The Doctor and Gazelle: Assimilation2
Doctor Who is copyright to the BBC, Star Trek is copyright to CBS and the Roddenberry estate. I own nothing except my OC Gazelle.
Delta IV, in the United Federation of Planets. Stardate 45635.2...
It was a beautiful day on Delta IV. Deltans milled about the capital city going about their day-to-day business. Suddenly, the tranquillity was disturbed by a sound from the heavens and everyone looked up to see an armada of ships swarming in the sky like angry bees and an army of beings descending from the ships. The army comprised of humanoids covered in cybernetic implants and figures encased in metal armour. As soon as they made landfall, the army began an indiscriminate rampage through the city.
"Run! It's the Borg!" a Deltan male cried as he and other civilians ran for their lives.
Two men took hold of a woman in ornate robes and began to hustle her away. "What are you doing?! Let me go!" the woman demanded.
"We have to get you to safety, Prime Minister!" one of the men told her as they led her into a transporter room.
"We need to get her to the secure command centre, now!" the other man told his colleague, and they hurriedly escorted the Prime Minister onto the transporter pad. "Energise!" the senior man ordered, and the Prime Minister was beamed away to safety just seconds before the Borg and their new accomplices burst into the room.
~8~
The Prime Minister materialised in the transporter room of the command centre. "Hold your fire! It's the Prime Minister." the transporter chief told two security guards, who had their phasers at the ready.
The Prime Minister made her way to the control room. "Report. What's going on, Jahson?" she asked a senior officer.
"It's a full invasion by the Borg, Prime Minister." Jahson replied. "They have targeted our largest cities first. They are now systematically destroying all of our command and control apparatus."
The Prime Minister looked at the viewscreens, which all showed Deltan cities being heavily bombarded by the Borg. "Ohhhh... words cannot describe." she gasped in horror at the carnage. "Where... where the hell is Starfleet?" she asked some Starfleet officers who were present.
"A full task force is on the way to Delta, Prime Minister." a Vulcan Admiral reported.
"The Potemkin and the Lassiter are engaging the Borg now," a Human Lt. Cmdr. added, "but..." He was cut off by one of the screens showing the USS Lassiter being destroyed by a Borg cube. "The Lassiter, sir!" he hollered to the Admiral.
"I see it." the Admiral acknowledged.
"I don't understand." the Prime Minister frowned. "Every other time we have encountered the Borg, they have called for our surrender before an attack. But this time... a surprise attack of unprecedented ferocity?"
"It's unusual." the Lt. Cmdr agreed. "It also looks like the Borg aren't alone. They are accompanied by some other type of cyborgs. Something we haven't seen before. Look." He pointed to a screen, which was showing a close-up of one of the figures in metal armour. "Those aren't Borg."
Just then, Jahson brought more bad news, "Prime Minister, fully half of Delta has already been overrun. This will all be over in a matter of hours. The task force will not be here in time. Even this underground command centre could be compromised at any moment..."
"I hear you, Jahson." the Prime Minister acknowledged gravely. "Order a full planetary evacuation."
"Prime Minister, surely we can repel this?" an Andorian Starfleet captain offered.
"Too late! They've found us!" a Deltan guard hollered as the invaders stormed into the control room. One of the Borg drones grabbed the guard and began assimilating him.
"Get her out of here!" Jahson ordered the Starfleet personnel. "We'll hold them off." And so the Starfleet officers hustled the Prime Minister away, while Jahson and the remaining Deltans bravely stood their ground.
"Resistance is futile!" one of the metal cyborgs announced.
~8~
The Starfleet officers led the Prime Minister through the corridors of the command centre. "The hanger bay isn't far." the Lt. Cmdr. said as the Admiral and Captain used their hand phasers to hold off their pursuers.
They had soon made it to the waiting Danube-class runabout, USS Mattingly, and were soon safely away from Delta IV. "The task force will arrive soon, Prime Minister." the Captain reported. "Your home will be yours again."
