~revised~

Chapter XXVIII

Mira

She hadn't even realised that she fell asleep. It had just been too cosy and peaceful laying in his arms and listening to his soft voice with this lovely British accent, reading those beautiful words. She loved this book and the magic of its lines. And yet she knew it was wrong. But then again, why not? Was it so wrong to allow herself to feel safe in his arms, just for a moment? To not be the one who always had to care for others, not only because she was so often their superior but due to her age and experience? Where she came from, people always looked up to her – at least the ones who knew her, and even more so if they were humans. Well, there was still her father, but even she herself had become something like a legend by now. She was a part of human history, had shaped it together with a handful of others, and no matter if she wanted it or not, she had to live up to it now. Not that she didn't feel capable of it, although she had moments when she doubted herself and her decisions – probably more than it was good for her – but, most of all, it had made her lonely.

And living amongst the other immortals had separated her even more from humanity. It was people like Rose who were showing her quite plainly just how different she was. How Rose was living in the present, not worrying about things years ahead or centuries in the past made her realise what she had lost. How high a price was she had to pay. Even though she had friends amongst the 'ordinary' humans, it was different. She was different. Not only that they aged and died right in front of her eyes, their lives were completely different. They just had this incredible short amount of time to reach their goals, whatever they might be. They were living with the constant threat that one day it would be too late for their dreams. And then, in the evening of their days they could lie back and contemplate about their lives. A thing she would never be able to do. She had given that up the day she had decided to take the cell-activator from It.

It wasn't that she had been forced into this, it had been her decision. And, truth be told, she would do it again, even now. She had been aware of the price to pay, but hell, it had been higher as she had imagined it. She just couldn't connect to normal people and their everyday troubles any more. She had been through those things time and time again, and she knew that however bad it seemed at the moment, it would pass with time. It was like a ninety year old talking to a teenager. Even worse. Not that she didn't care for them and their sorrows, or was looking down at them, but she just had a completely different perspective. And the other way around, everything she had seen and been through seemed so abstract to them, they just weren't able to grasp it. Who could imagine living for even five-hundred years? They could, in an abstract way of thinking, but not truly feeling into it.

But the Doctor was different. She still had no idea if he was old for his people, and how long he had been living amongst humans, but she had the feeling that she could really allow herself to be her real, human, weak self when she was around him. At least a little bit. And at the same time she knew she would lose him, sooner or later, one way or the other. But she wanted so much to give into this, just for this moment, just for now. She knew she would find a way of dealing with it, however it would work out. As she always did. Although she was wondering how long it would go on like this. How often she would be able to pick herself up again. Wondering when the final blow would come, the one she would not recover from. She was sure it would come sooner or later, it just couldn't go on like this forever. And forever had a very special meaning in her case.


Doctor

The TARDIS had dimmed the lights in the observatory even more. She was sleeping for around four hours now, and even he had slept for almost an hour. Fifty-seven minutes, to be exact. He had been afraid that he would be bored to death by now, but instead he was still watching the stars, feeling rather calm and relaxed. Well, maybe he would reconsider it in another one or two hours, but then she would probably wake up anyway. Right at this moment she moved slightly in his arms. She was dreaming, he could tell that from her faster breathing and her raised heartbeat. Somehow he got the feeling that it wasn't such a pleasant dream. Just as he had decided to wake her up, she sat up straight with a gasp and tried to shove his arms away.

"Mira, it's alright," he said softly and put his hands on her shoulders. She startled and turned her head around to him, looking at him completely disorientated. He was sitting up straight himself now, his feet on the floor. She was still wrapped in the blanket, her legs folded on the sofa, glancing around as if to orientate herself.

"Hey, it's okay, it was just a dream," he tried it again. She blinked and her eyes were slowly losing the cloudiness of sleep. "You didn't dream of any more black-holes, hm?"

"What?" she finally said, still sounding a bit sleepy, rubbing her face. "No. No black-holes this time."

