A/N: Hello again. Basia Orci, My Reflection, OtherMeWriter, Chibi of Many Names: Thank you for the reviews. I love that you approve, although I expect I will get some flames here for not giving any warning (Oh, like I haven't? Hello -- what have you been reading?). Notice that this will not exclude Rose. The Doctor's life just won't be that simple. The man is used to having thousands of minds in contact with his own; so there is no way that he will ever have a 'human' relationship without things being quite complex. So Rose/Doctor shippers, don't despair. There's hope for that yet. As for Riddick's relationship with our favorite Time Lord – I'm building on the mystery. They knew each other either before or during and for some reason were separated.
Summary: The Doctor, reeling from the effects of the TimeWar as the last surviving TimeLord, stumbled into a situation he could not ignore when the TARDIS landed him inside a ship that was clearly in trouble. After the rescue, he's left with eight survivors that he must somehow get to safety. But the situation is not as cut and dry as he might like. His people may be gone, but the stamp he's made on the universe is still there, and he finds himself caught in a web spun of the choices he's made in the past…
It's 2517. Something in history has prompted humanity to explode out from their home world. Could the events of 2164 be responsible? Was Earth a myth or was it real? In fleeing Earth-that-Was, humanity scattered to the stars across the galactic arm. Initial survey teams targeted likely planets and systems for habitation and not all of them ended up on the same side of the sector. Blue Sun exists on one side, separated by a patch of 'wild space' filled with exotic binary and triple star systems, from the rest of civilized space.
Few ships brave the route. But luck had it that one ship did. Risking a ghost run, the only contact that the two sides have, the Hunter-Gratzner crashed midway through the journey. Original Port of Departure: Eavesdown Docks, Persephone. Mixed Sino-Anglo culture. Original Port of Call: Tangiers-5. Darkside. Mixed Islamic-Anglo culture. Crew complement: Four. Passengers: Forty. Living 'Cargo': Two. Survivors: Eight plus One
So what happens to Dr. Simon Tam, his brilliant but damaged sister, a convicted murder by the name of Richard B. Riddick, and the other survivors from the crash of the Hunter-Gratzner at planet M-344/G-2 now that they are on their way home? They end up slightly out of their own Time, on a ship filled with living sculptures… And just how is this related to the TimeWar?
A Doctor Who / Firefly / Riddick crossover.
Features Doctor 9, Pre-"Rose"; Simon and River Tam, Pre-"Serenity" Firefly episode 1 and the survivors from Pitch Black: Carolyn Fry, William J. Johns, Imam Abu al'Walid, 'Jack B. Badd', Ali Abdullah, and Richard B. Riddick…
Doctor Who and the Ties that Bind.
Part Twelve
Crux
William was really very glad he'd been watching. At first things seemed very – inert. The Tams knelt on one side of the prone form, their hands both touching each other and the Doctor's. Riddick was on the other side; his darker fingers curled around one pale wrist. All three of them, not including the passed out Doctor, seemed to be mentally elsewhere.
Behind him, the Imam led the boys and the docking pilot in prayer. It was quite easy for the marshal to tune out the faint Arabic mumble. The situation didn't change for a long time, and still the redhead watched. He hadn't expected it to be the Doctor moving that started the chain of events that led to – well – The Kiss. And really William had seen lots of folks snogging in his time. He should have felt shame, really, for blatantly staring at the display like a starving dog salivating over a butcher shop window display.
But how could he, with the raw, captivating emotions shining through every little movement. Simon and River have both settled back, seemingly still mentally away where ever they'd gone. But the young Doc's face is pink across his cheeks like he knows what is going on.
The shift of those bronze hands to grip the tee shirt clad shoulders. The unerring and sure movement of the freed pale hands into the black fabric of that wife-beater. They leaned forward so slowly that no one realized what was going to happen until it had happened. The soft contact was just so natural, no hesitation, no awkward angling, just the slightest of permissions granted to an unspoken question of what was allowed. And it seemed that nothing was off limits, although the Doctor let Rich take a dominant lead at first.
