~revised~
Chapter XXIII
Mira
She returned to the console room not even fifteen minutes later. She had considered going to her room instead, but then again, she couldn't hide in there forever. She had hoped that Rose would be in the console room as well so she wouldn't be alone with him, but she wasn't.
"Why are you still dressed like this?" the Doctor greeted her.
"Why not?" She looked down on herself. She was wearing black trousers and a black shirt.
"We're going to the sixties," he said, beaming at her. "Rose already went to the wardrobe," he continued, turning his attention to the console.
The sixties? Oh no. Why the sixties of all times and places? Suddenly she felt sick to her stomach and a shiver ran down her spine. "Why the sixties?" she asked, trying to pretend that she was fine with it.
"Oh, not that I like them that much, fashion was a bit odd then, but it was mankind's first leap into space. I mean, first actual leap. Out of Earth's orbit. First step on the Moon. Watched it several times, so we can't go to the Moon itself, but we can watch the launch of the Saturn V. Quite impressive, at least for your lot," he said without looking up.
Unwillingly, faces of people she had known so long ago appeared before her mind's eye. Faces that brought back pain and grief that made her feel almost dizzy, so she quickly sat down on the jump seat, hopefully not too suspiciously. She had always avoided talking about that time, and it had worked well. After all there was no reason to talk about it, dwell in the past. It was gone. It was gone for centuries, so why did it hit her like that now? What the hell was going on? Of course she knew the answer. She was too good at psychology to not see it. But why now all of a sudden? She might not have talked about that time, but she had been thinking about it occasionally. Was it because there had never be the option to actually return to it?
"What is it? You alright?" he asked, the smile slowly fading from his face as he finally looked at her again.
"First landing on the Moon in the sixties? Are you sure?" she asked, mostly to disguise what really was going on in her head right now. To give her some time to gather herself.
"Yeah, 1969. Launch was at 16th of July. Why? When was it in your universe?"
"19th of June, in 1971. It was the Stardust," she said slowly. She almost didn't dare to ask the next question, but she had to know. "Who was it?"
"Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin."
"Oh. Well, didn't really expect it to be the same people," she answered, trying to sound casual.
"What? Who was it in your world?" the Doctor asked and sat down beside her.
"Reginald Bull, Clark Flipper, Eric Manoli and Perry Rhodan," she answered, looking at her hands which where clutched together because they had started to shake. Oh for God's sake. Could it get any worse? Truth be told, she had expected it. Had it been the same group as in her universe, and had they discovered the same thing on the moon, the 21st century would have been much different here. And yet, hearing it from him now obviously was a different thing. So they were actually going back to the sixties. How often had she wished that there would be a way back? But it wasn't her universe, not her sixties.
"Rhodan? You're related?" he asked.
"He's my father," she replied.
"Oh...," he said. "Well. But even if it was him here as well, he wouldn't be the one you know. Just as Pete wasn't actually Rose's father," he continued softly.
"I know," she said harder than she had wanted to. "I-" She sighed. "Still. Even if he was just a little bit like the one in my universe, then..." He would have been able to help her. He wouldn't send her away. "You know what, never mind."
"Should we go somewhere else?" he asked softly.
Yes. Any place, any time. Not just there, not now nor ever, she thought. She stood up and walked around the console. There had been a time when she had wished for nothing more than to go back to this time. But that had been in her universe, with all the people and everything else she had been forced to leave behind. Basically, her whole dammed life. "No," she finally said and turned around to face the Doctor. Maybe it was the easiest way, pretending there was nothing about it to her, and just get it done. She had the distinct feeling that otherwise he wouldn't let go of it. Not after how she had reacted. As blind to the obvious as he appeared to be sometimes, as good he was at seeing what he wasn't supposed to.
"Just... What happened here? What did they find on the Moon?" she asked, mainly as a distraction.
"Find? Nothing. Dust, rocks... A nice view of Earth... Didn't even change that much, if you ask me. They will continue struggling for quite a while with their problems down on Earth."
