A Sky Without Zeppelins: Chapter Twenty-Three

[amberfocus]

                                                                   Chapter Twenty-Three

“Are you okay with all of this?” Lumin asks Donna. She’s standing outside a large aquarium looking at the two creatures inside it, a man and a woman, or rather, a male and a female.

“They’re…they’re mermaids. Well, a mermaid and a merman.”

“They’re Nereidian,” he corrects gently. “They are the source of the merpeople legends of Earth. A space ship crashed here about four thousand years ago and they established a small colony off the shores of ancient Greece. It took the Nereidians this long to locate and track the survivors. Varun and his wife Talise were part of the rescue party. They were left behind.”

“Why?” Donna asked in horror.

“There was an accident. They were presumed dead. By the time they made it back to the landing site their ship had gone and all communications equipment that the colony had used to signal the ship with had been dismantled and packed up. They didn’t want to leave any of their technology behind when they left. They’re stranded and have no way of contacting their people and no way of hiding their presence here on Earth. They came to me for asylum. I gave it to them.”

Donna takes a few steps closer until she is almost pressed up against the glass in front of the female. Long blue hair streams from the female’s head. It falls to her waist, covering the nudity of her upper body. The lower half of her body is not covered in scales like mermaids of legend, but in a tough, grey hide that looks like dolphin skin. Her eyes are a beautiful shade of violet.

Donna raises her hand and presses it flat against the glass and the female swims forward matching her own hand to Donna’s on the other side. Waves of music wash through Donna, emotions of welcome and do not fear and admiration of the color of Donna’s hair swell in her mind. She laughs and the mermaid smiles at her.

“Hello, Talise,” Donna says. “I’m Donna Noble. And you’re amazing.” The woman’s skin tone, which had been a mild pink, flushes to a bright red. She looks down then looks back at her husband and beckons him forwards. Varun is much like Talise, only his hair is a deep forest green and the hide on his lower extremities is closer to black than gray. His eyes are the same shade of violet. He puts up his hand to the glass and Donna places her other one against his.

Varun’s singing in her head is unlike anything she’s ever known. It is mildly seductive and she wonders if this is what the Siren song the ancient myths refer to is all about. Talise nudges her husband away from the glass and his song disappears from Donna’s mind.

“If I’m to show you the others we need to move on. Talise, Varun,” he nods at the merpeople, “I will see you tomorrow.” They nod at him and very quickly disappear into the sea plants in their tank.

“How big is the aquarium?” Donna asks him looking at the expanse of glass that stretches into the distance.

“It takes up half the floor.”

“How come they don’t just live in the ocean?” she asks.

“The water’s not safe for them.”

“But the others…”

“The others had been living in the ocean for millennium. They acclimatized to the changes that were made. But in the last three hundred years the pollution in the oceans has built to a level that made those new to it sick after a few weeks of exposure. It was killing them. Here, I can control the level of purity in the water and keep them safe. Meanwhile, Varun and Talise are working on technology to restore the Earth’s oceans and reduce and possibly even eliminate the contamination of the waterways.”

“They work for you?” Donna asks in amazement.

“It took them a year to recover from the damage to their systems that eight weeks in our oceans did to them, and they only did because I had the technology to save them. They wanted to give back and they want to one day be able to swim the oceans here and to raise children in them. They are a long-lived enough species that they could do so if we can get the biological organisms for the repair work out of the embryonic stage. It takes time for them to grow and then they have to reproduce to spreadable and sustainable levels. It’ll take about ten years.”

“What’s keeping the organisms in the embryonic stage?” Donna wants to know.

“We’re not quite sure. I’m thinking about bringing Dr. Smith onto the project,” Lumin says slowly.

“I thought Jona—Dr. Smith was primarily an inventor? Computers and robotics and technology and all that.”

“He’s got doctorates in biochemistry and marine biology as well. The man is the most brilliant…human I’ve ever run across.”

“Then why haven’t you asked him to come into this?” she wants to know.

