theatrical_muse #191: where do you see yourself 20 years from now?
The TARDIS landed, jolting them from their post at the console, laughing on the floor.
"Maybe wanna be thinking of installing some better landing gear."
"Nonsense! She lands just fine." The Doctor dusted himself off and bounded to the door, opening it up a crack.
Adonna rolled her eyes, smirk on her face and getting to her feet. It was a little much to hope for him to actually be a bit of a gentleman and help her up, especially when they were somewhere new. "It's not as much like you to being scared going out," she teased.
He scoffed. "I am not afraid of anything beyond these doors. "I was just checking to make sure there was no danger."
"Never close to stopping you beforehand."
"Well, to be completely honest, I'm not sure where we've landed."
Looking over his shoulder wasn't a problem, and out the crack wide enough for the Doctor to poke his head out, she could see metal. Metal floor, metal walls, all tinted bronze and looking a little worn. "You've got your sensors and things, aren't those spouting much? Fritzing on you?"
He opened the door wider and stepped out, coat swishing behind him. "I know very well when we are. It's the year 170,749."
"Striking a bit closer to my own times, I'm hearing. What about the where of this?"
"We ought to be floating in the middle of space." She followed after him, taking in the small room they appeared to be in and immediately wandering. There seemed to be a desk area, a bed, shelving units... "I was aiming for around Traxus IV, but apparently the old girl was fickle once again."
"Uh, Doctor...we are floating in the middle of space." Adonna was occupied with looking out a porthole, stars slowly passing by. "Just on another ship."
"Oh? Oh! So I see. That makes things a lot easier."
"Does it?"
"Of course it does." He had crossed the room to the door on the opposite side, and it slid open with the push of a button, not waiting to see if she was following. "All we must do now is introduce ourselves to the captain of the ship, find out where we are, where we are going, and then we ought to tell him or her that we're really very sorry to have landed uninvited on this ship."
That was if something disastrous didn't happen on the way, like it seemed to do half the time. That was quite all right, though. She never minded. Most of the time, anyway. That wasn't to say there weren't any times that she wanted to rip someone's head clean off, or weren't any times when she was completely terrified out of her wits, completely out of her depth, in way too far over her head this time. There was a noise down a branching corridor, raised voices, a fight of some kind. She spoke up about it.
"It's none of our concern, remember. We'd best meet with the captain first before we muck about with any of the crew." He moved on, but Adonna couldn't help but wonder. Ship mutinies, though rare, always made big news back home. While that probably wasn't the case here, the yelling did concern her. Just not in the way the Doctor meant.
Besides, he wouldn't notice if she slipped off for five minutes...
"...don't think you've got the balls to..."
"...what we always wanted..."
"...ridiculous notion that..."
"...thought you were on my side..."
The noise was obviously coming from one particular room, so she pressed a button and waited for it to slide open. Two men looked like they were about to go at each others throats until they looked over at her. "What's the ruckus?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and wondering if they'd even pay her any mind for her intrusion.
They both straightened, to her surprise, and the bulky, balding man on the right muttered, "Sorry, ma'am."
The one on the left, shorter and darker, added, "Harvick and I were just having a disagreement, ma'am."
"A rather loud one," she mused, but it was strange, treating her with such respect.
"Won't happen again, ma'am," the one called Harvick said, and they filed out past her, giving each other dirty looks before going their separate ways down the corridor.
"...Ma'am?" How...gentlemanly. Whatever it was about, it had sounded like trouble. But it wasn't her trouble, and it'd look strange for someone they didn't even know following them and trying to solve their differences. She ought to go find the Doctor again...
***
The Doctor was enjoying the design of the ship. Functional. Simple, but soft and lived-in. And it had taken him quite a few minutes to realize that there was no second set of footsteps behind him like there really should have been, especially when he turned around, and nobody was there but a younger boy asking him who the hell he was and how he got on the ship without tripping any sensors or alarms.
Why did none of his companions ever ever stay put?
"I said, who are you?"
