~revised~

Chapter XIII

Doctor

He walked through the corridors, searching for his companions. "Rose? Mira?" Nothing. He sighed and turned around. A horse?

It was just standing there in the middle of the corridor and looking at him. It probably came through one of the time windows, he thought and continued in his search, with the horse following him.

"Will you stop following me? I'm not your mother!" he had turned around to the horse once more and looked at it in irritation. The horse just nosed him and didn't seem to be too impressed by his request. "You didn't accidentally come by some people in here? Humans? Two women and a Mickey? No?" he asked. The horse whinnied and shook its head. "Well, not the answer I hoped for, but thanks." He proceeded his search and not much later he stood in front of a set of white, French double doors. "So this is where you came from, eh, horsey?"

He stepped through the door and found himself standing in the garden of Versailles. A few yards away he spotted a familiar figure. Reinette was walking away from him with some other woman at her side. Reinette was a remarkable woman, he thought as he watched her from behind a small wall. She had been fearless as a little child and had grown into a determined, strong minded woman. Of course he knew everything about her history and he was thrilled to meet her, as he always was when meeting important people of history. Only when she was out of his sight he went back to the ship. The horse was still there, waiting for him. "You don't want to go home?" he asked and waved at the doors. "No?" He walked through a few more corridors as he finally heard Mickey's voice from around a corner.

"Blimey, look at this guy. Who does he think he is?"

He stepped up to them. They were standing in front of what seemed to be a mirror. They could see right through it, but the people on the other side didn't notice them.

"King of France," he answered Mickeys question.

"Oh, here's trouble. What you been up to?" Rose asked.

"Well, I could ask you the same thing," he said to Rose. "Didn't I tell you to have an eye on them? And not to follow the robot?" he asked Mira. At least from her he had expected some reason.

"Funny. Not," Mira said. "Who do you think I am? A kindergarten worker? It's-"

"So, what did you do?" Rose asked hastily once more, interrupting Mira. What had happened now between her and Mira?

"Oh, this and that. Became the imaginary friend of a future French aristocrat... picked a fight with a clockwork man...," he answered casually whilst looking through the mirror. Suddenly the horse whinnied once more and trotted around the corner. "Oh, and I met a horse."

"What's a horse doing on a spaceship?" Mickey asked perplexed.

"Mickey, what's pre-Revolutionary France doing on a spaceship? Get a little perspective," he answered before changing the topic. "See these?" He pointed at the mirror. "They're all over the place. On every deck. Gateways to history. But not just any old history..." Right then Reinette entered the room. "Hers. Time window... deliberately arranged along the life of one particular woman. A spaceship from the fifty-first century stalking a woman from the eighteenth. Why?"

"Who is she?" Rose asked.

"Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, known to her friends as Reinette. One of the most accomplished women who ever lived."

Now they could see how Reinette was introduced to the King of France.

"So has she got plans of being the Queen, then?" Rose asked.

"No, he's already got a Queen. She's got plans of being his mistress," he said, making Rose smile rather silly.

"Oh, I get it. Camilla," she said before she and Mickey started to laugh. Even Mira shot them a rather irritated glance now.

"I think this is the night they met. The night of the Yew Tree ball. In no time at flat, she'll get herself established as his official mistress, with her own rooms at the palace... even her own title - Madame de Pompadour," he continued to explain, trying to ignore Rose and Mickeys childlike behaviour. Reinette was now standing right in front of the mirror, smoothing her dress, being alone in the room.

"Madame de Pompadour?" Mira asked excited. "She's the girl we saw through the fireplace? My goodness, she's really beautiful..."

"Queen must have loved her...," Rose threw in.

"Oh, she did. They get on very well," he said. Rose didn't looked to convinced.

"You know that those were mainly arranged marriages?" Mira said to Rose. "At first they had to think about their country, about France. They married for political reasons. Sometimes they actually came to love each other, or were at least friends. But if not, why don't look for love elsewhere? At least the Queen knew about Reinette and was fine with her."

"The King's wife and the King's girlfriend?" Mickey obviously couldn't believe it.

"France. It's a different planet," he said. Then, suddenly, his eyes fell on the clock on the mantelpiece. A broken clock. At this very moment Reinette turned around, looking at someone who stood behind her in a corner of the room. Without thinking twice about it he took the fire-extinguisher from Mickey and swung the mirror around.

"Hello, Reinette. Hasn't time flown?" he greeted her as he entered the room.