“Well, don’t know if that’s a secret I can trust him with or not,” Lumin admits.

“You’re trusting me,” Donna says.

“Yeah, but I’ve known you a lot longer than I’ve known him. And anyway, I’m in--.” He breaks off his sentence and turns abruptly away from her. “Come on,” he says brusquely grabbing her hand. “The rest of the aliens are this way.”

Donna’s heart is pounding a mile a minute. She isn’t entirely sure what James Lumin had been about to say to her, but she wants to find out. She digs in her heels and refuses to move. “You’re in what?” she asks him.

“What?”

“Tell me what you were going to say,” she insists.

He pauses a moment and avoids her eyes. “I’m in trouble. I’m in over my head. I’m--.” He breaks off again at her piercing blue stare. “I’m in love with you.”

Donna’s mouth drops open. “Mr. Lumin,” she begins.

“James. Donna, please, call me James.”

“James, I…I don’t know what to say.”

“You needn’t say anything. I didn’t mean to say anything. This is my issue, Donna and it won’t affect your job here. You are one of my greatest assets and I’d never try to force you into any sort of relationship with me. I’m your boss, but you’re my friend, too and that friendship means everything to me. So, please, don’t let things be awkward between us. I can get over this.”

Donna bites her lip and then looks down at their linked hands. James suddenly pulls his hand away from hers. “Sorry,” he mutters.

“What if I don’t want you to get over this?” she asks him.

“What?” Of all the things she could have said it is obvious he is not expecting this.

“What if…James, what if I like you that way, too?” She looks down. “It’s not love, not…not yet, but…I’m interested. Have…have been for, well, a while now. Just thought…it’s you. We could never…I mean, could we?” She’s stumbling over her words like a school girl, or worse yet, like Jonathon, and she wants to kick herself.

“We can. If you want to,” he says shyly.

Donna is stunned by the fact that she is making James Lumin shy. And then she is doing something that she has wanted to do for a very, very long time, though she's never had the nerve to admit it to herself before. She’s pulling his head down and kissing his lips and he’s pulling her tightly up against him and it’s the most amazing thing she’s ever felt and then everything goes green, light flares out from the man holding her, and she realizes that James Lumin is an alien, too. He kisses pretty damn well for one.



James Lumin is not sure how long he stands there kissing Donna Noble. He does know that he lost control of his energy pretty early on in the process and should be thinking about gathering it back into himself. Honestly, you’d think he’d only achieved coalescence yesterday. Losing cohesion without intent is considered adolescent behavior amongst his kind.  If a human teen had done what he'd just done that boy would be in serious need of a change in boxers.  At least Donna doesn't know that.  Won't know that just kissing her is enough to set him off.  And him a grown...energy being.

He focuses sharply and pulls the dissipating strands of energy back into his human form and then sighs as Donna releases him and takes a step back. “So you’re an alien,” she says.

“Yeah. That all right?” He tries not to let his fear show now that Donna knows his deepest secret.

“I can live with it,” she says. “Take a bit of adapting, but…I think you’ll find I’m remarkably quick on the uptake.”

“Knew that already.” He smiles fondly at her.

“What exactly are you?” she asks him hesitantly.

“There isn’t really a word for it in your language. I am one of the Leukós.”

“What’s that mean?”

“More or less, light. I am a radiant form of energy,” he explains.

“Radiation?”

“No, not like that. I simply radiate light, push it forth from myself. I am…it’s hard to describe. But Illuminate, Lumin, they all mean light. I am that light.”

“But you look completely human.”

“My kind, the Leukós, have the ability to shift forms, energy translating into mass. We can hold it for many hours, sometimes days, but eventually we must return to our natural form to recharge,” he explains.

Donna shakes her head. “It’s a lot to take in.”

“Do you think…you can?” he asks nervously.

“Give me some credit. I’m not going to run screaming from the room just because you’re an alien,” she says acerbically.

“But will you still want…a relationship with me?” He worries as he waits for her response.

