Doctor Who: Infection
Chapter 38 - Identity
Disclaimer - I don't own nothing or nobody you know/recognize. Doctor Who is intellectual property of the BBC, afaik.
Characters: Gleeson!Doctor, Markham, River, Jack, OCs
Jack looked over his files again. Whatever had happened to the group affected with the time slip or whatever it was, it had left them earlier in their own timeline than he had realized. He had just disrupted "The Family" and their attempt to create a world of immortals with his blood, but that left the issue of several of their friends alive when they should have been dead.
He had already talked to Ianto. His memory predated the combined Cyberman-Dalek attack on Canary Wharf that destroyed Torchwood 1 and left his then-girlfriend Lisa Hallet half-upgraded into the 'Cyberwoman' by their machinery. Further inquiries to UNIT claimed she had died once the power to her life support had ceased. It appeared that without Ianto's early discovery of her, she had no chance of survival once the machinery powering her had ceased operating.
Ianto dealing with his family would be dealt with in due time. His sister Rhiannon now hated Jack, Gwen, and Rhys for being the bearers of bad news during the 456 Incident. Jack had discussed the possibility of Ianto simply keeping his distance, allowing her to continue to believe he was dead. He also brought up the chance she might stumble across him in the future, either from a chance meeting on the street or his capture by news media at one of their future investigations. Ianto had not made up his mind what to do, and Jack did not pressure him into any rash action.
Toshiko's story was slightly clearer. Her mother was her last local relative, and she had passed. She only had a few acquaintances outside Torchwood, due to their secrecy, so there was less need of a cover story for her survival.
He was slightly disappointed to see that the pair had become something of a couple. He missed his lover, but this Ianto had not yet become associated with Torchwood 3, much less Jack or even Myfanwy. (She had disappeared to parts unknown, much to Jack's annoyance.) However, he would not begrudge Ianto making a new life for himself, and especially not with Tosh. He only requested that she keep details of "their" Ianto's life to a bare minimum, as this man had not led that life.
Gwen and Rhys, however, had found themselves right back where they had started. Her father Geraint was still alive, thankfully, and she had urged him to get his heart checked out. Jack had even sprung for the pacemaker he now wore.
When he called Martha, she and Mickey had recently married, acting as independent defenders of Earth (via an arrangement with UNIT) and defeated a minor Sontaran incursion with a helping hand from 'her' Doctor. She had gotten the impression he was bidding them farewell before regenerating.
(Jack recalled still being in space after the 456 Incident at that time and receiving a note from this particular Doctor introducing him to Alonso Frame. That had been a fun fling, but Alonso had moved on when Jack discussed returning to Earth.)
Martha was also avoiding the subject when he asked how Mickey was doing. She claimed they had gone on separate missions and she hadn't seen him in weeks. Jack understood that meant their marriage was already on shaky ground and the thrill of traveling without the Doctor had worn off for him, at least. His contact at UNIT had no updates on Mickey Smith that Martha hadn't already told him.
That contact, of course, was through UNIT's new interim liaison with Torchwood, one Lord James Gloucester and his assistant, Belew. James found himself in the position he had been interviewing for after the time slip. He noted others had treated the pair as if they had been there for months. A few quick interviews of his immediate staff under the pretense of evaluations had caught the pair up to everything. They had also been instrumental in helping Jack avert the "Miracle Day" fiasco, with a bit of help from a slightly confused CIA agent, Rex Matheson, his associate, Esther, and their immediate superior.
The pair had been told it was in the interest of inter-company relations, with their mysterious recommendation coming from an unnamed Torchwood agent. At any rate, the trio had helped root out the Family's agents in the Company and Jack had seen his old flame once more before he passed. His daughter and grandson now survived, as well, with an offer from Torchwood and UNIT for freelance work. She said she would keep her options open.
Jack glanced up to see it was time for his crew to start reporting for work. Everything had been quiet of late, aside from the Family's attempt to disrupt the world, the seemingly annual Christmas intrusion which was passed off this year as a unique "cosmic oasis" psychic illusion phenomenon (called Gallifrey, Jack mused) that caused many to believe they were briefly former Prime Minister Harold Saxon, and Jack was slightly glad to have missed it. He silently wished that things would remain quiet, but he was too old and enough of a cynic not to believe that for long.
