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

Chapter 35: The Impossible Planet

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader."
-- Robert Frost

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"What is it? What's wrong?" Rose asked as the three of them ran down corridor after corridor.

"Door 16 out of commission." came the automated voice once they reached the correct room.

When the door wouldn't open, the Doctor then looked out to see absolutely nothing. "It can't be..." he muttered in disbelief. "It can't be!"

Echo covered her mouth with heart broken shock as her tears broke their barrier for the first time in many, many years. "What's wrong?" Rose asked, still unaware as to what had happened. "What is it? Doctor, the Tardis is in there. What's happened?"

"The Tardis is gone." Echo whimpered, making both the Doctor and Rose look at her with very different emotions. Him with understanding, sorrowful empathy and her with unexpected horror. The crying brunette then quickly walked away as he then allowed Rose to look out the porthole as well. "The earthquake. This section collapsed." Outside was nothing but a deep, dark chasm of untold possibility and irreversible loss.

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Leaving Echo to be alone for a moment, the Doctor and Rose were then in the control room trying to plea with the Captain. "The ground gave way." he explained. "My Tardis must've fallen down right into the heart of the planet. But you've got robot drills heading the same way."

Zach, however, knew the truth of the situation. "We can't divert the drilling."

"But I need my ship. It's all I've got. Literally the only thing." the terrified Time Lord said strongly. He couldn't handle the idea of losing the one connection to Gallifrey he had left. She was his oldest love and the only greatest home he ever could have ever wanted. He couldn't face the pain Echo would undoubtedly be put through. For he knew only a bit of how close she and the unimaginably beautiful ship had become.

"Doctor. We've only got the resources to drill one central shaft down to the power source. That's it. No diversions, no distractions, no exceptions. Your machine is lost. All I can do is offer you a lift if we ever get to leave this place, and that's the end of it." he said, truly feeling sorry for their plight.

"I'll, er, put you on the duty roster." Ida said. "We need someone in the laundry."

The two travelers were then left alone, besides of course the ood. "I've trapped you here. Both of you." he mumbled absently, indeed at a loss of what to do.

"No, don't worry about me." Rose immediately said without thinking. They then felt the shaking of the base. "Okay. We're on a planet that shouldn't exist, under a black hole and no way out. Yeah, I've changed my mind. Start worrying about me." she said with a nervous, quiet chuckle. He nodded, then pulled her into a comforting hug. Though his mind was already worrying about a certain, crying woman in another section of the base.

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When the lights flickered, Ida, who was also in Habitation Three with the three of them, spoke to their Captain over the intercom. "Zach? Have we got a problem?"

"No more than usual. Got the Scarlet System burning up, though. Might be worth a look." came the sir's voice.

Ida looked at the silent travelers. "You might want to see this. Moment is history." She then opened the roof shutters so they could see into their violent outer environment once again. "There." she pointed out. "On the edge. That red cloud. That used to be the Scarlet System. Home to the Peluchi, a mighty civilization spanning a billion years, disappearing forever. Their planets and suns consumed. Ladies and gentlemen, we have witnessed its passing." she announced respectfully.

Echo nodded absently, her reddened and now dry eyes watching with her own remembered respect. "I was almost accidently married to the Peluchi's emperor around two thousand years after it's beginning. That is until I shot his brains out for trying to force himself on me. They weren't too friendly after that, for some reason." she muttered without emotion. Her mind was still focused on the loss over one of her greatest friends.

When Ida was about to close the shutters, the Doctor shook his head at her. "Er, no, could you leave it open? Just for a bit. I won't go mad, I promise."

"How would you know?" Ida asked rhetorically, then went back to work. "Scooti, check the lockdown. Jefferson, sign off the airlock seals for me." She then left as well through door eighteen.

Rose then looked at her friends, worried for their well being. "I've seen films and things, yeah? They say black holes are like gateways to another universe."

The glum brunette nodded with a soft smile of amusement. "You're thinking of worm holes. Those are like taking acid while on a waterpark slide." she explained, wishing to be able to show them.

The blonde smiled back, glad to have helped her even slightly. "Long way from home."

The Doctor then pointed to a seemingly random place above. "Go that way, turn right, keep going for, er, five hundred years, and you'll reach the Earth." He then looked at Echo. "I'm sorry about your portal gun."

She shook her head. "I couldn't care less about that thing. I can make a new one. I'm more sad about your Tardis." she admitted honestly.

"Our Tardis." he correctly, then wrapped an arm around her shoulders and held her close. Something she would be eternally grateful for.

Rose then turned on her phone curiously. "No signal. That's the first time we've gone out of range. Mind you, even if I could. What would I tell her?" She then looked at her friends with a new thought. "Can you build another Tardis?"

Echo shook her head with a sigh as the Doctor answered. "They were grown, not built. And with my own planet gone, we're kind of stuck for a bit."

The human girl nodded in understanding. "Well, it could be worse. This lot said they'd give us a lift."

The Time Lord furrowed his brow. "And then what?"

Rose shrugged, "I don't know. Find a planet, get a job, live a life. Same as the rest of the universe, I suppose." she elaborated.

Echo, however, snorted. "As if. I'll get you home. I can build another portal gun eventually and we can continue our adventures in the way I did when I was alone; before I met you losers." she promised with a smile, making them both chuckle with just as much amusement.

"I'm sorry I brought us here in the first place." the Doctor apologized with a shake of his head.

"Oh, it's not all bad, being stuck with you two." Rose said. 

"Yeah?" he asked, glad to hear her claim.

"Yes." Just then, and completely unexpectedly, the human girl's phone began to ring. With a furrowed brow, she answered the device.

"He is awake." Without hesitation, the phone was then thrown to the floor.