This story has been rewritten. Please see chapter one for details.
Chapter 2
At last, his TARDIS filled the tiny porthole window to his right. Spires and edifices protruded from a massive mountain of granite as if seamlessly hewn from the rock face, all gleaming white and imposing against the black of space. He always did have a flare for the dramatic. The steam-powered shuttle swung in a wide arc and entered the docking hangar through the main tower. It hissed while it rolled to a stop.
As he opened the hatch, cool air smelling of engine grease rushed in. He disembarked and waved his entourage by him to unload. Another minute in that sweltering bucket and he would have been in danger of regeneration.
The girl wandered down the ramp a moment later, massaging the red rings around her wrists. She unzipped the front of her leather jacket, then stopped and stared at the stars visible through the open hangar. "Where are we?" she asked.
"Just outside the Gerossic Rift, orbiting a rogue planet."
"So what, you park your ship here and let the steam shuttles do your dirty work back on Starfall?"
He angled toward her. "You ask a lot of questions, but not the ones I expected. Aren't you the tiniest bit impressed by my floating fortress?"
"Better ride than that tin can, I'll give you that." She wiped the sweat at her hairline.
"I think you'll find that my ship is much more than just your average passenger freighter. I daresay it's the most extraordinary thing you'll ever see."
She crossed her arms. "Dunno about that. I've seen some pretty amazing stuff."
"Allow me the chance to prove it to you then." He gestured to the side.
She puffed her cheeks up and blew out a breath. "Fine. Got nothing better to do while my dimension cannon recharges. Don't lose that thing by the way, and don't play with it."
How amusing—she still thought he was going to let her go. "If I were you, I'd spend less time worrying about my things and more time worrying about myself, human. Now follow me and mind the cargo." He led her through the parade of crates, statues, and furniture.
"Sheesh," the girl said as she watched the artifacts file past. "You've got a bonafide museum."
"I do have a taste for the finer things, yes. I collect everything from the rarest art, relics, and technologies, down to the people who create them."
"You collect people?" She looked at the workers with newfound interest.
"Of course. My servants are hand-picked from the most notable people in history: artists, musicians, chefs, all at my beck and call. Even a few of the savants of Earth."
"So much for all your human scorn." She bumped up against his arm. "Thought you said you disliked our kind?"
He straightened the knot of his necktie scarf. "I said I dislike them as a whole. I dislike everything as a whole. I only take the best."
The girl walked backwards just to smirk at him, her tongue swept to the side. "Well in that case, I'm flattered, mate."
"As you can see," he said with a stern tone, "my ship is unmatched." He gestured toward the open chamber as they entered the atrium.
The girl gawked at the spiral of floors above. "Do the levels ever end?" Her voice echoed off the marble floors and walls.
"Not even I know that."
"How can you not know? Don't you have floor numbers posted on the elevators or something?"
"My ship is sentient and dimensionally transcendent. Her capacity to expand is limitless." He watched her from the corner of his vision. "Impressed yet?"
She pursed her lips. "Anyone escaped before?"
Innocent curiosity? Or filing information away for some future breakout attempt? "No, and in case you get any ideas, don't try to hide. It's tiring to fetch my servants from the bowels of my ship, and I've been known to lose a few because I can't be bothered."
"You mean no one has ever tried to escape? Ever? The food can't be that great." She pressed a finger to her chin. "Wait, I know. It's the excellent Wi-fi, innit?"
"Actually, it's because of this." He stopped and pulled out a silver-colored bracelet from his pocket. "To the untrained eye, it could be mistaken for jewelry, but it's actually made of an impenetrable metal alloy of my own design." He held it out. "Go on. Put it on."
She wrinkled her nose as though he held Sontaran slime bait. "Um, you're mental if you think I'm gonna put some device concocted by a mad Time Lord on my wrist."
"Is that so?" He heard the quiet patter of footfall approaching behind them—perfect. He rolled the bracelet between his thumb and forefinger and dropped his voice into a lilting cadence, deceptively placating. "Tell me, human, do you know why I'm the last of the Time Lords?"
"No idea," came the clip reply.
"Because I'm clever. I read people and exploit their weaknesses." He slipped his free hand inside his jacket and grasped his laser. The sound of footsteps drew closer. "You don't hesitate to risk your own life, but what happens if I threaten that of another?"
Her shoulders stiffened. "Don't get any crazy ideas. Just hand the thing over, alright? I'll wear your ruddy bracelet."
He handed to her with a smirk. Just as he thought; her humanity was her weakness.
She plucked it from him and snapped it on, then held her arm up. "What's this stupid thing do anyway?"
"What do all shackles do? It keeps you from escaping, of course. Try anything foolish, and you'll get vaporized by ten million volts of unstable neutrino dark energy. Saves me the hassle and mess of dealing with you myself."
She pried her fingers under the gap at her wrist.
He cleared his throat. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
The girl dropped her arms and scowled, her lips drawn together so tight, lines creased around her mouth. As if she could do a thing about it.
"My Lord," someone said in a soft voice. He turned to find Ayaliah, one of his servants, dipped low. Her long braid hung down the front of a pale blue gown the same shade as her skin. "I trust your venture went well," she said to the floor. "Sikah requests your assistance at your earliest convenience."
Wonderful. Probably lingering interference messing with the shield override in the docking bay. If he didn't tend to it now he'd have shuttles queued outside all the way back to Starfall. "See to it the new addition gets cleaned up and settled in," he said to the woman.
He turned back to the girl. "This is Princess Ayaliah of the eleventh moon of Sideus. She can continue your tour from here. Do everything you are asked, don't touch the weapons on display, and steer clear of the Chula guards. They get testy now and again."
