Chapter Eleven
The tavern looked like a war room. The curious thing was, the general in charge was a woman dressed in a ruined canary yellow silk gown with spirals of pale yellow curls flying about her face like moths drawn to an incandescent flame.
Jeremy Larkin downed the last of his ale and leaned back in his chair. So much had happened, and yet there was more to come. He had just returned from visiting General Lafayette's sick room. The Frenchman was no better. Jeremy glanced at Henry Abington who sat by his side. Reaching out, he pressed his friend's arm. Henry turned and looked at him and nodded. The apothecary was pale and there was a haunted look to his eyes, but otherwise he seemed quite recovered.
Providence do the same for Lafayette!
Isak had finally rejoined them. The black man had been detained in Washington's camp, gathering information concerning the spring campaigns to come. It seemed the war might soon be shifting to the south. Jeremy wondered what that would mean for their Society. Would they continue to operate out of Chester, or would the circumstances of war compel them to leave home and family behind for the Cause?
Could they do less than any other man?
Isak looked at him, his dark eyebrows winging. Jeremy had assured him this woman knew what she was doing. He had been wrong. What he had witnessed was River passing through grief, like steel through the fire, until she had galvanized into something that would stand fast as anything and everything else broke against it. River had said very little upon returning, but he could tell she had found what she was looking for.
And that meant the Doctor was dead.
It was just past dawn and they were planning their return to the warehouse. Daniel Boggs stood in the back, leaning against the keeps' counter. Though he hesitated to commit men to the command of a woman, on Jeremy's word he had done so. Jeremy glanced at the older man and smiled. Boggs' skeptical look had passed through disbelief to admiration. He met Jeremy's gaze and flashed his ten fingers two times.
Yes. They could use twenty more just like River Song.
When Jeremy turned back, what River was saying broke into his reverie. He listened for a moment and then raised a hand to question her. "And what exactly would a 'perception filter' be?"
She stopped and then softly cursed, raising her estimate in the eyes of Sergeant Boggs' men, if not the crusty New Englander. "Sorry. You have seen the sort of tricks practiced by traveling mountebanks and magicians? Where they make you see something that is not there, or fail to see something that is?"
"Aye."
"Madame Strangewaye's...masters...are consummate charlatans. You could be looking right at them and you wouldn't see them." She raised the strange steel box that Henry had explained was some sort of a medical device, capable of seeing into and through things, and said, "I have adjusted this so it should act as a kind of hunting dog. Once it catches the Nestene's scent," she paused and her face grew hard as that steel, "we will have them."
"And you mean to destroy them all?" he asked.
River nodded. "Utterly." When he began to protest, River left her position at the head of the room and came to his side. "Jeremy, these...people are fierce as the Highland regiments, ruthless as the Cow Boys, and as merciless as the Hessians. They will give no quarter. They will destroy your army, your homes, your country and your world if they can." She leaned forward on the table. "It has to end, and it has to end here. Either you are with me, or against me. Can I count on your loyalty, Captain Larkin?"
He felt like leaping to his feet and saluting. What a sergeant she would have made! Instead, he rose slowly and bowed. "You have it, Madame River."
Her stern look held for, perhaps, two beats of his heart. Then it broke and became a lovely if weary smile. "Thank you."
They had not had a chance to talk since the occurrences of the night before. He hesitated and then said softly, "I take it you found what you were seeking last night."
Her gaze flicked to Henry who was sitting quietly, staring at the far wall. She caught Jeremy by the arm and drew him to the side. "I would not have Henry hear," she said quietly.
"That is kind of you."
"I can be." Her gaze returned to him. "Does that surprise you?"
"No." A shy smile crossed his lips. "If water can change from vapor into ice, why shouldn't a woman?"
River stared at him. Then she took his hand and, leaning in, kissed his cheek. As he blushed slightly, she asked, "Do you have a woman, Captain Larkin, to call your own?"
He shook his head. "Elizabeth and I... Well, there is the war."
She squeezed his fingers. "Don't waste time. War is always with us. Love can be a fragile thing. Coddle it. Protect it. Don't let it go."
"You, and the Doctor?" Though their ages were so different, somehow, it just seemed right.
