Martha sighed as she tried the number Jack had given her again. She’d been trying to reach either the American or the Doctor ever since she’d finally figured out what was going on with ATMOS and the Rattigan Academy. Growling as she got directed to voice mail again, Martha decided that the next time she saw either man, she was going to strangle them.
“Well, there’s nothing for it,” she sighed as she scrolled through her contacts. If Torchwood wasn’t going to help her, she’d have to call in the big guns. With a grin, she punched a button, held the phone to her ear, and hoped that this call would get through.
~*~*~*~
“What do you mean you’re not going to teach me how to fly the TARDIS?” Donna demanded.
“I mean that I don’t actually know how to fly her using these controls myself,” Vairë explained. “Isn’t there an owner’s manual?”
“Yeah…the Doctor threw it into a supernova when it contradicted him,” Vairë grimaced. “I fly her by feel. She and I are bonded so we can work together that way. I don’t just call Maggie my sister – she is my sister. In a way, you could say the same blood flows through our veins. Look, Donna, you’re going to be out with me for the next year learning how to develop your Time Senses and your telepathy. But, I can’t teach you to fly a TARDIS because to fly Maggie, you’d have to bond with her and we decided, long ago, that she wasn’t going to alter another person the way she altered me unless it was critical. When you’ve finished this year of training and then go back to Galliterra to finish off the rest of your education, you will be trained in how to fly a TARDIS. You’ll actually be training on the very TARDIS that will be yours provided that you decide to join and are accepted by either the Wardens or the Watchers.”
“All right, then,” Donna nodded, not completely satisfied but accepting the answer. “Where are we off to first?”
Just then a mobile phone started ringing. Donna patted her pockets wondering if it was hers though she doubted she’d have ever used the theme from Harry Potter as a ringtone. Vairë dug through the console and grabbed the ringing phone.
“Martha Jones!” she said in delight.
“Vairë Carter!” Martha replied just as happily. “I am bringing you back to Earth! Meet me in London at the following coordinates on April 26, 2008.” Vairë quickly opened her mind to the TARDIS and then hung up the phone. Singing, she transported herself and her extremely non-traditional student to Earth to meet up with her old friend.
~*~*~*~
“Martha!” Vairë shouted when she opened the doors of the TARDIS and saw her friend standing nearby. Martha ran and threw her arms around Vairë while Donna walked out of the TARDIS. “How’s the family?”
“They are doing great,” Martha said happily. “Mum and Dad both rave about you all the time and wonder when you’re going to come back from traveling so they can have you over for dinner. I believe there is a plot to convince Leo to break up with his girlfriend and marry you. Not that I’m part of it,” she added quickly. “You are way too good for that brother of mine.”
“Leo’s a nice enough fellow but definitely not my type,” Vairë chuckled. “And you? I seem to recall hearing about a pending marriage of your own.”
“Yeah. Tom’s off in Africa, now. And how about you? Still running all over the universe?”
“A bit,” Vairë nodded. “You’re still welcome to come with me. I think you and Donna would get on well and I’d love to show you my new home.”
“New home?”
“Yeah, I’ll tell you all about it later,” Vairë promised. “Now, what’s up? Why’d you call me?”
“Well, first things first, I’m working with UNIT now…”
“Unified Intelligence Taskforce,” Vairë muttered. “I helped them a bit when I landed in the 80s by mistake.”
“How did you land in the 1980s by mistake?”
“I was trying to get to France in the 1780s. Bounced off something and landed in England two hundred years later than I’d been aiming for. This whole military thing though…never really imagined it as your cup of tea.”
“Well, all those travels with you made me something of an expert at dealing with aliens. My choices were UNIT or Torchwood.”
“Ugh. Better UNIT than Torchwood,” Vairë winced. “So, what are we doing here?”
“Rounding up illegal aliens.” Turning to speak into the walkie-talkie on her shoulder, Martha began giving orders. “This is Dr. Jones. Operation Blue Sky is go, go, go. I repeat, this is a go!”
Trucks and soldiers began pouring onto the scene shouting for barriers to be raised and calling out positions and alignments. Once they were in position, the commanding officer shouted over the loudspeakers on the trucks for the workers to lay down their tools and to surrender peacefully. Martha watched it all impassively while Vairë tried not to show her discomfort. Back when she’d done a bit of work for UNIT, the whole thing had been a lot more informal and piecemeal. She’d led soldiers many times in her life but she never really enjoyed it. She especially didn’t like being dropped into the middle of a military exercise with no briefing on what was going on. Martha’s ‘rounding up illegal aliens’ didn’t cut it.
“B section mobilized! E section, F section, on my command!” Martha shouted into her walkie-talkie as she ran off to join the others. Vairë stared in horror as she watched soldiers force the workers to their knees with their hands behind their heads. This felt wrong to her. Whatever these workers had done, they shouldn’t be treated like this. Vairë and Donna stood back and watched until Martha came back to them and led them into a big black tractor trailer that was functioning as a field HQ. “Operation Blue Sky complete, sir,” Martha said, saluting a uniformed officer. “Thanks for letting me take the lead. And, this is Vairë Carter. Vairë, Colonel Mace.”
