Lost In Thought

Remembrance of the Dead

LizBeth:

He did it. He'd finally done it and here I was, sat by his side, the only man for me. I love him.

But I also loved my brother, who had been tied and strapped to a chair, and his friend had been tied to the chair the other side of him to me. He said I had to rest, that the signal was in my head to the humans, and I had to be strong enough to keep it going. 

It hurt. I had the voices of all those he had replaced in my head, and it hurt so, so bad. They were scared, they didn't know what was happening and they kept getting louder, and louder and... 

"Now then, I've got a planet to run." My mind automatically tried to focus on his voice, knowing that he was my Master and I had to do whatever he wanted me to do. "Is everybody ready?"

Another of him, who was once Joshua Naismith, was in the other room, protecting the gate that had allowed him to do this. Allowed me to do it for him. "Six billion, seven hundred and twenty seven million, nine hundred and forty nine thousand three hundred and thirty eight versions of us awaiting orders."

Now one who had been Barack Obama, across the oceans and land, and he wasn't even the furthest away. "This is Washington. As President of the United States, I can transfer all the United Nations protocols to you immediately, putting you in charge of all the Earth's defences."

"UNIT HQ, Geneva reporting." He had been Colonel Shindi, one of UNIT's best. He was crying in my head, he wanted his wife and children. "All under your command, sir."

"And this is the Central Military Commission here in Beijing, sir, with over two point five million soldiers, sir." Xiaolian Li, the first female head of the Chinese Army. "Present arms!"

But the original, my man, and the only one for me, was just smiling smugly at my brother. "Enough soldiers and weapons to turn this planet into a warship. Nothing to say, Doctor? What's that? Pardon? Sorry?"

Wilfred, the only human left, was defensive. "You let him go, you swine."

"Oh, your dad's still kicking up a fuss."

"Yeah? Well, I'd be proud if I was."

"Hush, now. Listen to your Master." But the phone started to ring. Oh. Oh, of course. I forgot. Huh. That was strange. I forgot. "But that's a mobile."

He knew who it was. "Yeah, it's mine. Let me turn it off."

My Master shook his head, furious that one tiny thing hadn't gone right. It was my fault, I should have remembered, should have made sure that she was safe, not, not... Safe or not safe? Shiny, it was Shiny, why would I ever want to hurt Shiny? I couldn't let him hurt my Shiny. "No, no, no, no, no. I don't think you understand. Everybody on this planet is me. And I'm not phoning you, so who the hell is that?"

"It's nobody. I tell you, it's nothing. It's probably one of them ring-back calls."

So he just started to search his pockets, finding a gun. Why did he bring a gun? My brother, and my husband, hated guns. "Ooo, and look at this. Good man!" Then tossed it on the floor to get the phone. And it seemed to find its way into my hand, as I stared. The last time I held a gun... "Donna. Who's Donna?"

"She's no one. Just leave it."

He looked at me, so I started to try and find her. "Gramps, don't hang up. You've got to help me. I ran out, but everyone was changing."

"Who is she? Why didn't she change?"

"Gramps, I can't hear you."

Wilfred didn't really understand exactly what I did, but gestured to me. "Well, it was this thing Remy did. She did it to her, after something happened. The Metacrisis."