Sera:
"Doctor?" I asked, wrapping my arms around his waist from behind.
"Sera, I'm trying to sleep here." He sighed and rolled over in my arms, facing me. "Yes, Dear?"
I kissed him softly, then cuddled into him, listening to his hearts. "I've met every single one of your faces except one. I grew up with the first 2, travelled with the next 6, fought along side the one you want to forget and had sex with your 10th and 11th. I never got to meet the 9th."
"Am I not enough for you?" He joked, kissing the top of my head and laughing. "Yeah, I don't see why not, seeing as when I first saw you I found you familiar. I just put it down to knowing you were my Seraphina. I met you on a satellite, and I thought you were brilliant."
"Well, I am brilliant, aren't I?" I laughed back, cuddling closer into his chest. "Was Rose there?"
He pulled back a little, looking me right in the eye and keeping my gaze. "She was only ever a distraction, my Sera. I promise you, I just needed to forget you when I thought you died. I love you, not her."
Nodding, I kissed him quickly, rolling on top of him. "I know, my Angel. I love you too. So, what was I wearing that day? Or do you think I look better in this?" In just a thin black nightie.
"Oh, I think Adam may have been more into you then, but no. Unfortunately you had clothes on that day. You were wearing black skinny jeans, and a red long sleeved top. No shoes, because I knew you were Calderrian, and you had your hair straightened."
I raised an eye brow. "And you didn't realise that you'd met me before? Really?"
"I'm lying, I have no idea what you we wearing, I'm just saying what I want you to wear. You look really nice in jeans, your bum looks great."
"Really? Did you not like me wearing dresses then?" I asked, feigning a hurt expression. I hadn't worn a dress since Melody was taken from me, because that happy, optimistic woman who had wanted a family was gone, and now I was her. Someone different.
He ran his hands gently along my hips, his fingers lightly tracing my stretch marks. "I like you in whatever you want to wear, my Sera. A dress, jeans, a skirt, a bin bag, nothing. Whatever you feel comfy and pretty in, that's good enough for me. You sure you want to meet Captain Big Ears?"
"Yes, I know all of you apart from him. Obviously I wasn't me, I'm guessing I used Sarah Pond or something like that?"
"On the nose exactly, my Sera. It's like your cover name, like John Smith for me. Go on, get dressed, I'll get us there and fill in the Mini-Ponds. Amy and Rory will get worried otherwise." He gave me another quick, well, I say quick but it really wasn't, kiss, and then rolled out of bed, leaving me to watch him pull on his pyjamas and leave the room.
I showered quickly, drying my hair straight, and put on what he wanted me to wear, plain black skinny jeans, a deep red long sleeved top. Make up wise, I went fairly gothic, but I made sure that it wasn't over board. My Doctor didn't really like me wearing too much for no reason. I grabbed my velvet coat again, meeting the Doctor in the console room, where he beamed at me. "Love it, your eyes are very sparkly."
"Yeah, I found glittery TARDIS blue online, and they do outer space deliveries in the future." I laughed, giving him a quick peck. "Ready to go?"
He nodded, handing me my new TARDIS key after I gave Melody mine. She deserved one, and mine was the second one to be made after her fathers,and that had to stay with the 'main' pilot. "All ready to go. You'll need these." He handed me a bundle of paper, all about some form of news. "You'll find out why."
I took his word for it, excited at meeting the one form of my husband I'd never see outside of a photograph before. "Love you, and you probably know where to pick me up from?"
"Yup." He replied popping the p. "I'll see you in a little while. Try not to let him find out, because that just makes it awkward for me, Dear."
"No promises.
9th Doctor:
"So, it's two hundred thousand, and it's a spaceship. No, wait a minute, space station, and er, go and try that gate over there. Off you go." I explained to Rose, then pointed over towards a big group of people in the distance, ready to show her yet another adventure. It was pretty warm here to be honest.
Rose stared at me for a moment. "Two hundred thousand?"
"Two hundred thousand." I agreed, grinning at her.
"Right." She leant back, opening the TARDIS door. "Adam? Out you come."
The somehow genius boy came out and his jaw dropped, making me roll my eyes. This place wasn't even the best I could have shown them. "Oh, my God."
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." Rose told him, laughing a little. How did she like him? Well, there was always the Mickey in the room for that question.
"Where are we?"
"Good question." She smiled, about to say everything I just said. Sponges, that was all humans were. "Let's see. So, er, judging by the architecture, I'd say we're around the year two hundred thousand. If you listen-" They paused and Adam nodded. "Engines. We're on some sort of space station. Yeah, definitely a space station. It's a bit warm in here. They could turn the heating down. Tell you what - let's try that gate. Come on!" She lead us where I'd told her to go, finding a massive viewing window. "Here we go! And this is. I'll let the Doctor describe it."
Oh, will you now, that's nice, thanks. "The Fourth great and bountiful Human Empire. And there it is, planet Earth at it's height. Covered with mega-cities, five moons, population ninety six billion. The hub of a galactic domain stretching across a million planets, a million species, with mankind right in the middle." Adam then decided to faint, and I had to try very, very hard not to rub it in Rose's face. "He's your boyfriend."
