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Past Imperfect by ponygirl [Reviews - 25]  Chapter or Story Author's Notes: Yes, I did another multi era fic. This is essentially an attempt to convince New Skoolers of the wonderfulness that is Six. If I somehow manage to succeed, readers can find more adventures of the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn Smythe on the Big Finish Audios, starting with "The Marian Conspiracy". This fic is completed, and a new chapter will be posted every day. Enjoy! | |
Past Imperfect
The TARDIS plunged through the Vortex, heedless of the powerful energies swirling around her. Inside the control room, Rose stumbled, grabbing for a handhold on the console.
"And what's so special about Perrian IV, again?" she asked.
Seemingly unaffected by the craft's unpredictable swaying, the Doctor shot her a grin, his eyes meeting hers merrily from under his untidy brown fringe as he glanced up from the console screen.
"Well, I've heard tell that the view from the top of Mount Asadi is one of the wonders of the galaxy." He jerked his attention back to the controls as the ship slewed sideways. "Always meant to see it... I even went there once, a long time ago. Got sidetracked, though." A thoughtful expression slid across his face. "I can't really remember why... odd, that." He brightened again. "Still, no time like the present, is there?"
The swaying settled into a bone-jarring vibration.
"The 'present' seems a bit rougher than usual, don'tcha think?" Rose asked, trying to keep her teeth from rattling.
"Hmm," her companion agreed, flipping switches and checking readouts. "Something's trying to drag the old girl off course. Not to worry, though, it doesn't seem to be anything--"
An almighty lurch sent them both flying, landing in an undignified heap on the metal grating.
"-- serious," finished the Doctor, over the noise of materialisation.
"Oh, good," groaned Rose, climbing gingerly to her feet. "'Cause, you know, I'd hate to think it was serious."
The Doctor was already up and back at the console, calling up new readings.
"Yes, well, we're in the right place, at any rate, though not exactly the time I'd originally chosen. Not that the view will have changed much in the intervening six decades. Shall we go? Mount Asadi awaits."
Rose peered at him. "Aren't you worried about whatever dragged us off course?"
"Er, yes. A bit. But since whatever it was is presumably out there someplace, we won't learn anything standing here, will we?" he replied, ushering her to the doors.
As it turned out, they didn't learn anything by going outside, either.
Rose barely had time to take in the idyllic clearing in which they'd landed when a beam of light slammed into the Doctor. With a grunt of pain, he fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes, out cold.
She gasped, flinching back in shock as she tried to trace the angle of the beam. Figures moved at the edge of the tree line, maybe twenty metres away. Before she could do more than think about dragging the Doctor back through the open doors of the TARDIS, one of them broke cover. She made out the muzzle of the ugly blaster pointing at her, and the bulky leather wristguard on the forearm holding it.
A wristcomp, she thought, just as a large, invisible lorry slammed into her stomach. Unable to control her body, she tumbled to the forest floor, barely feeling it as her temple impacted sharply with the corner of the TARDIS. The Doctor's face, peaceful in unconsciousness, swam before her eyes briefly before the darkness claimed her.
o-o-o-o-o
"Report," snapped Agent Delgado, addressing the compact but powerful computer strapped to his wrist. The attenuated voice of Haxrellic, his second-in-command, replied over the link.
"The subjects are subdued, sir. The device is under our control. We have access."
"Well done, Lieutenant," Delgado approved, moving from his flanking position toward the misleading blue box. "Pack up the temporal tractor beam, and make ready to transport the unknown device. Leave the pilots. It's the technology we're interested in."
Confused voices came over the link, and Delgado looked up to see his men clustered around the stunned pair on the ground.
"What is it?" he demanded, striding into the clearing.
Haxrellic straightened from his position over the downed man. "Sir, take a look at these readings! They're off the scale. What is he?"
Delgado scanned the male prisoner. "Binary vascular system... respiratory bypass... brain activity off the charts, even under heavy stun..." He raised an eyebrow. "Fascinating! New orders-- wrap him up, we're taking him with us. Leave the girl... she's nothing special."
"Aye, sir," answered the lieutenant, sending one of the grunts back to their transport for a set of restraints.
