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Chapter 6 – Evening Discussion with Tony

The Doctor cradled Sam in his arms as he stood in front of the large window outside of his suite at the end of the dim hallway. He watched Plentitude rotate under the ship. Other ships in orbit could be seen from the window.

Tony Stark walked down the hall behind him. He rubbed his hands together and pushed his sunglasses up on top of his forehead. He was wearing a pair of jeans, a long sleeved shirt and a thin jacket. He had clearly just returned from Plentitude.

He got to the door to his suite, and then looked up and saw the back of The Doctor standing in front of the window. He thought for a second, then walked over to him and looked out of the window, too. He greeted him quietly. "Evening, Good Doctor."

The Doctor smiled as he turned his head to look at Tony. "Just getting back?"

"Yeah. Jack, Lance and Timon stayed. They were going to hit a few more bars."

The Doctor chuckled, "You didn't want to go with them? That doesn't sound like you."

Tony put his hands in his pockets as he shrugged his shoulders. "Ah. Everyone has an off-day. Legate had to have Logan back, so I came back with them. What are you doing to that kid?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "I'm not doing anything to him. It probably sounds like that. I need to check a few things in the morning to make sure he's recovered as much as I think he has."

"I still don't understand what happened. You had him pressurize the cabin of the ship to keep it from imploding on itself. Is that right?"

"Yeah. But, it was to a dangerous level. He's lucky to have gotten out of it. He's lucky to have lived through the entire thing. If he had a better understanding of what happened, he probably wouldn't have remained so calm and trusted me as much as he did."

"Sometimes, ignorance is bliss." Tony told him.

"Ah, it's still ignorance." The Doctor told Tony as he looked down at Sam. He was sleeping peacefully in his arms.

Tony looked at his friend. "I'm sorry, I think I must have interrupted you….meditating or something over here."

The Doctor laughed quietly. "I don't meditate. I accidently woke Sam up. He started to cry, so I brought him out here so he wouldn't wake up everyone. I've just been thinking."

"Thinking. How long have you been standing out here, holding your son and thinking?"

"One hour and 56 minutes and 14 seconds." He told him absentmindedly.

Tony chuckled, "Next time. I'm going to need a clearer answer. Work on that."

The Doctor looked back at him, "Sorry about that. Rose tells me that's odd. It's a hard habit to break."

"I could make you a shock collar." Tony offered.

The Doctor rolled his eyes as he smiled. "I'll deal with it on my own, thanks."

Tony nodded his head. "Offer stands. So, you still don't want to talk about it?"

"No. I don't. You know? It's like they just waited for me to leave to do something about it. Does it seem like that to you?"

Tony nodded his head. "That's what I keep going back to. Did you talk to Pete? Get the full story?"

"Oh, I did. It's worse than I thought." He told him.

"Pissed?" Tony asked him.

"That's the thing. I'm really not. Normally, I would be. This is strange. Rose told me tonight that she had messed with my head. She has, abilities. Neither one of us truly understand yet."

"You're worried she's damaged something?" Tony asked.

"No. I'm worried she's taken away something I believe I need. Everything seems to be fine, except, I'm not angry about this. I really should be."

Tony nodded his head, "Wait. Angry about this shit with Idles? Or that Rose has done something to your head?"

"Both, honestly. But, we'll talk more about that in the morning. I don't want to talk about it now."

"And just like that, he closes the door on the conversation. You are like speaking with a ….. oh, hell I don't know what." Tony told him.

"Frustrated? I can feel that." The Doctor told him.

Tony pointed at him. "And that's just weird. Stop it!"

The Doctor smiled at him.

Tony shook his head and mumbled, "Booga, weird alien shit going on all the time."

The Doctor laughed silently at his friend. "What's on your mind, Tony?"

"There is this one thing. It's weird. People from Earth don't know about other alien species, but I was asked three times tonight on a foreign planet if I was human! How the hell do they know about humans out there?"

"You can't figure that out? Really?" The Doctor asked him.

Tony rubbed his head as he turned to face The Doctor. "Normally, I probably could. But, Jack took us to that damn restaurant he says you took Pete too. You know, where you float in the air with the half naked women flying around? The beer there was amazing! I honestly had to stop after the twelfth one."

"Twelve! Jeez! How are you even able to stand right now?"

