locker_monster (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
locker_monster) wrote2010-11-03 06:36 pm
locker_monster) wrote2010-11-03 06:36 pm
Entry tags:
Doctor Who fic: The Other Side of the World (6/31)
Title: The Other Side of the World (6/31)
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. Yes, the title of this chapter was inspired by the Battlestar Galactica episode of the same name. :-)
Chapter One. Chapter Two. Chapter Three. Chapter Four. Chapter Five.
With her knees pulled up to her chest, Rose rested her head on her legs. She had sat like that for hours it seemed, just listening to the slow pulse of the TARDIS. It was easy to pretend the ship was back at the Powell Estate, sitting harmlessly in the courtyard while the world rolled by. How many times had she escaped to the TARDIS after that day at Canary Wharf? She would simply sit inside and exist separate from the rest of the humans on Earth.
She could even pretend she wasn’t alone.
The creak of the TARDIS doors made her lift her head. Without a spare key, Martha had taken to leaving the doors open a crack so she could leave and enter at her own choosing. Rose glanced around the console, expecting to see the young doctor bearing a tray of food.
A covered face appeared briefly in the crack but quickly disappeared. Though she only caught a glimpse, Rose knew who was spying on her.
Her joints popped as she hopped off the jump seat, her body having grown accustomed to a prone position. She approached the doors quietly, keeping her approach as silent as possible. At the doors, she whipped them open, catching her small spy off guard. The young alien fell back onto her bottom, shocked by Rose’s sudden appearance.
Through the silt in the veil the young alien wore, Rose saw the nervousness in the girl’s vivid green eyes.
Kneeling down, Rose helped the young alien to her feet, also giving her a reassuring smile. “If you wanted to come in, you just have to ask.”
Mirai ay Valdis took Rose’s hand sheepishly. Once again on her feet, the young Haladurian looked down at her feet, refusing to meet Rose’s gaze. From the girl’s body language, Rose hazarded this wasn’t simple remorse at being discovered.
“Mirai…” Rose hesitated, trying to find a delicate way to handle this. “Let’s go for a walk,” she decided.
Mirai finally looked up and nodded her head. With a better understanding of the space station than Rose, the Haladurian started down the corridor.
Haladur 6 was massive. Two days aboard the space station hadn’t been enough time for Rose to figure out her way around. She doubted she would figure it out after a month there. The station looked like one solid structure from the outside when in actuality it was several spaceships welded together, with additions and modifications so that one could walk between one and the other. It was a small city out in one of the lesser travelled space lanes.
As they left the ports behind, Rose and Mirai soon began to encounter the other inhabitants of Haladur 6. Most were the workers who maintained the station and sold goods to passing travellers, along with their families, but occasionally she saw an alien or two without a veil, who was no doubt stopping to re-supply.
The main promenade area bustled with Haladurians. Everything one could possibly need was in the area. Food, clothing, equipment, education, government, legal aid, doctors. A group of children ran by Rose, on their way to their next class.
“Martha!” Mirai waved to a figure nearly lost amongst the crowd. The young alien pushed her way through, her smaller build allowing her more mobility. Rose followed at a slower pace, though many of the Haladurians moved out of her way when they saw her. New visitors on the station were always a treat.
Martha sat in front of one of the smaller clinics, basic medial supplies sitting in a pile next to her on an empty chair. The crowd of people were all there to see her.
“Could you use a break, Martha?” asked one of the doctors, sitting further back in the clinic examining an older female Haladurian.
“I’d like that.” Martha smiled at Mirai and nodded at Rose for a greeting. The crowd parted to allow them to leave.
Mirai led the way to the shops, where scores of Haladurian women were eagerly talking, not quite caring that they weren’t selling their wares.
“They just swamped me,” said Martha, running the sleeve of her shirt across her forehead. “I just wanted to learn a little bit more about Haladurian physiology and they ask me to sit with them.”
“You’re a celebrity, Martha. They don’t get a lot of doctors out here.”
It was still hard to believe Haladur 6 used to be one ship. One ship that broke down in the middle of nowhere and its crew decided to make a home. Then other people and races started to join them and a whole new culture was created. They weren’t simply Humans anymore. They were a new people, all hailing from different species.
