'That's the last of them,' River announced when she closed the door and stepped aside to let the Doctor work the magic of the sonic on it.

For a crashed spaceship it looked remarkably well. Aside from the obvious damage, the engines that were only fit to be recycled and a lot of scratch marks on the walls, this ship was fine. Some of the crew might have even survived. If they did, though, they hadn't stayed here. The artificial gravity wasn't working, but there was enough power here for the lights to be on, so if anyone was on board, River would like to think they would have taken that little bit of trouble to make sure they didn't have to walk on the ceiling.

'You shot all the wolves?' The Doctor was probably aiming for incredulity, but he sounded closer to admiration, something that pleased her more than she was going to admit. It was difficult, trying to get the younger versions of him to fall in love with her. Older him was not automatically a reassurance that in her future she would get it right; time could so easily be rewritten. This was like walking a tightrope over a chasm in a hurricane. It was nice to get the occasional sign that she was doing fine.

'Yes,' she said. 'Or at least all the wolves that were following us before you closed the door.'

Yes, there was definitely admiration now.

'Any chance you could turn the gravity back on from here?' she inquired. Not that she couldn't climb her way up to the main control rooms, but she'd much rather not bother with it if only it could be avoided.

'There's a control panel behind you,' he said. 'If we're very lucky…' He was waving the sonic at a point somewhere behind her shoulder before directing his attention back to her. 'Ehm, River, could you…?'

'Move aside?' she filled in the blank space. 'Where exactly, sweetie? There isn't all that much room in here.' Not anywhere she could go anyway before the Doctor had restored the artificial gravity and had unlocked the door that was currently blocking their way into the ship itself. And her guess was that panel behind her also controlled aforementioned door.

The Doctor had probably just gotten the same idea, because he was blushing worse than a schoolboy with a crush. 'Ah well. Just stay still. Very still,' he ordered.

River was very tempted to do the exact opposite, but it was probably too early for him to experience the more physical aspects of their relationship for himself just yet. And so she did as she was told, holding still while the Doctor tried to get the machinery to do his bidding. He was keeping his distance. Well, at least he was trying to keep some distance between their bodies. It hardly worked. The Doctor had all the control over his limbs a giraffe would possess after consuming several bottles of wine on a normal day, and nerves made him worse. It made her feel that bit pleased with herself that she could make him nervous, but she'd rather not take an elbow to the face as a result of it.

'Just get on with it, sweetie,' she told him. 'I don't mind the touching.' Not at all. In fact, she'd welcome it just about now.

'I bet you wouldn't, River Song,' he muttered under his breath. He was looking over her shoulder at the controls, which left his mouth next to her ear. 'It isn't working,' he added in frustration.

He really was making this too easy on her, and she upped the flirting. 'Well, I know a number of things we could do in a small enclosed space,' she said suggestively.

This wasn't met with outright horror, but at least with some measure of shock that would have been entertaining to watch if she could have seen his face. It took him a few moments to recover and come up with an adequate answer.

'Oh, you bad, bad girl,' he scolded. No doubt he would have tapped her nose like he always did if they could actually move in this place.

'And you love it,' she retorted. Maybe she was pushing her luck now that she made it so easy for him to deny that, but the reply was almost automatic these days.

And he didn't deny it. 'A bit,' he confessed as if he was admitting to a very great crime. 'What is it with these controls?'

River could hear the whirring of the sonic, but thus far it didn't seem to have very much result; the door was still closed and they were still standing on the ceiling.

But really, what had they expected? 'It's a crashed spaceship, my love. The systems are bound to be damaged.'

'They weren't last time,' the Doctor muttered. 'Damaged, yes, but not this badly. What is it with you and me and crashed spaceships anyway?'

'I think that's spoilers, Doctor.' He had mentioned something about the crash of the Byzantium when they were doing diaries, so technically she already knew that there would be more dealing with crashed spaceships in her future, but it couldn't hurt to remind him.

