Doctor Who Tales of the Before
By Jay Schmidt
Hello again! Welcome to Chapter Two of my tale. I hope you enjoy this chapter and its longer length compared to the first. I am also introducing a character that doesn't speak English one hundred percent and I suspect that my understanding of the language this character speaks will be less than perfect. I am looking for corrections of my French and feedback on the story itself. Thanks for reading!
Chapter Two
"This is too much." The soft breath of the young woman became labored and quickening. "There's no way I can do this much."
"You can do this." The voice of her friend spoke with confidence as he leaned over her. "It isn't difficult at all to do this much."
"But…" the two paused and her frustrated eyes meet his as she turned around. Slamming her fists against the table the pages of the books that littered its surface fluttered gently in the breeze of her aggravation. "This doesn't make sense! Je ne comprends pas."
"Come on, Roux." Her classmate quietly cheered her on to do her best. "This is the basic lesson that you'll need to learn for the final. It may seem daunting at first, but you can do it."
"I don't know where you get this confidence in me." Roux couldn't settle herself and concentration on her college studies were impossible. Running her hands through her lengthy brunette hair she rested her cheek against the cool of the mahogany library table. The setting sun was peering through the large windows that made up the wall that the two students had their backs to and casting its ember light across the distressed foreign exchange student and her uncompleted homework.
"Because you can do this." Her classmate said returning the page of the book in front of her to the one they needed.
"Non." Her pouting lips pursed together and she swatted at the book like a disinterested cat.
"We still have time before the library closes for the evening." She looked at him from her tilted head as he spoke. "So get to studying while you still can Roux."
Lifting herself back up to a sitting position she lazily examined the text of the book before her. The sun silently set behind the two and soon their studies came to an end for the night. Saying her farewells to her helpful classmate she began her walk back from the university library back to the dormitories.
The path back was deserted save for Roux and her silhouetted shadow from the street lamps that illuminated her way forward. The concrete roads served her no comfort and she felt a crushing sense of responsibility upon her shoulders. This final test that she was studying for would be the determining factor in whether she was going to stay in the county or if her scholarship would be revoked.
From the first day that she landed by plane to this country she had been steadily losing her strength to go on. A strange kind of gloom enveloped her this night and she let out a sigh of remorse. She had always wanted to travel and see the world and studying here, while a tremendous privilege she was sure to never forget, did not itch the particular travelling bug that she had since her childhood.
The dormitory that she stayed in didn't feel like home to her either and there were few places we should could truly relax. Checking her mobile from her jeans pocket she checked her messages. Nothing.
Emails. Nothing.
Missed Calls. Nothing.
She felt dejected and tried to speed up her pace back to the dormitory. The brisk air wasn't doing wonders for her skin and she wanted to take a bath before she went to sleep.
The large modern dorm building loomed up above her and she swiped her student ID and punched in a code to unlock the door. The warm interior of the building comforted her slightly and she waited for the lift to arrive after pressing the button summoning it.
Arriving back at her dorm she finally let out a sigh of relief and took off her coat, placing it on the coat rack that sat near the door. Her roommate was most likely asleep. La paix et la tranquillité. She thought and proceeded to her room.
Her bedroom was a Spartan affair. Scarce of personality or decorations or even mirrors. The cot in the corner of the room and the dresser against the wall were furniture pieces that were provided by the university and the only other thing Roux had were her clothes. Her first week in the country before university started the first term was spent shopping for new fashionable clothes. She may have gone overboard because this was the first time she was exposed to so much decadence that it was overwhelming.
A new wardrobe was all she could afford and she happily purchased her new look during her first days here. Gently removing her clothes from her body she refused to look down to her naked form. It was a shameful experience for her to relive it over and over again, to feel that chasms of broken flesh and torn scar tissue that sprawled across her body would make her flinch and she would always struggle to hold back the torrent of tears that would inevitably come.
Standing naked and alone in her dormitory bedroom she trembled from the cold and was frozen in place from the memories of her childhood. As much as she struggled to earn her way to this university it seemed like she would be soon forced to leave if she couldn't get a passing grade. The thought of that scarred her more than anything.
"Roux, are you there?" the sound of her roommate calling for her came through the door.