The sudden smell of Ianto's coffee motivated him to greet the new couple. He still felt a slight pang of jealousy, but kept his feelings to himself. They had already discussed he would let Tosh inform her new beau of their shared past or preferably not.
He greeted the couple and made small talk, updating them of a few minor items of note from overnight when Gwen and Rhys entered. He glanced over to wave hello, but the expression on her face told him she had some troubling news.
Once the team was settled into the meeting room, she made her announcement. "I know some of us have had a tough time resettling, and everything seems to be smoothing over for us," she noted. A concerned glance to Rhys told a different story. "I was going through my things. Somehow, I still had my bag from Albion to unpack."
Another concerned glance to Rhys, who nodded. "What's going on?" Jack inquired.
She reached for her purse. "I found something I don't think I should have," she said and produced a battered blue book. There was no title, the outer spine was barely hanging on. It was obviously old. Jack recognized it right away.
"River's diary?" he gasped, reaching for the tome. "Where did you get this?" He fought the urge to read it, noting her fondness for secrecy and "Spoilers!"
"When we were waiting for the Doctor and Will to build their secret machine? I went to the Library and grabbed a book at random when this little robot dog found me-"
"K9," he clarified, recalling Mickey's telling him about his annoyance at the 'little tin dog'.
"Yes, whatever. I didn't even realize I had it, as they finished their project right after. I tucked the books in my bag without thinking. I never meant to take it, even if I knew what I had," she insisted.
Jack held up his hand. "No need to worry," he consoled her. "Did you, ah, did you read any of it?"
She nodded. "I glanced through it a bit. It's a bit confusing and several pages were not meant for prying eyes," she admitted. "I knew I had to give it to you to give back to the Doctor before anyone realized what I had. You can get it back to him?"
"We can certainly try," he mused, still fighting the urge to read it. "Anyone have any other business?"
Rhys spoke up. "Well, there is one more thing, yeh?" He nodded at his wife.
All eyes were on her. Gwen flushed a bit from embarrassment. "Well, um, that is, it seems that I might be a little bit...pregnant?" she grinned.
The room erupted in congratulations. Hugs from Jack and Tosh, as Ianto and Rhys shook hands, then Jack gave him a big hug, lifting him off the floor for a moment in laughter. Rhys' smile faltered and his next expression told Jack he still remembered his fling in that other timeline Jack had no recollection of. Jack set him down and clapped him on the back with a nod.
"How far along are you?" Tosh inquired without thinking.
"Well, um, that seems to be the tricky part?" she replied, casting a nervous glance to her husband who also had a concerned glance on his face. "I'm barely two months along, which puts the conception-"
Jack's face drained as he did some quick math. "When we were all in the TARDIS?"
Gwen nodded. "It seems that way," Rhys agreed.
"Should we be worried?" she asked.
Jack shook his head. "I shouldn't think so. River as well as her boys were all conceived in the TARDIS. The worst that can happen is-"
"That bastard Abaddon, yeah?" Rhys interjected.
"I was going to say, there might be a chance the child would be a potential Earth-born Time Lord like River, but the Doctor and River still aren't sure what was done to her as an infant to ensure her abilities," he informed them. "I can put in a call to them, Martha, anyone else I can think of that would help answer those questions for you."
"There's, ah, one more thing," Rhys said. "In that other world, the one we were in right before the big battle, yeh?"
He glanced to Gwen, unsure how to put it. She answered for him.
"I had another child in that world. Billy. I recall getting pregnant at university, then broke up with Rhys instead of telling him. I remember telling him and Andy -right before you brought us inside that Hub there- I remember telling them I was pregnant again?" Her eyes pleaded with Jack for answers.
Answers he couldn't give her. Not right now, or possibly ever.
"I, uh, I don't know what to say, Gwen?" he stammered. "Speaking as a time traveler, you have to take every day as it comes. Maybe you already suspected this pregnancy?"
Thoughts of sacrificing his grandson Steven to stop the 456 came flooding to him. It had come right after Ianto's death. He still wasn't sure which was worse. He had Ianto back in his life, but this man had no feelings for Jack, no memories of the times they shared together. He fought not to look at the other man, and saw Gwen had looked to him, too, obviously having the same thoughts.
