A Question of Time

“I… I have something to tell you,” Rachel stammered, looking around the control room of the TARDIS as the prophecy the Rani had written down seemed to be on a constant loop in her head…

They are coming back… Back from across the darkness. Born from the darkness once again… She will knock four times.

The Time Lords and their mate had been working on the TARDIS, performing the last little repairs, most of which were more tinkering then strictly necessary repairs. Rachel had calmly walked into the room, the journal under one arm. The serious look upon her usually joyful face was what alerted Jack to the fact that something was strange.

“Ray, what is it?” Jack asked, hauling himself to his feet and walking over to his daughter, as the Doctor and the Master looked up from their work.

Slowly, Rachel held up the journal. “I found this in my room last night.”

The Doctor frowned and took the journal from his daughter, letting it fall open to the first page, where the writing made him stop and stare. “This is in Old High Gallifreyan,” he whispered, looking up from the diary to glance at the Master. “You just found this in your room?”

“Doctor,” the Master noted. “That’s Ushas’ handwriting.”

“It’s her journal… or at least a journal she left for me to find,” Rachel commented.

“For you?!?” The Doctor blinked. “How is that possible?”

“Who’s Ushas?” Jack asked.

“It’s the childhood name of the Rani,” the Master whispered, running a hand over the cover of the journal.

“The friend you named Rachel after,” Jack realized. “I don’t understand. She died with the rest of the Time Lords, didn‘t she?”

“She died in the Time War, I was with her when she died.” The Doctor shivered slightly. “We were on a reconnaissance mission ---the Rani, myself and two other Time Lords. We were attacked by two Daleks. We destroyed one of them almost instantly… but the second one managed to get a shot off,” the Doctor slowly handed the Journal back to Rachel and moved to sit down on the jump seat. “I would have been hit, but the Rani jumped in front of me…”

“Why do that? You would have regenerated…” the Master asked, only to have the Doctor shake his head slowly.

“No. Something went wrong. Some of the Daleks had figured out how to kill Time Lords… the one which fired upon us must have had that technology.” The Doctor shivered slightly, and suddenly found Jack sitting on one side and the Master on the other, each one wrapping their arms around him. “She didn’t die right away. We were in here, in my TARDIS. I was the only one she’d allow to care for her, the only one who she would allow in her weakest moments.”

“The Rani was always proud… and independent. She hated to be seen as weak, or to have to depend on anyone else,” the Master told Jack and Rachel. “She was a brilliant woman, that’s one of the reasons I gave Rachel her name.”

“Her last words were High Gallifreyan… I should have know, so brilliant but so misunderstood,” the Doctor’s eyes closed, his voice seeming to change, as if the Rani was still speaking and he was merely mouthing the words. “Doctor, in your eyes I see a light, and I know you will survive this, the Last Great Time War.”

The Master looked down at the Journal, which had found it’s way into his arms. “What does the journal say?” he asked Rachel.

“It’s like a series of notes… about you two,” Rachel said, looking up at her fathers. “But right where it would come to a conclusion…” She flipped the Journal open, revealing the torn out pages at the end. “The information is missing, page after page missing. Except for one at the end.”

The Master flipped to the end of the journal and looked over the words that were written there. “It‘s addressed to Rachel, but doesn’t say her name, only that she is the daughter of the Doctor and myself. The Rani says she met a prophet, a creature who could see the future.”

“I thought that was impossible…” Jack stated, looking over at the Doctor.

“Now it is. The last of the races which could actually see the future or predict events died in the final battle of the Time War,” the Doctor explained.

“She asked this creature to look into our future and then asked the TARDIS to deliver her journal when that future was about to come to pass,” the Master’s eyes widened slightly as he looked over the prophecy.

“They are coming back… They are coming back… Back from across the darkness. Born from the darkness once again… She will knock four times,” Rachel repeated the words from memory. “What does it all mean?” she asked, looking at her parents.

“I don’t know,” the Doctor admitted, running a hand through his hair. Before he could say anything else, an alarm began to sound. The Doctor and the Master sprang up, forgetting about the Journal to tackle the problem at hand.

“What’s that alarm mean?” Jack asked, following his mates, Rachel doing the same after placing the journal on the jump seat.

“The TARDIS is picking up an energy reading,” the Doctor said as he leaned over the control panel.

“Basically something which doesn’t belong in this time period,” the Master finished for his mate.

“Time for another adventure?” Jack asked, a maniacal gleam in his eyes.

“Oh, yes!” The Master laughed.

“I’ll dig out a little something to track the energy,” the Doctor muttered before he practically dove into his repair box, his sonic screwdriver whirling a few times before he reappeared, a funny sort of mechanical device in his hand. “Violia! Energy detector… goes ping when there’s stuff.” As soon at the Doctor had said that the device actually did emit a sort ping.

“Looks like there’s stuff,” Rachel smiled, forgetting about the book and the Rani’s strange warning as she followed her family out of the TARDIS and into the streets of London.

