Twenty-Three
Rose woke up to the sound of the Doctor's double heart beat and her head on his bare chest, with a glance up at his face, Rose saw that the Doctor was still asleep. She smiled and shifted so that she could rest her arms under her chin and watch him sleep. It had always been a rare moment when she had stumbled upon the Doctor's sleeping form, but she had always enjoyed watching him sleep when she did. The pain and darkness that his body always seemed to carry disappeared when he was asleep.
Rose smiled wider when she felt the Doctor give a deep sigh before his beautiful steel-blue eyes slowly opened and instantly found her eyes. "Morning." He said, his voice deep with sleep.
"Time is irrelevant in the TARDIS. There is no day or night." Rose quoted him with a loving smile and received a laugh before she was pulled into a kiss. The Doctor rolled her onto her back.
"Last night was amazing, thank you." The Doctor whispered against her lips.
"Shouldn't I be the one to thank you?" Rose asked with a small laugh and the Doctor shook his head.
"Nope. one should always thank a Goddess for any attention they receive from her." The Doctor told her.
"I'm no Goddess." Rose told him with a whisper. She wasn't the Goddess, Bad Wolf was.
"You are my Goddess." The Doctor told her with such conviction that is brought a tear to her eyes.
"Doctor." She whispered and went to pull him down to for a kiss when the Doctor dropped his head to rest on her shoulder with an annoyed sigh.
"It seems that our guest has been trying to get his bedroom door open and has annoyed the TARDIS enough to the point that she is demanding that I do something with him." The Doctor informed her. Neither of the moved for a long minute. "Alright! I'm going!" The Doctor growled before he rolled off of Rose. He began to look for his clothes that. "Where are my clothes?" The Doctor asked looking up at the ceiling, alerting Rose that he was asking the TARDIS. "Well, how am I supposed to deal with him if I don't have my clothes?" There was a pause before the Doctor walked into the closet. Rose sat up on her arms and waited, a couple of minutes later the Doctor strolled out of the closet fully dressed. "Well, isn't that a gorgeous sight." The Doctor told her, eyeing her up. Rose glanced at herself. She was naked and the sheet was bundled on her hips, exposing her breasts.
"You go deal with Adam, let him take a shower or something, and I'll go make us some breakfast." Rose told him as she started to get up.
"Like that? Because you know that I don't mind you looking like that, but if you want that boy to live long enough to make it to wherever we decide to take him for his 'thank you trip', I'll have to ask you to cover up." The Doctor told her with smirk.
"Oh I was thinking I'd just wear one of your jumpers, and only one of your jumpers." Rose told him with a wink.
"Rose." The Doctor half whined half growled and looked like he was about to pounce on her when the TARDIS flashed her lights and hummed angrily. The Doctor growled angrily before storming out of their room, a dark aura covering and Rose just knew he was going to take his anger and annoyance out on Adam. Rose sighed and shook her head before she quickly got dressed in tight, yet movable black pu leather pants, and a pink and black zip up shirt. She headed to the back room and brushed her hair and pulled it into a ponytail while leaving some bangs down to frame her face. She then quickly put on some light make-up before leaving the room and making her way to the kitchen.
"Thank you, girl." Rose told the TARDIS when she saw the ingredients to make a full English breakfast. With all the exercise she was getting, she needed the extra calories. Rose washed her hands before beginning to prepare them all an English breakfast.
"If you want breakfast then get in there!" She heard the Doctor growl just as she finished plating the last plate. She looked up to see Adam stumble into the kitchen, most likely having been pushed. "Go find a seat and sit down." The Doctor ordered as he followed Adam in. "This looks and smells lovely, thank you, love." He said making his way over to her and kissed her deeply before taking two of the plates and carried them over to the table. He sat one plate in front of Adam before taking a seat himself. Rose carried her plate over and sat next to the Doctor, taking his hand in hers.
"So, um, Rose," Adam started with a cough as he picked up his fork and began to pick at his breakfast, "I don't know if you're aware, but the walls of this place aren't as, uh, thick as you thought."
"What are you talking about?" Rose asked.
"You're room is right next to mine, right? I know, because I heard you and the Doctor all last night." Adam informed her, his face red with both embarrassment and anger.
"Um, Adam, our room isn't any where near yours." Rose told him.
"Then we share an air duct, either way, I heard you." Adam snapped out. There was an awkward silence between Rose and Adam for a few seconds before the Doctor began to laugh. "What's so funny."
"Just the fact that even my ship is trying to drive home the fact that you'll never have Rose." The Doctor told Adam with a proud smirk. "She piped in the sound of our love making into his room." He explained to her at her raised eyebrow.
