"Cardiff." The Doctor called out once we'd landed.
"Cardiff?" Martha asked surprised by our location.
"Ah, but the thing about Cardiff, it's built on a rift in time and space, just like California and the San Andreas Fault, but the rift bleeds energy. Every now and then I need to open up the engines, soak up the energy and use it as fuel." The Doctor explained to her.
"So it's a pit stop." She laughed.
"Now you're getting it," I said smiling at her.
"Should only take twenty seconds." The Doctor said opening the engines.
"That's weird. The rift's been active," I said looking at the readings.
"Wait a minute. They had an earthquake in Cardiff a couple of years ago. Was that you?" she asked us.
"Bit of trouble with the Slitheen. A long time ago. Lifetimes. I was a different man back then." He told her rubbing his ear.
"Yes. You with your northern accent and me human." I mused thinking of the last time we'd come to Cardiff. Me, him, Rose, Mickey, and Jack.
"Finito. All powered up." The Doctor pulled me out of my memories and set the time rotor moving. He smiled up at it as Martha threw the two of us looks. Suddenly, something exploded on the console throwing us away from it.
"Whoa! What's that?" Martha asked as the Doctor and I looked at the screen.
"We're accelerating into the future. The year one billion. Five billion. Five trillion. Fifty trillion? What? The year one hundred trillion?"
"But that's impossible." I reminded him.
"Why? What happens then?" Martha asked.
"We're going to the end of the universe," he revealed and we shared a look as we held on as tightly as we could to the console. When the TARDIS finally landed the Doctor looked up at the ceiling while I checked the scannings. "Well, we've landed."
"So what's out there?" Martha asked him.
"We don't know," I told her going to the Doctor and linking my hand with his for comfort.
"Say that again. That's rare." Martha laughed.
"Not even the Time Lords came this far. We should leave. We should go. We should really, really go." The Doctor said solemnly. He looked at her before grinning and pulling me to the door with her running behind us. We opened the doors to a quarry. Not exactly what I was expecting.
"Oh my God!" I turned to see Martha running to someone lying on the ground near the TARDIS. "Can't get a pulse. Hold on. You've got that medical kit thing." she ran back into the TARDIS.
"Jack?" I asked shocked.
"Hello again. Oh, I'm sorry."
"I can't believe he found us." I looked up at the Doctor and saw him looking at Jack's body. Martha ran back out with the medical kit in her hands.
"Here we go. Get out of the way. It's a bit odd, though. Not very hundred trillion. That coat's more like World War Two." Martha noted trying to find a heartbeat.
"I think he came with us." the Doctor told her.
"How do you mean, from Earth?" Martha asked confused.
"Must have been clinging to the outside of the Tardis all the way through the vortex. Well, that's very him," he commented.
"He always did like making an entrance."
"What, do you know him?" Martha asked us confused.
"Friend of ours. Used to travel with us, back in the old days." The Doctor told her.
"But he's... I'm sorry, there's no heartbeat. There's nothing. He's dead." Martha apologized before Jack gasped for air making Martha scream. "Oh, so much for me. It's all right. Just breathe deep. I've got you."
"Captain Jack Harkness. And who are you?" Jack asked running his thumb down her chin. I held back my laughter at his flirting as the Doctor rolled his eyes.
"Martha Jones."
"Nice to meet you, Martha Jones."
"Oh, don't start." the Doctor shouted at him.
"I was only saying hello." Jack defended.
"You never just say hello," I added and he threw me a confused look.
"I don't mind," she assured us before helped him stand.
"Doctor."
"Captain."
"Good to see you."
"And you. Same as ever. Although, have you had work done?"
"You can talk," Jack said getting offended at his words.
"Oh yes, the face. Regeneration. How did you know this was me?"
"The police box kind of gives it away. I've been following you for a long time. You abandoned me."
"Did I? Busy life. Moving on." Martha looked confused by some of their words but looked down at this.
"Just got to ask. The Battle of Canary Wharf. I saw the list of the dead. It said Ashlee and Rose Tyler." Jack mentioned and I took a deep breath.
"Oh, no! Sorry, they're alive." The Doctor smiled at me and I returned it.
"You're kidding." Jack grinned at him.
"Rose is in a parallel world, safe and sound. And Mickey, and her mother." The Doctor confirmed.
"Ashlee?" Jack looked around looking for my human half.
"Captain Jack Harkness meet the Hunter, my wife. During the war, to save her, I turned her human. You knew her as Ashlee Tyler." I smiled at him and his face lit up in shock, happiness, and excitement.
"Oh, yes!" Jack hugged the two of us, laughing.
"Shall we get moving?" I asked them with a large grin on my face.