People who were born, lived, and died on the station, never touching solid earth.
“You caught Mirai trying to sneak into the TARDIS,” guessed Martha.
They watched the young alien, barely a teenager by Earth’s standards, chat with one of the ladies who ran one of the clothing stalls.
“I know I should talk to her, but I don’t know what to say.”
“Whatever you tell her, it needs to be soon. They have a mechanic on board who’s willing to look at the TARDIS.”
Rose suppressed a sigh. It was yet another thing she had been putting off. The TARDIS was broken, that was clear now, but it didn’t feel right letting someone else look at the ship. As Mirai guided them around the station, Rose couldn’t help but think that her daydream about being back at the Powell Estate didn’t seem that daft now.
It was the middle of the night when Rose discovered Mirai outside the TARDIS the next time. The lights of the station had been dimmed, leaving deep shadows in the corridors. The girl wore black, despite the strict edict in place restricting young Haladurians to pastel colours, and a small bag was slung over her shoulder. She tried to make a run for it, but Rose assured her she wasn’t in trouble.
“I was waitin’ for you, actually.” She invited Mirai in and offered her a seat, putting them eye to eye.
“Are you going to tell my parents I broke curfew?” The girl’s eyes were wide with worry.
“No. If you snuck out, I’m sure you can sneak back in. I just wanted to talk with you. About this.” Rose gestured around at the room. “I know you want to come along when Martha and I leave, but you can’t.”
“Oh, Rose. Please? There’s a whole other world outside of the station. I heard you describe it. I want to see that.”
Rose settled back against the console and took a deep breath to gather her will. “Did anyone tell you how Martha and I arrived?” Mirai shook her head. “We were driftin’, out in space. This ship doesn’t work properly and I don’t know how to fly it. We were out there for four days, just hoping someone would come along and give us a lift. We only found your station by chance.”
Mirai sat attentively, as if listening to the most compelling tale ever. Leaning forward, Rose placed her hand over the young alien’s. “This isn’t the glamourous life you have in your head. It’s dangerous, unpredictable.” Rose paused, swallowing back a lump in her throat. “We leave people behind.”
Pulling her hand free, Mirai glanced away from Rose. “You don’t understand. This space station is all I know. It’s all I’ll ever know. The only time someone leaves is to find a betrothed. I’ve never even seen a real tree,” the young alien added weakly.
Rose felt older than her years in that moment. “I was you once.” She fiddled idly with a loose thread on her shirt. “The same life, day in and day out. I wanted something more, too. And it found me, in the end. I ran off, without really thinking what I was leaving behind.”
That life felt ages ago now. Her one fateful night in the basement of Henrik’s was just a memory.
“Mirai.” Rose ducked into the girl’s eye line, forcing the young alien to meet her gaze. “You will get your chance to see this universe. Set out on your own path. Just wait for the right time.”
The young alien’s eyes shined with unshed tears. She seemed very tiny, lost amongst the folds of her dark clothes.
An idea suddenly seized Rose and she ran for door leading out of the console room. “Wait there. I have you something you’d want.” She rushed down the long hallways of the TARDIS, trying to recall where she had left the item.
Five minutes later, Rose reappeared in the console room, her hair slightly tousled and her shirt covered in dust. She handed it over to Mirai, a smile appearing on her face as she remembered that particular adventure.
“It’s a cutting, from the Forest of Cheem. I got this in the year five billion.”
Mirai handled the small tree carefully, turning it every which way so she could see it from every angle. With a tentative finger she touched one of the leaves. “Thank you,” she said quietly. The young alien sounded very grateful, but yet, at the same time, she sounded disappointed, too.
This wasn’t just a gift. Rose was placating this girl with a plant. She might as well have hugged Mirai then kicked her out of the TARDIS.
Disappearing off into the shadows of the corridor, Rose watched Mirai return to her parent’s dwelling, clutching the cutting of Jabe’s grandfather close to her chest. There were so many places she could go, but with no way back, she had no right to ruin someone’s life like that.
Not again.
