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Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3
Chapter 4. Dancing in Time
Rose woke early the next morning. Since making it through the rift her sleep cycle had been disrupted and, however tired she felt, she invariably woke by the equivalent of five o’clock. She made use of the time by practicing the exercises the Doctor had taught her to hone her telepathic skills. She needed somewhere tranquil, though, so eschewed her bedroom in favour of the observation room. Since they were in the vortex, the TARDIS showed her a far distant nebula as she sat, cross-legged, and stilled her mind.
She pictured herself within her mind, visualised the barriers she had built to keep stray thoughts and feelings out and her own within. Never again would she heedlessly broadcast or lay herself open to psychic attack. Slowly, she lowered a wall, opening her mind to sensation. Immediately she felt the threads of other consciousnesses; the seductive shimmer of Jack, the blue and gold enormity that was the TARDIS and, brightest of all, the silver and orange complex contours that signified the Doctor. She turned her mind ruthlessly away from the silver and focused on the blue thread of the TARDIS, letting her awareness be caught in the slipstream of the TARDIS’s song.
As she communed with the TARDIS she could not help the joyous laugh that erupted from her lips. She could feel the vortex against her skin, time and space stretching out before and behind, within and without. She soared and spun; they were travelling and it was glorious. The TARDIS danced and Rose danced with her, feeling their path weave to avoid a time-eddy, spinning in an infinite whirl, the skitter of time debris like raindrops against their skin. She could see the complex weft of possibilities stretching around her, through her, too multifarious for her to fathom, too immense for her to understand, but familiar and wonderful to behold. And the TARDIS laughed with her, thrilling at sharing this with her small human friend, with whom she had once shared her soul.
As they moved together, Rose unfurled her mind to the TARDIS, unashamed, unrestrained, she opened herself fully. The ship experienced what it was to be small, to be finite, to be restricted to one time, one place, one form. She felt as a human; birth, first love, first loss, and she marvelled at the intensity of it. She saw with tiny senses and it was immense. For the first time in over nine hundred years the TARDIS knew surprise. She felt something unique; she experienced something new. She knew what it was to be Rose Tyler, could suddenly give sensation to concepts that had been unknowable. This transitory human child showed her, guileless, what her Time Lord could not and the TARDIS gloried in it.
Suddenly, the TARDIS was the choreographer, Rose the audience she wished to thrill. Rose had gifted her so much; she wished to return the favour. The TARDIS knew love, so she twisted and glided and skimmed the very edge of the vortex, creating eruptions of explosive colour and igniting her space-time trail like a Catherine-wheel behind her. They were now, then, forever and no time. This was freedom. This was ecstasy and Rose exalted in it as together they spiralled together, merging, parting, twisting, entangling themselves in one another until there was no ‘I’, only ‘us’.
It could have been forever or only a second later that Rose perceived their shift in the vortex and knew they had arrived at their destination. She pulled away from the TARDIS, re-establishing the boundaries between selves, and snapped her eyes open. For a moment the room continued to spin and she breathed slowly through the disorientation and the sense of loss. As it righted itself she rose to her feet, resting a hand briefly against the wall in farewell. The TARDIS reduced to only a warm golden glow at the back of her mind, she headed towards the console room.
Jack and the Doctor were waiting for her when she arrived.
Jack greeted her with a cheeky smile. ‘Come on, slowpoke! Planet’s awaiting!’
‘Where are we?’ she asked.
‘Thoraxas Trios,’ the Doctor responded. ‘One of a string of paradise planets that together cater for the multitude of possible interpretations of the concept of paradise. This one’s beaches and shops. Could have been custom made for one Rose Tyler. It’s the year 1001-245. Perfect timing, before it got too commercialised and kiss-me-quick hats became high fashion’.
The Doctor was looking at her with what looked like trepidation, as if waiting on her approval. He’d always liked showing her new things, new places, but he’d never looked so nervous of her reaction before. She smiled;
‘Sounds lovely’. Was it her imagination, or had the Doctor just sighed with relief? Before she could analyse the thought the Doctor had rushed down the ramp and flung open the TARDIS doors, all eager energy.
‘Come on, come on. Beaches to see, shops to visit!’
Rose emerged from the TARDIS and was greeted immediately by a truly dazzling view.
‘’S beautiful,’ Rose breathed, her lips parted in admiration.
They were parked on a cliff top, overlooking an ocean. The pale magenta sky merged at the horizon with a violet sea. Crystal rocks jutted above the sea near the shoreline, reflecting and refracting light across the surface of the ocean, creating kaleidoscope patterns of myriad colours. Sea birds wheeled overhead, their melodic and haunting cries harmonising with the undulating sound of waves against the shore to create a tranquil tune that seemed designed to soothe.
Out of the corner of her eye Rose could see the Doctor looking at her, but she didn’t turn, the view was all she wanted to see right now. She cocked her head to one side slightly, noticing another sound beneath the others. The Doctor noticed her quizzical expression.
‘It’s the fish,’ he said softly, ‘they sing.’
Rose darted a surprised look at him before turning back to the view. She drank in its beauty, letting the warm sea scented air, sparkling light and natural melody wash over her. Sensing movement beside her, she realised that the Doctor was reaching for her hand. Without conscious thought, she stepped forward, closer to the cliff edge, placing herself outside of his reach.
From the TARDIS Jack watched as the Doctor’s arm fell uselessly back to his side in the wake of Rose’s withdrawal and felt a spark of real unease. The Doctor was right, something was amiss with Rose. In the old days this planet would have prompted a megawatt smile, bouncy excitement and at the very least a hug and lots of handholding. Now the Doctor got the cold shoulder. No wonder the old guy was confused. Uncomfortable watching the sad little tableau, Jack stepped out of the TARDIS. Forcing a swagger he didn’t feel, he strolled over to Rose and flung an arm round her;
‘What say we hit the shops, doll?’
Rose flinched slightly beneath his touch and twisted from beneath him.
‘Think I’d rather take a walk ’long the beach,’ she responded. She cast an interrogating gaze inland and spotted what looked like a café at the juncture of beach and boardwalk. ‘I’ll meet you there for lunch,’ she announced, pointing. ‘See ya later, yeah?’ and without waiting for a reply she headed off, making for a steep stairway cut into the cliff which looked to lead to the beach.
The Doctor and Jack both stared at her retreating back in surprise.
‘What just happened?’ the Doctor asked in confusion.
‘I d’know, Doc. I really, really, d’know’.
Morosely, the Doctor turned back to the TARDIS, pulling the doors closed. ‘Guess it’s just you and me, then,’ the Doctor observed. For once Jack felt no desire to make a wittily suggestive retort. Contenting himself with a cocked eyebrow and a half smile, he fell into step beside the Time Lord as they made their way to the best shops in the system without the universe’s most capable shopper.
Chapter 5
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