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As large as her heart was, River Song had no time for volunteering. She was a woman of action, of means, of talent. She had places to go, people to flirt with, she couldn’t bear to be kept still in any one place and heaven help whoever dared to call her dull.
But then the flux had struck and the whole universe had collapsed to its knees. There was no structure, no order to anything. Even the bad guys were running scared.
She’d heard the rumours of course, that a familiar sounding blue box had found itself slap bang in the heart of the force that had ripped through time and space like a hurricane, but she hadn’t seen or heard from her husband in years and doubted he even knew she was still alive.
She’d been on an archeological dig when the flux had struck. Well, perhaps dig was the wrong word. It was archeological for sure, but she’d visited the planet when it had grown old and died in the future and it was much more fun when it was still alive and vibrant.
Not that it was anymore. That future had been wiped clean by the flux, time changing like the tick of a clock. What used to be a civilization that had thrived until the natural death of the planet was now a cold, empty graveyard, the survivors forced to hide themselves underground whilst a cruel nuclear winter tore the surface to pieces.
The elderly man on the cot in front of her closed his eyes. River doubted he’d open them again, but she tucked him in all the same and stood, her knees creaking from hours spent kneeling on the floor, cleaning his burns. She wiped a hand across her forehead, pushed her hair back and breathed out slowly. She had her vortex manipulator, she could leave, but where would she go? Where was still safe? No, for now, she’d stay with these people and volunteer her skills. They’d become close, trapped down here together like rats in a cage, and River felt connected to them in a way she hadn’t felt connected to anyone in a long time. She missed having a family.
‘That’s everyone,’ one of the village leaders said, back when there had still been a village standing for him to lead. ‘Anyone left on the surface will be dust by now. Better get some rest while you can, Dr Song. We’ll regroup in the morning to see who’s pulled through the night.’
River liked men like him. No nonsense, no false hope, said it how it was. She knew bareful a handful of the wounded would survive the night, yet she still hoped some of them would prove her wrong. She was getting far too sentimental in her old age.
She laid down on her coat, spread out in the corner, and stared up at the stone ceiling. These caves were part of the reason she’d visited this planet in the first place, the structure of them unique to any planet in this solar system. In thirty thousand years they’d uncover them, map them, trace them down almost all the way to the planet’s core.
Well, they had mapped them. They wouldn’t anymore. The tunnels weren’t complete, they never would be. This planet was now just another inconsequential blip in an ever expanding universe, remembered only by her.
River turned her head to look out at the survivors, barely one hundred of them, sixty of whom were injured, the remaining people huddled together in corners or crying softly. She looked at the woman lying on the cot beside her, eyes shut, barely breathing. Her hair may have been blonde once, but it was now streaked with grey dirt and there was rubble and bits of stone on her skin and clothes. River had gone up with the last rescue crew, before the toxicity in the air began to melt their clothes. She’d found her sprawled in the sand, covered by lumps of stone. Possibly crushed by a falling statue. River doubted she’d survive the night, especially considering the barely noticeable rise and fall of her chest. She turned her head and looked back up at the ceiling. She closed her eyes -
---
- and woke up an indeterminate amount of time later when she became aware of movement beside her head. She rolled carefully onto her side and cracked upon one eye, cautious about making it obvious she was awake. Call her suspicious but - well, she was.
There was another woman kneeling beside the blonde, frowning and holding her hand over the unconscious woman’s mouth as though checking for breathing. She was facing River and had long dark hair, twisted into a half-up bun on the top of her head. Her clothes weren’t of this time period but then - River realised, far slower than she should have done - the blonde’s weren’t either. There was a symbol on the inside of this newcomer’s forearm, a tattoo maybe, her billowing shirt sleeves pushed up to her elbows. A large metal cuff was on her other forearm, not unlike a vortex manipulator. She wore dark trousers and a dark waistcoat, and River realised the blonde now had a coat laid over her that hadn’t been there before, brown and warm looking.
The woman looked up and caught her eye.
‘I’m not going to pretend I don’t know you, River Song,’ she said in a gentle voice. ‘I’m not completely sure if you know me, however.’
River sat up and reached out an arm to take the stranger’s. She traced the circular tattoo on her forearm, a snake eating its own tail.
‘The Corsair,’ she decided. ‘I’ve heard about you.’
‘Good things?’
‘Absolutely not.’
The Corsair smiled. There was steel in her eyes, but her smile was genuine. ‘I should hope not,’ she said. ‘I have a reputation to maintain.’
‘Why are you here?’ River asked, frowning. ‘I didn't think there were even any Time Lords left in this universe any more.’