"This isn't a passenger vessel, is it?"
The question seemed to throw the other off. "Of course it's not."
"No, no, it wouldn't bit. I don't remember when the laws got so lax that teenagers could sign up for these kinds of jobs."
"I'm not a teenager!"
"I'm sure your papers say you're not."
"Doctor...?"
"Not now, Donna, I--" If she wasn't behind him, how did she get to... He turned around again.
"Ma'am! We've got an intruder," noted the boy.
"Yes, I noticed, thank you, Jannice. He's fine to stay."
"Ma'am?"
"You've got yourself duties that need attending to."
"...Yes, ma'am..."
The Doctor put a bemused expression upon his face as the boy wandered off. She was just as tall as ever, though her blonde hair had streaks of pure white in them, and lines of age were showing plainly. Time seemed to have been particularly kind to her, otherwise. Her eyes still played with a spark of joy and mischief. "Adonna."
"Doctor." She smirked. "Of all the places in the universe, I didn't think you'd be showing up here."
"Neither did I! So...Captain, then, is it?"
***
Adonna was, quite frankly and irrefutably, lost. Corridors branched off in too many directions, and she had no idea where the Doctor might've gone.
"Doctor? Doctor! Oh, come on, couldn't have gotten--"
"Med bay's that way, or you got a hangover?" The darker-skinned man she'd seen arguing with Harvick smirked at her before his brows knit together. "Ain't you supposed to be on the bridge, ma'am?"
"Probably."
He squinted up at her almost suspiciously before breaking out in a smirk again, shaking his head, muttering something about cosmetics doing a wonder. "Anywho, c'mere, I was hoping to have a word in private, if you wouldn't mind." He motioned toward another room--another living quarters, most likely his own. While she hesitated (why on Earth would someone she's barged into an argument on want to have a private word?), instincts telling her to run in the opposite direction, he sounded urgent when he spoke again in lowered tones. "I'm telling you, you're gonna wanna hear this, before it's too late. It's of the utmost importance, but I don't want anyone overhearing."
She figured it might be worse if she denied him--did she think she was someone else?--and knew she could put up a decent fight if need be, so she obliged. The man immediately began a feverish story.
"I told him it was a bad idea, ma'am! That's when you walked in, we were arguing about this plan he came up with. And I was willing to go along with it until he told me that he was gonna--"
"Whoa, hold it up, start from the beginning."
He took a breath, looked shifty, but started again. "Well...ma'am...you know the Galactic Transport Union's been getting restless the past few years...and Harvick, he's just voicing out what we've all been thinking. We need better wages, need to work on better ships, nothing falling apart, need just more support for the work we put in. I thought he was just gonna think about trying to start up another strike or something, well, it's not like it's all that bad an idea, but the gov never does a damn thing. Today he was telling me...he was telling me, ma'am, he was gonna try and take over."
She blinked. "Take over? He's going to mutiny?"
"That's what he said. He said he'd got a group of us together, and he wanted me on his side, but I told him it was crazy talk, pure crazy."
"How would the plan of his go down?"
"When I told him I wasn't in, he didn't give me any details, but my guess is, start a panic on the ship, get everyone busy and concerned with something else, then he and his crew storm the bridge, take command. Who knows what from there. When the cargo's not delivered, there'll be some hell to pay, but he might be thinking something big, I dunno, and then he'll start making demands. All the newsports'll be over this, his face the voice of the GTU, and nobody'll trust us again. You gotta stop him."
"Me?"
"Well, you gotta help, I'm not saying, uh, by yourself, that'd be..."
"I think you've got the wrong person." Adonna made her way out. "The very wrong person. I'm sorry."
"I don't know who else I can trust! Someone else might fink to him, and you wouldn't want your ship falling into his hands."
She shook her head slowly. "My ship? I don't think--"
Harvick was hurrying down the corridor, then skidded to a stop at the open door. "...Hey...something going on?"
"Nothing of concern to you, trust me."
