Chapter 20

[I decided to drop arc 6. This isn't relevant to you, anything important moved to arc 5, but since I said there were 12 arcs I thought I'd mention the change in plans.]

Pride woke up. For real this time. He got the vague feeling he'd opened his eyes before, but he had not been awake. He also noticed his headache was gone, and he felt a lot more alert. So those problems must've been caused by lack of sleep. It never ceased to annoy him how fragile humans were.

More aware, he glanced around the room. The bed felt a lot like the one at home, but it was clearly not his room. The lights above him were round and a dim yellow, and the walls he could see had those strange glowing rock structures supporting them. Like the ones in the Doctor's console room.

Wait. He was on the ship?

He sat up. He was definetly in a bedroom, all be it a small one. There was a small dresser, that could second as a nightstand, and a closet. He was still wearing his first layer shirt and pants, which had thankfully stayed dry. He couldn't see his wet clothes from the snow. He wasn't sure what had happened after he passed out, but it seemed the Doctor must've won. And she must not have suspected he had anything to do with Oliver's death, or waking up probably would've been more unpleasant. Being nearly frozen himself, five seconds later, had probably helped throw off suspicion.

He got up, and the lights turned on a bit brighter. Pride tensed up and looked around. Right. The TARDIS was alive. Hadn't the Doctor said that?

"You don't have to hang around here," he called out to the room. "I'm sure you've got other things to do."

There was no response, of course, but the feeling that he wasn't alone didn't go away. Pride sighed. He turned his attention to the room. He found his wet clothes hanging up in the closet, along with his shoes. The vest he'd had earlier was in the dresser. After the cyberman adventure, it was looking a little singed. He put it and the shoes back on anyway, and left the room.

Outside was silent except for a hum the TARDIS seemed to be giving off. The hall extended in both directions, seemingly forever. Pride peered down both ways. Neither seemed very different from the other, but he could see light further down the hall to the right.

Pride huffed. "Alright then."

There were a few doors on both sides of the hall as he walked down, but he ignored them. He didn't stop until he reached the end of the hall, with a white metal sliding door. That he pushed open.

It was a kitchen. An almost normal kitchen. Oh there were a few things Pride didn't recognize, but the vital parts were there, largely unchanged. There was a card table with some chairs around it, a counter, a sink, some cupboards, and a refrigerator. That was certainly enough to start with.

He started looking around. He found some bread in the refrigerator. Right. Toast sounded good. He closed the door, and suddenly someone was there, at the edge of the counter, looking in the cupboards.

Pride stared for a moment. It wasn't the Doctor. This was a man who looked like about half his body was made of black metal. The more human looking side of his head had black hair, and a brown eye. There seemed to be a faint red glow from under the metal parts, showing through the slight gaps between the plates.

The man closed the cupboard and noticed Pride was there. He smiled, revealing the metal part of his face also had pointy metal teeth. "Well hello there. And who do we have here?"

Pride did some very fast thinking. He had no idea who this person was, which always made first interactions a little hard, but if he was on this ship, Pride was going to play it safe and keep his act up.

"I'm Selim Bradley. Who are you? And why are you covered in metal? Is it automail?"

It was the closest thing Pride could think of, but he already knew that wasn't right.

"Automail?"

Pride nodded. "Metal limbs. People at home get them, if they lose one."

"Must be a thing from your planet then," the man said, waving a hand. "It's not automail. On my planet we have species made of metal, on the outside. I had a bit of an incident. Name's Porter. It's a pleasure to meet you."

He extended his right hand, namely the metal glowing one. Pride could see different plates moving to open his hand, but couldn't see any further to the workings below. He looked up at Porter skeptically, and added some fear into his expression as well.

"Is that safe?"

"If I want it to be," Porter said, smiling.

It looked like how he and his siblings smiled, which was a less than reassuring sign. Pride shook it anyway. It certainly heated his hand up. The grip wasn't as unpleasant as he'd expected though. Automail could be bone crushing. Was Porter holding back?

Porter laughed as Pride turned back to putting his bread in the toaster. "So kid, where are you from?"

"Amestris?"

"You're going to have to be a lot vaguer."

Pride tried the planet he was from instead.

Porter sighed, leaning against the counter. "Well, at least it's not Earth this time."

Based on context, Pride was going to assume Earth was a planet. It raised a different question though.

"What do you mean, 'this time'?"

Porter set to work also making breakfast, and drinking orange juice straight from the jug. "I mean the Doctor picks up companions all the time. Usually from some isolated planet that doesn't know the first thing about the rest of the universe. Earth is a favorite of hers, but yours sounds similar. What? Did you think you were the only companion the Doctor's ever had? Don't be so arrogant."

You have no idea what you're asking.

He tried to ignore the dramatic irony in Porter's wording, and focus on the Doctor. She hadn't wanted him to come. He had to ask her and she'd still been reluctant. So it would be a logical assumption. But considering how old she was, and how easily she'd relented, it was also obviously wrong. Of course, she'd picked up other people.

"Are you a . . . companion too then?" he asked.

Porter's aimiable expression fell, becoming more neutral. His human eye shifted to a faraway look.

"No." His voice had taken on a multiple voice echo, a bit like Pride's shadows. "I am the Doctor's enemy."

He raised his metal hand. The plates of his palm peeled back, and a blast of something came out. Pride wasn't sure what. It was very bright, but didn't hurt him despite how close he was. Then when it was gone the wall behind him was completely destroyed, as well as possibly things behind the wall, leaving a gaping hole. Porter continued to stare in that direction, seemingly not seeing him.

The toaster dinged. Pride took his toast and left the room.