“Ma’am,” the colonel saluted.
“Oh, don’t do that,” Vairë said, uneasy. “Don’t salute. I’m not with UNIT these days.”
“Well, it’s an honor, ma’am! I’ve read all the files on you and, technically speaking, you’re still on staff. You never resigned.”
“Honestly,” Vairë said, her eyes flashing. “That’s enough with the ‘ma’am.’ Things certainly have changed with UNIT.”
“A modern UNIT for a modern world,” Mace said proudly.
“What, and that means arresting ordinary factory workers? In the streets, in broad daylight? It’s more like Guantanamo Bay out there. Donna, by the way. Donna Noble, since you didn’t ask. I’ll have a salute,” Donna said testily. Vairë didn’t make any move to stop her. She agreed with the redhead.
“Let’s get down to business,” Vairë sighed, wanting to be done with this as quickly as she could. “What’s going on here in this factory?”
“Yesterday 52 people died in identical circumstances, right across the world, in 11 different time zones. 5am in the UK, 6am in France, 8am in Moscow, 1pm in China,” Mace explained.
“Simultaneously? Fifty-two deaths all at the same time across the globe? What did they have in common?”
“They were all inside their cars – cars that had the ATMOS system installed on them. And that,” the colonel said, pointing to the factory, “is that ATMOS factory.”
“Right,” Vairë sighed. “What’s ATMOS?”
“Oh, come on. Even I know that. Everyone’s got ATMOS!” Donna laughed.
“Stands for Atmospheric Omission System,” Martha explained as they began touring the factory. “Fit ATMOS in your car, reduces CO2 emissions to zero.”
Vairë listened as they continued to explain what ATMOS was and what it did. The technology was impressive. Very advanced. No wonder UNIT suspected alien interference. Still, arresting the workers was a bit ham-fisted. A finer touch would have been better. Chances are that whoever was behind the plot – if there was a plot – would be watching and would see that UNIT had descended on the factory en masse. Catching them might be even more difficult now. “You must have checked it before it went on the market,” she muttered as she filed away what they’d been saying about ATMOS.
“We did, we found nothing,” Martha explained. “That’s why I thought we needed an expert.”
“Really? Who’d you get?” Vairë asked curiously, wondering if Martha was referring to Jack. Everyone stared at the blonde as if she’d just said something incredibly dense. Then it hit her. “Oh, right! Me! Yes! Good,” she blushed.
“So why would aliens be so keen on cleaning up Earth’s atmosphere?” Donna wondered.
“Very good question,” Vairë sighed as she thought it over.
“Maybe they do want to help. Get rid of pollution and stuff,” Donna muttered, continuing on her own train of thought. Vairë gasped when she put it together. Fifty-two deaths. Cars controlled by ATMOS. A reason to install it in every car – a reason for governments to mandate its installation in every car.
“Do you know how many cars there are on planet Earth? Eight hundred million. Imagine that. If you could control them, you’d have eight hundred million weapons,” Vairë growled. “Get me one of those ATMOS things. I want to see what it does for myself.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Colonel Mace said, saluting.
“And seriously. Stop with that,” Vairë winced. “I may carry weapons but I’m not a warrior. I’m an explorer who just sometimes happens to stumble into trouble. And no more salutes! I’m a regular person, no better or worse than you. Understood?”
“Yes, ma…Yes, Miss Carter,” Mace said carefully. “I’ll just go get you one of the devices.”
“Oi, where are you going, Donna?” Vairë asked as the redhead began walking off as well.
“You stay here and play with your toys, Vairë,” Donna chuckled. “I’ll come back with the information you need.”
~*~*~*~
Vairë studied the thing in front of her. She’d taken it apart and put it back together several times. It did exactly what it said on the box. “Ionizing nano membrane carbon dioxide converter – which means that ATMOS works. Filters the CO2 at a molecular level,” she muttered thoughtfully.
“We know all that,” the colonel huffed, “but what’s its origin? Is it alien?”
“No. Just decades ahead of its time,” Vairë sighed. She let her Time Sense flow out from her to see if this was the result of an interference or if it was one of those many temporal fluctuations where something could happen within a range of decades. Deciding it was the latter, she shrugged and ran a hand through her hair. Just then, Donna walked back into the area.
“Oi, you lot! All your storm troopers and your sonics…” she laughed. “You’re rubbish! Should’ve come with me.”
“Why, where have you been?” Vairë asked.
“Personnel. That’s where the weird stuff’s happening – in the paperwork. ‘Cause I spent years working as a temp, I can find my way round an office blindfolded and the first thing I noticed is an empty file.”
“An empty file?” Vairë repeated, not following.
“Sick days,” she grinned, holding up the folder. “There aren’t any. Hundreds of people working here and no one’s sick. Not one hangover, man flu, sneaky little shopping trip, nothing. Not ever! They don’t get ill.”
