Surrogate ficletness!
Jun. 14th, 2010 06:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lone_defender"Oooh, where are we, then?" Rose hadn't even had a chance to glance up from the console by the time Amelia had shot to the door. "It looks very...red."
Jack meandered over to the doorway as Rose called up the TARDIS' data on where they'd landed. "It would. We're on Mars. Looks red until the 90th century. The residents get rowdy then, and paint the place yellow." She didn't have to see his face to know he was wearing that smug, nostalgic grin. "Great party."
"Oh, come on." And there was Amelia's 'I'm really quite impressed but I'm pretending not to be' voice. "Mars? You can tell that from one look?"
Jack pointed at something Rose couldn't see from the console. "That right there. Peak of Hils'ro. You can't mistake that shape. Well, I can't. Great memories there, too." He pointed to the sky, and Amelia had stopped pretending not to be fascinated. "And right there. That constellation's only visible like that from your solar system. Gotta say, it looks far more interesting from the others."
As Jack rambled on about Taurus' lewder names across the universe, and Amelia laughed along in all the right places, Rose glanced up, half expecting to share an amused grin with Donna, but her co-pilot was currently spending a few weeks with her family. Jack had come along on a whim when Amelia had insisted they do something special. "TARDIS says it's Mars, mid-21st century."
Amelia glanced over her shoulder pouting, Jack seemed to intently be scanning the horizon for something. "Well that's not very interesting, is it? Same solar system, same century...that's not even impressive! I mean, there's not even anyone here, is there?"
"What, you mean like Martians?" Rose was half tempted to search the TARDIS' databanks about that, but judging from the distinct tone of amusement in her song, she had a feeling there weren't.
Jack answered it for her. "Not the little green men you're thinking of."
"You mean there are Martians?" Amelia glanced back at Jack, as Rose did a quick scan of the area. The planet was as inhospitable as she'd expected, so there was no point in lugging on space suits if there really wasn't anything or anyone to see.
"Mid-21st century? Not ones you'd like to meet. And definitely not little."
"That explain the structure the TARDIS is reading." Rose glanced up in time to see Jack striding back from the door to look over her shoulder at the monitor, and she pointed at the displayed wire-frame of a building. "Unfriendly Martians?"
His expression brightened in recognition. "Oh, that really is mid-21st century. Smack dab in the middle! What year is it?"
"2059, why? Does that matter?"
He grinned, and clapped his hands together as Amelia wandered up. "Looks like I was wrong. There are a handful of Martians you'd like to meet. First human colonists on Mars."
Amelia gave an excited squeak, as she leaned over his shoulder to get a look at the screen herself. "Human colonists on Mars? In the twenty-first century? Oooh, what do you think they'd do if we walked in on them?"
"Twenty-first century?" Rose couldn't help a wry smirk. "They might shoot us."
Jack snorted. "They wouldn't have wasted space and weight on weapons. Bet we'd give 'em a thrill."
Amelia had a dangerous gleam in her eyes. "Bet they'd tell stories, even."
It was Rose's turn to snort, and to elbow Jack. "Oi, you, Jack, are just hoping they'll be desperate for dancing. But, alright, the TARDIS has some spare environmental suits, it's not long of a hike."
Amelia was off like a shot. Jack lingered long enough to give her a suitably wry look, before following after Amelia. Rose waited long enough for the TARDIS to calculate the amount of air they would need for a round-trip, before also heading down the hallway to where Amelia was already struggling with her suit, Jack hadn't started equipping his own yet, instead instructing Amelia on the steps for it.
"Remember, this is just going to be a short trip. They've got things to be doing, their experiences are going to be pretty well recorded, and they'll be asking questions we don't want to answer. In, out..."
"...And the stuff of Fairy Tales, yeah, I know." Amelia rolled her eyes and huffed at the lopsided suit.
Jack spoke without looking up from where he was working on the suit's buckles. "Oh, that's not going to be a problem. There won't be any stories."