"So there I was, stranded in the year two hundred one hundred, ankle deep in Dalek dust, and he goes off without me. But I had this." I turned and saw Jack show Martha his vortex manipulator. "I used to be a Time Agent. It's called a vortex manipulator. He's not the only one who can time travel."
"Oh, excuse me. That is not time travel. It's like, I've got a sports car and you've got a space hopper." The Doctor corrected.
"Oh ho. Boys and their toys." Martha laughed at them.
"You should have seen them before. Flirting like there was no tomorrow." I teased and the Doctor just gave me a look.
"All right, so I bounced. I thought 21st century, the best place to find the Doctor, except that I got it a little wrong. Arrived in 1869, this thing burnt out, so it was useless." Jack confessed.
"Told you."
"I had to live through the entire twentieth century waiting for a version of you that would coincide with me," Jack complained.
"That must have been dreadfully boring. For anyone but you," I sent him a small look and he just smirked.
"But that makes you more than one hundred years old," Martha said astounded.
"And looking good, don't you think? So I went to the time rift, based myself there because I knew you'd come back to refuel. Until finally I get a signal on this detecting you and here we are."
"I think I need one of those," I commented looking at his strange bag. "Your own personal Doctor detector."
"But the thing is, how come you left him behind, Doctor?" Martha asked and I tensed as we walked.
"I was busy." he lied.
"Is that what happens, though, seriously? Do you just get bored with us one day and disappear?" Martha asked him.
"Not if you're a brunette with the body of a goddess," Jack said staring at us.
"Oh, she was hot? Oh, what a surprise!"
"Standing right here." I pointed out to them before the Doctor turned to them.
"You two! We're at the end of the universe, all right? Right at the edge of knowledge itself and you're busy blogging! Come on." The Doctor grabbed my hand and pulled me with him in another direction. We made our way to the edge of a cliff to see a high tech construction of some kind.
"Is that a city?" Martha asked amazed by the sight of it.
"A city or a hive, or a nest, or a conglomeration. Like it was grown. But look, there. That's like pathways, roads? Must have been some sort of life, long ago." The Doctor noted.
"What killed it?" Martha asked quietly.
"Time," I suggested. "Everything's dying here.
"All the great civilizations have gone. This isn't just night. All the stars have burned up and faded away into nothing." The Doctor told her.
"They must have an atmospheric shell. We should be frozen to death." Jack commented and I tossed him a look.
"Well, the Hunter, Martha and I, maybe. Not so sure about you, Jack." The two shared a look.
"What about the people? Does no one survive?" Martha asked.
"I suppose we have to hope life will find a way." The Doctor told her.
"It always has before," I added patting her back in comfort.
"Well, he's not doing too bad." Jack pointed to a man running across the landscape.
"Human!"
"I think you spoke too soon," I told him.
"Is it me, or does that look like a hunt? Come on!" The four of us tried to run and help him.
"Oh, I've missed this," Jack yelled as we ran. We finally met the man and Jack grabbed his arms to stop him from running. "I've got you."
"They're coming! They're coming!" he told us. Jack took out his gun and aimed it at the tribes' people running towards us.
"Jack, don't you dare!" the Doctor warned him. Jack fired into the air, and the noise stopped the tribe in its tracks.
"What the hell are they?" Martha asked.
"There's more of them. We've got to keep going." the man told us.
"I've got a ship nearby. It's safe. It's not far, it's over there." the Doctor told him and I looked to see more tribesmen appear on the cliff.
"But we're not," I told him.
"We're close to the silo. If we get to the silo, then we're safe." the man told us.
"Silo?" The Doctor asked looking at us.
"Silo," Jack told him.
"Silo for me." Martha agreed.
"After you," I told the man and we followed him to the Silo.
As we drew closer to the gates the man began shouting to the guards.
"It's the Futurekind! Open the gate!"
"Show me your teeth! Show me your teeth! Show me your teeth!" the guard insisted as we got to the gate.
"Show him your teeth." Everyone grimaced, displaying out incisors.
"Human! Let them in! Let them in!" The metal gates opened and we all ran through them. "Close! Close! Close!" A guard fired his machine gun at the ground in front of the tribe as they got too close.
"Humans. Humani. Make feast." one of the tribesmen said.
"Go back to where you came from. I said, go back. Back!" the Guard ordered.
"Oh, don't tell him to put his gun down," Jack noted to the Doctor.
"He's not my responsibility." the Doctor told him.
"And I am? Huh, that makes a change." Jack said sarcastically.
"Really you're going to do this now?" I asked Jack. "If it makes you feel better, he doesn't tell me to put my gun away either. Not that he likes it when I use it, but still..."
