I'll be honest I wrote this whole thing just because I was upset over Lee Mack's death in Sunday's episode but, come on! I love the guy! I can't bear for him to have died in the way that he did. But hey, that's what fanfics are for.
Spoilers for episode 11x07 - Kerblam
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or anything associated with it, so don't ask!
It had been a long day for PC Yasmin Khan.
It had started innocently enough, then again many of our adventures start off that way, she thought with a bitter chuckle. Her return trip home had been overshadowed by the giant spiders that had taken over Sheffield. What was supposed to have been a brief stop on a junk planet had evolved into finding herself in a 'dispute' with an alien Munchlax, and the less thought about that time she and Graham had ended up being arrested because they had waved at a passerby, who had actually turned out being a known criminal (tax evasion of all things), the better.
But today…
Making her way to the centre of the TARDIS, passing by both Ryan and Graham, both of whom looked just as drained as she felt, she found the Doctor, crouched over and fiddling with some of the buttons covering the console. Taking a breath to steel herself she spoke.
"Doctor, can I make a request?"
She didn't have to wait long for a response, "Always."
"If Dan hadn't switched scanners, it would have been me in that test room." Yaz swallowed, imagining it had been her who had been melted into that vat. Shaking her head to remove the stray thought she continued, "He saved my life. I want to…"
Yaz trailed off. Her original request of simply returning Dan's necklace to his daughter just didn't seem enough. People had died, good people, all because of the acts of one selfish person. No, a terrorist.
She could still picture Kira's face, blissfully unaware of the danger she was in, before she had been consumed in a flash of flame, a product that had been created in exchange of sev- eight other people's lives.
It wasn't fair. She hadn't known Kira, but Dan…
Dan had helped her with no benefit to himself, he had made her laugh, and then he had taken on a job in a location that he had known the last person who had gone there had never been seen again, a job he was only taking himself to help his six year old daughter that he only got to see twice a year. Imagining him as her own Dad, someone who had sacrificed so much for her...
If only she could have gotten there… sooner…
"Doctor, the TARDIS…" Mentally steeling herself she continued, "It can travel through time, yeah?"
Blinking in apparent confusion the Doctor replied, "Well, yeah. It's right there in the name, why? Oh, do you have a certain year you want to go? If you want any recommendations I suggest 2075, they have the most amazing biscu-"
"Actually I was wondering if we could go somewhere a bit more recent. Maybe around four hours ago?"
A sudden flash of something crossed over the Doctor's face before she reached over and leaned in, looking directly into her eyes, "Yaz, I'm sorry but we can't alter the past when we've featured in it. If we change the fate of someone who we know died-"
"No that's the thing!" Yaz interrupted, "You see with Kira we saw her die, me and Ryan and C-. But Dan, I never saw his body, I only heard his scream and found his broken scanner next to this."
Passing over Dan's necklace she spoke again, "It's from his daughter and he works all year round just so that she can have the best possible life she can."
In the corner of her eye she saw Ryan start at this information. She also saw Graham rest a hand onto his shoulder for a small bit of comfort. It lasted a little longer than other gestures of this kind that had occured before, but after a slight nod in thanks it was shrugged off, their attention returned to the ongoing conversation.
Most of her concentration remained on the Doctor however, watching as she rubbed her thumb over the engraving before she raised it to her face and gave the item a sniff.
"Arcadium?" Waiting for a nod, which she soon received the Doctor carried on, "Nice, could outlive a fair amount of continental crust this could. Rockin' Red Hot Chilli Pepper's album too.
With a deep sigh the Doctor spoke again, "I don't know Yaz, there are so many things that could go wrong and I've seen some of them. I never want to see those things again." A pained whine escaped the Doctor's throat before it was swiftly cut off, "I can't."
"Just him. Not them all. Just him. Please."
A haunted look passed over the Doctor's face. They had be told, before, that the Doctor was actually millennia old but this was the first time anything like that was shown. Yaz didn't want to see it but she didn't dare look away.
