Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ Rose and Nine The Inbetweens and backstories ❯ Chapter Eleven ( Chapter 11 )

The central column of the main console was doing what it was supposed to do; all the right lights were flashing; Captain Jack Harkness was whistling and all was well. Jack paused mid-whistle to press a button that really didn't need pressing, then resumed his rather florid rendition of `Pack up Your Troubles . . .'

The Doctor and Rose were in the dining area of the kitchen, enjoying a cup of tea in his new San Kaloon Pyramid mug. Jack had brought his cup of coffee into the console room, feeling that he was a bit of a gooseberry when those two were flirting with each other.

He hadn't worked them out yet. They kept claiming that they were just friends, travelling together. But if they looked at him the way they looked at each other, he'd have them in bed so fast their heads would spin. One at a time or both together, he didn't mind. After all, he was a fiftieth century kind of guy.

The warning bleep that occurred when he pressed the button that really didn't need pressing, was so perfectly in time with the beat that he didn't even notice it until he was halfway through the next chorus.

`Smile,' bleep, 'smile,' bleep, 'smile,' bleep . . .

Then he was all action. At the console, checking the scanner and scrolling down the mass of information. Not a lot of it made sense, but he nodded knowingly just in case the Doctor or Rose came in.

`A warning?' He checked another readout. `Cry for help . . .'

Grinned. `Damsel in distress, maybe.' Probably best not to touch anything. Probably best to wait for the Doctor. Then again: `What the hell . . .'

The Doctor arrived at a run, Rose in his wake. He was stern, she was grinning.

`What's the fuss?' Rose asked.

`Just a distress call,' Jack told her, moving aside as the Doctor's elbow connected with his stomach. `Nothing much. Happens all the time on the high frontier.'

`Not like this,' the Doctor told him, not looking up from the scanner. `This is serious stuff.'

As if in reply, the bleeping changed from a regular pulse to a violent cacophony. `That shouldn't happen.' Slowly, the Doctor turned towards Jack. `You haven't done anything stupid, have you?'

`What, me? You think I don't know the standard operating procedure?'

`There isn't a standard operating procedure,' Rose reminded him. She was at the console too now, straining to see the scanner. `Here, let's have a butcher's.'

`Oh, great. Distress call comes in and you want to open a meat shop.'

`Shut it, you two,' the Doctor ordered. `Someone's responded to the signal, so that's all right.'

`Is it?' Rose asked.

`Yeah. Whoever it was will go and help. Sorted.'

`They will?' Jack asked quietly.

`Bound to. Morally obliged. They get first dibs. No one else'll bother now there's been a response, will they? Automated systems broadcast for help, someone responds and they start streaming all sorts of location data and details. Signal strength's gone up 500 per cent, probably using the last of their back-up emergency power. Though after so long it'll be a waste of someone's time, I expect.'

`I wonder who responded,' Rose said. She was already turning away, dismissing the problem from her mind.

`Er, well,' Jack said. `Actually . . .'

The Doctor's mouth dropped open. `You didn't . . .' He turned away as Jack started whistling again. `You did.' He was back at the scanner. `They're getting pretty frantic now, thinking they're about to be rescued from whatever godforsaken lump of rock they're stuck on. Well, they needn't think I'm going to . . .' His voice tailed off into a frown.

`Morally obliged,' Jack said quietly.

`Yeah, we should go and help, Doctor,' Rose put in. `Where are they?'

`Some barren wilderness that's good for nothing,' Jack suggested.

The Doctor looked up, smiling again now. `It's Earth . . . early twenty- first century.'

Jack nodded glumly. `Told you so.'

`Oi!' Rose said, nudging him in the ribs with her elbow. `That's my home turf you're dissin'.'

`It's fading. Power's running down, I s'pose,' the Doctor said. He tapped at the flickering lights on the scanner that represented the pulse beat of the signal.

`They must be in a bad way,' Jack said.

`Do we know who they are?' Rose wondered. The lights and readings meant nothing to her. `What they are?'

`Probably long dead,' the Doctor decided. `But since our associate here told them we'd come and help, we'd better check to be sure.'

Jack raised an eyebrow. `Well, if you don't want to.'

`It's not whether I want to, is it? I'm morally obliged.' The Doctor nudged him aside as he moved round the console. `You morally obliged me.'

`Me too,' Rose reminded them.

`It's a repeating pattern,' Jack told them. `A loop.'

`Yeah, well, it would be. Like “Mayday, mayday, mayday.”'

`Or “SOS, SOS, SOS”,' Rose added.

Jack sniffed. `I just meant maybe we can decipher it. Work out what it means.'

`It means “Help.”' The bell at the side of the console dinged and the Doctor thumped at a control. `Coming?'

Jack was still examining the line of pulse beats on the scanner. `If it is a loop, maybe we should look at it as a loop.'

He flicked at a control and the repeated line bent round on itself to form a circle. The pulses were shown as illuminated patches, slightly different shapes and sizes spaced slightly irregularly.

Rose peered over Jack's shoulder. `Looks like a map of Stonehenge,' she said. `Come on, we're gettin' left behind. As usual.'

`What were you saying about Stonehenge?' the Doctor called as they stepped out of the TARDIS.

`Oh, nothing,' Rose said.

She was glad of her coat, pulling it tight around her against the bitter chill. The bright sunlight seemed to make no impact on the inches of snow lying underfoot.

`That's good. Because . . .' The Doctor was striding out across the snow-covered plain, staring at the landscape ahead of them and leaving a trail of footsteps in his wake.

The TARDIS was on the top of a cliff, wind blowing round it, sending Rose's hair into a frenzy and kicking up puffs of snow at her feet. She could hear the crash of the waves from far below. But her attention was on the Doctor.

