Hi guys. How's your summer going? Mine's going great so far. Very excited about this and the next few chapters. I feel like I got a good chance to get into Marion's head, add a fun little easter egg that would pay off later, and heavily hint at something that I'm sure some of you will manage to pick up on, but that might just be me thinking I made something more obvious that it is.

follow me on tumblr. I'm lunammoon there.

Or maybe you'll all get it and I'm not as subtle as I think I am. It's a toss up.

Anyway, onto the chapter. I forgot to do the acknowledgments in June, so I'll do them all now.

Thanks to the following people for following: danielle-of-gondor

Thanks to the following people for favoriting: Knight Writer 95, lostmind3

Thanks to the following people for doing both: ShadowWolf4545,

Thanks to the following for dropping a review: Emrys Akayuki, Lady Shalpha, iHateFridays, andre-papushi

Marion stepped out of the TARDIS first. They had landed in the middle of a large corridor. The walls were mostly industrial grey but marked regularly yellow-lined black panels.

The Doctor joined her with Romana and K9 at the rear. Marion heard the clicking noise of Romana closing the door behind them and Honey locking it.

The corridor stopped long before it should have and the end of the corridor. The air there was slightly bluish and wiggled back and forth like the air over the pavement in the middle of July. And it was odd because if the air was that hot to make the air wiggle like that, surely she'd feel it from here. She could make out what she thought was the other ship on the other side of the airlock, but all Marion could make out about it was that it was red.

"Just look at that." said the Doctor, pointing to the end of it. "Isn't that interesting!"

"Fascinating," Romana replied dryly.

"Bit of a mish-mash."

"Why wasn't there an explosion?"

"Well, one of the ships must have been in dematerialised form when it happened. Nasty. Could cause terrible problems."

"Affirmative," said K9, "The overlap areas are highly unstable, Master."

"Yes. Interfaces, I should say."

Marion clicked her tongue. "Kinda like when you poke a stick through a balloon right? If you do it right, you're fine. But, if you're not careful, then-"

"Pop!" the Doctor finished.

"Affirmative!"

"I don't think we should interfere," Romana said quickly.

"INTERFERE!" the Doctor said loudly. If someone hadn't known him, they would assume that he was somehow outraged at the suggestion that HE of all people would even consider interfering. This illusion would have been shattered with the next words out of his mouth.

Romana let out a soft sigh.

As long as Romana had been traveling with the Doctor, Marion highly doubted that she expected that to actually work. It was far more likely that she was mostly saying that so that no one could say she hadn't at least tried.

Marion was still just talking about Romana and no one else.

"Of course, we should interfere. Always do what you're best at, that's what I say. Now, come on."

The right way was blocked off by the hazy collision spot, and so the four of them took the left path. They approached a corner and stepped through a large octagonal entryway just as a man dressed in a white metallic outfit stepped away from another doorway. Large yellow letters on either side labeled it as being an airlock.

"Who was that?" Romana asked.

"I think he's from the red ship. The one this ship intersected into." Marion offered. "Pretty sure he's the Captain."

"How sure?" asked the Doctor.

"I'm more sure than unsure."

"That's enough for me."

"Shall we follow?" Romana asked.

"At our own pace."

There were a few open doors, but it was pretty easy to figure out which was the correct one. They just had to walk in whatever direction made the screaming match the loudest. Marion's fuzzy memory had been correct to think that the man in white was the captain and of the other ship and he was NOT happy about the current situation. There was something else about him too, that Marion couldn't quite put her finger on. Maybe he had died? That might've been it.

One of the voices was angry that the ship had collided with him and potentially ruining some big and important job of his. Meanwhile, the other voice, presumably the person in charge of the ship that they were standing on, was more concerned about the safety of the passengers on HIS ship and also was mostly dismissing the first man's complaints by telling him to just contact his insurance people and they would make sure he was compensated.

Of course, to the first man, that simply wasn't good enough. And the two of them were so engrossed in their argument that they didn't notice three people and a robot dog standing in the doorway. The man in the metallic white suit was arguing with a man in a black suit with gold accents.

"Then I insist that you sign a document to the effect that this collision was entirely your fault!"

"I can't do that! What were you doing there, anyway? You were right in the middle of a launch and land window for commercial flights."

"I was given complete clearance from Azure Control. You were off course!"

The Doctor seemed to see this as a great time to step in. He held up his hands."Gentlemen, gentlemen, please. I'd say it was knock for knock, wouldn't you?"

The Doctor speaking had made the men finally notice their presence.

"What?" the man glanced over at the Doctor, and then did a double take. "Are you a passenger?"

