~*Strange Happenings*~

Part three of "First Encounters" Enjoy! PS- these are all rough drafts. when the story is finished, I intent to go back and fix things/ make improvements, so if you have any thoughts, please leave them in the comments.

Ross awoke blearily to the blinding light of late morning, a moment of confusion engulfing her for a moment, the trappings of an unfamiliar room filling her vision as she squirmed up the cushions to get a better view. The couch she had woken on was situated against the back wall of a long room in which a number of peculiarities lay scattered about.  Directly in front of the cushioned bench, a large blank viewing screen strategically blocked her view of a third of the room. Above and behind its shiny black surface, the nagging yet cheerful sunlight spilled in from three pyramid-style windows. To the right of the laughably primitive piece of tech (How do I know that again?) she counted three doors, one of which she hoped led to a quick escape. At the far end of the room, a table and chairs stood on a patterned blue rug in front of a cooking station of sorts. Pushing a heavy but constraining blanket onto the floor, Ross readied herself to jump up and make a dash for the nearest door, but a clicking sound caught her ear, and, as she slowly rose from the couch, the sight of a messy brown-haired youth brought back the few memories she now possessed in an mid-boggling instant. The clicking continued for another minute or two while the disheveled boy sat at a desk, wedged between two overflowing bookcases, staring intently into a smaller viewing screen, as his fingers raced along at lightning speed over a bank of buttons and controls from which the noise emanated. Ross hadn’t realized she was staring, but he must have sensed her curious eyes for his fingers paused in their earnest quest and the boy, Alex she recalled, slowly swiveled in his chair to face her.

Ross attempted to disguise the awkward moment as she quickly averted her eyes to the intriguing pattern of the blue rug in the dining area of the room. She pointed in a feeble attempt to cement an interest in the rug and broke the silence, “Interesting pattern. What planet is that from?”

One of Alex’s eyebrows rose in bemusement. “Uh, Earth?”

“Oh. Fascinating. Good choice.” Ross was already regretting the rug diversion. The look on Alex’s face clearly stated that he thought it an absurd subject.

                “Okay,” he said, “Well, are you hungry? I already ate but there are tons of leftovers. I usually cook for myself and my flat mate, but he’s out of town for a week and old habits die hard, so…”

Finding the room a bit chilly, Ross grabbed the blanket off the floor and wrapped up in its still warm loveliness. Considering his proposal of food, she discovered that her stomach was practically screaming at her for something substantial. “Actually, that is the best idea in the universe. I am starving.”

“Knew it,” he said and stood, gesturing for her to follow him to the far end of the room. “plates are up there” he pointed to a cupboard, “I’ll get your food from the fridge.” He opened the door on a large white box and produced a bowl of an odd-looking mixture. “Scrambled eggs with sausage and veg.” he explained. “Oh, and there’s the microwave and silverware drawer. You can eat wherever, just don’t make a mess.” He turned to go back to his previous distraction, but three steps in he turned back. “And, sorry if I seem a bit occupied, because… well, because I’m a bit occupied, really. I’m at a critical point in my, um… paper, and I can’t stop until I get past it. Just so you know.”

“Okay, sounds good.” Ross thought it a bit odd that he would need to clarify this but didn’t ask as she reached for the knob on the cupboard door. Pulling her selected plate from a stack, the departing clay disk disturbed a gaggle of glass cups, and, almost as if time itself slowed to a crawl, she watched as one of them teetered on the edge of the wooden shelf then cascaded gracefully down only to shatter into a mess of pointy shards on the counter below. Somewhere between trying to catch the doomed cup and shielding herself from the blast of glass missiles, one of said missiles succeeded in slicing open her right palm. “Ah, Rassilon’s rod!” she cursed, wondering where exactly the choice of words came from, as a stream of blood trickled down to her fingertips. Alex, about to settle into his chair again, heard her cry and rushed back over, nearly tearing his jacket off as he ran to use as a makeshift bandage.

Before he could yet again try out his limited first aid skills, an odd familiarity stopped him dead in his tracks. He and Ross stared in amazement as the same golden energy that had exploded from the injured woman only earlier that morning began spewing and swirling out of Ross’s cut palm. Yellow-orange dust surrounded her hand, and in a matter of seconds it was gone and where the deep gash had been only moments ago showed perfectly renewed skin, a few drops of blood still clinging to her fingers the only evidence of the injury. Ross continued to stare in wonder and slight horror at her miraculously healed hand, Alex slowly backing into a chair and sitting down. “…Holy crap,” he finally said, an insane idea forming in his head. The woman was injured. Ross was injured. The same thing happened to both of them, only on much tamer this time. What if Ross was the same woman who he had rescued from the space craft? Perhaps her kind, whatever she was, could rapidly heal, even change their whole body if they were hurt badly enough.

Ross spluttered before attempting to speak again, “I—I—I … I don’t, um… I don’t know what just happened.” She held her hand out as if it might spontaneously combust at any moment. “Alex, what’s going on?” A hint of fear slipped into her voice as her forehead wrinkled in worry.

“I’m not sure, but I think I have a theory.”

Half an hour later they were sitting in the corner of an artsy coffee shop talking in hushed voices about the events of the morning and the possibility that she might be a bit different from the ordinary person. “Hang on. Are you saying I’m an alien?” Ross glanced around to make sure no one had heard.

                “I don’t know. Maybe? Well, probably not… I mean, aliens don’t exist, right? Has to some other explanation.”

