Chapter Fifteen
Don't Question Foreshadowing
I was wearing my noise-cancelling headphones connected to my handheld gaming console as I pranced into the control room, singing along the song that was beating into my brain, which really kinda fit the situation, "And the void would be calling… Let's do the time warp again! Let's do the time warp again!"
I may also have done some air guitar playing too. I was completely focused on the music up until I felt my headphones being snapped and I jumped, seeing Clara laughing.
"What?" I asked, removing my headphones.
"You were singing," Clara said, still laughing.
"I thought you were killing a cat," the Doctor said with a grin.
"Oh, c'mon," I said, exasperated at the Doctor, "I'm not that bad."
"At least she was singing something that fit," Clara said with a laugh.
"It's from my favorite musical," I stated with a grin.
"I don't watch musicals," Clara stated with a shrug.
"So where are we off to?" I asked, looking at the Doctor.
"We're going to check up on victim number one, Michelle Connor," he stated as the TARDIS started making the grindy-groany noise and the part in the glass cylinder started to move in tandem with the noise, convincing me that the noise was coming from the glass cylinder.
"And that would be…?" I asked the Doctor as I was knocked off my feet by the TARDIS shifting suddenly and landed on my posterior.
"I'll know once we land!" the Doctor shouted over the din.
After a few long moments of feeling as though I was on a really bad rollercoaster, the TARDIS settled and the grindy-groany noise stopped. I jumped to my feet as I saw the Doctor run to the screen of the TARDIS as I heard Clara laugh with excitement. I couldn't help but to smirk, not knowing what awaited outside of the TARDIS doors.
"Breathable atmosphere… near-Earth gravity… Oh! This is wonderful! We're on Lath!" the Doctor listed off before becoming excited.
"Lath?" I heard Clara ask the Doctor as I watched him, obviously not knowing what it meant.
"It's a bit of a resort which was really popular during the Thirty-Second Century, only to fall during what was later called the Nambian Uprising," the Doctor stated with a grin as he grabbed Clara's right wrist with his left hand as he passed by and grasped my left wrist with his right hand as he led both of us out.
"So let me get this straight," I stated as I was pulled out of the TARDIS and into what was clearly a lush orchard with a water fountain a few feet away, the water pouring out from a statue which looked like a rose, the water pouring out from between the petals, "Okay, this is nice. Anyway, back to what I was saying, this is a resort planet? I doubt they'd be all that happy about us dropping by without a penny to our name. I know I don't have any currency that would be accepted here."
I looked over to Clara, wondering if she had any currency which could be used here as the Doctor let go of both of our wrists. He took a few fast steps before turning around to face us, looking amused and just a bit too confident. He looked like a guy with a plan, and perhaps, an idea. I raised my eyebrows at him as I rubbed my left wrist absentmindedly. I was starting to wonder what he had up his sleeves when he spoke with a grin.
"Do you honestly worry about money when you go to a new place, Olmstead?" he asked.
"When it's a place where they may ask for it to gain admission, yes," I stated, "I don't always think about money, Doctor. All money is for is to make sure that I don't become homeless and dead from starvation. And to buy shiny things."
"Shiny things?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at me.
"Video games, books, things not related to survival but are generally nice things to have," I stated with a shrug before asking, "what are you getting at?"
"Do you honestly think I have no way of obtaining currency as I need it?" he asked with a smile, "besides, they take credit chips and I happen to have one."
I grinned as I started walking, grabbing his wrist in the same manner he'd done with me not five minutes before, "so what are we waiting for? Let's get this show on the road!"
"What's gotten into you?" he asked, completely startled.
"This is my first honest-to-goodness alien world I've been to," I stated excitedly, "It's also my first resort I've been to. I'm gonna make the best out of it. On your dime if I have to in order to experience everything!"
"Don't hog his credit chip!" Clara exclaimed, catching up with us, "leave some for me too!"
"And this is why I only travel with one woman at a time," he muttered.
"Excuse me?" I asked, giving him a look while raising my eyebrows as I could tell that Clara was also giving him a look.
"What's wrong with having more than one woman around? I'd get bored with a lack of girl-talk before too long," Clara stated.
"You two are going to run me ragged, aren't you?" he asked, almost amusedly.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" I asked with a grin before adding, "good thing that Clara's here to do that."
"Whut?" Clara squeaked.
"Just that I'm not interested in alien boy here," I stated, pointing my thumb at the Doctor.
"Don't…don't call me that," he stated, his voice low and a little sad.
"Great. I hit a nerve with the force of a sledgehammer," I muttered as I let go of his wrist and slowed my pace, "I didn't mean to."
"I know you didn't," he stated quietly, "just that you reminded me of someone I once knew."
"That doesn't sound so bad," I stated with a smile.
"She was my best friend. I had to remove all memory of me from her to save her life," he stated quietly as we reached a path lined with red brick, "she used to call me 'space man'."
"I get the feeling that I woulda loved hanging out with her," I stated with a smile.
"I would never hear the end of it," he muttered.
"But it's not bad… that I remind you of her…is it?" I asked, "I mean, it means that you haven't forgotten her."
"I never forget those I've traveled with," he said quietly.
I glanced to the other side of the Doctor where Clara was walking and gave her a look. I hoped to tell her within that look to follow my lead.
"On three," I told Clara with a grin, seeing the Doctor's clueless and confused look, "One."
"What are you cooking up in your head?" the Doctor asked, confused.
"Two," Clara and I said in unison.
"Olmstead?"
