~revised~

Chapter III

Mira

She tried to get her bearings whilst following the Doctor but she wasn't even sure they were walking down the same corridor she had come from. It looked the same, and apart from that it was the only corridor leading from the console room. And yet it seemed to head in a different direction. He on the other hand seemed to know exactly where to go. He should, for it was his strange living ship, she thought carefully to not upset the TARDIS again. She really felt sorry for doing so earlier.

"Here we are!" he exclaimed and stopped suddenly, causing her to almost bump into him.

He opened a door, which she could have sworn hadn't been here a moment ago. She had explicitly kept attention to the walls and the corridor whilst walking behind him. No doors.

"Nice," he said as he looked into the room.

Mira froze to the spot as she saw what was laying behind the door. She knew that room – or to be more precise: that apartment - all to well, although it was centuries ago since she had last stayed there. The whole complex had been demolished by now. Although it had been modest and rather small and not a match at all for her huge flat in Terrania she had always loved it. There had been everything she needed, plus a nice view over the surface of the moon with the Earth hanging in the black sky. Okay, no Earth here, for there was no window, but she hadn't just loved it for the sight.

It was the memories attached to it. Memories of good times. Times of stability and the feeling that everything would stay just like it was forever. Everything had been just perfect back then. Though she was aware that most likely it hadn't all been perfect. But now, looking back at it through the veil of time which was softening the edges, blurring everything and covering up the not so good parts, it certainly seemed so. It had been just before everything she had taken for granted had started to fall apart. Of course, new things had replaced the old ones and they weren't necessarily worse, but she hated change. And just as much as the thoughts of that past were filled with melancholy she also found comfort in it right now in this strange place so far away from home.

"Your ship did that?" Mira finally managed to say quietly. It dawned on her that the TARDIS wasn't just scratching the surface of her thoughts after all.

"Yup," he said, especially emphasising the p.

"So I guess she might have forgiven me?"

"Likely... Although you can never be too sure what exactly is going on with her." He shot her a glance out of huge dark eyes as innocent as it possibly could be and she couldn't help but smile at him. The first real, warm, non-ironic, non-grinning and non-sarcastic smile since she had woken up on this strange ship of him. And it even reached her eyes.

"Well then, good night," he smiled back and off he strode.

Good night, she thought. Hell, she didn't even know what time it was, because she didn't wear a watch. Then she noticed that she was missing her com-bracelet. It looked a bit like an overgrown wristwatch with an integrated positronic, radio and other useful things. So overgrown that it was a bit large and chunky for her rather small wrists, so she tended to take it off when she was at home, or in her quarters on a ship or - flying a space jet. She had put it on the console next to her and now it was gone for good. Just like everything else. Blown up. Bamm. Just like that. Not that there had been much of her personal items on the small, discuss-shaped ship anyway. But nevertheless, they had been the only things left of her own universe.

Talking about explosions...

She had closed the door to the apartment and now stood in front of the mirror in the small bathroom. She looked quite exploded herself. Her hair was frizzy and whole strands had managed to escape the huge bun on the back of her head. On her neckline were a view dark spots, most likely some sort of dust or ash. There had been some cables scorched on her ship and she had touched a few of them whilst trying to short-circuit them.

Oh, and there was indeed blood in her hair, and not an insignificant amount. She carefully shook her head, but she didn't seem to have a concussion. Not any more at least. A blow strong enough to knock someone out normally indicated a concussion. How long had she been unconscious?

Didn't matter now anyway, she decided and started to undressing herself, picking the hairpins out of her bun and not a minute later she stood under an unexpectedly hot shower. With water pressure that actually deserved the term "pressure". She had definitely seen different – meaning worse - things when it came to showers on spaceships.

She stood there for almost ten minutes, without thinking anything. Just giving her brain some time to sort out all the different impressions she had been confronted with over the last hours. As she felt her head had cleared up a bit under the streaming hot water (and feeling a bit guilty for using so much of it), she grabbed one of the bottles standing in the shower. It seemed to be shampoo and thankfully didn't smell much of anything. Just a faint hint of lavender and cloves. She just couldn't stand these intense, chemical smells from most shampoos. Same thing with the piece of soap she found lying there. Soap. Real, actual soap. Hard to come by where she came from, but she had grown up with this stuff, so she was always looking for it out of pure sentimentality. And yes, maybe also because she was a walking, talking anachronism as her friend Bully liked to tease her. Well, one needed to keep some things constant in one's life after all.

She froze on the spot for a moment. Of course. If the TARDIS new about this room, then she also new about those things. She looked around herself, almost shyly, mentally thanking the sentient spaceship. And it almost felt as if there was a happy humming in her head in return.

Not much later she was wrapped in a huge towel and sat on the bed, trying to comp the knots out of her long hair. It fell all over her back to the mid of her thighs. Although it was quite thick, it didn't look to massive, because she could never be bothered to regularly trim the ends, giving it some natural layering as it grew. When she was finished, she laid back on the rather soft blankets.

