I don't own Doctor Who.

Please let me know what you think.

Thaddeus Nook and the Time Tours - Part 2.

Any 20th-century enthusiast in the 52nd century would have claimed that George Lucas had been inspired by places like the Maldovarium run by Dorium Maldovar had been the basis of his short but insightful summary of Mos Eisley in Star Wars 'A New Hope' and as they walked into the place, conscious of their tight-fitting dress and 52nd-century style makeup, the Doctor was more than aware of the eyes that were focused on her as she appeared while she held onto the handbag on her shoulder. She glanced over at Martha and she had to admit the woman's similar dress looked good on her.

The Doctor smirked to herself.

When she had heard of the mission from the Time Lords to destroy the time tours time machine now run by Thaddeus Nook and his partner, the Doctor had been given an opportunity to find a way to escape her exile to Earth. Following the time machine to the 1940s to World War 2 and then into the future hadn't been difficult, but the hardest thing to really do was find the time machine and get the control key off of Nook. The good news was she hadn't needed to.

The Time Lords had given the Doctor carte blanche to destroy the time machine. She had been allowed to do whatever it took to destroy the time machine since the danger it represented was incalculable. And after her meeting with Nook initially, the Doctor knew it would be virtually hard to stop the other time traveller from doing what he was doing, and so the Doctor had opted to simply not bother trying. At the same time, she had seen the chance to regain her freedom to travel in time and space. It was the Time Lord's own fault for giving her the opportunity.

Once she had tracked the time machine back to its home base, the Doctor, using some of the biodata she had taken from Nook had backtracked in the TARDIS so she and Martha could jump 'back' in time and, under disguise, they had joined the time tours and went on the same tour where they had first met Nook before he had actually met them so they could destroy the time machine when Nook least expected it. They had paid the man and had told him to bring them here although Nook's knowledge of the 52nd century was very limited. The Doctor had told Martha what she had in mind, and now they were here.

But what Nook and the others did not know, and wouldn't until the time machine landed on the planet where the Maldovarium was based was that the Doctor had hypnotised everyone and used a telepathic stunner programmed into the telepathic circuits she had removed from her TARDIS

She walked over to the bar counter with Martha where a multi-armed woman with purple-red skin and her long black 'hair' was braided until they resembled long organic-looking cables. "I want to see Dorium," she kept her voice low while she leaned over the countertop, trying to keep her voice lowered in case anyone was listening and she put a hand on Martha's arm, conscious of the other woman's wide eyes as she looked around at the various aliens she had never seen before.

The multi-armed woman smiled a vapid, blank smile. "Sorry, hun, but Dorium doesn't see anyone-."

Knowing that was a white lie, the Doctor interrupted her smoothly, "Oh, he'll see us. Tell him it's Doctor Joanna Smith. Tell him time bends and folds," she added saying the password she'd agreed with Dorium.

The multi-armed woman looked shifty before the Doctor concentrated her power of hypnotism on her. "Go on. Tell Dorium time bends and folds and that Doctor Joanna Smith is here to see him."

The woman left.

Martha turned to her. "What did you just do?"

"I hypnotised her," the Doctor rubbed her face, hoping what she had just done wasn't going to come back to bite her. "Anyway, we're here now."

"I don't like what you'd done to those tourists," Martha said.

"I had to. If I didn't use the telepathic stun pulse, they would have been impossible when we arrived on this planet and we need to stay close to Nook to destroy that time machine," the Doctor said patiently.

Martha looked around the bar, trying hard to keep her cool when she noticed more than a few people eyeing her and the Doctor in their dresses like they were pieces of meat. "Did we have to dress like this?"

"Why, what's wrong?'

"You mean you haven't noticed?" Martha countered, glaring at the Doctor in disbelief, wondering how the Doctor hadn't realised that they were being watched. "Everyone's watching us!"

"Oh. Because we're dressed like this, right?" The Doctor looked down at their dresses.

