trans_9 | Happy-Fun Splorey Times

"Aw, of course you will!"

"Not that I ever get paid anyway."

"Damn."

Heh. This guy was cool.

"So you've got a spaceship--and a timeship--and you're a doctor of learning--do you go around exploring or something? Is that your thing? It makes sense with how you were all trying to tell them not to fire at me. You go enough different places and see enough different people and you get used to people being different--only in my world, there's plenty of aliens and different people on Earth, so seeing someone like me isn't hugely out there."

Edited 2008-06-25 01:44 (UTC)

"Yep! Tourist, that's me! Traveling here and there and yonder through space and time, seeing the sights, taking in the smells, running. Doing a lot of running, actually. It's really all quite fascinating."

"That," Jaime said, "sounds really cool."

"It has its moments," the Doctor says, smiling.

"So what do you and your symbiote - it is a symbiote, isn't it - get up to?" Not the best of segues, but not his worst.

"It didn't used to be a symbiote--more a parasite, but it's a symbiote now," Jaime said. "I'm a superhero. My world has a lot of them, but not many in the Southwest and it needs them just as much as anywhere else. But aside from helping firefighters and cops and stuff like that around El Paso and Juárez, until recently, I was trying to keep aliens from invading Earth--the same aliens that built the scarab. It was supposed to latch onto me, take over my mind, and turn me into their 'Infiltrator,' make everyone trust me--and them--so I could help them conquer Earth. The Reach were very tricky. Not the types to just drop into the atmosphere. They were tricking humans into trusting them, making them think they were benevolent."

The Doctor listened quietly, absorbing the information. And then he said one of the many wise things the Doctor tended to say. "Y'know, I think you're right. I've almost never been to Texas. Which is weird. They sort of would need someone to help out, wouldn't they?"

"In a... superhero-y world, that is. Not the Earth I know. You humans, though, resilient creatures. Might have a secret organization in Texas! I wouldn't know. And, well, alien invaders seem to have a bit more of a thing for good ol' Mother England, in my universe."

"The Reach had their...well, reach, all over. Contacted all the world governments, followed first contact protocols and requests, gave Earth free stuff. But they'd been planning the invasion for thousands of years--just waiting until Earth started reaching its technological potential--until Earth societies could turn out skilled enough slaves."

"Free stuff? What, really? In little gift bags or something?" That was new.

"Technology. They were promising to give Earth technology, knowledge, stuff to bring us up to their level of advancement, because they were pretending they wanted to see humanity grow."

He tilted his head to the other side, as if to say 'on the other hand...'

"When in reality, they were planning on drugging the water with poisons half-phased out of reality, until years of consuming them left every person full of mind control drugs that would start working as soon as they phased it all back into reality, about a hundred years from now, blew up the stations they had around the Earth--disguised as old magical temples to hide the energy signature, since people wouldn't really question magic--we have a lot of it on my world--which would destroy most of the planet's surface and kill thousands. But the survivors would trust them, because of the drugs, when they said 'Come with us; we'll take you someplace better.' That 'someplace better' would be selling them into slavery, and then they'd gut the Earth of what tech and resources it had left."

And the clincher was...

"All for a profit. They've done it to worlds. There's intergalactic peacekeeping forces, called the Green Lanterns, who KNOW they do it, but they haven't been able to get proof and don't want another war. Even when I took out the ones trying to conquer Earth, the Reach just said that Negotiator was a rogue Negotiator and that they didn't support his actions. Total lie."

Edited 2008-06-25 02:50 (UTC)

The Doctor listened, arms crossed, giving Jaime his full attention.

When it was over, he shook his head. "And you took them down yourself? Impressive. I mean, really impressive. I love humans."

"Had a little help from my techie people, and my girlfriend, best friends, and some friends from around El Paso helped protect my family while I was up there, but yeah."

Huh.

"If you love humans that'd imply you aren't one, but I'd pretty much pegged you for that already."

"I could love humans if I weren't human!" Pause. "But I just used 'were' instead of 'am,' didn't I?" He rubbed his face, grimacing over the tell-tale grammatical error.

"Right. You're right. I'm not. You just look like me. Not my fault."

