Doctor Who: "A Different Fate" (2/?)
Title: A Different Fate
Chapter: Escaping Fate
Beta:
jhumor
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: FRT (PG-13)
Character(s): Kate Howard (OFC), Melody Pond, Jack Harkness, Eleventh Doctor
Warning: Major AU
Spoiler(s): Just for "A Good Man Goes to War" so far
Author's Notes: This was originally going to be used for oc_bigbang, but personal problems had made me drop out. But I am going to be working on this story and will try to post as often as I can. This story is going to be shorter than originally intended, but I may turn it into a series if people like it.
A/N 2: If you want to picture Kate, I casted actress Olivia Wilde in that part.
Summary: Kate Howard was just a young woman trying to get through life. Who knew that she was going to be kidnapped by people from the future and forced to raise a baby. Will she be able to ever find a way to escape along with the baby? And what will she do if she does?
"lala" = thoughts
"lala"= phone/comm discussion
Chapter 1
***
“Where are we going?” asked Kate as she followed Jack out into the courtyard. Strands of her shoulder-length brown hair were blowing in the wind, while Melody was gurgling with delight at the feel of the wind on her face.
Keeping his focus ahead, Jack replied, “To meet up with the Doctor.”
“Who?”
“The man you asked me about. Remember when Kovarian told you the Melody was going to be used as a weapon against a dangerous man? It was the Doctor she was talking about.”
“So why are we meeting up with him?”
“Because she was lying.”
“Obviously,” she said as they came to the edge of the forest. “But what can he do to help us?”
Jack stopped and looked at her with cool pity in his eyes. “You don’t belong in this century, Kate,” he replied.
“Stating the obvious.”
“The Doctor is a Time Lord. The last of the Time Lords. He can travel the whole of Time and Space. He will be able to get you back to where you belong,” he explained. Melody then began to fuss. He looked down at her and put his hand gently against her cheek. “She deserves a good life.”
“What happened to her mother?” asked Kate, pulling the baby close to her. Indeed, the little one had become very dear to her over the last month; and nothing was ever going to change that.
“Ask him when you meet him. He’ll be able to tell you.” With that, Jack walked into the forest.
Kate followed behind him. The towering trees were impressive and very exotic. It was almost like a jungle; except instead of the leaves being a green color, she saw that they ranged from navy blue to dark purple to golden yellow. She had never seen anything like this before. “So, I am really on another planet?” she wondered aloud.
“Welcome to a portion of the Gamma Forests,” replied Jack. “It’s a neutral world. Everyone can come here and be at peace without fear of being caught. Even if they were, the person would not be extradited.”
“A haven,” she murmured. She smiled in delight as the cool wind blew and the sun hit her face. She had not felt this since she was captured. “So how is the Church able to operate on a planet like this? If the Forests are neutral and peaceful, why would they let that organization be here?” she asked.
“Let’s just say the Church has its influence.”
“Ah.” It made some kind of sense. Even from where she was from, organizations used a lot of the same tactics. A person just needed to know how to counter them. Being brought out of her musing by a small cry, Kate looked down to see that Melody was fussy. And that she knew why. “She’s hungry,” she stated. “I didn’t grab anything for her to eat.”
“Considering that you had no time,” stated Jack.
“You can say that. Are we going to be reaching anywhere soon?”
“We’ll be reaching my speeder in a few minutes. The nearest spaceport is about an hour from here. When we get there, we should be able to find supplies,” he answered. He turned his head slightly and added, “The fruit around here isn’t harmful. Grab some and see if she’ll eat it.”
The young woman looked around and saw what the captain was talking about. A variety of strange fruit were growing about them, with some even looking interesting to try. Grabbing what looked like a kind of grape, she put one close to Melody’s mouth and said, “Come on, girlie. Try this on for size.” The baby moved her head slightly to study before taking a bite out of it. She appeared to enjoy it, grabbing it into her tiny hands and munching on it. “Good girl,” cooed Kate as she hurried to catch up with her rescuer.