Harvick was about to say more, but Adonna stepped into the conversation. "Where's the hurry to?"
"Oh, 's nothing, ma'am, just back to my post. Thought I was running late. Don't wanna be put on report again's all it is. If you'll 'scuse..."
They waited until he disappeared from view before Adonna gave her informant an inquisitive look. "So he's off to where, exactly?"
"He's chief engineer, so if there's one thing he's gonna be good at, it's mucking something up down in engineering without causing too much permanent damage."
"Then lead the way."
"...But what are you gonna do once we get there?"
"You saw him double-timing?" The other man nodded. "Then we'll need to triple-time it, get moving!" Her suddenly commanding voice made him jump to action, and they took chase. Hopefully they could get there before this plan went off without a hitch. And hopefully she could come up with a plan on what to do once they got there. The Doctor was always better at this sort of thing than she was...
***
"I can't express how elated I am to have had this time around you." The Captain, his lovely Donna all grown up, drained her drink and grinned brightly. "So many years...and all talk about me! You, you've not gone around to changing at all."
"Yes, well, I'm known for that characteristic." The Doctor had first thought it an uncomfortable experience. Actually sitting down and catching up with a companion of his. (Even more uncomfortable was the fact that she was technically still under his wing.) But learning about how much she'd done in her years, getting her own cargo ship and all the rest, it was delightful. The fact that he apparently would take her back home in one piece gave him the most settlement of the nerves.
"So, who's traveling around with you nowadays? Another pretty face?"
He bristled slightly. "I shall have you know that outward appearance has nothing to do with--"
He realized she must've been joking when she laughed. "Tightly wound as ever, Doctor. Next trip you find yourself going on, take you and whoever else, find a beach. Or the biggest mall in all the universe's many wonders. Shopping's always done a woman like me worlds of wonders."
"I should hope that you spend more time making sure the Diomedeidae gets where she needs to." He cleared his throat and stood. "I'm afraid I really ought to cut this short. With all this time gone, that 'pretty face' I've got along with me has probably caused an impossibly large amount of trouble aboard your ship, and I really should get going. You have shown me a lovely bit of hospitality, and it's been delightful."
She nodded but remained seated. "Always moving off one place or the other. Or time. Yes, I remember. I won't mind the hasty exit. All the crew's gone to wondering. Any ideas for telling them whatfor?"
"You'll think of something." He headed for the door and threw an honest smile over his shoulder. "Or nothing at all, which in this case, might be far better."
***
"There's a plan, right?"
Adonna shushed him, pressing her ear up to the door. The engine was loud, but she could also hear voices. Normal work voices they seemed to be, checking the auxiliary coolant conduit, the dealing out of daily routine duties, fixing the internal communications system...
"Your certain he'll be doing dealings in here?" she asked, skeptical.
"I dunno, but makes sense...he's always got that bunch on his side no matter what."
"Dealing with how many, then?"
"Four or five at one time? He might've gotten the lot in there, though. Lucco was up and about, and he's night shift."
"Weapons?"
He warily pulled out a gun of his own. "Brought it along just in case it was needed. I knew it'd be useful against raiders, since obviously gov don't do shit for us, but I never thought I'd be waving it at my own buddies. Them, though, I wouldn't know..."
"Then we're about to."
"What?!"
She opened the door and stormed in. "Hold up!" All eyes turned to her--about seven pairs as far as she could tell. There was a moment of pause before there was a scramble. A small explosion went off behind her, and most of the mutineers dropped to the floor before they could reach for their own weaponry.
"She said 'hold up', you sons of bitches!" Her partner's face was scrunched into a mass of fury, and he whirled to face Harvick to his left, paused at a control panel. "Means you, too. Step away from the comm controls. Do it. Now."
Reluctantly, and with a similar scowl, Harvick dropped his hands to his sides and took two steps back.
"Much better." He handed off the gun to Adonna, who at first had no idea what to do with it. When the first of the mutineers dared move, a hand crawling toward the handle of a weapon, she pointed, and the hand stilled. But while those other hands might be somewhat accustomed to weaponry, hers were not, and the weight was odd, off, strange and new. Nobody else spoke a word, however.