"Oui, Laura." She spoke out but stayed planted in place where she stood.
"Sorry if I disturbed you but there's someone to see you here." Laura announced and walked off away from the door. Roux couldn't think of who would be visiting her and she gathered up her clothes again making sure that her body was covered and stepped back out. Standing in the doorway of the dorm a man with his hands stuffed in his suit pockets waited patiently.
He was very handsome. Tall, slender, and a head of dark hair that framed his face and cheekbones. He wore a dark black and grey suit. He looked as if he had just come from a funeral and his expression was not one of happy news. Roux looked him over and when confusion finally got the better of her she asked him who he was.
"Qui êtes-vous?"
"My name is Jonathan Merch." The man clarified. "I'm from the university housing department and there's been a concern raised with your current living affairs." He took a brief pause to compose himself. "I'm afraid that this will be the last semester the university is able to provide you with housing. As of next semester you will not be allowed to stay in the dorms."
Silence enveloped the young college woman. She never even had the opportunity to pass her exam. Her fate was sealed before she had the chance to change anything. The edges of her mouth contorted downcast and her head fell into her hands. The loose fitting clothes that she hastily put back on a moment ago began to slide over her shoulders.
She brought her shirt back up over to the nape of her neck and she nodding, confirming she understood the man. He clearly understood that she had become distraught over something more than getting kicked out of the dorm.
"I am very sorry, ma'am." Mr. Merch said. He was unsure of how to speak to her without upsetting her further. "If you have any questions or need anything else my office is on the first floor of this building. Just ask for me at the front desk. I'll be sure to help make you move as smooth of a transition as possible."
With nothing more to say Mr. Merch gave a slight twisting bow and slowly left the doorway and stepped back in to the hallway way away from the distressed Roux.
"Monsieur Merch!" Roux called out after him, poking her head past the door jam. The man half turned, afraid to look her in the eyes for fear of becoming downcast himself. "When is the day that I must leave?"
"The 15th, Miss Roux." Mr. Merch said. "Have a good night." He turned back and continued walking away.
Back in the dorm, Roux closed the door and slid down the floor her hands covering up any tears she might have had. She couldn't believe it. She had worked so hard. What changed? It was as if the difficulty curve expected of her just ramped up three hundred percent. There was nowhere she could go and she never wanted to move back home.
Clutching at her stomach she remembered the scar that lay beneath the soft cotton of her shirt. She recalled the searing pain that burned through every inch of her body as she screamed into the empty night that no one came. That no one found her. She would never go back to that.
"Roux?" the sound of her roommate Laura's voice squeaked like a timid mouse pinning for her attention. Roux looked up to see Laura kneeling and a frown meeting her. "Are you okay?'
"Non, Laura." She shook her head. "I am not okay. I don't want to go back. I won't go back there."
"I know it's not good to get kicked out of university but," Laura scratch are her cheek trying to be reassuring. "don't you miss your family at all? Wouldn't it be nice to see them again?"
"They are not my famille!" Roux shouted and immediately clasped her hands over her mouth. She didn't want to lose her temper with Laura, especially since she did nothing wrong. She was only trying to make her happy. There was no possible way for her to know what had happened to her.
So Roux smiled through her tears, apologized to her roommate and bid her a goodnight. Returning to her bedroom once more she turned off the lights and curled up into her bed fully dressed and wide awake.
The night was too long for her to handle and after rattling the worst thoughts possible around in her head for a few hours she finally succumbed to sleep.
When she woke up the sun was peering through her window. It was a weekend and there weren't any classes to go to so she didn't bother to force herself up just yet. The warmth of her sheets covered her and she desperately wanted to go back to dreaming. It was less complicated there. There weren't people wanting to hurt her or drive her away.
She just wanted to sleep.
The air was brisk but the humidity was steadily gathering up. The sound of a whirring motor echoed out and the nearby lake rippled on the surface as something forced its way out of thin air. This summer scene was invaded by a strange shape like a stray doodle in a flipbook. The university lake property was undisturbed by the sudden appearance of a garden shed that was not there a few minutes before.
