A/N a la Sara: Sorry about the lateness, everybody. Sort of lost track of time. Anyway, here it is!
Chapter Twenty-Five
Yana led us to the chart and spoke about the call across the stars, beyond the Condensate Wilderness. Out towards the wildlands and the dark matter reefs, calling for those scattered across the night. When he said the Utopia Project was thousands of years old, I wondered if we'd just come too late to help. Maybe if the TARDIS hadn't taken us to the end of all things, we could have taken the last of the humans to Utopia. But the Doctor didn't know that yet, and he still had hope. He wanted to look for Utopia as much as they did.
I was already starting to squirm when Yana's face creased with pain. He closed his eyes, tapping unconsciously.
"Professor? Professor?" the Doctor said, trying to get through to him.
"I—I—Right, that's enough talk. There's work to do. Now if you could leave. Thank you." He walked away, looking flustered, bewildered. Part of me wanted to help him, and the other part of me wondered why. My gut reaction was, But I like him. And then I remembered who he was, and my stomach tried to run away.
"You all right?" asked the Doctor.
No, actually, I wanted to say, my stomach is running away.
"Yes. I'm fine! And busy!" Yana called.
Liar, liar, pants on fire… bow before your Master.
"Except," the Doctor said, turning a grave gaze on Yana. "That rocket's not going to fly, is it? This footprint mechanism thing, it's not working."
"We'll find a way!"
"You're stuck on this planet." He looked at Chantho, who was watching the two of them with some confusion. "And you haven't told them, have you? That lot out there, they still think they're gonna fly."
"Well, it's better to let them live in hope," Yana said rather fiercely.
And he'd stay behind to let them. Why is everything so wrong? For the first time, I wished I wasn't with the Doctor to go through it.
,.,.,.,.,.,.,.
I felt much the same way, actually. I would've rather been anywhere else. Even in the labyrinth.
There were occasional moments when I would almost enjoy living the episode, but then Yana would have a moment, and I'd be jolted back to reality. There had to be something I could do to stop this.
I can't imagine that the Doctor was anything less than ecstatic to hear Yana talking about living in hope, but he hid it well, remaining calm and cool as ever.
"Quite right, too. And I must say, Professor," he said, taking off his coat and passing it to whoever was nearby. In this case, it was me. "Um, what was it?"
Not that he'll ever forget after today.
"Yana."
"Professor Yana. This new science is well beyond me, but all the same, a boost reversal circuit, in any time frame, must be, a circuit which reverses the boost. So, I wonder, what would happen if I did this?"
He picked up the circuit, sonicked it, and switched it on. Red lights flashed and alarms went off, which in this moment, felt like we were all about to explode. Judging by Yana and Chantho's delight, this probably wasn't the case.
"Chan—it's working—tho!"
"But how did you do that?" asked Yana.
"Oh, while we've been chatting away, I forgot to tell you. I'm brilliant."
I smiled briefly, and we sprang into action. The Doctor and Yana paired off at the controls, as did Chantho and Martha, and Grace and I helped Jack throw things across the room to various stations. We also helped drop things and broke a circuit board, which meant that Martha and Chantho had to go out for another one. I suppose they were fated to do that anyway, because Martha talked to Creet in the episode, but it was something like watching Lion King 1 ½.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Atillo's voice rang out over us. "All passengers prepare for immediate boarding. I repeat, all passengers prepare for immediate boarding. Destination: Utopia."
I ignored this, instead concentrating on maintaining our cover around Jack. He kept looking at us suspiciously, as if saying, "I know you're not the Doctor's kids. You're too American and not clever enough."
I saw the Doctor and Yana carrying on their conversation. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I knew well enough. The Doctor fanboys over Yana's resourcefulness, Yana laments the word Professor, the Doctor fanboys some more and figures out that Yana can't leave, etc. I was distracted from my not-exactly eavesdropping by Jack shouting in my ear to hold on to something. He called me "freckles." I nearly smacked him, but was interrupted by Atillo's voice over the intercom. "Professor, tell the Doctor we've found his blue box."
Everybody breathed a sigh of relief except me and Grace, who didn't seem to react at all. I wondered how she could be so… nonchalant about everything. It wasn't like her. The again, I don't suppose I was exactly being myself. The Master's imminence does that to you, I guess.
Jack called the Doctor, who came over to the monitor, Yana on his heels.