She shook her head, not looking back at him. "Not any more" Good does that mean I can leave him here?
We woke him up, or I slapped him, and we started walking through the main level of the station. "Come on, Adam. Open your mind. You're going to like this. Fantastic period of history. The human race at its most intelligent. Culture, art, politics. This era has got fine food, good manners."
"Out of the way!" A man told me, and then there were tonnes of people pushing and shoving around us around, opening up vending stations and serving customers. Lunch rush.
"Fine cuisine?" Rose asked, listening to one of the cooks. What was a Kronkburger when it was at home?
"My watch must be wrong." I checked, inwardly sighing at the memory of it. Seraphina made this for me, it could never run out of battery, and it was never wrong. "No, it's fine. It's weird."
"That's what comes of showing off." Rose laughed, shaking her head at me. Think about her, not Sera. Sera was gone. Everyone was gone. "Your history's not as good as you thought it was."
"My history's perfect." I defended, but it really wasn't. I just liked to pretend to be perfect.
"Well, obviously not."
"They're all human." Adam said, getting me to look back at him and come up with a cunning plan. "What about the millions of planets, the millions of species? Where are they?"
"Good question. Actually, that is a good question. Adam, me old mate, you must be starving."
"No, I'm just a bit time sick." Time sick? What the bleeding heck was time sick? Not even Rickey would have complained this much!
"No, you just need a bit of grub. Oi, mate - how much is a kronkburger?" I asked the chef, and they barely looked at me.
"Two credits twenty, sweetheart. Now join the queue."
"Money." I realised, patting down my pockets and pulling out the sonic. "We need money. Let's use a cashpoint." A tannoy crackled to life above us, talking about Glasgow water riots or something as I sonicked the cashpoint, getting a plastic card for my trouble. Paper money was a lot better. I handed it to Adam with a smile. "There you go, pocket money. Don't spend it all on sweets." I did that once and it did not end well for Teegan.
"How does it work?"
How was I supposed to know? "Go and find out. Stop nagging me. The thing is, Adam, time travel's like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guide book, you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers. Or is that just me? Stop asking questions, go and do it. Off you go, then. Your first date."
"You're going to get a smack, you are." Rose warned me, heading off.
I started towards a pair of smartly dressed women, when a girl barely older than Rose was knocked over by someone from the queue, papers scattering everywhere as she yelped. "Here, you alright, Love?" I asked her, helping her start to pick up all the paper again.
She was really stunning, long straight hair the colour of cherry wood, smooth tan skin, a long willowy frame and her eyes. They were like tigers eye, bronze and gold melted together, and rimmed it a sparkly TARDIS blue. And she was the first alien I'd seen on board.
"Yeah, I'm fine, thank you. First day on the job, I don't even know where I am right now." She laughed, shaking her head. "Damn it, they're all in the wrong order, that took me an hour to sort out."
"Sounds about right for a first day. I'm the Doctor, what's your name?" I asked, helping her up to her feet. That were bare, not even with socks on. "I mean, you quite blatantly a Calderrian, but I'll keep your secret."
Her cheeks turned scarlet and nail to an embarrassed green. "Um, Sera." I blinked before I heard again. "Sarah Pond. Thank you for helping me, people here seem far too engrossed in whatever they're doing to do that. And they're very much humans only." Stop thinking about her, Sera is a tiny munchkin with red hair and green eyes, and is, was, certainly not Calderrian.
"People should always make time to help someone in need, Sarah. One good deed a day, that's what I say." I glanced back over to the smartly dressed women, thinking now I had a good excuse to ask them where we were. I led her over to them, giving them a smile. "Er, this is going to sound daft, but can you tell me where we are?"
"Floor One Three Nine. Could they write it any bigger?" The first woman laughed, pointing to the big numbers on the wall. Yes, I got that bit thank you.
"Floor one three nine of what?"
"Must've been a hell of a party." She sighed, shaking her head at us. Then she saw Sarah's lack of shoes. "Here, love, where's your shoes?"
"Oh, um, heels. It's my first day, really shouldn't have worn them, my feet were killing me." She lied smoothly, and that was a very good excuse. Whoever could wear heels to work was a hero in themselves.
"You're on Satellite Five." The second woman told us, and I blinked.
"What's Satellite Five."
"Come on, how could you get on board without knowing where you are?"
"Look at me. I'm stupid." I pointed to Sarah, "And it's her first day, she's bound to be confused."
"Hold on, wait a minute. Are you a test? Some sort of management test kind of thing?"
Well, when in Rome. "You've got me. Well done. You're too clever for me." I held up the psychic paper, using it as an ID card. "Sarah's my friend, I just wanted her to watch how it's done."
"We were warned about this in basic training. All workers have to be versed in company promotion." That sounded interesting. Not.
