Rose tried not to feel so lonely. Mickey had decided to stay in the parallel world and carry on the fight against the Cybermen there. Part of her wanted to stay as well but she knew that she couldn’t. She didn’t belong there. She didn’t really belong anywhere. She stroked the TARDIS’s console lovingly and braced herself for the trip back through the Vortex and into her universe. She would go back, fetch the Doctor (if he wanted to be fetched) and then find some quiet corner of space and time in which to live out the rest of her existence.
“Ready when you are, old girl,” Rose said as she braced herself. She felt light and heat wash over her, the pressure building until it was nearly unbearable. With a scream, she stumbled towards the jump seat and cradled her head in her hands. Blood dripped from her mouth and nose, staining her jeans. She waited a few moments until the bleeding had stopped and she felt less dizzy. Then she wandered off to the washroom to clean up a bit. She felt lucky that the TARDIS could make up a detergent to get bloodstains out of her clothing. Rose had a feeling she was going to be using it. A lot.
Once she was relatively clean and had changed her clothes, she exited the TARDIS. Glancing around in confusion, she tried to figure out just when and where she was. Union flags hung from streamers over the streets and decorated the lamp posts. This was definitely not eighteenth century France. Glancing up, she could see aerials on just about every house. From the number, she guessed she must be in the 1960s or 70s. But she couldn’t think of any events in that time frame that would have brought out such patriotism.
Darting back into the TARDIS, she tapped at the computer screen, calling up the date. 1953. Her mind raced over the history she’d memorized. This was the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.
“Wait a minute,” Rose muttered. “1953? There are too many aerials out there for 1953. Mum told me about how they had to hunt for a telly to watch the coronation on. There’s something wrong here,” she sighed. “Something very wrong. Sister,” she continued, turning and opening her mind to the TARDIS, “can you sense the Doctor here? Even if we haven’t picked him up in France, he would still be here, right? Waiting for us?” she hoped.
The Doctor is not here. He is gone, Rose. I detect no sign of him or any other Time Lord.
“Great,” Rose sighed. “I guess I’ll just have to handle this myself.”
She rushed back to her room and changed. Jeans and a hoodie would not help her out at all in 1953. She would need to dress more modestly if she wanted to escape notice long enough to gather the information she needed to fix whatever it was out there.
Once she was dressed in a pink dress that the TARDIS had selected for her, Rose exited the doors once more, determined to correct whatever was wrong and to prove to herself that she wasn’t nothing…
Even though she knew, deep in her heart, that she was. She would never amount to anything. She was just a useless, stupid, bloody ape. That was all she ever could be and ever would be.
Because, if she could be anything more than that…they wouldn’t have left her.
~*~*~*~
Rose stared dumbly at the primitive VCR she’d built. She wasn’t even certain how she had made the damned thing. All she knew was that the wire-creature was trapped on the tape she’d shoved in it. A creature that had survived for who-knew-how-long as atoms floating across the cosmos before stumbling on Earth during the beginning of the television era and she had it safely jailed on a video cassette. The creature had been sucking people’s faces right off their skulls. Rose shuddered as she recalled seeing the poor victims. She was just thankful that they were all better now, their faces and lives restored. Regarding the cassette tape calmly, Rose resolved to record over the bloody thing at least twenty times before running it through a super-magnet and then leaving it in the gravitational pull of a blue supergiant. The names and coordinates to several candidates popped into her mind. For a moment, she wondered at that. Stupid ape who hadn’t even taken her A-levels, damnable child, unwanted woman and here she was, traveling by herself through space and time.
“You know,” she muttered to the TARDIS, “I’m not so good at piloting you after all. For God’s sake, we wound up in the 1950s in England instead of eighteenth century France. How long did it take the Doctor to get you to go where he wanted?”
Decades. But then…Rose…he left us. Are you really sure you want to go back for him?
“Well, you kind of belong to him, don’t you?”
Yes and no. I stole him away from Gallifrey and he stole me. But…Rose…you’ll never leave me, will you?
“Of course not!” Rose said passionately. “I’ll stay with you for as long as I have. Or as long as the Doctor will let me,” she amended. “I think I get what you’re saying. You’re afraid that if we go back for him, he won’t want me around anymore.” She could sense the TARDIS’s agreement. “And that he’ll make me leave. And you don’t want me to leave.” Again, the TARDIS sent gentle waves of agreement. “We do need to go back for him, you know. But…maybe just not yet. I’ll figure out something to do that will prove to him I’m worth keeping around and that way, it’ll all work out. After all, you are a time machine and I can get that time isn’t a straight line. It’s more of a…ball…a great big watery ball of…timey…stuff. Gosh, that didn’t make me sound stupid at all,” she muttered, frowning thoughtfully.
