Chapter Fifty-Two
Kyoto, Japan, 2020
The muscles in Rose's thighs burned as she climbed the well-worn path up the side of Mt. Hiei on her way to the temples of Enryaku-ji that the Doctor promised were well worth the effort of the physical strain. It didn't occur to her to ask why they simply didn't take the train or the cable car to the top of the mountain. She was so used to exploring on foot that the thought struck her belatedly when she saw the wires of the cable car passing high above the tops of the trees. Not that she minded going on foot. All three of them were eager for some strenuous exercise after two months of taking it slow due to Zoe's illness and recovery. She hadn't realised how cooped up she had felt until she looked up at the cobbled path in front of her at the base of the mountain and her heart sang with pleasure: fresh air, exercises, and two of the people she loved most in the entire universe was the perfect way to spend a warm autumn's day.
She paused and tightened the straps on the backpack that kept slipping towards the small of her back, weighted down as it was with water bottles and various bits and bobs that the Doctor and Jack thought might be useful. Her two boys were like Boy Scouts: prepared for anything; although, she wasn't entirely sure what use a yo-yo would be on a hike but the Doctor dropped it into the bag anyway. She lifted the heavy fall of her blonde hair off the back of her neck, letting the faint breeze whisper across her sweaty skin as she took in her surroundings.
It was so beautiful.
It was all well and good going to alien planets, but there was something special about visiting places on Earth in her time that made her feel very far from the estate: Rose Tyler in Japan.
She couldn't help but smile at the thought.
Around her, the mountain chimed with bird song and the quiet sigh of the wind that rustled the leaves of the trees. It smelt fresh and lovely, the pleasantness increasing only as they climbed higher and higher, and her lungs filled with the sweet air. It was Jack's idea to visit Japan. He'd never been before and wanted to see what it was like, so when the Doctor asked them if there was anywhere they specifically wanted to go, Jack suggested Japan. It was good that one of them had come up with an idea as the Doctor seemed slightly out of sorts when he returned from saying farewell to Zoe. He didn't even flinch when Jackie kissed his cheek goodbye with a warning to bring Rose back for a visit in a week. He simply nodded and promised that he would. He didn't even wipe her lipstick off until Jack pointed out it was still pressed into his skin.
Rose worried about what he and Zoe had said to each other. She knew they were good friends but sometimes they could get into the strangest arguments that made absolutely no sense to anyone who had the misfortune of bearing witness it. She didn't put it past either of them to pick a fight with the other simply to make leaving easier.
She tilted her head back to enjoy the warm sun against her skin. It was a good idea to come, Rose thought to herself as she grabbed hold of the wooden railing to catch her breath, her cheeks flushed. They needed something quiet and easy whilst they got used to the space that Zoe's absence left behind.
She kept wanting to turn to point things out to her sister only to remember, at the last second, that she wasn't there. She missed her, and it had only been five hours since they'd left her behind in the flat. It was going to take all three of them some time to get used to not having her there and to readjust their rhythm. Their conversation wasn't awkward but there were pauses where Zoe would normally chime in with her opinion, or a faintly sarcastic remark that would get the Doctor's hackles up and lead to some light bickering that would normally end with soft smiles and nudged hips.
Part of Rose wanted to tell the Doctor that maybe they should just skip ahead to when Zoe was better, like they'd done when she was studying for her A-Levels, but she kept her own counsel on that matter.
She understood why her sister had asked to leave. After everything she'd been through, it made sense for her to take a step back. Zoe was practical like that, and Rose wasn't sure she'd have made the same decision in her place. She couldn't ever imagine giving the TARDIS and the Doctor up. She didn't think there was anything in the world that could compel her to do so, but Zoe wasn't her. Even when they were children, Zoe was the more sensible of the two. Rose was more likely to fling herself off a high wall whilst Zoe would look for a safer way down. It was the way it had always been, so she understood her sister's decision even though she didn't like it.
It wasn't fair if they just jumped ahead and missed the difficult, messy parts of Zoe's recovery. Rose also knew that the Doctor would never agree to it. He felt responsible for what had happened to Zoe, and he liked to punish himself by suffering right alongside her. Another part of her, smaller but stronger that the common sense that she repeated to herself, felt guilty for leaving without her. Her little sister, for she was still her little sister no matter how much older than Rose she was, was hurting and in pain and Rose had just left her behind.
Perhaps she should have stayed and helped her through the nightmares and the difficult days to come. She wasn't sure exactly what she could do to help her sister, but she could have tried something more than climbing back into the TARDIS and spinning away towards adventure and excitement. Not that Zoe would ever admit to needing or wanting help. She was as stubborn as a mule and twice as annoying when she wanted to be.
Rose sighed: little sisters were more trouble than people thought.
"Oh, Rosie, look!" Jack exclaimed, jolting her from her thoughts. She turned in the direction he was pointing. He had his raised binoculars to his eyes and a pleased smile spread across his face. "A Northern Hawk-Cuckoo!"
She released a breathless laugh and shook her head. "A bird? Again."
"Mark it in the book." He requested, peering through the binoculars with an enthralled expression on his face.
