So yeah, felt like doing a random-adventure type thing, I haven't done much of that! Gotta move out of the comfort zone now and then, though. And since it's Valentine's Day (and no doubt weekend), I thought I'd do a sort-of romance-y type thing? Yeah, maybe not, the plot of this is rather loosely inspired by an episode of Superman: the Animated Series called "Warrior Queen". You really don't need to have seen it at all to understand this, just thought I'd mention it for anyone who has. At any rate, keep in mind that this (while not strictly canon) takes place somewhere between "The Power of Three" and "The Angels Take Manhattan" and you should be good. Enjoy!

Dobby's Polka-Dotted Sock

Chapter One

"Inhabitants of Sol 3, the terrestrial planet you call the Earth, do not be alarmed. This is the command ship of Her Imperial Majesty Mexianna XIV. Your airspace is required while your worthy candidates are selected. Remain calm, and the process will be completed peacefully," a cool, feminine voice flooded Earth's airwaves as a large, circular ship in steel gray entered the atmosphere.

That was the only warning humanity received before it happened: all around the world celebrities, musicians, lawyers, officers, philosophers, engineers, medical professionals, bluebloods, professors, and nearly everything in between disappeared from their offices and homes. All were male, and all were single.

OoO

"Doctor?" Amy Pond called from her position standing before the monitor, not taking her eyes from the screen.

"Hm?" Came the noncommittal hum from below the platform, letting her know he was only giving a precursory interest. No doubt his sleeves were rolled up, jacket discarded somewhere, and goggles set over his eyes as he reworked the wiring for the umpteenth time in his swing. That he always seemed to do it while they were in flight in the Vortex had never concerned her for some reason.

Rory, of course, stopped throwing darts immediately and came over to see what had caught her interest. His eyes widened after a moment of watching with her. "That's…probably not good."

"What's not good?" A clatter was heard from beneath them as the Time Lord hurriedly disengaged himself from tinkering, naturally having caught those words.

"I was watching Earth news, you know, just making sure the planet's safe for Brian," Amy half-joked. Defending the Earth was a fulltime commitment, not to mention the rest of the universe. "Then this happened."

The Doctor slipped in between them, bracing his hands on their shoulders as he looked for himself. "'Alien Ship Sighted, Number of Hostages Climbs'?"

"Apparently," Amy confirmed. "The ship's parked over London right now."

"Seriously?" He seemed incredulously irritated, and the grip on her shoulder tightened before he let both of them go to bury his hands in already mused hair as he dropped back into the pilot's chair. "Oh, and I was doing so well, too! There goes the nice track record I had building, it's this old game again—"

"What are you talking about?" Rory interrupted, clearly bewildered as she that annoyance seemed to be their friend's primary emotion as opposed to, say, alarm.

"Invasions of 21st century Earth, particularly London," he answered, crossing one leg over the other as he regarded them with arms folded. "Giant ship overhead, people panicking in the streets, that sort of thing. Thought I'd gotten it under control after the Atraxi. But this is just so…" He struggled to express himself for a minute, finally grimacing as he said, "the 2000s."

"Raggedy Man," Amy stated flatly, hands going sternly to her hips. "Less complaining about the invasion, more solving it."

He sprung from the chair almost instantly at those words, the usual enthusiasm at the prospect of adventure back again. "Right you are, Pond! Now then, the ship itself," he shooed them out of the way to work some controls, pulling up an image of the alien vessel on the monitor. "That kind of exterior design you typically see in the fourth quadrant, long way off. Ah, but the detail! The way the sections have been fitted together, the interlocking patterns and that careful, almost artistic touch." The Ponds saw none of that; to them, it was a spaceship hovering over London. Their alien friend didn't make them guess, fortunately, instead simply telling them, "that is the command ship of the Artemian Empire, used by the Queen herself."

"Ooh, so it really is the mother ship then, yeah?" Amy interjected, feeling a certain satisfaction from hearing that the Queen of this place got her own spaceship. So long as she wasn't using said spaceship to hurt anyone, that was alright in her book.

