The Doctor and Nova were in Reinette's bedroom again. It seemed different from when they were both last there. It wasn't a little girl's bedroom anymore. It was a big and plush split level room. Hand in hand, both Time Lords took a step further. Nova called out for Reinette. "Reinette? Just checking you're okay"
The two of them walked over to the harp. Nova played a few notes on it. Then someone cleared their throat. The Doctor and Nova turned around to see an adult woman standing behind them. "Oh, hello" The Doctor greeted. "Er, We were just looking for Reinette. This is still her room, isn't it? We've been away, not sure how long"
"Reinette!" A woman called from some other room. "We're ready to go!"
"Go to the carriage, Mother" the woman in the room with them called out in response. She kept her gaze on the two Time Lords, though it was mostly directed to Nova. "I will join you there. It is customary, I think, to have imaginary friends only during one's childhood. You two are to be congratulated on your persistence"
Nova's eyes widened in realization and she grew a smile. "Reinette!" She gasped. Reinette smiled at her. "Well. Goodness, how you've grown"
"And neither of you do not appear to have aged a single day" Reinette approached the two of them. "That is tremendously impolite of you"
"Right, yes, sorry" The Doctor muttered out. "Listen, lovely to catch up, but better be off, eh? Don't want your mother finding you up here with a strange man and woman, do we?"
Even though The Doctor was talking, Reinette kept her gaze upon Nova. "Strange? How could you be strangers to me? I've known you since I was seven years old"
"Yeah, I suppose you have" Nova said. "We came the quick route"
Reinette placed a hand on Nova's cheek. "You seem to be flesh and blood, at any rate" Now it seemed Reinette was more so talking to only Nova. "But this is absurd" Reinette removed her hand. "Reason tells me you cannot be real"
"Oh, you never want to listen to reason" Nova shrugged, shaking her head.
"Mademoiselle!" A servant called out. "Your mother grows impatient"
"A moment!" Reinette called back. She looked back to Nova. "So many questions. So little time" Reinette pushed Nova up against the wall and then pressed her lips on hers in a passionate kiss. The Doctor's eyes widened in shock and yet his stomach churned in jealousy. Nova was just as shocked as The Doctor. Her hands were held out at her side and her eyes remained wide.
"Mademoiselle Poisson!" the servant called out again. Reinette ended her kiss with Nova, and she ran out of the room. Nova stood there in a daze, while The Doctor was still trying to register what happened between Reinette and his Supernova. The servant walked in the room. He stared at Nova and The Doctor.
"Poisson? Reinette Poisson?" The Doctor began. "No! No, no, no, no, no way. Reinette Poisson?" He became jittery with excitement. He ran over to the servant while Nova stayed her in spot, staring at nothing in a daze. "Later Madame Etoiles? Later still mistress of Louis the Fifteenth, uncrowned Queen of France? Actress, artist, musician, dancer, courtesan, fantastic gardener!" He went back over to the fireplace.
"Who the hell are you two!?" the servant demanded.
"I'm The Doctor" He pointed at Nova. "That's the Nightingale, and she just snogged Madame de Pompadour" The Doctor laughed amusingly as he hit the mechanism again, making the fireplace turn back around. The two Time Lords were back on the spaceship. "Rose! Tate! Mickey!" He called out for his companions. "Every time. Didn't I tell them?"
The Doctor tried asking Nova. He noticed that she was still frozen in a daze. "Supernova?" He waved his hands in front of her face. "That must've been some kiss. I wonder if you'll be like this when you and I finally..." The Doctor stopped himself. There are more important things right now than his first kiss fantasy with Nova.
He began walking around. "Every time, it's rule one. Don't wander off. I tell them, I do. Rule one. There could be anything on this ship" That included a white horse with a bridle and saddle.
______
Mickey was trying to be clever whilst searching the spaceship. He was acting like he was in some kind of action movie. He wound up in some corridor when a camera with an eyeball in it looked at him. "Are you looking at me?" Mickey asked the camera. The camera extended its bulkhead for a closer look, making Mickey jump a bit. Rose and Tate approached. "Look at this" Mickey nodded at the camera. "That's an eye in there. That's a real eye"
Tate grimaced in disgust. "If that's not disturbing and disgusting," He suddenly had the urge to vomit but he managed to hold it back. Tate didn't do so well with severed limbs, or any other body part not attached to the body. Even the sight of blood was enough to make him faint. "I don't know what is"
Rose could hear something similar to a heartbeat coming from a small hatch. She opened it, but not without it scorching her fingers for a moment. She gazed into the hatch. "Well, Tate, you're definitely not gonna like what's in here" She said.
