The Fires That Burned Blue (Chapter 6)

Chapter 6 (Swing Out Sister)

Caleb sat on a beautifully carved wooden chair that sat near to the back of the console room. He stared down at the floor as he blinked slowly, carefully considering what had just happened. The last hour had been a blur. He had never expected to have been whisked away this quickly, although it was always a wish that he’d end up travelling with his uncle one day.

Back on Gallifrey, a long, long time ago, he had promised him that if he ever left their home world then he’d take Caleb with him.

Then Caleb and his father had had an accident and become trapped in a pocket universe. Life had moved on and the Doctor had left Gallifrey many years later with his granddaughter, Susan.

He hadn’t asked about Susan. She was only young when Caleb had gone missing. The Doctor didn’t always seem comfortable with family matters.

Time had moved more slowly for Caleb and his father, but a long, long time had passed for the Doctor and his mother.

The Doctor was stood beside the console room, his hands in his grey jacket pockets. He absentmindedly flicked at a few controls and then turned to look at Caleb.

“I don’t know,” he said simply.

“What?” said Caleb, confused.

“You were going to ask me a question.”

“Was I?”

The Doctor nodded and crossed over to him. He sat on the floor next to the chair, his hands in his lap. He looked at the time rotor as it rose and fell gently. “You were going to ask me if you think they’re still alive.”

Caleb closed his eyes and was amused at the thought. Amused that the Doctor could almost read his mind. “The question had crossed my mind.”

“The truth is,” said the Doctor, turning to face his adopted nephew, “that I don’t know. But what I do know is this: your mother and your father cared for you very much. They loved you. They loved you enough to sacrifice themselves so that you would be safe.” He got up off the floor and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “And your mother cared enough for us to find your sister.”

“That’s if Illithia is even still alive,” said Caleb glumly. “And she won’t know me or mum or anyone anyway.”

“That doesn’t mean that she can’t learn.” He crossed to the console. “The trick will be in trying to find her. And we have to move fast. The Master won’t let us just run, not if he knows that we’re going after her.”

“Can’t you scan for Gallifreyan readings?” said Caleb, crossing over to the console.

“It’d be like searching for a invisible needle in a sea of needles,” said the Doctor. He suddenly looked sad, and then shook away the thoughts of Gallifrey. He couldn’t afford to let his mind wander. He needed to stay focused.

“But you must have some idea.”

The Doctor scratched his chin. “Like me, the Master has always been drawn to Earth. If he really was checking on Illithia all of these years that we’ve been at each others throats then he may well have hidden her there. He was stranded on Earth for a time as well.”

“He said that she’s somewhere we’ll never find her.”

“Which means it’s not somewhere expected. Not a space prison or a Thal survival camp.” He tapped his finger on the top of the console. “It’d be somewhere normal. Dull and normal.”

Caleb shook his head. “Even if she is hidden how has he managed to hide her life signs? A Gallifreyan on Earth? Surely you’d detect her.”

“Unless he’s masked her somehow.” His eyes flitted from side to side. “He took her as a baby. Hid her away and changed her biological data.”

“That kind of technology is dangerous,” said Caleb.

“Believe me, I know.” The Doctor wandered away from the console, gazing into the middle distance, his hand stroking his half-grown beard. “The Chameleon Arch was in its infant days when you and your father went missing. The completed device rewrites your entire biological data. It can overwrite your entire self. Make you change from Gallifreyan to Human…to anything. I used it once, and the Master used the same tech to escape the Time War.”

“He ran from the Time War?” laughed Caleb. “The coward.”

The Doctor turned to his nephew. “You weren’t there, Caleb. It made us do…things…”

Caleb watched as the Doctor stared at the roundel-covered wall, deep in his memories.

“So,” said Caleb, trying to steer the topic back around to Illithia, “you think he rewrote her as a baby and then let her grow up with someone else while he checked up on her?”

“Sounds about right,” said the Doctor, “but we simply have no idea as to where she could be. No clue at all.”




The coffin was lowered into the ground. Lilly stood and watched on. Her sister’s eyes were full of tears, her father’s face a look of anguish.

Lilly didn’t care.

She didn’t care that her brother was dead. In fact…she was happy.

