Entry Thirteen - Jacowitz

It's been a few days since I last posted, but it's been a very busy couple of days, I assure you and you'll get to hear all about it.

The Doctor and I were watching the star Pushlinsus turn into a supernova from the TARDIS. He said it was something that I really should see, once in my life at least, because it would outshine the Earth's sun and any other sun I'd ever seen, for about a week, but the beginning part was the best, he said, when you could still look at it without retinal damage. He amuses me greatly. Also, it's a great source of energy for the TARDIS, and we might not have to swing round Cardiff anytime soon in order to soak up the rift energies like we did last year with Jack.

Plus I always love having the TARDIS doors open when we're in space. I mean, proper space, not the Time Vortex. It's a bit chilly but beautiful. Like nothing any one could ever imagine. It's just you... and space. It makes you feel tiny. But in a good way. So I was standing by the doors looking out and the Doctor was running maniacally around the console flipping switches and things when he abruptly stops what he'd doing and starts digging in his coat pocket with such gusto that I had to turn around and see what it was he was looking for.

Psychic paper, it seemed, message specifically.


It seemed that Jacowitz needed us. Which could only mean one thing... well okay, it could have meant several things. But it could only mean that Ariella, Queen of the Nyklus (the species who live on Jacowitz), needed to see us.

Ariella Lavizsia is brilliant. I love her to bits, I've met her a couple of times and she even came travelling with us for a time, but she had obligations, a planet to rule and very important decisions to make, so after a time we dropped her off just where we picked her up. She's the youngest ever ruler of Jacowitz and her people are just brilliant. They're telepathic. Actually they don't even speak aloud much at all except when talking to other people. And they live for millions and millions of years. And every Nyklus who is born is born with a star... humans don't have anything so brilliant. Anyway, Ariella's got her own blog up here:

http://queenariella.blogspot.com/

in case you are interested. Though, she is awfully busy. Not entirely sure how often she will be keeping it up. This is her:


But anyway, I read the message over the Doctor's shoulder and nearly jumped up and down. He gave me a very amused look and then went over to the console, reset our course, and sent us into the Vortex and towards Jacowitz.

I sort of... well, skipped towards the console smiling all giddy like I get sometimes when I get very excited for things and said, "Do you think it's the Sontarans again?"

Oh I forgot to mention that Sontarans attempt to invade Jacowitz every five thousand years. Like clockwork. We've helped them out with that a few times.

The Doctor grinned, flipping switches, and shook his head, "Only one way to find out," he said and the time rotor groaned the whole room shook. I had to hold onto the console for support, and the Doctor hammered at a particularly sticky button with his mallet. "Okay, now that is weird," he said as the TARDIS felt like it was rammed from the side.

"What's weird?!" I shouted, cause the time rotor seemed like it was being exceptionally loud and things were rattling around. Now I could obviously tell that things weren't entirely normal, but I am not entirely sure that I even know what normal is anymore.

"Something is spatially disrupting the TARDIS's transference. Wait, no, it's... I don't know, an encumbrance."

I shook my head, loosing my balance just slightly as the TARDIS jerked again. "What?!"

"Let's just say not normal and leave it at that."

I opened my mouth to say something else but it was at this moment that the Doctor threw a lever, the TARDIS made a cracking noise, the time rotor groaned and suddenly it felt and sounded like we'd hit something very hard. I flew to the other side of the room and the Doctor ended up draped awkwardly over the jumpseat, but everything was still.

It took me a minute before I could move, but after I'd gotten my wind back I sat up. The Doctor was kneeling right next to me. "Rose!" he said, and I got the impression that it wasn't the first time he'd spoken.

"Fine. I'm fine," I said, shaking my head to clear it. Nothing was broken, I was fine.

He grinned, "Well, that was a bit of a rough landing. We can probably rule Sontarans out for that sort of mess up. Nasty things they are, especially if you're a Rutan, but that's not their sort of thing."

I had no idea what he was talking about but before I could even get up off the ground he'd bounded up and dashed out the door. I was right behind him, but when I got out the doors Ariella was already in the Doctor's arms.

I wasn't jealous.

At all.

