taxonomites | 002: Down to Business [Visual]

Martha, wearing a white coat and a businesslike expression, switched on the tablet to address the citizens of Taxon. She was sitting behind the desk in her surgery, which she'd opened just in time for whatever was about to hit the city. It wasn't a particularly elaborate building, but it was well stocked and she had a lot of experience when it came to treating people in unusual or unpleasant circumstances. She was as prepared as she would ever be.

"Hi," she began, her voice crisp and clear. "I'm Martha Jones. Doctor Martha Jones. I think we all know by now that something - something bad - is about to happen to the city ..."

She liked to think that it was impossible to tell how many times she'd rehearsed this speech. She'd been on the stage with Shakespeare, for goodness sake. She could definitely talk to a little metal device.

"I've not been here long, but it looks like I'm the only medical professional in the city. I've just opened a surgery in Central, but if you need me for anything, you can contact me on the tablet at any time. I've got a lot of experience when it comes to working in the field."

She had learned how to operate on little or no sleep during the Master's year in power, too. Despite her best efforts, and the best efforts of both Tom and Mickey, she'd never managed to break the habit.

"And Kaylee? Lorne said I should speak to you about supplies for the bunkers you're building?"

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Fred smiles back at Martha, looking very grateful. "Thank you, Doctor Jones. I'm hoping this'll all blow over and no one will need your services, but it's good to know they're there." Her smile turns a bit wry. "You look like you're fairly used to this sort of thing. Or ready for it, at the very least."

The gratitude was a pleasant surprise, and made Martha smile, but it wasn't necessary. UNIT had made a policy decision not to broadcast what they did or why they did it. They didn't get thanked.

"The ghosts are new," she admitted. She hadn't decided how she felt about them. As long as she didn't see the Master or the Doctor, she'd probably be all right. "And Martha's fine."

"All right, Martha. I'm Fred, just so you know. And yeah, the ghosts are new to me, too," she replied with a shrug. "Well, at least we've all got experience. With so many of us used to surviving all these ends of the world, we're bound to get through it, right?"

She'd really like to think so, at least.

"I used to think it was just me."

She remembered - she'd always remember - the end of the world. What the Master had done. On one hand, she didn't want anyone to suffer as she had. On the other hand, part of her was relieved to know that she wasn't entirely alone. Shared experiences made it a lot easier to form bonds and a lot easier to trust.

"Nice to meet you, Fred."

A strange name, but it wasn't the strangest thing she'd heard here. She couldn't even tell if her new acquaintance was human.

A look of sympathy- or perhaps just empathy- crosses Fred's face when Martha said it was just her. There was a point in Fred's life when she thought she'd be nothing but alone, and then it was repeated later (but for a much shorter time) when it was just her hiding from the entirety of Los Angeles. Having Angel and the rest of his group the past few years had been practically a miracle after that.

So Fred bit her lip and nodded knowingly at Martha. "Being alone's never fun," she said, understating it by quite a bit. "At least we don't have to worry about that here. It's really good to meet you too, Martha. I'm sure I'll be seeing you around a lot soon," she added with a smile. "Maybe we can avoid swapping apocalypse stories sometime."

"That sounds like fun," she said, with apparent sincerity. If nothing else, it would give her a chance to learn about a different world - ending and recovering again - from her own. Martha didn't travel the universe anymore, but part of her attention would always be directed at the stars.

With that in mind:

"Sorry, can I just ask ... you are from Earth, aren't you?"

Fred nodded at that- it was probably a good idea to check. "Yep. From Earth and totally human. I think just about all of us are from different dimensions, technically, because there's lots of different timelines floating around. But a lot of those sure seem to have Earth in it. I did spend a few years away, though, in a hell dimension. It was...really good to get back." And a little confusing, but she figured it out eventually.

"I'm guessing you're from Earth, too?" she asked, with a bit of a smile. "Feel free to tell me if I'm totally wrong."

"A hell dimension?" Martha repeated, quizzically. She'd heard of parallel universes, of course, but that was a phrase that she'd only picked up in Taxon. "Do you know Lorne?"

Because the population of Taxon wasn't that large and a few people seemed to have universes in common.

"That's me," she said, cheerfully. "London in the 21st century. And I know what you mean about getting back. I ... traveled, for a long time. Sometimes it takes you a while to remember where home is."

And the people who needed you.

Fred brightened up a bit as soon as Martha mentioned Lorne. "Oh, yes! He's a good friend actually, and I'm pretty sure we were talking about the same place- Pylea. He's not really like any of the demons there, though, which...trust me, that's a very good thing."

At Martha's talk about traveling, she sobered, nodding along with her. "Sounds like you know just how it goes. I kept looking for home, when I got back, and I eventually found out I was already there, with all the people who cared about me." It took her parents to reappear for her to know that. "I'm from Texas, same century- right at the beginning of it, actually, I should say. It was only 2004 when I was brought over here."

"He isn't exactly what I imagined a demon to be like," she said, and Fred's enthusiasm made it impossible not to smile. She liked Lorne. He'd welcomed her to the city and been consistently kind and friendly to her since, with absolutely no ulterior motive. "I thought he might be alien at first."

"2010 for me. We're actually pretty close."

In an alien city - an alien city populated with people from so many different times and so many different worlds - there was something strange about that.

"I can see how you'd think that, and I guess it's technically true, him coming from another dimension and all. But it's kind of weird- I found out when I got back to LA that a lot of demons are like him. I mean, you've got your occasional baby-eating demon in there, but for the most part, they're just different." She really felt strongly about that, and it was obvious by the determined tone in her voice.

The declaration of her time made Fred nod. "We are pretty close- in fact a lot of people seem to be from the 2000's. I wonder why that is? If there's a reason they decided to pull a lot of people from then, when they could really get them from anytime. Maybe familiarity..." She thought about it and eventually shrugged.

"He is an alien by my standards." He wasn't from Earth and that was all that mattered. (Humans had a tendency to call anything that wasn't human alien, after all, regardless of similarities that occasionally outnumbered the differences.) The tone of her voice suggested that she didn't mind that in the slightest.

"I used to wonder why so many aliens came to Earth," she said, "But it was because we were so noisy. We just attracted their attention. Maybe we all caught their eye?"

Because none of them came from ordinary backgrounds. They were all important. They were all worthy of collection.

002: Down to Business [Visual]

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