"No, no," said the Doctor quickly, "We answered your mayday. I'm from Galactic Insurance and Salvage. Been having a look around. These and my assistants Marion and Romana. I'm the Doctor. How do you do?" the Doctor reached out and shook his hand.

"How'd you do," the man replied. He looked down and finally noticed the large robot dog. "What's that?"

"Oh, K9? Well, a computer of sorts."

"It looks more like a dog. Does he bark?"

"No. But he has been known to bite. Aren't we going to introduce ourselves?"

"Oh, yes." said the man dressed in black and gold, "My name's Rigg, Captain Rigg."

He reached out his hand to shake. The Doctor didn't. "We just met."

"Yes," Rigg lowered his hand and gestured to the man dressed in white, "Er, this is Mister Dymond, the owner of the other vehicle involved in the, er, incident."

"Hello!" Marion shook his hand.

"Salvage, you say?" Captain Rigg asked.

"Yes." the Doctor nodded. Marion reached into her bag for the thin wallet case with the psychic paper on the off chance that they had the brain cells to ask for some sort of evidence.

"Yes, well," said Rigg, "I can't discuss anything until I've spoken to the Company."

"Of course!" Marion nodded. Letting go of the wallet case. Seemed that it wouldn't be needed.

"What about a better idea?" said the Doctor, "Why don't we try to separate the ships?"

"Impossible," said Dymond.

"I like doing the impossible."

"If it's possible to get into the situation, theoretically it should be possible to get out of it," remarked Romana.

"Oh, you've spoilt it now."

"But look," the woman stepped forward, "at the time of the collision this ship was partially dematerialised."

"Therefore if we can recreate identical circumstances the ships could be separated."

"It's just a question of exciting the molecules. Put your ship on full thrust."

"Then full reverse."

"Well, it's worked before, you know."

The Doctor leaned down to Marion. "I preferred it when it seemed impossible."

"Because doing things that are supposed to be impossible makes your feel clever,"

"Of course it does. Why do you think I do it so often?"

"Yes, well, it might work if I could get any power." As Rigg spoke he repeatedly tapped on a button on the console with a loud and repetitive clicking noise.

"Are you pressing the right button?" the Doctor asked the man under his breath.

"Of course I am," Rigg said, continuing to click the button.

"Can we switch on the wreck of the power unit?"

"Well, we could do, but it's dangerous."

"Worth a try anything to get out of this mess." snapped Dymond.

"It could damage your ship."

"That's nice coming from someone who's just crashed into it. I'll risk it."

"All right, all right," the Doctor nodded, "Where's the power unit?"

"Secker'll show you." Rigg gestured to a man standing near the wall with an odd smile on his face. He nodded and started to walk off. "Secker, take the Doctor to the power unit."

Marion and Romana went to follow him, but the Doctor held up a hand.

"Good. No, you two, you stay here. I might need you. I'll take K9. K9? K9?"

"Affirmative master. Affirmative." K9 reversed after the Doctor and out of the corridor.

So, on one hand, Marion wanted to ignore what the Doctor said and go with him anyway. But on the other hand, after Marion's little moment in the TARDIS, she wanted to seem as normal and reasonable and calm as possible. And sticking to the Doctor like glue for no apparent reason wasn't a normal-looking thing.

Even if the Fourth Doctor in particular was especially jeopardy friendly and had directly gone to a place that he knew was a trap and nearly died because he just "knew" that Marion would get there in-

Those were not normal thoughts. They were not helpful. Those were thoughts that were spinning her into a spiral. She needed to stop thinking about that right now. She wasn't feeling any more anxious than normal, and she didn't feel nauseous. So everything was fine. She was fine.

She was so normal and calm and normal and chill and she wasn't panicking.

Telling yourself that everything was fine was a normal thought. How else would you know that things were fine?

"Well, ladies," said Riggs, "why don't you and Mister Dymond wait in the lounge?"

"Right," Marion said, at a perfectly normal volume.

"Just down the corridor on the right."

The first-class lounge was very nice. There were comfortable chairs, and instead of the industrial look of the corridors, the walls were golden yellow rectangles bordered by light brown. Romana and Marion weren't the only people there. Dymond was sitting on one of the chairs nursing a glass of something Marion was fairly certain was alcoholic.

In addition, there was a man and a woman. Both of them wore black vests with deep v-necks with white t-shirts underneath and brown paints. The woman had long brown hair in a low pony-tail and introduced herself as Della. The man had short salt-and-pepper hair, and sunglasses, and gave off a strong college professor/academic vibe. He had a vaguely central European accent, and there was something off about him that Marion couldn't quite put her finger on until he introduced himself as Dr. Lewis Tryst.

