Post by Fitz Kreiner on May 3, 2010 18:54:14 GMT
Day two, Countdown to the Arrival.
I stood there staring for several seconds, not sure what to do. I was only just aware that I was still holding the sandwich and goblet. The Anubian cook had turned away and was doing some washing up or something like that. I was only really aware of the gap that had once held the Doctor, the snarls on the Anubian’s mouths; their teeth, white, sharp and pointed, and that determination in their eyes.
It took several moments for my brain to kick into gear, I have to admit. It tried to follow the Anubians, pushing my way through the crowds, but it was too late; they’d disappeared. I don’t know if they’d found a disk lift that I couldn’t see, but they’d gone. Why had the Anubian guards suddenly taken the Doctor off like that? Had he committed some capital crime? Would they come back for me?
I turned and ran, trying my hardest to find the disk lift through which I had arrived at the market. Several Anubians turned to look at me as I ran, but I ignored them. It was only some time after that I remembered I was still holding the goblet (the contents splashed all over by my running) and the sandwich and that neither I or the Doctor had paid for them.
It took me some time to find the lift, if it weren’t for an Anubian appearing out of thin air before me I’d have run straight past it instead of smack bang into this Anubian. At the time, I thought they had come for me and found me as the alien lifted be up with one strong arm. My heart almost stopped again until she, I found out she was a she, smiled at me and asked if I needed any help. She didn’t seem bothered that a small alien had run full pelt into her. More than anything, she was astounded by the velvet of my top and my hair. She thought I was royalty for some reason.
“I’m trying to get to the guest level,” I managed to gasp after I’d got my breath back.
The Anubian had produced a pouch that was dangling from her belt and removed the top and passed it to me. I’d dropped the sandwich and goblet when I ran into her and so took it and carefully sipped it. It was water, crystal clear and very refreshing, like the purest of mineral water.
“You are one of the alien guests,” the Anubian said.
I took it to clearly be a statement as I’m obviously not an Anubian. I nodded in reply, not wanting to say it aloud in case we were in trouble again, it wouldn’t have surprised me. News of our arrival must have spread throughout Intheop or this Anubian was one of those who were expecting us.
“Come,” she said, helping me to my feet with a large hand. “I can take you back.”
I was still a little wary and getting ready to run, although I wasn’t sure where to run to if we were taken straight away to a large circle of guards around us. Instead, the landscape changed back to the villas, it was the level where we had been given accommodation.
“Why were you in such a hurry?” the Anubian had a heavy hand on my shoulder.
This was it, I thought, lulling me into a false sense of security. I half expected to turn back and see a squad of guards behind the Anubian, their energy staff things pointing at me. Slowly I did, but the only other person in sight was the Anubian.
“I’ve lost one of my friends,” I said. It was the truth. “I think he might be in trouble, I’m trying to find my other friend. Please, it’s an emergency.”
The Anubian put her hand to her mouth as though she was shocked. I was still really suspicious of her, especially after the way that the Doctor had been carried off like that.
“Sorry,” I said, starting to back off towards the villa we had been given. I recognised the cat statues either side of the pillars of the door and the shadows of the guards. “Thanks though,” I added before I turned and ran.
I wasn’t aware of the guards as I ran past them, my eyes were fixed on the door and the bead curtains that covered it. The beads whipped at me as I ran through them, scattering and clattering against the stone as I threw them aside. I had to make sure that Tom was still here and he was ok. Surely the guards would have spotted me, unless I wasn’t important to them. Tom must have known there was something wrong, because he was on his feet and in my way to catch me as I tried, and failed, to stop.
“What is it?” he asked. He was now fully awake and alert; completely different to how I left him, what was it, half an hour ago?
“The Doctor,” I gasped.
“Not again,” Tom sighed.
I don’t think I needed to say more for Tom to know what had happened. He knows what sort of trouble the Doctor can get into as much as I can. After nearly nine months, it becomes almost second nature.
“What happened to him?” Tom asked.
“Two Anubian guards, they just carted him off,” I was still panting hard, my lungs were burning and my legs ached. It was only now I had stopped and was with Tom, someone comforting and friendly, that I seemed to have stopped and it had all caught up with me.
“Carted him off where?” Tom asked.
