InsaneJournal

Day 259 - Action/Audio
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[Martha found herself pulling a long shift at the clinic with Helen out. She felt for the other woman, who had now lost two people from home. But Martha wasn’t going to bother her for the time being. Helen clearly wanted some time to herself, and Martha would respect her space. For now.

When she wasn’t helping patients, Martha tried reading. But she found she wasn’t all that interested in her current book. Finally she sighed and switched on her transmitter.]

[Universal Audio Transmission]

Good afternoon Marina. I’m the Voice of a Nightingale, and I’ve been thinking. Everyone has a story. Stories connect us. Stories helped me save the world once. And while most of us have found things to do, whether that’s attending classes, working for the defense force, manning the various shops, or spending all their waking moments in the library, sometimes it’s nice to listen to a story. If you don’t want to listen, you’re welcome to turn this off. I won’t be offended, but for those of you who don’t mind. Here’s my story. The story of Smith and Jones.


[Her voice turns to that of a narrator.]

Rush hour in London is always busy. The streets, the pavement, the tube. Masses of people everywhere. And on this most ordinary of days, Miss Jones picked up her phone on her way to work.

As usual it was her older sister Tish regarding the logistics of the evening. Their younger brother turned 21 today, and his party was tonight. Of course, Dad wanted to bring his girlfriend, and Mum didn’t like that. In the span of three minutes, Martha talked to her entire family. She tried to make peace, but she likely hadn’t actually made things better.

A man bumped into her, looked straight down at her and took off his tie. “Like so. See!” Then he walked away, simple as that. Odd, but then it was rush hour in London. Martha put it out of her head until just outside of the hospital when a biker clad all in black leather ran into her.

“Watch it!” she cried. The biker turned and stared at her. At least she assumed he stared at her. She couldn’t actually see his eyes through the visor. Either way, it felt wrong.

Work around the hospital during the fellowship was usual. The group of students followed their supervisor and gave their opinion on what was wrong. Miss Finnigan was feeling dizzy. Martha suggested blood samples and tests. Turned out it was just a deficiency from eating only salad.

They moved to the next room, passing the elevator as they went. The biker was there. Just standing. She tried not to listen to the foreboding feeling in her chest when the elevator dinged and another one stepped out. Martha threw one last look over her shoulder at the two of them before her students stopped in front of a familiar figure in front of a bed.

“John Smith, admitted for abdominal cramps,” the supervisor was saying. It was him though. The man from the street.

“Not so smart then, running around on the street,” Martha said with a smile.

“How do you mean?” Mr. Smith asked.

“This morning on Chauncer St. Came right up to me and took your tie off.”

Mr. Smith looked at her as though she were the odd one and Mr. Stoker made her hurry along. As Martha put the stethoscope to Mr. Smith’s chest, she heard an odd afterbeat. Could he really? She moved the stethoscope to his right side. Two hearts! He winked at her.

“I weep for the future generations…” Mr. Stoker began.
Martha apologized, gave her report, and then it was time for lunch. Tish had called again, offering to do lunch. Martha refused on account of the rain.

“It’s not raining by me,” Tish replied.

“Lucky you.”

“Good God. Martha, it’s raining right on top of you. Like in the cartoons, when someone has a raincloud over their head.”

Martha rolls her eyes and looks up just in time to see Mr. Smith pass the open door of the staff lounge. She moved to say something when her coworker told her to look at the rain. Honestly though, why would anyone bother about boring old rain.

It was going up. The rain… traveling up as though it were a normal Tuesday. And then the ground started shaking. Glass broke and Martha was thrown against the cabinets. When it all stopped she looked out the window into the night sky and gasped.

“We’re on the moon. We’re on the bloody moon!”

Listener, I can tell you right now, no matter how prepared you think you are, you will likely panic if you ever find yourself on the moon. Most people did. I don’t fault them. It was terrifying. But please, panic never solves anything.

Martha ran to a window trying to get everyone back to their beds and completely brushing past Miss Finnigan letting her know there was an emergency.

And there, outside the window was the moon in all its glory with Earth hanging in the sky.

Mr. Smith popped out from behind a curtain fully dressed and asked to go to the veranda. “Let’s go,” she cried.

“We might die.”

“We might not!” she answered. They opened the door.

“What caused it?” Mr. Smith mused
.
“Extraterrestrial. Gotta be. With spaceships flying into Big Ben, Christmas, those Cybermen things.” Her tone turned more sad instead of excited. “I had a cousin worked at Canary Wharf. Adeola. She never came home… I promise Mr. Smith, we’ll find our way…”

“Names not Mr. Smith.”