'Oh' Marion thought, looking at him. That name rang several bells. Specifically of the alarm variety. And then she looked back and Dymond, and 'OH' the alarm bells started to ring louder.

She looked down at the hand that she had used to shake Dymond's and tried to subtly rub it off on the side of her romper.

Marion needed to make sure that neither Romana, the Doctor, or anyone else on that ship were going to drink anything that there was even the slightest chance that either of them could've gotten ahold of.

"It is my ambition to become the first zoologist to qualify and quantify every species in our galaxy. One more trip and I may achieve it" he explained. "Even if I have to knowingly smuggle and sell incredibly dangerous and lethal drugs."

Naturally, he didn't say the last part. But like, as far as Marion was concerned, it was implied.

"Are you planning another?" Romana asked him politely. Marion could tell from Romana's expression that she was being polite but didn't really care.

Marion also didn't really care, but that was less because she didn't think that the study of intergalactic zoology was fascinating and more because of a bias against Tryst. It was a shame because now that she was thinking about it, that topic sounded fascinating.

"Ah, well, the next is always on my mind, but is a question of finance. I was hoping to meet a sponsor on Azure, but this accident may have ruined my chances."

"A sponsor?"

"Yes, well, the government used to fund me, but the galactic recession put a stop to that. Now all they do is to assign me special travel facilities on government subsidised spacelines but" Tryst gestured around the lounge, "first class. My machine and I ALWAYS travel first class!"

There was a machine on top of a tall table with wheels at the end. It was a grey pyramid with a diamond-shaped projection on top of it. One of the pyramid's faces had shapes, and switches, and panels.

"What is that machine?" Romana asked.

"Ah, that is my CET machine. The Continuous Event Transmuter. It is an invention of mine. I will show you." he flipped a switch and the diamond glowed brightly and projected an image on the back wall. The wall glowed for a moment and then changed from being yellow and blank to a nature scene. There were mountains in the distance, the area ground was hidden by heavy mists.

"It looks as if you've invented the cinematograph," Romana remarked in the same way

"What you see may seem to be just a mere projection, but it is in fact a matter transmutation!"

Della held up another one of those diamond-shaped crystals.

"You see, when we've collected the specimens for study, they're converted into electromagnetic signals and stored on an event crystal in the machine."

One frustrating thing about swapping universes was that most of what she knew about things like biology, chemistry, physics, and most other branches of science got thrown out of the window. Marion wasn't an idiot. She had done well in those classes in high school, but they had been, of course, high school level courses. She wasn't sure how well she would have done if she had pursued those in university, but she had pointedly not done that.

Most of her post-high school science education had been via 2-3 hour documentaries seemingly made for the express purpose of being listened to in the background while someone did art or play video games.

But this wasn't her universe. This was a world where 70s science fiction was science fact. So everything she had known about the way science works was rapidly defenestrated.

"And they go on living and evolving." Tryst continued his explanation oblivious to the way it was making Marion lose her damn mind because he lived in a world where shit actually worked that way and it was normal. Fuck.

"In the crystal."

So sure. You can convert living things into electromagnetic signals, and they would continue to live, evolve, and move while inside of the crystals and you could project them when you wanted and they would still be alive. Fine. Cool. Good. Great. Super. Duper. Marion wondered what else you could do with those signals. Run Doom maybe.

"This image projection allows us to see them whenever we wish. The flora and the fauna are actually in a crystal. I hope you can appreciate what a technical achievement that is."

Marion didn't know why a somewhat sentient time and spaceship that was bigger on the inside was something that she was just cool with but the electromagnetic zoo was making her draw the line. Maybe it was that the TARDIS was like something new that was added to science and didn't go so against what she already knew about how the universe is supposed to work. And she didn't know about science to get pissed off about Honey and the many ways she spat in the face of modern science as she knew it merely by existing.

Maybe the problem was that she didn't like Tryst and was biased against everything about him.

"A crude form of matter transfer by dimensional control." was Romana's eventual judgment of the machine.

Tryst looked taken aback. "Crude!"

"Well, prototype. And you could have problems with it."

"Problems?" the man's voice got high, "But it works perfectly!"

"Nothing works perfectly."

"Oh, yes, but-"

"What about the materialisation collision?" Romana cut him off, "It's caused all sorts of unstable matter interface. They'll probably affect the dimensional matrix of your machine."

"That what?"

"Have you thought of that?"

"Are you claiming superior knowledge?"

