Disclaimer: Doctor Who doesn't belong to me and I am making no profit from using the characters for my own sordid entertainment.
A.N.I had to update today! Because six years ago exactly I posted my first ever fanfiction on this site! Anyway, I realise I said this would be the last chapter. I was wrong. Very wrong. I'm not sure how many chapter's you're gonna get out of me before this fic finishes, but here's another one for you anyway! Enjoy
Chapter Four – Chemically Bonded
The Doctor had hated leaving the TARDIS to do all the work without him around to keep a watchful eye on the, quite frankly, fascinating process. But, as they said, needs must. As soon as Rose had awoken the next morning he had launched into an account of his infiltration of the water distribution plant, desperate to share his theories with someone.
The walk back to the TARDIS was too long, even at the quick pace at which he was walking. This was what space and time travel was about! Every society had a gem- something as rare and precious as a red diamond. Oh sure, the 'gem' was never a shiny piece of rock, Metebelis Three being the exception to the rule. But there was always something to find, if one could be bothered to look. Sometimes it wasn't obvious, usually because it was being used to aid all the wrong causes. But there was always something there.
The Doctor was sure that these chemicals were the precious gems of Cherush.
He practically dived at the view screen as soon as he unlocked the door of the TARDIS with Rose in his wake. He whipped out his glasses and perched them on the bridge of his nose. He didn't actually need glasses for reading but they made him look more intelligent. They even made him feel more intelligent!
The TARDIS had done the majority of the work for him. It had broken down each of the compounds to their very base elements. From there it was easy to put them back together and find their purpose. The Doctor deduced that other than water, the first test tube contained trace amounts of iodine and chlorine bleach- both commonly used to purify water. The third chemical was more complex. Much more complex... but familiar.
As he ran it through the TARDIS's memory bank, searching for any little reference to jog his memory, he began looking at the fourth and final chemical. The chemical that was only taken by the presidential household.
Rose, he noticed, was making a second breakfast. He hadn't really given her a chance to wake up, let alone eat that morning, he thought, a little guiltily. And he was beginning to wonder if it had been worth it. This chemical... it didn't seem familiar. It didn't seem remarkable in the slightest. It looked like a child's experiment- throwing things together just to see what would happen. And with this, nothing happened!
When he did not prevail however, the TARDIS never let him down. The third unknown chemical that was in every single citizen's water supply was remarkably similar to a something he had seen before. It wasn't an exact copy- there was something extra added, which made sense now that he thought about it.
The chemical in the TARDIS's database, he remembered, he had found on a planet called Khroniss. He hadn't stayed there long. Only long enough to find that the people there were in the middle of a war of six sides and that it was happening exactly how history had dictated it, even if he didn't like it. Once upon a time it had been a war of eight sides. The first sect had been all but wiped out after the island they had lived on had bombarded by a poisonous chemical.
The second sect had amalgamated with another side... but not willingly. He had witnessed the men and women who had become, for lack of a better term, zombies, marching with their enemy. They, too, had been subdued by a chemical attack, but it had a completely different effect.
It had stopped the electrical impulses created by its victims' brains from ever reaching their limbs. It had left them like robots, taking orders from their masters.
But that couldn't be what was happening here. Could it? The chemical was different. Could someone here have found a way to stop the side effect of the chemical? Found a way to stop those who had taken it becoming mindless drones, unable to think for themselves? And even if they had, why would the Lady President and her family willingly ingest this chemical?
He pushed his glasses back up his nose and turned to find Rose watching over his shoulder. Talking would help him figure it out. He just needed to bounce his ideas off someone.
"The dear Lady President is a genius!" He announced, gaining her attention. "A devious, manipulative genius, but a genius all the same!" At least, he hoped she was. Geniuses were easier to deal with than those who were just fools with good luck. "Rose, do you see what this beauty does?" He waved the test tube at her.
He didn't expect her to understand the nature of the chemical structure before her. He barely understood it himself. But that was fine. He needed her to be able to see the bigger picture when all he could see were the molecules.
He explained it, in detail, more to himself than to her. He drew out a map in his mind. This led to this and then to that. And still, when he was done, the fourth and final chemical remained as elusive as ever. Time had passed since he had begun his analysis; Time, even for a man in a time machine, which was precious. Rose had wandered off somewhere, most likely in the depths of the TARDIS. He was completely alone.
Alone enough that if he made a ridiculous mistake there was no one to point and laugh.
Carefully, ever so gently, he tipped the second test tube towards the first. One drop of the unknown substance would be the perfect amount. Too much, and the reaction may not be the one that occurred naturally in the president's mansion.
Slowly, one solitary drop rolled off the lip of the test tube and fell through the air into the content of the other. It rippled before the Doctor corked it and shook it. The TARDIS analysed the final content.
He thought he felt his hearts stop for just a brief second. Of course! It was perfect! It made complete sense! It was brilliant!
It was water!
The final chemical had completely neutralised the controlling chemical that was distributed to the rest of the population. People would have asked questions why the president had ordered the adding of a chemical to the water of the population of Cherush, but not taken the chemical herself. But to add an additional chemical, one that neutralised the toxin, into her own water supply- it was brilliant!
He carefully replaced the cork on the remainder of the antidote, for that's what it was, and dropped it into his pocket. His index fingertip brushed against something inside it and he withdrew it sharply, placing the injured digit inside his mouth.
Something had burned him.
He wiped his finger on his trousers and carefully placed it back inside his pocket, groping to find the offending article. He gingerly pulled it out and dropped it on the console. It, was the psychic paper and the Doctor was, quite frankly, surprised that it hadn't become alight with flames.
He reached up to his face and pulled off his glasses, using the leg to open the small notebook.
Two words graced its page.
'HELP CLIFF.'
Cliff? Who was Cliff? Cliff Richard? Cliff McNish? Jimmy Cliff? He was pretty certain that the TARDIS hadn't picked up any of these Cliff's as hitchhikers, though it wouldn't be the first time.
He stood, stretching his legs as he walked towards the door. Peeking through the windows he glanced out at the bustling marketplace. Beyond it was the fountain and the hotel where they had stayed. A short walk from that was the beach below the cliff face-
Cliff!
The Doctor felt his hearts beating more rapidly. Where was Rose? He called out her name, but only got his echo through the TARDIS corridors as a reply.
'HELP.' Rose needed help. 'CLIFF.' She was near the cliff.
He was out the TARDIS door and sprinting through the marketplace, leaving people reeling in his wake, before he had even completed the thought.
A.N. This chapter did not turn out like I intended it to and I'm not best pleased about it. I do promise, however, that the next chapter will be full of action to make up for it. I'm also thinking that I should have taken chemistry as an A-Level at school- it might have made this chapter a bit more believable!
Let me know what you think anyhow, and I promise I'll update in the next week!
~Sweetdeath04