Author's Note: I am apparently constitutionally unable to keep from multitasking. Whoops.
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of the characters therein.
It hung in the air, looking remarkably like a coffin, or a capsule intended for one body. That would have been disturbing enough for anyone, even for Dr. Rajesh Singh, but that wasn't all. The thing was absent, and yet visible, and he often got the feeling, however ridiculous, that it was longing. Lonely, and longing for something or someone. It was ridiculous, of course, and he never mentioned it to anyone, not even Samuel. The capsule had a habit of making people go mental, and the last thing he wanted to do was getbanged up due to a flight of fancy. Or worse, retconned. So he held his silence and did his sudoku puzzles. It wasn't such a bad assignment, after all.
Then he came. He waltzed into the room with Yvonne and a blonde woman and stopped, looking up at it, almost as if he didn't believe he was seeing it. Rajesh knew the feeling. He walked up to the man, straightening his lab coat and holding out his hand. "You must be The Doctor. Rajesh Singh. It's an honour, sir."
Yeah," the Doctor replied, not paying any attention, simply staring at the thing in front of him. The thing that shouldn't exist.
Jackie felt a shiver go through her, reminded of the first time she saw the ghosts, before she had relaxed and found her dad. It was the same feeling she had gotten when she thought she was going to be killed by a blooming Christmas tree. "What is that thing?"
The curly haired woman, who looked at Jackie as though she didn't understand why The Doctor would travel with someone like her answered. "We got no idea."
The Doctor tuned them out, studying the thing in front of him from every angle he could, turning his head this way and that way, before pulling out his glasses and getting even closer. As he did though, something happened, it was subtle at first, and no one noticed it, too distracted by The Doctor.
"Well, Doctor?" Yvonne asked, looking at him as though he was meant to have all the answers.
Luckily for her, he had this one, and turned just as the capsule began to shake. "This is a void ship."
"Something's happening!" Rajesh said, as he saw the changes, and ran over to his monitor.
"What is it, Doctor? What's it doing?"
The Doctor had turned around again, looking at the shaking capsule, which wasn't shaking so much as shivering, as if it was cold. "Well, it's impossible for starters. I always thought it was just a theory, but it's a vessel designed to exist outside time and space, travelling through the Void."
"And what's the Void?" The scientist asked, looking up from his panel. "Samuel, monitor those readings!" He nodded to himself as his best assistant moved to do just that. At least someone wasn't distracted by The Doctor.
The Doctor looked at Rajesh and Yvonne from where he crouched on the stairs, serious and a little perplexed. "The space between dimensions. There's all sorts of realities around us, different dimensions, billions of parallel universes all stacked up against each other. The Void is the space in between, containing absolutely nothing. Imagine that. Nothing. No light, no dark, no up, no down, no life, no time. Without end. My people called it the Void. The Eternals call it the Howling. But some people call it Hell."
If it was possible, Rajesh was even more confused by the existence of the odd capsule. "But someone built the sphere. What for? Why go there?"
the Doctor could think of a dozen answers, none of them good. "To explore? To escape? You could sit inside that thing and eternity would pass you by. The Big Bang, end of the universe, start of the next, wouldn't even touch the sides. You'd exist outside the whole of creation."
Yvonne smiled, self-satisfied and pleased as she watched the way the ship seemed to shake and bob. "You see, we were right. There is something inside it."
"Oh yes." The Doctor said, looking at her. "And if you're smart, you'll send that thing right back into hell, because whatever is inside that thing is waking up." He looked between the scientist and the patriot. "How did it get here in the first place?"
Yvonne was glad to know something that the alien did not, and was all too pleased to answer. "Well, that's how it all started. The sphere came through into this world, and the ghosts followed in its wake."
The Doctor turned, steeling himself as the capsule gave a cracking, grinding noise. He turned to face it. "Well, whatever is inside it, it's awake." He was preparing for the worst, but the last thing he had been expecting happened. It finished opening, and out fell a young woman, barely conscious. Without really thinking about it, The Doctor moved to catch her.
Brown eyes looked up at him, glassy and confused. She lifted a hand and touched his nose, and her voice came out soft, unsure and a little desperate. "I don't know where I am, Thete. Where am I? Where am I?"
The Doctor stared down at her, absolutely flabberghasted. "What?" He said in disbelief, unsure what he was more shocked about, her confusion, her place in the void ship, or the name she had called him. "What?!"
"Torchwood Tower, London, Earth." Yvonne said, as friendly as possible, but the young woman gave no indication of hearing her, too busy staring at The Doctor. She wondered if this was a common thing. Perhaps he had some sort of draw on other species. She would have to look into that.