"Oh, equal perhaps,"

Dymond seemed to not be sick of hearing the two of them bicker about nothing. Or maybe he had figured that the longer Tryst was able to talk about his machine, the higher the chance that he would slip up and say something that made them realize what he was up to.

He took another sip of his drink. "I wish everyone would stop showing off and get something done about my ship." He turned on his heels and left the lounge. A few moments later, the Doctor came in with K9 close at his heels.

"Hello!" he greeted loudly, "I was told that I could find the zoologist here."

"That would be me." Tryst introduced himself.

"I've heard you've been all over the galaxy. Tell me about it!"

Tryst, enthusiastic to talk to someone who actually gave a shit, did not hesitate to do so. The guy had been to a whole lot of places and the Doctor, at least, appeared to be a captive audience.

"Really?" the Doctor asked after Tryst told him about some trip to some plant that had a species that was a bit like a dog but also a bit like a rosebush. "Then where did you go?"

"We went through the Cygnus gap."

Marion wondered if that was a word for that band of darkness in the middle of the milky way. She was pretty sure that that was roughly near the Cygnus constellation.

"What?"

"And then we did a slingshot over a small system, just three planets, M37. You know?

"I do."

"The second planet supports life in a very early stage of evolution. The mollusks, the algae, the primitive insects. I can show you." He moved towards a pile of crystals on his table, but the Doctor waved him off.

"No, no, no, that's perfectly all right. I'm just interested in the voyage. It's fascinating."

Tryst nodded and handed the Doctor a small leather-bound notebook.

"Here you are, a copy of my log. I published it to go with my lectures."

The Doctor read the writing on the cover.

"The Volante." he read.

"Yes," he nodded, "Yes, the name of my ship."

"And you invented this marvellous machine to collect your specimens?" he tapped the machine on the size, "You know, I knew a man once who toyed with an idea like this. What was his name? Professor Stein?"

"Professor Stein?"

"Yes."

"Oh, a dear friend. He was my mentor. We worked on this idea together before he died, of course. Then we stopped. You knew him?"

"Yes, well, by reputation. He once gave a seminar on the-"

Dymond cut him off. Marion hadn't noticed him walking back into the room. Marion supposed that it was a case of him simply having nothing better to do.

"Doctor, Doctor, Doctor. All very well reminiscing but don't we have an urgent problem to deal with? I'm anxious to be on my way."

"Oh I'm sure," Marion said sympathetically. "As I'm sure you've overhead, Mr. Tryst's." She knew that he was a doctor, but she didn't care, "device messes around with dimensional space. And so we're just asking questions so that we can know whether or not He or anything that He has in that device of his has anything to do with Your situation. I'm sure that you must be in a hurry. We wouldn't want to rush in and miss something important that could make getting you on your way trickier. We can't leave any stone unturned here. We've got to get to the bottom of this, you understand."

Maybe Marion shouldn't have said it that way. Hopefully, he saw it as a coincidence and didn't think it was her telling him that she knew what he was up to and wasn't about to let that shit slide

"Yes..." he said slowly. "You see, I didn't actually expect a spaceliner to materialise halfway through my ship today."

"Oh, I'm sure. That's not the sort of thing one is able to expect."

Captain Rigg ran into the lounge.

"Doctor, we can't locate Secker. My men are still looking."

"Could you take me to the power unit yourself?"

"Well, yes, all right."

"I'm going with you and K9," Marion said firmly.

Marion didn't want the Doctor getting that close to the rift without her and also she didn't know how long she would be able to be around Tryst before she got passive-aggressive enough for him to notice. Or she might slip up and say something that caused Tryst to know that she knew and make everything ever so complicated.

"Of course Marion," the Doctor replied.

The Doctor went to follow after Rigg, and then pivoted on his heels and leaned back to Tryst. He firmly shook the man's hand.

"Good, good. Tryst, thank you very much for your story. Very interesting. We must have a chat about this machine of yours sometime." he patted it twice lightly on the side and then started to walk away.

"Yes." Tryst said enthusiastically.

"And about the notion of your capturing alien species for your own private zoo." The Doctor called over his shoulder.

"Zoo?" Tryst said, decidedly less enthusiastic.

"Yes."

"No, Doctor, this is important scientific research. I am helping to conserve endangered species."

The Doctor turned back around.

"By putting them in this machine?" the Doctor put his hand on it again.

"Oh yes!"

"Ah, yes, of course. Just in the same way a jam maker conserves raspberries." the Doctor laughed and then the four of them left the lounge room.

"Did you find anything from Tryst?" Captain Rigg asked.

"No, nothing. Marion, what did you think?"

"Don't trust him." Marion said firmly.

