Sister Star
Chapter 5: Aliens of London
Almadynis
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and all associated characters, plotlines, etc. are not mine. No matter how much I wish that I was Russell T Davies illegitimate offspring. *sigh* However, Astrid is mine in every way, shape, and form. *glomps* No takies!
Also, I am an American…which means my British colloquialisms come from Doctor Who and Torchwood. So forgive me please if I mess up.
Unfortunately, my beta is currently on vacation, so all mistakes are mine.
Astrid's thoughts
The Powell Estate was situated both parallel and perpendicular to the apartment/flat buildings around it. It was a pretty cream color, had six stories, and happened to be the home of the companions to an alien being.
In the alley directly across from the Powell Estate, a grinding noise coupled with a whooshing sound echoed slightly as a blue Police Box materialized. A blond and two brunettes exited the two-foot square box, two females and one male. The two girls were the companions, and were here to check on their families and pack proper bags before going back into the universe.
Astrid turned around and reiterated, "Only twelve hours, right? I won't have Julian too worried because you can't drive." Julian was her golden stray dog that she had kept when she first came to this dimension, and he was her first true friend. If he was hurt or harmed by her traveling…well, I'll just have to find a way to sneak him on board the TARDIS then, won't I?
The Doctor was half indignant, but Rose laughed softly and he couldn't help but join in. They had gone on a couple more adventures since the major/minor breakdown of Astrid's—of which they didn't really talk about, but Rose had seemed closer to her friend than ever before and the Doctor, though he definitely didn't do 'domestics', was patient and sometimes gave her looks of intense understanding when he didn't think she was looking—and the 'driving' of the Doctor's was always interesting. Between being tossed around regularly and once arriving nine years after what they had shot for, it was a very valid question.
Rose moved off, Astrid by her side since she only lived a few doors down. "Oooh! Right, We won't be long, I'm just gonna see my mum."
The Doctor was curious, "What're you going to tell her?"
The blond looked back at him with a small look at him that almost said as much as her mouth, "I don't know! I've been to the year 5 billion... and only been gone, what, 12 hours?" She raised an eyebrow at him as he gave a small snort of laughter. "No, I'll just tell her I've spent the night at Shareens. See you later!" She waved at him, linked arms with Astrid, and both walked off together.
It was Astrid's turn to look back, "Don't you disappear."
The Doctor gave her a look and it said a lot more than he could. The expression was a cross between 'as if I would' and 'why would I, without you'. After The Breakdown, as Astrid was beginning to call it in her mind, he wouldn't go anywhere out of the TARDIS without both her and Rose at his side. I'm not sure if he is scared that I'll disappear, or if he just wants to be sure to have my reactions.
After the Charles Dickens incident, she didn't have any input yet. Apparently, there were a lot more adventures than ever made it onscreen. Which makes sense if you think about it, but she just never had. But the Doctor always looked for recognition in her face and a tensing in her body language. A clue that events were evident. He had noticed on the last couple trips that she was more at ease, less afraid, and just generally more free to be herself. She wasn't worrying about changing the future or preventing deaths. Of course, it might be because she didn't have anything left to hide—that he knows of, but only Rose knows those stories and I trust her not to say anything—but either way, he was watching and waiting.
The Book had been shelved in the TARDIS library under a force field that only the TARDIS herself could bring down. The ship had put up the field as soon as Astrid's hand had come off the binding. She knows how much temptation it is to him and wants to protect him from himself. I hope I last until 'The Doctor's Wife'…I watched that episode so many times, seeing it in real life would be wonderful. I wonder if we could go early. Maybe we could save the Corsair? Then the Doctor would have another Time Lord and he wouldn't have to be the last anymore.
Astrid grins at his expression, all of this information running through her brain having only taken a few milliseconds of time, and walks off. She and Rose take the stairs two at a time, playfully racing each other as they couldn't stop grinning.
Rose waved at her friend, both digging out their keys. Rose going to her and Jackie's flat while Astrid went down a couple doors to her own. "I'll meet you in your place in a little bit. Just want to check on Julian and pack a bag."
Rose nodded, "Yeah alright." She opened her door and disappeared into her flat.
The brunette smiled and went into her own apartment. When she wasn't immediately bowled over by her dog, she frowned in confusion. Every time, without fail, she came through her door, Julian was on her with doggy kisses. Why wasn't he this time? Had something happened to him? Oh god, if he's hurt I'll never forgive myself.
She came down the hallway, checking every nook and cranny. But when she got to the living room, she froze. All her furniture had come with the flat, it was part of the reason she got the apartment in the first place since she had none, and she filled it slowly with clothes, dishes, etc. But there was none of her stuff there now. It was completely different.
Then a pad of feet, she turned hoping to see Julian, but got a man she had never seen before coming out of the bathroom. Standing with a white towel around his head and nothing else. Astrid stared at him with huge eyes as her brain flashed back to the day when she was sixteen and had accidently walked in on her father taking a shower.