All right, she thought. The pile of problems didn't seem to get any smaller on its own, instead it seemed to overwhelm her more and more with every passing minute. This universe wasn't her own. She could feel it now with every fibre of her being. Everything seemed to be shifted, just ever so slightly, but shifted nevertheless. So even if there were humans and an Earth in this universe it could never be hers. It was just another planet with some alien species that looked like her people. She hoped she would be wrong but at the same time she feared it would be just like that. Anyway, she couldn't stay. Her plan was madness, she was only too aware of that, but not impossible. Although he was right that there was almost no chance of finding such a singularity, she herself saw it a bit differently. She might just happen to know when there would be one, and where. She neither was certain that she was really stuck here nor that there was a way back. Meaning it was still completely open, undecided. And when she was talking about feeling and knowing she actually meant knowing. She was not only an empath, she also had a certain sense for time. It was relatively rare compared to other psychic abilities, and no-one could fully explain it, but sometimes she just knew things. But if she would try to explain that to him he would probably just think she'd completely lost it. How would she even go about it?

Hey, listen, I sometimes have certain... feelings about future events. Well, you know, if they are 'decided' yet or not. Certain or not. If something is about to happen, no matter what. A bit clairvoyant, you now? In this case I think it's still out in the open, so I just go off searching throughout the universe. You can never now, can you?

Really? Not.

Or maybe... Judging from what she had seen of him, he might just believe her. Hadn't there always been people with something called a second sight? The gift of precognition? There had been proven cases of mutants sensitive to time. What was time other than a form of energy, a dimension? With the right kind of senses one could easily perceive it, scientifically speaking. Dammit, they had even travelled through time, forwards and backwards, so the future had already happened, was just as set as the past.

That humans weren't meant to see the future was a different topic. She herself found it downright frightening every time she made a "lucky guess" about something that was about to happen. Because it wasn't a guess. For her it was a certainty. Staring the inevitable in the eye, unable to change it.

Anyway, why bother? It was non of his business, she wasn't accountable to him in any way. In the end it didn't matter if he approved of her plans or not.

She stood up again, her hair almost dry by now. How long had it been? She didn't fell asleep, did she? She wasn't tired at all. She didn't need that much sleep anyway, due to the small egg-shaped device around her neck. She could feel its gentle pulses on her bare skin.

She opened the wardrobe, hoping for at least a few clean clothes. She didn't quite feel like asking him for one of his shirts, neither did she want to wear her clothes without washing them before doing so. Well, she had at least water and soap, so why not going back to the roots a bit? Wouldn't be the first time, anyway.

Luckily, the wardrobe was indeed filled with clothes. Shirts, trousers, even underwear. Mostly black, petrol, dark burgundy and grey in colour, which made her smile. Someone seemed to know her taste.

She went for a black, long sleeved and rather tight fitted shirt, with a neckline high enough to cover the cell-activator, and a pair of black trousers made of a soft and thin cotton fabric with slightly flared legs. No jeans in there, thankfully. Apart from being completely out of date where she came from (took them long enough), she had never liked them. No matter what colour. Just scratchy, stiff and uncomfortable.

She put her hair up in a high ponytail, draping strands around the base until it all resembled a rather complicated looking up do. Well, it looked complicated, but she had quite a lot of practice and could do it almost blindly. She finally looked at herself in the mirror, quite satisfied. No more exploded hair and the smell of clean clothes rather than burned plastic insulation in her nose. She didn't bother searching for any make-up, because she hardly ever put it on anyway.

She put on her shoes and finally headed for the console room. For a moment she thought about following the corridor in the opposite direction as he didn't explicitly say not to wander around. On the other hand, it would have stretched his hospitality a bit too far, she guessed. And she was afraid she might get lost.


Doctor

He was down under the console, the open maintenance hatch above him, deeply buried in cables and pipes and calibrating things. At least he pretended to, actually he was just messing around a bit, giving his old girl a bit of attention and making sure everything was as it should be. And killing some time. Mainly killing time. How long did humans need to sleep? Around eight hours? Plus about one hour for showering and stuff. Well, that meant he had enough time to think everything through now. He was still trying to put his finger on what was so weird about here. He was convinced he would find it out sooner or later if she would stay. If she wanted to. It would be really interesting to travel with someone like her.

Whilst thinking he was following a cable with his fingers in search for any damages. He was really drawn to her he realised, even though he only knew her for a few hours. Not to mention the way she had looked at him and what she had said about him. How she had seen him. That had touched him deeper than he liked to admit even to himself. And he couldn't have that. Not again. Get used to someone he knew he would lose sooner or later. Not that he really believed that there would be a way back for her, but she was human after all and would die of old age long before him.

He wasn't even sure why he had behaved as he did earlier on. He had almost challenged her about her psychic abilities. Well, almost? He had. What had come over him?