A button tapped on the control panel. "Emergency situation, engineering. All available security, please report immediately."
***
Armed personnel had arrived shortly thereafter and taken the supposed mutineers into custody. The Doctor, even, had made his way there, always where trouble was. She had long since given the gun back. While the others had treated her with reverence and respect (with or without it), she was glad to be rid of it and hugging him tightly.
"The Captain's on her way," sneered one security officer at Harvick. "You'd better hope she doesn't space ya."
The Doctor seemed slightly uncomfortable and pulled Adonna along by the hand. "I think our work here is done. Come along, the TARDIS is this way."
"'Our'? Wasn't much doing for you, Doctor. Unless there's an adventure you might be wanting to explain to me?"
"Ah, no, no...just a talk with the ship's captain, figuring out the whos and whats and wheres, just as I said." He seemed conflicted for a moment before flashing a smile, an honest smile that was always rare for him except around her. "You did wonderfully, Donna. How about we take a vacation, someplace with a beach, perhaps?"
She smirked. "I'm envisioning myself springing into action with you having your tea and crumpets. Bit of uselessness might do you good. Needing to see that art of laziness in you for once in your life."
They found the room occupied when they entered, a woman scratching her head and turning to them. "Wha' th' 'ell's this box doin' in m'room, then?!"
The Doctor waved to her and unlocked the TARDIS doors, paying no mind to the questions, and Adonna followed suit. It faded out of existence with its usual disturbance and noise, which, inside, equated to the centerpiece of the console rhythmically pumping up and down, and some slight turbulence.
"Takeoff's a bit rusty, too."
"Oh, now, don't start."
Adonna leaned into him by the console. "How's the idea we go see what I'm up to, twenty years since you plucked me off the streets?"
"No, absolutely not," huffed the Doctor, already inputting new coordinates. "It might upset the timeline something awful, and we wouldn't want to do that, even out of sheer curiosity."
"Maybe wanna be thinking of installing some better landing gear."
"Nonsense! She lands just fine." The Doctor dusted himself off and bounded to the door, opening it up a crack.
Adonna rolled her eyes, smirk on her face and getting to her feet. It was a little much to hope for him to actually be a bit of a gentleman and help her up, especially when they were somewhere new. "It's not as much like you to being scared going out," she teased.
He scoffed. "I am not afraid of anything beyond these doors. "I was just checking to make sure there was no danger."
"Never close to stopping you beforehand."
"Well, to be completely honest, I'm not sure where we've landed."
Looking over his shoulder wasn't a problem, and out the crack wide enough for the Doctor to poke his head out, she could see metal. Metal floor, metal walls, all tinted bronze and looking a little worn. "You've got your sensors and things, aren't those spouting much? Fritzing on you?"
He opened the door wider and stepped out, coat swishing behind him. "I know very well when we are. It's the year 170,749."
"Striking a bit closer to my own times, I'm hearing. What about the where of this?"
"We ought to be floating in the middle of space." She followed after him, taking in the small room they appeared to be in and immediately wandering. There seemed to be a desk area, a bed, shelving units... "I was aiming for around Traxus IV, but apparently the old girl was fickle once again."
"Uh, Doctor...we are floating in the middle of space." Adonna was occupied with looking out a porthole, stars slowly passing by. "Just on another ship."
"Oh? Oh! So I see. That makes things a lot easier."
"Does it?"
"Of course it does." He had crossed the room to the door on the opposite side, and it slid open with the push of a button, not waiting to see if she was following. "All we must do now is introduce ourselves to the captain of the ship, find out where we are, where we are going, and then we ought to tell him or her that we're really very sorry to have landed uninvited on this ship."
