Information sharing

[unit_girl]

(After Jo, Three and Koschei have met and separated - for Three and Koschei and/or anyone else who wants to join in)Jo had spent an interesting, not to mention educational time talking to the locals. Despite everything that was going on, there were always people wanting to gossip, or just wanting to tell their story and be believed. Listening was

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[crazy_mastery]

The Master spotted her as he walked along alone. He'd been exploring the dusty human colony and had come to some conclusions, but he was keeping them to himself for now. The woman on the bench could only be one of their fellow conscriptees. He sauntered over.

"Taking a little rest?" he supposed.

[unit_girl]

"Waiting for the Doctor," she corrected. And then tried and failed not to look worried because she was also waiting for Koschei and him meeting the Master wasn't a good idea. "What are you doing?" she asked, hoping she could convince him to be somewhere else.

[crazy_mastery]

Oh, right. Grant. Or Jones. Whatever she was calling herself. Humans were all the same to him. Like cattle.

"Waiting for the Doctor?" the Master said, raising and eyebrow and ignoring her question. "What's he up to, then, the old scallywag?"

[doctor_three]

"The Old Scallywag is coming to meet Mrs. Jones," the Doctor replied firmly from behind the Master. "What are you doing?"

[unit_girl]

Jo smiled at the Doctor and stood up so she was closer to their height. "We've been trying to find why people are disappearing." The Master, she was sure, hadn't.

[crazy_mastery]

"Me?" the Master said innocently to the Doctor. "I'm just chatting with the help." He turned when Jo stood up. "Oh dear. Of course I've been working on the same problem," he told her. "It's quite heartbreaking," he added, putting his hand over his chest dramatically.

[doctor_three]

"I didn't think you worked on problems that weren't in line with your own means," the Doctor said spitefully, but then remembered what he'd promised Jo, and sighed. Maybe if he just ignored the Master for the most part, he wouldn't want to cause another argument.

"Did you find anything out?" he asked Jo, making a point of turning toward her slightly.

[unit_girl]

The Master's tone and dramatics didn't convince Jo he cared. But she'd already seen that he had changed, in a different regeneration, and should give him the benefit of the doubt.

"All the people that have disappeared have been down the same mine." She looked between both the Doctor and the Master when she answered. "So there has to be something down there."

[crazy_mastery]

"What makes you think this doesn't serve my means?" the Master shot back at the Doctor's remark. He looked at Jo when she spoke. "And you plan on going down there, do you? To disappear as well?"

[doctor_three]

The Doctor hated to admit it but: "The Master has a point, but it isn't like we can ignore it either. We'll have to keep someone out, while the others scope out the mine." But how? A length of rope between the two parties? That might not be sufficient, but it wasn't as if Ballarat was the height of technology. Not that anywhere in the mid-19th century was exactly technologically advanced, at least in the eyes of the rest of the universe.

"Do you suppose," he said to the Master, "that the Guardians have a recall device to their TARDIS? And do you think that we could fashion it to function with these?" he held up the little mobile phone from his pocket.

[unit_girl]

"No, of course not," she said to the Master. She didn't think they'd let women in the mines anyway, but someone would have to go down there. Perhaps more than one to make sure they didn't just disappear like the rest.

"What would you do with the phones if they do?" she asked the Doctor. He sounded like he had a plan and it sounded it would be a better one than hers.

[crazy_mastery]

"That would involve getting into the Guardians' systems, which, believe me, I've tried," the Master said.

[doctor_three]

He sighed and ran a thumb along the line of his jaw in thought. "Ideally, it would be useful to have a kind of honing device, so that were one of us in trouble, we could have the TARDIS come to use, or vice versa. Like teleportation. But one again, the Master has thought ahead."

But don't take that as a compliment.

"If we could somehow do it with just the mobile phones..." the Doctor trailed off and looked back in the direction of the TARDIS longingly. What he wouldn't do for his own, much more workable TARDIS. He shook his head. Wishing wasn't going to solve a lot in this instance. "Why don't we just head along to see what we can find? Maybe a better answer will present itself there."

[unit_girl]

"If we have enough people, perhaps we could spread out enough that whatever's causing the disappearances won't happen to everyone. As long as they can get back from wherever they disappeared to." There were all sorts of things that could have happened to them and most of them involved being able to return.

[crazy_mastery]

The Master giggled. "Oh, are you volunteering for that, Mrs Jones?" he asked. "Because I've seen no evidence that anyone has returned from... whatever is happening to these people."

[doctor_three]

"There's no need for that!" he snapped at the Master. "It simply means that we either need to find some evidence, or find out why these people are disappearing. We can cross off cave-ins, as the mine is still operable, so to speak. So what other reasons might people not be coming back from entering a mine shaft?"