Chapter 19
When the smoke cleared, Clara still found herself coughing the remnants out of her lungs while her eyes searched the room for the Q'Uartar. The alien copy of her wasn't hurt, but she, too, had been knocked to the ground by the force of the explosion and both of them struggled back to their feet at the same time, coughing and looking around for the source of the disaster. Her eyes fell on the door and she noticed the two shapes slowly coming into view before Clara recognised at least one of them and even though her heart skipped a beat upon seeing him, her happiness only lasted until she spotted the second person. Geoffrey had come to her aid as well and he was pointing a pistol at them.
"Don't shoot!" Clara blurted out immediately and stepped forward, raising her hands in a placating gesture. "They're friendly!"
Between the shock of having a pistol pointed at her and stepping in to stop them, Clara had forgotten the obvious and it was now slowly dawning on her as she looked into the Doctor's confused features. His gaze wandered from her to the alien and back and he clearly didn't know what to make of it.
"It's me," Clara said gently. "I'm the real Clara. The Q'Uartar are shapeshifters and frankly, they're really good at it. They're not evil. They just crash-landed here, like you said, and I think they need our help."
"Where is my son?!" Geoffrey demanded to know as soon as Clara had finished her sentence. He took a step in her direction, but he didn't lower his weapon.
The Doctor still eyed her cautiously, obviously unsure whether he should really believe her or not, but after a moment's hesitation, he reached out and lowered Geoffrey's weapon for him. "Hold it with the shooting for now, will you?" he said and then turned his attention towards her, frowning. "If you're the real Clara, tell me what we had for lunch in Glasgow on Christmas Day."
Clara's eyebrows shot up. "I had chips, you went to get coffee and came back three weeks later," she said, growling a little because, if she was entirely honest, she was still a little mad at him for that incident. Explaining to her family how she had disappeared from London and showed up in Glasgow in a matter of hours hadn't been a walk in the park.
The Doctor's face, however, lit up once he heard her answer and he raised his hand to point a finger at her. "That's her, that's the real Clara," he concluded, but the joy vanished from his eyes in an instant as they trailed towards the Q'Uartar, the other Clara. Frowning, he observed her for a moment. "I'm sure you have quite the interesting story to tell."
"She was in the process of telling me when you blew up part of her ship," Clara remarked angrily.
"Well, I'm sorry," the Doctor replied as he rolled his eyes. "We thought you might be in danger. Please, start from the beginning, uh-"
"The Q'Uartar, that's what they call us," the alien explained. "And I told your companion that we didn't come here by choice. While we fled from our dying planet in search of a new paradise, our ship malfunctioned and we crashed here. But this is a colony ship with room for so many more than were left of us. We thought it would be a waste not to offer the space to fellow colonists. Which is what you are."
The false Clara nodded in Geoffrey's direction and smiled a kind smile, but the grieving father still didn't seem to understand what was happening as the alien told him his son was alive and well and that he could probably have him back if he only asked.
"What about Sally?" the Doctor demanded to know. "Why did she hide from you? Why did she run away?"
"The one you call Sally is a youngling and very adventurous. She ran off like children do, out of curiosity, and she got lost, unable to find her way back, but she's now in her stasis pod. Would you like me to wake her so you can question her as well?"
"I would like you to tell me where my son is," Geoffrey growled. His hand was still clutching the pistol as if he had every intention of using it and Clara was beginning to worry. If the alien didn't release his son, there was no telling what he would do.
"Show him his son," Clara told her. "Let him see that he's okay."
The alien with Clara's face regarded her for a while and then nodded, adding a waving gesture with her hands that told them to follow her.
They walked down the long spaceship corridor, past the small chamber that Clara had successfully broken out of, past many more empty stasis pods and as they did, Clara glanced towards the Doctor. A strange expression had appeared on his face, one that told her he was in deep thought and considering the possibilities. He was having an idea, she was sure of that, but Clara didn't quite know what that idea was. Sooner or later, he was bound to share it with them.
As they moved on, Clara noticed that a few of the pods were occupied and she recognised the children as belonging to the Croatoans. They would be glad to hear that their sons and daughters were alright.
Eventually, the Q'Uartar came to a halt and pointed towards another stasis pod in which a boy looked like he was sleeping peacefully. Having been inside one of them for a brief period of time, Clara knew that it was anything but an unpleasant feeling. The boy was going to be alright.
