Three Times Vicki Used Fire For Good and One Time She Didn’t
This is my Secret Santa gift for @austerlitzborodinoleipzig, who asked for Vicki being awesome. (I’ll post this to AO3 as soon as I can.) Merry Christmas! :D
1. Light
The cave was only marginally warmer than the outside, which was so cold one could toss out a pitcher of boiling water and it would freeze before it hit the ground. Like a dangerously enthusiastic snow globe, the wind blew the snow fiercely, making it almost impossible to see more than a few feet in any direction. What little light could penetrate the thick clouds slipped inside the cave opening, waiting out the storm with the two shivering travelers inside.
Vicki’s fingers shook as she tried to tie the end of a string to a bow-shaped stick. The string wrapped around another stick once, then joined the other end of the bow. “There!” she said, succeeding in her task. “Now I just n-n-need some sort of f-f-f-flat rock or s-something for the t-t-top.” Feeling around on the ground, she found a small piece of bark.
Beside her, the Doctor was fumbling around in his pockets for something to use as kindling. Miraculously, they had wood. The cave was filled with bits of branches and sticks that had one way or another come in. Some of it was even dry enough to burn.
“Hmm...” He peered through his spectacles at a few crumpled sheets of paper. “No, not this one...must remember to return that to Mr. Jefferson. Ah, yes! This should do nicely.” He handed her one of the pages. It was brown with age.
Vicki looked at it. “S-symphony No. 10....is this Beethoven?”
The Doctor pocketed his glasses. “Only a fragment. Nobody will miss it. Besides, I told him the second movement needs tweaking...” he trailed off before seeming to remember the urgency of the task at hand. “Are we going to sit around chattering all day or are we going to make a fire?”
She tore the paper into tiny shreds and piled them up in a heap. The Doctor reached for the bow. “C-can’t I do it?” she asked.
“What do you know about fire starting?”
“I know enough. Ian s-s-showed me. B-back on J-J-Juno.” She put the end of the stick in the middle of the paper, held the bark between her palm and the top of the stick, and began moving the bow back and forth. “See? T-the string moves the st-st-stick faster and it should heat up the p-paper.”
The rapid movement also helped warm her up a bit. The Doctor didn’t seem to feel the cold the way she did.
He sat back and watched her in silence for a few seconds. “Chesterson saves us all with fire again...” he mused.
“What?”
“Hmm? Oh, nothing child. Nothing. I was just thinking about another fire in another cave...”
“Was that with Susan?”
Silence.
“...How did you know that?” he whispered, almost hoarsely.
“Ian told me about it when he was showing me how to do this.” The tiniest wisp of smoke wafted up from below. “He said it was when he and Barbara first met you.”
“He did, did he?” The Doctor’s tone was defensive.
Vicki decided not to pursue that line of conversation. Instead, she said, “He told me about Susan.” More silence. The paper started to smolder slightly. “Was she really your granddaughter?”
There was a long pause. Silence, save for the sound of scraping wood. Her arm was starting to tire, but she was sure the paper would catch soon.
“Yes,” said the Doctor.
For an instant, she saw a look of terrible sadness flicker across his face. He quickly hid it away.
“Barbara said she fell in love.”
“Yes. She did. With a young man on Earth. And I...” the words hung in the air.
The paper caught fire.
Together, they carefully fed the little flames until they had a decent blaze going. Vicki pulled her mittens back on and huddled next to the Doctor, letting the much-needed warmth wash over them.
He sat staring into the fire thoughtfully, occasionally adding another stick. Vicki couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but she didn’t need to be telepathic to guess that he was lost in a memory.
“Doctor,” she began. He turned to look at her. “She sounds like a wonderful person. Do you think...” She hesitated. “I mean, maybe the Tardis... Maybe one day I could meet her?”
For a second, she was afraid she’d crossed a line. An unspoken boundary. But then a small smile played around his lips. “Maybe someday we will,” he said as he put an arm around her shoulders. “Maybe someday...”
2. Baked
“They’re coming through the windows!” screamed Barbara.
Ian rushed to the window where a seven foot tall gingerbread man was trying to break through and beat it savagely with a candy cane. The monster cookie roared and fell back, and Barbara grabbed a giant gumdrop off the floor and stuffed it into the broken window. It wiggled at bit as the gingerbread man pounded on it, but held firm.
“How many more are there?” Ian asked breathlessly.