"Oh?" the Doctor asked.

"He's hiding something. You shouldn't trust him."

"K9 checked all the planets he'd been to."

"Affirmative"

"We couldn't find any of them that could explain Secker's condition."

Marion fidgeted with her hair. She knew what she wanted to say, but she didn't know how to say it. How to word it in such a way that it worked well as a hint, but didn't give the whole game away. She wouldn't have worried as much, but Captain Riggs was there. And here saying too much might leave him to believe that she was in on it. And that might make things trickier. And more frustrating.

"Maybe it wasn't a fungus." If Marion was remembering correctly, what the Doctor had had K9 search for was a planet that could grow a specific sort of fungus that could be used Vraxion, a drug that Marion had jokingly described to a friend she had been half asleep trying to describe the plot to Nightmare of Eden to as "weed if weed as dangerous and life-destroying as some of the more extreme anti-drug PSAs said it was".

The Nightmare of Eden had been aired in the late-70s which was as good enough explanation as any for it existing.

"It could be something else."

"You mean like a plant?" asked Captain Riggs.

"Perhaps." Marion nodded, "Or an animal."

The Doctor hummed. "It did crop up on various planets. But it always seemed to have been smuggled from somewhere. A few eminent scientists tried when they were looking for a cure for Vraxoin addiction."

Marion hummed. "If someone managed to crack that code the formula would be worth a colossal fortune."

"And" the Doctor added, "Could have the potential to ruin a colossal amount of lives."

"Very difficult to make a colossal fortune without ruining people's lives in the process." Marion remarked, "That's why you can't trust folks with colossal fortunes."

They rounded the corner and came face to face with another once of the intersection points.

"Oh dear," Captain Riggs murmured looking at it.

It looked like the blue lines and the wiggly air in the corridor seemed to have expanded and fog churned out of it.

Marion took a step forward closer to it, trying to make out what could be on the other side.

"Caution." warned K9, "Area of overlap is highly dangerous. Molecular structure of the two ships is incompatible, causing matter interface."

The Captain looked down at the robot dog in confusion.

"Fascinating. The two ships are rejecting each other. Molecularly speaking, that is."

The confusion on Rigg's face disappeared slightly as he seemed to connect the dots. "Like a tissue transplant, you mean."

Marion nodded. Still looking down into the gap. She knew that there was something that she couldn't remember. Something about the gap. Maybe someone in the gap? On something? Like outside of how the gap led somewhere. There was something or someone on their side. And if there wasn't there was going to be.

"There's another way to the power unit, right?" she said, still not looking away from the interface.

"Well, we can try from below the shuttle bay. There's a thin wall in the way. We'll have to cut our way through. I could put in a request for lasers, and have them sent up from Azure."

"No need," Marion said, crouching down and lightly patting K9 on the top of his head. "I think K9 can handle it for us just fine. Can't you K9?"

"Affirmative!"

They made it to the service deck just fine, but where the corridor was meant to be, was instead thick fog and wiggly air. The Doctor took a step forward toward it. Marion held out her arm and he stopped.

"We won't be able to make it. The place to cut through is beyond that overlap."

"Where's the power unit?" the Doctor asked, looking around.

"Up there-"

From the inside of the fog, Marion heard a blood-curdling scream. Before it had even finished, Marion was running full tilt toward the doorway.

"Stay there!" Marion called over her shoulder.

She figured that the inside of the fog would be disorientating enough without the Doctor also being in there and in danger.

"Caution, Boss. You're entering a matter interface."

Yeah, she could've been able to tell blindfolded.

For a moment, she wondered if whatever made these interfaces was the same thing that made her react that way to the Time Vortex but she quickly realized that there was no reason to be concerned about that. The air felt wrong, sure. But it was more like being inside of that pocket dimension all over again where she was overcome with the strong feeling that something was wrong and she shouldn't be there. On top of that, she felt slow and heavy instead of feeling light and "fine" the way the Vortex had made her.

It took her a few moments to become adjusted to it, and despite the fog not being tangible, it was hard to fully see what was going on around her. It was like waking up in the morning with sleep-crust-covered eyes and trying to read a text on your phone.

She could hear talking from outside of the fog, but it sounded too far away from her here. She wasn't too far in before she stumbled against something.

Marion crouched down to get a closer look.

There was a man. His shirt was slightly shredded, and some part of his chest was bleeding. There were three bloody claw marks on the side of his cheek, only just barely missing his left eye and there was another wound on his neck. He didn't seem conscious, which considering the amount of pain that he was in, that was probably a blessing.

