Engineering Core
The Engineering Core is a work of art.
And not just by Earth standards: the Doctor goes so far as to say it can be classified as art by several planetary societies. There’s just something simply gorgeous about Engineering, something he doesn’t think you need to travel all of time and space to appreciate. Not that it doesn’t help. The Doctor’s face ( Read more... )
And not just by Earth standards: the Doctor goes so far as to say it can be classified as art by several planetary societies. There’s just something simply gorgeous about Engineering, something he doesn’t think you need to travel all of time and space to appreciate. Not that it doesn’t help. The Doctor’s face ( Read more... )
He sounds actually happy, even with that worry about Amy and Rory, nevermind the rest of his friends throughout time and space, at the back of his mind. Learning what he can about Stacy is a way to help them, he thinks, and he's been nodding as Kaylee talked, their heads still both pressed to the conduit. It's refreshing to meet a human who has the same interest in these sorts of things as he does. The Doctor finally pulls his head away from the conduit, peering over it at the pit in the center of Engineering. It has one of those could be bottomless looks, except he highly doubts it's one of those. They're actually not as common as you would think, although they certainly exist. But most dungeons and prisons can hardly afford a somewhat bottomless pit, much less a real one. Although...if it was similar technology as Gallifrey, then maybe it could be the next closest thing to bottomless, so...yes. Might or might not be a bottomless pit. Still, a pit in a living ship? He'd say it has to go somewhere, even if it's a pocket dimension.
The Doctor bounces to his feet without any warning. He vaults over the conduit; by some sheer miracle he doesn't trip over it, instead clearing it and walking right up to pit's edge, bending over the railing.
"Now that," he says, face cast in that green glow, "is interesting. Bio-waste valve? Or circulatory tract? You could fit a freighter down it!"
Actually, that's not true. Three or four would be more accurate. Depends on the freighter. An Earth freighter is rather insignificant compared to a Jafax one, after all. What he means to say is it's amazing, astounding and gorgeous, all at the same time. He'd love to get a look further down, the Doctor eyeing one of those tentacle tethers with the same look a cat gets when it's preparing to make a jump.
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He made a quick detour to his quarters to change, opting to replace the plantsuit with the black shirt with the lacing up the front he had gotten on Zokez II. Even with still dealing the after-effects from the mission, he felt more normal than he had in some time, and it was with some slight relief he headed to Engineering.
Seeing Kaylee and the Doctor engrossed in listening to the conduits, he lingered by the door, thinking it was good - very good - to see them both again. Even though he couldn't remember them down on the planet, there was a part of him that had felt incomplete, and now...well, now it didn't. It was only when the Doctor bounded to his feet and looked as if he wanted to bodily hurl himself down the pit that he spoke up.
"Aye, that figures. I leave ye alone for half an hour and already you're planning to go down to who knows where."
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Once the initial panic of his dash for the pit is over, the mechanic calms somewhat and settles against the railing nearby. Engineering is quiet, and no one's down working at the moment, so there isn't much in the way of extra lighting to see just where this several-freighter-sized pit leads.
"Energy core down there," she explains. She's about to explain more, but Jamie's voice from the doorway catches her attention. "'Bout time you got down here. Was startin' to wonder if we'd ever see them legs again." Not that she's sure at all how long they've been in Engineering to begin with, but it never hurts to give Jamie (and his kilt) a good razzing.
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It seems so simple to him. The Doctor doesn't have a chance to stretch out and try pulling one of the tethers to him, wheeling around as Kayle joins them. Energy core? It must be truly massive to be at the end of a pit that size, the Doctor casting an almost longing look down it. Tempting. Very tempting. Big scary pit with a big, possibly deadly energy core at the bottom that he's never seen before. The Doctor exercises some measure of self-control as he leans up against the railing, resting his elbows on it as he glances from Jamie to Kaylee.
The Doctor nods at Jamie and seems to busy himself looking at his sonic screwdriver. It might be he's giving Jamie and Kaylee space or he's really that involved with the sonic's readings. With him, it's hard to tell just where that line is.
