"The Mistaken M. Jones"
16. The Asteroid
Earth, in the year 4519
Merit Reeslin did not look frightened at all as he followed the Doctor, Rose, and Mercedes. He knew what he was potentially walking into, but he would do it regardless. If anything, Rose and Mercedes were the ones who had more to worry about. Both of them were between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one, which placed them squarely in the realm of having been mandated to sail for the asteroid and having failed to submit. That was why, much to the girls' complaint, they had been sent to the TARDIS to wait and stay out of sight.
"Where are we going?" Mercedes asked, to make sure, after she expected to be brought to a spaceship and instead realized they were making straight for a blue box with a light on top.
"Right here," Rose produced a key, slipped it in door, gave it a twist, and opened the way. When Mercedes saw what was behind her, she wasn't sure if she was stunned or if, after everything else, this only had to make sense.
"How… What…" she stepped through the door, looked up and around. This was no 'little' box, not the way it had looked from outside. Suddenly, she almost didn't care anymore that they'd been left out of the Doctor and Merit going after Lenton's message.
They would be told later how it had all gone down. The hard part would of course involve their getting through the door and convincing the guards to let them see the message on their own. But then the Doctor was there, and he was not so new to this game that he didn't have a few ideas as to how to supersede a person standing in their way. A flash of psychic paper, a few well-placed words, and, when they knew it was the only way left, flat out using everything they had, even if it meant breaking through doors, locking themselves in, and then having to break their way back out…
What mattered was that they at one time found themselves in a room, secure, and with access to a terminal where the Doctor could reach Lenton's message, and Merit could provide the genetic key that would unlock that message.
"Wait," the Doctor told the young man before they could play the message.
"Why?" Merit stared at him, and the Doctor could see just how much he had wanted this, a chance to see his old friend. He might have surrendered himself to the guards, had the Doctor not arrived, on the sole possibility he'd get the long-awaited words.
"Now it's unlocked, we can take it away. Then they won't have it, and you can take all the time you want and watch it, back on my ship." Merit let out a breath, then nodded.
With the message now safely stored in the sonic and extracted from the system here, the Doctor and Merit made their escape. In any other circumstance, Merit might have felt himself a nuisance, slowing the Doctor down because of his leg. But he had something to look forward to, and it gave him the drive he needed to carry on. They made it out of the building and back to the TARDIS, while the guards still believed them cornered inside.
"Thank you for that," Merit smiled to the Doctor as he hobbled on after him.
His day was only made more surprising when he saw the inside of the ship. He'd been as amazed as Mercedes, and even as the Doctor was telling her and Rose about how they'd made it in and out of that building, he could only look around.
"Would you like to be alone?" the Doctor got his attention. On the TARDIS screen, the message was set up and waiting, just as it had been on the terminal.
"No, it's alright," he insisted, moving up to stand in front of the screen. The four of them stood together, and the image began to play.
It was for the most part clear, although at times it would lose focus and flicker before focusing again. They didn't pay much attention to that once the young man appeared on the screen. Merit had an intake of breath as he saw him. He had aged, they both had, but he still had the memory of the sixteen-year-old who'd boarded that ship ten years ago, and this wasn't him anymore. This was still a young man, but older, wearier, haggard…
"Lenton Daen, year 9, day 342. This log goes out to Merit Reeslin, back on Earth, and only him," he spoke, and as he did, Mercedes searched his face, not for the carrot-haired boy she'd met briefly a day ago, but for another. "Merit, I'm putting a gen-lock on this, I don't know why… I guess I'm hoping it will make it to you this time. Any other attempts I've made to contact you, I know for a fact they've turned away, like they've done with everyone here. I can't know that I'll ever get a response back, I know from the last few batches of sixteens that they've been keeping quiet." There was a pause, as though to make sure there was no one there to hear him. "Something needs to happen, fast. There are too many of us now, the asteroid is packed, but they keep bringing the new sixteens every year, and now we're afraid what they'll do when there are too many. The word going around is they'll start executing the older diggers, keep the young ones while they're still strong and healthy." When he stopped this time, they could feel the fear on him; he was afraid for his life. "Merit, if I don't… if I don't make it back, I wanted you to know… I'm sorry," he shook his head. "I'm sorry we never got to have what we always said we'd have after our years, but… please… don't wait for me forever. The last thing I'd want is for you to be alone." The two young men, the one on the screen and the one before it, were both in varying stages of holding back tears, and Rose put a hand to Merit's shoulder while Mercedes reached for his hand. "I'm not giving up," Lenton vowed. "If there's a way, I will see you again, Reeslin," he gave a smirk, even with the shine of tears still in his eyes, and he held up his hand in greeting, in farewell, and the image remained frozen this way.
There was nothing for any of them to say, not for several seconds. When Mercedes looked up again, she saw the Doctor seemed to be working at the controls, and she moved behind him to see what he was doing. At one point, he pulled the screen back to himself, and then it became clearer: he was looking for the asteroid.
It wasn't nearly as easy as he might have believed or hoped. Time went by, as he searched, and Merit remained sat in silence, Rose by his side, wordless but ready to intervene. Mercedes didn't know what else to do, so she waited, and waited… Except…
"Doctor?" she asked, just as he muttered something she couldn't make out, then hit the top of the screen.
"There," he pointed to it, turning to Mercedes… But she was already gone. He looked back to Rose. Whatever happened next, they had no part in it, as far as he knew, and without a new beacon to follow…
TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)