"Why are we doing this?" Rose asked him as he hooked the box to the Tardis controls.
"Because someone on a spaceship twelve thousand years ago is trying to attract my attention. Let's see if we can get the security playback working."
He looks at the screen and sees a familiar looking woman. He remembers the last time he saw her in the library the memory was still fresh in his mind.
"The party's over, Doctor Song, Yet still you're on board." The man on the tape says.
"Sorry, Alistair.I needed to see what was in your vault. Do you all know what's down there? Any of you? Because I'll tell you something. This ship won't reach its destination." She tells him.
"Wait till she runs. Don't make it look like an execution."
"Triple seven five,Slash three four nine by ten. Zero twelve slash acorn. Oh, and I could do with an air corridor."
He inputs the number into the Tardis.
"What was that? What did she say?"
"Coordinates." he replies and sends the Tardis to that spot. As the Tardis materializes he sees an airlock open and the woman flying out.
He runs to the door and opens it, holding out his hand to pull her in. She comes through the doors and lands on top of him.
"Doctor?" he hears Rose say in annoyance behind him. He stands up as quickly as he can and looks at Rose, his face beet red.
"Follow that ship." River tells him and surprising him he listens to her.
"They've gone into warp drive. We're losing them. Stay close." She tells him
"I'm trying."
"Use the stabilizers." She says as the Tardis shakes violently.
"There aren't any stabilizers." He says getting annoyed at her as she tries to tell him how to fly his ship.
"The blue switches." She says simply.
"Oh, the blue ones don't do anything, they're just blue."
"Yes, they're blue. Look, they're the blue stabilisers." She leans over and presses the blue buttons and the ship stops shaking."See?"
"Yeah. Well, it's just boring now, isn't it?"
"Doctor, how come she can fly the Tardis?" Rose ask him curiously as she comes closer to them with Kiam.
"You call that flying the Tardis? Ha!"
"Okay. I've mapped the probability vectors, done a fold-back on the temporal isometry, charted the ship to its destination, and parked us right along side." River says.
"Parked us? We haven't landed." He tells her.
"Of course we've landed. I just landed her."
"But, it didn't make the noise." He says.
"It's not supposed to make that noise. You leave the brakes on." She tells him.
"Yeah, well, it's a brilliant noise. I love that noise." He rushes out of the door grabbing his coat in the process. He stands at the door and waits for the rest of them.
"How come you can fly the Tardis?" Rose ask River.
"Oh, I had lessons from the very best." She says. "It's a shame you were busy that day. Right then, why did they land here?"
"They didn't land."
"Sorry?"
"You should've checked the Home Box. It crashed." he tells her and she rushes outside.
"Explain who that is." Rose says.
"It's a long story and I don't know most of it." Her eyes narrow at him. "Look Rose, all I know is she is someone from my future. Trust me." He stares at her until she nods. He walks back to the controls.
"What are you doing,"
"Leaving. She's got where she wants to go, let's go where we want to go."
"Are you running away?"
"Yep."
"Why?"
"Because she's the future. My future."
"Can you run away from that?"
"I can run away from anything I like. Time is not the boss of me, that woman is not dragging me into anything."
She sighs, takes Kiam by the hand and walks out of the Tardis doors. He stands there for a second and then follows them. The first thing he notices is that the once sleek spaceship is a burning wreck sticking out of a rock-carved building.
"What caused it to crash?" Rose ask.
"Not me." River responds.
"Nah, the airlock would've sealed seconds after you blew it. According to the Home Box, the warp engines had a phase shift. No survivors."
"A phase shift would have to be sabotage. I did warn them."
"About what?" he ask her curious.
"Well, at least the building was empty. Aplan temple. Unoccupied for centuries."
"Aren't you going to introduce us?" Rose says impatiently.
"Rose Tyler, Professor River Song."
"Ah, I'm going to be a Professor some day, am I? How exciting. Spoilers." She turns her back to them again. "There's one survivor. There's a thing in the belly of that ship that can't ever die."