"Practice. It's not my first experience with intoxication. Logan might have a bit of a headache in the morning though, so take it easy on him. So, my question. I can't think straight at the moment, but it's weirded me out a bit. Explain this to me. Break it down, Barney-style."

"Barney?!" The Doctor laughed at him.

Tony rubbed his head as he nodded. "You have small kids, I figure you know who that is."

The Doctor laughed as he shook his head. "Oh, I'm so glad you have came with us on this trip. You've certainly lifted my spirits just now. Okay, the answer is simple. Different species come to the Milky Way all of the time to refill ships off the gas giants and mine from the asteroid belt. Earth is just a quick jump away from all of that, so often, they will go and visit there. They've done it for years."

Tony nodded, "Yeah, since that mess out in New Mexico. When that spaceship crashed."

The Doctor looked back at Tony, "Oh, that was a terrible accident. Training mission. Those guys never had a chance. That craft wasn't designed to ever go through any atmosphere. It didn't have the heat shielding it needed. They cooked inside of that craft as entered the Earth's atmosphere. It had to be an extremely painful way to die. Cooked from the inside out."

"So, that wasn't the first?" Tony asked.

"Oh, hell no. Earth has been visited for an extremely long time. As far as records would show from there, since the time of Alexander the Great. I personally have been back further than that, but managed to stay out of the records. At least before 329 BC. Yeah, I can take credit for that one. I'm briefly mentioned in some reports of that."

"You went to see Alexander the Great?" Tony asked him.

"I traveled in time for a very, very long time. Very few parts of history I didn't see. Alexander had his army crossing a river when I was there. Two Guycramnua cruisers appeared in the sky above them. They had been having war games in the asteroid belt and those two cruisers broke apart from the group. They appeared to be shooting lasers at one another, but it was training beams and wouldn't hurt anyone. Scared the hell out of Alexander and his army, though. He ordered his army to turn back and wait until the following day to cross the river."

"Now, I've heard of that. He described it as two shields in the sky."

"Yeah, that's probably what they looked like to him. They were both rather flat and long. Similar to a Uaxyts or a Qaqesk ship."

Tony looked at him and rolled his eyes. "Right. That clears that right up."

The Doctor didn't notice the cheek. He was looking back down at Sam who was still sleeping.

"Still. They can look at my face, and pick me out of a crowd. That simple. 'Are you a human?' How do they do that? They always pointed at me, Logan and Jack. None of those…what do you call them?" Tony asked.

"Quauhtin." The Doctor told him. "They are Quauhtin Warriors."

"They look just like me! You do, too! How the hell can anyone tell the difference?"

The Doctor turned back to Tony. "This clearly has you wound up."

Tony nodded his head, "Dude, it's weird. Normally, I can figure this shit out!"

The Doctor laughed quietly. "Rose doesn't understand it either. I watch the telly and point out aliens for entertainment. You wouldn't believe how many work at CNN."

Tony pointed at him, "Honestly, I would. Fox News, too. Basically, any media. Jesus."

"It's a subtle thing in most causes. Quauthin always look like they are ready to pounce on you and attack. That's because they are. They are never truly 'off duty.' The waiter Rose and I had tonight had gills on the ends of his ears. Rose didn't notice. It's just something most pick up. The more you are around people that aren't from Earth, or human, you'll notice the differences. It's not an immediate thing."

Tony nodded his head. "Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. I feel better."

The Doctor nodded as he rubbed Sam's head and smiled.

Tony rubbed his face. "I'm going to turn in. I've got a long day with Timon and Tony planned."

The Doctor looked up at him. "Tony? My Tony?"

"He has this brilliant idea about a flying glider. He says Summus explained to him how it works. Seems really simple, and I think we could get it to work."

The Doctor couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Hang on, mate. You and Tony Tyler are working on this glider idea he has?"

Tony nodded his head. "Hell yeah. It's brilliant! I had no idea Pete's son was as smart as Pete! I told him that we could go into the business together if we could figure out how to get it to work. He reminds me of myself at that age. Wow. He seems sure that we can get it to work. The principles are similar to some of the things I wanted to put on the suit. Air brakes, flaps, gliding mechanics for if the propulsion dies. I have some of that now, but it's just engineered a different way. His way seems way simpler and safer. Tony Tyler might have just saved my life, so I can turn around and save someone else's. How about that?"

The Doctor bit his lip in surprise. "I honestly can't think of anything to say about that."

Tony smiled at him. "I'll see you in the morning. Get some sleep."

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