"You can come up for air every once in a while, you know."
Lucas jumped, then smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Captain." He should have known that pouring over the reply he'd gotten from Sally and Larry would have earned him one comment or another, considering everyone else was visiting over their latest meal of synthesized meat, hydroponic vegetables, and what he thought of affectionately as the modern version of hardtack, except that this was infused with vitamins. But the story he had in front of him, and the transcript, was fascinating. How could he not study it?
"I think Darwin's starting to miss you," Bridger said. "When was the last time you went to the moon pool?"
"It's been a few days," Lucas confessed. At the captain's look, he admitted, "Well, all right, maybe a little bit more than a few days, but I've been working this out, and you wouldn't believe how everything managed to fit together. They're the ones who'd had the DVD the Doctor gave me. He got it from them. They even…. Sally was the one who gave the Doctor the transcript, the one that he was reading from on the Easter egg, and, look, they sent me a copy, and it fits exactly, and—"
Bridger, who had been smiling, now chuckled. "I'm sure it does. But you might find that the rest of the pieces to the puzzle fit together better after you leave it for a day or two."
Lucas knew he had to concede the captain's point and did so. Krieg had given him the same advice, and it had held true last time. Besides, he knew he wouldn't get many more answers, if any, from the story of the Weeping Angels now. He'd been marvelling at it and searching it again while he was waiting for another response. He'd hoped he would have gotten one by now from this Luke Smith. He hadn't thought he'd made a wrong connection, but perhaps he had.
Still, he wasn't so involved in his search that he'd missed the captain's real point, either. "I suppose I haven't been up on the bridge in a while, either."
"It's a good learning experience," Bridger reminded him, "and I, at least, miss having you drop by. Sometimes we can use another set of sharp eyes." He glanced down at the papers in front of Lucas, then said, "You could perhaps use a fresh set of eyes on this yourself." He paused, then added, "I'm sure Commander Ford wouldn't mind if I extended my absence from the bridge for another fifteen minutes or so."
Lucas smiled. "Thanks, Captain." He did appreciate the offer. He knew the captain had had enough on his hands cleaning up the Doctor's mess and dealing with the UEO. That was one reason he'd been trying to stay out of the way; he hadn't wanted to interrupt anything. Well, he also hadn't wanted to get extra duty cleaning up, either, but there was little danger of that now. It had been over a week, and all traces of sand that they could find had been cleaned up and scattered.
It took Lucas perhaps ten minutes, once Bridger was in his quarters, to show him all his findings. The only one he'd really been keeping up to date had been Krieg, since Ben had made a point of frequently stopping in and asking how things were going. Lucas now wondered whether Captain Bridger or Dr. Westphalen had asked him to do so, though Lucas had no doubt that Krieg was simply curious and would have dropped by anyway. After all, Krieg had been the only one to get an actual trip in the Doctor's ship, and he had been the only other one besides Lucas to even see its interior.
Of course, Ben Krieg had been on the N'zyritian ship as well, along with others in the crew, though not all had intended to go aboard, so he had the best idea of them all as to how the Doctor's ship compared to anything else.
From what Lucas could gather, though, it didn't compare. At all. If he'd learned anything from his quick look inside of it, it was that there was definitely truth in the old saying not to judge a book by its cover. The Doctor's ship, incongruously disguised as nothing more than an old, if not entirely inconspicuous, police box, had held far more secrets within its doors than Lucas had managed to glimpse. And if those secrets that he had seen were anything to go by, well, the rest would be certainly astounding.
"I see you gave a rather detailed reply to your new friends," Bridger commented, reading over Lucas's response to Sally and Larry. "You do realize that I didn't tell the UEO half of this, don't you?"
"Don't worry, Captain," Lucas said. "It's not going to sound like more than a story to anyone else. Besides, I didn't include anything that's classified."
"I wouldn't have expected any less," Bridger replied. He looked up at Lucas. "No response from the other one you sent a message to?"
"Not yet," Lucas admitted. He was about to continue but was interrupted by the sound of an incoming message. O'Neill appeared on the computer screen, tapping into the internal video link set up on seaQuest.