"What then?"

"Hm? Nothing... Did I sleep? Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Why would I? Wasn't that the point? You getting some sleep?"

"Yeah, but... How long?"

"Four hours and eight minutes."

She looked at him in utter confusion. "You were sitting here all the time?"

"Well... basically... Yes."

"Oh."

"Oh?"

"You really should have woken me up. You must have better things to do than to sit here, haven't you?"

"Actually... Nothing that can't wait." He watched as she tried to free herself from the blanket, swinging a leg to the floor and was about to do the same with the other one, but there was still the blanket wrapped around her knees, and he already could see in his mind's eye how this was going to end. He jumped up and caught her just in time as she lost her balance.

"Oh, dammit!" she said and finally got rid of the blanket.

"You're welcome," he said and let go of her. "You know, it's not the first time that I wonder how you managed to get that old without breaking your neck."

"Well, when it's time, it's time. If it's a blanket or an arrow, nothing one can do about it then. It's just destiny. Right now it obviously wasn't time to die for me."

"Destiny? Really?" He looked at her, trying to figure out if she was serious about that. She was sitting on the couch again, putting her shoes on.

"Yeah, really," she said and stood up. "Well... I'll go to my room, see if I can sleep for a couple more hours. See you later." She glanced at him for a moment with a strange look in her eyes, and he almost thought she was about to hug him, but then she turned around and left the observatory, almost as if in a hurry. He stood for a while and looked at the door. What did she dream about? Another one of those dreams? Not that he believed that she really could see the future, but she seemed to be convinced by it.


Mira

She actually had managed to sleep for a little more, they had had breakfast and then the Doctor had set the controls of the TARDIS to a random location. Random. She had just shaken her head. It seemed as if she wasn't the only one who liked to play with fire.

Now she followed the Doctor and Rose as they left the TARDIS.

"I dunno what's wrong with her, she's sort of... queasy. Indigestion, like she didn't wanna land," the Doctor said, looking at the TARDIS, stroking the hull.

She had felt it too. Something was indeed wrong with the ship.

"Oh, if you think there's gonna be trouble, we could always get back inside and go somewhere else...," Rose said. Then she and the Doctor looked at each other, bursting into laughter. She found it less funny and shook her head. Something was wrong with this place, making her bones itch. She looked at the Doctor and caught his glance.

"What?" he asked.

"Maybe we should listen to her and leave," she said and pointed at the TARDIS.

He just shrugged, looked around and said, "I think... we've landed inside a cupboard! Here we go!" and opened the door.

"Open Door 15," a female computer-voice announced.

"Oh, come on, I'm sure it's not that bad," Rose said to her and followed the Doctor.

Great. Just great. Seemed like she had no choice but to follow them. She stepped into the corridor after them and stopped in her track. Her heart skipped a beat as realisation hit her. She knew this corridor. Not that she had been here before. Well, technically speaking, she had been here. Her future self, right now. This was the corridor she had seen in her dream, the dream she had tried to tell the Doctor about.

"Some sort of base... moon base, sea base, space base... they build these things out of kits," he said as he started to walk along the corridor, Rose right next to him. She hurried to follow him, as she heard the whole structure creaking and cracking.

"Glad we're indoors - sounds like a storm out there...," Rose said, looking around her.

"Doctor!" Mira tried it again. "We must leave. Now. Seriously."

"What? Why?" he asked, his hand already on the next door.

"Remember what I've told you? About the dream? Black holes? That's the corridor I've seen. Something is going on here, something really bad. Trust me, we should leave. Now!"

"What dream?" Rose wanted to know.

"Mira," he sighed. "No need to worry. I've told you that that was just a dream. No way you can dream of a place in your future. That's just some generic corridor. There are thousands like this in the universe. You must haven seen similar things before. It's just some sort of deja-vu, hm? No need to worry."

"But..."