Then the encounter seemed to shift, like some part of the alien's personality snapped back into place. The pale hands released the fabric and ghosted up the muscular body, and Billy can see that the passage raised goose bumps over the broader man's richly tanned skin. Good lord, If he could witness something like this every day he'd give up chasing runners from the slams.
Riddick tightens his hold on the Time Lord's shoulders as the pale man begins to actively return the attention. Johns is fairly sure that the ex-ranger can't be breathing with the level of intense tongue-down the-throat kind of thing going on here. Yep, he should be feeling some shame right about now, but he can't muster any up as he keeps right on watching. There's the occasional flash of tongue as they shift, but Billy swears, he has never seen anyone, anywhere, keep up this level of -- extremely sexy -- profound osculation before. What the fuck was wrong with him? He didn't swing that way. No. Ah hell, maybe he did? No. -- The twin shudders that pass through the pair leads Johns to the conclusion that maybe, under the correct circumstances, that you could achieve release by lip locking. Damn, didn't think you could do that by snogging!
The intensity slowly lets up and then it's over, leaving the pair flushed and panting, clinging to each other (by Johns' estimation anyhow), and looking like the rest of the universe just doesn't quite exist. They are resting forehead to forehead, with the Doctor's pale hands holding the bronze complexioned head in place. Mind blown. Like the very first time he'd taken a hit of morphine and found the pain was gone. Or the time he'd gotten lucky with the neighbor girl after a school dance, under the bleachers out at the sport field. He almost feels like he's had a hit and is in that mellow lull before the crash when everything is golden. A slight shift however tells him exactly how much he's been impacted by the display. Before his brain can cut off his mouth he blurts out, "Fuckin' about time. Now that's what I call a goddamn kiss."
"Johns!" Carolyn warns.
He glanced at her and laughed. She was beet red. "What's the matter, Fry? They got you hot and bothered?"
"Shut it."
"I know how that made me feel. You're just having a natural reaction."
"My natural reaction is to stick a fist up your nose."
"I'd settle for a tongue down my throat."
Imam shook his head, "That is enough, Mr. Johns."
The marshal had the grace to duck his head, "Sorry if I offended, all right? But you gotta admit that was spectacular."
The Doctor gently soothed the glare off Rich's face before saying, "Why, thank you William. It's nice to know that at my age I still have it." He let's the ex-ranger pull away. The man doesn't go far; taking the doctor's shackled wrists and showing him how to snap the chains. This time the Time Lord doesn't protest the property damage as he follows the example and there's an agreeable tinkle of metal as the bits of the chain bounce off the blanket and across the floor. Richard follows suit, and stands up.
When the Doctor moves to follow Simon tugs him back down, "No, you stay down. You've been under a terrible strain. Just rest."
The Time Lord looks over at Dr. Tam, "Doctor's orders?" There's an amused tease in that. The dark haired lad smiles and nods, taking the bit of moistened cloth from River and gently wiping the prone man's face with it. "Can I sit up?" Simon and River help adjust the mat and blanket so that the Doctor is once again propped up against the wall. The girl then tucks herself into the Doctor's side and pulls her brother down to sit with her. Simon doesn't protest.
Meanwhile Riddick has waked over to Carolyn and is standing behind her, his hands on her wrists. "Don't get any funny ideas, Billy. It's not what you think." The marshal smirks. Fry closes her eyes. She doesn't care what this looks like; she does trust Rich. "Ready for this?" She nods. "On three. One, Two, Three." They move just like the ex-ranger had done with the Doctor and the chain holding her wrists together pops into tens of pieces.
"So that's how you do it?" Johns had watched carefully, focused on the movement, not the positioning. He looked at his own cuffs and tried to see the flaw Richard had just exploited three times in plain sight. The marshal vowed to never use this type of cuff again.
Riddick walked over, "Shouldn't be showing you this shit, you realize that? But… I can't expect your help if I don't offer it myself."