"Excuse me? It's a first colony, those tend to be pretty well recorded."
He glanced up then, frowning. "It's a first colony. Those tend to be lost."
Amelia's face fell. "Oh...then...then we'll have to go. We can be their human interaction."
Whatever passed across Jack's mind at that, he quickly buried it before Rose could say anything, and his roguish grin was back firmly in place. "If you can get that suit on in time."
"Well I didn't realize I was on a timer, did I?" Amelia huffed, and gave Jack a pointed glare. "Now that I know it's a humanitarian mission, this'll be a breeze! It'll be like wrapping presents for Christmas."
Rose spoke up before Jack could get out his doubtlessly inappropriate comeback. "Think stuffin' a Thanksgiving turkey's a more appropriate metaphor."
"OI! What's that supposed to mean?" Amy's hands batted away Jack's, which had stilled at her collar, to adjust it herself. Rose couldn't help the snort of laughter, before she waved the younger woman's offense off.
"Not like that, I just mean it'd be more seasonally appropriate. S'closer to Thanksgiving right now than Christmas."
Jack spun on his heel. "What did you say?"
She frowned at him, uncertain of his sudden shift. "You heard me."
"Rose, what's the date? What day is it?"
"2059...21st of November." She hadn't finished speaking by the time Jack had spun back around and started working on getting Amelia out of the suit they'd just managed to get her into.
Amelia gave a squeak of annoyance, and slapped at his hands. "What're you doing?"
"No need to wear that. You're not going to use it."
"Excuse me, unless we're going to move the TARDIS--and I specifically recall small jumps bein' a bad idea..."
"We're not going out there. We're not going to the base, we're leaving." Jack still hadn't looked up from the suit.
Rose frowned, and walked up to touch his shoulder. "Jack..."
He abandoned his efforts to turn toward her, expression intense. "I told you the colony was lost. November the 21st, 2059, is the day it's lost. Something happens, no one knows what, and the base self destruct is set off, all hands are lost. That's a nuclear explosion, less than a mile away."
Amy started up, a touch of desperation in her voice. "If no one knows, maybe-"
"They also don't know when in the day it happens. It could be any moment. The TARDIS might be able to deal with that sort of force, but if we go out there, we could be caught in it."
"Or maybe it won't! Maybe we could stop it? Maybe we're here to save them?"
"No!" Jack spun on the younger woman, and tugged one of the suit's buckles open. "We can't do that. It's the first colony. If we change what happens to the colony, we change what happens because of that colony. We change the future and not for the better. The future that is my history. I grew up reading stories about Bowie Base One, about Two and Three and the Brookes and Ehrlichs, and none of that can happen if we interfere."
"But-"
Rose gave a soft sigh, and let her hand fall from Jack's shoulder. Moments like this, she hated what she did, the life she lived. Weighing the lives of innocent people against the future and the past and making decisions no human was ever meant to. But they had no choice. There was no Doctor to say what the consequences would be. No one to provide an alternative. Only the choice to walk away, or to risk the future.
"We're leaving." She turned, and walked away from Amelia's protests. Jack didn't follow.
The monitor was displaying an image of Mars when she entered the control room. There was no sign of the base on screen, but there wouldn't have been, it was a good deal away from where they'd parked. She flicked the monitor off without looking up, and resolutely ignored the flickering of a flash she thought she spotted across the screen as she did so.
It wasn't always fun and games, TARDIS travel. They all knew that. Sometimes it was dangerous and painful. Sometimes they lost. Sometimes they lost everyone. Sometimes, they let go, and let the people fall. Sometimes what was best wasn't what was easy, and sometimes it wasn't what let you sleep well at night. They all knew that. But it was for the best. They did do good.
She believed that. She had to believe that.
She didn't set the TARDIS down anywhere but open space, before turning away from the console and wandering back toward her room. Toward the room that once belonged to someone who would have been able to make a better choice than simply walking away.
