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English
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Part 7 of I-Pod tales
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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-05
Words:
601
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1/1
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9
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1,246

From Space

Summary:

The ninth great Human Empire, or was it the tenth?  It was hard to keep track after a while.

Work Text:

From Space
by Lilithangel
 
 
The ninth great Human Empire, or was it the tenth? It was hard to keep track after a while.  The satellite was still there.  It had gone through several incarnations since his first and most terminal visit.  Abandoned for a century, then a quarantine port, hotel, United Nations for a while even, a museum and now finally this.  
 
The viewing platform was nothing like the space where Lynda had died, where she had been sucked out screaming into space.  Now it was plush and quiet, the perfect spot to look down on the planet, pristine and beautiful again, the jewel in the Empire’s crown.
 
“Emperor now is it?  You’ve come up in the world, Jack.”
 
He didn’t turn around at the Doctor’s voice, he’d wondered if he’d get a visit once the announcement was made.
 
“It’s mainly ceremonial,” he replied.
 
“Ceremonial?” the Doctor stepped up beside him.
 
“It’s beautiful from up here,” he said instead of answering, “almost impossible to believe what atrocities we’ve committed over the centuries, how close we were to losing the whole planet and ourselves.”
 
“So you’re up here for the view?” the Doctor’s voice was sceptical.
 
“From here I can believe it is the next great human empire.” Jack smiled wryly.
 
“Rulers shouldn’t rule from up on high,” the Doctor said, “too easy to forget who you’re ruling.”
 
“Who said anything about ruling?” He finally looked at the Doctor.
 
The Doctor’s eyes widened at the age now showing in Jack’s face and the scars that hadn’t gone away with death.  “Your reward for saving the empire,” he said, “as the protector of mankind.”
 
“My reward is a prison,” Jack replied, “a very fine and expensive prison but a prison none the less.  They couldn’t just kill the saviour of the empire, but they sure as hell didn’t want me around forever to remind them of what we did.”
 
“And you let them?” the Doctor said and then understanding dawned.  “You wanted them to.”
 
“It’s not so beautiful up close,” Jack said, “I’m a reminder to the ones in control of what we will do to save our way of life.  They’re rightfully afraid of what I’m capable of.”
 
“From here you’re just an ideal for humanity to aspire to.” The Doctor nodded.  This empire had come out of a hundred years of civil wars that spread to all nations. Spilled out into space and almost had the Earth quarantined for another hundred years.
 
“I’d make a bad god,” Jack said, “and they needed something to believe in.  They didn’t realise the irony of choosing this place as my resting place.”
 
“Oh, Jack,” the Doctor said sadly.  Jack was old now and still had so much further to travel, but the eddies of time didn’t crash as wildly around him anymore, as if time itself was getting used to him as much as the Doctor was.  It had been a while since he’d checked on his friend and it seemed time was weighing heavy.
 
“Do you think they’d notice if you popped out for a bit?”  The Doctor said. Jack looked at him quizzically.  “Time machine, remember?  Anyway, humans are happier with the idea of a god rather than the reality.”
 
An earlier Jack would have reacted instantly, either with a no or a yes.  This Jack thought on it for a while.
 
“I was thinking that a rest might be nice for a few years,” Jack said, “but they say change is as good as a rest.”
 
“You’ll come?”
 
This time when the TARDIS left Satellite Five Jack was on board.
 

END

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