"You carry a gun?" he asked confused.
"A lot's changed since we last saw each other."
"Kind watch you. Kind hungry." the tribesmen said again before his tribe backed away and left.
"Thanks for that." The Doctor nodded to the guard.
"Right. Let's get you inside." the guard told us.
"My name is Padra Toc Shafe Cane. Tell me. Just tell me, can you take me to Utopia?" Padra asked him and I shared a confused look with the Doctor.
"Oh yes, sir. Yes, I can."
"It looks like a box, a big blue box. I'm sorry, but I really need it back. It's stuck out there." The Doctor explained to the man trying to place us and get our paperwork in order.
"I'm sorry, but my family were heading for the silo. Did they get here? My mother is Kistane Shafe Cane. My brother's name is Beltone." Padra told him.
"The computers are down but you can check the paperwork. Creet! Passenger needs help." A young boy appeared with a clipboard and Padra went straight for him.
"Right. What do you need?" the boy asked him.
"A blue box, you said." the man asked the Doctor.
"Big, tall, wooden. Says Police." the Doctor explained.
"You can't miss it. Promise." I told him.
"We're driving out for the last water collection. I'll see what I can do." he told us and I smiled at him.
"Thank you." we both said.
"Come on." the boy told Padra and they began to walk away.
"Sorry, but how old are you?" Martha asked as we started to follow them.
"Old enough to work. This way." We followed him to some corridors where people were lined along the walls. "Kistane Shafe Cane. Kistane Shafe Cane. Kistane and Biltone Shafe Cane? We're looking for a Kistane and Beltone Shafe Cane."
"The Shafe Canes, anyone? Kistane from Red Force Five? My name's Padra."
"Anyone? Kistane and Beltone Shafe Cane? Anyone know the Shafe Cane family? Anyone called Shafe Cane?"
"It's like a refugee camp." Martha noted.
"Stinking." Jack said loudly before noticing a man giving him a look. "Oh, sorry. No offence. Not you."
"Good job, Jack. Offend the locals while we're in a crowded place," I told him and he gave me a look.
"Don't you see that? The ripe old smell of humans. You survived," the Doctor said happily. "Oh, you might have spent a million years evolving into clouds of gas, and another million as downloads, but you always revert to the same basic shape. The fundamental humans."
"Kistane Shafe Cane."
"End of the universe and here you are. Indomitable! That's the word. Indomitable! Ha!"
"That's a word," I told him and he just gave me a small look.
"What's got you in a bad mood?"
"I don't know. Something just feels off," I told him looking around. I glanced back at Jack before shaking my head. Nope, not him.
"What is it?" Jack asked me.
"Something big. It's like it's staring me in the face and I'm missing it."
"Is there a Kistane Shafe Cane?" a woman finally stood up at the question.
"That's me," she told the boy.
"Mother?" Padra asked, smiling at the sight of his mother.
"Oh, my God. Padra." he ran to her happily.
"Beltone?"
"It's not all bad news," Martha said watching them with a grin on her face.
"So long as people are reunited with each other, it doesn't matter the bad news. It's a good day," I told her smiling as a young man stood up behind us.
"Captain Jack Harkness. And who are you?" Jack asked shaking his hand.
"Stop it," The Doctor ordered from his spot next to a door. "Give us a hand with this. It's half deadlocked. I need you to overwrite the code. Let's find out where we are." Together, the Doctor and Jack opened the door. The Doctor started walking forward only to be grabbed and pulled back to us as he nearly fell down a pathway to a giant rocket.
"Gotcha."
"Thanks."
"How did you cope without me?" The Doctor smiled at the question as we all admired the rocket.
"Now that is what I call a rocket," Martha noted.
"They're not refugees, they're passengers." The Doctor whispered in awe.
"He said they were going to Utopia," Martha remembered.
"The perfect place," I said smiling at her. "Hundred trillion years, it's the same dream."
"You recognize those engines?" the Doctor asked Jack.
"Nope. Whatever it is, it's not rocket science. But it's hot, though." Jack said.
"Boiling." We moved back into the corridor and Jack closed the door. "But if the universe is falling apart, what does Utopia mean?"
"A place where you're not hunted like a deer?" I suggested. A man arrived and looked between the Doctor and Jack. He pointed at Jack.
"The Doctor?"
"That's me." The Doctor told him as Jack pointed to him.
"Good! Good! Good." The man grabbed the Doctor's hand and pulled him along the corridor with us following him. "Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good."
"It's good apparently."
"I can tell," I laughed as we followed the excited man.
"Chan welcome tho." a woman said as we walked what looked like a lab. The professor ignored her as he took the Doctor to some machine.
