Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Martha was watching Creet carefully as she followed him.

"Believe me," Rose said, jolting her from her thoughts, "travelling with the Doctor, you see a lot worse."

"I know but… he's so young. He shouldn't have to be working."

"I know what you mean. I met this alien, right. We were meant to be going to go see the 2012 Olympics, yeah, but… life with the Doctor is never that simple, is it?" Martha laughed in agreement, "Anyway, this thing was called the Isolus. They take a couple of thousand years to grow up, cast off from their mothers, just drifting through space."

"Poor things, don't they go mad?"

"That's what I thought but what they do is create their own little worlds where they can play."

"Cool, like in flight entertainment."

Rose lifted an eyebrow. She could see why the Doctor had chosen this girl.

"So come on! How did you get into all this? Rattling along with the Doctor?"

"I used to be ordinary enough. I was training to become a doctor myself. Still am if I ever pass my exams. Walking to work one day, family yakking down the phone at me, suddenly a man in a blue suit jumps out, takes off his tie and walks off."

"Wait, blue?"

"Yeah, why?"

"He never wore blue with me, only ever brow with blue pinstripes, like he's wearing now."

"He's only recently started wearing that one."

Rose furrowed her brow before shaking it off. It probably wasn't important.

"Anyway, I get to work, before I know it, the rain's going upwards and the hospital's sitting on the moon, being invaded by huge, rhino-headed creatures called Judoon searching for a blood-sucking little old lady and my mystery patient mister Smith, who when I examined, seemed to have two heartbeats, tells me he's an alien from another planet."

"Just a normal working day then!" Rose said brightly.

"Yeah, well who wants a normal day, eh?" Martha laughed. It was so weird. She had thought about meeting the "Great Rose Tyler" before, but never like this. She had imagined that they would be instant enemies, at each others throats in seconds, but this blonde woman was so easy to make friends with, and she was so much like the Doctor. It was the eyes. They were the same as his. Hers were a hazel brown instead of chocolate, but they possessed the same darkness. That same terrifying darkness that made you feel like you should run away and hide when they showed anger, but when they showed kindness and laughter, they told you that you could trust them with your life and never be let down.

"What about you?"

"Well, I wasn't as accomplished as you. I was nineteen, living in a flat with my mother in a dead-end job working in a shop. One day I'm about to leave when the security guy gets me to take the lottery money downstairs. Next thing I know I'm locked in a room with all these mannequins about to chop my head off. Suddenly a man in a leather jacket and a northern accent grabs my hand and tells me to run. We get outside, he asks me my name and tells me he's the Doctor and blows up the shop."

"Wait, what do you mean, "leather jacket and a northern accent"? The Doctor isn't either of those things."

"I was telling you before about how he regenerated after he left Jack behind. I guess he hasn't got round to telling you yet either. When a Time Lord is about to die, he can change his entire body, very single cell. But the thing is, he's still the same person, just looking different and, most of the time acting different as well. It's a bit like James Bond. You know how they always get different actors, but it's still the same person with the same memories and everything, just… different. Get it?"

Martha blinked several times; trying to understand everything she'd just been told. There was another aspect that the Doctor and Rose had in common. They both could talk at a million miles an hour and leave you completely dumbstruck. "I think so." She said finally, not really sure.

Jack and the Doctor were walking a few feet behind the girls, in a conversation of their own.

"Aren't you terrified?" Jack asked the Doctor, raising an eyebrow.

"Of what?"

"Mate, the missus and the ex. That is never a good combination."

"You should know." The Doctor threw back defensively.

"Actually, I know never to let two women I… know meet."

"Well, I don't know either of them in that respect. Rose and I… we never… and Martha is just my travelling companion. And she'll never be anything more than that. Anyway, what's the worst that could happen?"

Jack shook his head. Those words should never ever be said, especially by or around the Doctor. Both of them turned back to face the way they were walking, both of them stopping suddenly as they were confronted by Rose staring at the Doctor, arms crossed across her chest with a questioning look that terrified him more than almost anything ever had before.

"Who's Joan?" she asked in a carefully level voice.

The Doctor swallowed hard, his voice rising in pitch as he called over her shoulder to the fast-walking figure of the other woman. "Martha? Can I have a word?"

They turned a corner into a dark, foul smelling corridor. People dressed in filthy rags and smudged faces looked up at them from their positions, sitting the floor on either side of them.

