There was a grunt as Kat fell out of the vortex, landed on the carpeted ground of a dark room with a quiet 'thud'. Slowly sitting up, the red head blinked rapidly as her eyes adjusted to the sudden change in lighting she found herself in; a stark contrast to the bright, blinding sun upon the sandy desert she had just come from.
Letting out a groan, Kat managed to push herself to her feet and stretched, making sure that she hadn't injured anything while being silently thankful that this time she hadn't landed in another desert. She swore she could feel some of that sand/dirt in her shoe, and knew that it was going to irritate her till she got back home to give them a thorough wash and vacuum. As she stretched, the red head looked around and despite not being able to see very well in the dim lighting, she did find that she was surrounded by some kind of glass display cases and grew confused as to where she was now finding herself; or even why she was there.
Once again, she found that the answers to her questions after having found herself in that desert evaded her, and Katrina frowned.
Why do I feel like I should know? she thought to herself, but the moment her wandering gaze landed on the spirit only known as River, the silent question was forgotten and her eyes narrowed on the ghost. "How dare y-" she begun to say, only to cut herself off as a strange wheezing sound begun to fill the air. Eyes darting around, the red head tried to locate where the source of the sound was coming from, wondering if she had missed something the first time round, only for her eyes to stop, widening in alarmed surprise as a blue police box seemed to materialise from nowhere; the light atop the box brightening and fading in and out almost like a lighthouse.
"What the fuck?!" Kat breathed as she continued to stare at the box, unable to take her eyes off it; almost fearing that it would disappear if she did.
"She's called the TARDIS," River said quietly as she stepped up beside Kat, a fond smile upon her lips, "Time And Relative Dimensions In Space."
The moment the blue box had become completely solid, the door swung inwards – surprising Kat – before a man wearing a leather jacket strolled out; accompanied by a young woman with blonde hair. Katrina blinked in surprise as the light was being emitted from inside the box disappeared the moment the man closed the door behind himself and his companion; rather perplexed as to how two people could fit inside such a small contraption – or even how it had just appeared from nowhere.
"So, what is it? What's wrong?" the young woman questioned as she and the man looked around, slowly moving between the glass cases.
"Don't know. Some kind of signal drawing the TARDIS off course," the man replied, and as Kat observed them – having trouble tracking their movements in the once more dull lighting – she found that there was something about the man.
"Where are we?"
"Earth, Utah, North America," the man replied to his companions questions, and Kat didn't realise she had held her breath as they passed her until she started to hear her blood roaring in her ears and let it out as quietly as she could as the man continued, "About half a mile underground."
A crease appeared between Kat's eyebrows, finding what she was hearing rather odd. And she couldn't shake off the niggling feeling in the back of her mind – but just out of reach – that was telling her that there was something about the leather-wearing man.
"It's the same man," a voice spoke up from beside Kat, and the red head jumped, having forgotten that River was even there.
Odd... Kat thought with a small frown, surprised to have found herself so absorbed in the newcomers conversation, as well as the odd man, though out loud she whispered, "What do you mean?" as her eyes travelled back towards where she could just make out the man examining one of the cases; his back to her.
The curly-haired spirit just winked at Kat, however. "Spoilers."
"And when are we?" the young blonde with the man continued to question – not that Katrina was complaining – and drew the red head's attention back to the peculiar pair.
Although if she considered her own company, Kat had to admit that they were certainly less... strange.
"Two thousand and twelve," the man – or the not-Doctor/Warrior, if River was correct – stated as he turned from the display case he had been looking at.
"God, that's so close," the blonde breathed, "So, I should be twenty-six."
Letting out another quiet breath, Kat's eyes – which were slightly wide – looked to River as she asked, "What are they talking about? And what in blazes did he mean two thousand and twelve. It's only two thousand and nine."
"Time travel," River replied in a way that seemed like it was an everyday occurrence; though Katrina had an expression on her face that almost seemed like she had sworn the ghost had grown another head.
One of the newcomers found a light switch and flicked it on, flooding the room with light.
"Blimey. It's a great big museum," the younger – and more alive – blonde exclaimed as she finally got a good look at her surroundings.
"And alien museum," the not-Doctor/Warrior? corrected, "Someone's got a hobby..." he trailed off when he finally allowed his gaze to land on the red head he had been watching since his ship had notified him of her presence. "Oh, hello," he greeted cheerily, causing the young woman to jump in surprise and turn to him; away from one of the display cases she had been looking in.
"Eh... Hello?"
