Rewritten, Chapter 12
Rose walked around the center of the TARDIS, completely enchanted.
“This is the most incredible machine,” she told the Doctor.
He smiled proudly and stared up at the ceiling. “Yeah, she’s great isn’t she? And not even up to snuff, actually. She usually has quite a few adjoining rooms…the library, the kitchen, the bedroom suites…but she’s only had enough time to formulate this area.”
Rose’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding. Really?”
Jack came over and placed his hand on the small of her back. “There’s a swimming pool too.” He dipped his voice and flirted conspicuously. “You and I used to love splashing around in there, in between adventures.”
The Doctor frowned decidedly. “You two used to go swimming together? Without me?”
Jack shrugged. “We figured you wouldn’t want to get your hair wet.” He followed his comment up with a snarky grin.
The Doctor preened for a second as he considered it. “Don’t be ridiculous! …I don’t have to put my head under… Rose, as soon as things get back to normal WE’RE going swimming in the pool!”
He crossed his arms defiantly and Rose giggled. “Alright then,” she agreed congenially before creasing her brow. “But shouldn’t we be worrying about how we’re going to deal with the Largarians?”
“Ah, right!” the Doctor said as he moved around the TARDIS column. He punched in a set of figures and cranked various handles as everyone else looked on. The Doctor then read the resultant data and huffed moodily. “Well this is irritating. We’re stuck in the present timeline and my TARDIS can’t navigate away from it. Must be a consequence of the Largas Scroll…”
Jack rubbed his chin and leaned back on the jump seat. “So we can travel in space but not time?” he asked.
“Limited space at that,” the Doctor muttered grumily. “Only earthbound locations are receptive. Ugh…I feel so…restricted!”
The Doctor shook out his hands as if trying to rid a slimy goo from their surface. Amelia laughed and stood next to Jack.
“He looks like me if I can’t get in the air for a few days,” she whispered.
The Doctor stared intently at the console as a trio of lights began to blink along one side. “What?” the Doctor gasped in frustration. “What?” he repeated as the TARDIS made a braking sound and began to descend from the vortex.
Jack jerked to attention. “Doctor are you landing us already?”
“I’m not!” the Doctor replied. “Something has control of the TARDIS! It’s pulling us back to Massawa and I can’t stop it!”
“I’ve got a pretty good idea who it is,” Jack stated grimly.
Rose grasped the rail around the TARDIS console as the ship began to drop at an unprecedented speed. The Doctor appeared behind her and wrapped his body around hers to secure her to the rail.
“Hold tight everyone!” he cried out. “Impact in twenty seconds!”
“Are we going to die Doctor?” Rose shouted as the sound of the ship’s velocity increased. The Doctor looked at her and remembered her crippling fear of the planes, imagining that this scenario might be the most terrifying thing she’d ever encountered, at least in this version of reality.
“Not today Rose,” the Doctor replied, willing her to believe him with his eyes. And then his voice deepened. “You and I have too much to live for.”
Rose blushed when the Doctor ducked forward and pressed his lips passionately to her own, forgetting the chaos and the terror of the moment completely.
“Okay,” Rose agreed when he broke away from her.
“Those two have a serious adrenaline addition problem,” Amelia shouted to Jack.
“Don’t you love it?” Jack shouted back, grinning madly as the TARDIS spun out of control.
“Little bit!” Amelia laughed.
All at once, the TARDIS froze in place and the gravity failed. The four passengers became weightless and their bodies suspended into the air.
“What is going on Doctor?” Amelia cried.
As they hung on to the console handrail, the sound of banging and cracking came against the TARDIS door from the outside.
“They’ve got us in a tractor beam! It interferes with the gravity circuit,” the Doctor explained. “And it sounds like they’re trying to break down the door.”
“They can’t get in though, can they?” Jack asked as his legs drifted over the level of his eyes.
“Not unless we let them,” the Doctor responded. “But that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
“What?” Rose cried out. “But they’ll kill us!”
“I don’t think so,” the Doctor posited. “They’ve really just been after the scroll this whole time. If we hadn’t threatened it in the first place, they never would have shot at us. Of course, had they been willing to listen to our side of the story, they would have known we never meant any harm. I think the scroll is their top priority at any rate.”
“The question is how they will deal with us once it’s handed over,” Jack added.
“Do you know anything about their culture that suggest leniency?” Amelia asked.
The Doctor started to cross his arms until he realized he would float away and quickly reattached himself to the nearby rail. “Mmm. Not particularly,” he decided. “The last attempted robbery of their holy of holies resulted in a ten year suspended beheading. And trust me…you really don’t want to know the details of that one.”
Rose shuddered. “Please don’t let them in!” she begged.
“Well we can’t just hang around here!” the Doctor acknowledged, and then giggled. “Get it Rose? Hang around-“
Rose shook her head disapprovingly, her hair expanding around her face like a mane.
“Okay,” the Doctor said diplomatically. “How to negotiate with the Largarians, without getting killed… "
(Next Chapter)