for rude_not_ginger: Universe hopping, part 2.
Follows this.
It was no lie when Jack said travelling with the transverser might be more uncomfortable than the Vortex Manipulator. In fact, such an idea was quite the understatement. This? This hurt. It felt as though his insides had been ripped out and unceremoniously stuffed back in. Felt so much in fact that he reached a hand down to check ( Read more... )
It was no lie when Jack said travelling with the transverser might be more uncomfortable than the Vortex Manipulator. In fact, such an idea was quite the understatement. This? This hurt. It felt as though his insides had been ripped out and unceremoniously stuffed back in. Felt so much in fact that he reached a hand down to check ( Read more... )
"We need to figure out a way to configure that," he said. "Get it to our universe. The TARDIS won't be safe on the resort by herself for long. And my brown suit is there, I don't really want to leave it."
He looked around the street where they'd arrived. It was empty, deserted. And warm, oddly enough. It wasn't nearly this warm on the last Earth they'd landed on.
"Easy guess that this isn't where we belong. I wonder why we keep landing on Earth."
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"Nope," he said. "Still not in Kansas." He squinted as he looked down the empty street.
"Glad to see you've got your priorities in order," he said. "Wouldn't want to be without your suit now, would we?"
He looked down at the device in his hand. "Yeah," he said. "Might take it apart. Try not to cut the wrong wire and take a whole universe out with it though. Something like this... configuring it, well..." it wouldn't be easy.
Taking a few steps ahead, Jack put the device in his pocket. He turned a corner and stalled as he looked up. His face fell.
"Oh no," he said, and called back. "Doctor! Might want to take a look at this."
Because there, in front of him, was a huge copper statue. A statue of the Master.
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The Master, alive. That was the first thing that hit him. The Master was here, somewhere, living. Living and controlling the Earth. Right, not so exciting as the idea that the Master was alive.
"Where're the people?" he asked, looking around. "Earth had people when the Master took over, he needed them to fuel his empire."
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He looked up, and saw this street sign. "This is London too," he said, looking back at him.
"Dead?" he suggested, looking back at the Doctor. "Whatever's going on you can bet it won't be too long before we're watched. We need to work out how to operate that device and get out of here. We can't play around in this Universe, Doctor."
And of course what he was really saying was they couldn't try and fix things. Couldn't try and save the Master.
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"Well, we could have a quick look around," he suggested, trying not to sound as excited about it as he felt. "You know, not all that often we get to bounce from universe to universe."
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"No," he said. "No looking round. We find somewhere we work this box out and we go. If this is a world where he succeeded then it isn't somewhere we want to be. Or have you forgotten the Valiant, Doctor? Did you forget everything he did there? You remember standing and watching Japan burn, I know you do."
He wasn't embarrassed to be scared of the Master. He knew it was the right sort of emotion. Fear was good when well placed.
"Don't go down the path of thinking you can help him. You've learned enough to know you can't."
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But it was something he wanted. He wanted to know what could've been done differently. How the universe might've changed if they hadn't succeeded. It was so often that they might not've, during that Year.
"You're right," he admitted. "Find somewhere with a power supply and some odds and ends, see if we can't stick some coordinates into this, then get out of here."
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He nodded over to the boarded up building. "Looks like it was some sort of shopping centre. I say we get in there, bound to be an electrical room we can fiddle with."
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These were, of course, reasons to go in there. A good bit of adventure, something to take his mind off of what happened in the last, sad world. This world would, no doubt, be fairly sad itself. But at least it wouldn't be so defeated. Humans would always stand up for themselves, if they could tell they were being used.
"Well, allons-y."
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He reached up for one of the wooden planks and started to pry it off the wall. He glanced back over at the Doctor and smirked a little.
"What you just gonna stand there looking at me? This isn't a free show, you know."
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Something must've happened. Fear struck the Doctor. Something must've happened to the Master. Did something go wrong? Did he lose control somehow?
"What?" the Doctor asked, turning around. "Right, sorry."
He headed over to the boards and began prying them off as well. They were rotten and old, and looked like they'd been put up in haste. A few solid kicks might knock them down, but Jack was right. It wouldn't be long and they'd be sought out.
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He pulled away another board and could soon see inside to the darkened entranceway. There was a blood smear on the inside of the wall.
"Well that's inviting," he said. "Come on." And he walked ahead, into the centre.
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That was to say, he really, really wanted a crack at saving the Master. He knew it was a bad idea, but part of him did not care.
"Map," he said, nodding to a display. The electricity worked, but only in bright, short flickers. The map itself appeared grimy and old, probably untouched since the original invasion.
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Beat.
"I think I'll lay off the metaphors."
He stepped up over to the map and reached over to wipe off a little dust from it. "Electrical shop," he said, pointing at a place on the lower level. "Maybe we'll find something there."
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The electrical shop was something, at least. It appeared to have been broken into before, and by the amount of dried blood around, it appeared to have been some sort of a battle ground before.
There was a crack, somewhere behind them. He spun around. No sign of life.
"I don't think we're the only ones here," he said. He took a few steps, not towards the electrical shop, but towards the eatery, where the slight noise was.
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He glanced around, squinting in the half light. He really could do with his glasses. Without asking, he stepped over to the Doctor and reached his hand into his jacket pocket. "Don't mind me," he said, rooting around inside until he pulled out a torch.
"Better. You know you're going to have to give me those bigger on the inside pockets."
He flicked the torch on and swung it around.
"Course we're not," Jack said. "That'd be far too easy."
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