A/N: Sorry I missed last week's update. This chapter just... didn't flow right. Even now I'm still not really happy with it. Anyway, I tried to fix it a couple times but it just sort of sapped my enthusiasm for writing a bit, just because it wasn't working right, to the point that every time I looked at it I was filled with the urge to have a nap or drink some tea or stare unblinkingly at a corner for two hours. Fortunately, I think I've got a new spark that will, hopefully, get things up and running again. Still, sorry again to anyone I disappointed.
So. The Doctor. A lot of you have asked me what's up here and have suspicions of what's going on. Rest assured, you're not the only one with doubts about a few things, but all Quinn has to go on is the information she's been told and what she's observed, and there are a few things she just can't reconcile. Maybe if she had more information that'd be different, but she's doing the best with what she has to go on.
But if I were you, I'd want to know a bit more about what's happening on the other planet, something I've seen far less speculation about. And lucky you, that's where the next chapter takes place.
Quinn's sleep was fitful, to say the least. She tossed and turned on the lumpy bunk, never really getting into deep, restful sleep. Her dreams were plagued with images she'd rather not see, like the Doctor - her Doctor, the Doctor he'd been this morning - out alone on the surface of that ruddy planet. He trudged along slowly, marching into a gale-force wind, trying to move forward against the current pressing him backwards. Then suddenly he stopped in pain, one hand pressed to each side of his chest as he cringed and fell to his knees, screaming with nobody there to hear him. In the dream, she was running, trying her best to reach him, but she could never manage to close the distance. The wind was too strong but it carried his agonized wailing across the flat plain right to her, trying her hardest to get across to him even though her feet felt like lead and sunk to the ankles with each passing step. He had turned to face her somehow and the expression on his face was unreadable - anger? Betrayal? Regret? She couldn't say for certain.
The Doctor was just exploding in a flash of blood-red light when a klaxon starting ringing through the ship, echoing around the metallic hull until it became a ringing, screeching sound. She sat bolt upright in the bottom bunk, and when she did so she smacked her forehead against the springs of the mattress above her, the one where the Doctor was sleeping. She fell back down on the bed, fingers pressed to her aching skull as she tried to blink back tears of pain and catch her breath in short, ragged gasps, all at the same time.
"What's happening?" she heard the Doctor ask loudly over the wailing siren.
"Phase variance is shifting again," Evan said through a huge yawn as he stretched and jumped down from one of the top bunks. "We've gotta go check it out. You can stay here if you like."
"Will the alarm be going off the whole time?" Quinn shouted with the pillow wrapped around her head to block out the noise.
"Afraid so," Odell told her.
"Might as well get up then," she grumbled, standing up and angrily throwing the pillow at the bulkhead the bunk was chained to. She was following the two scientists when she made an abrupt about-face and stared at the Doctor's bunk instead.
He hadn't moved at all. He was lying on his stomach with his arms folded up under his head, and he couldn't have looked more disinterested in what was going on around him if he'd been reading War and Peace. As it was, he stared blankly at the adjoining bunk until he caught sight of her reddened face. "What's the matter?" he asked.
"It's Evan," she said.
"What about him?"
"He's not wearing anything!" she said in a hushed whisper.
The Doctor looked over to the other scientist. "So he isn't," he said, and went back to staring blankly ahead.
"Well, tell him to put something on!"
"Who am I to tell him what to sleep in? He can nod off in an old PE kit for all I care," he said.
"You're… the Doctor," she said. "Telling people what to do is your thing."
"Not anymore," he said. "New body, new face, new rules, and the new rule is, mind your own business, keep to yourself."
"You? Keep to yourself?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Why not?" he asked back. "Doing anything else sure seems to get us in trouble. I'm a bit tired of it myself."
"It always works out in the end though," she said.
"Not always."
"What do you mean?"
He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, then shut it again. Some things never change, she thought. A few seconds later he started again. "I lost us the TARDIS, didn't I?"
"We'll get it back," she said reassuringly, patting him on the arm, and he smiled weakly.
"Looks like your friend realized there's a lady present," he said, nodding towards the two scientists. "He's put a dressing gown on now."
"Should we see what they're up to?"
"Why not?" the Doctor asked. "Maybe I'll find something to do other than be bored."
The made their way up to the bridge again, the whole journey only taking them a few minutes. It was impossible to get lost; the rooms stacked in front of each other like train cars. Just as long as they kept moving forward, there was almost nowhere to make a wrong turn.
The doors to the bridge slid open when they approached, and the captain spared them only a cursory glance when they came in. "Shut up and stay out of the way," she said by way of greeting, then she turned back to the two men, becoming totally engrossed in her work and the numbers they were reporting back to her.
"Is it as low as before?" Odell asked.
"Not yet," Evan said. "It's not changing as fast as last time, either."
"I want all scanners recording," the captain said. "If there's any change at all out there… or in here," she said, glancing at the Doctor and Quinn, "I want to know about it."
"Understood," Odell said, and Quinn had to give the two scientists credit - they seemed more like frat guys than respected, nerdy scientists most of the time, but at least they seemed to be all business when things really got hopping. "All scanners are writing all readings to drive."
