DW/SW 7-9
(Eep, such a long time since I posted any, oops!)
7
At first the Doctor insisted that Rose and Jack stay in the TARDIS while he helped Obi Wan and Luke to find their lift, but they both vehemently resented the idea of being left behind and threatened to go walkabout if he left them there. With a sigh he acquiesced. Soon the five of them were walking towards the dock, alert for any sign of their attackers from the bar.
Jack caught the Doctor's arm, pulling him back a little so that the others went slightly ahead. Rose seemed distracted enough as she chatted up Luke, and Obi Wan was silent, as if concentrating hard on something.
"What's wrong with the TARDIS, Doctor?" Jack asked, his voice full of concern. "She really doesn't know where she is, does she?"
"No."
"Then what are we going to do?"
"I'm thinking about it." The Doctor sighed. "Look, the TARDIS had definite coordinates in mind when it set off, or at least that's likely - if not, we'd have ended up hanging off a ledge somewhere or in mid air... underground even." He gave a momentary wry smile. "I think something is distracting it, something in the atmosphere. We're right at the edge of the universe here, and a very long way away from anywhere else. The TARDIS has never been here before. It hasn't got its bearings yet. I'm hoping it'll work it out before too long."
"What could be distracting it?" Jack wondered aloud. He thought for a moment. "The midichlorians? I'd never heard of them - is this the only place where they exist?"
The Doctor stopped, looked at Jack with wide open eyes. Jack was almost too caught up in the way they sparkled to listen to what he said. "You're a genius!"
Jack snapped out of it at the praise. "Well, I like to think so." He flashed a grin.
"Midichlorians don't exist anywhere else. I only knew they existed by repute, didn't even know if it was true until now. But it is. The TARDIS can't work out what they are, they must be confusing the system..."
"So can we do something?"
The Doctor thought. But he did not get to answer.
Ahead of them, the others had turned a corner, the corner of the bar building. But it seemed they had stopped there, because they could see Rose's stationary back half, waiting for something. The Doctor's mind ran through the possibilities, and the alarmingly most likely was that the aliens who had attacked them in the bar had been lying in wait and had ambushed them as they rounded the corner. He tried to discern whether Rose's back half looked in distress, but it was conveying nothing.
Jack, also realising the possibility of attack, raised a finger to his lips.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. As if I was going to shout, "Oh no, Rose, don't worry, we're right here and we're coming to help you!" or something, he thought.
Jack ignored him and quietly drew his sonic blaster from inside his jacket. They were close to the corner now, their feet padding softly, silently, in the sand. He flattened himself against the wall, and waved a hand at the Doctor, indicating that he should get down on his knees and crawl behind Rose, so that he could assess the situation hopefully without being seen.
The Doctor lowered himself quietly onto his hands and knees and crept forward slowly, careful not to make sudden movements. He held his breath.
8
Rose turned around suddenly as she felt something brush her ankle. Her eyes lighted on the Doctor, down on his hands and knees at her feet. "Oh my God, what are you doing?" she cried with disbelieving alarm.
He looked up at her, and then over to the array of figures standing around her. Luke and Obi Wan were currently regarding him with suspicion, and behind them were two others. One was man-sized and golden, the other about three foot tall and pepperpot-shaped. Not a Dalek though. And they did not look particularly hostile.
"What are you doing? Trying to look up my skirt?" Rose continued to look at him as if he were mad, or a pervert, or both.
The Doctor sprang to his feet. "I... I mean, we thought you were in trouble." He looked so dismayed that Rose's heart melted. His cheeks had actually begun to flush with an embarrassed shade of scarlet. "You're not in trouble then," he said quietly.
At that moment, Jack came around the corner. He had already put his gun away. "I told him not to worry!" he said, earning himself a glare from the Doctor. "Oh, so who are our new arrivals?"
"I am C3PO," the golden one said politely as he stepped forward. "I am Master Luke's protocol droid. And this is R2-D2, another droid in Master Luke's service."
Jack flashed him a grin, and gave his metal hand a vigorous shake. "Captain Jack Harkness." He then patted R2-D2 on the head since he had no hand to shake; R2-D2 seemed to wobble a bit in a friendly way and beeped cheerily. "And this is the Doctor."
The Doctor gave the two droids a wave. C3PO waved back, deciding this must be a greeting custom in a land somewhere that he did not know. He worried for a moment that this meant he was obsolete and would have to be replaced. R2-D2 just gave the same wobbly, beeping hello he had given to Jack.
