Chapter Eighteen

"Chris'mas!"

Mickey lunged forwards and caught Leia Powell before she toppled from her mother's arms in her verbally mangled enthusiasm to greet Mickey. His foot slipped on the ice that encrusted the edge of the door, and his heart jumped into her throat as she bent to keep himself upright. Hand curled protectively around Leia's head, he ended up headbutting Sabrina's jutting hip as her hands tried to yank him up. Leia giggled in his ear, something wet and sticky pressing against his skin that he hoped wasn't her mouth as he had seen what she liked to shove in there when she thought no one was looking.

"Christ," Sabrina huffed, heaving Mickey back onto his feet. "Sorry about that. She's taken to throwing herself at people lately like she's going to bounce if people don't catch her. You've got good reflexes."

"Cheers." He rubbed his forehead and looked down at Leia who, it turned out, had a saliva-covered candy cane that she was brandishing about her head. "Merry Christmas to you too. Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"Don't even get me started," Sabrina complained as she shouldered her way into his house and began peeling out of her coat. She was wearing a set of matching pyjamas, the bottoms shoved into Wellington boots, and he quickly shut the door behind her to stop the heat leeching out and warming the street. "Mum's best friend Margaret came around this evening and she kept feeding Leia sweets from the table. She's on a sugar high at the moment, and I just had to get out of there before I took her fucking candy canes and shoved them up her ass."

Mickey dodged one of the candy canes in questions and pretended to eat it to draw Leia's attention back to it. "We don't like Margaret?"

"We do not," she said, dragging her fingers through her hair and tying it in a messy bun on the top of her head. Her cheeks were flushed from the cold and her anger. "Sorry for dropping in like this. You guys probably have plans, but I just couldn't stay there anymore and I'm not about to pop around Joel's on Christmas Eve. Mel's a right nutter for Christmas."

"It's fine, you're welcome any time," he told her. "Come on through. I'll get you some hot chocolate."

The tension started to slide from her. "Add a splash of brandy, would you? It's been a day and a half."

He shook his head with a chuckle and hitched Leia until she was sat on his shoulders, the bottom of the candy cane smacking against the top of his head. Sabrina followed him through into the living room and stopped at the sight before her. She had expected some form of festive spirit given how much planning Mickey had put into the Christmas period and how excited Jack was for what he liked to call an "old-fashioned" Christmas since, apparently, Christmas had fallen out of fashion by his time. Instead, there was a tension in the air that was broken by the live news unfurling on the screen, a freshly washed Sarah Jane watching it with eagle eyes as she nursed a cup of tea, and Trisha pacing back and forth while she rubbed her aching back.

"Whoa, who died?" Panic sliced through her chest when she registered their serious, anxious faces. "Oh no, who died? Are Jack and Rose okay?"

"Alien invasion, babe," Trisha reassured her. "Jack an' Rose are fine as far as we know."

There was a brief moment of relief before she started panicking again. "Alien invasion? Are you kidding me, where?"

"Under the River Thames," Sarah Jane replied. "But also from space."

Sabrina stared. "How bad's it going to be?"

"We don't know yet," she said with a cheerfulness born from her painkillers kicking in and letting her float. "Could be we're eaten by spiders, could be Zoe and Jack save the day."

"Is that a joke?"

"Be a bad one if it is," Sarah Jane said, sweeping her eyes over her. "You're wearing pyjamas. I like them."

"Thanks," she replied, tugging on her button up shirt before she frowned. "Wait, did you say Zoe and Jack? As in my cousin Zoe? Is she back? Mickey! Is Zoe back?"

Mickey, who had taken Leia into the kitchen to pry the candy cane from her fingers and replace it with a more moderately healthy shortbread biscuit that was yet to be decorated, leaned around the open fridge door and shouted back to her.

"Yeah," he called, deciding that since Jack hadn't actually returned with any milk, Sabrina was going to have to make do with a cream-based hot chocolate rather than milk. "But she's bought this trouble with her, so don't get too excited about it. Jack's with her now tryin' to help fix everythin' she's broke."

Trisha rolled her eyes. "We don't know if she's responsible for this."

"It's Zoe, she's responsible," was his short reply.

Sabrina raised her eyebrows in a silent question, and Trisha caught a sigh in her mouth before she glanced back towards the kitchen and lowered her voice so that Mickey didn't over her.

"Zoe comin' home's hit a little weirder than he was expectin'," she explained. "He's happy but it's bringin' up a lot of emotion he didn't know he had. Christmas is really goin' to be rough."

"Still rather be here than home," Sabrina said, glancing towards the screen where a group of talking heads were attempting to make sense out of the robot Santa attack in central London, spinning worry and fear out of nothing. "But if Zoe's back, then that means it's serious, right? She wouldn't bring something small back with her like Ewoks, would she?"

Trisha shrugged her shoulders again. "I have no bloody idea what sort of things people bring back from space. Mickey seems to think it's bad though, an' UNIT's on high alert an' everythin'. Mickey said Jack didn't seem happy when he called, which is strange because it's Jack."

Sabrina brought her thumb to her mouth and worried the hangnail on the side. When the Battle of Canary Wharf was taking place, she had been trapped in a Superdrug with Leia in her pushchair and hid by the pick 'n' mix with a group of teenagers who had been in the middle of shoplifting. She remembered the sheer terror at the sight of the Cybermen stomping along the streets, mercifully passing the shop by as one of the employees had been quick thinking and cut all the electricity. If the Daleks hadn't descended on the city with their weapons blaring, drawing the Cybermen's attention, Sabrina was sure the ruse wouldn't have worked for long but, as it was, those trapped in that particular Superdrug had been lucky, avoiding the worst of the battle and the fallout.

Despite learning about what her cousins had been doing for the last couple of years – or decade in Zoe's case – Sabrina wasn't comfortable with aliens. The visit from Ryga was enough to terrify her into not wanting to be fully involved in the world like Rose was, her cousin frighteningly comfortable with dealing with various situations that would have made Sabrina a gibbering wreck. And the thought of her cousins being in the middle of another situation, one with potentially the same destructive effect as the Battle of Canary Wharf, caused her stomach to turn over and her head to lighten with fear.

At least she was with Mickey. Even if he was retired from alien affairs, she felt safer with him and Sarah Jane, no matter how high the latter was, as they knew what to do and would keep her and, more importantly, Leia safe.

She watched Trisha pace, hand pressing into the small of her back. "Baby sitting badly?"

"Doin' somersaults," Trisha explained, an air of exhaustion about her. "An' a few high kicks that keep jabbin' me. It's like he knows something's happenin'."

"You need to stop pacing, it just gets him excited." She got to her feet and gestured for Trisha to move towards her. "Come on, hands and knees."

"What?"

"Trust me, it's what I did with Leia, come on." She waited and Trisha reluctantly lowered herself to her knees with help and let Sabrina manhandle her into position, her dreads hanging over her shoulders and touching the floor. "All right, now put your head, chest, and shoulders towards the floor, but stick your bum in the air."

Mickey paused in the doorway with Leia in one arm and a cup of hot chocolate in the other. "What the hell?"

