Chapter Thirteen
In Which Something Strange is Revealed
The next thing she knew, Rose was standing in the middle of a lush jungle. Above was the chatter of birds. Somewhere to the right, she could hear the splashing of a stream, and, farther away, the roar of a waterfall. Tall plants swayed as forest creatures made their way along the floor. The whole scene seemed to glow with the vibrant coloring of the world they had entered.
"This way," said Izzy, tugging gently on her sleeve. Rose followed, looking around in amazement. A huge butterfly, each wing as big as one of her hands and colored with blue, gold, and black, fluttered past. A strange bird with a high warbling cry, scarlet feathers, and a long trailing tail swooped overhead. She couldn't stop staring at the vast collection of alien wildlife.
"What is this planet?" she asked.
"It's—hold on, I've no idea, I'd better find out now. We'll have to send a team back here..." Izzy pulled out what looked like a very small book and flipped it open. Rose looked over her shoulder. The pages were paper-thin screens. Izzy flicked through them lightning-fast, then stopped at a "page" showing a picture of stars. She tapped the screen and it focused on a green-and-silver planet labeled Arainia. "Arainia, apparently."
"I'll have to tell the Doctor to take me here again, sometime," Rose said.
"Yeah," Izzy agreed, "but the Doctor in danger aside, this isn't the best time for sightseeing."
"Is there something dangerous here?"
She whistled. "Is there ever!"
"Chronis?"
"Yeah. I'm sure it is. He—the Doctor, I mean—he's been doing exactly what Tyira told him not to do and looking for the spatial-temporal shifter disruption pattern in the vortex. Chronis is all over the place, you know—Her Ladyship says we should be glad for the help. Course, she doesn't know who's helping us out, now, does she? She sure isn't a respecter! Anyway, though, I think Tyira's only annoyed cause she thinks the Doctor's going to get at Anatrius before she can, am I right?"
"You've decided on a nickname," Rose observed.
"Yeah, well, both of you were calling her that, so I figured it's less confusing for everyone that way."
"Makes sense." Rose caught a glimpse of dark blue through the trees and pushed through the undergrowth to the door of the TARDIS.
"He's in there," said Izzy, bouncing from one foot to the other nervously and tugging on her hair. "With my help, he barely could make it back. He collapsed, and then I could get in. Force field was keeping me out, see."
"That's strange," said Rose.
"Yeah, it is, a bit," agreed Izzy with a frown. "I didn't think TARDISes were supposed to do that. Maybe they just keep people out if they don't have permission?"
"That can't be it," Rose said, shaking her head. "Someone got in, a day or two ago, and messed with her. Enough that she wasn't talking to the Doctor."
"That'd explain it then, wouldn't it?" asked Izzy. "She's only letting in people she knows and trusts, because some stranger broke in and tampered with her circuits."
"Makes sense," agreed Rose, then hesitated. "We've got no force field."
"No, but it's not like there are Daleks here," said Izzy impatiently. "Go in, hurry. He might be dying!" At this, a flicker of fear crossed her face.
"Right." Rose threw the doors open and ran inside.
The Doctor was in bad shape. He lay on his back, barely breathing. Rose laid a hand on his chest, first on the left, then on the right. His right heart was weak and stuttering. His left heart wasn't beating at all.
"He's in trouble," Rose breathed. "Izzy, go to the med bay, and hurry. You're more likely to recognize stuff than me—you probably have a lot of the same at your base, or whatever."
"Gotchya. I'm on it, Captain." With that, she was gone.
Rose sat back on her heels. What could she do next? See what was wrong, that seemed reasonable. She had no idea, but it stood to reason that since she couldn't see any damage to his head or his throat, those two weak points were fine. His heart, then. His left—that made sense. She fumbled with the buttons on his shirt, her fingers heavy and clumsy. Why was it that humans were less capable when the situation was more desperate? She was pretty sure that in a crisis, the Doctor would think faster, move faster, act faster. Why couldn't she?
She got his jacket and shirt undone and checked to see any sign of injury. Nothing. Wait—there. Just left of his heart. It looked like a burn. A laser?
"A laser," she breathed. It's not like there are Daleks here, Izzy had said. It looked like she'd been wrong.
"Rose!"
At the sound of Izzy's voice, Rose turned, and saw something flash in the light as Izzy threw it to the floor. Glass shattered upwards and outwards. For a second, there was nothing. Then, gold glowed like a blanket over the Doctor.
"Nanogenes," Rose said. "Izzy, you're a genius!"
But nothing was happening. The nanogenes buzzed around, confused. They formed a bridge to Rose, then darted away, swarming around the Doctor, but not healing him.
"Oi!" shouted Izzy. "Over here! Nanogenes! If you don't know how to fix him, figure it out from me!"
