House Call

Chapter 15

Location: lab

Joe worked at the lab to see if he could awaken Loretta from her sleep. Though, honestly waking her up was the easy part. It was taking down the temporal flux she was trapped in that was the tricky part, but he was a genius—a former Time Lord. He could do anything. He just needed a little time, which was ironic, but true.

He pulled out his sonic screwdriver to the right setting and found the right controls in the room and slowly shut down the temporal power. It would essentially pop the temporal flux bubble and Loretta would sync back into the normal time frame.

And with one last push of the button a shimmer of temporal energy flash and disappeared and Loretta finally woke up after a century's long sleep. The brunette-beauty blinked open her eyes and looked around the chamber she was in and the room. She looked frightened and distraught and started to panic.

Joe instantly grinned to himself in triumphant and exclaimed, "Fantastic!" but then noticed she was not looking very good and raised to his hand to gesture for her to calm down. "Hey! Take it easy. I'll disengage the system, just give me a tic."

Joe then pressed another series of buttons and after a long hiss Loretta was free from the chamber in the lab and stumbled out into the room on wobbly feet.

"Oh—oh Rassilon, what in the world is happening? How did I ever manage to get in there? And who exactly are you?"

The former-Time Lord beamed. "Oh, this is better than fantastic." He then approached her and said, "Hello, I'm Doctor Joseph Noble, or Joe if you'd like. Welcome back from a 100 years sleep, Lorettamalfrankadorabellmay."

Loretta narrowed her bow and retorted, "Charmed, but how did you know my name? And how did you get inside my ship? You're not a Time Lord."

Joe suddenly felt uncomfortable and pulled on his leather jacket and ran his hand through his wild hair. Stuttering, he said, "Um—yes—well that's rather complicated, but it's not important. What is important is that your ship has grown sentient and has been draining the psychic energy out of aliens for the past 100 years. And is probably up to no good. You ought to look into that."

Stunned, Loretta said, "What? Nonsense, my peach is a gentle lady. Here, I'll prove it."

The Time Lady then extended her hand and touched the wall of the lab, which was a part of her ship. Joe knew that she was trying to form a psychic connection. He would have done the same thing. Commanding a TARDIS was as easy as thinking, but slowly Loretta's confidence began to crumble. To her horror there was no response. Her TARDIS wasn't responding.

"Rassilon! What's happened?" She then turned on Joe and poked him in the chest and said, "What did you do to my beautiful ship, you—you beast!"

Joe frowned and brushed her hand away. "Like I said, your ship's sentient. It's gone rogue. She isn't listening to anybody and from what I can see she isn't listening to you either. So, what we need here are some answers. Right first, how did you get inside the temporal flux?"

Bewildered, Loretta said, "Temporal what?"

Impatiently, he shouted, "Temporal flux! You were inside a temporal flux. I don't think you volunteered, so how'd you get in it? Do you remember?"

Loretta raised her brow at him and tilted her head. Joe then realized where Sally got her habits. She based everything about her avatar from her pilot. Sally and Loretta looked like a pair of twins. The only difference was that Loretta had brown hair and Sally was a redhead.

"I'm sorry, but do I know you? You seem rather familiar."

Joe felt exasperated. Didn't she hear him? Irked, he tried closing his eyes and counting back from 10. It usually helped when he was dealing with Torchwood idiots. He found it was hard to be patient he no longer had all the time in the world. It amazed him how much time humans tended to waste. Plus, it was hard not succumbing to human emotions. And even though it might be lovely to sit down and have a chat, he knew he couldn't.

"No Loretta, we have never met. I just have one of those faces, me. Now, focus. You're ship has literally got a mind of her own. So, are you going to help me fix her or not?"

"I—I—oh no!"

Suddenly the sound of the cloister bells echoed out throughout the ship and immediately Loretta ran out of the lab and into the halls. Joe followed her out and watched as the stone corridors melted away and became metal and gratings. Sally had transformed her interior to that of a typical TARDIS ship. And to his horror he felt the ebb and flow of space and time begin to change all around them.

"No, we're in the Time Vortex. She's put us in flight!"

Loretta said, "Quick, to the control room. I need to see what peach has got planned."

Joe watched as the Time Lady began to march down the hall and quickly jogged after her and matched her step. Curious, he looked at her and asked, "Peach? Seriously, that's your nickname for your TARDIS? A warship, one of the most powerful ships of all creation and you named after a fruit?"

"Well, yes. What else should I call her?"

Joe shrugged. "I don't know, Sally?"

Loretta scuffed. "Sally? Oh, that's dreadful. My ship isn't a—"

"Sally!" shouted Rory in shock as he stared at Loretta, but after a second noticed her hair and stumbled back. He narrowed his brow and said, "Oh, sorry. I thought you were—um, someone else."