He opened the door before she had the chance to continue.

"Open Door 16."

"Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you," she murmured under her breath as she followed them, not without noticing how Rose looked at her.

"By the way, we're not alone here," she said, now loud enough for him to hear it.

"Really? Someone hostile?" he turned around but didn't stop walking, looking at her intently.

"No... Don't think so, but-"

"Well then, nothing to worry, hm?"

She just shook her head again and rolled her eyes.

"Human design - you've got a thing about kits. This place was put together like a flat-pack wardrobe, only bigger. And easier," the Doctor continued with his observations. Yeah, he was right about that. But that wasn't just some random corridor and no deja-vu. Finally they entered a room that looked like a canteen.

"Open Door 17." Where for all planets were they? And who in hell had thought that this annoying computer voice was a good idea? Looked almost like a space station or at least a station on a planet that didn't have an Earth-like atmosphere. And what was it about this weird storm out there?

"Oh, it's a sanctuary base!" the Doctor announced cheerfully, striding to the middle of the room.

"Close Door 17." She had closed the door behind them.

"Sanctuary Base?" she asked.

"Deep Space exploration. We've gone way out. And listen to that, underneath...," he pointed downwards, indicating for them to listen. Indeed, there was something like...

"Someone's drilling," he said.

"Welcome to hell," Rose said suddenly behind her.

"Yeah, told you we should leave," she said and spun around to Rose.

"Oh, it's not that bad!" the Doctor whined.

Maybe it was, she thought. Bad enough for someone to write it on the wall. Together with letters she had never seen before.

"No, over there!" Rose laughed and pointed at the wall.

"Hold on...," the Doctor said, now also seemingly unsettled, "What does that say?" He walked over to the wall and crouched in front of it. "That's weird. It won't translate."

"Should it?" Mira asked and crouched next to him.

"Yeah, I thought the TARDIS translates everything. We should see English," Rose said.

"Exactly. If that's not working, then it means... this writing is old. Very old. Impossibly old," the Doctor replied as if talking to himself.

"Let's go," Mira urged once more. "Really."

"Nah," the Doctor said, stood up and walked over to another door. "We should find out who's in charge." He turned the wheel to open the door, "We've gone beyond the reach of the TARDIS' knowledge. Not a good move..."

"Now you're finally getting it...," she tried it once more. Then suddenly a presence hit her and she tried to stop him from opening the door, but she was too late. There was someone on the other side.

"Open Door 19."

He and Rose, who was standing next to him, stared in shock at the aliens on the other side of the door. She was staring as well. The aliens looked like a crossing between humans and octopuses. But they didn't seem to be hostile... Although it was weird. There were emotions coming from them, but they seemed to be muffled. Dampened.

"Right! Hello! Sorry! Uh... I was just saying, uh... nice base!," the Doctor said with a grin. He had gathered himself rather quickly.

"We must feed," the aliens said all together.

"You're gonna what?" the Doctor asked bewildered.

"Yeah. I think they mean us," Rose said as they backed away.

"No, they don't," she said. Well, their behaviour was weird, but she still didn't get any hostile emotions from them. On the contrary, they seemed to be rather peacefully. And there was something else... She reached out to the psychic field that was surrounding them and tuned into it, but quickly blocked them out again as white noise filled her brain. Most likely they were telepaths. But instead of getting a glimpse of their thoughts they were just emanating this strange white noise. With the hint of a melody in it, but that could have been an illusion.

"Better get away from them!" the Doctor said and took her by the wrist. She shook her arm free.

"They're not hostile!"

"Sure?"

"Yes."

"We must feed. We must feed," the aliens continued. Right now, another door opened and even more of them appeared, surrounding them. The Doctor was pointing his Sonic at them, whilst Rose had picked up a chair, preparing to defend herself. Had they gone completely mad now?

