Celeste instant stepped away from the pink alien, a look of confusion crossing her face as she wondered why he could see her. The others weren't able to...But the pink alien didn't look deterred and he stepped out of the blue box in dark trousers, a purple tunic with a v-neck shape, and a rough looking jacket of some sort. His hair, an odd shade Celeste wasn't very familiar with, was close cropped and short and his ears were rather large, as large as his grin actually.
She took another step backwards and the alien's smile turned into confusion, "Oh, no don't be afraid, I'm well known on Nova. The Doctor, in the stories?"
Celeste watched him warily with narrowed eyes until another head of hair popped up beside him, this an odd shade of yellow. It was a girl, lighter than him and in a dress that reminded Celeste of the color of an amethyst, just without the shimmer. While the "Doctor's" eyes were watching her, Celeste watched the girl look around her plundered planet and tugged on the other's sleeve. "Doctah, is this what it's supposed to be like?"
The Doctor blinked and looked around, "Not at all! What happened? Looks like you've been through a war! Novicians never fight."
"People. Like you." Celeste said quietly, not expecting them to understand her even though she could them.
"Like us?" The girl asked while following the Doctor out.
The Doctor looked around almost sadly and the more Celeste studied him, the familiar he felt. Her chest burned, right where the tattoos were. "Pillaged. Humans are selfish creatures." He said with a hard glint in his eyes before turning to Celeste. "What's your name?"
"Celeste Pavo, the High Priestess of what is left of my planet." She said, her voice withdrawn.
The Doctor smiled at that and fisted one hand over his heart and bowed, giving the girl a look that told her to do the same. "The Doctor, Time Lord, and Rose Tyler, human companion."
"Rise." Celeste nodded at them, trying to keep her chin high. The familiar greeting put her a bit at ease. "Time Lords...From Gallifrey? Our sister planet? I thought…"
"I'm the last of them." The Doctor answered her and then said bluntly, "Like you are now. Right?"
Celeste had had time to come to terms with that knowledge on her own but hearing it from another's mouth, it made her hearts ache for what was lost. Swallowing, she nodded. "Yes, you humans raided my planet and murdered my otherwise peaceful people during a coronation. " She said, meeting Rose's gaze with obvious mistrust.
"Ah, correction, other humans. This one is from the past."
Rose was watching the exchange and rolled her eyes while Celeste's eyebrows bunched together. "Past? Time Lords aren't-"
"Well, when you're the only one left you tend to bend the rules, don't you?" The Doctor said cheekily before looking around once again. "It must be lonely here, full of pain." His voice was distant, as if reliving an old memory. Their eyes met and Celeste realized with a start that he has been through the same thing, the loneliness and helplessness. "Why don't you come with us?"
Her nose crinkled with obvious distaste, "You want me to travel with one of the aliens that killed my people?"
"If you don't like it, I can take you right back here. Just give it a shot, Celeste." His eyebrows shot up and Celeste felt...Challenged. After a brief moment of studying the two, Celeste nodded, comforted by an unexplained warmth in the heart of her chest. Bonythus was calling to her. "Fantast-ic! Gather your things and I'll show you not all humans are bad!"
Feeling dismissed, Celeste turned and walked quietly to her octagon shelter, ignoring the sound of them following behind her. They entered the altar room and Rose wandered around, looking in awe at the altar fountain and reached to touch it. Celeste grabbed her wrist before she could. "Deadly to your kind." She said to her before taking a few onyx vials in various shapes and sizes and filling it with the blood of her Star Sisters and packed some of her robes and items she would need into a malleable steel sack.
he Doctor noticed Rose's amazed staring and said offhandedly, "This planet is formed entirely of metals, gems, and other similar materials. There is little to no plant life found on Nova."
"Why?"
"Because," Celeste informed cooly, "the Lady Star saw no need of this since we require nourishment found in what is around us, our community."
"You've been starved without it, haven't you?" The Doctor asked as if suddenly remembering that that was what Novician's lived on: each other.
Celeste lowered her eyes. "Yes...The aliens' energy kept me surviving but…"
The silence filled her altar room was thick and depressing until the Doctor grinned from ear to ear. "Well, shall we go?"
Without an answer, he took Rose's hand and Celeste's and albeit dragged them out of her room, barely giving the homesick woman time to say goodbye before she was pushed through the door of the blue box. She stood there for a minute, looking around with surprise at the size of his...home. It was made of metals that hummed with a familiar yet different energy and had various lights about it with a large circular-cylinder console in the middle. It seemed like a different version of the machines the aliens had brought with them and she felt her defensiveness come back ten-fold. The Doctor whizzed by her, oblivious to the High Priestess and Rose who studied her curiously.
Celeste turned to the human with her eyebrows raised in question. "Is there something thou requires?"
"Nope," The alien replied with a friendly smile. "but I was wondering, what's a lady star?" She asked in her odd, round accent.
"The Lady Star is Bonythus. She is my people's creator and provider."
"It's the shooting star in constant orbit around her planet. They say it has mystical powers and High Priestesses and Queens are supposedly connected to it, but it's just a piece of space debris." The Doctor said brashly.
Celeste glared at the man in odd clothing, "Bonythus is all seeing and powerful, she blesses those she chooses with gifts and they are bonded with her, like my lineage. We are marked at birth with the path she has chosen for us. "
"The silver skin? Please, that's just a recessive gene in your biochemical makeup." The Doctor made a face at Celeste when he leaned away from the controls.
His words made little sense to her but she knew they were insulting her Lady Star. With a fierce glare, she let her anger boil until it was potent energy tingling on her skin. Knowing that violence was not Bonythus's wishes, she focused instead on the machine around her. Feeling it's unearthly energy, she molded it in her mind's eye , cracking it open like one does rock to reach a diamond. And then she filled that diamond with her own, vibrating energy. The Doctor's head snapped up to look at Celeste while Rose stood by rather confused with her hands across her chest and watched Celeste's eyebrows knit in concentration.
With all her thoughts focused on one intent, she breathed her energy into the diamond heart of the machine and willed it to move, and it did. There was a whirring sound and the machine shook, making the Doctor and Rose stumble to hold on to the bars while Celeste fought to remain concentrated until it stopped and they stabilized. "What did you do? What the bloody hell did you do to my TARDIS?!" The Doctor yelled at Celeste as he raced towards the doors and flung them open, only to stand there with his mouth hanging out.
Rose raced after him and breathed, "It's beautiful."
Celeste smiled a bit and calmly walked towards the door, trying to hide her growing fatigue. That had took much more out of her than she had hoped to give, but it was worth it as she stood beside the three in the small space to look down, They were floating above her home planet, it's lands of blue and purple stardust camouflaged in space, but most importantly, they were locked in orbit with the Lady Star. She was indeed a shooting star, but her landscape was smooth and shimmering a bright silver with the molten mercury flowing in streams, creeks, and rivers along her silver powdered ground. Her entire sphere was encased in a light golden flame as it soared around her planet like a comet.
"To you, she is just a star. To me she is the blood of my people. But Bonythus isn't the star, the star is merely her constant symbol and lifeline to her once peaceful and proud people. Now she is my only connection to home. Insult her once more, and you will find yourself in a very bad predicament."
"Oi, you heard the High Priestess, quit insultin' other people." Rose chimed in after Celeste's warning, making Celeste smile and her anger dissipate just slightly.