River could almost feel the Doctor perk up. 'Oh, so you're not the only one who gets to say spoilers. I'm liking this already.'

And given the fact that he didn't seem to like it any less in her past, that shouldn't have been much of a surprise. How surprised would he be though if she told him he had been the one she stole the word from, just as he stole it from her? In the end, neither of them had come up with it themselves. It might even be some kind of paradox.

'Yes, I'm liking this very much too,' she said, steering the conversation back to flirting territory. 'Although there really could be more physical contact. You and me in a small space, well, the mind races.' She'd said that last bit to him before, but he had been older then, less likely to be absolutely horrified when there was flirting involved. As much as she liked it when he gave as good as he got, this wasn't all that bad either.

The incoherent sputtering was proof enough of success.

'Can you sonic the door?' she asked. 'We could climb up to the main control deck and fix the gravity from there.'

'It's a ventilation shaft behind that door,' the Doctor reminded her. 'And the door isn't a door. It's more like a trapdoor with a handle, that just looks like a door, but humans aren't supposed to use it to get through when they're not the technician.'

It wasn't as if she had been feeling like going around the ship time and again to find an opening that was more like a normal door. Either way, it wasn't her style to do things the usual way. 'I'm sure the word door is hidden somewhere in trapdoor, sweetie,' she pointed out. 'And it's a good thing you aren't human, then. Anyway, I brought a rope.'

The Doctor did a step back – as far as he could go in this place – and stared at her. 'How would you even know to bring rope?'

River smiled at him. 'Spoilers.'

That was all the answer the Doctor got, but did it frustrate him. He went first when they finally got the rope in place so that he could keep an eye out for a door that looked like it might lead to somewhere useful. Not that any of the doors he passed actually looked like doors, but that would be because they weren't actual, proper doors, no matter how much River protested that yes, they really were.

About halfway through the ventilation shaft – and really, wasn't that a proper cliché thing to be doing – he came upon a door-that-wasn't-a-real-door that looked promising. And in this case not even River could disagree, because this was an air grating that looked like it came out in some sort of control room. When the artificial gravity was on, it would be the floor he would be crawling out onto, but now he would probably have a bit of a fall before landing on the ceiling. Quite frankly it was a bit ridiculous that the emergency power was on, but the gravity was not. You shouldn't have one without the other. It was almost as if someone had switched it off on purpose. Manually. Which could mean that there was someone still on board. Somehow he didn't like the sound of that.

'Doctor, have you found something?'

River was climbing up behind him, so now that he had halted she couldn't get any further. He wouldn't admit it in a hurry, but he was glad that she was giving the flirting a rest. It was making him almost jumpy that she clearly didn't feel like this was in any way uncomfortable. It was even more unnerving to realise that to some extent it almost felt natural, as if this was something they did a lot.

Mrs Doctor from the future, Amy had said. But time was not the boss of him and he could run away from anything he liked. He was the king of running away, he didn't have to take part in a future he didn't want to be part of. The thing was that he wasn't so sure he wanted to run away all that much lately.

But it was hardly the time to contemplate River Song while they were both holding onto a rope for dear life and he was supposed to sonic the air grating out of the way so that they could get in.

'Looks like some sort of control room,' he reported. 'Might be our best shot for now.'

It was, and so he unleashed the screwdriver on it, very grateful for the fact that it wasn't deadlocked as the grating itself fell inwards. It took some manoeuvring before he managed to get himself in as well, but eventually he managed to land on the ceiling of the room. It would be something of a feat to get to the computers now, since they were located somewhere above his head and impossible to reach without a little help.

'Strange for the gravity to be off while the power is still on,' River remarked when she joined him on the ceiling. She looked at her feet. 'Gives a whole different meaning to that Dancing on the Ceiling song, does it not?'

'We are not going to dance,' he told her sternly.

'What a waste.' She had already taken her scanner to hand. 'Someone must have switched it off manually. I've seen this kind of ship before.'

