Chapter 10
Donna safely dropped off, the Doctor put them in the Vortex so he could attempt to get repairs done. Rose sat down on the floor next to the console to try to help while Kari sat on the jump seat and continued reading her book. It wasn't long before they all settled into what passed for 'normal' on the TARDIS: one of the girls on the jump seat reading, the other helping the Doctor, and the Doctor under the console, causing sparks to fly and letting loose with a plethora of alien curse words.
After some time like this, the Doctor jumped up, a manic grin on his face. "Alright, now to test it out!"
He flipped a switch and the entire ship lurched, throwing Kari to the ground, landing on top of Rose. He had barely been able to keep himself upright by holding onto the console.
"Something tells me it's not supposed to do that," Rose groaned as she sat up. She frowned down at Kari, who was now lying next to her on the floor. "You okay?"
"I will be."
Rose went to try to stand up when the ship lurched again, throwing her back to the floor, barely missing Kari.
"What's wrong? Why are you doing this?" the Doctor asked his ship as he frantically ran around the console and somehow didn't step on the two women on the floor.
Kari pulled herself up and back onto the jump seat. "What did you do?" She leaned over and helped Rose up.
"I didn't do anything!"
Rose sat down next to and exchanged a glance with Kari. "You were just down there messing around with things."
He shot a glare at Rose before directing his attention back to the monitor. "I wasn't messing around with things! I was fixing them." With another lurch, the Doctor found himself on the floor. "At least, I thought I was. Ow." He quickly pulled himself back up while rubbing a spot on his head. "I don't get it," he mumbled.
The TARDIS started to shake violently, causing her passengers to grasp onto anything they could. Then, all of a sudden, she pitched to one side, throwing the three travelers to the floor and down the ramp, They landed in a heap by the door. With one last shiver and a slam, the TARDIS landed them quite unceremoniously.
Pulling themselves back up, they looked around and gasped. The TARDIS was dark. No light, anywhere. They started coughing as smoke filled the room. Running out, they slammed the door shut, only to have it locked behind them.
The Doctor tried his key and hit the door. "Dammit!" He sighed and turned around. "Well, looks like we're stuck for a while."
They had been landed on what looked like a very desolate planet. The ground was mostly rock and dirt with very little plant life anywhere. The sun seemed a bit too big and a bit too hot. Standing at the top of a cliff, they looked down on what seemed like a large camp. Tents of various sizes spread out for miles with people moving among them. At the far end of the camp were a few temporary buildings, one with the crescent moon indicating a hospital.
Slipping his hand into Rose's, the Doctor sighed again. "Shall we?" he asked as he gestured to the village.
With a shrug, the three headed down the mountain to see just where they were.
Kari wiped sweat off her forehead. "It is really damn hot here."
The Doctor ran his finger under his collar. "It is a bit warm." He looked up and squinted at the sun. "The sun shouldn't be that big."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, a sun that close to a planet this size… It should've burned up ages ago." He looked around with a frown. "Never should've been able to support life in the first place. Unless it's terraformed – artificial atmosphere. But if it's terraformed, why's it so empty? And besides, why terraform a planet in such a dangerous orbit when there are hundreds of thousands of other planets more than capable of sustaining life."
Kari looked away as the Doctor rambled, then back in his direction as he paused, knelt down, and rubbed his fingers in the dirt, smelling it and then touching it to the tip of his tongue. She made a face. "And the purpose of licking the dirt is…?"
"No obvious mineral wealth. Quite a lot of iron, which explains the red, but you can get that anywhere."
"What, you mean red like Mars?" Rose asked.
"Not quite that much iron." He stood and put his hands back in his pockets, looking up again at the sun. "Maybe its orbit is deteriorating…"
Kari frowned. She didn't like the sound of that. "I wonder where we are."
"I can answer that for you," a woman in green camouflage pants, a green shirt, and black military boots said as she walked up to them. She extended her hand to them. "Welcome to L49k2, I'm Elizabeth."
"Nice to meet you, Elizabeth. I'm the Doctor, this is Rose and Kari." He smiled and shook the woman's hand.
Elizabeth shook Rose and Kari's hands before turning a concerned frown on all of them. "How'd you get here?"
"My ship crashed just over there." The Doctor pointed toward the mountain. "Looks like we're stuck here while she repairs herself."
Elizabeth raised a brow. "Repairs herself?"
The Doctor smiled. "Ah, yeah, well, you know. Just… needs to rest. So! You live here?"
"Yes," she answered a bit hesitantly. "And you are more than welcome to stay here. We do ask that you pitch in and help wherever possible."
Rose beamed. "Absolutely! Helping out is kind of our thing."
Elizabeth smiled and nodded. "Very well. Please follow me and we'll work on fitting you in somewhere."
The Doctor looked around. "Um… What kind of planet is this? Where is it?"
"It's a refugee planet. We're near the edge of the Universe."
He frowned. "Refugee? What kind of refugees?"
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow and glanced at the Doctor. "Where are you from, again?"
"Oh, here and there. I travel a lot."
She nodded as she continued to eye him warily. "I wasn't aware that there were many places left to travel to, what with the Universe ending."
Kari stiffened at the mention of the end of the Universe. She looked around herself quickly. No, it can't be… she thought to herself. Not seeing any huge fence around the camp ground or a large rocket in the middle, she relaxed, convinced they weren't where she thought.
A look of realization came over the Doctor's face. "Oh, of course! The end of the Universe. How could I forget?"
Elizabeth gave him a small frown before lifting the flap to a tent. "These people have run from their planets as they reach their end."
They all breathed out sighs of relief as they entered the tent. It seemed to be air conditioned somehow. More people in camouflage approached them with bottles of water, which they accepted gratefully.
