Up a Tree (p. 31) - Epilogue
It took them three days to return to the home tree.
They stopped at the mine to put George into Arnoff’s capable hands, and continued immediately, saying their goodbyes and leaving Darvish and the Brothers to make their reports.
They arrived back at the home tree late at night. Everyone was already asleep, but Sondherson and Emma greeted them and hustled them back up the tree. Fortunately, since they had arrived by shuttle, they didn’t have to climb the whole tree back up.
They cleaned up in Emma’s apartment, ate a quick meal that Jake had left out for them, and climbed into their biologist assigned cubby holes and slept for twelve hours straight. Even the Doctor.
-----
They reconvened in Sondherson’s office the next morning.
“I’ve already got the report from Erik and his crew, so now I’d like to hear your version,” Sondherson said as they all sat down.
Rory and Amy looked at each other, then looked at the Doctor.
“Well,” he began.
It didn’t take long to tell, with all the actual experience stripped off.
“So you reprogrammed an ancient alien device,” Sondherson clarified. “How?”
“I couldn’t get in from the outside, I’m assuming the Hanaii had the same problem and that’s why the world and the Trelwin ended up in this situation.” The Doctor waved a hand around to indicate the whole planet and its history. “But it had had to open up to incorporate humans into its program. So while it scanned me, I reprogrammed it.”
“Using Zeke as a translator,” Sondherson observed.
The Doctor nodded. “Hanaii programming is fascinatingly complex, but I’d have had no hope without Zeke acting as my interface.”
Sondherson glanced out his window. “So they’ve become telepathic now.” Sondherson rubbed his jaw. “That will make it easier to communicate with them, I guess.”
The Doctor shook his head.
“No?” Sondherson said, looking a bit shellshocked.
“The telepathy was a side effect of the magnetic vortex in the zone. Outside that location they’re just Trelwins.”
“But,” Rory said. “Now that the monster isn’t suppressing them, won’t they grow back into Hanaii again?”
The Doctor shook his head. “They’ve evolved. The time of the Hanaii is over. Although,” he turned to Sondherson, “you’re lucky enough to still be able to enjoy the benefits of their genius.”
“How so?” Sondherson asked.
“A stable wormhole connecting this isolated star system directly to a well populated part of the universe?” the Doctor said. “It's almost surely artificial. And I’d be surprised if you aren’t using the home trees for the very purpose they were engineered for.”
Sondherson’s eyebrows popped up. “They were engineered?” He looked around at his home, as if seeing the wood for the first time.
The Doctor grinned. “The Trelwin might not be Hanaii anymore, but, if you’re lucky, in a few generations your world will have two intelligent races. What they become now, will depend on you, and them,” the Doctor waved a hand out the window. They all leaned to look.
Outside, Nelda was surrounded by a group of human children on the edge of the platform, a group of Trelwin children perched in the branches of the tree. She was teaching them sign language.
-----
“Well, I definitely understand now why you choose to live in the trees,” Rory said. They’d gathered around the window, watching Nelda. Rory’s eyes drifted beyond the platform, beyond the branches to the mass of sweltering jungle far below.
A cool breeze blew in the window, the tree leaves rustled, puffy white clouds floated by beneath them.
Deran turned and smiled at him for that new understanding. “And with the monster destroyed, we’re that much safer,” Deran said.
“It isn’t,” the Doctor said in a low voice from behind them.
Sondherson whipped around. “But you said...”
“It’s been rendered harmless,” the Doctor continued quietly, unusually serious. “It’s been reprogrammed and its transmission base destroyed, but it still exists.”
“But...” said Rory.
“How?” Amy demanded.
He looked at them. “I turned back for a last look as we were leaving. I saw the flash of it, hanging over the destruction. It was masked by the setting sun, I don’t think anyone else saw.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Sondherson asked.
The Doctor put his hands in his pockets. “I thought someone should know. As I told Erik, it’s Hanaii technology, it’s tied into the planet’s energy field, it will exist as long as the planet does. It will continue to monitor the planet, watching it evolve, but it can no longer act.
“But you don’t want people stumbling on it and messing with it when they don’t know what they’re doing.” He ignored Amy and Rory’s wry glance. “Best to let it fade back into legend. But it’s always best to have someone who knows all the facts. Think of it as an inheritance.”
Abruptly his mood changed, he grinned and clapped his hands, bouncing on his toes. “Now!” his eyebrows bobbed up, eyes gleaming. “About my Tardis!”
-----
“Heave!”
The Doctor, in his shirtsleeves and braces, sleeves rolled up, stood on the overarching root over the spring fed pool at the base of the tree. The air smelled of moss and cold water and bright growing things as the leaves rustled in the shade.
Twenty volunteers manned a double row of ropes looped over the root and connecting down to the Tardis lying 25 feet down on the bottom of the crystal clear pool.
“Heave!” the Doctor yelled again, waving his arms up like a conductor, or a pharaoh raising the pyramids. His “slaves” pulled, the water swelled and the Tardis started to rise.
Rory, farther along the root shook his head. “Erik’s going to shove him in if he keeps doing that,” he commented. Amy just grinned beside him.
With the volunteers muscle power, and the Doctor’s “direction” they hauled the Tardis up from its sandy, watery rest. They looped a rope around the ropes holding it up, and with half the volunteers adding slack, and the other half pulling forward, they pulled the Tardis sideways onto the beach.
They threw a rope around the lantern on top, and with others pushing on the bottom edge, they tilted her up and rocked her to a stand on the verge, water streaming off her.
The Doctor clapped like a child and skittered over and hugged his faithful machine, yelling thank you’s and appreciation to the applauding workers.
He nipped inside to check the systems.