“No? What is it then?”

“The Doctor.”

“I am too soon as I pass my exams. Doctor of what?

“Nothing, just the Doctor.”

“Have to be Doctor of something”

“Just the Doctor. Everyone calls me the Doctor.”

“Sorry I’m not. You have to earn that title far as I’m concerned.”

He shrugged and threw a rock off the veranda.

“An air bubble. But who would put us in an airbubble!” Martha exclaimed.

Just then, three gigantic spaceships came in. And out of them poured,

“That’s aliens. Real aliens. Real proper aliens!”

The Judoon. The Judoon are essentially the executive branch of the Universe, but Earth happens to be neutral territory as the Doctor explained to Martha. They also look like giant, bipedal rhinoceruses. They were after some creature in the hospital. A Plasmavore. While the Doctor tried to solve the issue, Martha went to find Mr. Stoker… see if he knew who had checked in recently.

Everything was wrong when she walked into his office. The two bikers were there, and the old woman, Miss Finnigan, stood up holding a bloody bendy straw.

“Kill her!” Miss Finnigan shrieked. Martha took off. She found the Doctor and they ran. They ran until they found the x-ray room where the Doctor, in a fit of genius, stopped the biker by increasing the radiation in the x-ray machine.

“A slab,” he remarked, explaining what the creature was and why it was there. They continued figuring out how to stop what was happening as they walked out of the x-ray room and right into a Judoon scanner. “Non-human,” it replied.

“And again!” The Doctor took Martha’s hand and they ran.

Martha could tell, they were running out of oxygen. But there was still so much to do. She was fine, running on adrenaline. The Doctor made the realization the Plasmavore had drank Mr. Stoker’s blood to appear human.

“Of course. Martha. Forgive me for this. It means nothing. Nothing.”

She looked at him blankly as he grabbed her and laid the most knee weakening kiss on her anyone had ever given. And then he ran off towards the MRI room. It was perhaps not the brightest idea on the planet, though it kept him safe from the Judoon.

“That means nothing,” she whispered before turning to face the Judoon. They scanned her. “Human… Not human. Human… full scan!”

The rhinoceros like creature pushed her against the wall for the full scan. Luckily she came up human with traces of alien DNA due to facial contact with another alien.

Meanwhile, the Doctor was busy trying to keep the Plasmavore from frying the brainstem of everyone in the hospital and the near side of the Earth. Listener, she drank his blood. Killed him to try and stay human. But the joke was on her, because the Doctor was not human. When they found her, Martha forced them to scan her again. She was sentenced to death for killing a princess. Admitted to it and still tried to kill everyone.

The Judoon killed her right then and there, and then they left the humans to clean up the mess. Martha did the only thing she knew how at this point. She used up the last of her air to get the Doctor breathing again. CPR. With her last breath, she gasped out “machine… did something,” and then she passed out.

When she woke up, the hospital was back on Earth. EMTs from other hospitals came to help them. Tish wanted to know what had happened. And the Doctor just disappeared.

That night while getting ready, she listened to the news report.

“I saw the earth hanging in the sky,” her colleague was saying. “And it just proves that Mr. Saxon is right. He keeps saying we’re not alone in the universe…” She switched the radio off. Time for a party.

The party went as poorly as was to be expected. Everyone ended up stomping off and Martha stood on the pavement, wondering what the point of it all was. She looked up and saw a familiar face. The Doctor smiled at her and turned the corner into an alley. Martha followed.

He told her amazing stories about a spaceship and a time machine. When she didn’t believe him, he stepped inside the blue police box they were standing by and it disappeared. Shocked, Martha reached out for the space it had been. And then it was back.

“Told you,” he said retying his tie.

“But that was you!”

Of course she went with him. Martha would follow this man anywhere. But it was just him. Just him alone on the TARDIS. She asked him about it.

“No… it’s just me. Sometimes I have friends. Like Rose. She traveled with me for a bit. You’re not replacing her. One trip. Just one trip and then you’re back home. Got it!”

“Of course,” she answered, her advances rebuked. “For the record, I’m not even interested in you.”

“Right then, Welcome aboard Miss Jones.”

Martha took his hand. “It’s a right pleasure Mr. Smith.”

[There’s a slight pause when and then she comes back.]

It was the start of a great adventure. Perhaps in a few days I’ll continue. If you’d like to hear more. But for now, Nightingale out.