Anywhere 38
"You grew another hand?" said Martha
She sounded completely shocked and it worried him just a bit. He looked at Jack and the man looked worried too.
"yep" said the doctor waving to her with the regenerated hand.
"Amazing" said Yana
He was about to say more when a claxon went off. He grumbled and moved towards the panel.
Yana frowned down at it and turned off the klaxon. He rubbed his head and winced.
"You all right there professor?" said the doctor
"Yes, well as all right as I'll ever be if I could only concentrate past these damn drums" said Yana
Martha looked around she wasn't hearing any drums. She looked at Jack, who shrugged, he didn't hear them either.
The doctor was frowning too. He pushed his glasses further up his nose and stared at the professor.
"What drumming?" said the doctor
"Oh this infernal rack in my head, always banging like it's getting closer. Like a bunch of crazy natives banging out a tempo in my skull" said the professor
The doctor gave him a worried look Martha was frowning and seriously doubting the old man's sanity right now.
"How long have you heard it?" said Martha
She was slipping into doctor mode even though there wasn't much that could be done right now.
I wasn't like they could call down to psych and get him a bed. The professor waved dismissively
"All my life, I can usually focus around it, unless I'm stressed" said Yana
"Well then perhaps you should relax for a minute or two" said jack
The professor shook his head no.
"No, no, there's no time for that. I've got to get this done, they are just about ready for launch" said Yana
"They? You aren't planning to go with them?" said the doctor
The professor shook his head no.
"No I'm too old for utopia, its time I've gotten some rest but first I must finish this" said the professor. Martha gave the doctor a concerned look.
"You would die so they could fly?" said the doctor
The professor simply nodded as if he either hadn't heard the question or simply didn't care.
"Ah there we go, that should do it, thank you for your help..." said Yana
He closed the panel and turned to thank the doctor. A whole slew of klaxons went off before he could finish speaking
"Oh now what?" said Yana
He turned and wobbled to an intercom. He reached for a button, when suddenly they heard a scream followed by gunfire.
Jack took off running in its direction followed by the doctor, Martha, the professor and Chantho.
They found Jack kneeling next to a body, another man in a uniform was on the other side. A military man entered from the other hall.
"Sims report" said the man
"Its future kid general, it appears one slipped inside" said the soldier kneeling.
The general swore.
"Paulson, Mitchell go search for it, shoot it on sight, I'm not launching with that thing on board" said the general
The doctor opened his mouth to protest.
"Professor have you finished your repairs?" said the general
The old man nodded more to himself
"Yes, ah yes, all fixed" said the professor
The general nodded and turned back towards the doctor, Martha and Jack.
"I'm afraid we don't have any more room for you but we did retrieve your box like you requested, I wish you luck" said the general
They heard him shouting orders about docking clamps as he walked away.
"We should probably head for the tardis doctor" said Martha
The doctor once again seemed oblivious to what she was saying. Another alarm went off and more gunfire sounded. The professor looked up then shuffled to the other side of the room. He stared down at a monitor.
"Oh dear" said the professor
"Oh dear what? What's going on?' said Martha
"Something's damaged the release for the docking clamps" said the professor
"What? You mean they can't launch?" said Martha
"Not without losing half the ship" said the doctor
"Can it be restored?" said Jack
"Yes the power conduits down that way but it's... high voltage" said the professor
Jack had already left before the professor had finished the statement. The doctor shook his head and took off after Jack.
They found him in another corridor trying to repair a damaged cable. There were several dead bodies in the room.
Jack grabbed two rather large cables and reached for the wires inside.
"Jack wait" said the doctor
Electrical current shot up Jack's arm from the cable and Jack keeled over. Martha rushed over and dragged Jack away from the cable
"Martha" said the doctor.
Martha ignored him because Jack wasn't breathing. So she started CPR.
The doctor looked on with an irritated look on his face.
He could feel Jack starting to come back and the last thing he wanted was for the man to wake up with Martha's lips on his.
The doctor grabbed Martha and dragged her back.
