![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
locker_monsterTitle: The Other Side of the World (4/31)
Rating: PG
Characters: Rose, Martha
Timeline: Season three
Summary: Season three AU; After a fateful visit to Royal Hope Hospital, Rose finds herself lost in time and space with medical student Martha Jones. As they struggle to find a way home, they meet old friends, and old enemies, along the way...
Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine. Any borrowed dialogue belongs to Russell T Davies and the BBC.
A/N: A sequel to "The Other Side". It's not necessary reading; it just sets up the premise that it was the Doctor who was trapped in Pete's World, not Rose. And a shout-out to my awesome betas:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
joking and quean_of_swords. This story wouldn't have been posted without you guys.
Chapter One. Chapter Two. Chapter Three.
“I feel like we’re in The Wizard of Oz.”
The long hallway wasn’t emerald green and the workers around them weren’t happily sending them off in song, but Martha couldn’t help but think it. She and Rose were here to see some mysterious man named the Mechanist who could possibly fix the TARDIS and send them back on their merry way to Earth. The anticipation that they could be home by the end of the day made Martha’s heart race. She wasn’t expecting a miracle, but the visit seemed more hopeful than her clicking her heels together.
“Which one of us is Dorothy, then?” asked Rose playfully.
“I think we should be more worried about who’s Toto.” In the impossibly long hallway, they stifled a laugh. The station worker leading them to the Mechanist’s lab glanced over his shoulder and frowned.
It hadn’t been the warmest of welcomes at the Marpesia Science and Research Complex. After helping to save the ocean port on Enlandia, the blue faced merchant who had pulled Martha out of the ocean offered to take her, Rose and the TARDIS to a planet with bigger science facilities. Rose had leapt at the chance to find a way home. While arriving at Marpesia had been simple enough, actually finding someone who would help them had proved more than difficult. Apparently no one had the time to look at a broken time machine. In the end, Rose had flashed a wallet with a blank piece of paper inside at one of the complex attendants and suddenly they had an appointment to see the Mechanist.
Psychic paper, Rose had called it. Anything she wanted could appear on the paper and that seemed to include fake credentials. Martha had a sneaking suspicion they didn’t look like visiting professors, at least not like the professors in this part of the universe, but it had gotten them in the door. It remained to be seen if they would have to keep up the lie once through those doors.
Martha was still having a hard time keeping up with everything the TARDIS could do. It now could translate alien languages in her head, though somewhat spastically. Rose said she had a theory on why the TARDIS translation circuits weren’t working properly, but the young woman hadn’t elaborated.
A large set of metal doors waited at the end of the hallway. The worker inputted a code on a panel by the door and then presented his hand for a scan. The doors opened with a clang.
“The Mechanist’s lab,” the worker said gruffly. “Wait inside.”
Martha and Rose shuffled in and the doors quickly shut behind them. They found themselves in a small room with large windows, overlooking a larger room below. Several large metal rings dominated the centre of the room while tall beams held up a square structure that surrounded the rings. A control centre made up of various screens and keyboards sat just in front of the apparatus.
They didn’t have to wait long for the Mechanist to appear. A grey skinned humanoid climbed the set of stairs from the lab below and entered the observation room. His clothes were all grey as well and from his large forehead to his thick boots he was all one shade.
The Mechanist took a moment to take in Martha and Rose. He looked them up and down, as if studying a piece of machinery. “You are the physics professors from the university?” He sounded only partially convinced.
Martha exchanged a look with Rose, checking to see if they were keeping up their ruse. The young woman stepped forward but she kept the psychic paper in her pocket. “To be honest, we aren’t. But we were hopin’ you could help us.”
The alien frowned, shaking his head. “Lies achieve nothing. Please leave. I am a very busy scientist. My machine needs calibrating and the observers will be arriving soon.” He started for the exit.
Rose rushed forward, moving to block his exit. “I’m sorry we had to lie, but we were told you were the only one who could help us.”
“Very busy,” the Mechanist repeated and he attempted to dodge around her.
“We have a broken time machine,” Rose blurted.
Just a step from the door, the Mechanist stopped. He kept his back to them as he spoke. “A time machine?”
“Yes.”
