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http://amythest-n-ice.livejournal.com/46156.html
Link to Chapter 12
http://amythest-n-ice.livejournal.com/50466.html
Link to Chapter 14
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Rose bounced into the kitchen and found Jack already in there, standing over the counter, preparing the teapot.
“Hey Jack,” she said.
“Rose, where’s Mickey?”
“In the console room, winding the Doctor up, I was going to make tea, but you seem to have beat me to it,” she grinned.
“Yeah, sorry,” he grinned in return.
“How come you never make coffee anymore?” she asked, she very rarely drank it, but she liked the smell of it brewing.
“No point, none of you drink it, and I’m off it at the moment,” he said, he didn’t much like tea, but coffee would be bad for the baby.
“Why?” she asked, curious.
His shoulders tensed slightly, Rose and Mickey still didn’t know about the pregnancy, and he wasn’t sure he was ready to tell either of them, not knowing how they would react to the news.
“Jack?” she pressed, seeing the sudden tension and wondering about it.
“Leave it Rose, please. I don’t want to talk about it now, ok?”
“Ok, but you know you don’t have to hide things from us, don’t you Jack, we care about you,” she said.
“I know,” he said, also knowing he would have to say something sooner rather than later, it would become noticeable soon enough.
He finished making the tea and smiled at her as he handed her two of the mugs, taking the other two himself.
“Come on, let’s go and make sure they’re not getting out of hand in the console room,” he said.
In the console room, they found Mickey sitting on the bench seat, his arms folded, a sulky look on his face, which indicated that he had lost the latest round of who can wind the other up the most, and Rose snickered as she handed him his mug.
“So, what’s the plan for today then?” she asked, making Mickey shuffle up so that she could sit on the bench beside him.
“Anyone have any preferences?” the Doctor asked, taking his mug from Jack and kissing him lightly in thanks.
“Um, I wouldn’t mind seeing a planet with two suns, if that’s all right?” Mickey said, quickly getting over his sulk and looking up hopefully.
“Oooh, yeah, me too. You’ve never taken me to a planet with two suns either,” Rose agreed.
“Hmm, binary star systems that can support human or humanoid life are very rare,” the Doctor said thoughtfully, tapping his fingers against his chin as he ran through all the planets he could think of that were binary.
“I visited one, once, but I can’t remember the name of it,” Jack said.
“What do you remember about it?” the Doctor asked, turning to the console and pulling up one of the screens to search the TARDIS databanks.
“It was a desert, of course, but the people lived inside envirodomes to protect them from the heat. I know they had imported water from somewhere, once, and built a specialized dome for it, it constantly replenished itself by capturing and condensing evaporation from the heat, they also had hydroponics domes, they were completely self sufficient from wherever they had come from,” Jack said, watching as the Doctor keyed the description in.
“Envex 4,” the Doctor said when one result lit on the screen in front of him.
“Yes, that’s the one,” Jack grinned, bouncing lightly on his toes.
“Ok then, Envex it is,” the Doctor conceded, setting the destination.
/x/
The TARDIS materialized in a quiet corner of one of the maintenance tunnels, out of the way, and the four stepped out.
“The main dome is that way,” Jack said, checking on his vortex manipulator.
They wandered to the end of the tunnel, and the Doctor sonic-ed the lock on the door, making it obediently slide back. The dome was nothing like the utilitarian tunnel they had appeared in, there were planters set with lush greenery set all through the area just ahead of them, and even a fountain, tinkling merrily in the center of the tiled courtyard, set around with benches. Looking up, they could see the top of the dome, seeming smoky against the brilliance of the sky far above.
“What’s with the dome?” Mickey asked.
“The closest analogy would be that it’s polarized, it darkens as the suns rise higher in the sky, and clears as they set so that the view of the night sky is clear,” the Doctor told him.
“So what’s this dome for?” Rose asked, trying to see beyond the courtyard fence.
“It’s the main habitation dome, I think we’re in the courtyard of one of the hotels here,” the Doctor said, glancing around. The door they had come through appeared well blended into the wall from here, making it clear that it was meant to be unnoticed by anyone using the courtyard.
“There’s a gate here,” Mickey said, lifting the latch and pulling the gate open.
They stepped through and latched it behind them again, finding themselves in a narrow walkway between the fence they had just crossed, and another identical fence. Picking a direction, Jack started walking and they exited the walkway, stepping onto a wide avenue, lined with buildings that seemed identical at first glance, until she noticed that each one had mosaics set over their main doors, all apparently different.
“We’re in the outer ring, I think,” Jack said.
“Yeah, we need to get to the center, to the transport terminus,” the Doctor agreed.
“Everyone, remember where we parked,” he said, nodding to the mosaic over the door of the hotel they had left the TARDIS under, which seemed to be a sea serpent, chasing its own tail in a figure of eight pattern.