“At least half a dozen,” said Barbara. “I’ve locked all the doors and windows, but the whole place is made of sweets, it won’t hold for long!”
Ian put the end of his sharpened candy cane down and leaned on it. “Where’s the Doctor?”
“With the mayor. He’s trying to get the attraction shut down.”
The attraction in question was the gingerbread mansion they were currently standing in. Every year, the humans on New Saturn built a new Christmas wonderland- a forest of ice sculptures, a maze of Christmas trees, a replica elf village. The tourism did wonders for the local economy. However, this year their elaborate gingerbread mansion hadn’t panned out the way anyone expected.
For example, nobody had expected the gingerbread men to come to life and start attacking people.
Outside the parlour, there came a loud crash, followed by a scream and the sound of someone running. Vicki burst into the room, wielding a long stick with the remains of a marshmallow on one end. Behind her, wearing the rest of the molten marshmallow, was an on-fire gingerbread man, waving its arms madly and roaring.
“I think I’ve found their weakness!” shouted Vicki. “They don’t like fire!”
“You just made it angrier!” Ian grabbed a nearby chair and threw it in the path of the rampaging cookie. It tripped and fell to the ground, still burning. As it tried to flip itself over, Barbara pushed Vicki behind her.
“It’s between us and the door,” she said.
Ian hefted his candy cane. “I’ll hold it off. You and Vicki make a run for it.” The gingerbread man managed to roll itself over, smothering the flames. “Run!”
“Wait!” said the cookie.
They stared in astonishment as the gingerbread man stood up and brushed itself off. “Wait,” it said again. “I...I’m done.”
“Done?” asked Barbara.
The cookie scratched the back of its head. “I’m done. Finished. Completed.” When the humans still didn’t seem to understand, it said, “The process is complete. My insides have hardened.”
“Are you saying,” said Vicki, “that you’re finished cooking?”
“Yes.” The cookie smiled.
“Now hang on a minute,” Ian said as he lowered his candy weapon. “You’re telling us that all the gingerbread men out there are on a rampage because they’re only half-baked?”
“Yes.”
“So all we need to do is finish baking them?” asked Barbara. “Vicki, can you get more marshmallows?”
Twenty minutes later, they were on the roof with bags of giant marshmallows, a small bonfire, and an improvised slingshot.
It was going to be a very eventful Christmas.
3. Explode
“Who are you?” asked Vicki.
The girl who had unlocked the cell door wasn’t at all who Vicki who had been expecting. She looked just a little older than Vicki, and she wore a black bomber jacket decorated with an eclectic assortment of pins and badges.
“I’m Ace. C’mon, we’re getting out of here.” Ace took Vicki’s hand and pulled her out of the cell and down the corridor with all the confidence of someone who either knew what they were doing, or who was really good at pretending.
“But my friends-”
“They’re fine. You just got stuck in a time slip. You’re something like fifty-seven years ahead of them.”
Vicki stopped short, jerking her hand out of Ace’s. “Wait! I’m in the future? Well, compared to them.”
She must have looked pretty distressed, because Ace threw an arm around her. “Don’t worry, kid. The Professor sent me to get you and send you back to the right timeline.”
“Who’s the Professor?”
“Don’t worry about it. Let’s go!”
She allowed Ace to lead her through the twisted corridors of the research station. It looked so different from when she had come in with Steven and the Doctor. Newer, obviously, but also when they came in it had been an ancient castle. Now, it had been modernised- kitted out with new lights, new furniture, more computers, and a whole new wing dedicated to deep space telescopes.
“See, what happened is there’s a buildup of tachyon energy and if you happen to walk through the right place at the right time, you get zapped to the other end of the timestream.”
“I see,” said Vicki. That certainly explained the sudden dizziness and waking up alone. And the-
There was a bang from somewhere in the distance.
“Cybermen!” they exclaimed. Ace looked at her.
“I see you’ve met them.”
“Well, I didn’t lock myself in a cell!” snapped Vicki.
“All right,” said Ace. “And I’m not looking forward to a reunion. Let’s go!” She motioned for Vicki to follow her toward an alcove containing a stone spiral staircase.
“But the front door’s right there,” said Vicki, pointing. “We can escape.”
Ace stopped on the stairs. “Well, you know how I said we’re in the future?” Vicki nodded. “Okay, so it’s not the future future. Not the real one. It’s like a chunk of future but a bit to the left. All closed off from the rest of time.”
“Like a bubble?”