The Doctor closed her eyes and dipped her head, she remained like that for a moment before she returned her gaze with Yaz's own.
"You never saw him die?"
"No."
"Or his body, you're certain?"
"No, he was just… gone. Missing. And Doctor as a Police Officer it's my job to find missing people."
With a glance at the other two members on board and a final, deep exhale the Doctor spoke.
"Tell me everything."
Dan Cooper walked, pushing his cart in front of himself on route to section 99955/7 in search of this antique lamp. A tiny part of him could help but question why Kerblam stocked such an item in the first place.
He shook the thought off however, he couldn't risk voicing such concerns. Not with all the TeamMates around, who knows maybe their latest software patch gave them mind reading powers.
Not my best work. He critiqued himself silently. But still Yaz seemed to like my jokes. And Tara said no-one would ever find them funny, hah!
As the lights continued getting sparser he idly fondled his necklace, the cool metal reassuring him even in a place like this.
You'd think such a massive organisation like Kerblam could be bothered to replace a few light bulbs though.
His thoughts were brought to an abrupt halt, along with his legs, when he nearly bumped into a TeamMate robot standing right in the middle of the isle he wanted.
"Blimey. You scared me there for a moment. You should be in Dispatch shouldn't you? Not down here."
No response came from the robot though, it just continued staring at him.
"What are you doing, practising your lurking?" he asked, waving his hand for emphasis. When no response came again he moved forward.
"Can you hear me? Something wrong with your speech circuits?"
Typical, they preach about the benefits of technology and still things like this happen.
Giving the robot a knock on the head, heh, hollow, he continued, "Hang on, I'll report it. Get you back to Dispatch..."
Before he had finished turning though he suddenly felt something clamp onto his shoulder. With a nervous chuckle he turned before speaking again, "What don't want me to leave? You'd be the first."
If in fact response to his quip the robot moved again, but the contact didn't break long before it found a new hold. His neck.
"Hey, come on stop it." He pleaded, "Is this about my banter? I promise I'll cut back."
He was pushed back against the shelves, his scanner dropping to the floor with a thud, his body elevated so that his feet dangled just above the floor. He could just about make out the sound of Yaz calling his name a few isles back, from closer by he heard some sort of whirring. Crackling too. But all of this had taken a back seat as he saw the intense purple light of the robot, staring at him, waiting for something.
Dan couldn't help it. He screamed.
Until he fell, back to the ground. He looked up to see the blonde woman from earlier pointing some kind of metal tube at the robot that had held him before it buckled in place, in a manner similar to how it reboots itself in case of emergency.
To his left he saw Yaz? How could she be here? holding what seemed to be a very rudimentary tazer of some kind, it's prongs inside a second robot's neck, that must have been behind him the whole time his mind ever so helpfully pointed out, that one to buffering in place too.
With a gasp he tried to speak, "Ya-" but he found his mouth covered by the girl in question.
"Not here." The blonde woman whispered, "Come on, quickly."
As he half stumbled, half dragged away he couldn't help but think to himself, is this a rescue or another kidnapping?
As Yaz and the Doctor helped Dan round the corner and into the TARDIS they gave a sigh of relief.
"That was close. I think I can hear myself there now." A brief pause passed, "Er, past me I mean." She finished sheepishly.
"It's alright, these things are confusing at first" The Doctor said with a chuckle, "You'll get used to it."
Dan meanwhile was taking in his new surroundings as best as he could, his eyes flicking between the central console, the doors they'd just entered through and the four people on board at a rapid pace. It wasn't long before he opened his mouth, questions pouring forth, "Is anyone going to let me know what's going on? Or how we ended up on this big glowing ship? Or why this ship was so much smaller on the outside-" At this one The Doctor let out a brief snort but offered nothing further, simply allowing Dan to get it all out of his system, "Or just how were you two able to help me? I could have sworn I-"
"Trust me mate, try to limit yourself to fewer questions." Graham spoke from the deck, "It'll help."