When they finally stopped hugging Ari smiled at me and I got the same treatment. "Oh I'm so glad you're here, Rose!" she said, in one of those ways that always freaked me out because I knew that she'd met the Doctor before and after me, and I didn't like to think about that.

But I smiled, because it was Ariella and she's one of my favourite people in the whole universe and hugged her back just as well. "Me too," I said, and when we were finally finished with the hugging I had to ask. "Is it the Sontarans again?"

She shook her head, "I don't think so. If it is then they are using technology that's not their own. Cloning, yes, teleports, absolutely, but this is something that's been building over the past few days, and it's... we'll there's something off with the telepathy. And plus they'd be about three thousand years too early."

"Off?" the Doctor asked, doing that ear tugging thing that he does when he's perplexed.

"Yes, off, I do not know any better way to describe it. Sometimes, in order to communicate, we've had to think harder than usual. And that was a the beginning. My head, and my people's heads, have been muddled and fuzzy. There is something wrong. I can sense it and they all cry out in my head asking for my help. I have tried all I can think of. And sometimes there is even pain!" She seemed very distressed, which didn't surprise me because it did sound quite distressing. And just then, as if the accentuate what she was saying both she and the Doctor cried out and grasped their heads. I took a step back, wide eyed, but it soon passed.

"Like that!"

"But," the Doctor shook his head, "this sort of technology should be impossible!"

"Well it's obviously not," I threw in my two cents.

"But it should be. C'mon, back to the TARDIS," he bounded off like he always does. "This sort of thing was just supposed to be theoretical... No one's managed to ever build a telepathic inhibitor before, but if I was going to make one I can think of the perfect testing ground and we're standing on it."

I realised at this point that my mouth was hanging open like a fish. I closed it. "Well what's it going to do?"

"It attacks anything with telepathic capabilities," he explained, punching things onto the monitor.
"Yeah, but... this is Jacowitz, doesn't everyone have telepathic capabilities."

Ariella looked very alarmed with the Doctor's prognosis. "Yes!" she said, "it's how we communicate, it's how we live!"

"And you've got telepathic capabilities," I said to the Doctor. He nodded and made a bit of a face. "And so has the TARDIS..." he nodded again. "So... am I the only person on this planet that hasn't?"

"'Fraid so."

"Right, well... that's comforting."

"It'll be okay, we just have to work fast, figure this out before the signal gets strong enough to cancel out everyone's brains."

"Cancel out brains!?"

"Well," he waved a hand, "something like that. But that's not going to happen."

I didn't like the sound of it, though I imagine Ariella liked it worse considering the ways she was now wringing her hands and getting that determined expression on her face. The Doctor typed a few things into the monitor and, flipped a few switched and grinned for a minute and then everything went dead. Everything.

"What?" he said.

Ariella and I exchanged glances.

"What?!" he said again yanking a lever several times, but nothing seemed to come back online.

"Has something happened to the TARDIS?" Ariella asked, but the Doctor didn't even seem to hear her.

"What?!"

The TARDIS did not turn back on.


More next time....

Entry Seven - Bovinga (3)

Donna and I walked through the stands looking at all the different kinds of fruit and veg for awhile not speaking. That wasn’t particularly hard to do really, there was so much stimulant to the eye that speech… well, I just sort of forgot about it. I kept running my hands over the glossiest ones. I know it seems weird describing fruit and veg as glossy but some of them are. Even on Earth. Eggplant? Oh yes.

Anyway, I suppose it was an inevitability that eventually one of us would speak, and in this case it was me. “God, I never get used to this, do you?”

“What eating vegetables that look like those sea urchin things what in the beginning of ‘The Little Mermaid’? No thank you. I stick to Earth food. We stock up every time we go back…which is all the time.”

I laughed, I was starting to realise that I’d just have to treat Donna like Sarah Jane and not like someone who came after me, and she was very amusing. “I meant the travelling, seeing all this stuff. But yeah, I prefer chips to cucumbers from Caliproxin any day,” then I thought a moment, “well, at least, they tasted like cucumbers.”

“Oh yeah, you see all sorts of things that you’d never be able to even imagine,” she said back and we both fell into one of those reflective moments when you realise how lucky you are to be a twenty first century girl travelling through space and time.

