True Face
Adelaide leaned in the back of the Doctor's lecture hall, watching him lecture about the dangers of space...instead of crop rotation. As Adelaide understood it, the Doctor didn't tend to lecture about what he said he would lecture about. Instead, he would jump between any subject that took his fancy as he spoke. She hadn't told him that she would be coming that day but had decided to take advantage of the fact she had a break during the time he taught his class to watch him work.
Time to see the lectures that had earnt the Doctor so much renown at St Luke's. The lectures that Adelaide should have heard about before. The lectures that should have revealed the Doctor's presence at that school. But she'd missed all the signs.
"Space, the final frontier," the Doctor said as she arrived in the back of the lecture hall. He was attempting to draw something on his blackboard. "Final because it wants to kill us. Sometimes we forget that, start taking it all for granted. The suits, the ships, the little bubbles of safety, as they protect us from the void. But the void is always waiting." He turned and instantly spotted Adelaide.
In his momentary silence, the Time Lord fixating on her presence, everyone in the lecture hall turned to see what had drawn his attention.
Even after so long apart, they had maintained what they'd built all those years ago on Christmas. Adelaide knew what he wanted without him saying a word.
"How does space kill you?" she called, pushed off from the door frame to begin to walk closer to him.
With a grin, the Doctor pointed to her. "I'm glad you asked." Back to the class, spreading his hand in a gesture of introduction. "For those not lucky enough to know her, this is Professor Adelaide Noble. Biology, chemistry, astronomy, geology, botany, neuroscience, physics, zoology, bacteriology, oceanography, if she's feeling funky..." Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "Essentially, she's the clever one. But mind your manners around her."
"How does space kill you?" Adelaide repeated, smiling now despite herself.
"The main problem is pressure," the Doctor continued, addressing both her and the class. "There isn't any. So, don't hold your breath or your lungs will explode. Blood vessels rupture. Exposed areas swell."
"An interesting fact," Adelaide added, "is that the boiling temperature of water is much lower in a vacuum. This means that your sweat and saliva will boil, as well as the fluid around your eyes."
The Doctor nodded. "You won't notice any of this because fifteen seconds in, you've passed out as oxygen bubbles formed in your blood."
"And ninety seconds in, you're dead."
"Any questions?" One of the students raised her hand and the Doctor fixed his attention on her. "Yes."
"What's this got to do with crop rotation?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Er, I dunno. But space is great, isn't it?" He lowered his attention back to Adelaide, almost without realizing it, acting on a centuries-old reflex. "It's beautiful."
Adelaide didn't remember the last time the Doctor had called her beautiful. Hadn't really realized how much she'd missed it.
|C-S|
Once the Doctor dismissed his class – very soon after Adelaide's arrival, though they had spent a few more minutes trading facts about space and the dangers within – he came down from his higher level to see her. "You're lucky I didn't do something similar when I came to see you all those centuries ago."
"I would not have indulged you."
"Not even a little?"
She shook her head. They turned in unison, starting to walk, though they didn't bother discussing exactly where they were going. "You're missing it. Space. Traveling."
"Aren't you?"
Adelaide sighed. "Always."
He looked around them, seemingly to ensure that Nardole wasn't spying. "We could always..."
"You're supposed to be guarding the vault."
He shrugged. "It can guard itself." When Adelaide said nothing, the Doctor continued. "Come on, let's show Bill the stars. What could go wrong?"
That time, Adelaide did look at him. "When you're involved?"
"I'm not so irresponsible anymore."
"If you weren't irresponsible, you wouldn't be trying to leave Earth."
"That makes you irresponsible too."
Her turn to shrug. "I never claimed to be responsible. I ran from responsibilities and consequences as much as you."
"Run," he corrected and Adelaide looked at him, eyes sharp. "You never stopped."
She was quiet for a long time then. She knew he was right, but it always sounded different when he said it. Adelaide could and would admit her propensity for running whenever she was pressed – she'd never claimed to be someone who maintained loyalties to anyone beyond herself – but, more recently, she'd started to feel shame for it.
As if she should have been different.
But when the Doctor said it, when he named her as a runner, she felt a comradery. A different sort of ownership. A pride.
"We'll use your TARDIS. I'd rather not rely on mine."
