The Doctor
held his steady pace as he strutted off in the direction his sonic screwdriver
was telling him to go, its constant bleeping sound signalling to him that he
was on the right track and whilst he tried to concentrate and not let himself
get distracted, the constant bleep of Donna Noble his latest human companion,
nagging relentlessly in his ear was beginning to give him a headache.
"Look!" Donna insisted as she caught up with him and
tried desperately to match his fast pace. "All
I said was that we should do something to mark the occasion. I mean, when was
the last time you celebrated your birthday in what....how old are you
again?"
Donna was not giving up on the
conversation that had started by complete accident about 40 minutes ago inside
the TARDIS, when the Doctor had casually mentioned, upon seeing the date, that
is was in fact his birthday! It had taken him by as much surprise as it had
Donna who had stopped talking about her mum's new neighbours and the fiasco
with the double glazing, and had actually got to her feet with a loud "WOAH!"
just to be knocked back into her seat as the TARDIS came to a sudden
halt, for seemingly no reason.
The Doctor, who was frowning now and
mentally slapping himself for even mentioning it, never liked to discuss
personal details about himself to anyone, mostly because it brought back
painful memories of who and what he was, and mostly because he had forgotten a
lot about himself and sometimes truly couldn't remember. Who would remember 900
years of birthdays? Most humans stopped counting when they got to 39!
He naively thought he had managed to
escape the barrage of questions though when the TARDIS had her wobble and crash
landed in the middle of a wind storm, somewhere in the present ( Donna's
present ) day, instead of taking them to ancient Rome as he had promised her
and whilst he smirked to himself hoping the sudden jolt was actually his space
ship trying to shut Donna up, she just got to her feet once more and started
flapping like a flea in his ear, still going on about it even though he had
told her he thought there might be an injured life form somewhere in the storm
outside.
"I'm
903...4...or 3, not sure when I remembered my last birthday which I actually
think may have been last week when we landed on that moon crater. Remember? It
was exactly a week ago but in a different time?
So I'm around 900ish, now stop talking 'cos I'm sure there's someone out
here!"
Donna did as he asked and rather
reluctantly stopped talking but made a mental note to question him on it later.
She had been with him for months now, or was it years? Funny how time seems to
stop when you're jumping around it like a trampoline, but not once had she even
thought that he might have a birthday, not until this morning and she was going
to make damn sure they did something to celebrate it, no matter what he said.
She'd followed him outside and was
skipping along like a dog at his heels, her coat pulled tight against her chest
with her hood over her head to protect her from the storm, when he stopped
suddenly and without warning she collided into his back with a loud..."Oi!”
To which got her a hand flap and a "Shhhhh" as he held his sonic screwdriver up into the air
and watched it carefully for a few moments.
She was going to say..."Don't
shhh me spaceman!"...when all of a sudden, the wind storm that had
been mercilessly whipping itself around them like a frenzied and hungry pack of
wolves, suddenly died down and stopped as quickly as he had.
That was when Donna noticed that they were
not where he had promised to take her.
“This is not Egypt
"Over there!" The Doctor shouted,
ignoring her outburst as his eyes came to rest on the thing his screwdriver had
led him to, and was off running towards what looked like the steps of a large
church, and with a resigned sigh, Donna ran after him, not knowing what he had
seen or what they were running towards and slightly annoyed that she was
wearing flip-flops in January.
A woman
with short black hair in what looked like her mid 20’s lay on the bottom stone
step of the church. She was unconscious but breathing and the doctor was
hunched over her, running the screwdriver up and down her body, checking it
from time to time with a worried look on his face. Donna glanced round and
shook her head sadly at all the houses with their boarded up windows and broken
glass covering the pavements. The church stuck out like a bit of a sore thumb
and not a building that would be placed so oddly in such a street, but she
shrugged and gazed back from where they had come and saw the TARDIS looking
more out of place than any church could.
