Authoress Note: Hello there and welcome to Chapter 18. Now we are getting into the chapter of where Jack meets the Doctor and Gwendalyn. Without further ado Chapter 18 of The Last of Her Kind. Allons-y!
Chapter 18
Hello Mr. Spock
Rose woke up and looked around. She held her head.
"Better now?" Jack asked, looking at her.
"You got lights in here?" She asked, looking at him.
Jack turned on the lights. "Hello." He said with a smile.
"Hello."
"Hello."
"Let's not start that again." Rose said, biting her lip. She needed to get back to the Doctor and much as she hated to admit it, Gwendalyn as well.
"Okay." Jack said smiling.
"So, who're you supposed to be, then?"
"Captain Jack Harkness, One Three Three Squadron, Royal Air Force. American volunteer." He said handing his id card over.
"Liar. This is psychic paper. It tells me whatever you want it to tell me."
"How do you know?" Jack asked in confusion.
"Two things. One, I have a friend who uses this all the time."
"Ah."
"And two, you just handed me a piece of paper telling me you're single and you work out."
"Tricky thing, psychic paper."
"Yeah. Can't let your mind wander when you're handing it over." She said handing it back to him.
"Oh, you sort of have a boyfriend called Mickey Smith, but you consider yourself to be footloose and fancy free."
"What?"
"Actually, the word you use is available."
"No way."
"Another one, very."
"Shall we try to get along without the psychic paper?"
"That would be better wouldn't it?"
"Nice spaceship." Rose said looking around with a smile.
"Gets me around." Jack said looking at her. He had to admit that she was fairly pretty.
"Very Spock." Rose said with a giggle.
"Who?" Jack asked, confused.
"Guessing you're not a local boy, then."
"A cell phone, a liquid crystal watch, and fabrics that won't be around for at least another two decades. Guessing your not a local girl." Jack pointed out.
"Guessing right." Rose said rubbing her hands together. She hissed a little bit.
"Burn your hands on the rope?"
A bomb whistles by them.
"Yeah. We're parked in midair! Can't anyone down there see us?" Rose asked.
"No. Can I have a look at your hands for a moment?" Jack asked, looking at Rose.
"Why?"
"Please? You can stop acting now. I know exactly who you are. I can spot a Time Agent a mile away."
Rose looked at him in confusion. "Time Agent?"
"I've been expecting one of you guys to show up. Though not, I must say, by barrage balloon. Do you often travel that way?"
"Sometimes I get swept off my feet. By balloons. What are you doing?" Rose asked Jack as he wrapped his scarf around her wrists.
"Try to keep still." He said as he pressed a button.
A light bundle zooms onto Rose's palms.
"Nanogenes. Sub-atomic robots. The air in here is full of them. They just repaired three layers of your skin." He said untying her wrists.
"Well, tell them thanks." Rose said with a smile.
"Shall we get down to business?" Jack said with a smile.
"Business?"
"Shall we have a drink on the balcony? Bring up the glasses." He said opening the hatch.
The two of them were not on top of his ship.
"I know I'm standing on something." Rose said looking at him.
Jack used a control and the ship appeared under their feet.
"Okay, you have an invisible spaceship."
"Yeah."
"Tethered up to Big Ben for some reason."
"First rule of active camouflage. Park somewhere you'll remember." He said as he opened the bottle of champagne and filled the glasses that Rose had brought up with her.
DWDWDW
Gwendalyn and the Doctor had found Nancy in a shack with some food that she had taken from Lloyd's kitchen.
Nancy stood up and saw the Doctor was smiling. "How'd you follow me here?"
"I'm good at following me."
Gwendalyn rolled her eyes. "Of course you are dear." Gwendalyn said smiling cheekily.
"Got the nose for it."
Gwendalyn bit her lip to keep herself from laughing. Of course he would say something about his nose like it was all fun and games to him.
"People can't usually follow me if I don't want them to."
"My nose has special powers."
Nancy rolled her eyes. "Yeah? That's why it's…"
"What?"
"Nothing."
"What?" The Doctor looked at Gwendalyn.
Gwendalyn shook her head. "Oh no you don't." Gwendalyn said, holding her hands up. She wasn't going to tell him what Nancy was trying to tell him.
"What?"
"Nothing. Do your ears have special powers too?" Nancy asked, poking a little bit more at him.
"What are you trying to say?"
"Goodnight, Mister and Madam."
"Nancy, there's something chasing you and the other kids. Looks like a boy and it isn't a boy, and it started about a month ago, right? The thing I'm looking for, the thing that fell from the sky, that's when it landed. And you know what I'm talking about don't you?" The Doctor pleaded with her.
"Please Nancy." Gwendalyn said softly to the young woman. "We are here to help. We really are. You just have to tell us."