"Right, fire away, ask your questions. If it gets me to Floor five hundred I'll do anything." The first woman smiled, and I sighed. How desperate could you be to get promoted.
Sarah blinked, looking confused, and for a second I could have sworn her eyes were fully gold. But then she blinked and they were back to normal. "Why, what happens on Floor five hundred?"
"The walls are made of gold." Because that was realistic in any way, shape or form. "And you should know, Mister Management. So, this is what we do." She walked over to a wall monitor. "Latest news, sandstorms on the new Venus archipelago. Two hundred dead. Glasgow water riots into their third day. Space lane seventy seven closed by sunspot activity. And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Bo has just announced he's pregnant." He was a giant head, and a male, how did that work?
"I get it. You broadcast the news." I looked back at Sarah. Two Sarahs, her and Sarah Jane and they were both journalists, that was pretty slim chances.
"We are the news. We're the journalists. We write it, package it and sell it. Six hundred channels all coming out of Satellite Five, broadcasting everywhere. Nothing happens in the whole human empire without it going though us." Well, that was very much a big brother state, and I could see why aliens, besides the lovely Calderrian princess next to me, wanted to stay away from it.
Sera:
Oh, he was lovely! The way the 11th Doctor had described him, he was just all grumpy and moody, but to me he was exactly the same. Still my Doctor, just before he realised I was still alive and married me. I couldn't tell him that though, unfortunately.
"Oi! Mutt and Jeff! Over here!" He called, getting a younger, slightly nicer looking Rose over, as well as some terrified looking bloke. "Rose, Adam, meet Sarah Pond, she's a new friend of mine, and she's new here, just like us. Sarah, this is Rose Tyler and Adam something or other."
He lead us to a big white room, where Cathica and Suki had taken us a minute before, with 7 people seated at an octagonal desk around a central chair with wires coming out of it. "Now, everybody behave. We have a management inspection. How do you want it, by the book?"
"Right from scratch, thanks." He smiled, nodding to the woman who was heading to the chair in the middle.
"Okay. So, ladies, gentlemen, multi-sex, undecided or robot,- my name is Cathica Santini Khadeni. That's Cathica with a C, in case you want to write to Floor five hundred praising me, and please do. Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest, and beyond bias. That's company policy."
"Actually, it's the law." Suki interjected, and I smirked. Law beats company policy any day.
She shot her a death look. "Yes, thank you, Suki. Okay, keep it calm. Don't show off for the guests. Here we go." She settled down in the chair. "And engage safety." The 7 held their hands over a palm print on the table in front of them, and lights started to come on around the room. And then she clicked her fingers, opening a portal to her brain. And then the people put their hands down. "And three, two, and spike."
A beam of light streamed through the portal, directly to her brain. "Compressed information, streaming into her." I realised, looking at the Doctor. "Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer. I'm only part of archiving the classical news, I don't need one of these yet." Not that I would ever even get one.
"If it all goes through her, she must be a genius." Rose said, looking at me, and then the Doctor. She didn't know who I was, and she was actually being nice to me. Well, this was before her Doctor came into play, Mr Sexy Suit.
"Nah, she wouldn't remember any of it. There's too much. Her head'd blow up. The brain's the processor. As soon as it closes, she forgets." The Doctor explained, giving me a strange look. I was a genius, I know, I know, tone it down, Phi, it's a dead give away.
"So, what about all these people round the edge?"
"They've all got tiny little chips in their head, connecting them to her and they transmit six hundred channels. Every single fact in the Empire beams out of this place." I told them, leaning forwards on the rails and watching Cathica.
The Doctor nodded a little, smiling. "Now that's what I call power."
"You all right?" Rose asked Adam, who looked like he was going to pass out. I'd watched him do it earlier, and it was pretty funny. Mickey and Rory were definitely a step up from him. Rory punched Hitler and Mickey saved the parallel universe with a big blue van.
"I can see her brain."
"Do you want to get out?"
He shook his head emphatically, desperate to stay. No one should be that eager to learn. "No. No, this technology, it's amazing."
"This technology's wrong." The Doctor and I said together, and I shrugged.
"There's a reason I'm the only alien here. I'm a freelance detective, I came to investigate.
"Trouble?" Rose asked, smiling a little. I preferred her like this, I might actually have gotten along with her if she'd not been a possessive bitch when he moved on, well, moved back.
"Oh, yeah" And then Suki pulled her hands away like she'd been given an electric shock, making the other 6 pull away their own hands and Cathica's portal shut.
"Come off it, Suki. I wasn't even halfway. What was that for?" She asked, looking over at the woman who was looking startled. Hello, out of the ordinary.
"Sorry. It must've been a glitch."
"Oh."
And then the wall lit up, making me cover my eyes at how bright it was getting in here. "Promotion."
"Come on." Cath begged, looking desperate for this. "This is it. Come on. Oh God, make it me. Come on, say my name, say my name, say my name."
"Promotion for Suki Macrae Cantrell. Please proceed to Floor five hundred." Ha, I knew that would happen, even without a vision.
