They landed in the middle of a village, which seemed to be made of rickety wooden houses. Fields extended as far as they could see in each direction except one, dotted by the occasional building. It was as flat as the previous planet had been hilly. A huge lake dominated the north side of this continent and they could make out some trees near the centre of it, the only ones in the area.
A few of the natives seemed to be expecting them. They were short, blue skinned and almost painfully polite. Rose wondered if they were the ancestors of Rafello. They directed the trio to a small boat tethered to a worn wooden pier.
The Doctor was surprisingly good at punting; Rose watched his long, lean arms push the pole into the lake, moving hand over hand along the pole to propel the boat. It did not look like any technique she knew from watching punters along the river Cam one summer.
"I take it you didn't learning punting in England," Jack commented, leaning back to admire the view of the lake.
"Nope," the Doctor said, as he focused on their destination, "This is more of an Oriental method. Learnt it from some lake fishermen in 17th century China."
They reached the island in the centre of the lake. The inside of the island was hidden by the ring of trees they had noticed earlier. As they ducked under low-hanging branches to enter, they were greeted with thousands upon of thousands of butterflies, swarming in the centre of the island. A small clearing could be seen further in, and Rose could barely make out a prone humanoid form on the grass.
"Doctor," she said, tugging at his arm as she made her way towards the humanoid form.
The butterflies were settling on the form and melting into it. After several minutes, the number of butterflies noticeably decreased. Another few minutes, and only a handful were fluttering around. The humanoid form looked like a statue made of glass. A ripple, and she looked human, dressed in a gown that shimmered and changed colour constantly. She opened her eyes and looked up at them. It was Aranea.
She got up slowly, reaching out her hand to catch the few errant butterflies that circled her. As she caught one, recognition filled her face.
"Hello, you lot," she smiled at them, "I told you I'd get here first."
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"Right then, start at the beginning, and don't leave anything out."
The Doctor nodded his thanks to a native who handed him a large bowl of beverage. They were seated in a small hut, which seemed to be the village town hall. Each of them took a side of a table, Rose on the Doctor's left, Jack to his right, and Aranea facing him. She smiled.
"Well, a long time ago, there was this big bang, and then -"she started.
"Not that beginning!" the Doctor said irritably. "You said you met us before. You said you received instructions from me. So, how did this all get started, and what is this exactly?"
"I can't tell you everything, that would cause a paradox in your timeline," she replied, "I'm a time-traveller, but my ship - my Citadel - vanished a long time ago."
"You're from our future, then?" Rose asked, eyebrow raised.
"That is correct," Aranea nodded," I was born in the far future, in linear time. Billions of years from now. My first contact with you would also be further along in your timeline."
"But that's not possible, is it?" Rose turned to the Doctor.
"It's very dangerous, but possible," the Doctor replied, "If both parties know what they're doing, and the risks involved."
"I know what I'm doing," Aranea said calmly.
"You're not a Time Lord," The Doctor's tone was blunt.
"I'm not," she conceded, "But you might say I occupy the same niche."
"Oh, really?" The Doctor's head tilted, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Well, that went nowhere fast," Jack commented after a short, tense silence.
"And you're not helping," the Doctor snapped.
"What do you know about this time period, Doctor?" Aranea asked.
The Time Lord quirked an eyebrow at her. She was trying to test him? Him, the last Gallifreyan left in the universe?
"The Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire just ended, although the decline had been going on for at least two thousand years," he said, "There is a period of chaos and warfare, but within five hundred years a new alliance is set up among the stronger trading galaxies. It's generally referred to as the First Coalition of Galaxies. How's that?"
"Ten out of ten," Aranea teased, "Except that instead of five hundred years, it looked for a while that the warfare would go on, well, forever. Many planets got pushed into the Dark Ages due to the collapse of their economies, some were decimated by wars and forgot even how to get into space."
"But Earth is supposed to serve as neutral ground for trade and diplomatic talks," The Doctor argued, "Even after the collapse of the Empire, Earth is still a major trade and communication hub. There isn't a single megacorporation or criminal organisation that doesn't have a major branch on Earth. Everyone has a vested interest to make sure that Earth's kept out of any hostility."
"Except that something happened to Earth," Aranea replied, "It was only a backwater planet until a few hundred years ago. The Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire declined for two thousand years, and then it just ended. One day, everyone woke up, and nine-tenths of the population on Earth was wiped out. Nobody knows how it happened. No warships were found, no massive weapons. Nothing. But entire continents were cauterised and warped by laser fire."
"What? When was this?" the Doctor almost leapt out his stool.
Aranea looked at him speculatively.
"I can't tell you when," she said, "I may have said too much already. The Doctor I travelled with initially knew all this. Which means that you'll have to find out yourself, Doctor."
The Doctor slowly sat down again. She was right; there was no shortcut to knowledge. He would have to find out the hard way. He thought back to the events of Satellite 5. Was the destruction of the Jagrafess not enough to get humanity back on track? He frowned to himself as he tried to think this through.
"And why are you here?" he asked.
"I've been trying to move events back to how they were supposed to be," Aranea answered, "And so far, I've had some success. I floated the idea of a Coalition among some of the larger warlords, and once the bigger players in the game stating forming alliances, the smaller powers were clamouring to join in as well. It's not quite a Coalition yet, but it's getting there. There's very little I can do now to make events move any faster, so I've been spending my time travelling and looking for my Citadel."
"Tell me about the distress signal, the other one," the Doctor said, moving down a mental list.
"One of my puppets, I think, like the one you met on the red-grass planet," she said, "Pretty place, but boring. I'm guessing it has to do with the Coalition at that time becoming stratified and turning into a tool for the criminal organisations. Much like what it is now, but worse."
"But Sigius Severn becomes Premier when that happens and cleans up the Senate House from the bottom up," the Doctor mused.
"If Sigius Severn exists - now," Aranea reminded gently.
"Hmm. So what do you think the problem is?"
Aranea shrugged.
"I don't know." She admitted, "I wasn't there when you left my puppet there, and because she's in the future, I can only get the vaguest impressions of what she's doing. But she's very single-minded, and if I'm not there when you see her, you might not be able get anything sensible out of her."
"So the whole point of this is that you want a lift in my TARDIS forward in time?"
The Doctor's face was sceptical and not at all friendly. Aranea did not answer, but stared at her bowl, looking as if she was trying to remember something.
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AN: Ok, I think the next chapter should start things up!