Disclaimer - Doctor Who belongs to the BBC, no copyright infringement is intended... Een McKenzie belongs to me, and the rights are mine! All mine! (actually, considering his circumstances, forget I just said that, and I hope you enjoy the story!)

Een McKenzie, I'm named – and you'll pronounce it any way you like, I won't mind. My parents were as poor as the slaves they were- no pence to make the change… so being that I was not to be a king the computer was allowed to keep its stubborn mindset and thus I am appelled.

I'll be writing this down with something the Doctor calls a pencil…a wee bit of wood sandwiching a wee bit of lead...it's a little rough going but I feel proud of my new skill. I've never used a writing tool before…oh I know all the letters but the formation is another thing entire. He said my flexputer wouldn't have a soul like a paper diary and if soul is dirty smudges and mistakes erased I guess I can see a little of his meaning. It's hard going but he said it'd be worth it.

The whole point of this little venture is to excise a few ghosts, as the Doctor said, put things in perspective. Ghosts I have and heavy ghosts they are, too, clinging to me like the corpse belonging to poor old Teig O'Kane. Never fear to need a spade, it's more you'll be staring into telescope- for that is what my tale resembles- a small view of greater things. Just be patient-a twist here and a turn there and everything t'will be clearer and focused and what may have been a tiny detail becomes magnified and larger than life…

It's Irish I am; no matter to be born under Mars' red desert, we carry the green island of Earth in our hearts forever Mam says. We've our own tongue and wag it we do, no mind to whether you listen or not. Shame you can't hear the soft rainy sounds of a long gone race in my curvaceous r's or the dance of my lilting elocution. It's music we make, the extraordinary language of our ancestors. Gaelic is the lovely mother of my thinking- English is for the dull cares of communicating with barbarians.

The Doctor said the TARDIS would translate my words so I can express myself in any manner I choose. So never one to pass up a challenge, here go I…

When I tell you that I was frightened, never doubt it, frightened is my natural state-that and curious but in this case anyone with half the brain would see this was the time for being afraid. When the dearest friend you know becomes a tad unhinged and the ship you're travelling in shows signs of disintegrating one might be inclined to run mad. Sure and you know my friend, the Doctor- friend to the Universe ...unless you're up to no good, then woe betide ye...

Well we'll start where things started, beneath the time consol where I crouched, half crazed with worry-

"Will she not land soon, Doctor? If she won't, where are we? Between times? Will I age…?"

"Not now, Een…"says Himself, dashing round the console- one could hardly blame him for being a bit sharpish- I do tend to ask a lot of questions. Between the roar and grind of the engines and the wheezing croak of the time rotor there wasn't room for conversation, so I watched the Time Lord wobble about the instrument console without interfering. After all this was our second time out and he had warned me this trip would be rough now that the TARDIS stabilizer had failed. We could land anywhere with the randomizer set in its place.

"Sailing, sailing over the bounding main…" sang the Doctor. "Why should our main be bounding Een? It should be hopping or skipping, that's how we go…like a stone thrown from a phantasmagorical hand to the centre of the unknown. The randomizer is the roulette wheel of mathematics, pick a number, any number-red or black and you'll be in the pink…" He peered under to smile at me with that great mouthful of teeth and I cringed. He was bloody drunk, he was. Him at the helm of a machine capable of landing anytime, anywhere…We could crash the multiverse or ride the vortex forever…

There came a sudden thud and we sprawled over the metal grid. The Doctor scrambled up to check co-ordinates.

"We've landed, mate. Right smack in the middle of…" He got all gape-y-like, suddenly pulling at levers I didn't even know were there. Looked in a bad way. "Impossible…"His voice wavered a little, the way it does when he's confused or dead wrong. "We shouldn't be here. We've got to leave right now…" In fact, he sounded scared now, something that never really happens as he never believes it's as bad as all that even when it's downright terrible.

"Where are we, Doctor?" I said, hoping it was overreaction on his part not mine. "Can we see?"

"No!" and his voice was terrifying in adamancy, "We leave now." He began to shift gears and turn knobs.

"All right," I said, "If you think we ought but," and reader, I knew better but still I had to ask-"Where is it we're not staying?"

"None of your business and none of mine. We can't be here, no matter why." His manner became as coldly superior. "We're in forbidden territory- my people mandated a death sentence for being here-"

"But," and I knew better than to pry but curiosity in me is a disease incurable… "Are not your people dead?"

He paused. In an instant I found myself bent backwards upon the console, handles and whatnot pressing into my spine as he leaned over me. His breath was cool and smelled of something fresh and green, perspiration beaded his forehead, his eyes were darting back and forth as he scanned me for truth. "Who told you they were dead?"

This was not the man I knew and in that statement I reveal my ignorance- I had forgotten to think. This man was not human despite his ordinary appearance; this man was an alien entire and the last of his kin. What right had I to remind him of it?

"I…I guessed. Was I wrong, Doctor?"

The madness diminished in his eyes but my heart was a-pounding something fierce. Never had this gentle man so much as scolded me and here he was fists in my shirt, in every way angry. He released me but there was no apology and this surprised me.

Now I tell you, this was extraordinary. I, an ex-slave was used to every hand raised to me and I looked to Himself for shame. He shrugged his thin shoulders and straightened his suit. He did not look at me as he spoke and the speech he gave was slurred and emotional.

