Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2006 15:29:29 EDT From: J Subject: DOCTOR WHO, JESSE AND JEREMY 50 Turn of the Wirrn Piling out of the doors they had just opened...was an INSECT MONSTER! One each! It looked like an upright wasp, walking on legs, four legs on top and a huge bulb for a head and with huge segmented and glowing yellow, insect eyes...a stinger for a nose. Antenna waving, jaws opening... had the Doctor been alongside either of them he would have identified this lurching-at-them monster insect as the Wirrn!!!! Jesse and Jeremy both screamed as one! From two separate places! The creatures shrieked as well. One brushed past Jesse, who dove to one side; the other quickly flitted past Jeremy, headed for the exit. The Doctor shot out of his dressing room and shouted, "Wait! Wait!" "Wait?" Jeremy said, from the floor. "Wait for what? To eat us?" "I know that thing," the Doctor said, "Well, I knew others of its kind..." "And?" "We'd better get out of here," the Doctor said, "Jesse?" "YOU sent him to the control center office," Jeremy said, getting up. "C'mon!!!" The Doctor ran out of the store but he almost collided with Jesse. "Alright?" "This monster..." Jeremy nodded, "I saw one too, up close..." "Yeah but that thing," he shook, "I hate insects." He shivered visibly. "Never wanted to meet them then, have you?" The Doctor checked him out. Held his arms and looked him over. "Nah uh," Jesse smiled, breathing heavily. He was so boyish sometimes. "TARDIS," the Doctor said, letting him go. "What about all those people? They'll all be eaten or something..." Jesse asked. "We don't know they will be. Besides, they're dead." Jeremy came forward, "What? All of them?" "All of them." The Doctor nodded, sadly. "I checked the instruments I found on the top of each tube. No life signs. Of course, I'd like to examine one up close but now..." "Do it," Jesse scoffed, "I won't let a couple of wasps scare me away..." "Well, I couldn't see the life sign readings because they were out, no lights." The Doctor returned to the store, "But Jesse, you must have relit them when you went back..." "Doctor, I didn't." He said, "I didn't have time. That venomous thing just lurched out at me." The Doctor leaned into the hole to shine the flashlight again. Jeremy and Jesse leaned over him. "Someone else must have ..." Jesse said, "Cause like, I didn't." "I did." They all whirled. Behind them, and blocking them from the exit of the dressing room was a larger Wirrn. Jesse held his bile down in his belly. Jeremy grabbed a coat hanger. The Doctor held out the sonic screwdriver and turned it on. "Don't let it touch you!!!" He was on one knee and behind the two boys. Behind the first Wirrn, the two smaller ones emerged from the story to the dressing room. "We've had it," Jeremy said. "You are the one called Doctor?" "Yes," the Doctor said, blinking in surprise. "You know me?" He stood up and moved past the two boys. "Our race memory knows you. I heard the boys call you that." The Doctor snapped, angry, "What do you want?" "We want to know what you intend to do." "Get outta here alive if possible," the Doctor said, "If you'll just go ahead and let us...or if you will just FUCKING DIE!!!!" "Doc, that's the way to treat different life forms from the norm, just make them angry when they have us surrounded, closest so to speak," Jeremy said and put the hanger down. "I take it...you don't intend to kill us?" "We do not." The Doctor: "Huh?" Jeremy looked, "I'm Jeremy, that's Jesse, and the Doctor there, you already seem to know him..." "Greetings all." The Doctor meant to speak. But thought better of it. "We, the Wirrn, are not the Wirrn of ancient times, Doctor. I know you met us several times in the past. Our memory of those encounters is not good. One of the first times chronologically was in 3999 AD at the Intergalactic Olympic Games on Micawber's World." "Bloody mess that was." "Yes, we have changed Doctor. We also know that you saw the human Noah absorbed by one of our children." "Yes and it was your undoing... he sacrificed himself to save the rest of the humans..." "22 thousand AD. The Ark in space over Earth..." the Doctor remembered, phasing out. "We regret the conflicts of our two beings. We want only to remain alive. We wanted so then and we want so now." "Are you the Queen?" The Doctor asked. "Yes. I am." Jesse smirked, "So's he," as he nodded toward the Doctor. "All Queens are male in Wirrn these days." "Time Lords are just the same," Jesse joked. "Jesse," the Doctor whispered, "What made the Swarm turn good?" "Years of bloodshed. Our own. Humans. Humans resurrected us around 100, 000 AD, Earth time. We owe them our lives." "I seem to recall something about that. Mombassa Station. Africa. You