Lost In Remnants

Uncommon Enemies

Ellie:

"Viva Las Vegas!"

Then both he and Clara promptly went flying across the control room of the submarine we were in, both dressed in evening wear. I had elected a long, substantial coat, driving gloves, and a fitted waistcoat. It followed my usual androgynous style, but covered skin.

"Strangers on the bridge!"

"Who the hell are you?"

Clara looked between us as I realised my body was already soaked up to the knees in what should have been icy water. "Not Vegas then."

The Doctor did not mind this. "No. No, this is much better."

"A sinking submarine?"

One where we were still more likely to be shot to death, actually, Ms Clara. "A sinking Soviet submarine."

People were now coming for us. "Break out side arms. Restrain them!"

"Four-ten. Four-twenty. Turbines still not responding!"

"They've got to!"

I rolled my eyes, blue dyed for the sake of blending in and touched the interface, casting out my senses to discover any way to survive. "You still have sideways momentum. Sideways momentum!" They were staring at me now. "Propellers work independently of the main turbines. You cannot stop her going down, but you can manoeuvre the submarine laterally. Do it!"

Someone wanted us gone. "Get these people off the bridge, now!"

"Just listen to them, for God's sake!"

I found something and tried to manipulate the waters currents to push us towards it as best I could. "Geographical anomaly to starboard. An underwater ridge."

"How do you know this?"

"We have a chance to stop the descent if we settle upon it. Do it!" I snapped, glaring now as we reached six hundred meters below sea level. Elizabeth could have held her breath long enough to survive, but I was designed without the ability to swim. Thank you for that, River. "Or this thing is going to implode."

So the Captain decided that it would be better to die trying to survive than doing nothing. "Lateral thrust to starboard, all propellers." They questioned it. "Now!"

His second stared in disbelief. "You're going to let this madwoman give the orders?"

"Lateral thrust!"

"Aye, sir! Six-sixty, six-eighty." Before we stopped just in time, the submarine creaking and groaning. "Descent arrested at seven hundred metres."

Captain Zhukov looked to me as I took my hand away from the interface, now only a single layer. "It seems we owe you our lives, whoever you are."

I bowed my head as the Doctor beamed happily. He knew a piece came away, but did not know what it did. It stopped my skin from being the open wound in which the infections of thoughts and memories could enter. Just a touch could send me into a seizure. "We'll hold on to that, won't we, El? Might come in handy."

The second did not have the same gratitude. "Search them." They hesitated over myself and Ms Clara. "Yes; I know. They are women." Actually, I was non-binary. "Now search them!"

We stood there to let it happen, because I had nothing anachronistic on my person anyway, and Clara looked to us in concern. They had greater things to worry about on this submarine right now. "Are we going to be okay?"

"Most likely."

"Is that a lie?"

"I do not lie, but nor do I always speak the truth, Ms Clara." I replied, only having pens and cables removed from my pockets. "This time is balanced on a knife's edge. East and West standing on the brink of nuclear oblivion." For some reason, however, the Doctor had a Barbie doll, and a ball of string. "Many fingers resting upon buttons."