Suki looked pretty shocked herself. "I don't believe it. Floor five hundred."
"How the hell did you manage that? I'm above you." Oh, don't be pleased for a colleague then.
"I don't know." She shrugged, grinning. "I just applied on the off chance and they've said yes."
"That's so not fair. I've been applying to Floor five hundred for three years."
Rose looked confused, nothing new there then. "What's Floor five hundred?"
"The walls are made of gold." I said darkly, and the Doctor nodded. He really believed that I was some Calderrian bounty hunter, how cool was that?
We headed over to the lift and we started to say goodbye to Suki, who was blatantly more than she seemed. She was hiding something about her, which was quite easy to see when you were doing the same yourself. "Cathica, I'm going to miss you." She turned to the Doctor and I. "Floor five hundred, thank you."
"We didn't do anything." I laughed as she hugged me, then moving to the Doctor.
"Well, you're my lucky charms."
He grinned, shaking his head. "All right. I'll hug anyone." Wait until your next regeneration, you end up kissing a lot of people. And then getting engaged to the woman you thought was dead.
Rose sent Adam off to sort himself out after nearly passing out, again, Suki stepped into the lift. "Oh, my God, I've got to go. I can't keep them waiting. I'm sorry. Say goodbye to Steve for me. Bye!" And then the lift door closed.
"Good riddance." Cathica muttered as we started to walk back through the cafeteria.
"You're talking like you'll never see her again. She's only going upstairs."
"We won't." She shrugged. "Once you go to Floor five hundred you never come back." That was very ominous.
The Doc looked thoughtful for a moment. "Have you ever been up there? Either of you?"
We both shook our heads. "I can't. You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to five hundred except for the chosen few. And if it's her first day, she's not getting promoted from archivist to floor 500."
We kept asking her questions all the way back to the news room. "Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance. Can't you give it a rest?"
"But you've never been to another floor? Not even one floor down?" The Doctor asked her, looking between us, sitting in the broadcast chair.
"I went to floor sixteen when I first arrived. That's medical. That's when I got my head done, and then I came straight here. Satellite Five, you work, eat and sleep on the same floor. That's it, that's all. You're not management, are you. And you're not just some first day archivist."
"At last. She's clever." I laughed, shaking my head. The Doctor was grinning too, though mostly at me.
Cathica didn't look impressed though. "Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me. I don't know anything."
"Don't you even ask?"
"Well, why would I?"
"You're a journalist." I pointed out. "Why's all the crew human? Other than me, of course, but you lot haven't met my race before, it was easy to fake my records."
"What's that got to do with anything?" She asked, looking at me, and then seeing my colour changing nails. "That's actually kind of awesome."
The Doctor got her back on track. "There's no aliens on board besides Sarah. Why?"
"I don't know." I believed her. "No real reason. They're not banned or anything."
"Then where are they?"
"I suppose immigration's tightened up. It's had to, what with all the threats." Threats? That sounded ominous.
"What threats?" I asked, listing things wrong with this place in my head. Humanity needed to be put back on the right course.
"I don't know all of them. Usual stuff. And the price of space warp doubled so that kept the visitors away. Oh, and the government on Chavic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming, you see. Just lots of little reasons, that's all." That was more than a lot of little reasons, that was all things that weren't initially going to happen.
"Adding up to one great big fact, and you didn't even notice. Imagine that story, eh."
"Sarah, Doctor, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything." No, I see everything, you see what you're allowed to.
"I can see better, believe me. This society's the wrong shape, even the technology. This is just wrong."
"It's cutting edge." Cathica protested, sounding annoyed at that.
"It's backwards. There's a great big door in your head. You should've chucked this out years ago. Calderrians, Sarah's race, they jumped right over that, called it too invasive." Did they? Oh, maybe I should properly look into the race my Time Lord genes were imitating.
Rose came back into the conversation now, and I'd forgotten she'd been there. "So, what do you think's going on?"
"It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude." I explained to her, trying to suppress a vision. I didn't want to cheat this time, I wanted to spend more time with him. "It's the way people think. The great and bountiful Human Empire's stunted. Something's holding it back, their potential was at a peak, and then it plateaus?"
"And how would you know?"
"Trust me, humanity's been set back about ninety years, my race has been watching yours for 200. When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?"
"Ninety one years ago."
The 9th Doctor:
I liked this Sarah girl, she was different than most of the people I'd ever met, and she was definitely smart, smarter than me possibly. We were both trying to get some double doors open, her finding a mainframe panel, and me with the sonic. And some how she was getting it done faster.
"We are so going to get in trouble. You're not allowed to touch the mainframe. You're going to get told off." Cathica told us, for about the 3rd time. Buy a new record, Love.
"Rosie, tell her to button it." Sarah muttered, her hand fully in the panel. She was not going to beat the sonic, no way!
"You can't just vandalise the place. Someone's going to notice!" And then Sarah got the doors open. How did she manage that?
