amberfocus | Hunger Moon: Chapter Thirty-Three

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Title: Hunger Moon (33/?)
Series: Better With You (Book 2)
Author:

amberfocus
Characters/Pairings: Alt!Nine/Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler/Pete Tyler, Sarah Tyler, Kyle Tyler, Davin McBain, Mickey Smith/Suzie (Costello) Symmonds-Smith/Jake Symmonds, Toshiko Sato, Ianto Jones, Katie Harper/Owen Harper, Andy Davidson
Genre: Action/adventure, romance, alternate universe, fluff, angst, humor, smut ,jeprdyfrndly
Rating: Adult, some chapters NC-17 with graphic sex
Betas:

amyo67,

jeprdyfrndly
Summary: The psychic attacks of the Monoc'teru on the population of Pete's world sidetracks the Doctor and Rose's search for the spheres of Thessalameka, the second assignment on their quest to save the fabric of reality from unravelling forever. Set ten years post-Doomsday in a world where Journey's End never happened. Sequel to Wolf Moon http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/259862.html.

Previous chapters: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/263134.html

Chapter Thirty-Three: Withdrawal

Rose had stopped the jeep twice now to run to the side of the road and vomit violently into the ditch. As she settled back inside, trading places with Jake so she could lean against Mickey, her pillow of choice when she was ill, at least before meeting her husband anyway, she felt a small shudder pulse through her. “You all right, Rose?” Mickey asked.

All of his earlier animosity had long since fled. He was clearly worried about her and to be honest she was bit worried herself. The nausea had come out of nowhere. “You’re not pregnant, are you?” Jake asked from the front. “You have that same look on your face that Suzie gets when she’s about to vomit.”

“It’s not morning sickness, Jake,” she said. “The Doctor and I aren’t biologically compatible yet when it comes to reproduction. Maybe it was something I ate.”

“I don’t see how. You ate the same ORP’s as the rest of us,” Mickey said. His hand settled on her wrist. “Your pulse is racing.” He put his hand to her forehead. “You’re freezing.”

“Maybe I just caught something. We’ve been running on empty for days.” She shuddered again.

“This isn’t that repulsion thing, is it? That thing you get like when Davin kissed you?” Mickey asked. “You’ve been stuck alone with us for a while without the Doctor about.”

“No, feels different,” she said. Her eyes closed. “Oh, damn,” she breathed.

“What?” Rose didn’t answer. “Rose, what?” Mickey said shaking her.

“It’s withdrawal.”

“From what?” he asked. “You’re taking some kind of medication?”

“No,” she said. “It’s withdrawal from the Doctor. We’re not supposed to be away from each other like this for so long. Not during the first year. Didn’t think it was gonna to be an issue. He was gonna meet up with us.” Rose had slipped back into her old accent, something that only happened these days when she lost all focus.

“Stop the jeep,” she shouted at Reed, hurling herself back over the side again as he did so.

“She can’t have anything left in there,” Reed muttered.

Jake jumped down and went to Rose’s side patting her back gently. The sounds of her retching were interrupted by the jingle of a mobile. Mickey searched about for a moment before coming up with his phone. He flipped it open. “Speak to me.”

“Mick, it’s Suzie.”

“Suzie! Are you all right? Did you make it back to Torchwood?” he exclaimed.

“Yeah, I’m okay and no we haven’t. Listen, the Doctor’s tried calling Rose several times. He’s worried about her. She might be experiencing some pretty bad signs of withdrawal. Fever followed by chills, vomiting. Extreme shivering.”

“Yeah, it’s started. Is there anything we can do for her?” There was a scuffling on the other end of the line and then the Doctor came on.

“Mickey, where are you?”

“About a mile outside of Cardiff. Why aren’t you back yet? Rose isn’t doing so well. It’s set on really quickly and she’s thrown up three times already. She’s cold to the touch and her pulse is racing.”

“Tell her not to eat anything else until we get back to each other. Clear liquids only. It’s going to get worse if we’re not back together within the next twenty-four hours,” he said. “I’m already starting to feel it myself.”

“Can’t you come to us?” Mickey said.