Rose let her mind travel over the possibilities. She’d find some momentous event to be part of and do something so spectacular that the Doctor would at least let her stay on board while he and Reinette traveled through the universe. She let her fingers dance over the controls on the console and decided to put as much distance between herself and the Earth as she could.
“Let’s go on out there, sister, and see what kind of trouble we can find.”
~*~*~*~
Rose frowned as she exited the TARDIS. How has she managed to park the ship in a broom closet? She passed through the doors, scanning the architecture. It reminded her of something out of a science-fiction show where people lived on the bottom of the ocean. Whoever had built it was probably human in size and build. She knew there were races out there that looked absolutely nothing at all like humanoids – she just hadn’t run across them herself. At least not yet.
She rubbed absently at her nose. It hadn’t been as bad this time. She thought she was getting the hang of piloting the blue box. She was beginning to understand, though, why the Doctor travelled with companions. Seeing the breadth of time and space by yourself was weird. Travelling with someone who could hold your hand and gaze in amazement with you was best.
She just hoped that he’d let her stay on when she finally figured out a way to prove her worth to him. The thought of the Doctor and Reinette holding hands and twining their arms around each other as the ancient alien traveler showed the wonders of the universe to the most accomplished woman on Earth made Rose’s stomach turn.
“Christ, this is how Mickey felt. Now I’m the tin dog.” Pursing her lips, Rose decided to explore this base further. She also began thinking of a name – an alias – she could go by. She couldn’t have stories of Rose Tyler floating around. Was that why the Doctor called himself “the Doctor” instead of a proper name? What would she call herself? Bad Wolf would just be a big arrow pointing at her head, tracking her across time and space. She figured she’d stick with something floral for now. She wouldn’t call herself ‘Smith’ though because that was the Doctor’s choice. Jones, then. Lillian Jones. That’s how she’d introduce herself until she could come up with a better alias.
Hell, at least it beat “the tin dog.”
~*~*~*~
“Well, I’m never going back to Earth,” Rose muttered to herself. “And I sure as hell hope the Doctor never finds me. He’s gonna kill me if he does.”
Her day had gone from strange to nightmarish fairly soon after she’d landed. First, she’d encountered the Ood – an alien slave-race – who scared her half to death by cornering her while chanting “We must feed.” Then there’d been the earthquake or whatever it was that had collapsed the section of the sanctuary base where the TARDIS had been parked. Rose could still sense that the ship was there on the planet with them but she had no way to reach it. The captain wouldn’t divert the drilling at all. He had, at least, offered her a lift back home when they left.
If they could leave.
That was the worst part about it. This planet was somehow in perpetual geostationary orbit around a black hole. Even without the TARDIS’s tutoring, Rose knew that nothing could orbit a black hole.
So, here she was, trapped out in the middle of the wild reaches of space during the time of the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. The Doctor was probably roving through space looking for his errant ship. Once he got his hands on Rose Tyler and wrung the story out of her, he’d probably throw her into a black hole for losing his ship. Not that she would blame him. She was just another stupid ape.
Rose lay down on the bunk bed she’d been given. She had also been assigned a shift and duties. Sure, it was working in the laundry room but she was also shadowing others, learning a good bit about the Sanctuary Base, its operations, and its mission. Danny definitely had an eye for her but Toby was a little more interesting – when he wasn’t freaking out. The few times she had caught him at meal-breaks, he’d been willing to talk to her about all the different kinds of exo-archeological missions he’d been on. Rose even recognized some from her study of future history aboard the TARDIS.
All-in-all, the humans here seemed to be impressed with her. She was knowledgeable, helpful, and only had a few odd quirks. Namely, her way of interacting with the Ood. She hated the thought of slavery. Her American friend Maggie had waxed quite eloquent on the subject the few times Rose had traveled to the Deep South to visit her.
“Out of all the Causes in the universe, Slavery was the dumbest reason for the War between the States,” Maggie had spat while showing Rose how to clean out a completely gunked-up transmission. “Makes me right glad that the South lost the War. The cotton gin and the spinning-jenny came along shortly after and would have done for the ‘peculiar institution’ right off. Why in hell we couldn’t just swallow our damnable pride and wait it out is beyond me.”
