I've been thinking that maybe these need titles but I never get so far as titling my chapters. Maybe one day I will. I've decided to switch to posting every two weeks since my classes turned out to be a little more intense than I thought they would be. BUT that's what you get for switching between a million science majors and suddenly math and science classes are all you have left to take. Yikes. Don't do it kids.
Anyway, thanks again to my betas, Ghost, Kane, Yen, Nico and Yel. Comments, questions, suggestions, reviews are all super welcomed. Thanks for sticking around everyone!
Major disclaimer on Doctor Who now Allons-y!
Scotland seemed to be a particularly grassy-hilled area. That's why Caligo was beyond confused when the Doctor had parked the Tardis on top of one of these massive hills that was probably the middle of nowhere.
"Doctor, I thought we were gathering parts to finish repairing the shield system..."
"I did promise you a nice, relaxing day somewhere though."
"After we finished our work."
"Just means you can practice taking a break~"
The Doctor barely missed the grimace on the lieutenant's face as he took the moment to stretch and inhale some fresh Scotland air. It felt like it had been a while since he came around and figured it was high time for a visit. His companion however, didn't really seem too enthused about the idea.
"I thought we'd established that this isn't exactly my preferred use of time?"
"Lieutenant, you have all the time in the world right now and space to boot. You're living in a time machine and the first thing on your mind is using your time efficiently?"
"I'm not living there," she nearly sighed. Caligo surveyed the grassy hillside. The sun looked as if it was just beginning to set, casting long shadows about the ground and tinting the sky a hazy orange.
The Doctor rolled his eyes at her and waved her off. "Fine, lodging, if you're going to nitpick at the small details." It was probably good that they didn't have this conversation inside the Tardis where she could hear or else she might've been a little offended. The Old Girl had been very accommodating after all. "The point is that you have the time to make up for seven years as the elusive Abominable Snowman. No, wait. Snowwoman, sorry."
His companion grimaced almost immediately. Indeed, ever since this whole fiasco had begun, the idea that she'd spent such a long period of time in virtual isolation seemed to bother him immensely. Not her, no. Only the Doctor, and Caligo found it hard to understand why it sounded like such a travesty to him. "I don't believe that there's anything I need to make up for. I accomplished a lot of things in that time, none of which I regret."
"I know you said you don't care for people but I don't know how you manage to go so long without having someone to talk to. That drives people mad, you know! Are you mad? You'd tell me if you were, wouldn't you?" He swore he saw the corners of her mouth quirk up just the slightest bit, like she was trying desperately not to smile.
"I have Wilhelm and Yuki and my-"
"Robots that you built don't count. Actually robots don't count at all with you!"
"And why is that?"
"Because they're not people," he half snapped, prodding her shoulder lightly with his pinky. "It's not the same."
Caligo suddenly became very quiet and unusually still even for her.
He waited and waited but it was as if she'd suddenly been caught up in her thoughts; much like himself when he was alone. Humans would say that their thoughts were going a million miles a minute but he knew better. They couldn't think that fast – although there were those that tended to surprise him, bless – and he could easily go through a list of thoughts every human went through in their entire life, at least once, perhaps in a day. But there was something about this one that made him doubt that now...
A whisper of 'why can't it be'.
...and he didn't like the feeling. Not one bit.
"I know my machines can't replace people. I'm not," her dismissive tone waivered a little, as if not knowing the right words to explain herself, "Intentionally trying to do such a thing."
"What are you trying to do then?"
There was something heavy in the lieutenant's gaze that only grows in weight as a wave of silence falls over them, nothing but the sound of a soft breeze rustling the tall grass. Her eyes closed as if in some form of acceptance. "I want to create an environment that I can properly interface with."
The awkward answer prompted what was probably his trademark cheeky smile and the Doctor gestured to the open field. "This'll be an easy place to start, right? Touch the grass! Breathe the air. Be in an open space." He threw his arms up, gesturing to everything around them and smiled. "I know what'll get you into the spirit. Come on!"