The Doctor nodded and grinned and Adelaide caught her tongue before she named him beautiful. She wondered if he could see it in her eyes.
Missy certainly had been able to.
|C-S|
The Time Lords stood on either side of the Doctor's console with Bill between them, though the Doctor was in the process of moving around. "Space!" he told the human, spreading an arm as if the gesture encompassed all of space. "Going to space is exactly like camping."
"Is it?" Bill asked the question to Adelaide.
"No."
"Okay."
"Well, in a way, yes," the Doctor tried.
Bill sighed. "Great."
"Too much between you and the outside and you might as well stay home," the Doctor explained. "To really feel it, you need the space equivalent of a wafer-thin sleeping bag and a leaky two-man tent. So, pick a campsite." He stopped beside Bill and tapped the monitor before her, on which he'd pulled up a map of the universe, though a bit in Bill's relative future.
"Got any reviews?"
The Doctor frowned. "What?"
"You know, like for restaurants. 'Waiter was a bit handsy, lasagna gave me the trots'. Two stars."
"Strangely, no."
Bill focused her attention on the monitor, though it was clear that she didn't understand what it actually meant. "Oh, I don't know. That one." She pointed at a random point.
The Doctor nodded. "Ah, yes, well, possibly we could go there, pitch our tent next to the toilet block. How about something's a bit more exciting?" He touched a different point, which glowed red and beeped from the activation.
"What's that?"
"His favorite song," Adelaide called. "Otherwise known as a distress call."
"You like distress calls?"
The Doctor nodded, for once taking full ownership of that fact. "You only really see the true face of the universe when it's asking for your help."
"I haven't seen my true face in years," Nardole said, his voice coming from the lower levels of the console as he emerged. "Swapped it for this one on the run."
The Doctor grimaced. "Oh, look, Bill, it's Nardole. What a lovely surprise. I thought I sent you to Birmingham for a packet of crisps."
"Yeah, I saw through your cunning ruse."
"Yes, well, if you will go thinking for yourself. What do you want?"
Nardole crossed his arms. "I was given strict instructions to keep you at the university."
"Who by?"
"You."
"Well, you're not doing a very good job, are you?" The Doctor waved a hand. "I'll overlook it this once."
"Do you know what this is?" Nardole held up a small device.
"If it's not crisps, you're sacked."
"Fluid link K57. Removed it from the TARDIS the other night."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "That is very untrusting."
"You took an oath, sir. The vault cannot be unguarded."
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh, listen to Mr. Boring."
"I'm acting under your orders!"
"See how reliable I am?"
"What's a fluid link?" Bill asked the Time Lords.
"No idea. But the TARDIS can't go anywhere without it."
Adelaide, who didn't know much about Type 40 TARDISes but knew this, frowned. "Did the Doctor tell you that?"
"Yes."
"He lied."
The Doctor snapped his fingers at Nardole. "Teach you to trust me. Always ask Adelaide when you want to know the truth. She hates lying."
"Doesn't that mean she'd hate you?" Bill asked.
"Doesn't she?" the Doctor asked, though he spoke quietly enough that the human didn't seem to hear him. Instead of focusing on it, he focused on the console, setting them into flight. Adelaide had to rush forward to keep them stable – he purposefully made the flight require her presence. "I'm docking your pay for this," he called to Nardole, pretending at normality.
Bill laughed and the Time Lords looked at each other and wondered if he was lying again.
|C-S|
Before they actually let Bill out of the TARDIS, the Doctor scanned the area – a ship – around where they'd landed to ensure the threat was not immediate. He stepped out of the ship, moving to the side to allow Nardole out after him. It was dark, but not so bad that Adelaide would actually be uncomfortable, though she would not have said if she was.
"I'm a bit cross with you, sir," Nardole said, frowning.
"Noted. Scored out. Forgotten." Bill was the next one out, eyes wide as she took in the ship. "Wait," the Doctor said, holding up a hand. "There's no oxygen."
"What? Well, how come we're breathing?"
Adelaide emerged, her own sonic out and scanning the surroundings. "There's an air shell around the TARDIS."
The Doctor pointed his sonic back into the TARDIS and, with a gust of air, opened the second door. "Now there's a really big air shell around the TARDIS."
"How big?"