Nancy let out a soft sigh. "There was a bomb. A bomb that wasn't a bomb. Fell at the other end of Limehouse Green Station."
"Take us there." The Doctor said to her. He would do whatever he could to help them.
"There's soldiers guarding it. Barbed wire. You'll never get through."
"Try us."
"There are things that we can do Nancy. More than you could ever dream of." Gwendalyn said soothingly to her.
"You sure you want to know what's going on in there?" Nancy asked, eyeing the two of them. She wasn't really sure about the two of them. But it seemed to her that they meant well.
"I really want to know."
Gwendalyn cleared her throat.
"We need to know." The Doctor said, correcting himself.
"Then there's someone you need to talk to first." Nancy told the two of them.
"And who might that be?" The Doctor asked, raising his eyebrow.
"The Doctor."
Gwendalyn and the Doctor shared a look with one another.
DWDWDW
"You know, it's getting a bit late. I should really be getting back." Rose told Jack.
"We're discussing business." Jack told her.
"This isn't business. This is champagne." Rose told him, shaking her head.
"I try never to discuss business with a clear head. Are you travelling alone? Are you authorised to negotiate with me?"
"What would we be negotiating?"
"I have something for the Time Agency. Something they'd like to buy. Are you in power to make payment?"
"Well, I should talk to my companions."
"Companions?"
"I really should get back to them."
"Them?"
"Do you have the time?"
Jack uses the remote. The clock face lights up as Big Ben strikes nine thirty.
"Okay, that was flash. That was on the flash side."
"So when you say your companions, just how disappointed should I be?"
"Okay, we're standing in midair."
"Mmm-hmm."
"On a spaceship, during a German air raid. Do you really think now's a good time to be coming on to me?"
"Perhaps not."
"It was just a suggestion." Rose said with a smile.
"Do you like Glenn Miller?" Jack asked using his remote again. Moonlight Serenade begins to play and the two of them begin to dance together. "It's 1941, the height of the London Blitz, the height of the German bombing campaign, and something else has fallen on London. A fully equipped Chula warship. The last one in existence, armed to the teeth. And I know where it is, because I parked it. If the Agency can name the right price, I can get it for you. But in two hours, a German bomb is going to fall on it and destroy it forever. That's your deadline. That's the deal. Now, shall we discuss payment?"
"Do you know what I think?" Rose asked looking into his eyes.
"What?"
"I think you were talking just then."
"Two hours, the bomb falls. There'll be nothing left but dust and a crater."
"Promises, promises."
"Are you listening to any of this?"
"You used to be a Time Agent, now you're some kind of freelancer."
"Well that's a little harsh. I like to think of myself as a criminal."
"I bet you do."
"So, these companions of yours, do they handle the business?"
"Well, I delegate a lot of that, yeah."
"Well, maybe we should go and find them."
"And how're you going to do that?"
"Easy. I'll do a scan for alien tech."
Rose smiled. "Finally a professional."
DWDWDW
The Doctor was using super-binoculars to scan the area. He wasn't going to go down there if there was danger and he wasn't going to put his Artemis in danger.
"The bomb's under that tarpaulin. They put the fence up overnight. See that building? The hospital."
"What about it?" The Doctor asked, pulling his binoculars away from his eyes.
"That's where the doctor is. You two should talk to him." Nancy told them.
"For now, I'm more interested in getting in there."
Gwendalyn smacked his arm.
"Ow."
"Quit being rude." Gwendalyn said, shaking her head.
"Talk to the doctor first."
"Why?" The Doctor asked Nancy.
Nancy shook her head. She was beginning to wonder how this woman put up with him. "Because then maybe you won't want to get inside." She said before walking away from the two of them.
"Where're you going?"
"There was a lot of food in that house. I've got mouths to feed. Should be safe enough now."
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Doctor." Gwendalyn whispered.
"Who did you lose?"
"What?" Nancy asked, turning around.
"The way you look after all those kids. It's because you lost somebody, isn't it? You're doing all this to make up for it."
"My little brother, Jamie." Nancy let out a soft sigh. "One night I went out looking for food. Same night that thing fell. I told him not to follow me, I told him that it was dangerous, but he just." She took a deep breath. "He just didn't like being on his own."
"What happened?"
"In the middle of an air raid? What do you think happened?" Nancy snapped at him.
Gwendalyn shook her head. Sometimes her Theta was a little bit thick.
"Amazing." The Doctor said thinking.
Gwendalyn smacked him.
"Ow." He said rubbing his arm. "Must you hit me?"
Gwendalyn quirked her brow. "What do you think?"
"Alright." The Doctor said, shaking his head.
"What is amazing?" Nancy asked in confusion.
"1941. Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. Until one, tiny, damp little island says no. No. Not here. A mouse in front of a lion. You're amazing, the lot of you. Don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me. Off you go then, do what you've got to do. Save the world." He said with a smile.
