While You Were Out ...

Chapter 6

Carefully looking through his star charts and scrutinizing every detail, the Doctor frowned. He had hoped that pinpointing this planet's exact location in the universe would shed some light on the phenomena that was occurring. This was proving to be nearly impossible, however.

Several times it appeared he had finally honed in on a set of coordinates, which he could then look up inside the TARDIS' memory bank. His ships' navigational instruments then decided not to cooperate, causing the numbers to fluctuate wildly and never settle back onto a final, static location.

Some thing was causing them to act up. Figuring out exactly what that something was created yet another problem on top of a set of already frustrating problems. "Oh, dear," he whimpered, pressing his open palms against the sides of his face as he leaned on top of the console.

"No, no, you are not giving up," he scolded himself as he quickly straightened up. "Jamie and Zoe are depending on you. I shall not rest until you figure out what's happened here.

"Mm, now, first order of business: What exactly is causing the navigation system to malfunction," he muttered to himself. "Well, where shall I even start with all the possibilities of—"

His eyes suddenly widened and he nearly leapt in the air. "Of course! The atmosphere! If I can gather some more fine-tuned readings of this planet's atmospheric properties, perhaps I can recalibrate the navigational instruments to get a more accurate reading of its coordinates. And with that I can figure out where exactly we are in the known universe ..."

A hopeful little smile crept across his face. "And with that , I can get started on a way to find my friends."

His outlook a lot less pessimistic than just moments earlier, he hummed as he accessed his ship's first set of readings of the planet's atmosphere, obtained when they had first landed.

He frowned thoughtfully. At the time, he was merely looking to see whether it contained a breathable atmosphere, making it safe for them to leave the ship and explore. He uttered a humorless chuckle upon that notion. "'Safe', perhaps, but first impressions can certainly be deceiving, can't they."

Yes, what he really needed was a more in-depth analysis of its properties, especially in terms of the chemical makeup.

"Well, Old Girl, let's see what we can see, shall we?" he said, calling up a new round of analysis.

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Zoe felt an uncomfortable surge of anxiety as she studied Leo Sillsbeck's face in anticipation of his reply to her proposition.

The man appeared tentative at first but then sighed and gave a slight nod. "Alright. We can set aside a small block of time each morning to study the displacement phenomena ..."

Zoe's ears perked up and she gazed at him in curiosity. "Displacement or disappearance?"

"Disappearance," he automatically clarified, his face reddening slightly. "One of my colleagues did put forth a hypothesis that displacement could be involved, but I'll get into that later." His quick smile faded and he eyed her seriously. "If you're willing to get here half an hour earlier than usual each morning, we can work on it."

"Oh, yes, that sounds fine," Zoe replied without missing a beat, her expression one of sheer gratitude. "Thank you for allowing me the opportunity."

Leo seemed slightly taken aback by her effusiveness as she offered her hand to him, but he soon returned her smile and shook her hand. "Of course. I'm looking forward to having you on our team."