Time Boxes
"What was that thing?" Rose asked as the Doctor slammed the Tardis door shut. She had been cowering behind a conveniently placed console, but would never have admitted it if asked.
"Transcendent being," he said. "They're not supposed to be around now."
"Why not?"
"They're bound in the past."
"Did you bind them?"
"No, wasn't me. Never found out who did, but they did good work. That one's gone back to join his friends."
"He looked human," Rose said uncertainly. "I mean, he looked like a banker who's missed a promotion. And the other two, they were just an old guy and a clown." She shuddered. "A really creepy clown."
"Well, if they looked like themselves, there wouldn't be much to say." He frowned. "What was that thing he dropped?" Rose asked. "That one you picked up."
"Thought it was a bit peculiar," he fished in his pocket for it. "A box."
"Looks like one of those magnetic draughts sets people take on long road trips," Rose said. "What's inside it?"
"I don't know." He opened it up, and slammed it shut again.
"What was it?" Rose asked a bit nervously. He walked over to the console and started setting the controls.
"Nothing," he said. "Absolutely nothing - oof!" Both of them went flying into a wall as the Tardis lurched and stopped.
The Doctor sighed as Rose rolled off him. "Sorry," she said after a moment, realising she had landed on top of him hard enough to bruise.
"I'm alright," he bounced back up with his usual energy. "Where are we, then?"
There was silence. "Well?" Rose asked. "Where are we then?"
"Nowhere," he said. "Just like in the box. It's a Time Box. I should have remembered that the Tardises don't like those."
"So what is actually out there?" Rose asked, walking to the door. "I mean, vacuum, or..."
"Vacuum is something. Time still passes. There's nothing out there. Have a look. I remember hearing a story about a friend of mine who got stuck here once. Took him twenty years to figure out how to get home."
"Twenty years? It took him twenty years to get out of this place?"
"Yeah."
"How'd he do it?"
"I dunno. He never told me." The Doctor slumped against a console, arms crossed.
"Doctor," Rose asked, sticking her head out the door, "Who are they?"
"Who are who?" He joined her. Rose pointed. There was a window visible, just a window, like a square of light in the middle of blackness so complete it sucked at her eyeballs. There was wallpaper, tables, chairs - and a strange thin man in a smart grey suit.
"Oh, hello!" He said. "Who are you? How did you get here?"
"What is it, Silver?" A woman joined him, dressed in deep blue with blonde-dyed hair. She looked over at Rose and the Doctor.
"Who are they?" Rose asked him.
"I have absolutely no idea," he admitted.
"Can we go over there?"
"Nothing to stand on. Besides, how do we get in?"
"Augh…" Rose nearly fell out of the Tardis into the blackness as it lurched again, bringing itself around to a doorway. Another man, younger and with paler hair, was holding the door open. He seemed wary and surprised. The Tardis came to a stop with the doors braced just close enough to jump.
Rose looked past the man. "What's a convenience store doing in the middle of nowhen?" She asked the Doctor.
"Search me," he said.
"Who are you?" The man asked.
"I could ask you the same question," the Doctor replied. The other two came up behind him, looking puzzled.
"I say, what a peculiar contraption!" The one the woman had called Silver said. "It looks like one of the Gallifreyan models, oh, what were they called?"
"Tardises," the other man said sternly.
"You know my people?" The Doctor seemed very surprised.
"They were quite a nuisance when they were young," the woman said. "Then they formed rules about interfering in time, and they didn't need our help anymore." She seemed to decide something. "My name is Sapphire. This is Steel and Silver."
"I'm the Doctor. This is Rose Tyler."
"Hi," she said with a little wave. "Nice to meet you."
"You're English!" Silver said in surprised delight.
"You're human?" Steel asked.
"Yes," she said. "Aren't you? What happened to you? And why are you in a shop out here?"
"It's actually a café and petrol station," Sapphire said. "We were imprisoned here by three transcendent beings using a Time Box."
"Oh, you mean this?" The Doctor exhibited it. "We had a run-in with them. They're stuck back where they belong now."
