Anglerfish
The suns were hot, but pleasantly so [G types, close binary], I liked the yellowish spectra, it made the sky tend to a wonderful faintly green teal colour near the horizon. The orange dust hung gently in the air, if the town had started white, it was yellow now, the outskirts had smelt of Prxali flowers- which looked just like rhododendrons to me, but smelt better in my opinion- here I could smell people, food, machine oil, and something else, something nice (sandalwood?), coming from this run down side street. there were a couple of guys sitting further down, they looked quite human, playing what looked like knucklebones with crystals, laughing, relaxed, like they've got all day, shirts open, music playing softly from the bead curtained door behind them. I think I can smell peach, a dark haired guy with a wide toothy smile rolls the crystals back and forth from palm of hand to back, and back to palm, neat trick, wish I could do that, the crystals refract rainbows as they move, he turns needle-sharp eyes my way, "Vous aimez ça, cherie?"
I am so taken aback by hearing french (despite the translator circuits), I miss the communicative glances between them, but the cynical calculating eyes that turn back to me I don't miss at all, as he pulls a phial from his top pocket and sprays me in the face, I'm instantly stoned off my gourd. I'm manhandled inside fairly quickly, I can't hold my head up, something stings my wrist and I end up somewhere warm and dark...
I am so stoned, I haven't been this wrecked hardly ever, I can't move, I can't focus, it's nice but I can't do anything but lie on my back, in a thin room with a door at the end. A face blocks the small window in the door for a moment, then it opens and the dark haired man with a smile like a shark comes in, he kneels down and grips my chin with one hand, he turns it back and forth, looks at a handheld screen.
"Hmm, slightly odd biology, but healthy, very healthy," he looks in my eyes, flashes that ravenous grin, "and very, very out of it." He put the handheld down beyond my head, and slid down til he was lying beside me, gripped me thru my clothes, then he threw a leg over mine and I got a one-on-one experience of that mouth. I couldn't do much but experience, and experience I did, he enjoyed himself, I was so out of it and I'd been pent up so long it was glorious, I was moaning helplessly before he finished with a groan. He pulled himself up, flashed me another sharp grin, fastened his clothes and walked out. The door shut with the distinct sound of a lock.
It felt like hours passed, I was still very groggy, but I could begin to think, and my head was beginning to hurt. I was aware my clothes were open, I was aware I had cuffs on my wrists, I couldn't do anything about it yet, I could just about lift my head, faint rainbows lined the edge of my vision. The door opened and my favourite vision stuck his head in, white panama hat, elfin face, curly hair, white suit, and pointless umbrella. He came quickly in, and knelt down, taking my head in his hands,"Oh, Kate." he said sadly. He did something to the cuffs and they fell off, he helped me up, helped me pull my clothes together.
He threw an arm around me and steered me out of the cell. Outside my ears were assailed by alarms, "You've been busy, Doctor." I said as I stumbled along, his arm tightened around me, but he didn't say anything.
We came to the mayhem of the control room, the Doctor shoved me behind him, everyone was yelling, a distorted voice from the communicator grill was demanding the vessel's surrender,
"How did they find us? No-one outside knew we were here, and everyone inside was paid!"
"I told them," said the Doctor, a chorus of power-up bleeps greeted us as a circle of weapons pointed our way, "but more likely they're following the trail of the Fermium256 I planted in your escape vehicle."
"Fermium!? That stuff's under interstellar embargo and it's toxic as hell, and really volatile, Avon, we're..."
"Screwed, Paxel." said the black haired man bitterly,
" Why shouldn't I just kill you?" said a scarred-faced man, with a blaster rifle aimed at the Doctor's face,
"Because the Imperial patrol ship decloaking off your bow has you in an electromagnetic field, and will take any variation in that field as an act of resistance, and send a powerful EM pulse through this ship." The Doctor said in clipped tones.
"I'll kill 'im, anyway." Muttered the brawny man,
"Yance!" Snapped Avon, "That EM pulse will induce coronary arrest in anyone on this ship not isolated from conducting materials." He gave a ghost of a smile as people shuffled away from walls and control boards behind him, guns were lowered all round, he hadn't bothered to draw his gun. His needle-like eyes settled on me, "Your pet, I assume."
If anything the Doctor's posture got even stiffer, his tone flatter, "This young lady is under my prrotection."
