by Cour M.
Yet now, he wondered if he was regressing as a Timelord rather than progressing. He had just lost Amy and River as well, and he had been bitter and cold because of it. Just like he had been bitter and cruel after he had lost Rose.
And now here he was in the same place. Whether it was by his will or by the will of the universe, after he lost those two special women, he crossed paths with two more: Martha and Clara. And all of their qualities were the same.
They were beautiful, incredibly smart, had their lives ahead of them, had initiative, drive, a desire to see the beauties of traveling, were fascinated by everything that they saw, were sassy sometimes, were quick learners, were single, flirted with him and had the right to be… loved.
And that was the one thing that he could never give.
He had returned to the place he had been before. Martha Jones… had marked the coming of Clara Oswald. He was back at the same place he had been before. But he knew how this story would end, for it had ended before.
“You’re right,” he confessed, “it is the same as it was with you. Now I see.”
“Well…”
“I shall never see her again.”
“Pardon?”
“Martha, you know what happens when I find such a woman. I will destroy her. I can never see her again.”
“Doctor,” Martha began to argue, but he was resolute.
“No, it’s clear. I will never see Clara Oswald again. This is best. Yes, it is. It’s the only way that I can save her life.”
Martha did not argue… for the moment. Yet her heart went out to this new would-be companion. An empathy that could only be achieved when being in the same place that another woman would have been in. Yet she knew that there were other pressing matters, so she did not pursue her point for the moment, and only changed the subject.
“I was hoping that there were some survivors,” she asserted, “but I suppose if there were, we would have run into them by now.”
“We were never going to, Martha, because there was nothing to survive from.”
“Well obviously.”
“Oh no, I really meant that. There was nothing to survive from, because there was never an attack.”
“What?”
Eleven raised up his sonic and it was buzzing a bit.
“I had it running as we were walking and it has picked up on the sound of many heartbeats which are human. Which means that we have been followed this entire time.”
Eleven turned and called out all around him.
“You can all come out now!” Eleven invited, “because we promise that we are nice. Cross my hearts!”
Martha looked around at where he spoke and then suddenly from behind broken homes and torn apart walls, soldiers appeared, pointing guns at them.
“How long did you know that they were there?” Martha inquired.
“Since we left the TARDIS.”
“You really think you are clever right now, don’t you?”
“Stop acting like you don’t like it.”
Martha raised up one arm from her gun.
“I promise,” she said, “we come in peace. My name is Doctor Martha Jones, and this is the Doctor.”
“Martha?!” One of the soldier’s said, coming forward from the line of soldiers. The man who clearly was the captain, ordered the soldier to stay back, but the man turned to him and could not help himself. “Don’t worry, I know her!”
Martha lowered her gun even further, recognizing the voice somewhat.
“He sounds familiar,” she said to the Doctor, taking a few steps forward while the Doctor at first touched her arm to keep her back. “Don’t worry, I think it’s fine.”
The soldier also walked toward her.
“Yeah, because it is,” he said, then he removed his helmet and it was Martha’s turn to be amazed.
“Riley!” Martha cried.
“Martha!”
Without any apprehension, Martha rushed up to him and hugged him as he closed his arms around her and twirled her around.
“By the yellow of the Medusa Cascade!” The Doctor cried, “Good ole’ Riley, as I live and breathe.”[1]
“Sorry, have we met?” Riley asked, still holding onto Martha.
“Don’t worry, I’ll explain,” Martha offered, “Riley, this actually is the Doctor.”
“Huh?”
“He does this trick, you see, where if he ever is mortally wounded, he regenerates and changes his face and body. So the man who you met when we showed up on your ship and activated the magnetic hull for us, well, this is him.”
Riley looked over Eleven.
“No way!” Riley gasped.
“Yes way,” Eleven grinned, “same two hearts beating in my chest, but different everything else.”
“I can’t believe it.”
“I got possessed by the Sun and kept saying ‘burn with me Martha’ while your favorite color was purple.”
Riley’s eyes widened and he laughed out.
“Doctor!”
“Riley!”
The Doctor and Riley hugged as well, then Riley turned to his captain.
“Captain Davidson, they are here to help. Trust me.”
Captain Davidson came forward and ordered his men to stand down, his gun still in his hands and he removed his mask.
“Captain, this is the Doctor and Martha Jones,” Riley introduced.
“Nice to make your acquaintance,” Eleven saluted.
“That remains to be seen,” Captain Davidson answered warily, “I know your names, but I don’t know what you are doing here.”
“Don’t worry,” Eleven said, reaching into his pocket, but the captain and his many soldiers answered in cocking their guns again. Eleven raised his hands immediately.
“I promise, I’m nice!”
“Don’t worry, he’s just getting verification,” Martha assured them. Eleven removed the psychic paper from his pocket and showed it to Captain Davidson. Davidson read it and relented.
“Oh, welcome proconsul,” He said.
“Thank you very much.”
