Chapter Text
The TARDIS doors clicked shut. Graham and Ryan, returning to their lives. The sound of the Doctor’s and Yaz’s breathing was accompanied only by the beeps and thrums of the console room.
“I could always use the TARDIS to go back, arrive an hour after you guys. Change the timeline! Then we’d have more time together.” The words came out slightly more panicked than she intended.
The Doctor felt like she was floating in a silent storm, untethered. The oncoming storm, but not focused, not directed. A whirlwind of unfinished plans and half-baked ideas, stitched together into some semblance of form. Things falling through the cracks.
“It’s okay to be sad,” said Yaz.
Things falling through the cracks, faster. Tragedies becoming reality. This was it, this was real. They leave, because they should. Or they find someone else. And some of them, some of them forget me. I suppose in the end, they break my heart. The silence in the room was deafening. She knew she should respond, offer some sort of comfort to Yaz, but there was that social awkwardness again. She had never been good at comforting other people at times like this. She could be great in an emergency, adrenaline racing and pieces of a plan clicking into place just in the last moment, but when things slowed down, the words didn’t come to her.
“Do you still want to go to the meringue planet?” Yaz asked, finally.
“Yes!” said the Doctor, switching on her autopilot of blocking out everything else and living in only the present moment, smile on her face and bad memories locked away - at least, as well as any nightmare could be hidden in the dark. “You really can’t eat the waiters though, even though they’re made of meringue. They get very upset.” She pulled the final lever and grinned conspiratorially at Yaz as the TARDIS flew through the vortex. “Hopefully they won’t remember me from last time.”
Yaz smiled back, but a little off. A hint of sadness. Or maybe she was just trying to be kind. “I won’t eat the waiters,” she said. “Do we need any money though? I’ve got some, but don’t know if it’d be the right currency.”
“Eh,” the Doctor looked through some compartments among the controls. She remembered looking for one of these a long time ago, when some idiot had spent it all on a computer in his brain. “This should do. Has like a million credits on it or something,” she held up a metal rectangle.
“Great, that sounds like a lot probably.”
“Should cover it, yeah.” The Doctor threw open the TARDIS doors. “Oh.” Her face fell. Why did this keep happening? First the TARDIS brought her back ten months late - presumably to prevent her from pretending that space prison hadn’t happened, but look where it had gotten her - and now this.
“Is this still Earth?” asked Yaz, peering over her shoulder.
The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and crouched, tasting the dirt. “Yes, and-” she stood, licked her finger, and held it up in the wind. “Twenty-first century. But I don’t think this is exactly when we were a minute ago.”
“Should we try again?” Yaz asked.
The Doctor hesitated. She was always dragging them on these adventures when they didn’t end up where they meant to go. But despite her resentment toward the TARDIS for the ten months, she had a feeling this stop could be important.
“I mean, I’m not exactly hungry,” Yaz added quickly. “If you want to have a look around first, that’s okay with me.”
“Let’s have a look around!” said the Doctor, her smile excessively bright. “The TARDIS often sends me where I need to be, not necessarily where I want to be.”
Yaz grinned. “I’m sure we’ll find someone in distress.”
“That does tend to happen!” The Doctor peered into the distance at some tents. “Let’s take a look over there.” She held her sonic out to scan as they approached the tents, and looked at the readings. Worrying. She stopped walking.
“What is it?” Yaz asked.
“I think this might be an archaeological dig site. Based on the readings of ancient artifacts in the tents, and the general… archeology vibes.” She made a face.
“Is that bad?”
“Well, no, but… Just to be safe, can you give me a name? I need a name that’s not ‘The Doctor,’ just in case.” The Doctor looked down at her outfit and brushed some dirt off her sleeve. When was the last time she had washed her coat?
“Like a secret identity?” Yaz raised her eyebrows.
“Yeah, just in case anyone knows the name, The Doctor.” She reached into her pocket for her sunglasses. Maybe if she hid her eyes, she would be less recognizable. It was always her eyes that gave her away.
“You’ve never worried about that before?” It sounded like a question. The Doctor glanced at Yaz. She looked genuinely concerned.
“I may have some, um, history with some archaeologists,” said the Doctor, “from before I changed my face.” The sunglasses weren’t in her pocket. Unfortunate.
“I take it it didn’t end well,” said Yaz, regarding her like someone who had something to hide. It made the Doctor’s skin crawl. She had so many things to hide.
Several archaeologists had appeared by the tents and were starting to notice Yaz and the Doctor standing not far away. They waved. The Doctor waved back brightly, smiling past the pit of fear in her stomach. She had still been hoping she’d been wrong, but she recognized their outfits.