"Now, this is the gravitissimal accelerator. It's past its best but it works."
"Chan welcome tho." she welcomed Martha and Jack as they finally caught up with us.
"And over here is the footprint impellor system. Now, do you know anything about endtime gravity?"
"Hello. Who are you?" Martha asked her as I looked around close to them.
"Chan Chantho tho."
"But we can't get it to harmonize."
"Captain Jack Harkness." Jack introduced with that flirty smile of his.
"Stop it." the Doctor called to him.
"Elbow deep in science and mechanics and you still police him?" I asked him.
"Can't I say hello to anyone?" Jack asked him.
"Chan I do not protest tho," Chantho told him.
"No one ever does," I muttered.
"Maybe later, Blue." Jack winked at her before finally moving past the door. "So, what have we got here?"
"And all this feeds into the rocket?" the Doctor asked the man.
"Yeah, except without a stable footprint, you see, we're unable to achieve escape velocity. If only we could harmonize the five impact patterns and unify them, well, we might yet make it. What do you think, Doctor? Any ideas?" he asked.
"Well, er, basically, sort of, not a clue." the Doctor told him.
"Nothing?" he asked, hoping for more.
"I'm not from around these parts. I've never seen a system like it. Sorry." the Doctor tried explaining.
"No, no. I'm sorry. It's my fault. There's been so little help." the professor apologized.
"Oh, my God." We turned to see Martha pull out a transparent container from Jack's backpack containing a hand. We all gathered around her and the hand trying to take a look at it. "You've got a hand? A hand in a jar. A hand in a jar in your bag."
"But that, that, that's my hand." the Doctor told us.
"I said I had a Doctor detector." Jack reminded us.
"Chan is this a tradition amongst your people tho?" Chantho asked confused.
"Not on my street. What do you mean, that's your hand? You've got both your hands, I can see them." Martha pointed out.
"Long story. I lost my hand Christmas Day, in a swordfight." The Doctor told her.
"Oh yeah," I said smiling remembering the Sycorax chopping off the Doctor's hand. "That seems like so long ago. You complaining about not being ginger. Me and my sister stalling until you woke up."
"What? And you grew another hand?" Martha asked not believing him.
"Er, yeah, yeah, I did. Yeah. Hello." the Doctor waved at her.
"Might I ask, what species are you?" the professor asked the Doctor.
"My wife and I are Time Lords, last of," The professor and Chantho just stared at us. "Heard of them? Legend or anything? Not even a myth? Blimey, end of the universe is a bit humbling."
"That's the first time that's happened in a while." I smiled. It was kinda nice being unknown for a change.
"Chan it is said that I am the last of my species too tho," Chantho told us.
"Sorry, what was your name?" the Doctor asked her.
"My assistant and good friend, Chantho. A survivor of the Malmooth. This was their planet, Malcassairo, before we took refuge." the professor told us.
"The city outside was your peoples?" I asked her curiously.
"Chan the conglomeration died tho," Chantho told us.
"Conglomeration. That's what I said." The Doctor said leaning back in his seat. I gave him a look and he just looked confused.
"You're supposed to say sorry," Jack told him.
"Oh, yes. Sorry." The Doctor apologized for her loss.
"Chan most grateful tho," Chantho said.
"You grew another hand?" Martha said not moving from that point.
"Hello, again. It's fine. Look, really, it's me." The Doctor waved at her with his hand.
"All this time and you're still full of surprises," Martha said giving him an awe-filled look.
"Chan you are most unusual tho," Chantho commented.
"Well..." the Doctor said smirking.
"Try knowing him for over 900 years," I told them and he just gave me a look.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked me.
"10 regenerations and you're only just now asking me that?" I asked him.
"So," Jack said pulling us out of our conversation. "What about those things outside? The Beastie Boys. What are they?"
"We call them the Futurekind, which is a myth in itself, but it's feared they are what we will become unless we reach Utopia." the professor told us.
"And Utopia is?" the Doctor asked him.
"Oh, every human knows of Utopia. Where have you been?" the professor asked us.
"Bit of a hermit." the Doctor lied and I just shook my head.
"A hermit with a wife and friends?"
"Hermits United. We meet up every ten years and swap stories about caves. It's good fun, for a hermit. So, er, Utopia?" the Doctor said trying to change the subject. The professor showed us a display on the gravitational field navigation system
"The call came from across the stars, over and over again. Come to Utopia. Originating from that point." he showed us the point.
"Where is that?" the Doctor asked him.
"Oh, it's far beyond the Condensate Wilderness, out towards the Wildlands and the Dark Matter reefs, calling us in. The last of the humans scattered across the night," he told us.
