/all righty guys, new chapter! also, i wanna hear your feedback on this-honestly, it's my favorite adventure in the entire fic. enjoy!
Chapter 18- An Unexpected Ally
I thought that when I had reached this point in my account, the one you're reading now, it would be hard to describe how I felt. Watching my friend and my savior (although, I suppose each title can apply to both) walk to their deaths, guarded by sadistic killing machines isn't exactly a walk in the park, even to remember. But as I write now, it is easy for me to remember my feelings as I watched them go. It's a feeling that's hard to forget.
Hopelessness. Utter hopelessness. Anger at the Daleks, at the Doctor, at myself. Desperation—would I ever see them again? Sadness—probably not. Resolution—they weren't going down without me fighting for them.
As soon as the Daleks had cleared out, the tight knot of former captives broke apart. No one spoke, but footsteps echoed through the ballroom as people hurried to collect their belongings and make a quick exit via a back door they hope is there. I stood still, looking for some way to cope with everything I felt. That was when I realized I wasn't alone.
"Miss? You all right?" a voice asked. I turned and found the woman who'd caught me as Okras tossed me away standing beside me. She wore a scarlet cocktail dress; there was a champagne spill down the skirt, probably from all the pushing and shoving of the crowd in our terror. Her huge brown eyes were worried, her lips pursed in concern.
"I'm no better than everyone else," I said, shrugging. It was technically the truth.
"I'm sorry, but did-did ya know them?" she asked, her English accent, different from the Doctor's and River's, distorting the sounds of her words. "The people those…things took away."
I heaved a huge sigh. "Yes, I did," I said. I left out the part where I'd only known River for five minutes.
"I knew Professor Song," the woman said. "I was a student of hers. I'm so sorry—"
"They're not dead yet," I interrupted brashly. "Not until I let them be."
"Are you going to go after them?" the woman asked. "Try to rescue them from those things?"
"They're called Daleks," I said firmly. "And yeah, I'm going to get them back, no matter what it takes."
"How?" was the woman's simple question, with a not-so-simple answer.
My mouth opened and closed without any sound coming out. The woman continued, "You'll need someone who knows the area and has a good bit of knowledge under her belt."
I was starting to catch on. "Do you mean yourself?" I asked curiously. She wanted to come with me on some kamikaze mission to get two people she didn't even know away from homicidal space maniacs. I was taken aback, to say the least. "Would you really risk your life?"
"Professor Song is one of the best teachers here," she replied coolly. "She deserves to be saved." She stuck out her hand. "I haven't properly introduced myself. I'm an undergrad here, studying all things Technology. My name's Clara, by the way."
I shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, Clara," I said. "I'm Erica. I'm American, never went to college, and—what year is it?"
"2142," Clara answered, puzzled.
"Oh, Lord," I said, doing the mental math. Working the register at your own business gives you a good head for quick addition and subtraction. "I'm…a hundred and thirty years out of my own time."
Clara raised her eyebrows. "Well, you have one hell of a moisturizer," she quipped.
"Try time machine," I replied. Clara seemed to take it in stride.
"I'll believe it," she said, shrugging. "So, what's our first step?"
I paused thoughtfully. How exactly should I go about rescuing my friends? "We get to the TARDIS," I said. "She can think of something. Follow me." I grabbed Clara's hand and began pulling her out of the nearly-empty ballroom.
"Wait, what's the TARDIS?" Clara asked, yanking her hand back and pulling me to a stop. "And why did you call it a 'she'?"
"It's a time machine," I answered, wondering how she'd take it, "that also travels through space. The name's an acronym: it stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. And you'll find that she has quite the personality. Uh, do you still want to come?"
Clara chewed on her lip for a moment. "Yeah, I do," she said. "A ship with an attitude? Count me in!"
I smirked. Oh, she had an attitude all right. "Let's go!" I said, tugging Clara along. She ran with me to the ballroom doors, where we looked carefully both ways for any oncoming Daleks. Once the coast was clear, we jogged across the road and back to the parking lot River had concealed the TARDIS in, always keeping an eye out for the robot menaces. Soon, the TARDIS was in sight, hidden in the shadowy corner we left it in.
"Where's the ship?" Clara asked.
"Straight ahead!" I whispered hurriedly, signaling for her to lower her voice.
