Nietzsche and the Doctor (Doctor Who FanFiction)

What It's Like to Touch the Sky

Up on the hill, in front of the Tardis, the Doctor stared up at the night sky, at those stars that seemed closer than ever before, the light snow swirling down. Amy and Rory joined him. "So just up there is a ship full of Vade Mecum?" Amy asked.

"Indeed there is. And it's such a clear night."

Amy frowned at his non-sequiter. "So?"

"So where's the snow coming from?" He continued to stare into the sky, like something might move and warn him of impending trouble. "Rory, could you pick up that stick over there?" He pointed to a long bit of wood, almost the length of Rory himself.

Rory bent and picked it up. "Now what?"

"Just, uh..." The Doctor mimed jabbing it into the sky.

Rory stared at him, holding the limb in his hands. "You notice something's not right and you want me to poke it with a stick?" The Doctor didn't even acknowledge the question, continuing to stare up at the sky. Amy stepped forward, punched Rory on the shoulder. "C'mon, just do it," she prodded.

He grumbled a bit under his breath then lifted the stick, thrusting it up. He came into contact with something slightly solid but also an uncomfortable bit squishy. He squinted up, wondering how he could be actually touching the sky and pulled the stick back. A gelatinous ripple wiggled through space, like the night was made of Jell-o. "It feels like an eyeball."

The Doctor looked over at him with slightly raised eyebrows, cocking his head a little as if to say, maybe? "Ugh!" Rory dropped the stick straight away and shook his hands like he may have gotten something disgusting on them. "Gross."

"Oh, relax, Rory," the Doctor said. "It's the semi-solid knowledge matrix stretched out along the whole of the earth. So you basically poked a gigantic eardrum instead of an eye. Does that make you feel better?"

Rory glowered at him. "No."

"I should've known sooner." The Doctor pointed to the south, at the brightest point in the sky. "No way is Eta Carinae's supposed to be this bright in the late 1800s. In the earlies, yes, but not in the lates. They've got quite a bit of information up there, but not quite all of it yet!" He turned his attention back to the task at hand. "Alright, Ponds." He put his arms around the shoulders of Amy and Rory and pulled them close. "Rory and I found out that the Vade Mecum have begun the archiving process and they are not keen on stopping it. So the best thing to do is make an inventory of our assets and then set about improvising as we always do."

"We've got Rory's face," Amy offered.

"That we do," the Doctor replied. "Also, we've got an entry pod with a little piece of my mind in it, which gives us access to the Vade Mecum's ship." The Doctor herded Amy and Rory into the Tardis and retrieved the orb, holding it in his left hand. He shined his sonic through it, peering into the hazy gray cloudiness inside the ball. "If we can find a way to shut down the process up in the Vade Mecum ship it would be a lot easier than doing it from down here."

"You can't go back to that ship, Doctor," Rory said. "They put you in that...energy... bubble-thing last time."

"That's true. But they didn't get you."

Rory blinked at him. "So?"

The Doctor turned to face Rory, holding out the entry pod to him. "You're a blessed anomaly, Rory Williams." Rory took the orb reticently, held it gingerly. It was warm, solid, weighty in his hands. His confidence swelled for a moment, a seedling unfurling after a harsh winter. "That should slow the Vade Mecum down a little bit, at least," the Doctor concluded, and the winter clouds returned to Rory's soul. The Doctor moved to the far side of the Tardis console as he continued to talk. "I boosted the power in the orb a bit but it still only has enough to go once to the ship above and back here to the Tardis." He pressed a button and as the Tardis rumbled, the sphere glowed. "See? All locked in. No matter where the Tardis is, you'll return to her."