were deadly then as well." "Yes but since that time, we have evolved." "Did you kill the people in the tubes?" Jeremy spoke up. The Doctor put his hand on Jeremy's shoulder. "Well?" "Negative. We found them like this." "Oh really?" Jesse said sarcastically. "The logs will prove it. We answered a distress call." "What are you doing this far out in space in this universe?" "Doc--tor, we are keeping our race memory alive while also keeping out mind to not killing and eating human beings." "What do you eat?" "We had found an uninhabited planet made of the same stuff as human flesh. It was not alive but we found we could tolerate the stuff." The Doctor put his head up, "The Wirrn only like what comes from eating living flesh..." The Wirrn, for the first time, seemed to grow angry, its antenna took on different stiffer motions and it moved forward. The Doctor, Jesse, and Jeremy winced. It stopped. "We have evolved, Doctor, changed. My line has made it so." "Thank you, Jean Lu Picard." Jeremy laughed. The Wirrn looked and turned, "Jean?" "Never mind. Old friend of mine," the Doctor said rapidly. "Well, nice to see you again, glad you've become born again, so to speak, have to be running, people to do, places to cover in my..." "Check the logs, Doctor. And please, do not leave." The Doctor had already started to usher the boys forward toward the Wirrn. It was now or never. "You'd stop us?" "We need you." "We cannot break into the tubes." "Ahhh," the Doctor said, "So you do want to eat the bodies?" "What?" Jeremy asked. "Ewl," Jesse said, "You can't." "My children here, the ones you saw, the ones you frightened..." "Sorry, little fella," Jeremy said in a genuine voice. "Me, too," Jesse said but he sounded less genuine. "HI." "...and the rest of the swarm...we are ...starving." "The planet?" Jesse asked. "Devoured already, over the years since...16,000 years is a long time..." "Yes," the Doctor said, "Even for me...I see, you want to use these bodies as food?" "No," Jeremy said, "There's...people...that's disgusting..." Jesse looked, "Doctor, there's got to be some other way!" "I....there's something in my own memory..." the Doctor said, "There might..." The Wirrn Queen telepathically said, "Please, come out of there so we may discuss this. I do not wish for you to feel trapped..." The Doctor nodded. Jeremy and Jesse looked warily at him and then proceeded to move out. As they moved out, the Doctor stopped by the Queen. "I'm glad. I 'll do everything I can see to it that you, your children, and the Swarm do not starve..." "Thank you, Doctor..." The Doctor strode into the office, "Not long now, Brigadier if the Ice Warriors don't get there first!" "What?" Jeremy asked. "He's off again," Jesse said. "Doctor," Jeremy whispered, "Can you trust these things?" "Why not?" The Doctor said, and rubbed the back of his neck, "Really, Jeremy, what are you whispering for?" "I don't know," Jeremy shrugged, "Maybe to save our lives." "Oh, leave that to me," the Doctor said, thumbing the computer mouse and looking at the screen. "You'd just go and mess it up." Jeremy was almost dumbfounded, "Why...I...oughta...you...I...I'll have you know I' ve saved our lives from time to time..." "Oh dear," the Doctor patted his arm, "If you say so..." Jesse whispered, "Jer, you know by now that he's sorta sorting out his memories of the past. He's forgotten something and he's trying to find it out and when he does that..." "Some of his former personalities come through," Jeremy scoffed. " Annoying. Annoying ones." "Huh?" The Doctor turned, "What? Oh yuck, what are you too wearing?" "Never mind our clothes," Jeremy said, in his Dutch boy outfit, "Just..." The Doctor looked at the screen, "My dear boys! Dear, Dear, dear..." "Doctor, stop that!" Jeremy yelled. "Yeah, what've you found?" Jesse asked. "They're telling the truth." The Doctor said, "And before you ask, I know. I'm an alien and aliens have..." "Just tell us what it is." Jeremy stamped his foot. "The log clearly shows that the Mall systems are failing. Still are." "Is it dangerous?" "Well, in time, yes," the Doctor said, "But what can't I remember?" "That the Wirrn can't ever be good?" Jesse asked. "No, no, no. Anyone or anything can turn good if given the right set of circumstances except...except for..." "Doctor, what?" Jesse urged. "The systems of air, food, and all were failing. To save themselves, they put themselves into suspended animation." "The staff?" Jesse asked. "Yes, the staff!" The Doctor snapped. Jesse pointed, "Don't you yell at me. I know you're trying to remember something but don't yell your head off at me!" "Sorry," the Doctor shook his head, "I...say, you're really angry.." "We both are," Jeremy said, "All those people dead..." He had tears