(Thanks to everyone who read so far!)
Amy and Rory walked down yet another well-lit TARDIS hallway, indistinguishable from all the others except for the occasional section and level number stenciled on metal plates inset into the wall. They still weren't sure how many levels there actually were, and the Doctor got rather cagy when they asked. It seemed that he had no idea either. Fortunately, the TARDIS was always happy to display a holo-map that would show them the way back to the control room. This time, however, Rory noticed that his bride was studying a small data pad instead. It looked very much like the one he had seen River Song use. For all he knew, the timelines around the Doctor and River were so skewed, it might be the same one.
"Um, where did you get that?" He noticed that the map Amy was studying most definitely did not lead back to the control room. In fact, it was a longer distance than either of them had traveled inside the vast machine. "Aren't we going to talk to the Doctor?"
Amy looked up at him and smiled, but a deep blush was spreading from her cheeks all the way up to her hairline. "Well…I thought we would do that after we took our walk. Besides, I'll have to return this to him anyway." She waggled the data pad.
"You mean you stole it?"
"Well, not really. Remember a few days ago, after we stopped that Judoon invasion on Hyra, how we were so exhausted and went right to bed? Well, I couldn't sleep so I went to the control room to mess with the scanner for a bit. The Doctor was there, completely passed out in one of the chairs by the console! He'd been fixing some gadget with his sonic and fallen asleep. Up till then I wasn't even sure Time Lords slept at all. Well, I was turning to go when I saw this pad had fallen out of his pocket. It was still on, and I picked it up and started looking through it. It's nosy, and rude, and I should return it right away, I know, but you'd never believe what's on it! I think it's a complete map of the TARDIS!"
She showed the pad to Rory, and sure enough, the endless maze of tunnels was projected there. Amy gestured, and the levels zoomed past with no end in sight.
'Okay, that is pretty brilliant, but you need to give it back. Why haven't you, anyway?"
Amy drew closer, as if the roundels on the walls were hundreds of listening ears. "Because the maps on this pad don't match the ones the TARDIS shows us. According to this, there are loads more passageways that the Doctor doesn't want us to know about. Like this one."
With a few more gestures, she called up the route she had been studying before. It ended at what appeared to be a simple cul-de-sac on Level -239. However, this particular passage, instead of being charted in cool royal blue like all the rest, was outlined in stark black.
"Don't you want to know what's hidden there?"
"Not particularly. Doesn't black generally mean, I dunno, death? What if it's filled with toxic mustard gas or something and we choke our lungs out as soon as we open the door?"
Amy gave him a look he recognized all too well. It was the "you're being at idiot, now shut up" look. "Come on, Rory, it's the TARDIS. It's the Doctor's home. He wouldn't have anything here that could hurt us."
"Yeah, it's not like we don't get enough of that already on every single planet we land on." He let Amy grab his hand again, however, and lead him toward the lift that would take them down into the depths of the TARDIS and the darkness that waited there.
Next Time: The Seal of Rassi-wotsit, the enemy's shadow, and the forgotten heart.