“But, Alex, you said that the woman you saved sort of exploded with that same energy and then I took her place, but people can’t just trade places like that without someone noticing. So if I am her and she—I crashed in that space ship thing, maybe that’s why my memory’s gone. From the shock of the crash. That or from the… change. And, what do you mean, ‘aliens don’t exist’?” She shifted uncomfortably in her seat and took another bite from a cheesy bagel. Somehow she still felt hungry, despite having already eaten three.

Sipping his coffee, Alex’s eyes lit up with another idea “Or maybe it’s government testing. You know, missing people really being used as scientific experiments. Wipe their brain and they never know where they’ve been or what they’ve been doing.” He sat back and nodded as if he had just solved the mystery. Ross however was not convinced in the slightest.

“Oh, come on. Now you’re just being absurd. What kind of government would have that kind of technology? I gather that this is no common occurrence on this planet, yes?” Without waiting for an answer she went on. “Well, then, apparently I’m something different. A different species, if you like. The only question is, what. And how did I end up here?”

Alex boggled at her for a moment. “Okay, except that’s impossible… isn’t it? I know there’s something a bit odd about you, but you certainly look human.” He took another sip and nearly choked  as another brilliant idea swam into his mind. “Oh, My god! What if you’re a mutant and the healing thing is your super power!? Like in X-Men!” Her response came in the form of a blank face and two raised eyebrows. “…What? …it could happen.” He said trying to hold on to the little credibility his argument possessed.

“Okay,” she said spreading cream cheese onto the other half of the bagel, “so, thus far what have we come up with? Alien species from a distant planet or galaxy, a subject for a top-secret scientific test sanctioned by the government, and a mutant who somehow comes with a package deal of super powers. Are those our brilliant ideas then?”

Before he could answer, the door to the café opened with a jingle as his two friends Devin and Paul made a beeline for their table, only slowing when they saw Ross sitting across from Alex. “Ah, crap.” Alex muttered under his breath and stared into his coffee. How had he forgotten about café breakfast on Saturdays? Well, considering all that had transpired this morning, it really shouldn’t surprise him. The new arrivals faltered for a moment before sidling up to the table, fixing Alex with pointed stares that seemed to ask, “You have company? And we don’t know about it? And it’s a girl?!”

Alex stared back just as meaningfully trying desperately to convey that now was not the best of times. One of them, the taller of the two with a mop of blonde hair which kept falling into his grey eyes made a “What?” face at Alex and spoke, “Okay, dude, can you stop looking at us like that and introduce us to your, um… friend?” Alex accepted defeat as they crammed into the booth next to him, practically smashing him to the wall. Devin, who qualified as blonde in both senses of the word and just as reckless and blunt, chuckled gesturing over to Ross. “So, you’re the new girlfriend, huh? Thought he’d never recover from that thing with April.” Ross tried to smile but was too confused to have much success.

“Um, hello, I’m Rosslinchaequentenoa?” The introduction sounded more like a question than anything else.

“Wohoa! No kidding?” He nodded reverently as if she’d just told him she was a wise shaman then gave her a blank look. “You’re a what now?”

Alex let out an exasperated sigh, “Ross these are my demented friends Devin” he gestured to the confused blonde, “and Paul.” Paul, dark-haired with glasses and wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, gave her a shy wave and a mumbled hello. Alex now addressed them in an attempt to clear up the confusion. “Ross is just visiting for a while, and she is not my girlfriend… Oh, and just so you know the ‘thing with April’ was never a big deal.”

Paul nodded unconvincingly, “Uhuh.”

“Okay… so you’re a ross-lincher-what?” Devin still looked pathetically confused.

Ross smiled pityingly at him and said, “My name. You know what? Just call me Ross. Everyone else does.” She paused, now confused herself. Who was everyone? The only person that she recalled using that name for her was Alex, and she hadn’t even known him for very long. “At least I think that’s what everyone calls me…” She knew that somewhere in her mind was hidden the memories of a whole life before this morning. But where was it?! She could feel the shadow of the past baring down on her, but no matter how hard she tried to drag it into the surface and into the light, any vague clue would just slip into another dark corner, like something in the corner of the eye that disappears every time you turn to see it. I wish I could remember already!

Devin went on not seeming to notice her odd moment. “Yeah, awesome. If everyone calls you that then I’m good with it too.” He shifted his attention back to Alex, “Um, so, we were going to tell you about this party thing up the mountain tonight,” his eyes slipped briefly back to Ross, “but, you know, if you’re busy, I understand.” Paul elbowed him in the ribs.

Alex narrowed his eyes slightly and curtly replied. “No I’m not busy, and neither is Ross, and I’m sure she’d like to come. Ross?”

Ross wasn’t sure why they were getting so snappy but didn’t bother to ask as much bigger questions were on her mind. “Yeah, why not? I’m not busy, like he said.”

Devin’s face broke into an insane grin, “Okay, awesome. Yeah that’s great. Well, hey buddy, I sent you the info on facebook, so whenever you want to come up is cool.”

At last the timid Paul spoke up. “Yeah, well, it was really nice to meet you Ross, but uh we have things to do, so…”

“Oh, dude, you are so right.” Apparently Devin had just remembered something important. “All right, catch you guys later. We’ve got to run.” Ross watched as Alex’s two very odd friends quickly shuffled out of the booth, unpinning Alex from the wall, hurried to the exit and hopped on two wheeled transport contraptions and rode off into the city.