"Yes," Martha replied pointedly.

"Martha, this place is a club. If we had come in here, dressed normally everyone would have taken notice, but by being like this we're blending into the scene, and since Dorium has something important that I want, the last thing I want to do is make some stupid mistake that will mean we can't get it," the Doctor replied patiently while she looked around the Maldovarium. She had seen aliens clustered in groups before, but places like this tended to attract all kinds of menageries.

She saw a number of Morok's, a trio of Drahvins, and Raxicoricofallapatorians. She also spotted a couple of Silurians and guessed they either came from one of their ark ships sent out to colonise a planet that wasn't under threat and proved to be inhabitable or they had been revived from a shelter on Earth and realised threatening humanity was a truly bad idea. Martha noticed them as well just as she noticed the rhino-like aliens.

"Hold on, surely the Judoon shouldn't be here, and are those Silurians?" Martha asked.

The Doctor shrugged. Truthfully she didn't care about Dorium's clientele, but there were bound to be law-enforcement agents hanging about, but that wasn't her problem. "Not all Judoon are mercenary coppers, Martha. Some of them are likely to be criminals as well. And as for the Silurians… well, I got into a shelter once, and I found that a few of the more innovative members of their society had built a number of arks to travel in space, but its just as possible some of them on Earth were revived and they were shown why it is not a good idea to attack humanity."

"Which one do you think is the likeliest?"

"I don't know, ah, here Dorium comes," the Doctor smiled.

Martha blinked in surprise as the morbidly obese blue form of Dorium appeared. He was dressed in a rich robe, not unlike what she had seen middle eastern men wear in movies, but these were of rich fabrics in dark brocades that Martha almost swore was some kind of silk. The moment he approached them at the counter, his chubby face lit up.

"Doctor! It's good to see you again," he said warmly.

Martha wasn't sure he was being sincere or not; despite his smile, there was an oily way in the manner he greeted the Doctor. One glance at her friend told her that the Time Lady genuinely did not care.

"And you too, Dorium. How's it going?" The Doctor asked, but Martha caught sight of a glint in the Doctor's eyes. The Time Lady clearly knew how untrustworthy Dorium was and was prepared for the worst.

"Oh, business is booming, Doctor!" Dorium led them both to a table, and Martha more than once caught a few interesting looks sent her way as Dorium led them to an isolated table. Martha realised this was his table, likely used for deals or small talk. "Now, who is your lovely friend?" Dorium asked, looking at Martha.

"Martha Jones," the moment she introduced herself, Martha wondered what the blue alien would do with the information, but the blue alien just smiled Kindly at her before he turned seriously to the Doctor.

"I received your message," the blue alien said, sending her a look after he received his drink. "Are you still….in trouble from the Time Lords, Doctor?"

Martha turned to the Doctor, wondering how she was going to take this. She knew this was a chance for her to escape from her exile, something she would have expected the Time Lords to realise.

"Do you have the manipulator, Dorium?" The Doctor's voice was dark and promised something Martha speculated was worse than pain.

Dorium sighed melodramatically. "Ah, you're not any fun anymore, Doctor. I was only making conversation. However I do have what you want," he said and he lifted his hand. Instantly one of his aides approached carrying a dark coloured richly ornate box and laid it on the top of the table.

"One vortex manipulator, Model-618, time portal based, freshly off the arm of a Time Agent," Dorium announced, and then a thought visibly crossed his face and he opened the box.

He grimaced and Martha followed suit, her mind automatically guessing what was wrong in that box. She was right. Dorium turned to the aide, irritated. "I said take the vortex manipulator off of the arm, not leave it there! I'm sorry, Doctor," he said turning to the Time Lady after he told the aide to take the manipulator off of the hand and to throw the hand into the incinerator.