"Lucas," he said, "you've got an unauthorized incoming call."
Bridger was frowning. "From where?" he asked, sounding bewildered.
"I'm not sure, Captain. I can't trace it, but I can block it if I deflect the signal."
Bridger glanced at Lucas, then said, "No, put it through, Lieutenant, but monitor the call."
"Will do, Captain."
Bridger stepped back, and Lucas stood in front of the computer as O'Neill patched the call through. Facing Lucas, from what looked like an attic room, was a young man clutching a piece of paper. An older woman was visible sitting on the steps behind him, looking on with an expression that rather matched the captain's—somewhat sceptical, but mostly curious, though guarded.
"Lucas Wolenczak?" the man asked.
Lucas nodded warily. "Who wants to know?"
The man smiled. "Oh, brilliant. I'm Luke Smith." He gestured behind him, and the woman stepped up to join him. "This is my mother, Sarah Jane."
"So you are related," Lucas said, grinning.
"In a manner of speaking," Sarah Jane replied, smiling herself. "In all the ways that count, we are. I am rather curious that you've realized that, but I suspect I'll find out how soon enough. Luke here tells me you encountered the Doctor?"
"In a manner of speaking," Bridger replied. He nodded to them. "Nathan Bridger, captain of the seaQuest."
"The Doctor dropped in on us," Lucas explained, and then went on to tell the rest of their story.
Sarah Jane was the first one to speak. "Let me guess, the Doctor was wearing a pinstriped suit? Blue or brown?"
Lucas grinned. "Brown," he confirmed. "You've met that one, then?"
Sarah Jane looked surprised. "You know about regeneration?"
"The Doctor told me," Lucas said.
Sarah Jane laughed. "Oh, of course, he'll tell you, but he wouldn't find the time to tell me, would he? I daresay none of his companions found out as easily as you did. What else do you know?"
"I read some of UNIT's files," Lucas explained, "but I couldn't find any of you when I looked, even though there were dozens of names. It was just luck that Luke had commented on a post by Larry Nightingale on a forum."
"That wasn't luck," Luke corrected. "I was doing the same thing you were. Mum told me loads of things about the Doctor, but I wanted to see if I could figure out what he'd been doing in the years since. I found the Easter egg after I'd happened across that reference to the Doctor, and then Mum and I got the story out of Martha."
"Martha Jones?" Lucas asked.
Luke nodded. "We kept in touch with Martha and Mickey and a few other people from the Doctor's past, and Mum's been compiling a list of possible companions. They're all over, you know. There's even one in Australia."
"I'm afraid all I have are names," Sarah Jane said, perhaps seeing Lucas open his mouth, "and I'm not certain whether I've the right ones, but I can give you the list, if you like."
"I'm sure he would," Bridger interjected with a smile. "But if you don't mind my asking, Ms. Smith, how is it that we can't trace your call, and how did you manage to find Lucas in the first place?"
Luke broke into a wide grin, and he was the one who answered. "We have Mr. Smith to thank for that. He's the computer. If you've read the UNIT files, you may have come across mention of Mum's work?"
"You're a journalist, aren't you?" Lucas asked.
"Officially, yes," Sarah Jane replied, "but I only ever published my dullest stories."
"Mum investigates things," Luke explained. "She still does, and she got me and my friends in on it when we were still in school. Half the things you can see behind us are alien technology. Not even Mr. Smith is native to Earth. We've stopped loads of invasions, and helped plenty of other aliens to get back home." He smiled again, this time self-consciously. "None of us have a real job that's half as interesting as what we do when we're moonlighting."
"I'm sure," Bridger agreed, "but I'm afraid I haven't been able to say the same, and I'm not sure whether I'd like to. I'll let Lucas fill you in on the details, shall I? I'd better get back to the bridge."
"Good luck, Captain," Sarah Jane said, a hint of a smile on her face. "We all know how difficult it can be to get back on course after a meeting with the Doctor."
Lucas grinned himself as Bridger smiled and shook his head before taking his leave. Luke took charge of the conversation again, asking what Lucas had turned up in his search, with each side sharing stories. Lucas got some answers and Sarah Jane's list of names, but it didn't take him long to realize that even someone who knew the Doctor as well as his former companion and her son did didn't have all the answers, either.