The Doctor hadn't. It really should be a feeling he ought to be used to by now, River knowing more than he did, but it certainly didn't mean he liked it. He had seen many spaceships in his long life, but even he couldn't have seen them all. The basic design was definitely human, the machinery was made for humans, and so were the protective clothes he could see lying in a corner, which made the species of the owners rather easy to identify.

'What sort of ship?' he asked, standing on tiptoe to see if he could reach the machinery. He couldn't.

'Cargo ship,' River answered as she went around the room, reading her scanner as she went. 'Livestock, going by the evidence outside. Looks like the cages were further up. Down, now that the gravity is off. Crew's quarters are down, nearer the engines. We're somewhere in between.' She finally looked up. 'And you are not going to reach the computers like that, my love.'

He looked back at her from over his shoulder, mildly irritated by now. 'If you've got a better idea…'

He stopped dead when he realised that River did indeed have a better idea and she was already pushing a chair in his direction.

'Right.'

'You're welcome,' she hinted.

The Doctor decided not to take it. Instead he climbed up on the chair and tried for the computers again. He still had to stand on tiptoe – whose idea had it been to make such a high ceiling in a spaceship anyway, talking about waste of space – but he could reach the machinery this time. From there on it was a piece of cake to find the switch that would restore the gravity in this place to normal. It would make moving around in the ship a whole lot easier.

The one thing he hadn't calculated was that the moment the gravity came back on, his head was the first thing to acquaint itself with the floor. Unfortunately by the time he realised that, it had already happened. For a moment his vision was a bit blurry, and his head hurt, but he was conscious enough to see that River had taken the more practical approach and had held on to the ceiling so that she only had to fall a little distance before landing far too gracefully on her feet. The furniture – that was, all the furniture that hadn't been attached to walls or floor – had come down again, lying haphazardly scattered around him. The chair he had been standing on was lying on its side just an inch from his face. And wouldn't it have been humiliating if he had managed to get himself knocked out by a chair. River would never have let him hear the end of it.

As it was, he was already on the receiving end of her commentary. 'Only you could forget that when the gravity switches on again your head is first in line to hit the floor, sweetie,' she remarked, extending a hand to help him up again. 'You all right?'

'Yes.' No.

'Rule One, Doctor,' River sighed. 'There should be a First Aid kit in the basket.'

There had to be some use in dragging that thing here, there and everywhere with them then. 'Why would you even bring a First Aid kit?' he questioned. 'Or are those spoilers too?'

'Just common sense.' River was already going over the computers. 'I'm on an outing with you, dear. Anything could happen.'

That was probably true.

'Anything interesting?' he asked instead of admitting that there was a lot of sense in her way of thinking.

River frowned at the screen. 'Still trying to call up the data. It would be easier if we had access to the home box.'

'It would have left the moment the ship crashed,' the Doctor said. 'That thing has been home for at least two months.'

'I know.' The computer made the kind of noise computers tended to make when they decided to do what the operators wanted for once. 'I've got it. Looks like engine failure to me.'

Now that he was actually standing on the floor again, the Doctor permitted himself a good look around. The room itself was well-kept. Well, for a room in a crashed spaceship it was well-kept, well cared for, but the equipment here was positively ancient, more something he would expect to see in the sixty-sixth century rather than in the sixty-eighth.

River was already well ahead of him. 'Budget cuts,' she clarified, speaking the word as if it was the single most disgusting thing in the universe. 'There are several requests for repairs and spare parts, but the corporation turned them down, citing that the equipment will last for a little while longer, and they don't have the money for big repairs at the moment.'

The Doctor muttered something in Gallifreyan that would better not be translated into English.

'I agree,' River nodded.

That gave him pause. 'You understood that?' Had his older self gone completely insane? It was only a moment before he recalled that on the home box of the Byzantium she had used Old High Gallifreyan to leave her little message, indicating that she did indeed know the language, but at the time he had been too busy catching her when she had jumped ship and later when they were dealing with the Weeping Angels to pay it much mind.