"Obviously, whatever your decisions in the coming months, we'll support you," he finally said. "I've lost family, too, so if you need someone to talk to in the future about this-?" he offered.
She nodded and gave him a hug. When he pressed his cheek to her head, he felt the wetness that he been left by a tear he didn't even realize had been there.
When the moment had passed, he was back to all business. "Okay everyone, we have work to do. Myfanwy and Janet are still MIA, Martha is 'on call' only, so we need to line up a possible replacement for-" He saw the women give him sharp looks at the thought of Owen. "We need someone on staff with a medical background beyond basic first aid," he finished. "Rhys, are you with us or are you going back to your old job?"
Rhys shrugged. "It seems I was absent for too long," he said. "Besides, I recall you needed someone for heavy lifting and transport?" he grinned.
Jack laughed and looked to Gwen for approval. "If it's okay with the missus, then it's fine by me, big guy," he chuckled, taking the other man's hand. "I guess this is your belated official welcome aboard?"
The other couple congratulated him as they filed out, before Gwen pulled him away for the Grand Tour, leaving Jack all alone. He sat back down and glanced to the blue book in front of him again. The temptation to read it rose once again as his finger traced the square grooves imprinted on the cover.
"What do you mean I invited you to travel with us?"
Luke Smith seemed taken aback at the accusation. "Immediately after mum's funeral? You don't remember talking to me? The Doctor even came up to me and asked who you were, but now he knows-?" Even as Luke said the words, it dawned on him. "This is some time travel thing, isn't it?" he asked. "Like all those different Doctors showing up for her service?"
The others slowly came to the same realization. "Kid's got a point," Will Markham noted with a soft chuckle. "Who did you say your mother was?"
"Well, she wasn't my biological mother, but she took care of me and helped me to orient myself after I was created," he explained. Will gave him a baffled look. "Sarah Jane Smith," Luke finally informed them. "My mother was Sarah Jane Smith."
Will scowled at the name. "Of course." The boy's mother was obviously not his Sarah Jane Smith, the reporter who was a constant thorn in his side back home in Albion, but the Doctor had mentioned her name with a certain fondness. "It's up to you lot," he told the others.
Susan looked to her aunt Jenny. "It will be nice to have a younger voice in the RAFT again," she noted.
"It seems all we do is pick up strays," Jenny smirked. "Just like dad." She elbowed her nephew.
Abraxas stood there, silently studying their stowaway. "What did I look like?"
"Excuse me?" Luke asked.
"When I talked to you, what did I look like? Young, old, beard, clean shaven, length of hair?"
"I thought you were the Doctor at first," he replied. "In fact, so did Captain Harkness?"
"That's a start," the large, bearded ginger mused. "Next stop, Cardiff."
"Then I can't stay?" he asked.
"I didn't say you could or couldn't," Abraxas told him. "I just need to discuss this with Uncle Jack."
"Is that wise?" Will cautioned.
"I'm not going to kidnap the boy," Abraxas said. "He's of an age to make his own decisions, but I'm going to check with the next best person first."
"Technically."
The other four turned to Luke with confusion.
"I'm actually only a few years old, but I look eighteen physically," he explained. "Like I said, I wasn't born, I was created. Sarah Jane adopted me. After mum died, I was back at University when I woke up one morning a prisoner of that Black Guardian or whatever he was. I recalled our conversation and stayed on when you dropped everyone else off."
Abraxas groaned. "Okay, we're talking to Uncle Jack," he declared before glancing to Will. "Unless you know something I don't?"
Markham shrugged. "I'm not the old man you remember. Not yet, kiddo."
Abraxas glanced to his big sister and aunt. "Cardiff."
"Are you ever going to tell me who that was?" she asked.
"Just doing a favor for a friend," he answered as he drew his bow across the strings once more. "No one you need to concern yourself with."
Akasha grumbled and went back to her meditations as he played. She would allow herself another hour before she needed to get back to her exercises. No need to let herself relax too much when the Time Lord could get them into more trouble at any moment. She had found a room to practice that also held machinery that allowed her to keep her strength as well as a sparring dummy. It was a short distance from a room that held a small artificial pond. Back home, most exercise was gained from daily chores, with special training for the defense arts. The Doctor mentioned the rooms offhand as the "gym-nay-zi-um" and "pool", but the first word was strange to her, and the so-called pool was almost larger than any she had seen before.