In the show, this man had died. But that might've been because he, after being decently injured, had been dragged halfway around the spaceship by the Doctor and the captain.

Mariron could barely hear the two of them now when they had been talking earlier, and she didn't know if they could hear her now.

"I'M COMING OUT" she shouted. "SOMEONE WAS HURT! "

She lightly moved his arms so that they were on his chest. She tucked one of her own arms under his legs and the other under his back and slowly and shakily got to her feet. After waiting a moment for her arms to adjust to him she quickly ran out the way she'd come.

The man was awkward to hold. Mostly because he was significantly taller than she was, but he wasn't heavy. So that was something. She turned on her heels in the opposite direction and quickly ran back out.

The moment she stepped out of the fog and the smoke she felt lighter and faster.

"My God, is that Secker! What the devil did that!?"

"You should call the medic," Marion said firmly instead of answering. She turned her head to the Doctor. "There's a first aid kit in my bag. There should be some gauze or something in there that can stop the bleeding. Give him at least a fighting chance."

The Doctor retrieved the box. Captain Riggs didn't seem to notice what he was doing, he seemed more focused on making the call.

"Medics level four," he said swiftly, "Meet you at the elevator. Move!"

The Doctor had already removed a large bunch of gauze and was pressing it against the larger wound on the man's face and on his chest.

He looked down.

"K9, see if you can find anything in there."

"The mist is a matter interface and therefore dangerous, Master."

An exasperated expression flickered on the Doctor's face for a moment. Before he let out a low sigh.

"Just go near the edge."

Captain Rigg started to step off and Marion and the Doctor followed quickly behind him. The elevator clicked open to reveal two men with a stretcher. Marion quickly set the man down on it and then stepped back. Captain Riggs went off with his employee leaving her and the Doctor by themselves.

Marion lightly shook her arms. They felt weird.

"Is he going to make it?" the Doctor asked.

Marion continued to fidget with her hands but for a slightly different reason.

"In the Omega Timeline, he was dragged, not carried. And no one had any gauze on hand."

"So he-?"

Marion nodded lightly. "Mind you, I don't know how much his death had to do with his injuries and how much it had to do with him having Vrax in his system. I'm hoping-I'm hoping that the two little changes were enough but-" Marion shrugged.

"You did what you could. But you know, if he did have enough Vraxion in his system, he might as well be a dead man already."

Marion shrugged.

"I did what I could and if that's not enough, then that's not enough. If it turns out that the story ends the same whether I did anything or not, then that's fine."

Marion wished that she had the capability to apply that logic to other things. Hopefully before the radio tower.

The Doctor patted her on the shoulder. "Well then. If you'd like to accompany me as I continue to investigate, I think I need to pay another visit to Secker's locker. See if there are any more clues to be found."

Marion kept her expression neutral.

"Of course Doc, lead the way."

The storage room locker area looked the same as most of the ship. Only a little bit less grey and a little bit more dark. Marion's eyes flickered toward the ceiling. The lights were on, but they seemed dimmed. Although Marion was unable to tell if it was because someone had set the lights to be dimmer or if they were just coated in a slight layer of dust.

Marion knew that someone was going to come in and shoot the Doctor; it was a stun gun. Non-lethal, just knocked him out, and only seemed to be there to fill their "Four is unconscious quota".

Still, not something that she wanted to happen.

"I'll keep watch by the doorway." She said under her breath. "You find what you're looking for."

She leaned her back against the wide yellow doorway. The Doctor went straight to one of the drawers and opened looked inside of it for a moment. Reached inside, and then continued to move his hand around deeper, before taking his hand out and staring down into it.

"It's not there. Someone must've taken it."

"Someone indeed," Marion said through a shaky breath.

Marion's anxiety began to increase. And so she kept one foot in the door, and another foot looking left and right down the corridors. She didn't see anyone.

"Marion?" Marion heard the Doctor call out to her.

Marion sharply turned her head. "Doctor what's wro- Ah."

A man in one of those shiny metallic white flight suits was standing in front of them holding the stun gun. All of the passengers had been dressed that way, and she was pretty sure that that had been intentional so as to act as a red herring for Dymmond's true motives. Wait. No. It hadn't been Dymond. It had been. Ah. What was his name? An agent who had gotten stuck inside of the Eden projection. What was his name? Scott? Something like Scott. Scott but changed a little bit to sound more future-sounding. Slott?

"I think you ought to lower that," Marion said firmly with her hand out and walking slowly towards the man.

A moment later, something shot her and her vision went black. She didn't feel a thing.

Marion felt a hand lightly tapping against her cheek and then shaking her shoulder.

"Marion, Doctor, what happened."

