Chapter Text
River took a deep breath and climbed the last stretch of the stone roof that joined the wall of the central keep. The night was dark and windy. River looked down and then up. Below her, into the castle courtyard, guards armed with spears and bows stood watchful. River smiled as the wind tousled her blonde curls and swelled her black robes.
Matt followed her eagerly and anxiously. This was a complicated situation and he had no idea how the famous archaeologist was going to get out of it. He knew she hadn't been happy at all about having to go to the Middle Ages, but someone had to retrieve the artefact. A 42th century high-tech sceptre in the hands of a mad medieval king could destroy the universe and the Doctor, however magnificent he might be, couldn't be everywhere.
Matt watched her in admiration. She seemed so calm, neither cold nor afraid, in fact she was completely relaxed and attentively observing her target. She was not even distracted by the passing of a knight in full armour in the courtyard below.
Suddenly it seemed to Matt that someone was calling him from far away. He stopped and listened in annoyance, trying not to lose sight of River. The call was repeated louder and Matt recognised the voice of Arthur, his best friend. He sighed and reluctantly removed the 3D viewer from his head, placing it on the desk.
Matthew Smith was born in 2197 and was 25 years old. He had a degree in technology engineering and had many passions, one in particular were the v-stories. Lately his preference was for a very ancient story box: it was called The diary of River Song. Matt loved anything antique, which seemed ironic for someone whose job was to project the future. For his birthday eight months earlier, he had visited ULT, the world's biggest library. It contained the files and data of every known work, fact and event in the human history, and browsing through the entertainment section he found himself examining interesting products from the first two decades of the 2000. Of the many things that had caught his eye, The Diary of River Song was definitely his favourite. Of course, it took him a while to understand how it worked and he was shocked when it was explained to him that these stories were simply meant to be listened to.
Nowadays, every story or film or videogame was made with 360° immersive technology: a very sophisticated software system was able to replicate all the world's settings and characters so that the person was witnessing the story from the inside.
However, Matt decided to give it a go anyway, so he bought some of the files. When he got home, he put one of them on his computer and listened to his first audio story just as people used to do 200 years ago, using only his imagination. It had been a very bizarre experience at first, but not entirely unpleasant. One thing had struck him above all: the voice of River, the main character. It was warm, sexy, husky and melodious. Matt had found that he needed nothing more than that voice to get involved with the story. After several weeks, however, he had realised that it was far from enough. He needed to know who that voice belonged to, he needed to see what she looked like. Without too much difficulty he had found all the information. Alex Kingston was the name of the actress who had played River more than two centuries before. She was absolutely a beautiful woman. Her hair was a huge mass of wild curls. Sometimes blond, sometimes darker. No woman today would wear her hair like that, it would be considered messy, of someone who didn't take care of their appearance, but in Alex it was absolutely perfect. The second thing Matt noticed was the eyes. It was hard to tell from behind a screen whether they were blue or green and he cursed at the thought of how beautiful they must had been in person.
After a while, he decided that even simply listening to stories was no longer enough, even though he now had a woman to imagine. He had to make her more real. It wasn't hard for a software engineer to harness his knowledge to use v-immersive technology and the material in his possession to create an immersive version of the stories in The Diary of River Song.
So now, with a simple 3D viewer Matt was able to physically follow River on her adventures. He could see her talking, smiling. Unfortunately, even that sophisticated technology lacked the tactile and olfactory capabilities and he found himself more than once imagining what it must be like to be able to smell her or to reach out and touch her.
"Matt..." his friend Arthur called him again as he entered the room, "are you still playing with that thing?"
"This is not a game, it's a v-story as you well know."
"Not to me, it’s more like old rubbish" Arthur chuckled "really what do you find in this stuff?" he asked, taking one of his memory cards from the desk.
Matt immediately took it out of his hand and put it back in its place. “Just because something is old doesn't mean it is rubbish. This stuff used to be popular, people loved it and I assure you the stories are well written" he replied annoyed. It wasn't the first time Arthur had teased him.
The friend shrugged his shoulders "Maybe... but I have the impression that it's the protagonist rather than the stories that interest you".
Matt flushed as he tried to find something to say in reply, but Arthur laid a hand on his shoulder and chuckled "You know, mate, there are far more satisfying immersive realities out there. You should try them" He winked at him and walked towards the door, telling him that dinner was ready, before closing it behind him.
Matt huffed and let himself fall back in his chair. He found Arthur Darvill extremely annoying sometimes, but he was like a brother to him. Matt was the only son of Arthur's father's best friend and the two boys had known each other forever. When Matt had lost both of his parents at the age of 16, the Darvills had taken him in as family until the two boys had decided to go their own way at the age of 18 with Arthur's girlfriend Karen.
When he came downstairs, the two friends were already sitting at the table and waiting for him.
"It's about time," the red-haired girl exclaimed as Matt took his seat in front of her. "I've spent the last hour inputting the dinner details, so let's hurry up and eat.”
