To Call Our Own (15&16 of 36)

[amberfocus]

Chapter Fifteen:  From Zero to Sixty

“So then we rappelled down the cliff face and--.”

“You did what?” Donna turned and gave the Doctor a stern glance. “You took Rose rappelling? In her condition?”

“It was all perfectly safe,” said Rose. “Donna, I’m not made of glass. I’m not going to break. There were safety harnesses and anti-gravity belts as back up in case something went wrong with the harnesses.”

Donna sighed. “You take so many chances.”

“I live my life. I’m not going to stop living just ‘cause I’m growing another person. Anyway, the Doctor had gotten us a tourist mining license so we could cut gem stones from the cliff face.” Rose reached into her bag and set an emerald crystal the size of her fist in front of Donna. “That one’s yours.” She reached into the bag again and handed another to Jack. “And this one’s yours, sapphire to match your eyes.”

“Oh, they’re lovely,” Donna said, little tears forming in her eyes.

“I’ve got one for Martha, too. Is she around?” Rose looked up hopefully.

Jack jumped up. “I’ll go get her.” He returned with Martha a moment later and she handed the orange garnet crystal to Martha.

“Just a souvenir of our trip. I thought you’d like this one,” Rose said.

“Thank you,” said Martha. “I’m stunned.”

“You’re going to be our future daughter-in-law. Don’t be so surprised,” the Doctor told her.

“You’re family,” said Rose. “Even if you’re not quite yet in it.” Martha came around and gave them both hugs.

“It’s gorgeous.”

A little alarm went off and Rose glanced down at her watch. “I’m afraid that’s all we have time for. I’ve got an appointment with Dr. Visily and I don’t dare be late.” They said their good-byes, with the assurance that they’d be back to take Jack and Donna travelling again. They extended the invitation to Martha as well, but she shook her head.

“I’ve too much to do here,” Martha said.

The Doctor and Rose excused themselves and stepped into the TARDIS. Seconds later they were materializing in the parking lot behind Dr. Visily’s office. Dr. Visily was somewhat annoyed with them.

“When I said I wanted you in here every four weeks, I meant every four weeks of pregnancy time, not just that you could pop in four weeks later in my future. This pregnancy has progressed by seven weeks. That’s nearly twice the amount of time that should have elapsed.”

He shook his head, his expression dour. “Do I have to impress upon you just how different this pregnancy is from a regular one? A Time Lord and a genetically altered human? And we don’t even know how long the pregnancy will run. It could be the usual human number of 40 weeks or it might be longer if the Time Lord DNA outs.”

“Longer?” Rose said, glancing at the Doctor. “You never said anything about longer!”

“Didn’t want to worry you,” said the Doctor.

“You didn’t think I’d notice at week 50 that something wasn’t right?” Rose asked sarcastically.

“It’s possible, but based on the scans I ran this time I don’t think it’s likely. Still, the point is, I don’t know. No one does. This isn’t a simple Gallifreyan/Human cross, which though rare in it’s time, was easy enough to deal with. You are an unknown Rose. Everything about your pregnancy is unknown. So you and your husband need to understand that when I say four weeks, I mean four weeks!”

Then, lecture over, he reverted to the sweet, eccentric man from their last visit. He asked if they had any questions and patiently answered each one. He sent them off with an updated hologram of the baby and a firm admonishment that they absolutely must see him in four more weeks of pregnancy time.

“Well, I guess that’s us well and truly told off,” Rose said.

“He’s right, though Rose. We do need to be careful. We don’t know how this pregnancy will progress and we need to do everything in our power to make sure it goes well,” the Doctor said.

“Then why are we going to Kranamar?” Rose said.

“Because history says we do.”

“Well, bully for history. I don’t want to go there!” Rose snapped. “I want to stay where I know my baby will be safe. I want to go back to Sandoval or stay here on Earth. Or go stay with Mum. Anywhere but Kranamar.”

“Rose, be reasonable. If we don’t go there, our own son said it would be a disaster,” the Doctor said calmly.

“A bigger disaster than losing him before he’s even born?”

“We’re not going to lose him! We’ve met him. We know this all turns out well.”

