The Atlantis Project (Doctor Who (Pond Era), female OC, illness)

[Kathy]

Hello, I'm new here and I would like to share some of my stories with you. This one is pretty old, I had it in my drafts for a while and never really finished it/posted it anywhere. But I still really like the premise and I thought someone might enjoy it. So...

P.S.: If he have feedback, it would be appreaciated

 

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Prologue

 

 

It was a cold, stormy evening in November 1886 and the rain was pouring endlessly. No star was to be seen, only the light of the full moon brightened up the sky through the clouds. The icy wind played with the last remaining leaves of the trees in Ashbridge Forest. It was already late and William "Willie" Clarke could not wait to get back to Greyalder Hall.

He had spent all day running errands in Berkhampstead and the surrounding villages, accompanied by his younger sister Anne. And now their carriage, drawn by two strong horses, was filled with goods they had to bring home. Willie hoped that the hay he had purchased would not get damp, as he had been careful to only buy goods of the best quality for the stables. He had worked there for longer than he could remember since he was a little boy. Even though he was but twenty-two now, his father, the first coachman, already trusted him with almost all of the duties there were to fulfill in the stables of Greyalder Hall. And his master, Sir Richard Montagu, was very pleased with him as well.

His whole family worked for the Montagus, his mother as the housekeeper and his sister as the maid – and close friend – of Sir Richards daughter Violet.

Anne was one and a half years younger than William and admired her older brother very much. Willie was not just an exceptional horseman, who almost seemed to speak the language of the beautiful animals, but also honest, hard-working, and very disciplined, and brave and outspoken to a degree, that some people might even interpret as stubbornness. Anne, herself, was much more of a shy, introverted person, wishing she could stand up for herself as her brother always did for her.

William, in return, was proud of his sister for her kindness and, most importantly, her wit. For a servant girl, or really any woman of the time, Anne was remarkably well educated, as she was taught together with Violet from an early age. Sir Richards's daughter had insisted on this and her father did everything to get his daughter a good education. Although almost a year younger than Violet, Anne could easily keep up with the lessons the teacher gave. She was excellent at arithmetic, had a fine hand, and was a quick and eager reader. She loved reading very much, and - with her brother's help - got permission to borrow books from the house library in her free time.

To be honest, Willie sometimes envied his sister. While he went to the state school in the nearby village for a short time, he never really learned to read or write. He had tried very hard but the letters just seemed to be jumping around in front of his eyes. The teacher made fun of him, he had to stand in the corner frequently. After a few months, he did not even bother to come anymore, as he was much more comfortable working in the stables. But being illiterate sometimes proved to be an actual disadvantage. Just today, while buying hay and a new harness, he had to rely on Anne to tell him whether the prices were fair and in their budget. Those were the moments when Willie felt really stupid. Anne always tried to shrug it off, telling him that she was unable to drive a coach and had to rely on him to get to town and buy soap and other household goods. But to him, this was not very comforting. He did not know that his sister envied him secretly as well. Willie was always happy and content in his activities at the stables, he seemed to be outright born to be a coachman. Anne, on the other hand, found most of her duties dull and engaged in daydreaming frequently, thinking about going on adventures with her literary heroes. Sometimes she made mistakes and got scolded because of that. All her intelligence was wasted in her position, she was doomed to be a maid forever, without a chance of going to university and becoming a scientist or an author. While her brother fitted his role absolutely perfectly, she was a misfit in this world and she knew she could never escape.

William sighed as he gripped the reins tighter. They had begun to slide away due to the wetness. Willie himself was already soaked, his blonde hair dripping from the rain. He looked over to his sister, whose dress was equally damp. Some curly wisps had fallen out of the tight knot in which she normally wore her auburn hair. His sister had a thin, small stature, looking almost fragile. She was not really beautiful, with her teeth slightly crooked and a bit of a fleeing chin, but their mother always said that she looked definitely good enough to find a decent husband and that was all that mattered for a young woman from the lower classes. William looked at his sister with a fond smile. She seemed tired. Her hazel eyes, usually sparkling with wit, were dull and stared into the night.

"Heh... Hishoo!"

"Are you alright, Anne?", Willie asked with a bit of concern in his voice.

"Mmmh, I am fine. Don´t worry.", was the absent-minded answer.

But the hoarse voice of his sister and some wet sniffles told him otherwise. There was a cold going around at Greyalder Hall, in fact, Willie had just been sick himself about a week ago. And he could tell that his sister had caught it, too. Of course, she was too stubborn to admit it now, as she did not want to concern him. But she was shivering in the cold wind, so Willie reached under the bench to grab a blanket for her. He just took his eyes off the road for a few seconds, but those seconds were enough for him to miss a big pothole on the road and when he drove over it, the inevitable happened – a wheel broke.