“The food though, sometimes,” I said and then pulled a face.

“I know! Sometimes he’ll have us on some backwater little planet doing all sorts of running and whatnot and I just want to say ‘Oi! Take me to Italy, I could murder a pizza!’”

We talked for a little while longer about all kinds of things. The Doctor though, mostly. All his little nuances like talking too fast, expecting us to understand what he was saying, getting over excited about incredibly dorky things. All those little endearing things that make the Doctor the Doctor. I would say it was light to medium teasing. I asked her about her family, she lives with her mum and granddad and was a temp before becoming time traveller extraordinaire. I told her about mum and Mickey over there in that parallel universe (I swear she blanched but she said she was fine), and how I used to work at Henrick’s. She said she went in there all the time and we mused over the fact that we might’ve seen each other.

But at this point it had gotten dark and we thought it might be best if we went back to the TARDIS to see if the boys had hashed out whatever paradoxical issue was going on but then there were fireworks so we stayed to watch them for a bit.

I really liked Donna Noble. She was funny and quick and I didn’t feel strange about her like I did about Sarah Jane. I don’t like to say I get jealous, but there are just certain things one has to own up to eventually. Hello my name is Rose Tyler and I have a severe jealousy problem. It’s not like I try, in fact I try not to be, but then snarky things come out of my mouth, what can I do? But the point here was that I didn’t feel jealous of Donna Noble. Which was good. I think, if things were different we could be great friends.

After the fireworks display though, it was pretty clear that we would have been missed by this point. Well, it’s not like I don’t have a habit of wandering off. Donna laughed when I said that and made a disparaging remark about the running.

“I like the running,” I said.

She shook her head and said, “You two are suited.”

I didn’t even ask what that was meant to mean.

More tomorrow.

Entry Six - Bovinga (2)

Doctor 2 stared at me. Ginger woman stared at Doctor 2. And then Doctor 1 started staring at Doctor 2. And I flicked between the three of them feeling very left out of some sort of loop that everyone else seemed to understand at least a bit.

And then Ginger turned her head and looked at me again, and this time I could tell that she was really sizing me up, like she was extremely curious or something. And I started thinking ‘well if this is the Doctor after I’m dead… did he mention me?’ and that sort of made me smile a bit and then I felt like a fool because I was smiling while everyone else appeared gobsmacked. And with two Doctors there… that’s some big gob to smack.

Finally, Doctor 1 cut past Ginger and took Doctor 2 by the arm, who then seemed to break out of whatever confusion it was that he had going on with his statue-like behavior and Doctor 1 said “I think that maybe we should talk,” and Doctor 2 nodded and said “Yeah that’s probably best.” Then Doctor 1 opened the TARDIS door and Doctor 2 didn’t seem remotely surprised to see it all lit up like the red light district but Ginger said “What have you done with the TARDIS?! That’s not some end of the world thing, oh you just try it.”

Doctor 1 look at her like she was nuts but Doctor 2 just sort of smiled before they both disappeared into the ship and shut the door behind them, but not before one of them shouted, “Don’t wander off!”

I wondered why it was that when I was in two places at once and I held myself as a baby the reapers appeared and a paradox ensued. I wondered why that didn’t happen with the two Doctors, but figured I’d ask later. For now Ginger had turned back round and was regarding me with one of the biggest smiles I’ve ever seen.

“Rose Tyler!” she said, “You can’t even imagine how well I’ve want to meet you!” Then she took the few steps that still remained between us and enveloped me in a gigantic hug. I was a little startled at first but I like to think that time and space has loosened a lot of my inhibitions. Well, when it comes to a lot of things. Not all, obviously. So we hugged for awhile even though we didn’t know each other and when I pulled back I decided that I liked this ginger woman quite a lot and I fully approved of all Doctor related adventures she’d have. But then again, I was still calling her Ginger in my head.

“I’m sorry,” I said, “What’s your name?”

“Oh!” she said, and laughed a jag, “Donna Noble. You’ve no idea how much I’ve heard about you. When we first met, oh my god! I’ve never seen anyone so-” She suddenly stopped speaking then, which I guess didn’t surprise me all that much.