"Yeah, I've already seen the year 2006," she said. "In my universe it really made a difference for mankind. They found a crashed research ship from Arkon on the moon. It was the first contact with an alien species. Well, not really. Arkons had been on Earth centuries ago, but we didn't know." She remained silent for a moment after that. It really had been a interesting time. From one moment to the next everything had changed.
"What happened?"
"Well, the Arkon ship was beyond repair, but a lot of their technology still worked. There were two Arkon scientists on board, and my father convinced them to work with him. They couldn't return to Arkon on their own, so they agreed to help each other. He and his crew also decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to bring their technology back to the United States. Or to any other of the world powers back then. So they returned with the Stardust and some of their devices and landed in the Gobi Desert, right where now Terrania is. Almost causing World War Three. Well, technically they did."
"How so?"
"It was a difficult political situation back then. The Western Block believing that Perry and his crew had defected to either the Asian Confederation or the Eastern Block didn't really help it. He explained it to them, but nevertheless, it escalated and eventually they all launched their nuclear missiles. What they didn't know was that Perry used Arkon technology to disable the nuclear warheads on the missiles. They didn't explode." She shook her head. "I had never thought that they were mad enough to actually do it, but they did. They actually did. They were fully prepared to annihilate all life on Earth. So technically, it was the day when humanity destroyed itself. Funny thing is, what caused them to team up was Perry's newly established 'Empire'. They only needed a common enemy to unit against. They launched an attack against it, and also tried to destroy the Arkon space ship on the moon. Unfortunately, they succeeded with the latter. But a ship's boat was left and also the two Arkon scientists survived. Everything after that is history," she said, surprised how calm she was sounding. At least she was thinking she did sound rather composed. It was common human history after all. Nothing personal about her.
"Quite a risky decision your father made at this time. But probably the best thing to do," he finally said after a moment of silence. "You must miss him."
"Yeah," she whispered and leaned against the console. Maybe the sixties here where completely different from her world, she tried to calm herself. Maybe it wouldn't bring back all the memories.
"Just one thing: You don't sound American at all."
"Um. No?" she asked puzzled. Then she got it. "My father is US American, but I wasn't born there. English isn't my native language."
"What then?"
"Doesn't really matter."
"Why not?"
"Because. It's just not important!" Couldn't he just let go of it?
"Then you could just tell me."
"No! It doesn't matter because it's dead. It's dead for ages, like most of the human languages, it belongs to a different time and now it's gone. End of topic!" She had raised her voice without noticing it, almost yelling at him. As she realised that, she was genuinely shocked about herself. It was a sensitive topic, as was everything that belonged to her old life, sort of, even after all this time. But normally she didn't get angry like that about it. Not any more. It was just a language after all. And yet, at the same time, it wasn't. It was a part of her identity, a part she had been forced to leave behind. Just like the sixties and her life back then and everyone she had ever known. Just like now. Again. Great. It could always get worse.
"So, is this sixties enough?" she suddenly heard Rose's voice from behind the jump seat. The Doctor turned his head and they both were looking at her. Rose was standing next to the stairs, wearing a short, sleeveless, a-line dress in a soft pink with white accents around the waist. A pair of white, semi-transparent tights and white, knee high boots with a medium high heel completed her styling. Her hair was styled in a beehive like hairdo. She looked really lovely, it was way better than her usual t-shirt and jeans look. She had even changed her make-up, although it was still a bit too much for Mira's taste.
It seemed that at least the fashion was just as she remembered it from her own universe. The thoughts in her head were racing, but there was now way to get out of it it without stirring up his curiosity and forcing even more questions on her. And that was the last thing she wanted right now. More of his concern, compassion and looking right through her and getting closer and closer to her. There was already enough she had to deal with, without bringing someone else in. Besides, to her things always seemed way more real if she shared them with others. Talked about them. As long as she kept it to herself, she could pretend that everything was fine, sometimes even long enough to convince herself of it. Repression at it's best. She would not have to stay here. She would not lose everyone she knew again. And her situation now was nothing like it had been back then, so no need of being afraid to finally losing it this time.
