A Sky Without Stars (4/?)

[amberfocus]

                                                                          banner by mitashade

Title:  A Sky Without Stars (4/?)
Series:  The Zeppelins 'verse (Book 2)
Author:  amberfocus
Characters/Pairings:  Ten2 (Jonathon Smith)/alt!Rose Tyler, alt!Donna Noble/James Lumin, alt!Martha Jones Milligan/alt!Tom Milligan, alt!Jack Harkness, Renee Pascal, Frank the Talamangan, Yumi, Caelum, Cariad, Dr. Raji Singh, alt!Adeola Jones, Dr. Eriko Sasaki, alt!Dr. Owen Harper, Mrs. Hampton
Genre:  Alternate Universe, Romance, Action/Adventure, Fluff, light Angst, Smut
Rating:  Adult for occasional smut
Betas:  amyo67, jeprdyfrndly
Summary:  A mysterious object falls to Earth, ejected from the newly formed Time Vortex, burying itself in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.  At first it seems harmless, but soon enough all hell breaks loose.  It's up to the team at Illuminate to try to figure things out before it's too late.  With Lumin still recovering from his last go around with the Vortex and Donna seven months pregnant, it's up to Rose and Jonathon, Martha and Tom, Renee Pascal and Captain Jack Harkness to save the day, with a little help from their alien friends and a precocious, sentient whale.  A sequel to A Sky Without Zeppelins.
A/N:  It's been a long time for this one, but Leap of Faith was being difficult and this just sort of happened.  I think I'll be working on both fics from here on out.

Previous Chapters:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/369333.html

Chapter Four: Impact

“What the hell was that?” asks Donna as they gather together. Her hands are on her hips and her eyes are flashing. How dare anything interfere with her wedding day?

Captain Harkness finishes talking into a mobile then joins their group and leans down to say something in Lumin’s ear. “Yes, yes, of course, immediately.”

Lumin gets the attention of all of the guests and announces, “I hope you’ve all had a wonderful time tonight. Thank you for coming to help us celebrate our wonderful day. I’m afraid that duty calls. Security will be happy to walk you out.” There are disappointed murmurs from the guests, but James is no longer paying attention, his mind focused on the new state of affairs.

Donna is surrounded by her mother and grandfather and hugged and kissed to within an inch of her life. It takes her far longer than she would like to extricate herself and get back to her husband’s side.

“Do you need us?” Jonathon asks Lumin.

“Yes. If you and Rose would head over to the main building, please, I’d appreciate it. Oh, and ask Martha and Tom, too, if they haven’t left yet.” He scans the guests but doesn’t see them.

Jack escorts Lumin and Donna back to the main building while Rose and Jonathon track down Martha and Tom. It takes them a while and when they finally find the other couple snogging in the room the women had prepared in for the wedding, Rose can’t help but giggle. “I’d have expected this of us,” she tells Martha, “but the two of you have been married for a while.”

“Yes, well, Tom’s been out on assignment for Illuminate for three weeks,” Martha says not a bit defensively. “He only just got back in time to get ready for the wedding.”

“Just be glad you didn’t walk in five minutes earlier,” he says casually pocketing something small and pale blue made out of satin and lace. Rose blushes furiously as Tom’s implication hangs in the air and she realizes it is likely a set of knickers.

Jonathon seems oblivious to the whole exchange, looking back behind them. “What’s happened?” Martha asks.

“An asteroid or possibly a space ship crashing.” He returns his attention forward and frowns. “There was a sonic boom so whatever it was, it was travelling fast,” he says. “It was big.”

“So that’s what the noise was.”

Jonathon turned back. “You didn’t notice?”

“We were sort of busy,” Tom replies at the same time as Martha says, “Thought it was fireworks.”

“Mr. Lumin wants us at Illuminate proper, pronto,” Jonathon says still being completely oblivious to, or perhaps simply ignoring, the obvious.

“It’s not…like the last one?” Martha asks hesitantly. “The Caligo ship?”

“The Caligo are gone. They were killed when Mr. Lumin was injured,” Jonathon says. “This is something else. Something—.” He breaks off as the ground rocks beneath their feet. Rose clutches at him, trying to maintain her balance as the room shakes around them. Tom and Martha hold tight to each other as everything crashes to the floor.

Rose feels for a moment like the floor is actually rolling and a dizzying feeling of nausea rumbles through her. “Earthquake,” Jonathon says. Rose loses her balance and sinks to the floor. Jonathon goes down with her, holding onto her, while the others manage to keep their feet. She feels better closer to the ground, but she still doesn’t like it.

