Within the Mirage Part Four
Notes: Well, I'm vaguely concussed from playing hockey, bruised all over from falling over several times afterwards (and finding it hilarious at the time), I have a stomach bug, I'm feeling very depressed and I've just watched two and a half solid hours of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. So you can already tell how much sense this chapter is going to make.
Morph: I do love a good Good Charlotte song…I may use another. I thought I'd better vary my songs a bit from Robbie, Robbie and more Robbie. Yes…heeeheee…in the mood I'm in, her death does seem imminent. Thank you for reviewing.
Jessie: Continue to sing, you know how much I love it. Yes, it's confusing, but what do you expect? Did you read my notes? I'm bloody concussed! And I'm still writing for you! My dedication KNOWS NO BOUNDS!
Angelic-ninja: Well, it all came from watching 3rd Rock from the Sun. I started putting the Doctor in the place of Dick and everything went screwy…oh the immense fun I am having today.
Dingbatt: Ahh, my Dingbatt. I will keep at it…even though I'm feeling very very very bad. (whimper) Send me presents.
Uh.yeah: I think he'd be a really good teacher…he just seems the type somehow. Lol, I'm sending her to him right now along with a lot of money.
Becsy: Well, we get a little more interaction with the aliens in this chapter so it should sort itself out. Thanks for the cake! I'll try not to throw it up, or, as is more likely, fall over something and drop it on the floor.
Banshee: Yeah, I thought we needed some friendly aliens. In this fic, the baddie will be…but I wouldn't want to spoil it for you! ;)
Ark Led: My proudest work is my cliffhangers…I love that their lives depend on me…and they're not very safe at the moment because I have the Hitchhiker's theme tune in my head and may do something dangerous, strangely philosophical and to do with a small yellow fish. And I may also do all of this whilst putting on the exceedingly crap American accent that the original Zaphod seems to like so much. Huzzah!
Yami: I can assure you, it will all make sense soon, but not very soon, because I think I might fall over again.
Tai: The ears are essential. Don't knock them. I had a feeling 'Time is a squiggle' would live on, but then I had to pass it off as me falling over again. Although I must congratulate you as the only one who is even vaguely close to guessing the scrap of sense behind Esprit and Tranquillity! Keep updating me on the diary front. Yes, NOTE TO EVERYONE. KEEP AN EYE ON TAI'S PROFILE FOR A SPECIAL STELLA FIC WRITTEN BY BOTH OF US. DIB DIB DIB.
Jen: I will indeed.
Cossie: I actually cheered when I saw the return of the wonderful you. Then I started singing the Hitchhiker's theme tune, but that's another story. Enjoy my confusing, concussed mess.
Mei: Mei, I think the only thing that could make me more confused in the brain department was your review. It astounded me beyond all measure and I have the sudden urge to start talking like whoever the hell voiced the original Guide and tell you that 'In the beginning the Universe was created. This made a lot of people angry and was considered a bad move.' Dib dib dib.
……………………………………………………………………………………………
"You sound like a crazy person," noted Mickey as he bit into a hamburger. "Are you sure—"
"I'm not cheating on you Mickey," said Rose impatiently. "I promise this is true! I know it's hard to believe…"
"Hard to believe?" Mickey swallowed. "You've just told me you've been travelling with an alien in a police box and all this is a dream! Sounds like you're on somethin' to me."
"Well I guess it does sound ridiculous when you put it like that," she muttered, scuffing her feet against the slightly sticky floor. Fast food restaurants. Always so…sticky.
"You're right, it does sound ridiculous," said Mickey, staring hard at her. "And even if it's true, and I'm not saying I believe you yet, but what are you going to do about it?"
"Not sure," she admitted. "Will you help me then?"
"Rose, this is stupid," said Mickey bluntly.
"I need to get back to him," she insisted.
"Yeah, right. You really do sound like a couple y'know." He looked slightly peeved. Rose glanced at him awkwardly.
"It's complicated," she said. Mickey sighed.
"You know I'd do anything for you," he said shortly. "Where do we start?"
Rose smiled at him. "We need to find the TARDIS I s'pose."
"That's the police box, right?" asked Mickey, taking another bite. He chewed thoughtfully. "There's one in the court, down by your part of the estate. It's been there for years. Covered in graffiti."
"Then that's it," said Rose, getting to her feet and running out of the door.
"Rose!" Mickey looked at his hamburger mournfully and took a last bite, before tearing after her.
If Rose had been expecting to find the TARDIS in the same state it had been on Tranquillity, she was sadly mislead.