He’d sat me down and was sat beside me, one arm round my shoulders and the other holding a goblet with the fruit drink he’d been drinking when I left. He offered it to me, and I didn’t realise just how thirsty I was until he did. It was surprisingly sweet, but very nice, like everything around here. That worried me as well; things seemed too perfect, other than the Doctor being dragged away.
“I don’t know,” I admitted, finally answering Tom’s question. I could feel the fruit juice dribbling down either side of my mouth but at the time, I just didn’t care. “These two huge guards appeared, literally picked him up and carried him off. He didn’t even get the chance to say anything. I lost them in the crowd.”
“Why though?” Tom asked.
I finally looked at him. His eyes were dark with heavy bags. I must have either waked him up or it was a trick of the light, but he looked ill for a moment.
“I don’t know, maybe he broke the law or something. I didn’t find him straight away, who knows what he got up to before he found me?” I replied.
We sat there in silence for what seemed like minutes at the time. I could tell that Tom was thinking, he was stroking his beard with his free hand and clicking his tongue, which sounded very loud near my ear.
“Well,” he said finally and slowly, “he’ll either be taken to a cell or to that Rameso fella’s office, I’d guess.”
“Then what can we do?” I asked. The guards were outside, and they knew we were here. I told Tom about this.
“Yeah, I did spot them,” he said sarcastically. “But they’ve not exactly shown that they’re keeping us in. You got out alright, and in again.”
“Of course they let me in,” I almost shouted this part. Tom seemed to be infuriatingly calm about it all, he’s done this before. “That means they now know where we both are and can keep us here.”
Tom stood up and gave me the strongest impression that he was going to do one of those Time Lord know-it-all moments. I watched him as he walked slowly to the door, his hand still at his beard, before he pushed the bead curtains aside and stepped out. I watched the door, expecting to see Tom thrown back through with the two guards following, pointing their staffs and looking all threatening.
It took several minutes for Tom to come back, and escorted by an Anubian, as I expected. I’d seen this Anubian before, when we arrived. He was brown furred with yellow eyes and a crooked staff; Tuchaneth. He had his hand on Tom’s shoulder and seemed to be smiling.
“Allow me offer our most sincere apologies,” he said, bowing deeply towards me. “Your companion informs me that you are most distressed at the events which occurred in the market.”
Distressed wasn’t the bloody word, and I think I told him that, in no uncertain words. I’m sure the Doctor wouldn’t have approved my language there and I think it put Tom on the back foot too. I know it certainly caught Tuchaneth off guard.
“I apologise most profusely my lady,” Tuchaneth repeated, bowing again. “Lord Governor Rameso requested the Lord Doctor’s presence, although alas the guards misunderstood. I was sent by the Lord Governor to reassure you both.”
“A bit bloody late,” I muttered. My lunch was still on the floor of the market level.
“So, the Doctor’s not in trouble, and we’re not under arrest,” Tom summarised for us. I get the feeling that a part of that was for my benefit, so that we could hear it from the horses (or dogs) mouth so to speak.
“Not at all,” Tuchaneth smiled. “You are all honoured guests. The Lord Doctor will return to you by nightfall, I can promise you that.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. I wanted to make sure of this.
“I am positive,” Tuchaneth said heading back to the door. “I must return to the Lord Governor now. Please, relax and enjoy your stay.” With those words, he turned and walked off.
I turned to Tom. I was almost speechless. “What do we do now then?” I asked.
“What can we do?” he replied with a shrug. “They’ve told us what the score is; we just have to wait for the Doc to come back.”
I was still sceptical, and boy, I had no trouble voicing that. But Tom is Tom, he was able to talk me round and calm me down. And that’s what we did, we waited. It was late in the day on Intheop by this time, and I took the time to start writing up. I was still trembling slightly, but I think I got it all.
I was in bed before the Doctor got back to the villa and fast asleep. Tom had managed to put my mind at ease mostly, but there was a niggle at the back of my mind all night. I didn’t know that the Doctor was back until I came down this morning to find him in the kitchen. As usual, he was acting as though nothing happened. He’d also got a cat curled up on one shoulder, making him look like some bizarre upper class pirate or something.
“Ah Jess,” he said before he’d even seen me. “Sleep well?”
