoe groaned frustrated.
"Please come and get me. Come and get me", Amy sobbed from the recorder in Rory's hand while they made their way back to the Tardis.
Well this doesn't look very menacing, Zoe thought as they stepped out of the blue doors; both her and River with their guns drew out, while the Doctor carried the small tv and Rory just looked desperately at Amy, strapped to a chair at the other end of the control room.
"Oh! Interesting. Very Aickman Road, seen one of these before. Abandoned, wonder how that happened. Oh, well! I suppose I'm about to find out. Rory, River, Zoe, keep one Silent in eyeshot at all times", he instructed, looking around, until his eyes met the one who was menacingly turning to him. Zoe was at the Tardis door, covering the entrance, the gun still a little shaking in her hands.
"Oh, hello, sorry. You're in the middle of something. Just had to say though, have you seen what's on the telly? Hello, Amy, you all right? Want to watch some television?", the Doctor kept going, placing the tv on the console. "Ah, now, stay where you are. Because look at me, I'm confident. You want to watch that, me, when I'm confident", he said, smugly. "Oh, and this is my friend, River. Nice hair, clever, has own gun, and unlike me, she really doesn't mind shooting people. I shouldn't like that. Kind of do.
"Thank you, sweetie", she smirked.
"I know you're team players and everything, but she'll definitely kill at least the first three of you", he kept talking to the Silence.
River moved so that she and the Doctor were standing back-to-back, while she scanned the room and their enemies.
"The first seven, easily", she corrected him.
"Seven, really?", the Doctor repeated, amazed.
"Oh, eight for you, honey", River smiled smugly.
"Stop it", the Doctor insisted.
"Make me", River replied.
"Yeah, well, maybe I will", the Doctor kept on.
Amy rolled her eyes. "Is this really important flirting? I feel like I should be higher on the list right now", she protested.
"Yes, right, sorry. As I was saying, my naughty friend here is going kill the first three of you to attack, plus him behind. As for the head over this pair of skinny long legs, that's Zoe, and I should warn you she's killed her fair share of people and things when she wasn't even trying, so if you're clever, don't test what she can do when she actually has a good reason", he threatened. Zoe felt still ashamed at the mention of her clumsy killings, but she smiled inwardly at the idea of the Doctor painting her as a reckless, rogue badass. She flinched at his next bit of information, but managed to keep the spoiler from distracting her. "Plus, she's the one who built the guns currently pointed at you. So maybe you want to draw lots, or have a quiz".
He walked around the console, as Rory made his way to Amy to free her. "Or maybe you could just listen a minute, because all I really want to do is accept your total surrender, and then I'll let you go in peace. You've been interfering in human history for thousands of years. People have suffered and died. But what's the point in two hearts, if you can't be a bit forgiving now and then", the Doctor added. staring into the leader's face.
"Ooh! The Silence. You guys take that seriously, don't you? OK, you got me, I'm lying. I'm not really going to let you go that easily. Nice thought, but it's not Christmas. First", he started, turning on the tv. "you tell me about the girl. Who is she? Why is she important? What's she for? Guys, sorry. But you're way out of time. Now, come on, a bit of history for you. Aren't you proud, because you helped?", he said, pulling out the tv antennae. "Do you know how many people are watching this live on the telly? Half a billion, and that's nothing, because the human race will spread out among the stars, you just watch them fly. Billions and billions of them, for billions and billions of years. And every single one of them, at some point in their lives, will look back at this man, taking that very first step, and they will never, ever forget it", he stated, his usual smugness filling the room with menace as he stopped to watch the moon landing.
"Oh", he added, "But they'll forget this", he said pulling out his phone. "Ready?".
"Ready", Canton confirmed on the other end.
It's one small step for man... the tv was saying, but the broadcast was soon interrupted with the video of the Silence that Canton had sent them earlier as the device the Doctor and Zoe hooked up on the Apollo module was triggered. On a loop, the video kept trepeating, you should kill us all on sight.
"You've given the order for your own execution, and the whole planet just heard you", the Doctor wrapped up.
One giant leap for mankind... the tv said.
