"Hello assorted Quarks," I said brightly with a wave as we entered what had to be the main control room. The Doctor snorted before going serious as we were escorted to the side of the room. His gaze was stuck on the computer, so I decided to be quiet while he studied it and took the opportunity to scan the room. There were five Quarks, all with their square bodies with the spiked round thing for heads, a large computer with many flashing symbols that I couldn't make out, and a door that was very conveniently about five feet to our right.
"Now will you answer my questions?" The Doctor asked as he fell into a casual pose. I could tell he was ready to get back into the swing of things. He did love barrelling people over with all his questions that he knew the answers to.
"You will answer ours first," One of the Quarks said. I decided I would label that Quark as Quark 2.
"Oh, will I?" The Doctor asked incredulously and leaned forward. "What makes you think that? I asked first."
"Are you nine or nine hundred?" I asked teasingly.
"I once very brilliantly said what's the point of being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes." I raised my eyebrow up at him before I tipped my head to one side.
"That is pretty good actually," I said, and he passed me a delighted grin before he looked back at the Quarks with an expectant look.
"How did you get here?" Quark 3 asked, and the Doctor rolled his eyes.
"That's the question you're leading with? How I got here? TARDIS obviously," he said. "How long have you been stealing planets from the Daleks?"
"I thought you knew the answer to that question," I said. He flapped his hands at me.
"I want it confirmed," he said and raised his eyebrow up at the Quarks like he was waiting. They were silent for a few moments before Quark 4 spoke.
"The War presented an opportunity that we took advantage of," Quark 4 said which confirmed what the Doctor had said earlier.
"Is this where we ask about the hierarchy?" I asked and the Doctor laughed. When he looked at me to smile at me, I inclined my head towards the unguarded door. His eyes flicked over to it before he nodded once stiffly.
"We can certainly try. So, are you going to tell us?" The Doctor asked brightly as he turned back to the Quarks.
"You are an enemy," Quark 1 said, and the Doctor tipped his head to the side.
"Well." I bit down on my lip so I wouldn't laugh as he dragged out the word. "I'm a lot of people's enemies. Emma, sonic please."
"Oh." I placed it into his open palm. "Sorry I forgot I was holding it."
"You will not foil our plans," Quark 3 said and moved forward. The Doctor's face pinched up in response, so I readied myself to run as soon as he gave the word.
"Well we're certainly going to try and quite frankly my success rate is much higher than yours." He extended the sonic and several sparks flew up from the computers. "Run Emma!"
I took off immediately and ducked under what looked to be a taser prong though I didn't stop to check. Commotion rose up behind me and I risked a glance over my shoulder to check that the Doctor was behind me.
"Odds of a handy service closet to hide in?" I asked over our footfalls.
"Slim," he said as he caught up to me, grabbed my hand and held the sonic up to his ear. "Communications, communications."
"Pretty sure that's behind us," I said.
"The main communications satellite is not," he said as we skidded to a stop at a fork in the hallway. I took the opportunity to try and catch my breath a bit.
"You're clearly quite a bit further ahead on the plan than I am. Fill me in?" I asked.
"Take out the main communications satellite. Which will make all the Quarks that are spread across the galaxy come back here to see what's happened," he said before he nodded and tugged me down the left hallway.
"Is there a step after that?"
"Not as such," he said after a few moments and if I hadn't been focusing on using my air for running, I would have laughed. He must have been able to tell from my expression because he shot me a fondly exasperated look.
"Where is this satellite exactly? Because I kind of assumed the Quarks were using an underground base so that the planet still looked uninhabited and I feel like a great big metal thing would have detracted from that," I said and the Doctor jerked us to a stop as he stared at me unblinkingly for several moments.
"Emma Bradley you are brilliant!" He cried and jumped forward to kiss my forehead. "Utterly brilliant!"
"I'm glad you think so because I'm feeling confused again," I said. He waved the sonic around dramatically. "Words please."
"It's why I can't get a read on where the communications satellite is! It's not a centralized location!" I squinted at him while trying to put it all together before I shook my head.
"Nope still confused." He shifted his hand to wave at the ground above us.
"The ruins Emma! They linked the communications through the ruins! The ruins are the satellite!"
"That actually makes sense," I said. We'd explored the ruins where the TARDIS had landed, but they had sprawled across the land for miles and we'd decided to work our way towards the ocean instead of continuing to explore them. Reasonably, even though the ruins were so spread out they could still transmit smaller more direct communications that the Quarks were most likely sending.
"We need to get back to the surface," he said, and I shuddered at his words. He looked at me in concern.
"Sorry I just forgot we were underground and well we don't have the greatest track record with underground," I said quickly. His eyes went soft and his hands fell to my shoulders.
"Everything is going to be fine," he said, and I smiled.
"I swear to God if you just jinxed us." I trailed off meaningfully which made him laugh before he tugged on my hand.
"Come on. We can overload the system by sending a too big message too far," he said as we set off again.
"The things our plans come down to baffles me sometimes." He passed me a giant grin.
"I'm sure I have no idea what you are talking about," he said as we came to a stop and pointed up at the roof. "Here we go."
"Would you like me to shove my head through the ground above us?" I asked lightly as I tipped my head back to look up at the solid roof over us. He grumbled something I couldn't catch and I heard the sonic whirr and the ground above us split neatly into a square. "Why couldn't you do that before I fell several feet through the earth?"
"Emma sometimes I have no idea what to say to you," he said as he handed me the camera bag back which I slung over my shoulder before he cupped his hands and held them up to me as he squatted down slightly. I stared at him for several moments.
"You can't be serious," I said. He moved his hands slightly.