'I know a curse when I hear one.' That answer was neither confirmation nor denial. 'And look at that, all the doors have been deadlocked open.'

'Not all of them,' the Doctor argued immediately, recalling all too well how much trouble they'd had getting into the ship.

'Those aren't doors,' River pointed out. 'We climbed in through the ventilation shaft.'

'You called it doors,' he reminded her.

'Yes, because we used them as such,' she countered. 'According to the computers, though, they aren't actual doors. And apparently, if we had gone to the left a bit further, we would have found a real door. An open door.'

That figured. 'We have taken the scenic route, Dr Song.'

'I've really enjoyed the sights in the ventilation shaft,' River agreed. 'Thank you, sweetie.' She sounded sincere and for a moment he wondered what in the world she could mean, because she could not honestly mean she had enjoyed looking at the walls, until it dawned on him that she had been climbing below him, so when she looked up she must have had an excellent view of his…

Oh.

'You are welcome,' he said, trying to mimic that flirtatious tone, fearing it was rather failing him.

Nevertheless he was rewarded for his efforts by her laughter.

He himself found he wasn't in the mood for laughter. His mind was racing – and clearly not in the same way River's was – but she had mentioned doors and doors being deadlocked open. 'That's how the big wolf thingies got out.'

River rolled her eyes at him. 'That is not actually a name, Doctor.'

'It is. It is a brilliant name,' he objected. 'Because they're wolves, but not quite, because they have hooves. And cat tails. So they're wolf-like… thingies. And they're big.'

'Your point, Doctor?'

Right, back to business. 'The doors would have unlocked the moment the ship crashed,' he explained. 'Standard protocol at a crash. The computer recognises the problem and makes sure all doors unlock and open so that the crew can get out. Except this ship didn't land on its belly, it landed on its back. So the wolf thingies hear the noise, feel the crash, but because of the artificial gravity they think it's coming from above.'

'The doors open, and the first thing they'll think about is to go down,' River understood. She had that face on, the face she always wore when she thought he was being particularly clever.

'Or what they think is down, because it's really up, but they don't know that, so off they go,' the Doctor continued, determined to finish his reasoning before River could come in and steal his thunder. 'But that would lead them away from the outside and to the crew, so someone thinks they're clever and they push the button, turn the gravity off, so the wolves will go up, but it's really down to try and escape.'

The crash was slowly starting to make a bit of sense, but there were still tons of questions he would like to have answered, such as why a standard sixty-eighth century cargo ship had such dangerous creatures aboard, where they had been headed and what the creatures had been meant for. Those wolf thingies were definitely genetically engineered, but for what purpose? Why that size? Why the hooves? And why the tail?

River nodded. 'Well, that makes sense. But Doctor, if the crew turned off the gravity, then where are they?'

'They could be among the skeletons outside,' he suggested.

He hadn't taken the time to see if there were humans as well as Delnosians. Not that he thought that all of the crew were out there. Maybe some, but not all. They would have known it was stupid to go and try after their cargo, assuming they had known how dangerous those beasties were. And if they had sent out a mayday – as would be logical – then they would want to wait on board for a reply. Some might have died in the crash, but clearly not everyone, because someone had turned off the gravity in the main control room. And there was a distinct lack of bodies in what should have been one of the most frequently populated areas.

'Not all of them.' River must have followed his reasoning. 'There may be some still on board the ship.' She had arrived at the same conclusion he had. It was one of the reasons why he liked having her around on his adventures.

'Well then, Dr Song,' he said. 'How would you feel about exploring the ship?' He had the strange feeling like he was asking her out on a date.

'I thought you'd never ask.'

The ship seemed abandoned. Fortunately River had enough adventures with the Doctor under her belt to know that she'd better be careful not to believe that everything always was as it seemed. In her book it was usually the case that the more normal it seemed, the more dangerous it was. Hence the gun at her hip.

