Vastra sat in one of the seats just inside the railing that
surrounded the central TARDIS console and watched the Doctor as he moved from
control to control. He moved slower,
more deliberately than he had when they took their trip to this strange land,
and she found it curious that she actually found herself worrying about the man
who had ripped her away from the familiar and showed her something new and
different. Something, perhaps, better
than she had expected for herself.
She leaned forward, rested her head on one closed hand, and
spoke.
‘Are you alright, Doctor?’
The Doctor looked up from the console, looked toward her, but
she had the distinct feeling he wasn’t exactly seeing her.
‘Hmm what was that?’
Vastra sighed quietly.
‘I asked if you were alright, Doctor.’
He smiled, slightly vacantly.
‘Yes. Quite. Right as rain, me.’
Vastra leaned back.
‘I do not think I quite believe you.’
The Doctor looked at her this time, his eyes locking on to
hers.
‘No, I’m fine.
Just…preoccupied.’
‘With what?’
The Doctor was about to slam forward the lever that would
set the TARDIS in flight, but instead walked over next to her seat. He leaned against the railing and brought his
hands up behind his head, almost cradling it from behind. He stood there for a few seconds before
looking down at Vastra. She had been
watching him the whole time, and he smiled.
‘Well, Vastra…we have a situation here where you can’t go
back to your people, and as big as the TARDIS is, I don’t quite think that
you’d be completely happy here.’
He paused and collected his thoughts.
‘And yet I saw what you did at the funeral…there’s so much
you could do to help the helpless…men, women and children being taken advantage
of.’
Vastra looked at him, confused.
‘I do not fully understand, Doctor.’
The Doctor knelt in front of her and placed his hands on
her shoulders. She didn’t flinch.
‘You’ve changed, Vastra.
When we met, nearly two months ago, you were ready to shoot me where I
stood. Do you remember that?’
She closed her eyes.
Yes, I remember, she thought to herself.
I do not wish to remember, but I do.
She nodded.
‘What changed?’
She struggled to answer that question, but no answer came.
‘I…I do not know.’
The Doctor smiled.
‘I think what changed is the fact that you saw that these
people…these humans…are really no different than you are. You and me, we’re both different from them,
but we both see that they can be so much more.
They have the ability for greatness…and that’s both good and bad,
because some of them can do terrible, horrible…but great…things.’
Vastra leaned back and regarded the Doctor.
‘Is this the time we are finally going to discuss who and
what you are, then?’
The Doctor rocked back on his heels then pulled himself to a
cross leg seated position on the floor.
‘You weren’t going to forget about that, were you?’
Vastra shook her head, and the Doctor smiled.
‘I didn’t think so.’
He took a deep breath.
‘We don’t have a lot of time, so I’ll give you the short
version. Maybe sometime in the future we
can sit down and I can fill in the blanks, but here’s what you need to know for
right now…’
Vastra’s eyes widened as the Doctor started to explain his
past…his birth on a planet called Gallifrey, his training as a Time Lord, his
adventures across time and space, and all the people he had befriended and who
had travelled with him. She covered her
mouth as he spoke ever so briefly about the Last Great Time war, how he had
unleashed The Moment and locked all combatants, even his own people, in a place
that could not be escaped. She didn’t
want to believe any of it, but as she looked around the inside of the TARDIS,
she knew it had to be true.
‘…and that’s it. I’m
the last of my kind. And I keep
traveling, and I keep trying to do what’s right.’
He regarded Vastra carefully.
‘And you don’t believe a single word of it.’
Vastra shook her head.
‘I believe every word.’
The Doctor looked at her, surprised.
‘You do?’
Vastra nodded.
‘Among my people, there were legends of an ape that came
from the stars and brought wisdom with him.
Usually death and destruction followed in his wake as well, or so the
stories told. I always thought they were
just that. Legends.’
The Doctor cringed.
‘I’m not sure I’m keen on the whole ‘death and destruction
followed in his wake’ bit, I hope you know.’
Vastra looked at him.
‘Deny that to be true…you saw what happened at the
funeral. Can you deny that what I speak
is true?’
He wanted to deny it, wanted to deny everything…but he knew
he couldn’t.
‘I thought not.’
The Doctor stood and walked back to the console. He continued to fine tune dials and controls
as Vastra looked on. She didn’t regret
what she said, but thought that perhaps she could have found slightly kinder
words to express it. She shook her head,
clearing her thoughts, and walked over to his side.
‘So…back home, Doctor?’
The Doctor looked up into Vastra’s eyes.
‘Yes…back to home.
But first…’
Vastra watched as he walked over to a grated off niche in
the wall. He pulled the grate off with a
hooked piece of wire and pulled out a huge wooden chest. From a distance she watched with curiosity as
he opened it and started tossing items out of the crate and all over the floor.
‘No…not that either…yes!
Oh wait…no, that wasn’t it…’
‘Doctor,’ Vastra called from her spot at the console, ‘what
are you doing?’
‘One moment, Vastra!’
He turned his attention back to the chest. Finally, after a good five to ten minutes of
digging, tossing and searching, he found what he was looking for.
‘Here we are!’
He jumped back to the console and handed Vastra a strange
looking metal device. It looked
something like a metal crown, with a long cord attached to it and extensions
that curved over the top and from the back of the device. She held it carefully in her hands and turned
it from side to side.
‘And what exactly is this, Doctor?’
He smiled.
‘Well, considering that there’s no way for me to get you to
your people, you’re going to be stuck on the surface. You could live
out your life hiding in the
woods and foraging, but I can’t leave my friends in a state like that!
So…this is a cerebral enhancer. I used to use one from time to time
when I
was in the Academy and forgot to study for my exams. You just plug it
in to the appropriate
computer, bring up the information you need to know, and the information
you
need is essentially downloaded right into your brain.’
Vastra looked at him with shock in her eyes.
‘You cannot possibly expect me to use this!’
The Doctor sighed.
‘It’s either this or I spend the next 10 years educating you
on traditional British customs of the late Victorian era. Your choice.’
‘How long does this take?’
‘Oh, an hour, give or take,’ the Doctor smiled.
Vastra considered her options. In the end, she decided, there really was no
option.
‘Where do I plug it in?’
The Doctor pointed to a port on the console.
‘Right there. I
should warn you…there may be a little discomfort. I’m not quite sure how to set it for homo
reptilia brainwaves…’
She regarded him coolly.
‘And the worst that could happen then, Doctor, would be…?’
The Doctor shrugged.
‘Bang, maybe?’
‘Me or the device?’
The Doctor shrugged again.
‘Both maybe? Like I
said, I’ve ever had much need to use it on homo reptilian before. To be honest, I haven’t had much need for it
in general. Birthday present from some
aunt or another on my mother’s side…always gave me the strangest, most useless
gifts. Except this time!’
Vastra sighed and placed the device on her head. She adjusted what little she could in order
to make it fit even the slightest bit comfortably, and then plugged the
connector into the jack.
‘Turn it on, Doctor.’
With a grimace the Doctor flipped a switch. A high pitched, keening noise came from the
console’s computer banks and Vastra twitched once…twice…three times, before her
body relaxed. He could see her eyes
moving behind her eyelids, and hoped everything was working has he had expected
it would…or should, more appropriately.
He turned back to the console and flipped the lever to send
the TARDIS to his intended location…London, 1887.
~~~