He turned and looked back, grinning `Interesting, don't you think?'

To one side of him was a wood, the trees spiky and bare, dripping with icicles. To the other side of the Doctor, on the horizon, stood a line of stones. Standing stones. They seemed to glitter in the cold sunlight, as if studded with quartz that was catching the light.

`A stone circle,' Rose said. `That's a coincidence.'

`Coincidence, my . . .' But Jack's words were drowned out by the sudden roar of sound.

The wind was blowing up even more. Snow blasting across the cliff and stinging Rose's eyes. A huge helicopter, like a giant metal spider, was hanging menacingly in the air, level with the top of the cliff.

A door slid open halfway along its side, and a man leaped out . . . a soldier. Khaki uniform, heavy pack, combat helmet, assault rifle. And behind him a line of identical figures leaping to the ground, keeping low, spreading out in a circle and running to their positions.

The Doctor wandered slowly back to join Rose and Jack. `Welcoming party?' he wondered.

The circle complete, the soldiers levelled their rifles . . . aiming directly at the Doctor and his friends. The first man out of the helicopter was walking slowly towards the middle of the circle.

His own rifle was slung over his shoulder and he moved with confidence and determination. He stopped directly in front of the Doctor. And, just from his eyes, Rose could tell he was furious.

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To be fair, Jack's suggestion of it being a “barren wilderness that's good for nothing” wasn't far off. It was an abandoned Soviet naval base on the Novrosk Peninsula, where nuclear submarines had been left to rust and rot.

It was cold, isolated, forgotten.

Cold? It wasn't cold, it was freezing! Rose shivered inside her parka jacket, and whished she'd taken the time to dress in the fur outfit that she'd worn on Woman Wept. That had kept her lovely and warm.

She had a wistful smile on her lips as she remembered the snowball fight with the Doctor, how they'd wrestled in the snow, and the look in his eyes when he'd gazed into hers. It seemed so long ago now . . .

`I was worried about you,' Jack said, bringing her out of her memories and into the stone circle on the cliff top. `I had to come back,' Jack went on. `To make sure you were all right.'

`I was fine, thanks,' Rose said from behind him, and then realised he wasn't talking to her. He was talking to Valeria Mamentova, a local girl the same age as Rose, but who looked to be over a hundred.

`You can take care of yourself,' he replied, without turning. He was still facing Valeria, still holding her limp, lifeless hand. `She doesn't even know I'm here, does she?' he said quietly.

Valeria had been a victim of the mythical Vourdulak, a sort of vampire or siren . . . a seemingly beautiful young woman who entraps the unwary and then drains their energy to keep herself young and beautiful, whereas in fact she is old and ugly.

Except it wasn't a myth, and it wasn't the Vourdulak. It was a group of scientists at the Novrok research institute who had been tinkering with the energy collectors of a crashed alien ship, the one that was sending the distress signal. They were keeping themselves young by taking the life force of poor, unsuspecting villagers.

Valeria's boyfriend, Pavel Vahlen had been completely drained and turned to a jelly-like husk. Valeria had been saved when Jack responded to the distress beacon and diverted the resources of the alien ship.

`I shall look after her,' her father Mamentov said. `I see now that it is my duty.' He had been so distressed at his daughter's condition that he had abandoned her in the village when they ran from the alien threat.

Fedor Vahlen clapped his hand on the man's shoulder. `I will help you, my friend,' he said. `It is what Pavel would have wanted. We will all help.'

`Thank you,' Mamentov said. He reached out and took his daughter's hand from Jack. `And thank you, Captain. You have taught an old man something he should already have known.' Jack had risked his life to carry the girl out of the village to safety.

Jack nodded sadly. `I'm sorry I can't do more.' He looked into Valeria's expressionless, wrinkled face. He stroked her fine blonde hair with the back of his hand. Then he turned away.

Colonel Oleg Levin, Lieutenant Krylek and the Special Forces soldiers were waiting nearby for the helicopters. Now the alien ship had powered down, the radio interference was gone and they had called for back-up . . . there was rebuilding to do and Levin had bullied his superiors into funding it.

He had pointed out that Catherine Kornilova, a mature student, who'd been studying for a higher degree in nuclear physics, was willing and able to detail the illegal and dangerous work that the institute had been carrying out.

Even though no one in the Kremlin had any idea what it might be, the implications were enough given that the institute had been set up to research biological weapons and that Levin had given them a rough estimate of the military and civilian death toll.

`Time we were on our way,' the Doctor said. `If you're done with the goodbyes.'

Rose nudged Jack with her shoulder. `Hey,' she said. `We did good.'

`Did we?' Jack wasn't so sure. Okay, they'd shut down the alien ship and defeated the scientists who were draining people of their life force, but at what cost? So many dead; and a young woman who was now older than her father.

`Oh yeah,' the Doctor said. `Would have happened sooner or later. And we defeated the villains. Saved the world.'

Jack nodded. `But sometimes, you know, that just doesn't seem to be enough.'

`It's a good start,' Rose said sympathetically.

It was beginning to snow. Large, lazy flakes were twisting down from the sky and settling on the smooth stones of the circle. Jack paused, sighed and turned back towards the little group of villagers who had gathered to see them off. They couldn't know where they were going or how they intended to travel, but they seemed to know that it was goodbye.

The Doctor and Rose stopped too. The Doctor waved. `Cheerio, then,' he called.

`Come on,' Rose said. `It's freezing.'

`I'll catch you up.' Jack was running back through the thickening snow. He stopped in front of Valeria and looked again into her glassy, unfocused eyes. `I forgot to say goodbye.' He leaned forwards and kissed her gently on the cheek.

And slowly, with no change of expression, she reached her arms around Jack and held him tight. Just for a few moments. In the cold, cold snow.