"The Mistaken M. Jones"
33. A New Day
The Asteroid, in the year 4509
The passing of this day was always the most hectic every year. Their most senior diggers, the twenty-ones, were packing up their minimal belongings and preparing to board the ship that would take them back down to Earth, and it would also fall to them to prepare the space which would soon be occupied by the new sixteens on their way to start their years. Then there were those of them who, after they'd completed their mandatory years, had returned home before eventually returning to them, not as diggers but filling nonetheless important tasks all about the asteroid, anything from trainers to cooks. Even then, they couldn't help but feel short staffed. As much as they tried to fill those positions, very few volunteered.
"Attention, attention," a voice came through speakers overhead. "The transport ship is approaching. All twenty-ones scheduled for return, please present yourselves in docking station one."
The ship would arrive, and soon a throng of fresh-eyed sixteen-year-olds in pristine new uniforms would begin to file out, still talking amongst themselves about the girl who had disappeared from among their ranks. The day shifters would be escorted one way, including the carrot haired Lenton Daen, while the night shifters, including blue haired Savelyn Bode, would go the other way.
"Right, twenty-ones!" a man stood facing the departing group. His hair had once been of a golden color so vibrant it might actually have been spun gold. Today, only tufts remained, though he maintained the color as best he could.
"Sorry!" a voice resonated from within the ship, and then a lanky man in a bowler hat emerged, with a uniformed man with forest green hair. "Don't mind me, only here escorting your new instructor, yes, see?" he flipped the psychic paper under the golden tufted man's nose.
"Instru… Instructor, yes," he looked like he'd been stung by a bee who then soothed his sting. "Excellent, yes, well, on with you, ah… Day shift or night?"
"Day shift," Merit spoke.
"To the left then. Ah, young man," he looked to the Doctor. "You'll need to board once these twenty-ones have boarded. It'll be a long wait for the next transport. One year," he chuckled.
"Yes, Sir," the Doctor tipped his hat.
Somewhere down in the bowels of that ship, Clara and Mercedes would be waiting aboard the TARDIS. Before he could get back to them though, the Doctor needed to have some words with Merit.
"Are you really sure you want to do this?" he asked, keeping his voice down, while the twenty-ones filed past.
"I might have done before, but not anymore," Merit told him.
"And why's that?"
"You clearly have some reservations, but for some reason you still brought me, which tells me there's something out there that's convinced you to do it anyway. What was it?"
He was right, so very right. But naturally the Doctor could not tell him this, no more than he could tell him how he'd seen him, his older self at the very least, on the asteroid, in those last moments. It didn't matter how many years had gone by, the Doctor could see it in him, sense it… He had the scent of the TARDIS on him. He knew that Merit Reeslin, or the man he would pose as for the next several years, would remain here, to instruct the diggers, regardless of the fact that his leg had prevented him from knowing the first thing about what he was about to do. He would lie and say he'd been injured later on in life, but it would still leave him at a disadvantage. He would have to learn on the job, to somehow help himself come off as a genuine instructor worthy of the asteroid.
The Doctor knew he would achieve this, too, he had to have done. He'd seen him… He would stay here, and he would be relentless. He would have to be, because once the sickness would inevitably invade this place and its people, he would have to be very, very careful. He had been immunized, so by all means, he shouldn't fall victim to the illness, but then if anyone found this out about him, what would they do? This would leave him with two options, either to somehow convince them that he was sick, or to somehow find a way to bypass his immunization and allow himself to be infected, in which case…
But he would survive, all those years, he would, until the very end, where he would decide to stay aboard the asteroid and let himself be destroyed along with it. He didn't know why he would do this, and he did not want to find out if he didn't have to.
"You understand what you can and can't do," the Doctor just looked him in the eye. "You will look over them. Not only Lenton, all of them."
"I know," Merit nodded.
"You can never tell them who you are, especially him. It will be tempting to tell him the truth, but you must not, under any circumstances."
"I know, Doctor. I only want to look out for him. He fought so hard to find his way back to me. He'll never know that he did, but I can give him the next best thing. I will help him, I'll give him reason to keep hoping. He'll need that." The Doctor clapped Merit on the shoulder as he saw the last of the twenty-ones had gone on board. The golden tufted man was staring at him with reprimand in his eyes.
"And that's me. Goodbye, Merit."
"Goodbye, Doctor. Thank you." The Doctor tipped his hat once more, to him, and then he passed the golden tufted man and boarded the ship. Once he was through, he wound his way back into the lower levels of the ship, getting turned around only once and finally finding his TARDIS. He stepped through her doors, and soon, as the ship departed from the asteroid, the TARDIS dematerialized from its spot and went on its own journey.
TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)