ARCADIA

Chapter Two

"Awww, I'm safely chipped now," Jack said after the Doctor finished putting one in his arm. "I feel so special now."

The Doctor disposed of the syringe while Jack looked at his arm. Ianto had been chipped before him and he stood nearby, watching while Jack rolled his sleeve down.

"So what about you, do you get a nifty chip too?" Jack said to the Doctor.

The Doctor paused while he considered that.

"I mean, what if you get captured," Jack said. "We could come back and ask the TARDIS to find you too, you know," Jack said.

"I suppose I could," the Doctor said, nodding.

He glanced at Jack before taking off his jacket and rolling up his right sleeve. He went and got another syringe and injected himself with a chip. Then as he disposed of it, he had another thought and told everyone to follow him as soon as he adjusted his sleeve and put his jacket back on. He looked around for a moment before asking the TARDIS to make some small rucksacks with some supplies in them. There was a flash and four small black rucksacks appeared on the counter beside him.

"These have basic survival supplies," the Doctor said after peeking inside one and checking. "Arcadia has been decimated now and we might need some of these to get along. Not to mention Callisto probably has a few surprises for us."

He started to pass them out but noticed one rucksack had Rose's name embroidered on it. He handed it to her and checked the others but all the others were without writing. Shrugging, he passed out the others to Jack, Ianto and took one for himself. They put them on their backs and then the Doctor led them back out to the console room.

"No fair, Rose got a personalized one," Jack whined as he and Ianto walked behind her.

"Perhaps, the supplies inside are tailored to her female body," the Doctor said over his shoulder.

"Still want a personalized one," Jack said, pretending to pout while Rose giggled.

They walked into the console room and the Doctor's three companions watched while the Doctor set a course for Arcadia.

"Doctor, will you be okay, going back there?" Rose said to him when he finished his dance around the console.

"I'll be alright, Rose. I can cope with whatever lies there," the Doctor said.

"I'll give him noogies and snugglies if he gets too down," Jack said, coming up behind him.

Rose laughed when the Doctor ducked the moment he tried to embrace him from behind.

"Anyway," the Doctor said, sitting on his jump seat while Jack pretended to pout again and walked back to Ianto. "Everyone should be mindful that there may be hazards out there. The Arcadians fled but there may be other things, not to mention ruins all around us."

"So where do we go then?" Jack said, coming up beside the chair with Ianto. "Callisto didn't say."

"I know. I figure he has a way to track me somehow. But I'm heading to the Military Garrison. That's where I was based when I was there."

"As your ninth self?" Jack said.

"No, eighth self. My eighth body fought the Time War," the Doctor said.

"Really? What did you look like then?" Rose said.

The Doctor asked the TARDIS to show them a hologram of his eighth self. A 3D hologram of the Eighth Doctor appeared in front of them. The three companions came forward and walked around the hologram, examining it.

"Very Jules Verne," Ianto said after walking around the hologram.

"I thought so," the Doctor said.

"You fought a war dressed like Charles Dickens?" Jack said to the Doctor as he pointed to the hologram.

"No, I became a bit rougher towards the end," the Doctor said.

The image changed and now Eight had shorter hair and was wearing a navy peacoat, white shirt, black trousers and had a tan courier bag slung across his body.

"I prefer Charles Dickens," Ianto said.

The hologram disappeared from view.

"Got any naked holograms?" Jack said with a cheeky grin.

A hologram appeared of a hairless cat.

"There, naked hologram," the Doctor said, pointing to it.

"Hardy har har," Jack said while Rose giggled. "So, if there are any survivors, they won't know who you are since you changed since you were there."

"Yeah, but I doubt we'll find many survivors. The majority fled after the planet became overrun with Daleks and became uninhabitable," the Doctor said as the hologram disappeared. "The cities have probably been overrun with wild creatures so look sharp everyone. I'm sure this will not be a pleasant little holiday."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The Doctor opened the door and stepped outside the TARDIS onto the surface of Arcadia. The air smelled a bit like sulphur and the Doctor wrinkled his nose at it before thinking to his android body to turn off his scent processors.

