FORGIVENESS

THIRTYSEVEN

"Come with me," Wil said to The Doctor as she walked down the ramp and toward the entrance.

"The beachhead,"' he observed dryly as they looked out the doors. Wil noted that while he didn't actually seem particularly angry, he did sound rather miffed. He was going along with her for now, she knew, but he clearly wasn't particularly happy about it.

She nodded, "Correct, Doctor. The beachhead as manifested in our universe, conforming to our reality. The Aedui are vicious and formidable but they are habitual. And they are scavengers. They steal technology from others but are not inventors themselves. Nor are they the brightest of lights on the cosmic power grid, although they market the stench of fear and death as well if not better than any other creatures. The shape and form of the beachhead is a model they have used successfully in our universe before. They've no reason to expect it won't be successful again. Visually it has the appearance of a typical gas giant. And in fact it has many of the same physical characteristics."

"Ah," he said, despite himself becoming interested.

"It's not a bad choice for a staging area, all things considered. It gives them some cover above and beyond the remote location. Although the visible exterior layer is primarily hydrogen and helium, there's also an abundance of other heavier and far more exotic elements that the Aedui will require to sustain their efforts once they start coming over en masse."

She shrugged almost nonchalantly, "The interesting thing is that if we were to, say, change the current hydrogen-helium ratio from about ninety and ten percent to something more like, well, sixty and forty percent, respectively…"

"The proportions would be more in tune with a primordial solar nebula," The Doctor finished the sentence for her. She didn't mind the interruption at all; in fact, she nodded at him approvingly and encouraged him to continue. Which he did, "And along with the additional pressures and compression we'd eventually have stellar ignition."

"Exactly my thinking," she smirked just a bit. "It does seem that the Aedui have almost invited this. I mean, how could we resist? While you and I have been standing here chatting away, Grasshopper has been busy using a Bussard ramjet to scoop up some spare helium from the system's dwarf brown star. And she's been very quietly, uh, relocating it." Wil looked at him coolly and raised an eyebrow. "We're about to make a fire, Doctor."

He tilted his head, "A very big fire I presume?"

"Oh yes. You'll have to update your Time Lord Galactic Database, because this is about to become a binary star system."

She gazed at him candidly and waited. He could say no, of course. But then what? Perhaps she'd go ahead and do it anyway, and then where would they be? He did not want another Master-like adversary on the loose. Or perhaps she'd simply vanish along with her ship leaving the entire mess in his hands. If that happened he had to admit he currently didn't have a better plan. Not that he couldn't come up with something absolutely brilliant on his own if he had to – he did not doubt it; he always managed. But then The Doctor recalled something she'd said earlier, that this was why she'd come. He sensed a profound element of truth in that declaration. His concept of the universe did not have room for the notion of fate, but he would never deny there were mysteries he could not solve, did not even fully comprehend. Who was he to question if something had been preordained?

He nodded at her and she closed her eyes and created a star.

Later, The Doctor would wish that Jack had been conscious to see it happen.

The size – the volume – of the beachhead at first grew significantly, maybe by 30 percent or more before it began to shrink under its own massive weight. After that initial increase of helium, everything that followed was a normal "natural" star formation progression, aided only temporally by Wil Beinert. The aforementioned volume decrease – the shrinkage – was due to the impact of the additional mass: the entire structure started to compress as gravitational forces increased. And in accordance with the immutable physical laws of our universe, as density increased so did temperature. When the density and temperature reached certain levels, again in line with those same immutable and wonderfully dependable laws, like-charged atomic nuclei began to join together to form heavier nuclei, and the fantastic outward pressure of the resultant radiation significantly slowed any further gravitational collapse. Eventually a hydrostatic equilibrium between the various opposing forces at play was achieved, and finally hydrogen began fusing in the core of a new star.

In other words, a brand new stellar heart began to beat.

It was spectacular. A process that normally takes a million years or more condensed down to a matter of minutes. Understanding and appreciating what he'd just witnessed – the astronomical evolution of hydrogen and helium molecules forming into a gorgeous main sequence blue dwarf star was one thing. But actually seeing it happen in real time before his very eyes? Well… that was something else entirely! Seeing the birth of a new star which crackled and sputtered as if with the blue light of electrical fire was no less than simply breathtaking. A new star far hotter than Wil's own mother Sol – much of its youthful energy radiated as ultraviolet light and x-rays. It was literally like watching something occur which was both unbelievable and impossible. The Doctor inhaled sharply and realized he'd been holding his breath, dumbstruck. Awestruck.

Starstruck…

But then something else even more pronounced took his breath away. Some pieces of an enormous puzzle, a puzzle he hadn't even recognized had been laid in front of him, all swiftly and perfectly fell into place. How she'd known so much about the Aedui… Why her ship was so heavily armed… Where all that maddening certitude of hers had come from… Had she fought the Aedui and won, or had she fought them and lost? Or was the fight still ongoing?

Did it matter?

The two of them were more alike than he'd realized. She was not giving the Aedui a second chance.

The Lord of Time had a sudden burning desire to say something significant, to apologize, to explain, to expound, to acknowledge, to praise, to thank, to confide, to share, to admit, to ask, and to answer, so he turned to look at Wil Beinert and with a jolt realized that she was gone.

Unpredictable…

For the longest time he continued to stare at the place where she'd been standing, a brilliant blue-white light bathing him from the open doors of his ship. Once again there were many things – different kinds of things – he wanted to say. They roiled around in his mind like storm clouds, echoing through his thoughts like the rumble of thunder.

"That was amazing," he finally whispered to the empty space.

"What was?" he heard a familiar voice behind him ask. He turned around and saw Captain Jack Harkness sitting up on the TARDIS control room floor, rubbing his left shoulder, the blue-white light of a new star radiantly illuminating his face.

Captain John Hart was not with him.