LOVE
SEVENTEEN
"Teacher, John, as requested we've arrived at the source of the transmission and are now in low orbit around the planet Miri."
Wil raised an eyebrow, "Miri? Really? How odd…"
"Why odd? What is it?" John asked curiously. "I have to admit I've never heard of the place."
"On some of the star charts it is designated as Miwoc, Captain Hart," the ship responded helpfully.
John narrowed his eyes but then shook his head, "Nope, doesn't ring any bells." He gazed at Wil, "So… what's the story?"
Lifting her right hand, Wil rubbed the back of her neck and frowned. She was working really hard at trying to filter out John's thoughts from his spoken words and had an admission of her own to make, even if she was going to keep it only to herself: she was failing miserably. She needed to concentrate so intently on what he was actually saying that she was almost beyond understanding its meaning. It was like trying to listen to a faint Bach violin sonata being played a half mile away while at the same time being deluged by blaring hip-hop from the next room. It gave her a headache and, apparently… made her neck hurt. And worse, she was having a hard time thinking coherently.
"Um, well… to be honest while it's quite earthlike and populated – highly overpopulated in fact – with humanoid inhabitants, it's a dismal backwater of a planet. Extremely impoverished and rampant with all those wonderful misfortunes that accompany such abject poverty: disease, pestilence, pollution, crime, destitution, overcrowding, famine, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera…"
"Sounds miserable," John scowled.
"It is."
"What would Jack and The Doctor be doing here?"
"Well, it's hard to be certain. However I do have a theory…"
"And that would be?"
"There's a scientist of some repute who has taken up residence on Miri. And when I say repute, I'm not implying some of that may not be ill-repute. He's an exceedingly odd duck who once went by the name of Iserliss, but dropped that moniker in preference of a more generic title. There have been rumors circulating about him, a few of which are so severe, so extreme, as to almost be unbelievable. No doubt there are some truths to these unpleasant stories, but it is unclear how much is simply trumped-up gossip and innuendo. Or even jealousy."
John had begun nervously pacing back and forth across a section of the control room, "What kinds of rumors?"
"Oh, gosh… well have you ever heard of a fictional character called Victor Frankenstein?"
John nodded, "There's a movie Jack always liked to watch, a comic take-off on the original fiction."
Wil couldn't help but smile, "Yeah, he inflicted… I mean he made me watch that film too. Well, anyway there are numerous stories about this guy conducting frightful experiments on the dead and the living." Her smile disappeared. "There are also stories of people vanishing – going in for an appointment with him and never being seen or heard from again," she shook her head. "That's what I mean by saying the rumors are extreme. They are a bit over-the-top in the horror category for me to totally, unquestioningly believe. Still, as I said, there's often a kernel of truth to be found in such tales…"
"None of the above explains why Jack and The Doctor would want to come to this god-forsaken planet, or would want to consult with this particular individual. I don't see it, Wil."
She shrugged, "Again we can only speculate but there's little doubt that he's absolutely brilliant. We'd have to start digging in the Time Lord database to confirm it, and I'm not even sure we'd find anything substantive, but I believe he was one of the rare non-Gallifreyan physicians to see and treat Time Lords. He specializes in a lot of really high-end, bleeding-edge and frankly weird, off-the-scale stuff. The kind of stuff no one else specializes in, you know?"
John halted his pacing, blinked and shook his head, "No… I don't know."
"Right, um… things like unheard of diseases, bizarre afflictions, horrific accidents, ah… reconstructing the demolished, reanimating the dead. You name it – if it's creepy or bizarre or impossible, he's said to have his fingers in it. Miraculous things, impermissible things, unpalatable things."
He smiled cynically, "I can see why the Time Lords were interested in him…"
"Yes, the old geezers were quite creepy in and of themselves, weren't they?" she granted.
"But, Wil… that still doesn't explain why our old geezer of a Time Lord or our handsome, dashing and ageless Captain would want anything to do with him. What did you say his name was again?"
"Iserliss. But lately he's simply been known as the doctor."
"Oh… that's just great," John rolled his eyes.
She shrugged, "Par for the course."
"You know," he speculated. "I've always believed our Doctor likes to stir things up, go looking for trouble. He's a man who clearly does not like to be bored. Might be what's going on here…"
"And you're saying Jack is different?"
He glared at her, "That's exactly what I'm saying. Maybe when I first knew him, when we were at the Time Agency together, Jack would willingly jump feet first into places where angels feared to tread. And yeah, he'd sometimes purposefully go looking for trouble. But now? With his precious Time Lord in tow?"
The wave of intense jealousy unexpectedly hit Wil like a tsunami. Jealousy that came gushing forth copiously from John Hart's mind and which was clearly rooted in Jack's relationship with The Doctor. She wanted to, nearly did blurt out, "I had no idea!" but realized with a sudden earthshaking jolt that she was likely to spend the rest of her life saying those four words – or some variation thereof – over and over again; they would become her eternal epitaph. This was something that by all rights she shouldn't know: how John truly felt about Jack and The Doctor. In fact it was something she really didn't want to know.
But the cat was out of the bag and so she chose to ignore it, although a shadow of vague unease remained behind.
"Grasshopper, is The Doctor's TARDIS on the surface of the planet?"
"Yes, Teacher."
John resumed his anxious back and forth patrol.
"Take us down there in stealth mode and prepare to transport us aboard please, Grasshopper."
"Affirmative, Teacher."
It only took a few seconds.
"You may beam over when ready, Teacher, but there is one thing I must tell you."
"What's that?" John asked sharply as he halted in mid-step.
"There is only one individual currently occupying The Doctor's ship."
"Of course there is," he sighed.
"Yes, and it is The Doctor."
That was not at all what John was expecting, "Huh?"
"Correct."
"Where is Jack?" Wil asked, her face darkening.
"I do not know. The Doctor is in possession of the Captain's vortex manipulator and he requests your immediate presence."
John quickly moved to Wil and took her hand in his before giving the order, "Then send us over, Grasshopper."
-00-
"Love is the emblem of eternity; it confounds all notion of time; effaces all memory of a beginning, all fear of an end."
Germaine De Stael