"You mean like Mr. Stink Breath, the lizard?"
"Careful. Chan Coi 'Thet is my most celebrated warrior. He's undefeated in the colosseum, and he doesn't take well to insults."
She flipped her hair behind her shoulder. "Does anyone?"
Was it arrogance or ignorance that made this human so brazen? He shot her a dark look, then walked back toward the hangar.
"What about my things?" the girl called. "I need them to get back home!"
He didn't answer. Sooner or later she would have to accept that she wasn't going anywhere.
An hour later, he thumbed through the features on her communicator in his control room. Basic, save for its ingenious interplanetary long distance hack. He flipped it shut and tossed it to the side, then dangled the dimension hopper under the light of the time rotor. How inelegant. Nothing but a great big yellow button soldered onto a chain. He sliced the device in half with his laser and the yellow plasma inside evaporated in a golden puff. Well, she wouldn't be going anywhere now.
"Time to see what you're made of," he said as he scanned the tiny dimensional stabilizer inside. He docked his screwdriver into the diagnostic panel, then waited until the console beeped. The device fell from his grasp and clattered onto the dash.
Unknown molecular structure? Disruptive Time Energy? Void particles? If the girl was telling the about that darkness, the cause likely sat in front of him.
The latch jiggled behind him. The doors to the console chamber swung open and his new human waltzed in, unannounced. He opened his mouth to scold her but froze, his glasses sliding halfway down his nose.
A gown of lavender silk draped along her front and clasped behind her neck. Tendrils of hair brushed the soft slope of her shoulders, the rest pulled into delicate curls at the top of her head. Her skin glowed, her eyes bright and … annoyed?
"Are you serious with the dress?" She pinched the hem of her skirt as though trying hold it as far from her as possible. "I feel like a walking curtain rod. And these ruddy shoes are not meant to be walked in."
He pushed his glassed back into place. "Lack of manners notwithstanding, your timing is impeccable. Now it's time you talked. Care to tell me what you were doing with this infernal mockery of all that is sane?" He held up the sliced device.
"What have you done?" The girl rushed forward with a tail of billowing fabric. She grabbed the disc and shoved it under his nose. "Put it back!"
"Don't test me you insolent girl." He wrenched it from her hand. "You've messed with technology far beyond you, punching holes in the fabric of time and space at your leisure. You think just because you managed to survive absorbing the time vortex you can do whatever you please without repercussions?"
"You don't understand—"
"You have no idea how much damage you could have done," he continued. "Did it never occur to you that this device could be causing the very peril you were describing?"
But he was no longer her focus. She reached down to the dash and cradled the other half of the device as though it were some wounded animal. "You've severed the power cells." She slanted her dark eyebrows at him. "Tell me you've got more Trinnium."
"What? You mean the plasma I found lurking inside?"
"No, I mean the rare element that's required to make the plasma. Without that exact type of plasma, cyclic recharging is impossible." She shook the device and the chain rattled in his face. "Tell me you have more."
He balked. "What?" There was no denying it; she was more intelligent than he'd presumed.
She moved closer—too close. "Can you replicate it? Synthesize more?"
He stepped back, and then again. Crazed human. "No. It's not a known element in my universe. I can't fabricate it with the TARDIS."
"But can you do it manually?"
He threw up his hands "That would take molecular replication on a subatomic level. It would take weeks to process enough for use."
"Weeks? As in a month?"
"At least three." Why was he even answering the girl? He ought to demand her silence.
She let out a string of curse words. "We don't have that kind of time. The darkness spreads faster than the speed of light. We're not that far ahead of it, a week at best."
"Assuming any of what you say is true."
"Of course it's true," she said with indignation in her tone. "You think I'm just out risking my life every day traveling between realities for kicks and giggles? I've got to go, straight away."
"Well forget it. I'm not giving the likes of you the technology to go gallivanting off from universe to universe. It's tantamount to letting a child play with a particle gun. And this," he said as he held up the other half of the device, "this is a shameful hack to get you between realities. You can't just go ripping holes. You need finesse. You need to delicately protect the web of time. Puncture the holistic structure and the consequences would be catastrophic."
"Then help me do it the right way, your lordship." She tucked her arms into one another and angled her chin upward.
"It's—I mean …" Must he admit that he couldn't? That he had burned the council and their means of parallel travel with them? "No." He pocketed his glasses. "I'm the last Time Lord standing and that makes me the authority on the matter, and you, mademoiselle, are a permanent addition to my fortress."
"What? I'm not a thing to be collected!"
Again with the eyebrows and the slanting. "Nonsense. Of course you are. Why else do you think I left you alive?"
"Why you self-centered, egotistical—"
"My Lord." Sikah's voice rang through the communication panel. "We have cataloged the inventory and await your final inspection."
Ah, blessed release. "Come," he said as he walked. "I'll not leave you in here to fiddle."
Her shoes clunked behind him. "Then let me go. I'm not a historical figure. You've got no reason to keep me."
"I told you, I gather the most exotic art, technology, and people. You are an anomaly. Not even from this universe. No one else in all of history has ever been a goddess before. But you"—He whirled to face her—"you burn like the sun. The rarest of all humans."
He caught one of her curls and traced the curve of it, then brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. Her mouth parted, her breath skimming across his skin, warm and moist. Did he really find her plain before?
She pushed his hand away. "If you think you're gonna use me like some servant you got another thing coming. I don't care what you're the last of."
"You'd do well to rethink that, madam. If you refuse to serve in any capacity that I request of you, then you are of no value to me." He leaned in. "And I don't keep worthless things on my ship."
With that, he left her slack-jawed and silent.