The earthquake only lasts for thirty seconds, but it seems like a lifetime. She remembers, vaguely, that they were supposed to move into a doorway or under a desk or something like that, but not in any sort of time that would have been helpful. She knows that Great Britain has earthquakes on occasion, but if they registered more than 3.2 on the Richter scale it was big news and you still wouldn’t feel it. Not in London anyway. This had felt like something big. Something really big. Not like Tokyo or San Francisco big, but definitely not what anyone in recent history would remember.

They are just climbing to their feet when the aftershock hits. It’s nowhere near as strong, but considering Rose is still shaken, it’s not a lot of fun. “What the hell is going on?” she asks.

“I imagine whatever it was has impacted. But judging from its descent it was out in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere,” Jonathon says.

“The ocean? Wait, that big earthquake back in,” Rose breaks off to calculate, “2004, the one at Christmas? The one that caused the tsunami and wiped out that island in Indonesia…that happened in the ocean.”

“And we’re an island,” says Martha. “A big one, but still an island, in the face of a wave like that.”

“Are we far enough inland?” Rose asks. “I mean, from the ocean?”

“Yeah, I think so, but—.” The idea seems to occur to them all at the same time, but it’s Rose who faces it.

“What will it do to the Thames? A wave that big, running up the Thames?”

They stare at each other in horror. “Run!” shouts Jonathon grabbing Rose by the hand. She doesn’t even remember leaving her high heels behind as the four of them dash for Illuminate proper and the express lift to the top of the building. They’re only just in time.



Donna watches in horror from the wall of windows that make up one side of James’ office. All she can think of is the people that they sent home from the wedding, all of those people out there in cars somewhere being swept along flooding roads. Jack and Renee had been waiting in the office when they’d arrived. Jonathon, Rose, Martha, and Tom had all tumbled out of the lift before she’d had time to even worry about them, but her mum and her granddad and the forty-four other guests plus the officiant and catering staff and security guards would have all been caught in that. She lets out a little sob and James reaches out a hand to try to comfort her.

Rose has gone straight to the phone, dialing her mother. Lumin’s phone has satellite capability and is able to get through in any emergency, barring satellites being shot down from the sky. “Yeah, we’re okay,” she says. “We’re at work. You were far enough inland?”

She talks to her mum for a bit before hanging up. “They had some flooding. Just a couple feet of water where Mum’s at and it’s mostly receding, but she says the news is saying it’s really bad along the river.”

She moves over to the window, looking out at the devastation and giving Donna’s free hand a quick squeeze. “Did you want to try to call your family?”

“I…I don’t know. I’m not sure I want to know. If I don’t know, maybe there’s still hope,” she says sniffling. “Oh, Rose, I don’t think I can handle one more tragedy!”

Rose embraces her friend. “Do you want me to do it?” Jonathon asks.

Donna nods against Rose’s shoulder and recites the mobile number to him. He puts it on speaker phone and they all listen as the phone rings. It’s her granddad who answers. “This is Wilf.” A loud background noise fills the room.

“Granddad?” Donna practically screams. “Is Mum…?”

There’s a shuffling sound and then, “Donna? Donna! Are you all right? Is the baby all right? Is James all right?” Sylvia has stolen Wilf’s phone.

“Yes, yes, Mum, we’re good. We’re fine!” Donna exclaims.

“Give me that,” says Wilf loudly and Donna laughs as her granddad retrieves the phone.

“I just wanted to hear her voice!” protests Sylvia.

“We’re both safe,” Wilf says loudly, as if they are sharing the phone now. “Your mother talked that nice helicopter pilot of your husband’s into giving us a lift to Chiswick. I think he quite fancies her.”

“Dad!” protests Sylvia.

Donna giggles and hiccups. Wilf says in a more sober voice, “We were in the air when it hit, sweetheart. It’s…it’s pretty bad.”

“I can see it.”

“Where are you?” he asks.

“James’ office,” she says. “We’re safe, both of us, and a few of the others.”

Silence falls as they both think about those who probably didn’t make it. “I should go now, Donna. We’re getting ready to land. We need to land. Your mother wants to contact the relief society, do what she can to help.”

“I love you, tell mum I love her,” Donna says.

“Of course, darling. We love you, too.” Jonathon ends the connection and it is only then that Donna realizes she is shaking. She collapses into her husband’s lap and he puts his arms around her as best he can.

James says soothing things and rubs her back until Donna calms down. She sighs finally and pulls away, standing up. “I’m sorry,” she says. “Pregnancy hormones are a bitch.” She visibly pulls herself together. “What do we do?”