"She's an excellent screw, I compliment you on your taste." The Doctor grabbed my arm before I even moved, to Avon's obvious amusement, I wanted to rip that oily grin off his face, "So very accommodating."
" You missed your calling," I growled. " You're a good fuck but a poor human." He glared at me, then he threw back his head and laughed. The ship clanged, then shuddered around us,
"Docking clamps. Time we were going." And the Doctor towed me away.
"WHAT were you thinking of?"
I leaned back in the face of that, he was so frustrated he was spitting, this was way more than I could handle right now, the Doctor at the end of his tether..."It went bad very quickly, it was a set up, I just walked past." I shook my achin' head, this was one hell of a come down,
"What did I say about the south end of town?"
"I got lost." I used to orienteer with a compass and a map for a laugh, I could just die right now.
The Doctor pinched the bridge of his nose. "Tell me what happened."
"I saw these guys down a sidestreet, just sittin', music playin', playin' with some crystals, sparkled a bit, one -that bloke with a smile like a lamprey- he spoke to me in french, then he sprayed me in the face."
"Nothing else?"
"I smelt ..stuff."
"What stuff?"
"Prxali, then sandalwood, and then peaches."
He blinked, "I'm going to need a saliva sample, do you mind?"
"What?" He put a hand round the back of my head,
"Like this." And, he pressed his lips to mine, it was a minute before I opened my mouth, he swept his tongue around the inside, I was definitely in two minds about being kissed right now. He leant back and licked his lips,
"Pirifal, Amendine, and a whacking dose of Hypercannabinoid."
All I could squeak was "Hypercannabinoids?"
He gave me a disgusted look.
The Doctor spent some time over me with a scanner and a tissue regenerator, he seemed deep in thought, but at least he wasn't telling me off. I squinted up at the lights to see if that lessened my headache.
"This might help." He leant forward and captured my head with a hand again, and took a bit longer with this kiss. He sat back and examined my eyes, the headache began to recede, "I synthesised an antidote to the pherremones and the breakdown products of the intoxicant." Neat trick.
"Pheromones?"
"It's what they used to lure you in, roughly twenty times stronger than what humans produce naturally." The Doctor looked slightly chagrined, a human weakness he hadn't planned for, I thought, "You couldn't detect them so had no inkling of the danger."
Now the Doctor looked slightly uncomfortable, "Nevertheless, you would not have been as susceptible were you not already in a state of pheromonal excess." Pheromonal excess? That makes it sound like eating too much cake, or something,
"You mean, because I was out looking for sex." Lordy, I think he's blushing, "Doc, I may not be twenty anymore, but humans do still get the urge, occasionally." Crap, now I think I'm blushing, grit yer teeth, girl, The Doctor rolled his eyes,
"A prrimitive, hormone driven culture, obsessed with physical pleasure." He muttered dourly,
"Well, " I said, feeling inadequate, "it is nice." He glared at me, I shrugged.
I sat on the bed in my room after a shower, I felt like I'd actually done something wrong, I felt stupid and used and torn in several directions at once, between the Doctor's scolding and the speed and ease of my abduction I felt scared and isolated, and not a little sorry for myself. I was snivelling into the towel when the Doctor came in,
"Rrestorative." He said, putting a cup of tea down on the table beside me, and then he settled on the other side of me and pulled me into a hug, "Hush, hush, it's over now." When I stopped crying he held my head in his hands,
"Kate, I rreally need to check your mind for damage, hypercannabinoids have an erosive effect on the pools of neurotransmitting ions in the pre-frontal lobes, much worse than the similarly named compounds you have run into on earth." That was a nasty thought - legions of slaves with dissolving memories,
"Doctor, how wide was your net when you arranged for the slavers to be caught? What about the financiers, the bribed, the buyers? Basically, anyone who knew about it and did nothing." He chuckled, his eyes gleaming,
"Financial investigators from the Imperial Treasury of Finardis are combing through the files of twenty six senators on four different planets, seventy five security chiefs and some 200 wealthy private citizens, as we speak." He said delightedly, I gave him a big hug, and kissed him soundly on the cheek,
"You are wonderful." He smiled happily,
"Do you mind," he said, "if I check your mind?"
It was like before, with the big bloke with the ears, and then this Doctor -after the Adraxian war- I visualised it as a vast crystal desert plain, a bit like the one I trekked across with big ears, without the connotations of fear, pain, thirst, heat, and blinding sun, but with the sky looking at me.
