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amythest_n_ice) wrote2007-07-20 12:57 am
Ooops I did it again (Chapter 8)
http://amythest-n-ice.livejournal.com/23544.html
Link to Chapter 9
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It was tipping down with rain the next morning, the Doctor could hear it as soon as they stepped out of the TARDIS.
“Now that is what I expect from an English summer.” Ianto commented, listening to the sound of water hitting the concrete outside the garage door.
//What is that sound?// Raiko asked as he scampered over to press his ear to the door.
//Rain, lots and lots of rain.// Ianto sighed.
//Precipitation.// The Doctor corrected at the puzzled look Raiko turned on them.
//Really?// Raiko darted past them, into the house.
“Hell.” The Doctor took off after him quickly, and almost ran into Alistair, who was on his way to the dining room carrying a platter of bacon.
“Sorry,” the Doctor said.
“It’s Ok. Are you looking for the little speed demon that just blew past me?”
“Yes, where did he go?”
“He was heading for the kitchen. What was his hurry?”
“Rain was kind of rare on the colony, it rained maybe once a year. They relied on ground water for irrigation.”
“Ah, you should probably know the back door was open then, to let some air in.”
“He’s going to be drenched.” The Doctor groaned.
“If you’re lucky, Mrs. Woodley will have caught him before he got outside.”
“Thanks Alistair.”
“If the colony was so harsh, why did they have children with them?” Ianto asked as they headed for the kitchen.
“Jack was the only one for the first four years, and he was born not long after they arrived. His mother found out she was pregnant before they were due to leave, but then it was far too late to find someone to take his parents places.” The Doctor shrugged.
They got into the kitchen and found Mrs. Woodley, the cook, standing at the back door, shaking her head.
“He got past you then?” The Doctor asked with a wry chuckle.
“Little horror was out before I even realized he was in the kitchen.” She laughed, stepping back to allow them to take her place in the doorway, and going back to making toast.
The two men stood shoulder to shoulder in the doorway, looking out. Raiko stood in the middle of the garden, his face upturned to the rain, his arms spread to his side.
//Raiko, come inside.// The Doctor called.
//Like this, come out, play with
//Come in now, we’ll all get some more suitable clothes on, then we can go for a walk down the prom.// The Doctor offered in compromise.
Raiko cocked his head to the side, obviously thinking about it, then he trotted over to the door, looking up.
//’kay.//
The Doctor felt someone tap him on the shoulder, and glanced back to see Alistair holding out a towel.
“Just to give him a rub down so he doesn’t drip on the way through.”
“Thanks Alistair.” The Doctor took the towel, and rubbed Raiko over briskly in the doorway. His hair stood up in short, choppy spikes, and the sulky look on his face made Alistair think of a wet cat.
//Come on, lets get some better clothes on then.//
Half an hour later, they stepped out of the front door. The Doctor and Ianto wore rain coats and carried umbrellas, but Raiko had looked scornful at the suggestion, so he wore a t-shirt and shorts, and a pair of blue
“He looks like he’s having fun.” Ianto grinned.
“Yeah.” The Doctor agreed. Ianto squeezed his hand.
“What’s up, you sound kind of wistful.”
“It kind of reminds me of when I had my family. Only the children were raised on Gallifrey, in structured education from a year old. They never got to just have fun, to splash around in puddles. Look at him Ianto, he’s as bright, if not brighter that children of Gallifrey, he’s from a colony that was struggling to establish itself, a hard life, and he still finds pleasure in the simplest things. He was allowed to be a kid as much as possible, and yet, he still stepped aboard the TARDIS for the first time, the most advanced technology in the universe, and understood more about how she worked than most Gallifreyan children who are trained in TARDIS’s for years.”
“What happened to your family, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“They were killed, a couple of years before I fled Gallifrey. I was never much of a conformist, and losing them pretty much ended any efforts to even try to conform. Do you know my people tried to punish me once by stranding me on Earth, disabling the TARDIS, for 100 years.”
“What did you do?”
“Joined UNIT.” The Doctor laughed, breaking his own blue mood.
Ianto laughed too, letting go of the Doctor’s hand to slip an arm around his waist.
“In all the time since, you’ve never thought of starting another family?”
“No.” The Doctor shrugged.
Up ahead, Raiko had stopped, staring out to sea, and the other two quickly caught him up.
//There is something out there.// Raiko said, pointing. The Doctor and Ianto looked, but they could see nothing.
//I don’t see anything.// The Doctor told him, and Raiko looked up with a frown.
//Very far away, on the water.//
//Can you see what it is?// The Doctor asked, wondering if some inexperienced sailors had gotten in trouble on the choppy seas. If so, he would need to call out the coast guard very quickly. Raiko’s next words made him reconsider that thought.
//Trade ship. Tarkanians. There are some of them standing on top now, they look very scared.//
//They come from a dry world, like you do. More than likely they can’t swim. I wouldn’t be too happy either in that case.//
“Ianto, do you have your cell phone on you?”