in his eyes. "Come here." The Doctor put an arm around Jeremy's back and pulled him to him to put his head on his chest, as he stood up higher, Jeremy lowering himself. "I'm sorry." "If only we could have answered that distress call sooner." "The one they sent out never got out due to the faults. The one we picked up was the Wirrn." The Doctor patted Jeremy's head and rubbed his hair in back. He then parted with him. "I know it's hard to believe but the TARDIS couldn't get this far in that fast a time, even if we went back...the Blinovitch Limitation Effect..." "Aww gad!" Jesse snapped, "I hate time travel. What's the...I mean what's the fucking use of having a time machine if you can't just go back a few seconds in time and stop the disaster that you just missed having?" "Try to remember ---the TARDIS isn't a magic box...it...it has it's limitations too," the Doctor said, "As do I...at least compared to you lot..." "That last comment. Was that your sixth self talkin?" Jesse asked. "Not...not sure," the Doctor said, "But the thing is the staff would have survived..." "They'd still be alive?" Jesse asked., The Doctor moved out to the door, "Yes. They took a gamble. They chose the humane decision to take the stranded customers and put them in the Mall's suspended animation with them." "Wait a minute?" Jeremy put his fist into his other hand, "I saw...we both saw about fifty spacecraft down there..." "Many of them needed fuel. The tanks there were empty. Many of the ships we saw were also empty." "Doesn't anything work on this stupid Mall?" Jesse stamped his feet. "It...it's a fact of life that things don't go perfectly. Few things do, except my mind of course..." "Stop being all conceited." Jeremy said, "It's just not you. Not our Doctor." "I know, I know." He shook his head, "Something about...something my sixth or seventh or third self knew that could help us...help the Wirrn..." "Help them?" "The Wirrn will starve..." The Doctor said, cryptically and slowly. "Get back to the humans," Jesse said as Jeremy thought about the insect people dying. "What were you about to say?" "I think from the logs, the staff would have lived, the faults would not have overtaken the entire Mall if they had just put themselves into stasis. Instead, they chose to risk an overload and let in all the customers too." "All of them?" Jesse asked. "All of them." The Doctor said, "As many walls as there are here, there are people behind them..." "All...dead," Jeremy added. "Yes, unfortunately," The Doctor put his head down. Then he put it up, "It was meant to be. It had to be. We can't change it. It would unravel the time casual nexus." "Oh shit, I'm so sick of that casual nexus," Jesse said. "They chose the humane solution." "And it was the wrong one," Jesse said. The Doctor put his arm around Jesse's shoulder and back, "I wouldn't necessarily say that. They had to try to save them and it might have worked if the system's frozien selonoids had worked." "It seems so many faults," Jeremy noticed. "It's an old Mall, even though it doesn't look like it," the Doctor said, "And so far out in space, I doubt they could get parts so soon and as for the care given...I guess it was better than most but entropy happened and spread here faster than others...it might have been...wait a minute, wait a minute.... WAIT A MINUTE!" He ran out to the Mall area where the elevator was and looked up. There were numerous CVEs, "That IS it, the CVEs, holding back the entropy... they didn't have a chance either way. The CVEs here are holding back entropy but they could only do so much...Adric...Logopolis could have done so much...but it no longer has any life I think." "Is that what you were trying to remember?" Jeremy put up a finger and pointed at the Doctor's face. The Doctor put up a finger and looked like he was about to say, "Yes" but he put a finger on Jeremy's nose, Jeremy smiling at this, and said, "NO!" Jeremy dropped his smile. Jesse looked, "So these CVE thingies didn't cause the problems but the seepage and entropy did?" "Exactly!" Jesse smiled, "Thanks, Doc!" "It's entirely do to my influence, you mustn't take any credit," the Doctor turned and ran. Jesse frowned. Jeremy ran after the Doctor, "Doctor, stop!" Jesse followed. The Doctor stopped and Jeremy ploughed into him, Jesse into Jeremy, behind him. "What now?" "The Wirrn, what ...why are they starving?" "They refuse to attack living humans. So they ARE starving now, facing it." "Is that why they called us?" Jeremy asked. "Yes," the Doctor said, "And if they are to survive..." "How do we know they didn't orchestrate all of this?" Jeremy asked. The Doctor stepped back from Jeremy, "Jeremy, it's not like you to be this suspicious." "Traveling with you, meeting the kinds we