'See what you've done,' she said, teasing her loved one. 'It's alright,' she said, comforting the young Vogan.
'Is it?' said Octavian, in response to Amy's mothering. 'I will wipe the Cybermen from history, take them out unit by unit, bring my mother and father back from the dead with honour!'
The Doctor seemed stern, but Amy nodded in agreement.
Octavian showed the three humans his hands. They were bloody. 'My mother's blood, of which, will never leave me. I am scarred. But as I say, I will triumph over the Cyber race!'
'Yes you will,' added Amy, slightly unsure if she were saying the right thing to the child. Clearly she wasn't by the Doctor's reaction:
'Uncalled for,' whispered the Doctor, to his young female companion. 'You mustn't think like that Octavian,' said the Doctor. 'Your parents wouldn't want you to think like that.'
'So, what are you saying?' Amy plucked up. 'He shouldn't want to take revenge on the Cybermen for killing his parents? His people?'
'Well, I'm with the Doctor on this one,' chirped in Rory. 'He may get hurt…'
'We can take him aboard the TARDIS, take care of him, bring him up…' Amy went on.
Octavian now looked up to Amy, like a sister he never had, who believed in her younger brother, as though everything was going to be alright, and even more so.
'No, we cannot,' said the Doctor. 'I'm not some trainer, here to give tips to those I wish never to see leading a war they cannot possibly win!'
'Well done Doc..' began Rory.
'Shut it Rory!' declared Amy.
Rory fell silent and awkward backed away from them all.
'But Doctor, if you leave me here, I am no doubt going to fall victim to the Cybermen. From what I've read about humans in all of their forms, they are men who are warriors! Lead me to them, leave me to grow, and then in years to come, I will fly with wings that will crash into Cyber Control, and have victory for my people!'
There wasn't time to savour Octavian's rounding speech as he was quickly taken under the Doctor, Amy, and Rory's wing, and made to huddle back down a tunnel, from an approaching Cyberman.
'So, what do you say?' whispered the child ahead of the Doctor.
'I say yes!' stated Amy, winking at the boy, as they made their way up toward the TARDIS.
'Get in, quickly,' said the Doctor, rushing his companions and Octavian to the doors of the TARDIS with a slight feeling of panic.
He unlocked the doors as quickly as he could, watching as Octavian threw himself inside, hearing his cry as he hit the metal railings, falling unconscious.
'Help him up!' shrieked Amy. Rory picked him up, and took him through another door at the other end of the console room. Amy then quickly joined the Doctor back outside.
'Rory's taking him to the sick bay,' she said.
'There's no time to discuss the Vogan's health now, Amy, there are Cybermen everywhere!'
At that moment, sparks bounced off the Police Box's sign just above the Doctor and Amy's head, sending them both inside the TARDIS without a second thought. The Doctor ran ahead of Amy, who bolted the lock on the blue shimmering doors. Activating the console, flicking levers and switches all at once, the Doctor sent the TARDIS on its way to safety, away from the planet Voga of which he knew stood little chance of remaining in the same orbit, or in space for very much longer.
'I suppose I had better check on our Vogan friend…" said the Doctor, humph-ing out of breath, panting, almost, wheezing.
'Leave him to Rory,' said Amy. 'He's a nurse after all…'she concluded.
The Doctor nodded.
'So, where to drop him off?' he asked Amy.
They both stood still, looking at each other in thought.
'I know…' he said, and he quickly set the co-ordinates.
Rory ran up two flights of stairs with the young Vogan in his arms. He didn't actually know where the sick bay was located, but had simply followed the Doctor's directions, of what he could remember. Then, he saw through a pane of glass, a bed and a few machines. He pushed the door forward, and at once laid the small alien down on the bed, pulling the warm covers over him, wrapping him up nicely.
'Ah, you found it alright!' yelled a voice from behind him, past the door he had walked through, and spoken with the pitter patter of footsteps in tow, the Doctor emerged.
'That I did,' said Rory, turning to the Doctor, who applauded him grinning.
'Well done on seeing to the young Vogan's rest. Have you checked on his immediate health?' the Doctor asked.
'Um…well…not yet, I've only just got here and put him down…' said Rory, stuttering as though the Doctor were his matron, in charge of Rory's patient. He leaned across Octavian, checking the Vogan over.
'Minor bruises, as far as I can tell. He only tripped over, but he's weak, most probably to do with his escape from home. The Cybermen must have been hot on both our tails, the boy is exhausted.'
'Fantastic diagnosis Rory, but if only we did have tails, eh?' said the Doctor, scratching his head.
Amy appeared through the door, and stood at Octavian's bedside. 'How is he nurse?' she asked, turning to Rory who wasn't at all impressed.
'He's well, but he needs his rest,' the Doctor answered first.
'Well done on getting him here,' she said, turning to Rory, who was quick to nod, satisfied. 'Surprised you found it without a sat nav.' she quipped as Rory's satisfied look faded.
There was silence for a moment as Octavian's eyes sprung open. His pupils darting all around in his oddly shaped sockets, his short grey hair wavy in his bed.
'They haunt my mind…' he suddenly yelled out in fear, his voice too crackly from the strain he was under.
Amy, who was crouched at his bedside, turned her head in shock towards him. 'Sorry?' she asked, startled by his sudden outburst, unable to understand what he had meant.
