"Nice to meet you." The Doctor said shaking the man's hand. "Now tell us what's going on."
Ren looked into the Doctor's eyes, searching for something. He must have found it because he started, hopeful. "Well, the Eadel accelerator was stripped, creating all this fruage build up." The man started to walk to another side of the machine. "Then you see the heating and cooling system disintegrating, literally, and on top of all that, the circuit ring has just gone off line." He said pointing at certain wires and pipes. The Doctor pulled out a pair of black rimmed glasses and put them on.
"But the back-up circuit ring is working." The Doctor stated.
"Yes, but it wasn't designed to for very long. Just long enough to replace it, but we don't even make those anymore. That was such a long time ago." Ren said, clearly stressed. Jack was able to follow some of it, but not all of the explanation. Hayley didn't understand at all. She looked at Jack, wondering if he knew what they were saying. Jack smiled at her, then spoke up.
"Uh, Doctor?" the Doctor turned to them, realizing they had no clue what was going on.
"Right, sorry. Basically, the machine is failing and they don't have the parts to fix it. Without the machine, the planet will most likely explode (due to the machine), and if it doesn't explode first, it will fall out of orbit around the sun. We're so far back, the sun has such little hold on the planet. Of course, the explosion would knock it all out of orbit as well…"
"But if we did explode, we would be putting more worlds in danger. The debris could easily travel to other planets. It would be most devastating for Earth because that's the closest one with life on it…" Ren added. A chill ran down their spines, realizing how bad it would be for earth. They were all silent for a moment.
"So, what do we do?" Jack asked, more as a statement than a question, knowing they had to help. They were all silent for a few moments.
"How long could the planet stand without the machine?" Hayley broke the silence. Ren wasn't sure. He looked to the Doctor for guidance.
"Well, taking into consideration the mass of the planet, the distance from the sun, the size of the sun, and the rate in which were going." The Doctor did the math in his head. "I'd say between an hour to two… Assuming I'm right." Jack knew he was. He always was.
"That's not a lot of time." Jack said. Ren shook his head hopelessly.
"Why do you ask?" the Doctor wanted to know where Hayley was originally going with that thought.
"Well, if we could figure out a way to get the machine away so that when it explodes, it won't hurt anyone, couldn't we use the TARDIS's electromagnetic field ray to place the planet in orbit around another star?" they all looked at each other both amazed at Hayley's creative thought process, and toying with the idea.
"How are we going to get the machine far enough away so it wouldn't destroy anything?" Jack asked.
"What if you used whatever it is that you were going to use to move the planet?" Ren suggested.
"No, we can't do that. There wouldn't be enough time. We would need the time to move the planet. It's not like that's an easy task." The Doctor said.
"If only there was a safe place for it to explode…" Jack said. Hayley turned to Jack with excitement on her face. Jack noticed her grinning and had no idea why.
"You know, the end of a planet is not good…" Jack said amused.
"That's it!" Hayley said. Jack noticed she acted a lot like the Doctor, especially when faced with this type of circumstance. That could be good at times, but a worried thought crossed his mind, knowing that that could also be really bad.
"What?" the Doctor said, breaking Jack from his trance.
"We can use the TARDIS to bring the machine to a safe place to explode that's not that far from here!" Hayley said, excitedly. No one followed.
"The Rift! If we can find a crack in the Rift that is close enough, the TARDIS can dump the machine in there, letting it explode there, come back and bring the planet to another location!" She said. They all looked at the Doctor for conformation to see if it would work. Ren didn't exactly understand all they meant, but all he knew was it was a plan and that's all he wanted- a way out. The Doctor turned to Ren.
"How long will it take you to get the machine on all its back-up units including its power supplies?" Ren shrugged.
"An Hour should do it…" Ren guessed.
"Wait, how are we going to get the machine out of the building?" Jack cut in. they all looked around.
"Well, the floors easily fold back wherever we want for maintenance." Ren said.
"The building is built around this thing. We would have to rip out the wall…" The Doctor concluded.
"Make sure you evacuate the area around the machine on this side of the building." Jack ordered Ren. Ren nodded.