“That can’t be right,” Colonel Mace frowned. Vairë nodded in agreement. Even on Galliterra people took days off work for illnesses real or made-up. Koschei had come down with sudden bouts of ‘must play with the children’ fever. Vairë herself had once cancelled a lecture on the basis of ‘don’t feel like dealing with the marriage proposals during the Q&A’ syndrome.
“You’ve been checking out the building – should’ve been checking out the workforce,” Donna grinned.
“I can see why she likes you,” Martha chuckled. She hadn’t been sure about Donna Noble at first but the woman clearly had what it took to run with Vairë. “You are good.”
“Super temp!” Donna laughed.
“I think someone just got a new nickname,” Vairë grinned. “So, ATMOS…where did it come from?”
“Luke Rattigan,” Mace replied. “Child genius. Invented the Fountain 6 search engine when he was 12 years old. Millionaire overnight. Now runs the Rattigan Academy. A private school, educating students, handpicked from all over the world,” he said, rattling off the knowns about the young man.
“A hothouse for geniuses. Should be interesting,” Vairë muttered. “I’ll go check it out. Donna, you want to come with?”
“Actually, I’m going home. Just for a quick visit. And to see how my family feels about relocating,” she added, glancing at Vairë meaningfully.
“Sure thing,” Vairë grinned. “I’d love to have tea with your grandfather one day. He’s got a good spirit to him. He’d make a great husband.”
“Isn’t he a little old for you?” Donna asked, scandalized.
“A little young, actually,” Vairë said as she roared with laughter. “But no, I’m just thinking of how well he’d fit in back where you’re thinking of going. With his attitude, he’ll have a line of women winding down the street before he’s so much as unpacked his clothes.”
“Well, if you wanted to marry Granddad, that would be…okay, no, it’d be weird. Really, really, really weird.”
“I’m not the marrying kind, Super Temp. Still, tell your family I said hello.”
“Will do. Can’t wait to see what they think. I have a feeling it’s going to make my mum’s head explode.”
~*~*~*~
Donna grinned at her grandfather Wilfred Mott as they sat at the table. She’d quickly gotten him up to speed on her travels and on her offer of living on Galliterra. He looked eager to go. Now they were just trying to figure out how to break the news to Donna’s no-nonsense mother, Sylvia.
“And where have you been, madam?” Sylvia asked when she walked in to see Donna sitting at the table. “After that silly little trick with the car keys? I phoned Veena and she said she hadn’t seen hide nor hair.”
“I’ve been traveling,” Donna grinned. She felt her grandfather squeeze her hand reassuringly.
“Oh, hark at her! Michael Palin! Are you staying for tea? ‘Cause I haven’t got anything in. I’ve been trying to keep your granddad on that macrobiotic diet, but he sneaks off and gets pork pies at the petrol station.” Wilf started to protest but Sylvia cut him off. “Don’t deny it, I’ve seen the wrappers in the car. Oh, I don’t miss a trick. Now then, what were you gonna tell me? What don’t I know?”
“Well, Mum, what do you think about aliens?”
“Aliens? Like the ones from Poland?”
“No, like the ones from space.”
“No such thing.”
“Really? Then what about that Christmas star a few years back? Or those robots on the street before then? Or those spaceships over London a few months ago?”
“I…I…” Sylvia sputtered. She hadn’t really thought about it. She had so many other things on her mind. She was struggling to pay off the mortgage and the funeral expenses from Geoffrey’s death. The hospital was calling frequently asking about payment to them as well. She’d scarcely had time to think of anything for the millstones trying to crush her between them. “What about them, then?”
“Mum, that’s where I’ve been. I’ve been traveling with a woman named Vairë. She has a time machine. I’ve been to Pompeii, to the Oodsphere, and to her home world, Galliterra. As a matter of fact, she’s offered to let me live on Galliterra and become one of them. To learn and study so that one day, I can travel through time and space on my own. And, you can come with me.”
“I’m not sure I’m interested in a life traveling all the time,” Sylvia said slowly. Part of her still wanted to write this off as some kind of madness. But Donna seemed so sincere. “And what about our friends here on Earth? And our lives here? Are we just going to off and leave them? What would we do for work in this Galliterra?”
“There’s plenty of things you could do,” Donna said. “Mum, you could run a shop like you’ve always wanted. Granddad could teach kids about astronomy. There’s plenty of work if you want it. And, they have all kinds of advanced medicine so you two could live a lot longer.”
“I need to think about it,” Sylvia said slowly. “I just…never imagined…”
“Take your time,” Donna said softly. “If you can’t do it, then that’s all right. I’ll be coming back here to visit. I promise.”
“I don’t need to think about it at all,” Wilf said. “Let me get out there and meet them aliens!”
“Dad!” Sylvia said in shock.
“Well, better to go out there and meet them. Meet the friendly ones, at least. Always seems like the unfriendly ones are the only ones who come here to Earth.”
“As soon as we’re done here, we’ll take you to Galliterra,” Donna said. “And, since we can travel in time, we can have you back here the next morning so that no one would even know you’d been gone.”
“All right,” Sylvia said numbly. “I’ll at least give it a try before I decide.”