“We had no idea that the Shadow Proclamation would be sending you.”
“Oh, you know how it is. We’re full of surprises—as well as other things. And I must say that this is very clever. Living in a ruined city to appear as being completely abandoned. A very good defense mechanism.”
“Oh, not really ruined at all.”
Davidson removed two bracelets from his pocket and handed it to Martha and the Doctor.
“What are these for?”
“Deception Eliminators,” Davidson explained. “You are walking into a citywide hologram. One of the Galactic Alliance’s gift to the people of Stowe for helping to close one of the last remaining cracks in the universe.”
“Oh sorry about that by the way,” Eleven apologized.
“Why are you apologizing?”
“Oh, never mind. But here we are…”
Martha and the Doctor put on the bracelets, pressed the button on them and then were amazed as the vast hologram faded around them and the real city appeared where the ruins once were.
“Wow!” Martha exclaimed, turning around as she beheld the settlement. “I love it!”
“Had a feeling you would,” Riley smiled.
“Mind if I hug you again?” Martha laughed.
“Of course I would mind!” He joked and they hugged once more.
“I sense that I might have another gang on my hands,” Eleven smirked, “you may not be husband and wife, but it’s close enough. And I’ll work with it.”
“We can still do other things,” Riley smirked at Martha, “any chance I’ll get a kiss from you again?”
“Kiss?” Eleven echoed, “when?”
“It was after we saved their ship,” Martha explained, “Riley and I kissed each other before I followed you in the TARDIS.”
“Oh,” Eleven sulked, “funny, the things that happen outside of a man’s TARDIS without him knowing it.”
; Martha turned back to Riley and her expression was slightly wistful.
“Riley, I’m so sorry. But I’ve kind of got a husband.”
“Where is he?” Riley replied, defensive. “I don’t see him.”
“Well, yes, but he still does exist. You’d like him, Riley. He really is great.”
Riley gave her a look.
“Or maybe you would hate him on principal,” Martha corrected, lighthearted about it.
“There you go,” Riley agreed.
“Funny,” Eleven said, clapping his hands, “humans! Now, Captain, would it be presumptuous of me to be taken to your primary command room and briefed on the status of your settlement and the state of Mondas?”
“Of course, sir,” Davidson replied, and he led them onward to the headquarters.
The headquarters were the largest unit in the base and they were taken to the command room where Captain Davidson was met with a communications officer who was filing a complaint.
“Sir, forgive me, but there have been another set of numerals and base code in our programs that I found and still has yet to be identified.”
“Every time that you say that, it turns out to be nothing substantial, so not now, Obrien,” Davidson dismissed her and Eleven went alongside him as Martha remained next to Riley, sitting down with him.
“Are you hungry?” Riley offered her, removing some food from his kit.
“Oh thanks!” Martha sighed, “truth is, I’m kind of greedy.”
“Me too. I spend half of my time thinking of food.”
He handed her food and they began to eat it greedily, while sitting down.
“So, what happened after you all left us on the ship?” Riley asked.
“Well,” Martha smiled sadly, “I, um, got taken to 1913 where I had to pretend to be a maid to look after the Doctor and he abandoned me for a bit, then we got stranded back in 1969 by the Weeping Angels, then we accidentally marked the return of one of the Doctor’s deadliest enemies, then we saw him destroy the world, then I had to walk around the Earth to try and destroy him. Then the Doctor and I parted ways.”
“You walked around the entire Earth?”
“Yes. Pretty much.”
“So… I would have thought even we would have heard about your epic quest in space.”
“Time had gotten undone because we reversed this machine that he made, and so everyone forgot about it but us.”
“So you really went through all that?”
“Yes.”
“Well, um, no offense, but that’s what you get for leaving me on that ship and not seeing me again.”
“I see your point.”
They both laughed as they ate.
“But what about you?” She asked, “did you go home and make things up with your mum? Did you ever meet anyone? Have a girlfriend?”
“I made things up with mum in one moment,” he smiled, “but then she got angry again when I told her that I was going to go back into space again. And that’s the strange thing about it. You and me almost died together and yet I still wanted to travel.”
“It’s a ship. Your flying out into space is no different than those sailors who still would go out to sea even after they discovered the risks. It’s just in our natures to not let death stop us. And besides, space is pretty.”
“Yes, it is! But you, you did alright for yourself. This Mickey, did you meet him right after you parted ways with the Doctor?”
“Actually, no I didn’t. At first I was engaged to a man name Tom Milligan, but he spent so much time traveling the world and I had my mission to help this organization called UNIT—also, like you, the universe kept calling out to me. The distance killed the relationship, and for a while, I was cold inside. I admit that, but I kept going, and then I met Mickey. At first I was against dating him, worried that I would use him as a rebound. And that’s never fun. But then I realized that well, I didn’t have forever. Live for the moment, you know. So I took a chance, refused to let my present be haunted by ghosts from my past, shadows of past loves. And I never looked back. Mickey was to the front.”
