An almost tangible silence fell in the alchemist's laboratory, crashing down on the room. Billie struggled to her feet, helping Athena up as well. The Professor stood, Pi-edi's sealed lightsaber in his hand.
"Is everyone alright," he asked, looking around the room. Drake grunted his reply, but he was the only one that did.
"Doc," said Rosie. "What's the plan?" The Professor glanced at her.
"It hasn't changed," he said, examining a panel sticking out from the wall. "We wait for your keyblade to recharge enough to get home and then set the charges for the Daleks back at UNIT."
"Well," said the girl. "Not to correct you or anything, but I don't think it'll be that easy anymore." The Professor turned around, intending to ask her why not, but saw the reason immediately; a great lumbering beast lurked in the doorway, its body something between bear and gorilla. The Time Lord cast a quick glance to Eve, all his questions in his eyes.
"It's one of my father's chimeras," said the alchemist. "We have to be quick, kill it before it can call the others." She clapped her hands together, energy sparking from her palms. The creature gave out a hideous whistling shriek, its clawed hands reaching for the alchemist as she slammed her hands against the ground, forming a pair of thin sabers.
Eve stood in a fluid motion, bringing her blades up and through the outstretched hand of the chimera. The beast shrieked in pain and made to strike at Eve with the other arm. It was at this instant that several things happened in very quick succession; a series of bangs, at least two of them gunshots filled the air, rocketing the beast out of the laboratory and into one of the fellows that had come to join it, a large heavy door slamming down between the laboratory and the hallway.
"That should keep them out for a few minutes," said the Professor, stowing his sonic screwdriver in a pocket of his long coat.
"You can operate the technology in this place," said Sam, glaring at the Time Lord. "And you just let that thing walk in here?"
The Professor looked at her. "I had a hunch, but I didn't know that was going to happen," he said defensively. "Trust me a little, I'm not always wrong." Athena chuckled slightly at this.
"Now," said the Time Lord, regaining his composure. "Good news is I can work most of the controls from this room. There's an interface panel," he motioned to a panel he had obviously removed from the wall, exposed crystals and wires sticking out. "And I'm more than a little clever with Alteran technology." He took a breath. "The bad news is our best shot of getting home is both out there and almost out of power. Now, under perfect conditions, I could just zap us to the gate room, but with the current restraints, I can't do much more than chart a course from here to there." He smiled weakly.
"Why can't we just apparate," said Billie. "We can get to where we're going and get out of here."
"Think about that," said Drake. "You really think you two can easily carry all of us more than a couple feet? And through a place you've never been? No thanks; I'll take my chances with the monsters if you don't mind."
"He's right," said Athena grudgingly. "We might end up inside a wall or something, best not to chance it."
The Professor looked to the rest of the group. "Well," he asked. "What do you say, shall we take our chances?" Stern stepped forward.
"Sir," said the marine. "I agree with Drake. Let's take our chances with the chimeras." Rosie nodded, smirking slightly.
"Right," said the Professor, smiling. He retrieved the sonic from his coat pocket, leaning over the panel.
An image appeared in the middle of the room; a 3D map of what looked to be – "A ship," said Stern, looking at the hologram. "This is a ship?"
"Of course it is," said the Professor, smiling. "Did you think it would have transport rings if it was just underground?" He seemed to think for a second because almost as soon as he said this, he answered his own question; "don't answer that."
The Time Lord pointed the screwdriver at the hologram. A series of colored lines crossed the map, all converging at a single place near the center of the ship. ""This," he said, speaking louder because of a sudden banging against the door where, undoubtedly several chimeras were attempting to break in. "Is every route to the gate room." He pointed the sonic at the map again, and all but a single red line disappeared. "This is our path. It's pretty much just a straight shot to the room. Down a hall and to the left. Got it?" The group nodded.
Stern stepped toward the door, his bolter pistol cocked and ready. "Ready when you are," said the giant, his mechanical eye blazing, and a smirk on his face. The Professor nodded quietly, the sonic screwdriver whirring at the panel.
The door slid open in a simple movement that, somehow, seemed to confuse the chimeras outside. There were two of them, massive reptilian looking creatures, spines, teeth and claws bared, but with a look of dumb confusion at the open door. Before the creatures had a chance to advance, Stern's pistol had fired a half dozen times and they were dead on the ground.
"Go," said the Professor, leading the way down the corridor, Pi-edi's lightsaber once again clenched in his right hand.
A chimera burst from a doorway at the end of the hall; it was the same one that had lost a hand to Eve. It snarled, baring curved fangs in its bearlike snout before charging forward. The Professor readied himself.
"I got this," said Drake from behind the Time Lord. The Professor felt himself being pushed aside as the S.O.L.D.I.E.R. moved, barely visible, his long sword swinging at least twice. The mess that fell to the ground was barely recognizable as a chimera.
"Which way," said Drake, sheathing his sword.
"That door," said the Professor, pointing to the entry from which the chimera had burst. They streamed in, the professor smiling slightly at the upright ring at the far end of the long room. It was taller than even Stern, and made of the same grayish black material that the ring teleports had been.
"That's neat," said Sam. "It's a teleport of some sort?"
"No," said the Professor, smiling. "That's a stargate."
"And it teleports stuff, right," said Sam, giving the Time Lord an annoyed look.
"Not exactly. It generates a stable wormhole long enough to facilitate nearly instantaneous travel between two points in space." Athena rolled her eyes.
"Which, I think, translates to 'teleport,'" said the Slytherin, giving the Professor the same look as Sam. The Professor shrugged, striding forward.
"If you must break it down to make it simpler," he sighed.
"You know," said Sam with an evil look. "I still have a bullet left in that gun. You can live with one knee. Or kidney."
"Just help me find the DHD," said the Time Lord, exasperated. "It's a panel with a series of buttons inscribed with glyphs," he elaborated, clearing off a panel on one wall. He used the sonic screwdriver, and a series of constellation like glyphs lit up on the ring. "It'll be those glyphs, by the way."
It took several minutes of searching to find the proper panel, faced away from the ring against a far wall; it was hexagonal, the glyphs etched into triangular buttons.
"Okay," said the Professor, looking to Eve. "I need a favor from you."
"Another energy transfer," said the alchemist. She wasn't questioning. "How much power?" The Professor sighed.
"About a billion times what was needed for the teleport outside," he said. The alchemist nodded.
"I can handle it," she said.
"Alright," said the Professor, pressing buttons. "Wait for the chevron at the top to light up, and then go for it." Eve nodded. "And don't stand directly in front of it," he said sharply, as the alchemist had crouched at the front of the ring.
The Professor pressed a ninth button, and looking at Eve, said "Now" as he pressed the unmarked button at the center of the console. There was a flash of red lightning and, after several breathless seconds, the ring ejected a what looked like a bubble of water which almost instantly retracted into the ring, leaving what seemed to be a pool of standing blue water in the ring.
"Go," said the Professor, motioning to his friends to run through the gate. Eve stepped away from the gate, watching them go.
The Professor stopped just short of the event horizon, looking at Eve. "Thank you," he said with a small bow. The alchemist smiled.
"Thank you," she said. "You'd better get going, won't it close without you?"
"Nah," said the Time Lord. "Listen, why don't you come with us?" He gave her a half smile. "You know, see the stars?" He held out a hand to her.
Eve looked contemplative for a few seconds. "For how long," she said, reaching her hand toward his tentatively.
"Until you want to leave," he said, grinning as she took his hand. They leapt through the stargate and out to an adventure.