Deryn was really tired of running.
She didn't think she'd ever done so much running in her life. Even when she was in active duty aboard the Leviathan, she hadn't had to run this much. The ship may have been large for an airbeast, but at least it was still a fairly small place.
Right now she was still running, along with Alek and the mad bloke who called himself the Doctor. The Doctor was still running a good pace, but Alek and Deryn were lagging behind. With some concern, Deryn saw that Alek was turning purple in the face. Though I probably don't look too bloody great myself.
In her mind, she thought of all the blasted bloody running she'd had to do today. Running out of the Zoological Society building. Running after the Doctor for miles through the streets of London. Running from the men in the alley. Running into the warehouse. Running out of the warehouse. And now they had been running for the better part of an hour, following the Doctor.
"Do you even know where we're going? And how are you still running so fast?" Deryn heard Alek cry out nex to her.
"Practice! Running is an activity you should go about every day! It's good for the hearts! And as for where we're headed, we're going back to the TARDIS of course!"
"Isn't the TARDIS back at the Zoological Society building?" Deryn asked.
"Why, yes! Is there a problem?" The Doctor flashed a smile back at her.
"The Zoological Society building is back near Trafalgar Square! We've been running in the opposite bloody direction!" Deryn's concern for this man's mental health increased every minute.
The Doctor paused. "Why, I do believe… yes, I think it was back that way! We'll have to turn around! If we maintain a brisk pace, we should be back within an hour!"
In unison, a great groan rose from Alek and Deryn.
"Here we are!"
Oh thank God. Thought Deryn, slumping against one of the alley walls. Alek simply collapsed, crumpling like a rag doll. The Doctor grinned like the madman Deryn thought he was.
"Whew! That was exhilarating! But don't worry, once we get inside the TARDIS, I'll brew some tea and we can actually talk face to face."
"You must be joking." Alek looked at the blue box in front of them. "That's a telephone box."
"Yes, it is. However, it's also the most advanced vessel in the universe, so it just goes to show you should never judge something by how it looks." The Doctor sighed. "Especially not the TARDIS, she can get very temperamental."
Deryn would have asked him how the hell a police box could be temperamental, but her lungs were still burning desperately. The Doctor was fumbling around with a key, trying to open the door to the box. He seemed to be having a rough time of it.
"Oh, don't give me that!" he said, apparently to the box. "They don't mean to be rude, they're just… inexperienced." He fumbled around some more, but apparently the box was satisfied, because Deryn heard the lock click, and the double doors swung open.
"Alright, come on in!" the Doctor called cheerily, stepping into his box.
"Absolute madman." Alek remarked to Deryn. But as soon as he stepped into view of the inside of the box, his jaw went slack. He was apparently speechless, though he made a sound that Deryn was able to interpret as shocked and amazed.
"What is it, you ninny?" she managed to stand up, though her legs still complained from their frantic run through the city. Sitting at a desk all day has certainly gotten me out of shape, she thought in a corner of her brain.
But when saw the inside of the TARDIS, she too was struck speechless. The sheer strangeness of it, how it stood in defiance of every law of nature, struck her and rendered her mute for a full minute.
"It's… bigger-"
"-On the inside, yes, yes. Time Lord tech, good strong stuff. Nothing like it, at least when you're looking for a vessel. The closest you can get to a TARDIS would be something from the Terminus Shipyards in Orion Central, and most of their stuff is copied from old TARDIS components they found."
Alek had gotten over most of the shock and was looking all around. His Clanker side was going dewey-eyed over all the strange technology around him.
"Doctor, how does it all work? It's clearly far beyond anything I could even imagine."
The Doctor tapped a finger on the glowing cylinder in the center of the TARDIS console.
"This, Allen-"
"Alek."