Alex watched until they turned out of sight then let out a puff of air. “I hope you don’t mind going to this party. They’ll never get off my back if I don’t go and end up spending the night alone, erm… with you.”

“Odd thing to be upset about,” Ross mused, “It’s not like I have anything to do anyways besides, you know, worry about who I am and such.”

Alex smiled. “Well maybe it will take you mind off it for a while.”

“I doubt it.” Alex pulled a small rectangular device out of his pocket. A glowing screen appeared as he tapped a few small buttons. “What’s that?” She asked. Though she had never seen a device like this, it seemed familiar.

“Hmm? Just my cell phone. Checking the party info on facebook.” After a moment he slipped the phone back in his pocket and stood. “We have the whole day. You want to see the town? Also we should probably find you some new clothes.” Alex had very politely asked his lady neighbor if Ross could borrow some clothing as her own were still mud stained and damp, and despite being a bit suspicious his neighbor had agreed.

“Only if you can find a way to keep us dry.” Ross cringed at the memory of getting completely soaked early this morning. The sky was mostly clear now except for a few mischievous clouds lurking around the horizon. “The thought of walking anywhere in the rain is not sounding very appealing at the moment.”

Alex lead the way to the dish drop bin then headed for the exit. “Hey, this is Oregon, and if there’s one thing it knows how to do, it’s rain. Trust me, we all know to have a few umbrellas on hand no matter what season it is.” Alex said as he opened the door. As he did, a cold gust of wind swept down the street, causing Ross’s hair to fly up into her face. Startled by the sudden onslaught of air and wild strands of crimson, she stepped into a patch of sunlight. The late morning sun nearly blinded her as it peered through the gaps of the tall, square buildings of downtown Portland, but she was too stunned to care as the view gave way to another image. It came and went in a millisecond, and yet the colossal city that flashed before her eyes was so real, so familiar, she knew it must be connected to her past. Towering spires, gracefully sweeping curves, balconies which appeared to have been grown from the walls, walkways and sky bridges at dizzying heights arcing gracefully from one tower to the next, a ruby red sky in which two fiery orbs blazed a rosy hue over everything, silver leafed vines determinately snaking their way up the finely carved architecture, marble statues shining in the suns, and the distant glint of shimmering forests and snow-covered mountains.

Ross held her breath as the afterimage faded from her retinas. Where have I seen it before? She desperately grappled at the image, trying to remember. Alex walked past her, figuring she was admiring the city immediately in front of them. “Really something, isn’t it?” he said looking up at the skyline.

“Yeah” Ross said quietly, though referring to an entirely different, more majestic city. Alex glanced back to find her standing stunned, eyes wide and staring, and mouth slightly agape. She looked  as if she had just found out what it was like to be hit in the face with a brick. Sure, the city was pretty this morning, but not that pretty. He cleared his throat noisily in an attempt to snap her out of whatever trance she had fallen into. Blinking, she slowly lowered her eyes to where he stood in front of her. “Ross,” Alex could tell she was only half listening to him by the distant look in her eyes, “what’s wrong?”

Ross shook her head, trying to focus on the present and what Alex had just said. “I saw… a city.” Sighing Alex nodded bemusedly and pointed at the buildings behind him. “Yes, very good, Ross” he said in a tone that bordered condescension, “that is a city.”

“No, but---” she tried but was cut off.

“So where first? Shopping for clothes or Voodoo Doughnuts? If you choose the doughnuts, you have got to try this bacon maple bar. Wow. You’ve not lived till you’ve---”

“Alex!” she nearly shouted at him. Unless the conversation was redeemed, she feared the image of the glorious city would slip away and be lost once again.

“Alright, if you want to go shopping, we can do that first, but if you consider---”

 “Just shut up a minute and listen.”

Now he was confused “…Okay. Um, what…? Did I say something?”

“That” Ross said pointing at the building “is not the city. I mean it’s not the one I saw. What I saw was… it was” she grappled for the words “Well, it was huge to begin with. It had buildings that could easily miniaturize these. And the sky was different, it was…” already she could feel the image receding into the shadows. Like watching an artist work on rewind. The colors would go first. Then the fine line and detail would fade until all that’s left is blank canvas. She closed her eyes, hoping that blocking out distractions would bring it into focus. Sure enough the image with its spires and balconies flew back to front. “Red! The sky was red.” She opened her eyes to an even more confused Alex.

He opened his mouth to speak but closed it again as he wasn’t quite sure what to say yet. He turned to the buildings then back to Ross. “Okay… explain please.”

“A scene from my past just flashed before my eyes. Looking at this one must have triggered it. Pulled it out of my memory.”

“Is it possible you could have imagined it?”

“I’m not that imaginative, and with all the strange stuff that’s happened today, do you really think it could be that easy.”

Alex nodded thoughtfully. “Okay, you’ve got a point there.”

If only there was a way to preserve it. I can’t let it slip away. Then an idea hit her. “Alex do you know anyone who paints?” If the memory wouldn’t stay in her mind, she would make sure it went somewhere else she could see it. Ross hoped she had been artistic in the past. She was about to transfer thought onto canvas.

Story Update!