Matt certainly didn’t want to contradict her. Karen might have been the youngest but she was definitely the one in charge in the house.
“Fish and chips please” she ordered
"Right away" the table replied in a robotic voice and the plate materialised in front of her.
"Really Karen?" asked Arthur in an exasperated tone as he rolled his eyes "An hour of data entry and this is the best you could come up with?"
"Oi! Why don't you cook next time? Besides, I seem to remember that you like fish and chips."
"Sure, but I'd rather not have to eat it every day since this house has an automated system sophisticated enough to produce food from all over the world..."
“Fish fingers and custard” Matt ordered in an attempt to break up the arguing just as Karen opened her mouth to reply.
"I shouldn't have put the custard in the system. Honestly, Matt this is disgusting."
"You say that every time and every time I reply that you can't judge without trying."
Karen grimaced and began to eat.
The dinner was cheerful and full of talk. They talked about their jobs and plans for the weekend.
"So, what are we going to do?" asked Karen after they had finished eating and the table cleaned up "we could go to the Hyper gallery. I hear they're planning a virtual tour of the African savanna. That might be fun."
"Aren't you tired of all this virtual stuff?" asked Matt before he could realise it and immediately regretting it because both Arthur and Karen looked at him as if he had just announced that he had a disease.
"I mean, don't you ever feel like doing something for real, other than behind a virtual reality visor or a screen?"
"But Matt, you're the one who creates all these things like visors and screens and virtual reality."
He nodded "Of course and I like it, but sometimes I think it's too much. Maybe things were better in the past" he concluded with a sigh.
"Ah" exclaimed Arthur with a smirk.
Karen looked at him confused "What?"
"He's just pining for his girl from the past"
"I'm not pining at all!" replied Matt immediately feeling himself blush "I was talking about something else.... "
Arthur interrupted him, turning to Karen who was looking at them perplexed.
"You know, that actress from that old show that he spends all his hours inside his visor for" he grinned, "what's her name again?"
"Alex Kingston" Matt replied sullenly, crossing his arms. It wasn't enough that Arthur was teasing him, now Karen was going to join in. He was just an admirer of an actress, so what? There was nothing weird in wanting to spend most of his free time looking at her inside his viewer. And was it strange to think about her? About what she liked and what made her laugh. Maybe it was a little bit. Sometimes at night when he couldn't sleep, he thought of her and wondered if she'd had a happy life. He hoped so, but for some reason he had always been afraid to check.
"And what exactly do you know about her?" Karen asked him
"Not much really, apart from the fact that she played this role of River Song in a show called Doctor Who."
He had been tempted many times to seek information about her, but had always felt a little uncomfortable with the idea. As if it somehow, he violated her privacy.
"Show us Alex Kingston, the actress who lived about 200 years ago."
For a moment Matt thought Karen was talking to him, then realised she was addressing the table.
Immediately in front of them a totally realistic hologram materialised.
"There's the mystery woman" Arthur said, leaning in for a closer look. Karen was also intrigued
"She's not what I expected, but she's really beautiful."
"Stunning" Arthur admitted "too bad she's not real."
"She was real before any of us" Matt corrected him, as he contemplated the image of Alex with an almost dreamy look on his face. "We were just born 200 years too late to meet her. "
"Can you tell us anything about her?" asked Karen to the table.
"Alex Kingston, born 1963 was a British actress best known for her roles in..."
"Yes, all right, tell us more about her personal life".
"Do we have to?" asked Matt a little uncomfortably as the robotic voice began listing a series of facts. It was useless, he thought. Nothing a computer could find in its archive would have helped them to know who Alex was.
She had been a real person, not a list of data. The latest information, however, caught his attention.
"Alex Kingston has been married three times. The first was to Raph Fiennes, the second to Florian Haertel with whom she had a daughter, and finally to Matt Smith."
All three remained silent. Matt wasn't sure if he had heard correctly. Surely the table hadn't just said that Alex's third husband had the same name as him. What were the odds that such a coincidence was even possible?
"Maybe he was one of your ancestors," Arthur ventured after a few minutes.
"Let's check it out," Karen exclaimed immediately "tell us more about Matt Smith, Kingston's third husband.
"Matt Smith, born in 1982 became famous as the Eleventh Doctor in the British TV series Doctor Who…."
"1982... he was a lot younger than her" Karen observed.
Matt felt an inexplicable nervousness building up inside him and almost held his breath when Karen asked for an image of his namesake to be shown.
The table obeyed immediately and a hologram of a man took shape in front of them.
Matt stared at him for long moments he felt his breath catches. He could feel his friends looking at him but no one dared to speak. Matt realized that his hands had gripped the table so tightly that his fingers were white. He forced himself to look away only when he heard Arthur's voice.
"Mate..." his tone was almost a whisper "this man… looks just like you"