Voluptuous Velociraptor

Words: 1877

ErinKenobi2893: most things can turn angsty pretty quickly. And the Windex. . . do I smell a prompt there?

Bit of a longer chapter here:

"You better not get us stuck again," Donna warned as the TARDIS touched down.

"That was an accident!" the Doctor defended, throwing his hands up and finally conceding to lose the old argument. "I didn't know the chameleon circuit was turned on. Or that it worked."

"Aright," Donna interrupted what was sure to turn into a tangent, and headed to the door. "When are we?"

"And it's not like—" he stopped and blinked. "When are. . ? . . . 65 million years ago!"

"That's when the dinosaurs died, right?" Donna wondered. "Meteor, global temperature change, something big like that, yeah?"

The Doctor held the door open, "That's what we're going to find out."

They rested near a large lake, above which a group of pterosaurs were flying, but from the distance that they were at, the Doctor couldn't see the species. Mosasaurs, large and lizard-like, swam beneath the surface of the water, and a couple of small triceratops lumbered on the shore. The dinosaurs kept their distance from the Doctor and Donna, and seemed not to even be interested in them.

"Shouldn't they be at least a bit interested in us?" she wondered when yet another protoceratops slowly ambled past.

"We're not a threat," the Doctor shrugged. "And they've got enough on their hands."

"'Enough on their hands'?" Donna echoed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Something's coming," the Doctor suddenly stood up when the dinosaurs, one by one, started braying. "Something big."

Donna stood up as well, shoulder to shoulder with him, and looked at the sky. Clouds, black, gray, and brown, streaked across, blocking the sun and soon seeping away the warmth of the day. She exchanged a look with the Doctor, and hers became panicked when his turned grim. The dinosaurs looked around, at each other, and ran. Some ran to others of their kind, and yet some went to various plants, trying to take a last bite of food. Small, weak cries came to Donna and the Doctor's ears as young dinosaurs struggled to find their parents.

"What is it?" Donna's voice shook and she blindly grabbed for the Doctor's hand. "Doctor, what's happening?"

"Stay close," he whispered into her ear, and despite the grimness in his voice, Donna listened. She followed him, as if on oblivious instinct—for all she knew, he was leading her to her tomb.

They ran back to the TARDIS, stumbling over unfamiliar terrain and winding around falling vegetation. The ship opened its doors quickly, almost before the Doctor shoved them. Donna pushed them closed, and followed him to the console. The ground shook around them, and the ship did, too, so she held on to the railing, and even then felt in danger of falling.

The Doctor turned, victorious, to Donna, and pointed at the screen, "It's the—"

"Doctor?" Donna groaned when she felt something shift on her. "Doc-Doctor!"

"Donna?" a hand jabbed her stomach. "Donna, is that you?"

"Yes," she gasped when he climbed over her. "Doctor, watch out."

"Sorry."

He helped Donna sit up, and guided her to the couch. The Doctor ran to the lights and tried to turn them on, but they didn't work. He mumbled something, and hit them with his spare hammer, kept in his upper left inside coat pocket. A few hits later, the lights flickered on, and he grinned at Donna.

"You alright?" he asked then, as if remembering something, and ran back to the couch, where he kneeled in front of Donna. "You're not hurt?"

"Just knocked out," she replied. "Doesn't hurt. Feel free to check it if you want, though."

"Yeah, I think I'd like to," he nodded and took out a flashlight (outside lefthand pocket, right above the rest of its contents) to shine into her eyes and examine the bump on the back of her head.

"What happened?" Donna wondered, then opened her mouth for him to look inside.

"It was the meteor," the Doctor explained. "Well. . . not the meteor, but a meteor. Well. . . more like an object that flies through space. Well. . . more like a missile on a programmed course. Well. . . it was a Racnoss ship."

"Racnoss?" Donna's voice stayed steady. "Like the ones under H. C. Clements? Didn't they form the Earth? Didn't you get rid of them? What are they doing here?"

"They're the meteor," the Doctor breathed, ignoring Donna. "Of course! Mummy Racnoss forms the Earth, waits years for the eggs to hatch. Meanwhile, Daddy Racnoss hides from the Time Lords, tries to escape the Time War. When he's in the clear, he makes his way to his mate. Donna, it all makes sense!'

"What does?" she demanded. "What are you talking about?"

"The meteor," the strong words were accompanied by wild gestures, "It was the Emperor of the Racnoss! He came here to get his mate and children, but something stopped him, something, something stopped him. . . something stopped him. . ."

The Doctor trailed off and Donna stared at him as he stared at the door. Then he ran at it, and she felt tugged along by the sheer force of his enthusiasm. When he threw open the door, they were met with an orange-tinted landscape.

The sky was still overcast, but the clouds weren't moving. Completely still, they weren't gray anymore, instead, they had turned completely red. The previous wind was gone, replaced by a calm that didn't even let their footsteps crunch the ground they were walking on. The Doctor's hand moved to Donna's, and, for the third time that day, they moved with linked hands. The dinosaurs were lying on the ground, like everything else, immobile. They could have been mistaken for dead, if it weren't for the fact that they looked more frozen than lifelike.

"What happened?" Donna breathed, stepping around a T-Rex.

"They're. . ." the Doctor bent down and touched a triceratops's horn. "They're stuck."