"So, do you want to go like that? It's sixties, space age, hippies, not all black!" she heard the Doctor say. "First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, it's the fifth door on your left, there's the wardrobe. Hard to miss. Go on then!"
"Fine," she gave in and left the console room.
Doctor
He watched as she left, deeply in thoughts. That had been unexpected. He didn't believe it was all just about the difference in history to her own world. There was more behind it, something severe. Was it that what the darkness was about he had seen in her mind? She was quite on edge, that was clear, and he would have to keep an eye on her.
"So, what do you say?" Rose pulled him out of his thoughts, tugging at her dress and smiling at him with her tongue-between-teeth-smile.
"Well, maybe the sixties weren't that bad," he said as he eyed her closely. It really suited her, he had to admit that. Besides, she was almost suspiciously back to normal.
"So, do you think we can get inside Kennedy Space Center with your psychic paper? Somewhere not open for public? See the rocket from up close?", Rose asked, apparently interested. Since when was she into rockets and science like that? He furrowed his brow and looked at her.
"Thought you'd find that rather boring?"
"Why would I?"
"Don't know, you were never into these things before."
"Well, might have changed?"
He looked at her doubtfully, but then started to explain some of the technical specifications of the rocket. While he was rambling to Rose, he continued to think about Mira's behaviour and what could have caused it. What had happened? Had she been there with her father as he had landed in the Gobi Desert? Or was there something else that had happened to her as the daughter of an assumed traitor to his country? But why had she gotten that angry as he had asked her about her native tongue? Languages did die out, that part he believed. It was a normal process, but it tended to take a couple of centuries at least.
"About what were you arguing?" Rose asked as he paused in his explanations.
"Arguing? Why do you think that?"
"Sounded like..."
"Nah. Just a... heated discussion," he answered and began to program the console with the data for the next flight.
Right as he had set the coordinates, Mira returned. Well, that had been fast, he thought as he turned around. And almost didn't believe his eyes. She was dressed in a sleeveless tunic with a stand up collar, matching, loose cut trousers of the same fabric and a silver belt around her waste, which was closed with a round clasp. The fabric had an over-all paisley pattern woven into it in light, cool grey and blue tones. Actual light colours. Not black.
Not that she looked bad or sick in black, it gave her skin an almost alabaster-like tone, but grey and blue weren't bad as well. It made her eyes look almost silver. And she was wearing make-up, at least around the eyes, as it had been so typical in the sixties, and a light rose lipstick. Her hair was side parted and also back-combed. As she walked over to the console he could see that it was also tucked into a flat bun at the back of her head, leaving a pony-tail that fell over her left shoulder. Even her shoes were white, flat slippers. Plus, she seemed to be back to normal. At least her face gave no hint about what had just happened.
"What?" she asked, and he realised that he was staring at her, presumably not having the most intelligent look on his face. Not that he could really look daft, because even if he would have been daft, which he wasn't, he would still be way more intelligent then the most intelligent human, but...
"Nothing," he said, pulling at his ear-lob. "It's nice... Really. Nice. What's that? Did you get into a fight?" he decided to distract from how he must have just looked.
"What?" Now it was on her to look a bit daft.
"There," he nodded to her left forearm. On the outside where two long, white scars. Old ones, barely visible.
"Oh," she followed his eyes and looked at them herself. "Yeah," she lifted her arm in a defensive position with her forearm just in front of her head as if to demonstrate something. "Happens when the other one brings a knife to a fight. You can really see them from over there? I thought they weren't visible enough to bother about having them removed," she murmured and inspected them with furrowed brows.
"Removed? Why?"
"Why not? Do you have any idea how many scars I got over the years? Did you make it through nine-hundred years without any?"
He rubbed the back of his neck instead of answering. She didn't know about it yet. Actually, this body right now had none so far. Besides that, his skin was different than human skin. More resistant and faster healing.
"How did the other one look like?" Rose joked. Mira just glanced at her for a moment as if making up her mind what – and if anything – to say.
