A/N: This is your announcement of hiatus. The next chapter won't be posted until December at least. Quotes for Dawn of the Daleks will be added as soon as I have them. (On the flip side, there'll be 3 multi-chapter fics between now and then, so...)

Thanks to: HelenaHermione and Jimbobob5536. And, as always, to Paul, who reminded me that alien brains really should be alien.

Finally the Queen – Amy couldn't quite bring herself to think of her as Queen Elizabeth – unlocked yet another steel door and they entered a large concrete room. While the Queen and the Doctor crossed the room quickly, the Doctor already talking, Amy hung back and stared.

The room itself was huge, rivalling a concert hall in length and width, if not height. It had concrete walls and ceiling, but metal grating for a floor, and long florescent lights hung uneasily on chains from the ceiling. Banks of instruments were scattered across the floor like dominos. And beneath the grating –

Amy's mind stopped.

There was something there, something that hovered on the edge of being visible, or, perhaps more accurately, was too visible, was there on one more dimension than her brain could handle, and so she couldn't see it, she just knew that it was there, a massive inexorable presence living beneath her feet, something so strange, so alien that there were no words in English to describe it.

Amy blinked, and the moment passed.

What she could see was pink, and moist, and vaguely brain-like, in the sort of sense that a computer was like an abacus. It pulsed faintly.

The whole thing was extremely odd and left a buzzing sensation in the back of her mind, almost like an impending headache, except not, because headaches didn't usually give warning.

In the centre of the room, there was a large hole cut in the grating. Above that was positioned a machine that once a second shot a bolt of electricity into the brain-like thing. The Doctor was standing at the edge, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Where's Timmy?" he said faintly.

The Queen straightened, frowning. "Who?"

The Doctor spun on her. "There are children who are sent below. What happens to them?"

Another person cleared his throat. "The beast won't eat the children. adThe Most of them, we re-educate and relocate to other areas of the ship. A few are kept for training." Hawthorne stepped out of the shadows, dark eyes fixed on the Queen. "Your Majesty. What a – delightful surprise."

"Starwhales don't eat meat," the Doctor said, not moving. "They gain energy through the radiation found in empty space. They don't need solid food, except when they are in a growth spurt which, first off, only occurs once every several thousand years, and second, they then gain their nutrients by absorbing nebula and planets at their birth."

Hawthorne turned – almost reluctantly, Amy thought – to face the Doctor. "Then where do the adults go?"

The Doctor stepped forward, towards the hole in the grating. "You're torturing it."

"One alien versus a nation of people," Hawthorne said coolly. "Which decision would you have made?"

Amy rubbed the back of her head. No, it wasn't like a headache at all – more a tingling buzzing sensation steadily growing, spreading out to the sides – she could almost make out voices, except that wasn't possible, headaches didn't talk, and that's all this was, a headache brought on by stress and running down far too many corridors.

With a huff of annoyance, the Doctor walked away from the hole, towards one of the banks of instruments. "Not that one. Amelia. Have you noticed something odd about this?"

Amy blinked. "What?"

"Something odd. Have you noticed it?" he repeated impatiently, bending over what looked like a control screen.

Frowning, Amy crossed her arms. "There are a lot of odd things. Children getting sent below, a split government, a thing I can't see beneath my feet – you refusing to use my name," she added pointedly.

The Doctor nodded, flipping a switch. "Good, but you're missing the important part. There aren't any other people in this room," he said, spinning to look at the Queen. "And you know why? Because you can't stay in this room for more than a few minutes at a time, can you? You start hearing things. Amelia, how would a creature that travels through a vacuum communicate with others?"

"I'm delighted to be used as the vehicle for your Socratic method," Amy said acidy, scowling at him.

The Doctor almost quirked a smile, the vast majority of his attention on the Queen. "Answer the question."

Amy huffed. "Ah – not through sound. Touch? Or – would telepathy work in a vacuum?"

"Precisely," the Doctor said smugly. "Starwhales are telepathic. And this one is extremely upset, Inspector General Hawthorne. You've had Inspectors driven insane by this room, haven't you? Men who go in and come out gibbering, or not at all. Some may even have died, here. And yet you cannot learn, can you? You cannot learn that maybe, just maybe it might be a good idea to let the whale go."

Oh. Amy swallowed. The buzzing grew spicier.

Hawthorne made a disgusted noise. "This ship is built on the beast, Doctor. Releasing it would destroy the ship."

The Doctor snarled. "You utter morons. How impossibly stupid must you have been? Don't answer that. Now. You know why the starwhale is upset? Because that machine is injecting it with ten thousand amps of electricity every second, and it is in unimaginable agony. And you know what, Hawthorne? This whale is sentient. It knows precisely what you are doing to it."