"Is there another way to fix it?" said the doctor
"Yes well there is a manual release but you would have to go through the engine core to reach it and that's irradiated" said Yana
"Doctor what are you doing he isn't..." said Martha
Jack gasped
"Was someone kissing me?" said Jack
The doctor rolled his eyes and released Martha
"Jack?" said Martha
He turned and grinned at Martha
"You were saying something about an irradiated room" said the doctor
The professor and the doctor both looked at Jack.
"What?" said Martha
Jack climbed to his feet and walked past Martha. She stared after him in shock. He supposed he should be used to the looks by now.
Even Lexi had stared once or twice. Of course the second glance might have been because he wasn't exactly clothed at the time.
"This way" said Yana
Martha followed the men down the corridor being careful to edge past the body of the future kind.
She was certain it was dead, but then again they thought that in most horror flicks too, plus Jack hadn't been dead and he had no pulse a second ago.
They stopped outside a huge metal door. Martha saw the radiation symbol and immediately started to protest.
"No uht uh, doctor you can't be serious he'll be killed" said Martha
The doctor turned to tell Martha that no Jack would be fine but Jack stepped forward.
"It's okay Martha, I will be fine just trust me" said Jack
He moved forward like he intended to kiss her and the doctor cleared his throat
"Yeah right times wasting, gotta go" said Jack
He moved towards the door. The doctor moved Martha away from the door. She glanced around. The professor was missing.
"Doctor where is the professor?" said Martha
"He went to go monitor the situation, come to think of it you should probably get out of here, radiation does some pretty nasty things to humans" said the doctor
He needed to talk to Jack and he didn't want to do it with Martha standing here.
"Okay I'll just go check on him then" said Martha
She gave the doctor a strange look the man was acting decidedly wonkier than usual.
She found the professor staring at a screen and absently playing with a fob watch in his hands.
Martha opened her mouth to say something and froze. Why did that watch look so familiar?
"Professor where did you get that watch?' said Martha
The man looked dazed for a moment then seemed to come out of it for a few seconds long enough to focus on her.
"What watch?" said the professor
Martha gave him a confused look then she remembered the perception filter thingy.
"The watch it's in your hand" said Martha
"Oh this old broken thing, it's never worked. Forever late I am because of it" said the professor
He gave Martha a perplexed look, then seemed to shake off the spell and shoved the watch into his pocket.
Martha stared in shock. Was the professor a time lord? The watch looked just like the one the doctor had. Even the writing was the same.
"How long have you known?" said Jack
"Ever since I ran away from you" said the doctor
"When did you figure it out?" said the doctor
He was standing at the window watching jack work.
"1892 Ellis Island got into a fight, guy shot me through the heart, and then I woke up. Thought it was kinda strange" said Jack
"Then it never stopped, fell off a cliff, got trampled by horses, world war one, World War 2, poison, starvation, a stray javelin. In the end I got the message I'm the man who can never die" said Jack
"And all that time you knew" said Jack
He sounded just a bit peeved.
"That's why I left you behind. It's not easy just looking at you Jack because your wrong" said the doctor
Jack looked down, this is what he wanted and honestly he wasn't surprised by the doctor's answer. He always wondered when the man was just going to walk away. He did it to Lexi and he said he loved her.
"Thanks" said Jack
He was being sarcastic but the doctor didn't seem to get it.
"Well I can't help it you are" said the doctor
"She owned up to it you know" said Jack
He didn't know why he even brought her up but maybe it was because he wanted to hurt the doctor just as much as he was hurting right now.
"Did she?" said the doctor
The time lord looked sad.
"I'm surprised she could even look at you" said the doctor
Jack tried desperately to keep the smirk off his lips because she had done a lot more than look at him. Jack snorted
"We're time lords its instinct for us, to know when something isn't right we feel it in our gut. You're a fixed point in time Jack and that's never meant to happen" said the doctor
"Even the Tardis reacted to you, flew all the way to the end of the universe just to get rid of you" said the doctor
Jack smirked
"So what you're saying is you're prejudiced" said Jack
He wondered why Lexi's Tardis had never reacted that way, but then again perhaps it just got used to his presence and it couldn't exactly go anywhere until Lexi was done with the repairs.