"Three!" I exclaimed and gave the Doctor a hug, seeing that Clara did the same, meaning that the Doctor was in the middle of a group hug.
"What was that for?" he asked, chuckling a bit in surprise as the darkness in his eyes retreated a bit.
"You were doing a drowned puppy act," I replied with a grin as I let go and continued to walk down the path, "I know that sometimes, humans hug when they want to cheer up their friend. I was hoping that it would have the same effect. Looks like that experiment was a success."
"So that was what it was? An experiment?" he asked.
"I couldn't base it on experience because I didn't know how you'd react. It's just that you used that trick on me. What's wrong with that?"
"There's nothing wrong," he said with a smile, "just that seeing everything as an experiment ruins the fun."
"Unless one sees it as fun," I replied with a grin as we reached a building at the end of the path.
The building seemed to be made out of glass and painted metal. Through the glass, I could see that there were platforms near the wall to the far right. The building had crowds of various races, most of which I didn't recognize. I looked around, seeing that the area we were walking into seemed to be a lobby of some kind. I couldn't help but to grin widely as we walked in, a realization that I was experiencing something that a very, very few humans from my time did.
"So how exactly are we going to find Miss Connor?" I asked, looking over to the Doctor.
"Ask around?" he replied, "if she sticks out enough, someone should have seen her."
"You mentioned an uprising. We're nowhere near that, are we?" I asked.
"I'm sure we're clear of that timezone," he said, trying to reassure me.
"When is it supposed to happen anyways?" Clara asked.
"The year thirty-four fifty-six," he stated, "don't worry, okay? Now, let's start asking around. Someone's bound to have seen her somewhere."
I nodded before asking, "wait, how are we supposed to keep in contact if we split off?"
"Do you have a cell phone?" he asked.
I felt around in my pockets, pulling it out and tossing it underhanded at him. Luckily, he caught it effortlessly before pulling out his Sonic Screwdriver and running it over the cell phone for a few short moments before tossing it back at me.
"It should have universal roaming, regardless of where you are in time and space," he stated moments before my cell started to ring.
I glanced at the screen, seeing that it was from Pam. I closed my eyes, not entirely sure if I should answer. Either she was calling because I'd disappeared or because I was supposed to be dead and she was trying to locate my cell. I knew that if I were to talk to her, it would end with hurting not just myself but her as well and she was the closest thing I had to a sister. I looked over at the Doctor who pantomimed talking on the cell phone, grinning widely the whole time. I rolled my eyes and pressed the 'talk' button.
"Yeah'llo," I stated in my usual phone-answering manner, "What's new, Pammy?"
"Just where the hell are you?!" Pam screamed into the phone, "we're all terrified that you've become the latest victim."
"I'm fine, Pammy," I stated, not liking the feeling of having to come up with a lie, "I'm just taking an impromptu vacation with some buddies. We both know how bad Michael is. I mean you up and left town for your own safety. I'm taking care of my own personal safety."
"Where are you anyways?"
"You wouldn't believe me even if I told ya," I stated with a grin.
"But you're safe, right?" she asked.
"There is absolutely no such thing as absolute safety in this universe. It doesn't matter where I am or where I go, there is always a chance of danger," I stated, "but I know that my friends got my back."
"Just promise me that you're going to be okay," she stated.
"You know I can't make that promise and be of a good conscience," I stated with a sigh.
"At least promise me that you'll take care of yourself," she demanded.
"Now that's a promise I can make," I said with a smile, "I promise that I'll take care of myself. Maybe sometime soon, I could swing by and visit."
"That would be nice. What do you want me to tell mom?"
"That I'm out seeing the universe," I stated with a grin.
"Whatever you say, geek," she muttered before saying, "I've got to let you go. I'll talk to you later."
"Later, sissypoo," I stated with a grin before ending the call, turning to the Doctor as I still wore the grin, "so what? We all list each other's numbers and then call when we got news?"
"That's the plan," the Doctor said, pulling out a cell phone from the pocket of his tweed jacket.
"Can't argue with a tried and true method of staying in touch," I muttered before entering the numbers into my cell and the other two entered my own cell phone number into it.
~Author's Note~
Wow, that took a while! I wound up being surrounded by plot bunnies except the one I wanted. Sadly, I found that the plot bunny for this was dying so I had to nurse it back to health before I worked with it some more. Hopefully, I can actually finish this story before I deal with other plot bunnies and an old character of mine who is trying to get my attention as well as a whole group of new characters. I have small notes on what each victim's rescue plot will be. I'm actually looking forward to Eric's rescue and that's all I'm going to say about the future plots.
So why exactly did I redo the post-hospital bits? Well, I felt that the resolution of the College plot was cheap and I honestly wound up hating the Thanksgiving story. That and I completely wrote out Eric and I started to get ideas for his character and I honestly felt that I should have a chapter of Eric and Lisa discussing the goings-on and the "curse" surrounding the Music Building. I wanted to have some build up before she ran headfirst into danger.
While considering the re-write, I also felt that there has to be something about the victims when I came up with the idea that it was a rift or something that the victims would be thrown into and then having clones programmed to kill themselves do so. Pretty morbid, but I figured that it would suit the story better. In all, I feel that this is a much better story now. I don't know if I want to keep this story as the three-arc mess I'm contemplating or having it only involving the gathering of all temporally and spatially displaced victims and their adventures as they look for new homes for themselves while going on adventures. They will all leave eventually, even Melissa and Eric. (I'm almost feeling sad for the Doctor when that happens. The thing is, I don't know exactly how sad/traumatic/happy of a leaving it would be. After all, one just can't keep running forever.)