"Oh, my God!" Rose cried out before covering her face in embarrassment.
"What do you mean 'she piped in the sound'? Who piped in the sound? Is there someone else besides the two of you on this ship?" Adam asked.
"She," The Doctor said motioning to the room, to the TARDIS, "the ship, my TARDIS, piped in the sound. She's alive."
"Right, a living ship." Adam snorted, "And Rose thinks I'm the nutter." He went to take a bite of his breakfast, but his fork and plate suddenly disappeared. "What the-?" Adam fell to the ground as his chair disappeared. "What's going on?" Adam scrabbled up, using the wall to help his up. "Ow!" He cried and pulled his hand from the wall shaking it.
"She took offense." The Doctor told Adam simply as he took a bite of his breakfast.
"What?" Adam asked glaring at him.
"My ship, the TARDIS, took offense. You offended her so she took your food and your chair away, before shocking you." The Doctor explained.
"You might want to apologize to her, or you might find your room without a bed, or the toilet." Rose told him as she began to eat her own breakfast.
"You're all nutters." Adam muttered. "Ow! Ow! Alright! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Adam cried as the floor under his feet began to heat up to the point that it was burning him through his shoes. Adam stopped dancing around as his chair appeared back in front of him. He cautiously sat down and stared at the empty place where his plate had been minutes before.
He'll need to be hungry enough to eat on Satellite Five. The TARDIS explained and Rose pictured the woman from her dreams glaring at Adam with a tight lip look.
"So, uh, where are we headed?" Adam asked awkwardly.
"Don't know, haven't figure that out. Might just set the TARDIS on random and let her decide." The Doctor explained. Rose and the Doctor quickly finished their breakfast before placing their dishes in the 34th century dishwasher and leading Adam into the console room. Rose quickly hopped onto the captain's chair as the Doctor set the destination on 'random'. "Temporary guests are not allowed on that chair." The Doctor called out, without looking from what he was doing, as Adam started to sit beside her on the captain's chair.
"But there's no where else to sit." Adam pointed out
"Shit!" Rose called when the TARDIS suddenly swung the chair away from Adam when he tried to once more to sit beside her.
'A little warning would have been nice!' Rose mentally yelled at the TARDIS as she gripped onto the chair to keep from falling off. She felt a wave of apologetic feeling hit her and knew that the TARDIS had reacted without much thought, having wanting to keep Adam away from her.
I am sorry, My Wolf, but Adam does not seem to get the message that you belong with My Thief. He wishes to try and get close to you to try and steal you from my Thief. Rose bit back a groan and rolled her eyes. She hadn't even flirted with him to get him to take her to the Doctor this time around!
"Adam, just find a place to lean against, because I do not wish to play a game of 'keep away from Rose and the captain's chair'!" Rose ordered when she caught sight of Adam making his way over to where the TARDIS had swung the chair. Adam sighed in annoyance before leaning against the railing. They landed with a rough bump, sending Adam to the ground. "Right, Adam, you stay in here until called for while me and the Doctor go check out where we are." Rose said quickly sliding off the chair and made her way down the ramp, the Doctor right behind her.
Rose opened the door and glanced around at the storage/break room area that they had landed in before stepping out with the Doctor right behind her, closing the door as he did so. "I'm sure you want to know where we are before we tell him."
"That's be nice, yeah." Rose joked.
"Best make this quick, don't want him in there alone for any longer than need be, might start touching things." The Doctor said as he glanced around. "So, it's 200,000, it's a spaceship... No, wait a minute, space station."
"What's through that door?" Rose asked nodding towards the door across from them.
"That's an observation deck." The Doctor told her.
"How much you want to bet that when we show Adam how the Earth looks now, he'll pass out? 10 quid?" Rose asked and the Doctor shook his head.
"Rose, it would be unfair of me to take your money. We both know he's not going to make it past this room." The Doctor told her with a smirk.
"20 quid it is!" Rose said before opening the TARDIS door. "Adam! Out you come." An annoyed looking Adam glared at her as he stepped out of the TARDIS. His look slowly changed from annoyed to amazed as he caught sight of the room.
"Oh, my God." Adam breathed out looking around the room in awe.
"The year is 200,000 and this is a space station orbiting around the Earth, also known as a satellite." Rose told him. "It's a bit warm in here, they could turn the heating down." She complained wiping the sweat from her brow. "Tell you what, there's an observation deck thought that door, let's go see how much the Earth has changed." Rose said, taking the Doctor's hand before heading towards the door. "Come on." She called back to Adam.
"You're rushing him from the room to keep him from passing out in this room, cheater." The Doctor whispered as they walked through the door.
