They kept travelling. What else could they do? While they did enjoy the sights and sounds of a thousand planets and a thousand time periods, Jack was always foremost on their minds. Aranea rigged up scanners and sensors that would detect his brain pattern, or his 51st century human physiognomy, or detect the wrist computer's signals.
The Doctor busied himself with fixing the TARDIS, sometimes cursing that Jack would have figured out how to fix something or other, usually a part with an incredibly complicated and long name. Rose sometimes had Irish coffee; she would wander into Jack's room from time to time, idly tidying up. Sometimes she would bump into Aranea there, and back away softly before they could make eye contact.
They saw a moon blow apart, as thousands of furry bipeds cheered and roared their appreciation for their president who had sponsored the event; swam with the dolphin-like inhabitants of Cobalt, who were powerful telekineticists, and built fantastic and surreal cities in electric blue oceans; dodged touts, streetwalkers and acrobats on Frexyissi, a 79th Century Las Vegas, except it covered half the surface of a planet the size of Neptune.
Every time one of them saw a figure like Jack's, they ran. Every time, they were disappointed.
0o0o0o0ooo0o0o00o0o0o0o0o0o00
They found a trace of a wrist computer, and full of hopes, landed on a small mining planet in the year 35,213. The planet, the Doctor explained as they were jolting to a full materialisation, had been assigned only a serial number, but the inhabitants - humans all - called it Dismal.
And dismal it was. The working conditions were horrendous, the atmosphere poisonously vile, the nearest inhabited neighbour was several trillion miles away. But the pay was just shy of astronomical, because what covered over 90 of Dismal's mantle was a highly radioactive rock. With a little processing, the rock made an extremely efficient rocket fuel for interstellar ships.
Upon landing, the Doctor frowned and stood in front of his display screen, arms folded. Rose, impatient to find Jack, asked what the problem was.
"Cybermen," he replied shortly, "They have a base here."
"You mean like that helmet thing in Van Statten's collection?" Rose recalled, "Are they very dangerous?"
"Almost as dangerous as the Daleks, and just as single-minded," the Time Lord replied glumly, "We'd best find out what they're doing here. Nothing good, I'd wager."
0o0o0o0o0o0o00o0o0oo0oo0
Aranea felt her heart sink when they found that the wrist computer was attached to a dead body, and it was with mixed feelings of relief and sympathy when they found the body. It was not Jack, but another TIME Agent.
The sympathy disappeared fairly rapidly when they activated the wrist computer and found the TIME Agent's last report.
He was Timothy R. Drayle, assigned to Dismal to stop the Cybermen, at all costs, from acquiring the planet. His time-ship had been destroyed a week after he arrived. The planet had been overrun by Cybermen then, although the high radiation slowed their invasion a great deal. Several human bases were still running, and the nearest planet, ESX4531CC (nicknamed Echo) was sending what reinforcements they could.
Drayle had a bold plan, inspired by one of the combat groups that fought along the border between human and Cybermen territories. By forcing one of the larger processing plants into an explosion, a chain reaction could occur on Dismal's surface, killing the Cybermen. And everyone else.
"He can't do that!" the Doctor exclaimed, "Humanity needs Dismal's fuel to get out of the galaxy. If they destroy the mantle, it'd take forever for you lot to scrape together enough fuel to hit the next galaxy!"
"Has he got the plan working already?" Rose asked in concern.
The voice report went on as they turned their attention back to the wrist computer.
"I've already given instructions to the guerrilla group on how to overload the plant. They will enter the plant, take it over, lock up any resisting staff, and flood the control room with radioactive rock to prevent humans or Cybermen from entering it and stopping the overload process. I've already made contact with a private cruiser that came by to refuel, and will be off the planet by the time the chain reaction starts. I intend to find another TIME Agent, or send a message to TIME Agency headquarters somehow. Report 3D-12, finished."
"So what happened?" Rose asked, "Why isn't he on the cruiser right now?"
The Doctor gave a smile that was devoid of all humour or mirth.
"Privateers are notoriously hard bargainers," he said, "I'd guess that our friend here couldn't come up with a price his potential chauffer was happy with."
"Nothing more we can do for him," Aranea said shortly, "Best we go and find this guerrilla group and stop them."
"Excellent idea. Back in the TARDIS, then. We'll jump straight in."
0o0oo0o0oo0o0o0o0o00o0oo0o0
The Doctor opened the door of the TARDIS and grinned at the three nervous men who were levelling guns at him.
"Hello there," he said cheerfully.
"Who are you and how did you get in here?" one of the men spoke. He was taller than the other two, with a thatch of brown hair that stuck out in all directions. Not unlike the Doctor's hair, only lighter.
"I'm the Doctor, and - may I just step out for a minute, thank you? - these are my companions."
The Time Lord pushed the TARDIS door a little wider and came out, allowing Rose and Aranea to emerge.
"Are you with Drayle?" the tall man asked, "Where is he? He said he'd be here and get us out."
"There's been a slight change of plan," the Doctor said smoothly, "Drayle's asked that you don't go ahead with the destruction of this plant. We've got other methods of destroying the Cybermen."
The tall man laughed, but entirely with mirth.
"Too late, Doctor," he replied, "switches been thrown and the control room's red hot now. We flooded it with rock."
"With what?" Rose asked.
"Rock, you know, the radioactive stuff," the man looked curiously at Rose, "You ain't from around here, are you?"