"Again, Doctor, what other options do you have?" Hawthorne snapped.

The Queen stepped forward. "You could obey your queen and turn the responsibility over to me."

The Doctor turned to her, frowning. "With all due respect, your Majesty," he said, somehow not sarcastic, "I am not your subject, and I still hold UNIT rank. Treatment of aliens is not your responsibility, but mine."

Hawthorne snapped his fingers. "I think you will find that neither of you have any power, given that I command the BRITISH."

A Smiler stepped into the room, gun-hand raised and pointed at the Doctor.

The Doctor raised both an eyebrow and his hands, facing the Smiler. "Ah. Planning to do something with that?"

"Your Majesty, you will surrender all authority to me effective immediately," Hawthorne said, clasping his hands behind his back. "Or I will have the Doctor shot."

Rubbing one ear, the Doctor shrugged. "Eh. You could do that, I suppose. Not entirely sure where it would get you, but yeah, you could do it."

Hawthorne straightened. "Do not push me, Doctor. You die as any other man dies."

The Doctor visibly looked surprised. "So he did delete those. Well done, old chap," he muttered, quietly enough that Amy had to strain to understand him. "But Inspector," he said louder, humour evident in every line of his body, "you really should have used something else. Because the problem with robots is –"

In a motion far faster than any human could accomplish, the Doctor pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his jacket and pointed it at the Smiler. "Robots are electronic." The end of the screwdriver glowed blue and a loud whirring noise threatened to overwhelm the sticky sound in the back of Amy's head.

The noise from the screwdriver was quickly joined by a rattling from the Smiler. Within a few seconds, it had collapsed on the floor with a loud clank.

"There we are then," the Doctor said smugly, returning his screwdriver to his coat.

Watching the back and forth, Amy bit her lip in thought. The starwhale returned the children, but not the adults. Queen Elizabeth X was cut off from her people by Inspector General Hawthorne, who had to be one of the most power-mad individuals she had ever had the misfortune to meet. The Doctor was telepathic. Solar flares had forced humanity off of the Earth.

"So, your Majesty and Inspector General Hawthorne, I have three choices. I can leave things alone. Let a creature you cannot begin to understand continue on in pain for thousands of years. Personally," he continued, voice light, "I'm not fond of leaving things alone. So option two – I can release the starwhale, let it go. And condemn every single person on this ship to death. Third, I – I can kill the starwhale. Destroy its mind, but leave its body functioning."

He paused, looking down at the floor, face closed off. "And then I'll change my name. Find something – not the Doctor."

Sighing, he returned to the bank of instruments, and began pressing buttons. "And I choose option three. Charming, isn't it, to see how easily you can break me. You should be taking notes, Inspector General. Could be useful someday." His voice was bland and flat, almost painfully so.

Both Hawthorne and the Queen were silent. The zapping bolts paused as the machine began to rev.

The Doctor was telepathic.

The starwhale was telepathic.

Amy ran forward, towards the Doctor. "Stop!"

His hands paused on the controls, and he turned toward her slightly. "Amelia, there is no solution to this that –"

She grabbed his wrist, just below the cuff. Dragging him forward, she fell to her knees next to the hole. In the same movement, she yanked his hand down and pressed it to the pulsing brain.

The Doctor tensed. Slightly panicked but certain that her idea would work, Amy released his wrist and backed away slowly. After one terrifying second where he didn't move at all, the Doctor slumped forward, hand still pressed to the brain. Muscles standing out in his neck, the Doctor's back arched, and he screamed.

Amy jerked forward again. She'd ruined it, she'd hurt him, it wasn't going to work out, the whale was more powerful and angrier than she'd thought –

"No, no, no, stay back!" the Doctor yelled hoarsely, every muscle tense. "I – I've got it."

For a second the room was quiet, silence broken only by the Doctor's harsh panting. Finally he relaxed, hand still on the brain, but back bent more gently and neck limp. "There. There," he repeated, more quietly.

Amy stepped towards him, bending down. "What happened?"

"Come here." The Doctor waved her down. "Put your hand right next to mine."

She hesitated momentarily, before deciding to obey. The brain was – odd, almost but not quite there, soft and wet and squishy and also somehow intangible. She frowned, first at it, and then at the Doctor, confused, and then –

huge space empty warm home home home others lonely pain friends help journey alone friends touch touch touch touch other not us different same touch similar small fragile not Time Lord not us similar but different touch

hello

She scrambled backwards, shocked. "In – It was in – Doctor?"

He smiled beatifically. "Telepaths, I told you. Yes. It's in your head. You're in its head as well, if that makes you feel any better."

Taking a deep breath, Amy returned her hand to the brain.