"Well, everyone ready? One small step for a man, but...," he yelled and pulled the lever, before they could go further into what had happened to whoever had attacked her.
Rose
Rose had eyed Mira suspiciously the whole time. Certainly the other woman knew that she was as jealous as before and that she was just playing nice. Although, it wasn't entirely true. The more time she had to think about what had happened in Pete's universe, the more her understanding for Mira had grown. Still no best friends with her, but wanting her off the TARDIS definitely had been a bit over the top. But, apart from that, she still wasn't convinced that there was nothing between the two of them. Well, at least they were already arguing with each other. She knew what she had heard, most of all how Mira had yelled at the Doctor, so even if there was something, maybe it would be over soon.
And now they where heading for Kennedy Space Center, something she wasn't really interested in. Watching the first step on the moon would be more to her liking, but hanging around the whole day in the sun just to watch some rocket launch?
After a short and as bumpy as usual flight the TARDIS landed.
"So, here we are. Kennedy Space Center, the 16th of July, 1969," he said with a big grin and nodded to her as she pointed at the door. She opened it, and immediately hot, humid air hit her. She blinked into the sun and slowly left the ship, followed by the Doctor and Mira. They had landed somewhere behind some flower-beds and trees that where now pretty dried out. She was looking directly at the entrance of the NASA Visitor Center, as the sign above the huge door said. There were a lot of people around, dressed just like in the old pictures of the sixties. A lot of them were smoking, Rose came to notice. No one seemed to care about the blue box that had just appeared. Besides the Visitor Center, there was not so much more there. The area was relatively flat, and in the distance she could see a few more high buildings and, even further away, the Saturn V rocket. That was pretty much it.
Right now, a rather vintage looking – or not so vintage at this time - bus came to halt in front of the building, and a group of people hurried to get into it, not bothering to get rid of their cigarettes first.
"Finally, warmth," she heard Mira say. She turned her head. Yeah, too hot for her taste, and, judging from the look on the Doctor's face, also for him. But that didn't keep him from wearing is coat.
"That's a bit... well, disappointing," Rose said. "It's a bit empty, you know?"
"Empty? That's supposed to be a space-port, isn't it?" Mira said in response.
"And?" she asked. How did that explain all the empty space? Rockets didn't need a huge runway like planes, did they?
"That's rockets," Mira replied, pointing at the Saturn V. "Filled to the rim with liquid fuel, I guess either kerosene, hydrazine, or hydrogen and some oxidiser like liquid oxygen. Doesn't look like it has solid boosters. Imagine what happens if that thing blows up on the launch pad. And that's the nature of rocket science, they just occasionally blow up. You don't want do be anywhere near that, trust me. Though it is quite a sight. You should check it out on this YouTube thing at some point. Surely they upload those videos there as well. But only look for unmanned rockets where no-one died. It's actually quite entertaining. And also, in case it veers off course and it has to be destroyed, it shouldn't happen over a populated area. Most rocket fuels are highly toxic."
She had eyed Mira whilst she had been talking. She was sure Mira found that topic exciting and exploding rockets actually entertaining, yet she had sounded somehow flat. Instead of looking at her, her eyes had avoided her – and the Doctor. Not quite staring into space but not really focusing on anything either. Like talking to herself. Her arms were wrapped around herself, as if she was freezing, despite the temperatures.
"It's kerosene and oxygen for the the first stage, exactly six-hundred and forty-six tons of kerosene," the Doctor fell in enthusiastically. "Well, not your ordinary kerosene. It's called RP-1 and is a highly refined form of kerosene. Second and third stage are running on hydrogen and oxygen. They use hydrazine though for the Apollo Lunar Module. Together with unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine. Highly toxic as Mira said but a nice hypergolic propellant."
"Hyper-what?" she asked.
"Two components that spontaneously ignite when they come into contact," Mira said in the Doctor's stead, because he was already jumping into the bus. The two women hurried to follow him.
