Four Things and a Lizard Chapter 2 Tempting Fate
In the TARDIS, there are other rooms than the main control room. Martha and the Doctor were in one of these rooms, sitting next to each other at a large desk on the Doctor's study and pouring over the folder Sally had given them.
"So what are we going to do?" asked Martha, after she had finished reading the transcript of the conversation the doctor had had- or will have had- over the television with Sally. "This will obviously happen at some point in our future, but can we control when it happens?"
The Doctor shook his head. "It will happen when it happens. We can't try to stop it- for all we know, the actions we take to avoid it will cause it to happen. All we can do is try to make it happen as soon as possible."
"So… what are we going to do?" Martha asked again.
"Martha, how do you fancy a trip to-" he held up the picture of the house Sally had first seen the writing in, "-Wester Drumlins?"
"And what are we going to do there?" Martha asked as the Doctor gathered up the pictures and papers and shoved them in his coat.
"We're going to tempt fate!" he said gleefully. The two of them left the study and walked though the winding corridors of the TARDIS back to the control room. The Doctor flicked switches and pulled levers, while Martha stood by, regarding the Doctor's antics with a mixture of amusement and amazement. The screechy wheezing sound started up again, followed by a final thump, and the TARDIS set down.
As the two stepped out, Martha asked, "Well, I know where we are. The question is, when are we?"
"I set us down about a year before the events that prompted Sally to give us the folder." He replied, starting walking up to the gates. He quickly sonicked the lock, and stepped though. Martha followed, nervously fingering her TARDIS key in her pocket.
The Doctor suddenly ran back to the TARDIS. "Wait!" he exclaimed, and turned something on. He spoke as clearly as he possibly could- this would be the final bit that would get the TARDIS back to them.
"This is security protocol seven-one-two." He made the number off of the top of his head- hopefully he didn't already have a protocol 712, but that was the first number that he had thought of. "This time capsule has detected the presence of an authorized control disk. Valid one journey." He paused to allow them to realize that the DVD that he would eventually make was a control disk. "Please insert the disk, and prepare for departure." He tapped controls into the TARDIS in order to have it automatically scan any DVD that entered the control room. If it detected a video of him and Martha on it- saying anything- it would send the TARDIS to the basement of Wester Drumlins, on January 1, 1970. He figured that he should give himself some time, just in case.
He then ran back out of the TARDIS, and rejoined a somewhat confused but bemused Martha at the gates.
They poked about the house for about an hour, the Doctor finally yelling down to Martha from the attic.
"Martha, come here, quick!"
Martha ran up the stairs, her heart pounding. The Doctor was standing very still, opposite a large stone statue of an angel covering its eyes.
"What is it?" she asked, regarding it nervously.
"It's called a Weeping Angel. Keep your eyes on it, and don't blink." When Martha nodded, he carefully stepped around it, and looked out the window. "Oh, no…" he said, as an oversized pickup truck drove away with the TARDIS in its back. "Martha?"
He spun around, but Martha was gone. Her TARDIS key was lying on the ground where she had been standing, and the Weeping Angel was standing over it, half bent down to pick it up.
"Oh no you don't!" the Doctor cried, leaping for the key. He hit the ground had about a foot in front of the Angel, his landing causing him to gasp for breath and… blink. There was the sound of scraping stone, and everything went black.