amberfocus | Hunger Moon: Chapter Twenty-Five

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Chapter Twenty-Five: Losing Perspective

“Is that even possible?” Ianto asked.

“Not only is it possible, this is the perfect set up for it,” the Doctor said.

“But crashing the brain?” Tosh asked.

“Why not? All the human brain is, all most any species’ brain is, is a super computer. Give it the right signal and everything goes down,” the Doctor said. “Happens all the time, in a way; seizures, fainting, narcolepsy all can do it. Overtax the human body or mind too far, receive the wrong brain chemicals at the wrong time or too many of the right ones, and the brain takes itself offline. Just a question of mimicking the right hormones. Send out the signal for long enough and you achieve full shut down.”

“Won’t that kill people?” Katie demanded. “The human body can only go so long without proper brain function before organs begin shutting down.”

“It could do, but I doubt it’ll last that long. It’ll likely be just a few seconds,” the Doctor said.

“You can’t know that,” grumbled Davin. “It could last far longer than that, place a huge number of lives in jeopardy. It could kill everybody.”

“It won’t kill everybody.” The Doctor gave a scoffing snort. “The Monoc’teru don’t want to kill you, they want to harvest your telepathic potential and breed more of you up that have it. It could be they’ll even be able to do a mass induction and excitation of those talents with those that have untapped potential. They feed on psychic energy. They’re not going to destroy such an excellent food source,” the Doctor said.

“That’s some small relief,” Davin allowed.

“No, it’s far more likely it’ll crash you then drop you over into active R.E.M. sleep. You’ll be defenseless, the spheres can do a reading and find and mark those whose dreams are radiating psychic energy, and then send out a signal and like that,” he snapped his fingers, “reboot all of your brains. You lot will be back up on your feet again and none the wiser and the Monoc’teru can easily pick off the marked individuals at their leisure.”

“We’ve got to build something that can jam that signal,” Davin said.

“Why?” asked the Doctor.

“What?” Davin stared at him in astonishment.

“You heard me. Why’ve we got to build anything? This is the perfect opportunity to trace whatever signal they send out back to its source,” the Doctor said.

“And how’re we meant to do that? We’ll all be unconscious!” Davin asked angrily.

“You’ll all be. I won’t be. And there’s a good chance if Rose is far enough along in her DNA compatibility upgrade, her brain won’t shut down either. Besides, I can shield her in the TARDIS if she’s not. The two of us can trace it and bring back the information to you when you wake up.”

“It’s not a good idea!” snapped Davin.

“I don’t see as though you have much of a choice!” the Doctor said forcefully glaring at his wife’s ex.

Suzie, usually rather soft-spoken, had obviously had enough. “You know what? This is not the time for the two of you to get into one of your pissing contests! We all know you have massive amounts of testosterone and we all know which one of you has the biggest--.”

“Suzie!” Rose began.

“No! Look, I’m sorry, Rose. I appreciate everything you and your husband have done to keep us all safe, but this, this, territorial sandbox crap between him and Davin has got to stop!” she burst out.

“Territorial? They were arguing about the aliens,” Rose said in confusion.

Suzie huffed. “Rose, I love you. You are my best friend, but if you really think those two are arguing over whether or not to let the aliens go through with their scheme, then you are a blind fool.”

“Oi, no need to get personal, Suzie,” Rose said offended.

“Not get personal? Rose, this is all about you. It has always been about you since the day you introduced them! Of course it’s personal!”

“Suze,” said Davin. “I’m over losing Rose to him.”

“Don’t you lie to me, Davin McBain. I know you too well. You love Rose Tyler so much it makes your teeth ache. You will never be over her!”

In a fury, Davin spun away and stalked out of the room, heading down towards the barracks. Rose started after him. “Rose, don’t,” said the Doctor sharply.

“What? He’s upset. He needs--.”

“Not you. He’s not your problem anymore!” the Doctor exclaimed.

“He’s still my friend.”

“And I’m your husband!”

“So? You saying the two things are mutually exclusive?” Rose challenged.

“I’m saying you still show him an awful lot of attention that he’s perfectly capable of doing without,” the Doctor snapped back.

“Where the hell is this coming from?” she demanded. “You can't possibly still be jealous of Davin. I haven’t done one thing to make you think that I--.”

“You haven’t done one thing to make me not think--.”

“Enough,” said Ianto. “This isn’t helping anything. Tosh, go after him. Calm him down. See if you can get him back working on the chip when he does.” Tosh nodded quietly and slipped out of the room. Ianto turned his eye on the Doctor, Rose and Suzie. “And you three, get it together. Katie, Andy, with me.”

