Midnight ⋆ Doctor Who²

7. The Moon Landing

AURORA, THE DOCTOR, RIVER AND RORY ARE BACK AT THE WAREHOUSE. The only shot they have is to get a proper look at the spacesuit, the only thing they have that belongs to the Silence. Their only shot at finding Amy, and rescuing her.

Canton went back to Area 51, with the President, to take care of the stuff they needed. They have a small TV turned on to keep track of time. The moon landing is happening in a few minutes, hours tops, so they have to hurry up.

The girls and the Doctor are examining the spacesuit with the alien's own technology. Rory is sitting a bit further, holding Amy's nano recorder. They can hear him mumbling things to it, every now and then.

"It's an exoskeleton," River says, fishing through the goo with disposable gloves. "Basically, life support. There's about twenty different kinds of alien tech in here."

"Who was she? Why put her in here?" the Doctor asks for himself, fiddling with some cables.

Aurora pulls a wire from the suit, frowning. "This thing is ready for anything. You put this on, you don't even have to feed yourself." She follows it to another one. "Don't have to go outside, it processes sunlight." She checks River's device. "Oh, there it is. The part we don't like. The weapons are built in." She frowns again. "Just like the communication system, that can hack into anything."

The Doctor raises his head to face her. "Including the telephone network?"

She nods. "Way too easily."

"But why phone the President?" he wonders.

River looks up at them. "It defaults to the highest authority it can find. The little girl gets frightened, the most powerful man on Earth gets a phone call. The night terrors with a hotline to the White House."

Aurora blinks. "How do you know that?"

She misses a beat, before raising her device. "Scanner."

"No, the night terrors," she precises.

River shrugs. "I don't know, every child gets some at one point."

Aurora nods, whistling a low 'oooh.' She turns to the Doctor, to check on him. He's licking her invitation — the one future him sent her, and the one he thought he snatched away sneakily. He really didn't. Bumped into her three times. Hugged her six. She finally shrugged off her jacket for him to access it.

A sharp pain overcomes her body, before quickly washing away. That's how it has been, lately. Everytime the unnerving thought that I can't do it, he's going to die, emerges, it's replaced by no, he won't. I won't let him.

So, she simply sighs. "Doctor, I didn't let you take the envelope for you to put it in your mouth. Stop licking it, it's gross."

"You didn't let me take it, I strategically and sneakily took it from you." He doesn't look up at her, and her dubious raised eyebrow. "Purchased on earth. Perfectly ordinary stationery. TARDIS blue. Summoned by a stranger who won't even show his face!" He walks to her, becoming all the more serious. "That's a first for me. How about you?"

Aurora isn't surprised. She already knew all that. She searched, before Canton locked them up for the plan. Because it was her only clue as to what the Doctor had been doing before summoning them. And she got absolutely nothing from that, of course. The Doctor was careful when he picked them up, probably knowing that either his past self or Aurora would go looking around. Probably both.

She snatches her envelope back, her nose wrinkling at the wet side. "That's mine." That's her only clue to fix it. His death.

He steps even closer, their feet touching. "That's not really what I asked."