Neither she nor the man moved or spoke for several long minutes. Finally, Astrid spoke quietly, "When did you move in here?"
"Eight months ago." His voice was a deep bass.
The Doctor came running through the flat door. He sees the situation and grabs her arm. "It's not twelve hours, it's twelve months." He steers her back away from the nude man and out the door, down to Rose's apartment as he explains. "You've been gone a whole year." He laughed apologetically. "Sorry."
Astrid sat beside Rose in the Tyler flat in their living room on the couch as Jackie ranted. Both she and Rose were in similar positions of defense, knees up to their chest and arms around them. Astrid didn't say anything; all she could think about was Julian, how scared he must have been. Her mind was rather blank otherwise.
Jackie had apparently been putting up 'Have you seen?' fliers for the two of them for ages. She had kept Astrid's things—most of the personal stuff anyway, the general went to a thrift shop—but Julian had run away almost immediately after the girls had 'disappeared'. No one had seen him since.
A policeman had arrived to take statements or whatever, but he just listened mostly as he sat in an armchair. The Doctor stood by the couch where the girls were sitting, but he was watching Jackie mostly. The woman didn't stop talking or pacing. She was understandably furious. "The hours I've sat here. Days and weeks and months all on my own. I thought you were dead. And where were you? Travelling. What the hell does that mean? Travelling? That's no sort of answer."
Jackie looked at the policeman as she just kept going, not even pausing for a response. "You ask her. She won't tell me! That's all she says. Travelling."
Rose finally cut in, "That's what I was doing."
Jackie pointed behind her in the direction of the bedrooms. "When your passport's still in the drawer? It's just one lie after another!"
Astrid let Rose 'handle' her mother. Astrid had never gotten the hang of dealing with Jackie, she just talked too much. She only was able to make Jackie back down once, and that had been because the woman was about to put ammonia and bleach in the same container. That had led to a chemistry lesson/rant from the brunette regarding household cleaning products. Jackie didn't speak to her for a week after that.
"I meant to phone, I really did, I just…forgot."
"What, for a year? You forgot for a year? I'll believe that from Astrid, but not you! And I am left sitting here? I just don't believe you. Why won't you tell me where you've been?" Jackie demanded of her daughter and sorta-adopted daughter. The brunette wouldn't return her gaze, but Rose was just as quiet. What can we say, 'Yeah, we've been to the year five-billion, met Charles Dickens, saw a super nova, and caught snowflakes on a different planet. Sorry we forgot to call, but it was too exciting.' Yup. That will go over SO well.
The Doctor took this moment to speak up, moving nervously from side to side, as he tried to explain using as much truth as possible without giving anything relevant away. "Actually, it's my fault. I sort of er, employed Rose and Astrid as my companions."
The yellow coated policeman quirked an eyebrow at the apparent sisters before asking calmly, "When you say 'companion', is this a sexual relationship?"
Astrid laid her head on her knees as she shook with laughter as the Doctor and Rose both vehemently denied the semi-accusation. Of all the things to ask, he's worried about a threesome!
Jackie advanced on the Doctor fully and started right back, now going at him full force. "Then what is it? Because you, you waltz in here all charm and smiles, and the next thing I know, they vanish off the face of the earth! How old are you then? 40? 45? What, you find them on the Internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a doctor?
He was quick to assure her, "I AM a doctor!"
Jackie was beyond furious. "Prove it! Stitch this, mate." She slapped him on the face hard enough that he cried out in shock and pain and had to take a step back from the force.
Rose rolled her eyes as Astrid shook with silent laughter. Jackie was definitely one way to get her mind off Julian.
They were on the roof of the Powell Estate, Rose, Astrid, and the Doctor. Rose and Astrid were sitting on the wall surrounding the more sensitive systems and the Doctor was leaning against it between the two of them. Rose was looking off into space to the right, Astrid straight ahead, and the Doctor to the left. The blond was quiet for a few minutes before she spoke. "I can't tell her. I can't even begin... she's never gonna forgive me." She looked over at the Doctor in askance. "And I missed a year? Was it good?"
"Middling." The Doctor frowned against the sunlight.
She looked away again. "You're so useless."
He gave her a glance and frowned, "Well, if it's this much trouble, are you gonna stay here now?"
Her voice was frank, but a little sad. "I dunno. I can't do that to her again, though."
"Well, she's not coming with us."
Rose and Astrid shared a look over the Doctor's head before they burst out laughing. The Doctor joined in. It was nice little moment to break the tension.
Astrid shook her head vigorously, "No chance. She slapped you!"
The Doctor watched Astrid's face as he commented, touching his chest in time with his words. "I don't do families. 900 years of time and space, and I've never been slapped by someone's mother."
Rose couldn't stop grinning. "Your face."
He was incredulous as he looked to Rose. "It hurt!" He rubbed his cheek while his face spoke of how offended he was as she continued.
"You're so gay!"
Rose suddenly turned back to him, the teasing in her tone lost. "When you say 900 years..."