For the past couple of weeks I have been very busy, and therefore have written near to nothing from where I left off on my story. But I do have a good excuse! My family and I had our last summer vacation in Disney World. Walking all day, being constantly entertained and coming back to the hotel late at night to then immediately crash till the next adventure packed day... well, you can see how there wasn't a lot of time to sit down for any amount of time and write. Concentration was nil. And now that school has started, the time I used to have for leisurely writing will be slashed brutally to make way for homework, studying, papers, and art projects. Not to worry though! Because deep in the past, lost in the mists of Time, weekends were invented by a great and mighty race just for this sort of thing. Huzzah! Three cheers for the Time Lords! For Gallifrey! For Victory! For the end of...! Ah, never mind. Part three of "First Encounters" is literally a few paragraphs from completion, so be on the lookout in the next few days. I am hoping to have it posted before the weekend is over.

~*Six Days Earlier In The Distant Future*~

(Second part of the story! Exploring Ross's near past <happening around the 51st century, three thousand years into our future>)

“Ross. Ross! Rosslinchaequentenoa!” Ross jerked her head off her glowing desk vid-screen to find the face of Professor Ameuress staring down at her. Ah, Rassilon’s rod! I must have dozed off again! She cursed silently to herself as other students pretended not to notice the exchange. “How do you expect to pass your exams if you spend nearly half your time sleeping, hmm? Don’t you want status as a Time Lady?” Ross collected herself and made an attempt to ward off any more threats.

“Yes, of course, I do. Sorry. It’s just I had a late night with this one paper and---” she began but was cut off by Ameuress. Give her the chance to make an example of you and she would strike just as surely as a silverfish with a helpless flutterwing fallen from its perch.

“I’m sorry, does that make it okay to fall asleep in my class? If you need more time for your other classes, I’m sure some can be given you, but if the history of our world, the valuable story of our proud heritage, of those brave pioneers who forged their way through space and time itself and founded our great society, is not of importance to you then, by all means, go back to sleep.” The steamed professor gave her a long hard look and continued. “But if you’re even thinking of establishing a place in Time Lord society, I suggest you take some notes. Or I suppose I could always fail you now?”

For a few seconds Ross just gaped at her. Ross wanted to stand up and yell in Ameuress’s face. What?! Excuse me? Did you just threaten to flunk me because I accidentally fell asleep though a dull speech about how wonderful our oh-so-great founding father Rassilon was? But instead she just said “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. And I never said history was unimportant.”

“Never said you did.” The cranky professor retorted, flipping her black hair back in annoyance. “But you could at least pretend to take some interest.” And with this last remark, she turned and stomped back to the center of the hexagonally vaulted room. All around Ross, fellow students raised their eyebrows in common bewilderment. The professor’s new regeneration must have made her a tad more cranky than normal. Before the punishment for falling asleep in class had been a loud clearing of the throat and a hard, meaningful look, but lately she had vamped up the reprimands.

For another hour Ross forced herself to pay attention to the Triumphs Of Rassilon, explained in painful detail, then bolted from the room as soon as the six tower bells started ringing. Though classes had ended for the day, she was not yet ready to head up to her quarters. First to talk to Professor Kranssen, completely opposite to Ameuress in almost every way and by far her favorite. In less than a week he would be taking twelve lucky students back through time and somewhere in space to demonstrate stellar manipulation, specifically how to create a black hole. Academics aside, it offered the chance to leave Gallifrey far, far behind, at least for a while. She had only seen the poster advertising this unique field trip yesterday, and though it was probably too late, she had to go. She had to get off Gallifrey or, by the great and mighty rod of Rassilon, she was going to lose it!

As Ross raced across one of the many expansive courtyards, she almost plummeted into a group of first years entering through the far gate. Quickly traversing them, she slid through the closing gates and sprinted down a horridly long corridor, up a vast flight of spiral stairs, down another corridor, through two short-range transmat stations, one that to her irritation led even further from her intended destination and the second which thankfully brought her within the general area of Kranssen’s office. She arrived just as he was leaving, speaking a string of seemingly unrelated words to his voice print locking door. Ross Skidded to a halt and sputtered for breath, “Professor *huff* Kranssen, I need to *huff* I need---”

“Need to catch your breath, apparently” he said chuckling. After all that running, her hearts beat  violently, both dangerously close to exploding. “Here.” He gestured to an ornately designed bench that had conveniently scuttled over and settled itself next to Kranssen’s door at some point during the day. “Shall we sit while you gather your thoughts and allow your blood pressure to return to normal?” The bench shuffled and tapped an irritated talon on the marbled floor as the two Time Lords settled down on either side of its long wooden seat. Ross reflected on how moody the furniture was around the Academy. Much more so than those of her House. On her first year here, she was given a room with aggravatingly active furniture which would surreptitiously rearrange itself while she slept if only just to confuse her the following morning.

“Felling better?” Kranssen peered inquiringly at her.

Ross smiled back, finally able to speak coherently now that there was no need to gasp for breath. “Yes, thank you. Much better.”

“Sounded to me like you needed something.”

“Yes actually.” Ross felt the urgency to escape bubbling through her veins. “I wanted to talk to you about the stellar manipulation demonstration tour coming up in the next couple of days.” She could no longer keep the hope from her voice. “And I know that you’ve probably already chosen a group of students, but if someone doesn’t come through perhaps you’d consider signing me up?” With this, Ross held her breath and waited for the reply

A ridiculously pathetic expression must have been plastered to her face, for Kranssen just raised an eyebrow and looked inquisitively at her for a good minute before answering. “You know, Ross, you’re not the first one to ask. I’ve got about twenty other students waiting for my answer as well, some of them much older than you and well on their way to becoming stellar technicians.” Ross’s hearts sank as she realized this was the kindest way he could tell her no. After a short pause he continued. “However,” at the sound of his tone, a tiny twinge of hope came fluttering back, “I’ve seen how hard you work in my class and have already considered you as an applicant. You’re a good student, as I know, but it has come to my attention scores in some of your other classes are lacking. One being your history class, if I’m not mistaken?” Ross growled silently to herself in loathing. Ameuress! I should have known you’d tell my favorite professor!

