Soul's Shadow (Doctor Who - SI)

Part XII (III)

The next few days went by in a similar manner. The Doctor went out to gather new information about this Adipose company, or he vanished somewhere below the console to do repairs.

Meanwhile I sifted through the data - after I had begged for a laptop, since staring at the little screen of his console was a pain. Now I could at least be bundled up in a jump seat, with a cuddly blanket - the heat wasn't functioning while the Doctor fiddled with whatever - and a cup of coffee.

The first days I barely made any progress at all. The data was too random and much of it was completely beyond my capability of understanding. I did appreciate that the Doctor let me do this, but it was still frustrating to feel so limited. There were coordinates and data about temperature, space-time fluctuations, shifts in several energy levels. None of it seemed related to the case at all.

"Weeell... I had to start somewhere, didn't I?" said the Doctor, soot on his face and grinning sheepishly. "I'm not sure what we're even looking for."

"And what's with that stuff? Is space supposed to bend in random places?"

He tossed a glance at my screen, tilted his head from side to side and finally nodded. "Yup. You wouldn't notice, though. It's too subtle. But space, exactly as time, is never quite fixed. Twists, bends, expands, contracts... it's almost a dance," he concluded happily.

I grunted at the unhelpful response and gave up for the day.

In the evenings I went to see the Master, in case he hadn't been around all day. Sometimes he strolled into the console room to make a snarky remark about whatever, or just sat there with a random thing he was tinkering with, or - to my surprise - even helped with some of the repairs. I concluded that it was out of boredom and because a functioning TARDIS was benefitting him too, after all.

And maybe he enjoyed the company.

Getting a hang of the telepathy was harder than I had initially feared. A lot. I struggled with keeping us apart, struggled to open my mind to let us slide deeper. And as the days dragged by, I had the feeling I had made no progress at all since the beginning. It was as if I was struggling with everything at all. And it made me feel utterly useless.

"I told you, even we need decades to figure this all out. We have classes on it. Teachers, lessons, practice."

I sulked, angrily glaring at the intertwined hands in my lap. "I don't have that much time."

"Mhm, we'll see," the Master muttered. There was no way of telling what he thought of it. If he had hopes I could manage or not. He snickered. "Don't be so upset. You get what you want, in the end."

That comment startled me. Of course I also did this because I liked the connection, but that didn't mean I didn't want to help. I wanted to. With a frustrated sigh I let go of his hands, feeling how our minds slipped apart as well.

"Do you want to stop already?" came his mocking question.

"Why is it so easy when... when we're... closer?"

The Master tilted his head and lifted a brow, seemingly thinking about it for a moment, before he leaned closer, forcing me to look him in the eyes. I hated when people did that - usually. But with him there was no unpleasant feeling to it. Quite the opposite. His gaze could hypnotise me without him even trying. The sheer intensity of his very being, mesmerising me beyond any level of comprehension. I looked up and winced when he stretched out his hands to cradle my cheeks, gently holding me, his forehead on mine all of a sudden.

The connection returned, stronger than before, more intense, letting us pour into one another without any trouble.

"It's like opening a floodgate," the Master muttered. "The wider you open it, the greater the flow."