Astrid spoke for him this time. "He's 900 years old, Rose. He's been travelling for…" She had to pause to think about it. She made a show of counting on her fingers. "…700 years. He was about 200 when he stole the TARDIS."
"I borrowed it!" But he was watching her face, surprised to see the teasing in her eyes. She finished the quote in her mind, 'Borrowing implies eventually returned that which was taken. What makes you think I'd ever give YOU back.' She really loved that episode.
"My mum was right. That is one hell of an age gap." Rose was a bit slow to comprehend how big a difference that really was, when in actuality, the Doctor was about 30-ish in human terms by the average age of his people.
Astrid watched as Rose hopped off of the wall and kept talking while she looked at the surrounding buildings. "Every conversation with you just goes mental. There's no one else I can talk to. I've seen all that stuff up there, the size of it, and I can't say a word. Aliens and spaceships and things, and we're the only people on planet earth who know they exist. And Astrid knows more, but she can't say either."
Right on cue, a spacecraft narrowly missed their heads as it fell out of the sky and they all have to duck down just in case. It was shaped a bit like a speed boat with fins out to the sides. But it was billowing black smoke and its flight path was chaotic at best. They were in a perfect position to watch as it careen off into the middle of London and hit Big Ben, causing the national monument to chime once in a death knell. The ship came to a stop with a great splash in the Thames River.
Rose and the Doctor got to their feet. The Doctor was grinning hugely as he laughed in delight. Rose was just flabbergasted as she said, "Oh, that's just not fair."
Astrid was on her feet, but her eyes were serious as she watched the ship fly. "Crap." Her English accent had completely vanished with that one spoken word. It was such a shock because after living in London for a year and being with the Doctor and watching Doctor Who and Torchwood, she had gotten really good at her accent to the point it was hardly noticeable. She rarely lost it since she was surrounded constantly by English accents it had become second nature. This was the first time the Doctor had heard her childhood accent from the Southern United States come through and it made him turn around instantly in shock.
The Doctor spun on the spot to see her face lit up with recognition. She met his eyes and her expression communicated easily that this was an occasion when she knew what would happen. The sorrow in her eyes said that people would die, possibly had already died, and the determination screamed that she would do everything she could to prevent as much as possible.
He gave a mental sigh since he knew eventually she would know things again, but shoved it to the side. He forced a grin, laughed softly, grabbed Rose's hand and pulled her off to the side. He grabbed Astrid's hand when he got close enough and then they were running. Right into the heart of London to get the best look possible.
It is complete mayhem on the bumper to bumper in every direction as far as you could see, people in and around their cars just milling about. Soldiers in uniforms of the army had blocked off the streets.
Rose observed the obvious, "We're miles from the center. The city must be grid locked. The whole of London must be closing down."
The Doctor, of course, was ecstatic. His grin hadn't left and he was laughing softly. "I know, I can't BELIEVE I'm here to see this! This is fantastic!" He gestured all around at the street.
Rose looked over, frowning. "Did you know this was going to happen?"
Yes, I did…I just had hoped I'd have more time. He put his arms behind his back. "Nope!"
"Do you recognize the ship?"
Yup. "Nope!"
"Do you know why it crashed?"
Yup. "Nope!" He still couldn't lose his grin.
"Oh, I'm so glad I've got you!"
"I bet you are! This is what I travel for, Rose! To see history happening right in front of us." He gestured again.
"Well, let's go and see it! Never mind the traffic, we've got the TARDIS!"
Astrid spoke up quietly from her position on the other side of the Doctor. "No. One spaceship is enough for London right now. Since the Chameleon Circuit is broken, it stays a blue box everywhere we go. He's been noticed. The people watching that spaceship will recognize his ship too. Very bad idea."
"So, history's happening and we're stuck here." Rose was very disgruntled and grouchy at her friend's pronouncement. Then, "What's a Chameleon Circuit?"
"It's the thingy that disguises his ship. It broke in the 1950s. Back then, there were Police Box's everywhere, so it really was a good disguise. Not so much anymore." Astrid grinned at the Doctor, who was looking very indignant over the dare idea that his ship wasn't in top condition.
Rose got an idea then and looked at her two companions. "We could always do what everybody else does." The Doctor gives her a questioning look so she continues. "We could watch it on TV." The Doctor has such a look on his face. Like it is an idea he never would have thought of.
Astrid couldn't help it. She laughed.
"Astrid?" The brunette looked up at her friend from her position in the armchair. The three of them were in the Tyler living room again and the TV was on to the local news channel. The Doctor was intently watching when Rose suddenly asked. "I know you recognized the ship. Can you tell us anything?"
"Now don't bug her, Rose. She's here to help change things, but she can't change them too much or space and time will come undone. Watch the news."
Astrid gave Rose an apologetic look and the blond nodded understandingly.
BBC News 24 was going on in the background. "Big Ben destroyed as a UFO crash lands in Central London. Police reinforcements are drafted in from across the country to control wide-spread panic, looting and civil disturbance. A state of national emergency has been declared. Tom Hitchinson is at the scene. The police urge the public not to panic. There's a help line number on screen right now if you're worried about friends or family. The army are sending divers into the wreck of the spaceship. No one knows what they're going to find."