"Doctor,
don't you think you should get that cam belt thing sorted? At least blend in a
bit, I mean, I'm all for retro stuff and that but a police box?...In this day
and age? No wonder the aliens keep finding you, you're practically travelling
round in a great big arrow which says I am here!!
"What?" The Doctor said, slightly confused as he looked up at her and then
across to his ship. "Its chameleon circuit and no I don't think I should fix it. It
might say I am here, but it also says I am here so don't bother trying to
invade this planet. Now are you gonna help me or question me all day?"
Donna knelt down besides the girl and
sighed again. ”Well least no one will
question why a bleedin' church is here when the TARDIS is right up the road;
they'll think they’re on some film set or something. Honestly though, a church
in Falls Road, that's like putting a....well, police box down here too!"
The doctor was about to point out
something more important to Donna, when the young woman on the ground snapped
open her eyes and sat up with a gasp as though she were taking a breath for the
first time.
"Its
ok, just breathe....can you tell me what happened?” Said the doctor, his concern for her more
than for her health but for the reading on his sonic screwdriver.
The girl looked towards the church and
tried to get to her feet, using the Doctor's arm to pull herself up but she
wobbled slightly, a bang to the head causing her some double vision and
sickness in her stomach. "My ship,
it crashed....we fell...he told me to get out." She was obviously confused.
"What
ship?" The Doctor asked curiously yet as casually as he could, looking
around him for signs of a crash.
"There!"
She pointed towards the church. “My ship
is there. In that church? The chameleon circuit must have malfunctioned in the crash,
I have to get inside, there was a fire, I need to find the rest of the crew and
my husband"
Donna
stared at the Doctor and the Doctor stared at Donna as the girl spoke. He was
reluctant to let her go seeing as she looked so fragile, but she had pulled out
of his hold and was slowly making her way up the steps, looking up at the
church with as much intrigue as they had.
"Doctor" Donna said in a hushed voice. "We
were just talking about chammy whatsit circuits and crash landings, do you
think she somehow heard us and thinks that’s what happened to her or is she
telling the truth? Can spaceships really look like churches?”
The Doctor pulled a face and shrugged. "Well, to be honest the Master once had
a TARDIS that took the shape of a fireplace, so anything is possible, but a
church??? Must be one hell of a ship!"
Donna, shook her head and pulled a face to
signify that he wasn't understanding what she meant.
"But does that mean she's one of your lot then? If she's got a
space ship that can change its appearance, is it really a TARDIS?”
The Doctor shook his head. "No, many planets and species have
perfected the chameleon circuit, look at actual chameleons! There could be a billion space ships all
hiding in places all over the world. Think about it, you get invaded every
other day but you never see it coming, how else do you suppose they got here,
by tube?"
The Doctor took Donna's hand and headed
off after the girl who had entered the church and Donna muttered something
about aliens being in her bedroom cupboards or in her actual shower and made
another mental note to ask the Doctor for some kind of device that would show
these things up before she even dared get naked anywhere ever again!
The Doctor
pushed the church door open and stepped inside with a wide grin on his face
that soon faded to a frown followed by a loud and echoey. "Oh that's not fair!”
"What isn't?" Donna replied
looking round the church's interior, failing to notice anything suspicious at
all. "Looks like a normal church to me,
look’s exactly like the one I was supposed to get married in except for the bit
over by the window with the scaffolding and plastic sheets"
"Exactly!" The Doctor whined. "When she said about spaceships and chameleon circuits, I assumed
like the TARDIS, that when we stepped inside it would be a space ship full of
alien life forms. I was looking forward to seeing what kind of technology they
had and what species they were.” He
ran his hand through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck. “Perhaps you were right all along, perhaps
our conversation got into her unconscious mind and created a false scenario for
her before she woke up. These readings though, and her state of health, I just
assumed!”
"Oh I see, yeah” Donna chuckled a
little, looking round again. “Not exactly
much of a ship with a load of pews and an altar is it? Unless it's a religious
thing, some kind of space church!”