Her reply came out as more of a question as Katrina glanced to her ghostly companion, though frowned when she realised that River was trying to hold back her laughter.
"Do you know where we are?" the Doctor asked, keeping his tone friendly and curious, all the while noting that Kat spoke with an American accent. He had already figured that she was as lost as they were, but he didn't really want to give away that he'd been watching her since he'd stepped out of his ship.
He didn't want to scare her off, curious to know why his ship had alerted him to her. He knew she wasn't the one who had sent the signal, so wanted to know why she was different.
"I, um," Kat swallowed, blinking as she tried to gather some sort of sense as to what was going on, "I was rather hoping you might know," she continued slowly, trying not to show how much she was beginning to panic.
She knew the signs of when she was about to have a panic attack, and the fact that she could already feel the twitch in her eyebrow... Kat took a deep breath to try and stay calm. But it wasn't helping that she really didn't know as to what was going on.
Or even as to how she had gotten there.
Instead, Kat was rather wishing that she was back home, burrowing into the comforting warmth that her bed provided. Even her dreams had never included waking in some obscure place, only to be 'thrown' through a time vortex because some spirit she had just met had tried to possess her.
And now...
Katrina was in some kind of supposedly alien museum, where a blue police box had materialised out of thin air, and then two people to just stroll out like it was an everyday occurrence.
To throw time travel on top of that...
Kat's eyebrow twitched a little more as her face continued to pale.
"Are you okay?" the younger blonde questioned in concern as she watched the red head pale. She glanced to her companion worriedly, unsure as to what they should do, and the man in question took a few steps towards Kat; his own expression concerned as she suddenly dropped to her knees.
Neither could see River kneeling before Kat, her own expression mirroring theirs. "Kat, just breathe," the spirit coached slowly, "Deep breaths."
"I... I can't," Kat gasped out, shaking her head as she squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't see River move away the moment the Doctor advanced, the Time Lord having quickly put together what was happening to Kat. But the moment his hands grasped hers, Kat's eyes snapped open.
"It's okay. Just breathe," the Doctor unknowingly took over from where Kat's ghostly companion had started, "Just copy what I'm doing. In... and out. In..."
Kat tried to focus on the man, but she couldn't stop staring at his hand, confused and alarmed as to how chilled it felt. It wasn't cold, as in he was dead; but it wasn't normally warm, either. It wasn't until another hand – this one definitely cold and dead – touched the middle of her back did Kat finally take in a deep breath, almost gasping in surprise as her hand unintentionally tightened around the Doctor's while River continued to coach her quietly from behind.
"That's it. Now let it out."
The red head closed her eyes as she breathed out slowly, her hand relaxing around the Doctor's as she finally managed to get the oxygen that her body needed.
"Is she okay?" she heard the man's companion ask, not seeing the blonde approaching them with a concerned expression.
"Just a panic attack, Rose," the Time Lord assured as he pulled out something from his jacket and begun to scan the red head with the slender device, wanting to be certain that that was the case, "She'll be fine in a moment."
Instead of being fine, however, Kat frowned when she heard a buzzing sound and opened her eyes, only to see that the Doctor was waving some kind of silver device with a blue tip in front of her. "Hey! What are you doing?!" she exclaimed, batting the device away with her hand as she fell backwards.
River snorted as Kat fell onto her backside, and the Doctor was quick to raise his device away from the red head. Though he frowned when he noticed that Kat was glaring at something passed him, and turned to look where she was, only to find that there was nothing there. He shook his head, turning back to the red head as he explained, "I was just checking to make sure you were alright."
Eyeing the Time Lord – and his device – rather dubiously, Kat couldn't stop herself from also being a little curious. Her ghostly companion decided to have some pity and explained what the device was. "It's called a sonic screwdriver. Think of it as a multi-tool. Works on pretty much everything..." River paused with a thoughtful expression, "Except for wood and deadlocks."
"Why doesn't it work on wood?" the red head asked as her gaze was drawn back to the device in question, almost as if she had forgotten that the Doctor was even there. She couldn't help but be curious, though. For something that seemed rather advanced, she found it rather odd to hear it didn't work on something as primitive as wood.
"What?" the Doctor asked, baffled by her sudden question. How does she know it doesn't work on wood? he asked himself; his eyes narrowing despite his own curiosity.
"What doesn't work on wood?" Rose asked, looking between the pair a little lost.
"The, uh... sonic?" Kat replied a little questionably, suddenly unsure if she should have said anything as her eyes slid back to the Doctor, "Why doesn't it work on wood?"