He soniced a nearby computer system to turn on all of the lights. "Big enough for a stroll."
Nardole shook his head. "So cocky."
The Doctor made a face at the humanoid before leading the way out of the first room, through the corridors of the ship.
Bill stepped closer to Adelaide. "Why aren't we floating?"
"Artificial gravity."
The human jumped in place to test it. "Doesn't feel like space." Her gaze fell on a window as they passed it, grinning. "Aw! Now it feels like space!"
The Doctor leaned closer to the edges of a door as they neared it. "Look at this. Classic design. Pressure seals, hinges. None of that shk-shk nonsense." He soniced it open.
"Space doors are supposed to go shk-shk, not urrr," Nardole said, miming a door opening.
"Are you going to be like this all day?"
Nardole nodded. "Yeah. Till you're back where you should be."
Bill put her hand on Adelaide's arm, making the Time Lady turn her attention from the men to what Bill had noticed over the Doctor's shoulder. There was someone in a spacesuit with their back to the group, motionless, his head lulled to the side. "Hello?" Adelaide called, making the Doctor turn to see as well. They both moved forward slowly until they could face the motionless figure properly.
At the better angle, Adelaide could see that his skin was grey. Unnaturally so. His veins weren't right.
The Doctor scanned him. "He's dead."
Bill looked the motionless man up and down. "Well, how can he be dead? He's standing up?"
"No, it's just his suit that's standing up," Adelaide corrected, coming around the dead man's other side to stand next to the Doctor. "He's a corpse sitting inside."
"Oh God, it's standing for him?"
"Gyro stabilizers, magnetic boots and gloves, onboard computer. It could run, jump, and update his Facebook. Death, where is thy sting?" Again, the Doctor glanced at Adelaide.
Nardole stepped back. "So, back to the TARDIS?"
Bill drew in a breath. "Yeah, can you turn it off?"
"Turn what off?"
"The suit. Just, please, just...just turn it off."
The Doctor frowned at her. "Why?"
"He's just standing there. It's sick. It's disrespectful."
"I'll tell you what's disrespectful." The Doctor stepped back. "Whatever killed him."
"Well, there was no oxygen, right? Before we got here. Didn't he just suffocate?"
The Doctor moved to the side to get some information on the ship. Nardole and Adelaide looked over the suit. "His tank is full," Adelaide said.
Nardole tried to touch the corpse's face. "And his field's up."
"His what?"
"A forcefield," Adelaide explained. "It keeps the air in."
"Well, look, can we just, like, lie him down or something? I mean, this isn't right."
The Doctor shook his head. "No, it isn't. It isn't." He gestured at the computer terminal. "Mining Station Chasm Forge. Crew of forty. I've got thirty-six records of life signs terminated. Last log entry, Station declared non-profitable."
Nardole scoffed. "Yeah, your workers all dying'll do that for you." Further down the corridor, something made a sound, making the Doctor, Adelaide, and Bill turn to look. Nardole, however, stepped back. "Okay then! Back to the TARDIS1 Lovely in there. Nice and cozy."
"Yeah. Yeah, he's right," Bill said. They could hear footsteps approaching. "Doctor, Adelaide, are you listening?"
"Forty minus thirty-six," the Doctor mumbled, speaking more to Adelaide than anyone else.
Bill shook her head. "Sorry, what?"
"Equals what?"
"Oh no, I'm just saying that Nardole was saying..."
"Four." The Doctor focused on Adelaide and waited, tense, for her to nod. And she did. He turned to Bill. "Four, Bill. Four survivors, one distress call. The universe shows its true face when it asks for help. We show ours by how we respond." The Doctor didn't say it, but when he looked to Adelaide again, she knew he thanked her. "Any questions?" Bill opened her mouth to say something, but the Doctor held up a hand. "Good."
Together, the Doctor and Adelaide led the way further into the ship. The sounds, it turned out, were from someone moving small containers. They were in shadows, so even the Time Lords couldn't see details about them.
"Hello!" the Doctor greeted. They all approached the figure, but it did not stop to acknowledge them.
Bill waved a hand in front of his face and, when nothing happened, Adelaide scanned the suit with her sonic. "Has he got his tunes on?"
"No," Adelaide said, using her sonic to remove the helmet and reveal the lack of person inside.
"Whoa!"