~*~*~*~
Vairë grimaced as she and her escort Ross made their way to Donna’s house. Visiting Rattigan Academy had been interesting. Infuriating but interesting. The boy had gathered some of the brightest minds on Earth together. It looked like he was planning an epic geo-engineering scheme. Not surprising if he was siding with the Sontarans. He would want to get off Earth and fast once the invasion started. She wondered just what the Sontarans had offered Rattigan for his turning coat against the human race. Sighing, she wished for a moment that she could go back in time and explain to humans that ganging up on the smart kid was a bad idea. Brilliant loners who were bullied inevitably turned up trouble and, since they were so brilliant, that trouble generally came with a high cost in property damage and a soaring death toll.
She and Ross had just escaped being killed by their own car. A narrow escape but an escape nonetheless. Vairë wanted to collect Donna and then see if there were some way to gain control of the ATMOS devices herself. If she could control them, then she could keep them from being used as weapons against a witless human race.
Vairë walked up to Donna’s house and rang the door. When her friend opened it, Vairë sighed in relief. “You would not believe the day I’m having,” she muttered to Donna. Together, the two women walked around to the blue car sitting in the driveway.
“I’ll requisition us a vehicle,” Ross muttered.
“Anything without ATMOS,” Vairë said. “And ask before you go pointing your gun at people! Christ,” she muttered under her breath, “Magnolia would have a field day with this lot.”
Wilf came running out of the front door, eager to meet the woman who had taken his granddaughter to the stars. “Is it her?” he asked excitedly. “Is it? Is it Vairë Carter?” Vairë had her head under the open hood of the car as she tried to figure out how to detach the ATMOS device from the car so it could be used safely. “Ah, it’s you!” the old man shouted happily.
“Who?” Vairë muttered, pulling her head out from under the hood. “Oh, it’s you!” she grinned.
“What, have you two met before?” Donna asked.
“Yeah, Christmas Eve. She disappeared right in front of me!” Wilf laughed.
“And you never said?” Donna demanded angrily.
“Well, you never said either,” Wilf pointed out. “Wilf, Miss. Wilfred Mott. You must be one of them aliens.”
“Well, sort of. Don’t go shouting it out, though,” Vairë grinned, shaking Wilf’s hand. She’d liked the look of the old man when she’d seen him before whisking Donna off through time and space. “Nice to meet you properly, Wilf. Donna, any luck?” she asked. Donna was trying to get in touch with Martha back at the factory.
“She’s not answering. What is it, Sontorans?”
“Sontarans,” Vairë corrected her friend. “But there’s got to be more to it, they can’t be just remote controlling cars. That’s not enough. Is anyone answering?”
“Hold on,” Donna said as someone finally picked up. “Martha! Hold on, she’s here.”
“Martha, tell Colonel Mace it’s the Sontarans,” Vairë said quickly as she pressed the phone to her ear. “They’re in the file, Code Red, Sontarans. But if they’re inside the factory tell them not to start shooting. UNIT will get massacred. I’ll get back as soon as I can, you got that?” Martha repeated the important bits and then Vairë hung up and handed the phone back to Donna. She returned to her work on the car, pulling out her sonic screwdriver.
“But you tried sonicking it before,” Donna pointed out. “It didn’t work.”
“Yeah but now that I know it’s Sontaran, I know what to look for,” Vairë replied.
“The thing is, Vairë, is that Donna is my only grandchild. You gotta promise me you’re gonna take care of her,” Wilf said while the blonde continued to work on the car.
“She takes care of me,” Vairë replied.
“Oh, yeah that’s my Donna,” Wilf said proudly. “Yeah, she was always bossing us around when she was tiny. The Little General we used to call her.”
“Yeah, don’t start,” Donna whined.
“And some of the boys she used to turn up with, a different one every week! Yeah, who was that one with the nail varnish?”
“Matthew Richards. He lives in Kilbourn now. With a man.”
Vairë bit her cheek to keep from laughing. Just then spikes shot out of the ATMOS device. “Whoa!” she shouted, pulling back. “It’s a temporal pocket! I knew there was something else in there. It’s hidden just a second out of sync with real time.”
“But what’s it hiding?” Donna wondered.
“I don’t know, men and their cars!” Sylvia said, spying Wilf and some boy in black jeans with their heads under the hood of the car. “Sometimes I think if I was a car…” she quipped. “Oh, it’s you! Vairë… what was it?”
“Carter,” Vairë said, knowing that Donna’s mother was not happy to see her again. “Yeah, that’s me.”
“What, have you met her as well?” Wilf said, surprised.
“Dad, it’s the woman from the wedding!” Sylvia snapped. “When you were laid up with Spanish flu! I’m warning you, last time that woman turned up it was a disaster!”
As if to prove Sylvia right, white smoke began to pour out of the ATMOS device. Vairë adjusted the settings on the sonic and pointed it at the car. “That’ll stop it,” she said as sparks flew out of the ATMOS device and the smoke blew away.
“I told you! She’s blown up the car! Who is she anyway?! What sort of alien blows up cars?!” Sylvia demanded.
“Oh, not now Mum!” Donna snarled.
“Oh, should I make an appointment?” Sylvia said angrily. “Next Tuesday at three good for you?”
