Andromeda Rising: Chapter Nine

[amberfocus]

A/N:  The Doctor and Rose help Daniel care for their daughter Cassi, Acheron and his pack rent a light ship on the planet Danzibar to pursue The Conquered Goddess, and Andromeda loses control with Jack as the bonding link completes its circle and takes things out of both their hands.

Chapter Nine:  Loss of Control

“Bultungin virus?” the Doctor asked his eyes darkening. “You think Cassi may have contracted bultungin?”

“The possibility exists, yes,” Daniel Harper said staring down his father-in-law. “She was bitten by an Orion pack hunter, some of which carry bultungin in their junk DNA. The laboratory on Philia isn’t as extensive as the one on your TARDIS. I can run the tests here.”

“I’ll do it,” the Doctor said reaching for the blood sample in Daniel’s hand.

“I’m perfectly capable of running them myself,” Daniel said patiently.

“She’s my daughter!” snapped the Doctor.

“And she’s my wife,” Daniel said, refusing to be drawn in, his face an inscrutable mask.

“Let Daniel run the tests, love,” Rose said softly placing her hand on her husband’s arm. “Why don’t you come with me to see Cassi while Daniel uses the lab?”

“Fine,” the Doctor said grudgingly.

“While you’re there can you keep an eye on her wound and change bandages accordingly?” Daniel asked and the Doctor nodded.

Rose pulled him after her and they left their ship, passed through the airlock, waited for it to cycle, and finally entered Cassi’s. “You know I could have done it faster.”

“Perhaps,” said Rose. “But Daniel will be more thorough and you know it. Let the man help his wife. He is a medical doctor after all. Qualified on several planets.”

Philia sparked at him when he absent-mindedly stroked her console as he walked by it. “What was that for?” he said to Cassi’s ship. Philia hummed. “I am not being petulant!” he said in such a petulant voice that Rose laughed.

“Come on, love.” Rose pulled him by the hand out of the console room and into the medical bay.

Cassi lay unconscious on a hospital bed, sides raised to keep her from rolling off. A bloodstained bandage covered half her throat and there was sweat on her brow. The Doctor laid a hand to her forehead. “She’s burning up, even by human standards.” He pulled the bandage back to take a look at the seeping wound.

“Blood’s not coagulating properly,” he said. The Doctor rummaged through some drawers until he found a fresh dressing and replaced the old bandage with the new one. “Don’t know what Daniel’s given her yet or I could try to inject her with a coagulant.”

“Want me to go ask him?” Rose asked.

“Yes.”

Rose walked back to the console room and picked up the phone on the console. She punched in the numbers for the TARDIS phone with the extension that would allow her to speak over the intercom system. “Yes?” Daniel called out.

“The Doctor wants to know if you gave Cassi a coagulant or not?” Rose asked.

“Yes, I did. It was ineffective. Dare gave her blood transfusion and that helped for awhile but the effects wore off about an hour ago. If the Doctor wants to try another transfusion he can. His DNA is strongest. It won’t hurt and it might help,” Daniel replied.

“I’ll tell him. Any progress?” she asked hopefully.

“I won’t know anything for another twenty minutes, Rose,” he said.

“Give us a ring when you do and good luck.”

“Thanks.” Rose hung up the phone and headed back to the medical bay to relay what she’d learned to the Doctor.

“I figured as much,” the Doctor said indicating the waste basket that was filled with blood-soaked bandages. He rummaged around some more until he found the items needed for giving a blood transfusion. He went through the steps quickly and within a few moments the transfer began.

“If this doesn’t work,” Rose began.

“We’ll find something that does, love,” the Doctor reassured her.

“But bultungin virus? How’s Cassi going to live with that?” Rose wanted to know.

“Look, even if she has been exposed there is no guarantee she’ll actually contract it. With the changes in your DNA she’s really only one quarter human.”

“But any part human means it’s much more likely she will be susceptible,” Rose worried.

“She may end up as only a carrier,” the Doctor tried to reassure her. "Gallifreyan DNA is extremely dominant. And there’s always the chance she’ll fight it off completely.”

“If she does have it, she won’t be able to bear anymore children,” Rose mused. “She wouldn’t take the risk of passing it on."

“I wasn’t under the impression that Cassi and Daniel wanted more children than Andromeda and Raphael,” the Doctor replied. “She’s not the most patient of mothers even when everything is going perfectly well.”

“I think she may feel a bit of pressure what with restoring the Time Lord line being down to so few of us and all,” Rose said.

“That’s silly. The line will go on regardless of what she does. Besides, you and I can always keep at it. No real reason to stop at just six,” he said giving her a salacious grin.