"What's that now, old girl?" he asked as gently as absent-mindedly, as he suddenly held a whole bunch of tangled cables in his hands. Carefully he continued searching for blank spots, de-tangling as much of them as possible. Maybe he shouldn't try to make her stay if she really was about to stick to her plan. He could help her as far as possible; he had no doubt that she would make her way, as capable as she appeared to be. Maybe he should even send her away no matter what as he hadn't offered her to stay yet.

"Ouch! What was that for?" he cried out as a strike of rather high voltage hit his fingers, sending sparks flying around and making him let go of the cables and pull back his hands.

"Got it," he whispered whilst rubbing his fingers. It really did hurt this time.

"Carefully," he heard a worried voice from above. "You alright?"

"Yeah, nothing happened," he replied, looking reproachfully at the cables.

"Good. Please try not to fry yourself. I'm afraid I'm not very good at first aid and resuscitation when it comes to your species."

"I'll try my best."

"I hope so," she said, her voice now way closer than before.

He finally looked up. There she was, sitting on the floor of the console room, looking down on him and still obviously worried. "That were quite some sparks. Sure that nothing happened?"

"I'm fine. But maybe you should better not touch anything down here. Humans are a bit more sensitive to electricity."

"I'd never dare."

He looked at her sceptically, but she obviously meant it.

"Mira, could you please give me this... thing. There, behind you."

She turned around her left side.

"No, other side. That... Thing."

"Which one? There are all sorts of things lying around!"

"This one. The long stick thing. That..."

She grabbed randomly one of the at least four stick things and handed it to him.

"This one?"

"Yes," he smiled broadly and continued in fixing the blank spots on the cable. "Listen, about that plan of yours...," he started, whilst freeing himself from cables and pipes before finally hopping up to the actual floor of the console room, closing the maintenance hatch behind him. She also stood up, arms crossed again in a somehow defensive demeanour.

"Yeah, I know. Sounds absolutely nuts. But anyway, you won't stop me," she replied.

"Why would I do that? Well, yes, it might sound a bit... ambitious. A bit more ambitious, probably. I mean, the really impossible kind of ambitious, like finding a single and specific drop of water in all of time and space-kind of plan."

"Thanks. Don't you think I know that by now?"

"What? Oh, sorry. Was that rude? Didn't mean that."

"Yes. Well.. No. You're right. I might take some time, but..."

"Hm?" he looked straight at her, because she clearly gave the impression as if she wanted to say something more.

"Nothing. Never mind."

"Well, what I was about to say...," he continued, starring intensely at her, "Maybe you could just stay here. With me..." he stopped as he saw the bewildered expression growing on her face. "No no no. That sounded a bit odd, didn't it? What I wanted to say was: You are looking for a ship to search for a way back. Well, as a matter of fact, I am doing pretty much the same thing. Well, besides looking for a way home, obviously. But the travelling thing. So, if you like you could just stay here. At least for a while. Or so. And trust me, if you want to find something in all of time and space, there is no better ship than the good old TARDIS." The TARDIS hummed in consent as he watched Mira from above, hands in his pockets, waiting for an answer. She appeared to be a bit knocked over by his speech.

"So... This is what you do? Just travel around? For a living?"

"For a living? Oh, I understand. Nah, don't need that."

"Don't need what? I mean, where do you get things from? This seems to be a rather large ship, and even so she is alive she can't just exist from... air and love alone!"

"Air and love?"

"It's just a saying," she sighed.

"Mira, it's really just like that. I don't need any money or whatever. I'm travelling just for the sake of it. For fun. I mean, at least that's the intention. Doesn't always work out."

"Okay, and where's the catch?" she asked.

"What catch?"

"Well, your hospitality already extended quite far for which I'm really grateful, but you surely know that I can't give you anything in return because I literally don't have anything left."

"Why are you humans always so materialistic?"

"What? That actually was a bit rude. I'm just trying to make up for-"

"Good. I meant that one. But for the record: There is no catch."

She still looked to be far from convinced.

"Are you doing that often? Inviting people you hardly know to come along with you?" she asked.

"Well, yes..., " he answered, rubbing the back of his head. "Sometimes it's nice to have a companion on board..."

At this moment, her face dropped. "Excuse me?", she managed to say. "Maybe we should first come clear about the meaning of the word companion in this case."

"What? I meant the obvious meaning of the word. Travel companions. What were you thinking?"

"Not much to be honest. But I have heard the weirdest things and proposals over time regarding this... topic. You have to admit, that whole stay-with-me-thing from earlier on made it sound a bit strange."

"Well, fine, now that we apparently have the same understanding of the word companion, what do you say?"

"I say: Yes. I'll stay. Thank you. Just one more thing: Companions. Friends maybe. That's all there is and all there will ever be."

"Brilliant. That's completely fine with me," he smiled, holding out his hand and added as she took it, "Welcome on board, Mira Rhodan."


So, here is Chapter III. Thanks to the ones already following this Story and liking it :-)

And as a little preview: In Chapter IV we will finally go into the first adventure, starting with Tooth and Claw.