You know that awkward moment when the show starts exploring exactly the same themes as you from a completely different angle? Yeah. That.
Suffice to say that you should be on the lookout for a Power of Three quote in the next few chapters.
A warning: I do a bit of jump-forward at the start, and then a jump back.
CHAPTER 38. Saving A Friend: 1-2 April 2011
Of all the types of shielding the ancient time machine had built into it – temporal, physical, psychic – it was quite stunningly poor in blocking sound.
The noise of the commotion outside easily drifted through the thin wooden doors, the chaos audible over the metronomic whirring of the Time Rotor in the centre. Still, it wouldn't be hard to hold a conversation inside, even if one's voice had to be raised a little.
Once the doors were open, however, that became impossible. Not unless you were mere feet from the person you were trying to talk to and yelling at the top of your voice at them. Which the Doctor was.
"Inside, now!"
The Time Lord burst through the doors cradling a limp, unconscious body in his arms. Leaping to the side to avoid streaks of gunfire, he lay the body on the floor to the side of the doors.
As for the other girl...
"Amy!"
A second later, a ginger streak flashed through the doors as the Time Lady backed her way inside, sword still raised and gun still blazing. The moment she was through the doors, the Doctor slammed them shut with his back, locking them with trembling hands.
They could still hear the commotion outside – now more muffled yells rather than gunfire – but for a moment there was peace, as they looked each other in the eye for the first time in over a week. Blazing emerald met stormy ocean-blue, and the Doctor had to fight the urge to hold her tight, comfort her, tell her that everything was OK-
-but he couldn't. Because it wasn't.
"Doctor-"
"I know, Amy." In an instant, they were both by the immobile human girl's body. In the rush, the Doctor had placed Katherine at an unnatural angle against the wall, her arms lying awkwardly across her body and her neck tilted. She looked singularly awful, utterly broken. At least her eyes were closed.
Amy took her friend's cold, pale hand in her own. "Is she-"
"Not sure. Either way, we can't stay here." He whipped out his sonic screwdriver, his demeanour now business-like. "I'll have a look at her. Amy – Sisters of the Infinite Schism. You know where that is."
Amy still didn't move or let go, her eyes fixed on her friend, her – handiwork.
"Amelia!"
Hearing her name, her real name, seemed to jolt Amy into life. She stood unsteadily, making her way to the console to pilot the time machine. It was a struggle, however, as her eyes were now so thick with tears that she could barely see where she was going.
The Doctor, meanwhile, lay Katherine down on her back so she at least looked more comfortable – but it was increasingly clear to him that comfort was a notion far, far beyond Katherine right now.
He opened her eyelids with his fingers, seeing only glassy, sightless orbs staring back at him. It only seemed to confirm the worst. He ran his sonic over the lifeless body, giving a low, fatigued sigh upon seeing the result.
"Oh, Amelia," he whispered to himself. "What have you done?"
Fourteen hours earlier
It was the crackling of the fire that brought Katherine back. She blinked her eyes open, seeing the flickering light bouncing off a dark, coruscated surface above her. As the world swirled into view, she realised she was lying in a small cabin of some kind. It had one room, with a single window opening onto the moonless sky beyond. She was lying on the floor, covered in her unzipped sleeping bag. In front of the small, merrily-crackling fire was a lone figure, her knees drawn into her chest and her still-brilliant ginger hair spilling over her shoulders.
"Amelia?" Her voice was weak, cracking as she spoke, owing to the dull pain in her chest.
Amy didn't move a muscle, simply staring into the fire. "Hey."
"What time is it?"
"About eight o'clock. You've been out for about three hours, before you ask."
"Huh. Could be worse." She moved to sit up, but as she tried to push herself upright with her arms the dull ache in her chest increased to a red-hot pain. She cried out, her arms toppling under her as she arched her body in pain.