"Fireplace man!" She was visibly surprised to see him.

He hurried to freeze the robot. Once it had stopped moving, he threw the fire-extinguisher back to Mickey. Then he eyed the clockwork-droid carefully. It was clicking and clattering loudly.

"Doesn't sound too healthy," Mira commented it.

"It's switching back on. Melting the ice," he said.

"And then what?" Mickey wanted to know as he gave the robot a worried look.

"Then it kills everyone in the room." the Doctor replied, pointing out the obvious. Mickey, he thought and rolled his eyes.

The next moment he was forced to jump backwards. The robot had suddenly extended one of its arms, holding a nasty looking blade at his throat. "Focuses the mind, doesn't it?" he said as he hurried to get in front of Reinette. "Who are you? Identify yourself," he demanded to know from the robot. He had even raised his voice a bit, now the fun was clearly over. Time for some serious answers. Well, the clockwork-droid didn't seem to agree with that as he didn't say anything.

"Order it to answer me," he said to Reinette.

"Why should it listen to me?" she replied in confusion.

"I don't know. It did when you were a child. Let's see if you've still got it."

"Answer his question. Answer any and all questions put to you," she finally gave it a try and addressed the robot.

"I am repair droid seven," it said after lowering his arm.

"So what happened to the ship, then? There was a lot of damage," the Doctor continued in questioning the robot. Finally some answers.

"Ion storm, eighty two percent systems failure."

"That ship hasn't moved in over a year. What's taken you so long?"

"We did not have the parts."

"Why didn't you call for help?" Mira wanted to know.

"We did not have the parts."

"What's happened to the crew, where are they?" Now it was the Doctor's turn again.

"We did not have the parts."

Slowly but surely he was getting annoyed by the robot. They had a really lame speech protocol.

"There should have been over fifty people on your ship. Where did they go?" he tried it again.

"We did not have the parts."

"Fifty people don't just disappear! Where...?"

Right... They didn't have the parts. Now it dawned on him.

"Oh sh...," Mira started, but suddenly stopped as she looked at Reinette. She really had a habit of swearing, he noticed. "Sorry. We found a heart. And an eye, wired into the machinery..."

"You didn't have the parts, so you used the crew," he summarised it.

"The crew?" Mickey asked in disbelief.

"It was just doing what it was programmed to. Repairing the ship any way it can, with whatever it could find. No one told it the crew weren't on the menu. What did you say the flight deck smelt of?" the Doctor asked in return.

"Sunday roast...," Mickey answered quietly.

"Flesh plus heat. Barbecue," he said grimly. His eyes fell on Reinette, who looked slightly sick now. "But what are you doing here? You've opened up time windows, that takes colossal energy. Why come here, you could have gone to your repair yard. Instead you come to eighteenth century France? Why?" he wondered.

"One more part is required," the droid answered as his head turned to Reinette.

"Then why haven't you taken it?"

"She is incomplete."

"What... so, that's the plan then? Just keep opening up more and more time windows, scanning her brain, checking to see if she's 'done yet'?" the Doctor asked furiously. What was this all about?

"Why her?" Rose suddenly asked. Oh Rose. Always asking the right questions at the right moment.

"You've got all of history to choose from, why specifically her?" Rose continued.

"We are the same," the robot said in response.

"We are not the same, we are in no sense the same!" Reinette said enraged. It seemed that she had overcome her sickness by now.

"We are the same," the robot insisted.

"Get out of here! Get out of here this instance!" Reinette demanded, her voice raised in anger.

"Reinette, no," the Doctor hurried to say, but it was too late. The droid had activated the teleport and was gone.

"It's back on the ship. Rose, Mira, you take Mickey and Arthur, get after it. Follow it, don't approach it, just watch what it does." he said to them. Hopefully the would listen this time.

"Arthur?" Rose asked him.

"Good name for a horse."

"No, you're not keeping the horse!" Rose complained.

"I let you keep Mickey! Now go, go, go!" he hurried them.


Rose

"So, that Doctor, eh?" Mickey said to her with a smirk on his face.

"What are you talking about?" she asked in return. Not a topic that she wanted to talk about now. Not with having that other woman around.

"Well! Madame de Pompadour. Sarah Jane Smith. Cleopatra," Mickey continued. He was really pissing her off right now.

"Cleopatra - he mentioned her once." she snapped at him.

