Doctor Who | Things Best Left Unseen (2/2)
Dec. 3rd, 2007 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eponymous_roseTitle: Things Best Left Unseen (2/2)
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eponymous_rose
Rating: PG (violence)
Warnings: Spoilers up to and including Nekromanteia.
Genre: Humour, Action/Adventure, Drama
Word Count: 3,516
Author’s Notes: Thank you toimsanehonest for the amazing beta! An entry in the Big Finish Audio Ficathon, for castrovalva9.
Summary: Immediately after the events of Nekromanteia, the Doctor, Peri, and Erimem find themselves at a twenty-first century exhibition of Egyptian artefacts, where the illustrious Professor Snow is poised to reveal his most prized archaeological treasure. But who are the ominous-looking men in the dark suits and terribly impractical sunglasses, and why are they so convinced that they’re about the pull off the greatest heist in the planet’s history?
Part One
*~*~*
“Okay,” Peri said as they approached the storage room. “Just two aliens. Two of us, two of them. Better odds than we usually face, right?” She gave a weak smile.
Erimem recognised that Peri was steeling herself for some sort of confrontation, and felt an unexpected jolt of fear at the notion. After all, they had faced worse threats, and come through it relatively unscathed. These two hardly seemed to be professionals if the Doctor could spot them that far off – they’d be more likely to run than to fight.
She was Erimemushinteperem, daughter of Pharaoh Amenhotep II, a warrior princess of Egypt, and yet she was afraid.
With a hand that was suddenly shaking, she touched the place where her cheekbone had been fractured by Harlon, before she’d managed to fight him off using a strength and desperation she’d never known existed. It seemed that the injury had left a deeper mark than she’d anticipated.
Peri, trying very hard to look inconspicuous, was standing in front of the door to the storage room – it was slightly ajar. Erimem stepped up and stood beside her.
“Ready?” Peri whispered.
“Ready.”
They each took a deep breath, and then flung the door open-
-and ran straight into the two men in suits.
“Oh, ah,” said one of them, stumbling backwards into the doorway. “Sorry.” He had a large wooden crate under his arm.
“Professor Snow, um,” said the other. “He just asked us to fetch this for him.”
“How nice for you,” Peri said cheerfully. “Because I bet that made stealing it a whole lot easier.”
Erimem swallowed and tried to think of something witty to say; Peri was still grinning, calm and collected, poised in the face of such an uncertain situation. Erimem had seen that particular expression on the Doctor’s face before – like the danger, rather than being frightening, was impossible and wonderful all at once. She’d felt it, too, fighting at his side in Thebes, the excitement gradually supplanting cold consciousness until there was only uncertainty and a strange sort of not-fear.
As a child, Erimem had learned that battles were to be faced with dignity and aplomb, whether they were won or lost – and sometimes it was difficult to tell the difference. Now she felt like the deserter, the dishonourable one who wanted to run and hide in the face of this unknown menace.
She thought of the TARDIS and impossible worlds and Antranak the cat and stood a little straighter. She had travelled through time. And she was different for it, she was better for it, she was changed.
“Where is the Doctor?” she snapped, and if there was a quaver in her voice, the vehemence of her words more than made up for it. A few heads turned in their direction as some of the nearby guests took notice.
Peri grinned, and it was a little more forced. “Mind if we continue this nice chat out of earshot?” Before either of the aliens could protest, she’d shuffled them back into the room. Erimem closed the door behind them.
“Now, really,” one of the aliens protested. “We’re just-“
“Ah, no.” Peri shook a finger in his face, and Erimem almost laughed at the alien’s expression, which was a picture of perplexed astonishment. “You were asked a perfectly valid question. Where is the Doctor?”
The taller one shifted uncomfortably. “Who’s that, then?”
His associate elbowed him. “Shut up, Larthza.” He took on a studiously sweet demeanour. “My dear young females,” he said in a voice that aimed at ‘affectionately condescending’ and fell rather short of the mark. “I’m sure your concerns for your friend are not founded on good sense. Perhaps a figment of overexcited neurons, brought on by the present wave of unpleasantly hot weather?”
A shuddering of thunder echoed his words.
“Yeah, that’d be it. Now, what’s in the box?” Peri asked pleasantly.
The two aliens exchanged glances. “Oh, it’s just-“
“Peri!” Erimem had caught a glimpse of movement, somewhere further back in the room, and felt suddenly as though all the heat of the lightning above was coursing through her veins. But this wasn’t the burst of thrilling excitement that had come on the battlefield in Thebes; this was different. This was real, was cold and terrifying and powerful.
The Doctor was on the ground, only just stirring, and there was blood on his collar.
Peri immediately made as though to run for him, but the taller alien blocked her passage with an outstretched arm, sending her tumbling into a pile of crates. And then everything was happening too fast, because the Doctor had stopped moving and Peri, trying to scramble out from under a pile of crates, was shouting her name, and both aliens turned to look at her and she couldn’t move-
-and Harlon was bearing down on her and his fists were solid and real and after a time she forgot herself and shouted the names of the old gods at him because surely they wouldn’t permit their chosen daughter to die and it took her still longer to remember that she didn’t even believe in them anymore-
She was afraid, but that didn’t matter. In the last few days, she had spent so much time pretending when she knew full well that bravery was no mere absence of terror – it was real, and it was difficult, and it was nothing more than doing the right thing in spite of everything else.