meet, I've learned to be," Jeremy observed. "Still, you have to wonder." "I have. I've dismissed that." Jesse rounded on the Doctor. "Oh and why? Cause they're alien?" The Doctor dropped his semi smile and became almost hypnotic, "No, because I am." "Half." Jesse snapped. "Half." Jeremy echoed. "Not in front of the Wirrn. I don't want many of my en..former enemies to know that..." "Oh please, like you're all important..." Jesse flung his hand up. "Listen, the only way is for them to have the bodies of the staff and customers." The Wirrn were approaching. There were two children, the Queen, and two larger guards. Jeremy gasped, "Doctor, you can't!!!" "I can." "No, really, you can't," Jeremy said again. The Doctor looked at him, seriously. "No, really I can. Yes, I can." Jesse said, "But it...it's not right. They're people. Bodies, yeah but they' re human..." The Doctor put his hands on Jesse's shoulders and stood up straight, "It's not the real them anyway, Jesse. Their souls are long gone." "You're gonna let them get eaten, their bodies, eaten by those things?" Jeremy said, in disgust. "I am," the Doctor said, "They have to live. They are not feeding on live humans any longer and so for that, they have suffered..." "Doctor, you have considered our proposed solution?" "Yes, I have. And there is no way to ...for me to bring them back," he looked at Jeremy, who had a tear coming down his cheek. "Take them." Jeremy looked, "That was your plan all along!" "Jeremy, do be quiet!" The Doctor snapped. "No, it was. His plan? Queen?" "Yes, it was. But when you arrived, we had to...we wanted to get our permission." "What? Why?" Jesse asked. "We could not just kill you. We do not kill any longer." "Where's the swarm now?" Jeremy asked. "Out in space. Not far from here." "Queen, why can't you get to another planet?" The Doctor grew frustrated, "Jeremy, we've been all through this. I told you!" "Doctor, I'm talking to him." The Wirrn spoke. "The closest planet with dead human matter is too far away. And then there is the problem of communicating with the humanoid life forms there. The Doctor ..." "You knew about this?" Jeremy asked. "Yes, yes, I did. Telepathically, he told me. I was telling you..." "Now," Jeremy said. "There is nothing to discuss," the Doctor said, "I am telling you, it's a matter of survival. They don't eat, they die. They eat and that will buy them time to...to try to find a way to another place." "You've got the TARDIS..." Jeremy said. "I won't use the TARDIS. While doing so, they might fed on it. It would take time to find the planet coordinates, locate an exact one, and I WILL NOT TAKE ON A FULL SWARM... " "This is true. Some of the energy in your time machine might be taken by the younger Wirrn...if we had an exact location and hope of eating on some other planet, I could hold them off for a time...but if it is an indefinite time, starvation might even take me over and I'd be forced to..." "Eat the TARDIS?" Jesse pondered. "The energy in it..." the Queen corrected. The Doctor went on, "With the Mall they can fly to the next planet but they need the food now to live through the trip!" "The faults?" "We Wirrn do not need air." "And I can provide the fuel." "This is so wrong on so many levels," Jeremy gasps. "Go back and wait in the TARDIS." Jeremy just stared at him. The Doctor nodded to Jesse, who took his arm and pulled, "Come on. I'll go with you." The two moved off toward the TARDIS. The Doctor backed up, "I will set up the fuel link, Queen..." He waved at them and ran back inside the TARDIS. He saw Jeremy leaning with his back against the console, Jesse facing it with his stomach. He stopped short, "Look, I'm sorry about this. I'm sorry it has to be this way. It's just the way it is sometimes...I don't like it, you don' t like it, so we agree on that..." "Uh, sure, we get that," Jesse said. "Jeremy?" Jeremy just nodded at him. The Doctor moved through the exit door to the inner TARDIS. Jeremy touched Jesse's arm. Jesse said, "I'm with you..." The Doctor came running back with a huge fuel hose and he ran out, "Coming through!!!" "We can't," Jeremy said. "We can't let him have those people be fed to those horrible things either," Jesse said, "You go get it and take it out one of the back exits...I'll set it. I learned from the TARDIS data banks. You plant it and I'll be right behind you... plant it where we said." "Okay." The Wirrn, if Wirrn can be seen to be incredulous, watched the Doctor in that manner. As the Doctor ran, the black colored and ribbed hose over his shoulder. He ran to the rail, hopped up it and jumped down, hanging onto the hose. On the lower floor, he ran to the engine area. He had ascertained where it was using the computer in the central office. He told