It was less noticeable with Kaylee, what with the grease and grime he had met her in, but he hadn't detected that same not-quite-smoke smell on her. It's possible she hadn't gone on this mystery mission with Jamie. The other explanation is she's loads better at washing up than Jamie, even if she rolled around in the engine grease immediately after. Knowing Jamie, it's not entirely out of the picture.
The Doctor continues to twiddle with his sonic. Behind him, the walls of the pit glow a slowly flickering green. Amazingly enough, he can't even see the energy core from here: it must be very, very far down.
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"Oh, so ye missed my legs, then?" he says to Kaylee, a teasing note in his voice. Turnabout is fair play, after all. "I'd not known ye were so fond of them. I'll have to remember that."
Walking over to join them, he adds off-handedly, "Ye know how it is with Med Bay, though. If there's an extra test they can come up with to keep ye there longer, they will."
His attention, which had been mostly focused on Kaylee, shifts to the Doctor as he catches a glimpse of the sonic screwdriver out of the corner of his eye. It's still close enough to the ones he's used to that it's recognizable, but it's also different enough that he wanders a little bit closer to the Doctor to take a better look at it, careful to mind the edges of the pit.
"Hey, Doctor, when did ye get a green one?"
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Kaylee gets nice and mock-serious, nodding at Jamie. "Oh yeah, missed 'em somethin' terrible. Was startin' to wonder if my eyesight'd go back to normal without seein' them white things."
On the other hand, Kaylee is more than happy to let the Doctor and Jamie have their own moment with the screwdriver. Instead, she falls back to check over the nearest console, though she does keep an eye out on Jamie's movements and mannerisms, just in case he isn't as alright as he's making himself out to be.
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He holds out the sonic, letting Jamie take it if he wants. "The other day. Other day relative, actually, can't say for sure how long I was in the pod." Kaylee, of course, is also welcome to have a look.
The Doctor turns to watch Kaylee with the console, interested in what she's doing even if he doesn't know what it's for. He has to say, it's downright refreshing to encounter something so new he has barely any idea what it does. The Doctor watches as part of the cables near the console pulse with some kind of living energy, reluctantly tearing his eyes away to turn his attention back to the sonic screwdriver in Jamie's hand. He dips his head at it, nodding.
"Been through quite a few of those since we last met. Had a blue one last time," the Doctor says, sounding slightly nostalgic.
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It's a bit like handing a small child a large bag, pushing him into a candy store and telling him he can keep whatever fits in the container. He's completely enthralled with it until the Doctor speaks, then glances up. He nods, even as he holds out the sonic so Kaylee can have her look as well, if she so desires.
"Aye. I know," he says. Other Doctors, remember? "Ye didn't let me have a look last time." Jamie has to wonder a little why he got to do so this go around - although, really, he's not complaining too much. He turns to Kaylee, and asks curiously, "Hey, you've not mentioned the training part to him while I was gone, have ye?"
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Keeping on with the console, she shifts enough that the Doctor can see what she's doing. Boring stuff, really, just a check of the energy core and engines to make sure everything is alright. It's mindless, really, but it makes it look like she's semi-preoccupied and not looking Jamie over. When Jamie hands her the sonic she takes it gingerly, turning it over in her fingers for inspection. It's different than before, in several ways, but the basic structure is still the same, and still something that she doesn't quite understand.
Leave it to the Doctor to throw her for a loop.
"Ain't mentioned anything t'weren't in the room," she promises Jamie. "All been engines 'n energy cores, nothin' 'bout trainin'."
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Or maybe the Doctor has changed that much. He lets them take it however they want, although he does keep a slightly possessive eye on that sonic swapping hands. As the new new sonic screwdriver, he'd rather not have to fish it out from the energy core.
Although that would give him a perfectly good excuse to have to go down there in the first place. Yes. Anyway --
"Thought you'd want to see this one. More moving parts," The Doctor holds out his hand to take the sonic back. He trusts Jamie, and to some extent, Kaylee, but he has a special place in his heart for that sonic, no matter how many changes it went through. Or how it still refuses to do wood. He's been meaning to fix that someday, except "someday" kept getting pushed back. It's on his list. But generally there's a lot more interesting, pressing things at the top of the list and he hasn't been so colossally bored recently that he needs to fix the sonic.