"What do you think's out there?" the Doctor asked him.
"We can't know. A colony, a city, some sort of haven? The Science Foundation created the Utopia Project thousands of years ago to preserve mankind, to find a way of surviving beyond the collapse of reality itself. Now perhaps they found it. Perhaps not. But it's worth a look, don't you think?" the professor asked him.
"Oh, yes." the Doctor smiled at him. "And the signal keeps modulating, so it's not automatic. That's a good sign someone's out there. And that's, oh, that's a navigation matrix. So you can fly without stars to guide you. Professor? Professor? Professor."
"I, er, ahem, right, that's enough talk. There's work to do. Now if you could leave, thank you." the professor said while walking away from us and started messing with a machine.
"You all right?" I asked putting my hand on his arm in comfort.
"Yes, I'm fine. And busy," he told me placing his hand on mine, but not letting go. "You're a very kind young woman."
"Thank you. Sadly not all share that belief." I turned and gave the Doctor a look.
"You were in a mood," he stated before turning to the professor. "That rocket's not going to fly, is it? This footprint mechanism thing, it's not working."
"We'll find a way." the professor told him before letting go of my hand.
"You're stuck on this planet. And you haven't told them, have you?" the Doctor asked already knowing the answer. "That lot out there, they still think they're going to fly."
"Well, it's better to let them live in hope." the professor said sitting down.
"Quite right, too. And I must say, Professor er, what was it?" The doctor asked moving to us.
"Yana."
"Professor Yana. This new science is well beyond me, but all the same, a boost reversal circuit, in any time frame, must be a circuit which reverses the boost. So, I wonder, what would happen if I did this?" The Doctor soniced the end of a cable and pulled. Power started surging through the machines and I smiled at the amazement on Professor Yana and Chantho's faces.
"Chan it's working tho!"
"But how did you do that?" Professor Yana asked confused.
"Oh, we've been chatting away, I forgot to tell you. I'm brilliant." the Doctor told him.
the next few moment found me, Jack and the Doctor moving around the lab throwing pieces of machinery to each other trying to fix the rocket and get it ready for lift off. The Doctor lifted one of the wires to his nose and took a good whiff.
"Is this?"
"Yes, gluten extract. Binds the neutralino map together." Professor Yana told us.
"That's food." The Doctor marveled. "You've built this system out of food and string and staples? Professor Yana, you're a genius."
"Says the man who made it work."
"Oh, it's easy coming in at the end, but you're stellar. This is, this is magnificent. And I don't often say that because, well, because of me." The Doctor told him.
"Well, even my title is an affectation. There hasn't been such a thing as a university for over a thousand years. I've spent my life going from one refugee ship to another." Professor Yana told us.
"It's an earned title. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise," I told him making him smile at me.
"If you'd been born in a different time, you'd be revered. I mean it. Throughout the galaxies." The Doctor told him.
"Oh, those damned galaxies. They had to go and collapse," he joked lightly. "Some admiration would have been nice. Yes, just a little, just once."
"Well, you've got it now. From two who don't usually give it," The Doctor told him. "But that footprint engine thing. You can't activate it from onboard. It's got to be from here. You're staying behind."
"With Chantho. She won't leave without me. Simply refuses." Professor Yana told us.
"You'd give your life so they could fly." The Doctor just looked at him.
"Oh, I think I'm a little too old for Utopia. Time I had some sleep." The Professor told us.
"Professor, tell the Doctor we've found his blue box."
"Ah!" The Doctor and I smiled at each other.
"Doctor?" the three of us moved to Jack's side to see the TARDIS on the monitor.
"Professor, it's a wild stab in the dark, but I may just have found you a way out." The Doctor told him before going to our ship.
"The last piece of home for us," I said to no one in particular.
A little later, the Tardis was in the laboratory and the Doctor was dragging a power cable out of it.
"Extra power. Little bit of a cheat, but who's counting? Jack, you're in charge of the retro feeds." the Doctor told him.
"Oh, am I glad to see that thing," Martha said when she and Chantho made their way back to us from helping the passengers board the rocket.
"Chan Professor, are you all right tho?" Chantho asked her. He'd been sitting down tiredly since we pulled the TARDIS into the room.
"Yes, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. Just get on with it."
"Connect those circuits into the spar, same as that last lot. But quicker." Jack ordered.
"Ooo, yes, sir." Martha snipped before going to do as she was told. Jack went to go help them, I think, as the Doctor knelt next to the Professor.
"You don't have to keep working. We can handle it." The Doctor told him.
"It's just a headache. It's just, just noise inside my head, Doctor. Constant noise inside my head." he told us.
"What sort of noise?" the Doctor asked him.