"Hey, put that down!" she yelled at them. "I'm sorry," she addressed the aliens now, "I guess this is some sort of misunderstanding. What exactly do you want?"

"We must feed. We must feed. We must feed."

"Yeah, got that, but-"

"Mira! Get away from them!" the Doctor urged.

Oh look. No one's listening. Great feeling, hm?

The next door opened, and now the room was filled with these aliens. Was it their station? The Doctor and Rose were now backed up against a wall, and she found herself surrounded by a group of aliens. Well, the situation obviously appeared to be a bit tense, but it was in contradiction to what she was still receiving from them.

"We must feed. We must feed. We must feed."

Suddenly one of the aliens was shaking the glowing orb in his right hand.

"You. If you are hungry."

"Sorry?" the Doctor said.

"We apologise. Electromagnetics have interfered with our speech systems," one of them said.

"Speech systems? They're translating your telepathy into speech?" Mira asked.

"That is correct. Would you like some refreshment?" the alien asked and blinked at her twice.

"Uhm, telepaths?" the Doctor asked. "Well, now that you say it...," he scratched his neck. He always did that when he was feeling uncomfortable, she noticed.

"Open Door 18."

Their heads flung around as three people entered the room, two of them holding guns. She instinctively put her hands up, although they didn't seem particularly hostile. Rather utterly surprised.

"What the hell...? How did...?" one of the three people said, searching for words as he approached the group. "Captain... you're not going to believe this. We've got PEOPLE. Out of nowhere. I mean, real people. I mean three... living... people. Just standing here, right in front of me," he said into a wrist-comm, a bit like the ones Mira new from her universe. Decent technology, finally.

"Don't be stupid, that's impossible," she could hear through the device.

"I suggest telling THEM that," the man said, staring at them. Well, she couldn't blame him for being a bit overwhelmed by their presence. If that would have happened on one of the ships of the Fleet, she wouldn't have sent just three people, but a group of battle-robots and some security-officers. Like ten, at least.

"But you're a sort of space base, you must have visitors now and then. It can't be that impossible," Rose said.

Sure, so many we basically bumped into them around every corner, she thought.

"You're telling me you don't know where you are?" the man said to her in disbelief.

"No idea. More fun that way," the Doctor grinned at him.

Suddenly, a female voice came over the comm-device, "Stand by, everyone. Buckle down. We have incoming. And it's a big one. Quake Point 5 on its way." Right after that, the whole base started to shake and tremble, and the man rushed over to a door and opened it.

"Through here! Now. Quickly, come on!"

Mira didn't need an extra invitation as a siren sounded. She followed the man with Rose and the Doctor at her heels, the two security guards after them.

They hurried through a corridor whilst the shaking got worse. Smoke filled the air and it was hard to keep balance. Finally they reached something that looked like a control room. Not overly huge, but stuffed with consoles.

The welcome there was as enthusiastic as it had been at the canteen. They really weren't expecting any visitors.

"Oh, my GOD. You meant it," another man said, and Mira recognised his voice, he was the one speaking over the comm.

"People! Look at that! Real people!" a young woman fell in, another familiar voice.

"That's us. Hooray!" the Doctor said.

"Yeah, definitely real. My name's Rose... Rose Tyler, and... and this is the Doctor. Oh, and Mira Rhodan," Rose introduced them.

"Come on... the oxygen must be offline. We're hallucinating. They can't be... no. They're real!" Another man, with probably the blackest hair she had ever seen walked over to them.

"Come ON, we're in the middle of an alert! Danny, strap up, the quake's coming in! Impact in thirty seconds!" the over-the-comm man urged. He must be in charge. "Sorry, you three, whoever you are. Just... hold on. Tight."

She did as she was told, grabbing a handrail behind her. She new exactly how quickly one could lose the ground beneath one's feet on a space ship or space station.

"Hold on to what?" Rose had to ask, of course.

"Anything. I don't care. Just hold on. Ood, are we fixed?"