"Calm down," the Doctor said, holding out a hand to the human. "It's empty."
Nardole glared at Adelaide. "And you couldn't just tell us?"
"Are you trying to scare us?"
"Adrenaline keeps you fast." Adelaide looked to the Doctor and waited for him to finish the thought.
"Fast is good."
Bill glared. "Do people ever hit you?"
"Occasionally," Adelaide said. "But they tend to hit the Doctor more."
The human crossed her arms. "So, it's basically a robot?" as she spoke, Nardole looked down into the suit, making a face.
"Ah, well. Sort of." The Doctor shrugged. "Fairly dumb. Capable of simple tasks." He looked to Nardole. "So you'd better watch your step. You could be out of a job." He bent to get closer to the suit, finding a display. "And ah! Speech." He pressed a button. "Hello, suit."
"Good morning." The suit had been given a female voice. "How may I assist?"
Nardole's eyes widened. "Ooo, recognize that voice. Yes! Nice girl, actress, bit orange. Left me for an AI in a call center."
"What killed the crew of this station?"
"I am unaware of any recent deaths."
"And the oxygen?" Adelaide asked. "Where did it all go?"
"There has never been any oxygen in this station."
Nardole laughed. "Oh, listen to that. Still saucy after all these years."
The Time Lords exchanged a look. "Explain."
"Oxygen is available for personal use only, at competitive prices."
"It's only in the suits," the Doctor said, realization striking both Time Lords. "Personal use. They only have oxygen in the suits themselves."
"And unlicensed oxygen will be automatically expelled to protect market value."
Nardole sighed. "Charging for the air you breathe. She hasn't changed. What was her name?"
Bill's eyes widened. "Hang on. Didn't we just fill this place with air?"
Adelaide tightened her grip on her sonic. "Yes, we did."
"Because it said expelled."
A klaxon sounded, making Nardole turn. "What's that?" The alarms continued, increasing in volume.
"It's decompressing!" and the Doctor, despite himself, almost without noticing, grabbed Adelaide's hand and pulled her back to the TARDIS. She did not fight him.
In the room they'd left the corpse, they could see the bulkhead doors were open, all the way out to the rest of space. The group held onto bars screwed into the wall as the pressure of space pulled. The corpse stayed in place from something in his suit, though even the TARDIS was pulled towards the open door. Both Time Lords reached out with their sonics, forcing the bulkhead door to shut again, blocking them from their ship.
"So!" Nardole said, forcing himself up and brushing himself off. The Doctor rushed forward, scanning the door. "The TARDIS is on the other side of that."
"Yes, I was really hoping that someone would state the obvious," the Doctor snapped.
"Vacuum behind it, can't open it."
"Oh, you're on a roll."
"And if we could, we'd be sucked out into space," Nardole continued.
Somewhere else in the station, there was something metallic that clanged. "What's that?" Bill asked.
"Er...nothing to worry about."
"Really?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Yes, not for several minutes. Well, don't stress early, it's a waste of energy."
"Stress about what?"
Adelaide moved to the side, sonicing the panel there. "Occupants of repair station, please identify," someone said, transmitting. "Occupants of repair station, please identify."
"Identify first, please," Adelaide said. The Doctor mouthed 'please' after she'd said it, as though he'd forgotten her commitment to manners.
"I'm sorry?"
"All of your crewmates are dead. Either you were extremely lucky and survived the massacre, or you killed them. Which is it? And please don't bother lying."
There was a pause. "This is Drill Chief Tasker. And I haven't killed anyone. Yet. Now, who is this?"
"I am Adelaide, and I'm here with the Doctor and two other people." Normally, Adelaide may not have bothered to mention the Doctor, but that man had a tendency to be remembered, as multiple past experiences had attested to. "You sent out a distress call, we received it. What happened to the crew of the station?"
"Hang on, you're in the repair bay, right? Get out of there! Now!"
"Why?"
"There are suits in there! For God's sake, stay away from the suits!"
Before either Time Lord could turn, Adelaide's sonic flew out of her hand. The suit – and the corpse inside – was reaching for them and once it had it, it crushed Adelaide's sonic. There was a spark of electricity, but it ran through the suit, making it keel over. Adelaide could only stare at her crushed sonic.