"I never thought of it that way, I guess, yeah I guess I am, sorry" said the doctor
Jack shook his head. Martha was listening in to their conversation and so was Chantho. The professor seemed to be lost in his own little world at the moment.
"She told me what happened. The last thing I remembered while I was still mortal was facing down three Daleks and being shot" said Jack
"Daleks" the professor whispered behind them.
"When I woke up I was alone on an empty station filled with dead people" said Jack
The doctor winced in sympathy. Jack knew he was making the man feel bad but he honestly didn't care.
He wasn't sure when he had stopped caring he just had.
"What happened I mean Lexi told me her versions but..." said Jack
The doctor nodded
"Lexi and Rose happened" said the doctor
"I thought you sent them home?" said Jack
"I did, Lexi figured a way past my fail safes, didn't take into account she was a time lord too big mistake. Well anyways she went back in time found my eighth incarnation and stole his, er my Tardis" said the doctor
Jack chuckled and the doctor gave him a glare.
"They opened the heart of the Tardis and absorbed the time vortex and came back there" said the doctor
"And Lexi made me immortal" said Jack
"Yes well after they wiped out the entire Dalek fleet and apparently created a cult following" said the doctor
Jack rolled his eyes
"Great does she know?' said Jack
"Yeah unfortunately" said the doctor
Jack chuckled and the doctor grinned
"Great that's just wonderful Lexi as the Dalek's version of Jesus" said Jack
"Anyways to make a long story short I absorbed the vortex back out of Rose, and voila new me" said the doctor
"And Lexi?" said Jack
The doctor swallowed nervously.
"We helped or rather my eighth, helped her through her first regeneration, young time lords are not supposed to do so when they are that young but she was dying" said the doctor
Jack sobered for a moment. Lexi didn't tell him she had died up on that station only that she was responsible for his current state.
He had been angry but that would have negated it somewhat.
Martha was staring at Yana who was muttering to himself, she exchanged worried looks with Chantho.
"Chan perhaps you should fetch the doctor tho" said Chantho
"Yeah good idea, just watch him okay" said Martha
Martha ducked out of the room just as the professor pulled the watch back out and stared at it again.
Jack locked the last release and looked up at the doctor. The man was turned away and he looked incredibly sad.
For just a moment Jack saw him for what he was, a lonely old man. Then all of a sudden it was gone.
"Righty oh, all done then out you come" said the doctor
Jack shook his head he guessed an apology was out of the question when it came to the doctor.
"I saw the rolls for torchwood one, Rose…" said Jack
The doctor closed his eyes briefly against the pain.
"She had no choice, Jack" said the doctor
Jack looked down.
"I know she told me some of it I guess I just want to know why" said Jack
The doctor looked sad.
"That I couldn't tell you, we may never know why "said the doctor
Jack frowned.
"I have a theory but I don't know if it's accurate" said jack
The doctor was glaring at him but he continued any way.
"What is that?" said the doctor
Jack was nearing the door.
"That it was the time vortex but I couldn't share it was Lexi she feels guilty enough as it is, I didn't want to add to it" said Jack.
The doctor gave him a sad look and that confirmed what he had been thinking, the doctor thought the same thing.
He stepped out of the chamber. The doctor stepped back some.
Even if the radiation wouldn't affect him, Jacks presence still made him feel a bit nervous.
The sores on Jack's face put there by the radiation were closing as he stood there. The doctor opened his mouth to reply when Martha walked in
"Doctor there's something I've got to tell you" said Martha
"Do stay back my dear not quite sure he's safe just yet" said the doctor
He held up his hand to keep Martha from getting any closer to Jack. He was fairly certain the man was still radioactive.
"where did your shirt go?" said Martha
Jack smirked
"Noticed did you" said Jack
"Jack!" said the doctor
"Kinda hard not to, you need a bit more sun, but not why I am here" said Martha
Jack's mouth dropped open in shock and the doctor snickered.