"It's like a refugee camp." Martha said quietly.

"Stinking!" Jack said bluntly, his face contorted into a grimace. A large, burly man growled at him, lip curled in challenge, "Oh, sorry, no offence, not you."

"But don't you get it?" the Doctor said, ignoring the predicament the ex-Time Agent had got himself into, "The ripe old smell of humans, you survive! Oh, you might have spent a million years evolving into clouds of gas… and another as downloads," he gave Rose a significant look, "but you've always elected the same basic shape. The fundamental humans. End of the universe, here you are! Indomitable!" He threw his arms around both Martha's and Rose's shoulders, pulling them in for a brief hug, "That's the word! Indomitable!"

"Still goes on a bit, doesn't he?" Rose said to Martha, making the other woman laugh.

"You're telling me! Has he actually ever stopped talking?"

"Not in this body!"

All the time Creet and Padrafesh had been calling out the names of the man's family, when suddenly a woman stood up.

"That's me." Her eyes lit up, her hand coming up to cover her moth in shock.

"Mother!"

"Oh my God!" Kistane gasped as her son flung himself into her arms and his brother patted him on the back.

"It's not all bad news!" Martha said, a grin spreading across her face as she watched the happy reunion.

Jack, meanwhile, had already round his own interest.

"Captain Jack Harkness," he offered as an attractive man stood up, taking each others hands "and who are you?"

"Stop it!" both the Doctor and Rose warned at the same time.

Jack was about to argue until he saw that the Doctor was sonicking a keypad.

"Give us a hand with this. Half dead locks, see if you can override the code."

Jack patted the man's hand before going to help the Doctor, tapping in numbers while the Time Lord ran the sonic around the outside of the door. The stone started sliding open.

"Let's see where we are."

Just like the Doctor, he didn't look before he stepped out, so he didn't notice the sheer drop he was walking into. Luckily for him, both Rose and Jack, having both spent their time travelling with the Doctor and working in their respective Torchwoods, were there to grab him and pull him back.

"We've got you!" they said in unison.

"Thanks."

"How survive without us?" Rose said raising an eyebrow, to which the Doctor grinned.

"Now that is what I call a rocket!" Martha said in awe.

"They're not as good as they make em' seem on telly." Rose scoffed, "I should know!"

"They're not refugees, they're passengers."

"He said they were going to Utopia." Rose offered.

"The perfect place. One hundred trillion years it's the same old dream." The Doctor's eyebrows furrowed together as he looked down towards the bottom of the huge rocket, "Do you recognise those engines?"

"Nope." Jack said, he being the only one that it could apply to, "What ever it is, it's not rocket science. It's hot though."

"Boiling."

Rose rolled her eyes. The Doctor, as ever, ignoring Jack's constant stream of innuendo.

The Doctor pulled back, everyone following suite.

"But if the universe is falling apart, what does Utopia mean?" he asked, puzzlement etched into his features as a white haired old man came running out of nowhere at surprising speed. He stopped in front of them, pointing between the two men, undecided. His finger stopped in front of Jack.

"The Doctor?" he enquired.

"That's me!" the real Doctor said as Jack pointed.

The man's eyes lit up as he grabbed the Doctor's hand, "Oh good, good, good!"

"Good?" asked the Doctor as the man started pulling him away, the others following, quizzical looks passing between them.

"Good, good good good! Good!"

The Doctor turned to his companions, bemused grin playing across his face.

"Good apparently."

"Even at the end of the universe you're still a wanted man eh Doctor?" Rose joked, following closely.

As they speeded past, nobody noticed the woman who was watching them, her eyes narrowed as she bared her jagged, pointed teeth, hissing quietly. She had a job to do.

As they walked into the laboratory, the old man still dragging the Doctor after him, they were greeted by a woman who seemed to be part insect, her blue face kind, but accompanied by strange mandibles protruding from her jaw line and antenna from her forehead.

"Chan welcome tho!" she said brightly.

The Professor, however, ignored his work colleague's greeting, too anxious to get help from this mysterious "Doctor."

"This is the graventisimal accelerator…"

As the Doctor's companions entered the laboratory Chantho repeated,

"Chan welcome tho!"

"And over here is the footprint impellor system…" the Professor continued, dashing around the room, showing the Doctor random pieces of machinery.

"Um… hello?" Martha said uncertainly. "Who are you?"

"Chan Chantho tho."