The Doctor shook her head generously even though the disgust was clearly there. "It's okay, Dorium. I sometimes forget to do things, and it irks others," she said with a private chuckle. The aide soon came back with the vortex manipulator - Dorium checked to make sure the time machine was fine -and the Doctor lifted her handbag and passed it over to Dorium, who took it and opened it up. He took out a large chunky looking crystal that was a vivid colour although Martha was unsure if the colour was a cherry red or a glossy pink.

"Are these…Xyril Blood Stones?" Dorium whispered in awe.

"Yes."

Martha remembered that one of the places that the TARDIS had visited was a world where the Doctor had left her in the TARDIS console room with express warnings not to come out and she had locked the doors to make certain she couldn't leave the console room. But when she had come back carrying a suddenly very full handbag and was tight-lipped even as she'd set the controls the Doctor had refused to talk about what she had done, which meant it was secret or very bad.

"What are Xyril bloodstones?" Martha asked, but the Doctor and Dorium both shushed her. Another sign that what they were was likely very dangerous or lethal. That worried her, the Doctor didn't usually play with something toxic or explosive.

"Xyril bloodstones are extremely rare, Martha. They're even rarer because the planet we got them from was over-mined and the planet because too badly polluted to find more of them. But we got them just before the planet was discovered. The bloodstones when refined produce miracle drugs," the Doctor explained.

"Miracle drugs, but why didn't you tell me about what you were doing?" Martha demanded.

"I didn't exactly want these crystals to be known about when we came here, that's why."

"Why would you be so worried about them, unless…. Hold on, they're not illegal, are they?" Martha asked.

The Doctor sighed, sending a spiteful glance at Dorium, who sat there looking amused at Martha's ignorance. "No, they're not illegal, Martha. When they were discovered, they opened the doors to new discoveries, new vaccines, but the people who mined them went too far and the only source of them in the universe was lost for good. Lost unless you have access to a time machine."

The Doctor turned to Dorium. "Alright, Dorium. Let me take a look at the vortex manipulator and you can look at the crystals."

The two exchanged the items, and the Doctor took out her sonic screwdriver and scanned the vortex manipulator before she was satisfied. "It's genuine," she commented.

Dorium sent her a mock hurt look. "Don't you trust me, Doctor?"

"Oh, I do trust you, I just don't trust the scum you work with. And besides, you know only too well what I'd do if I found you stabbing me in the back and if this manipulator turned out to be a fake… Dorium, I've spent 450 years on Earth, the time I was temporarily freed from the Time Lords and when I slipped through a few time rifts and dimensional gateways..… I've been exiled there too long. I've been forced to live out the 20th century 3 and I was thrown back in time. I don't want to be there anymore. If this was a fake, I can promise you it would be a mistake," the Doctor whispered.

Martha whimpered a little and moved away from the Doctor, sensing the threat at once when she saw the cold look on the Doctor's face. She has seen the Doctor angry before, and it was never a fun thing to see, ever. It looked like Dorium was just as terrified, and he was on the receiving end of it.

Dorium swallowed himself. "I would never do that, Doctor. You've helped me too much, and even if I wanted to betray you, I know it would be the last thing I'd be able to get away with."

Suddenly the Doctor smiled warmly. "Thanks for the vortex manipulator, Dorium. If I need anything else, you'll be the first person I turn to. What do you plan on doing with the stones?"

Dorium looked relieved the danger was over. "Oh, I plan on sending them to a few biotechnology firms. They'll have the resources to handle them properly and make cures from them."

The Doctor just smiled. "Good luck."

X

"Did you have to scare him like that, Doctor?" Martha asked as they left and headed back for the time machine.

"I've known Dorium for a long time, Martha. I met him when I was travelling the universe again after I'd thought I'd shaken my exile off. He helped get me a new vortex manipulator when the one I'd stolen was falling to pieces and a teleport necklace. But one of his suppliers tried to steal one of them back from me. Dorium's people stopped him but it reminded me of how dangerous Dorium's associates are," the Doctor replied.