Hallo, Doctor. Part of me giggled, and said Bigger on the inside...
Impression of a smile, Hallo, Kate. You know, this really is a very interesting Jungian archetype..
Yes, right, mother, wise man, animus, big desert...I rolled my eyes
Sound of a chuckle, If you could just look up at the sky..
Quick inversion, we're in my head, it's busy like a city street, but all the movement is blurred, I'm not surprised this time round, I wiggle my fingers and a Triumph Bonneville appears, idling at the curb. My head, my rules! The Doctor laughs, I swing aboard and kick up the stand.
Where to, Governor?
The Doctor directed us to the centre of the bustle, he with a hand on his hat, umbrella under his arm, in the queen seat behind me, he put a hand on my shoulder,
Here.
He got off, looked around, breathed deeply, Yes, here. He looked at me and the sky was there again, behind his head, examining me minutely, sifting things. Minor damage, slight diminution. Ah, there, that's better.
And we were out. He let go of my head, with a small smile.
"All better." He said. My tea was still warm.
It wasn't all better tho, that leer on Avon's face -the smile on the face of the tiger -chased me, mocked me, held the sexual encounter up to my face and waggled it, to be so out of control, so manipulated, I couldn't bear my own skin. So, middle of the night -my night -I'm out of bed, into the corridors, looking for something I could do violence to, I had to stop and concentrate for a moment to make my request clear to the Tardis, she put it close by. Gym.
I beat the punch bag with no subtlety, no technique, just big single punches that made the chains suspending it rattle, when the baggy t shirt I slept in started to stick to my skin, I tried to tie it up, then stripped it off and threw it in a corner, I attacked the bag with everything I remembered from my Kung Fu, punches, blocks, straight hand strikes, palm strikes, elbows, back knuckles, in a never ending stream, then I slipped in a knee strike, in a moment of complete madness I nutted it. The rage wasn't dissipating, it was building, crystallising. I grabbed the wall and kicked the bag, the unaccustomed pain of striking barefoot soon numbed, round house kicks, front kicks, side kicks, then-spin-back kick-outward whipping lotus -hammer fist- straight punch & shadowless front kick- jump sideways & block -back roundhouse- panther strike to throat, and scream because it isn't him and I can't kill him. I fetch up against a wall, struggling for breath, crying, and slip down it, to weep, impotent, on the floor.
Which is when the Doctor came in, sat beside me, and wrapped me in a hug, I was so angry I resisted, but he talked quietly to me as I sobbed out my anger and frustration. Finally, a kind of calm descended on me, I was still bitter, but the anger was abated somewhat. I shivered as my body cooled, began to think about retrieving my shirt, the Doctor whipped his jacket off and put it round my shoulders, shuffled me off to the med bay. He must think I'm made of glass- the bruises aren't even out yet. He did a whole body thing with the tissue regenerator, which stung a little, in a couple of places. By the time he finished I was freezing, what with the tiredness and the wet clothes, what there was of them.
"Kate," the Doctor leant a hand either side of my knees on the bench, his head close to mine, "I can take those memories away. If you want."
I stared at him, I really had no idea what to decide. I absolutely did not mind not being plagued by visions of what I did in the Adraxian war, but to take all the bad memories...?
"I can't..." I gulped, "I can't decide that. W-what are we b-but our memories?"
For a second the Doctor looked pleased, tired but pleased, "Are you going to be able to sleep?"
I shook my head, "No, not yet."
"Come on," he took my hand, "I'll put the kettle on."
After detouring for clothes, I sat huddled in front of the anentropic library fire that never burned down- but still gave out heat, the Doctor handed me a steaming cup,
"Milk? What am I, twelve?" The Doctor strolled across from the recesses of the library with a decanter, and tipped a generous measure of brandy in my cup. "Outstanding." I sighed, it was remarkably good, he settled himself into an armchair with a smile. The brandy also hit me remarkably hard, when I eventually came to stand, the Doctor slipped a hand under my arm when I wobbled, piloted me back to room, all but tucked me in, fa chrissakes, and left me to sleep.
After I woke up, it took me a few minutes to notice the armchair pulled out and pointed towards the bed, and a book beside it under the lamp, he sat and watched me while I slept, it actually brought tears to my eyes.