Caligo gave him what could only be described as a look and briefly debated whether or not she would make another futile attempt to convince him to take her to a city instead. "It makes more sense just to follow him," she mumbled to no one in particular and followed him back into the Tardis. "What exactly did you have in mind?" There was no denying that even whilst taking the position of a background piece to this madman's dance, she as an engineer and a woman of science found his mastery of the Tardis' plethora of controls absolutely enthralling. He moves like lightning. So light on his feet as if he's little more than the wind she thought to herself, watching him flip switches and twist knobs furiously. She definitely didn't pay any mind to where such a thought had come from, however. Thoughts like that are lost as quickly as they come especially when faced with the task of keeping up with a ship that seems to intentionally challenge her comprehension.
The Tardis groaned as it once again came to a grinding halt, just a little less smooth than their previous arrival, but not everything can be perfect. The fact that he had yet to answer her question still hung in her mind, but then he seemed to be very fond of surprises. Showing was more enjoyable than telling and if she was ever going to understand anything about this man, she ought to learn to go with the flow as she might've once heard someone say.
The Doctor was waiting by the door by the time Caligo's mind fully caught up with her body and she had followed him without realizing. She also hadn't picked up on that sly smirk of his.
"If you can tell me you're not amazed by this," he announced just before pushing the doors open for her, "then we can go back to a city."
The landscape was gorgeous to say the least and who could dare to say less than that? The Tardis was perched atop a mountain covered not by snow, but the clouds that it pierced high in the sky above the ground. Birds the color of a rainbow soared through the air as if into the distant sun that seemed to be merely sitting on the horizon of an indigo sky to their right, singing softly to one another. The chilled air bit back at their skin as they left the safety of the Tardis to see more of what could only have been an alien planet.
The Doctor's smirk slowly morphed into a thoughtful smile when he saw his companion's eyes widen just the slightest fraction more at the sight. He knew this couldn't disappoint, even if the lieutenant had that compassionless air about her.
"This isn't Earth, is it," she asked with a tone that almost resembled hesitance.
He shrugged a little and suddenly found something on the top of the doorframe awfully interesting. "Well it would've been maybe a few billion years ago… The gravity of surrounding planets pulled this one apart like playdough. Bits and pieces of floating land in the sky like this one, waterfalls running endlessly in any direction…"
Here, the Doctor was no liar. Across from them some miles away was a floating pond filled by a drifting waterfall and spilling off into various rivers the rogue gravity defined. Only a fraction of the planet may have remained, but what still survived overshadowed the beauty of its past self immensely.
Caligo felt her posture slack just a little in a measure of defeat. The sight was in fact amazing. She couldn't deny it. Something began to stir in her chest. Something that threatened her very self if she so much as thought to attempt to conceal it. "I suppose I could work with this," she murmured. From a holster strapped to her left thigh, she produced a thick metal rod about a foot in length and began to twist it in her hands.
"Work?" The Doctor frowned. "That's really all that's on your mind ain't it? You're on holiday. You're not supposed to-"
All thoughts and speeches were cut short with a leather aviator jacket to the face. No sooner had he dislodged the offending article of clothing did she don her goggles and pulled the metal pole apart across her chest.
Lengths of fibrous looking filaments rolled out from a spool inside it and traced the length and width of her body, dangling from her arms until a sort of web like structure had faintly covered her back.
"Hang on. What're you-" He worried that he might need to get used to leaving sentences unfinished if he kept her around until Caligo taking a running start toward the edge of the peak.
And jumped.
"Caligo!"
Her body dropped like a rock, straight through the sea of clouds surrounding their little mountain without leaving a trace. The Doctor made a mad dash for the Tardis but only made it as far as the doors themselves when something shot past him overhead, bringing with it a powerful draft. His hearts were still beating a hole in his ribcage when he looked up to see a form soaring through the sky, bright orange sheets bridging the gaps between what looked to be limbs and he gawked shamelessly. "That's new. That's definitely new," half yelling, half laughing. He dodged yet another fly by and grinned. "That's absolutely brilliant!"