‘Says the woman married to one,’ the Corsair replied, an eyebrow raised. ‘The flux destroyed space and time. I was sent with a team to help determine the cause, and see what I could do to fix it.’
‘So why are you here?’
‘Anachronisms,’ the Corsair answered with a shrug.
River looked around the room. Most of the survivors were asleep. The ones that weren’t were still and silent. Everything looked to be in its place, nothing looked out of the ordinary.
‘Anything in particular?’
The Corsair lightly brushed dirt from the blonde’s hair and face, and when River leaned forward she saw dark roots, dark eyebrows. Not a natural blonde after all then.
‘Peroxide doesn’t get invented in this solar system, I don’t think,’ the Corsair said. ‘Do correct me if I’m wrong, Professor Song.’
‘No, you’re completely right,’ River said, cross with herself. ‘I can’t believe I didn't notice.’
‘Don’t be so hard on yourself,’ the Corsair said, reaching inside the pocket of her waistcoat and pulling out a small disk which began to flash. ‘You’ve had a busy day. And it is rather dark in here.’
She pressed the disk against the blonde’s temple and the metal cuff on her forearm lit up. Vital signs. The Corsair frowned at them.
‘So who is she, then?’ River asked, indicating the blonde. ‘Anyone you know?’
‘She’s a Division operative,’ the Corsair said vaguely, fingers flicking across the surface of the cuff. ‘She’s spent some time in - well, I suppose you could call it solitary confinement. Ah. I see the problem.’
She double tapped the cuff and a small holographic display appeared above it. The blonde’s heartbeat was steady, but slow. It looked like a normal rate and rhythm. Considering the state of her, River was surprised.
‘What’s the problem? Looks fine to me,’ she said.
The Corsair gave her a curious look from under dark eyelashes. ‘She’s meant to have two of them.’
‘She’s Gallifreyan too?’
‘Yes. I’ll need to restart her other one, shouldn’t be too difficult, anyone looking?’
River peered carefully over the Corsair’s shoulder. They were pressed against the wall at the far end of the cave. No-one was looking at them.
The Corsair brought up another display on the cuff, checked once more that they weren’t being observed, and tapped a holographic button.
The woman’s chest jolted almost imperceptibly, then her eyes shot open and she started screaming.
‘Sorry, sorry, only me. Calm down. Calm down. You’re fine. Look at me, hey! Deep breaths, you’re safe. Calm down.’
So much for not being observed, River thought to herself as the woman tried unsuccessfully to get to her feet and instead awkwardly back paddled her limbs with terrified eyes. She hit the back of the wall and kicked out with her boot, catching the Corsair in the stomach, but the other woman shrugged it off and pulled the woman's forehead against her shoulder to muffle her screams, one hand pressed against the side of her head and the other rubbing her back soothingly as she tried to calm her.
The woman started speaking, a discordant jangle of sounds and tones and notes. It was like no language River had ever heard before, but when the Corsair replied in the same manner River realised she must be hearing Gallifreyan for the first time. All those years she’d spent with the Doctor, and he’d never once spoken a word in it.
‘Just a nightmare,’ River said to the frightened pairs of eyes now watching the scene play out. ‘Bad dreams, that’s all. Nothing’s wrong. Back to sleep.’
Suspicious glances shot her way, but these poor people had no other option than to take her word for it and, slowly, peace and quiet descended on the cave once more; aside from the quiet sobs from the blonde as the Corsair cradled her in her arms and whispered gently to her in a long dead language. A Division operative, that’s what she’d called her. River had never heard of the Division, but the way these two were around each other didn't speak of a bounty hunter sent to find her target. This was friendship, this was love.
‘Things are probably not quite in the right order, are they?’ the Corsair was saying to her. ‘It’s alright, it’ll settle. You were trapped for - a while - but you’re okay now.’
The woman’s hands were tightly gripping the Corsair’s shirt, her knuckles white, and she continued making those strange, slightly musical in a whistling sort of way, sounds that River couldn’t understand.
‘We’ll find them, don’t worry. They’ll be safer in the past anyway,’ the Corsair soothed. ‘Now calm down before your hearts stop again.’
‘Everything alright?’ River asked, as gently as she could, but the blonde didn't look at her. She was shaking from head to foot and had her face pressed into the Corsair’s shirt, a death grip on her arms.
‘She’s okay,’ the Corsair said nonchalantly. ‘She’s been through an ordeal, she’s just a tiny bit traumatised. She’s got time running through her head out of order and all jumbled up, it’s enough to give anyone a headache but for a Time Lord it’s more like an avalanche in your skull.’
