Present, Time Vortex
The TARDIS was quiet. Normally the time rotor would be humming as it rose and fell, the sound of adventure. But now it was still as they drifted along through space. The Doctor tapped his foot impatiently, eager for some excitement. In a vain effort to make things move along, he reached out to push his closest piece a space forward but received an icy glare from Rose.
"But I don't play chess."
"Well you're going to today like you promised." Rose Tyler Sigma, all Time Lady and even more frustrating, finally slid her queen forward and released her two-fingered grip on it. "Your move."
"And humans actually do this for fun," he mused aloud as he moved a pawn forward. "For fun."
Rose kept her eyes on the board, surveying all her possible moves. "Well for someone who finds throwing himself into trouble fun…" she looked up when an alarm sounded. Her eyes narrowed at the Doctor. "Did you…?"
"Nope!" The Doctor hopped up, moving around the console to get a glimpse of the TARDIS' exterior on a screen. "I would never intentionally tell the TARDIS to make up trouble. We've got another ship inbound." He frowned, tapping some keys to get a better angle. "If I didn't know better, I'd say it was galactic law enforcement, but I haven't done anything."
Rose raised an eyebrow.
"Not lately," he corrected. "In fact, you should keep a low profile until we know what they want. After that whole business with the Master making you a Time Lady, who knows how many rules he broke." *
She was already dumping the chess game back into its back and retreating down the hall into a hidey hole the TARDIS would provide for her. "Be careful."
The Doctor paced around the console, hands twitching at his sides for a weapon he swore he'd never use. His dealings with the Shadow Proclamation had been less than friendly on a number of occasions. Like the Gallifreyan Council, they were extreme, ruthless and stubborn. Especially their top enforcer agents, rhino-headed Judoon that were storming into his TARDIS with every single blaster barrel directed at him.
"Now that is unnecessary." He held up his hands to show there wasn't a weapon hidden in them. Well, there was his sonic screwdriver but these bull-headed mercenaries didn't need to know about that.
"The Doctor will come peacefully and no damage will come to his ship."
"The Doctor will not. I've been behaving, at least according to your rules." He took a few steps closer, hands clasped behind his back, to show he wasn't the least bit intimidated by their weapons. "Let me guess, you restricted this part of the Time Vortex just because I was happening to fly by. Still sore about that little business on the moon and getting picked apart by the Shadow Proclamation when they found out you endangered dozens of innocent humans?" (DW, S3 Smith and Jones)
The leader Judoon's nostrils twitched in irritation.
"Thought so. Now, if you won't mind me being a sore host, I'd appreciate if you all marched out of my time machine so I can go save the world."
The Doctor will be detained until justice is administered.
The Doctor stopped cold, both fear and angry rooting him to the spot. He hadn't heard that voice for nearly seven hundred years but it was still all too soon. "Is it time already?"
Gort was every bit as impassive as the first time they'd met, but the Doctor knew what the metal monster was capable of. You will come or I will destroy your TARDIS.
With extreme pleasure too. He'd love to laugh in their faces and do something clever to sweep them all out but there was Rose now.
Slowly, Gort's visor slid up and a spark of light narrowed into a beam of energy which struck the TARDIS console.
"What are you doing to my TARDIS?!" Alarms blared, signaling that Gort had done the damage he intended. "Get out! Get out now!" The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the doors. "If I deactivate the protective shields and open that door, not even you'll be able to survive raw space. I'm warning you… get out right now or I will do it." He stared down Gort, refusing to back down an inch. "This is about 3056, isn't it? You're trying to take me out so there's no one left to stop you from committing planetary genocide."
Correct.
"Then I'm not sorry." Without taking his eyes off Gort, the Doctor aimed his sonic at the console. Behind the Judoon and Gort, the TARDIS door flew open. The protective shields down, the empty vacuum of space sucked greedily into the ship. Gort clomped forward, an invisible force anchoring him to the floor as the Doctor made a dive for the closest level and clung with all his strength.
Nor am I.
Her time circuits damaged from Gort's blast, the TARDIS streaked through the time vortex. The cloister bells echoed through the halls as Rose dashed from the control room. Ever since she'd absorbed the time vortex, a small part of it had remained in her and made her more aware of the TARDIS… like now, she could feel the ship's pain.
"Where are you taking me?! We have to save the Doctor!" Rose skidded into the control room, nearly colliding into a support beam before the TARDIS righted herself with an effort. But that last effort cost the TARDIS her last ounce of control when she plummeted headlong from space into the atmosphere.
Earth 2036
Jamie stared, mesmerized, by all the colors and motions around him, as he tried to see everything at once. He stood of to the side so as not to get caught in the bustle of the crowds. His eyes wandered from the people, to the signs, to the marketplace stalls, to the shops and the ships flying overhead. All the noise and movement made him dizzy, but it was the good kind.
"Hey" a pert female voice prompted Jamie to turn around. A bright-eyed brunette watched him keenly as she leaned over her marker stall. "You're new here, aren't you?" she cocked her head slightly, a smile spreading across her face.
"I might be," said Jamie guardedly.
"Which side are you on?" her smile faded. "Are you one of the government agents come to spy on us?"
"Huh?"
"You heard me. Think you're so high and mighty, don't you. Sitting up there in the fortress as we slave away. They'd blend in about as well as you are," she said, staring as his kilt and highland clothes. "What in the five systems are you wearing?"
"Hey" Jamie's voice took on a tone of warning. "Whatever's wrong with my clothes?"
"If you're trying to disguise, you're doing it very badly."
"I'm not in disguise. This is what I always wear- uh, or something like it" he amended. He drew up dignantly. "Country pride and all that. Haven't you got patriotism in this time?"