Once they had all nodded to indicate they would remember, he set off at a fair clip, looking for one of the cross streets that would lead them deeper into the heart of the dome, nodding politely to the occasional people they passed.
/x/
“This is the transport terminus?” Mickey asked in confusion when they reached the center of the dome, which seemed to be a tall circular pillar that stretched all the way up to the top of the dome itself, set with doors that looked like lift doors to him.
“No, it’s a bank of lifts,” the Doctor said, rolling his eyes.
Jack smirked and wandered over to a discreet map set into the wall between some vines, as some of the doors opened, spilling people out . They dispersed into the streets beyond.
“Green for commerce, and blue for leisure,” Jack called over to the Doctor.
“Commerce, you mean shops?” Rose asked, her eyes lighting up.
“Everything commerce related, banks, offices, businesses, shops, markets,” Jack laughed.
“And what’s in the leisure dome?” Mickey asked.
“Uh, I think all the bars, restaurants, special areas where the dome is altered to allow people to sunbathe safely, saunas, that kind of thing, along with areas you can just sit and look out at the desert, although they’re more popular at night, for amazing views of the stars,”
“Can we go there first? The whole point of coming here was to see a planet with two suns,” Mickey said, Rose pouted at him, but it was more a token pout, she had wanted to see it too.
“Sure, why not,” the Doctor said, bounding over to the bank of blue lifts, and pressing the call button to go down.
When they got out of the lift car a few seconds later, they found themselves in what looked very much like a
“Here we go, tickets, and the next train is in three minutes,” he said, leading them to a shimmering section of the wall. He pressed his ticket to the sensor at the side of the shimmer and stepped in, fading from view.
“Er, what?” Rose squeaked.
“Short range transports, down to the platform, come on, we don’t want to miss the train,” he said, motioning her to press her ticket to the sensor as Jack had done and shoving her into the field when she still hesitated. Mickey glared at him, and stepped through without needing to be shoved, figuring that the Doctor wouldn’t do anything that would deliberately risk Jack or Rose. The Doctor grinned and followed after them.
There were a handful of people on the platform, and a clock counting down the time to the next train.
“Where are the rails?” Rose asked, looking down over the edge of the platform at the smooth, curved section below.
“No rails, antigrav technology,” the Doctor said, tugging her away from the edge.
“So how does the train move then? With no friction, how come it doesn’t just hover there?” Mickey asked.
“Small propulsion jets in the roofs of the carriages, pushes it along with minimal energy expenditure,” the Doctor told him without sarcasm, he didn’t mind when Mickey asked intelligent questions.
There was a stirring of air, and the train slipped quietly into view, braking gently as it drew level with the platform with a light burst of reverse thrust. They boarded, finding the two carriages both half full, there was nowhere they could all sit together, so they spread among a few seats in the same area, Rose sitting beside Mickey, opposite two men with faintly blue tinted skin who were reading what looked like the high tech equivalent of newspapers, transparent film upon which the words and images shifted when they ran their thumbs over a dark spot in the corner of it. Jack and the Doctor ended up facing each other across the aisle from them, so they quite happily sat there with their knees resting together as they settled.
They had only been going for a few minutes when there was a shudder, and the train seemed to dip and wobble slightly before the ride smoothed out again.
“What was that?” Rose asked, alarmed, despite the fact that no one else seemed particularly worried by it.
“Antigrav wobble, passing from one set of generators to the next, if there is a slight variation in output, it takes the cars a second to equalize again,” the Doctor said, unconcerned.
There was another dip, more pronounced this time, and Jack raised an eyebrow.
“The generators are not set that closely together, that’s a fluctuation in the output of the generator,” he said as the ride smoothed for a second before wobbling again.
“How long until we get out of this section then?” Mickey asked as yet another dip jolted them.
“Too long, I think this generator is about to fail,” Jack said, and even as he said the words, the car lurched violently, throwing Jack and the Doctor into the two men who were sitting on the inside.
Jack tried to brace as the cars hit the bottom of the groove they ran along and rolled in the other direction, but the man to the side of him hadn’t been able to brace, and he slammed into Jack, the two of them crashing to the floor as with a final roll, the train settled and the lights went out.
Violet emergency lights came on a moment later, and panels lit on the walls with a message displaying in a dozen languages.
‘Antigrav failure section 9, authorities alerted, remain calm. To report serious injuries, apply ticket to panel.’
“Everyone all right?” the Doctor asked over the murmur of voices as people checked their friends and traveling companions. He cast an eye down their car as Rose and Mickey answered, and was relieved that no one was placing a ticket on the panel to report serious injury.
“Jack?” he asked, realizing his mate hadn’t replied, he saw him and the man who had been sitting next to him lying unmoving by the doors.
“Oh hell,” he said, hurrying over, already pulling out his sonic screwdriver to check them.
tbc