She turned back to Yaz, barely hiding her panic. “Yaz! Please. Just give me a name. Usually I just use ‘John Smith’ but they would definitely know it was me. I’m rubbish at coming up with fake names.” She put her sonic screwdriver back in her pocket.
“Okay, okay! Uh, how about Sonya?”
The Doctor nodded. “Perfect. I’m your sister now. Sonya Khan.”
Yaz winced. “Maybe cousins.”
“Cousin Yaz, great. Hello there!” the Doctor called to the archaeologists who were approaching them.
“Who are you?” asked one.
“I’m Sonya!” The Doctor said brightly. The archaeologists looked confused. “Uh, hang on,” the Doctor pulled the psychic paper out of her pocket and held it in their faces with enthusiasm.
“Oh, the biology specialists. Wow, that was fast.”
“Yes, we came right away,” said the Doctor. “Can you show us the problem?” She assumed there was probably a problem. There usually was.
“Yes, right this way,” said the woman. “I’m Jackie O’Donnell, and this is Ray. He’ll explain the situation to you; I’ll go ahead and let them know you’re here.”
“Ray Macdonald,” he said, leading them toward the tents. “I’m the site administrator; Jackie’s logistics.”
“I’m Sonya,” the Doctor said again. “This is my cousin, Yaz.”
“Both specialists?” he asked.
The Doctor glanced at Yaz, wondering how good she was at biology.
“I’m a student,” Yaz supplied. “Shadowing.”
“Oh nice,” said Ray. “What’s your favorite area?”
“Cellular,” said Yaz. “Mitochondria.”
“The powerhouse of the cell,” Ray laughed.
“Exactly,” said Yaz, glancing at the doctor with a facial expression that said please help.
“Very important, mitochondria,” the Doctor said loudly as they walked. “Did you know they have their own DNA separate from the nuclear DNA because of back when they were their own organisms that got absorbed by another single-celled organism. Rude, really; how would you feel if another organism swallowed you up whole and then you became part of that organism inside of an even bigger organism and just get passed down from generation to generation and everyone thinks you’re just a piece of a whole when in reality you were once your own organism and no one even remembers, you know?”
“Um,” said Ray.
“So what exactly happened here?” Yaz asked, stepping slightly in front of the Doctor to walk next to Ray.
“Well, we were excavating this village that burned down when it was just a few months old, and we found this opening to what appears to be a cave system of some kind, but there was some sort of life form in there and we weren’t sure what it was. It was the excavation director, Professor Song— are you alright?” He stopped and looked back at the Doctor.
The Doctor had inhaled sharply and frozen in place when he said River’s name. It felt like the wind had been knocked out of her and her brain was full of space hair and stars and Hello Sweetie. She’d known, somehow, that this was coming, as soon as she realized they were archaeologists. Why would the TARDIS do this to her? Was River in trouble? Of course, of course she would always help River. No matter how much it hurt.
“Sonya?” Yaz asked.
“Oh, yes sorry, I was just thinking about mitochondria and bats and it doesn’t matter, you were saying?” The Doctor smiled slightly wider than usual, hoping it hid the panic in her eyes.
“Yes, Professor Song thought we should really get a biologist in here to take a look. You’re an expert on identifying species, yes? Potentially discovering new species?”
“Oh yes,” said the Doctor. “I hope it’s a new species. Love discovering new life forms. New life form discoverer, that’s me. Love a life form.” She could feel herself babbling, but she was struggling to converse in a coherent way while her brain was saying River, River, River is here.
“What did it look like?” asked Yaz. The Doctor was grateful to Yaz for taking over the being coherent part of the conversation.
“Well, at first it looked like just some kind of cave slime,” said Ray. “But then it moved, in like, a cohesive way like something was controlling it, or like it was all part of one organism.”
“Did anyone touch it?” asked Yaz. Of course. The Doctor could count on Yaz to ask the right questions.
“No,” said Ray. “Professor Song made us practically evacuate. Said she was calling in an expert.”
“Oh,” said the Doctor, feeling an emotion she couldn’t quit identify. “Yes, she sounds smart.” That was a thing normal people said about people they didn’t know, right?
“I am smart,” said River, coming around the corner of a tent toward them. “Who are you?” Her hair was pulled back and she was wearing the same camouflage archeology outfit the Doctor had seen her in before. She didn’t look especially glad to see them.