The little device in the Doctor’s hands led the group of Time Travelers to Adipose Industries… a company which had just released a new weight loss product which was, quite simply, too good to be true.

A flash of psychic paper and a little bit of flirting from Jack and the group was inside. “Getting harder and harder to sneak into places…” Jack sighed as the group walked into Adipose Industries. “What did they think we were anyway?”

“Health and Safety… three members and one trainee.” The Doctor said. “Shall we split up?”

“I’ll go take a look around with Jack… why don’t you and Rachel take the personal approach?” the Master suggested.

With a nod of agreement, the two groups went their separate ways… the Master and Jack sneaking off to look around while Rachel and the Doctor found someone to talk with.

Soon they’d gotten a small gold necklace and a list of people who were part of Adipose’s trials. They set off to find one to speak with, Rachel calling Jack via wrist-band so the two would know where to find them. The Doctor and Rachel had tracked down one of the trial members… and found just bits and pieces which added together to create a picture that proved that something strange was definitely going on.

Then the Energy Detector went off once more… sending Time Lord and daughter running down suburban streets, almost getting run over by several cars.

“Any idea what we’re chasing?” Rachel asked as they rounded yet another corner, pausing only slightly to enable the Doctor to insure they were going in the right direction.

“None at all!” the Doctor smiled as he ran. “Clearly it isn’t supposed to be here… although that statement---”

“The fat just walks away?” Rachel asked, shuddering slightly. “It does sound a little… ominous.”

Father and daughter arrived at the location of the signal and were practically ran over by a large white truck, with Adipose Industries written on the side. The truck drove away too fast for the Doctor and Rachel to follow.

Since they’d lost the trail, the Doctor and Rachel had no choice but to head back to the TARDIS to meet up with the Master and Jack… over a dinner of take-out Chinese food, the family discussed what they had learned and tried to figure out what their next move should be.

The next day found the family heading back to Adipose Industries… and hiding in a broom closet until the staff had left for the night. When the building was deserted, the Time Travelers made their way to the roof of the building. The group commandeered a window washer, riding down until they were at the same level of the office of Cofelia Foster, the company’s CEO.

The family kneeled down in the window washer so that they wouldn’t be seen. A modified stethoscope was pressed to the window by the Doctor, while Rachel fiddled with the speaker they’d attached to the end of the stethoscope.

To no one’s surprise, Adipose Industries wasn’t just a nice little company making a diet pill. They were actually seeding the planet, using their pills to create babies of a race which was composed of fat. These creatures were called the Adipose, or at least that was how Cofelia had chosen to translate their name into Earth English.

The Family were vaguely familiar with the Adipose. When Rachel was littleh her favorite toy was a stuffed animal in the shape of a baby Adipose.

The Doctor had poked his head up a little more so he could get a better look at the reporter which Miss Foster had found investigating the company and taken captive. At that moment he froze, having caught sight of a very familiar face.

“Donna Nobel!” he gasped, drawing the attention of his entire family to the woman in question, a woman who was now smiling as she caught sight of the family.

“What’s Donna doing here?” Rachel whispered, looking up at the Doctor.

“No idea,” the Doctor shrugged. Once again the Doctor poked his head up and found himself being drawn into a sort of silent conversation with Donna Nobel.

Neither one noticed the Master, Rachel and Jack watching them… and it was only when Cofelia Foster stepped into their line of sight that the Doctor and Donna noticed that she was also aware of the intruders.

“Time to get out!” the Master sighed and wrestled with the controls of the window washer, causing it to be pulled back up to the roof.

The family jumped out of the window washer and dashed toward the stairs… where the Doctor almost smacked right into Donna, only being stopped by Donna leaping up to hug him. When the two broke their hug, Donna turned to the rest of the family with a huge smile on her face… but before any more greetings or explanations could be exchanged Cofelia Foster’s guards could be seen coming around the corner of the stairs… with extremely large and nasty guns.

Jack and the Master went to one side, managing to practically sidestep around the guards, while Rachel grabbed Donna’s hand. The two women followed the Doctor back to the window washer, leaping into the box as the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to start their descent.

They were heading down, intending to open up a window on the way down, when their progress was stopped. Apparently Cofelia had some sort of sonic device of her own, one which she was using to stop them from getting away.

While the Doctor struggled to stop Miss Foster from killing the three of them by causing the window washer to drop to the ground, Rachel turned her attention to a nearby window.

“It’s deadlocked sealed!” Rachel groaned… when suddenly she spotted Jack and the Master on the other side of the glass, the Master struggling to get the window open. While the Master struggled to open the window, the Doctor managed to knock the sonic device out of Miss Foster’s hands. The little device fell down and the Doctor managed to catch what turned out to be a Sonic Pen.

Turning to the window, the Doctor used the Sonic Pen to disable the security on the building, allowing Jack to open the window. Donna, the Doctor and Rachel scrambled through. It turned out it wasn’t a moment too soon. The moment the Doctor was out of the window washer one of the cables broke, causing the window washer to shake violently and tilt to the side… if they’d been inside of the box, the three would have probably fallen to their deaths.