The Doctor passed a hand across his face, a grin half-hidden by the splay of his fingers, she took Jack's bird watching book out of the backpack. Unbeknownst to either of them, Jack was an amateur ornithologist. Neither of them had any idea why he liked bird watching but he did and, upon discovering that Mt. Hiei was a good place to find slightly rare species of birds, he packed up the bird-watching equipment he'd unearthed on the TARDIS and set off with a bounce in his step and two bemused friends trailing him. She flicked through the book, which was far larger than she thought it should be considering it was about birds, but she did as he asked and marked the space next to the Northern Hawk-Cuckoo. There was nothing special about it to her eyes. It just looked like a bird.
"It's not just a bird," Jack said when she told him just that. "It's one of the more elusive woodlands' cuckoo, so it's a treat to actually see one." He offered her the binoculars. "Here. Have a look."
"I'm good, thanks." She shook her head, putting the book back.
The Doctor laughed and walked down the hill towards them. His long legs and distracted state of mind meant that he strode ahead of them, but he closed the distance between them now.
"You are a man of many layers, captain." He said. "Unexpected and somewhat confusing layers."
"I like to keep people on their toes," Jack replied happily. He let the binoculars settle about his neck. "Keeps things interesting."
"It does that," the Doctor agreed whilst Rose took a drink from the water bottle that she passed around.
She half-listened to Jack question the Doctor about the type of birds there were on Gallifrey, something their friend wasn't an expert on. It was entertaining to hear his normal eloquence be devolved into simple adjectives like big, small, and I don't know, round, I suppose. He was baffled by Jack's fascination with birds and watched him with a curious, soft expression around his eyes. Rose recognised that expression; she'd seen it aimed at her and Zoe often enough when they let slip an interest that he hadn't known about. It always seemed to surprise him that there was more to learn about people. She didn't know why. He spent his life meeting people and befriending them. Then again, maybe he was just confused about the depths humans had.
He was still an alien.
She let her eyes wander over their surroundings, breathing in deep to get her breath back, her muscles twitching in her legs. It really was very beautiful. She wanted to bring Zoe back one day so they could walk the mountain path together. She wondered if she could persuade Jackie to come as well. She had been getting used to travel in the TARDIS over the last few weeks, even if she became sick with nerves every time she stepped out of the door to somewhere that wasn't London: taking her around the amusement park had been an exercise in patience that Rose didn't have enough of. She felt that a trip to Japan would be just enough of a normal trip that Jackie could overlook their means of getting there. The idea unfurled in her mind, and she thought about how she would go about asking the Doctor when something bright flashed and caught her eyes.
"What's that?" She asked, voice cutting across the ornithological conversation. "In the trees: do you see that?"
The Doctor appeared at her shoulder and he stared into the dense mass of trees. Jack lifted his binoculars back to his eyes. She couldn't make out what it was, but it looked out of place. Before meeting the Doctor, she would have ignored it and put it down to a trick of the light, or perhaps a reflection off an abandoned drinks can, but she knew better than to dismiss things that caught her eye. She tried to see it from a different angle but the trees made that difficult.
Jack glanced around them. The path was empty, but it was unlikely to remain so.
"Come on then," he said to them with a gleam of excitement in his eyes. Even if it down out to be a diet Coke can, it was still a mini-adventure for him.
He easily vaulted the railing only to stumble on the uneven ground. The Doctor snorted, his breath making Rose's stray hairs shift as the skin on the back of her neck reacted to him. She bumped him with her bum, amused at Jack's plight, and he helped her over. Learning from Jack's mistakes, she kept a careful eye on the ground and waited for the Doctor before they made their way through the thick foliage. It wasn't as bad as Mondas where they could barely move without the jungle fighting back, but it was still unpleasant to have to fight their way through. Her hair got caught on a thin, outstretched branch. She hissed in pain when it tugged on her scalp, pulling her up short. The Doctor paused to carefully untangle her from whilst Jack powered on ahead having caught sight of the reflecting light. Once free, they hurried to meet up with him in front of the light source.
Rose stared at it in surprise.
"Well, this is different." The Doctor said, nonplussed.
Before them, embedded in a large rock, was a sword.
"Anyone else gettin' King Arthur vibes from this?" Rose asked, eyes fixated on the sword in the stone. Excitement filled her. "Is this Excalibur? Oh, I'd love for this to be Excalibur!"
"One, we're in Japan." The Doctor said, holding up one finger; a second soon joined it. "Two, this isn't an English sword. This is definitely Japanese."
"A Katana by the look of it," Jack agreed. He reached out and touched the hilt with the tips of his fingers, curious. "Did we miss something in the guidebook? This feels like it should be in the tourist materials."
The Doctor reached into his pocket and removed his screwdriver. He scanned the sword and the stone and checked the readings. "Ah."
"That doesn't sound like a good ah." Rose noted. "What is it?"
"This isn't Japanese," he told them with a heavy feeling settling in his stomach. "It's Volsci."
He'd just wanted a quiet trip so that he could replay over and over in his mind the feel of Zoe's mouth against his and taste the faint hope that maybe, one day, she might return his feelings. He wanted to close his eyes and feel the soft brush of her hair against his skin, and hear the creaking of his leather jacket as she gripped it in her fists. Was it too much to ask to let him simply live in the enjoyment that a kiss from the woman he loved gave him? Instead, he got a sword in the stone, which was undeniably exciting and very curious but he wished it hadn't happened straight after leaving Zoe in London.