"Is it safe?" Jack said from inside the TARDIS.

"I think so, come out," the Doctor said, looking around.

Everyone came outside and Rose shut the door behind them. They were standing on dirt in front of a decimated town. Most of the houses were piles of concrete rubble but there was one large building that was nearly intact.

"That is the Military Garrison," the Doctor said, pointing to the three story building in the center of the piles of rubble. "Come with me and we'll check it out."

They carefully stepped over the rubble to get to the Military Garrison. On the way, Rose noticed parts of skeletons strewn over the landscape including some skeletal body parts sticking out from the rubble of the houses. She also saw scorch marks on some of the concrete blocks and on the sides of the garrison.

"Dalek lasers," the Doctor said, pointing to one of the scorch marks and confirming Rose's suspicion. "The garrison was the headquarters of the resistance so this town suffered greatly. Once the Daleks took control, they leveled the town. The garrison was spared because the Daleks used it as their headquarters for a time."

The Doctor stopped and pointed to a hill about fifty feet to the left of the town.

"We were forced to retreat there," the Doctor said while everyone watched and listened. "We tried to regroup but the Daleks were too strong. We were forced back and back until we had to abandon it entirely."

Rose put her hand on his shoulder and he gave her a loving look and patted the hand.

"Come on, gang, let's go inside the garrison," he said to them as he turned.

The Doctor led the way to the garrison. The front door was made of glass which was now shattered and laying in bits both inside and outside the door. There was a gold sign that read MILITARY GARRISON that had fallen off the building and was now lying in front of the door. Most of the building's windows were devoid of glass or had shattered glass in them. The Doctor moved the sign away and carefully stepped through the frame of the door. He looked around; making sure the interior was vacant before letting the others inside. Rose came inside while Jack peeked in Ianto's rucksack and found a torch inside it. Rose froze when she saw a Dalek near the door but she relaxed when it didn't move or acknowledge them. The Doctor walked over to it while Ianto and Jack came inside and Jack turned on Ianto's torch.

"Ah, a straggler," Jack said when he saw the Dalek. "They left one behind, did they?"

The Doctor examined it while Rose came up to the front and put her hand on the dome. She made a face when she took her hand away and noticed her handprint in the accumulated dust on top of it.

"I don't see any signs of destruction," the Doctor said as he walked around it. "But it's dead. Maybe someone got lucky. There were weapons designed to shut down the Daleks with a plasma pulse, like shutting down a computer. The outer shell is battle armor after all. Unfortunately, the Daleks designed armor designed to repel it which led to the Time Lords designing better weapons and so on and so on."

"Intergalactic arms race," Ianto said.

"Basically, yes. But there was more to it," the Doctor said as he put his hand on the side of the Dalek. "It was called the Time War because the Time Lords mucked with time, trying to get the upper hand. A battle went wrong and was lost and the Time Lords would go back and fight it all again. Over and over."

"And you had to fight over and over," Rose said, walking to his side.

The Doctor nodded and Rose put her hand on his.

"The lower races like the humans had no idea what was happening most of the time, the ripples the Time War caused went unnoticed but for more advanced races like the Arcadians, the Time War devastated their civilization. That's why I finally had to put an end to it once and for all."

Everyone remained silent while the Doctor gazed at the inactive Dalek.

"In my fourth life, I was sent by the Time Lords to stop the Dalek race before it could get started but I refused to do it because I wouldn't be a party to genocide. Well, I ended up being a party to genocide anyway, it turns out," he murmured. "I helped make this happen when I should have finished them off centuries ago. Who knew that the Time Lords tried to start the Time War in my fourth life and I wouldn't go along with it."

The Doctor's companions shared a look while the Doctor stared at the Dalek, lost in thought. Then he suddenly snapped out of it and remembered where he was.

"Sorry, everyone, shouldn't do that," he said. "We have no time to stroll down memory lane. Follow me then."

He took Rose's hand and Rose gave it a squeeze while he led them through the building to the stairs.

Back                         Home                              Doctor Who Main Page                          Next