Johns looked up at him, "I meant what I said, about taking up the Doc's offer, getting clean and letting you go. I'm gonna do whatever I need to do to make sure that no one ever bothers Richard B. Riddick again, because he died back on that planet, dong ma? I might even go into a different line of work, if things pan out. Maybe an inner system freight run, if I can find a willing pilot and partner." Carolyn rolled her eyes.
"I'll believe it when I see it, Billy," with that the con stepped behind the marshal and put his hands on the redhead's wrists. "The trick is this," He guides Johns through the movement, gently. "That little rotation delivered at exactly the right moment when you pull. You're strong enough to have snapped these by yourself if you'd tried."
William tilted his head, "Really? These are that fuckin' flimsy?" He practices the move under the bronze-skinned man's direction a few times, getting the rhythm down. This should be like riding a bicycle, something that you never forget once you learn.
"Yes. This is why they sell so cheap, and are used for standard lockdown by most mercs playing the field. Most hard cons can break them, because this one connection is too brittle. But it's not a trick shown in single max. You'll find no-daylight double max uses a different design."
"Since I've never been there… I wouldn't know one from the other, I suspect. Until now," He applied a bit more force this time and the chain holding his wrists together gave with a groaning pop. "Yeah, that's a severe design flaw," the marshal says as the chain bits bounce across the floor at his feet in a dozen different pinging sounds.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The privacy barrier for the Shrill blocked off the cell that the Doctor and his group were in. Junner had known it would, which was why he protested granting the Shrill that privilege. He was stiff and sore from Antonia's attentions. His mistress had come back from her 'face to face' looking stricken. She'd mumbled something about taking a rejuvenation soak, and had released him to supervise the search for the Furyan mine.
He had a feeling that they wouldn't locate anything remotely like a bomb. The readings they picked up earlier had stopped, even though the internal sensors had been repaired. More difficult to locate was the methane leaks. There had to be more than one, because the air in the sector still reeked of it even after the main cause was corrected.
The second was beginning to believe that his mistress had bitten off far more than she could chew. He'd never encountered a being that could reach through an energy barrier like the Doctor could. And quite frankly, he's unsure as to why the alien let him live, because had the situation been reversed, he would have snapped the offending party's neck if he had gotten his hands in position to do so. The Doctor's hands had been in position…
So while Junner was physically now helping comb the section of the ship where the readings indicated the mine hand come into the ship, and was finding that the bulkhead was breach free, the space empty, if smelly, his mind was on the Doctor and his cellmates. He was wondering how long his mistress was going to play this game, which she was currently losing, by his estimation.
He was also wondering what they had done to draw the legend of Ka Faraq Gatri to them. He wasn't known to just pop up at random and make trouble. There had to be something the destroyer wanted that was making him play along, leading his captain through a careful maze of redirections, mirrors, and fog so that she thought she was one step ahead of him. Antonia was ruthless, smart, and ambitious… But she was neither a master strategic planner, nor the most observant of clue finders. It should have made her very wary when he reported the Doctor's ability to breach the energy fields. She should have denied the alien that confrontation. But then… logic wasn't her strong suit.
So what did the Doctor want? There had to be something. Not just this jabbing back and forth over whom was in charge, surely. He'd reacted strongly to the Shrill. Could that be it? No, he'd been surprised to see them. What else? He'd arrived about the same time as the Furyan technology. But Furya was a dead world. As far as he knew there were no living examples of that colony left. Wait. That was wrong. There was one. And his mistress kept him in her private collection for use in her 'performance' art because of his exacting proportions matched some obscure ideal of hers. Junner suspected that she just liked the feel of the man's hardened 'steel rod', but then who was he to complain?
His mistress was going to be very displeased if her favorite toy was taken away.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Simon passed out rations again, insisting that the Doctor take at least half a packet of hydration gel even if he didn't need to eat because of his high fever a few hours before. The Time Lord doesn't pitch a fit about being kept down, instead closing his eyes and actually resting. He's not sleeping really, just being still and calm after the exertion of so much energy.