Trisha started laughing. "I don't know either but if it gets the baby to stop kicking, then I don't care."

"Just curl yourself over and hold yourself like that," Sabrina told her, taking the hot chocolate from Mickey with a grateful smile. She inhaled the rich scent and her smile widened at the faint alcoholic smell that drifted off it. "You're limiting the space he has to move about and it'll settle him. If that doesn't work, stand up and move like you're spinning a hula hoop."

Trisha gave a low grunt. "This feels really good on my lower back."

"You're welcome," she replied, retaking her seat on the sofa and folding her legs under her as Mickey deposited Leia into Sarah Jane's willing lap. Delight suffused her expression as Leia turned her face upwards and smiled gummily, showing her the biscuit Mickey had given her. "Tell me then, what exactly's going on?"

"The short of it is there's a massive spider that Jack thinks is tryin' to get somethin' out of the centre of the Earth," he explained, watching Trisha with a mixture of concern and amusement as she gently rocked back and forth on her hands and knees, stretching out her spine with relief that threatened to border on the inappropriate. "It wouldn't be so bad if the spider didn't eat planets."

"Planets?" Sabrina asked. "I thought Sarah Jane was just high when she said that."

"I wish," Mickey replied, taking a deep drink from his bottle of beer. "Whatever species they are, they eat planets accordin' to Zoe."

"So..." she paused, thinking. "It's not good."

"It's potentially not good," he told her. "But people are on it an' we've got beer an' hot chocolate so we're fine."

"He's tryin' to convince himself," Trisha said from the floor where her arms were splayed before her, cheek mashed against the soft rug Jack had found in the attic and cleaned. "He's not enjoyin' his retirement."

"We're not callin' it a retirement," Mickey complained. "Stop it."

Trisha grumbled, as happy and content as a cat in a patch of sunlight with the pressure off her lower back, and Sarah Jane laughed softly as she played patty cake with Leia. Sabrina watched her daughter, love mingled with the gut-deep fear she felt that despite the peace of the moment in Mickey's living room, danger was going to slam into them. She sipped her hot chocolate and tried to force the brick-like emotion from her throat, swallowing with all her might.

"Aren't you tempted to go and join them?" Sabrina asked, curiously. "I mean, you've done it before."

"A little," he admitted. "When Jack called an' said Zoe's back, I was really tempted to go an' join them but I'd just get in the way. They can handle it by themselves. And, besides, I can't leave Trisha alone when she's so pregnant. Sarah Jane's so high she wouldn't know what to do if her water's broke."

Sarah Jane looked up from Leia and scoffed. "Honestly, I'm not that high. And I'm perfectly capable of calling an ambulance, thank you. Anyway, out of everyone in this one, I believe I'm the only one who's actually delivered a baby before."

They paused, surprised, and Trisha lifted her cheek from the rug to look around at her.

"Really?" She pushed herself up a little, keeping up the small rocking moment that kept the pressure off her lower back. "When was this?"

"Oh, a few decades ago now," Sarah Jane answered, one hand confidently supporting Leia's back. "The Doctor and I were to Han Dynasty China. We wanted some authentic Chinese food and he overshot."

Mickey snorted. "There's a surprise."

She spared him an amused look. "Yes, well, we landed in the middle of a forest where there was a young woman giving birth. She couldn't have been more than fourteen or fifteen and was completely terrified. And despite the fact he's called doctor, he was useless. God, the way that man flapped about at the thought of having to get to the business end." She shook her head, mouth curving at the memory. "I was the only one not panicking or rambling about the reproduction methods of the Xanadene goose so I got involved. I'm not going to say it put me off having children of my own but it certainly didn't help."

Sabrina nodded, knowing and experienced. "I can tell you for free, it's awful. All those women who say it's a magical experience can fuck right off. I was in labour for ages with Leia, and I've just tried to blank it out."

"This isn't helpful," Trisha said from the floor. "I'm still pregnant."

"Sorry," she laughed, poking her hip with her toe. "It's worth it though: all the pain and ripped perineum." Mickey choked on his beer. "Trust me, the second you hold your son in your arms, you won't care about a single bit of it."

"This is a horrible conversation," he told them. "I'm feelin' a bit sick."

"Aren't you her birth partner?" Sabrina asked, pointedly. "You're going to need to get really cool about some things really quickly."

Mickey looked into his beer and decided there wasn't enough alcohol in it for him to handle a conversation about vaginal tears during childbirth. He got to his feet and returned to the kitchen to the warm, amused laughter of his friends. Shaking his head, he wondered whether being in the middle of a potentially world ending situation was better for him than being surrounded by three women who were free and open with their conversation. Listening to their laughter at something Sarah Jane said, he found himself smiling. As much as he was worried about Jack and Zoe being in the thick of things, grateful that Rose was safer at UNIT's headquarters, there was nowhere else he would rather be right then.

As difficult as it was to be the one who kept the hearth warm and the light turned on, he realised that Trisha was right: the burden was lighter on his shoulders when he had the company of good friends to sit with him and be there no matter what.

Pouring himself a healthy serving of Jack's expensive and alien whiskey, he touched his fingers to the picture of them on the fridge before heading back out to face the rest of the evening.


The TARDIS gave a jolt, and Zoe dropped her extended middle finger to keep Donna upright as Jack thrust the ship into the Time Vortex with all the elegancy of a geriatric duck. The ship tumbled and turned, bouncing off an eddy that sent the three of them from their feet before gravity kicked in and they were pulled roughly to the ground. Donna groaned, catching herself before she face planted, and Zoe crab walked over her to grab the edge of the console and heave herself upright next to a barely standing Jack. His hair fell in front of his eyes, and his muscles strained beneath his coat as he tried to hold the various levers in place while keeping the buttons depressed. Throwing herself across the console, Zoe pressed the buttons in place of him and lifted a foot to shove the wibbly-wobbly lever into place, holding it there with a strain in her muscles.

"Any ideas for where to go?" Jack asked, voice loud since he was contorted over her. "Or are we just going to stay in the Vortex?"

"Not like this we're not," she grit out. "We need to be anywhere that's not here. The Time Vortex is prime hunting ground for baby Racnoss. They learn to hunt and track in its eddies."

"Fuck," he complained, reaching around her to grab another lever. He yanked it back with such force that something started smoking. "Donna, grab the fire extinguisher!"

Zoe tried to look around. "What's burning?"

"The trans-dimensional toaster, again," he said. "All right, everyone hold on, I'm going to try something."

White foam exploded out of the fire extinguisher Donna wielded with an efficacy that her rescuers appreciated before she was thrown off her feet, an arc of foam spraying high over head and coating the struts, when Jack twisted the TARDIS mid-flight and sent her hurtling out of the Vortex. Calm space wrapped around them, the powerful vibrations of the Vortex leaving them behind, and there was a moment to breathe. Zoe's leg slid off the console and Jack straightened, wincing at the pull in his back, while Donna coughed beneath the extinguisher foam.

"Great," she groaned. "This is great."

"Everyone okay?" Zoe asked, rolling her wrists. "Everyone more or less in tact? Donna?"