"I appreciate the sentiment, Captain, but what will be left?" the Prime Minister said despairingly.
None of the Starfleet officers had an answer for her; they knew only too well the destruction the Borg left in their wake and now that they had an accomplice, things were even worse.
~8~
Earth, ancient Egypt...
"I can't look!" Amy Pond cried as she covered her eyes.
"Oh, chin up, Pond!" the Doctor said cheerfully. "It'll be fine. Go on, enjoy the view."
"Dear, your definition of 'fine' differs greatly from everyone else's definition." Gazelle said dryly.
"Isn't that better?" her husband retorted. "Always important to know where you've been in this life, love, that's what I always say." Right now, the Time Lords, Amy and Rory Williams were riding at full speed through the streets of Alexandria aboard a chariot. Both Amy and Rory were in period attire while the Time Lords were in their regular clothes, with the Doctor sporting an Egyptian crown atop his head.
"This is not better!" Amy shouted.
"Maybe less screaming?" Rory interrupted irritably as he did his best to handle the reins of the horses pulling the chariot. "Trying to concentrate up here, thank you! Haven't had to do this in about 2000 years!"
"Yes, absolutely, by all means, eyes on the road, Rory." the Doctor said, folding his arms with a chirpy smile on his face. "These chariots can be incredibly hazardous. Why, I've seen limbs ripped right off!"
"Charming." Gazelle deadpanned. "So, enlighten us, dear, is there a thing or are we just gonna reminisce about our favourite gruesome accidents?"
"Well, you know me, love, I've always got a thing in progress." the Doctor smirked. "Yes, that should do nicely." he muttered as he reached out to grab a bamboo pole from a market stall as they raced past. "Hello, there. Lovely stall!" he called to the vendor. "Just borrowing this..." And with expert skill, he threw the pole at a pursuing chariot, causing it to crash.
"Ooh, good throw, dear." Gazelle praised.
"I'm afraid we have an appointment to keep with the Pharaoh." the Doctor called to their now outfoxed pursuers. "We'll come back and play again later!"
"Sure, because this is definitely playing." Amy snarked. "That means it should be fun, right?"
"Where to now, then?" Rory asked. "Or are there some other places around here where you'd like to try to get us and your unborn child killed?"
"Hmm, good point, Rory." Gazelle concurred, resting her hand on her stomach. Although she wasn't showing yet, she was mindful that her pregnant condition mean that she would need to be more careful in the field. After all, it was a miracle that she'd become pregnant again after everything she'd been through.
"Only one more, place, Rory." the Doctor said. "That way... the Pharaoh's palace."
~8~
The quartet soon arrived at the palace. Gazelle stayed outside with the chariot, while the Doctor and the two Humans crept inside the building. "Now, this calls for a certain degree of sneakiness." the Doctor said. "Fortunately, I'm good at sneaky, so I don't expect problems." He took out his sonic screwdriver and held it out in front like a homing beacon. "The sonic screwdriver should lead us right to him."
"Yeah, sure. Sneaky, he says." Rory muttered, leaning back against a huge vase. "No problem. I can handle that..." Unfortunately, he leaned back too far and knocked the vase over. It crashed to the floor with an almighty racket and smashed to pieces. "Um, right. Sorry." Rory said sheepishly.
"On ya feet, soldier." the Doctor said as he and Amy helped Rory up. "Ok, not sneaky. Forget sneaky." And as if on cue, armed guards surrounded the trio. "So let's try making friends. Hello!" the Doctor said cheerfully.
"What are you doing here?!" the guard captain demanded.
The Doctor suddenly leapt up and began climbing up the wall. "Doctor, where are you going?" Amy asked him.
"I just need to have a look at this." the Doctor replied as he climbed up towards a curtain rail. "If you don't mind, just talk amongst yourselves for a moment."
"Get down from there!" the guard captain demanded.
