Fic Embryo for Doctor Who
11 Jul 2010 12:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
promethia_tenkI've been doing a lot of writing lately, and today I produced something which just might be the beginning of a very long fic indeed. It does, however, scare me because 1) I very rarely finish what I start 2) it seems to be in a fairly straight-forward, realistic style, rather than my usual humor, crackfic, or pretentious poetic nonsense 3) it's going to involve a lot of weighty time travel stuff like it's . . . proper science fiction or something.
I've decided to post it in the hopes that its being on the internet will make it seem more real and just in case some kind member of my flist had any thoughts.
PG, no real warnings, "Big Bang" spoilers sort of, and River Song:
The corridors of the Archaeology department at the University of Santa Croce were swarming with students, and Amy and Rory were having a hard time keeping up with the Doctor as he wove between them, making for the lab on the fourth floor from which the transmissions they’d tracked seemed to be coming.
Amy, intent on plowing ahead, ran suddenly into the Doctor’s back. “Woah, watch it there!” He’d stopped in his tracks in the middle of the hallway and was standing, head tilted in puzzlement, hands grasping abstractedly at the air. The students squeezed by on both sides.
“Amy?” He pointed back to her without turning around. “Did you just see that?”
“See what?”
“Rory? No? Back there, down the hall, about twenty seconds ago?”
“Uh . . .” Rory looked in confusion from Amy to the Doctor and back again. “Bit of a blur. I saw students . . . a bench . . . doors?”
“Doors! Yes!” The Doctor twirled on the spot and grinned at them. “Or rather, a specific door . . .” He set off with a skip and brought himself up just in time to avoid crashing into said door, an entirely unremarkable office door amongst a whole bunch of other unremarkable office doors. “Or rather, a specific door plate . . .” and he brought his nose to within a few inches of the lettering and gave it a good squint. “Hello there . . .” He smiled at the door and turned expectantly to his companions, who had just caught him up.
Amy brushed her hair out of her face and eyed up the situation. Under a small frosted window, just below eye level, were two small plaques:
“Hey, what the . . . ???!?! What’s this about?” An alarmed-looking man in a sweater vest greeted them from behind a desk, jumping to his feet to confront the intruders.
The Doctor, glancing around the room in interest, took a moment to reply: “Oh, very sorry. Looking for Dr. Song, have you seen her?”
“She’s in a lecture. Are you students?” Dr. Blackstrop sat back down. His desk was painfully neat, as was the whole side of the room around it. The room itself was small and very cramped.
The Doctor looked at him, slightly insulted. “Students?” Then he turned to his companions and, eyeing them up and down, changed his mind. “Ah . . . no, not as such. Well, students of life, really, but then, who isn’t?” Blackstrop looked unimpressed. “No, we’re just friends, passing through . . . happened to be in the neighborhood.” Then, as if an idea had suddenly occurred to him: “Where is this lecture?”
Amy smirked to herself and wondered if River deserved some advanced warning. Blackstrop, however, was glancing at his watch: “She’ll be done soon, and I have a meeting I need to be in. I suppose you can wait here, just don’t . . .” he nudged a stray pen back in line with some others, “. . . touch anything.”
The Doctor watched the movement doubtfully. “Wouldn’t think of it.” And turning to the messy side of the room, he climbed over River’s desk and plopped down in her chair. “Enjoy your meeting.”
Dr. River Song put a hand to her head and watched her students filing out. It had been a good class, all in all. There had been questions, for once: a handful of stupid ones, three or four legitimate, and one genuinely interesting one that inspired some frantic scribbling on the overhead screen, some improvised back and fourth, and a promise to get back to them once she’d looked some things up. Now, however, the energy was wearing off, and she felt rumpled and exhausted. She could feel her hair coming out of its clasp, frizzy tendrils falling into her eyes. She hadn’t slept six hours together the last two nights, she had two chapter revisions due to her editor by the end of the week, and her shoes were absolutely killing her. Thank goodness she had some time before office hours that afternoon.
River gathered up her familiar pile of books and data pads and, cursing the lack of pockets in this suit, stuck her laser stylus into her bun for safekeeping. Coffee, she thought, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee. And she headed back to her office, willing every person she passed on the way not to stop her to talk.