"Still no change on the phase variance," Evan reported, and he looked disappointed to say the least. "I don't understand what's different this time. Every single reading is the same as it was before. Nothing should be different but it is."
"That's good, isn't it?" the Doctor asked. "Sounds like it's nothing to do with us. You can swing round, get us our box, we'll be out of your hair."
"More shutting up than that, please, thank you," the captain said, not bothering to look at him.
"Oh, whatever," he replied dismissively and occupied himself watching the sonar scope spin round and round.
"Still no change," Evan said, and a few seconds later he slammed his fist down on the console. "Shift's ended," he said. "Got nothing out of it."
"So I suppose that means we can talk then?" the Doctor asked.
The captain turned on him, finally facing the back of the control room again. She glowered at him under a mix of rage and sleep deprivation - like the scientists, she'd been awoken out of a dead sleep and hadn't had the time to compose herself. Her hair was down instead of being pulled back tightly into a bun at the back of her head. Somehow, this did nothing to soften her appearance, but in fact made her look like some sort of unkempt, untamed animal ready to pounce. "If you and your friend aren't related to yesterday's shift then I see no reason not to put you off the ship entirely."
"What are you trying to do down here anyway?" Quinn asked.
"It's classified," the captain snapped, but Quinn wouldn't be deterred so easily.
"Maybe we can help," she said.
"I beg your pardon?"
"The Doctor's smart," she said. "And you said it'd been half a year. Maybe having someone else take a look can help?"
"Quinn..." the Doctor said, suddenly apprehensive. "It's better all around if we just get on our way."
"That doesn't seem to be an option," she said. "But maybe if we do something for them, they'll do something for us."
Neither the Doctor nor the captain seemed particularly enamored of this idea, but Evan stood from his console and came to stand beside the captain. This time he wasn't mocking her, however. His arms were crossed and he looked surprisingly pitiful, like all the life had gone out of him. "We might as well let them see, Captain," he said.
"We're not supposed to-"
"No, we're not," He agreed, "but at this point, what's the harm? We're not any closer than we were six months ago. If we're going to make any headway, maybe we need someone with a new perspective." The captain didn't say anything for a few moments, so he played his alternate hand. "Even if they see everything, there's no way they're getting back to tell anyone unless we authorize it."
Quinn really wished that 'You can always kill them later' wasn't the trump card in this argument, but it seemed to be doing the job alright, so she didn't complain. The captain sighed heavily and then said, "Fine. Show them."
Nobody moved for a few seconds, and Quinn was beginning to think neither of the two men had heard the captain's order, but then the sub started to shudder and an almighty clanking sound began to rumble around the bridge. She looked around, confused, trying to find the source of the noise, when suddenly the room began to lighten. The glow was coming from a small crack that had appeared at the front of the room, and was slowly widening. It was too bright to look directly into, and it had a sickly green tinge to it that made her wonder exactly what it was she would end up looking at. Her first thought was that this was a door into another room on the sub but by all rights they should have been at the very front of the ship, with nowhere else to go. The blinding light continued to spill through the seam, growing brighter and brighter as the crack widened, and she finally realized what was happening.
The entire front third of the room wasn't a bulkhead at all, but an enormous window. Now that it was opened, Quinn could see that there actually was more of the ship ahead - they were in a raised compartment overlooking the rest of the sub. "Incredible," the Doctor said. "How does it stay intact under the pressure?"
"It's metal," Evan said. "The exact same material as the outer hull."
"You're kidding me."
Evan walked up to the front of the room and rapped on it with his knuckles to prove it. Sure enough, it gave a metallic clang. "The outer hull is a titanium alloy that's been molecularly altered in order to allow visible light through. The inner hull is a separate material that turns transparent when exposed to intensely targeted X-rays."
"Isn't the radiation dangerous?"
"The whole compartment's shielded - control room, mess, sleeping quarters, and labs. That's why the crew's so small. Our living space is reduced down to accommodate all the extra equipment and shielding."
But the hull was the least interesting thing to look at, at least as far as Quinn was concerned. She was more interested in the source of the green light, a glowing, diamond-shaped structure, taller than it was wide, embedded into the rocks below them. "What's that?"
"That," Odell replied, "is the source of the phase variance readings. We've been trying to activate it since its discovery."
"What does it do?"
"We're not sure," Evan admitted as the captain cleared her throat in the background - she might be willing to let them have a look but she wasn't about to let Evan give away all the secrets. "But it doesn't look like it originated on this planet," he continued. "Our guess is that it's some kind of alien technology."
"What, at the bottom of the ocean?" the Doctor asked.
"It's possible it fell to Earth," the captain supplied, still hanging back from the rest of the group who had move to stand in front of the window. "It could have been down here for… ever."
"I can show you the data," Evan said, "go over everything we've tried. If you have any new ideas I'd be glad to hear them."
"And I'll go over all the numbers with you, see if there's anything we missed."
"So, Doctor?" the Captain asked. "What's it to be? Will you help us? Or do we need to find an alternative arrangement?"
