NOTE: Luckily for all you Whovian readers it rained all day and I had no inclination to clean my house!
Chapter Thirty-seven
"Ithican? Are you okay?"
"Yes...well...no. I just need a minute..."
Aleena and Ithican were still sitting on the floor of her stateroom and had just been about to get to their feet when Ithican had winced in pain. Aleena guided him to lay down on his back, but he quickly rolled over on his side and curled up. Closing his eyes tightly Ithican ground his teeth together and growled. Panicking Aleena kept one hand on his shoulder and pressed the other against his cheek. Ithican opened his eyes and looked up at her, he forced a brave smile despite the fact that he was starting to shake.
"Ithican?" Aleena asked anxiously.
"I'll be okay."
"What's wrong?"
"Memory flood," Ithican panted "it will be over soon. Ju...just stay calm."
Trying to stay calm himself Ithican managed to take a few deep breaths. As he worked to relax his taunt muscles Aleena stroked his temple in a desperate attempt to help. Ithican reached up and sought out her hand with his own. She put her hand in his and he gave her a reassuring squeeze before releasing her again. Aleena watched helplessly as Ithican lost control of his breathing and started panting in quick shallow breaths. Welding his eyes shut once more he curled up tighter and whimpered.
Aleena was having a hard time staying calm as Ithican continued to struggle. Sweat beaded against his temple as the strange fit continued. Aleena tried to help him relax by coaxing him out of the fetal position, but his muscles were pulled so tight that she had no chance of moving him. Unable to do anything else she stroked his hair until he started relaxing on his own. It seemed like a lifetime, but in truth only a few minutes had passed before he began to uncurl. Opening his eyes he looked disoriented until he looked up at Aleena, once he focused on her he smiled brightly.
"Ithican?"
"It's over." Ithican breathed in relief. "That one wasn't so bad. It helped to not have to hold it off until I could find a place to hide."
"Hide?"
"You're the first person I've ever let witness one of my attacks."
"It looked terribly painful." Aleena said sympathetically.
"It's certainly not pleasant," Ithican remarked as he sat up "but I've had worse."
"How often does that happen?"
"It varies. I can go years without one. Sometimes I can't go an hour without several intense attacks. It's like all of a sudden I start having trouble control what memories I think about, and then they all just jumble on top of one another. Feels like a powerful migraine mixed with a drug trip. They are usually over in a few minutes, but I've had them last hours before."
"Why haven't you told anyone?"
"I didn't want to lose my Class B status and my position as Master of your Guard."
Aleena instantly broke down into tears.
"Whoa, hey, wait. Don't cry." Ithican gathered her into his arms. "That was meant to be romantic. I was trying to stay close to you."
"By suffering." Aleena whispered. "I was supposed to be leading our people and look what I've become...I'm a monster. I have hurt everyone I've touched, I've spent the past two hundred thousand years fixated on revenge. Even now I'm looking to controlling the Doctor? How insane is that? What would I even do with him under my command?"
"Aleena..."
"You say we can't trust him?" Aleena demanded. "You've got that backwards, he can't trust us!"
"Alee..."
"No! I can't keep doing this! I can't! I'm sorry, I'm sorry...I'm not strong enough!"
Ithican held Aleena closer and let her cry while he gently rocked her. In all his years at her side he had never seen her show a moment of weakness. Now that she finally had another to confide in she couldn't hide her internal conflicts. Unable to stop she sob uncontrollably against Ithican's chest. When she finally began to calm again Ithican rested his cheek on top of her head.
"You have been stronger than any of us." Ithican said soothingly.
"No." Aleena whimpered. "That honour belongs to you."
"Me? Do you know what my first thoughts were when you told me that there was a Time Lord loose on the ship?"
"That nothing would stop you from hunting him down. You've never faltered in your loyalty."
"No, that's not true." Ithican shook his head. "My initial reaction was: 'Thank the stars, the Time Lords have finally come to put us out of our misery.'."
"What?"
"For so long we have existed without living and spent that existence in fear. Death sounded like a release." Ithican continued.
"Then why did you offer to hunt down and kill him?"