Jackie came into the living room and spoke to one of their neighbors, Marianna. She handed a cup of tea to Rose and Astrid, completely ignoring all of them though. "I've got no choice! Either I make him welcome, or I run the risk of never seeing the two of them again." Marianna wasn't helping matters any as she spoke in admonishment to the two girls as well until both women's speeches turned into an incoherent babble.
"Oi! I'm trying to listen!" The Doctor glared at the two women peevishly over his shoulder.
The news narrator, having no clue of the angry conversation in one Tyler flat, continued with his dialogue. "... his current whereabouts. News is just coming in, we can go to Tom at the embankments."
They cut to a live reporter with a receding hairline, his face filling up most of the screen. "They've found a body."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows.
"It's unconfirmed but I'm being told a body has been found in the wreckage. A body of non-terrestrial origins. It's being brought ashore." The camera focused onto the other side of the Thames to a group of people carrying a kind of pallet with a white sheet covering whatever—or whoever—was under it.
The Doctor was distracted from the screen again as Jackie came into the room with a bottle of wine and another cup of tea. Between one glance over his shoulder and the next, the room had gone from four occupants to eight. All the neighbors coming together to watch the news. Jackie, being herself, was more interested in gossip than history. "Oh, guess who asked me out - Billy Crewe!" The Doctor shook his head in despair for the poor woman before focusing once more on the TV.
"Unconfirmed reports say that the body is of extra-terrestrial origin. An extraordinary event unfolding here live in Central London. The body is being transferred to a secure UNIT mortuary, whereabouts as yet unknown."
A small toddler had found the remote control and Astrid was forced to watch a stupid cook make a 'spaceship cake' as the Doctor wrestled with the child for control of the remote. Astrid was more interested in watching the exchange between them than the chef. He did eventually regain control and turned it back to BBC News 24, the toddler in his lap.
"We still don't know whether it's alive or dead. Whitehall is denying everything. But the body has been brought here, Albion Hospital, the roads closed off. It's the closest to the river." The reporter said as he stared intently into the camera.
The little boy hopped off the Doctor's lap and stood in front of the TV screen. The Doctor pointed violently sideways. "Go on!" The toddler wandered off. Astrid couldn't stop laughing at the image he presented. He won a war against millions of Daleks and barely wins against a toddler!
The reporter drew her attention back from the cute image of the Doctor with a kid. "I'm being told that... General Asquith is now entering the hospital. The building's evacuated. The patients have been moved out onto the streets. The police still won't confirm the presence of an alien body contained inside those walls..."
A different reporter came on the screen, 10 Downing Street in the background. "Mystery still surrounds their whereabouts of the prime minister. He's not been seen since the emergency began. The opposition are criticizing his lack of leadership. Hold on…" A fat man gets out of a black car. He was portly with black hair and a round face. He looked at all the cameras before entering the building. "Oh - that's Joseph Green, MP for Hartley Dale. He's chairman of the parliamentary commission on the monitoring of sugar standards in exported confectionary. With respect, hardly the most important person right now."
Astrid had always wondered, so she voiced it. "What does 'MP' mean? It comes up a lot in this…" She looks around at all the people eyeing her with disbelief. "What?"
Rose grinned at her friend. "You've lived in London a year and you don't know what 'MP' means?"
Astrid growled impressively before turning pleading eyes to her secret weapon. "Doctor! Rose's making fun of me!"
He looked back at the pair of them with a serious expression, but when he saw the two girls, he couldn't help but give a small smile. "Don't start a fight. It means 'member of parliament'."
Astrid frowned cutely. "Huh. No wonder I couldn't figure it out." The blond raised an eyebrow in question. "I'm an American. We have senators." Rose laughed.
They had been watching television for hours. It was night now and the Powell Estate was lit up. Astrid watched the Doctor try to slip out the back and Rose follow him. She rolled her eyes and slipped out the front.
Walking easily and at a jaunt leisure, she was waiting for the Doctor when he arrived, leaning up against the TARDIS's door. He was grinning like a Cheshire cat. "So, trouble?"
She brought up her hand and let it make an 'iffy' motion. "The next bit I hope to avoid is where you are going." She sighed. "I just hope that I can. He's not especially important, but all the same."
He gave her a serious expression. "You can't save everyone, Astrid. Don't try or you'll go mad. Do as much as you can, but you won't be able to save everyone all the time. Not even I can do that."
Astrid nodded her understanding and he pressed a TARDIS key on a chain into her hand. "Here. About time you had one." She smiled up at him and placed the chain around her neck. "Now. Let's go see that alien."
She laughed gaily as they both entered the TARDIS at a run, him grinning ear to ear. He does tend to do a lot of smiling, doesn't he? Never really noticed before, it's just the way he is. She watched as he smacked down a button, then a lever, and began to rotate a wheel. He grinned at her and his TARDIS as it started to move. She grabbed hold of the nearest banister just in case as they started to travel.
