A/N: My boyfriend is driving me insane. It's his fault if this is bad ;P
I really just want to get onto the trading bit, and whatnot, but I've hardly had any time to type lately.
Thanks for the reviews!
xxx xxx
They reached the colony at dusk.
The sunset at their backs was a brilliant, fiery saffron, the distant mountains a smouldering vermillion. In the five evenings of their journey, the sky had never been anything less than spectacular.
"Curator, wait. I need to talk to you for a moment."
The Doctor paused, and turned back to look at Kermk. Rose's hand curled around his. She gave him a puzzled look.
"Is something the matter? Can't we just go in already?" she wondered.
"I don't know." The Doctor shrugged, "Kermk has something to say, first."
The big Rax shifted uncomfortably, his eyes lolling in his head. "It's just. Well. They um. Domo Barter might want to buy you, you know? Maybe not both of you, though. And maybe neither. Pg and me, we will try to bargain so he buys one of you, or neither. Eh? I don't know what you will do if he just buys one of you, or makes you slaves, or something. He will probably try, anyway. We are not good traders like Domo Barter, so we uh-"
"What he trying to say," Pg cut in, forcibly shoving Kermk aside, "Is that we will so our best for you. But we make no promises, okay?"
Reluctantly, the Doctor translated for Rose. She nodded, like it was no great surprise. At that moment, Rose didn't care whether they were traded or not traded or made slaves or space monkeys or whatever else. She was exhausted. All she wanted to do was sleep.
"Is that all?" the Doctor asked Kermk.
"I think so. Wish us luck, eh?" the older Rax grinned anxiously. "We have to make the first presentation tonight. It won't take long. Afterwards, we can eat, sleep, have a bath. Get ready for tomorrow's trading."
"Typical Raxacoricotallapatorian approach," the Doctor said to Rose, as they followed Kermk into the colony, "Domo Barter wants to see us at our worst. Not even Pg and Kermk get a chance to freshen up first."
"As long as they hurry up." Rose yawned.
Despite being the largest Rax colony on Beta, Gymnophiona was little more than primitive camp. It constituted of fifteen dome tents, low lying structures made from wooden struts and skins. Grey wisps of steam rose from the tepee-like top of most, sign of the steam-pits inside.
The tents were arranged neatly, in rows of four and five. They huddled around the central unit, a bulky, shimmering-skinned tent twice the size of any other.
"Guess which one belongs to the chief." The Doctor grinned.
"That one." Rose said, at the same time as Pg whispered,
"The big one!"
Girl and Rax stared at each other. Even Kermk, as preoccupied as he was, glanced back at them.
"Since when did you speak Rax?" Pg demanded at long last. He regarded Rose with a mixture of suspicion and hurt, sorely offended that she hadn't spoken to him sooner.
"I don't." Rose told him curtly, "It means the TARDIS is nearby. It translates for us."
"Hey, this is good. Domo Barter will like it if you can speak." Kermk enthused. He grinned madly at the Doctor and Rose.
"Alright, let's not keep him waiting." The Doctor said, ushering the Rax towards the central tent.
Rose trailed behind him, frowning slightly. She glanced around for any sign of the TARDIS, but found none. The idiot Rax must have stored it in a tent somewhere.
Gymnophiona was deathly silent. It had taken Rose two days before she realised why they made camp so early; Rax eyes were huge, but they relied on movement and alternating blocks of light to see. At night, and on cloudy days, their vision was severely impeded. Even the yellow light of dusk left them almost blind, and so the Rax judged their actions based on scent whenever possible.
Kermk halted when he reached Domo Barter's tent. He blinked a few times, before clearing his throat and announcing, "Weary travellers seeking to make their trade presentations."
Silence. Kermk licked his lips, and turned back to look helplessly at the others.
"Eh, hello?" he tried.
Still nothing.
"Look," Kermk snapped, getting impatient, "I know it's late. But we've been walking all day, okay? We just want to make the presentation and get some sleep."
A moment later, a wrinkled head poked out from the door flap. Watery round eyes stared bleakly up at the travellers.
"Trading is closed for the day: no more presentations until tomorrow. Where are you from, anyway? We're not expecting anyone." The seemingly disembodied head wondered.