“I’ve already told you, not until Xan is off on his own and we’ve had a good few years to ourselves. I’ve been pregnant or raising children non-stop since I came back to this universe, so you can just get any clever ideas about knocking me up again out of that devious little mind of yours right this minute!” Rose said vehemently.

The Doctor gave her a sad little boy pout. “Not,” she said with a seductive smile, “That I’m at all opposed to going through the motions of making them often and well.”

“Oh, I’m very well aware of that, Rose Tyler,” he said his voice going low.

Cassi gave a small groan and opened her eyes. “On my death bed, me,” she rasped, “And my parents are hitting on each other. Some things never change.” She gave a weak smile.

“Cassi!” Rose grabbed her daughter’s hand. “How are you feeling?”

“Horrible. What happened? Why can’t I speak right?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“You were bitten in the neck,” the Doctor said. “It might have damaged your vocal cords.” Cassi turned her head towards him wincing at the pain the small movement gave her. She noted the blood transfusion in progress.

“Where’s Danny?” she managed.

“He’s in my lab running some tests. We should have the results soon.”

The phone rang and Rose was off to the console room to answer it. “Ask him if we can give her a painkiller!” the Doctor called after her.

“I will,” she hollered back at him. “Hello?” she said.

“The test was inconclusive, Rose. There is another one I can run but it takes six months to get the results. But I did figure out what’s stopping her blood from coagulating properly. There’s an enzyme in the saliva of a pack hunter, but it can be counteracted with potassium. I’m going to set the other test running and then I’ll be over.”

“Cassi’s awake. She woke up midway through the transfusion. The Doctor wants to know if she can have a painkiller,” Rose asked.

“Yes, the last one should be wearing off right around now. 50cc’s of the green liquid on the top rightmost shelf. Syringes are on the shelf below it.”

“Got it,” said Rose and hung up. She relayed the message to the Doctor and got the syringe and the vial of green fluid, which she drew up herself and tapped down to make sure there were no air bubbles. Finding a vein she carefully injected the medication. A moment later the tension on Cassi’s face relaxed.

“Good stuff,” she sighed, her eyes fluttering closed.

“Check her bandage again,” the Doctor said.

Rose pulled the bandage away from Cassi’s neck. “The blood seems to be less but there’s a clear fluid still.”

“That’s how it should be. The transfusion is working, my DNA is starting to counteract the enzyme. She’s going to have a chance,” the Doctor said. “The liquid potassium should be in the far cupboard, bottom shelf.” Rose found it in pre-loaded syringes and injected it in the nearest vein to Cassi’s neck wound.

“Ouch,” her daughter muttered, her eyes opening at the prick of the needle.

“Hush now,” Rose said. “It’s needed.” The response was quick indeed and a moment later the blood began to coagulate on the wound.

“Time Lord physiology is weird,” Rose muttered. “Who’d think potassium would be so important to you?”

“Why do you think I like bananas so much?” the Doctor asked with a grin. “She’s really improving?” He couldn’t keep the worry from his voice.

“She is. She’ll sleep for a while now, I should think.”

They watched their sleeping daughter with affection for several minutes and eventually Daniel returned, trailed by a bleary-eyed Xanderius. “Xan woke up and wanted to come see his sister,” Daniel explained.

Xan walked over to Cassi and gave her hand a squeeze. “She going to be okay?” he asked his mum.

“In time, with rest,” Rose reassured him. He nodded groggily. “I think we’ll go back to the TARDIS,” Rose told Daniel. “We’ll keep the ships coupled up for the next few days and call over when you need a breather and one of us will come sit with her.”

Daniel nodded. Rose came over to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek and then hugged him tightly. “We’re here for you, sweetie. She’ll be okay,” she told him softly. For the briefest instant Daniel’s calm shattered and he tightened his arms around his mother-in-law convulsively. She heard him swallow hard but when she pulled away, his face was as phlegmatic as it usually was.

She marveled again at how someone as self-possessed as Daniel was had ever matched up with her tempestuous, wild, arrogant, risk-taking, emotionally unrepressed daughter. Of course, he’d been the perfect thing to temper Cassi’s erratic mood swings and tendency towards broodiness.  He'd anchored Cassi in a way no one else had ever been able to.

Daniel turned towards his wife and the Doctor; Rose and Xan returned to their own ship.




Acheron radiated charm at the woman behind the light ship rental desk. He could do that if he wanted to, if it increased his chances of getting what he wanted or needed. Not everything was about hunting, though his mother would be horrified to think such a thought had ever entered his mind. Sometimes life was about taking pleasure where one could find it, and if it furthered the hunt he was on, all the better.

Danzibar was not a trading partner with Herpestidae or Canidae and as such did not recognize his particular form of Orion currency. The woman had looked him up and down and had told him in a low voice that of course exceptions could always be made, that if the incentive were great enough she could easily overlook certain problems with his rental application.

