A/N - Hey, so here's the next Meanwhile on the TARDIS, although it's technically the Prelude to The Castle in the Storm, which I will begin posting starting next week! Please remember to read and review!
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Canned it 2011-2012: Parts Three and Four are going to be the same as Part Two, set in between The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe and Asylum of the Daleks from a timey-wimey perspective, so there is a possibility of Amy and Rory showing up again, though I haven't quite decided yet! If I make a sequel (Series 2), I might set it during Series 7: Part 2, so that Clara will be with the Doctor, although it'll probably take place after The Crimson Horror in terms of the Paternoster Gang's timelines.
The10thDoctorRocks - Thank you for another positive review! I'm glad you enjoyed it :')
"Asteroiiiiiiiid field!" the Doctor roared, throwing his tweed jacket onto one of the pilot seats as the TARDIS wobbled rapidly. He skidded across the glass floor, yanking on levers and adjusting other controls, manically, as Callum, Keith and Laura arrived in the console room, having been rudely woken by the smack of the asteroids off the TARDIS exterior.
"What I don't get," Keith groaned, as they were chucked into the wall by the force of the TARDIS' jerking movements, "is how we could hear those asteroids smacking off outside when we're deeper in the actual TARDIS."
"It's dimensional transcendension," the Doctor called up in reply, as he span around again, grabbing hold of the blue stabilisers. "Anyway, why aren't you three dressed?"
"It's the middle of the night!" Laura cried, standing with her large black dressing gown wrapped tightly around her. Keith stood next to her in his boxers and a baggy T-shirt he wore to bed, while Callum had made even less effort and was standing in just his underwear.
"Not anymore, it's not," the Doctor smiled, smacking down on a button and with a slow hiss, the room stopped shaking, and the smack of asteroids outside subsided.
"Oh, hark at you," Callum laughed. "Master driving skills right there, ay?"
"Of course," the Doctor said, straightening his bow-tie proudly. "Anyway, go put some clothes on! You can't go walking about like that!"
"I was in a rush to come see what was happening, okay?" Callum cried, indignantly. "Alright, I'll be just a sec." With that he turned and ran back out the console room towards the bedrooms.
"Yeah, us too," Laura said, disappearing after him. Keith yawned and rubbed his eyes, and with a grunt that could have been, "Me too," he followed after her.
It was only a few moments later that the three teens returned to the console room, fully dressed. Callum, now wearing a red hoodie over a black-and-white checkered shirt, rolled up his sleeves and stepped around the Doctor to inspect the scanner.
"So where are we going, anyway?" he asked.
"Not a clue," the Doctor replied. "I've set the controls to random."
"Isn't that what got us stuck in Arctic City yesterday?" Keith frowned.
"Okay," the Doctor said, flicking a lever, clearly disabling the random setting. "Where shall we go?"
"How about somewhere relaxing?" Laura asked.
"Beach?" suggested Keith.
"Yes, but what beach?" the Doctor sighed. "There's billions of beaches out there! At least be a bit specific!"
"Well, besides a few on Earth I don't actually know any!" Keith cried. "I dunno – Florida?"
"Oh, no, no, no, too busy," the Doctor replied, shaking his head. "I know! What about-"
"No museums!" Callum yelled, cutting him off. The Doctor's shoulders slumped.
"Not even for an hour or two?"
"Nope," Callum said. "Last time we let you take us to a museum, we ended up there an entire day."
"Oh, come on, that was fun!" the Doctor laughed. The blank expressions on the three teens' faces told him they thought otherwise. "Okay then, if you three are so good, you choose somewhere!"
The three of them huddled together, out of the Doctor's earshot and whispered suggestions to each other, secretively. The Doctor tried to listen in, but he couldn't make out anything they were saying. Until...
"Alright, we've decided," Callum said, happily.
"Astound me with your selection," the Doctor replied, a glint in his eye.
Keith went to open his mouth, when suddenly an alarm began to ring and the lights began to flash wildly.
"What's going on?" Laura asked, as the room tilted on its side and they were flung to the side, clutching onto the railings for dear life.
"That asteroid field wasn't an asteroid field!" the Doctor cried, yanking the scanner round to inspect the screen.
"What is it then?" Callum shouted over the wailing siren, his knuckles going white from gripping to the side of the console.
"It's a rift storm!" the Doctor yelled. "Pure time/space energy rippling through a fault-line in time... and space!"
"That doesn't sound too good," Laura shouted. "We're safe in here though, right?"