"I want to go home," she whined, wiping the foam off her face. She examined the traces of make up in it and sighed. "I knew that cheap bitch Nerys didn't use the setting spray I told her to. Look!" She held up foundation stained foam. "Does this look like it's been set?"

"It does not," Jack agreed, helping her to her feet. "I think you're going to need a shower and a change of clothes. That fire extinguisher went everywhere."

She flicked the foam onto the grating with an annoyed grunt. "Pretty sure Chez Allison won't accept a return now."

His eyes flicked over her dress that was filthy at the hem and saturated with foam over the rest of it. "Yeah, probably not. Here."

He handed her the towel from under the console and she started wiping herself clean as he circled back to Zoe, leaning over her shoulder. "Where are we going?"

"It doesn't matter where," Zoe told him, plotting a convoluted course on the computer that took them around a couple of black holes, through a few dozen nebulas, and in and out of multiple time zones. "We just need a little bit of time to get our bearings and come up with a plan. I'm like 90% sure she'll be able to summon us back."

"Like the Daleks?" He asked, concerned. "Straight from out of the TARDIS?"

Zoe shook her head. "I mean summon back the TARDIS. I'm not entirely positive the TARDIS can withstand a Racnoss attack because she and her sisters were conceived long after the Dark Ages. Do you remember that night you were all gooey-eyed about old specs of Gallifreyan ships you'd found in the library?"

"I do," Jack replied, enthusiastically. "Those were some cracking ships. The design on them was –"

"I was there, I had you rhapsodising live," she interrupted, and he grinned. "My point is, the Gallifreyans used different ships when fighting the Racnoss back then. The TARDIS probably doesn't have defensive mechanisms against them because why would the Time Lords bother when they thought the Racnoss were defeated in the Dark Ages?"

"So all we have to fight the Racnoss is a ship that may be vulnerable against them – no offence, darling." Jack patted the TARDIS affectionately who, behind their backs, began plotting a new course. "And information that you've heard from the Doctor who probably read it in a history book to begin with."

"I mean...I also read the history books," she said.

His eyes crinkled with fondness. "Of course you did."

"But the books contain a bit of revisionist history," Zoe admitted. "Rassilon became president not long after and with Omega banished and the Other, well, the Other, he was free to write his own version of events. It's a bit difficult to sort out fact from his ego."

"Okay, that's not great," Jack said, "but we've done more with less. But I'm still foggy on who the Racnoss are. Why did Gallifrey fight a war against them?"

"Basically they're planet eaters," she explained. "According to the texts, the Racnoss are born starving and they need to eat in order to multiply so they'll consume entire planets, right down to the minerals in the soil before they'll move on. Gallifrey didn't like that."

"For obvious reasons," he said.

"Yeah," she agreed before the TARDIS shifted, canting ninety degrees to the left and sliding smoothly back into the Time Vortex. She and Jack stared at each other. "Now what?"

Moving her to one side, Jack stood at the console and his hands flew rapidly across the keyboard in an attempt to wrest back control of the ship. The TARDIS gave an insolent beep before biting at his fingers with the lightest burst of electricity that was designed to startle, not harm.

"She's got her own plans for us," he determined. "It looks like she's taking us somewhere we need to go."

"Guess that means we're trusting her," Zoe said, rapping her knuckles against the console. "It's not that I mind you taking us on trips but we need to come up with a better way for you to let us know what's happening rather than just taking over." The TARDIS ignored her, and she sighed. "All right then. Donna –"

They both looked around to Donna only to find her facing the closed door, sodden towel hanging over the railing, her head bowed and her shoulders shaking. A soft, pained sigh left Zoe. She looked up at Jack who had sympathy dripping out of him.

"I'll talk to her," Zoe said, softly. "I'm sure you need to update some people."

"Yeah," Jack agreed, hand resting on her shoulder. "I'll call Rose, let her know what's going on, and then check in with Mickey. We've got about ten minutes before we get to wherever she's taking us so, take your time."

"You too."

"Oh, one quick thing." She looked back at him, eyebrows raised. "Where do you keep the handsets for the phones?"

"Cupboard of my office, why?"

"Mine got shot," he said, and she opened her mouth, confused, but he cut her off with a shake of his head. "Long story but it's Jim the Fish's fault, and yours now that I come to think about it."

She rolled her eyes. "Help yourself to one."

He lightly rapped her on the back of her head with his knuckles and walked off to leave her and Donna alone together. Wiping her hands on the stomach of her jumper, Zoe walked quietly towards her and lightly touched her back. Donna jumped, face wet with tears and smeared make up, and Zoe slid an arm around her shoulders to pull her into her embrace. There was one moment of stiff resistance before Donna melted into her, head cradled in the crook of Zoe's neck where the rough scratch of the lace veil rubbed against her skin.

"I'm sorry," she murmured into the top of her damp red hair. "I'm really, really sorry."

"I thought he loved me," Donna whispered, hot tears cascading silently down her cheeks. "I thought...how stupid am I?"

"You're not stupid," Zoe said, firmly. "Lance made you believe he loved you. You were just...it could have been anyone. It wasn't not personal."

"It feels it."

"Yeah, I bet." She rubbed her shoulder and rested her cheek against the top of her head. "Come on, your absolutely filthy. I bet you'll feel better with a quick shower and a cup of tea, what do you say?"

"Do we have time?"

"Should do," Zoe replied, taking her hand. "The TARDIS is taking us somewhere, and I trust her to keep us safe while we're en-route. We won't be able to avoid the Racnoss forever but it's enough of a breather to come up with some sort of plan."

Donna nodded, following her deeper into the TARDIS. "A shower sounds good."

Zoe led her into the living quarters of the TARDIS that generally, unless the ship was in a mischievous mood, remained close to the console room. The kitchen, communal rooms, their offices, bedrooms, library, and swimming pool formed the central nexus of their day-to-day life when everyone was on board, and Donna found herself peering into the rooms curiously. Jack was in his and Mickey's room, talking to Rose on the speakerphone as he changed shirts with the door wide open, oblivious to the two women passing by, and Zoe led her into her bedroom.

"Do you ever tidy?" Donna asked without thought.

"I've been in a bit of a bad mental place," Zoe said, defensively, as she scooped up piles of clothes and shoved them into the wardrobe. "Come on, bathroom's through here. Just shuck everything off, I'll deal with it later. Do you want the wedding dress back?"

"God no," she said, peeling the veil from her hair. "Burn it."

"All right." Zoe took the veil from her and held out her hands for the jewellery that she put into a velvet purple bag for Donna to collect later. "Shower's self-explanatory but if you have any problems, think really hard at the TARDIS and she'll sort things out for you. I'll have a cup of tea waiting when you're done." She turned to leave only to head towards the chest of drawers. "Almost forget, you'll need a change of clothes."

"I don't think I'll fit into your clothes," Donna said, eyes skimming over her. "When was the last time you had a proper meal? You look like you'd snap in the wind."