Jack's eyes went wide with delight at the mention of the Volsci, which wasn't a reaction their name normally got, whilst Rose just looked confused.
"The Volsci?" Jack repeated, excitement filling his tone. "Really?"
Rose looked between them. "Who are the Volsci?"
"They're an all-female warrior race." Jack explained. "They're really famous in my time. When I was a boy, I wanted to join the Volsci. I didn't realise that that they were created by harvesting embryos from a number of different races and always all female. I was so disappointed when I realised I couldn't join them. I cried for a week."
The Doctor's mouth twitched. "How old were you?"
"Seven."
"That's really sweet." Rose said with a smile that softened the corners of her eyes. "So these Volsci are good people then?"
"Oh, no, absolutely not." Jack shook his head, none of his enthusiasm dimming. "They're a warrior race who've been bred for one purpose and one purpose only: to protect the unprotected. Sort of like a galactic bodyguard."
"That sounds like a good thing," Rose said, confused. "Why is that bad?"
"Because they don't know when to stop," the Doctor told her. "Their definition of unprotected has led to some really big problems on planets. On Ocasio Minor, the Volsci intervened to stop the violent oppression of women under the feudal lords system and that was good. The problem came afterwards when those same women passed sweeping laws to punish those that had harmed them."
Rose waited. "Still not followin'."
"One day the unprotected was the women," he explained, "and the next day, the unprotected was the men. The Volsci ostensibly switched sides and 95% of the population was killed in the confusion. They have a very narrow-minded definition of what it means to protect."
"Jesus," Rose looked horrified, "so they're not the good guys?"
"They're not the bad guys either." The Doctor admitted. "They're the confused guys."
"Not a phrase you want on a T-shirt." Jack said. "But I want to know why a Volsci Katana is embedded in a rock in Kyoto. They should be nowhere near Earth, let alone in this century. If I remember correctly, the Volsci have never visited Earth."
"Eh," the Doctor see-sawed his hand, "they've never come to Earth for the usual reasons. I've had a few encounters with them before but nothing I care to repeat. Although you're right, Jack, I want to know why this is here too." He flicked the pommel of the Katana. It didn't move, and he checked the readings from his screwdriver again. "There's a temporal element to these readings. This weapon didn't originate here. It's been pushed through time very recently; within the last few hours, I'd say."
"Ominous." Rose said, eyeing the sword curiously. "When did it come from then?"
"The fourteenth century." He said. "1336, to be exact. The Battle of Minatogawa."
"That means nothin' to me."
"It was a pretty significant battle in fourteenth century Japanese politics." He said with a wave of his hand, indicating that it wasn't important for her to know that. "Took place on the island, actually, so not a coincidence."
He frowned and worked through the possibilities in his mind whilst tapping his screwdriver against his thigh. Jack watched him, knowing where his thoughts would lead him.
"I'm sensing a little trip back in time is needed." Jack said. "Pop back to the Battle of the Minotaur –"
"Minatogawa."
"And have a look around for the Volsci." He finished, blithely ignoring the Doctor's correction. "Because I'm going to go out on a pretty sturdy limb here and say that this sword in the stone is for our benefit, not anyone else's."
The Doctor pocketed the screwdriver and gripped the hilt of the sword. It was warm in his palm, and he could feel the thrum of energy within it. It was no ordinary Katana; there was Volsci technology running through it.
"You're right about that," he said and he drew the Katana smoothly from the stone that was, simply, a stone.
Rose looked at him, a smile battling the press of her lips. "You the King of Japan now, or somethin'?"
He snorted, eyes twinkling.
Kyoto, Japan, 1336
The Doctor landed the TARDIS on the distant outskirts of what would soon be the site of the Battle of Minatogawa. Night was spread across the lush green land of Kyoto in the 14th century, and only flickers of burnt-orange from the fires that the loyalist forces and their rebel enemies had lit wove through the darkness; shadows danced in the light and loomed above them ominously. Cloud cover meant that there was no moonlight by which to see, and Jack reached into his pocket and removed his ever-useful torch. The light from it illuminated the path ahead of them; grass grew tall around them, reaching the Doctor's chest and nearly swallowing Rose whole. They walked close together so that they didn't lose sight of each other, and they made their way carefully through the dewy fields. They were following the quietly beeping signal that pulsed from the sonic screwdriver: Volsci technology was advanced enough that it could mask the exact location of its ship from the TARDIS sensors but not so advanced that they couldn't get a general location.
The Doctor kept his eyes open and on their surroundings. His previous encounter with the Volsci turned over in his mind. It was centuries ago now, and he and Peri were on Sendos, a supposedly mythical planet. Their presence there was accidental, as most of his visits to such places were; they had meant to go to Space Florida as he had promised Peri a nice, relaxing day to make up for their encounter with the Master and the Rani. Instead, they found themselves caught up in a terrifying hunt for galaxy-destroying super weapons when they had crossed paths with the Volsci.
He remembered the Inquisa pulling Peri away from him, the stretch of her telepathy already working to silence Peri's loud and vociferous protests. He remembered how suddenly her body had stilled; her face went, and her eyes rolled back into her head whilst the Inquisa explored her mind without care for human fragility. They had been able to get themselves out of that situation through ingenuity and their usual good fortune, but it wasn't something he cared to repeat; Peri had a headache that last for six days, and nothing he did could help with the pain.
