"You know the Sontaran's are a little bit idiotic," I said as I squatted down to fit my hand into the mechanism to unlock the door. The Doctor gave me a confused look.
"Please explain," he said.
"Well you bring a prisoner to your secret base and don't set alarms on any of your doors?" I said as the doors slid open and I stood up from my crouch. "Seems like an idiotic move to me."
"As much as I hate to say it, they are rather strategically brilliant. And their cloning technique is quite brilliant."
"Oh, that reminds me! You said that this used to be a clone planet and I wanted to ask you about that," I said as we stepped out of the building and I looked up at the Doctor to see if he knew which way the TARDIS was. He gave me a fond eyeroll before he pointed in a direction and we set off.
"Well the Sontarans are a clone race," he said, and I rolled my eyes.
"I'd put that much together thanks," I replied dryly. He raised an eyebrow up at him.
"And when those clones are incubating, they require a very specific atmosphere. Often the Sontarans will just find planets that have these atmospheres organically, but in other cases they can create these conditions. Hence ATMOS a few years ago and why the air here smells slightly sulfuric."
"They were trying to turn the Earth into a clone birthing planet?" I clarified because that was an alarming thought. He nodded.
"They were indeed. I guess their last clone factory was reaching it's end, and they needed a new option."
"Okay wait if the atmosphere that they wanted was like with the ATMOS stuff why can I breathe on this planet?" I asked because I definitely had not been able to when the ATMOS system failure had happened.
"Well they quit using this planet about two hundred cloning cycles ago. Which would roughly add up to around seventy-five or a hundred years ago human wise," he said.
"So, the atmosphere just fixed itself?" I asked and he nodded. "I have another question."
"Please feel free."
"Why did we come here?" He sent me a confused look.
"I don't know what you mean."
"It's clear that you aren't interfering in this war between the Sontarans and the Rutans. If you were, we would have arrived at a current clone planet. So why are we here? Why did you bring us to this planet specifically?" I asked and he blushed slightly and shoved his hand in his pocket, pulling something out in his fist as he lifted my hand with his free one so that my palm was facing up. I blinked up at him in confusion as he dropped a tiny seed into my hand.
"It's a terraforming bulb," he said, and I looked up at him.
"Terraforming is where they make a planet habitable isn't it?" I asked and he nodded.
"You're right I do try and stay out of the war. For the reason I gave our Sontaran friend in there. I've ended enough wars. But I do try to make what happens after a little better." He took a deep breath. "I can't undo what's been done, but I can try to put it back to the way it was before."
"So, we came to plant this," I said as I picked it up gently and turned it in the light to see the sheen on it.
"I didn't think you would mind. And I wasn't expecting the Sontarans to be here," he said and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. I carefully handed him the bulb back and pulled him down for a kiss.
"Of course, I don't mind. Now put that in a safe place." I watched him tuck it back in his pocket before I continued. "Speaking of the Sontarans being here, should we worry about that or do you think they're going to leave?"
"I think they're going to leave. After all they can't make anymore clones on this planet and they have better bases that aren't as outdated as this one is."
"If that's the case then why did they come here in the first place?" I asked and the Doctor shrugged.
"The tiniest inch of a strategic retreat, then we showed up and that was an opportunity that they couldn't pass up," he said. I hummed just as we crested a hill and the TARDIS came into sight. I held out the sonic to him and made a grabby hand motion when he took it.
"The terraforming bulb please," I said, and he blinked at me as he shoved the mallet into his pocket and dug for the bulb.
"Why do you want this?" He dropped it into my waiting palm even as he asked the question and I was touched by the amount of trust.
"I'm planting this while you disarm the bomb," I said.
"You're ducking Rule Two again," he said, and I shrugged before I arched up on my toes and skimmed my lips over his cheek.
"Would you rather have me a few feet away from you planting a harmless seed or right next to you while you disarm a bomb?" I asked teasingly before I shifted my head so that I could kiss him properly. I lowered myself down to normal. "Good luck."
"Stop using good logic against me," he grumbled even as he pressed his lips to my forehead. I grinned at him before I turned him around and gave him a gentle shove towards the TARDIS. I watched him walk for awhile until I set off in a slightly opposite direction of him. I wanted to be a slight distance away from the TARDIS, but still at an angle that the Doctor would be able to see me when he inevitably turned to check on me.