"Look out below, Ponds!" the Doctor warned his companions as he used his sonic screwdriver to loosen the curtain rail from the wall. "Geronimo!" he yelled as he pulled the curtain down on top of the guards. "That really shouldn't have worked." he commented as he landed on his feet and dusted himself off.
"You think?!" Rory deadpanned as the trio pressed on.
They soon found themselves at the entrance to the main throne room of the palace. "Here we are, final stop." the Doctor announced as they hid behind the pillars. "Just need to get in to see the man in charge and we'll be on our way before you know it."
"Yes, but how?" Amy asked, seeing that the entrance was heavily guarded.
"Leave that to me." Rory said, coming out of hiding.
"Rory!" Amy protested.
"Your husband knows what he's doing, Amelia." the Doctor told her as Rory approached the guards. "Let him be. I should think he'll be able to bluff his way into intimidating a couple of foil-wrapped security guards into going for a stroll."
Sure enough, Rory spoke to the guards and they both walked away, leaving the entrance clear. "He did it!" Amy cheered.
"See? What did I tell you?" the Doctor smirked. "Rory Pond; full of surprises." They headed through the entrance and found themselves in the throne room, where the Pharaoh and his Vizier were waiting. "Hello, Pharaoh!" the Doctor greeted cheerfully. "Absolutely love the place. Very dramatic, very big. Always been fond of big."
"How did you get in here?!" the Pharaoh demanded angrily. "Who allowed these strangers in my presence?"
"A thousand apologies, mighty one." the Vizier said. "These outlanders have clearly gone mad from the desert heat. I will dispatch them at once."
"We'll just see who's getting dispatched round here." the Doctor said coolly. "You, over there in the big chair, I assume you're the man in charge. The man in charge always has the biggest chair. If you want to save your kingdom, and I'm guessing you probably do, I'd pay attention."
"Preposterous! Who are you?" the Vizier demanded.
"I'm the Doctor."
"Doctor who?"
"Just the Doctor. Although your race knew my people by name... Time Lord."
That seemed to put the fear of God in the Vizier. "No... you're all dead..."
"Almost. Not quite." the Doctor replied calmly. "So I'm giving you one chance, here and now. Run. Run and don't stop running."
"NEVER!" the Vizier shouted, suddenly backhanding the Pharaoh, sending him flying across the room. He then morphed into a brown-skinned alien with fangs, huge bulging eyes and tentacles for hands. "I'm sick of pretending these toads are my betters! I'm unstoppable!" he boasted.
"I warned you." the Doctor said coolly, reaching into his pocket and taking out something in a package.
"Doctor. He's getting really big." Amy warned as the alien seemed to grow in size.
The Doctor was cool as a cucumber as he unwrapped the package to reveal a green crystal. "This must've fallen to Earth not far from where you did." he said to the alien. "We homed in on it when we arrived. Such a clever thing, this. Interdimensional prison cell and interstellar delivery service, all at once. Where were you headed, anyway? To the Atraxi? A Shadow Proclamation facility? No, most likely the Visendi Detention Complex, if I had to bet on it." He then held the crystal out in front of him. "Nothing for it. Time for you to be on your way."
"Noooooo!" the alien wailed as he was pulled into the crystal.
"Here, hold this." the Doctor said as he handed the crystal to Rory.
"Um.. ok." Rory blinked.
The Doctor walked over to the Pharaoh, who was just waking up from being knocked out. "Now then, your Royal Pharaoh-ness. On your feet, nothing to worry about anymore! I'm afraid your Vizier was actually an escaped alien criminal. Landed here decades ago, just biding his time. Ya know, he was going to harness the kinetic energy from the Nile to fire up a tachyon pulse inverter? Would've ignited the atmosphere, torched half the planet. Now, I'm going to need a favour. We seem to have misplaced our ship. I don't s'pose you've seen a big blue box anywhere in the vicinity..."
