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Post by Sarah Jane on Nov 15, 2011 2:11:42 GMT -5
Somehow, from somewhere inside him, the Doctor found a genuine smile for her.
"And it's nice to see you again, too. Did I tell you that? Because, if I didn't, I should have."
"As a matter of fact, Doctor, you hadn't." He began looking intently around the room as she mused. " It's all right, Doctor. If you had to keep track of the bazillion human customs there are in addition to everything else, you'd have to grow a second head. Considering how you get along with your younger self, I don't recommend it. I dare say you'd bite your own nose. Does that ever happen Doctor? A being with two heads and just one body? I don't see that it would be very efficient. I can't see how such a thing would evolve to have two control centers for just one body."
That is when he had his revelation. The always seemed to give him fits when they came. This time, he had to slap himself quite firmly in the head a few times to get his gears going. She almost went to stop him, but she had learned to keep clear when whatever thoughts that had been brewing in the back of his Time Lord mind came to a boil. The Doctor could be a volatile as a Moonshiner's still that was running too hot. He was likely to shake her and tell her how brilliant she was for having said something perfectly plebeian, if she let herself get in reach of him when he was like this.
"Old! I'm getting old, and there's too much stuff in my head! I need a new head!"
And with that, he was off, his thoughts spilling out in words. She followed him in to the next room and tried not to ask any questions. Soon the Doctor was elbow deep in wires and circuitry. Grumble as he would, he got the thing going, just like she knew he would. She cheered quietly and clapped him carefully on the shoulder.
"Brilliant!Let's see... main reactors? Rubbish. Ah, this looks promising. Auxiliary battle bridge. Yes, perfect! Don't you agree?" He asked, and then was off again before she could even draw breath to answer. "Of course you do! Because I know you, and you're thinking the same thing I am right now: that you could really go for a nice cup of tea
--and a couple of iced biscuits."
"and a couple of iced biscuits?" She finished with him, challenge in her smile, for she did not expect that iced biscuits were the next thing on the agenda.
"But, failing that, you're thinking that we could really use access to the full suite of controls required to operate the ship. Am I right? Of course I am, because you're brilliant! And because you learned from the best, right?'
Sarah Jane groaned dramatically as she helped haul the lengthy, weighty Doctor back to his feet. She answered as if by wrote, not wanting to encourage the Doctor's ego. However, she couldn't keep the imp spark out of her eyes, nor the hint of a smile off her expressive mouth.
"Yes Doctor, you're better than a copy of 'How to Make Friends and Influence People' by that Carnegie bloke." She said, indulgently, though it was much the truth. He had taught her everything. Everything. Then he was ducking out the door, and she found herself reluctant to follow. Regardless of her horror of her 'sleeping sister' in the next room, at least hear they'd found a little quiet. Now they'd have to jump back into the fray. She whispered in the doorway."They better be brave." she whispered to herself with a wry smile.
"I can hear you, you know," he called back. She ran light and aware as a doe to come up beside him. "And they always are, Sarah Jane. All of you. You always are."
"When I get home, I'm going to spend the rest of my days knitting doilies for old lady's dressers in Croydon." She told him, firmly, quietly.
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2011 13 Bannerman Road
Sarah Jane was not sleeping well. Nightmares. No, not nightmares. Something more like memory, though paradox was jamming it all into her head sideways and strangely, for the Doctor had surely twisted time in a knot to save her 'children' from the Bane.
"Give me your soiled clothing. Give me your soiled clothing." She mumbled along with her monster sister. It was what happened next that sat her bolt upright in the bed, moonlight bathed and gasping.
"Doilies. Good heavens."
She got up, wrapped a cream silk robe around herself, and went to make tea. She dare say it was going to be a long strange night.
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Post by The First Doctor on Nov 16, 2011 14:04:48 GMT -5
"As a matter of fact, Doctor, you hadn't." He began looking intently around the room as she mused. " It's all right, Doctor. If you had to keep track of the bazillion human customs there are in addition to everything else, you'd have to grow a second head. Considering how you get along with your younger self, I don't recommend it. I dare say you'd bite your own nose. Does that ever happen Doctor? A being with two heads and just one body? I don't see that it would be very efficient. I can't see how such a thing would evolve to have two control centers for just one body.
