Chapter 6

"What's yours?" Ace retorted. "You mean her?" She had again lent a shoulder of support to Romana, who was unreadable as she watched Dr. Shaw.

"I have worked too long and too hard for this project. We can take the alien, stabilize its condition at the emergency generator in the converter station. We may yet be able to salvage what you've tried to destroy."

"What we've destroyed," Rose said, "was the enslavement of a woman --"

"An alien. She's not human."

"It doesn't matter!"

"It most certainly does. I worked for UNIT for more than a decade. How many friendly aliens did we encounter? Almost none. How many were here to exploit this planet and its people? Many, many more. And when just such an alien killed my husband, I grew to see that people like Van Statten, agencies like Torchwood, had the more realistic approach: Any alien material that arrives here is fodder for human defense and advancement. Guards--"

"Who's your accomplice?" Rose demanded. "I've talked to him, he set this all up to self-destruct, did you know that?"

Dr. Shaw did not rise to the bait, raising her voice above Rose's. "Guards, take them into custody."

One made a move, but hesitated when his compatriot raised a restraining hand and spoke into his headset: "Yes, sir … Of course, sir, I understand."

He turned his rifle on Dr. Shaw. "Sorry, ma'am. That was Mr. Van Statten." (At these words the other guard immediately turned on her as well.) "He ordered us to take you into custody, and allow these people to return to the lab."

When no one moved at once, he barked at the group in the lift: "Now! Get to it!"

He then clapped handcuffs on Dr. Shaw, whose fury was cracking through her cold dignity, while her would-be hostages hurried for the lab that had been her domain.

Once there, Kevin showed Romana over to the computer, but with only the merest attempt at orientation on his part, she ignored him and set to work. Rose, meanwhile, checked in with Mickey.

"You're all right!" he cried. "I just heard a lot of shouting and then nothing. I figured I would have at least heard an explosion, or lost the line."

"Hear anything more from our friend?"

"No, not a peep."

"Can you tell if he's interfering with Romana?"

Before he could even check, the woman in question slid her chair back from the computer console. "Done," she announced.

On the bank of monitors, the last lights flickered and died. The inner room where Romana had been held prisoner went to black. A sole monitor showed the converter station, where guards muttered to each other and peered uncertainly into the distance, toward the evacuated base.

Kevin stepped up to Romana. "May I?" At her assent, he set to work himself. The first ghost of a smile crossed her face as she watched, evidently understanding what he was doing. When the screen of the computer looked remarkably scrambled, Kevin looked up proudly. "Sabotage. That should take a while to fix before Mr. Van Statten can get this place up and running again."

Romana stepped out first into the glare of the sun, with Ace close behind, tailing her, as if in fear she might topple over at any moment. Not without reason – Romana was still pale and haggard, was still unsteady on her feet. But she took a deep breath of desert air, again that near-smile playing on her lips.

The grounds around the base were swarming with aimless evacuated employees, amid them police cars and a fire engine. Van Statten was holding court with police officers and, already, a reporter.

"I'll go listen in," Pete said.

Romana squinted into the sky, where Van Statten's zeppelin was tethered, and another zeppelin approached. "How curious. This is Earth, isn't it?"

"Yes," Rose answered. "But not quite. It's sort of parallel. Parallel to the one you're probably used to?"

"Ah. Another universe. That would explain why Dorothy didn't know me." She addressed Ace. "My apologies. I mistook you for someone else. Another Dorothy – we had a mutual friend."

"The Doctor?" Rose ventured.

Romana raised her eyebrows. "Yes." She shook her head, as if to clear it. "He's not here then?"

"No, he isn't. Just us."

"No matter. You were enough. Especially Dorothy. Thank you for understanding what choice had to be made – you were right, I would rather have died than stay there. You could have been killed down there with me, but you didn't leave. Thank you."

Ace smiled awkwardly. "You're welcome. And call me Ace. My friends call me Ace."

Two helicopters were new arrivals to the chaotic scene, still too far to make out any markings. Pete was returning from where he had been hovering near the cluster around Van Statten.

"He's laying all the blame on Dr. Shaw."

Ace scoffed, "How can he think he'll get away with that? We're all witnesses, and Mickey too!"

"Yes, well, he pointed out Rose and Romana as two 'clients who were visiting at the time of this unfortunate incident.' I think he's counting on buying our silence, going along with that story."

"In exchange for what?" Ace asked.

"In exchange for not exposing Romana for who – sorry," he said to Romana, "but more to the point, for what you are. He's already painting Dr. Shaw as a lunatic, should she try to claim you're anything but human." Pete sounded apologetic as he added, "It may be safer for you to go along with him."

"Maybe," Romana said, studying the helicopters that had landed. Rose saw the soldiers ducking out from them, and now she recognized the insignia. UNIT had arrived. And one of the men, a younger subordinate, had been ordered off in the direction of their little group huddled together near the entrance to the base.