"Alright." The Doctor said, conclusively.
"Break!" Hayley cut in. everyone stared at her. Hayley's face suddenly got red as she realized this probably wasn't the best time for a joke. "…I saw it on the television…" Hayley muttered. They all started chuckling. Jack ruffled Hayley's hair as her flushed cheeks started returning to their normal color (which were always a bit flushed as it was).
The Doctor, Jack, and Hayley walked briskly back to the TARDIS. When they got in, the Doctor took his station at the controls. Jack and Hayley braced for the ride on the railing encompassing the 'engine'-so to speak. The Doctor lifted the TARDIS in the air and started bringing it to the building.
"Hmm…" The Doctor mumbled to himself as he tapped the control screen.
"What?" Jack asked, hearing his 'hmm'. The Doctor looked up from what he was doing with a questioning look.
"You just 'hmm-phed'."
"Oh, I was wrong on the date… by a few years actually…"
"…So when are we?" Jack asked with a tad bit of attitude.
"You're present time…"
"Great, so whatever we do is going to affect now?" the Doctor didn't answer. Instead, he went back to concentrating on flying the TARDIS.
They flew around the building to the side they had planned on knocking out. The Doctor pulled up the room Ren was in on the screen.
"Ren?"
"Yes Doctor?" he talked into his communication system the Doctor had patched into.
"Is everyone evacuated from this side?"
"Yeah, all clear Doctor."
"Okay then! Allioup!" the Doctor said, bringing up something else on the screen now.
"Um, Doctor, what are you going to use to cut through the wall?" Hayley asked, curious.
"The laser of course." The Doctor said, smiling like a boy who just opened his Christmas present before Christmas. Hayley nodded as she smiled. The Doctor went to work cutting only the places necessary to get the machine out. Once the Doctor finished, the Doctor used the TARDIS to remove the bit of the wall he cut out and brought it to the empty area on the ground.
"Alright, Ren, how are we doing on time?" the Doctor said over the communications link he established.
"We're doing alright. About 20 minutes left." Ren said.
"And how long do you need to finish switching everything over to the portable systems?"
"Well, we'll be cutting it close, but I think we should be alright."
"Good man. Keep working." The Doctor motivated. Ren worked faster. The Doctor Worked on his electronic screen, searching for Rift activity.
"Find anything yet?" Jack asked, knowing what he was doing.
"There is an active crack a couple thousand miles away. I'm just worried there won't be enough time to get the machine in there before it explodes, then get to the planet before its orbit decreases too much and it goes into a violent spin before I can get a hold of it."
"Are there any other places the Rift is active?" Jack asked.
"No. That's the closest." The Doctor sighed. "It will have to do. There will just be no room for error." The Doctor looked up and saw the worry on Jack and Hayley's faces. "Just the way I like it." The Doctor said smiling, and reassuring. Hayley and Jack relaxed a bit. The Doctor leaned back in his chair that was a permanent fixture near the controls of the TARDIS. Hayley hopped up on the railing sitting on it. The Doctor noticed that if a regular person were to sit the way she was on the railing, they would fall right away. It still amazed him. Jack leaned against the rail Hayley was sitting on, not even attempting what she did.
"What? Not quite as agile as before?" The Doctor teased.
"Hey! Never aging, remember?" Jack teased back. They smiled. "So, were you going to finish that story?..." The Doctor smiled. He loved a good story.
(Exactly 20 minutes later)
Everyone was cracking up on the ground. Jack whipped a tear from his eyes. The Doctor too, was on the floor wiping his eyes a bit and holding onto one of the handles of the control panel of the TARDIS, trying to get up off the floor during his laugh attack. Hayley was holding her stomach, laughing hard, though she was rolling around in the air instead of the floor.
"I can't believe she did that!" Jack said between laughs.
"I know!" the Doctor said, finally getting off the floor.
"Doctor?" Ren's voice echoed through their laughter.
"Oh, yes Ren?" the Doctor said, having forgotten why he was there for a moment, but remembering as soon as Ren called him.
"We're ready." Ren said.