"For one thing: that's my job. The other: you suddenly gave me new purpose and this Time Lord has the potential to take it away from me, of course I would do anything to prevent him from doing that. Honestly on one hand I desperately wish that he would slaughter us all, and on the other I want nothing more than to tear him apart with my bare hands. I had the chance to kill him already...but I didn't, or rather I *couldn't*. I just don't know what to think of this 'Doctor' from one minute to another."
"I have the same problem."
"How could you not?" Ithican smiled sadly. "We were never meant to be this ancient."
"So what do we do next?"
"I can't make that decision. I'm sorry."
"Ith..."
"No matter who I once was, I am no longer that man. I am just Head of the Guard. You are Leader of the Minyans. It's not fair, but the decision is yours, I am simply here to follow your orders and support your decision."
"It wasn't always like that. We used to be equals."
"Hopefully we will get the chance to get back to that, but not today. Today we all still depend on you."
Aleena nodded sadly and closed her eyes. Unwilling to make a decision just yet she nuzzled against Ithican. The sound of his strong heart was soothing and she found that despite the looming decision she felt more at peace than she had in millennia. Ithican held her tighter before guiding her to tilt her head back so that he could steal another kiss. Aleena accepted the kiss and then furrowed her brow in thought.
"Aleena?"
"We must restore the Doctor's soul to him."
"As you wish."
"At this point we have nothing to lose in trusting the Doctor: one way or another he will put an end to our suffering, even if he betrays us."
"You do not have to explain yourself to me." Ithican said seriously. "However, it is wisdom like that that makes you fit to be our Queen."
"It's not wisdom," Aleena smiled warmly "he will not betray us."
"You suddenly sound confident in that."
"I am."
"Why is that?"
"I just realized something."
"Oh?"
"He took a huge risk with us, one he didn't have to take." Aleena explained. "He knew I loved you, I told him as much. He knew you were the only thing on this ship that I would do anything for. He had the power to bring you to the lab rather than send me to you, he could have threatened your life, hurt you, used you to force me into finding the second Blade for him."
"He certainly didn't do any of that." Ithican agreed.
"It's more than that...I honestly don't think the option even occurred to him."
"As a Time Lord I am starting to find him very disappointing, but as a living soul I'm increasingly impressed."
Ithican smiled and got in one more kiss before getting to his feet and helping Aleena do the same. He gave her a moment to wash the tears from her face in the bathroom while he contacted Tarin to get an update. Looking at the panel Ithican could see that both the communications and the teleport systems were back on line for the rest of the ship, but apparently only out going calls and teleport for the area surrounding Aleena's stateroom were functional.
"Giving us some privacy, eh Doc?" Ithican chuckled. "Tarin, are you there?"
"Ithican?" Tarin's stressed voice came through. "Is Lady Aleena safe?"
"She is, she's with me."
"And are you alright? We were all certain that the Time Lord had gotten you."
"He did, but I'm fine. It's a long story." Ithican said seriously. "I have new orders for you: leave the TARDIS alone."
"Um...too late, we finished the splicing."
"Damn it." Ithican grumbled. "What happened?"
"Well, nothing at first. Then there was some really strange electric interference and a kind of lightning storm that lasted a few seconds, we've fallen back to a safe distance."
"You need to return the TARDIS energy that you stole back to her."
"Well, that's the tricky part, it doesn't seem like we drained anything off of it in the first place. At least not according to our read outs. We certainly didn't capture any energy, but the TARDIS is definitely making unhappy noises."
"Yeah, I can hear her." Ithican noted as he listened to the deep bell in the background.
"Orders, Sir?"
"Keep back, don't touch anything. If you see the Time Lord, leave him alone."
"Sir?"
"Leave him alone." Ithican repeated firmly. "Contact me at once if you see him."
"What if he approaches us?"
"If you have to defend yourselves you are free to do so, but open fire as a last resort, be sure that he is coming to harm you. First tell him that I want to talk to him before you take any violent actions against him."
"You want to talk to the Time Lord again? That didn't turn out so well the first time."
"It turned out better than I originally thought." Ithican replied. "Just keep me updated."
"Yes, Sir. There is one other thing."