Before the Doctor could ask the question
of the girl who had seeming vanished, she came running out from behind the
plastic sheets with a look of panic etched across her face. "It’s gone! They are gone! There's nothing here but the shell of the
form it took. How can this happen, I need to find them, I need....."
She wobbled slightly and the doctor rushed
and caught her before she hit the ground, taking her to one of the pews which
he sat her in as he asked Donna to look around and see if she could find the
girl some water.
"Its
ok, just take it easy and tell me everything you remember, like your name?”
He asked her, hoping to shed some kind of light on the situation, be holy or
otherwise.
The girl looked sick, pale and tired and
obviously not too happy as she tried to think back to the past events that
bought her to where she was now.
"I
don't know...I was on-board the ship and all of a sudden there was some kind of
crash and we were falling from the sky. My husband yelled at me to get out, to
get some air. There was an explosion, a fire...over there...” She pointed to the window that was wrapped in
plastic sheeting with a danger sign perched under it. "I stumbled and ended up outside where you found me....I don't
understand, how can they all be gone, all 109 of them?"
The Doctor scratched the back of his neck
as he listened and held up his sonic again.
"Well that explains the 112 life forms registering on this...no
wait...113....112, stupid thing, its not liking this...whatever this is at all.
So how many were on board the ship, 110 yes?
"Yes." She replied
Donna
returned with a plastic cup of cold water she had taken from the font and hoped
the holy water didn't burn the poor girl like in a film she had recently seen
and handed it to her as she was starting to look as though she might pass out
again.
"So
where did you come from, what year and planet?"
The girl thanked her and drank the water
and Donna exhaled the breath she was holding as she didn't burst into flames
and with a shaky breath, the lost woman began her tale.
"We
were in the Dawning, it was coming to an end and we were out hunting, making
sure there were no strays, ,no one that needed help. When I last looked at the scanner,
just before I fled, it said we had fallen 903 years from our time, that we were
no longer in our own orbit, but had reached our intended destination. It didn't
make sense as we were supposed to go home, we were not supposed to time travel,
the end of the Dawning had prohibited it"
"So
you fell 903 years from the future? That would make it the year 2918 right? Or
did you come from the past from the year...” Donna did some mental maths in her head. “...1112? Doctor I'm confused."
The Doctor was frowning again, looking
from his screwdriver to the woman and back again as the readings flashed from
112 life forms to 113. 109 missing aliens, 1 crew member, himself and Donna
made 112, so who or what was the 13th?
"Er,
oh its complicated, timey wimey stuff. Take me for example, I'm 903 myself but
does that mean I was born 903 years ago or 903 years in the future? Or does it mean that I was born 20,000 years
into the future but because I can travel through time it doesn't matter as I'm
still 903, do you see? She may have fallen 903 years but from what point in
time?”
Donna was now even more confused but
seemed to pick up on something he hadn't. "Is
it a coincidence that she fell exactly how many years old you are? Perhaps if
she told us what year she came from we'd know exactly if she was past present
or bleeding future...God I need a gin and tonic!"
The Doctor had picked up on the fact that
the girl had fallen exactly the number of years he was, but he had ignored it,
trying not to use it in a factor of the what when's and how's of the situation
they were in and instead answered the other part of Donna's question. "Not all life forms use years and dates
to denote time. You lot have your days, weeks months and years to tell you
exactly where you are, where you've been and where you're going. My race for
example used a turn of events, like I was born in the time of the Medusa
Cascade, and this girl comes from a time event called the Dawning....the
dawning of what though? You said you
were out hunting for survivors? Looking for what was left? Are you a rescue
mission or a hospital ship?"
The girl nodded slowly. "Rescue mission, although this was to
be my last for awhile, it was supposed to be routine and easy. The Dawning had
been peaceful, many were born and raised during its reign, myself included, but
the coming era was to prove more difficult and we were sent to make sure that
everything was in order."
