Chapter 10
Danziger and Alonzo slid down the mountainside, frantically calling "Julia!" and "Devon!" Neither knew what they could hope to find.
Uly came sliding down after them. Breathing hard, he reached the two men. Almost absentmindedly, Alonzo put his hand on his back, instinctively trying to protect him from the ZED. But all three were looking around silently at the suddenly barren slope.
"Mr. Danziger," Uly asked. "Where's my mom?" Danziger didn't know what to say. Finally, he just shook his head and said, "I don't know, kid."
The mountainside had changed. There was no sign of the ZED's camp, or even a clue as to where it had been.
Uly looked down the mountain, fear growing within him. Real fear, for the first time in his life -- not like what he'd felt when they'd crashed, or in the Terrian cave on his birthday. Each of those fears, and a double-dozen others, had been calmed by the presence of his mother, his protector -- believing in him, providing the answer, providing warmth, providing love.
But now, his terror came from the realization that his protector might well and truly have gone away for good. He trembled.
He remembered what the Doctor said about time travel, and death, and how permanent it was. And he also remembered what the Doctor had said around the campfire earlier that night.
He had a feeling. Somehow, he could not keep from looking down the mountainside, as if he knew where his mother was. Or as if...his other mother knew where she was.
Silently, he crouched down on his feet, his knees pointing up. He lay his hands flat on the surface of the earth. He closed his eyes, and listened to what the feelings were saying.
Danziger and Alonzo watched, spellbound. After a few seconds, Uly stood up, as if in a trance. Then he hunched his shoulders and dropped into the earth.
Seconds passed. Then abruptly, he arose again -- about 100 yards down the mountainside. In each of his tiny arms was a person. Julia lay like a limp rag. His mother madly gasped for air, coughing and spluttering.
Danziger and Alonzo raced downhill.
The Doctor was dying.
Trapped in a concrete darkness, unable to move a muscle, he began to drift in and out of conciousness. His emergency air supply wasn't going to hold out much longer.
He wondered if he would quickly regenerate 5 times, while buried beneath the ground. It was a horrible thought -- dying of suffocation five times over.
He was getting delerious. Old faces -- friends and enemies alike -- were beginning to come to mind, and they were saying the dumbest things. The Master wanted to fly a kite with him -- something to do with the air he so desperately needed? He couldn't tell. He'd long ago learned to tune out whatever the Master was saying, anyway. Jo Grant was dancing with a Dalek, which sometimes became the Brigadier. Daleks and Brigadiers -- yes, they were alike, in a strange, twisted sort of way. At least he could trust the Brigadier to care.
Then he was in a restaurant of some sort. "The Grendler Bar and Grille," it said. It was a nice place -- piano in the corner, low light, plush cushions. Very fancy.
He walked in and sat at the bar, feeling as if his clothes were out of place. The barstool seats were bright red leather. Plants adorned either end of the bar. His koba friend sat on the stool next to him. The little animal had an eyepatch, and a bright grin on its face.
"Get you something?" it asked.
"Yes, indeed," the Doctor replied. But he wasn't himself. He was his fourth self, the one with the scarf and that appalling sense of humor, because he couldn't stand it if he wasn't the life of the party.
Great -- a past regeneration. They were always lurking around the subconcious somewhere. They bubbled up in times like these.
Suddenly, it was his first self -- the old grandfatherfigure -- who was at the bar.
"You there, young man," he said cheerfully. The bartender was a Terrian, in a white shirt and black vest. It was wiping glasses, its back turned to him.
"I'd like to order a Double Moon Cross for myself, and a Sonic Screwdriver for my friend, here," he said. But the Terrian did not turn around. It continued wiping its glass.
The voices of the others in the restaurant were becoming louder, for some reason. The Doctor started to reach over and tug the bartender's sleeve, when suddenly the noise reached a deafening roar. He put his hands to his ears. "Barbara -- take Susan and get her out of here, now!" he snapped. He looked up to see the bartender looking over the bar at him.
Then the voices receded to a murmur. They sounded like a billion voices whispering on the edge of sleep, voices he could never quite hear no matter how hard he tried to listen, and could never quite reach no matter how far he traveled.
But that didn't mean the voices couldn't reach him -- if he asked.
They were trying to tell him something. What were they saying? How did he listen? What did he have to...feel?
"Connect with us," they seemed to be saying. "Connect with us again." They didn't use words. The Doctor could only feel the desire.
"When did I connect with you?" he felt back. Memories came at him. Not his own; a racial memory. "You came to us centuries ago," he felt. "You're body was different, your granddaughter was with you. We were becoming what we are today, but we were afraid. You calmed our fears, and helped us with the changes we were experiencing. You were happy for us. We did not agree with everything you said, but we respected your wisdom, and have always remembered you for it. We knew you when you landed. You're face was different, but we sensed the soul inside."
