A/N: As far as I know, a paradoxical phenomenon is something I have created, but you never know…
Overall Disclaimer: The BBC and those Doctor Who writers (if you really want me to prattle off the names I will, just not today) guys own it, not me.
This is set in series four- no particular place, just before the last three episodes. Think of it as an unrecorded side-trip, maybe.
CHAPTER ONE- Phenomenon
"Doctor?" Donna's voice brought no reaction from the Doctor; no flash of recognition, nothing. He seemed utterly oblivious to her presence. His eyes remained fixed on the quietly-humming screen in front of him, his face painted a pale blue by the light emitted by the monitor.
"Doctor, stop it. It's not funny anymore, so snap out of it right now!" Her demand was lost as the fear made he voice waver, losing all of its strength, and she couldn't stop herself from yelling the next words; "Doctor, please!"
Abruptly, he looked up, the look of shock and disbelief that had just so recently been so clear on his face vanishing in a instant, to be replaced by his usual cheeky half-smile. It faded slightly as he took in Donna's terrified expression.
"Hey," he said quietly, his hands on her shoulders, trying to calm the tremors shaking her whole body. "It's okay, it's alright Donna…I'm sorry I scared you…" He murmured as Donna wrapped her arms around him and closed her eyes. Gradually, the shudders ceased and he let go, moving to the other side of the TARDIS console and flicking several switches.
"Doctor, what happened back then, before?" She said quietly, refusing to stop as she saw him wince every-so-slightly. "You zoned out completely, I was so scared"-
"Donna, it's nothing, alright?" He interrupted softly, cutting her off immediately. "Just leave it."
She was about to continue, when she caught the look on the Doctor's face- even though he was turned slightly away, she caught the flash of pain in his eyes as he said the words. She sighed. "Fine, just a man thing right? Some sort of weird Martian space-man thing… anyway, warn me before-hand when you next decide to turn into one of those zombies we saw last week when you took me to that planet- what was it Pythin? Zygan?"-
"That would be Sygonith."
"Whatever. And by the way, I got completely lost this morning, you know- if I didn't know better, I'd say you deliberately put me in the that room, which seems furthest away from the TARDIS console and the route is so hard to remember, I'm los two steps out the door."
The Doctor coughed uneasily. "No, how could you ever think such a thing?"
"Easily. But you do have to at least admit that the route isn't exactly easy to remember. It gets me confused just thinking about possibly trying to recall it."
"What's so hard about it?" The Doctor retorted indignantly. " You go through that door, down the corridor; turn left, over the bridge, past three doors on your right and then turn left again at the split, through the room marked BOILER; two rights, then under the staircase, another left turn and just past the room that makes the bizarre clangs and occasional hisses and… there you are. Your room."
"Doctor? You. Are. Bonkers."
"I know."
"So how comes you never get lost, eh?" Donna snapped, annoyed by his agreement.
"Given that I've lived in it for more than eight hundred years- and the fact that I'm oh-so clever"-
"You wish." Donna smirked, forgetting the moment that had terrified her only minutes ago completely from her mind. The Doctor mock-glared at her before continuing.
"Anyway, yeah, it gets pretty hard to get lost in the place you grew up in. Besides, all-in-all, it's not actually that big- it's tiny really- it's only got just over four hundred rooms in it- if you leave out the airing cupboards. And the boiler room. And- oh, never mind."
She and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "Whatever' and sat down on the faded yellow seats that were oozing streams of off-white fluff and propped her feet on the control panel, knowing it would annoy him. After several death-glares from the Doctor, she smiled sweetly - with much feigned over-dramatic eye-rollage- placed her feet on the floor, making sure a huff of indignation accompanied it.
Without warning, a tremor racked through the TARDIS, making its entire frame shake.
"Doctor!" Donna cried as she was flung roughly backwards, colliding with the lights that covered the interior. "What did you do?"
"It wasn't me, I didn't do anything!" He shouted, battling with the controls. "The chronic reactors are shut down- I can't control where we're going!"
"What are you talking about? Where are we going?" She cried, struggling to hold on as another shudder rippled through the machine. "Doctor"-
The rest of her sentence was interrupted, as with a bang, an almighty crash and a noise that sounded suspiciously like a strangled duck picking a fight with a cat with a cough, the TARDIS stopped, allowing the sprawled figures to pick themselves up from where they'd been thrown.
