“Donna,” Vairë said calmly. They were floating in the Vortex. Both women had taken the time to shower and ponder the events on the Ood Sphere before meeting in the galley for tea. “I have an offer I’d like you to consider.”
“What is it?”
“I’d like to take you to see my home planet.”
“I thought you said you were from Earth, Space Girl.”
“Oh, I was born on Earth,” Vairë nodded. “But I’ve found a new home. A place where I belong. A place I think you’ll belong to as well. It’s called Galliterra. I’d like you to consider becoming Galliterran. And your family, too. If you want.”
“Becoming an alien? Like they made that man an Ood?”
“Not exactly. Yes, you’d receive treatments that would extend your life but only if you wanted it. You’d also receive an education via telepathy to get you caught up to where you would be if you had been born on Galliterra. After that, though, it’s all up to you to learn what you want and to live as you wish.”
“What does it mean to be a Galliterran?” Donna asked.
“It means to learn. To grow. To challenge and explore. To study time and the universe. To question constantly. And, if you feel called to it, it means to travel through time itself observing or protecting the time lines against incursions.”
“But why would you choose me? I’m just a temp from Cheswick. Surely there are better people out there. Geniuses and scientists and all that.”
“Yes, but you’re brilliant, Donna. Far more brilliant than you give yourself credit for. I think you’d make a fine Galliterran. And…there’s something about you, Donna. Something that tells me that if you choose to remain as you are, then eventually the mundane world will wash over you and you’ll forget what it means to travel, to question, and to grow beyond the bounds of Terra itself.”
“You mean the Earth, right? Why do you call it Terra?”
“Terra is just Latin for ‘Earth.’ Did you know that the druids of old called their mother, the Earth, Tara? That planet is our mother in a very real sense. We sprang from her oceans so many ages ago. We walked her shores. Climbed her trees. Suckled at her breasts by eating the plants she grew from her soil for us. We worshipped her until we found other gods, stronger gods and then, in time, we abandoned them for science and reason,” Vairë said, sounding almost absent-minded. “The myth of the Earth Mother gave way to the pagan gods who in turn fell before the Holy Church and her Son. Then came science and reason and the slow turning away from ancient faith and its rites to embrace the new ways. At any rate, we call it Terra because it’s more logical, for us. Mercury, Venus, Terra, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto – and bother the IAU over that last bit. Terra was a goddess. Earth just means…dirt.”
“Are you religious? Or just some kind of nutter?”
“Oh, I’m religious in that I’m agnostic. The existence of an original Originator, a creative Creator, the Spark of Divinity – that can never be completely proven nor disproven. Intellectual honesty requires that I say simply, ‘I do not know.’ Also makes it a lot easier to avoid being dragged kicking and screaming into a religious fight. I’m something of a…celebrity on Galliterra. There are a lot of religions there. If I chose one, then it could spark a war. So, I stay away from it entirely by saying ‘I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a deity.’”
“Can I at least see this world of yours before I make my decision?”
“Of course,” Vairë said as she placed her hands on the console. “Next stop, my brother’s house on Galliterra.”
Opening her mouth, Vairë and her sister joined in the song of the universe, singing their way home.
~*~*~*~
When they landed, Donna exited the TARDIS and stared in wonder. The grass was red. The trees had silver and gold leaves. Two suns hung in the sky. But yet, the world felt like home to her. She had never been here but she felt as if she had just come home. The fiery-haired and fiery-tempered temp from Cheswick stared past the fields in front of her and saw the city. It was like something out of a fairy tale. Tall buildings shone in the suns’ light. She could hear the distant buzz of people and vehicles.
“Where are we?” she asked in awe.
“We’re in front of the Oakdown Manor on Galliterra,” Vairë answered. “It’s in the galaxy called NGC 4321, approximately fifty-five million light-years from Earth. It orbits two stars and has three moons. It’s about the same size as Earth, give or take a few thousand miles in diameter.”
“Oakdown Manor?” Donna repeated, grabbing on to the only bit of that she could understand. “Are you some kind of a lady then?”
“Not really. Oakdown was one of the Great Houses of Gallifrey. My brother Koschei is the only surviving child of that House and since he adopted me, I became part of it as well. Oh, that’s him and his wife Lucy and their children coming out to greet us now,” Vairë said with a smile.