A few minutes passed by and the area was still pristine and without any witnesses. Whoever would walk by now wouldn't think twice about the common looking shed and its lakeside location. The small wooden façade shook quietly and soon a man came bursting out of the door and it quickly shut itself back closed.
"Gah!" the Mentor was tossed wildly from the inside of the type 607 TARDIS that he flew away in to escape the repair bays on Galifrey. "That hurt! What the hell was that then?" he quickly got back to his feet and slammed the bottom of his foot onto the door. As soon as he had landed with the randomizer set to high a gust of wind from inside the TARDIS blew him through the door and he was locked out.
"Let me back in!" he banged his fists against the door and took the fake padlock that served as the hidden lock in his hand. The Mentor suddenly realized that the device that he used to crack the lock in the first place was on the other side of those doors. Rubbing his head crazily his hair frayed out at the ends. Falling backwards he landed on his butt back onto the grass.
"Come on." He sighed and sat for a moment hoping and silently praying for something to come along and open those doors for him. The midday sun was beating down on the top of his head and he began to sweat through his clothes. Suddenly a moment of shade appeared above him and he looked up to see what had blocked the light from giving him heatstroke.
"Are you okay, Monsieur?" the frail slim figure of a young girl was standing over him looking curiously at him like he was some lost enigma. Her silhouetted figure cast dark lines of shadow around the Mentor. "Monsieur?" the Mentor realized that he had been star struck by her beauty and had to regain his composure.
Accepting her helping hand to get to his feet he brushed the stray blades of grass of his pants and greeted her. "Oh, hello there." The Mentor gasped, embarrassed with himself. "I'm… just a bit lost is all. I'm not really supposed to be here."
"Are you les étudiant here as well?" the girl asked as she examined the sweaty man before her.
"A student?" he cocked his head to the side. "No, no, no, no, I'm nothing like that. I couldn't pass a written exam if my life depended on it. Are we in France?"
The girl tilted her head in confusion. "Non, Monsieur we are not in France. That is something that I am very grateful for to be sure." The Mentor cast a backwards glance to the TARDIS disguised as a shed.
"Where were you heading, Miss…?" the Mentor asked trying to distract himself from his current predicament.
"Roux." She said and held out her hand delicately. A strange level of comfortableness exuded from this man and she felt calm around this stranger. Every cell in her body was aching to leave him be but her words, they had a plan of their own. "I was just headed to the cafeteria for some food. You're welcome to join me there." She paused for a moment secretly hoping that he would decline her. He was bad news to her and she was regretting letting her curiosity get the better of her when she spotted him from across the way.
"Uh…" the Mentor was oblivious to her internal conflict. "Sure. I would love to." He was intrigued by a beautiful human woman and he had nowhere else to go. That ridiculous TARDIS wouldn't let him back in and it wasn't going to fly off by itself, so he only had time now. Until he could figure his way back into that stubborn contraption.
The mess hall for the dormitory was in short walking distance from the lake that the two stood by and the distance was met with awkward silence all the way. It wasn't until the burst of cool air from the air-conditioning that the Mentor finally let out a relieved sigh. Stretching his arms overhead he gladly sat and waited for the young girl to come back with a tray of lunch food.
Roux sat down and offered an apple to the man and began silently taking small bites from her peanut butter and jam sandwich. The Mentor took a single snapping chomp from the crisp apple and placed it down onto the table.
"Are you okay?" familiar words were now being turned back around to Roux from the strange man that sat next to her.
"I don't know what you mean?" Roux averted her eyes and focused them onto her sandwich.
"Your shoulders," The Mentor motioned to her and Roux produced a slight flinch too subtle for him to notice at first. "They're very stiff. You look uncomfortable."
"Like I said Monsieur, I don't know what you mean." Roux continued to push for her ignorance and the man squinted his eyes towards her.
"I'm bother you aren't I?" the Mentor slowly rose to his feet and gave her a slight bow. "I don't want to disturb you. I'll just leave."
"Non, Monsieur!" Why? Pourquoi? She grabbed the end of his sleeve as he stood and their eyes met for the briefest of moments. She immediately retracted her arm and placed her palms flat against her lap and lowered her head.