“Well…why didn’t you?” Rose had asked curiously. Maggie was the only reason she was in the top of her class when it came to American history.
“Honor,” Maggie said without a hint of irony or sarcasm. “We’d been insulted. Our honor had been slandered. There’s nothing worse to a Southerner. So…we had to fight. But it was still a stupid thing to go to war over. I’m proud of my heritage, Rose-a-lee,” she said sadly. “Half-Scottish I might be but I was born here in the South. I’m proud of my ancestors who fought on both sides. But slavery is never right. Denying someone their will, their life just because they look different is dead wrong. I sure as hell hope that we’ve learned that lesson so that if humanity ever gets off this ball’a’rock, we don’t repeat that mistake.
“Because, I’ll tell you as frankly as I can, sweetheart…the stain of slavery – the evil that it permits men to do to each other…that stain takes centuries to wash away. And even when it’s gone for good, the feel of filth still lingers. We’ll be another few centuries getting over it just like you Euros will be another few centuries getting over the charnel house of the twentieth century. Humanity will go on. I just hope we go on wiser. Now, let’s finish this transmission before Big Dave kills me for slacking. Then I’ll teach you to shoot straight.”
Rose shook off the pleasant memory. She and Maggie had been fast friends from the beginning. The American girl had even come over to London a few times. Maggie was as Southern and as proud as they came and she’d taught Rose a few things about life, about men, and about being a woman. And then she’d died. Killed in a car accident just shy of her nineteenth birthday. She’d been engaged to marry a boy she’d known for years. All it took was just one drunk driver to put an end to that dream. Rose had always sworn that if she had a daughter, she’d name her Magnolia after her friend from the States.
So, in honor of Maggie, Rose had tried making friends with the Ood. They were definitely different. They seemed to almost enjoy their slavery. Rose had taken to trying to make them little treats, to get their stories out of them, to see if they had families at all. Instead, all she could make out was a vague song that rang through their minds. Danny had finally settled her down, explaining that the Ood were telepathic but at a very low level.
Rose wandered through the base looking for something to do. She’d been chased out of Ood Habitation. She wasn’t terribly interested in bugging Toby while he was working. Danny was off…somewhere. Mr. Jefferson was making the patrols. Ida and her assistant would be reporting to the Captain. And Rose was off on her own. If it weren’t for the TARDIS’s faint presence in her mind, she thought she might have given up all hope and found some quick and convenient way to kill herself.
“Whoa,” she whispered to herself as four different plans sprang to mind. Sure, she’d been upset and slightly depressed before but she’d never thought of actually killing herself. Wishing she were dead was one thing. Actually taking action to make it happen frightened her. It was almost enough to break her out of her depression. But then the words…the phrases began echoing through her mind again. Stupid ape. Supposed to happen? What does that mean? It happened, child, and I would not have it any other way. The Doctor is worth the monsters. Nothing but a serving girl. I’ve got to go… You are nothing, Rose Tyler. Nothing. Rose raised her hands to cover her ears, trying desperately to blot out the voices screaming through her head. Stupid ape. Worthless. Useless. This place will be your tomb! Visions flashed through her mind. She could slit her wrists and bleed out. The TARDIS had a million different poisons she could use. She could travel back to New New York and let the cat-nurse-nun things experiment on her. She could travel back to London and throw herself in the Thames. She could travel to Mississippi and hurl herself off the bridge at Vicksburg – the bridge Maggie had taken her to see. She could leap off the Empire State Building. She could command the TARDIS to open its heart to her, gaze upon the Vortex, and burn. So many, many ways she could end her life. But only the faint hope of seeing the Doctor look on her with approval and love kept her from doing it.
Pushing her hands back to her sides, Rose decided it was high time to figure out exactly what was going on here on this “Bitter Pill.”
~*~*~*~
There had been several odd events on the Sanctuary Base. Up until now, Rose had been willing to discount them as just her imagination catching up with her. As she stepped into the bright orange space suit, she wondered just when she had taken over the Doctor’s role in events. She wasn’t a Time Lord. She was just a shop girl from 21st century London. And yet…here she was, diving into the unknown with a mix of excitement, exhilaration, and just a tiny bit of fear. Maybe if she solved whatever was going wrong here, she would prove herself to the Doctor and he would keep her around. Sure, she’d just be the third wheel – the tin dog – but she couldn’t bear the thought of trying to return to a life of drudgery.