The console started to smoke and make sad whirring noises. Looking slightly put-out, the Doctor hit it a couple of times with a mallet after pressing more buttons on the opposite side of the console. Amazingly, this helps, and the Doctor kissed the hammer and gazed up at the console with a childish beam on his face. She openly laughed at him. "Maybe one day you can teach me how to fly and we won't have these kinds of problems."
He snorted in laughter before an odd look quickly came and went across his face, one she couldn't identify. "Alright. Fair enough." He pointed to a blue button. "Press that one."
"Really?" Her face lit up in a smile that made her eyes brighten as she jumped eagerly to follow his instructions on flying the TARDIS. She actually wasn't half bad, if a bit slow, as meticulous as she was to double check with him to be sure to hit the right thing.
They finally land and the Doctor is the first to go outside and finds himself in a incredibly small storeroom filled with junk. Junk in boxes on metal racks and junk on the walls in the form of posters. He looks a bit confused at the small space, but moves to one side so that she can come out before him and he closes the door behind.
Astrid goes to the door and watched by his side as he got out his sonic screwdriver. "I want you to know…even though I wrote all these down and watched them a lot, it has been a while since I've seen them. I don't remember everything, just the major stuff or things that made me laugh."
He gave her a reassuring smile. "It's more than I would have without you." He went back to trying to unlock the storeroom door by sonic and shushed the screwdriver's annoyingly loud buzz. She giggled.
The door finally unlocked and he put his sonic screwdriver away before opening it. What they find is about 20 soldiers wearing green uniforms and red hats in a break room, laughing and joking around. Ooh, he's cute! The soldiers paused; the room fell silent for a couple seconds. Then they all leapt to their feet, grabbed their guns, and pointed them at the Doctor and Astrid, who was peeking out from behind his jacket. The guns had flashlights attached, so their faces lit up.
The Doctor just grinned at the lot of them, not quite sure what to say when they all heard a scream. The smile was wiped from his face as he ran for the door. "Defense plan delta! Come on, move, move!" Astrid was right on his heels, the soldiers on hers.
They run down a deserted corridor. Astrid and the Doctor catch sight of Dr. Toshiko Sato cowering on the floor first. Her voice is disbelieving. "It's alive!"
The Doctor turns to the men behind him. "Spread out. Tell the perimeter it's a lock down."
Astrid added in her two cents worth. "Catch it unharmed." She used the tone she had heard her ex-military father use when bossing around subordinates at his job. Amazing what you learn from listening to your parents. I just hope the soldiers listen to me.
The Doctor doesn't question her, actually he gives the soldiers a look backing her up, but when he looks at her again, he sees something in her eyes and knows who she's trying to save. He runs to Dr. Sato's side and grabs her hands in his. The soldiers are still standing there, watching the odd man and woman. He glares and yells commandingly, "Do it!"
They ran off and started searching the building. The Doctor turns back to Dr. Sato. Blood was leaking out from under her hairline. "I swear it was dead." She whispered beseechingly.
The Doctor tried to keep the woman calm as he answered the unasked question, "Coma - shock - hibernation - anything. What does it look like?"
A clattering noise came from behind him and when he turns around, he sees Astrid kneeling down by a metal desk and holding out her hand. She was using the same voice that he had heard her use with James, the one that made her sound like a mother. "It's alright, sweetie. We won't hurt you. Come on out. It's okay."
The Doctor got onto his knees to join her when a small rattling sound was made. Going slowly so as not to frighten whatever she had seen, had known would be there, he crawled to her side and peered around behind the desk. That was how he saw the face of a pig in a flight suit, looking back at him. It snorted at him. Using his best 'I'm friendly' voice, the Doctor said, "Hello!" But he was too loud, too foreign.
The pig was terrified of the newcomer, it had just started to get used to the strange female. It squealed at such a high pitch that Astrid was wincing as it ran across and out of the room. The soldier standing outside the door brings his gun up in a ready position.
The Doctor called out; pointing to the soldier as he yelled, "Don't shoot!"
The pig ran along the corridor. The Doctor on its heels and Astrid on his. One of the soldiers from before points his gun at it and as it ran at him in terror, shoots before the Doctor or Astrid can stop him.
The Doctor ran through the clear plastic sheeting covering the corridor's entrance and demanded, "What did you do that for? It was scared!"
The soldier looks at him and to the pig in disbelief and incomprehension. The Doctor crouched by the pig and stroked its snout gently as it died. Astrid glared at the soldier as a single tear escaped her eyes. "It was terrified."
Dr. Sato, the Doctor, and Astrid were standing around the pig's body in the morgue. This time, the creature really was dead. Astrid was silent by the Doctor's side, her mind going ninety miles an hour, trying to figure out if there was anything else she could have done to prevent the poor pig's death. It was an innocent in all this.
Dr. Sato was talking in a relatively calm tone, "I just assumed that's what aliens look like. But you're saying it's an ordinary pig? From Earth?"
