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

The Stolen Earth (Part 4)

A/N: Merry Christmas, everyone. I think it's time for a long-awaited reunion, don't you?

The next few minutes were a flurry of activity.

"All terminals coordinated!"

"National grid online... giving you everything we've got!"

"Connecting you to Mr. Smith!"

"All telephone networks combined!"

"Sending you the number... now!"

"Opening subwave network to maximum."

"Mr. Smith..." Sarah Jane said. "Make that call!"

"Calling... the Doctor."

~~~

The TARDIS had fallen into silence. Neither occupant had moved, still staring off into space (in the Doctor's case) or at the silently brooding Time Lord (in Donna's case). Absently, the Doctor pulled the 3D glasses he'd had on earlier from his pocket, looking down to fiddle with them absently.

"What're those for?" Donna finally murmured.

It took a moment for him to look over at her. "Can use them to see Void stuff."

A beat passed. "Which is...?"

"You pick it up when you travel between parallel universes." He eyed the glasses a moment more before stuffing them away again and saying flatly, "Matt's covered in it."

Donna eyed him for a moment, before saying, "Well, he was just living in a parallel universe."

The Doctor shook his head. "He wouldn't have gone through the Void to get there. Like I said, it was created around him." He shrugged. "Besides, there was far more than he would've accumulated in a single trip."

"How much more?"

"A lot."

"Like... how many times would he have had to be through the Void, then?"

The Doctor shrugged again. "Dozens, if I had to guess. Maybe hundreds." Whatever enthusiasm that should've been gripping him with this new puzzle was nowhere to be found, and he let out a loud sniff. "No idea how he's managed that."

They fell into silence again for a few moments, before a jarring beep distracted them, jerking the Doctor out of his daze.

"Phone!" he exclaimed, scrambling for it. "Mallory, Matt, is that you?" He picked up, but the ringing continued. "It's a signal!"

"Can we follow it?"

"Ohh," the Doctor said, pulling out his stethoscope. "Just watch me!"

~~~

"EMERGENCY! UNKNOWN NETWORK DETECTED! SUBWAVE FREQUENCY!"

"FIND THE POINT OF ORIGIN," the Supreme Dalek ordered. "FIND AND EXTERMINATE!"

"I warned you, Supreme one," came the throaty voice. "Just as Dalek Caan foretold. The Children of Time are moving against us. But everything is falling into place."

~~~

"Got it!" the Doctor yelled as the TARDIS jerked. "Locking on!"