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Only Human
(Gareth Roberts) |
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 Name: Chantal
Format:
Book.
Time
of Origin: Earth, some time after the year 436 000
Appearances: "Only
Human".
Doctors:
Ninth
Doctor.
Companions:
Rose Tyler and Captain Jack Harkness (by proxy)
History: Chantal
is a scientist and an expert in manipulating biological matter from
some time in the distant future, after the Great Retrenchment of
436 000. At this time, there was a massive space battle in Monoceros
between Kallix Grover and the Sine Wave Shrine of Shillitar (Nothing
was ever revealed about why these two races/governments/whatever
were at war in the first place), which resulted in Earth being caught
in the crossfire when a massive reef of magnetic energy missed its
target and drifted billions of miles off course at about a million
times the speed of light, smacking into Earth and wiping every computer
on the planet. The state of technology was such that there was a
computer in everything, and the vast grid of nanotechnology curled
up and died in under a second, resulting in fire, plague, famine,
and war, as well as the planet being cut off from its colonies.
The
after-effects of this catastrophic destruction meant that humanity
turned to analogue technologies during its ten thousand year Dark
Age, their major technologies being biology and chemistry as they
became able to do anything they want to the body, including the brain.
Humans from this era had mapped out their anatomy so precisely that
they could easily take a human body apart and put it back together
with no ill effects, and manipulate the body to the extent that not
only did pregnancies last less than a week, but even men could give
birth. However, there was one particularly horrifying aspect to this
future; most people from this era, apart from a small group called
the Refusers who believed that raw human emotions enabled them to
savour life, use chemical blockers - small devices strapped to their
bodies - to regulate their emotions by tapping a few buttons, and,
a result, nobody ever feels anxious or worried, and nobody ever strived
for anything other than what they already had. Essentially, the human
race had become a team of superhumans as emotionless as the Cybermen,
lacking only the mechanical components to be identical to the former
Mondasians.
One
of the great geniuses of this era was a woman called Chantal, who
possessed an elevated intellect of plus-810, and had been an expert
at genetic engineering since she recreated her cat when she was twelve
to 'make it better'. Unfortunately, her desire to 'improve' life
was such that she eventually decided to try and 'improve' the human
race itself, concluding that homo sapiens was perfectly adapted for
survival as primitive hunters in a cold climate, but after the Ice
Age, the hard-wired aggression and competitive nature caused them
to spread across Earth like a plague. At this point, the surviving
humans had acquired a 'rip engine' - a dangerously primitive time
machine that was outlawed by any civilisation that survived its discovery
- and were intending to use it to travel back in time to observe
the dawn of human history. Killing off her rivals (Having eliminated
her empathy with other human beings to ensure her plan wouldn't be
hampered by pangs of conscience), Chantal took charge of the project
and travelled back in time, secretly breeding an 'upgraded' form
of humanity called the Hy-Bractors, using the extra energy from the
rip engine to accelerate their growth while sending other members
of the expedition to be eaten by the Hy-Bractors. Once they had achieved
full strength, Chantal intended to unleash them on Earth, leaving
them to devour all humanity and create a Utopia in her image.
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| The
Ninth Doctor |
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Fortunately,
her use of the rip engine to send a troublesome caveman into the
21st century attracted the
Ninth Doctor's attention, due to the energy
released by the rip engine. While Captain Jack Harkness stayed behind to
educate the caveman in how to exist on Earth in the present (The
rip engine having altered his physiology to such an extent that he
couldn't go back to his own time in the TARDIS. without being torn
apart by the time vortex), The Doctor and Rose Tyler travelled back to
prehistoric times to find out what the rip engine was doing there
in the first place. Once there, The Doctor and Rose befriended a
Refuser called Quilley - the only person there who exhibited any
actual curiosity about their presence - and discovered the truth
about the Hy-Bractors. Unfortunately, The Doctor and Quilley were
subsequently captured by Chantal as they confronted the Hy-Bractors,
and Rose, while exploring the outside world, was 'rescued' from a
group of neanderthals by a primitive human tribe
With
The Doctor captured, Chantal drugged him up with various chemicals
while she cut his body up and examined it before stitching him back
together, The Doctor's brain being so addled that he willingly told
her about the Time War and the TARDIS. Luckily, his alien biology
allowed him to fight off the drugs long enough to come up with the
'plan' of overpowering Chantal and escaping to look for Rose Quilley.
With the Hy-Bractors unleashed - Chantal having accelerated her plans
due to The Doctor's interference - Rose and The Doctor managed to
convince the primitives to retreat, but they were subsequently captured
by Chantal... who removed Rose's head (Albeit leaving her conscious
and able to control her body) and threatened to leave it that way
unless The Doctor agreed to cooperate and give her access to the
TARDIS. Using Rose's continued control over her body, The Doctor
managed to distract Chantal long enough to slam a 'combo pack' of
chemicals onto her, programming in a sequence that left Chantal totally
unconcerned about The Doctor’s victory.
Using
the equipment in the laboratory, The Doctor managed to force-cultivate
a specific gene and splice it into gut bacteria, subsequently dispersing
the concoction through the air. As a result, all the humans in the
vicinity temporarily acquired the ability to breath fire, using it
to destroy the attacking Hy-Bractors. Only vaguely aware that her
plans had been thwarted, Chantal attempted to use the rip engine
to travel to the 21st century, but it subsequently tore her apart
after she activated the machine. After Rose's head had been reattached,
The Doctor and Rose departed in the TARDIS, leaving the surviving
members of the expedition to make new, natural lives for themselves
with the primitive humans of that time. |
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