Elizabeth motioned for all of them to take seats. "Now, to find where you fit best." She looked over a clipboard that had been placed on her desk. "I don't suppose any of you know anything about computer networking?"
Kari jumped when her companions looked at her. "What?"
"You know networking, don't you?" the Doctor asked with an inquisitive eyebrow.
"Yeah, early 21st century networking," she said through clenched teeth, not sure if they should reveal that two of their party were definitely not from this time.
The woman behind the desk waved a dismissive hand. "That's fine. Our system here is very rudimentary. Any knowledge is good."
Kari shrugged. "Okay, then, I guess I can try my hand at that."
Elizabeth smiled. "Wonderful! Kari, was it?" She continued at Kari's nod. "This is Jacob; he'll take you to where we're setting up the computer lab for the school."
Kari stood up and shook Jacob's hand. "Nice to meet you, Jacob." She turned to her companions. "I guess I'm off, then." An evil grin spread across her face. "I'm wandering off."
Rose snorted a laugh as the Doctor rolled his eyes. "No, you're not; you're being taken to a specified location by an assigned person. That is not wandering off."
She started following Jacob out of the tent. "Nope, this is me, wandering off. Bye!" She gave a final wave before ducking out of the tent, blinking against the sun. "Man, that thing is bright!"
"It's slowly expanding, ma'am. It will explode in the next thirty or so years according to our scientists."
Kari smiled up at the young man. "Please, call me Kari." She looked back toward the sun. "That explains a lot. No wonder it's so hot here."
"Fortunately, all of our tents are air conditioned."
"Well, that's good. Don't need people baking in their sleep."
His lips twitched as he fought a smile. "Indeed, ma'am."
She sighed internally as she realized getting him to not call her 'ma'am' was a losing battle. Seeing a tent with what looked like a giant star on it, she nudged the man with her elbow.
"What's in there?"
"That's where our scientists are, ma'am. They are working on finding a way to get everyone off this planet, and hopefully out of this Universe."
Kari tensed again at his words. She knew they didn't want to see what was beyond this Universe. She also knew she couldn't tell them without everyone but her companions thinking she was nuts. Deciding it best to just stick to the matter at hand, she shoved that knowledge to the back of her mind.
Before long, they had reached the tent housing the computers for their school. Kari stopped just inside the door and looked around, letting out an impressed whistle.
"This is amazing!" She looked up at Jacob. "How're you powering all of this?"
He raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Solar panels, ma'am."
Kari blushed as she looked away and nodded. "Yes, of course." She gave another sweep of the room. "How many children are in this camp?"
"Approximately one thousand and growing with over 75% at school age." He led her through the tent to the two men setting up the computers. "Ma'am, this is Kyle and Seth. Gentlemen, this is Kari. She's been sent to help you set up the lab."
Kyle – a young man in his early twenties, with sandy brown hair, green eyes, and freckles – popped up from behind a desk where he was trying to connect computers together. He wiped his hand off on his camo pants and offered it to her with a smile.
"Nice to meet you, Kari! Thanks for coming to help."
She smiled back as she shook his hand. "Not a problem. Where would you like me to start?"
"Ma'am, I'm going to head back to the main tent. Kyle and Seth should be able to answer any questions you have. Someone will collect you before night fall to show you where you'll be staying." With a nod, the man turned on his heel and walked back out of the tent.
Seth – an older man in his forties or fifties with graying red hair and blue eyes – slumped into a chair. "So where are you from?"
Picking up a mass of tangled cords and absently untangling them, Kari took the chair across from the man.
"Oh, um… a long ways away. Our ship crash landed up on the hill and we're stranded while it repairs itself."
He raised an intrigued eyebrow. "Repairs itself? What kind of ship you got?"
She worried her lip and looked down at the wires while she tried to think of a way to describe the TARDIS. The last thing they needed were a bunch of desperate, trapped people finding out they had a time machine. She instead chose to go the ignorance route. She shrugged and looked back up.
"Not really sure; I'm just a passenger. I just go by what the pilot says."
Kyle took a spot on the floor next to Seth and started untangling his own bunch of cords.
"How many on this self-repairing ship of yours?"
"Three, including myself."
"Where are they?"
She shrugged again. "No idea. I was sent here before they found out where they were going to be."
Kari finished the bundle she'd been working on, set it down, and picked up another.
"Are you the only ones working on this?"
Seth watched her in wonder for a moment. "You do that a lot, don't you?"
She frowned. "What do you mean?"
He nodded at the bunch of cables in her hands that she was making quick work of. "That, untangling cables. You're not even looking at them."
"Oh. Yeah, I suppose. There only being three of us, I help out with repairs occasionally."
He chuckled and shook his head. "Yes, we are the only ones working on this. They've sent us a few people, but they just got in the way and broke entirely too many things."
She smiled. "Well, I'll do my best to not get in the way or break anything."
Kyle looked up at her. "Out of curiosity, was there a specific reason they sent you to us?"
"Yeah, though I'm not sure how much help it will be." She set the latest bundle down and grabbed another. "I know a bit of networking."
Huge grins spread across the two men's faces. "Wonderful! We need that!"
Kari sighed. "Except that it's early 21st century networking; my guess is that it's changed quite a deal since then."
Their smiles turned into looks of confusion. Seth frowned.
"Early 21st century networking? History buff, are you?"
Kari smiled. "Something like that. Elizabeth assured me that it should be sufficient."
The two men exchanged a glance and shrugged. "Worst case scenario, you can untangle cables for us. Not very exciting, but incredibly appreciated."
Kari chuckled. "Whatever I can do to help."