Chapter 48

As the oxygen deprivation and the hard reality hit him Harry heard Hermione's voice and a wet feeling on his shoulder.

It couldn't possibly be Hermione, mostly because she was a puppet, which was silly. Harry tried to laugh but there wasn't enough air to do that.

Hermione was berating him for not having the correct wand movements. But her wand was sewn to her hand and she didn't seem to be able to make any facial expressions except a felt-fabric smile.

In the back, the very back behind the fog that currently surrounded him Harry recognised this as a quite likely concussion. Plus oxygen deprivation, he had himself to blame for knowing what oxygen deprivation felt like and Judith for rescuing him.

Hermione the puppet was explaining things to him again and he was trying to follow her lead but the poles holding her arms up were making it difficult.

As the blackness and lack of oxygen became unbearable a wobbling bubble formed over his head and he felt the pressure of oxygen over his face.

Breathing great lungfuls of air he looked over at the Hermione-puppet who'd evaporated in a fuzz of felt and imagination.

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As he took in more air Harry felt around his head. The wound did not feel so bad.

Or rather the blood had stopped pulsing out.

Opening up his bag that wasn't magic but was bigger on the inside he felt around for the vials of pepper up potion that he'd shoved in there as part of his 'just in case' medical kit.

As he was downing the potion and vitality crept back into his body he took the time to look around and take in his surroundings.

It looked like a storage warehouse.

Except the floor, walls and ceiling were made of metal. As if to emphasise that fact something rumbled around him.

"Oh, I'm on a spaceship," he said to himself and started to add up the problems he was now in.

When they'd scanned for information on the other side of the cabinet their sensors had suggested a breathable atmosphere on the other side. Which wasn't this.

Draco wasn't here, or he couldn't see him.

Which meant wherever this spaceship was, was probably space.

Which meant that wherever it had left from was where Draco was.

The universe obviously wanted to mess around with him. Of course this wasn't going to be a simple snatch and grab.

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Pushing himself away from the wall, he took in his surroundings a little more. There were old school wooden crates as though he was in an old world archaeological dig, other more new crates and…

"Oh," Harry said his breath catching and grip tightening on his wand. "Please be dead, please be dead, please be dead," he said to himself as he, somewhat stupidly approached the object what was chained down, the chains being secured by something that looked like a solid block of matter, it was black and probably wasn't a brick. It was its colour that made him approach it, or at least that was the justification he gave to himself in his still somewhat delirious state. It was orange. Quite a bright orange. Which was odd. It was also a bit chunky. Chunkier than others he'd seen in the past. None of the Daleks he'd seen, save for the ones that had faced off during the Shoreditch Incident in the 60s looked bright. They were only white and gold. He knew this from ICMG's photo reports of those.

This one was orange.

It was also missing a gun.

"Oh thank Merlin," he exhaled in relief.

It was then its eye stalk swivelled around to look at him.

"Who are you? Motive units inoperative, weapons systems inoperative."

"Hello," Harry said. "Where are we?"

"On a spacecraft," it answered. "Who are you?" It demanded. The Dalek demanded. The orange Dalek.

"Harry," Harry said with a grin and then continued looking around. There seemed to be a lot of junk around here. Bits of rubble, some parts of weapons, what looked like some Auton pieces and a shattered Drahvin gun.

Near that was a gravestone, some bloke called Art...Will..m…various bits of it had been smashed away, he only knew it was a gravestone by the thickness and texture. Gravestones and their construction something that was cemented in his mind.

Continuing around the piles of stuff there were paintings of the Mona Lisa. "Probably a copy." Harry said to himself, plus what looked like a van Gough.

Art history wasn't something he was an expert in.

"Har-ry." The Dalek was repeating his name. Harry was silently cursing himself for introducing himself to the Dalek.

"Do you have a name Dalek?" He called upwards.

"Daleks do not have names," it answered.

"Of course you don't," Harry muttered and then said in a louder voice. "Daleks don't usually come in exciting colours. Or is this a new thing? Orange?" He called as he made his way around.

There was what looked like an airlock on one side, obscured by some broken bits of Cybermen.

Gazing through the small porthole he could see space, lots of space.

"Space," Harry muttered to himself. "I'm in space."

Also; space ships, flying towards the ship he was currently on.

