Ch 104
The Doctor picked up a piece of white chalk and started scribbling on the blackboard. Words appeared as fast as he could right them, arrows connecting ideas to other ones.
There were three main points of focus: the device, the creatures, and their intentions. Circled twice was the phrase time-travel? with an arrow pointing to the phrase took R. and another arrow connecting that to scanned and studied
"Is this what it's like to be inside your head?" Jack tried to lighten the mood, struggling to keep up.
"Doesn't even scratched the surface," he flashed Jack a grin and continued writing. "Question one: is the device theirs or were they taking it from someone else? Question two: what is the device? It came with a failsafe, basically a firewall—that's what that noise was. It was protecting the information which means the device was most likely some sort of data collecting tool. The soundwave erased the data we collected but," he spun back to face Jack, "but if I'm clever enough I could recover some of it."
"And why do you think they took River?"
The Doctor glanced over to where River was nursing the baby. "They, er, studied her when she was taken. Makes sense if they're trying to collect data. There's no one like River in the universe. Even the kids have a different genetic makeup. I guess that makes question three: what is the information for?"
"Is she alright? Does she remember anything that happened?" Jack pressed.
"She doesn't remember a thing," he lowered his voice, wary of the children. "Probably for the better. Her injuries were...extensive."
"Maybe we can gage what exactly they were interested in based on her injuries."
The Doctor nodded and retrieved the scanner again. He pulled up the results from earlier which listed River's injuries and began to write on the board again.
"It looks like they were testing the function of her two hearts here." Jack murmured, looking at the series of injuries River had sustained to her chest.
The Doctor wrote this down with a short nod. "And this here—they used different tomographies to map her vasculature and metabolic pathways. They were studying how her body worked."
Jack pointed to several of the superficial injuries, "They were probably testing nerve endings here, seeing how her pain receptors operated."
The Doctor wrote this down as well and they continued on, examining each wound and giving their best guesses as to what River's captors were trying to accomplish. He tried not to let his emotions cloud his thoughts too much, but it was increasingly difficult as each new assessment revealed experiments more horrifying than the last. He kept looking at River anxiously as if her injuries might reappear, though logically he knew that she was healed and healthy (at least physically.)
River was humming softly to the baby, not paying attention to the Doctor or Jack. Felix was rather fussy today and needed calming.
Terra came over to her mother and brother, too bewildered about everything that was happening to focus on the telly.
"[You alright, my love?]"
Terra shrugged. "[This is weird.]"
"[I know.]" River nodded, "[It is.]"
"[Are we going to have to go away again?]" She asked worriedly, thinking of when they were sent away to Amy and Rory.
River frowned slightly, the question bringing ideas into her head, "[I have to talk to your father about that. We don't know what's going on right now.]"
"[I don't want to go away again.]" Terra looked distraught.
"[I promise, everything will be alright. You won't have to leave us.]" River rose, gave Terra a hug then went over to the Doctor.
The Doctor and Jack were still writing. They hadn't finished going through the injuries but had moved on due to the Doctor's increasing dismay.
"Can I speak to you for a minute?" River asked, touching the Doctor's arm.
The Doctor nodded, relieved to be pulled away from the research. Jack offered to hold Felix while they talked.
"I was thinking about the kids...I want them to be safe." River started. "Maybe we should consider hiding their...identities again..."
"What? River are you sure that's such a good idea?"
"I don't want them to be taken. If whoever took me is trying to study us, then they could still be in danger. If they're human, then there's no reason to study them."
"We don't know if they want the kids," he tried to reason, though the thought of any of the children being 'studied' was almost too much. "The TARDIS is safe right now and we can make it safer while we figure this out. I don't want to have to do that to them if we don't have to. I don't want to split us up again."
"We don't have to split up, we can stay together. We thought the TARDIS was safe before and it wasn't. I can't lose them."
"I know, Riv. I know." He put his hands on her shoulders. "But how would we do it? If we all go together then we'll be staling, not solving. And Felix is so young... I don't know if it's safe for him to undergo that kind of change."
"I don't know." She shook her head, "I just want them to be safe and I feel like they're not safe here."
He sighed. "We've got to pick up the pace. Why don't you go see if you can reprogram the chameleon arch to be safe for Felix? I'm not saying we're going to use it, but… Just in case. Jack and I will go to the console room and see what we can do about shields and get any more information we can."
"Okay." She nodded slowly, "I think I know a few things we can tweak on the arc. I could probably get it going within the next hour or two."
"Find me if there are any problems, alright?"
"Of course." She nodded, going to work on the machine.
The Doctor took Felix from Jack and went over to where the kids were still watching tellie. "I need you to watch Felix for a bit and stay here."
The children all tried to protest, wanting to know what was going on.
"We're still trying to figure out what's going on," the Doctor admitted. "And until we do, it's not safe out there. None of you leave, here, alright? Watch each other until we get back. We won't be long."
They nodded, understanding that they needed to cooperate in this situation. The Doctor gave each of them a hug and a kiss before he and Jack left for the console room.