“Works out perfect,” Vairë retorted. “See you then, Mrs. Noble.” The blonde was starting to see why the Doctor avoided domestics now. It was strange. She’d gotten on well with Martha’s family but Sylvia Noble was never going to be one of her fans. Vairë supposed it was only to be expected considering what had happened with Donna’s wedding. Sylvia glared at her and then stormed back to her house. “That wasn’t just exhaust fumes… Some sort of gas. Artificial gas,” Vairë said, inhaling deeply and then scraping her tongue across her teeth when the smell seemed to coat her mouth.
“And it’s aliens, is it? Aliens?” Wilf asked.
“But if… if it’s poisonous… then we’ve got poisonous gas in every car on Earth,” Donna gasped.
“It’s not safe! I’m gonna get it off the street!” Wilf shouted as he climbed into the car and cranked it. The car doors slammed shut and locked as smoke began to billow out of the exhaust pipe.
“Hold on!” Donna shouted as she rushed to the car. “Turn it off! Granddad, get out of there!”
“I can’t! It’s not locked! It’s them aliens again!” Wilf called out through the glass windows.
“What’s she doing? What’s she done?” Sylvia demanded as she turned around in the front yard.
“They’ve activated it!” Vairë replied, trying to figure out a way to disable the device.
“There’s gas inside the car! He’s gonna choke!” Donna shouted, panicking as she pulled at the door handles. Vairë ran over to the door and tried to sonic it open.
“It won’t open!” she snarled. Just then car alarms started blaring and Vairë glanced down the street. “It’s the whole world.”
“Get me out of here!” Wilf pleaded.
Sylvia grabbed an axe and ran to the car. She brought it down heavily on the windshield, shattering it. “Don’t just stand there!” she shouted at the two girls. “Get him out!” They scrambled to do as Sylvia said, dragging Wilf out of the car and then helping him towards the house.
“I can’t believe you’ve got an axe,” Donna said to her mother.
“Burglars!” Sylvia shot back defensively.
“Get inside the house,” Vairë said as she heard a car pull up. “Just try and close off the doors and windows.”
“Doctor! This is all I could find that hasn’t got ATMOS,” Ross shouted through the noxious fumes filling the street.
“Donna, you coming?” Vairë asked as she ran towards the car.
“Yeah!” the redhead shouted back. “Mum, you and Granddad stay inside. We’ll be back and then…then we’ll be off together. All of us.”
“You keep my daughter safe, Vairë!” Sylvia shouted back at the car. “If she gets hurt, you’ll have to deal with me!”
“I’ll do my best, Mrs. Noble,” Vairë called back as Donna ran to the car. “What do you mean you’ll all be off together?” she asked Donna. “Oh no,” she groaned at the look on Donna’s face. “Please remind your mother that I am the only one who can fly the TARDIS so that she’ll hold off killing me, would you?”
~*~*~*~
Vairë made her way through the base where UNIT was holding on. The Sontarans had teleported the TARDIS to their ship with Donna aboard it. Luckily, Donna had a key in case she needed to get out of the TARDIS and she still had her cell phone with her. Vairë began trying to think of how she could use this sudden change in events to pull off a miracle. The Sontarans would never retreat. They wouldn’t be interested in a parlay. They would eliminate humanity. But why? What was the point of an invasion? Earth was no challenge for them. No place for them to prove how mighty they were. Also, Martha was acting weird. She’d shown very little concern for her own family which was completely unlike her.
“Change of plan!” Vairë announced as she and Martha strode into the UNIT headquarters.
“Good to have you fighting alongside us, Miss Carter,” Colonel Mace said.
“I’m not fighting, I’m not-fighting, as in not hyphen fighting, got it? Now, does anyone know what this gas is yet?” she asked. Challenging the Sontarans would be playing right into their hands.
“We’re working on it,” Martha replied.
“It’s harmful, but not lethal until it reaches 80% density,” an officer, a captain by her insignia, said. “We’re having the first reports of deaths from the center of Tokyo City. Jodrell Bank’s traced a signal, Miss Carter, coming from five thousand miles above the Earth. We’re guessing that’s what triggered the cars. NATO has gone to DEFCON One, we’re preparing a strike.”
“You can’t do that,” Vairë protested. “Nuclear missiles won’t even scratch the surface. Let me talk to the Sontarans.”
“You’re not authorized to speak on behalf of the Earth,” Colonel Mace pointed out.
“Would you rather?” Vairë asked, raising an eyebrow and gesturing as if to tell him to take over. The Colonel grimaced and then shook his head. Vairë nodded in reply and then took the comms and began speaking to the Sontaran ship. “Calling the Sontaran Command Ship under Jurisdiction Two of the Intergalactic Rules of Engagement. This is Vairë Carter on behalf of Earth.”
“Breathing your last, Carter?” the Sontaran general asked. Vairë had met him at Rattigan’s Academy.
“My God, they’re like trolls,” Colonel Mace said in amazement.
“Yeah, loving the diplomacy, thanks,” Vairë said softly, glaring at the colonel. She turned back to the Sontarans. “So, tell me, General Staal, since when did you lot become cowards?”