She pulled the helmet over her head and locked it into the suit. Captain Crossflame was not at all fond of the idea of ‘Lillian’ joining Dr. Scott on the mission that had brought them here in the first place. Still, he couldn’t really argue much. Lillian was the most expendable person on the base – even if everyone had grown to liking her. And, she was knowledgeable. Though she hadn’t been able to help with deciphering the script on the few pieces of pottery they had from their excavation, she had at least been able to eliminate several false leads. Danny spoke well of her – even if she did have a strange fondness and sorrow for the Ood. Toby liked her. But then, Toby would like anything in a skirt that paid attention to him. Mr. Jefferson liked her for her tenacity and her willingness to listen to his lectures on firearms and weaponry. Even Dr. Ida Scott liked her for her compassion and grace.
Still, the Captain had a funny feeling that Lillian Jones wasn’t all she claimed to be. He’d accessed her records. Or tried to, rather. The only thing he could find was a Rose Tyler who disappeared shortly after the Battle of Canary Wharf. She’d been instrumental in stopping the invasion of Earth. The United Nations, the Queen and Prime Minister Saxon, the European Union, and the United States had all declared Rose Tyler to be the Defender of Earth and had set aside the day of the battle as a day of remembrance in her honor. The few photos that the Torchwood Archive had preserved of that Rose Tyler were identical to the woman who had appeared on his ship. She was obviously a time traveler of some sort but time travel hadn’t been discovered by humanity until recently.
Captain Crossflame sighed and decided to ignore his suspicions for now. Lillian was a crew member worthy of respect and admiration. She might even just be a distant descendant of the famous Rose Tyler from history. He wouldn’t say anything, yet. Maybe after they were off Krop Tor and back to safety she’d share her story with him. For now, he concentrated on the mission to search out this energy source for the glory of the Great and Bountiful Human Empire.
~*~*~*~
Rose stared into the pit. The trapdoor had opened, nearly shaking the small planetoid apart when it did. She and Ida had stared down in the darkness. The Captain had ordered them to return but the cable on the lift had snapped, leaving them stranded. Ida was coiling it up, muttering about how they should explore the pit since they had nothing better to do. The thing down in the pit…the beast that had begun to haunt her waking thoughts…it had taunted them. It had a malevolent kind of intelligence. Claiming to be Satan and to have been imprisoned before time began, it had possessed Toby and tormented them with vague prophecies.
Rose just hoped that the others had listened when she’d told them it was just a parlor trick. A bit of primitive psychology aimed at terrifying them. The man haunted by his wife’s eyes. The boy who lied. The little girl running from Daddy. The virgin…and the flower that would bleed and then die, screaming in pain for the lover who had abandoned her to Fate. Rose just prayed that the others would figure out a way off this rock. She had a feeling that she wasn’t going to be with them. As she stared into the dark abyss, she felt as if she were taking a long look into her own grave.
“So, what are we gonna do?” she wondered aloud.
“We can’t get back up there,” Ida sighed. “Might as well go down and see what’s there.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Rose agreed. “Only thing that would make it better is if it’s me that goes down there.”
“Lillian…”
“I’m the most expendable person on this rock,” Rose pointed out. “I’ve got no family to mourn me, no friends to worry about me, nothing. So, that’s why I’m going to do it.”
“You’re not…”
“Not a scientist, I know, but I can at least do this. Maybe they’ll even figure out a way to get down here and rescue us.” Rose doubted that. From the last few transmissions, it sounded like the Ood were going crazy and rampaging all over the sanctuary base. The others up there were smart, though. They’d figure out a way to get themselves off this rock. Rose just needed to worry about whether or not they’d figure out a way to rescue Ida Scott. She herself continued to stare into the pit. The hair on the back of her neck rose up and she felt an urge to throw herself into the darkness, to let it surround and pervade her very being, to give herself over to it. Go down, go down, go down, go down.
Ida had just finished gathering the broken cable. “I still think I should be the one to do it,” she muttered, “but if you’re going to insist on it…then I can wait for my turn later.”
“Yeah,” Rose sighed. “Ya know, Ida…I don’t think it’s that far down. And I don’t think that being lowered down is the way to go about this.”
“What do you mean?”
“If I’m not back in thirty minutes, follow me down with that cable,” Rose said. Then she leapt into the abyss.