The Doctor explained further, his tone cold and hard with unrequited anger. He was really good at explaining things even at the most inopportune times. Lots of practice. "More like a mermaid. Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat and gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid. Now, someone's taken a pig, opened up its brain, stuck bits on... then they strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb. It must've been terrified. They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke."
Dr. Sato kept talking, staring intently at the pig. The Doctor tapped Astrid on the shoulder and tilted his head in the direction of the exit. She nodded and the left while Dr. Sato was so focused. "So it's a fake. A pretend. Like the mermaid. But the technology augmenting its brain... it's like nothing on Earth. It's alien…" Her voice faded from Astrid's hearing range as they run to the TARDIS.
The Doctor directed her again on how to fly. Her heart warmed with his show of trust and faith, helping a bit with the tragedy of the needless death. It wasn't long before they were touching down in the exact alley where they had been before. "You are getting better." He observed with a grin.
Rose entered the TARDIS where the Doctor was looking at the computer screen, Astrid peering over his shoulder on his right. They heard the door squeak and the Doctor didn't glance at her as Rose moved to his left. "Alright, so I lied! I went and had a look, but the whole crash landing's a fake - I thought so, it's just too perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben. Come on. So I thought let's go and have a look…"
Rose interrupted him with a soft, "My mum's here."
The door creaked open again and Jackie and Mickey enter. The Doctor looks around at the two newcomers and frowned. "Oh, that's JUSTwhat I need!" He pointed at Rose and almost poked her in the chest. "Don't you dare make this place domestic."
Mickey spoke up at this. "You ruined my life, Doctor." He pointed at the Doctor as the alien spun smoothly around to face the man. "They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you."
Jackie was by Mickey's side and for once hadn't said anything as she looked around in shock and bewilderment.
The Doctor looked at Rose with a frown. "See what I mean? Domestic!" He spun back to the computer screen, ignoring Mickey coming up behind him.
"I bet you don't even remember my name!" Mickey demanded.
The Doctor looks up and spins back. "Ricky."
"It's Mickey."
"No, it's Ricky."
"I think I know my own name."
"You THINKyou know your own name? How stupid are you?" Astrid tried desperately to laugh silently behind them, and was failing. I always loved that scene. Seeing it in real life is even funnier!
Jackie had apparently finally got the jist of what the TARDIS meant, and how the Doctor's manner of speaking indicated. She ran out of the TARDIS.
Rose called after her. "Mum, don't!" Since her mother didn't stop, she came back into the TARDIS, saying something that Astrid couldn't quite hear from her spot by the console. Rose came running back into the TARDIS and to the left side of the Doctor, Mickey peering over her shoulder. "That was a REALspaceship?"
The Doctor nodded absently, "Yep!"
"So, it's all a pack of lies? What is it then, are they invading?"
Mickey chimes in from behind them, his tone both curious and derisive. "Funny way to invade, putting the world on red alert."
The Doctor looked at him, his tone slightly impressed since this was the first intelligent thing that the boy had said since he had met him. "Good point!" He turned back to the computer screen. "So, what're they up to?"
He opened up a panel in the floor of the control room near the console, lay on his back with screwdriver in his mouth as he fiddled with wires above his head. Astrid knelt on the floor next to him, waiting to be of some use.
Mickey wandered over and peered curiously down at the Doctor. "So, what're you doing down there?"
The Doctor spoke with the sonic screwdriver in his mouth. "Ricky." Astrid giggled and leaned down to take it from between his teeth. He released it to be able to speak more clearly. "If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even begin to understand? "
"I suppose not…" Mickey was interrupted from continuing as the Doctor spoke over him.
"Well, shut it, then."
Mickey rolled his eyes, irked.
Astrid kept the screwdriver in hand, not really caring about the slobber, as Mickey wandered off to go talk to Rose after giving the alien the evil eye. The Doctor gave her a smirk and went back to his finagling. It took a few more minutes, Astrid right beside to hand him the screwdriver when he needed it, but finally with a shower of sparks, the Doctor grinned at her in triumph. "Got it! Haha!"
Rose moved to the other side of the console to join them.
"Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of the spaceship, here we go... hold on..." He gave the screen a good whack. "Come on!" As the graphic came up, he pointed out the circular path of the glowing dot. "That's the spaceship on its way to Earth... see? Except... hold on... see, the spaceship did a sling shot round the Earth before it landed." As he spoke, the picture disappeared before reappearing running backwards and the circular path began to be seen as a true perfect circle.
"What does that mean?"
"It means it came from Earth in the first place - it went up and came back down. Whoever those aliens are, they haven't just arrived. They've been here for a while. The question is, what have they been doing?" He checked with Rose's face to make sure she understood the implications.
The Doctor was switching the computer screen in its television mode from channel to channel when Mickey made himself annoying. "How many channels do you get?"
"You get sports channels?"