“How dare you!” Staal shouted.
“Oh, that’s diplomacy?” Mace quipped.
“Carter, you impugn my honor!” Staal continued angrily.
“Yeah, I’m really glad you didn’t say belittle ‘cause then I’d have a field day. But poison gas? That’s the weapon of a coward and you know it. Staal, you could blast this planet out of the sky, and yet you’re sitting up above watching it die. Where’s the fight in that? Where’s the honor? Or, are you lot planning something else? Because this isn’t normal Sontaran warfare. What are you lot up to?”
“A general would be unwise to reveal his strategy to the opposing forces,” Staal said.
“Aaah, the war’s not going so well, then? Losing, are we?”
“Such a suggestion is impossible!” Staal shouted.
“What war?” Colonel Mace asked. If it was the one taking place on Earth, then the Sontarans were clearly in the lead.
“The war between the Sontarans and the Rutans. It’s been raging, far out in the stars for fifty thousand years. Fifty thousand years of bloodshed, and for what?”
“For victory!” the Sontarans shouted. “Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha!”
“Give me a break,” Vairë grimaced, rolling her eyes while the Sontarans did their pep rally act. “Finished?” she asked when it started to wind down.
“You will not be so quick to ridicule when you’ll see our prize. Behold! We are the first Sontarans in history to capture a TARDIS,” General Staal said, gesturing to the TARDIS.
“Well. As prizes go, that’s… noble,” Vairë muttered. “And, as they would say in Latin, Donna nobis pacem. Did you never wonder about its design? It’s phone box. It contains a phone. A telephonic device for communication. Sort of symbolic. Like if only we could communicate. You and I.”
“All you have communicated is your distress, Carter.”
“Big mistake though. Showing it to me. ‘Cause I’ve got a remote control…” she said, holding up her sonic screwdriver.
“Cease transmission!” General Staal ordered.
Vairë grinned and shut off the communications on her end as well. If everything was going according to her plans, then Donna would be right where she needed her soon enough. And Martha…well…Martha should be useful in keeping things from boiling over.
~*~*~*~
Vairë walked Donna through dealing with the Sontarans and getting to the teleporter. Once Donna had reconfigured it, Vairë would have remote access of a kind and could get both Donna and the TARDIS off the ship. Martha had managed to keep the nuclear missiles from being launched though Vairë was still pretending not to know that Martha wasn’t Martha. She was a clone. Once the blonde had thought to really look at her friend, the differences had been trivial to spot – not to mention that, even with the poison gas in the air, the clone smelled bad. Really, really bad.
Despite her misgivings, the Colonel had rallied his forces and gotten the Valiant in position. The air around the base was cleared and UNIT’s soldiers were taking the battle to the Sontarans. Much as she hated fighting, Vairë realized that this was necessary. The Sontarans needed to be kept occupied long enough for her to put her next plan into action.
Carefully, Vairë led the clone down to where the real Martha was being held. “Ooh, Martha, I’m so sorry,” she whispered as she checked the woman, relieved to find a pulse. “Still alive.” Behind her, she heard the clone level a gun at her. “Am I supposed to be impressed?” Vairë asked, nonplussed.
“Wish you carried a gun now?” the clone asked.
Vairë stood up and quickly drew the pistol Magnolia had given her and pointed it in the clone’s face. “Oh, but I do. And I can drill a dime at three hundred yards. So, ask yourself this. Do you really want to push me?”
“I’ve been stopping the nuclear launch all this time,” the clone bragged.
“Doing exactly what I wanted,” Vairë smirked. “I needed to stop the missiles, just as much as the Sontarans. I’m not having Earth start an interstellar war. You’re a triple agent!” she walked around the clone, keeping her aim steady but making the clone uncomfortable.
“When did you know?” the clone demanded.
“What, you?” Vairë asked, raising an eyebrow. “Oh, right from the start. Reduced iris contraction, slight thinning of the hair follicles on the left temple. And, frankly, you smell. You might as well have worn a t-shirt saying “clone.” Although, maybe not in front of Captain Jack. You remember him, don’t you? Because you’ve got all her memories. That’s why the Sontarans had to protect her, to keep you inside UNIT. Martha Jones is keeping you alive.” Vairë stood behind the table where Martha lay and, with one hand, pulled the device on her head off. Martha awoke with a scream and the clone collapsed to the floor in anguish as the connection between the two was abruptly severed. Vairë holstered her pistol and then took the one from the clone’s hand. Moving quickly, she pulled out the clip, unchambered the round and sent it flying, then took the gun apart, flinging the pieces around the room. The firing pin, though, she kept for herself, stuffing it in the pocket of her long leather coat. She helped Martha sit up and comforted the woman as Martha tried to explain about what she had seen.
Just then, Vairë’s phone started to ring.
“Oh, blimey I’m busy. Got it?” she sighed as she answered the phone.
“Yes. Now hurry up!” Donna said tersely.