The Doctor seemed amused by her question, however, as he replied, "In Artemin, every ship is a mother ship, Amy. The craftsmen and shipbuilders see their works as extensions of themselves, something they have created and given expression to, almost like new life."

"Any father ships?" Rory asked with a grin, but it faded when the Time Lord shook his head.

"I don't think so, Rory, not with no men."

"What?" The Ponds both squawked in bafflement.

"It's a complete matriarchy, no men allowed. Everything I know is secondhand—I'm telling you, the Corsair lorded it over me so much for decades after she got back from visiting the place, I almost considered—anyway," he waved his hands as if to brush away that topic entirely as he moved around to another side of the console, though Amy and Rory exchanged slightly amused, slightly weirded out looks. "I think one of the Ancient Greeks must have come into contact with them somehow, given the similarly named goddess Artemis."

The Doctor had stopped at the navigation panel and had his fingers hovering over the typewriter keys when Rory got the nerve to inquire, "But Doctor, if they don't have any men- I mean, do they still need to, er, you know—"

"Yes, they do, Mr. Pond, and that's why it's possibly rather not good they're here. We need to get down there and see if I'm right." With that, the alien began typing away, muttering once under his breath, "But why did they pick London to set up camp?"

He pulled a lever to start takeoff, however, and so the Ponds simply clung to the railing and waited for them to arrive.

OoO

Kate Stewart did not have to wonder why London, she had been told. As soon as the alien ship had appeared in the skies the world leaders had sprung into action. Although UNIT had been broken down into state-run organizations, the branch in Geneva was still considered the unofficial head, and so the Director there had attempted to make first contact.

Unsettlingly, he had been rebuffed, apparently as he was considered an unfit representative of the planet. They agreed to talks only if a spokeswoman was sent.

So Kate had volunteered, being the most experienced female Director of any UNIT branch, admittedly one of few but there it was. The foreign ship had relocated accordingly and a shuttle had been brought down for her to board.

"Why was I not transported like the others?" She asked the woman—she felt the humanoid being could be called a woman—who showed her into the shuttle.

The other female looked surprised. "You are a citizen of this planet, are you not?"

"Yes, but so were they," she informed her.

The female looked unfazed. "They are the males of your species."

"Yes, I'd noticed," she replied dryly, and decided to sit back and save her questions for whoever she was to be speaking with.

Once docked, this turned out to be another woman, who looked a bit older than the first one. They and what she guessed were the guards or crew of the command ship—all female—wore what she could best describe as plain white tunics that had halter tops and were rather open in the back. She glimpsed dark, formfitting shorts underneath and sandals that looked vaguely Roman in style strapped up to almost the knee. Their skin had a pinker hue than that of humans and their nails were rather long; not like claws, but they did not seem as easily breakable as fake nails. Every one of them had been given buzz cuts, or their hair simply did not grow any longer.

"Greetings, I am Erinnae, Chief Advisor to Her Imperial Majesty. I welcome you, Director Katestewart."

Kate blinked. "No, sorry, it's Kate Stewart," she enunciated clearly, for what the woman had pronounced sounded something like kay-tes-too-art. Best to start off on the right foot at least.

"I do not understand, why is it separated?"

"Because Stewart is my last name," she informed her.

"Last name?" Several of the women looked curious about this obviously new concept.

"Humans inherit their last names from their parents—typically their fathers," she explained, but when all the women frowned she added, "it's to let others know which family you're descended from."

"I'm afraid we do not have this custom," Chief Advisor Erinnae replied diplomatically enough.

"You may call me Kate, if that's preferable," she offered, not wanting to have mucked things up so soon, and she was glad when the tension seemed to dissipate slightly.

"Very well," the Chief Advisor agreed. "Now, Director Kate, you come here on behalf of your planet with a message."

"Yes," she nodded, steeling herself, "I must quite plainly demand the return of the men your ship has transported up here. It was in gross violation of their rights and—"

"They are being returned as we speak," Erinnae interrupted.

"I'm sorry?" Kate was more than a bit thrown. It was typically more of a struggle than this.