Three children, two boys and a girl, were racing up to the TARDIS. All of them had golden blond hair and wore looks of delight. “Aunt Vairë! Aunt Vairë!” they shouted. Vairë moved in front of Donna and squatted down with her arms out so all three could hug her. “We’ve missed you!”
“I’ve missed you, too,” their aunt said, kissing each of them on the forehead. “You’re all getting so big!”
“Who’s she?” the youngest boy asked shyly, pointing at Donna.
“That’s my friend Donna Noble. She’s from Earth.”
“Really?” the oldest boy said. “What’s it like? I’ll bet it’s amazing! I want to go see Earth so badly but Dad says I have to wait until I’m bigger. But I’m big enough, aren’t I?”
“Tevin, you’re eight years old,” Vairë said with a shake of her head. “If you went to Earth and met some humans, where would you say you were from?”
“Galliterra!”
“And where is that?”
“…here?” he said in a small, confused voice.
“Oh, get on with you,” Vairë laughed. “When you’re older and you’ve learned a bit more, I’ll take you to Earth myself. Right now, you’d frighten the pants off the poor human population there. If I didn’t keep an eye on you every second, you’d have told them how to travel faster than light and gotten yourself either a Nobel prize or committed and I’m not sure which would be better.”
“Vairë!” Koschei said brightly, striding up to her and wrapping her up in a bear hug and pulling her off the ground. “The kids have missed their auntie!”
“And I imagine their parents have missed the free babysitting,” Vairë laughed. “I’ve only been gone a month, you know. Oh, let me introduce you to my friend. Koschei, Lucy, this is Donna Noble. Donna, this is my brother and his wife.”
“You’re the Prime Minister!” Donna shouted as she stared at Vairë’s brother.
“I was. I resigned.”
“But…are you human? Or an alien?”
“I’m a Time Lord. One of the last sons of Gallifrey and the first of Galliterra,” Koschei said.
“But you look human.”
“You look Time Lord,” Vairë and Koschei said at the same time with identical grins. “Koschei, I was thinking that Donna might make an excellent Galliterran.”
“Perhaps,” Koschei nodded. “I would like to speak with her at length before I confirm your decision, sota makora,” he grinned.
“I guess that means I’m taking the kids camping tonight?”
“You guess correctly. Lucy, Donna, and I will join you at your place for brunch tomorrow. By the by, any luck?”
“Nope. I even tried landing a few years early and a few years late. I swear, the whole of France of that era is sealed from us. It’s like the minute I decide I want to see him, want to find him, the Time Lines throw me somewhere else. I’m giving up. It’s 0 out of 72 now. If I’m going to find him, it’s going to be because he’s seeking me out and not the other way around,” Vairë sighed. “Alright, kids. We’re camping out at my place tonight.”
“Yay!” the three kids shouted excitedly. “Can we watch that movie? The one with the ring and the guys on the black horses?”
“The Lord of the Rings?” Vairë asked. “Sure, I don’t see why not. Koschei, will you have the TARDIS brought to the shore?”
“Not to the Isle?”
“No. I can’t fly her from there. I only bring her to the house when I’m not going anywhere for a while.”
“I’ll have her taken to the shore, then. I think that we should be able to get Donna started on the right path fairly quickly if she’s open to it. You’ll be leaving again soon, then? Where to?”
“Just out and about. I get this feeling that something momentous is about to happen. Something that I need to be part of. I can’t shake it, soma makirus,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s like…if I’m not there, the universe is going to implode. But, I think…I think it’s going to kill me.”
“Kill you?”
“Yeah. I’ve seen my death. I always see my death. A hundred different deaths in a hundred different ways…but this…it’s like a different kind of death,” Vairë said. She and Koschei had switched to speaking Gallifreyan. They were the only two – besides the Doctor, of course – who could speak it. “It’s more like…the kind of death I would die if I lost you or one of your children. It’s not strictly a physical death…but it’s going to hurt like hell.”
“You can always run from it, my beloved little sister. Time can be rewritten.”
“No, this has to happen. And I need you to remind me of that.”
“When?”
“When I finally break,” Vairë said with a sigh. She then switched back to English. “Donna, I leave you in my brother’s capable hands. Don’t let him intimidate you. Lucy, if he gets uppity, smack him for me. I’ll see you all for brunch at my place tomorrow.”