"I should have asked if this would be instantaneous or not," I muttered to myself as I knelt down and started digging a decently sized hole to plant the bulb in. I dropped the seed in and started to smooth the dirt back over and once it was done, I laid my hand on the small clump. As I did, I felt a small series of pulses resonating out from the ground and I smiled. I stood up and dusted my hands off on my jeans before I started heading towards the Doctor.
"How are you doing with the disarming?" I asked once I was within a few feet of him and he passed me a tense look.
"There's been a complication," he said, and I started walking faster.
"What do you mean complication?" I asked as I came up to stand next to him and realized that some of the wires were actively twisting up his arms. I yanked one off and it snapped in my hand just before it would have wrapped around his neck. "Never mind I see the complication."
"Thanks for the save Emma," he said as he focused his attention back fully onto the bomb.
"What do you want me to do?" I asked as I hovered over his shoulder, feeling vaguely useless. The Sontaran's hadn't been kind enough to set a timer on the device so I had no idea how drastic the situation was.
"Don't let them strangle me," he joked lightly. I passed him an irritated, dry look.
"Thanks," I said sarcastically. I did as asked and occasionally tried to pull off some that were wrapping around his wrists because it was starting to look like he was going to lose circulation which would have been very close to a worst-case scenario. I wasn't sure how long it had been, but the Doctor's hands moved in a quick motion and all the wires twitched one last time though they didn't slacken any.
"There we go. We did it," the Doctor said as he leaned back on his heels and exhaled heavily. I squeezed his shoulder in comfort and a not tiny bit of relief.
"See I follow Rule two," I said teasingly as I let out a shaky laugh to try and rid myself of the adrenaline. I had just caught my breath when something that looked like a small disk drive ejected out of the front with a small round disk sitting in it. We both stood blinking at the disk until it started to beep loudly.
"You know the Sontarans may be a little it idiotic, but they aren't stupid," I said dumbly as the Doctor cursed vividly and tried to untangle his hands from the absolute mess of wires that he had created and also been caught in.
"Why do I never learn to expect fail safes?!" The Doctor hissed in anger to himself as he started to yank on the wires that he was tangled in. I sucked in a deep breath as I realized that he wasn't going to be able to get out.
"I love you," I said as I plucked the beeping disk from the tray and then took off running.
"Emma!" The Doctor shouted, but I didn't risk looking back even though it was very hard not to. I ran until the beeps that the disk was emitting were starting to get incredibly close together at which point, I threw it as hard as I could away from me. It hit the ground about ten feet away from me and exploded instantly, sending clods of dirt and rock flying through the air and knocking me to the ground from the shockwave.
"Emma!" The Doctor bellowed after the clouds of dust had settled and I coughed the dirt that I had inhaled out of my mouth. There was a vaguely acidic taste on my tongue.
"I'm over here. I'm perfectly fine," I said as I pushed myself up in a seated position. He skidded to a stop next to me on his knees and cupped my face in his hands. There was still a tangled wire dangling from his wrist. "Ugh I ate the dirt and it did not taste good."
"We need to have a discussion about your fight or flight response," he said before he slotted his lips over mine in a desperate kiss. "Stop doing that to me."
"Doing what?" I asked as his hands fluttered over me to double check that I was okay. He flashed me an unamused look before he kissed me again.
"Saying I love you and then doing dangerous stuff," he said.
"Would you prefer if I didn't add the first part?" I asked teasingly before I ran my fingers through his fringe. "I'll stop doing dangerous stuff to save you when you stop doing it to save me."
"What?" I gave him a look to tell him that he was being an obtuse idiot.
"How many times have you stood between me and a gun?" I asked and held up a hand. "And don't tell me it's different. Besides I was saving the TARDIS just as much if not more than I was saving you."
"Stop having such good logic," he muttered after several more moments of silence, and I smiled at him.
"I learned from the best." He grumbled under his breath before he kissed me again just as deeply as last time though with a little less desperation.
"Stop learning my bad habits then." He said and I laughed.
"Fine I'll start working on that." I leaned into him and I felt the last of his tension ease out of him. I nudged him gently. "Hey, I just had the best idea."
"Do tell," he said as he wrapped his arms around me, and I smiled into his shoulder.
"Let's go back to the TARDIS, take a shower, make a picnic and come back to this spot in about seventy-five years," I said. He leaned away from me slightly and smoothed an errant curl out of my face with a soft look on his face.
"Emma that is an amazing idea." He cupped my cheek in his hand and leaned in to kiss me.