Donna had stopped listening to time events
and the Doctor's explanation of what they were and was trying to work out why,
on this day that he had declared his birthday, a woman, make that a pregnant
woman, judging by her slightly swollen stomach and the way she kept looking
like she was about to vomit everywhere, had appeared from nowhere claiming to
have fallen from somewhere in space and time exactly the number of years old he
was. Was it just one massive coincidence or was it something else?
The girl continued to speak. "Our ship contains a chameleon circuit
so that we can land safely on other planets and worlds and blend in. I assume
it has taken the shape of this church because that is what is classed as normal
here, but I don't understand the inside or why the rest of the crew are hidden.
Once the ship has repaired itself it will take flight and leave again and if I
cant find a way in, it will leave me behind"
Donna perked up as the girl spoke and cut
in just as she finished.
"No,
there hasn't been a church down this way for years, well probably 100 years I
reckon, long before these houses were here anyway and no one lives down here so
don't ask me why the government are spending a fortune doing this place up when
it'll only get vandalised and knocked down again"
The Doctor perked up this time and jumped
to his feet, the smile returning to his face as he beamed at Donna and the girl
in turn.
"That's
it! Oh Donna you're brilliant as usual."
"Why, what did I do now?" Donna exclaimed pulling a face.
"Explain
it to me again, this street, this church and what happened to it." The Doctor enthused, sure now that he was on
to something.
Donna took a pew and got comfortable as
she began to recall what she knew.
"Well
I only know a bit about it 'cos of some filling I'd done as a temp, but before
all the houses were built, this road was more like a field really. The church
had been here for years, a few 100 I would say. There was a vicarage next to it
and a few old farm buildings. The church hadn't been used though, some kind of
unholy goings on apparently so it was due for demolition but it took ages for
the paper work to go through and in the end it got vandalised and some yobs set
fire to it. Well a few years later, the
council began building houses here and it became a street called....Falls
row...something to do with the vicar of the church Rev Fall, anyway it soon
became known as Fools Row and death row as the place was filled with druggies
and used as half way houses from the prison a few miles away and no one's lived
here for about 30 years? Far as I know it was all going to be flattened and
sold at auction so god knows why they started building the church again"
"HA!”
The Doctor exclaimed, “HA! Cant you see,
it makes sense now.”
Both Donna and the girl shook their heads.
"The
ship crashed and fell yes, and needs to repair itself, but it landed on the
site of the old church, a place used for, ...oh I don't know what over the
years but its steeped in history, magic, voodoo and now time travel. Once the ship landed it didn't just start to
repair itself, it started to repair the church too as its chameleon circuit had
picked up what it used to be like inside and cloaked itself to be hidden, but
hid itself completely so that the inside looked like the outside. The ship is
still here but in a small pocket of time, that's how I can pick up on the life
signs still. The chameleon circuit is working both inside and out to protect
the ship. Obviously we have a find a way in before it leaves but I think I know
how. You need a biodetector. There'll be one hidden somewhere in the church, a
symbol or a name or number according to your race, all you have to do is touch
it and let it sample your DNA and you'll pull the ship from hiding and you can
go home...brilliant! Now we just have
to start searching.” The Doctor
grinned widely, extremely pleased with himself for working it out as he always
did.
Donna leaned across and whispered to the
girl.
"Its
ok, he always rambles like this, just ignore him, as long as he thinks he's
making sense then just nod and smile and go along with it all"
The Doctor who had started walking down
the church aisle, waving his bleeping sonic screwdriver in the air, yelled back
at Donna.
"I heard that! Stop yapping and help me look for the
biodetector...Allons-y!”
"Well what does a bio-thingy look like?”
She called back in a huff as she got to her feet and helped the girl to
hers.
The Doctor stopped scanning the air and
span round to look back at her. "Good
question, no idea, er, you...sorry what's your name?"
