Arrival [OTA]
With construction of the new Zero Room nearly complete, the Doctor's mood lifted considerably. He inspected the walls, his steps springing lightly back with each footfall. In a few more hours he might even be able to actually float. He shut his eyes, swayed back, let the peaceful aura of non-space wash over him...
A niggling something burrowed at the back of his mind. He tried to mentally swat at it, like one would a single insect out to annoy the guests at a garden party. No, the something refused to leave. With a resigned sigh, he stepped out of the Zero Room, which allowed him to concentrate on the problem fully.
Oh, no.
He scrambled down the TARDIS' maze of corridors, rounding corners at full tilt and nearly crashing headlong into the walls. The Console Room. It seemed ages before he reached the right door, seemed even longer to get it open. The Time Rotor was already beginning to pump. He dove beneath the console, ripped off the front panel and worked his hands into the tangle of circuit boards and wires, desperate to disable the Hostile Action Displacement System.
Which, in all honesty, he believed he already did.
The TARDIS needed to stop dematerializing. Peri waited outside, confident that the Doctor would only be a few minutes before joining her. Some unknown danger caused the HADS to engage, but if the Doctor couldn't prevent the TARDIS from taking off, then he might already have condemned his newest companion to certain death.
Oh, he was getting so tired of death.
The ship refused any interference from the Doctor, who spent the bulk of his unwanted journey sprawled on his back and staring helplessly at the ceiling. As soon as the Rotor stopped, the Doctor sprang to his feet and punched in the correct coordinates to Peri's temporo-spacial location.
Nothing.
"What now, old girl?" he asked the console. "Hmmm? Why are you trying to be so difficult?" He entered the coordinates once more, and once more the TARDIS sat motionless. "Right, if I can't go where I need to be, then I suppose I ought to check where I am." The scanner displayed a rather quaint, vaguely European-looking village, which he would have found much more intriguing if he weren't so concerned about Peri and about his inoperative time capsule. "Environment within normal parameters for sustaining humanoid life," he said, studying the readings on the console. "Nearly ideal for it, in fact."
Now he was interested.
He tugged the lever for the main doors and, glad that at least something on the ship still operated properly, headed outside. The TARDIS sat on a quiet street corner, looking as if it belonged there. The Doctor started to inspect the outside of the ship, taking stock of it the way a pilot scrutinizes the exterior of a plane before take-off.
A niggling something burrowed at the back of his mind. He tried to mentally swat at it, like one would a single insect out to annoy the guests at a garden party. No, the something refused to leave. With a resigned sigh, he stepped out of the Zero Room, which allowed him to concentrate on the problem fully.
Oh, no.
He scrambled down the TARDIS' maze of corridors, rounding corners at full tilt and nearly crashing headlong into the walls. The Console Room. It seemed ages before he reached the right door, seemed even longer to get it open. The Time Rotor was already beginning to pump. He dove beneath the console, ripped off the front panel and worked his hands into the tangle of circuit boards and wires, desperate to disable the Hostile Action Displacement System.
Which, in all honesty, he believed he already did.
The TARDIS needed to stop dematerializing. Peri waited outside, confident that the Doctor would only be a few minutes before joining her. Some unknown danger caused the HADS to engage, but if the Doctor couldn't prevent the TARDIS from taking off, then he might already have condemned his newest companion to certain death.
Oh, he was getting so tired of death.
The ship refused any interference from the Doctor, who spent the bulk of his unwanted journey sprawled on his back and staring helplessly at the ceiling. As soon as the Rotor stopped, the Doctor sprang to his feet and punched in the correct coordinates to Peri's temporo-spacial location.
Nothing.
"What now, old girl?" he asked the console. "Hmmm? Why are you trying to be so difficult?" He entered the coordinates once more, and once more the TARDIS sat motionless. "Right, if I can't go where I need to be, then I suppose I ought to check where I am." The scanner displayed a rather quaint, vaguely European-looking village, which he would have found much more intriguing if he weren't so concerned about Peri and about his inoperative time capsule. "Environment within normal parameters for sustaining humanoid life," he said, studying the readings on the console. "Nearly ideal for it, in fact."
Now he was interested.
He tugged the lever for the main doors and, glad that at least something on the ship still operated properly, headed outside. The TARDIS sat on a quiet street corner, looking as if it belonged there. The Doctor started to inspect the outside of the ship, taking stock of it the way a pilot scrutinizes the exterior of a plane before take-off.