The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday – Chapter 10
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, if I did, there'd be just a few things I changed to the storyline. Who knows, I might do it here.
A/N: Anyways, here's the next chapter of The Sontaran Stratagem and I hope you all like it! And I know it is much shorter than you're used to, I am really sorry.
Notes on Reviews:
Tooclosefortety: I am going to make a Time Lady OC, I just wanted to get quite a few chapters ahead into this story first and then I'll get started on it. I might put a preview up in couple of chapters. I'm glad you liked the chapter, by the way, and yes, I will be talking about Rhea's past, but in a couple more chapters (like 4).
Queenylime2: You know, I can't really say much about your 'married' comment without letting out too much of the details. All I can say is that he won't be making an actual appearance except in a flashback. I feel the exact same way about the companions. I think out of all of the companions, who fell for the Doctor, I liked Martha the best, because she saw a bad situation and had to get out.
IKhandoZatman: I might be doing Classic Who later on, once I have watched it, but I'd want to do every episode of the News Series first and that will take a while. I'm honestly looking at around 200 chapters for all of the seven seasons, not to mention when season 8 comes out. I might be taking a hiatus after I finish the seven seasons to do my Time Lady OC one as well. Depends on how it goes…
Blostma: Yeah, I know how you feel. It's annoying when you come to the end of the story and are just waiting for it to be updated. I try and update this story every alternate day (unless dire circumstances). I've got about five chapters ahead already written. I'm glad you like Rhea and the whole plot, and the 9th Doctor will be coming very soon.
Italics – Rhea's thoughts
Warnings: Swearing, sexual innuendos.
The Sontaran Stratagem: Biological Warfare
"What's more you can give me a lift. Come on!" Donna said, rushing over to the Jeep and they all climbed in.
"Broken moon of what?" Rhea asked, looking back at the Doctor as she climbed in.
"I know, I know." He grumbled as they drove away.
The UNIT jeep pulled into a quiet, suburban road and Donna clambered across Rhea and the Doctor out of the vehicle, ignoring their winces and grumbles.
"I'll walk the rest of the way. I'll see you back at the factory, yeah?" Donna told the two of them. Both the Doctor and Rhea nodded and shut the door of the jeep.
"Bye!" The Doctor said and both of them waved.
"And you be careful!" Donna warned them, wagging her finger.
The Doctor, Rhea and Jenkins were driving on a small road, leading up to Rattigan Academy, while the soldier explained a few things about ATMOS to them.
"UNIT's been watching Rattigan Academy for ages. It's all a bit Hitler Youth, exercise at dawn and classes and special diets." Jenkins told them.
"Turn left." The navigator on the ATMOS said.
"Ross, a question. If UNIT thinks that ATMOS is shady…" Rhea started.
"How come we've got it in the jeeps?" Ross finished, looking at her out of the corner of his eye and scoffed lightly, as if agreeing with her. "Yeah, tell me about it. They're fitted as standard on all government vehicles. We can't get rid of them until we prove something's wrong."
"Turn right." The navigator intoned.
"Drives me around the bend." Ross said, turning into the school drive.
The Doctor and Rhea laughed, noticing that they were, in fact, driving around a bend. "Oh, nice one!" The Doctor said, grinning.
"Timed that perfectly." Ross said, smiling.
"Yeah! Yeah, you did!"
"This is your final destination." The ATMOS said, before shutting off.
They arrived at Rattigan Academy, which looked like an enormous manor house which had been turned into a school. A young man, probably eighteen, stood by himself, in the middle of the grounds, looking out, while students in red sweatsuits jogged past in a uniform line. The Doctor, Rhea and Ross walked up the pavement and came up to him and he turned.
"I wouldn't mind going to school here." Rhea muttered, eyeing the massive manor house.
The Doctor snorted. "You went to Stanford. You can hardly complain." He whispered back to her.
"Is it PE? I wouldn't mind a kick around, I've got my daps on." The Doctor said, his hands firmly shoved in his pockets and his trench coat billowing behind him, and rocked on his feet.
"I suppose you're the Doctor?" Then, he eyed Rhea and walked up to them. "And Dr. Adwani?"
"Hello." The Doctor said.
Rhea smiled. "An American…finally." She crowed.