"Meet me on the far side Doctor," she shouted, gesturing briefly to a floating ring of grassy islands surrounded by a wide stream in the distance. A few powerful strokes of her arms lifted her high into the air again and off into the distance with the birds who had joined her.
The sight was undeniably marvelous but he wasn't quite sure if he should feel a little more hurt than he did the moment she'd jumped off that rocky precipice. Blimey I'm going to have to think very carefully about just what exactly I'm going to say to her when I catch up he thought, entering the Tardis to find their meeting point. The Doctor paused a moment and grinned as he rethought his words. "Me needing to catch up with my companion. Now there's a novel spin on an old idea."
Most of the little islands in the ring were full of small animals, soft green grass and lively with the songs of alien birds. On the fifth island to the right was where the lieutenant had landed and once he had, he noticed how her two assistant drones suddenly powered up and followed him out the door. Her equipment was lying in the grass alongside her goggles and tool belt, that's all he noticed until he saw the blue drone hover so close to her face the draft from its thrusters ruffled her hair a little. "Is everything alright?"
"Perfectly fine," she answered without so much as a glance in his general direction.
The red drone was doing something to the glider's left wing and upon closer inspection the Doctor could see little wisps of steam wafting from the ridges of her left elbow, the joint spaced out a little more from the rest of her arm than it should have been.
Caligo looked up as he came closer and waved the blue drone off behind her to give them some space. "How is that for my having fun Doctor?"
He honestly wondered if he should feel taken aback by her question, though it lacked a condescending tone. What had tipped him off to her attitude was the way the corners of her lips quirked up just the slightest bit and the faintest glimmer of roguish mischief in her dark eyes. Was that what deviousness looked like on her? The grin was contagious and he found himself slowly returning one, although hers was quite short lived. "Yeah, well, next time you feel like having a bit of "fun" give me some warning?"
"Fair enough. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to test this glider though. The thermals are excellent here and the gravitational pull of various islands made for a challenging run." Caligo removed a PDA sized device from her tool belt and began typing something on it, though the blue drone she dismissed earlier was back again with a vengeance. The machine seemed hell bent on getting to her prosthetic arm, more specifically to the misplaced looking joint.
"You better let me do the driving from now on, yeah," he asked, also risking a peek at whatever she was typing. Data from her flight, of course. She might've been having fun but this woman was beyond being a workaholic, no doubt. "Is this work or a pet project of yours?"
"Personal project, much like most of the things you do really." Caligo shoved the device back into her pocket and looked up at him. "Suffice to say my hobbies and assignments happen to overlap." The red drone returned the once again pole like device to her holster and the flight was now little more than a memory to her. "This will be the extent that my work goes I assure you."
He couldn't help feeling a little pleased at this even if he was a little skeptical as to whether or not she really meant that. "Holding you to your word Ms. Lieutenant." He pinned her with a scolding stare but they both know it isn't as stern as he'd like it to be. "Well, suffice to say that now I want to take my time since you've picked such a lovely spot. Could even stay the night here. How do you fancy that, camping and the like? Not a bad way to utilize a view like this right?"
If she realized that he was poking fun at her again, she didn't say anything about it and tried to do exactly what she thought she should do: go along with it. "I've no objections to that. It's rare for me to have done so in the past but some of my assignments have required me to make do of what accommodations were at hand… I couldn't deny myself the opportunity of experiencing a possible future of Earth. There is nothing hostile about this environment that I can detect." She glanced down as a furry little creature dared to sniff her boot and eventually nestled up against it as though it were something comfortable.
"Aw, see that? Making friends already~"
"It's as if I'm being followed around by a narrator."
"Six hours for night to fall."
"Why? Tired?"
"No, I'm simply making an observation."
"I can see that. I mean you saw it too."
"Yes. Well…."
The ring of floating islands looked drastically different, shrouded in the darkness of the night and dimly illuminated by their modest campfire. A kettle of boiling water sat on a wire rack propped up a few inches above the flames as the Doctor and lieutenant waited for the tea to brew. The young woman looked up from her spot in the soft grass to the stars overhead.
"This is quite a different view from Earth. Things appear much clearer out here and without need of a telescope."
