The Girl Who Knew Too Much

chapter 4

"We're did the Doctor go?" I asked as Madam Vastra eased herself into another chair at our table, teacup in her hand.

"Oh?" she asked. "Yes, well, I had him run an errand for me," she said, as though it was perfectly obvious.

"Alright," I said, but inside my mind was screaming. Something was up.

Just as quickly as he left, the Doctor peeked his head through the door.

"I'm back," the Doctor said, a slight smile on his face. It was good to see him smiling. "And I brought snow cones!"

He walked around, handing the snow cones out. "There was a nice little stand handing them out right where I was running my errand. I didn't know what flavor you prefer," he said, turning to me, "so I got you cherry, because it's most people's favorite."

"Thank you," I said, smiling. "That's very sweet of you."

"Your welcome," he said, plopping into the empty seat at the table. "Now, Madam Vastra, why have you summoned me here?" I noticed that he said me, notus.

"Right. Let's get down to business," Madam Vastra said, putting her teacup down. (She had turned down her snow cone.)

To defeat the huns, I finished in my head. I loved Mulan. Sorry. Back to the story.

"Not too long ago, what I believe to be an alien ship, crashed not too far from here," Madam Vastra continued. "I'm not quite sure what came with it. I investigated – but, I wasn't able to discover what species came on the craft."

"We thought it'd be best to call in you, Doctor," Jenny said worriedly.

"Well, we can investigate," the Doctor said, getting up and glancing over to me. "Do you…want to join me?"

"Sure," I said, a smile spreading my cheeks.

Madam Vastra had Strax take us to the site. He stood guard outside while the Doctor ran around inside, scanning everything with his screwdriver and mumbling to himself. I stood in the doorway, somewhat unsure of what I should be doing there.

"You got anything?" I asked.

"Yes," the Doctor said slowly, a brow creasing his forehead. "They're from the same period as Strax is."

"Really?" I asked, peering over his should to glance at his screwdriver. The Doctor was kneeling and scanning at what I think was the dashboard of the craft. "Maybe Strax will recognize the type of ship," I suggested.

"Probably not," The Doctor said, glancing behind him at me. "Strax is usually so busy fighting, he entirely misses the point of what he's doing. Now, I'd say that they might've tracked a signal Strax might have sent out, a while back, when he was trying to poison the world with cars."

With Martha, I silently added.

"I'd say that these creatures recognized the signal as Sontaran, and came to find them," The Doctor continued, "They probably have some kind of beef with the Sontarans – lots of aliens do."

"Wait a second," I said. "Strax sends the signal from around my Present day. But we're in Victorian London. How did they receive the message from Strax?"

The Doctor frowned. "Good question. Eh, Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey."

"Maybe they were just traveling and caught wind of Strax's trail, leading here," I mumbled, thinking aloud.

"Maybe," the Doctor said, but he sounded kind of impressed.

But enemies of Strax? From the same time? It was all adding up. Good thing I just started watching Classic Who, because I think I recognized what type of creature this was.

"Rutans," I said, my lips set in a grim line.

"What did you say?" asked the Doctor, turning to look at me.

"Rutans," I repeated. "It all adds up, right? Enemies of Sontarans, and all that."

He flicked his screwdriver open and rescanned the dashboard.

"You're right," he said, a bit in awe. "This ship is Rutanic."

"You're right!" He said more excitedly, turning to face me. "You're bloody brilliant." He hugged me and kissed my forehead.

"Come on," he said, grabbing my hand. "This is excellent progress. Madam Vastra will love to hear this news."

As he pulled me out of the craft and around the corner, he nearly bumped into Strax, who was making his way in our direction.

"We've got trouble," Strax barked.

"What is it?" asked the Doctor. But he already new.

"Rutans," Strax said. "Haven't dealt with them in ages."

We watched as they rounded the corner, but giant, alien blobs. Kind of like a mix between jellyfish and Jello/gelatin.

They were coming at us fast. And they were pretty mad, probably because we were messing around with their ship.

"Come on," the Doctor said, grabbing my hand. "Run!"

The three of us turned and ran.

It wasn't that hard to lose them, luckily. The Doctor and Strax knew the streets of London, even Victorian London, much better, versus the Rutans, who have only just arrived and still need to get acquainted with their new surroundings.

After we lost them, we slowly recircled and made our way back Madam Vastra's.

"So how bad are Rutans, really?" I asked as we slowly made our way back, slightly out of breath.

"I'm not quite sure," the Doctor said. "Only dealt with them once."

"They are the scum of the universe," Strax said angrily. "I will not rest until I have vanquished them."

"Well, you're biased," I said. "You already hate them, probably because Sontarans fought, a war, I believe?, against the Rutans."

"Yes," Strax said. "Because they are scum, and I will crush them under my boot!"

"It's no use," the Doctor whispered, a slight smile from watching Strax and my conversation. "But don't worry. I will give them their chance."

We had reached Madam Vastra's by then, and we slowly entered the house.

Inside, the house was ransacked. It was a huge mess, and it was most definitely empty.

"Madam Vastra? Jenny?" the Doctor called out, slowly entering the house.

But they were nowhere to be found.