We got to work messing with the cables, Sarah's sharp Calderrian nails getting through the wires quickly and efficiently. "This is nothing to do with me. I'm going back to work." Cathica started away but I knew she wasn't going anywhere so I called her bluff.
"Go on, then. See you!"
"I can't just leave you, can I!"
"If you want to be useful, get them to turn the heating down. It's boiling. What's wrong with this place?" Rose asked her, and I agreed. I was cold blooded and it was roasting in here. Yet Sarah, part of a hot blooded feline race, was working like it was perfect? "Can't they do something about it?"
Cathica shrugged. "I don't know. We keep asking. Something to do with the turbine."
"Something to do with the turbine." Sarah repeated, her eyes glazing over a little, reminding me of something I couldn't place. I felt like I knew her, when I hadn't ever met her before.
"Well, I don't know!"
"Exactly. I give up on you, Cathica. Now, Rose. Look at Rose. Rose is asking the right kind of question." Sarah laughed, seemingly enjoying this. Well, she was a bounty hunter, with how dangerous the job was, you should enjoy it.
"Oh, thank you."
"Why is it so hot? I'm used to high temperatures, but this is at the top of the list." She was lying, she was playing with her necklace. I tried to see what it looked like, but she dropped it back under her shirt. Interesting.
"One minutes you're worried about the Empire and the next it's the central heating!"
"Well, never underestimate plumbing. Plumbing's very important." She muttered, producing a monitor with a schematic on it. How was she doing this? It was like she was seeing what she had to do before she had to do it. "Here we go. Satellite Five, pipes and plumbing. Look at the layout."
"This is ridiculous." Cath complained. "You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange and you're looking at pipes?"
"But there's something wrong." I pointed to the screen, just as Sarah saw. Ha, beat you to it for once.
"I suppose."
Rose had a look at the screen and couldn't see anything. "Why, what is it?"
"The ventilation system. Cooling ducts, ice filters, all working flat out channelling massive amounts of heat down." Cathica explained, pointing to the top and then where we were on floor 139.
Sarah suddenly shivered a little. "215.9." What? Then she was back to normal. "All the way from the top."
"Floor five hundred." Rose realised, where we'd just sent Suki. Let's hope she hadn't been turned into a frozen dinner.
"Something up there is generating tons and tons of heat."
Rose gave us a grin. "Well, I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm missing out on a party. It's all going on upstairs. Fancy a trip?"
"You can't. You need a key." Cathica pointed out
"Keys are just codes, and I've got the codes right here." I told her, getting things up on the monitor. "Here we go. Override two one five point nine." Wait, what? That was what Sarah had said, how did she know that?
"How come it's given you the code? And how did you say that a good minute before he got it up?"
"Someone up there likes us, and I'm very special." Yeah, I was starting to get that.
"Come on. Come with us." Rose told as we started to head to the lift.
"No way."
Sarah waved at her cheerily. "Bye!" That was what I was going to do!
"Well, don't mention my name. When you get in trouble, just don't involve me." And then she left, leaving just me and the two girls.
"That's her gone. Adam's given up. Looks like it's just you two and me."
They both nodded in agreement "Yeah."
"Good."
"Yep" I took a hand each for them as the lift started going up. Sarah seemed to be anxious about this, like she knew that something was going to happen, but then the doors opened before I could question it. "The walls are not made of gold. You two should go back downstairs."
Rose shrugged. "Tough."
"And where's the fun? This is my actual job, remember." Sarah grinned going on ahead of us, finding a group of people at terminals and a pale looking man, looking a little like Jack Frost.
"I started without you. This is fascinating. Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but you three, you don't exist. Not a trace. No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?"
Rose ran right over to Suki, looking like she was already gone. "Suki. Suki! Hello? Can you hear me? Suki? What have you done to her?"
"She's dead." Sarah said tersely, her eyes darkening as she glared at the man.
"She's working."
"They've all got chips in their head, and the chips keep going, like puppets." I explained, moving her away from the zombie woman.
"Oh! You're full of information. But it's only fair we get some information back, because apparently, you're no one. It's so rare not to know something. Who are you? And the lovely Sarah Pond, with fake details about being an archivist. You're not human, so who are you?"
"It doesn't matter, because we're off. Nice to meet you. Come on." She tried to pull us off, but Suki grabbed Rose and two of the others grabbed me. Sarah managed to keep herself free, but she wasn't leaving. Why was she being loyal to us?
"Tell me who you are. Either of you."
"Since that information's keeping us alive, I'm hardly going to say, am I." I joked, while Sarah tried to free us, somehow remaining free herself. It was like her skin was too hot to touch, or maybe she was just moving too fast for them to get a grip.
"Well, perhaps my Editor in Chief can convince you otherwise."
"And who's that? If he's as blindingly pale, then I'll pass, my Lovely."
"It may interest you to know that this is not the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live." There was a growl and a snarl above us, that Sarah responded to with a deeper growl. "Yeah. Yeah, sorry. It's a place where humans are allowed to live by kind permission of my client."
