The Doctor's TARDIS
It hadn't been one of his finest moments, he was willing to admit that. "Not bad, Doctor, go to rescue one hostage, lose two more in the bargain."
Granted, he hadn't realized at the time that he and Ace were working at, if not cross purposes then at least cross methods, but it was no excuse. "Right, then," the Doctor told himself, or the TARDIS. Or perhaps both of them. "What next?" He gazed down at the tracker still stitched lopsidedly to the console base, then took Romana's disk out of his pocket and slid it into the reader he'd built in during the odd moment when Ace was wandering round the ship.
He felt his stomach clench at the thought of losing her. She'd stayed with him far longer than any of his past companions, with the exception of Susan, and now he'd gone and lost her to the Master. Her, his son, his granddaughter...Time to put things right, he told himself resolutely. "Let's see what you're up to, shall we?"
He'd recognized the panic in his son's eyes when the Master had asked him what he offered in exchange for Kyris' life. In that instant, the Doctor realized that Kyris must have lied that the disk was destroyed. If the Master believed that to be true, that belief had to be taken advantage of. "Come on, show me what I need to see," he murmured cajolingly as he keyed in the information he sought.
Nothing. The Doctor paced away from the console and reader, then back again, lips tightened, brow lowered. He hadn't told Ace, but the reader wouldn't allow him to cross time streams with his son, or anyone with his son. Nor had he been successful in simply tuning the disk to show him the Master, not unless he was with a companion. Except, of course, for Kyris. He could see his son as he was currently, but not as he would be, the way he had Ace. He was afraid to tinker with it further; if he inadvertently did something to the disk, destroyed it, he had no way to replicate it. Even with four months to study it, he still didn't entirely know how it worked. That there was a telepathic element, he had no doubt; that it was connected to personal brainwaves or electromagnetic fields he suspected but could not confirm. And no Romana to explain it to him.
So much for looking for where they would be and getting there first. He would be forced to merely follow. However, he suspected the Master would be avoiding any stops outside the space/time vortex, if only to thwart just such an effort on the Doctor's part; he might believe the disk destroyed, but he would no doubt continue to act as if it were still in existence. Just to protect himself.
"Right, then, let's just have a look at where they are now." He depressed a few more keys and leaned closer, peering down at the reader's viewscreen.
The Master, wielding a knife, was gesturing Kyris and Ace out of his console room. Ace seemed calm enough, but Kyris eyed her warily, as if afraid she might try another foolish stunt and get herself into deeper trouble. But all she did was walk through the door. Kyris followed, hesitating only an instant as his gaze flashed toward the Master's console. Then he was through the door as well, the Master following.
Something about that brief stop nagged at the Doctor's mind, but he brushed it away as he watched his son and Ace locked into separate rooms. If it was important, he would figure it out. Since the viewer was keyed to Kyris, it stayed with him, showing him standing in his room, listening as the door was latched. Once it was, he tested the handle, then moved away to stand in the middle of the room, staring intently upward. The Doctor almost adjusted the screen to show whatever it was his son was looking at, but hesitated as Kyris started to speak. He recited a string of numbers and letters, paused, then repeated them, paused, repeated them again.
"Clever boy!" the Doctor breathed. He dug through his pockets until he pulled out a stub of a pencil and small pad of paper. As Kyris continued to repeat the mixture of numbers and letters, the Doctor hastily scribbled them down, waited for a repeat to confirm what he'd written, then turned to the TARDIS controls. "Good eyes, my boy," he murmured to himself as he worked. "I thank you for the information, and will see you at those coordinates." He patted the reader absently. "You can stop now, don't want the Master to hear and figure out what you're doing."
As if he heard his father's admonition, Kyris stopped his recitation. The Doctor kept half an eye on him as he moved to the bathroom and drank a glass of water, murmured the coordinates a few more times, then returned to the outer room and sat down on the edge of the narrow bunk. He scrubbed tiredly at his eyes, then simply sat there, staring intently at nothing. The Doctor knew the look, even from his brief relationship with his son. He was thinking, no doubt puzzling out what to do next, working out scenarios where his father received his message or didn't, whether the Master put in false coordinates expecting just such an attempt at communication, and how reliably he could count on Ace to not do something dangerously impulsive.
After all, the same thoughts were flashing through the Doctor's mind.
In spite of the myriad of things that could go wrong, he found himself smiling as he turned the reader off. Kyris had given him the information he needed to take the next step. The last rescue attempt had failed; fine.
He'd do better this time.