"Hm, not really," the Doctor said, too quietly to be heard, before raising his voice to shout, "We will be, but we'll need to put something on the exterior of the TARDIS to boost the shields."
"Can't we do that from in here?" Keith asked, as the room began to quake violently again. The shaking was stronger than it was before, and several of the flickering lights began to burst.
"Nope, the interior shields should hold out, but it's the exterior we need to be careful with. If the exterior bursts, the interior will be ripped apart! That sort of rift storm could easily tear open the exterior shell!"
"Okay, that doesn't sound too good!" Callum cried. "What do we do?"
"Just need to attach a power booster to the shell," the Doctor said. "Exterior though, which could be dangerous. I should really do it, but I don't think you'd be able to keep the TARDIS in position in the condition we're in right now, Callum."
"Nah, it's fine, I'll do it," Callum said. "Where's the power booster?"
"Should be in one of the boxes down there," the Doctor said, gesturing to the stairs leading downwards. "I'll try and keep the TARDIS away from the heart of the storm, but you'll have to be quick!"
Callum nodded and jumped down the stairs two at a time. Keith and Laura followed after him.
"Alright, what exactly are we looking for?" Keith asked, as they began to search through the pile of boxes the Doctor stored down here, full of miscellaneous items.
"Power booster," Callum said. "Circular plate thingy. Made of metal. Like a little clamp!"
"How do you even know that?" Laura asked.
"I have experience, remember?" Callum smiled.
"Oh, got it!" Keith cried, pulling out the item Callum had just described from the recesses of the box he had been searching through.
"Brilliant!" Callum beamed, taking it from him. "I better go put it on now!" They returned to the main console. "Okay, Doctor, what am I doing with this?"
"Just stick it to the side of the TARDIS and push down. It'll clamp itself on and it'll raise the forcefield around the TARDIS."
"Okie doke, got it," Callum nodded, jumping down the other set of stairs towards the front doors. He unlocked the right hand door and yanked it open, immediately being hit by a blast of air from outside that then seemed to start pulling the air out the way.
"I thought you didn't get draughts of wind in space?" Laura yelled to the Doctor, over the screeching sirens and the now howling wind.
"It's time and space energy," the Doctor yelled back in respsonse. "It's all wibbly!"
"Sometimes I feel like that's the only answer he's got," Keith cried, grabbing hold of the railing to keep himself from being pulled forwards.
Callum was struggling to place the booster on the door, as the pull of the air was incredibly strong. He tried to adjust his footing so that he could hook his left foot behind the left hand door, so he could get round to the side to place the booster on the side of the TARDIS. He looked up briefly and gasped at the sight before him.
The rift storm was gigantic, stretching on as far as his eyes could see. It was like miles upon miles of blue and white clouds, with streaks of lightning far out in the distance. It all seemed to be converging on one central point, where what appeared to be a streak of black energy was crackling wildly at the centre.
Suddenly, the TARDIS jerked wildly, and a blast of the rift energy smashed off the side, causing Callum to lose his grip on the booster. It began to drift away, and he reached out to catch it, when another blast of energy smacked the big blue box. Callum yelled out in surprise as his hand lost grip of the door and he felt himself falling outwards.
"Doctor!"
"Callum!" he heard his three friends yell out in unison. He was falling now, but at the same time he was being carried by the strong pull of the winds, straight into the heart of the storm. Somehow, probably coming through the rift, oxygen was still filling his lungs and he said a quick thanks to whatever alien gods were smiling down on him in this sector of the Universe...
Then he remembered he was probably about to be frazzled to death at the centre of the storm.
"Oh," he said, simply, as he was dragged straight into the storm's heart.
"We've got to go after him," Laura yelled.
"Yes, I know," the Doctor replied. "It's alright – now that we're closer to the rift I can see where it currently leads to." He gazed at the scanner. "Luckily, especially for him, it seems capable of supporting human life."
"So are we gonna go through after him then?" Keith asked. The Doctor shook his head.
"Nope, it'll be leading somewhere else now," he replied. "You see, the time/space energy coming from it tends to fluctuate, and it can lead to anywhere else in the Universe, so it tends to change a lot."
"So, how can you be certain?"
"I locked on to him, now could one of you go shut the door so I can get us into the time vortex?"
"Yeah, okay, I'll get it!" Keith said.
"Three, two, one - geronimo!" the Doctor cried, yanking down on a lever and leaping backwards as the console erupted in a flurry of sparks.
"We're coming, Callum!" yelled Laura, holding on to the pilot seat in an attempt to resist the momentum of the rapidly speeding TARDIS as it rocketed through the time vortex.