With one deft motion, Erimem reached out, snatched the sunglasses from the face of the alien nearest her, and looked into his eyes.
He stumbled back a step, and his companion seized him by the arm, muttering: “Kryl. Kryl, we gotta leave. It’s all goin’ wrong.”
But the other alien, Kryl, was staring at her, wonderingly. “I-“ he began.
“Why are you doing this?” Erimem said sharply. “You’ve come here to steal something precious, something that will give joy to the people who’ve come to see it.” But even as she spoke the words, she remembered Professor Snow’s sad, lost expression, the loneliness inherent in his enjoyment of history, and wondered whether it was true at all. She was peripherally aware of Peri, struggling out from under the crates and then stumbling to the Doctor’s side.
“I don’t have time to philosophise with an ape,” Kryl said, and picked up the box again. But, now that he wasn’t wearing the ridiculous sunglasses, she could see the way his eyes kept coming back to meet hers. He cleared his throat. “You have currency on this planet, I take it?”
She nodded, not quite trusting her voice.
He bared his teeth in a passable imitation of a smile. “Then you understand! It’s simply a matter of trying to gain more of it, for myself and my associate.” He stared at her, and she realised with a jolt of horror that he actually expected her to accept his motives, was seeking some form of validation in her eyes-
She shook her head, slowly. “That is a cowardly way to live,” she said.
In one fluid motion, he grabbed the sunglasses from her hand and planted them firmly over his eyes. “They really are savages, Larthza,” he said, with a hint of regret. “No concept of priorities. Let’s go.”
His associate nodded. With a grim smile, Erimem planted her feet and crossed her arms. “Go on, then,” she said. “Knock me down like you did all the rest. Prove how strong you are.”
Larthza shifted uncomfortably, casting a glance over his shoulder. Peri, sporting a gash across her forehead from her collision with the crates, ignored him; she was still trying to revive the Doctor.
The alien turned back to Erimem. “That were a mistake,” he said, almost pleadingly.
“Shut up, Larthza!” growled Kryl. “Let’s go.” He started to shoulder past Erimem, and she felt, with a certain hopelessness, the situation passing beyond her control. She found herself looking to the Doctor for assistance; he was only just stirring, blinking bemusedly up at Peri.
And then she caught herself. She may not be some glorified traveller who stumbled from world to world, saving what he didn’t destroy, but she was the only thing between these aliens and whatever it was they were planning. And that was reason enough for her to stand fast, to keep trying.
Erimem stepped back into the aliens’ path, determinedly. “What is it, exactly, that you think you’ve stolen, there?” She pointed to the box under Kryl’s arm. “Because surely it’s not worth however much of your currency you hope to gain from all this.”
Kryl straightened, affronted. “And what would you know about it, human?”
“Well,” Erimem said carefully. “This is an exhibition of some sort, after all. I find it fairly unlikely that anything here would be of particular interest to you.” She cleared her throat, warming to her topic. “And Professor Snow was speaking of the emotional significance of this particular collection. Surely he has a prior claim to whatever this is?”
Kryl sighed, and she imagined that he must be rolling his eyes. “One thing you’ll learn as you live longer, human, is that these ‘claims’, as you call them, do not exist. We’re all here to take whatever we can.”
And then Erimem saw it, the faint flicker of his eyes behind the sunglasses, a hint of unease. “I see,” she said with a smile. “You’re not actually all that pessimistic, or mercenary, or whatever it is you’re trying to make me think. You’re not just doing this for the money, are you?” She leaned in closer, feeling a teasing smile creep across her lips, the echo of Peri’s cheerful defiance. “You must be trying to impress someone.”
“We-“ Kryl stared at her. “I-“
“Shaddup, Kryl,” said Larthza abruptly. “She’s just tryin’ to rile us, is all. An’ it’s working, so don’t go tryin’ to make excuses.”
Kryl sputtered something at him, incoherent. Erimem shrugged. “What exactly do you suppose is displayed at these exhibitions? These riches are only valuable insofar as they’re quite old and rare. I don’t believe there’s anything worth stealing for someone from another planet.”
Larthza suddenly broke into a smile, so vastly unlike Kryl’s rictus of a grin that Erimem found herself smiling back. “I told you, Kryl. Didn’ I? I said they wouldn’t jus’ leave it out for us.” He shook his head. “I don’ suppose this is what we think it is, Kryl. I think we’ve jus’ been given a go-around by that machine of yours, that stupid ol’ Model VI Compscanner.”
Now Erimem addressed Larthza alone. “What is it that you believe you’ve got, exactly?”
Kryl and Larthza exchanged glances; Erimem wondered whether they were using some sort of telepathy to communicate. “Should’ve known,” Kryl sighed after a time, “it wouldn’t be this easy to find a god.”
He set the box on the ground and stepped back, his hands in his pockets, looking for all the world like a sheepish schoolboy. As Erimem bent down and started carefully prying the lid from the crate, she felt the breath catch in her throat, recognised as though from somewhere far away the not-fear coursing through her veins. This was it, again, the feeling she’d had while fighting by the Doctor’s side in Thebes, and she knew that if she thought too much about it, or looked up at the Doctor himself, it would disappear and she would be afraid again.
