15th March 2186 (Earth Calendar)
21:50 zulu
On board the TARDIS
"Ok.. Lets see.
Metal floor, breathable air.. Low frequency vibrations, so we're on a ship; FTL speeds I'd say."
"Luckily we've re-materialised in a medical bay."
"River, after over a thousand years of space and time I've learned one important thing; there is no such thing as luck.
Something brought us here, to this point in time"
You didn't always take me where I wanted to go.
No, but I always took you where you needed to go.
He rested on the railing and looked back at the centre console; the conversation with his TARDIS had taken place a long time ago, on a bubble planet outside the universe, and yet it came back unbidden.
"Did you bring me here?"
No response, well they'd only been able to talk the once. That was the problem, in the end they all left him; they moved on, or they died and only the Tardis remained.
He went to open the door, after all they did need supplies, and was greeted by a woman. She was slightly built and her green eyes blazed with fire.
"Who are you, how did you get on my ship?"
"Or 'Hello' as normal people say.
In answer to your first question, I'm the Doctor, and the second? well it takes a bit of time to explain..."
"Doctor who?"
Despite himself he smiled, he loved it when people asked, even if he sometimes pretended otherwise.
"We don't have the time for this; she'll die if she dosn't get attention soon."
River dragged the woman out of the TARDIS and into the medbay, and four of the people froze.
Is that guy eating scrambled eggs?
15th March 2186 (Earth Calendar)
22:15 zulu
On board the TARDIS
"There are an infinite number of different dimensions all packed together, and between them is the void. There was a time when my people could pop from one of these realities to the other and be back in time for dinner, but they're gone now. Travel between these realities is impossible now, but small stuff still slips through. Ideas, stories, things that don't have actual physical existence, but are still real."
It had taken a long time to calm Shepard down, even after Kir had pulled her away from the Doctor. Only Chakwas's calm demeanour had finally reassured Shepard that it was Ashley who was currently in the medical bay. The Doctor had been talking for nearly half an hour trying to explain what had happened.
"An old enemy of mine tried to destroy the entirety of reality. People, planets, stars transformed into dust. The dust broken down into atoms, and then the atoms, into nothingness. But I stopped him. The explosion never happened in my reality, so it never happened in others and the walls of the universe didn't break down."
"What about me then Doctor? I'm not exactly from this 'reality' either. And I sure as hell don't have a TARDIS."
"I don't know; How do you to FTL? Some people lower mass through dark energy, others skim dimensions."
"Hyperspace jumps."
".. Risky. If you get it wrong you could jump into a Sun or a black hole, but that could be why you ended up here.
Hyperspace is one of the skimming methods."
The Doctor looked around at the assembled group. Shepard, Garrus, Liara, Kir and EDI's mobile platform where all looking at him. Another droid was zooming about on it's three wheels warbling happily to itself.
"Now; this is a military ship, three of you are obviously armed forces of some kind, and all of you are on edge. What's going on in this galaxy."
"War"
Commander Shepard stared hard at both the Doctor and River Song. Her body language showed she obviously didn't trust them.
"We're at war for our very survival. Once every 50,000 years a machine race we know as the Reapers begin a cycle of extermination that wipes out the 'higher' lifeforms. Eight months ago I destroyed a proto-Reaper that was being constructed using the genetic material of liquidized human captives."
"We need your help Doctor."
The Doctor, Shepard and River all looked over at Kir.
"I can't. It isn't that simple. Time essentially exists in three states.. "
"Fixed points have to happen, Still points are when 'nothing major' is happening. But this is in flux, you know it better than I do."
There was more to this Kiran than met the eye, that much was obvious.
"I will not fight."
"I wasn't asking for you to fight; Time Lord. I was asking for you to help."
15th March 2186 (Earth Calendar)
23:00 zulu
On board the TARDIS
"Who is he River? You know don't you, you always know."
The Doctor wasn't angry but he wanted answers.
"Spoilers Doctor. Your own rules."
"My own rules?! Kiran knows more than he's letting on, is more than he's letting on."
"How do I die Doctor?"
He stopped mid pace.
"I can't.."
"You can't tell me how I die, and Kiran can't tell you what he knows. Not yet anyway.
But you will trust him Doctor."