Ianto led his fellow team members away, leaving Rose, the Doctor, Suzie, Mickey and Jake behind.

“He’s right,” said Mickey. This really needs to stop.”

Rose was having none of it. “Suzie, what the hell was that for?” Rose asked. “It was completely uncalled for.”

“I’m sick of it. All this posturing. They’re like two alpha wolves circling each other and there’s no cause! They both know you can’t go back to Davin, that you’re permanently, irrevocably with the Doctor now, and yet they persist in this childish--.”

“Suzie,” said Jake softly trying to diffuse his wife’s anger, “getting this worked up isn’t good for the babies.”

“Did you have to do it now?” Rose asked. “In front of everybody?”

“You mean in front of the formidable Ianto Jones?” Suzie demanded. “Heaven forbid he thinks your team is anything but professional,” she sniped sullenly.

“Damn, Suzie. Maybe the boys aren’t the only ones being ridiculously hormonal right now,” Rose exclaimed.

“It has nothing to do with my hormones, Rose Tyler. I’m just fed up! We’ve been stuck in that box forever--.”

“Oi!” protested the Doctor at hearing the TARDIS referred to as a box.

Suzie didn’t even spare him a glance. “And every time they get in each other’s orbit this kind of bickering starts up. Really, I get Davin’s side of things. What you did to him was awful and then having to be around you all the time…I mean, the two of you aren’t exactly discreet or quiet when you’re making love and we all have to hear it. But him,” she stabbed her finger in the Doctor’s direction, “him, I don’t get. Because he has you and yet he still can’t resist needling your ex-boyfriend.”

She turned sharply and faced the Doctor. “We need Davin to be in top form. You need to get over this, this animosity you have towards him. So what if he was with your wife before you met her! If I can get over the fact that Rose slept with both Mickey and Jake before I met them, you sure as hell can get over this!”

“And Jake?” the Doctor and Mickey asked in unison.

Rose looked stricken, her face turning white as the color drained out of it. “Suzie,” she said horrified. “Don’t.”

“So the whole world finds out Rose Tyler isn’t perfect? That she makes mistakes. That--.”

“I told you that in confidence, Suzie,” Rose said quietly her voice filled with hurt. “I told you that because I trusted you to not…to not run off at he mouth in some fit of…of…whatever the hell it is you’re doing right now. I never, not once in my life, dreamed you’d betray that secret. What’s happening to you, Suzie? What are you doing?”

The impact of what Rose was saying, the impact of what she herself had let slip, swept over Suzie. Chagrined she began, “Rose, I--.”

“Just don’t.” Rose cut her off, instead turning to her husband. “It was just one night, a few days after we got back from Norway, after I said good-bye to my first Doctor,” she managed to explain. “I knew I was never gonna see him again. I tried to cope with it, but the third night after, I got drunk. I needed comfort.”

“And you didn’t come to me?” Mickey asked looking hurt.

“I couldn’t.”

“You always could,” he protested.

“No, Mickey, I couldn’t. I know how hard a time you had getting over us. I might have been in pain, but I never could have done that to you, gone to you, had sex with you and made you think there was a chance for us again when there was never going to be,” Rose said. “Jake was the right choice. He made things…simpler.”

“And she helped me forget when I needed to forget,” Jake said.

“But--,” began Mickey.

“I didn’t want my parents to see how bad it was, I didn’t want you to see how bad it was, and Jake was already at the pub looking like a lost puppy. We talked, we drank, and he took me home with him.”

“Had to carry her in,” Jake commented softly.

“He was so good about taking care of me, not judging me, listening to me and I was missing the other Doctor so much…”

“I remember that night when Rose never came home. We were all worried sick and all that time she was with you?” he huffed. He turned back to Rose. "Well, that explains your actions, Rose. It doesn’t explain you,” said Mickey looking over at Jake.

“It was the anniversary of Rickey’s death,” he said just a little bitterly. “You of all people should remember that, but you never do. You were there, but you don’t like to think about him. You get it in your head sometimes that you’re a replacement and you’re not. I know you’re different but you just don’t believe me when I tell you. I needed to talk about it. She was there and she listened to me. It’s not like you and I were anything then, either. Just casual, never exclusive, and I just…needed someone. Rose and I talked for hours and one thing led to another.”