“No we don’t!” Rose argued. “You’ve told me before that time lines can be overwritten. He can be born in 2018 and die in 2008 before he ever was.”

“Please, Rose. We have a responsibility--.”

“Our first responsibility is to our baby, to our family. You can’t put history in front of that. You just can’t.” She stomped off ahead of him, turning to face him when she got to the TARDIS.

“I’m not trying to Rose, but Vandarian said we have to do this. He lived it. He’d know better than we do.”

“I’m scared, Doctor. I’m just…I’m scared.”

“And well you should be,” said a voice at her elbow. In a flash of blue light the man had appeared and she saw horror on the Doctor’s face. She had a faint impression of rancid cooking oil, sulfur and vanilla. Then the man had taken her arm, pressed a button and everything went black as she disappeared from planet Earth.

The Doctor rushed into the TARDIS, hoping beyond hope that the tracking software hooked into the tracking jewelry was working. With relief he saw that it was. It took twenty minutes and he was sure that was travel time for Rose and the man who took her. Well, whether Rose had wanted to go there or not, she was halfway across the galaxy on Kranamar.

He quickly jumped the TARDIS to Torchwood and materialized in the center of the hub. He flung open the doors. “Donna! Jack!” he screamed out.

They appeared rather quickly in response to his bellow, followed a moment later by Martha. “What is it, Doctor? Jack asked.

“What’s wrong?” said Donna. “Where’s Rose?”

“She’s on Kranamar. She’s been kidnapped. By Harrington Conrad.”

"Then I'm coming," said Martha and she stepped into the TARDIS with Donna.

Jack’s eyes narrowed and he took off running down the hallway to the storage locker. As fast as he could he unlocked the doors and went in, grabbing whatever weaponry and ammunition he could carry. He hurried back to the TARDIS and brushed past the Doctor, dumping everything inside the TARDIS. He made a second run, and then looked up at the Doctor.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Jack demanded. “Let’s go take that monster down.”


Chapter Sixteen:  As Cold As You

Rose felt the disorienting sensation of matter transmission without a capsule suddenly altered. It started from her middle and slowly spread through her body, bringing with it an icy calm that ran through her veins. She knew without question that the baby was helping to stabilize her system.

When she materialized she was in a beautiful room. Walnut furniture with ornate upholstery in shades of gold, Teripsian wall tapestries, and Salatial flooring tiles met her eyes. She turned about slowly, her eyes taking in the visual splendor. When she’d completed the circuit she turned to look at the man beside her. She gazed at him steadily, knowing he was waiting for her to speak.

Instead she backed towards the couch and sat down on it, toeing off her shoes and curling her legs up to one side beside her, her eyes never leaving the man who had abducted her. She could tell she was unnerving him with her lack of reaction. A still inner voice kept a firm clamp on her emotions.

“You’ll be wondering who I am,” he said, breaking first.

“I will?” she asked, raising an eyebrow in query. “How interesting you should think that.” He flinched at the coldness of her tone.

He frowned. “You’re not?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I interfere with your desire to gloat? Were you really going to tell me of your evil plans?” Her total lack of fear and mocking tone provoked him.

“Don’t you even want to know where you are?” He burst out before getting a tight lid on his emotions, his lips pressing together in a thin line.

Rose’s gaze flicked to the window. “Kranamar,” she said simply, as if she had discerned it in one glance. She smiled at him. It did not reach her eyes. “There’s a storm coming.”

He sneered. “Ah, yes, the Oncoming Storm.”

“Oh, no,” she said simply. “That’s the least of your worries.”



“Who is Harrington Conrad?” Martha demanded as the TARDIS dematerialized, following the trace from Rose’s tracking system.

“Nasty piece of work. We’ve run up against him before,” said Jack. “The Doctor and I, the first time I travelled with him. He tried to slaughter an entire emerging sentient species for their telepathic and telekinetic skills. Took their brain chemicals and distilled them to give himself their powers. Once injected into him, he can absorb those aspects. Oh, and he ran a safari on the side to hunt the creatures as well as some humans he wanted to get rid of. We stopped him.”

