Chapter Six

The Doctor

Lucy stumbled backwards out of the room, her mind whirling. She hadn't asked for this; all she had wanted was a little more excitement. Now she was going to be forced to marry a madman. She began walking at a slow pace back to the console room. Well, if he had chosen her, then perhaps there was a reason. She had calmed him down earlier; maybe she could do him good, change him. He couldn't be all bad, or completely mad. And the promises he had made! She would have to be a stoic for her heart not to reach out and wish, just a little, to be at the side of the most powerful man on earth. When she saw him, she smiled.

"Well, what did you think?" he asked.

"It's beautiful," she said, and meant it.

"Well, then, go on and do what you want. But remember to stay out of the way of the Doctor and his friends."

"All right, Harry."

She went outside the compound and wandered about for a bit. The sky was dark; it seemed to be dark all the time here. She longed for sunshine and wondered how long it would be before they were back in her own time. Then there was a commotion at the gates; three men and a woman were pelting as hard as they could with a pack of howling people behind them. The guards told them to show their teeth, and they did so, looking back rather frantically at the horde that came closer and closer. Lucy stepped back into the shadows and watched as the foursome slipped through the gate. One of the men was like the rest of the refugees: dirty, with ragged clothes and the face of a man who had lived in poverty and uncertainty. Another man was tall and broad-shouldered; as Harry had said, he looked like a superhero. The third man was also tall, but more slender and with a face that Lucy could hardly look away from. It was very intense for a moment, but as soon as the danger was past it relaxed and he began looking around him with undisguised curiosity. She would have said childish curiosity, because she had rarely seen such a look on adults, but he was anything but a child. Then she locked eyes with the lone woman in the group; she could have sworn that Martha Jones was staring right at her. She attempted a smile, but the woman turned away as if she had seen nothing.

Lucy wanted desperately to get closer to this strange trio, especially to the Doctor, but he was striding away with his companions close behind, and Harry would kill her (probably literally) if she drew his attention. So she gazed after them, a part of her wishing that it had been the Doctor instead of Harry that had turned up near her car in a blue box.

"Lucy!"

Her head jerked up from the table; she had fallen asleep from boredom.

"Lucy!" Harry's voice was very insistent.

"What is it?"

"You have to get onboard the rocket. Now. Everyone is loading up."

She rubbed her eyes; she felt disoriented. "What about the - the … Tardis?"

"I'm taking care of that. Go! Board on the second level of the rocket."

She ran to catch up with the line of refugees who were boarding the second level. The interior was very stark, lit dimly so that she could only make out row upon row of crates fastened to the walls, and seats where already parents were strapping their children and themselves. Lucy looked around, a bit nervous. Did Harry expect her to wait for him, or to take a seat and hope he found her?

"Oh, come on," she whispered. "Come on before I have to make up my mind."

He was not showing up, so she finally sat down near the walkway and buckled up. The chair leaned back so she could sleep; there was a fold-out tray, and a compartment for personal belongings. She deposited her bag of dressy clothes in the compartment and kept her eye out for Harry.

She must have drifted off to sleep for a while, because she woke to find Harry sitting beside her, drumming his fingers on the arm of the chair. Tap-tap tap-tap. Tap-tap tap-tap. He smiled when he saw her looking at him.

"Blast off in two minutes," he said. "Are you ready to see Utopia?"

"I don't know. Have you been there?"

"Not yet. I have no idea what we'll find."

They sat in silence as the two minutes ticked by. Lucy grew increasingly nervous; she wanted to get up and run away. How could Utopia be any different from this place? If there were no stars here, then wouldn't the stars have disappeared everywhere else?

"Harry," she whispered. "Harry, I'm not so sure… I want to do this. I don't think I want to go."

"It's too late," he said. He reached out and took her hand, and a shock, almost electric, went up her arm. "My Lucy is brave, isn't she?"

She swallowed. "Yes. Yes, Harry."

"Good."

With a rush and a roar, the rocket launched. Lucy's heart went into her throat and she somehow wrenched her hand from Harry's grasp to cover her ears as the sudden change in air pressure made her head feel as if it would explode. Then the pressure leveled out and she breathed a sigh of relief, only to realize that Harry was laughing almost maniacally.

"Harry? Harry, are you alright?"

He didn't answer, so she shook him by the arm. "Harry?"

He continued laughing until she was frightened. "Harry! For goodness sake, answer me!"

Finally, he stopped and looked at her with a wild look in his eyes. "Slap my cheek."

"What?" She drew as far away as the seat would allow her. He must be out of his mind completely at last.

"Do it! Hurry!" There was desperation in his voice. She lifted her hand and gave him a solid smack in the face. He gasped, as if cold water had been dashed on him. The crazy look was gone and he was breathing hard.

"What happened?" asked Lucy, shaking all over.

"The blast-off affected my ears. Unexpected; I could have prevented it if I'd thought about it."

Your ears? Lucy thought. More like your brain. "Oh," was all she said. "Glad you're all right."

The flight went on and on and on. Lucy was sick of sitting still, sick of Harry's snoring, sick of the crying and complaining of young children, sick of everything that had to do with where she was. There was no one to talk to, nothing to read, nothing to see. Apparently the future didn't have television. Scratch that, the future didn't have anything. Humanity seemed to have divided into two groups: the survivors, and the hunters. Why anyone would want to survive in a world like this, she had no idea. No stars, no sun, no moon, no beauty. She wished she had never met Harold Saxon; that her life had gone on being normal, without ever suspecting that billions of years in the future humans would be dying off like flies in a sunless world.

"Passengers!" came a voice over a loudspeaker. "We are in sight of Utopia!"

There was a breathless silence, and then spontaneous cheers came from everyone old enough to understand. Lucy looked around at the weary, dirty faces and hoped for their sakes that Utopia was everything they could wish for. But she sincerely doubted it was.