She rubbed her hands together, then pulled the lid the rest of the way off the crate. There was some sort of packaging material crammed in every spare corner; it took her a moment to dig through it enough to reveal what was within.
Erimem glanced inside the box, and, in spite of her fear and the things she’d seen and done and been forced to do since meeting the Doctor, in spite of everything, she burst out laughing.
At Kryl and Larthza’s faintly hurt expressions, she curbed her mirth with some effort. “I’m sorry,” she gasped. “It really shouldn’t be this funny. But it’s a cat. A mummified cat!”
Kryl and Larthza stood mutely for a moment, and then the former added, cautiously: “A cat?”
“A small, domesticated mammal,” said the Doctor quietly. All eyes turned to him; he was leaning on Peri’s arm, looking dazed but amused. “Coincidentally, during a certain period in Egyptian history, and within certain families, cats were outright worshipped as gods. This mummy is undoubtedly the prize of Professor Snow’s collection.”
Kryl stared at Larthza. Larthza stared at Kryl. “I think,” Kryl said faintly. “That it may be time for us to upgrade from the Model VI Compscanner to the Model VII.”
“Model XVI,” Larthza said firmly. “I’ve a catalogue in th’ ship. They deliver.”
Kryl’s face seemed to pale abruptly. “If we’re still alive, that is. Our esteemed employer, once he recovers from the apoplectic fit associated with this latest shining success, may just have enough presence of mind to kill us on the spot.”
Larthza leaned forward, conspiratorially. “I dunno, Kryl,” he said. “I think we’ve maybe had enough of bein’ jerked around, yeah? Maybe ‘s time we started workin’ freelance.”
“That’s the spirit,” the Doctor said, with a weak attempt at joviality. “Go forth and wreak havoc on the universe at large.”
Peri snorted. “Sure. Because that never goes wrong.”
Kryl made a hearty try at a grin. “Who are you, exactly?”
It took Erimem a moment to realise that the question was directed not at the Doctor, but at her. She cleared her throat self-consciously. “I’m Erimem,” she said after a moment, because she wasn’t a pharaoh, she wasn’t an adventurer, and, for all intents and purposes, she had completely vanished from history. A name, then, was the only thing left that was real about her.
And the alien across from her seemed instinctively to understand this. He nodded his head, a gesture of self-deprecating respect. “Thank you, Erimem. You’ve saved us making a terrible mistake.”
“Well-“ Erimem frowned, then shook her head. Both of them stared at her, as though waiting for some impressive words of wisdom. “What is it you want me to say?”
“Good luck?” Larthza suggested. Kryl elbowed him in the ribs.
Erimem took a deep breath. “I know,” she said slowly, “how easy it is to use the bad things happening around you as an excuse for doing terrible things yourself.” She met the Doctor’s eyes, and he smiled gently. “Or for doing absolutely nothing when inaction is the worst possible course of action.”
There was an awkward silence, and then Kryl shifted from foot to foot. “Um,” he said. “That’s very wise and poetic, probably. But our employer must be waiting for his report by now.”
“Best if we jus’ swan off before he notices our absence,” Larthza added. “For all involved.”
“Especially us,” Kryl noted. An emphatic thunderclap punctuated his statement.
Just then, the door flew open to reveal a rather bewildered Professor Snow. Silently, he took in the general state of disarray in the room, the upturned crates, the opened box, and the various states of injury of the people surrounding it.
The Doctor cleared his throat.
Professor Snow stared. “Um,” he said finally, then smiled politely. “Sorry. I’ll come back later.” And with that, he turned on his heel and closed the door behind him.
Humans are, after all, exceptionally good at pretending not to see.
*~*~*
The ceremony, with the help of some careful manipulation on the Doctor’s part, turned out to be as successful as could possibly have been hoped. Professor Snow had described the expedition that had unearthed such a find, the crowd had made appreciative noises at its unveiling, and then everybody had set upon the alcoholic refreshments with an almost religious fervour.
“You know, Doctor,” Peri said, tugging on his sleeve. “You still owe Erimem a cat.”
The Doctor sniffed as though affronted, and nearly inhaled his glass of wine as a result. When he’d finished sputtering, he rubbed the back of his head and added, “I most certainly do not!”
Peri leaned against the wall, watching Erimem with a grin. The girl was speaking to Professor Snow, her typical solemnity fading in favour of a childish enthusiasm as she described the mummified cat to her fascinated audience. “How d’you figure?”
The Doctor crossed his arms, smirking. “From what I can tell,” he said, pointing to the mummified feline, “she’s already got a cat right there.”
Peri laughed. “Yeah, looks like it.”
They were silent for a moment, both watching their companion, so transformed from the quiet and anxious girl she’d been only an hour before. Peri shifted uncomfortably. “You don’t suppose she’ll want to stay?”
The Doctor’s smile was too quick, and he turned away to snatch up another hors-d’oeuvre. “Peri, I can’t force her to follow us around. She’d make a wonderful apprentice to Professor Snow.”
“But you can convince her,” Peri said, and then winced at the note of pleading in her voice. “No, you’re right, that’s not fair at all.”
“I-“ began the Doctor, but then Erimem was standing before them, smiling.
“Are we ready to set off again?” She ran a hand back through her hair. “I expect that Professor Snow was starting to get suspicious when I corrected him about-“
“You’re not staying?” blurted Peri.