"It's the sound of drums. More and more, as though it's getting closer." I looked up from my work at him.
"The constant sound of drums! One drum over and over again! The same four beats ringing in my head! I feel like I'm losing my mind!"
"How many drums?" I asked him and the Doctor just gave me a look.
"When did it start?" the Doctor asked him.
"Oh, I've had it all my life. Every waking hour. Still, no rest for the wicked." the Professor rose from his seat to get back to work.
"Professor, are you getting me?" a guard called through the monitor.
"I'm here! We're ready! Now all you need to do is connect the couplings, then we can launch." Professor told him before the guard disappeared from the screen. "God sake! This equipment. Needs rebooting all the time."
"Anything I can do? I've finished that lot." Martha asked him.
"Yes, if you could." Professor Yana allowed her to replace him in the chair. "Just press the reboot key every time the picture goes."
"Certainly, sir. Just don't ask me to do shorthand." she joked with him.
"Right."
"Are you still there?" the guard asked.
"Ah, present and correct. Send your man inside. We'll keep the levels down from here." the Professor told him.
"He's inside. And good luck to him."
"Captain, keep the dials below the red." Profesor Yana instructed.
"Where is that room?" The Doctor asked as he moved closer to the screen.
"It's underneath the rocket. Fix the couplings and the footprint can work. But the entire chamber is flooded with stet radiation." the Professor explained.
"Stet? Never heard of it." the Doctor told him.
"Must be something new," I told him quietly.
"You wouldn't want to. But it's safe enough if we can hold the radiation back from here." We watched the man work on the monitor before an alarm started sounding.
"It's rising. Naught point two. Keep it level!" Professor Yana called back to Jack.
"Yes, sir." A second connection was made and I smiled before another alarm sounded.
"Chan we're losing power tho!" We worked quickly to try and fix whatever had happened.
"Radiation's rising!" I called to them.
"We've lost control!" Jack told us.
"The chamber's going to flood." Professor Yana told us as we worked.
"Jack, override the vents!" The Doctor ordered. Jack pulled out two power cables and held them separately in each hand.
"We can jump-start the override," Jack told us.
"Don't! It's going to flare!" The Doctor told him. Jack connected the cables and power surged through him, electrocuting him. Eventually, he fell back, dead.
"I've got him," Martha said as we rushed to him.
"Chan don't touch the cables tho." We carefully moved the cables so they, and we, weren't touching either.
"Oh, I'm so sorry." the Professor said to us.
"The chamber's flooded with radiation, yes?" the Doctor asked as Martha started giving Jack mouth to mouth.
"Without the couplings, the engines will never start. It was all for nothing." Professor Yana said defeated.
"Oh, I don't know." The Doctor leaned down and pulled Martha off Jack. "Martha, leave him."
"You've got to let me try."
"Come on, come on, just listen to me. Now leave him alone," he ordered her before turning to the Professor again. "It strikes me, Professor, you've got a room which no man can enter without dying. Is that correct?"
"Yes."
"Well.." Jack gasped as he returned to life, shocking everyone except me and the Doctor. "I think I've got just the man."
"Was someone kissing me?"
The boys ran to the area under the rocket and we could hear them over the monitor as they began their work.
"Lieutenant, get on board the rocket! I promise you're going to fly." the Doctor told the man.
"The chamber's flooded." the man tried telling him.
"Trust me. We've found a way of tripping the system. Run!" I assumed the man left as they got started on what they were doing.
"What are you taking your clothes off for?" The Doctor suddenly asked and I shook my head with a smile.
"Only Jack would go into a room that doesn't harm clothes and get naked to look good," I commented.
"This I have to see," Martha said looking like she was trying to lean closer to the monitor trying to fix it.
"Down girl."
"I'm going in."
"Well, by the looks of it, I'd say the stet radiation doesn't affect clothing, only flesh."
"Well, I look good though. How long have you known?" I held my breath before forcing myself to release it.
"Ever since I ran away from you. Good luck."
"We lost picture when that thing flared up," Martha told the Doctor over the monitor. "Doctor, are you there?"
"Receiving, yeah. He's inside."
"And still alive?" Martha asked shocked.
"Oh, yes," the Doctor told us.
"He should have evaporated!" Professor Yana said as I continued trying to get a picture. "What sort of man is he?"
"I've only just met him," Martha told him. "The Doctor and the Hunter sort of travels through time and space and picks people up."
"You make it sound like we look for hitchhikers," I complained. "We don't just 'pick people up'. We gain friends through our many adventures and some we invite to travel with us."
"Yeah, that sounds better. I make us sound like stray dogs," Martha said. "Then again, maybe we are."
"He travels in time?" the Professor asked us.