She had barely begun her exercises when the TARDIS was wracked and she nearly lost her balance, recovering quickly as she tumbled to the floor. She ran to the control room to see one panel screeching and smoking.
"Something hit us!" the Doctor informed her as he worked the controls. He grabbed the screen and swiveled it to see what lay outside.
They were in a building of some sort, dark and full of smoke. Several shapes moved closer, inching forward to see what the blue box was that landed in their midst. As they did, she could see it was a quartet: two men, two women. The two women were pale skinned like the Doctor, but one had flaxen hair, the other dark like the rest. The two men were markedly different. The dark skinned man seemed larger than the Doctor, himself, while the olive-skinned man seemed to be of a slighter stature than the two women.
Most of them carried weapons like the men brought to rescue them from the asteroid. Guns, she believed the word was. They did not exist on her world, but seemed to be prevalent on many others. The large man also had a mallet of some sort hanging from a belt on his hip, while the others all had blades of various types with them. Then she noticed the brunette woman was splattered in red.
"There's been a fight," Akasha noted to the Time Lord.
"Could be, could be she helped an injured friend who didn't make it this far," he countered, studying the screen.
Outside, the quartet had stopped their retreat to examine the blue box that had blocked their path. "What is it?" the blonde asked.
"Don't know Linds, never seen it before?" Toby replied, slipping his hammer from his tool belt. He tapped the box a few times, listening to hear if it was hollow or not. "Something's in there, some machine?" he informed them.
"It shouldn't be here," Shiro said. "I don't recall seeing it on any manifest I approved."
"Bomb? A trap of some sort?" Dana offered before glancing back the way they had come. "We can't stay here. They're coming."
The door swung open. "Trap? Trap?" the burly ginger huffed. "Don't call the old girl a trap!"
The quartet took up defensive positions, ready to strike. "Who are you? How did you get on my ship?" Shiro demanded.
"Name, rank, serial, MoonFlooder," Toby demanded.
"Ah. It's like that, is it?" he asked, then informed them, "Doctor...Doctor...no serial rank that you would have heard of, so ...let's just say I get around and try to help, hmm?"
"You're a medic?" Dana asked, still keeping an eye behind them.
"Not exactly, but do you need assistance? I'm assuming the blood is not yours?"
"We need a ride out of here, PDQ," Lindsay said.
"Engine trouble? Or pirates?"
"Mutiny," Shiro replied. "Now, can you get us out of here?"
The Doctor scrutinized the foursome once more. "Mutiny? From whose side? How do I know you aren't the insurgents?"
"My name is Shiro Yamamoto. You are on my company's ship, and we are under attack from a majority of the crew who claim to be Doppelgangers, Fleshlings."
"Flesh? Oh dear, not again."
"You've had dealings with them, before?"
"You could say that, good and bad," he replied, thinking back to an acid mining crew he met while traveling with the Ponds. "I even allowed myself to be cloned, once. It didn't turn out well." His voice dropped to a dangerous tone.
"Can you get us out of here?" Dana insisted. "What is that, anyway?" she nodded to the blue box.
"My ship, the TARDIS," he explained. "Yes, I can get you out of here, but why should I?"
"My company will reward you handsomely for my safe return," Shiro offered.
"How do I know you aren't the Flesh?" the Time Lord inquired.
The man held out his hand and drew his blade across his palm. Scarlet blood began trickling from the wound. The Doctor eyed it for a long moment.
"Good enough for you?" Shiro scowled.
Toby took advantage of his distraction and shoved the Time Lord aside. "Get in! Now!" he shouted.
The Doctor had the wind knocked from him by the large black man. Before he got to his feet, he saw the quartet scramble to get inside the TARDIS and slam the door behind them. As he got to his feet, the room was filled with men in black riot gear.
"Surround them! Nobody gets out!" a man shouted.
"Who are you?" the Doctor demanded.
The man in charge sidled up to him. "I could ask the same of you. Where are they?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," he demurred.
"Commander Frederick Blake. The two men and women you were just talking to. Where did they go?" the man demanded.