"But we can't get it to harmonise…" the Professor continued.

"Captain Jack Harkness." Jack said, classic American grin in place.

"Stop it!" Rose and the Doctor warned again.

Jack's on a roll today! Rose thought, grinning and shaking her head.

"Can't I say hello to anyone?" Jack protested.

"No,' Rose supplied with a cheeky grin.

"Chan I do not protest tho!" Chantho argued.

"Maybe later blue." Jack winked suggestively.

"Not on my watch, Jack Harkness. This is why I came with you. To protect the universe from gigolo Jack."

Jack ignored her, walking past her and rubbing his hands together "So! What have we got here?"

"And all this feeds into the rocket?" the Doctor asked, looking surprisingly unsure.

"What's that?" Martha asked, following Jack down towards a seating area, leaving Rose watching the Doctor.

"Yes, except without a stable footprint we can never achieve escape velocity. If only we could… harmonise the five impact patterns and… unify them… we may yet make it." The Professor turned to face the Doctor hopefully, "what do you think Doctor? Any idea?"

"Well, basically," the Doctor said turning on the spot, "Sort of… not a clue."

The Professor looked at him, taken aback, "Nothing?"

"I'm not from around these parts, I've never seen a system like it" the Professor looked away sadly "I'm sorry."

"No no I'm sorry. I've been so little help-"

"Oh my God!" Martha interrupted and everyone turned to look at her, Jack moving forward with an uncomfortable look on his face, "You've got a hand!" the Doctor ran over, sitting down as Martha put a small tank on the table in front of him. "A hand in a jar! A hand, in a jar, in your bag!"

"But that, that, that that's my hand!" the Doctor said, his voice rising a pitch or two.

"I said I had a Doctor Detector." Jack said calmly.

"Chan is this a tradition amongst your people tho?" Chantho asked, eyes wide.

"Not on my street, what do you mean that's your hand, you've got both your hands, I can see them."

"Long story. I lost my hand, Christmas day, in a sorta fight." The Doctor explained.

"What and you just… grew another hand?" Martha joked.

"Um… yeah, yeah yeah yeah!" he answered calmly, Martha's grin disappearing.

"God that hand of your's still gives me the creeps!" Rose put in, nodding to the Doctor's still attached hand.

"Hello!" he grinned cheekily, waggling his hands at both the girls. His grin was soon wiped off his face as Rose slapped him over the top of his head before turning to Jack.

"I always wondered what you were using to track him down. I thought it was your wrist… er… computer… erm."

"Vortex Manipulator?"

"That's it!"

"Come on Rosie, at least it's not as bad as Raxacoricofallapatorius."

"Ya what?" Martha asked.

"You know when you asked about the earthquake in Cardiff, and I mentioned the Slitheen? " Martha nodded dumbly, "that's their planet."

"God do you remember that stink!" Jack laughed.

"What are you complaining about, you didn't have her bloody great claws around your throat! It's a good job I couldn't breathe, I think I would have passed out from the smell!" Rose laughed.

"Not as bad as Max!" the Doctor commented.

"Oh I'd forgotten Max!" Rose agreed, "Now that was a long name!"

"Excuse me, what species are you?" the Professor asked.

"Time Lord." The Doctor said, sobering, "Last of." The Professor's and Chantho's faces looked vacant, the name meaning nothing to them, "Anyone? Anything?" they shook their heads, "Not even a myth, blimey, end of the universe is a bit humbling."

"Oh no, the Doctor's in a moody!" Rose said in a sing-song voice designed especially to test his nerves.

"I'm not… I do not get… I am not a moody person, thank you miss Tyler."

"Ha!" said both Jack and Rose before Jack continued, "First time I met you, you were in mood for a week 'cause I got to dance with Rose before you did!"

"Correction;" the Doctor conceded after a moment, "I'm not moody anymore."

"Chan it is said I am the last of my kind too tho."

"Sorry, what was your name?"

"My assistant," the Professor said quickly, "and good friend Chantho, a survivor of the Malmooth, this was their planet Baltazero, before we took refuge."

"The city outside, that was yours?" the Doctor asked.

"Chan the conglomeration died tho." She answered sadly.

"Conglomeration, that's what I said!" he sat back, his voice triumphant.

"Doctor," Rose said, "you're supposed to say sorry."

"Oh, yes," he suddenly looked serious, "sorry."

"Chan most grateful tho."