Ross smoothed down her crimson robes in an attempt to maintain composure. “… It’s not my strongest subject, no.” tearing her concentration from a particularly fascinating anomaly that was a lose string, she beseeched him once again as a final attempt. “I may not have the best marks, but Professor Ameuress hates me, and I don’t see the point in knowing every single detail of about a million years of Gallifrey’s history when there’s so much more out there to see. There are zillions of planets out there teaming with life and breathtaking beauty no one’s even discovered yet. Nebulas and supernovas and events throughout time that I’ve only read about but have dreamed of witnessing since I was young. Wormholes and black holes and fascinating creatures of every shape and size. I want to see it. All of it. I want to travel the stars, back and forward through time. I just don’t want to be stuck to Gallifrey forever.” Belatedly, Ross stopped herself from going on, as she certainly could have. She’d just poured out her oldest and fondest desire to a man she had only known for five years, and only then as a student-teacher relationship. A flash of empathy and regret passed momentarily through the old professor’s eyes.

“I felt the same at your age” he said quietly, but as soon as the moment passed he cleared his throat and stood, back to business. “I’ll think about it, of course. But I suggest you start improving your history score if you’re really serious about this stellar manipulation trip. If I were you, I’d talk to Professor Ameuress about extra work. Never know, it might pay off.” Turning to leave, he gave a wink and a nod and strode off to attend other business, his red robes swishing around his feet. Ross remained sitting, watching him grow smaller and smaller and finally turn a corner, out of sight. Karn, the larger of the two suns in the binary star system, was setting over the distant jagged peek of Mt. Lung, filling the corridor with a deep orange glow, casting long blue shadows along the marble floor. She couldn’t believe it. He had already considered her?! Though Ross hated the prospect of spending even more time filling her head with facts and figures about Rassilon, Omega and a zillion other horridly boring things involved in the planet’s history, her mind was already made up. A renewed determination pushed her to her feet and propelled her in a beeline to the office of the dreaded Professor Ameuress, that is if zipping through a few transmats, turning left and right down long and short corridors, climbing two flights of stairs and descending another could be called a ‘beeline.’

At the end of an extensively long hallway, lined on either side with vaulted floor-to-ceiling windows, the door, behind which Professor Ameuress inevitably brooded over students’ research papers, stood ajar. The determination, which had heroically spurred her on up to this point, quickly fell away, leaving Ross to tiptoe the last few yards, as if a very full minefield lay just beneath the shining stone floor. The distance between herself and the opposing door disappeared much too quickly for her liking, and soon the door handle was within her grasp. Taking a moment’s reminder of why this insane happenstance would be worth it in the end, she sucked in great lung’s full of air, seized the handle with both hands and pulled the wretched thing open. Before Ross had a chance to open her mouth, Professor Ameuress, buried behind a massive volume, her black hair now tied back into a braid, held up a finger for silence, forcing Ross to stand awkwardly in the doorway for another three minutes before peering bespectacled over the top of the paper and leather relic and simply saying, “Yes?”

Luckily, those three minutes gave Ross just enough time to gather her thoughts on what exactly she was going say. “Professor Ameuress, I know we’re not on the best of terms at the moment, but I’d like to rectify my, erm… laziness and lack of interest by doing…” oh, boy, this is it, “extra work. And I would seriously be more than grateful if, because of my hard work, you’d raise my mark in the class.” For the second time that day, she found herself holding her breath, waiting for a reply that would seal her fate.

“Extra work? I suppose as we do live in a civilized, highly advanced, democratic society, forged by millennia of hard working Gallifreyans, I can’t really deny you that request, can I?” Slipping off her glasses and swiveling around in her chrome chair, Ameuress put years of telekinetic practice to good use. From a high shelf in the back of the room, a small blue cube gracefully floated down into the Professor’s waiting palm. Facing back to front, she held out the crystalline cube to Ross, who took it, a slight feeling of dread building in her stomach. It was a datacube of compressed information, or in this case extra work, especially designed to rob unlucky students and politicians alike of every last ounce of sleep. How this was a remedy for falling asleep in classes was a mystery to her. Nonetheless if it meant earning a better grade in history to therefore earn a seat on the stellar manipulation time ship, she would eat enough Cacava plant to keep herself awake for a decade. “That should keep you busy. No time travel. No assistance from cousins. Trust me, I’ll know about it. My desk, Drasday morning.” And without another word, Ameuress obscured her face once again behind the cracking leather spine of the ancient history volume.

~*First Encounters*~

(This is just a rough draft, as, in my opinion, it reads much too fast, but I will be rewriting it soon!)

