I was simple, as a little girl. All I wanted was to touch the clouds on an airplane and expect them to feel like cotton candy. I didn't start to like space until later in high school.
Amy, however, had been dreaming of space ever since the police box crashed in her backyard. This is why the Doctor was holding her ankle while she floated up in space, her hair flowing in the atmosphere, and I just hugged the side of the TARDIS and looked out into the stars, waving my hand around, trying to take in the fact that this was real. This was really happening.
"Come on, Pond." The Doctor said, pulling Amy back inside. "Now do you believe me?"
She laughed while he let go of her. "Okay, your box is a spaceship. It's really, really a spaceship." I smiled at her and let my leg swing out of the TARDIS while she yelled. "We are in space! Woo!" She laughed again and took a deep breath. "What am I breathing?"
"Yeah, how does-- Woah!" I let myself swing out too far and almost lost my grip on the TARDIS door, but thankfully I felt someone tug me back by the arm. I twisted myself to try and turn around, but that only caused me to stumble even further, into the Doctor's arms.
"Thanks," I blushed, pulling away from him before he could respond and stood next to Amy, who shook her head at me.
"I've extended the air shell, we're fine." The three of us looked down to see grimy skyscrapers floating by on the starship below us. "Now, that's interesting. 29th century," The Doctor went back to the console and began messing with it again, and I followed him. "Solar flares roast the Earth, and the entire human race packs its bags and moves out till the weather improves. Whole nations..."
"Doctor?" Amy started, but he kept on talking.
"...migrating to the stars,"
"Doctor?!" She asked again. I walked over to her to see her hanging on to the outside of the TARDIS floating upwards and panting fearfully.
"Isn't that amazing?" he rambled.
"Doctor!" I yelled, and he immediately looked up to see me trying to grab for Amy. He walked over to us and smiled. "Well, come on. I've found us a spaceship!" He was able to reach up to Amy and help her down steadily and led us to a small window.
"This is the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland— all of it, bolted together and floating in the sky. Starship UK. It's Britain, but metal. That's not just a ship— that's an idea. That's a whole country, living and laughing and... shopping." Amy chuckled, but all I could do was smile sadly. I knew that the idea had gone wrong, and a poor creature was being tortured, but I still wasn't sure about what I was and wasn't allowed to say, so I let him continue. "Searching the stars for a new home."
"So..." I trailed.
"Can we go out and see?" Amy asked excitedly.
"Course we can. But first, there's a thing." The Doctor walked back over to the TARDIS monitor.
"A thing?" Amy asked, following.
"An important thing. In fact, thing one-– we are observers only. That's the one rule I've always stuck to in my travels. I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets." I snorted a bit to myself. "Ooh! That's interesting," he remarked, looking at a little girl crying alone on a bench in the TARDIS monitor.
"So we're like a wildlife documentary, yeah? Cause if they see a wounded little cub or something, they can't just save it— they've got to keep filming and let it die." Amy remarked sadly, staring at the girl I knew to be Mandy on the screen.
"Don't worry, he's totally lying," I almost smiled to myself, remembering what people said about him all the time. "Rule one."
"What do you mean?" she asked me. But before I could answer, the Doctor appeared on the monitor, consoling the little girl. I smiled a bit when he turned to face the camera and motioned for us to come out. Amy and I both rushed out of the TARDIS without a second thought, only for both of us to be taken aback by the sight before us.
"No. Freaking. Way," I gasped, looking out to the land that most would consider ugly and rusty. But to Amy and I, it was... amazing. It was a market, and there were stands selling different things in an organized chaos that only markets could pull off. I jumped around and looked up to see windows along the ceiling that gave a perfect view of outer space.
Amy wandered around also. "We're in the future. Like hundreds, of years, in the future."
She stopped spinning in circles and stared at the Doctor in horror, who we had just caught up to. "We've been dead for centuries!"
"Oh, lovely. You're a cheery one." The Doctor began walking. "Never mind dead, look at this place. Isn't it wrong?"