The Doctor pointedly avoided looking at it, or that was what he was aiming for more like. Every now and then he kept shooting glances at it, as if he was very uncomfortable with a weapon so near his person. In his future he still wouldn't like it, she knew, but he tolerated it. And then there was the fact that he kind of liked it when she did that, so she didn't mind shooting things and people in his line of sight should the need arise.

So far there hadn't been any need. So far their trip through the ship's many corridors had even been eerily quiet, which definitely wasn't a good sign at all. Well, she'd say it was quiet, but the almost constant whirring of the sonic and the bleeping of her scanner rather interfered with the silence part.

'Nothing on this level,' she reported, looking into another room to see if there were some clues. So far all the doors they'd passed had been wide open, deadlocked open. Not even the screwdriver could shut them now. The furniture had been turned upside down, and some of it was obviously broken after having been thrown at the ceiling and then back to the ground again.

'You're right,' the Doctor said, studying the latest readings of the sonic. 'No one has been here for days.'

'They could have moved back to the crew's bedrooms,' River suggested. 'They must have known someone else was in when the gravity switched back on.'

'There was no one on this level then either,' the Doctor objected. 'We would have heard them.'

'The sound carries in here,' she conceded. And the Doctor might not have been the only one crying out in surprise and pain when the world turned literally upside down. 'Crew's quarters then?' They'd checked most of the communal areas, and they were all abandoned.

'Crew's quarters,' the Doctor agreed. He shook his head. 'There's something I'm missing, something that is really staring me in the face…' He trailed off, looked thoughtful and then sprinted back the way they came, leaving River no choice but to run after him to see what he had thought up now. His strokes of genius tended to be quite brilliant indeed, but would it kill him to stop and explain every once in a while?

'Doctor!' she yelled at his retreating back. 'What is it?'

He looked over his shoulder and almost tripped over his own feet as a result. 'The kitchen!' he called back, as if that explained everything when in her opinion it really didn't.

That was likely all the answer that she was going to get out of him before they returned to the kitchen and would see for herself what it was that it was that had gotten him so excited. Of course when she arrived, the Doctor was already there, opening cupboards and the fridge to demonstrate a point she was not yet seeing. Unless he was showing her the broken cutlery, which really was nothing out of the ordinary on a ship like this.

'See, River?' he asked, the well-known gleam in his eyes that indicated that he was on the scent. When his supposed cleverness didn't trigger another reaction from her than the questioning glance, he added: 'They're empty.'

'Yes, they are,' she said, slowly starting to see where he was going, but not arriving at the same conclusion he did. 'But the crew could have left and taken all the food with them. It doesn't mean anything.'

'Oh yes, it does,' he disagreed. 'You see, Dr Song. That door,' he pointed at a door in the far corner that had completely escaped her notice on first inspection, 'is closed.'

Now she was starting to see his point. 'And it couldn't be, because all the doors in this ship have been deadlocked open.' She was already pointing her scanner in that direction. 'I can't get a reading on what is on the other side.'

'A freezer,' the Doctor answered, looking at the sign attached to it that said so. 'Big one, probably, needs to hold all of the food in case of a long journey. And it wouldn't have opened with the rest of the doors, because…' He moved closer and unleashed the sonic on the door. 'There's a manual override. You'd want to keep the food fresh in case you're stuck around somewhere for a while, but the power inside is switched off, which means…'

'We've probably found the crew,' she finished. That impossible, but clever man. And he was loving this every bit as much as she did. They attracted trouble, the two of them, and they loved it. Maybe that was why they were so well suited. 'Can you sonic it open?'

'River Song, you just watch,' he told her. Was he trying to flirt with her first now? Something in that tone was far too familiar, just not when this version of the Doctor was doing it. 'And you can't go shooting them!' he added as a warning.

'As long as they don't shoot at us,' she replied, not impressed, hand automatically reaching for the gun, just in case.

He seemed to realise that was the best he could hope for. 'Ready?'

River sent him her most confident smile. 'Always.'

The sonic whirred.

Thank you for reading again. If you've got a minute, reviews would be greatly appreciated. And a huge thanks for those who reviewed last chapter.