The TARDIS lurched around dangerously in the void, dodging electrical strikes from outside and tumbling further through time.
'I'm doing a quick scan for him, across all of time and space, shouldn't take too long, I should be able to spot him soon enough. Whatever's taken him, and I have a good idea what it is, will have dropped him off earlier in time… Or ripped his spine out, which does happen sometimes.'
John failed to hear anything that the Doctor had said, still standing by the door in amazement at the spectacle before him. The box had appeared so small in the back alley, yet the space inside was expansive, stretching far beyond even the large room in which he stood. Finally breaking away from his wonder, Watson struggled up the stairs onto the main control platform and began investigating the controls.
'Oh, you like it then John? I know what you're thinking, completely impossible right? That's what I do!'
The Doctor, as always, was revelling in having a new visitor to the TARDIS. At least John was giving the reaction that the Time Lord was used to, as opposed to Sherlock, who had seated himself on one of the chairs adorning the control platform and sank into though.
Entering his mind palace, Sherlock began sinking further back in time, checking every nook and cranny of his memory for a clue to Moran's location. Moran was a trained assassin, but not good enough to hide his identity from Holmes. In the run up to the meeting on St Bartholomew's Hospital, Sherlock had become aware of the three possible assassins, intending to clear up the remainder of Moriarty's mess following his faked death. However, whilst the first two assassins were easily found and rounded up (it was remarkably simple to fake another killing on their behalves), Moran seemed to have faded from existence.
Sherlock smirked a little; it explained why they were scanning through time as well as space. Whilst John had taken a long while to even accept the fact that the machine was bigger on the inside, Sherlock had already worked out how to fly the TARDIS. It was a simple system, but one the Doctor had failed to master in all the time he had been flitting around the universe.
Again, Sherlock allowed himself to slip into his consciousness, search for more clues. There were several notable criminals present in the 1900's, but only a few that would match Moran's appearance and characteristics. The consulting detective dove straight past the idea of someone such as Peter Sutcliffe; he was far too famous, far too careless, and far too evil. He dove past petty crimes, and straight out homicide. If Moran had been slipped into the past somewhere, he wouldn't commit any crimes intentionally, it would have to be forced, but completely unsolvable.
Sherlock looked up towards the other occupants of the TARDIS. Mere minutes had passed since he had begun thinking, and John was still circling the control panel. The Doctor had stepped back to soak in the atmosphere of a new traveller, laughing every so often as John made new discoveries, or stopping him from pressing a button that would crash land the machine.
'Moran's in 1963.' Sherlock stated simply.
The Doctor stretched forwards and flicked a lever, slowing the TARDIS in the void and sending it hurtling in the other direction.
'Oh and Doctor,' Holmes added, 'Thanks for trusting me to work it out by myself.'
'I was scanning for him, I told you that.'
The Doctor pointed towards his machine's viewing screen, full of Galifreyan text and symbols. Sherlock shook his head a little as he indicated a small button aside the vortex manipulator. Pressing it, the TARDIS came to a quiet halt in a London back alley, 1963.
'Ah Doctor, you never pressed the on button for the scanner.'