“Yes, why?”
“Call Alistair, and ask him where the nearest UNIT base is, and if they have access to a big boat.”
“Are they a threat?”
“No, they’ve been peaceful traders longer than humans have been out of their caves, but they are in danger, it really is unlikely they can swim, they’re going to drown if we leave them out there, and there’s no way they can repair their ship while it’s wallowing in the ocean.”
Ianto obediently pulled out his phone and punched in the number for the guest house.
“The Hollows.” The Brigadier’s phone voice was crisp, clear.
“Brigadier, it’s Ianto, the Doctor wants to know where the nearest UNIT base is, and if they have access to a boat.”
“About forty minutes away, and why?”
“There’s a ship in distress out at sea, and it’s not the kind of ship that we can call the coast guard for, if you get what I mean.”
“Dangerous?”
“He says not. Raiko identified it as a trade ship, he doesn’t seem alarmed by it either,” Ianto said.
“Forty minutes.” Ianto said when the Doctor made an impatient gesture.
“Fuck, by the time they scramble and get here, half the crew could have drowned.” The Doctor cursed softly, then held out his hand for the phone.
“Alistair, it’s me. How well do you know the lifeboat crew in these parts?”
“Fairly well.”
“Can they be trusted, with a very sensitive rescue.”
“You’re not suggesting….”
“Alistair, the Tarkanians are harmless, we can’t leave them out there to die.”
“Bloody hell. All right, where are you now?”
“Uh, opposite the old arcades.”
“I’ll phone the lifeboat station and have them call in the crew, and tell them to wait for us.”
“What?”
“Well, you are probably going to have to assure them that we’re not a threat to them.”
“Fine, OK, we’ll wait for you right here then.”
They rang off so that Alistair could make his call, and minutes later, they heard a low, mournful siren sound, and across the road, a man ran out of the arcade, running down the road full pelt in the direction of the lifeboat station. Alistair screeched to a halt then, leaning over to open the passenger door.
“Come on Doctor.”
//You two head back to the house,// the Doctor said quietly.
//No.// Raiko said.
//Raiko, please, there is no time to argue.//
//Too many humans, you’ll scare them. Raiko not a threat to them, Raiko an alien here too, and they not hurt him.// Raiko insisted firmly.
“Doctor, you can’t.” Ianto switched to English, and the Doctor answered with obvious reluctance.
“Unfortunately he’s right, they know that Earth in this era isn’t good for alien contact, seeing another alien, and such a defenseless one at that, will help reassure them.”
“You’re alien too.”
“Yes, but I’m not a small child that is clearly not afraid of humans. We need to move Ianto.”
“Fine. Then I’m coming too.”
Alistair made no comment as they all got into the car, just pulled away quickly for the lifeboat station.
The crew was all ready to launch by the time they got there, and the captain took one look at them all getting out of the car and baulked.
“No chance Alistair, I’m breaching enough regulations taking you along.”
“Believe me George, you’ll understand when we get there, but the Doctor and the others have to come along.”
“We don’t have time to argue right now, I suppose, come on if you’re coming, life jackets are on board.”
Raiko tugged unhappily at the life jacket he was strapped into as the boat tore across the water in the direction of the downed ship.
“Are you sure there is a boat in distress out here, there was nothing on communications.”
“I said ship, and I doubt their communications system is compatible.” Alistair shrugged.
//There.// Raiko pointed off in a slightly different direction to the one they were heading in.
“You need to steer to port a little.” The Doctor called over to where the captain and Alistair were standing.
“There’s nothing on the radar screen.” One of the men protested.
“Then get a pair of binoculars and look the old fashioned way.” Ianto snapped. He wasn’t fond of boats.
The captain pulled out his own binoculars and looked in the direction the Doctor had indicated.
“Is that a fucking flying saucer?” He blurted.
“I doubt it’s a saucer, but if you mean, is it a space ship, then yes.” The Doctor said.
“Why the hell…….. I thought this was the kind of thing UNIT was supposed to take care of?” George said in a low voice to Alistair.
“I warned UNIT to expect guests for a little while, while their ship is being repaired, but they were not in a position to get to these people in time, you and your crew were.”
“Do you think they can keep this quiet Alistair, they are going to be talking about it in the pub tonight for Gods sake.”
“No, they won’t. Once this is over, they won’t remember it happening, all they will know is they were called out on a wild goose chase, a false alarm.” Alistair said quietly.
“What are you going to do to them?”
“Nothing harmful, I promise, but between UNIT, the Doctor and the people Mr. Jones works for, there are plenty of memory modification techniques to be employed.”
“You swear it won’t harm them Alistair.”
“I swear, they will not be harmed by it in any way.”
“All right, men. Stay professional.” The captain ordered as they pulled up alongside the downed trade ship, and saw that the people standing on the top were covered in short, blue fur.
