Making Memories, chapter 7

Chapter 7: The Night Fire
The Doctor escorted Martha down to the beach where the Night Fire -- an event hosted every evening by the Psych hotel for an extra, but certainly reasonable fee -- was set to take place. It was not hard to find, directly in front of the hotel, an area framed by several tall torches, the ground littered with towels for any who might be joining. In the center rested a small thatched hut which served as a bar, lit with an array of glowing lights and surrounded on all sides by benches sporting gold cushions with the words 'The Psych' emblazoned in green on them. Outside the torches was a golden velvet rope with a single opening at which a Trydian stood taking tickets. The Doctor and Martha got in line. Though the Doctor was quite composed, and air of utmost confidence about him, Martha was a little nervous as they had no tickets nor even a note or any other means of verifying they were meant to be there.

She shifted uneasily as they reached the Trydian taking tickets, and her eyes widened as the woman lifted her head. "You made it!" came the thrilled voice.

"Bri," Martha began, fumbling for words.

"Ah, so you're the mysterious Bri," the Doctor said with a bright smile.

Bri frowned and turned to Martha, completely ignoring the sentiment. "This is your consort?"

Martha nodded and grasped the Doctor's hand as if this would cement the notion. She smiled awkwardly.

"Are you aware of the commotion he caused in the spa earlier this evening?"

Martha eyed the Doctor quizzically. "Commotion?" she prodded.

"It, well, I..." He looked at the ground for a minute, then at Bri, rather than her. "I was concerned that you might be..."

Martha smiled broadly. "You were concerned about me."

Bri wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Yes, lovely. I'm glad you find that endearing, but please keep him under control tonight." And with that she let them pass and continued checking tickets.

The Doctor looked back towards her as he and Martha walked towards the towels. "She's acting disgruntled? She called security on me, I'll have you know."

Martha looked shocked. "She had to call security?"

The Doctor sat down on a towel and Martha sat beside him. He looked out at the ocean beyond. "She didn't have to. She just did."

"What did you do?"

He turned to her "Me?" he asked, as if the idea was absurd. "I didn't do anything."

"So 'nothing' made her call security? Right." Martha said, turning her own gaze toward the ocean. It was beautiful, a black sea dotted with the reflections of hundreds and hundreds of stars.

"So I take it you two met earlier?"

"She helped me pick out a treatment. But for some reason she seems to be obsessed about giving me a history lesson."

"Ah, typical Trydian pride. You're lucky she didn't recount her whole lineage for you." The Doctor shuddered at the thought.

"I don't know why she'd do this for me," Martha continued. "We didn't exactly leave on the best of terms."

Before the Doctor could speak, a Trydian with some invisible microphone began to speak. "Welcome!" he said with an emphatic gesture. "We are pleased to have all of you here at the Psych hotel. Tonight we intend to give you a spectacular show. We will light up the sky, for your enjoyment, with a recount of our triumphant history as a race!"

Martha grimaced. She now understood why Bri had complimented their tickets.

The Doctor smiled broadly and made himself comfortable. "This should be good."

Martha gave a half smile, not too thrilled at this second attempt at a history lesson.

As clapping ensued from the attending guests, the Trydian smiled broadly and gave a bow. He then threw his hands into the air as a barrage of fireworks of all different colors littered the sky.

The fireworks weren't like any Martha had ever seen before. They weren't simply bursts of flame and color but they were, in fact, far more animate. First a set of green fireworks went off, followed by a set of blue and, though they went up separately, they met in the sky and together formed the shape of a planet -- Earth.

"Long ago," the narrator began, "the ancestors of the Trydians, the Clydonians, set out from a bright planet, named Earth. They traveled long and far," he continued as a red shape, vaguely resembling some sort of ship, streaked across the sky. Then fireworks of gold, green, red, and violet, shot up into the air. The red and violet formed separate spheres while the green and gold merged together mid air to form the third sphere, the largest of the three. "The Clydonians spread out over three planets of the Medrina system, which would later come to be called Horfontra, Rylontria, and the most beautiful of the three, Tryad."

Then a series of red fireworks flashed into the sky and merged together to form hideous creatures, that scurried about the sky erratically. "But Tryad was not always as it is today. It was inhabited by fierce, primitive creatures, the Yurians."

Gold bursts of fireworks then burst into the sky and merged to form a series of Trydians. "We tried to peacefully coexist with them," the narrator continued, to which Martha gave a snort.

