Chapter 6

To The Rescue

John and Rose were drinking tea with River in the living room of the TARDIS, whilst they waited for all the office staff, laboratory technicians and the like to leave for the day, so there would be fewer people around, and everything would be quieter.

Rose hesitantly broached the subject that had been playing on her mind since her husband had mentioned it. 'Can I ask you somethin' River?'

'Of course you can. Oh, as long as it isn't about the future. Spoilers and all that.'

'Oh. Right. Well, I suppose it is a bit.' She looked at John, took a deep breath and asked anyway. 'John told me that you knew him . . . y'know, when he was the Doctor. That you knew him in the future,'

'Yes. I can answer that one. Our paths cross in the wrong order. My time line seems to be backwards to his,' River explained.

'And your parents by the sound of it,' Rose added with a smile.

'Yes. I've always been a bit unconventional. A bit of a rebel.'

'You know his name. Don't ya?' Rose asked suddenly, getting to the point. She found out John's hand and held it for reassurance. He gave her hand a squeeze in return.

River realised that this was what Rose really wanted to talk about. She looked at John as she answered. 'Yes. I know his name. And you know why, don't you?'

'Yeah, 'cos I know it as well,' Rose said, and there was an awkward silence that fell like a veil over the room.

River took a sip of her tea before breaking that silence. 'Are you okay with that?'

'I don't know,' Rose answered truthfully. 'John's life is a bit unconventional as well. I mean, the man I married and the man you married are the same person. Sort of. It just seems a bit . . .'

'Wibbly-wobbly?' River suggested with a smile.

Rose laughed. 'Yeah.'

River instinctively knew what Rose needed to know. 'It took him a long time to get over you, you know. He once told me that all he ever wanted for you was to have fantastic life. I know now that he gambled everything on leaving you with John in that universe.'

Rose sighed. 'Yeah. At the time I was so angry with him for doin' that. He never even said goodbye.'

'Well. You know what he's like with goodbyes.'

'Yeah. About as good as he is with domestic,' Rose said with a laugh.

'Oi. In the room,' John reminded them.

'Yes. And we're talking about you, not to you,' River quipped, and then turned to Rose. 'Can I ask you a question? About my parents.'

'Wha? Amy and Rory? Sure you can, but they're not really your parents.'

'I know. But you said you have a father in that universe. Is he really your father?'

'Ah. Fair point . . . John spotted Amy as a potential field agent when he went to investigate a haunting in the old rectory. He invited her for a visit and she passed the entrance test. She's brilliant, and has settled in really well. Rory came with her to London and got a position as a trauma nurse in the Torchwood Hospital.'

'Any children?' River asked.

'Not yet. But I bet it won't be long . . . Hang on . . . that means . . .'

River gave her a knowing look. 'Just tell them to watch over their daughter.'

'Did something happen to you? Is that why your parents are younger than you, and that your time line is running backwards to the Doctor's?'

'Yes,' River said quietly, with a sad expression on her face.

Rose thought about what River had said. "Just tell them to watch over their daughter". Had she experienced some trauma in her childhood that she didn't want their Amy and Rory to go through? Before she could investigate further though, River turned on her charming smile.

'Now what about your family? Tell me about your children,' River said, changing the subject and drawing a line under the conversation.

They continued to chat while they waited, and knowing that Rose and John were no longer in her time line nor in her universe, River showed them her "spotters guide to the Doctor" wallet.

'Blimey! Did I really wear that coat?' John asked as he looked at the picture of his sixth incarnation. 'I must have fallen out of the bad taste tree and hit every branch on the way down.'

Rose already knew what the Doctor's faces looked like in his previous incarnations from her mental link with her husband. But he never really focussed on the clothing. She thought the wallet was brilliant and took photographs with her phone.

Rose felt that River was almost a female version of Jack Harkness (if you could make that gender definition). She was intelligent, confident to the point of arrogance, and very witty. Like Jack though, Rose wasn't sure how many of her stories were true, and how many were exaggerated. But she was polite and charming, and showed a genuine interest in their children and their life in "Pete's World".

'Right then,' John announced as he stood up. 'I think it's time to make our move. Let's go to the wardrobe and get kitted out in our old Spec Ops uniforms.'

Ten minutes later, they were in the Console Room wearing black military twill, complete with utility belts and stun guns.

'I presume you've got a plan to get past all their security?' River asked.

John flashed her a smile and fiddled with a few settings on the console. 'Yep. I'm going to do this.' He pulled down a lever, and they heard a "zzzip" sound which seemed to come from outside.

'What was that?' Rose asked him.

'Electromagnetic pulse,' John replied. 'I've just knocked out all their electronics. Anything that was switched on and working, now isn't.'

'Won't they have backup systems?' River asked.

'They will,' John said as he studied the monitor. 'And they are coming online right about now.' He pulled the lever down again and they heard another "zzzip".

'Hah! You've just taken out their backup systems!' Rose said with a grin.

'Yep. They're blind, deaf and mute. Okay, so they'll be on high alert now, thinking that they are under attack. But if we wait for them to do a manual search of the building and settle down a bit, we should be able to use our knowledge of the Tower to move around without being detected.'

'Oh that is brilliant,' Rose told him.

John waggled his eyebrows and had a smug look on his face.

Rose noticed that when River stepped out of the TARDIS, the polite and charming woman she had been chatting to was now acting like a professional soldier. 'This reminds me of the lost property office on Garazone Central, out near the Orion star system,' she whispered. 'Is that a Sunglider?'

John glanced up at it, remembering the same Jathar ship in the old universe Torchwood. 'Yeah. This lot shot it down over the Shetland Islands. Come on, we need to make our way to the detention cells. That's where they will be keeping the Doctor and Lucie.'