"Don't even ask me to explain it," Martha told him. "That's a TARDIS, that box thing. Sportscar of time travel, he says."
"It's either that or a vortex manipulator, which is very painful," I told her.
"When did you first realize?" The Doctor asked Jack from the other side of the monitor.
"Earth, 1892. Got in a fight in Ellis Island. A man shot me through the heart. Then I woke up. Thought it was kind of strange. But then it never stopped. Fell off a cliff, trampled by horses, World War One, World War Two, poison, starvation, a stray javelin." Even I winced on that one. "In the end, I got the message. I'm the man who can never die. And all that time you knew."
"That's why I left you behind. It's not easy even just looking at you, Jack, because you're wrong." the Doctor explained to him.
"Thanks."
"You are. I can't help it. The Hunter and I are Time Lords. It's instinct. It's in our guts," the Doctor explained to him. "You're a fixed point in time and space. You're a fact. That's never meant to happen. Even the Tardis reacted against you, tried to shake you off. Flew all the way to the end of the universe just to get rid of you."
"So what you're saying is that you're, er, prejudiced?"
"I never thought of it like that."
"Shame on you."
"Yeah."
"Last thing I remember, back when I was mortal, I was facing three Daleks. Death by extermination. And then I came back to life. What happened?"
"The Hunter." the Doctor told him and Martha looked at me.
"I thought you'd sent her back home."
"I went back." I told him.
"Opened the heart of the Tardis and absorbed the time vortex itself."
"What does that mean, exactly?" Jack asked confused.
"No one's ever mean to have that power. If a Time Lord did that, he'd become a god. A vengeful god. But she was human at the time." The Doctor explained to him. "Everything she did was so human. She brought you back to life but she couldn't control it. She brought you back forever. That's something, I suppose. The final act of the Time War was life."
"Do you think you could change me back?" Jack asked me.
"The Doctor took the power out of me and into himself. then he regenerated. Ashlee's gone, Jack. She didn't just remember she was a Time Lady and stay the same. She died. Her family's in a parallel world, trapped there. The walls have closed," I told him. "Ashlee Tyler, the whole Tyler Clan, is no more."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I have my husband, my friends, and the TARDIS."
"I went back to her estate, in the nineties, just once or twice. Watched her growing up. Never said hello. Timelines and all that." Jack said.
"Stalker." I joked with him.
"Do you want to die?" The Doctor asked him.
"Oh, this one's a little stuck." Jack said, trying to change the subject.
"Jack?"
"I thought I did. I don't know. But this lot. You see them out here surviving, and that's fantastic." I smiled at the phrase he used.
"You might be out there, somewhere." the Doctor told him.
"I could go meet myself."
"Well, the only man you're ever going to be happy with." Jack laughed at him.
"This new regeneration, it's kind of cheeky."
"Don't you love it." the boys laughed at the joke.
"I don't understand half the things you're saying." Martha laughed before looking behind us to the Professor.
"What's wrong?" I turned and saw them moving to the Professor. I rose from my seat and joined them.
"Chan Professor, what is it tho?"
"There's time travel. They say there was time travel, back in the old days," he told us and I gave him a confused look. Humans never had time travel. "I never believed, but what would I know? Stupid, old man. I never could keep time. Always late, always lost." He pulled out an old fob watch from his pocket and I inhaled sharply. "Even this thing never worked. Time, and time, and time again. Always running out on me."
"Can I have a look at that?" Martha asked him, her mind in the same place mine was.
"Oh, it's simply an old relic," he explained handing it over. "Like me."
"Where did you get it?" I asked him, nearly whispering as I stared at it.
"I was found with it."
"What do you mean?" Martha asked him quickly.
"After the storm. I was a naked child found on the coast of the Silver Devastation, abandoned with this."
"Have you ever opened it?" Martha asked him.
"Martha..."
"Why would I? It's broken?"
"How do you know it's broken if you've never opened it?" she asked, ignoring me.
"It's stuck. It's old," he told her looking like he was trying to open it. "It's not meant to be. I don't know." Martha grabbed its sides and flipped it over to reveal the familiar language of the Time Lords. "Does it matter?"
"No," she told him quickly. "It's nothing. It's... Listen everything's fine up here, I'm going to see if the Doctor needs me." she quickly left the room.
"Do you mind if I hold onto it?" I asked him staring at the watch. "I'm a collector of old watches and I've never seen one like that before."
"Sure." he unhooked it from himself and handed it to me. I rubbed my hands on the sides before placing it in my back pocket with a smile to him.
"Thank you."
