The Orphan in the TARDIS

Chapter Thirty-Four

The Doctor leaps out of Bessie, ignoring Jack. She walks up to the crash, crouching down beside it.

A very familiar voice remarks, "Ah, Doctor, I see you've changed again."

The Time Lady's face shoots up, a smile filling her face as she leaps to her feet. "Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart, oh it is good to see you."

The Brig scans the Doctors face, taking in the changes, "Its good to see you as well, but I do wish you would stop by for tea rather than only showing up in a crisis."

She crosses her arms like a petulant child, "It's not as if I choose to only come when the world is in danger. I try to come more often, but the TARDIS always takes me somewhere else."

"She has a mind if her own. So what brings you here now, Doc?" Jack asks.

The Time Lady meets his eyes, then looks back at the ship. "I was hoping it might be obvious."

"There is a crashed spaceship," Ryan says.

"And an alien that escaped it," Yaz adds.

"Where else would she be?" Graham finishes.

"Good point," Jack cedes. "You must be the Doctor's companions. Captain Jack Harkness, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Stop it!" the Time Lady groans.

"Just introducing myself."

"With your 51st century pheromones that I'd basically an invitation to your bed."

"If we could focus," the Brig says, his eyes raised to heaven with a look of defeat on his face.

"Right, yes. Everyone, this is the fam, Ryan, Yaz, and Graham. Fam, this is everyone."

Jack points a thumb behind him, "This is Gwen, Owen, and Toshiko."

The Doctor drops back down to the ground, extracting her sonic from within her coat. Scanning the ship, one of her eyebrows quirks. She leaps up onto the top of the ship, crawling for the opening. She slides head first down into the ship, and Jack reacts almost instinctively, rushing to the ship. "Doc, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, don't worry." Banging resounds from the metallic interior, and what sounds almost like a melody follows, although Jack recognises the noise as a string of Gallifreyan curses.

"What did you do?" the Brig asks, sounding exasperated.

"I'm okay," she grumbles. The Doctor slides out from under the ship, her sonic clenched between her teeth. Ryan steps forward, grabbing her hands and helping her stand.

"So, what'd you find?" he asks. The Time Lady thrusts a hunk of metal into his hands, and removes her sonic from her mouth.

"I found that," she nods, tucking her screwdriver back into her pocket.

Tosh steps forward, taking the metal from Ryan's hands, turning it over a few times within her own grip. "What is this?"

The Gallifreyan had walked back over the ship, scribbling something onto a scrap of paper. "That's the flight recorder, keeps up to date on the log, the conditions of the actual ship, as well as the conditions in space as the ship flies."

"So it's a black box?" Ianto questions.

"Yes and no," the Doctor responds, standing to her full height. "It can do a bit more than a normal black box." Turning to Jack, she states, "We need to get it back to you Hub, hook it up to a computer, or even the TARDIS, figure out exactly what went wrong with the ship." She stuff the piece of paper into her pocket.

Jack nods, before he glances at the Brigadier, "The Hub is top-secret, no one can know it's location, especially not UNIT."

"Oh, leave him be, Jack, he won't tell anyone. Will you, Brigadier?"

"Certainly not. The last thing we need is UNIT gaining access to even more alien technology."

The captain nods, turning for the Torchwood van, signalling his team to follow. Gwen stops, "Hang on, is no one questioning how this Doctor is completely different than the last two we met?"

The rest of the group just sort of shrug, shaking their heads. "I do have a question though," Owen says, stepping forward, "If you're all here, and Ianto is here, who's watching Sophie to make sure she doesn't injure herself anymore?"

"The TARDIS is keeping a good eye on her, she should be healed by the time we get back. Shall we?"

Team Torchwood pile into their van, as the Doctor leads her fam back to Bessie. The Brigadier follows the Doctor, as Graham, Yaz and Ryan climb into the back seat of the speedster. The Time Lady leaps into the drivers seat, as the Brig climbs in beside her. She doesn't offer warning, as the car takes off like a rocket down the roads of Wales, heading back to Roald Dahl Plass.

If at all possible, they arrive faster than it took them to get to the crash site. The Doctor aims her sonic at a wall, and a door slides open. Bessie parks herself back into the spot she was previously in. The Gallifreyan leaps out of the car, leading the way back to the main area of the Hub.

 *Meanwhile*

Sophie had awoken about twenty minutes after the Doctor had hooked her up to the TARDIS. She can tell that her injuries are healed, as the time/space machine pulls the needle from her arm with a large set of mechanical limbs. She rolls her neck, turning to place her feet on the metallic flooring. A shiver goes up her spine, as she realises shes still in a medical gown. Carefully, Sophie stands up, padding down the long corridor. The TARDIS carpeted the halls, and moved one of the wardrobe rooms right down the hallway.

Once she gets a fresh change of clothes, and takes a quick shower, she heads back out to the Hub. She finally takes in the entirety of the building. It's a lot darker than she had originally realized. The grungy decor is only more highlighted by the dingy desks and floors. Sophie shrugs, moving to the desks in the centre of the room. She sets her slushie she made in the TARDIS on a desk, flopping into the wheely chair. She twirls the chair back and forth, staring at the ceiling. She hopes that the Doctor and company arrive soon, as Sophie can tell that she will be bored.