Child of Earth

By Lumendea

Chapter Thirty-Three: Dangerous Enterprise: Unwelcome and Welcome

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of the spinoff material and I gain no income off of this story, just the satisfaction of playing with the characters.

…

Rose was beginning to feel dizzy. They'd been walking around on a tour for over an hour: taking in everything from the engine room to living quarters and to the laboratories. The ship had been designed to squeeze as much as possible into every little nook and cranny. It was both impressive and terrifying. Rose knew that in another life she had worked on space ships, but in this one, it was all too confining. Not that she'd tell the Doctor that, he'd preen over the TARDIS, but the trans-dimensional spaceship had definitely spoiled her for other kinds of travel.

"And lastly," Kate announced with a wide smile as they came to a stop in the grey corridor. "The bridge!"

The doors slid open, sadly without the sound from Star Trek to reveal the main control hub of the whole vessel. The ship's bridge had an open layout, roughly an oval in shape. Computers lined almost every inch of the walls with a round set of controls in the very middle of the room around what looked a bit like a table. After a moment, Rose grinned as she realised that it was a holographic surface.

"Marvellous isn't it," Malcolm whispered to her. "As much as I adore the old Star Trek and Star Wars, navigating a ship on two dimensions just doesn't work."

"Agreed," Rose answered with a grin of her own as she kept taking it all in. "It looks great Malcolm. Pity the technology isn't widely available yet."

"Soon," Malcolm promised. "Sadly it is still too expensive to mass produce, but give it a few years and every home will have something like it."

Smiling, Rose gave a small nod and returned to assessing the bridge. Everything was a soft pale grey in colour, not too dark, but not so bright as to be distracting. Each chair had a built in harness was securing to the floor. Every workstation looked largely the same except for what Rose assumed was the captain's position which was part of the inner round controls but had a chair with small controls built into the armrests and a larger touchscreen in front of it. Rose wondered who would be the ship's first captain. UNIT had a lot of good officers, but she hoped it wouldn't be Mace. He lacked imagination a bit, maybe Frost. That would be great, she inwardly decided, the first human starship captain being a woman.

"We're very pleased with the bridge," Kate said, coming up next to her as technicians began to file in. "Utility and safety were a large part of its design."

"It looks good," Rose agreed. "It will be interesting to see how it works in actuality."

"Indeed, now the technicians have been training for the last five months straight to operate the different systems. Everyone is trained in at least three areas of the ship's computer controls so that should an emergency arise there are multiple combinations of crew able to operate the ship."

"So I'm assuming that the computers up here feed commands directly to the systems?" Rose questioned.

"Most of them yes, life support is controlled and monitored up here. Navigation is largely run from here, but some adjustments have to be made in Engineering. Obliviously that is where many of the systems are actually located."

"Is there just one engineering sector?" Rose asked as she watched the technicians take their places.

"No, there are three major engineering decks," Kate announced proudly. "One for the engines and navigation, another for life support and the third is auxiliary for the other two and a few others systems."

"Smart."

"We thought so," Kate agreed, puffing up a bit proudly. "There is also a view screen so we can see the outside. The bridge is at the core of the ship, but external cameras feed a 2-D view inside." Kate reached to touch a button on the captain's chair and the grey wall on the far side flickered.

A stunning panorama of Earth appeared in front of them making Rose gasp softly. Part of the planet was already going dark with lines of light crisscrossing Asia and fading into browns, greens and blues.

"Three years," Kate sighed. "But we're here. Thank goodness for the moon base."

"Yeah," Malcolm agreed with a chuckle as he looked at the view. "And the working transmat. Between the two it was enough to build the Enterprise."

"Now Malcolm you know the name isn't final," Kate scolded lightly even as her lips twitched.

"It is very impressive," Rose agreed, smiling at the interchange.

Behind them, the doors opened and Osgood walked in, almost tripping on her scarf with Toshiko right behind her. Rose grinned, Tosh was looking very healthy and happy, a great contrast to when they first met. It made Rose grin at how far everything had come in only a few short years. Then she felt a slight pang at the reminder that she'd soon be leaving Earth and visits to UNIT would be a rarer event. Unaware of Rose's sadder thoughts, Tosh smiled warmly at her, but then turned her attention to Kate.

"All systems checked are complete ma'am," Tosh told her. "We can disconnect from the construction support network."

"The what?" Rose asked in surprise.

"The moon base constructed a shell looks a bit like a rib cage actually, that wraps around the ship," Kate explained. "It's how the built it. Today we will be disengaging from it and Ent- the ship will be orbiting Earth and then moving all on her own."

"Moonbase is ready ma'am," one of the technicians called and Kate nodded.