Finally, the Doctor and Rose held on to something.

"Your kindness in this emergency is much appreciated," one of the aliens answered.

"What's this planet called, anyway?" the Doctor wanted to know.

"Now, don't be stupid. It hasn't got a name. How could it have a name?" another woman said.

"Maybe because you named it?" Mira replied.

"You really don't know, do you?"

"And... IMPACT!" the Commander yelled.

Mira had expected quite a lot, but after a second of not-so-much shaking, it seemed to be over. Nevertheless, she continued to hold on to the handrail, not trusting the peace.

"Oh, well, that wasn't so bad...," the Doctor said, and just as he let go of his handrail, the shaking started again, much more violent this time. He flew backwards, directly against herself. She grabbed him instinctively, and the next moment they both went to the floor. There was a small explosion at one of the consoles, sparks flew around and the air smelled of smoke. Then, finally, it stopped.

"You can get up now, I guess," she said, poking at his back. "Dammit. For someone that skinny you're remarkably heavy. Ow."

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" He jumped up, grabbed her hands and lifted her to her feet. "You're alright?"

"Yeah," she rubbed her side as he turned around. Hell, he was really heavy. Not to mention his pointy elbows.

"Everyone all right? Speak to me, Ida?" the Commander wanted to know. He checked with the rest of the crew, but everyone was fine.

"We're fine, thanks, fine, yeah, don't worry about us," the Doctor said.

"The surface caved in," the Commander said after he had looked at one of the screens with a schematic of the station on it. "I deflected it onto storage five through eight. We've lost them completely. Toby, go and check the rocket link."

"That's not my department."

"Just do as I say, yeah?"

Toby finally left the room, with a grim look on his face. Well, discipline was not getting better here, was it?

"Oxygen holding. Internal gravity 56.6. We should be okay," Ida announced.

"Never mind the earthquake, that's... that's one hell of a storm. What is that, a hurricane?" Rose wanted to know as the whole station cracked again.

"You'd need an atmosphere for a hurricane. There's no air out there. It's a complete vacuum," Scooti answered. Well, she had thought that much. She couldn't say why, but she had the distinct feeling that they weren't on a planet with an atmosphere.

"Then what's shaking the roof?" Rose asked.

"You're not joking. You really don't know? Well - introductions. FYI, as they said in the olden days. I'm Ida Scott, science officer." She pointed at Zach, "Zachary Cross Flane, acting Captain, sir... you've met Mr Jefferson, he's head of security. Danny Bartock. Ethics committee," she continued, pointing at the different persons.

"Not as boring as it sounds," Danny threw in.

"And that man who just left, that was Toby Zed, archaeology, and this...," she placed her hand on the young woman's shoulder, "... is Scooti Manista. Trainee maintenance." Then, Ida went over to the controls. "And this... this is home." She pulled a lever, a whirring sound started, and massive steel plates covering the ceiling moved.

"Brace yourselves. The sight of it sends some people mad," Zach said. But suddenly she knew what was beyond the window that was opening in the ceiling. That had been one of the few clear scenes from her dream she remembered. Standing in this room, looking up and... She closed her eyes, daring not to look.


Doctor

He looked up as the room was flooded in red light as the window above them opened. He would have expected a lot, but not this. Above their heads was a hole in space, sucking in everything, surrounded by a halo of light. "But that's...," he looked over to Mira, who had her eyes closed and her head lowered.

"A black-hole," she said flatly and finally looked up. He looked back and forth between her and the black-hole, shacking his head in disbelief. "That's impossible," he continued, meaning both the fact that they were that close to a black hole and that Mira obviously had been right. Well, it could still be coincidence. But he suddenly knew that this wasn't the case. She really had seen it before they had arrived here.

"But how can we be here if that's a black hole?" Rose asked, her voice shaking.

"I did warn you," Zach said.