A few nights ago she had gotten in an argument with him. Again. But this time he had taken it too far. Archie had never used physical violence exactly. He had restrained her and forced her into her room to lock her up, but he had never hit her.

They were celebrating her 24th birthday…or rather she was sat in the living room with a glass of water whilst her and her family watched Bullseye, when Archie had come in and locked the door, closed the curtains and continually peeked out from the gap between them.

“What’s happened?” her dad had said, getting up from the chair.

“It was Dunlop and his lads.”

Andrea groaned. “What the hell now?”

“I’ve told you not to get involved with the Dunlop’s” said her father, joining her brother by the curtains.

Lilly looked down sadly at her half empty glass of water, remembering what Dunlop had done to Craig all those years ago. And then she realised it had been five years since he had died. Since the weird man had visited her for the last time.

Since she had lost the knife.

Nobody had reported Craig missing because there was nobody there to miss him.

She was the only one who had ever cared about him.

She was brought back into the grotty living room by the sound of screeching tyres.

“It’s them,” said Archie. He and his father went into the side cabinet next to the TV and took out two revolvers.

“Dad, what the hell!?” said Lilly, her eyes wide. “What are you gonna do, shoot them?”

“If they have to,” said Andrea, who had now taken up the lookout position by the window.

“Don’t be so bloody stupid,” said Lilly, getting up and trying to grab one of the guns off Archie.

“Back off,” said Archie, pulling away. He was considerably taller than her and Lilly couldn’t get near to him.

“Just keep out of this, Lilly,” said her dad. “Andrea, take her upstairs.”

“I’m not a kid anymore,” said Lilly. “You can’t treat me like that anymore.”

“Let’s go out there and threaten him,” said Archie.

“Yeah,” said her dad, loading up the revolver, “he won’t be expecting this.”

“What in the name of all that is holy…?!” said Lilly as they made their way out of the living room.

Andrea held her back and her dad turned to face her. “There’s nothing holy in this house, Lilly. There never has been.”

Her brother and father made their way towards the front door when Lilly slipped out of Andrea’s grip. She ran up behind them, pushed past her dad who fell to the floor and leapt onto Archie’s back. Lilly couldn’t remember much more other than Archie turning and slamming her back against the wall. She fell from his back and he turned around and smacked her clean in the jaw.

Lilly was knocked clean out.

When she woke up she was lying on her old bed with Andrea sat in the room crying. Apparently they had gone out there to deal with the situation, but hadn’t betted on Dunlop bringing a gun. He had shot first, hitting Archie right in the chest.

Archie had died in his father’s arms. Dunlop had escaped. They still hadn’t found him.

So Lilly didn’t care that he was lying dead in the coffin now on this grey summers morning as they lowered it into the ground. She felt bad for not caring, but all she cared about was the fact that at least one of the Galloway’s had now gone to where he couldn’t hurt anyone ever again.

She stood beside the grave for a long, long time. Her sister and father had departed a long time ago, neither of them saying anything to her.

And then she turned and headed in the direction of the park.




Lilly stood at the edge of the lake as a mother duck and her party of chick’s swam past happily. She frowned and then smiled. Why couldn’t she be a duckling? They didn’t have to worry about anything. All they did every day was swim. And at least they were a family. The mother duck would never do anything to hurt her children.

She closed her eyes and then the tears fell.

She sat down on the bank and took off her shoes and socks before stepping into the murky warm water. She stood there for a few moments and then closed her eyes again. She imagined a better world. A better place where she belonged somewhere. A place where somebody loved her. The next life had to be better than this.

She balled up her fist, screwed up her eyes and then screamed to the heavens.

And when she opened her eyes…there it was. Just at the edge of the lake.

The knife.

Lilly crouched down beside the lakes edge and reached out for the knife. She could feel it tingling. It had some sort of power locked away inside of it. It felt alien. The tips of her fingers were vibrating, but when she finally reached out and touched it the vibrating stopped.

The grabbed the knife quickly and looked at it, turning it over and over in her hands. It was true what she had said to Craig all those years ago - she had never taken the knife from it’s sheath.

She gripped the handle tightly and then pulled the knife free.

To be continued...