the Wirrn the Mall Map was of no use for that...or for even finding his way around. He had installed the hose with no problem and began running the fuel into the Mall tanks. He came back to the Wirrn near the TARDIS. "Okay, okay, all done. Fuel will be pumped in oh, five minutes..." He opened doors of the TARDIS, "Jeremy, Jesse, come say goodbye if you will. Don't be rude like my 10th self..." "Doctor, shall I call the squarm to the Mall now?" "Yes," the Doctor said, "Five minutes and you will be on your way!" He said this with such joy that even the Wirrn were overtaken with the energy of his optimism. He called into the TARDIS again, "Jesse? Jeremy!" He turned to the Wirrn Queen, " Where have those boys gotten off too?" "We're here, Doctor," Jesse came out of the TARDIS, putting on his shirt. Jeremy was behind him, adjusting his pants. They were both wearing different clothes now. "Boys," the Doctor bent over in a fake spasm of laughing, "They're always up for it. Me, too, cum to think of it." "Doctor, we have to go now, right?" Jeremy asked, uneasy. "Yeah, sure..." he turned, "Why?" He was suddenly very suspicious. "When we leaving?" Jesse asked. "Oh, four minutes. The fuel will be done pumping. The swarm will be arriving here in...how long?" "As soon as the fuel is done. I have already called them in from space to the Mall." The Queen said. "You can't." Jeremy said. Jesse hit his shoulder. "Can't? What do you mean can't?" The Doctor said. "We gotta get out of here now," Jeremy said. "Yeah, he's right and you, Bug Guy, you can't get your people, if that is what they are, here," Jesse added. The Doctor took the boys to the side of the TARDIS, "What have you done? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" "That cyber bomb you got stashed in there," Jeremy started. "I always noticed it. You really shouldn't keep a huge big yellow bomb in your TARDIS. I mean, man, how long have you had that thing stashed in there? With all the shaking the TARDIS does...it could go off at any time. Kept it since Adric died, have you? You know, Jeremy, I think it's a keepsake to remember his little dark haired boyfriend..." "Answer me!!! WHAT YOU TWO DONE?" "The bomb, it's gonna go off." Jeremy simply said. "WHAT?" The Doctor turned to run but Jesse stood in his way. Jesse grabbed him, "You can't. It's gonna blow in three minutes. You'll never be able to reach it where we put it." "Why'd you set it for only three minutes? And how'd you know to?" "First, so you won't be able to stop it." Jesse nodded and looked down at the Doctor's shocked face, "Second, the databanks, told me all I needed to. So you'd better get your friends off the Mall..." "DON'T YOU EVER...." The Doctor shoved Jesse off him, "They'll kill you..." The bomb was ticking down. The arrow moved to a red zone. The Queen came around the corner of the TARDIS, "Doctor, what is wrong?" "Ahhhh, yes," the Doctor tried to recover his sense of joy, "That..." He ran to the pump and pulled it out of the TARDIS and unraveled it out into the Mall, fuel spilling out. "Doctor! What are you doing now? That..." The Doctor turned, "We have a problem, Houston. No, not Whitney taking your name. Anyhoooo...listen..." Jesse and Jeremy with the Queen came from the side of the TARDIS area and faced the other four Wirrn. They were wary. All three of them. The Doctor turned to the Wirrn children and then back to the Queen, "Listen, you have to get the Swarm to not come here..." The Queen turned and transmitted. The bomb arrow moved closer to Zero. "I have stopped them." The Queen turned to the Doctor and moved at him, impossibly close. The Doctor let it. "Now perhaps you shall tell me why...it was necessary to do so." The Doctor turned to look at Jesse and Jeremy, then back to the Queen. "My fault. You see, before I knew what we...what you, you were up to...I planted a bomb..." "A BOMB!" "Yeah, a cyber one." "The deadliest..." "You know of Cybermen then, big, mean..." He smiled. "Doctor!" Jesse gasped. Jeremy followed suit. "DOCTOR, I SHOULD KILL ALL THREE OF YOU NOW AND FEED YOUR HAPLESS BODIES TO MY STARVING CHILDREN!" "No, no, no, my fault, all of you, into the TARDIS. There's no time to stop it." He waved his arms toward the open doors of the TARDIS. "We need this food!" "I'm so sorry, completely forgot it, daft old brain of me-ine." Jesse gasped, "Doctor, that bomb..." "It's gonna go off any second!" Jeremy gasped. The Wirrn all moved at the Doctor, who stared. The bomb reached zero! To be continued... NOTICE: Wirrn should not be double crossed no matter their new, born again nature; TARDISes are equipped to survive explosions if their doors are shut, and the BBC owns Doctor Who, Wirrn, Tardises, and Cyberbombs. No copyright infringement is meant.