"It's either a boost or jump for it." I looked back up at the distance and sighed. Knowing my luck I'd probably miss and concuss myself and cause the Doctor to have a panic attack.
"Fine. I trust you won't look up my skirt," I muttered as I placed one hand on his shoulder to steady myself as I placed my foot in his waiting hands. He gave me an offended noise and a three count before he boosted me up and I hooked my arms over the edge and heaved myself over. I rolled out of the way as the Doctor simply jumped for it.
"Graceful," he teased as he swept bits of grass out of my hair. I shoved him good naturedly. "Come on ruins this way."
"Hang on I just want to check on the camera," I said as I shifted the bag to make sure I hadn't crushed it. It still seemed to be intact, so I breathed a sigh of relief and flashed the Doctor a thumbs up.
"That's the second time you've checked on it."
"Well it is the second time I've landed on it," I said. I couldn't quite figure out why he was looking at me in the quizzical way he was so I nudged him.
"Why such concern?"
"I like pictures. They keep people in my life when they leave. And after we bumped into my Dad, I felt like I needed something a little permanent for you," I said without really thinking about it as I tested to see if it was worth keeping the apples in the bag or if I should just toss them now while feeling the stab of grief for Ianto. I blinked up at the Doctor after several moments of silence passed. "What?"
"Emma sometimes you absolutely break my heart." I couldn't make out the expression on his face and gave him a smile.
"Same to you," I teased, but he just shook his head.
"I am not leaving. I will never leave." I reached out and wrapped my hand around his to squeeze his fingers. "Ah here we go."
"A junction box," I said as the Doctor soniced the cover off and exposed the wires.
"Just going to have to do a bit of rewiring," he said as he immediately tangled his fingers in the wires. I assumed that doing so had a purpose though I couldn't quite tell.
"Have you figured out what the overly large message is going to be?" I asked as I squatted down next to him. He angled a small metallic bit towards me.
"That's your job," he said, and I blinked at him.
"I'm sorry what?" He shrugged at me.
"This is your chance to educate the Quarks on something. Babble about nonsense," he said.
"I love how you said educate and babble about nonsense in the same sentence," I said before I squeezed my eyes shut and decided to just run through the British Royal line of inheritance from William the Conqueror to Elizabeth II. I got a little tripped up during the War of the Roses, which I didn't think anyone could fault me for, and had just gotten to the utter mess that was Cromwell when we were interrupted.
"Stand aside!" A Quark cried and the Doctor and I both spun around immediately in alarm. Time seemed to slow down as several things happened at once.
The Doctor's arm went up with the sonic extended and the Quark jerked to an unnatural stop as the taser prongs shot out from the Quark's arms.
A moment of clarity struck as I realized they were headed straight for me and I found myself praying this wouldn't kill me. Then the Doctor was in front of me and jerked as the taser hit him.
Time snapped back to normal when I screamed as the Doctor hit the ground still twitching slightly. I dropped to my knees next to him.
"Oh my god. Please don't be dead." I reached out to him with shaking hands. I rolled him over and the taser prongs slid off him. "I need you to tell me if you're about to regenerate. Oh my god."
I reached to take his pulse before I realized that I was shaking way too hard to even try so I pressed my palms against his chest as best I could. It took several seconds before I determined that his left heart had quit pumping, but his right heart was still going.
"Emma you're crushing my heart," he groaned, and I leaned back.
"No, I'm afraid the taser did that," I said jerkily as I was shaking badly enough I was concerned I would bite through my tongue. He reached up and rubbed at his chest.
"God how do you humans do it?" He groaned as he dragged himself to lean against the ruins next to the junction box.
"We never grew a second heart," I said as I followed him.
"You'll have to finish the rewiring. I still have some electricity bouncing around." He cracked his eyes to look at me before I could summon a protest and he sat bolt upright. "Emma you're shaking."
"Really? I hadn't noticed," I said as sarcastically as I could manage. I hadn't had the shakes this bad since I'd gone on the tour of the Draconian sewer system.
"Why?" He sounded legitimately concerned so I took a breath and forced out the answer.
"I'm trying terribly hard to not have a panic attack, but all that anxious energy has to go somewhere." I peered at the bundle of wires that the Doctor had abandoned. "You'd best walk me through this with small instructions."
"Emma-"
"I can do it. If I can pick a lock with Dimitri like this I can rewire a junction box," I said firmly. He studied me for a brief moment before he nodded and walked me through the job.
"Sonic setting eighty-seven will do the job," the Doctor said after we had finished. I scooped up the sonic and mentally crossed my fingers as it started whirring. A small set of sparks flew up and I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Maybe I should just do physical stuff every time I panic," I mused as I raised my hand to see that the shaking had decreased so much that it was practically non-existent.
"I'd rather you not panic at all," he said, and I shrugged.
"Well then don't jump in front of tasers."
"And let you die from the electrocution!?" He said, thick with an emotion I couldn't quite place. "Emma I will take as many bullets as I deem necessary if it means keeping you alive."
"Speaking of alive," I said after I stared at him for a few moments too long. "Has your heart started back up yet?"
"Nope."
"Should we sort that out here or back at the TARDIS?" I asked.
"Back at the TARDIS I should think." I stood up and held my hand out to him to help him up. He groaned dramatically as he got to his feet and I shook my head at him.
"Were all Time Lords this dramatic or just you?" He shot me a look at that and I just grinned at him.
XXXXX
So there is a reason why I didn't post last week, and that reason is because I was on vacation and forgot that I would be away from my laptop over a Thursday and therefore didn't prep in advance. That's a whoops on my part.