"Well then," Kate exhaled slowly and looked at Malcolm. "Doctor Taylor, you oversaw the start of the project, would you care to end it."

Malcolm looked ready to fall over, his eyes were wide and excited. He nodded eagerly and loudly called, "Disengage!" As soon as he said the words he flushed and shifted like he just couldn't contain his excitement.

Rose gripped the railing by the door and held her breath as the ship shuddered slightly. It wasn't much in truth, just a soft swaying as the gravity changed a little due to the exterior structure being moved.

"The artificial gravity is very good," Tosh said lightly next to her, though Rose could hear a small note of fear.

"Well the ship does have enough mass to help things along," Rose offered with a weak smile.

There was tension all through the bridge and then suddenly it was gone. Everyone breathed out a little and Kate straightened up even more. She nodded to Malcolm who looked torn between fainting and grinning.

"Okay," Kate announced carefully. "Take us out slowly. We're heading towards Mars. Lets' get that far with the engines and see how we're doing."

And the tension was back even as the technicians carefully put in the course and the vibrations of the engines increased beneath their feet. Rose didn't blame them. This was the first ship on its first mission. If anything went wrong there was no one to save them. Well no one on Earth anyway. Rose suddenly had a very strong suspicion as to why she'd been invited along despite never working on the project directly.

"I'm the emergency rescue plan aren't I?" Rose asked Malcolm softly as he shifted back to her side.

"Well… we did want you here, but maybe a little… yes," he admitted slowly making Rose chuckle.

"Still, it's fantastic to be here," Rose assured him as her eyes moved to the 3-D display in the middle of the room.

Everything was silent on the bridge except for the sounds of the engines and computers. The sphere representing Earth was moving away from them and suddenly vanished from the 3-D model. Small objects were appearing and moving slowly across their path and on the view screen the darkness of space was vanishing as more and more stars became bright and clear.

"It's beautiful," Tosh breathed, sounding choked up and a little overwhelmed. "So much more than you can see from Earth."

"Yes," Rose agreed with a soft smile, remembering the first time the Doctor had taken her to see her galaxy from outside of it. "Absolutely beautiful."

Then the ship shuddered. The distant hum of the engines changed and while the ship didn't come to a stop the feel of its forward motion changed.

"What the-" Kate snapped as the ship suddenly jolted to the right. "Report!"

"Navigation system just went offline ma'am," one of the techs called back, their voice just at the edge of panic. "Engines have shut down."

"We're still moving," another tech added unhelpfully.

"Ma'am," Osgood called in a tight voice from a computer she was leaning over. "Intruders detected."

"Intruders?" Kate gasped in disbelief. "How? Where?"

"Down on Engines engineering level," Osgood answered softly. "And in Navigation level." She hit a few keys, partially pushing the technicians out of the way. "Cameras just went down, but at least ten I'd say based on what the system picked up."

"Anything from the Auxiliary sector?" Kate demanded.

"It seems clear," Osgood replied. "But we can't activate those systems with the other two sectors still working properly. I'm sorry ma'am," Osgood answered softly. "We've lost control of the ship."

"No one but UNIT staff and only a small group at that was aware of this test," Kate reminded them as she frowned deeply. "And yet these forces somehow gained access and control of the engineering deck."

"From there they can counteract any orders we give the computers," Malcolm added uneasily, sweating a little. "This is very bad."

"Okay calm down," Rose told them before licking her lips. "The issue right now isn't how they got onboard, but how to regain control of the ship. Enterprise doesn't have any weapon systems correct?"

"Correct," Kate agreed with a nod. "There is still debate about putting any major weapon systems on the ship, though plans for basic weaponry systems in case of asteroids was planned to start next month."

"Maybe they know that maybe they don't, but at least it means that the ship can't be used as a weapon against Earth just yet."

"Or they may be after the ship itself," Kate pointed out with a deepening frown. "We need to alert HQ and Geneva before we lose communication."

"The signal will take a few minutes ma'am," Toshiko reminded her as she crossed the room to an unmanned computer.

"I don't need a reply," Kate announced. "I just need them to be aware." She shook her head and glanced towards the doors. "How did they get onboard?"

"Maybe with supplies," Rose offered with a sigh. "They could have hidden in boxes and only come out after a certain amount of time. In just a few minutes we'd be away from Earth and with this just being a test run I'm guessing there isn't a full crew aboard."

"There isn't even a full crew selected," Kate sighed. "I don't like the idea that they had all this information, Rose."

"I don't either," Rose agreed. She paused as suspicions began to swirl in her mind. "Who on the Security Council suggested this test? Do you know who it was?"