"Doctor the professor" said Martha
"Yes what about him nice man why?" said the doctor
Martha sighed and gave the doctor an exasperated look
"He has a watch, a watch like yours, same writing and everything" said Martha
The professor stared at the watch. The voices were getting louder and they wanted him to open it.
The doctor's voice came back to him with the words time lord and Daleks ringing in his ears he opened the watch.
Lexi sat up with a gasp something was wrong. Something somewhere was vitally wrong. She climbed out of her bed and walked into the control room. Something was wrong but she wasn't sure what.
"Chan Yana you should take some rest tho" said Chantho
The professor snorted as a bright light drifted from the watch and into his eyes.
"Did you never think, all those years standing beside me to ask about that watch? "said the professor
At Chantho's blank uncomprehending look he went on.
"Did you never think once not ever that you could set me free?" said the professor
Chantho was backing away because the professor was not acting like himself. He was angry and she had no idea why.
"Chan I'm sorry tho Chan I'm so..."said Chantho
"ENOUGH!" yelled the professor
"You with your Chan and tho driving me insane you are worse than that damn drumbeat" said the professor
He was walking towards the launch panel and Chantho had a horrified thought that he would sabotage the launch
"Chan professor please..." said Chantho
"THAT IS NOT MY NAME!" Yana yelled
"The professor was an invention, her invention. A perfect disguise that she used against me. She used my very being against me and she will pay" said Yana
"Chan then who are you tho?" said Chantho
He turned towards her with manic eyes. Chantho reached for a gun she kept in the drawer in case the future kind ever got in.
"I am the... Master" said Yana
She could hear the doctor and his companions running towards them.
The professor moved towards the panel and threw a switch then he began hitting a few more switches to initiate the launch sequence.
Chantho could hear the building hum of the engines. The doctor and his friends were still in the launch pad area.
"Chan but you've locked them in tho" said Chantho
The professor gave her a wicked smile and Chantho swallowed nervously
"Not to worry dear as one door closes another must open" said the master
He flipped another switch and the outer doors opened letting a flood of future kind into the compound. Chantho's eyes widened in shock.
She held her breath as the ships outer doors slammed shut.
Now the doctor and his friends had nowhere to run to and future kind were heading in their direction.
The engines roared to life just as the doctor and his companions rushed through an outer hatch. The rocket blazed towards the sky behind them.
"Doctor!" said Martha
"What is it Martha?" said the doctor
He turned when he heard the snarls.
"Ah shit" said Jack
"Run!" yelled the doctor and they darted into another building with the future kind hot on their heels.
"Chan you can't leave them out there tho" said Chantho
The master was laughing at the doctor and his companions as they raced for cover.
"Chan Professor please this isn't you tho" said Chantho
She picked up the gun and walked towards the door controls. The master saw her intention and snarled a warning she didn't heed.
She reached the controls and he walked towards the power couplings. He unplugged the panel just as her fingers touched the controls.
The panel went dead and she looked up. She saw the professor approaching her with the live cable clutched in his fingers.
A terrifying look adorned his face and she was terrified but she stood her ground.
This was the professor he would never hurt her he was her friend. Of course right now he didn't look so friendly.
"You would betray me, for them?" said the master
"Chan please you must stop I will shoot you I swear tho" said Chantho
She was backing away from him as she said it. She couldn't pull the trigger she just couldn't he was just sick somewhere in there was her professor. He wouldn't hurt her he wouldn't
She thought he cornered her and she tried to run, if she had shot him she would have gotten away she thought briefly as the pain overwhelmed her and she screamed. He backed away from her she was twitching from the electricity.
He walked towards the Tardis. Security cameras showed that the future kind were getting closer. It was time to leave. He reached for the door and pushed it open. He crowed with delight the doctor had left his craft foolishly unlocked. A bang sounded behind him and he vaguely registered the pain at first. He looked down and saw a golden stain spreading across his chest. One of his hearts, she hit one of his hearts.
He stumbled into the Tardis and slammed shut the door.