"Yes, as Her Imperial Majesty reviews the candidates and narrows the selection down, those deemed unworthy are returned to their retainers."

"To their friends and family," Kate could not help correcting. It was perhaps a good thing they had simply not agreed to speak with Geneva's Director; she could not imagine any man being able to take these rather unabashed insults, not that she'd expect them to.

Erinnae did not answer that, instead stating as a door to their left slid open, "As you can see, the latest batch of rejections, clearly unharmed."

A line of men was marched past, all shirtless. Some looked frightened, others blushed red in embarrassment at the sight of her and crossed their arms over their chests, while still others strode by utterly confident in their physique. She even got more than a couple flirty winks sent her way. Kate tried not to roll her eyes.

The female guards did not bother hiding their disdain, however, and the men were all quickly led away, most likely to wherever the teleport was on the ship. She turned back to the Chief Advisor once they had all gone. "What exactly is Her Imperial Majesty reviewing them for?"

Erinnae considered her for a moment, then without a word slipped into the room the men had all just left. It was a few minutes before she returned, announcing, "Her Imperial Majesty bids you enter."

Kate followed her back in with a growing trepidation yet also curiosity. There was a marked difference between this room and the last. While the receiving hall had not been cold, entirely, this equivalent of a ship's throne room was clearly designed to show of the splendor of the alien monarch. Plus carpeting in a deep red tried to swallow Kate's flats, exquisite tapestries hung on the walls, and sat on the luxurious, high-backed, jewel-encrusted silver throne was the Queen.

A thin circlet of jewels embedded in silver rested atop her hair, which had been allowed to freely grow in fire-red waves down to at least her waist. She was younger than Erinnae, but definitely a mature woman, fully developed curves and all. Her tunic was embroidered with fancy patterns unlike the plain ones worn by her subjects, and an orb of silver rested in one palm while the sharp-nailed fingers of her other hand curled around a silver scepter with a ruby at the tip.

"Queen Mexianna, I present the Earth representative, Director Kate," Chief Advisor Erinnae bowed low as she spoke. The Queen's dark eyes lifted to regard her, just as the single bare-chested man still standing before the throne turned to look as well.

"Looks like my rescue's here," Captain Jack Harkness quipped with a grin, and Kate tried not to groan. Of course the immortal man was mixed up in this, of course he was.

"Silence, male!" Erinnae rebuked sharply, but the Queen raised a hand to signal her advisor to stop.

"Director Kate, I and my Sisterhood are pleased to meet you." Her voice was softer than Erinnae's, yet somehow held a certain power, a calm assurance that she was in charge and would have her way without fuss.

"Your Majesty," Kate bowed dutifully, then straightened up. "I'm afraid I and my colleagues are a bit at a loss for why you've chosen to come here. Your Chief Advisor says you're reviewing candidates, but I've yet to learn what for."

"Come on, Kate, I'm sure you can guess," Jack teased, though there was a grimness to his humor. "They're humanoid, but they're pretty much short on guys. That's kind of a problem if you want a long-term population."

Kate's mouth dropped open in shock. "You mean this is some kind of search for a- a mate?" It sounded absurd!

The Queen thought so too, apparently, for she laughed. "Not as you think, Director Kate. The practice of mating is unheard of on Artemin. But as the male Jack has indicated, children are just as much a necessity, and I require an heir."

"And so you abduct men from other planets for that purpose?"

"They are males," was the Queen's answer, as if that excused everything.

"Yeah, I think I'm definitely siding with Kate on this one," Jack muttered, but quieted under a glower from Erinnae.

"Why do you have Jack here specifically?" She decided to ask, a bit worried for the man. Sure, he was an incorrigible flirt and the leader of Torchwood, which was far more militaristic than she cared for, but she respected him and didn't like what the Queen and her Sisterhood seemed to have in mind.

"There are still others to be reviewed, but the male Jack is so far the best candidate," the Queen replied, eyes trailing up and down the Captain's form as if considering an item for sale. "Physically fit, intelligent, advanced in certain aspects from the other males of this planet." She wondered if Jack had mentioned he was actually from the 51st century.

