Travels in Time and Space
By Lumendea
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Oracles of Eternity: Shields Up
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of the spinoff material and I gain no income off of this story, just the satisfaction of playing with the characters.
AN: In case it isn't apparent, this is a two part episode so it is moving a bit more slowly to set up more of what is going on. I'm glad that everyone is enjoying it so far. It warms my heart to see people so angry on Eve's behalf.
…
There was no time for Rose to process the Doctor's statement. Eve and the other Verlans were on the ground, twitching and groaning in pain. Dropping down, Rose reached for Eve before she even thought about it. She didn't know if it was a good idea, but the soft sobs escaping Eve twisted her heart. Her hands touched Eve's red skin. It was hot, too hot. Her friend opened her eyes and looked up at her, but her eyes were glowing red and vacant. It was too much like when Eve had been young and lost control.
"Doctor?" Rose asked. "What can we do? What is happening?"
"A psionic blast has been unleashed," the Doctor said. "They don't have strong enough shields to hold it off."
"Are you okay?" Rose asked.
"I'm fine." His words were clipped. She had no doubt that it was hurting him too.
"Am I hurting her?" Rose asked softly. Her stomach turned at the very thought. "I hurt her when we were younger."
"No," the Doctor said. "She can't distinguish anything right now. That was a psionic disrupter. It ripped through her shields. She's young… they all are. No real experience in protecting themselves. There's a limit to what you can learn from records."
"Can we do anything?" Rose asked. Another whimper escaped Eve and Rose gently kissed her forehead. "I'm here, sweetie. I'm here, Eve. We're going to stop this." Looking at the Doctor, Rose tried to find the words to beg him to do more. "What can we do? Doctor?"
The Doctor hesitated. There was a slight tremble in his hands as he reached for Eve. His eyes jumped to Rose as she cradled her friend. Her breath caught and Rose thought back to the little she knew about telepathy. Memories of the Silver Lord slithering into her head and Apep pushing at her thoughts, trying to hurt her made her shiver. But she knew it wasn't always like that, didn't have to be like that.
As the Doctor's fingers came to rest on Eve's temple, a softer breath escaped her friend. The Doctor's eyes slid closed and grief flickered over his face. Rose bit her lip. She wanted to comfort him even as she wanted to ask if this was the first mental contact he'd had since the war other than the TARDIS. But she was already sure of the answer so she stayed silent.
The groaning of the others still echoed around them, but Eve stilled in her arms. Rose rocked her gently and watched the Doctor's lips move. He was saying something, but not truly speaking. The expression of pain on Eve's face faded.
"Eve," the Doctor called. "Focus on me. Focus on what I'm doing. This is part of building a shield, a real shield." There was a moment of silence. "Good," the Doctor said. "Keep it up. Focus on me." The Doctor shivered slightly. "Don't follow me, you don't want to see what's in my head."
Holding her breath, Rose watched and waited. She kept a loose hold on Eve and did her best to ignore the whimpering of the other Verlans. Something twisted in her chest. It was exactly jealousy. She knew that Eve would never try anything with the Doctor. It wasn't exactly fear for Eve either. Maybe it was worry for the Doctor. He hadn't wanted to come near the Verlans and now he was building up shields for one of them.
"There you go," the Doctor said. His voice was a little stronger now. "Good girl."
Eve blinked as her eyes slowly focused on the Doctor. There wasn't real relief on her features and her eyes were still dazed with pain, but she seemed more aware. Rose squeezed her hands in relief and Eve slowly sat up.
"Thank you," Eve said. Her voice was raw and low. "I've never… nothing like that has happened before."
"You weren't trained in mental shields," the Doctor said. He was slowly recovering himself. "Can you help the others?" the Doctor asked. "Guide them like I did you?"
"Yes," Eve said. Her voice was soft but determined. She swallowed and nodded to the Doctor. "Yes, I'll help the others strengthen their shields. Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet," the Doctor said. "This is far from over." He glanced towards the screen with a deep frown. "What do pirates know of a time-sensitive species. The Orthanans don't advertise refuge species they protect for this reason." Without a sound, he climbed to his feet and moved away from them.
"We can ask them later," Rose said. "What can we do in the meantime?"