Her thoughts raced around her mind like cars on a race track. She couldn't figure out what made her body make these uncharacteristic choices without the consent from her conscience. Something about this man made her move without thinking and it was truly upsetting her to not know why. They had just met. She didn't find this man to be particularly attractive and he was odd. It was as if someone else was making these choices for her.
This dichotomy dividing her mind and body in two was confusing and only making Roux feel more uncomfortable with this man and herself.
"Are you sure?" the Mentor asked half sitting half standing as he looked for her decision somewhere in the ether between them. "You don't look very good?"
"What is your name, Monsieur?" Roux asked with a squeak. "This whole time I forgot to ask. How rude of me."
"Oh," the Mentor chose to sit back down and covered his knees with his hands. The awkward sensation steadily washing over both of them was clear as day. "My name is a little hard to pronounce so everybody just calls me the Mentor."
"What sort of name is that?" Roux slowly raised her chin as she spoke.
"A silly nickname that stuck." The Mentor shrugged and tried to lighten up the mood. "An old friend said the name really suited me. I'm not so sure to be honest."
"He must have been pretty close if you still use it." Roux said slowly restoring her confidence but her fear still clutched tightly inside her chest. The Mentor chuckled with a warm wave of nostalgia. Little did this young girl know that this old friend was from another world, and so was he.
The warmth that Roux felt from the Mentor was friendly and inviting. Or maybe she was imagining it? It was still difficult to discern from all of her anxieties that were built up inside her. The Mentor tried his best to seem normal and kind to her but the two suffered a clear line of disconnect between each other.
The table fell silent for a brief moment and the two traded fleeting glances between each other. Shy and curious looks of what would be said next and who would dare to speak up first. The Mentor took the opportunity to raise his voice.
"I'm sort of, homeless." The Mentor said, scratching the nape of his next, unsure of how Roux would react. He didn't want her to receive the wrong impression from him after all. "I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of someplace that might be able to help me. I'm not really familiar with where I am."
"You don't know where you are, Mentor?" Roux asked him. "Where are you from originally to not know where you are?"
"That's… a good question." He responded with an ephemeral smile. "It's not a good place. My birthplace isn't a kind place to be."
A spark of inspiration struck Roux as she heard the Mentor speak sadly of his home. These were the words that made her realize something that she had somehow instinctively recognized. There was a suffering in this man. Something that ran across this man's thoughts like the scars that wrapped her torso hidden beneath the surface of her clothes.
"I'm not sure if I want to go back." The Mentor spoke softly now. "But, I have a responsibility to someone that needs me. All I've done though is only manage to get chased off and abandoned." His face, no sullen with regret, slunk further down and Roux sat quietly unsure what to do like a kitten next to the highway.
"Sorry." The Mentor arched his back and raised his head back upright. "I didn't mean to be all mopey. Any help you could provide will be greatly appreciated. Unfortunately I don't have anything in the ways of money to offer to you in return."
"I don't know about any shelters or Auberge de jeunesse around here." Roux apologized to him. "I'm afraid I too will soon be homeless."
"What do you mean?" the Mentor asked. "Do you not stay in the dormitory her on campus?"
"Qui, I do." Roux nodded. "But I can no longer staying a resident there once the semester is over. I will have to return to my home once final examinations are over."
"You don't sound like you're looking forward to visiting your home?" the Mentor looked at her stiff shoulders that trembled slightly as she spoke.
"I am not happy, Mentor." She spoke, trying to fight the tears that were crawling their ways up through her eyes. "Like you had said before, my birthplace is not a good place to be." Her shivering turned into full shuddering from the horrible experiences she suffered through. Some sort of PTSD? The Mentor taciturnly thought from the outward signs she was exhibiting.
He erred the side of caution and didn't ask her to explain herself. It was clear she was hurting and opening that wound wouldn't make it any better. After all they had only just met and she didn't need life advice from a stranger.
The Mentor rose to his feet, this time with more confidence and an apple in his hand, and said; "I should take my leave now. There are some things I need to do before I can move on from here. Thank you for the company," he tossed the apple with the teeth mark in the air and caught it. "and the apple of course." He smiled to the beautiful Roux and proceeded to walk towards the exit.