Harry had the presence of mind to grab a hold of the wheel for the airlock as the ships got quite close and started firing at the ship and the gravity shifted, inertia threatening to throw him across the room. Across the space ship.

"Oh frakking marvellous."

It wasn't enough that he was trapped in the hold of spaceship with an orange Dalek in the middle of space.

As the ship shuddered again Harry let go of the airlock wheel. If this was the airlock then there'd need to be a front to the spaceship. Unless it was remote controlled. Airlocks were usually near the middle or back of the spaceship. In his limited experience with them.

But why fire on this ship, if it had managed to get this far from wherever it had left from? Unless it was to destroy it. If that were the case then he'd be screwed.

"Dalek Orange," he rushed back to the orange one.

"Orange is a designation," it said indignantly. "I am a scientist."

Harry grinned. "Oh goody. I've always wanted to meet one, and Davros."

"Davros?" Its eye swivelled to look at him. "You know of Davros?"

"Megalomaniac; creator." Harry shook his head trying to focus on the plan at hand. "Did this ship just leave a planet?"

The Dalek remained silent.

Harry closed his eyes and tried to focus and think like a scientist…or something. "I am here, you are here, correct?"

"Correct," the Dalek answered.

"I am mobile you are not," Harry said looking around at the Dalek.

"The is correct Harry," the Dalek saying his name was creepy. Then the ship shuddered and he almost fell on the Dalek.

Which would be a bad thing if what happened with the Genesis Ark and Mickey Smith was anything to go by.

Harry repositioned himself shifting his weight to better absorb the movement of the spaceship. "I may be able to free us, but I need information to establish my next course of action."

The Dalek seemed the mull this over for a few seconds while the ship shuddered.

"This transport craft departed the planet Hyspero," Harry raised an eyebrow at the planet's name but said nothing.

"And how did they not realise you're awake and chatty?" Harry mused mostly to himself, forgetting the Dalek was awake and chatty.

"Proximal temporal energy from surrounding artefacts reactivated my systems," it replied.

"Of course it did," Harry said to himself.

"You are a time traveller, you can assist me," it logically deduced. All time travellers were friendly obviously.

"I'm more of a temporal interloper. Which way to the command deck?" Harry answered.

Then something exploded near the airlock and Harry felt the air, or whatever passed as air on this ship starting to rush out. It slowed quite quickly, some emergency system cutting in presumably.

"Atmosphere," he said to himself, and the Dalek. It looked at him. "Talking to myself," he added so the Dalek didn't respond.

"The flight deck is in that location." It swivelled its eye around. "You will assist me," it said. "Detach the dwarf star constraints," it ordered.

Harry craned to look at the chains and the odd block. "Is that what they are?" He nodded. "Another time Orange." Harry winked and ran over to the area it suggested. There was a door, and no way in.

No keypad. Nothing.

"I can assist entry to the flight deck." Orange called.

Harry was beginning to wonder if it was a hallucination. Though why he'd decide to imagine an orange Dalek to help him out he wasn't sure. His mind was an odd place.

Alohomora did nothing.

He didn't really think it would be helpful. That would be too easy.

The ship then took several more hard hits by something explosive and not good.

Probably good for the people using the weapons. Not so good for him and Orange.

An explosive spell would be the way to go Harry thought grimly.

Aiming his spell carefully he uttered the spell's incantation, it impacted; blackening and warping the metal. But not breaking through.

As he fired again and again more things exploded outside the ship, so much so Harry was starting to worry about structural integrity of the ship.

Dying in the vacuum of space was not how he wanted to die.

Then the door exploded, saving him from musing about how he'd like to die. It hadn't been a concept he'd thought much about until he'd found himself on a transport ship somewhere beyond upper orbit of the planet Hypsero with a Dalek.

An orange one that was a scientist at that.

The hole was barely large enough to climb through and Harry felt the jagged edges bite into his shoulder as he climbed through.

"More blood," He muttered to himself.

Inside there was very short corridor that was almost entirely illuminated by flashing lights. Flashing purple.

'I've seen a lot of purplely flashing lights, know anything about it Jack?' A memory swam back along the tide of concussion and dull pain in his shoulder to Harry as he walked along. The memory held a strapping young lad with an American accent.

"Curse you," Harry said to himself and could imagine Jack winking at him for even recalling him as being 'strapping' or 'young'.