"I do not like the male's speech," Erinnae put in sullenly.

"I do not require the male to talk," the Queen returned with a tilt of her head. "I only require his genetic material to produce an heir."

"Look, as I was saying before, he and all the others you've brought up here have rights as humans," Kate interjected, having heard enough of this. "We're all equal, and so I have to object to you simply treating them as something to be taken on your say-so."

The Queen and Chief and Advisor looked up at her in surprise and no small amount of displeasure, but a wave of relief hit her as a noise cut off any reply. A very particular noise.

Vroop Vroop

The TARDIS' engines wheezed and groaned as the blue box phased into being slightly to her right. The doors were pulled inward as the opened and a now-familiar and very welcome man emerged, throwing his arms out to encompass the space that greeted him.

"See, Ponds? The throne room of Her Imperial Majesty, Queen Mexianna the Thirteenth- no, no, hang on, Fourteenth. It's very easy to mix up."

"Can't imagine why," Rory Williams remarked dryly as he stuck his head out. His wife, Amy, walked right out into the open after the Time Lord, tugging the nurse along by the hand.

"Yeah, you'd think they'd get tired of the name after a while. Kate!" The redhead had spotted her and grinned in delight.

The Doctor turned as well, a wide smile breaking out over his face as Rory waved to her in greeting. "Kate Stewart! Good to see you, seems the situation's already being handled, well done," her father's friend stated warmly.

"Good to see you as well, Doctor," she returned.

"So is nobody allowed to say hello to me, now?" Jack asked loudly, alerting the three new arrivals to his presence.

"Jack!" The Doctor exclaimed almost joyfully, leaping forward and kissing the air on either side of the immortal man's face, taking him completely by surprise to Kate's amusement. The Time Lord then began pumping the other man's hand up and down. "Captain Jack, how is everything? Like the new face? Amy, Rory, this is Jack- careful, he flirts." This aside was still added with a smile.

"Noted," Rory nodded.

Amy rolled her eyes at her husband. "Friend of yours? Course he does."

"Hush, Pond," the Doctor chided.

"Well this is a change," Jack finally managed, clearly delighted. "Interesting choice on the face, but as always I like. Your companions are lovely looking as well." Rory shifted awkwardly like most straight men did whenever they realized they were being included in one of Jack's assessments. "Glad to see you here."

"You too, you too, though I'll admit I wasn't expecting it," the Time Lord replied, still shaking Jack's hand though the fervor of it had died down. He stopped abruptly and glanced at Jack's torso with raised eyebrows. "You aren't wearing a shirt."

"Nope," the Captain agreed cheerfully enough, "I'm being reviewed."

"Ah, I see. To business, then," the Doctor stated, swiveling on his heels to face the throne. Chief Advisor Erinnae was a deep pink color due to her silent fuming, but the Queen had placed her silver sphere down to cup her chin in one hand as she leaned forward, observing the whole spectacle with no small amount of interest. "Greetings, You Imperial Majesty, I am the Doctor." He bowed low as he spoke, then straightened up and took a step back. "Amy, you need to present yourself and Rory," he instructed in quiet tones.

"Why me?" Amy asked in some confusion.

"Because in their eyes you are a woman and he is your male."

"What—" Rory started to ask, but at a shake of the Doctor's head, he stopped, taking one step forward while Amy took two, and they bowed together.

"Greetings, Your Imperial Majesty, I am Amy Pond and this is Rory, my- er, male," the Scottish woman stumbled over the odd wording, then backed up with her husband to stand by the Doctor.

"As I see, you are bound," the Queen acknowledged, indicating the matching gold rings on their left hands.

"But you," Erinnae zeroed her glare in on the Doctor, "you teach her of our ways and yet ignore them in regards to yourself!"

"Yes, my apologies, but Amy can't speak for me," the Doctor countered, "see, I'm not a male of her species."

"Oh?" The Queen arched one red eyebrow. "Then what are you, male Doctor?"

"I happen to be a Time Lord, the only Time Lord. So in a way, I reckon that grants me the status to speak for myself."