That was if something disastrous didn't happen on the way, like it seemed to do half the time. That was quite all right, though. She never minded. Most of the time, anyway. That wasn't to say there weren't any times that she wanted to rip someone's head clean off, or weren't any times when she was completely terrified out of her wits, completely out of her depth, in way too far over her head this time. There was a noise down a branching corridor, raised voices, a fight of some kind. She spoke up about it.
"It's none of our concern, remember. We'd best meet with the captain first before we muck about with any of the crew." He moved on, but Adonna couldn't help but wonder. Ship mutinies, though rare, always made big news back home. While that probably wasn't the case here, the yelling did concern her. Just not in the way the Doctor meant.
Besides, he wouldn't notice if she slipped off for five minutes...
"...don't think you've got the balls to..."
"...what we always wanted..."
"...ridiculous notion that..."
"...thought you were on my side..."
The noise was obviously coming from one particular room, so she pressed a button and waited for it to slide open. Two men looked like they were about to go at each others throats until they looked over at her. "What's the ruckus?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and wondering if they'd even pay her any mind for her intrusion.
They both straightened, to her surprise, and the bulky, balding man on the right muttered, "Sorry, ma'am."
The one on the left, shorter and darker, added, "Harvick and I were just having a disagreement, ma'am."
"A rather loud one," she mused, but it was strange, treating her with such respect.
"Won't happen again, ma'am," the one called Harvick said, and they filed out past her, giving each other dirty looks before going their separate ways down the corridor.
"...Ma'am?" How...gentlemanly. Whatever it was about, it had sounded like trouble. But it wasn't her trouble, and it'd look strange for someone they didn't even know following them and trying to solve their differences. She ought to go find the Doctor again...
***
The Doctor was enjoying the design of the ship. Functional. Simple, but soft and lived-in. And it had taken him quite a few minutes to realize that there was no second set of footsteps behind him like there really should have been, especially when he turned around, and nobody was there but a younger boy asking him who the hell he was and how he got on the ship without tripping any sensors or alarms.
Why did none of his companions ever ever stay put?
"I said, who are you?"
"This isn't a passenger vessel, is it?"
The question seemed to throw the other off. "Of course it's not."
"No, no, it wouldn't bit. I don't remember when the laws got so lax that teenagers could sign up for these kinds of jobs."
"I'm not a teenager!"
"I'm sure your papers say you're not."
"Doctor...?"
"Not now, Donna, I--" If she wasn't behind him, how did she get to... He turned around again.
"Ma'am! We've got an intruder," noted the boy.
"Yes, I noticed, thank you, Jannice. He's fine to stay."
"Ma'am?"
"You've got yourself duties that need attending to."
"...Yes, ma'am..."
The Doctor put a bemused expression upon his face as the boy wandered off. She was just as tall as ever, though her blonde hair had streaks of pure white in them, and lines of age were showing plainly. Time seemed to have been particularly kind to her, otherwise. Her eyes still played with a spark of joy and mischief. "Adonna."
"Doctor." She smirked. "Of all the places in the universe, I didn't think you'd be showing up here."
"Neither did I! So...Captain, then, is it?"
***
Adonna was, quite frankly and irrefutably, lost. Corridors branched off in too many directions, and she had no idea where the Doctor might've gone.
"Doctor? Doctor! Oh, come on, couldn't have gotten--"
"Med bay's that way, or you got a hangover?" The darker-skinned man she'd seen arguing with Harvick smirked at her before his brows knit together. "Ain't you supposed to be on the bridge, ma'am?"
"Probably."
He squinted up at her almost suspiciously before breaking out in a smirk again, shaking his head, muttering something about cosmetics doing a wonder. "Anywho, c'mere, I was hoping to have a word in private, if you wouldn't mind." He motioned toward another room--another living quarters, most likely his own. While she hesitated (why on Earth would someone she's barged into an argument on want to have a private word?), instincts telling her to run in the opposite direction, he sounded urgent when he spoke again in lowered tones. "I'm telling you, you're gonna wanna hear this, before it's too late. It's of the utmost importance, but I don't want anyone overhearing."