Erimem blinked at her in surprise. “This is not my time. It hardly even seems to be the same planet!”
The Doctor smiled gently. “But you could stay with him, if you like. Time has a way of sorting these little ripples out.”
Erimem shrugged. “That is not what I meant. It doesn’t seem right, somehow.”
“We can’t take you home,” the Doctor reminded her. “As far as history goes-“
“I don’t actually have a home at all anymore,” Erimem finished. “I know. So I’ll just have to make the best of it with my home in the TARDIS.”
Peri grinned. “That’s good. No, that’s great!” She pulled Erimem into a quick hug, then held her at arm’s length. “You know, I was getting a little worried about you, there. You were really freaking me out.”
“I saw some terrible things,” Erimem said bluntly. “Had terrible things done to me and had to do terrible things in return. And I have lived so long by the precept that a pharaoh is no better than the sum of her actions that I was beginning to fear for everything. But just knowing, just being aware that there is still kindness in spite of all that-“ She swallowed, then grinned. “It’s enough. It has to be.”
“Well, good,” said Peri. “Because I don’t mind telling you, I think you saved our bacon back there.” Erimem blinked, puzzled at the idiom, and Peri rolled her eyes. “Never mind. Thank you, anyway. I need to get you some modern education, here.”
“Where did Kryl and Larthza disappear to, anyway?” Erimem wondered, scanning the crowd.
“In my experience,” the Doctor said with a grin, reaching behind him to push open the door to the TARDIS. “Renegade travellers tend to exit by the back door.” He extended his hand to Erimem. “Shall we?”
She took it with a smile, snatched at Peri’s sleeve with her other hand, and they all slipped subtly back into the TARDIS console room, closing the doors behind them.
“All right, then,” the Doctor said, rubbing his hands together and standing before the console as though preparing to conduct a symphony. “Where to?”
Erimem exchanged glances with Peri, grinned, and said, “Exactly.”
*~*~*
In a lesser-frequented area of London, over the course of a rather noisy night, there resided a great heap of whirring gears and clanking pieces that might charitably be called a spaceship. And, at a very particular moment, if a hypothetical observer happened to be standing nearby, he might well notice the approach of two men in suits.
One is very tall and very thin, and the other is probably not. And our hypothetical observer, being a discerning sort, should very likely leave it at that.
“Where to next, Larthza?” one asks, with a hint of trepidation.
“Dunno,” says the other.
Together, they step onto the ship and, with some effort and bending of physical laws, it trundles off into space.
Our hypothetical observer may, for a matter of moments, consider the vast possibilities expanding away into the depths of space, where a hunk of mangled machinery can consort with stars and nebulae, and where everything isn’t really all that different from life on Earth, except that it’s sometimes harder to notice the similarities. And then, perhaps with a wistful sigh or a studiously sceptical snort, our illustrious observer would immerse himself in the ordinary, in the commonplace, bury himself so far and so deep that only normalcy can intrude on his newly-awakened consciousness.
Sometimes, though, when the night is young and the heavens impinge on the last glean of twilight, he looks up at the stars and, with a smile, he dreams all the things he cannot know.
Author:
eponymous_roseRating: PG (violence)
Warnings: Spoilers up to and including Nekromanteia.
Genre: Humour, Action/Adventure, Drama
Word Count: 3,516
Author’s Notes: Thank you to
imsanehonest for the amazing beta! An entry in the Big Finish Audio Ficathon, for castrovalva9.Summary: Immediately after the events of Nekromanteia, the Doctor, Peri, and Erimem find themselves at a twenty-first century exhibition of Egyptian artefacts, where the illustrious Professor Snow is poised to reveal his most prized archaeological treasure. But who are the ominous-looking men in the dark suits and terribly impractical sunglasses, and why are they so convinced that they’re about the pull off the greatest heist in the planet’s history?
Part One
*~*~*
“Okay,” Peri said as they approached the storage room. “Just two aliens. Two of us, two of them. Better odds than we usually face, right?” She gave a weak smile.
Erimem recognised that Peri was steeling herself for some sort of confrontation, and felt an unexpected jolt of fear at the notion. After all, they had faced worse threats, and come through it relatively unscathed. These two hardly seemed to be professionals if the Doctor could spot them that far off – they’d be more likely to run than to fight.
She was Erimemushinteperem, daughter of Pharaoh Amenhotep II, a warrior princess of Egypt, and yet she was afraid.
With a hand that was suddenly shaking, she touched the place where her cheekbone had been fractured by Harlon, before she’d managed to fight him off using a strength and desperation she’d never known existed. It seemed that the injury had left a deeper mark than she’d anticipated.
Peri, trying very hard to look inconspicuous, was standing in front of the door to the storage room – it was slightly ajar. Erimem stepped up and stood beside her.
“Ready?” Peri whispered.
“Ready.”
They each took a deep breath, and then flung the door open-
-and ran straight into the two men in suits.
“Oh, ah,” said one of them, stumbling backwards into the doorway. “Sorry.” He had a large wooden crate under his arm.
“Professor Snow, um,” said the other. “He just asked us to fetch this for him.”
“How nice for you,” Peri said cheerfully. “Because I bet that made stealing it a whole lot easier.”