'It's the universal colour for emergency. Mauve's like red and blue.' Harry almost recoiled as the rest of that memory hit him like a ton of bricks, drinking and vomit and being attacked by a giant bug that wanted him to have its babies. That was why he didn't go to Cardiff as often as he once did, almost always drinking with Jack Harkness led somewhere bad, weird or worse.

The flight deck was empty, which wasn't good.

"Oh," Harry exhaled again trying to keep his mind clear all the while pushing and flicking all the red flashing lights and switches. There were multiple screens everywhere, none of the data was anything approaching understandable. The language wasn't English, Dalek or any of the other half dozen he'd seen and had an incredibly basic understanding of.

"Emergency," he said in a clear voice. "Emergency controls," he said again, hoping that like a mobile phone without coverage spaceships of the future and of an alien design, wherever or whenever he was, would help you out if you needed assistance.

Hopefully by calling the space rozzers or something, or maybe they'd dial the police, or more hopefully a Police Box. That's be nice.

He doubted the universe was that nice or a happy place.

"Language identified; Terran Federation. Emergency systems ready," said an unpleasant female voice, but all the screens did switch over to English, with some odd words here and there.

As he was revelling in this something exploded.

"What was that?" Harry asked, not really expecting an answer.

"Rear deflector shields have absorbed an impact," the computer answered.

"Escape pods?" He asked hopefully. Hoping that he wouldn't die in the vacuum of space with Orange the Dalek scientist.

"There are escape pods for the crew," the computer answered.

"How many crew are there?" Harry was dreading the answer.

"There are two crew." The computer replied. There were also two seats where he was sitting.

"How many escape pods remain on the ship?"

"There are zero escape pods on this ship," the computer said.

Harry felt like punching it, but he was already in enough pain. "Where were we going?" That seemed like a better answer to have.

"This ship is currently travelling at Time Distort 2 on course for planet Del-10. This ship is 10 minutes from lagrange point."

Harry was sure he'd heard of a lagrange point before. "Can we-" He was cut off as something else explode.

"Can we increase power to deflector shields?" He asked.

"Negative," the computer answered again in its annoyed voice.

"Can we turn around?" He tried.

"Delta thrusters are currently available. This is an emergency system, programme will continue to run to Del-10," the computer said and the controls went dark.

"Computer," Harry shouted and wished for a brief moment that he was in Star Trek but he really doubted that the 'Terran Federation' was that of Starfleet and that any moment now a starship crewed by impossibly good looking people was going to sweep in and everyone would be wearing man-skirts.

"Computer, are internal sensors active or existent?" He asked.

"Confirmed," It said immediately. It didn't explain which one it was confirming.

"I am the only being on this ship that's bipedal and not a Dalek," he queried.

"That is correct," the computer said.

"Therefore I am the crew." Harry really hoped the computer was just logical enough.

It did seem to think for a moment or two. "Confirmed." Everything lit back up.

Harry felt like punching the air. Except there wasn't any.

"Can the flight deck be sealed and a" He was about to say 'human' but stopped himself. "Terran Federation-normal atmosphere be pumped in?"

"Negative this craft is of the-"

Harry cut it off, he didn't need to know about who this ship belonged to. Not very good couriers or transporters or whoever…although that did give him a very Star Trekkie idea.

"Does this ship have transporters," he shook his head. "Transmats, matter transmitters?"

There was the shortest of silences before the computer answered. "Negative."

"Of course not. Delta thrusters," he said looking around the controls for something that would look familiar to flying, piloting or generally controlling.

Some controls lit up red.

"Red is good?" He asked no one in particular.

"Red controls the Delta thrusters."

Harry pushed it and looked around the various controls screens for some indication that he was doing something that was shifting the ship's trajectory.

The computer helpfully or not switched one of the displays to a sensor feed of the surrounding area with the ship in the middle.

It wasn't really helpful, not in a big way as it just pointed out that he was surrounded.

"Not all those ships are hostile are they?" He asked as he focused on turning the ship while people shot at him.

"Negative."

"Oh good," Harry replied as he adjusted the controls. "What does Time Distort mean?" Harry suddenly asked remembering something being said, and hoped it didn't mean time travel, not more time travel.

"It is a measurement of speed defined as-" It started in what sounded like a bored tone.

"Never mind," Harry snapped as something exploded in front of the ship and he was slammed into the seat. "Can I increase thrust?"

"Confirmed." Another control lit up blue.