"Hold on, you took a vortex manipulator from him before? How come he didn't remind you of it?" Martha asked.

"It's not good for his line of business. In any case, I'm not going to use it the conventional way," the Doctor replied.

"What do you mean?" Martha asked.

"You'll see when we get back to Earth," the Doctor replied.

X

Later after destroying the time machine Nook was using, the Doctor and Martha returned to the TARDIS. "I kind of feel sorry for them, you know," the Doctor announced suddenly.

"What?" Martha asked.

"I said I feel sorry for Nook and Jess. They've been spending their whole lives trying to make a living although Nook's methods leave much to be desired. And now their last chance would have gone if I hadn't given them both the push they need," the Doctor said.

"What did you do?" Martha stopped.

"I telepathically inspired them to become a part of the security forces. They have a criminal background, and Nook's history is longer than the District Line back on Earth, but he can do a lot more on the right side of the law," the Doctor said as she flicked the last control that send the TARDIS into the Time Vortex. The Doctor's delight at hearing the sound of dematerialisation had Martha look at her.

"So what are your plans with the manipulator?"

"You'll see," the Doctor smiled.

Martha rolled her eyes in frustration at the Doctor's need to be mysterious. It was a bit too dramatic for her tastes. But she then remembered how the conversation had unfolded with Dorium. "Doctor," she began slowly, "when you said you'd been exiled for 450 years, did you mean it?"

"More or less."

"What do you mean, more or less? I mean, how long have you been this you?" Martha asked awkwardly, wishing there was some kind of proper correct term she could use.

"A few years."

"A few years? What do you mean?" Martha asked.

"Well, I did spend a lot of time exiled to Earth, but when I escaped using that time meddler's time machine, I went jumping from place to place, and once I had to spend three centuries travelling the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire - I circumnavigated it several times while I looked for something that could help me travel through time again; it was the longest I'd ever gone without the TARDIS. But I got it wrong; I arrived on Earth in the 1600s, and by the time Gallifrey got a lock on me when they realised I'd gone, they wiped my memories after I'd been there for a while and moved me to the 1800s to add on my time," the Doctor shrugged as she gazed awkwardly back at Martha, "but truthfully, I have no idea how long I've been living in this body. I would say I have been in this body for close to 800 years, but I don't know for sure. It's hard for a time traveller to know how long you live; you can use the starting point and count down the days from there, but it doesn't always work, and for a time traveller who has the power to regenerate and change their appearance while remaining the same for centuries, it's even harder."

Martha blinked at her in surprise, going over the Doctor's reply carefully over in her mind. "Have you ever tried to find out?"

"Not really. There's a system in the TARDIS for measuring your biodata, but I'm not bothered unless I'm really interested, but it's likely I'll just round off the age for the last time I'd done it, but truthfully a long life to me makes little difference; I've seen some incredible things in this incarnation, Martha," the Doctor's eyes lit up suddenly as she remembered it, "I've been to the Second and Third Bountiful Human Empires, I'd circumnavigated the local group of galaxies, and even a few beyond for a century; I rode the slipspace rapids, journeyed into the Underspace to the other side of the universe before I came back. I explored the water world of Cetacea and spent 9 days trapped in the belly of one of them. I surfed the lava storms of a volcanic planet once. I entered a warp shot race, and I felt my left heartache and jump around in my chest each time my ship hit warp 10. I helped found a school once. I took part in a rock band. I met Nikola Tesla deal with an alien race of scavengers. Hell, I was even there when Torchwood was established. I even lived through 2-3 centuries of the Roman Empire. I barely gave any thought about my age then, so why should it matter now?"

Martha had been listening to the Doctor talk about her life, and while she didn't really understand all of it, she had to admit that a lot of what the Doctor had told her sounded fun. Dangerous, yes, but fun. The Doctor had told her about what some of the Time Lords were like, and she had to admit that her friend knew how to live life.