"It really is bigger on the inside!" Felicity exclaimed, running up the steps inside the TARDIS. She looked around in wonder. Mum had tried to explain what exactly the interior looked like, but Felicity's mental picture wasn't even close. She walked around the console, gently touching, but never pressing buttons or pulling levers. She spotted the stairs in the corner and made a note to investigate the rest of the craft at a later time.
"You don't know the half of it! There are 215 rooms in my TARDIS. Rooms that I know about, anyway," the Doctor said, half to himself, following her up the steps.
"Do I get a room?" She asked, hoping that her stay would be more permanent than she thought it would.
"If you like, pick any room you want. Ooh, except you probably wouldn't want to sleep in the library."
She raised an eyebrow at him. "Why not?"
"Swimming pool," he answered, leaning over the TARDIS console, busily pressing buttons and pulling levers. The machine cast a warm glow on his face.
"What? You just said library." She examined a button that looked strangely like a hat.
"Yes, the swimming pool is in the library. You're going to have to get better at listening, Pond."
"That's not my last name," she said, hopping up the stairs and sitting on the top one.
"Well it should be," he responded. "Hold on tight!" He pulled a switch and the TARDIS suddenly came alive, tossing them both like the innards of a pair of maracas. Felicity's delighted laughter filled the TARDIS. She stood and managed to make her way back down the steps while clutching the railing beside her for dear life. The Doctor shot her a smile, then pressed another button. "How does the future sound?"
"Sounds great!" she answered loudly, over the whirr of the TARDIS's engine. She was half expecting to end up with many more bruises than she actually got. She scuttled along the railing, then made a lunge for the console. Unfortunately, she flew too far forward and hit her head on a most threatening switch, which threw the TARDIS very off course and tossed her to the floor. "Oww!"
"You're already causing trouble!" The Doctor hurriedly flipped the switch back to its previous position, but it was too late. The TARDIS whirred loudly and Felicity almost rolled off the platform and down into the open area below. The Doctor pulled himself into a standing position and reached far across the switches and levers to the specific doodlebob that Felicity had hit and pulled. The TARDIS ground to a halt almost immediately and he let his grip falter. He almost fell to the floor, but caught himself and stood up, straightening his bow tie.
Felicity got up from the floor, rubbing her head where there was an unpleasant looking mark forming. "What happened?"
"You happened!" he answered, a bit perturbed. "You hit the doodlebob-"
"The doodlebob?"
"Yes, the- Why am I always repeating things around you?" He pulled the TARDIS' computer screen around to check the coordinates. "Oooh, this is extremely very not good at all."
"What?" Felicity felt her stomach turn to ice. "What's wrong? What did I do?"
"Well no one's died. Yet." He double checked the coordinates, then sauntered in the general direction of the TARDIS door. "You reversed the path that I took the last time, took us back to the last place I was before I followed the Graske to Earth. I was hoping to avoid them. I wonder if they left when I asked them to."
She thought back to the conversation with the Graske. "You said they were... Sun-something."
"Sontarans, war-like race, look a bit like a baked potato, or so I've heard. They've been in a war with the Rutan Host for fifty thousand years."
"A war for that long? Why?"
"To win," he replied, pulling a lever to properly park the machine where she was. "You stay here, I'll go see if they've landed or run away. Sontarans claim to be an honorable race, but they have no problems using anything to their advantage."
She nodded. "I suppose you don't know how long you'll be gone."
"No idea," he responded, bounding toward the TARDIS door. "However..." He paused, looking around. He ran over to the chest in the corner and began digging through it, pulling out what looked like an old walkie-talkie. It was fairly bulky, as far as walkie talkies went. He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and Felicity watched as he aimed it, the whirr almost inaudible from where she was standing. "There! Attuned to the TARDIS frequency. I'll be taking this with me and I can talk to you whenever I want, just grab the microphone over there to talk back." He gestured in the general direction of the TARDIS's console and Felicity had to examine it for a moment before she found what looked like the microphone to a CB radio. Those radios were so old, she'd never seen one used before. Only old, junky ones that hadn't seen any use in years.
"How are you going to carry that thing around? Don't you have something less... ridiculous?"
"Excuse me, but I don't see you pulling one of those Bluetooth... things out of your pocket. My headset was stepped on by that father of yours while we were running from a group of angry Ood owners." He managed to stuff the walkie-talkie into his jacket pocket, though it looked a bit silly.
"What's an Ood?"
"Something we set free," he replied, crossing back to the TARDIS door with a whirl. "Don't go anywhere, don't touch anything." He paused. "Except the microphone."
"I gathered that, thanks," she said, a bit sarcastically.
He pointed a finger at her with a smile. "Watch it. I'll be back! Hopefully," he added. He quietly slipped out the door, huge walkie-talkie in pocket. Felicity stood next to the console and waited.
And waited. And waited. And then she waited some more. And, just for good measure, she waited again. She sat on the floor and pondered the situation for a while, talking to herself as she went. "Mum and Dad will be so furious with me. I wonder how long I can stay here? What if I grow up and I come back and I'm 20?" She decided that wouldn't be so bad, except for the missed years of school. And what if that meant she couldn't get into college? "I guess I'll just have to travel with the Doctor forever," she decided. "Or at least until I find some way of getting back into society after I'm older." That didn't sound like a bad idea at all.
xxxxxxxxxx
The Doctor stepped quietly out of the TARDIS. The planet they were on was surrounded on all sides by Sontaran warships, bent on using the planet as an outpost. It was a strategic point, they had said, crucial to winning the war against the Rutan Host. Never mind that the planet had several hundred thousand inhabitants of many different species. The Sontarans seemed to want to eliminate them all, in favor of taking over the planet completely. The natives were not aware of their presence yet, but they would be very soon if something wasn't done.