"What's wrong?" Amy asked naively, still spinning around in wonder.
"Use your eyes. Notice everything. What's wrong with this picture?" The Doctor asked us.
"Nova," The Doctor poked me. "Do you see it?"
"Uh..." I racked my brain for an answer that didn't sound stupid, but wasn't the right one, because I was still worried about messing with time, and the threat of Prisoner Zero. Unfortunately, I didn't act quickly enough, because the Doctor had already moved on. Now 'uh' was my answer, which made me sound even more stupid than I had feared.
I brought my hand to my forehead. This was going to be difficult.
"Is it... the bicycles?" Amy tried, pointing to a rickshaw. "Bit unusual on a spaceship, bicycles."
"Says the girl in the nightie." The Doctor told her.
"Oh, my god I'm in my nightie!" Amy realized in horror.
The Doctor only smiled. "Now, come on, look around you. Actually look."
"London market is a crime-free zone." An automated voice droned. I turned to see a creepy clown-like ceramic face in a booth smiling menacingly and shivered.
"Life on a giant starship, back to basics." The Doctor explained. "Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up street lamps. But look closer. Secrets and shadows, lives led in fear. Society bent out of shape, on the brink of collapse. A police state. Excuse me—" He grabbed a glass of water from a nearby table where a couple was dining and put it on the floor.
"What are you doing?" The man asked, but the Doctor only stared at the glass intently, and I knew why. If this ship ran on engines, which it wasn't, the water would be vibrating.
Unfortunately, it was completely still, because instead of engines, a giant, lonely, and beautiful creature was keeping this ship floating through space. Once again, I knew the solution to the problem, but this time I was not on Earth. This time, I couldn't run away and get a head-start.
"Sorry, checking all the water in this area. There's an escaped fish." The Doctor set the glass back on the table and tapped the side of his nose before returning to Amy and I. "Where was I?"
"Why did you just do that with the water?" Amy asked.
"Don't know. I think a lot. It's hard to keep track. Now, police state— do you see it yet?"
"Where?"
The Doctor snapped and pointed. "There."
He was pointing at Mandy, who was still crying alone on the bench. Everyone around her was ignoring her, even the adults.
Then, it clicked. I didn't have to be a wildlife documentary and sit back and watch things unravel. Besides, Prisoner Zero said I couldn't tell the Doctor, but he never said anything about anyone else. Obviously, the alien made a big mistake when he threatened me, because if there's one thing about me that will never change, it's that I am never the type of girl to wait around. I could find loopholes. I could do something.
Right on cue, Amy and the Doctor ran to the little girl, and I turned around to see a hooded figure with an amulet. I knew who he worked for, and I knew the complications of it. If the Doctor was a legend here, what were the chances that I was one too? I was a Time Lady now, after all. There had to at least be a story or myth about me if I traveled a little more with the Doctor.
Either way, I had to do something. I had to take a chance, even if it was just something small.
The man raised his head slowly and stared at me. I winked at him, before dashing off to follow Amy and the Doctor.
888
Somewhere in the Starship, a grey-haired man picked up a ringing phone. "Are you sure?" He looked into his monitor to see a man in a bowtie staring directly at the camera.
"Saw it myself. And the girl, she winked at me. She must know. Are you going to tell her?" The man in the phone booth answered.
"We're under orders to tell her." The grey-haired man answered simply. "Well done. Keep tabs on them, especially that Glowing Girl... we cannot risk her disappearing." He hung up the phone and dialed a different number.
In a different room, a woman in a dark red cape answered her phone.
"Sorry to interrupt," The man apologized. "There's been a sighting. London block, Oxford street, a man... and The Glowing Girl."
"Did he do the thing?" She asked.
"Apparently."
"And The Girl?"
"She... winked, but there's a slight problem, ma'am."
"What is it?"
"She isn't... glowing much."
The woman in the red cloak gulped. She knew that this meant it was going to get difficult. "I'll have a look on the monitors." She grabbed her white mask and stood, walking past the glasses filled with liquid and the chandelier on the floor, unmoving.