Jack, who’s been in the corner huddling on his own portable satellite phone hangs up and gives them all a deep, assessing look. “That was the president. She’s declared a state of emergency.”

“Well, duh,” says Rose, rolling her eyes.

Jack gives her a grin that makes Jonathon move towards her possessively. “Point is, she wants us to take the sub out and check and see what the hell happened.”

“It’s not ready!” exclaims Jonathon. “It won’t be ready for over a year. Even if we doubled up everything we were doing, it would still take…oh, eight months to finish construction.”

“What about the creature?” Jack asks.

“What creature?” Renee wants to know, speaking up for the first time, her eyes wide and blue and curious.

“You’ve not got clearance,” Jonathon says sharply. He’s not trusted Renee from the day she hit on him in this very office, despite knowing he was with Rose.

Renee’s eyes narrow. “Of course I do. I’m Monsieur Lumin’s right hand. I have clearance for everything.”

“No, Madame Pascal, you don’t.” Lumin sighs. “I think that’s going to have to change.”

“No,” says Donna. “No way. You swore you’d protect him.”

“Donna, we have to.”

“But Caelum! If it wasn’t for him, we’d be dead. Me, Jonathon, Rose, the baby…both babies!” Donna protested clearly thinking of the little coral growing in Jonathon and Rose’s flat.

“Renee’s not going to hurt Caelum.”

“Who is this Caelum?” Renee asks.

“He’s a shape-shifting alien,” admits James.

“Oh,” she says simply. “Like you.”

“What the hell?” asks Donna.

“You know?” asks a startled James.

“I am not a stupid woman, Monsieur Lumin. I have my own resources. Do you think I could work running this company for so very long and not know the secrets in these walls? I am…very good at recovering information.”

“At snooping, you mean!” Donna says fiercely, stepping protectively in front of her husband.

“Madame Lumin, I am not going to betray your husband!” Renee says indignantly. “Illuminate is my life. This corporation, and James Lumin, gave me everything! What kind of woman do you think I am? A…a traîtresse?” she demands reverting to French.

“What?” Donna asks.

“A traitor,” James says. “No, of course not. No one thinks that.”

“We’ve just had to guard the secret quite carefully,” says Jonathon.

Renee’s eyes fall on Rose. It is clear she thinks that if a junior inventor knows the truth then they never should have hidden it from her, but to her credit she doesn’t say so. “Well, I know. I know about all of your,” she searches her mind and settles on the right English words, “alien friends. If the big one can help us discover the truth of what fell from the skies, we should ask him to help.”

“Is he well enough?” Rose asks. They all look at her in surprise. She has been quietly observing up to this point. “Caelum,” she repeats, “is he well enough to help?”

“He’s healed,” James allows.

“Then Miss Pascal is right,” Rose says. “We should ask him if he wants to help. He could overlay the bones of the submarine, make it air tight. The navigation computers will take Jonathon and me two hours to install.”

Jonathon protests. “Three, at least, Rose.”

“Not if James helps,” she says seriously.

“James isn’t strong enough and the sub isn’t wheel chair accessible,” Donna points out.

“He doesn’t need his wheel chair. He just needs to lay on his back and work,” Jonathon says.

“If Jack will carry me in,” James says, “I could do it.”

“But your arms,” Donna says. “The burns still pull. That kind of work will hurt you.”

“Donna, I have to. We don’t know what it was that crashed down, but if it is an alien space ship and not an asteroid, there may be creatures in there that need our help,” James says.

“But the pain,” Donna says softly.

“I’m always in pain,” James admits. “You know that.”

“I can give him enough morphine to get him through, but not enough to addle his brain,” says Martha.

“And be there with him to monitor his condition?” asks Donna, looking like she’s about to capitulate.

“Of course,” Martha agrees.

“Fine,” Donna says. “Fine, but you make sure he’s as comfortable as he can be.”

Martha nods. “Let’s go ask Caelum. None of this matters without his consent.”

“The basement hasn’t flooded, has it?” Tom asks, suddenly remembering exactly where Caelum’s lair is.

“The vault is safe,” James says. He wheels his chair to the computer on his desk and accesses the cameras that show Caelum in his home. The old alien is flashing through a series of colors and the smaller, lump beside him responds in kind.

“I didn’t know she was here,” James says pointing to the baby.

“Cariad,” interjects Rose. “We finally named her over Christmas.”

“Beautiful name,” says Jack.

“She likes it,” Jonathon replies. “She wanted to come keep him company during the wedding.”

“She’s going to want to come, you know,” says Rose. “If Caelum goes, she’ll want to come along.”

“She can ride inside the sub. It’ll be her first big adventure.”