“How human can you be?” she asks. “I mean, if we…get to that point…could we…become intimate?”

“Yes,” he says. “I’m fully functional in my human form.”

“Oh.” Donna flushes red.

“I can even father human children upon you. Well, mostly human. They’d be able to hold their human form all the time and only revert to an energy state if they so choose. A bit the opposite of me in that regard. It would be a good hybrid. You’ve strong DNA, Donna Noble.”

“How do you know that?” she asks and a slight tone of irritation has crept into her voice. He doesn’t know if it’s at assuming they’d be intimate enough one day to have children together or that he’s got personal information on her about her body.

“Company physicals check for everything. The dangers inherent with working closely with a radiant energy source like me means I have to have people near me who have very strong DNA that could counter unexpected fluctuations from my energy if they occur.”

“Like that green flashy thing you did?” she asks.

“Yes.”

“Oh. But you said it’s not radiation?” she queried again.

“Not as you understand it, no. I can’t harm you, Donna. Not by simply being what I am,” he tells her.

“It’s a lot to take in,” he says sympathetically.

“It is.”

“I’ll understand if you don’t want to get involved with me now that you know what I--.”

“Don’t be daft,” she tells him. “I like you because of who you are. Not what you are.”

“Then it’d be okay if we were to see each other outside of work?” he asks hopefully.

“I’d like that.”

He sighs with relief, the world around him falling into an order he had never expected to see. He should have known Donna would take it all in stride. She is the most amazing creature he’s ever met. Shyly he offers her his hand. She reaches out and takes it.

“Ready to see the rest of the aliens?”

“Yeah.” But they are interrupted by a sharp buzz from his watch.

James presses a little button on the side and says, “Yes?”

“Mr. Lumin? It’s Dr. Milligan. There are some survivors of the Caligo. The government has just delivered them to us. I’m moving them up to the infirmary. They’re in a bad way. Is there anything I can do?” The woman’s voice is slightly panicked and he sends out calm, reassuring, telepathic waves in the direction of the medical technology wing.

“Run them all IV’s to get them hydrated. The rest only I can do,” he says.

“What can you do for them?” Donna asks as they head for the lift to the seventh floor.

“I’m light and energy in its purest form, Donna. I can heal them and make the damaged structures regrow.”

“Is that why your plants never die?” she asks. “Why the top floor is a veritable jungle?” He nods. “I make things grow. I make them live. They have been touched by the darkness that is the Caligo. Now they must be touched by the light of a Leukósian.”

“Your power counteracts theirs?”

“It’s not a power. It’s what I am. And it’s more of a reversal.” They say no more as they emerge from the lift directly into the infirmary and once the room is cleared of all but Donna and Dr. Milligan, James Lumin loses no time. He loses cohesion and bathes the entire room in his light. Everything glows green.




“I’m so tired,” Rose mumbles as she presses the side of her head against the cool glass of the car window.

“Did I wear you out?” Jonathon asks. Rose doesn’t answer him and when he glances over at her he can see that her eyes are shut. His smile is a bit tight as he realizes she’s fallen asleep. He’s never seen Rose so exhausted and he knows she’s slept enough that she shouldn’t be dragging like this. He reaches out for her hand and is startled at how limply it lays against his and even more at how very cold it is.

Something is wrong and he has no way of finding out what until he gets her to Illuminate. He wonders briefly if he shouldn’t take her to A&E at the local hospital, but his gut tells him they won’t be able to help her there. He only hopes his gut is telling the truth because he will never forgive himself if something happens to Rose that could have been prevented. Everything in him is screaming that Lumin can help him; something at Illuminate will save Rose.

The whole line of thought frightens him. Why should Rose need saving? It’s just exhaustion, pure and simple. It can’t logically be anything more than that. He risks another look in her direction before his eyes quickly return to the road. She is so pale. The normal rosy glow that she carries has drained from her body.