Suddenly, the familiar sound of the TARDIS filled the air and the blue box materialised right in the centre of the throne room. The doors opened to reveal Gazelle at the controls. "Taxi for the Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Pond." she called nonchalantly.
The Doctor, Amy and Rory all piled inside and the box dematerialised again. The Pharaoh could only blink, wandering if the Gods were testing him today.
~8~
The Doctor and Gazelle soon had the TARDIS back in the Time Vortex. "After all that, I think we need to go somewhere... cool." the Doctor announced. "And foggy. Foggy is good. Good for the pores."
"But not for the lungs." Gazelle snorted.
"Earth, foggy or far-off planet where we'll undoubtedly be drawn into trouble." Amy said knowingly as she headed off towards the stairs so that she could get changed.
"By the way, Doctor, here's your glowing... green.. thing back." Rory said as he handed the crystal to the Doctor.
Suddenly, the TARDIS seemed to throw an enormous tantrum, throwing all four of her occupants around. "What's happening?!" Amy asked as she grabbed hold of a railing to steady herself.
"Hang on! We're almost there!" the Doctor said as he checked the controls.
~8~
The TARDIS materialised in an American city street in the mid-20th century. The door opened and Amy and Rory stepped out, both now dressed in suitable period attire. "So where are we?" Amy asked. "Wherever it is, I have to admit, I do like the fashion."
"Brrr, it's chilly out here." Rory shivered, wrapping his arms around himself.
"Of course it's a little chilly." the Doctor snorted as he and Gazelle followed the two Humans out. The Doctor was still dressed in his trademark tweed jacket, bow-tie and braces, while Gazelle had kept her Thunderbird 2 t-shirt, jeans and converse, but had swapped her leather jacket for a camel brown promenade coat. "This is San Francisco, California!" the Doctor announced. "As our friend Mr Clemens once said, the coldest winter we ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."
"It's 1941, just before the United States joined the Second World War." Gazelle explained as she slipped a fedora on her head. "This city's full of glamour and mystery, but a little rough around the edges, so watch ya step." she warned her friends.
"Is this where you were planning to take us?" Amy asked as they began to explore the environment. "That landing felt rougher than usual."
"Oh, that was nothing to worry about, I don't think." the Doctor waved her off. "And this was preciously where we meant to go. It's San Francisco, Amy! Don't you want to dine on seafood while overlooking the grandeur of the Pacific Ocean?"
"Fine." Amy conceded. "So what else can we expect?"
Rory meanwhile noticed that Gazelle was rubbing her temples. "Are you alright?" he asked her.
"Yeah, fine, thanks, Rory." Gazelle assured him. "Just a little dimensional feedback. Anyway, have you read any detective stories, Amy? Or seen any noir films? San Francisco in the forties was a bubbling cauldron of capers and investigations."
"Why, we're bound to run into something unusual here." the Doctor said as he led the way into a bar. "Something unusual, like that android in the pinstripe suit." He pointed across the room to a man with extremely pale skin and yellow eyes who was talking to a bearded, dark-haired man and an auburn-haired woman by the counter.
"Huh, ya don't see them everyday in 1940's America." Gazelle said to herself.
To be continued...
Author's notes: Thought I'd have a crack at adapting the Doctor Who/Star Trek: The Next Generation crossover comic Assimilation2 with my Time Lady OC Gazelle. I've been reading that comic lately and fancied having a shot at inserting Gazelle into it. Just in case anyone reading is hasn't read my Themi Series, Gazelle is currently on her fifth incarnation and her face claim is Shelley Hennig, but speaking with a British West Midlands instead of American. If you cast your mind back to the end of A Cracked Fairy-tale, it was revealed that Gazelle was pregnant and as this comic was established as taking place after series 5, I've had to incorporate Gazelle's pregnancy into it. Incidentally, the stardate given at the beginning would put the story in TNG's season 5, in-between The Outcast and Cause & Effect. Next chapter will see the Enterprise crew's perspective. Until then, bye for now!