Soul's Shadow (Doctor Who - SI)

Part VIII (II)

"Oh, and you can take that off." The Doctor pointed at my face. "I'm immune."

Only after some seconds did I realize that I was still wearing my face mask. Having to have it on me the whole work day and in public transport had gotten me used to it. It actually felt strange not to wear it, but I still stuffed it inside my pocket, while I took a closer look at the coral shaped pillars and the weird round lights on the walls.

"Fix... Why do you think I could fix something like that? Gaping at the foreign technology around me I shook my head, then glanced back at the Doctor. "Is it really a time machine? Is all this from the future?"

He rubbed his neck with a somewhat impish smile. "That's hard to answer. Considering the distance and temporal distortions within the proximity to the galaxy's centre and then the gap between the time your and my civilisation evolved."

I blinked stupidly at him, mulling over the words, all while trying to keep standing upright. My head was spinning. Something in here seemed to make me nauseous, either in here or... the still overwhelming sensation of déjà vu.

"L... isten," I stuttered. "I can barely fix stuff from my own world and time. I'm only an apprentice." Then again was I not eager at all to leave this extraordinary place too soon. My mind wasn't able to cope, however, crawling around at an alarmingly slow speed. "And I definitely can't fix alien tech," I closed, dooming myself.

He was alien. No doubt about that. I just... sensed it, because of the way he felt so utterly different to the people I usually had to deal with, because of how my head still spun and made me sick and my knees weak.

"Ho, careful." The Doctor grabbed my arm and steadied me. "Must be a bit of shock, all this, eh?" He smiled warmly and guided me to one of the jump seats near the console.

"Have I been here before?" I wanted to know as I flopped down into the seat. "It feels so..." There was a distinct lack of words in my vocabulary to even begin describing what I felt and so I only glared wide eyed at the Doctor.

"I know what you mean. But no, I would remember." He thoughtfully bit down on his tongue, mulling over his next words. "The TARDIS. She seems to know you. My ship, I mean. She's sentient"

I glared at the ceiling, trying to understand. A sentient time machine that somehow knew me, that had brought this alien man right to this place to get the most useless person in existence. There was absolutely nothing I could do. Not even my boss and co-workers let me do much because they thought I wouldn't be able to get anything done.

Not that they would have ever given me the chance. They only assumed, based on looks and gender. And it wasn't the first time I thought about looking for something else... but the chances of me finding something were so slim - with my poor social skills and all that - that I stayed anyway. But now...

My head felt a little better and I hopped from the seat to carefully stroke a hand over the console, deliberately staying away from anything I could accidentally push. A light tingling crept from my fingers into my mind, like a soft nudge.

Potential.

I smiled and let out a huff. "Okay. I'll do whatever I can. And you get me away from here. I don't care where."

The Doctor grinned and rushed to my side to flip a few switches. "Alright. Can do that. She needs to get to work again, though." Some buttons and his hand landed on a big lever. "Hold on to something."

I grabbed the rim of the console right in time not to get thrown to the ground as the engines sprang to life with a groan and some wheezing and a few noises that clearly weren't healthy. The whole thing shook violently and I was glad when it was finally over.