"Your commanding officer phoned ahead." Luke informed them.
Rhea snorted. "We haven't got a commanding officer." She said, gesturing to the Doctor and herself.
"Have you?" The Doctor asked, the double entendre obvious in his words, at least to Rhea. Luke just stared darkly at him. "Oh, this is Ross." The Doctor turned to Ross. "Say hello, Ross."
"Afternoon, sir." Ross murmured, nodding at the young man.
The Doctor rushed off towards the main doors, pulling Rhea along with him, making her shriek in shock as he almost pulled her arm out of its socket.
"Let's have a look then, I can smell genius... in a good way." Rhea saw Luke roll his eyes behind the Doctor's back and he dragged her into a room full of students performing experiments.
"Oh, now! That's clever, look!" The Doctor told Rhea, putting on his glasses and peering at a device. "Single molecule fabric, how thin is that?! You could pack a tent in a thimble. Oh! Gravity simulators!" He began rushing around the room in excitement. It was like looking at four-year-old in a toy store for the first time. "Terraforming, biospheres, nano-tech steel constructs! Haha! This is brilliant!" He spun on his feet so that he could look Luke in the eye. "Do you know, with equipment like this you could... oh, I don't know, move to another planet or something?"
"Oh my god, you're a science fanboy, aren't you?" Rhea laughed at the Doctor.
Luke looked as if he wanted to say something but held himself back. "If only that was possible."
"If only that were possible." He took off his glasses as Luke glared at him. "Conditional clause." He said, innocently.
Luke looked as though he was about to punch the Doctor in the face but he restrained himself.
"I think you better come with me." Luke said, shortly, and walked off.
Rhea stood on her toes so that she was level with the Doctor's ear, leaning into his body. "Did you see that? He looked like he was going to sucker punch you." She whispered, grinning.
The Doctor looked down at her, realising the closeness of their bodies, and grinned, showing the ruse behind his little linguistic lesson for Luke. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her along to where Luke had rushed off to. They arrived in a large room with a strange large cubic device in the corner.
"You're smarter than the usual UNIT grunts, I'll give you that." Luke said, looking at the Doctor.
"He called you a grunt!" The Doctor told Ross.
"Don't call Ross a grunt, he's nice." Rhea said, glaring at Luke.
"We like Ross! Look at this place..." The Doctor said, looking around the room and wandering off.
"What exactly do you want?" Luke asked, annoyed and exasperated.
"I was just thinking, what a responsible eighteen year old. Inventing zero carbon cars? Saving the world..." The Doctor trailed off.
"Takes a man with vision."
"Mmm, blinking vision." The Doctor commented. "Cause ATMOS means more people driving, more cars, more petrol, end result: the oil's gonna run out faster than ever. The ATMOS system could make things worse."
Luke rushed over to them. "Yeah, see, that's a tautology. You can't say 'ATMOS system' since it stands for 'atmospheric emissions system'. So you're just saying 'atmospheric emissions system system' d'you see, Mr Conditional Clause?" He said, quickly.
Rhea blinked. "Oh, sweetie, the buses don't go where you live, do they?" Rhea asked, mock sympathetically. "You completely ignored everything the Doctor just said and focused on an extremely minute detail, might I add…it's been a very long time since someone's said 'no' to you, hasn't it?"
Luke smirked at her. "I'm still right though."
"Rhea, don't be mean." The Doctor said, lowly and not really meaning it, he loved watching Rhea getting under someone's skin, she was so very good at it, and turned back to Luke. "Not easy, is it? Being clever. You look at the world and you connect things. Random things. And think, 'why can't anyone else see it?' The rest of the world is so slow." The Doctor murmured.
"Yeah." Luke agreed, shuffling his feet.
"And you're all on your own." Rhea said, looking at him.
"I know."
"But not with this!" The Doctor exclaimed suddenly, reaching into his trench coat pocket and pulling the ATMOS device out. "Cause here's no way you invented this thing single handed. I mean, it might be Earth technology, but that's like finding a mobile phone in the Middle Ages." He chucked the device at Ross, who barely managed to catch it in time.
"No, no, I'll tell you what it's like! It's like finding this in the middle of someone's front room." He pointed behind him at the cubic device. "Albeit, it's a very big front room."