"...And one whacking great kick up the backside for the Silence!", the Doctor cheered, not hiding his enthusiasm. "You just raised an army against yourself", he kept saying, "and now, for a thousand generations, you're going to be ordering them to destroy you every day".
"How fast can you run? Because today's the day the human race throw you off their planet", he threathened. The Silence leader advanced on him, as he started backing away, still talking. "They won't even know they're doing it. I think, quite possibly the word you're looking for right now is, Oops! Run! Guys, I mean us! Run!", he finished clumsily, as River started shooting. The Silence was starting to build up its energy, while Rory was still struggling with Amy's straps.
"Right, into the Tardis, quickly!", River instructed.
The Doctor went to help Rory with the sonic to loosen the straps and free Amy. They walked back to the Tardis while Zoe and River kept shooting and the Doctor waved around his sonic.
"Don't let them build to full power!", he worriedly screamed.
"I know! There's a reason why we're shooting, honey! What are you doing?", she snorted.
"Helping", he cried.
"You've got a screwdriver. Go build a cabinet!", Zoe cut in, between shots. She nervously kept shooting trying not to focus on how easy killing turned out to be, with that gun, or was it just her who had great aiming skills?
"That's really rude!", he protested, as the girls kept shooting without looking at him.
"Shut up and drive!", River yelled, as he ran into the Tardis, covered by Zoe.
She watched in awe as River spinned on herself killing all of the Silence left, ending in a crouch. She slowly stood, eyeing at the other girl at the door, who was looking at her in amazement.
"I don't know if I ever said", River smiled, twirling the gun into its holster. "These are the best gun you've built so far - my old fella didn't see that, did he? He gets ever so cross". She shrugged.
"What kind of doctor are you?", Zoe said, piercing her eyes.
"Archaeology", River replied, pulling out her gun again and firing at her back to the last Silence standing without even turning. "Love a tomb", she smirked, walking past Zoe, but the girl stopped her.
"Are you sure I was supposed to know about my weapon skills? I'm not sure it's something that would help my case with the Doctor I-"
"Don't say a word about the Doctor you know, please".
"What about... you know...", Zoe inquired, lowering her voice. "The lake? Do you think we stopped-".
"Everybody dies in the end", River said, sadly, freeing her arm to walk inside.
Back inside the Tardis, Amy and Rory were sorting things up. Zoe smiled as realization hit Rory that Amy was indeed referring to him in her I love you earlier speech, and watched laughing as the Doctor intructed Nixon to "say hi to David Frost" for him.
"Why is River in a prison?", Zoe asked Amy while the Doctor walked River to her cage, outside the Tardis.
"That's just one of many mysteries about her, I guess", Amy said, shrugging, then left Zoe to watch the scene outside from the monitor.
She didn't really want to peep on them, but her curiosity won upon seeing the Doctor acting that surprised at her kiss, and what River had told them before, his firsts being her lasts, made her feel incredibly sad for the woman. He was waving his hands around and scratched his cheek nervously. Not exactly the best last kiss one could have.
Zoe shivered at the chance things could turn out like that for her as well. River said her timeline was converging with the Doctor's, but what about all the other people she had met? What if suddenly she was not to see someone again, only because of that messed up time traveling?
She shrugged the worry from her face as the Doctor walked back in the Tardis, but he looked at her warily, his eyes spinning around. Still nervous. He looked about to speak, when Amy and Rory walked back to them near the console.
"Rory, I'm going to need thermo couplings. The green ones and the blue ones", the Doctor asked.
"Ok, hold on". He said, heading off.
"So", the Doctor said, when the three of them were alone.
"So?", Amy repeated.
"You're ok?", the Doctor asked.
"Fine. Head's a bit weird. There's lots of stuff I can't quite remember", Amy said, pensively.
"After effect of the Silence. Natural enough. That's not what I was asking. You told us you were pregnant".
"Yes. Wait, how do you know I told Zoe?".
"She can't keep a secret", he said, while Zoe glared at him unbelievingly. "Just joking, I heard you telling her. Why did you tell us you were pregnant?", he repeated.