He turned, his grey eyes blazing with excitement. “It travels in time, yes? Through what principle?”
Rose shrugged apologetically. “I don’t know. It was left in my possession. My friend and I accidentally travelled to another planet and we have no way home.”
“I have tried to invent a viable system for time travel for many years now. Your machine, it could teach me so much.” The Mechanist glanced anxiously over his shoulder at the machine down below. “But I have such little time. Will you stay, after the demonstration? We will have much to discuss.”
The Mechanist gave them no time to reply. He rushed back down the stairs and went to work at the control console. Rose blinked, staring at where the Mechanist had stood. “That was easier than I expected.”
Resting her elbows on the railing running underneath the observation windows, Martha watched the Mechanist work. He had numerous screens up and running and seemed to be consulting them all. Whatever his machine was or did, it felt complicated and monumental. It represented all the advanced science people were trying to create back on Earth. She only followed developments casually, but she was sure any scientist from Earth would have killed to be standing where she was now.
And here she was; Martha Jones from London, now on a completely different world, watching an alien from another planet work on a machine that could have been anything. She could see why Rose had travelled with the Doctor. It certainly put the world in perspective.
They waited in the observation room for half an hour before the first visitors began to show up. Soon the gathered group, about twenty in number, were chatting eagerly while the Mechanist finished up with his preparations. Up in the room, it was the opposite for Martha and Rose. They had debated what the machine’s function was – despite Martha being at a disadvantage since she was less familiar with the various alien sciences out there – and neither of them had decided on one notion. The two of them watched in silence as the Mechanist addressed the crowd, his halting speech pattern giving way to a practiced tone.
“Great leaps forward are always viewed with some uncertainty, but the outcome, good or bad, will have lasting effects for centuries. I hope my creation will benefit this planet and many others in the future, but only history can decide its ultimate fate. Honoured observers, I present to you my latest design. The Quantum Fold!”
With a flick of a switch, the machine came to life. The rings spun as the square structure around them contained the arcs of energy that resulted from the ball of light forming in the centre of the rings.
“My machine is able to fold space, allowing two points with considerable distance between them to meet. A being can walk through on this side here on Marpesia and end up at Iphitus in mere seconds.”
A murmur of interest passed through the crowd. Martha watched the ball of light grow larger and brighter. It truly did look like a portal to another world, at least it did in her eyes. Instantaneous travel; everyone on Earth would go mad for an invention like that. People wouldn’t have to drive the M6 anymore.
Deep down, she couldn’t help but wonder if the machine could get them home. Rose had promised to get her back to Earth, but with the state the TARDIS was in, Martha couldn’t help but doubt that sentiment just a little. It was like being stuck on a desert island and the only way to escape was a leaky raft. The raft would do for awhile but it would eventually submit to the waves.
“A demonstration. A colleague is waiting on Iphitus. I will send this probe,” the Mechanist lifted a small ball made out of metal with pulsing lights on it, “through the fold. It has a recording device on board and will record its telemetry in real time.”
“You’re smiling.”
Martha looked over at Rose. Out of the handful of days that she knew her, this seemed like the first time the young woman was in good spirits. For this moment, neither of them had to worry about getting home. It felt like Rose was just happy to share the universe with someone.
“This is history,” replied Martha. “We’re watching an event that this planet will remember forever. And it’s alien! This might not ever happen to us.”
Down below, the Mechanist was ready to send the probe through the portal. He reached out to enter a set of commands on one of the keyboards.
An arc of energy shot across the room, escaping the square containment structure and striking the far wall of the lab. The crowd let out a collective gasp of surprise. The Mechanist abandoned the probe, but not before another lightning bolt of energy leapt from the portal. It flew over the heads of the crowd, hitting the doors behind them.
Alarms sounded and lights began to flash in the lab. “I’ve lost containment!” shouted the Mechanist. “Evacuation plans!”
The main doors flew open and the crowd fled in a disorganized group. Bolts of energy continued to fly across the room, striking any object without discretion and leaving horrible burn marks behind. In the middle of it all, the Mechanist worked madly, his grey fingers speeding over the multiple keyboards. The portal grew larger and larger within the rings, the light that it was made of nearly blinding.