Jack immediately got to work on putting up more shields, trying to enhance the measures they had already put in place. They worked together in the console room for a while, constantly glancing around like something might jump out at them.
After a while, the Doctor made a triumphant noise. "I recovered some of the data on that device."
"What does it say?" Jack asked, coming around to look.
"The device was definitely theirs, not stolen from another species."
"So this was a planned attack?"
"No," he shook his head, frowning at the data on the screen. "The device was on course for someplace else when it got caught in the Rift and you found it. They must have decided to take River when they were getting the device back. Maybe they thought we stole it."
"Can you tell what it was supposed to be used for?"
"This doesn't make any sense... I can't—oh." He stopped at something he saw on the data.
"What is it?" Jack asked, looking over the data to see what the Doctor was looking at.
"It's biodata. They're collecting biodata—finding useful species and taking live specimens."
"That's what they were doing to River? Collecting data?"
He nodded. "They've been doing it to hundreds of species across the universe. She only got caught in the algorithm because we brought the device on board."
"Does that mean your kids could get caught too? They'll register as a different species then River." Jack pointed out.
The Doctor spared a worried glance at Jack. "Yes. I think it does."
"We should see how River's doing with her modifications," he suggested. The Doctor nodded quickly, downloading the data onto the scanner to examine later.
"How's it coming?" Jack asked when they found River.
"I've almost got it." River murmured, adjusting the headpiece for Felix. "I just need to tweak a few more things. What about you two? Any luck?"
"Shields are up and we've recovered some of the data," the Doctor murmured, coming over to her.
"And what exactly did you find out from that data?" she asked hesitantly.
The Doctor showed her the scanner, going over it with her. "They seem to only take one person from each species they sample. It means they probably won't come for you or me again but the kids have a new and unique biosignature..."
"So we need to get this done now," she murmured, looking over the scanner with great concern.
He looked up at her, eyes swimming. "They've already taken a human. They don't try to take any more... but River, How are we going to—I mean how is this going to work?"
River had to admit, she was panicking a bit. The panic was causing her to rush into this decision, since it was the only one she could think of at the moment. "Well, if we hide their identities, then we'll know they're safe. And then we can work from there."
"But River, who's going to go with them? We can't both change and we can't both remain here. Felix is too young to be without one of us, but... but I don't want to be apart from you again."
She paused, thinking about what he was saying. "I...don't know..."
"River," he took her hand. "We need more information and we need more time to get it. I think we can do it, but you have to trust me... If we take the vortex manipulator and go back in time to when those creatures took someone else, we can find what we need to know, maybe even stop them. And we'll only be away for seconds. Jack will stay here in case something goes wrong."
She nodded slowly, "Okay. If you think it'll work...then I trust you."
The Doctor turned to Jack. "I want you to bring all the kids in here. If this goes right we'll only be gone for a few minutes. But if it doesn't or if they come for the kids... you know what to do."
Jack nodded, running to get the kids.
The Doctor turned back to his wife, typing something into the scanner. "Hold still for a moment. I can use you to trace a path back and find a good place to intercept their timeline."
"Are you sure this is going to work?" River murmured, standing straight so that he could scan her.
"The scan or the plan?" he asked, though he knew which she meant.
"The plan." She murmured, "Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"It's our best option right now," he nodded slowly. "We need more information and this way it poses the least risk to the safety of our children. This way we'll have time."
"Okay. I trust you," she murmured, going to look over the results of the scan.
The screen displayed a set of coordinates in Bristol, the year the Songs were posing as humans in Bristol. River frowned at the screen. "That...that can't be right," she murmured, "Why would the best place to intercept them be in Bristol?"
"It's where they look their last human subject from. Of course," the Doctor sighed, "the moment we're preoccupied with... other things is when they strike. If we hadn't been hiding we could have-" He stopped and shook his head, realizing it was no use dwelling over. "We have to be careful not to have a run in with our pasts, though it might not be much of a problem since you and the kids had altered memories at the time. Still, best be cautious."
Jack returned with all the kids at that moment. Terra was holding Freya's hand worriedly. "[Jack said you have to go for a bit?]"
"[Yes, we need to go figure out what's going on. You all need to stay here, we're going to be crossing our own timeline, and we can't risk running into ourselves.]"
"How long will you be gone?" Arthur asked.
"We don't know yet, hopefully not long. Jack is going to stay with you."
Terra let go of her sister's hand to run up to River and hug her legs. "[I'm scared, Mummy.]"
River lifted her daughter up, holding her firmly and humming to try and comfort her.
"[We'll only be gone a few minutes if everything goes well,]" the Doctor assured.
"[But I want you to stay here.]"
"[We can't. We have to fix this to keep you all safe,]" he signed slowly.
"[Will you come back as fast as you can?]"
"[Of course,]" he promised. "[As fast as we can.]"
She let River set her back down, going to hold onto Freya again. They gave the other children hugs, trying to assure them that things would be fine before finally setting the coordinates for their destination.
River took a deep breath. In a flash of light, their surroundings suddenly changed from the TARDIS to what seemed to be a supply closet.