His brain was working independently of his mouth now, ticking and perking and thinking as he answered. "Oh, it's not that hard," he answered. "I mean, well, I'd probably strangle myself. But the Bicephaltaurs of Gallatantros VI seem to get along just fine. I was talking to Meenox-Mandrax about it a few decades back, and they didn't understand how I could manage even just four limbs with only one head and one brain."
And then realization dawned, and he began smacking himself in the forehead and complaining that he was old. Soon he was in the next room, up to his elbows in computer circuits and ranting about brilliance and tea and iced biscits and generally having himself a good time.
"Yes Doctor, you're better than a copy of 'How to Make Friends and Influence People' by that Carnegie bloke." Sarah said indulgently as she helped him to his feet.
"Course I am," he grinned, "I taught him everything he knows."
They hustled out the door, quickly and stealthly .
"When I get home, I'm going to spend the rest of my days knitting doilies for old lady's dressers in Croydon." She told him, firmly, quietly.
"What, and give up all this?"
They made it to the auxiliary battle bridge without trouble, although they had been forced to hide three times as crew approached them. The third time had been the worst, as they found themselves perched in a stall in a multispecies men's lavatory, waiting while something large took its time.
"I feel like I need a bath," the Doctor had muttered when they were finally able to leave.
But now they were in the auxiliary battle bridge, an austere collection of terminals in military grey and chairs in military uncomfortable. The Doctor was cackling like a kid in a candy shop.
"Let's see... that would be the environmental control station. That would be the fire control station, and next to it is the navigational controls. Engineering... sensors... ah! Communications!"
He grinned at Sarah. "I'm going to make a call. Why don't you... oh, I dunno," he tossed her his screwdriver, "Pick a terminal and cause some trouble?"
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Post by Sarah Jane on Nov 19, 2011 17:32:28 GMT -5
"What, and give up all this?" The Doctor teased back. For one blinding instant, she did want it all back. A second chance to have all of time and space at her feet. She could walk anywhere with the Doctor. And he was so terribly brilliant and dear. Reality took it all away in the form of a letter, one she'd found pinned up in the Wardrobe. It had her name on it in her own hand writing, though she had no recollection of writing it. Clearly, it was from this future self of hers from 30 years hence when all this trouble will have happened.
No. No I don't want to give it up. The words were on the tip of her tongue. "Did she - - - - did I tell you what was in the letter?" She asked knowing he would know what letter she meant. She continued, not bothering to let him answer, she simply quoted. "The 21st Century is when everything changes.
Earth isn't ready."
Wry tugged at the corner of her mouth. "Earth needs me." _______________________________________________________ They made it to the auxiliary battle bridge without trouble, although they had been forced to hide three times as crew approached them. The third time had been the worst, as they found themselves perched in a stall in a multispecies men's lavatory, waiting while something large took its time.
"I feel like I need a bath," the Doctor had muttered when they were finally able to leave.
"I feel like I've already had a shower." She groaned. She had tucked herself neatly behind the Doctor, and regardless of the sound effects, they had only been sullied in mind by their unfortunate lavatory experience. She felt filthy anyway and longed for a nice washroom with plenty of hot water, soap, and fluffy towels. It had been her least favorite of the nooks they'd ducked in on their way cross ship. They did find the Axillary Bridge undetected, but she was unsurprised. She and the Doctor had much experience in such tasks. "-Pick a terminal and cause some trouble?" He invited, passing the sonic to her. She couldn't wait to hear just what sort of call the doctor "My pleasure." She agreed, sashaying over to the fire control station after a moment's thought. She'd payed close attention as the Doctor identified the different control stations. Now she was ready to exact a bit of revenge that was both a necessity and a sweet opportunity of revenge. She was also eager to hear just what sort of 'call' the Doctor intended to make. She was certain it did not bode well for these intergalactic traders. Sarah Jane listened while she worked. In moments, she had the cover off. Now she was running the Sonic up and down the range on a positive feedback loop to exaggerate any movement of the readings she could effect. She was unable to start fires, but she could change the tolerance of the readings coming in. Flame containment aids, be they manufactured chemicals or plain old H2O depending on the room they were associated with, were being released from above in one compartment after another as Sarah Jane moved the Sonic from the exposed wires running from the banks of gauges. She tweaked each one, running it into the red.