888
"One little girl crying. So?" Amy asked the Doctor. Amy was casually sitting in between us on the red park bench that was just a few benches away from where a crying little girl I knew to be Mandy was sitting.
"Crying silently." The Doctor turned to us, "I mean, children cry because they want attention, because they're hurt or afraid. When they cry silently, it's because they just can't stop. Any parent knows that."
"Are you a parent?" Amy questioned. The Doctor only stared at her for a moment, as if she figured him out.
"But it's not just that," I cut in, staring at Mandy curiously. "She doesn't want attention either, but here she is, out in the open. It's like she knows no one will pay attention to her. And no one is, because... no one can do anything about it anyway." I tensed as I finished my sentence, my mind trailing back to a distant memory.
888
"Hey, it'll get better, Darla," I reminded the brunette little girl, grabbing her hands in mine.
She sniffled and shook her head, bringing one of her hands up to wipe the tears from her face. "No it won't," she spoke softly. "No one can do anything."
I squeezed her hands and looked back to see all the older people talking quietly on the red landscape behind me, and noticed something peculiar. I turned back to the little girl and smiled. No one else could do anything, but being in my position... I might be able to do a little something.
I smiled at her mischievously. "I can."
888
Amy waved her hand in front of my face. "Nova?"
I blinked and stared at her, reminding myself that I was on the Starship UK, not on...
"Are you alright?" The Doctor asked me.
"I'm alright. I just... remembered something," I smiled to myself a bit. The vision flashback-thing I got was a little blurry and very short, but I was nearly a hundred percent sure it was from my old life on Gallifrey. I almost couldn't believe it, but it felt right. It made sense.
Amy sighed. "So, they aren't helping her?"
The Doctor nodded. "Exactly. They're not helping her, so it's something they're afraid of. Shadows— whatever they're afraid of— it's nowhere to be seen, which means it's everywhere. Police state."
I gulped and tried my hardest not to look towards the smilers, which was really the police state. Those things were really starting to creep me out.
"Where'd she go?" Amy asked, noticing Mandy got up and left.
"Deck 207, Apple Sesame block, Dwelling 54A. You're looking for Mandy Tanner. Oh," The Doctor reached into his jacket and pulled out a colorful ID wallet. "This fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her. Took me four goes." He handed the wallet to Amy. "You go and ask her about those things— the smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere."
Amy took the wallet. "But they're just things."
"They're clean," The Doctor explained. "Everything else here is battered and filthy— look at this place. But no one's laid a finger on those booths. Not a footprint within two feet of them. Ask Mandy, 'Why are people scared of the things in the booths?'"
"No. Hang on— what do I do?" Amy whispered, "I don't know what I'm doing here and I'm not even dressed!"
"I'll go with you." I suggested to her. "Come on, Amy! We're on an entirely different planet, entirely different century! There's so many things here we can't even imagine!" I explained enthusiastically. I kind of just wanted to roam around and see what was new while they did what they were supposed to. But considering I didn't blow up Earth last time, I trusted myself enough now to stay out of the way of the timelines while still being with them. Besides, Amy was smarter than people gave her credit for. If I remember correctly, she ended up figuring this one out all on her own in the end.
"But—"
The Doctor seemed to agree with me, and cut her off. "It's this or Leadworth. What do you think? Let's see. What will Amy Pond choose?" Amy glared at him and crossed her arms, slumping in her seat stubbornly, defeated.
"Ha-ha, gotcha!" The Doctor cheered, checking his watch before standing up. "Meet me back here in half an hour."
"What are you gonna do?" Amy asked him in a mocking voice.
"What I always do, stay out of trouble," Amy and I both gave him a look. "Badly." He remarked, jumping over the bench and walking away.
"So this is how it works, Doctor?" Amy asked, turning around to face him. "You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?"
The Doctor smiled at her. "Yes."