"Neck-head-arms-legs-nose; I'm fine," the Doctor groaned softly as he pulled himself up, silently calculating his injuries; some bruises the size of brazil and several cuts- nothing a little Lutonic solution couldn't heal in a jiffy. Jiffy? He thought, raising an internal eyebrow at himself. Hopefully he'd never have to use that word again. "Donna?"
"Dandy." Donna replied, flicking dust of her jacket. "Could've lived without it though- maybe next we'll leave the tossing around to pillows and stuff that don't have nerve-endings?"
"Hey, be nice, pillows have feelings too." The Doctor scolded, whilst examining the damage. Donna shook her head at his apparent lack of sanity.
"Just tell me why we just got chucked around like dice, please!"
"It seems we crossed into the remains of a paradoxical phenomenon-ooh, try saying that five times fast-"
"Doctor!"
-"Right sorry. Anyway, it's a vast collection of concentrated energies from different worlds mix together in a big floopy"-
"Floopy?"
-"Yes, floopy. Look it up, it's a technical term- into a big floopy mess of pulsing radiation that, well, actually can't be used for anything, seen as planets make their own energy. So it just sits there"- the Doctor stopped when he noticed the bored expressions on his fellow's face. "Fine," he said huffily. "If you don't care to know, I won't tell you."
"Oh, I care really," Donna said, though her half-suppressed grin made her lies obvious. "It's just; we can't all be great time-people like you who know absolutely everything…"
"You know, I shouldn't enjoy that because it was so fake," The Doctor said, whilst he studied the monitor. He smiled fleetingly at her innocent look. "But I still do."
"More to the point, Doctor," Donna said, a hint of impatience colouring her tone. "When are you going to tell us what happened?"
"Patience, earth-girl. And where was I? Oh, that's right; we've crossed paths with a paradoxical phenomenon- we're lucky, actually, because it's very, very old, and we only passed through the outskirts- four of five klicks to the left and we'd have been sucked into the centre and scattered into energised atoms by the heat- it's hotter than the sun in the heart of it."
"Nasty." Donna concluded.
"Just a tad," the Doctor agreed. "Anyway, fortunately, we didn't, which is quite good because if you died, Donna, you're mother would probably eat me."
"Oh, so funny."
"And you think I'm kidding."
Donna couldn't stop a smile from spreading over her face. "Doctor, stop it- she'll have both of us if you keep on talking- I don't care if we are skirting around a paradoxical whatsit, hundreds of miles away from Earth- she'd find a way."
The Doctor snorted and carried on. "Right, we are… here." He pointed at the tiny red dot of the screen, surrounded by eerie green-blue mist. "The scattered dust of the phenomenon is this green stuff, and right there, in the top-hand corner is- oh." He broke of, puzzled. "That shouldn't be there; it's a Trigometric space shuttle."
"And a Trigometric space shuttle is?..." Donna asked.
" A congregation of smaller planetarian-based research-pods, all from different planets and fused onto a larger metal structure to form, basically, a giant, inter-spaced laboratory, with scientists from- I'm guessing here- around thirty individual planets combining their knowledge together. Amazing." The Doctor frowned. "Judging from the shuttle design- the fact that it a Trigometric model- I'd say we're in the galaxy of Prominen- Prom fro short-; the year, though is more difficult…"
"That's all well and good, but what made the TARDIS bring us here?" Donna asked.
"There are indeed thousands of such ships dotted throughout this galaxy, but this one is way too far from home, which means it's out of range. Out of protection. It's in considerable danger, especially being this close to a phenomenon of this proportion."
"You know, what Doctor?" Donna sighed heavily, massaging her temples. "I struggle to understand half the stuff that comes out of your mouth."
"Wouldn't have it any other way." He answered, striding towards the door. "Want a look?" He asked her. She wass still standing by the consol. He leant against the wall next to the door and pushed it open slightly, exposing the tantalising image hidden behind it.
A/N: There you go, the first chapter. Nothing much as occurred, but hopefully something will… …oh, and I'm sorry, but I'm going on holiday for an estimated two weeks tomorrow, so you'll have to patient out there people!
Review- if you really want to. I won't stop you.