She figured it might be worse if she denied him--did she think she was someone else?--and knew she could put up a decent fight if need be, so she obliged. The man immediately began a feverish story.
"I told him it was a bad idea, ma'am! That's when you walked in, we were arguing about this plan he came up with. And I was willing to go along with it until he told me that he was gonna--"
"Whoa, hold it up, start from the beginning."
He took a breath, looked shifty, but started again. "Well...ma'am...you know the Galactic Transport Union's been getting restless the past few years...and Harvick, he's just voicing out what we've all been thinking. We need better wages, need to work on better ships, nothing falling apart, need just more support for the work we put in. I thought he was just gonna think about trying to start up another strike or something, well, it's not like it's all that bad an idea, but the gov never does a damn thing. Today he was telling me...he was telling me, ma'am, he was gonna try and take over."
She blinked. "Take over? He's going to mutiny?"
"That's what he said. He said he'd got a group of us together, and he wanted me on his side, but I told him it was crazy talk, pure crazy."
"How would the plan of his go down?"
"When I told him I wasn't in, he didn't give me any details, but my guess is, start a panic on the ship, get everyone busy and concerned with something else, then he and his crew storm the bridge, take command. Who knows what from there. When the cargo's not delivered, there'll be some hell to pay, but he might be thinking something big, I dunno, and then he'll start making demands. All the newsports'll be over this, his face the voice of the GTU, and nobody'll trust us again. You gotta stop him."
"Me?"
"Well, you gotta help, I'm not saying, uh, by yourself, that'd be..."
"I think you've got the wrong person." Adonna made her way out. "The very wrong person. I'm sorry."
"I don't know who else I can trust! Someone else might fink to him, and you wouldn't want your ship falling into his hands."
She shook her head slowly. "My ship? I don't think--"
Harvick was hurrying down the corridor, then skidded to a stop at the open door. "...Hey...something going on?"
"Nothing of concern to you, trust me."
Harvick was about to say more, but Adonna stepped into the conversation. "Where's the hurry to?"
"Oh, 's nothing, ma'am, just back to my post. Thought I was running late. Don't wanna be put on report again's all it is. If you'll 'scuse..."
They waited until he disappeared from view before Adonna gave her informant an inquisitive look. "So he's off to where, exactly?"
"He's chief engineer, so if there's one thing he's gonna be good at, it's mucking something up down in engineering without causing too much permanent damage."
"Then lead the way."
"...But what are you gonna do once we get there?"
"You saw him double-timing?" The other man nodded. "Then we'll need to triple-time it, get moving!" Her suddenly commanding voice made him jump to action, and they took chase. Hopefully they could get there before this plan went off without a hitch. And hopefully she could come up with a plan on what to do once they got there. The Doctor was always better at this sort of thing than she was...
***
"I can't express how elated I am to have had this time around you." The Captain, his lovely Donna all grown up, drained her drink and grinned brightly. "So many years...and all talk about me! You, you've not gone around to changing at all."
"Yes, well, I'm known for that characteristic." The Doctor had first thought it an uncomfortable experience. Actually sitting down and catching up with a companion of his. (Even more uncomfortable was the fact that she was technically still under his wing.) But learning about how much she'd done in her years, getting her own cargo ship and all the rest, it was delightful. The fact that he apparently would take her back home in one piece gave him the most settlement of the nerves.
"So, who's traveling around with you nowadays? Another pretty face?"
He bristled slightly. "I shall have you know that outward appearance has nothing to do with--"
He realized she must've been joking when she laughed. "Tightly wound as ever, Doctor. Next trip you find yourself going on, take you and whoever else, find a beach. Or the biggest mall in all the universe's many wonders. Shopping's always done a woman like me worlds of wonders."
"I should hope that you spend more time making sure the Diomedeidae gets where she needs to." He cleared his throat and stood. "I'm afraid I really ought to cut this short. With all this time gone, that 'pretty face' I've got along with me has probably caused an impossibly large amount of trouble aboard your ship, and I really should get going. You have shown me a lovely bit of hospitality, and it's been delightful."