Harry pushed it gingerly and felt a satisfying thrum of the engines.

This feeling of satisfaction didn't last as this seemed to signal to his attackers, whomever they were that someone was alive here and they began to increase their attack.

Harry grit his teeth and pushed the blue control all the way up to full and felt that satisfying sensation of sheer panic.

Then the planet appeared in screens and through what he realised was a window to the outside, a cracked and damaged window to the outside.

"Oh goody. Hyspero I presume," Harry said to himself. "I've always wanted to visit, I've heard interesting things," he said, again to no one in particular. Just happy the bubblehead charm continued to function.

"Angle for re-entry too steep," the computer commented in a tone that suggested casual annoyance.

Harry wondered if the computer could take control and decided not to ask and just tried to do it himself.

Then the ship hit the atmosphere and he headbutted the control console.

"7 minutes to planet fall," he could barely hear the computer over the noise and heat of re-entry.

"How long to troposphere?" He shouted.

"2 minutes," the computer said and then added. "Ship descent too fast for safe landing."

The shuddering had stopped mostly and Harry became aware that they were falling and were still going forward.

"Any hatches?" Harry questioned.

"Hatches damaged. Airlock still functional."

"In the rear," Harry turned around and looked down the corridor. The artefacts and cases and whatever had not fared the descent well.

And the Dalek was free and coming his way.

Harry tried not to panic.

"Displa-" He coughed as he tried to think as he looked around. The window had clouded over with melting or damage or something. "Display external view from ship."

One of the screens showed the ground and another some mountains in the distance, the ground was some distance away and getting closer all of the time.

"Harry," called Orange the Dalek. Harry was glad he didn't give it his full name. That would have been weird.

"Well," Harry said and hoped he wouldn't die. "Thanks computer," he said and concentrated.

With a pop he disappeared.

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A few meters outside of the ship he reappeared and started falling.

It was a nice view Harry thought as he fell. A lot of desert.

And also a spaceship, which was also falling and accelerating; the thrusters still active.

He didn't pack a broom. That would have been useful at the moment Harry mused as he fell.

He knew he'd have to do something soon.

The ground was getting quite comfortable.

Though not comfortable enough that he could accurately apparate and not splinch himself.

Harry took a breath and apparated again, and again.

Two more apparitions and he fell and hit the ground from a few meters up, collapsing onto it.

He lay there, on the ground and cancelled the bubble head charm sucking in great lungfuls of the hot dry air and relaxed. A few minutes later he heard and felt an explosive thud.

"Bye, bye Orange," Harry muttered as he felt like he could just lie here and sleep.

But instead forced himself up and dug around in his not-magic bag for a hat against the bearing down sun and his pot of Sisterhood Salve that he'd been given long ago and had used sparingly since.

It would clear up his head and shoulder wounds and a diagnostic spell aimed at himself revealed. "Only a minor concussion," he said to himself as the salve eased his pain and the reality of his situation slowly sunk in.

Then he turned to the direction of the loud thud and explosion, where his mate Orange the Dalek had met his demise and where something else had also very likely met its demise as well. It was only wood. And that explosive thud was loud and violent.

"Oh," then Harry swore a long line of expletives into the desert. "One problem at a time," he said trying to remain calm.

"Draco detector time. If you're not working or not here I swear…" He trailed off.

The detector was working and even had a very, very faint signal. Or it might've been grit on the display screen.

"Draco Malfoy, I will be severely annoyed if you're dead," Harry said as he wiped the sweat that was already forming on his brow and started to walk as he rummaged in his back for binoculars or a telescope. Judith and Ioan had thrown a lot of various things in there.

They'd brought almost everything with them in the Defender, his extra-dimensional bag had been something of an afterthought.

The desert had a warping effect on perception, while he could apparate the short distance that he could see, before he hit the extent of his vision and the mirages he was aware of the heat and exhaustion.

He did not want to mess up apparition, not out here in the desert on an alien world.

"Not alien. Hyspero." A planet he'd heard of several times before, some of his friends who weren't the Doctor had even been here.

Hopefully that meant he had a small likelihood of running into some people he knew who had some sort of time travel capability.

Or maybe when he found Draco he could reconstruct the cabinet. If there was anything left.

That he doubted, the thump he'd felt sounded as though the ship and the ground had more than just lightly cuddled.

-/

A/N:

Next chapter will pick up Draco's side of the story.