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Post by The First Doctor on Nov 20, 2011 22:19:55 GMT -5
"My pleasure." She agreed.
The Doctor whistled while he worked, a tuneless counterpoint to the dental-drill hum of the sonic screwdriver as Sarah went wild. The communications panel wasn't as cooperative with just a Swiss Army Knife and a pocket multitool, but he got it open just the same.
Cutting the security systems out was simplicity itself. Disabling the ability of the primary bridge to cancel outbound transmissions was more difficult. But not impossible.
Finally, he keyed in a specific frequency and set of transmission coordinates. "Ah... testing? Testing? Hello, yes. This is the Doctor. I am invoking Article 2 of the Shadow Proclamation - tracing this signal back will bring you to a warship being used as a courier for a schedule I narcotic. Thionite."
He paused, listening. "Why, yes. Some Judoon would be lovely. Thank you."
He dusted off his hands. "That's that, then. Oh!" He produced a pad of paper and a pen from his jacket pocket. "Here," he said, scribbling furiously, then tearing off the paper and handing it to Sarah, "This should come in handy, particularly in the next half hour or so."
The paper, once you deciphered the spidery scrawl, read: "The bearer of this paper, one Sarah Jane Smith, is my duly appointed and authorized agent in all matters pertaining to the interactions between the Earth and the Shadow Proclamation. (Signed) The Doctor."
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Post by Sarah Jane on Nov 29, 2011 1:08:00 GMT -5
Sarah Jane wondered if she would have been able to read it if not for the TARDIS' translation abilities. Whatever language it was originally written in, the Doctor's handwriting was lousy. She wondered if the TARDIS had had to clean it up enough to make it understandable in her brain.
"Please do call me Agent Smith, then, Doctor." She quipped, then looked at him more seriously as she tucked it into her pocket. "And where will you be a half an hour from now, Doctor?"
There was a complex look on her face. She did, sometimes, let him go off without her, and they were in one hell of a bind now. There was a steadiness to her gaze that proclaimed her ready for the next challenge, but also she was still measuring him. Judging him. They had beaten him so badly. Whether he got to go off on his own without her sneaking off to follow.
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Post by The First Doctor on Nov 30, 2011 10:11:23 GMT -5
"Please do call me Agent Smith, then, Doctor." She quipped.
"Certainly, Agent Smith," the Doctor grinned. "I'm afraid I don't have a neuralyzer to give you, though."
She looked at him more seriously as she tucked it into her pocket. "And where will you be a half an hour from now, Doctor?"
"Eh, what?" He looked puzzled for a moment, then grinned again in realization. "Oh, ideally we'll both be over in the Bane genetics lab half an hour from now, raising a little hell there." He shrugged. "But you've travelled with me - it hasn't even been that long for you - so you should remember how this works. One of us gets captured, or kidnapped by mutants or lunatics, or we get seperated by miscommunications, or someone ties me up and tries to feed me into an industrial mulcher, and suddenly we're wandering around seperatly whle the monster du jour tries to eat us."
He took a breath. "So, since this ship will be neck-deep in Judoon in half an hour, and given the way things typically seem to work out, I wanted you to have something on hand to prove you're with me and that you're not a wanted criminal."
Straightening his jacket, the Doctor headed for the door. Then he stopped and looked back with a mock-serious face. "You're not, right?"
A laugh. "Anyway, let's get out of here." He opened the control room door. On the other side stood a dozen humanoids in armor, holding cudgels that crackled with energy. The Doctor slammed the door in their faces.
"New plan," he said, leaning against the door. "Let's find a different way out."
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Post by Sarah Jane on Dec 1, 2011 21:24:40 GMT -5
Her jaw dropped upon the reveal of their sudden dilemma; the highly polished henchmen overfilling doorway and the hallway beyond. A squeak escaped her.Then she was bursting into action, first tossing the Sonic Screwdriver to the Doctor.