She wouldn't be using the randomizer again any time soon.
Jack meandered over to the doorway as Rose called up the TARDIS' data on where they'd landed. "It would. We're on Mars. Looks red until the 90th century. The residents get rowdy then, and paint the place yellow." She didn't have to see his face to know he was wearing that smug, nostalgic grin. "Great party."
"Oh, come on." And there was Amelia's 'I'm really quite impressed but I'm pretending not to be' voice. "Mars? You can tell that from one look?"
Jack pointed at something Rose couldn't see from the console. "That right there. Peak of Hils'ro. You can't mistake that shape. Well, I can't. Great memories there, too." He pointed to the sky, and Amelia had stopped pretending not to be fascinated. "And right there. That constellation's only visible like that from your solar system. Gotta say, it looks far more interesting from the others."
As Jack rambled on about Taurus' lewder names across the universe, and Amelia laughed along in all the right places, Rose glanced up, half expecting to share an amused grin with Donna, but her co-pilot was currently spending a few weeks with her family. Jack had come along on a whim when Amelia had insisted they do something special. "TARDIS says it's Mars, mid-21st century."
Amelia glanced over her shoulder pouting, Jack seemed to intently be scanning the horizon for something. "Well that's not very interesting, is it? Same solar system, same century...that's not even impressive! I mean, there's not even anyone here, is there?"
"What, you mean like Martians?" Rose was half tempted to search the TARDIS' databanks about that, but judging from the distinct tone of amusement in her song, she had a feeling there weren't.
Jack answered it for her. "Not the little green men you're thinking of."
"You mean there are Martians?" Amelia glanced back at Jack, as Rose did a quick scan of the area. The planet was as inhospitable as she'd expected, so there was no point in lugging on space suits if there really wasn't anything or anyone to see.
"Mid-21st century? Not ones you'd like to meet. And definitely not little."
"That explain the structure the TARDIS is reading." Rose glanced up in time to see Jack striding back from the door to look over her shoulder at the monitor, and she pointed at the displayed wire-frame of a building. "Unfriendly Martians?"
His expression brightened in recognition. "Oh, that really is mid-21st century. Smack dab in the middle! What year is it?"
"2059, why? Does that matter?"
He grinned, and clapped his hands together as Amelia wandered up. "Looks like I was wrong. There are a handful of Martians you'd like to meet. First human colonists on Mars."
Amelia gave an excited squeak, as she leaned over his shoulder to get a look at the screen herself. "Human colonists on Mars? In the twenty-first century? Oooh, what do you think they'd do if we walked in on them?"
"Twenty-first century?" Rose couldn't help a wry smirk. "They might shoot us."
Jack snorted. "They wouldn't have wasted space and weight on weapons. Bet we'd give 'em a thrill."
Amelia had a dangerous gleam in her eyes. "Bet they'd tell stories, even."
It was Rose's turn to snort, and to elbow Jack. "Oi, you, Jack, are just hoping they'll be desperate for dancing. But, alright, the TARDIS has some spare environmental suits, it's not long of a hike."
Amelia was off like a shot. Jack lingered long enough to give her a suitably wry look, before following after Amelia. Rose waited long enough for the TARDIS to calculate the amount of air they would need for a round-trip, before also heading down the hallway to where Amelia was already struggling with her suit, Jack hadn't started equipping his own yet, instead instructing Amelia on the steps for it.
"Remember, this is just going to be a short trip. They've got things to be doing, their experiences are going to be pretty well recorded, and they'll be asking questions we don't want to answer. In, out..."
"...And the stuff of Fairy Tales, yeah, I know." Amelia rolled her eyes and huffed at the lopsided suit.
Jack spoke without looking up from where he was working on the suit's buckles. "Oh, that's not going to be a problem. There won't be any stories."
"Excuse me? It's a first colony, those tend to be pretty well recorded."