Rose rushed around Martha, heading for the door down into the lab. Martha followed after her, leaving the observation room just in time. A bolt of energy hit the windows and the glass exploded. She bit back a gasp and forced her feet to keep moving.
Ducking beneath energy strikes, Rose ran straight for the Mechanist. “You should leave, too!”
The alien didn’t look up from the controls and continued to work diligently. “This needs to be contained! The entire complex will fall into the fold if not. Please, go. You are far from home. You should not die here.”
Rose glanced at Martha and the young woman’s decision was made in that moment. She slowly backed away from the Mechanist and started for the exit. Martha spared one more look at the alien, fully aware how familiar this scenario felt, before taking off at a run down the corridor
It wasn’t long before their path took them out into the main foyer of the science complex. The staff hurried about, shouting commands at each other. In the flurry of words, it seemed the TARDIS could not keep up and much of it was nonsense to Martha.
She and Rose left the complex and made their way back to the TARDIS. The port where they had left the time machine was a whirlwind of activity as well. Captains prepared their ships for takeoff while port workers tried to contain some of the chaos. Despite the hurried atmosphere, it all felt planned, like the residents around the science complex knew this would happen one day.
The moment the doors to the TARDIS were closed, Rose rushed up to the console and began to hit buttons and throw levers. Martha could sense the desperation in her actions.
The room shuddered, one combination seemingly paying off. The central column jerked awake and slowly rose and fell in time with the engines. The lights in the walls winked on and off and the floor rumbled with the effort to take off. Martha grabbed onto the railing to keep herself upright.
Rose hit every button, knob, and switch within reach. She didn’t stop running.
Rating: PG
Characters: Rose, Martha
Timeline: Season three
Summary: Season three AU; After a fateful visit to Royal Hope Hospital, Rose finds herself lost in time and space with medical student Martha Jones. As they struggle to find a way home, they meet old friends, and old enemies, along the way...
Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine. Any borrowed dialogue belongs to Russell T Davies and the BBC.
A/N: A sequel to "The Other Side". It's not necessary reading; it just sets up the premise that it was the Doctor who was trapped in Pete's World, not Rose. And a shout-out to my awesome betas:
joking and quean_of_swords. This story wouldn't have been posted without you guys.Chapter One. Chapter Two. Chapter Three.
“I feel like we’re in The Wizard of Oz.”
The long hallway wasn’t emerald green and the workers around them weren’t happily sending them off in song, but Martha couldn’t help but think it. She and Rose were here to see some mysterious man named the Mechanist who could possibly fix the TARDIS and send them back on their merry way to Earth. The anticipation that they could be home by the end of the day made Martha’s heart race. She wasn’t expecting a miracle, but the visit seemed more hopeful than her clicking her heels together.
“Which one of us is Dorothy, then?” asked Rose playfully.
“I think we should be more worried about who’s Toto.” In the impossibly long hallway, they stifled a laugh. The station worker leading them to the Mechanist’s lab glanced over his shoulder and frowned.
It hadn’t been the warmest of welcomes at the Marpesia Science and Research Complex. After helping to save the ocean port on Enlandia, the blue faced merchant who had pulled Martha out of the ocean offered to take her, Rose and the TARDIS to a planet with bigger science facilities. Rose had leapt at the chance to find a way home. While arriving at Marpesia had been simple enough, actually finding someone who would help them had proved more than difficult. Apparently no one had the time to look at a broken time machine. In the end, Rose had flashed a wallet with a blank piece of paper inside at one of the complex attendants and suddenly they had an appointment to see the Mechanist.
Psychic paper, Rose had called it. Anything she wanted could appear on the paper and that seemed to include fake credentials. Martha had a sneaking suspicion they didn’t look like visiting professors, at least not like the professors in this part of the universe, but it had gotten them in the door. It remained to be seen if they would have to keep up the lie once through those doors.
Martha was still having a hard time keeping up with everything the TARDIS could do. It now could translate alien languages in her head, though somewhat spastically. Rose said she had a theory on why the TARDIS translation circuits weren’t working properly, but the young woman hadn’t elaborated.
A large set of metal doors waited at the end of the hallway. The worker inputted a code on a panel by the door and then presented his hand for a scan. The doors opened with a clang.
