Storm: Storm is Brewing

The Wedding of River Song

London, 5:02pm, 22 April 2011

A man, shackled, bedridden, and dressed in a toga, was led down the hallways of the Buckingham Senate, guarded by two Roman soldiers.

Outside the windows, steam trains ran by on aerial tracks around London while cars drove around... through the air, carried by hot-air balloons. And as they turned a corner, heading toward the most central room in the building, a mammoth peered inside the large bay windows and the creature eyed the unshaven man being led into its master's office as though it knew who the man was. As though it knew what he was.

The guards threw open the door to the office, shoving their prisoner down onto his knees before their Caesar. The man sat behind his desk, dressed in a posh black suit, and he barely looked up as he ordered his men: "Leave us."

With a bow the guards left, throwing dirty looks at the soothsayer still kneeling before their leader.

Caesar Churchill placed his papers down and studied the heavily bearded man before him, and he began: "Tick tock goes the clock, as the old song says. But they don't, do they?"

He looked from the large grandfather clock in his office and then back to the soothsayer as he continued: "The clocks never tick. Something has happened to time. That's what you say. What you never stop saying. All of history is happening at once. But what does that mean? What happened?"

Churchill looked down at the soothsayer over the top of his spectacles as he demanded: "Explain to me in terms that I can understand: what happened to time?"

The soothsayer lifted his head, and sorrowful old green eyes peered at Churchill wearily from under unkept, wild brown curls.

"A woman." The Doctor said sadly, and Churchill blinked in surprise.

*******************************************

Some unidentifiable time earlier

Disabled spaceship

"Imagine you were dying." A dark figure, more of a shadow, at the end of the hallway said in a low voice.

It looked humanoid, except its head was shaped strangely, like a flying saucer or a spinning top, and it struck an uncommon fear in the spaceship's inhabitants.

"Imagine you were afraid and a long way from home and in terrible pain. Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, you looked up and saw the face of the devil himself."

The figure came closer, stepping into the light to reveal the Doctor, in all his Stetson-wearing glory.

"Hello, Dalek." The Doctor murmured, smirking down into the disabled Dalek's eyestalk.

"Emergency." The Dalek groaned, while the Doctor leaned over it. "Emergency. Weapon system disabled. Emergency protocol put in place..."

The Doctor ignored the Dalek's calls as he soniced the Dalek's top, loosening it before removing the heavy metal casing.

The Dalek's voice pitch changed, getting higher as it was exposed, and the Doctor muttered as he soniced the inner mechanics of the Dalek's casing: "Hush, now. I need some information from your data core. Everything the Daleks know about the Silence."

*******************************************

Some time later

The Docks of Calisto B

A cloaked figure walked quickly through the rundown riverside, huddling deep beneath the hooded cover of his clothes as he hurried into a nearby spacebar.