IDChapter32
Jack arrived back on the Krillitane ship just after he'd left. "Anything interesting happen?"
"Not here," Jon replied, "How about back home?"
"Well, funny you should ask. I think Rose was about ready to jump my bones there in the coral cavern."
Jon grinned. "Well, um, yes, I guess I did forget to tell her everything about that cavern... it's good for more things than just growing TARDIS'. There's an element in the air that helps the TARDIS to bond to its pilot, and it also helps the Time Lord bond to the TARDIS."
"And... what else does it do, Doc?" Jack prompted, knowing there was more to this story.
"Well... I'll share that part with Rose when we get back."
"Oh no, you don't get off that easily! Don't you go keeping secrets from me, old friend! Spill it!"
"OK, but you mustn't say anything to Rose until I can tell her myself."
"OK." Jack waited, thinking this must be something really juicy. It was.
"It's also a Time Lord aphrodisiac."
Jack's eyes got huge. "So, every time she goes in there, she gets horny?"
"We both do."
Slowly a huge grin spread across Jack's face. "I am going to have so much fun with that!"
Jon smirked. "Meanwhile, not to change the subject, but I had a brilliant idea while I was sitting here waiting for you." As Jon told him his plan, Jack's eyes got huge and he began to pace excitedly. "It could work!" Jack exulted. "I knew you'd come up with something!"
"Let's call the Krillitane Captain then."
As Jack and Jon explained to their Krillitane Captain (whose name was Kor'Lo) about Isana being kidnaped by Koschei and taken to the Shadow Proclamation he nodded appreciably, then asked, "But what does this have to do with the Krillitane Empire?"
Jon sized the Captain up. He stood almost 7 feet tall, and had an ecclectic mix of humanoid, avian, and reptilian features. His large, almond-shaped eyes were dark and set somewhat to the sides of his head so he had excellent periferal vision. He had a hawk-like beak whose regal air lent itself well to a position of command, and was no doubt useful in a skirmish as well. His ears were hidden by feathers. He stood upright as a humanoid, and had long, muscular arms and legs covered with scales, and long, strong, nimble fingers ending in strong, sharp nails reminiscent of claws, but not quite. Definitely someone you'd want on your side, Jon thought.
"We are Friends of the Krillitane Empire, are we not?" Jon asked. Kor'Lo nodded. "And I was told by your Esteemed Father that you would obey my wishes." Kor'Lo nodded again, feeling very much like he didn't really want to know where this was headed. "So, here's what we need," Jon filled him in on their plan.
"I think this goes beyond what Our Father intended," Kor'Lo explained. "I was instructed to take you to your home base and protect you and your people. I was not given any other orders."
"But one of our people is in need of help," Jack pointed out. "You will be fulfilling your instructions. Besides, I'm sure there is some official Krillitane business there you can also take care of."
"There is a report I need to collect from one of our ambassadors there," Kor'Lo admitted.
"Well then, we're set!" Jon exclaimed. "Set course for the Shadow Proclamation, and just, oh, I dunno... 'fly casual'."
"As you wish." Kor'Lo replied gruffly. He wasn't looking forward to filing a report on this.
Back at the caves, Rose was gathered in the front of the main cave with all 15 refuges. They'd been there for several days now, and were restless and full of questions. Rose tried to answer them as best she could, but without giving much away that they had shared with Isana. It was not an easy task, these were smart people, and they could see that Rose was not telling them everything.
"I totally understand that you are all anxious to know what all is going on. Please believe that the Doctor and Captain Harkness are trying to find out as much as they can. I'll answer your questions as best I can, but I want to make sure that what I am telling you is the truth, and not just speculation. You've all been through so much, I don't want to worry you unnecessarily."
"Thank you, Rose, for being honest with us. However, we are not children, and we don't want to be treated like children. So please tell us everything." The person speaking was an older woman named Monaloatindera, or 'Monna'. She had led the gathering party the previous day, and was clearly respected among the refuges.
"Yes, please," inserted Dorvackulander, or 'Dorvack". He was Monna's mate. "We've dealt with adverstity our entire lives, we don't wish to be sheltered from what is going on."
"Alright then, I'll tell you what happened back at the tunnels. Mind you, I wasn't there exactly when it happened, I had returned and was on the ship with the rest of you, but this is what I was told:
"We were just about finished loading Voyager when Isana went back for the last piece of security equipment. Captain Harkness is cursing himself right now because he didn't go with her. Anyway, Isana seemed to be taking an awfully long time with that last part, so Jack went back to help her." Here Rose decided that the fact that Jack died and came back was not something to share. "Captain Harkness found Koschei in the act of kidnaping Isana. Koschei knocked Captain Harkness out and made off with Isana. Captain Harkness later found out that Koschei had taken Isana to the Shadow Proclamation. They have Mentalists there who can dig anything out of your mind. They can also re-write your memories, even turn you into an entirely different person. That is what we believe they are doing to Isana, and that is why we are hiding here."