We looked up to see a giant lump of pink flesh with quite nasty looking teeth pointing down towards us. "What is that?" Rose asked, staring up at it in alarm.
"You mean that thing's in charge of Satellite Five? Well, I can see why you need the cooling system, that thing has blood like lava!" Sarah shouted, and then 4 of the zombies grabbed her, pinning her down on the floor. "I know I'm hot and everything, but I am married, my Lovelies." She was married? Oh, those rings, the ones on her hand.
"That thing, as you put it, is in charge of the human race. For almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided, his knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by it's broadcast news, edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light, the mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. I call him Max."
Sera:
Handcuffs, there had to be a compliment in there somewhere. I could have broken out of them, but that would have really given away who I was, and I wasn't in the mood to take away his memories right now and I couldn't with Rose, human minds were too easy to break.
"Create a climate of fear and it's easy to keep the borders closed. It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilise an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote." I didn't like this guy, partly because he was allowing all of this to go on, and secondly because he was just a major creep.
Rose nodded at him, understanding. "So all the people on Earth are like, slaves."
"Well, now, there's an interesting point." The Editor smiled, walking towards us a little. "Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?"
"Yes." The Doctor and I nodded, while I tried to get out, breaking the small bone in my wrist, dislocating my thumb, anything.
He seemed crestfallen. "Oh. I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm going to get? Yes?"
We nodded again. "Yes."
"You're no fun."
I let out another growl, my frustration reaching critical points. "Let me out of these manacles. You'll find out how much fun I am."
"Oh, she's tough, isn't she." He smiled, running his hand down my cheek. I managed to bite him, drawing blood with my sharp cat teeth. "Ah! You little..." He composed himself, wiping his hand. "But, come on. Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit."
"You can't hide something on this scale. Somebody must have noticed." Rose told him, and that was a very good point.
"From time to time, someone, yes, but the computer chip system allows me to see inside their brains. I can see the smallest doubt and crush it." That sounds like when a character in SPN dies and you're like, are you dead or just Sam and Dean dead? And then they're actually dead. "Then they just carry on, living the life, strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're so individual, when of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing."
And then we saw Cathica behind his back, and I suppressed a grin. "What about you? You're not a Jagrabelly"
"Jagrafess." We corrected her, and I sighed. It wasn't all that hard.
"Jagrafess. You're not a Jagrafess. You're human."
The Editor shrugged at her. "Yeah, well, simply being human doesn't pay very well."
"But you couldn't have done this all on your own."
"No. I represent a consortium of banks." Why did it always come down to money? "Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to install himself."
"No wonder, a creature that size. What's his life span?" I asked, starting to try and bend the manacles, which was slightly more effective.
"Three thousand years." Ouch, I was only 700 and something and I felt old.
"That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat, like I said, blood like lava. That's why Satellite Five's so hot. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs. Jagrafess stays cool, it stays alive. Satellite Five is one great big life support system." I grinned, getting a little more movement in my wrists.
"But that's why you're so dangerous. Knowledge is power, but you remain unknown. Who are you?"
The Editor snapped his fingers and energy surged through the manacles making me cry out in pain. "Leave them alone. I'm the Doctor, she's Rose Tyler and that is Sarah Pond, Calderrian bounty hunter. We're nothing, we're just wandering."
"Tell me who you are!"
"He just said!" I shouted, not bothering to hide my strength now, pulling hard at the manacles, visibly moving them. "Sarah Alice Pond, Calderia's infamous assassin of a daughter, and now I just do what I want." Pretty close to my actual story there.
"Yes, but who do you work for? Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly-" He stopped at the Jagrafess growled and my hearts stopped. Shit. "Time Lord."
"What?" The Doctor asked, while I just stopped, breathing hard. Don't realise it's me, please don't realise it's me...
"Oh, yes. The last of the Time Lords in his travelling machine. Oh, with his little human girl from long ago and a girl that just wandered in, suddenly knowing a lot more than she lets on." I stopped panicking. Brilliant. Adam, he got himself a chip and now they're taking data from his mind.
"You don't know what you're talking about." I laughed, pulling again. These were sturdier than they looked.
"Time travel."
The Doctor shook his head, seeing that I was nearly free. "Someone's been telling you lies."
"Young master Adam Mitchell?" And then there was a holo-monitor, showing Adam in the broadcast chair.
Rose gasped, staring at his forehead. "Oh, my God. His head!"
"What the hell's he done? What the hell's he gone and done? They're reading his mind. He's telling them everything." The Doctor shouted, and I agreed with him. Stupid humans desperate for knowledge that shouldn't belong to them.
"And through him, I know everything about you. Every piece of information in his head is now mine. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in your T A R D I S. TARDIS. Though you, Miss Pond, he doesn't know anything on you."
"Well, you'll never get your hands on it. I'll die first. And she's told you who she is, she's an ex-assassin, gone freelance."
"Die all you like. I don't need you. I've got the key. And we have her to tell us the truth, don't we, Sarah?"
The Doctor groaned, glaring at Rosie. "You and your boyfriends!"