The thought of meeting an Inquisa again made his head throb with sympathetic remembrance.
Uncertainty trickled through him at bringing Jack and Rose with their delicate human minds, which were incapable of protecting themselves from a telepathic onslaught from the likes of an Inquisa, into possible contact with the Volsci. His mind ticked over rapidly. A sense of dread filled him. The more he thought about it, the more he realised that sneaking up on the Volsci was a bad idea.
"Wait," the Doctor said, his voice slipping through the blades of grass and making his friends pause in their steps. Jack shone the light back towards him.
"What is it?" He asked, alert.
"I've made a mistake," he confessed. "You two shouldn't be here. The Volsci have officers called the Inquisa. They're dangerous telepaths. Your minds will turn to ash if there's one on the ship."
Rose looked concerned. "What about you?"
"Time Lord," he said as though that explained everything. "Jack, take Rose back to the TARDIS –"
Predictably, they both started protesting. Their voices climbed on top of each other but neither gave way, almost as though they hoped he would grow tired of the confused noise and give in, but that had never happened in the past.
"Keep your voices down," he hissed at them.
Their lowered their voices to whispers but kept talking over each other.
He rolled his eyes and held up a hand. They finally stopped talking. "The last time I met the Volsci, a friend of mine was left with a headache for six days because of what the Inquisa did to her."
"My mind's protected against telepaths," Jack told him, which was new and interesting information. "And you think we're just going to let you walk into this by yourself?"
"I don't need a babysitter," he pointed out, "and no matter what protection you have, the Inquisa will rip through it like tissue."
"You do need a babysitter," Rose said, "and we're still not leavin' you."
He scowled. "Rose –"
"It's not a surprise this might be dangerous, Doctor." She said. "But we're comin' with you anyway."
"You two are incredibly frustrating." He told them, making them both grin. He knew he was fighting a losing battle; the Volsci wouldn't kill them, and if they were willing to risk an extremely nasty headache then that was on them. "I thought I wouldn't have to put up with this now that Zoe's not here."
"That was silly of you," Rose laughed, eyes bright with amusement.
"Yeah," Jack agreed, "it's like you don't even know us."
"If only," he said without any sincerity in his voice before Rose's eyes went wide and she disappeared into the long grass.
He didn't have time to call out to her or reach for Jack.
A spear thrust up under his chin, the point digging into the soft flesh there, and he grunted in surprise and pain. Jack dropped his torch and the light span. Through the flickering beam, he saw Jack take a fist to the jaw before he was incapacitated by the dark figures that emerged out of the grass: a Volsci perimeter guard had them surrounded. Rose was dragged back out of the grass, dishevelled but otherwise unharmed. One of the warriors stepped forward and removed the helm from her head. She was dressed in the dark grey and black body armour that followed the contours of the muscles beneath. The power conduits that veined the suit at the neck and wrists was the only patch of light and colour on the suit. Her skin was so dark that she was almost indistinguishable from the night around them, and only the whites of her eyes were visible.
"Ah –" the Doctor said, his eyes flicking around before settling on the woman once more. He couldn't risk moving for fear of the spear slicing through his jugular. "Hello there."
Her head tipped to one side and her eyes narrowed as she examined him closely. "You are not supposed to be here."
"Japan? I don't see why not." He replied blithely. There was a silence emanating from Rose and Jack that was deeply unnerving. He tried to look at them but they were just out of his eye line. "We're just here on holiday. Little bit of sight seeing, you know?"
Her eyes appeared amused but the look didn't sit well with him. He felt like he was being toyed with. "I was not aware that the Doctor enjoyed sight seeing."
His stomach sank. "You've heard of me then?"
"You are a plague to the Volsci," she informed him. "We have not forgotten your interference in our past affairs."
Story of my life the Doctor thought to himself as he was jerked against the point of the blade that cut into his flesh. He didn't fear his imminent death. He found that most who captured him liked to pontificate when they had him in their grasp. The amount of people who could have avoided their fate simply by killing him straight away instead of yammering on was obscenely large. He stumbled when he was forcibly moved, but the iron grasp of the Volsci warrior kept him upright and his jaw mercifully free of a blade. He moved into the low light that pooled on the ground where the torch fell. He could finally see Rose and Jack. Rose was unharmed whilst Jack was sitting on the ground nursing a bruised jaw. Neither of them made a sound as he was pushed into their view and he soon saw why. Around their necks was a thin silver collar with a pale blue emblem pressed over their voice boxes. It was crude technology to keep prisoners quiet and docile; anger seared its way through him at seeing it attached to his friends.
"Remove those from them," he ordered, a thin trickle of blood making its way down his throat. "They don't need them."
"I will be the judge of what they need, Time Lord." The woman said. "You think we have not been warned of you and your companions? Why should I allow you the opportunity to communicate with them?"
"Forgive me," he said mockingly, "I hadn't realised you were a Centuria."
