Solipsism

Jack: Exactly

Well, what do you know? One small step and one giant leap all in one fell swoop.

I'd be giddy if I had time to be giddy. But soon as I tell The Doctor my password he's entering it on a keypad with one hand and brandishing his gently humming sonic with the other.

Suddenly the tone of the background static we've grown so accustomed to hearing changes, and it's definitely now Newhope's voice speaking, which in reality due to John's warped, to put it mildly, sense of humor is the voice of Gwen Cooper. Gwen/Newhope says very clearly, "Captain… Captain… Captain Hart you are in danger." And then all is quiet. No more voice. No more static. No more nothing, other than the sound of The Doctor's and my breathing. And I don't know about him, but my respiration rate just got kicked up a notch or two.

"Do you think you can get the AI back online?" I ask.

"If anyone can, I can," he responds immodestly as he twirls his sonic between his fingers. I shoot him a dirty look; he knows that I don't like it when he plays with that thing.

"Good," I say. "You get to work on that. I'm going to head aft to engineering and determine if I can get full ship's power back up and running. On the way I'll do some poking around, see if I can find any indication of what happened to the crew."

"There's a com ear piece under the flap in your collar that's linked to a mic on your suit," The Doctor tells me as he extracts a small object from a pocket by his neck. "We can communicate with them. Use it." He inserts his ear piece in his left ear and I do the same thing with mine. Then he nods and turns back to the console. It appears I've been dismissed so I shrug and walk away from him, back toward the main corridor and the ship beyond.

"Be careful!" I hear him say. I turn around and he's looking at me strangely.

"What is it Doctor?"

He starts, almost jumps at the sound of my voice. "Nothing," he says, "nothing. Just be careful, Jack."

I give him a snappy salute, pivot and walk off the bridge.

A few years ago… actually a couple of decades ago I was living in Chicago. That's in the United States. A friend of mine invited me along to a movie one night. An invitation I accepted.

The movie theater was on the South Side of Chicago. That's where my friend lived – the South Side of Chicago. If you're not familiar with the Windy City, the South Side of Chicago was not where the wealthy white folk lived. It was not where the wealthy white folk hung out. To be blunt, it was where the less wealthy, the very less wealthy, people of color lived and played. The South Side of Chicago was also where some of the world's best blues clubs could be found. But that's another story or five…

So we went to this film, which was a horror movie called Hellraiser. I'll never forget it because it is the most fun I have ever had at a movie. The theater was totally packed. It was a hell of a scary movie and attending it was a 1980's version of an interactive experience. Throughout the entire show the audience was shouting advice – as well as other needful comments – to the onscreen characters. Being that this was a horror movie, said advice was very rarely followed.

"Don't you go in there alone!" I remember the woman sitting down a few seats from me yelling at one point. "Now why would you be so stupid?" Exactly, I thought.

You're probably wondering why in the world I'm telling you a story about going to see a movie twenty years ago. Well… Perhaps right at this moment you're also wondering why I left The Doctor by himself. After all, it wasn't all that long ago we were referring to the Newhope as a ghost ship, and I admitted to The Doctor that I was scared. Perhaps you're thinking to yourself: "Now why would he be so stupid?" And: "Why is he going off alone?"

Exactly…

As I am walking down the corridor, leaving The Doctor and the bridge farther and farther behind, I find myself remembering that South Side Chicago movie theater and those marvelous people in the audience who may have had far more good sense than I have right now.

I gently touch the com in my ear and it beeps, "Doctor?"

"Yes Jack?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yes Jack."

"How's it coming?"

"It'd be coming a whole lot better if you weren't bothering me, Jack."

"Oh. Sorry Doctor."

My com beeps again as he signs off.

I keep walking alone down the corridor.

Exactly…