The Doctor did a double-take at the name. "I'm sorry, did you say Frederick Lake?"
"Blake, with a B," the man corrected. "Who are you? I won't ask again."
"Sorry, sounded like someone I met once. Another place, another time," he replied. "Call me the Doctor."
"What's in the box?" Blake demanded. "I've never seen it before and it's not big enough to hold four people, especially one as big as Brown, much less yourself."
"Was that an insult?" the Time Lord roared.
"So the box is yours? Some sort of transmat?"
"Oh, she's much more than that, Commander Blake," the Doctor grinned.
"Then show me."
The Doctor hesitated.
"They're in there and they locked you out, is that it?"
The Time Lord harrumphed. "Of course not."
"Then show me."
Before the Doctor could reply, the door swung open. Akasha emerged, sword drawn. "Would you have me end these, too?"
The Doctor looked at her, aghast. "End? End?" He pushed past her, only to find the four intruders, tied up and weaponless on the floor. "Blimey," he muttered. "She's good. Really good."
"I'll thank you for apprehending my prisoners, Doctor," Blake said as he stepped past Akasha into the TARDIS.
"I didn't- She-" he stammered, still amazed at the efficiency of her work.
"No! Please! He's lying! We're the real people!" Shiro begged. "He'll kill us if he throws us back in the Flesh Matrix!"
"Oh, I'm not going to do that, Fleshling," Blake replied. "You'll be given a fair trial, then found guilty and shown out the airlock, as are all mutineers."
"Now just hold on one minute!" the Doctor fumed. "These four are on my ship, now! I won't allow you to take them!"
"Your ship? They are still on board my ship, Doctor," Blake warned. "Therefore, they will stand trial."
"My company's ship!" Shiro interjected.
"What proof do you have that they are all Flesh?" the Doctor demanded. "Flesh aren't allowed to travel too far from their original bodies. It's not feasible."
"I have definitive proof," he replied, then raised his wrist and spoke into a comm device. "Ray, bring the boss down here."
"Be there in five," came the reply.
"Ray, no!" Toby shouted. "Don't do it, man!"
"He can't hear you, Fleshling," Blake gloated.
"Nobody does anything until your 'boss' gets here, then," the Doctor informed him.
"What makes you think you can keep that promise?" Blake questioned, then felt the cold metal against his throat. "What-?"
"She's a sneaky one, that one," the Doctor said.
The next few minutes passed in silence until the Doctor saw on his monitor another three join the soldiers outside. One of them was wounded and moving slowly. He bore the same face -well, most of the same face- as the man sitting on the floor calling himself Shiro Yamamoto.
"What's going on here?" the wounded Shiro asked as he was allowed onto the TARDIS. "You?" he gasped as he saw his undamaged countenance.
"That man is the fake," the first Shiro exclaimed. "I'm the real Shiro!"
"And I'm the real Dana Friday!" the brunette woman declared as her twin stepped into the TARDIS behind the second Shiro's escort.
"I was with Ray when everything went to hell," the second Dana announced.
The Hispanic man spoke up. "It's true," he smiled, evidently pleased with himself. "We were getting busy when we got hit by whatever that was."
"Hit? By what?" the Doctor inquired.
"Some sort of sub-etheric wave anomaly," the second Shiro informed him. "I was in the Matrix, using him for tests outside when we got hit." He motioned to his bound twin. "I still haven't gone over all the data to see what it was."
The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "hmm, seems we were hit by something, as well. When I checked my instruments, we had already landed here."
"He's lying!" the bound Shiro exclaimed. "I had already brought my Flesh back inside, there was an explosion, and I woke up in the Matrix Nest room with Dana, Lindsay, and Toby. The next thing you know, we were being accused of sabotage by Blake, so we ran! We were only defending ourselves before they killed us!"
The Doctor looked to the others tied up.
Lindsay spoke up. "I was helping the boss get readings."
Dana nodded. "I was using mine to do some quick maintenance outside."
He looked to Toby. "Hey man, I was just doing some maintenance on the Nest. I was never inside it or allowed to use them Flesh. I don't rank. I'm just the handyman." He nodded toward his discarded tool belt. "I felt the explosion, then got electrocuted by a panel. I was barely out, when I woke up, we were being accused of mutiny and sabotage."