He glanced up then, frowning. "It's a first colony. Those tend to be lost."
Amelia's face fell. "Oh...then...then we'll have to go. We can be their human interaction."
Whatever passed across Jack's mind at that, he quickly buried it before Rose could say anything, and his roguish grin was back firmly in place. "If you can get that suit on in time."
"Well I didn't realize I was on a timer, did I?" Amelia huffed, and gave Jack a pointed glare. "Now that I know it's a humanitarian mission, this'll be a breeze! It'll be like wrapping presents for Christmas."
Rose spoke up before Jack could get out his doubtlessly inappropriate comeback. "Think stuffin' a Thanksgiving turkey's a more appropriate metaphor."
"OI! What's that supposed to mean?" Amy's hands batted away Jack's, which had stilled at her collar, to adjust it herself. Rose couldn't help the snort of laughter, before she waved the younger woman's offense off.
"Not like that, I just mean it'd be more seasonally appropriate. S'closer to Thanksgiving right now than Christmas."
Jack spun on his heel. "What did you say?"
She frowned at him, uncertain of his sudden shift. "You heard me."
"Rose, what's the date? What day is it?"
"2059...21st of November." She hadn't finished speaking by the time Jack had spun back around and started working on getting Amelia out of the suit they'd just managed to get her into.
Amelia gave a squeak of annoyance, and slapped at his hands. "What're you doing?"
"No need to wear that. You're not going to use it."
"Excuse me, unless we're going to move the TARDIS--and I specifically recall small jumps bein' a bad idea..."
"We're not going out there. We're not going to the base, we're leaving." Jack still hadn't looked up from the suit.
Rose frowned, and walked up to touch his shoulder. "Jack..."
He abandoned his efforts to turn toward her, expression intense. "I told you the colony was lost. November the 21st, 2059, is the day it's lost. Something happens, no one knows what, and the base self destruct is set off, all hands are lost. That's a nuclear explosion, less than a mile away."
Amy started up, a touch of desperation in her voice. "If no one knows, maybe-"
"They also don't know when in the day it happens. It could be any moment. The TARDIS might be able to deal with that sort of force, but if we go out there, we could be caught in it."
"Or maybe it won't! Maybe we could stop it? Maybe we're here to save them?"
"No!" Jack spun on the younger woman, and tugged one of the suit's buckles open. "We can't do that. It's the first colony. If we change what happens to the colony, we change what happens because of that colony. We change the future and not for the better. The future that is my history. I grew up reading stories about Bowie Base One, about Two and Three and the Brookes and Ehrlichs, and none of that can happen if we interfere."
"But-"
Rose gave a soft sigh, and let her hand fall from Jack's shoulder. Moments like this, she hated what she did, the life she lived. Weighing the lives of innocent people against the future and the past and making decisions no human was ever meant to. But they had no choice. There was no Doctor to say what the consequences would be. No one to provide an alternative. Only the choice to walk away, or to risk the future.
"We're leaving." She turned, and walked away from Amelia's protests. Jack didn't follow.
The monitor was displaying an image of Mars when she entered the control room. There was no sign of the base on screen, but there wouldn't have been, it was a good deal away from where they'd parked. She flicked the monitor off without looking up, and resolutely ignored the flickering of a flash she thought she spotted across the screen as she did so.
It wasn't always fun and games, TARDIS travel. They all knew that. Sometimes it was dangerous and painful. Sometimes they lost. Sometimes they lost everyone. Sometimes, they let go, and let the people fall. Sometimes what was best wasn't what was easy, and sometimes it wasn't what let you sleep well at night. They all knew that. But it was for the best. They did do good.
She believed that. She had to believe that.
She didn't set the TARDIS down anywhere but open space, before turning away from the console and wandering back toward her room. Toward the room that once belonged to someone who would have been able to make a better choice than simply walking away.
She wouldn't be using the randomizer again any time soon.