“The Mechanist’s lab,” the worker said gruffly. “Wait inside.”
Martha and Rose shuffled in and the doors quickly shut behind them. They found themselves in a small room with large windows, overlooking a larger room below. Several large metal rings dominated the centre of the room while tall beams held up a square structure that surrounded the rings. A control centre made up of various screens and keyboards sat just in front of the apparatus.
They didn’t have to wait long for the Mechanist to appear. A grey skinned humanoid climbed the set of stairs from the lab below and entered the observation room. His clothes were all grey as well and from his large forehead to his thick boots he was all one shade.
The Mechanist took a moment to take in Martha and Rose. He looked them up and down, as if studying a piece of machinery. “You are the physics professors from the university?” He sounded only partially convinced.
Martha exchanged a look with Rose, checking to see if they were keeping up their ruse. The young woman stepped forward but she kept the psychic paper in her pocket. “To be honest, we aren’t. But we were hopin’ you could help us.”
The alien frowned, shaking his head. “Lies achieve nothing. Please leave. I am a very busy scientist. My machine needs calibrating and the observers will be arriving soon.” He started for the exit.
Rose rushed forward, moving to block his exit. “I’m sorry we had to lie, but we were told you were the only one who could help us.”
“Very busy,” the Mechanist repeated and he attempted to dodge around her.
“We have a broken time machine,” Rose blurted.
Just a step from the door, the Mechanist stopped. He kept his back to them as he spoke. “A time machine?”
“Yes.”
He turned, his grey eyes blazing with excitement. “It travels in time, yes? Through what principle?”
Rose shrugged apologetically. “I don’t know. It was left in my possession. My friend and I accidentally travelled to another planet and we have no way home.”
“I have tried to invent a viable system for time travel for many years now. Your machine, it could teach me so much.” The Mechanist glanced anxiously over his shoulder at the machine down below. “But I have such little time. Will you stay, after the demonstration? We will have much to discuss.”
The Mechanist gave them no time to reply. He rushed back down the stairs and went to work at the control console. Rose blinked, staring at where the Mechanist had stood. “That was easier than I expected.”
Resting her elbows on the railing running underneath the observation windows, Martha watched the Mechanist work. He had numerous screens up and running and seemed to be consulting them all. Whatever his machine was or did, it felt complicated and monumental. It represented all the advanced science people were trying to create back on Earth. She only followed developments casually, but she was sure any scientist from Earth would have killed to be standing where she was now.
And here she was; Martha Jones from London, now on a completely different world, watching an alien from another planet work on a machine that could have been anything. She could see why Rose had travelled with the Doctor. It certainly put the world in perspective.
They waited in the observation room for half an hour before the first visitors began to show up. Soon the gathered group, about twenty in number, were chatting eagerly while the Mechanist finished up with his preparations. Up in the room, it was the opposite for Martha and Rose. They had debated what the machine’s function was – despite Martha being at a disadvantage since she was less familiar with the various alien sciences out there – and neither of them had decided on one notion. The two of them watched in silence as the Mechanist addressed the crowd, his halting speech pattern giving way to a practiced tone.
“Great leaps forward are always viewed with some uncertainty, but the outcome, good or bad, will have lasting effects for centuries. I hope my creation will benefit this planet and many others in the future, but only history can decide its ultimate fate. Honoured observers, I present to you my latest design. The Quantum Fold!”
With a flick of a switch, the machine came to life. The rings spun as the square structure around them contained the arcs of energy that resulted from the ball of light forming in the centre of the rings.
“My machine is able to fold space, allowing two points with considerable distance between them to meet. A being can walk through on this side here on Marpesia and end up at Iphitus in mere seconds.”
A murmur of interest passed through the crowd. Martha watched the ball of light grow larger and brighter. It truly did look like a portal to another world, at least it did in her eyes. Instantaneous travel; everyone on Earth would go mad for an invention like that. People wouldn’t have to drive the M6 anymore.
Deep down, she couldn’t help but wonder if the machine could get them home. Rose had promised to get her back to Earth, but with the state the TARDIS was in, Martha couldn’t help but doubt that sentiment just a little. It was like being stuck on a desert island and the only way to escape was a leaky raft. The raft would do for awhile but it would eventually submit to the waves.