“Until then, sota makora,” Koschei said with a faint salute. He grinned as he watched his three children pull their Aunt Vairë towards the shore. In a while, the Sisters of the Silver Fang would arrive and carry the TARDIS to the beach. Vairë would let the kids stay up all night watching movies and telling tales, eating too much sugar and just generally being brats. Then, after brunch, he and Lucy would have to start working to remind them how to be civilized beings. He hoped that one day Vairë would find a man worthy of her if only so she would have children that he could spoil as badly as she spoiled his kids.
The fact that it was only the Doctor he could see marrying her and giving her children no longer bothered the man who had once been the Master at all.
~*~*~*~
“So, do I make the cut?” Donna asked, trying to sound confident but hearing her mother’s constant belittling in the back of her mind.
“Yes,” Koschei said flatly. “I can see why Vairë likes you so much. You see beyond what’s expected. You can look into the heart of the matter and tease out the truth much faster than most native-born Galliterrans. You have that little bit of human instinct that comes hand-in-hand with planet Earth that tells you what to do without even needing to think it over. Now, the real question is, are you ready to become Galliterran? To expand your horizons forever. To be unable to ever return to a “normal life” back on Terra? Your family will be allowed to come here with you, if you choose to go through with this. Your mother may never fit in but I could see your grandfather having a great time here even if he didn’t decide to become Galliterran himself.”
“Yeah,” Donna laughed softly. “My grand-dad would love this place.” A long silence followed. “Why is Vairë so lonely?”
“You picked up on that, did you?” Koschei sighed. Donna nodded. “Long ago, back when she was still human, back before she’d absorbed the Time Vortex and rescued the Doctor from the Daleks, she fell in love with a Time Lord. The Doctor. She loved him when he looked twenty years older than her, big ears, big nose, a daft face. She loved him after he regenerated into a younger, more handsome man. But, she never thought he loved her. She still thinks herself second-best to a French woman who could never come close to her. She’s had plenty of suitors in the years since he left, Donna. There’s not a month that goes by that I don’t have some handsome, rich, well-connected Galliterran coming here asking me for permission to court my sister. I turn them all down, though. She is in love with the Doctor. And, if he ever has the sense to beg her forgiveness and court her, I’ll stand next to both of them as they bind their lives to each other. Until then, Vairë prefers to be alone. She has friends – like you and like Martha – but she holds herself apart.”
“She does. It’s like…it’s like she sees herself as a police officer. Or a judge. She never gets close to anyone. She needs someone there to stop her, though. Otherwise…she’ll kill herself,” Donna sighed.
“Like I said, you are very perceptive.”
“I want to be one of you,” Donna continued. “Not just so I can live a long time or travel through time and space. I want to be there for her always. She looks at me as a friend. As a partner. As someone who can stop her. Until this Doctor shows up, she needs me. So, I want to be Galliterran. Not for myself, Prot, but for her.”
“Then I accept you and welcome you to Galliterra,” he smiled. “I will give you the knowledge you would have learned up to this point. I’ll also give you the first treatment that will extend your life. You will travel with my sister. You will guard her and learn from her. Once your travels are over, I will ensure that you, as a member of the Oakdown family, receive an education worthy of your lineage.”
“Oakdown?”
“You will be our sister,” Koschei nodded. “And a worthy addition to our family.”
“What do I need to do?”
“Close your eyes,” he sighed as he moved to stand in front of her, “and open your mind.”
Donna did as bidden. She felt knowledge flowing into her mind. She could sense the way that Time itself flowed and spun and danced. The secrets of the universe were laid open to her. The gentle waltz of gravity, of suns and planets, of stars and galaxies, of black holes and supernovae, flooded her mind. Equations and theorems and proofs. It all added up. It all made sense. Once the onslaught was over, she tried to stand. Her legs quivered under her and she fell, grateful for Prot’s arms catching her.
“Sleep well and wake, daughter of Terra, child of Galliterra,” he whispered in her ear. “Tomorrow, you will leave with my sister. Your journey will test and try you beyond anything you’ve ever dreamed. Just promise me, Donna. Promise me that you’ll bring her back to me. That you’ll keep her alive.”
“I promise, Protector,” Donna gasped, her mind trying to shut down so it could assimilate the knowledge she’d been gifted. “I promise.”