Fic: Pockets in Time Part 4
Title: Pockets in Time (Part 4 )
Author: helloprilly
Characters: Ten/Donna
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 3218
Part 3
“Because a vision softly creeping…”
The corridors of the Tardis were eerily dark as the Doctor led the way from the control room. He squinted first down one turn then another before he rummaged through his voluminous pockets in order to pull out two torches.
Donna took the torch that the Doctor handed to her, her gaze following his as they decided against going down any side corridors and continued down the corridor that they had originally entered.
She could feel the Doctor’s mind brushing against hers from time to time, most likely trying to see what she was seeing, but not wishing to subject her to further strain. Donna was finding it hard to focus down the dimly lit corridors, and she couldn’t tell if the shimmering she saw in her vision was due to the damage the Tardis had endured or if it was just another sign of her concussion.
“So how can you be sure that this multiphasic what’s it is what’s truly wrong with the Tardis, Doctor?”
Donna found that she couldn’t stand the silence that filled the Tardis and so she felt a nearly overwhelming urge to fill the void with chatter. She was worried sick about the Tardis and could only imagine how terrified the ship must feel as she cowered within her panic room, unable to completely connect with her pilot other than to let him know that she was still alive.
The Doctor turned to look at Donna, his eyes not failing to notice the lines that were etching themselves around her eyes as she squinted down the corridor. He felt his hearts stutter for a moment as he thought of the terror he had felt when he couldn’t rouse her after he had been knocked free of the temporal pocket. He had frantically scanned her with the sonic while his mind had reached out to hers in order to try to bring her to consciousness. He had feared the worst when he couldn’t connect with her and it was only the beeping of the sonic that had informed him of the severity of her concussion that had finally allowed some of the blind panic to fade.
He really shouldn’t have moved her at all. She should still be resting comfortably back in the control room while he made the repairs necessary to the ship, but as usual the universe wouldn’t allow him to do what was right for her.
“When I was at the academy, we had many classes on Tardises and how they functioned.”
“I thought you said you never listened to those classes and that you also never bothered to read the instruction manual.” Donna looked at the Doctor with a smirk, her hand reaching out to brush lightly against his in a gesture meant to soothe the sting from her barb.
He shook his head with a rueful chuckle, his gaze turning back to the corridor for a long moment before he continued. “I did listen in class sometimes, Donna, as much as it may come as a surprise to you.”
Donna smiled softly when she heard the defensiveness in his tone, the fact that he could care for the ship for as long as he had without any outside help was a testament to his affinity for his old girl.
“The Type 40 Tardises were more finicky than other models. I’ve already told you that they didn’t always bond with every pilot and even when they did, they very rarely allowed other pilots to join the bond. The resulting strain on the primary pilot is one of the things that led to the design falling out of favor on Gallifrey.”
They rounded a corner and Donna gasped as she grabbed on to the Doctor’s hand to stop him in mid stride. Donna’s eyes were huge as she tentatively reached a hand out to touch the darkly shimmering surface that was mere inches from her face.
The Doctor had stopped as soon as he heard Donna’s gasp, but that didn’t stop the hairs on his body from standing on end at the feeling of a large temporal field very near to him. “What do you see, Donna?”
She turned to look at him with fear filled eyes, her fingers hovering in front of her nose almost as if they were resting on something. She blinked several times before turning back to face the corridor before them, her entire body trembling when her fingers made contact with the surface of the sphere in front of her.
She cried out softly at the shock that raced down her arm and quickly snatched her arm away when the Doctor stepped close to catch her as she staggered back several steps. “We need to find another way to get to the core, Doctor. There’s a huge sphere right in front of us blocking the entire corridor. It’s not like the other ones though, this one is dark almost like it’s filled with shadows. I didn’t even see it before we were nearly on top of it.”
The Doctor looked back down the corridor with a frown, his hand rising to scan the air in front of him before he grunted softly and pulled her back into the corridor that they had just exited. “Alright, Donna. This was the most direct route, but we’ll find another way.”
She hesitated for a moment more, her gaze outlining the strangely beautiful sphere in front of her before she yielded to the tug of the Doctor’s hand and turned around so that they could find another path.
Donna looked at the Doctor, her eyes taking in the frown lines that were deepening on his forehead the further they progressed. His fingers were absently stroking the inside of her wrist, but his free hand was continually fiddling with the sonic as he swept it over the corridor in front of them. “Please tell me more about what’s wrong with the Tardis. Is this something specific to the type 40, or were other models prone to failures like this?”
The Doctor jumped when he heard Donna’s question, his distant gaze suddenly snapping back into focus as he was forcibly reminded about the present. “Sorry, Donna. I’m just trying to listen for anything out of the ordinary, I don’t like how quiet the ship is, especially when I can’t hear her in my mind.”