"He doesn't always give them," Sarah Jane explained, evidently not missing Lucas's obvious disappointment. "Sometimes he's quite happy to let people make their own assumptions or to search out their own answers, as you're doing."
"And you're pretty good at it," Luke said. "I had Mum's help, and you've already found a handful of people on your own."
"Yeah, but the Doctor left me a clue to get me started," Lucas pointed out.
"And you were clever enough, not to mention stubborn enough, to find it and follow it," Sarah Jane reminded him. "Believe me, the Doctor would never have given it to you if he hadn't thought you'd pursue it and turn up some of the answers you were looking for." Sarah Jane laughed. "You remind me of Luke when he was growing up. Always full of questions." She glanced at her son, then added, "Still is most of the time, I'd say."
"Mum," Luke admonished, looking a bit embarrassed.
"Oh, there's no shame in it," Sarah Jane said. "You never learn anything if you don't ask any questions. I've built my life around asking questions and making sure I found out the true answers. Where would I be if I let myself believe what everyone else did? Where would I be if I never searched for the whole truth?"
She'd probably be in quite a different place, Lucas figured, seeing as she'd told him not ten minutes before that she'd been searching out a story when she'd met the Doctor in the first place. She may have been naturally nosy, with an eye for stories and more curiosity than a cat, but Lucas didn't have to look far to see that the Doctor had certainly influenced her life. The evidence of it was visible in the room behind the two Smiths.
Lucas somehow had a feeling that this Sarah Jane Smith had been just as influential on the Doctor's life, even if her influence wasn't seen as easily.
Their conversation lasted a while longer, and then Sarah Jane's phone rang and it turned out that an old friend, a Harry Sullivan, was in town and wanting a visit, so Lucas thanked them for their time and the list of names. Luke elicited a promise from Lucas to keep in touch and tell him what he uncovered, then bid Lucas the best of luck and ended the call. Lucas, for his part, looked over the list of names again, noting that Harry Sullivan was on it and wondering if he'd be able to add anything else.
It all depended, Sarah Jane had said, on which incarnation of the Doctor he was set on researching. Luke had agreed with that, saying that it was easier to fit together pieces in one particular area rather than tackling the whole puzzle at once. There were too many missing for that approach, he'd said.
Sarah Jane had, at Lucas's request, pointed out which names on the list were of people who had associated with this incarnation of the Doctor. Besides hers and her son's, and their friends Clyde and Rani, there was Martha Jones and Mickey Smith, as Lucas had expected. The names of Rose and Jackie Tyler were included, but Sarah Jane had informed Lucas that he wouldn't be able to find them. Sally and Larry were included after Luke had tracked them down, though Sarah Jane had said that, to her knowledge, they had never travelled with the Doctor and likely didn't know him beyond the story of the Easter egg. Captain Jack Harkness's name made another appearance. Then, there was Donna Noble, and another note that she shouldn't be contacted.
Neither Sarah Jane nor Luke had explained why, and Lucas couldn't help but wonder. He wished he'd looked at the list earlier so that he could ask. He supposed he could leave them a message. He could ask what had happened to the Tylers then, too. Except, the story had to be different. They couldn't be contacted. Donna Noble shouldn't be contacted.
Speaking of contacting people, though, there was a number beside Martha's name. It was a phone number, not a vid link number, but he could still contact her through his computer.
After the fifth ring, Lucas was fairly certain that he was going to be leaving a message, but then he heard a click and a harried, "Hello?"
"Hello?" Lucas called, unsure of whether she could hear him clearly. From the sounds of things, she was outside; the wind was blowing into the phone line. That was the trouble with the old phones. The video phones didn't have that problem. Better speakers and all that. "Is this Martha Jones? Er, Smith?"
There was a pause, then, "Yes. Who is this?"
"Lucas Wolenczak. I, um, sort of ran into the Doctor and was hoping you could answer a few questions for me."
"This isn't the best time," Martha said. "Look, I'll try to help you, but I can't make any guarantees with the Doctor."