*Hello, we’re here to help you.* The Doctor called over to the three Tarkanians huddled on top of the ship. They cowered back, scared.
*They won’t hurt you, they just want to take you to dry land.* Raiko pulled away from Ianto’s grip on his life jacket and went to the railing beside the Doctor.
*You, you speak our tongue? This is a closed world, how do you come to speak our tongue?*
*I am a time lord, and he is from the future, from one of this planet’s colonies. You must let us get you off the ship.*
*We cannot lose our ship! It is not concern for the cargo, although it would be unfortunate if what we are carrying fell into the hands of anyone on a closed world. But if we lose our ship, we would not be able to return to Tarkania.*
*I promise you, if your ship sinks while it’s being towed back, it will be destroyed to stop anything falling into the hands of the humans, and I personally will return you to your homeworld.*
*There are more of us, inside.*
*We will get everyone off.*
“Captain, can you throw them a rope, to tie us off to the ship, and use to tow them back.”
“This is not a tow truck, or a tug boat.” The captain grumbled, but he could see the wisdom of not leaving a space ship floating about in the sea, and picked up a rope.
“Make sure they tie it to something strong.”
*Tie this off to something strong.* The Doctor called, throwing the end of the rope over, one of the three caught it, and vanished below.
When he came back up, he reached back down the hatch for something that was being held up from below. He stood up with a bundle in his arms, and a thin, high cry made it obvious what it was.
“Is that a baby?” Ianto asked.
“Yep, can you get us close enough to lift the baby on board?” The Doctor asked the captain.
“No, the cant of that hull means we’re already as close as we can get without risking a wave ramming us into them. We could have one of the men go over and get it, in a harness, that’s how we’ll need to get them anyway.”
“They are not going to hand that baby over to a human.”
“Will they give it to you?”
*Will you allow me to come over there and get the baby?* The Doctor called over to them.
*Yes.* The man said with clear reluctance.
It was nearly an hour before they returned to the shore, after getting the six crew off the ship, including two injured crew members, one of whom was the baby’s mother. There was an army truck waiting on the quayside, as well as a low loader and crane.
The Doctor came back to where Raiko and Ianto were standing, a huge grin on his face.
“What are you so happy about?”
“Part of their cargo was age reversal units, like the one that was used on Jack, the captain said I could have one, when I told him about Raiko. It can’t be used to change him back, his adult pattern is stored in the memory buffer of the one that was used on him, but Toshiko can probably use it for spare parts. It will make it much more likely to succeed when we try to change him back.”
“That’s brilliant.” Ianto grinned.
The three of them stayed with the Tarkanians, to reassure them that everything was OK while their ship was lifted out of the water. The captain pressed something into the Doctor’s hand before they got into the truck.
*As promised.*
*Thank you, so much.* The Doctor grinned.
Alistair looked up as they came in, and put a plate of sandwiches on the table.
“I thought you might be hungry.”
“Thanks Alistair. They got off to the UNIT base OK.”
“Good, Brigadier Wilkes said she’ll keep us appraised, and let us know when they’re ready to take off for home.”
“That’s brilliant. We took care of retconning the lifeboat crew too, before we came back.”
“So they think they were out on a hoax now?”
“Yep, and I have this little gadget to take to Tosh. Ianto, you two stay here, I’ll only be gone a few minutes, I promise.”
“Right,” Ianto said, putting another sandwich down in front of Raiko.
Tosh and Owen were alone in the hub, just getting ready to leave, when the TARDIS materialized. They waited, watching the door expectantly, but still jumped when the Doctor popped out.
“Hello, looks like I just caught you.”
“Yeah, it is kind of late.” Owen growled.
“Oh, I’m not having a go or anything, I just have a gift for Toshiko.”
“What is it?” She asked.
“A functioning unit. We can’t use it to change Jack back, but as long as you leave the memory module from the damaged one intact, you can use this one for spares.”
“That’s brilliant, I’ll um, get to work on it now.” She started to take her coat off again.
“You will not, you were heading home, you should still go. I have no intention of bringing him back before the agreed date anyway. Get some rest.”
“OK.”
“I have to go, I told them I wouldn’t be long.”
“Bye, and thanks again.” Tosh said, placing the unit securely in her desk drawer and locking it. Gwen had been coming in early to start the coffee and tidy round, out of some sense of guilt, and she didn’t want her getting her hands on this one.
Everyone was in the TV room when he came back into the house. The adults were all watching some romance film, and the kids were sprawled on the floor with coloring books. He noticed that Raiko was carefully matching the colors he chose to what the other children used for objects, and smiled. Even as a five year old, he demonstrated the rudiments of tactics and camouflage that would one day make him a formidable soldier, and he had no need of the rigid educational framework of the Doctor’s own youth, and that his children had been subjected to. He had had a hard childhood, but he was still a thousand times happier than the children of Gallifrey. The Doctor slid onto the couch beside Ianto and curled an arm around his waist, settling in to watch the movie.
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