"Yeah, but he called her 'Cleo'."

"So? What's it to you anyway?" She didn't want to think about these things. Not now nor ever. It was hurting her to imagine that the Doctor had been with women like Cleopatra.

"Rose, I think you worry too much. Did it never occur to you that he had a life before he met you? He's over nine-hundred years old, what do you think? Nine-hundred years ago humanity was just in the middle-ages. Think about everything that has happened since then. It's such a long time," Mira said.

"I think this isn't your problem!" She looked at Mira. "Can't you just leave me alone?" She couldn't even stand Mira's glance out of these weird eyes of her. She almost felt naked. And she didn't want to hear what she was saying. She just took the same line as the Doctor did - I'm so old and you just can't understand it.

"I was just trying to say that you could spare yourself a lot of pain if you would just accept the fact that he has a past. That's all," Mira said.

"Oh, just like you have one? I don't know how many men there've been in yours, but don't judge others by your own standards," she shot back.

"Some. But I don't think this is leading anywhere." That was all that Mira said after a moment. She didn't even raise her voice, or sounded pissed, or anything like that. Rose had really hoped that she had hit her in some way with her statement, but that didn't seem to be the case.


Mira

She shook her head slightly. She really should have hold her tongue. But it was hard to witness how Rose was literally torturing herself. She had just wanted to help her to understand. She knew she could be a bit patronising and unnerving sometimes. Mainly because she had heard things like Rose had just said to her over and over again in her life. Sometimes justified, sometimes unjustified. But she had heard it all before. It just didn't affect her anymore and one could really tell that from her attitude. That was also why she didn't care that much if she was the target of Rose's jealousy. She had really heard worse things and it took more than a nineteen year old teenager to throw her off. (Okay, maybe that wasn't true if that very teenager was running around on some alien space ship, deliberately not listening to her.) For god's sake, even if Rose was right and she herself really had a crush on the Doctor, she could easily wait for another eighty years or so, until Rose had reached the end of her life. Harsh and cruel as it sounded, but it was the truth. Not that she would ever tell Rose that.

They were walking for a few minutes in silence. Nothing was happening, and that was almost suspicious. Where was the robot? As if the droids had just waited for that, they suddenly materialised all around them. They were surrounded and before Rose or Mickey could shoot them with the fire-extinguishers, they were on them and grabbed them. The next thing she felt was a needle in her neck.

Almost instantly her vision blurred and all strength left her legs. She managed to look over to Mickey, who was already dropping to the floor, seemingly unconscious. She herself could feel how her cell-activator was trying to neutralise whatever these robots had injected into her neck. She was on the verge of passing out as she dropped to the floor with her eyes closed just like Mickey and Rose. Even though she fought to remain conscious, she must have passed out for a moment. The next thing she noticed was being dropped down on the floor again. She carefully opened her eyes a bit, just to witness how the robots were shackling Mickey to some sort of table that was almost standing upright. It took two of the robots to hold him in place and a third one pushing the switch that closed the shackles. Two others were busy on some sort of panel. Rose was lying about two yards away from her – and between herself and the door was nothing. She still felt incredibly dizzy and weak, but it was getting better with every passing second. She had to try it before they would turn their attention to her.

Trying to get back to the corridor where they had left the fire-extinguishers. In case they were still there. And if she would find the way back again. But there was nothing she could do with her bare hands, not against at least five of these robots. But maybe they would follow her and so she could delay whatever they were about to do to Rose and Mickey. To repair the ship with them.

Great. She had to try it, now. She got up, faster than she had expected, but as she made it for the door she was staggering so badly that she almost missed it. Thankfully the robots were anything but fast, at least as long as they didn't teleport. So she was a bit ahead of them as the first materialised in front of her. By now she wasn't that dizzy any more and could at least walk halfway straight. She aimed at him and make an attempt to pass by him on his left side. The stupid machine didn't calculate about that twice and stepped to the left and so the corridor on his right side was free for her. As she looked back, he had teleported himself away.

After she had went around one more corner she could finally see the fire-extinguishers. She picked one of them up and made it back to the room where she had left Rose and Mickey. By now she was feeling back to normal again. It must have been a drug with a rather short half-life time.

The Doctor, by the way, was nowhere to be seen. Instead another one of these clockwork-droids appeared in front of her. She froze him just as he extended his arm. As she reached the room, Rose and Mickey were just coming round again. There were only two robots left.

