Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to various persons and corporations that are not me or associated with me. This piece of fanfiction is written with the admiration and respect for the original work. I claim no ownership of Doctor Who's creations. No profit is made from this material, now or in the future.
A/N: Thank you to all the readers who have stuck with me through this story while it was a WIP. Your feedback has been so much help. I really appreciate it!
Thanks to Armity for serving as sounding board and beta reader.
Entered into Evidence:
Testimonial from: Father Cody Rames
Interviewer: Servant Kai
Witness: Agent 2401
Time Stamp: 99-7-5108/12.32.09
Security Level: TOP TIME SECRET
Servant Kai: Place your hand on the verifier. Understand that if you remove your hand at any point during this interview, you may be held in contempt of court. Do you understand?
Father Cody Rames: Yes, sir.
SK: Please, state your full name and rank.
FCR: I am Father Cody Rames of the Fifth Arm of Our Church of Supreme Authority, Historical Defense Division.
Agent 2401: Verified.
SK: Do you know Doctor River Song, Father?
FCR: Yes, sir. I was assigned to one of her digs. Well, I mean my unit was assigned, sir. We were supposed to make sure the site remained secure at all times. Whatever was being dug up was supposed to be real important to the empire, but it involved destroying a huge part of a colony city and, well, you know how the colonies are. We needed to make sure to keep all the guild members safe so that they could do their jobs. Especially Doctor Melian and Doctor Song, since they were in charge of it all.
SK: Were you able to keep the site secure?
FCR: Completely, sir. My bishop was, uh, I mean is one of the best. I don't mean to be prideful, but he is.
SK: Can you tell me what happened on Hellades?
FCR: Um, well, forgive me, sir, but my memory is a little weird about the whole thing.
SK: What do you mean?
FCR: I don't know. It's just weird. It hurts to think about it. Gives me a head ache. I try not to.
SK: We need you to think about it. What happened on Hellades?
FCR: Well, you see, everything was fine in the beginning. In fact, it was kind of boring. Me and the rest of the priests were getting a bit antsy even. The colonists weren't too much trouble for us, the Bishop was -is, sorry- too good for them. We cut off any trouble before it even happened, so-.
SK: Please focus on the last days before the explosion.
FCR: Oh. Well, it started like this, sir. All the guild members were excited. They were breaking out some Earth wine and everything. It was a real big deal, even we could see that. The bishop explained to us that they had gotten to the center of the crypt. They'd found a big stone box there. Apparently, that's what they had been looking for all along. I told Father Kenneth that I thought it was silly that we all had been waiting so long for a big stone box. The Bishop heard me, of course. It was - is!- hard to get anything by the Bishop. Anyways, as he explained it, there was something in the box, some old technology, a weapon left over from the greatest war ever fought. I asked what it was? And -
SK: What happened after that?
FCR: Right. After that, there was this man.
Agent 2401: Verified.
SK: Can you describe him?
FCR: It's hard. He was different. He walked like he owned the place. He just suddenly appeared the night of the discovery. He looked mostly human, though there was something about his eyes.
SK: Can you describe it?
FCR: I mean no offense, sirs, but he reminded me of a Time Agent.
SK: How did River Song interact with this man?
FCR: Oh, they were great friends. The day of the explosion, she threw her arms around him and cried. He just held her. I know Doctor Song isn't really one for big emotional displays, but we were all feeling a bit emotional about our near escape. There was a lot of hugging going around. But even before that, they were obviously close. Whenever I saw them, they were always whispering together and going off on their own. We all joked about it, of course, but that's just because that's how clerics are and we were bored and we didn't know who he was. Normally, we might've been suspicious but she was a good woman and she trusted him. I guess that's why so many of us were willing to just accept him at first. We barely knew anything about River Song but we knew she was important, we knew she had connections. We knew even less about this man but he was connected to River Song so that didn't seem as weird as it might otherwise. We just assumed he was a Top Time Secret.
SK: In your initial statement, you say that you overheard River Song call him by a name.
FCR: Yeah, though it wasn't really specific. The way she said it, with this sort of twinkle in her eye, I'm not even sure it was his real name.
Agent 2401: What did River Song call him?
FCR: Jack, sir.
Agent 2401: Verified.
FIN
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