"We're standing under a black hole," he stated the obvious, his mind still refusing to believe it. He looked over to Mira again, who quickly looked up to the black-hole, deliberately avoiding his gaze.

"We're in orbit," Ida said.

"But we can't be..."

"But we are," Mira said so gravely, it almost made him shiver.

"You can see for yourself. We're in orbit," Ida insisted.

"But we can't be!" That went against every law of physics. Nothing should be able to exist here. Well, aside from a TARDIS probably. But not this station. Surely not this station. And how could a human be able to foresee this? Suddenly he was sure she was still hiding something from him. That was not just psychic, neither was it human.

"This lump of rock is suspended in perpetual geostationary orbit around that black hole without falling in. Discuss," Ida interrupted his thoughts.

"And that's bad, yeah?" Rose asked cautiously.

"Actually, being in orbit is quite good. Bad would be getting sucked into this thing," Mira replied and he wasn't sure if she was being cynical or serious.

"It is bad!" he said, "A black hole's a dead star, it collapses in on itself, in and in and in until the matter's so dense and tight it starts to pull everything else in too. Nothing in the universe can escape it. Light, gravity... time... everything just gets pulled inside... and crushed."

"So, they can't be in orbit. We should be pulled right in," Rose summarised his explanation.

"We should be dead," he said.

"Well, we're here and not dead. Yet. Time to accept that," Mira said, all serious now, and walked over to the central console. He watched her. Suddenly he could totally imagine her father leading an Empire for centuries, if she was only a little bit like him. She didn't seem to have any difficulties to accept the situation.

"You should listen to her," Ida said. "Welcome on board, by the way."

"But if there's no atmosphere out there, what's that?" Rose wanted to know, pointing at the clouds that were drawn into the black-hole.

"Stars breaking up... gas clouds... we have whole solar systems being ripped apart above our heads before falling into that thing," Ida said.

"So, a bit worse than a storm, then," Rose said quietly.

"Just a bit."

"Just a bit, yeah."


Mira

"But how does this work? That's not human technology, is it?" she asked, just as the station was shaking again.

"Close Door 1."

Toby came back, saying, "The rocket link's fine."

Zach pressed a button and a hologram of the black-hole appeared. The Doctor came closer, watching it with his glasses on.

"No, not human technology. That's the black hole officially designated K37 Gen 5," Zach explained.

"In the scriptures of the Falltino, this planet is called 'Kroptor'. The bitter pill. And the black hole is supposed to be a mighty demon. It was tricked into devouring the planet, only to spit it out. Because it was poison," Ida added.

"The bitter pill. I like that," Rose said with a grin. Well, at least someone still found it funny, she thought.

"We are so far out. Lost in the drifts of the universe - how did you even GET here?!" the Doctor asked.

"We flew in. You see..., " Zach said, pressed another button, causing the hologram to change. Now they could see the planet with a gravity field in the form of a funnel, coming out of the planet. "This planet's generating a gravity field. We don't know how - we've no idea, but... it's kept in constant balance against the black hole. And the field extends out there," he pointed at the hologram, "As a funnel. A distinct... gravity funnel, reaching out into clear space. That was our way in."

"You flew down that thing?" Rose said and grinned, "Like a roller-coaster."

"By rights, the ship should've been torn apart. We lost the Captain... which is what put me in charge... "

"You're doing a good job," Ida threw in.

"Yeah. Well, needs must."

"But if that gravity funnel closes, there's no way out," Danny stated the obvious.

"We had fun speculating about that," Scooti said.

"Oh, yeah. That's the word." Danny hit her lightly with a scroll on the head. "Fun".

"But that would require an incredible amount of energy. Almost an endless amount."

The Doctor nodded, seemingly deep in thought. "Can I...?" he pointed at a calculator.

"Sure. Help yourself," Ida said.