Meanwhile, Eleven beamed. He approached Loretta and shook her hand. "Well, how do you do? I'm the Doctor and I'm on a house call to fix your ship."

Stunned, the Time Lady exclaimed, "What! The Doctor? You mean—oh my, you've regenerated. The Madam President spoke of you, but I never thought we'd actually meet."

In response, the bow tied man actually puffed out his chest and gleamed. He didn't think Loretta was a fan. It had also been a while since he had actually spoken to another one of people that wasn't him or the Master. It was really quite refreshing. Proudly, he pulled his thumbs through his suspenders and said, "Yes, well I'm sure you've heard loads about me and all my brilliant feats."

"Oh, heaven's no. She said you were a right mad man. Now, what's happened to my peach? And what are all these humans doing on my ship?"

"Shut up, all of you!" shouted River. "Doctor, we've got a problem remember? We need to stop Sally."

Eleven suddenly began to bounce on the balls of his feet and stated, "Ah, yes thank you Miss River Song. First, we need two teams. Right, Amy, Rory, I need you two to go and find the roots. Once you find them chop them up and sever Sally's psychic link. It will slow her down and she won't be able to operate the console as efficiently."

Amy nodded her head and clapped her hands in agreement and said, "Ok, but in the mean time what are you going to do?"

"In the mean time, the rest of us are going back to the control room and deal with Sally. Joe, Rose and River can distract her while me and Loretta seize back control of the ship. With luck we can turn this baby around and back into the Time Vortex before she leaves the ship. Right then good, excellent. Oh, you'll need my sonic in order to locate the psychic readings. Think of it as a honing beacon."

Eleven then handled his tool over to the stumped redhead and kissed her forehead for luck before grinned and taking off down a corridor and shouting for Loretta to lead the way. Meanwhile, Rory looked around uncertain and asked, "Why was Loretta talking about peaches?"

XXX

It didn't take long to find the control room with Loretta leading the way. It seemed she still had a psychic link to her ship and was about to make the right passageways appear so that there was only one door left. Eleven was very anxious. He knew that whatever they faced on the other side would be his past and it still had the power to scare him to death. He wanted nothing before than to run, but he couldn't. He had to face the grim reality that had plagued him for centuries. He had thought he had put the past behind him, but again it reared its ugly head. The universe was at task and he was faced with unspeakable odds if he failed.

However, to his surprise a comforting hand slipping into his and he saw that it was Rose—his brave beautiful Rose—the girl that promised him forever. She was the simple shop girl that destroyed the entire Dalek fleet and the Emperor because she loved him.

She smiled and said, "Its going to be ok, Doctor. You're not alone. You've got me."

Eleven grinned. "Yeah, but what about your man, Joe?"

The man in question strode up and took Rose other hand and gave it a squeeze. He met Eleven's gave with familiar steel blue eyes—the eyes of the Oncoming Storm and smiled cunningly in a way that looked more like it should come from a face like Nine instead of Ten.

Eleven recognized that look. It was the one he used to see in his own reflection. It was the look of man capable of anything.

"She's mine Rose, pretty boy. She can have all the friends she wants, but at the end of the day she only dances with me."

Startled in awe, Eleven replied, "Rassilon…I've forgotten how manly man I used to be."

Though, to his other side he heard River Song begin to laugh and take his other hand and said, "Quite frankly, sweetie I think it's rather yummy."

"Oh you would, you bad girl."

Together the two of them laughed. It felt a bit forced since they were about to enter the lion's den and face Sally. Though, without out warning Loretta strode up to the double doors that lead to the control room and threw them wide open. The Time Lady marched in quickly and saw that the chamber was completely empty.

Perplexed, Eleven ran into the chamber and checked the console, but saw that nothing was working. He pressed and re-pressed the controls and buttons, but nothing was responding. Loretta did the same and said, "I can't do a thing. The controls are in lock down."

River looked around asked, "I don't understand. Where is she?"

"Out. She's gone out," answered Joe.

He ran towards the open doors and outside saw a vast rocky landscape. They were on a planet, but it wasn't Paris or the 51st century. They were at some other time at some other place. He saw vats of volcanic summits in the distances and clouds looming over head that looked stormy and ready to break. It was new world. It looked teeming with new unknown life, but where they were and when, he wasn't sure.

"Where are we?" asked Rose.

Suddenly, Loretta turned from the controls and answered. "Skaro."

XXX

TBC

XXX

Thanks for your encouragement: Dreamcatcher49 and Kabooshka. I'm glad you like how I'm writing the characters. Though, next chapter should be exciting as we draw closer towards the end. How does the Doctor and gang stop evil Sally? And what dangers lurk on Skaro?

Please read and review. Thank you.