“Take off the covering. All the blue switches inside, flick them up like a fuse box. And that should get the teleport working.” Vairë hurried over to the teleport chamber in the lab and began working on it. Meanwhile, Martha spotted the clone writhing on the ground. She walked over to the woman and held her, feeling pity for the poor thing.
“Don’t touch me!” the clone gasped.
“It’s not my fault. The Sontarans created you. But… you had all my memories,” Martha whispered.
“You’ve got a brother, sister, mother and father,” the clone grimaced.
“If you don’t help me, they’re gonna die,” Martha pleaded.
“You love them.”
“Yes. Remember that?” Martha said gently.
“The gas! Tell us about the gas,” Vairë shouted from the teleport pad. She wished she had more time to be gentle but every second counted.
“But she’s the enemy!” the clone protested.
“Then tell me. It’s not just poison, what’s it for? Martha, please!” Martha begged her clone.
“Caesofine concentrate. It’s one part of Bosteen, two parts Probic 5,” the clone gasped.
“Clonefeed! It’s clonefeed!” Like amniotic fluid for Sontarans. That’s why they’re not invading, they’re converting the atmosphere. Changing the planet into a clone world. Earth becomes a great big hatchery. Cos the Sontarans are clones, that’s how they reproduce. Give ’em a planet this big, they’ll create billions of new soldiers. That gas isn’t poison, it’s food!” Vairë shouted, her suspicions confirmed by the TARDIS. She returned to working on the teleport. If she couldn’t get this fixed soon, then every human on Earth would pay the price.
“My heart… It’s getting slower,” the clone whispered.
“There’s nothing I can do,” Martha said sadly.
“In your mind, you’ve got so many plans. There’s so much that you wanna do.”
“And I will. Never do tomorrow what you can do today, my mum says. ‘Cause…”
“’Cause you never know how long you’ve got. Martha Jones… All that life,” the clone said softly before she sighed and stopped breathing entirely. Martha reached down gently and removed her engagement ring from the clone’s hand, replacing it on her own.
“Vairë,” Donna hissed over the phone. “Blue switches done. But they’ve found me!”
“Now!” Vairë shouted as she pressed down on her sonic screwdriver, transporting Donna down to Earth before the Sontarans could shoot her.
“Have I ever told you how much I hate you?” Donna shouted when she appeared in the teleport pod back on Earth.
Vairë rolled her eyes. She had more pressing matters to deal with at the moment. Pushing Donna away, she brought the TARDIS down. Then the three of them transported to Rattigan’s Academy. The young boy who had brought about this madness stood there, holding a gun on them. “If I see one more gun today,” Vairë growled as she walked up to him and ripped it out of his hand. He was holding it all wrong. He’d have been lucky to hit the broad side of a barn that way. Taking it apart as she had the other, she threw the pieces away. Vairë pushed past Luke and began gathering up the things she would need. Rattigan had been planning for something like this. She spotted the convertor unit and grinned. The boy was babbling about how he’d been betrayed and lied to and how sorry he was. Vairë felt a flash of pity for him. He’d been outcast all his life. So much quicker and smarter than everyone around him. Isolated even in the huge sea of humanity. All he’d wanted was a world that made sense. The Sontarans had played on that, using him, using his intelligence, to their own ruthless ends.
“That’s why the Sontarans had to stop the missiles, they were holding back. Because, caesofine gas is volatile, that’s why they had to use you to stop the nuclear attack. Ground-to-air engagement could’ve sparked off the whole thing,” Vairë explained quickly as she got the convertor unit set correctly.
“What, like set fire to the atmosphere?” Martha asked. Vairë glanced at her and saw that she was still only wearing a hospital gown. Luke Rattigan, despite being upset, was staring at Martha appreciatively. Shrugging out of her jacket, Vairë tossed it to Martha who slipped it on.
“Yeah. They need all the gas intact to breed their clone army. And all the time we had Luke here in his dream factory. Planning a little trip, were we?”
“They promised me a new world,” Luke said dully.
“You were building equipment, ready to terraform El Mondo Luko so that humans could live there and breathe the air with this! An atmospheric converter.” Vairë finished getting it set and then ran outside. The smoke was so thick that London was invisible. She planted the device on the ground and then set it off.
“Vairë!” Martha shouted. “You said the atmosphere would ignite!”
“Yeah, I did, didn’t I?” Vairë replied as a fireball shot out of the converter. “Please, please, please, please, please, please, please…” she prayed. A firestorm sparked and soon engulfed the entire Earth, burning away the gases that were choking the world. It quickly burnt itself out, revealing a blue sky with white, fluffy clouds in its wake.
“She’s a genius!” Luke said in disbelief as Vairë picked the convertor up and being fiddling with the settings again.
“Just brilliant,” Martha agreed.
“Now we’re in trouble!” the blonde growled as she began sprinting back into the Academy. The other three followed her inside and watched in confusion as she stepped into the transporter bay. “Right, so… Donna, thank you. Take Luke with you. Use Emergency Program One. Tell my brother ‘Ad asala korpra, soma makirus.’ He’ll understand. Martha, thank you, too. Oh… so many times. Luke, do something clever with your life.”
“You’re saying goodbye,” Donna said softly in disbelief.