The poor TARDIS was dead, she could tell as she laid a hand on it. It no longer hummed beneath her fingertips. The door hung off it's hinges slightly and it was covered in crude graffiti. The blue paint had been completely picked off in some places and it was surrounded by cigarette butts.
Rose unwillingly let out a little moan of unhappiness as Mickey caught up with her.
"I never said it was pretty," he warned her. "And you're saying this piece of junk can travel through time?"
"It could," said Rose. "It's dead now."
"'Ow can it be dead? S'just a machine." He gave it a little kick.
"Don't!" exclaimed Rose. She pushed open the door gently and was puzzled to find something heavy propped against it on the other side.
The Doctor fell out, nearly hitting her, and onto the ground, unmoving and silent. A quick glance into the rest of the TARDIS showed it was no longer the vast space Rose knew it as. She focused her attention on the Doctor.
Mickey squatted down. His eyes widened. "Oh my God…This guy's dead." Rose screamed.
"No!" She fell to the ground and rolling the Doctor over so he was facing the open sky. His eyes stared lifelessly back into hers. "No, no, no, no, no…"
"Rose, snap out of it!" said Mickey sharply. She started sobbing instead.
"My Doctor, my Doctor," she mumbled almost incomprehensively. She touched his face gingerly. It was stone cold. She retched suddenly and Mickey was instantly at her side, rubbing her back.
"Calm down Rose," he said, trying to help her up. She stood, trembling, trying to focus on not throwing up. Mickey led her away slowly.
"He was dead," she wept as he sat her down on a bench.
"That was the Doctor, right?" asked Mickey gently. He put his arm around her and she collapsed against him. He could feel her shaking. "Oh Rose…"
"How can I get back now Mickey?" she wailed. "He was everything to me!" Mickey stiffened suddenly.
"So you were cheating on me," he said, moving away from her.
"Mickey, you and me aren't even together any more!" she screamed at him. He flinched, turning away. "None of this is real! The Doctor is alive, and I'll get back to him somehow, I know I will. I'm going to wake up!"
The instant she said it, the scene around her disappeared. She could feel a hard surface beneath her. Everything was black.
She opened her eyes and sat bolt upright.
……………………………………………………………………………………………
"Yippee! Another bloody hospital," said Stella sarcastically as she saw where she was. She was almost certain she was awake now. She'd pinched herself viciously a few times and it had hurt, but what did that mean exactly? Apart from the fact that whoever came up with the idea of pinching yourself to see if you're awake was obviously a sadist.
So here she was again, in a cheerfully orange and puce coloured room full of scary looking medical tools. She was relieved to see there was nothing that looked like a bulldog clip. She still had nightmares about that one.
She swung her legs off the bed and was very disturbed to see she had some sort of probe stuck in the back of her hand. She clenched her teeth and yanked it out. The machines next to her immediately flatlined and some sort of klaxon started sounding. Stella clapped her hands over her ears and ran for the door.
She wrenched it open only for something to run into her.
"Gaaaah!" said Stella, clutching her heart as she took a few paces backwards. The thing looked equally shocked. It was vaguely humanoid, which was good, because Stella had never been good with tentacles. It was also a sort of pale blue colour and it looked very relieved.
"You're OK," it said happily.
"Yes, joy to the world," said Stella. "Not to be rude, but who the hell are you?" He smiled.
"You are funny, for a human," he said. "I am Curio."
"Stella," she muttered. "Why am I in a hospital ward?"
"You were in great distress," he explained, crossing the room and taking up a little hand held computer. "You were having a nightmare, yes?"
"Of sorts," said Stella, who was feeling very confused and got the distinct impression nothing was going to be done about this. "But I'm fine now."
"I must say, I'm very impressed that you woke yourself up," said Curio. "Some never wake up."
"Thanks, I'm sure," she said. "Where are my friends?"
"The humans are on the opposite side of the fortress. The Time Lord is currently being studied in the room next door," said Curio. "Would you like to visit them?"
"How do you know he's a Time Lord? And…fortress?"
He smiled. "We call it that although it is not a tool of war. It is where we live, all of us. We are few in number now. We cannot live outside for reasons you yourself experienced."
"Shame, it's really pretty," noted Stella.
"We visit it occasionally," said Curio. "We have found, over the years, that we have adapted to the particles in the air. But it is still safer to live here." He put down the computer. "As for the Time Lord, we ran several tests on him. We were amazed with our findings. We believed them all to be dead."
"Huh?" Stella felt puzzled. She suddenly realised she knew little about the Time Lords, and the Doctor for that matter. "They're all dead?"
"Except your friend."
"How did that happen?"