"Is that you, Filtbr? You idiot! It's Kermk and Pg, from Ilium Neocort. We found the creatures that own the sky rock, and they want it back. Have you guys got it, or what?" Kermk demanded.
"Kermk?" the head, Filtbr, blinked hazily, "Creatures? Is that what that stink is?"
"Stink!" Rose cried indignantly, "You lot are the worst smelling monsters I've ever come across!"
"Like bad breath." The Doctor agreed.
Filtbr's eyes swivelled in their massive sockets, and came to a rest on Rose. "Is that one? How come it can speak?"
The Doctor sighed. They were going around in circles. "Can we speak to Domo Barter, or are you just going to yap your tongue out of your head all night?" He asked scathingly of Filtbr.
"He's asleep. Like I said, trading is closed for today. But I guess you guys can stay in one of the guest tents, if you want. There should be enough room for everyone." A long arm emerged from the depths of Domo Barter's tent. Whether it belong to Filtbr or not was arguable, "Far left. Get cleaned up, and come back in the morning."
"Right, thanks." Kermk reached down, and jiggled Filtbr's wrinkly forehead with his hand.
When they were out of the Gymnophionan Rax's hearing, he muttered, "Moron."
Rose sniggered. Despite her best efforts to maintain the memory of Slitheen as greedy, gruesome aliens, she couldn't help but like Kermk and his brother. Pg was almost childish with his elusive crush on her, and Kermk was generally good-humoured beneath his gruff exterior. She also couldn't evade the niggling feeling that uncovering Beta's secrets would eventually mean destroying the brothers, for better or worse.
"Hey, worm chops!" Pg cried gleefully, when he stepped into the guest tent.
The tent was large, though the roof was low. Rose was the only one who could stand without stooping. Four skin beds, each propped up off the ground with thick bone stilts, lined the far wall. An empty steam-pit took pride of place in the centre.
"Get that pit up and steaming, brother." Kermk said, "And put some chops on. Eh? No slacking off, okay?"
"Aw, Kermk. Why do I always have to do everything?" Pg whined. He held a fat, purplish chop in either hand. The chops had been half-buried in the sand to preserve.
"Have I not protected you, and taken care of you, and provided all that you need since you were but a tadpole?" Kermk demanded. Pg nodded glumly, and the older Rax grinned. "That is why you must do everything. Respect your elders, eh?"
"But-"
"Hey! I can dream up twice as many chores for you to do, yeah? Get on with it!" Kermk snapped.
Rose shook her head. She sat on one of the skin beds, and drew the Doctor down next to her.
"It's funny," she said, giving him a small smile, "I spent all this time wishing I could understand them, and now that I can, I want privacy."
"What for?" the Doctor wondered.
"Nothin' much. I was just hopin' we could talk. Do you think we could go and look for the TARDIS tonight? Get away from our impending slavery and all that." Rose whispered, glancing at Kermk and Pg to make sure they weren't listening in.
"Probably best to wait until morning." The Doctor told her, though his eyes said otherwise.
Rose interpreted this to mean that they would wait until the Rax were asleep. There was no more need to for a sentry through the night, now they were amongst…people.
"Alright," Rose stretched, and yawned again. "I'm going to get a good night's sleep then. At last."
The Doctor got up off the bed so Rose could lay down. He plonked down on the skin next to hers, and watched the Rax brothers set up the steam pit. First they poured water in from a huge wooden urn. There was a communal fire at the edge of the camp, and Kermk sent Pg out to fetch some heated rocks.
The brothers pitched these rocks into the pit, and instantly the pit water hissed and spat steam. Soon, the air in the tent was thick with vapour. The Doctor began to feel drowsy, and sticky with sweat.
"You want a chop, Curator?" Kermk wondered. His voice seemed to come from a great distance. It echoed strangely, a monster's trumpet in a primordial swamp.
"No, thanks." The Doctor replied.
He rubbed his eyes. It wouldn't do to fall asleep. He kicked off his shoes, with the intention of cooling off. Something cool and damp pressed against his face, and he realised he was laying down.
Pg ducked out of the tent, to fetch more rocks, taking the cooled stones with him. Night glimmered outside for an instant, then the door flap slid shut once more.
"Wake me up when you're asleep." The Doctor muttered to Kermk.
Kermk chuckled. In the back of his mind, he wondered what the Doctor would taste like.
xxx
"Doctor! Wake up!"