"Here we go." Rose said as they cam to the observation window. "Care to explain what we're looking at Doctor?"
"The Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. And there it is. Planet Earth, at its height. Covered with mega-cities, five moons, population 96 billion, the hub of galactic domain stretching across a million planets, the hub of a galactic domain stretching across a million planets, a million species, with mankind right in the middle." The Doctor explained seconds before Adam dropped. Rose smirked and held out her hand waiting for the money. "Cheater." He growled at her playfully as he dug through his pockets before pulling out his wallet that he had begun carrying after their first date, causing Rose to laugh.
"Sore looser." Rose said as he handed her the money before turning to look at Adam on the floor. "Should we-?"
"Just leave him, he should be up and about soon." The Doctor told her before releasing her hand to wrap it around her waist, and pull her to him. "I don't like him."
"I know, but if it's any consolation, neither do I." Rose told the Doctor, hugging him.
"Then why is he here?" The Doctor asked.
"We're taking him on a 'thank you for helping us' trip." Rose told him.
"How, exactly, did he help us?" The Doctor asked and Rose was silent as she tried to come up with an excuse of how Adam had helped them. "Exactly, he didn't. So I'll ask again: Why is he here? Why did you so desperately want him to come with us even though you knew I wouldn't want him on board my ship."
"Do you want the truth?" Rose hear herself ask quietly. Was Bad Wolf really going to tell the Doctor why they needed to bring Adam here?
"That would be nice, yes. Because, truthfully, right now, I'm beginning to suspect that the only reason you wanted him on board is as eye candy." The Doctor told her and she pulled back to look at him in shock.
"Eye candy? Really? Him? Sure he's got a boyish charm to him, but he's not nearly at the level of eye candy. I mean he doesn't even have baby doll blue eyes," Her mind pulled up the image of Jack, "sure he's got the right color hair and hair cut, but it's not styled correctly. And he doesn't even have a long coat that can flap behind him when he runs. Nor does he have the title of Captain." Rose told the Doctor.
"I see you've been thinking about this." The Doctor growled.
"I've very picky about my eye candy." Rose joked causing the Doctor to laugh.
"Well, you won't hear me complaining about that. Because if you're too picky, we'll never stumble upon the perfect eyes candy for you." The Doctor told her and Rose laughed. "But the question still stands. If Adam isn't here to be eye candy, then why is he here?"
"Punishment." Rose heard herself say.
"Punishment? For who?" The Doctor asked.
"For Adam. Being allowed one trip to see what is out there then being drop off at home will be worse than not ever knowing what is out there. And for a guy like Adam that's going to kill him." Rose heard herself explain. 'And he's only going to make it worse for himself.' She added silently remembering what Adam does to himself. It was silent for a moment before the Doctor began to laugh, pulling Rose flush against him.
"Remind me never to piss you off, love." The Doctor said with a smile. His smile widened when Adam groaned alerting them that he was coming too.
"Oh God, it wasn't a dream." Adam moaned when his eyes opened and saw that he was still on the observation deck.
"Come on, Adam, open your mind." The Doctor said as he released Rose to help Adam off the ground suddenly very okay with Adam being there with them. "You're gonna like this fantastic period of history," he began to lead them from the observation deck to the main hub, "the human race at its most intelligent." Rose took the Doctor's hand and looked around the main room of the hub. The walls were still as rusty as she remembered, a few of the kiosks were broken down with wires sticking out of it, the air was smoky, and this room was a lot hotter than the observation desk. "Culture! Art! Politics! This era has got fine foods, good manner, the work..."
"Outta the way!" Someone rudely growled, pushing past Rose, knocking her into the Doctor with a grunt, cutting the Doctor off. Before Rose or the Doctor could react to the person, the hub that had once been void of people was suddenly bustling with vendors opening and workers lining up. The quiet room was suddenly filled with noise of people ordering and yelling out orders.
"Oi! You, mate! Stop pushing. Get back! I said back!" Rose heard as she made her way to glance at the menu of the kiosk closest to them.
"Fine cuisine?" Rose asked.
"My watch must be wrong." The Doctor said as she made her way back to him and Adam. "No, it's fine." He muttered as he checked his watch. "That's weird."
"They're all human. What about the millions of planets, millions of species, where are they?" Adam asked looking around at everyone.
"Good question." The Doctor muttered as he, too, looked around. "Actually, that is a good question. Adam, me old mate, you must be starving! You didn't get breakfast!" The Doctor cried before latching onto the back of Adam and began to lead him towards the closest kiosk.
"No, I'm not hungry anymore. I think I'm just time sick." Adam told him, eyeing the Doctor.