The Doctor had demanded before that they leave. He had blown a few of their vacant escape pods up as a warning when he had given them the choice to leave and they had refused. It was then that the Graske had made off with the cooled warp stabilizers of the mothership, leaving it to travel at a normal speed. They would never make it back to their home planet with their lifespans unless they evacuated onto the rest of the warrior ships and abandoned the mothership. But of course, they had blamed the Doctor and decided this planet was to burn for his crime. Busy day as usual.
The sky was lavender as he carefully trekked the distance to the Sontaran ship on the horizon. It was the landed mothership, he decided, judging by the size. Without warp stabilizers, it was useless to them, for now at least. They could retrieve replacements from Sontar or another nearby planet, but that would take time. Time that they didn't have and time that the Doctor didn't really feel like giving them today. Or any day, for that matter.
Oh, he knew how to get rid of them. It would be easy, he just didn't want to resort to that. The Atraxi wouldn't help the situation, but the Shadow Proclamation just might. They were still quite angry with him, however, so he really wanted to avoid them if possible. He just didn't think today was that particular possible. Or that particular if.
He spotted the Sontarans from a significant distance away, but they hadn't spotted him. He hoped. The Doctor scuttled around the boxes that they were unloading from the mothership; likely ammunition and supplies like food that were meant to help establish the outpost on this planet. He debated sonic-ing their foodstuffs to increase the rate of decomposition, but decided against it. They might hear it and he didn't want that. There were guards everywhere, but he didn't necessarily need to get inside the ship, per se. Just have access to speak with the General and give him a chance, face to face. Which he would have very soon, it seemed.
He noted, from the shadow on the ground, that the Sontaran behind him had a gun aimed very obviously at his head. "Stand, Doctor."
The Time Lord almost sighed, but did as the baked potato demanded. "You don't have to be so rude about it," he said casually.
The Sontaran huffed and pressed his communicator. "General, this is Field Major Staag. I have captured the Doctor."
The General's voice came over the machine with a hint of surprise and smugness. "Our foe has not deserted his battle! How surprising. Bring him to the bridge!"
"Yes sir!" Staag roughly pushed the gun into the Doctor's ribs. "Forward!"
"I really wish you'd put that thing down. Why is everyone so rude to me?" he thought aloud. "Accused of this, chased around by that, no one likes me today." He slowly made his way forward, following the directions set forth by Staag. This wasn't exactly part of the plan. Then again, there wasn't a plan to begin with. He couldn't remember the last time he had actually made a plan. Who needs a plan anyway?
Field Major Staag guided him to the bridge, but it wasn't like he didn't already know the way himself. The alien's orders were tedious at best and the Doctor almost rolled his eyes. "I know the way, you realize. I was here already today, do you remember?" The Sontaran just shoved the barrel of the gun harder into his back.
They approached the bridge, which had the strangest name and the Doctor had no idea why they called it that since it didn't resemble any bridge he'd ever seen, and the Sontaran General welcomed his Field Major, as well as shooting a smug smile in the Doctor's direction. "Admirable capture, Field Major Staag."
"Thank you, General Starhl sir." Staag stood back from the two, but kept his gun ready. The area was wide open, steps ascending on all sides to the large window in front of them. Hallways in the back of the room seemed to go in every direction. The lights burned overhead, but the lavender sky outside counteracted much of it. The bridge was the area of the ship that the Generals usually occupied, to watch the war from the comfort of their chairs. "Hardly honorable," the Doctor thought.
"Well, Doctor," the General said, addressing the Time Lord directly. "I had thought you ran away like a frightened beast. This honor is most becoming in a foe. All the better to bring honor to Sontar."
"Honor is only becoming if deserved, General. In your case, I'd say less deserved than mine."
The General became enraged. "You are a prisoner of General Starhl the Merciless of the Sixth Sontaran Battle Fleet! You dare belittle my authority?"
The Doctor made a noise like a stifled giggle in amusement. "You said belittle."
"Throw him in a cell!" The General barked. Staag made a grab for the Doctor's arm, but he danced away up the stairs to his right, pulling out the walkie-talkie and aiming his sonic screwdriver at it threateningly. "See this? This is an oh-so-cleverly crafted bomb, a lovely little thing, which can only be activated by a particular frequency, which my screwdriver is now set to. Now, if you don't want this entire room to go up in a ball of flames and overbaked potato...ness, I highly suggest you stay back!"
"You bluff!" the General seethed. He raised the gun at his side threateningly.
"Try me! Leave this planet now, or it goes off!" He looked back and forth between the General and the Field Major, who both stood, watching him carefully.
"We will shoot you before you get the chance!" the General stated confidently.
"You're willing to die for a pointless war, but not die to a madman with a screwdriver?"
"There is no honor in causing the death of your comrades!" the Field Major said, gun aimed carefully.
"But there is honor in saving them!" the Doctor countered angrily. "This bomb could end up killing your soldiers. But you'd both rather slaughter millions. The Great Sontaran race. How very dishonorable."
"I have had enough of your games, Doctor!" The General pressed a button on his communicator. The lights began to flash all over the ship as the summons went out and the extra hallways were closed off by heavy metal doors. Every Sontaran soldier on board was marching to the bridge.
"Uh oh." The Doctor looked to the General, then up at the lights and back again. "Um... Yes, well, I suppose...Uh, bye then!" He quickly ran and ducked down, rolling under the closest door, which he knew happened to be the entrance to the engine room. Gunfire and voices followed him until the door was shut. It would only be moments until it was opened again. He ran down the hall as fast as he could, raising the walkie-talkie to his mouth. "The Doctor to Felicity! Do you read me?"