Erimem swallowed and tried to think of something witty to say; Peri was still grinning, calm and collected, poised in the face of such an uncertain situation. Erimem had seen that particular expression on the Doctor’s face before – like the danger, rather than being frightening, was impossible and wonderful all at once. She’d felt it, too, fighting at his side in Thebes, the excitement gradually supplanting cold consciousness until there was only uncertainty and a strange sort of not-fear.
As a child, Erimem had learned that battles were to be faced with dignity and aplomb, whether they were won or lost – and sometimes it was difficult to tell the difference. Now she felt like the deserter, the dishonourable one who wanted to run and hide in the face of this unknown menace.
She thought of the TARDIS and impossible worlds and Antranak the cat and stood a little straighter. She had travelled through time. And she was different for it, she was better for it, she was changed.
“Where is the Doctor?” she snapped, and if there was a quaver in her voice, the vehemence of her words more than made up for it. A few heads turned in their direction as some of the nearby guests took notice.
Peri grinned, and it was a little more forced. “Mind if we continue this nice chat out of earshot?” Before either of the aliens could protest, she’d shuffled them back into the room. Erimem closed the door behind them.
“Now, really,” one of the aliens protested. “We’re just-“
“Ah, no.” Peri shook a finger in his face, and Erimem almost laughed at the alien’s expression, which was a picture of perplexed astonishment. “You were asked a perfectly valid question. Where is the Doctor?”
The taller one shifted uncomfortably. “Who’s that, then?”
His associate elbowed him. “Shut up, Larthza.” He took on a studiously sweet demeanour. “My dear young females,” he said in a voice that aimed at ‘affectionately condescending’ and fell rather short of the mark. “I’m sure your concerns for your friend are not founded on good sense. Perhaps a figment of overexcited neurons, brought on by the present wave of unpleasantly hot weather?”
A shuddering of thunder echoed his words.
“Yeah, that’d be it. Now, what’s in the box?” Peri asked pleasantly.
The two aliens exchanged glances. “Oh, it’s just-“
“Peri!” Erimem had caught a glimpse of movement, somewhere further back in the room, and felt suddenly as though all the heat of the lightning above was coursing through her veins. But this wasn’t the burst of thrilling excitement that had come on the battlefield in Thebes; this was different. This was real, was cold and terrifying and powerful.
The Doctor was on the ground, only just stirring, and there was blood on his collar.
Peri immediately made as though to run for him, but the taller alien blocked her passage with an outstretched arm, sending her tumbling into a pile of crates. And then everything was happening too fast, because the Doctor had stopped moving and Peri, trying to scramble out from under a pile of crates, was shouting her name, and both aliens turned to look at her and she couldn’t move-
-and Harlon was bearing down on her and his fists were solid and real and after a time she forgot herself and shouted the names of the old gods at him because surely they wouldn’t permit their chosen daughter to die and it took her still longer to remember that she didn’t even believe in them anymore-
She was afraid, but that didn’t matter. In the last few days, she had spent so much time pretending when she knew full well that bravery was no mere absence of terror – it was real, and it was difficult, and it was nothing more than doing the right thing in spite of everything else.
With one deft motion, Erimem reached out, snatched the sunglasses from the face of the alien nearest her, and looked into his eyes.
He stumbled back a step, and his companion seized him by the arm, muttering: “Kryl. Kryl, we gotta leave. It’s all goin’ wrong.”
But the other alien, Kryl, was staring at her, wonderingly. “I-“ he began.
“Why are you doing this?” Erimem said sharply. “You’ve come here to steal something precious, something that will give joy to the people who’ve come to see it.” But even as she spoke the words, she remembered Professor Snow’s sad, lost expression, the loneliness inherent in his enjoyment of history, and wondered whether it was true at all. She was peripherally aware of Peri, struggling out from under the crates and then stumbling to the Doctor’s side.
“I don’t have time to philosophise with an ape,” Kryl said, and picked up the box again. But, now that he wasn’t wearing the ridiculous sunglasses, she could see the way his eyes kept coming back to meet hers. He cleared his throat. “You have currency on this planet, I take it?”
She nodded, not quite trusting her voice.
He bared his teeth in a passable imitation of a smile. “Then you understand! It’s simply a matter of trying to gain more of it, for myself and my associate.” He stared at her, and she realised with a jolt of horror that he actually expected her to accept his motives, was seeking some form of validation in her eyes-
She shook her head, slowly. “That is a cowardly way to live,” she said.
In one fluid motion, he grabbed the sunglasses from her hand and planted them firmly over his eyes. “They really are savages, Larthza,” he said, with a hint of regret. “No concept of priorities. Let’s go.”
His associate nodded. With a grim smile, Erimem planted her feet and crossed her arms. “Go on, then,” she said. “Knock me down like you did all the rest. Prove how strong you are.”
Larthza shifted uncomfortably, casting a glance over his shoulder. Peri, sporting a gash across her forehead from her collision with the crates, ignored him; she was still trying to revive the Doctor.
The alien turned back to Erimem. “That were a mistake,” he said, almost pleadingly.
“Shut up, Larthza!” growled Kryl. “Let’s go.” He started to shoulder past Erimem, and she felt, with a certain hopelessness, the situation passing beyond her control. She found herself looking to the Doctor for assistance; he was only just stirring, blinking bemusedly up at Peri.