"In this time?" she repeated quizzically. "You're talking like you don't belong here."
"Well. There's an awful good reason for that if you bothered to listen."
"I take it you're not working for the government then."
Jamie bristled at the assumption. "Me working for them? Not me. I'm a Scot," he said, jerking a thumb at himself. "I don't even belong here! Look, I came with a friend called the Doctor in the TARDIS and I have no idea about any government here."
The brunette gave him a long appraising look, sizing him up. "Alright. I'll believe you." She thrust out her hand. "My name's Kaylee."
"Jamie" he responded, giving her hand a shake. "So tell me about this government."
"What's there to tell? The people in control established a total monopoly of the planet- we haven't been able to do anything about it for years."
"Couldn't you all just hop in your spaceships and fly away?"
"If only it were that simple. They monitor all the spaceports so I can only wonder how you got here."
"We didn't actually come in a proper ship- not like the kind you're used to anyway. It looks different." Jamie thought fast. "What if I could get you off?"
"You hardly know me."
"So?" he wouldn't be deterred. "You could get a life off here to anywhere, if it's as bad as all that."
"I'm not leaving till the situation is resolved," retorted Kaylee. "We've been building up weapons and we're going to strike. Tonight. Are you with us?"
Jamie knew the Doctor would be very cross indeed when he found out, but he wasn't thinking about that. "Yeah, I'm in."
Kaylee smiled as they walked, almost hand in hand, down the streets taking in all the sights. "You know, for all the time I've been here, it's been all about the revolution and I never got the chance to really live,"
"Oh look at that!" Jamie steered her over to watch a troupe of dancers. "Aren't they great? Hey…I bet we could manage something. C'mon"
Kaylee laughed helplessly. "But we just met. You've got more than your share of determination if you think we could ad-lib something like…"
"Just watch me. Do what I do. It's easy." Jamie began a simple version of the highland fling, humming a native Scottish melody as he performed the steps. Glancing sideways at Kaylee, he cracked a grin when he say her copying his actions. "Hey…you're doin' it!"
An accompaniment to their dancing struck up in the lively tune of strings and recorder when the members of the dance troupe had stopped their own activities to watch the couple. They began clapping in time, while their hoots of encouragement penetrated the lively tune playing.
For Jamie, the dance and the music were a little bit of home to him. Not that he wanted to be through traveling with the Doctor, but he kept rather high ideals of home loyalty. "Hey, you're a right Scottish lass," he said in a whispered praise to his dance companion.
"I'm ready to take it further," she replied challengingly.
"You're on!"
Both of them danced up a storm, feet moving faster than they thought possible. Jamie linked arms with Kaylee and they danced in a circle, first one way then the other. Smiling…laughing…
When they finally came to a halt, too dizzy to manage anymore, the music gave way to a round of enthusiastic cheering.
"Whatta show! You kids aren't bad at all." The troupe leader tossed Jamie a recorder. "A bit more practice and you'll be able to take it on the road. If you ever want to hook up with us, we won't mind any!"
Jamie glanced at the recorder, awed. "Gee thanks. Be seeing you around then" he waved back at them over his shoulder as he and Kaylee went on their way. "This'll be just the thing for the Doctor. You'll like him…and the TARDIS!" he rambled on cheerfully. "What till you see it. Sure it's a little different, but it's the good kind."
"We're running out of time" interrupted Kaylee.
"Huh?"
"The freedom fighters. Jamie, we've worked so much for this and it's the only chance we're going to get."
"But the Doctor…" Jamie glanced vaguely in the direction where the TARDIS waited. "He'll be very cross if I don't get back." One glance at Kaylee and Jamie knew where his loyalties (and heart) lay. He knew about the needs for revolution more than anyone from fighting the redcoats back home. "Guess the Doctor can manage without me for a little while."
The Doctor paced up and down the length of the control room worriedly, wringing his hands as he kept glancing down at the scanners. No movement had come from the alien ship yet so he still had time. He racked his mind for a solution. Anything! "Useless…all useless" he moaned at the expansive facts and figures that filled his mind. "If I just had more time to stop them!" Behind him, the metre on the console hit 9.1. The Doctor took one look at it and wasted no time in striding hastily from the TARDIS.
"Excuse me" the Doctor called to the owner of a chippy stand. "Yes yes, highly unorthodox, but have you seen a young lad about so tall…with brown hair and odd clothes?"
The owner frowned and extended a hand. "That's information, pal, and around here information only for money."
"But I haven't got any," said the Doctor. "It really is important. Lives depend on…"
"No money, no answers," said the owner unsympathetically, turning away.
The Doctor huffed and headed down the street. "Jamie! Jamie!" he called, hoping to see his companion pop up from a side street. "I shouldn't have let you wander off on your own" he muttered, eyes roaming from side to side as he walked. "If only I'd listened to my common sense and told you. Jamie…where are you?"
Present, time and planet unknown
Rose uttered a soft groan as she hauled herself up from the floor. Everything seemed intact. It was the TARDIS that had taken the worst of the crash. Only the emergency lights winked on and off; the rest of the ship was dead. Even when Rose tried to reach the ship telepathically, there wasn't as much as a spark of response from the ship.
"It's just me then." She said it aloud, vainly wishing for the Doctor to pop out of some corner. Steeling herself, she headed out the doors into the unknown.
Note: **In my personal DW canon, the Master breached the parallel world and coerced Rose into joining him with the claim that he was an associate of the Doctor's. Using some of his own DNA and the Chameleon Arc, the Master succeeded in altering Rose Tyler's biology to Time Lady. As a result, she has a psychic bond with the Doctor and a psychic link with the Master.