"But why did Koschei turn against us? Are you sure 'we' are the ones who are in danger? Maybe it's just Captain Harkness." This came from Dorvack, but the others nodded and murmured agreement.
"Isana discovered that Koschei was giving intel to the slave hunters. Now that he has no reason to keep his involvement with them a secret, Isana felt you were in even more danger than before, so she decided to move everyone to a new location that Koschei didn't know about."
"I can't believe Koschei would do such a thing! Some of us have worked with him for years!" This came from Willem, a young, stocky, ginger fellow who had been one of the guards at the tunnel compound. He had been Isana's personal guard on missions where she needed extra protection. "None of this would have happened had Isana not brought that 'Captain Harkness' back with her. This is all his fault!"
"Captain Harkness has risked his life many times keeping us safe!" This came from a young woman named Carratrenbulla, or 'Carra', who helped prepare meals and was a medic, and who everyone knew had a crush on Jack.
"Of course you'd say that," snorted Willem, "it's no secret where your feelings lie." This started an angry quarrel between the two of them, in which everyone else then took a side.
"That's enough!" Rose called out to all of them, her hands up in an effort to quell the noise. "This won't get us anywhere! I promise, when they come back, we'll all sit down and talk things out."
Her efforts went unheeded. She considered just walking away, but realised that she should not do that. As she listened to Jon's – and now her own – people quarreling, her hearts began to break. All she and Jon wanted was to help them, but they wouldn't get far if they were determined to fight amongst themselves. So, she began singing. First softly, then slowly raising the timbre of her voice, she sang the wordless song of lament that she had sung when she had held Jon's dying body on the Krillitane ship only weeks earlier, although it felt like years. Slowly the cacophony of the quarreling quieted, as the refuges one by one were caught up in the haunting melody. When she finally ended it, all was quiet. Then Monna spoke up.
"I recognize that song. My grandmother sang it at my grandfather's funeral pyre. How did you know it?"
"The Doctor taught it to me. The last time I sang it he was dying in my arms. Now I sang it because I am sorrowful because his – our – people will die out here."
"He was dying in your arms? What do you mean by that?" Monna's brow was furrowed.
Rose decided to take the plunge. Jon wasn't here, and she needed to tell these people something in order to bring them together and also to convince them that Jon could help them. "He had been shot by a Krillitane renegade and left to die. Where we come from, our people can regenerate – they can heal themselves and come back to life. At the time, I didn't know Jon could do this, and I thought I was losing him forever."
"I don't understand – why weren't you aware of this ability?" Willem asked.
"Well... that is a long and complicated story. I can't really give you a simple explanation, but if you'd like, I'll tell you our story – Jon's and mine, and Jack's – from the beginning."
"Yes, we'd like that very much. Captain Harkness has told us stories, but they were just very imaginative fairy tales, or so we thought,"
"Well, Captain Harkness may have embellished things a bit, but probably not much. Our story is fantastic enough without exaggeration, but I promise you, everything I'm about to tell you is true.
It all started in a parallel universe to this one. There was a terrible war, the devastation was beyond description. It was called the Time War..."
Rose didn't tell them that the Doctor had been the one to destroy Gallifrey, just that it had been destroyed, and that he thought he was the only survivor. She went on to tell them how they'd met, she a naive girl of 19, he a total stranger with a magical blue box, how she'd run off with him, and their adventures. It began to get late, but no one wanted her to stop, so they took shifts cooking, bringing cots and chairs over, tending to the children, and making Rose comfortable so she could continue. She told them about every fantastic adventure they'd had, including how they'd met Jack and how the Bad Wolf came into being and what she'd done. She told them of her separation from the Doctor on Pete's World, this universe's Earth, and how he'd burned up a sun just to contact her. She went on to tell of Martha, and the Master, and there was a collective gasp when she told them that the Master's childhood name was Koschei. She went on to Donna's adventures with the Doctor, and the Time Beetle, and how she had come back from this universe to fix the timelines and get back to the Doctor. She told them about the Daleks and what happened on the Dalek Crucible, and how Jon had been born. When she got to the part where the Doctor had left them in this universe, on Pete's World at Bad Wolf Bay, dawn was breaking and there was not a dry eye in the cave. She yawned, and wiped her eyes, as she was crying herself.
"Can we continue this later?" She asked with a smile. "I need a nap."