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. Yes, the title of this chapter was inspired by the Battlestar Galactica episode of the same name. :-)Chapter One. Chapter Two. Chapter Three. Chapter Four. Chapter Five.
With her knees pulled up to her chest, Rose rested her head on her legs. She had sat like that for hours it seemed, just listening to the slow pulse of the TARDIS. It was easy to pretend the ship was back at the Powell Estate, sitting harmlessly in the courtyard while the world rolled by. How many times had she escaped to the TARDIS after that day at Canary Wharf? She would simply sit inside and exist separate from the rest of the humans on Earth.
She could even pretend she wasn’t alone.
The creak of the TARDIS doors made her lift her head. Without a spare key, Martha had taken to leaving the doors open a crack so she could leave and enter at her own choosing. Rose glanced around the console, expecting to see the young doctor bearing a tray of food.
A covered face appeared briefly in the crack but quickly disappeared. Though she only caught a glimpse, Rose knew who was spying on her.
Her joints popped as she hopped off the jump seat, her body having grown accustomed to a prone position. She approached the doors quietly, keeping her approach as silent as possible. At the doors, she whipped them open, catching her small spy off guard. The young alien fell back onto her bottom, shocked by Rose’s sudden appearance.
Through the silt in the veil the young alien wore, Rose saw the nervousness in the girl’s vivid green eyes.
Kneeling down, Rose helped the young alien to her feet, also giving her a reassuring smile. “If you wanted to come in, you just have to ask.”
Mirai ay Valdis took Rose’s hand sheepishly. Once again on her feet, the young Haladurian looked down at her feet, refusing to meet Rose’s gaze. From the girl’s body language, Rose hazarded this wasn’t simple remorse at being discovered.
“Mirai…” Rose hesitated, trying to find a delicate way to handle this. “Let’s go for a walk,” she decided.
Mirai finally looked up and nodded her head. With a better understanding of the space station than Rose, the Haladurian started down the corridor.
Haladur 6 was massive. Two days aboard the space station hadn’t been enough time for Rose to figure out her way around. She doubted she would figure it out after a month there. The station looked like one solid structure from the outside when in actuality it was several spaceships welded together, with additions and modifications so that one could walk between one and the other. It was a small city out in one of the lesser travelled space lanes.
As they left the ports behind, Rose and Mirai soon began to encounter the other inhabitants of Haladur 6. Most were the workers who maintained the station and sold goods to passing travellers, along with their families, but occasionally she saw an alien or two without a veil, who was no doubt stopping to re-supply.
The main promenade area bustled with Haladurians. Everything one could possibly need was in the area. Food, clothing, equipment, education, government, legal aid, doctors. A group of children ran by Rose, on their way to their next class.
“Martha!” Mirai waved to a figure nearly lost amongst the crowd. The young alien pushed her way through, her smaller build allowing her more mobility. Rose followed at a slower pace, though many of the Haladurians moved out of her way when they saw her. New visitors on the station were always a treat.
Martha sat in front of one of the smaller clinics, basic medial supplies sitting in a pile next to her on an empty chair. The crowd of people were all there to see her.
“Could you use a break, Martha?” asked one of the doctors, sitting further back in the clinic examining an older female Haladurian.
“I’d like that.” Martha smiled at Mirai and nodded at Rose for a greeting. The crowd parted to allow them to leave.
Mirai led the way to the shops, where scores of Haladurian women were eagerly talking, not quite caring that they weren’t selling their wares.
“They just swamped me,” said Martha, running the sleeve of her shirt across her forehead. “I just wanted to learn a little bit more about Haladurian physiology and they ask me to sit with them.”
“You’re a celebrity, Martha. They don’t get a lot of doctors out here.”
It was still hard to believe Haladur 6 used to be one ship. One ship that broke down in the middle of nowhere and its crew decided to make a home. Then other people and races started to join them and a whole new culture was created. They weren’t simply Humans anymore. They were a new people, all hailing from different species.
People who were born, lived, and died on the station, never touching solid earth.
“You caught Mirai trying to sneak into the TARDIS,” guessed Martha.
They watched the young alien, barely a teenager by Earth’s standards, chat with one of the ladies who ran one of the clothing stalls.