"No, I just dropped in for a look," Rose said half to herself, then smiled at the three men, "And I heard that you people were a friendly bunch. What's your name?"
The three seemed embarrassed that they were still pointing their guns at the Doctor, and slowly lowered them.
"Name's Petar," the tall man replied, "This is my partner, Aurelio. That's my cousin-brother, Meir. We've evacuated the place; the original staff have taken their buggies over to the next plant."
"That's very good of you, Petar," the Doctor beamed approvingly," Now what we need to do is secure the plant and try to turn off the self-destruct switches."
"Already said, can't be done," Meir piped up," The whole control room's hot right now. Stand in there for more'n fifteen seconds, and your brain'll ooze out your ears."
"Ah," the Doctor smiled at Meir, "I do believe I haven't introduced you formally to my companions yet."
The Doctor walked forward and took Meir's gun from him.
"That's Rose," the Doctor gestured to the young woman, "And this…"
Turning slightly, the Time Lord aimed and shot at Aranea. Already prepared for this, Aranea's forcefield came up and the bullet flattened and bounced off.
"…is Aranea," the Doctor handed the gun back to Meir, who with Aurelio and Petar stared slack-jawed at the half-human.
"A little showy, don't you think, Doctor?" Rose asked archly.
"Well, we're a little short of time right now, Rose," the Doctor said, a little defensively, "Right, we four shall go and secure the doors, jury-rig some traps and so forth. Rose, Aranea, you'll have to work on the switches. All right?"
He looked around, waiting for questions. None were forthcoming so he smiled again.
"Very good. Off we go then!"
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Here."
Aranea pinned a crystal teardrop on the Doctor's trenchcoat.
"What's that for?" he asked quizzically, lifting his lapel to look at it.
"Just in case I need to contact you," Aranea said, "I need to be in physical contact with someone to communicate telepathically, remember?"
The Doctor nodded, and with a salute of his sonic screwdriver, set off, three men in tow. Rose and Aranea walked in the opposite direction, towards the control room, set in three layers of transparent anti-radiation polymer.
"Why did Petar call Meir "cousin-brother"? Rose asked as they approached the large throw switches.
"Petar and Meir are Czenabians, and on their world, frequently baby girls are born as twins," Aranea explained, "So it's common in their culture for sisters to marry the same husband. Children of the two sisters aren't half-siblings, exactly, nor cousins. So they use the terms "cousin-brother" and "cousin-sister" to denote the exact relationship."
"Oh," Rose digested this piece of information; Aranea never ceased to be impressed by how quickly Rose could absorb and accept new information, even new social mores. She tried exotic (even wriggling) food with nary a wince, did not even blink at some of the strangest alien bodies (and what they did in public), and doggedly asked questions, unashamed to admit she did not know, because she wanted to learn.
It no longer seemed incongruous to think of this young woman from a drab little period of Earth's history as the same one who saved the Doctor, destroyed the Daleks, and stared without fear into the time-space vortex. It was all her.
"We'll communicate by thought," Aranea explained, "Countdown and then throw one switch. We have to wait a while between switches, otherwise the power supply gets overloaded."
"Do you know how much time we got?" Rose asked.
"Plenty," Aranea reassured her, "The alarm hasn't gone off, so nothing's redlining yet."
Right on cue, lights began flashing, and a loud siren sounded.
"Radiation levels in reactors 1, 2 and 3 reaching critical," a calm female voice announced, "Please siphon off excess radioactive material. Radiation levels in reactors…"
The two women looked at each other and grinned.
"Wait till I tell you!" Aranea shouted as she ran towards the control room. She opened the first set of doors, shut it. Her shield was already up, but barely skimmed the surface of her skin. It was difficult to keep it in place that way, but she would not be able to activate the doors, nor throw the switches if she had her usual sphere.
The last set of doors opened reluctantly and Aranea stared at the slightly glowing rocks that littered both sides of the control room. Aurelio, Petar and Meir had rigged some block and tackle system around some reinforced crates; they must have pulled the crates to force the contents out just as they were running out the last set of doors, in order not to get irradiated.
Aranea glanced at the displays as she approached the switches. They still had a bit of time; the reactors were only starting to go over their full capacity.
The first throw was successful. All the lights flickered as the first reactor started to shut down; it took a lot of power to move the radioactive rods within the reactor into a storage pit next to it.
The Doctor and the three men were checking the outside doors when they heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. The Cybermen were here.
"The locks are electronic, so we have to make sure that they're mechanically sealed as well," the Doctor explained as they made their way from the centre of the plant to the exits, "Otherwise when the last switch is thrown, it's possible that the power will trip and the doors come open. These plants weren't exactly made with maximum security in mind."
"We understand," Aurelio said, lifting up a large solder iron.
"Good lads," the Doctor grinned, "Off you go then, each of us will take a different direction."
The Doctor took the north, as there were two sets of doors there, one on the third floor. It was for people who landed on the helipad attached to the plant on the outside. As he used his sonic screwdriver to weld the door hinges into immobility, he saw the lights flicker. The switches were being thrown. He grinned and went back to work.
He had just finished the second hinge when the lights flickered and went out for a few seconds before coming back on. The second switch had been enough to interrupt the power supply. He heard a soft click far above him.
"We have access," a monotonous voice said.
A door banged open.
Uh-oh, the Doctor thought.