“I am happy for you then,” Riley said nicely.
“Yeah, no you’re not,” Martha chuckled, shaking her head.
“Yeah, not really.”
“And all that time…”
“I had relationships, but again, the distance killed it.”
“Riley, it really is nice seeing you again.”
Riley smiled.
“In this whole wide universe, it was large enough for the two of us to get separated, and small enough to look at each other again.”
Officer Obrien was still trying to figure out what the language on their computers meant while Captain Davidson was assisting the Doctor.
“The cybermen have disembarked from the planet a few times in the past few weeks. Yet quite a few of them have returned.”
“We might have had something to do with that, my companion and I,” Eleven explained, “and we discovered that there might be something else going on in Mondas besides just random cybermen attack units.”
“Such as?”
“We hacked into a cyberman and found that they are operating under orders for a greater purpose. They did not even care to convert their victims to cybermen as well. They attacked the Cardiff settlement because they were in some sort of alliance. You have surveyed Mondas.”
“Yes.”
“All of it, really?”
“Yes and the cybermen have never detected us here all that time.”
“Are you certain about that?”
“Very much so, for we are still here. Besides, if they detected us, then we would know about it. We have hacked into their mainframe on Mondas and can detect their next movements. On Cardiff, what were they looking for?”
Eleven evaded the question and looked at the blueprints for the settlement.
“So, the Shadow Proclamation is entrusting such technology with the people of Stowe now? A whole hologram over a settlement. Amazing.”
“Yes, our people have come up in the universe. We even have a teleportation system where we can all teleport to our shipyards if we ever need to escape the settlement.”
“I’ve never really met a planet who was down in the universe, but I see your point. And you all stay here, tell me that you have enough weapons and proper defenses that can shield you against a cyberman attack?”
“Our weapons were designed by energy harvested from the Vronski Rift, and therefore they can kill a cyberman and keep him from upgrading.”
“Brilliant, I could kiss you.”
“If you like.”
Eleven squinted.
“Figure of speech.”
“I knew that.”
“Uh huh. And on Mondas, you have seen no signs of other ships making berth there? They have had no allies assist them of any kind?”
“None that we could detect. If they had had any visitors, we would have learned of it.”
The Doctor and Davidson continued to speak while Martha continued to eat and then looked at the computer that Officer Obrien was at. Obrien was trying to be rid of a code that she was giving up reading.
Yet Martha had been in the TARDIS, and its translation matrix was still affecting her. Where the woman could not read it, she could. She stood up slowly, walked away from Riley and leaned over the woman.
“Is this the language that you keep finding on your computer?”
“Yes.”
“Officer Obrien. Please pull up every code that you found with it in your computer.”
“Right. Finally, someone listens to me!”
She pulled up the rest and Martha’s jaw dropped, worried that it was already too late.
“What is it?” Officer Obrien asked, seeing Martha’s face, and Riley noticed it as well.
“Martha?” Riley asked.
“How long has this code been running on your computers!” Martha exclaimed.
“Two weeks now,�
� Obrien reported.
“Doctor!” Martha cried. “Look at this!”
The Doctor rushed to the computer and saw the words that were written in another language altogether. When he read it, he raised his sonic screwdriver and all the other codes with the letters came up.
“Oh no!” He cried, “impossible.”
“What is it?” Captain Davidson asked, rushing over to them.
“It cannot be!” Eleven cried.
“It’s the TARDIS translation matrix,” Martha explained to the soldiers. “You couldn’t read it because it must not be in your databases. It’s a virus.”
“What?” Obrien asked. “How much of a virus?”
“A computer virus that has laid inside of your system for days, disabling your defenses one by one.”
“How could we not detect it before?”
“Because the language is not common,” Eleven gasped, “but it’s impossible. They can’t be back. They just can’t be.”
“Doctor, who is it?”
Eleven looked at her, forlorn, and Martha realized that it was the first time that she had ever seen Eleven properly afraid.
“Martha I am so sorry!”
“Doctor, what is it?” Riley asked, desperate, recalling the time that the Sun that they had used for fuel had possessed him. Only in that moment was he able to see that both faces really were the same man. It was the same feeling of panic.
Eleven looked at Martha, Obrien, Davidson and Riley squarely.
“Mechanoids. They are called mechanoids. And they’ve just implanted a virus in your security system. And it’s too late to stop it. I’m sorry.”
The computers began to crash and the mirage, the hologram of ruins began to fade and the settlement became exposed.
“Everyone, defensive positions!” Davidson ordered, then he signaled everyone through the communications devices to begin to prepare for teleportation. Yet the devices were disabled in the compound and therefore they would have to travel to the backup systems that were half a mile off. “Our position has been compromised.”
“Doctor, what are mechanoids?” Martha asked.
“One of the few things that rivalled the daleks themselves. I fought them long ago, when I was being chased.”
“Then we are exposed.”