I waved at him before turning back and trying to look around for a street name. "Okay, so what was that thing he said?" I asked Amy, who turned back also. "207, Apple, something..." I trailed, beginning to walk around. The place was a little dingy, sure, but it was still amazing and futuristic. The technology that I noticed so far had a 90s look about them, but even from afar I could tell that they were beyond anything I knew. I kept walking quickly, trying my best to ignore the smilers and find Mandy.
"You're really liking this." Amy noticed, trailing close behind.
I shrugged. "Well, yeah, it's not everyday that this stuff happens." I turned a corner and took the wallet from Amy.
"Yeah, but you seem... used to it." She commented.
I wandered further into the darkness with Amy. "I'm a special kind of scientist, Amy. And I... know." I tried to explain.
"Know?" Amy asked me. I was just about to attempt to explain that I pretty much knew everything that was going to happen to her, until someone interrupted us.
"You've been following me." Amy and I turned to see Mandy leaning against the wall, still dressed in her school clothes. "Saw you watching me at the market place."
"Yeah," I said, handing the wallet to her. Mandy snatched her wallet from me and walked away, only to stop in front of a construction detour surrounded by barriers that were all too familiar to me.
"What's that?" Amy asked, looking at the tent and signs.
"There's a hole. We have to go back." Mandy told her simply. I knew what was in there and what would happen, and that I had to go through with it.
Slowly, I began towards the barrier, feeling the smiler staring at me. "A what? A hole?" Amy wondered.
"Are you stupid? There's a hole in the road. We can't go that way." Mandy scolded.
Amy walked in front of me to the barrier, pushing it aside, while Mandy continued on.
Mandy didn't seem to notice for the moment. "There's a travel pipe down by the airlocks, if you've got stamps... What are you doing?"
I walked through the barrier with Amy and turned to Mandy.
"Hey, where's America?" I asked Mandy, in an earnest attempt to distract her.
"On their own ship." She replied, as if it were obvious, which it probably should have been.
I nodded. "Right. Just wanted to check."
There was an awkward silence as Mandy eyed me.
"...Well, I never could resist a 'Keep Out' sign." Amy told her, breaking the silence and going to sit in front of the lock. "What's through there? What's so scary about a hole? Something under the road?"
Mandy glanced to the smiler in the booth nervously, checking to make sure that it was still... well, smiling. "Nobody knows. We're not supposed to talk about it."
Amy turned to her and cocked and eyebrow mischievously. "About what?"
Mandy faltered a little. "Below."
"Want to know a secret, Mandy?" I whispered to her, making sure that Amy couldn't hear. Maybe I could get her to work with us better if I told her I knew.
"Not really." She responded bluntly.
I smiled. "Well, too bad. Because I know what's below, and it's alright." I leaned forward and whispered in her ear. I couldn't remember the name of the little boy she was friends with, but I hope she still understood. "Your friend. He's okay," she gave me a wary look, but I could tell it was filled with slightly more hope. I moved to sit next to Amy at the tent entrance. "Now, we're about to do something very stupid, so just stand back." I told Mandy.
Amy pulled out a hairpin and began to pick the lock.
"You sound Scottish." Mandy commented to Amy.
"I am Scottish. What's wrong with that? Scotland's got to be here somewhere..." Amy wondered, continuing at the lock.
"No. They wanted their own ship."
"Hmm. Good for them. Nothing changes." As Amy got closer to picking the lock, I looked to the booth to see the smiling face turning, literally turning, into a sad one.
Mandy was only getting more nervous, but I could tell that she didn't want to leave us. "So... how did you get here?"
"Oh, you know, just traveling around with this guy." I attempted to explain.
"Your boyfriend?" Mandy asked me.
"No," I responded, as the same time Amy froze in realization and said, "Oh."
"What?" Mandy asked her.
"Nothing. It's just... I'm getting married. Funny how things slip your mind." Amy mumbled.
"How does marriage just slip your mind?" I questioned her. She gave me an apologetic look.
"When?" Mandy asked her.