"You knew who I was...." the Doctor thought. "We knew..."
"Connect with us..."
"You could sense my soul? I was the same?" "Connect with us like you did of old..." "I am"
"Every regeneration..."
"You are"
"Time Lord"
"Connect with us..."
"We knew you..."
"We could tell...."
"Connect..."
"You knew that I was...."
"and still are..."
I am
You are
The Doctor.
And the earth moved.
With a rushing in his ears as loud as thunder, the earth flowed like a shining bright stream, pushing him forward like blood from a heartbeat, carrying life to life, with an exhileration he'd never felt before! Flowing along that earthen highway, his body tingled as if he was flying on invisible wings, while still safe within a mother's womb. He'd never felt so free, so joyful.
Emerging from the ground like a newborn into the night, the Doctor opened his eyes with a smile, and breathed deeply of the double moons crossing high above.
He looked down, and found the koba at his feet. It was terrified.
The Doctor smiled, and bent down to pet the animal. "You've had a rough, night, haven't you, little one?"
The koba just purred softly. It was looking around in alarm, afraid that at any moment the sky would fall.
"I don't think you'll have any more surprises tonight," he said. "Why don't you stay here -- you've done enough for a lifetime."
The Doctor tickled the koba one final time under the chin, then left it alone.
Since it was now devoid of any plant life, he could clearly see the entire mountainside, from the blast site downwards, in the bright moonlight. A little ways off he spotted the others.
And someone was with them.
Working quickly, methodically, the ZED clawed her way out of the ground.
Caught on the very edge of the landslide, she hadn't been buried very deep. Now, wounded and weaponless, she finally pulled herself free. She stood and surveyed the situation, calmly ripping away the damaged circuitry from her face.
They had come at her from up the mountainside. She had witnessed the blue box's ability to appear and disappear, and had seen people come in and out of it. Therefore, it stood to reason that this mobile base of theirs was farther up the mountain.
She would go to it, and wait for them. She started climbing.
The Doctor joined the others, surprised and elated that everyone was alive. Danziger held Devon in his arms, giving her the comfort she so desperately needed after her ordeal. Julia was unconcious. Her left arm was broken. Alonzo tended her as best he could.
A little ways off, Uly was meeting with three Terrians -- and the Doctor understood their conversation. Their language was no longer gibberish to him. Uly was telling them that the damage was because of a battle which had been fought there, and that it was over now.
The Terrians regarded the Doctor as he approached. He nodded solemnly, and they nodded in return. He turned his attention to Julia.
"What happened?" Alonzo asked.
"I'm not sure. I met the ZED, just before the explosion, then she ran off. I don't know where she is." He picked up Julia's diaglove and gave it a quick scan to familiarize himself with its functions. Then he took off his coat and put the glove on.
"Do you know what you're doing?"
"I will in a moment." He checked her out. "It's a close call, but I think she'll live." He hesitated, looking around him. "I think we should get back to the TARDIS rather than waste time making a sling for her arm. We're not safe here. I'm not willing to bet that the ZED was caught in that landslide."
He looked at Uly. One of the Terrians held his wooden staff, and they were all curiously examining it. They handed it back to him.
Then they dropped into the earth.
Uly rejoined them. He was still a nine-year-old boy, but something about him had changed. He somehow seemed to possess more authority. He looked calm, purposeful, almost like divinely-chosen royalty -- yet not quite, for he didn't possess any arrogance. He looked as if he'd just been charged with a mission, and he meant to see it out before his life was through.
For a moment, it even seemed as if he would open his mouth and take charge.
Just like an Adair, Danziger thought whimsically. But he didn't. He came up to his mother and held her hand, trying to let her know that everything was all right. She collapsed on the ground and hugged him tightly.
Alonzo put his arms under Julia and, grunting slightly, picked her up, grateful she couldn't feel the pain in her arm as he did so. Together, they trudged wearily back up the hill in silence, watching for the slightest sign of attack.
No one uttered a word as they passed the blast site. Above it, the trees and undergrowth were undisturbed. Devon held Uly's hand more tightly.
They moved on cautiously. Minutes passed, and nothing happened. They quickened their pace. The TARDIS came into view.
The ZED leaped out from the trees like a silent phantom, leveling the Doctor and sending him sprawling. He lay where he landed, dazed.
Even as the others registered what was happening, the ZED spin-kicked Danziger in the chest and backhanded Alonzo across his face, all in one move. They both went flying; Julia landed in a heap on Alonzo.
