Chapter 3 – Meanwhile, In Scootlund
"Thanks for doing this, Jack," the Doctor said a few hours later in the Hub, giving Alex one last affectionate kiss before handing him to the Torchwood boss.
"Oh, no problem," Jack replied, taking the boy and holding him tight. Instantly Alex's eyes filled up with tears.
"Alex," the Doctor said quickly before he burst into tears. "It's just one night! And Uncle Jack's nice, you like Uncle Jack!"
"Why are you leaving us!" Leah's voice suddenly came from the TARDIS door where she was being ushered out by Rose.
Rose began in a strong reply. "Because Mummy and Daddy need some time alone to..." she suddenly stopped and frowned slightly. "... Do... things," she completed, frowning.
"Shagging?" Leah wondered.
All three adult blinked simultaneously, frozen on the spot.
"... Is that like a game? Like Monopoly?" Leah wondered.
"Yes!" the Doctor said quickly. "But not like Monopoly. More like... Kerplunk. Now come on, we've got to go."
"Okay," Leah said, reaching up to him for a hug and a kiss. "Bye bye."
"Have fun, we'll be back in the morning," Rose said, kissing both Alex and Leah good night.
The Doctor and Rose entered the TARDIS, the Doctor throwing his coat over a support strut and bounding up to the console to programme the TARDIS hover in the vortex. With a thump and churn the column began to pump, and they were in the vortex.
Rose stepped up behind him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and kissing him on the back of the neck. "Wanna play Kerplunk?" she growled, grinning.
He turned around and grinned in return, embracing her to kiss her gently. But before things could get any further the TARDIS suddenly began to chime an alert and they jumped apart in surprise, heads snapping to the monitor.
"Distress call," the Doctor realised, diving to the monitor. "Oh, that's odd. It's coming from Earth."
Rose frowned, diving to look. The Gallifreyan language on the monitor meant nothing to her but the Doctor's expression did.
"There's the 'suitcase full of bad' expression," she muttered.
He looked at her. "Have you named all my expressions?"
"Yep," she replied, grinning with her tongue between her teeth. "This one's your 'dribbled on your shirt' expression."
The Doctor rolled his eyes and smiled, before turning his attention back to the monitor. "We'd better follow it. I'm worried."
She nodded. "Go for it."
In the dark evening in a forest in the Scottish highlands, the TARDIS landed. Out stepped the Doctor and Rose, the both of them looking around with wary interest.
"Where are we?" Rose asked.
"We ur deep in Scootlund," the Doctor replied in the most deepest broadest Scottish accent he could muster. "Source of the distress call should be around here somewhere."
They began to walk. For some reason Rose felt a little nervous walking through a dark wood in the dead of night, taking the Doctor's hand for reassurance. She almost shrieked as a bird flew out of a bush beside her head and up into the air.
"What's wrong with you?" the Doctor asked, laughing.
"Nothin'," she squeaked, and clung onto him a little tighter. The Doctor just rolled his eyes and continued onwards.
Then through the trees, they saw what they deemed to be the source of the distress signal – a shuttle lying broken and scattered in the mud of the forest floor.
"Looks like a crash," the Doctor mused, and in a flash he'd burst off in a sprint through the trees towards the wreckage. Rose followed, trying to avoid the puddles of mud on the way as the Doctor reached the wreckage, dropping to his knees beside a body being crushed by part of the destroyed ship. He heaved off the debris, leaning over the alien. He could instantly tell it was a grey-skinned Pastenalean, a woman.
"Hello?" he asked, checking for life-signs. "Can you hear me?"
"Can I help?" Rose asked anxiously as she reached him.
"Look for any other bodies," the Doctor replied quickly and she nodded, skipping over the debris to look. The Doctor turned his attention back to the alien he was with, just in time to see the Pastenalean open her eyes.
"Hello," he said gently, smiling. "I'm the Doctor, what's your name?"
"Friz," she replied weakly, staring up at him, obviously disorientated.
"Can you remember what happened, Friz?" he asked, drawing a medical kit out from his pocket. He had to stop the bleeding, keep her talking.
"We... We... We were... coming to do a job on Earth, then suddenly were we... we were being shot at, there were loads of explosions... We couldn't do anything."
"Job?" the Doctor repeated.
"A... A trouse infestation..."
"Oh, you're pest control?" the Doctor realised, already starting to feel a burning anger within him. A bunch of humans had obviously shot down Friz's ship... She was only doing her job, pest control for the Universe, she didn't exactly have a battle ship armed with high-tech weapons or even any defence systems...
"Yes," Friz croaked weakly. "Please... my friend..."