“A demonstration. A colleague is waiting on Iphitus. I will send this probe,” the Mechanist lifted a small ball made out of metal with pulsing lights on it, “through the fold. It has a recording device on board and will record its telemetry in real time.”
“You’re smiling.”
Martha looked over at Rose. Out of the handful of days that she knew her, this seemed like the first time the young woman was in good spirits. For this moment, neither of them had to worry about getting home. It felt like Rose was just happy to share the universe with someone.
“This is history,” replied Martha. “We’re watching an event that this planet will remember forever. And it’s alien! This might not ever happen to us.”
Down below, the Mechanist was ready to send the probe through the portal. He reached out to enter a set of commands on one of the keyboards.
An arc of energy shot across the room, escaping the square containment structure and striking the far wall of the lab. The crowd let out a collective gasp of surprise. The Mechanist abandoned the probe, but not before another lightning bolt of energy leapt from the portal. It flew over the heads of the crowd, hitting the doors behind them.
Alarms sounded and lights began to flash in the lab. “I’ve lost containment!” shouted the Mechanist. “Evacuation plans!”
The main doors flew open and the crowd fled in a disorganized group. Bolts of energy continued to fly across the room, striking any object without discretion and leaving horrible burn marks behind. In the middle of it all, the Mechanist worked madly, his grey fingers speeding over the multiple keyboards. The portal grew larger and larger within the rings, the light that it was made of nearly blinding.
Rose rushed around Martha, heading for the door down into the lab. Martha followed after her, leaving the observation room just in time. A bolt of energy hit the windows and the glass exploded. She bit back a gasp and forced her feet to keep moving.
Ducking beneath energy strikes, Rose ran straight for the Mechanist. “You should leave, too!”
The alien didn’t look up from the controls and continued to work diligently. “This needs to be contained! The entire complex will fall into the fold if not. Please, go. You are far from home. You should not die here.”
Rose glanced at Martha and the young woman’s decision was made in that moment. She slowly backed away from the Mechanist and started for the exit. Martha spared one more look at the alien, fully aware how familiar this scenario felt, before taking off at a run down the corridor
It wasn’t long before their path took them out into the main foyer of the science complex. The staff hurried about, shouting commands at each other. In the flurry of words, it seemed the TARDIS could not keep up and much of it was nonsense to Martha.
She and Rose left the complex and made their way back to the TARDIS. The port where they had left the time machine was a whirlwind of activity as well. Captains prepared their ships for takeoff while port workers tried to contain some of the chaos. Despite the hurried atmosphere, it all felt planned, like the residents around the science complex knew this would happen one day.
The moment the doors to the TARDIS were closed, Rose rushed up to the console and began to hit buttons and throw levers. Martha could sense the desperation in her actions.
The room shuddered, one combination seemingly paying off. The central column jerked awake and slowly rose and fell in time with the engines. The lights in the walls winked on and off and the floor rumbled with the effort to take off. Martha grabbed onto the railing to keep herself upright.
Rose hit every button, knob, and switch within reach. She didn’t stop running.
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-12-24 05:22 am (UTC)It's just nonstop adventure for these two! I feel bad for the poor injured TARDIS. It's too bad Rose doesn't know about Jack, because it seemed he learned a little bit about TARDIS maintenance when he was on board. (though I might be mistaken and that may just be fanon)
So, has Rose learned to fly the TARDIS at all? Or are these trips with Martha her first ones since the Doctor got trapped?
no subject
Date: 2010-12-24 11:23 pm (UTC)We did see Jack helping Nine work on the TARDIS in "Boom Town", so I think it's safe to say Jack would know a thing or two about piloting the TARDIS. As for Rose knowing how to fly the thing, in my head, she doesn't know how to control it, which is partly the driving force of this story. How do you get home when you don't know the way back?
I'm not sure if it's canon, but supposedly the TARDIS can pilot itself if someone is smashing the buttons and generally doing harm to the ship.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-20 09:00 pm (UTC)Great chapter!
no subject
Date: 2011-01-22 11:24 pm (UTC)