[DISCONTINUED] Hazel Eyes - DW Fanfic

Chapter Three - Blocked by Books

She gave him a last hard stare before briskly turning around and continuing down the hall towards the control room. The Doctor watched dumbfounded. Three hundred and fourteen? She sure didn’t look it, but then again he wasn’t really the one to speak on that. He hurried after her, a whole new swarm of questions buzzing through his head.

They walked for a while in silence, the Doctor following a couple paces behind Ayaria. He was starting to worry. It shouldn’t take this long. By the way Ayaria’s steps had become faster and her posture had become rigid she realized this too. She began walking so fast the Doctor had to almost run to catch up.

All of a sudden she stopped. The Doctor ran right into her. She stumbled forward and turned around. She took a deep breath with a pained expression. Then she turned away from him and pulled out a round silver spherical device from her back pocket. The doctor recognized it as a comm, a sort of cell phone from the 26st century. She flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder and inserted the device in her ear.

She pushed a button on the com and began to talk. “Jack, we have a situation.”

She went quiet, obviously listening to Jack. This was a whole new piece of the puzzle. Was it Captain Jack? Or was there another stowaway he wasn’t aware of. He caught a flicker of a smile from the otherwise stern girl as she listened to Jack talk. Definitely Captain Jack.

“Not that, Stupid!” Her tone teasing a moment before she returned to her serious disposition. “We’ve got a code 325. The Tardis is under suspected internal attack. I think something might be trying to kill her. She’s not letting us to the control room and she doesn’t sound good. Mind reigning her in? Password is 48m600489qrt5.”

She listened again before speaking. "Call me back when you get inside.”

Ayaria met the Doctor’s eyes. “It should take Jack a bit to get through the security we’ve got on the program and then we have a long bumpy ride to Cardiff. ”

“How are we getting to Cardiff if we can’t get to the control room?” The Doctor asked not following.

“I set up a retrieval system in Torchwood. I call Jack and give him the password and he gains the access to put the Tardis on an automatic course for Cardiff that even Lady can’t override. I can change the password after this whole fiasco is over so Jack can’t just pull us in when he gets a tad lonely. Designed the system myself.” She explained with a bit of pride tinging her voice.

“But how do you make sure no one just hacks and finds out the password? Passwords are only so tight. A dalek can crack almost any code.”

“Not only did I put on anti-hack and virus software that no one is yet to hack, but he also has to confirm his DNA and participate in eye scans and a fingerprint scan before he can gain access. That’s part of why it takes so long. I was careful not just anyone could have the power to reign in Lady.” Ayaria explained patiently.

“But I still don’t understand. Why would the ride be any rougher then usual?” The Doctor asked.

Ayaria sighed as if he was being the stupid one. “It is my guess that Lady has a sort of infection that is controlling her in ways. If that’s true then the bug will be trying to resist going to Cardiff. There Lady would gain power making her harder to control. It’s just common sense that the bug resist. And that’s why it’s preventing us from finding the control room. That means we aren’t simply bringing the Tardis to Cardiff. We’re dragging it. You keeping up?”

The Doctor nodded. There was a minute of silence when neither of them knew what to say. Then Ayaria sprang up. “I have an idea! We have to find the library though. Hopefully the bug hasn’t thought to block it.”

“Okay, care to explain?” The Doctor pressed.

She turned her back and began down the hall, once again in the lead. “Not really.”

The Doctor followed. His brain was turning at breakneck speed trying to grasp at strings. What was she thinking with this whole library thing? He vaguely recalled once saying that the greatest weapon in the world were books, but still. What was this thing? This bug, as Ayaria had called it. Nothing got in his Tardis. Especially not in the Tardis. Hopefully she knew what she was doing.

They wondered the halls for a good while. At one point with a great lurch he felt the Tardis begin to move. It was shaky. The Tardis seemed to be moving with a lot of noise and shakes. It would lurch and throw Ayaria and the Doctor stumbling not to fall. At one point Ayaria fell back on him. She had gasped loudly and jumped away from him skittering nervously until there was a good five feet or so between them. It was still a good bit later when they finally found the dark wooden door of the library. The Doctor noted peevishly that it wasn’t as grand as Ayaria’s bedroom door.

Ayaria pushed open the door. She stepped quietly into the sprawling library. The Doctor followed her in. Surprisingly she didn’t go into the non-fiction section of the library, however. She went straight to the back where all the fiction was. Regardless the doctor followed her into one of the deep rows of shelves. She began browsing the bookshelves.

The Tardis was still flying along unsteadily. It was weird to feel her flying without flying her. His hands itched to take control. To feel the familiar knobs and buttons and levers below his fingertips.

“What are we even looking for back here?” He asked but Ayaria shushed him.

“Something I don’t quite remember the name of.” She said unhelpfully.

The Doctor, having nothing better to do at the moment, began browsing the shelf. He absently pulled out some books and skipped through a couple chapters. It had only been about five minutes when he turned back to Ayaria. He was surprised to see her reading an old novel from the early 34th century. He recognized it but wasn’t sure he had ever gotten around to reading it.

“What do you hope to find in that?” He asked.

She sighed dramatically while not bringing her eyes up from her book. “Nothing at all. There’s just not really anything we can do until the Tardis gets to Cardiff and I just didn’t feel like talking to you and having to explain stuff and answer your questions. Now shush, I’m trying to read.”

The Doctor was about to retort with a brilliantly clever and witty comment (that he was yet to think of) when he noticed something. The air seemed particularly still all of a sudden. The Doctor turned around and almost jumped from surprise. Where the hall out of their little bookshelf alcove had been was another bookshelf blocking the way. The Tardis had moved it there without him even realizing. They were trapped in space of only about three feet in any direction. “Ayaria… you might want to see this.” The Doctor said.

And that was when the lights went out.