“Unfortunately, no. The Monoc’teru have thrown up a force field around the entire planet. A massive psychic neural net. It won’t let anything telepathic or telekinetic through. I can’t bring the ship down. We’re stuck in lunar orbit. I’m working on a machine to open a hole through the net, but I’m not even sure I can. And if I do, it might not be big enough to get the TARDIS through,” the Doctor explained.

“Damn it,” Mickey swore. “Rose needs you, Doctor.”

A clammy hand grabbed the phone from his hand. “Doctor?” Rose croaked into the phone.

“Rose!” he said surprised to suddenly hear her voice.

“I can’t feel you, Doctor. In my head, where you’re supposed to be, there’s nothing there.” She couldn’t keep the panic out of her voice.

“Shh, love, I’m always with you. I promise you I’m there. The link has been compromised by the net around the Earth. It’s blocking me out, but if you concentrate really hard, you’ll feel me a little bit.” Rose closed her eyes and tried to focus on the place where she had felt the Doctor’s mind touch since even before they had bonded. “I can’t!” she wailed a moment later.

“I’m sorry, Rose. I’m doing everything I can to get back to you.”

“I know,” she said trying to calm her spiraling emotions. “Oh, not again!” She shoved the phone at Mickey and ran for the ditch.

“What’s happening?” demanded the Doctor.

“Rose is puking her guts out again. She shouldn’t have anything left.” The worry in Mickey’s voice was clear to the Doctor.

“She’ll not die of it, Mickey. But the symptoms will get worse until I get back to her. Now I need you to listen.” He explained to Mickey in as much detail as he thought the other man would understand about what he was trying to do. Then Mickey told him everything they had discovered so far about the orbs they had found.

“Okay, I’m sure that will be useful. Not sure how yet, but I’ll give it a bit of a think. I need you to call Ianto and give him an update on everything I’ve told you, everything you’ve told me. I can’t get through to Torchwood at all, and we’ve been trying your mobile, and Rose’s for hours.”

“Rose’s battery is dead. Mine’s about to go.” He turned toward Jake. “Jake do you still have a charge on your mobile?”

Jake flipped his phone open and checked. “Yeah, I’ve got three bars.”

“Yeah, Jake’s good. Call us on that if you need to."

"Okay. Here’s Suzie back.”

Mickey spoke quietly to his wife for a while before taking over for Jake at Rose’s side so he could speak to Suzie, too. “The Doctor said no more food, only clear liquids.”

“How long is this gonna last?” she asked.

“Until you get back to him,” he said.

“Why isn’t he coming?” He explained the situation to Rose in better detail than the Doctor had had time for before she’d run for the ditch.

“It’s gonna get worse? I don’t think I can handle worse.”

“We’ll get you back to him as soon as we can, Rose. I promise,” Mickey said.

Jake brought the phone back to Rose and she talked to the Doctor for a few minutes while Mickey used Jake’s phone to call Ianto and report everything that he’d learned from her husband. By the time Mickey was done speaking to Ianto, the battery in the phone Rose was using was dead. He helped her back into the jeep and they started once more for Torchwood.

Dr. Katie Harper had seen a lot of frightening things in her five years at Torchwood Cardiff. She’d seen aliens inside suits of human skin, three people playing with a teleporter that had left them accidently merged through a wall, imprinted memories walking through life like ghosts, and a man whose face had disappeared but had still continued to live. None of these things had ever made her lose her composure before. It took a lot to rattle her, let alone make her scream, but seeing the reanimated corpse of Sheldin Thomas rising off the autopsy table after his brain and all of his internal organs had been removed was just a little bit more than she could deal with. Especially since she’d been alone in the room with the body and had her back turned at the time it had started. Only a faint sound had been a clue that something was going on.

Her scream had brought her colleagues running and she was torn between being embarrassed at her loss of control over herself and the fact that the thing had backed her into a corner. Andy made it to the room first, his gun drawn and quickly aimed at the threat between them. The thing stilled, its advance halted, but whether or not it was due to the weapon or if it had simply stopped for its own reasons, it was impossible to say.

“Katie, what is it?” Tosh called as she rushed into the room, Davin close behind her.

