The Master's Game (Doctor Who)

Professional Research

"Let me see the Doctor." asked Roka about the fifth time.

"No. Stop asking and be useful for once."

"How do I know if he is well or not? I can't trust you."

Roka sat in front of a Laptop, researching some alien chemical formulas. Most of them were useless. The glass was as alien as the trapped whale and extremely sturdy. Whoever had captured it had been careful with its cage.

She sighed, leaning her head back. "Then do your research yourself. I'm useless with chemistry. Or I'll just annoy you until you let me talk to him."

"Or... I cut out your tongue and you're finally quiet." He said that in such a casual tone that Roka shivered for a moment. If she wasn't careful, she was sure, he would really do that. But still...

"I bet I can be annoying without a tongue." She sat the Laptop down, viciously staring at the Master.

"How about I just lock you up with him? Then you can annoy the hell out of each other." He rolled his eyes, but didn't even take them off a paper he was reading.

Roka bit on her lip. She had nothing to bargain with. And she was pretty sure the Master wouldn't just quietly kill the Doctor. If he would, he would do it in some unnecessarily dramatic way.

She sighed again and continued the research. She was at it for three days now. Without much of a result. It seemed as if this kind of glass was specifically made to ensure everything inside would stay inside. Like dangerous waste... or even prisoners. Some theorized it was possible to throw such a glass container directly into a sun without even damaging it.

Being a villain really was hard work.

She giggled at that thought.

"Must really suck to have such a short attention span." He threw the paper away. "So much useless stuff. The universe is filled with idiots. Can't impossibly be that hard to blow up some god dam glass."

"Apparently..." Roka yawned. "... it is. And I still don't think chemicals will help a lot."

She also really quickly had lost all hope of finding something useful to rescue the Doctor via the internet. Well... if she was honest to herself, that was to be expected, even with access to multiple times and even different planets. And since she was under constant observation, there was also no other way of even taking a look around, especially not to search the building.

"A chain reaction inside the earth's core could do it." The Master suddenly said cheerfully. "With the right bomb..." His hands spread. "It just makes a big loud boom! And you whole solar system is gone." He grinned.

"You know..." Roka couldn't suppress a smirk. "I kinda really would love to watch that. But it's a stupid idea."

"It's spectacular. Looks amazing every time."

"Aaaand... if it works it would kill...let's see... 7 billion humans, even more animals, every life form on surrounding planets - if there are any. Oh... and the whale too."

"Not my problem."

"Including its eggs."

"Ugh... can't you just shut off your brain?" He rolled up some paper pellets and threw them one by one at Roka.

She giggled. "Nope, my logical processing threads are constantly running."

"You're not an android!" He protested and threw another pellet. "Wait... you aren't, right?"

"Would explain a few things... but no. The Doctor scanned me more often than I can count... and it seems as if I'm definitely, completely human. Right to the core. Although my brain can handle much more input than that of other humans." She yawned again. "Just not with chemistry... ugh... whoever invented that stuff, I deeply hate him."

Another pellet hit her head.

"You have to talk about a short attention span." She sat down the laptop and looked over to him. The Master was leaning back in his arm chair and was just about to aim a particularly big one at her.

"Isn't it boring to sit around here all day?" He asked and threw.

Roka evaded while sticking out her tongue.

"Well... you never let me out of sight. And this research is boring as hell... not even YouTube and creepy pastas make that better."

"Tch... am I not scary enough for you?" he asked in a put-on disappointed tone. "Come on! At least tell me you're more afraid of me than of ghosts!"

"Actually..." She tilted her head, adding a dramatic pause. "No."

"Aaaaw, that's a lie!"

"I'm also not afraid of ghosts." added Roka grinning.

Suddenly he sat back straight and stared intensely at her. "If you had all of time and space in your hands... where would you go?"

"Uhm... I don't know... why?" she asked skeptically.

"You know where the TARDIS is hidden. I can fly it. Just tell me where you want to go."

Roka laughed. "Nice try." She picked up some of the paper pellets to throw them back. "I was actually wondering why he hid her... but I guess he had a hunch you would be there."

"Therefore he was ridiculously easy to catch." One of the pellets hit his head and Roka giggled happily only to earn a mean glance. "You're either really stupid... or just brutally unaware of the danger you are in." He didn't even sound annoyed. "I don't think I ever had a hostage that was so..."

"Unimpressed?"

"Not scared..." He paused for a second. "I could kill you every second, you know. As soon as I get bored of you... And I know some pretty nasty methods to do that." Another pellet hit his head and Roka couldn't hold back a laugh.

"Then you never find out my super clever idea to ruin your plans and save the day." Not that something like that would exist.

Suddenly the Master stood up and came towards her. Roka gulped and knew she had gone too far. He kicked the laptop out of the way, not hard enough to damage it though, and bowed down a bit, only on to grab her head very tightly and pull her up. It hurt and she frowned at him.

"Tzz, I can still read your thoughts, you know..."

He stared into her eyes, scrambling through her head and his gaze was cold and mad and... Roka couldn't look away. There was something in those eyes that confused her. Ancient and somehow... sad? It took her a moment, but then she realized, what it was. She had seen this before, but never this strong and never accompanied by so much raging chaos. Those eyes... they held the stars in them.

"Why... are you looking at me like that?" Suddenly sounding confused the Master let go of her and Roka struggled for a second not to fall. "Stop that."

She shook her head and looked down to her feet. If she ever had felt the slightest itch of fear, now it was gone. Even when he forced her to look up again, observing her, all she could do was to look into those gaping depths, still confused.

He flicked her forehead. "Seriously, that's creepy." His eyebrows raised up, then he grinned. "Do I fascinate you? No? It's not fear either..." Poking her once more he added: "Anyway... seems the Doctor has hidden the location even inside your head. Means you have to tell it willingly. Really clever of him."

"I won't tell anything." said Roka in a toneless voice while sliding down into a sitting position again.

"Oh, we'll see about that." He sounded cheery once more. "I'll think of something nice for you."

Roka didn't respond. She just grabbed the laptop again and tried to forget about what she had just seen.