Astrid grimaced at such a Mickey-question. The end of the world is going to occur in 24 hours, and he's worried about watching soccer! She missed the Doctor's answer, but focused back on him when he pointed to the screen. "Hold on. I know that bloke."
A reporter off screen spoke. "It is looking likely that the government is bringing in alien specialists - those people who have devoted their lives to studying outer space." A group of people in military uniforms, different from the soldiers she had seen before, were walking down what looked like a hospital corridor before they disappeared off screen to the left.
"UNIT! United Nations Intelligence Task force - good people."
Rose was simply curious, "How do you know them?"
Mickey was smug as he was the one with the answers this time. "'Cos he's worked for them. Yeah, don't think I sat on my backside for twelve months, Doctor. I read up on you. You look deep enough on the Internet... and in the history books, and there's his name. Followed by a list of the dead."
The Doctor smiled in derision. "That's nice. Good boy, Ricky."
"If you know them, why don't you go and help?"
Astrid spoke this time in the Doctor's defense. "It's been a long time since then, Rose. He's changed a lot since. They wouldn't recognize him."
The Doctor gave her a slight grin in thanks, but he could stand up for himself. "Besides, the world's on a knife-edge. There's aliens out there and fake aliens." He went around the console, pushing buttons and directing Astrid to pull and push certain levers. It was a slow process, she might learn everything she needed to know to fly the TARDIS in about ten years at this rate. "We want to keep this alien out of the mix. I'm going undercover... and eh, better keep the TARDIS out of sight." He moved to the wooden door. "Rickey! You've got a car - you can do some driving."
Mickey was incredulous and disbelieving that he would ever help the alien that had taken his girlfriend. "Where to!"
"The roads are clearing. Let's go and have a look at that spaceship." The Doctor opened the door and stepped outside to the sound of helicopters and a searchlight was immediately on them.
A person on a loudspeaker or some kind of megaphone called out to them. "Do no move! Step away from the box!"
Police cars, sirens blaring furiously, and soldiers surrounded them, pointing guns at them and preventing their escape, not that Rose, Astrid, or the Doctor moved at all—except the Doctor did move his body slightly to put more of himself between the soldiers and the girls. Mickey makes a run for it though, managing to sneak by the soldiers since they focused on the Doctor and his companions. Jackie runs out of the Powell Estate flats and tries to get to Rose but two soldiers catch and restrain her.
She calls out to her daughters, "No! Rose! Astrid!"
Astrid could barely see Mickey hiding behind some dustbins and trashcans. Is there a difference between dustbins and trashcans? Or is it like biscuits and cookies? The Doctor, Astrid by his side, and Rose, by Astrid's side, are standing in the center looking slightly confused in the searchlight.
The man with the megaphone kept talking. "Raise your hands above your head! You are under arrest!"
The three of them obey when the Doctor opens his mouth. "Take me to your leader!" Rose rolled her eyes as Astrid groaned at the cliché while laughing softly.
"Do you have to provoke them?"
The Doctor and Rose rode in the back while Astrid took the passenger seat as they were driven off. Police cars were in front and in back of the black car they were in, the driver mute. Astrid was subsequently bored, so she closed her eyes, leaned back, and made herself comfortable as she listened to the conversation going on in the backseat. She knew it by heart anyway, it had always made her laugh.
"This is a bit posh. If I knew it was gonna be like this - being arrested - I'd have done it years ago."
"We're not being arrested, we're being escorted!"
"Where to?"
"Where'd you think? Downing Street!" The Doctor laughed, Rose joining him.
Astrid had always wanted to know what was so special about the address and when she asked as much, the pair in the back fell back into even more gales of laughter. She crossed her arms defensively and pouted at the man. The Doctor grinned at her widely, "It's the seat of government in Britain and home to the Prime Minister."
"Oh."
They cracked up again. The Doctor nods at her finally understanding and grins widely.
Rose asked curiously, "How come we are going there?"
The Doctor grew serious and a bit disgruntled. "I hate to say it, but Mickey was right. Over the years I've visited this planet a lot of times, and I've been, uh - noticed."
Rose was just as serious. "Now they need you?"
"Like it said on the news - they're gathering experts in alien knowledge. And who's the biggest expert of the lot?" He grinned expectantly at her.
"Patrick Moore?" Her face was completely straight, a perfect poker face.
The Doctor didn't know this of course and was completely indignant. "Apart from him!"
Rose grinned to show she was teasing as Astrid openly laughed from her position in the front passenger seat. "Ah, don't you just love it..."
"I'm telling you, Lloyd George - he used to drink me under the table. Who's the Prime Minister now?"
"How should I know? I missed a year."
"Don't look at me. I hate politics. I never watch the news. Way too damn depressing." Astrid chimed in.
The car pulled up outside 10 Downing Street amid the paparazzi and hundreds of police men. The Doctor got out of the car first and waves at them all, grinning manically as they called out for special shots and the reporters asked questions.
Rose smiled nervously and then looked up at 10 Downing Street. Her voice was barely above a whisper, "Oh my God!"