Her face flickered with displeasure. He grunted when she slapped a collar onto his neck, stealing his voice. She smirked at him, pleased with herself, and he scowled back at her. It wasn't the first time he'd been forced to wear a voice compressor; he knew better than the try and speak as the pressure the vibrations applied to a voice box were extremely unpleasant. Instead, he communicated his annoyance with his eyes. He received a jab in the back for his troubles and was forced forward. Jack was lifted from the ground, his feet scuffing against the grassy knoll, before he stumbled after him. Rose avoided the violence by pre-empting the shove with a little skip out of the way. Her hand reached for his and her fingers caught hold of the sleeve of his jacket, hauling herself closer until they could walk side-by-side, hands clasped together. He glanced at her, pleased to see that she didn't look overly worried. She threw him a small smile of reassurance that helped soothe his own concerns.
The Volsci warriors took them around the edge of the battle preparations; the noise from the two disparate camps drifted along the breeze towards them as they made their way through the darkened valley.
It was a long, hard walk, made more difficult by the pressure around their throats and the inability to speak to one another.
These difficulties gave the Doctor the opportunity to think though. The Volsci must have picked up the arrival of the TARDIS, and the Centuria, for there was a Centuria on every ship, would have sent the warrior caste out to investigate, something he definitely should have thought of in advance. Volsci technology was on the cusp of beginning to match Gallifreyan technology; he knew that, given enough time, the Volsci would be equal with certain aspects of his people's development. It would be less worrying if his people were still around so that they could bear the burden of confronting the Volsci; he thought Romana would be particularly adept at dealing with them.
The memory of his old friend caused an ache to throb within him and he brushed it away, refusing to allow the echoing chamber of grief to distract him as successfully as his thoughts on Zoe's kiss had. His mind had been so consumed with thoughts of Zoe since he left her in London that he had let his common sense wander far afield. One decent kiss and he felt like a teenager all over again: all those hormones twisting and turning and crashing within him, distracting him from the danger in front of him.
For the first time since they'd spoken about her decision to return home, he was grateful Zoe wasn't there. It was clear that he was far too easily distracted by her and perhaps she was right, maybe some time apart would be beneficial for both of them. He clearly needed to learn how to control his thoughts and feelings with regards to her as he had just led his friends into a potentially dangerous situation that could easily have been avoided.
Idiot he chastised himself furiously.
The ship appeared before them, melting out of the darkness, as they passed under the refractors that allowed it to appear as though it was invisible. It was a huge, hulking box of a ship with sharp edges and an ugly aesthetic: the Volsci weren't known for the beauty of what they made. Jack peered up at it with open curiosity, his childhood fascination with the Volsci undimmed despite their situation, but Rose just pressed herself closer to the Doctor. The ship gave off an ominous, threatening air that frightened her.
A split in the bulkhead lit up with glowing light that formed a frame before a ramp extended outwards, digging into the earth as a door lifted seamlessly into the bulkhead above. Light spilled out from within and they were forced to walk up the ramp in single file. Rose let go of his hand as as was shoved between the shoulder blades to move in front of him. The Doctor's eyes adjusted to the change in light quickly, but Rose blinked as her human eyes took longer to adjust, white spots dancing in front of her vision as everything blurred and blinded. He looked around at the inside the ship, recognising that nothing much had changed since he was last onboard one with Peri; the corridors were dark grey and painfully utilitarian. He felt that splashes of colour would help to brighten the place up quite well and make it less dreary.
The Volsci warriors pushed him forward again. He grew irritated with the manhandling but there was nothing he could say to protest the treatment. Instead, he glared at the nearest warrior, pleased to see her steps hesitate lightly at the sharpness of his eyes.
They were led deeper into the ship and the feeling that had been growing inside of him since he stepped onboard grew stronger and more certain.
There was something wrong with the ship.
Almost every ship ever constructed and then used hummed. Sometimes it was loudly, sometimes it was so quiet as to almost be imperceptible to those without the most acute hearing, but ships hummed. Even when on the ground and with the engines off, there was a low, humming vibration from the technology that kept the life support systems running, the computers operational, and the refractors active. The TARDIS hummed, something that Jackie had noticed but put down to simply being alien when, in fact, it was because she was a ship, and ships hummed. There was no such hum aboard the Volsci ship, and no fine tremor beneath the soles of his boots. It was unnerving to feel a ship so still, especially when it was clear that the computer was working as operational panels were lit up on the side.
Jack met his eyes and raised his eyebrows questioningly, noticing the same tell-tale absence.
As they were led through the outer corridors of the ship and deep into the belly of it, the Doctor observed everything they passed. There were a large number of Volsci who were working on open conduits that sparked when interfered with, and more still with their heads bent over something he couldn't see, talking in brisk, worried tones. The deeper they went into the ship, the more serious the damage was. The Doctor stopped walking when he caught sight of the inside of a bulkhead where the wires ran through the inside. It looked as though something had infected the wires with a physical virus. A foul smell spread from the open panels and made Rose's eyes water. Jack pressed his hand across his nose and mouth whilst the Doctor shrugged away from the Volsci and approached the panel.
"Stop." The lead warrior commanded.
He looked over his shoulder at her and arched an eyebrow. He pointed at the panel and waited.
She looked torn before she nodded. "Do not touch anything."
He didn't intend to. Despite what his friends thought, he wasn't the sort to simply plunge is fingers into things that looked so disturbing. He approached the damage systems and leaned in close. The smell was pungent; it smelt like a corpse that had been left out in the sun for days. It coated the back of his throat and made bile rise up within him. He swallowed it back to focus. The wires were decomposing. He reached back for Rose and removed a bobby pin from her hair. He used it to touch the gangrenous wires and the metal passed right through it.