"Well, it's kind of weird. A long time ago, tomorrow morning. I wonder what I did..." She asked herself, until the lock clicked and opened. "Hey, hey, result! Coming?" She asked Mandy.
"No!" She declared, stepping farther away.
"Suit yourself." Amy shrugged, going in the tent. I looked at the booth one last time and saw the smiling machine turn into a raging angry face, and went in the tent after Amy anyway, not wanting to look at it anymore.
I crawled in to see that Amy had a wind-up flashlight in her hand and she turned it on to point it at the tentacle poking out of the ground. "Ew," I said, followed by a stunned "Oh my god," from Amy. I was almost surprised at her reaction. I had been secluded in Area 51 for so long that I nearly forgot that the majority of the population was not very accommodated to seeing anything even remotely alien-like.
Amy looked at it closer. "That's weird, that's..."
She moved her flashlight up to see a stinger, and I immediately pulled her back by the arm as it tried to attack her. "Out, out! Get out!" I yelled, as we both scooted out backwards. I looked up to see hooded men wearing gold amulets much like the one I ran into before, and knew what was coming. I grabbed Amy tighter as one of the men held his fist in front of our faces. I stared into the ring on his hand and let the man spray mist from it to my face, knowing where I would end up.
888
The Doctor climbed down a ladder and leaned his head against a wall to listen, scanning it with his screwdriver a bit. "Can't be." He muttered, turning to see a glass of water on the floor, the liquid inside it completely still. He got down on the floor to examine it closer.
"The impossible truth in a glass of water. Not many people see it." The Doctor looked up to see a woman wearing a white ceramic mask and a red cape with dark, curly hair. He stood up to face her. "But you do, don't you, Doctor?" she whispered.
"You know me?" He asked.
"Keep your voice down!" She whispered harshly to him, glancing back a moment. "They're everywhere. Tell me what you see in the glass."
"Who says I see anything?" he asked curiously, stepping closer to look in her eyes.
"Don't waste time. At the marketplace, you placed a glass of water on the floor, looked at it, then came straight here to the engine room. Why?"
He raised his eyebrows. "No engine vibration on deck. Ship this size, engine this big, you'd feel it. The water would move. So...I thought I'd take a look." He walked over to open a power box on the wall. "It doesn't make sense. These power couplings, they're not connected. Look— they're dummies, see?" He showed her the wires, disconnected, before walking to the wall across the hall and tapping on it. "And behind this wall, nothing. It's hollow. If I didn't know better, I'd say there was..."
"No engine at all." The lady finished for him.
"But it's working, this ship travels through space. I saw it."
"The impossible truth, Doctor. We're travelling among the stars in a spaceship that could never fly," she whispered vigorously, trying to get the Doctor to keep his voice down also.
"How?"
"I don't know. There's a darkness at the heart of this nation. It threatens every one of us. Help us, Doctor. You and Nova. You're our only hope. Your friend is safe and so is Nova." She handed him a small GPS device. "This will take you to them. Now go, quickly!" She turned to walk away.
"Who are you? How do you know who Nova is? How do I find you again?"
She turned back to him for just a moment, still whispering. "I am Liz 10, and I will find you."
There was a rumbling sound and the lights flashed, and when the Doctor turned back to her, she was already gone. He looked at the GPS, and thought of the one question she didn't answer.
888
I woke up in what seemed like seconds later, staring in the face of a smiler.
"Ah!" I yelled, jumping up from the seat I was in. I turned around to see I was in a small, dark metal room with a screen in front of me. Just under the screen were the three infamous buttons that read protest, record, and forget. I turned to my right to see a knocked out Amy sitting there also.
Why we were together in the same voting cubicle, I didn't know, but I was thankful anyway. Maybe the voting rules of the future were different.
"Amy! Wake up!" I shook her as she slowly blinked her sleep away. The moment she was conscious again, the machine in front of us began speaking.