The woman was attractive, he could tell there was a canine influence somewhere in her blood as his body reacted to the scent her pheromones were giving off, and she was only hours away from full heat. He grinned at her, his canine teeth prominently displayed.

Hours later he left the very satisfied woman, whose name he had never learned, at the rental desk and exited with the keys to a high standard light ship big enough for his entire pack to fit in comfortably. As they settled in, Lycoctonus began an illegal connection of tracking equipment to the ship’s computer. The man had spent most of the afternoon searching through the universal database for transponder codes until he’d found the one for The Conquered Goddess and once the hardware and software had been installed they were ready to go.

The light ship, and despite it’s name it was not capable of more than a quarter of light speed, was in fact classed as light weight as opposed to a heavy duty hauler or a fighter, was named the Alecto. Acheron smiled to himself, thinking how very appropriately named it was, for he had every intention of being unceasing in his pursuit of the girl he hunted.

As the Alecto circled the planet of Danzibar and broke free of its gravity, Lycoctonus reported that the equipment had found traces of the transponder code they sought. With careful adjustments to the flight controls, Arctophonus sent the ship in pursuit of The Conquered Goddess.



Jack had hoped that the long walk would do something to soothe his raging hormones. And maybe if he hadn’t been walking with the object of his desire, his arm about her shoulders and hers tucked around his waist, it might have worked. Instead they were now riding the water lift back to their suite of rooms and all he could think about was taking Andromeda into his arms again and kissing her until they both couldn’t breathe. Preferably in a horizontal and not a vertical position.

His free hand clenched into a fist as he sought control. When the lift door opened Andromeda stepped away from him and unlocked the door to their rooms. How could she be so unaware of the effect she had on him? All he wanted to do was take the young woman straight to his bed.

As Andromeda walked through the living area she paused and ran her hand across the coral support pillar, listening to the music her touch created. There was something so sensual in her movements as the coral sang under her hand and he desperately wanted to feel her hand on his skin the same way, that same light stroking that would evoke such a similar feeling in him as the sounds of the coral did in her.

She turned back to him with a soft smile and said a bit uncertainly, “I’ll see you in the morning then, yeah?”

“Andromeda?” The gravel was back in his voice.

“Yes?”

“Come here,” he said, his words not a request but not quite a demand, either. Her pulse began to pick up speed and she could feel her heart beating in her chest. She raised her eyes to his, getting lost in their sapphire depths. Desire washed over her.

“I…I really don’t think…I don’t think I should, Jack,” she said, and he could see now that she was trembling.

“We left should behind a long time ago,” he said.

“I know that but I…I…” She gave up trying to explain her tumultuous thoughts and closed the distance between them, drawn to him like a magnet. As soon as she was within arms length he reached out and pulled her to him, his mouth crashing down on hers in a bruising haste that quite took her breath away and she was inundated by his need, felt it radiating from both his body and his mind, realizing it was invoking her own overwhelming response to this man that she usually was able to hold back.

She could get lost in the emotions, the waves so fiercely flooding her senses that she lost track of which ones were his and which ones were hers as her body overrode her mind’s attempt to slow things down, riding along on the power of his lips, his tongue, his teeth as he held onto possession of her mouth and did not let go.

His hands rose from her hips, creeping under her shift until they met bare skin at her waist. Her nerve endings fired violently, increasing her trembling and she lost control of her legs. Jack felt her collapse and caught her before she fell, the kiss broken. He swung her up into his arms and strode with her to his bedroom.

Jack laid her down gently on the bed, his eyes showing his concern as her body continued to shake. He sat down beside her, reached out and caught her hand, raising it to his mouth in a kiss. “Andromeda, what’s happening?” he asked her.

She didn’t know. She couldn’t speak; her mind unable to find words to express what she was feeling. She raised her free hand to his temple, and lifted the one holding hers to her temple. She let go of the last vestiges of control. The link that had been activated only briefly before fired into life, a flare of indigo from her colliding with the sapphire blue of Jack’s mind touch, roiling together into an explosion of light and sound.

Hands, bodies, minds, souls, hearts collided in a miasma of lust, want, need, love. Far above the surface of the ocean world they soared together, higher and higher, as if there was no need to ever return to the land. Heat seared through both of them, burning deep into their core, almost painful in its total absorption of their individuality into one entity that only sought for bliss.

When bliss came it ripped through them, Jack screaming out at the intensity of it, his own feelings echoed and mirrored by Andromeda’s. And then she was falling deep into a well of ecstasy that flashed blindingly bright and as she plummeted deeply into the light she lost her conscious mind, dragging Jack’s mind with hers into the sudden darkness. 

Ch. 10:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/164959.html