"The answer may hold the key," the Doctor said. "They've stopped the physical attacks. That means that they do want the people alive. Using a psionic disrupter means that they know who lives on this planet."
"I'm alright, Rose," Eve said. "You can let go now."
Rose slowly released her friend and climbed to her feet. Extending a hand, she helped Eve stand up. Her friend quickly moved to the next Verlan and put her hands on their head. The Doctor looked towards her for a moment before he nodded, seemingly pleased with her actions. Taking the hint that this was good, Rose moved to join the Doctor at the controls.
"What have we got?"
"Still reading two ships," the Doctor said. "I'm checking on something else."
Eve was moving between the fallen Verlans, speaking to them softly. Rose wanted to ask what she'd experienced with the Doctor but knew it wasn't the time. It was probably inappropriate anyway. Her own head ached with a sharp pain radiating out from between her eyes. It wasn't important and Rose turned back to the Doctor who was leaning over the controls. His eyes were scanning what looked like lines of code, but that seemed to make sense to him. He glanced her way for a moment.
"Their communication network is what picked up the ships," the Doctor said. "The psionic wave is targeted on this building so hopefully those who evacuated aren't as affected. They'll be in range, but not of the core of the blast."
"That's good," Rose said weakly. "But what do we do now? Those ships aren't going away."
"No, they aren't," the Doctor said. "And without the TARDIS, we can't go up." He tapped a few buttons and then the screen. "And the Verlan transport system is based on targeted linked transmats so that won't work. I need to buy time or get them down here."
"I have my phone," Rose said. "I could at least send out an alert."
"Verlan system already did," the Doctor said. "And it made it through so that isn't the issue. We need to block that psionic weapon. That's step one." He tapped his fingers on the computer panel. "Shields won't last forever, especially not in the untrained."
"Thoughts?" Rose asked. "Please tell me you have some."
"This building," the Doctor said. He looked up towards the roof. "I know what it reminds me of."
"Oh?"
"Eve, have you got a particle engine powering this place?" the Doctor asked. "What's your energy source?"
Eve looked back at them with a small frown. The Verlan she'd been helping was slowly stirring, still groaning, but now able to move. "Yes," Eve frowned at the Doctor but nodded. "The building is powered by a particle engine. It was in the designs that were sent with our pods, but the data was corrupted-"
"Your families wanted you safe," the Doctor said. "Where is the engine?"
"It's just a power source-"
"A power source that wasn't used by Verlans until the Time War," the Doctor snapped. "Eve, where is it? It could buy us time."
"Downstairs," Eve answered quickly. She nodded towards a small doorway on the side of the room. "That goes straight down. It's the lowest level of the core. It's not very-"
"Doesn't matter," the Doctor said. "You keep helping the others. I'll take Rose and we'll get some defenses up."
The Doctor grabbed Rose's hand and pulled her towards the doorway. Glancing over her shoulder at Eve, Rose noted that her friend was already next to another Verlan. It was slow going, but each one that she helped was getting up to help the others. Two were already leaving the room to go out and check on others. Maybe it would be okay. Rose knew that it had to be. Eve was supposed to grow up and have a daughter with a Time Agent. Ella would later meet Alistair, they'd marry and have Adam. These pirates couldn't mess with their futures. She wouldn't let them.
The door slid open. It was much darker on the other side with low blue lights fixed into metal walls. There was a small staircase that led down in a small spiral and Rose followed the Doctor. Along the walls of the lower room were more small lights and lines of computer panels. Rose blinked in surprise, recognizing some of them.
"These are from Eve's ship," Rose said. "Or at least some of the ships."
"Yeah, that technology would have been used to build the first level of the core," the Doctor said. "That's not what we're here for."
In the center of the room was a large glowing blue hub. Small hoops were rotating around the center light. It was weird and very sci-fi. Under other circumstances, Rose probably would have laughed a little, but right now one of her best friend's people were being attacked. Someone was hurting Eve and her peaceful endangered species and she was mad.
"Particle engine," the Doctor said. "Plus a cone structure leading up equals a weak particle barrier. If they'd made some adjustments then it would be stronger, but it'll help," the Doctor explained in a rush. "Didn't seem right that they had no defenses. Your people are under attack from the Daleks and you send out your youngest in a desperate bid to survive. You're going to give them a way to protect themselves. This lot lack the understanding of what they had."