The three of them could see a human heart attached to cables and wires. "What is that?" Mickey wondered. "What's that in the middle there? Looks like it's wired in"
"It's a heart, Mickey. A human heart"
Tate went very pale and he became light headed. "I think... I think I'm gonna..." He began losing his balance.
"Tate?" Rose peered away from the heart and looked at Tate. "Are you alright? You don't look very good"
"I...I..." He murmured before passing out. He didn't fall on the floor, luckily. He fell onto Mickey who caught him.
______
The Doctor was still walking down corridors in search for Rose, Tate and Mickey. "Rose? Tate?" He called out. He was being followed by the horse he had found earlier. The Doctor stopped when he came to a pair of white wooden doors. He looked at the horse, who stopped with him. "Will you stop following me? I'm not your mother" He opened the doors and a bright light flooded in. "So this is where you came from, eh, horsey?"
The Doctor found himself in the Versailles gardens. He saw Reinette walking and talking with a dark skinned woman. "Oh, Catherine, you are too wicked" Reinette laughed, as did Catherine. Reinette felt like someone was watching her. She peeked behind her but The Doctor ducked behind a stone urn.
"Oh, speaking of wicked," Catherine began. "I hear Madame de Chateauroux is ill and close to death"
"Yes. I am devastated"
"Oh, indeed. I myself am frequently inconsolable. The King will therefore be requiring a new mistress. You love the King, of course?"
"He is the King, and I love him with all my heart. And I look forward to meeting him" A peacock called out, making Reinette turn in The Doctor's direction again. He hid behind the stone urn again.
"Is something wrong, my dear?" Catherine asked feeling concern for her friend.
"Not wrong, no" Reinette assured.
"Every woman in Paris knows your ambitions"
"Every woman in Paris shares them"
"You know of course that the King is to attend the Yew Tree ball?"
"As am I"
______
"Maybe it wasn't a real heart?" Mickey tried believing. He and Rose were dragging a passed out Tate through the corridor they were exploring. They were unaware that they were being watched.
"Course it was a real heart" Rose countered.
"Is this like normal for you two? Is this an average day?"
"Life with the Doctor and Nova, Mickey? No more average days" They all stopped at a large window.
"It's France again! We can see France"
"I think we're looking through a mirror"
King Louis entered the room. He was followed by two men. "Blimey, look at this guy. Who does he think he is?"
The Doctor walked up behind them. "The King of France" He answered, making Mickey and Rose turn around to look at him. The Doctor's eyebrows furrowed when he noticed the state Tate was in. "Why are you two dragging Tate around?"
"He passed out" Rose answered. "What you been up to?"
"Oh, this and that. Became the imaginary friend of a future French aristocrat, picked a fight with a clockwork man" There was a neigh that interrupted The Doctor. Rose and Mickey looked at the horse. "Oh, and I met a horse"
"What's a horse doing on a spaceship?" Mickey wondered.
"Mickey," Nova's voice said. She was finally knocked out of her daze and joined the others. "What's pre-Revolutionary France doing on a spaceship? Get a little perspective. See these? They're all over the place. On every deck. Gateways to history" Reinette walked into the room. "But not just any old history"
"Hers" The Doctor continued, pointing at Reinette. "Time windows deliberately arranged along the life of one particular woman. A spaceship from the fifty first century stalking a woman from the eighteenth. Why?"
"Who is she?" Rose asked.
"Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, known to her friends as Reinette. One of the most accomplished women who ever lived"
"So has she got plans of being the Queen, then?"
"No, he's already got a Queen" Nova answered, shaking her head. "She's got plans of being his mistress"
"Oh, I get it. Camilla" Both Rose and Mickey chuckled.
"I think this is the night they met. The night of the Yew Tree ball. In no time at flat, she'll get herself established as his official mistress, with her own rooms at the palace. Even her own title. Madame de Pompadour" The Doctor said. Louis and his servants left the room, leaving behind Reinette. She walked up to the mirror/window and checked her appearance.
"The Queen must have loved her"
"Oh, she did. They get on very well"
"The King's wife and the King's girlfriend?" Mickey asked.
"France" Nova added. "It's a different planet" She finally took notice of her passed out companion. "And what have you two done to Tate?"
"He passed out" Rose answered. "And I've got no idea on how to wake him up"
"It's alright. Wouldn't be the first time. I know how to wake him up" Nova held her hand flat out in front of her. "I'm sorry for this, Tate" She gave him a hard slap across the face. It was enough to leave a handprint. Tate's eyes shot open and he screeched in pain. He got to his feet and held his stinging cheek.