Donna squeezed his hand tightly, the underlying concern in his voice was impossible to ignore. “We’ll figure it out, Doctor. We’ll get her back and then we can go on holiday somewhere that we can relax for a while.”
He smiled at the image those words conjured, his hand squeezing hers tightly in return before he chose another corridor seemingly at random and guided her further into the bowels of the ship. “I’d like that, Donna! A stop in Cardiff first is a must though, the ship will definitely need to spend several days on the rift to finish the repairs and refuel herself.”
Donna grinned, not at all surprised that the Doctor chose the rift in Cardiff over any other rift in the universe on which to park his injured ship. Whether he liked to admit it or not, he was coming to think of the band of misfits Jack called family as a family of his own.
“The instructors at the academy seemed to think that it was a problem unique to the Type 40, specifically type 40’s that were older than a millennium. However, so few Type 40’s survived for such a long time that it was really only conjecture at the time.”
They continued to make their way down the corridor, the pressure of Donna’s hand guiding the Doctor when they needed to press themselves tightly against walls as spheres would appear at random intervals along their path. The darker spheres were becoming more common the further into the Tardis they travelled, and they had to change their path several times because of the way being blocked.
“I didn’t realize the Tardis was that much older than you, Doctor. I guess I always assumed that the both of you were similar in age since you’ve travelled together for so long.” Donna shook her head slightly as she felt a wave of vertigo wash over her, the air in the corridor in front of her shimmered for a moment before she felt herself buffeted with an unfamiliar wave of energy.
“That’s not good.” The Doctor was frowning down a side corridor, his sonic held in front of him as he frantically scanned the space in front of him.
“What was that, Doctor?” Donna braced herself against a wall, her eyes clenched tightly closed as she fought to control the spinning of the corridor in front of her.
The Doctor looked back at Donna, his gaze intent as he took in the very real distress that was straining her features. “It was a wave of temporal energy, and it looks like there’s more where that one came from.”
There was a shuddering groan that echoed through the ship at the Doctor’s words, the already dim lights flickered fitfully in response before they steadied once more. “What does that mean, Doctor?” Donna hated not knowing what was going on, but she should have been used to that sensation by now. She rarely knew what was going on, but the Doctor was usually better at sharing information with her.
She reached out to the Doctor, her fingers twining through his free hand to try to ground him in the here and now. “Doctor, please, you’re really starting to frighten me. What does that mean?”
He shook his head, looking down at Donna and sighing softly as he pulled her into a tight embrace. “I’m sorry, Donna. I didn’t mean to frighten you.” He held her for a moment longer before he pulled away and pointed the sonic down the adjoining corridor once more. “The containment field around the temporal core is beginning to fail. As it fails, waves of temporal energy are escaping and ricocheting through the ship.”
“Doctor, can you really fix what’s wrong with the Tardis? This sounds a lot more serious than a simple part failing.”
The Doctor nodded emphatically in response to Donna’s question, his hand squeezing hers tightly before he led the way down once more. “I can fix this, Donna. This isn’t just a simple parts failure though because the transducer is the brain of the Tardis and basically holds the ship’s fabric of time and space together. It’s the link between the temporal core and her consciousness and allows her to touch all 11 dimensions simultaneously.”
Donna licked her lips as a thin line of perspiration had begun to form, the struggle of keeping her vision focused through the strange pulsing around her was beginning to exact a heavy toll. She wrapped her arms around herself when the Doctor pulled his hand away, his eyes darting from side to side as he tried to keep her as close to his side as possible.
“Doctor, you keep saying you’re a little older than 900 years old, how old is the Tardis?”
The Doctor grinned softly at her question, his head ducking beneath a broken conduit that was lying across the top of the corridor before he responded. “She’s quite a bit older than I am, Donna. I’d say at least by several centuries. The Type 40’s were in use for nearly 500 years before a lot of their quirks really started to become serious issues. However, since they are time machines, many were in service much longer than the same relative time period on Gallifrey.”
Donna gripped the Doctor’s hand and tugged him to the left in order to avoid a small sphere that danced out of the walls beside them, her nails unconsciously digging into the flesh of his hand when it drifted between them and into the opposite wall.
The Doctor grunted softly at the grip of Donna’s hand, his gaze dropping to hers for a moment before he squeezed her hand in reply. “We’re getting close, Donna. As long as we can continue along the path we’re following, we’ll be there soon.”
“I’m having a hard time focusing, Doctor. The air around me keeps getting fuzzy, I don’t know if it’s because of my concussion or if something else is wrong.”
The Doctor stopped instantly at her words, his hands rose to grip her shoulders while he urged her eyes up to meet his gaze. “What do you mean by fuzzy, Donna?”
She winced at the pressure of his hands on her shoulders, her vision swimming momentarily when she felt his mind brush gently against hers in a bid for entrance. “It’s almost like looking at the world through a heat haze, Doctor, but it seems to come and go without much warning.”