'Who Octavian?' asked the Doctor
'The Cyber army marching to victory, my home world burning, my ancestors waiting on my charred body, ripped to shreds and burnt alive by the menace of the Cybermen,' the Vogan answered.
The Doctor joined Amy at the young Vogan's side. 'It's alright,' he tried to reassure him. 'You're safe, you aren't burning alive, you aren't even near death, not whilst we're alongside of you, because we promise no harm will ever again come to you.' he paused, 'Not where we're taking you to, I'm sure of that.'
'And where would that be?' asked Amy, ignoring the frantic alien sweltering in his bed.
'You'll see,' he smiled and turned to leave.
'Come on, Rory,' said Amy, pulling his hand, as she watched Octavian giving up the fight to stay awake and falling back into a deep sleep.
'Oh, I'd better stay with the Vogan child,' Rory said, but the Doctor stopped in his tracks, and told him:
'He needs his sleep, he'll be fine here, this room is in keeping with the happy environment of my ship. Fetch him when we arrive, but for now we must leave him to rest.'
Amy smiled back at the Doctor, again pulling Rory's hand, and this time, he let her. The Doctor was the last to leave the sick bay, programming the door to remain shut on the outside, whilst he starred in on the alien, tears in his eyes. He felt his pain, he knew how he felt, of losing family and friends, a war, the like of which had devastated his own life, in comparison to the young Vogan's.
He left the door, and turned to descend to the console room alone. Amy and Rory had gone to the lounge quarters, and despite himself looking forward to treating his health and hunger, he wanted some time to himself before he arrived at his chosen destination.
The Doctor greeted the console like an old family friend, that it was, but as he leaned on its round base, his thoughts were of the young Vogan, asleep in his quarters. Having left him to get over the loss of his family and friends, the Doctor pondered in thought.
'Those wretched Cybermen,' he mumbled, his hands brushing together, fingertips touching on and off. 'Always turning up when you least expect a war, and that being the Vogan's weakness. They weren't prepared, they never thought the Cybermen would ever return to their home world,' he went on, his arms now crossed, his eye brows raised.
In the background, the TARDIS console wheezed and fell, gradually and steadily, in comparison to the thoughts entering the Doctor's mind, of which he was processing in mumbles.
Then, there was a small hiss and a hum, and then a loud SCHUTOOM! as the time rotor fell silent.
'Amy! Rory! We've arrived…' the Doctor shouted as loud as he could in hope that his companions could hear him, but they were both almost already there, in the console room at his side, fully aware that the TARDIS had indeed arrived.
'We're here, there's no need to shout!' yelled back Amy, dragging Rory with her down the stairs to the console room.
'What are you wearing?' laughed the Doctor, his eyes fixed on their clothes.
Amy was now in a woolly sweater, Rory also, and both wore tight fitting jeans. 'Oh, I checked the readings you dialled into the console," said Amy, as if a professional in time and space travel.
'Yeah, she did Doctor,' added Rory, Amy's puppet in all things space travel.
'But the TARDIS only works for me,' said the Doctor.
'That's what you like to think, space man,' replied Amy, her funny and strange ways again bubbling to the surface.
'I had a friend who labelled me a 'space man' once, but never mind that, I'll just go and get some other clothes on myself, give me a moment, and whilst I'm getting changed, Rory, perhaps you'd be so good as to wake the young Vogan.'
Rory nodded, and quickly left Amy's side, jogging back up the stairs in the hope of finding the sick bay once again.
The Doctor headed for the vast wardrobe and found a woolly jumper that looked like his old yeti costume, and then struggled to get into it. Still, his braces and bow tie were on show, just how he liked things. As he changed he began to question himself 'Am I doing the right thing,' he thought to himself, 'or am I just listening to Amy's protests?'
Rory remembered his route to where he would find the Vogan. Pushing the door open he found that it would not budge. He peered through the pane of glass in the window closet to the door. He saw the alien breathing heavily, shaking, his mouth mouthing words as if he was shouting, screaming in his sleep.
"DOCTOR!" he yelled.
Luckily, the Doctor was close by, appearing from behind Rory making him jump he asked:
'What's the problem, Rory?'
'The alien boy, he's troubled, look!'
The Doctor looked as Rory suggested and upon seeing the creature in such a state, quickly set about opening the door and pushed it open. 'Octavian,' he said, darting over to the alien's bedside.
'What's wrong with him?' asked Rory. For all his nursing knowledge, one thing Rory knew, and that he was not a doctor.
'He's dreaming, experiencing a nightmare I would say,' said the Doctor, before the alien suddenly awoke.
'Oh thank goodness,' said Rory, breathing a sigh of relief.
'How're you feeling, Octavian?' asked the Doctor.
'I'm… well,' the Vogan answered.
'Good,' said the Doctor. 'Because we've arrived at our destination, come on,' as he helped the alien from off the bed, and down the stairs into the console room.
Rory was suddenly aware of the empty console room and asked: 'Where's Amy?'
The Doctor shivered in his yeti top and realised the door was swaying in the breeze. 'No, no, no!' he yelled. He ran to the doors and peered out into the whiteness beyond. A blizzard blew across the landscape making it hard for him to see no more than a few feet in front.
'Doctor? Amy, where is she?'
With an air of concern in his voice the Doctor said, 'We've got to get after her!'
END OF PART ONE
Written by
NATHAN MULLINS
from an original idea by
DAVID MULLINS
copyright 2011
artwork by
COLIN JOHN