She'd had that sonic pen since they first met Amy Pond, the Doctor's TARDIS having gifted it to her before they'd properly left the planet. Even if she'd never had a sonic pen before the Doctor, even if she didn't rely on it as much as the Doctor, she had enjoyed having it. It had been nice.
And now it was utterly destroyed.
Adelaide knelt and pulled it from the suit's grip, forcing her face into neutrality, before she fixed her attention on the suit.
"Adelaide, be careful!" Bill said, eyes wide.
"The sonic fried it. The suit is safe."
"Er...you thought you were safe before," Nardole pointed out.
The Doctor glared at him. "Yes, well, this time it's Adelaide saying it and she's more likely to be right than I am." He bent as well and pulled a computer chip from the side of the suit. "Get us some history." He tossed the chip to Nardole before straightening and turning to Bill. "You okay?"
"Er...yeah. Just a...just a little freaked, I think."
"Try not to breathe so fast." The Doctor turned back to Adelaide and held her a hand, helping the Time Lady stand without saying anything. He smiled at her and, somehow, she managed to return it.
"A single line of instruction was sent to all suits," Nardole called. He'd plugged the chip into the wall in order to read it. "Deactivate your organic component."
Bill frowned. "Organic component, as in people?" Nardole's eyes widened.
The Doctor nodded. "Interesting. They were killed by their own suits."
"Can you fry those ones, too?" Bill nodded to the four suits waiting in nearby alcoves.
"Possibly, but we have another problem. Opening the airlock was the station's plan A. Plan B, filtering out all the oxygen." The Doctor nodded at a sign on a close wall, warning people to take care of their oxygen.
"So they can sell it back to us," Nardole said.
"Capitalism in space. If we want to keep breathing, we have exactly one option. Buy the merchandise." The Time Lords exchanged another look as Adelaide tucked her broken sonic into her pocket.
"Oxygen levels are seriously depleted," the computer announced. "Please step onboard your Ganymede Systems Series Twelve SmartSuit. Engage pressure pad to activate customized robing."
Bill's eyes widened. "You said those things were going to kill us!"
"Well, on the bright side, we're dying already."
"How does this help?"
"We know that they killed their occupants on specific orders," Adelaide said. "These appear to be off-network for repairs, and were thus incapable of receiving commands."
"What if you're wrong?"
"Then we'll be horribly murdered."
The Doctor's expression hardened. "Adelaide..."
"Let's move forward as if I'm correct." Her turn to harden her expression, to turn to the Time Lord. "Weren't you just saying that I was more likely to be right than you?"
He stepped closer, dropping his voice. "That's beside the point."
"In this instance, it seems that not putting on the suit is more of a death wish than putting it on, if that's what you're so concerned about."
Nardole coughed. "If those suits have killed thirty-six people, that means there's thirty-six corpses walking about this station."
"You know, that really doesn't matter right now," the Doctor snapped.
"Correction. Yeah, it does. Because I think there's something moving out there." Nardole flicked on the outside lights, making the group turn to see a large group of suits – and the corpses inside – on the outside of the ship.
"Suits, now!" the group ran to the suits, each standing on a pressure plate before them to activate the process. Adelaide was, honestly, very thankful there wasn't a proper helmet, at least not yet. It was almost bad enough that they were running out of oxygen, but now she needed to be prepared to add a helmet. And she hated that.
"Welcome to the Ganymede Systems Series Twelve SmartSuit," Bill's suit announced, the only one speaking. "Oxygen field engaged. At current levels of exertion, you have two and a half thousand breaths available."
"Breaths? You couldn't just give it to me in minutes?"
"The suit is extrapolating from current levels. When you panic, you breathe quicker," Adelaide reminded her.
"You die quicker," the Doctor added.
"Yeah, the scareder you are, the faster you suffocate. So, relax or die." Nardole winced. "Sorry, probably not the most helpful thought." Nardole patted Bill's arm. "So, breathe in, breathe out."
The Doctor moved back to the computer. "Drill Chief Tasker, this is the Doctor. Do you read me?"
"Read you, Doctor. You need to take Corridor Twelve to Processing. Quickly."
The Doctor gestured to the group, though his gaze lingered on Adelaide. "Come on."
Bill was the last to move, but Nardole turned to her. "We'd better go. Come on, but keep breathing."