"You just need grub." The Doctor told him before turning to look at the vendor. "Oi, mate! How much is a kronkburger?"
"Two credits twenty, sweetheart. Now, join the queue!" The vendor told them motioning towards the end of the line.
"Money! We need money." The Doctor said before leading them away from the kiosk as he pulled out his screwdriver, while leading them towards a cash point. "Let's use a cash point." He quickly soniced the machine before taking the long tube like credit stick. "There you go, pocket money. Don't spend it all on sweets." He told Adam as he handed the credit stick to the boy before taking Rose's hand in his. Rose was happy that she wasn't assigned as Adam's babysitter this time.
"Well, how does it work?" Adam asked as the Doctor began to lead Rose away.
"Go and find out, stop nagging me!" The Doctor snapped out. "The thing is, Adam, time travel's like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guidebook, you gotta through yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs," Rose smiled at him, "get charged double and end up kissing complete stranger." Rose's smile left her face remembering Reinette. "Or is that just me?" The look on the Doctor's face caused a small chuckle from her lips. "Anyway, stop asking questions, go on do it!" He shooed Adam away. Her mobile flashed through her mind. She needed to give him her mobile.
"Adam! Wait!" Rose cried before pulling out her mobile and handed it to him. "It's been zapped, can get any signal any where. Take it. In case you get lost, we'll be able to phone you. You can even call your mum if you want." She explained.
"But that's 198,000 years ago." Adam told her.
"Honestly, try it. Go on." Rose urged him knowing that he needed to know that he could call his mum for him to turn himself into a human computer with a door in his forehead to finish the punishment.
"Is there a code for planet Earth?" He asked.
"Just dial!" Rose snapped at him. Adam sighed and rolled his eyes before calling his mum.
these
"It's her!" He whispered in shock when he heard her voice. "Hi. It.. it's me. I've sort of gone traveling. I met these people, and we're traveling together."
"This is only a one trip deal!" The Doctor told him receiving a glare from Adam.
"But, um, I'm fine. And I'll call you later. Love you. Bye." He finished his message. "What- how-?"
"Right, like I said no questions. Off you go, then." The Doctor said before gently turning Adam around and pushed him towards the kiosk.
"Right, time to see what's going on here." Rose said before noticing Cathica and Suki walking along the wall before leading the Doctor over to them.
"Sorry, I know this is gonna sound quite daft, but could you please tell us where we are?" Rose asked them.
"Floor 139." Cathica told her looking at her like she was stupid while pointing at the large numbers on the wall. "Could they write it any bigger?"
"Floor 139 of what?" The Doctor asked glaring at the woman.
"Must have been a hell of a party." Cathica muttered.
"You're on Satellite Five." Suki told them with a small smile.
"And what is Satellite Five?" Rose asked her.
"Come on, how could you get on board without knowing where you are?" Cathica asked.
"Look at us, we're stupid." The Doctor growled at her.
"Hold on, wait a minute. Are you a test?" Suki asked looking between Rose and the Doctor. "Some sort of management test kind of thing?"
"Guess we we're as subtle as we were hoping to be." Rose told her sheepishly as the Doctor pulled out his psychic paper.
"Well done. You're too clever for us." The Doctor told her flashing the paper at them.
"We were warned about this is basic training." Suki whispered to Cathica. "All workers have to be versed in company promotion."
"Right." Cathica said with a nod. "Of course, fire away, ask your questions. If it gets me to Floor 500, I'll do anything." Rose barely stopped herself from telling Cathica that she didn't want to go up to Floor 500, that she should be glad to be alive and safe down here.
"Why? What happens on Floor 500?" Cathica told him. "And you should know, Mr. Management."
"Is that what the rumor is? We thought y'all were saying that the walls were made of 'cold'." Rose told her with a small, forced laugh, causing Cathica and Suki to fake a laugh as well.
"So, this is what we do." Cathica said before walking over to a wall full of screens showing nothing but the news. "Latest news. Sand storms on the New Venus Archipelago, 200 dead. Glasgow water riots into their third day. Space lane 77 closed by sunspot activity. And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Boe had just announced he's pregnant." Rose blinked at that. Jack was what? And she didn't even get an invite to the baby shower? Rude.
"I get it. You broadcast the new." The Doctor said with a nod of his head.
"We are the news." Cathica told him proudly. "We're the journalists." Rose caught Suki looking at her with a knowing look, had she seen past the psychic paper? If so, what was this girl up to? Why hadn't she ratted them out? When Suki caught her looking, she a wink. "We write it, package it and sell it. 600 channels, all coming out of Satellite Five, broadcasting everywhere. Nothing happens in the whole Human Empire without it going through us."