And then she caught herself. She may not be some glorified traveller who stumbled from world to world, saving what he didn’t destroy, but she was the only thing between these aliens and whatever it was they were planning. And that was reason enough for her to stand fast, to keep trying.
Erimem stepped back into the aliens’ path, determinedly. “What is it, exactly, that you think you’ve stolen, there?” She pointed to the box under Kryl’s arm. “Because surely it’s not worth however much of your currency you hope to gain from all this.”
Kryl straightened, affronted. “And what would you know about it, human?”
“Well,” Erimem said carefully. “This is an exhibition of some sort, after all. I find it fairly unlikely that anything here would be of particular interest to you.” She cleared her throat, warming to her topic. “And Professor Snow was speaking of the emotional significance of this particular collection. Surely he has a prior claim to whatever this is?”
Kryl sighed, and she imagined that he must be rolling his eyes. “One thing you’ll learn as you live longer, human, is that these ‘claims’, as you call them, do not exist. We’re all here to take whatever we can.”
And then Erimem saw it, the faint flicker of his eyes behind the sunglasses, a hint of unease. “I see,” she said with a smile. “You’re not actually all that pessimistic, or mercenary, or whatever it is you’re trying to make me think. You’re not just doing this for the money, are you?” She leaned in closer, feeling a teasing smile creep across her lips, the echo of Peri’s cheerful defiance. “You must be trying to impress someone.”
“We-“ Kryl stared at her. “I-“
“Shaddup, Kryl,” said Larthza abruptly. “She’s just tryin’ to rile us, is all. An’ it’s working, so don’t go tryin’ to make excuses.”
Kryl sputtered something at him, incoherent. Erimem shrugged. “What exactly do you suppose is displayed at these exhibitions? These riches are only valuable insofar as they’re quite old and rare. I don’t believe there’s anything worth stealing for someone from another planet.”
Larthza suddenly broke into a smile, so vastly unlike Kryl’s rictus of a grin that Erimem found herself smiling back. “I told you, Kryl. Didn’ I? I said they wouldn’t jus’ leave it out for us.” He shook his head. “I don’ suppose this is what we think it is, Kryl. I think we’ve jus’ been given a go-around by that machine of yours, that stupid ol’ Model VI Compscanner.”
Now Erimem addressed Larthza alone. “What is it that you believe you’ve got, exactly?”
Kryl and Larthza exchanged glances; Erimem wondered whether they were using some sort of telepathy to communicate. “Should’ve known,” Kryl sighed after a time, “it wouldn’t be this easy to find a god.”
He set the box on the ground and stepped back, his hands in his pockets, looking for all the world like a sheepish schoolboy. As Erimem bent down and started carefully prying the lid from the crate, she felt the breath catch in her throat, recognised as though from somewhere far away the not-fear coursing through her veins. This was it, again, the feeling she’d had while fighting by the Doctor’s side in Thebes, and she knew that if she thought too much about it, or looked up at the Doctor himself, it would disappear and she would be afraid again.
She rubbed her hands together, then pulled the lid the rest of the way off the crate. There was some sort of packaging material crammed in every spare corner; it took her a moment to dig through it enough to reveal what was within.
Erimem glanced inside the box, and, in spite of her fear and the things she’d seen and done and been forced to do since meeting the Doctor, in spite of everything, she burst out laughing.
At Kryl and Larthza’s faintly hurt expressions, she curbed her mirth with some effort. “I’m sorry,” she gasped. “It really shouldn’t be this funny. But it’s a cat. A mummified cat!”
Kryl and Larthza stood mutely for a moment, and then the former added, cautiously: “A cat?”
“A small, domesticated mammal,” said the Doctor quietly. All eyes turned to him; he was leaning on Peri’s arm, looking dazed but amused. “Coincidentally, during a certain period in Egyptian history, and within certain families, cats were outright worshipped as gods. This mummy is undoubtedly the prize of Professor Snow’s collection.”
Kryl stared at Larthza. Larthza stared at Kryl. “I think,” Kryl said faintly. “That it may be time for us to upgrade from the Model VI Compscanner to the Model VII.”
“Model XVI,” Larthza said firmly. “I’ve a catalogue in th’ ship. They deliver.”
Kryl’s face seemed to pale abruptly. “If we’re still alive, that is. Our esteemed employer, once he recovers from the apoplectic fit associated with this latest shining success, may just have enough presence of mind to kill us on the spot.”
Larthza leaned forward, conspiratorially. “I dunno, Kryl,” he said. “I think we’ve maybe had enough of bein’ jerked around, yeah? Maybe ‘s time we started workin’ freelance.”
“That’s the spirit,” the Doctor said, with a weak attempt at joviality. “Go forth and wreak havoc on the universe at large.”
Peri snorted. “Sure. Because that never goes wrong.”
Kryl made a hearty try at a grin. “Who are you, exactly?”
It took Erimem a moment to realise that the question was directed not at the Doctor, but at her. She cleared her throat self-consciously. “I’m Erimem,” she said after a moment, because she wasn’t a pharaoh, she wasn’t an adventurer, and, for all intents and purposes, she had completely vanished from history. A name, then, was the only thing left that was real about her.
And the alien across from her seemed instinctively to understand this. He nodded his head, a gesture of self-deprecating respect. “Thank you, Erimem. You’ve saved us making a terrible mistake.”