She laughed, but sobered almost instantly. "Oh, Jeremy, it is so complicated. But yes, I love him...loved him."
"Then, he is dead?"
"Here, and there. Yes." She squeezed his fingers again and then excused herself, saying she needed to speak to Henry.
While he wondered what that 'need' might be, Jeremy left her to it. He caught Isak by the arm and they went to join Sergeant Boggs and his men.
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"Henry."
The apothecary looked up. It was easy to see that he was a man who was at the present obsessed with death – his own, those he felt he had caused, and those that might yet come to be. River took a seat next to him and signaled the bar keep to bring her an ale. After it was delivered she took a sip, savored the heady brew, and then sat the earthenware cup down on the pocked and stained table.
"You look like a man feeling sorry for himself," she said.
He started and shook his head. "No, Madame, I am not."
She leaned forward on one hand and examined him. "Oh, then it is rather that you are blaming yourself for everything that has happened, and what is yet to occur?"
His grimace told her she had hit the mark.
"Same thing, really. Both are wastes of time."
"Madame!"
"River. Remember?" She caught up the mug, took another sip, and then leaned back. "So what are you going to do about it?"
"If I could, I would – "
"Not if, not could. What? You cannot change the past. What, Henry Abington, are you going to do about this present moment?"
He was silent for some time. Then the words came rapidly. "Madame, River... I don't know how you can even speak to me after what has happened. The absence of that most wonderful man, the Doctor, from these proceedings can mean but one thing." He drew a breath. "He is gone, and the Marquis is soon to follow him to the grave. And both those losses are my fault – "
"So?" she asked.
That set him spluttering. I..I... What? How can you..."
"Henry." She reached out and laid her hand on his arm. "Your Marquis, he risked life and limb to come to this country, did he not? A clandestine leave taking. A treacherous voyage across the seas. And he remained on the battlefield at Brandywine while bullets flew."
"One hit him."
"Yes." She paused before continuing. "I have seen the Doctor stand as gunfire turned the ground beneath his feet into Swiss cheese. I have seen him risk everything, dare anything in order to save – not only someone he loved, not even someone he liked – but his enemies."
"But now he is gone, because of – "
"Henry. That is not the point. Both men have risked their lives for something bigger than themselves – bigger than their triumphs, and bigger than their failures." She released his arm. "Will you? Or are you going to sit here, brooding on the past, and thinking only of yourself?"
The apothecary met her eyes and then looked down. He removed his glasses and cleaned them; a familiar affectation, she could tell. When he replaced them, she was pleased to see a fire had been rekindled in his eyes.
"I am ready, Madame," he said formally.
She didn't correct him. She was just glad to see that Henry Abington was going to choose to live. Taking his hand this time, River leaned in close and whispered.
"I understand you are very good with explosives."
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In a darkened room in the inn, several doors down from where the Marquis de Lafayette languished, Amy Pond lay quite still. She had been placed there by Jeremy Larkin, seen to by the innkeeper's wife, and visited by Dr. Cochran on one of his many attendances upon the ailing major general. None could find anything wrong with her and none could cause her to speak, rouse, or even bat her lashes. Her brown eyes were open wide and unseeing. She looked like a much loved and somewhat abused rag doll in her ruined silks with their tattered and missing ribbon roses. If she could have seen herself, she would snorted and remarked that she looked like Sleeping Beauty, not the Disney variety, but the one from the old fairy tale with faded clothes two hundred years old and brambles in her hair.
A sudden breeze ruffled that orange-red mantle and stirred it so wisps tickled her unfeeling cheeks. A chill wind blew in, along with something else, but she didn't see or hear or feel it. A shadow fell across her. Anyone who knew the tale would have thought it her long, lost prince. If so, he was a raggedy figure, far from a small girl's ideal with his bare feet and chest, and tattered coat.
Amy moved, not on her own, but because the man who had entered sat heavily on the bed beside her. He placed a hand on top of hers and then waited, gathering strength.
"Thank...goodness," he whispered, "they put you...on the first...floor."