"All staff are reminded that the canteen area now operates a self-cleaning table system. Thank you." Rose heard announced before the alarm for everyone to return to their work sounded.
"Oi, A Levels! Over here!" The Doctor yelled over at Adam.
"Trainee. Been doing this all day, he's not used to it. Told him to take a break." Rose explained at the questioning look from Cathica. "Right, you've passed this first test, next up is to see how you handle the job itself."
"Right, of course." Cathica said as Adam made his way over to them. "Follow me, our office is this way." She nervously lead them into a pure white room that had a horse shoe shaped desk with seven cushions around the outside and a large chair in the middle of it. The Doctor, Rose, and Adam stood off to the side, watching as Cathica greeted all of her underlings as they entered the room and took their place at the desk.
"Now, everybody behave." Cathica started once everyone had settled into their spots and the doors had closed. "We have a management inspection." She looked over at them. "How do you want it? By the book?"
"Right from the scratch, thanks." The Doctor told her.
"Okay. So, ladies, gentlemen, multisex, undecided or robot, my name is Cathica Santini Khadeni. That's Cathica with a 'C', in case you wanna write to Floor 500, praising me, and please do." Cathica told them. "Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest and beyond bias. That's company policy." Cathica said before smiling at them.
"Actually, um, it's the law." Suki cut in.
"Yes, thank you, Suki." Cathica hissed out, glaring at her. "Okay, keep it calm. Don't show off for the guests." Cathica said as she walked over to the middle chair and sat in it, getting comfortable. "Here we go. And... Engage safety." The seven people around the table placed their hands over the table, above were their hands were designated to be placed as the lights in the walls light up, blinding Rose for a second. Cathica snapped and the door in her forehead opened, showing her brain, the seven people placed theirs hands on the console. "And three... Two... And spike!" A beam on light shot into Cathica's brain.
"Compressed information streaming into her. Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head." The Doctor explained. "She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer!"
"How is she not a genius if it all goes through her?" Rose asked, knowing the answer, but also knowing that Adam wouldn't ask the right questions, too focused on the fact that she had a door in her forehead.
"She won't remember any of it." The Doctor said as he began to walk around the room, examining everyone and everything while being careful of not touching any of them. "There's too much. Her head would blow up." Rose began to followed him. "The brain's the processor. Soon as it closes, she forgets."
"And these people round the edge? What are they for?" Rose asked.
"They've all got tiny little chips in their head connecting them to her, and they transmit 600 channels." The Doctor explained as Rose knelt down in between two of the people and examined them, careful not to touch them. "Every single fact in the Empire beams out of this place." The Doctor had made it back to where Adam was standing. "Now, that's what I call power." Rose noticed how pale and nauseous looking Adam had gotten and stood up. She quickly made her way over to Adam, it would do them no good if he threw up all over these poor people.
"You all right?" She asked him.
"I can see her brain." Adam told her.
"Do you want to get out?" Rose asked him.
"No, no this... This technology, it's... It's amazing." Adam stumbled out glancing between her and the Doctor and knew he was trying to force himself to see just as excited and interested as they were, as the Doctor was.
"This technology's wrong." The Doctor told them.
"Trouble?" Rose asked with a small smirk.
"Oh, yeah." The Doctor smiled at her, seconds later Suki gasped and pulled her hands off the console as it zapped her, turning off the wall lights and cutting off the beam of light from Cathica's brain.
"Come off it, Suki, I wasn't even halfway. What was that for?" Cathica demanded.
"Sorry. It must've been a glitch." Cathica sighed and got off the chair.
"Promotion." A woman announced before the wall across from the Doctor, Rose, and Adam turned into a screen.
"Come on, this is it, come on!" Cathica began to chant. "Oh, my God, make it me! Come on, say my name, say my name, say my name!"
"Promotion for..." The woman began, "Suki Macrae Cantrell. Please proceed to Floor 500." Cathica's hopeful expression quickly turned into one of disappointment and jealousy.
"I don't believe it! Floor 500!" Suki whispered and Rose had to keep herself from tearing up, she couldn't save her, Suki had to die, her death was a fixed point in time.
"How the hell did you manage that? I'm above you!" Cathica growled out.
"I don't know, I just applied on the off chance. And they've said yes!" Suki cheered.
"So not fair. I've been applying to Floor 500 for three years!"
"What's Floor 500?" Adam asked.
"The walls are made of gold." Rose told him as the Doctor glared at the situation alerting Rose that his mind was racing as he tried to understand what was happening and how everything had got so messed up.