kalleah | The Hidden Well, Epilogue

kalleah

Pairing: Ten/Rose
Rating: PG
Betas:

ivydoor,

np_complete,

platypus, and

sensiblecat

Previous Chapters

In this chapter: The End.

--

Faster than the speed of light, the communication line crossed through space-time from one relay point to another, and another, until it connected to its final destination. The voice on the receiving end was thick with sleep and took a few seconds to respond, but its fury was immediately evident.

"Where the hell have you been? The envoy has already left and I have to hear about the report from someone on Regel?"

"Listen closely," said the other voice. "I'm only going to say this once and you'd best be paying attention." Even with the masking distortion provided by Ugolin encryption, there was a command in the words that had never before been present in the transmissions from Arisbe Project. "You're going to walk away from this. Find some nice job somewhere that never, ever, ever involves planetary modification projects. I really don't care what that is. The important thing is that I'm giving you one chance, and one chance only."

"What kind of a joke is this?" hissed the recipient.

"Oh, it's no joke. It's the most deadly serious conversation you've ever had. Frances and Wilson Wittener –"

"Don't say any names!"

"—are dead. Arisbe Project has passed its inspection. Somehow, it turns out that they've been on schedule with their conversion all along! I wonder how that happened?" A chuckle came over the line, and the recipient was momentarily silent. "I've got documentation of every encrypted communication between you and the Witteners for the past two years. I've also got the coordinates of your present location."

"Impossible." The voice sounded relieved. "Ugolin encryption is unbreakable. Even if you had the logs, what good would it do you? We have nine relay points between us. It would take you a lifetime to track me down."

"You'd think that, wouldn't you? Well, it turns out I'm fairly persistent once you start murdering people. Let me send you something that might change your mind."

What flashed along the communication line wasn't a voice but a stream of data. Coordinates on a grid. Employment records. A university transcript. Shopping lists from favorite stores. Photographs.

"Impossible," said the voice, but this time, it sounded more pleading than defiant.

"I'm giving you one chance. I strongly suggest that you take it. Turn off this device and walk away. Take what you can carry with you and start a new life. Don't ever look back."

"Who are you?" came the whispered reply.

"I'm the voice you'll hear in every nightmare you'll have for the rest of your life. I'm the conscience you stopped listening to years ago. I'm the fear you feel when a dark shadow follows you at night. I'm the Doctor, and I'm telling you to run."

..

Rose Tyler stood on the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean. The wind whipped her hair all around her and she tried to hold it back with one hand. "It's beautiful," she said to the Doctor, next to her, who was smiling and inhaling deeply.

"Breathe it in, all that good, clean air," he crowed. "We helped make that air, you and I, centuries ago. It's the same air, really. It just gets recycled."

This was not the same Arisbe she had come to know. That Arisbe was still a vast desert with the barest beginning of life taking hold in the form of a fragile colony underneath an atmospheric shell. This Arisbe was a vibrant world in full flower, with an ocean spread out below them and the call of seabirds in the air. All that water had been frozen and locked away when she had last been on this world, and no life had thrived in the arid landscape.

"This is Crater Harbour, in the southern hemisphere. It's the largest impact site from the planetary modification project. Quite the tourist destination, although we're here in the off-season. Gets a bit windy in the winter," he said, half yelling at her although she wasn't more than two paces away.

She leaned toward him to avoid having to shout in return. "Are we far from the project?"

"Other side of the world. It's not there anymore, of course, although there's a park and a nice monument. Lots of trees, Rose, and people, too."

"It's perfect," she said. "Are you ready?"

He nodded and removed a clear jar from his coat pocket. She took it from him and took a step forward. As she did, she unscrewed the lid and let the wind stir the first of the fine, white powder inside the jar.

"Frances and Wilson Wittener," she pronounced solemnly. "Welcome back to Arisbe."

With a smooth motion, she sent a cascade of their remains out beyond the cliff's edge. The powder caught in the wind and became a small cloud, dissipating as it descended toward the ocean waves.

Rose stood perfectly still until it was gone. Something inside her yearned for a few words to say about the departed at their memorial service, but she wasn't sure what to say.

"He couldn't live without her," she said finally, and put the jar in her pocket.

"Chose not to," the Doctor corrected.

"That was real, wasn't it? That he loved her."

"Yes," he said simply. "I do think that." He came behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, letting his chin rest on her shoulder. His long coat flapped wildly around them.

"I think it might be time to get out of the wind," she said, suddenly realizing how cold she was.

"Where?"

"Somewhere warm." She was shivering against him now. "Wait, weren't we trying for that before?"

"Lycoras," mused the Doctor into her ear. "What a brilliant idea."