Okay, so this is probably the shortest thing I have ever written given the amount of time since I updated, but I'm too excited over tonight's episode to care. Plus, my fantastic beta orchids117 assures me that the length is fine. So here you go. Expect a much longer update soon. I've recently been re-inspired :)
Recap: the Doctor and Rose land in the spaceship which is on its way to the sun to plant bombs in order to stabilize it. Captain Corey Owens is married to co-pilot Marian, Angela is the mechanic, Kallias is the mission planner, and scumbag Neal is a saboteur undercover as a weapon's expert who makes the Doctor is jealous because he's all over Rose. That's about it.
Chapter 7
Kallias shuffled over to the crew's quarters, already having made up his mind as to where the Doctor and Rose were to stay. There were four rooms, two on either side of the hallway, each with two beds. He led them to the furthest one on the left, and on entering, he began packing a bag with his things. The room was small, with six drawers set in the left wall and the two small beds pushed together to make one big one against the right wall.
"You can have my quarters. I can find somewhere else to rest," Kallias told them.
"That's alright; we can stay in our TARDIS. You don't have to give up your room."
"I think it'd be best if the rest of the crew remained under the impression that you were stowaways. I do not trust them with your ship. Besides, there's more than enough room for me elsewhere; the ship was designed to have two to a room. I can bunk with Angela; her room is in front of yours. The Captain and Marian share the one next door, and Neal has the one across. I'd bunk with him, but frankly, his, uh, advances disconcert me." He put his last few articles of clothing in the bag and moved to stand by the door. "Anyway, I'll let you settle in. I'll be in the kitchen if you need me. That's the second compartment past the cargo hold on the second half of the ship."
He stood awkwardly at the door to the room for a few moments before he finally left.
Rose bit her lip and looked around the small room, settling her eyes on the bed. She knew that they should probably separate the beds, but she also knew that neither of them would. She slowly walked over to it and sat down on the edge. She looked up at the Doctor as he came to stand in front of her.
"You tired?" he asked.
"No."
"Oh."
He shuffled his feet in thought, before climbing over to the spot behind her and laying down. She looked at him over her shoulder and he raised an eyebrow, gesturing that she stretch out in the spot next to him. She smiled softly and scooted in next to him. His hand reached over to grab hers and they both smiled contentedly. He closed his eyes and relaxed, sweeping his thumb in slow circles over the back of her hand.
Rose was perfectly content to just remain there in silence, but there was something that she had been meaning to ask him.
She rolled onto her side so that she was facing him. "Doctor, what are we doing here?"
He opened his eyes and looked at her quizzically.
"I'm not complainin' or anything, but there's no trouble or amazing sight to see, so why are we staying?"
He grinned and raised his head to rest on his hand. "Rose Tyler, I have shown you many a planet, but you have yet to see the inside of one. It's one of the only places the TARDIS can't go. Or – well – I'm pretty sure she can't; it's not really something I want to risk."
"What? You mean there's actually a limit to your risk-taking? Didn't think that was possible," she grinned.
"As it just so happens, there is. And possibly losing the only TARDIS I have is up there with skydiving without a parachute or hoverpack. So we are staying right here. Although, if that Neal keeps hanging around you…"
"Oh, come off it. Sure, he makes me a little uncomfortable, but he's harmless."
"Are you sure? Because I could always throw him into the path of an exploding star."
Rose lightly punched the arm nearest to her. "Oi! Watch it!"
He pouted exaggeratedly. "Ow! That hurt!"
"Good."
He continued to pout and began gently rubbing the spot she had hit.
"You can stop the act, 'm not apologizing," she said firmly as she crossed her arms.
"What act?"
"You know exactly what–"
There was a loud buzz followed by a muffled voice coming from a speaker just outside the door. "This is Angela. Captain, I need to see you in the secondary control room. It's urgent."
Rose and the Doctor shared a grin. Looks like there might be trouble after all.
The control room of the second ship was an exact replica of the other one, except that its viewing screens were currently powered off. They found Angela half buried under some floor panels, hard at work, while Kallias sat on one of the side chairs, twisting his hands together nervously.
Neal typed furiously at the controls. "How 'bout now?" he called.
Angela sighed in frustration. "Nothing yet."
Rose walked over to where Kallias was sitting. "What happened?"
"The entire mission is a failure! It was our last hope! My home is going to burn!" he cried.
Rose sat and put an arm around his shoulders. "Hey, it'll be alright, alright? We're gonna fix whatever happened."
Capitan Owens stormed in, closely followed by his wife. "What in god's name is going on?"
Angela wormed her way out from under the panels. "Propulsion is offline."
Owens crossed his arms in irritation. "So, get it back online."
"It's not that simple," Neal said, still working at the controls. "The processor chip is missing. Sir," he turned to look gravely at the captain, "I think it's been sabotaged."
Rose felt Kallias stiffen next to her and Marian gasped.
"Well, I'm sure the chip can be bypassed." The Doctor bent down to where the floor panels had been removed. "May I?"
Owens' face reddened in anger and he opened his mouth to protest that he was probably the saboteur, but Angela raised her hand. "Captain, we might as well let him try. There's no way he can make it any worse than it already is."
Marian put her hand on her husband's shoulder, silently urging him to agree.
"Fine." The Doctor got straight to work. "Is there anything else?"
Angela fiddled with a piece of hair that had fallen out of her pony tail. "Um, well the propulsion subsystem interfaces with thermal control, so the insulation netting in the hull is useless."
"What do you mean 'useless'?"
There was a whirr from the control panel and the Doctor jumped up to check the results.
"I mean, this room will slowly overheat. Probably have about three hours before it becomes uninhabitable."
Neal's face paled as he read the viewscreen. "Propulsion back online."
The Doctor winked. "Told you so. Good as new; everything is in tip-top shape! Well, mostly."
"Mostly?" Kallias asked.
"Auto-nav is irreparable, and the room will still overheat in three hours, but the mission can still be carried out – which is brilliant news for Koor."
"Without auto-nav, won't someone need to pilot the ship? That doesn't seem very safe if it's gonna overheat," Rose commented.
Owens grunted. "I'll do it. Marian can take over as pilot while I'm over here."
The Doctor clapped his hands together. "Good! Now that that's settled, we have a bigger problem, because somebody in this room doesn't want the mission to succeed."
Marian stepped forward. "Well, it's not Corey or me; we've been at the controls the whole time."
"Isn't it obvious?" Neal spoke up. "The moment these two show up, things start to go wrong!"
"But this was Angela's job to monitor."
"And Neal had the best access!"
The room erupted into overlapping voices. The Doctor tried to defend himself while Kallias and Angela argued. Neal tried to push the blame on Marian while Rose explained that she couldn't sabotage it even if she wanted to. Their voices raised louder and louder until–
"Enough!" Captain Owens blared. Behind him, an insistent red light was flashing. "We still have a mission to accomplish, whether someone tries to interfere or not. Angela, go down to the engine room, and Neal, go monitor the bombs. Everyone else come with me; it's time to strap in. We can deal with the rest later."
To be continued very soon...