"Charming," she replied, pulling out a pair of Mickey's sweatpants she had stolen a long time ago and one of the Doctor's T-shirts that had the phrase Trust me, I'm a doctor on it: a gag gift from Rose one Tuesday. "Just put these on when you're done."

"Thanks," Donna said, holding the clothes close to her. "I mean it."

"Least I could do," she said with a shrug. "When you're done, the TARDIS will show you to the kitchen. If she doesn't, just yell. One of us will hear you."

She left Donna to her shower and what she assumed was some much needed alone time. Zoe figured that if the person she was about to marry proved to be in league with an alien intent on eating her planet, she would also want some time alone to sort her head out.

Jack found her a few minutes later busying herself with making Donna a cup of tea while the coffee machine pumped out two perfect coffees for her and Jack. Since she didn't have much in the way of food in, as it had been a while since she had stopped at a supermarket, a paltry bag of cheese and onion crisps and a single sleeve of Jaffa cakes sat on the table to give them an energy boost. Jack swept the Jaffa cakes up into his hand and peeled the plastic away while leaning against the counter.

Her eyes flicked over his new shirt. "Did you do a costume change?"

"I've been wearing awful 21st century material for the last five months," Jack told her around a mouthful of Jaffa cakes. "I've been getting rashes from the material, so of course I've changed. Don't you dare take off again before I've had a chance to grab some of my clothes. I'm not putting up with another five months of rashes."

The small teaspoon clinked against the side of his coffee mug when she stirred in the milk. "I've told you, I won't be taking off again."

"I want to believe that," he replied. "I really do."

She turned and pressed his coffee into his hands, sipping hers while studiously avoiding his eyes. She sat at the table and opened the bag of crisps, dipping her hand in for lack of anything better to do. Awkward and tense silences were not something she was familiar with in her relationship with Jack. The two of them always got on easily and well without any stress getting in the way, and she didn't know what to do with the tension that stretched between them.

"The golden energy woke her up," Jack said into the silence. "I'm assuming she meant the huon energy you were messing with."

"A reasonable theory," Zoe replied, hands cupping her coffee and looking into the black surface. "The way I was blasting against the walls, I wasn't exactly careful with what I did with the excess energy."

"I imagine you weren't." His disappointment echoed loud and clear in his voice, and she squirmed as it slid under her skin. "Do you have a plan for dealing with the Racnoss?"

She swallowed. "Not really. I know that she can't be re-homed anywhere because once she's finished eating the planet, she'll move on. It's what her species does. And even if she's the only one there –"

"Rose thinks the ship in orbit contains baby Racnoss," he interrupted. "Their working theory is that it's a seed ship the Empress took when the war was going badly. Enough genetic material for diversity in rebuilding the species."

She didn't taste her coffee when she swallowed it down. "Then that creates a larger problem. Gallifrey considered the Racnoss too dangerous to allow to live. And while I don't want to make decisions based on them, we'd be stupid not to take it into account."

"Rose said that Ianto's been able to discover the building has bombs built into the secret floor," Jack informed her, eyes fixed on her even as she took pains to avoid his gaze. "Dr Taylor believes he can activate them from a distance if necessary. Will that be enough to deal with the empress?"

"I don't know." Zoe removed her phone to bring up the information available on the Racnoss from the TARDIS database: nothing concrete, merely historical artefacts, a few books about the war, and some theories. "Brax says the only idea the founders had was to exterminate them like pests."

"Brax?" He questioned. "The Doctor's brother?"

She lifted her phone to show him the screen. "He compiled a lot of the information from the Dark Ages and added his own analysis. I don't know how much of it is official and how much of it is the Doctor preserving it because it was Brax's work."

"I'm willing to trust Brax over another Time Lord just because he's the Doctor's brother," Jack admitted. "Did he happen to say how we exterminate a Racnoss?"

"He's unhelpfully vague on the matter," she said, putting her phone down face first. "Jack –"

His face twitched, glancing away from her for the first time, and pain crashed through her, the urge to cry welling up in her. There was no time to open her mouth and speak as Donna entered the kitchen looking cleaner and younger with her wet hair braided back, the Doctor's T-shirt stretching across her breasts. Her entrance cut straight through the tension, shattering it, and they both smiled up at her, pretending everything was perfectly fine between them.

"Your boyfriend's as skinny as a rat," Donna complained.

Jack snorted. "He is a bit NARROW. Here, have a cup of tea."

"Do you feel better?" Zoe asked, leaning back in her chair and looking up at her.

"Yeah, a bit." She sipped her tea and her shoulders relaxed. "Oh, that's better."

"There's nothing a cup of tea can't solve, that's what my mum says," Zoe told her as her phone beeped and she checked it. "Doesn't always work but it does always help. Don't sit down though: we're here."

Jack pushed away from the counter. "Where's here?"

"The same spatial coordinates as Earth, more or less," she said, handing the phone to him and leading them from the kitchen. Donna hurried along behind with the bag of crisps tucked between her elbow and her body, suddenly famished. "But we're 4.54 billion years in the past from our time."

"That's right about when the Earth was formed," Jack recalled. "Give or take a few hundred thousand. Before or after the Dark Ages?"

"During, I suppose," Zoe replied, bypassing the console and heading straight to the door when they entered the control room. "What's the betting that whatever the Racnoss is digging for got caught up in the gravity of the Earth's formation?"

"Can't see why else the TARDIS would bring us here," he agreed, sliding her phone into her back pocket and making space for Donna in front of him. "Let's see it then."

Zoe opened the door and then stepped back so that Donna was able to the a full and uninterrupted view of the magnificence of the universe. Purest black rolled out in front of them with clusters of bright, barely lived stars exploding across its surface. To the left of them, where the Horsehead Nebula would one day bloom itself into existence, thick, heavy pieces of rock floated through the still and rugged vastness of space. The sun shone brighter than any of them had seen it, young in comparison to the one that burnt their skin on sticky summer days with ice cream and grass under bare feet, and Donna released a breath she hadn't realised was caught in her chest.

"Whoa," she breathed. "This is...whoa."

Jack smiled and leaned his weight against the open door, eyes drinking in the sight before them. "I've missed this so much. It's easy to forget how beautiful it is when you're not seeing it properly. All we're missing is the Doctor's tour guide spiel."

Zoe glanced across to him and caught his eye, a small, sad smile pulling the corners of her mouth up as she slipped into her best Doctor impression. "And here we are, 4.54 billion years in the past. All of this dust and rocks and stuff, that's us. This is what makes up planet Earth."

"You tiny little humans emerged from this brilliance," Jack continued, "which is quite surprising considering you've only recently split the atom."

Laughter felt good after so long of living without it, and she reached behind Donna's back for Jack's hand that he willingly gave her. There was something to be said for being in the middle of a dangerous and unpredictable situation that she was responsible for with laughter in her mouth and a friend's hand in hers. She squeezed his hand, hoping he understood, before she looked back out into the universe.

"Everyone keep their eyes peeled for something alien," she said. "The TARDIS wouldn't have brought us here without a reason."

Donna reached a tentative hand out, stretching it past the barrier of the door, and she ghosted it through the space dust that gathered on her palm and fingers. Pulling it back, she examined her hand closely, rubbing the dust between her thumb and forefinger.