The only door was occupied, but there was another option. Straight overhead. She'd seen it on the engineering display and map for the fire containment system. The control rooms all had chemical extinguishers, and grand tubing to carry the voluminous cloudy gas.
She turned and scooped something up from the table beside her. Though it could have been anything from a paperweight to someone's forgotten lunch item, it also made an excellent tool to break the thin cover of the hutch containing the gas masks. She bashed it, and yanked out two of them.
"We can use the chemical extinguisher tubes if we have these! Doctor! There is a grate up there inside it!"
It wasn't much of a grate, but it was definitely in the way. She pointed at it's entrance, round and white and sturdy looking. The tables had high upright backs, and one of them was not to far from the grand opening of the tube. Sarah Jane was fairly certain even she could climb up.
She shot a worried look at the Doctor who had problems of his own, even as she yanked on her mask. It was 'Space Stuff' small and unfamiliar, but in the end every gas mask was essentially the same, and Sarah Jane had worn a few over the last few years.
She clambered up the table, speed in mind.
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Post by The First Doctor on Dec 7, 2011 10:16:44 GMT -5
The Doctor leaned against the door, grateful that there was a lot of valuable (and expensive) control equipment directly opposite it. It kept the soldiers from simply shooting through the door. Still, it was not an ideal position to be in.
Sarah smashed open a case, and tossed him an object rather like a flabby, uninflated football. "We can use the chemical extinguisher tubes if we have these! Doctor! There is a grate up there inside it!"
"Brilliant!" he exclaimed, pulling the gas mask over his head. It was snug, and smelled of old alien sweat and halitosis, but it would work. He blinked at Sarah through the lenses, eyes appearing huge.
She clambered up the table, speed in mind.
The Doctor, meanwhile, was throwing the deadbolts on the door. They wouldn't hold long, not if the soldiers outside brought in a plasma cutter or started using power guns, but it was something. "Need any help, Sarah?" he asked, voice muffled by the mask.
Just then, a voice came over the intercom. "The two of you are surrounded, imposter. You will surrender, now."
He waited a minute, then hit the send button. "And who, exactly, are you to give me orders?" He stared into the little camera, face wierd in the alien gas mask. "Are you my mummy?"
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Post by Sarah Jane on Dec 11, 2011 2:41:01 GMT -5
She'd climbed up in a flash and now stood on the, narrow, high back of the computer desk. Up inside the bell of the extinguisher tube, she found a grate that had latches on the outside, lucky enough. Surely they'd be locked in wherever they were going, but they'd deal with that when they got there.
A second later, she had it open, and was ducking as the heavy great swung down, luckily (or unluckily depending on how you looked at it), and it smacked into her instead of the metal wall, so it didn't make much sound. Sarah Jane swore however, even as she stood back up, reached up on tippy toes, and got her palms up over the inner lid.
Now, one day, the Doctor would have a companion that had a bronze medal in gymnastics. a girl who could swing around on ropes and leap about like a regular little Tarzan. Sarah Jane, was not that companion. This was clear as she struggled, unable to do the single pull up required of her.
" . . . .are you my mummy?" The Doctor was asking the condemning voice that came over the com. Sarah Jane swore again, a vexed growl coming from her, muffled by mask and tube. "Oh! Doctor! Stop messing around and get up here. Help me!" She is aware that her legs are swinging around a bit comically as she tries to pull up into the tube, and only half succeeds.
Sarah Jane is clearly vexed, though whether it is over the Doctor's lyric jokes, or her own lack of inches, she is uncertain. She's just vexed.
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Post by The First Doctor on Dec 12, 2011 16:00:20 GMT -5
"I am..."
Whoever it was on the other side of the intercom, he never had a chance to finish his words. The sonic screwdriver whined and hummed, and the mechanism sparked and flashed and belched smoke.
"Boring conversation, anyway." He turned back towards the center of the room. "Sarah, we're going to have company."