"Monsieur Mentor, wait!" Roux quickly rose and left behind her cafeteria tray and jogged after him as he reached the doorway. "Let me help you." She smiled to the Mentor, but behind her back she dug her fingernails into the palms of her hands trying to get herself to go with him.
"Do you want to go?" the Mentor asked her, wanting her to be absolutely sure. Roux forced herself to nod. "Alright. I need to find an electronics store."
"Will this work?" Roux held up a packaged case of Ethernet cables that were bundled up in a discount bin of the electronic store. The store Roland's was a local store that was a short bus trip away from the university and the two were digging through the store's stock to fulfill the Mentor's shopping list of needs. Roux was still unaware of what all these components were for but she still worked to look for her share of the parts for his behalf.
"Those will work." The Mentor smiled and mentally scratched off the item from the list. "Now I need a transistor, some spark plugs, and a transducer so a phone of some kind."
Roux nodded and enthusiastically returned to searching for the required ingredients for the Mentor's unknown project. As the Mentor searched through the store the lone employee lazily watched from behind the cashier's counter and focused on listing to his MP3 player playing music through his headphones. He was checked out. The Mentor was thinking to himself and absorbed in ways of devising a new plan for him to get back inside of that pesky TARDIS.
Roux didn't know and the Mentor was concerned about getting her involved. He secretly hoped that once they were done here, they would part ways. The less time spend together the better it would be for her. He went back to calculating the required components needed to get through the dimensional folding security that this type of TARDIS was equipped with.
The Mentor's years of experience working and repairing TARIDSes of all variety would prove stronger than the 607's security. And when he was back inside, then what? He couldn't go back to Galifrey. Whoever's TARDIS that he stole was there and most likely wouldn't take an apology kindly. Not to mention the martial law that the planet had be succumbed to by the Lord President.
These past few years have not been kind for the Time Lords. Something was happening in the dark halls of the Senate and none of it was good.
"Mentor?" Roux had appeared by his side holding an old blocky mobile phone. It was the type of phone that had just surpassed the mobile battery packs that people would have to wear on their hips if they wanted their phone to make calls.
"Oh, sorry." He turned to her and examined the phone. It was primitive but it would work and it was cheap too. "This will work. I've got the other things that I need. This should be everything." Approaching the counter and the employee behind it they placed the electronic pieces for him to scan.
"That'll be $88.71." the employee said. The Mentor and Roux stood silently for a moment until finally Roux turned to look at the Time Lord.
"I don't have any money." The Mentor finally said.
Sprays of blood vandalized the wooden walls of the dark room. Hanging by chains that dug into the thin flesh of this naked girl she lay suspended and unconscious. Deep voices could be heard conversing from beyond the bolted door of the room.
"She won't say anything." A voice on the other side of the door said.
"Is she awake?" a deeper voice asked.
"No," the first voice said. "She almost bit through her tongue. I think I prodded a bit too hard. She's passed out right now."
"I see." The second tenor voice spoke calmly despite the horror scene sitting the next room. "We'll find her sooner or later. In the meantime we'll wait for the little one to wake up."
In the pitch dark room the young girl's breathing was labored and automatic from unconsciousness. Blood drops fell rhythmically from her mouth from when her teeth nearly cleaved through her tongue. Light was streaming through the bottom of the door and bars of shadow filtered through onto the floor below.
Outside two men discussed their plans. While one was pacing around anxiously the other sat in an old leather armchair, arms crossed, and eyes closed.
"If we don't find her what happens to us?" the pacing man asked. His voice was become hoarse with fear.
"It's okay." The man sitting in the chair spoke softly. "We're not about to be exposed so quickly. It's been a few months now and no one's come asking questions."
"So you expect us to just let her stay gone?" the man on his feet was feeling his blood pressure rise to an unhealthy level.
"Of course not." The man sitting uncrossed his arms and leaned forward onto his knees. "I am saying that you need to calm down. Monsieur Guilbeaux, I am personally assuring you that your freedom will be protected from any leak to the public."
It didn't seem that the man walking around in the small cabin living room was taking his word for it. M. Guilbeaux was far too important for something like this to send him to prison and the girl in the other room, who was still passed out, couldn't, or wouldn't, provide them the necessary information to find the missing girl. His career, his fortune, and his family were at stake if they did not find this missing girl soon.