"I'm the Torchwood representative," Rose said. "I'll talk to them."

"No. I will." Romana stood straighter, and with more physical assurance than she had yet shown that day, she marched up to meet the UNIT soldier. Hello, Sergeant" -- with a glance at his name badge -- "Harris."

"Captain Charles Harris, ma'am, with the United Nations Intelligence Task Force in Los Angeles. Would you be able to answer..."

"Captain Harris, my name is Romanadvoratrelundar, President of the High Council of the Time Lords of Gallifrey. You won't have heard of it. I have suffered at the hands of Van Statten and his associates, held prisoner and enslaved, as my rescuers here will attest. I want to speak to your commanding officer, and make a formal request for asylum."

Rose, Pete, Ace and Romana flew to Salt Lake City under UNIT's protection, in a zeppelin that the commanding officer, an American colonel, had called. Once on their way, Romana lay back in her seat and slept all the way.

"You'd think after being in something like a coma for two years, she'd want to stay awake," Pete said.

"That's the thing," Ace replied. "That would have been better, but I think she was conscious, at least for some of it. And standing. Can you imagine?"

"And she's just regenerated – again," Rose said, "after being in, I guess, a constant state of regeneration for months on end. Let her rest."

"Constant regeneration?" Ace asked.

Rose explained about the "pilot fish" that had come after the Doctor that Christmas, the ones drawn by the energy he was emanating, hoping to capture him and "run their batteries off me for years," he had said. "So Dr. Shaw – or whoever her accomplice is -- figured out they could do that. They captured Romana in her regeneration cycle, and kept it going. Put it to use," Rose told them.

Ace asked, "Could they do it to her again?"

"If they get her within the next day or so. But we won't let that happen."

Captain Harris was their escort, and he was curious to hear about Dr. Elizabeth Shaw's part in everything they had uncovered. She and Van Statten were now both in the hands of the local police, to UNIT's chagrin.

"I knew Liz," Harris said. "Not well, but I worked with her a few times. With her and her husband, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart."

"She said he was killed," Pete said.

"In a battle with Sontarans. Yeah, I was there. I guess Liz didn't stay with UNIT much longer after that. I heard she went back to her research position at Cambridge. But then the next thing we know, she's working for Van Statten. Never dreamed she'd go for that. We've been keeping our eye on that guy for a while. Not really our mission, but somebody had to. So many politicians were bought and sold by him – I wonder if any prosecution will stick."

"Good thing you bring along some star witnesses," Rose said.

At Rose and Ace's urging, UNIT had brought Kevin along as well. On board the zeppelin, he had been keeping to himself, glumly staring out the window, until Ace roused him.

"Just thinking about what the hell I'm going to do now," he told her. "My career is screwed. How am I going to explain all this on my resume?"

"You could tell people that you did the right thing. They're going to understand. It's not your fault."

Far from a comfort, that only panicked him. "What if I get prosecuted? I didn't know what was really going on!"

Ace patted him on the shoulder. "They're not going after us peons. Not when they've got Van Statten and Shaw – much more dramatic, that."

"I can always go back to Minnesota," he sighed, and resumed his watch out the window.

Romana awoke for the arrival into Salt Lake City. Silent and observant as the city spread out before them, she only spoke once.

"There are areas that look decimated. What happened?"

"It happened all over," Ace answered. "A worldwide war with Cybermen. We won, mostly. Eventually. Did you have Cybermen, where you're from?"

Romana merely nodded.

She was so different from the Doctor, although Rose supposed she might not be quite herself right now. Whoever "herself" might be. Having just regenerated, Romana might not know. In any case, Rose had no reason to think that all Time Lords (or Ladies?) would be like the Doctor. They could be as different as humans were from one another.

This one had been president of the lot of them. Rose had met her share of political types in this strange deviation her life had taken after she had met the Doctor. Romana wasn't much like them either, but Rose could at least imagine her holding office. Rose could only laugh at the thought of the Doctor being president of anything.

And Romana had a name. She wasn't "the President" or some other title. Rose tucked that question away for a later time. They had landed.

Pete had called ahead to the hotel they had left when they went to Van Statten's base, reserving three luxury suites to accommodate not only himself and his daughter, but Ace and Romana as well.

Romana retreated to her bedroom and went back to sleep almost immediately. The following morning, Rose and Ace set out on a shopping expedition: Ace's quarters on the base had been near the site of explosions, and in any case, she had had no desire to descend back in there.

"Go with Rose," Pete told Ace. "Don't worry about the expense. It's the least we can do. And pick up some clothing for Romana too."

It took up a good portion of the day. When they returned in late afternoon, Ace headed off to their suite to change for dinner into one of her new outfits. (She had made do so far with an ill-fitting loan of clothes from Rose, rather than wear her uniform from Van Statten's base.)