"Today, we are the headlines. We can rewrite history. We could prevent mankind from ever developing."
I let out a snarl that even scared me as I kept pulling, still not free. My feet were desensitised, not my hands. "And no one's going to stop you because you've bred a human race that doesn't bother to ask questions. Stupid little slaves, believing every lie. They'll just trot right into the slaughter house if they're told it's made of gold."
The Jagrafess snarled back at me, basically just telling me to shut up and shot pulling. "Oh, shut up you over sized clitoris, I'm not in the mood for you right now."
And then things started going wrong for the Editor. "What's happening?Someone's disengaged the safety. Who's that?" He called up the image on the holo-monitor and I laughed.
"It's Cathica. And she's thinking. She's using what she knows."
"Terminate her access." The Editor told his zombies, but I was still laughing.
"Everything we told her about Satellite Five. The pipes, the filters, she's reversing it. Look at that." I looked around, seeing the ice starting to melt. "It's getting hot."
"I said, terminate. Burn out her mind" He told Suki, who was trying, but she was thinking too much and the console exploded and the operators collapsed, and I finally got out of the manacles, freeing Rose.
"She's venting the heat up here. The Jagrafess needs to stay cool and now it's sitting on top of a volcano." The Doctor laughed, looking at my red and swollen wrists, but were already healing. I always did heal quickly.
"Yes, I'm trying, sir, but I don't know how she did it. It's impossible. A member of staff with an idea." He took Suki's seat while I grabbed a hold of the Doc's manacles, ripping them open.
"Oi, mate, want to bank on a certainty? Massive heat in a massive body, massive bang. See you in the headlines!" I grinned, and we all ran for the broadcast chamber, dodging chunks of ice while the Jagrafess was growling in protest. Good riddance mate.
The 9th Doctor:
"We're just going to go. I hate tidying up. Too many questions. You'll manage." I told Cathica, while Sarah was rubbing her wrists from where she'd been pulling at the manacles.
"You'll have to stay and explain it." She told me, looking a little freaked. Well, she'd been a puppet for a giant lump of flesh with teeth. "No one's going to believe me."
"Oh, they might start believing a lot of things now. The human race should accelerate. All back to normal." Sarah smiled, and I glanced at the rings on her hand. The engagement ring was a jade one, but there was something wrong about it, and the wedding band was diamond and black sapphire. Though it looked like a very special type of diamond. She was more than just a Calderrian assassin.
"What about your friend?"
"He's not my friend."
"Now, don't-" Rose tried, but her boyfriend interrupted.
"I'm all right now. Much better. And I've got the key. Look, it's. It all worked out for the best, didn't it? You know, it's not actually my fault, because you were in charge." Oh, he was definitely lucky I wasn't leaving him here for that one.
I pushed him into the TARDIS, and Rose followed with Sarah, who looked shocked at the inside. For a moment, I almost believed her, until I saw her eyes flash gold again. I landed us right in Adams living room, and pushed him back out again.
"Oh, my God, we've moved! How does it do that? Is it some type of trans-dimensional teleport or something?" She asked, while I just watched Adam.
"It's my house. I'm home! Oh, my God, I'm home! Blimey. I thought you were going to chuck me out of an airlock." That had been very tempting, but I knew what Rose would have said about it. Probably not Sarah, if she really was an assassin.
"Is there something else you want to tell me?" I asked him, giving him one last chance to own up to what he'd been doing.
"No. What do you mean?"
I picked up his answering machine and let him listen to it for a moment. "The archive of Satellite Five. One second of that message could've changed the world." I nodded to Sarah, who slammed the base of her palm down, shattering the phone and everything with it. "That's it, then. See you."
"How do you mean, see you?" He asked, looking confused.
"As in goodbye."
"But what about me? You can't just go. I've got my head. I've got a chip type two. My head opens." And that was your own fault, you can learn to deal with it.
"What, like this?" I clicked my fingers, making it open.
"Don't." He closed it again.
"Don't do what?" Sarah asked, doing it herself.
"Stop it!" Closed again.
"All right now, Doctor, Sarah, that's enough. Stop it." Rose told us, and we listened, but Sarah had a big grin on her face, her nails a bright TARDIS blue.
"Thank you." And then Rose clicked her fingers herself. "Oi"
She grinned sheepishly at him. "Sorry, I couldn't resist."
"The whole of history could have changed because of you." Sarah told him, giving him a knowing look.
"I just wanted to help."
I shook my head at him. "You were helping yourself."
"And I'm sorry." No you're not. "I've said I'm sorry, and I am, I really am, but you can't just leave me like this." Oh, can't I now?
"Yes I can. 'Cause if you show that head to anyone, they'll dissect you in seconds. You'll have to live a very quiet life. Keep out of trouble. Be average, unseen. Good luck."
"But I want to come with you."
"I only take the best. I've got Rose. Possibly this lovely Calderrian, too, seeing as she's somehow strong enough to break through titanium manacles, and heal 3 times as fast as she should be able to. And she's smart enough to know when she's wrong." And then his mum came in the front door.