“Sontarans are never defeated. They’ll be getting ready for war. And, well, you know, I’ve recalibrated this for Sontaran air, so…” Vairë said quickly, not wanting to drag this out. She didn’t look forward to dying but at least, when she was gone, she wouldn’t feel the constant nagging longing for the Doctor that had plagued her for over four centuries.
“You’re gonna ignite them,” Martha gasped.
“You’ll kill yourself,” Donna whispered.
“Just send that thing up, on its own. I don’t know… put it on a delay,” Martha begged. She did not want to watch her friend go to her death. Vairë was still so young…no matter how ancient and haunted her eyes seemed.
“I can’t,” Vairë whispered in return, tears trailing down her own cheeks.
“Why not?” Donna asked.
“I have to give them a chance,” Vairë said as she pressed the buttons that would send her to her death. “I always give them a choice. Life or death. Remember that,” the blonde whispered, her voice a ghostly echo as she transported onto the Sontaran ship.
~*~*~*~
“Oh, excellent!” General Staal said when Vairë appeared in their transporter pod.
“General Staal, you know what this is,” Vairë said loudly. “But there’s one more option. You can go. Just leave. Sontaran High Command need never know what happened here.”
“Your stratagem would be wise if Sontarans feared death. But we do not. At arms!”
“I’ll do it, Staal. If it saves the Earth, I’ll do it,” Vairë swore. Earth was the planet of her birth. She would not leave it defenseless before the Sontarans.
“A warrior doesn’t talk, he acts!” Staal taunted.
“I am giving you the chance to leave,” Vairë warned. So many times she’d said those words. So many times she’d been forced to kill those who would not heed her. Those who would not leave. So many dead by her hands so that others might live. She could recall their faces, their names, their histories. Those memories plagued her dreams. They assaulted her when the psychic storms raged through her mind. So much blood…but if she failed to stop them, how many more would be dead in their place? Would she never have a day where everyone lived? Just one day?
“And miss the glory of this moment?” Staal asked in disbelief.
“All weapons targeting Earth, sir. Firing in 20,” a voice said over the loudspeaker.
“I’m warning you!” Vairë shouted.
“And I salute you! Take aim!” Staal shouted.
“Shoot me, I’m still gonna press this! You’ll die, Staal.”
“Knowing that you die, too,” Staal grinned.
“Firing in 15,” the loudspeakers thundered.
“For the glory of Sontar! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha!”
“I’ll do it!” Vairë screamed.
“Then do it!” Staal retorted.
Just then, Vairë felt herself dematerializing. On the ship, Luke took her place. He held the switch in his hand and glared at the creatures that had once promised him a new world. “Sontar? Ha!” he shouted as he pressed the ignition button. The atmosphere on the ship ignited and blasted outwards, exploding the entire fleet. Luke had only a few seconds to glory in his triumph before he heard a song and felt a peaceful presence washing over him, carrying him ever westward – towards home.
~*~*~*~
Back on Earth, Vairë staggered as she rematerialized in the transport at Rattigan Academy. She was still panting, adrenaline coursing through her body. She stumbled and then sat at the edge of the transporter, wondering just how she had gotten back to safety. Luke was gone, she realized. A brilliant boy, his life barely started, gone. All to save her. Martha sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around her waist, tucking her head into Vairë’s shoulder. Donna walked over and slapped her on the other arm in anger before sitting down on her other side and putting an arm over her shoulders. Vairë pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face in them, weeping for the boy who had given up his life before he’d even had a chance to live.
“F-f-f-four hun-un-dred y-y-years,” she sobbed. “Four hundred years I’ve lived. The same face looking me in the mirror every day! Four hundred years of loneliness. Four hundred years wondering if I’ve finally done enough. Every opportunity for peace ripped away from me! And now that poor child…Luke…he could have been brilliant! But he’s gone. He’s gone and it’s my fault!” she wept.
“Don’t say that, Vairë,” Martha sobbed, joining her friend in weeping. “He chose this. He wanted you to live.”
“Martha, I’m tired. I’m so, so tired. I’ve watched so many die. I’ve killed so many so that others could live. I’m tired of it, Martha. I just want to sleep!”
“Sssh,” Donna whispered softly. “It’s okay, Vairë. That’s why I’m here. To stop you. To help you remember that you have a family now. What was that you wanted me to tell your brother?”
“I love you, my brother,” Vairë hiccoughed. “Because I do love him. But I’m so alone, Donna. I’ve been so alone for so long…”
“Four centuries,” Martha sighed, rubbing her friend’s back. “That would be enough to do anyone in. But Vairë…you don’t have to be alone anymore. You have Donna. And, if you ever need a place to visit, you have me. Tom will love you, I know. Everyone does. My mum. My dad. Hell, even Leo would marry you in a heartbeat, I think.”
Vairë gave a watery chuckle. “But the man I love…he loves someone else.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” Martha laughed. “No man in his right mind could resist you. Now, come on. Give us a smile.” Vairë smiled sadly. “That’ll do. Let’s get back to your sister. Maggie will be so glad to see you again.”