"Don't worry," the Doctor said softly. "My wife's looking, she'll find your friend. How many of you were on the ship?"
"Just... Just me and Rix," she replied quietly. "She's pregnant, please find her."
"Doctor!" came a sudden call from Rose from the other side of the wreckage.
The Doctor smiled at Friz. "There we go, we've found her," he said, checking his first aid was enough for the moment before whipping off his coat and covering Friz over to try and keep her warm. "Now don't go anywhere, I'll check your friend, take you both back to our ship, fix you up and take you home. Sound good?"
She offered a weak smile. "Thank you."
"You're very welcome," the Doctor replied, before moving over the Rose, finding Rix lying there half in and half out of the ship in a very bad way.
"Rose, go and talk to Friz, try and keep her conscious, get her to try and sit up," he said, and she nodded, moving back the way he'd came.
"Rix? Rix, can you hear me?" he asked the alien gently, but she wasn't about to come around. At least she was alive. He worked his first aid as best he could but he'd have to get her back to the TARDIS very quickly for treatment.
He picked her up in both arms, carrying her back over to Rose and Friz, just in time to hear a crowd of footsteps and helicopters coming towards them.
"Oh no," the Doctor muttered.
"What is it?" Rose asked, looking through the trees to find several streams of torchlight coming towards them.
"Whoever shot them down is coming to collect their prize," the Doctor grated, trying to think. "Okay, Friz, can you get up?"
"I think so," Friz replied with a frown, accepting Rose's help to get to her feet.
"Rose," the Doctor began, giving her Rix. "Get Friz and Rix both back to the TARDIS, I'll try and hold them up."
"Okay," Rose said quickly, starting off towards the direction of the TARDIS with Friz in tow. They weren't even out of sight when the Doctor suddenly found himself in a sandwich of army men striding towards him.
"Bludy heel!" he suddenly yelled, pointing at the spaceship and affecting his deepest, broadest Scottish highland accent. "Angie, ye hae got tae see thes! It's aliens, Ah swear, coz it's their bludy space shep!"
"Sir, please move from the area," one of the soldiers said, and the Doctor turned and jumped as if seeing them for the first time.
"Noo I've got th' bludy army oan me! Bludy heel!" he said and turned to the man who'd spoken to him, and waved. "Awrite?"
"Sir, you are trespassing on government property. Please leave."
"Whit ur ye talkin' abit, thes is mah lain. Ye gie aff!"
"What is he even saying?" one of the soldiers wondered to another.
"Don't know... We don't have time for this. Tranquillise him."
"Whit?" the Doctor yelled, and the next thing he felt was a sharp pain in his arm and he reached up to pull out a tranquilliser dart.
He looked at them, eyebrows towards his hairline. "It'll tak' mair than 'at tae doon a Scootsman, ye English bahstards! Come an' hae some! Ah can tak' ye aw oan!"
"Another," was the next instruction, and the Doctor felt another dart, this time in his neck.
"Aye, 'at'll dae it," he muttered, and flopped unconscious to the ground.
Rose had taken Friz and Rix straight to the Infirmary, though she wasn't sure what to do next. Rix woke up around five minutes later, and Friz was on hand to explain what happened, though Rix didn't really seem to know who she was. Another ten minutes passed. Rose was getting a little anxious.
"I'm gonna go find the Doctor," she suddenly announced to Friz and Rix. "He should be back by now."
They nodded, and she ran off back through the TARDIS to the door. She peeked out... but the people who had come had seemed to have left. She couldn't even see the crashed spaceship.
She quickly darted out of the TARDIS and ran to the clearing. That was unbelievable, the entire crashed ship had gone, and the Doctor was lying face down in a pile of leaves on the ground.
"Doctor!" she yelped, moving forward to push him onto his back. "Doctor, wake up..."
She instantly found a tranquilliser dart in his neck. She pulled it out and slapped his face lightly.
"Doctor, Doctor, wake up..."
"Nae havers nou!" the Doctor suddenly yelled and jerked awake, sitting up and almost headbutting his wife in the face.
"Doctor!" Rose squealed in alarm.
"Oh, sorry," the Doctor muttered, blinking a few times, trying to remember what had happened. "Oh yes, got tranquillised."
"Friz and Rix need you," Rose said anxiously, helping him up. He was a little unsteady. "You okay?"
He nodded. "Sorry, after effects, I'll be fine in a few minutes. C'mon."
Frix and Rix spent all night in the Infirmary. The Doctor had treated them as best he could, he'd managed to save Rix's baby, but it was up to Pastena's medics now. The next morning he took them both back to their planet, straight to a hospital. Friz thanked them both heartily, vowing she would look after Rix.
