New Earth
The Doctor, Rose and I stepped out of The TARDIS and looked across the grassy field, filled with a city, flying cars, you name it, it was there.
"It's the year five billion and twenty three..." The Doctor began as he shut the door. "We're in the galaxy M87, and this... this is New Earth."
"That's just... that's-" Rose began before she burst out laughing.
"Not bad. Not bad at all!" The Doctor grinned.
"That's amazing. I'll never get used to this. Never. Different ground beneath my feet!" Rose started to jump up and down, I couldn't speak, she'd done this before but this was my first trip, I didn't know how I was still standing. "Different sky...! What's that smell?"
The Doctor bent down and plucked a strand of grass from the floor before turning to Rose. "Apple grass."
"Apple grass...!"
"That's beautiful!" I finally managed to whisper.
"Oh, I love this. Can I just say..." Rose began, linking her arm through with The Doctor's, ignoring what I said, but I really didn't care. "... travelling with you... I love it."
"Me too. Come on!" He cheered, grabbing onto my hand aswell and dragging us off down the hill. "So, the year five billion - the sun expands, the Earth gets roasted." The Doctor explained to Rose as we stopped. He sat down on the grass, pulling us down with him and leaned back on his elbows.
"That was our first date." Rose grinned at him.
"We had chips!" The Doctor giggled. "So anyway, planet gone, all rocks and dust, but the human race lives on, spread out across the stars. Soon as the Earth burns up - oh, yeah, they get all nostalgic - big revival movement... but find this place!" He said, nodding at the planet around us. "Same size as the Earth... same air... same orbit... lovely! Call goes out, the humans move in!"
"What's the city called?" I asked in awe.
"New New York."
"Piss off." I scoffed.
"It is! It's the City of New New York! Strictly speaking, it's the fifteenth New York since the original. So that makes it New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York." He laughed as he looked up at Rose, deep in thought. "What?"
"You're so different." She said, biting her lip.
"New New Doctor."
"Can we go and visit New New York - so good they named it twice?" Rose asked as we got up.
"Well - I thought we might go there first." The Doctor said, nodding at a big white building with a green moon on the side.
"Why? What is it?" I asked.
"Some sort of hospital. Green moon on the side - that's the universal symbol for hospitals. I got this." He said, pulling out the psychic paper, he'd explained earlier on what it was for, and how he once convinced Casanova to dine with him, to which, he owed him a chicken. "A message on the psychic paper." Me and Rose leaned over, looking as the words 'Ward 26 - Please Come' scrawled across the paper. "Someone wants to see me." He muttered as he stuffed it back inside his pocket.
"Looks like we'll have to buy some grapes then." I commented as we started to make our way towards the city.
...
"Bit rich coming from you." Rose said to The Doctor, carrying on some conversation they were having as we walked into the hospital reception.
"I can't help it! I don't like hospitals - they give me the creeps!"
"Very smart. Not exactly NHS." I said. "NO SHOP!" I said loudly, earning a glare from Rose and the visitors, but a smile from The Doctor. "I like the little shop!"
"Same." The Doctor agreed.
"I thought this far in the future, they'd have cured everything." Rose muttered.
"The human race moves on, but so do the viruses. It's an ongoing war."
"They're cats." Rose exclaimed, pointing as a nurse cat woman nodded at her.
"Now, don't stare... think what you look like to them, all..." He looked Rose up and down. "Pink and yellow." He said, grabbing my hand and pulling me into a lift whilst Rose stood around. "Ward 26, thanks!"
"Hold on! Hold on!" Rose shouted, but the doors shut on her.
"Oh, too late - I'm going up."
"It's all right, there's another lift."
"Ward 26. And watch out for the disinfectant." He shouted.
"Disinfectant?" I asked, snapping out of my awe of the alien planet and looking at him. "Oh you're fu-" I was cut off talking as water, powder and heaters were blasted through the lift, cleaning us up.
...
"Nice place. No shop, downstairs. I'd have a shop. Not a big one - just a shop. So people can shop." The Doctor explained to Sister Jatt as we walked through Ward 26.
"The hospital is a place of healing."
"A shop does some people the world of good. Not me. Other people..."
"The Sisters of Plentitude take a lifelong vow to help. And to mend."
"But is there no one here you recognize?" The Doctor looked around the room before something caught his eye. "It's rather unusual to visit without knowing the patient."
"No. I think I've found him." The Doctor grinned, walking towards the corner of the room with a massive... face in a jar.
"Novice Hame - if I can leave this gentleman in your care?" Sister Jatt asked another cat nurse as I slowly walked next to The Doctor as he kneeled down in front of the glass case.
"Oh, I think my friend got lost. Uh - Rose Tyler. Could you ask at reception?" The Doctor asked.
"Certainly, sir."
"I'm afraid the Face of Boe's asleep. That's all he tends to do these days. Are you a friend, or...?" Novice Hame began.