~*~*~*~
Rose grunted and opened her eyes. The fall had seemed to go on forever. Then, she’d felt herself slowing. She’d landed on a cushion of air. A gentle breeze stroked her face, drying the tears on her cheeks. She had no idea how long she’d been out – she’d had a dream that the Doctor had returned to her and had embraced her, picking her up off her feet, telling her he was so proud of her and that she was the most clever, beautiful woman he’d ever known. Then he’d kissed her – not a chaste pressing of lips to lips but a full-on snogging that made her glad he was holding her up. She didn’t think her legs would have worked at that moment.
Pushing herself up on hands and knees, Rose tried to assess her situation. Her torch still worked. Checking her watch, she had about fifteen minutes before Ida started to come after her. She hoped that would be long enough to find the Beast or whatever it was that was making everyone in the base crazy.
On the wall near her, she saw paintings. Turning her light on to them, Rose studied them. The creature claimed to have come from “before time.” Rose didn’t have much trouble believing that. The universe was filled with all kinds of crazy things. She knew about the Big Bang and all and how nothing could have existed before it – not even time. Still, she’d had a bit of religion growing up and knew that supposedly God and the Adversary existed outside of time. She’d seen a whole parallel universe. Nothing was too fanciful for her to believe it might be real.
Studying the paintings, she thought she had the general gist of the story. Whatever it was in the pit had been locked away. People – regular, ordinary people had defeated this monstrosity and locked it away. Many appeared to have given their lives in the battle but then, if the creature was the devil it claimed to be, Rose supposed that those deaths had been worth something. She paused to run her hand over the painting, sending out silent thoughts of gratitude through the ages. Ordinary people…people who were maybe just a little like her…
Near her, two stands held vases. Rose reached out to touch one and both began to glow brightly. Out of the corner of her eye, movement captured her attention. She looked over to see an enormous creature chained to the far wall. Curving horns topped its skull-like head. Her soul shrank in terror as she gazed upon its awful majesty. She’d never been very religious but deep within her being, she knew that this was the devil. Whether or not that meant that God existed was still up for debate but this thing before her was Satan. She shuddered, feeling sweat trickle down her face and neck. Her hair was plastered to her head. Her hands shook and she thought she might throw up.
“I accept your existence,” she whispered hoarsely. “I don’t have to accept who you are…” Or what you said would happen to us she added silently, “but your physical existence I can accept.” She heard the rocket high above her and knew that the others were escaping. “But I don’t understand,” she muttered as the Beast lunged and growled at her. “I was expected down here. I was given a safe landing and air. You need me for something,” she wondered. “What for?” Rose jumped backwards as the Beast lunged at her. She winced when she heard the chains binding it ring as they were pulled as tight as they could go. “Have I got to…I dunno, beg an audience? Is there a ritual? Some kind of spell or summons or incantation? All these things I’ve never really believed in – are they real?”
She wondered just what the Beast wanted. She’d heard it speaking through Toby and knew that the creature was intelligent. Maybe even more intelligent than the Doctor. “Speak to me!” she shouted. “Tell me!”
The creature continued to bob and weave in its prison, laughing at her. “You won’t talk,” she grimaced. “Or…you can’t talk? Hold on, hold on, just wait a minute,” she muttered, stepping back and pacing the width of the chamber while ideas ran through her mind. “Think it through,” she ordered herself. “You spoke before. I heard your voice. An intelligent voice. No, more than that – brilliant. But, looking at you now, all I can see is the beast. Just the body. You’re just the body, the physical form!” Rose shouted, excited. She thought she had figured it out. “Where’s that intelligence gone?” Toby’s face flashed in her mind. “Oh, no,” she whispered, covering her mouth with her gloved fingers. The Beast’s mind was aboard the rocket. Escaping. She couldn’t just let that happen. Not after all of the lives given to seal the creature away. Hell, if it weren’t for her lot – stupid apes, all – the Beast wouldn’t have a host to carry it away. Only humans would be daft enough to explore a place that probably had a cosmic “STAY THE HELL AWAY” sign on it.