"I'm sorry we alarmed you," Luke volunteered sincerely, smiling at the Doctor.
"It's alright." The Doctor was till blushing a little and had no wish to dwell on the subject. "So, two droids. A protocol droid and... what do you do, R2-D2?"
R2-D2 beeped what must have been a lengthy answer. "He said he does all sorts of things," C3PO said by way of translation. His little friend began beeping again but he cut him off. "I'm awfully sorry about him, sir, I do tell him he talks too much. He's feeling indecently proud of himself at the moment."
"Oh? And why's that?" The Doctor regarded R2-D2 with a kindly but amused look. He reminded him very much of an old friend - the same enthusiasm, the same mute loyalty - and he realised just how long it had been since he even thought about K-9.
Before C3PO could answer, Obi Wan caught the Doctor's arm. "We shall reveal all of that somewhere safe, but for now I think we should be alert and carry on towards the dock." He gestured over to the left.
The Doctor looked. And saw the antagonistic aliens from the bar emerging from a building and looking angry.
9
The party entered the large dock building hurriedly, hoping that their attackers from the bar had not caught sight of them. Luke led the way, catching Rose's hand in urgency, a fact which made her smile almost triumphantly to herself. C3PO was not far behind and looked anxious, though Rose had not yet worked out if his face gave any expression other than anxious. Jack and R2-D2 followed, both looking alert but ready for a fight, in their distinct ways. The Doctor and Obi Wan brought up the rear, like responsible elders who were prepared to sacrifice themselves for the good of their companions.
The dock building itself was huge and gloomy. On the left, a long line of various transporters of all shapes and sizes stretched ahead. Rose found herself saying the names of each in her head, where the name could be seen crudely painted of calligraphically printed somewhere on the side. "Red Death", a small sporty-looking vehicle, "Yooma Crute", a hefty-looking gunmetal-grey ship, "Bad Wolf IV", a long, sleek, black affair, "The Bikini Blaster", a clumsy case of cut-and-shut with randomly white, grey and red panels, and a topless alien with three breasts painted above the name. The figure was obviously missing her bikini.
To their right as they walked, walls stretching up to the high ceiling marked out compartments which Rose realised must be individual docks. The first of the compartments had been marked "100", though they had passed it now. They were up to number 96. Below the number was written "Hoth", and Rose wondered what it meant. Then they reached 95, "Naboo". As she dwelt on the mystery, she did not realise that the Doctor had caught her up, and that Luke had let go of her hand.
"Docking bays", the Doctor said, as if reading her mind.
"What are Hoth and Naboo?" she asked, assuming he would know. It might have been better, and perhaps more polite, to ask Luke, a native of the place. But she always thought of the Doctor as the man with the answers.
"Planets?" he guessed. "I'd say each of the docking bays is used by people with different destinations - that'd be the best way of regulating the traffic, seeing as everyone seems to have their own transport. That right, Luke?"
"That's right," Luke said simply, though he did not look offended that the question had not originally been asked of him. In truth he was also coming to see the Doctor as a wise provider of answers, the sort of man he should look up to, and whose advice he should accept. In his short life he had not always been one to obey those with authority over him, but his uncle was dead now and he was beginning to realise that he would feel lost without someone to guide him and look out for his interests. Old Ben Kenobi had effortlessly filled the gap, comforted him when he discovered his uncle and aunt murdered, guided him to follow the quest conferred on him by R2-D2 and the beautiful princess Leia. He felt that he was suddenly living in a fairytale. The Doctor was another kindly man who seemed in a position to offer guidance, and he was inclined to trust him.
Suddenly the Doctor stopped, and held up a hand. The whole party came to a halt, and C3PO's gasp was snappily hushed by several others as they all strained to listen. The dock was a loud place, full of the hum of engines and cooling systems, with every clang echoing through the cavernous space. But this was the first time they had heard a noise close by - any activity that was going on seemed to be happening down at the other end, presumably around the docking bays with low numbers, which must be for the most popular destinations. They had inadvertently come in through the back door.
Obi Wan, still at the rear of the party, was straining to detect someone close to them. When they had been in the bar, he had been able to feel the bad intentions of those that had attacked them, but now he could feel no such thing. There had been a noise, sure enough, the noise of something living. And yet it had not come from behind them, where they would expect their assailants to appear. It came from the right.
As Rose strained to hear what was going on, for she had missed the noise that had alerted the Doctor, she felt a cold stab of fear rising inside her. Or was it adrenaline? And then she heard it. A groan. And it sounded like it did not come from a human.