The mention of training is interesting enough to tear the Doctor away from glancing around at the Engineering Core, eyes settling on Kaylee. Oh, he believes that she's probably easily capable of training someone. That someone being Jamie, though, he didn't expect. Somehow he hasn't pinned him as a bio-technological ex-prison ship engineer-in-training. The Doctor swings toward Jamie expectantly.
Jamie, you have his full, unblinking attention. No pressure.
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"Aye, well, after the fight with the Nightmare King, Kaylee needed some help with a few wee things, and showed me how to fix some frayed wires. Ye weren't awake at the time, and I'd not had much else to do. So I asked Billy if he'd not mind my helping with that."
There's a little more to it then he's letting on. When he thinks Kaylee's not looking, he flicks a glance her way. It's not that he's worried she's going to call him out on what he's said, since it is more or less how the whole thing started. Rather, it's very similar to looks he used to give Victoria when he thought she wasn't looking...and Jamie was very fond of Victoria.
"I don't understand all of it, but you've had me hand ye parts and push buttons for ye before. I'd not say it's too different, except now I can put some things together as well."
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After one last look Kaylee hands it back over to him and turns her attention to Jamie with a small roll of the eyes. 'Kaylee needed some help with a few wee things,' is a bit of an understatement, in her opinion. She'd been down to one arm and hadn't been able to do half of what she needed to, and Jamie pulled more than his share during that time.
"He's gotten real good," she promises the Doctor, not without a smug smirk intended for Jamie. "One of the quickest and most patient learners I seen on the ship to date."
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Actually, maybe it's for the best right now that Jamie's learning from Kaylee, seeing as she's a linear human being. Jumping Jamie right into non-linear mechanics might be a bad idea.
The Doctor moves to drop his sonic screwdriver into his jacket pocket, taking the time to adjust the tweed while he's at it. "What have you had him putting together?" the Doctor asks. His eyes dart from Kaylee to Jamie and back to Kaylee again. "It's not so bad, is it, Jamie?"
The way Kaylee looks at Jamie, though. He can't quite place his finger on it. It's not exactly the way she looks at the ship. Obviously she's quite proud of being a teacher, especially with her love of the work. Well, either way, the Doctor is glad to see Jamie picking up some new skills while he's here.
Who said formerly dead men couldn't pick up new tricks?
All right, maybe it wasn't exactly like that, but the point still stands.
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He shakes his head for a moment, then turns his attention back to the Doctor just in time to catch his question to Kaylee. She should be the one to answer that, not him, but he impulsively pipes up anyway. "I've not really done anything on my own, yet. Most of it's working with fixing the wires, or holding pieces for people, and a wee bit of welding practice. Billy's had me help with building a couple of guns, though."
If he seems a little bit more enthusiastic about building guns than fixing wires, well, it's perhaps understandable. Jamie's always been a bit curious how they work - especially the more advanced types like laser guns. At least he's gotten a bit better about waving those around without actually knowing what they do first.
It occurs to him after he says that, however, that the Doctor might not be thrilled with the idea of Billy having Jamie help make lethal weaponry. Fortunately, they haven't been, but the Doctor doesn't know that. He continues on, rather hastily.
"Er, ones that aren't meant to kill, that is. You're right, though. It's not been so bad."
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It's with this very same look that she begins to answer the Doctor's question. Jamie's a bit quicker than her, though, and instead she rocks back on her heels and lets Jamie have the response. He deserves his chance to show off in front of his friend some, and Kaylee isn't about to get in the way of that.
Kaylee eventually chimes in with, "He's gettin' his tastes of everythin', needless to say. Means he knows how to help in more'n one place, which is nice. 'Specially for us one-trick ponies who only got one or two things they're focused in." And just in case he tries to deny anything about that statement, the mechanic shifts quickly back to the console next to her and continues her not-quite-work.
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