As the lights begin to go down the other mats are set up. Richard chooses to place his closer to the door at the Doctor's side. Thete opens his eyes and then wiggles his shoes off. Now that they have blankets he can at least be comfortable. River and Simon set their mats up on the other side of the existing ones, farther away from the door. The dark haired lass unlaces her boots and then picks up the Doctor's shoes, loosening the laces so they can be slipped on quickly. She sets them at the edge of his mat just like her own are at the foot of her mat. The behavior reminds him a lot of his seventh self, really with how particular she is about placement and angle.
Jack wants to be with the Doctor too, but isn't sure how to approach the situation. Instead he sets up his mat near Ali and Imam then fidgets. The Time Lord's deep blue eyes open and fall on the green-eyed boy. Jack goes still and chews on his lip.
"Come here, young man," the pale hand extended toward him acts like a magnet to draw the boy over. Jack looks at Riddick. The bronze-skinned man has removed his goggles and is watching everyone. His glance at Jack is one of amusement over the boy's nerves.
"Don't want to be a bother," Jack says.
The ex-ranger sighs, "Come on, kid. It's no hassle." He pats the mat between he and the Doctor.
Jack gives Rich a grateful expression and crawls between the con and the Time Lord after removing his shoes. Jack settles in and catches the hand at the end of the arm that drapes over his shoulder. "You going to be OK, Sir?" he asks the pale man as he squeezes his fingers slightly.
The Doctor leaned toward the boy and hugged him loosely, "For the moment, Jack."
Over by Simon, Fry is setting up her mat, in the corner, so that Johns is forced to find someplace besides her to keep his butt warm. William smirks at Carolyn and winks at her scowl. He sets his mat up opposite Riddick's near the door to keep watch.
"I – please, don't do anything to make your condition worse, Sir. Please?" The boy looks up at him with tear filled eyes. When he got no visible reaction to his plea he added, "Doc Tam told us what happened with River being infected and passing it to you. I don't wanna lose someone else." The Doctor looked away from him, over at Richard. Jack glanced at the silver-eyed man too. "Tell him, Riddick. Tell him you feel the same."
"He knows how I feel, Jack." He put a hand on the child's too thin arm and then slid so that he could slip his around the boy. He needs to be with us, Thete.
It will alter him, Amadak. He'll cease being human. I can't –
Can't what? Let him make that choice? Maybe he don't want to be human, with how he's been treated. Maybe he'd rather be like you. That is what would happen, isn't it? He'd become your son, because that's how he'd be changed. Maybe it's what I want. Maybe it's what we, all of us -- Verity, River, Simon, me, you, and Jack -- need.
The Doctor looks down at the honey-haired child's pensive expression; "You're talking to each other, ain't you?"
"Yes," the surprise is evident in the single word response that the hairless man makes, "How could you tell?"
Jack shrugged, "There's this sort of buzzin' sound, like just beyond what I can hear. Been noticing it more around you and River, than I ever did before the crash." The concerned expression fixed on him makes him add on, "But I've always been aware of it, you know? There was this kid in my class that used to ace every test, and he always buzzed like crazy. I guess he was sorta cheatin', huh?"
See? Rich thought to him.
The intense stare came back up to match the quicksilver one. Later. The he says to Jack, "Maybe. You could learn to develop this talent of yours, but it would mean spending a very long time with me, traveling. And there are many dangers involved that we'd need to sit down and make sure you understand before we broach that." Happy now?
Enough that I could kiss you again. The Doctor colored, taking on an orange-deep pink-brown glow.
Jack laughs. "I don't know what you said to each other, but it's funny that you're blushing, Doctor."