“It was what I needed at the time,” Rose said turning back to Suzie. “It was what Jake needed too. We were human. And we weren’t hurting anyone, we weren’t in committed relationships. And I’m not going to apologize for things that happened before I even met you, Suzie, or before Jake met you. Jake was good to me. He’s always been good to me and if we could offer each other just that little bit of comfort we couldn’t get anywhere else, one time, then how can you possibly begrudge us that? It was nine and a half years ago!”

“It only ever happened the once,” Jake said. “And we all know it will never happen again. It was a different lifetime and I won’t apologize for it either.”

“I don’t…I don’t know why I even brought it up.” Suzie looked down at her feet and bit her lip. “I didn’t mean to, Rose.”

“Your hormones,” began Mickey.

“No. I don’t…I don’t think it was even that. It felt like…it felt like I wasn’t even in control of the things I was saying,” she said slowly.

“That’s because,” said Toshiko reemerging from the direction of the barracks, “you weren’t. Davin’s cracked the code.” She slapped down a small stack of papers onto her desk. “According to these readings a test signal was to be sent out tonight exactly 30 minutes ago, the time that Davin and the Doctor started getting tetchy. It was to last for 20 minutes.”

The Doctor picked up the readout and looked it over, his eyes widening in disbelief and then finally acceptance. “The signal was designed to agitate human emotions, intensify them. It was meant to excite receptors and exaggerate feelings to try to get a whiff of any beyond the norm.”

“So Suzie’s outburst was triggered by the test signal?” asked Jake.

“Yeah. Her general annoyance with Davin and me overflowed into something she couldn’t control. Same reason Davin got so angry with me and thought I was being high-handed,” the Doctor explained.

“You were being high-handed,” Rose commented.

“I was right,” the Doctor said. “Besides, the signal didn’t affect me.”

“So that was just your regular possessive jealousy trip?” Mickey asked. The Doctor glared at him and Mickey smirked.

“It affected me,” Rose said. “Guess that means I’m not as safe as you thought I’d be.”

“If it got to us, here in the hub where we’re heavily shielded, what do you think it did to the rest of Cardiff?” Toshiko asked.

“Nothing very good,” said the Doctor. “I best go and have a word with Andy. He should get a hold of his PC friend and find out what it’s like topside. We could be in for more trouble than we were expecting.” He strode over to the staircase and rapidly bounded up them.

“How is Davin?” Rose asked.

Tosh regarded her with a wary expression. “I think it’d be a very good idea if Davin moved into the barracks until this entire mess was over. Living with you and your husband is a little more than he can handle.”

“Agreed,” said Rose. “He can hide out here just as easily and maybe it’ll help alleviate some of the tension.”

“Maybe,” Toshiko said but she sounded like she wasn’t very hopeful. Davin must have given her an earful.

“Rose, I’m sorry,” Suzie said. “I didn’t mean…I never meant to…” She couldn’t finish.

“It’s okay, Suzie,” Rose said. “It’s time it came out. I was never ashamed of it. I just didn’t think it was anyone else’s business.” She wasn’t quite ready to look Suzie in the eyes but she really didn’t want to be holding a grudge against someone who she was going to be working and living closely with for some time yet.

The Doctor came back down the stairs followed closely by Ianto Jones. “There’s chaos in the streets,” Ianto said. “PC Cooper reported to Andy that incident reports are up over forty percent and that the OAC in Bangor’s phone lines crashed from the call volume. Newport’s is barely holding on, but they’re the ones who got the upgrade last fall.”

“That means it’s gone beyond Cardiff, doesn’t it?” Rose asked.

“Regrettably, yes,” Ianto informed her. “It’s not just Wales, either. It’s happening all over the U.K.”

Tosh frowned. She was about to say something when they heard Andy calling from above. “Ianto, President Jones is on the phone. She says it’s urgent.”

He moved over to the phone on Tosh’s desk, pressed a few buttons and picked up the receiver. “Hello, Madame President,” he said, followed shortly by, “Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Well, I don’t think so. Damn. Yes.” When he hung up a few minutes later, he sat down hard on the edge of Tosh’s desk and pinched the bridge of his nose before looking up at the others who were viewing him with interest.

“It’s a worldwide phenomenon,” he admitted. “And the First Nations and Colonial Union of North America’s Main Chief Running Wolf Johnson has reported to President Jones that NASA has discovered an enormous space craft hiding inside the ice rings of Saturn and has requested a quorum for releasing launch codes.”

Rose’s eyes widened. “What exactly does that mean?” the Doctor asked.

“It means,” said Rose with a heavy sigh, “that the Americans are seeking permission to blow it up.”

Ch. 26: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/208772.html