And there she was, half in and half out of a grate, legs swinging wildly. "Oh! Doctor! Stop messing around and get up here. Help me!" Even muffled by the mask and the shaft, he could hear the aggrivation in her voice.
Biting his lip to keep from laughing at the sight - because, really, it looked like something out of a Charlie Chaplin short - he bounded across the room and onto the desk, and caught her feet in his hands. "Steady on, Sarah," he said, glad the mask was muffling the note of humor in his voice. "I've got you. Now, in your own time, pull."
A hissing sound from the doorway caught his attention. A brilliant white spot had appeared on one edge of the door, and the metal was beginning to soften. "I'm going to suggest that your own time be right now, though."
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Post by Sarah Jane on Dec 15, 2011 0:54:35 GMT -5
The inside of the extinguisher conduit was as smooth as glass. Even when the Doctor came and gave her a boost, it was still challenging to heave her torso up over its inner rim. With a frustrated growl, she spread her fingers wide for as much skin-to-surface-purchase as she could manage. She even utilized the soft curve of the of the tube and by pressing outward with all her might for greater grip. Anything, anything to get moving, for the Doctor's voice went from supportive to urgent in the same breath. Then he pushed and she pulled. Curling in a half pike position, she finally made it up and over the lip of the join and hurried then forward on hips and and elbows with quite a bit of enthusiasm.
Elapsed time? Not quite four seconds. Perceived time? A frantic eternity. Her last idea had gotten her friend badly beaten. She did not want to be responsible for letting him get cut down, or captured and tortured. For certainly, that is what they would do to him if they caught him now.
"Come on Doctor!" She cried out.
The light from the room below did not go very far into the tube, though it was white and shiny slick. Just a meter or two in what little illumination there dissolved into gray, and then black ahead her. She could only just see hints of where the tunnel branched at right angles ahead of her, running fore and aft in the ship. Sarah Jane plunged into that darkness to make room for the Doctor behind her. He must come, she could not turn around and help him. Well, just maybe she could, but it was a horrifying prospect. Her own ragged breath was very loud inside her gas mask.
Could the Doctor climb up on his own, beaten as he was? What should she do? Which way should she go? Did he need help? Could he come help her face the dark? All these thoughts tumbled one atop the other in a hearth pounding instant. They came out of her in a single, laden plea that also contained quite clearly, 'I am here.'.
"Doctor!?"
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Post by The First Doctor on Dec 18, 2011 23:34:47 GMT -5
"Come on Doctor!" She cried out.
Her words were oddly muffled and distorted by the gas mask and the shaft she was in, but the frantic concern was still evident. Concern that sounded mingled with a little panic.
A stream of liquid metal was running down the door, and a line more than a foot long had already been cut in it. Whatever they were using, he'd significantly underestimated its effectiveness.
The Doctor hopped up, grabbed the lip of the shaft, and did a chin-up. With a little grunting and straining, he managed to pull himself shoulder-high, then groped into the shaft for a handhold.
Nothing. Smooth, yielding, slightly slippery. A fire containment shaft designed by H. R. Giger.
"Doctor!?" he heard her call again, frantic now. He would have responded, but he needed his concentration.
With a heave and a groan, he managed to push himself to waist level and flop face first onto the pliant curve of the tunnel. Immediately, he jammed his elbows into the walls and dragged himself forward. It was difficult, far more difficult than he would have liked, but he finally managed to get his knees into the shaft.
He crawled forward a meter or so, and struck something - another firm, slightly yielding surface. For a second, he thought he'd found a hatch. He squinted.
It was Sarah Jane's behind.
"If you hadn't noticed," he called, "I'm here. Now, shall we make our here somewhere else?"
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Post by Sarah Jane on Dec 21, 2011 2:03:04 GMT -5
One could not see so, but in the dark, her mouth is open, open not only because she is trying not to be afraid of the clinging gas mask and the acrid taste to even it's filtered air, but because she was trying so very hard to recall the map of conduits she'd studied not moments ago, not knowing then that to recall it now might be life and death. She desperately wanted to try to go the direction the Doctor had been headed when they'd first escaped the cell block.
She couldn't do it, and hadn't budged a centimeter. Too many turns, she was lost, if only in her head. That is when the Doctor jump-started her from the other end.