"Is that you, Kermk?"
"It's Rose, you prat! Wake up!"
The Doctor stared blearily up at Rose. She was standing over him, one hand gently shaking his shoulder. Her voice was a whisper, muffled further by the humid fog that surrounded them.
With a start, the Doctor sat up. "Rose!" he whispered furiously, "Come on! We've got to go and look for the TARDIS!"
Rose shook her head, dumbfounded. She followed the Doctor as he crossed hastily to the tent's entrance.
Silently, the pair crawled out through the door flap, and into the chilly desert night. A million stars glittered above them, and Rose couldn't help but feel a pang of homesickness. There was never this many stars in London, never.
"Can we stay together?" she wondered, keeping her voice low, "I don't want to run into a space pig alone."
"Not much chance of that. They're all sleeping." The Doctor said, and yawned. He judged the time to be close to nine pm, meaning he'd slept for three hours. Far too long, for a time lord as young as he was. Needing so much sleep was a sign of age.
"Please." Rose's begged.
The Doctor glanced at her, eyebrows raised. "Oh, alright." He said, "I don't know what you're afraid of, though."
They moved clockwise around the tents, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. Not that there was much point. The only light was the communal fire, down to smouldering ashes now that no one was tending to it. No sight nor sound stirred in the camp.
"Nothing here." Rose murmured, squinting against the gloom in one tent. She pulled back out, and shrugged at the Doctor.
"Nothing in this one." He mouthed, from the tent beside hers.
They moved on. Not all of the tents contained Rax. Some were empty, or seemed to be entirely devoted to storage. Wood, bones, flint, spare skins and bizarre trinkets were piled up haphazardly. The gaping mouths of deep bore-wells were dotted here and there amongst the tents.
By the twelfth tent, Rose had almost given up. Her nerves were wrought from the constant, semi-imagined peril of being found out. Not that they were really doing anything wrong; the TARDIS was theirs, they had every right to look for it. She wondered if the Rax would see it that way.
"Wish I'd never seen that bloody toboggan." Rose grumbled.
She ducked down, and crab-crawled to the front of one of the remaining unchecked tents. As quietly as she could, Rose lifted the door flap.
"What the…?" she breathed.
For a moment, Rose didn't know what was wrong with the scene. The black worm of fear stirred in her stomach. It wasn't so much the interior of the tent that frightened her, rather its dreadful familiarity.
It's just a girl, she told herself, nothing to be afraid of.
The girl sat with her back to Rose, kneeling over a skin bed. A small flame torch illuminated the bed, and cast long shadows across the tent floor. The air was thick and humid, but the steam pit was still, its heat long since drained. The scratching of a pen on rough paper accompanied the tiny crackling of fire.
As quietly as she had lifted the tent door, Rose drew it back down. She backed away from the tent, as though it contained something far more hideous and terrible than a girl scribbling by fire light, and scrambled to her feet.
"You alright, Rose?"
Rose almost screamed at the touch of a hand on her shoulder. She spun on her heel, and came face to face with the Doctor.
"There's a- a- a- there's a girl in there!" she hissed, "A girl! A h- human girl!"
The Doctor smiled anxiously at her, trying to be patient and polite when he was inwardly thinking she'd gone off the deep end. It was probably the desert heat, playing tricks with her cold-weather accustomed mind.
"But no TARDIS?" he asked, feeling something needed to be said.
"No! At least, I don't think so." Rose frowned, "You don't believe me, do you?"
The Doctor gave her a look which very clearly said what he was thinking. He grinned inanely at her, wondering what would be the best way to knock her out and drag her back to Kermk's tent before she alerted the entire camp to their caper.
"Come and see for yourself, then!" Rose fumed. She grabbed his arm, and turned back towards the tent.
"Okay, okay!" the Doctor whispered furiously, pulling out of her grip, "I'll look. Just keep your voice down!"
Rose heaved a sigh of relief. "Thanks."
She crouched once again, moving on all fours towards the tent. There was no sound from within, and for a moment Rose wondered if she really had imagined it.
"Only one way to find out." She told herself.
Deftly, she drew the door flap back. Her breath caught in her throat.
"You can stand up now."
The words bypassed her brain and shot straight to her spine. Rose felt herself stand, awkwardly, like a puppet on strings. There was a rustle of stiff cloth as the Doctor stood up behind her.