„Damn it!“, Willie muttered as he kneeled down to inspect the damage. Anne now curled up into the blanket, stood right behind him. „Surely you can fix it?“, she asked with a hopeful tone of voice. Willie wished he could, but it was wet and dark and they only had a small lamp already burning dangerously low. There was no chance he could repair the wheel under these conditions. He got up again and turned around towards his sister, who was staring into the woods.

"Do you see that, Willie? There is a light, just a few yards away. Maybe a hut?“, Anne wondered.

"Dunno, it could be. Or maybe a small farm."

"Do you think we can fix our wheel there?"

"At least it is worth a try."

Both of them unharnessed one of the horses and bound it to a nearby tree. The last thing the siblings needed now was an escaped horse.

"We will be right back", Willie whispered into their ears.

Anne grinned. She loved to see her brother do those things with the majestic animals. They even seemed to understand him. While her brother was busy, she quickly pulled her handkerchief out of her dress and wiped her nose. Stupid cold. She had already woken up with a sore throat and now her nose was starting to get runny and ticklish. Great. Of course, the weather was not helping, either. She just wished to get home, dreaming of the warm fire in the stove. When her brother turned around, she quickly tucked the handkerchief back into her pocket. Anne did not want to concern Willie, although she knew he already suspected something. Willie could be very overprotective at times, especially when she was sick.

"You coming ?", Willie asked, as he headed towards the light. Anne followed closely behind him.

[Sneeze-aholic]

I'm loving the start of this. 

[Kathy]

 

On 8/11/2021 at 2:26 PM, Sneeze-aholic said:

I'm loving the start of this. 

 

Thank you a lot! I hope you like how this continues

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Chapter 1 - Unexpected Guests

"Come on, stupid face!", Amy shouted towards the TARDIS corridor.
 
Her husband spends way too much time in the wardrobe. While she was already fully dressed in a beautiful Victorian ballgown, Rory was still searching for the right clothes for the occasion and the century. Though, in all fairness, there were a lot more pretty dresses than nice suits in those seemingly endless corridors. Maybe because a bit more than slightly over a half of the Doctor's companions were girls. And Amy also had to admit that she probably distracted her husband by asking him what gowns he preferred, whether that color made her look pale and if he could assist her with the corsage. Nevertheless, the girl who waited was getting impatient. 

"Just a minute!", Rory replied.

He did not want to repeat the mistake of wearing the uniform of a hostile regiment. That had been a very short tea party indeed. So he had decided to go nowhere near anything military in the future, although there were times when he somehow missed his Roman armor.
Finally, he stepped into the console room, wearing just a plain black – but stylish – tuxedo. 

"Oh, you look rather handsome in that suit, Mr. Pond", his wife commented before kissing him.

The Doctor sighed. Maybe it was not such a good idea, after all, to travel with a married couple. But then again he loved the Ponds just too much to be seriously bothered by their shenanigans. 

"Are you not going to change?", Rory asked the Timelord. He was still wearing his all too familiar tweed jacket and, of course, his beloved bow tie. Rory secretly wondered how many versions of this outfit the strange man had acquired, as he could not possibly wear the clothes he had stolen from the hospital in Leadworth every day. 

"Yeah, why do we have to `blend in with our surroundings and you just wear the same shirt for fifty years straight?", Amy agreed.

"Because you two look absolutely gorgeous in these clothes", the Doctor answered simply, wildly gesturing to emphasize his words. He really was incapable of talking without flapping his hands about. He also had given up dressing appropriately for a period a long, long time ago. Probably around the same time he had given up on the Chameleon Circuit. He loved his blue box, and he loved his bow tie almost as much. In a way, those were the few things that stayed with him over time, while places, people, whole worlds, came and went. Also, bowties were cool.

The Doctor began to pull leavers, pressed some buttons, and typed stuff into the console. The TARDIS wheezed – he also loved the sound of the braces – and landed.

"There we are, Victorian London, Buckingham Palace, just right for the Queen's birthday party!", he announced gleefully. 

Amy was already at the door, her husband closely following behind her. She stepped, out, expecting to see a golden palace, smell a feast, and hear old, classical music. She was ready to have a party. Instead, she stood in a cold, dark, rainy forest. 

"Doctor...", she yelled. It had happened again. They were lost. Only for the fifth time – this week. 

"What is it, Pond?", the Doctor asked as he hurried towards the exit. 

"Oh, I see“, he said somewhat sheepishly before they stepped inside again and the Timelord began to check the console. 

"Why is this always happening?", Rory moaned.

"When we are in danger, he can land this thing with perfect accuracy, but when we want to have some fun, we end up in rainy, dark, probably life-threatening forests...". 

The nurse suspected that the TARDIS herself wanted them to get into danger, not to harm them, but for them to fix other people, or worlds, problems. And the Doctor and Amy enjoyed that. Rory, on the other hand, was not so sure about this. But then he thought about how often the earth would have been destroyed without the Timelord and his phonebox, and he secretly appreciated the TARDIS concern for this planet in particular. 