“Yeah, exactly! And we need to get to the focal point so we can get back to our own timelines and trap the Cybermen here. At least, that’s what the Professor said.”
A horrible electronic screech echoed from a nearby corridor. Three Cybermen entered the great hall somewhat shakily. A strange foaming substance oozed from various heads and chests. The one in front pointed at them and screeched again.
“Move!” shouted Ace. Vicki didn’t need to be told twice. The two of them scrambled up the steps as fast as they could go. At the top, Vicki watched as Ace pulled a silver canister out of her rucksack and fiddled with the top.
“Just giving them something to think about,” she said, grinning. From below, they could hear the Cybermen ascending the steps behind them. Ace tossed the canister down the stairs. It bounced out of sight and then there was a loud explosion that shook the walls.
Three more corridors and another set of stairs later, they found one of the newer rooms, filled with futuristic computers and equipment and tangled wires weaving haphazardly through it all.
“What do we do?” asked Vicki.
Ace powered up the computer. “I think...yeah, they didn’t change the coordinates. It looks like they just unplugged everything.” She tapped a few commands into the computer. “Okay, that should send us back to where we need to be. Help me reconnect all this...”
It wasn’t difficult to plug all the wires back in. Most of them were even helpfully color-coded. It was just that they were tangled and there was a lot of them. They were almost finished when they heard another strangled electronic screech. Ace swore. She was halfway underneath one of the machines, up to her elbows in cables. “Hey, kid! Get another can of Nitro-9 out of my bag!”
Vicki dropped the tangle of wires she was working on and dove for the bag. She pulled out another silver canister while Ace shouted directions.
“Just don’t use it until you actually see a Cyberman,” she said. “Don’t want to give away our location.”
“Okay.” Vicki slid open the door to reveal a Cyberman standing right outside.
It was still scorched from the first explosion.
“Here!” Vicki quickly thrust the can of Nitro-9 into its outstretched hand, slammed the door shut, and threw the bolt home.
The following boom shook bits of rock and debris from the ceiling.
“Ace!” said Ace.
The machine, when fully assembled, looked an awful lot like three old-fashioned television cameras arranged in a triangle around a raised platform on top of a nest of cables.
Vicki stood on the platform, holding a remote control, and watched as Ace carefully fiddled with her last canisters, placing them strategically around the room.
“Why..?”
“So after we’re gone, those things can’t follow. Don’t looks so worried, it’s a long fuse. I’m like, 93% sure of it. We’ve got about a minute before they blow up.”
She ran to join Vicki on the platform. “Ready, kid?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Vicki hit the button.
Thirty seconds later, the now empty room exploded.
4. Tradition
“Are you sure this is all right,” Steven asked as he peered around the corner at the city square. A fresh blanket of snow covered the previous blanket of snow, giving their target a festive winter coat.
“Of course it is. Lars said it was.” Vicki fumbled with the lighter. “And we’re just in time to be the ones to do it this year if we hurry.”
“But why would people go through the trouble of building a giant straw goat just for someone to burn it down?”
Vicki handed him a lit torch and began lighting the other one. “It’s tradition. It doesn’t have to make sense. It’s probably some ancient religious thing that nobody knows the meaning of anymore.”
“Yeah, but wouldn’t they pick someone to burn down the goat? Why leave it up to chance?”
“That’s probably part of the tradition.” She tucked the lighter into her pocket and held her torch in front of her and grinned. “If you’re lucky, the goat survives. And if you’re not, the goat burns down and you get six more weeks of winter.”
“That’s Groundhog’s Day.”
“Oh, who cares? It’ll be fun!” She went to the end of the alley and checked to see if the coast was clear. “Ready?”
Steven shrugged. “I guess. What do we do?”
“Follow me!”
Vicki burst out of the alley and ran at top speed toward the huge straw goat, whooping and hollering and waving her torch. Steven ran after her, with much less noise, and together they circled the enormous legs, touching the fire to the straw until the flames grew and the goat was completely alight.
They stood back, panting, watching the structure burn.
“It’s gorgeous,” said Vicki.
“I have to admit,” said Steven, “it does look pretty spectacular.”
They only had a few moments to admire their handiwork when they heard sirens and an angry voice yelling, “Hey, you!” They turned to see Swedish police officers running towards them.
“...maybe this isn’t really a tradition...” Vicki said softly.
“Yeah. And if we’re lucky, we’ll avoid jail time. Run!”