"What are you? I'm not asking that like 'ew, you're an alien,' I'm just curious. We've got lots aliens around. Superman, Martian Manhunter, Starfire, I think Hawkwoman..."

"Oh, so you're from there! Superman, all that. Sorry, never read. Did see the first Superman movie, though. Big fan. Well, not really. But I liked it!" The Doctor beams at Jaime, bouncing on the balls of his feet, before remembering that he'd been asked a question.

His expression turned mildly sheepish. "Ah, I'm a Time Lord. THE Time Lord, actually, as in 'last of,' but that's... that's a long story, actually."

"I won't ask if you don't want to tell."

Being the last of something likely sucked.

"And yeah, Big Blue's the real thing where I come from. It's so weird thinking we're all fictional somewhere, but it makes sense--everything's got to be real somewhere. I wonder if I have a movie or a TV show. Or maybe a comic book."

Although he was still curious.

"What is a Time Lord, though? What are--what were your people like? Although that's probably just as hard to answer as 'what is a human?'"

"Comic book, probably. That's what Superman and the rest have got. Comic books are better than TV shows anyway."

He had to think about the other questions, though. It had gotten easier to talk about, but now it was a little more difficult again. The old wounds had a fresher sting to them. Still, the boy had asked. He wasn't going to make the mistake of hiding it again. "Oh, they were... they were powerful. Brilliant, brilliant people. All of them. All of us, really. So very, very brilliantly smart. Not clever like humans are, really smart. Old, though, steeped in bureaucracy and tradition and pride and everything I found so very dull. Because it was, it really was. Dull, dull, dull. I left as soon as possible, barely even went back for visits."

He sighed. "They're gone now, of course; I told you that. Whole planet, never even existed. War, you know. It was horrible. The Time War, they call it." Weak grin. "The stuff of legends to the rest of the universe, all of it; the planet, the people, the War, even me."

His eyes were sad.

"Lo Siento." It didn't translate because it was only a few words, interspersed with English. "I can't even imagine what that must be like."

As Peacemaker said, Superman wasn't an alien--he was an American. He was an Earthling-by-adoption, because the world had adopted him.

But a traveler? An explorer? With nowhere to go home to?

Some people just said they were sorry, as a courtesy, but Jaime was an empathetic kid. He meant it.

Edited 2008-06-25 06:56 (UTC)

The Doctor shrugged and sniffed. With a sort of full-body shake-off, the Time Lord regrouped quickly, closing off the memories and pain.

"Ah, well. Thanks." He said it awkwardly, already looking for a change of subject. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the sentiment; he simply couldn't afford to spend much time on the subject.

As a distraction, he pulled out the twisted brown bag of jelly babies, untwisting it and selecting a green one for himself. "Should probably be rationing these," he commented as he offered the bag to Jaime.

"Probably," Jaime grinned, taking one. "Somehow I don't think Stacy's the type to give out free candy with her goop and plant-suits."

The Doctor grinned back, returning the bag to safekeeping. "Probably not. I'll just keep the rest for emergencies."

"So, we're on a ship. Taken by aliens. And...they have a whole city in there." A pause. "...And that's the Dome of the Rock over there, I think. Temples and churches and mosques and...alien buildings. Why would they have a collection of churches in here? Did these aliens find religion? S? Plural?"

The Doctor took a quick look around again, thinking. "Well, sort of depends, doesn't it? Could be a museum, though a war ship's an awfully strange place for one of those, could be places of worship for all their soldiers. Who knows? Might just have very strange ideas of interior decorating."

"One thing's for sure, they really do have a kinda Carmen Sandiego thing going on. I'm surprised they didn't stick the Eiffel Tower in here. If those are the real things, they can not only pull people from anywhere, but things as large as whole buildings. But if they're that powerful, why do they NEED an army?"

Edited 2008-06-25 07:49 (UTC)

"Weak bodies, strong technology? Really couldn't say. Though you don't see any of whoever they are around here, do you? Unless Stacy is 'them,' in which case she's a bit big to do in-atmosphere battle. No, so far it's mostly humanoids, all in top condition. There has to be a reason for that."

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