"You… grew another hand?" Martha asked, still stunned.

"Hello again." The Doctor said, waggling his fingers again, before ducking under Rose's hand as it flew over his head and sticking his tongue out at her.

Rose raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you really want to be doing that? You were lucky when your hand was chopped off, but I don't think you're gonna be able to grow that tongue back. So unless you want to find out, I'd put it away."

The Doctor looked like a little kid, withdrawing his tongue and shuffling his feet.

"Is Rose his companion or his mum?" Martha whispered to Jack.

"I think you were right before when you said they were like an old married couple."

Jack raised his voice, talking to the Professor.

"What about the things outside, the beastie boys? What are they?"

"We call them the Futurekind, which is a myth in itself. But it's feared that they are what we will become. Unless we find Utopia."

"And Utopia is…?" the Doctor asked.

"Oh every human knows of Utopia," the Professor laughed, "where have you been?"

"Bit of a hermit." The Doctor replied nonchalantly.

"Oh, a hermit? With, er, friends?" the Professor questioned.

"Hermits united." The Doctor replied, "We meet up, every ten years, talk about caves, it's good fun… for a hermit. So…um, Utopia is?"

The Professor raised an eyebrow, crooking a finger. He lead them to an ancient looking computer, inserting a disk. The screen was like ones Rose and Martha had seen in old films, black and green shapes swirling and disappearing. The Professor pointed to a dot that stayed, blinking.

"The call came from across the stars, over and over again; come to Utopia, originating from that point."

"Where is that?" the Doctor asked.

"Oh, it's far beyond the condensed wilderness. Out towards the wild lands and the dark matter reefs, calling us in, the last of the humans, scattered across the night."

Rose watched the old man talking, listening to him carefully. The way he talked, she knew that he would make a fantastic storyteller. She suddenly felt as if she was back when she was six years old, sitting cross-legged in front of granddad Prentice's old chair, getting ready for another fairytale about princesses and dragons.

The Doctor's words brought her back to the real world, her eyes coming back into focus. Those days were long gone. She wasn't that little girl anymore. In fact she wasn't even that person anymore.

"What do you think's out there?"

"We cannot know. A colony, a city, some sort of haven. The science foundation set up the Utopia project, thousands of years ago to preserve mankind, to find a way of surviving beyond the collapse of reality itself, and perhaps they found it. Perhaps not." He leaned over dramatically, "But it's worth a look, don't you think?"

The Doctor grinned up at the older looking man, "Oh yes."

The Doctor's next words, however, were blocked out as the Professor's eyes went out of focus.

"Professor?" the Doctor said, noticing something wrong, but the word didn't even get through.

The drums.

They were back, but they were even louder than ever before.

"Professor?"

Dum-dum-dum-dum, dum-dum-dum-dum, dum-dum-dum-dum.

"Professor?" finally the Doctor's words got through, bringing the Professor back to the world.

"Right," he said, shaking himself, "that's enough talk, there's work to do, so if you could leave, thank you?"

"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked, worry evident in his face.

"Yes, fine, and busy." The Professor assured him, walking over to his work station.

"Except…" the Doctor said, standing up, "that rocket's not gonna fly, is it? This footprint… mechanism… thing. It's not working.

"We'll find a way." The old man insisted.

"You're stuck on this planet." He moved forwards, leaning over a computer as realisation dawned, "and you haven't told them, have you? That lot out there, they still think they're gonna fly."

The Professor sat down heavily, downcast, "Well, it's better to let them live hope."

"Quiet right too!" the Doctor beamed, thumping his hand on the computer, making the Professor look up, "And I must say, Professor… what was it?"

"Yana."

"Professor Yana." He shook his arms out of his coat, Jack stepping forward to take hold of it and folding it over his arm, "This new science is way beyond me, but anyway, a boost reversal circuit, in any timeframe must be… a circuit that reverses the boost… so I wonder what would happen…" he took the equipment out of the man's hand, fishing in his inside pocket for the sonic screwdriver, "If I did this?"

He gave the thing a quick zap, before pulling a handle. Suddenly the laboratory was filled with the sound of an alarm blaring, red lights flashing.

"Chan it's working tho!" Chantho laughed joyfully, looking around.

"Well, how did you do that?" the Professor spluttered.

"Well, as we were chatting away I forgot to mention; I'm brilliant!"

"Not big-headed at all, is he?" Rose said sarcastically.