River took the Corsair’s brown coat, left abandoned on the cot, and tucked it around the woman’s shoulders. The Corsair pressed a soft kiss to the woman’s temple, gently ran her hand through her hair, and whispered go to sleep .
The woman sagged immediately, falling boneless into her lap, and the Corsair had the decency to look a little guilty.
‘Touch telepathy,’ she said to River with a shrug. ‘Comes in handy sometimes. You should go back to sleep, I’m going to keep her out for a few hours, she needs the rest.’
River laid back down on the ground, but adrenaline was still burning through her veins and she couldn’t sleep. She watched the Corsair gently rock the sleeping woman so tenderly she felt it deep inside her soul.
‘How did you know she was here?’ River asked quietly.
The Corsair frowned. ‘It’s difficult to explain if you’re not a telepath,’ she said apologetically. ‘She was - calling. She was asking for help. I heard her.’
‘You said she was a Division operative, what is that?’
‘Super secret, even I don’t know,’ the Corsair admitted. ‘But whatever was done to her was entirely against her will. Who found her?’
‘I found her on the surface, surrounded by lumps of stone,’ River said, surprised by the question. ‘I thought she’d been crushed. Why would she come here?’
‘I think she was looking for someone,’ the Corsair said after a pause, considering her answer. ‘I think she was being chased across the universe, she was frightened, and was acting on autopilot. She was asking for help. Not from me, from whoever could hear her.’
‘Who was she looking for?’
‘I wonder.’ The Corsair tilted her head at her and smiled. ‘It sounds like it’s lucky you were there.’
A knot was starting to form in River’s stomach, and she wondered if she was about to start crying. She quickly squashed down the feeling.
‘I’m starting to think that luck had nothing to do with it.’
The woman frowned in her sleep, forehead crinkling, and the Corsair smoothed down her hair. She started humming quietly, and River closed her eyes.
---
When she woke up again there was movement in the cave, the survivors up and walking around, going between the cots, checking who had survived the night. The woman was awake, sitting upright with her forehead resting against the top of her knees. There was dried blood in her hair and her hands still shook a little, but she looked up when River stretched her aching neck and for a moment they just stared at each other, then a grateful smile stretched across the woman’s face.
‘Hello, sweetie,’ the Doctor whispered.
‘Oh my love -’
River wrapped her arms around her wife, pulled her in tightly and kissed her cheek. She felt her tremble under her hands, the bones of her back too prominent, and she held her tightly and pressed kisses into her hair until the Corsair walked over and dug a biscuit bar from her pocket, pressing it into the Doctor's hands and giving her a pointed look.
‘I don’t need this,’ the Doctor said, confused, looking around at the survivors as though it was obvious who she should be giving it to.
‘When’s the last time you ate anything?’ the Corsair said, and there was a heavy weight behind those words. The Doctor looked at her, and they seemed to have a conversation with facial expressions alone, then the Doctor unwrapped the bar and started to eat it slowly. Every movement seemed to exhaust her, and every few seconds River was sure her eyes would slide closed again.
The Corsair was tapping on her metal cuff, frowning at the screen. River couldn’t quite understand all the shapes, but she recognised radar when she saw it.
‘Someone’s coming.’
‘Someone is,’ the Corsair replied. ‘Quite a few someones actually.’ She looked at the Doctor, worry twisted into her face. ‘We need to get you out of here, can you stand?’
‘Only one way to find out,’ the Doctor said with false optimism when she crumpled into River’s arms seconds later.
‘I mean, you’re on your feet that’ll do,’ the Corsair said with an exasperated shrug. She rummaged in her pocket and this time River recognised the unmistakable look of a vortex manipulator.
The Doctor looked upset. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Cheap and nasty I know,’ the Corsair agreed. ‘But also the only way I’m getting you out of here. We’ve got four Gallifreyan warships coming right at us. You need to go, get your friends, find your TARDIS, and then consider leaving the universe, honestly, cause you’ve really cheesed them off.’
‘It’s not Gallifrey, it’s Division,’ the Doctor said. She looked pleadingly at the Corsair. ‘Please, stay away from them.’
The Corsair frowned, but before she had a chance to respond the sound of engines on the surface above began to make themselves known, heavy and grinding and right above their heads.
‘You need to go,’ the Corsair said. ‘Don’t worry, we can look after ourselves.’
The Doctor turned to her wife. ‘River -’
‘You’ll just have to come find me afterwards,’ River said with a sad smile. ‘I suppose asking where we are in our timeline is a bit obsolete at the moment.’
The Doctor smiled, and when she pressed her lips against her wife’s it felt like life pouring back into her soul.
‘Spoilers,’ the Doctor whispered, then she vanished.