"How long have you been here?" Rose asked.
"Time means nothing in this place," Sapphire said. Steel seemed to be trying to tell her something without speaking, but she just glanced awkwardly at him, then at Silver, for a few moments. "How come you haven't starved, then?" Rose said. "Or died of old age?"
"They're not human, Rose," The Doctor said. "I don't know what they are, but they're not human."
"We safeguard the passage of time," Sapphire said. Rose had to admire her speaking voice.
"Can you help us?" Steel reluctantly asked. Rose didn't like his rude undertones, but she had to admit he was good-looking in a blond sort of way. "We need to get back to our time and continue our work."
The Doctor gave a shrug. "Sure, hop aboard. Anything else I can do."
"When is your time?" Rose asked.
"Nineteen eighty-two AD," Silver said. "What's yours?"
"Two thousand and five," Rose said. She stepped back from the doorway and Steel leaped across like a slightly awkward gazelle. Sapphire took one long graceful stride and was given a gallant hand by the Doctor, and Silver made a sort of awkward hop, nearly ending up spending an eternity falling through the blackness. It made Rose feel dizzy when she looked down.
The doors slammed shut behind them. "I hope you didn't leave anything important behind," Rose said. "I don't think you'll be getting it back now." Sapphire and Steel looked at each other as if having a private argument, and Rose noticed Sapphire's eyes were not only turning a more intense shade of blue, but almost glowing.
"Thank you," Steel finally said.
"Oh," Silver had picked up the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. "Oh, I remember these things…" The Doctor took it off him gently before he could start fiddling with it and began trying to convince the Tardis to take them home. "Is there a problem?" Silver asked, inclining his head to see where the Doctor was fiddling with a panel at floor level.
"I don't know how to get us out of here," the Doctor said. Rose wondered why so many aliens seemed to have English accents. "I know I'll need to rearrange this stuff."
"May I?" Silver extended a hand politely.
"Absolutely not, the Tardis is a delicate piece of machinery!"
"Can he make it any worse than it is?" Rose asked.
"I say, I find that remark a little offensive," Silver said. Steel made a quiet sound of laughter, and received a disapproving look from Sapphire.
"So, are the two of you together?" She asked Sapphire.
"I'm sorry?" The reply was precise and polite.
"Oh. You're not… dating."
Silver made a tittering sound of laughter, and Steel glared. "Never mind me," Rose said. "I'll be quiet now."
"Look, you can't do that!" The Doctor said. "You can't do that, the circuits won't…" The three still on their feet lurched sideways again, an occurrence Rose was coming to associate with the Tardis, and the familiar hum of time travel began.
"I say," Silver said, "This really is marvellous. We should be there in no time at all."
"Time," the Doctor said with more than a little pride, "Has never been my problem." Rose shook her head. "Well," she said, "At least it didn't take twenty years this time."
"What didn't take twenty years?" Silver enquired.
"This could be a long trip," The Doctor said.
"No, I don't think so," Steel said in a tone that implied he would make it a short trip. A moment later the Tardis lurched to a halt, and Steel opened the door and strode out onto the concrete lot of a country petrol station and café.
"This is where it all started?" Sapphire said.
"Yes, and by the looks of things it's finished."
"There's another assignment waiting for us," she said.
"How do you know that?" "There's always another assignment waiting for us."
Silver chuckled. "Yes, well, perhaps we should be going. Thank you, Rose, Doctor. Much obliged." He strode out eagerly, reminding Rose a little of an eager small dog who was more intelligent than it seemed. Sapphire moved with purpose, grace and not a wasted flicker of effort. Steel moved like someone hunting for something. Rose had just enough time to notice all of this before the three of them seemed to ripple and disappear into thin air.
"What on Earth was that?" she asked, stepping out of the police call box.
"Some species don't need equipment to travel through time," The Doctor said. "They do it on their own."
"But why do they look human."
"It's a very popular look this summer."
"You think you're so impressive."
"I am so impressive!" He smiled at her. "So, past or future this time?"
Author's note: Own nothing, don't bother to sue, I have no money as well as no rights.