"I take it you are the owners of the machine."
Silhouetted by the torch light, seeming huge against the narrow tent opening, the girl stood. Her voice dripped with authority and high breeding, and Rose felt a great resentment building inside her. Already, she wished that she had stood on her will, and not that of the girl.
"No."
The response was softly spoken. Even the Doctor wasn't sure of what he responded to, the girl's statement, or the reality of the girl herself. His mind reeled, lost to a sensation of zero gravity. He had to glance down at the sandy ground to make sure it hadn't dropped out from beneath him.
"I thought I was the last." The girl said, staring at him, "All this time."
The Doctor stared back at her. His expression of despairing fear hardened to defiance, and his eyes burned black with rage.
"You demon," he spat, "You devil. Whatever you are, figment of my imagination or malevolent shape shifter, leave me be. Stop this torment." His voice rose in pitch and ferocity, and it was vehemence he roared, "Get out of my head, monster!"
The girl stepped back, then checked herself, and squared her shoulders. She wasn't so easily deterred.
"It's you that taunts me!" she cried, voice hot, "I have not survived for so long to be mocked by ghosts. You will leave, now, or I will strike you down where you stand."
"Can I say something?" Rose piped, feeling somewhat left out. Both the Doctor and the girl turned to glare at her. "I can see both of you, and I'm not mad, which is more than I can say for you two. We all exist, alright? No one's taunting anyone."
"It's impossible." The Doctor said, his eyes on the girl once again, "There's no way. I was the only survivor. Everyone else is dead."
"Apparently not." The girl shrugged.
She looked ready to say more, but at that moment, a burly Rax lumbered around the side of the tent.
"Odjya!" the Rax exclaimed, blinking madly, "What's all this commotion? What's this stink? Are you alright?"
"Great. Now we're noisy and smelly." Rose said under her breath.
"I'm fine. There's some creatures here, they appear to be trade items." The girl replied, stepping out of the tent, "They must have come outside for a drink, and gotten turned around."
"Hey, that's a relief. I though you were being attacked by a desert worm." The Rax chuckled. "You know who the creatures belong to? I'll take them back for you."
"We belong to Kermk and Pg." Rose said hurriedly, before the Doctor could say anything.
"They can talk." The Rax, who Rose guessed was a guard, remarked, "That makes things easier, huh?"
"I suppose so. Tell me, are you two to be traded in the morning?" The girl wondered, turning back to Rose and the Doctor.
"Yeah." Rose said, once again cutting in before her companion could reply.
The Rax guard was moving off in the direction of Kermk's tent, and Rose spoke as she trailed behind.
Watching from the tent, the girl flashed her a small smile, and said, "I'll see you there, then. I might even trade for you."
Oh, boy.
xxx
That night, the Doctor dreamed.
He had just descended a long flight of stairs, and his neck prickled with sweat and fear. He kept close to the wall, and his eyes flickered constantly between the stairs, and the door that was his goal.
His jacket brushed against the wall and he crept closer to the door. He thought the sound of it might drive him mad. But he pressed on, closing the distance quickly.
Professor O. Panthea.
The Doctor procrastinated, reading the name printed on the door slowly. His hand moved of its own volition, sliding down the door frame, until he gripped the handle in his clammy palm.
The hall was empty. There was still time to turn back.
No, there was no time to turn back. In the hasty motion of one doing something extremely distasteful, the Doctor wrenched the door open.
He slipped inside, pulling the door closed behind him. The room was devoid of life. Décor was conservative, professional. There was a desk in the centre of the room, a high-backed chair behind it. Papers were piled neatly on the desk, and a small artificial pot-plant huddled in one dark corner of the room.
He didn't care much for the décor.
"Now or never, I suppose." The Doctor told himself.
He made his way to the desk, footsteps careful, quiet. There were four drawers, two on either side. All bar one was locked.
The Doctor dismissed the unlocked immediately. He turned his attention to the others, sonic screw driver in hand.
He was on the verge of opening the first locked drawer, when his head snapped up abruptly. Footsteps echoed on the stairs outside.
"Please." The Doctor said softly, "Just a little more time."
There was no more time. The door swung open.
xxx xxx
Meh.
Actually, I like the last bit.
Next chapter; the Time Lady