Felsius Four
Anthony Tyler hooked the strap of his short wave CB over his shoulder as he climbed into the scaffolding of what he heard the grownups call Warehouse 314-B. Once he reached the ledge, he swung up over it, and then reached down to help his sister, Tabitha, climb up beside him.
"Now," he said, arranging himself cross-legged on the sturdy reed-like board of the ledge. "In a moment, we're going to stand up to have a look out those windows. I don't want you to be scared, Tab, but you're gonna be looking out over an alien world."
Tabitha folded her arms. "I know that, bonehead," she said. "We're on Felsius Four. I've seen the vid-loops. We all have."
Tony tried his best to be patient with his sister. He was the man of the family, until they found their Dad, and so he had to remember that she was just a bratty little know-it-all. "Yeah, we saw the vid-loops. In school. It's real now. Really real."
They looked out over the crowded warehouse below. They'd seen a lot of things in the last few hours. Because they'd just crashed in the airship on earth, Tony and Tab had seen Captain Morales almost get burned up from the fire in the cockpit. The Captain had managed to get them all out of the airship, though: Mum, Miranda, Tony, and the girls.
And then, once they arrived here in the warehouse, they entered the medtent, where a woman who had gone into labor on earth was just about to be the first human to give birth on another planet.
Below them, the Locastalan nymph-scouts circulated among the humans. With their shoulder-mounted projection screens, they could speak with any person on earth through a system of pictograms and telepathic suggestion. The nymph-scouts brought food and medicine and clothes…
Following Tony's line of thought, Tabitha asked, "How come some of the humans blipped here without any clothes?"
Tony suppressed a laugh. "Because, half-wit, some of them were taking a bath when we…"
"So they blipped here naked?" Tab hooted. She slapped her hands over her eyes.
Tony's brows arched. "Wonder how many were reading the morning paper, eh? Eh?"
"That's disgusting!" Tab smacked her brother's arm. "You would think of that. Come on. I'm bored. When can we see this alien world?"
It occurred to Tony then that maybe his sister didn't believe him. Did she think it was a dream? Had she hit her head in the airship crash? Tony wondered if perhaps she thought this was some Locastalan refugee center back on earth.
Or maybe she was just Tabitha: Princess Unimpressed.
"Here, all right," Tony said. "Take my hand."
She scowled.
"It's a narrow ledge," Tony snapped. "Won't do for you falling backward. You'd crack your skull and Mum'd be furious at me."
"Fine." She slapped her hand in his and together they inched first to their feet and then to their tiptoes. Soon Tony's face, and Tab's from her nose up, peered over the lip of the hexagonal window, through the finito-glass, and out into the mist-bright marshland of Felsius Four.
"Woooooow," Tab muttered. She clung to her brother's shoulder as she continued to stare at the endless fog-strewn wetland, broken only by deep winding canals that reflected the gold light of two suns hanging high in the sky above them. In that lavender twilight, they could see the pale green crescents of Felsius Two and Three.
"Look, there," Tony said, pointing to the horizon, where a pink semi-circle loomed like the top of a bald man's sunburned head. "That's Felsius Proper: The biggest moon of the planet Locastia. It's uninhabitable."
"Because it's bald," Tabitha said.
"Of course."
"Can we see Locastia?"
"Not yet. When the suns go down," Tony said. "You see those over there?" He pointed to the far right beyond the window to a place barely visible.
"Sort of…"
"Those buildings are the other warehouses. They're arranged by geographic location, all of them coinciding with places on earth. That way, once we got blipped, we'd all be pretty much close to home as far as the people are concerned," Tony said. "Family, I mean."
Tabitha slid back down and sat so that her legs dangled from the ledge. She didn't say anything, but Tony could tell she was upset by the crinkle in her brow.
Tony joined her. "What's wrong, Tab? We're all safe. It'll take some time to find everyone, but once we do, everything'll be right as rain, you'll see–"
"–That's not Earth out there," Tab said.
"Well, no, it's Felsius Four," Tony said.
"But I miss it. I miss our playroom and our garden and our apple tree. Do they even have apple trees on Felsius Four?"
"Well, I don't kn–"
"–Course you don't know," she snapped. "It's all space adventure and nifty gadgets with you. I want to go home!"
"Anthony Prentiss Tyler," a familiar voice called from below, and both children tensed at the tone in it. They tilted their necks to find their mother glaring up at them, her hands on her hips.
"Hi, Mum," they chirped in unison, but she was having none of it.
"Are you upsetting your sister?" Jackie said.
"No, Mum, I promise," Tony answered.
"Because she's been through enough, young man, without you antagonizing her–"
"–But I wasn't–"
"He was showing me the planet, Mum," Tabitha said. "You can see the moons from here."
"Can you now, darling?"
"Yes, ma'am," Tabitha answered. "And you know what else, there aren't any apple trees here. Probably no bananas, either, and I've decided that while this place is all well and good, I'd like to go home now."