Okay. Two plus the one I've just frozen. Leaves two at least somewhere else, she thought.

She put the fire-extinguisher aside and freed Mickey and Rose after she had taken care of the two robots. Thankfully it was the same switch for opening and closing the shackles.

"What's going on?" Rose asked, clearly still a bit dazed.

"We're getting out of here," Mira replied.

She helped them up and was about to shove them out of the room, just as four more of these robots materialised right between them and the door.

Four? That wasn't fair.

The other two were also clicking suspiciously now, as if waking up again every moment.

"All right, you stay behind me. No discussions," she said quietly to Rose and Mickey as she picked up her 'weapon'. The droids in return extended their blades.

"They're gonna chop us up. Just like the crew - they're gonna chop us up and stick us all over their stupid spaceship," Mickey whispered behind her back.

"No one's going to chop up anyone," she said to him without taking her eyes of the droids.

"Where's the Doctor? Where's the precious Doctor now? He's been gone for flipping hours, that's where he is!" Mickey continued.

"You are compatible," sounded the soulless voice of one of the robots.

"You will go out of my way," Mira replied calmly. Of course they didn't obey.

All right, you had your chance.

The first one froze, and even a second one before the others started to move towards them. But then, as she was aiming for the third one... Nothing. Empty.

"Oh... Well." Change of plans then. She threw the fire-extinguisher right at the two robots that were standing next to the door.

"Run!" she yelled as the robots were falling to the floor and shattering into a thousand pieces.

They almost made it. The remaining two unfrozen droids were too slow, and the frozen ones not yet fully recovered. But sometimes everything goes wrong. There must be some sort of unlimited supply of them, she thought highly annoyed as two more materialised right in their way.

Mira suddenly stopped with Rose bumping into her back.

All six robots were now approaching, their blades pointing towards their necks.

"Well... you... you might wanna think about that," Rose said. "You really, really might because... me, Mickey and Mira.. we didn't come here alone, oh no! And trust me - you wouldn't wanna mess with our designated driver." Good, she was playing for time. "Ever heard of the Daleks? Remember them? They had a name for our friend. They had myths about him, and a name. They called him the...," she continued only to be interrupted by a loud bang and someone singing.

It sounded suspiciously like.. No. Not possible.

"They called him the.. they called him the.. the...," Rose tried to finish what she was about to say, as the singing grew louder.

Is he drunk? A moment later Mira could clearly see for herself. He staggered into the room, still singing, his tie around his head, sunglasses on his nose, and a glass of wine in his hand.

"Well, there's a time and place for everything," she greeted him icily.


Doctor

Right after Mira, Rose and Mickey were gone he had asked Reinette if he could look into her mind, to find out what the robots were looking for. Well, that hadn't been his exact words, but as he had expected it, Reinette didn't shy away from him. Even though it must almost seem like witchcraft to here, a woman from the 18th century. She was not only not afraid, she seemed to enjoy it somehow. And not only that. He wasn't too sure how it had happened, and at first he hadn't noticed it, but somehow she did end up in his head. He had only realised it because she had started to call him 'Doctor'. He hadn't felt her presence in his mind. Most likely she hadn't been in his head at all, and he had just shown her all these things subconsciously, brought them with him somehow, but he wasn't too sure about that.

First of all, he had been shocked. What else had she seen? Then he had seen the sympathy in her eyes. Sympathy for things he could never tell anyone. And now this incredible woman had just been able to see them, almost like he used to communicate with his own people. No need for words. (Well, they actually had talked to each other. But not because they had to.) And instead of being afraid she had wanted to comfort him, asked him to come with her. Tempting. But he knew that he shouldn't go with her, that it was wrong in any possible way.

For a moment he thought about Mira. Had she been in his stead, she would have resisted, wouldn't she? She seemed to be so sensible. Outright serious. On the other hand, she had chosen to stay in the TARDIS, although she had said she probably shouldn't. So, why should he be more consequent than someone who was over six-hundred years older than him? And above all, it was him who was constantly telling the people around him that they should live a little.

...

The first thing he noticed as he found Rose, Mira and Mickey were the gears of two of the droids shattered around. Second thing was Mira shooting him a deadly glance. "Well, there's a time and place for everything," she said to him.

"Yeah. And so is for vandalism,", he replied whilst stepping over the remains of the robots. "Have you met the French? My... God, they know how to party." he continued. It really had been a hell of a party. And yes, he was drunk. So what? He could change that in no time, unlike humans.