7
At first the Doctor insisted that Rose and Jack stay in the TARDIS while he helped Obi Wan and Luke to find their lift, but they both vehemently resented the idea of being left behind and threatened to go walkabout if he left them there. With a sigh he acquiesced. Soon the five of them were walking towards the dock, alert for any sign of their attackers from the bar.
Jack caught the Doctor's arm, pulling him back a little so that the others went slightly ahead. Rose seemed distracted enough as she chatted up Luke, and Obi Wan was silent, as if concentrating hard on something.
"What's wrong with the TARDIS, Doctor?" Jack asked, his voice full of concern. "She really doesn't know where she is, does she?"
"No."
"Then what are we going to do?"
"I'm thinking about it." The Doctor sighed. "Look, the TARDIS had definite coordinates in mind when it set off, or at least that's likely - if not, we'd have ended up hanging off a ledge somewhere or in mid air... underground even." He gave a momentary wry smile. "I think something is distracting it, something in the atmosphere. We're right at the edge of the universe here, and a very long way away from anywhere else. The TARDIS has never been here before. It hasn't got its bearings yet. I'm hoping it'll work it out before too long."
"What could be distracting it?" Jack wondered aloud. He thought for a moment. "The midichlorians? I'd never heard of them - is this the only place where they exist?"
The Doctor stopped, looked at Jack with wide open eyes. Jack was almost too caught up in the way they sparkled to listen to what he said. "You're a genius!"
Jack snapped out of it at the praise. "Well, I like to think so." He flashed a grin.
"Midichlorians don't exist anywhere else. I only knew they existed by repute, didn't even know if it was true until now. But it is. The TARDIS can't work out what they are, they must be confusing the system..."
"So can we do something?"
The Doctor thought. But he did not get to answer.
Ahead of them, the others had turned a corner, the corner of the bar building. But it seemed they had stopped there, because they could see Rose's stationary back half, waiting for something. The Doctor's mind ran through the possibilities, and the alarmingly most likely was that the aliens who had attacked them in the bar had been lying in wait and had ambushed them as they rounded the corner. He tried to discern whether Rose's back half looked in distress, but it was conveying nothing.
Jack, also realising the possibility of attack, raised a finger to his lips.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. As if I was going to shout, "Oh no, Rose, don't worry, we're right here and we're coming to help you!" or something, he thought.
Jack ignored him and quietly drew his sonic blaster from inside his jacket. They were close to the corner now, their feet padding softly, silently, in the sand. He flattened himself against the wall, and waved a hand at the Doctor, indicating that he should get down on his knees and crawl behind Rose, so that he could assess the situation hopefully without being seen.
The Doctor lowered himself quietly onto his hands and knees and crept forward slowly, careful not to make sudden movements. He held his breath.
8
Rose turned around suddenly as she felt something brush her ankle. Her eyes lighted on the Doctor, down on his hands and knees at her feet. "Oh my God, what are you doing?" she cried with disbelieving alarm.
He looked up at her, and then over to the array of figures standing around her. Luke and Obi Wan were currently regarding him with suspicion, and behind them were two others. One was man-sized and golden, the other about three foot tall and pepperpot-shaped. Not a Dalek though. And they did not look particularly hostile.
"What are you doing? Trying to look up my skirt?" Rose continued to look at him as if he were mad, or a pervert, or both.
The Doctor sprang to his feet. "I... I mean, we thought you were in trouble." He looked so dismayed that Rose's heart melted. His cheeks had actually begun to flush with an embarrassed shade of scarlet. "You're not in trouble then," he said quietly.
At that moment, Jack came around the corner. He had already put his gun away. "I told him not to worry!" he said, earning himself a glare from the Doctor. "Oh, so who are our new arrivals?"
"I am C3PO," the golden one said politely as he stepped forward. "I am Master Luke's protocol droid. And this is R2-D2, another droid in Master Luke's service."
Jack flashed him a grin, and gave his metal hand a vigorous shake. "Captain Jack Harkness." He then patted R2-D2 on the head since he had no hand to shake; R2-D2 seemed to wobble a bit in a friendly way and beeped cheerily. "And this is the Doctor."
The Doctor gave the two droids a wave. C3PO waved back, deciding this must be a greeting custom in a land somewhere that he did not know. He worried for a moment that this meant he was obsolete and would have to be replaced. R2-D2 just gave the same wobbly, beeping hello he had given to Jack.