"'Welcome to voting cubicle 330C. Please leave this installation as you would wish to find it. The United Kingdom recognizes the right to know of all its citizens. A presentation concerning the history of Starship UK will begin shortly. Your identity is being verified on our electoral roll. " The machine recited, as Amy sat up in her chair, and I shrugged and sat back in mine next to her.
"Where are we?" she asked me.
"Um, voting cubicle 330C?" I tried. Amy turned to me with a sarcastic look, but there was a small grin behind it.
"Name— Amelia Jessica Pond. Age— 1306." The machine stated.
Amy gasped. "Shut up!" She laughed.
"Look at that, dead for centuries!" I laughed with her.
"Martial Status..." The machine slowed a bit, and Amy sat up straighter, curiously. I knew that she was curious about whether or not she would marry Rory a long time ago tomorrow, and once again, I still didn't know if I should tell her.
"Unknown." The machine recited, and Amy slumped back in her chair.
"How come it doesn't recognize me?" I asked.
Amy turned to me as if it were obvious. "You're American. They were probably just too lazy to go through all the protocols and threw you in here with me." She explained. I nodded, and tried to settle for that explanation, fighting the feeling that there were so many more layers to all this any of us could imagine.
Soon the screen blinked to show a man with greying hair. "You are here because you want to know the truth about this starship, and I am talking to you because you're entitled to know." When the man on the screen began talking, I stood up behind my chair. "When this presentation has finished, you will have a choice. You may either protest...or forget. If you choose to protest, understand this. If just 1% of the population of this ship do likewise, the program will be discontinued, with consequences for you all. If you choose to accept the situation— and we hope that you will— then press the 'forget' button. All the information I am about to give you will be erased from your memory. You will continue to enjoy the safety and amenities of Starship UK, unburdened by the knowledge of what has been done to save you. Here, then, is the truth about Starship UK, and the price that has been paid for the safety of the British people. May God have mercy on our souls."
All I knew was that I could not press the button. Whatever happens, whatever I see, I had to try to resist.
As the images of the history of pain and destruction the kingdom had faced filled the screen, it became harder and harder for me to breathe. I found myself hyperventilating, and reached my hand to pull out my locket from under my shirt. Out of habit, I gripped it for dear life.
Only much like before, I was not only gripping it, I was pressing a button.
888
I was overwhelmed with a hot, fiery feeling I wished I would never have to face ever again. Colors and lights surrounded me in a beautiful chaotic mess, until it simply ended, and I found myself landing again. I was panting as I stared at the familiar floor below me. I only had seconds to recollect myself until I heard a familiar voice calling my name-- only it wasn't really my name anymore.
"Scarlette! Oh my god!" I felt a pair of strong arms wrap around me. I turned my head to see Dylan's light green eyes looking at me with concern, before he pulled me in closer and buried his face in my neck. I closed my eyes to let the nausea reside, before someone pulled me from his grasp.
I turned to see Professor Zodiac looking at me with a face that was a mix between anger and relief that most parents got when their children went missing in a store. Only the Zodiac wasn't my father, and I had a feeling that the amount of trouble I was in was completely out of his control. He peered down at me over the tops of his round glasses. "You, young lady, have a lot of explaining to do."
888
Before Amy even realized it, her hand had slammed on the protest button, and she reached up to wipe her tears she didn't remember forming. She looked up to the screen to see a video of herself being played, frantic, in tears.
"This isn't a trick. You've got to find the Doctor and get him back to the TARDIS. Nova is gone. She's gone! Don't let him investigate. Stop him. Do whatever you have to. Just please, please get the Doctor off this ship!"
Amy turned to the doorway to see Mandy and the Doctor there, and turned off the video of herself that was playing on a loop. "Amy?" The Doctor asked her, stepping into the room. "What have you done?"
He looked around. "Where's Nova?"
Amy gulped as tears formed in her eyes. "She's... She's gone."
a/n: it's lit!!! (i wrote this chapter in 2014, before 'it's lit' was even a popular saying. now it is march 23, 2017, and this chapter has been edited.)
where did she come from? where did she go? where did she come from cotton eye joe?!?!?!