Delgado gazed speculatively at the unremarkable-looking man in the dirt by his feet, and the very remarkable-looking timeship behind him.
"Just what secrets do you hold, I wonder?" he asked softly.
o-o-o-o-o
Birds twittered merrily, fluttering out of the way of the unlikely looking pair of travelers hiking up the steep forest trail. The man, tall and broad with an unruly mop of blond curls, paused to offer his companion a helping hand over a particularly troublesome boulder.
The woman waved him off tetchily, puffing as she clambered a bit ungracefully over the large stone. Muttering under her breath, she detached her bright orange cardigan from a bramble and ran a hand through her short, salt-and-pepper hair.
"Honestly, Doctor! Why you always insist on dragging us up the most overgrown and inaccessible trails on any given planet is quite beyond me," she groused. "I'm a history lecturer. Not a mountain climber."
The Doctor was unfazed. "I told you, Evelyn... the view from the crest of Mount Asadi on Perrian IV is one of the wonders of the known universe!"
"Hmm, well as holiday destinations go, it's a bit... remote... don't you think? I mean, I don't suppose you could have just landed the TARDIS on top of the mountain, and saved us the trek?"
"Bah!" the Doctor replied, looking scandalized. "The ascent is part of the total experience... the atmosphere... the ambience. Can you think of any better way in the cosmos to relax?"
Evelyn snorted. "Actually, Doctor, my idea of a relaxing holiday involves more sand, more fruity drinks with little umbrellas, and more attractive cabana boys catering to my every whim. Oh, yes-- and fewer mosquitoes. Or whatever these nasty little things are," she said, smacking a particularly large specimen before it could make a meal of her.
An expression of fond amusement crinkled the corners of the man's piercing blue-green eyes.
"You, my dear Dr. Smythe, are a shameless hedonist," he deadpanned, offering his arm, which she took.
She smiled up at him, all innocence. "Guilty as charged. And, at my age, I think I've earned it. So there."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows, pretending offense. "At your age? Your age? And what does that make me, pray tell?"
"Very, very old," she answered flatly, and they both burst into laughter.
The trail widened out into a grassy clearing, the sun breaking through the canopy to illuminate a rainbow of wildflowers. The Doctor stretched, breathing in appreciatively, while Evelyn crossed to a flat rock that looked about the right height to make a comfortable seat.
As she approached it, she caught a glimpse of gold half-hidden by the grass and bushes. Bending down to look more closely, she gasped in surprise.
"Doctor, come quickly!"
"What is it, Evelyn?" he asked, rushing to her side. "Good heavens!" he exclaimed, kneeling down beside the crumpled form of a young blond girl.
"Doctor, she looks human," Evelyn said in surprise. "How is that possible? Is she--"
"She's alive," the Doctor assured her, and Evelyn sighed in relief. He continued his examination, being careful not to move her head or neck.
"Superficial head wound, bumps and bruises from the fall, slight hypothermia from exposure... she's been here for a while. Nothing to explain such a long period of unconsciousness, though... Aha! Signs of some kind of energy weapon. A stun beam, to be exact."
He stood, removing his long patchwork coat.
"I think we can move her safely. Come on, Evelyn, help me wrap her up in this, and we'll get her back to the TARDIS."
Evelyn took the coat, awkwardly draping it around the slight figure as the Doctor supported her, then hurried ahead as he scooped her up in his arms, doing her best to clear a way for them as they started the long trek back down the mountainside.
o-o-o-o-o
Evelyn reflected that she was getting far too much practice treating the injured since she boarded the TARDIS, as she removed the blond girl's hoodie and trainers. Still, at least there was every reason to believe that, in this particular case, their patient would recover fully.
As the Doctor eased the young woman back down on the medical couch and began to quickly and efficiently treat the shallow head wound and bruising, she started to search through the girl's pockets, looking for identification, and anything which might give them a clue as to why a normal-looking twentieth or twenty-first century human had been stunned and then abandoned on a planet half a galaxy away from Earth.
Apparently satisfied with his work, the Doctor straightened and looked over at her.
"Find anything interesting?" he asked.
Evelyn passed him a small phone.
"Only her mobile, so far."
He took the object from her, idly pressing the power button.