"I can'be here. Ol' Rassilon forbid it. There's a lock on the co-co-coordinates. No Time Lords allowed…and never humans…" He shrugged his thin shoulders and began to crank up the motor and shift the glass knobs on the console. His movements were increasingly erratic and I had a premonition that it was connected in some way to the machine. However, coward that I am, I hesitated.

The time rotor began its usual rise and fall but the light emanating from the glass was a sickly yellowish orange. I moved to the outside wall as if being further away would help. The sound increased with its brightness and for a brief moment I thought maybe everything would right itself now. It did not. Instead the light and sound became too much to bear and I fell to my knees, hands over my ears, eyes squeezed shut. I crept to the console, fearful of finding the operator unconscious or dead but he was there, upright, standing by the chair. I slitted open my eyes and looked up- Reader, he was ecstatic, eyes aflame with golden light! He looked so like a god I cowered before him.

"Doctor, please…I can't bear it…"

"Nonsense, it's only a little time energy…if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen…too many cooks anyway, spoils the adventure..."

I was sure he was lost to madness now so I crawled round to the other side and reaching up I yanked the randomizer from the console.

Aineolach. If I were really going to do something at the worst time that was it. The rotor crashed down and the light died instantly. All I could see was the eerie light dying in the Doctor's eyes and then nothing. A sound of a body hitting the grid. I padded my way on hands and knees to find him just as the lights were coming back up. The Doctor tells me that everything happens for a reason we ourselves are not allowed to know but that was no comfort then. I found his pulses to be fine – both hearts beating at synchronous paces and then his eyes opened.

"Sorry, Doctor. Tis my fault we've crashed," I started, showing him the faulty part.

But he rose as if naught had happened and patted me on the head before reading the monitor.

"Best thing you could've done- oh no…" His mouth dropped open in dismay. "We came back…or we never left. Blimey! I thought maybe we'd gotten away." He took the randomizer from my hands. "Do you realise the odds of this? We hurl into the vortex and return to the same place? Impossible!"

Ah confused I was, all right and not merely by the problem at hand. The mercurial nature of my friend was absolutely baffling. I clambered to my feet and sat in the chair next to the console.

"Doctor what happened? Where are we? Should we try to leave?"

Now he began to pace. "I don't know, Een. And worse we can't stay here."

"Well where is here?"

He stopped. "I told you it's not for humans to know." His eyes held that dangerous light once more. He muttered to himself as he worked and I watched him with growing concern. It wasn't like my friend to avoid questions or intimate I was anything less than his equal.

"I'm in charge here...no reason to stay...I don't care if the rules have changed...their rules, my rules...a rule is a rule until you break it then it's ruint. I can go anywhere, anywhen I want and I know what you want but that isn't what I want." He stopped again, wavering and I realized I was watching him keenly, like a wary animal, preparing for flight. He wasn't talking to me, he was talking to the machine, answering it as if she were speaking to him. "I know, I know..." He said comfortingly.

His drunken path wobbled about the console, his dexterity decaying until he leaned on the machine, panting. I wanted to help but I was too afraid of contributing to his further devolution.

"Een," he said finally to me. "I'm going out." He stalked down the grid toward the doors and I leapt up after him.

"No, Doctor! You musn't!"

He turned on me and I halted just shy of taking his coat in my hands.

"Listen...don't think of following me. Stay here." His dark eyes held mine. "Stay inside, no matter what."

"Yes, but ..."

"No. I said, no, Een. Not for any reason. Period."

"Yes, Doctoraich." I said and hung my head to show my obedience but he'd gone out the doors already.

Alone, I panicked. The time rotor dark and dead flared into life once more, her sullen orange glow giving everything an odd melon colour. As the light bloomed brighter and brighter, my inclination to hide fought with my fraternal concern for the Doctor. Surely this was a bad sign. He'd told me of his symbiotic link to the TARDIS, what became of him affected her. Who'd not see his fragmented mind and her impulsive power surges as a indication things had gone awry?

Already I was blinded by the fiery luminance and what could I do? Fool with the controls I did understand and the ones I didn't to do what to a machine I hardly understood... Or...hide under my bed as I was wont to do far too often? Let the Doctor sort it all out, I counselled myself, he knows what to do.

But only if he's in his right mind and it looked as if there was no choice, I argued. Time energy had begun to leak from the console in golden ribbons of ominous light that hurt my eyes past bearing. I had to leave the ship and yet...

No, he said. And yet...

Stay, I thought...

Leave, I said. Five minutes has been and gone along with Himself. He said stay but sure he didn't want to be uninformed as to the condition of his ship. Now I'm well aware that this contradicted my previous analysis of his condition- but I wanted out. Where ever he was, was where I felt safe and safe was what I wanted more than anything- no matter that outside might be more dangerous- it wasn't alone as I was now.

Eyes streaming I made my way to the door. Leaning against them I attempted to take one last look at the console. I could see nothing but white light and to my horror the red colour of my lids disappeared to black as my overwrought retinal nerves failed me. I pulled the doors open and fell out upon the ground right at the Doctors feet.

Author's Note - This is my first fan fiction so be gentle...I wanted to explore what I consider neglected a subject in Doctor Who- how was the TARDIS instrumentation created? How do you create such a thing from nothing? This is all a combination of imagination, and what I could find in canon... This is my theory. I hope you enjoy it!

Reviews are encouraged- the more reviews, the faster I'll post the remaining chapters.

-Nanobelle