Chapter CIX
Mira
"We should name it Tamar's Planet," Mira said and looked at the Doctor, who was sitting next to her.
"What?"
"The Planet. You said it doesn't have a name yet, and if I want to name it. I do. I say we call it Tamar's Planet."
"Fine with me," he replied.
"What's about the Corvette they've left?" Jack asked.
She put the pile of pictures back on the table. Jas and the others had put together quite a lot, and it had been good to at least see the faces of all the people she had left behind again. Good to share them with Jack and the Doctor. It was as if they would become more real again, not only a part of her memory, slowly fading away. Then she put her feet up on the table as well and looked out to the garden of the TARDIS. It was still weird to see that view instead of Terrania in her new rooms. And hear the ever-present humming of the old time ship, an additional reminder that this was neither Earth nor her universe.
"The Doctor said the planet is uninhabited and will stay so for a while. Despite that it takes some luck or very good scanners to detect such a small ship, even more so when it's basically switched off and you're not looking for it. And I'm sure they didn't place it in plain sight. So I guess we can leave it there for now. I have the coordinates, so when I really need it we know where to find it."
And the ship and pictures weren't the only things the crew of the HETACE had left behind for her. Apart from a space suit it also generators for protective shields, anti-gravitation and such. She already had unpacked it before the Doctor could take a further look at the stuff – especially at the weapons. A small desintegrator, a medium weight combo-weapon, a small thermal weapon and a shock-blaster. She just wondered that the TARDIS hadn't complained, but maybe she had already deactivated them or something. They had even managed to find or make a green uniform of the Solar Empire with the emblem of the Mutant-Corps in her size – and cigarettes as well as some survival food packs, a small inflatable tent and a lot of other survival stuff. Yes, they definitely had taken it a bit far once they had started. Not that all of these things were in the Corvette anyway which they had left behind.
"What are you thinking?" Jack asked. "You look a bit worried."
"Worried?" the Doctor said before she had a chance to answer. "Think happy is the word you're looking for?"
"I-" she started.
"Happy?" Jack said. "If that's happy I never want to see- Ouch!"
She had nudged him with her elbow. "Content. I think that's the word both of you are looking for." Actually, the Doctor had gotten it quite right. She wasn't sure if she really was happy, but at least cautiously optimistic.
"So you're no longer sad about the HECATE? That was fast," Jack said.
"It's totally possible to be sad about something and content with something else at the same time," she replied. "Emotions are a complex topic. Besides, as heartless as it may sound, and I don't mean it like that, they knew the risk. You, Jack, of all people should know that. Of course we all hope to survive the day, but space travel has never been without danger. It's sad nevertheless, and I still wish there was a way to help them it, but if you want a long and peaceful life you don't go on board of a battle-ship. They knew what they signed up for. They could have died in a fight just as well." She sighed. "It was bad luck that they ended up here in the first place. But at least their loved ones know that they're dead and they're not treated as missing in action."
"Just as yours know now," the Doctor said, and, to her surprise, casually took her hand, intertwining his fingers with hers. "So what did you put into that message?"
"A picture of you!" she said and smiled at him, watching his eyes grow big.
"What!?"
"And of Jack. There were various pictures of both of you, taken by the robots and security cameras. You're quite photogenic. I just felt like my father should know with who I spend my time with. Oh come on, don't look like that. I found a really nice one of you."
"So you're convinced they'll get it?" Jack asked and pulled out a pocket bottle. "It's thousand years later after all."
"Well, by the time I ended up here, Moon was in Earth's orbit, which wasn't always the case during the last thousand years, Earth in the Sol System, and Nathan up and running, so yeah, I think they'll get it." She focused on her feelings for a moment, then she continued, "I'm actually quite certain they will, and that's not only wishful thinking. And once they'll get it, they'll find a way to get here. Maybe not tomorrow, and not even within the next years or even centuries, but they'll find one." She wondered herself why she suddenly was so certain about it. Why she could feel things like that again with such clarity. Maybe it had to do with the Doctor being able to see her timelines now. Maybe she had been in some transitional state before, adjusting to this universe. "I mean,half the work is already done. More or less. The HECATE made it here by accident, and I sent them all the data and everything. And however long it takes, I can wait. I don't particularly like it, but I know I can."