"The bloody hell is wrong with you, you maniac!" Tate shrilled, glaring at Nova. "You can't just go around---" Tate stopped when he noticed something. "Is that lipstick?"
"Well, I am a woman and women do wear lipstick" Nova excused for herself.
"Yeah, but you don't like wearing lipstick" Tate contradicted her. "You say it makes your lips feel slimy" Tate looked at Reinette. "In fact, it's the same shade as---"
Reinette turned around and spoke to something in the room. "How long have you been standing there?" she asked. "Show yourself!" The person in the room turned around and revealed itself to be a clockwork droid. Nova grabbed the fire extinguisher from Mickey and rotated the mirror.
"Hello, Reinette" She greeted. "Hasn't time flown?"
"Fireplace lady!"
Nova sprayed the extinguisher at the droid. She then threw it back over to Mickey. The android creaked. "What's it doing?" Mickey asked, pointing the extinguisher at the droid just in case.
"Switching back on" Nova explained. She stepped in front of the droid, eyeing it cautiously. "Melting the ice"
"Then what?"
"Then it kills everyone in the room" The droid reached out to grab Nova but she backed away. "Focuses the mind, doesn't it? Who are you?Identify yourself" Nova turned to Reinette. "Order it to answer me"
"Why should it listen to me?" Reinette wondered.
" I don't know. It did when you were a child. Let's see if you've still got it"
Reinette looked at the droid. "Answer her question" she demanded. "Answer any and all questions put to you!"
The droid lowered it's hand. "I am repair droid seven" It answered.
"What happened to the ship then?" The Doctor asked this time. "There was a lot of damage"
"Ion storm. Eighty two percent systems failure"
"That ship hasn't moved in over a year. What's taken you so long?"
"We did not have the parts"
Mickey chuckled. "Always comes down to that, doesn't it? The parts"
Nova asked another question. "What's happened to the crew? Where are they?"
"We did not have the parts" The droid answered.
"There should have been over fifty people on your ship. Where did they go?"
"We did not have the parts"
"Fifty people don't just disappear. Where..." The Doctor stopped when he realized what the droid meant. Nova did too and her stomach churned in disgust. "Oh. You didn't have the parts, so you used the crew"
"The crew?" Mickey repeated.
Rose caught on. "We found a camera with an eye in it, and there was a heart wired in to machinery"
"That's what made me pass out" Tate added.
"It was just doing what it was programmed to" The Doctor explained. "Repairing the ship any way it can, with whatever it could find. No one told it the crew weren't on the menu. What did you say the flight deck smelt of?"
"Someone cooking" Rose answered.
"Flesh plus heat. Barbeque" Nova said. "But what are you doing here?" She continued asking the droid. "You've opened up time windows. That takes colossal energy. Why come here? You could have gone to your repair yard. Instead you come to eighteenth century France? Why?"
"One more part is required" The droid answered. It tilted it's head. Nova looked back at Reinette. Then back to to the droid.
"Then why haven't you taken it?"
"She is incomplete"
"What, so, that's the plan, then. Just keep opening up more and more time windows, scanning her brain, checking to see if she's done yet"
"Why her?" Rose asked. "You've got all of history to choose from. Why specifically her?"
"We are the same"
"We are not the same" Reinette said, looking at the droid with disgust. "We are in no sense the same"
"We are the same"
"Get out of here! Get out of here this instant!"
"Reinette, no" Nova tried stopping her. The droid teleported away.
"It's back on the ship. Rose and Tate, take Mickey and Arthur" The Doctor ordered. "Get after it. Follow it. Don't approach it, just watch what it does"
"Arthur?" Rose and Tate both asked.
"Good name for a horse"
Rose rolled her eyes. "No, you're not keeping the horse"
"I let you keep Mickey"
"If The Doctor gets a horse, I get a parrot" Nova spoke up, though it was directed mostly at Tate.
"How many times must we go over this?" Tate retorted back. "I'm not trusting you with a bird that can speak. Who knows what you'd teach it to say?"
Rose, Tate and Mickey left. The Doctor closed the mirror as Nova stayed with Reinette. "Reinette, you're going to have to trust me" Nova said to her. "We need to find out what they're looking for. There's only one way we can do that. It won't hurt a bit"
Nova placed her hands on Reinette's head. The both of them closed their eyes as Nova instigated a mind meld. "Fireplace lady, you are inside my mind"
"Oh dear, Reinette. You've had some cowboys in here"