A rather loud sound, one which sounded suspiciously like an explosion, penetrated through the background noise of the wind. "Tell you what," Martha suggested, "if you give me your contact info, I'll get back to you once I've sorted this mess out, all right?"
Lucas, figuring he was better off sticking to written messages, gave Martha the appropriate information, including the sort of information he was after, and wished her luck. She laughed, promised she'd get back to him, and then the line went dead. Lucas, figuring he better take the captain's subtle advice, headed to the moon pool to see Darwin before going to the bridge. Waiting was easier if he had a few distractions, and to be honest, he was missing Darwin and the rest of the crew more than he'd realized.
Lucas ended up losing track of time. He played with Darwin first, going so far as to jump into the moon pool to swim with him at the dolphin's request. "Lucas play?" Darwin had asked, and when Lucas had said he would, Darwin had declared, "Lucas swim with Darwin." Lucas hadn't had the heart to decline.
By the time Lucas finally made it to the bridge, he was only slightly damp. But he was welcomed with open arms and joking comments about it being a long time since anyone had seen him. SeaQuest was en route to the Falkland Plateau, though it would take her a while to get there with the stops they had planned. Dr. Westphalen wanted to take some soil samples from different points in the South Atlantic Ocean, and she'd suggested various sampling points. She intended to check the soil composition, track how it had changed since the last study, and propose reasons for that change.
They were roughly ten minutes into the Rio Grande Rise, another of the sampling points, when they received the call from the Amazonian Confederation via the UEO about a submarine which was suspected to be smuggling emeralds. The Santos Plateau wasn't far from their current position. Unfortunately, the captain though it was too dangerous for him to remain on the bridge, so Lucas was sent back to his quarters as seaQuest went to meet this latest adversary. It was only then that he remembered his earlier call to Martha. He checked his messages and was pleased to see that she'd had time to respond already.
I'm used to telling the Doctor's story, Martha began. I spent a year travelling and telling it. But that's another story in and of itself, of course, and I'll save that tale for another time.
The letter went on, describing Martha's memories of her travels and of the Doctor. She mentioned various idiosyncrasies of the Doctor's, from his occasional tendency to start off in the wrong direction to the way he'd pat his ship affectionately and talk to her. She noted his stubbornness, his insistence that everyone be given a chance to change their ways, to make the right choice, even if he didn't think they'd take him up on his offer. She described a few of the times that she'd been jailed with him and the various ways he'd gotten them out of those messes. She mentioned how she'd ended up supporting him one time when they'd gotten stuck in the past and the lengths he'd gone to in order to get their transport back. She described his character as she'd perceived it, his manic brilliance in particular, and concluded by saying that he'd changed her life.
I'll never regret travelling with him, Martha wrote, but I can't regret my decision to leave, either. I knew I'd never travel with him forever. I was studying to be a doctor, and I am one now, but I couldn't throw all that work away, or leave my family behind. Don't get me wrong; I loved every moment of it. Even when I was terrified, I loved it. Truth be told, I loved him, and a part of me still does. But nothing lasts forever, and I knew that, and I think it may have made my leaving easier. I'd travelled all over the world on my own by then, and I knew then I'd never forget a moment of it, but I'd learned a few things in that year that even travelling with the Doctor hadn't managed to teach me. I learned about us, Lucas. About humans, and human nature. For all the Doctor travels with us, he still hasn't learned all its lessons, either, and I think that's why he usually travels with someone: he needs someone else to point things out, or to stop him, or to remind him. He's brilliant, Lucas, but he's stronger when he has people to stand with him, and to stand behind him, and he knows that.
Mickey says to tell you that when he was researching the Doctor with Rose Tyler (who later became the Doctor's companion, the one he'd travelled with before I met him), they happened across a website by Clive Finch. The Doctor was a different man back then, but if you can find it, it might be of interest. Who is Doctor Who? is the title, I believe. Mickey never did tell me the full story. He does suspect that something happened, though. He says the site never was updated by Clive again. He had aspirations of taking it over, once. I'm not sure if he ever did. If he did, he hasn't touched it for years, either. Not to my knowledge, at least, and he can't keep everything from me, though lord knows he tries.