"Stuck? How?"

"In time," he frowned. "They're suspended. The whole planet is. The Racnoss don't have this type of technology."

"Who does?" she wondered.

"Timelords," the Doctor replied. "That's why the Racnoss were targeted. They were a brutal civilization, but they angered the Timelords when they stole a time lock. This must be what they used it for."

"How do we stop it?" Donna asked. "Do we stop it?"

"Wait," the Doctor got out his Sonic Screwdriver (outside righthand pocket, top of the pile, directly next to the glasses) and waved it at a velociraptor. "I can't stop the whole lock, but this can definitely explain it to us."

With a small shudder, the raptor overbalanced from its frozen half-run and fell onto the ground. Shaking itself, it stood up and turned to face the Doctor with a questioning—it seemed, to Donna, to be questioning—roar.

"Hello," the Doctor waved. "What's your name?"

The raptor roared again, this time with a flutter of the eyes.

"That's gorgeous!" he turned to Donna. "It's gorgeous! Fantastic! I can't. . . hmm, I can't exactly translate it to English, but it's gorgeous. She's brilliant."

The raptor jiggled its tail.

"Oh, stop it," the Doctor laughed, and, to Donna, fiddling with his screwdriver, added, "I'll see if I can. . . there we go!"

"Grr-hrr-inga?" the raptor tilted its head. "Hrr-ng-rrr?"

"He just made it so we can understand each other," Donna explained. "What's your name again? Sorry, I didn't quite catch it the first time."

"Grr-GaRi-ira," the raptor replied. "Nrr-prr-ta?"

"Donna," she replied.

"Vrro-vee-eera," Grr-GaRi-ira replied.

"Thank you," Donna smiled.

"Grr-GaRi-ira," the Doctor interrupted, "Would you mind telling us what happened? If you remember. You do remember, don't you?"

"Nrr-ki-ra. Feerd-ilrrs," she inclined her head. "Drr-drr-drr-pa! Er-dr-fr-tr."

"Thank you," the Doctor nodded.

He waved his screwdriver at Grr-GaRi-ira again, and she froze once more.

"The Racnoss froze the planet, tried to dig into it," the Doctor breathed in understanding. "They couldn't."

"But. . ." Donna sighed. "She said no one seemed hurt. Why are they all. . . stuck?"

"The Emperor died," he shrugged. "No one to reverse the time lock. Dinosaurs stuck. But they're still gone in your time. They're still gone at this time."

"Where's the time lock?"

The Doctor looked around, but seemed to see nothing. He closed his eyes, then, and, still holding on to Donna, started walking. He did so with purpose, and, much to Donna's surprise, didn't stumble. When they reached a large mountain, possibly a volcano, the Doctor abruptly stopped, causing Donna to bump into him.

"There," he pointed, opening his eyes.

"The top of the volcano?" Donna raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"I'll call the TARDIS," he did so with the screwdriver, and the ship materialized. "We'll get the lock, get back here."

Donna nodded. She followed him—it seemed to be all she did, that day—up the mountain. Its sides were covered in ferns and sleeping dinosaurs, but the ground was smooth. Not so smooth that they slipped, but even enough for the walk to be simple. The top of the volcano was not high up, and the crater was just as inactive as the rest of the planet. On it lay a small metal sphere, covered in tell-tale Gallifreyan circles.

The Doctor picked it up—was able to pick it us because he was a Time Lord—and turned it over in his hands, which were not shaking, not that Donna commented on their absolute stillness. When he traced the letters, she gently started guiding him down, he snapped out of his melancholy, and put a large grin onto his face.

The TARDIS was waiting for them when they returned, her doors open in a welcoming and soothing gesture. They reached the console, and, as Donna looked at the computer, the Doctor let his eyes linger on the lock's circles. When they faced each other again, he looked determined.

"Press this," he pointed, "Dinosaurs wake up."

"What about the timeline?" Donna wondered.

"No red flags," he sounded a bit puzzled, but accepting. "Think it'll work."

So he pressed.

Outside, the dinosaurs woke up. Inside, the Doctor and Donna felt the Earth begin to move again, and heard the life bloom. The TARDIS moved from where she was standing as the volcano exploded, and when they exited, they found themselves back near the lake they had rested at earlier.

Donna looked outside from under the Doctor's arm. The pterodactyls flew under the now clear sky, and Grr-GaRi-ira walked past the ship with the rest of her friends, her hips swaying slightly more than necessary.

"Hrr!" she waved, and they returned the gesture.

"Why do we hear her language?" Donna asked. "Why doesn't the TARDIS translate it into English?"

"It's different with animal tongue," he replied off handedly.

A flash of light came from the sky, and its sudden appearance, made Donna grab for the Doctor's sleeve.

The pterodactyls swooped towards the ground, trying to escape the light. One of them, a small green one, wasn't fast enough and disappeared into it.

"What's happening?" Donna asked. "Doctor, what is it?"

The dinosaurs started falling, slowly, gracefully, onto the ground, asleep. As the Doctor turned Donna into the TARDIS, the Rift expanded, the landscape sinking into it even as the TARDIS dematerialized.

Inspired by my childhood belief that, no, the dinosaurs didn't die, they just fell asleep.