Curious.
He looked back to the Volsci and gestured, questioningly at it.
"We do not know," the warrior replied, reluctant to admit their ignorance. He wanted to ask more questions but she wasn't inclined to hear them. "Enough. The Centuria is waiting."
The Doctor held the bobby pin out to Rose whose expression, upon seeing bits of gelatinous wire still attached, was disgusted. He tossed it away from him and wiped his fingers against his jacket.
Inside a gloomy engineering room, a Centuria was bent over a console with stray hairs licking the back of her neck. The Volsci had a very strict caste system, and the Centuria were at the top of it. They were distinguishable from their lesser sisters of the warrior caste by the stripe of yellow that ran up the side of their dull uniform. Whilst he cared little for Centurias, he cared even less for the Inquisas; his eyes cut around the room looking for the dangerous telepaths and was relieved to find that there wasn't one in the room. He suspected that if there was one on board, they'd have been taken to her instead of the Centuria.
The Centurias might be in charge, but the Inquisas inspired fear amongst their sisters.
The Centuria looked up from the console at their approach, and the Doctor was momentarily reminded of Zoe. Their skin was the same warm dusky hue, and there was a guardedness to the woman's eyes that reminded him of Zoe when she was hurting and didn't want people to know. She nodded to the women around them. They filtered away from the centre of the room, melting back into the shadows of a room that was lit only by emergency lamps. It seemed the problem was located deep in the bowels of the ship and was spreading outwards. He suspected that the refractor panels would soon stop working and that was a problem considering that there were two armies of skilled Japanese warriors on their doorstep.
"So you're the Doctor," the Centuria said, her eyes moving over him and finding him wanting. "Not what I expected."
The Doctor pointed at his throat. Her eyes lingered on the vocal compressor before she flicked her fingers, and a woman stepped forward to have it removed. He instantly relaxed once the pressure was lifted. Next to him, Jack and Rose both sagged at being freed, fingers rubbing at their throats to chase away the lingering unpleasantness.
"I wasn't aware I was expected," he said finally, pleased to have his voice back. "Who might you be?"
"I'm the Centuria."
"Yes, I got that." He rolled his eyes. "I meant your name. You have one, don't you?"
"Centuria is all you need to know," she replied simply. "We detected the arrival of your TARDIS."
"Yeah," he said, "how exactly did you do that?"
"You're very loud," she said. Jack pressed his lips together, reluctantly amused; he'd often commented on the noise of the TARDIS when landing and had received a short, sharp comment in return. Her eyes moved over his friends. "I see the stories are true: you travel with an entourage."
"Friends," Rose corrected, her words politely helpful but limned with the same fire that Henry Van Statten had drawn from her in Utah. "I'm Rose, by the way, Rose Tyler, and this is Jack."
"Hello," Jack waggled his fingers. "I'm a huge fan of you all." He paused and rethought that statement. "Well, not the murder and the warmongering, but the army of advanced warrior women? Love it. Super fan."
The Centuria's eyes lingered on Jack, quietly assessing him, before dismissing him from her thoughts entirely. She looked back to the Doctor who wondered whether she ever smiled: her face was so smooth and unlined that it was difficult to imagine her making any form of expression ever. The problem with the Centuria caste, along with their propensity for leaving death in their wake, was that it was impossible to determine their thoughts and feelings as they had excellent self-control. The Inquisa were dangerous for the simple fact that their trade was emotion, and it made them unreliable in the long-term. There was a high turnover of Inquisa women where the majority of them rarely left their teenage years alive or intact such was the damage of how they used their telepathy.
"What is your business here?" The Centuria asked him.
"Tourism," he lied easily. "My friends and I want to climb Mt. Hiei."
Her face didn't move, or betray any emotion, but he suspected she was unimpressed with his answer.
"You have time travel technology," she informed him after a long moment of silence that stretched out between them. "Why this time?"
"We don't like tourists," he shrugged. He jerked a thumb at Rose. "She gets very angry when people are in her way."
Rose nodded and picked up the lie without hesitating. "Honestly, can't stand it. People move too slow, y'know? Specially up a mountain."
"Good thing we did come here though," the Doctor said. He broke away from the warriors guarding them and moved to explore the engine room. Weapons lifted to raise at him but the Centuria held up her hand and let him move unmolested. "You seem to be having quite some trouble with your ship. I've never seen anything like it before, and I've seen a lot. It's sick."
"Do you tend to anthropomorphise objects, Doctor?"
"Only when the analogy fits," he said. He reached out and placed his hand against a bulkhead and felt the heat from within. He frowned. "It's like it has a fever. What's wrong with it?"
The Centuria held his gaze for a moment before she answered. "We're not sure."
"When did the problems start?"
Another beat of silence. "As we entered the solar system."
The Doctor smoothed his hand down the length of the bulkhead before he removed his palm from it. His skin tingled with heat and he rubbed his fingers over it.
"I don't suppose you or yours sent something into the future, did you?" He asked curiously, though he doubted it now that he saw the state they were in.
"We do not have time travel technology," she reminded him. "And why would we do that? It would serve no purpose."
"Yeah, no, you're right." He said, tucking away the sword in the stone to deal with late though he was beginning to suspect he had done something stupid and sent it back as a message to himself; it sounded like something he would do. "So, since we're here, you want any help?"