"hmm...déjà vu all over again," the Doctor mused.
"Excuse me?"
"I said I had trouble with Flesh before. This sounds almost exactly like what happened the last time. Crew was in their Nest, solar flare hit, then the Flesh were independent, but with all their memories."
"What happened next?" Lindsay asked.
"Most of them died, save one. Since his original died, and he had basically the same memories, he was allowed to take his original's place. Meanwhile, the others came around and campaigned for allowing flesh autonomy."
Blake frowned. "I heard about that case. How was it you were there?"
"I told you, I get around."
"That was over a century ago," the injured Shiro informed them.
"Maybe for you," the Doctor replied, taking the opportunity to examine the wound.
Shiro pushed him away. "Skin grafts will heal it. Especially if they come from my Flesh double." He eyed his uninjured twin as he scratched at the wound, winced, then caught himself and put his hand down.
The Doctor pulled out his Sonic. "I can speed the healing with this."
Blake pulled his gun on the Time Lord at his action, but Akasha tapped his throat again with her blade. Ray's hand drifted to his own holster.
"It's not a weapon," the Doctor informed them.
"I've already been examined by our medic. I'll be fine," Shiro told him.
The Doctor shrugged and pocketed his Sonic once more. "If you say so."
Shiro tried to scowl, "I wouldn't have come down here if I wasn't."
Pounding on the walls and sounds of a firefight came from outside. "We'd best find more secure accommodations," Blake suggested.
The Doctor glanced to his monitor and scoffed. "The assembled hordes of Ghengis Khan couldn't get in here, and believe me, they've tried."
Shiro and Blake eyed him cautiously. "Who are you?"
"I'm the Doctor," he announced and flipped a switch. The noise from outside died away.
"What did you do?" both Yamamoto demanded at once, then glared at each other.
The Doctor tapped another button and the monitor next to Blake showed another cargo deck, clear of any others, human or not. "Took us to secure accommodations," he informed them. "Is this secure enough?"
"It will suit our purposes," the scarred Yamamoto replied, then turned to the others. "Up, all of you. Flesh or not, you all work for me. Of that, there is no doubt."
The assembled group slowly got to their feet and filed out after Blake, into the command deck. "You two, as well, Doctor," Yamamoto ordered.
"Bloody Hell I will," he countered. Akasha took up a defensive position.
"Blake!" he called out. The Doctor glanced to his monitor and saw that the first group now had weapons trained on them by the second group. "I suggest you listen to me, Doctor, or those fools will pay for your insolence. Leave the sword."
Neither moved.
"Blake! Pick one at random!" he called out.
Frederick Blake pointed his weapon at the other Shiro and pulled his trigger. The man's leg disappeared in a spray of red, which quickly faded color into a puddle of white goo as the man fell.
"I think that answers who is who, don't you?" Yamamoto gave a cold smile.
"Get off my ship," the Doctor replied. Before Shiro could protest, the Time Lord flicked a switch and the man disappeared in a shimmer of light.
He reappeared outside the TARDIS a moment later. The others stared in confusion before acting. Yamamoto immediately went for the TARDIS door, which he found slammed shut and unable to open. The first group the Doctor encountered began fighting with the second group.
Watching from his monitor inside the TARDIS, the Doctor quickly lost track of which double was who without any obvious tells like the disparate appearances of the two Yamamotos.
When the scuffle had settled, Toby had Ray in a headlock, while the others were hard to tell apart. Opposite them, Blake and the scarred Yamamoto held guns at the others. The one-legged Shiro, however, who seemed to be in shock, now rose from the floor and began crawling toward his double.
The Doctor watched as Blake trained his weapon on him, then noticed something. The Flesh-Shiro's eyes had gone white, which the Time Lord had initially brushed off as a result the Flesh matter losing coherence, but this was different. This Shiro reminded him of that tragic day on Mars when the first Earthlings fell prey to the Flood infection.
As he watched, Flesh-Shiro's arm suddenly extended and grabbed Blake's weapon. Blake fired, but it did no good. The arm exploded but the Flesh hand continued to grasp his hand and melt over it, almost as if it were...
"No!" the Doctor gasped in horror.