"Rose, Rose. Oh, my God." He begged her, as Sarah and I retreated into the TARDIS, just waiting for her to come in.
"So, Sarah Alice Pond, Calderia's finest assassin? Never heard of you, and I probably would have met you in 900 years of travelling through space and time."
She shrugged, her nails turning light silver, though she hid them in her palms. "I did well not to get caught. Hence why I was infamous instead of famous, i only existed in the shadow world. But I'm just a bounty hunter now, I get commissions for theft and burglary only."
Rose came in then and we dematerialised, leaving Adam to deal with his mother, and then I left us drifting through the solar system. "Rose, do you mind giving Sarah and I a moment to chat please? It won't take long."
She nodded and headed into the corridors, while Sarah pressed her hand to the coral column closest to the door, her long nails dragging along it slightly. "What other questions do you have then, Doctor? I know you have a lot." She smirked, climbing it slightly and sitting in the middle, swinging her long legs.
"Your rings. Remembria and white point star?" I asked her, leaning back on the console and watching her carefully.
Sarah nodded, playing with them absently. "Yes, they are."
"Who are you married to?"
"Someone I've been in love since I was 8 years old." That was very cryptic.
"What about children?"
That seemed to upset her a little, her eyes darkening. "With him, I've had three. Two... two of them died. One from being shot as a teenager, and the other was a stillborn. The third was taken away from me, and I nearly died because of it. My heart shattered."
"I'm sorry, I know what it's like to lose children." I said quietly, thinking of my twins and Daniel. "Where is your husband now?" Because that was the question. They were Time Lord gems, only found on Gallifrey, and a white point star was treasured, as they were so rare only Rassilon or Omega could use them.
"My husband. Well, that's a very interesting question, if I'm honest, Doctor." She smiled, rolling up her sleeves. There were ridged scars all up her arms, and they all looked self inflicted. "And it's also a question I can't answer."
I walked towards her a little, taking her hand to have a closer look at the rings. The engagement ring was etched with stars and moons, but it looked like there was another design on the inside, but I couldn't make it out. Then I ran my finger down her arm, feeling her scars. "How did these happen?" I asked softly, not looking up at her.
"I did them to myself. My way of coping with knowing all the pain my killing had caused. I was a monster and part of me still is." Sarah whispered back, pulling her arm back and trying to pull her sleeve down, but not before I saw the tattoo's on each wrist.
"Jenny Arianna, Rory Koschei and Melody Donna. Your children?" I asked, staring at the middle names of the first two. Arianna my sister, and Koschei, Seraphina's mad twin. She just nodded, jumping down from the coral beam. "Tell me, Sarah, why your son has the middle name of a very, very unpleasant man I grew up with?"
"To you, it's an unpleasant name because of the man, but I just so happen to like the name, Doctor."
I thought of a quick plan. "Well, I say unpleasant, but the Master was a lot worse than that really, he was cruel, manipulative, especially of his sister, and he got her killed, in the end. He couldn't keep up, he always was very dim, and because of him-" I never got to finish.
"I've already got that you know who I am, for God's sake, stop dissing your best friend!" She shouted whirling around to face me, her eyes flashing pure gold again. "You'd better not have meant any of what you just said Legacy, or I swear to God I will slap you right now!"
"Sera..." I breathed, not know what else to do except hug her. "But... How? How did you escape? How did you manage to regenerate, or anything?"
Sera just laughed, pulling away and looking at me. "How do I ever do anything, my Lovely?" She wiped a tear that had fallen, then kissed my forehead. "There's a big thing that you haven't connected yet. Something that may just make your day."
It took me a moment, but then I grabbed the wrist with the two girls names on there again. "Jenny Arianna... S, she was my daughter too?" I asked her, looking up at her shining brown eyes, so different than the green I was used to. She just nodded, suddenly looking so, so sad. "Sera? Seraphina, what is it?"
"You can't remember any of this. You remember meeting me and me helping you to fight the Jagrafess, but you never found out I was alive, not until 2008, in a book shop in London. But yes, she is your daughter, so was Rory, and our Melody, our precious Song, she is still out there, living and saving the day like her parents. But you have to forget, my Asa." That, that was my name...
"Please, don't. I don't want to be alone, Sera, I can't be alone!" I begged her, as she pressed her fingers to my temple, her eyes turning fully gold.
"I'm sorry." And then she pressed a kiss to my lips, just as I forgot.
I blinked, and there was no one there. Sarah must have gone then. Well, I've got Rose, and that's enough for now. But I felt like there was something I was forgetting, something that was making me feel so, so happy... Oh well, I'm an old man, I forget a lot of things.
Tehee, I really wanted to just do a sassy 9 chapter, seeing as Sera never got to meet him. Sorry about the ending, but I wanted to give 9 a little bit of hope right at the end there, and it was the best way to do that. Love you all my Lovelies, and have a great bank holiday Monday! (I'm going duck racing in Lechlade...) Izzi xxx