“Well, no not really,” I said truthfully. “I would kinda like to know what’s been going on. Why were you carted off like that yesterday?”
“Oh that,” he said, placing a bowl of what looked like various citrus fruits in front of me saying ‘breakfast’. “Just a little misunderstanding with the city guard, nothing to worry about.”
Another one of his little ‘explanations’ which doesn’t tell you anything, I’m not quite in the mood for that this morning.
“You know,” I pressed him; “a bit more than just ‘a little misunderstanding’ would help.”
“Do you know that the Anubians have nothing that comes close to tea,” he replies in that absent manner of his. It was when he turned around that I recognised the teapot from the TARDIS kitchen in his hand. “Old Rameso just wanted a bit of a chin wag with me and he told his chaps to collect me, they just took him a little too literally.”
Pausing, the Doctor fished in his pocket before withdrawing a gold chain with a small ankh on the end and a rather beautiful blue gemstone set into the arc of the ankh. With a wink he tossed it over to me, it landing perfectly in my hand as I reached out for it.
“A little bit of compensation, he said,” the Doctor explained. “It’s an old Anubian symbol for protection against evil.”
“Oh come on,” I said, it seemed hard to believe. “These things are all over the place in my time, usually made by greedy people for gullible idiots.”
The Doctor went into one of his quiet moments as he plucked the cat from his shoulder and placed it on the marble top, where it curled up asleep. It was one of those silences that made you wonder what it was that you’d said to cause him to go quiet. It gets to that point where you can’t stand it anymore.
“What?” I ask him.
“The ‘evil eye’ as they call it, is a protective charm that stems back to here,” the Doctor explained. He was going to go into one of his lecture modes, I could tell. “The Anubians brought the concept of the blue stone to Earth; charms were already used there to ward off the magicks and super-natural influences, however, the charms the Anubians brought are different. They do contain an influence which offers some protection to the bearer, oh; it doesn’t make them invulnerable or immortal, but offers a certain protection, somewhat similar in the way the TARDIS can blend in.”
I had to stop him there; “A large blue police box?” I asked, cutting in. “Hardly worthy of blending in, the Anubians’ certainly spotted us!”
“Jess, Jess, Jess, Jess, Jess,” he has a habit of repeating names, “It’s not what the TARDIS looks like, it’s the fact that people can walk past it and not notice it’s there most times. Anyway, these protective charms shield the wearer to a certain extent; it’s almost like a perception filter only somewhat more advanced than that. Obviously, if people are trying, there’s still that chance they could manage it, but it should offer some protection.”
“So it’s kinda like a ‘get out of jail free’ card?” I asked.
“Well,” the Doctor paused and tapped his lip. I’ve come to recognise that as his thinking mode. “Yes and no,” he said after a while. “Yes, in so much as you could probably walk through the middle of a fight and come out unscathed, but no, in as much as if someone in that fight decided that if they were going to attack you, they’d be able to.”
“Oh,” I think I said, somewhat lamely. It seems like this little charm isn’t all that it claims, as so much of things are. “So it’s not really all that good then?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” the Doctor replied.
“But still, what did Rameso want?” I asked. The Doctor had conveniently forgotten to mention anything.
“Oh, that,” he smiled. “He just wanted me to meet the Princess Theoris and make arrangements for the coming conference. Tea?”
He asked the question so casually it really threw me. “Erm, yeah,” I managed to finally say. “Did it really take that long?”
“Only about four minutes for the tea to properly diffuse,” the Doctor replied placing a cup and saucer in front of me.
I sighed and rolled my eyes at him. He does this, thinking you’re still talking about the last thing he said, when it’s not the main focus of the conversation, or even anything important!
“Not the tea, you numpty,” I teased him, “the meeting with Rameso and the Princess. It can’t have taken that long can it?”
“Oh that!” he said, as if he’d forgotten all about it. “It took some time, yes. There’s a lot more to talk about than just simple background introductions. Apparently, they’re rather honoured to have a Time Lord sit in on the meeting.”
“Someone’s getting a big head, eh?” I teased him again before I realised. “Hang on, we’re about seven thousand years in the past, how do they know the Time Lords?”