"We met just the once on Platform One. What's wrong with him?"
"He's dying." I said quickly, having no idea where that came from. The Doctor looked at me before looking at Novice Hame who nodded.
"Of what?"
"Old age. The one thing we can't cure. He's thousands of years old. Some people say millions. Although, that's impossible."
"I like impossible." I whispered, walking forward and sitting down on the floor next to The Doctor, cross legged.
"I'm here. I look a bit different, but it's me... it's the Doctor..."
...
"The lonely child." My head snapped up and I looked at the tank, Boe now awake, although Novice Hame didn't notice, too busy talking to another nurse.
"Boe, yeah?" I whispered. "That's your name, hm? Hey, how you feeling?"
"The universe grows old and weary Flo Maxwell, but you still burn across its night sky." Boe hummed. "Timelines are complicated old friend, you know that, it's the only thing he's ever told you. I've seen your life Flo, time isn't fixed, remember that."
...
"That's very kind. But there's no need." I looked up to see The Doctor had returned, passing Novice Hame a glass of water before giving me one with a smile.
"You're the one working." He mumbled as I got up and walked over to him standing by the window.
"There's not much to do. Just maintain his smoke. And I suppose I'm company. I can hear him singing, sometimes. In my mind... such ancient songs..."
"Has he been the only visitor?" I asked.
"The rest of Boe-kind became extinct. Long ago. He's the only one left. Legend says that the Face of Boe has watched the universe grow old. There's all sorts of superstitions around him. One story says that just before his death, the Face of Boe will impart his great secret. That he will speak those words only to one like himself."
"What does that mean?" The Doctor asked.
"It's just a story."
"Tell me the rest."
"It's said he'll talk to a wanderer. To the one who burnt the skies with their words, who the universe never thought they'd ever need. The lonely God."
The Doctor sighed and reached over to the phone on the table, dialling quickly and waiting for it to ring before, "Rose, where are you? Where've you been? How long does it take to get to Ward 26? You'll never guess. I'm with the Face of Boe! Remember him? See you in a minute." He hung up and smiled at me before nodding over at a man who we learnt was the Duke of Manhattan, cured of some disease. "He should be dead, cured in 10 minutes. What's in that solution?"
"A simple remedy." A cat nurse appeared next to us.
"Then tell me what it is."
"I'm sorry. Patient confidentiality. I don't believe we've met. My name is Matron Casp."
"I'm the Doctor."
"I think you'll find that we're the Doctors here." Matron Casp said before she was called off.
"All I hope is that she's had her flea bath." I hissed to The Doctor, to which he just chuckled back.
...
"There you are!" I watched as Rose entered the ward and The Doctor went rushing after her, showing her different patients.
"You don't realise how important you are to him." Boe hummed.
"Important?" I scoffed. "We've only just met."
"One day, you'll be the most important thing in his life."
"I'm curious about him, only to do with my 'timeline' as he puts it, thank you Boe." I explained. "Anyway, I rekcon him and Rose have got a little thing going on there." Boe just chuckled softly.
"Flo!" The Doctor called back to me. "C'mon, need to find a terminal!"
"We'll meet again soon Flo Maxwell." Boe hummed as I smiled and ran up to The Doctor as we walked through the hospital, Rose acting odly.
"Because if they've got the best medicine in the world... then why's it such a secret?" The Doctor said.
"I can't Adam and Eve it." Rose said in a odd accent, stopping in her tracks.
"What's- what's with the voice?"
"Oh, I don't know... just larking about New Earth... New me..." She looked him up and down and we both noticed most of her buttons undone.
"Well, I can talk. New New Doctor."
"Mmm... aren't you just..." Rose mumbled before grabbing him by the face and snogging him senseless. She let him go and walked off as he turned and looked at me, baffled.
"Um..." He began, nodding towards where Rose walked off.
...
"Nope... nothing odd... surgery... post-op... nano-dentistry... no sign of a shop... they should have a shop." The Doctor said as the 3 of us looked at a screen.
"No, it's missing something else. When I was downstairs, those Nurse/Cat/Nuns were talking about Intensive Care. Where is it...?"
"You're right, well done."
"Why would they hide a whole department though?" I asked.
"It's gotta be there somewhere. Search the sub-frame."
"What if the sub-frame's locked?" The Doctor asked, sonicing the screen.
"Try the installation protocol..."
"Yeah, course. Sorry. Hold on."
...
The intesive care... oh my...
"Hold on. I can understand the bodies. I can understand your vows. But one thing I can't understand -" The Doctor seethed at the sisters.
"Listen love." I said, pushing past The Doctor and looking at the cats. "What the bloody hell have you done to Rose?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"And I'm being very, very calm. You wanna beware of that - very, very calm. And the only reason I'm being so very, very calm is that the brain is a delicate thing. Whatever you've done to Rose's head, I want it reversed."
"We haven't done anything."