He waited to make certain there was no response and then reached into his coat and drew out a silver device. A second later its tip glowed emerald green. He turned it around, checked the readings, and then gently placed it against her temple. Leaning in close, the raggedy man animated the device.
"Amelia Pond, hear me. This is what you must do."
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River stood on the street outside the warehouse. A strong wind blew her spiraling blond hair into her eyes. It was dusk and the light snow of the day before had turned into a full-fledged storm. She wasn't sure what she thought of Jeremy Larkin's Providence, but it seemed whoever or whatever it was, that it was on their side. The streets of the harbor were nearly deserted. The fewer witnesses the better.
The less to explain.
Sergeant Boggs' men were fanning out from the warehouse, moving toward the harbor. Jeremy, Isak, and Henry had undertaken to infiltrate the building itself and set the explosive charges. They had also been told to look for the humans whom the Nestene had duplicated, including Madame Strangewayes. They had to be somewhere, though the 'deaths' of their duplicates would have freed them and they might have found their own way out and home by now.
It wasn't really all that much of a plan. She was fairly certain the Nestene had not fled and so that meant they had to be using some sort of a perception filter to hide in plain sight. If she had the sonic, she would have been able to detect it, but there was no way in seventeen kinds of Hell that she would have pried the device out of the Doctor's dead hand. River closed her eyes. When this was over she would have to face that. She would have to fly the Tardis and take Amy Pond home. And she couldn't take Amy into the time ship with him lying there. So she would have to deal with her own worst nightmare come to life. Amy was a strong woman. The Doctor would not have taken her on as a companion otherwise. But that image – what she had seen – was nearly too much for her to bear and remain sane, and in her forty plus years of hopping through time, she had seen quite a lot. She wouldn't wish it on her worst enemy.
River's jaw tightened. Unless it was the Nestene.
Jeremy Larkin signaled from the end of the building. He waited as a lone wagon rattled past, and then sprinted to her side. He looked like a rebel now, dressed in dark clothing and carrying a pistol at his side. "The devices are in place. We searched, but found no one." He paused. "And nothing. Are you certain there is something there?"
She nodded, even as her eyes searched his face. "Did you three stay together as I told you?"
"Aye. Until I came outside. Isak and Henry are waiting behind the building." He was slightly winded. He paused to draw a breath and then asked, "Why?"
She couldn't be certain he hadn't been duplicated. It was a risk she had chosen to take when she sent them inside without her. River wasn't a coward, but like it or not, she was indispensible. No one in this century, other than her, knew what they were dealing with. Well, her and Amy Pond, but the Doctor's companion was in no condition to –
"Oi! What'd you mean, leaving me behind like that? And where's the Doctor?"
Jeremy spun with her. Charging up the street from the direction of the inn was Amy Pond. The redhead was still wearing her apricot gown – or what was left of it – but she had it pulled up above her knees and was plowing like a tank through the freshly fallen snow.
"Amy! When did you wake up?" Jeremy asked.
"Just now. Well, a while ago now." Amy frowned. "Some great brute of a soldier tried to stop me from leaving." The frown turned upside down in triumph. "He won't be rejoining the war effort for a while."
River had been watching her. The young woman seemed herself, but how could she be sure? "Amy, what do you remember?"
The redhead looked puzzled. Her brown eyes flicked to Jeremy and she punched him in the shoulder. "Snogging with Jeremy here."
"Snogging?" the rebel asked.
River leaned in close and whispered, "Kissing."
He was so cute when he blushed.
"And after that?" River prompted.
"Seeing you and the Doctor." Amy's hands went to her hips. "Say, you were snogging too!"
"That wasn't snogging," she sighed, "and that wasn't the Doctor. It was a Nestene duplicate."
"Oh." Amy paused. "Ew! So where's the real Doctor?"
River felt Jeremy's eyes on her. She couldn't hesitate more than a second or Amy would grow suspicious. "He's in the Tardis," she answered truthfully, and then added with a little wince of regret, "resting peacefully."
"Was he hurt?"
It tore her heart to see the fear in Amy's eyes, and to know the other woman felt all the same things she did about that man lying there in a pool of his own blood. "Yes. I...locked him in. You know him, give him an inch..."