Her door was, strangely, unlocked, which led her to re-lock it by accident and then struggle vainly with the stuck door. By the time she’d sorted that out, she was in about as cranky a mood as she was willing to allow herself. It did not help matters, therefore, when she walked into her office to find three strangers within, two standing around looking bored, and an odd-looking one with his feet up on her desk, studying her copy of Thedeuseus.
The odd one looked up at her with a knowing smile: “Hi, honey.”
River didn’t bother hiding her annoyance: “Who the hell are you?"
______________________________________________________________________
Ideas about where this is going:
1) This is, in fact, the second time River has met the Doctor. The first time was a different regeneration, and she still knows precious little about him. She doesn't quite trust he's the same person.
2) The thing in the lab that the Doctor tracked is an artifact River picked up in a supposedly empty part of space. It is giving off weird time readings.
3) River's specialty of archaeo-astronomy is a real thing: it involves studying past cultures' understanding of the sky and of celestial bodies. I imagine by the 51st century this field has expanded to include the study of how past civilizations traveled through space, understood spacetime, etc.
4) River's book that she's working on involves documented evidence of historical spacetime anomalies, as seen in the remains of past civilizations. She believes these anomalies are the result of sloppy time travelers. One of the most famous of such anomalies surrounds the destruction of the first base station on Mars.
5) There's a good deal of political debate going on about time travel and its regulation. As always happens in these situations, the science is being brushed aside as various special interest groups vie for attention.
6) There will be a scene that takes place in a 360 degree virtual planetarium that River uses to visualize spacetime. The user seems to stand in the middle of space and can rotate the view, travel, bend spacetime, visualize other dimensions, etc. by using hand gestures. Amy will be impressed. River and the Doc will geek out together and have fun pushing the stars around.
7) Team TARDIS will travel to the supposedly empty area of space to investigate. Turns out it's not empty, but full of inverted time loops. The TARDIS keeps falling into them, causing time to flow backwards for short periods.
8) River may or may not have a bad physical reaction to these time loops that may or may not be attributable to some mixed species DNA back in the murky depths of her gene pool. I'm not sure how weird I want to make her.
I've decided to post it in the hopes that its being on the internet will make it seem more real and just in case some kind member of my flist had any thoughts.
PG, no real warnings, "Big Bang" spoilers sort of, and River Song:
The corridors of the Archaeology department at the University of Santa Croce were swarming with students, and Amy and Rory were having a hard time keeping up with the Doctor as he wove between them, making for the lab on the fourth floor from which the transmissions they’d tracked seemed to be coming.
Amy, intent on plowing ahead, ran suddenly into the Doctor’s back. “Woah, watch it there!” He’d stopped in his tracks in the middle of the hallway and was standing, head tilted in puzzlement, hands grasping abstractedly at the air. The students squeezed by on both sides.
“Amy?” He pointed back to her without turning around. “Did you just see that?”
“See what?”
“Rory? No? Back there, down the hall, about twenty seconds ago?”
“Uh . . .” Rory looked in confusion from Amy to the Doctor and back again. “Bit of a blur. I saw students . . . a bench . . . doors?”
“Doors! Yes!” The Doctor twirled on the spot and grinned at them. “Or rather, a specific door . . .” He set off with a skip and brought himself up just in time to avoid crashing into said door, an entirely unremarkable office door amongst a whole bunch of other unremarkable office doors. “Or rather, a specific door plate . . .” and he brought his nose to within a few inches of the lettering and gave it a good squint. “Hello there . . .” He smiled at the door and turned expectantly to his companions, who had just caught him up.
Amy brushed her hair out of her face and eyed up the situation. Under a small frosted window, just below eye level, were two small plaques:
Dr. Florian Blackstrop, Archaeology
Dr. River Song, Archaeo-Astronomy
Dr. River Song, Archaeo-Astronomy
“River!?” And suddenly Amy’s eyes narrowed, and she swatted playfully at the Doctor’s arm. “You knew she was here!”
“Had no idea. But what luck, eh? Come on!” He pushed open the door without knocking and barged in. Amy and Rory exchanged a look before following him.“Hey, what the . . . ???!?! What’s this about?” An alarmed-looking man in a sweater vest greeted them from behind a desk, jumping to his feet to confront the intruders.