A little while later, they came into a clearing with some sort of vehicle parked in the middle of it. “Jack’s transportation, most likely,” thought Kate as Jack opened the passenger seat door for her, allowing her to get in. He then got into the driver’s seat. When he saw that she had Melody tightly secured close to her, he ordered, “Hold on tight to her. We’re going fast.”
Before she knew it, Kate was holding on to Melody for dear life. “This is entirely too fast,” she complained.
“We need to gain some ground before they can regroup. Before we left, I shut down a lot of their security systems. It won’t take them long to get them back up and running. I want to get as much distance between us and them as I can.”
“Won’t they check spaceport first?”
“We won’t be there long enough to worry about it,” he replied as he hit the accelerator harder. Kate screamed. “I thought you would be a daredevil!” said Jack.
“Not with seven-month-old in my arms, I’m not,” she retorted. Jack just laughed as they sped off.
***
True to Jack’s word, they arrived at the spaceport about an hour later. Kate stayed in the speeder while Jack went into what appeared to be a store. “Well, Melody, looks like we are going to be getting out of here,” she said to the baby. Melody smiled at her; Kate had the baby sitting on the console, which seemed to make her happy. Jack managed to find her a small string to play with, so now she was playing tug of war with her. “At this rate, you’re going to become an excellent pet,” teased the woman as she laughed at the baby’s antics.
The marketplace they were parked in was rather small, with white-washed building making up the square. Stalls were opened with merchants attempting to sell their fares to interested women. Children were about, playing with balls and sticks. It looked like a scene Kate would find someplace on Earth, if it was not for that fact that she was a million light-years away.
A sudden sound startled her, and she looked up to see a distressed Jack. “What is it? What’s wrong?” she asked.
“We need to leave now!” he said, urgency evident in his voice. He began to grab his gun and what supplies he could get and put them in a bag; his gun remained in his hand.
As she got out of the speeder, she asked, “What is going on, Jack?”
“They found us faster than I anticipated. We need to keep moving,” he replied. Kate’s blood froze as she clutched Melody closer to her. There was no way the baby was going back; she would rather die than to see that happen. She attached herself to Jack’s side, not willing to even let him get out of her sight. “Just act as if we are a normal couple out shopping,” he whispered.
Kate did her best to keep a smile on her face, but the feeling of being tracked kept gnawing at her no matter how hard she attempt to ignore it. But, when she heard someone yell “There they are”, fear suddenly came to the forefront. Jack pushed her ahead of him, telling her to keep running. She ran with everything she could muster, holding Melody close to her. All she could think about was finding a way to get Melody out of there.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the wind began to pick up and loud machine-like sound began to fill the air. Kate screamed as debris began hitting her. Once it calmed down, Jack pushed her forward, ordering, “Get into that box!”
Kate did as she was told and made run for the box while gunshots began to fill the air. Reaching the box, she pushed it open and ran in. She turned back around to see Jack making his way to her. “Come on, Jack!” she cried.
He continued to run and managed to get in just before someone caught up with him. Slamming the door before anyone could get in, he yelled, “Get us out of here!”
“Hold on!” another male voice yelled back. Kate felt Jack wrap an arm around her waist just when everything started to be jerked about. She held on to the baby tightly until everything went still.
“You’re still a lousy driver!” complained Jack as he let go of Kate. She proceeded to open her eyes to see…well, she did not know what she was seeing. It was a very large circular room with three levels. On the second level was a hexagonal console that had instruments like a typewriter, a telegraph, and a gramophone on it. There was some sort of a reddish-yellow glow to the lighting while the column coming out of the console was a bluish-green.
And standing next to the console was a young man, dressed in a light blue shirt with a burgundy bow tie, black trousers, suspenders, and a tweed jacket. His hair was dark and slick yet wavy. “Where are we?” she asked.
The man smiled. “Welcome to the TARDIS, Kate Howard!” he greeted as he walked toward her. He stopped in front of her and continued, “I’m the Doctor. And you are protecting something precious.” He looked at Melody and placed the tips of his fingers against her face. The baby giggled and grabbed one of his fingers, proceeding to suck on it.
Looking at the Doctor, the man who was apparently not dangerous, Kate asked, “Now will someone tell me what is going on?”
Now on to Chapter 3.