"Hush." The man tousles Jack's hair. "Are you itching again?" The boy nods. The cool hands drop to his wrists as the Doctor shifts his position. The boy scoots up into his lap and Richard moves closer so he can see what is going on. "There's another pressure point up in the crook of your elbow that might also help, as well as a few on your feet. But let's start with the ones we've already used." Jack relaxes as the powerful and skilled fingers work their magic and before he knows it, he's fast asleep. Simon carries over Jack's blanket and spreads it out on the boy. At least now he can sleep knowing that the Doctor isn't up pacing about.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Antonia stepped from her bath, still shaken from her experience. There was nothing in the data files on the Doctor that indicated the sort of power he was displaying. Then again, the source of those files couldn't have known the true extent of what the secrets of their enemies were. Time Lords. It was more than just a silly title, she was gathering. Time. He could alter and manipulate time, either on specific targets or over a vast field. He'd shown her that, forwards and back, with merely a thought. This meant that he couldn't be kept in cryo, because his mind would remain active and he'd raise holy hell with her ship in revenge.
But to just let him go? Unthinkable. She could try contacting the Kova allies, the Necromongers, to see if they wanted a crack at him. Their methods might be effective. Or not. She paced. The Shrill wanted a chance to rip him apart. Now, there was a thought. Grant the creatures what they wanted; give as many of them a shot at the Doctor as they dared. It would clear out the holding cells and allow the 'golls the opportunity to play with gene splicing again.
And maybe she could add the Doctor's companions to her collection in compensation.
But first she needed to plan the entertainment for tomorrow evening. How to get the Doctor to come willingly? Lie? Better yet; lie to Harley convincingly enough that she thinks it is the truth. Or just assume that he won't and force him too. They'd need a larger group of mercs, in that case. And they'd have to come in under a different commander, one that seemed trigger-happy. She'd have to convince him that the others didn't matter as much, so he could threaten to kill them with guilt-free ease. Now whom should she send?
Ah the 'b' squad commander, Carver, would be perfect. She'd have Harley send her men in to act as personal guards and have her unfreeze a few more mercs for good measure, just to keep her busy.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Everyone was sleeping, all but the single Time Lord who because of biology didn't need but a catnap a day. It had been very eventful, this past twenty-four hour period. Then most days of his life were noteworthy in one way or another. He looked at his fellow travelers, hoping for evidence that they would all make it. But the future here was not set in stone. He could decide that they'd all make fine companions and vow to keep them with him and they still might die. He could follow through with his goal of dropping them off on New Mecca, and they might not make it that far either. Not everything hinged on his choices. His eyes drifted to the blurred mixed flashing colors of the Shrill. They had better not threaten these people, or he'd cut loose with a fury that would make the ship itself tremble in fear.
Beside him River stirred. She needed less sleep than most, and soon Amadak would be waking too, because he needed fewer hours. The dark haired girl scooted up to keep the heat trapped and quietly moved to the toilet. When she returned she settled into his side. How did you know Susan?
Eh? Susan – was my granddaughter. Why do you ask, River?
Almost eleven generations ago, three hundred and thirty-six years, current time, A woman named Susan came from nowhere, and married a man named Campbell on Earth-That-Was. They had three boys; all of those boys had boys, and so on through the years. Then quite unexplained, this Campbell family finally bore a girl. This girl was my mother. And I have an image of Susan on my bedside table in the TARDIS.
I see. Well, Verity has an odd way of prompting searches for the truth, doesn't she?
So does this make you my great grandfather, eleven times removed?
Do you want it to? Because I can go either way, Little Water. I can be your friend, family, or both.
I'd like that. I've never had anyone in the family think I was normal before.
The Doctor looked over at her. She gave him a hopeful expression. He pulled her into his side with a squeeze. You'll never be just 'normal', silly child. To me you are extraordinary. And I like you that way. Heck, I like Simon that way.
River giggled into his shirt. She had another name for him now – Grandfather. She hugged him tight, careful to not disturb Jack. I like you that way too. Heck, I love you that way. The slow tilt of the Doctor's head against her own told her that the feeling was mutual even if he couldn't say it. She was finally home.