Stellar Collision

Chapter 2

He was dreaming. There was a pretty blonde woman he didn't know. She had woken up to a rainstorm. Standing wrapped in a sheet and lit by the moon, she stared out at a rain soaked parking lot. Then she was smoking and crying in a darkened motel room. She looked at her reflection in the mirror. She looked so tired. She felt shame, and she felt weakness. But she was tough, he could see that in her eyes. And she was kind.

Awareness came back to him in snippets. First he became conscious of sound, but everything started out distorted and so far away. From some distance, he heard the engines of a type 40 TARDIS phasing urgently. Though he immediately recognized the source of this particular noise, the Doctor's clouded mind struggled to grasp the significance. For the moment, he had no memory of what had transpired in the Malum Star System. He couldn't recall the distress signal or the subsequent struggle with the dematerialization circuit. He had no recollection of the tiny spacecraft that may or may not have been abandoned. Or of the gamma ray burst from which he had failed to escape.

The sound of damaged electrical circuitry sparking around him joined the menacing toll of a Cloister Bell which started out quietly and grew louder until it reverberated through him. The console sizzled with electrical current and some damaged instrument there clacked uselessly. He could also hear the double beat of his own racing hearts pounding in his ears.

His olfactory system returned next. First, there was the faint smell of blood- his own judging by the proximity. The acrid scent of his smoldering ship began as a stinging tickle in his nose but the dioxins released from the burning polymers quickly began to fill the control room. As he fully regained consciousness, he inhaled deeply, desperate for oxygen. The thick smoke filled his lungs and burned the back of his throat. He coughed hoarsely and groaned from the pain that the spasm caused. Pain.

He tried opening his lids but could see nothing. Still dazed but now alarmed, he touched his fingertips to his eyes and could feel blood seeping down his face from a head wound. The Doctor managed to squirm himself to a sitting position, leaning against the now warped railing at the edge of the flight platform. He tasted blood in his mouth and something in his head seemed to CLANG.

Using his tactile sense alone, he further assessed his condition. He palpated his lower extremities. His legs seemed alright. A ghostly echo from his past declared "Legs! I've still got legs. Good!" He worked his way up the rest of his body, wincing each time he reached a tender spot. He seemed to have a chipped bone in his hip, a couple cracked ribs, a very bruised collar bone, a broken nose and trauma to the front of his head. With shaking hands, the Doctor tore at the sleeve of his already tattered shirt and used the makeshift bandage to apply pressure to his head wound.

Once he'd ascertained that his injuries were not serious enough to trigger a regeneration, he pulled himself shakily to his feet, using the twisted railing as a support. Every bone and muscle in his body howled in disapproval. He limped his way toward where a small sink had been in the corner of the console room. Blindly, he felt his way along the wall with his hands until he reached the porcelain fixture. It was still fully intact and apparently functional. His inability to see had him rattled and he desperately washed blood from his face in the hopes it would clear his vision. It did not. With his eyes open, he saw only blinding white. With them closed, bright colors flashed and danced behind his lids.

A vague comprehension of his circumstances dawned slowly. He now understood there had been some sort of crash involving his TARDIS. The Cloister Bell tolled again, as if in agreement.

"There was an explosion." he stated out loud, startling himself. "A fire in the control room?" he half asked his ship.

Frustrated by his lack of visual cues and still gravely disoriented, he slid down the wall beside the sink to a sitting position. He was hit with a coughing fit and he helplessly hugged his injured right side until the episode passed.