Amy was over in a flash, placing one of her palms on Kate's chest and closing her eyes. Whatever she did, it worked a charm because Kate felt the pain die down almost instantly.
"Not a good idea to move," Amy chided her gently. "You've got a few cracked ribs, and I won't feel like numbing it every time."
"How'd you do that?" Kate asked, grateful and more than a little astonished. Her voice was a little stronger now, but not much.
"Nothing special. I just stopped your nerves sending pain signals to your brain. It's not exactly permanent, though, so you don't want to move around for a while."
Kate nodded, understanding. She looked up at her friend – and saw that Amy's round, pale face was covered in a sheet of mingled sweat and tears.
"You OK?"
Amy jerked back in slight surprise. "Me? No – I mean, yes! I'm fine." She flashed a smile that didn't even come close to reaching her eyes. "Compared to you, anyway."
"You look as if you've been crying for the last three hours."
"Really?" Amy rubbed her cheek with the back of her hand, smearing away some of the moisture still glistening there. "Well, I'm fine now."
Kate frowned, unconvinced. "So how exactly did I break my ribs? Did we get attacked?" Her last memory before she'd been out... well, she didn't exactly have one last memory.
"Not yet. Your ribs..." Amy hesitated, averting her eyes slightly. "Yeah."
"Which means?" Kate wasn't in the mood for Amy's little diversions right now.
"I cracked them," Amy replied in a rush, the words tumbling out of her mouth, as if the speed would lessen their impact. "Sorry."
"How?"
"It's a long story..."
The migraine had departed as suddenly as it arrived, building to a crescendo of incalculable intensity before vanishing.
She stands again, takes a few deep breaths, relaxes. That one hadn't been anywhere near as bad as the last.
"Sorry about that. What were you saying again? I didn't quite catch-"
Her eyes rove, catching a glimpse of black boots below her. She follows them up to see her friend, one of her only friends, splayed out on the ground. Katherine's golden-blonde hair is askew, her mouth slightly agape and her eyes staring blankly into nothingness. She's fallen on her side, trapping one of her arms at an unnatural angle beneath her.
Amelia's blood freezes, the world growing hazy around her.
"No. NO! KATHERINE!"
She can't – she won't – this cannot happen. She will NOT let this happen.
She chokes back the sob she knows is coming, rolls her friend onto her back. The eyes, still glassy, like two marbles, stare back lifelessly at her. Without question, it is one of the most horrifying things Amelia Pond will ever see.
She feels with trembling fingers for her friend's exposed neck, searches for a pulse. There isn't one.
"Wake up... please... wake up..."
Places an ear against her open mouth, hoping for a response, a breath. It doesn't come.
Frantic, half-blind with fear, feeling her grief surge up, ready to choke her, she pulls out her sonic screwdriver, the gift from her imaginary friend who really, really needs to be here NOW. Right – bloody – now.
She runs the device up and down the body, her breath hitching in her throat. She refuses to think about the word – that word. Dead. The Doctor wouldn't have thought about that word – he would have found a way – found something – anything.
The Doctor wouldn't have let this happen.
"Please... please..."
Her hand is shaking so much that she can barely even hold the sonic as she takes the reading, dreading the result.
She takes one look.
She screams. Oh, how she screams. A scream that reaches her very core, fills her being.
She hurls the sonic away, and gets to work. She can hear ribs cracking as her hands, filled with the strength of her almost-extinct race, pumps the blood around her friend's body. Like in that cave, that glittering crystal forest so many months ago, she refuses to believe it.
She refuses to believe that she can't save her friend.
"Amelia?"
"What? Oh – sorry." This had been happening a lot lately, Amy finding her attention drifting to some weird, unpleasant place. She'd always prided herself on being able to shut out distractions, so it was immensely irritating to her that she was losing that skill now. She made a mental note to store that particular memory in her external storage later. "I was just a bit rough getting you to safety, that's all."
"Bit light on detail, there," Kate pointed out.