"Careful," Jack teased. "That might be a bit of Kent on your hand."

"What?" A look of alarm passed across her face. "Really?"

"He's just teasing you," Zoe assured her. "It's fine to touch it. Hard to resist actually, isn't it?"

Donna stared at the dust in amazement, wiping it across both her hands. "I s'pose all of this puts the wedding in perspective, doesn't it? We're just tiny. Nothing we do matters, not really."

"So?" Jack asked, watching a piece of rock the size of his head tumble across their field of vision. "Life is what we make it, not what we believe the universe has in store for us."

"But look at it," she said, unable to tear her eyes away from the sight before them. "How can any of us matter when the universe is this big? We're so tiny in comparison."

"And we still exist," Zoe replied, bumping shoulders with her. "In this huge cosmic blanket that we see, we're still here. The chance of us being here because some billions of years ago, our planet was forming out of this very dust. Everything that we are is in this and we're made of what we see around us, but the fact that we're here, exactly as we are, how is that not miraculous?"

Donna hummed, letting her voice wash over her. "But everything that's happened today – it doesn't really mean anything, does it?"

"It means everything," Jack told her, arm going around her shoulder and tugging on the end of Zoe's bun. "Humans, we put meaning on life with religion and dreams and we tell ourselves that we are the reason the universe was made but the truth is, we're just living. We're making choices and it's not something where we make the right choice and win. We just live as best we can, try to make the right choices and be kind to people, and enjoy the universe for the marvel it is."

Donna leaned into him, hand seeking out Zoe's. "It's hard to believe that we really came out of all of this. What's that quote about star stuff?"

"Just that," Zoe replied. "Carl Sagan told us that we're made of star stuff. Everything in our body was created at the start of the universe in the Big Bang, and the universe somehow came together at just the right moment that we were created. Pretty amazing, isn't it?"

"Kind of wished I'd paid more attention in physics," she admitted.

"You don't need physics when you're around us," Jack told her. "We've got that covered."

A smile touched her mouth as she watched a large chunk of rock that vaguely resembled the Isle of Wight if she squinted before asking, "but how does all of this become the Earth? It's just dust and rocks."

"Now you've done it," Zoe warned. "Jack's a bit of an astrophysics nerd."

"Like you're not," he replied. "Basically, gravity. There's going to be a big rock or something similar that is large enough it creates its own gravity field. It doesn't have to be a strong field but just enough to start pulling in other bits and pieces until the weight of it crushes it all together. The gravity increases and more elements and dust and gas will keep being added to it before you get the Earth."

Donna looked up at him. "Just like that?"

"Just like – hello." Jack started forward, dropping his arm from around Donna and hanging out of the doorway. Zoe sank her hand into the back of his coat out of instinct even though the TARDIS would never let anything bad happen to any of them. "Well, well, well, look who's come to say hi."

An enormous starship with seven spikes jutting out of it drifted into view. It was obvious that it had been damaged as one of the points was bellowing thick black smoke that created a large cloud behind it. Even from the distance the TARDIS was, Zoe saw that its energy levels were low and it was on its last legs, limping away from the war to hide in stellar nurseries and forming planets. The TARDIS beeped as it picked up a distress signal from the ship, broadcasting on all frequencies to their Racnoss brethren: a risk considering Rassilon, Omega, and the Other were leading fleets to hunt them down and destroy them.

"The ship's been damaged," Jack noted. "Look at the bottom of the third star to the right. That's weapon damage."

"It's about to get even more damaged," Zoe said. "They don't have their deflector on. The ship's acting like a magnet. Look at the dust heading towards it."

"Er – I have a theory," he said, pointing at the ship. "Big rock plus gravity."

"The weight of the Earth would have to crush it," she replied. "No matter how strong a ship is, an entire planet would smush it, right?"

Jack scratched his neck. "Maybe?"

"Maybe?" She turned to him, startled. "What do you mean by maybe?"

"I've never actually considered a ship forming the centre of a planet before," he replied. "But whatever's happening, it seems to be using the ship as the centre of gravity. So whether or not it's possible doesn't take away from the fact that the Racnoss ship is the centre of the Earth."

"That big hole," Donna said, looking between them. "You said they were drilling down into the Earth?"

"Oh, fuck." Zoe sighed and turned away from the ship to stride back to the console. "The Empress is digging down to rescue her people who are probably fossilised by now, if there's anything left of them. Jesus Christ. Surely the Racnoss have time travel technology if they let their little babies hunt in the Time Vortex. Wouldn't it make more sense to jump back to here?"

"You've been spoilt by the TARDIS," Jack said, joining her as Donna stayed in the doorway and kept watching. "99% of time travel is limited by distance, both temporal and spatial. My Manipulator only jumps further because the Doctor secured it for me. Those old ships of Gallifrey? Their time travel was limited to centuries. The Racnoss may just dip their toes in and aren't able to control it."

"Great, that's wonderful." She rubbed her forehead to forestall the headache she was sure was on its way. "Okay, so let's say that, somehow, the Racnoss survived at the centre of the Earth, what do we do?"

"Plug the hole," Donna said, shutting the door carefully behind her. They looked around at her and she shrugged. "I mean, it's one way in, one way out, right? Can't you just, I don't know, cover it up or something?"

Zoe and Jack looked at each other.

"It's not the worst idea in the world," Zoe agreed.

"No, it's not," he replied. "We can't keep them down there though but it's a tempora –"

Flung off his feet, Jack barrelled into Donna and the two of them barely kept their feet under them as Zoe held tightly to the console, pulling the computer screen around to face her. Her heart slammed itself against her ribcage, and she took a deep breath to steady herself.

"We're being pulled back," Zoe informed them over her shoulder. "Hold on tight to something. I'm going to try to throw us off a bit!"


Zoe picked herself off the floor and checked the computer screen, pleased that she had been able to knock them off course. Instead of landing in the room right before the Racnoss, they were three corridors and two hundred feet from where the empress wanted them to be. It wasn't much but any advantage was better than nothing. Reaching under the console, she pulled out the small bag of tricks she had taken to carrying with her on her various misadventures and slung it across her torso. She didn't know exactly how they were going to stop the TARDIS, the realisation it was going to be an on-the-go plan that generally worked for them in the past making her nerves sing with nervous energy.

She liked plans they made up when the Doctor was there as things never seemed entirely horrible with him at her side, his fingers threaded with hers: there was a terrifying loneliness in being responsible for things without him.

"Come on, we need to go," she said, moving swiftly past them to the door. "Pick up your feet and move it, both of you."

Grimacing, Jack rubbed the red mark on his forehead as he had had the misfortune of not moving quickly enough to avoid a bolt that sprung free of the console and soared towards him in their rough flight.

"Why don't we just stay here?" Donna asked. "This is safe, right? It's a space ship, we're safe here. You've got to have shields or something."

