Back to Our Reality

EIGHT

It had been subtle at first. Occasionally, the odd star would seem to disappear from view, though it was only those who spent their time looking up at the stars who seemed to notice first. They tried to tell the officials; tried to tell them that there was something was happening, but the officials refused to believe them; kept telling them that it was nothing. There were no threats to be dealt with. If there were then Torchwood would already be working on it.

People knew what Torchwood was, of course, the People's Republic hadn't taken over for nothing. But it was still a secret amongst the public as to what it was that Torchwood really did now that the regime had changed. Some wanted to know why it had gone back such secrecy while others simply didn't care and continued to get on with their lives.

Either way, whichever person you were, there was no way to get in contact with Torchwood as no one knew who worked for them anymore.

Therefore, no astronomer who ignored the officials were able to find out if Torchwood really knew what was going on.

That, as one would expect, was when the conspiracies started to occur.

They started off as the usual internet blogs about little green men coming to the Earth that only a select few would really believe. But as more and more stars started coming to 'the end of their lives' as the officials had tried to tell them, the conspiracies started to become more in depth and more worthy of attention. Some suggested that there was danger lurking somewhere in the universe and that it might not just be their planet that was at risk.

With more proof arising that there was something more to this 'stars dying' rubbish that the government had put out trying to get people to steer clear of the conspiracies, people started to panic.

It was then that the government really started to listen to the astronomers.

Thankfully, however, Torchwood had already noticed that something was going on before the government and were attempting to get to the bottom of it.

From the moment people had started to notice the stars disappearing and the mass panic of the people, three years had passed.

...

Sitting at his desk fiddling with God knows what, the Doctor sighed and looked up at the clock above him. He was bored. The same thing happened every Thursday; he had a day off and Rose would still be required at Torchwood for something or other. He suspected that it had something to do with the project which she still refused to tell him about. They had been on this planet now for nearly three years and had been together for the majority of that. He remembered the first time he tried to get her to tell him about it: she had told him that, although she was keeping something from him, there was reason behind it and he would find out soon enough. The Doctor was somewhat confused as to whether Rose knew the definition of the word 'soon' sometimes, since he was still none the wiser on what was going on even after all this time.

It also begged the question as to what she was doing that was taking her so long to complete.

He asked her about it sometimes, but that never went down well and would usually turn into a full-blown argument which led him to sleeping on the couch that night before making it up to her in the morning. It didn't matter how many times he tried to ask her what it was she was doing, the outcome was always the same. He had even said to her once that he wondered if she was ever going to tell him.

Of course, his words had been slightly harsher than that and it had meant that Rose had refused to speak to him for an entire week.

He regretted it as soon as the words were out and his anger had died down, but he often regarded the thought sometimes and often wondered if that was case.