"Eep!" She exclaimed in quiet startelement, her backside shying like a nervous filly as she bumped the tunnel wall, instinctively trying to turn around. However, it was the Doctor, and not their pursuers.. Then the Doctor had sarcasm for her instead of instruction.
"Aach!" she grunted her annoyance at him, the noise shocked out of her in affront. Mostly because he was right, and had caught her stumped instead of moving.
"Well, I suppose you'd like to get up here and drive!!?" She snapped with hushed vehemence, for it was clear that even if they could do such a thing, it would take more time than they had. She bolted down the tubing to the left.
All in all, considering what was to come, it might have gone easier if Sarah Jane had gone to the right. She did not.
The smooth, slick stuff that enveloped them was strangely pliant under her. Her knees we're thankful, but she couldn't imagine could be so slick and strong, yet oddly giving to her weight. Still scrambling ahead, the wheels in her mind were turning creatively and enhanced by the dark. Enhanced by the muffling gas mask, it was too easy. If they made washing machines out of people, what did they make their fire containment system out of?
"Doctor!" She nearly shouted, so he could hear her. "What is this made out of ? It's so odd!"
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Post by The First Doctor on Dec 27, 2011 14:10:55 GMT -5
"Well, I suppose you'd like to get up here and drive!!?" Even through the muffling mask, she sounded annoyed. He couldn't blame her, not really. She'd been through a lot in the past few hours, and it was a more useful coping mechanism than having a breakdown.
He smiled in the darkness. Definitly a better coping mechanism. When, exactly, did humans start becoming a role model for him?
"No, I'll pass," he called back. "Or, to be precise, I won't pass. It's a little crowded in here."
He followed her through the tubing, taking the left passage along with her, racking his brain to try and recall the map he'd barely glimpsed. "I think we want to go straight about ten meters," he called again, "Then a sharp right, and that should take us to another maintenance access point."
They crawled in near-silence for a minute, their breathing rasping in the masks and curiously deadened by the yielding material of the shaft.
"Doctor!"
Rod and Eye! he thought, What's happening? He began to wish, somewhat frantically, that he had pushed through and gone first.
"What is this made out of ? It's so odd!"
"No idea!" he shouted back, although he had a few nasty suspicions about the answer. "Remind me when we get clear of this shaft, and I'll have a look. Assuming we have time."
Another minute or two passed in silence. "I hate to be a back seat driver," the Doctor shouted, "but we must have gone nearly ten meters by now. Can you tell if there's a sharp right coming up?"
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Post by Sarah Jane on Dec 29, 2011 0:51:31 GMT -5
Sarah Jane was not great at judging distance when she was laying flat out and crawling in the dark. However, the Doctor was, and she was afraid of that.
"Wait" She said, stopping and reaching awkwardly toward her own mid-section, feeling the dint in the wall she'd just passed and chosen to ignore. She felt it with her palm. The odd, giving material felt puckered somehow. With a small sound of distress, she put her fingertips right in the middle of the pucker and pressed. It irised open, and she nearly smacked herself in the face as her hand tried to jerk away from it in her small confines.
"Och! Doctor." She said with an exasperated sigh as if this is his fault, for as she reaches back to it, running her hand along it's rim, she feels it is a few centimeters smaller than the conduit they are already in.
"You don't mean this." She said, though it was clear from her tone that she knew that he did. it bent sharply as well. "Uhhhg." She commented. Then, harshly under her breath, she starts quoting the Doctor as she wiggled and squirmed her way through the rim and the bend, careful not to kick the Doctor in the face.
"Well? Don't just stand there gaping. In about thirty years you're going to ask me to help you with something important, something that we should have taken care of about thirty years ago, so let's go ahead and take care of it now so you don't have to worry about it later." This mumbled speech is interspersed with some odd noises and quite a bit of rough language that shall not be recorded here. Besides the additions, she does a fair impersonation of the Doctor when he is being charming.
She fits entirely, lithe small form slipping through, but the narrowed confines distress her, and it is difficult to not take off her mask. Surely there is enough air.
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