Mira peered over his shoulder as he did some calculations. She couldn't follow half of it – if she had a positronic she would have been able to calculate it... In a decent amount of time. Behind her back she could hear Rose talk to Danny about the Ood, something about them being servants – or slaves, as Rose put it. Well, one more thing they had to think about, but right now it was way more important what it was about the black-hole and this strange planet.

"There we go. D'you see? To generate that gravity field, and the funnel, you'd need a power source with an inverted self-extrapolating reflex of six to the power of six every six seconds," the Doctor said as he was finished after a few minutes.

"That's a lot of sixes," Rose said.

"So what? As good as any other number," Mira murmured.

"And it's impossible," the Doctor said.

Here we go again, she thought. He was talking an awful lot about impossibility for someone having a time-machine.

"It took us two years to work that out!" Zach exclaimed.

"I'm very good," the Doctor said.

"But... that's why we're here. This power source is ten miles below through solid rock. Point Zero. We're drilling down to try and find it," Ida obviously couldn't quite believe that he had worked it out that fast.

"It's giving off readings of over ninety stats on the Blazen Scale," Zach said.

"We could revolutionize modern science," Ida said.

"We could use it to fuel the Empire," Jefferson, the security guy, said. Well, not really a surprise that it came from someone like him.

"Or start a war," the Doctor spoke out what she was thinking, taking his glasses off.

"It's buried beneath us. In the darkness, waiting." That was Toby, who had been silent until now.

"What's your job? Chief... dramatist?" Rose said to him, making the Doctor smirk. Though Rose was right, she had to admit. Toby was being a bit dramatic.

"Well, whatever it is down there is not a natural phenomena. And this, er, planet once supported life. Eons ago, before the human race had even learned to walk," Toby answered, not reacting to Rose's provocation.

"I saw that lettering written on the wall. Did you do that?" the Doctor asked.

"I copied it from fragments we found on earth by the drilling, but I can't translate it."

"No, neither can I. And that's saying something."

"There was some form of civilisation. They buried something. Now it's reaching out. Calling us in."

"And you came," the Doctor said, grinning widely.

"Well, how could we not?" Ida said.

Now Mira was also smiling. Seemed that humanity here wasn't that different from her own universe.

"So, when it comes right down to it, why did you come here? Why did you do that? Why? I'll tell you why. Because it was there. Brilliant. Excuse me, ah, Zach, wasn't it?" the Doctor addressed Zach.

"That's me."

"Just stand there, 'cos I'm gonna hug you. Is that all right?"

"I s'pose so," Zach said cautiously.

"Here we go. Coming in." He walked over to Zach, threw his arms around him and hugged him, still beaming. "Ahh, human beings, you are amazing!"

"Thank you," Zach said as the Doctor led go of him.

"But apart from that, you're completely mad. You should pack your bags and get back in that ship and fly for your lives," the Doctor said.

"Well, now listen to that," she said quietly, glancing at the Doctor, causing him to frown.

"You can talk! And how the hell did YOU get here?" Ida asked.

"Oh, I've got this um... this... it's hard to explain, it just sort of... appears."

"Yeah, small, wooden, blue box. Just materialised right in your station," she added."In habitation area... three?"

"Yeah, Three," the Doctor confirmed.

"Do you mean storage six?" Zach said, and immediately she could feel that something was wrong. He was alarmed, yet it wasn't clearly showing on his face.

"Uh, it was a bit of a cupboard, yeah," the Doctor said cheerfully.

Storage six? Not good. "Oh shit," she said quietly.

"Storage six, but you said..." Now it was dawning on the Doctor as well. "You said... you said storage five to eight."


Rose

She watched in horror as the Doctor turned on his heel and ran out of the room without another word. Mira was right behind him, and after a second, she ran after them as well.

"What is it? What's wrong?" she shouted after them as they were running through the corridors, right back where they came from, through the canteen and on, the voice of the computer announcing whenever he opened a door. He didn't answer her, so finally Mira did. "It's the area that caved in!"