The escape pod screamed in a fiery blaze toward the planet below. Any human watching would mistake it for a meteorite and leave it at that, and though Rosslin was aware of this, the thought barely squeezed itself to the surface where panic and terror ran wildly through her mind. Though the drive controls now lay useless, she sat rigidly clutching them as if willing them into a lifeline. The inside of this doomed vessel was much bigger on the inside and yet as the planet grew larger and larger on the scanner, every wall and bank of computers seemed to press her into a suffocating claustrophobia. But one thought dominated the rest, putting even the prospect of a painful crash-landing in hindsight.  Please regenerate. Please please please regenerate! Oh, god, I don’t want to die! Every young Gallifreyan was trained for regeneration from a very early age, but when the time actually came for the first change, no amount of training could prepare one for the experience. First regenerations were usually done in one’s House of origin where a myriad of cousins would be there if any difficulties arose. Regenerating alone for the first time was a risky and dangerous affair. Anything could go wrong. The shock of attempting such a completely permanent change could kill a young Time Lord instantly. Oh, please let me regenerate! In a total state of hopelessness, Rosslin sat rigidly in the head pilot seat, bracing herself for the inevitable shock of landfall, though she knew logically slumping limply would reduce the amount of broken bones and injury in general. “Any second…” she breathed and screwed her eyes shut, ready for the pain. For an infinitesimal moment all fell silent. The very next second defied description altogether. Rosslin felt herself being jerked up, down, right, left and center all in the same second, while an ungodly shrieking filled her ears. After what seemed like an eternity of thrashing and painful noise, the wounded craft jerked to a halt on this foreign world. A cold wind swept in from somewhere and a soft hiss swirled in with the breeze. With a numbness sinking deep into her limbs and a darkness clouding over her vision Rosslin’s was quickly pulled her into a mental escape. One last thought swam past as an urgent reminder, Wait! What about regeneration? If you don’t change you’ll die! But despite the warning all went blank.

As he trudged through the gloom of the darkened forest, being slapped in the face with rain soaked branches and every now and then stepping into a deep mud puddle, Alex wasn’t sure why he had accepted the challenge. “You have to do it, man. You’re the only one who hasn’t seen it. ” The old cabin was hardly a legend, and hiking out to it in the middle of the night while friends who pretended to be pycho drug addicts most likely stocking him from just out of sight seemed so childish. They were in college for gosh sakes! Wasn’t this the time when people started to grow up? Not that he blamed them. It was all in good fun, but somehow getting soaked to the bone and just as muddy in the middle of some dark woods wasn’t his idea of an ideal adventure. He cursed as his tiny flashlight began to fade to just a faint orange glow. How far was this mysterious cabin anyway? He must’ve been walking for a good hour now without one sign of cabin-y anything! “Hey guys!” he shouted to anyone in general who happened to be out there in the dark, “My light’s going out! I’m all for this dare thing and all but I can’t go anywhere if I can’t see… Hello? Can someone give me a flashlight? One that works… Guys?” The flashlight sputtered out its last few rays then commenced its role as yet another useless gadget. “Great.” He sighed and leaned against a dripping tree as he realized two things instantaneously. First, it had started raining… again. Second, he was lost somewhere in Washington Park, the largest area of forested land near Portland. Well, isn’t that just spectacular? And I’m soaking wet!  Slumping down to sit on a reasonably dry log, something so bizarre and spectacular forced Alex back to his feet. A comet-like spectacle of blue light whizzed high above his head, ripping through the trees and finally settling into a crater somewhere in the distance. Now that’s more of what I call adventure! Forget the cabin, I’m gonna check out that meteorite! Though his sore feet protested the sudden urgency, he somehow managed to summon up the energy to move them onwards. The space debris landed only about 200 yards away, so it wasn’t long before he realized the weirdness of this particular meteorite. Though Alex had never seen one of these in real life before, he didn’t imaging this one should be still growing after it landed nor should it contain much leftovers. What this one contained was not pulverized rocks, but a football shaped metal object, big enough for a person to fit into had it an opening. Strange designs of interlocking circles and sweeping lines covered its surface, like another vastly more intricate language mocking his own simple speech.  The sheer strangeness of such an occurrence snagged his rising curiosity, “What the heck, here we go,” and once again his sore feet moved onward, this time into the crater. Before he reached the bottom however lines of silver light raced over the intricately designed object and with a slight hiss it began to expand along their shining paths. The far side of the craft (as it obviously was) released a puff of steam as a curved metal panel slid up and around the surface. Ah, a door, Alex realized scrambling back out of the crater and settling behind an uprooted fir tree, watching from a distance. And a door means there must be an occupant…An occupant from out of town apparently. Heart racing with the anticipation of witnessing an alien species and silently praying that it would be peaceful and not hell-bent on destroying the world, Alex waited for what felt like hours until finally, creeping out from his hiding place, he carefully stalked around the side of the crater for a better view. However the sight that awaited him was stranger even than a little green man with a larger head and bug eyes. The opening in the small vessel showed a vastly bigger inside than would be possible for such a small exterior, with banks of complicated controls and slowly pulsating lights on the tilted ceiling. Now and then sparks rained down from one control bank or another, and at least six seats at various stations were visible through the dim orange light that appeared to emanate from the curved walls. In one of these seats was sprawled a figure. A woman. Even in the gloom and from a distance he saw that she was badly injured. Tearing down toward the craft a stray thought jumped up to nag him and though he tried to push it back down and focus on getting this woman some help, it would not leave him alone. Why was there a normal person in a mysterious vessel from space? Boggling at the impossible dimensions, Alex climbed inside and slid down the slanted floor to where the woman sat slumped in her chair. She looked to be in her late 30s, with dark brown hair, currently wet with blood. “Okay, okay, calm down,” he chided himself realizing this situation was probably way more serious than he’d originally thought.

