Title: The Strange Case of Apollo 13
Rating: T
Summary: A race against time as the Doctor works alongside NASA to save three Astronauts.
Author's Note: After seeing the season 6 two-part premier, it occurred to us that there was another Apollo mission we wanted the Doctor to be involved in, so we took matters into our own hands.
The Doctor ran around the TARDIS console like a man possessed. Then again, Amy reflected, he normally ran around the console like a man possessed; nothing unusual there. What was unusual, as he manipulated a lever, was the loud grinding noise that came from it. She cried out softly and covered her ears, noticing Rory doing the same next to her.
"Are you grinding the gears?" Rory asked the Doctor.
"I told you, this is a TARDIS! It doesn't have gears!" The Doctor exclaimed, full of dignity.
"Yeah, it does sound a bit like you're grinding the gears." Amy chimed in.
"It doesn't have gears!" The Doctor yelled over the noise again, miffed. He continued his running, pushing buttons and levers and failing to have an effect until he went back to the original lever, pulling it back and returning them to relative silence.
"Do you actually know how to drive a manual?" Amy asked him.
"Yes, actually! Henry Ford showed me on the prototype of the model-T." Before Amy or Rory could respond to that, the light in the Time Rotor in the center of the console flickered for a moment. The Doctor turned his head slightly, as it was in the corner of his eye, and all sign of joking left his face.
"That's not good." The Doctor declared softly. Just then, all lights inside the TARDIS went out for a moment. "That's definitely not good." He spoke in the darkness. It only lasted a few moments before the lights came back up. As soon as they did, the Doctor exploded into action.
"What just happened?" Rory asked after a moment. The Doctor continued his journeys around the TARDIS console, but now there was more urgency to it.
"Something is draining energy from the TARDIS. We need to get away from it now, or we'll be stuck here with no power."
"And that's bad." Amy stated, more to remind her boys that she was there than anything else.
"Very bad." The Doctor replied without looking up. The TARDIS shuddered, and tilted erratically, sending Amy and Rory stumbling into the nearest railing. The little blue police box zagged erratically, its engines whining and the light on top flashing as it flew quickly to a nearby safe place.
The inside of the TARDIS continued to throw its occupants about, all except the Doctor, who rode the swaying out effortlessly, his scampering nearly unaffected by his ship's movements. At last, the swaying halted, followed by a loud BANG.
"Where are we?" Amy asked, grateful that the roller-coaster ride had stopped. The Doctor pulled a final lever, then looked up at her and Rory.
"I have no idea." He responded, then skipped over to the door. "I'll go find out!"
The TARDIS had landed in a small, unobtrusive corner of a large room. This small corner was one factor that had allowed it to go unnoticed so far. The other fact being that everyone in the room was hard at work, only occasionally glancing up at a large screen that consumed an entire wall at the front of the room. The Doctor stepped out slowly, closing the door as quietly as he could. There were several rows, approximately three or four, with a single isle down the middle separating them each into two equal halves. The rows all had many stations, equally spaced, and each station had a person sitting at it, and a computer. Most of the men had headsets on. The screen at the front was separated between a few screens of what was obviously technical details, and an live video of three men in bulky white suits filming some sort of entertainment video. A few men lounged in the back of the room, observing the action.
Now, the Doctor was very smart. His came from the very first civilization in the known universe. His people invented time travel when human were barely cavemen. He had defeated armies by outsmarting them. And he was the only survivor of the Time War. Given all of this, it only took the Doctor a moment to deduce where he was.
The Doctor was in the middle of mission control for Apollo 13.
Gene Kranz was a very busy man.
Mind, he did love his job. It was something of an honor to be chosen. But the whole time any mission he was assigned to was going on, he was frantically busy. He was determined to do his job well. After all, lives did depend on it.
Gene looked up from his computer monitor and let his gaze sweep the room, checking on it. The big screen was showing what it was supposed to, and all of the men looked hard at work, but not the kind of frantically busy that came with something wrong. The little blue box was sitting quietly in the corner, and the man in a tweed suit and a bow tie was standing in front of it, trying not to be noticed.
Wait. What?
Gene's eyes snapped back up to the corner, with the blue box and the man in a bow tie.
"Who the hell are you? How did you get in here?" He yelled accusingly. As soon as he did, the attention of everyone in the room went there. There were a few cries of 'call security!'
"Wait just a minute!" The man cried in a clear British accent. He pulled a white handkerchief out of his front pocket and waved it in the air over his head. "Hold on, I come in peace!" He proclaimed, then paused for a moment introspectively. "Hang on, did I really just say that?"
"Identify yourself, now!" Gene snapped out, ignoring the man's ridiculous antics. The man slowly lowered the kerchief and put it back in his pocket, moving about as though he had guns trained on him.
"Reaching for my identification, no need to get alarmed." He pulled out a wallet-shaped object from his pocket and flipped it open. "I am a technical advisor from Her Majesty's government, sent to consult and observe, with the permission of your President. Code named 'the Doctor.'" One of the man stalked up to the Doctor, grabbed the ID out of his hand, and brought it up to Gene and the FBI agent now standing right behind him. The two examined it. Gene didn't see anything odd or off about it, and glanced at the agent behind him. The two exchanged a nod, and Gene put on a sour expression.
"Nice of the government to tell us." He said irritably. The Doctor gave a companionable shrug and lowered his arms.
"Well, you know how the higher-ups get. Them and their secrets. If I'd known, I would have given you a call."
"All right." Gene gave a dismissive gesture. He had nothing against the man, but he didn't really have time for him now. "Go ahead and observe. But try to stay out of the way; in case you haven't noticed, we're a little busy right now." The Doctor nodded.
"Right, then. I'm just going to fetch my assistants and stay out of your way." Gene nodded and proceeded to ignore him, as the man disappeared into the blue box.
"So?" Amy pestered the Doctor as soon as he re-entered. "Where are we? When are we?" The Doctor closed the door and leaned on it, looking overwhelmed.
"Right." He said after a moment. "I have good news and bad news. The good news is, we are somewhere fantastic; mission control for Apollo 13. The bad news is, the technical disaster for Apollo 13 is about to happen, and I think it's my fault."
Everyone in the room stopped when he said that.
"What?" Rory asked, nothing in his voice but shock. The Doctor took a deep breath and held it, before releasing it to respond.
"Right. If anyone asks, we're technical advisers representing the British government, sent to consult and observe. When it happens, look shocked and scared."
"Right, Doctor." Amy replied after a moment. "But what are we doing, exactly?" The Doctor looked at them both with a serious expression.
"We're going to fix it."