Rory sidled up to Erik, who’d actually orchestrated the rescue, with Sondherson providing the resources. Their original safari team was ranged around them, providing protection.
“If it’s all the same to you, Erik,” Rory said quietly. “I’d rather not have the Doctor pilot the Tardis back up the tree, there’s no telling where we’d end up. And I’d really like to make it to the party tonight.”
Amy stood behind him, still dressed in Erik’s sister’s clothes. “Really,” Amy nodded, “He’s a terrible pilot.”
The Doctor came whirling out of the Tardis, he patted the wooden door. “All ship shape and Bristol fashion.” He clapped his hands. “Just a quick hop upstairs and we’ll be set. We can even load everybody up and take everyone in one go!” he offered magnanimously, waving toward his very small and cramped vehicle. Smiling maniacally.
Erik stared at him for a second, then flicked his eyes over the dilapidated box. He walked over and slung a heavy, beefy arm over the Time Lord’s shoulders. “In this case, Doctor, it would be our honor to haul your transport pod up the tree ourselves. Think of it as a thank you for all you’ve done for us.” He started herding the Doctor away, back toward the tree.
“Oh, but it’s no trouble,” the Doctor insisted. “I’d be happy to...”
“No, no, I insist,” Erik interrupted him, waving one large hand surreptitiously behind his back. Bill grinned and started organizing everyone to transport the Tardis. “It’s the least we can do,” Erik declared.
Despite the Doctor’s protests, Erik had the Tardis and everyone hauled up the tree in the emergency lifts.
The incongruous blue box rose majestically past every level and platform, people gathered and pointed and waved. The Doctor waved cheerfully back.
The volunteers jockeyed the Tardis through the upper branches, and set it in pride of place at the far edge of the main platform outside the visitor’s domicile.
Emma and Sondherson stood on the platform. Sondherson stared at the old fashioned blue box with its wood panels and chipped paint. “That’s your transport?” he asked, incredulously.
Axel tipped his straw hat back on his weathered head. “You’re braver than you look.”
-----
That afternoon there was a huge celebration. It was kicked off by the official declaration that there had been no new monster incidents since the safari group had reported the complex destroyed five days earlier. There was a huge cheer.
Up on the main platform in front of the visitor’s hall, the party was in full swing. The atrium was decorated with streamers and bunting, flowery garlands graced every rail and rope line. Barrels and kegs of mead and wine were broached, and tables groaned under the weight of food.
Everyone called back and forth to each other, streamers of confetti were popped and fell down to tangle on branches and platform edges.
Even the Trelwins joined in, stealing treats off the tables and watching the excitement from the treelimbs, bouncing. The Doctor saw a brown Trelwin he thought was Chitchi swing down and swipe a cupcake off the sideboard, swing back into the branches and offer it to a very pretty gold and brown splotched Trelwin, who shared it with him.
A local orchestra played lively music and everyone clapped and danced. Jake was taking a turn at some cumbersome instrument that required cranking a handle and playing keys and made a jolly wheezing sound.
Aaron danced with Nelda, although it was more like him holding her long white arms up high and kicking his feet to each side of her, as she crouched in front of him and swayed to the music. Erik and his mother swooped by in a waltz, clearing a path across the dance floor, massive and light on their feet. And Zeke danced with anyone who would turn to face him, his arms waving high over his head, hands lobbed forward at the wrists, his head bobbing.
“I can’t believe you taught him that dance,” Amy said, watching as Cindy lifted her hands up and imitated the elderly Trelwin.
“Why not? He’s a natural!” the Doctor grinned, holding his arms out, beaming.
Rory walked up, holding up a platter of local delicacies over the heads of the dancers and dashing children alike.
“Blueberry fudge!” the Doctor pounced.
“Hey!” Rory swiveled his plate away, not fast enough. “Get your own.”
-----
Everyone mingled, talked, laughed and danced. The people who had survived the monster wore large purple flowers in their hair. Amy’s clashed horribly with her red locks. She danced a dance with Erik, while Bill manhandled Rory around the dancefloor.
The Doctor boogied with Cindy, but was then cut in on when Axel tapped him on the shoulder.
Aaron cornered the Doctor for a discussion of Hanaii technology that had all the people around them gradually giving them a wider and wider berth.
All the Safari members were stopped again and again to retell the story, answer questions, and clarify facts. The story was already becoming legend.
-----
Things eventually wound down. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory hugged Cindy and Emma goodbye before the grandmother took her exhausted little one off to bed. Jake tossed them a jaunty salute before following. They thanked Sondherson for his hospitality. And Axel for his tour of the farms.
The Doctor nodded rather uncomfortably to Erik. “See?” he said, expansively. “No paperwork!”
Erik scowled at him then turned to Sondherson. “You didn't make him fill out a report in triplicate?”
Sondherson just threw his hands in the air and shook his head in a hopeless “don't ask” gesture. They followed Erik's family into the visitor's quarters.
The band played one last number, then packed up and left. The last few lingering couples finished their dances and filtered away. The Trelwins slumped in the crooks of the branches, already asleep. People wandered off to their homes, replete.
Doors closed, hails faded away, and silent night descended on the tree. Party debris littered the platform as the Doctor, Amy and Rory stole away to the Tardis.
Amy and Rory went inside, looking forward to sleeping in their own beds again. The Doctor lingered in the doorway, looking out at the sylvan night, hearing the rustle of the leaves, the cool breeze swirling through the atrium, the silver shine of moonlight on the giant branches.
“It’s a lovely world. I’ll be sorry to leaf.”
“I heard that!” Amy yelled from inside.
The Doctor grinned and stepped back. He shut the door.
And the Tardis slipped quietly away.
~ The End ~
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