They hurried forward, though they could hear the suits entering the ship behind them, following them. "They're here," the Doctor said, glancing back. "Come on! This way! Move!"
"You look like you're trying to run," Bill's suit said, interrupting them as they attempted to move quicker without actually breathing much harder. "Would you like some help with that?"
"Can you shut your girlfriend up?" Bill asked Nardole.
The humanoid, instead, grinned. "Velma! That was her name!"
"Confirmed," Bill's suit said. "My name is now Velma."
The Doctor used his sonic to seal the door behind them before they continued down the corridor. However, they couldn't go much further, despite the corpses hammering on the door behind them, because the panel was already destroyed.
"We've hit a sealed door at the end of Corridor Twelve," the Doctor called, using his suit's communicator. "No way through."
"My suit's really called Velma?"
"Correct. My name is Velma."
"Tasker, come in," the Doctor tried again.
Nardole looked behind them. "Oh! They're through!" He rushed forward to hammer on the door in front of them with the Doctor.
Adelaide looked at Bill. The human's eyes were wide, the shield around her shimmering. "Breathe in, breathe out," she whispered. "Breathe in, breathe out."
"Hello?" the Doctor tried.
"Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out."
"Anybody?"
"Tasker!" Adelaide called, trying to match Bill's breaths, but failing. She needed to breathe. And if she breathed she would die. And Adelaide did not want to die.
"Breathe in..."
"Hello? Tasker!"
"Breathe..."
The door opened, letting them rush forward. "Here. Go! Quick!"
They were brought to a quick halt by two weapons pointed at them by the other four survivors.
"Deadlock the door!" a woman ordered, one of the men not holding a weapon hurrying to do that.
"Cutting it a bit fine, weren't we?" the Doctor said, resisting the urge to look to Adelaide.
"There was some debate over whether to open it at all," one of the men holding the guns at them said, who must have been Tasker, given the voice.
Another man moved past Bill, drawing the human's attention. "Wha!" she leaned back in shock. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting...hello."
The man, who had blue skin, rolled his eyes. "Great. We rescued a racist."
"What? Excuse me?"
"And you are?" Tasker asked them, looking between the Time Lords.
"We got your distress call," the Doctor handed the man his psychic paper.
Bill was, meanwhile, attempting to rescue her situation. "Sorry. It's just I haven't seen many, well, any of your people."
"It shows."
Tasker looked to the woman. "They're from the union."
She scoffed. "The union's a myth."
"Take a look."
Nardole nodded. "Yeah. We're from the mythical union."
Tasker moved to the blue man. "Dahh-Ren?"
"We're here to help," Nardole tried.
"Sorry, is your name Darren?"
"Dahh-Ren," he corrected.
"Ahh, makes more sense." Bill's arms stretched out in front of her, stiff and straight. "Er, that's not me. That's not me."
"It's just glitching," Tasker said. "Ivan, take a look."
Ivan moved up to Bill, taking her arm to lead her away. As she passed Dahh-Ren, she looked to him again. "Look, for the record, I'm not prejudiced. I'm usually on the receiving end."
"Oh? Why?"
Bill frowned. "What, you really don't know?"
Ivan brought Bill apart from the rest of the group, although her suit continued to speak. Dahh-Ren looked to the Time Lords, crossing his arms. "Right, where's your ship?"
"Er...we're parked just off your repair station."
The woman sighed. "Then you might as well be on the moon. They're swarming round there now."
"It's just maths now," Tasker said. "Oxygen divided by bodies. And none of us have more than three thousand breaths left."
The Doctor nodded. "Then stop wasting them. We need a map of the base and a full rundown on what happened here."
"Who the hell put you in charge?"
The Doctor glanced at Adelaide, but he spoke regardless. "I'm here to save your lives. But if you don't want me to, just raise your hand."
There was a pause and Tasker crossed his arms. "Abby, get the man a map."
If there wasn't a real threat of suffocation, Adelaide may have fought it. She may have made the Doctor stop and reconsider why he had the right to order about the final survivors of this massacre. But she needed his control right now.
A/N: Poor Adelaide. First her sonic gets destroyed, then they're facing the quite real threat of darkness and suffocation. At least she got a sweet moment with the Doctor in the beginning!
