The sound of an odd wheezing noise filled the futuristic room of the abandoned space ship, ceasing when a large blue box fully faded into existence. The Doctor walked out first, observing the surroundings of the dark and dreary spaceship with his three companions following behind him.
"It's a spaceship. Brilliant! I got a spaceship on my first go," Mickey exclaimed, practically bursting with excitement. Remus, however, was looking a lot less excited and a lot more cautious considering the state that the ship was in. The only light came from strange contraptions on the walls and there was wiring and bits of metal strewn haphazardly throughout the room.
"It looks kind of abandoned," Rose noted, voicing Remus's thoughts, "Anyone on board?"
The Doctor had his hands shoved casually in his pockets as he responded, "Nah, nothing here. Well, nothing dangerous. Well, not that dangerous. You know what, I'll just have a quick scan, in case there's anything dangerous," doing nothing to ease Remus's slight tension. He rolled his eyes at the Doctor's rambling, fairly used to it by now even though they hadn't spent that much time together.
Blimey this place is creepy, Remus thought. Not that he had a problem with abandoned places - just look at the shrieking shack - it was the thought of what could make a ship in the middle of space totally abandoned that set Remus on slightly edge.
"So," Rose walked up to the Doctor as he fiddled with some tech, "What's the date, how far have we gone?"
"About three thousand years into your future, give or take," the Doctor answered as he pulled up on a glowing cylinder which powered up the lights over head. "Fifty first century. Diagmar Cluster, you're a long way from home, Mickey. Two and a half galaxies," he remarked to Mickey, who was gazing out the window.
Rose walked up behind him and squeezed his shoulders. "Mickey Smith meet the universe. See anything you like?"
Remus meanwhile was staring above him at the windows on the ceiling that showed a purple and blue space littered with stars.
First time off Earth, Remus thought, Or, well, a Earth. I suppose I've been on two earths now.
That was strange to think about. He knew that muggles had manage to get to the moon in his time, but he never thought that he would leave the United Kingdom, let alone Earth or his entire universe.
"It's so realistic," Mickey said breathlessly, making Remus roll his eyes playfully.
"That's because it's real," he remarked sarcastically, though not unkindly. Remus was still confused as to what Rose's problem with Mickey joining them was; she seemed fine now. Perhaps an ex-boyfriend? Rose and the Doctor did seem rather enamored with each other, and that could lead to Rose not wanting Mickey around.
"Dear me, had some cowboys in here. A ton of repair work going on," the Doctor announced, rummaging through scattered wiring and tools that laid about the spacecraft. "That's odd, look at that. All the warp engines are going. Full capacity," he indicated a projection of the spaceship.
The three companions began walking around the control panel the Doctor was observing. "There's enough power running through this ship to punch a hole in the universe, but we're not moving. So where's all that power going?" he continued.
"Where did all the crew go?" Rose spoke up, brows furrowed.
"Good question. There's no life readings on board." concern and curiosity was seeping into the Doctor's voice while Remus looked around. His eyebrows drew together, no longer able to ignore the strange scent he had been picking up since they landed here. At first he thought that was just how spaceships smelled, but the more time he spent here the more he realized it was out of place.
"Well, we're in deep space. They didn't just nip out for a quick fag," Rose sighed, and the Doctor responded in kind, but Remus wasn't listening to them anymore.
"I smell something odd," He spoke up, causing the others to look at him, as he hadn't spoken very much since landing here. "Sort of like⦠cooked meat." Remus's nose wrinkled at that. Although he was very much a fan of meat, this kind smelled extremely burnt, which instantly put him off an appetite.
The others began smelling the air as well. "Yeah, someone's cooking," Rose remarked, hands on her hips.
"Sunday Roast, definitely," Mickey agreed, still sounding excited. The Doctor pressed a button on the control panel which caused a wall to slide open behind them. They all turned and began walked towards it, now very curious as to what was going on.
It was revealed to be an ornate fireplace with a panelled wall and clock on the mantelpiece, fire crackling inside it.
"Well, there's something you don't see in your average spaceship," the Doctor paused and then walked into the room and scanned the fireplace with his screwdriver, "Eighteenth century. French. Nice mantle. Not a hologram. It's not even a reproduction. This actually is an eighteenth century French fireplace. Double sided. There's another room through there."
"Can't be, that's the outer hull of the ship. Look," Rose countered, peering out of a small porthole.
"Hello then," the Doctor said out of the blue, making Remus turn to look at him, "what's your name?"
Remus crouched down on the other side of the Doctor from Mickey, all of them looking in the fireplace to see a small girl in a nightgown sitting on the other side.
"Reinette," the girl introduced herself, not seeming very disturbed for suddenly finded strange people in her fireplace.
"Reinette, that's a lovely name. Can you tell me where you are at the moment, Reinette?"
"In my bedroom," came the slow reply, probably wondered how the Doctor couldn't know that.
Remus listened and stayed quiet as the Doctor continued asking Reinette questions with a friendly smile and she answering in turn with a smile of her own.
When the Doctor said goodbye to Reinette, they all stood up from the fireplace and faced each other. Mickey was immediately on the Doctor's case.
"You said this ship was in the 51st century."
"I also said this ship was generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe," the Doctor countered, "I think we just found the hole. Must be a spatio-temporal hyperlink."
"What's that?" Mickey asked, curious.
"No idea, just made it up. Didn't want to say magic door." Remus snorted off to the side.
He briefly entertained the thought of it being some sort of variation on the floo network, but promptly dismissed it. The only similarity between the 'magic door' and the floo network was them both involving fireplaces.
"And on the other side of the magic door is france 1727?" Rose asked.
The Doctor nodded and looked back to the fireplace, "Well, she was speaking french. Right period french too."
"She was speaking english, I heard her!" Mickey burst out, Remus cocking his head to the side and nodding along with Mickey's statement.
"That's the TARDIS, translates for ya," Rose explained to them, wrapping an arm around Mickey's shoulder.
Remus accepted this easily. Mickey apparently was more astonished. "Even French?"
"Gotcha!" the Doctor suddenly exclaimed from examining the fireplace. The wall immediately began turning, leaving the three of them on the other side of it from the Doctor.
"Doctor!"