The man raised an eyebrow. "And how do you know what it is?" he asked instead of answering her question.
Something in the Time Lord's eyes had Kat's previous panic turn to annoyance. "You want to know what I know?" she raised her own eyebrow at the Time Lord. It was only when the Doctor nodded slowly, visibly confused by the red head's sudden change in tone, did Kat continue. "I woke up in some blasted desert, covered in sand or dirt – which I'm still not sure if it was one or the other – before being thrown through some vortex thingy and ended up here. I have no idea as to where I am, or what the hell is going on!" she exclaimed before taking a few deep breaths to try and calm down.
The Doctor eyed her for a moment, and seeing that there were no signs of her about to have another panic attack, he finally spoke; stating, "And yet, you know what this is," as he held up his sonic for Kat to see. He could clearly tell that the red head was stressed, and her story did sound a little out there. But the Time Lord found himself to be more intrigued by the young woman than anything else. She was human – his sonic having told him as much – and one that he was certain he had never met before. So the Time Lord was rather puzzled as to know how she knew what his sonic was. And that it didn't work on wood.
He hadn't even told Rose that yet.
"Look," Kat exhaled heavily, her eyes losing their fire as she stared at the Doctor; feeling suddenly exhausted, "All I know is that I was helping out a friend of mine. He told me something about a... well, something important, and now I find myself thrown three years into the future after investigating some kind of... Oh, I don't know," she let out a groan, still as lost as she was when she woke up in that desert not even thirty minutes ago. "It looked like some kind of obscure crack."
Frowning, the Doctor stood up, offering his empty hand to the red head and helped her to her feet as well. He was unsure if he had heard her correctly, though thought better of asking her to clarify as to what she meant by being thrown three years into the future. "What's your name?" he asked instead, deciding that she was far too overwhelmed by whatever she had experienced to push her any more. He wanted to ask – to push – needing to know more about what she meant about appearing in the museum through some kind of vortex, as well as the obscure crack and the possibility of having been displaced in time. But he figured that starting with something as simple as her name would be better.
He didn't really want her to have another panic attack, and his own interest towards the red head had grown passed just been curious as to why his ship had alerted him to her presence.
"Katrina. Katrina Tarn," the red head replied with a confused frown. "But I prefer Kat," she added as she took a step away from the Doctor, her eyes falling to her hand that he had held. She still couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something off about his touch, but being so unused to the touch of another living being, Kat wasn't to sure as to if she was just imagining things.
"Nice to meet you, Kat," the Doctor said with a smile, though it didn't quite reach his eyes, not having missed the way she had reacted to his touch. He was finding that she really was a puzzle.
A puzzle he wasn't too sure if he wanted to crack or not.
"Eh, nice to meet you too..." the red head trailed off, unsure as to what she should call him. Or even if she should. Now that she was a little calmer, she had realised that it had been a mistake to blurt out her question about his sonic, and she felt that if he realised she most likely knew his name... She really didn't think he would be smiling.
"Doctor," River and the Time Lord replied together.
"Right..." Kat nodded, sneaking a glance to the spirit and found that the curly-haired blonde was watching her with an odd smile. "What's up with the unusual name?" she asked, looking back to the Time Lord; wanting at least one of her hundreds of questions answered.
Though, and much to Kat's confusion, the man frowned when he didn't get the normal response he usually received when someone heard his name. Instead of pouting, however, he shrugged, "I like it."
"Uh huh," the red head nodded slowly, remembering how the not-Doctor - Warrior? - whatever his name was had stated that he didn't want to be called the Doctor.
"So..." she drew out the word as she looked round, wanting to distract herself from what had just happened to her. It was the best way she had figured to deal with the unknown. Although vortexes, obscure cracks, materialising police boxes, and time travel was pretty far out there.
Even for Kat.
Dead people... no problem at all, the red head mused, her lip quirking upwards at the corner in response to her rather obscure thought. "Any idea why I would have appeared in some kind of museum?" she continued out loud as she turned her attention back to the Doctor and Rose, her expression a little hopeful.
"Alien museum," the Doctor corrected, and the red head just raised an eyebrow slightly at his tone, the feeling that he rather liked being the smartest in the room flickering to life in the back of her mind. "And we were following a signal," he continued. His eyebrows creased slightly as he glanced at Kat, realising that there really wasn't any plausible explanation as to what would have brought her there. "But I don't know why you're here," he added, wondering if that was why his TARDIS had alerted him to her presence.