"What is it?" Rhea asked, walking up to the Doctor and looking up at him.
"Yeah, just looks like a thing, doesn't it?" The Doctor said, looking down at Rhea. "People don't question things, they just say 'oh, it's a thing'."
"Leave it alone!" Luke warned, taking a few steps forward.
The Doctor walked into the device and Rhea followed him. "Me, I make these connections. And this, to me, looks like," He pressed a button on the interior. "A teleport pod."
The Doctor and Rhea disappeared from Rattigan Academy and reappeared in a large futuristic spaceship. They saw small creatures in blue armour that covered their entire bodies, including their face.
"Oh…" The Doctor said, slowly, looking at the creatures with shock.
"What are they?" Rhea hissed, nudging them.
The creatures all turned to notice their presence and one of them raised their black staff.
"We have an intruder!" It shouted.
"How did he get in? In-tru-da window?" The Doctor joked but flinched when Rhea whacked him on the chest.
"Don't pun now!" She hissed.
The creatures began to charge towards the Doctor and Rhea.
"Bye bye!" The Doctor waved and pressed the control pad again, and they started to run just as they were teleported away. They appeared back at Rattigan Academy, still running.
"Ross, get out! Luke, you've got to come with me!" The Doctor shouted, running out of the teleport pod, pulling Rhea back with him, and towards the desk on the other side of the room.
He spun around, just as the creature with the black staff appeared in the pod. Grabbing his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor used it to short out the circuits of the teleport pod, making sure that no more would be able to follow. He didn't want nor need anymore Sontarans in the room, especially with Rhea there as well.
"Sontaran!" The Doctor shouted, pulling Rhea behind his back, and the creature raised its staff. "That's your name, isn't it? You're a Sontaran. How did I know that, aye?" He asked putting his sonic screwdriver away. "Fascinating, isn't it? Isn't that worth keeping us alive?" The Doctor tried.
Ross took aim at the Sontaran with his gun. "I order you to surrender in the name of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce."
"Well that's not going to work." He said to Ross and then turned to the Sontaran. "Cordolaine signal, am I right? Copper excitation stopping the bullets."
"Will mine work?" Rhea whispered to the Doctor, her hand reaching inside of her blazer and grasping the gun.
"No, don't use it." The Doctor whispered, harshly, not wanting to draw the Sontaran's attention towards Rhea. She ignored his hostile tone and instead took it to be a 'yes', but decided to let go of the gun nonetheless.
"How do you know so much?" The Sontaran asked the Doctor.
"Well…" The Doctor drawled.
"Who is he?" The Sontaran asked, turning to Luke.
Luke shook his head. "He didn't give his name."
"But this isn't typical Sontaran behaviour, is it? Hiding! Using teenagers, stopping bullets? A Sontaran should face bullets with dignity! Shame on you!" He said, mockingly, leaning on the desk behind him.
"You dishonour me, sir!"
"Yeah, then show yourself." The Doctor said, smirking.
"I will look into my enemy's eyes!" He removed his blue helmet to reveal crinkly brown skin and deep set features on a dome-shaped neck with no visible neck.
Rhea's eyes widened and Ross recoiled. "Oh, my god…" He gasped.
"And your name?" The Doctor asked.
"General Staal, of the Tenth Sontaran Fleet. Staal the Undefeated!"
"Well, that's not a very good nickname. What if you do get defeated? Staal the Not-Quite-So-Undefeated-Anymore-But-Never-Mind?" The Doctor scoffed.
Rhea snorted in amusement and Ross chuckled in dismay. "He's like a potato - a baked potato - a talking baked potato." Ross murmured. Rhea felt as though he had hit the nail right on the head with that one.
"Now, Ross, don't be rude, you look like a pink weasel to him." The Doctor said to Ross.
Rhea gave him a look, hands on her hips. "You saying I look like a weasel?" Rhea asked, raising an eyebrow.
The Doctor grinned at her. "A very beautiful weasel." He winked at her and she tried her hardest not to blush and turned her face so that he wouldn't see her smile.
"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" Rhea asked, incredulously.