"Go… he really does mean it." Gwendalyn said, offering the girl a smile.
Nancy begins to walk away from them.
Gwendalyn looked at the Doctor. "Do you have a plan?"
The Doctor looked at her. "I'm going to ask the doctor. Do you have one."
Gwendalyn shook her head. "We have to be careful in not getting caught. Shall we?"
The Doctor nodded his head. "Yeah."
DWDWDW
The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to open the padlock that was on the gates of the Albion Hospital. The Doctor took Gwendalyn's hand and led her into the hospital.
Gwendalyn looked around. "This is very creepy." She muttered.
The Doctor nodded his head.
An old man leaning on the walking stick watched the two of them.
"Doctor." She said softly to her Theta.
"They're everywhere." He said, shaking his head.
"You'll find them everywhere. In every bed, in every ward. Hundreds of them." The old man said looking at them.
"Yes, we saw. Why are they still wearing gas masks?" The Doctor asked, looking at the old man.
"They're not. Who are you two?"
"We're, er… Are you the doctor?"
"Doctor Constantine. And you are?"
"Nancy sent us."
"Nancy? That means the two of you must've been asking about the bomb."
Gwendalyn nodded her head.
"Yes." The Doctor told Dr. Constantine.
"What do you want to know about it?" Constantine asked them.
"Nothing. Why I was asking. What do you know?"
"Only what it's done." Constantine said sadly.
"These people, they were all caught up in the blast?"
"None of them were." Constantine said before coughing.
"You're very sick."
"Dying, I should think. I just haven't been able to find the time. Are you a doctor?"
"I have my moments."
"Have you examined any of them yet?"
"No."
"Don't touch the flesh."
"Which one?"
"Any one."
Gwendalyn looked sadly at the bodies that were there.
The Doctor points his screwdriver at the nearest patient.
"Conclusions?"
"Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side. Partial collapse of the chest cavity, mostly to the right. There's some scarring on the back of the hand and the gas mask seems to be fused to the flesh, but I can't see any burns."
"Examine another one."
"This isn't possible." As he completed another one.
"Examine another."
The Doctor went to another and began to examine it. "This isn't possible."
"No."
"They've all got the same injuries."
"Yes."
"Exactly the same."
"Yes."
"Identical, all of them, right down to the scar on the back of the hand."
Constantine covered his hand.
Gwendalyn looked at the old man. Something was off about him.
"How did this happen? How did it start?"
"When that bomb dropped, there was just one victim."
"Dead?"
"At first. His injuries were truly dreadful. By the following morning, every doctor and nurse who had treated him, who had touched him, had those exact same injuries. By the morning after that, every patient in the same ward, the exact same injuries. Within a week, the entire hospital. Physical injuries as plague. Can you explain that? What would you say was the cause of death?"
"The head trauma."
"No."
"Asphyxiation."
"No."
"The collapse of the chest cavity."
"No."
"Alright." Gwendalyn said putting her hand up. She was tired of the guessing from her Theta.
"What was the cause of death?" The Doctor asked.
"There wasn't one. They're not dead." He hit the waste basket with his cane.
The patients shot up in their beds.
"It's alright. They're harmless. They just sort of sit there. No heartbeat, no life signs of any kind. They just don't die."
"And they've just been left here? Nobody's doing anything?" The Doctor looked at all of them.
Gwendalyn gripped onto his coat.
The patient's laid down.
"I try to make them comfortable. What else is there?"
"Just you? You're the only one here?"
"Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither. But I'm still a doctor."
"Yeah I know the feeling." The Doctor said rubbing his head.
"I suspect the plan is to blow up the hospital and blame it on a German bomb."
"Probably too late." The Doctor said, shaking his head.
"Doctor…" Gwendalyn said looking at the Doctor. "It's never too late."
"No. There are isolated cases. Isolated cases breaking out all over London." He began to cough again.
The Doctor and Gwendalyn went to move towards him.
"Stay back, stay back. Listen to me. Top floor. Room 802. That's where they took the first victim, the one from the crash site. And you must find Nancy again."
"Nancy?" The two of them asked in confusion.
"It was her brother. She knows more than she's saying. She won't tell me, but she might Mummy. Are you my mummy?"
Gwendalyn turned into the Doctor gripping onto his jumper.
The Doctor put his hand on her head running his hand through her hair as Dr. Constantine's face changed.
Gwendalyn closed her eyes. This was probably one of the worst things that she had seen in a long while.
"Hello?" A male voice rang out.
"Hello?" Rose's voice sounded.
"Well at least we know where Rose is." Gwendalyn said softly, pulling away from the Doctor.
The Doctor shook his head. "At least she hasn't tried to find trouble yet."