Chief Advisor Erinnae balled her hands into fists, but it was the Queen who said with an upward quirk to her lips, "You know of our laws."

"I am a distant observer, Your Majesty," he bowed his head with a smile.

"You are studious, then," she noted, and then rose from the throne to approach the TARDIS. "This is no ordinary craft."

"Type 40 Time Capsule, more commonly referred to as a TARDIS. That's Time and Relative Dimensions in Space."

"A machine that traverses time and space? Most impressive," the Queen turned dark eyes, wide and glittering on the other alien.

"Yes, but what I'm more impressed by right now is this elaborate scheme of intergalactic The Bachelorette," the Doctor's smile did not leave, but his eyes turned sharp and calculating. Kate thought perhaps everyone in the room noticed the change, felt it even.

Except possibly Amy, who turned to him with a smirk and asked, "And why do you know about that show?"

He looked more than a little sheepish at being called out. "It was marathoning on your TV when I was- needed something to do when you were asleep and—shut up." Amy grinned but said nothing more. "Point is, even knowing what I do about Jack—"

"Thanks, Doc," the Captain said sarcastically.

"Will you lot quit interrupting me while I'm saving the world?" The Time Lord's hands were raised on either side of his face with the fingers splayed as he shook them in increasing agitation. "Or the freewill of the male species, at least? Because that's the point, Mexianna: you cannot force an intelligent being to do something they don't want to. Males are intelligent beings, even if they don't always act it, and they deserve a choice."

"We merely obtain a sample of the required genetic material," the Chief Advisor stated haughtily.

"Which I take is often against their will," Kate piped up, and the Doctor nodded at her approvingly.

"Right. The Breeding Raids the Artemins go on in your own quadrant are bad enough, Queen Mexianna, but you are far overreaching now and it is high time I put an end to it. This stops today." He had drawn up to the slightly shorter Queen and was now looking down at her with a stormy countenance. Erinnae looked furious but did not speak. "I will ask you only once. Let the men go."

The Queen seemed just as calm as she had been throughout everything, only now a satisfied smile stretched her full, red lips. "Release the human males."

"Your Imperial Majesty!" Chief Advisor Erinnae seemed aghast at this apparent surrender. Kate personally couldn't be more thrilled. Things were never this easy!

The other shoe dropped, though, as the Queen ran a finger down the line of buttons on the Doctor's shirt. "Release them, for I have found the appropriate candidate."

The Time Lord's eyes went wide and he swallowed once. "Oh."

"She means you," Rory guessed.

"Yes, that's a good hypothesis. Always was a chance of that happening," the Doctor conceded as he tried to take a step back from the Queen. She simply fisted her hand in his shirt to hold him in place, long nails likely scraping uncomfortably even through the material judging by his wince. "Listen, Mexianna, you really don't need to do this—"

"But there you are wrong, my male Doctor," the Queen replied as she pressed her other hand over where Kate knew the Doctor's second heart was. She seemed intrigued and entertained by this discovery as she continued, "I most certainly need an heir."

"Yes, yes I suppose you do. But, ah, there are certain reasons why using me as a means to that end would be unethical, even by your standards," the male alien argued, trying his best to squirm away from the red-haired monarch. Amy and Rory took two steps toward their friend before the Chief Advisor snapped her fingers and four hitherto unnoticed guards took up stances between the Ponds and their objective.

"You might want to start talking faster, Doc," Jack advised as he and Kate were forced to start backing away with them toward the exit by the guards.

"Yes, I know!" The Time Lord snapped. "Ok, um, I- I'm not a viable candidate because, rather like Rory here, I am bound. To someone else. She's not here right now—and that's normal!—but I am, in fact, married."

"What?" Jack's yelp was an echo of her own astonishment at the claim. A quick glance told her neither Amy nor Rory were surprised at the revelation, meaning they already must have known.

"And not to some long-dead monarch, either, though I have heard the rumors," the Doctor kept talking right over the Captain. "I'm really, properly married, happily so, and this is all just a big misunderstanding so—"

"Your proof?"