Devon shoved Uly behind her and madly reached for the sedaderm in her pocket, then kicked and screamed bloody murder as the ZED picked her up, held her high over her head, and threw her 30 feet. "No! Uly! Get back to the TARDIIIIIIIS!" There was a horrendous crack as Devon's left knee shattered as she hit the ground. She screamed -- still for her son, always for her son. She madly pulled herself along the ground back at the ZED--
Who stopped and looked at her.
The ZED did not continue her attack. She silently observed Devon's desperate struggle, oblivious to any wound, uncaring of any odds, as she fought to save her son.
And the ZED recognized the depths this woman felt for her child. Recognized it again, as a memory of a memory of a feeling she might have known, once.
It didn't matter.
She ignored the woman's cries; she could not reach her in time. The males were still stunned. The one she'd kicked was even beating the ground madly with his fists, choking, for the breath had been knocked out of him. The boy was hers. She reached for him.
And Ulysses lowered his head and blasted her with lightning from his staff.
He blew the ZED off her feet, slamming her back against a tree. She didn't cry out. No shock registered on her face, no surprise. She simply staggered, her arm outstretched, and stood up.
Uly blasted her again. Not to kill -- just to keep her away. She fell. This time, she stayed down.
The Doctor and Alonzo slowly sat up. Danziger dragged great draughts of air into his lungs, coughing. Devon lay on the ground, barely believing what she was seeing. She had been so certain it was all over, that the ZED would take her son away from her. Her heart raced. The pain in her knee was excruciating.
The ZED was lying on her back, blinking at the sky. She was still trying to get up, but her right arm just moved in a feeble circle. Her body was convulsing badly.
The Doctor knelt beside her, and Alonzo almost didn't believe what the Time Lord said next.
"Tell us how we can help you."
"M-m-mission...failure," the ZED was able to say. "Captured."
"No!" the Doctor said. "Listen! I -- none of us here -- have taken you prisoner, do you understand? You are not our prisoner!"
"Initiating...cyanide r-release..." "No!" the Doctor yelled. "I tell you you have not been captured! You are not our prisoner -- you don't have to end this way! Let us help you!" He desperately searched for something she could understand, something she could use. "Search your programming, and you'll find that there are no orders to commit suicide if you have not been captured!"
The ZED just looked at him. It took the Doctor a second to realize that she was crying.
A single tear had appeared. It ran a wet trail down her cheek, and dropped to the earth.
"I...was captured...a long...time ago." The Doctor's face softened. The others looked on from where they sat or lay, even Devon.
"My name..." she said. "My...name -- it's..." She lay still.
The Doctor gently closed her eyes. He said softly, "And for every one who is held captive, the rest of us are a little less free."
Epilogue
The Doctor stayed with Eden Project a couple more days, helping them recover. Eventually, the Edenites got used to the odd police telephone box by the campfire, which had materialized in their midst without warning in the middle of the night, bringing Uly and the others back home.
Devon's knee and Julia's arm healed without mishap, although Julia would be sore for about a week. She quickly became the subject of teasing when she refused to stay in bed for a couple of days, although everyone else insisted on it. She finally did, realizing that if she couldn't take a little sensible medicine, she would lose all hope of anyone else following her recommendations. But she didn't like it.
Several people wanted to use the ZED's gear to confront Reilly, just to show him they had beaten him again. But most of the group -- especially those involved in the battle -- really had no desire to do this. They reasoned that taunting Reilly would lead to worse in the future, and they weren't interested in engaging in a petty display of oneupmanship. They just wanted to lose Reilly and move on.
Besides, they reasoned -- the silence would be the best revenge of all.
In the end, they destroyed all the ZED's equipment she'd had on her. They buried her, holding a full funeral and marking the grave with a cross. Yale emphasized that people remembered her, not as someone evil, but as a tool of those who were. On the cross, Uly insisted on naming her "Robbie," saying it could be a girl's name as well as a boy's. No one argued with him.
He was pretty shaken up by the way he'd confronted the ZED, and Devon had had to reassure him over and over that he hadn't killed her -- that she had released the cyanide herself, and that, technically, Reilly and the Council were her murderers, not him. But she knew it would haunt him for a long time to come.
On the morning of the third day, the Doctor seemed distant. He often stopped and looked at the sky, or stared off at the horizon, and frequently failed to hear people when they spoke to him. Devon knew what was coming next, and she knew the chance to ask her question was now or never.
She walked with the Doctor up the stream a little ways, away from camp, asking questions about where he'd been, and what he'd seen, and whom he'd met throughout history. Despite her professional and diplomatic skills, she was surprised at how easily the Doctor could shift the conversation or deflect a question, and she caught herself more than once talking on and on, even though she had been planning to ask, and then shut up and listen.
And she got the feeling the Doctor knew what she wanted to ask, and wasn't going to let her get there.