"As much as I hate to say it – and I really do – this isn't Star Trek," she said, and Jack brightened at her admission. "It doesn't really work like that. I don't really know anything about the Racnoss beyond what I've read. There's every chance they might be able to break in and, to be honest, I don't want to risk the TARDIS in case they are. A Racnoss with a TARDIS?" She shook her head, pained. "It's not worth thinking about."

"She makes a valid point," Jack agreed, taking Donna's hand. "Come on. Stick close to me and we'll get through it together."

Zoe cracked the door open and peered out into the empty tunnel before leaving the TARDIS, ensuring that she locked it as securely as possible behind her. Resting a hand on her outer shell, she took a steadying breath before she turned on the balls of her feet and started running down the tunnel with no real destination in mind. Her intention was to get them as far away from the Racnoss as possible. She was trying to think of safe house she could have Jack take Donna to, somewhere far enough away it would be difficult for the Racnoss to get to her, but since they had been tracked to the beginning of the Earth, Zoe wasn't confident such a place existed.

She rummaged through her bag and found the ring she used to conceal her identity from the more advanced sensors on planets where she didn't want to be recognised. Turning, she jogged backwards and held it out to Donna who gave it one look and scoffed.

"Oh, piss off," she said. "Rub it in why don't you?"

Zoe rolled her eyes. "It's a biodamper. Stick it on and it might make you a bit harder to track. I'm hoping it'll buy us a little more time."

Donna took it from her hand and squeezed it onto her little finger. "You're got skeleton fingers."

"Thanks very much."

"And this is too much running," Donna complained, out of breath, red in the face, and hating that neither Zoe nor Jack appeared to be struggling. "Is there always this much running?"

"No," Jack replied. "Normally there's more."

"Oh god," she groaned. "What are we going to do? What's the plan?"

"Stop the Racnoss and keep you safe," Zoe said. "But I'm flexible on the order of those two things."

"We should brainstorm," Jack told her. "We need ideas."

She nodded. "I agree. I'm open to them."

"Wait, wait, stop," Donna pleaded, stopping to bend over to catch her breath. "Can't we just hide? Hiding is good. I'm great at it."

"They'll be able to track you," Jack replied. "That biodamper is never going to be strong enough to conceal huon energy, it's too powerful. You may not have huon energy in you but you were a repository of it for a while. That leaves a trace. You're like this big glowing thing to them at the moment."

She sucked in a deep breath and tried to calm her racing heart, massaging the stitch from her side. "So what do we do? If we can't keep running and we can't hide, what the hell are going to do?"

"That's a good question," he said, frustration leaking into his voice and he turned on Zoe with an abruptness that made Donna step back as his voice hardened and his anger rose to the surface in a rare loss of control. "What the hell were you thinking? How could you be so reckless?"

Donna stared at him with wide eyes before she looked to Zoe who appeared equally taken aback before a mask of solid steel slammed down across her face. The friendly, slightly odd woman Donna found that she liked was gone and someone harder, angrier took her place.

"I was thinking I could get them back."

"By playing with things you don't understand!" His words bounced off the wall and folded back onto them. "For Christ's sake, Zoe, did you even use your brain at all, or did you just throw yourself into your stupidity without a thought?"

Painfully aware that this was an argument she shouldn't be witnessing, Donna took a careful step away from them, breaking the loose triangle they had formed, and moved quietly and discreetly down the tunnel. It was the best she could do in terms of privacy as even though she was uncomfortable at what she assumed was a long-awaited confrontation between the pair, she wasn't about to let them out of her sight since they were keeping her alive. Whatever was the cause of grief between them didn't interest her as much as the wall in front of her that she had developed a deep and intense interest in as their voices carried.

"I spoke to Behrouz," Jack snapped. "Since when were you in the business of kidnapping people?"

"What happened with Behrouz was a mistake," Zoe said, tight and uncomfortable at the reminder of her behaviour. "I admit, I misjudged the situation with him. I regret that things happened the way they did with him. I'm not proud of how I behaved there."

"Good." He dragged a hand through his hair, glaring. "And was the situation with Krasko also a misjudgement, or did you mean to leave him for dead?"

Donna risked a glance towards them when Zoe didn't immediately answer. Even from a distance, she easily saw the shock in her features as though Jack wasn't supposed to know about what had happened with Krasko.

"How the hell do you know about that?"

"Ryga paid Rose a visit a few days ago – relax, she's fine." From Donna's perspective, Zoe didn't look particularly relaxed, she looked like she wanted to go on the war path: she pitied whoever Ryga was for drawing her ire. "He was looking for you and couldn't find you. We think the Corsair must've done something to keep you protected after meeting with you, so he came for your sister instead and scared the shit out of Sabrina and Trisha while he was at it. He told her what you did."

"And you trust Ryga of all people to give you honest information?" The derision dripped from her. "Yeah, sure, let's trust the asshole hunting me through time to give you accurate reports about me."

Jack ignored her. "Did it happen?"

"Krasko picked that fight," she said, face twitching with anger. "I sought him out with every intention of doing honest business with him but he was a fucking racist and he more than had it coming. And before you get all high and mighty, don't forget how you reacted to Tommy's dad when he was a racist prick to me."

"I didn't leave Mr Connolly to die, did I?"

"Neither did I!" Her shout swept through the tunnel. Donna looked around, fearful that their argument was going to draw unwanted attention. She really thought they could have chosen a better time to air their dirty laundry. "And don't you dare pretend murder's where you draw the fucking line! You've killed people too, and you don't hear us going on about it."

"I killed them in the line of duty!"

"As far as you know," she snapped, cruel. "How're the missing memories coming along?"

Without context, Donna only knew that Zoe had crossed a line by the sudden and painful silence that emanated from Jack. Carefully looking towards them, she caught sight of Zoe staring at him, her mouth parted in surprise at the words she had spoken in anger, a stricken look on her face.

"Jack, I'm so sorry," she apologised. "I didn't mean that."

He turned from her and passed a hand across his face, shaking his head.

"Yes, you did," he said, quietly. "You might not have meant to say it but you mean it. It's what everyone thinks, isn't it? It's what I think."

"Jack –"

"And maybe everyone's right, maybe Raphio was right and I did destroy the Time Agency," he continued, turning back to face her. "But you're not me. I've known you since you were seventeen years old. You can fool yourself all you like into thinking you're some kind of avenging angel or whatever, but I know your heart. These last few months you haven't been yourself. You've got to know that. How are you not terrified of what you've done? Those planets that you turned to slag...how is that you?"

Her head jerked, eyes tearing from him. "They were already dead."

"That's not the point and you know it," he argued. "You are better than how you've been behaving. So much better. You think the Doctor would've wanted you to do what you've done for him? Zoe, he'd be so disappointed in you for what you've done."

"Don't." The world warbled from her throat on a sob as though he had reached into her chest and plucked at her heartstrings. "Don't say that."

"You know he would be," Jack said, and the gentleness of his words made his next statement all the more devastating. "I'm disappointed in you."

And the last thing Donna heard before a hand clamped down over her mouth and chloroform invaded her lungs was the sob fighting to break free of Zoe's chest escaping.