A few minutes later Alex had the unconscious woman over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Laying her carefully on the soggy forest floor, he attempted the first thing that came to mind. “Hello! Anyone!!! Please, we need help!!! HELLO?! ANYONE!... anyone?” No good. They were too far out. Desperate, he took his coat off and spread it out as much as possible over the injured woman. He had never been much good at all that emergency response stuff. Oh my god! What if she dies because I couldn’t remember the proper first aid procedure? “Crap!” Alex swore and paced trying to dig up all those boring days in health class, hopefully stuck somewhere in the dark recesses of his memory. “CPR? No, she’s still breathing, you idiot.” A faint murmur stopped him mid pace. It sounded like she had said “segregate” or maybe it had been “reed governs state” though what that meant he could only guess at. Crouching by her side to catch what she said, he noticed an eerie golden glow emanating just beneath her skin, pulsating through her veins like a kind of radiation running through her blood. Further investigation was cut short as the glow rapidly intensified. As a high pitched ringing filled the air, Alex was forced backward by a blinding light exploding from every patch of this bizarre alien woman’s skin, tripping on a cluster of roots and falling over as he did so. She no longer glowed; she blazed and erupted like an angry volcano goddess denied the seasonal sacrifice or a dying phoenix suddenly bursting into flames to be born anew from the ashes. Little did he know how completely appropriate that analogy would prove to be. The blast of energy swirled so violently from her now rigid form that he convinced himself that it must have killed her instantly. Shielding his eyes from the light and blasting wind, he just crouched there on the ground unable to move out of pure shock. And just as suddenly as it had started, the light abruptly faded, extinguished immediately. Though silence once again fell over the forest, the unearthly ringing still buzzed in his ears. And something was wrong. Very wrong. And as Alex sat there trying to pinpoint what had changed, the woman stirred. She was alive! But the nagging feeling pulled at him until he realized where the wrongness stemmed from. This was not the same woman. It couldn’t be. Though it was still dark, he could see enough to know that this woman was at least 10 years younger if not more. From the filtered light of early dawn he could even tell that her hair color was different as was the shape of her body. “What the—how? It can’t be.” Okay, so I’m hallucinating or dreaming or both he thought trying to shake the weird feeling beginning to rise from the pit of his stomach. Because this can not be real. The new arrival stirred again, this time blinking her eyes open as if waking from a long hibernation, and with a groan she struggled into a sitting position.

Groaning, Ross opened her eyes. She felt different somehow, like she’d been melted down and reshaped into something new. Everything seemed out of place, though a quick wiggle of fingers and toes canceled that theory. Pushing herself up she realized that she was sitting on a soggy forest floor. How had she gotten here? Where in the Void was she anyway? Her vision was still a bit of a blur, but she could still make out the figure crouched a few yards away looking as if it had just been through some considerable trauma. Fog clearing from her eyes, she saw that it was a boy staring at her as if something extremely bizzare had latched itself onto her face, just sitting there unable to move. Well, maybe he could speak and tell her where exactly she was.

“Erm… hello” strange, even my voice seems different “Um, can you tell me where we are? I just woke up here and…” In an instant a silent panic hit her. She couldn’t remember anything. How she got here. Where she’d come from. No memories of the past. Blank. All she knew was her name. I am Rosslinchaequentenoa she silently reassured herself. “ I’m sorry. Um… I don’t remember what happened. Do you know? I can’t remember anything…”

The boy jerked back to life, “Uh, uh, you can’t…? Um, no sorry, I just sort of” the boy faltered over his words in confusion. Perhaps he was just as lost. “Sorry, it’s just… listen, I just saved this woman from a crash and then she just sort of vanished and you took her place, like I don’t know, you switched places or something.” He had gotten to his feet by now pacing, trying to sort out the confusion in his mind, but mid-pace he stopped and turned back to her. “Oh, jeez. I’m babbling away and you’re sitting on the ground getting soaked. Here,” he said offering her a hand up, “I’m Alex by the way. Alex Ryder.” “Rosslinchaequentenoa,” she answered, grateful to get off the wet ferns and moss that covered the forest floor.  

“Wow, long name,” Alex countered, “listen… uh, is Ross okay? You really can’t remember anything? I mean you’ve got to remember something. ”

 “No, nothing. I was hoping you could tell me.” As Ross briefly took in her surrounding, she noticed the crater straight off. At the bottom lay a sort of pod, smoke curling out of its still open doors. “Was that the crash?” For some reason it was the only thing that seemed somewhat familiar. What she could see of the writing along the outside gave instructions on opening the doors and safety tips.

“Yeah, weird kind of ship though.”

“How so?”

“This is gonna sound stupid, but it’s bigger on the inside.”

“Wow.” For some reason she found this information completely normal though she could tell Alex expected some kind of resistance.

He raised his eyebrows, “…And this doesn’t surprise you?”

“Should it?”

He just looked at her again as if she were an anomaly. “Never mind,” he finally said.  “Listen, we should probably get out of here. It’s raining again and I am not looking forward to growing gills or anything. It’ll be light pretty soon, so we should be able to find our way out.” He picked his coat up of the ground and offered it to her. It was only now that he noticed she was wearing the same clothing as the original woman. But it can’t be the same person! But somewhere deep inside another daring, crazy little voice had a different idea. You found her in a weird space pod that fell from the sky. Is it really that big of a stretch that this may be the same woman?