Quickly, they were all ushered inside one of the most important buildings in Britain.
Astrid and Rose stood on either side of the Doctor. One of the bad guys—Astrid couldn't remember her name, the one in the blue suit from MI5—was talking to Rose when she saw Harriet Jones make her way into the reception room. She could almost hear the standard greeting Harriet Jones had given all throughout the episode and grinned hugely.
Harriet drifted through the room and tried to look inconspicuous, all the time Astrid watching her movements. The secretary—Indra. His name is Indra.—comes into the room and calls out. "Ladies and Gentlemen, could we convene? Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right," he gestured as he made his way across the room and raised his hand with a card hanging on a chain, "and can I remind you, ID cards are to be worn at all times." He had managed to work his way across the room and handed the Doctor the card he carried. "Here's your ID card. I'm sorry, your companions don't have clearance." He finished, people moving around the four of them.
The Doctor was just stating a fact as he tried to slip the ID card around his neck with Astrid grabbed his arm. "I don't go anywhere without them." He looked intensely at her face and especially her eyes. It was something important. Dread was deep in her blue eyes, pleading with him to understand.
Indra saw the exchange but as a gentleman, didn't comment upon it. "You're the Code Nine, not them." Harriet Jones comes up behind Indra as the secretary kept talking. "I'm sorry, Doctor... it is the Doctor, isn't it? They'll have to stay outside."
The Doctor grabbed Astrid's shoulder in a reassuring grip. "They're staying with me."
Indra just tried to make the alien understand. "Look, even Idon't have clearance to go in there. I can't let them in and that's a fact."
Astrid leaned up to the Doctor, knowing this was the time when Indra would be occupied with Harriet, and whispered softly enough into his ear that not even Rose could hear her. "The Prime Minister is an alien in disguise. He's got the ID cards rigged. Be careful." The Doctor's face was utterly serious as he nodded in understanding and disappeared into the conference room.
Harriet's voice came into her awareness when Indra took Rose's arm to lead her to security. "It's alright. I'll look after them. Let me be of some use." She turned to Rose and Astrid. "Walk with me. Just keep walking..." They walked straight past the guards, holding machine guns, at the door. "That's right...don't look round! Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North." She held up her ID card and Astrid snorted in laughter.
They moved to the corridor and stood right below the stairs, Harriet stopping them to talk, trying to keep her cool and calm, but obviously upset. "This friend of yours... he's an expert, is that right? He knows about aliens?"
Astrid let Rose lead, knowing what the woman had seen. "Why do you wanna know?" But when Harriet broke down crying, Astrid held her gently, murmuring soothing nonsense into her ear.
Harriet led them up to the Cabinet Room and opened up the closet door, showing the two girls the skin/body suit of Oliver. They turned the body into a suit! A disguise for the thing inside!" Harriet broke down again, not that Astrid could blame her one bit. Though it is a bit weird, me comforting a woman old enough to be my mother.
Rose reassured her vocally, "It's alright! I believe you. It's... it's alien." She started to move around the room, searching. "They must have some SERIOUStechnology behind this... if we could find it..." She rummages around the room, pulling open cabinets and went to a door. "...we could use it." She opened up a cupboard and the body of a very slim, graying man fell out.
Rose and Harriet hurry to examine it. Astrid stood by the entrance door, her face a mask so as not to show any emotion. This episode…so much is out of my control. The Prime Minister was dead before we ever landed here yesterday. So were the people the Slitheen are wearing. I just hope I can make a small bit of difference.
Rose exclaimed in surprise, "Oh, my God! Is that…?"
When Indra entered the room, he was beyond exasperated. "Harriet, for God's sake! This has gone beyond a joke - you cannot just wander…" He froze as he spotted the body on the floor. "Oh, my God. That's the Prime Minister!"
"Ohhh!"
They all looked up to see the blue suited woman from before enter the Cabinet Room. Astrid grabbed Rose's arm in one hand and Harriet's in the other.
"Has someone been naughty?" They looked at each other as the blue suited woman—what is her name?—shut the door behind her.
Indra spoke insistently, "That's impossible. He left this afternoon. The Prime Minister left Downing Street, he was driven away!"
Margaret! Her name is Margaret! Margaret was smiling a bit evilly. That's actually rather good. I thought Dad had the best evil smile and evil laugh, but when faced with ACTUAL bad guys…it's much scarier. "And who told you that? Hmm?" Margaret walked up to the baffled Indra. "Me." Her voice was sickly sweet. Her right hand came up to her forehead and began to open up her head, like a zipper. The Slitheen began to shimmy out of the skin suit, and while the others in the room were shocked and frozen, Astrid gripped Rose's and Harriet's hands tightly, ready to run when the chance came.
Indra was the first to die when Margaret grabbed his neck, pulled him up against the curtains of the Cabinet Room at least two feet off the floor, and let gravity do the work as she literally choked the life out of him. I'm sorry, Indra. I'm so sorry…but given the choice…God help me, but I choose Rose. God help me!
[to be continued...]
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