Touch The Sky: Doctor Who/Studio C [Book 3]

The Doctor's Daughter (Part 1)

The Doctor's Daughter

(Originally: 04x06, 'The Doctor's Daughter'; aired May 10, 2008)

"What the hell's it doing?" Donna demanded as they all held on for dear life.

"Controls aren't working," the Doctor said, and a lurch of the TARDIS had him falling, half-sprawled across the jump seat Matt had just vacated. The Time Lord peered at the jar with his hand in it, that he'd gotten off Jack and the Master so long ago. "I don't know where we're going but my old hand's very excited about it!" he continued, seeing the liquid in the jar bubbling wildly.

"I thought that was just some freaky alien thing!" Donna said. "You're telling me it's yours?"

"Well..."

"It got cut off, he grew a new one," Mallory said dryly.

"What?" Matt said, abruptly reminding her they'd had that conversation in 100 trillion and he hadn't been privy to it.

"You are completely... impossible!" Donna said.

"Not... impossible," the Doctor said. "Just a bit unlikely."

The console sparked, ship giving one last heave that had them all on their behinds, with the Doctor the only one lucky enough to catch the jumpseat instead of the floor. The ship finally stilled, humming gently, and the Doctor bolted to the door.

He emerged into a tunnel, hardly lit and filled with piles of junk and scrap metal. He pulled up short, peering around. "Why would the TARDIS bring us here?" he wondered aloud as the other three made their way out.

No one answered him for a long moment. "Oh, I do love this part," Mallory finally said.

"Thought you wanted to go home," Matt drawled, a sour note in his voice.

She shot him a glare. "Well, I'm not home now, am I?" The Doctor ambled through the tunnel, investigating this and that and seemingly ignoring their conversation. "But still, that feeling you get..."

"Like you swallowed a hamster?" Donna said.

"Don't move, stay where you are!" came a call, and three armed men ran towards them. "Drop your weapons!"

"We're not armed!" the Doctor said, putting his hands in the air and nodding at the others to do the same. "Look, no weapons. Never any weapons. We're safe."

"Look at their hands," one of the soldiers marveled. "They're clean."

"All right, process them," the lead soldier said. "Him first." The other two darted forward, taking the Doctor by the arms.

"Oi, oi!" the Time Lord protested. "What's wrong with clean hands?"

"Leave him alone!"

The two soldiers forcibly shoved the Doctor's arm into an odd-looking machine that must have held him tight in place, because they backed off a few steps once he was secure. "Something tells me this isn't about to check my blood pressure—" he started before giving a cry of pain as the machine whizzed to life.

"What're you doing to him?"Donna demanded.

"Everyone gets processed," the lead soldier said, still holding the other three at gunpoint.

"It's taken a tissue sample," the Doctor said through gritted teeth. "Ow ow ow ow ow ow! And extrapolated it! Some kind of accelerator?" The machine released him and he stumbled backwards, staring at a large cut on the back of his hand.