"I'm perfectly fine." Rose said walking over to me, next thing I know something was sprayed in my face.
"Let me out! Let me out!" I came around, realising I was inside one of the intesive care units, hearing The Doctor's shouts.
"Doctor!" I shouted.
"Flo!"
"Aren't you lucky there was a spare? Standing room only." I looked up to see the outline of Rose on the outside.
"You've stolen Rose's body."
"Who has?"
"Cassandra, the last human." The Doctor spat.
"Over the years, I've thought of a thousand ways to kill you, Doctor. And now, that's exactly what I've got. One thousand diseases. They pump the patients with a top-up every ten minutes. You've got about... three minutes left. Enjoy."
"Just let Rose go, Cassandra."
"I will! As soon as I've found someone younger and... less common... then I'll junk her with the waste. Now hushaby! It's showtime." I listened out at a argument before the pods door flew open and The Doctor pulled me out.
"What've you done?" He shouted at Rose as he held me up, my one little weakness, claustrophobia.
"Gave the system a shot of adrenaline, just to wake 'em up. See ya!" She shouted as she ran off.
"Don't touch them!"
"Oh, my God..." Rose said, horrified as The Doctor helped me down the steps, and the lockdown activated, the zombies escaping the pods.
"What the hell have you done?" I gasped.
"It wasn't me!"
"One touch and you get every disease in the world, and I want that body safe, Cassandra! We've gotta go down!"
"But there's thousands of them!"
"RUN! Down! Down! Go down!"
"No, the lifts have closed down. That's the quarantine, nothing's moving." The Doctor shouted as we reached the lift.
"This way!" Rose called, running off another way.
"Someone will touch him!" The Doctor shouted as the slave man got stuck.
"Leave him! He's just a clone thing, he's only got a half life- come on!"
"We're trapped! What're we going to do?" Rose panicked as we reached some sort of cellar.
"Well, for starters, you're going to leave that body." He barked at her, whilst holding me up right, christ, barely any air in those things. "That psychograft is banned on every civilized planet! You're compressing Rose to death."
"But I've got nowhere to go. My original skin's dead."
"Not my problem. You can float as atoms in the air. Now, get out."
"Give her back to me."
"You asked for it." Rose sneered as a eerie light left her and came flying towards me. I blacked out and woke up again just outside another lift.
"That was your last warning, Cassandra!" The Doctor shouted at Rose as she sat quietly.
"Inside her head... I can see it Doctor. Who is she? What is she? You've seen it too, but she can't, not inside her own head." Rose said in a hushed tone as The Doctor helped me up.
"What's going on?" I asked as The Doctor pulled me into a tight hug.
...
"We're safe! We're safe! We're safe. We're clean! We're clean! Look, look-" The Doctor explained as a woman came charging towards us with a chair.
"Show me your skin."
"Look! Clean. Look - if we'd been touched, we'd be dead." We showed her our hands. "So, how's it going up here? What's the status?"
"There's nothing but silence from the other wards. I think we're the only ones left. And I've been trying to override the quarantine. If I can trip a signal over to New New York, they can send a private executive squad."
"You can't do that. If they forced entry, they'd break quarantine."
"I am not dying in here."
"Sorry." I interupted. "I'm from blimmin' Earth, the original by the way, in the 21st century, and even I know there's has to be millions of people in that city, you can't risk them getting killed!"
"I'm not dying here!"
"All right, fine. So I have to stop you lot as well. Suits me. Flo. Rose. Novice Hame. Everyone! Excuse me your grace- get me intravenous solutions for every single disease. Move it!" We all ran around the room, gathering different solutions and tying them to The Doctor.
"How's that? Will that do?" He asked me.
"I suppose?" I agreed, not sure what they were for. "The lifts aren't working." I said as he soniced open the lift before jumping onto the rope and clinging on with some metal circular object.
"Not moving. Different thing. I'm going down! Come on."
"Oh I bloody hate you." I muttered, running forward and jumping onto The Doctor. "CASSANDRA!" Rose appeared by the doors, shaking her head furiously. "We have to keep Rose safe."
"NO!" She said stubbornly.
"Keep her body safe Cassandra, or your life won't be worth living."
...
Everything was safe, everything was ok, The Face of Boe dissapeared and Cassandra...
"Listen..." Rose began as we stood in the console room, The Doctor off in the corridors of The TARDIS. "Thanks for keeping an eye on him for me."
"It's ok." I mumbled, looking at the controls thoughtfully.
"Its just, there's things you should know, me and The Doctor, we're very close, y'know? And hey, I know what it's like travelling with him, having to leave your life behind, and maybe that's just not the right thing for you?"
"No, I understand, it's all very much about you." I said sarcastically, although I don't think she picked up on the sarcasm.
"Just, don't go rushing into a decision, yeah?" She smiled sweetly at me, before dissapearing into The TARDIS corridors.
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