That catches his attention. He waits for her to finish but instead she pulls out a communicator. "You lot in orbit yet? Yeah, I saw it land. I'm at the crash site. Try and home in on my signal. Doctor, can you sonic me? I need to boost the signal so we can use it as a beacon."
He pulls out the sonic and buzzes the device.
"Ooo, Doctor, you soniced her." Rose teases him and he rolls his eyes.
"We have a minute. Shall we?" She pulls out her Diary and flips through it landing on a page.
"Where are we up to? Have we done the Bone Meadows?" She ask him
"What's the book?" Rose ask curious.
"Her diary." He puts it simply. "Her past, my future. Time travel. We keep meeting in the wrong order."
He sees four small tornadoes appear out of nowhere kicking up dust and then the tornadoes turn into soldiers. One of the men heads straight for River.
"You promised me an army, Doctor Song."
"No, I promised you the equivalent of an army. This is the Doctor and Rose Tyler."
"Father Octavian, Sir. Bishop, second class. Twenty clerics at my command. The troops are already in the drop ship and landing shortly. Doctor Song was helping us with a covert investigation. Has Doctor Song explained what we're dealing with?"
"Doctor, what do you know of the Weeping Angels?" She asks him.
-DW-
Night falls as they wait for the rest of the troops to arrive and set up camp. A small ship like looks like a shipping container lands and they set up camp around the ship. He goes over to a small table and starts looking at the maps laid out on it. Of all the creatures in the universe, why did it have to be the weeping angels.
He still remembered well the last time he encountered them and had been stuck in 1962 with Martha and Kiam, but even with all the information he had collected he had no clue how to defeat them. He would take a Dalek over them anyday.
"The Angel, as far as we know, is still trapped in the ship." Father Octavian says coming up behind him. "Our mission is to get inside and neutralize it. According to this, behind the cliff face there's a network of catacombs leading right up to the temple. We can blow through the base of the cliffs, get into the entrance chamber, then make our way up.
"Oh, good."
"Good, sir?"
"Catacombs. Probably dark ones. Dark catacombs. Great." he said sarcastically.
"Technically, I think it's called a maze of the dead." Farther Octavian continued.
"You can stop any time you like." He says coldly.
"Father Octavian?" A soldier calls to him
"Excuse me, sir." He leaves
"You're letting people call you sir. You never do that. So, whatever a Weeping Angel is, it's really bad, yeah?" Rose says coming up to him. Kiam half asleep on her shoulder.
"I thought I asked you to stay in the Tardis." She glares at him. "Rose it is extremely dangerous and even if I survive the Radiation, I still have to find away to defeat the Angels. Do you know what happens if they touch you." She shakes her head no. "They send you to the past to live out the rest of your days. Rose, I can't lose you again."
"I'm never leaving you." She puts her forehead against his and then kisses his head.
"Doctor! Doctor?" River calls and waves him over he takes Roses hand and starts to head towards her. "Father Octavian." River calls.
"Why do they call him Father?" Rose asks
"He's their Bishop, they're his Clerics. It's the fifty first Century. The Church has moved on."
They enter the ship and on the screen is a Weeping Angel with it's Back to them.
"What do you think? It's from the security cameras in the Byzantium vault. I ripped it when I was on board. Sorry about the quality. It's four seconds. I've put it on loop."
"It's an Angel. Hands covering its face."
"You've encountered the Angels before." Father Octavian asks him.
"Once, on Earth, a long time ago. But those were scavengers, barely surviving."
"But it's just a statue." Rose said sounding confused.
"It's a statue when you see it." River says.
"Where did it come from?"
"Oh, pulled from the ruins of Razbahan, end of last century. It's been in private hands ever since. Dormant all that time."
"There's a difference between dormant and patient."
"What's that mean, it's a statue when you see it?" Rose asks.
"The Weeping Angels can only move if they're unseen. So legend has it." River tells her.
"No, it's not legend, it's a quantum lock. In the sight of any living creature the Angels literally cease to exist. They're just stone. The ultimate defense mechanism."
"What, being a stone?"
"You can't kill a stone. Of course, a stone can't kill you either. But then you turn your head away, then you blink, and oh yes it can."