Amy sighed. "Does it really matter?"
"Well, considering that my ribs are broken, yeah."
"Cracked, not broken. You did the same to me not so long ago,"
"You're a Time Lady. Hardly makes a difference to you."
"And you'd know?" Amy inquired gently.
"Yes, funnily enough." Kate shot back testily. At once, she regretted using such a harsh tone, as Amy's eyes had flared up in a familiar, but nonetheless alarming fashion. She sighed. "Sorry, Ames. It's been a long day."
To her surprise, Amy brushed it off. "Hey. Doesn't matter. We're both safe, that's what counts."
"Yeah. Where are we, anyway?" Kate craned her neck, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever lay beyond the veil Amy had placed over their hiding place, but all she saw was impenetrable night-time.
"I found us a cabin while you were out. Thought it'd be a good place to set up camp."
"Fair enough." Despite what Amy had told her, Kate decided to nonetheless haul herself up into a sitting position. She could feel a twinge of protest from her chest, but she ignored it. "So how far are we from that spaceport? Esther's Falls?"
"We're just a few miles from the outskirts now."
"Outskirts?"
"It's a big town, according to the map. I was hoping to get to the spaceport this afternoon – but there's no way we can head there now with you being injured and the weather around." The sudden drop in temperature and rising winds hadn't been lost on Amy, and she was thankful that she'd managed to pick a place with a ceiling of some kind.
"Weather?"
"You'll see." Amy smiled warmly at her. "Get some sleep, Katherine. It's been a long day."
The first reaction had been shock. Anger. Irritation.
"Mummy, what's happened to the TV?" A little girl asked, as her favourite reality show had been replaced by something else entirely. Her dad had flicked through the channels, only to find that every single station was exactly the same.
A bow-tie wearing man, in a rapidly darkening forest, standing in front of a large blue box, yammering on about something or the other.
"-if we can find a power source somewhere in the forest," the on-screen man was saying, "I can kick-start the TARDIS and we can start looking for her."
"OK," a hidden voice replied. There was a brief pause, evidently so the hidden speaker could consider his next words. "Tell me about the girl."
"Girl? Her name's Amy. Didn't I already say that?"
"Maybe. So where's she from?"
"A funny little planet named Earth."
The speaker did a double-take – as did the millions watching. Earth.
Earth.
That mystical, wonderful but long-lost homeland that they all dreamed of constantly. The one place they all longed to see, longed to be a part of, but couldn't. Earthsphere, detailed and flawless though it was, couldn't ever really match up to the real thing. It couldn't match up to their dreams of that long-lost blue planet that had fathered their species in the distant annals of time.
But here this man was, talking about someone from Earth. An actual person from Earth. They still existed, somehow. A time traveller, perhaps – it wasn't important. What was important was that the Doctor had now gotten everyone's attention.
Michael waiting a long while before making his next request. "Tell me about Earth."
It had taken hours, but at last Jack felt like he was making progress. The twisted, snaking tree root had wound its way up and down, leading him on a merry chase through the dark corridors. Everywhere he'd went, the lights had followed him, insistently urging him to return the way he'd come. It was if they were trying to tell him to go anywhere but where he was going – which, of course, only spurred him on.
Eventually, he'd come across a second tree root joining onto the first, amalgamating into a larger, twisting mass about the width of his arm. He'd broke into a broad grin when he'd seen that.
"Progress at last," he'd muttered.
He continued to follow the root as more and more twisting, brown branches latched onto it, leading him inexorably to the source.
He'd found that the roots and branches leading off them had begun to spark – sometimes into him, with unpleasant results. It seemed that any contact with metal or flesh caused electricity to flow towards him, rather than away as it usually did. He guessed that short-circuiting flipped the polarity somehow, making everything go in reverse, and he had no intention of making himself the target of said 'everything'. Electrocution hurt.