The Doctor, glancing around the room in interest, took a moment to reply: “Oh, very sorry. Looking for Dr. Song, have you seen her?”
“She’s in a lecture. Are you students?” Dr. Blackstrop sat back down. His desk was painfully neat, as was the whole side of the room around it. The room itself was small and very cramped.
The Doctor looked at him, slightly insulted. “Students?” Then he turned to his companions and, eyeing them up and down, changed his mind. “Ah . . . no, not as such. Well, students of life, really, but then, who isn’t?” Blackstrop looked unimpressed. “No, we’re just friends, passing through . . . happened to be in the neighborhood.” Then, as if an idea had suddenly occurred to him: “Where is this lecture?”
Amy smirked to herself and wondered if River deserved some advanced warning. Blackstrop, however, was glancing at his watch: “She’ll be done soon, and I have a meeting I need to be in. I suppose you can wait here, just don’t . . .” he nudged a stray pen back in line with some others, “. . . touch anything.”
The Doctor watched the movement doubtfully. “Wouldn’t think of it.” And turning to the messy side of the room, he climbed over River’s desk and plopped down in her chair. “Enjoy your meeting.”
Dr. River Song put a hand to her head and watched her students filing out. It had been a good class, all in all. There had been questions, for once: a handful of stupid ones, three or four legitimate, and one genuinely interesting one that inspired some frantic scribbling on the overhead screen, some improvised back and fourth, and a promise to get back to them once she’d looked some things up. Now, however, the energy was wearing off, and she felt rumpled and exhausted. She could feel her hair coming out of its clasp, frizzy tendrils falling into her eyes. She hadn’t slept six hours together the last two nights, she had two chapter revisions due to her editor by the end of the week, and her shoes were absolutely killing her. Thank goodness she had some time before office hours that afternoon.
River gathered up her familiar pile of books and data pads and, cursing the lack of pockets in this suit, stuck her laser stylus into her bun for safekeeping. Coffee, she thought, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee. And she headed back to her office, willing every person she passed on the way not to stop her to talk.
Her door was, strangely, unlocked, which led her to re-lock it by accident and then struggle vainly with the stuck door. By the time she’d sorted that out, she was in about as cranky a mood as she was willing to allow herself. It did not help matters, therefore, when she walked into her office to find three strangers within, two standing around looking bored, and an odd-looking one with his feet up on her desk, studying her copy of Thedeuseus.
The odd one looked up at her with a knowing smile: “Hi, honey.”
River didn’t bother hiding her annoyance: “Who the hell are you?"
______________________________________________________________________
Ideas about where this is going:
1) This is, in fact, the second time River has met the Doctor. The first time was a different regeneration, and she still knows precious little about him. She doesn't quite trust he's the same person.
2) The thing in the lab that the Doctor tracked is an artifact River picked up in a supposedly empty part of space. It is giving off weird time readings.
3) River's specialty of archaeo-astronomy is a real thing: it involves studying past cultures' understanding of the sky and of celestial bodies. I imagine by the 51st century this field has expanded to include the study of how past civilizations traveled through space, understood spacetime, etc.
4) River's book that she's working on involves documented evidence of historical spacetime anomalies, as seen in the remains of past civilizations. She believes these anomalies are the result of sloppy time travelers. One of the most famous of such anomalies surrounds the destruction of the first base station on Mars.
5) There's a good deal of political debate going on about time travel and its regulation. As always happens in these situations, the science is being brushed aside as various special interest groups vie for attention.
6) There will be a scene that takes place in a 360 degree virtual planetarium that River uses to visualize spacetime. The user seems to stand in the middle of space and can rotate the view, travel, bend spacetime, visualize other dimensions, etc. by using hand gestures. Amy will be impressed. River and the Doc will geek out together and have fun pushing the stars around.
7) Team TARDIS will travel to the supposedly empty area of space to investigate. Turns out it's not empty, but full of inverted time loops. The TARDIS keeps falling into them, causing time to flow backwards for short periods.
8) River may or may not have a bad physical reaction to these time loops that may or may not be attributable to some mixed species DNA back in the murky depths of her gene pool. I'm not sure how weird I want to make her.