Then the red creatures began to fade in color and shine until all that was left in the vast expance of sky were the glowing golden Trydians. "But they would not allow it."

White fireworks then shot up into the air and formed buildings all around the golden Trydians. "So, once we were free of such vile, destructive creatures, we began to build Tryad up into the beautiful world it is today."

Blue fireworks shot up and undulated, creating an ocean in the sky and then gold fireworks shot up into the sky. These merged and formed the image of Trinton, the owner of the Psych resort holding the Trydian flag which simply sported a golden oval in its center. With that, the narrator bowed and left the scene as the fireworks slowly faded and the sky returned to black.

The Doctor continued staring out at the sky for several moments. "What, that's it?" He turned to Martha, "They left out all the best bits."

"And those would be," Martha prompted.

"All of them," the Doctor said with a nod of certainty.

"All of them?" Martha asked, "Well, then, why don't you just start from the beginning."

"Well, they got the bit of the migration of Delta 6 from Earth. The Clydonians they called themselves, as it had a catchier ring than Colonist Sect 1892382."

"You mean we had that many colonies?" Martha said, a bit overwhelmed by such figures.

"More than that. You humans, you are completely brilliant at colonizing. And the Clydonians were no exception. Absolutely brilliant. They had everything going for them- a good work ethic, an excellent sense of adventure, and the desire to explore, to go beyond the realms of everything they knew. The trouble didn't start till much later."

"Trouble?"

"Well, the farther out they went, in search of a planet not already inhabited, the more their relations became strained. Finally, for fear of a coup, the captain of the ship decided that this was as good a place as any. The only problem? The Medrina system was already well inhabited. These three planets? Chock full of inhabitants. Horfontra was filled with a feline race who called themselves the Orfo. Rylontria was inhabited with a race of aquatics who spent 75% of their life cycle in the water. They called themselves the Rylos. And then there was Tryad with the Yurians, creatures far less evolved. They held mainly to underwater caves, well, until the Trydians came. They had never had visitors."

"No visitors?" Martha questioned. "But certainly the, the species on the other two planets--"

"Tryad was protected, by both the Orfo and the Rylos. They wanted to make sure that the Yurians had as little interference as possible in their evolution."

"Then why did they just let the Clydonians invade?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Initially the Clydonians only inhabited Rylontria and Horfontra. It was years before a sect of them convinced the planets to actually let them colonize Tryad, a decision they later regretted as the Trydians ended up completely wiping out the Yurians. Despite this, the Trydians remained friendly with both the Rylontrian Clydonians and the Horfontran Clydonians for some time. They were especially friendly with the Horfontrans as they were the first to consent to the colonization of Tryad. They mixed with the Orfo, which is how they came about their golden eyes and sinews."

Martha furrowed her brow. "How can they act so purist then?"

"Tryad was the most beautiful of the three planets," the Doctor continued. "It became a major tourist attraction for the other two planets, and the Trydian economy skyrocketed until it surpassed that of both Rylontria and Horfontra, and since they didn't have to share the planet, they had far more resources at their disposal. Because of this, there was an insurgence of Trydian nationalism. They began to feel they were better than the races of the other two planets. They all started out the same, yes, but now they had surpassed their peers. They broke away from the Horfontran Clydonians -- who had, by now, taken on almost all of the characteristics of the Orfo. Not only did they look more feline then human, they were far more religious than their superstitious Trydian counterparts. They started many nunneries and spread out founding hospitals and orphanages and the like. They will later found one on New Earth as an homage to the planet after it's death, but at any rate, the Trydians began to despise them. They began to cling tightly to their own gene pool, having deemed the other races unpure and inferior. They began restricting travel to Tryad."

"But they allow all races now? What changed?"

"Due to all their purist restrictions and regulations their economy crashed. They lost almost everything. They were desperate to counteract the effects of their racist practices. Which is why, while some personally cling to racist practices, economically the race caters to all races. They have to."

Suddenly the Doctor spun his head around, much to Martha's surprise. The doctor eyed the nearby trees and brush warily.

"What is it?" Martha asked, clearly confused.

"I don't know what it is," he said turning back to the ocean, "but I get the sneaking feeling we're being watched."

Martha herself peered over into the bushes though she saw nothing.

