The Orphan and Her Family

Chapter Fifty

An older man comes pattering into the room, searching through the people. "The Doctor?" he asks, stepping in front of the Time Lord.

He smiles, and nods, "That's me."

The man holds out his hand, and begins furiously shaking the Doctors, "Good! Good! Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good."

The Time Lord turns, raising his eyebrows at his friends, "It's good apparently."

The man begins to pull the Doctor along behind him, leaving the corridor. Jack places one hand on Sophie's shoulder, and the other on Martha's. He directs them after the stranger and the Doctor.

They step into some sort of laboratory, machines spread out in a circle around the room. As they enter, a blue, feminine, alien with antennae smiles at them, "Chan welcome tho."

The man is pulling the Doctor along behind him, pointing at different machines. The trio ignores them as Martha turns to the alien, "Hello. Who are you?"

"Chan Chantho tho."

Jack smiles, and holds out his hand, "Captain Jack Harkness."

The Doctor doesn't glance up from the machine he's studying, "Stop it!"

He turns to look at the Time Lord, and makes a face, "Can't I say hello to anyone?"

"Chan I do not protest tho," she blushes.

Jack winks at her, "Maybe later, Blue." He slips away from Sophie and Martha to lean beside the Doctor, "So, what have we got here?"

The Time Lord ignores the Captain, "And all this feeds into the rocket?"

The man nods furiously, "Yeah, except without a stable footprint, you see, we're unable to achieve escape velocity. If only we could harmonise the five impact patterns and unify them, well, we might yet make it. What do you think, Doctor? Any ideas?"

The Doctor removes his glasses, and shoves them into his pocket, "Well, er, basically, sort of, not a clue."

Sophie leans over to Martha, "Twice in one day. I think that's a record."

She laughs quietly, and moves away. She walks into a small almost kitchen like area. Jack had dropped his bag on the table once they had entered. The medical student flips the bag open. She pulls a canister out of the bag, and drops it in fright. "Oh, my God. You've got a hand? A hand in a jar. A hand in a jar in your bag."

Sophie turns and glares at Jack, "Why the f*ck did you bring that?"

The Doctor freezes, "But that, that, that's my hand."

Jack shrugs, "I can't just leave Time Lord DNA with the rest of the team," he explains, addressing Sophie, "Especially not with how they've been acting lately."

"Chan is this a tradition amongst your people tho?" she asks the Doctor.

"Not on my street," Martha blanches. "What do you mean, that's your hand? You've got both your hands, I can see them."

The Time Lord shrugs, "Long story. I lost my hand Christmas Day, in a swordfight."

"What? And you grew another hand?"

"Er, yeah, yeah, I did. Yeah. Hello." He holds out the hand in question, and shakes Martha's hand.

"Might I ask, what species are you?" the professor asks, sounding genuinely curious.

"Time Lord, last of." He receives no response. "Heard of them?" The professor and Chanto shake their heads. "Legend or anything?" They shake their heads once again. "Not even a myth?" he squeaks, sounding surprised. "Blimey, end of the universe is a bit humbling."

Sophie chuckles, and leans against the wall.

"Chan it is said that I am the last of my species too tho."

The Doctor turns, "Sorry, what was your name?"

The professor steps forward, and places a hand on the aliens shoulder, "My assistant and good friend, Chantho. A survivor of the Malmooth. This was their planet, Malcassairo, before we took refuge."

The Doctor nods, "The city outside, that was yours?"

"Chan the conglomeration died tho," she says, sadly.

"Conglomeration," the Doctor nods. He turns and glances over at Jack, Martha, and Sophie, "That's what I said."

Jack turns and glares at him. Sophie slips over, and smacks the Doctor upside the head. "You're supposed to say sorry," Jack states, forcefully.

"Oh, yes. Sorry," the Doctor says, flippantly.

"Chan most grateful tho."

"You grew another hand?" Martha reiterates, still trying to wrap her head around it.

"Hello, again," he waves with the hand, "It's fine. Look, really, it's me."

"All this time and you're still full of surprises."

"Tell me about it," Sophie laughs. "I've known him through all his lives, and still he can manage to surprise me."

"So what about those things outside?" Jack starts, trying to get them back on track, "The Beastie Boys. What are they?"

The professor sighs, "We call them the Futurekind, which is a myth in itself, but it's feared they are what we will become, unless we reach Utopia."

The Doctor sits down on the desk, "And Utopia is?"

Yana looks at him incredulously, "Oh, every human knows of Utopia. Where have you been?"

The Doctor looks over at his companions, and seems to fish for an answer. "Bit of a hermit," he shrugs.

"A hermit with friends?"

"Hermits United," he theorises, "We meet up every ten years and swap stories about caves. It's good fun, for a hermit. So, er, Utopia?"

Sophie glances over at Jack, and they both start laughing. The professor pulls up a display on a system, and points at a blinking light, "The call came from across the stars, over and over again. Come to Utopia. Originating from that point."

The Doctor slips his glasses back on, "Where is that?"

"Oh," he waves his hand as if it isn't a big deal. "It's far beyond the Condensate Wilderness, out towards the Wildlands and the Dark Matter reefs, calling us in. The last of the humans scattered across the night."

"What do you think's out there?" the Doctor leans closer.

"We can't know. A colony, a city, some sort of haven? The Science Foundation created the Utopia Project thousands of years ago to preserve mankind, to find a way of surviving beyond the collapse of reality itself. Now perhaps they found it. Perhaps not. But it's worth a look, don't you think?"

The Doctor smiles and nods. He then leaps to his feet, and dashes back over to the machine, he starts to ramble on about the device, and Sophie just presses her face into Jack's back, waiting for him to stop.

Jack turns halfway, and wraps an arm around her, "How's the head?"

She looks up at him, squinting a little at the lights above. "Fine, as long as I don't look at the light, or move too fast, or there aren't too many loud noises."

He chuckles a little, and presses a kiss to her forehead, "At least it didn't bruise."

"Oh, no, it did. Owen's drugs were really strong, cleared the bruise, left the symptoms."

The Doctor shouts, and she finally tunes back into him, "Professor Yana. This new science is well beyond me, but all the same, a boost reversal circuit, in any time frame, must be a circuit which reverses the boost. So, I wonder, what would happen if I did this?" He pulls his sonic out of his pocket, and aims it at a cable. The machine powers up, and the lights in the room brighten.

Sophie closes her eyes, and reaches into her pocket, extracting a pill bottle. She pops one of the drugs into her mouth, and then leans against Jack's side.