It was one of these instances where he'd accidentally brushed the root with his hand, gotten the shock of his life and sworn up an irate storm that he'd finally worked it out. As he'd blown off steam, little arcs and bolts of electricity had run up and down the tree root next to him – turning his raw emotion into equally raw electricity.
So this, then, was the fabled equaliser field.
"Doesn't look like much of a field to me, though," he'd commented.
More astonishingly, when he'd been zapped by the root-slash-field, he'd found that his manipulator had blinked into life once more. And it worked, too – he'd done a quick flash-forward one metre forwards and one minute into the future to make sure. OK, it only had enough power for a few short-range jumps, but power was power. He'd had to beat down the temptation to do a merry jig after that – though he was alone, he still had a job to do. At least he had a way out now.
Maybe if I flashed up to the Doctor and got him to Amy... he shook his head. A promise was a promise. And based on what Machariam had told him about the near-genocide of his people, it was a promise worth keeping. He didn't even know where the Doctor was, more to the point, let alone Amy.
He continued on, following the tree root.
The sparking had increased with frequency as he'd gone along too, which was odd. It didn't seem related to anything he was feeling. It was if something was happening on the world far above, some planet-wide build up of emotion, some collective feeling that was fuelling a build-up of power in the tree roots he was following.
It only made him more determined not to touch anything. Electrocution really did hurt.
Along the way, he'd briefly paused to think about what exactly he was following – a tree root? In space? Well, not in space, but it seemed as if the corridors were built around them. As the root widened, so had the corridors – until the corridors were metres wide to accommodate the giant electrified branches. But that implied that the roots and whatever they led to had been here first. And in that case...
His thoughts were interrupted, however, when the corridor suddenly opened up again, onto a gigantic room where all the tree roots seemed to converge into one gigantic, black-brown mass. Its lustre definitely suggested that it was tree-like in nature, though way, way bigger than any tree he'd ever seen – but how big?
He looked around him for a switch – and found one just beside the door he entered. A large, red-marked lever, named lights.
"Nice of them to make it easy for once," he murmured as he yanked down on the lever. Soon a circle of bright floodlights had turned on above him, bathing the room in stark, white light. Jack shielded his eyes momentarily, squinting in the sudden glare. He could see that the tree stretched upwards into the distance, but the light died away before he could see the top.
But then another set of lights came on, far above, illuminating what he'd assumed was the top of the tree – but it wasn't. Another set came on, and another, cascading upwards. They went all the way up, illuminating the massive central column of a tree, stretching up miles into the distance.
Finally, after a minute, the darkened sky above him bloomed into light – and Jack realised, finally, the magnitude of his task.
The tree had stopped growing upon hitting the 'roof' of the Undersphere, some five miles above him. At the top, it branched out in every imaginable direction, criss-crossing and covering the underside of the artificial world in an impossibly complex web of electrified branches. If he squinted, he could see that some seemed to be sparking with electricity. This web, as far as Jack could tell, seemed to go on into the distance, stretching to the horizon and far beyond. If he had to guess, he'd say it covered the entire underside of Earthsphere.
All he could think of in response was one simple question.
"Now what?"
They'd been walking and talking for quite some time now. About Earth, and Amy. At first it had been mostly about Earth – the landscape, the people, the planet. If Michael were being honest, he'd have to say that it sounded even better when the Doctor was talking about it. The Grand Canyon, the New York skyline, the Himalayan mountains – it all sounded even more beautiful than he'd imagined.
After a while, though, his focus had shifted to the girl. Amy. From Earth. Not human, but from Earth nonetheless. However, the Doctor was oddly reluctant to talk about her. As if he felt... ashamed, somehow. Not of her. Of himself, of what he'd done to her. As if he was paying penance for some terrible mistake he'd made, and as such wanted to keep it to himself.
"So come on. What is she? Friend? Girlfriend? Lover?"
The Doctor just smiled wanly at him, and given a single word in reply.
"Equal."