“Third,” says Jack. “What? She was on that roof with you when the Vor—when the wormhole opened above Rose’s old flat, and she showed up at the Institute. You think I’m not aware what happens in my own…company?”

They fall silent as Jack’s words sink in. “Just what exactly do you know, Harkness?” Jonathon asks.

“A whole hell of a lot. Now let’s go ask Caelum if he’s gonna help, because if not, we need to find an alternate way of getting out there and seeing just what hit the ocean floor and how much damage was done.”

Another aftershock rolls through the building, this one far less powerful, but still enough to be unsettling. “Just let me check the warehouse. It’s supposed to be self-contained and water tight, but it is on the waterfront.”

James hands click over the keyboard. “Looks secure. Okay, let’s go.”

Martha insists on giving James morphine before they leave the office. Once done, they descend to the basement in the small personal lift. It takes James a few minutes to make Caelum understand what he wants. It used to be easier when he could assume his non-corporeal form, but his telepathy still works as a human and he manages to get the creature to understand, and agree to help. He gives the big old alien coordinates and he and Cariad teleport to the warehouse.

The underground subway is flooded, so they have to use the teleport that Addie Jones had stolen from the institute. “Hey! That’s mine!” Jack says as soon as he sees it.

“Was mine first,” Lumin says with a slight growl and Jack has the decency to look embarrassed at his outburst. It was quite clear that Addie hadn’t been the first person to steal the teleporter. They gather around the device, all holding onto each other, and make the rather uncomfortable transfer. Donna barely makes it to a rubbish bin before she throws up. She hates teleporting under the best of circumstances and seven months pregnant is not the best of circumstances.

The warehouse is all but deserted. A few trusted guards are still on hand, one of them sitting on the floor against the wall staring slack-jawed at Caelum and Cariad. The work area is free of river water, the water-proofing having held against the onslaught, despite the two feet of water still flooding the streets outside and lapping at the huge doors leading into the building.

The submarine is half skeleton, half completed structure. The floors and base of the ship are already intact. The starboard side has been constructed, including a side entry hatch that will later be removed and replaced by a large observation portal. There are stairs leading to the exit that would go in the roof, had the roof been finished. The panels for the port side of the ship are in place but have not been welded.

Jonathon climbs into the sub through the side hatch and makes sure there are no technicians inside and once he receives the all clear Lumin directs Caelum to drape himself over the structure. Very slowly the creature seems to absorb the ship into himself, oozing down the sides and slowly becoming a hard, exoskeleton. Once the process has been completed he forms an opening in the roof.

Cariad disappears and Jonathon makes a startled noise from inside the ship as she reappears beside him. Jack picks up James Lumin from his wheel chair and carefully carries him inside. As he’s set into place, the computer components and more lighting are brought inside. Rose stares around her in wonder. It’s like being inside a totally organic space ship. The walls are a soft blue green color and the coral structure of them is much like little Cariad.

Rose touches one of the walls and a soft humming noise seems to fill her head. Hastily she pulls back then reaches out again. This, too, is like touching Cariad. With a strange sort of sigh she turns away from the wall and begins to help install the computers. It takes four hours, rather than the estimated three, and that’s with the help of Kit-10, who crawls into the hard to reach places and does some of the fiddly bits that are too awkward for the humans or James to get to.

“You think he’s water-tight?” asks Jack as he helps snap in the last tank for the oxygen generator. The sub is designed to pull oxygen out of the water, but it has to be stored somewhere, so a wall of tanks have been put into the stern.

“Of course. He was space-worthy all on his own when we fled my planet,” Lumin replies. “A little water isn’t going to get through his hull.”

They evacuate the ship and the last thing they do is remove the side hatch, replacing it with the large window of shatterproof glass that is sitting against the warehouse wall in a large protective crate to make the observation portal. Caelum hardens around it and a quick pressure check shows the sub to be sound.

James, Donna and Martha head back to Illuminate to release Yumi, the sentient whale, from her enclosure and into the ocean at large by means of the teleport. They will stay behind and monitor everything from headquarters. The remaining five members of the team, Jonathon, Rose, Jack, Tom, and Renee climb the scaffolding and enter the submarine, pulling the hatch safely shut.

Jonathon uses his connection to Cariad as well as the navigational computer in front of him to instruct Caelum on what to do. They don’t even feel it when Caelum moves them through space, but the image in the viewport has changed, water filling it as the ship appears by Yumi’s side. The whale will guide them to the site of the impact, her enhanced senses allowing her to easily follow its path. With one last conversation with Lumin over the communication’s device, the ship descends and they are on their way.

Ch. 5: