Rising From The Ashes (Book Five of the Bad Wolf Chronicles)

The Time of Angels

Jessie walked around behind the Doctor, smirking as he kept commenting on tons of the items in the museum they'd landed in. "Sorry about the detour, Amy," she apologized to the obviously bored ginger. "It's going to be a while."

"Wrong," the Doctor pointed at one of the items in a glass case. "Wrong." He frowned at another. "Bit right . . . but mostly wrong." He grinned. "I love museums."

"I was nearly killed in one," Jessie recalled.

"Yeah, great," Amy crossed her arms impatiently. "Can we go to a planet now? Big spaceship? Churchill's bunker? You promised me a planet next!"

"Amy, this isn't any old asteroid," the Doctor beamed at her. "It's the Delerium Archive, the final resting place of the Headless Monks. The biggest museum ever!"

"You've got a time machine," Amy sighed. "What do you need museums for?"

Jessie giggled. "Wait for it."

"Wrong," the Doctor pointed. "Very wrong." He brightened. "Ooo, one of mine!" He examined another one. "Also one of mine."

"It's a very easy way to keep score," Jessie laughed.

"Jezebel, look at this one," the Doctor told her.

She walked over to take a look at the square box he was examining. "Oh, great," Amy rolled her eyes. "An old box."

"It's from one of the old starliners," the Doctor identified. So that's what they'd been tracking. "A Home Box."

"What's a Home Box?" Amy asked.

"Like a black box on a place, except it homes. Anything happens to the ship, the Home Box flies home with all the flight data."

"So?"

"Look at the writing," Jessie told her, pointing to the words burned into the box. "It's Old High Gallifreyan. The lost language of the Time Lords."

"There were days, there were many days, these words could burn stars and raise up empires and topple gods," the Doctor mused.

"What does it say?" Amy asked curiously.

Jessie took a closer look, and she blinked. "Hello, sissy," she answered in shock.

She and the Doctor exchanged looks, remembering just who had said those exact words in their past, before Jessie phased her hands through the case and grabbed the box. She yanked it out as alarms started to wail, and they ran back to the TARDIS. "What the hell was that?" Amy yelped.

"It's called being a mutant!" Jessie called back shortly. "Keep up!"

"Why are we doing this?"

"Because someone on a spaceship twelve thousand years ago is trying to attract our attention," the Doctor answered as they entered the TARDIS, working on the Home Box. "Let's see if we can get the security playback working . . . "

Jessie's eyes widened as a woman with extremely curly brown hair wearing a black dress, ridiculously high red heels, and sunglasses, walked out of a room, tipped her sunglasses down, and winked right at the camera. "That's her," she breathed, squeezing the Doctor's hand, remembering what had happened. "That's really her!"

River Song walked down the corridor, and guards followed after her. "The party's over, Doctor Song," one of them said. "Yet you're still onboard."

"Sorry, Alistair," River smiled. "I needed to see what was in your vault. Do you all know what's down there? Any of you? Because I'll tell you something. This ship won't reach its destination."