"And what if it really takes centuries?" Jack asked.
"It might," she replied. "Atlan was once gone for four-hundred years. Most people thought he was dead, but I waited for him."
"The handsome, white-haired guy?" Jack asked and pulled a picture from the stash showing Atlan and her hand in hand in one of those moments she had thought to be unobserved.
She wondered who had brought just that picture on board of the HECATE and why, and suddenly realised how nice it was being able to move on Earth without being hunted by paparazzi-drones in this universe. Even though interest in her private life had varied during the centuries, she was and had been a public person in her universe.
He continued as she nodded, "And you waited for four-hundred years for him? That's what I call commitment."
"Well, not waited as in: I never even so much as looked at other men, but- I never gave up on him," she replied and shrugged. "I never stopped hoping that he might come back one day. And that things might be as they were before. There have been others, but not even nearly as close as we had been. When he came back, it didn't quite turn out as I hoped it would."
"So what happened?"
"Jack, really?" She felt she had already spread out enough of her private love-life.
"What? Is he dead? If so, I'm sorry and forget I've ever asked," Jack said and offered her the bottle, strong smell of alcohol reaching her nose.
"He's not dead. You really drink a lot, you know?" She pushed away his hand with the bottle.
"You're diverting. So, what happened?"
"Nothing really. Just time, I guess. We've changed, both of us. It just didn't work out any more. And there was another woman, which eventually married my father. Big drama all in all. But things worked out again, sort of. It's ages ago. You can't really hold a grudge for a very long time, at least not because of things like that."
"Well, sounds like pretty serious stuff to me," Jack said.
"Does it?" she looked at him. "Nothing happened out of ill will or intentionally or just to hurt someone. I mean, it was awful when it happened, and Atlan and I had some really nasty fights, but eventually we were able to see it for what it was. So we licked our wounds, picked ourselves up again and went on eventually."
They sat in silence for a moment. She looked down at the Doctor's hand still holding hers, with his long, beautiful fingers, resisting the urge to rest her head on his shoulder.
"And what if they don't find a way?" the Doctor asked quietly, coming back to their original topic.
"They will," she replied. "If not, at least they know where I am and that I'm fine. And for the time being I'm going to make the best out of it. Trying to embrace change and such, you know?" The Doctor just stared at her, one eyebrow raised. "What? It sounds reasonable, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, it does," he said sceptically. "Mind you, a bit too reasonable."
"I'm at least going to try," she said. "You were right. The Solar Empire is gone, and it will never come back. It was great seeing them again, but, and don't get me wrong, they were only a shadow of a past long gone. This pretty much goes for all of it. I'm here now, a fact I can't change right now; apart from hoping to find a way. But I can change how I see it, how I feel about it, and probably it's time to stop whining. At least," she squeezed the Doctor's hand and linked her other arm with Jack's, "I'm not alone."
NicoleR85, bored411, lautaro94, OneWhoReadsTooMuch, time-twilight, Type40TARDIS, LPWomer: Thanks for leaving a review :-)
DoctorRose: Wow, I think disgusting is quite a strong word in this case. Apart of that, I think it really amusing that you (and probably others) truly seem to believe I made an OC and am writing this story for now well over two (or even three?) years, just to bash a fictional character. (By the way, I'm already past Martha, so it didn't stop with "bashing" Rose) But you obviously expected a romance with the Doctor and Rose, and the description makes it pretty clear that it's not a romance between Rose and the Doctor, but between my OC and the Doctor. You might want to have another look, I think it is rather easy to get it wrong with all the brackets around the character's names.
By the way, I don't think I'm bashing Rose. I might have exaggerated her negative traits, but only the traits that were already visible in the show. I didn't even plan her to turn out just like that, it just got into a certain dynamic which fitted really well with the behaviour Rose displayed towards her boyfriend Mickey and other women.
So long story short, I'm not going to change the description towards Rose-bashing because that's not what I was doing, and it clearly states that it is not a Doctor/Rose romance.