"Tout va bien, Monsieur Guilbeaux." The sitting man assured him in his calm, almost soothing voice. "Regardez-moi. Does this look like the face of a man that is worried? We will find her. In the meantime, return to your famille, I'm sure your wife and children are missing you very much right now. My associates will locate her in due time."
M. Guilbeaux stroked aggressively at the edge of his chin as he looked at the man in the chair. His eyes had not opened during the length of their conversation and he felt sick that he didn't meet his gaze. If it wasn't for the strong track record in the past, their business might have come to an end that night. But, if this man promised result they were already certainly on their way to fruition.
"I expect to be updated." M. Guilbeaux opened the door to the cabin and stood in the doorway, his back turned away from the other man. "Monsieur Ogier." With the closing of the cabin door the man in the chair sat in silence with nothing for company except the chair he sat in, the lantern beside him, and the poor woman in the next room.
"No," the Mentor said with certainty as he was trying to walk quickly away from the chasing Roux.
"Why not, Mentor?" Roux looked confused as she took long strides to keep up with him. "You made me buy such strange things and you want me to just go away?"
"I don't want you to go away." The Mentor raised his hand. The two were walking very fast on the route back from the bus to the lake where Roux first discovered the Mentor. On the bus ride back from the electronic store the Mentor had discussed with Roux that he wished to part ways with her at the bus stop. She wasn't taking no for an answer.
"Then I will come with you."
"I definitely don't want you to do that either!" the Mentor was in a bind and if he had Roux latched to her like a sloth to a tree, there would be no room for him to build the device he needed to break back into the TARDIS.
"What is with you?" Roux said, stepping in front of the Mentor stopping him in his tracks. "What are you doing that is so secretive? Whether you like or not, you've already dragged me into this when you let me pay for those électronique."
"Its," the mentor ran his free hand through his hair. "complicated, Roux. I'm not trying to keep you out of the loop or anything but what I'm doing is… let's call it classified."
"Classé secrete?" Roux repeated in her native language. "Are you some sort of government agent? Un espion?"
"No." the Mentor shook his head and began walking past her. "I'm nothing that flashy. I'm just a guy. Just a normal guy looking for his way in life."
"But." Roux said chasing after the Mentor. The two were now back to at the lake where they had first met with the afternoon sun high above them. The air around the lake was humid and buzzing with the flitting of mosquitos.
The Mentor arrived back to the disguised TARDIS that was still just a gardening shed to Roux. He placed the shopping bag of electronic components by the door and began sorting through the pieces. Placing each piece he needed he began tearing apart through the plastic case of the mobile phone and began his aftermarket modifications.
"What are you doing?" Roux asked, kneeling and peering through the rest of the electronics still in the bag.
"I told you to leave." The Mentor didn't raise his head from his work as he spoke. Roux didn't bother listening to him anymore and stuck around. "The chameleon circuit's still functional so that's good." He muttered as he scrutinized the door of the garden shed. "Kinda washy. Synchronizing is a little slow, but I can work with this."
"Mentor?" Roux was listening to the Mentor murmur to himself.
"Sorry," he realized what he was doing. "I'm used to working with a team on this sort of stuff."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Roux asked, straightening out her back.
"Yes." He said without looking up. Roux thought she had him now. "You can leave me be and go on with your day." His smile to her was unbearable. Merde!
"Please, Mentor." Roux kneeled again and faced the strange man before her. She placed her hands over his and stopped his nimble fingers working. Their eyes met for a brief moment before the Mentor looked at her hands, trembling in between his fingers.
There was fear and desperation in these tremors running down her slender fingers. As much as she severely wanted nothing more to do with mysterious men in her life she didn't want to return, alone, to her dorm where she would wait for her life to crumble around her.
"I want to help." Roux's voice squeaked out. The Mentor looked her in the eyes and saw the sincerity in eyes and on her lips.
"Okay." The Mentor rasped out and gently nodded. "Okay then. You can help." Roux silently cheered to herself.
"What do you need?" she asked.
"Uh," he looked around him and the exposed circuit board of the retro mobile. "I need the A2 receptors."