An alarm sounded and I started looking around at things that I might be able to do help them from this end. I felt something being removed from my pocket and turned to see the Professor right behind me, staring at the watch. He slowly moved away towards the Doctor's hand with Chantho and I following behind him.
"Chan Yana, please take some rest tho." the silo started shaking and Chantho smiled as the rocket took off, but my eyes were all for the Professor. Suddenly, he opened the watch and golden energy streamed into him from it. I could feel him again, but I still didn't know who he was. Or maybe I just didn't want to. "Chan Professor Yana tho?"
"Chantho get back." I pulled her away from where he was standing in front of the TARDIS. He slowly turned to us. He moved to a lever and flipped it, but nothing happened in the room we were in. "What did you do?" I asked him but he just went about doing what he was doing.
"Chan you've locked them in tho!"
"Open the door and let them out," I ordered moving between him and Chantho.
"Not to worry my dear," he told me placing his hand on another leaver. "If one door closes another must open." Chantho gasped from behind me as he flipped the lever.
"Chan you must stop tho!" she told him as he moved about the room.
"What did he do?" I asked her.
"Chan the Futurekind tho. Chan he let them in tho." I turned to him and I tried stopping him.
"Let them out of the control room and come back," I ordered him. He pushed my arms away and continued working. "Let them come back to me. Let him come back to me."
"No why would I do that when I finally have you all to myself?" he asked me and I took a shakey breath. If that didn't tell me who he was then nothing would.
"Chan but you've lowered the defences. The Futurekind will get in tho." Chantho reminded him.
"They will kill all of us," I reminded him, trying to get him to stop without killing him.
"Chan Professor, I'm so sorry, but I must stop you. You're destroying all our work tho." I saw her raise a gun and point it at him. He turned to her and saw the same.
"Oh. Now I can say I was provoked." he took hold of a live energy cable and pointed it at her. She gasped and we both moved away from him and he made it way to us. "Did you never think, all those years standing beside me, to ask about that watch? Never? Did you never once think, not ever, that you could set me free?"
"Chan I'm sorry tho. Chan I'm so sorry."
"You, with your chan and your tho driving me insane." he told her.
"Chan Professor, please!" she begged him.
"That is not my name! The Professor was an invention. So perfect a disguise that I forgot who I am."
"Chan then who are you tho? " she asked him.
"I am the Master." the Master thrust the cable at her making us both scream. He grabbed my arm before pulling me to the Doctor's hand. He began to careSs the jar before getting up and moving it to the TARDIS.
"Professor! Professor, let me in! Let me in!" I heard the Doctor call out to him.
"Doctor!" I ran to the door and tried to figure out a way to open it from my end.
"Jack, get the door open now!"
"Professor! Professor, where are you?! Professor! Professor, are you there? Please, I need to explain. Whatever you do, don't open that watch." the Doctor told him. The Master removed a circuit board from the gravitational field navigation system.
"It's too late!" I told the Doctor. "He's opened it!"
"Utopia."
"They're coming!" Martha screamed.
"Professor!" The Master disconnected the power cable from the TARDIS. "Open the door, please! I'm begging you, Professor. Please, listen to me. Just open the door, please." I quickly turned to see Chantho do what I wasn't willing. She shot the Master before dying. The Master moved to me and grabbed my arm again, forcing me to go with him into the TARDIS. I was able to watch the door finally open and the Doctor come to us before the TARDIS door closed. The Master released my arm close to the control panel and pressed a switch. I ran to the door and tried to open it, but couldn't.
"Deadlocked."
"Let me in. Let me in!" the Doctor ordered.
"She's dead."
"I broke the lock. Give me a hand!"
"I'm begging you. Everything's changed! It's only the two of us! We're the only ones left! Just let me in!"
"Let him in! They'll die out there!" I ordered as the Master leaned on the control panel.
"Killed by an insect. A girl. How inappropriate. Still, if the Doctor can be young and strong, then so can I. The Master reborn." The Master threw his arms opened and his head back as he regenerated with a scream. I covered my eyes to the golden glow "Ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha! Oh." he ran around the control panel laughing before pressing a button to the other's could hear him. "Now then, Doctor. Ooo, new voice. Hello, hello. Hello. Anyway, why don't we stop and have a nice little chat while I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me," The Master looked to me by the door. "I don't think so."
"Hold on. I know that voice."
"I'm asking you really properly. Just stop. Just think!" The Doctor begged him.
"Use my name."
"Master. I'm sorry."
"Tough!"
"No!" I moved to him as the Master began taking off.
"I can't hold out much longer, Doctor!"
"Oh, no you don't! End of the universe. Have fun. Bye, bye!" He pushed me down to the ground as we dematerialized.
"Doctor, stop him! Help us. They're getting in!"