The Time Lord copied her pose and examined the sky above them. "One of the things about this place is if you had one – at least a decent one – you could probably see someone in their home as far away as say that star there…"
"Could you be more specific?"
"About an inch and a half to your left… You could probably see them lounging about in their home watching I Love Lucy on the teli."
Caligo's gaze tilted toward him a tad, one brow quirked just the slightest bit. "Is that an exaggeration?"
"Just a little. You'd need a telescope almost as powerful as the Hubble to see what's actually on TV."
"Really though. An ancient human sitcom from the 1950s. Aliens watching TV…"
"Not all aliens are little green men from Mars you know. Some of us watch Television too and they really knew how to write shows back then. Don't be so quick to write off your ancestors." The Doctor spared her a glance as he returned his attention to the kettle and poured each of them a cup. Caligo was still staring up at the sky just as a shooting star passed by above them. She hadn't moved and had probably chosen not to acknowledge his previous remark. He briefly caught her attention long enough to hand her the mug. "Do you like looking at the stars," he asked.
"I've been to many different ones in previous years and have a functioning telescope in Blackridge. Stargazing isn't considered a luxury if that's what you are asking."
"Just thought that maybe since you lived up in an observatory you liked to look. Relive some of your fond memories. Bet Blackridge must have a great view when the snow lets up, eh?"
The lieutenant took a large gulp of the steaming hot tea without hesitation and with virtually no reaction to what would've been even a little painful for him. The Doctor winced for her. It was still hard as ever to read the look on her face since there wasn't really much of the latter.
"I was advised to keep myself busy rather than indulging in civilian pleasures. The farther my mind is from such things, the better."
"Well you're on holiday for the moment so you can indulge in them as much as you like," he grumbled, half to her and half for her. He took a minute to retrieve a bag of marshmallows, a box of chocolate squares, a package of graham crackers and a couple of skewers from the Tardis kitchen for them and plopped them down on their sparingly used picnic blanket.
Caligo stared at the items, a slight crease in her brow forming. "Is this dinner?"
"No. Just a snack. They still make s'mores in your era?"
"Make what?"
"S'mores," he repeated. His companion's blank stare spoke volumes and he recoiled a little as if the notion that she had no idea what s'mores were was absolutely abhorrent. The Doctor speared a marshmallow with a skewer and held it over the fire. "Delicious, gooey, sugary treats of pure awesome and probably one of the greatest camping food inventions in human history." As soon as the marshmallow was fairly well toasted, he squished it between two crackers and a square of chocolate before offering it up to the sweet deprived lieutenant. "All that's good and lovely about food in one little morsel. Try it. Go on~ A bit hot and full of sugar but I bet you'll like it. Just don't forget to brush after."
Caligo's stare remained wholly unimpressed and disinterested but nevertheless, she took the offered treat and held it gently with her prosthetic hand. The heat wouldn't have bothered her in the least either way, but she had been holding herself up with her other hand in the grass and dirt for some time now. She may have been used to less civilized conditions but that didn't mean she wouldn't avoid dirt in her food when she could. She caught him taking a bite of one he'd made for himself in the time she had spent staring the food item down and he smiled at her encouragingly. He's just trying to be nice… Just try it. It couldn't hurt. If I disagree he'll be unhappy, she thought as if she really needed the pep talk. The Doctor had been right. It was chewy, it was gooey and it was certainly something that shouldn't be eaten in excess. "I can see why it's a treat for special occasions."
"I know. At the rate I'm going I won't be keeping these teeth for long," he grumbled, licking his lips a little. The Doctor couldn't help chuckling when he saw her dipping her hand into the drifting waters to clean them up. He'd been curious since they narrowly avoided being blown to bits on their last adventure and he knows he's a bit rude, but the man liked to push his luck sometimes. "How'd that happen? Your arm I mean," he asked as gently as he could, wiggling his left hand at her to indicate which side he's talking about.