They reached the last door to the storage room eventually and the Doctor tried to open it, frantically pushing the button on it, but to no avail.

"Door 16 out of commission."

"Can't be, can't be!" he yelled.

"What's wrong?! What is it?" she asked in desperation as the Doctor opened a small window in the door.

"Doctor, the TARDIS is in there. What's happened?" she tried it again.

"The TARDIS is gone," he said, staring out of the window.

"What?" She watched him as he backed away from the door, a horrified expression on his face, breathing heavily.

"The earthquake. This section collapsed," he said, seemingly unable to believe it.

"But it's gotta be out there somewhere," she said. That couldn't be. The TARDIS couldn't be gone. That would mean... She peered out of the window herself. The storage room was gone as if it had never existed. Now there was only the rocky surface of the planet.

"You knew it!" she heard the Doctor yell behind her and turned around. He had grabbed Mira by her upper arm and stared at her with so much anger in his eyes that it even frightened her, although she clearly wasn't the target of it. "You knew it and you didn't tell me!"

Oh oh. The oncoming storm, she thought. That would get interesting. She turned her head away from him, looking at Mira. The other woman didn't seem to be afraid, she realised with astonishment. She just looked from his hand to his face and said quietly, in contrast to his yelling, "Take your hand off me."

Well, he might be the oncoming storm, but she clearly was the calm before it. Rose shuddered. She wasn't sure what she would have preferred right now.

"Who are you? You saw it coming, didn't you? How could you?" he yelled, still holding her arm in a painfully tight grip, pulling her closer as she tried to back off.

"I told you to take your hand off me. Now," she repeated, still not raising her voice.

"Or what?"

"Deal with the consequences." She didn't explain those consequences further, and Rose couldn't imagine that she would be able to free herself from his grip. On the other hand she didn't believe that the mentioned consequences would involve physical violence.

He stared at her for another moment out of hateful eyes, but then finally let go of her. Despite of the seriousness of the situation, Rose couldn't help herself but to feel satisfaction. Seemed as if the problem with Mira was just working out on its own.

"Now tell me!" the Doctor demanded.

"I didn't know that this would happen. As I told you before, I don't see what exactly will happen. But I told you to leave. Repeatedly. You didn't care."

"Give me one good reason to believe you!"

Rose could see how he tried to hold himself back to not grab her again. She was really frightened by now. She had seen him angry before, but not on the edge of actually being physically violent. He wouldn't harm her, would he? "Doctor... She... She really said we should leave." She couldn't just stand by and watch. No matter how much she hated the other woman, right now she was afraid that the situation would escalate.

"Yeah, she did. But that doesn't mean she didn't know what would happen." He turned to Mira again. "I want to know who you are! How could you know any of this? You have been here before, haven't you?"

"That's ridiculous. I can understand that you're upset and..."

"Upset?" he was yelling. "Upset? Oh, I'm beyond upset! And it's all your fault!"

"My fault? Fine, blame it on me if it helps. But I'm telling the truth. I didn't know that this would happen to her."

"And I should trust you why?"

Mira looked at him for a moment as if considering what to say. "You know what? If you really don't have an inch of trust in me, look into my mind. I don't think I could keep anything from you."

He stared at her for a few more seconds, then Rose could see how his face fell. Suddenly all anger was gone and he just looked tired. Tired, desperate and sad.

"No, it's... I... No. I won't do that."

"Let's get back to the control room," Mira said. "See if they can do something." She turned around and walked away, seemingly calm and collected as if the whole scene just hadn't happened. As the Doctor followed her, Rose took his hand. "We'll find her," she tried to comfort him. She looked up and searched for his eyes, but even though he let her take his hand, he didn't look at her. He just stared into space as they followed Mira.


Heroherondaletotheresuce, Wicken25, 10th Squad 3rd Seat, Lucifae, AxidentlGoddes and bored411: Thanks for your reviews :-)