"No I don't," Kate replied slowly with darkening angry eyes. "I see what you're saying, but a member of the Security Council-"

"Could be Eclipse," Rose offered, turning so she was facing the door with her right hand at the ready. "They have a lot of power and connections."

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Malcolm all but stuttered. "We need to focus on the ship. Now how many armed personnel do we have onboard?" he asked Kate.

"Six," Kate sighed. "And sidearms only, nothing more powerful and there aren't any weapons onboard."

"What do we have onboard?" Rose asked.

The answer was lost as a strong wind began to blow through the control room. Around them, the technicians all looked around with worried expressions that changed to awe as a blue box began to materialise in the control room just in front of the view screen. Rose teased up nervously and licked her lips, wondering which Doctor it would be this time. She couldn't deny a lingering hurt in her chest after he ran last time.

"Thank goodness," Kate said. Relief was all over her face and she even smiled a little. "For once he's right on time."

"Don't let him hear you say that," Rose said. "He doesn't need a bigger ego." None the less, Rose smiled as the TARDIS finished appearing.

"It's the Doctor," one of the technicians whispered. They all began to stand up.

"Stay at your stations," Kate ordered. "We need to keep an eye on what we still have control of."

Rose said nothing and just waited, trying not to fidget. Then the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, his green eyes lighting up when he saw her. His floppy brown hair looked a bit shorter and he'd changed his wardrobe again. The tweed jacket was gone and instead, he was wearing a longer burgundy coat over a grey waistcoat and black pants that she thought might just be jeans. Of course, he still had the bowtie and the sight of it Rose smiled. He looked older with a tiny hint of grey in his hair and more laugh lines around his eyes. He grinned, moving forward with quick strides.

"Hello Darling," he greeted. The Doctor leaned forward and gently caught her cheek in his palm.

"Hello Doctor," Rose answered with a smile. The knot in her stomach easing at his open smile.

Without any concern for the squeaking Osgood, the Doctor leaned forward and kissed her. Sighing against his lips and internally recognising that without the visits from his Tenth self she was really missing him no matter how irritated she still was, Rose deepened the kiss. Her hands went to his chest and gripped the lapels of his coat.

"Excuse me," Kate called. She sounded a bit too amused as her voice cut through Rose's happy haze. "Rose, Doctor we do have a situation to address."

The Doctor released Rose's lips, but his arm around her waist kept her firmly against his side. A loud sigh escaped him and he mock glared at Kate over Rose's shoulder. "Why do Lethbridge-Stewarts always feel the need to cut in?"

"Maybe it has to do with your sense of timing or priorities," Kate suggested. There was a small smile tugging at her lips. "It is good to see you, Doctor. Thank you for coming to help."

"First true human spaceship, maiden voyage and trouble." The Doctor released Rose and rubbed his hands together. "How could I resist?" He leaned forward and kissed Rose's forehead. "Course from what I understand you have hostiles aboard?"

"Are they Eclipse?" Rose questioned. She tried not to blush at the way all the technicians were staring at them. Sadly they weren't easy to ignore.

"To confirm that would be to abuse my knowledge as a time traveller," the Doctor said quickly. "We need to focus on keeping them from controlling the ship. Right now they are using the direct access in engineering to control the engines and navigation. Thankfully turning off life support isn't in their favour. While you outnumber them, they are much better armed. Have I missed anything?"

"You seem to know as much if not more than we do," Kate replied with a nod. "So what do we do? They've most certainly set up defensive positions and I don't want to send our people to die."

"Agreed!" The Doctor dropped one of his hands and quickly took Rose's, twisting their fingers together effortlessly. "No, send your soldiers to guard the entrances to engineering. If we can keep them from moving around the ship that gives us an advantage."

"Right," Kate said. She turned on her heel and moving towards the door where two of the soldiers were waiting.

"Do you need anything Doctor?" Osgood asked with wide happy eyes. "What can we do to help?"

"No, well if you have any jammie dodgers on board I wouldn't say no to that," the Doctor answered with a widening grin. Then his eyes dropped to Osgood's scarf. "Nice scarf."

"Thanks," Osgood squeaked. "And I'm sorry I don't think there are any jammie dodgers onboard. The galley wasn't exactly stocked for this."

"Too bad, but make sure when this ship is running full time that it is properly stocked," the Doctor lectured as if talking about something vital. "Never know when you might want jammie dodgers."

"Doctor," Kate called a bit impatiently drawing his attention back to her. "May I suggest that we focus on the fact that we no longer have control over our engineering sections? I've sent the soldiers to try to keep these forces contained so they can't take the third engineering sector."

"Right," the Doctor said. "Yes of course." He rubbed his hands together for a moment before grabbing Rose's hand. "I have just the plan for this."