The Doctor checked the readings on the screen and looked up again.

"Well", he clapped his hands, "we are not exactly at Buckingham Palace..."

"Oh, really?", Rory replied rather sarcastically.

The Doctor ignored him.

"To be precise, we are in the middle of Ashbridge Forest, Hertfordshire, England, Earth. And the date is the 25th of November 1886."

"Well, at least we are on the right planet... and in the right century", Amy had replied.

She had experienced worse. Much, much worse. And they had not yet been attacked by some alien monster.

"Let me quickly fix this...", the Doctor said and bowed down over the control unit once more.

He was adjusting the hot and cold tabs – god knows why – when he suddenly heard a rather high-pitched sneeze behind him.

"Hiitshoo!"

"Bless you, Amelia", he said without looking up, now walking over to another section of the controls to prepare for take-off. He heard another sneeze.

"He... He-iishoo!"

"I really hope you are not getting sick, I have a lot of adventures planned for the next few days", he muttered while pulling the leavers.

"Ahem, Doctor...", Rory tipped on his shoulders.

"What, Rory? I am busy right now! One mistake and we could land..."

"Doctor!", Amy shouted with obvious distress in her voice.

The timelord turned around, only to stumble against the console seconds later, very surprised, almost shocked, by what he saw. In the process, he pressed at least a dozen buttons and turned the leaver again.  The TARDIS wheezed much louder than normal and shook so badly that the Doctor almost fell on the floor. Amy and Rory gripped the railings. 

The shaking only stopped when they landed, or better said, crashed, well... somewhere. But the Doctor had no time to worry where the TARDIS had now located, even though the unhealthy groan of the engines slightly worried him. He had to take care of the intruders first.

The Doctor got up fast and ran down the stairs to the entrance. Rory helped Amy up first, who rubbed her aching arm, as she had been hurled into the railings pretty forcefully. One of the things she hated about traveling in the TARDIS was the crash landings. But this one seemed to be particularly bad. Almost like the time she first met the Doctor. But at least they did not fall into the pool.

The intruders, as the Doctor thought of them, were still lying on the ground, staring into the console room in sheer amazement. Since they stepped in they had not spoken a word. The Doctor examined them quickly. They did not seem to be a threat. Two youngsters in Victorian clothes – a groomsman and a maid, judging by their dresses. The boy had short blond hair and brown eyes, slightly tanned skin despite the season, muscular stature, and a lot of freckles. The girl had the same eyes, but her hair was darker and her skin, while also showing some freckles, looked pale, and was only flushed a bit around the nose and cheeks. All in all, they looked perfectly harmless. Their presence was probably just an accident. But then again, this could also be a trap. They could be Zygons in disguise, trying to steal the TARDIS or something, only waiting to attack the timelord and his companions. The Doctor decided that it was probably better to question them first.

"Oh, Hello. Could you please tell me who you are, what species you are from, and what you are doing on my ship? You are not here to invade it, are you?", he said in his typical, joyful manner, but from the frightened look on the faces of the two intruders, he might as well have threatened to execute them.

After a long, painful moment of silence, the boy hesitantly raised his voice. "Ship?", he asked, obviously baffled.

Rory could not stand this any longer. To him, it was quite obvious that these were perfectly innocent people who just walked in by accident, probably attracted by the light and the sound of the TARDIS in the dark, silent forest. And now they did not only find themselves on a spaceship, but the Doctor was also scaring them out of their minds with his questions. He stepped down the stairs and joined the ancient timelord, who was getting a bit confused because the intruders did not answer him.

"I am very sorry. We did not want to scare you. We are really, um, coming in peace and this is just a little misunderstanding", he began to explain. "Well, anyway, I am Rory, this is my wife Amy and that is, ahem, the Doctor. And you seem to have stumbled into our, well our..."

"My spaceship!", the Doctor ended his last sentence, enthusiastically . "Welcome on board! You really do not look like invaders, just like nice, old, ordinary humans. So, anyway, this is the TARDIS. Isn't she beautiful? She can travel anywhere in space and time and, yes, she is bigger on the inside. Totally normal to be a bit speechless the first time you enter. She is quite breathtaking, don´t you think?"

Their new guests still looked a bit startled, even though they had managed to get up during the Doctors introductory speech. The boy was staring into the room, rubbing his head in amazement. And also because he had a slightly uncomfortable landing. The girl, on the other hand, had looked at the Doctor attentively and now nodded with a shy smile, as she was probably not really sure what to think of the whole situation. Suddenly her facial expression changed, she covered her hand with her mouth, inhaled a few times, and finally sneezed again.

"HiiIShoo!"

[Sneeze-aholic]

I certainly do like how part 2 has continued!