I shuffled my feet a bit. “What happens to me? Do I die?”

I could see something flash across her face, but she must’ve known that she shouldn’t tell me much of anything, which was sort of frustrating. “I,” she shook her head, “I can’t…”

I nodded, knowing that she couldn’t, but then I scratched my head anyway, disheveling my hair a bit, and asked, “How long have I got?”

She was still for a moment and I tried to read her stillness but couldn’t quite manage. I wasn’t even sure how much she would even know. Finally, I forced a smile. “This is some crazy veg, huh?” I said, gesturing to the market.

“I would’ve loved to see my mum try to feed me that when I was young,” Donna said pointing towards a prickly looking green thing, I smiled. She smiled.

“Wanna go for a walk?” I asked and she nodded. Off we went.

More tomorrow.

Entry Five - Bovinga

Well I had a very weird couple of days, and when I say weird, I mean weird.

We stopped at a planet called Bovinga in the NGC 1300 galaxy, apparently the constellation of Eridanus (I get fed all kind of information). Apparently they have some very nice architecture that the Doctor wanted to show me, very tall and spiraly and all that, but the moment we set the TARDIS down, with it’s usual bumps and jolts along the way, the lights in the console room went red. And I mean red.

The time rotor was groaning like she wanted to leave and the humming in the back of my head got a bit louder. Even the Doctor looked confused. But if you know us at all, which I am assuming you might, you’ll know that we’re not exactly the type to take the safe route. Despite the TARDIS telling us that we needed to leave, and now, we went outside anyway.

Everything looked completely normal and felt completely normal. In fact it seemed like we’d landed in the middle of some sort of farmers market. They had all kinds of things, some of the weirdest vegetables I’d ever seen. In brilliant colours, I wanted to touch them all. But when I looked back at the Doctor I cold tell that there was something, indeed, wrong. Very wrong. All the colour had drained from his face and he looked like he was paralysed to the spot, unsure of whether to go back to the TARDIS immediately or continue on. It freaked me out a bit. He took about one step closer to me before he was practically accosted by an insane ginger human looking woman:

She went on with something like this: “It’s about time you turned back up; I’ve been looking for the TARDIS everywhere! You know better than to wander off when we’re at space bazaars!”

I stared, but her back was to me, and the Doctor stared. It was plainly obvious that he’d never met her before, but that didn’t really mean anything he is a time traveller after all. But then it got really weird when a moment later the Doctor opened his mouth to say something to the ginger woman and was interrupted by a very shrill but very familiar voice shouting “What, by Rassilon, are you doing here,” and there was the Doctor, again, looking much the same but wearing a very ill advised blue suit. They stared at each other and it suddenly made a lot of sense. The TARDIS not wanting to land and all.

The ginger woman looked just about as confused as I did, but she’s obviously a perceptive one cause she looked around and spotted me almost right away and said “Who’re you?” And then suddenly there were three pairs of eyes on me.

Now, I have seen a lot of things in this universe, and I like to think that my powers of deduction are good enough to figure out what was going on. Given the fact that the Doctor, my Doctor (the one I arrived with henceforth known at Doctor 1), didn’t recognise this woman meant it was in his future. The fact that she was with Doctor 2 meant that she was likely his companion. I asked him about aging once, his aging specifically, and he said that he does get older but a bit slower than humans. I wondered if this was him after I’d died, and if it was… how long was that?

Doctor 1 was looking at me like he always did, like ‘well this is Rose, we travel together’, the woman was looking at me curiously, and Doctor 2 looked like he’d suddenly and inexplicably turned into a wax statue like those ones at Madame Tussauds. I didn’t know what else to say, so I said, “I’m called Rose, Rose Tyler.”

And then the woman’s eyes got all big and she whipped around to look at her wax figurine friend and me and Doctor 1 both looked at them curiously. Doctor 2 opened his mouth, probably to say something, but all that came out was a little ‘eep’, and it was kind of funny, but I could tell that there was nothing funny to neither him nor ginger woman.

Said wax statue:

Actually… this story’s got quite long, more tomorrow shall we say?