"What?"
"There is a report of an usual pattern etched in the glass of the starboard alcove 476-DF19. It has certainly never been there before."
"Thank you, Tarin."
"A pattern?" Aleena asked as she came out of the next room. "I wonder if it looks anything like this."
Ithican stepped forward in concern when Aleena held up her hand and showed off her scared palm. He took her hand and traced the the lines but nothing happened. In the corner of his eye however he thought he had seen a snap of blue lighting coming from outside the large window. Ithican turned and looked out at the yellow-orange planet but there was no sign of any blue light.
"The Doctor wears a similar pattern on his chest." Aleena explained as she took her hand back. "Something that went wrong with the Vale Blades. We don't know how I ended up with part of it on my hand, but if I touch his marks we are both knocked unconscious."
"Then this alcove is worth investigating."
"Absolutely."
"Shall we?" Ithican offered Aleena his hand to take.
"Is it wrong of me to be suddenly enjoying myself?" Aleena flushed.
"Not at all, the past hundred thousand years have been incredibly dull."
"We've wasted so much time..."
"Let's not waste any more."
Aleena smiled as Ithican took her hand and activated the teleport. Standing in front of the alcove that the Doctor and Amy had shared Aleena and Ithican stared at the frosted pattern etched in the glass. Ithican inspected Aleena's hand once more and compared it to the pattern in the glass. They were not identical, but they were definitely related. Another flash of blue just at the edge of Ithican's vision caught his attention.
"Did you see that?" Ithican asked.
"The flash? The Doctor is doing that, at least I think he is."
"What?'
"He's giving off some sort of bio-energy, it manifests in a kind of blue lightning."
"Why can we see it here and now?"
"I don't know. The flashes are coming in through the windows. He was having trouble with it before, he is probably redirecting it to the hull so that it will arc harmlessly out there before dispersing."
"That's frightening."
"Another reason he needs the other Blade back, hopefully it will help him control the energy better."
With his attention on the next window over Ithican caught one of the thin bolts of lighting racing across the outside of the glass. Mesmerized by the phenomenon Ithican wandered off towards the undamaged window while Aleena took a closer look at the pattern in the one in front of her. She reached out to touch the etched marks and the pattern in her hand started to glow.
Ithican didn't notice what Aleena was doing he was distracted by another jolt of electricity. As he stepped up to the window his foot kicked something metal that clattered a few inches across the floor. Bending down Ithican picked up the discarded Vale Blade that Rory had knocked out of Amy's hand. With his attention directly on it he was able to keep it in his mind despite the powerful Perception Filter.
"Aleena, is this what we are after? Aleena?"
Ithican turned and gasped sharply when he discovered that he was alone. The frosted spiral pattern in the glass was giving off an eerie glow that made the metal hallway feel suddenly cold. He absent mindedly slipped the Vale Blade into the side of his belt as he rushed over to the spot where Aleena had last been.
"Aleena? Aleena?!"
"Ithican!" Tarin's voice jumped on the intercom.
"Tarin, what's happening?! Is Aleena there?"
"What? No, I thought she was with you! The TARDIS, it started to disappear and then stabilized again along with all this blue lightning. Whoa! It's happening again!" Tarin cried. Ithican could hear a sound like grinding gears and lighting crashing in the background. "Ithican, there's a serious storm happening here, the TARDIS keeps phasing in and out! What do we do?!"
Ithican took one last desperate look around, but Aleena was simply gone. Typing into the wall console he activated the teleport and joined Tarin and the others. Ithican stared in amazement at the light show before him as the TARDIS whined and growled in the center of the column of lightning. The unusual blue box would nearly disappear before rematerializing once again causing an amazing amount of noise and wind.
"What is it doing?!" Tarin demanded in fright.
"She's trying to leave."
"Then why doesn't it just go?!"
"I don't think she can."
"It looks like it's going to tear the place apart trying!"
"That's exactly what will happen if someone doesn't stop her." Ithican replied seriously. "We need to calm her down or she might just rip apart the Universe itself."
"How in the name of Stardust do you calm down a TARDIS?!"
"You restore her Time Lord to her..."