Jonathon starts to feel panic in earnest about Rose when they arrive at the Illuminate car park. At first he can’t wake her and when he does, she opens her eyes as if they are extraordinarily heavy. Her lips part slowly and she is very groggy as she comes back to awareness. “Jonathon,” she says and she smiles at him, her hand rising slowly to stroke his face. It’s like ice now.

“Come on. We have to get you into Illuminate,” he tells her. He runs around to her side of the car and pulls open the door. She’s still leaning on it and her body falls towards him. He catches her quickly and with a bit of a struggle gets her out of the car and up on her feet.

She’s moving slowly, lethargically, as if she isn’t quite sure that her feet are connecting to the pavement beneath them. This time when he puts an arm around her it’s to guide her walking. She is leaning heavily against him and her breaths are coming in shallow pants. “Rose?” he asks.

“Jonathon, I feel sick,” she tells him. Her words are slurred and she shudders and lets out a strangled sound deep in her throat. Her steps are weaving as they continue on and he doesn’t think she’ll be able to move completely under her own power if he lets go. He has no intention of letting go. He gets to the door of his building and is able to get Rose inside before she passes out.

He sweeps her up in his arms and heads towards the medical technology labs and the full medical staff that is on call there at all hours of the day and night. They are on the first floor and he does not have far to go. Rose is surprisingly light or perhaps adrenaline lends him strength. He bursts through the main doors and startles a group of technicians, medical students, and a woman he recognizes as the one who gave him his physical before he started working here. “Dr. Smith, what is it?”

“My girlfriend. She’s sick…or something. I don’t know what’s wrong with her, but she’s collapsed.”

“Bring her here,” the no-nonsense tiny black woman says indicating a bed near a large machine. Jonathon lays Rose down on the bed and the woman turns to him.

“Dr. Milligan, right?” he asks after searching his memory for the woman’s name.

She nods at him. “Was she taking anything? Drugs? Medications?”

“No, no. She just…she’s been complaining of being tired since last night, but otherwise has seemed fine.”

“Did she do anything unusual in the past twenty-four hours?” Dr. Miligan asks.

Jonathon blushes as he thinks of all the extraordinary things they did do, but that is not what the doctor’s question is about. “Well, yeah.” He explains what happened the night before at the exposition, Rose and the lasers and the chain and the cloud.

The minute he mentions the cloud Dr. Milligan’s face closes off. “Grab the other end of the table. We’re taking her up to floor seven,” she says.

“What? Why?” Jonathon is shocked. “Floor seven is…is off limits. To everyone.”

“Not to everyone. And that’s the only place we can treat the victims of the…cloud.”

“Wait, you’re telling me the cloud that touched her did this to her?”

“No waiting. Come now,” Dr. Milligan says with some urgency. She tugs at the table and he snaps to and helps push it towards the lift she’s indicating.

“What is it? What’s the rush?”

“There’s only twenty-four hours to treat someone after exposure to…what your girlfriend has been exposed to. Otherwise it’s fatal.” The lift dings and they wheel her inside. Dr. Milligan looks at her watch. “You got her here just in time. Another hour and the effects would have been irreversible.”

Jonathon’s heart plummets dangerously towards his feet. He looks desperately at his Rose’s beautiful face. To lose her so soon after just finding her…he can’t even bear the idea. His fingers slip to her wrist and he takes her pulse. It is thready, weak and far too slow, half of what it should be. His stomach wrenches at the idea that he might actually lose her and for no reason that he can see.

The rapid rise of the lift is followed by a shuddering halt and then he and Dr. Milligan are wheeling Rose into a room that is shockingly full of beds. Most of the inhabitants are children, though there are a few adults.

“What…what?” is all he can say.

“Over there!” says Dr. Milligan sharply and he pulls himself together. Once Rose is slotted into one of the few remaining spaces the doctor starts her on an IV drip solution then heads over to the wall. She presses a small intercom button.

“Yes?” comes the brassy voice of Donna Noble.