"-Alex, is the Heart of the TARDIS. It allows her to travel the Time Vortex, and while it takes a few moments for us, the TARDIS exterior dematerializes, and instantly rematerializes somewhere else. As for being bigger inside, the Heart of the TARDIS has enough raw energy to maintain the interior spatially, temporally, and dimensionally separate from the exterior. So right now, standing here, you're the first person from your particular version of Earth to have travelled to another dimension."
Deryn's eyes had begun to glaze over, but something occurred to her.
"What exactly do you mean by our 'particular version of Earth'? Are you trying to insinuate there are others?"
"Well, yes and no. This Earth is from an alternate timeline, meaning something happened at some point in time that drastically altered the course of your history. A fixed point was changed. If what I hear from you is correct, Charles Darwin discovered the existence of DNA, and some way to manipulate it. As a result, the British Empire possesses far greater technology than it really has any right to. But, I'm getting off track. Funnily, that seems to happen very often. Can't imagine why. But, anyway, the problem here is that it's not supposed to be possible to cross between the timelines. Of course, I've done it before. But it ends up causing all kinds of troubles and it's usually not very healthy for your time travel vessel. And, so, since I ended up here, it appears I'm stuck here for a while."
Alek was hanging on the Doctor's every word. "So how did you end up here, Herr Doctor?"
Herr Doctor again. Here I was thinking I trained him to be a proper Englishman, and a man in a fancy box shows up and he goes all Clanker-ese again. Deryn thought to herself.
"Here's where the Cybermen come into this. I was tracking down a new Cyberman vessel, one I heard about from an old friend named Jack. It's a shame that that unpleasant Dorium Maldovar ended up stealing his vortex manipulator and giving him to the Headless Monks. Though in a way, him getting decapitated was almost fortunate… it was lucky for me that his head ended up in New New York, else I might have been stuck down in the Motorway for years…"
Deryn coughed. "You were telling us about the Cybermen. Though I'm sure that your friend Jack is a fascinating person.
"Oh, he certainly is… or was…. But yes, you were right. Cybermen. I do seem to be getting off topic quite a lot today, I apologize. It must just be after the bumpy ride I had on the way here-"
Deryn coughed and tapped her foot.
"Ah hah, yes. Cybermen. Cybermen, Cybermen, Cybermen. I was tracking down a new Cyberman vessel Jack had warned me about. Apparently it was much more advanced than any other Cybership previously encountered, based off of salvaged Time Lord tech, along with the technology of other advanced races. It was- is- massive, and possesses temporal/spatial travel abilities that rival that of a TARDIS. It's advanced enough to turn an entire planet to a Cyberman factory world, and I decided should be the one to look into it."
"And? What did you find?"
"It's better than a TARDIS. Jack said it was equal to a TARDIS, but in reality that ship is more deadly than the most advanced combat TARDIS used in the Time War. And it's here, on this Earth."
"But I thought you said it's hard to travel to other timelines?"
"It is. It's impossible for any other ship and bloody difficult for Sexy. But the Cyberman vessel can slip through the Void like a hot knife through butter. It may not be noticeable yet, but it's here. Earlier today you two saw firsthand those Cyberman infiltrators. You can be sure that they'll be planning something. The Cybermen will wipe out resistance before anyone knows they're under attack."
"And, since you're the brilliant one here, how do we stop that from happening?"
"Luckily I was able to locate the Cybership with that black box we pocketed. It's near Berlin, deep in German territory. We'll need a plan to take it out. A cunning plan. A sneaky, devious plan, one so sneaky and devious the Cybermen won't even know they're under attack. Their ship will have a weakness, they always do. We'll have to take advantage of that weakness and destroy that ship. With the ship gone, the Cyberman will lack the resources and command structure to take over the planet."
"Brilliant! What's the plan?" Alek leaned forward, excitement clear on his face.
"Oh, well, I don't know yet. I was just expressing the fact that we need a plan. Don't worry, it'll be a totally brilliant plan once I get the details down. They'll never know what hit them!"
Definitely a madman. Deryn thought.