Doctor
Oh he loved it. First steps a species took into space. They would launch this huge fuel-tank right into orbit without blowing it up in the process and then heading directly for the moon. Not that any of the Saturn rockets ever blew up. The moon program had been a story of utter success, apart of this one tragic accident with Apollo 1 during an exercise. For once humanity had put all their knowledge and technology to a peaceful use. Well, at least that was what he wanted to believe. As always, things weren't as easy or simply black and white.. It had been a competition after all during the height of the cold war. Obviously in Mira's universe it had almost started the third world war, but here it would turn out rather peacefully. Everyone glued to the TV and watching man's first steps on the moon. The rocket looked quite nice well. All white with black accents like a proper civilian space craft. It was beautiful. Not just superficially, but also because of what it stood for. A symbol of longing for the stars. Of a species giving in to the urge to get up there, no matter the price to pay.
"So, this bus goes to the tribune for the visitors?" he asked the driver.
"No, Sir."
"No? Why not?"
"What do you want there?"
"Watch the launch?" He eyed the man sceptically. This was the right year, wasn't it? Besides, the rocket was definitely already on its launch pad. He couldn't be that wrong.
"A bit too early for that, Sir. Quite some time difference to where you from, huh? I knew you were ahead, but not by two days."
"What!?"
"You're from England, aren't you? Here it's still the 14th. If you want to watch the launch you have to wait two more days. So, what now? In or out?"
He looked at the driver in confusion. He had set the date to the 16th, he was sure of it. He had checked it. For once he wanted to be right on time. Why were they here two days early? Aside from that, the driver clearly wasn't the brightest candle on the cake. Two days time difference on the same planet? On Earth? "In," he said and wanted to walk pass the driver, but he stopped him.
"Tickets?"
"Tickets? Oh right, tickets." He pulled out his psychic paper and showed it to the driver. "They belong to me," he added and pointed at Rose and Mira.
"Oh, Head of Engineering? Why didn't you say so? Don't get much sleep lately, huh? Can get a bit confusing with the days then. I once had such a bad hangover... But never mind. And they're your secretaries...? Nice," he eyed them in a rather inappropriate way. "Got the wrong job, I assume." Finally he started the bus.
The Doctor pulled Rose with him as she gave the driver a poisonous look. Mira still seemed to be a bit absent – he could tell she tried to get herself together, but she wasn't fooling anyone.
The bus was pretty full, so Mira came to sit two rows in front of them, on the other side of the bus, next to the window. The whole bus was smelling of smoke. He couldn't understand it. Their lives where so short anyway, and on top of that they had to poison themselves deliberately. Just as he had finished that thought, he saw how Mira got a cigarette from her neighbour. Really? She had never smelled of smoke since he had met her, and she had had opportunities enough to get cigarettes when they had been on Earth. He could see that her hand with the cigarette was slightly shaking. She leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes, obviously feeling unobserved, as the bus was heading for the road.
"Ugh, she's smoking?" Rose asked quietly and then looked at the full ashtrays between the seats in disgust.
"Seems so."
"You got it wrong!" Rose grinned at him. "Again. Two days!"
"Yeah, just wonder why...," he answered, rubbing his neck.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, unfortunately the Control Center is closed for visitors today due to maintenance," the driver said over some speakers. "We start our tour at the launch side."
"Could you just let us out at Control Center?" the Doctor yelled. The driver nodded and tipped at the shield of his cap.
Some minutes later the bus drove through the Launch Complex that was home to not only the tall Vehicle Assembly Building but also some other smaller and larger buildings, a wide parking area and some containers where the staff was currently living in. It finally stopped and they got out, Mira without cigarette.
"Didn't know you're smoking," he said and looked at her with arched brows as they stood outside the huge, white building where the Control Center was, with its great window-fronts facing the actual launch side.
"I don't," she answered. "Not any more. Not really. Just occasionally." She avoided his eyes and looked around instead. "What do you want here?"
"Well... Just checking. We're two days early, and I want to know why. Besides, maintenance is always interesting, don't you think? Come on then!"