All she could do was point. The body was starting to shake and pulsate and then what was left of it simply melted away from the skeleton, left a dripping puddle of ooze on the floor, and rose up into the air. The bones began to compact in on themselves, shrinking down into small pieces that fit together into a complicated formation that eventually settled into the shape of a dodecahedron. Each pentagonal face changed from white to one distinct translucent color and a shimmering glow emanated from within the center, casting myriad rainbow lights all about the room. The thing was at least a foot in diameter, possibly larger.

“What is that?” Davin asked.

Tosh was more practical. “Where did it come from?”

“It came from the body I was autopsying,” Katie said trying to get her heart rate back to normal. “It was hidden inside. I don’t know what Sheldin Thomas was, but he wasn’t human.”

“No, I am not,” came a strange musical voice from inside the object.

“It can talk,” said Davin.

“Apparently,” said Tosh rolling her eyes at his stating of the obvious. She turned her attention back on the multi-surfaced—machine?—creature? “What are you?” she asked.

“I am a Safe Haven Earth Lunar Defense Interface Node, or S.H.E.L.D.I.N.”

“Safe Haven Earth? Isn’t that what the alien asylum program was called back when Torchwood first initiated it?” Toshiko asked. “It was a bit before my time but I’m sure I remember seeing something in the records about it. Suzie would know,” Tosh said.

“Yeah, well, Suzie’s not here,” Katie said trying to edge around the thing in front of her. “Your name doesn’t make it any clearer. What are you? What exactly do you do, Sheldin?”

“Please enter Safe Haven Earth passcode 015 delta gamma,” Sheldin said.

“Ianto’s got to have that, doesn’t he?” Katie asked Tosh.

“I’m sure he does. Or he can get it. Hold on, Sheldin,” Tosh said. “I’m going to get it from our boss.”

She hurried from the room and raced to the stairs taking them two at a time. She slammed into Ianto’s office. He looked up coolly from the phone and raised one eyebrow. Holding up one finger he spoke into the phone. “Thanks for the update, Mickey. See you in the morning.” He hung up the phone and said, “Yes, Toshiko?”

“Safe Haven Earth. You ever hear of it?”

“Of course.”

“Do you know where the passcodes are for something called Sheldin?” she asked.

“They’re in the vault. What do you need with passcodes for the Sheldin project?” he wanted to know.

“Because we have it, him, one of them in the basement and he’s holding Katie at bay and demanding a passcode,” she said.

“How’d it get in here?” Ianto rose to his feet and started following Tosh out of his office and down the stairs.

“That man who resisted the attack of a Monoc’teru sphere wasn’t really a man. The body was just a disguise for an A.I. as far as I can tell.” They rounded the corner and headed toward the vault. “But more importantly than that, I think it’s a weapon. Or the key to a weapon. Something that will help us to fight the neural net.”

They paused in front of the door to the vault. Tosh pulled her key out from under her shirt where it hung from a long chain around her neck. Ianto took his from his suit coat pocket. They put their keys into the locks at the same time. “Voice code authorization necessary for vault entry,” came the soft spoken voice of the computer.

“Ianto Jones,” said Ianto into the microphone.

“Toshiko Sato,” Tosh said when it was her turn.

“Ianto Jones, please turn and face the scanner.”

Ianto turned his face to the scanner, lining up his good eye with the small panel. A beam of light shot out and scanned his retina. The computer asked the same of Tosh and she repeated the process. “Access granted,” said the computer and the door to the vault clicked open.

“It should be in row five shelf three b,” said Ianto. Tosh nodded and flipped on the overhead light. Cobwebs met them in the sudden glare.

“How long has it been since anyone has been down here?” Tosh asked.

“Several months. Domina makes sure it gets a dusting every six months or so.” They headed to the appropriate aisle and with a bit of quick searching were able to locate the file box they needed. Ianto hefted it down from the shelf and Tosh removed the lid, quickly scanning through the stacks of flimsies and other paperwork until she found one labeled Safe Haven Earth Passcodes. With a small cry of triumph she pulled it out and replaced the lid on the box. Ianto stuck it back on the shelf and the two of them hurried back down to the autopsy chamber.