“You were imprisoned long ago. Before the universe,” Rose muttered mostly to herself but aware that the Beast was listening closely. This prison is perfect. It’s absolute. It’s eternal. Open the prison and the gravity field collapses. This rock falls into the black hole. You escape; you die. But that’s just the body…” she growled. “The body is trapped. That’s all. The devil is an idea. In all those civilizations, just an idea. And an idea is hard to kill. The idea of, the mind of the great Beast can escape…”
“You didn’t give me air. Your jailers did! They set this up all those years ago,” Rose shouted. “They need me – or someone like me – alive. Because if you’re escaping, then I’ve got to stop you.” She picked up a rock, preparing to smash it into the vases. “If I destroy your prison, then I destroy your body. Your mind with it, yeah? But then,” she hesitated, “you’re clever enough to use this whole system against me. If I destroy this prison, then I destroy the gravity field. The rocket…the rocket loses protection and falls into the black hole. I have to sacrifice others.”
The thought of dooming all of the others on the rocket to death make her sick. They were innocent. If only there were some way she could know that the Beast’s mind would be the only one sacrificed, she could pay that price. She owed it to the shades of those who had built this prison in the first place. But to become a killer of her own kind…
She shuddered. The Doctor had done it. All those years ago. He’d destroyed his own people and the Daleks during the Time War. He’d had to face this decision on his own. She squared her shoulders. The humans on the rocket weren’t Time Lords. They weren’t really important to the universe in the grander scheme of things. They were just…
But no, they weren’t! “That’s it!” Rose cried in triumph. The Beast was laughing at her inner turmoil. “That’s the trap. If I kill you, I kill them. Except that means that in this big grand scheme of gods and devils that they’re just victims. I’ve seen a lot of things in this universe. And I believe in those brilliant, brave, completely reckless humans!”
Without a second thought, Rose hefted the rock and smashed the vases. The Beast roared in anguish. “This is our freedom! Yours and mine!” Rose screamed. “Free to die! You’re going into that black hole and I’m riding with you!”
A minute passed as Rose exulted. She heard the Beast’s mind scream in rage – the people on the rocket had figured it out and had done something to send its mind into the black hole with its body! She laughed as the tunnel she was in shook, rocks falling around her. She staggered, trying to stay on her feet, aware that she must look like some kind of primitive mad woman as her sweat-slicked hair shook out around her. She was going to die. This was it. She was going to fall into a black hole and die. But she was taking the Beast with her.
Stumbling, she fell back against something hard but familiar. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a blue door. The lights blazed in the TARDIS and Rose laughed. Maybe she wasn’t going to die after all!
Running inside, she asked the TARDIS to take her up to rescue Ida Scott and the Ood. She knew she had about two minutes before she needed to get to the rocket and let the TARDIS drag it back to clear space. How she knew what she knew, Rose didn’t know. But she knew it. She just knew it.
~*~*~*~
Aboard the rocket, Captain Zachary Crossflame and the others were rushing headlong into the black hole. The planet was mere seconds from entering. Mr. Jefferson had shot out the rocket’s viewport and unbuckled Toby when the boy was possessed again, sending Toby out into the vacuum of space to fall into the black hole. The men were all shaken from their encounter. And now, none of them expected to escape at all.
The Captain just prayed that no one else would be foolish enough to try to find them. The rocket shook violently as the black hole’s gravity dragged at it, pulling it further and further away from clear space. Then, the violent bucking and shuddering stopped.
“We’re turning around,” the Captain said in amazement. “We’re turning away.” A crackling came over the comm system.
“Sorry ‘bout the hijack, Captain,” Lillian’s voice filled the air in the rocket. “We’ll be entering clear space soon. Everyone alright?”
“How the…what the…how did you do that?” the Captain demanded.
“Oh, just a few things I’ve picked up here and there,” Rose muttered, knowing she could never tell him the truth. Hell, she still didn’t half understand it herself. She resolved to spend even more time studying so she could. “When we get clear of the black hole, how about I let you take back Ida Scott and the Ood? I’m sorry, though, I couldn’t get all of them. I barely had enough time to get the ones I got. Tell their families or whatever that I’m sorry and pass along my condolences, would you?”
“Of course, Ms. Jones,” the Captain breathed in amazement. This had to be the legendary woman herself, stepping out of time and space to save people, giving succor and solace to the afflicted and downtrodden. That’s what the stories all said. That she traveled alone in a borrowed blue box, no longer entirely human but still attached to the race from which she had sprung. She traveled, seeking to prove herself to the man she loved and seeking atonement for some sin. Legend said she would travel the universe until the universe itself died. Then, and only then, would she be reunited with the man she loved and granted the atonement she so desperately sought.
The Captain prayed that the stories were wrong. Rose Tyler deserved better. So much better.