"What is happening?" Akasha asked as Blake began screaming in pain and slapping at his arm, which only served to splatter the white goo consuming his arm.
Yamamoto stepped back, as did the others. They all watched the ship's commander fall to his knees in pain. He doubled over and slumped forward, slimed arm bunched under his torso. They watched in horror as a moment later, his head rose, eyeing them with strange eyes. He was no longer in pain. He climbed to his feet and all could see there was no longer any white slime on him.
He cocked his head at an odd angle as he surveyed those before him, then began chanting. "All will be one." As if on cue, several others in the room took up the chant. All but Toby, Ray, and Lindsay. Toby released his hold on Ray as the trio found themselves surrounded.
"Do we help them?" Akasha asked.
"I want to," the Doctor replied, unable to look away. "I don't know if they're infected or not. I-I can't...I'm sorry, but I can't take that risk," he murmured.
"Infected?" she asked.
"You saw what happened. Did any of them touch you?" he asked. "Did you touch Blake, skin to skin? The others when you tied them up?"
She shook her head, recalling her actions. "No, just clothing."
He reached for the control panel again. His hand shook. "Gods forgive me," he whispered and turned off the monitors.
Moments later, more gunfire could be heard outside the TARDIS. Silence.
"We should leave then," Akasha urged. She saw the Time Lord's eyes were squeezed tight.
A pounding on the door. "Doctor! Let us in!"
His eyes flipped open. "Toby. That was Toby!" he said in excited relief as he flipped the monitor back on.
He saw the trio surrounded by growing pools of white goo and a cloaked man with a rifle stepping around them to reach the others. He was followed by a suit of purple armor with three green eyes.
The Doctor opened the outside comm. "Who is that?"
The man flipped back his hood. "Commander Frederick Blake," he announced. The Doctor saw it was another Blake, but this one had a still fresh wound running from his forehead to his left cheek, narrowly avoiding his eye. It was red with a thin stream of blood.
Toby pounded the door again. "Doctor? Let us in!"
The Time Lord grimaced and pressed a button near the monitor control. The image rewound and he saw this was definitely a different Blake than the one he had seen overcome moments earlier. He saw the cloaked man shoot the others and they all melted into white puddles.
For a brief moment, he recalled the image of River's mother, Amy Pond, melting in a similar way when he exposed her as a Flesh duplicate in front of her husband Rory. One of the hardest things he ever had to do, he told himself then. Now he had to chance whether these people were human or Flesh and what was wrong with these Flesh? Could he take that risk?
Toby pounded at the door again. Behind him, the Doctor could see the pools of Flesh coming together. Something was rising from inside them.
"Doctor?" Akasha urged.
"There's no way to tell," he said. "Too much risk involved," he tried to convince himself even as his hand moved for the switch.
"Hurry!" he yelled at the quintet as they quickly filed on board.
No sooner had Blake slammed the TARDIS door shut behind him than the monitor showed a thick tendril lash out at the blue box. The TARDIS barely shook from the attack as the Doctor faced his new passengers.
"Now comes the fun part," the Time Lord informed them. "How do I tell if you are human or Flesh? And how do I know you aren't all infected?"
He eyed them all, saving the purple armor for last. A slight shiver went down his spine as it reminded him of another robot, one programmed to eradicate those deviating from a narrow gene pool considered "normal". Those robots broke their programming and expanded their parameters, much like his old nemeses, the Daleks. He couldn't tell if it was a robot, armor, or some cybernetic combination of both? If it was simply armor, the person inside would practically be stick thin, he surmised. Two of it's three "eyes" were placed normally for a human, the third was over it's mouth, he noted.
"You are staring," it finally said, surprising him. The voice was mechanically regulated, so he was unable to tell if it was male or female, if there was someone inside.
He blinked at the accusation, realizing he had been lost in his thoughts for a moment. "Apologies. I was trying to determine if you were human. Or not."
Blake nodded. "Show him."
The being reached up and grabbed it's head. A series of pressurized clamps released and the armor helmet was lifted off. She shook out her hair and smiled.
"Hello, Sweetie."
TBC...
First part of this was rough draft for the Torchwood chapters Sweet Hello/Sad Goodbye. There are a couple things I didn't cover in this one, tho.
Sontaran + Auton = Ganger?