Just as he was about to walk into the building, two workers came out.
"And I tell ya, they won't delay it. They rather put electric generators in there," one of them said.
"Just wonder where all the power is going. Nothing wrong with the wires or the power plant. But it was the fifth blackout in Firing Room II during the last two weeks. Must be something in the building," his co-worker answered.
"Five times already? Crap. But they can't delay. We would totally lose our face."
Then they got into a car, so he didn't hear the rest of their conversation. He didn't need to, he had already heard enough. Something was wrong indeed. He entered the building, waved the psychic paper at the doorman and turned around once more after a few steps.
"Excuse me, where was the Firing Room II again?" he asked the doorman.
"Just use the elevator over there, can't miss it then. New here?"
"Yeah, first day. Here to fix the problems."
And before the man could say one more word, he was off again.
"They didn't delay the start, did they?" Mira asked as they where in the lift.
"No. And I can't remember any trouble ahead of it. But then again, I haven't been at Kennedy Space Center before. Well, not during this time. There was this one Shuttle launch though, that almost went horribly wrong. Saved the day. Couldn't do anything for poor Challenger and its crew though."
She gave him a blank look. "Never mind," he said. He would explain it some other day.
The elevator doors opened and they where practically standing in the Firing Room. It was huge and almost overcrowded with people. Cigarette smoke and the smell of cold coffee filled the room – as well as the smell of humans working for days on end. A lot of the terminals where in different states of disassembly - all in all it was clear that they had a big problem. Men were running around, most of the people in there were actually men. A few nicely dressed women were also there, mostly carrying file folders and tablets with coffee.
"I thought there were big screens," Rose said and looked around.
"Nah, not here. That's the Firing Room. It´s only for the launch. Mission Control has the screen. That's at Johnson Space Center. In Houston, Texas."
"Ah, got it. Houston, we have a problem," she grinned.
"Shush," he quickly said as a man who had approached them looked at her sceptically.
"Who are you?" the man asked him. He was rather tall, grey-haired and looked quite tired. His tie was pretty much undone and his white shirt had a few coffee-stains.
He pulled out his psychic paper once more.
"Dr. Smith from the National Energy Department? What the hell?" He eyed the paper closer. "Well, seems real enough to me."
"Yeah, Dr. Smith, that's me. And these two are my lovely secretaries, Ms Tyler and Ms Rhodan. And it seems you've gotten yourself a bit of a problem, haven't you?"
Just right now all the terminals went dark, as did the lights. Fortunately, it wasn't even noon so it was still bright enough in the room. The man just rubbed his forehead and sighed in frustration.
"You can say so. I'm Henderson, Launch Director. Although I'm afraid there won't be a launch if it continues like that."
"Blackouts?"
"Yeah, the whole building. But just this building. We're searching for short circuits, and it's definitely not a fuse." The lights flickered, went dark once more, before power was restored. "See? We can't have that during launch. Maddy, sweetheart," he said to a woman in a pink skirt suit that was just walking by, "Is there any more coffee?"
"Yes, sure," she said and went off. She was about as old as Rose was, the Doctor noticed.
"Well, I guess I'll have a look around then," the Doctor said and eyed the man. He was really overtired and stressed.
"Fine. JONES!", he suddenly yelled through the whole room, making everyone close to him jump, "COME HERE!" and more quiet, to the Doctor, "He'll help you."
"Nah, no need for that. I better work alone with my assistants."
"Assistants? Thought they're your secretaries?"
"Yeah, bit of both," he said, put one arm around Rose's and the other around Mira's shoulders, turned around with them and headed for the lift once more.
So, this is going to be an original adventure. Hope you like it. :-) I won´t do Idiot´s Lantern. The episode wasn't that bad, but I really don´t feel like writing it. After this one I will continue with Impossible Planet/Satan´s Pit.
Thanks at Lucifae, bored411, 10th Squad 3rd Seat and heroherondaletotheresuce for reviewing, and everyone else for reading, liking and following my story :-)