"Oh don't say that too soon. Trouble will be finding us if we aren't careful."
"Hello?" The male voice rang out again.
Gwendalyn looked at him. "Shall we see who it is with Rose?"
The Doctor nodded his head.
The two of them stepped into the hallway and saw a man dressed in military clothing.
"Good evening. Hope we're not interrupting. Jack Harkness. I've been hearing all about you two on the way over." Jack said with a smile.
"He knows. I had to tell him about us being Time Agents." Rose told the two of them.
"And it's a real pleasure to meet you, Mister Spock and Miss McBride." Jack said before going towards the ward.
The Doctor and Gwendalyn looked at Rose.
"Mister Spock?" The Doctor asked Rose.
Gwendalyn laughed lightly. She knew who Mister Spock was from. Of course Rose would have a thing about Star Trek.
"It's not funny." The Doctor complained.
"What was I supposed to say? You don't have a name. Don't you ever get tired of Doctor? Doctor who?" Rose complained to the Doctor.
Gwendalyn shook her head. Rose would never know the Doctor's real name. The Doctor would never give it. Not to her in any ways.
"Nine centuries in, I'm coping." The Doctor said, shrugging his shoulders. Where've you been? We're in the middle of a London Blitz. It's not a good time for a stroll."
"Doctor." Gwendalyn said, shaking her head.
"Who's strolling? I went by barrage balloon. Only way to see an air raid." Rose said as they walked towards the ward.
"What?!" The both of them shouted.
Rose hushed the two of them. "Listen, what's a Chula warship?"
"Chula?" The Doctor asked, looking at Rose.
"I've never heard it." Gwendalyn said, crossing her arms.
The three of them walked in and saw Jack scanning them with his tricoder that was on his wrist.
"This just isn't possible. How did this happen?" Jack asked, looking at Gwendalyn and the Doctor.
"You want to field that Mister Spock." Gwendalyn said with a cheeky smile.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "What kind of Chula ship landed here?" The Doctor asked Jack.
"What?" Jack asked in confusion.
"He said it was a warship. He stole it, parked it somewhere out there, somewhere a bomb's going to fall on it unless we make him an offer." Rose explained to the two of them.
Gwendalyn shook her head. "Money. Always money."
"Does it matter? It's got nothing to do with this." Jack told them.
"This started at the bomb site. It's got everything to do with it. What kind of warship?" The Doctor demanded.
"We wouldn't be asking if it wasn't important." Gwendalyn told Jack.
"An ambulance! Look." Jack said, showing them the hologram on his wrist device. "That's what you chased through the Time Vortex. It's space junk. I wanted to kid you it was valuable. It's empty. I made sure of it. Nothing but a shell. I threw it at you. Saw your time travel vehicle, love the retro look, but the way, nice panels. Threw you the bait."
"Bait?" Rose asked looking at Jack.
"I wanted to sell it to you and then destroy it before you found out it was junk."
"You said it was a war ship." Rose said, shaking her head.
"They have ambulances in wars. It was a con. I was conning you. That's what I am, I'm a con man. I thought you were Time Agents. You're not, are you?"
Rose shook her head. "Just a couple more freelancers."
"Oh. Should have known. The way you two are blending with the local colour. I mean, Flag Girl was bad enough, but U-Boat Captain? She's the only one who is dressed to the time period." Jack said, winking at her.
Gwendalyn shifted uncomfortably. She didn't like the attention that Jack was giving her.
"Anyway, whatever's happening here has got nothing to do with that ship." Jack said, waving his hand.
"What is happening here, Doctor?" Rose asked looking at the two of them.
Gwendalyn let out a sigh. "Something big. Something bad."
"Human DNA is being rewritten by an idiot." The Doctor said, shaking his head.
"What do you mean?" Rose asked, tilting her head to the side.
"I don't know. Some kind of virus converting human beings into these things. But why? What's the point?"
Gwendalyn grabbed onto his arm. "Doctor."
The patients suddenly sat up. "Mummy. Mummy. Mummy? Mummy?"
"What's happening?" Rose asked.
"I don't know."
"Mummy."
"Don't let them touch you." The Doctor said, as he put Gwendalyn behind him.
"What happens if they touch us?"
"You are looking at the result." Gwendalyn said softly gripping onto the Doctor's coat.
The patients surround the four of them."Help me, mummy."
"Doctor…" Gwendalyn said.
"Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy." The patients said over and over again.
"We really need to figure out something fast. I don't want to be one of those things."
"Don't worry Lyn. You won't turn into one of those. I won't let that happen."
"I will hold you to that."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
This is the end of Chapter 18. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. I worked hard on this chapter and had been working on it non stop. Please let me know what you think of Jack and Gwendalyn's first meeting. Until next time guys. Much Love.