The Doctor ignored her. He went over to the side and picked up a racket and started to bounce a small tennis ball upon it. "The Sontarans are the finest soldiers in the galaxy, dedicated to a life of warfare." He leaned his elbow on Ross' shoulder and twirled the racket in his hand. "A clone race, grown in batches of millions with only one weakness..."
"Sontarans have no weaknesses!" General Staal denied.
"No, it's a good weakness!" The Doctor said, looking straight at Staal.
"I thought you were meant to be clever?" Luke said, incredulously, looking back at the Doctor. "Only an idiot would provoke him."
"No, but the Sontarans are fed by a probic vent in the back of their neck," He tapped the back of his neck with the racket. "That's their weak spot. Which means, they always have to face their enemies in battle... isn't that brilliant?" The Doctor said, grinning wide. "They can never turn their backs!"
"We stare into the face of death!" General Staal said, firmly.
"Yeah? Well, stare at this." The Doctor threw the ball in the air and hit it with the racket, a perfect serve. The ball flew past General Staal and the hit the back of the teleport pod. It bounced back and smacked into the probic vent at the back of General Staal. The Doctor, Rhea and Ross ran for their lives when General Staal staggered and collapsed onto the floor and Luke rushed over to him.
"Oh my god, you're freakin' Batman!" Rhea crowed to the Doctor, who grinned at her, hand in hand, as the three of them ran down the Academy steps and jumped into the jeep, speeding away as fast as they could.
The UNIT jeep sped along the road.
"Greyhound 40 to Trap 1, repeat, can you hear me? Over." The Doctor shouted into Ross' radio and then gave up, putting it away.
"Why's it not working?" Ross asked as they drove back the same way they had come.
"Must be the Sontarans. If they can trace that, then they can isolate the ATMOS."
"Turn left." The navigation said.
The Doctor's eyes narrowed at the ATMOS device. "Try going right."
"It said 'go left'." Ross said, stubbornly.
"Yeah, we know! Go right!" Rhea shouted.
The jeep swerved when Ross let go of the wheel.
"I've got no control, it's driving itself! It won't stop!"
The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and tried to use it on the navigation system, but it didn't work.
Ross fiddled with the handles to the door. "The doors are locked!"
"Ah, it's deadlocked, I can't stop it!" The Doctor growled, frustrated.
"Turn left."
The jeep jolted and swerved left.
"The sat-nav's just a box, wired through the whole car!" The Doctor shouted.
Suddenly, the tires screeched as the jeep veered off the road and started on a path across grass.
"We're heading for the river!" Rhea shouted, looking outside at the water that came closer and closer to them and gripping the seat tight.
"ATMOS, you're programmed to contradict my orders?" The Doctor asked the box.
"Confirmed."
"Anything I say, you'd ignore it?"
"Confirmed."
"Then drive into the river!" Ross and Rhea just stared at him. "I order you to drive into the river! Do it! Drive into the river!"
"Oh, I hope you know what you're doing." Rhea moaned as the car increased in speed.
"I never do, but let's give it a try."
The jeep sped towards the water, but suddenly skidded to a halt, brakes squealing, a few inches from the edge of the bank. The Doctor, Rhea and Ross leapt out of the car and ran for their lives.
"Turn right... left... right... left..."
"Get down!" The Doctor shouted as the three of them threw themselves to the floor, with the Doctor making sure that his body was covering Rhea's, and waited for the fiery explosion.
"Left, right, left, right, left, left, right, left, right-"
The navigation system emitted a small bang that let out a shower of sparks that didn't even reach the frame of the jeep. The Doctor looked up from his sprawled out position on the floor Rhea sticking her head out over his shoulder.
"Oh, was that it?" The Doctor said, looking slightly disappointed.
"Well, that was kind of pathetic. I was expecting an explosion. You know, like in the movies." Rhea said, lying back down and pouting. She noticed the position that she and the Doctor were in, with him hovering above her, his face extremely close to hers. "Doctor, not that I really mind, but if you want to get a leg over me, we should really find a better place." Rhea whispered into his ear. He blushed, realising the fact that his body was on top of Rhea's, and pulled himself back, allowing Rhea to sit up and wipe the bits of grass out of her hair
The Doctor rang the front doorbell of Donna's house, a nice little home in Chiswick. They could see her red hair approaching the door and she answered it.
"You would not believe the day we're having." Rhea said to Donna, pulling her out of the doorway.