"Oh, look at what the cat dragged in. The Oncoming Storm." Rose said sarcastically. They were all surrounded by six of those robots. The droids didn't move, obviously trying to process the whole situation.

"Oh, you sound just like your mother," he replied whilst eyeing a control panel. What was going on with Rose today? Though right now her behaviour wasn't totally unjustified, he had to admit, but he had made it in time, hadn't he?

"What've you been doing? Where've you been?!" Rose asked crossly.

"Well... among other things, I think just invented the banana daiquiri a few centuries early." He was walking through the little crowd of droids now. They watched him, but didn't do anything. "Do you know, they've never even seen a banana before!" He stopped in front of Rose. "Always take a banana to a party, Rose. Bananas are good." He turned to Mira. She didn't say a thing. She was just staring at him. He almost flinched as he saw the look in her eyes. It was a glance as cold as ice and utterly relentless. Right now he would have absolutely denied they were able to show anything remotely like fear. Ever. But most of all, her glance was calm. Dangerously calm.

Ouch.

He decided to turn his attention to the droids only to avoid her glance, because she surely wasn't in for looking away first.

"Oh ho ho ho ho, brilliant. It's you! You're my favourite, you are, you are the best! Do you know why? 'Cause you're so thick. You're Mister Thick Thick Thickity Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania," he spat at one of the droids and walked away, just to turned around once more. "And so's your dad," he added. "Do you know what they were scanning Reinette's brain for?" he added after a moment of consideration whilst still strolling through the room, speaking to no one in particular. "Her milometer. They wanna know how old she is. Know why? 'Cause this ship is thirty-seven years old. And they think that when Reinette is thirty-seven, when she's 'complete', then her brain will be compatible. So, that's what you're missing, isn't it?" He paused to stare at one of the droids. "Hmm? Command circuit. Your computer. Your ship needs a brain. And for some reason - God knows what - only the brain of Madame de Pompadour will do."

"The brain is compatible," one of the droids said.

"Compatible?" He approached the droid that had just spoken. "If you believe that, you probably believe this is a glass of wine." He removed the mask from the droid's head and poured the contents of the wineglass on it. After that he put the mask back on again and patted it on the head. After a moment the droid stopped moving, his head bending down. "Multigrain anti-oil. If it moves, it doesn't," he said, now in his normal tone and completely sober again.

The other droids began to come closer, but he shut them down by pulling a nearby lever.

"Time we got the rest of the ship turned off," he said. Rose and Mickey seemed clearly relieved, but Mira was still looking somehow icily at him. Not as bad as she just had, but still icily.

"Are those things safe?" Mickey asked.

"Yep. Safe. Safe and thick. Way I like them. Okay, all the time windows are controlled from here. I need to close them all down," he answered as he put the sunglasses away and pulled down his tie.

"Zeus plugs. Where are my Zeus plugs?" he wondered as he felt in his pockets for them. "I had them a minute ago, I was using them as castanets."

"Why didn't they just open a time window to when she was thirty-seven?" Rose asked, ignoring his mumbling.

"With the amount of damage to these circuits, they'll be lucky to hit the right century. Trial and error after that," he replied whilst trying to operate the computer. "The windows aren't closing. Why won't they close?" he wondered as a pinging sound started.

"What's that?" Mira asked. She was now standing next to him, eyeing the console he was working on. Something was pinging them. He turned his head to her. She still seemed somehow angry. No, not angry. It was something else. But what?

"I don't know... incoming message?" he answered.

"From who?" she asked in return.

"Report from the field... one of them must still be out there with Reinette! That's why I can't close the windows, there's an override!" he finally got it.

Behind him, one of the droids suddenly sprung to life. It was the one with the oil in his brain. A moment later the droid had expelled it over his shoe.

"Well, that was a bit clever," he murmured. Now the rest of the robots sprung to life as well. "Right... many things about this are not good,"

"That's the understatement of the century," Mira said, just as the pinging started again.

"Message from one of your little friends? Anything interesting?" he asked them.

"She is complete. It begins."

That was the last they heard of the robots before they teleported away.


AxidentIGoddess: Thanks for your kind review. :-) I'm really trying to give Rose's jealousy some background and not just have her bitching around because she wants to. :-)

time-twilight, alwaystherereading and 10th Squad 3rd Seat: Thank you for the feedback :-)