Jackie and her son exchanged a look, then, and Tony's heart ached a bit in sympathy for his sister. His mother knew what all the adults knew but just weren't saying. Tony could guess what it was. If they were here on Felsius Four, it meant the earth…
Their earth. And suddenly, Tony wanted to cry.
But he didn't. He drew a deep breath and unslung the radio strap from his shoulder. He squared it on his knees and began adjusting the settings to dial in their emergency frequency.
"Tone, what're you up to?" his mother asked.
"Dad and James said we could use this to contact each other. We can use AM frequency one-nine. If they're within range, we can find them…"
Jackie waved her cell phone. "Son, I've already tried but the network's got no signal."
Tony dismissed her with a wave of his hand. "That's 'cause the cell network's tied to a satellite system that's seven hundred and fifty light years away."
"Oh. Well," Jackie said. She tucked her phone into her pocket and folded her arms.
"No, this," Tony muttered as he dialed. "This transmits radio waves. If someone's got a receiver, they'll pick up the signal and–"
A crackle of static, a whine, and then, "–on emergency signal one-nine in Warehouse three-one-four dash B. Repeat, this is Peter Tyler–"
"Oi!" Tabitha cried. "It's Daddy!"
"He's transmitting!" Tony snatched the handset and depressed the speaker button. "We read you! We read you! Dad! It's us! It's Mum and Tab and Tony!"
Silence on the other end. Tabitha's tiny fingers twined around her brother's wrist as they waited for a response.
"Maybe he's out of range," Tony whispered.
Tabitha shushed him. She said, "Try again."
Tony depressed the button once more, and this time, he forced himself to speak in calm, slow syllables.
"This is Tony Tyler, broadcasting emergency signal one-nine from Warehouse three-one-four dash B," he said. "Do you read me?"
Static. Then, "Tony? Son. Is that really you?"
"Yes!" The microphone shrilled feedback and they all winced. Tony pressed the button again. "Yes, Dad. It's us. We're near a medtent. We're all right, though, don't you worry. Where are you?"
Pause. Then, "Outside the command node. Look, son, this place is laid out on a grid, right. You're at a medtent, can you see its coordinates? There should be a series of numbers…"
"Right!" Jackie said, clapping her hands. "I seen 'em. Like a street address." She called up the string of numbers and Tony repeated them off to his Dad.
"Great. Got it," Pete answered, the excitement plain in his response. "Now, you lot stay put. We're on our way."
2:38 p.m.
The Tower Room
James had stopped screaming. Clamped over the switch, his hands now glowed with white-gold particles of dust. The muscles in his neck stood out like cords, but his jaw clenched tight, shutting off the cascade of agonized sound.
"Right," Rose stated. "That's enough." She lunged forward, not for James, but for the power cord connecting the tower to the transmitter.
"No, don't!" Rory cried, catching her arms. "That's not a good idea."
She struggled against him, and Rory learned what the Doctor and James already knew: Rose was surprisingly strong. Still, he managed to hold onto her.
Frustrated, she shouted, "He said to bring everyone home!"
"He means Earth…" Rory said. "He means… the planet."
He felt her shoulders tremble. "He means him," she said. "Bring everyone home. He means him, too."
"You'll kill him," Rory countered. "His mind's up there, in the storm. Pull that plug and he's trapped forever."
Rose let her body go slack as she said, "I know you don't understand, but I can feel him. And he's ready. It's done. It's over. And if I don't hurry, his body will burn up and we'll lose him and you have to believe me, I know what I'm doing."
James' body convulsed as the energy particles surged up his arms and into his torso.
"Are you sure?" Rory asked.
"Yes!" Rose gasped. She slipped free from Rory's grasp and, grabbing the coupling with both hands, she ripped the massive cord from its socket.
The air sizzled around them. James' body dropped, boneless, and Rose and Rory, each catching a shoulder, eased him to the ground. Tendrils of plasma whipped up through the clockwork tower, building to a deafening charge that flared brightly and burst from the iris window in the roof. And then, like a candle blown by the wind, the tower winked out.
Darkness. The crisp scent of ozone. The three lay in a heap, listening to the delicate chime of the clockwork pieces spinning inside the tower.
After a moment, Rory whispered, "Listen."
"I don't hear anything," Rose answered.
"Exactly. The wind. It's stopped."
"No." Her voice like broken glass. "I don't hear anything from him."
"What?" Rory exclaimed. "No! Rose, is he breathing?"
"I don't–"
Rose didn't move. She clasped James' still body to hers, and in the close, dark space between them, Rory could feel her silent shuddering sobs.
"Is he breathing?" Rory shouted. "Rose, is his heart beating?"
"It's not," she said, her voice nothing more than a whimper. "His heart's not beating. James, don't leave us. Please. You promised."
"I can help him," Rory told her. "Slide over. Rose, I can help him."