"Hmm, not much use out here, certainly." His eyes narrowed suddenly. "Good grief!"
"What is it?" she asked curiously.
"It's got a signal," he replied, disbelief tinging his rich baritone.
"That's impossible!" Evelyn exclaimed.
The Doctor was already prying the back off the phone, poking around its miniaturised innards.
"No, not impossible," he answered absently. "But certainly very unusual... it looks like the sort of thing I'd rig up, actually. If I suddenly found that I had need of a mobile phone in the Vortex, that is."
Evelyn frowned and went back to the girl's pockets as the Doctor replaced the odd electrical components he'd liberated and snapped the cover back together, turning the phone over and examining the tiny screen as he pressed buttons.
Her hand closed around something small and metal on a chain, and she pulled it out.
She couldn't contain her gasp of surprise at the TARDIS key glowing warmly in her hand. The Doctor glanced at her sharply, one eyebrow rising as he took in the small silver object.
Their eyes met as he turned the phone towards her. A small blue icon in the shape of a police box flashed on the display screen, with the word "Tardis" next to it.
"Curiouser and curiouser," he said.
"To say the least!" she agreed. "And yet you don't recognise her, I take it?"
"I've never seen her before in all my lives. Still, it's fairly obvious that she knows me, or will know me, at any rate. Why don't you stay with her while I take this phone back to the console room and run some tests on it. She should be waking up fairly soon, and maybe then you and I can get some answers."
o-o-o-o-o
Rose groaned as pins and needles prickled along her extremities, rousing her from the warm darkness where she had been floating for such a long time. Her tongue felt thick and fuzzy, and she coughed and gagged as it rasped against her dry, parched throat.
Distant noise gradually resolved itself into a kindly female voice, and Rose felt herself lifted into a more upright position.
"It's all right, dear," said the voice. "Here, drink this. Easy does it, now."
The edge of a cup brushed her lips, and she sucked greedily at the cool water.
"Slowly," warned her good Samaritan. "Just sip it. Take a moment to get your bearings."
After a few more swallows, the cup disappeared, and Rose felt pillows being stuffed behind her back and shoulders. Then the hands allowed her to settle back. She blinked repeatedly, the swimming sensation in her head gradually waning as her blurry vision began to clear.
A greying, grandmotherly woman in a bright orange cardigan hovered over her, peering at her over half-moon spectacles.
"Wh-where am I? Who are you?" Rose forced out past her too-large tongue.
"You're in the medical room, dear. My name's Evelyn. Don't worry, you're safe now, and you're going to be just fine. Can you remember what happened to you?"
Rose closed her eyes, trying to force her brain beyond the fuzzy cotton wool that seemed to surround it. She remembered... she remembered being in the TARDIS... they were going sightseeing on some alien mountaintop... the Doctor was stepping out of the door... he was falling... she tried to reach him, but something hit her like a punch in the gut... her last sight of him, his head resting limply in the dirt...
Her eyes snapped open in fear.
"Doctor!" she cried, trying to rise from the bed. "Where's the Doctor? I have to find him!"
The woman-- Evelyn-- held her shoulders firmly, easily preventing her from getting up in her weakened state.
"It's all right, dear, it's all right!" she said firmly, cutting across Rose's panic. "He's just down the hall. I'll go and call him, but you have to calm down first. Agreed?"
Heart still pounding, Rose nodded and settled back. Evelyn patted her on the shoulder and crossed to the door, poking her head out into the corridor and calling out, "Doctor! Our patient is awake!"
Rose could barely make out a male voice answering back. A few moments later, a large man with a mop of unruly blond curls entered, dressed from head to toe in different shades of blue, including a long, patchwork blue frock coat that looked like it had been designed by a particularly depressed quilting circle.
"Hullo," he greeted her in a booming baritone as he crossed to her bedside. "Awake at last, I see."
"Who're you?" Rose demanded, caught halfway between fear and belligerence. "What is this place, and what have you done with the Doctor?"
"This is the Doctor," said Evelyn, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Rose shook her head, backing up tight against the pillows behind her and meeting the strange man's sharp gaze head on.
"You're not the Doctor," she accused.
to be continued
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