Rose hesitated at Romana's door, then knocked.

"Come in!"

Rose was heartened to hear an alert voice, and she entered, bags offered in front of her. "We -- Ace and me -- picked out some clothes for you. I hope we did okay."

Romana had been president. Better to aim for tame and conservative, Rose and Ace had reckoned. Nothing too eccentric.

"Thank you so much," Romana said, taking the bags and eagerly looking into them. She pulled out a dress. "That's lovely." A millisecond hesitation told Rose that it was nothing Romana would have chosen for herself, but she was nevertheless touched and grateful. Her smile -- the first full one Rose had seen from her -- was genuine.

"You seem to be feeling much better."

"Yes, absolutely. I don't recall the regeneration process being nearly so taxing in the past, but I feel almost entirely recovered. And this --" She inspected herself in a mirror. "I can live with it. I shall have to."

"Are you hungry? Ace has gone to her room to change, then we were planning on meeting up with my dad at the hotel's restaurant. Don't worry about the cost. Dad's taking care of it. We want to help."

"That sounds lovely. Thank you."

"Great," Rose said, with an unsure move toward the door. But Romana resumed talking.

"I understand, then, that you're one of those humans who have traveled with the Doctor?"

"Yeah."

"And for your pains, you ended up stuck in the wrong universe?"

"It was a bit more complicated than that."

"It always is. I know. I traveled with him as well. And, as it happens, parted ways with him in another universe as well. Not this one."

"He left you behind?"

"Left me? No, I left him."

"Oh…" That hadn't occurred to Rose. Of the Doctor's other companions, she had only ever met Sarah Jane Smith, who had not chosen to leave him any more than Rose had. "But you made it back from this other universe?"

"Eventually, yes."

"But that was before --" Rose stopped. She hadn't intended on broaching this subject – the Time War -- as soon as Romana woke up.

"-- before Gallifrey was destroyed," Romana said. "I've known all this time what must have happened. All the time they had me in that room, there was not much else to think about. I knew what the Doctor was planning to do. More than that -- I sanctioned it. We knew the consequences if it went wrong. And when I was ripped from my TARDIS, thrown into the vortex, I knew in that second that I had made the wrong choice. I was president; it was ultimately my responsibility. I should have told him no. I let myself be blinded by my trust in him."

It was all Rose could offer: "The Daleks were destroyed too … most of them."

"Most?"

"Some survived. And created new Daleks but … The Time Lords, though -- the Doctor didn't believe there were any survivors. He said he'd know if there were, but here you are! Who knows who else is out there?"

"Yes, about that … Your father lent me his computer" – Romana gestured toward a laptop Rose now noticed sitting on a table – "and I was analyzing the data Van Statten gave you. I contacted your friend Mickey; he was very helpful. That containment field was quite remarkable. It seems as though it was only intended to encase me. But its effects were so strong that it took in the whole base – and so you had your problems getting any readings or communication in or out. But what was notable about it is that it seemed designed to dampen not only the energy readings, but any telepathic field as well."

"Like someone knew that other Time Lords might be able to find you here?"

"Exactly." They pondered that for a moment, then Romana said, "You said you met Dr. Shaw's accomplice on the outside, the one who claimed to have orchestrated the whole project?"

"Met him here at this very hotel. Doubt he's here now, but UNIT's been looking into it, based on my description. Not a very good description either. I only met him in passing, and it wasn't too well-lit in that ballroom. It already seems like ages ago. But we're going to find him."

"Whoever he is, he's got a lot to answer for." That was Ace, speaking from the door.

"Whoever he is," Romana said, "clearly he's very intelligent. And probably dangerous. Hello, Ace."

"Good to see you up and about. Like the clothes?"

"Very much, thank you." (Romana hadn't looked at anything more than that first dress.)

"I don't care how dangerous this guy is," Ace said. "If we're going to bring the bastard down, I want to be a part of it."

"I hope that you can be. I spoke to Captain Harris, and offered my services to UNIT, as their scientific advisor. It was a position held by the Doctor at one time in your universe, Rose, before I met him. Surely I can do the job at least as well as he had done."

"About this Doctor," Ace said. "Who is he, and why did you think I would know him?" She turned to Rose. "The Doctor was your alien friend, have I guessed that right?"

"He has a habit of befriending anyone willing to travel along with him in time and space." Romana smiled as she amended herself: "Anyone with the spirit and daring to do so. And in another universe, a one parallel to this, the Doctor met a girl called Ace. She was quite young when they met, as I understand it, and she traveled with him for a long time, before she struck out on her own. She visited Gallifrey – my home planet, and the Doctor's."

"Somewhere out there, someone just like me got to travel the stars." Ace's smile had a twinge of melancholy, or envy, but she said, "Good for her."