"Help?" She repeated, making the word sound like it was covered in filth and unworthy of passing her lips.
"It looks like you need it," he told her. "And your refractors aren't going to last forever against whatever's poisoning your systems. You have seen the two armies outside, right? The Japanese are skilled warriors, even for the Volsci."
There was a small, unexpected twitch of flesh and nerves on her temple.
"I see," the Doctor said with sudden realisation. "You've already fought the Japanese. How did that go for you?"
She stared at him blankly. "We underestimated their abilities. This planet was not supposed to hold such...challenging lifeforms."
He clicked his tongue against the inside of his cheeks. "That's humans for you. I find they tend to take you by surprise."
"Centuria, your pardon." The warrior woman with the ink black skin bowed her head. "Allowing the Time Lord to learn the intricacies of our systems is a bad idea. He will use that knowledge against us."
The Centuria's eyes turned so cold so quickly that even the Doctor was taken aback. "You presume to command me, soldier?"
"No – I – forgive me, Centuria." The woman backtracked, not as adept at concealing her emotions as her commander. "I only thought to –"
"Advise?" The word was a silky whisper that promised anger. "You are not fit to advise a Centuria. It would do you well to remember that."
"Yes, Centuria, forgive me." She said again, pushing herself back into the shadows.
The Doctor watched her go before he looked back to the Centuria. "So, I take it this means you're amenable to our help?"
"Staying here is not an option," she admitted. "The natives have breached this ship once due to the element of surprise. I will not allow such a thing to happen again, particularly as our time is limited."
"Got somewhere to be?"
"Yes," she said, elaborating no further.
"Well then," he said and he looked over to Jack and Rose, both of whom had been following the conversation silently. "Let's see the root of the problem then, shall we? I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty good at engineering problems."
He smiled widely at the Centuria who, without a single muscle flickering, gave off the impression that she would rather swallow broken glass than allow him to help. Regardless, she stepped to one side and gestured at the engine room. Jack bounded forward, delighted to get his hands stuck into unfamiliar technology, and the Doctor looked to the Centuria.
"I don't suppose we could have a cup of tea, could we?" He asked. "I'm a bit parched."
The Time Vortex
"Well, that was just a wonderful idea." Jack said, sarcasm falling from him as sat on the jump seat in the console room to have his singed palm tended to. "Really, wonderful. One of our best yet, I think."
Rose sat next to him. She was trying to de-frizz her hair but with little success. The laser fire had caused the air in the ship to burn and suck out all the oxygen, therefore making her hair puff up like a dandelion. At least she wasn't injured like Jack though. His palm ached where the flesh had been burnt away by the unlucky chance of having his gun shot from his hand. The polymer had heated in his palm and, when it was blasted from his grip, tore the flesh from him. He winced as the Doctor sterilised the open wound, his heart rate only just returning to normal from their sprint back to the TARDIS.
"You're the one who was all starry eyed over them." The Doctor replied, his hands, if not his words, gentle as he tended to the wound. It was unpleasant but not untreatable. "If you'd been paying better attention instead of trying to flirt with all and sundry –"
"They're a tribe of warrior women!" He argued, exasperated. "What's not to love about them?"
"The warmongering, the death," the Doctor listed off, "the inability to accept help without then trying to kill said help in a sudden but not so unexpected turn of circumstance?"
Jack opened his mouth to say something sharp when Rose sighed heavily, annoyed with both of them.
"Will the two of you shut the fuck up for five seconds, please?" She demanded, the fingers of one hand stuck around a knot in her hair. "Neither of you were payin' enough attention. I tried to tell you idiots three times that somethin' was wrong, an' you both ignored me." They looked away from her, chastised. "Put the two of you in front of an engineerin' problem, and it's like nothin' else exists: boys with their toys is what the two of you are."
She managed to work her fingers free. She huffed, cheeks pink, and gave them both a stern look.
The Doctor cleared his throat, attention ostensibly on Jack's palm. "Mistakes were made all round."
"You've been distracted all day." Jack told him, gritting his teeth against the pain that washed over his palm as the sterilisation kicked it. It felt like a thousand tiny mouths nibbling at his exposed flesh. He pressed the balls of one foot against the ground, trying to focus himself there instead of on his palm. "What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing!" He said defensively. He had hold of Jack's wrist and he could feel the rapid pounding of his pulse as the pain worked through him. "And I haven't been distracted."
"You normally let women hit you over the head with a metal conducting rod, do you?"
The Doctor flushed.
"Sometimes," he said mulishly.
"He's missin' Zoe," Rose said. She had found a comb in one of Jack's pockets and was working it through the ends of her hair with her face scrunched up. "Though I don't think she'd have paid any more attention than you two plums." She fixed the Doctor with a sharp stare. "Don't think I haven't noticed she likes to tinker with things now."
"Nothing wrong with tinkering," the Doctor replied, not looking at her. "You could do with a good tinker."
"That sounds dirty," Jack said and the Doctor's colour deepened.
"Must everything be sexual with you?"
"No," he said, "but it makes it more fun."
The Doctor let a frustrated noise slip out, and Jack grinned at him.