"That's both great and sad," Rose said. "How long will it take?"
The Doctor adjusted one of the knobs slowly. A strange humming filled the air and made the hair on Rose's arms stand on end. It was unpleasant, but the Doctor was smiling. Her eyes jumped to one of the metallic support beams that led up through the core. There was now a faint blue shimmer around it. Rose smiled. The last vestiges of her headache were faded and things were becoming clearer.
"No way to control it or monitor it," the Doctor said. "Won't last against many attacks, but it gives us some time. Now, I need to contact those ships."
Following the Doctor back upstairs, Rose found Eve and the others on their feet. Eve rushed over to them with a grateful smile.
"Whatever you did helped," she said. "I've dispatched some of the others to round up those who evacuated. There is a natural cave a few miles away. If they go there and work on shields it will hopefully keep them safe."
"A few miles… that should still be in the particle shield," the Doctor said. "But don't have anyone go beyond it. We don't know how many Verlans these pirates are after." The Doctor paused for a moment and looked over at Rose before turning his attention to Eve. "With your permission, I'd like to contact them."
Blinking in surprise, Rose stared at the Doctor. She couldn't recall him ever asking for permission. Usually, he just waltzed in and did the talking that he felt was necessary. Why the sudden change, Rose wasn't sure, but she had some theories. Maybe her friendship was Eve was part of it or his lingering guilt over the Time War. Never mind that it had been the Daleks that tried to destroy Eve's people.
"Please," Eve said. "I fear that I'm still… affected by the attack and lack your experience in a crisis. We are grateful for whatever help you can give us, Doctor."
Nodding to Eve, the Doctor moved to one of the farthest control panels that was positioned next to a large screen. Rose moved over to Eve and took her friend's hand while the Doctor fussed with some of the controls.
"Are you okay?"
"I will be," Eve said. "It hurt… but I will live. Right now what matters is protecting the planet and the rest of my people." Eve squeezed her hand and looked towards the Doctor. "I know you're worried about me, Rose. You're a wonderful friend, but I'm not the one who needs you most right now." She inclined her head towards the Doctor. "Being here… seeing us is hard enough for him. He needs you to stay close but doesn't want to say it. I'll be fine."
"Okay," Rose whispered. Her throat was tight, but she moved over to join the Doctor. "Can I help?"
"No," he answered gruffly. "Almost got them. And… got it. This is New Verlan, calling unknown spacecrafts. Come in."
The screen flickered for a moment, but then a new image appeared. It was a humanoid being with greenish skin, large eyes that were a bit like a bug's and no hair. Rose stayed silent and scanned everything she could in the image. It was some sort of bridge and she could just see some controls in front of the being.
"We call for the surrender of the Verlan population," the being said. It sounded almost bored. Rose's fingers curled into fists. She wanted to hit the being. Hard. "Immediately." Then they blinked at the Doctor and Rose, leaning forward. "You are not Verlans."
"I'm the Doctor," he said calmly. "I speak for New Verlan at this time as their leadership has been incapacitated." The last words were dark and almost spat. The man on the screen didn't seem at all bothered. "What do you want?"
"The surrender of the Verlan population," the alien said once again. "Surrender now or we take additional measures."
"But why do you want their surrender," the Doctor asked. "They're a fragile species and this planet has been terraformed for them. There's nothing here for you."
"We know what they can do," the being said. "We will take them all now. Stand aside stranger, we have no need of you."
"You're talking about slavery then," the Doctor said. His blue eyes turned to ice. "Selling them off to the highest bidder?"
"Our clients are not your concern. Surrender now."
"Clients," the Doctor repeated. "So not slavers, not exactly. You're mercenaries. Fetching them for someone."
"Surrender or additional actions will be taken." The being's face twisted into a nasty expression that made its eye's bulge slightly. "The Orthanans are not here to save them. You cannot delay long enough for help to come. Surrender."
"Never going to happen."
The Doctor hit a button and the screen went dark, cutting off their contact with the pirates. Breathing out slowly, Rose braced herself for whatever came next.