"Because I was. I thought I was. Turns out I wasn't", Amy said, dismissively.
"But why did you tell us?", Zoe insisted, hesitantly.
"You're my friends. You're my best friends".
"Did you tell Rory?", Zoe asked.
"No", Amy admitted.
"Amy, why tell us and not Rory?", the Doctor asked again.
"Why do you think? I travelled with you in this Tardis for so long. All that time. If I was pregnant for some of it, wouldn't it have had an effect? I don't want to tell Rory this baby might have three heads, or like a timehead or something", Amy explained.
"What's a timehead?", Zoe asked smirking.
"I don't know, but what if it had one?", Amy wondered.
"A time head?", the Doctor repeated, amused.
"Shut up, all right", Amy finally smiled, nudging the Doctor's shoulder as the three of them laughed. "Oi, stupid face", she called Rory.
He shyly made his way back to the console. "Er, yeah. Hello".
Amy eyed at the recorder in his hand. "Taking that away from you, if you're going to listen in all the time", she protested.
"OK, that's a fair point. But you should've told me that you thought you were pregnant. I'm a nurse, I'm good with pregnancy", he said.
"Not, as it turns out, that good. So can you stop being stupid?", Amy commented, rushing to hug him.
"Er, no. Never. I'm never, ever going to stop being stupid!", he replied, spinning her around.
"So, this little girl, it's all about her. Who was she?", the Doctor asked happily. "Or we could just go off and have some adventures. Anyone in the mood for adventures? I am. You only live once".
Zoe shivered visibly beside him, sharing a look with Amy and Rory as the Doctor fiddled with the scanner controls, smiling at Amy. He looked back at the scanner and glanced at Zoe who was looking at the same image, a full-body scan on Amy with a pregnancy test switching between a positive and negative result.
"Uhm, those thermo couplings, Rory, I still need them. Amy, why don't you go help him? Green and blue", he repeated as they nodded heading for the stairs.
"What's that, Doctor?", Zoe asked, worriedly looking at the scanner.
"That's not for you to find out, I'm sorry. I need to bring you back", he said, apologetically, switching levers on the console. "The screen was on", he added.
"I'm sorry?", Zoe asked, puzzled.
"You saw... that", he said, scratching his head. "River, I mean, uhm, that was unexpected, I didn't mean to...".
"Doctor", she said, as he walked dangerously close to her.
"You know I wouldn't...", he said, softly, cupping her face between his hands.
"You don't need to apologize, Doctor, I...", she started.
"It was completely unexpected", he repeated, softly.
Zoe snapped. "Unexpected? What the hell are you talking about? You two are constantly flirting!".
"Oh", he blinked. "I thought that was just joking. Isn't that a bit like, uhm, a bit like when we...".
"Doctor", she pouted, crossing her arms. "You can't possibly think she didn't have her eyes on you. Besides, what we- wait, what do you mean, we? Are you telling me you just flirt with me but there is nothing going on...", she gestured between them. "...here?".
"It's, uhm, it's complicated".
"I kinda figured that", she said. "So future me, Chloe, whatever, she travels around with you, has her own atelier in the Tardis, she's Amy's best friend and you always flirt with her driving River insanely jealous but nothing is going on? And where is she, by the way?".
"I don't...", he groaned. "This has nothing to do with Ch- Future you, she's... they left the Tardis". They? Zoe wondered, as he sighed, once again. "I mean, there is something, maybe, but you know, I don't...", he breathed heavily. "I'm not flirting with her. I'm flirting with you", he said finally, making a disgusted face at the word.
Zoe gulped, surprised. I really didn't see this one coming.
"Me?".
"You", he confirmed, looking straight into her eyes.
"Me", she repeated, nervously.
"You", he insisted. Why is he so close? And why does it suddenly feel like a good idea to-
yes the chapter ends like that. partly because it's David Foster Wallace's death anniversary, and partly because, what happens next? Are you guys shipping Zoe and the Doctor? or do we just love both Rose and River so much there's no space for anyone else in the Doctor's hearts? Just take the time to leave an answer in this lovely box below.