The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief when he felt her barriers relax so that he could slip into her mind without resistance. He frowned when he felt the pain pounding at the inside of her temples, his touch feather light as he tried to shift some of the burden onto himself before drifting deeper into her mind. He blinked mental eyes open as he focused on Donna’s vision, his head spinning as he once more tried to process the strange way in which she perceived time.
He let his gaze move along the corridor, spheres were drifting lazily across the corridor though none of them seemed to stay still for long. He saw several darker orbs floating up near the ceiling of the corridor, but they seemed to be stationary for the time being. There was a definite shimmer across Donna’s vision though and as he watched, it seemed to grow in intensity before it faded away once more.
Donna was clutching the Doctor’s hand, unwilling to admit that the presence of his thoughts in her mind was causing the pain in her head to swell in painful counterpoint. She whimpered softly when he pulled out of her mind, her eyes swimming with unshed tears when silence once more crashed through her thoughts. “I don’t like this, Doctor.”
The Doctor nodded softly, his hand rising to brush away the tear that had slid unbidden down her cheek. “I know, Donna, trust me I don’t like it either but it’s for the best until I can treat you properly in the medibay. You’re doing brilliant, Donna, just hold on for a little bit longer.”
Donna growled softly at herself, hating the feeling of helplessness that seemed to well up out of nowhere. “I’m made of stronger stuff than this, Doctor. Trust me, I can handle a little concussion.”
The Doctor grinned at Donna, happy to see her spirit once more rise to the surface. He dropped his hand and turned back the way they had come, his gaze darting back to hers for a moment before he started back down the corridor. “That’s my Donna!”
She stuck her tongue out at the Doctor, shaking her head with a laugh despite the pain that lanced through her temple when he merely arched a brow in response. “So how are you going to fix the… whatever it is that’s broken, Doctor?”
“I’ll have to essentially hotwire the connection so that we can get the Tardis out of the vortex. I can’t actually replace the part while we’re travelling, but once we materialize then it’ll be a simple matter of exchanging the broken part for the new one and then letting her recharge for several days before we can be on our way again.” He turned back to look at her, his hand reaching out to brush hers before he murmured. “That’s why I’m going to need your help, Donna. This is part of the reason why the Tardises had a multi-person crew, well at least until the Time Lords perfected single pilot ships but even then, it was always recommended to have at least two pilots on any journey of any length.”
“Doctor, you’re babbling again.”
The Doctor looked back at her with an indignant expression, his eyes widening when he saw the smirk on her face. “I beg your pardon, Donna, but I do NOT babble. I was merely explaining why I needed your help for this particular repair.”
“Of course you were, Doctor.”
Donna’s bland retort left the Doctor’s sputtering for a moment before he reached up to absentmindedly rub the back of his neck. “As I was saying, Donna, before you interrupted me, I’m going to need your help because I can’t reactivate the transducer while I am also hotwiring the connection. That’s why I need you outside of the temporal core while I make the repair, and so that you can throw the switch to reactivate the connection.”
She nodded softly at the Doctor’s words, but there was something in his voice that seemed to belie a deeper concern than merely splicing a few wires together and throwing a switch. “Doctor, what is it that you’re not telling me? How dangerous is this repair going to be?”
He turned back to look at her, his eyes suddenly hooded as he merely grunted in reply. “It’ll be fine, Donna.”
Donna reached up to grab the Doctor’s hand as he turned away, her mind reaching out to his with uncharacteristic strength when he tried to resist her probe. “Oh no you don’t, Spaceman. What are you not telling me?”
The Doctor opened his mouth to respond, but Donna was distracted by movement down the corridor. Her eyes widened as she saw several spheres hurtling towards them at break neck speed, but it was the wave of energy behind them that had her shoving the Doctor to the side as she shouted, “Look out!”
The Doctor spun around as Donna shoved him out of the way, his skin suddenly exploding with waves of fire as a massive energy field suddenly bore down on the both of them. He reached out towards Donna with a frantic cry, his hand just brushed against hers before he felt the world go dark.
Donna threw her arms over her face when the wave crashed over the both of them and knocked the Doctor’s hand completely out of her grasp. She screamed at the pain that exploded over her entire body, the sensation that burned over hyper sensitized nerves caused her to fall to the floor in spasms of agony.
She lay on the ground panting for several moments before she realized that the floor of the corridor had changed. She moved her hands as she waited for her vision to clear, hissing softly in surprise when she felt some sort of plant meet her questing fingers.
Donna sat up with a start, her hand flying to her head when dark spots suddenly swam across her vision. She shook her head and blinked her eyes several times before she finally believed what she was seeing.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me…”
Overhead, twin suns burned in an orange sky and in the distance, she could just make out the shining dome that encased a gleaming city but it was the red grass and silver leafed trees that convinced her.
Somehow, she was now on Gallifrey.
Part 5