The girl looked at him but didn't answer;
she felt too sick to deal with questions and was beginning to hurt all over her
body.
“Oh
well!” Exclaimed the Doctor, "You'll know when you see it, you’ll be
able to feel it. Concentrate, its will be like a kind of alarm calling out to
you, telling you its there, getting louder as the ship heals like an alert
system to warn you of its impending departure"
"Like a migraine, a pounding, almost drumming in my head you
mean?" The
young girl asked.
"Possibly."
The Doctor said with a note of caution in his voice as he remembered the last
time he had heard words of that nature.
"I thought it was just my head hurting
from where I hit it, but it’s getting faster and louder, like a call to war, a
drumming, a warning telling me to hurry, its making me feel quite sick and I
wish it would stop!" The girl
grabbed the sides of her head and winced in pain.
The Doctor spoke as though he were seeing
the young girl with new eyes, as though he had finally worked out who she was
and where she had fallen from. His voice was low and calm, like an echo of the
past bleeding directly into the future.
"Concentrate
on the sound, let it consume you, let it guide you. It's telling you something
only you can hear so listen to it, let it take you where you need to go."
The girl
closed her eyes for a moment and did as he told her and began to slowly walk up
and down the aisles, weaving in and out of the pews still with her eyes closed.
Donna watched in fascination and the Doctor watched with a pained expression
until finally the girl stopped by a book shelf which contained a stack of old
and dusty Bibles. Opening her eyes, she pulled one from the middle shelf and
held it in her arms and looked at the hard front cover with a growing smile on
her face.
"Its
here, this is it!”
"Before
you touch it, Donna and I have to say goodbye. Once you pull your ship from
hiding we'll be trapped here so we need to leave the church now". The Doctor walked back to Donna and took her
hand, the reading on his screwdriver settling to 112 life forms and staying
there, putting a firm smile on his face as he nodded towards the girl and the
swollen round of her pregnant stomach.
"I
understand now, I didn't before but now I do and I think you do too, don't
you?”
The girl smiled and nodded, running her
hands over her stomach as she winced again in pain.
"Yes,
it became clear just now, but why now, why did this happen and why today?"
The Doctor grinned. "Weeeeell, it’s my birthday and Donna was banging on about me
celebrating it somehow so I guess our time lines converged and something
happened. My TARDIS is a clever old girl, it must have been her that you banged
into, she knocked you out of your time and into this one, to this very place. Not
quite worked out the significance of the church though but I'm sure it’s
relevant somehow."
Donna was getting slightly annoyed by this
point. "Err, I don't' understand
actually, so do you want to fill me in on what it is you're both talking
about?"
“Oh Donna,
if only it was that simple!” The Doctor smiled once more at the woman and
left, pulling Donna along behind him who was still trying to get him to explain
things to her.
"Who
is she? Where is she going and what the hell is all this got to do with
churches and your birthday?"
He stopped
at the door and pushed it open, but before he stepped out he turned back and
glanced at the woman once more. She placed her hand over the symbol on the
front of the old bible and a whooshing sound filled the air, a sound of stuck
brakes and engines that didn't want to move and she began to fade away
whispering "Goodbye my son”,
taking the church with her and just in time for the Doctor and Donna to run the
last few steps out into the street to watch it disappear altogether.
The ship's
bridge was full of people, a man ran towards the woman and took her into his
arms, his eyes filled with tears as he caressed her face and stroked the
growing bulge of her stomach.
"I
thought you were lost, I thought I would never see you again nor see the birth
of our son. Are you ok, are you hurt, I knew we shouldn't have come today, I knew
it; I said he would be born this day didn't I? A child born on the dawning of
the Medusa Cascade, what will become of him?"
The woman
smiled and placed her hand on her husband's cheek, smiling as the first stabs
of labour filled her body.
"He will be just fine my love, trust me, he will be a fine young
man, a leader of many, the saviour of worlds, a man to calm any oncoming storm”
The End!
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