“I’m Sonya and this is my cousin Yaz,” said the Doctor, carefully. Trying to control her expression and her tone of voice to be as calm as possible. Calm was normal, right? “You must be Professor Song.”
“Yes…” said River uncertainly. “I requested a specific person to come take a look at this, though.”
“Ah! Well, they sent us,” said the Doctor, smiling hopefully.
“No really, how did you even find this site?” River sounded almost angry.
“We were, well, we were in the neighborhood,” said the Doctor. She considered. Then she took a chance. “He sent us.”
River’s mouth fell open slightly. “He,” she said, her voice dangerously quiet at first but growing in volume, “sent his companions to me? What is he, too busy to come himself?”
“Well, there was uh, there was a sort of emergency,” said the Doctor, internally panicking. Of course River would have sent for the Doctor in this kind of situation. The TARDIS must have known about it. But she hadn’t intercepted any messages from River, which meant that whatever message River had sent could still be floating around out there, or another version of her could have received it. “I mean he’ll be fine, he’s completely fine, but he said he’d be seeing you soon anyway and that we could probably be helpful right now. We’re his friends.” She’d have to send him River’s way later. She couldn’t remember if she had seen River around this time, and she didn’t know where River was in her timeline. Was this after Manhattan? River still didn’t look convinced. She had to try something else. “Look!” She pulled out her sonic screwdriver. “I have a sonic screwdriver too. So I can help.” That wasn’t a giveaway, right? It wasn’t completely implausible that the Doctor would have a companion who also had a sonic screwdriver, was it?
River examined the screwdriver. “It’s… unusual,” she said.
“It’s homemade,” snapped the Doctor, trying not to feel hurt. “Sonic swiss army knife, really, except without the knife part.” She gave the sonic a little twirl and flipped it on and off to demonstrate its sonic-ness.
“I can see that.” River’s anger had melted away and now she just sounded disappointed. “Okay, if he thinks you can help, you can come take a look. But be careful.”
River led the Doctor and Yaz through the site, down several sets of stairs and ladders, past archaeologists carefully removing artifacts from the dirt around them, and into the mouth of a cave. Electric lanterns were set up inside, illuminating a green slime on the walls that seemed thick and well defined into tentacle shapes.
“Hmm, interesting,” said the Doctor, scanning the slime with her screwdriver. She looked at the readings. “Part machine, part organic. Probably alien. Probably not as old as the surrounding artifacts.”
“What do you think it is?” asked River.
“Not sure,” said the Doctor. “Hang on, don’t you have a sonic device?”
“Well, yes,” River pulled out her sonic trowel. “I’m surprised he mentioned that to you, since he hasn’t even seen it yet in my timeline. I got the same readings you did. So it’s great that you have a sonic screwdriver, but what I was really hoping for was the Doctor’s general knowledge.”
Yaz raised her eyebrows at the Doctor and the Doctor pretended not to notice.
“I have knowledge,” she said, slightly offended. River always teased her when they were together, but it was worse when River didn’t know who she was. “Ray said the slime moved as a cohesive unit.”
“Yes it did, when he nearly touched it,” said River.
“Did you touch it?” asked the Doctor.
“Of course not!” said River. “One doesn’t touch any random alien slime one finds.”
The Doctor scanned the slime again and then reached out her hand.
“Sonya!” Yaz said, alarmed, at the same time River said, “Are you for real?”
“Relax, it should be fine, at least for a moment,” said the Doctor as she touched a part of the slime. It was cold and slightly sticky. She felt a small nudging at the corner of her mind. “Hmm, telepathic,” she said.
“You’re telepathic?” River asked, sounding genuinely surprised.
“Just a little,” said the Doctor dismissively. “Not sure if I want to let slime into my mind, though.”
Suddenly all of the slime tendrils converged toward the Doctor’s hand and she yanked her hand back just in time. “I think I want to trace it back to its origin in the caves,” she said. “It wants something, and I want to find out what it wants, preferably without inviting it into my mind.”
“Okay,” said River. “Just the three of us though. I don’t want to put my crew in more danger.”
The Doctor glanced at Yaz uncertainly. She hated putting her in danger, especially on an adventure she hadn’t signed up for. But she knew Yaz well enough to know it would be extremely difficult to convince her not to come.
“I’m coming with,” said Yaz, as if she had read the Doctor’s mind. “No way are you getting rid of me. I’ll carry a lantern.”
“Okay,” the Doctor said, after a pause. “But stay away from the edges of the cave.”
Yaz nodded.
The three of them picked up lanterns, and the Doctor looked from Yaz to River uneasily. This could get messy.