"The Time War of course," said Curio, looking bemused. "Surely he has spoken of it?"
"Guess I'm not important enough to tell," said Stella. She felt bitter. Wasn't she one of the team now? "I don't want to see him," she decided. "I want to see the others."
"I'll clear it with Esprit," said Curio, picking up a little microphone and speaking quietly into it. He nodded a few times. "OK. This way."
As Stella followed him, she quizzed him more about his strange country. "So what's with the sleeping powder?"
"Particles in the air," corrected Curio. "They are dispensed by a generator on the far side of this island. They were meant to be a defence mechanism, indeed, they were meant to be programmed so they would only affect our enemies. But we soon found we were not immune."
"What happened?" she asked curiously.
"Most of our people fell asleep," he said simply. "They could not be sustained. There are under one hundred of us left now."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It was long ago."
"Yeah, but—" Stella bit her tongue to stop herself answering him. Was this what it was like for the Doctor? Alone in the Universe, the last of your species…she couldn't even imagine that. As a child she had felt very alone, the only daughter in a house with three brothers and a mum who worked abroad. She'd gone through the 'no one understands me' period of life. She'd been through being left behind by the Doctor and Rose.
But being truly alone must feel a lot worse.
They had reached a door. Like the rest of the fortress it was made of white stone that had a pearly quality to it. She pushed it open just as Rose sat bolt upright on one of the beds. They reminded Stella of Butlins' beds; the mattresses had that 'I'm made of plastic' quality to them. They looked at each other for a second then Rose suddenly, and without warning, burst into tears. Stella rushed to her, narrowly avoiding a collision with the bed post, but then felt very stupid because she wasn't quite sure what to do next.
Again, she felt a little bitter. She was the newbie, fine, good. But it sucked a little that the others were so close. Even now, when Rose was clearly upset about something, Stella didn't feel comfortable enough to even hug her.
Blow comfortable. Stella gave her an awkward, but perfectly friendly hug.
"I'm OK," said Rose, wiping her face on the back of her hand. Stella let her go, looking a little relieved. "I…just had a nightmare, that's all."
"You're not the only one, I assure you," said Stella. She glanced at the other bed in the room, where Jack was sleeping peacefully for the moment. "What did you dream about?"
"Getting left behind," said Rose vaguely, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She suddenly spotted Curio. "Hi." He nodded his head in response.
"That's Curio," said Stella. "And, uh, this is Rose."
"Pleased to meet you," said Curio politely. He turned to leave. "I must report back to Esprit. You are free to wander wherever you chose, but please do not touch anything that looks too important." He smiled briefly. Then he added a warning: "Do not try and wake the other human. It would be unsafe for him."
"Like waking a sleep walker?" asked Rose.
"I imagine so," said Curio. "I will talk to you both later. I hope your friend wakes up soon."
"Thanks," said Stella, as he left the room. She turned back to Rose. "Getting left behind, huh? That wouldn't make you cry if it was just a dream."
"It wasn't just that," said Rose, stretching out her back and shoulders. The plastic mattresses were as uncomfortable as they looked. "I dreamt the TARDIS was dead and beaten up. Jack was no where and the Doctor..."
"Also dead?" guessed Stella. Rose nodded, looking subdued. A moment later she laughed.
"I'm such an idiot," she said. "I knew it was a dream really."
"But it still hurt," said Stella, trying to avoid her gaze. "I get that." Rose looked at her.
"Something wrong?"
"No! No, I'm fine and dandy," said Stella with a forced smile. Rose didn't look convinced.
"What did you dream about?"
Stella looked blankly at her. "I don't remember." She paused. "I'm going to explore."
"Thanks Stella," Rose called after her. The door clicked shut. Rose bit her lip. She looked at Jack. "Y'know, something's up with her. I don't know what, but she's acting strange." Jack didn't reply, since he was still very much asleep. "She's more perceptive than I thought she was too. Makes you think doesn't it?" She glanced at the closed door. "We don't really know Stella at all."
……………………………………………………………………………………………
Aha! AHAHAHAHAHA! What's this? More mystery? By golly, I didn't see that coming, did you Crawdie?
Crawdie: Yes. The clue is in the genre.
Interesting, right? Maybe they can't trust Stella as much as they thought they could. Or maybe Stella's just irritated. Who knows? There are lots of things we can't possibly know the answer to. For example, I could tell you all that there's an asteroid out there that's made of jam and speaks French, and none of you would be able to prove me wrong. Just goes to show what a downright weird Universe we live in. So technically, if I wanted to, I could make Stella the bad guy. Interesting…very interesting…