“Well-“ Erimem frowned, then shook her head. Both of them stared at her, as though waiting for some impressive words of wisdom. “What is it you want me to say?”
“Good luck?” Larthza suggested. Kryl elbowed him in the ribs.
Erimem took a deep breath. “I know,” she said slowly, “how easy it is to use the bad things happening around you as an excuse for doing terrible things yourself.” She met the Doctor’s eyes, and he smiled gently. “Or for doing absolutely nothing when inaction is the worst possible course of action.”
There was an awkward silence, and then Kryl shifted from foot to foot. “Um,” he said. “That’s very wise and poetic, probably. But our employer must be waiting for his report by now.”
“Best if we jus’ swan off before he notices our absence,” Larthza added. “For all involved.”
“Especially us,” Kryl noted. An emphatic thunderclap punctuated his statement.
Just then, the door flew open to reveal a rather bewildered Professor Snow. Silently, he took in the general state of disarray in the room, the upturned crates, the opened box, and the various states of injury of the people surrounding it.
The Doctor cleared his throat.
Professor Snow stared. “Um,” he said finally, then smiled politely. “Sorry. I’ll come back later.” And with that, he turned on his heel and closed the door behind him.
Humans are, after all, exceptionally good at pretending not to see.
*~*~*
The ceremony, with the help of some careful manipulation on the Doctor’s part, turned out to be as successful as could possibly have been hoped. Professor Snow had described the expedition that had unearthed such a find, the crowd had made appreciative noises at its unveiling, and then everybody had set upon the alcoholic refreshments with an almost religious fervour.
“You know, Doctor,” Peri said, tugging on his sleeve. “You still owe Erimem a cat.”
The Doctor sniffed as though affronted, and nearly inhaled his glass of wine as a result. When he’d finished sputtering, he rubbed the back of his head and added, “I most certainly do not!”
Peri leaned against the wall, watching Erimem with a grin. The girl was speaking to Professor Snow, her typical solemnity fading in favour of a childish enthusiasm as she described the mummified cat to her fascinated audience. “How d’you figure?”
The Doctor crossed his arms, smirking. “From what I can tell,” he said, pointing to the mummified feline, “she’s already got a cat right there.”
Peri laughed. “Yeah, looks like it.”
They were silent for a moment, both watching their companion, so transformed from the quiet and anxious girl she’d been only an hour before. Peri shifted uncomfortably. “You don’t suppose she’ll want to stay?”
The Doctor’s smile was too quick, and he turned away to snatch up another hors-d’oeuvre. “Peri, I can’t force her to follow us around. She’d make a wonderful apprentice to Professor Snow.”
“But you can convince her,” Peri said, and then winced at the note of pleading in her voice. “No, you’re right, that’s not fair at all.”
“I-“ began the Doctor, but then Erimem was standing before them, smiling.
“Are we ready to set off again?” She ran a hand back through her hair. “I expect that Professor Snow was starting to get suspicious when I corrected him about-“
“You’re not staying?” blurted Peri.
Erimem blinked at her in surprise. “This is not my time. It hardly even seems to be the same planet!”
The Doctor smiled gently. “But you could stay with him, if you like. Time has a way of sorting these little ripples out.”
Erimem shrugged. “That is not what I meant. It doesn’t seem right, somehow.”
“We can’t take you home,” the Doctor reminded her. “As far as history goes-“
“I don’t actually have a home at all anymore,” Erimem finished. “I know. So I’ll just have to make the best of it with my home in the TARDIS.”
Peri grinned. “That’s good. No, that’s great!” She pulled Erimem into a quick hug, then held her at arm’s length. “You know, I was getting a little worried about you, there. You were really freaking me out.”
“I saw some terrible things,” Erimem said bluntly. “Had terrible things done to me and had to do terrible things in return. And I have lived so long by the precept that a pharaoh is no better than the sum of her actions that I was beginning to fear for everything. But just knowing, just being aware that there is still kindness in spite of all that-“ She swallowed, then grinned. “It’s enough. It has to be.”
“Well, good,” said Peri. “Because I don’t mind telling you, I think you saved our bacon back there.” Erimem blinked, puzzled at the idiom, and Peri rolled her eyes. “Never mind. Thank you, anyway. I need to get you some modern education, here.”
“Where did Kryl and Larthza disappear to, anyway?” Erimem wondered, scanning the crowd.
“In my experience,” the Doctor said with a grin, reaching behind him to push open the door to the TARDIS. “Renegade travellers tend to exit by the back door.” He extended his hand to Erimem. “Shall we?”
She took it with a smile, snatched at Peri’s sleeve with her other hand, and they all slipped subtly back into the TARDIS console room, closing the doors behind them.
“All right, then,” the Doctor said, rubbing his hands together and standing before the console as though preparing to conduct a symphony. “Where to?”
Erimem exchanged glances with Peri, grinned, and said, “Exactly.”
*~*~*
In a lesser-frequented area of London, over the course of a rather noisy night, there resided a great heap of whirring gears and clanking pieces that might charitably be called a spaceship. And, at a very particular moment, if a hypothetical observer happened to be standing nearby, he might well notice the approach of two men in suits.
One is very tall and very thin, and the other is probably not. And our hypothetical observer, being a discerning sort, should very likely leave it at that.