"I'm sorry we alarmed you," Luke volunteered sincerely, smiling at the Doctor.
"It's alright." The Doctor was till blushing a little and had no wish to dwell on the subject. "So, two droids. A protocol droid and... what do you do, R2-D2?"
R2-D2 beeped what must have been a lengthy answer. "He said he does all sorts of things," C3PO said by way of translation. His little friend began beeping again but he cut him off. "I'm awfully sorry about him, sir, I do tell him he talks too much. He's feeling indecently proud of himself at the moment."
"Oh? And why's that?" The Doctor regarded R2-D2 with a kindly but amused look. He reminded him very much of an old friend - the same enthusiasm, the same mute loyalty - and he realised just how long it had been since he even thought about K-9.
Before C3PO could answer, Obi Wan caught the Doctor's arm. "We shall reveal all of that somewhere safe, but for now I think we should be alert and carry on towards the dock." He gestured over to the left.
The Doctor looked. And saw the antagonistic aliens from the bar emerging from a building and looking angry.
9
The party entered the large dock building hurriedly, hoping that their attackers from the bar had not caught sight of them. Luke led the way, catching Rose's hand in urgency, a fact which made her smile almost triumphantly to herself. C3PO was not far behind and looked anxious, though Rose had not yet worked out if his face gave any expression other than anxious. Jack and R2-D2 followed, both looking alert but ready for a fight, in their distinct ways. The Doctor and Obi Wan brought up the rear, like responsible elders who were prepared to sacrifice themselves for the good of their companions.
The dock building itself was huge and gloomy. On the left, a long line of various transporters of all shapes and sizes stretched ahead. Rose found herself saying the names of each in her head, where the name could be seen crudely painted of calligraphically printed somewhere on the side. "Red Death", a small sporty-looking vehicle, "Yooma Crute", a hefty-looking gunmetal-grey ship, "Bad Wolf IV", a long, sleek, black affair, "The Bikini Blaster", a clumsy case of cut-and-shut with randomly white, grey and red panels, and a topless alien with three breasts painted above the name. The figure was obviously missing her bikini.
To their right as they walked, walls stretching up to the high ceiling marked out compartments which Rose realised must be individual docks. The first of the compartments had been marked "100", though they had passed it now. They were up to number 96. Below the number was written "Hoth", and Rose wondered what it meant. Then they reached 95, "Naboo". As she dwelt on the mystery, she did not realise that the Doctor had caught her up, and that Luke had let go of her hand.
"Docking bays", the Doctor said, as if reading her mind.
"What are Hoth and Naboo?" she asked, assuming he would know. It might have been better, and perhaps more polite, to ask Luke, a native of the place. But she always thought of the Doctor as the man with the answers.
"Planets?" he guessed. "I'd say each of the docking bays is used by people with different destinations - that'd be the best way of regulating the traffic, seeing as everyone seems to have their own transport. That right, Luke?"
"That's right," Luke said simply, though he did not look offended that the question had not originally been asked of him. In truth he was also coming to see the Doctor as a wise provider of answers, the sort of man he should look up to, and whose advice he should accept. In his short life he had not always been one to obey those with authority over him, but his uncle was dead now and he was beginning to realise that he would feel lost without someone to guide him and look out for his interests. Old Ben Kenobi had effortlessly filled the gap, comforted him when he discovered his uncle and aunt murdered, guided him to follow the quest conferred on him by R2-D2 and the beautiful princess Leia. He felt that he was suddenly living in a fairytale. The Doctor was another kindly man who seemed in a position to offer guidance, and he was inclined to trust him.
Suddenly the Doctor stopped, and held up a hand. The whole party came to a halt, and C3PO's gasp was snappily hushed by several others as they all strained to listen. The dock was a loud place, full of the hum of engines and cooling systems, with every clang echoing through the cavernous space. But this was the first time they had heard a noise close by - any activity that was going on seemed to be happening down at the other end, presumably around the docking bays with low numbers, which must be for the most popular destinations. They had inadvertently come in through the back door.
Obi Wan, still at the rear of the party, was straining to detect someone close to them. When they had been in the bar, he had been able to feel the bad intentions of those that had attacked them, but now he could feel no such thing. There had been a noise, sure enough, the noise of something living. And yet it had not come from behind them, where they would expect their assailants to appear. It came from the right.
As Rose strained to hear what was going on, for she had missed the noise that had alerted the Doctor, she felt a cold stab of fear rising inside her. Or was it adrenaline? And then she heard it. A groan. And it sounded like it did not come from a human.