"Professor, it's a wild stab in the dark, but I may just have found you a way out."
I couldn't bring myself to look at Yana's expression upon seeing the TARDIS.
The Doctor went out the door and several minutes later, a forklift, or whatever the end of the universe's equivalent would be, deposited the TARDIS in the lab. A few seconds later, the Doctor exited the TARDIS, bringing out a long power line from inside and plugging into a huge olive green outlet.
"Extra power! Little bit of a cheat, but who's counting? Jack, you're in charge of the retro-feeds."
"Right. Tegan, will you help me?" Jack said.
My instinct was to say, "Why are you picking on me?", but Martha and Chantho entered the room with the replacement circuit boards.
"Oh, am I glad to see that thing!" said Martha upon spotting the TARDIS. Chantho barely looked at it, instead noticing Yana looking pale and sitting down.
"Chan—Professor, are you all right—tho?"
"Yes, I'm fine. I'm fine… I'm fine! Just get on with it."
"Connect those circuits into the spar—same as that last lot. But quicker," said Jack. I felt almost bad about this, but I was somewhat pleased to see Jack shouting at somebody besides me. Sorry, Martha.
"Yes, sir."
"I'll help you with that, Martha," said Grace, sticking her tongue out at Jack. As she turned to follow Martha, she tossed her hair in disdain.
"Teenagers," I said, taking great pleasure in the quizzical look l received from Jack. The feeling faded, however, when I spotted the Doctor going over to Yana, who was still resting. They were close enough that I could hear them this time.
"You don't have to keep working, we can handle it."
"It's just a headache," said Yana. "Just—Just noise inside my head, Doctor. Constant noise inside my head."
"What sort of noise?"
"It's the sound of drums. More and more as though it's getting closer."
"When did it start?"
"Oh, I've had it all my life. Every waking hour. Still, no rest for the wicked." He stood up and went back to work. He looked so weary, I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
"Here, run this over to Martha," said Jack, passing me some technical gadget which I couldn't even begin to describe. "And no dawdling!"
I raised my eyebrow at him for a second, then put my hands together and bowed low. "Ah, yes, Sahib. My feet are like wings, Sahib."
"Cheeky!" he called after me. "Just like your dad."
I smiled proudly.
"Oi!" called the Doctor.
I arrived with Martha and the others in time to hear Grace saying, "Ga. What if I talked like you? Race."
And my facepalm was epic.
Chantho, of course, merely giggled. "Chan—that would be silly for a human—tho!"
After Martha took the… whatever it was, Jack sent me out to grab two more circuit boards. Having, ahem, "inherited" the Doctor's sense of direction, I got lost.
Luckily, I ran into (quite literally) a nice-looking man with dark hair and green eyes. His face was familiar, but I couldn't place it. We chatted a little about clumsiness, and laughed nervously for a moment in that way you do before becoming the best of friends, and found out that we were both heading for the control room. He told me about how he wanted to be an explorer, and that he and his fiancée were going to explore Utopia together once they got married. I told him that I could never decide what I wanted to be, so I decided to be an actor and do a little bit of everything, but that hadn't worked out – end of the universe and all, so I started traveling. He smiled a heart-melting smile and then told me his name was Jate, and I couldn't bring myself to say anything else.
When we got to the control room, Atillo was trying to get in touch with Yana, who was going in and out of focus on the surprisingly '80's-looking monitor. "Professor, are you getting me?"
"I'm here! We're ready! Now all you need to do is connect the couplings. Then we can launch." His face dissolved into static. Atillo swore, pushed a button a few times hurriedly, and handed a hazmat suit to Jate. "What do they need?" he asked me.
"Two more circuit boards, fast as you can," I said quickly, realizing that I'd wasted a lot of time by getting lost and that Jack would have my head when I got back. Oh yeah, and Yana was about to turn into the Master.
Atillo grabbed the circuit boards, pushed them into my hands, and went back to the monitor. "Are you still there?"
Yana's face reappeared.
"Ah, present and correct. Send your man inside. We'll keep the levels down from here."
"Where the heck is Tegan?" I heard Jack shouting.
"Tell Colonel Klink I'm on my way, just got a bit lost," I said, rolling my eyes.
"She's on her way," said Atillo.
I took one last, long look at Jate, and went on my way, trying and failing to blink back tears.