amberfocus | Of the Vortex Born: Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Gravity Bounce

“What do you mean Mum and Dad are trapped out on the surface of the moon?” Jamie said flying up off the bed and across the room. She grabbed Mairi’s arms and gripped them hard.

“I thought I was being fairly straight-forward about it,” Mairi said dryly.

“But…but the Ganyites! We have to help,” she insisted.

“We most certainly do not. Jake and Landon took a squadron out to rescue them. You are not to worry about it. What do you think you could do about it anyway?” Mairi asked.

Jamie glared at her sister. “There’s much I could do,” she said her voice curiously augmented and her hair starting to lift from her shoulders. Mairi saw gold flecks start to whirl in Jamie’s eyes.

Luke was at Jamie’s side in a flash, grabbing hold of her hand and pulling her away from Mairi. “Jamie, no!” he said emphatically. “No!”

“I can save them,” she said in that same odd tone.

“Jamie, you can’t abuse the Vortex power this way. Remember what the Doctor said. You’re not trained. You did a lot of cellular damage last time and it’s not all healed. And there’s always the chance that it can regenerate you. Do you think your parents would ever want you taking that risk? Even for them?”

Jamie stared at him unseeing for a moment before rational thought returned to her. Her eyes returned to their normal color and her curls settled back down onto her shoulders. “No,” she admitted. She felt a bit dizzy, still feeling the firing of energies racing through her veins. She leaned against Luke. “But it’s Mum…and I just got Dad back. I feel…helpless.”

“But Mum and Dad aren’t helpless,” reassured Mairi. “They’re brilliant and if Landon and Jake don’t get to them in time they’ll find a way to rescue themselves. They will, Jamie,” she said. “You just need to have faith in them.”

Jamie wobbled a bit and Luke led her back to sit on the bed. “How long has it been since you ate?” Mairi asked.

“I don’t know,” said Jamie.

Luke looked at his watch. “She slept for so much of the day. She hasn’t eaten anything since breakfast.”

“I’ll fix you something. Lay down. Luke, you can come and help me,” said Mairi firmly.

As soon as Jamie was settled back on her pillows, Luke followed Mairi to the kitchen. Mairi didn’t speak to him as she grabbed ingredients out of the fridge and put them down on the table. Finally she thumped herself down in a chair and raised her eyes to look at him. “Thank you,” she said.

“What for?” he asked startled as he sat across from her. His hands reached out for the lettuce and he began tearing pieces of it into the colander.

“For stopping Jamie. Dad didn’t want to scare her, but if she abuses it, it can kill her. Not just lead to a regeneration, but kill her. That’s why he needs to train her so badly.”

“She ought to be told.”

“I know, but it’s up to Mum and Dad to tell her. And I’m sure they will once I’ve spoken to them about this.” Mairi sighed as she began slathering mustard and mayo on bread. Luke rose and took the basket to the sink, quickly rinsing the greens, then shaking them off.

He retrieved the cutting board and a large knife and a big red tomato and began slicing as Jamie piled meat and cheese on the bread. She added the greens and two slices of tomato and set the plate aside. “That’s Jamie’s done,” she said. “How do you like yours?”

“Just like how you did Jamie’s only no tomato,” he told her. She quickly assembled his sandwich. “Do you want two? At your age Landon could eat his body weight in sandwiches daily.”

Luke nodded. “Yeah, thanks.” She completed a second one for him and then put together one for herself.

“She’s fragile, Luke,” Mairi said. “You know that, right?”

“I know. I won’t hurt her.” He looked down at his hands then back up at Mairi. “I’m falling in love with her,” he admitted.

Mairi’s eyes softened and she smiled and for the first time since he’d met her Luke saw the resemblance between the two sisters. “You wouldn’t be the first boy who’s given his heart to my sister,” she said softly. “But you are the first one, I think, that she’ll give hers back to.”

Her expression changed a moment later. “Go on and take that to Jamie. And remember what I said. Leave the bedroom door open.”

Luke blushed from head to toe as he grabbed the two plates of food and snagged a couple cans of fruit drink from the table. Honestly, Mairi was treating him as if he were going to jump Jamie any minute and it wasn’t like that. He could still barely wrap his mind around the fact that they’d kissed, chastely, twice now and Mairi thought…well, what Mairi thought wasn’t even close to even being thought about yet.