Her expression didn't change and she even glanced down at the metallic appendage herself. It was the first time anyone had asked and her inventions intrigued him. At the very least, considering that he was most likely expecting an answer, she could afford to tell him something. But how much should she say? It was rather common for things people didn't like to hear to come out of her mouth… But this is the Doctor and surely in nine hundred years he's heard and seen stranger things than this, she thought.
It was impossible to miss the hesitation before Caligo answered but it could definitely wait until she was done talking to be addressed. After all, he didn't want to miss the story.
"I made the replacement myself," she began, carefully but in her usual monotone. "It was on my last mission that my arm was exposed to Coorthinian parasitic worms that ate away at everything and my partner was forced to amputate the dying limb to save my life. Back on Earth I began working on the model you see here to replace the poorly constructed one I was initially given."
"Well now you've got to give them some credit for trying," he attempted to say through a mouthful of s'more.
Caligo raised her hand, the fire casting a bright orange glow as he watched the expertly crafted digits twist and bend smoothly as if it were living flesh. "I thought that by now you would understand the issue I have with poor craftsmanship." She reached into the pile of burning wood and plucked a piece from the ash. The metal of her hand didn't once warp or melt, but held well against the all-consuming element. "I've calibrated it to allow myself to still be able to process sensory information such as pressure and temperature without triggering pain signals."
"And that brilliant shield of yours." The Doctor watched with fascination as she flicked the dying ember back into the fire. There was true admiration for her work, what she had been able to accomplish after such a crippling injury. "Bet your partner loved having you around on missions and the like."
"He never had a chance to see it. He died in transit back to Earth and I was decommissioned shortly after my release from the hospital."
The event was stated without compassion, as it was little more than a fact to the lieutenant. In reality, it was. The young woman had a near inhuman lack of emotional response to practically anything. Grief was all she knew and yet knew nothing about it at the same time.
The Doctor eyed her above the flames. He wasn't so thick that he couldn't tell she had chosen her words with care when telling him the story and there was always reason for such things.
"I would have liked for him to see my progress, however…"
"I'm sure he'd be proud." He grabbed his mug and raised it a little. "To your partner. Bless his soul."
The lieutenant quickly picked up on the sentiment and copied him, taking a small sip from her mug. "Thank you Doctor."
He nodded a little and took a sip of his tea, thankful that it had enough time to cool off a little. "What was his name?"
"Wilhelm Einscoff."
He perked up a little at the name. "Like your little drone?"
"Exactly."
"Well now I can see why you're so attached," he chuckled. The Doctor truly wished at that moment the fire was a little brighter so he could definitively say that he'd witnessed one of her alleged little smiles. There was a brief concern that perhaps he was being a tad creepy, because he certainly had to watch her very closely if he wanted to catch a glimpse of those faint signs of happiness. Humans were more often than not so expressive that the mood was contagious. "Is everyone like that on Earth now? So private and reclusive that they each have their own little observatory on every mountaintop on the planet~?"
Caligo felt her eye twitch slightly, catching his jab at her. "I hope you understand that my circumstances make me an extremely insignificant fraction of the population."
"Oh come now. The devil's in the details they say."
"Isn't that quite the truth? When did people say things like that?"
"Way back in the day for you. In fact, long before the time of your ancestors I bet. Can't even begin to imagine where that came from but I feel like it came from an elderly man once…"
"Before you begin reminiscing on your adventures that would surely take all of the time and space you've been traveling to regale, Earth is…quite different from a few hundred years ago."
She certainly knew how to make a man feel old… The Doctor shrugged and cast his gaze toward her. "Well you did want to go back to a city. How's about a look around Pillar?" He grinned a little and Caligo lost all hope of the idea that she might be able to convince him to take them to another human colony far away from Earth.
It wasn't that it was such an unpleasant place, but it definitely wasn't one she found herself in by choice. He obviously would've made fun of the lengths she went to just to avoid trips into civilian territory but her own irrational discomfort aside, what harm could it do? Trouble might seem to be following them but they also always found a way out of it.
"I suppose I could do with a trip back to my lab. The state of things has been on my mind quite a bit recently."
"Poster child for Workaholics Anonymous you are."