If you want some summer reading, the letter continued, I would suggest you try Verity Newman's book, Journal of Impossible Things. Her great-grandmother, Joan Redfern, met the Doctor when he wasn't himself. You'll know what I mean if you read it. It's another perspective of the Doctor and who he can be, as seen through Joan's eyes. It's an older book now, published in 2009, 2010, I don't quite remember now, but I'm sure you'll find it's a puzzle piece you never knew you were missing. After a free line, there was an added, Good luck.
There was a hammering at his door, then a called, "Lucas?"
Lucas looked up as Krieg stuck his head in the room. "What is it?"
"I thought you might want a heads up. That sub we went after wasn't filled with emeralds."
Lucas thrust Martha's letter from his mind. That could wait; this couldn't. This was important, whatever it was. "What happened?"
"We've got maybe thirty, thirty-five kids on board," Krieg explained. "They were being smuggled out of the country, but they're political refugees, and now the captain's got to deal with all the red tape. He's not impressed that he was tricked into firing on children."
"I'll bet," Lucas said.
"There's one other thing," Krieg said. He was grinning now. "You'll never guess who was trying to rescue these kids."
Lucas didn't bother wasting his time trying. "Who?"
"Dr. Westphalen's daughter, Cynthia," Krieg replied. "Look, I've got to get back to launch bay, but we'll probably need you out there, too, so wrap up whatever you're doing."
"Yeah, sure. I'll be there in a minute," Lucas answered, moving to shut things down on his computer, but Krieg was already gone.
Though it was probably five, it felt like less than a minute later that Bridger came in and commandeered his room, and Lucas went to launch bay without much fuss. Though he would have preferred that Bridger wasn't so short with him, Lucas appreciated that the captain wasn't in the best of humour at the moment. Besides, he was right. They did need him at launch bay; that was clear enough. Krieg had already left on another run, but Lucas could hardly imagine that there would be many more kids left to fetch. How big had that sub been, anyway? The poor kids must've been packed in there like sardines.
Now that they weren't, Crocker was having a bit of trouble keeping them under control, and he was quite happy when Lucas showed up. Lucas suggested they take them to the crew's mess when the one man, Malique, who was probably helping Dr. Westphalen's daughter get the kids to safety, said that they needed to eat. Before he could blink, Lucas found himself babysitting the kids with Crocker and Malique. It wasn't too bad, except for the fact that he couldn't speak Portuguese and therefore had little more control over the kids than Crocker did, but Lucas was still looking forward to the minute that he could escape. He could show Malique around once the rest of the kids were settled down, maybe visit Darwin at the moon pool again. It would do them all some good.
They could use some more of that now. Some of the kids looked like they hadn't had anything good happen to them in a long time. Even their flight from their own country had been interrupted, a flight that was a desperate escape that shouldn't need to have been made in the first place, were it not for the politics of the matter. Kristin's daughter may have helped them, led them through it, maybe even gotten them the means to escape if she was as resourceful as her mother, but Lucas could see how the kids looked up to Malique. He'd been an important part in it all, too.
Lucas recalled Cleo and the kids they'd rescued from the Landau Munitions Depot. She'd had her childhood cut short. She'd had to grow up and take care of the rest of the kids. This was a similar situation, to a point. Malique, having probably lost his own childhood innocence before any of those kids had been born, had taken on a responsibility for them, like Cleo had for her brood, but the reasons were different. Cleo had been trying to give her family a childhood by taking on the role of the adult. These kids had already lost their childhood, if the looks on their faces were anything to go by. Malique had been trying, with Cynthia, to give the kids their lives. Then, maybe once they had that, the kids could have the rest of their childhood back.
But in the meantime, a visit with Darwin would certainly bring a smile to his face, and he had no doubt that it would do the same for Malique. He looked like he needed to smile about something, so Lucas figured he'd give him the best opportunity he could.
A/N: All right, so technically I shouldn't've included Sarah Jane Smith, given the setting of this story, but Elisabeth Sladen did such a wonderful job, I couldn't help myself. Also, many thanks to everyone who's commented on this thus far.