She nodded but remained seated. "Always moving off one place or the other. Or time. Yes, I remember. I won't mind the hasty exit. All the crew's gone to wondering. Any ideas for telling them whatfor?"
"You'll think of something." He headed for the door and threw an honest smile over his shoulder. "Or nothing at all, which in this case, might be far better."
***
"There's a plan, right?"
Adonna shushed him, pressing her ear up to the door. The engine was loud, but she could also hear voices. Normal work voices they seemed to be, checking the auxiliary coolant conduit, the dealing out of daily routine duties, fixing the internal communications system...
"Your certain he'll be doing dealings in here?" she asked, skeptical.
"I dunno, but makes sense...he's always got that bunch on his side no matter what."
"Dealing with how many, then?"
"Four or five at one time? He might've gotten the lot in there, though. Lucco was up and about, and he's night shift."
"Weapons?"
He warily pulled out a gun of his own. "Brought it along just in case it was needed. I knew it'd be useful against raiders, since obviously gov don't do shit for us, but I never thought I'd be waving it at my own buddies. Them, though, I wouldn't know..."
"Then we're about to."
"What?!"
She opened the door and stormed in. "Hold up!" All eyes turned to her--about seven pairs as far as she could tell. There was a moment of pause before there was a scramble. A small explosion went off behind her, and most of the mutineers dropped to the floor before they could reach for their own weaponry.
"She said 'hold up', you sons of bitches!" Her partner's face was scrunched into a mass of fury, and he whirled to face Harvick to his left, paused at a control panel. "Means you, too. Step away from the comm controls. Do it. Now."
Reluctantly, and with a similar scowl, Harvick dropped his hands to his sides and took two steps back.
"Much better." He handed off the gun to Adonna, who at first had no idea what to do with it. When the first of the mutineers dared move, a hand crawling toward the handle of a weapon, she pointed, and the hand stilled. But while those other hands might be somewhat accustomed to weaponry, hers were not, and the weight was odd, off, strange and new. Nobody else spoke a word, however.
A button tapped on the control panel. "Emergency situation, engineering. All available security, please report immediately."
***
Armed personnel had arrived shortly thereafter and taken the supposed mutineers into custody. The Doctor, even, had made his way there, always where trouble was. She had long since given the gun back. While the others had treated her with reverence and respect (with or without it), she was glad to be rid of it and hugging him tightly.
"The Captain's on her way," sneered one security officer at Harvick. "You'd better hope she doesn't space ya."
The Doctor seemed slightly uncomfortable and pulled Adonna along by the hand. "I think our work here is done. Come along, the TARDIS is this way."
"'Our'? Wasn't much doing for you, Doctor. Unless there's an adventure you might be wanting to explain to me?"
"Ah, no, no...just a talk with the ship's captain, figuring out the whos and whats and wheres, just as I said." He seemed conflicted for a moment before flashing a smile, an honest smile that was always rare for him except around her. "You did wonderfully, Donna. How about we take a vacation, someplace with a beach, perhaps?"
She smirked. "I'm envisioning myself springing into action with you having your tea and crumpets. Bit of uselessness might do you good. Needing to see that art of laziness in you for once in your life."
They found the room occupied when they entered, a woman scratching her head and turning to them. "Wha' th' 'ell's this box doin' in m'room, then?!"
The Doctor waved to her and unlocked the TARDIS doors, paying no mind to the questions, and Adonna followed suit. It faded out of existence with its usual disturbance and noise, which, inside, equated to the centerpiece of the console rhythmically pumping up and down, and some slight turbulence.
"Takeoff's a bit rusty, too."
"Oh, now, don't start."
Adonna leaned into him by the console. "How's the idea we go see what I'm up to, twenty years since you plucked me off the streets?"
"No, absolutely not," huffed the Doctor, already inputting new coordinates. "It might upset the timeline something awful, and we wouldn't want to do that, even out of sheer curiosity."