"Proof?" The Doctor blinked down at the Queen. "Ehm- oh dear. You wouldn't happen to just take my word for it, would you, because it sort of took place in an aborted timeline in a world that never was—which we both remember!" He hastened to add with a shaky not-quite laugh.

The Time Lord was clearly floundering as the alien Queen simply tightened her hold. "We were there!" Rory burst out, standing up on tiptoe to see over the guards' heads. "You've got to have witnesses or the like, haven't you?"

"The word of a male is not accepted," Erinnae snapped.

"Well I witnessed it, so that has to count, yeah? Cause I'm a woman, or whatever?" Amy practically growled back just as fiercely. That at least gave the guards pause.

Kate seized the chance. "Please, you've got to at least consider it. None of the men you brought up here to review were married so you've got to respect that sort of- of contract." It was the closest she would get to calling it ownership. Marriage wasn't supposed to work like that on Earth anymore, in either direction. "Give us time to obtain the proof we need."

The Queen tilted her head in thought. "Very well. My ship departs when the sun has set on your half of the world. Bring me your proof by that time and I will honor this alleged contract." They all relaxed somewhat at that, especially the Doctor when the Queen removed one of her hands from his shirt. "The male Doctor, however, shall remain with me until then," she added, and her fingers quick as lightning reached up and squeezed some point on the Time Lord between shoulder and neck. He gave a startled cry that cut off abruptly as his eyes rolled up and he slumped into the Queen's arms.

They all gave various outraged exclamations at that as one of the sturdier guards moved to pick up the unconscious alien, draping him unceremoniously over her shoulder.

"You have no need to fear," the Queen stated firmly, "I pledge not to proceed until this issue is resolved. I will not risk treachery, however, and thus he will stay with me. I shall see he is cared for," she offered this last part absently, like she doubted it was high on their priority list but she should add it anyway, and patted the Doctor's head where it hung upside-down long nails combing through the floppy brown strands.

"You better," Amy warned, a tremble to her voice that spoke not of fear, but anger. The Queen smiled magnanimously, then snapped her fingers. A guard held open a door off to the left behind the throne and she exited, Chief Advisor Erinnae and the guards—and therefore the Doctor—following behind.

The throne room was silent for a long moment. Finally Jack blew out a puff of air and scraped a hand over his face. "Ok, so if I can get access to a computer I could maybe forge some documents. That'll have to include a whole life story for this chick, man I wish the Doc had come up with a better cover story."

"What do you mean?" Rory asked, nonplussed.

The Captain scoffed. "The marriage thing? Look, I don't know how long you've known him, but marriage? Not really his style." Kate hadn't considered the idea the Time Lord had been lying, but she supposed Jack brought up a valid point.

At least till the Ponds exchanged a look that consisted of mainly raised eyebrows and smirking. "Yeah, starting to wonder how long you've known him," the redhead shot back.

"You wouldn't believe me," the immortal man returned. Amy simply rolled her eyes and began making her way back over to the TARDIS. "Hey, are you going to help us with the cover story or what?"

"We don't need to do that," Rory told them plainly.

"Then what's Amy doing?" Kate asked patiently enough before Jack could get too frustrated with the pair.

"Calling River," the woman herself answered over her shoulder before pushing the police box doors open.

"Who's River?" Jack demanded.

"Our daughter," Rory answered, and Kate's eyes widened in surprise. She hadn't seen any hints of a child in the Ponds' house when she'd sent the dogs in last summer. "She's all the proof we need."

"Why?"

The nurse stared them both down so seriously it would have been impossible to doubt his next words, whatever they might be. "Because she's his wife."

Aaaand, that's part one! Finished it in time for Valentine's Day—barely. Ah well, still counts. Haha, I am seriously having fun with the matriarchy concept/role reversal stuff. The Doctor isn't, obviously, and just what will River have to say? I can't imagine this being any longer than two, maybe three chapters if I get really deep into it, so hopefully I'll have it all done for you by the end of this weekend. Crossing my fingers! Thanks for reading, and please review!