"But how-" Cutting himself off with a shake of his head Dan took a deep breath before he spoke again at a much slower speed, "R-right. So, erm..." Dan's eyes began darting around the room once more before finally settling on Yaz. "Yaz, what happened to your uniform? I realise that orange may not be your colour but..."
It was Yaz's turn to snort before she stepped forward to speak, pulling out her police badge as she did, "Dan Cooper, my name is PC Yasmin Khan, me and my friends were here in response to the missing workers at Kerblam. It turns out that another worker at Kerbalm had hijacked the robots in order to kidnap them."
"Police Constable? So you were undercover?" Dan swallowed and looked at his feet, "Oh, guess you really didn't need someone like me showing you the ropes then, huh?"
"Dan, no! I really enjoyed meeting you, and I really wanted to thank you for looking out for me today. Things could have gone quite differently without you." Seeing Dan wasn't convinced she continued "And I really did enjoy your jokes."
Dan raised his head once more, a small smile on his face, "Thanks, that means a lot." He paused for a moment before talking again, "What would have happened to me if you hadn't found me?"
Here The Doctor spoke, "We're almost certain you'd have been killed. There were several others we found. Dead."
"Dead? I really could have-" A haunted look overtook Dan's face for a moment, his hand rising towards his neck as he rubbed the area he had been grabbed. "I really must thank you then, I don't think I can-" He cut himself off with a gasp when he realised his neck was bare, and he began speaking frantically once more, "My necklace, have you seen it? I can't lose it. It must have come off when-"
"Don't worry." Yaz interjected, reaching into her pocket, "I have it here."
Passing it over Yaz saw Dan's expression collapse with relief, "Thank you. I mentioned it before but I got this from my girl, Millie. I don't think she even knows how much it means to me…"
"You should tell her that you know." She heard Ryan speak, his voice oddly tight.
"Heh, I wish I could. But with my salary…"
"Actually all Kerblam staff have received a two week paid leave, starting today." Graham said, and Yaz could hear the smile in his words.
"And we could give you a ride, if you want." Yaz said with a grin.
"You'd do that for me?" Dan asked, his eyes slightly misty.
"Of course!" The Doctor exclaimed, "Now where you headed?"
"Kandoka, the Northern District if you can."
"Shouldn't be any trouble." The Doctor reassured, ignoring Ryan's muttered 'probably' from behind her.
"You should probably hold on to something though, just in case. The Doc's really not the best driver." Graham said.
"Oi! There's no need for that! You don't see me making cracks at your bus driving do you?"
Tuning out The Doctor's protests Yaz watched as Dan removed his high-vis jacket and threw it over his shoulder with a laugh. He soon got comfortable on one of the chairs near the deck before he pulled on a seatbelt, one hand still clasped to his necklace, the other returning Yaz's thumbs up with one of his own.
"How long do you think the trip will take? I hope you can make it there faster than the economy shuttle." He asked with a chuckle.
"I think we'll manage." The Doctor said with a wink before with the press of some buttons, and a dispensed custard cream, they were off.
DONE! Heck did this take longer than I thought it would.
Anyway, to any new readers, y'ello, I'm Pokemon Trainer Tom. I'm really still quite the rookie writer so I hope this came out well.
Leave some feedback if you have the time, I really love hearing what people have to say, positive or constructive! Help me make my fics as good as they can be!
(I am aware of the connotations of the word 'Machiavellian'. I'll be honest I just wanted it because of the pun that can be made with Lee Mack's name. In this instance I'm taking it to mean 'cunning'.)
If you have any further time (and don't mind Danganronpa V3 spoilers) check out my other story 'Going Off Script'. No promises on when it'll be updated but I try not to leave it longer than a week.
'Til the next time!
(Hey if Dan Cooper becomes a tag someone let me know please! It would help with all the finding of this fic and stuff.) (DONE!)
(Edit 12/12/2018: I don't know how customary this is but I replaced the chapter with this new version. I think it just works better and adds a bit more detail in the final scene. Feedback is always appreciated!)