She asked him again how his ship worked. "Well, you dream a little dream, Devon," he smiled. "It grows from there."
"Are you always so vague?"
"Are you always so nosy?"
She looked him squarely in the eye. "Will you take us to New Pacifica? Please?"
He avoided her gaze, looking out at the land over her shoulder. "What did you mean when you told Ulysses he would one day understand about time travel?" he asked softly.
She hesitated, then found herself telling the Doctor about her experience with a grown-up Ulysses from the future, and how that gave her hope that they would reach New Pacifica.
"But you won't take us there, will you?" she asked again.
"And deny you that journey?" he replied. "Would I really be doing you a favor?"
"Journeys are fine, but not journeys which are deadly." "Any journey can be deadly."
She sighed. "We have already lost lives on this journey. We've lost some very fine people who didn't deserve to die, who never deserved to have any of this happen to them. What if by giving us a lift you saved more lives? What if you saved the life of my son?"
"What if I took you to New Pacifica and a tidal wave washed you all out to sea?"
"That's not an answer, and you know it." "Devon," the Doctor said, "do I strike you as a malicious man, who would deny you aid?"
"No, you don't, which is why I can't understand why you're turning us down."
"I'm not turning you down, Devon. Believe me, I can't help you."
Devon's face cleared; suddenly she understood. "You know our future, don't you?"
The Doctor was silent for a moment. Then, "Yes. Yes, I do," he said. "After the Terrians reminded me when I'd been here before, I started remembering more. And I can't tell you how I know, or how much, or how far in the future, or in what context I know. I just do. Some strands of the web of time have already crystallized along your path, Devon Adair, and if I tried to take you to New Pacifica now, I would not be able to. The TARDIS would end up on Mars, or 18th-century France, or Cirinus Minima, and you and the others would end up helping me fight Daleks and Cybermen and Terrileptils trying to take over entire planets," -- Devon let out a single laugh, despite herself -- "and - and - and if you think you're lost and frustrated now, try spending three months with me! You'd be begging me to bring you right back here! We'd be able to go just about anywhere, any time...except New Pacifica, right now."
Devon smiled a wistful smile of acceptance, and nodded softly. She didn't pretend to understand all that the Doctor was trying to tell her, but she knew she could trust him. And if he said he couldn't get them to New Pacifica, then no one could.
No one but themselves.
And she knew in that moment that the Doctor existed in a realm she could never understand. He was a wanderer in space and time, able to see the entire cosmos; he lived on a grand scale, overthrowing tyrants, saving planets, keeping invading armies at bay, and making sure little boys and girls all over the galaxy slept safe in their beds at night, because he was out there, doing his best to make sure the monsters couldn't reach them.
And maybe she was alive today because the Doctor had risked his life for the human race in some long century past. And even trapped and vulnerable on this new world, with strange aliens and penal colonists and ZED's and Council agents -- she felt better knowing he would be out there amongst the stars, fighting for her, and maybe even dying for her.
Dying again and again.
"You won't forget us, will you?" she asked. "Not for a thousand more years," he smiled, and she stepped forward and hugged him, hugged him close.
"And I envy you, Devon," he said. "This journey you're making, this family you found. In all my travels, I've witnessed it over and over again. But the biggest price I pay for my freedom is not having one of my own."
"Well, you're always welcome here, and you know where to find us."
"Yes," he said. "Yes, I do."
She let him go, and squeezed his hand. He winked, just once and turned away. He walked to the TARDIS, his funny little police telephone box that was really a time machine. She followed him as everyone gathered around, shook hands, and said, "Thanks. Thanks for helping us out."
He said goodbye to Ulysses last of all. Strangely, he seemed more at peace with the Doctor's leaving than anyone, as if he knew it had to be. Devon wondered if her son now knew as much about time, through his Terrian link, as the Doctor did. She suspected it was so.
As the Doctor opened the door to the TARDIS, Uly asked, "Will we see you again?"
"Of course we'll see him again, Uly," Devon smiled down at her son, then looked up at the Doctor. "How else would he know what will happen to us if he hadn't met us before -- in the future?"
The Doctor smiled at her in admiration. "We'll make a Time Lord out of you yet, Devon Adair."
Then, with a final wave from everyone, he shut the door. A second later, the light on top blinked and whirled, and a wheezing, groaning sound filled the air, rising and falling, growing less with each wave, and the TARDIS faded away, leaving a square patch of flattened earth.
And Eden Project finally got down to the business of taking a day off.
-The End-
Chapter End Notes:
Don't miss the next exciting Earth 2 / Doctor Who crossover, The Man Who Fell to Earth -- Who?!?!, due out sometime in the next 20 years or so.