He knew that his friend was frustrated because of how badly everything had gone on the Volsci ship, but he wished he would turn his frustration towards something useful instead of needling him. He hadn't expected the Volsci to turn on them so quickly, though he had expected the betrayal: the Volsci weren't as ruthless as the Daleks, but they didn't enjoy communing with outsiders just the same. Clearly though, wherever they were en-route to before their systems took a hit was important. The moment that everything came back online after he, Jack, and the Volsci worked together on replacing the wires and cleaning out the insides of the conduits, the Centuria had ordered them executed. The Doctor barely had enough time to twist and kick Jack away from him with enough force that his body crashed into Rose, forcing them both out of the way of the deluge of laser fire that swarmed towards them.
It was a shame they'd attacked before the Doctor could get a sample of the diseased system for his own research purposes. What had happened was the result of a unique reaction under deceptively normal circumstances that he wanted to see if it could be replicated simply for his own curiosity.
They discovered that, when the Volsci ship had passed into the solar system, there were fragments of what he believed was dust from an asteroid that had passed through the system not so long ago coating on the inside of the ship. It had swept across the hull and reacted violently with the material used in construction, seeping into the bodywork as though it were porous before connecting with the delicate internal systems. The charge of energy that ran through the systems created yet another unexpected reaction, which had led to the ship rotting from the inside. The Volsci were unprepared for the pathogens that came with detritus in Earth's solar system, as anyone would have been given its strange nature, and they were not able to defend against it. It forced an emergency landing on what they thought was a primitive planet that lacked intelligent life; the Japanese warriors proved them wrong on that point.
"I still don't understand the sword in the stone," Rose admitted. She was making headway into de-tangling her hair, but her efforts were just making it worse. "Why would we send ourselves a message like that?"
"Because we'd already done it," the Doctor answered. "You remember when we met future Zoe in London the night we met Jack?"
"Hard to forget," she said dryly, "on both counts."
Jack winked at her.
"She said that she needed to close the circle," he explained. "She knew she had to be there in that moment because of meeting herself when she was younger. Because it had already happened for her, she had to make sure it happened when the time was right in create the sequence of events that led to her remembering meeting her future self, i.e., avoiding a paradox."
Her face twisted into a pained scowl. "I hate paradoxes."
"So we shoved a sword in a stone to lead ourselves here?" Jack clarified. "Why a sword in a stone though? That's just unhelpfully vague."
"Because we'd already done it," he shrugged. "Although I do wish we'd chosen an easier way to send a message. It's not as easy as people think to put a sword into a stone."
"Do people normally think about that?" Rose asked.
"Not as often as they should," the Doctor told her, reaching out to tweak her nose.
She pulled away with a laugh. She looked to Jack who was flexing his hand, wincing slightly as his freshly healed skin was bright pink and shiny. "Sorry about your sonic blaster. I know you liked it."
"I did," he agreed. "It's the only weapon the Doctor let me carry."
"Only because it doesn't kill people," the Doctor rolled his eyes. "And I only let you keep it because Zoe said it might be useful to have more than one sonic device available at any given time, and also because I forgot you had it. Anyway, what did you actually need it for? You've never used it before today."
"You have seen the types of situations we get ourselves into, right?" Jack asked pointedly. "Don't suppose we could stop at Villengard so I could get another one, could we?"
"I thought Villengard was a banana grove now," Rose said, confused.
"Time travel." The Doctor and Jack said in unison.
"And no, we're not stopping at Villengard." The Doctor told him, finally releasing his wrist. "I've had enough of weapons to last me a lifetime. You don't need one, so you don't get one."
"A sonic blaster doesn't harm anyone," Jack argued. "And it proved pretty useful today."
"We would have found another way out," he replied. He straightened up. "You know I don't like guns."
Rose looked between them, nervousness started to coil in her guts as she wondered if they were about to argue. Jack held his gaze for a moment before he leaned back, casual and at ease.
"It's your ship," he shrugged. "Besides, I have a complex laser deluxe around here some place."
The Doctor paused. "Where?"
"You don't want to know," Jack said, considering it a victory when the Doctor's mouth twitched and his eyes flashed with amusement. His eyes snagged on Rose and bemusement spread across his face. "What are you doing?"
Rose looked up from sniffing her bright pink top. "I stink."
Jack leaned in close and sniffed her. "You smell normal."
"If this is normal, then I need to shower more." She scowled. "I can smell the ship juice on me."
"It's stuck in your nasal cavities," the Doctor said with the air of someone who has long-suffered foolish friends. He tossed her a fresh orange from his pocket. "Here, have a sniff at that."
She caught it and looked confused. "Why d'you have an orange? A banana, I get, but an orange?"
"Good source of vitamin C," he replied.
She started to laugh, though he didn't know why what he said was funny, but, as always with Rose, her laughter soon infected both him and Jack. The warm wash of laughter curled around them and released the tension from their escape from the Volsci and the near-argument between him and Jack. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the console, enjoying the moment with his two dearest friends, when Jack's eyes fixed on a point over his shoulder, happiness trailing from his face.
"What in the hell –?" Jack began and the Doctor turned, surprise whipping through him at the bright white light that began to fill the TARDIS.
"What is that?" Rose asked, standing, one hand on each of them.
"I have no idea," the Doctor said, wrong-footed.
There was a brief a moment of panic and confusion before unconsciousness swept over him, and he was stolen from his own ship.