“I know I should talk to her, but I don’t know what to say.”
“Whatever you tell her, it needs to be soon. They have a mechanic on board who’s willing to look at the TARDIS.”
Rose suppressed a sigh. It was yet another thing she had been putting off. The TARDIS was broken, that was clear now, but it didn’t feel right letting someone else look at the ship. As Mirai guided them around the station, Rose couldn’t help but think that her daydream about being back at the Powell Estate didn’t seem that daft now.
It was the middle of the night when Rose discovered Mirai outside the TARDIS the next time. The lights of the station had been dimmed, leaving deep shadows in the corridors. The girl wore black, despite the strict edict in place restricting young Haladurians to pastel colours, and a small bag was slung over her shoulder. She tried to make a run for it, but Rose assured her she wasn’t in trouble.
“I was waitin’ for you, actually.” She invited Mirai in and offered her a seat, putting them eye to eye.
“Are you going to tell my parents I broke curfew?” The girl’s eyes were wide with worry.
“No. If you snuck out, I’m sure you can sneak back in. I just wanted to talk with you. About this.” Rose gestured around at the room. “I know you want to come along when Martha and I leave, but you can’t.”
“Oh, Rose. Please? There’s a whole other world outside of the station. I heard you describe it. I want to see that.”
Rose settled back against the console and took a deep breath to gather her will. “Did anyone tell you how Martha and I arrived?” Mirai shook her head. “We were driftin’, out in space. This ship doesn’t work properly and I don’t know how to fly it. We were out there for four days, just hoping someone would come along and give us a lift. We only found your station by chance.”
Mirai sat attentively, as if listening to the most compelling tale ever. Leaning forward, Rose placed her hand over the young alien’s. “This isn’t the glamourous life you have in your head. It’s dangerous, unpredictable.” Rose paused, swallowing back a lump in her throat. “We leave people behind.”
Pulling her hand free, Mirai glanced away from Rose. “You don’t understand. This space station is all I know. It’s all I’ll ever know. The only time someone leaves is to find a betrothed. I’ve never even seen a real tree,” the young alien added weakly.
Rose felt older than her years in that moment. “I was you once.” She fiddled idly with a loose thread on her shirt. “The same life, day in and day out. I wanted something more, too. And it found me, in the end. I ran off, without really thinking what I was leaving behind.”
That life felt ages ago now. Her one fateful night in the basement of Henrik’s was just a memory.
“Mirai.” Rose ducked into the girl’s eye line, forcing the young alien to meet her gaze. “You will get your chance to see this universe. Set out on your own path. Just wait for the right time.”
The young alien’s eyes shined with unshed tears. She seemed very tiny, lost amongst the folds of her dark clothes.
An idea suddenly seized Rose and she ran for door leading out of the console room. “Wait there. I have you something you’d want.” She rushed down the long hallways of the TARDIS, trying to recall where she had left the item.
Five minutes later, Rose reappeared in the console room, her hair slightly tousled and her shirt covered in dust. She handed it over to Mirai, a smile appearing on her face as she remembered that particular adventure.
“It’s a cutting, from the Forest of Cheem. I got this in the year five billion.”
Mirai handled the small tree carefully, turning it every which way so she could see it from every angle. With a tentative finger she touched one of the leaves. “Thank you,” she said quietly. The young alien sounded very grateful, but yet, at the same time, she sounded disappointed, too.
This wasn’t just a gift. Rose was placating this girl with a plant. She might as well have hugged Mirai then kicked her out of the TARDIS.
Disappearing off into the shadows of the corridor, Rose watched Mirai return to her parent’s dwelling, clutching the cutting of Jabe’s grandfather close to her chest. There were so many places she could go, but with no way back, she had no right to ruin someone’s life like that.
Not again.
no subject
no subject
no subject
The cutting was an inspired gift though. I hope Mirai does eventually get the adventure she wants...
(Also, is it okay if I snag your awesome Martha&Rose icon, if I credit? It's pretty fantastic.)
no subject
As long as you credit, then yes, you can snag the icon. :-)
no subject
no subject