“Where to next, Larthza?” one asks, with a hint of trepidation.
“Dunno,” says the other.
Together, they step onto the ship and, with some effort and bending of physical laws, it trundles off into space.
Our hypothetical observer may, for a matter of moments, consider the vast possibilities expanding away into the depths of space, where a hunk of mangled machinery can consort with stars and nebulae, and where everything isn’t really all that different from life on Earth, except that it’s sometimes harder to notice the similarities. And then, perhaps with a wistful sigh or a studiously sceptical snort, our illustrious observer would immerse himself in the ordinary, in the commonplace, bury himself so far and so deep that only normalcy can intrude on his newly-awakened consciousness.
Sometimes, though, when the night is young and the heavens impinge on the last glean of twilight, he looks up at the stars and, with a smile, he dreams all the things he cannot know.
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Date: 2007-12-04 04:10 am (UTC)*Claps*
That was fantastic - you got the characters down perfectly. ♥ Love the dialouge!
Memming! :D
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Date: 2007-12-04 04:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-04 04:27 am (UTC)Heh, I had a quick browse through your entries. Do you mind if I friend you? It seems we have alot in common. Science geek here too. Any chance that you like XKCD?
(I just relised that I sound rather frightening on my last LJ post. *ahem* Dont mind that :P I was (And still am) rather *annoyed* about that issue. I'm safe. *Shifty eyes* :P)
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Date: 2007-12-04 04:34 am (UTC)And, hey! It is well worth getting riled up over educational disasters like that. Ouch!
(Also, um - I'm not sure how representative my unlocked posts are! But if there's anything scary there, chances are good that it'll come up again. No, wait. I mean. Um. I'm not scary?)
I tend to mostly post about classes and DW and the weather (occupational hazard of being an atmospheric science student) and whatnot, but I'm pretty insanely cheerful as a general rule (a recent spot of drama notwithstanding), so it's mostly squee. :D
I think that covers all the disclaimers! Friending right back! :)
Also, you know
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Date: 2007-12-04 04:55 am (UTC)Well! I have no real pattern to my posts - expect random subjects! I do icons occasionally and some art, as well as discussing whatever's happening at the time.
Recent spot of dramas? *Sigh* Know the feeling. Holidays are here, so should be better soon!
Friended, of course! *clicks* :D
Science! Yes, I can tell we can be friends. *Evil Laugher inserted* And yay for the atmosphere! I might not know it in detail (I know more about space, atoms etc) but what I do know excites me. :D
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Date: 2007-12-04 04:59 am (UTC)Awesome! I'm really amazed at how many people I've met lately (in real life and online) who are so genuinely enthused by science! I spent most of high school thinking I was crazy. ;)
I'm really interested in astronomy on an amateur level (though I have taken a lot of courses with astrophysicists, and so know just enough about quantum theory etc. to embarrass myself in front of the experts). Also, upper atmospheric phenomena? Definitely very dependent on the solar weather of the moment.
Earlier this year, I just missed being able to attend a lecture on weather forecasting on other planets! Most awesome topic ever? I think so. Darn.
And, um, yes. I have a tendency to ramble. :D
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Date: 2007-12-04 05:11 am (UTC)I think we both do. What started off as a 'well done!' post has turned into a conversation. XD (Not, of course, that I'm complaining)
I'm really amazed at how many people I've met lately (in real life and online) who are so genuinely enthused by science! I spent most of high school thinking I was crazy. ;)
I know! Luckily, my grandfather was right into all that 'knowledge stuff' (Seriously. He knows more about computers then most people.) so I always had someone to talk to. Science lessons this year was as well, as we had a teacher who loved what he was doing. He also explained physics with spiderman anologies... What started as a topic on AI could turn into recycling policies.
I'm really interested in astronomy on an amateur level (though I have taken a lot of courses with astrophysicists, and so know just enough about quantum theory etc. to embarrass myself in front of the experts).
Quantum theory? Probably know about as much as you in that area, haven't covered it yet! I know some things though. Basic outline, etc. :grin:
Earlier this year, I just missed being able to attend a lecture on weather forecasting on other planets! Most awesome topic ever? I think so. Darn.
Oh, that would have been awsome. Is the info going to be published somewhere?
Have to go now, sorry. Have vacuming to do. I will reply later! :grin:
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Date: 2007-12-04 05:12 am (UTC)Must dash :D
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Date: 2007-12-10 03:00 am (UTC)And now I'm replying to it several days late! *evil laugh*
I know some things though. Basic outline, etc. :grin:
It's fun stuff - I like a science where the math is less complicated than just wrapping your brain around it in the first place. :D
(Of course, the math's still pretty dang complicated.)
Is the info going to be published somewhere?
That's a good question. I should look into that - I imagine the professor giving the talk will have published some papers to that effect.
It'd be tough to come up with analogies to Earth's weather, though, since our atmosphere's so nicely set up in terms of temperature profile. Capping inversions always make for nice thunderstorms!
But the Great Red Spot... ooh, that'd be interesting!
I wonder if I can cram some astrophysics into my schedule when my advisor's not paying attention...? *grins*
Hello all I'm new here !
Date: 2008-02-22 05:59 pm (UTC)Much to read and learn here, I'm sure I will enjoy !