According to a drunk and more-excitable-than-normal Dr Malcolm Taylor at UNIT's Christmas party at the British museum a week earlier, the River Thames was at risk of freezing over if the weather kept growing more severe. Having experienced one of London's frost fairs during a planned visit to the most celebrated of them in 1683 – a rare occasion of them ending up where they actually planned to – she didn't mind the return of a frozen Thames. She liked the idea of marquees going up and roasted chestnuts being sold in paper bags that burned her fingers and her lips as she ate them quickly, playfully refusing to share with the Doctor, the only other person who enjoyed roasted chestnuts.

She sat on her hands and looked out over the dark River Thames, shoulders hunching in on herself. Her phone lay on her thigh, screen up, stubbornly remaining dark with the continued lack of messages from her sister. She tried not to let it bother her but failed dramatically, and the urge to throw her phone into the river rose up in her. She might have done it had Harry Saxon not brushed a layer of snow from next to her and carefully tucked his outrageously expensive coat under his thighs before taking a seat.

"Avoiding the horrors of administrative work?"

She slid her eyes towards him. "I'll have to do the paperwork eventually. No gettin' out of it since Ross refuses to do it for me anymore."

"Monster," he said, clicking his tongue, and a smile tugged at her lips. "The amount of reports UNIT makes you do while in the middle of an incident is obscene. Are you supposed to pause your tactical planning to sign reports and tick boxes?"

"Only if you've got one of the admin officers around you," Rose replied. "Don't have one on my team so I only get bothered by them when I'm back."

"Ah." His posture reminded her of Zoe: back ramrod straight in a way that would have looked uncomfortable on any other person. "Just getting a breath of fresh air then?"

"They know where to find me when somethin' new happens," Rose said, shifting so that she was able to sit a little straighter without making it look like she was adjusting her posture because of him. "I hate the waitin'. Specially when I'm here. It's like they're all lookin' at me as though I know what's goin' on an' how to fix it an' sometimes I just need to not be there."

One of the things she appreciated about Harry was that he had an excellent knack for knowing when to press on with a topic and when to let it drop, and silence with him was never awkward or difficult. He let her admission hang between the two of them before it disappeared with the white steam of her breath, and Rose felt herself relaxing into the silence, deep breaths filling her lung until she felt more centred. He was close enough that she was tempted to turn into him for warmth. Instead, she let her head drop slowly to his shoulder. Never having done so before, she waited to see what he would do, and she smiled to herself when he relaxed into her, cheek resting against the top of her head.

Harry freed his arm and placed it around her shoulders. "I can hear your brain working from here. What's on your mind?"

Zoe, she thought.

"Frost fairs," she said.

He paused. "Excuse me?"

"You know, when the Thames used to freeze over ages ago an' everyone would set up stalls on it an' sell stuff," she told him. "Malcolm was talkin' about how the river's probably goin' to freeze again because of the weather an' it got me thinkin' about them."

"I see." There was a thin thread of amusement on his voice, his fingers absently playing with the ends of her hair. "And you're thinking about them now?"

"What else should I be thinkin' about?" Rose didn't look at him. "My lonely wanderer of a sister?"

His fingers paused before letting her hair drop, a sigh rolling through him. "I knew I'd upset up by saying that. It was completely unintentional. I am sorry."

"Thanks." She sat up and his arm fell from her shoulders to the back of the bench, hand lightly splayed between her shoulder blades as he looked at her, attempting to gauge her feelings, wishing Lucy was there to help him smooth over the mistakes he made with her deft, human touch. "I'm tryin' not to think about it but she's right in the middle of things. It's been months since I've even heard from her an' she hasn't even bothered to call me or even text me."

The truth was Rose wasn't upset that Zoe hadn't called her since arriving on Earth. She knew how things were when in the middle of a situation that demanded immediate attention. She was upset that Zoe hadn't called at all in the time she had been away: no messages, no sign of life, not a single thing that let her know her sister was okay. She was upset that she had been left behind to deal with the aftermath of the Battle of Canary Wharf and live with her grief without Zoe there to reassure her that she wasn't alone. She was angry that she hadn't been able to help her sister with the storm that raged through her, ashamed of letting her slip away when her back was turned, and she wanted Zoe to know that no matter how angry and disappointed she was, she still loved her.

She just wanted her sister.

To her horror, tears burned at her eyes. She drew her hand across them and pressed her fingers over her mouth, trying to stuff the sob that clawed its way out of chest inside but to no avail. It spilled out and around her fingers, slamming into the air like a whip crack, and Harry's arm went back around her shoulders, pulling her against his chest.

"Sorry," Rose uttered, mortified as she tried to stem the flow of tears. "I can't – I don't want to –"

"It's okay," Harry told her, hand on the back of her head, cradling her against him as Lucy had taught him to do. "From what I understand, siblings are a difficult relationship."

She laughed wetly into his shoulder. "No brothers or sisters then?"

"Not a one," he said with a cheerfulness that made her laugh again. "It seems I'm quite fortunate in that regard, considering."

"It's not so bad," Rose replied, calming. She dragged her sleeve over her eyes and under her nose. "It's normally nice. Except when she's bein' a right bitch like she has been. She just took off without me. I'd have gone with her. She didn't have to be alone. Neither of us did, an' I just – I'm really fuckin' angry with her."

He made a sound of agreement in his throat as he removed a neatly folded handkerchief, which she imagined was worth more than Mickey's old car, and passed it to her. The softness of the material had her relaxing further, and she carefully wiped away her smudged mascara and blew her nose. If he was disgusted by how wet and snotty she was, he didn't show it, letting her rest against him as one of the ravens gave its warbling, gurgling croak from their perch high up above them.

"Do you think she'll stay now that she's returned?"

"Doubt it," Rose said, sighing. "The TARDIS is her home now. An' she's got this whole other thing goin' on that means she won't want to waste time with us when Mum's not here."

Harry frowned. "What do you mean?"

"It's a long story," she replied, not wanting to delve into Zoe's extended lifespan when there wasn't enough time to give it justice. She imagined they would need a couple of bottles of wine, a nice meal Lucy had ordered in, and the comfort of eating around the family table in his home. "I just want this day to be over."

"Be careful what you wish for," he warned, head angled to watch as one of the stray soldiers that Harry assumed was there simply to do the menial tasks that they were, presumably, overqualified for. "It seems you were right to say they'd find you if something happened."

Rose straightened up, pushing out of his embrace, and she passed the handkerchief over her face once more before getting to her feet. She grabbed his hand and pulled him off the bench and after her, meeting the soldier halfway, the snow crunching under their feet as they made their way back to the operations room. When Rose had left, it was quiet and watchful with the silence that she hated as it always felt like they were waiting for someone to die; returning, there was a buzz in the air, and her chest expanded with a deep breath, feeling more like herself with the promise of something about to happen in the air.

"What's happenin', Ross?"

Jenkins looked around, finger pressed to his ear piece. "The ship has started its descent into the atmosphere. Given its current speed and trajectory, it will be over central London within ten minutes."

"Oh dear," Harry said. "What about the Americans, have the opened fire yet?"

"First thing they did," Mabel answered, a liquorice stuck behind her ear as she focused on her screen, fingers moving swiftly over the keyboard. "They launched a nuke and it had no effect."