The Doctor walked around the Nobles' car, bending down at one of the tyres to check the ATMOS attached underneath. Ross, Rhea and Donna stood nearby, with Donna frantically trying to ring Martha. The Doctor tapped the device underneath and decided to open the hood.
"I'll requisition us a vehicle." Ross said.
"Anything without ATMOS. Don't point your gun at people!" The Doctor warned Ross before he ran off, just as an old man appeared from the house.
"Is it them? Is it them? Is it the Doctor and Rhea?" The old man shouted, running around the car and catching sight of the two he was just shouting about.
"Ah! It's you!" He crowed.
"Who?" The Doctor asked and looked up to see an old man pointing at him.
"Oh! It's you!" The Doctor said, eyes widening. Rhea also looked surprised as she recognised the man from the last time she had been with this Doctor.
"What, have you met before?" Donna asked, looking between the three of them.
"Yeah, Christmas Eve. He and his lady friend disappeared right in front of me!"
"And you never said?!" Donna shouted, fixing her grandfather with a glare.
"Well you never said!" He turned to the Doctor and Rhea. "Wilf, sir, ma'am. Wilfred Mott. You must be one of them aliens?!" He said, shaking the Doctor's hand, then Rhea's.
"Well…yeah, but don't shout it out." The Doctor said, grinning. "Nice to meet you properly, Wilf."
"Oh, an alien hand…"
Rhea just smiled wide when she shook Wilf's hand. "It's good to see you again, Wilf. And great to meet you properly this time."
"Donna, anything?" The Doctor asked, referring to whether she had managed to get Martha on the phone or not.
"She's not answering. What is it, "Sontiruns"?" Donna said, placing the emphasis on the first 'o'.
"Sontarans. But there's got to be more to it, they can't be just remote controlling cars. That's not enough. Is anyone answering?"
"Hold on." Donna said, holding a hand up to stop him from continuing.
"Don't tell me…Donna Noble." Rhea could hear Martha's voice on the phone.
"Martha! Hold on, he's here." Donna said, tossing the phone to the Doctor.
"Martha, tell Colonel Mace it's the Sontarans. They're in the file, Code Red, Sontarans. But if they're inside the factory tell them not to start shooting. UNIT will get massacred. I'll get back as soon as I can, you got that?" The Doctor said quickly into the phones.
"Code Red Sontaran. Gotcha." Martha agreed, before hanging up the phone.
The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and was fiddling with the car engine and the ATMOS that was attached.
"But you tried sonicing it before, you didn't find anything." Donna said.
"Yeah, but now I know it's Sontaran, I know what I'm looking for."
"The thing is, Doctor, Miss Rhea, is that Donna is my only grandchild. You gotta promise me you're gonna take care of her."
Rhea snorted. "I bet she takes care of us." She said, winking at Donna.
"Oh, yeah that's my Donna." Wilf said, proudly. "Yeah, she was always bossing us around when she was tiny. The Little General we used to call her."
"Yeah, don't start." Donna said, embarrassed.
The Doctor was concentrating on a specific part with holes in a grid-like pattern.
"And some of the boys she used to turn up with, a different one every week! Yeah, who was that one with the nail varnish?"
"Donna, you naughty girl. A different one every week?" Rhea purred, nudging her with her shoulder, making her smile a little.
"Matthew Richards." Donna grimaced. "He lives in Kilbourn now. With a man."
"Oh, honey, that sucks. That happened to my cousin. She cried for days." Rhea said, reminiscing. She turned to Wilf. "Don't you worry, Wilf, Donna's going to be just fine with us." Rhea said, grinning at Donna.
Suddenly, large spike shot up from the holes in the ATMOS device that was in the engine and the Doctor reeled back with a shout.
"It's a temporal pocket! I knew there was something else in there. It's hidden just a second out of sync with real time."
"But, what is it hiding?" Rhea frowned, moving closer.
An older blonde woman appeared around the side of the car. "I don't know, men and their cars! Sometimes I think if I was a car..." She caught sight of the Doctor and Rhea when they turned to look at her. "Oh, it's you two! Doctor... what was it?" She glared at the two of them.
"Yeah, that's us." The Doctor said, waving, not actually looking at her, his head still buried under the hood.