"Michael!"
At last, Geoffrey dropped his weapon and darted forward, pressing his hands against the glass that separated him from his son, but no matter what he did on the outside, the sleeping boy didn't react.
"What have you done to him?! Why isn't he waking up?!"
Still, the Q'Uartar smiled like a benevolent mother. "He is in deep sleep, ready to go to a new world where he will have a better life. It is the most comfortable and safest way for anyone but the pilot to travel. Inside this chamber, he won't go hungry or get sick or even age. At the end of the journey, the boy will step outside and feel like no time at all has passed."
Even though it seemed hard for Geoffrey to tear his gaze away from his son, he spun around and looked at the alien in front of him. "Can you release him?"
The Q'Uartar seemed confused. "Why would I do that? I just told you it is the safest way for him to travel."
"He isn't travelling anywhere!" Geoffrey hissed. "I want my boy back!"
Clara glanced towards the Doctor, hoping that he would step in and stop this fight from escalating, but the Time Lord simply watched as if he was expecting something. The longer she looked, the more Clara thought she could see the amusement in his eyes and she didn't understand it. Not yet.
"The stasis pod next to your son is still empty," the alien replied softly. "You're welcome to it."
Now it was up to Geoffrey to look confused. He didn't get it, but Clara did. Finally, she was beginning to understand what was going on, what the Doctor had been thinking this whole time. At last, everything was starting to make sense to her and a smile spread across her face.
"This new world you're going to, is it nice there?" the Doctor asked.
"It is a paradise," the Q'Uartar replied immediately. "Most of our people have already settled there. Before they did, the place was untouched. Clean air, clean water, more than enough resources to accommodate a much larger population than we would bring with us for countless generations."
"And you don't mind sharing it with the humans?" he went on. "I mean, you're bringing some of them along. You should know they don't always treat their home planets all too well. You would need to teach them sustainability."
"The Q'Uartar believe that there is great value in sharing," the alien replied. "Leaving these pods empty means depriving these humans of their chance for a better life."
"And how many more empty pods do you have?" Clara wanted to know, happy to have finally gotten the drift. "Would it be enough for the whole colony?"
The Q'Uartar nodded. "Yes, I believe so."
Geoffrey flinched when the Doctor clapped his hands together in excitement. "Then the mystery is solved," he said.
Clara grinned at him in response. "The Lost Colony was never lost," she said. "They just resettled."
"I'm sorry, but can someone explain to me what is going on?" Geoffrey asked, the confusion all too visible on his face.
The Doctor smiled when he stepped closer and placed his hand on the blacksmith's shoulder. "Your people will go with the Q'Uartar, all of you. Think about it!" he said and gestured around. "The spot you've chosen is barren, you've lost so much of your food supplies during the last storm and history tells me that by the time the next ship arrives, your colony will be abandoned. This is it! This is your chance!"
"To what? To go to an alien planet?!" Geoffrey asked in disbelief.
"Exactly!"
Clara stepped in when she noticed that the Doctor was having a hard time selling the concept to Geoffrey who, up until a few days ago, hadn't even known that aliens existed. "You will have a better life there," she told him. "You, your son, your friends. The Q'Uartar are kind and they're more advanced than humanity will… well, ever be. And they're offering you to share their new paradise with them. But I'm afraid the rest of the colony will need convincing as well."
"And we should probably wake up the Croatoans and ask their parents whether they're on board with this," the Doctor argued and turned his attention towards the false Clara. "As noble as your intentions are, you should ask people before you kidnap them in your spaceship."
Clara chuckled at that.
"What?" the Doctor asked.
"Because you've always asked permission before kidnapping someone," she remarked.
"Anyway," he went on, completely ignoring her snide remark, "do we all agree?"
Clara nodded, as did the Q'Uartar wearing Clara's face. Geoffrey seemed uncertain, but his gaze trailed towards his sleeping son in the pod and then, he nodded, too. It was the best decision for everyone and Clara was glad that it was solved without anyone dying.
"Alright," the Doctor concluded, grinning broadly. "I will stay here and help fix the ship. You two should go back to the colony and let everyone know that they're resettling. Oh, this is exciting, isn't it?"