Rose spun towards her, horrified and angry. "They detonated a nuclear weapon in the atmosphere? Are they mad?"

"Darling, they're American," Harry reminded her. "Of course they're mad."

"Fortunately for planet earth, it appears the Racnoss was able to deactivate the weapon before it detonated," Kate said from where she was leaning over Ianto's shoulder, tracing the ship's trajectory on the screen. "I trust, Mr Saxon, that you will express to the Americans how deeply disappointed we are that they would risk a nuclear detonation in low-earth orbit without global agreement."

He bobbed his head. "It'll be the first thing I mention, Dr Stewart."

"What's their assumed arrival point?" Rose asked. "An' can we start evacuatin' people?"

"Over the Thames," Mabel told her, her rapid gum chewing the only sign that she the stress of the situation was beginning to get to her. "Directly over the hole that Jack sent us blueprints of. And we're not sure about evacuation. Ianto?"

"Evacuating now will simply create more panic and may do more harm than good," Ianto explained. "By the time we can even begin evacuation, it may be too late. Mr Saxon, I believe evacuation is a choice for the government. What would you like us to do?"

Harry enjoyed the way all eyes turned to him, waiting for his words before springing into action: it was a small sliver of the power he truly wanted but it was a nice taster of what he planned to come.

"Begin evacuation of course," he said. "Even if we don't have time, it's important that we give people as much opportunity as possible to leave the danger zone."

"Sound the alarm," Kate ordered. "Contact the field operatives and local law enforcement, tell them to begin Operation Sikkerhed immediately. I want all zones in the red district evacuated within the next hour, no excuses."

"Mabel." Rose dropped Harry's hand and crossed the room to stand behind Mabel, hands on her shoulders. "Can we block the transmat beam from the ship to the tunnel under the Thames?"

"No idea," she said, spinning. "MALCOLM!"

There was a crash and papers went flying before Malcolm Taylor fell up the stairs, banged his knees together, and tripped over his own feet before he straightened up. Hair wildly askew and glasses falling from the tip of his nose, he looked suitably festive in one of the ugliest Christmas jumpers Rose had ever seen and a length of tinsel wound through his belt loops that he was using in place of a belt to hold up his trousers.

He blinked at them, breathless. "Yeah?"

"Can you block the ship's transmat beam?" Rose asked, more than used to Malcolm's behaviour to allow it to distract her from the task at hand. "The way the ship's goin' to position itself makes me think they'll be usin' a transmat beam to get the babies on board an' I want to stop it."

Kate leaned in so that her body cut their conversation off. "If they're planning on leaving the planet, we should let them."

"I concur," Harry said. "It may not be honourable but as long they're not our problem, then I don't care where they go."

Rose managed not to roll her eyes. "Didn't you hear Jack? The Racnoss eat planets. They won't leave Earth, not when we're such a tasty meal for them. They'll go into orbit, regroup or let the babies grow or whatever it is the empress is plannin' an' then we're goin' to be baby food for her kids. An' even if we weren't, we can't let them leave to go hunt other planets. It's not right. Malc, try an' stop the transmat beam, yeah?"

He nodded so vigorously that his glasses fell off. Instinctive reflexives had Harry's hand shooting out to catch them, handing them back with an exasperated look. Malcolm took them, stuttering out his gratitude, before he was hurrying off, talking to himself as he began to figure out how to accomplish what Rose wanted.

"Ianto, have you been able to raise Captain Harkness?" Kate asked.

"No, ma'am," he replied, and Rose's stomach gave a painful twist. "I believe it's safe to assume that they're within the facility since I'm not able to establish contact. The energy drain must be affecting their phones once more."

"Hell of a block the Racnoss have goin'," Rose sighed, rubbing the bridge of her. "Only time we've been out of contact with each other was when the devil was involved."

Both Harry and Kate turned to look at her.

"The devil?"

"You haven't heard that story?" Mabel asked, flashing Harry a grin that made him want to sink his teeth into her and draw blood. "It's a pretty good one. You should get her to tell it to you when you have those cosy little dinners with her."

"Mabel," Rose said, sharply. "Enough."

Having the decency to look faintly chastened, Mabel turned back to her computer. Ignoring the fact that it was obvious she had told people about the weekly dinners she had with Harry and Lucy whenever she was in the country, she looked to him.

"Should we loop the prime minister in?"

"I can make the decisions in her place," Harry replied, smiling at the look of disapproval on her face. "I am simply following the new rules set down by parliament that have left me in charge of all matters related to imminent alien invasions. I'm hardly one to ignore the rules now, am I?"

"Pull the other one," she shot back, turning before his grin sucked her into his orbit. "How long do we have now, Ross?"

"Five minutes," he said.

"I want a clearer scan of the ship," Kate decided. "Mabel, sharpen the sensors for me and bring it up onto the main screen. Let's see what we're dealing with here."

The huge screen that took up one of the large stone walls flickered to life. Rose crossed her arms as she examined the ship before her. Jack was the person to ask about spaceships but even she knew that it was going to be a difficult vessel to render inert. Her eyes swept over the hull as she searched for any visible weaknesses but she saw nothing except the pointed edges that made it look like a star. Tilting her head to one side, she squinted at the dark shapes visible through a translucent material that seemed to hang from the belly of the ship like sacks.

Harry stood at Rose's back and addressed his observation to the top of her head. "Is it me or do they look like spider eggs?"

A full body shudder ran through Rose at the realisation that he was right.

"That's gross," Mabel said, speaking for the entire room: not one of them was able to take their eyes of the fat sacks of spider eggs that bubbled against the outside of the ship. "I'm going to be seeing that for a while. I kind of what to set it on fire."

Jenkins made a sound of agreement in his throat, a faint green tinge to him that reminded Rose of his fear of spiders. "That's not a bad idea."

"Absolutely not," Rose said, firmly. "They're babies. They haven't done anythin' wrong. We're not goin' to kill them because we're afraid of them."

Kate turned to her. "I admire the sentiment, Rose, I truly do, but you are correct: the Racnoss devour planets. They will either consume the Earth or they will go out into the universe and eat their way through other lifeforms. If you can give me a reasonable and practical plan to stop them without killing them, I am open to your suggestions."

"There's always a way," she replied. "We can't immediately jump to killin' things because we think they might be dangerous. We need to try an' negotiate with the Racnoss before we do anythin' else. They're her babies, she's goin' to want to protect them. We can come to an agreement with her."

"Boss –" Mabel said, uncertainly. "I'm not sure you can negotiate with a giant spider, can you?"

"Just because they're not like us, doesn't mean they're not intelligent an' reasonable," Rose told them. "The universe is full of life that doesn't look like us or act like us but it doesn't make them any less than us. We have to negotiate with the Racnoss. We'll offer to find them another planet or somethin' like that. The TARDIS will know of a planet they can go to where they won't hurt anyone. It's up the empress is she wants to accept it."

Kate nodded. "And if she doesn't accept it?"

"Then she's made her choice," Rose said, "an' what happens after is on her."