CHAPTER 10
HEART OF THE STORM
They didn't land. They didn't crash. There was no tremble of engines or squealing of breaks. There was nothing.
Nothing at all.
The Tardis lay still, abandoned in a void.
"What just happened?" Rory asked nervously, straightening up.
The Doctor cast a worried gaze at the room. "Nothing good..." he replied.
Amy's eyes went wide. "Did we fly into that crack thingy?"
"Cracks of time," the Doctor corrected. "Yes, yes – fell straight into one."
"Doctor that is not good..."
"Thank you, River..." he threw his screwdriver at her. "Make yourself useful. System checks."
"System checks?" she looked at him blankly. "The Tardis is fine."
"We always do system checks," the Doctor insisted, waving her off. He wandered apprehensively over to the door, laying his hand against its surface. It felt cool as usual – calm. "I wonder... centre of Time."
"Doctor, are you sure you want to know what's at the heart of Time?" River was still watching him from the Tardis console. "Older Time Lords than you have gone mad from a glimpse."
"River, you do too much homework." He was utterly captivated, turning the lock with a soft, metallic click. As always, he went bounding into things, lowering his hand to the handle, cupping the brass knob before gently turning it. The door squeaked, slowly opening to reveal a vast and empty world of darkness. "Nothing..." he murmured.
"What?" the group asked, not quite catching the Doctor's muffled words. They all leaned in trying to get a look.
"Nothing," he repeated, this time dismissively. "Doesn't matter." He closed the door and locked it again before they could see. "Now, trapped in Time. No up, no down – no left or right, back or forward. Obviously can't drift through it – how's her engines?"
River tilted her head with a bit of a frown. "Wherever this is, they don't like it. She won't start."
"No points of reference, poor old girl." The Doctor stroked the console affectionately causing River's eyebrow to arch. "What we need is a bit of a nudge."
River frowned when the Doctor levelled his large, needy brown eyes on her.
"So that's why you gave me your Vortex manipulator..." he whispered, impressed.
River frowned again, this time with confusion. "I didn't – it's – oh!" Her vortex manipulator vanished off her wrist. "You can't just keep making suggestions and changing time!"
He ferreted around the couches, retrieving her cheap, nasty but incredibly helpful time travel device. The Doctor held up the rather well-worn device littered with scratches and stains. It even made a disconcerting rattle when he shook it next to his ear.
"How long have you had this thing?"
"The better question is, 'how long did Jack Harkness have it?'" she quipped.
"Doctor – please tell me we're not going to fly the Tardis with River's watch..." Amy cut in, a worried motherly expression on her face.
He whirled around. "Course not! Just a map. Tardis guidance systems are all confused – too much empty universe out there. This'll give her something to aim for now, everyone sit down and strap in!"
Even River took her seat, tightening their makeshift seat belts .
"Don't worry," River assured her parents, "usually his daft plans work."
"I think he's been winging the last nine-hundred years, personally..." Rory muttered under his breath.
The Tardis made a strained, whoozing noise, as if sniffing the vortex manipulator when the Doctor brought it close to its central shaft.
"Where's it going to take us?" Amy asked, holding her husband's hand tightly as an eerie, green light began to bleed into the Tardis.
"Doesn't matter, as long as it takes us somewhere," he replied, beaming like an idiot as the central column made its first heave, up and down. "It's working..."
The Tardis lurched into life, her stardrive engines burning – her guidance system aiming for the only co-ordinates it could find.
"Ooo baby it's going to be rough..." The Doctor grinned with delight, throwing himself into a nearby seat as everything shook and crunched. Bits of the Tardis fell down, clanging to the ground and rolling around their feet. The Vesparian closed his eyes, praying to the ancient deities of Time that they survived this.
And in silence they left the void, flickering out of existence -
and thrown back into it.
The Tardis crashed in the sand, embedded on her side against a black dune. The sands slipped apart, fragments of crystal shimmering under a purple sunset.
Vespar...
The door opened and the Doctor fell out onto the dune. His hands and feet sank into the sand as he scrambled up, clawing his way to the ridge until he cast his eye over the city below. It shone, alive with fire and life. The third age of Vespar was alive and well. Its buildings reached to the heavens and its streets were capped in precious stones.
"It's all right!" he called behind him to the others as they tumbled out, one by one.
"What is it with this planet?" River picked the sand out of her hair. Between that and the mud she looked like some kind of creature thrown out from the dawn of time – which wasn't far from the truth. "This is the night of the party," she whispered, pointing to the sky where a great comet was vanishing toward the horizon.
"It's a fixed point," the Doctor sat down on the dune's backbone. "The Tardis latched onto it and crawled out of the void." There was a brief crackle of blue light above the parliament building, gone before anyone noticed. "That's us arriving far too early so you can hunt for a dress."
The Vesparian was the last to reach the top of the dune, his two hearts beating hard as he wiped a layer of sand and sweat from his forehead. "Home," he whispered, looking down upon the city.
"Looks like you'll be able to give that speech after all, professor..." River shot him a lop-sided smile.
The professor shifted nervously. "I was rather hoping I'd be late."
"Late? Never..." the Doctor insisted. "I'm king of Time – Lord of Time – I'm never late."
Amy gave him a good shove and the Doctor lost his balance, tumbling a way down the sand to the amusement of his companions.
River was about to follow after him when she noticed the eyes of her parents and the Vesparian scientist upon her. "What?" she asked softly, confused by the sudden chill in the air.
"River..." Amy whispered.
River looked down to her bare arm – a fresh black mark adorning her skin.
"The Silence..." she murmured. "They're still here – they'll always be here – fixed..."
"Not just one," Rory added warily, as another black mark came from nowhere. "They're all here tonight – and we've brought them a time machine."