Marion's vision was blurry for a moment. Before she fully woke up and remembered what had happened. She looked to her left and noticed the Doctor also stirring next to her.

"BUSHWACKED!" The Doctor said in outrage.

"What?" asked Romana.

"Please clarify. Statement does not compute."

"BUSHWACKED" the Doctor repeated.

"Oh. Bushwhacked. Cowardly attack by a person or persons unknown."

Marion sat up fully. "The Doctor was looking for something in one of the drawers. I was standing guard outside of the doorway in case someone came in to attack us,"

"How'd he manage to get past you?"

"He came in a different way."

"Do you know who the person was?"

"I have some idea."

The Doctor got to his feet and pulled Marion's to hers.

The Doctor frantically felt at his pockets. "They have it!"

"Have what?" asked Romana as they walked out of the storage room and into the corridor, "Was something stolen?"

"Yes. Someone aboard this ship is smuggling drugs. Vraxoin."

"Vraxoin!" Romana exclaimed.

"I thought that was stamped out long ago!"

"Rule Three. If it was supposedly gotten rid of long ago, it's definitely still out there somewhere. And it will pop up at the worst possible time. And the more bad it would be for it to resurface, the more likely it is to do so."

"There were supposedly many sources, but the only known one was destroyed. And the locations of all the others died with the smugglers."

"That's right. They incinerated an entire planet. Someone's found another source."

Marion did a double take and she felt something inside of her shriek.

"A- A Whole Planet? They incinerated a whole planet?"

"They had to make sure that it was gone for good."

"But, and entire planet?"

"Yes, yes, don't worry there was nothing sentient on it."

"Still!"

A whole entire planet. Surely, they wouldn't have done that if there were sentient beings there, but something about the complete and utter destruction of a biosphere for no reason other than the fact that the planet was one of the only known sources of the drug made her feel sad.

The Doctor subtly pushed her in the direction he and Romana had been walking. Out of the storage room and towards the lift.

"Now "

"Doctor, this machine…"Romana started.

"What? The lift?"

Romana stared at the Doctor in annoyance. "No," she said carefully, "not the lift, the CET machine."

"What about it?"

"It doesn't just take recordings."

"Oh no, the animals themselves are converted into magnetic signals and their habitats."

"So he's left bald patches on the planets he's visited?"

Marion had forgotten that part. She carefully gripped the strap of her bag so that her hands wouldn't reach up higher into her hair and pull it out.

"He had mountains in that projection." Marion's voice started out quiet but started to get louder and faster. Her voice got higher and her accent slipped further south. "He had mountains an' parts of rivers. He took WHOLE mountains and rivers. Do you think he snatched away habitats from animals who were just away from home at the time? And he took parts of the oceans. And what if he snatched something angry, dangerous, and territorial away from its kids? What if he snatched two things that were angry and territorial and is now making them share the same territory!"

"Is that what's happening Marion?"

"Maybe?" Marion read between the lines and realized what she was being asked for. Potential spoilers. "No? It's not what's specifically happening here. It might be happening somewhere inside of the crystals but it shouldn't be a problem for us specifically."

"But the animals are trapped inside aren't they?" asked the Doctor.

"I hope so," Romana replied, looking straight at Marion.

"Well, what do you mean?" asked the Doctor.

"Well, you saw how primitive the device was. It's terribly unstable. This ship is full of unstable matter zones. It gives me the creeps. It wasn't just a mirage that attacked Secker."

"It might kill him." a voice shouted from across the room.

Well, that "might" was better than Secker actually being dead at this point. But "at least he's not dead" was not what Captain Riggs wanted to hear. She could read the room well enough to know that.

"What?"

"He's still unconscious. They don't know if they're going to be able to save him. The medics said that you helped stop the bleeding. He's not a very light man. And he would've been a deadweight. How were you able to carry him?"

Marion just shrugged. "The gravity was stronger where I grew up. To me, he didn't weigh much at all."

That was half true. And anyway, Marion remembered that that had been the Doctor's cover story when someone had asked her about that on the Sandminer.

It was good enough that Riggs didn't ask any further questions which made it the best sort of cover.

"It's a pity that he's not awake yet. He might have been able to say what attacked him."

The elevator opened.

"I asked Tryst, but he couldn't help either."

"I bet he couldn't," Marion mumbled under her breath.

"Right, first things first. Romana," the Doctor put a hand on the small of her back and all but shoved her into the elevator, "you take care of the CET machine. And Marion, you go with her."

Marion realized that it might be her last chance to say something very important. Before the elevator could fully close, Marion put her hand in front of the door.