“Miss Noble, can you ask Mr. Lumin to come down to the infirmary? We’ve got another victim of the Caligo.”

“Certainly.”

“And can you ask him to hurry. Dr. Smith’s just brought in Rose Tyler.”

There is a strangled gasp from the intercom and then Lumin’s voice blares over the speaker. “I’ll be there immediately.”

“How do you know her name?” Jonathon asks warily. “I never told you her name.”

Dr. Milligan stares at him for a long moment. She is saved from having to answer him by the arrival of James Lumin and Donna Noble. “Clear the room of personnel,” he orders. “Dr. Smith, that includes you,” he adds when Jonathon shows no signs of moving.

“I’m not leaving her,” he says adamantly. Donna comes over to him and puts her arm around his shoulders.

“You have to,” his friend insists.

“I’m not leaving her!” he repeats stubbornly.

“It’s all right,” Dr. Milligan says slowly as she turns to Lumin. “You can trust him to keep your secret. There is no malice in his mind and he’s…open to…things.”

Lumin nods. He strides up to Jonathon. “I can help her. I can heal her. But you have to promise me that no matter what happens here, you’ll keep the secret safe.”

“Anything,” Jonathon says. “Just save her.”

Lumin pulls a chair up to the side of Rose’s bed and sits down. He lifts her hands in his and stares into her face for a minute. Then suddenly the room is awash in a burst of light. Rose’s body rises from the bed in a glowing flash of pure green energy. Jonathon makes to hurl himself towards Lumin and Rose but Donna and Dr. Milligan hold him back.

“Let him do his work,” Donna murmurs. “He’ll save her. He’s…extraordinary.”

“I can’t lose her!” Jonathon cries out.

“You won’t. James is different from other men,” she tells him.

“I kind of gathered that.” His eyes have never left Rose and Lumin. “How long have you known?” he demands. His voice is not quite accusatory.

“Known what?” she hedges.

This time he looks at her and his gaze locks onto her eyes. She pulls away from him, shuddering at the intensity of the storm raging in his eyes. “That he’s an alien.”

“Oh, that. Three hours.” She tries to keep up her bravado but her voice cracks. His gaze softens as he takes in her trembling form.

Dr. Milligan approaches them hesitantly. “I’ve watched him save the others. Rose will be okay.”

“And what are you?” he snaps, his anger searching for another source.

“I’m human,” the woman tells him, but she doesn’t look entirely convincing. “Mostly,” she adds in a small whisper. She does not back down from the steely expression on his face.

“You’re a telepath,” he says. “That’s how you knew Rose’s name. You read it in my mind.”

“Yes. But it was an easy enough link to make, what with your own--.”

Whatever the doctor is about to say to him is interrupted by a flaring of the green light. He covers his eyes with a yelp and when he is able to blink away the sharp afterimage and focus again Rose is laying flat in the bed, her color restored, her eyes shut, her breathing normal. Jonathon rushes to her side and reassures himself through touch that Rose is okay. She is no longer cold, her body delightfully warm under his fingertips. She turns into his touch, recognizing him even in her unconscious state.

His eyes move back to his boss. Lumin sits hunched in the chair, his hands withdrawn into his lap, his face downcast. Donna hurries to his side and places her hands on his shoulders. She rubs the muscles soothingly. “It’s all right. You did it. Rose will recover.” Lumin leans back into Donna’s touch, the back of his head leaning into her stomach and she touches his hair lightly, her fingers threading through the thick locks. It is the touch of lovers. Or almost lovers.

Jonathon swallows hard at this new intimacy between them. Dr. Milligan pushes past him and hands Mr. Lumin a beverage. “Here, drink this. It’ll restore your energy balance a bit. Nothing but time will give you your full strength back. And you can’t heal again today. Not without dissipating.” He nods. “If you can go natural for a while, it’ll restore you faster.”

“I will soon enough,” he tells the doctor. “But first,” and he nods towards Jonathon, “I have some explaining to do.”

Ch. 24:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/163156.html