"Serves him right for all those times he ordered me to stay safe." She drew herself up to her full height, which was considerable. "Pond, to the Tardis!"
"Yes," River answered, turning away. "Serves him right."
"You okay, River?"
The blonde flung her spiraling hair back and, as casually as she could, wiped tears from her eyes. "A bit of passing snow. Odd how it can land at just the wrong place..."
Amy looked from her to Jeremy and back as if sensing something, but then seemed to shrug it off. "So, what are we doing? I want a piece of the action."
"Are you sure you are well enough?" Jeremy asked.
The redhead tilted her head. "Ooh, aren't you sweet?" Then she reached out and pinched his scalded cheek. As he yelped, she asked "You sure you are? You don't look so good yourself, rebel boy."
"Well, Amy," River said at last, "you certainly seem to be yourself. But then, you did the other night as well. Jeremy, I am putting you in charge of her." A raised hand stopped Amy's protest. "That, or you go back to the inn."
Amy considered it for a moment, and then she linked her arm with Jeremy's. "Could be worse." She leaned in toward River and winked. "He's a great kisser, you know?"
"I want the two of you, along with Henry and Isak, to cover the rear. I intend to enter through the front. I'll use the scanner to see if I can find any anomolies in the warehouse, and then see if I can bait the Nestene into making an appearance. Once we ascertain that they are there, I intend to burn that building to the ground."
"What about the surrounding buildings?"
River smiled. When she had enlisted Sergeant Boggs, the seasoned campaigner had not thought he would be sending his men out with buckets. "The soldiers are seeing to their safety. Now you two be careful. I don't think the Nestene have had time to create a new army of Autons, but I can't be sure. More than twelve hours have passed since..." She paused. Dear God, she would have to tell Amy sooner or later! "...since I left the Doctor in the Tardis. Find Isak and Henry. Make certain the warehouse is empty. Take your places, but for God's sake stay outside!" She touched her pocket where the medical scanner lay. She had rigged it so that it would emit a high-pitched tone, shattering the glass cylinders in the devices the rebels had planted and igniting the chemicals inside.
Amy straightened up. She saluted smartly. "Aye, aye, General River!" With that, the redhead gathered her skirts and started to march through the snow toward the warehouse. "Come on, rebel boy!"
Jeremy glanced at River. He laughed, and then followed as ordered.
She was alone.
She had seen the Doctor do what she had to do – face down a hostile alien force a hundred thousand times stronger than he, with only his words and wits. Somehow he always managed to come out on top, though for the life of her, most times, she couldn't really figure out how. It was part of the magic of the renegade runaway Time Lord who would not take 'no' for an answer, and who would accept neither death nor defeat. Always, at the moment where it seemed the Doctor could not possibly come out on top, he did. That was, until half a day before. She wondered if she had it in her to do the same. With him at her side, yes.
Without?
River reached into her pocket and withdrew the gerry-rigged medical scanner. She was looking for any kind of alien life form. The scanner couldn't give her any specifics. It wasn't that complicated a device. It wouldn't register an alien as big, small, or in-between. She wouldn't be able to tell sex or race. But if the Nestene were in there, there should be one big brilliant green blip giving her their approximate location. For a second her finger hesitated over the switch. What if they weren't there? What if they had already fled this century? How would she ever find them?
"Stop panicking like an school girl," she scolded herself as she flipped the switch.
The medical scanner hummed and then its screen winked to life. She waited while it ran through the new settings, and then drew a sharp breath as one green blip appeared on the screen.
"There you are," she breathed. "I've got you, you... What? No!"
Yes.
There was a second blip.
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Amy smiled at Jeremy as they passed several doused outbuildings, including a small shed, on their way to the back of the warehouse. The soldiers had done a thorough job even though they had had to fight a cold night. The water had come from a sort of fire house near the docks. Apparently someone in Fishkill had taken Ben Franklin's suggestions seriously! As it was near freezing, ice crystals had formed instantly, and the falling snow had finished the transformation by turning the ugly dilapidated buildings into a fairyland.