“I nearly lost Rose once before because of him,” the Doctor said, a hard edge to his voice. “She was shot. She almost died.” His hands gripped the console so hard his fingers were completely devoid of color.

“We’ve run up against him a couple times with Torchwood. He’s beaten us to alien tech a few times. Sometimes we’ve managed to get it back. But he’s slippery. Hard to pin down. He’s a time jumper and a space hopper.”

“Is he ex-agency then?” Donna asked. “Did you used to work with him?”

“No,” the Doctor said, answering before Jack could. “He’s Flatau though he looks human. He’s run by greed and pride and a pure streak of malice.”

“What’s he after? Vengeance?” Martha wanted to know.

“No.” And the Doctor’s words were cold and implacable. “He’s got what he wants.”

“Rose?” Donna wondered.

“No. My son.”

“What could he want the baby for?” Martha asked. She turned to the Doctor but he turned away.

“Oh,” said Donna, understanding dawning. She looked at him in horror. “The brain fluid of an untapped Time Baby.”

“It has the most potential of any being in the universe. He wants to become immortal. He wants to become a Time Lord,” the Doctor said.

“Can he?” gasped Martha. “Doctor, can he do that?”

“He won’t have the chance.”

“But can he?”

“It’s possible,” admitted the Doctor. “Not yet, though. The baby isn’t developed enough yet. It won’t be for another ten weeks. He’ll have to keep them safe until she’s far enough along. But then…” And the Doctor shuddered and broke off.

“Then what?” whispered Donna.

It was Jack who answered. “The process would kill the baby.”

“Not just the baby, Jack. The process would kill them both.”

Donna reached over and grabbed a weapon off the pile Jack had brought into the TARDIS. “Then someone better start teaching me how to fire these things!” Martha was right in line behind her.



Rose hummed along to the singing she heard in the back of her mind. She knew the song soothed the baby. Vandarian had been in her mind since the matter transmission, his vague thoughts and emotions now crystal clear. They were infantile and yet she understood them quite well. And then there was the other...thing that was in her mind.

The baby kicked and she smiled. It was the first time she had felt him do that. Her eyes narrowed. The Doctor should be here. She should be calling him over right now to feel the fluttering movement under her hand. Just one thing in a list of many this man would pay for.

The man was staring at her, trying to figure her out. She had no intention of making that an easy task. “Come,” he said. “You need to eat.”

She stood at his words and followed him into another chamber of the house and then through to the dining area. He pulled out a chair at one end of the table and motioned for her to be seated. His eyes never left her face as he edged to the far end of the table from her. At the ring of a little bell servants brought in sumptuous plates of food.

Rose watched him closely, taking food only from platters he had served himself from. “I’m not going to poison you,” he said abruptly. “I need your child healthy.”

"Pardon us, for we do not trust your words." For a moment the ice in her veins flared into fire. She reached out towards the alien mind across from her. “You are Harrington Conrad,” she said, her mind having deftly slipped into his long enough to identify him, aided by the child within her womb and something else. “You are Flatau of the Genwac genome. You wish for immortality.” The words did not seem to be her own though they were spoken in her voice.

He did not deny her words. He simply nodded. “You will not find it,” she told him, her mind returning to the comforting ice. “Though your lifespan will be altered.”

“And how’s that then?”

“It will be shortened.” She smiled enigmatically down at her food and began to eat.



It was evening before the chill left her, taking with it the icy certainty that she knew all and would be protected from all. The baby had withdrawn entirely from her mind, sleeping within her. It was bedtime before she began to panic. It was midnight when the wave of fear overwhelmed her.

Whatever had possessed her to act with calm assurance had left her and she found herself shaking, her brain desperately reaching out for the link in her mind that had always signaled her connection to the Doctor. She couldn’t feel it. He was gone.

Eventually exhaustion and the sheer comfort of the bed won out and she slept. In the morning, she reached again for the link with the Doctor, again finding only empty space. She reached next for the baby. And then she screamed.

Ch. 17&18:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/71458.html

Comments

[belladoragirl.livejournal.com]

Oh noes! Not the poor baby!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

'fraid so.