"Figures," Kat replied rather unbothered as she begun to walk around. "And I bet not knowing is killing you," she muttered quietly to herself. Her words had River snorting, causing the red head to jump when she realised that the spirit was right beside her and she spun to face her, glaring at the curly-haired ghost. "Will you stop that!" she hissed.
"Stop what?" the younger blonde, Rose, asked as she looked up from the case she was inspecting, an odd expression on her face.
Shooting River another glare when the ghost snorted once more, Kat quickly asked, "Is that a meteorite?" as she headed to a case near Rose, trying to act curious as she spotted a large clump of rock in one of the display cases. She didn't see the Doctor's eyes follow her as he pretended to be examining another case, a little confused by the red head's rather odd behaviour.
"Chunks of meteorite," he agreed as he straightened, nodding at the display that Kat had pointed out before indicating to a few other cases as he made his way around the room, all the while covertly keeping an eye on the red head, "Moon dust. That's the milometer from the Roswell spaceship."
"Really?" Kat cut the Doctor off as she moved towards the case he had pointed to, surprising him with her interest in the item. "And I thought that Bill had lied to me," she exclaimed as she studied the milometer intently.
"Bill?" the Doctor questioned, but Rose's sudden exclamation cut off whatever he was going to ask next.
"That's a bit of Slitheen!" the younger blonde recognised a menacing green arm with long, sharp claws in another case near the pair, "That's a Slitheen arm." Her nose wrinkled in disgust, "It's been stuffed."
"What's a Slitheen?" Katrina whispered to River when she noticed that the Doctor had become distracted by something else. She realised that she'd have to be a little more careful with her communication and comments to River; especially around someone who seemed to be highly suspicious of her. Why are the living so suspicious? the red head asked herself, never having to have watched what she said around her usual company in the past.
"Alien," the spirit replied rather simply, once again not giving any more information than she deemed necessary.
And the dead so vague, Kat added on to the end of her last thought with an eyeroll. She looked back towards the Doctor when he spoke up.
"Oh, look at you," he remarked, and Katrina's head tilted slightly when she caught sight of what was in the display case that he was crouched before. She glanced back to River and shrugged, heading off towards the Doctor and Rose. She knew that it was better not to question the ghost on the concept of aliens right now, and she really didn't feel like having another panic attack.
Although Katrina did know that when she got home – or hopefully woke up – that she would most definitely be having a nice, stiff drink.
"What is it?" Rose asked as Kat finally managed to get a good glimpse at what had caught the Doctor's eye. Though she frowned at the sliver robotic head that had a pair of odd handlebars attached to the sides of its head. She really wasn't too certain as to what to make of the piece, though she had a vague thought that apart from it being silver, it reminded her of that robot that was in Star Wars. CP30... or something along those lines. She really hadn't been interested in those movies.
"An old friend of mine," the Time Lord said before he paused. "Well, enemy," he corrected, not seeing the confused frown that tugged at Katrina's lips as she looked at the robotic head, "The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit." The Doctor sighed, heavily, "I'm getting old."
The red head raised an eyebrow at the man, wanting to tell him that he didn't look that old to her. But she paused, her frown deepening as she noticed the slight shift in his body language. It was something familiar, and she knew to leave her curiosity alone for the moment.
"Is that where the signal's coming from?" Rose asked, looking at the head.
"No, it's stone dead," the Time Lord replied, and Katrina noticed the way his body language had shifted once more; becoming less... sombre. "The signal's alive. Something's reaching out; calling for help," he continued, his voice almost trance-like as he slowly reached forwards with his hand.
Kat suddenly jumped when an alarm suddenly blared the moment his finger came into contact with the glass. Not seconds later, armed guards rushed into the room from all sides and the three of them raised their hands; the red head glancing at River as her heart raced inside her chest.
"If someone's collecting aliens," she heard Rose mutter to the Doctor, and her head snapped to them in alarm as the blonde continued, "That makes you 'Exhibit A'."
"What?"
"Oh, I guess I should have mentioned that," River spoke up, appearing beside Katrina and causing her head to snap towards the spirit, "The Doctor's an alien."
Kat felt as though her heart had stopped beating inside her chest. "No shit, Sherlock!" she exclaimed as terror chased its way through her veins.
Of all the places she could have ended up, it had to have been in an alien museum with a living, breathing alien!
The Doctor and his companion looked to Katrina, confused by her sudden outburst, and it caused the red head to sigh.
What's next? she thought to herself, Killer aliens...?