“Hang on. You’re wearing the same clothes as the other lady. Is this some kind of sick joke? Did Devin and Paul set this all up? They did, didn’t they? ” Cabin my butt!  There was no cabin. This had been the plan all along. They had planned this all out just to freak him out and have a laugh about it later when he started talking about dimensionally challenged space crafts and alien women swapping bodies and such.  Oh, yes, what a laugh. Ha ha.

“Sorry?” She looked genuinely confused glancing down at her apparel. “Who are they? And anyways, like I said, I don’t actually remember much past a couple of minute ago. Well, and my name.”

Alex sighed in exasperation, “Okay, well, when your memory does return perhaps you can tell me where you came from and why. But preferably somewhere warmer, yeah? With hot coffee and bagels.”

“Agreed.” She said turning a worried eye toward the sky. The rain was gathering momentum and an inevitable downpour approached from the amassing clouds.

Only an hour ago it had been dark enough that only the light of the glowing pod illuminated the surrounding area, but now, as early morning light seeped through the overcast sky and forced its way past the masses of dripping tree branches, Alex saw where he had come through.

“This way.” He pointed feeling eighty five per cent sure it was the right direction.

“Are you sure?”

“No. But I think ---”

“Good enough for me,” and without another thought she marched off in the general direction of his reckoning.

“Hang on! These woods are huge. We don’t want to get separated!” He shouted after her, running to catch up.

An hour passed with little conversation save the odd directional speculation, “Do you think this is the right way?” “Yeah, sure. I’m positive this is the way I came.” Finally Alex could no longer bury his grow number of questions.

Trying to process everything that had happened that morning, he had lagged a bit behind, but now the strain of not knowing forced him up forward to walk next to Ross. “Okay so I know you’ve supposedly lost your memory but---”

She interrupted “I have though!”

A bit annoyed, Alex continued, “Alright, so let’s say I believe you. Even so, you must know something. Like how come you swapped places with the other woman? And where is she now? And what was that spaceship or whatever? Is it government testing or something? And what about---”

Yet again Ross interrupted, and sadly not even to answer one of his questions. “Alright, listen,” she said stopping in her tracks and turning to face him, “You have lots of questions, yeah? Well guess what. So. Do. I. Whether you choose to believe me or not really doesn’t bother me right now, as I honestly have no idea what’s been happening in my life up to this point. If I knew how to answer you I would, but I’ve got some questions of my own like, for instance, where the heck am I? And where did I come from? And why is there a nagging guy in my face bombarding me with even more confusion?” She paused for a moment to glare accusingly at the worsening weather above, then finally “Sorry… I just would really like to know what’s happening, same as you. And anyways, I’m freezing. Is it very far?”

“…Erm, this way, and I don’t think it’s far now.” Alex felt a bit ashamed as he led the way. If she was telling the truth, he was an total idiot, if not, she was a great actress. “Wait a minute. If you don’t remember anything, where are you going to stay?” He wasn’t one to take in complete strangers found while tromping through the woods, but he certainly wasn’t cruel enough to leave her out on the streets of Portland overnight. Sure, it wasn’t New York or Chicago yet it still had its share of shady characters roaming the streets at night.

“Haven’t thought that far ahead, actually” she replied “… where do people normally go to get out of bad weather?”

“Well, coffee shops and book stores mostly, but I meant more along the lines of somewhere to sleep.”

“…um” Ross continued walking but no reply came.

Holy flippin’ crickey, why not? Alex thought making up his mind on the spot “Hey, don’t worry about it. You can come back to mine, and please don’t take that as a pick-up line. There’s a spare room in the flat that no one’s using at the moment. I’m sure we could fix it up for you” He cringed, waiting for an offended remark regarding the possible pick-up line, but she just turned and smiled at him in gratitude.

“Really? Thanks! I didn’t even think about it till you brought it up, but I literally won’t know where to stay.”

Hours later, after going in circles and getting even more lost, both stumbled with exhaustions toward the tell-tale sounds of distant traffic. “Well at least we know we’re headed in the right direction.” Alex mumbled, quieter and sleepier. When they finally hit a busy road, Alex waved down a car heading into town and gave the driver a general location at which to drop them off. Two minutes later Ross drifted off to sleep, head pressed up against the window of the car door. The driver smirked as he looked in his rearview mirror at her. “Had quite a night, did you?” he asked, clearly implying something else, but Alex was too tired to notice, so instead replied, “You have no idea.” The driver chuckled at this. Fifteen minutes later Alex found himself shaken awake from a sleep he didn’t remember falling into. “Oh, jeez, my bad,” he mumbled and gently roused Ross into a slightly less sleepy state. “Ummm…”she attempted, but as no logical words surfaced she gave up and just let Alex lead her out of the car and into the morning hustle and bustle of a large city. “Come on,” he urged, “it’s not far. Just a couple blocks away.” Despite practically sleep walking the whole way, Ross kept a tight grip on Alex’s hand. She had feeling she was a long way from home, and getting lost in a strange city was the least appealing thought in the universe at the moment.

A few minutes later, she realized they had arrived at the intended destination. She felt herself being lowered onto something soft and squishy, and before even arranging herself into a proper position, she was asleep. Soon strange dreams swirled into her head. Dreams of deep red landscapes and two suns. Dreams of traveling through space and time. Dreams that didn’t quite make sense, yet seemed so real that they must be true. Dreams of a rainy forest and friendships yet to be forged. Along with these also came nightmares. Nightmares that held no substance like the other dreams, only the feeling of horror and profound urgency to tell someone. Anyone… because time was running out.