"WAIT!"

The Doctor stopped in his tracks. Marion didn't want to take too long, so she spoke quickly.

"The Doctor and I were attacked while attempting to retrieve a sample of Vraxion from the storage locker. And the sample the Doctor found was stolen. Who knows what the person might be doing with it, especially if they know people are snooping around. And that means, none of you should drink anything that didn't come out of a can or bottle that you didn't personally unseal yourself. Even if it's from someone you trust. All it takes is a second or two of someone looking the other way and boom, there's something in your drink."

"So don't drink anything?" The Doctor asked.

"Right." Marion stepped away from the door allowing it to close.

"Was that a warning for me," asked Romana.

"Of a sort." Marion replied, "Someone's going to drug a drink meant for you, but Captain Riggs is going to drink it instead. Wanted to hit two birds with one stone. Don't want either of you to get drugged."

The elevator came to a halt across the hallway from the lounge. It was completely empty of people. The two of them looked around and down the hallways for a moment before she quickly moved to the machine.

Romana broke the silence. "Have we met before?"

She asked carefully.

"Nope!" Marion replied. "First time meeting you. Any you. The blonde or the brunette."

"You met my second regeneration first?"

"Romana, the Doctor's first regeneration of the Doctor I met will be several hundred years and half a dozen faces from now. I met his fourth face third, his first face fifth, and I've never met his sixth or seventh, but I've met his twelfth and thirteenth."

And Fourteenth and Fifteenth depending on how you counted Twelve and Thirteen between the War Doctor and the Metacrisis.

"I'm surprised he gets that far with all the things he gets into. But I suppose he has you."

That…there was something in Romana's tone. It wasn't a lilt. It felt like one of those comments the Doctor would make when the two of them were in the TARDIS kitchen, and the Doctor didn't realize that she was younger than he first thought. Or when he forgot for a moment and then realized his mistake and refused elaborate.

"Eh." Marion waved it off. "He can handle himself. And when he can't he-."

She felt worried.

Marion looked over Romana's shoulder as she messed with the dials on the machine.

Marion hadn't gotten a good look at the dials before, but they were carefully labeled with different planets.

Planets that now had giant bald spots from Tryst. The idea made her sick. Really sick. Like she was-

Marion suddenly felt a sharp, burning pain in her arm.

Oh.

Something pressed down hard on her chest, but nothing was there.

"Oh no." Marion said breathlessly.

Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh fuck she should've gone with the Doctor. She should have gone with the Doctor. Why didn't she go with the Doctor? What the fuck was wrong with her?

Romana had been looking closely at the projection of Eden, and hearing Marion's voice caused her to turn around. She was quickly at her side.

"Marion? Marion is it- MARION! MAR-"

The room went sideways and Marion's vision went dark.

Marion came too, upright and without darkness shrouding her vision.

"So don't drink anything?" The Doctor asked.

"Yes."

Marion had been talking about not drinking things a few seconds ago. And then a few minutes ago. And then she'd gotten in the elevator with Romana and something had happened and the Doctor had-

…You know, she hadn't actually SEEN the Doctor die this time. Maybe she had it all wrong, and the little weird time-warping thingy was just some sort of coincidence, and the fact that it had happened once after she watched Ten-

Maybe it was a coincidence.

(It wasn't. But Marion was going to pretend that she could pretend it was and try to convince her brain that she had been wrong and it was just some sort of coincidence until indisputable evidence appeared.)

Still…

"If it's all the same," Marion said, stepping out of the elevator. "I think I'll head off with you three instead. I wouldn't be much help with the CET machine. That sort of thing flies right over my head."

Marion hoped that her laugh didn't sound as forced as it was, as she watched the door close. She caught Romana looking at her with an expression that the door closed before she could really identify.

"I meant what I said. The warning about drinking I mean. That wasn't just a message for Romana. That goes for you two as well. And anyone else investigating strange happenings on the ship.

"Speaking of strange happenings," added the Doctor. "It's high time we saw about separating the ships. I worry that something might be affecting more than just Space. Come on."

Next Chapter: When In Doubt, Lie Through Your Teeth

Marion, looking at the TARDIS, a time machine that's bigger on the inside and probably alive: You're so cool and I love you.

Marion looking at the CET machine: Fuck you.

Something in this chapter might seem to contradict something a character has previously said. And that's because it does. This is on purpose. "X = Y" and "'X = Y said John Doe'" are two sentences that on the surface might seem to convey the information despite conveying different things.

Side Bar: I really, really, really REALLY fucking love writing Marion's inner monologue when she's a couple spins away from a full spiral. She's so-