“Jess. Jess, Jess, Jess, Jess, Jess.” He did that repeating name thing again. “One of the main failings of your species,” (here we go, one of those speeches again) “is their arrogance to think that non-terrestrial life all evolves at the same rate as your own, or has to be humanoid, or even breathes nitrogen/oxygen atmospheres.”
The Doctor paused to take a sip of his tea. Now, these lectures aren’t an arrogant superiority thing, it’s his trying to teach in a way. He put his tea down and grinned at me.
“You of all people have experienced more alien life than most people on your planet and should know this, but the Time Lords were getting old when the galaxy was young, but the galaxy is younger than this galaxy. There are Time Lords out there, but they’re before my time. The Time Lords of this time are much younger and their power is only becoming known. It’s only a few Millennia since the non-intervention policy was brought about.”
“Non-intervention?” I asked him, giving him my wry quizzing look.
“Yes, well, I never held with that,” he said hiding his face behind his cup of tea. “Never been one for following all the rules. Where’s the fun in that? Some rules are meant to be broken,” he put the cup down and grinned at me there.
The Doctor had managed to get us off track again. It was time for more prompting. “So, this meeting, what was it all about exactly?” I asked.
“Well,” the Doctor said, sitting down opposite me and placing the tea cup on the counter. “It seems the Drachnith Assemblage are sending their delegation, including the Drachnith Prime Himself,” (the way the Doctor said that implied that Himself deserved a capital ‘H’) “ahead in a small ship. They’re due to dock today at about midday local time.”
“Okay,” I said. I wasn’t too sure what to say to all that, but to be fair, I had asked in the first place. “Where does that leave us?” I asked.
“It leaves us,” the Doctor said before finishing his tea in one gulp, “in pretty much the same place as before. We’re just observers here, remember?”
I opened my mouth to say something hugely witty and clever, but he’d anticipated it and shot me one of those looks that made me think twice.
“Observers,” he repeated. “This isn’t one of those defeat-the-evil-overlord or stop-the-alien-invasion situations.”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that serious before, it kinda unsettled me. “This is something big, isn’t it?” I asked. “I mean; proper big.”
“‘Proper’ big?” he asked. I think he was questioning my use of grammar.
“Yeah, y’know; fate of all that comes later, sort of big. Like not stopping the Titanic sail out of Plymouth or wherever it was, or not stopping Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand from being shot?” I was trying to think of some rather important historical events but they were the two which came to mind.
“Ah, I see what you mean,” he said. “No, well, not quite.”
Okay, that didn’t make much sense. “What do you mean?” I asked.
“We can’t tell either side what to do, as this area is a political hotbed at the moment,” the Doctor stared at me with his sad blue eyes. Not that I’d know what to tell either side at this moment in time, I knew nothing about either the Anubians or Drachnith. “Whatever the outcome of this conference, we cannot influence it.”
“Then, what’s the point of going?” I asked the Doctor. “No offence, but I know you; you can’t resist giving your opinion on things like this. What about when we were last on Earth, and there were those Auton things.”
“That was very different,” he said, almost looking hurt. “Earth is vulnerable and the end of the twentieth century, beginning of the twenty first is a nexus point, it’s when Earth began to sow the seeds of its future and when it comes under an extraordinary amount of alien attacks. They have to be fought off so that future can exist; it’s a fixed point. I can’t change things; I know how things should be; that’s why I do what I do.”
“Then what about here?” I asked. “This isn’t Earth; it isn’t even anything to do with Earth is it?”
“There’s more than just Earth, Jess,” the Doctor said softly. “You’ve seen that. I can’t look out for Earth all the time and I don’t need to. It’s just a bit of serendipity that we’ve arrived here at the same time as this conference.”
“So it is just a coincidence?” I asked.
The Doctor seemed to wince when I said that. “I’ve never cared for the word ‘coincidence’,” he said. “When your life is like mine, coincidence sometimes seems too, well, coincidental.”
No nuts, Sherlock. I would never have said that to the Doctor’s face though. I guess I was just a little confused as to why we were there and what the Doctor was talking about.
“So, we just sit there and watch. We don’t give them our opinion if they ask for it, and then after the tea and cakes we toddle off back to the TARDIS and go fight some monsters?” I asked.
“Spot on,” the Doctor grinned at me. “Well, that’s the official line, anyway,” he winked.