"Izzy, that's not going to work," said Rose, sighing. "Even though you are a Time Lord, your genetics won't be similar enough. They'll only fix him if they have the DNA from his family, no one else's will be close enough--"
The nanogenes had swarmed Izzy anyways. They ran over her for a moment, then swept back to the Doctor. Rose frowned, and then her eyes widened as she heard his breathing deepen. She laid her hands against his hearts and felt them both beating, much more healthily. He stirred, ever so slightly, but didn't wake.
Rose and Izzy looked at each other."When you said that, I remembered I'd learned about nanogenes before," Izzy said. "You're right. They shouldn't have accepted my DNA as a match for his."
They stared from each other to the Doctor and back for a few minutes, then Rose shook her head.
"Let's take him to his room," she said. "Come on, you'll have to help me. As skinny as he is, he's not light."
"Yeah, I know. I did drag him in here when he passed out."
The two of them half-pulled, half-carried the unconscious Doctor down the hall and into one of the rooms the Rose hadn't ever seen before. It was dim, the only light coming in from the open door. Between them and the wall was a desk, cluttered with books and notes. A lamp sat dangerously close to the edge, and next to it lay the discarded peel of a banana. In the far corner was a table, strewn with tools and bits of machinery, in various stages of disassembly. In the other corner was the headboard of the bed.
"Likes to take things apart, doesn't he?" asked Izzy softly as she looked around.
"Yeah." Rose pulled the Doctor halfway onto the bed and moved a notebook, a pen, and a plate with a half-eaten sandwich onto the floor. "Let him rest. Maybe when he wakes up, he can tell us why the nanogenes accepted your DNA."
"Let's have some tea," said Izzy.
They retreated to the kitchen. This, at least, was much tidier than the Doctor's room. Perhaps that was because no one came in here but to make and have their tea. The countertops were so clean they shone, and the copper kettle sat ready for use.
Rose made the tea, and they returned to the console room. "It's just very strange," said Izzy, frowning. "I mean, under normal circumstances, the nanogenes would just want to see any old Time Lord. But if they've already got information from an injured one, they'd want a close genetic match to be sure they get it right."
"Weird," agreed Rose.
Izzy threw herself down into the pilot chair and swung her feet onto the console. "So," she said. "Tell me about your adventures."
"Well, it all started in the basement of the shop I was working at," said Rose, sitting on the railing. "There were these shop dummies, you know, the plastic ones. We had a million of 'em in the basement see, and suddenly they all come to life and start attacking me. Scared me out of my mind, that did. And then the Doctor comes up—he's regenerated since then, back then he had real short hair and... well...big ears, yeah? Bigger, too, but that's hardly surprising."
Izzy leaned forwards, fascinated. "And he killed them?"
"Nah, he didn't kill them. He grabbed my hand and said, "Run!" So we ran. And then..." She began to laugh. "He blew up the shop. It was Friday afternoon, see, everyone'd gone home, and so he set an explosive and we ran for it."
"He's got something about blowing things up, hasn't he?" asked Izzy, grinning.
"Yeah, he has, a bit." Rose tipped her cup and the last few drops of bitter tea, with the hint of sugar and a dash of milk to take the bite from it, ran down the white china and fell onto her tongue. "Tell me about what you get up to. You haven't regenerated yet, I'd guess?"
"Actually, I have," said Izzy, draining her cup. "I bet I'm one of the only Time Lords who's ever regenerated before she settled—that's when you get old enough that you dead end, stop changing, stay the same until your regenerate, hm? Me, I used to have red hair—no, not red. Scarlet, like that bird you saw. Scarlet hair, longer than it is now, and all wavy."
"How did you regenerate?"
"Well," Izzy said, tilting the chair back, "there was a fire, see, that I, er, fell into. Actually, I jumped in, to save a little girl from the raging flames! Because some, ah, locals...they didn't know how to save her, see, so I ran in and --"
Before she could finish, there was a sound like an explosion. The doors flew open, and Izzy shrieked piercingly. Rose covered her ears with her hands, but didn't dare to lower her eyes. Death was at the door.
Slowly, too slowly, it advanced, its sight fixed not on Rose, not on Izzy, but on the console. Rose wasn't really surprised, though she certainly was frightened. She'd thought that the TARDIS was safe, but here they were, with the danger right inside. Yet somehow, all she could think of was how annoying could they be? She'd had enough of them to last her quite a while in London.
She pulled Izzy back, and they pressed themselves back against the far wall as the Dalek drew closer.
A/N: Oooh! I think I must be famous on for my cliffhanger endings. Not meaning to sound too boastful, but they make ME excited, and I know what's going to happen! Please, please, if you like it, review! And if you don't like it, review! Tell me why, so I can FIX it, dang it! And if you hate it...well...don't read it then! :P I hope no one hates it, though. I like it lots.