The Mentor and Roux sat in the grass by the lake next to the gardening shed and worked quietly. Occasionally the Mentor would ask for specific pieces he needed and Roux diligently retrieved them for him and she watched his hand work their magic. Complex machinery was being combined into a Frankenstein's monster of technology and soon a handheld device laid in the grasp of the Mentor.
"What is it?" Roux asked with curiosity brimming. Her cares were far away tucked into a corner of the background of her thoughts.
"This, my dear Roux," the Mentor held it high and might in his clutches and stood triumphantly with the device pointed the sky. A small spinning dish attached to it rotating at preprogrammed intervals. "This is the thing that is going to get me into that shed!"
"Que?" Roux didn't understand a word of what the lunatic Time Lord had to say and watched as the Mentor attached the device he had manufactured to the door just underneath the decrepit padlock that kept him out.
"How is this supposed to open up la porte?" Roux asked, examining as numerical digits sprawled across the tine screen that the Mentor installed onto the device. They moved and changed rapidly, calculating some unknown formula that went over her head and escaped into earth's orbit.
"It's complicated." The Mentor responded to her assuredly.
"Why not just break ze lock?" Her heavy accent asked. "It looks weak enough to break off with a hammer or something."
"A hammer?" the Mentor was aghast. "Are you mental? A hammer isn't going to do anything to this impenetrable fortress of supreme engineering! You could take a vat of liquid nitrogen to that lock and it wouldn't lend a scratch."
Roux was confused and the Mentor's insulted words seemed more alien than she was accustomed to during her time at the university. He spoke as if the world was something far more strange than met the eye. It was as if he had discovered the back stage to the theater performance of the world and he wasn't sharing this knowledge with anyone else.
For as much as the Mentor didn't desire the young human, Roux was kind and sweet to him and his somewhat narcissistic ramblings. The majority of what he said made no sense to the poor girl, but a part of her didn't seem to care too much. The Mentor glanced at his wristwatch and back to the small display of the device as the numbers zoomed by. A look of disappointment crossed over him.
"What is the problème?" Roux asked, recognizing that look of anxiety before.
"The decrypting is taking too long." The Mentor rubbed his temples searching for results to his problem within his head. "The system is fighting back faster than I anticipated. My rig here is finding and plugging in the right base code numerals but the matrices are rebuilding components fast enough to make the procedure take forever!"
"Does that mean you won't be able to get in?" Roux asked as she took casual strides around the perimeter of the garden shed.
"No, I'll be able to get in." the Mentor spoke to her from around the corner of the shed. "It just means it's going to take longer than I'd expect. They don't usually fight back this much." The Mentor placed his hand on the door of the shed and gave a meaningful look as if he was speaking to a terminally ill friend. "Did I hurt you that much?"
"Did you say something?" Roux ask having missed that last question the Mentor asked. It hadn't been directed to her but rather than the inconspicuous TARDIS that she had been walking circles around. Little did she know of the world that fit inside that wooden confine.
"Nothing." The Mentor shook himself back to the moment.
"What is so special about this shed that you need to get in?" Roux asked having once returned next to the Mentor's side. "Why don't we just find the gamekeeper that has the key?"
"There is no gamekeeper."
"Surely there is." Roux protested. "Someone put this shed here and surely they use it for taking care of the lake here."
"It wasn't here until this morning." The Mentor explained to the bewildered Roux. She didn't believe him.
"But it's old!" Roux pointed out. "It looks as if it has been here for years. I could have sworn that I've seen this thing on my walks by this lake."
"That'd be the perception filter." The Mentor sighed.
"Que?" Roux was thoroughly confused by this absurd man and stood silent, trying to process the indecipherable information she had just been delivered. "How long will it take for you to get in." she finally gave up in trying to understand this man and caved.
"Based on the rate the base numerals are rebuilding and being deconstructed?" the Mentor leaned in for a closer look of his device. "I'd say, about sixteen more hours."
"Sixteen hours?" Roux was flabbergasted by this outcome. She didn't imagine that something so fragile looking as this shed would take so long just to get inside.
"Yeah," the Mentor said, his voice reaching a soft silence. "Can I stay the night with you?"
His insufferable smile was placarded onto his face and Roux was stunned by the sudden request. She didn't know how to answer.