As they approached the rear entrance, Amy began to walk more slowly, allowing Jeremy to take the lead. She felt funny. There was a curious pricking at the back of her mind, almost as if something or someone wanted in. She shook her head, even knocking it with her hand, to try to dispel whatever it was. Her rebel friend hadn't noticed. He had halted a few yards from the building and was talking to his colleagues. Amy blinked and tried to focus her thoughts. It was as if she was of two minds and they were at war with each other. One recognized Jeremy as a friend and the other considered him an enemy.
At the moment the two were at a dead heat, but it was only a matter of time before one won out...
The blond man turned to her with a smile. "Amy, Isak and Henry assure me the warehouse is empty save for whatever magician River claims lies within. The devices are in place and the soldiers have fanned out through the neighboring buildings and continue to douse them as best they can. It's time we took our place. Amy?"
She blinked, as if trying to get someone else's eyes out of her own. It was weird. All of a sudden, she could see Jeremy, but she could see River at the same time.
"Amy? Are you all right?"
She nodded, then staggered forward a step. Frightened, she began to breathe rapidly. Looking up through her tousled hair at the rebel, she squeaked, "No. Help me..."
Jeremy drew near with Henry and Isak in tow. He caught her by the elbow to steady her. "Amy, what is it? Are you ill?"
Quicker than the eye could follow she reached out and snatched his pistol, cocked the trigger, and pointed it between his eyes.
"You and your men, rebel boy," she ordered, "in the shed! Now!"
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River paused outside the warehouse door, drew a deep breath and exhaled slowly. The she opened the door and stepped inside. Like the night before, the moon was fairly full, so enough light streamed into the building that she could see the Tardis was still where she had left it. The sight caused her to sway. In the back of her mind, in her heart of hearts, she supposed she had hoped she would return to find that it had all been a joke, and that the real Doctor had come to collect it and flown away. She felt a nervous laugh bubbling up within her. God, she was a fool! If the sight of the man's bloody carcass could not convince her he was dead, was there anything that ever would?
Moving forward slowly, she aimed the scanner at the vast empty spaces of the warehouse, sweeping side to side in the hope that something would indicate just where the hidden menace was. Or menaces. She wondered now if the second blip had not been a ghost of the first. It seemed to have vanished. Of course, the two in such close proximity might well register as one. As she reached the east end of the building, just in front of where the Tardis rested, the scanner leaped and the green blip grew brighter indicating that this was the spot. River's lips curled with distaste.
"Cowards!" she shouted. "Show yourselves! Or are you afraid of a lone woman with a medical scanner?"
For a moment nothing happened. Then the floor of the warehouse began to glow. River stumbled back as the boards began to melt away, falling into – or becoming – a seething pit of something akin to molten polymer that rose up before her to the height of the ceiling, some twelve or fifteen feet above her head. It seemed to scream in fury as it rolled and bubbled. There were words in her head – it appeared to be speaking – but it was gibberish. She couldn't understand them, and even if she could have, she wouldn't have listened. She hoped the Nestene were begging for mercy; pleading with her to let them live.
It would give her all the more satisfaction when she pressed the button and ignited the chemicals and watched them burn.
"River? What do you think you are doing?" a familiar voice asked.
The blonde woman spun. "Amy! What are you doing here? Where is Jeremy?"
"Outside."
"Then why aren't you with him? I told you to remain outside. Amy, you are in deadly danger here. You have to go!"
"I put him somewhere...safe." Amy scratched her head in confusion. "What is it you mean to do then?"
River spun and looked behind. Yes, the huge hulking mass of shrieking plastic was still there. "What do you think I mean to do?" she shouted as she whirled back. "I intend to destroy this creature."
"Why?"
River stopped, stunned. "Why? Because it is evil. Because it has destroyed people's lives, and..." The words caught in her throat and her eyes teared again. "Oh, Amy. Just because."
Amy didn't flinch. "Because it killed the Doctor, you mean?"
"How can you..." River nodded, slightly puzzled. The young woman seemed rather unaffected. "Yes, because it killed the Doctor."
"Eye for an eye, eh? By killing it, you'll bring him back. Right?"