"What? Where? You don't mean that blue box?" Clara asked doubtfully. When I didn't answer (which was answer enough) and continued to pull her along, she continued, "Why, it'll barely hold both of us! How is that even a ship at all?"
"Just trust me!" I replied. We'd finally reached the TARDIS, waiting for us in all her royal-blue glory. Without hesitation, I pushed through the doors and headed inside, striding up the stairs to the console. I began muttering to myself, half thought-out plans hanging in the air. I suddenly realized that Clara's footsteps had ceased, and I turned around to find her not there at all. Worried, I ran back to the TARDIS doors, popping my head outside.
"Clara?" I called. "Clara, where'd you go?" Suddenly, Clara swung around the corner of the TARDIS, staring at it in amazement.
"Is—is it really—" she stuttered, mostly to herself. She pushed past me back into the console room, staring at the TARDIS's sheer, impossible size.
"Bigger on the inside?" I supplied. "Yeah, it is. You should see the movie theater."
Clara took a breath to calm herself. "Well, this is certainly more than I imagined," she quipped, her voice an octave higher.
"Yeah, it's a lot to take in," I said understandingly.
"Not that much," she replied, gazing at the console. Suddenly, a strange twang, sort of like the pluck of a banjo string, echoed from within the TARDIS's depths, showing her displeasure. Clara looked at me. "Was that…?"
"Yep, that was her," I said, picking up my dress hem and marching up to the console. "Told you she had a personality!"
Clara quickly scurried up the stairs behind me, admiring the console. "This thing can travel in space and time?"
"Well, she's not a 'thing'," I answered, "but yes, she can."
"Do you know how to fly her?"
"Not at all."
"So what do we do?"
"Dunno," I admitted, rubbing my hands together. "The TARDIS might be able to help us, though. This ship has an attitude, but maybe she has reason, too." I stepped back a bit from the console, gazing into the TARDIS's infinite ceiling.
"TARDIS!" I called. "Can you hear me?" Nothing happened. "Well, Clara and I need your help. Y'see, the Doctor and River have gotten themselves kidnapped by Daleks—is there anything you can do to help us?"
Suddenly, a flash of light sparked up from the base of the console, and suddenly a hologram of the Doctor stood stoically at the head of the stairs.
"Voice Interface activated," the Doctor said. His voice sounded slightly tinny. "Please repeat request."
I stared openmouthed—out of all the TARDIS's miracles, this was the most mind-boggling.
"The-the Doctor and River," I stuttered, beginning to get over my shock, "have been taken captive by the Daleks. Is there any way you can help us?"
"I can scan for bi-pulmonary life forms and zero in on their location," the Doctor- the Voice Interface- answered. "If the Signal Follower is activated, I can materialize around them."
"Where's the Signal Follower?" Clara asked.
Suddenly, a rickety bronze crank on the console wound by itself once, the sound loud and choppy. "It must be constantly activated in order to operate properly," the Voice Interface explained.
"So we have to be turning it continuously?" I clarified.
"Correct."
I hurried to the crank and wrapped my fingers around the handle, glancing back at the Interface. It was a perfect reproduction of the Doctor, right down to the floppy fringe and slightly-crooked bow tie. The hologram fizzled out, leaving Clara and I alone.
"So, what do we have to do?" Clara questioned. "Keep turning that crank, and then the TARDIS will just…what?"
"Simply speaking, she'll appear around the hostages so they're inside the ship," I answered.
"How is that possible?"
"No idea." I began turning the crank; it was stubborn and hard to turn, but I plowed on, winding it with all my muscle. "Better hold on to something, Clara, it's going to be a bumpy ride!"
The crank began turning easier as I wound it more, and the crystal pump began slowly moving up and down. Spurred on, I wound the crank faster, until it took the merest effort to spin and the crystal pump plunged up and down like the spring in a pogo stick. Strangely enough, the TARDIS didn't produce the usual vwoorp: I guess River had left the brakes off (it still surprises me to this day that the Doctor usually keeps the brakes on). A startling bump rocked the TARDIS, causing Clara to cling to the banister even more fiercely.
"Is there any way to stabilize the ship?" she asked, widening her stance to keep her balance.
"Why in the world would we do that?" I replied.