The Doctor and Rose got back to TARDIS, and the Doctor programmed for Torchwood.
"Sorry," he said, offering Rose an apologetic smile. "Looks like our alone night got a bit trampled on."
"Don't worry," Rose replied, smiling. "As long as Friz and Rix are okay. God, I'd hate to think what would've happened if we didn't get there first."
"I know," the Doctor murmured, running a hand through his hair. "I think I need to talk to Jack. This is probably going to keep happening."
"How come?"
"Well, there have always been millions of aliens living on Earth. Legally they were allowed to as long as they used morphic illusions to look like humans. But now Earth has been upgraded to a level six planet because of the contact the Shadow Proclamation had last year when they were looking for me. So that means now aliens don't legally have to use morphic illusions on Earth, and they can call other planets... For stuff like pest control, takeaways, things like that. The problem is... the Earth isn't ready to be a level six planet yet. They've been forced into this and as a results the humans are scared and are treating all aliens as threats. There is no level between five and six that allows for this. So the aliens living on Earth can call for galactic services and all the ones that answer the calls are going to get shot down like Friz and Rix. Not to mention Roger, Geraldine and George, with their holiday brochure."
"Who does the level thing?" Rose asked. "If we can get them to change it back to level five this won't happen again."
"Umm...The Shadow Proclamation," the Doctor muttered, scratching behind his ear.
"No way we're goin' back there," Rose said shortly.
"Nope," the Doctor confirmed.
"So what do we do?"
"I need to talk to Jack," the Doctor said, thinking. "Sort something out with him to try and get to the crashed ships before the authorities do."
Rose nodded. "Let's go."
Jack Harkness nodded knowingly as the Doctor finished his summary of the situation.
"I was afraid of this," he admitted. "The scare about aliens is getting bigger. Have you seen that Alex Grimshaw guy on TV?"
"Alex Grimshaw?" the Doctor muttered, frowning slightly. "I've heard that name before..."
"What's he doin'?" Rose enquiringed. Jack spun around in his chair and grabbed a remote, turning on the TV to reveal BBC News, a middle-aged black-haired man with gkasses talking from a podium on a stage.
"They're everywhere, all around us. They have been for years. All these alien encounters the Government has tried to cover up; Roswell, that fizzy drink, a spaceship flying into Big Ben... But now, we have proof. The aliens spoke to us, and the alien rhinos landed. They took control of our planet and treated us as lesser lives. Although they've left us this time... What will they do next to us? What are they planning for our planet? We are under threat, and we must take action, be prepared and armed for the inevitable invasion..."
"He's the leader of a newly formed anti-alien political group," Jack explained.
"We must defend ourselves, protect our women and children. We must start establishing planetary defence. I call for governments around the world to release their information on alien activity. We are no longer ignorant, and we must adapt to defend our race from these alien threats. The last incident proved it, these aliens want nothing more than to use us, humiliate us. Today we're harbouring a fugitive, what happens tomorrow? These aliens want our race to use, our planet, its resources..."
"Typical humans," the Doctor muttered, Jack and Rose could quite clearly see how worried he was.
"I can't tell you what they have planned, nobody knows, but our planet is rich in natural resources – and we, the human race, are useful in experiments, implantations and vivisections. These aliens will most certainly murder us all. We must stop them, and we must stop them now. Protect your families, protect your towns, protect the human race and everything that lives on our planet from the aliens... At any cost. Vote for us, and we will kept you safe."
It finished, and went back to the studio. Jack switched it off again and looked at the Doctor, who was running his hand through his hair, clearly thinking.
"I feel useless," he muttered. "If we can't go back to the Shadow Proclamation... The only thing we can do is treat the symptoms."
"How about a search and rescue?" Jack suggested. "We pick up the distress calls and you go and fetch them in the TARDIS then take them home."
"I can list you as a refuge centre on the Sol tourist database," the Doctor suggested whilst nodding. "Then they can also directly come here as well."
Jack nodded. "Happy to. Though you do know you'll be stuck here for a while if you did that?"
"It's fine," the Doctor fobbed off. "I'm worried. Plus Alex is sick and needs to rest for a while."
"Alex is sick?" Rose repeated, suddenly alert.
The Doctor nodded. "I think he's got a bit of a chest infection again, I didn't want to say it in front of your Mum because you know how she reacts, but it's perfectly treatable."
"Okay, good," Rose said. She was very used to Alex being ill now, so she took it in her stride.
"Let's do this," Jack said, and they all got up to instigate the plan.
A/N: I've decided the logical thing would be to review reply every fifth chapter. Because I'm far too unreliable to do it every chapter.