John stood paralyzed at the edge of the TARDIS, his arm still outstretched. "No, Sherlock…" he whispered breathlessly into the sinister void of space. A single tear leapt from his cheek and fell out of the doorway where it hung suspended, refracting the gleaming whirl of blues and browns of a far off nebula. At any other point John would have been in awe of the magnificent view, but right now all he saw was a deadly swirling vortex.
"Is that…Is that the Orion Neblua?"
The question was hardly a whisper but John heard it as if it was shouted. "Sherlock?!" He called, "Where are you?"
"There's no need to shout John I'm right here." It sounded like the voice was coming from directly above him.
John leaned out the door and looked up only to find Sherlock Holmes clutching to the edge of the TARDIS, staring at the nebula in wonder.
"Sherlock? What the-"
"Did it work? Is Sherlock alright?" The Doctor came running up to John and leaned several feet out the door. "Ah yes there he is! Enjoying the view I see," The Doctor grinned and turned to the dumbstruck and slightly enraged John. "I extended the oxygen field so he could breathe when I saw he was about to walk out," he explained. "This way he can enjoy all the fun of zero gravity without the unfortunate side effect of suffocation. Would you care to go for a spin?"
Before John could do much more than gape at him Sherlock called out from above, "Doctor?"
"Yes, hello. Are you enjoying yourself? You gave John here quite the scare."
"Is that the Orion Nebula?" Sherlock asked again, taking his eyes off the star formation area for the first time.
"Yup, sure is," the Doctor replied exuberantly, "isn't it stunning? I thought you might enjoy it."
"Amazing…" Sherlock whispered, "I believe you Doctor, this really is a spaceship. That or John really did drug me."
"Speaking of John I think it might be best if you came down Sherlock, I do believe he might have a few choice words for you." The Doctor said as he extended his hand out to the detective.
John did have a few choice words for him. And none of them were particularly kind. The Doctor had to pull John back before he nearly pushed Sherlock right back off the edge of the TARDIS and into space.
By the time the Doctor finally managed to calm the two of them down Sherlock had a cut and a bruise forming on his cheek and John had managed to bruise several of his knuckles.
"Right," the Doctor said giving John an ice pack and Sherlock a wet cloth for his face, "now that you two are done bickering I need your help."
Sherlock let out a soft hiss as he pressed the cloth to his bleeding face and shot a venomous glance at John. "Yes I remember you saying something about saving the world or whatever."
"The Angels!" The Doctor said, spinning around and flipping a few switches on the console. The engine whirred to life and let out an unearthly groan. "I'm seriously worried that they've shown up again. They aren't very common any more, an endangered species you could say. Yes, I haven't seen them on Earth since way back in New York…" The Doctor trailed off and a deep sadness emanated from his stooping figure.
"Doctor?" John asked cautiously, "You in there? Saving the world remember?"
"Yes, yes sorry. Where was I? Right. Angels." He cleared his throat and in an instant was as exuberant and excitable as before. "The point is that they were supposed to be gone. Well, not gone, but so few numbered that they wouldn't be a problem. But somehow they showed up again. And from the sound of it there are quite a lot of them. How many people did you say were missing Sherlock?"
"Eleven."
"Couldn't it just be one really strong one or something?" John said, "I mean, you could be worked up over nothing."
"No no that isn't it," the Doctor muttered as he paced back and forth along the console. "Different Angels send you back to different time periods and I only saw two other people in London that looked out of place before I found you, John."
"Was one of them a younger girl, mid-teens with curly blond hair by chance?" Sherlock inquired, "And the second an older woman in her late forties using a wooden cane for a limp in her left leg?"
The Doctor raised an eyebrow at Sherlock questioningly, Sherlock smirked and steepled his fingers under his chin, "I thought so. I just described the missing mother and daughter from the first house we visited. I do hope you returned them to the right time Doctor."
The Doctor shifted his weight and turned to face the console, "Oh yes of course I did…"
John rolled his eyes and Sherlock grinned.
"I'll fix it later I promise!" The Doctor miffed, "Besides, I'm sure they'll enjoy 1923."
John couldn't keep in a small laugh and he shook his head.
"But back to the point! My I get so distracted!" The Doctor continued, "So, if the Angels are so rare and there's so many of them in one place, it can only mean one thing-"
"Someone's bringing them back." Sherlock interrupted, "But who?"
Before any of them could come up with a good answer the TARDIS let out a massive growl and shrieked. The console started sparking and the entire room shook as if in an Earth quake.
"Not good?!" John yelled as the TARDIS took a particularly sharp turn and sent them all flying to the right.
"Bit not good yeah!" The Doctor shouted from across the room as he scrambled to get to his feet before the next blow came. "Someone's hacking into the system! I can't control her!"
Another boom followed by a massive crash sent all three of them flying backwards.
"Isn't there anything you can do?" Sherlock bellowed.
"NO!"
"Fine, I'll do it myself." Sherlock crawled over to the console as fast as he could and started examining the various buttons and leavers covering the surface.
"Sherlock, there's nothing you can do!" The Doctor yelled, "I've been flying this thing for 1,200 years and even I can't fix this!"
Sherlock ignored him and continued working, holding on to the console for dear life as the TARDIS went spinning out of control through the time vortex.
"Ah-ha!" Sherlock cried triumphantly as he flipped two switches and the floor became stable again. "I was able to get the stabilizers back online but I can't stop the TARDIS. However, I can try to see if I can locate who it is that's tossing us around." Sherlock went over to the monitor and began typing furiously.
"You can fly the TARDIS, my TARDIS!" The Doctor said in amazement. "How do you know how to do that?!"
"Oh, it's really not that hard to figure out Doctor. You underestimate me." Sherlock replied, never taking his eyes off the screen.
"Ah here we go if I just press this and…" Sherlock stopped midsentence and stood stock still.
"What? What Sherlock, what's wrong?" John asked nervously, rubbing the back of his head. He had hit it pretty good during all the chaos. He walked over to him and looked over his shoulder. "But that-…that can't be! That's impossible!"
A static sound emanated from the screen and the picture was blurry, but there was no mistaking the voice. Neither Sherlock nor John would ever be able to forget it. It was seared into their memories and it haunted their nightmares.
"Did you miss me?"