"Oh you're not one of those, are you?" a nearby Trydian interjected. "The ones who think the resorts have cameras in every corner?" he continued. "That the owners have nothing better to do than watch you all day?"

The Doctor, a bit startled by the intrusion arched an eyebrow defiantly, "And what if I am?"

"Well, I'd say that would be quite a shame," the Trydian replied. "For one who has such a great deal of knowledge, who knows so much history, to be wound up in such hearsay. One generally only hears that type of riff-raff from the lower class."

"Lower class?" Martha asked darkly, "and who would they be?"

Much to her surprise the Doctor put up a hand to silence her. He then leaned in and whispered into her ear, "Trust me, you don't want to get into that debate with a Trydian."

Martha pouted and folded her arms as the Doctor turned his attention back to the Trydian. "You'll have to excuse my friend," the Doctor began, to which the Trydian put up a hand.

"Pay it no mind. I don't expect the ancestor to understand, what with Earth's isolationist movement. They don't even bother to understand what's going on out here."

"So what has been happening out here?" the Doctor asked with genuine curiosity.

Before Martha knew it, the Doctor and the Trydian were deeply engrossed in a conversation of current events, all of which were completely foreign to her. Despite wanting to participate in the conversation, or at least prove she was more than a lawn ornament, she couldn't even begin to understand what they were going on about.

Finally, after several minutes of this, the Trydian's wife, an arm wrapped around a young girl and a young baby cradled in her other arm, scooted closer to her. "Don't worry, I don't understand it either. Men and their politics."

Martha gave a half smile. It was true she didn't understand but she felt she could have had she lived out here. Men weren't the only ones interested in politics.

"Would you like to hold the little one?" the Trydian woman asked, and before Martha could respond she had already handed the little baby to her.

Martha looked at the baby which greatly resembled a cat. She then looked to the older girl. They must lose their fur later in life she reasoned, as the older girl looked more human.

"I'm afraid we never did get properly introduced," the Trydian woman continued. "I am Florna, and that," she said pointing to her husband, "is my husband, Werth. Then this little one," she pointed to the girl at her side, "is Yeara, and the little one there in your arms, his name is Tryt."

"He's, er, beautiful," Martha said fumbling for words as she looked at the little furry thing. After a slight pause from the Florna she realized the Trydian was waiting for her to insert her own name. "Oh, well, I'm Martha and that," she pointed towards her companion, "would be the Doctor."

"The Doctor?" Florna questioned. "Just the Doctor?"

Martha nodded and smiled toward him. "Just the Doctor."

"Well then," Florna continued, "what brings you and the Doctor to Tryad?"

Martha was unsure of what exactly to tell her. "Er, it was really more of a chance thing."

This seemed to please Florna. "Ah! An impromptu holiday," she clarified cheerily. "Same for me and my husband. We absolutely love this resort, and what better atmosphere for the family?"

Martha nodded awkwardly.

"So why did you choose The Psych?" Florna prodded further.

It was several moments before Martha answered. "Well, that wasn't exactly planned either. We walked up and they, well they just, kind of, invited us to stay."

"Oh an invitation!" Florna said excitedly before Martha could continue further. "We were invited here once, when they first opened."

"Oh?" Martha said, suddenly more interested now. But then she furrowed her brow. "They didn't invite you back?"

Florna looked a bit insulted by the question. "No, they didn't," she said simply.

"Oh," Martha said, not quite sure how to recover from the statement.

Florna thrust out her hands for the return of her baby and Martha quickly gave the child back. She then stood up and handed the baby to her husband who took it without even missing a beat of his conversation with the Doctor, and in fact seemed to barely notice at all. Florna then propped the little girl against his back as she napped and headed over toward the bar in the center.

After watching her depart a ways Martha stood up and ran over to her. "Look, I really don't want us to leave on the wrong foot."

Florna paused and turned to her. "Look, if you're insinuating that my husband and I are not important enough to be invited back, then I have nothing more to say to you."

Martha shook her head. "No, I didn't mean that at all. It was just curiosity, that's it. Just curiosity."

Florna seemed to ponder this for a moment. "Well, I suppose you could buy me a drink to make up for it."

Martha looked a bit flustered. "Well, I, I don't exactly have any money."

"I see," Florna said as if suddenly deeming her lower class than she had initially thought. She then headed to the bar, leaving Martha looking after her.

Martha sighed and put a hand to her forehead. Clearly, a friendship with this woman wasn't meant to be in her future.