“You weren’t kidding when you told me it was always like this!” Donna laughed, her vibrant red hair falling in front of her eyes.

Rachel laughed as she found her place next to Jack and the Master, Donna slightly behind her as the Doctor lead the group through the building, Miss Foster and her guards always just a step or two behind them.

Just when it seemed like the group had lost Foster and her guards, the Doctor found himself staring at Miss Foster, who had an obnoxious smirk on her face as her guards cut off the TARDIS Family and Donna from retreating back the way they had come.

Seeing there was nowhere to run, the Doctor smiled and stuck his hands in his pockets as he stared at the strange woman, trying to figure out just what planet she could be from. “Hello. I’m the Doctor. This is the Master, Jack… and this is our daughter, Rachel.”

“And I’m Donna Nobel,” Donna added, seeming angry that the Doctor hadn’t included her in his little list of introductions.

Rachel, Jack and Donna found themselves watching the interrogation / conversation between the Doctor, the Master and “Foster”. It actualy reminded Rachel of a tennis match! Back and forth, back and forth… She could tell Donna was slightly confused by the entire conversation, so Rachel helpfully leaned over and started to summarize the conversation for her.

“She’s using Earth to breed an alien race which is composed of fat cells,” Rachel explained. “Adipose is how she translates their species name into English… she thinks she’s witty.”

As Rachel finished her explanation, the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and Foster’s sonic pen… while the Master slowly backed towards Rachel, Jack and Donna. “Cover your ears!” the Master suggested.

A horrible, ear-shattering noise filled the air when the Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at the sonic pen. The guards and Miss Foster were unprepared for the horrible sound. Using this to their advantage, the group took off, ending up the closet they’d hidden in earlier… however it was no ordinary closet, for behind one wall was a alien computer, which the Doctor and the Master started to fiddle with. Rachel helped her fathers to stop Cofelia from killing all the users of Adipose while Jack explained what was happening to Donna.

“Wasn’t there someone else with you?” Donna asked, looking around at the family.

“Ianto Jones,” Jack explained. “He was traveling with us… but then he got a job in Cardiff. So it’s just the family in the TARDIS now.”

“Oh, before I forget…” The Doctor didn’t look up from his work as he spoke. “The offer still stands, Donna. You could come with us.”

“There’s always room for one more,” Jack remarked as Donna practically squeaked in excitement at the idea of traveling with the Doctor and his family.

“It’s always fun to have ‘normal’ humans onboard,” the Master laughed.

“Normal?” Donna blinked in confusion.

“Compared to us, you’re normal,” the Doctor explained.

The conversation was cut off when various lights on front of the computer started to flash and an alarm sounded… the Doctor had connected one of the Adipose Necklaces to the machine, which seemed to be the reason for the alarms.

“She increased the security!” the Doctor remarked after checking the computer over with his sonic screwdriver. “This isn’t good…”

“We need another one!” Rachel realized.

“Here!” Donna passed a Adipose Necklace to the Doctor. “Did a little investigation of my own.”

“Brilliant!” the Doctor laughed as he quickly connected the second necklace to the machine, which quickly shut down.

“We did it!” Rachel smiled, jumping for joy as Donna and the Doctor laughed.

After a little bit of celebrating, the group went up to the roof, the Doctor wanting to stop the Matron from getting killed by the Adipose and Rachel wanting to see the ships that had come for the ‘children’.

“Wow…” Donna gasped as she watched the ships come down over London and started to pull the little Adipose up in tractor beams.

“Kind of cute, aren’t they?” Rachel asked, looking over at Donna, who nodded in amazement.

“Your not going to blow them up?” Donna asked, looking over at the Doctor and the Master… both of whom frowned at the very idea.

“They’re just children…can’t help where they came from!” the Doctor remarked as one of the Adipose waved at the group.

“I’m waving at fat…” Donna whispered as she waved back, along with the TARDIS family.

“Well, as a diet plan… it works,” Jack remarked, causing the little group to start laughing as they watched the ships fly away.

“So…” The Doctor turned back towards Donna. “You want to come with?” He gestured towards the TARDIS and Donna smiled before nodding and pulling a suitcase out of the car that just happened to be sitting next to the TARDIS.

“I just have to make a quick call, tell my mom where to find the car!” Donna smiled, moving towards the street, where a small crowd had begun to gather.

“You do that, we’ll get a room set up for you and make sure we’re ready to go,” Rachel remarked, before stepping into the TARDIS with her parents.

Donna walked towards the street, talking into her cell phone, telling her mother where to find the car. With a smile on her face, she turned to a blond woman next to her, asking the woman to direct her mom towards the keys, which would be in a bin nearby.

As Donna headed back towards the TARDIS, the blond woman turned around and looked at the police in front of Adipose… Donna couldn’t possibly have know the events which would soon occur, all because of this young woman.

“Rose Tyler? I have a proposition for you.”

TBC