"What?" River glanced at the creature again. Thick tendrils were forming around what appeared to be a head with a gaping mouth. She placed her finger on the switch. "Of course I can't bring him back. But it's evil. It deserves to die! Now get out of here, Amy! I intend to give it no quarter."
"Do you want it to die because you can't?"
River blinked. "What do you mean?"
"You want to stay here, don't you, when the devices go off? You want to die with him, but you can't. And so you are so angry you just have to strike out and kill something." Amy met River's startled gaze and waited. "Well?"
The blonde woman was breathing hard. Tears streaked her face. "It deserves to die," she repeated, her voice robbed of most of its strength.
"Don't we all?"
River's hands were trembling. In fact, her entire form was. She wanted the thing behind her dead, dead, DEAD! But it wouldn't bring him back. Nothing would. And in the end, if the Doctor was here, he would have hated her for doing it. At least, without giving the plastic parasite a chance.
Overwhelmed, River fell to her knees. The medical scanner slipped from her fingers and she raised her hands to cover her face. As the Nestene Consciousness raged behind her she had to face the fact that, in the end, they were the same.
A hand fell on her shoulder and someone knelt beside her. Then she heard a soft voice say, "There's my girl. I knew you had it in you."
River's entire body grew rigid. Rage and relief warred within her, making her want to laugh and cry at the same time. She drew a sharp breath. "If that's you alive," she growled as she lowered her hands, "I swear I am going to kill you."
The Doctor was frowning. "Did I know you were this bloodthirsty when I took you to Asgard?"
She shrugged as her eyes drank him in. He was alive! "Odin never complained."
"Well, yes, but then he was always partial to Valkyries." The Doctor hesitated, and then placed his other hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right, River?"
Tears were streaming down her cheeks. "Is it really you?" she gasped as she reached out and laid her hand alongside his face.
"Yes."
It took her a moment. She fought back an outburst of joy that would have shamed both him and her. Then she nodded. "Then I'm all right. What do we need to do?"
He caught her hand and squeezed it quickly before rising to his feet. "Give me the scanner. This isn't over yet."
River spun to look at the Nestene Consciousness. "Why are they just...hanging there?"
He glanced over his shoulder at Amy, who was standing by, silent now, staring at the creature. "Perplexed by Pond," he quipped. "The Nestene had a psychic link with her. They were holding her in stasis. I backtracked on it and did the same with them. Then I sent her in here to stop you before you..." His voice trailed away. "River, I'm sorry. I had to know if..."
"You had to know if I would actually do what I said – wipe them out of existence for killing you. If I would destroy an entire race out of a need for personal vengeance."
"Yes, well. I had to know if..." He cleared his throat. "If I..."
"Could trust me to do the right thing."
He shrugged.
"Well, did I pass?"
The Doctor stared at her for a moment, and then he gave her a big smile and two thumbs up. A moment later he whirled on his heel and shouted, "Pond! Over here!"
River backed away, content to let the Time Lord work his magic though he was pale and obviously not running at top speed. His dark hair was sweat-soaked and plastered to a face that showed it had experienced a remarkable amount of pain. When he had first appeared, he had held himself like an invalid, though now as he turned to challenge to Nestene all signs of weakness vanished. He was dressed absurdly, wearing his dark brown pants stuffed into a pair of high black military boots, and a uniform coat belonging to a Continental soldier with no shirt beneath. All were stained with blood. She knew at least some of it had to be his own, though the skin that showed was healing and gave little sign of the devastation the Bluhdoul plague had wrought.
For a second time River felt weak in the knees. "Buster," she muttered under her breath, "you've got a lot of explaining to do."
"River?" the Doctor called suddenly.
She snapped to attention. "What is it?"
"On my signal."
"On your signal what?"
His light eyebrows peaked toward that outrageous mop of hair. "Negotiations appear to have collapsed." The Doctor gnawed his lip for a moment. "It appears you might have been right."
"Appears?" she asked, her tone chiding. "You should know by now, I always am."
He thrust his hand out toward her even as the pulsing polymer behind him heaved and the great gaping maw, accompanied by a dozen searching tentacles reached out toward them. As she took it, he shouted, "Toss that vial, Pond. And River – "
"Throw that switch!"