"Oh, do stop hovering, Thete," snapped Koschei, turning around suddenly and glaring at him, still standing in the open doorway.
"Did my pot upset you?" he asked, coming inside.
Koschei scowled. "I've found out why Borusa was so accommodating about the class project." He sighed, and sat down on the bed, waiting for Theta to join him.
"He's still letting us go to Karn?"
"Karn's moon," corrected Koschei. "Unless you want to be burnt by those witches. And, yes, unless his capricious nature has gotten the better of him again. I haven't spoken to him."
"Then what's wrong?" asked Theta.
Koschei nodded at the desk, and Theta noticed that the terminal was active. He watched the scrolling text for a moment. "Requisition orders?" He glanced back at Koschei. "We can't just, ah, borrow equipment from the labs?"
"Not any more. Someone's put a dimension-lock on stores. We have to go through regular channels." He gave a thin smile. "It's going to take more time to navigate the bureaucratic jungle than it is to set up the tunnel. That's what this project is about: not innovation, but forcing us to co-operate with their insane system."
Theta shook his head. "There must be another way. If we can't get parts from stores...surely we've already enough between us..."
"I've already spoken to Mortimus and Drax. It's not enough for something of this size."
"What about Ushas?"
Koschei raised an eyebrow. "Why don't you ask her what supplies she's got?"
"Um, right. Maybe not." Theta looked down at the smashed pottery, thinking about how to repair the damage. He said, "Koschei, we don't have to go to Karn. A smaller scale project might help."
Koschei slammed his hand against the wall. "No!" He took a deep breath, calming almost instantly. "No, Thete, I know how much you want to get off-world. We are doing this project. I'll find a way. Don't worry."
Ushas stalked through the corridors towards Theta's room, her arms tightly folded around her. She had intended to collect a small quantity of charged amino acids from stores, but it seemed that whoever had cut Koschei off from his mechanical components had also cut her off from her chemicals. It was their fault, of course. When carefully done, no-one would ever notice a few milligrams, or millilitres, missing here and there, but only an idiot wouldn't notice a dozen absent circuit boards.
Smiling grimly as she caught the sound of raised voices, she realised she didn't need to go all the way to the seventy-seventh floor after all. Only two students were self-involved enough to be talking that loudly at this time in the morning. She rounded the next corner and almost walked into Theta's back.
Suddenly, it went very, very quiet.
"Hello, Ushas," said Theta, with a smile. The guilt was almost palatable.
Her eyes narrowed. "What are you two up to?"
"Haven't you got an insect to dissect or something?" snapped Koschei.
She scowled. The only time she had been caught in class was in the midst of slicing up a Gallifreyan flutterwing; Borusa was never going to let her forget it and neither, it seemed, was Koschei. They just didn't appreciate entomology.
There was a low beep; Koschei and Theta exchanged a glance.
Ushas smiled slowly, a predatory smile. "I'm not going anywhere."
Koschei rolled his eyes. "Oh, all right," he sighed, and a small, silver object appeared in his hand. "We're tracking."
"Tracking what?"
They exchanged another glance and Ushas was half-tempted to snatch the scanner from Koschei and go and see what Drax could make of it. Mechanics had never been her strong point.
"Well," said Theta, trying his very best not to sound nervous, "we were planning to take some extra measures to get the rest of the electronic components we need for the tunnel."
Ushas made a sound of disgust. "For Rassilon's sake, the pair of you will have us all on curfew at this rate."
"Only if we get caught," said Koschei with a smirk.
"And what, exactly, is this week's brilliant plan?"
Theta attempted a smile. "We're going to borrow a TARDIS."
Ushas looked at him, and then at Koschei and realised that it really wasn't a joke. "You are going to get caught. We are never going to get into stores again and we are all going to be stuck in this forsaken madhouse of an academy for another decade."
"You coming or not?" asked Koschei irritably.
She glared at him a moment longer. "Fine. But I assume there's something more to this plan than wandering into the TARDIS bays and trying to break a dimension lock."
"Of course. We're tracking an injured TARDIS. She's being sent to the Repair Bays and they've a lot less security."
Ushas rolled her eyes. "There is a reason for that, Theta."