“We have it,” she said waving the document towards Sheldin. The thing still had Katie cornered but it revolved slowly until its blue face was pointing in their direction. Tosh glanced at the page of numbers in front of her. “What one was it again?”

“Passcode 015 delta gamma.”

Tosh scanned the form until she found the right one. “Zero, zero, five, nine, nine, echo, zulu, bravo, seven, eight, Charlie,” she read.

“Torchwood or UNIT authorization please,” Sheldin requested.

“Oh,” said Ianto. “The cows are in the pastures on the moon,” he said. When everyone in the room turned to give him a startled look he actually gave a slight grin. “Couldn’t be something one would accidentally say now, could it?”

“Authorization accepted.” Lights flashed chasing each other in segments around the dodecahedron. “Answer to previous question is that I am an artificial intelligence designed to interface with a device on the surface of the Earth’s moon Luna in the event of a full scale invasion of the Monoc’teru and their attempt to use a neural net force field to cut off the planet from outside help,” the A.I. explained.

“The neural net’s already in place. Can you take it down?” Davin asked.

“Not alone. There are, in total, twelve Sheldins. Working in sync we can take down the neural net,” Sheldin said.

“But the rest of the world is in chaos,” said Tosh. “Even if we knew where the others were—.”

“I know where we are,” said the machine.

“It doesn’t matter,” interrupted Ianto. “The humans in the rest of the world have gone crazy. All of the other Torchwoods had either been infiltrated beforehand or were taken over when the net went up. We’re the only ones capable of doing anything to bring down the net. Isn’t there anything you can do on your own?”

“Not from Earth. If you put me on the moon I can bring down the net from there by myself.”

“Short of stealing a space shuttle from NASA, I don’t see that happening,” Katie replied.

“What about a satellite launcher?” asked Andy.

“The closest one is in England. It’s in enemy territory,” said Davin.

“I can launch and fly on my own,” said Sheldin, “but I cannot get through the neural net on my own.”

“If someone were to punch a hole through the net would you be able to get through?” Ianto asked.

“If it was large enough. It needs to be at least two feet in diameter for me to slip through safely,” Sheldin said.

“The Doctor’s working on a device that should open a hole in the net,” said Ianto. “He was hoping to be able to slip the TARDIS through but wasn’t sure he could make it large enough, but if all we need is a hole big enough for Sheldin then we might have a chance.”

“You’ve heard from the Doctor?” Davin asked. “Where is he?”

“Mickey did. He told me when he reported in. The Doctor’s stuck on the other side of the net with Suzie. The two of them have been working on a way to get through it,” Ianto said.

“Suzie’s okay?” Tosh asked.

“Yeah, now that she’s outside the net it’s not affecting her or the babies any longer. The Doctor can’t get through on the landlines or regular mobiles here, so we won’t know anything until Rose’s team gets back here with the special satellite phones. They were one mile out when the Doctor called Mickey. They still have to stop and drop off the evacuees at the warehouse. We won’t know anything until they get back here and we can communicate properly with the Doctor again,” said Ianto.

“I will know when the hole has been opened,” said Sheldin. “I will detect the signal from the moon.”

“Well, that’s something,” said Andy.

“All right,” said Ianto. “Katie, Andy, you’re in charge of Sheldin. Tosh, Davin, you get back to work on cracking that logarithm. If we can bring the net down that way instead of waiting for the Doctor to open a hole, all the better. I need to make sure the warehouse is ready to receive the evacuees.”

Ianto’s team scattered to their various tasks and he returned to his office, first tracking down Domina to help him make sure everything was in place for yet another long twenty-four hours of work. Then with a heavy sigh he collapsed into the chair behind his desk, picked up his phone and did what he did best, arranged what was left of the world to his liking.

Ch. 34: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/323808.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

susanb03.livejournal.com

Lovely update!

Just a minor correction though

“Yeah, Jake’s good. Call us on that if you need to. Oh, and here’s Suzie back.”
Didn't you mean--“Yeah, Jake’s good. Call us on that if you need to."
"Oh, and here’s Suzie back.”
??

Just thought it made more sense that way :)

Yea more HM!

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Not Rose-Colored Glasses

Hunger Moon: Chapter Thirty-Three

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