Well, maybe thought about…but in that distant, abstract, wasn’t going to push for it any time soon sort of way. Wouldn’t know how to push for it, wasn’t ready to push for it. Jamie wasn’t ready to be pushed and… They weren’t…it wasn’t… He was still afraid of even putting his hands in the wrong place when he held her. Oh, there were times when having only been alive for three years was frustrating. If he’d been born normally and not at the physical age of thirteen or fourteen he’d certainly have time to be used to this sort of thing.

And maybe if Sarah Jane had been the normal sort of mum he might have been more willing to ask her about girls and these thoughts and feelings…or if he’d had a dad he could ask him. He could ask the Doctor, would have done if it wasn’t his daughter Luke was thinking about. Though with him being an alien it might not…well, the Doctor had Rose, but he didn’t think… they hadn’t had children the normal way even if they did have three between them and a fourth on the way.

The Doctor might not even know about human hormones and how things worked and…but he had snogged Rose on numerous occasions so maybe… But he was still Jamie’s dad. Come to think of it, Jamie was part alien, or maybe fully, herself...he wasn't sure how that worked with Rose being altered. Frustrating was not even the word for trying to figure it all out..

Clyde back home would be a disaster to ask, he didn’t look at girls like they were, well…he didn’t look at them respectfully and asking his other best mate Maria about it… Yeah, he’d rather curl up and hide in a dark corner than go to her for girl advice. She’d get that smug all-knowing, is our Luke falling for someone finally, look on her face. And being on the receiving end of that look was a fate worse than death, he was firmly convinced.

“Luke?” Jamie’s voice calling from the other room hurried his footsteps along. The minute he saw her again all doubt flew from his mind. He’d figured it out with one look at her welcoming smile. It was simple really. One step at a time and he’d let Jamie lead.

“Doctor, they’re moving,” Rose said. The Doctor had been messing about in the upper ring of the Moon Bubble’s interior trying to figure out a way to control the gravity bounce if they had to use it.

“Hmm?” he mumbled. The sonic screwdriver was clenched in his teeth and both hands were inside the inner workings.

“They’re moving. The one nearest us has what looks like an acetylene torch,” she told him.

“Can’t be. Wouldn’t burn on the moon,” he muttered.

“Doesn’t matter if it’s acetylene or not, it’s burning and it’s doing it on the moon, Doctor,” Rose said sharply and with more than a little impatience. “And it looks like they’re going to try to cut through the glass.”

“Put your space suit on, Rose,” he said his mind focusing at last on what she was saying.

“It’s been on for an hour, Doctor,” she said in her annoyed why won’t he pay attention voice.

He turned to look at her. “Ah, so it is,” he said.

“And you best be getting yours on as well,” she said. “Hurry up,” she added when he didn’t immediately move.

“Yes, yes, okay,” he said. He moved hurriedly into the gear, thanking Rassilon that human space technology had advanced so rapidly on this Earth and Moon that it only took him a few moments to dress in it. The torch was now pressed to the glass and he could see the flaring of it as it tried to cut through the thick surface coat of protective polymers.

“I really think we should press the button, Doctor,” Rose said.

“It’s a last resort, Rose and it’ll be a rough landing. You know that.”

“Might be, but I’d rather have a rough landing than watch them cut our sphere apart. Those torches will be quite effective, I think, in cutting apart our space suits. Not to mention cutting us apart. And I’d rather not go through that, thank you, even if we’ll both regenerate,” she said.

“Rose, just wait a bit more,” he encouraged. “The last radio transmission said the troops are not far now.”

“They’re still a half mile away,” Rose said. “And I’m scared.”

“Rose, you’ll be all right.”

“I’m not scared for me, you git,” she said. “I’m scared for Jamie. She’s still a child and she’s been through hell and on top of all that she shouldn’t have to lose her parents--.”

“She’s not going to!” interrupted the Doctor.

“Can you guarantee me that?” Rose snapped.

“No.”

“Then press the damn button!”

The Doctor closed his eyes, swallowed hard, opened them again, reached out and slapped the big red button. The force of gravity pushed them both down hard into the surface of the Moon and then they were hurled upwards. The sound of air bags inflating filled the bubble and the Doctor and Rose were forced towards the center and each other as their space was severely limited.

The bubble raced through the air at a sixty degree angle and as the air bags began to deflate they stared out into the empty space around them. They were free of the Ganyites; that much was true. But somewhere along the line Pete’s company had made a serious error. The force with which the Moon Bubble had left the Moon’s surface had been too great for the weak pull of the Moon to overcome it. It had launched them into space.