"We think we'll be able to fix the fault ourselves. The readings aren't too far off normal, it can't be that complicated." And if Ushas had known Koschei any less well than she did, the look of supreme confidence on his face might have convinced her.
"If we get caught..."
"Aha!" interrupted Theta. "You said if, not when. I think that's progress."
Ushas narrowed her eyes. "I'll be blaming the pair of you for tricking me into this."
"Us, Ushas?" said Koschei, eyes wide. "Have we ever tricked you?"
"Would we ever stoop so low?" added Theta innocently.
The TARDIS Repair Bays were quiet and Koschei had been right about one thing: the security was abysmal. The three Time Lord acolytes practically walked into the main bay and there was not a single one of the Castellan's Guards in sight.
Koschei led them across to the injured TARDIS, now in its default outer shell: a tall blank grey box. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure Ushas wasn't watching too closely; she folded her arms and pointedly turned away. A moment later, the door swung open.
Theta and Ushas hurried inside while Koschei took a last look around and then followed them in, shutting the door behind him.
Ushas leaned against the wall, watching as the pair of them swarmed around the console, quickly taking off panels and pulling out wiring. They spoke too quietly, too quickly - and probably in some sort of private code - for her to really understand what was going on.
Enough time passed for her to consider heading for the TARDIS store room and hoping it had some equipment useful to her. Depending on what she found, she could just leave, and let the pair of them get on with whatever scheme they'd come up with.
There was a shout of triumph from Theta. "Here we go!" he declared, flung a switch and the TARDIS dematerialised.
"And where, exactly, are we going?" asked Ushas.
"Earth." Koschei sounded less than enthusiastic, though Theta's delight was obvious.
"Terra? What for?" She slumped to the floor. "What a miserable little world to get curfew for."
"Oh, come on," said Theta. "Cheer up. It'll be brilliant; we can eat some real food for a change; have some nice fresh air; talk to the natives."
"Before stealing their property," said Koschei.
Theta's smile dimmed. "Well, yes, that. But it's in a good cause, isn't it?"
"That tunnel. That bloody tunnel." Ushas glared at him from across the room. "Honestly, you didn't even try to make it cross-discipline. Mechanics all the way."
"There was a vote," said Theta.
"Oh, yes, that was fair. With the pair of you suggesting the tunnel and knowing full well Drax would go along with you."
Koschei sighed, running an eye of the co-ordinates and their progress through the Vortex. "It's of more practical use that cutting up dead insects."
"It's matter translocation. That's what a TARDIS is for."
"And instantaneous transmission of matter is the first step in time travel technology."
"We already have time-travel technology," said Ushas, waving her hand at the console. "What d'you think this is?"
"Oh, don't be such a pedant," snapped Koschei. "None of us could build a TARDIS. None of us could repair any serious damage to one. Not now. Not yet. Think about it, Ushas. Think about how valuable that knowledge is..." He glanced at Theta.
"You don't want to stay on Gallifrey forever, do you?" he asked.
Ushas shrugged. "I can't think of anywhere else in the universe that has better equipped laboratories."
"Which they've cut you off from," said Koschei.
"And all we did was borrow a couple of things," added Theta.
"Think about what would happen if you didn't follow their curriculum. If you truly experimented beyond their prescribed boundaries." Koschei spoke quietly, convincingly.
Ushas glared straight back at him. "Oh, do stop looking at me like that. If a rational case isn't going to work, do you really think I'll be convinced by that?"
Koschei flashed her a grin and turned back to the console.
The time rotor slowed to a halt. He conducted a quick atmosphere check and then turned on the scanner. "That's odd."
The scanner screen glowed white; if it was to believed, then there was nothing outside.
"Could it have been another injury?" asked Theta. "One we didn't spot?"
"Damage, Thete. It's not sentient, it's just a machine." Koschei narrowed his eyes, scrutinising the scanner screen. "And possibly."
"What do the atmosphere readings say?" asked Ushas.
"Capital normal. We should be able to go outside."
"Then let's." Theta flicked the switch that activated the doors. Without a further word he marched out. Ushas and Koschei exchanged a glance, and followed him.
What they found outside was most certainly not a welcome sight.
"Good afternoon, students," said Cardinal Borusa, looking down at them with a steely gaze. "I trust that you have a very good explanation for why you were attempting to steal a TARDIS."