They crept behind crates and boxes towards the doors of the warehouse, which led to the service corridor beyond. Rose looked in a wooden crate as they went past. There were no magnaclamps in it as there had been in the old universe Torchwood.

John sonicked the lock on the doors and peeped through the gap. The corridor was clear, and he crept through the doors with Rose and River bringing up the rear. They made their way through the maze of corridors towards the underground access area, ducking back now and again as a guard walked past a junction. They passed through a door into the underground car park, which led to the underground access area and the big steel, bomb proof door.

'John. How do we get that door open?' Rose asked.

'That big wheel on the wall to the right,' John indicated. 'That's the manual override if they have a power failure.'

'There'll be a couple of warders in there guarding the prisoners,' Rose reminded him.

'That's why I want you two to wait by the door with your stunners. I'm going to slowly open the door a couple of inches, and I want you to zap them.'

Rose looked hesitant. 'It doesn't feel right. Zapping Torchwood staff. Y'know, it feels like we're zapping our own.'

'Hey. These guys are not our own. Remember the Torchwood lot in the old universe? They pointed guns at us when we landed there. Just keep that thought in your head when you pull the trigger.'

'Oh yeah. I see what y'mean.'

Rose stood by the armour plated door with her stunner drawn. River knelt down beside her and they readied their weapons as the door slowly slid back.

"Zap! Zap!" The two warders sitting at the desk never had time to react. Their mugs of tea fell to the concrete floor and smashed. Rose waited until the door was wide enough the squeeze through and hurried up the ramp onto the loading platform where the security vans would reverse in to offload their occupants.

River followed her to the desk and they disarmed the warders. John came through the door and joined them. 'Do we know which cells they're in?'

River leafed through the ledger. 'The Doctor. Alien threat. Cell two.'

'Alien threat?' Rose asked.

'Lucie Miller. Alien sympathiser. Cell five,' River read.

John was closest to cell five, so he nodded towards cell two for Rose and River to open that door. The doors had a metal wheel on them that when turned, withdrew bolts from the steel door frames. Rose pulled on the wheel once the bolts were clear, and the door swung outwards. River could see the Eighth Doctor lounging on a comfy sofa.

He sat up and smiled. 'Hello. Is it time for another chat? Your features are similar to Miss Hartman. Are you two related?'

'Hello,' River said as Rose appeared around the door. 'Er, no. It's not time for a chat. It's time to get out of here. We're the escape committee . . . And no, I'm not related to Yvonne Hartman.'

John had wound his wheel and pulled the door open, standing to one side to wait for Lucie to throw a chair or table through the doorway. A chair flew out of the cell, and John poked his head around the door. 'Hello Lucie. Do you want to stay in there all evening throwing furniture about, or do you want to get out of here?'

'Who the hell are you?' She asked, holding a mug by her shoulder, ready to launch it at a moment's notice.

'A good question,' Eight said as he, Rose and River came over.

'Oh Doctor!' Lucie cried out and ran out of the cell to hug him around the neck. 'They wouldn't tell me what had happened to you.'

'Oh I'm all right . . . I'm always all right,' he told her.

Rose rolled her eyes at that statement and laughed. Eight released the hug and looked at the trio. 'So who are you people?'

'Doctor John Smith, formerly the Tenth Doctor from an alternate reality.' John held his hand out in greeting.

'Formerly the Tenth? Alternate reality?' Eight said with a frown as he shook the offered hand.

John nodded. 'Yep, and yep.' He then continued the introductions. 'My wife Rose. Formerly a travelling companion of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, and a general all round brilliant human being.'

'Hello,' Rose said, shaking their hands.

'And River Song. You'll have to ask her about her. Knows me in the future, and I know her in the past.'

'Happens to me all the time,' Eight said with a lopsided smile.

'Yeah. Me too,' John said. 'Although not so often these days. We'd better get a shift on. Allons-y.'

'Allons-y? Is that what I say in the future?' Eight asked as he and Lucie followed the escape committee to the door.

'Amongst other things,' River said with a saucy smile.

'I quite like it,' Lucie said. 'I think you should start using it now.'

'Allons-y then,' Eight said, winking to Lucie as they reached the big door.

There was a burst of automatic fire from outside, and bullets "zinged" off the armour plating. Everyone ducked back inside, and River drew one of the weapons she'd taken off a warder.

'Don't you dare!' John told her with a scowl. 'If you really know me, then you'll know we don't use guns. Not lethal ones anyway.' He ran over the door wheel on the wall and started to turn it, closing the blast door.

'Okay. So now what?' River asked, putting the side-arm back in her pocket. 'If you hadn't noticed, we're trapped.

'This is some rescue,' Lucie scoffed. 'What, you came in here, you don't have a plan for getting out?'

'Hang on,' Rose said. 'That was . . .'

'Maybe you'd like it back in your cell? You could throw some more furniture about,' John interrupted. 'Don't worry, I'll think of something.'

'There's the lift up to the interrogation room,' Eight suggested.

'No good. I knocked it out with an EMP,' John told him. 'And anyway, it can only be operated from the interview room. Oh, sorry. You're right. It's an interrogation room over here.'

'The EMP!' River exclaimed. She flipped the cover open on her Vortex Manipulator and started pressing buttons.

'Well I need to get up to the top floor to get my sonic screwdriver back. The director emptied my pockets during my last "interview",' Eight said.

'Top floor?' River said. 'Right, everyone hold on tight.'

'But that won't work,' John told her. 'The building inhibits teleporters.'

The scraping sound of the blast door opening made them turn and look. River grabbed John's wrist and pulled his hand onto her wrist. 'Everyone, hold my wrist.'

Rose, Lucie and Eight placed their hands on the Vortex Manipulator, and promptly vanished from the holding facility.