It was like opening her eyes for the first time in her life and seeing, not just a room, but the entire planet, all at once. Information rushed into her mind, and sensation, and thoughts, and –

sorry scared tried help sorry sorry friend question

The pressure receded slightly, giving her more – space? – to think.

Amy frowned. "Ah – yes. I think. I can be a friend?"

laugh this friendly you small you unfriendly no harm this little ones bright pain no great pain little ones little understand question

The Doctor chuckled. "Humans never had a chance of harming it. It's aware of the shocks but they don't matter – like static electricity, or a paper cut. Humans are so small –" He smiled, shaking his head. His expression resembled nothing so much as someone under a religious experience, such as those Amy had seen in paintings.

Time Lord truth little ones little Time Lord large inside could hurt this won't kind hero alone question other Time Lords alone like this question

Freezing, the Doctor nodded. He was then silent for a long moment.

speak your little one unknown help

"Yes. I'm alone. They're all dead," the Doctor said jerkily. "There was a war. You – it wasn't quiet. You had to have known."

aware this kin gone War wanted Time Lord view

The Doctor visibly swallowed. "The rest of the starwhales were killed in the war?"

agree

He breathed in, visibly shuddering next to Amy. "There was – a war. A Time War. My people versus the Daleks. They died. I escaped. Some – it spread, and we couldn't always control it. I'm sorry."

aware this sorry Time Lord

"It was my fault," the Doctor whispered.

Amy pulled away. She'd never heard anyone sound that broken, that damaged, and she didn't want to get in between the Doctor and some catharsis he obviously needed.

liar

The Queen jumped and Hawthorne swore in shock. Amy's eyes widened.

laugh this old touch aid not needed

Time Lord liar Time Lord not fault killers fault Time Lord end

"I killed them," the Doctor said, voice cracking. "It was my fault. I ended it but I did so through xenocide, I killed billions."

War kill countless War kill countless many times Time Lord kill many once Time Lord kill needed

The Doctor pulled his hand away, standing jerkily. "Could you stop broadcasting? Some things –" His voice stuttered to a halt and he stared blankly at the brain.

your little one confused your little one intelligent your little one help

"She can't, she can't even come close, it's nothing that her mind can understand –"

tell little one tell little one War death disaster tell little one Time Lords TELL LITTLE ONE

Amy shuddered at the bellow in her mind. Hawthorne whimpered.

The Doctor frowned down at the starwhale. "I don't take orders," he said flatly.

not order suggestion help healing

"Later. Can you handle this?" the Doctor asked abruptly.

now use Time Lord mind later no Time Lord silent helper question

Amy nodded. "Makes sense. If it has someone to communicate for it – maybe this won't happen again." She gestured at the banks of instruments.

The Doctor's eyes flickered to hers before he turned, standing between the others and the hole in the grating. "Your Majesty. Come here. Please."

Amy stepped back, letting the Queen stand next to the hole. "Good choice," Amy murmured to the Doctor.

He smiled, briefly. "Your Majesty, I would like to put you in charge of communication with the starwhale."

Hawthorne made a strangled noise.

Amy crossed to stand in front of him. "If I were you, I'd keep quiet. The Doctor's none too pleased right now."

"I have men –!" Hawthorne began.

She levelled him a glare. "You've got two aliens pissed at you right now, and one of them's your bloody ship, so I'd really suggest that you stay out of this one."

"Thank you, Miss Pond," a voice said coolly from behind her. "I believe I can take it from here."

Amy spun, stumbling through a curtsey. "Your Majesty."

The Queen nodded her acknowledgement, her attention focused on Hawthorne. "Inspector General. You will be pleased to know that the adults fed to the starwhale were actually being teleported to nearby habitable planets."

Still belligerent – the idiot – Hawthorne drew himself up. "Why would I be pleased to know that?"

"Come along, Pond," the Doctor said quietly in Amy's ear, making her jump. "They can sort this one out on their own."

Amy turned to him, eyebrows raised. "What if he –"

The Doctor smiled. "With a starwhale on her side? I think she's got it sorted. Time for us to go." He stood there for a moment, and then held his hand out to her.

She stared at it, ignoring the argument behind her. "You said –"

"I say a lot of things," he said blandly. "Sometimes I need to say less."

Amy shook her head slowly. "But won't it –"

His smile slid away, replaced by a face that was at once completely closed off and heartbreakingly vulnerable. "I've dealt with that. The starwhale helped. That was –" He broke off and had to start again. "That was what the yelling was about. It thought I was another starwhale, and they – share their pain, spread it out. And I – hadn't touched another's mind in – a while."

"If you're sure," Amy said. "But don't leave me behind again." She reached out and took his hand. It was strong, and cool, and dry.

The Doctor grinned brightly. "Amelia Pond – Amy. Not until you want to be."