"What, have you met him as well?" Wilf asked Donna's mother.
"Dad! It's the couple from the wedding! When you were laid up with Spanish flu! I'm warning you, last time those two turned up it was a disaster!"
"What wedding?" Rhea asked, looking between the three of them. "And couple?" Rhea asked the Doctor. "Anything I should know about, alien boy?"
Smoke started to pour from the exposed ends of the spikes on the ATMOS device and they were clouded with white gas.
"Get back!" The Doctor shouted, pulling Rhea along with him.
The Nobles' car gave another spurt of gas and sparked after the Doctor did something with sonic screwdriver.
"That'll stop it!" The Doctor said, victoriously.
The screwdriver finished whirring as the smoke died away. The Doctor then rushed back to peer under the hood again.
"I told you! He's blown up the car! Who is he anyway?! What sort of doctor blows up cars?!" Donna's mother shouted.
"Oh, not now Mum!" Donna angrily told her mother.
"Oh, should I make an appointment." Donna's mother said, insulted, and stalked off back to the house.
"That wasn't just exhaust fumes... Some sort of gas. Artificial gas." The Doctor looked thoughtful.
"And it's aliens, is it? Aliens?" Wilf asked, pointing at the ATMOS device.
"Doctor?" Rhea said, quietly, drawing his attention. "If they've got poisonous gas in these things," She gestured to the ATMOS. "Then there's poisonous gas in every car on Earth." She finished, swallowing hard, as she realised that could mean eight hundred million deaths in one moment. The Doctor turned around and looked at the other cars on the street, noticing the ATMOS label on the windshield for most of them.
Wilf climbed into the car. "It's not safe! I'm gonna get it off the street!"
Suddenly, the car doors suddenly slammed shut and all the locks clicked into place. Rhea's eyes widened as she realised that Wilf was trapped inside the car. The car turned on and smoke began to pour from the exhaust pipe and cloud the inside of the car.
"Hold on!" Donna and Rhea shouted, rushing to the front door. "Turn it off!" Rhea shouted at Wilf, trying her hardest to open the door.
"Grandad, get out of there!" Donna shouted, banging on the window with her fists.
"I can't! It's not locked! It's them aliens again!" Wilf shouted helplessly from inside the car.
Rhea pulled at the car door, growing more frantic as the fumes started to seep into the car. Sylvia stood at the front of her house and turned back in horror. "What're they doing? What've they done?"
"They've activated it!" The Doctor shouted, the sonic screwdriver still whirring madly, and he turned to look around.
Wilf started to gasp and choke as Donna frantically pulled at the door handle.
"There's gas inside the car! He's gonna choke!" Donna screamed.
"Doctor!" Rhea shouted and the Doctor rushed around and tried to open the door with his sonic screwdriver, but to no avail.
"It won't open!" The Doctor yelled.
Rhea turned to look at the street and she saw every single car parked was spitting out the same poisonous fumes into the atmosphere that was currently surrounding the Nobles' car and suffocating Wilf.
"It's the whole world…" She murmured, staring helplessly.
The Doctor rushed back to the car engine and then back to the car door, trying to stop the gas and save Wilfred, who was dying from the fumes that were overpowering him, at the same time.
"Get me out of here!" Wilf said, weakly, coughing loudly.
Mrs. Noble rushed into the house, just as Wilf collapsed inside the car. Rhea looked at the Doctor from her place at the car door, still trying to get it open by any means necessary, to see him standing in the middle of the street, powerless to stop the world from being consumed by the poisonous gas.
A/N: I hope you liked the ending to The Sontaran Stratagem and I really can't wait to post The Poison Sky. I know these chapters are a bit shorter than usual, but The Poison Sky ones are much longer. There was a little less action in this one, there will be more in The Poison Sky and Rhea will be taking a more active role in those chapters. I did love writing the Doctor sticking his foot in his mouth with Rhea, she'll give it right back to him as well. And I hope you liked the little 'Batman' reference, when I watched the episode I thought that shot was amazing. And Rhea didn't get a chance to use her gun yet, maybe the next chapter. She is a bit trigger happy. And I wonder what'll happen when the Doctor tries to sacrifice himself to stop the Sontarans? What will Rhea do?