Untold Knowledge (Doctor Who x Genius Fem! Oc) [Book 1]

Chapter 34: The Impossible Planet

"In every bad situation, life gives you a second chance to make it right. Some take it, others leave it, and most don't see it."
-- unknown

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"Close door 1."

As Toby returned to the control room, Zach projected a hologram over the central console. "That's the black hole, officially designated K three seven Gen five." he informed.

"In the scriptures of the Falltino, this planet is called Kroptor; the bitter pill." Ida added, feeling the strangest sense of importance from the surrounding beliefs. "And the black hole is supposed to be a mighty demon. It was tricked into devouring the planet, only to spit it out because it was poison." she continued, happy to give the information that might help in the long run.

Rose sighed, "The bitter pill. I like that."

Echo whistled shortly when both she and her love saw their exact coordinates. "We are so far out. Lost in the drifts of the universe. How did you even get here?" the Time Lord asked incredulously.

"We flew in." the Captain replied and pulled up a different hologram. "You see, this planet's generating a gravity field. We don't know how. We've no idea. But it's kept in constant balance against the black hole." He then showed a different, more clarifying image. "And the field extends out as a funnel. A distinct gravity funnel, reaching out into clear space. That was our way in." he finished, seeing the couple's obvious and superior intellect.

Echo nodded in thought. "How bad was the landing?" she wondered aloud.

Zach, too, nodded. "Truth be told, our ship should have been torn apart. We lost the Captain, which is what put me in charge." he said regretfully, his confidence in himself being at an all time low.

"You're doing a good job." Ida reassured, truly seeing his efforts for all that they were.

"If that gravity funnel were to close, there'd be no way out for you." Echo pointed out, curious about their back up plan. Humans usually planned for failure, prepare for things to go wayward.

"We had fun speculating about that." Scooti commented sarcastically, though Echo remained oblivious to her tone as her mind went rampant.

"But that field would take phenomenal amounts of power. I mean not just big, but off the scale!" The Doctor couldn't quite see how such an occurrence had been able to come about in the first place. Before he could make a move with his screwdriver, Echo began looking through as much of their information as she could. Her first order of business was to allow them access to their entire database without obstruction. It didn't take the couple too long before they worked it out. "There we go. Do you see? To generate that gravity field, and the funnel, you'd need a power source with an inverted self extrapolating reflex of six to the power of six every six seconds." he explained, his love looking confused by the information.

Rose, however, didn't see the problem. "That's a lot of sixes."

"It doesn't make sense." Echo mumbled pensively, making the Doctor look at her with clear curiosity. 

"Any ideas?" he inquired, patient for her response. Perhaps she had come across something akin to their situation in her interdimensional travels.

But the brunette shook her head slowly. "Not quite; it does ring a bell or two. But which ones?" she wondered mainly to herself. She was beginning to feel frustrated, hating the feeling of not knowing. How sad it had to be for average life forms to wander through their lives without the help of adequate knowledge. How did they even cope?

"It took us two years to work that out." Captain Zach said with disbelief, the rest of the crew having just as impressed expressions as he.

The Doctor smiled with nonchalance. "Oh, we're very good." he replied.

"But that's why we're here." Ida went on. "This power source is ten miles below through solid rock. Point Zero." she explained as the hologram showed what she was saying. "We're drilling down to try and find it."

"It's giving off readings of over ninety stats on the Blazon scale." Zach added.

"Ooooh. A fuel source of unimaginable power, or more likely, a weapon of ultimate destruction." Echo evaluated with growing desire. "I call dibs."

Her Doctor then gave her a mock glare, "You don't get to keep it."

She rolled her eyes with a scoff. "Fiiine." she acquiesced, then looked to the crew. "Who's the one who wrote those ancient lettering on the wall?"

Toby, the archaeologist, raised his hand. "I copied it from fragments we found unearthed by the drilling, but I can't translate it." he informed. 

Echo nodded, "Well, obviously you can't. You're not supposed to. You're too young to even comprehend it, I bet. My guess is that it's the original speech. The lost language of those living at the beginning of this universe, Or, they're from travelers in a foreign dimension." she elaborated.

Toby looked at her with furrowed brow, thinking her mad. "It had to have been from some form of civilization. They buried something. Now it's reaching out, calling us in." he tried to counter.

"And you came." the Doctor said with a pleased grin.

"Well, how could we not?" Ida asked, making their respect for the explorers solidify all the more.

Echo couldn't help but smile as well. "So, when it comes right down to it, why did you come here? Why did you do that? Why?" the Doctor asked with clear joy. "I'll tell you why. Because it was there. Brilliant." He then looked solely at Zach and took a step towards him. "Excuse me, er, Zach, wasn't it?"

The human man looked at him in further confusion. "That's me." he confirmed slowly.

"Just stand there, because I'm going to hug you. Is that all right?" he questioned, then proceeded as he received a nod. "Oh, human beings. You are amazing! Ha! Thank you." making the Captain smile as well. Echo laughed with just as much enjoyment, always loving to see his fondness for the imperfect species. When they parted, the Time Lord became serious again. "But apart from that, you're completely mad. You should pack your bags, get back in that ship and fly for your lives."

"You can talk. And how the hell did you get here?" Ida jumped in, no hesitation to point out the biggest issue.

The Doctor then stumbled over his words, trying to think up a somewhat reasonable explanation that they could accept. "Oh, We've got this, er, this ship. It's hard to explain. It just sort of appears."

Rose nodded, wanting to help. "We can show you. We parked down the corridor from, er. Oh, what's it called? Habitation area--..."

"Three." Echo confirmed with a nod.

Zach gave them a concerned look. "Do you mean storage six?"

Echo immediately widened her eyes in horror-stricken recognition while her love remained momentarily oblivious. "It was a bit of a cupboard, yeah." Then the penny dropped as hard as the asteroid that dropped on the dinosaurs. "Storage six. But you said-- You said--" Without another second's delay, Echo sprinted out of the room with fearful tears forming in her eyes and was gone from sight. Not far behind was her only lover and current best friend.