He'd gotten nothing else after than, despite his best efforts. Eventually, even that line of questioning had exhausted himself, and he turned to the third pressing matter on his mind.
"Doctor, has anyone ever told you that you are just a wee bit bonkers?"
"Er – maybe," the Doctor replied. "Probably, in fact – I'm sure I've heard someone, somewhere use that phrasing. Very rare, however."
The Time Lord neglected to mention, however, that the reason it was 'very rare' was that Amy tended to get more to the point, using such sweet, kind terminology such as you complete and utter moron to describe him.
He missed that.
"But, seriously, you do know what they say about this place? Giant evil lizards who come out at night and rip anyone they find to shreds?"
The Doctor wasn't quite paying attention at this point, busy running his sonic up and down a tree of some kind. They were less than a hundred feet from the TARDIS, the deep blue police box still on the riverbank, but given the rapidly deepening darkness above, Michael couldn't help but glance nervously around him for, well, giant evil lizards.
They were still filming – the Doctor had admitted that that odd contraption they had set up in the shuttle didn't just pick up the signal from the quantum link. Rather, it was also an all-in-one satellite hacker and TV transmitter. And said satellite hacker had hacked into every television signal on Earthsphere and was broadcasting whatever he was filming in place of, well, everything else.
He was amazed, frankly, that they hadn't been beset by a crowd of locals, demanding that their favourite soaps and reality TV dramas be reinstated. Surely they wouldn't find this as fascinating as whichever upcoming starlet was about to be voted off? He half expected to look around and see an angry mob striding towards them, complete with torches and pitchforks – then he remembered where they were.
"Doctor! Mind answering the question?"
"Hm? No, not quite," the Time Lord answered belatedly, still off in his own little world. "Anyway, meanwhile, there is something very odd about this forest. Something very – odd. Something I'm missing..."
"Giant evil lizards who come out at night to rip you to shreds, perhaps?"
"Not at night, no." The Doctor, evidently having found out all he could about what Michael thought was an utterly nondescript tree, instead began to jog about the small clearing in this way and that, pointing his sonic in every which way.
"Not at..."
"Well, unlikely, I'd say. Cold-blooded, you see." The Doctor responded quickly, before unexpectedly halting in his tracks. "Hello," he murmured, picking up a small object off the forest floor. "What's this..."
From a distance, and in this light, Michael couldn't quite tell what it was, but his first instinct that it was a small, black book of some kind. That instinct was all but confirmed when the Doctor started flicking through the pages, a deep-set frown rapidly growing on his face. Michael wondered what it was, and why the Time Lord seemed so perturbed by it (which, even in his brief experience, he guessed was rare), but he had more important things to worry about.
"So there are giant evil lizards living in this forest after all?"
"Evil is a bit harsh, but – yes, basically," the Doctor responded, attention still fixed on the little book in his hand. "Besides which, it's almost night. Nothing to worry about."
"Indeed," a third, rasping voice replied sardonically.
Michael snapped around, taking a moment to focus on the enormous newcomer. He backed away from the figure, his back hitting a tree, the camera shaking as he trembled with sudden fear. The Doctor, meanwhile, snapped the book shut and spun around, stuffing it in his pocket. Upon spotting the creature, his eyes widened, and he took a single, curious step towards it.
"Good evening," the giant repticore intoned in gravelly, raspy tones, its attention mostly fixed on the comparatively diminutive Time Lord before him. Extended up to its full height, its golden back scales seemed to shine in darkness, its claws gleaming in the last of the daylight. Despite its singularly intimidating appearance, however, there was an odd expression on its face – and something that looked suspiciously like polite enquiry in its sky-blue eyes. Maybe even... amusement?
"Hello!" The Doctor replied cheerfully, clapping his hands and stepping up to the towering lizard. "My name's the Doctor, what's yours?"
"My name is Machariam. Would you two care to explain what, exactly, you are doing on my land?"
Michael gulped.
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