"The Class of 2012"

38. Divide & Unite

The Lead Ship over Tregh

The Doctor wasn't sure what his greeting would be as the TARDIS returned to the ship. He had left half of his people behind before heading down to Tregh, and now that they were back, he worried about the state he'd find them in.

The answer shouldn't have come as a surprise, but still it did. There was no 'state' to discover except for the fact that they were gone. Not only had they wandered off from the place where they'd been told to wait, but they had stolen a shuttle and hadn't been seen or heard from since. When he asked the ship's crew where they'd taken that shuttle, they said nothing, which the Doctor took to mean one of two things: they didn't want him to know, or possibly they didn't know it themselves.

When one of them asked what he intended to do now, about their shuttle, and about Tregh, and about a third thing the Doctor never found out about because he'd interrupted him by then, the Time Lord demanded to speak to his captain. The argument was short. They would inquire with the captain, and when the man chose to see him, he would see him, not before.

Considering themselves dismissed, the Doctor and his group returned to the TARDIS.

"I can find them," Gemma immediately offered. "With the trace on them, it won't be hard."

"Of course it won't," the Doctor tapped something on the console and a moment later shifted the screen to show her. "See, here they are. Pelles Three," he revealed. "Why they would go there, I haven't the faintest idea, but that is where they are," he went on, staring at the screen for a beat more before looking back to his future companion. "Naturally, I should take the TARDIS and get them back."

"But if you do that, then who will take care of the Treian, and the cure," Gemma shook her head. "If we leave and return, we could end up coming back at the wrong time, and then all we've done, all you've done, will have been for nothing. Let me go, I'll get them and bring them back."

"With all seven of them holding on to you? On that thing?" he pointed to her wrist, scoffed.

"You have a better idea? And I don't even know why I made that a question," she carried on nearly in the same breath.

"Well… now…" the Doctor briefly stalled, and just before she could say anything… "Wait, yes, ha!" he pointed in her face before reaching in his pocket, then the other. But then the more he thought about it, he knew it wouldn't work, even if he did find it.

"Ha?" Gemma turned his last exclamation back on him. They were on the verge of being lost, but then…

"Doctor?" Sophie spoke up, and he turned to her. "I think I'm supposed to give this to you now," she pulled something from her pocket. "The… other you said I should give you this when your pockets failed?" she shrugged as she offered him a flat round object. The Doctor took it, turned it over in his hand. He had never seen anything like it. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver, aimed it at the disc.

"What else did I say?" he asked.

"I…" Sophie hesitated. She knew she wasn't meant to tell this Doctor too much about his future regeneration, and as far as she could tell, she could get away fine with that, up until she had to make sure not to say anything that would identify that this future self was a woman. "You didn't say anything more than that, the pockets thing. Except… I heard… Someone told me you could do something, sort of mind reading? It might be best if I told you this way."

When the Doctor would come and place his hands on either side of her head, the images he'd be treated to would tell him everything he needed to know. Ghosts, in a theater, generated… and this disc he now held. They were only glimpses, and he could sense Sophie barring his way, preventing him from seeing certain things. She was able to shut the doors in her mind where she needed to.

"So?" Gemma asked the Doctor, reaching to hold her mother's hand when he'd let go of her. "What did you see?"

Rather than answering, the Doctor had gone and connected the disc to the TARDIS console. Whatever he was doing to the thing was anyone's guess, and they knew better than to interrupt.

He disconnected the disc before returning to Gemma, and he pulled up her arm, where the vortex manipulator was still strapped. He fixed the disc on to the strap.

"Make sure everyone holds tight, understand?" he looked her in the eye. "I've modified it so it will create a field around you and bind you together so long as you travel as one. It is very important…"

"That we hold on, got it," Gemma touched the disc, made sure it wouldn't fall. In her head she gave silent to the Doctor, her own Doctor, the one who would come after this one. She knew where this thing had come from, knew it was linked to what had happened to her and her mother, the day she'd been born.

"I'm going with you," Walter stepped up. He didn't want to stay behind without her, and she didn't make him. She gave him a nod and he came to stand at her side.

"Come back as fast as you can," the Doctor told them both, as Gemma took Walter's hand and put it on the arm where she had the cuff, so he wouldn't let go. She took a look back to her parents, who were expectedly concerned, and she gave them a confident nod. She'd be back soon.

The others had stepped back, and after Gemma had tapped in the necessary information, she and Walter were gone. Without another word, the Doctor went and took the TARDIS back down to the surface of Tregh. They still had work to do.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)